434 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



and upon his own, must be unwritten, unpremeditated, else it is not 

 prayer. Can the heart ever want fitting words ? The teaching 

 must be to the utmost forethought, at some time or at another, as 

 to the matter. The teacher must have secured his intelligence of 

 the matter ere he opens his mouth. But the form, which is of ex- 

 pedience only, he must very loosely have considered. That is the 

 theory. It presumes that capable men, full of zeal, and sincerity, 

 and love — fervent servants and. careful shepherds — have been chosen 

 under higher guidance. It supposes the holy fire of the new-born 

 Reformation — of the newly regenerated Church, to continue un- 

 damped, inextinguishable. 



" The fact answers to the theory more or less. The original 

 thought — simplicity of worship — is to the utmost expressed when 

 the chased Covenanters are met on the greensward between the 

 hillside and the brawling brook, under the colored or uncolored 

 sky. Understand that, when their descendants meet within walls 

 beneath roofs, they would worship after the manner of their hunted 

 ancestors." 



My inclination would lead me to say something more of the 

 " Dies," but I must leave them, trusting that fresh readers of my 

 father's works will seek them out, and read him in the same spirit 

 as he himself did those great minds that preceded him. 



One more domestic change took place to make him for a time feel 

 somewhat lonely. His youngest daughter, Jane Emily, left him for a 

 home of her own. On the 11th of April, 1849, she was married to 

 Mr. William Edmondstoune Aytoun, Professor of Belles Lettres in 

 the University of Edinburgh. But his second son, Blair, was yet left 

 to cheer him in his now circumscribed household ; discharging with 

 devotion duties of affection, until broken health obliged him unwil- 

 lingly to leave Edinburgh, and seek change of scene. The remain- 

 ing portion of this year, like many others, was spent at his own fire- 

 side ; the coming and going of his family forming the only variety 

 of the day, not unfrequently concluded by some amusement for his 

 grandchildren. A favorite walk with them was to the Zoological 

 Gardens. Wonderful diversions were met with there, and much 

 entertaining talk there was about the wild beasts ; not always, how- 

 ever, confined to the amusement of the little children who walked 

 with him ; for he generally managed to find auditors who, if not 

 directly addressed, were willing to linger near and listen. 



