His preaching at Gilsland also was not without effect; and he had good cause to bless the Lord for bringing him through Dumfriesshire in his way homeward.  He returned to his people in the beginning of September, full of peace and joy.  “I have returned much stronger, indeed quite well.  I think I have got some precious souls for my hire on my way home.  I earnestly long for more grace and personal holiness, and more usefulness.”

The sunsets during that autumn were peculiarly beautiful.  Scarcely a day passed but he gazed upon the glowing west after dinner; and as he gazed he would speak of the Sun of Righteousness, or the joy of angels in his presence, or the blessedness of those whose sun can go no more down, till his face shone with gladness as he spoke.  And during the winter he was observed to be peculiarly joyful, being strong in body, and feeling the near presence of Jesus in his soul.  He lived in the blessed consciousness that he was a child of God, humble and meek, just because he was fully assured that Jehovah was his God and Father.  Many often felt that in prayer the name “Holy Father” was breathed with peculiar tenderness and solemnity from his lips.

His flock in St. Peter’s began to murmur at his absence, when again he left them for ten days in November, to assist Mr. Hamilton of Regent Square, London, at his communion.  But it was his desire for souls that thus led him from place to place, combined with a growing feeling that the Lord was calling him to evangelistic more than to pastoral labors.  This visit was a blessed one; and the growth of his soul in holiness was visible to many.  During the days of his visit to Mr. Hamilton, he read through the Song of Solomon at the time of family worship, commenting briefly on it with rare gracefulness and poetic taste, and yet rarer manifestation of soul-filling love to the Saviour’s person.  The sanctified affections of his soul, and his insight into the mind of Jesus, seemed to have much affected his friends on these occasions.

Receiving, while here, an invitation to return by the way of Kelso, he replied:—­

“London, Nov. 5, 1842.

“My dear Horatius,—­Our friends here will not let me away till the Friday morning, so that it will require all my diligence to reach Dundee before the Sabbath.  I will thus be disappointed of the joy of seeing you, and ministering a word to your dear flock.  Oh that my soul were new moulded, and I were effectually called a second time, and made a vessel full of the Spirit, to tell only of Jesus and his love!  I fear I shall never be in this world what I desire.  I have preached three times here; a few tears also have been shed.  Oh for Whitfield’s week in London, when a thousand letters came!  The same Jesus reigns; the same Spirit is able.  Why is He restrained?  Is the sin ours?  Are we the bottle-stoppers of these heavenly dews?  Ever yours till glory.

  “P.S.—­We shall meet, God willing, at the Convocation.”