from Pentecost to the present day. The effect of the awakening, however, evidenced it to be the work of God. On his return from the Holy Land, he found thirty-nine prayer-meetings in his parish, five of which were conducted and attended by little children. The church had been crowded almost every night for four months. There was great thirst for the word, and great utterance in prayer. Many were turned from open sin and profligacy, many from merely nominal Christianity, whose lives adorned the doctrine of God their Saviour.

In 1839, the wave of revival spread over a large portion of the country. In Perth, Mr. Burns was greatly blessed. In St. Leonard's Church, "at one meeting, the work was so glorious, that one night about one hundred and fifty persons at one time seemed bowed down under a sense of their guilt, and above two hundred came next day to the church in the forenoon to converse about their souls." Various other places were similarly visited. "Throughout Ross-shire," says Mr. Bonar, "whole congregations were frequently moved as one man, and the voice of the minister drowned in the cries of anxious souls." Aberdeen experienced a rich blessing under the awakening ministry of Mr. William Burns. The district of Strathbogie-long under a lifeless ministry, became the scene of extensive awakening, when evangelical ministers were sent by the Supreme Court of the Church to declare the gospel in the face of civil interdicts. The people were made to hear good news, and in a free gospel of grace saw, as they had never seen, the way to be saved. Mr. M'Cheyne took part in this evangelistic work, and dispensed the Lord's supper at Huntly, amidst deep impression. In some parishes around Perth the

shower also fell, and in the south of Scotland also. It could not fail to be observed that those ministers, who had prepared for their holy work along with Mr. M'Cheyne, by earnest prayer and intense love for souls, received copious blessings. Newcastle-upon-Tyne was visited by Mr. M'Cheyne and others who still labour with success in the Lord's vineyard. Many souls were awakened there.

So marked were the effects of the efforts made at that time, that Mr. M'Cheyne had a desire to be set apart as an evangelist, that he might go throughout all the land and preach in every parish. There is no doubt that such an agency is calculated to be very useful. Dr. Nettleton was eminently blessed of God in the work, and were every Church to get a man so single-minded, so judicious, so highly gifted for his work as he, the sooner evangelists are commissioned the better. Many ministers would be revived, and many congregations stirred. We need the extraordinary to give new impetus to ordinary means. The prophets of the Old Testament dispensation were such, and by their instrumentality was the Church often revived, and ordinary means of grace made more lively and effective.

It is somewhat surprising that such an agency should not have been constantly maintained in the Christian Church, when we consider the great commission intrusted to it by the Lord Jesus. It seems more needed now than ever when so many have fallen from Church attendance, and so many have migrated to our colonies. We sincerely trust that suitable persons may be found for so momentous a work, and that the Churches of Christ may see the propriety of setting apart qualified evangelists.

With the stamp of the Church and the confidence of pastors, the labours of such devoted men could scarcely fail to be productive of great good to the congregations of regular worshippers, and especially be useful in arresting the attention and winning the souls of those who have been careless of their eternal interests. But we

have already insisted on this in the sketch of Dr. Asahel Nettleton, who gave himself entirely to the evangelist's work in America, and whose labours God blessed to the conversion of many thousand souls.

Mr. M'Cheyne did not lose sight of the Jewish Mission notwithstanding the exciting and engrossing duties which engaged him after his return from the Holy Land. He visited several towns to give information and awaken interest in the lost sheep of the House of Israel. He was invited to address the Synod of Ulster, and made a deep impression on all who heard his appeals. He was asked to repeat his visit in the succeeding year, which he did with much satisfaction and evident usefulness. He had much to tell beyond all he had seen and learned respecting the Jews. The revival among his people and throughout his native land was an inviting theme, and one on which he was eminently qualified to speak.

In the same year there was a concert for prayer in which Christians of various denominations united. He entered into this with much warmth. He had great longings for the unity of the Church, and rejoiced to aid any "approximations to unity." He invited dissenting ministers to preach in his pulpit, and defended his conduct by his pen. He rejoiced when the General Assembly repealed the act of 1799 which had excluded all

not belonging to the Established Church from officiating His invitation to the brethren of another

within its pale.

church followed immediately after.

In 1842, Mr. M'Cheyne took part with those ministers of the Church of Scotland who prepared to surrender their livings rather than sacrifice their principles; but he was spared the ordeal through which many of his brethren passed. Fever seized him on March the 13th, 1843, after attending a meeting of his people to prepare for the Disruption, and he sank in death on the 25th. The ruling passion was strong in death, and in the delirium of his mind he often spoke as if to his people: "You must be awakened in time, or you will be awakened in everlasting torment, to your eternal confusion!" Then he would pray, "This parish, Lord, this people, this whole place!" He never ceased to think of his people and of his Lord, and lifted up his hands as if blessing when the ministering angels bore his emancipated spirit to glory.

Great was the sorrow of St. Peter's congregation, of Dundee, and of all evangelical people in Scotland, when this man of God was taken away in his thirtieth year. But his active work was done, and the fragrance of his holy life was to be wafted over Christendom.

He was a man eminently holy. The cultivation of his inner life was his constant care. He lived near to God. He abode in the fellowship of Christ. He came forth from the presence-chamber, and bore the radiance of the cloud of glory when he spoke to others. holiness was itself a sermon, and impressed souls. Testimonies to this were found after his death.

He had a consuming desire to save souls.

His beauty of

He felt the

pulpit to be an awful but also a privileged place, and he prepared carefully for it, and preached with his heart fixed upon the salvation of souls. The Lord gave him his hire, and in a short ministry of seven years he had hundreds who were the seals of his ministry. He looked for large blessings, and the Lord gave him more than he expected. Should not all ministers of Christ aim at this, and preach and pray in faith of doing much good? Robert Hall said after an earnest sermon, "I should not wonder if a hundred souls were converted to-night."

His Letters and Posthumous Sermons have fully sustained the character of his living ministry. They are full of Christ and of a holy unction. They prove how thoroughly his own soul had embraced the Cross and how great was his solicitude for the souls of others. His little tracts and hymns are all fragrant with the name which is as ointment poured forth. They have all often been re-published and extensively circulated. following was written for children :—

"Like mist on the mountain,

Like ships on the sea,

So swiftly the years

Of our pilgrimage flee;
In the grave of our fathers
How soon we shall lie!
Dear children, to-day
To a Saviour fly.

How sweet are the flowerets

Of April and May!

But often the frost makes

Them wither away.

Like flowers you may fade:

Are you ready to die?
While yet there is room,
To a Saviour fly.

When Samuel was young

He first knew the Lord.

The