THE ELDERSHIP. 329 



candid render, whether approving or condemning, was such 

 a step likely to be without considerable import in his 

 subsequent history. As one incidental consequence, he 

 was brought into much more intimate relations with his 

 then youthful kinsman already mentioned, the Bev. John 

 Sym, who now became his pastor, in whom he beheld the 

 specimen of living Christianity wdiich realised his own 

 ideal — sound sense, yet deep devotion ; strong convictions 

 and decided actings, without aught of censoriousness or 

 controversial asperity ; true spirituality in union with great 

 intellectual vigour; and an ardent enjoyment of the sublime 

 and the beautiful : and whilst thev found in each other's 

 society all the delight of kindred spirits, Mr Wilson did 

 not enjoy the scriptural instructions and fervent exhorta- 

 tions of the preacher the less because of the lucid cogency 

 of his reasoning and the many charms of his style. 



On the day when he was ordained an elder, the late 

 Sir Ralph Abercrombie said to those assembled, " I have 

 been often entrusted by my Sovereign with honourable 

 and important commands in my profession as a soldier, 

 and His Majesty has been pleased to reward my services 

 with distinguished marks of his royal approbation ; but 

 to be the humble instrument, in the office of an elder, of 

 putting the tokens of my Saviour's dying love into the 

 hands of one of the meanest of His followers, I conceive 

 to be the highest honour that I can receive on this side 



