IDISRUPTIOni l?raiORtHies OP + e^ 1 3 43^9 4^ H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HpM;ij:ioi;raphical Sketch of each, the Sketches being ivritten in most cases by personal friends. Their place in the Volume has been, as fai- as piissible. assigned according to the order of decease. Thanks are specially due to Lord Ardmillan for the deep interest he has taken in the Work, and to David Maclagan. Esq., C.A., James Sime. Esq., Craigmonnt House, and other friends, for much I'aluable assistance. 57 Fr,-de,-ick Street, Ediubu'gh, lS//i May 1S76. 7^> ^^-^a ^^ ^^i' >%i^^3^ ^ m Contents. 3fc INTR0DUC7I0N ......... By the Hon. Lord Akd.millan. SKETCH OF THE DISRUPTION DAY ...... By Hugh Miller (from the "Witness," iMay 1843). ReiK DAVID IVEISH, D.D., Pro/cssoi- of T/uvh^y ami Church History, Neiu College. By the Rev. William Wilson, D.U., Dundee. Rev. THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., LL.D., Principal and Professor of Theology, Neiv College ........ By the Rev. David Coui-er, D.D., Burntisland. Rev. HENRY DUNCAN, D.D., RiMxvdl ...... By the Rev. Jasies Dodds, Dunbar. JOHN HAMILTON, Esq., Advocate By the Rev. William G. Blaikie, D.D., Professor of Apologetics, New College. GRAHAM SPEIRS, Esq., Advocate, Sheriff of Mid- Lothian . . . . By Lord Cowan. Rez: ROBERT LORIMER, LL.D., Haddington . .■ . By A. P. LoKlMER, Esq., Banker, Tillicoultry. Rev. JOHN MACDONALD, D.D., Eerintosh By the Rev. Thomas M'Laichlan. LL.D., Edinburgh. Rev. ALEXANDER STEWART, Cromarty By the Rev. Alexander Beith, D.D., Stirling. I S|^^. 'BlTi f 0'< Rr.: PATRICK M'FARLAiV, D.D..,G>eciiock By the Rev. WrLLlAM Laiighton, Greenock. DAl'ID MAITLAND MAKGILL CRICNTON. Esq. of RaiikeiUoiir By the Rev. J. W. Taylor, Flisk. Rei: ROBERT GORDON; D.D., Free High Clmrch, Edmlnirgh By the Rev. Norman M. L. Walker, Dysart. IVILLIAM COLLINS, Esq., Piihlisher, Glasgow By the Rev. J. A. WvLlE, LL.D., Edinburgh. Rn:. DAVID GARMENT, M. A., Rosskecn . . . . By the Rev. James Garment, M.A., Gomrie. R^-z'. THOMAS PITCAIRN, Cockpen By the Rev. Andrew A. Bonar, D.D., Glasgow. HUGH MILL ER, Esq. , Editor of Witness By James Sime. Esq., Giaiginount House. GEORGE BUCHAN, Esq. of Kclloe . By the Rev. Adam Spence, Houndwood. JAMES MAITLAND HOG, Esq. of Ne-.vlUton By the Rev. James C. Burns, M.A., Kirkliston Rci: ANGUS MAKELLAR, D.D., Pencaitland By the Rev. John Thomson, D.D., Paisley. Rev. WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM, D.D., Pr Nezv College By the Rev. John J. Bonar, Greenock. Rev. ANDREW GRAY, Perth . By the Rev. J. B. Irvine, Strathkinness. ALEXANDER EARLE MONTELTH, Esq., Advocate, Sheriff of Fifes/tire By Francis Brown Douglas, Esq., Advocate. ipal and Professor of Church History WILLIAM CAMPBELL, Esq. of Tilliechewan By the Rev. John Ro.nuurgh, D.D., Glasgow Rev. PA TRICK CLASON, D. D., Free Bucdeuch Church, Edinburgh . By the Rev. John M'Farlan, Greenock. Rev. WILLIAM KING TIVEEDIE, D.D., Free Tolbooth Church, Edinburgh By William Brown, Esq., F.R.C.S.E. ROBERT PAUL, Esq., Banker, Edinburgh ..... By David Maclagan, E.sq., C.A., Edinburgh. Sir DA VID BREWSTER, Kt., Principal of the University of Edinburgh By Rev. John Di:ns, D.D., Professor of Natural Science, New College. «95 ,1 Rev. JAMES BANNERMAN, D.D., Professor of Apologetics, Neiv College By the Rev. J. R. Omond, Monzie. JAMES BONAR, Esq., W.S. By the Rev. G. R. Davius PATRICK BOYLE MURE MAC RE DIE, Esq. of Perceton By the Rev. Thomas Main, Edinburgh. 3:5 # The Most Noble THE MARQUIS OF BREADALBANE, K.T. . By the Rev. William Chalmers, D.D., Professor, Presbyterian College, Londo Rev. RODERICK M'LEOD, Snizort ..... By the Rev. John S. Macphail, Kilmuir, Skye. of Systematic Theology, New ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, Esq. of Monzie . By the Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D., Glasgow. Rev. JAMES BUCHANAN, D.D., LI..D., Profes College By the Rev. Robert G. Balfour, Edinburgh. Rev. JOHN DUNCAN, LL.D., Professor of Hebrew, New College By the Rev. Alexander Moody Stuart, D.D., Edinburgh. ALEXANDER MURRA Y DUNLOP, Esq. of Corsock, Advocate . By the Rev. Thomas M. Lindsay, D.D., Professor of Church History, Free Church College, Glasgow. Rev. JAMES GIBSON, D.D., Professor of Church History, Free Church College, Glasgow . . ....... By the late Rev. Robert M'Nair Wilson, Maryhill. -*' JIK « JP'fe^^ WILLIAM HOWIESON CKAUFURD, Esq. of Craufurdlatid By the Rev. Thomas Main, Edinburgh. ALEXANDER THOMSON, Esq. of Banchory By Robert Lumsden, Esq., Banker, .Aberdeen. Rn: ALEXANDER DYCE DAVIDSON, D.D., Free West Church, Aberdeen By the Rev. .Alexander Whvte, M.A., Edinburgh. Riv. THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D., Free SI John's Church, Editiburgh By the Rev. John Kek, D.D., United Presbyterian Church, Glasgow. Rev. ROBERT SMITH CANDL/.SH, D.D., Free St George's Church, Edinburgh . By the Rev. Sir Henry Wellwood Moncreiff, Bart., D.D. Rn: JOHN FORBES, D.D., LL.D., Free St Paul's Church, Glasgow By the Rev. Thomas Smith, D.D., Edinburgh. Ra.: PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D., Principal and Professor of Theology, Free Church College, Glasgow ........ By the Rev. James Dodds, Dunbar. The Right Hon. THE EARL OF DALHOUSIE, ICT., K.C.B. . By the Rev. William Grant, Ayr. A',1'. ROBERT BUCHANAN, D.D.. Free College Church, Glasgoiu . By the Rev. Robert R-\inv, D.D., Principal of New College, Edinburgh. Rez: JOHN WILSON, D.D., F.R.S., Bombay By the Rev. J. Murray Mitchell, D.D., Edinburgh. AUTOGRAPHS OF MODERATORS AND OTHERS m^' page 291, hne 12— for "died previously to his birth," read "a month after his birth INTRODUCTION. BY THE HON. LORD ARDMILLAN, ONE OF THE SENATORS OF THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE. ^'@^S^^iW%ff^WWli x.[r m intrn&nrt:0n. ^ ' S this work may be considered a chapter ''^ in the " Memories of the Disruption," illustrating and commemorating some '' ' of the leaders and the heroes in the memorable struggle of which it was the culminating point, the retrospect, whether personal or historical, is full of deep interest. The wise man finds in it sometimes the "pleasures of memory," sometimes the bitterness of regret, but always grounds for thankfulness and trustfulness, and lessons for the guidance of life. To intelligent, earnest, and loyal Free Churchmen, Disruption Memories must be unspeakably precious ; and dear to them must be the names of those worthies — foremost in the conflict for conscience— who have now passed from the struggles of the Church on earth to the peace and the glory of the upper sanctuary. As no true Protestant would discard the memory of the Reformation, — as no ■ T,s\(d i^'aw ml A M L . M -^'^'i DISRUPTION WORTHIES. no true Free Church- true patriot would discard the Revokition Settlement, man would part with the memory of the Disruption. But more than thirty years have now passed since the Disruption. A new generation has arisen, to some of whom ignorance is natural, and to others forgetfulness is easy. Ingenious efforts are made to commend oblivion, to induce indifference, and to enlist selfishness in aid of suggested surrender; and it may not be useless or inajipropriate to offer a few brief remarks in explanation of the Origin, the Principles, the Progress, and the Result, of the conflict. As of a stream winding through a fertile vale, the spring may be discovered far back amid the clefts of the rocks, so of the Free Church, which was the out- come of the Disruption struggle — the source and spring of the movement may be found in the great divisions of the Church more than a century back. The people of Scotland can scarcely require to be reminded of the theology, the policy, tlie literature, and the preaching of the party in the Church known as " Moderates." The sad results of the reign and the fruits of Moderatism are well known. Yet it was a potent and distinguished party. Its culture was attractive and commendable, and procured for it a general acceptance among the upper classes ; but its influence on religious conviction, sentiment, and character, was chilling and withering. Under the ascendancy of this " Moderate " party, the Church of Scotland, as established and endowed by the State, became a great political institution ; and, accordingly, the advantages of State connection rose higher and higher in ecclesiastical estimation. On tlie other hand, the Church, in its own peculiar and essential character as a Church of Christ, apart from its establishment — the Church, as a witness-bearer, and a message-bearer, and a missionary institution — was lowered and weakened in purity, power, and acceptance, by the prevalence and the influence of the Moderate party. Put there was another party in the Church, called by some in derision " the Wild," and known by the people as the " Evangelical,"— a party whose theology -Y'l INTRODUCTION. was in accordance with the stanrkrds of the first and second Reformation, and whose principles were those of tlie Puritans and the Covenanters, and whose preaching, faithful and fervent, had the scarlet thread through it, and the blood-bought salvation in its freeness and fullness, as its constant and urgent theme. To that party the spiritual liberty and life of the Church was far more important and more precious than its establishment or endowment. Thus it came to' pass that the stream of the Church's history flowed, as it were, in two different channels. To the Moderate party the establishment of the Church — the favour of the State, and the dependence of the Church on the State — was the muniment of her political and social position. To the Evangelical party the spiritual independence of the Church was the muniment of her Christian liberty and her living power. So also in regard to Patronage, the channels of thought and feeling were quite distinct. The Moderate party, desirous to retain the favour of the patrons and the government, naturally supported and enforced the rights of Patronage, quite without consent, and almost without limit or restriction, on the part of congregations ; while the Evangelical party, leaning on popular rather than State support, sought to protect congregations from the intrusion of unacceptable ministers. It naturally followed that, so long as the Moderate party retained the ascendancy in the Church, the enforcement of Patronage— the settlement of ministers over reclaiming congregations — was con- tinued and accepted, and no attempt was made to vindicate the separate and independent spiritual jurisdiction of the Church. But it was manifest that, if the time came when the Evangelical and popular party could guide the councils of the Church, the abolition or effectual limitation of Patronage would be attempted, and spiritual independence would be proclaimed. And so it came to pass. Sir Henry Moncreiff, Dr Andrew Thomson, and others, did not live in vain. The Evangelical party — the party whom the people trusted, and through whom the most devout and earnest of the people hoped to see a revival of religion 'ckT^^' DISRUPTION II ORTHIES. in the land— became the majority in the Assembly; and gradually, but surely, the principles now held by the Free Church were developed, proclaimed, and carried into action. The adoption and practical vindication of these principles of non-intrusion and spiritual independence, was the natural and appropriate result of the transfer of Church influence from the Moderate to the Evangelical party. It was a result expected by intelligent observers on both sides of the Churcli — expected with desire by the one party, and with apprehension by the other. It was also a result to be anticipated from the progressive earnestness and piety of congregations trained under the influence of Evangelical ministers. It was plain, that those who had been taught and stirred by the full, faithful, and fervent preaching of the gospel of grace and love, would not long submit to the enforced setdement of "Moderate" ministers, and would, when opportunity offered, assert the congregational right to resist Intrusion, and the Church's right to Spiritual Independence. No one could doubt that the people would follow their faithful pastors. Occasion, fit and urgent, soon appeared. In the case of the parish of Auchterarder, where only two persons out of three thousand signed the call, and in several other cases, the most high-handed and tyrannical patronage was exercised, and was enforced by all the authority and the severity of the law; and the exercise of that patronage was accepted, and the severe interposition of the ('ivil Courts was craved, approved, and defended, by the Moderate party, then the minority in the Assembly, who afterwards formed the Established Church, when the Evangelical party were compelled by conscience to secede. These Moderates are represented by the Church now established, as the Evangelical party are represented by the Free Church. In the cases of Settlement, — in the Stewarton Case — in the Strathbogie Interdict, — the distinct and independent jurisdiction of the Church in matters spiritual was denied, assailed, and crushed by the judgments of the Civil Courts ; while, at the same time, the attempt to ir@ iR'^j'l'i'ttlR'D S Ti\'© l^,.#\W ImI A MB 7© '^yi E 'wi 1^'TR0DUCTI0N. impose on Patronage even the mildest restraint, failed, and was pronounced illegal. Revered ministers were called to the bar of the Civil Court, and publicly rebuked. It became impossible, and was authoritatively declared impossible, to maintain the spiritual independence of the Church within a Church established and endowed by the State. The surrender by the Church of power to protect reclaiming congregations, and the surrender by the Church of free and independent spiritual jurisdiction, was felt to be, and was indeed declared to be, the condition and the price of Establishment. The principle of spiritual independence has been much misunderstood. It has been imagined that our Free Church view of spiritual independence savours of priestcraft. This is a great mistake. There is, on the contrary, no Church in which the lay element has more weight and influence. We hold that no eccle- siastic is, as a citizen, above the law, or beyond the reach of the law. We loyally and respectfully recognise the authority of the law on all questions of civil rights. But, on the other hand, we hold, that of every true man and every true Church our Lord Jesus is the spiritual Head, and that within the sphere of spiritual jurisdic- tion, His Church has, in her orderly courts, distinct and independent authority. The Free Church principle, when rightly understood and applied, does indeed guard alike the true liberty of the State and the true liberty of the Church, by drawing a clear distinction between civil and spiritual jurisdiction. The freedom of the State from ecclesiastical usurpation is imperilled by Vaticanism. The freedom of the Church from usurpation by Civil Courts is imperilled by Erastianism. The Free Church protests against both usurpers. She maintains the freedom of both jurisdictions against encroachment from either side, on a jurisdiction distinct and independent — in the one case civil, and in the other case spiritual. Practically the spiritual jurisdiction of the Church was, during the conflict, chiefly exercised to protect congregations trom the intrusion of ministers by violent settlements. It was exercised in vain. The violent settlements were enforced by law ; and both to the people and to the Church it was, by deed and by word, plainly intimated, that continued connection with the State could only be maintained on the condition of the surrender of congregational liberty, and of spiritual independence. Separation from the State then became the duty, the urgent and paramount duty, of all who were not prepared to accept that condition and pay that price. Those who remained established at the Disruption of 1S43, accepted the con- dition, and consented to pay the price ; and they still enjoy the State favour, and the State endowments, and enjoy them on the condition which they accepted, and at the price which they paid. Those who rejected the condition, and refused to pay the price, of Establishment, seceded, surrendered the advantages of State connection, and formed the Free Church of Scotland. Continued conformity involved the sacrifice of conscience j and that sacrifice being in regard to matters of momentous and sacred principle. Nonconformity became an imperative duty. If, after the rise of the Evangelical party to influence in the Church, and after the Ten Years' Conflict, there had, in 1S43, been no Disruption, all con- fidence in the power or reality of conscience, and in the sincerity of religious profession, would have been destroyed. It is diflicult to conceive anything more injurious to the cause and progress of vital religion than would have been the cowardice or unfaithfulness of the Evangelical party at that crisis. The tone of feeling at the solemn Convocation of Ministers which preceded the Disruption, made it certain that surrender or compromise could not be thought of without dishonour ; and the elders, with responding fidelity, resolved to maintain the same great principles, and to adhere to the out-going ministers. The words of the Rev. Mr Stewart of Cromarty made a deep and lasting impression. " When I read that interdict by a Civil Court, which the Church was called and commanded to obey, I felt, as I could imagine a child to feel hanging at the breast of its mother, if that mother had been suddenly shot through the heart. I might cling to the body. mt:- I A: INTRODUCTION. but the life has gone out of her." In this state of feeling, with the heart of the Church deeply stirred, with conscience sensitive, and honour pledged, Disruption and continued separation became inevitable. This was felt and appreciated — the serious step was deliberately and prayerfully considered, and bravely taken — and graciously has God guided the Free Church, and has, in her Noncon- formist condition, blessed her with peace, libert}', and purity. One part of this gracious dealing has been the gift to the Church of her " Disruption Worthies," whose wisdom, courage, faithfulness, and godliness, have promoted her progress and her usefulness, and sustained her renown. The purity of motive, the un- flinching stedfastness of principle, the spiritual elevation and evangelical earnest- ness of character, by which these leaders of the Exodus were distinguished, have won the admiration of all good men — even of many who honestly differed and remained behind. Another part of God's gracious dealing has been the bringing the Free Church into close and cordial relations with the Evangelical Seceders of an earlier date, with churches — Protestant, Presbyterian, Evangelical — holding, as their forefathers held, all the great principles for which our " Disruption Worthies" contended. It is, however, now said, that Disruption Memories should be consigned to oblivion, and that, as Patronage has been abolished by Act of Parliament, Free Churchmen should return to the Establishment ; and it is indeed obvious that to attract them back is the policy of the hour. It is therefore necessary for Free Churchmen seriously to review the past history, and to consider the present position, of the Church. This they must do, in order to estimate aright the attractions or invitations presented or suggested. Now, no narrow-minded jealousy, no unkind feeling, should actuate Free Churchmen in this matter. There is much worth, capacity, and piety within the Established Church. She has a wide field for usefulness, and she has done, and is doing, much good. In all such good, Free Churchmen rejoice. It is the duty and privilege of Free DISR UP TION IVOR THIES. Churchmen to cherish friendly feehngs, and to maintain friendly relations, and to co-operate heartily in Christian work; and all this they can do without com promise of principle. But, for members of the Free Church t6 ignore or forget the Disruption, and to make, or indicate a readiness to make, any movement in the direction of returning to the Establishment, or resuming connection with the State, is quite out of the question. It would be foolish, and it would be wrong, to think of such a step, or even to dream of returning again to bondage. It is alike the part of wisdom and of duty to hold fast the principles vindicated at such cost in the Disruption, and to maintain the position of Nonconformity ; for that is our true position, since Nonconformists all Free Churchmen became, when they quitted the Establishment in 1843. The recent alteration in the law of Patronage does not affect our position. It may, or may not, be satisfactory to the Established Church. Of course, we cannot approve of Patronage. We have never done so. It was not in the Evangelical party that Patronage found support, nor can it find support in the Free Church. But the new Statute, whatever it does, does not remove the causes of separation ; it does not secure, and was not intended to secure, the spiritual independence of the Church ; and after thirty years' experience of Disruption life, all thoughtful Free Churchmen must have been taught, that Evangelical Nonconformity has in it a charm and a power which the State cannot bestow, and must have been taught also, that the Church is freer, safer, and purer, when depending only on the free-will offerings of the Christian people. All our experience has tended to deepen our convictions on these points. Nor can it be overlooked, that return to State connection would painfully rend asunder the ties now uniting us to those older Nonconformists who have done such great service to the cause — the good old cause — of gospel truth and civil and religious liberty. The true part for the Free Church, at once the wisest and the bravest part, is to hold fast our freedom, and to strengthen our alliance with the free. IXTRODUCTIOX. But it has been recently maintained, on the part of the Established Church, and of those politicians who invite return to State connection, that the spiritual independence of the Church is not in danger, that it has never been authorita- tively denied, and that the law has never negatived the Church's claim to such spiritual independence, and, therefore, that the subject need not trouble us or scare us from return. This, after all that has passed, is, indeed, a strange view; but the stating of it at present is not without importance. It seems to be adopted to serve the purpose of the passing hour, and is somewhat rashly adopted, for it cuts away the only excuse which can even palliate the oppressive proceedings that led to the Disruption. To surrender the Church's liberty when the law demanded it, was a weakness and a grave mistake. But to surrender it, when the law did not demand it, would have been an act of treachery and guilt. If it really were the case, as is now alleged or suggested, that the law of the Established Church, and the constitution of the Established Church, never enforced, accepted, or recognised the authority of the Civil Courts, and the subordination of the Church Courts, in matters spiritual, then, how can the actual facts of enforced edicts of the Civil Courts, and the ready submission of that portion of the Church which is now established, be explained I That the Civil Courts did actually command and ordain the doing of spiritual acts, and did forbid and prohibit the preaching of the gospel in Strathbogie, and that the command and the prohibition were both obeyed without protest by the Moderate party — the party remaining in the Church — is beyond doubt. The defence or explanation given at the time, and till recently, was, that the Church was, in respect of its establishment, bound in law and in duty to obey the edicts of the Civil Court, even in these matters clearly spiritual, even in the calling and the collation, involving the ordination, of ministers, even in the preaching of the word. The Lord President (Hope) said, on 5th March 1S41, 'MVhat makes the Church of Scotland, but the law T' Lord Mackenzie said, that the Court M?=/P3i>7\«;l^ 1 ^0m 1 1 DISRiPTIO\ WORTHIES. did not, in the first 'Vuchterirdei case, pronounce " a judgment limited to the effect of determining the right to the stipend only, or the manse and glebe ;" and he added, what the Lord President had stated on i8th November 1840, that the obligation to receive and admit a qualified person, implies an obligation to ordain, since ordination is necessary to admission. Tiie Strathbogie Interdicts, were recognised by the Moderate party — by those who adhered to the Establish- ment — as competent and legal, as according to the law of the land and the constitution of the Church. The Non-Intrusionists were accused of disloyalty for not obeying them. Dr Guthrie, Dr Cunningham, and Dr Candlish were denounced in the strongest terms. Now, on this law, — a law recognising and enforcing authority in Civil Courts, and obedience in Church Courts, even in matters spiritual, — there has been no change. Tlie repeal of the law of Patronage has nothing to do with it. A isettle- ment on a presentation was only an occasion for crushing or for vindicating the principle of spiritual independence. The condition or status of subordination, and the relative or emerging duty of obedience, to Civil Courts, remains now exactly as it was in 1841. The facts in regard to violent settlement, and enforce- ment of the edicts of a Civil Court, are beyond question. The authority, in its most startling form, was exercised, maintained, and vindicated ; and was not only distinctly accepted, but was invoked and appealed to, by the party led by Dr Cook — the party who adliered to the Establishment in 1843, S''"' who sub- stantially constituted the Established Church from and after the Disruption. This, therefore, is the alternative. Either there is no spiritual independence — no distinct and final spiritual jurisdiction— in the Established Church, and the edicts of 1840 and 1841 are still competent, legal, and constitutional, and may be repeated ; or the great Moderate party which forced out the Non-Intrusionists, and remained established, were voluntary actors in tliose violent settlements, and in that acceptance of spiritual subordination, and have been excusing themselves, 'S7 4 4 I /NTliODUCr/ON. by laying on the law and constitution of the Church a guilt and a responsibility which were all their own. On the one alternative, the same law may be again enforced, and the Church's spiritual jurisdiction again crushed. On the other alternative, the same surrender of the Church's rights may be again made — the same wrong may be again done by the same party, and done with the same results. In any view, it is plain that the position of the present Established Church is not mended by this suggestion, and is not such as to invite, or justify, or even excuse, the return of any leal-hearted Free Churchman. None but the weak or the unfaithful could think of returning. Those who quitted the Establishment on religious conviction and for conscience sake, may and should feel kindly towards those from whom they have parted ; but they cannot return without compromise of conscience, and cannot resume State connection frithout surrendering the principles on which they acted. Besides, the invitation of suggestion, such as it is, has been mere talk. No approach to the Nonconforming Churches generally or to any Nonconformist Church as a body, has been made, or is likely to be made. The idea of union between a Church supported by the State and a Church supported by voluntary contributions, is ridiculous 3 and the device of attracting weak or selfish adherents one by one, in the hope of affecting statistical returns, is too transparently foolish to require remark. Mr Gladstone asked in Parliament if such a course was " fair or generous" i The question was natural No answer to this question has been given, in Parliament, or in the Assembly of the Church. On the probability of continued permanent Establishment, it is premature now to speculate. Questions now raised in England as to education, and as to burials, and as to ceremonies and services, will not be without influence. The question can wait. Time — it may be a short time— may clear it up. Disestablish- ment is not directly or specially the aim of the Free Church. Her aim is to convert, and to build up, to instruct and to edify, to proclaim and commend the gospel. But Disestablishment may be the result of the advancing strength and ; HjR B 1 T S \G M;# 'W Kl I A U ©Tl'l^V E ! DISRUPTION WORTHIES. progress of Free Church principles, since these are alike the principles of Evan- gelical Presbyterianism, and of civil and religious liberty. Duty, faithfulness, conscience — these are our guides. Results are in the hands of God. There are good men in the Free Church, who would regret to see the State Church dis- established. There is no sound and loyal Free Churchman, who, for the sake cf supporting the Establishment, would compromise the principles, or imperil the spiritual liberty and independence of the Free Church. The time has come for friendly co-operation among all earnest Christians, since vice, ignorance, infidelity, and superstition are our common enemies. The time may come — God grant that it may soon come ! — when, under general awakening and revival, increased depth of conviction and intensity of devotional feeling may lead to union among all sound and free Evangelical Presbyterians. Mean- while, let all Free Churchmen maintain their principles and their liberty. Let them resist all temptations to Erastianism, and hold in grateful memory the "DISRUPTION WORTHIES." 1 -__^J^^} IF® K-;feiHl^K S TiX?l .