portion of the history of Joseph and his brethren, as the subject of a
lecture. He paraphrased it, greatly, no doubt, to the detriment of the
original, but much to the satisfaction of his people, for it was
something new. He finished the paraphrase, 'and now,' says he, 'my
friends, we shall proceed to draw some lessons and inferences; and,
_1st_, you will observe that the sacks of Joseph's brethren were
_ripit_, and in them was found the cup; so your sacks will be ripit at
the day of judgment, and the first thing found in them will be the
broken covenant;' and having gained this advantage, the sermon went off
into the usual strain, and embodied the usual heads of elementary
dogmatic theology."

In connection with this topic, I have a communication from a
correspondent, who remarks--The story about the minister and his
favourite theme, "the broken covenant," reminds me of one respecting
another minister whose staple topics of discourse were "Justification,
Adoption, and Sanctification." Into every sermon he preached, he
managed, by hook or by crook, to force these three heads, so that his
general method of handling every text was not so much _expositio_ as
_impositio_. He was preaching on these words--"Is Ephraim my dear son?
Is he a pleasant child?" and he soon brought the question into the usual
formula by adding, Ephraim was a pleasant child--first, because he was a
justified child; second, because he was an adopted child; and third,
because he was a sanctified child.

It should be remembered, however, that the Scottish peasantry
themselves--I mean those of the older school--delighted in expositions
of _doctrinal_ subjects, and in fact were extremely jealous of any
minister who departed from their high standard of orthodox divinity, by
selecting subjects which involved discussions of strictly moral or
_practical_ questions. It was condemned under the epithet of _legal_
preaching; in other words, it was supposed to preach the law as
independent of the gospel. A worthy old clergyman having, upon the
occasion of a communion Monday, taken a text of such a character, was
thus commented on by an ancient dame of the congregation, who was
previously acquainted with his style of discourse:--"If there's an ill
text in a' the Bible, that creetur's aye sure to tak it."

The great change--the great improvement, I would say--which has taken
place during the last half-century in the feelings and practical
relations of religion