The design of these sketches is neither to give a full account of Scottish Ecclesiastical History nor to furnish complete biographies of the men who have been prominent in the Scottish Pulpit since the Reformation. My aim has simply been to put the preachers in the environment of their times, to bring out the characteristics by which they were distinguished, and to give point to such lessons from their work as may be useful in our own age, The form in which the sketches are presented was determined by the fact that they were originally addressed to the students of Yale Theological Semi nary in the Spring of I 886, when I had the honour of holding, for the second time, the appointment of Lyman Beecher Lecturer in that institution.