himself," when, for the first time, he went "from choice" to hear a sermon by one of the ministers who had some years before separated from the communion of the established church. The sermon was remarkably blessed to him; he was led to inquire into the grounds of the Secession; and his inquiries issued in an attachment which continued undiminished through life." From this time, being about fifteen or sixteen, I heard none else, and at last joined the Secession; and alas! that the increasing defections of the Church of Scotland, for which my heart trembles, should make me still approve of my procedure."

The following year, an event of a very afflictive kind took place, which appears to have been eminently useful to him. The hand of God inflicted a heavy stroke on the family, in the death of their eldest son, William, at the age of twenty-five. He had been early religious; but having been educated as a surgeon, he soon removed from under the immediate inspection of his parents, and served for some years a gentleman of that profession in Dunse, who made religion no part of his concern; and the consequence was, that his early impressions were greatly effaced by the conversation and example of those with whom he had intercourse. Having at length formed the resolution of going to sea, he went to Carnwath to take · farewell of his parents. His stay having been protracted beyond his expectation or wish, they remarked with grief, the sad change which had taken place during his absence, and employed all the influence of their prayers, and of their expostulations with him, for his reformation. For some time all was without effect. Providence, however, continuing by various means to throw obstacles in the way of his going abroad, he was at length brought to see the hand of

Heaven in it, and led to more serious thoughts than before. "Ephraim is an heifer; but God passed over her fair neck;" so, says his brother, "it fared with him. He began to consider his ways, to relish religion, to be conscientious in the duty of prayer; and not only was his conversation but converse changed, to the no small joy of his friends." After this happy change he began to assist his father in his business, and promised to be the joy and the support of his declining years. But the ways of God are often mysterious. He was seized with a nervous fever, which in the short space of eight days laid him silent in death, on the 19th of April, 1746. "Joy and grief," his brother remarks, "were mingled on this occasion; grief at his death, but joy that he died in such a hopeful condition." He adds, "The conversation and prayers of his Christian acquaintances who visited him during his illness, made an impression on my mind, which I hope will never be effaced."

The shock which this dispensation gave to his aged parents, may be more easily conceived than expressed. They had buried six sons, besides a daughter, and in the grave with the eldest, they now buried their hopes of comfortable support in the decline of life. James, their only remaining son, was in the 17th year of his age; promising enough indeed, but unprovided for, and incapable of assisting the family in their straits. It had for some time been his desire to prosecute his studies with a view to the holy ministry; but the situation of his parents did not furnish him with the means. After spending the summer in contrivances how to proceed, and in the perusal of such books as were within his reach, he formed the resolution of going to Edinburgh in the beginning of winter, along with his mother, whose presence was necessary there

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On

on account of the law-suit formerly mentioned. his arrival, he engaged a private teacher to assist him in his studies, who, for reasons known to himself, after receiving his money, chose within a few weeks suddenly to leave the place; and being unable to engage another, he found it necessary to return to Carnwath, leaving his mother behind him, and disappointed for the present in his favorite object.

A greater calamity succeeded. He had not been long at home, before his father was seized with a violent fit of asthma, which carried him off in a few days, in the month of February, 1748; and before he had opportunity to inform his mother, and elder sister who had gone to visit her, of his illness.

The shattered remains of the family, deprived of their last support, after spending some time in unavailing grief, and melancholy reflections on the destitute condition to which they were reduced, removed to Edinburgh before Whitsunday; "but with what money," says Mr. Meikle, "will scarcely be believed; with little more than sufficient to pay carriage, and bear our charges by the way." God, however, raised up a friend to aid them in their necessity. "A gentlewoman who lived next door to us, who had been a daughter of many afflictions, but to whom they had been sanctified, and who spent much of her time in prayer, showed us no little kindness." By the humane attentions of this lady, and the industry of Mrs. Meikle and her elder daughter, who span or sowed as they found employment, the few wants of the family were supplied during the summer.

But James had now entered the 19th year of his age, with little education, and without an occupation by which he could earn his daily bread. His mind was still directed towards the holy ministry, and

eagerly bent on acquiring the education which he deemed necessary as a preparation for it; but Providence seemed to refuse his services in the gospel, by defeating all his attempts to enter the university. For some time he flattered himself with the hope of obtaining a bursary, or, as it is styled in England, an exhibition; and he considered it as already secured by the generous exertions of a gentleman who took an interest in his affairs, when an unexpected objection was started against him, which blasted all his prospects. Party prejudices were strong at that time against those who had separated from the established church, and he was refused the bursary because he was a Seceder.

Despairing now of getting forward in his education, and yet unwilling to abandon his favorite pursuit, he felt ashamed of his situation, in the 19th year of his age, poor, in health, and yet doing nothing for his own maintenance; and he confesses, that when any old acquaintance inquired how he was employed, he often wist not what to say. Yet he was not absolutely idle. "All the summer," 33 he says, "I spent amongst my books in a melancholy solitude, and contracted acquaintance with very few." As a species of recreation from the severer studies in which he was engaged, he amused himself with an attempt to versify the book of Job, and proceeded as far as the twentieth chapter; but, "on a second reading I found it," he says, so flat, and tending rather to obscure than to illustrate the beauties of that noble book, that I never transcribed it. Notwithstanding, I found a double advantage from my labor; for, first, I spent many hours with pleasure, which I might otherwise have spent in repining thoughts at the providence of God; and, secondly, I grew much better acquainted with

the book of Job, a book greatly adapted to my situation, than I could have grown by an ordinary reading." It appears, indeed, that the pleasure he found at this period in writing of divine things in verse, gave occasion to that custom of versifying his meditations, in which he persevered to the very close of life, and which has produced a number of metrical performances which is truly astonishing; many hundreds of poems, all on religious subjects, and sufficient to fill six or seven volumes of the size of the present, being found amongst his papers.

This melancholy period of extreme poverty, disappointment, and anxious suspense, continued with little variation during the whole of the ensuing year. Providence deprived the family of the friend whose humane attentions have been already mentioned. Besides, after their expectations of a speedy and favorable termination of the law-suit had been considerably raised, they were dashed at once to the ground by a decision which put their hopes of relief from that quarter more distant than ever. "Like the sinning Jews," he says, we expected much, but it came to little; for it was entirely cut off, till better proof could be brought that it was not prescribed." So low, indeed, were their circumstances, that at Whitsunday, 1749, they found it a matter of the greatest difficulty to procure a decent lodging of two apartments, because they could neither find caution to the landlord, nor, as is customary when caution cannot be found, lay down one half of the rent. Yet when they were brought low, God helped them. They were enabled to endure their afflictions without murmuring at the divine dispensations; and besides, they were seasonably relieved by the sympathizing liberality of some good Christians, who, Mr. Meikle remarks, increas