CORRESPONDS WITH SWAN SON. 173 



even by a morose school of moralists as portending a 

 vicious manhood. The lessons which he received from 

 Uncle James and Uncle Sandy had sunk deep into his 

 heart, even when he chafed under their inculcation ; and 

 while he passed through the severely salutary discipline 

 of his apprenticeship, his feelings towards those ad- 

 mirable men had gradually settled into a profound and 

 filial regard. As we mark him, therefore, among his 

 comrades of the bothy and the shed, we are struck 

 by the moral nobleness, the virgin purity, which con- 

 stantly attend him, and which render him undefilable 

 by the foulness amid which he moves. But religion 

 had not become the supreme influence in his mind ; he 

 was still he knew it himself, and his friends knew it 

 ' in the camp of the unconverted/ 



We saw that, on returning from Edinburgh, he 

 renewed his acquaintance with John Swanson, and that 

 the closest friendship was soon established between them. 

 Swanson, as we have said, had recently thrown up a 

 growing business in Cromarty, had resolved to become a 

 preacher of the Gospel, and had proceeded, shortly after 

 the renewal of his intimacy with Miller, to Aberdeen in 

 order to pursue his studies. His robust and healthful 

 nature was aglow with the impassioned ardour of first 

 faith and first love. ' Oh ! ' he exclaims to Miller in a 

 letter dated Aberdeen, July, 1825, 'I pant after that 

 time when I may be fully assured that you are travel- 

 ling towards Zion ! Oh, there is much encouragement 

 held out to us in the Scriptures to come to Christ ! His 

 love, how amazing ! The subject has an effect on my 

 feelings but if I would speak of it, I feel my tongue 

 tied. Angels cannot do justice to His love how in- 

 finitely short then must we come ! How forcible does 

 that expression appear to those who have considered it 



