lips. In
accepting the invitation to labor in the sphere proposed, he wrote:
"It has always been my aim, and it is my prayer, to have _no plans_
with regard to myself, well assured as I am, that the place where the
Saviour sees meet to place me must ever be the best place for me."

The parish to which he had come was very large, containing six
thousand souls. The parish church is at Larbert; but through the
exertions of Mr. Bonar, many years ago, a second church was erected
for the people of Dunipace. Mr. Hanna, afterwards minister of
Skirling, had preceded M'Cheyne in the duties of assistant in his
field of labor; and Mr. M'Cheyne now entered on it with a fully
devoted and zealous heart, although in a weak state of health. As
assistant, it was his part to preach every alternate Sabbath at
Larbert and Dunipace, and during the week to visit among the
population of both these districts, according as he felt himself
enabled in body and soul. There was a marked difference between the
two districts in their general features of character; but equal labor
was bestowed on both by the minister and his assistant; and often did
their prayer ascend that the windows of heaven might be opened over
the two sanctuaries. Souls have been saved there. Often, however, did
the faithful pastor mingle his tears with those of his younger
fellow-soldier, complaining, "Lord, who hath believed our report?"
There was much sowing in faith; nor was this sowing abandoned even
when the returns seemed most inadequate.

Mr. M'Cheyne had great delight in remembering that Larbert was one of
the places where, in other days, that holy man of God, Robert Bruce,
had labored and prayed. Writing at an after period from the Holy Land,
he expressed the wish, "May the Spirit be poured upon Larbert as in
Bruce's days." But more than all associations, the souls of the
people, whose salvation he longed for, were ever present to his mind.
A letter to Mr. Bonar, in 1837, from Dundee, shows us his yearnings
over them. "What an interest I feel in Larbert and Dunipace! It is
like the land of my birth. Will the Sun of Righteousness ever rise
upon it, making its hills and valleys bright with the light of the
knowledge of Jesus?"

No sooner was he settled in his chamber here, than he commenced his
work. With him, the commencement of all labor invariably consisted in
the preparation of his own soul. The forerunner of each day's
visitations was a calm season of private de