No refuge, no safety in self could I see,- My terrors all vanished before the sweet name, Jehovah-Tsidkenu! my treasure and boast, In Thee I shall conquer by flood and by field, Even treading the valley, the shadow of death, Mr. M'Cheyne was licensed to preach on the 1st of July, 1835, and began to labour as assistant to the Rev. John Bonar, of Larbert (afterwards the well-known and respected Dr. Bonar, Convener of the Colonial Committee of the Free Church of Scotland), in November of the same year. He preached every alternate Sabbath at Larbert and Dunipace, and visited during the week as his strength allowed. "With him," says his biographer, "the commencement of all labour invariably consisted in the preparation of his own soul. The forerunner of each day's visitations was a calm season of private devotion during morning hours. The walls of his chamber were witnesses of his prayerfulness—I believe of his tears, as well as of his cries. The pleasant sound of psalms often issued from his room at an early hour. Then followed the reading of the word for his own sanctification; and few have so fully realized the blessing of the first Psalm." God blessed his ministry in this sphere. He preached from his experience, and applied to his own soul what he taught the people. The following will indicate his feelings there: "To-day I sought to prepare my heart for the coming Sabbath. After the example of Boston, whose life I have been reading, examined my heart with prayer and fasting. 1. Does my heart really close with the offer of salvation by Jesus? Is it my choice to be saved in the way which gives him all the praise and me none? Do I not only see it to be the Bible way of salvation, but does it cordially approve itself to my heart as delightful? Lord, search me and try me, for I cannot but answer, Yes, yes. 2. Is it the desire of my heart to be made altogether holy? Is there any sin I wish to retain ? Is sin a grief to me, the sudden risings and overcomings thereof especially? Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I hate all sin, and desire to be made altogether like thee. It is the sweetest word in the Bible, 'Sin shall not have dominion over you.' Oh, then, that I might lie low in the dust-the lower the better-that Jesus' righteousness and Jesus' strength alone be admired. Felt much deadness, and much grief that I cannot grieve for this deadness. Towards evening revived. Got a calm spirit through psalmody and prayer.” Such were his preparatory applications of the word of God. Let us now mark the Sabbath experience which "June 12. Sabbath. To-day a sinner preached Jesus, the same Jesus who has done all things for him and that so lately! A day of much help, of some earnest lookingup of the heart to that alone quickening power, of much temptation to flattery and pride. Oh, for breathing gales of spiritual life! Evening. Somewhat helped to lay Jesus before little children in his beauty and excellency. Much fatigue, yet some peace. 'Surely a day in thy courts is better than a thousand."" In 1836 he was ordained as minister of St. Peter's Church, Dundee. From the very first success attended his ministry. He had a parish containing six thousand souls, many of whom never went to church. His congregation, however, numbered about eleven hundred at the outset, but a third of them came from other parts of the town. His health was weak, and he was subject to frequent fevers; but he was unsparing of himself, and greatly delighted in evangelistic work. His prayer-meetings were very solemn, and he sought to interest the people in the history of revivals. On Sabbath and on week-day, at home or in the houses of his people, in the presbytery or on journeys, he was ever the same holy man, and an odour of grace was around him. Men could not but recognise what Mr. M'Cheyne lived for. His manner was always solemn, and his words always wise. There was not much time amidst so great parochial labour for writing in his diary, yet there are some remarks in it which illustrate his growing piety and his intense desire to win souls to Christ. With reference to visiting his flock, an exercise he carefully performed, we find, under date September 26, 1838, “Good visiting to-day. Twelve families; many of them go nowhere. It is a great thing to be well furnished by meditation and prayer before setting out; it makes you a far more full and faithful witness. Preached in A. F- 's house on Job, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth. Very sweet and precious to myself." He had a Bible class which he kept on a week evening for young men and women. He used the Assembly's Catechism along with the Bible, and prepared diligently for this exercise. He was fond of Sabbath schools, and encouraged them in the various districts of his parish. He often visited them, and had the art of adapting him self to the capacity of the young. He sought every opportunity of gaining their attention, and of impressing their hearts. As a specimen, on the blank leaf of a Bible which he gave to a little boy, he wrote these lines :— "Peace be to thee, gentle boy! Many years of health and joy! Till the Saviour take thee in." He wrote also several hymns and tracts for the Sabbath scholars, which have long been fulfilling their mission. after their author has gone to the heaven which he urged them to seek. In the pulpit he felt ever peculiarly solemnized. He spoke of it as "that awful place the pulpit." His solemn bearing was apparent to those who saw him, and it had a striking impression upon their minds. He studied the end of his minstry in all his conduct in the house of God, and he as ardently pursued the same object when he was out the pulpit. He was like his office on week-days as on Sabbaths, in the social meeting as in the great congregation. But he regarded the Lord's day as the great opportunity for doing his Master's work, and he studiously sought to use it fully. Many felt the power and point of his teaching. There was a peculiar skill in the very manner in which he arranged his sermons. "The heads of his sermons," said one, were not the mile-stones that tell you how near you are to your journey's end, but they (15) 10 were nails which fixed and fastened all he said. Divisions are often dry; but not so his divisions, they were so textual and so feeling, and they brought out the spirit of a passage so surprisingly." He had not been long in Dundee, until attempts were made to remove him. A rural parish of sparse population and large stipend was offered to him. He thus wrote to his father in reference to it: "I am set down among four thousand people; eleven hundred people have taken seats in my church. I bring my message, such as it is, within the reach of that great company every Sabbath day. I dare not leave three or four thousand people for three hundred. Had this been offered me before I would have seen it a direct intimation from God, and would heartily have embraced it. How I should have delighted to feed so precious a little flock, to watch over every family, to know every heart, 'to allure to brighter worlds and lead the way.' But God has not so ordered it. He has set me down among the noisy mechanics and political weavers of this godless town. He that paid his taxes from a fish's mouth, will supply all my need." Not long after another attempt was made to take him to a rural sphere. This had greater influence than the former, because his health was delicate, and there were constant cares and labours in a busy town. But the tokens which he received, that God was blessing his ministry in Dundee, led him to decide to remain. Nor had he reason to repent his choice. His work was indeed to be brief, but it was to be eminently useful in the ingathering of souls to the fold of God. Though so devoted to his ministry and to spiritual work, he did not think lightly of public business in the Church or in the town. He gave constant attendance at the pres |