ith which Moses, after being forty years
in the desert, would pray, 'I pray Thee let me go over,'" Deut.
3:25.

But these helps in study were all the while no more than
supplementary. The regular systematic studies of the Hall furnished
the main provision for his mental culture. Under Dr. Chalmers for
Divinity, and under Dr. Welsh for Church History, a course of four
years afforded no ordinary advantages for enlarging the understanding.
New fields of thought were daily opened up. His notes and his diary
testify that he endeavored to retain what he heard, and that he used
to read as much of the books recommended by the professors as his time
enabled him to overtake. Many years after, he thankfully called to
mind lessons that had been taught in these classes. Riding one day
with Mr. Hamilton (now of Regent Square, London) from Abernyte to
Dundee, they were led to speak of the best mode of dividing a sermon.
"I used," said he, "to despise Dr. Welsh's rules at the time I heard
him; but now I feel I _must use_ them, for nothing is more needful for
making a sermon memorable and impressive than a logical arrangement."

His intellectual powers were of a high order: clear and distinct
apprehension of his subject, and felicitous illustration,
characterized him among all his companions. To an eager desire for
wide acquaintance with truth in all its departments, and a memory
strong and accurate in retaining what he found, there was added a
remarkable candor in examining what claimed to be the truth. He had
also an ingenious and enterprising mind--a mind that could carry out
what was suggested, when it did not strike out new light for itself.
He possessed great powers of analysis; often his judgment discovered
singular discrimination. His imagination seldom sought out object of
grandeur; for, as a friend has truly said of him, "he had a kind and
quiet eye, which found out the living and beautiful in nature, rather
than the majestic and sublime."

He might have risen to high eminence in the circles of taste and
literature, but denied himself all such hopes, that he might win
souls. With such peculiar talents as he possessed, his ministry might
have, in any circumstances, attracted many; but these attractions were
all made subsidiary to the single desire of awakening the dead in
trespasses and sins. Nor would he have expected to be blessed to the
salvation of souls unless he had himself been a monument of sovereign
grace