He was born in a Christian home near Dumfries, Scotland, in 1824. From an early age he had a special awareness of a closet in the three-bedroom cottage, where he lived with his parents and ten brothers and sisters. He described it thus:
"The closet was... the Sanctuary of that cottage home. Thither daily, and oftentimes a day... we saw our father retire, and "shut the door"; and we children got to understand by a sort of spiritual instinct...
