ecome so common a thing to be concerned about the soul." At that
time, also, many came from a distance; one came from the north, who
had been a year in deep distress of soul, to seek Christ in Dundee.

In his brief diary he records, on December 3, that twenty anxious
souls had that night been conversing with him; "many of them very
deeply interesting." He occasionally fixed an evening for the purpose
of meeting with those who were awakened; and in one of his note-books
there are at least _four hundred_ visits recorded, made to him by
inquiring souls, in the course of that and the following years. He
observed, that those who had been believers formerly had got their
hearts enlarged, and were greatly established; and some seemed able to
feed upon the truth in a new manner,--as when one related to him how
there had for some time appeared a glory in the reading of the word in
public, quite different from reading it alone.

At the same time he saw backslidings, both among those whom believers
had considered really converted, and among those who had been deeply
convicted, though never reckoned among the really saved. He notes in
his book: "Called to see ----. Poor lad, he seems to have gone back
from Christ, led away by evil company. And yet I felt sure of him at
one time. What blind creatures ministers are! man looketh at the
outward appearance." One morning he was visited by one of his flock,
proposing "a concert for prayer on the following Monday, in behalf of
those who had fallen back, that God's Spirit might re-awaken
them,"--so observant were the believers as well as their pastor of
declensions. Among those who were awakened, but never truly converted,
he mentions one case. "_Jan. 9, 1840._--Met with the case of one who
had been frightened during the late work, so that her bodily health
was injured. She seems to have no care now about her soul. It has only
filled her mouth with evil-speaking."

That many, who promised fair, drew back and walked no more with Jesus,
is true. Out of about 800 souls who, during the months of the Revival,
conversed with different ministers in apparent anxiety, no wonder
surely if many proved to have been impressed only for a time.
President Edwards considered it likely that, in such cases, the
proportion of real conversions might resemble the proportion of
blossoms in spring, and fruit in autumn. Nor can anything be more
unreasonable than to doubt the truth of all, because of the deceit of