It was about the time of his first year's attendance at the Hall that I began to know him as an intimate friend. During the summer vacations,--that we might redeem the time,--some of us who remained in town, when most of our fellow-students were gone to the country, used to meet once every week in the forenoon, for the purpose of investigating some point of _Systematic Divinity_, and stating to each other the amount and result of our private reading. At another time we met in a similar way, till we had overtaken the chief points of the _Popish controversy_. Advancement in our acquaintance with the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures also brought us together; and one summer the study of _Unfulfilled Prophecy_ assembled a few of us once a week, at an early morning hour, when, though our views differed much on particular points, we never failed to get food to our souls in the Scriptures we explored. But no society of this kind was more useful and pleasant to us than one which, from its object, received the name of _Exegetical_. It met during the session of the Theological classes every Saturday morning at half-past six. The study of Biblical criticism, and whatever might cast light on the word of God, was our aim; and these meetings were kept up regularly during four sessions. Mr. M'Cheyne spoke of himself as indebted to this society for much of that discipline of mind on Jewish literature and Scripture geography which was found to be so useful in the Mission of Inquiry to the Jews in after days.[4]
[4] The members of this Society were--Rev. _William Laughton_, now Minister of St Thomas's, Greenock, in connection with the Free Church; _Thomas Brown,_ Free Church, Kinneff; _William Wilson_, Free Church, Carmyllie; _Horatius Bonar_, Free Church, Kelso; _Andrew A. Bonar_, Free Church, Collace; _Robert M. M'Cheyne; Alexander Somerville_, Free Church, Anderston, Glasgow; _John Thomson_, Mariners' Free Church, Leith; _Robert K. Hamilton_, Madras; _John Burne_, for some time at Madeira; _Patrick Borrowman_, Free Church, Glencairn; _Walter Wood_, Free Church, Westruther; _Henry Moncrieff_, Free Church, Kilbride; _James Cochrane_, Established Church, Cupar; _John Miller_, Secretary to Free Church Special Commission; _G. Smeaton_, Free Church, Auchterarder; _Robert Kinnear_, Free Church, Moffat; and _W.B. Clarke_, Free Church, Half-Morton. Every meeting was opened and closed with prayer. Minutes of the discussions were kept; and the essays read were preserved in volumes. A very characteristic essay of Mr. M'Cheyne's is "Lebanon and its Scenery" (inserted in the _Remains_), wherein he adduces the evidence of travellers for facts and customs which he himself was afterwards to see. Often, in 1839, pleasant remembrances of these days of youthful study were suggested by what we actually witnessed; and in the essay referred to I find an interesting coincidence. He writes: "What a refreshing sight to his eye, yet undimmed with age, after resting forty years on the monotonous scenery of the desert, now to rest on Zion's olive-clad hills, and Lebanon, with its vine-clad base and overhanging forests, and towering peaks of snow!" This was the very impression on our minds when we ourselves came up from the wilderness as expressed in the _Narrative_, chap. 2--"May 29. Next morning we saw at a distance a range of hills, running north and south, called by the Arabs _Djebel Khalie_. After wandering so many days in the wilderness, with its vast monotonous plains of level sand, the sight of these distant mountains was a pleasant relief to the eye; and we thought we could understand a little of the feeling with which Moses, after being forty years in the desert, would pray, 'I pray Thee let me go over,'" Deut. 3:25.
But these helps in study were all the while no more than supplementary. The regular systematic studies of the Hall furnished the main provision for his mental culture. Under Dr. Chalmers for Divinity, and under Dr. Welsh for Church History, a course of four years afforded no ordinary advantages for enlarging the understanding. New fields of thought were daily opened up. His notes and his diary testify that he endeavored to retain what he heard, and that he used to read as much of the books recommended by the professors as his time enabled him to overtake. Many years after, he thankfully called to mind lessons that had been taught in these classes. Riding one day with Mr. Hamilton (now of Regent Square, London) from Abernyte to Dundee, they were led to speak of the best mode of dividing a sermon. "I used," said he, "to despise Dr. Welsh's rules at the time I heard him; but now I feel I _must use_ them, for nothing is more needful for making a sermon memorable and impressive than a logical arrangement."