I may now touch upon the best and only safe ground of trust which we have to take in any season of review, when past portions of our lives are recalled to our consideration. We may look, now, to the hope of pardon, and allowance for things done amiss, or things left undone; and blessed be God that ground has been laid, or who could stand in judgment in the last account? Certainly not the boastful and punctilious Pharisee; certainly not those who have keener eyes for the faults of others than for their own defects. Excellent are the words of our Lord’s apostle, and now most seasonable in their application; thus he marks it for a ruling principle of charity, that it “thinketh no evil,” and is not, therefore, apt to censure or condemn. It is but in some respects, that we can speak well of those whom we are least inclined to censure, and most ready to regard with favour;—and with that remark I shall fairly take leave of what concerns myself in this day of valediction. But I am well aware that the season of departure from accustomed scenes of duty is a proper season for advice, and to this last tribute of sincere affection and regard, I will now address myself. We stand much for authority, for rights of station, and the sacred warrant of the pastoral commission—and we do well, for without them there would be no order in the world, no joint progress in a common path; no peace, no security. When every man in Israel did what was right in his own eyes, and nothing by direction or consent, it was a day of trouble and disaster, of ruin and confusion. They who will own no guide in the way they have to tread, had need be well acquainted with the road. It would be well if such men, who despise all guides, would be content to go alone—but was it ever so seen in all the world? Are not such the men who strive most eagerly to press others into their train from all quarters where they can obtrude themselves and spread their pestilent opinions, and lay their destructive snares?