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LIBRARY OF THE TH€OLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 PR1NCETOr4, N. J. 
 
 BX 9225 .B76 B6 
 Blaikie, William Garden, 
 
 1820-1899. 
 David Brown, D.D., LL.D. 
 
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DAVID BROWN 
 
 D.D. LL.D. 
 
DAVID BROWN 
 
 D.D.,LL.D. : PROFESSOR AND PRINCIPAL OF - 
 THE FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, ABERDEEN 
 
 y<^^ OF Pr;???^ 
 
 .Lsr^ 
 
 a iHemoir 
 
 BY WILLIAM GARDEN BLAIKIE 
 
 D.D., LL.D,, F.R.S.E. 
 
 Late Professor New College, Edinburgh 
 
 Author of 
 
 'Personal Life of David Livingstone' 
 
 ' Thomas Chalmers ' 
 
 etc. 
 
 LONDON 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 27 PATERNOSTER ROW 
 
 1898 
 
Edinburgh : T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty 
 
PREFACE 
 
 There is little to be said by way of preface to this 
 book, except that Dr. Brown kept no Diary, and pre- 
 served but a very few letters. This has rendered the 
 task of his biographer difficult, and has prevented him 
 from following a strictly chronological order through- 
 out. On the whole, he hopes that, from the limited 
 materials available, a fairly accurate portrait has been 
 drawn of one whose personality and life were quite 
 unique, and certainly form a most interesting and 
 instructive study. He begs to express his obliga- 
 tions to all the friends who have contributed materials 
 for the biography, and especially to members of Dr. 
 Brown's family, without whose invaluable aid the task 
 of the biographer would have been simply impossible. 
 
 April 1898. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 FAMILY HISTORY 
 
 A life spanning the nineteenth century — Grandfather, \Vm. 
 Brown of Craigdam — Father, iUexander Brown, Pro- 
 vost of Aberdeen — Mother, Catharine Chalmers — Her 
 family — Her deeply religious character and influence 
 — Her son David at first very weakly — Her help in 
 Latin lessons 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 STUDENT DAYS 
 
 The Grammar School of Aberdeen — His interest in it to 
 the end — Marischal College — Letter from Dr. Black 
 — Divinity Hall — Dr. Mearus — Brown's friendship 
 with John Duncan — Their religious experience — A 
 winter in Edinburgh — Beneficial results — Cesar Malau 
 — Great helpfulness to Dr. Duncan .... 12 
 
viii DAVID BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PROBATIONER DAYS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Visit to London — Becomes assistant to Edward Irving — 
 Irving absorbed with prophecy — His views of the 
 Incarnation — The ' signs and wonders ' in Regent 
 Square Church — First attitude of Mr. Brown — His 
 conviction that the signs were not from heaven — Gives 
 up his situation — Mr. Robert Baxter — Impression Mr. 
 Brown made on the congregation as a preacher — What 
 he gained and lost — Assistant at Dumbarton — Letters 
 to his mother — Disappointments — Literary and theo- 
 logical studies ........ 32 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE ORD 
 
 The Ord — Ordained l7th November 1836 — Conflict between 
 church and state — His marriage — Pastoral work — 
 Friends and neighbours — Fruits of his ministry — Crisis 
 of church conflict — Letter to his mother — A vigorous 
 non-intrusionist — ^Tlie Disruption — Call to Glasgow — 
 Future visits to the Ord — The Marnoch jubilee — 
 Touching meeting with Mr. Stronach^ Ardmeallie . 53 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 GLASGOW miKISTRY 
 
 Congregation of Free St. James's — Its history — Disruption 
 influence — Sermon by his brother Charles at General 
 
CONTENTS ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Assembly of 1844 — Rev. John M'Ewan of Roseneath's 
 reminiscences of the Glasgow ministry — Sketch in the 
 Glasgow Examiner — His remarkable prayers — Part of 
 the 93rd Regiment attend his church — Interference of 
 the colonel — Letter to the Duke of Wellington — Sub- 
 sequent record of the 93rd — William Macbean — Degree 
 ofD.D 72 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 EARLIER WRITINGS 
 
 Influence of John Albert Bengel — Extracts from article in 
 British and Foreign Evangelical Review — His book on 
 the Second Advent — Answers to it — Opinion of Pro- 
 fessor Beet — Its fundamental principles — Its candour 
 and good spirit — His early commentaries — Opinions of 
 Principal Moule and Professor Marcus Dods — Sub- 
 sequent commentaries 84 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. WILLIAM DYCE, R.A. 
 
 Mr. Dyce, his cousin — Early intimacy — Mr. Dyce's history 
 — His letter to Mr. Ruskin — His letter on Schools of 
 Design — His appointment in London — Letters to him 
 from Mr. Brown — On Art and its uses — On episcopacy 
 — On church authority — Mr. Dyce's aifection for Mrs. 
 Brown — Obituary notice by Royal Scottish Academy . 99 
 
X DAVID BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Candidate for chair in Edinburgh — Defeated — Receives 
 appointment to Aberdeen Free Church College — His in- 
 troductory lecture — Letter to William Dyce — Synopsis 
 of his courses of lectures — Testimony of his students 
 — Dr. Gray of Rome — Professor Gibb — Dr. Robertson 
 Nicoll — Rev. J. Harvey — Sunday class for students 
 generally ......... 115 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 HIS VIEW OF AN IDEAL MINISTRY 
 
 Aim of the Free Church in theological education — Com- 
 bination of learning and spirituality — Realised by Pro- 
 fessor Brown — The ministry a seeking for souls — But 
 conversion not everything — Spiritual progress 
 necessary — Subordinate matters — Style — The voice — 
 A visit to Mr. Spurgeou's Tabernacle — Danger of too 
 much study — Cultivation of Spiritual Life — Bengel a 
 model — Devotional study of the Bible — Visiting the 
 sick and the poor — George Miiller — Missionary educa- 
 tional work 137 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 HELP IN CHRISTIAN WORK 
 
 The Revival of 1858-9 — His prompt and cordial co-operation 
 with Mr. Radcliffe and others — Establishment of meet- 
 ing in Marywell Street School — Friendship with county 
 
CONTENTS xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 laymen — The National Bible Society — Evangelical 
 Alliance — Presbyterian Alliance — Visit to Switzerland 
 — Establishes preaching - stations at Interlaken and 
 Lucerne — Service to South Church, Aberdeen . . 153 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 DEATH OF HIS ELDEST SON 
 
 Crushed Hopes Crowned in Death — Precocity of Alex- 
 ander Brown — Distinction at Glasgow and Oxford — 
 Civil Service of India — Goes to Calcutta — Illness — 
 Embarks for home — Dies at sea — Distress of parents 
 — Consoled by Rev. Joseph Scudder, who was with 
 him when dying ....... 169 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 CHURCH MOVEMENTS 
 
 Interest in all Church questions — Proposed Union of Free 
 and United Presbyterian Chui'ches — Speech at Inver- 
 ness — Use of hymns in public worship — His love of 
 hymns — Sir William Mackinnon — Revision of Con- 
 fession of Faith and the Declaratory Act . . . 181 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE ROBERTSON SMITH CASE 
 
 Tendency to liberal views — Drawn personally to Mr. 
 Robertson Smith — Constrained to oppose him — Smith's 
 views on Deuteronomy — Proceedings in College Com- 
 mittee, General Assembly, and Presbytery of Aberdeen 
 — End of the case — Dr. Brown retains his views to the 
 end, but declines further fighting — Generous tribute 
 to Professor Robertson Smith ..... 196 
 
xii DAVID BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT REVISION COMPANY 
 
 PAGE 
 
 His popularity among the members — List of members of 
 the Company — Letters from Bishop Ellicott and Bishop 
 Westcott — Reminiscences of Professor Roberts — 
 Esteem and affection of the late Dr. Moulton — Opposed 
 to Drs. Hort and Westcott on the question of the text 
 — Various articles on the subject — His opinion of the 
 Revised Version of the New Testament . . . 213 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. J. H. NEWMAN 
 
 Combination of loyalty to his creed and charity — Sends 
 Life of Dr. Duncan to Dr. Newman, from which 
 correspondence begins — Sends him lectures and papers 
 on the Person of Christ, science, and religion — Modern 
 unbelief, etc. etc. — Dr. Newman's opinion of the Free 
 Church of Scotland — Dr. Brown visits him at the 
 Oratory 233 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. MARTINEAU AND OTHERS 
 
 Letter of Dr. Martineau to Miss Brown — Dr. Martineau's 
 address of 1881 — Correspondence regarding it — Final 
 letter of Dr. Brown — Rev. Alexander Gordon — Rev. 
 Dr. Warfield, Princeton — Rev. Professor Salmon, 
 Dublin — Rev. Principal Moule, Cambridge — Mr. 
 David McLaren — Rev. Frank H. ^Vliite— His deep 
 interest in ' Physicus ' (Mr. George J. Romanes) . 248 
 
CONTENTS xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH PERSONAL FRIENDS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 His sympathy with bereaved friends — Letter to Countess 
 Dowager of Kintore — To Mrs. Brown Douglas — To 
 Mr. David McLaren — Letters from Rev. Joseph Scudder 
 — From Rev. Dr. Gordon, Rector of Chetwynd — From 
 Dr. Fleming Stevenson — Note from Mr. Spurgeon — 
 Anecdote of Mr. Spurgeon and Dr. Brown . . 269 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE PRINCIPALSHIP 
 
 His unanimous election by the General Assembly, May 1876 
 — His opening and closing lectures — Closing lecture of 
 1895 — His interest in University matters, especially 
 the union of King's and Marischal Colleges — Speech in 
 the Presbytery — Examined by the University Com- 
 mission — Interest in other public movements . . 287 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 LATER WRITINGS 
 
 His book on the Restoration of the Jews — Life of Dr. John 
 Duncan — Book on Structure of the Apocalypse — Con- 
 tains his famous reply to Sir William Hamilton — His 
 idea of the plan of the Apocalypse — Commentaries on 
 Romans and Corinthians — Projected Life of John a- 
 I<asco — Contributioi:is to Magazines and Reviews . 300 
 
xiv DAVID BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 MODERATOR OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Unanimously chosen, 1885 — Opening addi-ess — The twofold 
 great end of the Christian Church, missionary and 
 pastoral — Present condition of the Churches — Espe- 
 cially the Free Church of Scotland — A warning — 
 Danger of tampering with the Bible — Need of firm 
 adherence in things vital, and latitude in things not 
 vital — Three things needed to make the wilderness 
 blossom — Public testimonial from his friends . . 313 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC 
 
 His seven children — Their upbringing — Recreations — Death 
 of his wife in 1879 — His grief, tempered with courage — 
 Presentation of his bust to the College — Made a Knight 
 Commander by the King of Servia — Receives degree 
 of D.D. in 1872, and LL.D. in 1896— His love of 
 literature, especially the poets — His character at large 
 — The great aim of his life 323 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 
 
 His longevity — Accident in 1892 — Occasional ailments did 
 not impair the vigour of his spirit — Interest in the work 
 both of the Church and the world — Love of music — 
 Activity of his pen — Contributions to the Expository 
 Times — His experiences when dying — Love of hymns — 
 The closing scene — Public funeral — Principal Rainy's 
 prayer .....,.., 338 
 
CONTENTS XV 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 TRIBUTES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 From British Weekly — Committee on Conversion of the 
 Jews — Free Church Synod of Aberdeen — Principal 
 Moule — Rev. Dr. Stewart, Lovedale — Rev. Professor 
 Warfield, Princeton — Rev. A. R. Faussett, York — 
 Rev. Frank H. White — Rev. Principal Hector, Cal- 
 cutta — Rev. Dr. Riddell, China — Rev. Principal 
 Stewart, St. Andrews — Rev. Dr. Gloag — Madame de 
 Faye — Mrs. Isabella Fyvie Mayo — Rev. Principal 
 Dykes — Rev. Dr. Elmslie, New Zealand . . . 363 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 FAMILY HISTORY 
 
 Practically, Dr. David Brown*'s life stretched from 
 end to end of the nineteenth century, for he was born 
 on the 17th August 1803, a little less than three years 
 after it began, and he died on the 3rd July 1897, a 
 little more than three years before its end. 
 
 It embraced the period of Waterloo, the Continental 
 Revolutions of 1848, the Crimean War, the Indian 
 Mutiny, and the Civil War in the United States ; of 
 Catholic Emancipation, the Reform Bill, Free Trade, 
 the adoption of India into the Empire, and the great 
 expansion of our Colonies ; of the Evangelical revival, 
 the Tractarian Movement, the Voluntary Controversy, 
 the Disruption of the Church of Scotland, and the dis- 
 establishment of that of Ireland. Further, it in- 
 cluded the era of rationalism, of ' the higher criticism," 
 and the development of the sensational philosophy; 
 of the Anti-Slavery struggle, the rise of social reform 
 and philanthropy, the conflict of Labour and Capital, 
 the era of great cities, of rapid travelling, and of 
 extended intercourse between country and country. It 
 witnessed the birth of biology and palaeontology, the 
 outflashing of electricity, the advance of astronomy, 
 the revolution in chemistry, and the rise and progress 
 of evolution. Among its prose writers were Scott, 
 
 A 
 
2 DAVID BROWN 
 
 Hallam, Macaulay, Whately, Kingsley, Thackeray, 
 Dickens, George Eliot, Emerson, Carlyle, and Ruskin; 
 while its poetical literature stretched from Wordsworth 
 to Teimyson, and embraced Coleridge, Southey, Keats, 
 Scott, Byron, Shelley, Longfellow, and the Brownings. 
 It covered the active period of our modern missions : 
 the period of Carey and DufF in India; of Morrison 
 and Burns in China ; of Moffat and Livingstone in 
 Africa ; of Williams and Patteson in the South Seas ; 
 of Hannington and Mackay in Uganda. It saw China 
 and Japan, so long asleep and shut out from the 
 modern world, opening their eyes and beginning to 
 appreciate the civilisation and the Christianity of the 
 West. And there was scarcely one of the events or 
 the persons we have named but had an interest for 
 David Brown, and an influence, too. He spent his life 
 under the play of forces of extraordinary interest and 
 variety ; and in his own person, in a general way at 
 least, he exemplified their effect, — taking on, in no 
 ordinary degree, the form and pressure of the age. 
 
 His paternal grandfather was a man of striking 
 individuality, if not genius — William Brown, the 
 first minister of a country congregation of the Seces- 
 sion at Craigdam, in Aberdeenshire. The county of 
 Aberdeen was not a congenial field for the seceders : it 
 had offered very serious opposition to the Covenanters ; 
 and the old leaven of Prelacy, and the prevailing 
 moderatism of the Established Church, made a cold 
 atmosphere and an unsympathetic people. But all the 
 more, when an evangelical preacher did appear, of great 
 earnestness and popular gifts, and an utter contrast to 
 
FAMILY HISTORY 3 
 
 the run of ordinary ministers, he became a power in 
 the district, and drew a large congregation. Brown of 
 Craigdam was one of those marked men, of homely 
 manner but burning soul, whose preaching created an 
 extraordinary interest, 'and had very blessed effects. 
 Under such a man many passed from death to life ; 
 while among the mass of his hearers his quaint sayings 
 were handed about from mouth to mouth with great 
 interest and appreciation, all the more because he knew 
 the power of the Scottish dialect both to conciliate 
 hearers and give point and pith to his remarks. He 
 had the happy knack of seasoning his talk with the 
 salt of the Gospel, without violence or affectation ; a 
 kindly, paternal way of bringing forward things un- 
 seen. His grandson remembered hearing an old man 
 describe a sermon which he had preached at Knock, 
 near Portsoy ; the subject was Simeon's welcome of the 
 infant Christ in the Temple. ' There did not appear to 
 be much in the old man's arms,' said the preacher ; 'and 
 yet the salvation of the world depended on what was 
 there: all was wrapt up in the infant whom Simeon 
 held in his arms.' Then, holding out his own arms, as 
 if embracino- the Saviour whom Simeon deemed so 
 precious, he appealed to the people with tearful voice, 
 * Have you, my freens, taken a grip o' Jesus ? ' ^ 
 
 When Mr. Brown accepted a call to Craigdam, the 
 congregation of poor farmers and labourers could pro- 
 mise him no more than fifteen pounds of salary — no 
 doubt worth more then than now. But the grip of 
 poverty neither impaired his activity nor lessened his 
 cheerfulness. A brisk and lively mode of movement 
 1 See Dr. Stark's Lights of the North. 
 
4 DAVID BROWN 
 
 procured for him the name of ' the rinnin'' minister ' ; 
 oddly enough, this peculiarity descended to his grand- 
 son, whose nimble movements, even at fourscore and 
 ten, were the subject of universal remark. ' Is old 
 Principal Brown still stepping about?' was once asked 
 of an Aberdonian. ' No,"* was the reply, * he 's running 
 about/ Apropos his well-known Biblical writings on 
 the Gospels and other books of Scripture, some called 
 him ' the running commentary.' 
 
 One of the Craigdam minister's sons, whose name 
 was Alexander, after enjoying with his two brothers 
 the services of a tutor, Mr. Cowie (who afterwards 
 became a famous minister in Huntly, as George Mac- 
 donald records), went to Aberdeen at the age of six- 
 teen to push his fortune, and found an opening in a 
 bookseller's shop. He was a brisk, active, good-looking 
 young fellow, who could keep his eyes and his ears open 
 for anything to help him in life ; after three years of 
 service, he began business on his own account. His 
 story as the founder of a bookseller's business resembles 
 that of the first John Murray, and of James Nisbet, 
 W. and R. Chambers, and Thomas Nelson ; although, 
 from his provincial position, he could not, like them, 
 build up a first-class publishing establishment. But he 
 went on steadily, moving from Upper Kirkgate to 
 Broad Street, and from Broad Street to Union Street, 
 so that the progress of his barque might have been 
 described by the motto of a well-known Edinburgh 
 firm in a collateral department : — 
 
 ' Firma pererrat aquas, et constabilitur eundo.' 
 
 To the ordinary business of a bookseller, Mr. Brown 
 
FAMILY HISTORY 5 
 
 added that of a circulating library; and when his stock 
 accumulated to many thousands of volumes, he would 
 sell off the surplus by auction. Here his lively manner 
 and abounding humour stood him in good stead, for 
 Aberdeen auctioneers (shrewd men !) know well that 
 you must have people in good humour if you would 
 look for a successful sale. He was also a bookbinder, 
 and he tried to be a papermaker. As he prospered 
 in business, so he rose in the esteem of the community. 
 Marked for his shrewdness, integrity, and kindliness, 
 he was precisely the kind of man to be thought of for 
 municipal honours. In those days there was no such 
 thing as popular election of councillors or magistrates ; 
 each town council elected its successor. As he stood 
 well with the old council, he came to be first a coun- 
 cillor, then a junior bailie, then senior bailie, and 
 finally, provost. Twice he filled the Provost's chair, 
 with credit to himself and advantage to the town, each 
 time for two years, in 1822-23 and in 1826-27. His 
 place of business became a rendezvous for literary men, 
 with whom, from his lively manner and abounding 
 humour, he was very popular. From the Government 
 he received the office of Distributor of Stamps for 
 the district of Aberdeen. Though contrary to the 
 ordinary rule, this office was continued to his son. 
 
 Prospering in business, he acquired considerable 
 property in the city and suburbs. But he came to 
 know, like many, the fickleness of fortune ; and at his 
 death, which occurred in 1848, he had lost nearly the 
 whole. 
 
 David Brown's mother, Catharine Chalmers, a woman 
 among a thousand, came of a family distinguished for 
 
6 DAVID BROWN 
 
 generations by literary ability, and a fine taste in 
 music and other arts. Her father was James Chalmers, 
 proprietor and editor of the Aberdeen Journal. Her 
 grandmother, Susanna Trail, a lady of very superior 
 gifts, was descended from Robert Trail, who was 
 minister of Greyfriars' Church, Edinburgh, in the 
 seventeenth century ; and, being ejected, took refuge in 
 Holland after the restoration of Charles ii. His son 
 was author of a well-known work on the FnlfilUng of 
 Scripture, that must have liad a peculiar interest for an 
 exegetical scholar like his descendant, David Brown. 
 There are still extant some letters from Mrs. Susanna 
 Chalmers to her accomplished son, Alexander Chalmers, 
 the editor of the Biog-raphical Dictionary, that show 
 her to have been remarkable both for piety and culture. 
 Two of ]\Irs. Brown's sisters were married to well- 
 known ministers : one to ]\Ir. Burns of Brechin, father- 
 in-law of Dr. Guthrie ; the other to Mr. Burns of 
 Kilsyth, father of William and Islay Burns. 
 
 All who remember Mrs. Alexander Brown describe 
 her as a remarkable woman. Well connected, well 
 educated, profoundly conscientious, and very earnest in 
 religion, she had a strong influence on all who were in 
 contact with her. A good housekeeper, hospitable to 
 her friends, doing credit to her husband's, position as 
 chief magistrate, greatly interested in the charitable 
 institutions of the city, some of which she helped both 
 to organise and to administer, she was loved by many 
 and respected by all. In business, as in other matters, 
 she was of use to her husband. It is recorded of her 
 that when great inconvenience was felt by the trade in 
 Aberdeen, where the art of ruling paper with blue and 
 
FAMILY HISTORY 7 
 
 red lines was then unknown, so that account-books had 
 to be sent up to Edinburgh to be ruled, the spirit and 
 energy of Mrs, Brown made her mistress of the situa- 
 tion. She procured a ruling-machine from London, 
 with instructions for its use ; this machine she kept 
 carefully locked up in a garret, and, with the aid of 
 a female servant, was able to rule all the paper 
 needed for Aberdeen — no small triumph, in sooth, 
 for Aberdeen did not care to be dependent on 
 Edinburgh ! ^ 
 
 The family of Provost and Mrs. Brown were eight — 
 five sons and three daughters. The three daughters 
 were married to ministers, men of worth and ability, 
 all of whom left the Established Church at the Disrup- 
 tion. Of the sons, three were in business, and two, 
 David and Charles, in the ministry. The oldest, 
 William, and the fourth, Charles, were those wdth 
 whom David had the most intimate relations. William, 
 born in 1796, at first in partnership with his father, 
 thereafter Distributor of Stamps for the town and 
 district of Aberdeen, was a man of singularly brisk 
 and lively manner and flowing spirits, an enthusiastic 
 musician, and a most zealous witness for Christian truth 
 and helper in Christian work. His daughter Catharine 
 became the wife of the Rev. Islay Burns, D.D., the 
 successor of Mr. M'Cheyne as minister of St. Peter's, 
 Dundee, and thereafter a professor in the Divinity 
 College of the Free Church in Glasgow. Charles 
 John, born 1806, was a distinguished minister, first in 
 Glasgow, and thereafter in Edinburgh, a powerful 
 Biblical and experimental preacher, intensely spiritual, 
 ^ See Walker's Bookseller s Stall, 
 
8 DAVID BROWN 
 
 and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free 
 Church of Scotland in 1872. 
 
 It was an unhappy circumstance that Provost Brown 
 and his wife attended different churches. Mr. Brown, 
 born a seceder, had joined the Established Church ; 
 while Mrs. Brown, bom in the Established Church, but 
 unable to find in it the spiritual good she desired, had 
 become a seceder. The congregation with which Mr. 
 Brown had become connected, and of which he after- 
 wards became an elder, that of the West Church, was 
 steeped in iNIoderatism ; that of Mrs. Brown, the 
 Original Secession Church in Skene Street, under a 
 very earnest minister, was highly evangelical, and 
 was so strict in its discipline that it did not allow 
 its members to attend worship, even occasionally, in 
 the Established Church, holding that such attendance 
 implied a violation of their protest against its defec- 
 tions. Mrs. Brown's children appear to have gone 
 with their mother as hearers, but as communicants 
 they joined the Establishment. Perhaps it is a fact 
 unparalleled in all history, that while she had two 
 sons and three sons-in-law in the ministry, for whom 
 she had all a mother's affection and admiration, she 
 never, save on one peculiar occasion, heard any of 
 them preach. Her unflinching adherence to what she 
 deemed duty, no matter how painful the self-denial it 
 involved, must have had its effect, happily a good 
 effect, on her family. As in the somewhat parallel 
 case of Dr. Guthrie, whose mother likewise was a 
 seceder, this connection must have imparted to her son 
 David a sincere respect for a body at that time liable 
 to be despised ; and probably it communicated to his 
 
FAMILY HISTORY 9 
 
 personal religion an element of firmness and unworld- 
 liness, — something of the martyr spirit that would 
 abandon life itself before it would do dishonour to 
 what it held to be principle. 
 
 Though Mrs. Brown was an intensely conscientious 
 and earnest Christian, her religious experience was not 
 of a cheerful kind. Whether this is to be accounted 
 for by her deep humility and self-depreciation, or 
 whether it arose from a defect in the prevalent reli- 
 gious views of the time, when joy hardly got a place 
 among the fruits of the Spirit, we do not profess to 
 say. In a memorandum attached to a packet of her 
 letters to himself, which her son David preserved with 
 pious care, he thus wrote : ' From my precious mother, 
 to whom spiritually I owe more than I can express, 
 who, like Bunyan's "Mr. Fearing" in the Pilgrims 
 Progress, " played upon the bass "" ; living in habitual 
 
 bondage as to her own spiritual state, as did and 
 
 , all persons of eminent grace, and all of whom I 
 
 trust to meet, along with her who was " mine own flesh," 
 where we shall be " ever with the Lord." Aberdeen, 
 June 30, 1880.' 
 
 Very touching are the letters written in her old age 
 to her son David, at that time a minister in Glasgow, 
 begging of him : ' Pray for me who cannot pray for 
 myself or any other. Glad should I be,"* she adds, 
 ' could I say anything cheering as to the state of my 
 soul, but it is not so. I doubt whether there has been 
 any saving work in me. I sometimes get glimpses, but 
 then they seem to be succeeded by great darkness, and 
 1 question their reality. O David, I have need of your 
 prayers, that the Lord would show me His way, before 
 
10 DAVID BROWN 
 
 He cause my feet to stumble on the dark mountains/ 
 And yet, in the judgment of her Christian friends, this 
 woman in her heart was as lowly a penitent as ever 
 bowed at the Throne of Grace, and as loyal and loving 
 a servant of her God and Saviour as ever surrendered 
 her soul to Him. Despite her fits of depression, her 
 great earnestness and thorough consistency must have 
 had a very happy effect on her family. Her son says 
 that he owed more to her spiritually than he could 
 express; rarely, indeed, has there been such a house- 
 hold, where all the children appear to have drunk of 
 her spirit and followed her example. 
 
 David, the fourth son of the family, was born, 17th 
 August 1803, in a somewhat remarkable locality — a 
 house in Broad Street, close to INIarischal College, his 
 future alma mater -^ close to the house where Mrs. 
 Byron and her son, the poet, had lived but five years 
 before ; close to his father's place of business, which 
 was to inspire him with his love of books ; and close 
 to the town-house, where his father was destined to 
 hold the provost's sceptre. At his birth he was so 
 puny and feeble that his aunt and future mother-in- 
 law, Mrs. Dyce, who was present, hoped it would 
 please God to take him to a better world, little dream- 
 ing that he would all but touch the close of the 
 century that had recently opened. To his mother 
 he owed much in every way, even in the preparation 
 of his lessons when he went to the grammar school. 
 Studying beside her while she worked, he would some- 
 times stop. 'What is the matter, David?' she w^ould 
 ask. ' I cannot manage this exercise.' ' Well, let me 
 
FAMILY HISTORY 11 
 
 hear it in English,' she would say ; and then she 
 would suggest some ecjuivalent form in English, and 
 ask if it might not be turned that way. 'That's it — 
 the very thing ! "" the boy would exclaim. It must have 
 been a clever woman that could extricate from his 
 difficulties in M'hat to her was an unknown tongue 
 the future dux of the grammar school. 
 
 If it was tlirough the instrumentality of his mother 
 that he obtained his deeper experiences, it was pro- 
 bably from his father that he derived his lively, cheer- 
 ful, humour -loving temperament. And his father's 
 business, too, among books seems to have had an 
 important imfluence. His native literary taste would 
 be drawn out by his bookish surroundings, by his 
 constantly hearing of books and handling them, and 
 by his mixing with his father's literary friends and 
 acquaintances. Aberdeen, with its two Universities, 
 had always been a highly literary town ; imbibing its 
 genius loci, and profiting by his opportunities, he would 
 be stimulated towards higher acquirements, though he 
 was the only member of his family that showed this 
 tendency. His brother Charles, who also became a 
 minister of the Gospel, and who was decidedly ahead 
 of him in preaching gifts and spiritual power, had 
 neither the scholarship nor the broad mind and wide 
 culture of David. 
 
12 DAVID BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 STUDENT DAYS 
 
 At the usual early age, having just entered his tenth 
 year, after having learned a little English at the 
 academy of Dr. Welsh, David Brown entered the 
 grammar school of Aberdeen. It was before the 
 days of Melvin, who shed so much lustre on it a 
 few years later, but his teachers, he himself said, were 
 able and scholarly men. We have no details of this 
 period of his life, but that he entered on its work with 
 zeal and diligence, and prosecuted it with eminent 
 success is apparent from the fact that in his last 
 year, 1817, he was dux of the school. Latin was 
 then the one and only subject of instruction — Latin 
 semper^ uhique, et ab omnibus. But the school had de- 
 generated from those earlier days when Latin was 
 spoken by the pupils, and when on the occasion of a 
 royal visit tliey were able to deliver themselves in 
 Latin addresses before the king. 
 
 In David Brown"'s days the grammar school occupied 
 a quaint, one-storeyed building in the Schoolhill, in 
 the form of a letter I laid flat, the middle part being 
 the public school, and the projections representing the 
 four class-rooms where the work of the school was 
 carried on. Boys that were alert and attentive got 
 
STUDENT DAYS 13 
 
 excellent instruction, but for the great majority, who 
 had no natural liking for Latin, and whose interest 
 there was absolutely nothing to stimulate, the great 
 object was to enjoy what fun they could under the 
 shadow of the ' factions,"* as the seats were called, and 
 to elude the vigilance of the master and the censor 
 who was set to watch if any boy should be guilty of 
 speaking. But the idle boys made up for their supine- 
 ness indoors by their outburst of animation at the hour 
 of release. In a twinkling the little playground was 
 alive with the simple games of the period — it might be 
 marbles, or pegtops, or buttons, or hand-balls, or the 
 frisky sport of ' hurry "" or ' ke-how.' And, for the 
 most part, the good boys were as fond of the games as 
 the lazy. No doubt David Brown, with his bright, 
 buoyant nature, entered into them heart and soul. 
 Nor even in his remote old age was he ever out of 
 sympathy with such playful activity. A venerable 
 English headmaster, an associate of Dr. Brown''s in the 
 Company of Revisers, the late Dr. Moulton of Cam- 
 bridge, told me that on one occasion when Dr. Brown 
 came to call on him, he happened to be watching his 
 boys at football. He made a kind of apology for what 
 might appear to a stranger an unsuitable employment. 
 Dr. Brown just laughed, and expressed the delight it 
 gave him to see the boys at play. 
 
 His interest in the grammar school remained to the 
 last. 'It was his delight,'' said the Aberdeen Journal 
 in its obituary notice, ' of recent years to attend the 
 annual prize distributions, and only last week a letter 
 was sent on his behalf expressing his regret at being 
 unable to be present at the closing day of the session.' 
 
14 DAVID BROWN 
 
 It was a rare thing for any school to have among its 
 visitors one who had entered it more than eighty years 
 before, or (as was actually the case) to see the dux of 
 1817 shaking hands with the dux of 1895. 
 
 From the grammar school he proceeded to Marischal 
 College. His teachers here were respectable men, but 
 not of the highest mark ; the most eminent was Dr. 
 Robert Hamilton, Professor of Mathematics, a genius, 
 but an eccentric one; known to the world as the author 
 of a treatise that knocked on the head a proposal, 
 under high auspices, for paying off the national debt ; 
 known to the Aberdonians for his absence of mind, of 
 which many humorous stories used to be told. An- 
 other professor who had more than a local reputation 
 was Dr. Patrick Copland, Professor of Natural Philo- 
 sophy, the first to form a physical laboratory or museum 
 in Scotland, for which purpose he spent much time and 
 money, and travelled far in European countries. 
 
 In the absence of other material bearing: on this 
 
 CD 
 
 period, we may be pardoned for quoting a letter 
 addressed to David Brown, in Greek, by his friend, 
 the Rev. Alexander Black, to whom he had paid a 
 visit in his manse at Tarvos. The writer was a remark- 
 able man. When only a probationer, he had tried for 
 the chair of divinity in King's College, which has 
 always been filled by competitive trial, and he had 
 acquitted himself so well, that although not the suc- 
 cessful candidate (we shall hear of him by and by, Dr. 
 Duncan Mearns), he received the degree of D.D. from 
 the college, and from the Earl of Aberdeen the presen- 
 tation to the parish of Tarves. Dr. Black was subse- 
 quently Professor of Divinity in Marischal College, and 
 
STUDENT DAYS 15 
 
 thereafter for a time Professor of Exegetics in New 
 College, Edinburgh. He was a man of extraordinary 
 acquirements, of whom, coupling him for linguistic 
 gifts with Dr. John Duncan, Dr. Guthrie once said 
 they could speak their way to the wall of China, Both 
 of them were Nathanaels — children in the things of 
 this world, but wonderful scholars. Black's letter may 
 show that at the close of his first session, David Brown 
 was already able to read and appreciate a letter in 
 simple Greek ; it also throws some light on the social 
 customs of the time, for we find him travelling home- 
 wards on foot, a distance of more than twenty miles. 
 Pedestrianism, now becoming a lost art, served many a 
 student in good stead in those days when coaches were 
 rare, railways unknown, and bicycles undreamt of. In 
 reading Dr. Black's letter we must remember that at 
 Aberdeen in those days, as Hebrew was read with- 
 out the points, so Greek was dealt with without the 
 accents : — 
 
 OvK cSet /xe, <jn\TaTe AavtS, ctti toctovtov \povov aioiTr^-i'. 
 IlaAai eKOfjiba-afirjv eincrToXrjv irapa (rov fxera rrjv arjv ep 
 rjfxerepas ot/ctas aTroX(oprj(TiV aXX\ ovk otS' ovrcos, aei 
 ave^aAAo/x>/v rrjv Trpos (re ypacf)r]v p^XP'' '^'V'^ (rr]/xepov rjpepa^- 
 ov8e vvv a^oXr] poi (.ctti ypacpeiv aroL wcnrep f3ovXo/xaL. Et 
 ySeiv ry rjiiepa rq^ cr»ys aw €jxov p^eTaxoyptjcrecos, ae Tracrav ttjv 
 €i§ AfSepSovtav 68ov ttc^jj irofqcreiv av, ovk av (re irpos 
 EAAwva (Ellon) eirepxj/aj rj yap evOvs oBos e/c Tauras ^wpa? 
 €is Tr/v jjieyaXrjv tvoXlv KeLrat Sta yueo-r^s rr^? TrapoiKcas rr/? 
 OfSvias (Udny). Ma^iy/xaT6/cos eis, ^avi8, Kai oiSas aKpt/3ws 
 Tovs Sro TrAeiipas tov Tptyayvos paKpoTepas eivai tyjs rpcTrjS. 
 
 Xatpw Kttt ev(f>paLvop.ai fxaOuyv ck Trjs at]'? c7rio-ToA7ys t^evo- 
 <}i(DVTa croi evx^pCTLV eLvaCeXiri^w yap ert /cat vvv (re avayivwcTKeiv 
 
16 DAVID BROWN 
 
 TOVTov Tov yXvKVTaTov crvyypa<fi€a' A^eAt^s ecrri Kat (ra(f)r]';, 
 tt)s aXr]6u}S €L Kat tis aAAos Twv 'EAXiyviKwv crvyypa(})e(DV Kat 
 Qvoajxodiv aXXo9ev ^vvrja-rj KapTTOvcrdat fxei^ova w^eAeiav tt/dos 
 T>^v aKpi/3ecrTaTr]v yvwcrtv rrys 'EAAaSos cfnovrjs. 
 
 riavra (tov tov ^povov iiTroAo/xjSavoj ev rots ttj? AKaSrjixias 
 paO-q/xaa-LV avaXia-Kea-dai. Eav Se (rot o-^oAvj virapy^'Q ypa<p€Lv 
 p,OL eTTLCTToXrjv, iroXXrjv poi rjoovqv Trape^ei ro irapa tov 
 fiav6av€Lv TravTtt ra Trcpt twp' criov einTrjSevpLaruiV. 'H p-TrjTrjp 
 p.ov, Trept ';}s ev ry (Tna-ToXij ^tAo<^/50v(os epuTcis, ev p.aXa vyiaivei 
 TYj )(prj(rTOTr]Tt, ttjs Getas Ilporotas. 
 
 Avrr] cl/ia Kat eyw eX-m^opev (re Kat, tous o"ovs ev TrpaTTciv. 
 Eppwo-o AttDiS" Travra crot ev Kat KaAws yei'OtTO. 
 6 (TOS (fnXos, 
 
 AAe^avSpos o MeAas. 
 
 Ek tou povcreiov ev tj] Trapoi^Kj. Tapvecna^ rrj (3' tov 
 ^e/SpovapLov prjvo';, tov a.T.e.T.o.rj. ctovs ccuk'. 
 
 Having passed through the ordinary four years' 
 course of study, David Brown took his degree of 
 M.A. in 1821. 
 
 His next step was to enter the Divinity Hall. That 
 he did so under the influence of solemn feelings, and 
 not merely (as was too common at the time) as a step 
 towards a comfortable livelihood, we infer from various 
 considerations. His mother"'s instructions had made a 
 deep impression on him; it had become a joy to him 
 to think of the love of God and the grace of the 
 Saviour ; this experience suffered eclipse as his studies 
 went on, but returned to him afterwards with all the 
 satisfaction of a recovered treasure. He was one of a 
 very few students who met for prayer and reading of 
 the Scriptures. We know that there were students of 
 more worldly spirit with whom he fought hard, but 
 
STUDENT DAYS 17 
 
 apparently in vain, to bring them under more spiritual 
 views of the ministry. We might name one who after- 
 wards became distinguished, and with whom he had 
 many a walk, pressing his views upon him, but at the 
 time in vain ; later in life, however, the distance 
 between them was not so great. In foreign missions he 
 had already begun to take an interest, for he spoke, 
 in his opening address as Moderator of the General 
 Assembly of 1885, of a never-to-be-forgotten address 
 of John Wilson, afterwards of Bombay, in the Divinity 
 Hall of Aberdeen. 
 
 Students of divinity at that time had to attend 
 divinity classes on alternate days in Marischal and 
 King''s Colleges. In Marischal College, David Brown 
 would have for his teacher Principal W. Laurence 
 Brown, an able man, but of the moderate school, who 
 had gained the greatest literary prize in Scotland, 
 amounting to twelve hundred pounds, in connection 
 with the Burnett foundation, for an Essay on the 
 Being and Attributes of God. The gainer of the 
 second prize was the Rev. John Bird Sumner, after- 
 wards Archbishop of Canterbury ; and it was a proud 
 distinction for Aberdeen that 
 
 ' the north for ance had dung the south/ 
 
 and that the presbyterian kirk had left the English 
 second in the race. But Laurence Brown was cold and 
 dry, a man from whom students could derive no enthu- 
 siasm.^ The Professor of Hebrew was a man of very 
 
 ^ His son, the late Dr. Robert J. Brown, Professor of Greek, was a 
 man of evangelical views and much warmer temperament ; he joined 
 the Free Church in 1S43, and was chosen Moderator of the General 
 Assembly in 1846. 
 
 B 
 
18 I)AVID BROWN 
 
 different stamp, — the Rev. James Kidd, minister of 
 Gilcomston Chapel of Ease, the most popular preacher 
 in the town, a chamjiion of the evangelical cause, 
 but certainly not a great teacher,^ In King's College, 
 the Professor of Divinity was Dr. Duncan Mearns, 
 a very able man and accomplished theologian, but 
 wofully stiff and dry. Dr. David Brown has recorded 
 in his Life of Dr. John Duncan the remarkable im- 
 pression made on the latter by Dr. Mearns's prayers, 
 at the time when he was floundering in the. darkness 
 of atheism. It was a strange spectacle — a student of 
 divinity owning himself unable to believe in the exist- 
 ence of God; but such was Rabbi Duncan's position 
 for a considerable part of his divinity course. The first 
 step towards the light arose from Dr. Mearns's prayers. 
 What impressed Duncan was, that they were manifestly 
 addresses to a living being, and it was borne in on him 
 intuitively that that being must have an objective 
 existence. It was no logical argument that turned 
 him from atheism, but simply the influence of a true 
 and reverent believer's prayers, conveying the sense of 
 a living fellowship between him and the object of his 
 worship. Though nearly all the rest of his life Duncan 
 was in a position of direct antagonism to all Dr. Mearns's 
 ecclesiastical views, he never forgot this obligation, and 
 only a few days before his death he said, ' I don't wish 
 my obligations to Dr. Mearns to be forgotten. He 
 called out all that was in me to combat him, but 
 unsuccessfully. And I do remember his perhaps too 
 distant, but so respectful prayers. I was an atheist when 
 
 1 See Professor Masson's testimony to him in Macniillan's Magazine ; 
 and the recently published Memoir by Rev. Dr. Stark, Aberdeen. 
 
STUDENT DAYS 19 
 
 I entered his class; and though it did not come to 
 saving faith, I am under great obligation to him.'' 
 
 Following up Dr. Duncan's estimate of Dr. Mearns, 
 Dr. David Brown gives us his own : — 
 
 ' Having myself studied under that able man for four 
 years, I can attest the striking accuracy of what Mr. Dun- 
 can here says of his prayers, and justify his testimony to 
 the power of his lectures. From the first day I entered 
 his class to the day on which I left it, I was riveted and 
 awed by the terse dignity with which he expressed him- 
 self in those short yet comprehensive prayers, and even 
 more by 'the severe gravity and tremulous reverence with 
 which they were uttered. One might have heard a pin 
 drop during the three or four minutes that they lasted. 
 His lectures were framed on the model of Dr. Hill's, in 
 respect both of their subject matter — the doctrines of the 
 Westminster Confession of Faith — the severely rational 
 convincing strain of them, and withal the absence from 
 them of all evangelical fervour. Like his prayers, they 
 were grave, elevated, impressive — but distant. With 
 nothing that could be called original, they yet fixed the 
 attention, and produced a marked impression, owing 
 largely to the stamp of the man and his manner of 
 delivering them. Coming as I did from a school of 
 religious thought and ecclesiastical sympathy very different 
 from his — one, too, to which every now and then he showed 
 his very deep dislike — I also entered his class in a scarcely 
 less combative spirit than Mr. Duncan did, though on 
 different grounds, and expected to detect in his lectin-es, 
 sooner or later, theological flaws. But the result was the 
 same — I also was silenced. Natural theology he treated 
 more fully, and (according to ray recollection) more satis- 
 factorily than Dr. Hill : thus remarkably suitins^ Mr. 
 Duncan's state of mind on entering his class. His unhappy 
 
20 DAVID BROWN 
 
 reply to Dr. Chalmers's work on the Evidences of 
 Christianity — though it damaged his own reputation, and 
 was fitter to be withdrawn from public notice than recom- 
 mended for the undoubtedly sound principle which lay at 
 the bottom of it — showed at least how deeply the founda- 
 tions of all religious belief were settled in his own mind ; 
 and that Mr. Duncan should have been placed under 
 his commanding influence on his first entrance on theo- 
 logical study in the Church of Scotland is to be noted as a 
 special mercy.' 
 
 But by far the most important event in connection 
 with Dr. Brown's theological studies, was his own 
 intercourse with Dr. Duncan.^ It is almost needless to 
 recall to the recollection of our readers the remark- 
 able gifts, both of intellect and grace, that met in 
 Duncan, — a man of whom, a short time after his 
 death, there were publislied no fewer thfin three 
 biographies, in whole or in part, — the Colloquia Peri- 
 patctica of Professor Knight, the Life by Dr. Brown, 
 and the Reminiscences of Dr. Moody Stuart. Duncan, 
 though converted to theism, had not gone further 
 during the term of his theological studies, and having 
 little or no heart for the ministry, had tried in vain 
 to earn a livelihood as a public teacher, both in 
 England and Scotland, his eccentric habits invariably 
 causing failure.^ He had returned to Aberdeen, and 
 
 ^ In what follows in this connection we are greatly indebted to Dr. 
 Brown's own L?/e of Dr. Djincan, the part that bears on his early 
 intercourse with his friend being virtually a chapter of autobiography, 
 as well as a chapter of Dr. Duncan's life. 
 
 2 Among Dr. Brown's papers I have found a letter from an old 
 baptist minister. Rev. John Gerrie, Elora, Ontario. He tells how 
 Mr. Duncan was appointed schoolmaster (or rather assistant to the 
 
STUDENT DAYS 21 
 
 was giving private instructions in various languages. 
 He was then twenty-five, and David Brown eighteen. 
 Before entering the Divinity Hall, David was desirous 
 to know something of Hebrew, and agreed with Mr. 
 Duncan for a quarter's tuition ; but Duncan being 
 fully employed, the hour between half-past six and 
 half-past seven in the morning had to be fixed on. 
 Very often, owing to his irregular habits, half-an-hour 
 elapsed before Duncan appeared, and on some occasions 
 he did not appear at all. But what Brown got from 
 him as a teacher of languao-es was invaluable. Stores 
 of information in Oriental literature were poured out ; 
 vistas of interest were opened ; that greatest of in- 
 tellectual treats to a young inquiring mind came to 
 young Brown, when glimpses of unexplored territory 
 of supreme interest and beauty flash before hin:i, and 
 he is conscious of a guide that can lead him through 
 them all. Among other books that came into his 
 hands at this time, was Michaelis''s Introduction to the 
 Old Testament. Michaelis inoculated him with his own 
 spirit of fearless Bible research, and led him to question 
 some of his traditional beliefs. Finding him in this 
 
 schoolmaster) in the parish of PitsHgo, near Fraserburgh, and lodged 
 with his father and mother who lived in that neighbourhood. They 
 had come from the district of Huntly, and had been devoted members 
 of the congregation of the great and good Mr. Cowie, and (probably 
 through this means) were friends of Duncan's parents. He seemed 
 to be in a state of doubt and conflict ; but Mr. Gerrie remembered 
 well the strange flashes of thought that would burst from him on many 
 subjects, and the marvellous speculations he would propound on the 
 works and ways of God. Absent in mind, uncouth in manner, slender 
 in figure, and feeble in frame, he was unable to control the scholars, 
 several of whom were grown lads, and in a few months he gave up the 
 school. 
 
22 DAVID BROWN 
 
 state of mind, Duncan drew specially to him, and 
 they became great friends. Almost daily they walked 
 and talked, and gradually, in the course of time. 
 Brown became infected with some of the theological 
 views of his friend. He found himself drawn and 
 bound to him by a powerful magnetic force, as he 
 was afterwards, on very different topics, attracted 
 and bound to Edward Irving. The process had gone 
 on so gradually and imperceptibly, that it was with 
 a start of surprise to his pupil, that one day Duncan, 
 speaking of their common views, used the expression, 
 ' We Unitarians."' The expression, however, was not 
 unsuitable to their views at the time on the person 
 and work of Christ. 
 
 At last, in 1825, Duncan took courage, drugged his 
 conscience into subscribing the Confession of Faith, 
 and was licensed as a preacher. His first sermon was 
 delivered in the West Church, virtually the High 
 Church of Aberdeen. His text was, ' Behold what 
 manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that 
 we should be called the sons of God ! "* Not believing 
 in our Lord's Divinity or His Atonement, he spoke 
 with power and eloquence of 'the man Christ Jesus, 
 the flower of humanity, the perfection of human 
 beauty, the archetypal Son of God, into whose spirit 
 whoso drinks, and whose bright example whoso copies, 
 becomes himself so far forth a son of God.' David 
 Brown was there eagerly listening, and greatly charmed. 
 The idea was derived from Herder, but the drapery 
 was Duncan's, and a beautiful picture it was. This, 
 then, was the terminus — the landing stage of Duncan's 
 teaching : Jesus Christ the crown and glory of humanity, 
 
STUDENT DAYS 23 
 
 but not the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin 
 of the world. In after years, Brown used to shudder 
 at the perilous conclusion he had reached ; had his 
 course not been providentially arrested, he felt assured 
 that he would have sunk into the darkness of utter 
 unbelief. 
 
 Yet we are not to suppose from this eclipse of 
 his faith, that all his past experiences were unreal. 
 The Pilgi'irri's Progress has made us familiar with 
 similar experiences, even in common life, and strange 
 though it may appear, students of divinity lie exposed 
 to them, even beyond the common measure. It is no 
 easy ordeal for a youth who has shared the simple 
 faith of godly parents, and accepted the great truths 
 of the Gospel as one accepts the axioms of Euclid, 
 to be confronted first of all with the speculations of 
 philosophy, that sometimes make him doubt even his 
 own existence ; and then to find every Christian posi- 
 tion assailed by unbelievers with subtle and telling 
 arguments which he never heard of before, and which 
 are often most perplexing. To his horror, he discovers 
 that many of his beliefs have had little other founda- 
 tion than human authority; and so far from the great 
 doctrines of Christianity standing out in all their 
 divine strength unassailed by human foe, he finds that 
 opponents of the Gospel, like the clansmen of Roderick 
 Dhu, lie concealed behind every bush and rock, com- 
 pelling him to fight his way through almost impene- 
 trable hosts of objections and difficulties. Happy the 
 youth who at the first, under a powerful sense of his 
 own case as a sinner, and a vivid perception of the 
 adaptation of Christ's grace to his needs, accepts Him 
 
24 DAVID BROWN 
 
 as his personal Saviour, and comes into union with 
 Him by a link of the Holy Spirit's forming. Swing 
 as he may on the surges of doubt and unbelief, he 
 cannot be carried out, a helpless waif, into tlie wide 
 ocean ; sooner or later he must return. The good 
 shepherd will not leave his wandering sheep on the 
 mountains ; he will go after him and find him, and 
 bring him back rejoicing. 
 
 On completing his studies at the Divinity Hall of 
 Aberdeen, David Brown had a strong desire to spend 
 some time in Germany, but as obstacles arose to this 
 plan, he took instead a winter in Edinburgh. While 
 there, he seems to have extended the area of his 
 studies, for, among his academical relics, there is a 
 class ticket sliowinjj that he attended the class of Dr. 
 Hope, Professor of Chemistry. What other classes 
 he attended does not appear. But the winter in 
 Edinburgh had very important results in another 
 direction. He came under new religious influences 
 that, in spite of himself, prepared him for a great 
 change. Pulpit ministrations of rare intellectual power, 
 of uncommon earnestness, and of searching spirituality, 
 revived all the experiences of his early religious life, 
 and renewed the joy with which he used to think of 
 redemption through the grace of Christ and the power 
 of the Spu'it. Among those to whom he owed most 
 in this connection, were the late Dr. Gordon of the 
 High Church, and the late Dr. M'Crie, author of 
 the Life of John Knox. But a more specific impres- 
 sion was made on him by a foreigner — Dr. Cesar Malan 
 of Geneva, who was preaching for a time in Edin- 
 burgh, and urging his views of the freeness of the 
 
STUDENT DAYS 25 
 
 Gospel on a somewhat astonished, but still not opposed 
 community. The way in which Malan pressed the 
 duty of coming at once to a clear determination of 
 the state of things between the sinner and God, and 
 the marvellous effects that were seen to arise from his 
 conversation, imparting to Christians of long standing 
 a liberty, light, and joy of heart unknown before, 
 and turning; not a few who had been utter worldlings 
 or worse from the power of Satan unto God, im- 
 pressed both David and his brother Charles, who was 
 with him at the time, as the true method of present- 
 ing the Gospel. Recovering his old sense of the 
 grandeur of God's unspeakable gift to a lost world, 
 and the glory of the method of peace through the 
 blood of the cross, he was seized at the same time 
 with an intense desire that his friend Duncan should 
 share his experience. 
 
 When he returned to Aberdeen he called on his 
 friend, eager to be ' at him.'' But when he tried to 
 touch on vital topics, he found him dry and reserved. 
 It seemed as if he had heard of the change on David, as 
 he always called him, and was expecting an assault, but 
 was determined to ward it off, if he could. They went 
 out, as was their custom, to walk. The night was fine, 
 and they paced backwards and forwards along a retired 
 street. At every point the attempts of Brown to get 
 into serious conversation failed. In his helplessness 
 he sent up a prayer, like Nehemiah, to the God of 
 heaven ; and not in vain, for a reference having been 
 made by Duncan to their former conversations on the 
 person of Christ, Brown felt that his opportunity had 
 now at last come. 
 
26 DAVID BROWN 
 
 The rest of this memorable conversation is given in 
 Dr. Brown"'s own words : — 
 
 ' " Ah ! friend, these were sad days to me, — days of dis- 
 organised behefs, of relaxed spiritual and moral tone, of 
 universal and mournful declension. True, I made immense 
 progress in the literature of theology, in Biblical criticism, 
 in exegetical insight ; and I despair not some day or other 
 turning that to good account in the service of Christ. But 
 the true key to the Bible was then wanting, and not having 
 the mind of God, how could I rightly interpret His Word as 
 a whole ? But now I see things in another light ; and to me 
 it would be a joy unspeakable if you and I, who so long 
 walked together in darkness and pride of speculation, were 
 now to see eye to eye, and help, more than ever we 
 hindered, one another." The ground thus broken, we set 
 to ; he making desperate attempts to blunt the edge of my 
 arguments and pleadings — sometimes trying to close the 
 discussion by saying, " That is your opinion, but it is not 
 mine " ; sometimes making light of the difference between 
 us — while I held to my point, feeling as I proceeded that 
 I was gaining upon him, and thus acquiring fresh courage. 
 By this time it was midnight, and though we had done 
 little else than go backwards and forwai'ds over the same 
 space of ground for more than three hours, now that it 
 was as dark as it could be, our walking ground became still 
 more contracted. Under what Aberdonians well know as 
 the Correction Wynd dry bridge, we did nothing now but 
 walk backwards and forwards for fully two hours or more. 
 "Tell me," said I, "what of natural and revealed religion 
 you hold to, that I may know what common ground we 
 have." This appeal had a wonderful effect. He stood 
 stock still. Then turning round to me with an air of 
 unusual solemnity, he said, " David, I must now be plain 
 with you. Time was when I was so sunk in atheism, that 
 
STUDENT DAYS 27 
 
 once on seeing a horse I said to myself, 'There is no 
 difference between that horse and me.' But Dr. Mearns 
 brought me out of that, and I have never since doubted 
 the existence of a personal^ living God. But he convinced 
 me, besides, of the truth of the Bible as a historical record. 
 So I have come to believe in the Jewish religion and in 
 Christianity as the complement of it. But the doctrines I 
 can't and I won't believe — I mean the Divinity and Atone- 
 ment of Christ." " Again, but what if they are written in 
 that Bible which you say you admit .^ you'll have to 
 believe them. Ay, friend, that towering Luciferian pride 
 of yours must come down, and you must become a little 
 child, willing to be taught, else you have no part in the 
 Kingdom of Heaven, for Christ your Master says so. But 
 tell me this, what has your religion done for you ? I 
 know what mine has done for me ; what has yours done 
 for you .'' " " Well, not much, I confess. To tell you the 
 truth, the words 'heaven' and 'hell' sound in my ears 
 with as little effect as the words ' tables ' and ' chairs.' 
 And yet I do sometimes feel a little." " What you feel 
 is not the question. What I want you to tell me is, are 
 you holy } " I knew I was here touching a sore place. So 
 looking him full in the face, the dim light just sufficient 
 to reveal his cowering look, I waited his answer. " No," 
 he replied, " I am not." "No, nor ever will be," I hastily 
 interposed, " so long as God's way of salvation from sin is 
 to such Greeks as you foolishness ; but to us who believe, 
 it is the power of God." "Ah ! David, but that's what I 
 can't take in yet. Can't I be saved without the doctrines } " 
 " What, are you going to potter at that rate with so solemn 
 a thing as salvation, trying at how cheap a rate, with how 
 small a sacrifice of your own prepossessions, you can be 
 let off.'' If my apprehensions and experience are worth 
 anything, all that is worth a straw in Christianity lies in 
 the 'doctrines.' Not that I undervalue its lofty views of 
 
28 DAVID BROWN 
 
 God^ of morality^ of lioliness, of a future state^ and so on ; 
 but take away the great doctrines that you wince at, and 
 you loosen the foundations on which all the other things 
 rest, and shake the whole edifice. But only surrender 
 your soul to Christ in the Gospel, and those great powers 
 of yours, now running to waste, will seem as if they were 
 newly imparted, and go to noble effect." ''Well, David, 
 all I can say is, I can't take that in yet." There was 
 something, however, in the subdued and half tremulous 
 tone in which this was said, which, far from dissipating, 
 only encouraged me to proceed, but in quite a changed 
 tone. Taking it for granted that I had so far gained his 
 assent, and believing that his difficulty would now lie 
 chiefly with that " evil heart of unbelief," I suggested 
 one encouragement after another, till, like a child, he 
 proceeded to question me how, supposing him a real 
 Christian, he was to act in such and such circumstances. 
 Never during all this time had Ave thought how the hours 
 were passing ; in fact, now we scarcely walked at all, but 
 under the bridge stood talking in a subdued tone, and so 
 lovingly, that I thought he would take me into his arms. 
 We now spoke of parting, it being, to the best of my recol- 
 lection, between two and three in the morning ; but he 
 would not let me go till we arranged to meet next day at 
 noon. This gave me the cheering conviction that all un- 
 willingness to come to close quarters with me had vanished, 
 and that we were now at length on a new footing together. 
 So with a full heart I went home, going to sleep with 
 little sense of fatigue, and rising with the tranquil hope 
 that what had been sown in weakness by me might be 
 reaped by the honoured servant of Christ, Dr. Cesar 
 Malan, who was to arrive in Aberdeen that evening. . . . 
 ' At noon, as arranged, I now went to meet my friend ; 
 and that we might not be interrupted, we went a little 
 beyond the suburbs. But this time our walk was not very 
 
STUDENT DAYS 29 
 
 long. The truth is^ it was so exceedingly satisfactory, that 
 I rather wished to avoid exhausting the great subjects of 
 our last night's talk, that he might be fresh for the ex- 
 pected stranger. I found him meek as a lamb ; in fact, 
 the gentle, subdued appearance which he presented, and 
 his half-timid eagerness to get into childlike talk rather 
 than theological discussion on the topics of the preceding 
 night, astonished and cheered me. Intense anxiety to be 
 such a Chrisiian as I had described and borne in upon him 
 the night before, combined with an inability to see how he 
 could ever be such — his all but certainty, judging from the 
 past, that even should he flatter himself that he was such, 
 and go on consistently for a time, he Avould sooner or later 
 relapse into his old state or worse — in this state of mind he 
 began to question me much as follows : — " You say, if any 
 man be in Christ he is a new creature — new in his views 
 of holiness and sin, of the service of Christ and the devil, 
 of the world, of all things. Well, but suppose I think 
 myself a new creature, and all things for a while are new 
 to me ; but after that newness wears off, I fall back and 
 sink into my old ways, am I still to flatter myself that I am 
 a regenerate man, and how am I to recover myself.''" 
 "Don't you be making provision," I replied, "for a 
 time of backsliding. Look rather to the way of safety. 
 Hear what the Lord Jesus says : ' Abide in Me and 
 I in you : as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself 
 except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye 
 abide in Me.' Would the Prodigal Son, welcomed back, 
 and with a full heart seated at his father's table, occupy 
 himself in speculating on the probability of his playing the 
 prodigal afresh, and considering what in that case would 
 be the proper course for him to take } Better far say 
 this : " I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I can- 
 not go back. What have I to do any more with idols ? I 
 will watch and pray that I enter not into temptation.' " 
 
30 DAVID BROWN 
 
 This strain seemed to find its echo in his own breast, for 
 he answered not a word. Still there was a want of confi- 
 dence, and I judged it inexpedient to press liim further. 
 I was afraid to put a rash hand to that tender state of 
 mind which he seemed to be in. So, having told me 
 that he was coming to meet with Malan that evening 
 in my brother's house, Ave parted after I had said a few 
 encouraging words to him, which he listened to in the 
 spirit of a child.' 
 
 Dr. Malan had come to Aberdeen, and was the 
 guest of William Brown, David's eldest brother. 
 Through him Malan and Duncan were brought to- 
 gether two days after the midnight conversation. 
 Malan dealt with him in his usual way, pressing on 
 him that if he believed that Jesus was the Christ, he 
 was born of God. In due time, after many conver- 
 sations and mental conflicts which we cannot here go 
 into, the desired result came. 
 
 Next day, or, as Dr. Brown thinks, the day after, 
 Dr. Duncan passed through a memorable experience, 
 which we give in his own words : — 
 
 ' " Well, next day, as I sat down to study, and took my 
 pen in my hand, I became suddenly the passive recipient 
 of all the truths which I had heard and been taught in 
 my childhood. I sat there unmoving for hours, and theij 
 came and preached themselves to me. There was now no 
 investigation such as I desired ; but presentation of the 
 truth to me passive. And I felt, sitting there, as if in 
 that hour I had got matter for sermons for a lifetime. 
 
 ' " Now the temptation to daily sin was gone. I had not 
 even to fight with it. And I was in an almost infantile 
 state of mind — so that when I mislaid a paper in my 
 
STUDENT DAYS 31 
 
 study, I would kneel down and pray to find it, and then 
 go and seek for it." In fact, night after night (as he told 
 Mr. Moody Stuart), he laid himself down to rest with the 
 infants' prayer on his lips (not precisely as Mr. Moody 
 Stuart gives it, but as taught and repeated in the north 
 of Scotland) : — 
 
 " This night when I lie down to sleep, 
 I give the Lord my soul to keep ; 
 If I should die before I wake, 
 I pray the Lord my soul to take." ' 
 
 In after years, when recalling the happy change 
 that had passed over him, Duncan named Mearns, 
 David Brown, and Malan, but chiefly Malan, as the 
 three men to whom he had been most indebted. 
 
 It was no small service in one who was but a 
 student in divinity to contribute to brine; such a 
 man as Duncan into the light. And this was not 
 the only case of the kind. He was useful in a similar 
 Avay to one who afterwards became a prominent lay 
 citizen of Aberdeen. One day, after a walk with him 
 by the seashore, this young man went home, told his 
 mother of the change, and expressed his wish to begin 
 family prayers. And probably there were similar 
 cases now unknown. Mr. Brown neither shrank from 
 recognising the fact that he had been an instrument 
 in very blessed work, nor claimed for himself any 
 credit on account of it. From first to last he made 
 little of himself; he accepted meekly the disappoint- 
 ments in life of which he had his full share ; and at 
 the best would hold himself to have been a servant 
 who had conferred no favour because he had only 
 done that which it was his duty to do. 
 
DAVID BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PROBATIONER DAYS 
 
 After his return from Edinburgh, and the occurrences 
 we have just narrated, David Brown was licensed as a 
 probationer by the Presbytery of Aberdeen in June 
 1826. His father, however, thought that before looking 
 out for a charge, it would be a benefit to him to spend 
 a little time in London, where he had many relations 
 and friends. Accordingly, in 1827, he went on a two 
 months' visit, carrying with him several introductions, 
 and among others one to Mr. James Nisbet, a brother- 
 Scot, who, like his father, had built up an important 
 bookselling and publishing business, but on strictly 
 evangelical lines. ]Mr. Nisbet was much interested in 
 his friend, and among other kindnesses brought him 
 into contact with Edward Irving. This gave rise to an 
 interesting episode in his life, — his connection with that 
 celebrated preacher. Happily Dr. Brown has furnished 
 us with material for this chapter, partly in a paper 
 contributed to the Free Church Magazine in 1851, at 
 the request of the present writer when editor of that 
 journal, and partly in two papers contributed to the 
 Expositor in 1887, entitled, 'Personal Reminiscences 
 of Edward Irving."* 
 
 At the time of his visit to London, Irving was at 
 
PROBATIONER DAYS 33 
 
 the very zenitli of his fame, and Mr. Brown was 
 naturally eager to discover the secret of his unrivalled 
 popularity. Admission to his chapel was by ticket 
 only, but through Mr. Nisbet, who was one of the 
 officebearers of the church, Mr. Brown got the right of 
 admission during the whole period of his London visit. 
 The audience was unprecedented ; royal dukes, cabinet 
 ministers, and aristocrats of all grades waiting till the 
 preacher entered the pulpit. 
 
 ' Rarely ' (wrote Dr. Brown in the Eocpositor) ' is such 
 a figure to be seen in pulpit or platform. Isaac Taylor, 
 whose guest he was that very year, took his profile, 
 and having himself been bred an artist, wrote under 
 it, " This outline was made with very great care. The 
 head measures one foot in both dimensions. Mr. Irvins: 
 stood more than six feet in height. His strength was 
 prodigious and his agility surprising." His glossy 
 black hair, neatly shaded off in the middle of his 
 broad forehead added to his attractive appearance, 
 and even the otherwise repulsive cast in his eyes, 
 owing to the benignity of his expression, only gave 
 him a look quite his own. ... As he read out the 
 opening psalm, his clear, sonorous voice and distinct 
 articulation, but still more the dignified simplicity 
 and elevated purity of his style in prayer struck me 
 at once. But his reading of the Scripture was to me 
 something new. It was not his melodious voice and 
 the full compass of it, but the life he threw into what 
 he read, that seemed to carry his hearers into the very 
 sense and circumstances of the passage before them, 
 making what was familiar enough to them before seem 
 new. ... 
 
 c 
 
34 DAVID BROWN 
 
 ' I was introduced to Mr. Irving by Mr. Nisbet, and, 
 at his own invitation, called on him without delay. 
 His cordial and unaffected talk made me feel at home 
 at once, and I availed myself of his invitation to call 
 often, all the more that the subjects of his conversation 
 were those on which I had thoujjht and read a good 
 deal, and in a line akin to his own."" 
 
 The new church in Regent Square was completed in 
 1827, shortly after David Brown left London, so that 
 he missed that interesting occasion. Readers of the 
 Life of Chalnurs will remember the astonishment if not 
 annoyance of the great preacher from Scotland caused 
 by Irving, who took the opening exercises, offering a 
 prayer and delivering an exposition of Scripture which 
 occupied an hour and a half. In the summer of 1828, 
 Dr. Brown had another opportunity of hearing Irving, 
 at Roseneath on the Clyde, where crowds flocked to 
 listen to his preaching. This was the time of that 
 visit to Edinburgh when he filled St. Cuthberfs Church 
 every morning at six o"'clock, delivering those lectures 
 on prophecy which Dr. Chalmers characterised as show- 
 ing ' power and riches, and gleams of poetry and beauty, 
 but quite woful.' 
 
 Mr. Brown seems to have had no regular engage- 
 ment as a probationer during 1828-29, a circum- 
 stance that perhaps disposed him the more to think 
 favourably of a letter that reached him toward the 
 close of the latter year from Mr. Irving and all the 
 officebearers of the church, inviting him to succeed 
 the Rev. A. J. Scott, who had been Mr. Irving''s 
 assistant for most of that time. It was no small honour 
 to receive such an offer ; his parents, however, were 
 
PROBATIONER DAYS 35 
 
 unwilling that he should go to London, believing that 
 this might interfere with his prospects at home ; but 
 his own decision was to go. Accepting the office of 
 assistant, he preached for the first time in Regent 
 Square churcli on 3rd January 1830, and he continued 
 in the office till 26th April 1832 — a period of two years 
 and four months. During the first year he lived with 
 his friend, Mr. Nisbet. 
 
 It was Irving's habit to remain in his study in the 
 forenoon, and after an early dinner, to enjoy a walk, 
 and attend to his other duties. ' He would ask me,' 
 continues Dr. Brown in the Expositor^ ' to walk and 
 chat with him, and the best talks I ever had with him 
 were on these occasions, when, with hat in hand in the 
 open fields, he would give free play, not to his mind, 
 but to his noble physique, which being once or twice 
 observed, was set down as a wish to attract attention, 
 while our whole talk at such times convinced me that 
 he was unconscious of any presence except our two 
 selves. All subjects of common interest were then 
 turned over, and he would try to draw me out ; and 
 when anything I happened to say struck him, he 
 would drink it in with a humility which touched me. 
 One such case I remember. He had quoted those words 
 of our Lord : " Take heed that ye despise not one of 
 these little ones : for I say unto you. That in heaven 
 their angels do always behold the face of My Father 
 which is in heaven" (Matt, xviii. 10), and he asked 
 me what that might mean. After a pause I said, " What 
 would you say to this ? None are allowed to enter 
 without leave into the presence of our sovereign, but 
 the nurses of the royal children have free access, when- 
 
36 DAVID BROWN 
 
 ever they have anything to say about the children." 
 "That's worth a talent of gold," he said. Of Mrs. 
 Irving all that I then saw was just enough to show that 
 she lived in the light of her husband's countenance, but 
 to what extent she was able to enter intelligently into 
 his ideas, I had no means of judging until long after."* 
 Among Mr. Brown''s duties as assistant to Mr. 
 Irving one was to visit the Sunday-schools, once a 
 month each, when many of the parents were present, 
 and when one of the exercises was the repetition of 
 metre psalms. An incident connected with this duty 
 made such a deep impression on him that more than 
 sixty years afterwards, when he was in his ninety- 
 second year, he recorded the circumstance in a journal 
 conducted by the Young Men's Christian Association 
 of Aberdeen. A poor, sickly boy, too unwell to be out, 
 had repeated the twenty- third psalm. Next month it 
 was reported that he was dying, and Mr. Brown went 
 to see him, and found him in a miserable place, a sort 
 of drying loft. The mother met him with tears in her 
 eyes, and told him that her boy had been speaking all 
 night. ' What has he been speaking about ? ' asked 
 Mr. Brown. ' Well, sir, you see I am a Roman 
 Catholic, and I don't know your hymns, but it's some- 
 thing about death's dark vale.' ' Oh ! my woman, I 
 know well what your boy has been speaking about ; 
 take me to him.' ' On reaching his bed I found it was 
 a deal box, and he was lying on straw. "My dear 
 boy," I said, as he looked up smiling, " you are dying." 
 "Yes, sir." "Are you afraid to die.?" "No, sir." 
 " Why ? " " Because I am going to Jesus." " But how 
 do you know that you are going to Jesus ? " " Because 
 
PROBATIONER DAYS 37 
 
 I love Him." It was a child's answer, but it was music 
 to me/ 
 
 Some years before this, Irving's attention had been 
 drawn to the subject of prophecy by James Hately 
 PVere, who had published his books on Daniel and the 
 Apocalypse, in connection with the second Advent. 
 This study of prophecy came to give a special character 
 to Irving's ordinary ministrations, which not only 
 diminished his popularity, but prepared the way for 
 opinions and practices that ultimately wrecked him. 
 Of the earlier discourses of Mr. Irving, such as we have 
 in the first volume of his collected works, Mr. Brown, 
 in common with the Christian world generally, had 
 the highest opinion. But when he entered on the study 
 of prophecy, it turned out to be one for which his rich 
 and surging imagination, never under sufficient control, 
 ill fitted him, while the spell of a mysterious future, 
 believed to be at the very door, laid him open to influ- 
 ences that could not but warp his judgment; so that 
 his popularity declined. 
 
