terest and
rich in good fruits.

'Close by our hospital camps was a civilian camp, where dwelt in
tents or in rude shanties several hundreds of refugees. There were
well-to-do farmers and their families, driven from their homes in
Upper Natal; railway people, station-masters, guards, clerks, etc.;
miners from Glencoe and Dundee; and not a few people from Ladysmith
itself. The greater number of these were Scotch, and it was natural
that I should take spiritual charge of them, for they were out in
the wilderness, sheep without a shepherd. Every Sunday morning at
ten o'clock, and Sunday evening at seven o'clock, I held an
open-air service for them, the convalescent from the military camps
attending likewise. It was a sight I shall never forget, to see
these homeless ones sitting round me on the veldt, listening to the
preaching of the Gospel, making welcome, as perhaps some of them
had never done before, the precious promises of divine consolation
of which their souls stood so much in need. Many were devout and
earnest Christian men and women, and the weekly fellowship, in song
and supplication, with God and with one another, did much, I do not
doubt, to enable them to endure the tribulations which were their
appointed lot.

'So, amid these many labours, the months flee past. You know the
story of the several attempts to relieve us. Away over the hills,
on December 15, we heard the fierce roll of the artillery, and our
hopes beat high. But the ominous silence of the next few days
prepared us for the mournful tidings that that attempt had failed.
Then came January 6, and the determined assault by the Boers on
Ladysmith. It began before dawn close by our camp, and all day long
we watched the struggle, as it swayed this way and that, like the
waves of the sea, till at last British valour gained the day. But
much precious life was lost.

'After that, on January 20, the hills once more re-echoed the roar
of distant artillery. This was the attempt at Spion Kop and
Potgieter's Drift. After days of uncertainty, we learned that our
relief was not yet.

'At last in the early weeks of February began the final and heroic
effort of General Sir Redvers Buller's forces. Day and night the
firing ceased not, and we rejoiced to mark that it came nearer an