144 MEMOIRS OF PERIOD VIII. with his death, even in the fore-end +gf t Month. It Was the firft facrament I gave in the winter-tq I was engaged to that way, for the benefit of the good peop rtthecorner, who through the winter have no occafion of partak of that folernn ordinance ; and I found it was what I could get done. It pleated the Lord to meet me as an enemy in the way. My child died on the Fri- day, and was buried on Saturday, the preparation-day, after fer- mon. I was reproached through the country ; for, by the in- fligation of the devil, it. was fpread through tag country, that I would allow none but thole of our own pa 'communicate, which (as it was Paid) kept away leveial pe s. Thefe things were very heavy to me and my afflicted wife, ho yet was help- ed to carry the burden very chriftianly. Th ere the more af- fecting, in that I knew tome minifters had good eye upon the proje&t, whereofone particularly helped to fpread the reportabove - ficl. However, all my foffes were made up, the workwent plea- fäntly on, the Lord fealed it in the confciences of many godly, with molt evident tokens of his good- pleafüre, there being very much of God's pretence with us at that work- And I obferyed the impreffion of it lafted longer on the parifh, and the fruits of it were more vifible, and in greater meafure, than any other Ire- member we had before. While I had been laying my,`ccount with the death of the child in the fore-end of the month; I had wifhed in my heart, that Peeing there was nothing but death for him, it might fo fallout, that he might be buried on aLord'sday after fermons, by which means a competent number of people might be gathered together with little trouble and expellee. This fin was lively painted out to me in this ftroke. We had but one fermon on the Saturday, and another on the Mònday, preached by Mr Colden, the only minifter afTifting to me : and I think Mr David Brown, then a probationer, now miniifterof Selkirk, preach- ed on the Sabbath afternoon. I added Lome exhortations on the Saturday, and alto on the Monday, after the fermon : the which aré in retentis, in the folio note-book. As the former, was ordi- nary, lb the latter, viz. the exhortations on the Monday, I have ufed for many years, and, I hope, with advantage ; 'li 'ving learn- ed it from the example of Mr Bird, the Englifh,'rliifter afore- find, whom I was wont to be allìftant to on filth occafions. I never had a guft for gathering together many milliners at commu- nions ; though, in the mean time, [continued to call two or three in the fumrner, and had two ferrnóns on the Saturdays and Mon- days. Soon after my ordination, I got agreatdifguft of theMon- day's dinners perceiving what firares they were, not only to the families ofthe refpective minifters, but to'the guefts alfo. And by this courfe I was free of both thefe, providing a moderate en- tertainment for my few afiftants. And now in Etterick,: our Monday's dinners are turned to the entertaining efpecially of ftrangers, who coming from afar, have real need of a dinner to fit thent for their journey homeward again. By occafion of thefe
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=