At the age of nineteen he was accepted by the Governors of Airedale College as a candidate for the Congregational Ministry .sx The late Dr. Charles A. Berry , who was invited at the age of thirty-five to succeed Henry Ward Beecher at Plymouth Church , Brooklyn , has told us that , like Dr. Chalmers , he was a preacher almost from infancy .sx " My very first sermon , " he wrote , " was preached before I had made the epoch-making transition from frocks to trousers .sx A clean pinafore made an admirable surplice , and an orderly row of chairs and stools some of them occupied by my sister's dolls constituted a congregation worthy of a City church , and not too exciting for a young preacher's nerves .sx My mother and sister , together with a few friends , were present .sx I forget all about the sermon , except that it was about the sleeping Christ in the storm-tossed ship , and that it was followed by a collection for the John Williams .sx But two things made that scene and evening ever memorable .sx First , though I had merely taken a fancy , like many other children , to ` play at being a minister,' I became really serious and earnest at least , for a child of my age and temperament before I had got far with my game .sx And the second circumstance was an outbreak of emotion on the part of my mother , who clasped me to her breast and told me she had prayed before I was born that God would give her a son to be a minister , and that she felt her prayer was answered .sx " Berry's schoolmaster , Mr. James Wilkinson , notes that " There always seemed to be some Power impelling him onward and upward .sx " He was under seventeen when , acting on the advice of his minister , Dr. Macauley , of the Congregational Church at Ormskirk , he sought admission as a student at Airedale College .sx No student had ever been admitted with-out a record of preaching , and Charles Berry's youth and inexperience disturbed some of the committee .sx " I felt myself called of God to this high task of preaching , " he wrote long afterwards , " and called of Him to make myself fit for the privilege .sx .. In the end I was admitted sans sermon , sans record , sans everything .sx " Dr. Andrew Wallace Williamson , who was for over forty years one of the leading ministers in the Church of Scotland , fulfilled his vocation in spite of many difficulties and discouragements .sx The son of a tailor in the village of Thornhill , Dumfries-shire , he managed with the help of a bursary and " tutoring " to maintain himself at Edinburgh University .sx The old minister of Morton , Mr. Murray , once asked the father what the boy was to do .sx " He says he's going to be a minister .sx " " Tuts , nonsense , " said Mr. Murray ; " he'll never succeed ; he's got no popular gifts and never will have any .sx " Telling that story in after-life , Dr. Williamson made this comment , " Looking back on these years I think that Mr. Murray was right , that I had no popular gifts and never would have them .sx But I determined that nobody should discover that , and I have yet to learn that my people have discovered it , and that is just as good as if I had these gifts .sx " He was fortunate , as he gladly acknowledged , in the teachers of his boyhood .sx " There is no sweeter spot in the south-west , " he wrote , " than Thornhill .sx I spent my first fifteen years in that beautiful valley , and before I was thirteen , thanks to that grand old parochial schoolmaster , Alexander Hewison , .sx I was master of Virgil , had a considerable know-ledge of Greek , and was pretty well au fait in the things that matter in English literature .sx " 1 At Wallace Hall Academy he studied under Dr. Ramage , whom he describes as " a splendid example of the ripe fruit of the highest culture , that blend of scholarship in which we recognised the true scholar and the true Christian gentleman .sx " ' .sx Though the record of Dr. Wallace Williamson's University career is brief , we know something of his inner life from a diary which he kept from 1875 to 1880 .sx In his second year as a Divinity student he wrote as follows :sx " It is with a kind of tremor that I write this in the presence of my own soul and God , praying that in the years of my life still to come when I read this little book of thoughts and meditations it may have been granted me in some measure to have followed Christ and to have made my life like His , not for myself but to do the will of the Father .sx I am now about to begin the second winter of my Divinity course , and a vision of the infinite solemnity of my duties has flashed through me .sx I will have to preach , if God spares me , the Gospel of Jesus to the men and women of this nineteenth century .sx God knows I am utterly unfit for it .sx .. O Gracious Spirit , descend and make of me a temple worthy in its poor unworthiness wherein Thou mayest " ' .sx Commenting on these words , Dr. Norman Maclean has written , " Thornhill does not explain him ; the College and the Divinity Hall do not explain him ; but that explains him .sx He had found the hid treasure .sx " 4 .sx Quintin Hogg , the founder of the Polytechnic , dedicated his whole life to the service of God and of his fellows .sx His daughter tells us that from a child upwards " he seems to have been imbued with a sense of service owed to a Wonderful Benefactor .sx " His work for boys began during his later years at Eton , where he conducted a Bible-class on Sunday afternoons .sx " He collected a large quantity of old Chambers' Journals , in which he would look out any curious or interesting articles for these Sunday afternoons .sx After a time he proposed that before separating a chapter of Scripture should be read and a prayer offered .sx .. Most of the boys respected him for having the courage of his convictions ; the majority responded to the invitation ; those who held aloof were by no means antagonistic .sx Young Hogg used to read the chapter , and usually made