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praying at the close, a lad alarmed them of the enemy's approach. They having no sentinels that day which was not their ordinary, were surprised, so that some of them who had been at Pentland, Bothwell, Airs-moss, and other dangers, were never so seized with fear, some of the women throwing their children from them. In this confusion Mr Cargill was running straight on the enemy; but Gavin Wotherspoon and others haled him to the moss, unto which the people fled. The dragoons fired hard upon them, but there were none either killed or taken that day.
About this time, some spoke to Mr Cargill of his preaching and praying short. They said. 'O Sir, it is long betwixt meals, and we are in a starving condition; all is good, sweet and wholesome, that you deliver, but why do you so straiten us?' He said, 'Ever since I bowed the knee in good earnest to pray, I never durst preach, and pray with my gift; and when my heart is not affected, and comes not up with my mouth, I always think it time to quit it. What comes not from the heart, I have little hope it will go to the hearts of others Then he repeated these words in the 51st psalm 'Then will I teach trangressors thy way,' &c.
From Loudon hill he took a tour through Ayrshire to Carrick and Galloway, preaching, baptizing, and marrying some people; but staid not long until he returned to Clydesdale. He designed, after his return, to have preached one day at Tinto-hill, but the Lady of St. John's Kirk gave it out to be at Home Common. He being in the house of John
