for the preacher, the presbytery highly approved of the spirit manifested by the heritors and kirk session, and granted the prayer of their petition. Thus the work of the parish was carried on without intermission till the induction of Dr. Burns. Most appropriately, the first signs of the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit which was to bless his faithful ministry were manifested by the grave of the Rev. James Robe. Dr. Burns held the memory of his illustrious predecessor in loving regard, and on a lovely Sabbath afternoon in August he preached to the congregation in the graveyard a memorial sermon. Standing over his dust, he chose for his text the words which Robe had engraved in Hebrew characters on the tombstone of his wife :-" Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead" (Isa. xxvi. 19). Stimulated by the honour in which he held his predecessor, and the picturesque associations, the preacher delivered a heart-searching discourse. Referring to Mr. Robe, he said: "We surround the grave of one who was eminent in his day for zeal and success in the work of the Lord. He laboured in the vineyard for the long space of forty-one years, having been ordained in 1713, and departed this life in 1754. The narrative, well known amongst you, tells of the great things done in the latter years of his ministry, when many gave the best evidence of having been born again through the Word then preached; and of the vast assemblies along the adjoining stream, hearing with earnest hearts the words of life; and of the additional recurring sacramental seasons caused by the intense desire to enjoy such refreshing meetings. His memory is savoury. His sermons and 'Narrative,' and the holy character he maintained to

the end, render his memory peculiarly precious, Two other ministers have subsequently laboured here, and closed their ministry also. Their doctrine was the same as Mr. Robe's, although no such remarkable success attended their ministrations." Then setting forth how he himself had no new doctrine to publish, he was content, like them, to set forth Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He went on to take advantage of the memorials of mortality amid which they were standing, and concluded with a touching appeal that they might so live that at the last they might be found on the right-hand side of the Judge, and numbered with the saints in glory everlasting. The Gospel was received by the audience in the love of it, and many thought that the work of the succeeding summer was but the fruit of the seed sown in the graveyard that beautiful August afternoon.

As this solemn impression had been largely brought about by recalling the times of Mr. Robe, so the revival of the following year was brought about at the first by W. C. Burns, the son of the pastor of Kilsyth, who had been appointed to fill M'Cheyne's pulpit in Dundee, during his absence in the Holy Land, recounting the work of the Rev. John Livingston at Shotts, and the doing of the Lord on that memorable occasion. The communion had just been held, and the sermon which put the torch to that spiritual pile which, during these long years, Dr. Burns had, been so industriously gathering, was preached in the parish church on the 23rd July, the Tuesday immediately following the dispensation. Mr. William C. Burns chose for his text the words from which Mr. Livingston had preached at Shotts. It having become known that the young preacher was not only on his way to take Mr. M'Cheyne's place, but that he was soon to go abroad as a missionary, the church

was crowded. The preacher spoke with impassioned force, and when he reached the height of his appeal, the emotion in the congregation became overpowering, and a scene ensued which beggars all description. As through the power of the Holy Spirit, the audience had quick realisation of their lost and sinful condition: some appeared to faint and fall, others cried out as if in an agony of terror, and tears stood in the eyes of all. In the evening the church was again crowded. Mr. Lyon of Banton lectured and Mr. W. C. Burns preached, and so the work went on from day to day. The elders, as in the days of Robe, were of the utmost service. They prayed with the distressed and spoke to them words of cheer and comfort. Great crowds were addressed in the market square and the graveyard. Many of the scenes were deeply affecting. Every day brought its trophies of victory. The Dissenters on this occasion did not stand apart. A meeting was held in the Relief Church, when various ministers of the body spoke approvingly of the movement. After this great work had been in progress for three weeks, it was thought advisable by the session after mature deliberation, for they were not united about it at the first, to have a special communion season for the administration of sealing ordinances. The Saturday night before the celebration was spent, for the most part, in prayer. The singing of psalms could be heard at intervals the whole night through. Next morning it was calculated that nearly fifteen thousand people had gathered in and about the town. The communion services began at ten in the morning, and closed at nine in the evening. There was no interval, and there were eight table services. It was observed that the probationers and younger clergy spoke with a fulness and readiness of utterance unusual with them. With the Monday meet

ings, which began at eleven and terminated at five, the spiritual tide that had flooded the parish began gradually to ebb. It was a precious season of blessing, and the remembrance of it was sweet. The showers in answer to prayer had been copious and refreshing. Dr. Burns conducted the revival after the manner approved by Mr. Robe; unlike him, however, he did not keep a journal of the individual cases dealt with. That some seed fell by the wayside and the birds of the air devoured it, that other seed sprang up and was choked by thorns is perfectly true, and will always occur where the sowing is free-handed: But it is also true that much seed fell into good ground and brought forth richly of the fruits of repentance and holy living.

The venerable pastor who had had his heart rejoiced by these times of revival was soon to participate in scenes of a far different character. We may be sure of this, strife in the Church does not mean the presence but the absence of the Lord and His Spirit. If I say little about the Secession of Forty-three it is not that I have nothing to say or that my convictions are insufficiently formed. It is for the interest of our Scottish Presbyterianism, that much that was said and done then should be forgotten now. I think the Seceders were right in protesting against Patronage; I think they were wrong in making it a ground of schism. Dr. Burns was present at the Assembly of 1843, and cast in his lot with the seceding party. There is no record of the reasons that weighed with him, but the fact itself is enough. How or where he was trammelled in his preaching or his pastorate is not apparent, but if he saw it or thought he saw it, that was enough for him. Certainly secession in Kilsyth parish could hold out no hope of preferment for him as it did for so many in other spheres. So far as the people were con

cerned they were largely guided by their clergy. If the minister went they went; if the minister stayed they stayed. In Kilsyth parish the minister seceding, a very large number seceded with him. Of the session two elders remained at their posts and a third dropped in again. Dr. Burns' face turned deadly pale when he heard his old bell ringing on the Sabbath morning after his return from Edinburgh, and knew now that by his own act he could go no more back to proclaim the Gospel within those blessed walls where he had seen the Holy Spirit descending in His power, and where he had won so many signal victories through the Redeemer's name. Time went on and the Free Church was formed and he ministered as quietly and faithfully to his congregation as he had done to the parish. He took some interest in the building of his new manse, and Princeton College, America, conferred on him the degree of D:D. But his work was now really done, and the close of his life was a long bright sunset. He passed to his rest on the morning of Sabbath, the 8th day of May, 1859.

In 1854 the Rev. Robert Black, M.A., was appointed colleague and successor to Dr. Burns. Mr. Black was born the 4th December, 1826, at Cumnock, in Ayrshire, where his father, a builder, carried on a successful business. He was descended on the maternal side from John Welsh, minister of Ayr, son-in-law of John Knox, and on the paternal side from a Huguenot stock. He was a younger member of a family of twelve. He was educated at the parish school of his native place, and one of his school-fellows was the late Dr. James Brown of Paisley. When he came to the time when he must choose what he must be and do, his uncle, a sheepfarmer, offered to make him his heir, if he would qualify himself to succeed him on the farm. It was a great