 'The whole subject of prophecy' (to quote from the 
 paper in the Free Church Magazhie) ' was distasteful to his 
 fashionable auditors, who, though they endured it for a 
 while from the novelty of the theme, and the oratory by 
 which it was lighted up, disappeared by degrees to make 
 way for a class of hearers scarcely more satisfactory, — the 
 lovers of the marvellous and the exciting, — who crowded, 
 not only into his church, but around his person at all 
 hours, offering him the incense of their fulsome adulation, 
 and pouring into his open ear their startling speculations 
 and exegetical crudities, to the exceeding injury of his too 
 pliant and confiding mind. By little and little the whole 
 character of his preaching became altered. Addicting 
 
38 DAVID BROWN 
 
 himself almost exclusively to the expository style, he 
 manifested a growing indifference to oratory, gradually 
 disused his manuscript in the pulpit, and at length — 
 having meetings for exposition and prayer of one kind or 
 other night and morning — fell into the habit of extempore 
 preaching, in a pretty literal sense of that term : and 
 though during all this time his pen was in constant 
 employment for the press, a comparison between his earlier 
 and later writings will show as great a change upon the 
 healthiness of his thinking, and the purity of his style, as 
 upon the soundness and soberness of his views, as he 
 advanced in his chequered career. We refrain from notic- 
 ing the opinions which Mr. Irving took up and pressed so 
 powerfully upon the church, on the person of Christ, and 
 the gifts of the Spirit — near akin, however, with all their 
 error, to some of the most glorious and inspiring truths 
 of Christianity, to which Mr. Irving has unquestionably 
 been instrumental in recalling attention, and for which 
 his memory should be honoured — issuing, as it did, in his 
 sad separation from the church of his fathers, which he 
 dearly loved, from officebearers and members of his flock 
 with whom for years he had lived in unbroken and beauti- 
 ful harmony, and from the finest Presbyterian place of 
 worship in London, erected specially for himself. Nor is 
 this the place to notice the steps thereafter taken to set 
 up a church upon what he now deemed the Apostolic 
 model — since lapsed, with all its British and Continental 
 branches, into a mongrel Romanism, too sickly to live very 
 long ; — or to dwell on the last days of this man, of soul 
 so great as to win the admiration of Coleridge and Carlyle, 
 but unable to control those elements of instability which 
 an acute observer might have traced in him from the first.' 
 
 Mr. Brown's connection with Irving extended over 
 the most exciting period of his career, to the close of 
 
PROBATIONER DAYS 39 
 
 his ministry in Regent Square church. In his papers 
 in the Expositor he gives a frank narrative of the 
 occurrences as they came under his own eye, and of 
 tlieir effect on his mind. In a sermon preached before 
 the Continental Society, Irving had propounded his 
 conviction that we were in 'the last days"' of the 
 prophetic period, and that the second Advent was at 
 hand. He attended the meetings of the students of 
 prophecy held at Albury Park, the magnificent resi- 
 dence of Mr. Henry Drummond, iM.P., at one of which 
 Mr. Brown himself was present, and in regard to which 
 he could not but remark how ill furnished its members 
 were with any sound principles of Biblical interpreta- 
 tion. While Irving was becoming more and more pro- 
 nounced in his expectation of the second Advent, and 
 the probability that the signs and wonders that were 
 to precede it would now be realised, he was also com- 
 mitting himself publicly to those views of our Lord's 
 human nature which more closely touched his orthodoxy. 
 In 1830 he published his Discourses on the Incarna- 
 tion. Dr, Brown says, ' Until late in 1830, I never 
 saw these discourses, and as his whole teaching con- 
 vinced me that to him at least our Lord was absolutely 
 spotless and very dear, 1 let the whole subject alone, 
 until the publication of a pamphlet entitled. The 
 Orthodox and Catholic Doctrine of our Lord's Human 
 Nature^ which was filling all Scotland with alarm, 
 forced me to go into it. With what impressions I 
 first read that pamphlet I cannot now recall. I had 
 not the self-reliance of my predecessor, Mr. A. J. 
 Scott, who had only too much of it, and I suppose 
 I was neither prepared to challenge his views, nor, on 
 
40 DAVID BROWN 
 
 the other hand, to concede what might have to be re- 
 tracted/ When Mr. Irving asked Mr, Brown whether 
 in his opinion we might not look for the renewal of 
 those gifts of the Holy Spirit which were enjoyed by 
 the primitive church, his answer was, that there was 
 no clear evidence that they had been finally withdrawn. 
 Mr, Brown at this time expected the second Advent to 
 be pre-millennial, but not to be so near as Mr. Irving 
 supposed. At the same time, if Mr. Irving was right, 
 it was clear that Christendom was ill-prepared for the 
 Advent, and would need to be roused by other means 
 than then appeared ; and who could say but that the 
 appearance of signs and wonders might be one of the 
 means by which the necessary warnings would reach 
 even the deaf .^^ 
 
 It would be tedious at this time of day to detail all 
 the steps by which practical effect was given to this 
 belief in Regent Square church. The first public 
 manifestation occurred one evening (after a communion 
 service) while Mr. Brown was preaching. It was the 
 time of the cholera, when the community was much 
 excited, and Mr. Brown threw out a hint that there 
 might be some way in preparation for giving to 
 the divine message a power which it did not then 
 possess. On this Mr. Robert Baxter cried out, ' The 
 spiritual ministry, the spiritual ministry ! '^ Other in- 
 terruptions occurred. Instead of discouraging these, 
 Mr, Irving rejoiced in them. In a letter to Mr. M. 
 
 ■ Mr. Baxter became the head of the well-known firm of parliamentary 
 solicitors, Baxter, Rose, and Norton. He was a man of great ability, 
 and though at first a strong supporter of Irving, he afterwards, partly 
 it is believed under the influence of Mr. Brown, who was his intimate 
 friend, wholly renounced his views. 
 
PROBATIONER DAYS 41 
 
 Norman Macdonald, father of the present Lord Justice- 
 Clerk of Scotland, he said that Mr. Brown had on that 
 occasion preached a noble sermon, and twice had tlie 
 Spirit broken forth — once in support of the truth that 
 the cholera was a judgment of God, and once in rebuke 
 of scoffers. By and by matters assumed a graver 
 aspect. Mr. Baxter gave utterance to sentiments that 
 shocked many, and committed himself to predictions 
 which were not fulfilled. And among those who pro- 
 fessed to be organs of the Spirit were some whose 
 actions were most suspicious. Mr. Irving was unshaken 
 in his convictions, but Mr. Brown came to the conclu- 
 sion that the ' manifestations ' had nothing in them 
 supernatural or divine. At first he had suspended his 
 judgment, waiting for decisive evidence; now he got 
 decisive evidence that they were not from God. As 
 soon as this conviction was reached, he felt it his duty 
 to make it known to Mr. Irving, and to retire from his 
 office of assistant. AVith great reluctance he com- 
 municated his decision, but indirectly, to Mr. Irving, 
 Meanwhile it came out by his own confession that Mr. 
 Baxter of Doncaster was of the same mind ; he ac- 
 knowledged that he had been mistaken, and now wished 
 to repudiate the whole movement. When Mr. Irving 
 and Mr, Brown met, Mr. Irving, after an interval 
 of silence, said, ' AVell, Mr. Brown, you have left 
 us.' ' Yes, Mr. Irving ; but not, as you know, while 
 there w'as any shadow of ground to think that this 
 work was divine.' After a moment's pause, as if to 
 think whether he would enter with me on the subject, 
 or break it off at once, he said, with a good deal of 
 suppressed feeling, ' Your intellect, sir, has destroyed 
 
42 DAVID BROWN 
 
 you.' ' Yes, sir, I confess it ; my intellect has done 
 the deed, whatever that may mean : I am responsible 
 for the use of my intellect, and I have used it/ ' With 
 his hand held to mine, and mine warmly grasping his, 
 he left me, my feelings very acute, and his, I am sure, 
 the same. And thus ended my connection with this 
 grand man, whose name can never be uttered in my 
 hearing without a feeling of mingled love and reverence 
 arising within me."" 
 
 Mr. Brown never showed or felt any sympathy with 
 Mr. Irving's peculiar view of our Lord's human nature. 
 All that can be said of him in that connection is, that 
 he avoided the subject, being convinced that personally 
 Mr. Irving believed profoundly in the perfect holiness 
 of the Saviour, and having no taste for a discussion 
 that turned on an unthinkable distinction between a 
 man's nature and his personality, as if there might be 
 in the nature qualities that were absent in the person. 
 But with regard to the manifestations. Dr. Brown says 
 his attitude was that of waiting. At first he was 
 neither for nor against. But he was so farmer that 
 he conceived it possible that on the eve of the second 
 Advent miraculous powers would be conferred, in order 
 to rouse a slumbering church and a slumbering world, 
 like the cry which awoke the virgins in the parable : 
 ' Behold, the bridegroom cometh ! ' When Mr. Irving 
 declared that the manifestations had begun, both in 
 London and on the shore of the Gareloch in Scotland, 
 Mr. Brown carefully examined the evidence, and found 
 it wanting. Then, at a great cost of feeling, he severed 
 himself from the man whom, of all living men, he 
 honoured most, and whose noble character, fearless 
 
PROBATIONER DAYS 43 
 
 courage, and self-denying zeal seemed to place him 
 among the very foremost servants of his Lord on 
 earth. It can be little wonder that he went so far 
 with Mr. Irving. He had been deeply impressed with 
 Irving's most wholesome teaching on the subject of the 
 Holy Spirit generally — had felt that nothing short 
 of His life-giving breath, coming, as in the valley of 
 vision, from the four winds, could animate the dry 
 bones that lay around on every side, very many and 
 very dry. If the Lord was about to appear, why 
 should not the Spirit come with such power that the 
 experience of Corinth should be renewed ? We must 
 allow something, too, for the personal magnetism of 
 Mr. Irving, and the great influence he had gained 
 over him. On the whole it is less surprising that Mr. 
 Brown should have gone so far as he did, than that 
 he should so resolutely have drawn back. We seem 
 to see the divine arm stretched out to restrain him, 
 and to hear the divine interdict, ' Hitherto, but no 
 further."' 
 
 It is impossible to obtain direct testimony, after 
 the lapse of nearly sixty-eight years, as to the manner 
 in which Mr. Brown discharged his pulpit duties in 
 Regent Square church, and the impression he made on 
 the people. But there is every reason to believe that 
 the impression was highly favourable. Hard though 
 it was to stand side by side with an orator of the 
 highest rank, he appears to have borne the ordeal as 
 few young men could have done. It is certain that 
 Mr. Irving thought very highly of him, and that on 
 particular occasions when he was called unexpectedly 
 to take his place, he acquitted himself brilliantly. 
 
44 DAVID BROWN 
 
 And the fact that he retained the office for the long 
 period of two years and four months, and that his 
 resignation was wholly his own act, without a hint of 
 dissatisfaction either from pastor or people, shows that 
 he must have proved himself equal to the occasion, due 
 allowance being made for what was inevitable in the 
 case of a young man. 
 
 It would be interesting to trace the effects of Mr. 
 Brown's intercourse with Mr. Irving, as shown in his 
 subsequent career. Among these we should find, first of 
 all, a new or at least a greatly increased love for Biblical 
 study, but not the kind of study that lies at the mercy 
 of loose or fantastical rules, which was too much Mr. 
 Irving's on prophetical subjects ; rather that which 
 recognises a plan and method in divine revelation, and 
 seeks carefully and laboriously to ascertain the principles 
 on which the whole volume of Scripture is to become 
 our counsellor and guide. Mr. Brown at first agreed 
 with Mr. Irving in the belief that the second Advent 
 would be pre-millennial ; indeed, in a theological society 
 in his student days, he had read a paper maintaining 
 that position ; but the more careful and connected 
 study of the subject to which he was led compelled him 
 to abandon that view, and laid the foundation of what 
 he afterwards wrote on the subject, no doubt to the 
 disappointment of many friends, but with remarkable 
 firmness of tread and clearness of exposition. Then, 
 moreover, we should find his ideas of the Christian 
 ministry much elevated, and, we may say, ennobled ; a 
 higher conception formed of what it was to be an 
 ambassador for Christ, appointed to beseech men in 
 Christ's stead to be reconciled to God, and a larger 
 
PROBATIONER DAYS 45 
 
 share attained of the frankness, courage, and fervour 
 with which this high office should be discliarged. The 
 honesty, transparency, and guilelessness that all along 
 marked Mr. Brown's character may have already 
 existed, but they could hardly fail to be confirmed by 
 the example of Mr. Irving. And, though he was no 
 copyist of Mr. Irving's quaint, archaic style, and no 
 pretender to the commanding attitude which his noble 
 form and voice made not unnatural for him, he mio-ht 
 at least learn from him a new lesson on the power of 
 language, and be helped to that clear, idiomatic, and 
 very successful style which marked his writings. From 
 the beginning Mr. Irving"'s defects were not unobserved, 
 and when the connection terminated, they had become 
 beacons to warn. So that whatever he may have lost 
 by his connection with Irving, the gain beyond doubt 
 was far greater. 
 
 In one sense, however, he lost very materially ; for, 
 when he returned to Scotland, he found a suspicion 
 attached to him which clouded his prospects for many 
 a day. When one has committed an error, the public 
 are sure to exaggerate it; and the degree in which 
 Mr. Brown had sympathised with Mr. Irving in his 
 expectation of miracles was so magnified, that he was 
 looked on by many as one whose judgment could not 
 be trusted, and who could hardly be recommended as a 
 capable minister. This was all the more trying that 
 he had already been engaged for four years to his cousin, 
 Catharine Dyce of Aberdeen. It is interesting to inquire 
 how his own spirit was exercised under this unlooked- 
 for and protracted stoppage, and happily we are able 
 to get light on that question. 
 
46 DAVID BROWN 
 
 For a considerable part of the time, he was assistant 
 to the parish minister of Dumbarton, and a few of 
 the letters which he wrote to his mother then have 
 been found. The discipline was hard and trying; 
 but the spirit in which it was borne was admirable. 
 
 He devoted himself with great diligence to the duties 
 of the Dumbarton assistantship. The minister of the 
 parish did not bear a high reputation, and Mr. Brown 
 found it desirable for the sake of example to practise 
 total abstinence while labouring there. An evening 
 service was begun — a thing previously unknown ; pas- 
 toral visitation was prosecuted diligently, and Bible 
 classes were opened both for young men and young 
 women. The late Mr. Peter Denny, the eminent ship- 
 builder, after himself attaining a venerable age, used 
 playfully to speak of himself as one of Dr. Brown's 
 ' young men.' In order to enlarge their minds, he gave 
 a course of lectures on astronomy, perhaps in imitation 
 of Dr. Chalmers when he lectured on chemistry, but 
 with a much more directly Christian aim.^ 
 
 But perhaps the chief influence of Dr. Brown came 
 from his ordinary sermons. Arresting, earnest, and 
 spiritual, and delivered with much fervour and anima- 
 tion, they made a great impression, and gained for him 
 the reputation of a powerful evangelical preacher. 
 
 Some of the previous ministers of Dumbarton had 
 been faithful and earnest servants of their Master, and 
 vestiges of their work remained; but as a whole he found 
 the people very dead, and many who passed for respect- 
 
 ^ One or two of these facts I owe to the exertions of my kind friend. 
 Lord Overtoun, who has made inquiries for me from every available 
 source in Dumbarton. 
 
PROBATIONER DAYS 47 
 
 able enough, came only occasionally to church, or once 
 a clay, and these alike among tiie better, middle, and 
 lower classes. ' When I speak to many of tiiem I may 
 as well speak to the wall, as they are either quite in- 
 sensible, or else hardened Pharisees, and these I find the 
 most impracticable. . . . On the whole, however, I have 
 been well received at their houses, and with scarcely 
 any — I may say no exception, have been asked to 
 renew my visit, so that I shall conciliate them at least 
 before I leave them.' 
 
 With regard to his own preaching, his estimate of it 
 was far from high. Referring to some notes which his 
 mother had sent him, of sermons recently heard by her, 
 and which had raised in her a deep sense of unworthi- 
 ness, he says : ' But oh, my dear mother, if you feel 
 yourself unworthy to sit at the feet of the least of God's 
 saints and servants, and would be glad, as you express 
 it, to get in at the back of them all, what language is 
 fitting for me ? If there is any good thing in me to- 
 wards the Lord God of Israel, which I dare to hope, 
 I can get no mark of it that satisfies my own mind, 
 except that I think the language of my heart to God 
 is that of the Prodigal : " I am no more worthy to be 
 called thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants." 
 Give me the lowest and most unnoticed place in all thy 
 house, and I am content; so I be not utterly rejected, 
 I care not what thou makest of me, . . . Oh, what satis- 
 faction there is in preaching, and indeed in all the 
 services which the ministers of Christ are called to 
 discharge in the sanctuary, when we are able in any 
 measure to forget self in the bad sense, and to remember 
 it in the good sense ; to preach not ourselves and yet 
 
48 DAVID BROWN 
 
 to ourselves, to have singleness and purity of aim in 
 addressing souls, and to commend ourselves to every 
 man*'s conscience in the sight of God by the noted 
 manifestation of the truth ! . . . With all its difficulties 
 and responsibilities I would not exchange this blessed 
 ministry for the most enviable post on earth.' 
 
 So far from grieving that he was still but an assistant, 
 he at first rejoiced in it. ' I owe it to the infinite good- 
 ness of God to-day that though I naturally desire a 
 permanent sphere of labour, the situation I am now in, 
 so far as I can judge from past experience and present 
 appearances, is that which combines the greatest number 
 of the most important advantages, and if duly improved 
 is most fitted to train me for that usefulness in the 
 church which, unless I deceive myself, is my highest 
 ambition."' 
 
 As time went on, however, and disappointment suc- 
 ceeded disappointment, the strain upon his feelings 
 became more intense. His brother Charles, though 
 three years his junior, had been settled before him as 
 successor to Dr. Love, in Anderston Chapel, Glasgow; 
 but so far from this exciting any envious feeling, it was 
 hailed with delight. It was looked on as a specially 
 bright spot in his providential history that they would 
 be so near each other, and would be able to render 
 one another assistance, especially at communion times. 
 Some time after, it seemed not unlikely that Charles 
 would be appointed minister of St. Andrew's parish, 
 Glasgow, and if so, it was a moral certainty that David 
 would succeed him at Anderston. But instead of Charles 
 Brown, Mr. Paterson of Galashiels, the well-known 
 author of the Manse Garden, was appointed to St, 
 
PROBATIONER DAYS 49 
 
 Andrew's Church ; yet David Brown's serenity remained 
 undisturbed. He writes to his mother : ' So Charles is 
 finally out of St. Andrew's. I have no doubt it is for 
 his good, and I hope not to that people's loss, though 
 to the Anderston people his removal would have been, 
 I say not an irreparable, but a most severe loss. You 
 may think his remaining in Anderston a disappointment 
 to me, as he talks of my being called to succeed him as 
 a moral certainty. But though you may think me 
 crotchety, the truth is that I cannot help deprecating 
 that event. It would be ridiculous to suppose that in 
 the event of my going to Anderston, the people would 
 not make comparisons, and that these would be equally 
 agreeable to both of us, and I sufficiently feel, I assure 
 you, what sort of comparison would be made, to make 
 me far from desirous to go there.' 
 
 There was some hope of his being appointed to 
 Liberton. 'But it would take a good deal to make 
 me sanguine about this or any other church to which 
 I have not actually a presentation. I don't think I 
 repine at what has happened to me, and if I am " in 
 heaviness," I hope it is of that kind which we have 
 good authority for believing to be needful for a season. 
 Were I as sure that all is right with myself as I am 
 that the Judge of all the earth will do rightly, I 
 should feel more easy. However, I have abundant 
 reason to be thankful, and one benefit which I may 
 sensibly derive from the trials I experience, is a power 
 to speak to others in like circumstances, which I find 
 becomes more manifest to myself the more deeply I 
 myself am afflicted. You may wonder at my speaking 
 in this way, considering that I am in a sphere of 
 
 D 
 
50 DAVID BROWN 
 
 labour and usefulness. But no one can enter into my 
 feelings on this head but myself alone. Bodily trials, 
 though serious, would not, I have good reason to 
 think, affect me nearly so much, and it seems just 
 because this particular mode of chastisement is to me 
 the severest that it has been sent. And feeling it 
 sometimes very deeply, I am enabled to sympathise 
 and speak home in similar cases in a way which to 
 myself is very comforting."* 
 
 If David felt keenly his failure to obtain a per- 
 manent settlement, his brother Charles felt it, if pos- 
 sible, still more. No two brothers could have had a 
 warmer affection for each other, or a higher apprecia- 
 tion of each other''s gifts, different in many ways 
 though they were. Writing to his mother about the 
 time when David went to Dumbarton, he said : ' It is 
 really wonderful the deep impression that David's 
 preaching has made on those here (Glasgow) wjio have 
 heard him. I think he will not be long of being in a 
 more important station. It will in the meantime be 
 pleasant and profitable to us both to be settled so near 
 each other."" About a year later, Charles writes of the 
 deep impression which David had again made. ' He 
 has not got his singular gifts and graces for nothing. 
 He ripens every day, I do not mean for heaven merely, 
 but for usefulness on earth."* Still later he writes when 
 his time at Dumbarton came to an end : ' Poor David ! 
 However, there is no fear of him — a little time and 
 jjatience, that is all. He was up with me on Sabbath, 
 preaching a glorious sermon. He still improves greatly, 
 particularly in animation and loudness of voice. It 
 was truly a feast to me. Mr. Wright thinks he will 
 
PROBATIONER DAYS 51 
 
 get one of these new churches, if not previously pre- 
 sented. The testimonial from Dumbarton was worth 
 his whole stay there."* 
 
 Charles wrote to his mother that there was some- 
 thing absolutely mysterious in David's having to go 
 home once more, high and dry. The fact called for 
 that profound exercise of submission that was incum- 
 bent on us under God's most inscrutable judgments. 
 What could be the cause ? How was it that men 
 immeasurably inferior to him were preferred ? Charles 
 owns that he had often felt it difficult to avoid the 
 guilt of charging Providence with inequality. But 
 ' God was His own Interpreter, and He would make it 
 plain.' ' What I do thou knowest not now, but thou 
 shalt know hereafter.' 
 
 Amid all his pastoral diligence, David Brown did not 
 forget his studies. He had taken some books with him 
 to Dumbarton, but he writes to his mother for more. 
 First, he mentions a batch on practical religion, includ- 
 ing Brown of Wamphray on Prayer. Then all his 
 German books, including particularly a German Bible 
 and a German Dictionar}^, as he has promised to give 
 a young friend lessons in German. His French Dic- 
 tionary too. Keith on Prophecy he particularly desires, 
 and three volumes of Mr. Irving's Sermons. Also De 
 Moor's Commentary on MarclSs Compendium of' Theo- 
 logy^ in seven quarto Latin volumes. Grotius, in four 
 volumes folio would be too much of a good thing, for 
 it would fill up the box, but Zanchius in two folios he 
 would fain have. And if the box be large enough, his 
 mother might slip in Irenasus and Cyprian. If he was 
 
52 DAVID BROWN 
 
 so full of his books while he was in the constant whirl 
 of pastoral work, we may be sure that he would make 
 still more of them in those intervals when he had no 
 stated engagement. When at last a door opened for 
 his entrance on the regular ministry, few men could 
 have been in possession of so rich and varied furniture 
 for the work. His intellectual and his spiritual pro- 
 gress had gone on apace ; between the great metropolis, 
 his native city, and the county town of Dumbarton, he 
 had seen a good deal of the world ; he had acquired a 
 practical acquaintance with the work of the ministry 
 which would save him from the blunders of the be- 
 ginner ; and all his experience had shown him where 
 he was to find the secret of strength, the wisdom to 
 direct, and the grace to help and cheer him in time 
 of need. 
 
THE ORD 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE ORD 
 
 *Near the entrance of the Moray Firth, where the 
 Scottish coast, after running far in a north-easterly 
 direction, trends westward, opening its bosom wide to 
 the German Ocean, stands the ancient county town of 
 Banff. At the distance of six miles south-west of that 
 town the parish of that name terminates in a bleak 
 district, some hundred feet above the level of the sea, 
 called doubtless from its elevation, " The Ord." ^ Here 
 in the year 1834-35 a district church was erected to 
 accommodate the extremities of four surrounding 
 parishes [Banff, Ordiquhill, Alvah, and Marnoch], and 
 close by the church was built a manse. Of this church 
 the writer was the first minister.'' 
 
 So wrote Dr. Brown in the first page of a memoir of 
 his eldest son, of which we shall have more to say 
 afterwards. It was but a country chapel, and of all 
 kinds of churches, the country chapel is the hardest to 
 maintain, where there are no rich men to take the 
 burden. The stipend was miserable, not exceeding a 
 hundred pounds per annum, and the neighbourhood of 
 
 ^ Some authorities say it means ' The Hammer,' but that it is 
 applied to any projection outward or upward. Others consider it a 
 corruption of Aird, which signifies ' high.' 
 
54 DAVID BROWN 
 
 the manse was bare and desolate, with no feature to 
 charm the eye or captivate the heart. The social 
 standing of a chapel minister was inferior to that of 
 the endowed clergy, so that in a worldly point of view 
 the position was poor enough. David Brown's friends 
 would never have consented to his going there but for 
 the feeling that it was necessary for him to begin in 
 some quiet place in order to efface the unfavourable 
 influence of his connection with Edward Irving. They 
 knew that a man of his gifts and culture was fitted for 
 a very different sphere, and, below tlieir breath at least, 
 they would say that he would be thrown away upon 
 the Ord, if it had not been that he must get his feet 
 somehow on the first step of the ladder in order to 
 climb higher afterwards. But no inkling of discon- 
 tented feeling was to be gathered from himself. He 
 buckled to his work with as much heartiness as he had 
 addressed himself to his duties in Regent Square. It 
 was the sphere to Avhich his Master had called him, 
 and with that thought he composed his mind. He 
 was ordained 17th November 1836. 
 
 The Ord congregation consisted mainly, as Banff- 
 shire congregations generally do, of small farmers and 
 labourers, most of whom had received the education of 
 the parish scliool, and w^ere generally of very plain 
 manners, but intelligent and industrious. The place 
 had all the features of a neglected district. In the 
 beginning of the century the ministers of all the 
 neighbouring parishes had been of the ' moderate ' 
 school, and though recently some excellent men had 
 been settled, conspicuous among whom was the Rev. 
 F. W. Grant of Banff, whose earnest and powerful 
 
THE ORD 55 
 
 preaching and amiable character had brought much 
 good to that town, the Ord was too far off to be much 
 influenced by him, and the leaven of moderatism still 
 remained. The object of the moderate minister had 
 been, in an easy way, to make the people moral, honest, 
 and neighbourly. Mr. Brown's trumpet gave forth a 
 very different sound. He came with the message of 
 reconciliation for men lost by sin ; and, as in many 
 similar cases, there was something so glorious in his 
 message, and so attractive in the fervour with which 
 it was delivered, that the people heard him gladly. 
 
 Besides that, the air was tingling with ecclesiastical 
 commotion. The conflict between the church and 
 the civil courts had begmi. The district of Ord 
 included part of the parish of Marnoch, where the 
 working of patronage was soon after exemplified in its 
 most atrocious and exasperating form. The intrusion 
 of Mr. Edwards into that parish, against the unani- 
 mous voice of the people (the only man that signed his 
 call was a publican) ; his pretended ordination by sus- 
 pended ministers, amid the protests of the people and 
 the howls of a mob who had rushed into the church 
 when the people left ; and the horrible profanity of his 
 ordination vow, that ' zeal for the glory of God, love of 
 Christ, and desire of saving souls were his great reasons 
 for accepting his call, and not worldly motives or in- 
 ducements,' stirred the heart of Scotland as it had not 
 been stirred for ages, and contributed more to the 
 prosperity of the ' non-intrusion ' cause than hundreds 
 of speeches or Assembly debates. The volcano that 
 burst at Marnoch could not but agitate the Ord with 
 its strongest impulses, and draw the people into in- 
 
56 DAVID BROWN 
 
 tensely active sympathy with the popular cause. 
 Roused from their ordinary sluggishness, their minds 
 became more sensitive to church matters generally, and 
 more susceptible of spiritual impressions. It is com- 
 monly thought that times of religious conflict are not 
 favourable to spiritual prosperity, and when the din of 
 battle is loud, men naturally sigh for the peace that 
 seems so much more favourable to a spiritual harvest. 
 Of course, it is to be conceded that a time of contro- 
 versy is liable to many evils, but there are some com- 
 pensations too. For, just as in the case of persons 
 partially deaf the rattle of a carriage seems to rouse 
 the aural nerve into unwonted activity, so the commo- 
 tion of religious controversy may quicken the spiritual 
 sense, and rouse the soul from that insensibility which is 
 ever the most hopeless condition of a people needing to 
 be converted. Especially when the controversy is in 
 close relation to vital truths. In the present case, it 
 was not merely the rights of the people that were 
 involved, but the authority and glory of Christ as 
 Head of the Church. And the authority of Christ as 
 Head of the Church at large had a very close relation 
 to the right of Christ to reign over each individual 
 soul, and the obligation of the individual soul to 
 receive Him. People were brought into very close 
 contact with the supremacy of Christ, and in many 
 cases their consciences were exercised by the question, 
 whether in contending for His universal authority over 
 the church and over the world, they were giving Him 
 His due allegiance in their own special domain. 
 
 On the whole, it was rather a benefit than the 
 reverse for Mr. Brown to begin his ministry while the 
 
THE ORD 57 
 
 air was full of the church controversy. It was a time 
 of much perplexity, wlien the need of divine guidance 
 was most powerfully felt, and over the whole church 
 devout hearts without number were constantly implor- 
 ing the divine guidance and blessing, and pleading for 
 the ministers not only that they might be strengthened 
 for their coming trial, but that they might be singu- 
 larly blessed in their whole work for their Master. 
 
 I am indebted to the Rev. G. G. Macdonald, of the 
 Free Church of Cornhill, virtually a successor of Dr. 
 Brown, for some interesting notes of his work at the 
 Ord, gathered from the reminiscences of people still 
 alive, the most important of which I will incorporate 
 with my own narrative. 
 
 ' Brown o' the Ord,' or, as his name was more fre- 
 quently pronounced, ' Broon o"* the Ord,"* soon became 
 a household word, not only in the lower part of Banff- 
 shire, but in a portion of Aberdeenshire too. As a 
 faithful pastor, an able divine, and a popular preacher, 
 his fame spread far beyond the immediate sphere of his 
 labour, and his praise was soon in all the churches. 
 
 His appearance was youthful and engaging. He 
 was about the middle height, but full of agility and 
 activity. His dark-brown hair, regular features, ample 
 forehead, and beautiful brown eyes made him, to the 
 great delight of the female portion of his congregation, 
 what they called 'a bonnie minister.' As one of his 
 flock remarked, it were well ' that all ministers were 
 bonnie as well as gude, when their people have to look 
 so much at them.' 
 
 ' Gratior est virtus veniens e corpore pulchro.' 
 
58 DAVID BROWN 
 
 His manner was winsome and affable. There beingf 
 no manse at first, he had to board with one of his 
 people, who used to accommodate him with the use of 
 a farm horse when he had to go to a distance. Scottish 
 ministers have not the reputation of being good horse- 
 men, and Mr. Brown was no exception. He used to 
 ride at great speed, and when on one occasion coming 
 down a steep brae, the horse fell, and he was thrown 
 over his head and broke his arm, the farmers said it 
 was a judgment for driving like Jehu, and thereafter 
 the minister became more canny. 
 
 A small manse was built the year after his settlement. 
 It was only a little before that he had been able to 
 fulfil his long engagement by marrying his cousin, 
 Catharine Dyce. She was the daughter of Dr. William 
 Dyce, a prominent physician in Aberdeen, and of 
 Margaret Chalmers, the sister of Mrs. Brown, senior. 
 Among the members of her family was William Dyce, 
 the celebrated painter, always a great friend of David 
 Brown's, of whom we shall have more to say hereafter. 
 
 The union with Catharine Dyce was one of great 
 happiness. Besides being an earnest Christian, she was 
 a lady of great mental vigour and many accomplish- 
 ments, well fitted to be the companion of an intellectual 
 Christian minister. Her musical gifts were of so high 
 an order that, in the memoir of his son. Dr. Brown 
 could say that ' from childhood he had been accustomed 
 to hear some of the best music of the German and 
 Italian masters, secular and sacred, together with the 
 best of our own music' To this both parents contri- 
 buted ; as Professor Salmond said of Dr. Brown, in an 
 obituary notice, ' He had a fine musical taste, a nice ear 
 
THE ORD 59 
 
 for melody, and a quick sense of musical style/ And 
 never were two lives more closely blended. In all his 
 occupations, public, pastoral, and literary, she was his 
 confidant and his counsellor. But, so far as known to 
 the present writer, not a scrap of writing from the one 
 to the other now survives. It will be impossible, there- 
 fore, to convey the impression of her constant influ- 
 ence ; to show how ' the idea of her life ' mingled with 
 his ; how it kept the stream of cheerfulness in constant 
 motion, helped his spiritual progress, brightened his 
 joys, and soothed his sorrows. The biographer can do 
 little more than record the fact, and ask the reader as 
 he goes along to bear it in mind, and to remember that 
 for many years his work was the product of two lives 
 so blended that nothing undertaken by the one was 
 accomplished without the other. 
 
 He often reverted in later years to the joy of his 
 espousals, for he was not a man to conceal his warm 
 emotions, or to be ashamed of them. The manse life 
 at the Ord, where most of his children were born, was 
 not only a very bright reminiscence to his family 
 in after years, but drew the interest of visitors, and 
 lived in their hearts ever after. Dr. Brown himself 
 used to speak of this as the happiest period of his life. 
 This was all the more remarkable because the struggle 
 to live was incessant. What made this time so bright 
 was his joy in his family and his joy in his work. The 
 people were for the most part poor, and though he 
 enjoyed the friendship of some of the upper class who 
 lived not far off, this could do but little for his material 
 comfort. Sir Robert and Lady Abercromby of For- 
 glen had a great love and esteem for him, and so had 
 
60 DAVID BROWN 
 
 the then Earl of Seafield. To Lady Abercromby he 
 was useful in the highest sense, as her deathbed testified. 
 The Duchess of Gordon invited him to her meetings for 
 religious conference at Huntly Lodge, greatly pleased 
 both with his character and his gentlemanly bearing, 
 and there were others of that class with whom he was 
 on friendly terms. In the Presbytery he had some 
 very congenial neighbours, especially Mr. Grant of 
 Banff, Mr. Reid of Portsoy, Mr. Anderson of Boyndie, 
 and, in the neighbouring Presbytery of Turriff, Mr. 
 Thorburn of Forglen. Mr. Thorburn, who was Mr. 
 Brown's brother-in-law, was one of the ablest men and 
 most powerful preachers of his day. He was a man of 
 fearless courage, a sort of John the Baptist, who by 
 his faithfulness to the great showed that he did not fear 
 the face of clay. Otherwise he was warm-hearted, 
 affable, and of easy address. He had a great moral 
 and spiritual influence in the neighbourhood, and had 
 been useful to some of his brethren, at first inclined 
 to the moderate school. After the Disruption he 
 became minister of the Free High Church of Inver- 
 ness, and died early. But Mr. Brown's great and 
 abiding joy was that God was blessing his house and 
 his people. 
 
 While very careful of the young of his flock, Mr. 
 Brown was particularly alive to the case of young 
 communicants. He took the greatest pains in in- 
 structing the catechumens, and impressing on them 
 their great responsibility when they joined the church. 
 Some of these yet survive, and they retain a vivid 
 recollection of his pains and prayers on their behalf. 
 Part of the Shorter Catechism was his manual of 
 
THE ORD 61 
 
 instruction, especially the questions bearinf]^ on the 
 person and work of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. 
 Attendance at a single term of the class did not 
 content him ; he used to press on them to give a 
 second, or even a third, attendance. One who still 
 survives, Mr. John Morrison, Mill of Boyndie, in a 
 letter containing a detailed account of the communi- 
 cants"* class, concludes thus : ' The most solemn and 
 testing part of all the course was Mr. Brown taking 
 us one by one into his study, and with Christ-like 
 tenderness asking us pointedly as to how it was be- 
 tween God and our souls. And there, on his bended 
 knees, he poured out his soul before God on our behalf, 
 which left impressions yet fresh on some minds.*' 
 
 On one occasion a very ignorant ploughman had 
 presented himself, and Mr. Brown, not feeling satis- 
 fied, urged the man to wait for another season, which 
 he was not very willing to do. He knew that his 
 fellow-servants would taunt him with his not being 
 admitted, as indeed they did soon, telling him how 
 easily they themselves had got through. When he 
 met INlr. Brown afterwards, he told him what they 
 said to him. ' And what,' asked Mr. Brown, ' did you 
 say to them ?' ' I jist tauld them that ae admission at 
 the Ord was worth ten at Beenic."' 
 
 In his parish there lived an old Highlander, Donald 
 Macdonald, full of the Highland prejudice on the 
 subject of the communion. He was a good man, 
 and had led a consistent life, yet Mr. Brown could 
 not overcome his difficulties. ' She 11 no ken the 
 English,'' observed Donald. ' But, Donald, the Lord 
 knows Gaelic, and you'll just use the Gaelic words 
 
62 DAVID BROWN 
 
 when you communicate.'' ' I never thought o"' that,' 
 quoth Donald, 'and I'll just dae it/ 
 
 On occasion of one of his more recent visits to his 
 old place, the Rev. Mr. Macdonald took him to see an 
 old member who dearly cherished his memory. They 
 sat side by side and hand in hand on the sofa, and the 
 following was the dialogue — 
 
 ' Ay, Annie, you remember me at the Ord ; I am 
 sure I remember you.' 
 
 ' Remember you H Ay, and ever will through all 
 eternity. Ye war the means o' makin' a gey change 
 on my life, for I got a new life under your ministry.'' 
 
 ' Do you tell me that, Annie ? Well, it pleases me 
 more than thousands of gold or silver.' 
 
 ' I '11 never forget that communion season, Mr. Brown, 
 never in time or eternity. I remember the vera words 
 that made me feel that I needed a great change if I 
 was to be one of Christ's people.' 
 
 ' What were they, Annie ? This is indeed very 
 refreshing to me,' he said, grasping her hand affec- 
 tionately. 
 
 ' AVcll, you were speakin' upon " He feedeth among 
 the lilies"; and you put the question, "But, my friends, 
 are you all His lilies .P" I felt in my heart that I was 
 not. I Avcnt home, and could get no sleep or peace 
 night or day. I was miserable all that week till 
 AVednesday, when I resolved to go to your prayer- 
 meeting, tho' I had great difficulty to get away. But 
 I soon tramped the three miles by the nearest cuts 
 through the fields, and I got my errand that nicht, 
 and my life has been changed ever since. So you see, 
 dear Mr. Brown, I could never forget you.' The tears 
 
THE ORD 63 
 
 were rolling down her clieeks, and the doctor, with 
 moist eyes, kissing the old woman, said with quivering 
 voice, ' Dear Annie, I have often wondered whether I 
 did any good at the Ord, but this is an evidence that 
 indeed makes my heart glad, and I thank God for it/ 
 
 ' Ay, and ye hae done gude to many besides me, I 
 assure you/ 
 
 ' I am so glad to hear you say it. Well do I remember 
 you and all your kindness to me at the Disruption 
 when I came to Cornhill."' The two parted with affec- 
 tion, and in the hope of meeting where there is no 
 separation. 
 
 This 'Annie,' writes Mr. Macdonald, 'is Widow 
 Smith, one of the most beautiful Christian characters 
 I ever met ; and, like the doctor himself, in old age 
 seems to grow in personal beauty as she ripens for 
 glory. She has been a most noble and consistent 
 witness for Christ, and by her prayers and with her 
 means she has done what she could for the furtherance 
 of His kingdom.'' 
 
 Another instance of bread cast upon the waters 
 being found after many days occurred incidentally 
 in the village of Turriff' (not far from the Ord) in the 
 year 1886. ' As I was hurrying to the train, after 
 having been assisting a neighbouring minister (wrote 
 Dr. Brown), a person accosted me on the street in 
 Turriff", and said, " O Dr. Brown, I must get a shake 
 of your hand, for you are my spiritual father." " How 
 so ? " I said. " In the year of the Disruption you 
 preached for Mr. Thorburn after he came out, and 
 he had no place but Turriff* to preach in, and you 
 preached on ' We are not ignorant of his devices."* You 
 
64 DAVID BRO^VN 
 
 described me so clearly that I was quite angry, but 
 before you had done I was in Christ/' ' 
 
 This man, a farmer in the neighbourhood, is a re- 
 spected elder in the Free Church. 
 
 While i\Ir. Brown was thus prosecuting his parochial 
 labours, and enjoying these tokens of the divine bless- 
 ing, the conflict between the civil and church courts 
 was raging with the utmost vehemence. The civil 
 courts had declared the veto law to be ultra vires, and 
 were now commanding the church courts to disregard 
 it, and settle ministers, whether the people objected or 
 no. For himself, after the veto had been declared 
 illegal, he would rather that the church had fallen on 
 some other way of giving effect to the voice of the 
 people. But it was clear to him as day that in resist- 
 ing the claims of the civil courts to overrule, and in 
 certain cases reverse her whole procedure, the church 
 was acting not only warrantably but nobly. As to the 
 issue of the conflict, it seemed to him certain that the 
 church would be overborne. Lord Aberdeen might 
 have arranged a settlement, and his proposals would 
 have been accepted, though reluctantly, had he stuck 
 to what it was believed that he originally proposed. 
 In the following extract from a letter to his mother, 
 July 1, 1840, three years before the Disruption, Mr. 
 Brown expresses himself pretty strongly against Lord 
 Aberdeen, but it is only fair to say that his Lordship 
 warmly repudiated the charge which he brings against 
 him. The subject gave rise to a hot personal con- 
 troversy, the particulars of which will be found in 
 a correspondence between Lord Aberdeen and Dr. 
 Chalmers, in Hanna's Life of Chalmers. 
 
THE ORD 65 
 
 * I have now the darkest possible opinion of the pro- 
 spects of the church. There is now, so far as I can see, 
 not a vestige of ground to hope for anything satisfactory 
 from Parhament. Government and the Whigs cannot 
 help us ; Lord Aberdeen and the Tories will not. Two 
 things will prevent Lord Aberdeen from yielding now one 
 jot. First, he has gone back from what he gave the non- 
 intrusion committee ground to believe he would concede 
 to them, for it is clear as day that his Bill is a breach of 
 the virtual engagement which his published correspon- 
 dence implied. Witness his telling the committee that 
 the rejection of a man because of the redness of his hair 
 would by his Bill be upheld and be final, if sanctioned by 
 the supreme ecclesiastical court, and then saying in the 
 House of Lords that it never was his intention to protect 
 the church courts against having their decisions reviewed 
 and reversed by the civil, in the event of their rejecting 
 on grounds not legally recognised. . . . But another thing 
 will clench this determination to abide where he is, and 
 concede nothing to the church. The proud spirit of the 
 peer is chafed by the way in which the assembly threw 
 his Bill overboard. He evidently had not been prepared 
 for this. . . . And none can read his speech, either on the 
 second reading of his Bill, or in presenting the petition of 
 the seven suspended, without seeing the choleric tone into 
 which he has been thrown. It is impossible to account 
 for the contemptuous way in which he sneers at the 
 firmness of the Assembly, the dishonesty which he actually 
 imputes to the committee, the pretended superiority which 
 he expresses in reference to his Bill, and, above all, the 
 low and unworthy revenge which he displays in speaking of 
 the pleasure it would give him to see some of the ministers 
 imprisoned. It is not easy to account for all this from a man 
 hitherto thought too calm and unimpassioned, characterised 
 by dignity and gravity, elegance and grace, save on the 
 
66 DAVID BROWN 
 
 supposition that he spoke in a towering passion, which it 
 needed all his philosophy and policy to keep in bounds.' 
 
 When Lord Aberdeen got into this temper, all hope 
 of settlement virtually disappeared. Between 1840 
 and 1843 many attempts were made, but all in vain. 
 The prospect of ejection was not so grievous for Mr. 
 Brown as for the endowed clergy, for in point of income 
 he could hardly be worse than he was. But Mr. Brown 
 had never ceased to hope for a parish church ; and 
 now that he was committed, heart and hand, to the 
 rebels, as they were called ; now that he had broken an 
 interdict of the Court of Session by preaching in 
 Strathbogie, and had become liable to imprisonment, 
 there was hardly a chance of any patron looking at 
 him, so that, if a settlement of the church question 
 should occur, his prospects were still blighted. And 
 if a disruption should take place, all was uncertain 
 as to his case. But he went forward steadily. He 
 attended the Convocation of Ministers in November 
 1842, and adhered to the resolutions then passed, in 
 which some four hundred ministers pledged themselves 
 to separate from the state in the event of no measure 
 being passed for the protection of the church and the 
 people. 
 
 After the Convocation he took a step which he could 
 not have ventured on previously. After preaching in 
 the mornings at the Ord, he now preached in the after- 
 noons in the village of Cornhill, within the bounds of 
 a neighbouring minister. This minister was thoroughly 
 opposed to the reforming party in the church ; and as 
 no site for a Free Church could have been got at the 
 Ord, and it was likely that it would have to be built 
 
THE ORD 67 
 
 at Cornhill, three and a half miles off, it seemed very 
 desirable to prepare for that step. A large congrega- 
 tion gathered at the place of meeting, for both ministers 
 and people were solemnised by the position of the 
 church. The power of the Holy Ghost seemed to be 
 exerted in an unusual degree, sending home the appeals 
 of the preacher to many hearts. Yet obstacles were 
 thrown in the way. When the meetings were held in 
 the large room of the inn, an interdict was procured 
 by the proprietor against such meetings. When the 
 interdict came to be enforced, it was a wet and windy 
 night ; but, with the help of candles and lanterns, it 
 was resolved to hold the meeting outside. To the 
 amazement of many the wind fell and the rain ceased, 
 as if Providence had interposed; when the Cornhill 
 friends thus seemed to have the favour of God, they 
 thought less of the opposition of men. Mr. Brown was 
 felt to be a tower of strength to the cause of the church, 
 not only in his own parish, but throughout the whole 
 district. And wherever he went and spoke, it was 
 made plain that, much though he was concerned for 
 the safety of the church, what lay nearest to his heart 
 was the spiritual welfare of the people, and that his 
 strongest and most pathetic appeals were on this 
 behalf, that they might turn to God and live. 
 
 In some papers, entitled, ' Personal Reminiscences of 
 the Ten Years'* Conflict,' ' Dr. Brown, when in his 
 ninetieth year, recorded not a few of the characteristic 
 occurrences of this exciting period. The power of 
 memory shown in these papers is extraordinary. 
 Active, popular, and very cordial in the cause, he was 
 1 See Youth, Jan., Feb., March, April 1895 (T. Nelson and Sons). 
 
68 DAVID BROWN 
 
 much engaged going from place to place to expound 
 the situation to the people, or to converse with 
 friends as to their course in the future. In both 
 classes he saw not a little of human nature in its 
 strength and in its weakness. The worldly minded 
 could neither believe that the ministers would make 
 the sacrifice, nor that the people would draw their 
 purses. In one case a minister, fully purposed to ' go 
 out,' had sent for an auctioneer to arrange for the sale 
 of his furniture. The auctioneer could not believe 
 him serious ; and when he saw that he was, he shrank 
 from the job, because he, as well as the minister, would 
 be sure to be laughed at by an incredulous public. 
 But the sale was advertised, and it deeply impressed a 
 half-infidel man in the parish, who confessed that, 
 after all, there must be something in religion, for 
 Mr. A. was ' rouping his furniture.'' On one occasion, 
 when Mr. Brown was dining with the members of a 
 Presbytery, some discussion took place as to the 
 number of large farmers that would 'come out"' in 
 each parish. One minister said, ' There 's not one of 
 my big farmers who would not turn a Mohammedan 
 to-morrow if you would lower his rent five pounds.' 
 He was wrong ; several of them came out. No class 
 of men cut a more pitiable figure than those ministers 
 who had contended for the principles, but could not 
 face the sacrifice. Sometimes they acted with incon- 
 ceivable meanness, applying for the livings vacated by 
 their more consistent brethren, even though they had 
 been personal friends. Few of these men were able to 
 hold up their heads after such exhibitions of their 
 weakness. Some of them had recourse to the bottle to 
 
THE ORD 69 
 
 keep up their spirits. On the other hand, the stead- 
 fastness of the true men, and of the wives of the true 
 men, to their principles, in spite of overwhelming 
 difficulties and apparent disaster of every kind, was 
 indeed heroic. 
 
 On the memorable 18th of May 1843 Mr. Brown 
 was in Edinburgh, and, as one of the 474, cordially 
 attached his name to the Deed of Demission. Return- 
 ing to the Ord, he had a very blank prospect to 
 face. Lord Seafield sent, though reluctantly, for the 
 key of the church and the manse — a plain proof 
 that Mr. Brown's connection with both was to cease. 
 Hardly less was it an indication that Cullen House 
 and Forglen House (Sir Robert Abercromby's) would 
 no longer have their doors open to him as before. 
 These landed men were strong Conservatives, and 
 bitterly opposed to the church. No doubt Mr. Brown 
 would have braced himself for the new situation, and 
 faced its difficulties as before. All his elders and 
 nearly the whole congregation came out along with 
 him. But, as it turned out, it was not he that was to 
 fight that battle. In the course of the autumn a call 
 came to him from an important congregation in 
 Glasgow that had come out, but left their minister 
 behind. It cost him a wrench to leave the place which 
 had so many sweet associations, where his work had 
 been so blessed, where he had spent the first bright 
 years of wedded life, and where most of his children 
 had been born. But it was so apparent that in his 
 new sphere he would be the right man in the right 
 place, that the translation took place, much as a 
 matter of course, and his sphere was transferred from 
 
70 DAVID BROWN 
 
 the Moray Firth to the banks of the Clyde. ' Broon 
 o' the Ord "* became a tradition of the past. 
 
 The after-visits of one who had made such a deep 
 impression were hailed very cordially by the people. 
 The Free Church had been transferred to Cornhill, and 
 his old church and manse remained connected with the 
 Established Church. When he visited them, some five- 
 and-twenty years ago, along with Mr. Macdonald, he 
 could look on them only with tearful eyes. When 
 Mr. Macdonald was introduced by him to his people, 
 he preached stirring sermons, full of memories of the 
 past. About ten years ago a preaching hall, connected 
 with the Free Church, was provided for the Ord district, 
 which he opened, much to the delight of the people. 
 It was regarded as the celebration of his jubilee, and 
 he was presented with an illuminated address from the 
 officebearers and congregation. 
 
 His last visit was on the occasion of the jubilee 
 of the Free Church of Marnoch (at Aberchirder) in 
 June 1891. He was then in his eighty-seventh year. 
 He gave the congregation of Cornhill an interesting 
 account of his past experiences as a minister. But 
 the most notable incident of this visit took place in 
 the Free Church of Marnoch. It happened that one 
 of those present was the venerable William Stronach of 
 Ardmeallie, who, with Dr. Brown, had also been present 
 in 1841, at the opening of the church. They had 
 never met since. Mr. Stronach had acted a conspicuous 
 and honourable part on the day of the Marnoch in- 
 trusion. The seven suspended ministers, helpless and 
 miserable, unable to control the noise of the crowd 
 that refused all tokens of reverence to an act of 
 
THE ORD 71 
 
 desecration, had called on Mr. Stronach, as a justice 
 of the peace, to give them some help, complain- 
 ing that they were interrupted and deforced by 
 parishioners of Marnoch. The Marnoch people had 
 left the church in a body, and Mr. Stronach now 
 strongly appealed to any that might have remained 
 to leave it at once. When all had left, and it became 
 plain that not one of the people over whom Mr. 
 Edwards was to be nominally ordained was present, 
 Mr. Stronach had called on the Presbytery to do 
 their work and be as quick as possible. He had 
 gained golden opinions on that day for his mingled 
 firmness and courtesy. When the venerable Principal 
 shook hands with his old friend, almost a nonagenarian 
 like himself, and called to mind his high character and 
 his memorable services, not then only but throughout 
 his long connection with the parish and congregation, 
 he was so moved that in presence of all the people 
 he took him into his arms and kissed him. The 
 spectacle was as touching as it was rare. 
 
72 DAVID BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 GLASGOW MINISTRY 
 
 The congregation of St. James's Free Church, of which 
 Mr. Brown now became minister, had been formed 
 under unusual circumstances. Dr. John Muir, who 
 had been minister of the Established Church of that 
 parish for some time before, was an ardent evangelical, 
 a man of strong individuality, almost eccentricity, and 
 a vehement Tory. He had an intense abhorrence of 
 Catholic Emancipation, believing that it must sap 
 the Protestant foundation of the Empire ; after it 
 became law, the country appeared to him to be ruined, 
 so that it was needless to contend for other things; 
 having swallowed the camel, it was needless to strain 
 out the gnat. Consequently, when the Disruption 
 took place, he remained in the Established Church. 
 But not so his people. They had appreciated more 
 justly the nature of the struggle, and intuitively 
 apprehended its relation to the cause of the Gospel 
 generally. A large portion of them, including eleven 
 out of twelve elders, proceeded to form themselves 
 into a Free Church congregation. The gentleman 
 who remained in was a Mr, King, father of the present 
 Sir James King. The elders were a peculiarly fine 
 body of men, combining the commercial enterprise of 
 
GLASGOW MINISTRY 73 
 
 Glasgow merchants with the Christian fervour of Dr. 
 Chalmers — ' not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, 
 serving the Lord.' Having had their attention called 
 to Mr. David Brown, who was well known in Glasgow 
 from his having often assisted his brother Charles in 
 Anderston Church, they gave him a cordial call to be 
 their minister. Though very reluctant to leave the 
 Ord, he accepted the call for obvious reasons, and 
 removed to Glasgow in October 1843. 
 
 The commencement of his Glasgow ministry took 
 place at a memorable time. The spirit roused by the 
 Disruption was tremendously strong. There was both 
 good and bad in it, the good greatly predominating. 
 Towards the Established Church there was no doubt 
 a great deal of bitter and contemptuous feeling. In 
 that direction, unliappily, people did not seem to feel 
 the need of restraining the natural man. But there 
 was also a spirit of great spiritual earnestness. There 
 was an intense desire that as the supremacy of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ had been signally vindicated in the public 
 administration of the church, so His claims in other 
 departments of life should be cordially acknowledged, 
 and that thus the ministry might become more signally 
 useful in the conversion of sinners and the edification 
 of believers. Of this spirit a striking manifestation 
 took place at the meeting of the General Assembly 
 in 1844, in connection with which Mr. Brown's brother, 
 Charles, then minister of the New North Church, 
 Edinburgh, did excellent service. In the 'Reminiscences 
 of the Ten Years' Conflict ' already referred to, Mr. D. 
 Brown thus records this event : — 
 
 ' When the Assembly met for the second time in 
 
74 DAVID BROWN 
 
 May 1844 (as I have said elsewhere), it was felt by 
 many that after the close of a ten years' conflict, there 
 was great danger of the people settling down, and 
 getting shrivelled up into a mere non-intrusion sect. 
 To avert this danger, a step very unusual was taken. 
 In the second week, my brother, the late Dr. Charles 
 Brown, was asked to preach before the Assembly. 
 This he did on very short notice, and almost extem- 
 pore, on " the preacher as an ambassador for Christ, 
 beseeching men in Christ"'s stead to be reconciled to God"; 
 and this with such tenderness and melting power, that 
 the members were almost in tears. This was followed 
 up by deputations of two and two to preach in all the 
 congregations of every Presbytery in the church, in- 
 structing them to say nothing about funds, nor about 
 our controversy with the Established Church now at 
 an end, but to preach the Gospel pure and simple, 
 and nothing else. At the close of the service, however, 
 they were to invite the officebearers to remain, that 
 they might encourage them in their new work, and 
 ask them how they were getting on."" In this work Mr. 
 David Brown took his part with cheerful ardour. It 
 was a happy idea, and served materially to confirm 
 and advance the spiritual welfare of the church. 
 
 It was, moreover, a time of cordial union and 
 brotherly love. Among the ministers of the Free 
 Church themselves, if there were any jealousies or 
 animosities before, they were now at an end. And 
 from all quarters far and near there came the warmest 
 expressions of admiration of the sacrifice that had 
 been made ; of sympathy for the troubles and diffi- 
 culties of the church, and of the desire that in her 
 
GLASGOW MINISTRY 75 
 
 future career she might be eminently blessed and 
 her example made useful to the whole Christian 
 world. One of the most striking effects of the Dis- 
 ruption was the cordiality with which the churcli 
 was greeted by the old secession bodies with whom 
 she had been engaged shortly before in mortal conflict, 
 in connection with the Voluntary Controversy. All 
 the old hostility died out in a moment, and a cordial 
 friendship came in its room. This was the more 
 striking that the ministers of the evangelical party 
 who now formed the Free Church, had been the most 
 active opponents of the voluntaries, for the good- 
 natured, easy-going moderates, although strong for 
 an Established Church, had not been active in the 
 strife. Another happy effect of the Disruption was 
 the eagerness of the people to give help, in whatso- 
 ever way they could. Never was the spirit of willing 
 service more cordially shown. Men and women every- 
 where seemed to hear a trumpet call, summoning them 
 to the field of service. Talents that must otherwise have 
 slept were called into active exercise. And, as on the 
 Day of Pentecost, the opening of men's hearts was 
 accompanied with the opening of their purses ; and 
 canny Scotsmen, proverbial for their great care of 
 their money, sent it in streams of gold and silver 
 into the treasury of the church. 
 
 Of the earlier part of Mr. Brown's Glasgow ministry, 
 we have received a very interesting account from the 
 Rev. John M'Ewan, of the Free Church, Roseneath, 
 who was at that time a member of the congregation. 
 
 * What struck me about Dr. Brown, when he entered 
 
76 DAVID BilOWN 
 
 on his Glasgow ministry, was the earnest manner in 
 which he discharged his duties both in and out of the 
 pulpit. Like his brother, Dr. Charles Brown, he had 
 a remarkable gift of prayer. His soul was aflame with 
 holy fervour while leading the devotions of the sanc- 
 tuary : this threw a marked solemnity over the congre- 
 gation, and made us feel that we were personally dealing 
 with God, and pleading as men in earnest for spiritual 
 blessings. There was no sameness in his prayers, but 
 great variety, both of thought and expression. 
 
 ' He accompanied the reading of the Word with 
 extempore explanations, and his extensive knowledge of 
 the Hebrew and Greek languages came prominently 
 forward on those occasions, and enabled him to open 
 up certain passages with a clearness and fulness that 
 removed many a difficulty from our minds, and rendered 
 the Bible to us a precious emporium of divine truth. 
 
 ' As for his preaching, it was founded on Christian 
 doctrine, and was both sound and evangelical. Here 
 he was at his best, especially during the first few years 
 of his ministry among us. He was not content with 
 laying down the exegesis of his text, but enforced in a 
 powerful manner the truth embodied in it, and pressed 
 it in his own peculiar way on the conscience of his 
 people. 
 
 ' His great theme was the cross. From that he never 
 deviated, but kept it in the forefront of all his sermons, 
 and made great use of it in pressing the claims of the 
 Gospel upon us, and in urging us to lay our sins at the 
 foot of the cross, and to leave them there in the exer- 
 cise of a heaven-born faith. 
 
 ' He never shrouded the cross with flowers of rhetoric, 
 
GLASGOW MINISTRY 77 
 
 or with the fancies of men who were only half-hearted 
 in their sympathy with it, and in their maintenance of 
 it as the great central doctrine of the Word, but ever 
 kept it before us, shining down on our souls like the 
 sun from an unclouded sky. 
 
 ' I believe it was the clear way in which he pro- 
 claimed the doctrine of the cross, along with the col- 
 lateral views encircling it, that made his ministry, under 
 God, such a success. I can speak from personal experi- 
 ence, as well as from personal knowledge, of the effect 
 which his ministrations had on a large number of the 
 congregation, and specially on young men like myself. 
 
 ' He led us to think of religion in a way we had not 
 previously done, and constrained us to feel that Christ 
 had claims on our hearts and lives which we had 
 not hitherto considered, and which we could not then 
 either dispute or disown. 
 
 ' And when we came to apply for admission to the 
 membership of the church, his dealings with the con- 
 science were those of a man who had more than a common 
 knowledge of the heart and its workings. He was not 
 content with holding a weekly class for about two months 
 preceding the communion, but he invited us to his house 
 individually, and there dealt most lovingly with us, 
 opening up the Christian life in all its fulness, and 
 speaking most tenderly of the love of Christ, and of the 
 privilege of celebrating that love at the table of sacra- 
 mental communion; and ere we left he commended us to 
 God in prayer, that He would enable us to celebrate 
 with acceptance the dying, redeeming love of Christ. 
 
 ' This recalls to my mind the fact that Dr. Brown 
 always arranged that our elder should visit each cate- 
 
78 DAVID BROWN 
 
 chumen ; and I well remember that Mr. Robert Munsie 
 (long the publisher of the Scottish Guardian newspaper, 
 which then occupied the same position in Glasgow, and 
 held the same Disruption principles as the WitnefiS did 
 in Edinburgh), called on me, and spoke most solemnly 
 and suitably on the step I was about to take, asked 
 me some important questions on church doctrine and 
 church life, and then prayed for me most fervently. 
 His dealings with me on that occasion I will never 
 forget, though fifty years have passed away since then. 
 
 ' I don't know any minister who was so highly favoured 
 with elders as was Dr. Brown. They were men of God, 
 men of faith, men of prayer, men remarkably sound 
 in the doctrines of the Word. When I mention old 
 Peter Ewing, John Craig, William and Robert Munsie, 
 brothers beloved, Matthew Witherspoon, Mr., after- 
 wards Sir Michael, Connal, and several others, none of 
 whom now survive, you need not wonder that our be- 
 loved pastor was greatly helped and encouraged in the 
 good work of the Lord in which he was engaged. They 
 were seldom absent from the weekly prayer meeting, 
 and always took part in it, offering one or other of the 
 prayers, and even conducted the meeting wholly when 
 our minister had occasion to be absent. 
 
 ' He had a peculiar habit of seldom appearing at the 
 church on the Sabbath forenoons until the bell had 
 almost ceased ringing, when he would be seen hurrying 
 to the vestry just in time to put on his gown and 
 bands, and be ushered into the pulpit by " William," 
 the worthy and much respected beadle. 
 
 ' He had a large congregation, who dearly loved him, 
 and highly valued his ministrations. He was a faithful 
 
GLASGOW MINISTRY 79 
 
 pastor, visiting his people regularly, and not spending 
 time with them in idle, fruitless conversation, but speak- 
 ing most kindly to the children, asking them to repeat 
 to him one or two questions in the Shorter Catechism, 
 and warmly urging them to choose the good part that 
 should never be taken from them, well knowing, 
 
 *' 'Twill save a thousand cares 
 To mind salvation young." 
 
 He then spoke faithfully to our parents, urging them 
 to cultivate personal religion, to observe family worship, 
 " to train up their children in the nurture and admoni- 
 tion of the Lord,"" and closing the whole with a fervent 
 prayer that parents and children alike might enjoy the 
 gracious presence of God in their hearts and homes. 
 
 ' Altogether Dr. Brown''s ministry, especially up to 
 the time of the publication of his able work on the 
 second Advent of our Lord, was one of great fruitful- 
 ness ; for there can be no doubt that he was honoured 
 of God in leading a large number of young men and 
 young women to accept Christ as their personal Saviour, 
 in building up and edifying the many advanced and 
 ripe Christians among his flock, in cheering and com- 
 forting God's people amid the trials and sorrows of 
 desert life, and in strengthening the faith and brighten- 
 ing the hopes of dying saints. Most of these have 
 passed away from this earthly scene, and have, ere this, 
 welcomed their spiritual father, the dear old saint of 
 God, on his entrance into heaven, while some who are 
 now ministers of the Gospel, or elders of the church, or 
 Sabbath-school teachers, or members of the church, 
 though not many, are still alive, who have warm recol- 
 
80 DAVID BROWN 
 
 lections of him as their much loved pastor, and have 
 grateful hearts to God that Dr, David Brown laboured 
 for several years in Free St. James*'s Church, Glasgow, 
 preaching to his flock the glorious Gospel of God's grace, 
 to the glory of God and the good of many souls.' 
 
 The Glasgow Examiner of March 29, 1848, had a 
 sketch of the Rev. David Brown, one of a series on 
 ' Our Scottish Clergy.' It was lavish in praise of the 
 new church which had recently been erected by the 
 congregation, and which it considered to be a very 
 model. Of the minister, too, it had much good to 
 say. The sermon, from Zech. x. 1, lasted for an hour 
 and five minutes, and the first prayer likewise was 
 somewhat long. 'The earnestness of the preacher lends 
 the chief charm to his preaching. He generally leans 
 over the Bible, and fixing his eye seemingly to some 
 object a little to the right hand side of the church, he 
 manifests great anxiety both in voice and gesture. 
 His style of address partakes largely of the colloquial. 
 The preacher often speaks to his people as if engaged 
 in conversation, in which both parties are deeply in- 
 terested. Occasionally he uses the direct form of 
 address, and he individualises his audience in order 
 to reach their hearts and consciences more effectually. 
 His voice is particularly effective in expressing the 
 tender and pathetic. He often, however, allows it to 
 fall so as to be inaudible to strangers.' 
 
 Many who enjoyed his ministrations used to dwell 
 with marked emphasis on the elevated tone of his 
 prayers. They were always fervent, but sometimes, 
 with uplifted head and pleaiiing voice, he seemed to 
 
GLASGOW MINISTRY 81 
 
 be in actual contact with heaven. A member of his 
 flock, then a boy, still surviving, was so struck with 
 this that oftener than once he seemed to see a halo 
 round his head. It was probably one of those cases 
 where, in persons of very sensitive nerve, the imagina- 
 tion overcomes the senses. 
 
 The church where Dr. Brown's congregation wor- 
 shipped, before the erection of their own building, 
 being in the neighbourhood of the barracks where the 
 Ninety-Third Regiment was quartered, a portion of 
 the soldiers used to attend his ministry. Dr. Brown 
 was greatly interested in them, and some of them 
 having attended his communicants'* class, were ad- 
 mitted to the church, and were to partake of the 
 Lord's Supper for the first time on the following 
 Sunday. For some reason or another, into which it 
 is needless to inquire, the colonel of the regiment 
 gave orders that on that day they should all attend 
 at the Established Church. Dr. Brown w^as equally 
 distressed for the disappointment of the young men, 
 and indignant at this tyrannical exercise of authority. 
 He accordingly wrote to the Duke of Wellington as 
 commander-in-chief, complaining of the interference. 
 He received a very civil reply from the Duke (which 
 has unfortunately been lost), expressing strong dis- 
 approval of the action of the colonel, and saying that 
 he had expressed his disapproval to him and ordered 
 him to make a public apology before the regiment. 
 The poor colonel was terribly mortified, and, it is said, 
 never got over the affront. 
 
 It is needless to recall, what all the world knows, 
 the distinguished services of the Ninety -Third Regiment 
 
 F 
 
8^ iDAVID BROWN 
 
 shortly after, both in the Crimea, and in India at 
 the time of the Mutiny. In Mr. Forbes Mitchell's 
 Reminiscences of tJie Great Mutiny, many thrilling stories 
 are told of ' the regiment that saved the saviour of 
 India,' — alluding to its service in the capture of Luck- 
 now, where Havelock and Outram with their troops, after 
 fighting their way to the Residency, were themselves 
 imprisoned till liberated by Sir Colin Campbell, after- 
 wards colonel of the Ninety-Third. The Ninety-Third, 
 besides doing wonders of valour against the mutineers, 
 showed themselves able to overcome what a Royal Duke 
 once called ' the only enemy that the British soldier has 
 to fear,"* when the mutineers on one occasion, in order 
 to entrap them, thirsty and weary as they were, placed 
 rum casks in their line of march, with the ends knocked 
 out, expecting that the British would break their ranks 
 and fly to the rum, and intending to fall on them in 
 the confusion and smash them. ' But the Ninety-Third 
 marched right on past the barrels ; and the super- 
 numerary rank soon upset the casks, leaving the con- 
 tents to soak into the dry ground.' 
 
 It would appear that the reproach of being Free 
 Churchmen still clung to some men of the regiment. 
 Whether ' Willie MacBean,' originally an Inverness- 
 shire ploughman, afterwards a major-general, and at 
 one time in command of the regiment, was one of Dr. 
 Brown's young men, we are not certain ; but the army 
 did not contain a braver or more efficient soldier, and 
 the Victoria Cross was never more worthily bestowed. 
 Of his future history Mr. Forbes Mitchell relates : ' He 
 was kept seven years lance-corporal, partly because 
 promotion went slow in the Ninety-Third ; but several 
 
GLASGOW MINISTRY 83 
 
 were promoted over him, because, at the time of the 
 Disruption of the Church of Scotland, MacBean joined 
 the Free Kirk party. This fact may appear strange 
 to military readers of the present day, with our short 
 service and territorial regiments ; but in the times of 
 which I am writing, as I have before mentioned, the 
 Ninety-Third was constituted as much after the arrange- 
 ments of a Highland parish as those of a regiment 
 in the army, and, to use the words of the Colonel 
 who commanded, " MacBean was passed over Jour pro- 
 motions, because he was a Free Kirker/' ' 
 
 In the year 1852 the Senatus of the College of New 
 Jersey, better known as Princeton College, unanimously 
 conferred on Mr. Brown the degree of D.D. The 
 national universities of Scotland at that time, under 
 the influence of an unworthy dislike of the Free Church, 
 abstained from conferring honorary degrees even on 
 its most eminent ministers, although soon after they 
 adopted a more liberal policy. But a degree from 
 Princeton was counted c({ual to any degree from Scot- 
 land, although it was not always understood at home 
 that the degree came not from the Theological Seminary 
 of Princeton, with which the name of Dr. Charles 
 Hodge was so honourably associated, but from the 
 College which in former years had had Jonathan 
 Edwards and Dr. Witherspoon as Presidents, and in 
 the future was to be presided over by Dr. James 
 M'Cosh. 
 
 Dr. Brown's ministry in Glasgow lasted fourteen 
 years, and terminated on his election to a professor's 
 chair in Aberdeen in 1857. 
 
84 DAVID BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 EARLIER WRITINGS 
 
 It was during his Glasgow ministry that Mr. Brown 
 came out as an author. Two important works came 
 from his pen : his book on the Second Advent, and his 
 Commentary on the Gospels. 
 
