lation of business in his parish never led him to neglect
the season of prayer on a busy Saturday. His reply was, that he was
not aware that it ever did. "What would my people do if I were not to
pray?"

So steady was he in Sabbath preparations, from the first day to the
last time he was with them, that though at prayer-meetings, or similar
occasions, he did not think it needful to have much laid up before
coming to address his people; yet, anxious to give them on the Sabbath
what had cost him somewhat, he never, without an urgent reason, went
before them without much previous meditation and prayer. His principle
on this subject was embodied in a remark he made to some of us who
were conversing on the matter. Being asked his view of diligent
preparation for the pulpit, he reminded us of Exodus 27:20: "_Beaten
oil--beaten oil for the lamps of the sanctuary_" And yet his
prayerfulness was greater still. Indeed, he could not neglect
fellowship with God before entering the congregation. He needed to be
bathed in the love of God. His ministry was so much a bringing out of
views that had first sanctified his own soul, that the healthiness of
his soul was absolutely needful to the vigor and power of his
ministrations.

During these ten months the Lord had done much for him, but it was
chiefly in the way of discipline for a future ministry. He had been
taught a minister's heart; he had been tried in the furnace; he had
tasted deep personal sorrow, little of which has been recorded; he had
felt the fiery darts of temptation; he had been exercised in
self-examination and in much prayer; he had proved how flinty is the
rock, and had learned that in lifting the rod by which it was to be
smitten, success lay in Him alone who enabled him to lift it up. And
thus prepared of God for the peculiar work that awaited him, he had
turned his face towards Dundee, and took up his abode in the spot
where the Lord was so marvelously to visit him in his ministry.

CHAPTER III.

FIRST YEARS OF LABOR IN DUNDEE.

"_Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what
manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord
with all humility of mind, and with many tears and
temptations_"--Acts 20:18, 19.

The day on which he was ordained pastor of a flock, was a day of much
anxiety to his soul. He had journeyed by Perth to spend the night
preceding under the roof of his kind friend Mr. Grierson, in the manse