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learned to cherish toward their brethren of the
Established Church, and the affectionate intercourse
that often continued between them to the end. This,
however, alarmed some of the elder and more rigid
brethren of the Synod: they thought that this liber-
ality savoured of lukewarmness, and would in time
prove a grievous snare; and, under the impression,
an overture was introduced into the Synod, for the
prevention of all such erratic courses in future. The
students of Selkirk who studied under Dr. Lawson
took the alarm at this threatened restriction, and the
petition and remonstrance presented by them in vin-
dication was drawn up by Mr. Balmer. Although
some indignation was expressed at the students for
the liberty they had thus taken in addressing the
supreme court of their church, the petition was re-
ceived by the Synod, and the obnoxious overture dis-
missed. One of the senior and leading members
observed on this occasion that he would be sorry to
see any measure adopted which would tend to drive
from their body the man who could write such
a paper.
After having finished the four years' course of
divinity prescribed by the Presbyterian churches of
Scotland, it was expected that Mr. Balmer should
apply for license as a preacher. This was the more
necessary in the communion to which he belonged, as
the number of its licentiates scarcely equalled that of
the vacant congregations. But, to the surprise of his
friends, he held back for two years, and his delay was
attributed to unworthy motives. Already one of the
most promising students of the connection, it was
thought that he demurred from mere pride of intellect,
and was unwilling to identify himself with a cause
which as yet had produced so few men of high mark:
others, who were aware that he had already been ad-
vised to pass over to the Established Church, and
share in its honours and emoluments, imagined that
he had taken the advice to heart, and only waited the
fit season for such a step. But these surmises were
as unkind as they were untrue. His ambition went
no higher than to be the humble useful minister of
some country Burgher congregation, while his hu-
mility confirmed him in the belief that he would
have for his brethren men of still higher attainments
than his own. His delay entirely originated in
scruples of conscience. He had thought anxiously
and profoundly upon the subject, and could not wholly
admit the formula which he would be required to
subscribe as a licentiate. ''On the question, he after-
wards said, "demanding an assent to the Confession
and Catechisms, I stated, that to me these documents
appeared so extensive and multifarious as to be dis-
proportioned to the narrow limits of the human mind;
that I at least had not studied every expression in
them so carefully as to be prepared to assent to it
with the solemnity of an oath; that I approved of
them, however, in so far as I had studied them; and
that the Presbytery might ascertain, by strict examina-
tion, the amount of my attainments, and treat me ac-
cordingly—which of course they did." His scruples
were respected, his explanations in assenting to the
formula admitted; and on the 4th of August, 1812,
he was licensed as a preacher of the gospel by the
Associate Presbytery of Edinburgh.
On commencing the great work to which all his
studies had been directed, Mr. Balmer began under
rather inauspicious circumstances. All are aware
how essential certain external advantages are in the
formation of an acceptable and popular preacher, and
how completely a dissenting preacher depends upon
this popularity for his call to the ministry, and the
successful discharge of his duties. But in the graces
of person and manner Mr. Balmer was decidedly
wanting. His eyes, from their weakness, had an un-
pleasant cast, and his figure was ungainly; his voice
was monotonous; and his gestures were, to say the
least, inelegant. For a person in his position to sur-
mount such obstacles argued a mind of no ordinary
power. And he did surmount them. Such was the
depth and originality of thought, the power of lan-
guage, and heart-moving unction which his sermons
possessed, that his growing acceptability bade fair in
a short time to convert these defects into positive ex-
cellencies in the eyes of his captivated auditories.
In a few months he received calls from not less than
four congregations, so that he would have been in a
strait to choose, had not the laws of his church pro-
vided for such doubtful emergencies. Amid such
competition, the choice devolved upon the Synod,
modified, however, by the personal wishes of the
preacher thus called; and on Balmer expressing a
preference for the congregation at Berwick, he was
ordained its minister on the 23d of March, 1814.
The life of a Secession minister in a third-rate
town affords few points for a limited memoir. They
are also of such a regular monotonous character,
that the history of a single month is a sufficient
specimen of whole years so occupied. And yet,
while thus employed, Mr. Balmer was neither a dull
nor inefficient workman. He threw the whole of his
large intellect and warm heart into his sacred duties;
and while he secured the love of his congregation,
his reputation was silently growing and going on-
ward, until, without seeking it, he found himself a
man of high mark and influence in that important
segment of the church universal to which he belonged.
And all the while he was continuing to improve his
faculties, and extend his intellectual resources, for
his was not a mind to rest satisfied with past acquire-
ments, however sufficient they might be for the
present demand. Events also occurred, or were
searched out and found sufficient to keep up that
wholesome stir of mind without which the best of
duties are apt to become a monotonous task. Among
these was the exercise of his pen in a review of the
work of Hall of Leicester on Terms of Communion,
which was inserted in two numbers of the Christian
Repository of 1817. He was also on several occa-
sions a visitor to London, whither he was called on
clerical duty; and in these southward journeys he
enjoyed much "colloquy sublime" with Robert Hall,
of whom his reminiscences are among the most in-
teresting that have appeared of that great pulpit
orator and theological metaphysician. He also took
a keen interest in the union of the two parties of the
Secession Church, known by the name of Burghers
and Anti-burghers, which took place in 1820. This
was an event that was dear to his heart, for not only
was he a lover of Christian concord, and the enemy
of all infinitesimal distinctions that keep brethren
asunder, but he had been born in that union; for
although his father and mother had belonged to
the different parties, they had always lived and
acted as those who are completely at one. In 1826
he married Miss Jane Scott, daughter of Mr.
Alexander Scott of Aberdeen, and sister of John
Scott, the well-known author of Visits to Paris. In
the year following he was involved—as what minis-
ter in Scotland was not more or less involved?—in
what is still vividly remembered under the name of
the "Apocrypha controversy." Mr. Balmer en-
deavoured on this occasion to reconcile the contend-
ing parties, and was requited by the suspicions of
the one, and the active hostility of the other, for his
pains. Such was the fate of not a few at this time
who endeavoured to perform the part of peacemakers.
They are "blessed" indeed—but not of men, and