^H,:^^^^^^^ A MEMORIAL OF I 843. Hijl s T iN^%,w im1;a m © / i"i:v e" %C^J^ ,,i 5 V£Wlt^Dj;^ ^ S^v© K®-W (MT^ H © T©"i:¥ E K ^I'.f^fff Ji-iiv >sv-si^ <:^^0(\'<^ ^ktUh d tht Wisxnpion Bag. HE y HUGH MILLER. fatal die has been cast. On Thursda)- last the religion of Scotland was disestablished, and a principle recognised in its stead, which has often served to check and modify the religious influences, but which in no age or countrj- ever yet existed as a religion ; not but that it has performed an '-'- important part, even in Scotland. It has served hitherto to control the Christianity of the Establish- ment — to dilute it to such a degree, if we may so speak, as to render it bearable to statesmen without God. And now its appointed work seems over. It constituted at best but the drag-chain and the hook — things that have no vocation apart from the chariot. But the time has at length arrived in which the State will bear with but the hook and the drag apart from that which they checked, with but the diluting pabulum apart from that which it diluted ; and so a mere negation of Christianity, I f an antagonistic force to the religious power, has been virtually recog- nised as exclusively the principle which is to be entrenched in the parish churches of Scotland. The day that witnessed a transaction so momentous, can be a day of no slight mark in modern history. It stands, between two distinct .states of things, a signal to Christendom. It holds out its sign to these latter times, that God and the world have drawn off their forces to opposite sides, and that His sore and great battle is soon to begin. The future can alone adequately develope the more important con- sequences of the event ;— at present we shall merely attempt presenting the reader with a few brief notes of the aspect which it exhibited. The early part of Thursday had its periods of fitful cloud and sunshine, and the tall picturesque tenements of the old town now lay dim and indistinct in shadow, now stood prominently out in the light. There was an unusual throng and bustle in the streets at a comparatively early hour, which increased greatly as the morning wore on towards noon. We marked, in especial, several knots of Moderate clergy hurrying along to the levee, laughing and chatting with a vivacity that reminded one rather of the French than of the Scotch character, and evidently in that state of nervous excitement which, in a certain order of minds, the near approach of some very great c\cnt, indeterminate and unappreciable in its bearings, is sure always to occasion. As the morning wore on, the crowds thickened in the streets, and the military took their places. The principles involved in the anticipated Disruption gave to many a spectator a new association with the long double line of dragoons that stretched adown the High Street, far as the eye could reach, from the venerable Church of St Giles, famous in Scottish story, to the humbler Tron. The light flashed fitfully on their long swords and helmets, and the light scarlet of their uniforms con- trasted strongly with the dingier vestments of the masses, in which they seemed as if more than half cngulphed. When the sun glanced out, the SKETCH OF THE DISRUPTION DA Y. eye caught something peculiarly picturesque in the aspect of the Calton Hill, with its imposing masses of precipices, overtopped by towers and monuments, and its intermingling bushes and trees, now green with the soft, delicate foliage of May. Between its upper and under line of rock, ■ a dense living belt of human beings girdled it round, sweeping gradually downwards from shoulder to base, like the sash of his order on the breast of a nobleman. The Commissioner's procession passed, with sound of trumpet and drum, and marked by rather more than the usual splendour. There was much bravery and glitter, satin and embroidery, varnish and gold lace — no lack, in short, of that cheap and vulgar magnificence which can be got up to order by the tailor and upholsterer for carnivals and Lord Mayors' days. But it was felt by the assembled thousands, as the pageant swept past, that the real spectacle of the day was one of a different character. The morning levee had been marked by an incident of a somewhat ex- traordinary nature, and which history, though in these days little disposed to mark prodigies and omens, will scarcely fail to record. The crowd in the chamber of presence was very great, and there was, we believe, a considerable degree of confusion and pressure in consequence. Suddenly — whether brushed by some passer-by, jostled rudely aside, or merely affected by the tremor of the floor communicated to the partitioning — a large portrait of William the Third, that had held its place in Holyrood for nearly a century and a-half, dropped heavily from the walls. " There," exclaimed a voice from the crowd, " there goes the Revolution Settlement." For hours before the meeting of the Assembly, the galleries of St Andrew's, with the space behind, railed off for the accommodation of office-bearers not members, were crowded to suffocation, and a vast assemblage still continued to besiege the doors. The galleries from below had the " overbellying " appearance in front, described by Blair, and seemed as if filled up to the roof behind. Immediately after noon, the Moderate members began to drop in one by one, and to take their 1 J SKETCH OF THE DISRUPT/OX DAY. places on the Moderator's right, while the opposite benches remained well-nigh empty. What seemed most fitted to catch the eye of a stranger was the rosy appearance of the men, and their rounded contour of face and feature. Moderatism in the present day is evidently not injuring its complexion by the composition of " Histories of Scotland," like that of Robertson, or by prosecuting such " Inquiries into the Human Mind," as those instituted by Reid. We were reminded, in glancing over the benches, of a bed of full-blown peony-roses glistening after a shower ; and could one have but substituted among them the monk's frock for the modern dress-coat, and given to each crown the shaven tonsure, not only would they have passed admirably for a conclave of monks met to determine some weighty point of abbey income or right of forestry, but for a conclave of one determinate age — that easily-circumstanced middle age, in which the days of vigil and maceration being over, and the disturbing doctrines of the Reformation ^ not yet aroused from out of their long sleep, the Churchman had little '^ else to do than just amuse himself with concerns of the chase and the 7 cellar, the larder and the dormitor}-. The benches on the left began ' slowly to fill ; and on the entrance of c\-cry more distinguished member, ; a burst of recognition and welcome shook the gallery. Their antagonists -=i had been all permitted to take their places in ominous silence. The music of the pageant was heard outside ; the Moderator entered, attired <; in his gown ; and ere the appearance of the Lord High Commissioner, preceded by his pages and mace-bearer, and attended by the Lord Provost, the Lord Advocate, and the Solicitor-General, the Evangelical \ benches had filled as densely as those of their opponents ; and the cross J: benches, appropriated in perilous times like the present to a middle '^, party, careful always to pitch their principles below the suffering point, were also fully occupied. Never before was there seen so crowded a General Assembly ; the number of members had been increased beyond all precedent by the double returns, and almost every member was i ^ iM<^^m^^^^n^i syr"<^^ •Si" w nf^^m^'iy^Tk^^^^^^kiU SKETCH OF THE DISRUPT/OX DAY. Ill in his place. The Moderator opened the proceedings by a deeply impressive prayer ; but though the silence within was complete, a Babel of tumultuary sounds outside, and at the closed doors, expressive of the intense anxiety of the excluded multitude, had the effect of rendering him scarcely audible in the more distant parts of the building. . . . The Moderator, Dr Welsh, rose and addressed the House in a few impressive sentences. There had been an infringement, he said, on the constitution of the Church, an infringement so great that they could not constitute its General Assembly without a violation of the union between Church and State, as now authoritatively defined and declared. He was therefore compelled, he added, to protest against proceeding further ; and unfolding a document which he held in his hand, he read, in a slow and emphatic manner, the Protest of the Church. For the first few seconds the extreme anxiety to hear defeated its object — the universal. Hush, hush, occasioned considerably more noise than it allayed ; but the momentary confusion was succeeded by the most unbroken silence, and the reading went on till the impressive close of the document, when he laid it down on the table of the House, and solemnly departed. He was followed, at a pace's distance, by Dr Chalmers ; Dr Gordon and Dr Patrick M'Farlan immediately succeeded ; and then the numerous sitters on the thickly occupied benches behind filed after them, in a long unbroken line, which for several minutes together continued to thread the passage to the eastern door, till at length only a blank space remained. As the well-known faces and forms of some of the ablest and most eminent men that ever adorned the Church of Scotland glided along the current, to disappear from the Courts of the State institution for ever, there rose a cheer from the galleries, and an impatient cry of "Out, out," from the ministers and elders not members of the Assembly, now engaged in sallying forth to join with them, from the railed area behind. The cheers subsided, choked in not a few instances in tears. The occasion was by far too solemn for the commoner manifestations of Air If cither censure or approval. It excited feelings that lay too deep for expression. There was a marked peculiarity in the appearance of their opponents, a blank, restless, pivot-like turning of head from the fast emptying benches to one another's faces, but they uttered no word, not even in whispers. At length, when the last of the withdrawing party had disappeared, there ran from bench to bench a hurried, broken whispering — " How many ? " " how many ? " " A hundred and fifty .' " "No"; "yes." " Four hundred .'' " "No"; — and then for a moment all was still again. The scene that followed we deemed one of the most striking of the day. The empty vacated benches stretched away from the Moderator's seat, in the centre of the building, to the distant wall. There suddenly glided into the front rows a small party of blighted- looking men, that, contrasted with the well-known forms of our Chalmerses and Gordons, Candlishes and Cunninghams, M'Farlans, Brewsters, and Dunlops, reminded one of the thin and blasted corn-ears of Pharaoh's vision, and, like them, too, seemed typical of a time of famine and destitution. Who are these .' was the general query ; but no one seemed to know. At length the significant whisper ran along the house, " The Forty." There was a grin of mingled contempt and compassion visible on many a broad Moderate face, and a too audible titter shook the gallery. There seemed a degree of incongruity in the sight, that partook highly of the ludicrous. For our own part, we were so carried away by a vagrant association, and so missed Ali Baba, the oil kettle, and the forty jars, as to forget for a time that, at the doors of these unfortunate men, lies the ruin of the Scottish Establishment. The aspect of the Assembly sank when it had in some degree recovered itself, into that expression of tame and flat commonplace, which it must be henceforth content to bear, until roused happily into short-lived activity by the sharp paroxysms of approaching destruction. DAVID WELSH. D.D. -I 5Batjib Mdsh, B.B. AVIl^, tlic youngest of twelve children of the family, was born on the iith December 1793, at Braefoot, in the parish of Moffat. The farm-house in which this event took place stands at the head of a deep dell, near the source of the Annan. It is in the midst of a purely pastoral country, and his parents, who were both eminently pious, belonged to the class of intelligent gentlemen- farmers. Their youngest son was named after the sweet singer of Israel, and from this circumstance, as well as from their devoted religious char- acter, we may believe that he was specially consecrated from his infancy to the service of God. At a comparatively early period of his life, his father surrendered all charge of his worldly affairs into the hands of his sons, and retired to spend the evening of his days in Moffat, where he died in 1825, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. In his early years David attended the parish school of Moffat, to which he rode daily a distance of three miles, and enjoyed besides, the services of a competent tutor at home, the Rev. Mr M'Whir, who became after- wards minister at Urr in Galloway, and was distinguished for his zeal and manifold labours. In his thirteenth year he was sent to the High School of Edinburgh, which he attended for one year as a pupil of Dr Carson. In the year following he entered the University of Edinburgh, in which he regularly passed through the Arts classes. In the third year of his ^Ai<,^^,,^lig-. ^-^VJMEBATUR; DI.SR UP TIOX J I 'OR rillES. course he became the pupil, as afterwards the intimate friend, and ultimately the biographer, of Dr Brown, then the Professor of Moral Philosophy. He early shewed a decided predilection for the science of logic and psychology. It was this which brought him into such intimate relationship with Dr Brown, and distinguished him as a student, although in the prosecution of his studies in mental science he departed very widely from the method of his instructors, and became an ardent advo- cate of phrenology, of which he continued to be a disciple to the end of his life. In November iSii, when he was in his seventeenth year, he entered the Divinity Hall, and devoted himself with peculiar ardour to those studies by which he was to prepare himself for the work of the ministry, and which were so congenial to the taste and habits of mind of a youth of ardent piety. While prosecuting these studies, he also acted as the private tutor of Alexander Dunlop, who afterwards earned such merited distinc- tion as one of the Disruption Worthies ; and this connection resulted in a life-long friendship, which was mutually pleasant and profitable. During his theological course he attended the ministry of Dr Andrew Thomson, which could hardly fail to have a stimulating effect upon him, and to aid in moulding those ecclesiastical views, of which he became such an earnest promoter. In 1816 he was licensed as a preacher of the gospel by the Presbytery of Lochmaben. He was not ordained as a minister till 1821. His father had been advised to purchase a presentation for him, but declined, saying — " I gave him up to God twenty years ago, and in His hands I will leave him." Mr Welsh's ecclesiastical and political views were alike hostile to his obtaining the favour of patrons of parishes ; but, in 1820, Sir Alexander Gordon, for the good of the parish, so far overcame his political predilections, as to present him to the parish of Crossmichael, of which he became the minister in March 1S21. He at once set himself with great zeal and vigour, and with eminent A success, to the work of the ministry. In prosecuting that work, he laboured under very considerable disadvantages. He had a weak chest, and preaching was ahvays to him an oppressive labour. He had little facility of utterance, and his bodily frame was but ill fitted to endure the laborious fatigue of his pastoral duties. Notwithstanding, he soon came to be beloved by his congregation, and to be known over all the district as a preacher of singular power. The publication by him in 1825, moreover, of a life of Dr Brown, made him known in all literary and scientific circles as a man of extensive reading, of cultivated taste, of sound and acute judgment, and of searching and discriminating analytical power. At this period of his history, the following quotation from his diary will let us see in what frame of mind his work was carried on, and wherein lay the secret of his power : — "Oh, 1 am backward in spiritual things. O Lord, shed abroad Thy love in my heart, by Thy Holy Spirit, for Christ's sake. Amen and Amen. Enable me to cultivate simplicity and godly sincerity. I feel much attachment to my people, but little, little anxiety for their eternal souls. Enable me to be more zealous in this respect. I read and think a good deal, but consult too much the inclination of the hour. Give me strength to do what my hand findeth to do. Enable me, O Lord, to make this my constant feeling, Lord, what would'st Thou have me to do ?" It was not to be expected that a minister of Mr Welsh's accomplish- ments and power, especially at such a time in the history of the Church of Scotland, should be permitted to remain in the seclusion of Cross- michael; and accordingly, in 1827, the congregation of St David's, Glasgow, which was then vacant, recommended him to the Town Council of the city for presentation to that parish. This they were induced to do mainly on the recommendation of Dr Brown, of St John's Parish, who, as former minister at Tongland, had been a co-presbyter of Mr Welsh. The Town Council acted on the recommendation, and Mr Welsh, having accepted the presentation, was translated to Glasgow, to the deep regret of all his congregation, and with a sore wrench to his own tender nature. " The tie that connected us together," he said, " was ■^y^ip^x of the closest and most endearing nature, though I never knew with what strength it mutually bound us till it came to be broken." Mr Welsh engaged in the work of his city charge with all the faithful diligence and ardour which had characterised his previous ministry, although now the field of his operations was greatly enlarged. Besides the duties of his parish and congregation, he could not fail to encourage every philanthropic scheme for the good of his fellow-citizens. His interest in the cause of education was peculiarly active and intelligent, and, in conjunction with David Stow, and others like-minded, he con- tributed greatly to extend the means of education in the city, particularly in setting up infant schools for the training of the young. He was in labours most abimdant, too much so, indeed, for his weak bodily frame ; and although he was daily growing in the affectionate esteem of his congregation, and in his influence for good in the community at large, it became evident that he could not long endure the strain upon his physical strength. This formed at least one powerful inducement to him to accept the offer made to him by the Government of the day, to accept the Chair of Church History in the University of Edinburgh, to which he was appointed in October 1831, and he entered upon his work as professor in November following. The year before leaving Glasgow, he was united in marriage to the sister of Mr William Hamilton, Provost of Glasgow at the time of his translation from Crossmichael, and on the occasion of his removal to Edinburgh he received the degree of D.D. from the Glasgow University. By the students of the Theological Hall in the University of Edin- burgh his appointment was hailed with universal delight, and short as was his time for preparation, he got through the labour of his first session with great credit and acceptance. His work as professor was very con- genial to his tastes, and he grew more and more in successive years in the esteem of his students and of all \\ ho knew him. His tenderly afTectionate nature, notwithstanding his peculiar shyness and reserve, drew their hearts w DAVID WELSH, D.D. towards him, and the high tone and abiHty of his prelections commanded their respect. The spirit that animated him in the duties of his class, will appear from the following record of his aims : " To set apart one hour every Saturday for prayer for my students. To make a study, as oppor- tunity presents, of the passages of Scripture that relate to my duties as a teacher, and to the duties of the young. To add to my resolutions, from time to time, as new light shines. In looking at a student, ask. How can I do him good .' or. Have I ever done him good V So long as he could resist the pressure of higher obligation.s, Dr Welsh devoted himself exclusively to the business of his class, refusing all solici- tations to engage in other work, and refusing even to preach except on rare occasions. The time, however, was hastening on v/hich constrained him to depart from this rigid rule. He had never been an ecclesiastic ; but ecclesiastical questions of high moment were pressing to the front, and his sense of duty was such that he could not avoid taking part in them. From the time when he became a professor till his death, he was a member of the General Assembly. He was one of the comparatively few at that time who regarded the total abolition of Patronage as necessary for the wellbeing of the Church, and in the Assembly 1833 made his first speech on that subject. Notwithstanding some slight hesitation in manner, he spoke with admirable effect, although at the close of the debate only thirty-two voted along with him. Dr Welsh was not present at the Assembly 1834, which passed the Veto Act, having gone -with his family to reside at Bonn, but he heartily approved of what was done. In that year also he published a volume of sermons on practical subjects, which amply sustained the reputation he had acquired as a preacher of the gospel. From this time forward he felt himself under obligation to take a larger share than hitherto in the general business of the Church. He never, indeed, became a prominent leader in public discussions, whether in the General Assembly or in public meetings. His physical infirmities were a barrier to his efforts in € DISRUPTIOX WORTHIES. that direction. "But he joined," Mr Dunlop tells us, "in the consulta- ^. tions and exertions of the time, contributing much, by his judgment and -%j prudence, to the wisdom of the counsels adopted, and cheering all by his confident spirit of reliance on the righteousness of the cause, what- ever the immediate issue might be." The Ten Years' Conflict had begun. It is not our part here to speak of its successive stages, but during its progress, Dr Welsh, in several departments of Christian work, was busily and profitably engaged. In 1838 he was appointed Vice-Convener of the Colonial Committee, and in 1 841 became Convener. From the time of his appointment, he infused a new and vigorous spirit into the work of the Committee, and not a few of our expatriated countrymen owe to him the blessing of a -, faithful ministry among them. His eye was upon every emigrant seaport, tand he made it his business to infuse students, probationers, and ministers, with a desire to devote themselves to the service of God in the colonies. About the same time, on the abolition of the monopoly for printing ' [- the Bible, Dr Welsh was made Secretary of the Bible Board in Scotland, and upon him chiefly devolved the responsibility of securing that the editions of the Bible issued by several publishers were in conformity with the authorized version. His aptitude, intelligence, and zeal were also conspicuously manifested in the duties of this office, of which the Government of 1843 had the discredit of depriving him, because of his j) having cast in his lot with the Free Church. I In 1S42 he was Moderator of the General Assembly, perhaps the -, ,1 most momentous Assembly ever held by the Church of Scotland in / •[ connection with the State, and on him it devolved to preside at the /'ji|^^ opening of the Assembly 1843. Never, perhaps, was a man of such /ji^r) humility and modesty as Dr Welsh placed in a position of such con- ^ ^ji spicuous eminence. But he proved himself fit for the occasion. The crisis seemed to inspire him with new life and vigour, and nerved him to powerful and eloquent speech. His sermon in the High Church — F®i^^^^S^^^l;,^';w il;^ mWfW^ ^^^^^fm DA VID WELSH, D.D. from the text, Rom. xiv. 5, " Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind " — thrilled through every heart, and when he took the chair in St Andrew's Church, in which the Assembly met, the crowded audience gazed upon him in breathless silence. Mr Dunlop says : — " Nothing but the highest mental energy, aided by strength from above, coidd have sustained him now — feeble in body through previous illness and anxiety, and exhausted by the labour already gone through. But he was firm and collected ; very pale, but full of dignity, as one about to do a great deed ; and of elevation from the consciousness that he was doing it for the cause of Christ. His opening prayer ended, the Assembly became still as death. In a voice not strong, but clear and distinct, and heard in every corner of the building, he said, 'According to the usual form of procedure, this is the time for making up the roll ; but in consequence of certain proceedings affecting our rights and privileges — proceedings which have been sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government, and by the Legislature of the country, and more especially, that there has been an infringement on the liberties of our consti- tution, so that we could not now constitute this Court without a violation of the terms of the Union between Church and State in this land, as now authoritatively declared, I must protest against our proceeding farther. The reasons that have led to this conclusion are fully set forth in the document which I hold in my hand, and which, with the permission of the house, I will now proceed to read.' " The Protest being read, Dr Welsh left the Chair, followed by a proces- sion of ministers and elders who constituted a majority of the Assembly, to the amazement of many incredulous statesmen and others, and in conformity with the glad expectation of the great body of the religious people of Scotland. Dr Welsh constituted the Free Church Assembly in Tanfield Hall, after which Dr Chalmers was called to the Chair, and presided over its deliberations. Dr Welsh, however, was enabled to take part in its proceedings, and amazed those who knew him best, by the freedom and fluency with which he spoke, and by the gladsome spirit with which he was animated. The branch of the Church's business, which was specially committed to him, was Education in all its departments. As Convener of the Com- mittee appointed on this subject, the Free Church owes to him, in great measure, the noble library of the New College, as well as the stately building which contains it ; and to him also the Church is to a consider- i •4^FF U S A M © '^i@l¥E DISRUPTION JrORTHIES. able extent indebted for the normal and elementary schools which have been conducted with so much success. But his manifold and distinguished labours were now drawing to a close. He was able at the Assembly 1844 to attend only a few of the sederunts, and in the November following, when he had commenced the labours of his class, he was able to continue in them only for a few weeks. He retired to Drumfork House, near Helensburgh, on the estate of his brother-in-law, so soon as the weather permitted, but his health did not improve. He was subject to violent spasms of pain, which he bore with great fortitude and resignation. On the last day of his life, the 24th April 1845, he was able to take a drive, and was more cheerful than usual. "After dinner he slept for a little, leaning his head on the table. On his waking up, Mrs Welsh began, as usual, to read occasionally a verse or two from the Bible. She read Isaiah Ixi. 10, ' I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God ; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with oinaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels.' He turned the passage, as was his wont, into a fervent prayer; and, in a few moments afterwards, stretching out his arms, he passed into the presence of his God and Saviour." VV. W. —^J®^ \\^ i^l^D S TS^^M^wTj " A M ©^©VeTa ^^^^^^^^4^^ ^ THOMAS CHALMERS, D.O.LL.D. ^^^^yi^^y< ^? fbomaa Cbalmm. 1.^., II.B. I N the roll of Disruption Worthies, the first place belongs, by universal consent, to the name of Thomas Chalmers. He was born of respectable and pious parentage, at Anstruther, Fifeshire, on 17th March 1780. During his early- years he was much more remarkable for glee and frolic than for steady application : yet even then he gave proof of his mental vigour, for when he chose to exert himself, he could easily out- strip all his schoolfellows. Before he had passed the stage of boyhood, he was enrolled as a student in the University of St Andrews. During his first two sessions he made little progress in his studies, and his great faculties were not yet roused into activity ; but in his third session his aptitude for mathematical science was strikingly developed, and he never afterwards relapsed into anything like mental indolence.