War > Traveller, or, Meditations on various subjects

XX
THE LIFE OF MR JAMES MEIKLE.
but to whom they had been fanftified, and who fpent!
much of her time in prayer, (howed us no little kindnefs.”|
By the humane attentions of this lady, and the induftry j
of Mrs Meikle and her elder daughter, who fpan or ;
fewed as they found employment, the few wants of the '
family were fupplied during the fummer.
But James had now entered the 19th year of his age, |
with little education, and without an occupation by
which he could earn his daily bread. His mind was ftill
dire&ed towards the holy miniflry, and eagerly bent on
acquiring the education which he deemed neceffary as a
preparation for it; but Providence feemed to refufe his
iervices in the gofpel, by defeating all his attempts to
enter the univerfity. For fome time he flattered hintf-
felf with the hope of obtaining a iurfary, or, as it is fly led
in England, an exhibition; and he conlidered it as
already fecured by the generous exertions of a gentle¬
man who took an intereft in his affairs, when an unex-
pedled objection was ftarted againft him, which blaffed
all his profpe.&s. Party-prejudices were ftrong at that
time againft thofe who had feparated from the eftablifli-
ed church, and he was refufed the burfary becaufe he
was a Seceder.
Defpairing now of getting forward in his education,
and yet unwilling to abandon his favourite purfuit, he
felt alhamed of his fituation, in the 19th year of his
age, poor, in health, and yet doing nothing for his own
maintenance ; and he confeffes, that when any old ac¬
quaintance inquired how he was employed, he often wift
not what to fay. Yet he was not abfolutely idle. “ All
the fummer,” he fays, “ I fpent amongft my books in a
melancholy folitude, and contradled acquaintance with
very few’.” As a fpecics of recreation from the feverer