and the growth of his soul in holiness
was visible to many. During the days of his visit to Mr. Hamilton, he
read through the Song of Solomon at the time of family worship,
commenting briefly on it with rare gracefulness and poetic taste, and
yet rarer manifestation of soul-filling love to the Saviour's person.
The sanctified affections of his soul, and his insight into the mind
of Jesus, seemed to have much affected his friends on these
occasions.

Receiving, while here, an invitation to return by the way of Kelso, he
replied:--

"London, _Nov. 5, 1842._

"My dear Horatius,--Our friends here will not let me away till
the Friday morning, so that it will require all my diligence to
reach Dundee before the Sabbath. I will thus be disappointed of
the joy of seeing you, and ministering a word to your dear flock.
Oh that my soul were new moulded, and I were effectually called a
second time, and made a vessel full of the Spirit, to tell only
of Jesus and his love! I fear I shall never be in this world what
I desire. I have preached three times here; a few tears also have
been shed. Oh for Whitfield's week in London, when a thousand
letters came! The same Jesus reigns; the same Spirit is able. Why
is He restrained? Is the sin ours? Are we the bottle-stoppers of
these heavenly dews? Ever yours till glory.

"_P.S._--We shall meet, God willing, at the Convocation."

The memorable Convocation met at Edinburgh on November 17th. There
were five hundred ministers present from all parts of Scotland. The
encroachment of the civil courts upon the prerogatives of Christ, the
only Head acknowledged by our church, and the negligent treatment
hitherto given by the legislature of the country to every remonstrance
on the part of the church, had brought on a crisis. The Church of
Scotland had maintained, from the days of the Reformation, that her
connection with the State was understood to imply no surrender
whatsoever of complete independence in regulating all spiritual
matters; and to have allowed any civil authority to control her in
doctrine, discipline, or any spiritual act, would have been a daring
and flagrant act of treachery to her Lord and King. The deliberations
of the Convocation continued during eight days, and the momentous
results are well known in this land.

Mr. M'Cheyne was never absent from any of the diets of this solemn
assembly. He felt the deepest int