* In July 1799, when considerably below the statutory age, he was licensed as a preacher of the gospel. At this period he was ignorant of the way of salvation, both theoretically and experimentally. He is known to have prayed publicly in such terms as these : " Deliver us from * An early instance of his vehemence and concentration of mind may be worth preserving. He spent the college recess in his father's house, where he was in the habit of retiring to an upper room, that he might prosecute liis studies undisturbed. On one occasion when he was intensely occupied, the sudden announcement that dinner was ready, broke up his equanimity, and drew forth a burst of indignation. " Oh," cried the rapt votary of science, " I wish I were alone in the world." lik^ ,?i DISRUPTION WORTHIES. the fanaticism of faith," and to have quoted in one of his discourses a portion of the Sermon on the Mount, and tlien asked with an air of triumph, "Is there anything about faith here?" In May 1S03, after having officiated for some time as assistant in the parish of Cavers, and subsequently as assistant in the Mathematical Classes at St Andrews, he was ordained minister of Kilmany, in the north of Fife. His con- ceptions of pastoral duty were meagre in the extreme. In a letter publicly addressed to Professor Playfair, when he became a candidate for the Mathematical Chair in the University of Edinburgh, he proclaimed his conviction that, after giving two days in the week to the duties of his parish, a clergyman might warrantably devote the rest of his time to extra-professional pursuits. And his practice was in accordance with his theory ; for, after his settlement at Kilmany, he devoted much of his time and energy to the teaching of chemistry at St Andrews. His pulpit ministrations were characterised by intellectual power, but as yet evan- gelical fervour was entirely wanting. He preached on moral subjects with great energy and earnestness, and, as he afterwards acknowledged, without any practical results. A great change, however, was at hand. Laid aside by illness for some months, during which various good influ- ences were brought to bear upon him, especially that of Wilberforce's Practical Vieiv of Christianity, he came forth from his sick-chamber an altered man — "renewed in the spirit of his mind." He now preached the li, pure doctrine of the gospel with amazing fervour, and, from that time till \i he was taken to his rest, he shone forth over Scotland, and ultimately over j' ' a large portion of the civilised world, as a star of the first magnitude. Translated in 18 15 to the Tron Church, Glasgow, and thereafter to St John's in the same city, Dr Chalmers attracted vast multitudes by the fame of his extraordinary eloquence, and contributed mightily to the triumph of Evangelical truth over the cold and withering Moderatism that had been long in the ascendant. In addition to his ordinary pulpit work, he gave to the world his Astronoinical Discourses, which, both from THOMAS CHALMERS, D D., LL.D. the pulpit and through the press, obtained a larger measure of accept- ance than any series of discourses in the English language. In the best sense of the expression, his was a prosperous ministr}', many having been won, by means of it, to the faith and obedience of the gospel ; and, in another respect, it was eminently fruitful. Endowed beyond most men with the power of influencing the minds of others, Dr Chalmers gathered round him in Glasgow a band of devoted laymen, by whom his plans for the social and spiritual elevation of the common people were zealously worked out. The parochial organisation of St John's became a powerful instrument for grappling with the ignorance, the vice, and the pauperism of a crowded population ; and had this example been duly followed, society would have felt much more lightly at this day the pressure of enormous evils with which it is burdened and distracted. While he urged the importance of turning the existing parochial machinery to the best account, Dr Chalmers saw clearly, and announced most emphatically, that it was far from being adequate to the necessities of the time. In an appendix to his sermon on the death of Princess Charlotte, published in 1817, he unfolded his plan for providing twenty additional churches for the city of Glasgow ; and this may be regarded as the first of a series of efforts which resulted in a vast extension of the means of grace, not in Glasgow only, but over a great part of Scotland. In 1823 Dr Chalmers was transferred to the Chair of Moral Philo- sophy in his native University. Here he wielded a commanding and most healthful influence, — rousing young minds into active exercise, in- spiring many of his students with something of his own lofty enthusiasm, and kindling in others the flame of missionary zeal, which burned in after years with no common ardour. There still survive a few who can look back, with thankfulness and unabated interest, to the plain old class- room in which, day by day, they listened to such strains of eloquence and wisdom as could nowhere else be heard. Frequently, as the Pro- fessor was rising to the height of some great argument, a deep and \m s t'^v© iJi^w mth mW^W%^- DISRUPTION WORTHIES. almost breathless hush prevailed throughout the class ; and then fol- lowed a burst of enthusiastic applause, which, however unacademic, was >; - absolutely irrepressible.* Dr Chalmers did not confine his labours within the walls of the University ; and though there is little room for details in a sketch like this, it would be wrong to leave unnoticed his monthly missionary meet- I ings in the Town Hall. These were largely attended, and were very ,:I helpful to the great cause of missions. i But a wider field was soon opened for his gigantic energies. In 182S i he entered on his labours as Professor of Systematic Theology in the Metropolitan University. In this new and more appropriate sphere, his influence was at once intensified and expanded : it operated more directly than before on the rising ministry of the Church, and was soon felt, and ■•! that most advantageously, in many of her pulpits. The Divinity Class- room was crowded from day to day, not only with regular students, but also with amateurs, among whom were men of high intellectual and social eminence. Examinations, introduced for the first time into the theological course, alternated with lectures, and were conducted in the most kindly and instructive manner. The substance of the lectures was ultimately published in the Institutes of Theology and the Notes on Butlo's Analogy, — works which testify to the profound wisdom and the intense earnestness with which the Professor sought to train his students for the work of the holy ministry. Dr Chalmers took little part in the ordinary procedure of the Church Courts. He reserved his strength for great vital questions, and some of ;, the brightest triumphs of his eloquence were won on the floor of the ,' -- * He stated in one of his opening addresses tliat, on comparing notes witli tlie Professor of \' ', Mathematics regarding the students by whom their classes were attended, he found that those - 1 j who were distinguished in the one class were, for the most part, distinguished also in the other ; ", /, and he added, with great emphasis, that his brother Professor and himself were thoroughly jMj V agreed on one point— that they would rather have a response from the heads than from the heels J.^ of the rising generation. 'r THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., LL.D. General Assembly— as, for example, on the question of Pluralities. It was in a debate on this question, and in reply to one who had brought up against him the letter to Professor Playfair previously referred to, that Dr Chalmers gave utterance to the memorable words, "What, sir, is the object of mathematical science ? Magnitude and the proportions of magnitude. But then, sir, I had forgotten two magnitudes. I thought not of the little- ness of time — I recklessly thought not of the greatness of eternity." The Church Extension enterprise, which was committed to his hands, brought him more frequently before the Assembly ; and the Reports which he submitted from year to year were looked forward to with the deepest interest, and listened to with admiration and delight. In prosecuting that enterprise, he failed in obtaining additional endowments from the State, but succeeded beyond expectation in drawing forth the liberality of the people. Churches were erected in many localities where they were urgently required ; parochial districts were attached to them ; and, in a very few years, the Church was enlarged to a vastly greater extent than it had been for a whole century before. From an early period, Dr Chalmers had been a strenuous supporter of Church Establishments, but always with the proviso, that the State should not trench on the Church's freedom. State support he regarded as a matter of Christian expediency ; the freedom of the Church he regarded as a matter of scriptural principle, not to be surrendered on any consideration. He would have retained both, if he could ; but when it became evident that both could not be retained, he was clear and decided as to the course that should be taken. The famous Veto Act, though not precisely what he wished, received his acquiescence, because it pro- tected congregations from the intrusion of unacceptable ministers ; and ,:-. when it was disallowed by the Court of Session, and the civil and '<' ecclesiastical authorities were thus brought into collision, he took up his position at once in the very forefront of the battle. It is impossible here to enter into the details of the great controversy that issued in the '^ .^P^>7^§ DISRUPTION WORTHIES. Disruption. Enough to say, that Dr Chahners was the Church's trusted leader — the powerful and unflinching champion of its independence. And when, in consequence of the encroachments of the Court of Session, and the refusal of Parliament to afford protection or redress, it became necessary either to break with the State or to violate the Church's scrip- tural constitution, he not only held that the former course was imperative, but formed his plan for the support of the ministry when the Disruption should take place. That plan he unfolded at the Convocation with a noble confidence and ardour. By many it was regarded with great mis- givings ; but experience soon proved its adaptation to the Church's ' altered circumstances, and now, after the lapse of a generation, the Sustentation Fund stands forth before the world as a monument of the genius and wisdom of its founder, — proclaiming, as it does, that he who was foremost in eloquence among the Church's sons, was also foremost in practical sagacity. The Convocation alluded to above, adopted resolutions embodying the conditions on which alone the Church could remain in connection with the State ; and when these were finally disallowed by Parliament, there was no alternative but to surrender emoluments which could not be innocently or honourably retained. This was the issue involved in the proceedings of i8th May 1843. Dr Chalmers was the first to follow the Moderator, Dr Welsh, in walking out of St Andrew's Church, where the Assembly had convened ; and on him, by universal acclamation, was conferred the honour of being appointed Moderator of the Free General i ; Assembly. The scene in Canonmills Hall on that memorable day was vj[. ""^J^ such as Scotland had never witnessed ; and assuredly not a little of its 1 .0 >-^(^ grandeur and impressiveness was due to the presence, the counsels, and "^*;!i> ' /f'^ the prayers, of the illustrious man by whom the chair was occupied. ^-^^ 'p'f^ During the remainder of his life, he watched with unremitting care ]/C over the interests of the Free Church, while his chief attention was given ^'^'J . to the duties ot the Divinity Chair in the New College, of which he was THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., LL.D. appointed Principal. One of his latest labours is entitled to prominence, even in so brief a sketch as this. In the West Port, one of the worst -■■ districts of Edinburgh, he founded a Territorial Mission, which, in its infancy, he fostered with loving assiduity, and which, in the able hands of the Rev. W. Tasker, soon attained to remarkable prosperity. The example thus set was followed zealously and successfully in other districts of Edinburgh, in Glasgow, Dundee, and other large towns ; and from the seed sown by Dr Chalmers in the West Port, there has sprung a rich and a still increasing harvest. A careful economist of time, and very systematic in his habits, he accomplished with his pen an amount of work which, taken in connection j with his other labours, may be regarded as immense. But it was easier :*• for him to write than to sit in dreamy idleness : his pen kept pace with the A ^ operations of his mind.* Not to speak of his multifarious correspondence, ,^- ~^;1 his authorship ranged over wide and varied fields — the Evidences and ■^^. Doctrines of Christianity, Natural Theology, Mental and Moral Philo- fN sophy, Political and Social Economy, Church organisation, and kindred topics — besides many pamphlets on pressing questions of the day. His works are characterised by a majestic eloquence, often vehement and somewhat rugged in its style ; they evince a most unusual combination of power, comprehensiveness, and penetration ; and they are charged with great principles and lessons of practical wisdom, which the Church and society at large have, to their detriment, been all too slow to learn. About the end of March 1847, Dr Chalmers was summoned to London to give evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons I with reference to the refusal of church sites. His evidence was worthy ,'* of his character and fame, not only as exposing the paltriness and ""i\t\ * A few days before his death, he was asked by his brother, the late Charles Chalmers, -,V^ Esq., while the two were together in the Doctor's study, " Now could you not sit down quietly iC and muse for half an hour in that chair?" " No," was the reply, " I must either have a pen ),!4>- or a book in my hand." DISRUPTION WORTHIES. injustice of site-refusers and tlieir abettors, but as involving a most noble testimony to the principles and policy of the Church which he so fitly represented. This was his last public service. After spending some time with friends in England, he returned to his home on Friday, the 25th of Ma)'. On the evening of the Sabbath thereafter, he retired to rest as usual, intending to be at work early in the morning, as he had the College Report to submit on Monday to the General Assembly. In the morning, when his chamber door was opened, he was found in bed in a half-reclining posture, with a calm and majestic expression on his countenance, but without a trace of life. His spirit had passed away, apparently without a struggle, to its joyful rest. He was interred in Grange Cemetery. Hugh Miller says of the funeral : — " There was a moral sublimity in the spectacle. It spoke more emphatically than by words of the dignity of intrinsic excellence, and of the height to which, a true man may attain. It was the dust of a Presby- terian minister Vv'hich the coffin contained ; and yet they were burying him amid the tears of a nation, and with more than kingly honours." Those who wish to have a finished portraiture of the man, of his humility and gentlenes.s, of his child-like simplicity, of his bland and radiant humour, of his " leonine nobleness and potency," of his geniality in private, and his grandeur in public life, must be referred to the invaluable biography by Dr Hanna. And those who would look still more closely into the inner life of the man, and form a just estimate of the depth of his piety, of his struggles on the field of spiritual conflict, of his aspirations after holiness, of his prayerfulness of spirit, and of his love to God and man, must consult the Horcs Bib/ices Qiiotidiaiice, and the Horcu Biblica; Sahbatica;, a series of daily and Sabbath scripture studies which Dr Chalmers indited for his private use during the last j'cars of his life, which he kept secret from his most familiar friends, and which of course did not see the light until after his decease. D. C. HENRY DUNCAN. D.D. l^nrg luncan, B.l. ENRY DUNCAN was born on the 8th October 1774, at the Manse of Lochrutton, Kirkcudbrightshire. He was the third son of the Rev. George Duncan, minister of that parish. His paternal grandfather, a native of Aberdeen, was also minister of Lochrutton, and was drowned when bathing in the loch, soon after his son had been licensed to preach the gospel. Perhaps no minister of the Church of Scotland was ever so closely connected with its clergy as the subject of this sketch. Before he was past middle life, he used to say that he was surely of the tribe of Levi, as he could trace his con- nection with no less than one hundred and fifty Scottish ministers ; and before he died, he could have added considerably to that long list. As a boy, Henry Duncan manifested those fine talents and amiable dispositions which afterwards raised him to distinction as a minister, an author, and a philanthropist. Having finished his preliminary education at the Grammar School of Dumfries, he went, in 178S, to prosecute his studies at the University of St Andrews. Having studied at that University for two sessions, he was sent to Liverpool, and became a clerk in an eminent banking firm, with a view to the mercantile pro- fession. Under the patronage of his relative, Dr Currie, the biographer of Burns, he had the fairest prospects of success in business ; but his decided taste for literature and the pursuits of a clerical life induced him Or-?" ' '4\ DfSRUPTIOX U'ORTJflF.S. to leave Li\'erpool, and study for tlie ministry of tlie Scottisli Cliurch. Yet the experience he gained in tlie Liverpool banking house was of great use to him in his after life. In 1793 he resumed his studies at the University of Edinburgh, and there he enjoyed the friendship of the Professor of Moral Philosoph}', Dugald Stewart. His talents and general character commended him highly to the kind offices of that eminent philosopher. He also spent two college sessions at Glasgow, and specially profited by the profound and interesting lectures of Mr John Millar, Professor of Law. His last two sessions were spent in Edinburgh. At this period of his academic career he was elected a member of the celebrated Speculative Society, and became acquainted with many young men of high promise, among others with Henry Brougham, afterwards so famous in law and politics. He continued on habits of friendship and correspondence with this distinguished states- man during the greater part of his life. In the year 1798 he was licensed to preach the gospel, and imme- diately received from the Earl of Mansfield the choice of two livings in his gift, both vacant at the time, Lochmaben and Ruthwell. He chose the latter, inferior though it was in value, because it appeared to be a more suitable field for his peculiar pastoral work and philanthropic experiments. And soon, as the minister of Ruthwell, he displayed that intellectual activity, fertility of resource, and fine benevolent spirit, which enabled him to do so much, both for the temporal and spiritual welfare of his people. He imported Indian corn from Liverpool for the supply of their wants during a time of great scarcity. He also effected, amidst not a little opposition, important social reforms, and in many ways sought to improve the habits and manners of his flock. During the time of the dreaded French invasion, he raised in his parish a company of Volunteers, of which he was appointed captain. On several occasions he put off his military uniform, to assume the clerical dress, and enter on the duties of the pulpit. As his views of divine truth and the nature of w< z^^:^.^^-^ HENRY DUNCAN, D.D. the pastoral office grew deeper and more spiritual, he ceased to regard with much satisfaction this part of his career ; but his loyalty and patriotism did not sufter from his progress in personal religion. In 1 80S he commenced with a few literary friends the publication of the " Scottish Cheap Repository Tracts," which were intended to furnish sound instruction to the common people. The best of the series were written by himself and by ftir the best of all, "The Cottage Fireside," was soon published separately, and attained great popularity. In point of spirit, pathos, and humour, it has never been surpassed by any composi- tion of its class. Soon after this period he started the Dumfries and Galloiuay Courier, of which for seven years he was editor. Under his management, and the more professional control of his successor, Mr John MacDiarmid, this paper reached a very high position among Scottish journals. As the advocate of the Bible Society, when it was a new and struggling institution, as an enlightened educational reformer, and the champion of every cause that appeared to bear upon the real welfare of the country, the minister of Ruthwell gradually became highly distin- guished among his brethren; and at length, in 1810, his practical philanthropy took a form which made his name known over the whole country. In that year the first SAVINGS BANK was instituted at Ruthwell, and by the indefatigable exertions of its founder, the merits of banks of the kind for popular use were speedily acknowledged by states- men and philanthropists of all classes. The first Act of Parliament to encourage and facilitate the institution of such banks was passed mainly through Mr Duncan's personal efforts in London among members of both branches of the Legislature. By pamphlets, lectures, and other appliances, he rapidly made known the claims of Savings Banks over the whole island. Before long, he had the satisfaction of seeing such banks instituted in many places, and carried on with high success. For his great exertions and large personal outlay in connection with this new DISRUPTION WORTHIES. and noble system of Savings Banks, he never received any public reward. His letters and parcels, chiefly on bank business, one year cost him more than _^So ; yet he cheerfully bore such a heavy burden in the service of his country. At this period he published another excellent tale of humble Scottish life, — " The Young South-Country Weaver," a fit sequel to "The Cottage Fireside." A number of years later (1826) he published, anonymously, a work of fiction in three volumes, " William Douglas ; or, The Scottish Exiles," intended to counteract Sir Walter Scott's aspersions ou the Covenanters in " Old Mortality." This was hailed as a work of real genius, and was remarkably well received by the. Scottish public. In 1S23 ]\Ir Duncan received the degree of D.D. from the University of St Andrews, in recognition of his philanthropic labours and literary merit. It was not till 1836 that the -first volume of his chief literary work, " The Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons," made its appearance. It was rapidly succeeded by the three others ; for a volume, containing papers for every day, was devoted to each Season. The work, written in a popular and devout, yet truly philosophic spirit, rapidly ran through several editions, and was long a great favourite with the public. The philosophy is by no means yet out of date, and most of the papers are as fresh and useful as when they first appeared. No better work of its class than " The Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons " is to be found in British literature. Dr Duncan rendered a service of the highest kind to the antiquarian world by his discovery and restoration of the famous Runic cross, which, as erected and repaired by him, now stands in the garden of Ruthwell Manse. He made several beautiful models and drawings of this remark- able relic of antiquity, and wrote a learned description of it, which was published in the "Transactions of the Scottish Antiquarian Society." No professed and experienced antiquary could have done greater justice to a nvinument about \\hich volumes have been written since he first brought '^ HENRY DUNCAN, D.D. it to light, and the mystery of whose Runic inscriptions has only of late ^^| been solved. To' the same accomplished observer belongs the credit of having intelligently brought before the geologists of Great Britain the footmarks of quadrupeds on the new red sandstone of Corncockle Muir, near Lochmaben. This discovery constituted a new era in geology, and ji gave Dr Duncan an honourable place among the geologists of his day. '}. During the early part of his ministerial career, Henry Duncan was claimed by the "Moderate" party in the Church; but he gradually grew more decided in his evangelical sentiments, aud cast in his lot l| entirely with the party of Dr John Erskine, Sir Henry Moncreiff, Dr ^| Andrew Thomson, and Dr Chalmers. With the latter two eminent men he lived on terms of the warmest friendship. He contributed to the " Christian Instructor," when edited by Dr Thomson, and corresponded with Dr Chalmers on various subjects of Christian philanthropy. So early as 1827, he addressed a long and admirable letter to his old friend ^ Mr Brougham, on reform in the Church of Scotland, especially in regard 0% to Patronage. Afterwards, in 183 1, he published in the "Christian Instructor" another letter on the subject, addressed to Lord Melbourne, the Home Secretary. In these letters, as well as in a third which he wrote by ;, request to Lord Lansdowne, another of his college friends, he advocated that check on the exercise of Patronage which was in 1834 embodied in the famous Veto Act. If any man in Scotland was the real parent of that measure, which had such memorable consequences, it was the ]i minister of Ruthwell ; and in all the controversies to which it gave rise, '\ up to the time of the Disruption, the same minister took a prominent part. Dr Duncan, though at times a graceful speaker, had no great talent for debate ; but he wielded a powerful and practised pen on the popular side, and contributed not a little to the triumph of the Evan- gelical party in the Church. In 1839, when the "Ten Years' Conflict" was almost at its height, he was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly. This mark of distinction was amply merited by his varied ^ ' ^^^fc"v®5iS|W|"-? "i^^S"^^' Ki;;W f^lS'©^%vlK,/^:5lI^^^^4^4)^^ DI^^RUPFION WORTHIER services to the Cluirch, of which he was an ornament, and by his eminent achievements as a patriotic philanthropist. When the great conflict between the Church and the Civil Power ended in the Disruption of 1843, Dr Duncan unhesitatingly joined the ;* Free Church, of which he became one of the fathers and founders. He was '-j accompanied in his retirement from the Establishment by his two sons, :j George John Duncan, minister of Kirkpatrick-Durham, and W, Wallace Jj Duncan, minister of Cleish ; also by his two sons-in-law, Dr Horatius ( Bonar, minister of the North Church, Kelso, and the Rev. James Dodds, J minister of Humble. Few of his brethren made such sacrifices at the ;• Disruption as Dr Henry Duncan. His manse, surrounded with gardens j and grounds which he had laid out with exquisite taste, was one of the , finest residences of the kind in Scotland. Everything around it had a history, or was endeared to him and his family by many hallowed associations. But he cheerfully left the charming spot, and took up his ^i^- abode in a humble cottage by the highway side. He also met with /■|l;^ much unworthy hostility from various classes of people in the parish and '■-' district, many of whom should have been specially forward to do him |' honour. He could procure no site for a church in the parish of 'r Ruthwell, and was forced to accept of a site in the neighbouring parish of Mouscwald, kindly offered by the late Dr James Buchanan and Mrs Buchanan. By his energetic efforts a new church, manse, and school were erected free of debt ; and at this day, along with an obelisk reared • to his memory, they form a worthy monument of noble devotedness to ! high principle. Built on what has been called by the people, " Mount \ ]| Kedar," they are conspicuous from various points of the railway between ^'-^ Dumfries and Annan. This amiable and admirable man, on the appointment of the Rev. Alexander Brown as his colleague, removed, in 1845, with his family to Edinburgh ; but, returning early in the following year to visit his much- loved people of Ruthwell, he was struck down by a deadly paralytic "];!:: _ ,| attack wliile holding an evening prayer-meeting in the house of one of his old elders who still adhered to the Establishment. He was imme- diately conveyed to Comlongon Castle, the residence of his brother-in-law, Mr Walter Philips, factor of the Earl of Mansfield ; but consciousness only slightly returned at intervals, and in two days he calmly expired. The grief of his old parishioners knew no bounds at his death, and all classes of the people in the whole district lamented him as an eminent servant of the Lord, suddenly taken away from the scene of his lengthened and devoted ministry. He died on Thursday, the 1 2th February 1846, and was interred on the Tuesday following in Ruthwell Churchyard. Dr Duncan thus died among his people, in the place he loved so well, and which will long be associated with his name. The cause of Evangelical religion, the principles of the Scottish Reformation, and the privileges of the Scottish Church, always found in him a faithful advocate ; and when the time of trial came in his old age, he gloried in the name and position of a Free Church minister. He was, in lifting up his testimony for precious principles, more severely tried than most of the brethren who left the Established Church along with him ; but, with characteristic cheerfulness and serenity, he bore hardship in the service of his Divine Master. Dr Duncan was twice married, first to Miss Agnes Craig, daughter of the Rev. John Craig, his predecessor in the parish of Ruthwell, by whom he had two sons and one daughter ; and, secondly, to Mrs Lundie, widow of his early friend, the Rev. Robert Lundie, minister of Kelso. His son, the Rev. Wallace Duncan, died in 1864, as minister of the Free Church, Peebles ; his elder son, Dr George Duncan, who, on leaving Kirkpatrick- Durham, had been successively minister of the English Presbyterian Church at North Shields and Greenwich, and was for many years clerk of the Synod of that Church, died at Dumfries towards the close of 1868. His widow, the mother and biographer of Mary Lundie Duncan, and the author of many excellent works, a woman distinguished for her high talent and lier consistent Christian usefulness, still survives in her honoured retirement. She belongs to a noble band of Christian workers who rendered great service to Evangelical religion during the past generation, all of whom but herself have been summoned to their blessed rest. Dr Duncan was remarkable for the variety of his accomplishments. There was scarcely a literary or scientific subject that was strange to him, and he