some remarks as he did so ; occasionally other boys would take an active part , and thus gradually the Chambers' Journals were dropped , and the gathering became a regular Bible-class .sx " Quintin's sympathies , like those of Mazzini , were early aroused for the poor and suffering .sx " He would stand and look at the wretched children in the streets , saying softly , ` Poor little beggars !sx ' In the holidays he persuaded his father to allow a few poor children to be lodged over the stables , and would do his full share of looking after and trying to amuse them .sx " Archdeacon Lawrence , who was his contemporary at Eton , bore testimony that " in a remarkable degree he was one who could have his serious side and yet retain his intense love of football , fives , and suchlike ; and he had the wonderful instinct of never overdoing his religious profession by intruding it at un- .sx suitable times .sx .. I think his Eton work was quite unique .sx " Like Richard Rothe and Henry Drummond , he seemed to those who knew him best " a princely boy .sx " It has sometimes happened that a fully-equipped and consecrated servant of God is strangely held back in the pursuit of his vocation .sx A well-known example is that of the late Dr. Marcus Dods , who waited five years beyond the normal age for entering the Ministry of the Free Church of Scotland .sx A son of the manse , he had been one of the best students of his year in the University and the Divinity Hall .sx But as a " probationer " he was unacceptable to the rank and file of congregations , and he was thirty when at last a call came to the charge of Renfield Church , Glasgow .sx After one of the rejections which were so sharp a discipline of his youth , Marcus Dods wrote :sx " Ulysses was ten years in finding his way back from Troy to Ithaca ; but even he ate his great heart .sx " And again , " To be told so repeatedly that you are not fit for the work does go to a personal belief in that fact .sx And to be thrown back so often from particular spheres of the work , does tend very strongly to throw me off the work altogether .sx It is very difficult to keep in quite a good humour with the world , when a score of times in succession it tells you that you have mistaken your place in it .sx One cannot just begin again as freshly as before .sx " Amid these disappointments the young man was accumulating the stores of learning which fitted him in later years for the work of his professorship .sx When opportunity came he was ready to grasp it , and he holds a secure place amongthe foremost Scottish theologians of the last century .sx A master of pulpit eloquence who suffered severe disappointment at the outset of his career , was the Baptist preacher Robert Hall .sx He was appointed to give an address in Broadmead Chapel , Bristol , where , many years afterwards , he preached his last sermon .sx " He took for his text , ` There-fore we both labour and suffer reproach , because we trust in the living God , who is the Saviour of all men , especially of those who believe .sx ' After proceeding for some time with much felicity , and to the delight of his audience , he suddenly stopped , covered his face with both his hands , and exclaimed , ` Oh , I have lost all my ideas .sx ' He sat down , his hands still covering his face .sx " His failure , however , by no means disconcerted his tutors , so he was appointed to preach again on the same subject in the same place in the following week .sx " A second time he failed , and the failure seems to have been still more grievous to witness , and still more painful to bear ; he hurried into the vestry ex-claiming , ` If this does not humble me , the devil must have me !sx ' " Only a few months after these breakdowns , when he was still under seven-teen years old , he preached to a congregation largely composed of ministers , a sermon radiant with genius , from the words , " God is light and in Him is no darkness at all .sx " It frequently happens that the child of many prayers , whose natural abilities and early graces seem to fit him peculiarly for the office of the Ministry , turns in the end to a secular lifework .sx The experience of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , one of Germany's chief critics and dramatists in the eighteenth century , is full of comfort for parents .sx who have cherished sacred ambitions for their sons and have seen these ambitions disappointed .sx Lessing was the son of a Lutheran pastor , and was destined in boyhood for the Church .sx A brother tells us that as soon as he could stammer the child was taught to say his prayers , and that at the age of four he knew " what , why , and how he should believe .sx " Bible , catechism , and hymn-book were early placed in his hands , and he acquired a thorough knowledge of their contents .sx His father gave the Scripture lessons personally , though other branches of study were entrusted to a tutor .sx At the age of twelve the boy was sent to school at Meissen , and there , as in his home , religious teaching held the chief place in the curriculum .sx He went later to Leipzig University , and it was the earnest wish of his parents that he should attend theological lectures .sx He neglected this field almost entirely , for his active mind was already occupied with a hundred miscellaneous studies .sx On returning home he composed a sermon to please his mother , and discussed religious questions with his father , but he told them quite frankly that he felt no vocation for the pastorate , and on returning to Leipzig he ceased all connection with the theological classes .sx His father's teaching had , however , sunk into his heart , and in his comedy The Free-thinker he presents in the character of Theophan an example of the broad-minded , yet truly orthodox and devoted pastor .sx He resented any attacks on the Christian faith , and felt completely out of his element in the atheistic circles of Berlin .sx