After our departure from Crathie we went to Inverness, where Mr. Müller preached many times, and remained there until May 31st, when we set off for Wick, about 15 miles from John O'Groat's House, in the extreme North of Scotland. During our short stay at Wick, on the morning of June 1st we took a drive to Canisbury, the parish in which John O'Groat's House is situated, and walked upon the sea-shore, from which the Orkney Islands can be seen. At 2 in the afternoon Mr. Müller preached at Canisbury Free Church, where the country people flocked in great numbers from their little farms and cottages, three, four, and five miles off to hear him; and after the service, at 4 o'clock we returned to Wick, where he held a meeting in the evening.
On June 3rd we went back to Inverness, and here he resumed his labours until the 8th, when, in consequence of the death of an aged lady residing at Reading, Berkshire, who had made him her executor, we were obliged rather suddenly to leave; but during our two visits to this town, including the services at Wick and Canisbury, he preached 24 times altogether.
From Inverness we went—viâ Edinburgh and London, to Reading, where he preached 13 times, and thence proceeded to London. There, during the 10 days we remained, he spoke ten times in public. These services brought his second preaching tour to a close, and, on July 5th, we returned to Bristol.
THIRD TOUR.
CONTINENT OF EUROPE.[A] From August 16th, 1876, to June 25th, 1877.
After being occupied daily for a few weeks at the Orphan Houses on Ashley Down, and attending to business connected with the other branches of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution, besides ministering regularly at the three chapels in Bristol with which he is connected, as Mr. Müller had it particularly laid upon his heart to visit Switzerland and Germany, that he might labour in the gospel in those countries, on Aug. 16th, 1876, we went to Dover, crossed over to Calais the next morning, and proceeding to Boulogne, where we stayed one night, continued our journey afterwards to Paris, where we arrived on the 18th. During our stay in Paris he preached five times at the Congregational Chapel, Rue Royale, in English. Before our departure we visited Versailles and Charenton-le-Pont, and availed ourselves of every suitable opportunity upon these occasions of giving away little gospel books in French to the numerous Roman Catholics we met with. On the 28th we started for Dijon, remained there one night, and went on to Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on the 29th. There, during our short visit of one day, we took a drive to Chaumont, on the Jura, 3845 feet above the level of the sea, whence a magnificent general view of the Alps can be obtained, and reached Berne on the 31st.
On Sept. 1st Mr. Müller preached in German—for the first time after 31 years—at the Free Church, where, because the crowd was so great, notice was given that the next service would be held at the French Church, a much larger building, in which accordingly a service was conducted on the 2nd. On Sunday afternoon, Sept. 3rd, he addressed a mixed assembly of about 1,800, consisting of pastors, young men, Sunday School teachers, country women in their Swiss costumes, children, etc., at a large Hall called the Festhütte; and in the evening preached for the third time at the French Church, with very great help and power. On the afternoon of the 4th we went to Die Enge, a Hall on the side of a steep hill at Berne, where 150 brethren and sisters in the Lord had been invited by Col. von Büren to meet us. After walking about for a short time outside the building to gaze at the beauty of the distant Alps, lighted up by the glory of the setting sun, whose departing rays shed a lovely rose-coloured hue over their snowy summits, and hearing this remark: "Le bon Dieu l'a fait exprès pour vous donner plaisir," we partook of coffee with our friends in the Hall, who heartily welcomed us to Switzerland. Mr. Müller then gave a short address, and afterwards allowed the meeting to take a conversational turn, when he answered a number of important questions that were put to him. Whilst at Berne he addressed the girls and teachers one afternoon at Dr. Blösch's Orphan Institution, preached every evening until Sunday, the 10th—when he spoke at the Festhütte, at 3 p.m., to about 1,900 persons—and preached a farewell sermon at the French Church to nearly 2,000 in the evening. The Lord helped him wonderfully, many persons appeared to be greatly impressed, and it was a glorious meeting.
Having before him an immense amount of work, with the prospect of preaching evening after evening for several months to large audiences in the close, heated atmosphere of Churches, Halls, etc.; and desiring a few days of entire rest and relaxation before the short days and cold weather of winter should set in; we decided at this time upon a little excursion amongst the mountains, and accordingly on Sept. 11th started for Lucerne. At that town, which is in full view of Mont Pilatus, we passed one night, and the next morning went by steamer across the lake to Vitznau, at the foot of the Rigi. Thence we ascended the mountain—which is 5,905 feet above the level of the sea—by cog-wheel railway, and beheld from its summit a view unrivalled for extent and grandeur. The panorama of lake and mountain scenery was magnificent, the horizon presenting a circumference of 300 miles, and including in the prospect 13 lakes, the snowy masses of the Bernese Oberland, the grand range of the Jura from Geneva to Basle, and the mountains of the Black Forest in Germany.
A considerable quantity of snow lay upon the ground in the immediate neighbourhood of the Rigi Kulm, the cold was severe, and, as snow began to fall, we were glad to find shelter, near the top of the mountain, at an hotel. At half past 4 the next morning we rose and ascended the Rigi Kulm, whence splendid ranges of innumerable snowy mountain peaks and distant glaciers could be seen extending far and wide, to which, illuminated as they were by the bright beams of the rising sun, a gorgeous prismatic colouring was imparted; and there we stood for a considerable time, gazing round upon that grand, wild, solitary, silent region with an interest that could scarcely be exceeded.
"God of stillness and of motion,
Of the desert and the ocean,
Of the mountain, rock, and river,
Blessed be THY name for ever!"
At 10 o'clock we descended the mountain, embarked in a lake steamer at Vitznau for Fluellen and Altdorf, and remained at the latter place until Sept. 15th. On the morning of that day we started by diligence for Mont St. Gothard, slowly ascended a mountain Pass by an Alpine road that winds between stupendous precipices of enormous height, dark, frowning, and perpendicular; and after crossing the Pont du Diable, and changing carriages at Andermatt, drove on to the foot of the St. Gothard. From that point a gradual ascent of the mountain (by carriage) was commenced; the grand scenery and bold outline of the rocks becoming, as we advanced, more and more striking and conspicuous; but all was soon obscured by clouds and mists, and we alighted at the Hospice (situated at the top of the St. Gothard Pass, about 9,000 feet above the level of the sea) encompassed by a dense fog. In these regions above the clouds the cold was so intense, that we were thankful to accept the very poor accommodation afforded at the Hospice (a little inn intended principally for the reception of travellers on their way to and from Italy), and, in spite of the smoke from the cigars of some Italians that filled the only room with a fire in it which the house contained, were glad to be allowed to share it with them, and with any other travellers who happened to come in. At 10 we retired to our room, which was a very small one without a stove or fireplace, where the cold during the night was severe. The next morning (the 16th) we rose early, and, finding that clouds and fog still hung over the whole mountain region, concealing entirely the beauty of the grand scenery around, we got into the first diligence that stopped at the Hospice, and went down the mountain at a rapid pace to Andermatt. From there we returned to Altdorf, took the steamer to Lucerne, and went on by rail to Zürich, where we arrived in time for my husband to fulfil the engagements he had