youthful attractiveness of his graces lost had he lived many years ; this cannot be impaired now. It seems as if the Lord had struck the flower from its stem, ere any of the colours had lost their bright hue, or any leaf its fragrance. Well may the flock of St Peter's lay it to heart. They have had days of visitation. Ye have seen the right hand of the Lord plucked out of his bosom? What shall the unsaved among you do in the day of the Lord's anger ?” “ If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace!" It has been more than once the lot of Scotland (as was said in the days of Durham) to enjoy so much of the Lord's kindness, as to have men to lose whose loss has been felt to the very heart, witnesses for Christ, who saw the King's face and testified of his beauty. We cannot weep them back ; but shall we not call upon Him with whom is the residue of the Spirit, that ere the Lord come, He would raise up men, like Enoch, or like Paul, who shall reach nearer the stature of the perfect man, and bear witness with more power to all nations ? Are there not (as he who has left us used to hope) “better ministers in store for Scotland than any that have yet arisen?” Ministers of Christ, does not the Lord call upon us especially? Many of us are like the angel of the church of Ephesus: we have “works, and labour, and patience, and cannot bear them that are evil, and we have borne, and for his name's sake we labour, and have not fainted;" but we want the fervour of “first love." Oh how seldom now do we hear of fresh supplies of holiness arriving from the heavenly places (Eph. i. 3)-new grace appearing among the saints, and in living ministers! We get contented with our old measure and kind, as if the windows of heaven were never to be opened. Few among us see the lower depths of the horrible pit ; few ever enter the inner chambers of the house of David. But there has been one among us who, ere he had reached the --ge at which a priest in Israel would have been entering on his course, dwelt at the Mercy-seat as if it were his home,-preached the certainties of eternal life with an undoubting mind, -and spent his nights and days in ceaseless breathings after holiness, and the salvation of sinners. Hundreds of souls were his reward from the Lord, ere he left us ; and in him have we been taught how much one man may do who will only press farther into the presence of his God, and handle more skilfully the unsearchable riches of Christ, and speak more boldly for his God. We speak much against unfaithful ministers, while we ourselves are awfully unfaithful! Are we never afraid that the cries of souls whom we have betrayed to perdition through our want of personal holiness, and our defective preaching of Christ crucified, may ring in our ears for ever? Our Lord is at the door. In the twinkling of an eye our work will be done. “Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord, awake as in the ancient days," till every one of thy pastors be willing to impart to the flock, over which the Holy Ghost has made him overseer, not the gospel of God only, but also his own soul. And oh that each one were able, as he stands in the pastures feeding thy sheep and lambs, to look up and appeal to Thee : “ Lord, Thou knowest all things! Thou knowest that I love Thec!” LETTERS. TO REV. R. MACDONALD, BLAIRGOWRIE. Written when first laid aside vy that iliness wnicn afterwards led to the Jewis! Mission, EDINBURGH, January 12, 1899. MY DEAR FRIEND,—The very day I received your kind letter, I intended to have written you that you might provide some one to stand in my place on Monday evening next. I am ashamed at not having answered your kind inquiries sooner, but am not very good at the use of the pen, and I have had some necessary letters to write. However, now I come to you. This is Saturday, when you will be busy preparing to feed the flock of God with food convenient. Happy man! It is a glorious thing to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ! We do not value it aright till we are deprived of it; and then Philip Henry's saying is felt to be true,—that he would beg all the week in order to be allowed to preach on the Sabbath-day. I have been far from alarmingly ill,—my complaint is all unseen, and sometimes unfelt. My heart beats by night and day; but especially by night, too loud and too strong. My medical friends hare tried several ways of removing it, -hitherto without complete success. As long as it lasts, I fear I shall be unfit for the work of the ministry ; but I do hope that God has something more for me to do in the vineyard, and that a little patient rest, accompanied by his blessing, may quiet and restore me. Oh! my dear friend, I need it all to keep this proud spirit under. Andrew Bonar was noticing the providence of “ Elijah in the wilderness” being my allotted part at our next meeting. I read it in the congregation the Sabbath after, with an envious feeling in my own heart, though I did not like to express it, that I would now be sent a like day's 1 See Memoir, chap. iii. 178 |