Account of 

 Or Dr 



44 HISTORY of the S0CIE7T. 



and the fettlement ordered to proceed ; — a decifion which was 

 finally affirmed by the General Aflembly. 



No fooner did Mr Drysdale enter upon his new charge as 

 minifter of Lady Yefter's, than all were convinced, that how- 

 ever difagreeable to fome the mode of his introduction might 

 be, no oppofition was due to him as a man, and as a minifter. 

 The fermons which he preached in that church attracted al- 

 ways a great concourfe of hearers, whom he never failed to de- 

 light and inftruct by an eloquence of the mod nervous and in- 

 terefting kind. Both his train of thought, and his manner of 

 expreflion, were evidently fuch as ftrongly indicated a vigorous 

 underftanding-, an original genius, and a profound knowledge 

 of the human heart. 



His reputation as a preacher afterwards rofe fo high, that on 

 occafion of an excurfion which he made to London to vifit his 

 friends and relations there, the late Mr Strahan earneftly 

 requefted, that he would furnifh him with a volume of fer- 

 mons for publication. His friends preffed him much to em- 

 brace this propofal ', and he feemed at length difpofed to com- 

 ply with their wiihes. For on his return to Scotland, he began 

 to revife his fermons with a view to make a feleclion for publi- 

 cation ; but he had not proceeded far till his diffidence induced 

 him to procraftinate, and at laft to relinquiih, every refolution 

 of that fort. 



The fame native diffidence and modefty were like wife the 

 caufe of his declining to appear as a fpeaker in the judicatories 

 of the church. While he remained in the country, he feemed 

 rather to avoid taking much concern in the management of 

 church-affairs ; but on his coming to Edinburgh, he found 

 himfelf fo much connected with Dr Robertson, to whom he 

 was always greatly attached as a friend, and to whom he con- 

 fidered himfelf as under great obligations, particularly for the 

 earneft and efTeclual manner in which he had efpoufed his in- 



tereft 



