Untitled - Electric Scotland

i8 2 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. vn.
with melancholy views of life. It would be pleasing, doubtless,
to have some home embosomed in trees, with beautiful mountain
views, w r here my children might grow up ; and such a place to
rest in for a few months in each year would be a great blessing.
But though there is no beauty to soothe, there is something good
for the soul in the stern reality of life which such a town as this
presents ; poverty and vice are here before me in their naked
deformity. This sight can only be good for us if we look at it
with real Christian feelings. Otherwise it only hardens and
debases."
"
Wednesday, gt/i March 1853. I have not been well for the
last day or two. To-night while Mr. Page l was with me I fainted
quite away. I was standing, and knew nothing till, after about
a minute s insensibility, I found myself lying on the floor with
Mr. Page unloosing my neckcloth. In the midst of life how near
is death ; for syncope, while it lasts, is death. O God, make me
ready. My dear mother died in a faint. She was as little expect
ing death as I this evening. I do not fear death, I trust, because
I know that my Redeemer liveth."
"Sept. 16, 1853. I have visited the districts of the town to
day in anticipation of the cholera breaking out. 2 Lord make us
ready for any sudden call."
"Sunday, Sept. iS///. - -In the midst of the quiet of this
time of waiting, expecting daily that pestilence will visit us, O
Lord teach us to improve the time. Thou knowest what is best
for us."
"Sunday Evening, qth Oct. 1853. I am here [Deanery] to
day alone. I have been reading, since church, Goulburn s sermon,
The swelling of the Jordan. . . . The fact that our first case of
Asiatic cholera has proved fatal, and that the man was buried
early this morning in St. Cuthbert s Churchyard, calls us with loud
voice to be ready."
"Sunday, i6th Oct. I have preached three times to-day.
Lord impress the truths I have preached on my own soul.
... I have often in my thoughts the idea that I may soon die.
My many bodily ailments though not perhaps serious seem to
show a very weakly constitution shattered illness." by Whether
Thou callest me soon or late, make me ready and ; bless, O bless
my dear wife and children."
1 The Doctor. 2 It was raging at Newcastle and elsewhere.