Circumstances do not form any man who like him has a definite and strong character, and spiritual principles definite and strong; but such a man draws from his circumstances growth, and variety, and vigour to what is his own proper and distinct nature. The change was indeed great when he was lifted up from his closet and his study, and from the quiet bosom of the Ochils, and flung into the city's crowd and the incessant whirl of his work, and for a time there was a struggle ere he could accommodate his inner spiritual life to his new position. He would at the first lament that he had not the same amount of time for prayer and other personal religious duties (for in these he had spent much, very much time), and he would even burden his conscience therewith. But his heart brightened more and more. The time he could give to prayer, and to the reading of God's Word for his own immediate benefit, was spent all the more sweetly, and filled all the more with blessing to the brim.

Indeed, the naturalness and enjoyment with which he took to prayer, was one of the things that especially struck her who in his later years knew most intimately the daily manner of his life, and unexpected and even strange to her would appear at times the season which she suddenly found he had turned into an opportunity of fellowship with his Divine Father. Ah! these were no stiff and formal interviews, but the approaches of the childlike heart to its Father's breast. In like manner was his love to the Word natural and true. His was no mere summary reading of a stated portion, but a loving poring and pondering over it with his heart, and a rich imbibing of its divine nutriment. Ah! he went to it as to a well of life. But let his daily witness be heard for a moment here.

"Love to Christ was the master power that moved his whole being. It melted and subdued him into the most childlike submission and obedience; it thrilled him with the deepest, sweetest, and tenderest emotion; and it fired him with a burning desire, ever deepening and widening, to lay himself, in all that he was and had, upon

Christ's altar. He knew the Saviour intimately as his nearest and dearest friend; his intercourse with Him was so unreserved that I knew that in his apparently most unguarded moments he was walking at liberty with Him. He loved to trace the Saviour's character down to its minutest details, and was so powerfully attracted by His loveliness as to be evidently moulded into likeness to Him.. He seemed to live in habitual prayer and dependence upon God. I have found him in every variety of circumstance engaged in prayer, sometimes most unexpectedly to me. Everything was made by him matter for prayer or praise. This was often seen in his blessings before meals, or at family worship, when his mind was evidently directed by any little incident, or by the previous conversation, or by the subject of his reading. He studied the Word of God with intense earnestness. I often think I see him sitting in the study with his elbows on the desk, his head between his hands, and the Bible before him, quite absorbed in it. He generally read straight through, and thought it very important to do so for the sake of the connection."

Since the subject has thus come before us here, it may be added, that the reality, richness, variety, and unction of his domestic prayers were indeed remarkable. Very striking was the way in which he would gather up into them the home incidents of the day, even of a minute kind, and beheld them all sparkling with Divine light, and written over with lessons by the finger of God. Indeed, his views and observance of God's providencethe manner in which he studied its wider and more general scheme, and that part of it which embraced his own personal history, and how everything fitted into its place in his life's plan-his conviction that all that befalls a man is adapted and suited to his inward spiritual state, and intended to be a test and discipline of it-and his keen watchfulness of the direction and guidance which Providence furnishes,-all marked strongly the character of the man. Furthermore, the life of grace was so active within him, and his study of God's Word so vital-and so new and fresh, therefore, were the thoughts

of his heart, from day to day-that his prayers by the hearth, instead of falling into a kind of fixed form, had a constant and instructive variety.

It was stated that there was something in his spiritual life at this period of which he specially complained. What this was will be best noticed when we arrive at the concluding stage of his spiritual progress. It extended through the months of his last illness. His Christian history, though short, was very complete. Very clearly were seen in him the spring struggling out of winter, the triumphant and flushing summer, and the mellowing and ripening autumn.

CHAPTER VII.

PERSONAL HISTORY FROM THE TIME OF HIS SETTLEMENT IN GLASGOW TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF HIS LAST

ILLNESS.

THIS shall mainly be presented to us by himself, by means of extracts from his letters. Other letters of the utmost importance and excellence, written during this period, but bearing less directly on the object of this chapter, will be found in the second portion of this volume.

