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Eighteen years have passed. He is now the minister of the Portmoak parish. But it is a poor business. 'I began my ministry, he says, 'without much zeal, callously and mechanically, being swallowed up in unbelief and in rebellion against God. He feels no enthusiasm for the Bible; indeed, the New Testament positively wearies him.
In 1726-29 he was accused of minimising the doctrines of the creed of St Athanasius, and tending to the Arian heresy, "lately raked out of hell," said the Kirk- session of Portmoak , addressing the sympathetic Presbytery of Kirkcaldy. At the Assembly of 1726 that Presbytery, with others, assailed Mr Simson, who was in bad health, and "could talk of nothing but the Council of Nice."
'That night, he used to say, 'I got my head out of Time into Eternity! Ten more years have passed. It is now 1718; Ebenezer Erskine is thirty-eight. Filled with concern for the souls of his people at Portmoak, he preaches a sermon on the text that had played so great a part in bringing his own spirit out of bondage. 'I am the Lord thy God! 'I am the Lord thy God!
And I feel confident that that was the burden of that powerful sermon that Ebenezer Erskine preached to his people at Portmoak in 1718. His last illness, as I have said, continued for twelve months. It was in its earlier stages that the old elder asked his question and received his minister's testimony concerning the text. A year later Mr. Erskine referred to the words again.
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