5–11 May 1862

Hurried to be ready for the service which Dr. Macleod was kindly going to perform. And a little before ten I went down with Lenchen and Ame (Alice being still in bed unwell) to the dining- room, in which I had not yet been. The ladies and gentlemen were seated behind me, the ser- vants, including Grant and some of the other Highlanders, opposite. And never was service more beautifully, touchingly, simply, and tenderly performed. There was the opening" prayer, then the reading from Scripture, which was most beautifully selected as follows : the twenty-third chapter of Job, the forty-second Psalm, the four- teenth chapter of St. John, some of the first verses, and then from the twenty-third verse to the end, and the seventh chapter of Revelations to the end. All so applicable. After this came another prayer, and then the sermon, entirely extempore, taken from the twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews to the thirteenth verse, also alluding to the tenth chapter, and occasionally turning to the Corinthians. The sermon was admirable, all upon affliction, God's love, our Saviour's sufferings, which God would not spare Him, the blessedness of suffering in bringing us nearer to our eternal home, where we should all be together, and where our dear ones were gone on before us. He con- cluded with another prayer, in which he prayed most touchingly for me. The children and I were much affected on coming upstairs.