After a stormy and perilous voyage from Antwerp, he reached Newcastle in the first week of August, and started at once for Edinburgh to be present at the opening of the Divinity Hall.  At the Dunglass lodge-gate his brother David, who was waiting for a letter which he had promised to throw down from the “Magnet” coach as he passed, caught a hurried glimpse of him, lean and brown as a berry after his exertions and his exposure to the Italian sun.  On the following Saturday he put his pedestrian powers to the proof by walking from Edinburgh to Dunglass, when he covered the thirty-five and a half miles in seven hours and fifty minutes, having stopped only twice on the way—­once in Haddington to buy a biscuit, and once at a wayside watering-trough to take a drink.

The Hall session of 1844 was Cairns’s last, and the next step for him to take in ordinary course was to apply to a Presbytery for license as a probationer.  He had, however, some hesitation in taking this step, mainly because he was not quite clear whether the real work of his life lay in the discharge of the ordinary duties of the ministry, or whether he might not render better service by devoting himself, as opportunity offered, more exclusively to theological and literary work in behalf of the Christian faith.  His friend Clark, whom he consulted in the matter, strongly urged him to decide in favour of the latter alternative.  His speculative and literary faculties, he urged, had already been tested with brilliant results; his powers as a preacher, on the other hand, were as yet an unknown quantity, and Clark thought it doubtful if they would be appreciated by an average congregation.  The struggle was severe while it lasted, but it ended in Cairns deciding to go on to the ministry in the ordinary way.  In November 1844 be applied to the Edinburgh Presbytery of the Secession Church for license, and he received it at their hands in the following February.  He had not long to wait for a settlement.  Dr. Balmer of Berwick, one of his divinity professors, had died while he was in Switzerland, and on his deathbed had advised his congregation to wait until Cairns had finished his course before electing a successor.  Accordingly, it was arranged that he should preach in Golden Square Church, Berwick, a few weeks after he received license.  The result was that a unanimous and enthusiastic call was addressed to him.  He received another invitation from Mount Pleasant Church, Liverpool, of which his friend Graham was afterwards minister; but, after some hesitation, he decided in favour of Berwick.

Meanwhile changes had been taking place in the home circle at Dunglass.  His brother William, whose illness has been already referred to, had now passed beyond all hope of recovering the use of his limbs.  Having set himself resolutely to a course of study and mental improvement under his brother John’s guidance, he was able to accept a kindly proposal made to him by Sir John Hall of Dunglass, that he