entry: "May 22d—I have seen some very evident awakenings of late. J. G. awakened partly through the Word preached, and partly through the faithful warnings of her fellow-servant. A. R., who has been for about a year in the deepest distress, seeking rest, but finding none. B. M. converted last winter at the Tuesday meeting in Annfield. She was brought very rapidly to peace with God, and to a calm, sedate, prayerful state of mind. I was surprised at the quickness of the work in this case, and pleased with the clear tokens of grace; and now I see God's gracious end in it. She was to be admitted at last communion, but caught fever before the Sabbath. On Tuesday last, she died in great peace and joy. When she felt death coming on, she said, O death, death, come! let us sing! Many that knew her have been a good deal moved homeward by this solemn providence. This evening, I invited those to come who are leaving the parish at this term. About twenty came, to whom I gave tracts and words of warning. I feel persuaded that if I could follow the Lord more fully myself, my ministry would be used to make a deeper impression than it has yet done."

CHAPTER VI.

THE LATTER DAYS OF HIS MINISTRY.

My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work."-JOHN iv. 34.

DURING the summer of 1842, he was exposed to several attacks of illness, experienced some severe personal trials, and felt the assaults of sore temptation. His own words will best express his state. "July 17th-I am myself much tempted, and have no hope, but as a worm on the arm of Jesus." August 4th-Often, often, would I have been glad to depart, and be with Christ. I am now much better in body and mind, having a little of the presence of my beloved, whose absence is death to me.' The same month-" I have been carried through deep waters, bodily and spiritual, since last we met." It was his own persuasion that few had more to struggle with in the inner man. Who can tell what wars go on within ?

During this season of trial, he was invited to form one of a number of ministers from Scotland, who were to visit the north of England, with no other purpose than to preach the glad tidings The scheme was planned by a Christian gentleman, who has done much for Christ in his generation. When the invitation reached him he was in the heat of his furnace. He mentioned this to the brother who corresponded with him on the subject, Mr Purves of Jedburgh, whose reply was balm to his spirit. "I have a fellow-feeling with you in your present infirmity, and you know for your consolation that another has, who is a brother indeed. In all our afflictions, he is afflicted. He is, we may say, the common heart of his people; for they are one body, and an infirmity in the very remotest and meanest member is felt there and borne there. Let us console, solace, yea, satiate ourselves in him, as, amid afflictions especially, brother does in brother. It is blessed to be like him in everything, even in suffering. There is a great want about all Christians who have not suffered. Some flowers must be broken or bruised before they emit any fragrance. All the wounds of Christ send out sweetness-all the sorrows of Christians do the same. Commend me to a bruised brother, a broken reed—one like the Son of Man.

The Man of Sorrows is never far from him. To me there is something sacred and sweet in all suffering; it is so much akin to the Man of Sorrows." It was thus he suffered, and thus that he was comforted. He wrote back, agreeing to go, and added, "Remember me especially, who am heavy laden oftentimes. My heart is all of sin; but Jesus lives.'

They set out for England. Mr Purves, Mr Somerville of Anderston, Mr Cumming of Dumbarney, and Mr Bonar of Kelso, formed the company. Their chief station was Newcastle, where Mr Burns had been recently labouring with some success, and where he had seen "a town giving itself up to utter ungodliness-a town where Satan's trenches were deep and wide, his wall strong and high, his garrison great and fearless, and where all that man could do seemed but as arrows shot against a tower of brass." But those who went knew that the Spirit of God was omnipotent, and that he could take the prey from the mighty.

They preached both in the open air and in the places of worship belonging to the Presbyterians and to the Wesleyan Methodists. The defenders of the Sabbath cause were specially prepared to welcome Mr M'Cheyne, whose tract on the Lord's Day had been widely circulated and blessed. Many were attracted to hear; interesting congregations assembled in the market-place, and there is reason to believe many were impressed. A person in the town describes Mr M'Cheyne's last address as being peculiarly awakening. He preached in the open air, in a space of ground between the cloth-market and St Nicholas' Church. Above a thousand souls were present, and the service continued till ten, without one person moving from the ground. The moon shone brightly, and the sky was spangled with stars. His subject was The Great White Throne," (Rev. xx. 11). In concluding his address, he told them," that they would never meet again till they all met at the Judgment-seat of Christ; but the glorious heavens over their heads, and the bright moon that shone upon them, and the old venerable church behind them, were his witnesses that he had set before them life and death." Some will have cause to remember that night through eternity.*

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His preaching at Gilsland also was not without effect; and he had good cause to bless the Lord for bringing him through

He afterwards preached the same subject with equal impressiveness in the Meadows at Dundee. It was in the open air. and the rain fell heavy, yet the dense crowd stood still to the last.

