YOUTHFUL EXCURSIONS. 13 



the atonement of our Saviour; but it was only about this 

 time that I really began to feel the necessity and value of 

 a personal application of the provisions of that atonement 

 to my own case. The change was like what may be sup- 

 posed would take place were it possible to cure a case of 

 ''color-blindness." The perfect freeness with which the 

 pardon of all our guilt is offered in God's book drew forth 

 feelings of affectionate love to Him who bought us with 

 his blood, and a sense of deep obligation to Him for his 

 mercy has influenced, in some small measure, my conduct 

 ever since. But I shall not again refer to the inner spiritual 

 life which I believe then began, nor do I intend to specify 

 with any prominence the evangelistic labors to which the 

 love of Christ has since impelled me. This book will 

 speak, not so much of what has been done, as of what stiL 

 remains to be performed before the gospel can be said to 

 be preached to all nations. 



In the glow of love which Christianity inspires, I soon 

 resolved to devote my life to the alleviation of human 

 misery. Turning this idea over in my mind, I felt that to 

 be a pioneer of Christianity in China might lead to the 

 material benefit of some portions of that immense empire, 

 and therefore set myself to obtain a medical education, in 

 order to be qualified for that enterprise. 



In recognising the plants pointed out in my first medical 

 book, that extraordinary old work on astrological medicine, 

 Culpeper's "Herbal," I had the guidance of a book on the 

 plants of Lanarkshire, by Patrick. Limited as my time 

 was, I found opportunities to scour the whole country-side, 

 "collecting simples." Deep and anxious were my studies 

 on the still deeper and more perplexing profundities of 

 astrology, and I believe 1 got as far into that abyss of fan- 

 tasies as my author said he dared to lead me. It seemed 

 perilous ground to tread on farther, for the dark hint seemed 

 to my youthful mind to loom toward " selling soul and body 

 to tne devil," as the price of tne unfathomable knowledge 

 of the stars. These excursions, often in company with 



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