Our Uncles All Entered His Majesty's Service During The Last French War,
Either As Soldiers Or Sailors; But My Father
Remained at home,
and, though too conscientious ever to become rich as a small tea-dealer,
by his kindliness of
Manner and winning ways he made the heart-strings
of his children twine around him as firmly as if he had possessed,
and could have bestowed upon them, every worldly advantage.
He reared his children in connection with the Kirk of Scotland -
a religious establishment which has been an incalculable blessing
to that country - but he afterward left it, and during the last
twenty years of his life held the office of deacon of an independent church
in Hamilton, and deserved my lasting gratitude and homage for presenting me,
from my infancy, with a continuously consistent pious example,
such as that ideal of which is so beautifully and truthfully portrayed
in Burns's "Cottar's Saturday Night". He died in February, 1856,
in peaceful hope of that mercy which we all expect through
the death of our Lord and Savior. I was at the time on my way below Zumbo,
expecting no greater pleasure in this country than sitting by our cottage fire
and telling him my travels. I revere his memory.
The earliest recollection of my mother recalls a picture so often seen
among the Scottish poor - that of the anxious housewife striving to make
both ends meet. At the age of ten I was put into the factory as a "piecer",
to aid by my earnings in lessening her anxiety. With a part
of my first week's wages I purchased Ruddiman's "Rudiments of Latin",
and pursued the study of that language for many years afterward,
with unabated ardor, at an evening school, which met between
the hours of eight and ten. The dictionary part of my labors
was followed up till twelve o'clock, or later, if my mother did not interfere
by jumping up and snatching the books out of my hands. I had to be
back in the factory by six in the morning, and continue my work,
with intervals for breakfast and dinner, till eight o'clock at night.
I read in this way many of the classical authors, and knew Virgil and Horace
better at sixteen than I do now. Our schoolmaster - happily still alive -
was supported in part by the company; he was attentive and kind,
and so moderate in his charges that all who wished for education
might have obtained it. Many availed themselves of the privilege;
and some of my schoolfellows now rank in positions far above
what they appeared ever likely to come to when in the village school.
If such a system were established in England, it would prove
a never-ending blessing to the poor.
In reading, every thing that I could lay my hands on was devoured
except novels. Scientific works and books of travels
were my especial delight; though my father, believing,
with many of his time who ought to have known better, that the former
were inimical to religion, would have preferred to have seen me
poring over the "Cloud of Witnesses", or Boston's "Fourfold State".
Our difference of opinion reached the point of open rebellion on my part,
and his last application of the rod was on my refusal to peruse Wilberforce's
"Practical Christianity". This dislike to dry doctrinal reading,
and to religious reading of every sort, continued for years afterward;
but having lighted on those admirable works of Dr. Thomas Dick,
"The Philosophy of Religion" and "The Philosophy of a Future State",
it was gratifying to find my own ideas, that religion and science
are not hostile, but friendly to each other, fully proved and enforced.
Great pains had been taken by my parents to instill the doctrines
of Christianity into my mind, and I had no difficulty in understanding
the theory of our free salvation by the atonement of our Savior, 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 supposed 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 still 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 recognizing 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 I got as far into that abyss of phantasies 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 the devil", as the price of the unfathomable
knowledge of the stars.
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