42 HIS TORT of the SOCIETY. 



Dr C DryfdaL 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, practical improvement, not fpe- 

 culative opinion. The inftruclions and exhortations with 

 which he accompanied the ordinances of religion, particularly 

 the difpenfing of the facrament of the Lord'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 Drysdale's 

 talents were in nothing more confpicuous than in this effential 

 part of public worfhip. He did not indeed affume any (lu- 

 died folemnity of manner ; bur, with unaffected gravity and 

 fervour, poured forth the genuine and copious dictates of his 

 heart, in the mod 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. 



Such 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 eiteem and regard of his parifhioners. Even the 

 loweft of the people refpe<ted 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 or the vil- 

 lage in particular, which had been formerly noted for irregula- 

 rity 



