AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR OF THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D

SOME short comment on our preceding extracts seems necessary. It has been seen that Dr. Guthrie's habit was to write out his sermons at length, and then to commit them to memory. He did not take his manuscript with him into the pulpit, but contented himself with short notes of what he had prepared, availing himself, however, "of those thoughts and varieties (improvements of expressing even what is prepared) which the animation and heat of the pulpit naturally give." He depended on his memory, assisted by these notes, for the substance, and for most of the language, of his discourse; but he left himself at liberty to wander.