had an excellent knowledge of art in its various forms. His manual dexterity was something quite extraordinary, and was far above what is often connected with "a mechanical turn." He excelled in drawing and modelling, was a first-rate landscape gardener, and on different occasions proved himself an excellent architect. He had a great genius for sculpture, and delighted at times in producing specimens of that noble art. But in domestic life, and in all the refinements of a cultivated social circle, he eminently shone. His piety, his benevolence, his literary culture, and manifold social accomplishments, never failed to impress all who visited Ruthwell Manse in those days when, under his sway, it was a model of a refined and happy Christian home. J. D. .h' ^ JOHN HAMILTON. loljn ||amilt0tt. I F the laymen who exercised a leading influence in the Disruption controversy, and in setting up the Disruption Church, Mr Hamilton's place was second to none, with the single exception of Mr Dunlop. But, for the most part, it was an unseen influence — the influence of a pure- minded, modest man, who sought only to do his duty, couitcd no cclat, and was careless of fame. Though a member of the bar, he was no public speaker ; he never drew forth the enthusiastic huzzahs of the General Assembly, but was content to see his friends wearing the laurels which his exertions had in a large measure helped them to gain. Mr Hamilton was born in Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, in 1795. His father, who died young, held the office of Deputy-Controller of Excise ; his mother was the daughter of Mr Walter Biggar, of Sciennes. He was the youngest of four brothers, all now dead ; — Walter, a colonel in the Indian army, who, on succeeding to the Estate of Falkland, assumed the name of Tyndal-Bruce ; Andrew, Secretary of the Alliance Assurance Company, London, and for a considerable time editor of the Record newspaper ; and Robert, a doctor of medicine. His education was received mainly at the High School and the College of Edinburgh, but between his attendance at these, he spent a couple of years at Shelford, near Cambridge, where Mr Simeon's curate received a few young men to be boarded and educated. In that beautiful spot, "the garden of. I '.4): DISRUPTION WORIHIES. Cambridgeshire," associated with tlie names of Simeon and Thomason of Henry Martyn and Henry Kirke White, it is beheved that Mr Hamilton first felt the power of grace, and gave his heart to the Lord. Mr Hamilton was called to the Bar in 1821, and for a number of years lived quietly with his mother and brothers, among whom there subsisted a warm family affection. In 1S36 he married Miss Louisa Balfour, daughter of Mr James Balfour of Dantzic, a connection of the family of Balfour of Pilrig. She was a young lady of singular beauty, and not less simplicity and sweetness of character. When on a visit to some relations in Banff, and under the ministry of the late Mr Grant, she received her first impressions of divine truth ; and we have been told by some who knew her intimately, that her progress in the divine life was singularly interesting and rapid, and that a more beautiful Christian character could hardly have been conceived. The fair prospect of domestic happiness which thus opened to Mr Hamilton was destroyed in less than a year, by his wife dying in childbed, both mother and infant having been laid together in the grave. This was felt by Mr Hamilton as a terrible blow : he bore it like a Christian, but it was long before he regained his wonted tranquillity of mind. In politics, Mr Hamilton was a Conservative, and being a member of the congregation of the late Dr Muir of St Stephen's, it did not seem likely that he would take side with what Lord Cockburn and many others called the wild party in the Church. His taking that side, and taking it with great decision and earnestness, was due to his strong con- viction that it was constitutionally right, and to his not less strong intuitive perception, that the most vital interests of the Church of Scotland were bound up with the maintenance of non -intrusion and spiritual independence. Nothing short of this could have induced Mr Hamilton to labour as he did in the cause. We have said that he was no platform man or public speaker. He was a chamber-counsel for the Church, a wise advi-ser in her difficulties, a compiler of important docu- I f yp-^Trf^^ t ments, a writer of pamphlets for statesmen and public men, a negotiator in delicate transactions, the trusted and valued friend of the more prominent leaders, particularly Dr Candlish, with whom Mr Hamilton had extraordinary influence, and in whose congregation, after the Dis- ruption, he took office as an elder. During the conflict (1840-41), he wrote two pamphlets that did yeoman's service in the cause of the Church ; the one entitled, " The Present Position of the Church of Scotland Explained and Vindicated," the other, "A Remonstrance, especially addressed to the Members of the Legislature and others, in relation to the Scottish Church question, embodying an answer to an article on the same subject in the Qitarierly Review'.' Mr Hamilton filled for some time the laborious and irksome post of Secretary of the Non-Intrusion Committee ; and when the Disruption hove in sight, and for a considerable time thereafter, he was Convener of the Building Committee. He rendered another important service, as editor, for a considerable time, of the Scottish Guardian newspaper. The chief feature that distinguished Mr Hamilton among the galaxy of great men at that remarkable time, was his singular fairness and calm- ness in controversy, joined to profound earnestness, and deepest concern for the interests involved. These were qualities remarkably fitted to gain the esteem of opponents, at a time when those whose post was often on platforms and in Church Courts were naturally more hot and excited. How remarkably Mr Hamilton impressed public men with his fairness and honesty, may be gathered from the opinion of the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Aberdeen. The latter nobleman wrote to Mr Thomson of Banchory (Jan. 27. 1840): "Mr Hamilton will perhaps like to be informed that I have placed his pamphlet in the hands of the Duke of Wellington, who, at my request, has read it, and entertains a very favour- able opinion of the work. The Duke takes a warm interest in the affairs of our Church, and deeply laments the unhappy differences which exist." A few months afterwards, Lord Aberdeen wrote of Mr Hamilton, with I 1 I * ?'.^ whom he had now become acquainted, contrasting him with some other champions of the Cliurcli : " Your friend Hamilton is a man of another stamp altogether. I had the greatest pleasure in all my intercourse with him, and found him always the same, honest and straightforward, and invariably adhering to his words. I did not agree with him, far from it, but that was quite a different matter ; he is as well entitled to his opinion as I am to mine, but I always had pleasure in discussing with him," &c. A similar impression of Mr Hamilton's character was conveyed by an eminent member of the Parliament House, shortly after the publication of his second pamphlet. It was understood that this gentleman was the author of the article in the Quarterly to which the pamphlet was a reply. "I was much gratified to-day," wrote Mr Hamilton to Mr Thomson (2d March 1841), "by G. M. [George Moir] coming up to me in the House with great frankness, and saying he had read me, and had nothing to complain of, as he might say what Chalmers had said in relation to the Dean, that ' it was a great happiness to fall into the hands of a gentleman.' " The celebrated pamphlet of the Dean of Faculty, however, Mr Hamilton could not regard with respect. " It appears to me," he said, " to distort the whole subject of controversy to an extent that I should have thought absolutely impossible. Unquestionably it is written, throughout, in the spirit or tone of a counsel or party in a private cause, which is far from the temper of mind with which it befits either the duty or the interest of the country to regard the proceedings of its Established Church." It is not easy to estimate the value of the calm, fair, judicial tone of a man like Mr Hamilton, in the face of the unexampled torrent of denunciation which the attitude of the Church drew down on it. There was such a gentle, honest look about him, that the usual epithets, "firebrand and fanatic," would not fit him in any degree. The world has long since learned to regard the lofty spirit of self-sacrifice as the outstanding feature of the Free Church movement, and before the splendour of that spirit the infirmities of controversy, which marked I ^^^f~%^®'^ n^ m^m> DISRUPTIOX WORTHIES. message to the writer, and to another of the brethren, to the effect, that on his deathbed he derived great comfort from the thought of the principles he had maintained, and the cause in which he had contended. But while thus bearing testimony, along with so many others, to the preciousness of these principles and of that cause, as seen in the light of the eternal world breaking in upon the departing soul — while deriving consolation from the remembrance of his having been enabled to be faithful to the crown rights of the Redeemer, in whose presence he was so soon to appear — he was far from resting his confidence on any other ground than the mediatorial work of the Great High Priest. It was of Jesus, as the Lamb of God, that he spoke ; it was atoning blood that gave him all his hopes ; and redeeming love formed the burden of his last feeble utterance of praise. We saw him in the same frame on the night before he died. Early on the 22d he fell asleep in Jesus." The names of champions whose eloquence resounded through the country and stirred the soul of the multitude, are naturally remembered longest, and by the greatest number. But there are still some who are moved with a tender and respectful affection, if perchance, sauntering through St Cuthbert's churchyard, their eye lights on the stone that bears the name of John Hamilton. It recalls to them a man eminently good and loveable, and reminds them how much the Free Church owes to such men, who, in the noblest spirit, and with much self-sacrifice, built the wall of Jerusalem in troublous times. W. G. B. \^ GRAHAM SPEIRS. ^-^si^:^2^^im9^:^H'--fk draljant ^prirs. )HE subject of this memoir died in December 1847. Few- are now left who enjoyed his friendship, and knew his many admirable qualities and lofty character, or were personally cognisant of the great services which he rendered to the Free Church. A fitting opportunity is presented, by this publication, to preserve a record of those services, and to recall the memory of one who pre-eminently deserves to be kept in grateful remembrance. Graham Speirs was born in June 1797, and was thus cut off in the prime of his manhood. He was the second son of Mr Peter Speirs of Culcreuch, brother to Mr Speirs of Elderslie ; and his mother was of the family of Gartmore. His early education was conducted partly at the High School of Edinburgh, and partly at a school in Warwickshire, where he remained till December 181 1. He then entered the Royal Navy, and continued in the Naval Service for five years, when, directing his attention to the study of law, he was called to the Bar of Scotland in 1820. His professional career was distinguished by steady but not rapid progress ; no one, how- ever, brought into contact with him in professional matters, even at an early period, could doubt that he must ultimately attain the highest eminence. He was throughout of liberal politics, and on the occasion of the party attaining to power in 1830, Lord Advocate Jeffrey — who fully estimated his talents and character — appointed him one of his Advocates- I '<^ DISRUPTION WORTHIES. Depute, and soon afterwards he was appointed Sherifif of Elgin and Nairn. Subsequently, in 1 840, on a vacancy occurring in the MetropoHtan Sheriffdom, he was offered and accepted the office of Sherifif of Edinburgli, which he held until his death. He was thus, for a time at least, removed from practice at the bar, to the regret of his more intimate friends, who looked to him as, in certain probabilities, sure to be called to fill a still more distinguished position of public usefulness. At the time of his decease, there appeared in the Witness newspaper, from the pen of its distinguished editor, Hugh Miller, a notice, from which we cannot do better than make one or two quotations : — '■ Seldom has a more melancholy Christmas dawned upon this town than that of 1847. The death of Mr Speirs, which happened late on the evening of the 24th, spread a gloom and sorrow through the city that we have seldom known equalled. . . . He was a remarkable man, not from brilliancy either of parts or attainments, though in both he was eminent, but from the singular combination of his qualities, and the commanding tenor of his daily life. He was a man who united deep knowledge of the world with the most active and earnest religious impression, one whose manners and demeanour, as well as his birth and education, commanded respect in the highest circles, and placed him on terms of equality with all stations, and yet exhibited so bright and burning a Christian example, that even scoffers respected the light which shone in him with so much dignity and constancy. Consistent, imperturbable, of great discretion, conscientious, and yet tolerant, he held a course of uncompromising courage and honesty, and yet seldom lost a friend or made an enemy." To this truthful portrait of the man, there is little to add, but we cannot refrain from adverting to similar testimony to be found in the recently published (1874) Journal of Lord Cockburn. Amid the graphic and racy descriptions of events and delineations of character with which these volumes, like their predecessor (" Memorials of his Times "), abound, there is none so life-like as the following, written in 1843 : — " The apostolic Speirs, whose calm wisdom, and quiet resolution, and high-minded purity, made his opinion conclusive with his friends and dreaded by his opponents. He had no ambition to be the flaming sword of his party, but in its keenest hours he was the pillar of light. Amidst all the keenness, and imputations, and extravagances of party, it never occurred to any one to impeach the motives, or the objects, or the sincerity of Graham Speirs." Afterwards, at the time of his death, Lord Cockburn says : " Graham Speirs, Sheriff of Midlothian, died, to the great regret of everybody, but especially of the thoughtful. He was a most excellent and valuable man, and of a sort of which we have few." ... "A strong Whig, he was too gentle to avert any honest Tory, and too candid to encourage any folly on his own side ; and, deeply religious, those who are not so, instead of being repelled by any severity, were attracted by his reasonableness and toleration." His early career in the Navy is adverted to, and it is added — " From the moment that he began his civil course, he put on a new nature, and, aided by his friends Mungo Brown and John Shaw Stewart, both of whom pre- ceded him, by several years, to the grave, matured that character of calm and resolute, but gentle honour, and of pious thoughtfulness, that distinguished all the three." Just as this observation is, we would rather say that the Rev. Dr Gordon, of whose kirk-session, when translated to the High Church, Speirs was for many years a member, had fully more influence in moulding his character and views, as he certainly had with others of the same class and standing. Between them, indeed, there was a remarkable similarity — the same gravity of manner ; the same wisdom and sagacity in counsel ; and the same reticent demeanour, — but not the less prompt and decided in action in matters of conscience and of duty. No one who knew that truly excel- lent and admirable divine, can wonder at the power and influence which he exercised for good in this city, from the time when he first came, com- paratively a young man, but in the full vigour of his powerful intellect and impressive eloquence, to fill the pulpit of Buccleuch Chapel. But however this might be in Speirs' case, it is certain that the divine and the layman acted in entire concert in the eventful struggles for the independence of the Church and the rights of the people in the election of their ministers, which occurred in the ten years which preceded 1843. And that Speirs did so from deep religious conviction of the truth of the principles contended for, is undeniable. His was not a character to be swayed by any other motives in such a matter. To be convinced of the rectitude of any particular course of conduct, was for him to be followed as its sure sequence by active co-operation. ^ DISRUPTIOX WORTHIES. Sheriff Speirs was no mere Churchman ; he hitcrested himself in whatever tended to the wellbeing of society. In connection, for instance, with Prison reformation and discipHne, he was an active member of the society formed in 1835 on that subject, whicli by its efforts so materially contributed to the enactment of 1839, by which the jails of Scotland, once described as " nurseries of vice and crime," have been placed in their present satisfactory condition. In this work his associates were men of all classes and denominations — the accomplished Dr Kaye Greville, the benevolent John Wigham junior, Dr David Maclagan, Mr George. Forbes, and other like-minded citizens. Afterwards under the Statute as chairman of the Edinburgh Prison Board, and as member of the General Board of Prisons in Scotland, Speirs was in a position to give his valuable aid in carrying through this national reform. In defence of the observ- ance of the Sabbath, the establishment of Ragged Schools, and in the cause generally of education, he was no less zealous and useful. Our purpose, however, is to record his connection with the struggles which preceded and followed the formation of the Free Church. His support, based as it was on conscientious principle, was felt to be all- important, and his advice of the greatest moment in the organisation of the Church. Nevertheless it is true, but quite consistent with what we have said of him, that his name does not occur as taking a leading part in the discussions, whether in or out of the Assembly, until about the time of the Disruption. We shall refer, however, to two occasions, as illustrative of the leading position which he then assumed, and energeti- cally maintained. The one was at the time of the Convocation of ministers which preceded the Assembly of 1843, when it was thought right that the laymen attached to the principles then upheld by the majority of the Assembly, and especially the eldership, should come forward and at once strengthen the hands of the ministers, and provide means for their sus- tcntation on the Disruption taking place. The meeting of the eldership - --^^~=-^-^^_ ."^ \) GRAHAM SPEIRS. ^ occurred on the ist February 1843. It was mentioned at the time in the Witness newspaper. Speirs proposed the first resolution, and in doing so he is reported to have represented the Church of Scotland " as she has existed since the Reformation, as by far, he would venture to say, without any comparison whatever, the cheapest institution for good government that ever any nation had to boast of;" and to have been affected even to tears when he uttered the words, "I cannot look forward without dismay to the prospect of the Disruption of the Church of Scotland," which he so characterised and loved. The Committee formed at this meeting was united to another appointed by the Convocation, under the auspices of Dr Chalmers. This most effective body, organised under the title of the "Provisional Committee," held its first meeting the following day ; and to its labours the Free Church mainly owes that state of orderly preparation, and absence of all division and confusion, by which the days of the Disruption were so signally characterised. This is fully explained in Dr Chalmers' Life and Correspondence by Dr Hanna. The other occasion when Speirs was of the utmost service to the Church, was in relation to sites for Churches and Manses, in those districts where hostile proprietors had refused the applications made to them in that matter. It is known that, for some years after the Dis- ruption, great inconvenience and much discomfort and suffering was experienced by ministers and their congregations who adhered to the Free Church in those districts. For a time the Assembly were unwilling to take any steps, in the expectation that the first feelings excited by the Disruption might pass away. But this expectation not being realised, a special Committee was appointed in May 1845 by the General Assembly ; and that Committee having reported to the Assembly, which met at Inverness in August thereafter, the appointment of the Committee was renewed, with special instructions ; and of this Committee Mr Speirs was appointed Convener. It was in a verbal Report to the Commission, held in Edinburgh DISRUPTION WORTHIES. 19th November 1S45, that, as Convener, Speirs made one of the most effective and practical speeches ever dehvercd in the General Assembly. In this he developed the principles on which the Committee had acted, and detailed the proceedings in such a way as to command the " profound admiration," and "the warmest and most unqualified approbation," of all who listened to his stirring statement. Can anything, indeed, be better expressed than the following reference to the abortiveness of the first application to Parliament by the Assembly of 1845 :— " It is our duty to persevere in this struggle. I regard it not only as a religious, but as a constitutional, question. The brunt of the battle has fallen on us, but it is not our own cause alone for which we are contending — it is the great, the sacred question of liberty of conscience ; and I am persuaded that the Church will only lay down the weapons of her warfare when the victory is won." And, when meeting the argument by the individual site-refusing proprietors, based on the ground of their absolute right of property, he said : — " There is no person has more respect for the rights of private property than I have, but I cannot help thinking that these rights are peculiarly insecure when the owners have merely the law to look to for their support. I believe that property is best secured in that country where the corresponding duties are best performed ; and I am not aware of any duties so incumbent upon them as that of refraining from interfering with the rights of conscience." For, as he justly reasoned — "There is a kind of oppression which maketh a man— aye, a wise man — mad. I would just ask, what must be the feelings of any intelligent man who finds himself in this country, on account and in respect of opinions which, as a Christian, he entertains, subjected to a system of treatment for obeying the dictates of his conscience, which I declare would be severe, — if that man, instead of being a Christian, were a heathen idolater ; and yet such is the position in which many of our people are placed." A renewed application to Parliament was made in the spring of 1847, and a select Committee was then appointed to inquire in what parts of Scotland, and under what circumstances, sites had been refused. A great deal of evidence was laid before the Committee, and, amongst others, Dr Chalmers, and Mr Speirs, as Convener of the Sites Com- mittee, were especially under examination. The evidence of the former, as regards the cross-examination by Sir James Graham and others, is very happily explained by himself in letters written by him at the time, minutely referred to by Dr Hanna. The evidence of the Convener of the Sites Committee cannot be read without exciting the utmost admi- ration, for the calm, full, and satisfactory way in which he explains the course taken by the Committee, and meets the objections with which their proceedings were met. It is impossible here to go into the details of that evidence. One great object of the hostile examiners was to make out that there was so little difference between the two Churches, as to justify the site-refusing proprietors in their refusal. We shall con- fine ourselves to his answers on this point, as illustrating the principles on which he had throughout acted, and the fearless avowal of them he was ever prepared to make : — " The moving cause of the Disruption," he says, " was the religious feeling of that part of the community who now constitute the Free Church. They believed con- scientiously that the principles involved in the question were the true principles of the Established Church of Scotland." And afterwards, " that, according to my appre- hension, the great and cardinal difference between the two churches is this— that the Free Church, in consistence with what has always been maintained by a large part of the Establishment, and in consistence with the doctrines of all the old divines of the Church of Scotland — holds that she has a right of legislating for herself in matters spiritual— that, in fact, she is entitled to exercise spiritual independence within her own jurisdiction, without the interference of the civil power." In the same pamphlet which contains his speech before the General Assembly in 1845, to which we have referred, is given the correspondence which, as Convener of the Sites Committee, he maintained with the proprietors and their agents. The calm and dispassionate, but decided terms in which, throughout that correspondence, he contended for the constitutional principle of toleration, and stated the hardships to which its refusal had subjected the people, had much practical effect in obviating the objections in soine quarters, even before the result of the Parliamentary inquiry and publication of the evidence. That result, as reported to the House of Commons, was that the Committee held it to be proved that there were a number of Christian congregations in DISRUPTION WORTHIES. Scotland wlio have no place of worship within a reasonable distance of their home, where they can unite in the pubhc service of Almighty God, according to their conscientious convictions of religious duty, under convenient shelter from the severity of a northern climate. And the Committee farther reported to the House that they had heard with pleasure, in course of the evidence, that concessions had been made and sites granted ; and they expressed an earnest hope that those which have hitherto been refused may no longer be withheld. Such has hap- pily been the case, and no farther proceedings were taken. We cannot doubt that for this the Church was mainly indebted to Graham Speirs. Our space will not permit of the insertion of some interesting details connected with his death, which occurred so soon afterwards. During his illness, and v/hen he was suffering much, on the name of Dr Candlish being mentioned by his medical attendant, Professor Miller, he said with anima- tion, " Give him my love, and tell him that I am quite happy. I know in whom I have believed, and if He has more work for me to do, He can raise me up for a year or two." On seeing his brother-in-law, Mr Grant (of Kilgraston), who came up to him from the country on hearing of his danger, he said with deep emotion, " I have suffered much — very much — but all is right." In his anticipation of death he was singularly resigned and peaceful. Surely of such a man it may be truly said, " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." On the 30th December his remains were laid in the Grange cemetery, near the grave of Dr Chalmers, in accordance, it is understood, with his own request. At the meeting of the General Assembly held in May 184S, a resolution was engrossed in the minutes, expressing in very strong terms their sense of the loss which the Church had sustained in Mr Speirs' death, and the high and affectionate regard which they entertained for his memory. J.C. ROBERT LORIMER LL.D. t0krt tovxmtx, II.B. I the followins OBERT LORIMER, LL.D., was born at Kirkconnel, in Dumfriesshire, on iith May 1765. He received his university education at Glasgow, and after passing through the usual literary and theological curriculum, he was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of Abernethy in September 1792. On ist March, in year, he was appointed to the Chaplaincy of the Southern Regiment of Fencibles, commanded at that time by James, Earl of Hopetoun, and a few months later he was ordained by the Presbytery of Penpont. In 1795 he had his degree from the University of Glasgow, and, in February 1796, he received simultaneously the presentation to the First Charge of the parish of Haddington from the Earl of Hopetoun, and to the parish of Smailholm, in the Presbytery of Lauder, from George Baillie, Esq. of Jerviswoode. After due consideration he decided to accept the former, and, on the i6th June, he was inducted as successor to Dr George Barclay. During forty-seven years he faithfully discharged all the duties pertaining to the oversight of so important a parish, and when at the Disruption he was required to choose whether to remain in the benefice he had held so long, or to go out into the wilderness, he did not hesitate to remain true to his convictions, and chose the latter course. He then became colleague in the pastorate of St John's Church, Haddington, the duties of which he fulfilled to the day of his death. # } if Wlien Dr Lorimer went to Haddington, there were onI\' two ministers within the bounds of that large Presbytery who were decidedly Evan- gelical, but he lived to see the cause to which he was attached predomi- nate as much in East Lothian as in other parts of the country, and to both local and national changes he contributed his own part by his able, evan- gelical, and acceptable ministry. When the contest between the Church