38, some symptoms appeared that alarmed his friends.
His constitution, never robust, began to feel the effects of
unremitting labor; for occasionally he would spend six hours in
visiting, and then the same evening preach in some room to all the
families whom he had that day visited. Very generally, too, on
Sabbath, after preaching twice to his own flock, he was engaged in
ministering somewhere else in the evening. But now, after any great
exertion, he was attacked by violent palpitation of heart. It soon
increased, affecting him in his hours of study; and at last it became
almost constant. Upon this, his medical advisers insisted on a total
cessation of his public work; for though as yet there was no organic
change on his lungs, there was every reason to apprehend that that
might be the result. Accordingly, with deep regret, he left Dundee to
seek rest and change of occupation, hoping it would be only for a week
or two.

A few days after leaving Dundee, he writes from Edinburgh, in reply to
the anxious inquiries of his friend Mr. Grierson: "The beating of the
heart is not now so constant as it was before. The pitcher draws more
quietly at the cistern; so that, by the kind providence of our
heavenly Father, I may be spared a little longer before the silver
cord be loosed, and the golden bowl be broken."

It was found that his complaints were such as would be likely to give
way under careful treatment, and a temporary cessation from all
exertion. Under his father's roof, therefore, in Edinburgh, he
resigned himself to the will of his Father in heaven. But deeply did
he feel the trial of being laid aside from his loved employment,
though he learned of Him who was meek and lowly, to make the burden
light in his own way, by saying, "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth
good in thy sight." He wrote to Mr. Grierson again, _January 5, 1839_:
"I hope this affliction will be blessed to me. I always feel much need
of God's afflicting hand. In the whirl of active labor there is so
little time for watching, and for bewailing, and seeking grace to
oppose the sins of our ministry, that I always feel it a blessed thing
when the Saviour takes me aside from the crowd, as He took the blind
man out of the town, and removes the veil, and clears away obscuring
mists, and by his word and Spirit leads to deeper peace and a holier
walk. Ah! there is nothing like a calm look into the eternal world to
teach us the emptiness of human praise, the s