was equally ready to proclaim Christ to
small country flocks. Nay, he was ready to travel far to visit and
comfort even one soul. There was an occasion this year on which he
rode far to give a cup of cold water to a disciple, and his remark
was, "I observe how often Jesus went a long way for one soul, as for
example the maniac, and the woman of Canaan."

In February 1841, he visited Kelso and Jedburgh at the Communion
season; and gladly complied with an invitation to Ancrum also, that he
might witness the hand of the Lord. "Sweet are the spots," he wrote,
"where Immanuel has ever shown his glorious power in the conviction
and conversion of sinners. The world loves to muse on the scenes where
battles were fought and victories won. Should not we love the spots
where our great Captain has won his amazing victories? Is not the
conversion of a soul more worthy to be spoken of than the taking of
Acre?" At Kelso, some will long remember his remarks in visiting a
little girl, to whom he said, "Christ gives last knocks. When your
heart becomes hard and careless, then fear lest Christ may have given
a _last knock_." At Jedburgh, the impression left was chiefly that
there had been among them a man of peculiar holiness. Some felt, not
so much his words, as his presence and holy solemnity, as if one spoke
to them who was standing in the presence of God; and to others his
prayers appeared like the breathings of one already within the veil.

I find him proposing to a minister who was going up to the General
Assembly that year, "that the Assembly should draw out a _Confession
of Sin_ for all its ministers." The state, also, of parishes under the
direful influence of Moderatism, lay much upon his spirit. In his
diary he writes: "Have been laying much to heart the absolute
necessity laid upon the church of sending the gospel to our dead
parishes, during the life of the present incumbents. It is confessed
that many of our ministers do not preach the gospel--alas! because
they know it not. Yet they have complete control over their own
pulpits, and may never suffer the truth to be heard there during their
whole incumbency. And yet our church consigns these parishes to their
tender mercies for perhaps fifty years, without a sigh! Should not
certain men be ordained as evangelists, with full power to preach in
every pulpit of their district,--faithful, judicious, lively
preachers, who may go from parish to parish, and thus carry life into
m