“ Admitted about twenty-five young communicants; kept two back, and one or two stayed back. Some of them evidently brought to Christ. May the Lord be their God, their comforter, their all! May the morrow bring still richer things to us, that we may say as of to-night, . Thou hast kept the good wine until now.'”

Toward the close of this same year some of his notices arc as follows:

- Oct. 7, Evening. In the Gaelic Chapel, on I kuow that my Redeemer liveth,' with more seeming power on the people than for a while. I never remember of compelling souls to come in to Christ so much as in that discourse."

“ Oct. 8.-A person of the name of — came; I hope really awakened by last night's work; rather, by Thee. I do not know, however, whether grace is begun or not.”

“ Oct. 14.—Preached on: Forgiving injuries.' Afternoon-on the Second Coming : ‘Let your loins be girded about,' etc. Felt its power myself more than ever before, how the sudden coming of the Saviour constrains to a holy walk, separate from sin. Evening -Preached it over in the Ferry."

“ Oct. 21.-Met young communicants in the evening. Good hope of all but one."

Oct. 22.-A Jew preached in my church, Mr Frey, to a crowded house. Felt much moved in hearing an Israelite after the flesh.”

“ Oct. 23.-Preached to sailors aboard the · Dr Carey,' in the docks. About 200, very attentive and impressed like. On I know that my Redeemer liveth.' May the seed sown on the waters be found after many days."

“ Nov. 1, Fast-day.-Afternoon-Mr C. on · The thief on the Cross.' A most awakening and engaging sermon, enough to make sinners fly like a cloud, and as doves to their windows. The offers of Christ were let down very low, so that those low of stature may take hold."

“Nov. 5.—Mr -- died this morning at seven o'clock. Oh that I may take warning, lest, after preaching to others, I myself be a castaway! Love of popularity is said to have been his besetting sin."

" Dec. 2.-Errol Communion. Heard Mr Grierson preach on Christ's entry into Jerusalem. Served two tables. EveningPreached to a large congregation, on · Unto you, O men, I call,' etc. The free invitation of the Saviour. May some find Him this day!”

In addition to the other blessings which the Lord sent by his

means to the place where he laboured, it was obvious to all that the tone of Christians was raised as much by his holy walk as by his heavenly ministry. Yet during these pleasant days he had much reproach to bear. He was the object of supercilious contempt to formal cold-hearted ministers, and of bitter hatred to many of the ungodly. At this day there are both ministers and professing Christians of whom Jesus would say, “ The world cannot hate you” (John vii. 7), for the world cannot hate itself ; but it was not so with Mr M.Cheyne. Very deep was the enmity borne to him by some,—all the deeper, because the only cause of it was his likeness to his Master. But nothing turned him aside. He was full of ardour, yet ever gentle, and meek, and generous ; full of zeal, yet never ruffled by his zeal ; and not only his strength of “first love” (Rev. ii. 4), but even its warm glow, seemed in him to suffer no decay.

Thus he spent the first years of his ministry in Dundee. The town began to feel that they had a peculiar man of God in the midst of them, for he lived as a true son of Levi. “My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniqnity was not found on his lips; he walked with me in peace and equity; and did torn many sway from iniquity.” Mal. ii. 5, 6.

CHAPTER IY.

MIS MISSION TO PALESTINE AND THE JEW'S:

* Here am 1; send me.”—Isaiau vi. 8.

Tuugi engaged night and day with his flock in St Peter's, Mi M.Cheyne ever cherished a missionary spirit. " This place hardens me for a foreign land," was his remark on one occasion. This spirit he sought to kindle yet more by reading missionary intelligence for his own use, and often to his people at his weekly prayer-meeting. The necessities both of his own parish, and of the world at large, lay heavy on his soul; and when an opportunity of evangelizing occurred, there was none in Scotland more ready to embrace it. He seemed one who stood with his loins girt : “Here am I; send me."

Another motive to incessant activity, was the decided impression on his mind that his career would be short. From the very first days of his ministry he had a strong feeling of this nature; and his friends remember how his letters used to be sealed with this seal, “ The night cometh.” At a time when he was apparently in his usual health, we were talking together on the subject of the Premillennial Advent. We had begun to speak of the practical influence which the belief of that doctrine might have. At length he said, “that he saw no force in the arguments generally urged against it, though he had difficulties of his own in regard to it. And perhaps (he added) it is well for you, who enjoy constant health, to be so firmly persuaded that Christ is thus to come ; but my sickly frame makes me feel every day that my time may be very short."

He was therefore in some measure prepared, when, in the midst of his laborious duties, he was compelled to stand still and see what the Lord would do.

