"None that is sinful."-Pro. "But is it sinful to go aboard a man of war as a surgeon ?" Contra. "Not positively, but it may be so by consequence."-Pro. "How so?" Contra. "Because, by going, I shall throw myself into bad company, expose myself to hear the sacred name profaned, and see the Sabbath broken, cast myself out of the church, and neither enjoy ordinances, nor the fellowship of the godly.”— Pro. "I grant it; but I can say that I propose to do this, not out of choice, nor directly for gain. I will study to reprove vice, and may have opportunity to do good. O grant it, though it were but to one soul! I shall have a separate place in the ship, and will study to keep it as close as possible, that I may not be grieved with hearing and seeing wickedness, nor tempted to commit it. And as for sermons, except a few in summer, I much oftener want than enjoy them, here where I am may I have God's presence."--Contra. "But what moves me to go?"-Pro. "To get the means of going forward to the ministry, to prepare myself for it, to pursue my studies with this view, and to have occasion and subject for some divine meditations.

Having thus satisfied his conscience respecting the step he was to take, he accepted of an offer made him to be surgeon to a ship which traded to the coast of Guinea. Every thing in his opinion was prepared, and already he had taken farewell of many of his friends, when, on the day previous to his intended departure, the 5th of July, 1757, Providence blasted his design. He had paid off almost all his creditors, as fast as his accounts came in.. There was nothing to give him uneasiness except one bill, and this his agent had agreed to manage for him, having ample security for

t in the property which was left behind;

but the creditor took alarm at his going abroad, affected to distrust the agent who was to manage his affairs in his absence, and laid him under arrest. Not a friend to whom he applied would advance the money for him, or even become his surety. In this emergency, it became necessary to part with what money he had reserved for defraying the expences of his journey to England; and "when the day came which," says he, "I, but not God, had appointed," he found himself compelled to remain at home.

How greatly he must have been mortified by disap pointment, attended with circumstances of such publicity, it is easy to conceive. It is more interesting to remark with what Christian temper he bore it. During the tumult of his passions, he wrote Med. XI. of "Solitude Sweetened," In which, after reviewing the providence of God, expressing his faith in the divine wisdom and care, and rejoicing in the hope of eternal life, he breaks out in triumph: "I shall yet see his kindness large as my faith, and his mercy measure with my widest expectations;" and prays, "May I never get the desire of my heart but with God's blessing, nor the request of my lips but with his goodwill." After writing this Meditation, he remarks that he was easy in mind, and dropped for the present the idea of going abroad; and when he reflected on his duty to his friends who had abandoned him in his distress, "I could not," he says, "but forgive them, and even cease in mine own mind to be angry at them."

It was not long before he became satisfied that he had not acted wisely in accepting of a place in a Guinea ship, and that God had dealt kindly in restraining him from countenancing a trade, on the iniquity of which he had not sufficiently reflected. As, however,

no other method occurred by which he could extricate himself from the embarrassments of his situation, and be enabled to prosecute his studies, he still entertained thoughts of going to sea, and in the month of December resolved on entering the Royal Navy. It was time of war, and a situation as surgeon's mate was easily procured. Before he left home, he endeavoured, as before, to satisfy his conscience respecting the lawfulness of his scheme, and drew up a series of resolutions respecting the line of conduct which he was determined to pursue. One of the considerations which determined him to persist in going to sea, is too memorable, in consequence of the publication of this volume, and a former, entitled "Solitude Sweetened," to be omitted: "That if I shall write any thing for the support of virtue, or the suppression of vice, dated from the watery element, it may be read by some whose curiosity might incline them to look into what they would never seek after for the sake of the subject. His resolutions are expressed thus:

soul.

"Through thine all-assisting grace, I desire before thee, O God, to humble my soul on account of my sins, and to seek thy blessing and thy countenance in the way that I go, that it may be well with my And through thy grace, distrusting myself, and looking to thee alone for strength to perform them, I desire to lay down my solemn promises before thine omnisciency, that in time coming this paper may be a remembrancer to me.

1. “I resolve to make this only an opportunity to help me forward in my great design, and not the employment of my life.

2. "I promise and resolve, through grace, not to neglect secret prayer and reading of the scriptures, in. the same manner as I have done at home.

3. "I promise through the strength of grace, not to be ashamed of religion, but to espouse it in all its despised purity, and to strive against the stream of general irreligion and depravity.

4. "I promise and resolve, through grace, to abstain from all appearance of evil, and to shun every occasion of sin, as none knows how great a matter a small spark may kindle.

5. "I promise and resolve not to wink at sin in others, but rather expose its ugly appearance, that my conversation may shine spotless before the sons of vice.

6. "I shall remark the good hand of my God upon ine in all his kind providences, with silence and resig nation under all his disposals.

7. "I shall employ my time, my pen, and the talents thou hast given me, in matters of importance for God's glory and the good of sonls; and therefore beg thy kind assistance for this end.

8. "I shall, through grace, study to keep an equal frame of mind in every state, in adversity to be thankful, in prosperity humble, and in all conditions to live to thy praise; and still to remember, that no change of circumstances will release me from my obligation to the above particulars: as a sign of which, through grace, and before thee, I subjoin my name,

JAMES MEIKLE."

Towards the close of December, he left Carnwath for Leith, from which he was to sail in one of the King's ships appointed as convoy to the trade; but his trunk, through the negligence of the person who had charge of it, did not arrive in time, and he was again disappointed. Another convoy was not expected to sail for two months; he was afraid lest a residence so

long in Edinburgh or Leith might exhaust his little stock of money; and it became necessary for him to return to Carnwath. This was to him a source of new distress. His acquaintances in jest welcomed him on his return from foreign places; and some of them insinuated, that neither formerly, nor at this time, had he any serious intention of going to sea, but that he only gave it out as a stratagem to obtain payment of his accounts. Suspected by some, ridiculed by others, almost without employment, and doubting in his own mind what these continued disappointments could mean; he studied submission to the will of God, and spent two melancholy months waiting for an opportunity to depart. At length, on the 10th of March, 1758, he left Carnwath once more, and the next week embarked on board the Arcturus tender for London. After passing at Surgeon's Hall, he received an appointment from the Navy-Office, of second surgeon's mate to the Portland, a fifty gun ship, and set out immediately for Portsmouth on foot. Although he could have reached that place on the evening of Saturday, the 29th of April, he prefered halting at a village within ten miles of it till the morning of the following Monday," not daring," he says, "to join such company on such a day," and judging it more proper to devote the last Sabbath which perhaps for some time he should spend on shore to those religious exercises which his circumstances particularly required. That he might not be exposed to interruption, he retired into the fields, took his bible, paper, pen, and ink, along with him, and spent the day "pleasantly," he says, "praying that he might above all things be preserved in his new situation from

*See Solitude Sweetened, Med. vi. ix. xxxix,