The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 2

by Walter Scott

  NOTE E.--CARSPHARN JOHN.

  John Semple, called Carspharn John, because minister of the parish inGalloway so called, was a Presbyterian clergyman of singular piety andgreat zeal, of whom Patrick Walker records the following passage: "Thatnight after his wife died, he spent the whole ensuing night in prayer andmeditation in his garden. The next morning, one of his elders coming tosee him, and lamenting his great loss and want of rest, he replied,--'Ideclare I have not, all night, had one thought of the death of my wife, Ihave been so taken up in meditating on heavenly things. I have been thisnight on the banks of Ulai, plucking an apple here and there.'"--_Walker's Remarkable Passages of the Life and Death of Mr. John Semple._