I cannot say.”  In one of the latest telegrams I see reference to him at the battle of Koodoosberg, whither he had accompanied General Macdonald and the Highland Brigade.  “One interesting feature of the fighting was the activity of Chaplain Robertson.  He acted in turns as a galloper, as a water-carrier, and as a stretcher-bearer.  Wherever a ready hand was wanted, the chaplain was always to the fore, and won golden opinions from officers and men alike.”

’You must not, however, suppose Mr. Robertson’s exertions are altogether in the field or connected with matters which lie outside his duty as a minister of Christ.  While employed by his general as a despatch rider and intermediary with the Boers, and in many other ways in which as “non-combatant” he could be useful to the army, and especially to his own Highlanders, he has given his chief thought and work to their spiritual concerns.  We have all noticed his name in connection with the pathetic funeral of his much-loved chief, General Wauchope; but for days after each of the battles of Modder River and Magersfontein he was busy identifying and burying the dead.  Being, as a Presbyterian minister, a persona grata to the Boers, he was allowed nearer to their lines than any one else, in the discharge of those sad duties, and conducted many funerals both of Boer and Briton.  Speaking of his feelings in the field hospital and alongside the burying trench he says:  “War seems devil’s work.  But all the same, war has its better side, and out of evil has come good.  Hearts have been softened.  We have frequent meetings of an evening.  Hundreds attend.  I’ve never been at heart so touched myself, nor so evangelical.  I seem to hear repeated, ‘Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.’  I thank God the Gospel at Modder is proving in not a few cases the power of God unto salvation."’

In another letter to a mutual friend, Mr. Robertson speaks of his services on the last Sunday of the year, and as showing how deep is the spiritual impression produced, he wished me to be informed that at the close of the short service he asked all who desired to partake of the Holy Communion to remain.  To his joy some 250 officers and men came and took their places at the Lord’s Table.  To any one who knows how difficult it is to get soldiers to come to the Communion, that fact speaks volumes for the extent and depth of the religious movement among our men.  They have had much to make them serious.  The death of their beloved General Wauchope and of so many of their comrades must have greatly affected them.  Mr. Robertson says, ’There is only one heart in the Highland Brigade, and it is sad and sore.  But good is being brought out of evil.’

At the meeting of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, held this year, the Moderator said he wished to read the following letter from Scottish soldiers at the front, which had just been put into his hands:—­