“Of the ‘Men’ as a whole, it may be said that their minds were richly cultivated in the highest form. In three books they were deeply read: two without—the Bible and God’s Providence; the other within—the human heart. The first two filled their minds with the loftiest and most elevating of all themes, and lifted them, as they do all Christians, above the tinsel refinement of the schools. The other habituated them to keener, closer, and more sustained observation than can be looked for in mere scholastic cultivation. They were the ‘true metaphysicians.’ Theirs was the metaphysics not reached by nature casting introspective glances on herself, merely to classify into dry science the facts and phenomena of mind, but that got by observing with an eye touched with heavenly salve the workings of the whole inner man, and to which they were impelled alike by the authority of Scripture and the necessities of the divine life; for thus they attained the self-knowledge needed to humble, warn, and guide them, and also that knowledge of their possession of a work of grace fitted to stimulate and console.” (Auld’s Ministers and Men in the Far North.)
“When, seeking soul,” John Grant, Kildonan, would ask, “did you find Christ?” “Was it not when you thought you would never find Him?” “And when did you lose Him,” he would add. “Was it not when you knew that you had Him?” “Poor soul,” he would say, “Christ put the corrupt affections of your nature under lock and key, the day that you and He joined hands. That being done, He unlocked them again, that you may be kept a poor, needy sinner till the day of your death.” (Auld’s Ministers and Men in the Far North.)
Speaking of the communion of saints, John remarked; “It is not when the Lord’s people are together that they have closest fellowship, but when they separate; for then I pray for you and you for me; I get a promise for you and you for me; so you live on my grace and I live on yours until we meet again.” (Auld’s Ministers and Men in the Far North.)