Mr. Witherspoon remained at Beith 12 years and then was called to the growing manufacturing town of Paisley where he stayed until his transatlantic move, refusing dur ing this period calls to Rotterdam and to Dublin and not being permitted by the General Assembly to accept one from Dundee. His twenty years of Scottish ministry were years of aggressive give and take, years of devoted service to his people, years of intellectual ripening; but they may not detain us here. It must suffice to say that his rank in the church became firmly established even though he was on the losing side of the fight against Moderatism. St. Andrews conferred on him the honor ary degree of Doctor of Divinity; his essays and sermons were reviewed in London and Edinburgh as often as they appeared; they were translated into Dutch; his reputation crossed the Atlantic; and when in I 766 the presidency of the College of New Jersey at Princeton became vacant he received a unanimous invitation from the Trustees of the college to fill the place. Unwillingly declining the call at first, and then finding it his duty to accept when it was repeated, he reached America in August 1768.