e exclusively to theological and literary work
in behalf of the Christian faith. His friend Clark, whom he consulted
in the matter, strongly urged him to decide in favour of the latter
alternative. His speculative and literary faculties, he urged, had
already been tested with brilliant results; his powers as a preacher,
on the other hand, were as yet an unknown quantity, and Clark thought
it doubtful if they would be appreciated by an average congregation.
The struggle was severe while it lasted, but it ended in Cairns
deciding to go on to the ministry in the ordinary way. In November
1844 be applied to the Edinburgh Presbytery of the Secession Church
for license, and he received it at their hands in the following
February. He had not long to wait for a settlement. Dr. Balmer of
Berwick, one of his divinity professors, had died while he was in
Switzerland, and on his deathbed had advised his congregation to wait
until Cairns had finished his course before electing a successor.
Accordingly, it was arranged that he should preach in Golden Square
Church, Berwick, a few weeks after he received license. The result
was that a unanimous and enthusiastic call was addressed to him. He
received another invitation from Mount Pleasant Church, Liverpool,
of which his friend Graham was afterwards minister; but, after some
hesitation, he decided in favour of Berwick.

Meanwhile changes had been taking place in the home circle at
Dunglass. His brother William, whose illness has been already
referred to, had now passed beyond all hope of recovering the use of
his limbs. Having set himself resolutely to a course of study and
mental improvement under his brother John's guidance, he was able to
accept a kindly proposal made to him by Sir John Hall of Dunglass,
that he should become the teacher of the little roadside school at
Oldcambus, which John had attended as a child. On the marriage of his
eldest brother in the summer of 1845 the widowed mother came to keep
house for him, and henceforth the Oldcambus schoolhouse became the
family headquarters. But that summer brought sorrow as well as change.
Another brother, James, a young man of vigorous mental powers, and
originally of stalwart physique, who had been working at his trade as
a tailor in Glasgow, fell into bad health, which soon showed the
symptoms of rapid consumption. He came home hoping to benefit by the
change, but it became increasingly clear that he had only come home
to die.