 From a very early period he had been specially at- 
 tracted to exegetical study, and found in it an occupa- 
 tion alike interesting, dignified, and edifying. Of all 
 the exegetical writers who exercised an influence on 
 him, the chief was John Albert Bengel, one of the 
 greatest critical scholars of Germany in the eighteenth 
 century, and author, among other works, of the Gnomon 
 of the Ncio Testament, one of the best commentaries 
 that have ever been written. What he most valued 
 in Bensel was the remarkable combination of accurate 
 and thorough scholarship with profound spirituality. 
 In a very able and comprehensive paper on the ' Life 
 and Labours of Bengel,' which he contributed to the 
 British and Foreign Evangelical Review in March 
 1853, he draws a careful portrait of the man, and 
 furnishes an exposition of his views and methods, 
 which, if we may use the figure, bore to Mr. Brown's 
 own method the relation of the primary rainbow to the 
 secondary. For Mr. Brown was himself a pupil of the 
 
EARLIER WRITINGS 85 
 
 school of Bengel. The glow of simple but earnest piety 
 which brightened alike the life and the writings of the 
 German divine was very congenial to him ; hardly less 
 so the critical acumen which could classify ancient 
 manuscripts of Scripture, and resolve them into families; 
 while in interpretation, his one great object was to 
 discover the natural sense of the passage, discarding 
 traditional interpretations, which, however popular and 
 dear to spiritual hearts, rested on fantastic, and there- 
 fore unreliable principles. By this fidelity to the true 
 principles of interpretation, Bengel's own feelings sus- 
 tained a shock in his earlier years, and he was much 
 concerned to think that this was but an index of the 
 still greater disturbance which his views would raise in 
 the minds of many orthodox and pious countrymen. 
 They might easily keep off the painful impression, but 
 he could not do so quite so easily. 
 
 'What seemed to them plainly incompatible with the 
 inspiration and authority of the Holy Scriptures, they just 
 resolved not to believe. But his was not a mind to be 
 thus eased. Facts to hira were facts, to whatever conclu- 
 sions they might tend. Unable, however, to adjust them 
 at that early stage, he carried the matter to his knees — a 
 quarter to which we have heard of few great Biblical 
 scholars resorting for a solution of their difficulties — and 
 there he found relief enough for the present, and encourage- 
 ment to investigate the whole subject anew as leisure 
 might permit. It was with reference to this and other 
 mental struggles which at that period of his studies he 
 underwent, and which most, if not all, superior and earnest 
 students experience, that he penned the following remark : 
 " the most important of all controversies are those we 
 experience within us, of which there is no end till the 
 
86 DAVID BROWN 
 
 whole mind has undergone a change, and the whole man 
 has struggled into renovation. When this is done, a host 
 of casuistical scruples disappear at once, and we soon get 
 rid of the remainder." ' 
 
 Bengal and Brown had a like experience in early life, 
 having spent a considerable time in spheres compara- 
 tively obscure. 
 
 ' Nearly thirty years of his life were spent in a sphere 
 comparatively humble. But precious was the fruit of his 
 labours in those who received from him their theological 
 training, and caught his genial tone ; most salutary, in 
 the then deliquescent state of Lutheran theology, was 
 that union of accurate learning and Christian simplicity, 
 of spirituality and sobriety, of soundness in the faith, 
 with independent investigation and breadth of study which 
 distinguished both his teaching and his writings ; and 
 while not a few who then attracted a larger measure of 
 public attention, and for a time exercised much more 
 influence, possess now little more than a historical interest, 
 as links in the great chain of events which marked and 
 moulded the times, the critical and expository labours of 
 Bengel are for all time, (we speak not of his prophetical 
 computations) and are at this day as fresh as when they 
 first issued from the Tubingen Press.' 
 
 Much though Mr, Brown esteemed Calvin as a com- 
 mentator, he perhaps valued Bengel more. 
 
 ' The character of the two minds as interpreters presents 
 some very interesting points. The penetration, sagacity, 
 and sound sense which both display, their independence 
 of mind, and fidelity to the naliiral sense of the text, in 
 preference to the most hallowed traditional views of its 
 meaning, and the holy reverence with which both listened 
 to Him that speaketh from heaven — these and such as 
 
EARLIER WRITINGS 87 
 
 these are points of resemblance. But while Calvin almost 
 disdained verbal niceties, as a species of trifling with the 
 Word of God, setting chief store by the scope and spirit 
 of a passage, which he grasped with unrivalled correctness 
 and felicity, Bengel weighed every clause, phrase, and 
 word, to the minutest particle, and never lost a shade or 
 fibre of thought (as Hare expresses it) which pi-ayerful and 
 painstaking study of the entire sacred text could disclose 
 to him. Each of these methods has of course its advantages. 
 In Calvin there is a noble manliness, but at times rather 
 too much generality ; in Bengel a singular delicacy of 
 perception, but at times an over-refinement. If in the 
 one you sometimes miss what should have been there, in 
 the other you occasionally find what ought not to have 
 been there. In masculine and reverential expression of 
 great principles of truth and duty revealed in the New 
 Testament, none can come up to Calvin ; while the philo- 
 logical accuracy with which Bengel simply indicates the 
 sense of the divine text, and the unctuous tenderness and 
 tranquil spirituality with which he moves on, make you 
 feel as if nobody and nothing came in between you and 
 the Holy Ghost, but that you are listening directly to the 
 word from Him, or getting rid, at least, by means of this 
 critic, of obstacles to your doing so. In a word, no minister 
 can properly dispense with either of these illustrious 
 expositors. Both are best, and both should be consulted 
 together.' 
 
 These extracts show us both Mr. Brown's own idea 
 of the true method of Scripture exposition and his 
 estimate of the two great expositors, Calvin and Bengel, 
 at whose feet he deemed it a privilege to sit. Of his 
 own expository works we do not attempt any elaborate 
 examination, but merely indicate in a general way their 
 character and drift. 
 
88 DAVID BROWN 
 
 The work entitled, The Second Advent: will it be 
 P re-millennial ? was originally in the form of magazine 
 articles, furnished at the request of an editor ; these 
 were enlarged into a volume, and in the second edition 
 enlarged still further, because answers were now 
 furnished to some of the criticisms that had appeared, 
 making a substantial book of five hundred pages. The 
 second edition appeared in 1849, and since that time 
 five other editions have been issued.^ In the United 
 States the book met with a peculiarly gratifying recep- 
 tion, and among American divines the author's name 
 was placed at once in the rank of our most distinguished 
 theologians. The importance of the work was seen 
 from the many answers which it evoked. Referring 
 to these in the introduction to his second edition, the 
 author says : — 
 
 'In addition to a small tract by Mr. Wood (Rev, 
 Walter Wood of Elie), a volume by Mr. Scott, a 
 chapter of the sixth edition of Mr. Bickersteth's Signs 
 of the Times, the Duke of Manchester has honoured 
 me with a pretty full reply in a lengthened appendix 
 to his Finished Mystery ; Mr. Andrew Bonar has pub- 
 lished Redemption Drawing- Nigh, in reply to me ; and 
 Mr. Horatius Bonar, besides the reference to my book, 
 though not by name, throughout the greater part of 
 his Prophetical Landmarlis, has reviewed it in three 
 long articles in the Presbyteriaji Review, and since 
 the cessation of that periodical, has embodied the 
 substance of these articles, with very large additions, 
 in a volume issued a few months since, entitled. The 
 Coming and Kingdom, of the Lord Jesus Christ, being 
 ^ The seventh edition was published by T. and T. Clark. 
 
EARLIER WRITINGS 89 
 
 an examination of the work of the Rev. D. Brown on 
 the second coming; of the Lord.' 
 
 Notwithstanding all these criticisms, the book con- 
 tinued to show ample evidence of public esteem. Nor 
 has it lost its character as a standard treatise. Professor 
 Agar Beet, an expositor of the highest authority, in 
 his work on The Last Th'mgs, published only a few 
 months ago, has given this remarkable testimony in 
 its favour : ' For more than forty years it has had 
 its place as by far the best book on the subject ; and 
 I have pleasure in recommending it as still worthy of 
 careful study. It is a noble example of careful Biblical 
 research.' But the genealogy of the book must be 
 traced a little further back. Mr. Brown had been 
 led to a very careful study of the second Advent by 
 his experiences under Mr. Irving. As we have already 
 seen, he had believed from his student days that the 
 second Advent would be pre-millennial. He had been 
 so far impressed by Mr. Irving's views as to think it 
 possible that in preparation for our Lord's Advent, 
 signs and wonders would be manifested at that very 
 time to arrest the attention of the church and of the 
 world, and prepare them for that decisive event. 
 When he found that the alleged signs and wonders 
 were fallacious, and most certainly not of heavenly 
 origin, he naturally recoiled from Mr. Irving's views 
 on the nearness of the Advent, and separated himself 
 from him. But this only led him to a full and very 
 careful examination of the doctrine of the second 
 Advent as set forth in Scripture, and especially the 
 time when it was to take place. This examination 
 behoved to be conducted on sound principles of Biblical 
 
90 DAVID BROWN 
 
 interpretation, involving a clear distinction between 
 what was figurative or allegorical, and what was 
 literal ; and it ought to co-ordinate the whole teach- 
 ing of Scripture on the last things, leaving no con- 
 tradiction between one part and another, and requiring 
 no unnatural or even grotesque suppositions to explain 
 apparently conflicting representations. 
 
 The result was a very firm belief that the second 
 Advent would not be pre-millennial, but that it would 
 take place at the end of the world, simultaneously 
 with the resurrection of all that were in their graves, 
 and the universal judgment of the quick and the dead, 
 of the righteous and the wicked. Here, and here only, 
 could he find a firm foundation ; on this basis, and on 
 this only, could he co-ordinate the whole teaching of 
 Scripture on the last things. The other view, making 
 the second Advent pre-millennial, and spreading the 
 judgment over the whole millennium, though it 
 might stimulate saints, as it had stimulated Edward 
 Irving, into rare intensity of spiritual feeling, and 
 high disregard of all that was carnal, could not 
 exercise over mankind generally that solemn, over- 
 awing influence which comes from the thought of 
 a simultaneous judgment, when the Lord shall de- 
 scend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of 
 the archangel and the trump of God, and all, small 
 and great, shall stand together before the great 
 white throne. 
 
 Yet Mr. Brown tells us that he would not have 
 written a book in which he must place himself in 
 opposition to many brethren whom he esteemed and 
 loved with all his heart, had he not thought that 
 their view was fitted to do harm. It was because 
 
EARLIER WRITINGS 91 
 
 he saw in it elements which at once fascinate the 
 carnal and attract the spiritual, that he thought it 
 of consequence to sift it. He unquestionably had in his 
 mind the sad wreck of a noble career to which it 
 had led in Irving's case, and the strange jumble of 
 the spiritual and the carnal, the heavenly and the 
 earthly, which the church-body to which he gave rise, 
 or to which at least his name is often given, has come 
 to present. One of his chief motives was to rescue 
 ' THE BLESSED HOPE of the Saviour's appearing from the 
 erroneous and repulsive circumstances with which this 
 doctrine invests it, and which have had the effect of 
 frightening away the church from an expectation which 
 nothing else can compensate the loss of Nothing 
 seemed to him so grand or so impressive as the old 
 doctrine, expressed in Christ's words, ' the hour cometh 
 when they that are in their graves shall hear the voice 
 of the Son of Man, and shall come forth ; they that 
 have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they 
 that have done evil unto the resurrection of condemna- 
 tion.' Nothing seemed to him to glorify Christ so 
 much as the view, that when He should come again 
 ' to be glorified in his saints and admired in all them 
 that believe,' it should not be to institute a mere 
 millennial dispensation, in which much evil would still 
 be mingled with good, and which would be followed 
 by a terrible revolt, where Jesus himself would have 
 to use the sword against enemies in flesh and blood ; 
 but to celebrate the final and complete triumph of 
 light over darkness, and holiness over sin ; to set up 
 the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness ; to realise the glorious announcement, 
 ' Behold, I make all things new.' 
 
92 DAVID BROWN 
 
 The mode of treatment followed in his book seems 
 to have been that which, in his own case, brought 
 him to the conclusions wliich he maintains and defends. 
 Essentially, it consisted in starting from certain facts 
 which Scripture seems to make very plain, and showing 
 that the pre-millennial theory ran athwart these facts, 
 and led to conclusions that could not be maintained 
 with them. One of these facts, for example, was, that 
 the church or mystical body of Christ, would be com- 
 plete at His second coming. It is said in Scripture 
 that the order of the resurrection is to be, ' Christ 
 the first fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's at 
 His coming."' When Christ should come again He would 
 present the church to Himself, ' a glorious church, not 
 having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.' To Dr. 
 Brown it seemed as plain as day that the entire body 
 of the redeemed was denoted in these passages ; but 
 according to the pre-millennial view, many are to be 
 added to the church after the second coming. He 
 found his opponents at a great loss to explain the 
 standing of such persons, inasmuch as they did not 
 constitute ' the bride,' who was already complete, and 
 must therefore be relegated to an inferior position. 
 In like manner he took his stand on the simultaneous 
 character of the final judgment. Surely if the parable 
 of the sheep and the goats teaches anything, it is 
 that both classes are to be j udged together. But pre- 
 millennialism makes the judgment a process of long 
 duration, extending over the whole millennium, yet 
 leaving; it uncertain when the saints of the millennial 
 and post-millennial periods are to be judged, or 
 whether tliey are to be judged at all. This method 
 
EARLIER WRITINGS 93 
 
 of treatment may not be the reductio ad ahsurdum, 
 but it is the reductio ad contradictionem. 
 
 Some of his opponents twitted him on his taking this 
 line, and asked why he did not follow another method 
 — the method of examining, first of all, the passages 
 that seemed to teach directly that the Advent would 
 be pre-millennial. To this Dr. Brown replied that he 
 did not feel bound to adopt any other man's order ; he 
 preferred his own. 
 
 But although he has laid out his subject on his own 
 lines, all must admit that he has treated it most 
 comprehensively, and that there is not an important 
 text nor an important argument but has received from 
 him ample and careful consideration. That the subject 
 is treated in a style of masterly ability must be apparent 
 to every fair reader of his book. There is not a page 
 that does not show both vigour and freshness of treat- 
 ment. Within the compass of the volume there is a 
 great amount of able and satisfying exegesis. And 
 there is no unwillingness to admit difficulties or to 
 deny to opponents whatever force there may be in 
 their arguments. With reference, for example, to the 
 command to zoatch for the coming of the Lord, and the 
 argument of his opponents that watching is impossible 
 if there is to be a certain interval of a thousand years 
 before He conies, he admits that this argument is 
 plausible, and, at the first glance, apparently decisive. 
 But then, were not the Thessalonians called to watch 
 although they were told that a long process, the develop- 
 ment of the man of sin, was to take place before the 
 coming of the Lord ? We are surely in as favourable 
 circumstances for watching as they. Moreover, the 
 
94 DAVID BROWN 
 
 watching called for is not an exercise dependent on time, 
 but a habit of soul called for by the nature of the fact. 
 Chrisfs second coming is to give effect to all His prin- 
 ciples of rule ; on the one hand it is to make it plain 
 that nothing but righteousness brings a blessing, and, 
 on the other hand, it is to complete the felicity of the 
 righteous. It is to overthrow all the maxims by which 
 worldly men have been guided in this world, and to 
 bring all such to confusion and dismay ; while it is to 
 show that the righteous are the men whom the King 
 delighteth to honour, and to introduce them to untold 
 honour, prosperity, and blessing. To be watching for 
 this event is, on the one hand, to be watching con- 
 stantly against all habits and acts that do not agree 
 with its standard, and aiming as constantly at all the 
 graces and modes of living that are agreeable to the 
 mind of Christ ; and, on the other hand, it is to be 
 living in expectation of the highest blessedness of which 
 our nature is susceptible ; to be looking for the final 
 raising of our bodies, and their assimilation to Christ's 
 glorious body, and for all that glory and happi- 
 ness which shall accrue when the whole church is 
 gathered together, and Jesus diffuses the lustre of His 
 salvation and the joy of His fellowship on every side. 
 Yes, the second coming of Christ, in the view of Dr. 
 Brown, is indeed 'the blessed hope' of His church, 
 the consummation to which all our wishes and all our 
 prayers should ever be directed, and in reference to 
 which we should now meet the announcement, ' Behold 
 I come quickly,' with the longing, hoping, trusting 
 prayer, ' Even so come. Lord Jesus.' 
 
 While the great ability of the book will be acknow- 
 
EARLIER WRITINGS 95 
 
 ledged by all, it must equally be admitted that its 
 spirit is in harmony with its subject — that the author's 
 own heart beats and glows with the ardour and the 
 fervour which befit his theme. Take a sample from 
 his reference to the future of the Jews. The restora- 
 tion of the Mosaic sacrifices and the temple service, the 
 re-enactment of the Abrahamic covenant, and the eleva- 
 tion of the converted Jews to a place of honour and 
 glory far above other Christians, he wholly repudiates ; 
 but the marvellous effects on themselves and on the 
 world when at last they look on Him whom they have 
 pierced, he fully and joyfully owns. 
 
 'When they see that blood, which, as a nation, they 
 murderously shed, turned as a fountain open to them- 
 selves for sin and uncleanness ; when they find their robes 
 washed and made white in that very blood of the Lamb — 
 how will they water a free pardon with their tears, how 
 generously will they detest forgiven sin (to use Dr. Owen's 
 words), how will they be disposed to exclaim to their 
 Gentile brethren everywhere, " Come, hear, all ye that fear 
 God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul " ? 
 O for the Apostle's spirit of great sorrow and continual 
 heaviness of heart for them of whom, as concerning the 
 flesh, Christ came, and for his glowing expectations of the 
 benefit which we ourselves, as Gentiles, would derive from 
 their conversion ! And the drops of tliat spirit are cer- 
 tainly falling upon the churches. But showers are needed. 
 " Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and 
 briars, — until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high." 
 But "I the Lord will hasten it in his time." ' 
 
 If it be said, as doubtless it will be by some, that Dr. 
 Brown's language to his opponents, when he has driven 
 them into a corner, is sometimes sharp beyond what 
 
96 DAVID BROWN 
 
 becomes the debates of Christians, it is to be observed 
 that any such keenness is due to the intensity of his 
 own convictions ; he is disposed sometimes to think 
 so himself, and then he expresses himself apologetically. 
 But, as a whole, his book fully and explicitly recognises 
 the great worth of his opponents, and is written in 
 the spirit of one to whom it will be a delightful 
 experience in a better world to see eye to eye with 
 brethren from whom he has been compelled to differ 
 in this. 
 
 Of Dr. Brown's Commentary on the Gospels, a very 
 few words will suffice. It was suggested, we believe, by 
 Mr. iVIorrison, of Messrs. Collins and Sons of Glasgow, 
 on the ground that it was very desirable to bring out a 
 succinct commentary on the whole Bible, adapted to 
 modern times. That firm had already issued a com- 
 mentary founded on Scott and Henry, edited by the 
 Rev. Dr. Macfarlane, of Erskinc Church, Glasgow, 
 which had a wonderful success. For the new com- 
 mentary, more up to date, which was now needed. 
 Dr. Brown's name was suggested by Mr. Morrison, and 
 readily accepted by the firm. Dr. Brown had for 
 coadjutors the Rev. A. R. Faussct, of St. Cuthberfs, 
 York, who did the poetical and prophetic books of the 
 Old Testament, and Dr. Jamieson, of St. Paul's, Glas- 
 gow, who undertook the historical books. At first 
 Dr. Brown undertook the whole of the New Testament, 
 but he was obliged on his removal to Aberdeen to give 
 up the latter part of it after having overtaken the 
 Gospels, Acts, and Romans. Mr. Morrison informs the 
 present writer that he had many consultations with 
 
EARLIER WRITINGS 97 
 
 Mr. Collins on the proposed commentary, and that he 
 suggested Dr. Brown as one of the best, if not the very 
 best, scholar of his church in Glasgow. The book, 
 which was finally published in six large octavo volumes, 
 met with great success both in this country and the 
 United States, To one publishing house in Phila- 
 delphia a thousand copies were shipped. 
 
 Of a book which has had so great a circulation and 
 is so well known, all we need to say is that it combines 
 brevity, accurate scholarship, felicitous expression, and 
 spiritual feeling in a degree that has not been equalled 
 in any other English commentary. IVIany is the student 
 of Scripture who has found it throw new light on pas- 
 sages that may have puzzled him before, and who has 
 had his best feelings vividly excited by the atmosphere 
 of fervent emotion which encompasses the exposition. 
 And many is the preacher who has found himself better 
 able to instruct his congregation from the brief but 
 suggestive notes of Dr. Brown. Instead of quoting 
 from the journals of the time, the writer may be 
 allowed to name two distinguished men, of somewhat 
 different schools, who have quite recently expressed 
 to him their appreciation of Dr. Brown's Commentary, 
 the one in conversation, the other in writing. Principal 
 Moule, of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, has told him of the 
 great benefit he had derived from it, because it seemed 
 in few words to give the very essence and spirit of the 
 sacred text. Dr. Marcus Dods gave him his opinion of 
 the Commentaries on the Gospels, Romans, and Corin- 
 thians in the following words : ' His Commentary on 
 the Romans contributed to the Bible-Class Handbooks 
 I consider one of the very best aids to the study of the 
 
 G 
 
98 DAVID BROWN 
 
 epistle — perhaps a clearer presentation of the doctrine 
 of the epistle than any other exposition. He also con- 
 tributed to SchafTs Commentary an exposition of both 
 Epistles to the Corinthians, which I do not know so well, 
 but which Dr. SchafF spoke highly of. The immense 
 circulation attained by his Gospels is proof not only of 
 the publishers' enterprise, but of the intrinsic worth of 
 the book.' In point of fact, Dr. Brown, besides writing 
 commentaries on the Gospels, Acts, and Romans for 
 Collins, and on the Corinthians for Dr. Schaff', issued 
 a new commentary on the Romans many years after, 
 for Clark's Handbooks for Bible-Classes. Professor 
 Salmond, in one of his obituary notices of Dr. Brown, 
 speaks of these commentaries in the highest terms, 
 those in CoUins's series being ' undoubtedly the best 
 portion of the series to which they belong.' But 
 we shall have occasion to notice his later writings 
 further on. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DYCE 99 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. WILLIAM DYCE, R.A. 
 
 We have referred to Dr. Brown's early intimacy with 
 his cousin and brother-in-law, William Dyce. Both 
 young men had much in common, though the Dyces had 
 been Episcopalians from time immemorial, and indeed 
 the two were so much together as to be spoken of as 
 the Siamese twins. Mr. Dyce was at first prevented 
 by his father from following the profession of artist, 
 and had indeed studied to some extent both tlieology 
 and medicine. But the artist was too strong in him 
 to be repressed. At the age of three, he had shown 
 that he could draw ; at seventeen, a painting of his, 
 ' The infant Hercules strangling the Serpent,' won the 
 applause of Sir Thomas Lawrence, President of the 
 Royal Academy ; he was accordingly sent to Rome and 
 other great schools of art, and the world knows what 
 a master he became, especially in religious painting. 
 
 In 1838, two years after his cousin David had been 
 settled at the Ord, Mr. Dyce was appointed to an 
 office in the newly formed School of Design, which led 
 to his removal from Aberdeen to London, and changed 
 the form of intercourse between the two friends from 
 conversation to correspondence. In connection with 
 the Royal Commission for the Fine Arts, of which the 
 
100 DAVID BROWN 
 
 Prince Consort was President, Mr. Dyce rendered great 
 service, and was on terms of intimate and confidential 
 intercourse with His Royal Highness. A few of David 
 Brown's letters to William Dyce have been preserved, 
 but unfortunately none on the other side. In these 
 letters there is much that is interesting in itself, and 
 much likewise that throws light on Dr. Brown's char- 
 acter and views. 
 
 Mr. Dyce was at once an artist and a theologian. 
 It may be said of him that while the theologian influ- 
 enced the artist, the artist influenced the theologian. 
 His devout spirit led him to view art as the handmaid 
 of religion, and under this conviction his own energies 
 were mainly consecrated to sacred subjects. But the 
 artist spirit reacted also on the theologian. For the 
 artist could hardly fail to be drawn toward the 
 churches to which art had been wedded, and by which 
 it had been most appreciated and encouraged. The 
 Presbyterian Church was not one of these, and it was 
 not much wonder that Mr. Dyce, a hereditary Episco- 
 palian, should have been drawn strongly in the opposite 
 direction. 
 
 Mr. Dyce regarded the Church of England as a 
 happy medium betwixt Romanism on the one hand, 
 and Presbyterianism on the other. And his sympathies 
 lay strongly in the High Church direction. We have 
 a glimpse of his ecclesiastical views in a pamphlet which 
 he published in 1851, entitled Notes on Shepherds and 
 Sheep: a Letter to John Ruskin, Esq., M.A. The 
 letter was in reply to a pamphlet of Mr. Ruskin's, 
 Notes on the Construction of Sheepfolds. A more mys- 
 terious title has seldom been devised, and Mr. Dyce, 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DYCE 101 
 
 before reading the booklet itself, had fancied that Mr. 
 Ruskin had set himself to enlighten the world on the 
 architecture of churches. In reality it bore on the old 
 question, What is the Christian Church ? what is its 
 authority ? and the authority of its clergy ? Mr. Dyce's 
 pamphlet is in many ways very clever, but it is one of 
 those productions which promise much but accomplish 
 little. It lays down with wonderful lucidity the points 
 that have to be settled in order to answer the questions 
 propounded. It handles them in a brave literary style, 
 for, like Ruskin himself, Dyce could wield the pen 
 hardly less efficiently than the brush. But when you 
 come to the conclusion, the matter is far from clear to 
 you. All that we need say is, that whereas Mr. Ruskin 
 distinguishes widely between the church visible and the 
 church invisible, Mr. Dyce brings them closer to each 
 other, and ascribes to the church visible more of the 
 dignity, worth, and authority of the church invisible 
 than Mr. Ruskin had done, or than his brother-in-law 
 or Protestants generally would be willing to allow. 
 
 As an artist, Mr. Dyce occupied very high ground. 
 Far from being satisfied to produce works of a high class, 
 bringing him fame and corresponding remuneration, he 
 endeavoured as a philosopher to elucidate and exemplify 
 the principles on which art is founded, and then to 
 indicate the true application of art, in connection with 
 the more ordinary avocations of human life. He went 
 back to the sources, and he looked forward to the 
 results. His idea of the true application of art is in- 
 dicated in a pamphlet of which he was nominally joint 
 author, but really much more, entitled, ' Letter to Lord 
 Meadowbank, and the Committee of the Honourable 
 
102 DAVID BROWN 
 
 Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Arts and 
 Manufactures^ on the Best Means of' Ameliorating the 
 Arts and Mamifactures of Scotland in point of Taste. 
 By William Dyce, M.A., A.R.A., and Charles H. 
 Wilson, A.S.A., R.I.A., 1837; He dwells on the 
 great want of schools of art in Great Britain as 
 compared with Continental countries, and strongly 
 urges that far more pains should be taken to instruct 
 in the true principles of taste all who have to do with the 
 business of designing, in whatsoever form, or in what- 
 soever material. He admits that much progress had 
 been made in the production of tasteful designs since 
 the beginning of the century. And with excellent judg- 
 ment and foresight he urges the employment of those 
 very means which, during the latter half of it, have so 
 remarkably improved designs in our manufactures, and 
 in all other works where taste is called for. Who that 
 has studied the art-productions of the end of last 
 century and the beginning of this has not been struck 
 with their miserable inferiority ? What miserable 
 paper and printing and illustrations in the books of 
 the period ! What barn-like churches, and clumsy, 
 pretentious, hideous gentlemen*'s mansions ! What bare 
 and featureless domestic furniture ! Mr. Dyce de- 
 serves warm acknowledgment for the impulse he gave 
 to a purer taste. His object was to bring back in some 
 degree the old r^g'ime^ where, in architecture especi- 
 ally, the workman was in some degree an artist and the 
 artist a workman. In a word, he helped to make the 
 objects that continually occur in our houses, in our 
 public buildings, and in our streets more pleasing to 
 the eye and more soothing in their influence on our 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DYCE 103 
 
 feelings ; to surround us with creations that continually 
 prove to us that 
 
 * A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.' 
 
 In the absence of letters of his own, these explana- 
 tions are needed to show what manner of man it was 
 with whom Mr. Brown corresponded. The letter 
 which follows, written from the Ord, congratulating 
 him on his appointment in connection with the School 
 of Design, shows that though Mr. Brown was immersed 
 in the active duties of his charge, and though the declara- 
 tion of war with the civil courts which the General 
 Assembly had issued a few weeks before was ringing in 
 his ears, he was well able to appreciate the very different 
 line of work to which his friend had devoted himself, 
 and could expect good fruits from his prosecution of 
 it. There is no sign of anything but what is frank and 
 ingenuous in Mr. Brown's letter ; but it exemplifies an 
 excellent rule of policy which ministers of the Gospel 
 are apt to overlook. When Dr. Chalmers sat down 
 beside the scoffing cobbler, and set himself assiduously 
 to understand how he did his work, he exemplified the 
 principle that if we would get men to be interested in our 
 avocations it is very useful to shoAvan interest in theirs. 
 Mr. Brown shows a lively interest in the profession of 
 his friend, and a lively appreciation of the principles on 
 which it rested and the ends to which it was directed. 
 
 ' Ord Manse, July 27, 1838. 
 ' My dear William, — I offer you my very sincere con- 
 gratulations on your recent appointment, so honourable to 
 yourself, and so likely to advance your professional pro- 
 spects, unless indeed you follow Dr. Johnson's example, who 
 
104 DAVID BROWN 
 
 never wrote a book after he was pensioned. I read your 
 printed letter with the highest interest, and enjoyed it 
 much, not merely from its opening up important views bear- 
 ing on the prosperity of our arts and manufactures, but 
 especially from the combination of poetry and philosophy 
 which it displayed, I mean the poetic and philosophical 
 views of Art, which it showed you took. It is this which 
 such a stranger to the principles and practice of Art 
 as I am can nevertheless appreciate and feast upon ; and 
 it pleased me to find what facility you have in giving 
 expression by the pen as well as by the pencil and the 
 brush to your ideas and feelings. This is a power which 
 few, I presume, even of those who excel in Art can lay 
 claim to. I do not say this to puff you up, but, if you 
 will allow me to say it, to stimulate you to exercise your- 
 self in both kinds, confident as I am that nothing but 
 an inexcusable indolence can prevent you from rising to 
 eminence as a writer on the philosophy of the arts in con- 
 nection with their practice. 
 
 ' Your old studies, in which you were perpetually 
 engaged in seeking to discover the connections that sub- 
 sisted amongst the arts and sciences, according to the 
 ancients, and the principles, if any there were, common 
 to all of them, have, under the direction of a mind natur- 
 ally fine and well exercised, supplied you with a store of 
 ideas which you can now give forth matured, expanded, 
 and divested of those crudities and crotchets incident to 
 beginning to think, and groping after original and inde- 
 pendent views. Let me then use the freedom of advising 
 you not to slacken your exertions in those departments in 
 which your new office does not require anything from you, 
 but whether you choose to cultivate portrait painting or 
 not, as to which I presume not to say a word, that you 
 will continue the practice of the art, and throw all your 
 enthusiasm into it, employing your spare time in litera- 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DYCE 105 
 
 ture in general, or more particularly in the literature of 
 your profession, which, however, I need not say, cannot 
 be cultivated in a liberal and catholic sense without your 
 giving yourself as ample scope as possible in the enlarge- 
 ment of your general knowledge. 
 
 ' All this, I daresay you will think, might come as well 
 from others, but our old intimacy, which I hope you have 
 not forgotten, gives me some liberty. There are other 
 things on which I could enlarge, but I neither like to 
 write, nor do you care to read, long letters. Could your 
 pocket afford the expense of a visit to us, though but for 
 a few days (as short indeed as you like, so it be at all), I 
 could enjoy some conversation with you exceedingly, and 
 should your arrangements not admit of it, I shall certainly 
 regret it, as we are not now likely to meet very often. 
 Do come — I need not say that this desire is as strong on 
 Catharine's part as mine. You have never seen our chicks 
 yet, and our hill-top would not, I daresay, disagree with 
 your health, before going to be enveloped in the smoke 
 and din of the great city. . . . 
 
 'Trusting, my dear William, that though we are now 
 to live further apart than before, you will never allow 
 yourself to forget, or cast away those sacred prin- 
 ciples which can alone bind us truly together here, 
 and bring us together in peace hereafter, and that you 
 may experience the practical and delightful efficacy of 
 those principles in the moulding of the character and 
 refining of the feelings, and imparting a satisfaction which 
 the world knoweth nothing of, 
 
 ' I remain, with sincere affection and best wishes, your 
 brother-in-law, David Brown.' 
 
 ' Catharine, who is quite well, sends her love, and 
 unites in pressing you to give us the treat of a short visit. 
 The children are well also.' 
 
106 DAVID BROWN 
 
 In a letter, dated February 8, 1850, Mr, Brown 
 informs his friend that the subject of 'sacramental 
 grace "■ had been much in his thoughts, in connection 
 with the Anglican controversy, and that he had more 
 than half resolved to write a book on it, were it not for 
 the impossibility of finding leisure. He confessed that 
 he liked the expression ' sacramental grace,' though 
 he was utterly opposed to the opus opcratiim theory ; 
 but ultras on both sides were ready to charge him 
 with leaning to it. In December of the same year he 
 tells that he had been importuned to write a book on 
 the ' History of Prophetic Interpretation, especially as 
 regards the Pre-millennial Theory. "* ' This I have reso- 
 lutely resisted, although I have pretty full notes of my 
 Patristic reading, for I take nothing at second hand. 
 The subject is large, the questions involve nice and 
 delicate points on which I dislike dogmatism, and my 
 standard is higher than I expect to reach ; and then, I 
 don't see any pressing call at present. Nevertheless, I 
 may do something sometime."" In the same letter he 
 controverts keenly some positions which Mr. Dyce 
 had assumed as to Protestantism and the Church of 
 England. 
 
 ' You represent Protestantism and Popery as the two 
 extremes between which the Church of England stands. 
 This is contrary to fact, unless you identify the Church of 
 England with a party in it, which, with many varying 
 shades, finds its proper type and Pontifex Maximus in 
 Laud. If you try the Church of England by its founders 
 and its articles, which are its professed Confession of 
 Faith, your representation of it is totally at variance with 
 fact, as I read history. . . . When you say your view of 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DYCE 107 
 
 the English Church is that of Cranmer, Jewel, Andrewes, 
 Montague, Hooker, and every writer of any note in the 
 English Church who has written against Popery and Puri- 
 tanism, you play up several freaks, of which I notice but 
 two. (1) You class together men who had scarcely one thing 
 in common. It is as if I should say the Bishop of Exeter 
 and his dear brother the Bishop of Calcutta, Mr. Bennett 
 and his friend the Vicar of Islington, Dodsworth and Mr. 
 Goode, the Rector of All Hallows. As for Montague, I 
 make you a present of him. But to quote Cranmer and 
 Jewel in support of your church principles — proh Pudor ! 
 Who that has read Jewel's Apologia Ecclesice AnglicmicE, 
 and his defence of the Apology, and who that has read the 
 Zurich Letters, in which the precious Fathers of the Pro- 
 testant Church of England unbosom themselves to the 
 Reformers of Switzerland in whose hospitable cantons 
 they lived during the Marian persecution, consulting them 
 for years and years upon all ecclesiastical questions and 
 emergencies, as men with whom they were one ; and not 
 them only, but all the worthies of Continental Pro- 
 testantism, Calvinistic in doctrine and Presbyterian in 
 platform as they were — who, I say, that reads such works 
 as these can venture to affirm that they were not thorough 
 Protestants, but some nondescript medium between Pro- 
 testantism and Popery, and men that sought to build up 
 some attenuated thing called the Church.^ . . . Excuse 
 this very good-humoured lecture.' 
 
 'Oct. 30, 1850. . . . Your view of Dr. Pusey is interest- 
 ing and well put. It possibly is correct, yet I cannot 
 bring myself to believe that with his views of the church 
 and of doctrine, he would leave the Church of Rome, if in 
 it, which, however, he may think a different thing from 
 going into it when out. Schism must be a word, and 
 schismatic a name which, if he were the man you describe 
 him, must haunt him "oft in the stilly night." ' 
 
108 DAVID BROWN 
 
 In his letters Mr. Dyce had shown a strong leaning, 
 at the least, to the opinion that Episcopal government 
 was an essential feature of the Christian Church. Dr. 
 Brown, in reply, abstained from giving his own views, 
 but sent him two extracts, one from a sermon of Canon 
 Benson's (' he is one of the ablest men in the church as 
 a preacher, and was lately Master of the Temple "'), the 
 other from an Episcopalian dignitary whom he does 
 not name, but emphatically characterises as not of the 
 Low Church party. The quotation from the latter is 
 as follows [the words within brackets being Dr. Brown's] : 
 
 ' The proposition that our Episcopal form of govern- 
 ment is one of the essential conditions of Christ's church, 
 on the strength of which it has been further maintained 
 that wherever this form of government does not exist, the 
 church of Christ does not exist, — I cannot engage here in 
 an argument to show how utterly baseless this argument 
 is, how it is not only unscriptural, but altogether anti- 
 scriptural, directly repugnant to the whole spirit of the 
 New Testament. Moreover, it is not only unsupported by 
 the reformers of our church, but in plain opposition to 
 their principles, manifested by their actions no less than 
 by their words ; as it is also to the principles laid down 
 with irresistible cogency by your greatest authority on 
 questions of ecclesiastical polity. [Hooker, of course.] Nay, 
 even among our divines of the seventeenth century, when 
 the spiritual life which had animated the European mind 
 during the sixteenth was much enfeebled, and when, amid 
 the struggles of parties for the preservation or overthrow 
 of the existing order of things, each party, according to 
 the usual course of human nature, indulged in unmeasured 
 exaggeration of the objects it was contending for, — very 
 few of any note presumed to assert that Episcopacy is 
 indispensable to the being of a church. . . . But I cannot 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DYCE 109 
 
 let slip the present occasion of lifting up my voice to 
 protest against this odious and pernicious corruption of 
 the truth. . . . Indeed, so totally at variance is Hooker's 
 view of Episcopacy with that entertained by our modern 
 Episcopolaters, that the learned editor of his works [Keble, 
 I presume] has thought it requisite to frame a theory in 
 order to account for Hooker's aberrations with regard to 
 this prime point of Christian truth ; and he apologises for 
 Hooker's error on the ground that he was not acquainted 
 with the Letters of Ignatius under that form in which 
 they appeared in the following century. . . . Still, not- 
 withstanding all the light that flowed in from this new 
 posthumous volume, and notwithstanding the inevitable 
 exaggerations occasioned by the contest with the Puritans, 
 the better partof our divines in the seventeenth century did 
 not account Episcopacy essential to the being of a church ; 
 though according to a distinction laid down by Bramhall, 
 many of them deemed it essential to the perfection of a 
 church. Hence they were accustomed to regard the 
 Reformed Churches on the Continent less perfectly con- 
 stituted than our own, but still as sister churches united 
 to our own by having the same ' One Lord,' the same * One 
 Faith,' the same ' One Baptism ' by the free preaching of 
 God's Word, and the rightful administration of the Sacra- 
 ments, and moreover by being joined with us in a common 
 protest against the usurpation of Rome. [He quotes from 
 Sancroft and several others whom a priori some would 
 take for granted would view things otherwise.] . . . They 
 [our Episcopolaters] will indeed refer to some half-a-dozen 
 verses of Scripture, which they have picked up in some 
 blundering manual of ecclesiastical history ; but not one 
 of these when rightly interpreted will be found to bear 
 out their proposition ; and the chief part will probably attest 
 little else than the ignorance of those who cite them for 
 such a purpose. To those misguided tests of Scripture 
 
110 DAVID BROWN 
 
 add a dozen exaggerated sayings culled out without any 
 critical discernment from this Father and from that, and 
 you have the whole ragged, crippled troop, which our 
 Episcopolaters are wont to muster for maintaining their 
 position that Episcopacy is essential to the church, and for 
 repelling every one who presumes to approach without 
 having the Episcopal flag. This monstrous error, however, 
 which would restrict tlie power of Christ's mediatorial 
 sacrifice and the efficacy of His sacraments within the 
 limits of Episcopal Churches, is still confined, I trust, in 
 the main, to some of our weaker brethren, who, in the 
 want of logical and plastic power stake themselves up with 
 positive, peremptory assertions. But a modification of the 
 same error is not uncommon even among the better 
 writers of our day, who have lately become squeamish in 
 the application of the term church to any branch of the 
 church except such as are subject to an Episcopal govern- 
 ment, who call the Lutheran Church, for example, the 
 Lutheran Body, or the Lutheran Communion ; and who 
 think to evade recognising the Scotch Church, by terming 
 it the Kirk. Such silliness might make one laugh, unless 
 the miserable evils which absurdities of this kind produce 
 turned one's laugh into a groan.' 
 
 After giving this very emphatic extract, Dr. Brown 
 adds an apologetic note, and expresses the hope that the 
 Protestant spirit of the Church of England would prevail. 
 
 ' Pray do not think that the insertion of the last sentence 
 but one was made with any intention of self-defence or 
 vindication of the church-standing of my own * Com- 
 munion,' or, indeed, with any intention at all but to finish 
 my extract, which I did not observe to contain any personal 
 allusion till I was at that sentence, and I would have 
 needed to mutilate it in order to exclude that passage. 
 On this personal view of the matter, I am reminded of an 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DYCE 111 
 
 anecdote I heard the other day of Henry Wilberforce (the 
 recent pervert). He was travelhng some years ago in the 
 Highlands, and there he met a company of several ministers 
 of the Church of Scotland (before the Disruption). On 
 shaking hands with them as he was introduced to them 
 one by one, he thought it necessary to explain that he was 
 not by this shake giving them the right hand of fellow- 
 ship, and begged to say that he could not recognise them 
 as ministers, on which one of them immediately replied in 
 his dry, caustic, but telling manner : " It 's of no con- 
 sequence, sir, whether you do or not." That is just my 
 feeling on the above passage. But I take a deep interest 
 in the English Church, though a Scotch minister, and 
 never so much as now, when the swelling tide of her Pro- 
 testantism gives hope of a return to the " kindness of her 
 youth and the love of her espousals," when the Romanistic 
 elements, which people are beginning at last to discover 
 and abhor, will receive the check which the Erastian con- 
 stitution of her framework will probably prevent her casting 
 wholly out. D. B.' 
 
 One other extract we give from Dr. Brown's letters. 
 Mr. Dyce seems to have thought that the liberty 
 allowed to Protestants to examine Scripture for them- 
 selves was excessive, and ought to be qualified by some 
 regard to the authority of the church. As he had 
 referred to the passage, Habakkuk ii. 2, Dr. Brown 
 gives an interesting exegesis of that oft misquoted 
 verse, and throws important light on the question. 
 How far are the Scriptures clear enough for plain 
 people, and how far are they not ? 
 
 ' When people invert the text you refer to (Hab. ii. 2) 
 ' that he who runs may read," it is to make it convey as 
 they suppose more clearly its obvious sense. Perhaps few 
 
112 DAVID BROWN 
 
 now indeed know that they do invert it. They understand 
 by "running," I suppose, every man who treads his mother 
 earth (or the most ignorant, unlettered man), and that 
 such a man will comprehend (or be able to read) what is 
 written, which beyond doubt is the general meaning. But 
 in order to make that out of their own inverted reading of 
 the text, they certainly pervert the sense of the words. 
 " That he may run who reads " (which is the passage as it 
 stands in the Prophet's text and in our version) means 
 "that whoever reads what is written may be able with ease 
 and alacrity to pursue the path of duty." Grotius's note 
 is this : "That he may at once comprehend (or attain to the 
 sense) who reads it : hence, as the Latins express it, may 
 be able to read de piano," — as on a level surface ; by which 
 he means that a metaphor of the Latins involved in the 
 phrase, "de plana," meaning " without difficulty," is nearly 
 the same as that here of a "running." My idea rather is 
 that just as the Psalmist promises to " rim the way of God's 
 commandments when He shall enlarge his heart" (Ps. cxix. 
 32), so here the prophet gets the injunction, "Write the 
 vision and make it plain upon tables, that he (every one) 
 who readeth it may run" (with ease and alacrity in the 
 way of duty). Of course you will see that the sense thus 
 conveyed comes out the same as the popular understanding 
 of it ; and no doubt the apparent obscurity of the 
 language in the text and the ease with which, to an 
 English ear, it might be made to express the manifest 
 sense by changing the form of the statement, have 
 occasioned this unjustifiable change. It is a curious 
 example of such hashing of a passage, Avhile it makes the 
 words say what they don't, landing us in the end in any 
 but the true scope of it. 
 
 ' With the inferences on your part and your " lady friends," 
 I have nothing to do. No doubt the reference is to 
 calamities coming on the nation at the hand of the Chal- 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DYCE 113 
 
 deans for their iniquity, and the design was to give them 
 such warnim; as when read would render those inexcusable 
 who persevered in their God-provoking courses. But it 
 will be hard to avoid the legitimate inference from this 
 as to Scripture generally. When our Lord said, John v. 
 39, 40, " Search (or ' ye search ' — I prefer the former there, 
 but the approbation of such a course is the same in both 
 cases) the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have (regard 
 yourselves as having) eternal life, and they are they which 
 testify of Me ; and [yet] ye will not come to Me, that ye 
 might have life," — He (1) gives His great sanction to not 
 only the reading, but the searching of Scripture by all, for 
 He was speaking to a multitude indiscriminately; (2) 
 holds forth Scripture as being rightly regarded by the 
 Jews as the proper authoritative revelation of " eternal 
 life" ; (3) represents it as testifying of Him with sufficient 
 plaifiness to render inexcusable any one who possessed 
 without searching it, or searched without finding Christ 
 in it. And however much we Christians may suppose 
 Christ to be revealed clearly in the Old Testament, I will 
 make bold to maintain that the discovering of Christ as 
 the great theme of the Old Testament was at least as 
 difficult as many things which in Scripture are held by 
 some too obscure or doubtful for any but the learned, and 
 even these only, under church anthority, to see their way 
 through. In a word, we are far too polemical in such 
 matters. The Scripture is like Him whose word it is, 
 and like all His works in creation and human affairs — full 
 of such things as on this side of time will never be 
 unravelled, nor am I ashamed to confess that there is 
 much that I can't and don't expect fully to understand. 
 In that respect Scripture may be said 7iot to be a plain 
 book. But Scripture is so very plain upon all that is most 
 fundamental and vital that the whole Jewish and Christian 
 world walks in a blaze of light as to all these things. The 
 
 H 
 
114 DAVID BROWN 
 
 first chapter of Genesis is at this hour the battlefield of 
 geology — is it consistent with the facts of geology, and 
 in what sense is it so ? Yet that chapter has introduced 
 the idea (never so much as dreamt of by the most pro- 
 found thinkers outside the pale of revelation) of Creation. 
 The Gospels are no less the field of intense controversy 
 as to (1) their Inspiralion, (2) Harmonij, etc., and yet they 
 are the Sun in the firmament of Scripture. But enough 
 — Ever affectionately yours, D. Brown.' 
 
 Besides having a great regard for his brother-in-law, 
 Mr. Dyce had a special affection for his sister Catharine, 
 Dr. Brown"'s wife. He loved herself and esteemed her 
 character and gifts ; and, high churchman though he was, 
 he sent specially and expressly for her on his deathbed ; 
 she was with him during' his last illness, ministering to 
 him affectionately and faithfully; and she remained with 
 his widow for a time to cheer her in her bereavement. 
 
 In the Report of the Royal Scottish Academy for 
 1864, we find a most eulogistic notice of Mr. Dyce. 
 He is described as one of the most remarkable men 
 connected with the Art of the present century ; his 
 works are distinguished by rare mastery, alike in con- 
 ception and execution, whether in portraiture, genre, 
 historical or sacred subjects, and whether executed in 
 charcoal or crayon, water colour, tempera, or oil paint- 
 ing, his contributions to Art literature have had no 
 small influence on the progress of the national Art ; 
 but most particularly he excelled in the art of mural 
 decoration, mention being especially made of his ' Bap- 
 tism of Ethelberf in the House of Lords ; the 'Virtues 
 of Chivalry' in the Queen's Robing Room, and the 
 frescoes in the church of All Saints. 
 
ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 115 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 
 
 The College Controversy, which at one time distracted 
 the Free Church in a very painful manner, is now 
 happily all but forgotten ; but in the fifties, it was a 
 very serious trouble. To many it seemed that one 
 college, fully equipped, would suffice for the wants of 
 the church, and would prove the most efficient organ 
 for training students ; while others maintained that 
 Glasgow and Aberdeen liicewise should each have a 
 theological institution. The church decided for the 
 three ; but it was felt that something ought to be done 
 to meet the views of those who desired the Edinburgh 
 college to be more fully equipped ; and it was accord- 
 ingly resolved to institute a chair of Exegetical Theo- 
 logy of the New Testament on a permanent basis, and 
 to appoint a professor for it. 
 
 Dr. Brown, whose recent writings had drawn him 
 more than ever to exegetical studies, was exceedingly 
 desirous to get this chair. It need create no surprise 
 that since he took to the writing of books, his pulpit 
 and pastoral work was not done with the same whole- 
 hearted devotion as in the earlier years of his ministry, 
 and that he was eager for a change of sphere. All 
 accounts bear that the early years of his Glasgow 
 
116 DAVID BROWN 
 
 ministry were the most fruitful and prosperous, and 
 that while the church at large gained by his books, 
 the congregation of St. James's suffered somewhat. 
 It need not be said that he continued assiduously to 
 discharge his pulpit and pastoral duties, while his 
 habit of early rising and diligent improvement of his 
 time enabled him to accomplish much literary work 
 besides. But no man can overcome impossibilities, 
 and he felt strongly that he could not continue to com- 
 bine both functions, and that if he was to do permanent 
 service in the one, he must be released from the other. 
 The Free Church, as we have said, was rent by the 
 College Controversy, and Dr, Brown had sided with 
 'Her Majesty''s Opposition "* against Dr. Candlish, Dr. 
 Buchanan, and other ' leaders.' The election of a Pro- 
 fessor at Edinburgh took place in 1857 by the vote 
 of the General Assembly. In opposition to him, besides 
 others, Mr. Smeaton, a Professor in the Aberdeen 
 College, was proposed for the chair — an able scholar and 
 most devout man, but one who had none of Dr. Brown's 
 brightness and freshness as an expositor, and had not 
 shown his ability through the press. Dr. Brown was 
 proposed by the Rev. Dr. Beith of Stirling, a minister 
 of high reputation and character, and seconded by Mr. 
 James Cunningham, W.S., a very estimable Edinburgh 
 elder. Dr. Beith referred to the admirable skill he 
 had shown in the pulpit as an expounder of the Word 
 of God, his knowledge of languages, his power of 
 discrimination, his long experience and eminent piety, 
 and particularly to the signal proof of his exegetical 
 ability he had given in the second edition of his work 
 on the second Advent. That work he regarded as a 
 
ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 117 
 
 settlement of the whole question. He referred also to 
 his Review articles, which seemed to him to dispose 
 finally of every subject he discussed, and particularly 
 to a recent reply to Professor Sir William Hamilton"'s 
 disparaging remarks on the Apocalypse — a reply that 
 seemed as conclusive as it was learned and calm. 
 Some one had said he was too old, Dr, Beith remarked 
 that some men at fifty were younger than others at 
 thirty, and that you had only to look at the elastic 
 frame of their friend, his bright eye and readiness of 
 sight and hearing, to see that he was still a young 
 man, whatever number of years might have rolled over 
 his head. 
 
 Dr, Candlish, while supporting another candidate, 
 expressed his entire concurrence in every word that 
 had fallen from Dr. Beith in commendation of Dr. 
 Brown. When the vote was taken between Dr. Brown 
 and Mr. Smeaton, Dr. Brown was found to have 163 
 votes and Mr. Smeaton 181. Dr. Hanna expressed his 
 earnest hope that Dr. Candlish and his friends would 
 support him for the now vacant chair at Aberdeen. 
 To this chair he was soon after appointed without 
 opposition. 
 
 The loss of the Edinburgh chair, which was really 
 due to party complications, was felt most deeply by 
 Dr. Brown. The Assembly, however, appointed him to 
 the vacant chair at Aberdeen. But instead of havino^ 
 the Exegetics of the New Testament as his only subject, 
 owing to the smallness of the Aberdeen staff three 
 branches of study were committed to him, namely. 
 Apologetics, Church History, and Exegetics of the 
 Gospels. His election to the Aberdeen chair was due 
 
118 DAVID BROWN 
 
 solely to the proof he had given of his scholarship and 
 ability as a theologian, joined to his eminently pious 
 character. In after years he came to see that this 
 arrangement had been carried out under God's guiding 
 hand, and to rejoice in the manifold sphere of useful- 
 ness which he had in Aberdeen. 
 
 After an absence of twenty-two years, or, dating 
 from his engagement to Mr. Irving, of twenty-seven, 
 Dr. Brown returned to his native city, being now in 
 his fifty-fifth year, to enter on the duties of his pro- 
 fessorship. His father had died some years before ; his 
 mother likewise had passed away ; but his brother 
 William was still there in all the glow of his enthusiasm, 
 and also his lively, earnest, and warm-hearted brother- 
 in-law, the Rev. John Murray, one of the most 
 respected ministers of the town. At first he was 
 received rather coldly by some, for he had not been 
 among those who were in favour of a college at Aber- 
 deen ; but his inaugural lecture served, even in the 
 judgment of opponents, to vindicate his appointment, 
 and to show his fitness for the office. 
 
 Its subject was, ' Christ the ultimate Refuge for the 
 Doubter,' founded on the words of Peter, in answer to 
 our Lord's question, 'Will ye also go away?' *Lord, 
 to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal 
 life.' Reading between the lines, we can see that it 
 was a reflection of his own experience when he was a 
 student of divinity, fascinated for a time by the spell 
 of John Duncan, and drawn towards unbelief. He 
 does not openly allude to this in the lecture, although 
 in after years he had no hesitation in speaking of it to 
 his students and friends. 
 
ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 119 
 
 The idea of the lecture, less familiar forty years ago 
 than it is now, is, that by a process of exhaustion, 
 those who have known Clirist, but have become per- 
 plexed and almost distracted by difficulties, when once 
 they are confronted by the question, where are they 
 to go if they give Him up, are so staggered by the 
 blank and hopeless prospect that meets them wher- 
 ever they turn, that they cannot but fall back on 
 Him. The abyss of nothingness is so frightful that 
 they are more drawn to Christ than ever. Where else 
 can they find anything to appease their troubled con- 
 sciences, to purify their polluted hearts, to bring them 
 to their Father, happy in His favour, and rejoicing in 
 His fellowship ? ' Back to Christ ' is a cry with which 
 we have been made familiar in these recent years, but 
 all that makes that cry sacred and blessed was well ap- 
 preciated by Dr. Brown forty years ago. We have been 
 learning of late years to let scientists understand that 
 whatever may be the evidence for the facts and con- 
 clusions of science, it cannot overturn, as they allege, 
 the doctrines of the faith, inasmuch as these rest on an 
 independent basis of their own, and are as valid in the 
 realm of faith as any material causes can be in the 
 realm of nature. In short, whatever may be the objec- 
 tions and difficulties around us, we find in Christ a 
 light that scatters the darkness, and a guide that leads 
 us, satisfied and happy, towards the goal. 
 
 Dr. Brown proceeded to show how the question of 
 Jesus and the answer of Peter bore on the whole circle 
 of theology — apologetics, exegetics, church history, 
 and dogmatics. With an eye to the principles hostile 
 to the faith that were then in full play — transcendental 
 
120 DAVID BROWN 
 
 philosophy, rationalistic criticism, and materialistic 
 science — he foresaw the continuance of tliose great 
 conflicts in which we have been engaged during these 
 forty years, and which are not yet at an end. Indeed, 
 there never will be an end of conflicts of some kind, so 
 long as the dislike of man continues to the ways and 
 Word of God. In preparing for such conflicts he very 
 earnestly pressed on his students that they must come 
 under divine influences and cherish the spirit of the 
 little child. 
 
 ' You must dwell, my young friends, in the secret 
 place of the Most High, and abide under the shadow 
 of the Almighty, if the anointing which I trust you 
 have received of Him would abide in you. Nor is 
 this frame beyond the reach of faith. It can be 
 attained not only by students whose chief occupations 
 are all congenial, but by the merchants of the earth, 
 and the hard-working sons of toil. 
 
 " There are in this loud-stunning tide 
 Of human care and crime. 
 With whom the melodies ahide 
 
 Of th' everlasting chime ; 
 Who carry music in their heart. 
 Thro' dusky lane and wrangling mart. 
 Plying their daily task with busier feet, 
 Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat." 
 
 'Be this, gentlemen, the spirit of our teaching 
 and of your learning. Then may the Holy Ghost, 
 irradiating our humble lecture-rooms, glorify Christ 
 alike in teachers and taught. And then, as you 
 leave these walls to preach the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ, it will be but to tell your fellow-men of that 
 
ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 121 
 
 Fountain of Life which has been so wondrously opened 
 up in your own souls/ 
 
 So highly was the lecture appreciated, even by some 
 who had not been very favourable to the election of 
 Dr. Brown, that two requisitions for its publication 
 were presented to him — one from the students, and the 
 other from some of the leading ministers of the town. 
 With this request Dr. Brown complied. 
 
 With three separate subjects to teach. Dr. Brown 
 must have found the work of his first session very 
 arduous, for it is nearly as difficult to handle diverse 
 subjects simultaneously as it is to serve two masters; 
 but he contrived to piece them together to a 
 certain extent, gradually filling them up in future 
 years. How he got through the first session will 
 be seen from a letter to his brother-in-law, William 
 Dyce. He had sent him his introductory lecture, 
 on which the artist had made some rather trifling 
 criticisms : — 
 
 ' North Lodge, Aberdeen, 
 'April 2, 1858. 
 ' My dear William, — We shut shop for the session on 
 Wednesday last, and yesterday I routed out an appalling 
 bundle of unanswered letters to clear off. Within the 
 elastic band I find yours, dated December l6, about my 
 Introdudoi-y Lecture. Your two criticisms are quite correct : 
 one in the requisition in which "it" occurs without the 
 noun to which it refers. It should be "this Lecture." 
 The blunder is a strange one. The other is a misprint, 
 " begin " for " began." Another error pointed out by 
 that man of very fine artistic mind, William Smith, occurs 
 in a stanza from Keble, where the word " human " is twice 
 inserted in one line, when it should be inserted but once. 
 
122 DAVID BROWN 
 
 Speaking of words, have you seen Trench's pamphlet 
 on Soyne Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries ? It is like 
 all he writes, full of thought on minute points, fine sense on 
 those points, and evidence of extensive and well digested 
 reading. The newspapers, I believe, are right in thinking 
 that while the labours of the philological society, of 
 which Trench is probably the Alpha and the Omega, 
 are worthy of all honour, the Dean's idea of a proper 
 English Dictionary is likely to be realised in the same 
 style and period of time with Panizzi's catalogue (I 
 suppose they mean of the British Museum Library). 
 
 ' For my own work, I have got through much better 
 than I ventured to expect. I think the plan I took to 
 economise my labour was wise. Believing that of the 
 two classes of students I had to teach (1st year's and 4th 
 year's) it was of much more importance to throw my 
 strength into the work of beginners, whose good or bad 
 start would affect their whole future course, than to spend 
 my labour in perfecting those whose studies were already 
 far advanced, I determined to devote the three months 
 I had from the time of my arrival here till the session 
 began, to the preparation of a thorough course of lectures 
 on Apologetics which comes first in our order of study, 
 and to make the first and most careful portion of this 
 course consist of the Apologetics of the Gospels, em- 
 bracing all the questions affecting the historical credibility 
 and divine authority of the Gospels ; and as another 
 course I had to teach was the Exegetics of the Gospels to 
 1st and 4th students jointly, I read these Apologetical 
 lectures first, as an introduction to this second course ; 
 thereby saving myself the necessity of having any other 
 work for 1st year students till these were done, which 
 took me till Christmas. When the year began, I took 
 1st year students by themselves over the remainder of 
 the Apologetics of revealed religion ; then backwards to 
 
ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 123 
 
 natural religion, viewed (1st) in relation to Ethics ; (2ncl) to 
 Physics ; (3rd) to Metaphysics, which just terminated at 
 the close of the session. The Exegetical class I then 
 took through a course of Biblical and Textual Criticism of 
 the Gospels ; embracing all that relates to the integrity 
 of the text, mss., Ancient Versions, and quotations 
 from Ancient Fathers. Then came the actual reading 
 and exposition of the Greek text of the four Gospels in 
 Tischendorf's Harmonic Arrangement {Synopsis Evangelica), 
 beginning this about a fortnight after the session began, 
 but getting on by small degrees till we got through the 
 other three things, when we went on rapidly, although 
 the work was thorough, reading straight through all the four 
 Gospels on to about one-fourth part of our Lord's ministry ; 
 taking all after that rapidly to the end. The other class 
 I had was one of Church History from the Reformation 
 downwards, for 4th year students. I discarded old 
 Mosheim (for the first time, I believe, in our Divinity Halls) 
 though recommending them to buy him as useful for 
 reference. I selected Hardwick's Reformation Manual, 
 one of the Macmillan series, partly for its far better 
 arrangement than Mosheim' s, partly for its excellent 
 selection of notes, and geiierally for its good sense, as well 
 as good condensation. But he did not need to tell us 
 that he viewed all from an " Anglican " point of view. I 
 could not only justify that as a matter of consistency, but 
 find some advantage in taking students over a set of facts 
 from a point of view different from our own. But he is 
 unpardonably one-sided, and perverts the facts ludicrously 
 on some things. However, it just served to raise my 
 "birse" to the indignation-point, and helped me to be 
 the more eloquent. Seriously, I think I did the young 
 men some service in liberalising their minds regarding 
 the English Church, while I set myself against some of 
 Hardwick's one-eyed representations. I hope to get 
 
124 DAVID BROWN 
 
 up this summer such a historical course as, while not 
 superseding the need of a text-book, will fill up all blanks 
 and develop difficult questions over those. I am thank- 
 ful I have never been a day ill, and that my work has left 
 me as much in the spirit of it as at the beginning, though 
 for some three months I must try to work out the re- 
 mainder of my N. T. for Collins. This is a long, selfish 
 story, but you will not be uninterested in it. 
 
 ' Your work in the Academy (Edinburgh) has got a 
 pretty fair appreciation. But how is it that among the 
 forthcoming London paintings none from you are an- 
 nounced ? Are you not to be represented there ? I saw 
 somebody who spoke as if you were absorbed in Margaret 
 Street Church work. Perhaps that does engross you, 
 and they said, I think — it was something fine. But it 
 would be a pity if you left the other undone. 
 
 ' Poor Alexander, I much fear I can hardly manage to 
 hold him on at Oxford till he get a Fellowship, and I 
 think he would rather not go in for an India appointment 
 if he could do the other. I am greatly at a loss at present 
 what is proper. His mother is much averse to his going 
 to India.' 
 
 In due time Dr. Brown did much to fill up his 
 several courses, of which the following synopsis was 
 given by him in the College Calendar : — 
 
 Dr. D. Brown's Classes. 
 
 ' The Apologetic, Exegetical, and senior Church History 
 Classes meet five hours a week each. 
 
 ' In Apologetics the Professor teaches deductively. 
 Starting from Christianity as a fact, he proceeds from 
 the noontide of the Gospel to the fainter light of early 
 Revelation ; and then, with the torch of Revealed truth, 
 
ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 125 
 
 explores the darker regions of Natural Theology, under 
 three divisions — the testimony of Ethics, of Physics, and 
 of Metaphysics — not so much to prove that theism has a 
 foundation in truth, as to establish its scientific principles. 
 In this course, partial use is made of Paley's Evidences, 
 Butler, Chalmers, Whewell, Mansel, M'Cosh, etc. 
 
 ' As the church limits the Exegetical course to the 
 Exegesis of the Gospels, the Professor has these read in 
 harmony, using as his text-book Tischendorf's Synopsis 
 Evangelica. The text is read by the students themselves, 
 who are then questioned on the grammar and exegesis of 
 the passage read. Besides a full Apologetic course of 
 lectures on the Gospels generally, a pretty full introduction 
 to each Gospel is read, with an Excursus from time to 
 time on points of special difficulty or importance, on some 
 of which written exercises are prescribed and minutely 
 criticised, in point both of matter and diction. In this 
 class, a full course of instruction is given on the textual 
 Criticism of the New Testament in general, and of the 
 Gospels in particular ; embracing an account of the sources 
 of various readings, a history of the leading mss. and 
 versions of the New Testament, and a statement of the 
 use to be made of citations from the New Testament by 
 the ancient Fathers. The text-books here are Tregelles' 
 volume of Home's Introductiou , his Accotmt of the Printed 
 Text of the New Testament, Scrivener's Introduction to the 
 Criticism of the New Testament, and Hammond's Outlines 
 of Textual Criticism. 
 
 * In the Senior Church History Course, after some intro- 
 ductory lectures, the rise and progress of the Reformation 
 in Germany are traced, and the principles involved in it 
 — philosophical and theological — illustrated. From the 
 Saxon form of it, the Professor proceeds to the Swiss 
 movement, tracing the rise, progress, and distinctive 
 features of it, and discussing theologically the merits of 
 
126 DAVID BROWN 
 
 the controversy that eventually separated the Saxon and 
 the Swiss Reformers — including the French as well as the 
 German Reformers of Switzerland. He then comes to 
 the third great stream into which the Reformation move- 
 ment distributed itself — the Anglican. A rapid sketch 
 is next given of the three great reactionary measures of 
 the Church of Rome, with the view of recovering its lost 
 ground and extending its domains — the Council of Trent, 
 to consolidate its principles ; the Inquisition and other 
 forms of persecution, to repress Protestantism ; and the 
 establishment of Missions under the Jesuits, to conquer 
 new territories. Finally, he gives a brief sketch of the 
 Reformation movement, and its features in some of the 
 countries in which Protestantism shaped itself, according 
 to the leading principles of the Swiss Reformation — 
 France, Holland, Scotland, etc. In this Course, partial 
 use is made of Mosheim's, Kurtz's, and Hardwick's 
 histories. 
 
 ' Besides the daily Exegetical examinations, the Pro- 
 fessor examines every three or four days, in the Apolo- 
 getical and Church History classes on the lectures 
 read.' 
 
 To complete our view of Dr. Brown's work as a 
 professor, we add the testimonies of some of his students, 
 regretting that some to whom we have applied for 
 reminiscences of his classes have not been able to com- 
 ply with our request. 
 
 The first is in the form of a letter of sympathy 
 after Dr. Brown's death to his son — David Dyce 
 Brown, M.D., London, from the Rev. James Gray, 
 D.D., the well-known and much-esteemed minister of 
 the Free Church of Scotland at Rome. It brings out 
 a principle of Dr. Brown's, that the true work of a 
 
ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 127 
 
 professor was ' not to cram but to quicken, not to stuff 
 but to stimulate/ 
 
 ' nth July 1897. 
 
 'Dear Dr. Dyce Brown, — It was with no ordinary 
 feeling of sympathetic interest that I received, on my 
 way home from Italy, the news of the departure of my 
 much-loved professor, and the principal of the college, 
 where I enjoyed, now so many years ago, the great 
 privilege of being under your revered father's instructions. 
 My only regret is that I have not had the opportunity 
 of showing, along with so many others, the high esteem 
 in which he was held by his students, by my presence at 
 his funeral sei'vices. I am reminded by the event, of how 
 much I owe to him for the stimulus given me for exegetical 
 study of the Scriptures, and I mourn his departure as 
 one who received much from him in the way of quicken- 
 ing and inspiring influence. Nor do I forget what 
 countenance he gave to several of us at a time when it 
 was far less common than now for students to identify 
 themselves with earnest religious movements, while I 
 have also reason to know that his warm interest in my 
 work on the Continent never grew less from the day that 
 he appeared at Laurencekirk before the Presbytery of 
 Fordoun as representing the Continental Committee, and 
 with a view to my being sent to Naples. 
 
 ' With you and the other members of the family I cannot 
 but deeply sympathise in the removal from among you 
 of one so eminently useful and so greatly beloved. — Yours 
 most sincerely, Jas. Gordon Gray. 
 
 Our next reminiscence is kindly contributed by one of 
 his earliest students, the Rev. John Gibb, D.D., Pro- 
 fessor in the Theological College, Guildford Street, 
 London : — 
 
128 DAVID BROWN 
 
 ' It was during the second year of his incumbency of the 
 chair in Aberdeen, that I had the advantage of attending 
 Dr. Brown's lectures on Bibhcal Criticism. In saying 
 that these lectures opened up to me an entirely new 
 region of thought, I should, perhaps, explain that in those 
 old-world days, it was not the custom to teach the elements 
 of all the sciences, including Biblical Criticism, to school- 
 boys, or even to undergraduates. My fellow-students and 
 I had studied the classics, mathematics, and philosophy ; 
 some had given attention likewise to history and English 
 literature. I had myself studied early Roman history with 
 some care ; and I was well read in Niebuhr and Arnold ; 
 but it never occuiTcd to me that the Bible, which I looked 
 upon as a book of devotion, could be rightly subjected 
 to the sifting process which Niebnhr and Arnold had 
 applied to Livy. Perhaps I ought to express regret that 
 we had not received a higher instruction in divinity in 
 our early years. I cannot, however, honestly regret the 
 omission ; for I still think that alike for scientific and 
 religious reasons, it is best to learn the first lessons of 
 historical criticism through Herodotus and Livy. Be this 
 as it may, our robust ignorance gave the chai-m of novelty 
 to the professor's lectures. He introduced us to the 
 textual criticism of the New Testament, of which he was 
 very fond ; he also discussed the historical credibility of 
 the Books of the Bible, and examined the external evidence 
 in its favour. He rarely departed from the traditional 
 conclusions, but his methods were distinctly those of the 
 modern historical school ; and his manner of presenting 
 the arguments was singularly bright and attractive. I 
 remember with special pleasure his lectures on the Gospels. 
 John the apostle in Ephesus, John the presbyter, Papias 
 and Eusebius were all introduced in a most life-like 
 fashion, and the value of their testimony to the evan- 
 gelic history appreciated with acute discrimination. I 
 
ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 129 
 
 have had to read much on the subject since those days, 
 and I am not sure that I should now accept all Dr. 
 Brown's conclusions, but his lectures remain in my memory 
 as a remarkably skilful presentation of those dim ecclesi- 
 astical figures, and of the literary and theological contro- 
 versies connected with their names. 
 
 ' The conditions of Dr. Brown's chair required him to 
 lecture on a wide range of subjects; and it cannot be 
 said that his teaching was always well proportioned and 
 methodical. Like all men of varied knowledge and eager 
 intelligence, who have not been schooled to teaching by 
 long practice, he was rather too fond of digressions, and 
 often we got glimpses only of the proper subject. He 
 was not what we should call in England a good coach ; 
 and those who desired an orderly resume of facts for 
 examination needs, to save them the trouble of private 
 reading, were not quite satisfied. But he possessed the 
 chief virtue of a professor ; he was suggestive and stimu- 
 lating. Reference was always made in the lectures to the 
 best books on every subject ; and those who had the time 
 and inclination to do the necessary amount of private 
 reading, profited greatly by his class. The interest which 
 he aroused came to a great extent from his own vivid 
 interest in his subject, which embraced its religious 
 as well as its scientific aspects. Some of his students I 
 know gained from him an enthusiasm, which they have 
 never lost, for New Testament study. The thoughts he 
 threw out in his rapid, discursive fashion, although it was 
 not easy always to transfer them to the notebook, re- 
 mained in their memory, and exercised an influence upon 
 their future thinking. 
 