In the close of 1838, some syinptoms appeared that alarmed his friends. His constitution, never robust, began to feel the effects of unremitting labour; for occasionally he would spend six hours in visiting, and then the same evening preach in some room to all the families whom he had that day visited. Very generally, too,

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on Sabbath, after preaching twice to his own flock, he was engaged in ministering somewhere else in the evening. But now, after any great exertion, he was attacked by violent palpitation of heart. It soon increased, affecting him in his hours of study ; and at last it became almost constant. Upon this, his medical advisers insisted on a total cessation of his public work; for though as yet there was no organic change on his lungs, there was every reason to apprehend that that might be the result. Accordingly, with deep regret, he left Dundee to seek rest and change of occupation, hoping it would be only for a week or two.

A few days after leaving Dundee, he writes from Edinburgh, in reply to the anxious inquiries of his friend Mr Grierson : “ The beating of the heart is not now so constant as it was before. The pitcher draws more quietly at the cistern ; so that, by the kind providence of our heavenly Father, I may be spared a little longer before the silver cord be loosed, and the golden bowl be broken.”

It was found that his complaints were such as would be likely to give way under careful treatment, and a temporary cessation from all exertion. Under his father's roof, therefore, in Edinburgh, he resigned himself to the will of his Father in heaven. But deeply did he feel the trial of being laid aside from his loved employment, though he learnt of Him who was meek and lowly, to make the burilen light in his own way, by saying, “Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight.” He wrote to Mr Grierson again, Junuary 5, 1839 : “I hope this affliction will be blessed to me. I always feel much need of God's afflicting hand. In the whirl of active labour there is so little time for watching, and for bewailing, and seeking grace to oppose the sins of our ministry, that I always feel it a blessed thing when the Saviour takes me aside from the crowd, as He took the blind man out of the town, and removes the veil, and clears away obscuring mists, and by his word and Spirit leads to deeper peace and a holier walk. Ah! there is nothing like a calm look into the eternal world to teach us the emptiness of human praise, the sinfulness of self-seeking and vainglory, to teach us the preciousness of Christ, who is called The Tried Stone.' I have been able to be twice at college to hear a lecture from Dr Chalmers. I nave also been privileged to smooth down the dying pillow of an old school-companion, leading him to a fuller joy and peace in believing. A poor heavy-laden soul, too, from Larbert, I have had the joy of leading toward the Saviour. So that even when absent from my work, and when exiled, as it were, God allows me to do some little things for his name.”

He was led to look more carefully into this trying dispensation, and began to anticipate blessed results from it to his flock. He was well aware how easily the flock begin to idolize the shepherd, and how prone the shepherd is to feel somewhat pleased with this sinful partiality of his people, and to be uplifted by his success. “I sometimes think,” is his remark in a letter, dated January 18, "that a great blessing may come to my people in my absence. Often God does not bless us when we are in the midst of our labours, lest we shall say, “My hand and my eloquence have done it.' He removes us into silence, and then pours down a blessing so that there is no room to receive it;' so that all that see it cry out, It is the Lord !' This was the way in the South Sea Islands. May it really be so with my dear people!” Nor did he err in this view of the dispensation. All these ends, and more also, were to be accomplished by it.

An anticipation like that which is expressed in this and other letters, especially in his Pastoral Letter of March 20, may justly be regarded as a proof from experience that the Lord teaches his people to expect and pray for what He means soon to work. And here the Lord accomplished his designs in the kindest of all ways; for He removed his servant for a season from the flock to which he had been so blessed, lest even his own children should begin to glory in man; but yet He took that servant to another sphere of labour in the meantime, and then, when the blessing was safely bestowed, brought him back to rejoice over it.

He was still hoping for, and submissively asking from the Lord, speedy restoration to his people in Dundee, and occasionally sending to thein an epistle that breathed the true pastor's soul; when one day, as he was walking with Dr Candlish, conversing on the Mission to Israel which had lately been resolved on, an idea seemed suddenly suggested to Dr Candlish. He asked Mr M.Cheyne what he would think of “ being useful to the Jewish cause, during his cessation from labour, by going abroad to make personal inquiries into the state of Israel ?” The idea thus suddenly suggested led to all the after results of the Mission of Inquiry. Mr M'Cheyne found himself all at once called to carry salvation to the Jew as he had hitherto done to the Gentile, and his soul was filled with joy and wonder. His medical friends highly approved of the proposal. as being likely to conduce very much to the removal of his complaints,—the calm, steady excitement of such a journey being likely to restore the tone of his whole constitution.

Dr Black of Aberdeen readily consented to use his remarkable talents as a scholar in this cause; and Dr Keith intimated his expectation of soon joining the deputation. I also had been chosep