K

Dumfries-shire in his way homeward. He returned to his people in the beginning of September, full of peace and joy. "I have returned much stronger, indeed quite well. I think I have got some precious souls for my hire on my way home. I earnestly long for more grace and personal holiness, and more usefulness."

The sun-sets during that autumn were peculiarly beautiful. Scarcely a day past but he gazed upon the glowing west after dinner; and as he gazed he would speak of the Sun of Righteousness, or the joy of angels in his presence, or the blessedness of those whose sun can go no more down, till his face shone with gladness as he spoke. And during the winter, he was observed to be peculiarly joyful, being strong in body, and feeling the near presence of Jesus in his soul. He lived in the blessed consciousness that he was a child of God, humble and meek, just because he was fully assured that Jehovah was his God and Father. Many often felt that in prayer the name "Holy Father" was breathed with peculiar tenderness and solemnity from his lips.

His flock in St Peter's began to murmur at his absence when again he left them for ten days in November, to assist Mr Hamilton of Regent Square, London, at his communion. But it was his desire for souls that thus led him from place to place, combined with a growing feeling that the Lord was calling him to evangelistic more than to pastoral labours. This visit was a blessed one, and the growth of his soul in holiness was visible to many. During the days of his visit to Mr Hamilton, he read through the Song of Solomon at the time of family worship, commenting briefly on it with rare gracefulness and poetic taste, and yet rarer manifestation of soul-filling love to the Saviour's person. The sanctified affections of his soul, and his insight into the mind of Jesus, seemed to have much affected his friends on these occasions. Receiving while here an invitation to return by the way of Kelso, he replied :

LONDON, Nov. 5. 1842.

"MY DEAR HORATIUS,-Our friends here will not let me away till the Friday morning, so that it will require all my diligence to reach Dundee before the Sabbath. I will thus be disappointed of the joy of seeing you, and ministering a word to your dear flock. O that my soul were new moulded, and I were effectually called a second time, and made a vessel full of the Spirit, to tell only of Jesus and his love. I fear I shall never be in this world what I desire. I have

preached three times here; a few tears also have been shed. O for Whitfield's week in London, when a thousand letters came! The same Jesus reigns; the same Spirit is able. Why is he restrained? Is the sin ours? Are we the bottle-stoppers of these heavenly dews? Ever yours till glory."

"P.S.-We shall meet, God willing, at the Convocation."

The memorable Convocation met at Edinburgh on November 17th. There were five hundred ministers present from all parts of Scotland. The encroachment of the civil courts upon the prerogatives of Christ, the only Head acknowledged by our Church, and the negligent treatment hitherto given by the legislature of the country to every remonstrance on the part of the Church, had brought on a crisis. The Church of Scotland had maintained from the days of the Reformation that her connection with the State was understood to imply no surrender whatsoever of complete independence in regulating all spiritual matters; and to have allowed any civil authority to control her in doctrine, discipline, or any spiritual act, would have been a daring and flagrant act of treachery to her Lord and King. The deliberations of the Convocation continued during eight days, and the momentous results are well known in this land.

Mr M'Cheyne was never absent from any of the diets of this solemn assembly. He felt the deepest interest in every matter that came before them, got great light as to the path of duty in the course of the consultations, and put his name to all the resolutions, heartily sympathizing in the decided determination that, as a Church of Christ, we must abandon our connection with the State, if our " Claim of Rights" were rejected. These eight days were times of remarkable union and prayerfulness. The proceedings, from time to time, were suspended till the brethren had again asked counsel of the Lord by prayer; and none present will forget the affecting solemnity with which, on one occasion, Mr M'Cheyne poured out our wants before the Lord.

He had a decided abhorrence of Erastianism. When the question was put to him, "Is it our duty to refuse ordination to any one who holds the views of Erastianism ?" he replied "Certainly, whatever be his other qualifications." He was ever a thorough Presbyterian, and used to maintain the necessity of abolishing lay patronage, because, 1. It was not to be found in the Word of God; 2. It destroyed the