'My covenant was with him life and peace; And I gave them to him For the fear wherewith he feared Me, And stood in awe of my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, And iniquity was not found in his lips: In peace and uprightness he walked with Me, And many did he turn from iniquity.' MAL. II. 5. PREFACE. T is not a eulogy that I wish to write, but a record. 1 piece of sculpture. In doing this, it will be needful to introduce 'com panions in labour,'-from him who died first, Robert M'Cheyne, to him who went last, William Burns; with others still serving here below. Some names may have been left out; but it was found impossible to make men tion of all. The religious history of the last forty year in Scotland remains to be written. Biographies, like th present, are contributions to this. I fear I may not have been quite accurate chronologi cally at times; but the narrative is not at all affected b this. As very few of Mr. Milne's letters are fully dated I was occasionally at a loss in regard to order and time. Several things have been thrown in purposely out of orde because needing to be grouped, for the illustration of som particular feature of character. am surprised 1 In going over a pretty large correspondence, find how many letters of various men in various positions, especial ministers, are undated; their date being only ascertainable by th post-office mark. I notice that all Mr. M'Cheyne's are very careful dated. I have to thank the brethren who have so kindly trusted me with their correspondence, and thereby enabled me to sketch the course of one so 'greatly beloved' by us all. In a day of bustle and whirl, like ours, it may be well to study the life of one who stood in the midst of all this, yet was not of it; who was never for an hour drawn into it; but sought all his days to draw others out of it, into the calm and joy which he himself so fully knew. In an age of false ideals and hero-worship, it will be found good, also, to mark one who took, as his great model, both in service and suffering, the Son of God; who knew, above most, what intimacy with Him could do, in moulding character, and in producing a true and telling life. THE GRANGE, EDINBURGH, October 1868, |