1842-43. RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTIES. 295 



attraction. Reminiscences by Dr. Cairns confirm these re- 

 marks : " General conversation was often succeeded by dis- 

 cussions such as might be expected from a student of divinity 

 visiting a pious family ; and though George took at first little 

 or no part in these, gradually he began to feel interested ; and 

 we used to have long and earnest talks when others had with- 

 drawn. I cannot recall accurately his religious difficulties. He 

 had no sceptical tendency, beyond a general inability to recon- 

 cile the gospel as miraculous with the uniformity of nature ; 

 and I think, too, that some misgivings disturbed him as to the 

 doctrine of the Atonement. But his great want was the power 

 to realize the value of the gospel remedy, from his heart having 

 been greatly set on literary and scientific eminence. God took 

 his own way to abate this hindrance by sending ill health, and 

 thwarting all his plans of rapid elevation. A very slow yet 

 steady increase of interest in eternal things now set in ; . . . an 

 extraordinary change took place in his use of the Bible. The 

 phrase quoted in his ' Life of John Reid/ that he " had a sair 

 wark wi' his Bible," describes his own state exactly ; and we 

 used to discuss, I think in the company of his [elder] sister, 

 many passages. He was especially devoted to the Epistle to 

 the Hebrews, which he valued for its clear view of the Atone- 

 ment and of the sympathy of Christ ; and no part of his Bible 

 is so much worn, this being indeed almost worn away. I used 

 to report to him the discourses of my late venerable friend, Dr. 

 John Brown, spending the interval of service every Lord's day, 

 as well as the Saturday afternoon, with him ; and I rather 

 think that, when his illness confined him to bed, I was in the 

 habit of offering up prayers. I remember, with vivid accuracy, 

 the earnestness with which, on the last occasion I saw him 

 before the operation, he spoke of the danger before him, and of 

 the great anxiety, mingled with trembling hope in Christ, 

 which he showed as to his spiritual state. He took the Bible, 

 asked me to read and explain or enforce some passage, and then 

 pray. The remembrance of that day survives, w r hile the multi- 

 tude of other conversations have left only a vague impression of 

 progress and saving enlightenment." 1 



1 ' North British Review,' February 1860. 