and the State reached its critical point, and the Convocation of ministers adhering to the Evangelical cause in the Church of Scotland, met in November 1842, Dr Lorimer was chosen to preside over the deliberations. The Convocation continued its sittings for nearly a week. Two series of Resolutions were adopted. Li the second series, after stating " That the assumption by the Civil Courts of authority in matters spiritual, and especially in the ordination, admission, or deposition of ministers, and the other proceedings there set forth, is in violation of the law establishing the Church, which was made unalterable by the Act of Security and Treaty of Union," and recognising " that it is not the duty of the Church, as a kingdom not of this world, which has not, and cannot have, any power of the sword, or any secular dominion whatever, to plead her title, thus acquired and secured, to the temporal benefits of the Establishment, in opposition to the supreme power of the State, except in the way of remonstrance, protest, and serious warning," it is declared, " that it is the duty of the ministers now assembled, and of all who adhere to their views, to make a solemn representation to Her Majesty's Government, and to both Houses of Parliament, setting forth the imminent and extreme peril of the Establishment, the inestimable benefits it confers upon the country, and the pain and reluctance with which they are forced to contemplate the possibility of the Church's separation, for conscience sake, from the State— respectfully calling upon the rulers of this nation to maintain the Constitution of the kingdom inviolate, and to uphold a pure establishment of religion in the land ; and, finally, intimating that, as the endowments of the Church are undoubtedly at the disposal of the supreme power of the State, with whom it rests either to continue to the Church her possession of them, free from any limitation of her spiritual jurisdiction and freedom, or withdraw them altogether, so it must be the duty of the Church, and, consequently, in dependence on the grace of God, it is the determination of the brethren now assembled— if nomeasure such as they have declared to be indispensable be granted —to tender the resignation of those civil advantages which they can no longer hold in consistency with the free and full exercise of their spiritual functions, and to cast them- selves on such provision as God in His providence may afford ; maintaining still uncom- promised the principle of a right scriptural connection between the Church and State, and solemnly entering their protest against the judgments of which they complain." ROBERT LORIMF.R, LL.D. On completing the fiftieth year of Jiis 'ministry in Haddington, all classes of men united in shewing their high esteem for him by inviting him to a public dinner, which was presided over by his valued friend and co-prebbyter, Dr Makellar. After a very short illness, Dr Lorimer died on 9th November 1848, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. He had preached on the preceding Lord's day from the text, " Enoch walked with God ;" and was engaged in preparing for the following Lord's day a discourse on that passage in Job, " All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come," shewing that his mind was fully occupied with the contemplation of that fieavenly rest for which he longed. He was buried in the Parish Churchyard, in the presence of a large concourse of persons, who had assembled out of respect to his memory. His valuable library, on the collection of which he bestowed much time and thought, he bequeathed to the Free Church College, Edinburgh. As his old friend Archibald Constable said, there was "less trash" in it than in any library he had ever examined. In his home life, Dr Lorimer was singularly happy, the influence of the manse for good being felt throughout the parish. \n iSoi he was married to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of John Gordon, Esq. of Balmoor. Writer to the Signet, by whom he had two daughters and four sons. The second son was the Rev. John Gordon Lorimer, D.D., who, first in Torryburn, and then in the parish of St David's, Glasgow, contended for the same Evangeljcal principles upheld by his father. At the Disruption he became minister of Free St David's Church, and, along with Dr Robert Buchanan and Dr James Gibson, did no mean service by his writings and by his preaching in upholding and strengthening the cause of the Free Church in the West. By his constant correspondence with the Churches abroad, he did what lay in his power to awaken their sympathy with the Free Church movement. He died suddenly on 9th October 1868. .^P^^^l% In estimating the services of Dr Lorimer to the cause of rehgion, it must be borne in mind that the greater portion of his ministry preceded the Disruption, and it would be an error to measure the labours of him, and others like him, by the same standard that is applied to the great leaders of the moxement. The Church cannot but admire and honour the able band of men whom God raised up during the " Ten Years' Conflict"; at the same time, she must not forget what is due to their predecessors, the Evangelical minority of the Church of Scotland. They were the pioneers of the Free Church, the harbingers of a better state of things. In many great movements it has seemed as if the heroic element ^\•as first developed, to be followed by a time of comparative calmness and tranquillit)^ ; but at the Disruption the evangelistic element had first leavened the whole lump, and the heroism was manifested at a later stage. From 1784 there was half-a-century of Evangelical preach- ing, which silently and gradually prepared the materials out of which the Free Church was to arise. Whilst, therefore, all due praise is to be given to the leaders who achieved the triumph, it is for the honour of the Church to remember that the whole movement sprang from the pious and fruitful ministry of the Evangelical minority. Among the honourable band who formed it, — such as Innes, Balfour, Davidson, Campbell, Colquhoun, Moncreiff, and Thomson,— Dr Lorimer held a high place fifty years before the Disruption. A. P. L. I JOHN MACDONALD. D.D. Inbn Jitac&nnaltt, B.B. MONG the great names that adorned the Disruption Church, none was held in higher esteem in the Northern Counties of Scotland, and among many in the South, than that of Dr Macdonald of Ferintosh. In the Highlands he was known as " Ministear mor na Toisidheachd." It is not consistent with fact to say, that m matters of religion the Highlanders are the mere followers of their popular ministers. There were popular ministers in the Highlands whom the people forsook, because of their deserting what they held to be the cause of truth at the period of the Disruption. Yet in no part of the country are ministers of power and grace more esteemed than in the Highlands, and it cannot be questioned that the teaching and example of such ministers exercised a vast influence over the popular mind in 843, and of none more than the subject of our sketch. We learn from Dr Kennedy's biography of Dr Macdonald, that he was born in the parish of Reay, in Caithness, on the I2th November 1779. His father, James Macdonald, or M'Adie, as he was called, in accordance with Celtic usage, which distinguishes the septs in the same tribe, was a man of note among the religious community. He was early brought to the saving knowledge of divine truth ; and at a later period he was, with universal consent, appointed catechist of his native parish. For this post he was admirably qualified by both his gifts and his graces, t Ml 1 DIi.RUPTIOX n URFH/ES. and he retained the affection and esteem of the godly over a wide dis- trict unchanged to the end of a long life of ninety-seven years. The part of the country where he resided was at the time much torn by religious differences. The people in a body adhered to the Church of Scotland, but within the Church they were much divided. James held firmly by the Church and its ordinances, while he maintained Christian fellowship with the truly good who had separated themselves. He was a man of a bold, and yet a loving spirit. His aim was to win souls to Christ. On one occasion he met the leader of the separatist party in the parish, who began to reprove him as being too soft, and told him he should be more faithful in denouncing sinners. It was the habit of the people of the Highlands at the time to send their horses away to the hills in summer, where they were set loose ; and there was often some difficulty afterwards in taking them when required. James's reply to his neighbour's reproof was, " Well, let you and me go to the hill, John, to catch the horses ; take you a whip, and I'll take a sheaf of corn, and see which of us will be most successful." John Macdonald was the worthy son of such a father. At school he soon took the highest place, and at college, which he attended in King's College, Aberdeen, he was one of the most distinguished students. He especially excelled in Mathematics, — a science which he cultivated to the last days of his life. It' was during his school and college days that he was brought to the knowledge of saving truth. Dr Kennedy specifies the three means which the Spirit of God appears to have employed in bringing about this great end. They were the early teaching and ex- ample of his father, the writings of Jonathan Edwards, and the preaching of the Rev. J. Robertson of Achrenny Mission, afterwards of Kingussie. In 1805 he was licensed by the Pre.sbytery of Caithness to preach the Gospel. Previous to his ordination he officiated as missionary in Achrenny and HallaJale for some months, and in 1806 he was ordained to the mission charge at Berricdale, — all in the Presbytery of Caithness. o: I JOHN MACDONALD, D.D. His incumbency here was a very short one, and in January 1807 he was translated to what was then the Gaelic Chapel of Edinburgh, as successor to the Rev. James Maclauchlan, afterwards of Moy. When he came first to Edinburgh, he had little of the power in preaching to which he afterwards attained. He was sound, clear, and accurate ; but somewhat stiff in his manner and delivery. This might have arisen from various causes, but mainly, no doubt, was the result of youth and inexperience. Gradually this sense of constraint wore away, and he came to speak in public with wonderful eloquence and power. It was once said to the writer by an old Edinburgh hearer of his, " It was here that he got his wings." During his Edinburgh ministry an attempt was made to intro- duce English preaching in the afternoon into the Gaelic congregation, to meet the wishes of hundreds who wished to benefit by Mr Macdonald's ministry ; but the more ardent Celts among the people resisted the change strenuously and successfully. To meet the desire, however, Mr Macdonald resolved to preach English at night, — thus undertaking three regular services each Lord's day. With week-day meetings and visita- tions, this made his life a busy one. It was also a useful one, for during his Edinburgh ministry he had many souls for his hire. His ministry in Edinburgh extended over a period of six years ; and in 1813 he was presented to the Parish of Ferintosh in Ross-shire, vacant by the death of the excellent and much-esteemed Mr Charles Calder. The scene when he parted with his Edinburgh flock was a somewhat remarkable one. He had preached in Gaelic as usual during the day, taking farewell of the people ; and at night the English congregation met in the usual place of worship in North College Street. Ere the service began, the crowd collecting was such that there was no prospect of their finding accommodation in the church, although it could accommodate eleven hundred worshippers. Mr Macdonald was just going to the pulpit, when it was proposed that a request should be made for the use of the West Church for the occasion. A messenger was sent for the keys, which DISRUPT/OX ]]-ORTHlES. were readily given. The West Church was opened, and Mr Macdonald putting himself at the head of his congregation, they marched westward through the Grassmarket, and soon filled the church to the roof Here amidst the tears and sobs of many, he took farewell of his English-speaking hearers, who had for years enjoyed and profited by his earnest ministry. In due time he was settled in Ferintosh, where he continued to minister with great success till the year 1849, a period of forty-two years. Much of his time was spent in assisting brother ministers at their com- munions. In such ser\-ices he was acceptable to both ministers and people, many of the ministers who differed widely from him on eccle- siastical questions making him heartily welcome. This he owed much to his kind, genial, and brotherly disposition, which displayed itself so pleasantly in the family circle, his interesting conversation, and especially his fund of anecdote, all making him a favourite with old and young. Many ministers' sons and daughters, who were young at the time, remember well how welcome he was at their fathers' fireside. By the people his appearance was hailed with enthusiasm, thousands collected to hear the word at his mouth, and many of these gatherings were followed by rich and abounding spiritual blessings. He took a deep interest in the distant island of St Kilda. At the instance of the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, he visited the island four times in as many different years, and preached to the people, at the time A\ithout a minister, the gospel of salvation. Besides these visits, so much valued by the people, he made strenuous efforts to secure the erection of a church and manse in the island, and on his last visit, in 1827, accompanied by the minister appointed by the Society which he represented, he found the buildings completed, and provision made for the regular maintenance of gospel ordinances. For many years the Free Church has maintained a minister on the island. In 1827 he paid a visit to Ireland, at the request of Mr Daly, after- wards Bishop of Cashel, with a view to preaching the gospel to the Irish i JOHN MACDOXALD, D.D. in their native tongue. He studied the Irish dialect of the Gaehc language, and preached frequently in that dialect to the people along the south-west coast. Dr Macdonald's zeal for preaching the gospel led him sometimes into difficulties. In the year 1817 he preached in a Dissenting chapel in Strathbogie, without the consent of the parish minister. For this he was brought before the General Assembly, where, although no special censure was passed upon him, such proceedings were severely censured. His ministry was richly blessed of God. Perhaps no minister of modern times was more owned as the means of converting souls. While in Edinburgh, he took a deep and active interest in the great revival at Muthil, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr Russell. Soon after his removal to Ferintosh, a deeply interesting movement took place among his own people. After that the Word was much blessed on both sides of Loch Tay, and in Glenlyon ; and he frequently visited the district and preached with great power and success. The fruits of the revival of religion there are visible to this day. There were great spiritual movements in Ross-shire, the revivals in Kilsyth and Dundee took place, and in all these Dr Macdonald took his share of the work with warm interest. Wherever he heard of the Lord's cause prospering, he made a point of being present to help it forward. Though not disposed to take much part in ecclesiastical controversy, he found no difficulty in taking his side when the great questions of Non- Intrusion and Spiritual Independence arose for discussion in the Church. He became a firm supporter of the policy of the Evangelical party ; and his weight of character and influence over the popular mind aided much the cause which they maintained in the north. At the Disruption he took a foremost place, and was selected to preach the first sermon in Tanfield Hall. His text was John xv. 16. He shewed the power of the principle which actuated him by the extent of the sacrifice which he made, for the living of the parish of Ferintosh was one of the largest in that part of DISK L '/■ TlOy 1 1 'OR THIES. the country. He Avas not in the habit of referring often to ecclesiastical subjects in the pulpit ; but, preaching at Edinburgh, in the Gaelic Church, soon after the Disruption, he said of the Established Church as it then existed, that it was " a Christ-den}'ing, God-dishonouring, and soul- destroying church." These were strong words — too strong, perhaps, for courtesy or for charity, but he spoke under a deep sense of wrong done to the cause of Christ. He was much censured for using them, but it does not appear that he ever withdrew, or even modified them afterwards. At the Inverness Assembly he was associated, as Gaelic Moderator, with Dr M'Farlan of Greenock, the Moderator for the year. In this capacity he preached a Gaelic sermon at the opening of the Assembly, and many who were then present still remember the mingled feeling of amusement and admiration which pervaded the house as he announced his text, and proceeded to expound it. The words were, " These, who have turned the world upside down, are come hither also." The sermon was one in everj' way worthy of his fame, and a complete vindication of the Disruption. On the 1 8th of April 1 849, he was called to his rest, leaving behind him a name fragrant and precious among thousands, and which shall not be forgotten, especially in the Highlands, so long as gospel truth is prized by the people. Dr Buchanan, in his Ten Years Conflict, says : — " The devotional services at the Convocation were conducted by Dr IMacdonald of Ferintosh, — that eminent servant of God, of whom it is enough to say that he was the Whitefield of the Highlands of Scotland. The proudest and most powerful chieftains of the Celtic race never possessed such a mastery over the clans, which the fiery cross or the wild pibroch summoned into the field in the fierce days of feudal strife, as belonged, in these more peaceful modern times, to this humble minister of Christ. From Tarbatness to the outer Hebrides,— from the Spey to the Pentland Firth, — the fact needed but to be known that John Macdonald had come, and was about to preach the Word, in order that the country for twenty miles around should gather at his call. Ten thousand people have often been swayed as one man, — stirred into enthusiasm, or melted into sadness, by this mighty and faithful preacher's voice." T. M'L. r I REV. ALEXANDER STEWART. Hijtr. ^Uian&^r ^ti^hiart. LEXANDER STEWART was born in the Manse of Moulin, Perthshire, of which parish his father, the late Dr Alexander Stewart, was then minister, as he after- wards was of the parish of Dingwall, Ross-shire, and ultimately of the parish of Canongate, Edinburgh. His family were from Argyleshire — of the Stewarts of Appin — one of the oldest houses of that county. Dr Stewart was eminent in his day as a minister whom God greatly honoured, after he had himself become a living witness to the power of divine truth, by making him the instrument of an extensive awakening in the district of country in which his lot was then cast. He was distinguished, also, in the world of literature — his grammar of the Gaelic language giving evidence of his scholarly attainments, and indicating the eminence to which he might have risen had he given himself to literary pursuits. The subject of our memoir was, in the first instance, educated in the Moulin Parish School, and thereafter at the Tain Academy. Subsequently he became a student of King's College, Old Aberdeen, where he continued for two sessions. Then, being considered sufficiently educated for enter- ing on the business of life in the line chosen for him, he first became a clerk in a house at Perth, and thereafter in a house in London. Whilst resident in the metropolis, he attended the ministry of Mr George Clayton, the word preached by whom God was pleased to make effectual DISRUPTION WORTHIES. for his spiritual illumination and saving conversion. When it pleased God thus to call him by His grace — the way for the change in his prospects for life which he desired having been wondrously opened to him — he resolved, with the consent of his father and other relations, to resume his university studies, now with a view to the ministry. His paternal aunt being resident in Glasgow, he came there, and was enrolled a student of the college of that city. During his course there, he sought no distinction, but shrank instinctively, with provoking sensitiveness, from any notice of a public kind \\hich at any time was taken of him. Yet he did not escape observation, as the suffrages of his fellow-students on more than one occasion, in awarding him prizes, gave evidence. In the Divinity Hall, as a student with Dr M'Gill, he was more especially noticed, where he raised expectations in the minds of those who knew him well, which were more than realized in after life. From the date of his first appearance in the pulpit, he became eminent as a preacher. The attention of the first ministers of his time was attracted to him. It is well known by his contemporaries that Dr Chalmers, after hearing him, was so impressed with his pulpit powers, that he used every influence with him to gain his consent to be nomi- nated as his successor in the great church and parish of St John's, Glasgow, from which he was about, himself, to be removed to the Moral Philosophy Chair, St Andrews. In this Dr Chalmers was unquestionably right, though it may seem to be a bold thing to say so, considering only Mr Stewart's high talents and attainments, whilst not taking into account his bodily constitution and mental temperament. These made the proposal one not to be entertained. That the proposal should have been made was, perhaps, the most marked testimony, in evidence of the appreciation of Mr Stewart's qualifications as a young minister of the gospel, which he could have received. His natural dififidence and self- distrust made him shrink from contemplating the proposal, or allowing it to become with him a matter of serious consideration at all ; the friends « REV. ALEXANDER STEWART. % who knew him best, whilst they regretted the occasion, approved of the course which he adopted in so acting. Mr Stewart was Hcensed to preach the gospel early in 1823 by the Presbytery of Lorn, Argyleshire. His preliminary trials, with a view to license, were taken by the Presbytery of Glasgow. He passed the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, in accordance with the law of the Church in such cases, and thereafter obtained a transference of the remaining portion of his trials to the Presbytery of Lorn. He was a Gaelic-speaking student, and desired to devote himself to the Highlands, as well became the son of a father eminent alike for piety and for critical knowledge of the mountain tongue. Buried in the seclusion of a remote Highland glen, selected by him as a district where the sound of no English word was ever heard, he devoted himself, with his usual ardent student habits, to acquire a knowledge of the idioms of the Gaelic, and the power of familiar, ready expression therein. His success was what might be expected ; and at the end of his year of hermit life, he came forth from his seclusion thoroughly versed in all that he had sought to acquire. He was soon summoned to stated occupation in his holy calling. In November 1823 he was chosen to be the minister of the Chapel of Ease, Rothesay, where the Sabbath services were half in Gaelic and half in English. His period here was, however, short, as was also the use of his acquired tongue. A presentation to the parish of Cromarty, in course of the year in which he was ordained at Rothesay, which he saw it his duty to accept, changed, after a short but highl}' valued ministry in the West Highlands, the sphere of his labours. At Cromarty he was not required to preach in Gaelic, but as the town is situated in a Highland district, and as he was there in charge of a large Highland population, his knowledge of the language was of much value. From Cromarty he never removed. The seclusion which he enjoyed, or which he fancied he enjoyed, in that ancient burgh, was to his mind very congenial. He used to hug himself in the thought that he had got hid from the great world. k 1 It was a vain fancy. " I have got into tlie toe of the hose," he used to say with much glee, referring to the Black Isle, from its shape, as the kosc, — and to Cromarty, lying at the extreme point of that bleak wilder- ness track of cheerless moorland, as the toe. Abundant testimony has j been borne, though the half may not have been told, to his course there ; .; to his " work of faith and labour of love ;" his most painstaking study j of the word of God ; his success, numbering such men as Hugh Miller i among his converts ; his attractiveness in drawing many warm hearts to him, and in making himself to be beloved by all to whom he ministered, • all the days of his life, till the end came. Of him Miller has written : — "One of the most striking characteristics of Mr Stewart's originality was the solidity of the truths which it always evolved. His was not the ability of opening up new vistas in which all was unfamiliar, simply because the direction in which they led was one in which men's thoughts had no occasion to travel, and no business to perform. It was, on the contrary, the greatly higher ability of enlarging, widening, and lengthen- C ing the avenues long before opened up on important truths, and, in consequence, ^ enabling men to see new and unwonted objects in old familiar directions. That in /3j which he e.xcelled all men we ever knew, was the analogical faculty — the power of vl detecting and demonstrating occult resemblances. He could read off as if by /|| intuition— not by snatches and fragments, but as a consecutive whole — that old revela- i tion of type and symbol which God first gave to man ; and when privileged to listen |: to him, we have been constrained to recognise, in the evident integrity of the reading J and the profound and consistent theological system which the pictorial record con- |; veyed, a demonstration of the divinity of its origin not less powerful and convincing '. than the demonstration of the other and more familiar departments of the Christian ', evidences. Compared with other theologians in this department, we have felt under ;j his ministry as if — when admitted to the company of some party of modern savans ii employed in deciphering a hieroglyphic-covered obelisk of the desert, and here sue- j cessful in discovering the meaning of an insulated sign and there of a detached i symbol — we had been suddenly joined by some sage of the olden time, to whom the \ \ mysterious inscription was but a piece of common language written in a familiar )\ alphabet, and who could read off fluently and as a whole what the others could but "^ij darkly and painfully guess at in detached and broken parts." ^-i Of this magnificent preacher's inanucr in his public appearances, ^ another friend, for quoting at large from whom we make no apology, '^ writes : — ■ Til r t 4 I /^EV. ALEXANDER STEWART. " I see him enter the pulpit with a solemnity of aspect which is the fruit of real feeling. He is a tall, clumsily-made man — five-feet-eleven, at least. The outline of his figure is more that of the fem.ale than the male. His limbs are full and round. There is a little tendency to stoop ; a little tendency, too, to corpulence, but very little. His chest is well thrown out, his shoulders are somewhat raised, and his neck is short. The head is a curiosity. It is nearly round, with a sort of wrench to one side. It rises high, being well developed in a circular arch above his ears, which are small and beautifully formed. It is covered with thick-set hair of a lightish sandy colour, which invades the brow, covers the temples, and reaches to within an inch-and-half of the eyebrows on all sides. Instead of being brushed down in the direction of its natural set, it is brushed up, to clear it off the short brow, and so stands like a peak at right angles with the brow. The noble dimensions of that portion of the head are wholly concealed, and the effect, at first sight, on the beholder is not, certainh', to make him expect any depth of intellectual power, but the reverse. The eyebrows are not large nor expanded, but they rise a little at the extremities towards the temples. The nose is beautifully formed ; large, but not too large, aquiline and symmetrical, as if cut with the chisel. The eyes are small, grey, rather deep set, sparkling, and expressive. The mouth is large, the line of the lips, which are thin, being beautifully curved. The lips shut easily, and look as if they had a superabundance of longitude. The chin is rather long, and is in a slight degree peaked, but is neither retiring nor protruding. The skin is smooth, as that of early youth. The cheeks are not large. Taking it all in all, it is a handsome, though most uncommon, head and face. I have never seen anything to compare with it. "Well, he enters the pulpit, and after a moment's pause rises to read the psalm. It is not a female voice, and yet it is not the rough voice of a man of his size and form. It is deep, clear, solemn, sweet, flexible, and of great compass. Every word is uttered as if the speaker felt himself standing in the presence of God, and in sight of the throne, and as if he desired all should feel the same. The emphasis is so laid in reading the psalm, as to bring out a meaning I had never discovered. His prayer is simplicity itself ; a child can comprehend every word, yet his thoughts are of the richest ; whilst Scripture phraseology, employed and applied as I never heard it in another, clothes them all. By the time the prayer is ended, I have been instructed and edified. I