ST. JUDE’S, GLASGOW.
5 SHORT STREET,
DUNEDIN,
NEW ZEALAND, 27th April, 1905.
MY DEAR MR. CAMERON,—I have had your letter re-directed from Brushgrove. I suppose you would have heard before now that I left Brushgrove on Wednesday, 22nd March, and sailed from Sydney on Saturday, 25th March, arriving in Dunedin on Saturday, 1st April. The climate in Brushgrove is a moist and damp climate, and was not at all in my favour, although I felt much more at home there than here, and I shall never forget the kindness I met with on the Clarence River. Tuesday evening previous to my departure, a good number of the congregation gathered at the manse and presented me with a purse containing £8. I am sorry to say that Mr. Scott himself is not keeping very strong; it would take a man with a much stronger constitution to do the work he has to do. I am sorry to say that they have lost a faithful friend and a great support among the very few who are bearing witness for truth there, in the person of Mr. Hugh M’Donald (Mrs. Scott’s father). He was a native of Ardnamurchan, and died at the good old age of 82 years. I felt very much attached to this old man.
Now, since I came here I have been advised by several people to try a sanatorium. There is one about five miles from Dunedin, which is kept up by Dr. Stephenson of this city. I saw some who have been treated there with very good results. I have consulted Dr. Stephenson, and he advises me to try it, so I made up my mind to try some weeks of it. The Most High may bless it to the restoring of my health; if not, the means will be of no avail. “Except the Lord do build the house, the builders lose their pain.”
There are two places in this sanatorium—a tent and a room; price for a tent is £2 12s. 6d., and for a room, £3 13s. 6d. per week. I asked the Doctor if I could do with a tent, as the price of a room would be too much for me. He said he would not put me in a tent, but that he would allow me a room for the price of a tent, and that if he saw that I was getting better, he would do his best to keep me there, supposing I had nothing wherewith to pay him. Well, such is the goodness of God to me, who has brought myself lower than all His mercies; but I can well say that His name is “Wonderful.”
I hope I shall have the pleasure of hearing from you soon again. The wise man says: “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country,” and I have no doubt but those to whom sin has become a plague, of which they are horribly afraid, and that not only as sin is most offensive to God, but also as sin is a horrible filthy thing in itself—to them it is good news indeed from a far country that there is a fountain open for sin and for uncleanliness. But how very few there are in this crooked and perverse nation to whom sin has become a plague; it is most awful to contemplate the spirit of infidelity with which the people are possessed, and no wonder, when the highest professors in the Church encourage them as such.
I see by the press that the erroneous views of Professor Alexander have been brought to light, and I am glad to see that you as a Church have dealt with him as the Apostle Paul dealt with Alexander (1 Timothy i. 20).
I must now stop, trusting that you are all keeping well, and with-kind regards to your mother and sister.—I am, yours very sincerely,
JOHN M’LEOD.
John Newton and Heaven.
It was a saying of John Newton’s that he would wonder to see some in heaven that he did not expect to see there, and some missing whom he expected to see, but the greatest wonder of all would be to find himself there.