The noble family in which he resided, rewarded his diligence, and relieved his mind, by conferring on him. the bishopric of Sodor and Man in 1772. He enjoyed his episcopal dignity only eight years, for he died in 1780. His two immediate predecessors, Bishops Wilson and Hildsley, were distinguished by the exercise of every virtue, Bishop Richmond was so exceedingly corpulent, that he was, utterly, unable to engage in the duties of an active life; and during the two or three last years of his episcopacy, he was, I believe, nearly unequal to the discharge of his professional functions. He was represented to me as a man of a very polite and engaging address. Had he possessed preferment in England earlier in life, which would have required personal exertion, and mental application, he would, it is probable, have been much more celebrated as a preacher, than he, actually, was; for one of his sermons, as appears by the occasion on which it was preached, was composed before he was thirty years of age; so that had either necessity demanded, reputation stimulated, or principle impelled him to exert his talent in composition, it may be presumed that his later, would have excelled his earlier, productions. His necessities, it is said, compelled him to publish his scanty stock of sermons by subscription, in order that he might discharge some debts he had contracted during his residence at Cambridge: the world might, otherwise, have been deprived of those discourses, which the scholar will not read without delight, nor the Christian without edification,

1

The Monthly Reviewers, in their critique on Dr. Richmond's Sermons, are somewhat sparing of commendation." The merit of these discourses may be "expressed in few words: they are plain, useful, pious, and, in some instances, pathetic."-Dec. 1764.

MR.

MR. RIDDOCH.

THE worthy Bishop Skinner, of Aberdeen; James Jopp, Esq. of Winkton House, one of my parishoners and friends, and an active, and very useful, magistrate in the county; and the Rev. Johnstone Grant, an ornament of the Church, each very obligingly obtained for me memorials of Mr. Riddoch. I have interwoven their several relations, preserving the language in which they were, respectively, conveyed. But the chief part of the narrative is by Bishop Skinner.

The Rev. James Riddoch was a native of the parish of Grange, near the village of Kirth, in Bamffshire, After finishing his academical studies in the usual manner at the University of Aberdeen, he undertook the care of a school, during which period, he received holy orders in the Church of England, and having officiated some little time as a Clergyman in Perth, he was afterwards settled as pastor of the English Episcopal Chapel in the city of Glasgow. The congregation of that Chapel being then but few in number, and of course not able to afford any considerable revenue, he was induced to accept of a call from a more numerous congregation at St. Paul's Chapel in Aberdeen, in 1757, where he preached to nearly 800 people; and so powerful was his voice that all heard every word he spoke. He established the character of a popular preacher, and attentive pastor, for about 20 years. His discourses from the pulpit, though delivered in a manner neither graceful nor agreeable, were constantly heard with profound attention; his audience being sensible that what might be wanting in exterior ornament, would be amply compensated by the real, intrinsic value of the truths which were laid before them. Mr. Riddoch was esteemed a preacher, who made it his chief aim, not so much to please as to instruct, and be useful to his hearers; to alarm their fears rather than to flatter their hopes, and by an awful representation of the threatenings of the Divine Law, to persuade men to be, and

do

do, what that Law requires of them. Impressed with a just sense of the dignity of his office, as a public teacher, he could boldly rebuke vice when staring him in the face with all the effrontery of folly and fashion;. nor was he ever seen to shrink from pleading the cause of virtue, through any fear of giving offence to those, on whom he depended, under God, for his temporal support. Addressing his audience as placed under the eye of a vigilant pastor, he thought it indispensable, in' that character, to speak to their consciences in such a way as to shew them, that he was neither afraid to tell them their duty, nor unable to enforce it by sound and solid reasoning. He discharged every part of his sacred office with unwearied diligence; and when visiting' the sick and dying person, gave great consolation: he devoted much of his time to the instruction of the youth of his flock-for all which he was remunerated with £80 per ann.!!!