 ' In private intercourse with Dr. Brown, one was struck 
 with the immense range of his intellectual and spiritual 
 interests. Books of every kind littered his study table ; 
 he had no pet subject which he forced upon his visitors. 
 
130 DAVID BROWN 
 
 Whatever subject was started, he was ready to take it 
 up; and his talk was always full of knowledge, and often 
 sparkling with wit. He was fond of introducing anecdotes 
 into his conversation ; they were always, however, of a 
 refined and dignified character ; he never descended to 
 the lower levels of ministerial jocularity, to which, indeed, 
 he had a strong aversion. When one found him alone, he 
 would speak of the graver sides of religious thought and 
 life. In those days he was to be reckoned among the liberal 
 theologians, not so much in personal opinions as in the 
 temper he exhibited towards thinkers of other schools. 
 He always spoke of them without rancour, and often with 
 genuine admiration. He had himself passed through 
 various phases of religious thought, and he retained a 
 certain liking for some of the rationalistic writers he had 
 read in his youth. Students found no difficulty, therefore, 
 in expressing their views in his presence with perfect 
 candour. He was rather pleased than otherwise, I used 
 to think, to mark traces of independent thought. His 
 own convictions were, however, immovably evangelical. 
 One never detected the slightest symptoms of uncertainty 
 in his own mind. He was willing to give all latitude to 
 the young inquirer, but he never seemed to doubt that he 
 must finally return to the evangelical faith as he himself 
 understood it. This certitude on the part of the professor 
 sometimes disappointed the student, who would have 
 liked his difficulties to be taken more seriously ; but he 
 could never complain that his opinions were treated 
 otherwise than with a most kindly and gentle tolerance.' 
 
 No man is better qualified to draw the portrait of 
 one who was at once a scholar and a theologian, than 
 Dr. W. Robertson Nicoll, the distinguished editor of 
 the Expositor, the British Weekly, and other literary 
 undertakings. 
 
ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 131 
 
 ' When I attended the Free Church College in Aber- 
 deen, 1870-1874, Dr. David Brown was Professor of 
 Apologetics, the Exegesis of the New Testament, and 
 Church History. There were but three professors in the 
 College — Principal Lumsden, Professor Robertson Smith, 
 then just beginning his wonderful course, and Dr. Brown 
 himself. There were about thirty students, and the 
 classes were necessarily very small. Although other 
 colleges of the Free Church were better equipped, I 
 question whether any of the Aberdeen students of the 
 period have in after life regretted their choice, for their 
 professoi's were men of extraordinary mark, vigour, and 
 personalit)'. Though the least known of all. Dr. James 
 Lumsden, the Principal, was perhaps the most influential, 
 a true Scottish Christian of the old type, never lacking 
 the courage of his opinions, full of logic, and at the same 
 time full of passion. He had an abiding influence on 
 young men, and on none more than on his colleague, 
 Robertson Smith, who was himself at that time younger 
 than some of his students. Of Robertson Smith nothing 
 need be said. Dr. David Brown was a man whose eager- 
 ness and variety of interest, zest, and tenacity of life and 
 varied experience, made him always stimulating to those 
 with whom he was brought into contact. 
 
 ' It will be admitted that his range of subjects was 
 much too varied. No man could excel in all the three. 
 Undoubtedly Dr. Brown was most at home in teaching the 
 New Testament. He was a great exegete in his way, 
 competent in scholarship, well acquainted with relative 
 literature, and always with a mind of his own. He had a 
 fine perception of the spiritual, and the ardour of his 
 devotional feeling gave life and freshness to his teaching. 
 He practically confined himself to the Gospels, and their 
 story never seemed to lose its wonder for him. He 
 attended to the side of scholarship, and paid great atten- 
 
132 DAVID BROWN 
 
 tion to textual criticism, ranging himself with Scrivener ; 
 but he was pei'haps at his best in showing the vital appli- 
 cations of the narrative. He would say to us, " How 
 would you bring this home to people lying on straw in a 
 barn ? " And he certainly taught many men to look at 
 the life of Christ in its bearing on the immediate need of 
 perishing humanity. Dr. Brown was eminently felicitous 
 in the manner of his exposition. He had a real sense of 
 literary style, and he had a well-founded contempt for 
 expositors who did not go beyond the bare letter. In the 
 information he communicated, in the lines of study he 
 suggested, and above all in the spiritual impulse he gave, 
 he was undoubtedly successful in this department of his 
 professorial work. On the other hand, his treatment of 
 Apologetics was somewhat perfunctoiy. His mind was 
 not interested or peculiarly at home in philosophical 
 questions. Even if it had been, the time allowed for 
 study was too short. In describing his work he used the 
 odd expression, " In Apologetics the professor proceeds 
 backwards." He began with revelation, and worked 
 from it into natural theology, making some use of writers 
 like Mansel and M'Cosh. Of course even in this depart- 
 ment he was well worth listening to ; his mind was very 
 acute ; and even on so well worn a subject as Butler's 
 Analogy he had some fresh things to say. But the fact is, 
 he did not believe in Apologetics as ordinarily understood. 
 He thought that Christianity was its own apology. He 
 was of those who believed that Christianity can afford to 
 stand speechless in the world's judgment-hall, knowing 
 that its works bear witness to it that it is of God. Dr. 
 Brown was not in the least degree an obscurantist. He 
 had not the slightest fear of scientific study. There was 
 always at the back of his mind a conviction that Chris- 
 tianity could take care of itself, that anything that mili- 
 tated against it must necessarily perish, and that any 
 
ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 133 
 
 necessary modifications on its form and expression would 
 only bring out its larger power and glory. I never heard 
 him speak of theories of evolution as necessarily atheistic, 
 or of their supporters as necessarily unchristian, but his 
 critical sharpness helped him to see the weak points, and 
 I think he had a certain scepticism as to the permanence 
 of all such speculations, a certain disinclination to make 
 terms with them. There is, or was, a tendency among 
 many minds to argue that teachers like Huxley had in 
 certain points brought discussion to an end. Dr. Brown 
 had too wide an acquaintance with the history of thought 
 ever to fall in with this. 
 
 ' He might have been a great Professor of Church 
 History if that had been his only subject. Some depart- 
 ments he knew very well indeed. With Luther and 
 Zwingli he was specially conversant, and he never wrote 
 anything better than his crushing replies to Sir William 
 Hamilton. These were full of knowledge, and admirable 
 in expression. But he was not very familiar with other 
 subjects, such as the history of the Early Church, and it 
 was characteristic of him that he had no real enjoyment 
 except in teaching what he really knew well. Of course, 
 a man of his quickness and literary power could easily 
 have composed a course of lectures dealing superficially 
 with the whole history of the church, but his mind did 
 not lie that way. Though he had some very good lec- 
 tures, and made many interesting remarks in his Church 
 History classes, he was much less happy there than when 
 teaching his own subject of exegesis. 
 
 ' The period during which I attended his lectures was 
 a happy one, perhaps one of the best in Dr. Brown's life. 
 He was then a member of the New Testament Revision 
 Committee, and was in the habit of going up to the meet- 
 ings. He valued the honour, and relished the work 
 intensely. During those visits he used to stay with Dean 
 
134 DAVID BROWN 
 
 Stanley, and met everybody On coming back he would 
 tell us much of his experiences, and give us some personal 
 introduction to the great men of the English Church. 
 His temper was always and eminently catholic, and he 
 made close friendships with scholars like Dr. Scrivener. 
 With Dean Stanley he was also on the best of terms, and 
 took a much more favoui'able view of the Dean's theology 
 than many others. Dr. Martineau was also one of his 
 intimate friends. Dr. Brown distinguished sharply be- 
 tween the theology of the head and the theology of the 
 heart, and was wont to dwell on the emotions with which 
 Martineau would listen to the singing of hymns by Watts 
 and the Wesley s. 
 
 ' In private life Dr. Brown was exceedingly accessible to 
 his students. He had them at his house, drew them out, 
 and was quick to mark any signs of promise. Few things 
 pleased him more than to be asked to introduce a student 
 to his first congregation. He was good enough to do 
 this service for me, and I gratefully remember the kind- 
 ness with which it was performed. To country people 
 Dr. Brown's preaching was very acceptable. While 
 plainly the work of a scholar and thinker, it was exceed- 
 ingly fervent and simple. He was also very happy in his 
 intercourse with the average country officebearer, was 
 quite at home in their houses, and invariably left behind 
 him a strong religious impression. 
 
 ' It was of course a great recommendation to students 
 that Dr. Brown had wide literary sympathies. He was a 
 contributor to Mr. Strahan's publications. Good Words and 
 the Simday Magazine, from the first, and one of the very 
 best contributors. These periodicals were frowned upon 
 by many Free Churchmen at the time, partly because 
 men like Kingsley and Stanley wrote in them, and 
 partly because they contained fiction. Dr. Brown never 
 attempted to discuss the complaints, but went on 
 writing. 
 
ABERDEEN PROFESSORSHIP 135 
 
 ' As I look back it seems to me that the truest thing 
 said about Dr. Brown after his death was that he had a 
 "zeal for souls." This came out always. He was 
 anxious to turn out good scholars, and had a keen sense 
 of literary form. But he Avas far more anxious that his 
 students should be winners of souls. He himself was at 
 home in the best society, and greatly enjoyed it, but I am 
 sure he was never so happy as in revival meetings. His 
 delight in revival hymns, the eagerness with which he 
 threw himself into revival addresses, the patience and 
 tenderness with which he counselled inquirers, charac- 
 terised him all through his life. There was never any 
 abatement of that zeal; not even the great burden of 
 years, which he had to bear at last, affected it — in fact, 
 his was a fire which the years built up rather than dulled. 
 His heart answered to the last tremulously, tenderly, and 
 eagerly to every expression of personal religious feeling. 
 He had a great and honourable part in all the revival 
 work of his time. It is very uncommon to find a man of 
 this type, a man keenly alive to every movement of 
 criticism and speculative thought, and more keenly alive 
 to the movements of the Spirit of God. He could under- 
 stand persons who never knew what it was to doubt, and 
 who regarded the whole work of the intellect in matters 
 of religion as mischievous and subversive. 
 
 ' It is pleasant to think that Dr. Brown's long life, in 
 spite of many conflicts and trials, was a very happy life. 
 His temperament was gay and buoyant, his interests 
 various and keen, and his health elastic. He was very 
 seldom weary or discouraged ; he despised people who 
 feared the future, and who were glad because they would 
 not have to cope with coming problems. " I should like," 
 he was wont to say, *'to live and to see what these 
 problems are." To him the promise was fulfilled in the 
 deepest, fullest manner, "With long life will I satisfy 
 him, and show him My salvation." ' 
 
136 DAVID BROWN 
 
 A communication kindly sent us by a later student, 
 the Rev. James Harvey of Lady Glenorchy's Free 
 Church, Edinburgh, which we have received too late to 
 insert in full, reiterates much that has been said already, 
 but dwells specially on Dr. Brown's personal interest 
 in his students, the pleasure he always had in seeing 
 them at his house, and his great interest in the social 
 meetings for students of all departments held on 
 Saturday evenings. 
 
 Besides discharging the duties of his own chair. 
 Dr. Brown, in the activity of his spirit, and eager 
 desire to be of use to students of all departments, 
 opened a class for religious instruction on Sunday 
 evenings, the subject being the internal evidence for 
 Christianity arising from the Gospel of John. Many 
 students in various faculties attended this class, which 
 went on for three sessions, and several have borne 
 strong testimony to its usefulness. 
 
 Dr. Brown resigned his professorship in 1887, after 
 holding it for thirty years. Writing on March 27, 
 1887, to his friend, Dr. Lowrie of America, he said : 
 * My period of service has been mercifully unbroken 
 throughout, and this session I have enjoyed it as much 
 as ever. But I am not like the Psalmist's oxen, 
 " strong for labour." I have keen life in me still, and 
 hope to do something for my Master when out of 
 harness ; for it is sweet to serve Christ on this earth 
 and with this mortal frame, when it was of the Lord's 
 mercies we were not consumed ; on this earth, too, 
 where first we tasted the sweetness of peace through 
 the blood of the cross ; and to do all the good there- 
 after that we can.' 
 
HIS VIEW OF AN IDEAL MINISTRY 137 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 HIS VIEW OF AN IDEAL MINISTRY 
 
 Among the men of varied gifts whom, from the begin- 
 ning, the Free Church of Scotland has entrusted with 
 the training of her ministers, we know none who aimed 
 more constantly and earnestly at realising her heau 
 ideal — at rearing the kind of ministers on whom she 
 has ever set the highest value. Under the guidance 
 of Chalmers, Welsh, Cunningham, and others, who 
 moulded her policy from the first, she has always 
 aimed at a combination of qualities not always found 
 together — fidelity to the doctrines of Holy Scripture, 
 especially as to the way of salvation ; intellectual 
 culture and mastery of the great questions of the 
 day ; with evangelical fervour and evangelistic earnest- 
 ness, springing out of a vivid sense of the natural 
 condition of men, and fed continually by the grace 
 of the Holy Spirit. It cannot be said that she has 
 been successful in every case in realising this com- 
 bination, but it will be generally owned that during 
 the first half-century of her separate existence, it 
 was, on the whole, a conspicuous characteristic of her 
 ministry. It is beyond doubt that she led the way 
 in raising the standard of clerical attainment, and 
 it is generally admitted that for learning, she 
 occupies to-day a high rank among the churches. It 
 
138 DAVID BROWN 
 
 is no less obvious that in evangelistic zeal she has 
 exerted a marked and beneficial influence. Nowhere 
 could Moody and Sankey and the other great evan- 
 gelists of the day have got a more cordial welcome ; 
 while among those who have filled her own pulpits or 
 otherwise served her, the Bonars, Alexander Somerville, 
 William Bums, John M'Neil, and many others have 
 been second to none. Whether the next half century 
 will find her equally marked by the same combination, 
 is a question which, with all our anxiety on the subject, 
 we find it difficult to answer. In some quarters a 
 feeling has shown itself that, the old evangelical lines 
 having become ruts, freshness and power are to be 
 looked for in other directions ; but any experiment 
 of that kind has afforded little ground for encour- 
 agement and little hope of success. There are not 
 wanting indications that we are on the eve of some 
 new outburst of earnestness, as if the sense of what 
 is needed to fight the forces of evil that are mustering 
 around us with such boldness, were reviving the old 
 battle-cries of the church, and throwing men back on 
 the old, old story, which is always fresh when it comes 
 from the heart, and which can still show itself in 
 the future, as in the past, to be the power of God 
 unto salvation. Whether this will be realised must 
 depend, under God, on the spirit of our younger 
 ministers, and especially those of them who are fitted 
 to lead. Surely the aspiration of Chalmers is not 
 unworthy of them — let us have a learned and cultured 
 ministry, but let them remember that they are ambas- 
 sadors of Christ, and like Cowper's pastor, bound to 
 preach as dying to dying men. 
 
HIS VIEW OF AN IDEAL MINISTRY 139 
 
 To rear such ministers was Dr. Brown's great aim. 
 In an opening lecture delivered in November 1886, 
 when in his eighty-fourth year, we find him giving 
 very warm expression to his views on the character 
 of the ministry, all the more earnestly because of his 
 impression that he might never again have the chance. 
 On the great ends of the ministry, his trumpet gave 
 no uncertain sound. He solemnly appealed to his 
 students : — 
 
 * You who are now drawing near to the close of 
 your studies here — are earnest views of the work be- 
 coming more vivid, or are they fading away, and 
 giving place to the mere professional bearings of it ? 
 A high authority says of faithful ministers of Christ, 
 whether pastors of settled flocks, or missionaries among 
 their converts, " They watch /or your souls as they that 
 must give account, that they may do so with joy and 
 not with grief."" With joy — as the instruments of their 
 conversion, or as having been helpers in their progress 
 in the divine life ; with grief — as of those whom they 
 would fain have gathered, but they would not. Well, 
 I say — Have you grasped that as the essential feature 
 of your future work, as a seeking for souls, a watching" 
 for souls, that none of them, through you at least, 
 come short of salvation ? The apostle Paul was not 
 content with getting a host of converts into a church- 
 state, he looked after them one by one. To one 
 church he says, " My little children, of whom I travail 
 in birth again until Christ be formed in you*" — as if 
 afraid that in some of them the whole thing would 
 have to be done over again. And to another church, 
 speaking of Christ as the hope of glory, he says, 
 
140 DAVID BROWN 
 
 " Whom we preach, warning every man and teaching 
 every man in all wisdom that we may present every man 
 perfect in Christ, whereunto I labour, striving accord- 
 ing to His working, which worketh in me mightily." 
 Yes, gentlemen, to be " fishers of men "" is to be your 
 business, drawing them out of an element in which 
 their immortal nature will be choked out. " Compel 
 them to come in " — is to be your errand ; not, tell them 
 the way in ; not, invite them in, but get them in, and 
 see them in by the evident fruits of it. " He that 
 winneth souls is wise," and every soul won by you will 
 be your "crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord 
 Jesus." 
 
 'But mistake me not. Conversion is not every- 
 thing. Some drive at that and nothing else. Re- 
 vival preachers, such as have that especial faculty, are 
 a great gift to the church, and they have their reward 
 — a ffreat one. But few of them have at the same 
 time the faculty to ^feed their own converts. Now, 
 the new birth, though the first thing, is only entrance 
 into the family of God. So long as they are but " new- 
 born babes" they can digest only the milk of the 
 Word ; but after they become young men, and at 
 length fathers, they must get strong meat; and if 
 you have not that to give them, if you keep dealing 
 out to them only the milk, the old thing which they 
 relished indeed and grew upon when they were babes, 
 you will make them feel that they are put off with 
 slops and have to leave you. The Christian life, to 
 be robust and fruitful, requires fresh and varied in- 
 struction — things new as well as old. You must be 
 able to open the Scriptures as a progressive revelation 
 
HIS VIEW OF AN IDEAL MINISTRY 141 
 
 of the system of grace, from its morning dawn to its 
 noonday brightness under the Gospel. So that if 
 your devout people are crying, " Open thou mine eyes 
 that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law," 
 they may feel that they are getting this through you. 
 And what you thus open up to them, you must be 
 able to apply to the everyday life of your own time, 
 to let them see that the Bible is not an antiquated 
 book about people and things that have passed away, 
 but what Stephen calls it, the lively, living oracles, 
 having a' never dying power, a vernal freshness, as if 
 it came just wet from the press, as my friend Dr. 
 Duncan used to express it.^ 
 
 Thus Dr. Brown laid his foundation ; this was his 
 central position, and the comprehensiveness of his 
 mind was shown in the kind and character of the sup- 
 plementary qualifications which he desired to see added. 
 
 Thus he strongly urged them to cultivate a good 
 literary style. Scorning the absurd view of a cultivated 
 style in which some good men have indulged, as if it 
 were akin to the work of the dandy elaborating his 
 dress, or of the lady's maid decking her mistress with 
 jewelry, instead of a means of powerful utterance, 
 he exhorts them — 
 
 ' Study your own language, to enable you to speak 
 it and write it with purity, simplicity, vigour, and 
 power. For this purpose, read critically the best 
 prose works, in which our language is rich, and its 
 best poetry, that your style, instead of being stiff, 
 and hard, and dry, may flow easily, and be lighted 
 up with some power of illustration from every field. 
 Only let none of these subsidiary studies steal away 
 
142 DAVID BROWN 
 
 precious time from those which are indispensable. A 
 little at a time for any of those accessory studies is 
 the great secret of success in them, and when one 
 does succeed in this it is wonderful what stores may 
 be gathered into your notebooks — which you should 
 never be without.'' 
 
 From style he proceeds to give a much needed counsel 
 on the management of the voice. As one who has had 
 some experience in teaching homiletical and pastoral 
 theology, the present writer feels bound strongly to 
 emphasise this line of advice. Of all the delusions 
 of the ordinary run of Scottish divinity students, one of 
 the greatest and most common is, that they can speak 
 and read English. It would be hard to say how much 
 trouble and even torture one suffers from the indis- 
 tinctness, the slurring over of syllables, the coarseness 
 of pronunciation, the harshness and huskiness of utter- 
 ance, especially of young men who have not been 
 brought up among cultivated people, and who, all 
 unconsciously, have fallen into uncouth and illiterate 
 modes of speech. Surely if there be room anywhere 
 for making two talents four, or five ten, it is in 
 dealing with that organ of marvellous capacity — the 
 human voice. 
 
 But let us hear Dr. Brown. After dwelling on the 
 fact that oral teaching addressed indiscriminately to 
 all classes is peculiar to the religion of the Bible, and 
 that even when God's message was committed to books, 
 there was always a living, prophetic ministry, so that 
 He ' who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke 
 to the fathers in time past by the prophets, did in 
 these last days speak to us by His Son,"* and in apostolic 
 
HIS VIEW OF AN IDEAL MINISTRY 143 
 
 times the epistles and other books were directed to be 
 ' read unto all the holy brethren,' he proceeds to speak 
 of the organ by which this is to be accomplished. 
 
 ' The voice, then, gentlemen, being your instrument, 
 it is of the utmost importance that you be able to 
 " play well " on that instrument. How Demosthenes 
 so trained his voice as to sway well the fierce democracy 
 of Greece you all know ; and who does not know how 
 in modern times the human voice can be trained to 
 rivet and hold spell-bound any audience, whether at 
 the bar, or on the platform, or in the senate ? But you 
 have a secret of influence to which the bar, the senate- 
 house, and every merely secular arena is a stranger. 
 You bring with you a message from heaven ; you ad- 
 dress men on their eternal interests ; you appeal to 
 their conscience in the sight of God. You know 
 how the great apostle whom we have already named 
 realised this ; how contrasting himself with popularity 
 hunters he says, " Therefore seeing we have this minis- 
 try, as we have received mercy we faint not; not 
 walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God 
 deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth com- 
 mending ourselves to every man's conscience in the 
 sight of God." Well, this will be your strength too. 
 If you are able to rise in any good degree above the 
 critical judgment of your audience and with the truth 
 of God on your lips, to get straight to the consciences 
 of your hearers, you may depend on having their con- 
 science on your side, for it is always on God's side. 
 
 ' But to do this effectively, you must articulate every 
 word distinctly, speak so deliberately that every one 
 may be able to follow you, and especially, eschew 
 
144 DAVID BROWN 
 
 monotony, which will ruin the effect of the best sermon. 
 Give full volume to your voice, and above all he 
 natural. Speak to your audience as if you were talking 
 to each one before you. But bewarei of a put-on, an 
 artificial naturalness. Elocution teachers all tell you 
 that ; but their rules are sometimes so carried out that 
 speaking is converted into an art, which is the least 
 impressive of all kinds of utterance. Let every one 
 be himself, and if he be so, people will hardly observe 
 what kind of manner he has."" 
 
 But on such a topic Dr. Brown well knew that a 
 living model is better than the most complete series 
 of instructions. So he bids them accompany him to a 
 vast building on the south side of London, and hear 
 what the voice can do. But once they are there he 
 finds many more things for them to learn, — things 
 connected with the very soul and essence of the public 
 service of God. 
 
 ' A few weeks ago I worshipped in Mr. Spurgeon's 
 Tabernacle, not for the first time. A rare sight it 
 was — some five thousand worshippers, a large number 
 of them men of the intelligent class that are now 
 coming to the front to have an influential voice in 
 public affairs. There was a man, standing on a plat- 
 form, with a modest table at his side and a Bible 
 placed on it, and himself with no clerical habiliments. 
 Yet from first to last he was listened to with breath- 
 less attention. In the singing of the hymns what a 
 volume of sound arose, making one feel it is good to 
 be here ! And what prayers ! simplicity itself, but how 
 reverential ; it was talking to God, telling Him what 
 we felt in His presence, what we wanted from Him, and 
 
HIS VIEW OF AN IDEAL MINISTRY 145 
 
 also what we expected, and all in that name which is 
 above every name. I say nothing about his sermons, 
 the character of which every one knows, save that every 
 one felt as if they were addressed to himself or herself 
 in particular. But what I referred to this preacher 
 for just now was, the bell-like clearness with which he 
 articulated every word to the close of the sentence. 
 I myself, whose hearing is so imperfect, heard every 
 word. This, of course, in so vast a building was in- 
 dispensable to his being heard at all ; but it was done 
 with no apparent effort ; there was no shouting. He 
 simply stood upright, spoke straight out, possessed by 
 his subject, and intent only on lodging it in his hearers. 
 No elocution lesson had he ever received — it was nature 
 itself. He had something to say to that vast audi- 
 ence, and had braced himself up to say it effectively. 
 But he had been with God ere he came there, along 
 with two or three of his officebearers on their knees 
 in an adjoining room.' 
 
 There was another danger against which he desired 
 to warn his students. It was that of allowing the 
 current of spiritual life to be dried up through unin- 
 terrupted engrossment with study. 
 
 ' You have seen a butterfly ; when that soft, downy 
 covering, which is its protection and strength, has got 
 rubbed off, how it lies weak, and languishes. Well, 
 there is (as a friend of mine once expressed it to me) 
 over spiritual life an outer covering, which he called 
 " the peachy down of it," which is easily rubbed 
 off, leaving it open to every sinister influence. That 
 spiritual life, as it is divine in its source, so it breathes 
 by continuous communion therewith ; or, as the beloved 
 
 K 
 
146 DAVID BROWN 
 
 disciple expresses it, " by fellowship with the Father and 
 with His Son, Jesus Christ.'" When this is interrupted 
 it is like the stoppage of the breath. If Christ is the 
 vine and we are the branches, we must abide in Him, 
 and let Him abide in us if we would be found in Him 
 when He comes. He must have, so to speak, the 
 freedom of the house, to walk through every corner 
 of it, so that His jealous eye may not be repelled by 
 anything unwholesome. But how is this to be main- 
 tained in the midst of hard study from day to day ? ' 
 
 To this question Dr. Brown preferred to give a prac- 
 tical answer. He summoned an old friend to his side, 
 and got him to take up his parable. 
 
 ' Archbishop Leighton was a good sjiecimen of fine 
 scholarship and high spirituality. But for students I 
 think a better model is to be found in John Albert 
 Bensel, the author of that critical work which has 
 never been superseded — the Gnomon of the New Testa- 
 ment^ the fruit of precious years of New Testament 
 teaching at Denkendorf. He was constantly digging 
 in his Hebrew Bible (which even when a student he had 
 read through once or twice) and in his Greek Testa- 
 ment, out of which he was intent on extracting the 
 most delicate shades and fibres of thought which it 
 conveyed. And when he took to textual criticism, 
 being staggered at first by its various readings, he de- 
 termined never to rest till he could get to the bottom 
 of the subject, and he devoted to it his days and nights 
 until he was able to issue his critical edition of the 
 Greek Testament, and with it his Apparatus Critkus, 
 the most masterly production of that period. But did 
 these w^earing-out studies dry up his spiritual life ? 
 
HIS VIEW OF AN IDEAL MINISTRY 147 
 
 Never. Every page, and almost every verse, of that 
 Gnomon of his bears witness to the spirituality which 
 he carried into all his studies by the unction which they 
 breathe. The hymns, with the composition of which he 
 relieved his perplexing studies in textual criticism and 
 refreshed his spirit, bear witness to his constant jealousy 
 over himself, as if his aspiration ever were, "Nearer, 
 my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee !" He seemed, indeed, 
 to live in prayer ; and his students, who lived under the 
 same roof with himself, used to say that those short 
 breathings of prayer with which he met them in the 
 morning for class- work were " like morning dew." And 
 to the last this was his frame. An anecdote I have 
 heard of his last hours, illustrating his microscopic 
 way of observing the very words of his Greek Testa- 
 ment, makes one almost smile. When he was dying, 
 he quoted those well-known words of the apostle, in 
 the immediate prospect of his death by Nero, " I know 
 whom I have believed," etc., and then said to the 
 bystanders, "The apostle (you see) wouldn't let even 
 a preposition come in between himself and his Lord ; 
 for he doesn't say, I know upon whom" (et? 6V), but "I 
 know WHOM I have believed " {olha <yap S ireTriarevKa) 
 — the eye of his faith resting on the glorious object to 
 whom he had ever trusted his all." 
 
 Summing up his counsels. Dr. Brown earnestly urged 
 on his students the devotional reading of the Scriptures 
 and kindred objects. And no one can fail to observe 
 the richness and readiness of his store of illustration 
 for the various points on which he touched, so very 
 rare in a man of eighty-three. 
 
 ' Well, gentlemen, there is a model for you. One of 
 
148 DAVID BROWN 
 
 the best ways of keeping up the tone of your spiritual 
 life in the midst of hard study is the devotional study of 
 your Bible ; and I apply this to preachers as well as 
 you who are but preparing for that work. It has been 
 noticed of some students in all our Halls that the book 
 they seem least to know is their Bible. So immersed are 
 they in book- work and paper- work, that taking it for 
 granted that they can go to their Bible at any time, they 
 go to it for devotional purposes at no time. The con- 
 sequence of it is that when they do preach they misquote 
 their Bible, and those hearers who know their Bible 
 best detect this, and it takes them down at once in 
 their regard. It used to be remarked of the late Dr. 
 Begg, even by those who had least sympathy with him 
 in other things, that here he was singularly at home, 
 his rich illustrations from apt passages of Scripture 
 being one of the secrets of his popularity as a preacher. 
 Well, not only to read but to study your Bible devo- 
 tionally, you should have some system in it, and stick 
 to it. Take, say, 07i€ book — one of the five books of the 
 Psalter for the Old Testament, or an Epistle for the 
 New. Read it first through till you grasp the gist or 
 general scope of it, and then take it up in detail, 
 verse by verse, with the original by you. And as this 
 will take up time, and time is precious for students, 
 be content with a very little at a time (for if you aim 
 at too much at once, you will soon give it up). Only 
 throw your spirit into that little, were it but a snatch, 
 and try to fetch the sap out of that little, and you 
 will find your spirit braced up, and go fresh to 
 your books and papers, losing nothing, but gaining 
 much. My friend, Mr. Moule, Principal of Ridley 
 
HIS VIEW OF AN IDEAL MINISTRY 149 
 
 Hall, Cambridge, is a man who, to superior classical 
 scholarship, adds a high spiritual tone, and whose little 
 book on Christian Sanctity is having, I am glad to 
 know, a great sale. Well, at the late congress of 
 clergy and other friends of the English Church at 
 Wakefield, he read a paper on The Devotional Study 
 of Scripture, a subject which no one was better fitted 
 to handle. In this paper he not only urges the adop- 
 tion of system in studying the Bible devotionally, but 
 he gives the outlines of a plan for doing it, and a 
 specimen of the way it may be profitably carried out. 
 
 ' But there are other ways of keeping up the tone 
 of your spiritual life. Let me mention two. One is 
 to have some book of choice religious biography always 
 by you, and at present we are rich in that kind of 
 provender. A student at one of our Halls, now a pro- 
 fessor and an author of standing, once told me that the 
 lectures of one of his professors were of so polemica 
 a character from day to day, that to escape from that 
 unwholesome atmosphere he had to betake himself to 
 some work of religious biography, which he took care 
 to have upon his table, else he might have been tempted 
 to think all theology but a wrangle of disputants. 
 Among works of this kind need I recommend the 
 Lives of Luther and Calvin, of some of the greatest 
 Puritan writers, of Wesley and Whitfield, of Judson 
 and Wilson, and DuifF and Carey, and of our great 
 Chalmers. 
 
 ' The other help I refer to is visiting some bedfast 
 Christian, or some one whom you would fain help to 
 make a Christian. In converse with the one you may 
 take such sweet counsel together that your sick friend, 
 
150 DAVID BROWN 
 
 on your departure, may feel so refreshed as to say to 
 him- or herself, verily, " some have entertained angels 
 unawares/' With the other you may be helped to 
 leave indelible impressions. My late friend, Professor 
 Eadie, of the United Presbyterian Hall, once said to a 
 friend of mine, that nothing did him more good, when 
 worried with study, than to break off and rush away 
 to talk and pray with some bedfast member of his 
 congregation. And what to students is more signi- 
 ficant, I think, is a circumstance which I was once told 
 of one I am now obliged to call the late Dr. Fleming 
 Stevenson, whose loss to his own church is a loss to the 
 church of Christ. When he finished his theological 
 studies at home, he went abroad to study at Halle under 
 the profound Julius Miiller; but, on his return home 
 in order to take licence, he did not feel himself free to 
 sign the Confession of Faith — not that he was prepared 
 to deny its theology, but that many things were there 
 expressed in a form different from the light in which he 
 then viewed them. In his perplexity he consulted a friend, 
 who advised him to let the whole subject alone for a 
 while, and go and work mission work in connection with 
 some congregation. In this work he got so interested, 
 dealing with the various classes of the people — the 
 sick, the indifferent, the Christians, and the no Chris- 
 tians, that the cobwebs disappeared, and his difficulties 
 vanished, and never returned. And we know what he 
 lived to become, insomuch that immediately after his 
 interment, but a few weeks ago, a large meeting of the 
 most distinguished members of the church to which he 
 belonged, both clerical and lay, met, and resolved to aim 
 at raising £10,000 for a monument to his memory.' 
 
HIS VIEW OF AN IDEAL MINISTRY 151 
 
 So much for the lecture to the students. By way of 
 corollary, and as exemplifying the regard he had to 
 careful scholarship and culture along with spiritual 
 fervour, as helps to the spread of the Gospel, it may be 
 added that he warmly approved of the method of 
 educational missions in India with which the Free 
 Church has been so closely identified. The subject was 
 discussed at the Missionary Conference at London in 
 1888, and Dr. Brown thus delivered his views : — 
 
 ' The question is. Is a man having a passion for souls to 
 object to being put into the teaching department ? Very 
 far from that. Let me tell you what I said to a student of 
 my own who is now in Bombay. He was one of the most 
 disting-uished students of the Hall in which I was then 
 a professor. I said to him, " My dear man, what are 
 you going out for .'' Are you going out to teach, say, 
 geography, Latin, English ?" "God forbid," he said. 
 "Well, then," I said, "let me tell you what to do. 
 Every morning before you go to school, go on your 
 knees and say to God, ' Lord, I have not come here to 
 teach Latin, geography, English, and other things, 
 but to get the souls of these fellow-creatures. But I 
 must first gain their respect, and then I must gain 
 their confidence, and then I must gain their affection. 
 But every day let me drive at that object, and I will 
 find opportunities in twenty ways to gain them.'" 
 General Alexander, a noble character, who, though a 
 Presbyterian in principle, was a director of the Church 
 Missionary Society, which he loved, and which I love, 
 said to me one day in a church where we met, " O 
 Dr. Brown, your missionaries and ministers are going 
 to work in the wrong way." " Well, let me hear you, 
 
152 DAVID BROWN 
 
 General." " Oh," said he, " when John Anderson went 
 out to gain the souls of the people, he said he could 
 and he would have them, and he insisted on having 
 them ; and he said, ' I am certain to have them,' and 
 he got them. The noblest high caste youths in the 
 south of India were his converts. There was Rajah 
 Gopal and Venkataramia, and not a few others. And 
 now what are our missionaries doing ? They are trying 
 to beat the Government in educational matters, and 
 now they have no baptisms." " Well," I said, " General, 
 you are wrong. Education is a necessity, and they must 
 go at it ; but if there is any failure, it is not in what 
 they are teaching, but in what they are aiming at. 
 If there is a want of that passion to get the souls of 
 the people, they will not get them ; if they put the 
 cart before the horse, or the means before the end, they 
 won't get the fruit. Do not object to the thing they 
 are doing, but object only to the way in which they 
 may be doing it. I do not know that they are doing 
 it in the wrong way. But what I say is. Let them aim 
 at conversion ; and remember that they are ' never to 
 rest until they get it, and they are sure to get it.' " ' ^ 
 
 ^ See Report of the Centinary Missionary Conference, London, 1888. 
 
HELP IN CHRISTIAN WORK 153 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 HELP IN CHRISTIAN WORK 
 
 ' About the close of the sixth decade of the century, 
 there was a mysterious spiritual susceptibility abroad 
 in different parts of the world ; and notably in America, 
 Ireland, and Scotland, men in large numbers were 
 brought under the power of the world to come to a 
 degree that astonished and rebuked the formalism of 
 Christendom.' 
 
 We quote these words from Dr. Stark's Lights of the 
 Norths one of the chapters of which is devoted to the 
 Revival in Aberdeen. The movement began in the 
 United States, following a terrible commercial crisis 
 there, when a multitude of banks and commercial 
 firms lay in ruins, as if smashed by a cyclone, and all 
 who had set their hearts on the riches of this world 
 were stunned, rebuked, and for the time paralysed. 
 From the United States the movement seemed to 
 spread to the north of Ireland, and from the north of 
 Ireland it came to Scotland. 
 
 In Aberdeen, among its pioneers, were Mr. Duncan 
 Mathieson and Mr. M'Dowall Grant of Arndilly, but 
 the evangelist under whom it attained its fullest 
 development was Mr. Reginald Radcliffe of Liverpool, 
 who came to Aberdeen in November 1858. In looking 
 
154 DAVID BROWN 
 
 at him and listening to him, observes Dr. Stark, it was 
 at first difficult to account for his power — he was so 
 quiet and unobtrusive. There was no outward display, 
 not even eloquence. He had not the intellectual 
 robustness of some of his coadjutors, Mr. Brownlow 
 North, for example, yet no man in such a short time 
 ever so drew and stirred Aberdeen, or led so many to 
 ask. What shall we do ? His main power lay in a 
 great degree in his self effacement, and from his finding 
 that by prayer meetings and otherwise, Aberdeen had 
 been in some degree prepared for his appeals. Not a 
 few of his converts stood the test of time, and are now 
 earnest Christian workers. 
 
 Of Professor Brown we may say that from the first 
 he appreciated the divine elements in this movement, 
 and felt it not only to be lawful, but eminently binding 
 on him, as a theological professor, to give it what 
 countenance and guidance he could. For he was 
 removed as far as possible from the cloistered professor, 
 who sits all day in his study, revolving and investigating 
 problems of philosophy and theology, without a thought 
 of the world around him lying in wickedness, or an 
 endeavour to rouse his students to grapple with its 
 sad condition. He felt that the work of dealing with 
 souls, and urging men to decide for Christ, was the 
 very consummation of that process of training men for 
 the ministry in which he and other theological pro- 
 fessors were engaged. If the instruments of revival 
 work were comparatively unlearned and unscholarly 
 men, this was only an example of God's way of choos- 
 ing the weak things of the world to confound the strong, 
 and the foolish things of the world to confound the 
 
HELP IN CHRISTIAN WORK 155 
 
 things that were wise, that no flesh might glory in His 
 presence. Theological study was not an unmixed 
 benefit ; it often blinded men to the real ends of the 
 ministry, and weakened, if it did not obliterate, their 
 sense of the indispensable need of divine power to make 
 appeals effectual in turning men to God. Practical 
 interest in revival work would serve to counteract this 
 tendency ; it would bring students face to face with 
 the grand purpose of the ministry ; and it would give 
 them practical and powerful evidence of its true spirit, 
 and of the secret of success. He was as far as possible 
 from sympathising with those who disparage theo- 
 logical study, as if it were rather a hindrance than a 
 help to spiritual earnestness ; he was constantly aiming 
 at bringing both together, and constantly urging his 
 students to seek that combination of them that had 
 been so eminently realised by men like Bengel. At 
 first Dr. Brown stood almost alone among his minis- 
 terial brethren in the countenance he gave to the 
 revival. The clergy generally were shy and somewhat 
 distrustful ; the only one among them who took the 
 cause up warmly was the Rev. Mr. Smith, of the Grey- 
 friars'* Established Church. With Mr. Smith it fared 
 worse than with Dr. Brown. Some of his clerical 
 brethren thought it actually wrong, and inconsistent 
 with the constitution of the Church of Scotland, that 
 laymen should be allowed to address religious meetings 
 in churches, and for doing so he had to run the gauntlet 
 of the church courts. Dr. Norman Macleod's view of 
 the case was very notable. ' Many laws,' he said, ' were 
 tolerable only when they had liberty occasionally to 
 break them ; and when there was such a want of 
 
156 DAVID BROWN 
 
 spiritual life, this was not a time for the General 
 Assembly to spend a night in censuring a minister 
 because he permitted a layman to preach the Gospel 
 from a pulpit.' ^ No attempt was ever made to stop 
 Dr. Brown by ecclesiastical order, but he underw^ent a 
 considerable amount of unfriendly criticism and social 
 disparagement for the countenance he gave to these 
 unauthorised preachers. His defence was that they 
 had a higher seal than the mere authority of men could 
 give them ; that their case was exceptional, and ought 
 to be recognised as exceptional, seeing that their labours 
 bore such blessed fruit. No man could have been 
 further from thinking that every man who could give 
 a good evangelistic address ought to be recognised by 
 the churches as a minister of Christ. For ordinary 
 men the way to the ministry was through the Divinity 
 Hall ; it was only men of quite exceptional qualifica- 
 tions, men who had manifestly been successful in turning 
 sinners to God, that ought to be allowed or encouraged 
 to plead publicly with sinners as ambassadors for Christ. 
 And very good reason he had for claiming that the 
 work of Mr. Radcliffe and others was recognised of 
 God. About thirteen years after Mr. RadclifFe's visit, 
 a minister, who had been commissioned to visit 
 Aberdeen, in reporting to the Free Church Assembly 
 on the state of religion there, remarked that the work 
 of Mr. Radcliffe among the young in 1858-59 must 
 have been very profound and widespread, as he had 
 met many decided Christians in the city who had 
 been converted at that time. Dr. Brown, who was 
 present, rose up and said that he had been in the very 
 ^ Quoted by Dr. Stark in Lights of the North. 
 
HELP IN CHRISTIAN WORK 157 
 
 thick of that work, and could testify to its thorough- 
 ness and its good results. He added that a member 
 of that General Assembly, one who had taken an 
 active part in its business, began his Christian career 
 under the influence of that movement. He referred 
 to the late Mr. James Garden, an Aberdeen lawyer, 
 whose early death, when he had attained a high posi- 
 tion as a man of business, and seemed at the threshold 
 of a career of singular usefulness as a Christian layman, 
 was felt by all to be one of the heaviest blows that 
 could have fallen on his church and the community. 
 Dr. Brown had other reasons for looking back with 
 thankfulness to that period, for a blessing had come 
 likewise into his own house. But it was impossible 
 that lukewarm men should be thoroughly pleased at 
 the attitude he had taken, seeing it could not but 
 rebuke their own supineness. 
 
 While rejoicing in the fruits of this early movement, 
 Dr. Brown was aware that it was not unattended 
 with certain risks, and he took an important step 
 to obviate these, and secure the permanence of the 
 impressions that had been made. There were two 
 tendencies often found among young converts that 
 needed consideration. In the first place, the ordinary 
 services of our churches did not quite satisfy them ; 
 they were too formal and cold, and deficient in that 
 social element which is so attractive to persons in their 
 circumstances. And in the second place, under the 
 warm play of the emotions at a revival time, there was 
 some danger of forgettincp the need of accurate know- 
 ledge ; religion might become a mere matter of feeling 
 instead of the product of mind and heart united, and 
 
158 DAVID BROWN 
 
 a molluscous type of Christianity might come to be 
 substituted for the strong. To remedy these possible 
 evils, he began a meeting every Sunday morning in a 
 school in Marywell Street at a quarter to ten o'clock, 
 an hour that could not interfere with public worship. 
 For twelve years he presided over this meeting, using 
 all the pains he could to make it useful for its purpose. 
 Nor did he give it up until such a change had taken 
 place in the tone of some of the congregations as 
 seemed to show that it was no longer required. He 
 took a great interest, too, in the noon prayer meeting, 
 and latterly made a point of going every Monday, 
 when ' intelligence of the Lord's work ** was the subject. 
 The week of universal prayer in the first week of every 
 succeeding year he carefully observed, always presiding 
 on one of the days. He was present for the last time 
 in 1895. 
 
 When Moody and Sankey visited Aberdeen, Dr. 
 Brown was one of their most efficient allies ; indeed 
 there was no one to whom earnest evangelists so readily 
 betook themselves when they looked for counsel and 
 encouragement. He had a strong regard, too, for 
 Richard Weaver ; and afterwards in 1896, when the 
 Free Church Presbytery had invited his two sons to 
 hold a united mission there, and one called to see him, 
 he turned the gas fully up to see whether he was like 
 ' Richard," and after prayer in tones full of the tenderest 
 emotion, he said to him, ' Young man, take a message 
 from an old Christian ; never forget communion with 
 God ! Never forget communion with God ! ' 
 
 The warmth of his interest in such work brought 
 him into friendly contact with several gentlemen of the 
 
HELP IN CHRISTIAN WORK 159 
 
 county who had themselves been profoundly impressed 
 by religion and the obligation to spread the Gospel. 
 Among these were Mr, Gordon of Parkhill, the Earl 
 of Kintore, Lord Haddo, afterwards Earl of Aberdeen, 
 Mr. M'Dowall Grant of Arndilly, and Mr. Brownlow 
 North. There was now quite a chain of evangelistic 
 posts along the northern counties held by laymen of 
 such rank and ability tliat the work could not but 
 command the attention of the community. This was 
 a great contrast to wliat had prevailed in Dr. Brown's 
 earlier years. And for the most part he won not only 
 the respect, but the love and friendship of these noble- 
 men and gentlemen. With Lord Kintore and Lord 
 Aberdeen he was on terms of great intimacy and 
 warm, brotherly fellowship. 
 
 Among the religious societies with which he was 
 specially identified, a very prominent place is due to 
 the National Bible Society of Scotland. His services 
 there, and the gratitude with which they were received, 
 are brought out in the minutes of the local auxiliary 
 board. 
 
 ' The directors have to record the removal by death 
 since their last meeting of one of their number, the 
 venerable Rev. David Brown, D.D., Principal of the 
 Aberdeen Free Church College. Dr. Brown had, for 
 many years, taken a warm and active interest in the 
 affairs of the National Bible Society, and at the time 
 of his death was president of this local auxiliary. The 
 directors desire to put on record their sense of the loss 
 sustained, and also an expression of their sympathy 
 with the bereaved relatives.' 
 
 The Evangelical Alliance, of which he Mas one of 
 
160 DAVID BROWN 
 
 the founders, was a subject of great interest to Dr. 
 Brown. He liked the idea of it, — a union of individual 
 Christians of many branches of the Church of Christ, 
 and he greatly enjoyed the converse and communion of 
 brethren, whenever he had an opportunity of meeting 
 with them. For he was one of those outspoken men, 
 of open heart and kindly manner, that easily make 
 friends, and have the knack of keeping up acquaintance 
 with them after the first meetings have passed away. 
 At some of the meetings of the Alliance he rendered 
 substantial assistance ; of his contributions a separate 
 print was made of one, presented at the meeting at 
 Ryde in 1886, while he was in his eighty-fourth year, 
 on the subject of modern scepticism. It is a delinea- 
 tion of various forms of unbelief which have been draw- 
 ing to them many serious men and women in our day, 
 who, through dislike of the supernatural or other 
 causes, have slipt from their moorings and tried to find 
 a refuge in the anti-supernatural. It does not spare 
 the higher criticism for subverting faith in the Bible. 
 It sounds warning note against Dean Farrar^s view 
 of the atonement, and very loudly against his Eternal 
 Hope. It presses Bishop Butler's great refuge on all 
 who are staggered by difficulties — ' we do not know 
 the whole case "" — and with reference to those who deemed 
 the pulpit extinct, as an instrument of spreading truth 
 and interesting men, he urges that the secret of power 
 is the same as ever — ' Ye shall receive power after that 
 the Holy Ghost is come upon you.' 
 
 So also he took a lively interest in the ' Alliance of 
 Reformed Churches throughout the world, holding the 
 Presbyterian' system, and was a member of the third 
 
HELP IN CHRISTIAN WORK 161 
 
 General Council held at Belfast in 1888. It had a 
 special interest for him, not only in its main object, 
 but as giving him an opportunity of making the 
 acquaintance of many American and Continental 
 brethren. For lie delighted in all that was fitted to 
 draw the churches into closer fellowship, interest them 
 more in their work, promote mutual affection and 
 regard, and stimulate to more earnest and efficient 
 co-operation in the great work of the Lord. 
 
 Dr. Brown was prevented by various considerations 
 from indulging often in visits to foreign countries. In 
 1867, however, he went with his family to Switzerland. 
 On that occasion he was asked by the Continental 
 Committee to advise them as to towns frequented by 
 summer visitors where it would be desirable to form 
 stations for Presbyterian worship. To this request he 
 readily assented. Some of the places which he visited 
 were already occupied by other Presbyterian churches, 
 and these, of course, he passed over. But two places 
 in Switzerland seemed eminently fitted for Presby- 
 terian services — Interlaken and Lucerne. At Inter- 
 laken, before Dr. Brown's arrival, the use of the parish 
 church of Unterseen had been obtained, and one service 
 had been held there, by the Rev. Malcolm White, 
 Innellan. But the situation of the church was incon- 
 venient, being out of the way of the hotels, and the 
 hour, twelve o'clock, was unsuitable ; it was therefore 
 urged on Dr. Brown that he should endeavour to find 
 a better place of meeting. Already, within the build- 
 ings of the Kloster or Schloss, accommodation had 
 been provided both for the Roman Catholics and the 
 Church of England, and it was suggested that possibly 
 
162 DAVID BROWN 
 
 the Free Church of Scotland might be accommodated 
 in the Sacristy. The situation was admirable, but the 
 darkness of the apartment seemed to render it unsuit- 
 able ; this obstacle, however, might be overcome by 
 slapping the walls and introducing windows. Dr. 
 Brown accordingly made application to the Bernese 
 Government for this chamber, undertaking to provide 
 the whole expense of fitting it for public worship, if 
 something like continuity of occupation could be relied 
 on. He informed the government that the doctrine of 
 the Free Church agreed with that of the Heidelberg 
 Catechism, and that in government they were Presby- 
 terian like themselves. His application was backed by 
 the prefect, and in due time the application was com- 
 plied with. The obtaining of architectural plans and 
 building contracts, and the general superintendence of 
 the repairs, had to be seen to by Dr. Brown, and likewise 
 the raising of the necessary funds. Even when swelled 
 by several additions not anticipated at first, the cost 
 was moderate ; the whole sum was defrayed, and the 
 apartment, which now forms a delightful little chapel, 
 fitted up in a most suitable way. Dr. Brown returned 
 the following season, and had a term of service in the 
 building which he had secured and adapted, and to 
 which there had been added a comfortable vestry. 
 Among the friends to whose aid he was most indebted 
 for this important service, two were entitled to special 
 notice — Mr. J. J. Bischofberger, a teacher in the 
 highest public school ; and Mr., afterwards Sir, William 
 Mackinnon, so well known both in connection with 
 his line of steamers in India, and his commercial and 
 evangelistic operations in Africa. Mr. Mackinnon not 
 
HELP IN CHRISTIAN WORK 163 
 
 only contributed a sum of money on behalf of the 
 poor of Unterseen, as an acknowledgment of the kind- 
 ness of the minister and congregation in granting the 
 use of their church for the season of 1867, but also 
 became security to the builder for the payment of his 
 Schloss contract, and contributed moreover a handsome 
 sum towards tlie fund for repairing the Sacristy. Sir 
 William, as is well known, was a strong opponent of 
 deviations from the traditional forms and modes of 
 Presbyterian worship, and would have defrayed the 
 entire cost, could he have obtained security that only 
 psalms would be sung within the walls ! 
 
 Many have worshipped during these thirty years in 
 the Free Church of Interlaken with great outward 
 comfort and much spiritual edification. The use of the 
 chapel has been readily given by the government all 
 these years, and any who have worshipped in it, and may 
 read these pages, if they have been hitherto ignorant 
 of its history, will feel that they owe something to the 
 sagacity and enterprise of Dr. Brown, who conceived 
 and accomplished its adaptation to its present use. 
 
 The history of the station of Lucerne has also an 
 interest of its own. It was while Dr. Brown was offici- 
 ating in 1867 at Interlaken that he was urged by two 
 gentlemen, a Scotsman and an American, to open a 
 station at Lucerne, where so many English travellers 
 came to see the beautiful Lake of the Four Cantons 
 and ascend the Rigi. Little could be done during that 
 season but to hold worship in the small salon of the 
 Hotel de Cygne with about a dozen people, but before 
 another season Dr. Brown and the Rev. Mr. M'Morran 
 of Dunoon resolved to try to make better provision. 
 
164 DAVID BROWN 
 
 The history of what followed we give in Dr. Brown's 
 own words, from the Report which he presented to the 
 Continental Committee : — 
 
 ' Having learned that one of the canons of the Roman 
 Catholic Cathedral, Herr Suter, was a liberal man, a 
 scholar, and at home in English, and that he had formerly 
 secured one of their churches for the English service, ere 
 they arranged to hire the use of the German church, we 
 got an introduction to him, and found him most polite, 
 offering to call with us on the chief magistrate (president 
 also of the canton), and giving us reason to believe that 
 we should get the use not of the church which would 
 have best suited us, which the priests would have resisted, 
 but of the same church which had been used for the 
 English service. We accordingly saw the chief magistrate, 
 who, on learning our object, said, that if we would send him 
 our request in writing, he would himself present and 
 support it at a meeting to be held two days thereafter. At 
 Mr. M'Morran's request I wrote out the petition, but made 
 him sign it, as the officiating minister, adding my own 
 name and designation. In a few days I received an official 
 reply, granting us all we asked, namely, the use of the 
 Maria Hilf Church for four summer months, June to Septem- 
 ber inclusive, for the hours of eleven to half-past twelve 
 noon, and six to half-past seven evening, each Sunday. 
 
 ' The amusing sequel to this may as well be here 
 recorded. Said Herr Suter to me one day, " The Pro- 
 Legate of the Pope happens to be here just now, and it 
 may be as well to get his consent, which I have no doubt 
 he will give, and if you will come with me, I will intro- 
 duce you to him " ; so I went with him to that department 
 of the Dom where he was staying. The gentleman was 
 not of prepossessing appearance, but received me politely, 
 and shook hands. My friend then mumbled, half in a 
 
HELP IN CHRISTIAN WORK 165 
 
 whisper, what he had to say, and to ask what we desired, 
 to which the gentleman replied smilingly and curtly, 
 whereupon we shook hands again and parted. On coming 
 away I said, "What did he say to you?" He said, "If 
 you ask leave, I can't give it you ; but if you don't ask, 
 I '11 say nothing." 
 
 'Ere the service began in 1868, cards were printed and 
 posted up in all the hotels, and metal posters were affixed 
 to suitable places leading to the church, with the name of 
 the church, the name of the religious body worshipping 
 there, and the hours of service. Every attention was paid 
 to our wishes. For example, at our request, an altar 
 cloth was every Sunday morning brought from a distance to 
 cover the high altar, and the most staring of their images 
 were covered, until our service was over, then they were 
 unveiled. Latterly, however, the officiating ministers 
 seem not to have cared to have this done ; for on my 
 coming to officiate once more in 1880, I found everything 
 exposed, and did not press to have the former practice 
 restored.' 
 
 The * Maria Hilf ■* continued to be used for many 
 years for Presbyterian worship. But interesting though 
 it was to have the Gospel proclaimed in its simplicity 
 and fulness amid the marks of Romish corruption, the 
 place was not conducive to that spiritual frame of mind 
 in which it becomes us to worship God who is a Spirit, 
 and who is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Of 
 late years the Presbyterian service has been held in the 
 hall adjacent to the church. 
 
 When at Lucerne, Dr. Brown had many a talk and 
 walk with Herr Suter, the canon of the cathedral, which 
 that gentleman accepted with gratitude. 
 
 Of the many services which Dr. Brown was constantly 
 
166 DAVID BROWN 
 
 rendering to his brethren, we have no room to write 
 minutely. He was fond of preaching, and till he was 
 weakened by an accident a few years before his death 
 (see chapter xxii.), he was constantly engaged in it, 
 as a labour of love. He felt that he could let his 
 heart out in the pulpit, and he never preached without 
 urginsr sinners to come to Christ. Sometimes he would 
 occupy a pulpit for several weeks, as in 1859 at Brae- 
 mar, when the minister, Mr. Cobban, was in America. 
 As he advanced in life, he seemed to lead his hearers 
 (when sympathetic) into new fields of spiritual vision 
 and experience, and to portray what other eyes had 
 not seen. And his prayers, for which he had a great 
 gift, became more and more breathings of his soul into 
 the ear of God, as if close to Him, and talking to Him, 
 till sometimes he seemed to enter within the very holy 
 of holies. In 1892, when in his eighty-ninth year, he 
 was asked to preach the funeral sermon of Dr. Donald 
 Fraser, at Inverness, and he complied with the request, 
 though in the month of February, with snow lying on 
 the ground. The subject of his sermon was the penitent 
 robber and the Lord of glory on the cross. A few times 
 he preached after his accident ; at a communion service 
 he addressed a table, and when not able for farther duty, 
 he pronounced the benediction, still doing what he 
 could, and, like John Knox, serving his master ' with 
 his glad heart and dying hand."* 
 
 While thus giving his services most willingly far and 
 near, he was very specially helpful to the congregation 
 of which he was a member and an officebearer — the 
 South Free Church of Aberdeen. In the memorial 
 minute of the Kirk-Session it is said : ' The Kirk 
 
HELP IN CHRISTIAN WORK 167 
 
 Session and congregation had a closer fellowship and 
 a larger association with him than was the privilege 
 of almost any other society of men, and theirs is the 
 greater bereavement. For forty years he has been a 
 member and an elder of the congregation, and from 
 the first he gave to its work and worship an unfalter- 
 ing loyalty, which became the devotion of an ardent 
 affection, and he discharged the duties of his office 
 with characteristic care and fidelity. He was thrice 
 Moderator of the Kirk-Session during vacancies in the 
 pastorate, and he guided and served the congregation 
 with prudent and sympathetic service. His accurate 
 scholarship in the deep things of God, his ripe Chris- 
 tian experience, his zeal for souls, his devotion to Christ, 
 and his spotless life with its mellowing grace and 
 gentleness, were an alluring example to young and 
 old, and added a lustre to the Christian life. His 
 constant presence in the house of God, where in later 
 years his illumined face and hoar head were a message 
 of righteousness, his unique attendance at the Lord's 
 table, not once absent in forty years, and his eager 
 interest in all the work of the Kirk-Session, and 
 especially in the young communicants admitted by 
 them, are grateful and inspiring memories. They place 
 on special record the fact that it was by the prayer 
 of his lips the new church was consecrated to God, 
 and they rejoice in his long testimony to the power 
 of the grace of God, and in his quietly falling into 
 that sleep which is the last earthly gift of God.' 
 
 Such a testimony is honourable alike to those who 
 paid it, and to him who received it. The present 
 writer is old enough to remember the long roll of de- 
 
168 DAVID BROWN 
 
 voted and able pastors in this congregation — James 
 Bryce, William Leith, Alexander Davidson, William 
 Tweedie, James Stewart, John Bonar, John Adam, 
 John Sloan, George Knight, William Clow. All of 
 them contributed something to its edification, and 
 helped to stamp its high character on it ; and though 
 Dr. Brown was never its pastor, he too had no small 
 share in moulding it, and infusing into it the fine 
 spirit that breathes so warmly in its memorial-tribute. 
 
 It will easily be believed that much that might be 
 recorded under this head has to be left out in such a 
 Memoir as this. Whatever else might be said of Dr. 
 Brown, it could never be said that he was wanting in 
 interest in public religious movements. It is notorious 
 that he was ready for every good work, and some would 
 say that he gave to outside objects part of tlie time 
 that might have been better employed in systematising 
 and completing his college work. His heart was so 
 large that he could not withhold his hand whenever 
 his feelings claimed its help. 
 
DEATH OF HIS ELDEST SON 169 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 DEATH OF HIS ELDEST SON 
 
 Crushed Hopes Crowned in Death is the title of the 
 * In Memoriam ' volume in which Dr. Brown put on 
 record what he deemed memorable and instructive in 
 the short life of his son Alexander, a youth of singular 
 precocity and promise. While it draws the portrait 
 of the boy, it at the same time shows so clearly the 
 heart of the father, and the spirit that ruled his home, 
 that our delineation of Dr. Brown would be incomplete 
 if we did not avail ourselves of its help. Dr. Brown was 
 fully sensible of the disadvantage at which a father 
 writes of his son. Though mainly a record of facts, 
 the book has all the glow of affection and admiration 
 natural to a father with his feelings heightened to 
 intensity by the early and unexpected death of his 
 son, far from home. But apart from its profound 
 interest to the father, the death of this young man, 
 and the brightness that illuminated it, carry lessons 
 of universal application, as Dr. Brown shows well, 
 and convey unspeakable comfort to all who, while 
 their children are about them, try to train them up 
 in the way that they should go. 
 
 The story is that of a boy who in infancy inspires 
 unusual interest by the early outbuddings of his intel- 
 
170 DAVID BROWN 
 
 lect, and then goes on, stage by stage, through school, 
 academy,'and university, acquiring fresh laurels at each, 
 and inspiring respect alike by the extent of his know- 
 ledge, and the vigour and soundness of his intellect. 
 Dr. Brown is very particular in recording the care 
 taken, in his early training, to impress him with divine 
 truth, and induce him to decide for Christ. It was 
 long before these efforts bore the desired fruit, but in 
 the end there was abundant evidence that they had not 
 been in vain. 
 
 Undoubtedly his training was on Puritan lines, but 
 there are various kinds of Puritanism — Puritanism, as 
 some one has said, with the chill on, and Puritanism 
 with the chill off. In the present case it was Puritanism 
 with the chill off; Puritanism warmed by intense affec- 
 tion, and inspiring its objects with a corresponding 
 love for tiieir Puritan teachers and guides. So far 
 from the channel in which the Puritanism ran creating 
 a prejudice against it, it operated strongly in its 
 favour. The love of Alexander Brown for his family, 
 and his mother in particular, was singularly warm. 
 
 The strong literary taste alike for the old classics 
 and for English writers which young Brown had 
 shown before he left the University of Glasgow, con- 
 tinued to mark him at Oxford (where he had gained 
 a scholarship at Queen's), so that besides excelling in 
 what were pre-eminently the studies of the university, 
 he gained the reputation of one of the best English 
 scholars of his day. In his especial love for the English 
 poets, he shared his father's taste, as he shared also 
 the musical talent of both father and mother ; while 
 his uncle, William Dyce, appears to have developed 
 
DEATH OF HIS ELDEST SON 171 
 
 in him a love of art, and drawn his special attention 
 to Ruskin and to Pre-Raphaelitism. His career at 
 Oxford was as brilliant as at Glasgow, and the number 
 of eminent Oxford men who bore testimony to his 
 gifts, his acquirements, and his character, was very 
 remarkable. 
 
 One of his earliest essays, written at the age of 
 eighteen for the university of Glasgow Missionary 
 Society was on religious poetry, in which he delineates 
 one by one the leading features of each poet, from 
 Spenser downwards ; coming down to the English 
 hymns of Watts, Newton, and Cowper ; glancing also 
 at the Latin mediaeval poetry of the schools of St. 
 Victor and Clugny. His essay stopped abruptly before 
 he had ended his subject, but later he showed his special 
 appreciation of Wordsworth, the two Brownings, and 
 Keble. In this we mark an interesting development. In 
 infancy the poems of Jane Taylor were his favourites ; 
 then Watts, Wesley, and Newton ; with the advance 
 of intellect and feeling, a higher order claimed his 
 interest; but when he came to shake hands with death, 
 and found that he had to face the solemn reckoning 
 with his Judge, it was the hymns that were fullest 
 of Christian truth that he found most precious, and 
 especially those that were fullest of Christ. It was a 
 happy circumstance that from his infancy he had be- 
 come well acquainted with his Bible and also with 
 Christian hymns ; botii were a great comfort in his 
 dying days ; the hymns as embodying, in a special 
 form, some of the great truths which are the glory of 
 the Bible. 
 
 Blameless in moral conduct, full of affection for his 
 
172 DAVID BROWN 
 
 parents and his family, and never surrendering his 
 faith, he nevertheless disappointed them by apparent 
 want of decision and heartiness in religious profession. 
 When the question came to be what was to be his 
 avocation in life, the choice seemed at first to lie between 
 the bar and the church. For the bar he would have re- 
 quired more ample means than he could command ; 
 to the Scottish ministry he was so far well disposed, 
 but he felt himself so deficient in those popular gifts 
 on which success must depend in his father''s church, 
 the only one to which he felt drawn, that with all his 
 love and respect for the ministry, he could not think 
 of it as his profession. It had been the cherished 
 desire of his father, and particularly of his mother, 
 that he should be a minister of the Gospel ; but at 
 last both were obliged to surrender their wishes, and 
 accede to what latterly attracted his interest — the 
 Civil Service of India. Though he had but three 
 months for preparation, and was among the youngest 
 of the seventy candidates, he came in fourteenth, and set 
 sail for India on 4th December 1858. His father"'s 
 duties obliging him to remain at home, he was accom- 
 panied to the ship by his mother, one of whose last 
 exhortations to him was, ' O Alexander, confess Christ.** 
 Arriving in Calcutta in the beginning of 1859, he 
 applied himself to the usual examinations in the Indian 
 languages, and in a very short time passed with the 
 highest honours. But symptoms of ill-health super- 
 vening, he was sent off on a voyage to the Andaman 
 Islands, from which he returned worse rather than 
 better. No improvement in health occurring, he was 
 ordered home. After less than a year's residence in 
 
DEATH OF HIS ELDEST SON 173 
 
 India, he sailed for England, on board the Marlborong'h, 
 on December 12, 1859. As the Marlborough was ap- 
 proaching Madras, the surgeon of the ship informed 
 Alexander that he was suffering from an abscess on the 
 liver, and that an operation was indispensable. The 
 operation was performed at Madras, but though it 
 relieved him of a pain which had been very excruciat- 
 ing, it left him suffering much from bed-sores, and by 
 and by, diarrhoea set in. Gradually, but steadily, his 
 strength wasted, till, on the morning of the 3rd January 
 1860, his life ended, and on the afternoon of the same 
 day his body was committed to the sea. 
 
 On the 27th March following, the arrival of the 
 Marlborough off Weymouth was telegraphed to Aber- 
 deen, and immediately Dr. Brown set out to meet his 
 son. Hardly had he left Aberdeen when a telegram 
 reached his house : ' Ship Marlborough. Brown is 
 dead ; he died shortly after he left Calcutta."* This 
 telegram was forwarded so as to meet him at Stirling. 
 Returning in great distress to Aberdeen, Dr. Brown 
 and his wife went immediately to London, in order to 
 obtain details of his death, and, if possible, learn the 
 state of mind in which he died. 
 
 For this last was their great anxiety. They had 
 never heard from him any such explicit declaration of 
 his trust in Christ as satisfied them, so that when they 
 heard of his death, his parents felt an intense anxiety 
 to learn something of iiis previous state of mind. But 
 it seemed as if they were doomed to disappointment. 
 Among his papers was found the beginning of a letter 
 which seemed designed to open up all. But weakness 
 constrained him to drop the pencil, and on such a sub- 
 
174 DAMD BROWN 
 
 ject he was not disposed to employ an amanuensis. 
 Nothing seemed to remain for them but the blind hope 
 of faith ; the refuge of simple trust, that as God is 
 faithful, so He is sure in His own way to fulfil the 
 desires of them that fear Him, and show that He has 
 heard and answered their prayers. 
 
 But a brighter experience was in store for them. 
 One of the passengers on board the ship was the Rev. 
 Joseph Scudder, a member of a remarkable American 
 family, where the father, himself a missionary, had 
 dedicated his eight sons to the same work, on which 
 all of those who grew up to maturity sooner or later 
 entered. ^Mien informed that a young civilian was on 
 board the ship, very ill, ^Ir. Scudder, though himself 
 far from well, went to see him, and finding his visit 
 acceptable, repeated it as often as he could. Brown 
 was evidently dying ; and Mr. Scudder, dealing with 
 him as such, pressed on him the necessity of making his 
 peace with God. Brown told him that he was a 
 minister's son, but that since he came to India he had 
 ' gone intellectually astray, and had sometime argued, 
 for argument's sake, against the truth of the plan of 
 salvation. But with what wonderful reality it comes 
 back to me," he added, ' in my present situation I' From 
 this time he could hardly bear to be separated from 
 Mr. Scudder. When asked whether it w&s only of late 
 that he had begun to seek an interest in Christ, ' No,' 
 he replied ; ' I have for some time past endeavoured to 
 turn my attention to my soul's interests, but so many 
 doubts and fears arose that it was not until after my 
 acquaintance with you that I could hope my sins were 
 forsriven.' 
 
DEATH OF HIS ELDEST SON 175 
 
 On the 2nd January 1860, as Mr. Sc udder entered 
 his cabin, he said, ' I am dying, and I wish to bid you 
 good-bye.' ' I sat down by his side. He raised himself 
 sHghtly, threw his arms around my neck, drew me close 
 to him and kissed me, saying, " Oh, I bless God, I bless 
 God, that He sent you on board this ship." The rest 
 of their intercourse was of the most delig-htful kind ; 
 the twenty-third Psalm and the fourteenth chapter of 
 St. John were read ; his trust in Christ was unclouded. 
 Early next morning he died.' 
 
 Words could not express the joy with which his 
 parents learnt all this. To find how their prayers had 
 been answered, their fears set at rest, and their hopes 
 fulfilled ; how the Good Shepherd had cared for their 
 boy in his hour of need, and what an abundant entrance 
 had been ministered to him into the everlasting King- 
 dom, was an Elysian experience, bright and blessed 
 beyond expression. It could not neutralise all their 
 regrets for the removal of one whom they loved so well 
 and from whom they hoped so much ; but it filled them 
 with a new joy of inexpressible sweetness. 
 
 When Alexander Brown told Mr. Scudder that in 
 India he had gone intellectually astray, he at first 
 supposed him to mean that he had given up his faith. 
 This, however, as he himself told him, was not the 
 case. What really he meant, Mr. Scudder did not 
 quite take up, but his father's impression was, that his 
 literary tastes, and the writings of some of liis favourite 
 authors, had overlaid his spiritual impressions, especi- 
 ally when he came to India. 
 
