The Life and Times of John Livingston [pp. 428-450]

John Livingston.
I know, given offence to many, through my slackness and ne gligence, but I forgive and desire to be forgiven. I cannot say
much of great services, yet if ever my heart was lifted up, it
was in preaching Jesus Christ." After a pause, for he was
not able to speak much at a time, he said, " I would not have
people to forecast the worst, but there is a dark cloud above
Reformed Churches, which prognosticates a storm coming."
His wife, fearing what shortly followed, desired him to take
leave of his friends; "I dare not," replied he, with an affec tionate tenderness, " but it is like our parting will only be for
a short time." And then he fell asleep in the Lord.
The subject of these remarks was a Presbyterian of the old
school. He was a painful minister, a true-hearted patriot, and
an humble believer. There is no trace of sternness nor of
haughtiness in his whole history. His conscience was tender,
perhaps scrupulous, yet he evinces no bitterness. Through all
his life he was a valetudinarian, being afflicted fromn his earliest
years with those nephritic complaints, which at last removed
him. He tells us that he was "averse to debates, rather given
to laziness than rashness, and easy to be wrought upon." He
" inclined rather to solitariness than to company," and both in
private and public often experienced confirmations to his heart
of the Lord's goodness. As a preacher he was considered
second to none of his contemporaries: yet he speaks of his performances as hasty and inaccurate. His manner of preparation was to write a few notes, and leave the enlargement to
the time of delivery. Although a laborious student, he found
that "9 much study did not so much help in preachl-ing, as getting
the heart brought into a spiritual condition." "Many a time," to
use words already cited, " I found that which was suggested to
me in the delivery, was more refreshful to myself, and edifying
to the hearers, than what I had premeditated: yea, sometimes I
thought the hunger of the hearers helped me more than my
own preparation."
As it regards his progress in learning, he speaks with a modesty not unlike that of President Edwards upon the same
topic:
"My memory was but weak and waterish, yet had I improved
it, I might have h-ad better use of it; for after that I came from the
college, I did with no great difficulty attain to some tolerable insight in the Hebrew, Chaldee, and somewhat also of the Syriac:
447