5 3 
TOUTHJfUL EXCUBSION8. 
7 
the atonemei.t of our Saviour; but it was only about thiB 
timo that I really began to feel the necessity and value of 
a personal application of the provisions of that atonement 
to my own case. Tho change was liko what may be sup- 
posed would take place were it possible to euro a case of 
“color-blindness.” Tho perfect freeness with which tho 
pardon of all our guilt is offered in God’s book drew forth 
feelings of affectionate love to Him who bought us Vith 
his blood, and a sense of deop obligation to Him for his 
mercy has influenced, in some small measure, my conduct 
ever since. But I shall not again refor to tho inner spiritual 
life which I believe then began, nor do I intend to specify 
with any prominenco tho evangelistic labors to which the 
lovo of Christ has since impelled me. This book will 
speak, not so much of what has been done, as of what still 
remains to bo performed boforo tho gospel can be said to 
be preached to all nations. 
In the glow of lovo which Christianity inspires, I soon 
resolved to devote my life to tho alleviation of human 
misery. Turning this idea over in my mind, I felt that to 
bo a pioneer of Christianity in China might load to the 
material benefit of some portions of that immense empire, 
and therefore set myself to obtain a medical education, in 
order to bo 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 tho 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.” Docp and anxious wore my studies 
■»n 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 ho dared to lead mo. It scemea 
perilous ground to tread on farther, for the dark hint seemed 
my youthful mind to loom toward “selling soul and body 
tho devil," as tho price of tne unfathomable knowledge 
of tne stars ihese excursions, often in company with 
2 
