Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/232

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220
NOTES.

way of truth: For the world loves falsehood more than the truth; and as a proof of it, worldly sinful men will pay for falsehood, and will not listen to the truth, though they have it for nothing.

A great portion of the darkness and ignorance of such persons, arises, too, from the foresaid truths pot being taught in good books, understood by all who {peak the general language, or habitual Gaelic tongue.

Already has the God of all power, and King of mercies, and of archangels, opened to us a path to the everlasting ways, by revealing that we are permitted to read and to enforce the Holy Scriptures among all people. And in like manner, the forms and substance of prayers, the dispensation of the sacraments, and the confession of the Christian religion, are transmitted to us by our Christian brethren of the church (chair) called Geneva. But, with regard to the Gaels of Scotland and Ireland, certain persons have wished the good office to the church of God of translating this little book into the Gaelic language, understood by the people, to be undertaken for their use; a circumstance which I rejoiced at. I myself could have wished not to have attempted the performance of this labour; but since it has not been done, as far as is consistent with my knowledge, I have undertaken, out of love to God and the church, a task which requires so much courage, and have exerted myself in it to the utmost, in hopes that God would assist me in my deficiency and ignorance. I am also of opinion, that there is no essential error or defect here, but what is in the Latin or English