there settled in life; after which he travelled up the Tweed, visiting his brethren in the ministry and the families of his old friends, along its beautiful banks, until he reached the rural dwelling of his brother at Learetburn, in the vicinity of Melrose and Earlstoun. Here he spent a short period of enjoyment, preaching and collecting for the cause of missions throughout the adjoining country, and revisiting, with softened melancholy, the endeared scenes of his early youth. In speaking of his last visit to Earlstoun (see page 153), he mentions indeed the "painful recollections" with which it was darkened; yet the close of the paragraph in which he uses this expression, shews that the feeling was mingled with deep and pure enjoyment; the sorrow for friends departed was chastened and consecrated by the sublime prospect of a speedy reunion in "a better country;" and while he wept over the graves of his early companions in Earlstoun churchyard, we may suppose him looking forward, like the patriarch from Mount Pisgah, to the " promised land," and exclaiming, in the words of his favourite old tutor in philosophy, the author of "The Minstrel," "Let those deplore their doom, Whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn; When Fate, relenting, bids the flower revive?- Bright through th' eternal year of Love's triumphant reign!". His epistolary journal to Mrs. Waugh is thus continued: Berwick, August 10, 1819. "As this day returns, let us bless God for all the goodness which he has bestowed upon us, unworthy as we are. Dark, indeed, has our sky occasionally been, but our merciful Father has scattered the clouds, and given to us, externally at least, a clearer sky than to thousands who were better entitled to the privilege. In our beloved children he has blest us indeed. That Providence should have settled three of them, and in circumstances so comfortable, both as to worldly estate and religious fellowship, and that I should be this morning on the eve of attending my fourth son to the Presbytery, with a view to his settlement as a minister of God, and in the vicinity of his own father-these are blessings which nothing but Divine sovereign grace can account for, and for which our hearts can never be sufficiently grateful. It is impossible for me to forget, and I trust I am not backward to acknowledge, the great, the unceasing obligations under which your own love, sympathy, and care, have brought me. Let us devote ourselves anew to the service of God, and be deeply concerned to close honourably and well our Christian career, by studying, like an old Jewish priest and his wife, to walk in all the statutes and commandments of the Lord blameless." "Learetburn, St. Boswell's Green, Aug. 16, 1819. "After a pleasant journey, on Friday, from Berwick to Kelso, and from Kelso in the evening to Melrose, I landed in the family of the good Mr. Thomson, minister of the parish. I have found in him all the kindness of a brother. He has most cheerfully given me the liberty of pleading the cause of my numerous clients (O how numerous, and their claims how many and forcible!) in his church, on Friday evening; and on Sabbath publicly announced it to the parish, as did Mr. Elder at Newtown. "I found Dr. Lawson and family in good health, except for his deafness and partial imbecility in his limbs, which furnishes an opportunity to his good people of providing a sedan-chair for him, to carry him, as the deacons of Ephesus carried the aged apostle John, to the pulpit every Sabbath. His folk gave me a good collection, 217., besides a guinea, which a friend of Alexander's, Mr. Pringle of Whitebank, sent over to me. I went in the Sabbath afternoon to Hawick, and preached to a hillside of people, who very kindly left 247. in the plates for me." "Tuesday, August 17. "The weather is become singularly warm. My brother's people have begun to cut down their wheat this morning. The crop is, on the whole, good. I hope the gracious providence of God will grant seasonable weather for gathering it in, and make us thankful and obedient. "O how thankful should I be on the return of yesterday! * Mercies to the most unworthy! Forbearance amidst a thousand provocations! Blessings pressed down, shaken together, running over! Blessings in the family, root and branches, on which while my eye looks, it trembles; blessings spiritual and, I hope, eternal, which God alone could bestow, and which the low estate and total want of worth of the objects infinitely enhance! My heart sinks under the pressure of the Divine goodness. May the devotedness and humble unostentatious activity and labour of the few years that remain, evince the sincerity and vigour of the gratitude I profess to feel! "But I must fold up this scrawl. Mr. Elder's friend I look for every minute, with a gig to carry us to Old • His birth-day. Melrose. I dine with the good man, at his peaceful, happy home, on our return. Love to all."* On this missionary journey he continued in Scotland about three months; and, after collecting 7377. 16s., sailed from Leith on the 15th September, and arrived in London on the 18th, with invigorated health, and with a heart deeply grate In the following extract he refers to an incident that afforded him much innocent pleasure, and his friends much amusement. We insert it in a note, as not connected with the grave object of his journey. "Berwick, August 27. "While Mr. Good, the artist, at your son's desire, is taking the shape of a face once interesting to the partialities of your heart, I avail myself of the accommodating disposition of to give you an outline of my wanderings, and of the success of my mendicity in the churches since the date of my last. After leaving my brother's family, I set off on Saturday afternoon for Jedburgh. Mr. Young and I, in the evening, visited Dandie Dinmont, and readily obtained from him a whelp of Old Mustard, newly spaened, which I mean to make a present of to to be a terror to evil-doers, whether housebreakers or Muscovy rats. will arrest young Mustard, in part payment of kippered salmon sent to London some years ago for me. I mean, however, to procure bail and litigate the point, as I have some recollection of having paid, or at least purposed to pay, for the same." however, threatens that he On the safe arrival of this little creature at Berwick, it was most delightful to witness the interest that it had created in the Doctor's mind. Many were the handkerchiefs torn to pieces, and great was the domestic confusion occasionally produced, by his attempts to elicit evidences of its inherited dispositions. carried it with him to London as a great treasure, and was much excited when he introduced to his family there his "auld-farrantlooking young friend." He ful to the God of salvation, who had crowned with success his laborious efforts to advance the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom in the dark places of the earth. In 1820, 1821, and 1822, he made short missionary tours in different parts of England. He purposed to visit Scotland a third time, in 1823, in the same labour of love for the perishing heathen, whose forlorn circumstances, while destitute of the invaluable blessings of the glorious Gospel, still called forth his tenderest sympathy and commiseration. But "God's ways are not our ways." His eyes were not destined again to behold the hills and streams of his earthly father-land. The accident at Clapton, which shook so violently his decaying frame, entirely disabled him from undertaking this favourite service in his Master's cause, and warned him loudly to prepare for the speedy summons which was to bid him enter into his rest, as a good and faithful servant. Meekly yielding to this admonishment, he bestirred himself to procure a suitable substitute for the mission to Scotland; and having found such in the person of his much-esteemed brother, the Rev. W. Broadfoot, minister of Oxendon chapel, he addressed copies of the following circular letter to each of his reverend friends in the North, with a view to introduce Mr. Broadfoot to their Christian affection, and thus to further, as far as his influence extended, the great and good cause which he was no longer permitted to plead for in person: |