answer to it will
open up some of the wonderful ways of Him "whose path is in the great
waters, and whose footsteps are not known," Psalm 77:19; for the same
event that awakened his soul to a true sense of sin and misery, led
him to the ministry.

During his attendance at the literary and philosophical classes he
felt occasional impressions, none of them perhaps of much depth. There
can be no doubt that he himself looked upon the death of his eldest
brother, David, as the event which awoke him from the sleep of nature,
and brought the first beam of divine light into his soul. By that
providence the Lord was calling one soul to enjoy the treasures of
grace, while He took the other into the possession of glory.

In this brother, who was his senior by eight or nine years, the light
of divine grace shone before men with rare and solemn loveliness. His
classical attainments were very high; and, after the usual preliminary
studies, he had been admitted Writer to the Signet. One distinguishing
quality of his character was his sensitive truthfulness. In a moment
would the shadow flit across his brow, if any incident were related
wherein there was the slightest exaggeration; or even when nothing but
truth was spoken, if only the deliverer seemed to take up a false or
exaggerated view. He must not merely speak the whole truth himself,
but he must have the hearer also to apprehend the whole truth. He
spent much of his leisure hours in attending to the younger members of
the family. Tender and affectionate, his grieved look when they vexed
him by resisting his counsels, had (it is said) something in it so
persuasive that it never failed in the end to prevail on those with
whom his words had not succeeded. His youngest brother, at a time when
he lived according to the course of this world, was the subject of
many of his fervent prayers. But a deep melancholy, in a great degree
the effect of bodily ailments, settled down on David's soul. Many
weary months did he spend in awful gloom, till the trouble of his soul
wasted away his body: but the light broke in before his death; joy
from the face of a fully reconciled Father above lighted up his face;
and the peace of his last days was the sweet consolation left to his
afflicted friends, when, 8th July 1851, he fell asleep in Jesus.

The death of this brother, with all its circumstances, was used by the
Holy Spirit to produce a deep impression on Robert's soul. In many
respects--even i