have received views of truth I had not possessed before, and have had awakened feelings which have set me on edge for the sermon, and which I desire to cherish for ever. The sermon comes. It seems to be a most deeply interesting and animated conversation on a common topic. ' We ought to think like great men, and speak like the common people,' appears to be the maxim which regulates the style. The manner is that of one who converses with a friend, and who has chosen a subject by the discussion of which he desires, from his inmost soul, to do him good. Illustration follows illustration in rapid succession, shedding light on his doctrine, and confirming it. Sometimes the illustrations seem puerile, scarcely dignified enough for the pulpit, but that impression lasts only for a moment. Some Scripture allusion, or Scripture quotation, reveals the source from which they have been drawn ; and I am filled with k - made a use of the discovery, which I think I and every man should have made, but iM '^/ which I never did. Scarcely any gesture is employed. One hand rests usually on the ' ,p- 'hF\ open Bible. The other is sometimes quietly raised, and its impressive, short motion ; ■'■ gives emphasis to the earnest words which are being spoken. The earnestness seems under severe control. It looks as if the speaker desired to conceal the emotion of his \ 1 heart in speaking for Christ to sinners — as if he thought noise and gesticulation un- ; jr- becoming. The eyelids grow red, the tears apparently struggle to escape, but no tear j 1; comes. A pink spot, almost a hectic flush — but it is not so— appears like the reflec- > tion of an evening sunbeam on the cheek. Some burning words clothe some fine • thought, which seems to come fresh from heaven ; and the speaker, as I think, half ashamed of the emotion which he has manifested, and which he has sensibly com- ;, municated to his hearers, returns to the calm manner from which he had for an instant i| departed, only, however, to be enticed from it again and again, yielding as if by com- h pulsion to the inspiration which ever revisits him. So he proceeds, until, to my deep f regret, he closes his wonderful discourse, which has extended long beyond the hour." Mr Stewart continued minister of Cromarty till his death. At the g^.. Disruption he, of course, joined hi.s brethren and abandoned his con- ^ - nection v>ith the State, abjuring the new ecclesiastical Establishment. '/'-' He never made himself prominent in the discussions which, in his time, \'^- filled the land. His local influence was great. Speeches by him in his 'I Presbytery and Synod were described by those who heard them as some- ! ' j'l thing unlike any that other men had ever spoken. But on no occasion ;' I' during his ministry did he open his mouth in the General Assembly of the "J J Church. He did not feel it to be required. He did not think it would '> I'/ have been useful. All that he could say he heard spoken by others, and, 'i I as he thought, better spoken than it could have been by him, and there- , I fore he did not speak. This is not to be justified. Could he have over- j i|j come, as he might have done, his native timidity and want of self- 1 1[ /"y( possession ; could he have roused himself to the effort, or had conscience VH ,'y/ impelled him to put himself forward as a public speaker, he would not "^O 'm^ have stood second to any in the ranks of those wonderful men whom -"^'^ '2J^ God raised up for His work in Scotland in his time. He believed that r'^T; J^ he could be useful in the provinces ; he believed that he was required to ")^^ r % take part in the discussions there— that the great cause might suffer it ''^^^ I r REV. ALEXANDER STEWART. he declined to do so ; and, therefore, on wisely selected occasions, he deliv'ered speeches that were admitted to be of the very highest order of oratory, for wisdom, beauty, and power. It would have been in vain, every one knew, to propose to Mr Stewart a change in his field of labour, at any time during his life at Cromarty, in anything like ordinary circumstances. But when, in 1847, the lamented death of Dr Chalmers, and the advancement, consequent on that event, of Dr Candlish to a chair in the New College, created a vacancy in St George's, the minds of all friends of the Church turned to the distin- guished subject of this memoir, as the man who should succeed the great preacher of the day in that pulpit. It need hardly be narrated that this proposal was not welcome to Mr Stewart. It created an excitement calculated to affect injuriously a mind sensitive and shrinking to a fault, inhabiting a body Avhich took its character but too much from his natural temperament. Earnest representations and urgent solicitations at length appeared to prevail with him. The late Dr Robert Buchanan, of Glasgow, was one of the Commissioners sent to the north to prosecute the call by the congregation of St George's. When the business in the Presbytery of Chanonry in this matter was ended, as the two friends walked along the street, perceiving the downcast appearance of his companion, and ex- pressing regret, Dr Buchanan said, " You look as if you were carrying a millstone on your back." "No, Dr Buchanan," was the reply, "I am not carrying a millstone, but I am carrjang my gravestone on my back." His words proved but too true. An attack of fever came, and ran its course. His time had come, and he knew it. To his physician inquiring as to his feelings, he said, "I am going to die. It is a solemn thing, doctor, to die, and to meet God in judgment!" To Christian friends he declared his abiding confidence in the everlasting God, his Saviour ; and in this state he quietly fell asleep in Jesus, on the 5th November 1847, '" the fifty-third year of his age. " He got faith," said a friend who was with him at the close, referring to the case of the St George's call, " to lay his Isaac bound ■' m 1; A M © f (§"i:¥ E I w f f < DISRUPTION WORTHIES. upon the altar ; his hand, in humble submission, took the knife ; he was prepared to do his Lord's will ; he did it ; and the Lord then relieved him for ever from all his cares, all his anxieties, and all his pains." Mr Stewart was never married. A maternal aunt, the widow of a minister, became, after the death of her husband, an inmate, put in charge of the domestic affairs of the manse of Cromarty. She formed a precious gift from his heavenly Father, for a great part of the closing portion of her nephew's ministry — the cause of much solicitude, too, in anticipation of the effect which her removal might have upon him and his usefulness — - a solicitude quite as great on her side. He was spared the trial, to meet which he ever sought to fortify himself His aunt survived him for a little ; but his death was never revealed to her, the infirm condition of her body and mind both making it at once advisable and kind that the departure of her "dear boy" should be concealed. So they were exempted from sorrow to which they had each, respectively, looked forward with solemn thought, — sorrow which came not. " So He giveth His beloved sleep." Mr Stewart never indulged in authorship. Nothing from his pen passed through the press at any time. The volume of posthumous lectu res on Leviticus, entitled, "THE TREE OF PROMISE," compiled from the skeleton outlines from which he had discoursed, give but a faint impression of what he was as a preacher. The work, nevertheless, is of great value, especially to the student— original, suggestive, and unique. No minister, who deals with Scripture typology, can want it without loss, or employ it without profit. A. B. 1l%fc ^^ 1 that experience in ecclesiastical affairs, and that knowledge of the forms of Church Courts, which afterwards proved of so much service. The high position he now occupied in the estimation of the Church, was shewn by his appointment in 1824 as successor to Dr Chalmers in St John's parish, Glasgow. It was an arduous undertaking indeed, to carry on the work of his illustrious predecessor both in the congregation and the parish ; but he applied himself to it with his usual earnestness and energy. After two years, however, finding it too heavy a burden, he removed to St Enoch's parish, where he ministered for several years to a large and influential congregation. In 1833, he was translated to the west parish of Greenock, and in that town he continued his ministerial labours for seventeen years, till his death. Dr M'Farlan had always taken an active part in Church affairs, and in such questions as interested the Christian community. For public debate and controversial discussion, he had special qualifications. In the Assembly of 1825 he distinguished himself, in connection with the debate on Pluralities ; and in the Apocrypha controversy, his pen was employed with characteristic clearness and decision. The influence he had attained and the confidence reposed in him by his brethren, were evidenced in the most unequivocal manner, when he was made Moderator of the General Assembly of 1834. At that Assembly the Veto Act was passed, and the conflict was begun, which ended in the Disruption. In that great struggle no man took a more decided and honourable part than Dr M'Farlan. He was indeed, in the strictest sense, a non-intrusionist ; always refusing to take up anti-patronage ground ; believing that the operation of the Veto Law, would effectually protect the Church, from those abuses which had done it such injury in time past. But he was quick to perceive the vital nature of the question, raised by the judgment of the civil courts in the Auchterarder case ; as regarded the Church's spiritual independence he would admit of no compromise ; he took up a decided position from the outset, and maintained it with unwavering consistency to the end. PATRICK M'FARLAN. D.D. At a public meeting in Greenock, in December 1S39, having set forth with great clearness the position in which the Church was placed, he concluded as follows : — "'Oh!' say some well-intentioned people, 'just submit to the deliverance of the civil courts. It is really painful to think of this contention ; you will tear the country and the church in pieces ; just submit.' Now I do not understand this whining. To me it seems sheer nonsense. It is just saying, ' We conjure you to sacrifice your con- sciences, and all your views of duty, and all your sense of obligation to the authority of Christ, as the great Head of the Church. Do sacrifice these on the altar of ex- pediency, and make a low bow of submission to the Court of Session.' For myself I answer, I will not yield : If you ask why, I reply, Because I cannot. " It has pleased God in His providence to fill me, as far as stipend is concerned, a fuller cup than has fallen to many of my brethren ; but this I say, and say it advisedly, so help me God — holding the views I entertain of this subject, and regarding it as impossible, without a sacrifice of conscience, to submit to and acquiesce in that decree to which I have referred, I would rather cast that cup to the ground than I would taste it again, embittered, as it would be if I were to yield, by the consciousness of having deserted what I believe to be my duty to God, and my duty to the Church." In the Assemblies of 1840 and 1841 Dr M'Farlan took a leading pai't, especially in the discussion on Lord Aberdeen's Bill, and in the various proceedings connected with the case of the Strathbogie ministers. At the August Commission of 1841, when the leaders of the Moderate party had openly taken part with the deposed ministers, and were mani- festly bent on bringing matters to a crisis, he made a most impressive speech, at the close of which he called on his brethren to stand fast to their principles, in the following terms : — " If we shrink, we are undone. If we depart from principle, there is no hope for us : we shall neither propitiate men in power nor gain the respect of the country. Let us trust in God, who has been the protection of the Church in ages past— in that divine Saviour to whom we profess allegiance as the great King and Head of His Church, that the struggle in which we are now to be engaged shall issue in triumph. But if, in the mysterious providence of God, it should prove otherwise, we shall have the satisfaction, in looking back, to think that we stood forth in defence of sound scriptural principles ; and we shall never have cause to regret, though left houseless and homeless, and without the means of support, that we preferred peace of conscience to all that is valuable to us in this world." That he should have exerted much influence in the counsels of the DISK UP no \ U OR THIES. Church at such a crisis, was not surprising, considering his great ex- perience in ecclesiastical affairs, his soundness of judgment, and skill in debate. But besides this, when the issue of the struggle began to be foreseen, and the sacrifices it would entail on those who adhered to their principles, Dr M'Farlan's position and the attitude he maintained attracted special attention, on the part both of friends and opponents, for the simple reason, that the west parish of Greenock was, at that time, the richest living in the Church of Scotland. Would a minister deliberately give up such emoluments for the sake of principle .' Amongst worldly men there were few that believed it. Dr M'Farlan indeed had declared, in the most explicit manner, that he was prepared to do so. But by too many this was regarded as no better than an empty threat ; and the expectation that he would draw back found frequent expression. Those who thought so little knew the man — the integrity of his character, the depth of his convictions, and the steadfastness of his purpose. It is scarcely necessary to add, that when the time came he nobly redeemed his pledge. Nothing became him better — the strength and dignity of his Christian character — than the way in which he accepted the change of circumstances which the Disruption involved. In his case the change was a very material one, such as a man of his tastes and habits, of his liberal disposition and large hospitality, could not possibly be insensible to. But no one ever heard a complaint from him ; he had the same cheerful, happy demeanour as before : his was the unbroken serenity of a good conscience. After the Disruption, Dr M'Farlan continued for more than six years to minister to a numerous and attached congregation. In the Free Church at large, he held a prominent place, and exerted very great influence. His noble testimony, his long experience and mature wisdom, secured for him no ordinary measure of respect and attention. He was called to the Moderator's chair in the Assembly of 1845, presiding both at its ordinary meeting in May, and its special meeting at Invern JF@ R'^^^-e'lljKj s T s x© ik:,^*w im I a m © T©lrv e I August. His sympathies were by no means confined to the Hmits of his own communion : he was one of the original promoters of the EvangeHcal AlHance, and he took a special interest in the Continental Churches, and the revival amongst them of evangelical religion. His death took place at Greenock, after a short but severe illness, in November 1S49, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He retained his mental faculties to the last, giving frequent expression to his faith and hope as a Christian, with singular distinctness and solemnity. It deserves to be noticed that he was the fourth in a succession of ministers, continued from father to son, since the time of the Revolution. In the ministry of the Free Church, he has been worthily succeeded by his son, the Rev. John M'Farlan of the Free Middle Church, Greenock, and his grandson, the Rev. Andrew Melville of Free St Enoch's, Glasgow. Dr M'Farlan's personal appearance was very prepossessing. His head and face would have attracted observation in any assembly — suggesting the idea of culture and refinement, of mental acuteness and moral elevation. His voice was clear and ringing, rather than strong. His speaking, both from the pulpit and in debate, was characterised above everything by clearness and precision. He was wanting in the power of illustration ; but there was an admirable distinctness which went far to make up for the defect ; he always knew what he meant to say, and made it perfectly plain to his hearers. He was distinguished, too, in a remarkable degree, by business talents ; in this respect his acquaintance with forms, his tact, his readiness of word and pen, were of invaluable service to his brethren. Indeed, one of his most characteristic features was facility of execution : what he had to do, he could do at once, without hesitation or delay, an important quality for one so much engaged in public affairs. In the pulpit, that defect in the illustrative faculty just referred to, was, no doubt, a serious drawback. The want of imagination necessarily interfered with any widespread popularity, beyond the sphere of his own congregation. But, on the other hand, fefc r % his clear exhibition of gospel truth, set forth \\ith simplicit> and earnestness, made his preaching most weighty and acceptable among the people of his charge. It was the old gospel, known and realised m his own experience, which he preached to others with fulness and fidelity. In the more private duties of the pastoral office he ^\as unwearied ; having a strong hold on the affections of his people by his sympathy with them in times of difficulty and trial ; while the cheerful affability of his manner was attractive alike to young and old. Indeed, in him the Christian minister and the Christian gentleman were most happily blended : he was a gentleman of the old school, always courteous, with that ease and self-possession, which tended to relieve others from any feeling of restraint or embarassment. He shone in company by his conversational powers ; but however lively and entertaining, he never forgot what was due to his office, nor allowed others to forget it. There was an unfailing dignity and propriety in his demeanour, which added greatly to his weight and influence. He was a man with much warmth of heart and feeling : in his family, overflowing with affection, and the object of affection in a corresponding degree ; while to others on intimate terms with him, he was the most steadfast of friends and the most delightful of companions. Those who remember how, in early life, they were admitted to his society and enjoyed his confidence, and the encouragement thereby afforded them at the outset of their ministry, can never cease to cheri.sh his memory, as of one of their best and dearest friends. By the Free Church at large, the name of Dr Patrick M'Farlan is to be remembered, as occupying a prominent place in the list of Disruption Worthies, on account of the noble part he acted at that memorable crisis. As one of the faithers and founders of the Free Church of Scotland, his name will ever be associated with her history. W. L. I, I f i 4&.A^k?' ^*^.. V I / v< ^ DISRUPTION WORTHIES. was in the face of the most vituperative opposition, both public and private, that all this was done. The editor of The Witness newspaper tells us, that for a few days he had clipped out of the newspapers all that he had seen written against Mr Crichton, and by fastening it together, he found that it had extended to eleven feet six inches and three-eighth parts of undiluted abuse, in one brief fortnight. In 1 844, under the strain of this excessive work and excitement, health gave way. Paralysis shewed itself unmistakeably, shattering for a time both body and mind. As Mr Percival Bunting of Manchester, wrote — " Many, very many, friends, both known and unknown, sympathised with him in his afflictions, and prayed, not coldly or unfrequently, for his re- covery." Among such, it is deeply affecting to see the venerable Chalmers bending over his fellow-labourer and fellow-soldier when he was stricken down, relating to him his own somewhat similar experience, and comfort- ing him with the comfort wherewith he himself had been comforted of God. " My very dear sir," writes Chalmers, i8th August 1844, " I was forcibly reminded of my own situation in 1834, when an arrest was laid upon me in going along the North Bridge, after a three hours' speech in the Presbytery, and I was conveyed home in a coach. The treatment which my physician laid upon me reduced me in the course of the summer by thirty-five pounds weight, so that, when I picked up again, it was more like a reconstruction than a recovery. . . . "A very remarkable experience of mine during that summer was, that I often in speaking stuck in the middle of a sentence, and it seemed as much due to a failure in thought as a failure in articulation. I mention this because I have been recently visited by the same symptoms. . . . " It is a great comfort, amid the uncertainties of this ever-shifting pilgrimage, to think that we are in good hands, and under the vigilant eye of Him who likes to be trusted, and bids us cast all our care upon Himself. May you, my dear sir, have great peace and joy in believing, and may you realise in your own person that most beautiful of Scripture verses, ' in quietness and confidence ye shall have strength.' I ever am, my dear sir, yours most cordially and with great affection, Thos. Chalmers." Another evidence of the wide-spread sympathy with which he was regarded, was the presentation of a silver centre piece, combining the properties of an epergne and candelabrium, bearing this inscription — To David Maitland Makgill Crichton, Esq. of Rankeilour, from ten I ■4 f 4 it f DA VID MAITLAND MAKCILL CRICHTON. thousand members of the Free Cliurch." Dr Candlish, in making the presentation, said, " The principles in support of whicli you have sub- mitted to so much labour and to so many sacrifices, are worthy of an apostle's zeal and a martyr's faith, connected as they are with the kingly crown of our blessed Saviour, and the freedom of his people." We have not space to particularize further. The years of life which yet remained were actively spent in the midst of the practical questions which were always turning up, and the course which he followed was the same " slapdash, straightforward, earnest course " it had ever been. But it was marked by more irritability, and impatience of contradiction, and severity of censure. And what were these but the symptoms of what the post-mortem inspection aftenvards revealed, that structural disease had so pervaded the system as to make life a continual struggle and disturbance ! His last efforts were called forth on behalf of Dr Thomson of Coldstream, who had spent many years of his life, and " all he had left in the world," in contending for a cheap Bible against Bible monopoly. Again did Mr Crichton traverse Scotland, raising the needed funds, and relieving a good man's heart "from a heavy load of anxiety." Of all who still remain and knew Makgill Crichton intimately, there is not one but will regard his memory with fond affection. His likeness hangs in the "ben room" of their heart. One who was much with him, and knew him well, penned this statement the other day, and many will endorse it : " The general impression of the grandness and nobility of his character has been only deepened in my mind with the lapse of years, and with my increased knowledge of the littleness and selfishness of the mass of mankind." Who that knew him will forget his zeal and gene- rosity ; his ready humour, and the twist of the mouth and the twinkle of the eye that accompanied it ; the hospitality of his home, lighted up by the presence and the varied converse of Brewster and Hugh Miller, of Guthrie, Candlish, Patrick Clason, Begg, and James Mackenzie, whose fifteenpence History reflects more truthfully the spirit of Scottish history DISRUPTION WORTHIES. than all the volumes which have been written ? Who will not remember his readiness humbly to acknowledge wherein he had erred, when dealt with in the spirit of meekness, — his gentleness in the midst of his family, — and the feeling of lowly reverence with which at family worship he pros- trated himself before God ? It is his religion, and the nature of it, which after all is the great fact to him now, and ever was, for it gave complexion to his character and life. His religion was strong in its scriptural sim- plicity. It was to him a matter of certainty, not so much logical or inferen- Jtial as experimental, for he felt that it righted his relation with God through Christ, and maintained daily fellowship with God through Christ. His religion was definite and doctrinal, for he knew it as a system of ^fy divine truth wherein one doctrine harmoniously combined with and sus- M, tained another. His religion was a simple, childlike devoutness, healthily \^, fed by the varied elements which the Spirit of God has infused into Bible ^ narrative and Bible statement, and gathered by him daily, as the manna '4a was gathered by the Israelites, with the dew of heaven fresh upon it. On xk> . this religion he lived the life he led, and by it he died in the quietness of faith. I There was a soldier -like simplicity in the manner of his death. He had sat up to evening family worship. He had requested to be allowed to ascend the stair to his bed-room unattended. He had his portion of Scripture read to him after he had gone to bed. In the early morning a fit of breathlessness aroused him. His son was immediately at his side. " Thank God," he said, " my boy, I am better." Scarcely were the words uttered, when the spirit fled. " We bless Thee fur the quiet rest thy servant taketh now, And for the good fight foughten well, and closed right peacefully." Makgill Crichton was one of the row of hard-wood trees which stood on the outskirts of the forest, and sheltered it from the tempest. These have now been mostly removed one by one. The stormy blasts now get entrance into the depths of the wood, and many a green spruce is seen lying on its side, with its surface-spread roots high up in the air. J. W. T. ^\Q i'M R B S TS\e" l^'i'^W mil ROBERT CORDON, D.D. lUhtxi (Boxhon, B.B. :^- J IRIONG the names which appear in the mart)T roll of the Disruption period, there is not one which was regarded in its day with a deeper reverence than that of Dr Gordon. He did not mingle much in the strife. He took little part in the debates which were constantly occurring in popular assemblies and church courts So far as we know, he wrote no controversial pamphlets. And it was never to him that his party looked when they were battling with the politicians. But there was no man who moved forward with a firmer tread — no man who was more resolute in asserting the Church's independence, or more ready to brave all consequences in order to maintain it ; and the veiy quietness, and calmness, and dignity, which characterised his usual demeanour, gave an almost startling impressive- ness to his words and actions when he emerged, as he did once and again, from the crowd, and took up an advanced position as one of the undoubted leaders in the great movement of his time. His outward personal history was not an eventful one. He was born at Glencairn, in Dumfriesshire. After receiving license to preach the gospel, he became Mathematical Assistant to the Rector of the Perth Academy, — an office in which he was succeeded by the Rev. Dr Forbes of Glasgow. There his gifts came to be known to Lord Gray, who pre- sented him to the parish of Kinfauns, where he continued to labour from ^ ^ DISRUPTION WORTHIES. 1816 to 1820, u'hen he was translated to Edinburgh. In that city he remained till his death in 1S53, but during that long period his services were not confined to one congregation. His first charge was that of Hope Park Chapel ; his next was the New North, in Brighton Street ; his third was the High Church Parish; and his last the Free High Church, at the head of the Mound. In all he maintained, from first to last, the character of an able and earnest evangelical preacher. His dis- courses were prepared with extraordinary thoroughness and care. They were delivered in a manner which was particularly impressive. And there is the best reason for believing that his ministry was eminently successful, in the highest sense of that expression. A volume of his sermons was published in 1825, and since his death two other volumes, containing additional examples of his method of expounding Scripture, especially the prophecies relating to the Messiah, have been given to the world. We have it also on good authority that he contributed several articles on mathematical subjects to the Edinburgh Cyclopedia, a publi- cation which was edited by Sir David Brewster. But his highest memo- rial is the spiritual fruit which followed from his pastoral labours, and the emphatic testimony which, with all the weight of his character, he gave to the principles which constitute the heritage of the Church of Scotland. In the latter connection, there are several outstanding incidents in the life of Dr Gordon which are peculiarly worthy of being referred to in such a record as the present. One of these was his appearance at the bar of the Court of Session, along with the Presbytery of Dunkcld. That Presbytery had been placed in a somewhat singular position. Two men — Mr Clark and Mr Kessen — had been nominated to the pastorate of Lcthendy, a parish within their bounds. The former was first in the field, but he was vetoed, and, with the concurrence of the patron, was set aside. Mr Kessen was then presented, and he having received in addition a call from the people, the usual steps were taken with a view to his settlement. m \ ■-^ I ROBERT GORDON, D.D. Mr Clark, however, was not prepared to be thus dropped. He asked the Court of Session to interfere on his behalf, and the Court did so, issuing an interdict forbidding the Presbytery to proceed to Mr Kcssen's ordination. Lord Cockburn, commenting not long afterwards on this act, says in his Journal : — "This is the second deep cut into the nervous system of the Church, for if we can order a Presbytery not to induct, I don't see that we have not the power to bid it induct. And after this, wlicrc is the peculiar power of the Church ?" So reasoned the Church itself The Presbyteiy was forced to settle for itself the question, of whether in a matter so purely spiritual as the ordination of a minister, it was bound to obey the civil court or its own spiritual superior. The General Assembly's command was explicit: — "You shall proceed to Mr Kessen's induction to the pastorate of the people of Lethcndy, leaving the law to determine, as it has a right to do, to whom the benefice shall belong." The Court of Session was equally articulate : — " This is a matter which concerns us, and you must not ordain Mr Kessen until we give you leave to do so." In just such a dilemma was once the famous Presbytery of Strathbogie. The civil power said one thing, the Church said another, and they were in a strait between the two. But they came to a very different conclusion from that which was reached by the Pres- bytery of Dunkeld. At Marnoch, the w^ill of the Court of Session was carried out, and the ministers got their reward by being upheld by the law in the performance of all their spiritual functions, even after their deposition. At Lethendy the order of the Church was obeyed, and the offenders were threatened in consequence with fine and imprisonment. It is no secret, now, that in the breasts of some of the judges, who had been, as they thought, defied, there raged such a feeling of anger that, if it had not been for the influence of some of their more temperate brethren, measures of a very extreme character would certainly have been taken. As it was, the men who had dared to ordain a minister without the permission of the Parliament House, were summoned to answer for r -1 I f@iR'^;'©!Hl(,IR[!i' l>.