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same spirit and influence pervade our homes. William C. Burns attended the parish school, then presided oved by “a teacher o f rare intelligence and skill, who was amongst the first Scottish schoolmasters to ’ avail himself o f the modern improved meth ods o f tuition, and to, substitute an intel lectual interest for the .old iron sway o f the ferula.” He became proficient in all the common branches o f study, and mas tered the elements o f Latin, too. He spent much time out o f doors, and his. great ambition was to become a successful farmer. His ambition was suddenly changed when an uncle who was a success ful lawyer in Aberdeen, invited the thir teen-year-old lad to spend a winter with him and attend the renowned grammar school of that city. The Rev. Dr. James Melvin, distinguished as a Latin scholar, and also as a school master, was then the rector. Mr. Burns made a good record, and had the desire for a thorough education kindled in him, “ The effects o f the mental discipline thus acquired were lasting, and had an important influence on the whole course o f his future life, forming in him once for all those habits o f rigid accuracy, thorough work, and conscientious regard for rule and law which ever afterwards distinguished him; while at the same time awakening and training that remarkable faculty for the study o f language which stood him in such good stead in the mis sionary labors o f later years.” From this school he entered the University o f Aber deen (Marischal College), obtaining fifth place among more than one hundred com petitors for bursarships, or free scholar ships. Influenced, no doubt, by his living with’ his lawyer uncle, he was at this time as determined to be a lawyer a? he had determined previously to be a farmer, and pursued his University course with that end in view. His father had intended that he should be a preacher o f the Gospel, but gave his reluctant .consent to this. He was placed with another uncle in Edinburgh, / ' ... ,
tian pastorate which is fast passing away; the father alike and the friend o f his whole parish, and the loving center of everything kind and good and true that is passing within its bounds. A MOTHER OF LIGHT “ To him our mother was in some respects the direct counterpart. O f a nim ble, buoyant, active frame, alike o f body and mind, she was all light and life and motion, and was, as it were, the glad sun shine' and bright angel o f a house which had been otherwise too still and sombre.” O f the quiet, yet active, spiritual influ ence o f this father we read: “ Sometimes, too, along the garden walk at eventide, or through a partition wall at midnight, the ejaculated words o f secret; meditation and prayer would reach our ears and hearts, like the bounding o f the high-priests’ bells within the vail. It was in this way that the first touch o f serious thought I ever observed in my brother was brought to light. W e had lain long awake in our common sleeping chamber, after • some months o f separation, talking eagerly of all our ideas and plans o f life, in which as yet God and heaven had little share, when the well-known sound from within the sanctuary, was heard in the silence. He (William) was hushed at once at least to momentary seriousness, and whispered: ‘There can be no doubt where his heart is, and where he is going.’ ” Again, we read o f the mother : “ She ever spoke (to the children) in the .true mothertones o f gentleness and love. From her lips and at her knees we learned our earliest lessons o f truth, and in her voice, and face first traced, as in a clear mirror, the lineaments o f that gentle and loving godliness which hath the promise, o f life that now is and o f that which is to come.” LOGICAL RESULTS What would one expect the children of such a home to be, but just what they w ere! Earnest, devout, cultured Christians. Worth while were it for we ministers of today that in our totally different condi tions ^of life we should seek to have the
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