Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/126

390 knowledge and aptitude for their future duties, which the mere lectures of the class-room could never have imparted.

After having finished the usual course appointed for students in divinity, and exhibited an amount of talent and acquirements that might have opened for him an entrance into the fairest fields of literary ambition, Mr. M'Cheyne was licensed as a preacher by the Presbytery of Annan, on the 1st of July, 1835. The sphere of action to which he turned at the outset was both humble and laborious, being an assistantship of the joint parishes of Larbert and Dunipace, having a' population of 6000 souls, most of whom were colliers, and workmen of the Carron Iron-works—a population sufficiently repulsive in station and manners, as well as in general moral character. His situation and his feelings are well described in his poem on "Mungo Park finding a Tuft of Green Grass in the African Desert"—a poem, by the way, which John Wilson, our prince of critics, has stamped with his honoured approval:—

Thus he felt, and in this spirit he laboured during the ten months of his assistantship, not confining himself to the duties of the pulpit, careful and anxious though his preparations in that department were, but visiting in every house, and endeavouring to make himself acquainted with the character, spiritual condition, and wants of every individual. A happy proof of his diligence and discriminating character in this the most important part of clerical duty, is contained in a letter which he afterwards wrote to his successor, recommending to his attention the persons in whom he felt most solicitude. "Take more heed to the saints," he writes, "than ever I did. Speak a word in season to S. M. S. H. will drink in simple truth, but tell him to be humble-minded. Cause L. H. to learn in silence; speak not of religion to her, but speak to her case always. Teach A. M. to look simply at Jesus. J. A. warn and teach. Get worldliness from the B.'s if you can. Mrs. G. awake, or keep awake. Speak faithfully to the B.'s. Tell me of M. C., if she is really a believer, and grows? A. K., has the light visited her? M. T. I have had some doubts of. M. G. lies sore upon my conscience; I did no good to that woman; she always managed to speak of things about the truth. Speak boldly. What matter in eternity the slight awkwardnesses of time?" In these notanda what a beauti-