14 President's Address. 



to meet him. Both were infirm. One placed his hand on mine to 

 steady himself. The other leant with his hand upon my shoulder, 

 so that France and England met on my small personality." 



This " small personality" survived until 1892. She was the 

 last of the Huguenot descent to whom I will refer, and her life 

 was an embodiment of some of the most typical features of 

 Huguenot character. Of clear and sharply defined Evangelical 

 principles, simple in her tastes and habits, unselfish, unworldly ; 

 with an income of some £1500 a year, she spent about £200 upon 

 herself and gave the rest away, but she left nothing in charity at 

 her death, holding that charity at the expense of others is little 

 worth. She was proud, if I may use the word, of her connection 

 with the Laurie family, leaving it as an instruction that in the 

 notice of her death it should be mentioned that she was " niece of 

 Sir Robert Laurie of Maxwelton." But her fullest sympathy was 

 given to her Huguenot ancestry, or rather to the faith for which 

 they suffered, and in which they lived and died. Sure I am that 

 had she lived under Louis XIV. no power on earth would have 

 made her sign a recantation of her faith ; it held her, and she held 

 it, with a grip which nothing could shake ; an example not with- 

 out its lesson for us in these days of easy-going Christianity. 



Such, then, are some few gleanings from Huguenot story, so 

 far as it bears upon the fortunes of our family. They may teach 

 us to value the civil and religious liberty which was won for us 

 by our forefathers ; they may teach us to think more highly than 

 some do of that deposit of truth which they handed down at the 

 cost of so much suffering ; they may teach us to hold fast our 

 heritage of a free gospel and an open Bible ; they may teach us, 

 in a word, to " stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has 

 made us free." 



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