During his residence at Aberdeen, he married an amiable and accomplished young lady, one of his congregation: their affection was mutual: but his happiness was of short duration; she lived only to bring him a daughter, and left him a most afflicted husband. The' first new year's day sermon (see vol. first of this selection) was preached a little after her death, wherein he took notice of a cause of gratitude to Heaven, when at the return of that season there is no vacant seat at table; which had a striking effect on the congregation.

Riddoch, for the sake of having his daughter, whom' he most affectionately loved, well educated, married a second time; but, unfortunately for himself, a woman of a taste and turn of mind altogether dissimilar to his own. His daughter died about the age of seventeen. After this time he is said never to have known comfort: his circumstances, in consequence of his marriage, became embarrassed; his health declined; and he sunk, prematurely, into his grave, universally regretted, and lamented.

In a letter from Dr. Beattie to Sir Wm. Forbes vide Beattie's Life, vol. 2d, letter 130th) is the following short account of Riddoch.

You will hear no doubt of the death of Mr. Riddoch, one of the Ministers of our English Chapel. As I think I have heard you say that you liked those few sermons which he published some years ago, I shall take the liberty to inform you, that his widow, whom he has left in very poor circumstances, intends to publish two volumes of his sermons by subscription, and has asked that Dr. Campbell and I would revise the manuscripts; which, considering her distress, and his merit both as a man and a preacher, we did not decline.

"I have, since the College broke up, been hard at work upon Mr. Riddoch's manuscript sermons; but I have only got through five of them; and there are still five and twenty before me. Never did I engage in a more troublesome business. There is not a sentence, there is hardly a line, that does not need correction. This is owing, partly, to the extreme inaccuracy of the writing, but, chiefly, to the peculiarity of the style; an endless string of climaxes; the involution of clauses within clauses; the unmeasurable length of the sentences; and such a profusion of superfluous words, as I have never before seen in any composition. To cure all these diseases is impossible. I must be satisfied with alleviating some of the worst symptoms: yet to do my old friend justice, I must confess that the sermons have, in many places, great energy, and even eloquence, and abound in shrewd remarks, and striking sentences."

* Sir Wm. Forbes adds in a note:

Six occasional Sermons on important subjects, published in 1762. The two first, preached on new year's day, are peculiarly excellent. Those alluded to here, which Dr. Beattie and Dr. Campbell had the goodness to revise, previous to their publication, were printed in the year 1782. They are plain, pious, practical, and useful discourses, which may be perused with advantage. As his manner in the pulpit was extremely energetic, they were listened to by his congregation with much delight,'

What

What labor the worthy professor and his learned coadjutor imposed on themselves in preparing the sermons of their friend for the press, would be best ascertained by comparing them with the six sermons, mentioned by Sir William Forbes. But not having been able to procure the latter, I cannot appretiate the value of Dr. Beattie's and Dr. Campbell's corrections. It will, however, be allowed, I conceive, by the most fastidious readers, that, considered as family sermons, they will not shrink from a comparison with those of the most celebrated writers. In pathos, persuasion, eloquence, and piety, what author is his superior? I rejoice that I have been the means, by publishing a few of them in this selection, of recommending them so much to the public, as that a fourth edition has been called for. They cannot, according to my feelings, be read without an unusual degree of delight and edification..

DR. ST. JOHN.

OF Dr. St. John I have been able to obtain only few memorials. I had the pleasure of knowing two of his grand-daughters nearly thirty years ago, of whom I made such enquiries as suggested themselves to my mind, merely, from the perusal of his sermons. What I recollect of our conversation was, that "their father spoke of Dr. St. John with the utmost reverence; uniformly representing him as a man of very accomplished manners, and the most exemplary conduct; as an excellent scholar and a very celebrated preacher; that he was to have been a Bishop had Queen Anne lived to have had the opportunity of appointing him ;-that, immediately upon the death of her Majesty, he went to reside at Cambride;-that it was feared so many sermons would not be found among his papers as would

make