374 MEMOIRS OP PERIOD XI. ventured on Providence, to intimate the facrament to be cele- brated on the 31ft of May ; being led to that day, purely in Compliance with our neighbours in Yarrow, that the adminifter- ation of that ordinance` in the two parifhes might not be too dole the one upon the other. And that time drawing near, I faw great weight hung upon the deign ; Mr .Davidfon being extremely low ; John Currie aforefàid, one of the elders, under the ague ; Ifabet Biggar in Midghop in a doubtful and dan- gerous cafe ; her hufband William Blaik in the mean time like- ly to fall under the ague, to whofe fiare a great weight of Itrangers on fuch occafions ufed to fall : moreover my own wife continuing as formerly, and myfelf in a weak condition, going upon my ftaff; the pain in my back, which had fallen to me in the former fpring, having returned ; but not quite fo ill as the former year, by means of my then attendance on the affernbly. I defired of the Lord ftrength for the defigned efe6t, to myfelf and others ; and refolved, through grace, not to quarrel, nor think harfhly of my Mafter, though he fhould quite lay me by on that occafion. But indeed in the event I found him very gracious in that matter. And it was remarkable to me, that my kind God and Father, molt' mercifully tempering the hardíhips, of my lot that feafon, I had no fit of the gravel, no night-watchings, as fome time before I fell ill; and what- ever difficulty I had in delivering my fermons, I was never rendered incapable of Rudy on my ttudy-days, as feveral days before, till the Friday before the communion week; and finally, whereas the vifiting of the Fick had often in that feafon of the year been a weighty burden on me, I had no occafion, from the time I fell ill to vitit one fick perfon without Etterick-houfe on the other fide of the water, till after the facrament. Mean while there having come to my hand, about the 27th ofMarch a letter from Mr G. defiring a i'pecimen of the dray on the accentuation ; I, after conliilting God,, and thinking there. upon, did, in the following week, make out a fpecimen there- of in about two 'beets of paper, and wrote a return to him. On the Monday morning, after having no occafion from this' place, I fent them away to Galathiels, from whence they went to Edinburgh on the morrow, and on the Wédnefday were carried off towards London, by one going poft thither. Withal the copy of the efrày on the text then at Aberdeen, being defired alto, and this intimated there, there was a chip juft going from thence to London, with which it was fent away. I could not but notice the conduct of Providence in the fpeedy difpatch, defiring to wait the iffue. The facrament was adminifiered on May 31. as had been appointed : and the Lord made it to me a time of hearing of prayer, and of rolling away one {tone ofdifficulty after another. The admiffion of my younger fon to the Lord's table, was another piece of difficulty. Toward the end of the week pre-
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