Account of 
Dr Dryfdale: 
42 HISTORY of the SOCIETY. 
frankly avowed the difficulty, and told the audience, that in- 
ftead of amufing them with a variety of conjectures, either of 
the commentators or of his own, he would pafs on to fome- 
thing from which they would reap much more advantage. For 
he never loft fight of what he had conceived to be the great ob- 
ject of all religious inftruction, pra@ical improvement, not fpe- 
culative opinion. The inftructions and exhortations with 
which he accompanied the ordinances of religion, particularly 
the difpenfing of the facrament of the Lorp’s fupper, all tend- 
ed to the fame end, namely, the amendment of the hearts and | 
lives of his people ; and they were all delivered with fuch ear- 
neftnefs of manner, as convinced the hearers, that they came 
from a pure and benevolent mind, intent upon promoting their 
beft interefts. 
As the fervice of the Church of Scotland does not admit of. 
fet forms of prayer, but leaves the minifter to ufe his own ex- 
preflions in addreffing the Supreme Being, Mr DryspAte’s 
talents were in nothing more confpicuous than in this effential: 
part of public worfhip. He did not indeed affume any ftu- 
died folemnity of manner; but, with unaffected gravity and 
fervour, poured forth the genuine and copious dictates of his 
heart, in the moft glowing, various and proper expreflions ; 
and fo far was he from repeating any particular ftudied form of 
words in his prayers, that his audience ufed to remark, that on 
hearing the beginning of his fentences, they feldom were able 
to anticipate the conclufion. 
Sucu were his abilities as a minifter of religion; and with 
thefe the irrefiftible arhiablenefs of his manners, and the known. 
integrity of his private life, concurred to render him the object 
of the higheft efteem and regard of his parifhioners. Even the 
loweft of the people refpected and revered his. character ; and 
fuch was the fuccefs with which his inftructions were attended, 
that it was obferved of the morals of the inhabitants of the vil- 
lage in particular, which had been formerly noted for irregula~ 
rity 
