This intimation, just as I was entering the Assembly Hall to address a great congregation of children and their friends, staggered me beyond all description. The Free Church alone, in Scotland, now supported our New Hebrides Mission. From it I expected the principal contributions for the sorely-needed new Mission Ship. And now, by the action of the _Dayspring_ Board at Sydney, the Free Church was debarred from acknowledging my three-fold commission or in any direct way sanctioning my appeals. No sorer wound had ever been inflicted on me; and when I sat down on the platform beside Mr. Dickson, my head swam for several minutes, and faintishness almost overpowered me. But, by the time my name was called, the Lord my Helper enabled me to pull myself together; I committed this cause also with unfailing assurance to Him; and by all appearances I was able greatly to interest and impress the Children. At the close, my dear and noble friend, Professor Cairns, warmly welcomed and cheered me, and that counted for much amid the depressions of the day. But when all were gone and we two were left, Mr. Dickson under deep emotion said,— “Mr. Paton, that veto has spoiled your mission home. The Free Church cannot take you by the hand in face of the _veto_ from Sydney!” Having letters from Andrew Scott, Esquire, Carrugal, my very dear friend and helper in Australia, to Dr. J. Hood Wilson, Barclay Free Church, Edinburgh, I resolved to deliver them that evening; and I prayed the Lord to open up all my path, as I was thus thrown solely on Him for guidance and bereft of the aid of man. Dr. Wilson and his lady, neither of whom I had ever seen before, received me as kindly as if I had been an old friend. He read my letters of introduction, conversed with me as to plans and wishes (chiefly through Mrs. Wilson, for he was suffering from sore throat), and then he said with great warmth and kindliness,— “God has surely sent you here to-night! I feel myself unable to preach to-morrow. Occupy my pulpit in the forenoon and address my Sabbath School, and you shall have a collection for your Ship.” Thereafter, I was with equal kindness received by Mr. Balfour, having a letter of introduction from his brother, and he offered me his pulpit for the evening of the day. I lay down blessing and praising Him, the Angel of whose Presence was thus going before me and opening up my way. That Lord’s Day I had great blessing and joy; there was an extraordinary response financially to my appeals; and my proposal was thus fairly launched in the Metropolis of our Scottish Church life. I remembered an old saying, Difficulties are made just to be vanquished. And I thought in my deeper soul,—Thus our God throws us back upon Himself; and if these £6,000 ever come to me, to the Lord God alone, and not to man, shall be all the glory! On the Monday following, after a long conversation and every possible explanation, Colonel Young, of the Free Church Foreign Missions Committee, said,—