laid everything aside when put in comparison with preaching the
everlasting gospel. He scarcely ever refused an invitation to preach
on a week-day; and travelling from place to place did not interrupt
his fellowship with God. His occasional visits during these years were
much blessed. At Blairgowrie and Collace his visits were longed for as
times of special refreshment; nor was it less so at Kirriemuir, when
he visited Mr. Cormick, or at Abernyte in the days when Mr. Hamilton
(now of Regent Square, London), and afterwards Mr. Manson, were
laboring in that vineyard. It would be difficult even to enumerate the
places which he watered at Communion seasons; and in some of these it
was testified of him, that not the words he spoke, but the _holy
manner_ in which he spoke, was the chief means of arresting souls.

Occasionally two or three of us, whose lot was cast within convenient
distance, and whose souls panted for the same water-brooks, used to
meet together to spend a whole day in confession of ministerial and
personal sins, with prayer for grace, guiding ourselves by the reading
of the word. At such times we used to meet in the evening with the
flock of the pastor in whose house the meeting had been held through
the day, and there unitedly pray for the Holy Spirit being poured down
upon the people. The first time we held such a meeting, there were
tokens of blessing observed by several of us; and the week after he
wrote: "Has there been any fruit of the happy day we spent with you? I
thought I saw some the Sabbath after, here. In due season we shall
reap if we faint not; only be thou strong, and of a good courage." The
incident that encouraged him is recorded in his diary. An elderly
person came to tell him how the river of joy and peace in believing
had that Sabbath most singularly flowed through her soul, so that she
blessed God that she ever came to St. Peter's. He adds "_N.B._--This
seems a fruit of our prayer-meeting, begun last Wednesday at
Collace,--one drop of the shower."

It should have been remarked ere now, that during all his ministry he
was careful to use not only the direct means appointed for the
conversion of souls, but those also that appear more indirect, such as
the key of discipline. In regard to the Lord's Supper, his little
tract explains his views. He believed that to keep back those whose
profession was a credible profession, even while the pastor might have
strong doubts as to their fitness in