THE REV. DAVID SANDEMAN.

175

ence to this he said, "I shall go to Manchester, as I am obliged; but remember, I've got another Master now, and if He calls me to his work, I must go."

Blissfully emancipated from care, ambition, and all earthly thraldom, because surrendered to its rightful Sovereign, his soul was now the abode of a peace as rare as it is enviable; and on his beaming countenance, as well as on his frank, open, unworldly career, was thenceforward inscribed in the handwriting of the transforming Spirit himself, "For me to live is Christ." It was not long until he found himself constrained to go forward into the ministry. He came to Edinburgh, and after completing the usual curriculum, was licensed by the Free Presbytery of Edinburgh.

Sometime after this Mr. Sandeman resolved to devote himself to the Lord's work in China. It was but the other day we incidentally met a medical gentlemen who told us how and where this decision was come to. "One evening," said he, " Mr. Sandeman and I were walking on the Calton Hill together, and we both formed the resolution to give up ourselves to the work of the gospel in China, and, kneeling down behind a bush in a retired spot, we dedicated ourselves to this work in prayer.”

You all know the result of this decision, and how that he went to Amoy in October, in 1856, and some of us know well how ardently and zealously he has devoted himself since then.

His last Sabbath on earth was the 25th of July, when his text was, "Examine your own selves." It was a solemn time, for the cholera had come to Amoy. It came to the house in which Mr. Sandeman was then living, the residence of the Rev. Mr. Talmage, and it seized a little girl to whom he had been speaking the very day before about her soul and about Jesus. The little girl died on the Thursday, and Mr. Sandeman did all he could to comfort her mother, and he plaited a wreath of flowers and placed it on her coffin. On the Friday he met Dr. Bell, who was much worn out with attending to so many patients, and said, "We know not

176

THE REV. DAVID SANDEMAN.

who may be first called away; but this we know, that none of us live to ourselves, and none of us die to our selves, For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's."" Soon after midnight this kind and skilful friend was summoned to his bedside, and found him already in the collapse of the fatal malady. In the morning early, and when the hope of his recovery was given up, Mr. Talmage asked him if he had any messages to leave. "Tell my mother," he replied, "that I thought of her, because she taught me the way to come to Jesus."

The

At another time, Mr. Doty, another of his dear American brethren, said, "The great High Priest is precious now ?" With great emphasis he replied, "He always has been; he always has been exceedingly precious, from the moment I knew him till now." Again reverting to the beloved and boundless theme, he remarked, "The love of Jesus is like the sea around you. It was only last night, when comparatively well, that the love of Jesus came rushing into my soul like the waves of the sea, as if they would rend it; so that I had to cry out, Stop, Lord; it is enough.' I could not hold more. Oh! the height and the depth, the length and the breadth of the love of Jesus! love of Jesus has ever been like a cloudless sky. There has been but one spot, but one dark cloud, and that spot, that dark cloud, has been my sin." Mr. Doty said, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." know it does, I know it does," was his eager reply. In the same spirit and with deep feeling he repeated, "All too long have we been parted, let my spirit speed to His." It was in this spirit his soul passed away from earth without a cloud or a shadow. When the tidings reached his poor mother-he is the third son she has lost, besides her husband, within the last three years-her reply was as beautiful as it was true-"HEAVEN IS NOT SO FAR AWAY AS CHINA."

"I

THE

JUVENILE MESSENGER

OF THE

Presbyterian Church in England.

VOL. V.

In the name of God advancing,
Sow thy seed at morning light,
Cheerily the furrows turning,

Labour on with all thy might.
Look not to the far-off future-

Do the work that nearest lies;
Sow thou must before thou reapest-
Rest at last is labour's prize.

Standing still is dangerous ever-
Toil is meant for Christians now;
Let there be, when evening cometh,
Honest sweat upon thy brow;
And the Master shall come, smiling,
When work stops, at set of sun,
Saying, as He pays thy wages,

Good and faithful man, well done!"

LONDON:

MARLBOROUGH & CO., AVE MARIA LANE.

LONDON:

ROBERT K. BURT, PRINTEE,

HOLBORN HILL