Excerpt from Memoirs of the Rev. Thomas Halyburton IT is much to be feared, that, in times of peace and prosperity in the church, many have got into her fellowship who know very little, if any thing at all, about the true spirit of Christianity. Impositions of this kind, it is true, like forgeries on our national coinage, have been practised in every age; for there never was a time, at which it could be said, They are all Israel who are of Israel. But at present, and especially in our favoured country, there is evi dence that the Church is under an exposure of this kind which is somewhat peculiar. The times are gone by, at which the man who said he was a Chris tian, had to make good his word at the hazard of his liberty, or his property, or his life; and the spirit of scepticism, which something more than half an age ago, was so restless, and so full of arrogance, is now put under a powerful suppression. It is not able, as heretofore, to give currency to the maxim, that saintship and imbecility are one and the same thing. The coarse and impious ridicule which, in those days, laughed the unstable out of his profession, and deterred the timid from putting it on, is, to a great. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.