r in Australia, to Dr. J. Hood Wilson, Barclay Free Church,
Edinburgh, I resolved to deliver them that evening; and I prayed the
Lord to open up all my path, as I was thus thrown solely on Him for
guidance and bereft of the aid of man. Dr. Wilson and his lady, neither
of whom I had ever seen before, received me as kindly as if I had been
an old friend. He read my letters of introduction, conversed with me as
to plans and wishes (chiefly through Mrs. Wilson, for he was suffering
from sore throat) and then he said with great warmth and kindliness:

"God has surely sent you here to-night! I feel myself unable to preach
to-morrow. Occupy my pulpit in the forenoon and address my Sabbath
School, and you shall have a collection for your Ship."

Thereafter, I was with equal kindness received by Mr. Balfour, having a
letter of introduction from his brother, and he offered me his pulpit
for the evening of that day. I lay down blessing and praising Him, the
Angel of whose Presence was thus going before me and opening up my way.
That Lord's Day I had great blessing and joy; there was an extraordinary
response financially to my appeals and my proposal was thus fairly
launched in the Metropolis of our Scottish Church life. I remembered an
old saying, Difficulties are made only to be vanquished. And I thought
in my deeper soul,--Thus our God throws us back upon Himself; and if
these L6000 ever come to me, to the Lord God alone, and not to man,
shall be all the glory!

On the Monday following, after a long conversation and every possible
explanation, Colonel Young, of the Free Church Foreign Missions
Committee, said, "We must have you to address the Assembly on the
evening devoted to Missions." Thus I had the pleasure and honor of
addressing that great Assembly; and though no notice was taken of my
proposals in any "finding" of the Court, yet many were thereby
interested deeply in our work, and requests now poured in upon me from
every quarter to occupy pulpits and receive collections for the new
Ship.

At the meeting in the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, which
along with others, I was cordially invited to address, the good and
noble Lord Polwarth occupied the chair. That was the beginning of a
friendship in Christ which will last and deepen as long as we live. From
that night he took the warmest personal interest, not only by generously
contributing to my fund, but by organizing meetings at his own Mansion
House, and int