-« w 4 J p. DISRUPTION WORTHIES. their conduct at the bar of tlic Court of Session. And in the remarkable historical picture whicli, in consequence of this summons, came to be framed in Edinburgh on the 14th of June 1839, one of the figures which appears most prominently in the foreground was that of Dr Gordon. He was not, of course, a member of the Presbytery of Dunkeld ; but he believed that they were being called to suffer in a public cause, and for tlie maintenance of a great principle — the freedom and independence of the Church — and he resolved to place himself by their side, to share their shame and their glory, and to give to them what comfort was to be derived from his openly identifying himself with their interests. It must have been a striking scene : — " In front, elevated on their bench, clothed in their robes of human authority, and invested with the stern insignia of secular power, sat the judges, twelve in number. Opposite stood another court — a court of Christ — called to their bar for e.xecuting the spiritual functions conferred by the Lord Jesus on His Church. ... A very few of the most respected ministers of Edinburgh and the neighbourhood — sufficient to countenance their brethren, but not to have the slightest appearance of a bravado — attended them to the bar. First one, then another, and then a third, followed them. A frown darkened the brow of the court ; but the crowd closing, as if all had come in, nothing was said. After a moment's pause the crowd opened again, and yet another entered. It was Dr Gordon. No sooner was his noble and venerable head seen emerging from the crowd, at the end of the bar, than the smothered feeling broke forth, and a proposal burst from the bench to turn out these clergymen from the bar ; but an indignant and solemn remonstrance from Lord IVIoncreiff checked the attempt." What followed belongs to the ecclesiastical history of the period. It is enough, in the present sketch, to connect Dr Gordon, as a leader, with one of the most significant battles of the " ten years' conflict." Two years later, in 1841, Dr Gordon received the well merited dis- tinction of being called to the Moderatorship of the General Assembly; and in that capacity he was required to perform a duty which could not but have been painful, but which he discharged, there can be no doubt, with the entire approbation of his own conscience — we refer to the pronouncing of the sentence of deposition on the seven Strathbogie ministers. Occupying the chair of the Assembly, as he did, it did not i ROBERT GORDO\ fall to him either to take part in the discussion which preceded the judgment, or to vote upon the two motions which were made on the occasion. It is rather remarkable, however, that in the history wc should find him so closely associated with the two cases in connection with which the Church asserted its Spiritual Independence most emphatically, and in the face of all hazards. The good-will and active support of the civil pov/ers he no doubt highly valued, and it could not but pain him to find himself in such direct collision with them. But whether these powers were for him or against him, there was one principle which he could surrender in no circumstances — that of the Church's inherent freedom — its right to rule without secular interference, within its own province. And some months later he gave distinct and articulate expression to these feelings in the famous meeting of office-bearers which was held in St Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh. That meeting was attended by over twelve hundred ministers and elders, and was the first of a series held in different parts of Scotland, in which the Evangelicals everywhere banded themselves to resist the encroachments of the State. Dr Gordon was called on to preside ; and those who heard his opening speech, as chair- man, were never weary afterwards of telling of the profound impression which was made by it. He uttered strong words, but these did not exceed in strength the feeling which manifestly possessed him. Never, we have heard it said, did Chalmers himself speak with more power, and intensity, and effect : — " It has come to this," said he, "plainly and distinctly, that I, a minister of the Church of Scotland, who have solemnly sworn before God, and as I shall answer to Him at the great day of judgment, that I believe in my heart and conscience that Christ is the great Head of the Church, and that He has appointed office-bearers in it, distinct from the civil magistrate, to whom He has committed the keys of His spiritual kingdom ; who are to loose and to bind, to lay on and to take off, spiritual ecclesiastical censures ; it has come, I say, to this, that I am called upon either to renounce these principles, or to renounce the privileges which I hold as an ordained minister of the Church of Scotland." SlFiS^VyKl iJVl ■^-i W ri DIi,RUPTION WORTHIES. Having thus clearly stated the nature of the issue which was at stake, he, with equal explicitness, announced the practical conclusion to which he had come — viz., that he would maintain the great principle of the Church of Scotland, -tcliatcvcr iniglit he tlic coiiscqitcnce. It was one of the first unmistakeable foreshadowings of the coming Disruption. Dr Gordon c\'en then clearly foresaw the catastrophe toward which the civil courts were driving ; and his address derived an additional solemnity from the picture -which he silently held up before his audience. One other outstanding incident of these times is well worthy of mention in this connection. The General Assembly of 1842 adopted The Claim of Rights — a document in which the position of the Church was finally defined, with a view to a last appeal being made to the legislature. The adoption of that great historical State Church paper was moved by Dr Chalmers, and seconded by Dr Gordon. In the short speech which he delivered on that occasion, Dr Gordon expressed a hope that Parliament would act in a wiser way than the Court of Session had done. " But, Sir," he went on to say, " if, unhappily, it should be otherwise, if they have resolved on refusing to grant what we think reasonable on our part to ask, I feel, for one, that we are bound, as honest men and Christian ministers, with all calmness and all respect, but with all firmness and determination, to tell them that we cannot carry on the affairs of Christ's house under the coercion of the civil courts ; and, however deeply we may deplore the loss of those advantages which we derive from our con- nection with the State, if ultimately the legislature determine that they will not listen to our claim, then those advantages we must relinquish, because we could not hold them with a good conscience." When the iSth of May 1843 arrived, and intimation was formally given that no more was to be hoped for from the legislature than from the civil courts, Dr Gordon took, without the slightest hesitation, the now unavoidable step of seeking, with his brethren, spiritual liberty outside of the Establishment ; and for ten years more he was honoured to do the OR 'sm^ ROBERT GORDON, D.D. work of an evangelist in Edinburgh, and to aid eftectually i organisation of the Church of Scotland, /;y^. But he was not allowed to spend this last decade of his life in absolute quiet. The refusal of sites, in many places, for the erection of Free Churches, had resulted in the appointment of a Parliamentary Commis- sion to take evidence on the subject, and Dr Gordon was summoned to London as a witness. He appeared before the Commission on the 27th of March 1847, and some of the things which he said on this occasion are important enough to warrant our quoting them here :— " Sir James Graham : A very important point in dispute between the Free Church and the Established Church, which you have left, is the efficacy of the call by the hearers of the clergyman to be appointed ? " Dr Gordon : The main question I hold to be the spiritual independence of the Church ; the interference of the civil authority with matters purely spiritual. " Sir J. Graham : Is not the call a very important check, among others, against the abuse of patronage in your opinion .' " Dr Gordon : No doubt, but the question which led to the Disruption, WAS the question of the independence of the Church. . . . " Mr Fox Maule : The question of Patronage was not that upon which the Free Church separated from the Establishment ? " Dr Gordon : Certainly not. "Mr F. Maule : It was a question entirely as to the spiritual jurisdiction of the Church ? " Dr Gordon : Yes. . . . " Mr W. Patten : At what period do you think the Established Church relin- quished the truth ? " Dr Gordon : At the time of the Disruption. " Mr W. Patten : Were any steps taken at the time of the Disruption, other than those which had been taken previously ? " Dr Gordon : They then homologated the act and deed of the civil authority in interfering in spiritual matters. " Mr W. Patten : Was that the first time they had done that ? " Dr Gordon : The first time they gave consent to it. . . . " Mr G. W. Hope : Is it not denied by those who adhere to the Church, that they do exercise these functions under the guidance of the State ? " Dr Gordon : They believe, I suppose, that Lord Aberdeen's Bill has protected them ; but the very introduction of the Bill appeared to me to be an admission that the law which led to the Disruption had, in fact, deprived the Church of her rights and privileges as a spiritual court. . . . I ^ " Mr Brotherton : Have they changed within the last seven years ? "Dr Gordon : We think that they have admitted the civil power to interfere in spiritual matters, so that the spiritual liberty of the Church has been sacrificed. " Mr Brotherton : In what respect ? " Dr Gordon : In permitting themselves to be dictated to in spiritual matters by the civil authorities. " Chairman : Has the great body of the Scottish dissenters separated from the Church of Scotland upon the same ground, that of interference with the spiritual inde- pendence of the Church } " Dr Gordon : The original dissenters from the Church of Scotland left it partly on the ground of patronage. They considered that as an interference with the liberties of the Church. We continued in the Church, and thought that we retained our liberties, even with the law of patronage, although among us there were many who looked upon patronage as rather a grievance — indeed, a great grievance — but still we did not consider that patronage itself, if the call had its proper place, was such an encroachment upon the liberties of the Church as to compel us to leave it." The Scottish worthy, of whom the above is a most imperfect sketch, was engaged in the preparation of a sermon for his communion Sabbath, when the summons reached him to go up higher. The sermon was never finished and never preached ; but after his death it was pubhshed for the edification and comfort of his people. We have that discourse of his now before us, and it is most striking and affecting to see that the last words he ever penned were these : — " Death is swallowed up in victory. O death ! where is thy sting ? O grave ! where is thy victory .'" N. L. W. I I I. f WILLIAM COLLINS. ■tUiam Collins. )ILLIAM COLLINS, the well-known publisher, and for many years the zealous fellow-labourer of Dr Chalmers, was born at Eastwood, Renfrewshire, on the 1 2th of October 1789. His memoir places us beside the infant springs of the Free Church of Scotland. Of independent, penetrating, and courageous intellect, Mr Collins was ever on the quest for new channels through which to develop his energies, but he was happily guarded from that tendency to theorise, which is the besetting sin of such minds, by the forethought and practical wisdom which he added to all his other quahties. His chief end and aim was the good of others. His philan- thropy, early manifested, strengthened with his years, and opened out into a life which unfolded itself in a succession of great labours, wisely conceived and resolutely carried out, for the welfare of his fellow-men. Feeling that all that was really good in himself had its source in the gospel, Mr Collins' efforts for the welfare of others were put forth along the line of that divinely restorative and elevating force which is found in the Cross, and nowhere else. At the age of twenty-five Mr Collins was ordained an elder in the congregation of the Tron Church, Glasgow, then under the pastoral care of Dr M'Gill. In the course of his reading he happened to pemse the article on the Evidences of Christianity in the Encydopcedia Brittanica. If DISRUPTION WORTHIES. The freshness of its intellectual power, and the glow of its moral and evangelical enthusiasm, impressed and delighted him. Accordingly, when Dr M'Gill died, Mr Collins turned his eyes to the author of the article which had so fascinated him, the Rev. Thomas Chalmers, as a suitable successor to Dr M'Gill, and greatly aided in the movement which resulted in the appointment by the Town Council of the young minister of Kilmany to the church and parish of the Tron. From no one did Dr Chalmers receive a heartier welcome on his induction in 1S15 than from the youngest member of his session, Mr Collins. The subject of our memoir now took his place by the side of Dr Chalmers, and continued to co-operate with him in his manifold labours all the time the latter remained in Glasgow. The two men resembled each other in spirit and aim, in genuine piety and large benevolence. It was not the minister alone, nor the elder alone, but minister and elder together, that wrought out that marvellous social and moral change that now began to transform the wide district that was the field of their joint labours. When Dr Chalmers originated the idea of local Sabbath Schools, Mr Collins opened the first school, and thus gave the religious community a proof of the practicability and efficiency of the idea of his great leader. Dr Chalmers was next transferred to the new parish of St John's. Mr Collins accompanied his minister to his new charge, and still kept his place by his side as his valued adviser and zealous and efficient fellow-labourer. To Dr Chalmers, with his keen political and social insight, it belonged to originate methods of civic and Christian economy, more varied and novel, perhaps, than any age had yet known, and to expound and recommend them by an eloquence of unrivalled brilliance and power. But his elder, quiet and unobtrusive, with keen untiring activity, and soul on fire, came after him, testing the ideas of his chief, and giving them practical realization in the hovels of the poor, in the haunts of the godless, and in the dens of the profligate, thus convincing a some- li 1 WILLIAM COLLINS. what incredulous world that the schemes of Dr Chalmers did not belong merely to the region of philosophy and rhetoric, but were thoroughly practical— indeed, the only agencies that ever would recover the lapsed masses, replacing thriftlessness with frugality, and ignorance and vice with that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. The movement then begun was the first turning in that dangerous tide, whose volume had been growing larger and its waters darker with each succeed- ing decade, and which, had it been suffered to flow unchecked till our day, would have burst its embankments, in defiance alike of the moral power of the pulpit and the legal authority of the state. Mr Collins' philanthropy moved within no narrow circle. Every good object evoked the sympathy of his earnest nature. He advocated with characteristic warmth and courage the abolition of African slavery, at a time when that cause was not so popular as it came to be at a later date. This brought him into contact and co-operation with Wilberforce, Macaulay, and other champions of the emancipation of the slave. The fact that he took openly the side of the negro, and that petitions for eman- cipation lay in his book shop, alienated some of his business customers, many of whom were largely interested in the West India trade. Mr Collins, moreover, rendered no small service to the cause of religious literature by his reprints, in a more accessible form than here- tofore, of many of the writings of the divines of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. To these volumes suitable introductions were prefixed, written by the more eminent clergymen and laymen of the daj', of all denominations. This was a wide sowing of the seeds of evan- gelical truth throughout the land. Besides impregnating the general soil, it planted, doubtless, in many a home and heart the knowledge and the love of genuine piety, where before the gospel had neither been known nor prized. In this scheme, moreover, Mr Collins furnished an example which soon began to be imitated in the numerous societies that by and by arose, and which had as their object the reprinting of the historical, f y)ly^^^ jjSvTm^batu^ I DISRUPTION WORTHIES. literary, and religious works of former days. Since that time, popular knowledge has been advancing with rapid strides. When the temperance cause found its way to this country from the United States in 1829, Mr Collins hailed it, as "throwing a ray of light," to use his own words, upon a dark problem. He was the earliest member of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Temperance Society, and he laboured in season and out of season to promote its object. He visited, on this errand, many of the towns of Scotland, and even extended his tours to Manchester, Liverpool, and London, in all which places he delivered addresses to large audiences. He visited the metropolis three times, and succeeded, on his third visit, in forming the British and Foreign Temperance Society. At one of its early meetings in Exeter Hall he delivered his famous lecture on the " Harmony of the Gospel and Tem- perance Societies," — a lecture which contains the germs of the ablest arguments employed in behalf of the movement, even under its later phases. From 1829 to 1834 a large portion of his time and means were devoted to the maintenance of a cause which he regarded as one of the handmaids of the gospel, and which commanded his sympathy and support to his dying day. Dr Chalmers, some time before, had left Glasgow to fill the Chair of Moral Philosophy in the University of St Andrews. The departure of the master, however, did not cause the disciple to relax in the prosecution of those labours of Christian benevolence in which the two had been so enthusiastic and so successful fellow-workers. It was now, 1834, that Mr Collins projected the greatest of all his enterprises. This scheme, with which his name came afterwards to be mainly associated, had birth in an incident of a domestic kind. He had an only daughter, who was confined to her chamber by a lingering illness. To beguile the hours and mitigate the sufferings of the invalid, Mr Collins would sit down by her bedside, and relate the sad history of individuals and families whom it had been his lot, as an elder of a very poor district, to visit in the course I w WILLIAM COLLINS. I of the day. As she hstened, she could not help contrasting her own ■"■^y happy condition, refreshed by the Divine promises and upheld by the ''^/£\ Everlasting arms, with the utter misery of those who were living without f^ God and dying without hope. Can nothing be done, she one day 1 asked her father, as he sat beside her recounting the tale of the day's .| experiences, can nothing be done to bring the glorious truths on which jj I am reposing within the reach of these God-forsaking and God-forsaken jj' ones? The question struck him. "Can nothing be done.'" he seemed to hear his daughter say again and again, as he continued to ponder over the matter. Yes, surely, he made answer to himself, something can be done. These men are not far off — they are living in a Christian city — and surely there is wealth enough in Glasgow to bring the cheapest of all commodities, but the greatest of all blessings, to their door. As he pondered, a gracious impulse led him to devise and propound his grand enterprise of aiming to provide twenty additional parish churches for Glasgow. Many pronounced his scheme a "devout imagination;" but the very greatness of the enterprise contributed largely to its success. Christian philanthropy in those days found vent in contributions of one guinea, five guineas, and, on very extraordinary occasions, ten guineas. Here was an appeal to Christian men to unite in achieving a great object of an evangelical kind by contributions of ^^200 each, pay- able in five instalments ! This was a novelty ; but a novelty that first astounded and next attracted men. The originator, they saw, was in earnest. He had given proof of this by subscribing at once his own quota, from, as was known, very slender means. His example stimulated the liberality of those whose incomes were five, ten, twenty fold that of the propounder of the scheme, and the result was that in a few months Mr -^^ Collins had obtained, mainly by his own exertions, the sum of ;^ 22,000; and only eight years after he had first mooted his proposal before an incredulous public, he had the happiness of consummating his noble enterprise by laying the foundation stone of the twentieth church erected -Ml i DISRUPTION WORTHIES. under the auspices of the Glasgow Church Building Society. Of these churches, not fewer than thirteen or fourteen had most appropriately the name of William Collins graven on their foundation stone. The key-note thus struck, the work was taken up by Dr Chalmers, who resolved on doing for Scotland what Collins had so nobly done for Glasgow. When this illustrious divine put his giant shoulder to the wheel, and went through the length and breadth of the land, arousing the country to the need of additional church accommodation, his former elder, far from restricting his sympathies and efforts to Glasgow, once more took his place by his side, and accompanied his chief in prosecution of this enterprise of Christian philanthropy, along with other distinguished men who were raised up at this crisis of Scottish history to aid in the movement. A Government Commission was appointed to inquire into the matter. Elaborate statistics of the spiritual destitution of Glasgow were given in by Mr Collins to that Commission. These were not without important results. Copies were sent to all the dignitaries of the Church of England, and the result of their circulation among the English bishops and clergy, was the formation of church building societies in at least two of the dioceses of the sister kingdom. The metropolis of England did not deem it beneath it to follow in the wake of Presbyterian Glasgow, nor its metropolitan pastor to copy the example of the humble elder of the Tron. But it concerns us more to trace the effect of this church extension movement upon the future fortunes of the Scottish Church. In the first place, it established a much higher scale of Christian liberality than had been in use aforetime. This, in the providence of God, was a prepara- tion for a time of greater necessities and still more urgent claims, then near at hand, though as yet altogether unforeseen. In the second place, the number of churches and zealous and faithful pastors were, within a few years, greatly multiplied. While in 1833 there were only twenty-four churches in Glasgow in connection with the Church of Scotland, in ten years the number had increased to forty-four, and within the same ! f f decade over the whole country not less than one seven new churches had been erected. But these were the least important of the results flowing from the Church extension movement in which Mr Collins had taken the initiative. Its fully ripened fruits were not gathered till the Disruption, which, as every one knows, was followed by years of church building on a scale never before witnessed. It is true that the material fabrics erected by the efforts of Chalmers and Collins were in almost every case lost to the Free Church. But let us reflect how little was lost, when the stones and timber were adjudged to belong to those who remained in the Establish- ment, and how much was gained, when the numerous and zealous con- gregations which had been nursed in these fabrics, with the faithful pastors who ministered to them, cast in their lot in almost every instance with the disestablished Church of Scotland. Let us reflect also how important an item these ministers and members formed in the noble army that gathered round the standard uplifted on the i8th of May 1843 for the crown rights of Christ, and the liberties of the Christian people. In all these labours we see Mr Collins working for an issue he did not foresee, at least till it was close at hand. The experiments he had made were afterwards to be repeated on a much larger scale, and the success that attended them in the first instance emboldened himself and others when similar operations had to be undertaken in every city and parish of Scotland. Without the enlarged scale of contribution established by Mr Collins, it would have been all but impossible to have reared the five hundred new churches imperatively demanded by the Disruption ; and without the living congregations, which his Church extension scheme had called into being, how very much smaller would have been that host of ministers, elders, and adherents that, marching out of the Establish- ment in 1843, constituted themselves into the Free Protesting Church of Scotland. His interest in all that appertained to the highest good of his native t '}9^^^ *fJS^i I DISRUPTION WORTHIES. land continued unabated after the Disruption. In the labours of the subsequent busy years to provide churches, manses, and schools for the congregations of the Free Church, he took part, according to the measure of his strength. He laid the foundation stone of the new and elegant Church erected for the congregation of Free St John's, then under the pastoral care of Dr Thomas Brown. He also laid the foundation stone of the Free Tron, of which Dr Robert Buchanan was minister ; and now he connected himself once more with the session of that congregation. He had left it twenty-one years before ; he now returned and acted as an elder in it till called to the General Assembly and Church of the first- born on high. In 1848, failing health compelled him to seek the more genial air of Rothesay. Even there the noble passion of his soul could not help dis- playing itself. Despite his bodily weakness, he took an active part in the establishing of a missionary station in the most destitute part of that town. The accomplished biographer of Dr Chalmers, writing of Mr Collins as one of Chalmers' chosen and beloved friends, speaks of him as one who, after a life of honourable service in the cause of Christ — as few busy men among us have ever lived — in that retirement into which feeble health has forced him, still cherishes with unabated zeal those interests which in bygone years he loved so much to promote. The writer of this short memoir had the privilege of spending part of a day with him in his retreat only a little while before his decease, and he never can forget the sweet serenity of spirit which breathed forth in every word and look ; the glow into which his conversation kindled when it turned on the progress of Christ's kingdom throughout the earth, and the deep repose and joy of his heart resting, as it evidently did, on his Saviour. On Sabbath, the 2d of January 1853, as the church bells were summoning the worshippers to the sanctuary, Mr Collins ceasing to breathe, entered into rest. J. A. W. REVP DAVID GARMENT. Eib. lafaitt Carnttnt, ft.