 ' His liking for the writings of Maurice, Kingsley, and 
 Robertson was such, that though he had never embraced 
 
176 DAVID BROWN 
 
 as theological tenets their peculiar views of Christian 
 truthj it had a tendency to dim in his mind the glory of 
 that provision for the guilty which the Gospel reveals. 
 To those who only want to have their religious sense 
 quickened, to have the religious principle within them 
 invigorated and directed, the writings of such men are 
 highly attractive, especially if they are persons of culti- 
 vated taste and refined feeling. In such books they find 
 enough of evangelical and spiritual Christianity to satisfy 
 their wants. But when the conscience is once thoroughly 
 awakened, and the guilt of sin pungently felt, in the near 
 view of the judgment seat of Christ, such representations as 
 those writers give of the work of Christ appear all unsatis- 
 factory. When one hears that the wrath of God is revealed 
 from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness 
 of men, and finds an echo to this in the condemnatory 
 voice of his own guilty conscience, his only effectual relief 
 is in the assurance that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's 
 Son, cleanseth us from all sin ; that Christ suffered for 
 sin, the just for the unjust, to bring us unto God; that 
 His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree, 
 and that when He had by Himself purged our sins. He 
 sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. As 
 to Alexander, familiar as he was from early boyhood with 
 the theory of the Atonement, but finding, in the religious 
 writers whom he liked best, insinuations at least against 
 the substitution of the innocent in the room of the guilty, 
 as introducing a fictitious or unreal element into religion, 
 he had very likely allowed himself to argue in that direc- 
 tion " for argument's sake, as he said, against the truth of 
 the plan of salvation." To what else could he have re- 
 ferred when he added (as Mr. Scudder says in his letter), 
 " But with what reality it comes back to one in my pre- 
 sent situation ? " In this view of his state of mind, well 
 did his friend entreat him to take Christ simply at His 
 
DEATH OiF His ELDEST SON l77 
 
 word : " Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast 
 out." ' 
 
 Among the remarkable grounds for thankfulness for 
 his son's meeting with Mr. Scudder, Dr. Brown laid con- 
 siderable stress on their common interest in literature, 
 and, as it turned out, their common liking for Shake- 
 speare, In one of their interviews, after much reading 
 of Scripture and a long conversation on spiritual sub- 
 jects, Brown asked his friend whether he would have 
 any objection to read a little from some other book, 
 suggesting Shakespeare ; handing him a small copy 
 that lay among his books, and asking him to select a 
 passage. Mr. Scudder turned to the second part of 
 Henry iv., and read the passage which describes the 
 feelings of one who has to bear tidings to a father of 
 the death of his son : — 
 
 ' Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news 
 Hath but a losing office ; and his tongue 
 Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, 
 Remember'd knolling a departing friend.' 
 
 'Who'll be the unwelcome messenger to tell my 
 father that his son is dead ? ' Mr. Scudder merely 
 expressed the hope that it would not be he. 
 
 ' The reader will not fail to observe here the peculiar 
 fitness of the instrument provided for opening the heart 
 and directing the views of the dying youth. That in the 
 near view of another world, his deep reserve on spiritual 
 things would more or less have given way in conversing 
 with almost any minister of Christ, is probable enough. 
 But when, in addition to a winning gentleness and straight- 
 forward fidelity in his Master's service, this man of God 
 was found to be of scholarly attainments, and in English 
 
 M 
 
178 DAVID BROWN 
 
 literature of congenial tastes, we wonder not that his 
 respect for him and confidence in him quickly ripened 
 into a love which on both sides grew from day to day, till 
 at their last parting it melted into tears, and the dying 
 one blessed God that such a friend had come on board. . . .' 
 
 Referring to the ' spring of soul elevation, on the 
 wings of our richest hjmnology and choral song, which 
 even at his meals and amidst his fretting sores, acted 
 with the expulsive power of a new and nobler afFec- 
 tion,*" Dr. Brown traces in a very interesting way the 
 genealogy of the experience that had such a triumphant 
 ending. 
 
 'Who that has read the preceding chapters can fail 
 to see the germs of all this springing up in the seclusion 
 of his birthplace, only developed and extended during 
 his Glasgow life ; checked and deflected under new in- 
 fluences at Oxford ; reviving somewhat when at home 
 for the last time ; insensibly acquiring strength and giving 
 an earnest tone to his character amidst preparations for 
 public life, and struggles with incipient disease in India ; 
 and finally, as he saw the curtain dropping, first upon 
 his Indian plans, and next upon life itself, and eternity 
 opening before him — becoming the sohd foundation and 
 the ready materials of that life divine, which God, in 
 infinite love, had breathed into him, never to die ? One 
 cannot fail indeed to be struck with the beautiful unity 
 of such a life, and, considering its brevity, the completeness 
 which its crowning steps imparted to it. It is this, in 
 fact, which to my own mind yields the deepest repose, 
 when the surges of hallowed sorrow threaten to de- 
 generate into corroding fretfulness, that He who has a 
 right to do what He will with His own, had completed 
 His own mysterious plan, turning gathered treasures. 
 
DEATH OF HIS ELDEST SON 179 
 
 never meant for use here, into the materials of a 
 heavenly life with Himself above.' 
 
 With three characteristic reflections, Dr. Brown 
 concludes his narrative. First, he calls the attention 
 of Christian parents, mothers especially, to the great 
 importance of interweaving Christian ideas and feelings 
 with the earliest thinking of their children, and con- 
 tinuing in suitable ways, as they get older, to nourish 
 their early impressions, because, though at first the 
 desired result may not be achieved, salutary habits 
 of reverence for divine things will be formed, and at 
 some crisis of life the decisive step may be taken. 
 Next, he calls on intelligent and inquiring young men 
 who believe in the Word of God, to observe that what 
 was wanting to Alexander Brown, and felt by him 
 to be wanting when he came to die, was not know- 
 ledge of divine truth, not knowledge of the way of 
 salvation through the sacrifice of Christ, but the 
 appropriation of that sacrifice by himself, the accepting 
 of Christ and giving himself over to Him, as his real 
 and only Saviour. And it was this act of appropria- 
 tion that made all the difference on his deathbed, and 
 gave rise to that serene peace and joy with which 
 he could contemplate the end. 
 
 And lastly there is a word for missionaries. 
 
 ' One cannot wonder at the affectionate interest with 
 which that dear, enfeebled missionary threw himself at 
 once into the case of this dying youth, and waited on 
 him day by day to the last. I can very well understand 
 what I have been told, of the more than ordinary interest 
 shown by almost every one on a long voyage to a sick 
 and dying fellow-passenger. But that one so feeble, and 
 
180 DAVID BROWN 
 
 whose own complaint rendered him peculiarly susceptible 
 of sickness, should spend so much of every day inhaling 
 the diseased atmosphere of that small cabin, while the 
 ship, too, was crossing the Line, and this in spite of re- 
 monstrances from the ship's surgeon, was surely something 
 far beyond any ordinary sympathy. . . . Theirs was no 
 ordinary parting. It was the parting of a son in the 
 Gospel from one to whom he felt as to a spiritual father. 
 Short had been their acquaintance, but what a tie had 
 been formed between them ! With what rapidity had 
 the soul of this youth, rich already in the knowledge of 
 Scripture, opened to the personal apprehension, appro- 
 priation, and enjoyment of it all, under the gentle but 
 energetic and unwearied instrumentality of his new-found 
 friend ! . . . Who would have blamed that delicate man 
 if he had yielded to the counsel given him, and spared 
 himself, instead of watching by that couch from day to 
 day, directing and ministering to the anxious spirit ? But 
 like his Master, "he pleased not himself," and while 
 others wondered at his assiduity, he had "meat to eat 
 that they knew not of." . . . 
 
 ' And O ye Christian mothers, who have sons in India, 
 or going to it, or coming from it, for whose souls you pray 
 from day to day, it may be with strong crying and tears, 
 but as yet to no effect known to you ; never forget the 
 missionaries of Christ whose field of labour is in that 
 distant land. How many officers and civilians have to 
 bless God that ever they met with such there ; how 
 many have, through them, found Christ on the way out, 
 or the way home ; and who knows but in some way as 
 majestic as that which brought Joseph Scudder on board 
 the Marlborough at the very time his ministrations were 
 most needed and valued, the instrument which is to be 
 blessed to your sons may be divinely brought to them .'' ' 
 
CHURCH MOVEMENTS 181 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 CHURCH MOVEMENTS 
 
 There was no church question in his own communion, 
 and indeed very few out of it, in which Dr. Brown 
 did not take a lively interest. The proposal for union 
 between the Free Church and the United Presby- 
 terian, which at the time proved a failure, but which 
 has been revived quite recently, under much more 
 hopeful conditions, had a special interest for him 
 whose grandfather had been a seceder of the best 
 type, and whose mother had become one out of 
 ardent thirst for the Gospel. On the lawfulness and 
 desirableness of this union he seems never to have 
 had either doubt or misgivins;. His breadth of mind 
 kept him from being in any degree influenced by the 
 extreme views of those who demanded that, before 
 any union should take place, the United Presbyterians 
 should adopt every jot and tittle of the Free Church 
 position. Nor had he much more regard for the 
 scruples of those who maintained that to unite with 
 men who deemed civil establishments of religion un- 
 lawful, would be to compromise our testimony in 
 favour of national religion. He was naturally familiar 
 with the history of the Secession, and he could not 
 but see the false principles which some of the early 
 
182 DAVID BROWN 
 
 seceders had accepted on the subject of church union, 
 when such a question as the lawfuhiess of a burgess 
 oath was allowed to split them up into two denomina- 
 tions — burghers and anti-burghers. Like his friend 
 Dr. Duncan, he would have ' a large creed for himself, 
 and a small creed for other people."* Individually, he 
 desired for himself a creed embracing as wide a field 
 of truth as possible, and not one atom of revealed 
 truth, great or small, could he ever allow himself to 
 disavow. But his demands were much smaller, if the 
 question was whether he ought to hold Christian 
 fellowship with this one, or with that. If he was 
 satisfied that the man believed in Christ, he would 
 not withdraw from his fellowship, however much he 
 might be in error. Churches required to have a more 
 extended basis of union, but it was out of the ques- 
 tion that before they united, every truth, however 
 subordinate, held by the one, should be accepted 
 by the other. He believed that there was quite 
 sufficient agreement between the two churches to 
 justify and even require an incorporating union ; but 
 he was not greatly disappointed that the negotiations 
 failed, because the Free Church in the Highlands did 
 not seem ripe for it. 
 
 The great objection to the proposed union was, that 
 it would imply a desertion of Free Church principles. 
 How did Dr. Brown meet this ? We quote from a 
 printed speech delivered at Inverness during the Union 
 negotiations. 
 
 ' And what, pray, is this matter on which it is 
 alleged we differ so widely that to unite in spite of it 
 is to betray our principles ? I have been familiar with 
 
CHURCH MOVEMENTS 183 
 
 it from my boyhood in all its phases ; but it is now 
 narrowed up to the one point of civil endowments of 
 religion. In the heat of that bitter Voluntary Con- 
 troversy which raged so many years between us, we 
 both fell into the too common error of imputing to 
 each other, not that which each only 'professed to hold, 
 but what we hvferred that their views led to. No 
 matter though each of us said to the other. We don't 
 hold that ; we never did hold it, perhaps we even 
 abhorred it ; this went for nothing. We said to one 
 another. You either did hold it, or you should have 
 held it in order to be consistent ; and so we set one 
 another down as committed to errors which each for 
 themselves refused to own, and we gave names to each 
 other accordingly, not always the most savoury. This 
 was done on both sides ; but the Disruption was the 
 beginning of a great and blessed change. . . . 
 
 ' Now, what is the precise point of difference between 
 us and you ? (the United Presbyterians). You think 
 the civil establishment of the Church of Christ an un- 
 scriptural way of providing for the temporal support 
 of the clergy, and that in the long run it always proves 
 injurious to the church. The Free Church declines to 
 accept that proposition, holding that there are cases in 
 which this is both lawful and expedient. But in doing 
 so they make some important reservations. The first 
 reservation is, that the civil establishment must not 
 be such as to interfere with the internal government 
 of the church. How many civil establishments of 
 religion does this cut off? Nearly every existing one 
 in all Christendom. The most determined stickler in 
 the Free Church for an Established Church admits 
 
184 DA\1D BROT^nV 
 
 that nearly all church establishments are tainted with 
 the poison of Erastianism, and the one church establish- 
 ment on which they fall back as having been rightly 
 constituted and to some extent actually realised, is 
 that of Scotland. But they admit that for ages it had 
 had to resist the encroachments of the state upon the 
 churcirs pfovince, and that now at least, the right of 
 the state to interfere in cases which they think involve 
 the Erastian element has been formally established by 
 law ; for it was on that ground that they came out 
 from it. Thus, then, the theory of a rightly con- 
 stituted religious establishment has been successfully 
 pierced through, and such an establishment no longer 
 exists for the Free Church. It is a pure theory.' 
 
 This speech was delivered before the abolition of 
 patronage in the Established Church took place, and 
 it is interesting to mark the catholic and generous 
 spirit in which he alluded to that event, which he 
 believed was coming. The Established Church, he 
 thought, had good reason to seek the abolition of a 
 yoke which it felt to be most burdensome, and after 
 household suffrage had been given to the country, and 
 given by the Tories, it was impossible that a church 
 could continue to be popular which excluded the 
 people from all active share in its management. 
 
 ' If ever the day comes when in the Scottish Estab- 
 lishment patronage shall be entirely swept away, I for 
 one will rejoice in it, persuaded that the Established 
 Church will soon feel the benefit of it, and all within 
 its pale be the better for the change. To myself, I 
 say, this event would give real satisfaction — more 
 satisfaction, perhaps, than to some of our Free Church 
 
CHURCH MOVEMENTS 185 
 
 minority, wliose whole ecclesiastical sympathies seem 
 to be concentrated in the Free Church. But he who 
 sees in the mere abolition of patronage any symptom 
 of an approaching reunion with the Free Church, sees 
 with different eyes from mine. To some it may in- 
 dicate something more like the converse of this — a 
 gradual approach of the Established Chtirch itself 
 towards a popular system of siipport as well as a 
 popular system of election ; in other words, the union 
 of the whole Presbyterians of Scotland in one Free 
 Presbyterian Church of Scotland. That is a little 
 more like " comprehensive Presbyterian union " than 
 what has been advocated under that delightful name 
 by an esteemed friend of mine not a thousand miles 
 away from me just now ' (Rev. Donald Eraser). 
 
 A point which he made clear in this speech, and on 
 which many worthy persons need enlightenment now, 
 was, that in uniting with the United Presbyterians no 
 one was called to abandon any principle which as a 
 Free Churchman he held. In recently uniting with 
 the Free Church, the Original Seceders had not been 
 called to abandon their view of the descending obliga- 
 tion of the Covenants, but were as free to maintain it 
 and proclaim it as ever. So the most ardent upholder 
 of the principle of an Established Church would be as 
 free to hold it, and to call on all the world to hold it, 
 after union as before. At the Westminster Assembly, 
 Pre-millennialistsand Anti-pre-millennialists had agreed 
 to make the time of the second Advent an open ques- 
 tion, but they had not bound themselves to refrain from 
 advocating their own views upon it. In the Colonies, 
 within six years no fewer than seven presbyterian 
 
186 BAYTD BROWN 
 
 unions had been effected, all of them letting the 
 question of civil establishments alone. The Victoria 
 union in 1859 ; that of New South Wales in 1865 ; 
 Nova Scotia in 1860 ; Canada in 1861 ; New Zealand 
 in 1862; Queensland in 1863; South Australia in 
 1865. Had Dr. Brown had occasion to refer to these 
 unions later, he would have said that in addition to 
 the union between the representatives of the Free and 
 United Presbyterian Churches in Canada in 1861, the 
 body representing the Established Church of Scotland 
 had at a later date united with the other two ; and he 
 misht have added that never had the beneficial fruits 
 of union been better manifested than in the ' Compre- 
 hensive Presbyterian union" of the whole Dominion. 
 Not only had they worked harmoniously, but they had 
 been roused to a much higher measure of zeal, and 
 to much grander efforts of Christian enterprise ; had 
 shown a profounder interest in foreign missions, and at 
 home had addressed themselves with heart and hope to 
 a sionantic undertaking that would have staggered the 
 fragments of the church previous to union ; had sur- 
 veved the almost boundless limits of the vast North 
 Western Territories which had lately become parts of 
 the Dominion, and roused their utmost energies to 
 supplv them with the means of grace ; so that, what- 
 ever other churches might do, even a Klondyke would 
 not start on its wild and perilous career without a staff 
 of Presbyterian ministers and missionaries to warn 
 people of their perils, and call on them to remember the 
 God of their fathers. It is truly instructive how good 
 an example our colonial daughters have set to the 
 mother churches in Scotland. Dr. Brown concluded 
 
CHURCH MOVEMENTS 187 
 
 his speech by reminding his audience that in every 
 case that had occurred, Presbyterian union had worked 
 for good. 
 
 When the question arose in the Free Church whether 
 hymns of human composition should be allowed in its 
 worship, no one could have doubted on which side Dr. 
 Brown would be found. Not but that his appreciation 
 of the psalms was as warm as any man's ; not but that 
 the marvellous fellowship with God, of which the 
 psalms are the expression, — so near, so intimate, and 
 withal so reverent — filled him habitually with wonder 
 and delight ; but because the advent of Christ, the 
 new aspect which that event gave to Christian worship, 
 and the need it created for songs in which the name 
 and the work of Christ should be on the lips as well as 
 in the heart of all worshippers, seemed to him not 
 only to justify, but to demand the use of Christian 
 hymns. His musical taste, and his familiarity with the 
 history of the Christian Church, his knowledge of the 
 place that hymns had held in it from the very first, 
 and of the blessed influence they had exerted on 
 Christian life, were additional indications of the part 
 he would take in the discussion of the question. It 
 may seem strange to some that in the Free Church of 
 Scotland there should have been any room for dis- 
 cussion on such a subject ; but the more conservative 
 ministers and members held strongly that the psalms, 
 being divinely inspired, formed the sole materials 
 which it was lawful to use in public praise, and that 
 hymns of human composition, or human hymns as 
 they were called, were of the nature of will-worship, 
 
188 DAVID BROWN 
 
 and ought to be rejected along with all other human 
 devices in the worship of God. Dr. Brown's posi- 
 tion was, that while the psalms should ever have 
 the first place in public worship, and could not be 
 passed over with impunity, hymns were a valuable 
 adjunct, especially those which extolled the Redeemer, 
 and made use of His incarnation, death, resurrection, 
 and future coming, to exalt the spirit of love, trust, 
 and obedience. Naturally he was named a member of 
 the committee which the General Assembly appointed 
 to consider and report on the subject; and when the 
 committee's duty was arranged under several heads, he 
 was appointed convener of a sub-committee ' to inquire 
 into the rule and practice of the Early Church, so far 
 as it can be ascertained."* The result was the prepara- 
 tion by him of an elaborate report, in which, beginning 
 with Pliny's letter to the Emperor Trajan, in which it 
 is said that the Christians were accustomed to meet on 
 a set day and sing a hymn to Christ as God, he goes 
 through notices in Tertullian, Justin Martyr, Celsus, 
 Origen, Lucian, Nepos, Eusebius, and many others, 
 bringing out very clearly the fact that hymns of 
 human composition were in common use in the earliest 
 ages. He pursues his investigation with characteristic 
 care and thoroughness, not, however, ascribing to the 
 patristic writers more than the authority of witnesses, 
 whose service consisted in their bringing out the actual 
 state of the fact. As a sample of his acquaintance 
 with other than the outstanding writers, as well as 
 of his candour in appreciating some from whom he 
 differed in other matters, his reference to Nepos is 
 worthy of attention. 
 
CHURCH MOVEMENTS 189 
 
 ' Nepos, an Egyptian bishop, somewhere about a.d. 
 241 -244, and his opponent, Dionysius, Bishop of Alex- 
 andria from A.D. 231 to 264 or 265. Nepos was a 
 Millennarian, and both his Confutation of the Allegorists 
 (now lost), and his warm zeal, created a large party of 
 adherents to his views, who after his decease were 
 zealous in maintaining and propagating them. Dion- 
 ysius, when on a visit to that locality, having gathered 
 the presbyters and teachers together, discussed the 
 subject with them for three days, and commended 
 their exceeding candour and the frankness with which 
 at length they admitted themselves to have erred. 
 For the memory of Nepos himself, Dionysius expresses 
 great reverence, saying, " In many other respects I 
 accord with, and greatly love Nepos, both for his faith 
 and industry and great study in the Scriptures ; also 
 for his abundant psalmodic compositions, by which 
 many of the heathen are still deligiited.""' 
 
 Dr. Brown had not occasion in this paper to go 
 beyond the writers of the Early Church, otherwise he 
 would have been sure to advert to the mediaeval hymns 
 in Latin rhyme, of which the Dies Irce is the most 
 remarkable specimen ; but such of them as were not 
 vitiated by Romish corruptions, of which Archbishop 
 Trench has given so excellent a collection, were much 
 esteemed by him. The school of Adam of St. Victor 
 showed well how remarkably adapted the Latin tongue 
 was to devotional poetry, its rich sonorous sounds being 
 equally fitted to express the majestic and the plaintive 
 — the majesty of God and the misery of man. When 
 Mr. Gladstone published his Latin version of ' Rock of 
 Ages,"" and other translations, Dr. Brown was greatly 
 
190 DAVID BRO^^^ 
 
 interested, feeling distinctly that the Latin tongue 
 added something to the effect of the hymns beyond 
 what was involved in the English original ; and he was 
 very- desirous that Mr. Gladstone should translate more 
 hymns, and prominent among them all, as fitted to be 
 supremely useful, Miss Charlotte Elliott's 'Just as I 
 am/ On one occasion, being among some friends in 
 London, he expressed this desire, and means were 
 found of approaching Mr. Gladstone and making the 
 request. Lord Kinnaird was the medium of communi- 
 cation, but 'Mr. Gladstone felt that he must for the 
 present decUne the invitation. His answer was as 
 follows : — 
 
 * Ha WARDEN Castle, 
 'Chester, November 1, 1873. 
 
 ' My dear Kixxaird, — I am gratified by your kind 
 note and its enclosures, and if it depended on my will 
 only to accede to your wish and that of your corre- 
 spondent, I would not hesitate for a moment, for I 
 could find time during walks and other odds and ends 
 of ways. 
 
 ' But I have grown verv* rusty, and doubt whether 
 there remains in me the moderate classical skill neces- 
 sary- for the purpose. I should not like to send a 
 merely mechanical translation. The best plan will be 
 that I should turn over the matter in my mind, and if 
 I find I can make any way, I shall gladly do it. — Ever 
 sincerely yours, W. E. Gladstoxe.' 
 
 It does not, however, appear that Mr. Gladstone 
 was ever able to fulfil his half purpose.^ 
 
 ^ Will it be counted great presumption if the present writer, 
 to whom the translation of our best hymns into Latin rhyme has been 
 
CHURCH MOVEMENTS 191 
 
 Sometimes Dr. Brown tried, with more or less 
 success, to break down the prejudice of very conser- 
 vative congregations against hymns. Once when sup- 
 plying the pulpit of a friend on the Firth of Clyde, he 
 carried his point by a kind of ruse, giving out the 
 fourth of the hymns which are usually printed in 
 Scottish Bibles after the paraphrases, and pressing on 
 
 for some time a pleasant and profitable recreation, submits the fol- 
 lowing ? — 
 
 1 Omnino qualis sum, et solum 
 Orans pro me fusum cruorem, 
 Tuamque invitationem, 
 
 Agne Dei, venio. 
 
 2 Omnino qualis sum, non morans. 
 Nee labes lucre laborans, 
 Luentem tuam gratiam orans, 
 
 Agne Dei, venio. 
 
 3 Omnino qualis sum, oppressus, 
 In dubitatione mersus, 
 
 Turn proeliis, turn timore pressus, 
 Agne Dei, venio. 
 
 4 Omnino qualis sum, pollutus, 
 Pauper, miser, CDecus, nudus, 
 Cunctis egens donis tuis, 
 
 Agne Dei, venio. 
 
 5 Omnino qualis sum, me enim 
 Accipies, et sanabis mentem, 
 Quod tuo verbo pono fidem, 
 
 Agne Dei, venio. 
 
 6 Omnino qualis sum, amorem 
 Laudans per omnia victorem ; 
 Me tibi dicans servitorem, 
 
 Agne Dei, venio. 
 
 7 Omnino qualis sum, fructurus 
 Modis quam maximis amoris. 
 Tecum in coelis mox futurus, 
 
 Agne Dei, venio. — W. G. B. 
 
192 DAVID BROWN 
 
 the people that in the Free Church Hymn Book there 
 were nearly ' four hundred as good as they/ In this 
 way he enabled the minister of the congregation to 
 fulfil his desire to make use of the hymns. On another 
 occasion, when in the island of Skye, he invited the 
 people to meet him on a week evening, that he might 
 teach them how to sing. By his own example he showed 
 them the difference between lively singing and the slow 
 drawl to which thev were accustomed, and getting his 
 daughters to sing with him a hymn in parts, he ap- 
 pealed to themselves whether they did not enjoy it, 
 and they confessed that it was beautiful. 
 
 With his friend, Sir William ]Mackinnon, he had 
 oftener than once some friendly discussion on hymns. 
 Once when at dinner at Balinakill along with some 
 shooting friends, he asked him, ' Mr. ]\Iackinnon, would 
 anybody make me believe, if I did not know before, 
 that for three hundred years, until lately, the ministers 
 of the Church of Scotland could utter the name of 
 Jesus as often as they liked in their prayers and 
 in their preaching, but never once in their praises 't '' 
 'But ifs all in the psalms," was the reply. 'Yes, 
 under a veil ; but the veil has been removed, and you 
 worship with the veil down, and only tr}' to look 
 through to Christ. Besides, it is not everybody that 
 can see through it as well as you. We like to get 
 the Gospel in our mouth, and say, " How sweet the 
 name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear.""' But Sir 
 William could not take it in. It is well known that, 
 scandalised by such 'defections' of the Free Church, 
 Sir William cancelled a clause in his will leaving to 
 the church a large sum of money. But, as Dr. Brown, 
 
CHUiiCH MOVEMENTS 193 
 
 with his usual charity, said, ' He has gone, dear man, 
 where there is no veil of any kind.** 
 
 A much more serious question arose in the Free 
 Church when it was proposed, within the last ten years, 
 to deal with the Westminster Confession of Faith, so 
 as to obviate the difficulties of many, and their re- 
 luctance to subscribe to it. On this question Principal 
 Brown took a very bold part, in a speech delivered 
 in the General Assembly, where he moved for a com- 
 mittee to consider the subject. Not that he proposed 
 any alteration in the substance of the Confession, for 
 that would be putting a new patch on an old garment; 
 and besides, under the model trust-deed, their property 
 was so connected with their standards, that if they 
 altered the one they might imperil the other. There 
 could be no doubt that churches had a perfect right 
 to revise their standards from time to time ; that 
 was admitted on the other side ; but whenever they 
 made a proposal to change them in any way, their 
 opponents were full of objections. They reminded 
 him of the man who said, ' I am perfectly open to 
 conviction, but I should like to see the man who would 
 convince me."' 
 
 The way in which the Principal showed his courage 
 was by pointing out faults in the Confession. They 
 need not wonder if the framers of it, noble, learned, 
 and able men though they were, had committed 
 blunders. The Duke of Wellington on one occa- 
 sion, on being asked whom he considered the greatest 
 general, replied, 'The man who made the fewest 
 mistakes."' And the framers of the Confession had 
 made two great mistakes. The first was, they had 
 
194 DAVID BROWN 
 
 put more into the Confession than they ought to have 
 put into a document intended to test the fitness of 
 men for office in the church. They had dogmatised 
 on the salvation of ' elect infants,' as if there were 
 infants elect and non-elect — surely a matter that should 
 never have been put into a Confession. And in regard 
 to the civil magistrate, they had given him charge of 
 the first as well as the second table of the Decalogue, 
 which no one now believed. Twenty years ago, when 
 there had been a discussion in his Presbytery about 
 the formula, and he had pointed out this erroneous 
 dogma about the civil magistrate, he had been asked, 
 ' Why, then, did you sign it ? ' His answer was that 
 he had signed it on the principle of what Mr. Glad- 
 stone said of his Home Rule Bill, 'It is dead.' His 
 second objection was that they had reversed the order 
 in which divine truth was conveyed in the Scriptures. 
 They had laid down a doctrine of predestination and 
 pretention before any mention was made of the crea- 
 tion of man or his fall. The scriptural order observed 
 in other Confessions was, first to dwell on the creation 
 of man, the fall and the consequences of the fall, and 
 then the mysterious provision made for the salvation 
 of man. Everybody could understand that, and would 
 receive it, he thought, readily. 
 
 His bold utterances startled the Assembly, and the 
 seconder of his motion, the Rev. Dr. Adam, felt 
 called to separate the motion itself from the speech 
 ad%'ocating it. He did not agree with Principal Brown's 
 remark on the property of the church ; he believed 
 the}^ were as free in that as in other respects ; but 
 even if the civil courts should decide against them, 
 they must follow the convictions of their consciences. 
 
CHURCH MOVEMENTS 195 
 
 He hinted that at the advanced age of their venerable 
 father (he was then in his eighty-sixth year), his 
 words were somewhat less carefully chosen than they 
 might have been, though the mental acuteness and 
 power that had been manifested by him on this as on 
 other occasions were truly remarkable. 
 
 No fewer than seven motions in all were submitted 
 to the Assembly, showing that even those who were of 
 opinion that some step should be taken, whether in the 
 direction of revisal or otherwise, were at sea as to the 
 form which the matter should take. At last a little change 
 was made on the terms of Dr. Brown's motion, and on 
 being put to the vote, it was carried against another 
 motion, absolutely refusing to entertain the question, 
 by 413 votes to 130. After the subject had been 
 considered by a committee, the form of a Declaratory 
 Act was agreed on and passed by a future Assembly. 
 In this Principal Brown cordially acquiesced. This 
 enactment led to a small secession — headed by two 
 ministers and a few students, and followed by a small 
 body of people, chiefly in Highland parishes — the 
 first secession that had occurred in the Free Church. 
 The Declaratory Act was exceedingly moderate in its 
 tone ; and in many of the instances where it led to 
 separation, it is believed that its provisions were mis- 
 understood. Dr. Brown was vexed on account of the 
 turmoil which the Act occasioned in some parts of the 
 Highlands, and, about a year before his death, contri- 
 buted a paper regarding it to the Northern Evangelist 
 — a paper circulating chiefly in the Highlands. His 
 points were mainly these : that many who were opposed 
 to the Act did not know what it was ; and that if they 
 had known, they would never have objected to it. 
 
196 DAVID BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE ROBERTSON SMITH CASE 
 
 It was in the year 1877 that the Robertson Smith case 
 began to engross the attention of the Free Church. 
 Though at first, as a member of the College Com- 
 mittee, averse to any prosecution. Dr. Brown felt it 
 to be his dutv ultimately to take side against Professor 
 Smitli. He took this course at a great sacrifice of per- 
 sonal feelinor, and verv much against the natural bent 
 of his inclination. The young professor was the son 
 of a highly respected country minister, and he himself 
 had been a country minister; it was a pain to cause 
 his brother distress, as it would have been a great 
 pleasure to be able to gratify him. William Robertson 
 Smith, along with a brother who died early, had had a 
 course of honour in the University of Aberdeen, rarely, 
 if ever, paralleled ; his scholarship was quite pheno- 
 menal ; and the University and the community were 
 proud of him. He had not studied theology at Aber- 
 deen, but the reputation he had gained at Edinburgh, 
 both in New College and in the University, had created 
 unboimded expectations of his future career. The 
 General Assembly of 1870 had made him Professor 
 of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis at Aberdeen 
 within a few weeks of his completing the usual term 
 
THE ROBERTSON SMITH CASE 197 
 
 of study for the ministry — a case of rapid promotion 
 unparalleled in the history of the Free Church. Per- 
 sonally, Dr. Brown not only shared with his brethren 
 their high estimate and expectation of Mr. Smith, but 
 he liked the man, and was so delighted with his in- 
 augural lecture as to distribute it among his friends. 
 In a college where there were but four professors, any 
 disagreement could not fail to be peculiarly painful, 
 especially when it affected vitally the standing of one 
 of the four. 
 
 Moreover, Dr. Brown was himself disposed to freedom 
 and progress wherever vital interests were not con- 
 cerned. He used to say to his friends that in his 
 youth he had made it his prayer that God would give 
 him a mind candid and fresh, and open to truth from 
 whatever quarter it might come ; and he believed that 
 God had answered that prayer. He had favoured union 
 with the United Presbyterian Church when many con- 
 demned it as involving abandonment of Free Church 
 principle ; he had actively promoted the Evangelical 
 Alliance, which also, with its simple creed, some thought 
 unworthy of the confidence of men who held by the 
 Westminster Confession. He had always been, as he 
 continued to be, a supporter of liberal measures in the 
 church when the more conservative members had been 
 on the other side. In politics he was a cordial Liberal 
 to the end. A scholar himself, he had always had 
 sympathy with scholars. He had cultivated friendly 
 personal relations with men from whose theology he 
 differed widely, when he thought that they held any 
 common ground that might tend to a closer alliance. 
 He was well aware that German scholarship, even under 
 
198 DAVID BROWN 
 
 rationalists, had been in some respects of great service 
 to the Bible, notwithstanding the deadly influence of 
 its rationalism, and he fully believed that continued 
 research would still be useful, wliile he dreaded with 
 the utmost sensitiveness any injury to the Scriptures 
 themselves, as well as to the sacred deposit which they 
 contained. He even shared with Bengel the opinion 
 that in the legitimate prosecution of Biblical criticism, 
 devout people might have their feelings greatly dis- 
 tressed ; but that as facts were facts, their legitimate 
 effect ought to be allowed, however much they might 
 conflict with their long-cherished prepossessions. He 
 knew that there were many questions yet unsolved 
 connected with the origin of the books of the Old 
 Testament and likewise of the New, in regard to which 
 it was the dutv of all lovers of the Bible to keep their 
 minds open, and hope for further light. Although the 
 Old Testament had not been specifically his field of 
 critical inquiry, he was not indisposed to the mental 
 exertion needed for placing him abreast of the questions 
 that I\Ir. Smith had raised. All these considerations 
 would have led him to concede to Mr. Smith the liberty 
 which he and his frie?ids claimed, the more especially 
 that he knew him to be a true Calvinist and an evan- 
 gelical believer, whose object was to uphold supernatural 
 revelation, and draw men to believe on Jesus Christ. 
 
 WTiat placed him, therefore, in the ranks of opposi- 
 tion could only have been a firm conviction that the 
 theory which Mr. Smith favoured had not only no 
 sufficient ground in fact, but that it was fitted to 
 shake faith in the authority of the Bible, and to pro- 
 mote the cause of unbelief. As the case went on, his 
 
THE ROBERTSON SMITH CASE 199 
 
 position became very painful. Local feeling had risen 
 to a high pitch, and on both sides many bitter things 
 were said. It is not for the present writer to try to 
 adjust the balance of blame between the two parties, 
 or to decide whether greater injustice was done to the 
 Smith party by those who accused them of the worst 
 faults of rationalism, or to their opponents by those who 
 denounced them as ignorant, bigoted, and intolerant. 
 All that concerns a biographer of Dr. Brown is to 
 point out that by many he was counted a persecutor, 
 an enemy of light, a man who would bind his church 
 to indefensible positions, in spite of all the evidence 
 that was arising to show that they were untenable.^ 
 The strife was all the more bitter from its involving: 
 the position of a young professor, dear to his students, 
 who was held in the highest honour by the community, 
 and especially by the whole Free Church, until the 
 
 ^ A sample of the kind of feeling directed against Principal Brown 
 and his friends, all the worse that years had elapsed before it was 
 published, is to be found in Miss Anna M. Stoddart's Zi/e of Professor 
 John Shiart Blackie. As an admirer of scholarship, Professor Blackie 
 strongly supported Professor Robertson Smith ; but it is impossible to 
 conceive that he would have had any sympathy with the following pre- 
 sumptuous and ignorant tirade: — 'The Free Church Assembly was 
 busy with dubious work, beginning its prosecution of Dr. Robertson 
 Smith, and he (Professor Blackie) had to trust to correspondents for a 
 fliU account of the pitiful scene. That the eventual result of stupidity, 
 cowardice, shuffling, and rancour should prove to be increase of honour 
 to Dr. Robertson Smith, and of enlightenment to all students of the 
 Bible, was not apparent then, and men could hardly look forward to a 
 time when the paltry persecutors of that day would accept, without a 
 twinge of remorse, the larger knowledge of their victim, and attitudinise 
 as progressives ' {Life, vol. ii. pp. 151-52). The epithets which are here 
 implicitly applied to Dr. Brown are seen to be as absurd as they 
 are false when he is accused of ' stupidity, cowardice, shuffling, and 
 rancour.' 
 
200 DAVID BROWN 
 
 recent questions began to be raised. When Dr. Brown 
 became one of the most outstanding opponents of Pro- 
 fessor Smith in Aberdeen, the force of this feeling, when 
 directed against him, was all but overwhelming; so that 
 not all the mildness of his character, the habitual 
 serenity of his temper, and the admitted blamelessness 
 and conscientiousness of his past life could protect him 
 from the storm. 
 
 The case came first before the College Committee of 
 the Free Church, of which the late Rev. Dr. Laughton 
 of Greenock, a most scholarly man, a devout, lovable, 
 Christian gentleman, was then convener. Several re- 
 presentations had been made to the Committee that 
 the articles ' Angels ' and ' Bible,' contributed by Mr. 
 Smith to the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Bri- 
 tannica, contained statements inconsistent with the 
 views maintained by the Free Church, and ought to 
 be inquired into. As the chief charge bore on the 
 Pentateuch, and especially the Book of Deuteronomy, 
 it may be well to give the statement of Professor 
 Smith's views thereon, summarised by the College Sub- 
 Committee on the case, and admitted by him to be 
 substantially correct. 
 
 ' 1. That various portions of the Levitical institutions, 
 to which a Mosaic authorship is assigned in the Pentateuch, 
 are of later date, having come into the form in which they 
 are exhibited only by degrees, and in days long subsequent 
 to the age of Moses, This is held to be established by 
 discrepancies between the different parts of Scripture, 
 which are held to arise when the Mosaic authorship is 
 assigned. 
 
 ' 2. In particular the Book of Deuteronomy, in portions 
 
THE ROBERTSON SMITH CASE 201 
 
 of it which ex facie bear to be the record of utterances of 
 Moses, makes reference to institutions and arrangements 
 much later than his time. 
 
 ' 3. This is to be accounted for by assuming that some 
 prophetic person, in later times, threw into this form a 
 series of oracles, embracing at once Mosaic revelations 
 and modifications or adaptations which were of later de- 
 velopment ; all together being thrown into the form of a 
 declai'ation and testimony by Moses. 
 
 ' 4. That viewed especially with reference to the literary 
 habits and conceptions of that time and people, the 
 method thus employed was legitimate, and was such as 
 the Divine Spirit might sanction and employ. It was 
 intended to teach that the whole body of laws delivered 
 were the fruit of the same seed, had received the same 
 sanction, and were alike inspired by the Spirit which 
 spake by Moses. 
 
 ' 5. The sub-committee do not understand the Professor 
 to mean that this involved any fraud upon those to whom 
 the book was delivered. It was given and taken for what 
 it was — however it may subsequently have been mis- 
 understood, in the Professor's view, in so far as it came 
 to be believed to be an ordinary historical record of actual 
 Mosaic utterances.' 
 
 Those by whom the consideration of the subject was 
 pressed on the College Committee, complained of this 
 view that it made Deuteronomy ascribe to Moses what 
 Moses neither said nor did, and that this manifestly 
 implied that the book was not divinely inspired. On 
 considering the case, the College Committee found that, 
 under the terms of its appointment by the General 
 Assembly, its duty in such a case was limited to a 
 single point — to consider whether the views expressed 
 
202 DAVID BROWN 
 
 were such as to call for a prosecution of the author for 
 heresy. Such prosecution could be justified only if 
 the views were contrary to the Confession of Faith, the 
 doctrinal standard of the church. In the event of the 
 Committee finding that there was material for a ' libel,"' 
 — the technical expression for the document that pre- 
 sents the alleged heresy in due form, — the case would 
 fall to be taken up by the Presbytery of which Mr. 
 Smith was a member — the Presbytery of Aberdeen. 
 The College Committee, after carefully considering the 
 subject and conferring with Mr. Smith, came to the 
 conclusion that the articles complained of did not con- 
 tain materials for a libel, and reported accordingly to 
 the General Assembly. They did not accept of his 
 theory, but they did not see that as held by him it 
 was contrary to the Confession. In coming to this 
 conclusion, they were greatly influenced by the fact 
 that Mr. Smith strongly declared himself a believer in 
 the divine authority and inspiration of Scripture, and 
 maintained that his theory of the origin of Deuteronomy 
 did not conflict with that belief. Mr. Smith therefore 
 could not be prosecuted for denying the inspiration of 
 the book, although to some it appeared that his views 
 were logically inconsistent with that doctrine, and de- 
 structive in their tendency. 
 
 While the Committee found that there was no case 
 for a libel, they at the same time had to call attention 
 to certain features of the article, ' Bible,"' of which they 
 disapproved. The article professed to consider only 
 the literary or human side of the origin of the various 
 books, but said nothing of its divine side ; it did not 
 even state the view of the Bible taken by the church 
 
THE ROBERTSON SMITH CASE 203 
 
 as a whole ; it contained no reference to the author's 
 belief in its divine inspiration ; and while it set forth 
 critical positions of the destructive school maintained by 
 their authors, it did not say decisively that Mr. Smith 
 did not agree with their destructive inferences. On 
 such grounds the Committee felt called to declare their 
 conviction that the article, contrary to Mr. Smith's 
 intention, was ' of a dangerous and unsettling ten- 
 dency.' The College Committee were all but unani- 
 mous in presenting this report ; the only member who 
 protested against it, and maintained that there was 
 ground for a charge of heresy, was Professor Smeaton. 
 Principal Brown, who was a member of the Committee, 
 dissented on the ground that the article, ' Angels,' 
 contained very objectionable matter; but both he and 
 Sir Henry Moncreiff, who afterwards sided with the 
 opposition, concurred in the report, so far as the article 
 'Bible' was concerned. 
 
 When the Report came before the General Assembly, 
 an endeavour was made to avoid discussion on the 
 merits, and confine it to the technical or business 
 aspect of the case. But it was found impossible to 
 prevent the merits from being entered into. Dr. 
 Moody Stuart went minutely into the whole subject, 
 holding Mr. Smith's views to be full of deadly error. 
 On the other side, strong emphasis was laid on 
 Professor Smith's own decided belief in the inspiration 
 of the Bible, and some of the speakers, even of pro- 
 nounced spiritual character, so far from desiring that 
 he should be censured, thought the church ought to be 
 grateful that they had a believing scholar who was 
 able to guide them on the difficult and important 
 
204 DAVID BROWN 
 
 questions that were now raised, and that could not be 
 overlooked. But most of tliose who took that side 
 did so on the ground that, whether the theory were 
 true or false, full liberty should be given to Mr. Smith 
 and others to investigate the subject and state their 
 conclusions. 
 
 The Assembly decided by a large majority that the 
 case should be sent to the Presbytery of Aberdeen for 
 further consideration. Moved by the conviction that 
 much misapprehension prevailed as to his real views, 
 Mr. Smith, at the end of the discussion, announced 
 that he had resolved to avail himself of a right 
 which the laws of the church give to a man against 
 whom Sifarna was in circulation — the right of demand- 
 ing a 'libel.' On the first opportunity he would call 
 on the Presbytery of Aberdeen to frame a libel, in 
 order that it might be clearly seen what were the 
 charges brought against him, and what reply he had 
 to make to them. 
 
 In consequence of this. Principal Brown found his 
 position somewhat changed. As there must be a libel, 
 it would be necessary to consider not only whether the 
 views of Mr. Smith were expressly opposed to the 
 Confession of Faith, but also whether they were con- 
 structively opposed to it — whether, contrary to his 
 own belief and avowal, they did not involve the denial 
 of the inspiration of Deuteronomy. This at least 
 seems to have been the view taken by Dr. Brown. As 
 a member of the Presbytery of Aberdeen, he had to 
 take part in drawing up the libel, specifying all the 
 charges against Mr. Smith, although that did not 
 necessarily imply that in the end he would hold all the 
 
THE ROBERTSON SMITH CASE 205 
 
 charges * relevant/ To find a charge ' relevant ' is to 
 find that, if proved^ it would involve censure. In 
 charges of immorality the 'proof is a separate matter 
 from the relevancy. But in a charge of heresy, separate 
 proof is not needed, because the matter dealt with is in 
 the author's own writings. If it be found ' relevant,"' 
 or contrary to the standards, the case is finished. But 
 whether at the beginning he intended it or not. 
 Dr. Brown found himself drawn, under the endless 
 discussions and complications of the case, into the 
 position of an accuser. And under the influence of 
 the excitement which prevailed, and the many pro- 
 voking attacks made on him, he did his part with more 
 keenness than might have been expected from his 
 usually serene and friendly temper. There were endless 
 difficulties in framing the libel. At last it came before 
 the Assembly, with eight charges against Professor 
 Smith, but of the eight, the one of outstanding import- 
 ance was that which concerned Deuteronomy. 
 
 A long and keen discussion took place at the Glasgow 
 Assembly of 18T8. Principal Brown from the bar 
 stated the case for the accusers, Professor Salmond for 
 the defenders. Professor Smith for himself Sir Henrv 
 Moncreiff moved in substance that the count on 
 Deuteronomy be found ' relevant," implving that Pro- 
 fessor Smith had contravened the doctrine of the Con- 
 fession on Inspiration. Principal Rainv, on the other 
 hand, moved substantially that there was not ground 
 for holding that Professor Smith had denied confes- 
 sional doctrine. The motion of Sir Henrv was carried 
 by a small majority, and the case was sent back to the 
 Presbytery of Aberdeen, to be brought to an end. 
 
206 DAVID BROWN 
 
 This decision of the Assembly was virtually a condem- 
 nation of Professor Smith. 
 
 Principal Brown, as representing the prosecutors, 
 finding that this, the most important charge, had been 
 decided in their favour, ' fell from the complaint,' as 
 the technical phrase is, in respect of the other charges, 
 that is to say, indicated his willingness to let them 
 drop. In this the Assembly acquiesced. 
 
 It is unnecessary to go at large into the subsequent 
 stages of this most painful case, which was thus thrown 
 back on the Presbytery of Aberdeen, and virtually, in 
 the main, on three members of the Senatus — Principal 
 Brown, Professor Salmond, and Professor Smith. The 
 keenness of feeling with which the matter was discussed 
 underwent no abatement, and it must have been a 
 miserable time for all concerned. The case came back 
 to the General Assembly in 1879 ; and, by an unex- 
 pected change of fortune. Professor Smith, by a very 
 small majority (302 to 299), after being admonished 
 by the Moderator, was reinstated in his office. It was 
 fondly hoped that after all he had passed through, 
 and inasmuch as he had submitted himself to the ad- 
 monition of the church, he would steer his course more 
 carefully in the future, and that his extraordinary 
 abilities, which were universally admitted and admired, 
 and his undoubted attachment and loyalty to the Free 
 Church, would make his future career one of honour 
 and usefulness among those with whom he had been 
 reared, and to whom his heart was most closely knit. 
 After being admonished by the Moderator, Professor 
 Smith said, ' Moderator, I hope that I am not out of 
 place when I say that while I thank God for the issue 
 
THE ROBERTSON SMITH CASE 207 
 
 of this evening — an issue which I trust will be for His 
 glory and for the maintenance of His truth — I have 
 never been more sensible than on the present occasion 
 of the blame that rests upon me for statements which 
 have proved so incomplete that, even at the end of 
 three years, the opinion of this House has been so 
 divided upon them. I feel that, in the providence of 
 God, this is a very weighty lesson to one placed, as I 
 am, in the position of a teacher, and I hope that, by 
 His grace, I shall not fail to learn by it/ 
 
 But scarcely had the Assembly closed, when another 
 of his articles in the Encyclopccdia appeared, written in 
 the same tone, and characterised by the same features 
 as the one which had given rise to so much animadver- 
 sion. At the meeting of the Commission of Assembly 
 in August it was moved and carried, in consequence of 
 this, that he should not teach his classes during the 
 next session ; and at the following Assembly (1880) it 
 was carried that he should no longer continue to hold 
 the chair. His position as a minister of the church 
 was not touched : and it was agreed that he should 
 continue to receive the salary of his office ; which, how- 
 ever, he declined to accept. 
 
 Had Professor Smith stated to the Assembly of 
 1879 that an article was on the eve of appearing, 
 written probably (as the Assembly would understand) 
 under the influence of the feelings caused by his ex- 
 pected dismissal from the service of the church, and 
 had he indicated that in the future more attention 
 would be given to those defects which had first been 
 pointed out in the report of the College Committee, 
 there might have been a very different result from that 
 
208 DAVID BROWN 
 
 which actually followed. As it was, a feeling of 
 despair that he would ever come into line seemed to 
 come on the church. It was feared that he would 
 proceed on the old lines and in the old tone. All 
 along, Professor Smith had shown a great lack of that 
 spirit of consideration which his position called for. 
 He had not seemed to realise the pain which his views, 
 propagated with such confidence, had given to hearts 
 innumerable, whose feelings he was bound to respect. 
 Perhaps this attitude recommended itself under the 
 influence of the feeling that he was bound to be firm, 
 and to show the utmost confidence in his views ; that 
 he dare not seem to play with his convictions ; and 
 that a readiness to conciliate opponents might betray 
 him into compromises hurtful to the cause of truth. 
 If this was his impression, it showed, what other things 
 likewise showed, that his judgment was as fallible as 
 his scholarship was brilliant. A young man appointed 
 by his church to an unexampled honour at the age of 
 twenty-three, ought at thirty to have had more regard 
 for the feelings of his fathers and brethren, and the 
 innumerable company of devout people, who, when 
 first they became acquainted with his views, felt that, 
 if they were correct, the Bible could no longer be to 
 them the book it had been. Principal Brown and 
 others felt that he might have launched his views on 
 the public in a much gentler spirit, and accompanied 
 with such cordial testimonies to the inspiration of 
 Holy Scripture as would have obviated the panic that 
 arose, and secured for his views, if not acceptance, 
 certainly a much more unprejudiced and calm con- 
 sideration. He might have shown something of the 
 
THE ROBERTSON SMITH CASE 209 
 
 modesty becoming youth, when bringing forward 
 views in direct opposition to the judgment of fathers 
 who, by long and faithful service, had earned the 
 esteem and confidence of the church. It seemed as if 
 on all such points his judgment entirely misled him. 
 He appeared at first to have had no expectation of the 
 storm which he was destined to raise. Such errors are 
 not uncommon among students who have spent their 
 whole time in the seclusion of the study, and without 
 even an average amount of intercourse with their 
 fellows. Many men of moderate views were of opinion 
 that Professor Smith had a message from God to the 
 church, which he mangled by the manner in which he 
 gave it forth ; and that had he kept it within its 
 proper bounds, and delivered it with due consideration, 
 he might have remained among his brethren, where 
 he wished to remain, to the end of his days. 
 
 Principal Brown continued to hold the same opinion 
 on Professor Smith''s views to the end. It has been 
 supposed that he modified them, but the testimony of 
 his most intimate friends and correspondents shows the 
 contrary. No doubt in his correspondence he did say, 
 that seeing the new views had so largely pervaded the 
 church, he would not feel called to raise a public con- 
 troversy if it were proposed to place some one holding 
 them in a chair; but a change in what might be allowed 
 as a matter of public polity was very different from 
 a change of personal conviction. Perhaps, too, those 
 who ascribed a change to him may have been misled 
 by the warmth of feeling contained in a letter in which 
 he apologised for his absence on the occasion of the 
 presentation of the Professor*'s likeness, subscribed for 
 
 
 
210 DAVID BROWN 
 
 by his friends, to the Free Church College at Aberdeen. 
 On that occasion he wrote as follows : — 
 
 ' Dr. Robertson Smith is worthy of all the honour that 
 can be paid to his memory for the unequalled brilliancy 
 of his talents, and for the uncommon ease with which he 
 was able to acquire and even to speak the most difficult 
 languages. The one thing in which I was unable to go 
 along with him was his treatment of the books of the Old 
 Testament, against which I had to protest ; but all that is 
 at an end now, and there I wish it for ever to remain.' 
 
 Such an expression of feeling was very creditable to 
 his heart ; but it was no indication of a change of 
 view. For neither when the theory was more fully 
 developed, nor when its practical effects were studied, 
 did Dr. Brown feel that it became more acceptable. 
 The battle in the Robertson Smith case had been 
 limited in the main to the case of Deuteronomy ; but 
 a further draught on one's faith was demanded when one 
 was called to believe that the legislation of Leviticus 
 belonged to a period subsequent to the return from the 
 captivity in Babylon. And it has been the policy of 
 the party to be for ever extending their line and multi- 
 plying opposition to traditional views. When Dr. 
 Brown saw the length to which such a champion of 
 the higher criticism as Professor Cheyne went, or 
 even when he studied Dr. Driver's minute alloca- 
 tions of the text to the several writers whose style 
 he so ingeniously detected, he was not led to a more 
 favourable view of the theory. Still less when its 
 practical effects were considered. It had been urged 
 in its favour, that by removing inconsistencies from 
 
THE ROBERTSON SMITH CASE 211 
 
 the Scripture narrative, it would promote faith ; it 
 would remove objections that had made faith in the 
 inspiration and divine authority of Scripture diffi- 
 cult or impossible. As time went on, it was apparent 
 to Dr. Brown that this result was not accomplished. 
 On the contrary, it was clear that faith in the trust- 
 worthiness of Scripture had received a shake since 
 the controversy began ; that many persons were now 
 boldly saying that the Old Testament was not to be 
 relied on ; and that even where faith in its divine origin 
 had not been destroyed, there had arisen a certain in- 
 definite spirit of distrust, a kind of uncertainty as to 
 its really being the inspired expression of the mind of 
 God. He often referred with great distress to the 
 case of a University student who had resolved to study 
 at the Aberdeen Hall, till the writings of Professor 
 Robertson Smith so shattered his faith that he turned 
 to a secular pursuit. Gladly would he have welcomed 
 that firmer faith that had been promised, if he had 
 seen any evidence of its existence ; had this plainly 
 appeared, it would have gone far to neutralise the 
 objections that continued to press on him so strongly. 
 
 And as time passed on, he failed to see any improve- 
 ment in what was evidently the weakest point in the 
 position of the critics — their attempt to reconcile 
 the two facts — that the legislation of Deuteronomy 
 was ascribed to Moses, but was not really the work 
 of Moses. Dr. Brown would not have applied the 
 expression ' pious fraud ' to the explanation commonly 
 given of this ; but, taking Professor Smith's phrase, 
 * literary form,"* and his reference to our Lord's parables 
 and similar forms of speech, where certain things were 
 
212 DAVID BROWN 
 
 said to have taken place, when in point of fact they 
 had not taken place, but were perfectly understood in 
 another sense, he retained all his former objections to 
 this explanation, and did not find that anything better 
 had been advanced. It was simply impossible to take 
 the plain historical statements of a plain historical 
 narrative in a non-historical sense. In his view the 
 theory introduced an element of actual untruthfulness 
 into the narrative. While it sought to remove historical 
 difficulties, it created moral difficulties in a book whose 
 character would be ruined by any immoral element. 
 As long as the theory was subject to this objection, it 
 could not be generally accepted. It would not filter 
 into the devout mind, nor be accepted generally by a 
 believing church. It might be accepted in books, but 
 it would be little heard of in the pulpit. Even in 
 Bible-classes it would be handled with a sense of 
 awkwardness, and in an apologetic spirit. For men feel 
 that from first to last the Bible is an honest book, and 
 that to impeach its honesty is to destroy its character. 
 Dr. Brown was too candid a man, and too open- 
 minded, not to admit that in some points the views of 
 the critics possessed considerable weight. How far he 
 would have gone with them, we cannot say. He cer- 
 tainly would not have treated them with indiscriminate 
 condemnation. He prayed for the time when all that 
 was really true in their contendings would be cordially 
 admitted and thankfully received, while at the same 
 time no slur should be thrown on the simplicity, the 
 naturalness, and the essential truthfulness of the sacred 
 narrative, 
 
NEW TESTAMENT REVISION COMPANY ^13 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT REVISION COMPANY 
 (1870-1880) 
 
 The appointment of Dr. Brown as a member of the 
 Revision Company was alike honourable in itself and 
 congenial to his habits and feelings. Far on in life 
 though he was, he entered on its work, and continued 
 at it, with all the zest and enthusiasm of youth. He 
 lived at a very great distance from London, and when- 
 ever he attended the meetings of the Company during 
 his college session, he had to make up to his students 
 at home for the hours which they had lost by his 
 absence, so that the undertaking was peculiarly burden- 
 some to him. Yet, out of 407 meetings, he was pre- 
 sent at 209. When in London he was often the guest 
 of Dean Stanley and Lady Augusta, both of whom had 
 a great liking for him. And among his brethren of 
 the Company he was very popular, although certain of 
 his views on important questions were different from 
 those of the majority. 
 
 The members of the distinguished Company with 
 whom he was thus associated were the following, 
 according to an official list, issued at the date specified. 
 Dr. Eadie and others, who had been among them at 
 first, were now dead. 
 
214 DAVID BROWiN 
 
 New Testament Revision Company 
 July 1879 
 
 The Right Rev. the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol 
 {Chairman), Palace, Gloucester. 
 
 The Right Rev. the Bishop of Salisbury, Palace, Salisbury. 
 
 The Very Rev. the Prolocutor, Deanery, Lichfield. 
 
 The Very Rev. the Dean of Westminster, Deanery, West- 
 minster, S.W. 
 
 The Very Rev. the Dean of Rochester, Deanery, Rochester. 
 
 The Very Rev. the Dean of Lincoln, Deanery, Lincoln. 
 
 The Most Rev. the Archbishop of Dublin, Palace, Dublin. 
 
 The Right Rev. the Bishop of Durham, Auckland Castle, 
 Bishop Auckland. 
 
 The Right Rev. the Bishop of St. Andrews, Bishopshall, St. 
 Andrews, N.B. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Angus, Baptist College, Regent's Park, 
 London, N.W. 
 
 The Rev. Principal Brown, Free Church College, Aber- 
 deen. 
 
 The Rev. Professor Hort, 6 St. Peter's Terrace, Cambridge. 
 
 The Rev. W. G. Humphry, Vicarage, St. Martin's-in-the- 
 Fields, London, W.C. 
 
 The Rev. Canon Kennedy, The Elms, Cambridge. 
 
 The Ven. the Archdeacon of Dublin, 24 Merrion Square, 
 Dublin. 
 
 The Rev. Professor Milligan, University, Aberdeen. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Moulton, The Leys, Cambridge. 
 
 The Rev. Principal Newth, New College, Hampstead, 
 London, N.W. 
 
 The Ven. the Archdeacon of Oxford, Ch. Ch., Oxford. 
 
 The Rev. Professor Roberts, St. Andrews, N.B. 
 
 The Rev. Prebendary Scrivener, Hendon Vicarage, Lon- 
 don, N.W. 
 
 The Rev. Dr, G. Vance Smith, 5 Parade, Carmarthen. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT REVISION COMPANY 215 
 
 The Very Rev. the Master of the Temple, The Temple, 
 London, E.C. 
 
 The Rev. Canon Westcott, Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 
 The Rev. J. Troutbeck (Secretary), 4 Dean's Yard, West- 
 minster, S.W. 
 
 Of the place which he held in the Revision Com- 
 pany it will be best to give the opinion of some of 
 his brethren who were most competent to judge. 
 The first whose estimate we have is the Right Rev. 
 Dr. Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, Chair- 
 man of the Company, as expressed in a letter to the 
 present writer. 
 
 ' Gloucester, December 7, 1 897. 
 
 ' My dear Sir, — I had the greatest regard for dear Dr. 
 David Brown, and so had we all, but I find that I cannot 
 recall anything in connection with the Revision which 
 would be of special interest to the Biographer. Dr. 
 Brown's attendance, when the distance from which he 
 came is remembered, was good — 209 attendances out of 
 a total of 407. 
 
 ' His characteristic was suggestion rather than direct 
 proposal. His suggestions always showed acumen, and 
 bore the stamp of being the opinions which he deliber- 
 ately held, but he never sought for them, and, as I 
 often thought, left them too much to their own merits ; 
 for all his suggestions were valuable, and would most 
 likely have been more frequently accepted, if he had 
 shown cause. But this was not his line. He obviously 
 felt inwardly that they were right, and that seemed to 
 content him. 
 
 'There was something simple and charming in the 
 "well, never mind," with which he accepted the judg- 
 ment of the Company, and passed onward with them to 
 
216 DAVID BROWN 
 
 new points. Never, so far as I can remember, did I 
 see his gentle, childlike spirit ruffled even for a moment. 
 
 'It would have been strange indeed if we had not 
 learned to regard with real affection our amiable and 
 lovable colleague. 
 
 'I am sorry that I cannot remember anything more 
 worthy of your letter than what I have written. — Very 
 faithfully yours, C. J. Gloucester. 
 
 * Rev. Dr. Garden Blaikie.' 
 
 Our next estimate is that of the Right Rev. Dr. 
 Westcott, Bishop of Durham, from some of whose 
 views (as we shall see) Dr. Brown decidedly differed. 
 
 ' Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland, 
 'November 26, 1897. 
 ' My dear Sir, — I wish I could help you in the way 
 you name, but I am wholly unable to put together any 
 recollections of Dr. Brown at Revision which would be 
 of the least interest. I had a sincere affection for him, 
 but that was directed to his attractive personality. On 
 critical points we differed very widely, and I did not 
 feel able to recognise the principle by which his judg- 
 ments were guided. He seemed to us to be very largely 
 influenced by subjective reasons which it was difficult to 
 follow. Dr. Roberts of St. Andrews was much in agree- 
 ment with him, and he might be able to give you some 
 reminiscences. Dr. Brown's account of his connection 
 with Mr. Irving was of the deepest interest and impor- 
 tance. I valued his friendship very highly, and we 
 corresponded at intervals to the end of his life. But it 
 was the man I was drawn to, rather than the scholar. 
 I remember that he sent me, with great satisfaction, a 
 copy of Dr. Robertson Smith's inaugural lecture, on 
 which later events made a strange commentary. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT REVISION COMPANY 217 
 
 ' With sincere regret for what may seem strange inability 
 to help you. — Yours most faithfully, 
 
 'Rev. W. Garden Blaikie, D.D.' ^' ^- D™^^^'- 
 
 We have much satisfaction in presenting the ample 
 and interesting contribution of the Rev. Professor 
 Roberts, D.D., of the University of St. Andrews. 
 
 ' It would be difficult to say, whether the appearance 
 of Dr. Brown at the meetings of the New Testament 
 Company was more acceptable to the English members 
 or the Scotch. He always brought with him a breezi- 
 ness, so to speak, from his native hills, which seemed 
 to exert quite an invigorating influence over the work 
 in hand, and an energy as well as liveliness, so far as 
 he was concerned. As is well known. Dr. Brown was 
 considerably over the allotted period of human life 
 before the Revision meetings began, but this really 
 seemed to have very little effect in depressing his own 
 spirit, or in preventing him from taking a useful and 
 active part in the work of the Company. The only 
 great drawback which he felt, and which others also 
 could not but in some degree feel, was his increasing 
 deafness, for, as our chairman one morning genially 
 remarked, " Dr. Brown's ears are not now so good as 
 they once were.'"' But notwithstanding this, our vener- 
 able friend, without being troublesome to others, did, 
 by his earnest attention and inquiries, generally succeed 
 in grasping the questions at issue, and in forming an 
 intelligent comprehension of the points under con- 
 sideration. 
 
 ' It is evident that, in accomplishing the purpose set 
 before them, the Company had to deal with two points 
 
218 DAVID BROWN 
 
 — first, that of the Text^ and secondly, that of the 
 Translation. Manifestly little or nothing would be 
 secured by improving the translation, unless it were 
 first settled that that translation rested on an im- 
 proved text. Here, however, the question arose, how 
 far the revisers should go in forming a more correct 
 text, this leading to the further question, how far 
 they should go in altering the translation. The in- 
 structions given to the Company were, that the changes 
 under both heads should be as sparing as fidelity to 
 the original would permit. The following general 
 principles were laid down as their guide : — 
 
 "1. To introduce as few alterations as possible in 
 
 the text of the Authorised Version, consistently 
 
 with faithfulness. 
 " 2. To limit, as far as possible, the expression 
 
 of such alterations to the language of the 
 
 Authorised and earlier English versions." 
 ' Still, even this restriction was wide enough to per- 
 mit very different views as to the length to which 
 the Revisers should go, both with respect to text and 
 translation. As in every similar association of men, 
 two tendencies might be expected to appear — the truly 
 conservative, which clung to the old readings and 
 renderings if possible, in preference to those which 
 were new — and the more liberal, which was inclined, 
 at the risk of sacrificing much that was old, to approach 
 as nearly as possible to an absolutely perfect version. 
 
 ' Now, Dr. Brown, like all his Scottish brethren, 
 tended strongly towards the conservative side. The 
 five members who originally represented Scotland 
 — the Bishop of St. Ajidrews, Drs. Eadie, Brown, 
 
NEW TESTAMENT REVISION COMPANY 219 
 
 Milligan, and Roberts, were, with a good deal of 
 cross-voting for a time, to be ranked among the 
 upholders of the text and translation as they stand. 
 Dr. Milligan being the only one who stood side by 
 side with Dr. Hort as an advocate of what the other 
 party thought uncalled-for change. All the members 
 named, with the exception of Dr. Eadie, who died 
 before the different views of the two sections were fully 
 matured, expressed themselves in writing against the 
 unduly wide scope, as they imagined, which the Revision 
 had assumed in the hands of the majority of the Com- 
 pany. Dr. Brown was specially emphatic on this point. 
 He often stated to the writer his dissent from the 
 manifold, and as it seemed both to him and to me, 
 unnecessary latitude of change which had been accepted 
 by the Revisers. On the very last occasion on which I 
 saw him (then above his ninetieth year), he almost 
 vehemently repudiated the principles maintained by 
 Dr. Hort and his followers. It appeared as if in his 
 recoil he were willing to accept the extreme views of 
 Dr. Burgon, who, as all the world knows, though not 
 a member of the Company, took a lively interest in 
 its proceedings, and published a learned work entitled, 
 The Revision Revised^ exposing what he thought the 
 false principles and groundless criticisms of the Re- 
 visers. 
 
 * With respect to the translation. Dr. Brown was 
 guided by arguments analogous to those that had 
 influenced his mind with respect to the settlement of 
 the text. He thought that the Revisers had in this 
 particular gone far astray; and, while he rejoiced in 
 many of the valuable corrections which had been made, 
 
220 DAVID BROWN 
 
 lamented that these were to a great extent neutralised 
 by the new renderings which had been introduced. In 
 fact, he held that, speaking roughly, the changes re- 
 sulting from alterations of the text might be limited 
 to hundreds, while those springing from changes resting 
 on a change of translation should at any rate not 
 exceed thousands. 
 
 'I much regret that during the last years of Dr. 
 Brown's long life, I did not preserve the various 
 letters, which in a state of practical blindness he 
 wrote to me on this subject. The last time I saw 
 him was in October 1895, and I found him in the 
 best of spirits, as well as still full of those great 
 Biblical questions which had been to him such en- 
 grossing subjects of interest during many by-past 
 years. 
 
 ' To conclude this brief and imperfect sketch, I may 
 notice one occasion in our revision work, in which Dr. 
 Brown took a prominent part. Many other occasions 
 doubtless occurred, but these have now faded from 
 my remembrance. It was not a point of any great 
 importance, and the Company was in general prepared 
 for it, but to Dr. Brown is undoubtedly due the 
 suggestion that the words ' to this "* should be inserted 
 in St. John iii. 33, so that the passage reads, " He 
 that hath received his witness hath set his seal to 
 this,"" that God is true. 
 
 ' Another occasion may be referred to, as illustrative 
 of the kind of minute changes to which the Scottish 
 division of the Company in general objected. It was 
 proposed by the Dean of Rochester that the great 
 fontal text of the Gospel of St. John iii. 16, " God 
 
NEW TESTAMENT REVISION COMPANY 221 
 
 so loved the world," etc., should be changed by the 
 substitution of may for should, so as to read, " Whoso- 
 ever believeth in Him may not perish."" I ventured 
 to oppose this as unnecessary, and was supported by 
 the majority of my fellow-countrymen, while the Dean, 
 with that courtesy which distinguished him, and indeed 
 all the members of the Company in their intercourse 
 with each other, consented at once to withdraw his 
 suggestion in deference (as he said) to the opinion of 
 Scotland.' 
 
 We had expected to be able to add here the tribute 
 of another member of the Company, the Rev. Dr. 
 Moulton of Cambridge, with whom we had the pleasure 
 of an interesting conversation in November 1897. 
 Dr. Moulton spoke in the warmest terms of his inter- 
 course with Dr. Brown, his esteem and affection 
 for him, and his pleasure in learning that there was 
 to be a Memoir of him. He was overwhelmed with 
 work owing to the illness of one of his assistants in the 
 Leys school, but promised to try to find time to look 
 out some of Dr. Brown's letters and record some of his 
 own reminiscences. This last would have been the 
 more interesting that he did not agree with him 
 in some important questions of revision. Our readers 
 are probably aware that Dr. Moulton died quite 
 suddenly in February 1898, at a comparatively early 
 age, to the great sorrow of his friends and loss to the 
 community. 
 
 In Dr. Roberts's paper, he has stated correctly the 
 two great questions that engaged the attention of the 
 Revisers, — the revision of the text, and the improvement 
 of the translation. Dr. Brown was strongly opposed 
 
222 DAVID BRO^^^' 
 
 to the principles on which Drs. Hort, Westcott, and 
 others sought to revise the text ; and with regard to 
 the translation, while he thought that unnecessary and 
 undesirable alterations had often been introduced, he 
 held that on some very important points, the Revised 
 Version was a great improvement on the old. Dr. Brown's 
 interest in the subject seemed rather to increase than 
 fadeaway after the Revised New Testament was issued. 
 Again and again he wrote papers on it in reviews and 
 magazines, and at one time he had all but made up his 
 mind to write a book — a project never carried out. 
 In one of his review articles — contributed to the Pres- 
 byterian and Reformed Revieu: (edited by Professor 
 Warfield of Princeton) — he expresses himself pretty 
 freely as to the merits of the Revised Version, and 
 gives a glimpse of the manner in which the work pro- 
 ceeded. Referring to the opinion of the Rev. Dr. Field 
 of Norwich, as expressed in a letter to Dr. Schaif of 
 New York, to the effect that the English of the Revised 
 Version was ' fifth-form English,"' with which opinion 
 he agreed, he adds — 
 
 ' In savinsr this, however. I more or less condemn 
 myself. For when the itch of change (if I may so 
 speak) took possession of the Company, I was infected 
 by it. But as the work went on, I was one of those 
 who saw that the changes which were being made were 
 not only far too many, but, out of a desire to squeeze 
 out the last shred of the sense, were destroying the 
 purity of the English, and all hope of our version being 
 accepted bv the public." So strong was this apprehen- 
 sion, that when the work was all but completed, I said 
 to my friend Dr. Moulton, the able translator of 
 
NEW TESTAMENT REVISION COMPANY 223 
 
 Winer's Grammar of the New Testament Greeks — who 
 voted for nearly all the changes to which the minority 
 objected — "This version of ours will never do; the 
 public will never take to it" — " Oh yes, they will ; only 
 give them time to get accustomed to it.*" — " They never 
 will,"" was my answer ; and we now know who was 
 right." 
 
