Life and diary of Lieut. Col. J. Blackader

CJHAP. XX. MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 489
sent me from Edinburgh. Lord, fit me for whatever
I am called to ; I cast all upon thee. Thou knowest
I was more afraid of the snar&s and temptations of
great posts, than lifted up with the splendour and
pageantry of them. I went up and intimated my
commission. Some were making their compliments
and wishing me joy, who, I knew, wished me little
joy on the occasion. I desire to have the Divine ap-
probation and the testimony of a good conscience, and
then I need not much value their applause. I feel
grateful to those noble persons who have honoured
me with their friendship. I pray God I may deserve
their favours. The best way to do this is to discharge
well my duty. This is the best court we can pay to
all good patriots and all honest men.
March 12. I brought up my wife and family to
the Castle. I am more concerned about the duties of
my post, than taken up with the honours of it.
March 26. Getting the news of a threatened in-
vasion from Sweden. I laid my heart open before
the Lord, and pleaded my case with him. Here am
I posted among heaps of rubbish, and bare rocks, and
almost defenceless walls, with a weak invalid garrison
that I am a stranger to. There may be treachery or
open mutiny among them. I know I have some ene-
mies, and few to ask counsel of. These things look
dark to the eye of sense and reason. But where sense
and reason end, there faith begins. The Lord of
Hosts, I trust, is on my side. He can make an inva-
lid garrison invincible, — a ruinous and dismantled for-
tress impregnable. Through him we can do valiantly.
It is not the Swedes, or any foreign enemy we need
fear. It is our own sins and backslidings that lay