His friends could observe how much his soul was engrossed during his times of study of devotion.  If interrupted on such occasions, though he never seemed ruffled, yet there was a kind of gravity and silence that implied—­“I wish to be alone.”  But he further aimed at enjoying God all the day.  And referring on one occasion to those blank hours which so often are a believer’s burden,—­hours during which the soul is dry and barren,—­he observed, “They are proofs of how little we are filled with the presence of God, how little we are branchlike[8] in our faith.”

     [8] Compare Zechariah 4:12 with John 15:5.

This careful attention to the frame of his spirit did not hinder his preparation for his people; on the contrary, it kept alive his deep conscientiousness, and kept his warm compassion ever yearning.  When asked to observe a Saturday as a day of fasting and prayer, along with some others who had a special object in view, he replied, “Saturday is an awkward day for ministers; for though I love to seek help from on high, I love also diligently to set my thoughts in order for the Sabbath.  I sometimes fear that you fail in this latter duty.”

During his first years in Dundee, he often rode out in an afternoon to the ruined church of Invergowrie, to enjoy an hour’s perfect solitude; for he felt meditation and prayer to be the very sinews of his work.  Such notices, also, as the following, show his systematic pursuit of personal holiness:—­

“April 9, 1837, Evening.—­A very pleasant quietness.  Study of the Epistle to the Hebrews.  Came to a more intelligent view of the first six chapters than ever before.  Much refreshed by John Newton; instructed by Edwards.  Help and freedom in prayer.  Lord, what a happy season is a Sabbath evening!  What will heaven be!”

“April 16, Sabbath evening.—­Much prayer and peace.  Reading the Bible only.”

“June 2.—­Much peace and rest to-night.  Much broken under a sense of my exceeding wickedness, which no eye can see but thine.  Much persuasion of the sufficiency of Christ, and of the constancy of his love.  Oh how sweet to work all day for God, and then to lie down at night under his smiles!”

“June 17, 1838.—­At Dumbarney communion.  Much sin and coldness two days before.  Lay low at his feet; found peace only in Jesus.”

“Sept. 25.—­Spent last week at Blairgowrie; I hope not in vain.  Much sin, weakness, and uselessness; much delight in the word also, while opening it up at family prayer.  May God make the word fire.  Opened I Thessalonians, the whole; enriching to my own mind.  How true is Psalm 1! yet observed in my heart a strange proneness to be entangled with the affairs of this life; not strange because I am good, but because I have been so often taught that bitterness is the end of it.”

“Sept. 27.—­Devoted chief part of Friday to fasting.  Humbled and refreshed.”