 Drs. Hort and Westcott, as we have said, were the 
 great advocates for the new text which the Revisers 
 accepted in many instances, althougii they did not carry 
 it out to the full extent to which it is accepted in their 
 edition of the Greek New Testament. On the other 
 hand, Dr. Brown firmly opposed it. In one of his 
 papers in the British and Foreign Evangelical Review 
 (October 1885), he states the grounds of his opposition, 
 by examining a number of passages in which the new 
 text was adopted, while (as he thought) there were 
 strong reasons for rejecting it. Granting that the 
 older manuscripts contained the new text, he objected 
 to this being made the one decisive test, to the exclu- 
 sion of other considerations that seemed to show that 
 after all it was not the true text, but that an error had 
 been committed by the copyist. Out of the many 
 instances which he gives of this, we select as a specimen 
 one bearing on Rev. xv. 6. In the Authorised Version 
 it runs, ' And the seven angels came out of the temple, 
 having the seven last plagues, clothed in pure and white 
 linen (Xlvov) and having their breasts girded with 
 golden girdles.' In the Revised Version, ' And after 
 these things . . . there came out of the temple the seven 
 angels . . . arrayed with precious stone {\l6ov) pure and 
 bright.' The question is, Is \ivov, linen, or \i9ov^ 
 
224 DAVID BROWN 
 
 stone, the true reading ? The Revisers, on the authority 
 of the earher mss., decided for Xldov, which Dr. Brown 
 considered to give a nonsensical meaning, showing it 
 to be a mistake of the copyist, and therefore to be 
 summarily rejected. His critical remarks are somewhat 
 long, but they show some of the reasons which Bishop 
 Westcott tells us he sometimes found it difficult to 
 apprehend. 
 
 ' Now, though I should be sorrj' to treat this reading in 
 the bantering style of Sir Edmund Beckett, his arguments 
 against it, which had occurred to myself before I read 
 them,i will not be easily refuted. But as I have some- 
 thing of my own to say, I will put the case in the way 
 that suits my own ideas, (l) Angels are often represented 
 in Scripture as ajjpearing to men, and usually their dress — 
 evidently symbolical — is described. But where do we ever 
 read of their having anything upon them of the nature of 
 omametit, and does not the idea of a company of ornamented 
 angels issuing from the temple strike one as something 
 ludicrous t But (2) even though this difficulty could be 
 got over, would it be natural, supposing this to be the 
 true reading, to express the sense of it in this form, 
 " clothed with stone," in the singular number, and with 
 no adjective to denote the quality of the stone ? To 
 obviate this manifest incongruity the Revisers have 
 inserted — with what right, the reader may ask — the 
 supplement "precious," and still further to relieve the 
 repulsiveness of the statement, have rendered it " arrayed 
 with preaoM^ stone." But in vindication of what Dr. Hort 
 justly calls "the bold image" of this reading, he refers, 
 after Tischendorf, to the lxx. rendering of Ezek. xxviii. 
 
 ^ Should the Revised New Testament be Authorised ? Murray, 1882, 
 pp. 179-182. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT REVISION COMPANY 225 
 
 13, as the Latin fathers who so read were fain to do. But 
 the cases are entirely different. In the passage referred 
 to, the King of Tyrus in his pride is thus addressed : 
 " Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in 
 beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God ; 
 thou hast been clothed with every precious stone, the 
 sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and 
 tlie jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, 
 and gold." To which I answer, it is one thing to describe, 
 as beheld in vision, a proud mortal man strutting about in 
 all the splendour that nine or ten of the most precious 
 stones would make him to glitter in — after the manner of 
 Oriental monarchs — a splendour of which he was soon to 
 be stripped ; but a very different thing, surely, it would 
 be to describe a vision of angels issuing forth from the 
 temple of God so decorated, for the purpose of pouring out 
 vials of wrath upon an accursed system or its votaries. 
 In the former case costly ornaments, such as Orientals 
 pride themselves upon in proportion to their rarity and 
 number, suitably represent the very thing intended ; in 
 the latter the incongruity is too apparent to need point- 
 ing out. Besides, in Ezekiel the stones are specified, and 
 the word "precious" is suitably added, even though their 
 names might have rendered that superfluous — " every 
 precious stone" (jravra. Xldov xp-q(TT6v) : whereas here the 
 naked word " stone " — in the singular number, and with 
 no qualifying adjective — is enough to condemn the read- 
 ing as plainly an error, and all the rather as it is created 
 by the mere substitution of one letter for another — the 
 two words being otherwise identical. (3) Though the 
 epithets " pure and bright " are applicable enough to 
 precious stones, it is worthy of note that in another 
 chapter of this same book these are the words which are 
 applied to the " fine linen " in which the bride, the Lamb's 
 wife, was seen arrayed (Rev. xix. 8). To this it is replied 
 
226 DAVID BROWN 
 
 that there the word used for " fine linen '' is its usual 
 word, /3i!o-crtvos, whereas in our passage the word used in 
 the received text is Xivov, which is never used for fine 
 linen. But this rather strengthens the argument for the 
 received text. For the very reason why fivcra-Lvo? is 7iot 
 used here is that the fineness of the linen is expressed by 
 no fewer than two adjectives — "pure, bright" (^KaOapov 
 Xa/xTTpov) — so that, were we to translate literally, without 
 inserting the word "fine " at all — thus, " clothed in linen, 
 pure, bright" — the whole idea of the received reading 
 would be perfectly brought out. (4) If still it be asked 
 whether it would not be more natural for copyists to 
 change the harsh word " stone " in such a passage into the 
 smooth word "linen," than the reverse — I answer, "Yes, 
 if we could suppose this done intentionally," but that we 
 never suppose : we hold it to be a pure mistake — the 
 substitution of one letter for another, giving to one word 
 which, in every other letter is identical with another, a 
 sense totally different. Bengel's rule — that the rough 
 reading is preferable to the smooth one, cceteris paribus — 
 is an excellent one. But to apply it to mere blunders is 
 to abuse it. 
 
 ' A word now on the textual evidence. Of the Apoca- 
 lypse only five Uncials are known to exist, and only three 
 of the oldest class, N A C, with B^ (eighth century), and Pj 
 (ninth century), and several cursives. Reckoning versions, 
 the evidence is fairly balanced : For the revised text 
 (XiBou), AC, three cursives and the margin of another, the 
 two best copies of the Vulgate, and " some mss. known to 
 Andreas " (an Apocalyptic commentator of sixth century) 
 but who himself does not adopt it : For the received text 
 (AtVov, variously written Xlvovv, Xtjvovv, Aryvous, Xrjvov), 
 t^BjPo, Latin mss. known to Haymo (ninth century), copies 
 of the Vulgate, the Clementine edition of Vulgate, the 
 Syriac and Armenian ; and of the fathers Tichonius (fourth 
 century), Andreas and Primasius (sixth century). 
 
NEW TESTAMENT REVISION COMPANY 227 
 
 ' Thus viewedj this repulsive reading has not even such 
 textual evidence as should alone entitle it to a heaving. 
 The more regrettable, therefore, is its presence in the 
 Revised Version.' ^ 
 
 In a paper contributed to the TMnlcer (of similar 
 tenor to papers in other Journals), Dr. Brown men- 
 tions a somewhat notable circumstance as to the 
 degree of attention which the Revisionists generally 
 had bestowed on the study of the text of the New 
 Testament : — 
 
 ' There are two ways in which their text ' ( Westcott 
 and Horfs) ' may be tried. One is by a critical examina- 
 tion of Dr. Hort's volume. This has been done, briefly 
 indeed, as only a limited space was at his disposal, by 
 the late admirable scholar, Dr. Scrivener, in the third 
 edition of his IntToduct'wn to the Criticism of the Greek 
 Testament. But this is what many of the best scholars 
 are not competent to do ; for textual criticism, espe- 
 cially in application to the Greek Testament, is a 
 difficult and complicated subject, requiring much time 
 and labour to master. In fact, in the New Testament 
 Revision Company, though containing some of the best 
 classical scholars in Europe, it was found that of some 
 twenty-five or twenty-seven members, the great majority 
 had never made this a subject of special study. Indeed, 
 when the various readings had to be discussed and 
 decided upon. Dr. Scott (of Liddell and Scotfs Greek 
 Lexicon) declined to give his judgment, not being an 
 expert, and it was not until both sides of a disputed 
 reading had been heard that he felt entitled to give 
 
 ^ Of the critical editors, Lachmann, Tregelles, and Westcott and 
 Hort read \ldov, while Griesbach and Tischendorf retain Xlvof. 
 
228 DAVID BROWN 
 
 his vote. And the New Testament Company, for the 
 most part, followed the leading of these two great 
 scholars.' 
 
 But while Dr. Brown continued to the very last to 
 controvert the grounds on which the new text had been 
 preferred to the old, and while he never scrupled to 
 express regret at the many little changes which, to 
 those familiar with the old version, seemed to take 
 away much of the charm of the old book, he was far 
 from accepting the view of those who regarded the 
 Revised Version as an absolute failure, and who allowed 
 themselves to apply to it the language of unmitigated 
 censure. He did not like the bantering style of Sir 
 Edmund Beckett, nor the extremes of Dean Burgon, nor 
 the slashing criticism of Canon Cook. In fact, Canon 
 Cook's Criticism of the Revised Version oj the First 
 Three Gospels provoked him to a sort of Apologia for 
 the Revision, contributed in 1884 to the British and 
 Foreign Evangelical Review. In dealing with this 
 book, Dr. Brown used stronger language than was his 
 wont. It seemed very strange to him that the Editor 
 of the Speaker s Commentary should be so strong in his 
 condemnation of many of the alterations in the Revised 
 Version, for which he conceived there was ample reason. 
 One of the alterations on which he comments is that 
 which the new version makes of Luke ii. 49, where the 
 old version has, ' Wist ye not that I must be about My 
 Father's business?' and the new, 'Wist ye not that I 
 must be in My Father's house ? ' 
 
 On this Canon Cook remarks : — 
 
 « I cannot think that the Revisers were justified in 
 altering the Authorised Version here, and substituting for 
 
NEW TESTAMENT REVISION COMPANY 229 
 
 it "in My Father's house." This may be the true mean- 
 ing of the Greek, but it is far from certain. With their 
 own marginal alternative, and their somewhat awkward 
 rendering of the Greek before them, it seems a bold thing 
 to condemn the Authorised Version as being a plain and 
 clear error. In fact, " in the things " is a very awkward 
 rendering. The Greek is ambiguous, and I believe it is 
 purposely chosen as a comprehensive expression. Our 
 Lord chooses words which implicitly declared the whole 
 purpose of His life on earth ; but that was to be " about 
 His Father's business," engaged in His earthly affairs, 
 certainly not in His Father's house, if by the house is 
 meant the temple ... an unnecessary and unsatisfactory 
 change.' 
 
 In the Presbyterian and Reformed Reviexo Dr. Brown 
 gives us a little history of this change : — 
 
 ' When the Chairman of the English Company read out 
 this verse, he said, " I suppose no one will propose to 
 change this ? " — " Yes, I will," I said, being convinced 
 that this supplement [i.e. the insertion of the word business^ 
 does not give the true sense of the clause. The words 
 are Iv rots rov irarpos fiov, " in the ... of My Father." 
 This may mean " in the business," or, " in the premises " 
 (or house) "of My Father." I hold that hoitse is the right 
 supplement. Our Lord never did His Father's business 
 till He began His public ministry. After His first visit 
 with His parents to Jerusalem, He went down with them 
 to Nazareth, and was subject to them. But at His first 
 public appearance (at the marriage feast), when His mother 
 hinted to Him that there was a want of wine. He bluntly 
 said, " Woman, n^hat have I to do with thee ? Mine hour is 
 not yet come." Further, as Meyer well says. His answer 
 to the question of His mother was not to the point, if 
 business is the proper supplement. For she did not want 
 
2S0 DAVID BROWN 
 
 to know what He had been doing, but where He had 
 been. "Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing." 
 — " My Father has not been seeking Me," is His reply. 
 " I have been with Him all this time — in His house, the 
 temple." 
 
 ' To my surprise ' (continues Di*. Brown), ' this reading 
 of the verse was unanimously adopted. But when the 
 time for the second revision of the Gospel came, they 
 had forgotten, I suppose, their reason for accepting this 
 rendering of the verse, and restored the Authorised Ver- 
 sion, putting the other in the margin. But a pointed 
 criticism on this change, by Dr. Field of Norwich, sent to 
 all the members, produced a great change. He regretted 
 they had not kept to the supplement " house," giving seven 
 or eight references to similar ellipses ; showing that a 
 Greek would, in such a case, understand hoiise and not 
 business to be the proper supplement; adding that the 
 Syriac version took it so. And as Dr. Field was known 
 to be among the greatest scholars in the English Church, 
 they at once restored '^ house" to the text, and put the 
 Authorised Version in the margin.' 
 
 Perhaps we shall best show what Dr. Brown"'s estimate 
 was of the value of the labours of the Revisers by copy- 
 ing a note which he wrote on the fly-leaf of a Revised 
 Version of the Bible, presented by him to his daughter, 
 Miss Meredith Brown. 
 
 Revised Version of the English Bible 
 
 ' Of the merits of this work, there are two extreme 
 opinions : (1) Those who desired and expected no more 
 change on the Authorised Version than the correction 
 of manifest or serious errors, will think that it has gone 
 a great deal too far, and thus lost its chance of ever 
 
NEW TESTAMENT REVISION COMPANY 231 
 
 superseding the Authorised Version. (2) Those who 
 thought that if undertaken at all, it should have made 
 the translation out of the originals as perfect as possible, 
 no matter what change on the Authorised Version this 
 should demand, will regret that it has not gone farther, 
 believing that to get the real sense of the Scriptures is 
 of more importance than the smoothness and beauty of 
 the language in which it is conveyed. 
 
 ' Between these extremes, there is a growing opinion 
 in favour of the Revised Version. The Revisers, claim- 
 ing no infallibility of judgment as to what was their 
 appointed duty, did their best to strike the proper 
 medium : First, to render the sense of the original 
 correctly, but at the same time remembering that they 
 were translating, not for the learned, but for the people ; 
 to prepare not a scholar's Bible, but one for all who 
 speak the English tongue, they did not deem it war- 
 rantable to deviate unnecessarily from the language of 
 the Authorised Version. They strove to bear in mind 
 that their task was not to make a nezo translation, but 
 only to rerise one that had endeared itself so justly to 
 the whole English-speaking Christian world. 
 
 ' How far they have kept both these objects steadily 
 and sufficiently in view, must for a long time be matter 
 of opinion. That they have not always done this, the 
 minorities, both in the Old Testament Company and 
 in the New, sufficiently show ; and some even of the 
 majorities may perhaps think that they themselves 
 might judge in some cases differently now. In the Old 
 Testament, the English deviates less than in the New 
 Testament from that of the Authorised Version ; and 
 there was less difficulty in the original text (as to what 
 
232 DAVID BROWN 
 
 it originally was) than in the New Testament. Hence, 
 the general opinion will probably be more in favour of 
 the Re\ised Old Testament than of the Revised New 
 Testament. But the task of the New Testament Re- 
 visers was for that reason more difficult ; and for 
 myself, though I regret many of the textual changes, 
 even some of these are a decided gain, and I voted 
 cordially for them. And as to the translation^ though I 
 regret that in not a few places the Authorised Version 
 has been needlessly departed from, it is hardly possible 
 to express the obligation under which they have laid 
 the English-speaking students of the New Testament 
 for the improvement they have made on the sense of 
 the original — an improvement which will be best appre- 
 ciated by a careful comparison of the original with the 
 rendering of it in this version, and the sense of which 
 will grow upon the student the longer and the more 
 closely he examines it. 
 
 ' David Brow^', 
 ' One of the New Testament Revisers. 
 
 ' Aberdeen, Dec. 22, 1885.' 
 
 It will be remembered that Dr. Brown's connection 
 was solely with the New Testament Company. The 
 other Company carried on their labours under some- 
 what difiPerent conditions, and with the result, as 
 Dr. Brown states, of producing a version which has 
 commended itself more to the jreneral reader. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH NEWMAN 233 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. J. H. NEWMAN 
 
 Dk. Brown combined in a very unusual degree pro- 
 found loyalty to his own creed and church, with a large 
 charity to other churches and other men. Knowing 
 his own mind, and able to maintain his own views with 
 equal decision and power, no man was more disposed 
 to kindly feeling and genial hopefulness even for some 
 from whom narrower men would have supposed him 
 separated by an unpassable gulf. He had a quick eye 
 for the soul of good that often lies amid heaps of evil, 
 and the spark of truth that is all but smothered by 
 clouds of error. He knew that logic does not rule 
 eveiyything ; that error is often self-inconsistent ; and 
 that some men are better than their creed, while other 
 men are often worse than theirs. He could hold the 
 Church of Rome to be the Antichrist of the Apocalypse, 
 and yet believe that within her pale the Lord had His 
 faithful servants. He could find this comforting truth 
 in the very words of the warning, ' Come out of her, 
 my people ' ; for how could Christ's people be called to 
 come out of her if they were not in her ? He could make 
 ample allowance for ' wood, hay, stubble,' on the true 
 foundation, and believe that even good men may have 
 helped to lay them there, whose work would certainly 
 
234 DAVID BROWN 
 
 be burnt up in the end, though they themselves might 
 be saved, yet so as by fire. 
 
 Unless this should be kept in view, some would be 
 concerned to learn that he held friendly correspondence 
 with such men as Dr. J. H. Newman and Dr. James 
 Martineau ; that he paid Dr. Newman friendly visits 
 at the Oratory ; and that Dr. Martineau, besides hold- 
 ing much friendly intercourse with him, attended the 
 services which he conducted one autumn in the Free 
 Church of Braemar, when they were spending their 
 holidays there together. Nothing would have induced 
 him to compromise his testimony, whether against the 
 Church of Home at the one extreme, or against Uni- 
 tarianism at the other. But he was struck with the 
 earnest search for truth and profound devotion of 
 such men ; he believed that in some very vital truths he 
 and they agreed ; and he thought that by friendly inter- 
 course and con-espondence their disagreements might 
 be lessened, and they might be brought to accept the 
 whole circle of evangelical truth. 
 
 His first acquaintance with Dr. Newman came from 
 his sending him a copy of his Life of Dr. Duncan^ 
 inscribed as ' From the author.' Dr. Newman received 
 the book with pleasure, and possibly with an unavowed 
 sense of satisfaction that a Presbyterian minister should 
 think him likely to be interested in it. 
 
 Unfortunately, we have been unable to obtain the 
 letters of Dr. Brown to Dr. Newman ; but the occasions 
 of them were generally the despatch of lectures or other 
 publications, the tenor of which we know, so that in 
 most cases Dr. Newman's allusions to them can be 
 easily understood. Evidently Dr. Brown attached 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH NEWMAN 235 
 
 great importance to the letters, and seems to have 
 expected that they would be made public. In a footnote 
 to an article on another subject in the Presbyterian and 
 Reformed Review, he says : ' I had asked my publisher 
 to send him a copy of a book of mine {Tlie Life of 
 Dr. John Duncan), which he acknowledged in a letter 
 to myself; and as this book revealed to him much 
 both about my friend and myself with which he sym- 
 pathised, a correspondence ensued which continued 
 for years. . . . Copies of eighteen of his letters are 
 now in the hands of his literary executor, and will 
 appear when his Letters are published. The best of 
 Dr. Newman, along with his defects, will never be 
 known till these letters are published."" 
 
 After receiving his letter of thanks, Dr. Brown sent 
 him some additional sayings of Dr. Duncan, and called 
 his attention to the depth of his confessions, and like- 
 wise to his high regard for the Gospels. After a short 
 delay, he received the following acknowledgment : — 
 
 'The Oratory, Oct. 24, 1872. 
 
 ' My dear Sir, — Pray do not suppose that my delay in 
 answering your very kind letter has arisen from indifference 
 to it. I feel extremely, and thank you for the warmth of 
 your language about me, and I wish to return it to you. 
 What a mystery it is in this day that there should be so 
 much which draws religious minds together, and so much 
 which separates them from each other ! Never did mem- 
 bers of the various Christian communions feel such tender- 
 ness for each other, yet never were the obstacles greater 
 or stronger which divide them. What a melancholy 
 thought is this — and when will a better day come ? 
 
 ' I am glad to have the addition to Dr. Duncan's 
 
236 DAVID BROWN 
 
 sayings which you send me. Those are i*emarkablc 
 confessions which you point out to me. I suppose he 
 exaggerated what he said of himself, as a serious man 
 would naturally do on revising his life ; but certainly it 
 used to seem to me thirty years ago to be one of the 
 faults of the English evangelical school that they de- 
 preciated the Gospels, and seemed to know nothing of 
 the New Testament beyond one or two texts of St. Paul. 
 A friend told me about the year 1826 that he was walking 
 and talking with a dissenting acquaintance, and happened 
 to quote in defence of what he had said some words of 
 our Lord. On which his companion stopped short and 
 said to him, "Where do those words occur.''" and on his 
 answering, " In the Gospels," the other replied, " My dear 
 friend, don't you know you have quoted a most unevangelic 
 part of Scripture ? " It seems to me the first step towards 
 any chances of unity amid our divisions is for religious 
 minds, one and all, to live upon the Gospels. — I am, my 
 dear Sir, most truly yours, John H. Newman.' 
 
 Next year Dr. Brown sent him a copy of a lecture, 
 which seems to have been the Inaugural Lecture of 
 which an account has already been given (page 118, 
 'Lord, to whom shall we go.-^ Thou hast the words 
 of eternal life "*). A sermon was sent soon after. The 
 acknowledgments follow : — 
 
 'The Oratory, Jan. 11, 1873. 
 ' My dear Sir, — I thank you for the copy of your 
 lecture, which I was glad to have. It seems to me you 
 take the true and the normal way of meeting the infidelity 
 of the age, by referring to our Lord's Person and Character 
 as exhibited in the Gospels. Philip said to Nathanael, 
 "Come and see" — that is just what the present Free- 
 thinkers will not allow men to do. They perplex and 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH NEWMAN 237 
 
 bewilder them with previous questions, to hinder them 
 falhng under the legitimate influence of His divine life, 
 of His sacred words and acts. They say, " There is no 
 truth, because there are so many opinions," or, " How do 
 you know that the Gospels are authentic ? " " How do you 
 account for Papias not mentioning the fourth Gospel ? " 
 or, " Why is there not stronger proof of the Resurrection ? " 
 With this multitude of questions in detail they block the 
 way between the soul and its Saviour, and will not " come 
 and see." 
 
 'We act otherwise in matters of this world. A judge 
 says, " I am not satisfied with affidavits — I want to see 
 the witnesses face to face." In the novel [The Heart 
 of Midlothian, by Sir Walter Scott] the Duke of Argyle 
 thought nothing better than to introduce Jenny Deans 
 to her Majesty — " She will speak for herself." Such was 
 the effect of our Lord's presence that His hearers said, 
 "Never man spake as He spake" ; but this is just what 
 we should not be allowed to do at all if these new lights 
 had their way. All one can say is, that miserable as it is, 
 it is so unnatural, that I should think it cannot have 
 success for any long time, but common-sense will reassert 
 its sway over men's minds. 
 
 ' I hope you will excuse me for thus running on. As 
 to the remarks in your letter, I wish I saw as hopefully 
 as you do the prospects of Christendom, relatively to its 
 mutual divisions. I can understand that infidelity has no 
 vitality; but what will kill the vigorous life with which 
 those whom I agree with hold the Catholic Church to be 
 the work of God, and with which other men consider it 
 the work of the evil one .'' God's grace can do all things ; 
 but how is either party to give up their own tenet 
 on the point without losing their Christianity ? — Very 
 sincerely yours, John H. Newman,' 
 
238 DAVID BROWN 
 
 'The Oratory, Jan. 18, 1873. 
 
 ' My dear Sir, — I assure you, I thought it a very happy 
 accident that, without your intending it, you gave me 
 an opportunity to show you ray sense of your kindness 
 towards me in giving me Dr. Duncan's Life. 
 
 'Thank you for the sermon you now send me. You 
 need not be afraid of hurting me by what you say in con- 
 trariety to my own religious belief. I may think, as of 
 course I do, that I am right, and those who differ from 
 me wrong ; but it does not mend matters for us to conceal 
 our mutual differences, and nothing is more unmeaning, 
 as well as more untrue, than compromises and compre- 
 hensions. Of course, unreal, and but verbal, differences 
 do exist between religious men, but such are not the 
 differences which exist between Catholics and their 
 opponents. It would be best if they did not exist ; it 
 is next best to confess them, plainly though in charity. — 
 Very sincerely yours, John H. Newman.' 
 
 Later in the year Dr. Brown sent Dr. Newman a 
 passage which some ascribed to Augustine, but which 
 seemed to him to be of later origin, bearing on the 
 Unity of the Church. It is interesting to observe the 
 kindly ingenuity with which he combines tenacity and 
 charity, holding firmly to his own view, yet finding a 
 kind word to speak of his opponents. 
 
 'The Oratory, Nov. 3, 1873. 
 
 ' Dear Dr. Brown, — You know I do not profess to have 
 any great knowledge of St. Augustine's works ; but, as far 
 as I have a right to judge, I agree with you. 
 
 ' The passage is unlike anything I have met with in St. 
 Augustine ; on the other hand, it is quite in the tone of 
 writers of the school of Melanchthon and Gerhard, not to 
 say of Calvin. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH NEWMAN 239 
 
 ' Painful as it is to witness the ineffectual yearnings after 
 unity on all hands, of which you speak, still it is hopeful 
 also. We may hope that our good God has not put it into 
 the hearts of religious men to raise a prayer for unity 
 without intending in His own time to fulfil the prayer. 
 And since the bar against unity is a conscientious feeling, 
 and a reverence for what each party holds itself to be the 
 truth, and a desire to maintain the faith, Ave may humbly 
 hope that in our day, and till He discloses to the hearts of 
 men what the true faith is, He will, where hearts are 
 honest, take the will for the deed. — Most sincerely yours, 
 
 ' John H. Newman.' 
 
 In 1874 he sent him a lecture on Science and Religion. 
 A public lecture on Evolution had just been delivered 
 by a popular professor ; and Dr. Brown thought it right, 
 not to controvert the scientific array of facts on which 
 evolution rests, but to show that it cannot overthrow 
 the grand truths both of natural and revealed religion. 
 He was quite prepared to allow that evolution to a 
 certain extent may have been a factor in the develop- 
 ment of creation, and that natural selection may have 
 been the principle on which evolution proceeded. Some 
 evolutionists acknowledged the Creator and His work, 
 and for that he was grateful. But many wrote as if 
 God were not needed, and their system resolved itself 
 into sheer materialism, in which there was no distinc- 
 tion between body and soul, but all resolved itself into 
 matter, and even conscience was only a development of 
 what was found in animals when they felt they had done 
 wrong. In fact, man was but a developed brute. He 
 dwelt strongly on the absolute inconsistency of this with 
 the great Bible doctrine of the Resurrection, both in 
 
240 DAVID BROWN 
 
 regard to tlie restoration of the body, and to the 
 account which every man was to give of his life, not as 
 the inevitable result of natural laws, but as determined 
 by his own will and under the authority of conscience, 
 which made him a responsible being. Then he con- 
 trasted the godless sentiments of Mr. Grove, at the 
 opening of the British Association, with those of 
 Bacon and Kepler. Although evolutionists could not 
 but admit that the plasticity, as it is called, of nature 
 must have been originated by some great force or 
 cause, yet of that first cause they were entirely igno- 
 rant. ' Throughout all that elegant discourse of his 
 I have found myself roaming about without a Maker, 
 a universe teeming with life and order and beauty, but 
 without a Contriver ; with adaptations which only a 
 Mind could form, but with no Adapter; overspread 
 with beiieficence, but the Beneficent Himself no- 
 where ; with no Author, no Conservator, no Ruler, no 
 Father ; and, what is far more painful, with the irre- 
 pressible yearnings of the heart after Him coldly dis- 
 couraged, and the disagreeable feeling left on the mind 
 that with all that sort of thing science has nothing to 
 do.' How different the noble spirit of Kepler's prayer ! 
 * Behold, I have here completed a work of my calling 
 with as much of intellectual strength as Thou hast 
 granted to me. . . . But if anything unworthy of Thee 
 has been taught by me, a worm born and nourished in 
 sin, do Thou teach me that I may correct it. Have 
 I been seduced into corruption by the admirable beauty 
 of Thy works, or have I sought my own glory among 
 men in the construction of a mock design for Thy 
 honour ? O then, graciously forgive me, and finally 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH NEWMAN 241 
 
 grant me this favour, that this work may never be 
 injurious, but may conduce to Thy glory and the good 
 of souls/ 
 
 ' The Oratory, Easter Eve, 1874. 
 
 'My dear Dr, Brown, — I have perused with great 
 pleasure the powerful lecture which you have been so good 
 as to send me. It is spoken from the heart, and appeals to 
 the heart. The old Tractarians, thirty or forty years ago, 
 were the first to protest against the British Association 
 then beginning. My dear friend, the late Mr. Bowden, 
 wrote a strong article against it in the British Critic, of 
 which I was at that time editor. Our deep suspicion of it 
 was because, in spite of its being a scientific Society, it 
 would meddle with religion. It then undertook the office 
 of patronising it by a mild, cold Deism, such as Dr. Maltbey, 
 Bishop of Durham, used at the opening, or laying the first 
 stone, of the (then) London University. But those who 
 praise can blame ; and now for Deism it has taken up 
 Atheism. For myself, I have shunned its presence from 
 the first. I think I left Oxfoi'd when it held its meeting 
 there, and when, as was suitable to its then professions, 
 Ramuhun Roy came down from London to attend it. 
 
 ' Doubtless theologians have meddled with science, and 
 now scientific men are paying them off by meddling with 
 theology. With you, I see nothing in the theory of evolu- 
 tion inconsistent with an Almighty Creator and Protector; 
 but these men assume, assume with an abundant scorn of 
 us and superciliousness, that religion and science are on 
 this point contradictory, and on this audacious assumption 
 they proceed dogmatically to conclude that there is no 
 truth in religion. It is dreadful to think of the number of 
 souls that will suffer while the epidemic lasts ; but truth 
 is too powerful not in the end to get the upper hand. 
 
 ' I think you do not keep this season, to us so holy ; 
 but you will allow me, I am sure, to send you a Catholic's 
 
242 DA\^D BROWN 
 
 best Easter wishes, and to pray for you all the blessings of 
 the Gospel. — Very sincerely yours, 
 
 'John H. Newman.' 
 
 At the becrinnincr of the session 1873-74, Dr. Brown 
 opened the session with a lecture on the ' Helplessness of 
 Modern Unbelief,' of which he sent a copy to Dr. New- 
 man. To explain Dr. Newman's reply, it may be stated 
 that the lecture began with Mr. Herbert Spencer''s and 
 Professor Tyndall's ' inscrutable power,' and Professor 
 Tyndairs claim that they encouraged religion ; to 
 which Dr. Brown replied that their inscrutable power 
 was not even a God, and that a religion of emotion, 
 without any foundation in the intellect, was unreal and 
 impossible. Then he criticised Mr. W. Rathbone Greg's 
 books — Tlie Creed of Christendom and The Emgma-s of 
 Life — finding nothing very stable in the views of a man 
 who thought it natural for one to believe everything at 
 thirty, and renounce all religious belief at sixty. He 
 finds Mr. Greg successfully criticised on this point by 
 Dr. Newman's brother. Professor F. W. Newman, and 
 especially in his claim to believe in God, yet not neces- 
 sarily a personal God. If God be only a probable 
 God, true worship is impossible. Professor Newman 
 also demolishes Mr. Greg's position in regard to Christ 
 — great admiration for Him as a man, yet denying Him 
 all right to be more. Then he shows his inconsistency, 
 inasmuch as Christ obviously claimed to be the Eternal 
 Son of God. At this point Professor Newman comes 
 out logically, but most offensively ; for, in opposition to 
 Greg, he condemns Christ as arrogant and intolerant, 
 nav, as guilty of conscious and wilful imposture. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH NEWMAN 243 
 
 He impales Dr. James Martineau on the horn of the 
 same dilemma. Mr. Newman is so far consistent ; 
 Mr. Greg and Mr. Martineau are in an insoluble pro- 
 blem as to Christ, and contradict themselves, A con- 
 cluding reference is made by Dr. Brown to John Stuart 
 Mill. Even on Theism, with his leanings to Manichae- 
 ism, Mr. Mill was as helpless as any. 
 
 'The Oratory, Jan. 14, 1875. 
 
 ' Mv DEAR Dr. Brown, — I should have acknowledged 
 your letter, with its inclosui'es and your newspaper, before 
 this, had I not been so busy with my pamphlet, which is 
 this day published. In that pamphlet, if it comes your 
 way, there will be much, I know, in which you will not 
 agree. The more pleasant then it is to turn to the subject 
 of your letter and lecture, in which I did not observe, or 
 do not recollect, even a word in which I do not follow, 
 or rather cordially second you. 
 
 ' It is indeed to me strange that, being, as the world 
 would say, at your Antipodes, still in those all-important 
 points about which you write I should be one with you ; 
 and I rejoice in it as one compensation of the cruel over- 
 throw of faith which we see on all sides of us, that, as the 
 setting of the sun brings out the stars, so great principles 
 are found to shine out, which are hailed by men of 
 various religions as their own in common when infidelity 
 prevails. 
 
 'It rejoices me to find you insisting that emotions 
 cannot stand of themselves, but presuppose an object ; 
 also that no man can worship, love, or trust in a probable 
 God ; also, as you seem to argue in the case of Dr. 
 Martineau, that we cannot cut off half of Scripture, and 
 believe the other half, where it is only the chance of our 
 personal criticism taking this or that direction that has 
 left that other half standing. And your argument against 
 
244 DAVID BROWN 
 
 him, as brought out in your letter, seems to me very 
 strong, nor does he attempt to answer it in his. 
 
 ' I am sure your lecture must have been very effective, 
 and do not at all wonder that the reporter should have to 
 speak of outbursts of applause which accompanied its 
 delivery. — I am, my dear Dr. Brown, very truly yours, 
 
 'John H. Newman. 
 
 'The Rev. David Brown, D.D., etc. etc' 
 
 In 1877 Dr. Brown proposed to call on Dr. Newman. 
 He received a most courteous reply, with an offer, if it 
 should save his time, that Dr. Newman would call on 
 him at his hotel. Dr. Brown, however, preferred going 
 to the Oratory. He used to tell his friends how much 
 he was struck with the plainness of his room, which 
 was furnished in the simplest way. Dr. Newman, in 
 a subsequent letter, acknowledged the kindness that 
 prompted his visit, and seemed much gratified by it. 
 
 In 1878 Dr. Brown took a bolder step, pointing out 
 to Dr. Newman certain matters of historical fact that 
 seemed to controvert the position he had adopted in 
 the Apologia. He must have awaited his reply with 
 something of that trepidation which one feels when one 
 considers that offence may have been taken, leading to 
 an unpleasant reply. If so, the result must have been 
 a most gratifying surprise. So far from being offended, 
 Dr. Newman is grateful for his kindness, and pays a 
 high compliment to the Free Church : — 
 
 'The Oratory, April 23, 1878. 
 ' My dear Dr. Brown, — Thank you for your kind and 
 most interesting letter. You need not say you do not 
 write in a controversial spirit. I know you don't, and I 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH NEWMAN 245 
 
 am too old and too tired for controversy. I grieve if I 
 have said in print one word unnecessarily to pain you or 
 any other good man and zealous Christian ; and I am 
 keenly pierced, as I don't doubt you are too, vv^henever I 
 think of our most unhappy divisions. 
 
 ' You will find my passage in question at pp. 76, 77, of 
 edition 1, and at pp. 188, 189^ in my new edition. 
 
 ^ As far as I have said what cannot be sufficiently sup- 
 ported by facts, of course I must bear the responsibility 
 of such inaccuracy. Here I will but thank you for the 
 very full account you give of historical difficulties which 
 lie, as you consider, in my way. This I shall study at my 
 leisure, and that the rather because I am sorry to say my 
 eyes are too wearied to do justice always to your writing, 
 which to them is difficult. 
 
 ' However, I will say at once, because I doubt whether 
 you are aware of it, that I have always looked at the 
 Free Kirk of Scotland with admiration. I consider the 
 movement to come from God, and to be a portion of that 
 religious revival with which He has been, and is, visiting 
 Western Christendom, in connection with that contem- 
 poraneous burst of infidelity which comes from the enemy 
 of Truth ; and I think that whatever success the Free 
 Kirk has in its substance, comes from the truth that is in 
 it. And with this avowal I close this letter, wishing you 
 the best blessings from above in association with this 
 sacred and joyful season. — Most truly yours, 
 
 'John H. Newman.' 
 
 About this time the Robertson Smith case was 
 exciting great attention, and Dr. Brown sent Dr. New- 
 man an account of it from his point of view. 
 
 'The Oratory, July 22, 1878. 
 ' My dear Dr. Brown, — I thank you very much for 
 your account of the painfully interesting proceedings in 
 
9A6 DAVID BROWN 
 
 which you have been engaged, and think it very kind 
 in you to have taken the trouble to write it. 
 
 ' I have ever entertained a great respect for the persons 
 and the aims, as far as I knew them, of the leaders of the 
 Free Church in Scotland, and I shall rejoice to hear that 
 you have succeeded in your efforts against the Liberalism 
 of the day. 
 
 ' You must have had a fatiguing time in London, if the 
 heat was there as it was here last week ; and, generally 
 speaking, when it is hot in London, it is very oppressively 
 so. — Most truly yours, John H. Newman.' 
 
 In 1882, Dr. Brown paid another visit to Dr. New- 
 man, now a Cardinal ; and in reference to it, Cardinal 
 Newman wrote : — 
 
 ' I have ever been touched with your kind regard for 
 me since you first called here, and have felt much gratified ; 
 and I pray that God may reward you abundantly for your 
 goodness, and bring you to His eternal kingdom. — Yours 
 with much affection, 
 
 'J. H. Card. Newman.' 
 
 The last letter of this series appears to bear on a 
 critique of Dr. Brown"'s on an address of Dr. Martineau 
 to his former students (see after, page 250). 
 
 'The Oratory, June 21, 1882. 
 * My dear Dr. Brown, — I have read with much interest 
 your clear and vigorous, rather I should say, your powerful 
 statement : of course, it has shocked me much. Not that 
 I did not know substantially the dreadful facts which it 
 details, but I was not aware of the eloquence and force 
 which were at the command of the writers to whom they 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH NEWMAN 247 
 
 related. The passage about the " infinite sea and the 
 silent stars " is as dreadful as it is beautiful. 
 
 ' As to your notice of my brother, it was simple news to 
 me, and is horrible. 
 
 'Gibbon's famous sentence is more than justified, ''The 
 predictions of the Catholics are accomplished ; the web 
 of mystery is unravelled," etc. 
 
 ' And so in your last sentence you come of necessity 
 and as a duty to faith ! Most true ; so, from the house- 
 tops, said CatholicSj when Protestantism began. — Most 
 truly yours, J. H. Card. Newman.' 
 
248 DAVID BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS 
 WITH DR. MARTINEAU AND OTHERS 
 
 In the same spirit in which Dr. Brown had entered 
 into correspondence with Dr. Newman, at the one 
 extreme of the theological and ecclesiastical position, 
 he became the correspondent of Dr. James Martineau, 
 not far from the other. In dealing with this incident 
 of his life, the biographer is in a tantalising difficulty ; 
 for though a few letters on both sides have been pre- 
 served, they are like unmatched gloves, and all his 
 ingenuity fails to make them fit. Happily, however, 
 the letter which we subjoin at the outset stands inde- 
 pendently of the rest ; and coming from a man whose 
 years are not much fewer than were Dr. Brown''s, and 
 from whom he differed so widely on the most vital 
 subjects, its tender, loving, pathetic tone will be sure 
 to excite the profound interest of our readers. It is in 
 reply to a letter from Miss Brown, written after her 
 father's death, in which she asked him for any letters 
 of his which he might happen to have kept. 
 
 '35 Gordon Square^ London, W.C. 
 'Dec. 2, 1897. 
 
 'Dear Miss Brown, — The warm affection which 
 drew me to your excellent father and made me rever- 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MARTINEAU 249 
 
 ently ponder his experience and counsels, and even try 
 to think as he did, led me also to keep his letters long 
 after I had responded to their first impression. I 
 expected, therefore, on receiving your application, to 
 send you a parcel considerably larger than that which 
 I now forward, and less recent. But it seems that 
 those of earlier date than 1891 have not been pre- 
 served ; partly, I believe, because they contained 
 matter more or less confidential, or affecting other 
 people than ourselves. I send you, however, the four 
 that remain ; which, I think you will say, delightfully 
 exemplify the loving relation which may persist through 
 all the threatened alienations of incompatible theolo- 
 gies. This is a mere matter of course with me, to 
 whom involuntary heresy is but an infirmity and not a 
 sin. But it is a genuine stretch of charity in one who, 
 like your father, deems salvation itself conditional on 
 orthodox belief. That he could show such grace and 
 patience towards me in my wanderings from his stan- 
 dards touched me very deeply ; though, as a mode of 
 thought, it naturally bore to me the aspect of a blessed 
 inconsistency. With few exceptions, the best men I 
 have known have been among those who have loved 
 and lived better than they thought. 
 
 ' I shall watch with great interest for the appearance 
 of the Memoir, if I am still here to read it. But 
 " friend after friend departs," F. W. Newman has 
 passed into the silences, and speaks to me only in his 
 books. R. H. Hutton, my most beloved of pupils — 
 never more beloved than when he found a better 
 teacher — has escaped to a less pathetic life. I more 
 and more am conscious of being but a lingerer here. 
 
250 DAVID BROWN 
 
 Yet, as spectator, if not as actor, I retain unabated my 
 interest in the scene ; and my faith, deepening every 
 day, that "the former things were"*' not "better than 
 these." — I remain, dear Miss Brown, yours very truly, 
 
 ' James Martineau.' 
 
 The first subject of general interest on which any 
 letters remain bears on the memorable address of Dr. 
 Martineau, delivered on 23rd June 1881, in Portland 
 Street Chapel, London, to students in Manchester 
 College from 1840 to 1880. It is entitled 'Loss and 
 Gain in Recent Theology,' and at the time it greatly 
 disappointed many of Dr. Martineau's friends, who 
 had fondly hoped to find that he had gained more and 
 lost less during the term of forty years over which 
 his survey extended. On this address Dr. Brown 
 wrote a vigorous and powerful critique in the British 
 and Foreign Evangelical Review. His candour 
 and his kindliness were stretched to their furthest 
 limit ; for he was not a man to conceal or to com- 
 promise his views, nor yet to utter a word that 
 would unnecessarily have excited painful feeling, or 
 severed the bond of friendship. Indeed, it was one 
 of the most remarkable features of Dr. Brown's mind 
 that in dealing with men of opposite views he was 
 able so thoroughly to 'speak the truth in love,' — 
 at least while he could exercise the self-control of 
 the study, whatever warmth he may sometimes have 
 shown under the exasperating conditions of public 
 oral controversy. Dr. Martineau's reply to his criti- 
 cism was as follows : — 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MARTINEAU 251 
 
 'The PolchaRj Rothiemurchus, 
 
 ' AviEMORE, Oct. 25, 1883. 
 
 ' Mv DEAR Dr. Brown, — You need not have hesitated 
 to send me your critique on my Address of 1881; for 
 though by nature I crave for sympathy and suffer much 
 from the censure of those whom I respect and love, yet 
 experience has taught me to reverence their sense of truth 
 no less than to obey my own. So strong do I feel the 
 presumption to be against my own judgment when it 
 conflicts with that of one to whom I look up, that I should 
 only too easily surrender it if it had but one resistance to 
 encounter ; but when you tilt at me on one side, and 
 Frank Newman on the other, I hold my ground, not of 
 my own strength, but from the equilibrium of your oppo- 
 site onsets. Having once occupied your point of view, I 
 see plainly that our difficulty in coming to an understand- 
 ing arises from the facts that our differences do not lie, 
 like stations in perspective, upon the same line of distance, 
 along which we may travel further or less far ; but are 
 rather like properties of dissimilar curves, whose equations 
 need different symbols, and admit of no exact comparison. 
 I cannot, in consequence, accept as correct what you 
 intend to be a faithful report of the positions which I lay 
 down, e.g., "that all revealed religion" is to be "re- 
 nounced"; and that Christ is "only a mere man" ; and 
 that "the ideal Christ" whom we retain is "a figure of 
 our own creation/' obtained by applying a "very fine 
 faculty," or "instinctive sense of credibility," which picks 
 and chooses, cuts and carves ad libittwi. I believe in none 
 but " revealed religion " : I believe it impossible for a 
 "mere man" (whatever that may be) to be a revealer of 
 religion ; and the figure of the historical Christ is, for me, 
 disengaged from the unhistorical elements of the Gospel 
 narratives by a legitimate application of the critical prin- 
 
252 DAVID BROWN 
 
 ciples to which all analogous literature is amenable. 
 " External authority" is^ to me, a contradiction in terms^ 
 as "supernatural authority" is a tautology: and to iden- 
 tify the "miraculous" with "supernatural" seems to me 
 to confound the realms of Law and Spirit — the ignorance 
 of law with the knowledge of spirit. The whole relation 
 of God to both Man and Nature is thus differently con- 
 ceived at the outset by us^ and so our logical and his- 
 torical thought and expression are cast into different 
 moulds ; not, however, as I trust, without provision in 
 either case for access of heart and will to the Divine Love 
 and Holiness. 
 
 'As for the Messianic Doctrine, the rejection of it is by 
 no means new. When I was studying at York under my 
 venerable theological tutor, Mr. Wellbeloved, he told us, 
 at a certain stage of his course on the " Evidences of 
 Christianity," that here it was usual to introduce the 
 argument from Prophecy ; but that he must omit it, for 
 reasons which would appear in the course of the Hebrew 
 and Old Testament reading. He would then justify his 
 doubts whether the prophets ever foretold the coming of 
 Christ, or treated of other than contemporary matters and 
 the conditional issues of the Divine Government. This 
 was sixty years ago, and expressed the opinion which he 
 had held all his active life, and received from his pre- 
 decessor, Mr. Cappa. 
 
 ' In my remark about rov Trovqpov, I remember that I 
 omitted a necessary qualification. Any neuter Greek 
 adjective may be used, with the article, to denote the 
 abstract quality, in the Nominative and Accusative : the 
 limitation to certain adjectives which I mentioned refers 
 only to the employment of oblique cases as abstract 
 nouns. 
 
 ' We are on the point of starting this morning on our 
 journey to town ; and I fear my letter must betray the 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MARTINEAU 253 
 
 confusion of a dismantled house and a reluctant traveller. 
 —Believe me, always, yours most cordially, 
 
 ' James Martineau.' 
 
 Tlie following does not appear to have been Dr. 
 Brown's immediate reply to this letter, but it shows 
 the spirit in which he wrote to his friend : — 
 
 ' 104 Cbown Street, 
 ' Aberdeen, March 10, 1892. 
 
 * My dear Dr. Martineau, — Your letter is like your- 
 self, all that has drawn me to you ever since I knew you. 
 Yes, dear friend, our Father in heaven sees to the 
 bottom of your heart and mine alike ; and I know right 
 well that you are as ready as I am to say, and, I 
 suppose, do say, " Search me, O God, and know my 
 heart : try me, and know my thoughts : and see if 
 there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead 
 me in the way everlasting ! " We have great diffi- 
 culty in knowing how far our search after truth 
 and determination to follow it wherever it leads 
 us is unconsciously influenced by our antecedents, 
 our upbringing, and all our environments. A clerical 
 brother, already distinguished in literature as a thinker 
 and preacher, who was present at a select conference of 
 ministers to consider how best to deepen their spiritu- 
 ality and usefulness in the ministry of the Gospel, 
 said that one of his failures was not going deep enough 
 down into the subsoil of his conscience. We say we are 
 conscientious, and want to act entirely as such, and 
 afterwards have reason to believe that on several occa- 
 sions other considerations unconsciously weighed witli 
 us in the decisions we came to. Well, our comfort is 
 
254 DAVID BROWN 
 
 that " He knoweth our frame," and in His hands we 
 may safely leave one another. 
 
 ' In fact, the only thing that has ever made me wish 
 that you could see things as I now do (for I also once saw 
 them nearly as you now do) is that I experience sources 
 of gratitude and songs of praise which you cannot know, 
 because, believing as I do, I can sing, " Unto Him that 
 loved lis, and hath washed us Jrom our sins in His own 
 bloody etc. Yes, but again I say, you are in better 
 hands than mine. So, beloved friend, let us, like 
 Newman, say, " Lead, kindly Light." — Yours ever, 
 
 ' David Brown.' 
 
 The latest of Dr. Brown"'s letters to Dr. Martineau 
 shows with what a tender yearning heart he was ever 
 thinking of him : — 
 
 '104 Crown Street, 
 'Aberdeen, Friday, Feb. 9, 1894. 
 
 ' My dear Dr. Martineau, — Things every now and 
 then recall you to me, and I write to ask how you keep 
 your health. I think you are two or three years 
 younger than I am. I am now half through my ninety- 
 first year, yet am able to go about ; and though I cannot 
 read the biggest print, and must have all read to me 
 that has to be read, I can write, as you see, though 
 not always very legibly. I write an occasional article 
 when I have anything to say ; and in the Thinker, for 
 the first time, I write in November and December '93, 
 and February ''Q'i, three papers on a subject to which 
 I have given special attention for nearly thirty years — 
 the textual criticism of the New Testament, a subject of 
 much complexity and difficulty. In the New Testament 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MARTINEAU 255 
 
 Company of Revisers, out of twenty-five or twenty- 
 seven members, not more than four or five were com- 
 petent to vote on conflicting readings ; and only when 
 the question was discussed on both sides could they 
 vote, and did so very much as they relied on the 
 opposed parties. My papers don't go beyond the one 
 thing they propose. I think of reprinting them as my 
 legacy on this subject, in a small quarto form, at a 
 shilling or so. 
 
 ' Kindly tell me how you are, what you are about, 
 and give my kind regards to your dear daughter. 
 
 ' My daughter joins me in warm regards ; and I am, 
 my very dear friend, yours sincerely, 
 
 ' David Brown."' 
 
 Dr. Brown corresponded in an equally friendly way 
 with the Rev. A. Gordon, now of Manchester, who 
 writes : ' To his valuable and most kindly correspon- 
 dence in more recent years I am under great personal 
 obligation, and shall ever cherish his memory with 
 solemn and grateful thoughts.' Dr. Brown earnestly 
 sought to draw him to his own views on the person of 
 Christ, and to impress him with the downward tendency 
 of Unitarianism, which, even in the case of a man like 
 Dr. Martineau, had been always taking away and never 
 giving. In replying, Mr. Gordon, however, placed the 
 person of 'our Lord' in an intermediate category, 
 holding Him neither to possess supreme deity, nor to 
 be merely a creature, but ' begotten of the divine es- 
 sence, ^o)? eK (jiooTO'i ' ; and, ' in the original sense of 
 the term,' he was 'quite ready to confess Him with 
 the Nieaean Creed to be 0e6<i eK Oeov.'' The ascription 
 
256 DAVID BROWN 
 
 of a downward tendency to Unitarianism, Mr. Gordon 
 held to be a parallel charge to that which Roman 
 Catholicism brought against Protestantism. Dr. Brown 
 was greatly pleased to argue with an opponent so fair 
 and reasonable as Mr. Gordon, and so manifestly bent 
 on arriving at truth ; while he felt deeply that his in- 
 termediate view of the person of Christ was alike diffi- 
 cult to prove and to understand, and deprived Him of 
 the highest of those glorious qualities which entitled 
 Him in every sense to the name of Saviour. 
 
 It was natural that Dr. Brown should have no little 
 correspondence in connection with the Revision, and 
 his view of the text in opposition to Westcott and 
 Hort. Among those with whom he thus exchanged 
 views was Professor Warfield, at first of the Western 
 Theological Seminary, Alleghany, afterwards of Prince- 
 ton. Dr. Warfield's letters to Dr. Brown (which have 
 been preserved — a great compliment to the writer !) 
 are full of cordiality, but not always of cordial agree- 
 ment. In fact, Dr. Warfield avows himself a follower 
 of Hort. Writing, 27th February 1886, he says :— 
 
 ' I need not say that I have read the papers you sent me 
 with care and with profit. I quite agree with you that 
 the tone and manner of Canon Cook's book is far from 
 what it should be ; and I should doubtless go further 
 than you could feel yourself justified in, in my disagree- 
 ments with his specific conclusions. For (why should 
 I hesitate frankly to avow it ?) I am a convert of Dr. 
 Hort's. In my teaching year by year, my brighter 
 students had annually puzzled me with inquiries after 
 some method of textual criticism which proceeded 
 
CORRESPONDENCE ml 
 
 upwards from the facts by such gradual and steady steps 
 that the conclusions might be trusted as scientifically 
 accurate. Each year I was forced to feel more and 
 more deeply that such a method was not in our hands. 
 Dr. Hort has, in my judgment, for the first time 
 supplied it to us. I go to my classroom now with 
 lightened heart. I simply say to the students, " Use 
 your common sense." . . . Your method of criticism 
 appears to me — may I not speak frankly? — to result 
 in dominating external evidence without internal 
 evidence.' 
 
 Unfortunately, Dr. Brown's reply to this has not 
 been preserved, but it would certainly repudiate the 
 extreme tendency with which his friend charged iiim. 
 On other subjects they agreed more thoroughly. 
 The following year (21st July 1887) Dr. Warfield 
 writes : — 
 
 ' In the meantime, much has occurred that I would 
 like to talk about. Among other things, I see the 
 controversy on the Advent of Christ begun in the 
 British WeeMy, in which I am impatiently awaiting 
 the sight of your article. The Pre-millenarian serpent 
 was scotched, not killed, by your book many years 
 ago. As to the Book of Revelation, I believe that it 
 has been prevailingly misunderstood on both sides of the 
 controversy. The Commentary and Baird Lectures of 
 Dr. Milligan express my own views as to that book 
 more nearly than any other publications with which I am 
 acquainted. [This, however, was not Dr. Brown's view. 
 See chap, xix., ' Later Writings — Structure of the Apo- 
 calypse.'] Leaving the Apocalypse to one side for the 
 moment, I cannot help seeing that the more didactic 
 
 11 
 
S.58 DAVID BROWN 
 
 portions of the New Testament set the matter beyond 
 all appeal, at least so far as this, namely, that Christ's 
 Advent introduces the end of the world, and the Jinal 
 consummation and last judgment, and not another 
 worldly dispensation of any kind.' 
 
 A little later he writes (31st August 1887):— 
 ' I wish you would write the outline study of the 
 Apocalypse, of which you speak as having often been in 
 your thoughts to give us. Certainly it is a dimly lighted 
 territory in which one walks when he dares enter into 
 the precincts of that noble but obscure book. ... It 
 was with very great satisfaction that I read your con- 
 tribution to the Millenarian discussion in the British 
 Weekly. I am sure you will permit me the liberty of 
 saying that what you said in your first article I con- 
 sider the fit word fitly spoken. No sophistry can really 
 cloud the testimonies you there bring forward, which, 
 moreover, you have presented in the most telling way. 
 I regrret that Professor Beet has allowed himself in his 
 second paper to hint at the " untrustworthiness of the 
 authorship of the Apocalypse." . . . Certainly no book 
 appears to have more decided testimony, from Irenasus 
 back to Papias, or at least Justin, in its favour. . . . 
 Certainly Nicoll is an admirable editor, only I suspect 
 him of writing all his paper, and no editor can stand 
 that long.' 
 
 Among those to whom Dr. Bro\Mi sent one of his 
 papers on the Revision was Professor W. Salmon, D.D., 
 of Trinity College, Dublin. He received the following 
 reply :— 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 259 
 
 ■^Dublin T. C, Oct. 17, 1885. 
 
 ' Dear Dr. Brown, — I have just glanced at your in- 
 teresting tract, and mean to give it a more careful 
 reading, with a view to my lectures this term. But it 
 seems to me that Westcott and Hort use the Roman 
 Catholic method. 
 
 The Roman Catholics allow you to use your human 
 reason in order to find out the true church; but after 
 you have found it, you must crush down every doubt 
 as sinful. Westcott and Hort allow the use of sub- 
 jective criticism in the first instance in order to test 
 whether authorities are trustworthy. Having found B 
 right in a number of cases, they ingeniously find reasons 
 for submitting to it even where mere human reason 
 would pronounce it wrong. Acts xii. is clearly such a 
 case. I had a theory about that text, but it has gone 
 to a far back corner in my mind, and I cannot now 
 recall it. Surely, if "Charity seeketh not her own" 
 is right, the transcriber has improved upon St. Paul. 
 
 ' And so likewise of " One thing is needful." 
 
 'The flaw, then, of Westcott and Hort's method is, 
 that it may be reversed. We might as well point out 
 a number of passages where B is clearly wrong, and 
 say, " This authority is never to be trusted." I have 
 just got as far as " No Popery." I look on Burgon and 
 Hort as in this both Papists. But when I try to use 
 my own understanding, it is so wretchedly weak, that 
 if I had but the remedy of putting the subject from 
 my thoughts I would be glad to fly to a Pope again. — I 
 remain, very sincerely yours, W. Salmon. 
 
 ' We were excessively sorry to lose Dr. Macalister for 
 Dublin.' 
 
260 DAVID BROWN 
 
 One of Dr. Brown's most intimate correspondents 
 was Principal Moule, of Ridley Hall, Cambridge. With 
 him, too, he comes again and again on the Revision 
 work. Sometimes he propounds his views, and some- 
 times he gives a morsel or two of harmless gossip. 
 Referring to Dr. Moule"'s lectures on Ephesians (July 
 24, 1894), he says :— 
 
 'Ephesians is a subject in which you are thoroughly 
 at home. Bishop Lightfoot told me at Bishop Auck- 
 land that it was the Epistle he would try next. I said 
 I could ffuess that he would take that after Colossians. 
 
 " Yes, but " — " I know what that hut means. 
 
 You haven"'t your students, as at Cambridge, to listen 
 to your lectures on the Epistle." — " That ""s it," he said. 
 " I 'm trying to get three or four to lecture to here, 
 but it wants the stimulus of about a hundred sitting 
 with pens in hand to hear me." You know the loss ; 
 the book never appeared. He was a real Christian, 
 and I believe walked with God. By the bye, about 
 Dean Alford and the Revision Company. It was 
 delightful work. Sometimes there were little jokes. 
 Thus, when we came to the resurrection of Lazarus 
 and the opening of the grave, " Lord, by this time he 
 stinketh, for he hath been dead four days," the ques- 
 tion was, Should we change that ugly word ? There 
 was a pause to think whether we should. I said, 
 " What would you say to an American Baptist trans- 
 lation, ' By this time he is offensive ' .? " A burst of 
 laughter followed. But I was struck with this, that 
 when we came to Gethsemane and the Agony, as 
 we approached this tender section, there was a dead 
 silence, and everything said, as we proceeded from verse 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 261 
 
 to verse, was said in a kind of whisper. Such scenes 
 would be worth recording, though I will not meddle 
 with it. One thing you would like to know. When 
 we came to Rom. vi. 5, Dr. Kennedy, at the feet of 
 whose Greek and Latin grammars hundreds of English 
 clergy had sat when he was Professor, said, " I 
 thoroughly believe in the Divinity of Christ, yet I 
 don't think the Apostle anywhere calls Christ in marked 
 terms God." — "Well, how would you punctuate and 
 translate the verse .? " — " In one of two ways," he said ; 
 " but I know," he said, " you will not agree with me, 
 for theology stands in your way." Some of us felt this 
 to be an unjust charge; and the Dean of Rochester, Dr. 
 Scott of Liddell and ScoWs Lexicon^ a very fine and 
 most excellent man, said, " No, sir, we stand upon 
 Greek. The verse won't translate but, as in the 
 Authorised Version, according to the Septuagint and 
 New Testament Greek." Well, we prevailed so far that 
 the other punctuation and translation was not inserted 
 in the margin as an alternative reading."" 
 
 Among other subjects introduced in correspondence 
 with Dr. Moule, a propos the Epistle to the Ephesians, 
 was ' the Keswick teaching.' Substantially Dr. Brown's 
 view was, that the power to sanctify believers wholly is 
 working in them ; but through that remaining unbelief 
 of which they never get wholly free, it does not work 
 out its possible effects. Under date July 26, 1894, 
 he writes : — 
 
 ' I had a call the other evening from a United Pres- 
 byterian minister, who, in conversation, asked me what 
 I thought of the " Higher Christian life and sancti- 
 
262 DAVID BROWN 
 
 fication by faith." — " Do you mean what is called the 
 Keswick teaching?"" — "Yes." — "Well, I don't like these 
 words, but I know what you mean, and I will answer 
 you. If you will not only read, but study and weigh 
 every clause of the Apostle's prayer in Eph. iii. 14-21, 
 you will find what more than justifies all that goes 
 by the name you employ. It is the longest of the 
 prayers offered for the church he wrote to. After read- 
 ing carefully over this prayer, asking for them what 
 they might think it impossible for them to reach up 
 to, he closes with these words, ' Now unto Him who 
 is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we 
 ask or think, according to the power that worJceth in us, 
 unto Him be glory in the church.' So there is a 
 power actually working in us, the power of Him who 
 is able to do far beyond what we dare to ask or even 
 conceive, the power working in us, sufficient to achieve 
 all the possibilities of sanctification. But to do this 
 we need not merely to believe all this, but to realise 
 our actual possession of it. For we know too well that 
 hundreds of Christians do believe what, when they 
 pray, they do not actually feel that they believe. The 
 Apostle Peter was to be brought forth for execu- 
 tion by Herod Agrippa i. immediately after the seven 
 days of unleavened bread were over, and the disciples 
 had been praying for his deliv-erance all the seven days, 
 and the last night they held an all-night prayer meet- 
 ing. But when Peter, miraculously delivered, came to 
 the door of Mary and spoke, the girl who came to the 
 door ran back and said, 'It's Peter!' — 'Thou art 
 mad.' She went again, and insisted it was he. 'Then 
 it must be his angel ' — anything but himself. Yet this 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 263 
 
 was what they had been praying for, and for the last 
 few hours pleading for. Alas for poor human nature 
 even in believers ! "" "* 
 
 Again, when writing on this subject (April 1892) to 
 his friend Mr. M'Laren, he said : — 
 
 'As to Keswick, I believe the essence of its teaching 
 lies in this, that in Him dwelleth all the fulness of 
 the Godhead bodily, and that we are complete in Him, 
 having all \:he JwnHure for holiness. And to realise 
 this in ourselves and in our preaching is what they 
 aim at. They think it is natural to say that not till 
 recently did they themselves realise it. I refer to Mr. 
 Moule of Cambridge, who at the Aberdeen Convention 
 told his own experience before and since he realised it. 
 The work of the Spirit is to take all these truths, and 
 by His indwelling in believers to enable them to ex- 
 perience them in themselves. And as to sinlessness in 
 believers, they repudiate it, asserting only that accord- 
 ing to our faith so is it with us actually, as to all the 
 possibilities of a holy life. As to M'Cheyne, it is 
 useless asking whether he and the Christians of his 
 type were less advanced than those who hold with 
 Keswick. Every age has its own way of looking at 
 Divine truth and expressing itself, and it is the 
 wisdom of Christians to find the same precious truth 
 recognised alike by those who feel and express them- 
 selves differently.^ 
 
 Dr. Brown had a great regard for the Rev. Frank H. 
 White, although not agreeing with him in all things. 
 He was greatly pleased with his reply to Professor 
 Drummond, believing that with all his excellence and 
 
264 DAVID BROWN 
 
 Christian influence Drummond failed in giving to the 
 doctrine of the Atonement that central, ever vital, and 
 highest place Avhich Avas due to it, and which could 
 neither be dispensed with nor regarded as secondary. 
 He agreed with 'Mr. White too in certain views on 
 the Apocalypse, and particularly in his opposition to 
 what was called ' the secret Rapture ' doctrine, and the 
 alleged separation of the ready from the unready, left 
 for some years behind for purification by the tribula- 
 tion of the last days. ' You write to my heart's content 
 about "they that are Chrisfs at His coming" as includ- 
 ing all the saints. I am entirely pleased with your 
 urging that in questions of this nature we should not 
 be guided by passages in the Apocalypse alone, — 
 which, as I have repeatedly said in my book on the 
 Second Advent^ is to explain the clear by the dark, — 
 but by plain, pointed statements when the truth under 
 consideration is treated. '' 
 
 In one of his letters to Mr. White he gives an in- 
 teresting anecdote of the Rev. Edward Bickersteth, to 
 whom he sent his book on the Second Advent. It 
 refers to the motto from Augustine on the title-page : 
 ' Qua propter, qui dicit Dominum citius esse venturum 
 optabilius loquitur sed periculosius fallitur. Utinam 
 ergo sit verum ; quia erit molestum si non verum. 
 Qui autem dicit Dominum tardius esse venturum et 
 tamen credit, sperat, amat ejus adventum, profecto tar- 
 ditate ejus etiamsi fallitur, feliciter fallitur. Habebit 
 enim majorem patienlriam si hoc ita erit; majorem 
 L^titiam si non erit. Ac per hoc ab eis qui diligunt 
 manifestationem Domini, ille auditur suavius, isti 
 creditur tutius."* 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 265 
 
 ' When I wrote my book on the Second Advent I 
 sent a copy to dear Edward Bickersteth. He answered 
 me from his bed, for he had been overturned in his 
 carriage, from the effects of which I think he never 
 recovered. After praising the spirit in which I had 
 written, he said the one thing in the contents he 
 envied was the motto on the title-page. It was an 
 extract of a letter of St. Augustine to another bishop 
 who was a Pre-millenarian, which Augustine was not. 
 The Latin may be given freely in English, thus : " If 
 you are right, / am delightfully wrong. But if / am 
 right, you are wofully wrong." They both loved the 
 Lord, and loved His appearing. So, if his brother was 
 right, Augustine would have the joy of seeing Him 
 much sooner than he expected ; but if Augustine was 
 right, his brother would not see Him till long after he 
 expected. Well, that is my position."* 
 
 On the supreme importance of the doctrine of pro- 
 pitiation in the Christian system, Dr. Brown was 
 extremely strong. Referring in a letter to his friend 
 Mr. David M'Laren to an address by Mr. Bachelor on 
 Rationalism in the Free Churches, he says : ' Bachelor's 
 position is the one in which I mean to live and die — 
 the propitiatory sacrifice of the Lord's death as the 
 central article of Christianity — not the Incarnation.'' 
 It was not merely that he set the highest possible 
 value on that doctrine in itself; but he had found, as 
 a matter of fact, that whenever' it was given up or 
 undervalued, that was the first step in a downward 
 course, which terminated in Unitarianism. And as 
 he found that some conspicuous Broad churchmen 
 
^66 DAVID BROWN 
 
 undervalued the Atonement— and from this charge he 
 could not exempt one whom otherwise he valued very 
 highly, Principal Fairbairn of Mansfield College — 
 he was extremely anxious as to the future of that 
 movement. It was matter of great regret to him 
 that some of the more intellectual young ministers 
 of his own church did not proclaim the Atonement 
 with that clear ring which he always desiderated. 
 This would have filled him with apprehension as to 
 the future of the Free Church, were it not that so 
 many were offering themselves for missionary service. 
 We were not all on the down grade. In like 
 manner. Dr. Brown was very apprehensive as to the 
 application of the doctrine of the Kevcoaa, or self- 
 emptying of Christ, that was made by some ; for it 
 went to deprive Him of authority in explaining the 
 Old Testament — a conclusion which he could not bear. 
 
 Accordingly, as he got older. Broad churchism and 
 the Higher Criticism came to be more and more dis- 
 liked. Writing to his friend Mr. M'Laren (August 10, 
 1890), he says :— 
 
 ' Stanley Leathes has written a smart paper on the 
 new reading of the Old Testament by our Higher 
 Critics in the August Tlieologkal Monthly (Nisbefs 
 successor to the British and Foreign Evangelical 
 Review). I foresaw where it would land them in 
 denying our Lord*'s authority as an interpreter of 
 the Old Testament. Such a kenosis would leave us 
 an empty enough humanity. I should like to ask 
 those reverential students, whether, if the only way 
 in which a suffering Messiah could be found in the 
 Old Testament was their roundabout and very in- 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 267 
 
 direct way of getting Him in, — whether He would 
 have been warranted to put down the two on their way 
 to Emniaus as a pair of stupids ! For 'ft 'Avotjtoi 
 is not "O fools" nor "foolish men," but "O Stupids," 
 if we could use such a jibe, or " O silly ones," meaning. 
 Where have your eyes been that ye could not see what 
 stared you in the face ? Would any one with the 
 new exegesis see, in the Old Testament, what Christ 
 showed them, when He made their hearts burn within 
 them, by showing that His actual sufferings, and out 
 of them the glory emerging, were all written in their 
 own Scriptures ? ' 
 
 We have seen (page 239) how much interested Dr. 
 Brown was in natural science in its relation to religion. 
 Unfortunately, his friend Henry Drummond, while 
 exemplifying personally, and in a most beautiful way, 
 the union of strong personal faith and enthusiastic 
 love of science, did not take the method of harmonis- 
 ing them which satisfied Dr. Brown. Late in the day 
 another Scottish name came into prominence, which 
 interested him greatly, that of Mr. Romanes, known 
 by his nom de plume as Physicus. In an address to 
 the Evangelical Alliance at Ryde in September 1886, 
 Dr. Brown had referred to the sad confession of 
 'Physicus,' that with the denial of a God, 'the universe 
 had lost all its loveliness.'' It was a great joy to find 
 subsequently that ' Physicus ' had returned to the 
 faith. One of the last letters he wrote with his own 
 hand (February 10, 1897), addressed to his friend 
 Mr. David M'Laren, announces his satisfaction at this 
 change of views : — 
 
268 DAVID BROWN 
 
 ' So " Physicus " is Mr. Romanes. His L%fe by his 
 widow was out of print. But a new and cheaper 
 edition has been printed. I have ordered it, but 
 have not yet got it. Pity he did not announce his 
 change of views himself. But one is thankful for the 
 change."' 
 
 He announces his purpose of writing his friend on 
 the subject of the conversion of Colonel Gardiner, 
 which had been denounced as a ' false miracle.' ' It 
 was no miracle,' he says, ' like those of Christ, but one 
 of those miracles of grace which are as real.' 
 
 But the irregular sprawling characters in which this 
 letter was written, almost literally in the dark, showed 
 that his days of letter-writing were now drawing to 
 a close ; the night was at hand. 
 
