CHAPTER VII.
Anxious to enter Glasgow University.
MANY a young man preparing for the ministry is too impatient to finish the regular course of studies, so anxious is he to receive a call from some church, and be ordained. But not so Risiart Ddu. Such was his belief in a thorough training for the ministry, that on finishing his course at Bala College he was planning to enter Glasgow University. But as his father was already under heavy financial burdens through long illness in the family, he could not afford to send his bright and ambitious son to Glasgow. Risiart, knowing this, worked exceedingly hard to earn a scholarship to defray his expenses at the University, and in his anxiety and indefatigable study to accomplish this worthy object, his health broke down. When overwhelmingly busy preparing for a London examination, he took a severe cold; and instead of going up to London, as intended, we find him resting on the sea shore at Towyn, Merioneth. "Man proposeth, God disposeth." This is one of those things in the providence of God that are difficult to understand. Here is a spiritual-minded, talented, educated, and ambitious young man, anxious to qualify himself for the glorious work of a worthy minister of Christ; and yet his commendable plans are thwarted, and he is smitten down in the middle of his hopes. But we can say this much, that he had worked too hard—did not take the rest that nature required—and nature, as usual, has been relentless and inexorable in her retribution.
