16 April 1753 – 22 April 1753

We set out about four and rode over several high, but extremely pleasant, mountains to Lead Hill. This was a village of miners, resembling Placey, near Newcastle. We dined at a village called Lesmahaggy, and about eight in the evening reached Glasgow. A gentleman who had overtaken us on the road sent one with us to Mr. Gillies’s house.

I walked over the city, which I take to be as large as Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The University (like that of Dublin) is only one College, consisting of two small squares; I think not larger, nor at all handsomer, than those of Lincoln College, in Oxford. The hatit of the students gave me surprise. They wear scarlet gowns, reaching only to their knees. Most I saw were very dirty, some very ragged, and all of very coarse cloth. The high church is a fine building. The outside is equal to that of most cathedrals in England; but it is miserably defaced within, having no form, beauty, or symmetry left. At seven in the evening Mr. G. began the service at his own (the College) church. It was so full before I came that I could not get in without a good deal of difficulty.

At seven I preached about a quarter of a mile from the town; but it was an extremely rough and blustering morning; and few people came either at the time or place of my preaching: the natural consequence of which was that I had but a small congregation. About four in the afternoon, a tent, as they term it, was prepared; a kind of moving pulpit, covered with canvas at the top, behind, and on the sides. In this I preached near the place where I was in the morning, to nearly six times as many people as before; and I am persuaded what was spoken came to some of their hearts, ”not in word only, but in power.”

I had designed to preach at the same place; but the rain made it impracticable. Mr. G. desired me to preach in his church, so I began between seven and eight. Surely with God nothing is impossible! Who would have believed five-and-twenty years ago either that the minister would have desired it or that I should have consented to preach in a Scotch kirk?