Erskines

THE ERSKINES 145
some other thing than precious Christ, and His unsearchable riches.
And I may say of such ministers as entertain their hearers with those
flourishes of rhetoric, and moral harangues, instead of preaching Christ
and the supernatural mysteries of Christianity, whatever be their char-
acter among their votaries, they are ministers of Satan, transforming
themselves into ministers of Christ, and that awful word is but too
applicable to them and their abettors, " They are blind guides : and
if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." '
His health revived for a few months, but in autumn
the old ailments returned, and, when his brother
died in November, he was a partial invalid. He
is said to have received the tidings quietly, with the
words : ' And is Ralph gone ? He has twice got the
start of me ; he was first in Christ, and now he is first
in glory.' On the following Sunday he struggled out
of bed and preached a short and cheering sermon on
the words, ' I know that my Redeemer liveth.'
It was his last appearance in the pulpit ; but he had
still to bear eighteen months of extreme weakness and
pain, aggravated by the crude surgery of the times. In
his sufferings he was tended by a loving daughter, and
supported by the reverential and almost worshipping
concern of his congregation, and of the whole Secession
Church. The following letter, addressed to his daughter,
Mrs Scott, bears the date ' 1753.'
' According to the course of nature, it was my turn to have gone off
before your dear Uncle Ralph. But the will of the good and sovereign
God has determined that I should tarry behind for a while, in this
weary wilderness. It seems I am not yet made meet to be a partaker
of the inheritance of the saints in light, but need to be more beaten
with the hammer of affliction, before I come to the upper temple and
sanctuary. Good is the will of the Lord. I am mostly confined to
my bed. I sometimes get up, but in a little I am forced to return,
through pain, which abates, as to the severity of it, whenever I get to
bed ; insomuch that my tottering hand becomes steady, and both
body and mind are more easy. This letter is a proof, for it is wrote
in bed — leaning on my elbow. The Lord makes me to sing of mercy
K