far-reaching
change, and that religion had become to him a matter of personal and
paramount concern. Another letter to Henry Weir on the same subject is
of great interest. It is written in the unformed and somewhat stilted
style which he had not yet got rid of, and, with characteristic
reticence, it deals only indirectly with the details of the experience
through which he has passed, being in form a disquisition on the
importance of personal religion, and a refutation of objections which
might occur to his correspondent against making it the main interest
of his life.

"My dear Henry," the letter concludes, "I most earnestly wish that you
would devote the energies of your mind to the attentive consideration
of religion, and I have no doubt that, through the tuition of the
Divine Spirit, you would speedily arrive at the same conviction of the
importance of the subject with myself, and then our friendship would,
by the influence of those feelings which religion implants, be more
hallowed and intimate than before. I long ardently to see you."

The experience which has thus been described caused no great rift with
the past, nor did it produce any great change in his outward life. He
did not dedicate himself to the ministry; he did not, so far as can be
gathered, even become a member of the Church; and although for a short
time he talked of concentrating his energies on the Greek Testament,
to the disparagement of the Greek and Latin classical writers, within
two months we find him back at his old studies and strenuously
preparing for the coming session at College. But a new power had
entered into his life, and that power gradually asserted itself as
the chief and dominating influence there.

Cairns returned to the University in the late autumn of 1837,
enrolling himself in the classes of Latin, Greek, and Logic. Although
he maintained his intimacy with his uncle's family, he now went into
lodgings in West Richmond Street, sharing a room with young William
Inglis, son of the minister at Stockbridge, then a boy at the High
School. Here is the description he gives to his parents of his
surroundings and of the daily routine of his life: "The lodging which
we occupy is a very good room, measuring 18 feet by 16 feet, in every
way neat and comfortable. The walls are hung with pictures, and the
windows adorned with flowers. The rent is 3s. 6d., with a promise of
abatement when the price of coals is lowered. This is no doubt a g