 Dr. Brown carried on a somewhat extensive corre- 
 spondence with friends in the United States, particu- 
 larly Dr. Lowry of Philadelphia and Dr. Moore of 
 Pittsburg. This correspondence has come too late 
 into the hands of the biographer to be made full use 
 of in this Memoir. The topics on which it bears are 
 chiefly those of which ample notice has been taken in 
 the preceding narrative. For the writers he shows 
 a very high esteem, and their views on the exegetical 
 questions which they discuss are received with great 
 interest and deference. He had conceived a strong 
 personal attachment for the writers, separated though 
 they were by the great ocean, but, at the same time, 
 one in all that they most loved and valued. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS 269 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH PERSONAL FRIENDS 
 
 Dr. Brown had the rare knack of very speedily turning 
 business correspondents into personal friends, and estab- 
 lishing lasting relations with them that drew out the 
 warm affections of his heart. But even towards them 
 the fulness of his affection did not show itself as it did 
 to those with whom he was accustomed to hold per- 
 sonal and congenial intercourse. To give our narrative 
 such measure of completeness as the scanty materials 
 at our command will allow, it is necessary that we 
 give at least a sample or two of his letters to personal 
 friends. In no circumstances did his heart warm to 
 them as in times of bereavement. Of that he had had 
 experience personally, and as a pastor he had often had 
 to deal with it. Early in his own married life he 
 had lost an infant son, and later, as we have seen, 
 his heart had been lacerated to the core by the pre- 
 mature death of his eldest son. Twenty years before 
 his own death he was parted from her whom he loved 
 as his own soul (see chap, xxi.) ; and afterwards he lost 
 a married daughter and her husband in a distant part 
 of the world. Many a prayer he offered for friends 
 in trouble. When his prayers were asked for a friend, 
 he made a point of offering at least one full, specific 
 
270 DAVID BROWN 
 
 prayer on behalf of the person in question, lest, when 
 mixed with many others, the case might escape indi- 
 vidual recollection. The first letter, of which we insert 
 a portion, was addressed to his sister, Mrs. Murray,^ 
 wife of the Rev. John Murray of Aberdeen (uncle of 
 Rev, Andrew Murray of Wellington, Cape Colony), 
 on occasion of the death of a little girl. It is dated 
 February 3, 1845. 
 
 'My dear Sister. . . . But O what consolation have 
 you in the evidence which she seems to have afforded, 
 even when delirious, that she was one of Christ's lambs ! 
 . . . To be the instrument of inserting one jewel in the 
 Redeemer's crown, O what an honour ! We believe this, 
 but scarcely realise it, for sense sadly overpowers faith. 
 But in eternity the redeemed shall wonder at the dim- 
 ness with which they saw it, and the struggle it cost 
 them here even to believe it. We are "lying among 
 the pots" here, and grace gets blackened and marred, 
 though it be grace still.' 
 
 He proceeds to tell her how the little girl's case had 
 
 been useful in a similar case in his own congregation 
 
 in Glasgow, where he had told about his niece ; and 
 
 how gratified he had been when the mother, who had 
 
 not previously shown much apparent religious interest, 
 
 had said with reference to her own sick babes, ' I could 
 
 give them up if I were but sure about their souls."* 
 
 It was often useful to tell persons in affliction of 
 
 similar trials. Often, he added, we think there is no 
 
 ^ Mrs. Murray was his eldest sister, a lady of many gifts and high 
 character. Her musical talent was really genius. In after years, when 
 at any time Dr. Brown had been specially touched by the singing of 
 a hymn in the meeting in the Marywell Street School, he would rush 
 to his sister's house, full of enthusiasm, and sing it with her, feeling 
 how much its beauty would be enhanced by its being handled by her. 
 
CORRESPOxVDENCE WITH FRIENDS 271 
 
 sorrow like our sorrow, and it is good for us to learn 
 that ' the same afflictions are accomplished in our 
 brethren which are in the world."* 
 
 The next letter is addressed to a member of a family 
 with whom he had most friendly relations — that of 
 the Countess Dowager of Kintore. It was written on 
 occasion of the lamented death of the Honourable Ian 
 Keith-Falconer, her youngest son, just after he had 
 entered on the work for which he had offered himself 
 to the Free Church of Scotland, that of missionary 
 to the Mohammedans of Aden — a post for which 
 he was eminently adapted, alike from his Christian 
 earnestness and his knowledge of Arabic. Indeed his 
 great skill in that language had already procured for 
 him a chair as Professor of Arabic in the University 
 
 of Cambridge : — 
 
 ' 104 Crown Street, Aberdeen, 
 ' May 17, 1887. 
 ' Dear Lady Kintore, — I cannot express the profound 
 sorrow with which the tidings of your dear, distinguished 
 son's death has overwhelmed me. Others will pour in 
 upon you the same thing, but you know how / knew him 
 from early life, and the first buddings of grace appeared 
 in him. But we know where he has gone, and that a 
 father will welcome him there (his earthly one I mean !). 
 Another Father has done it, and that shuts our mouth. 
 My thoughts often revert to you and dear old days. — 
 With much love, yours, dear Lady Kintore, 
 
 ' D. Brown. 
 
 'Not knowing your own address, I send this through 
 the Bevans. For them one feels much. D. B.' 
 
 The letter to Mrs. Brown Douglas that follows, 
 in which personal gratitude mingles so strongly with 
 
272 DAVID BROWN 
 
 regretful love, is the more to be noted that in 
 the Robertson Smith case Dr. Brown and Mr. Brown 
 Douglas were on opposite sides. The absolute cordi- 
 ality of their relations at the date of the letter is an 
 illustration of the remarkable manner in which excited 
 feelings settled down after that case came to an end. 
 It was feared at one time that it might give birth 
 to a new disruption, but only a short time elapsed 
 ere nearly all traces of the storm passed away. It 
 was allowed to be a case in which difference of opinion 
 might reasonably be found : — 
 
 ' KlLCREGGAN, HeLENSBUBGH^ 
 
 'Aug. 14, 1885. 
 
 ' Mv DEAR Mrs. Brown Douglas, — Your son would 
 receive my telegram despatched a few minutes ago, 
 written with deep regret at the impossibility of my reach- 
 ing Edinburgh in time for the funeral, the card of invita- 
 tion having reached this from Aberdeen only at the 
 moment when I wrote my telegram. Otherwise I should 
 have come from any accessible distance for such a purpose. 
 
 ' You will be receiving letters of deepest sympathy 
 from so very many who valued and loved your dear 
 husband, that were it not that no expressions of real 
 feeling are thrown away on those who know their sincerity, 
 I might have been tempted not to obtrude upon you at 
 such a time. But I am sure you will regard what I now 
 write as coming fresh and warm from my heart. And 
 well it may ; for of all the friends whom it is my privilege 
 to possess, there is not one whom I thought a more perfect 
 model of all that I think valuable in life. I have often 
 said to friends, and I think I once hinted to himself, that I 
 never knew a family more beautifully brought up than his, 
 and his eyes filled at the remark. Of course, you yourself, 
 dear friend, were included in my remark. For personal 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS 273 
 
 character. Christian bearing, love of all good men, interest 
 in every Christian and philanthropic object, and liberality 
 in promoting them, for attachment to his own church and 
 services to it, and yet catholicity of spirit — to whom could 
 one point as combining all these qualities in a greater — I 
 was almost going to say in an equal degree — when the 
 name of dear David Maclagan checked me. His citizen- 
 ship and public spirit let others speak of. 
 
 ' When I was at the Commission the day before yesterday, 
 Mr. Bain (Pitcaple) and I got together; and he made this 
 remark to me, that he thought the last speech your 
 husband had made was in the Moderator's room, when, 
 on Monday the 1st of June, he, in the presence of a 
 number of gentlemen, the elite of the Free Church's lay 
 members, presented me with a munificent testimonial of 
 their regard. "That speech," said Mr. Bain, "was the 
 most beautiful expression of the feelings which we all 
 cherished I had ever heard." 
 
 ' Dear friend, you hio7v what I ivould say as a Christian 
 as to his gain and your loss, and I leave you therefore to 
 feel it all to the uttermost. But I will carry the matter 
 along with you to Him who has now given you a new 
 name (Psalm Ixviii. 5). My daughters unite with me in 
 all I have said. — Yoiu's in Christian sympathy, 
 
 ' David Brown.' 
 
 To his very special friend, Mr. David M'Laren, he 
 writes most sympathetically (April 22, 1891) in con- 
 nection with an affliction of a different kind. Mr. 
 M'Laren^s son had been obliged to give up a ministerial 
 charge in England owing to permanent loss of sight : — 
 
 ' On my return from Edinburgh to-day, where I have 
 been for the last few days, my daughter read me (as she 
 does all my letters) your most touching letter of the 19thi 
 
274 DAVID BROWN 
 
 And I cannot let a day pass without expressing my 
 heartfelt sorrow in your sorrow. I did see your son at 
 Redfern^ and have a perfect recollection of his appearance. 
 I knew also that he was a pastor in England, though not 
 exactly where. But such intelligence as you give me 
 (and I thank you for being so minute, without which one 
 cannot realise the whole case) is more than ordinarily 
 trying. It touches one to the quick. 
 
 ' Rest assured, beloved friend, you will have my heartfelt 
 prayers to our tender Father, who knoweth our frame, and 
 remembereth that we are dust. " Like as a father pitieth 
 his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." A 
 beautiful remark on this occurs in a book, which I am 
 sorry I parted with as a student when I was rather " hard 
 up." It is by John Brown, minister of Wamphray (who 
 was banished or had to flee to Holland during the persecu- 
 tions under the Charleses (i. and ii.), and was there, for 
 aught I remember, till the Revolution), a scholar, one of 
 whose works was translated into Latin by Professor 
 Leidekker. The book I refer to was written to cheer the 
 persecuted Presbyterians of Scotland, and called The Life 
 of Faith in Times of Trial. The remark is this : " Pity 
 does nothing to remove, but only to soothe in suffering. 
 But it is very sweet. Take the case of your child. He 
 has burnt his finger and cries bitterly. You take him on 
 your knee, you clasp him, you clap him, and you say with 
 a pitying sound, ' Wulla wean, wulla wean.' Well, that 
 removes no pain, but the crying dies away, for the sooth- 
 ing effect of this pity has lulled it into a sense of relief." 
 Well, dear friend, assure yourself that you have all that 
 in yoiir Father and my Father. And I will hold up your 
 hands as best I can, and hope you will let me know how 
 the case ffoes on.' 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS 275 
 
 One other letter of sympathy we note — to a brother 
 minister who had shared his own affliction in the loss 
 of his son. His own experience comes vividly to 
 mind : — 
 
 ' I was much interested by your kind letter. At such 
 an age the death of that dear boy must have been very 
 trying, especially as he gave hopes of getting over it at 
 first. His cry of ' mother ' once and again touches me, 
 because the last words of my eldest son, who went out, 
 after a brilliant career at the Glasgow University, and 
 then at Oxford, as a civilian to India, and after passing in 
 three Indian languages, and thus ready for up country 
 promotion, hun'ied off home on sick leave by the long 
 voyage ; and having undergone an operation for abscess of 
 the liver, which after twelve days proved fatal — his last 
 words, dear boy, were, " Mama, mama ! " — uttered to an 
 Irish Roman Catholic soldier, who waited on him night 
 and day, whom I went to Chatham to see, and who said 
 it was the most touching scene he ever passed through. 
 How nice your dear boy's companions coming to the 
 funeral ! Such things draw out the keenest but finest 
 feelings of our nature ; and when refined and purified by 
 higher views, O how good they are for us ! — Yours affec- 
 tionately, D. Brown.' 
 
 Our readers will remember the invaluable Christian 
 service which the Rev. Joseph Scudder rendered to 
 Alexander Brown on board ship during the few days 
 before his death. The following letters from Mr. 
 Scudder will be read with interest, owing to the 
 sacred relations between him and the Brown family. 
 It will be remembered how kind and sympathetic 
 both Mr. and Mi's. Scudder had been in their 
 affliction. 
 
276 DAVID BROWN 
 
 In the first letter he tells of the death of the first 
 Mrs. Scudder, the lady who had been in the ship with 
 Alexander Brown : — 
 
 '34 Vesey St., New York City, 
 'Feb. 11, 1871. 
 ' Rev. Doctor and Mrs. David Brown. 
 
 ' My dear Friends, — To-morrow will be a year since my 
 darling wife left me for a better home. My only apology 
 for not writing is, that for ten months I was not permitted 
 to write, or read, or speak. My friends had to obey the 
 physicians who had charge of my case. No one supposed 
 that I could recover, as the attack Avas on the brain. I should 
 gladly have joined Anna, but God seems to have some- 
 thing for me yet to do. As soon as our Foreign Board heard 
 that I was permitted to speak, they offered me a secretaiy- 
 ship. This I have not accepted, but have engaged to 
 work for them six months to make trial of my strength. 
 
 ' I need not tell you that Anna died as she lived ; or 
 rather, she did not die. For some days I had feared her 
 disease would terminate fatally. I was induced to leave 
 her, for the first time, on the night of the 11th February 
 for a little sleep. Friends who promised to watch most 
 carefully assured me there was no danger. Anna herself 
 felt confident that there would be no change. As I kissed 
 her good-night, she looked up with a smile and said, 
 " He giveth His beloved sleep." She closed her eyes 
 and dropped into a sweet slumber. Her brother and I 
 left her with the special request to be called if there were 
 a change. About one in the morning of the 12th we 
 were called, but she had gone to sleep, never to be dis- 
 turbed by human voice. Our friends, two or three of 
 whom had been watching closely, could not discover when 
 she breathed her last. She did not speak after I left her. 
 
 ' The past year, at least most of it, has been dark, very 
 dark, but at last I can recognise the hand of a friend. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS 277 
 
 My wife, I know, Avas a great sufferer, not from severe 
 pain, but from weakness. All the red particles of the 
 blood seemed to have dried up. Yet she did not wish 
 to die. I was quite ill at the time ; and when I would 
 express my fears that she could not last long, she would 
 answer, "The Lord will not take me when He sees how 
 much you need me." — " But, Anna, you should make pre- 
 paration. Friends will desire to know what you thought in 
 view of death." — " I have no preparation to make — that 
 was done long ago." She would partly realise, and con- 
 verse with her friends so happily, that at times I was 
 made to think I was mistaken — Yours affectionately, 
 
 ' Joseph Scudder.' 
 
 Two years later a second letter came, recording, in 
 the first place, a matrimonial romance, and in the 
 second a most gratifying incident connected with 
 Crushed Hopes crowned in Death. Owing to con- 
 tinued ill-health, Mr. Scudder had been obliged to give 
 up India and accept a small charge in the Hudson 
 Highlands : — 
 
 'Gleniiam, Dutchess Co., N.Y., 
 'Jan. 25th, 1873. 
 
 ' My dear Dr. Brown, — I am ashamed of my negligence, 
 and deserve a good scolding, I might pei'haps bring for- 
 ward some excuses, not to exculpate, but extenuate, my 
 fault. I will not, however, urge these. I plead guilty, 
 and beg for pardon. Your dear letter came to me when I 
 most needed it, and it has been read over and over again. 
 Now your Life of the late John Duncan, LL.D., proves 
 that you have not forgotten me. I have not, dear friend, 
 forgotten the sweet and blessed memories of the past ; and 
 I often think what happy times those whom we mutually 
 loved on earth are enjoying together in the Father's 
 great Home. 
 
278 DAVID BROWN 
 
 'But, I suppose, I must tell you something about myself. 
 As I continued to be, though bettei", still an invalid, 
 Anna's family and mine both urged me to find a companion. 
 And here is quite a piece of romance. Before I ever knew 
 the Anna whom you knew, I was engaged to my present 
 Anna. Her father would not permit his only daughter to 
 go to India ; and at the advice of Di*. Spencer, to whose 
 church she belonged, we were obliged to give each other 
 up. The American Board refused to send single men, and 
 God gave me the precious jewel you saw I loved. As 
 Anna DeWitt, a cousin of Rev. Dr. Thomas DeWitt, never 
 chose to marry, to whom else should I look for one who 
 would be willing to love and care for me .'' She cheerfully 
 undertook the charge of the poor invalid, and has taken 
 pretty good care of him ever since. . . . 
 
 ' So, you see, I have been settled as a pastor for a year. 
 I cannot say I like the work as well as thai of a missionary, 
 yet I begin to love it more and more. Writing sermons 
 in a new language (English) is not so hard a task as I 
 feared it would be, and I am fast settling down to the idea 
 that, after all, I was '' foreordained " to be a country 
 pastor. 
 
 'The Evangelical Alliance is to meet this year. Can 
 you not come, and dear Mrs. Brown too .'' No one on earth 
 should have such a welcome. I am sure you would love 
 this Anna, though ahe can never be to you what the other 
 was. 
 
 'Now let me tell you a word about the memoir of your 
 son. While attending the funeral of a young man, about 
 Alexander's age, the most promising son of a brother 
 clergyman of the Presbyterian denomination, a person 
 stepped up and introduced himself: " I wish at some time 
 to exchange with you," he said, " for I have a lady who 
 spends her summers in my congregation, and thinks that, 
 next to the Bible, Hopes crowned hi Death is the most 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS 279 
 
 precious book she possesses. She wishes to see you." I 
 shall, when opportunity offers^ try to make her acquaintance. 
 Accept plenty of thanks for Life of J. Duncan. His face 
 is familiar. I must have seen him. 
 
 ' And now, dear friend, may I ask for a continuance of 
 affection and interest, and especially for your loving- 
 prayers that God would bless and prosper me in my 
 comparatively new work, — Yours affectionately, 
 
 ' Joseph Scudder.' 
 
 The next two letters, from the Rev. Dr. Gordon, 
 Rector of Chetwynd, Salop, are inserted, partly as a 
 cordial tribute to Dr. Brown himself, and partly for 
 the testimony they bear to the very lofty spirituality 
 and remarkable preaching power of his brother. Dr. 
 Charles J. Brown. It has been matter of regret to the 
 biographer that he has been unable, from want of 
 documents, to convey an idea of the affectionate inti- 
 macy of the two brothers : — 
 
 ' Chetwynd Rectory, Newport, Salop, 
 ' 13th Nov. 188G. 
 
 ' My dear Principal Brown, — My hurried interview at 
 Ryde with you called up many hallowed and sweet 
 remembrances of the past. It was a matter of deep 
 regret that I could not see more of you, but I was obliged 
 to be off the next day to preach for my son-in-law. Lord 
 Theobald Butler, in Hants. The day after I had a similar 
 duty in Maidstone, Kent, and on the Friday also had to 
 rush off to Staffordshire, where I arrived only in time to 
 wash and go to the pulpit. 
 
 ' Well do I remember you in Brighton Place, Potter 
 Row, and afterwards in Forrest Road. 
 
 ' Of all the men of every denomination that it has been 
 
280 DAVID BROWN 
 
 my privilege to know, none, for deep spirituality and 
 subtle thought, equalled your sainted brother. I all but 
 worshipped him ; and if God has given me any success in 
 my work for Him, mainly is it due to the early teaching I 
 received at his lips. 
 
 ' If ever you come south again, pray take me in your 
 travels, and refresh my soul with your rich experience and 
 lore. 
 
 ^ I am continually on the wing trying to do God's work 
 where He may open a door. 
 
 ' With highest Christian esteem and regard, I remain, 
 very cordially yours, C, R. Gordon.' 
 
 ' Chetwynd Rectory, Newport, Salop, 
 'ISthNov. 1886. 
 
 ' My dear Principal, — What can I say to you for your 
 elevating, helpful, and invaluable letter received to-day ! 
 It is indeed many a long day since its like reached me. 
 Yes ! the conviction has often forced itself upon my mind 
 that there is a depth and power in educated Scotch piety 
 that makes it stand unrivalled. 
 
 * I must now tell you that I took the journey to Ryde 
 almost entirely to meet you, and to recall many holy 
 seasons of the past that never can be effaced from my 
 memory. 
 
 * Many years ago, when I was staying near Edinburgh 
 with our cousins the Tytlers of Woodhouselee, I was then 
 for a few weeks taking the duty for an old friend. Dean 
 Ramsay. I begged off one Sunday in order that I might 
 have confirmed the opinion as to the saintliness of your 
 brother's ministiy. It proved to be his quarterly sacra- 
 mental season, and he preached from the text, " What, 
 could ye not watch with Me one hour ?" It proved to be 
 one of the holiest, ablest, and most helpful productions 
 that I ever heard fall from the lips of a human being. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS 281 
 
 ' I do not hesitate to say that if any usefulness has been 
 given to me for over thirty years, it was founded on the 
 early teaching of your brother and men of like mind. In 
 these early days I could have all but worshipped him. 
 Then very precious were your own words at those 
 occasional services, when you used to run through from 
 Glasgow to help him. 
 
 ' For more than twenty-five years I have led a very 
 bustling life. Doors seem to open in every quarter for the 
 Master's message, and with most gratifying results. 
 
 ' But I must not be egotistic, though desperately selfish, 
 in wishing that you may come here some day, and that I 
 may be honoured with your presence at my ain fireside. 
 You may depend on it that the heartiest of Scotch 
 welcomes awaits you, if that happy day ever comes to 
 pass. 
 
 'I don't know Moule except by reputation. 
 
 ' I was senior curate to Hugh Stovvell, assistant to Capel 
 Molyneux, and with Hugh M'Neile's successor, Dr 
 Carpenter, in my earlier days. 
 
 'Your paper on "Scepticism" is deeply interesting, and 
 places the phases of modern thought in a very clear light. 
 It would have helped me when I preached in your city 
 before the British Association, by desire of Sir Lyon 
 Playfair. 
 
 ' With every sacred feeling of esteem and affection, I 
 remain, ever most cordially youi's, C. R. Gordon.' 
 
 There is not much in the following note from 
 Dr. Fleming Stevenson, congratulating him on his 
 Moderatorship (see Chap, xx.), but it shows the cordial 
 relations between Dr. Brown and one of the noblest 
 representatives of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. 
 Most deeply did he desire the welfare of that church, 
 
282 DAVID BROWN 
 
 and slad he was when the storm subsided, referred to 
 in Dr. Stevenson's letter : — 
 
 ' Orwell Bank, Rathgar, Dublin, 
 '%ih June 1885. 
 
 'My dear Sir, — I had proposed writing my congratula- 
 tions, and at the same time tardily acknowledging the 
 pleasure a letter of yours gave me some months ago, when 
 the post brought me your address at the opening of the 
 Assembly; and although it is now two o'clock in the 
 morning, I dare not delay another day. It has been a 
 sincere satisfaction to think of you in the high office of 
 Moderator, for which few have had the training of so ripe 
 an experience, and to which few could bring so much 
 honour. I trust you will not find it so hard and onerous an 
 office as with us, where it means about 104- special sermons 
 during the year. Your address interested me deeply by 
 its clear and broad survey and its noble pleading for the 
 missions of the Church. I thank you also for words that 
 touch myself Though undeserved, I prize them as I 
 would from few men. 
 
 'We are still in the agonies of our Assembly, and have 
 played the old tune upon the music question, this time 
 with variations, to the amusement and amazement of 
 our U.P. brethren, who were with us by a strong deputa- 
 tion. If the one heartbreaking struggle was over, we 
 would do well ; for, financially, we have had the best of 
 all our years ; and what is far better, we have a number 
 of most earnest men among our younger ministers, and a 
 spiritual movement of much intensity spreading among 
 several congregations, and marked by many quiet but 
 striking conversions. It is as yet far below ' b'^ in im- 
 portance, but we have had nothing like it since that 
 year. 
 
 ' We shall watch your year of office with deep interest, 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS 283 
 
 and pray that when the year is over many more may still 
 be given you for our Lord's great work. — Believe me, very 
 truly yours, W. Fleming Stevenson.' 
 
 In the course of correspondence with intimate friends, 
 Dr. Brown was in the habit of expressing his mind 
 freely on the sayings and doings of some of his own 
 friends and brethren with whom he did not always 
 agree. We have noted that even when he thought 
 that his brethren were pursuing mischievous courses, 
 he wrote of them in a friendly spirit, and with cordial 
 appreciation of services which they had rendered in 
 other ways. Perhaps his strongest language was 
 applied to what he considered the recklessness of 
 Professor Bruce ; at the same time, writing to a very 
 intimate friend, he upholds him as a believing man, 
 and recognises his service to evangelical truth in edit- 
 ing (with a clerical friend) the Hymn-Book of the 
 Free Church at enormous labour, and untold hours 
 for a year or two. For this, he said, we owe him a 
 debt which we cannot repay. ' But whereas the right 
 attitude of a believing critic of the New Testament 
 is the believing attitude, the sympathetic, that of 
 one whose spirit is steeped in the great and precious 
 truths he writes and lives on, he writes in the attitude 
 of an outsider, inquiring how far we have reliable 
 materials out of which Christianity may be extracted. 
 And dealing exclusively with the three Synoptic Gos- 
 pels, he finds in them not even the promise of the 
 Holy Ghost, save in one verse at the close of Luke. 
 And whereas Christ said, "I have many things to say 
 unto you, but ye cannot hear them now ; howbeit 
 
284 DAVID BROWN 
 
 when He the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide 
 you into all truth," etc., all that he leaves entirely 
 out, and therefore cannot touch the ripe, full-blown, 
 final Christianity in the Epistles. No doubt he 
 promises to take that next. But he may never live 
 to write more. A lady once got introduced to Dr. 
 Duncan to ask his opinion of Ecce Homo (then all 
 the rage), thrown as she was into sceptical company. 
 He took no notice of her question, but w^ent on with 
 what he was saying on something else. So, despairing, 
 she held out her hand to say good-bye. He kept hold 
 of her hand and said solemnly, ' Madam, you asked 
 my opinion of Ecce Homo ? All I will say is, that 
 the man who can write a whole book about Jesus 
 Christ, and tell you at the end of it that in another 
 book he will tell you his opinion of Him, is not a man 
 that we should have much to do with."* 
 
 Of the brilliant men, reared for the ministry of the 
 Free Church, and forming an important section of the 
 theological leaders of the day, several were his own 
 students. Dr. Robertson Nicoll, editor of the Expositor 
 and the British Weekly, Dr. Hastings, editor of the 
 Expository Times and the new Bihle Dictionary, and 
 Professor Salm.ond, editor of the Critical Review. For 
 all of these he retained the warmest affection, and 
 with all he remained on friendly terms to the end. 
 And many of our other brilliant men he knew well 
 and loved much. Most sincerely did he recognise 
 their personal piety, and acknowledge their earnest 
 purpose. But he had always a suspicion whereunto 
 their new views would grow. He rejoiced greatly 
 in the start of the British Weekly, but did not 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS 285 
 
 hesitate to tell the editor of certain disappointments. 
 Yet had he lived a few months longer, he must 
 have welcomed with all his heart and soul the power- 
 ful and noble efforts of Dr. Robertson Nicoll, not 
 only to uphold the glorious doctrine of propitiation 
 through the blood of Christ, as the very heart and 
 kernel of Christianity, but to insist on its perpetual 
 youthfulness and vigour when preached in the power 
 of the Holy Ghost, and to summon all ministers of 
 the Gospel to enter into the spirit of it, as what will 
 ever prove to be in all ages ' the power of God unto 
 salvation.** 
 
 Towards the Broad Church generally Dr. Brown 
 took up a much more discriminating attitude than 
 Mr. Spurgeon, whose criticism lost much of its force 
 from its wholly denunciatory tone. But in general 
 the affinities between Mr. Spurgeon and Dr. Brown 
 were of the very closest. The following trifle illus- 
 trates one property common to both — their sense of 
 humour : — 
 
 'NiGHTiNOALK Lane, ClaphaMj Mciy 11. 
 
 ' Dear Sir, — I have to apologise for having troubled 
 you twice about so small a matter as your autograph ; 
 but the fact is, I did not recognise Dr. David Brown 
 of Duncaiis Memoir as the David Brown of the Com- 
 mentary. Pray excuse me. I am getting to fear and 
 tremble about the Browns. You must know that the 
 President and Vice-President of our Baptist Union 
 are both Browns, and that the chairman of our London 
 Association is also a Brown. " Browns to right of us, 
 Browns to left of us," etc. God bless them all. — 
 Yours heartily, C. H. Spurgeon.' 
 
286 DAVID BROWN 
 
 On one occasion when Mr. Spurgeon had come to 
 Aberdeen to deliver a lecture, Dr. Brown found him in 
 the anteroom surrounded by a number of friends, full 
 of high expectation. A deacon of Mr. Spurgeon's, who 
 accompanied him, told Dr. Brown that if Mr. Spurgeon 
 had not a few quiet minutes his lecture would be a 
 failure. The room was accordingly cleared. But the 
 great preacher seemed in great distress of spirit, as if 
 he could not get along. Even in the hall, he was 
 manifestly out of sorts, groaning in spirit. Dr. Brown 
 told him that he would hold up his hands in prayer. 
 ' Thank you for that ! ' was the cordial answer. And 
 twice he repeated ' Thank you for that ! Thank you 
 for that ! ' The lecture turned out a very brilliant 
 one ; and when friends came at the end to express 
 their thanks and admiration, Mr. Spurgeon, turning 
 to Dr. Brown, remarked, ' You owe it all to him.' 
 
THE PRINCIPALSHIP 287 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE PRINCIPALSHIP 
 
 The office of Principal in the Free Church College 
 of Aberdeen having become vacant by the death of 
 Principal Lumsden, Dr. Brown from the very first 
 appeared beyond all doubt the man who should be 
 elected to the office. On the occurrence of vacancies 
 it is the practice of the Free Church to invite its 
 several Presbyteries and Synods to forward to the 
 General Assembly the names of those whom they re- 
 commend. This secures that should there be any 
 man of eminent qualifications who happens to be little 
 known beyond his own neighbourhood, his claims 
 shall not be overlooked. The Presbyteries and Synods 
 nominated Dr. Brown with hardly an exception. A 
 few votes were given for another professor ; but seeing 
 the church to be practically unanimous, he withdrew. 
 When the General Assembly met in May 1876, Dr. 
 Brown was elected, but not without opposition. 
 
 The opposition was of so frivolous a nature as hardly 
 to bear a deliberate statement of its grounds. A 
 Memorial to the General Assembly from a few Aberdeen 
 elders, not being in proper form, was stopped in transitu, 
 and never made public. The only reasonable ground 
 on which objection could be taken to him was his age, 
 
288 DAVID BROWN 
 
 for he was now seventy-three, and likewise the fact that 
 he had been somewhat discursive as a professor, and 
 much occupied with outside matters. No opposition 
 was offered to him in the Assembly, but a motion was 
 made for delay, so obviously foolish that it was re- 
 jected by 243 votes to 49. Thereafter Dr. Brown was 
 unanimously elected to the office. In speaking of him, 
 Dr. Adam said that since the death of Dr. Patrick 
 Fairbairn there was no minister in the church of a 
 higher theological reputation. His work upon the 
 Second Advent was a standard one, and his Commentary 
 was characterised by great research, peculiarly fine 
 exegetical tact, vividness and freshness of expression, 
 combined with a fragrance, unction, and spirituality 
 all the more acceptable because of its rarity in this 
 class of publications. Dr. Brown was undoubtedly a 
 man of refined taste, of gentlemanly appearance and 
 bearing — a thing of importance in one who was to 
 occupy such a position — and though advanced in life 
 he retained in a remarkable degree the freshness and 
 vivacity of youth. An Aberdeen elder, Mr. David 
 Mitchell, remarked that Dr. Brown had a reputation 
 as wide as Christendom as a theologian and a scholar, 
 and as the author of very important theological works; 
 but highest of all was the spiritual character of the 
 man. The Hall at Aberdeen required a man of faith 
 and prayer, a man who by his faith and prayer could 
 open the windows of heaven and bring down showers 
 of blessing on young aspirants to the ministry. 
 
 His duties as Principal, in addition to those of his 
 chair, which he retained for nine years after, were mainly 
 limited to presiding at the meetings of Senatus, and 
 
THE PRINCIPALSHIP 289 
 
 delivering the closinjj address at the end of the session. 
 On many of his public addresses he bestowed much 
 pains ; and if his ordinary prelections were somewhat 
 unfinished, and more colloquial than academical, his 
 carefully prepared opening and closing lectures were 
 alike comprehensive and complete in structure, and 
 clear and often beautiful in expression. At the age 
 of fourscore and ten, he chose as his subject 'The 
 changes in the religious life of Scotland that have 
 taken place during the present century.' It is full of 
 historical anecdotes and reminiscences, and more inter- 
 esting to general readers than a theological disquisition 
 would have been. 
 
 Here, for example, is an account of his father''s 
 tutor, Mr. Cowie, who afterwards became a most dis- 
 tinguished preacher in the Secession Church at Huntly, 
 but was deposed and excommunicated by his synod 
 for attending Mr. Haldane, and other ' missionary 
 preachers.'' No doubt Dr. Brown recalled him with a 
 tender reminiscence of the case of his own mother. 
 It is of him that George Macdonald has written so 
 warmly. 
 
 ' He was one of the holiest of men, and one of the two 
 greatest preachers of the Secession Church. Dr. Morri- 
 son, of London, who heard him when a young man, 
 bore this testimony of him : " He had no equal in the 
 pulpit of the north of Scotland. He could declaim, 
 and he could be pathetic. His style was somewhat 
 colloquial. He had studied human nature, and knew 
 how to approach it at every avenue. The power he 
 had over an audience was great beyond descrip- 
 tion. He could make them smile or weep. But he 
 
 T 
 
290 DAVID BROWN 
 
 never lost sight of the theme of the pulpit. All things 
 were by him counted loss for the excellency of the 
 knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. I have seen 
 hundreds dissolved in tears under his ministry." Such 
 a man could not be restrained from hearing Mr. Hal- 
 dane. But knowing what it would cost him, after the 
 decree of the synod against hearing preachers outside 
 of their own body, he thought he might compromise the 
 matter by not going inside, but sitting at the door. 
 Yet, in 1799, Mr. Cowie was summoned to appear 
 before the synod, and being asked if he had heard mis- 
 sionary preachers, he at first declined to answer, but in 
 a speech made on the occasion he voluntarily acknow- 
 ledged that he had heard both Mr. Haldane and Mr. 
 Rowland Hill, and said that he considered the con- 
 duct of the synod a species of persecution, and as join- 
 ing with the General Assembly in their opposition to 
 a great work of God. Other proceedings were taken 
 upon this concession, the result of which was that, in 
 April 1800, he was deposed from the office of the 
 ministry, and, with his whole kirk-session, formally ex- 
 communicated. In a letter to a friend, Mr. Cowie wrote : 
 " I have been excommunicated by men on earth, and 
 richly do I deserve to be for ever excommunicated by 
 Him whom I have offended more than any other. But 
 instead of frowning upon me when the world does. 
 He meets me in love." His people adhered to him 
 almost like one man, and his popularity was not 
 impaired."* 
 
 What a gulf lies between the spirituality of this 
 good man at the beginning of the century and that of 
 Professor Pfleiderer at its close, of whom Dr. Brown 
 spoke afterwards ! 
 
THE PRINCIPALSHIP 291 
 
 Of some of the minor details of social life on which 
 he dwelt in the closing part of the lecture, it might 
 be asked : 
 
 ' But what has all this to do with the religious life 
 of the country ? Much every way. Wherever there is 
 life there is movement, forward or backward. Ours is 
 a time of searching criticism in religion, as in every- 
 thing else. Nothing is now taken for granted. Every 
 question, even the deepest, is openly discussed, and we 
 are getting " new departures" on every subject. Theo- 
 logy is no exception, and those things that have been 
 most surely believed among us are now called in ques- 
 tion, and the most vital truths have to be made ffood 
 against the denial of them. In consequence of this, 
 uncertainty as to almost everything in religion exten- 
 sively prevails. There is also a spurious spirituality 
 which ought to be jealously watched. You will under- 
 stand Avhat I mean by a remark made to me by an 
 Edinburgh student of theology, who spent a whole 
 winter studying at Berlin. I asked him, after he 
 was licensed, whose lectures he chiefly attended. He 
 answered, " Pfleiderer's." " What ? Pfleiderer does not 
 believe in the supernatural at all." " Oh, but he 's 
 very spiritual." Well, I believe the spirituality he 
 means is a reality ; but it is the craving of his heart for 
 God, after he has lost faith in the facts and the truths 
 on which alone he can have satisfactory footing for 
 what he wants. Pfleiderer himself has been amongst 
 us as one of the Giffbrd Lecturers ; and, taking advan- 
 tage of that position, he has, with questionable pro- 
 priety, expounded his anti-supernatural Christianity to 
 large audiences. But it is a cheering sign of the sound 
 
292 DAVID BROWN 
 
 and healthy Christianity which is the life of Scottish 
 religion, that the most distinguished professors in the 
 three divisions of the Presbyterian Church have come 
 forward in reply to Professor Pfleiderer — Professors 
 Charteris, Rainy, Dods, and Orr. Yes, gentlemen, the 
 best scholarship in Scotland is on the side of evan- 
 gelical Christianity. But that is not enough. We want 
 life as well as truth, both in our chairs of divinity and 
 in our pulpits. And it is no small proof that the reli- 
 gious life of the country is decidedly on the increase, 
 that some of the best students in our divinity halls 
 are offering themselves as missionaries, and are will- 
 ing to go where, in the judgment of the church, 
 they are most needed. Nor do I know any better 
 sign of the rising spiritual life of the country than 
 the continually increased interest taken in foreign 
 missions in all the churches, while money is coming 
 largely in. 
 
 ' I want you, gentlemen, to watch this light in the 
 religious life of the country. The spiritual life of the 
 church has to be maintained, else it will decline, for 
 nothing can stand still. Your part, gentlemen, is to 
 throw yourselves into it, and take your own share in 
 your Master''s work. For this purpose you must cherish 
 your own spiritual life. For you cannot impart that 
 which you have not yourselves. Suffer not your theo- 
 logical studies to deaden your spirituality. Walk 
 closely with God in the midst of your studies, as great 
 Bengel (my favourite Biblical scholar) ever did ; so that 
 when his students met daily for their studies, and he 
 began with a few words of prayer, they said his prayers 
 were like morning dew. When you preach, remember 
 
THE PRINCIPALSHIP 293 
 
 that you go to the pulpit as ambassadors for Christ, 
 and as such let yourselves be nothing, and your Master 
 and your message everything ; your motto being, " He 
 must increase, but I must decrease.'" ' 
 
 Every opportunity was taken by Dr. Brown to 
 promote an interest in foreign missions ; and it is a 
 circumstance well worthy of record that in propor- 
 tion to its numbers, the Aberdeen Hall of the Free 
 Church has contributed more missionaries than any 
 other, and many of them very able and devoted 
 men. 
 
 This may be a suitable place for noticing how 
 Principal Brown interested himself in one or two 
 collateral subjects. The first we mention is especi- 
 ally in the fusion of King's and Marischal Colleges 
 and Universities into the University of Aberdeen. 
 
 It showed his independence of feeling and freedom 
 from local prejudice, that when the union of the two 
 universities was under discussion, he was strongly in 
 favour of it, although he could not but feel how in- 
 convenient in many ways the arrangement would be 
 which proposed to transfer the Faculties of Arts and 
 Divinity wholly to the Old Town. 
 
 On the 9th July 1858, just a year after his appoint- 
 ment as professor, the subject was discussed in the Free 
 Church Presbytery of Aberdeen. A motion unfavour- 
 able to the proposed amalgamation was submitted to 
 the Presbytery, in opposition to which Dr. Brown 
 moved — ' That this Presbytery is of opinion that the 
 Lord Advocate's Universities (Scotland) Bill, as 
 
294. DAVID BROWN 
 
 amended in the Committee of the House of Commons, 
 is fitted to advance the best interests of the Scottish 
 universities in general, and those of Aberdeen in par- 
 ticular, and do accordingly resolve to petition the House 
 of Lords in favour of the same.' 
 
 Dr. Brown made an elaborate speech on the subject, 
 showing that he had taken pains to master it in all its 
 bearings. Long before, as a graduate of Marischal 
 College, he had been a member of a committee of 
 graduates appointed to watch over the interests of that 
 college, when Joseph Hume, as Lord Rector, had re- 
 solved to hold a rectorial court ; and by appointment 
 of that committee he had corresponded with Principal 
 Lee, Dr. M'Crie, and others versed in the charters of our 
 Scottish universities, to get information affecting the 
 rights of graduates. Now that after an absence of full 
 twenty years he had returned to Aberdeen, he was able 
 to view the whole question free from local bias. And 
 the conclusion to which he had come was, that the best 
 thing for the Aberdeen colleges was to fuse them both 
 into one strong university. He had read up the history 
 of the colleges, and knew that for two hundred years 
 the present arrangement had been held to be unsatis- 
 factory, and many proposals had been made to effect a 
 change. More especially in 1747, when a similar union 
 of colleges was effected, with the happiest results, at 
 St. Andrews, an effort for union was made at Aberdeen, 
 but failed from adverse local feeling. In 1754, 1770, and 
 1786 similar attempts had been made, with a similar 
 result. During the present century three Royal Com- 
 missions had sat on the subject — the first called Sir 
 Robert Peel's Commission, of which Lord Rosebery, 
 
THE PRINCIPALSHIP 295 
 
 Lord Aberdeen, Lord Moncreiff, Dr. Cook, and Mr. 
 John Hope were members. The Commission was 
 unanimous in favour of union, with the exception of 
 the Duke of Gordon. In 1835, Mr. Bannerman, M.P. 
 for the city, brought in a bill to carry out this report, 
 but local feeling being against it, it was referred to 
 another Commission, with Lord Errol at its head. The 
 same conclusion was come to, but again local feeling 
 frustrated the recommendation. From this time 
 nothing was done till 1854, when Lord Aberdeen 
 was in power, and an impulse was given to the 
 movement through a scheme of union drawn up by 
 a committee of the Senates of both colleges, on 
 which Lord Elcho was sent by the Government to 
 report. 
 
 In 1856, the Lord Advocate brought in a bill 
 founded on suggestions he had obtained from both 
 colleges ; but this, though it went no further than a 
 partial union, seemed to meet with no more favour than 
 the schemes for entire fusion. At length, by the desire 
 of the county, the town, and the universities alike, a 
 third Commission was appointed in 1857 ; in their re- 
 port, in 1858, the members came to the same conclu- 
 sion, though the strength of local feeling allowed them 
 to propose only a partial union. All this made it plain 
 that, on its own merits, union commended itself to every 
 impartial judgment, and that the opposition, as the last 
 Commission said, ' appears to rest mainly on grounds 
 which we must characterise as more creditable to the 
 feelings than to the judgment of the opposing 
 parties.' 
 
 The great ostensible argument against any union was. 
 
296 DAVID BROWN 
 
 that it would interfere with vested interests, and like- 
 wise with the plans of the founders. But it was shown 
 that the ' foundatoures ' had not been treated with 
 much deference in the case of St. Andrews, first when 
 St. Mary's College was restricted to theology, and there- 
 after when St. Leonard's and St. Salvator's were united. 
 Sir Robert Peel's Commission had laid it down (and, it 
 may be added, subsequent commissions on endowed 
 schools have followed suit), that 'to attain the true 
 object for which literary and scientific institutions are 
 established, they must be accommodated to the several 
 ages through which they endure' ; and if this principle 
 was proceeded on in the case of St. Andrews, there 
 was much greater need, according to Sir Robert Peel's 
 Commission, to carry it into effect in the case of 
 Aberdeen. 
 
 The chief argument for uniting the two universities 
 was the interest of university education. As the 
 magistrates had said, in their memorial to Lord Aber- 
 deen in 1854, ' the whole establishment is depressed in 
 every department by the want of due encouragement 
 and support by the legislature.' ' We want new chairs,' 
 said Dr. Brown, ' we want retiring allowances, we want 
 philosophical apparatus, we want the means of provid- 
 ing an adequate museum, we want a botanic garden. 
 Will any one be bold enough to maintain that we 
 have any reasonable hope of getting all this, or that 
 it would even be reasonable to ask, that to any 
 adequate amount it should be given for each of our 
 colleges ? ' He concluded by expressing his regret 
 that so many of his brethren were opposed to his 
 views. He hoped they would come to see that they 
 
THE PRINCIPALSHIP 297 
 
 were the soundest for the interests of both collegiate 
 institutions. 
 
 In the Presbytery, fourteen voted against, and four 
 with Dr. Brown. But, as every one knows, the union 
 was carried into effect. And though there has been 
 both gain and loss, it cannot be doubted that the gain 
 has greatly preponderated. The united University of 
 Aberdeen has more than double the strength, double 
 the efficiency, and double the prestige of the two 
 separate establishments. It is worthy of note that in 
 an Appeal from the Aberdeen Universities Endowment 
 Association just issued (January 1898), the chief ob- 
 jects that are still in need of support include those 
 specified by Dr. Brown, (retiring allowances having 
 been provided), viz., new chairs and lectureships, a 
 botanic garden, laboratory and museum accommoda- 
 tion, and further provision for the library. Use and 
 wont had confined the ideas of many worthy men to 
 a very small conception of the purposes of a university ; 
 Dr. Brown, with higher ideas, desired such enlarge- 
 ment as should make that of Aberdeen worthy of the 
 name. 
 
 The great interest that he had shown in the pro- 
 posed fusion of the universities gave him an excellent 
 standing among university reformers, and led to his 
 being examined by the latest University Commission 
 on a point on which he felt a lively interest. It 
 was his desire that the members of the University 
 Council, the whole body of graduates, should have a 
 definite part in the appointment of professors. He 
 did not propose to confer on them the right to 
 elect ; but he thought that some such plan as that 
 
298 DAVID BROWN 
 
 followed in the Free Church in the election of profes- 
 sors might be advantageously adopted. According to 
 that plan (as already stated) each Presbytery and 
 Synod is invited to send to the College Committee the 
 names of the men whom it judges most suitable for 
 the vacant office. AVhen these lists are completed, 
 and it is ascertained for whom the greatest number 
 of nominations is given, the General Assembly (the 
 electing body) could not but be influenced by the 
 expression of the general mind of the church, although 
 it was by no means restricted in its choice by that 
 consideration. In like manner, it appeared to Dr. 
 Brown that if some such right of suggestion were 
 conceded to graduates, they would not feel them- 
 selves entirely shut out, and their interest in uni- 
 versity matters generally .would be increased. Any 
 arrangement that would contribute to keep up the 
 interest of graduates in the welfare of the uni- 
 versity, seemed to Dr. Brown worthy of all encourage- 
 ment. 
 
 Among the many public bodies which sent letters 
 of sympathy to the family of Dr. Brown at the time 
 of his death, was the Association for Improving the 
 Condition of the Poor. The Chairman of the Acting 
 Committee (Mr. A, O, Gill), remarked that Principal 
 Brown was one of the original founders of the Asso- 
 ciation, and was present at the first meeting in the 
 Music Hall in 1870, and had been a member of the 
 acting committee since 1873, 
 
 In 1875, when a society was formed for the Aid of 
 
THE PRINCIPALSHIP 299 
 
 Discharged Prisoners, he was elected a member, and 
 held office continuously till his death. 
 
 It may indeed be said that he was in active sympathy 
 with all the social and philanthropic movements of 
 the day that were in harmony with the spirit of the 
 Gospel. 
 
300 DAVID BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 LATER WRITINGS 
 
 The later writings of Dr. Brown, by which we mean 
 those published after he became a Professor, include 
 his book on the Restoration of the Jews, his Life of Dr. 
 Duncan, his Commentaries on Romans and Corinthians, 
 his latest book of all, On the Structure of the Apocalypse, 
 a few separate lectures and addresses, and a large 
 number of papers contributed by him to the Sunday 
 Magazine, the Expositor, the Expository Times, the 
 ThijiTcer, Youth, the Presbyterian and Reformed Review, 
 and other journals. 
 
 The work entitled The Restoration of the Jews: 
 the History, Principles, and Bearings of the Question, 
 though containing papers of earlier date, was not issued 
 as a volume till 1861. It is a remarkably learned, 
 clear, and convincing discussion of the whole subject, 
 amounting in the judgment of most to a settlement of 
 the question. The author shows a remarkable famili- 
 arity with the whole literature of the question ; begins 
 with the Pathers of the early centuries, and shows the 
 views of those of them that handled the subject; then 
 advances to the Reformation period, giving special 
 attention to the views of the Dutch divines of the 
 seventeenth century, and some of the English writers 
 on prophecy of the eighteenth. Then he comes to 
 
LATER WRITINGS 301 
 
 present times, and takes note of every important writer, 
 English and German, who has discussed the subject. 
 The clearness of his mind is shown in the pains he 
 takes to dissever two things that are often mixed up : 
 the idea of the conversion of the Jews as a nation 
 to Christ, and their subsequent return to their own 
 country ; and the theory of a restoration of the ancient 
 Hebrew economy, the rebuilding of the temple, and 
 the making; of Jerusalem again the centre of the 
 religious world, the headquarters of Christianity. 
 While he holds to the first, he wholly repudiates the 
 other. Many writers contend that this cannot be 
 done ; if you repudiate the restoration of the Jews to 
 their ancient position of God''s peculiar people, you 
 must reject their restoration to their country too. In 
 the view of some, when Christ came, the Hebrew people 
 had completed the function for which they were chosen ; 
 they had been providentially designed to prepare the 
 way for the Light of the World, and when He appeared, 
 that function being fulfilled, they could have no special 
 standing in the future. Dr. Brown dissents strongly 
 from this endeavour to deprive the seed of Abraham 
 of all special function in the future history of the 
 church. He founds mainly on the eleventh chapter of 
 Romans, where, notwithstanding that the middle wall 
 between Jews and Gentiles had been broken down in 
 Christ, it is contended that the receiving of them at 
 the last would be as life from the dead. He finds 
 that the Abrahamic covenant conveyed three gifts to 
 Abraham and his posterity — the land, the seed, and 
 the blessing. As to the land, it was undoubtedly the 
 property of the nation up to the time of Christ's 
 
302 DAVID BROWN 
 
 coming, though the right had been suspended by the 
 Babylonian Captivity. He finds that in Scripture two 
 things go together — faith and the land ; and vice 
 vej'.sd, unbelief and deprivation of the land ; or, to put 
 it alliteratively, Defection and Dispersion on the one 
 side, Reconciliation and Restoration on the other. 
 All idea of re-purchasing the land is out of the ques- 
 tion, for that would imply that God's gift of it to 
 Abraham and his seed as an everlasting possession was 
 absolutely annulled, and that the old condition which 
 attached the actual possession of it to faith, when 
 faith should return, was no longer valid. When the 
 Jews are converted as a nation they will return to their 
 land. Their conversion, resting as it will on a most 
 profound sense of sin and apprehension of divine grace, 
 will be to the Christian Church like life from the dead. 
 The conversion of Saul of Tarsus, and the life of noble 
 service of Christ that followed, was a foreshadow or 
 type on a small scale of what will result from the con- 
 version of the whole nation. And yet they shall be 
 on but the same foundation before God with other 
 believers in Christ, ' in whom there is neither Jew nor 
 Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, 
 Scythian, bond nor free.' 
 
 This little book is one of great ability. The his- 
 torical part of it presents a wide, comprehensive survey, 
 in which all the leading authors who have written on 
 the subject pass before us, distinctively and vividly 
 marked. The real state of the question is clearly 
 ascertained, and the arguments for and against fairly 
 and distinctly marshalled. Without repetition or con- 
 fusion of any kind the question is calmly but effectively 
 
LATER WRITINGS 303 
 
 discussed, and when we come to the end we feel that 
 all has been said that needed to be said, and we accept 
 thankfully the threefold conclusion : first, that looking 
 by faith on the crucified Nazarene, ' on Him whom they 
 pierced,' the Jewish nation will undergo a most remark- 
 able conversion ; second, that this return of faith will 
 bring to them the restoration of the land; and thirdly, 
 that it will be followed by a marvellous revival of the 
 whole Christian Church. 
 
 The Life of Dr, Duncan, issued in 1872, was received 
 with great interest and satisfaction as a successful 
 portrait, so far as a portrait was possible, of so extra- 
 ordinary a man. Dr. Newman, on receiving a copy, 
 expressed his cordial acknowledgments for the oppor- 
 tunity of making the further acquaintance of a man 
 ' whose devotedness of mind, and depth and indepen- 
 dence of thought, I have, from Mr. Knight's Colloquia, 
 already learned to respect and honour.' From a very 
 different point of view, the Rev. W. Carus wrote from 
 Winchester : ' I cannot say what delight and profit we 
 have had in reading your intensely interesting Memoir 
 of Dr. Duncan. What a marvellous man he was ! 
 And what lessons may we derive from his history and 
 remarks ! I quoted his conversion from atheism and 
 Socinianism to the faith of a little child, in a sermon I 
 preached lately at the Cathedral. It was of first-rate 
 use to me, and, I hope, to the hearers.' 
 
 The interest in Dr. Duncan, first aroused by Professor 
 Knight's Colloquia Peripatetica, and now increased 
 by Dr. Brown's biography, was so great that there 
 followed a volume of Dr. Duncan's sermons and 
 
304 DAVID BROWN 
 
 communion-table addresses, and also a volume of 
 reminiscences by the Rev, Dr. Moody Stuart. Dr. 
 Duncan had been long a member of Free St. Luke''s 
 Church, and Dr. ]\Ioody Stuart and he had enjoyed 
 much fellowship, not only on the subject of the Jews, 
 in which both had so deep an interest, but on many 
 theological and religious topics besides. It was de- 
 signed at first that Dr. Moody Stuart's reminiscences 
 should be incorporated with Dr. Brown''s biography ; 
 but, as it turned out, they would have unduly swelled 
 the book, while they were numerous enough and inter- 
 esting enough to form a volume by themselves. It was 
 far from being intended as a rival, and was published 
 separately with the hearty concurrence of both writers. 
 
 The Structure of the Apocalypse (1891) has prefixed 
 to it an introductory part of earlier date, consisting of 
 three articles or essays — the first maintaining the 
 canonicity of the book ; the second, its late date — not, 
 as some maintain, in the Sixties, but in the reign of 
 Domitian, about the end of the century ; and the third, 
 a vindication of the Apocalypse from certain contemp- 
 tuous strictures by the late Sir William Hamilton, 
 Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the University 
 of Edinburgh. The strictures of Sir William were 
 originally published in an article on University Educa- 
 tion in the Edinburgh Review. The Apocalypse was 
 far enough apart from University Education, and 
 would certainly not have been introduced in such a 
 connection had Sir William not been irresistibly dis- 
 posed to indulge in a tilt at theologians, ancient and 
 modern. The reply of Dr. Brown was originally pub- 
 
LATER WRITINGS 305 
 
 lished in the British and Foreign Evangelical Reviezc, at 
 the time when he was a minister in Glasgow. It is a 
 paper of consummate ability, and makes Sir William, 
 great scholar as he undoubtedly was, cut rather a 
 sorry figure. It dissects with the utmost calmness 
 and thoroughness every utterance alleged by Sir 
 William to have been made against the canonicity of 
 the Apocalypse, and every writer alleged to have made 
 it, showing his charges in both respects to have been 
 almost wholly destitute of foundation. It shows, for 
 example, with conclusive clearness, that Calvin and 
 Beza did 7iot ' deny the authenticity of the book,"* far 
 less ' denounce ' it ; that Scaliger and Casaubon did 
 riot commend Calvin for ' prohibiting the pastors of 
 Geneva from all attempts at its interpretation ' ; that 
 Calvin gave no such prohibition ; that even South, 
 whom Hamilton misnames * that great Anglican autho- 
 rity,' and who threw out the sarcastic gibe against the 
 Fifth Monarchy men of the Commonwealth, ' that the 
 Apocalypse either found men mad, or made them so,*" 
 owned its authenticity, by taking from it the texts of 
 several of his sermons. This paper is perhaps the 
 ablest, the most exact, and the most conclusive that 
 Dr. Brown ever wrote. It said little for the candour 
 and magnanimity of Sir William Hamilton that, after 
 this withering exposure of his inaccuracy, he should 
 have republished the accusations in his collected works 
 without taking any notice of the clear evidence sup- 
 plied in Dr. Brown's article that they had been made 
 hastily, and that in nearly every case the authorities 
 quoted did not bear out the charges alleged. Had he 
 candidly owned this, it might have been well to let the 
 
306 DAVID BROWN 
 
 matter drop into oblivion ; but inasmuch as the charges 
 still go forth to the world with all the authority of 
 Sir William Hamilton's great name, it was a needed 
 and valuable service to the cause of truth that Dr. 
 Brown rendered when he republished his Essay in his 
 volume on the Apocalypse. 
 
 As to the book itself, it is a literary phenomenon, as 
 being the production of a man in his eighty-eighth 
 year. The subject had been familiar to him nearly all 
 his lifetime. Though not equal to his other works in 
 power of thought and vigour of style, it is remarkable 
 as presenting a comprehensive view of the somewhat 
 complicated plan of the Apocalypse, and as giving the 
 result of a great deal of study in compact form and 
 definite language. Dr. Brown expressly and repeatedly 
 repudiated the intention of writing an exposition of 
 the Apocalypse. What he desired was to produce 
 nothing more than an A B C, as he called it, a sort of 
 elementary primer, as an introduction to more elaborate 
 commentaries. 
 
 The book is based on the thoroughly jyredictive char- 
 acter of the Apocalypse as an exposition of (1) 'the 
 things which thou hast seen'' (chap, i.); (2) the things 
 which a7-e (chaps, ii. and iii.); and (3) 'the things 
 which shall be hereafter"* (chap. iv. et seq.) in opposi- 
 tion to those writers who consider the book to indicate 
 merely the general principles on which the course of 
 the history of the church, and especially her conflict 
 with the powers of this world, was to be carried on. 
 Its fundamental position is, that the seven seals cover 
 the whole prophetic area of the book ; and that the 
 two septenaries — the seven trumpets and the seven 
 
LATER WRITINGS 307 
 
 vials — are but subdivisions or supplements of the seals. 
 Besides these, he finds a set of visions, not in septenary 
 form, designed to fill up some of their brief announce- 
 ments. The choral hymns, presenting a general re- 
 semblance to the chorus of Greek tragedy, are an 
 interesting and beautiful feature of the book, designed 
 to express the sentiments of a well-informed and godly 
 soul in noble forms of speech, sometimes anticipating 
 and rejoicing in the final triumph before it actually 
 occurs. The two great opponents of the church are 
 Rome pagan and Rome papal ; the doom of the one, 
 occurring early in the history of the church, is por- 
 trayed at the opening of the sixth seal, in terms and 
 by symbols so terrible as almost to amount to a de- 
 scription of the last judgment, but really denoting the 
 terrible convulsion that occurred, and the terrible 
 retribution that was inflicted, when the corrupt Roman 
 Empire was shivered and destroyed. The doom of 
 Rome papal is much later; it is connected with the 
 pouring out of the seventh vial, for Dr. Brown — 
 rightly, as we think — prefers the old word ' vial' to the 
 ' bowl *" of the revised version, ' vial ' being dignified by 
 antiquity and long usage ; while, at the best, ' bowl ' is 
 a somewhat undignified word. Then follows the vision 
 of Satan bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a 
 thousand years, which event Dr. Brown does not regard 
 as a symbol of the total cessation of Satanic tempta- 
 tion on the earth, but only as an indication that the 
 great enemy would no longer have an organised band 
 of followers to harass and persecute the Church of 
 Christ, such as he has had all these preceding years. 
 Then comes the resurrection of the martyrs — not a 
 
308 DAVID BROWN 
 
 literal or bodily resurrection of individuals, but the 
 revival of the principles for which the martyrs 
 testified, bringing about the triumphant progress of 
 the cause which was dearer to them than life itself. 
 The views expressed as to the spiritual character of 
 this resurrection are the same as those contained in his 
 book on the Second Advent. Then follows the release 
 of Satan, with the renewed organisation of a party on 
 earth hostile to Christ, and then the great battle, 
 which he regards as a battle of principles, not of flesh 
 and blood. 
 
 And here the symbolical character of the book 
 passes into the literal. The last judgment is unlike 
 all previous judgments in that it is not a judgment of 
 nations or of systems, but a judgment of individuals. 
 Small and great stand before God, and the great 
 final judgment takes place, whereby an everlasting 
 separation is made between the righteous and the 
 wicked. And then for the righteous comes the 
 everlasting glory, the marriage of the Lamb, and 
 the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth 
 rio-hteousness. 
 
 On the Commentaries on Romans and Corinthians 
 we need not enlarge. On the former we may recall the 
 judgment of Dr. Marcus Dods, already noted (p. 97), 
 and for the latter we may give the remarks of an 
 English journal which brings out its features very 
 correctly : ' Corinthians are annotated by Dr. David 
 Brown in his well-known, searching, instructive, and 
 inspiring style. As a commentator, the Doctor is to 
 the manner born. He has always a clear, firm grasp 
 of his subject, and he writes as one who really has 
 
LATER WRITINGS 309 
 
 something of value to communicate. He makes the 
 letters to the church at Corinth tell us their whole 
 secrets, unfold their hidden meanings, and discover 
 their latent beauties. The historical settings of the 
 letters, their local references, and their permanent 
 lessons, are all pointed out eloquently, impressively, 
 learnedly. There is a fascination, a courtesy, an 
 unction, a fervour about these notes which will make 
 them popular and profitable for years to come.' 
 
 Dr. Brown was a frequent contributor to the Sunday 
 Magazine while it was under the editorship of his 
 cousin, Dr. Guthrie. As Mr. Strahan, no mean judge 
 of literature, the publisher and general manager of the 
 journal, used to say, his papers were always good. 
 Most of them were on passages of church history, of 
 which he was very fond ; and as he held that at all the 
 church's most important eras, and in all the great 
 countries where she went through her conflicts, her 
 procedure was usually regulated by some powerful 
 individual mind, his historical papers very commonly 
 took the form of biography. And his gifts qualified 
 him for biography, for he could select the most charac- 
 teristic features of a historical character, and delineate 
 their development in an interesting way. For a con- 
 siderable time his attention was very specially turned 
 to one of the great heroes of the Reformation, of whom 
 very little was known to readers in general, but whom 
 he deemed worthy of one of the highest places in the 
 history of that period — the Polish reformer, John a- 
 Lasco. A nobler character, or one who made greater 
 sacrifices for the Reformed cause, he did not know. 
 
310 DAVID BRO^VN 
 
 For a considerable time he cherished a desire to write 
 his life in full. He thought that ' Englishmen should 
 have some interest in a foreign nobleman who sacri- 
 ficed the highest interests in his own country, and 
 laying his all at the feet of Christ, became a Protestant 
 preacher in another land ; who, when thwarted in the 
 great changes he was effecting in the sphere of labour 
 which he had chosen (East Friesland), and forced to 
 seek shelter in England, was quickly appreciated and 
 received with honour by Edward vi. and by Cranmer ; 
 who, at their desire, became superintendent of the 
 foreign congregations settled in London, French, Italian, 
 and Belgic (or German), over whom the young king 
 spread the broad shield of his royal protection ; who 
 occupied this difficult post to the high satisfaction 
 of all concerned ; and who, as long as Edward lived, 
 enjoyed his confidence and esteem."" On Calvinists and 
 Presbyterians, too, a-Lasco had special claims ; the 
 Swiss type of Protestantism, as distinguished from the 
 Lutheran, was cordially accepted by him. But the 
 project of an elaborate Life of John a-Lasco somehow 
 fell through, probably from want of encouragement by 
 publishers, and two papers in the Sunday Magazine 
 (March and ]May 1876) were all the tribute to that 
 great and good man he was able to render. The Life 
 of a-Lasco was subsequently written in German by a 
 very able man, the Rev. Dr. Dalton, long minister of 
 the German church at St. Petersburg, and one volume 
 of it was published in English, translated by the Rev. 
 Maurice J. Evans. It did not seem, however, to catch 
 the taste of English readers, and what Dr. Brown 
 wrote two-and-twenty years ago is still probably true 
 
LATER WRITINGS 311 
 
 — ' Jolin a-Lasco is scarcely known by name to ordinary 
 readers of church history.' 
 
 We have referred already to some of the lectures 
 and addresses which Dr. Brown published from time to 
 time ; and to papers in the Expositor^ the Preshyterian 
 and Reformed Review^ and other journals. His most 
 recent papers were contributed to the Expository Times, 
 in which journal he could not but feel a lively interest, 
 the accomplished and learned editor, Dr. Hastings, 
 having been one of his own students. It is an interest- 
 ing proof that long practice had made composition a 
 second nature to him, and indeed one of the main 
 pleasures of his life, that up to his last year, the ninety- 
 fourth, he was always at it. The last of his papers 
 appeared in the Expository Times for May 1897, only 
 two and a half months before his death. It is entitled 
 * A Rendering Revised.' It was suggested by a passage 
 in a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Maclaren, in his recent 
 volume. Triumphant Certainties, where the eloquent 
 preacher accepts the rendering of 1 John v. 18, 'He that 
 was begotten of God keepeth him.' In the Company 
 of Revisers Dr. Brown had fought a battle against 
 this reading, on the ground that nowhere is the expres- 
 sion ' begotten of God ' (exclusively a Johannine phrase) 
 applied to human beings. The rendering of the Re- 
 vised Version was adopted solely on manuscript autho- 
 rity, and to Dr. Brown it appeared that manuscript 
 authority could not stand against the uniform usage 
 of the New Testament. There is much of his old acute- 
 ness in this short paper, although having been practi- 
 cally blind when he dictated it, it is not so finished in 
 
312 DAVID BROWN 
 
 form as his usual writings. The subject had been 
 discussed by him elaborately in earlier articles, and on 
 the present occasion it was brought up simply to correct 
 Dr. Maclaren. That he should have done so was an 
 extraordinary proof of the keenness of his mind. Most 
 men as they turn old are fain to let many things go that 
 in the keener days of their youth they would have sprung 
 forward to correct; not so Dr. David Brown. The course 
 taken by the Revisers had distressed him for twenty 
 years, and pained him to the end. And in this last 
 paper, after reciting the reasons which he had urged for 
 a different course, in the last sentence, we suppose, he 
 ever wrote for publication, he submits a reiteration of 
 his protest : * But all this went for nothing with the 
 majority of the Company, for they had determined to 
 adhere to the reading of the Greek text which they 
 had adopted."" 
 
 He could still ' contend earnestly "* even in his ninety- 
 fourth year ! 
 
PORTRAIT OF PRINCIPAL BROWN, D. D. 
 
 IN HIS ROBES OF OFFICE AS MODERATOR OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 
 THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND 
 
MODERxVTOll OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY 313 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 MODERATOR OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBL-Y 
 
 It is not easy to account satisfactorily for the fact that 
 such a man as Principal Brown should have passed his 
 eightieth year before being called to the chair of the 
 General Assembly of his church. The reasons that 
 used to be given for passing him over were too trifling 
 to deserve notice. Possibly the reason that influenced 
 men most, without their being conscious of it, was a 
 certain youthfulness of manner, corresponding to the 
 sprightliness of his nature, that seemed hardly compat- 
 ible with the dignity and gravity of a Moderator. He 
 had so little of the habit of self-assertion, perhaps of 
 self-consciousness, and was so truly humble and con- 
 tented, that he placed no check on the outflow of his 
 thoughts and feelings, and took no pains to sustain the 
 role of a dignified father of the church. But this 
 ought not to have blinded the church to gifts and 
 services that well entitled him to its highest honour. 
 The present writer, who had always thought that he 
 was not sufficiently appreciated, felt constrained to 
 come forward on his behalf, although he very rarely 
 interfered in such matters. At a conference of ministers 
 and elders when the Moderator of next Assembly is 
 practically chosen, he proposed him for this office, in 
 
314 DAVID BROWN 
 
 November 1883. Twenty-six years before, he had sup- 
 ported his claim to a professor''s chair; and now, in 
 opposition to another, a most venerable and estimable 
 father, who was supported by Principal Rainy, Dr. W. 
 Wilson, and other men of great influence, he proposed 
 him as Moderator. When a vote was taken, the 
 supporters of Dr. Brown, though a minority, were so 
 numerous as to make it clear that it would be a blunder 
 to pass him over. He was accordingly unanimously 
 chosen as the Moderator of the following General 
 Assembly of the Free Church, which met in May 1885. 
 
 The opening address of the Moderator is always 
 listened to with great interest, as he is accustomed to 
 state his views on some of the great questions of the 
 day, and it is expected that he will put forth all his 
 power, and make the address worthy of the occasion. Dr. 
 Brown's address was an answer to the question, ' Watch- 
 man, what of the night ? "* It was a survey of the 
 condition of the whole church, in relation to the great 
 purpose for which the church had been instituted. 
 That purpose was twofold, missionary and pastoral. 
 ' Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to 
 every creature' — there was the missionary purpose. 
 ' Teachino; them to observe all thinjjs whatsoever I have 
 commanded you ' — there was the pastoral. 
 
 As to the missionary purpose, the church had been 
 woefully remiss, and though the spirit of missions had 
 revived during the century, the mass of mankind were 
 yet in darkness. Why was this ? Professor Jowett 
 had said that Christianity had spent itself in the early 
 ages, and had not now the power to bring whole com- 
 munities to Christ. With that view he could not agree. 
 
MODERATOR OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY 315 
 
 The power that had brought in the harvest of Pente- 
 cost was still promised to the church, and if the fruits 
 were far less than of old, this could only be due to the 
 want of faith, and prayer, and whole-hearted devoted- 
 ness on the part of the great mass of ministers and 
 people. 
 
 Turning to our own country, he asked, Why are so 
 many of the people in England outside the pale of the 
 church ? As to the working classes, they were not 
 inaccessible. ' Secularism has got in among them and 
 poisoned many of them, but few of them are at bottom 
 enemies of religion. ... If they are approached in a 
 kindly spirit, and with Christian sympathy, you will 
 find in them a quick response. There is a key that 
 can open every heart, and he who knows the loving 
 Christ possesses that key. 
 
 " Deep iu the human heart, crushed hy the tempter. 
 Feelings lie buried that grace can restore ; 
 Touched by a loving hand, wakened by kindness. 
 Chords that were broken will vibrate once more." ' 
 
 But what of the reading and thinking people of our 
 day ? ' There has been creeping upon them for many 
 years a sceptical spirit, which is eating into their whole 
 reliffious beliefs. . . . There seems to be a vague im- 
 pression that the great truths of religion have some 
 difficulty in holding their ground, and that more or 
 fewer of them will have to be given up. AVhen it 
 comes to this, the battle with unbelief is more than 
 half lost. For this creeping scepticism twines itself, 
 serpent like, about the heart that harbours it, pressing it 
 ever closer and closer, till it stifles all its healthy pulsa- 
 
316 DAVID BROWN 
 
 tions. Ah, yes, ye thoughtful students, let me speak 
 a word to you from my own experience, when I myself, 
 in early days, was like you a keen searcher into truth. 
 . . . And at whose feet are such restless spirits sitting ? 
 Is it your Matthew Arnolds, preaching to them in 
 beautiful English that there is something outside the 
 universe that makes for righteousness, but whether it be 
 aught more than a things he cannot say ? Or is it your 
 Herbert Spencers, who tell you that the universe cer- 
 tainly has a source, but what that is is an inscrutable 
 mystery, which to stand in awe of is the only true, the 
 sublimest of all worship ? But what says Frederic Har- 
 rison to this worship of the inscrutable ? He no more 
 believes in a living God than his friend Spencer ; but 
 he ridicules him for calling that a religion. It is a pure 
 negation, and a negation is not a religion, nor the 
 shadow of a religion. Excellent that, Mr. Harrison ! 
 '\^^ly, one may as well talk of worshipping the equator 
 or worshipping a gas ! '' 
 
 Inside the churches, he briefly noted the improvement 
 as to activity and force in the Church of England, 
 though there was much there to cause anxiety. ' For 
 myself, I cannot doubt tliat a great future awaits that 
 church — a church of noble principles, noble literature, 
 noble characters, noble capabilities ; but whether that 
 is possible, save in a reconstructed state, is to me very 
 doubtful.' 
 
