his
preaching; but I have got Scott's 'Commentaries.' I remember well
when you used to get them in numbers, and I used to laugh at them;
but, thank God, it is different with me now. I feel much happier
and more contented than I used to do. I did not like Pembroke, but
now I would not wish for any prettier place. I have got a horse and
gig, and Drew and myself drive all about the country. I hope my
dear father and mother think of eternal things. Can I do or say
anything to either to do good? When you get my book, read the
'Castaway.'

"You know I never was confirmed. When I was a cadet, I thought it
was a useless sin, as I did not intend to alter (not that it was in
my power to be converted when _I_ chose). I, however, took my first
sacrament on Easter day [16th April 1854], and have communed ever
since.

"I am sure I do not wonder at the time you spent in your room, and
the eagerness with which you catch at useful books--no novels or
worldly books come up to the Sermons of M'Cheyne or the
Commentaries of Scott. I am a great deal in the air, as my fort is
nine miles off, and I have to go down pretty often. It is a great
blessing for me that in my profession I can be intimate with whom I
like, and have not the same trials among my brother officers as
those in a line regiment have. I ought not to say this, for 'where
sin aboundeth, grace aboundeth more fully;' but I am such a
miserable wretch, that I should be sure to be led away. Dearest
Augusta, pray for me, I beg of you."

For several years after the date of the above letter, he alludes very
little to religion, and if we may accept his own statement on the
subject, in a letter from China, dated Taku Forts, 15th March 1862, it
is probable that he went back for a time.

"The climate, work, and everything here suits me, and I am thankful
to say I am happy both in mind and body. I have had a slight attack
of small-pox--it is not necessary to tell my mother this, as it
will trouble her. I am glad to say that this disease has brought me
back to my Saviour, and I trust in future to be a better Christian
than I have been hitherto."

Then followed the stirring adventures he went through in command of the
Ever-Victorious Army in China; but that he could not, during that
period, have had the full assurance which characterised him later on,
and which a