His marriage, when he wrote to me as follows, was yet nearly two years distant. On this subject there is a silence that is becoming, and a silence, also, that, in the case before us, would not be becoming, but which would display rudeness of feeling rather, and would sacrifice lessons of the loftiest Christian nobleness on one of the most important subjects of human life. Every righthearted reader will be struck with the beauty of heart manifested in the following extract:—

"GLASGOW, 25th April, 1854.-My dearest brother.

With regard to that other matter of which I spoke to you, you may take it as a very thorough proof of how

much I feel you part and parcel of myself that I whispered it to you. It was not unpremeditatedly that I did so and I did feel a little to do it; but it was just the same kind of feeling with which I had told myself of it a short time before. Moreover, you had just what was rising in my own mind as possible, and therefore you are not to think that matters are any length at all. All the length is, that I have felt called on to be more special in my prayers on that subject than before, and to refer to an individual. Help me herein as in all things. I think I wish my heart to hold but one, and that one-Jesus."

[GLASGOW, July, 1854.]-"My dear Mrs. Telford [the mother of the lady above referred to]. On the whole, I think myself a little better this morning. The pain in my side is not yet quite removed. Much more certain still am I, at the same time, that I am wholly in God's hand to do with me as seemeth Him good. I have been seeking to wish nothing else than His will. I see the most perfect righteousness in His dealings with me; and I think I have seen grace, too, not only that it [the affliction] is so slight, but grace in casting me on my back for a little while. I pray that, in your journey to-day, the Lord may preserve you and graciously shine on you with his face."

To a friend,-"GLASGOW, 27th July.

The committee

I have no pain, but my breathing is not so full and free as it was, and, after no very great exertion, I feel as if all the pith of my body had left me. [of presbytery], at the meeting last Monday, resolved that I should take a month [more]. that less, by the blessing of God, will view at present to go to Arran."

I trust, however, suffice. I have in

To a friend,-"BRODICK, ARRAN, 7th Augt., 1854. I have found the season and the affliction in many respects profitable, and yet I feel ashamed when I think how profitless after all. There is hope in these two glorious facts: The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin,' and the Spirit of God is omnipotent. Were not both Divine truths, there would be despair. I have

learned not a little in regard to my spirit in the work in which I am engaged. Oh that I may be purged! Oh that God would Himself work, and Himself have all the glory!"

I went through

To a friend," ARRAN, Augt. 18, 1854. perspiring with such copiousness. to Edinburgh and consulted Dr.

He examined

The idea of

me very thoroughly and carefully, and, as the result, said that I had had an attack of pleurisy all over the right side that it had not been very severe, and was now past the worst that I had just to take care of myself, and that I might begin to work next week in a quiet way. I had a cough which he could not explain very well, and this led him to look to my throat. He found that kind of pendulum at the back of the throat inflamed and enlarged, which he said irritated the throat and caused the cough. He burned it with caustic, and bid me see to have this done repeatedly. Indeed, he was more concerned about my throat than my chest, and what he feared was my voice giving way altogether if the inflamation was not checked. my voice giving way has had a peculiar effect upon me." To a friend," GLASGOW, 7th Sept., 1854. Yet I have one friend who, I trust, loves me better than either [of two Christian brethren referred to], and whom I desire to love more than all. He is ever near. 'The Lord is at hand,' and now and then I have felt it sweet to lay my head in that Saviour's bosom. recent dealings with me in one point I have seen their necessity-to make me distinctly feel that the work here is not mine. I have felt it very hard to learn. I could scarcely get over the feeling that things would go down without me. It would seem that the lesson has not been fully learned either by me or the little flock here, for I fear that I will require to leave again. The doctor urged me to take rest for other three weeks. I did not well know what to do in the circumstances. I long to be at work, and yet the rest seems wise and dutiful too. I have, therefore, been beginning to think that I must rest yet. Oh that it may

God's