Memoirs of James Begg Author:Thomas Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. MY LICENSE; ORDINATION, AND EXPERIENCE AS AN ASSISTANT AT NORTH LEITH, AND A MINISTER OF CHAPELS AT DUMFRIES AND EDINBURGH. The date of my lic... more »ense by the Presbytery of Hamilton is June ioth( 1829. An excellent practice prevailed in those days, and I presume had been handed down from early date, of requiring all those who were about to be licensed, not only to pass through the ordinary examinations in the Presbytery, but to call on all the ministers separately at their own manses. The object of this was, that the ministers might have an opportunity of satisfying themselves, by personal examination, in regard to the spirit and attainments of those who were about to become licentiates of the Church. Like many of the other excellent rules of Presbyterianism, it implied that presbyteries should have only a limited number of members, and that the districts should be limited in extent. Whilst for the purpose of concentrating influence and producing popular effect, the larger presbyteries of the present day may be defended, it is certain that, for all the practical purposes of thorough oversight and mutual conference, the smaller presbyteries were much more efficient. Indeed, the true theory of Presbyterian oversight has been to a large extent forgotten in recent times, and the practical business of presbyteries either neglected, or conducted by means of boards and other exotic arrangements imported into the Presbyterian system, but which have marred its beauty and diminished its efficiency. Nothing could have been better than the now almost obsolete arrangement to which I have VOL. I. F referred, by which the gifts and motives of aspirants to the ministry were submitted to the quiet scrutiny of such a variety of minds as were found in an average presbytery. This als...« less