When it was finally determined that he should take an extra year of study and graduate in Edinburgh, he withdrew as soon as possible from all official connection with the dispensary, and took lodgings in Brown Street; borrowing money from private friends to enable him to meet the responsibilities so unexpectedly thrown upon him. This was, to Mr. Elmslie, perhaps the hardest winter of his life. There was no difficulty, it is true, in finding those who were willing enough to lend to him, but a man must borrow with great hesitation and consideration, who honestly intends to repay, as Mr. Elmslie did; and, besides, one of an independent spirit is the less inclined to borrow the greater his need. Then Mr. Elmslie's mother was feeling so much her loneliness, through his continued absence from home, that he strove to the utmost that she should be comfortable, whatever might become of himself. Friends could not fail to notice that it was to him a season of serious self-denial, and once and again, with the view of moderating the severity of the pressure upon him, found means to convey help to him without letting him know whence it came. These love tokens were accompanied with the single sentence, "Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things." Soon after the packets reached their destination, he ran along to us to ask us to help him to give God thanks.
Before settling down to the hard study of the winter, he cleared off his first professional examination in the University at Edinburgh, and sent his mother the following account of the appearance he made:–"6 Brown Street, Edinburgh, Nov. 4, 1863. My ever dear Mother,–Bless the Lord with me for His great goodness to me! I have passed (my first professional) at the University of Edinburgh, and more than passed, for the professors passed high encomiums on the excellence of my papers. Prof. Balfour was so satisfied with my paper on botany, that he merely showed me some microscopic preparations, and asked me to name them. Prof. Playfair said my paper on chemistry was so good, that he did not intend to put a single question more. On learning that I had been a pupil of Prof. Brazier's, he said I reflected great credit on my former teacher. Oh, mother, these were little words, but how sweet they were to me! In my heart, all the time I listened to them, I was blessing God for having given me power to write such papers, and thus to corroborate all that had been said in favour of my character as a student. The paper on natural history was without one error, and Prof. Allman, in my viva voce, was fully satisfied with my answers. How thankful I am and ought to be. I don't think I ever studied so hard as during the past five weeks. The subjects to which I had to devote my attention were extensive, and I knew that much depended on my success. The thought of that nerved me. I prayed constantly and earnestly that the Lord would bless my efforts, and He has! ... Please let me have dear Stewart's letter, that I may write him a long answer.... My communion last Sabbath was not so happy as I could have wished; my mind was too exhausted for full enjoyment, but I was enabled to feel myself a sinner, and once more to take Jesus to be my Saviour."
Few could say more truthfully than Mr. Elmslie that he prayed "constantly and earnestly." This session, especially, when labouring to redeem his character as a student from the slur cast upon it by his rejection, he seemed to feel the need of constant waiting upon God. He prayed as much as if study were of little use; he studied as hard as if to pray were vain. He furnished a good illustration of "Praying and Working." This winter he became secretary to the "Medical Student's Devotional Society," and did what he could to promote its interests. There was something touching in Mr. Elmslie's manner in prayer. He spoke in his natural voice, without a trace of the artificial in its tone. His sentences were short and very simple, which gave a child-like character to his supplications; and it was encouraging to note the confidingness with which, in humbleness of spirit, he made known his wants to his Father in heaven.
The following short letter to his mother notes the progress of his studies:–"6 Brown Street, 29th February, 1864. My dearest Mother,–Your last note was very cheering to me. The same post brought me one from Stewart, telling of his safe arrival at his ship, for which I join you in thanking our Heavenly Father. I continue to feel less nervous, and am able to study very hard. God will bless those strenuous efforts, and, as you say truly, dear mother, the time will soon slip away, and we shall see each other again. Take great care of yourself till then, dear mother. My examinations take place early in April, but I don't intend, at present at least, to appear again in Aberdeen till I am doctor of medicine from the university; that can not be till the 1st August. Dr. Candlish is to deliver the first of his course of lectures on the Fatherhood of God to-morrow, and a great treat I expect it to be. We have lost Mr. Dykes; you will be sorry to hear his health has obliged him to leave St. George's, where his preaching was so much appreciated,–and he has gone to rest in Italy for the present. God bless and comfort you with the precious consolations of His Spirit!–Dear mother, your loving son, William."
One subject for prayer which was never omitted was guidance as to his future sphere of labour. Only two of the places brought under his notice require mention–Bombay and Kashmir. Friends interested in the extension of medical missions were exerting themselves to raise £2000, to guarantee a fair start to a medical mission in Bombay; but, till the sum should be completed, even those who looked upon Elmslie as the very man for the sphere, and longed to possess him, had not faith to enter into a definite agreement with him. Gladly would Mr. Elmslie have gone to Bombay, for he considered it one of the most important heathen centres in India, where there was full scope for the exercise of all the gifts and graces wherewith God had blessed him. He more than once spoke of the unbelief that shrunk from fixing him, when the hand of God was so manifest in all the antecedent movements connected with that mission. Kashmir was under his notice for a considerable time. This was also a new mission.
"It was in the year 1862," says the Rev. Mr. Clark, "that the Kashmir Mission was commenced by an address which was sent to the Church Missionary Society, signed by most of the great and good men who then held in their hands the government of the Punjaub. They knew that the best means of benefitting Kashmir was the gift of God's Word, and the exemplification of Christian charity. Kashmir, from the earliest times, had been an outlying province of the Punjaub, and had been made over by us to the present reigning family not twenty years before; and Christian people desired to place within reach of the people in Kashmir the same blessings which they had endeavoured to give to the Punjaub. It was during a journey on the mountain-road between Murree and Abbottabad, that the idea first occurred to Dr. Cleghorn, that Kashmir was one of those countries where the influence of medical skill would greatly avail to aid the introduction of Christ's gospel."
The "Church Missionary Society's Committee of Correspondence, April 5, 1864, resolved–That, adverting to the Christian zeal and extraordinary liberality of the friends of the Society in the Punjaub towards the establishment of the Kashmir Mission, and their judgment of the importance to its success of a medical missionary, this Committee will make the present case an exception to their general practice, and will be willing to enter into communication with Mr. Elmslie, with a view to his appointment to the Kashmir Mission, provided that he is prepared cordially to act upon the missionary principles of the Society." The movement in this country was promoted by Professor Balfour, Dr. Coldstream, and the Rev. G. D. Cullen, all of whom took a kind interest in Mr. Elmslie, and the result was, that he was appointed for five years a lay agent of the Church Missionary Society, and hence his Presbyterianism was not much of a difficulty. But there was a permanent drawback connected with the mission in Kashmir: "He seems," writes Dr. Coldstream "to be somewhat staggered by the rajah's law of exclusion from his possessions for six months of each year; but I have encouraged him to believe, that it may be quite possible for him to find abundance of occupation during that period of exclusion, in territory under British rule or protection."
"I can bear testimony," continues the worthy doctor, "very fully and with confidence, in favour of Mr. Elmslie, as having apparently all the gifts and graces which one desires to see conjoined in a medical missionary."
His medical examinations in Edinburgh, at the College of Surgeons and University, were duly passed with credit (he did "splendidly," he wrote to his mother), and he was capped in August 1864, and there was therefore now no ambiguity circling round his professional Status. Instead of writing to his much-loved mother, he rushed home to enjoy her company during the few weeks he could now afford before sailing for India. The following passage from a letter to Mrs. Coldstream shows the direction of his thoughts at this time:–