eight days; it was our hall,
our lecture-room, and our study. To make the most of our time, and to
practise the students properly, I gave them a text of Scripture to
discuss before me--say the first eleven verses of the fifth chapter of
Luke. I would afterwards propose to them some point of doctrine, some
passage of Scripture, some moral precept, or sometimes I gave them
some difficult passages to reconcile. After the whole had stated their
views upon the question under discussion, I asked the youngest if he
had anything to state against the arguments advanced; then the others
were asked in turn; and after they had finished, I stated the views
which I considered most just and correct. When the more advanced
students were required to preach, they mounted a particular place,
where a pole had been set across some rocks in the ravine, and which
for the time served for a pulpit. And when they had delivered
themselves, the others were requested by turns to express themselves
freely upon the subject of the sermon which they had heard."

When the _proposant_ or probationer was considered sufficiently able
to preach, he was sent on a mission to visit the churches. Sometimes
he preached the approved sermons of other pastors; sometimes he
preached his own sermons, after they had been examined by persons
appointed by the synod. After a time, if approved by the moderator and
a committee of the synod, the _proposant_ was licensed to preach. His
work then resembled that of a pastor; but he could not yet administer
the sacrament. It was only when he had passed the synod, and been
appointed by the laying on of hands, that he could exercise the higher
pastoral functions.

Then, with respect to the maintenance of the pastors and preachers,
Court recounts, not without pride, that for the ten years between 1713
and 1723 (excepting the years which he spent at Geneva), he served the
Huguenot churches without receiving a farthing. His family and friends
saw to the supply of his private wants. With respect to the others,
they were supported by collections made at the assemblies; and, as the
people were nearly all poor, the amount collected was very small. On
one occasion, three assemblies produced a halfpenny and six
half-farthings.

But a regular system of collecting moneys was framed by the synods
(consisting of a meeting of pastors and elders), and out of the common
fund so raised, emoluments were assigned, first to those preachers who
w