often so
troubled as to be made willing to go or stay, to die or to live.
Yet it is encouraging to be used in the Lord's service again, and
in so interesting a manner. What if we should see the heavenly
Jerusalem before the earthly? I am taking drawing materials, that
I may carry away remembrances of the Mount of Olives, Tabor, and
the Sea of Galilee."

The interest that this proposed journey excited in Scotland was very
great. Nor was it merely the somewhat romantic interest attached to
the land where the Lord had done most of his mighty works; there were
also in it the deeper feelings of a scriptural persuasion that Israel
was still "beloved for the fathers' sake." For some time previous,
Jerusalem had come into mind, and many godly pastors were alarming as
watchmen over its ruined walls (Isa. 62:6), stirring up the Lord's
remembrancers. Mr. M'Cheyne had been one of these. His views of the
importance of the Jews in the eye of God, and therefore of their
importance as a sphere of missionary labor, were very clear and
decided. He agreed in the expectation expressed in one of the Course
of Lectures delivered before the deputation set out, that we might
anticipate an _outpouring of the Spirit when our church should stretch
out its hands to the Jew as well as to the Gentile_. In one letter he
says, "To seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel is an object very
near to my heart, as my people know it has ever been. Such an
enterprise may probably draw down unspeakable blessings on the Church
of Scotland, according to the promise, 'They shall prosper who love
thee.'" In another, "I now see plainly that all our views about the
Jews being the chief object of missionary exertion are plain and sober
truths, according to the Scripture." Again, "I feel convinced that if
we pray that the world may be converted in God's way, we will seek the
good of the Jews; and the more we do so, the happier we will be in our
own soul. You should always keep up a knowledge of the prophecies
regarding Israel." In his preaching he not unfrequently said on this
subject, "We should be like God in his peculiar affections; and the
whole Bible shows that God has ever had, and still has, a peculiar
love to the Jews."

The news of his proposed absence alarmed his flock at Dundee. They
manifested their care for him more than ever; and not a few wrote
expostulatory letters. To one of these well-meant remonstrances he
replied, "I rejoice