 Coming to Scotland, and having no time to enlarge 
 on the Established and United Presbyterian Churches, 
 he confined himself to his own. Where was she ? and 
 what was to be her future ? He began his answer with 
 a word of warning. 
 
MODERATOR OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY 317 
 
 ' If this church continues to be blessed with a con- 
 verted and quickened ministry, bent supremely on the 
 winning of souls, zealous for the spiritual health of their 
 flocks, and eager for the extension of the Redeemer''s 
 kingdom over all lands, it will never die. . . . But how 
 stand we now ? Well, in some things we are greatly 
 in advance. The scholarship of our young ministers 
 and their general culture are certainly superior, and in 
 these days we need all that we can have of it if we 
 would keep our ground and adequately meet the wants 
 of the time. Consecrated learning in every depart- 
 ment is one of the best gifts which the church can lay 
 at the Master's feet, and will command the respect of 
 the most indifferent. But, let it be cultivated for its 
 own sake, and in the pulpit it will prove a poor substi- 
 tute for spiritual power. . . . The truths that out of 
 a full heart go straight to the conscience, that produce 
 broken hearts and weeping eyes, and that point the 
 anxious soul to the Lamb of God that taketh away 
 the sin of the world — these are the truths that God 
 specially owns. There is a tendency at present to tone 
 down the sharp features of those saving truths which 
 the world cannot receive, and to represent the Kingdom 
 of God — which except a man be born again he cannot 
 see — as a kind of sublimated humanity, or the natural 
 man with a thin veneering of Christianity. If such 
 shall ever be the preaching of our pulpits, the effect 
 will soon be seen in a waning church, decreasing 
 numbers, and failing resources ; for the light will have 
 gone out of our golden candlestick, and He that walketh 
 in the midst of these being no longer there, our house 
 will be left unto us desolate. But, Fathers and brethren, 
 
318 DAVID BROWN 
 
 I hope better things of this church of ours, though I 
 thus lift my warning voice.' 
 
 But he was not yet quite done with his warning. 
 He was concerned for a tendency to disparage 
 the Bible, while high regard was cherished for its 
 truths. 
 
 'Rest assured, my younger brethren, that whatever 
 uncertainty is thrown over the books of the Bible will 
 in the end attach to the truths which they teach. 
 They talk nowadays of the Gospels as but a collec- 
 tion of the best traditions of the life and teaching of 
 Jesus Christ, which industrious caterers were able to 
 put together out of such fragments and recollections 
 as were floating about ; requiring therefore to be care- 
 fully sifted by us. And the theory which lies at the 
 bottom of the very learned article " Gospels,"" in the 
 Encyclopcsd'ia Britannka, and which seems to captivate 
 some scholars, is, that only so much of the Gospel 
 history as is attested alike by the three Synoptic 
 Gospels has the fullest authority; all else being less 
 certain. In that case, what conclusive evidence have 
 we for the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Lord, 
 recorded in only two of the Gospels, and for almost 
 anything in the priceless fourth Gospel, most of which 
 is peculiar to itself? At this rate, all that we can 
 certainly know of the Person and work of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ is reduced to a set of dissolving views, or 
 the mere sentiment of Christianity, and even this gets 
 melted into that thin, ill-concealed Unitarianism, which 
 runs through much of the volume I referred to before, 
 the Scotch Sermons.'' 
 
 Yet while carefully guarding the old truths and the 
 
MODERATOR OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY 319 
 
 old vehicle in which they are conveyed, we must care- 
 fully note the character of the age. 
 
 ' We are living in transition times. Great changes 
 are coming over the country in almost everything — 
 political, religious, social, artistic. The discoveries of 
 science are astounding, and the theories they give rise 
 to are, some of them, fatal to all religious belief. But 
 while this will, I believe, redound in the end to the 
 honour of all revealed truth, it will force us to enlarge 
 our conception of the varied ways in which the same 
 truths may be loyally held and expressed, so as not to 
 be enslaved to the precise form of speech handed down 
 by tradition from our honoured fathers, nor yet bound 
 to keep up every trifling usage of their times — times 
 very different from ours — provided there is no religious 
 principle at the bottom of it. I know that here I 
 touch on tender ground. But to give now simply 
 my own private opinion — an opinion, however, of half 
 a century's duration, and now more firmly held than 
 ever — my judgment is, that in everything vital nothing 
 must be yielded, but everything held fast, even to the 
 death ; but in things not vital — things that in no 
 degree affect the essentials of our faith and worship 
 as Presbyterians — our true wisdom will be from time 
 to time to make such partial adjustments as to the 
 staunchest and most intelligent friends of the church 
 seem wise, desirable, and almost necessary. The church 
 that will do this, I venture to say, supposing it other- 
 wise sound, will live on ; but the church that insists on 
 upholding every usage and every way of procedure 
 which it has inherited from former days, even thouo-h 
 these have nothing to recommend them but their 
 antiquity, has in it, I fear, the seeds of decay.' 
 
320 DAVID BROWN 
 
 Finally, in trying to rouse the church to the high 
 demands and noble prospects of the times in which 
 we lived, especially in the field of missions, he found 
 just three things wanting to make the desert blossom 
 as the rose. 
 
 ' First, a confident faith in the promise, " I will give 
 thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the utter- 
 most parts of the earth for thy possession."" Second, 
 importunate and unceasing prayer for its speedy fulfil- 
 ment. And third, a more resolute determination than 
 ever to go in and possess the promised land. . . . 
 O blessed Master, wilt thou not breathe upon this 
 church of ours the power of that Jaith which over- 
 cometh the world, of that importunity which will give 
 thee no rest, and of a fixed resolve to take vengeance 
 on ourselves for past unfaithfulness, past niggardliness, 
 past self-indulgence in this matter. Awake, awake, 
 put on strength, O arm of the Lord.' 
 
 All the more was this attitude called for in view of 
 the perils surrounding us. 
 
 ' Do we not see at this day all Europe armed to 
 the teeth ? . . . Besides this, Nihilistic enemies of all 
 government — haters of righteousness, and peace, and 
 industry, and wealth, themselves desperate and bent 
 on the wreck and ruin of all society ? . . . While old 
 Romanism fights as usual for its own hand, intent only 
 on its own supremacy ? 
 
 ' But when things come to the worst — " men's hearts 
 failing them for fear, and for looking after those things 
 that are coming on the earth '" — we know what the 
 end shall be : " At evening time it will be light." The 
 powers of the world may make war upon the Lamb, 
 
MODERATOR OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY 321 
 
 but the Lamb shall overcome them,'" and " the kingdom 
 and the dominion under the whole heaven shall be 
 given to the people of the saints of the Most High." 
 One thing only will then be wanting, — the coming of 
 the Bridegroom, zcithoid ichose personal Presence "the 
 Bride, the Lamb's wife," can never he satisfied. "Even 
 so Come, Lord Jesus ! " ' 
 
 We have given a somewhat copious summary of this 
 address, not only as containing Principal Brown's own 
 sentiments on some of the most important topics of 
 the day, but as a remarkable specimen of vigour, dis- 
 crimination, and appreciation of the times, on the part 
 of a man who was nearly eighty-one years of age. No 
 trace of failing energies can be found in it. Both mind 
 and soul are in full play. The conservative and the 
 liberal in theology are finely balanced. The features 
 of the age are clearly seen, and its legitimate demands 
 frankly owned, while all that is vital in God's revelation 
 of truth is most firmly maintained. The spirit of the 
 address is not ' Rest and be thankful,' but 
 
 ' Onward, Christian soldiers. 
 Marching as to war ; 
 Jesus Christ, your captain. 
 Going on before.' 
 
 The hoary veteran waves his sword in the direction of 
 the foe, and urges his younger brethren to an un- 
 wearied contest with all the powers of evil. 
 
 Of the other duties of Moderator — opening all the 
 diets of the Assembly with prayer, maintaining order, 
 addressing deputations and representatives of other 
 
DAVID BROWN 
 
 churches, presiding at breakfast entertainments, de- 
 livering a closing address, and, throughout the follow- 
 ing year, opening churches, halls, and bazaars, preaching 
 anniversary sermons, and acting generally as the re- 
 presentative of the church on public occasions — there 
 does not seem to be need for any special record. 
 
 It may be noted here that on occasion of his filling 
 the chair, he was presented with a testimonial, amount- 
 ing to seven hundred guineas, in token of the esteem 
 and good wishes of his friends. This gift was presented 
 to him, in name of the contributors, by a distinguished 
 elder of the church, Mr. Francis Brown Douglas, 
 formerly Lord Provost of the city. 
 
PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC 323 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC 
 
 FiioM the difficulty of arranging this biography in 
 strictly chronological order, our notices of Dr. Brown"'s 
 personal and family life have necessarily been some- 
 what detached and casual. For this defect we will 
 now endeavour to make up. 
 
 Of his seven children, six were born at the Ord. 
 One died in infancy ; of Alexander, the eldest son, 
 we have made special mention. The eldest daughter, 
 Margaret Dyce, was married in the year in which her 
 brother died (1860) to David Stewart, manufacturer, 
 now Sir David Stewart of Banchory House. Mr. 
 Stewart filled the office of Lord Provost for two suc- 
 cessive terms of three years, and was so popular that 
 he might have filled it again had he agreed to stand. 
 He likewise contested the representation of the city in 
 Parliament in 1895 in the Liberal-Union interest, in 
 opposition to the Right Hon. James Bryce, but was 
 unsuccessful. The beautiful estate of Banchory, on the 
 banks of the Dee, was associated in more ways than 
 one with the college of which Dr. Brown was Principal. 
 Its former proprietor, Mr. Alexander Thomson, a 
 gentleman of high Christian character and culture, 
 
324 DAVID BROWN 
 
 had always been a warm friend of the Free Church 
 College at Aberdeen, and on his death, besides leaving 
 other benefactions, had instituted aLectureship designed 
 to promote the alliance of science and religion. Sir 
 David and Lady Stewart have a numerous family, two 
 of whom are married. 
 
 Jane Charlotte, the third daughter, married James S. 
 Fyfe, merchant in ]Manila, and had four children. 
 She died in 1882, and her husband in 1883. All the 
 children survive, and two reside at Aberdeen with their 
 aunt, ]Miss Catharine Hannah Brown. David Dyce, 
 the only other son, having chosen the medical pro- 
 fession, is now a well-known homoeopathic physician 
 in the west end of London. He married a daughter 
 of the late Sir William Coote Seton, Bart., of Pit- 
 medden, and has one son. Hannah and Meredith, 
 the unmarried daughters, devoted themselves with most 
 exemplary aifection to care for their father after their 
 mother's death in 1879. A few years ago, Meredith took 
 up an important philanthropic work in London, and as 
 the head of the 'Shaftesbury Institute' in Harrow 
 Street, Lisson Grove, carries on one of those blessed 
 undertakings which seek to blend the Christian and 
 temporal welfare of the people — caring for the young, 
 giving a new chance to the lapsed, in many varied ways 
 aiming at their good, and always taking care to build 
 on the Gospel foundation. During these years the 
 care of their father naturally devolved mainly on 
 ZVIiss Hannah Brown ; and when we think of the needs 
 of one who latterly was practically blind and deaf, 
 and for a short time frail and sickly, it will be seen 
 how much she had to do, and it is but justice to her 
 
PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC 325 
 
 to say how carefully and patiently and lovingly she 
 did it all. 
 
 It is easy to infer from the character of David 
 Brown, in what way he and his like-minded wife 
 would bring up their children. In their case there 
 would be no awful gulf between parent and child. It 
 was a sunny home, radiant with love and tenderness, 
 where one of the chief aims was to draw out the 
 affections and direct them into right channels ; where 
 instinct and the Bible alike taught the parents that 
 nothing; could thrive but on a foundation of righteous- 
 ness and in an atmosphere of love, so that to build 
 on that foundation and to create such an atmosphere 
 was their constant endeavour. Next to the Bible, as 
 we have seen, they found the better class of our 
 Christian hymns of great use in moulding the infant 
 mind, and filling it with holy associations. Naturally, 
 the need of redemption would be the great funda- 
 mental lesson ; and the marvellous love of God in 
 sending his Son to seek and save the lost, the unfailing 
 inference. On all that was essential in moral conduct, 
 the greatest stress would of course be laid. In en- 
 forcing the ' Thou shalt nots ' of the Decalogue, the 
 bridle was held with no slack hand. But the children 
 were not embarrassed by hosts of interdicts on every 
 given subject, great or small. Enough of liberty was 
 left them to let them feel that, in minor matters, they 
 had to realise their own responsibility, and in riper 
 years to decide and act for themselves. 
 
 In their early days. Dr. Brown was the companion 
 of his children both in work and in play. In Glasgow 
 the school holidays were usually spent at some place 
 
326 DAVID BROWN 
 
 on the Clyde, often in the island of Arran, Dr. Brown 
 returning to town on Saturdays to preach on Sundays, 
 and escaping again to the country on the Mondays. 
 For himself he had much enjoyment in his steamboat 
 excursions up and down the Clyde, for they gave him 
 an opportunity of becoming familiar with the details 
 of its beautiful scenery, which he greatly enjoyed. At 
 other times, boating and fishing and roaming up hill 
 and down dale, for he was always a great walker, were 
 favourite recreations. The health of old and young 
 was thus promoted, and along with it, freedom and 
 joyousness of family intercourse. 
 
 Family outings were kept up, more or less, to the 
 end. He had several of his family with him when he 
 established the stations at Interlaken and Lucerne, and 
 again when he visited the continent in 1881. Another 
 time he supplied the Free Church at Braemar for six 
 weeks in the absence of the minister, and two succes- 
 sive seasons he supplied Innellan in the same circum- 
 stances, living with his family in the manse. Another 
 season the Earl of Aberdeen (Lord Haddo) placed at 
 his disposal his factor's house, which he occupied for 
 two months, his lordship desiring to have him near 
 him that he might enjoy that Christian fellowship and 
 Biblical study in which he delighted. Another family 
 excursion was directed to the island of Skye, with 
 StafFa and lona and other parts of the west coast ; 
 and in his latest years he found very enjoyable summer 
 quarters in the little town of Stonehaven, a few miles 
 south of Aberdeen. For several successive seasons he 
 bent his footsteps thither, till failing strength forbade. 
 Stonehaven is a pleasant little town, nestling round 
 
PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC 327 
 
 a bay formed by an opening in the cliffs that guard 
 the nortli-eastern coast, and in stormy weather baffle 
 the fury of the east wind. On the southern cliff the 
 ruins of the great castle of Dunnottar are yet to be 
 seen, and the Wliigs"" Vault, where so many of the 
 Covenanters were stifled to death ; the churchyard of 
 Dunnottar recalls ' Old Mortality,' as Sir Walter Scott 
 saw him at work, repairing the tombstones of the 
 honoured dead. The banks of two little streams, 
 the Carron and the Cowie, invite one to pleasant 
 strolls ; or he may pursue his walk to the romantic- 
 ally situated ' old kirkyard ' of Fetteresso, one of the 
 quietest and sweetest resting-places for the dead that 
 could be found. Dr. Brown was fond of walkinc^ to the 
 pier, watching the fishermen drawing in their nets, and 
 would drop a word about the fishermen of Galilee and 
 their Lord. When too deaf to hear at a distance, 
 he had a chair placed in church on the platform near 
 to the minister, that if it were possible he might hear 
 him, and so enter into the services of God's house, 
 which he always loved and prized, and from which 
 he was never absent as long as it was possible for 
 him to go. 
 
 On the 30th July 1879, eighteen years before his 
 own departure. Dr. Brown sustained an irreparable 
 loss in the death of his wife. Her eyesight had been 
 gradually giving way, and in 1876 she underwent an 
 operation which was but partially successful, and the 
 amount of sight which she was able to regain as the 
 result, was so limited, and continued to decrease so 
 steadily as the years went on, that her spirits were 
 sensibly affected. In the trying spring of 1879 she 
 
S28 DAMD BROWN 
 
 caught cold, which, instead of passing off as at other 
 times, caused a disorder of the system, and confined 
 her to bed or to the sofa for several weeks. Rallying 
 a little, her vigorous spirit strove to show itself equal 
 to her old wav of life, for she had still the same interest 
 in everything as before, but in vain. In July, shortly 
 before she was to have gone to the country, it was 
 suddenly perceived that her memory had failed her ; 
 her appetite also gave way, and great weakness came 
 on, followed by paralysis of the left side. For the 
 few following days, she had ups and dovs-ns, and her 
 husband and children were kept in suspense between 
 hope and fear. One Sunday evening she had a remark- 
 able return of consciousness and clearness; they all 
 stood about her bedside singing such hymns as ' Sweep- 
 ing through the gates,' ' Sa\'iour, more than life to me,"* 
 and ' Jesus paid it alL ' In this last hymn when they 
 came to the words : 
 
 ' ^VTien from mv dying bed 
 
 ]SIy rariKomed soul shall rise. 
 Then '"Jesus paid it all" 
 
 Shall rend the vaulted skies ' : 
 
 she said aloud, ' How beautiful ! Jesus paid it all ! 
 You must sing that again at worship, and let the 
 nurse and the servants hear how free the salvation is."* 
 Though she lingered a day or two longer, these were 
 about her last conscious words. On the Wednesday 
 afternoon, SOth July 1879, she breathed her last, so 
 peacefully, that only a slight change on the face 
 showed that she had entered into her rest. The 
 op pres sed and troubled expression that had marked 
 the period of her sufferings passed away, and a sweet 
 
PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC 329 
 
 calm rested on her face, symbol of the tranquillity 
 into which her spirit had passed. 
 
 Of the esteem in which ^Irs. Brown was deservedly 
 held by her Christian friends, many testimonies came 
 with the letters of sympathy which flowed to her 
 husband and family. A single sample, in a letter to 
 one of the daughters from a lady of a different com- 
 munion, must suffice : — 
 
 ' She was one I always liked to go to see,, for she was 
 ever kind, and I was always refreshed by talking with 
 her of the Lord who by His Spirit bound us together 
 in the wondrous fellowship of the One Body. . . . How 
 blessed to think that she was so long a witness here for 
 Christ, and sustained your beloved Father in his testimony, 
 specially lately when he stood forth so blessedly for the 
 Word of God. She spoke of that work with such Christ- 
 like feeling when I last saw her. . . . How blessed it is 
 to weep with those that weep, and to remember that 
 every tear you shed is marked by Jesus, and that he wept 
 with Man,' and Martha for their brother I ' 
 
 During the years of her illness, her husband passed 
 through times of manifold strain. In 1876, he was 
 made Principal, with the cordial approval of the 
 church at large, but under the opposition of a knot 
 of local objectors, sufficient to make the situation 
 somewhat uncomfortable. In 1S77-7S, he was immersed 
 in all the troubles of tbe Robertson Smith case ; and 
 from 1870 he had been in office as a New Testament 
 Reviser, in itself a position of great responsibilitv 
 and anxiety, and entailing frequent absences from 
 Aberdeen. When to these and the ordinarv cares 
 of his professorship there was added the long illness 
 
330 DAVID BROWN 
 
 of his wife, ending in her death, after many changes 
 of hope and fear that kept the spirit in a perpetual 
 unrest, it might have seemed impossible for a man of 
 seventv-six to stand such a complicated strain. His 
 demeanour under it all was very remarkable, and shows 
 how well his spirit had been disciplined, and how truly 
 he was upheld by the everlasting arm. 
 
 The affection between him and his wife had been 
 uniformly of tlie warmest kind. Often did he speak 
 of his fortv-three years of cloudless sunshine. Her 
 remarkable intelligence had fitted her for being his 
 counsellor in all the questions which he had had to 
 consider ; he never acted witliout taking counsel with 
 her. She had been his fellow-labourer in delicate 
 pastoral work ; the change undergone by Lady Aber- 
 cron)bv of Forglen before her death, while Dr. Brown 
 was minister of the Ord, was due as much to her 
 instrumentality as to his. "When she died, his heart 
 was stirred to its utmost depth. INIany a visit he 
 paid to the chamber of death ; most tenderly he 
 stroked the cold hand and the cold face. At the 
 grave he was unable to hold the cord that should 
 have fallen to him. For long after, he paid a weekly 
 visit to the grave. 
 
 But he did not come home to mope. He was in 
 a verv tender frame at first, and dull ; but he braced 
 himself for his duties and responsibilities, and tried 
 to grapple with them as they came on. He recognised 
 this trial and all his trials as the appointment of God, 
 and bereaved and weakened as he felt that he was, 
 he went on, trusting to that strength which is made 
 perfect in weakness. He was always brave, ready to 
 
PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC 331 
 
 face what was painful or disagreeable, not flinching 
 from mental struggles ; acting in tlie spirit of the 
 pagan poet, only refined and fortified by Christianity : 
 
 'Tu lie cede nialis^ sed contra audentior ito.' 
 
 This bravery of spirit was never shown by him more 
 remarkably than now. Nor did he see any reason for 
 giving up his interest in any of the ordinary affairs 
 in life that had hitherto given him pleasure, or for 
 falling into the life of a hermit. He had always 
 found in his work a genuine pleasure and a healthy 
 excitement, and, though not in the same degree, he 
 knew that it would be so still. His old cheerfulness 
 returned in a remarkable measure. People who knew 
 what he had lost wondered to find him so like his 
 old self. Certainly this was not due to want of feel- 
 ing, but to that remarkable self-control that checked 
 the excess to which grief might naturally have run, 
 because there was still work for him to do in the 
 world ; there were still friends whose life he was 
 called to brighten ; there was a sphere for faith to 
 show her power to transform trouble and darkness 
 into light and joy ; and there was the sure and certain 
 hope of reunion in a better world, where light would 
 fall on the mysteries of life, and God would wijje the 
 tears from every eye. 
 
 Of the outer events of Dr. Brown's life, beyond 
 what has already been noted, there is not much to 
 record subsequently to the death of Mrs. Brown. It 
 may be noted that before that, in 1872, his University 
 tardily recognised his literary merits by conferring on 
 
332 DAVID BROWN 
 
 him the honorary degree of D.D. In 1885, the year 
 of his jNIoderatorship, he was presented with a marble 
 bust, subscribed for by his friends, at a public meeting 
 presided over by Sir William (then Lord Provost) 
 Henderson, ' as a mark of their appreciation of the 
 services he has rendered to the Christian church, and 
 of their affection and esteem for him as a friend and 
 citizen."* The bust occupies a conspicuous place in 
 the hall of the college with which, as Principal and 
 Professor, he was connected forty years. 
 
 Another very interesting incident took place in 1894, 
 when the King of Servia bestowed on him the decora- 
 tion of Knight Commander of the Royal Order of St. 
 Sava. This out-of-the-way, but on that account more 
 notable, honour came through a brother of Sir Kenneth 
 Mackenzie of Gairloch, who was in the service of his 
 Majesty. He had got Dr. Brown to adapt his Com- 
 mentary on the Gospels for translation into the 
 language of the Servian people, to whom he deemed 
 that it would be a very great blessing. The honour 
 was bestowed in recognition of his services in this 
 matter. 
 
 And lastly, in January 1896, on a notable academical 
 occasion in Aberdeen, the inauguration of the Mitchell 
 Hall and Tower in ]Marischal College, he was present 
 with a host of notables, to receive the honorary degree 
 of LL.D. Among those who were honoured on this 
 occasion was a relation of his own, a gentleman of 
 great public spirit and Christian activity, Mr. William 
 Ferguson of Kinmmidy, one of whose forefathers had 
 been married to a daughter of William Brown, the 
 Secession minister of Craigdam. 
 
PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC 333 
 
 We have recorded the principal facts of his life, 
 and there is little need for a special portrait of his 
 character. The disappointments he suffered in his 
 youth in not obtaining a settlement in the ministry, 
 were met in the brave spirit which we have seen him 
 manifesting at the death of his wife ; nor did his 
 failure to find a settled home interfere with his dili- 
 gent application alike to his work and to his studies. 
 In student days he had found himself disposed to late 
 hours in the morning ; finding the habit hurtful, he 
 determined to conquer it, and ever after was an early 
 riser. He had the power of applying himself earnestly 
 to any author he might be studying, and he had a 
 retentive memory for what he read. He was fond of 
 general literature, and gave to it such portions of his 
 time as heavier avocations allowed. He had a poetical 
 nature ; in his youth he made some verses of no mean 
 merit, and all his life some of the poets were among 
 his favourite authors. When his son was writing his 
 essay on English Christian poets for the Missionary 
 Society of the University of Glasgow, he was greatly 
 interested, and read and studied with him some of 
 the authors with whom he dealt. 
 
 Of our older poets, Shakespeare and Milton were 
 his great favourites, and of those more recent, Tenny- 
 son and Keble. To these might be added George 
 Herbert, Coleridge, and Longfellow. The In Me- 
 moriam was endeared to him because he found in it 
 so much that came home to him after the death of 
 his son. Keble's Christian Year was a constant 
 delight; he used to carry a copy of it with him. 
 Our Christian Hymnology he likewise found alike 
 
334 DAVID BROWN 
 
 comforting and stimulating — at no time more so, as 
 we shall see in our next chapter — than near his death. 
 Our fictitious literature did not interest him much, 
 not even that of ' the kail-yard *" ; not that he had 
 any objection to it in principle as an outlet for the 
 creations of the imagination, but because he had always 
 so much of another kind to occupy him that he had 
 neither time nor inclination for it. In Thackeray and 
 Dickens he could not but admire the vigorous delinea- 
 tions of life, but they did no j ustice to the evangelical 
 element — rather caricatured it. Probably his favourite 
 kind of reading was Christian biography. We have 
 seen how in his studies of church history, he believed 
 that in connection with every great movement in the 
 church, there was one great man in whose life the 
 events of the period might be studied to advantage, 
 and that in his lectures on church history the bio- 
 graphical element was very strong. 
 
 But he had no thought of a biography of himself. 
 Not that he would have objected to a narrative of his 
 life if it should be judged by competent friends likely 
 to be useful for the highest ends of the Kingdom of 
 God. But in his genuine humility he could see little 
 or nothing worthy of record. Certainly he acted on 
 this conviction when he destroyed so many letters, and 
 neither left nor kept a diary. Even to the present 
 biographer it appeared, at the first blush, that for a 
 biography of David Brown one would require the power 
 of a Cuvier to construct ex ungue leonem. But his 
 humility was very real. His deference to others often 
 struck his family — even in some cases his deference to 
 themselves. He followed Jeremiah's counsel, 'Seek 
 
PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC 335 
 
 not great things for thyself; and Paurs, 'Let nothing 
 be done through envying or vainglory, but in low- 
 liness of mind let each esteem other better than 
 themselves/ 
 
 Of his qualities as a friend and companion there is 
 little need to write. He was ever ready of speech and 
 fond of talking ; and having a tendency to settled and 
 definite views on the subjects on which he thought, he 
 had something to say. He liked to make friends, and 
 he liked to keep up friendships that were truly congenial. 
 The letters that he wrote were very numerous. He was 
 always very genuine and kindly, and had a pleasant 
 way of giving information. A clergyman of the Church 
 of England once said to him, ' I engage you to 
 walk with me in heaven." And his friendships were 
 emphatically catholic. He was certainly a decided 
 Free Churchman, a strong Calvinist, and a vehement 
 opponent of Erastianism ; but he felt that what in 
 the providential circumstances of the case had been 
 a test question for the Free Church, was not under 
 altered conditions a test question for all. Dean 
 Stanley and Dr. Newman, Mr. Webb Peploe and Dr. 
 Martineau, Bishop Lightfoot and Mr. Frank White, 
 Dr. John Duncan and Mr. Spurgeon, had all sufficient 
 affinities to him to make intercourse with them pleasant 
 and profitable. For the Church of England he had a 
 mingled feeling, in which great respect for its eminent 
 scholars, its faithful preachers, and its high toned and 
 devoted missionaries was modified but not neutralised 
 by a sense of its defects. In short, wherever he found 
 a man in whom devotion to Christ and to Christ's 
 cause predominated, along with somewhat of the loving 
 
336 DAVID BROWN 
 
 spirit of Christ, with that man he was ready to shake 
 hands ; and all the more if lie was a cultured scholar, 
 and of that sympathetic nature that could say, ' Nihil 
 humani a me alienum puto."" 
 
 When regard is had to the high gifts, the manifold 
 attainments, and the attractive character of Dr. Brown, 
 some wonder may be felt that in his own church he did 
 not attain a still more commanding influence than he 
 actually possessed. The only explanation of this that 
 can well be given connects itself with his manner. 
 As we have said before, he wanted a certain dignity 
 of manner and power of self-assertion that would 
 have contributed great practical force to his opinions. 
 The remark of Bishop Ellicott is exactly true, that 
 he seemed to feel in the Revision Company that he 
 had done enough when he had stated his views, and 
 that he was not called to fight for them ; to which the 
 Bishop adds that probably more consideration was due 
 to them than they actually received. This too was in 
 a great degree his attitude through life. It was the 
 absence of this power of self-assertion that prevented 
 many from fully recognising his great ability, for the 
 two things are necessary for a leader : sound thinking 
 and the faculty of impressing his views on others. But 
 if the want of this power made him less efficient as a 
 leader, it made him more agreeable as a companion. If 
 you did not agree you might agree to differ, and your 
 fellowship, being that of essentially congenial spirits, 
 might still continue to be sweet and sunny — the fellow- 
 ship of brethren dwelling together in unity. 
 
 But whatever form of activity Dr. Brown might be 
 concerned in prosecuting — whether testifying among 
 
PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC 337 
 
 the Revisers for the place due to this Codex or to that, 
 or discussing among his students the prevalent forms 
 of modern unbelief, or setting before them his ideal of 
 the Christian ministry, — he had one high attribute 
 never lost sight of — a profound conviction that the 
 great work of the ministry was to turn souls to God. 
 All roads, it used to be said, lead to Rome ; all theo- 
 logical, philosophical, and literary speculation, in the 
 hands of a true minister of the Gospel, lead to the 
 saving of souls. That great truth, so often allowed 
 to slip into a corner in divinity class-rooms, was ever 
 uppermost in his thoughts. Of all the theological 
 professors whom the Free Church has had in her service, 
 no one was more true to this function of the Divinity 
 Hall than Dr. Brown ; no one kept it more steadily 
 before his students ; and no one pleaded more earnestly 
 and constantly at the throne of grace that it might 
 ever be fresh in their thoughts and in their hearts. 
 
338 DAVID BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 
 
 The foreboding of good Mrs. Dyce, when her puny 
 nephew first breathed the breath of life, and she prayed 
 that he might be talcen from a world in which he was 
 too feeble to live, was signally falsified by the ninety- 
 four years of bodily and mental activity which lay 
 before the little atom of mortality. He all but verified 
 the late Sir Benjamin Richardson's theory that, give it 
 fair play, the human frame should last a hundred years. 
 By fair play. Sir Benjamin meant a good constitution 
 to begin with ; freedom from accidents and infectious 
 diseases ; regular but not excessive employment, 
 moderate eating, abstinence from alcohol, regular 
 exercise, and sufficient sleep. It was under most of 
 these conditions that Dr. Brown spent his life. And 
 there were other things that favoured longevity. His 
 serene temper, his bright outlook on life, his happy 
 home, the love of his family and friends, his habit of 
 committing his way to God, and his conscious enjoyment 
 of His blessing, all conduced to the prolongation of his 
 years. Cicero''s charming book, De Sencctute, he knew 
 and relished, and a year or two before he died he had 
 it by him, in hopes of renewing his acquaintance with 
 it ; but blind as he was, that hope had to be abandoned. 
 
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 339 
 
 But still more familiar and more highly prized were the 
 testimonies of the Psalmist to longevity viewed as the 
 gift of God : ' The righteous shall flourish as the 
 palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 
 Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall 
 flourish in the courts of our God.' It was always his 
 thankful acknowledgment that he had led a happy life, 
 in spite of narrow means, hard work, many disappoint- 
 ments, and more than one of those bitter trials which 
 when they fall, seem as if they must crush one utterly. 
 
 It was not till the year 1892, in his eighty-ninth year, 
 that the silver cord showed symptoms of giving way. 
 And it was an accident that befell him then. On his 
 way to post some letters on the 13th April 1892, he 
 did not observe that the lid of a coal cellar under the 
 pavement had been removed, and tripping over the 
 opening with all his force, he sustained a very great 
 shock, and had one of his legs severely injured. Many of 
 his friends dreaded that so severe an accident at his time 
 of life would have a fatal ending : it confined him to bed 
 three months, and he never was quite equal in strength 
 to what he had been ; but he recovered to a wonderful 
 degree, and lived more than five years after.^ Many a 
 letter of condolence he received from his friends, and 
 many a congratulation when he began to recover ; his 
 friend the Bishop of Durham wrote that 'he was 
 
 ^ In a letter to a friend, Dr. Brown gives a curious account of the 
 effects of the accident on the nerves of his extremities : * I am not sure 
 if I told you the strange effect of the accident I met with. The nerves 
 of the extremities {feet 2iX^A fingers) have lost nearly all sensation. In 
 walking I don't feel the ground ; it is as if walking on ice. And the tips 
 of my fingers scarcely fix my buttons in dressing. And though I wrote 
 fairly well before, I now am scarcely legible. 
 
340 DAVID BROWN 
 
 glad to hear he was recovering, as it would have been 
 rather an ignominious ending of an honourable career 
 to be extinguished in a coalhole ! "* Such bits of 
 pleasantry no man enjoyed more than himself. 
 
 And in his usual kindly spirit, he was mindful of 
 others in the midst of his own misfortunes. It happened 
 that the present writer had been selected as Moderator 
 of the Free Church Assembly that year. Dr. Brown 
 wrote to him, as a very old friend, hailing like himself 
 from Aberdeen, to express his regret that he could 
 not be present, nor, what would have been a great 
 pleasure, be one of the friends that would accompany 
 him into the Assembly when he took the chair. It was 
 a small matter ; but as showing the genuine kindness 
 of the man, it made an impression that has not been 
 forgotten. Twice after, Dr. Brown went to the Assembly 
 (1893 and 1894), but he was not able to stay long. 
 He preached also a few times, and took part in shorter 
 services, but his voice as well as his strength began 
 to fail him. His last attendance at the daily prayer 
 meeting was in the beginning of 1895. In 1893 he had 
 the impression that that was to be his last year ; for 
 among his papers one was found giving directions as to 
 the inscription to be placed on his coffin and his grave- 
 stone, the words in this latter case being, ' David Brown, 
 born 1803, died 1893 (or, aged 90).' 
 
 In the spring of 1895 he had an attack of inflamma- 
 tion of the bladder, but he recovered, and was able to 
 go to Stonehaven in July. On his birthday in August, 
 a family party gathered at Banchory House, his son-in- 
 law's place, including his son, who had come down from 
 London, and all his other olive plants, and (as he says 
 
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 341 
 
 in a note to Mr, M'Laren), ' myself among the liveliest 
 and most vigorous of them all.' During the following 
 winter (1895-96), though not strong, he was able to go 
 out a little every day. But in the spring he broke 
 down, the stomach giving way, causing sickness and 
 indigestion. About midsummer he had a return of last 
 year"'s ailment, and he again began to think the end had 
 come ; but he pulled through, so that by September he 
 was pretty well. But the weather was now becoming 
 cold, and he was advised to keep the house. He always 
 cheerfully adapted himself to circumstances, and he 
 quietly acquiesced in this advice, although it must have 
 been a disappointment, for, now that he had become so 
 deaf and so blind, this deprived him of what would have 
 served to break materially the monotony of the day. 
 
 His activity of mind, however, remained unabated. 
 He continued to write letters, but in a large, sprawling 
 hand, not easy to decipher. The present writer having 
 gone to Aberdeen in the beginning of 1897 to deliver 
 one of the Murtle lectures, found him, though lying 
 feebly in bed, keenly alive to all that concerned the 
 lecture ; that it might be read to him by his daughter, 
 he got the manuscript, returning it next day with an 
 autograph note of thanks. 
 
 The subjects on which he wrote to his friends were 
 very various. Exegesis of texts, recent books, Oxford 
 summer school, Keswick, Reminiscences of old times, 
 hymns, Congregationalism, Wesleyanism, Presbyteri- 
 anism (all of these church systems he thought 
 might be drawn closer) were a few of many. His 
 family tried as far as possible to gratify his thirst for 
 books and journals by reading to him. But it was not 
 
342 DAVID BROWN 
 
 easy to prevent a feeling of weariness. Not only his 
 daughter read to him, but a boy who had been hired 
 for an hour a day, and even a maid, who was a faithful 
 attendant. The boy got the heavier books, such as 
 Professor Salmond's Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 
 Dean Stanley's Life and Letters, G.S. Romanes'' s Lije and 
 Letters (Physicus), and a daily portion from the Lyra 
 Christiana, the much prized gift of his friend, Mr. David 
 M'Laren. His interest in the outer world was very 
 keen. The daily newspaper had to be gone over, and 
 all kinds of news, local, political, ecclesiastical, proceed- 
 ings of school board and of town council, university 
 new.s, and even agricultural news had all to be read. 
 
 Family prayers continued to be offered, his daughter 
 reading the passage, on which he would sometimes 
 give appropriate comments, and the prayers were always 
 warm and full of unction. Singing at family worship 
 had always been the habit of the family, but latterly 
 it had to be given up. Still he retained his interest 
 in music, and with a musical grandson, who lived with 
 him, he would often have conversation on that sub- 
 ject. This grandson has noted some interesting 
 reminiscences. He told him that he had a great fond- 
 ness for classical music, and that if he had a favourite, 
 it was Mozart. He used to recall early days, when he 
 and his brothers would join in the execution of some 
 of Mozarfs masses — probably as a string quartet. He 
 was particularly fond of a certain ' Gloria in Excelsis,"* 
 he did not mention the number of the mass — probably 
 it was the twelfth. He had also a strong love of 
 the old Scottish music, especially Jacobite melodies. 
 All weird and plaintive melodies appealed to him 
 
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 343 
 
 powerfully. He told of a musical performance at 
 which he was once present when Mendelssohn was to 
 perform on the organ. As he was late of arriving, 
 the local organist had to fill up the interval, which he 
 did with a selection of Scottish airs. Mendelssohn, 
 hearing what was going on, slipped quietly into his 
 place, and continued the Scottish strain with his bril- 
 liant improvising. The electrified audience, looking 
 up, soon came to comprehend the mysterious change. 
 In church music he delighted in the Gregorian and 
 other chants, but with a strong conviction that the 
 music must suit the subject — which he did not find to 
 be always the case. 
 
 The old love of writing for the press continued 
 almost to the last. Dr. Hastings has furnished a list 
 of his contributions to the Expository Times, which 
 shows that between the time of his accident and his 
 death he contributed to that journal no fewer than 
 ten papers. It is an interesting memorial of the 
 activity of a nonagenarian's mind. 
 
 1. 'F. H. A. Scrivener/ 1892, vol. iii. pp. 126-128. 
 
 2. 'Some Gams of the Revised Version/ 1892, vol. iii. 
 
 pp. 259, 260. 
 
 3. 'Some Gains of the Revised Vei-sion/ 1895, vol. vi. 
 
 p. 81, and pp. 130, 131. 
 
 4. 'Is the Revised Version a Failure?' 1893, vol. iv. pp. 
 
 QSQ5, 
 
 5. 'Women in the Acts/ 1893, vol. iv. p. 518. 
 
 6. 'The Synoptic Problem/ 1895, vol. vi. pp. 272-274. 
 
 7. 'The Aorist in the Greek Testament,' 1896, vol. vii. 
 
 pp. 75-77. 
 
 8. 'The Elder Brother of the Prodigal Son,' 1896, vol. 
 
 vii. pp. 325, 326. 
 
344 DAVID BROWN 
 
 9. 'What the Bible Teaches about the Human Body/ 
 1897, vol. viii. pp. 127-131. 
 10. 'A Rendering Revised/ 1897, vol. viii. pp. 374, 375. 
 
 There were other journals, more or less important, 
 in which he continued to hold intercourse with his 
 fellows. He was fond of recalling old days, and to the 
 young people of his church, in their magazine called 
 Youth, he would spin yarns of the olden time, going 
 back to the chivalrous days of the Disruption. And 
 thus it came to pass, that unlike many old men, who 
 on their retirement fall quite out of sight, so that 
 when their death is announced a dozen years after- 
 wards, people say. Is it possible he has been alive all 
 this time ? — unlike such. Dr. Brown remained among 
 us, a living figure, almost to the last. And people 
 got more and more interested in him as he got 
 among the nineties ; his townsmen became proud of 
 him, as a sort of 'Apostolus Juventutis/ and some 
 speculated as to the possibility of his making out the 
 century. That, however, was not to be. So far as we 
 remember, the church in Scotland in the nineteenth 
 century has had but one minister whose term of life 
 reached to three figures — the late Dr. Ingram of the 
 Free Church in Unst, the most northerly parish in Her 
 Majesty ""s British dominions. 
 
 But the experiences of a life-long servant of Christ 
 in the prospect of the life to come demand more explicit 
 reference. As to the precise nature of the future 
 state he had little to say, because he found little re- 
 vealed. In one of the papers in the Expository Times, 
 'What the Bible Teaches about the Human Body/ 
 
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 345 
 
 after quoting the two texts, ' We know that if He 
 shall be made manifest, we shall be like Him, for we 
 shall see Him even as He is' (1 John iii. 2, ii.v.), and 
 ' We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Clirist ; who 
 shall fashion the body of our humiliation that it may 
 be conformed to the Body of His glory ' (Phil. iii. 20, 
 21, K.V.), he asks, ' Does the reader, in his still moments, 
 try to realise to himself what that radiant form, the 
 body of His glory, will be like ? I confess I sometimes 
 do. That fine hymn-writer, Ray Palmer, I am sure, 
 did, for thus he sings : — 
 
 " Jesus, these eyes have never seen 
 That radiant form of Thine : 
 Tlie veil of flesh hangs dark hetween 
 Thy blessed face and mine. 
 
 I see Thee not, I hear Tliee not. 
 
 Yet art Thou oft with me ; 
 And earth hath ne'er so dear a spot 
 
 As where I meet with Thee. 
 
 Yet, though I see Thee not, and still 
 
 Must rest in faith alone, 
 I love Thee, dearest Lord, and still. 
 
 Unseen but not unknown. 
 
 When death these mortal eyes shall seal. 
 
 And still this throbbing heart. 
 The rending veil shall Thee reveal. 
 
 All glorious as Thou art." 
 
 ' But no, he is scarcely right there. It will only be 
 when " we shall see Him, even as He is,"" in " the body 
 of His glory." To be at home with the Lord at death 
 is enough in the meantime. But the best is yet to 
 come."* 
 
346 DAVID BROWN 
 
 This had reference to the body ; but as to the future 
 state generally, he had little to say but that he was 
 sure of it. ' I reason with myself,' he writes to a 
 friend, ' what know I, apart from Revelation ? One 
 thing I cannot doubt, that I shall still exist after 
 I die. For I cannot be a materialist. But beyond that 
 fact all is blank. Then, I am as sure as I am of any 
 undisputed fact, that Christ rose again the third day, 
 and that He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, 
 and so I am a Christian. If in this life only we have 
 hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable 
 (R.V.), not " miserable." But I am not pitiable, for 
 I have that hope, ... I preached at the funeral of 
 Dr. Donald Fraser at Inverness a sermon on " To-day 
 shalt thou be with me in Paradise." The silences of 
 Scripture show it to be divine (I said) as much as its 
 utterances. On what many would most wish it to speak, 
 it says nothing. But on what it is of most importance 
 we should be informed about, it speaks plainly. And 
 here we learn (1) that after death we shall have a self- 
 conscious existence, or shall be ourselves still. The 
 penitent on the cross was to be so : ' Tliou shalt be 
 with me"; (2) we also believe we are •with Christ at 
 death — " absent from the body, present with the Lord." 
 But a disembodied spirit is incapable of experiencing 
 the bliss of the resurrection life: "to be with Christ" 
 can only be to be consciously present with Him as a 
 fact, but not, 1 John iii. 2, " to see Him as He is.'''' The 
 Shorter Catechism says, " We immediately pass into 
 glory " ; but only a partial glory, only " to be with 
 Him." ... I have put in writing the thoughts sug- 
 gested by your letter, and they are briefly these : " I 
 
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 347 
 
 fall back on the Book, and I mean to die on the 
 faith of its statements, until I know even as I am 
 known.""' 
 
 Dr. Brown"'s love of hymns stood him in good stead, 
 as he lay abed, in more ways than one. Of course, the 
 holy Scriptures were the fountain of the meditations 
 on which faith rested, and by which new peace and joy 
 were continually flowing into his soul ; but the hymns 
 were a blessed mode of conveying the sweetness and the 
 strength of many a Bible truth. Unable any longer to 
 sing himself, he had yet enough of hearing power left 
 him to enjoy them as sung by his daughter. And in 
 the dark hours (and, though not so blind as Milton, 
 he yet found that not to him returned day and night 
 as they had returned before), it was a happy experience 
 to be borne along the rhythmical current of the 
 songs of Zion, and become familiarised through them 
 with bright visions of things unseen. When Mr. 
 M'Laren presented his last Christmas gift, Dr. Cuyler's 
 ' Beulah land ' ' to one far on in the Beulah land,' he 
 wrote, with his accustomed humility and honesty, * At 
 my age I ought to be there ; but my sun does not 
 shine by night as well as by day, and sometimes it 
 does not shine at all. I get glimpses of His presence, 
 and these are very sweet, and, as Ray Palmer says : — 
 
 '' And earth has ne'er so dear a spot 
 As when I meet with Thee.'" 
 
 This hymn (already quoted, see p. 345) took a singu- 
 lar hold of him, and was very frequently referred to 
 both in conversation and in letters. 
 
348 DAVID BROWN 
 
 Comparatively late in life he became acquainted 
 with the hymns of Dean Alford, and some of them 
 were great favourites. Two of them we subjoin. 
 
 TRUST 
 
 1 I know uot if or dark or bright 
 
 Shall be my lot, 
 If that wherein my hopes delight 
 Be best or not. 
 
 2 It may be mine to drag for years 
 
 Toil's heavy chain. 
 Or day and night my meat be tears 
 Or bed of pain. 
 
 8 Dear faces may surround my hearth 
 With smiles and glee. 
 Or I may dwell alone, and mirth 
 Be strange to me. 
 
 4 My barque is wafted to the strand 
 
 By breath divine. 
 And on the helm there rests a Hand 
 Other than mine. 
 
 5 One who has known in storms to sail 
 
 I have on board ; 
 Above the raging of the gale 
 I have my Lord. 
 
 6 He holds me when the billows smite, 
 
 I shall not fall. 
 If sharp, 'tis short ; if long, 'tis light ; 
 He tempers all, 
 
 7 Safe to the land ! Safe to the land ! 
 
 The end is this ; 
 And then with Him go hand in hand 
 Far into bliss. 
 
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 349 
 
 DEATH AND LIFE 
 
 1 Jesus, when I fainting lie. 
 And the world is flitting by, 
 
 Hold up my head. 
 \Vlien the cry is ' Thou must die,' 
 And the dread hour draweth nigh. 
 
 Stand by my bed. 
 
 2 Jesus, when the worst is o'er, 
 And they bear me from the door. 
 
 Meet the sorrowing throng. 
 ' Weep not,' let the mourners hear. 
 Widow's woe and orphan's tear 
 
 Turn into song. 
 
 3 Jesus, in the last great day. 
 
 Come Thou down, and touch my clay. 
 
 Speak the word, 'Arise.' 
 Friend to gladsome friend restore. 
 Living, praising evermore. 
 
 Above the skies. 
 
 From April 1897 Dr. Brown was but little out of 
 bed. It became evident that he was gradually becom- 
 ing weaker, and that the end could not be far off; but 
 at last it came somewhat abruptly. On the morning 
 of Saturday the 3rd July, when Miss Brown went into 
 his room, she heard him repeating the lines in a faint 
 voice : — 
 
 ' When I am to die. 
 Receive me, 1 11 cry. 
 For Jesus hath loved me, 
 I cannot tell why ; 
 But this I do find. 
 We two are so joined, 
 That He won't be in glory 
 And leave me behind.' 
 
350 DAVID BROWN 
 
 He then fell asleep, but awoke an hour later and 
 asked his daughter to repeat to him some lines of the 
 well-known hymn : — 
 
 ' Happy day 
 ^Fhen Jesus washed my sins away.' 
 
 Soon after, he fell into unconsciousness, and remained 
 in that state till the end came quietly, a little before 
 six o'clock in the evening. 
 
 It was a graceful act on the part of the Lord Provost 
 and Magistrates to offer the distinction of a public 
 funeral to Dr. Brown. The offer having been accepted, 
 the Lord Provost and other members of the town 
 council attended in their official robes ; also the Univer- 
 sity Court and Senatus ; the Free Church Presbytery 
 and Synod of Aberdeen, his own colleagues, and the 
 students of the college ; the officebearers of the Free 
 South Church ; Principal Rainy of Edinburgh ; Mr, 
 Ross of Cowcaddens ; a large number of ministers of 
 various denominations, and in addition to the family 
 and relations, very many friends and others desirous 
 of showing their respect for the deceased. The Hall of 
 the Free Church College, where the service was held 
 and in which the coffin lay, was crowded to overflowing, 
 although no invitations had been issued. The streets 
 were lined by spectators, and on the way to the grave 
 all the shop windows were closed. In the devotional 
 services, all felt the special solemnity and suitability 
 of the prayer of Principal Rainy, and his fervent 
 and comprehensive acknowledgment of the gifts con- 
 ferred by God upon his servant. 
 
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 351 
 
 ' Surely goodness and mercy hath followed him. We 
 thank Thee, O Lord, for many advantages granted to 
 him, and many excellent gifts bestowed on him by which 
 he was useful during a long life — so long a life — to the 
 church and to the world. We thank Thee, specially, that 
 it pleased Thee early to manifest to him Thy great love 
 in Christ Jesus, and to enable him to receive into his heart 
 the gospel of Thy grace. We thank Thee, Lord, for the 
 honourable place given to him in Thy church, and for the 
 paths of usefulness opened to him, and for all that he was 
 able to be to the Christians of his own day, and to the 
 college, in the work of the ministry, and by private influ- 
 ences of various kinds. Especially at this time we remember 
 the warm heart he had to the work of the gospel, the 
 great interest he took in the awakening and conversion 
 of sinners, and in the whole work and ministry of the 
 church of Christ. We remember his fidelity to his con- 
 victions of truth and duty. We remember his great open- 
 ness of heart to all men of all kinds and of all names. 
 We thank Thee for the place he had in the affections and 
 the esteem of good men in the church and in the world ; 
 and we thank Thee that throughout so long a life spent 
 in honour and in the acceptance of his brethren he was 
 upheld and strengthened. We thank Thee that Thou 
 didst give him so much of natural cheerfulness ; that Thou 
 hast surrounded him with so much of friendship and of 
 love. And now we desire to acknowledge Thy hand in 
 all this, and we desire to be admonished by the example 
 of Thy dear and honoured servant, whom Thou hast taken 
 from us; and we desire to be followers of his faith, 
 remembering the end of his conversation. We desire 
 to remember how he was exercised in waiting for the 
 coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we with him 
 desire to lift up our hands, believing that redemption 
 draweth nigh.' 
 
352 DAVID BROWN 
 
 Most appropriately the singing of the favourite hymn 
 of Dr. Brown formed part of the service. 
 
 ' Jesus, these eyes have never seen 
 
 That radiant form of Thine : 
 The veil of sense hangs dark between 
 Thy blessed face and mine. 
 
 AVTien death these mortal eyes shall seal. 
 
 And still this throbbing heart. 
 The rending veil shall Thee reveal 
 
 All glorious as Thou art.' 
 
 The body was laid in the family burying-ground 
 in the Churchyard of St. Nicholas, where so many 
 of his own kindred sleep ; and it lies there waiting that 
 glorious Resurrection, on which during all his life he 
 had thought so much, and with which his hopes of the 
 final glory of the Spouse of Christ were indissolubly 
 united. 
 
 The memorial card, dictated by himself, the date 
 being left blank, ran thus : — 
 
 3fn iBcmoriam 
 
 REV. DAVID BROWN, D.D,, LL.D. 
 
 ENTERED INTO REST 
 
 [3 July 1897]. 
 
 ' I am the resurrection, and the life : he that believeth in Me, though 
 he were dead, yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth, and believeth in 
 Me, shall never die.' — John xi. 25, 26. 
 
TRIBUTES 35S 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 TRIBUTES 
 
 It is not to end our book with a blaze of eulogy that 
 we devote the last chapter to some of the tributes paid 
 to Dr. Brown ; but because the idea of his life comes 
 out better when looked at from various points of view, 
 and the particular features of his character and work 
 that impressed his friends arc more distinctly seen. 
 
 The local journals contained ample, and in general 
 accurate and well-written narratives of his life, death, 
 and funeral. Many other journals had shorter notices 
 and appreciative sketches. Conspicuous among these 
 was the British WeeMy, where we may trace the 
 felicitous pen of his old student, our own contributor, 
 Dr. Robertson Nicoll. 
 
 ' Exegesis of the New Testament was his congenial 
 subject, and he prepared various commentaries which 
 had a very wide circulation and influence. His best 
 quality, as has been well said, was his steady, life-long 
 zeal for souls. This never changed, never abated, was 
 always quick and warm. . . . His work as a speaker 
 was always uncertain. He might be excellent, or he 
 might be very poor, but the fervour of evangelical life 
 never failed him. . . . He loved humanity. . . . He 
 watched with the keenest interest, and almost to his 
 
354 DAVID BROWN 
 
 latest day, every movement of thought. . . . He was 
 decidedly an optimist, was not tired of the world, was 
 never despondent about the fortunes of the church, 
 was always ready to break a lance, and was to the 
 very end an ardent I.iberal. He was a convinced 
 advocate of Disestablishment ; and much though he 
 longed for the union of Presbyterianism in Scotland, 
 he never believed that it could be accomplished on a 
 State basis. He was also a keen supporter of Home 
 Rule for Ireland, although i\Ir. Gladstone's attitude 
 on Disestablishment somewhat chilled his sympathy 
 with that statesman/ 
 
 From synods, presbyteries, and committees of his 
 church, came many minutes of appreciation, some of 
 them rather formal and general, others of deeper insight, 
 and etched with a more masterly hand. Four of these 
 claim special mention : that of the Free Church Synod 
 of Aberdeen, the Free Church Presbytery of Edinburgh, 
 the Committee on the Conversion of the Jews, and the 
 Kirk Session of the Free South Church of Aberdeen. 
 To this last we have already referred (see p. 166). We 
 subjoin the tribute of the Jewish Committee, and 
 that of the Free Church Synod of Aberdeen. 
 
 ' Free Chubch Offices, Edinbukgh, 
 
 ' 27th July 1897. 
 
 ' Dear Miss Brown, — On behalf of the Jewish Com- 
 mittee, we have to express their sympathy Avith you and 
 your brother and sisters in connection with your father's 
 death. 
 
 ' In common with the whole church, they gratefully 
 remember Dr. Brown's eminent services, and his personal 
 worthj but in a special manner they recall his early devo- 
 
TRIBUTES 355 
 
 tion to the cause of the Conversion of the Jews long before 
 the Church of Scotland formally took any action in the 
 matter. He was for a time convener of this committee, 
 and he was the life-long friend, and the biographer of Dr. 
 John Duncan, the first minister consecrated to Jewish 
 Mission work in connection with the Scottish Church, 
 His services in these and other ways the committee can 
 never forget ; and they are much touched by the lively 
 interest in their work which he continued to manifest in 
 spite of great bodily Aveakness even to the end of his long 
 and fruitful life. 
 
 ' For all that Principal Brown was and did they give 
 thanks to the Great Head of the church, and they feel 
 that in the sorrow which is inseparable from parting with 
 one so well beloved, you will be sustained by the memory 
 of his rare gifts, of his keen consecration of them to the 
 advancement of the Redeemer's Kingdom, and of the 
 measure in which his services were owned of God. 
 ' With all kind regards, we are, yours very sincerely, 
 
 ' John Morgan, Vice-convener. 
 
 ' George Milne Rae, Secretary.' 
 
 From the Free Church Synod of Aberdeen : — 
 
 The Synod agreed unanimously to record the following 
 memorial minute regarding the Reverend Principal 
 Brown, D.D. : 
 
 ' In recording their sense of loss at the removal from 
 their number of Dr. Brown, the Reverend Principal of the 
 College, the Synod feel that a great blank has been made 
 in the ranks of the Christian community of the city and 
 neighbourhood, in the roll of the Christian ministry, and 
 in the professoriate. A distinguished student in his youth 
 and early manhood, a devoted minister, a distinguished 
 preacher of the Word of God, an able, stimulating, and 
 
356 DAVID BROWN 
 
 learned professor, Dr. Brown was conspicuous for his many 
 gifts, and for his devotion to evangelical truth. In his 
 long life he was called to do much work, to fill many 
 positions of trust and responsibility, and he did excellent 
 service in them, to his generation. He was a man of wide 
 and varied knowledge in many departments of learning, 
 and it was his delight to use all the resources of his learn- 
 ing and thought for the elucidation of the Scriptures. To 
 him Exegesis was a pleasure and a delight. Master of all 
 the sciences needed for the thorough equipment of an 
 exegete, learned in all the sciences needed for the inter- 
 pretation of the New Testament, he delighted to use them 
 all in order to make the meaning of Scripture plain to the 
 common people. Not only had he the scientific equipment 
 needed, to him was given also the ethical insight into the 
 word of God, and the spiritual discernment of spiritual 
 things, which belong to the children of God. He main- 
 tained to the end the childlike freshness of interest in all 
 that concerns men, and especially in all that concerns the 
 kingdom of God, which had been characteristic of him all 
 through his life. The truth of God, the coming of the 
 kingdom of God, the well-being of the church, were 
 among the topics that exercised his mind to his dying 
 hour. Having served his generation well, he has entered 
 into his rest.' 
 
 When we pass to the letters of personal friends, we 
 find, out of the mass, many worthy of record. Passing 
 over many from his more immediate circle, we prefer 
 to give a few from friends more remote, either in 
 point of distance, or of church connection. Our space 
 for the most part admits only of extracts. 
 
 From Rev. Principal Moule, D.D., Ridley Hall, 
 Cambridge : — 
 
TRIBUTES 357 
 
 'July 6, 1897. 
 'My dear* Miss Brown, — Your letter goes to my heart; 
 it moves me to many tears of love, and reverence, and 
 grief; grief not for your blessed father, so gently trans- 
 lated to the glorious presence of his Lord, but (all too 
 selfishly) for myself, to whom he was more than I can say. 
 . . . For me, a light has for a season passed away. For 
 more than fifteen or sixteen years I have prized, loved, and 
 enjoyed my intercourse with your wonderful father as a 
 chief treasure of life. I cannot but weep very literally 
 over my loss. But now, " his faith let me follow, con- 
 sidering the blessed end of his conversation, and knowing 
 that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and 
 for ever." . . .' 
 
 From Rev. James Stewart, M.D., D.D., Lovedale, 
 South Africa : — 
 
 ' . . . I believe that from far and near you must have 
 received expressions of sympathy and regret that your 
 father has been called home. A good many of us who are 
 getting old, and who know his work and his worth, feel 
 his death very much. There was something about your 
 father, a simplicity and directness of action and character, 
 that won my heart ; and I may confess that my regard for 
 him was not far removed from affection and love. He was 
 spared to you and to us for a very long time, and now he is 
 with Christ, and the great mainstay of that other life is 
 so far revealed.' 
 
 From Rev. Professor Warfield, D.D., Theological 
 Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey : — 
 
 ' The Old Hodge House, 
 ' Princeton, N.J., 19^^ July 1897. 
 ' My dear Miss Brown, — I have just received the 
 announcement of your father's death, and sit down at once 
 
S58 DAVID BRO^\n^ 
 
 to express my sympathy with you and the rest of the 
 bereaved household, and my own grief and appreciation 
 of the long and good life's work which your father was 
 permitted to do in the vineyard of the Lord. It is given 
 to few men to wear out so many years in service, and to 
 fewer still to give, through all these years, a service of the 
 quality which he rendered. Surely there can abide but little 
 regret in the hearts of those he left behind him : he has 
 earned his rest, and we would be unkind to begrudge him, 
 at this late day, his entrance into his reward. The legacy 
 he has left behind him in the remembrance of his home- 
 life, must be very precious to you who have lived close to 
 him : to us who are afar off, he has left also the legacy of 
 an example of a long life worthily spent, and of untiring 
 devotion to his calling as a winner of souls, and of a series 
 of works which we value, and which we will continue to 
 value. No one can estimate the good his work on the 
 Second Advent has done : and his Commentaries have seemed 
 to many of us to distil the very essence of the Gospel. 
 My colleague, Dr. Wistar Hodge, whose judgment was 
 most fastidious, was wont to say that your father's Com- 
 mentary on Romans, in the Bible-class series, was simply a 
 perfect book of its kind. — Believe me, my dear Miss Brown, 
 with great sympathy, faithfully yours, 
 
 Benj. B. Warfield.' 
 
 From Rev. A. R. Fausset, York : — 
 
 ' BuRNSiDE Boarding-House, 
 ' Iijcley-in-Wharfdale, July 2(jth, 1897- 
 'Dear Miss Brown, — I am sure you will forgive me, 
 personally a stranger, though not unknown by name to 
 you, for expressing my warmest sympathy in your recent 
 bereavement. Your revered father has "come to his 
 grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his 
 season." 
 
TRIBUTES 359 
 
 ' I had the privilege of being a fellow-worker with him 
 in a Commentary, and though I but once met him at my 
 house in York, yet I was honoured occasionally by his 
 correspondence. 
 
 ' I have just had forwarded to me the beautiful account 
 of his last day upon earth, and his repetition of those sweet 
 lines, which I desire may be mine too, whenever the Lord 
 shall call me away. 
 
 " And when I'm to die, receive me, I'll cry, 
 For Jesus hath loved me, I cannot tell why." 
 
 ' With renewed expressions of condolence, I am, yours 
 respectfully, A. R. Fausset.' 
 
 From Rev. Frank H. White, Talbot Tabernacle. 
 Netting Hill, London : — 
 
 ' . . . A grand old man indeed ! a man greatly beloved. 
 Personally I count it one of the most precious memories of 
 my ministerial life that I am able to think of him as one 
 to whom I was allowed to look up as to a friend and father 
 in Israel. 
 
 ' My one heart-cry in reading the notice of his death in 
 this morning's Christian was, Oh, that I dare hope that on 
 very many of the young ministers of fair and highly 
 favoured Scotland his mantle might fall ! How powerfully 
 and sweetly in years gone by, as well as of late, have his 
 reverent, lucid, and loving expositions of the Gospels 
 affected my own heart and life ! I cannot but bless God 
 at every remembrance of him.' 
 
 From Rev. John Hector, Principal of Duff' College, 
 Calcutta : — 
 
 ' ... As one of his students, your father took a loving, 
 personal interest in me, and he continued to show the 
 
360 DAVID BROWN 
 
 same interest all along during the years since I left the 
 Hall. It was indeed a source of inspiration to me in my 
 work in this far-off heathen land — his teaching and example 
 were so filled with the spirit of missions. It is wonderful 
 to think of that life, covering well-nigh the whole century. 
 His name will stand associated henceforth with the re- 
 ligious life and progress of Scotland in the nineteenth 
 century. His work will be fruitful there and far beyond 
 for years to come. We thank God for raising up such 
 leaders. May the students be worthy of them ! ' 
 
 From Rev. William Riddell, M.D., Medical Mission- 
 ary, Wu-King-Fu, Swatow, China : — 
 
 ' . . . We often thought and talked of Dr. Brown out 
 here, and would often remark how long a time he was 
 living, and wonder if we should have the pleasure of call- 
 ing on him when we went home. 
 
 ' We followed with much interest the obituary notices 
 in the newspapers, and our chief feeling is one of thank- 
 fulness to God for his long and useful life, and the privilege 
 we enjoyed in his acquaintance. He always had a warm 
 heart to our China mission, and we remember how he took 
 the trouble to search us out at Caloumpeat Road, and call 
 on us in his free and hearty and sympathetic way.' 
 
 From the Very Rev. Principal Stewart, D.D., St. 
 Andrews : — 
 
 * . . . Among the many happy memories of the time we 
 spent at Aberdeen, some of the most pleasant are to me 
 associated with your father. His alertness, physical and 
 mental, his unfailing cheerfulness, his sympathy and kind- 
 ness, were an example to us all. He was among those 
 whom it was a privilege to know.' 
 
TRIBUTES 361 
 
 From the Rev. Dr. Gloas; : — 
 To the Editor of the Aberdeen Journal. 
 
 ' Sir, — In the Monday issue of your paper you have an 
 article on the late Principal Brown ; and I wish to add my 
 testimony to his great worth and scholarship. He was 
 one of the most distinguished (if not the most dis- 
 tinguished) ministers of the Free Church of Scotland. 
 It is many years since my attention was first drawn to his 
 works : it was his treatise on the Second Advent which 
 most thoroughly demolished the extravagant theories of 
 the pre-Millenarians. Some years ago I received a letter 
 from him, and we carried on a correspondence until his 
 death. His letters, which were on theological matters, 
 I retain and highly prize. When in Aberdeen last winter 
 acting as Professor of Biblical Criticism, I made his per- 
 sonal acquaintance, and saw him frequently. His mind 
 was entire, and his conversation on Biblical questions very 
 interesting. As you state, he was a member of the 
 Revision Committee, but he often dissented from their 
 findings. — Yours, etc., Paton J. Gloag. 
 
 '28 Regent Terrace, 
 
 'Edinburgh, 7th July 1897.' 
 
 From Madame de Faye, Geneva, wife of M. le 
 paste Lir Clement de Faye {ncc Catherine Henderson, 
 Aberdeen) : — 
 
 ' . . . Your dear father has influenced my own life in 
 more ways than one. When I was young, I felt inclined 
 towards millenarian views, and reading his book quite 
 settled ray mind upon that point. His two books on Dr. 
 Duncan, whom I knew and venerated long ago, have been 
 a never-failing source of instruction which I often take up, 
 and never lay down without having learned something 
 from the author or from his subject. In reading the 
 interesting article in the Free Press, I was much struck by 
 
362 DAVID BROWN 
 
 an omission — any particular reference to his mother. If 
 his father gave him refined and literary tastes, from all I 
 have heard, Mrs. Brown's consistent and judicious Chris- 
 tian training, at a time when vital godliness was low, exer- 
 cised a decided influence not only on her family circle, but 
 beyond it. My own mother told me that when she re- 
 turned to the cold north after a stay in England, during 
 which she met with evangelical Christians, and had decided 
 to follow the Lord, she was very anxious to get acquainted 
 with living Christians in her own circle who might help 
 her with their experience. Among all her acquaintances 
 she found but tAvo ladies, who wei'e much her seniors in 
 years — Mrs. Provost Brown, and a Miss Fordyce, of the 
 Brucklay family. Mrs. Brown became her dear and inti- 
 mate counsellor, and later on, all the members of her 
 family were dear to her. Your uncle, Mr. William Brown, 
 was for years the next-door neighbour of my parents, and 
 used to be with them at all hours, even till late at night. 
 But that was before I can remember.' 
 
 From Mrs. Isabella Fyvie Mayo : — 
 
 * 1a Albyn Place, Aberdeen, 
 ' 5th July 1897. 
 
 ' My dear Miss Brown, — And so the messenger has 
 come ! — to take from you the great, beautiful duty of your 
 life — but to lead your dear father into the fulness of life 
 and joy for which he has been waiting so patiently, and of 
 which he had already so large a measure. 
 
 ' You must be very sorry for yourself. You cannot have 
 one thought of sorrow for him. He has lived out all his 
 days. . . . 
 
 ' Last evening, returning from service, I noticed all your 
 blinds down. A fear suggested itself — to be put away by 
 the thought that the sign probably meant summer holi- 
 days. And so it did ! Summer holidays, with cloudless 
 skies and unhindered renewal of youth and strength ! 
 
TRIBUTES 363 
 
 ' May God be with you to sustain and cheer you in the 
 loneliness which follows ever on accomplished service.' 
 
 From Rev, Principal Dykes, D.D., London : — 
 
 ' 38 CooLHURST RoADj Crouch End, N., 
 ' London, loth July 1897. 
 ' Miss Brown, Aberdeen. 
 
 ' Dear Miss Brown, — In common with the whole church, 
 I have noticed with deep regret the loss sustained through 
 the death of your honoured father. He has been spared 
 to do his work and wear his honours to a very advanced 
 age ; but he remained so long youthful in spirit and com- 
 paratively vigorous, that one could never realise how old 
 he was. To me he was always kind, and I feel that his 
 death is a personal bereavement, as well as a great loss to 
 Biblical scholarship. 
 
 ' I trust you will forgive me for adding these few words 
 to the numerous letters of condolence you are sure to 
 receive from all quarters, and from many better qualified 
 to speak of him than I. 
 
 ' Believe me to be, with sincere and respectful sympathy 
 in your affliction, youi's most truly, 
 
 ' J. Oswald Dykes.' 
 
 The last we give is from an old student for whom he 
 had a high esteem, Rev. Dr. Elmslie of Christchurch, 
 New Zealand. It is addressed to Miss Brown, in 
 anticipation of the result of Dr, Brown's illness. 
 
 'Christchurch, N.Z., 
 ' 2i)th Aug. 1897. 
 'Dear Miss Brown, — I read with sorrow your last, 
 which I received a little ago. And in reply, I wish to 
 send a message of love to your father. It may cheer his 
 heart, if he has not gone home ere this reach you. I 
 desire you to remind him that I was one of his first 
 students — that I heard his lectures introductory to the 
 Gospels, and also his exegetical comments on the same. 
 
364 DAVID BROWN 
 
 and that those Gospel lessons have been the foundation 
 themes of my ministry for these five and thirty years. It 
 may interest Dr. Brown to know also that during this 
 winter and last I have been taking a class of students in 
 Canterbury College over the same ground — a volunteer 
 class of twenty-nine gown students, six or eight of whom 
 are preparing for the ministry and the mission-field. 
 
 Kindly give your dear father this parting message of 
 love from an old student. Tell him that I have never 
 ceased to be grateful for much profit received in those days 
 of long ago, and that, despite my much unworthiness, I 
 cherish the hope of meeting him in ' the sweet by and by,' 
 among those who shall have washed their robes, and "made 
 them white in the Blood of the Lamb." — With kind 
 Christian regards, yours sincerely, J. Elmslie.' 
 
 Many more were the wreaths contributed by his 
 friends. Noblemen and gentlemen, whose personal 
 acquaintance was but slight, were eager to testify their 
 regard for one whose life had been so useful, and whose 
 character was so high. Slowly, perhaps, but steadily, 
 he had been rising all along in the esteem of the com- 
 munity, and never had he stood higher than at the 
 close of his life. No man had died richer in all that 
 constitutes real wealth and is entitled to real honour. 
 Yet no man would have said more humbly or more 
 cordially, ' Non nobis, Domine ! ' 
 
 THE END 
 
 Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty 
 at the Edinburgh University Press 
 
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