ession which the event
made than these verses. But it was not a transient regret, nor was it
the "sorrow of the world." He was in his eighteenth year when his
brother died; and if this was not the year of his new birth, at least
it was the year when the first streaks of dawn appeared in his soul.
From that day forward his friends observed a change. His poetry was
pervaded with serious thought, and all his pursuits began to be
followed out in another spirit. He engaged in the labors of a Sabbath
school, and began to seek God to his soul, in the diligent reading of
the word, and attendance on a faithful ministry.

How important this period of his life appeared in his own view, may be
gathered from his allusions to it in later days. A year after, he
writes in his diary: "On this morning last year came the first
overwhelming blow to my worldliness; how blessed to me, Thou, O God,
only knowest, who hast made it so." Every year he marked this day as
one to be remembered, and occasionally its recollections seem to have
come in like a flood. In a letter to a friend (8th July 1842), upon a
matter entirely local, he concludes by a postscript: "This day eleven
years ago, my holy brother David entered into his rest, aged 26." And
on that same day, writing a note to one of his flock in Dundee (who
had asked him to furnish a preface to a work printed 1740, _Letters on
Spiritual Subjects_), he commends the book, and adds: "Pray for me,
that I may be made holier and wiser--less like myself, and more like
my heavenly Master; that I may not regard my life, if so be I may
finish my course with joy. This day eleven years ago, I lost my loved
and loving brother, and began to seek a Brother who cannot die."

It was to companions who could sympathize in his feelings that he
unbosomed himself. At that period it was not common for inquiring
souls to carry their case to their pastor. A conventional reserve upon
theses subjects prevailed even among lively believers. It almost
seemed as if they were ashamed of the Son of man. This reserve
appeared to him very sinful; and he felt it to be so great an evil,
that in after days he was careful to encourage anxious souls to
converse with him freely. The nature of his experience, however, we
have some means of knowing. On one occasion, a few of us who had
studied together were reviewing the Lord's dealings with our souls,
and how He had brought us to himself all very nearly at the same time,
though wit