^. R GARMENT was born on 2Sth September 1772, at Keiss, near Wick, where his father, James Gar- ment, kept a school. His ancestors belonged to the south of Scotland, his father being a native of the parish of Irongray. His grandfather, John Garment, was born in 1672, and was baptised in the hills, under cloud of night, by John Welsh, the outed minister of Irongray. Mr Garment received his early education from his father. When thirteen years of age, he went to the parish school of Ganisbay, where he was taught Latin and Greek. He made rapid progress ; and when he had just completed his seventeenth year, was appointed parochial school- master of Kincardine, in Ross-shire. He remained there only one year, and being desirous to pursue his studies at college, he entered King's Gollege, Aberdeen, in November 1791. His father was not in circumstances to afford him pecuniary aid, and he had a hard struggle to get through his college course. At the close of the first session, he obtained the situation of tutor in the family of the Rev. George Munro, minister of South Uist. This enabled him to complete his attendance at the arts classes. He passed through the curriculum with much credit ; and at the close of tlie session in the spring of 1795, obtained the degree of Master of Arts. He was then T DISRUPTION WORTHIES. appointed parish schoolmaster of Strath, in the Isle of Skye, where he remained for four }'ears. Having completed during this period his attendance at the Divinity Hall in Aberdeen, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Skye on 4th April 1799. After being licensed, he gave up the parish school, and became tutor in the family of Mr Macdonald, tacksman of Scalpa, a small island adjoining Skye. Mr Garment always referred to this as one of the happiest periods of his life, and it is believed that it was while here he underwent a saving change. In March 1803, he was appointed assistant to the Rev. Hugh Calder, minister of the parish of Croy, near Inverness, where the principal minis- terial duties had to be performed in the Gaelic language. Mr Garment, not being a Highlander, knew nothing of Gaelic till he went to Uist in 1792, and the preparation of his Gaelic discourses taxed him severely. His preaching soon proved attractive, and many from neighbouring parishes came to hear him. He preached with power and energy those truths which, not long before, had become realities in his own experience. Not a few had cause to bless the Lord for sending them such a ministry. In January 18 10, he was chosen minister of the new Gaelic chapel in Duke Street, Glasgow, and having been ordained by the Presbytery of Nairn, he removed to Glasgow in April following. He continued to labour there for twelve years, and these were, perhaps, the busiest years of his life. Besides two Gaelic services, he had an English sermon on the Sabbath evening, which was largely attended by many who were not Highlanders. He took an active part in the management of the various religious and charitable institutions of the city ; and formed the friend- ship of Dr Love,. Dr Balfour, Dr Hamilton of Strathblane, and Dr Ghalmers. His labours in Glasgow were much countenanced and blessed. In 1815 he married Margaret Stormonth, daughter of the Rev. James Stormonth, minister of Airlie, in Forfarshire. She was a woman of very t lfE^^^^^^^^£t^^^W^^^^^^^>. : 1 REV. DAVID GARMENT, M.A. superior mind and eminent piety. She survived her husband for many years, and died in her son's house in Edinburgh, in October 1874. In December 1821, Mr Garment was presented to the parish of Rosskeen, in the Presbytery of Tain, as assistant and successor to the Rev. John Ross. He was inducted shortly after, and entered upon his ministerial duties in the spring of 1822. Mr Ross was an old man, dis- abled from duty, and died soon after Mr Garment's induction. The charge was an arduous one. There were three villages in the parish, besides a large rural population, the total population being about 2600. The parish was at that time in a very rude state. Its educational requirements were inadequately provided for, and many of the people had no copy of the word of God. He set himself vigorously to remedy this state of things, and ere long there were four schools in the parish, besides the parochial school in the village of Invergordon. He also made an arrangement with the British and Foreign Bible Society, by which he obtained from them large supplies of Bibles and Testaments, both in Gaelic and English. Hundreds of copies were distributed in this way, the price being regulated according to the means of the parties, and none being given without payment, except to parties in very poor circumstances. Every one in the parish able to read, had soon a copy of the word of God. Mr Garment's preaching made a great impression in the parish from the outset, and he soon acquired an influence over the people such as is rarely attained. This may be thought the more remarkable, as he had no Geltic blood in his veins, and his character was thoroughly Saxon. His preaching was eminently practical, and there was a directness and terseness in his style to which Highlanders, at that period at least, were not much accustomed. He was a man of large bodily presence, and of almost herculean strength. His utterance was clear and distinct, and his voice had a compass which enabled him, without straining or apparent effort, to be heard by the largest assemblages in the open air. t i DISRUPTION WORTHIES. In 1S22, the system of "The Men" was dominant in Easter Ross. Mr Garment's straightforwardness and independence of spirit did not suit them, and he and they soon came to an open rupture. Such an event, in ordinary circumstances, was fatal to a minister's influence. The people left him, and followed " The Men." In Mr Garment's case, however, this result was, for the first time, reversed. The people left " The Men," and followed the minister. The limits within which this sketch must be confined do not admit of any detailed account of Mr Garment's unwearied labours in the parish during the remainder of his life. His own impression was, that a considerable portion of his ministry in Rosskeen was less -fruitful of spiritual results than his ministry in Glasgow and Groy ; but in the year 1840, there was a remarkable revival of religion in Rosskeen, in common with many other places, and he had reason to believe that many were brought to the saving knowledge of the truth. Mr Garment was seldom absent from his own parish, though he occasionally visited other districts, where his services were much prized. He enjoyed being returned to the General Assembly, where he made not a few highly effective appearances. He took an active part in the pre-Disruption controversy, and in preparing his people for the result. And when the day of trial came, the people almost to a man followed their minister. Out of a population of upwards of 3000, it is believed, not fifty remained behind. Mr Garment did not go out till the middle of June. He preached for the last time in the parish church on iSth June, taking his text from 2 Samuel xv. 25, 26. It was a day long to be remembered. At the close of the sermon he read a solemn protest, which he recorded in the minute book of the kirk- session, where it still remains. It breathes much of the spirit of his covenanting ancestors. The manse had been built for Mr Garment some years after his induction. It was situated in a lovely spot, with a lawn in front, fringed -M \R I S T,§ \e Kld^W M I A M © T©' ii,¥ E ^ Ifi i . 41 REV. DAVID GARMENT, by a small stream, which in those early days contained wondrous trout. There was a sweet garden, which had all been laid out under his own superintendence. The churchyard was within a few hundred yards of the manse. Six of Mr Garment's children lay buried there. They were the flower of the flock. Often, as the twilight drew on, the old man stole out to the churchyard to visit the graves of his loved ones. Their very dust was dear to him. The pecuniary sacrifice which the Disruption involved, though large in itself, was as nothing compared with the disruption of those tender and hallowed ties, which linked father and mother and the surviving children to the manse and garden and glebe and the solemn churchyard. Mr Garment was one of those who doubted whether the Ghurch, before resorting to disruption, should not have longer continued the fight with the civil courts ; but the pecuniary results never for a moment influenced his judgment in the matter. The emoluments told for very little ; but to leave to strangers the manse, hallowed by so many death- beds ; the garden, and its quiet walks ; the green lawn, with the little babbling brook — places sanctified by communion and fellowship with his God — and the churchyard and its sacred memories ; this was a sore trial. It was in the true spirit of martyrdom that Mr Garment and his saintly spouse turned their backs on the commodious manse, and took up their abode in a small house in the village of Invergordon. It was a noble thing for a man with a family to sacrifice an income of between ;^300 and ;£'400 a-ycar for conscience sake. But to tear asunder all those tender ties and associations, which bound their hearts to the manse and its surroundings, was worse than death. Still, they bore it bravely ; — Martyrs, not by mistake — but martyrs for conscience sake. After the Disruption, Mr Garment had two Sabbath services — one in a small chapel in Invergordon, for the east part of the parish ; another on a moor, some four miles from Invergordon, where the inhabitants of the upper part of the parish met to worship. There was a good deal of I DISRUPTION WORTHIES. excitement in the district when a new minister came to take possession of the manse and parish church ; but, though there was some rioting, nothing serious occurred. Mr Garment's influence was sufficient to prevent that. Within two years, a commodious church, seated for eleven hundred, was built in a central situation, and was filled to overflowing. He continued to discharge the whole parochial duty till July 1852, when he was within a few months of eighty years of age. His strength at last began to give way, and the Rev. John H. Fraser was appointed assistant and successor. Mr Garment continued to preach once every Sabbath until March 1855. He died on 26th May 1856. The following quotation from an article, written at the time of Mr Garment's decease by the late Rev. Andrew Gray of Perth, one of his most intimate and valued friends, may fitly conclude this sketch : — " In 1825 Mr Garment was a member of the Assembly. He spoke in the great debate upon Pluralities. In his own homely and earnest way he drew a Bible from his pocket, and read to the house a passage or two respecting pastoral duties and respon- sibilities. The Assembly gave signs of impatience, and derisive murmurs assailed him. Mr Garment's spirit was kindled within him. ' Moderator,' he cried, ' are there men in this house that will not hear the word of God ? For my part, I was sent up to this Assembly,' added he, producing his commission, and reading from it, ' to consult, vote, and determine in all matters to the glory of God and the good of His Ghurch, according to the word of God.' ' Read on,' said some of the doctors near the table ; ' read on.' Mr Garment obeyed : ' According to the word of God, the confession of faith, and agree- ably to the constitution of this Church.' No sooner had he read the clause, 'and agreeably to the constitution of this Church,' than the great phalanx of moderatism before which he stood, broke into explosions of merriment and shouts of laughter. ' Wait a little,' whispered Dr Andrew Thomson, who was present as a spectator, and was looking gravely on, ' wait a little, and you will see that Garment is a match for them.' Mr Garment drew himself up, and glancing round the hall with an expression of face, in which indignation and glee were strangely mingled, exclaimed, in a voice that put down the storm instantly — ' Moderator, I was not aware that the learned doctors and lawyers on the other side would have been so ready to confess that their views of the constitution of this Ghurch are not according to the word of God.' They never laughed at him again." J. G. REV. THOMAS PITCAIRN. Eib. f Ij0mas |3ttrairn. N reading the proceedings of the famous Westminster Assembly, there is one of the scribes (or clerks as we would call them), Adoniram Byfield, to whom our eye turns from time to time, amid all the discussions. His services are much in request, and he has evidently great sagacity and skill in his department of work. Such another clerk was Thomas Pitcairn, in the Convocation and in the early days of our Free Church General Assembly. He was born at Edinburgh, 6th February 1800. His father, Mr Alexander Pitcairn, was a merchant in Leith and Edinburgh, and Avas well-known as an elder in Lady Glenorchy's Chapel, where the venerable Dr Jones ministered as pastor for more than fifty years. It was while under the ministrations of Dr Jones that Mr Pitcairn was led to the truth ; and often in after days did he relate incidents connected with the preaching and labours of that man of God, who so long and so faithfully witnessed for evangelical truth in Edinburgh, in the Moderate era that preceded the times of Dr Andrew Thomson. After finishing the usual literary curriculum at College, he gave himself for a time to business, with considerable prospects of success in that department opening up to him. But as the work of grace in his soul deepened, his thoughts turned to the ministry, and he abandoned without regret all hopes of worldly advancement. Having passed 1 I I -V T f through the Edinburgh Divinity Hall he was licensed by the Presbytery to preach in 1828. While still a probationer, he assisted successively Dr Stewart of Erskine, and Dr William Thomson of Perth ; and there- after was ordained assistant and successsor to Dr Grierson of Cockpen. Cockpen is in the Presbytery of Dalkeith — its name chiefly known by the old ballad song. Here Mr Pitcairn found work to do for his Master, among a population partly rural and partly connected with the collieries of the neighbourhood. His preaching was solid and scriptural ; he handled the truths of the Atonement and divine grace with deep earnestness and power from the pulpit, and in his visitings enforced what he preached. His consistent life and godly sincerity gave weight to all he taught ; while his pleasant, kindly manner, ensured him access to the people, and won their affection as well as respect. Nor was his labour in vain. The writer of this notice was one day, in Glasgow, visiting at the house of an intelligent ship-carpenter, whose wife manifested much interest in the conversation. He at length asked her if she had long known the Saviour as her Saviour. She replied, "Many years ago — more than thirty — I was brought to Christ on a Communion Sabbath, when I was in the parish of Cockpen. Mr Pitcairn preached on 'The Rock that is higher than I,' and that day my heart was opened to receive Christ." And to this hour often does she speak with grateful delight of that sermon, and of Mr Pitcairn. An incident like this gives a glimpse of the blessing that attends on the work of a true pastor. And Mr Pitcairn was such, during the twenty- two years he laboured there, animated by zeal for his Master's glory, and by the desire to win souls. But his former years of business-life were not without use to him. A man little knows what he may be preparing for by what he passes through in early days. Divine wisdom has a special view to the future in the secular training of one who is to be a vessel to carry the name of Christ. Mr Pitcairn's experience in business fitted him to be specially useful in after years, and was soon recognised by his i i I A- I R£r. THOMAS PITCAIRN. brethren. In 1837, he was chosen to be Clerk to the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Then came on the days of trial to the Church of Scotland, when the Government refused to acknowledge her right to spiritual independence. When matters had come to a point, the memorable Convocation was held at Edinburgh, 17th November 1S42, at which were present, from all quarters of Scotland, those ministers who saw that now they must look forward to a Disruption, since their liberties were invaded. Above four hundred and fifty were present ; they met in Roxburgh Church. Dr Chalmers was called to preside, and after the proceedings had been opened by prayer, the first step was to choose a clerk. Unanimously, Mr Pitcairn was fixed upon. When, next year, the Disruption did take place, with the same unanimity Mr Pitcairn was chosen, along with Dr Clason of Edinburgh, to the Clerkship of the Free Church General Assembly. And all the brethren who remember him will testify to the fidelity, sagacity, and skill, which characterised his discharge of duty. Unobtrusive, yet ready to act, with a remarkable command of temper, always courteous and obliging, he evidently had special qualities for that office. Methodical and correct, possessed of firmness, with great equanimity of spirit, he was able to go through perplexing business unruffled ; and often did his brethren remark to each other the masterly manner in which he was able to minute the pro- ceedings of the Assembly. He was thus able to render invaluable service to the Church at that important juncture. In the year of the Disruption, those of the people of Cockpen who left the Established Church with him built for him a church at Bonnyrig, in the same parish. There he ministered to the day of his death. He was conscientiously regular in his visits to his flock ; took much interest in the young ; and was ever ready to attend a call of sickness or distress. At the same time, he gave his labours cheerfully to several stations in the neighbourhood, then in their infancy, and held most brotherly intercourse with his co-presbyters. They used to speak of his coming ^^^sjJH^BATug;^ t i DISRUPTIOX WORTHIES. in among them at a meeting as bringing sunshine, there was so much of radiant benevolence in his broad countenance. In 1854, near the beginning of the year, he was suddenly seized with what proved a fatal illness. It lasted many months. He had been a man of robust health, accustomed to the activities of life ; yet when laid on his sickbed, and called to endure a long and painful illness, was upheld in patience and cheerfulness. Even then he undertook a public duty ; for the General Assembly having agreed to send a Pastoral Letter to their people in regard to the calamities of pestilence and war, at that time visiting the nations of Europe, he drew up the letter on his sickbed. " From week to week," says his brother, " I found him enjoying that true rest that can come only from the Blood of the Cross." One day his friend, Mr James Crawford, had come to see him. Mr Crawford in conversing with him had said that there was a grace of the Spirit which he would be enabled to manifest now in a new manner, viz., that of being "patient in tribulation" (Rom. xii. 12.) Mr Pitcairn very pleasantly replied, "But see, Crawford, what is on each side of the 'patience.' On the one side is, ' rejoicing in hope,' and on the other, ' continuing instant in prayer.' I must have these also, for 'patience' is between them." He fell asleep on 2ist December 1854. When the Commission of the Free Church Assembly met in March following, in referring to the great loss they had sustained by his death, they record "the affectionate respect entertained for their departed brother;" and they add their conviction, " that, in no small measure, the Free Church has been indebted to him for much of what is good in the tone and character of the proceedings of her supreme court, and in the general conduct of her ecclesiastical affairs." In 1S36, he was married to Miss Trotter of Broomhouse, Berwick- shire. She died in 1S62. He left an only son, Alexander Young Pitcairn, W.S., Edinburgh. He is buried in the Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh, in hope of the Resurrection of the Just and the Crown of Life. A. A. B. HUGH MILLER. } I UGH MILLER was born at Cromarty in 1S02. After a school time \\hich gave his friends a foretaste of the manly independence he shewed throughout life, he became a thoughtful youth, fond of reading whatever fell into his hands, and of discussing, as young men will discuss, every point in the politics or theology of the country. His early years he has described as those of " a thoughtless, careless, school boy, who proved his spirit by playing truant three weeks in the four, and his genius by writing rhymes which pleased nobody but himself," till "in 1823 that same school boy finds himself a journeyman mason, not quite so free from care, but as much addicted to rhyming as ever." A few years later, the gospel of Christ became the acknowledged centre, round which all his thoughts were ranged, and to which all his purposes in life paid homage. Among these purposes perhaps the most deep-seated was his resolution to become a poet. But he had the wisdom to see, that though the paths of all great writers are usually the same for the first part of the way, there is a point at which poet and prose writer branch off into different roads seldom again to meet. Before that point is reached, songs and tragedies of even more than average merit may be, and often have been, composed by a prose writer, but they are only the practice needed to fit him for his own field of literary work. In seeing this, Hugh Miller at last saw where his strength lay. B S TS ■ v© l^'f 'Vy M ^. A M B _ DISRUPTION WORTHIES. In the columns of the Inverness Courier, in 1S29, he first shewed his power as a writer of prose, by five letters on the Herring Fishery. Two years later he stepped forward as the champion of the people of Cromarty in their defence of the minister, Mr Stewart, against the attempted intrusion of a neighbouring minister, whom they had not called to be his colleague, while few of them were disposed to receive him as a pastor. But the friends he had gained in his native town were anxious to lift Miller into a sphere of life more congenial to his literary tastes than that of a stone-mason. Opportunities seem to have been wanting, till, about the end of 1834, Mr Ross, then agent for the Commercial Bank, offered him a situation in the office. With the modesty of true genius, Hugh Miller hesitated before accepting the offer. A salary of sixty pounds a-year from this source was the staff he had to lean on in the battle for fame ; he was married, too, in 1837. Certainly the outlook was far from cheering. But he found James Watt's theory of the progress of genius true to the letter — when Want looks in at the door. Genius devises ways and means to keep him out. It was this apparition that roused the inborn science of Watt to a successful wrestling with the difficulties that then beset the use of steam-engines in mining ; it was the same unwel- come ghost that haunted Hugh Miller, till he armed himself with literature and geology to drive Want away. But another subject quickened the power within him even more fiercely than these great themes ; it was the rights of the Christian people of Scotland. In May 1839 the House of Lords delivered judgment in the Auchterarder case ; in June, Hugh Miller's letter to Lord Brougham attracted the attention of the Church, and towards the end of December he arrived in Edin- burgh to become editor of the newly started Witness, an office that he continued to hold till his death on the 24th of December 1856.* No one who reads the " Letter to Lord Brougham," can fail to * For fuller details, the reader Bayne, M.A. referred to Life ami Idlers oj Ilu^h Miller, by Peter 4>: '\M^^{j HUGH MILLER. understand that, as soon as it saw the light, the battle between the Church and the State had entered on a new phase. A demand for four editions in as many weeks proved that an ally had joined the Church, which statesmen have often reckoned of small worth for fighting power, till they have discovered by experience the grievousness of their mistake — the public opinion of the most earnest, and not the least enlightened, among the Commons. So long as ministers and lawyers carried on the war, the fight was little more than a distant cannonade from one hill-top to another ; the people in the plains below were not greatly stirred by the noise. But the " Letter to Lord Brougham " was followed by an awaken- ing among the slumbering host ; there was a putting of themselves in array — there was a growing belief that their most cherished rights were at stake. For the letter touched on matters that lay very near to the hearts of all true lovers of Scotland. Never, since the days of John Knox, had there sprung from the ranks of the people a man whose words struck home so thoroughly and so well, with a power of wit and raillery more chastened, but not less biting, than the great Reformer's ; with the same command of strong Saxon speech as his ; and with a knowledge of the historical development of his country, creditable to any one, but most honourable in this self-taught stone-mason. The manliness with which he makes his bow to the great lawyer in the first few lines of the " Letter," displays a writer thoroughly acquainted with his subject, and feeling him- self on the same level as Lord Brougham in the commonwealth of letters. Then, acknowledging that the statesman's high estimate of the political wisdom of Scotchmen is well deserved, he passes at one bound to the unavoidable conclusion that, since their politics are known to have been but an offset from their faith, much greater must be their wisdom in the latter than in the former. Why should they be reckoned unfit to choose their own ministers, if they are entitled to the highest praise for their choice of members of Parliament .' " I am a plain, untaught man," he says, " but the opinions which I hold regarding the law of patronage are DISRUPTION WORTHIES. those entertained by the great bulk of my countrymen, and entitled, on that account, to some little respect." But plain and untaught though Hugh '\ Miller was, he knew better than a Lord Chancellor that the ground I on which had been fought the battles of civil liberty, not in Scotland j> only, but through it in all Britain, was the right of the Scottish people to [., choose their own ministers. Tyrants and their slaves had reft that right j from them in their times of weakness ; but as soon as they regained lost t strength, it was always demanded back. " Liberty of rejection without \ statement of reasons," in choosing ministers of the gospel, was the small y fraction of the greater right put in peril by Lord Brougham's utterances. But the lawyer had gone farther. He "ungenerously insinuated" that -y.' the object might be " to reject men too strict in morals, and too diligent ^l? in duty, to please our vitiated tastes." Again had the great law Lord f^ laid himself open to a thrust from his antagonist's weapon ; for all history t testifies to the fact that this right of the people required of ministers ', " that they should be no longer immoral or illiterate;" while "the law, ;:';■ which re-established patronage in Scotland, formed, in its first enactment, Ml no unessential portion of a deep and dangerous conspiracy against the liberties of our country." And with an insight into the future, fully justified by the past, he seems to foresee what was sure to happen. " In all her after conflicts, it was not the Church that yielded to the law, but the law that yielded to the Church ;" while, with the manly freedom of a man whom promises could not bribe, nor threats silence, he winds up the argument with : " We do not think the worse of our Church, my Lord, for her many contests with the law— not a whit the better of her opposers for their having had the law on their side." Hugh Miller has himself described the growth of his mind, from the glimmering dawn of boyhood to the full light of maturit}'. Here and there he has wrought into the history as much as is worth knowing of the surroundings, which helped to mould his thoughts at each step of their progress, while he climbed the steep path that led him upward k f 11 i t from the mason's shed to the editor's room, from the chisel to the pen. More there should scarcely be a wish to know, unless it were given to any one to record the gradual oncoming of that terrible darkness which, for years before his untimely end, haunted his great heart with ever- gathering gloom, till at last, overwhelmed by the blackness, reason in an unhappy moment forgot her right to command. No one can read what he has written of the progress of his mind in strength and knowledge, without feeling that during these sorrowful years, and especially during his last few sorrowful days, he was as busy watching the ebb and. flow of thought within him as in earlier times. But it was not ordered that he should narrate, as others have done, his wanderings to the brink of the precipice, and a gracious escape from hurling himself over — trials common to him, with many of the best and brightest of our race. 'Where others fought and lived, he yielded and died, under the crushing weight of years of sorrow. But though Hugh Miller's own pen has recorded his mental history from boyhood to manhood, it is left to others to assign him his place and to estimate his services in the greatest strife between the spiritual and temporal powers, that has raged within the bounds of the British Empire for almost two hundred years. It was not as a man of science that he figured in the fight ; nor is it as a man of science that he fills a prince's niche in the Free Church temple of fame. Unquestionably the fact, that he was a geologist of the first rank, endeared him the more to his countrymen, and made his contendings known in quarters to which the din of the strife might never have reached ; while it also revealed to the world that the combatants were not impracticable church leaders, or, as it pleased even a peer to assert, a vulgar throng, but men disciplined by science and the business of life. Still, Hugh Miller's place and work in the great battle were unusual. He was not a minister; he was not -even an elder in the Church. " I never signed the Confession of Faith," he wrote in 1839, "but I do more, I believe it." He was the outstanding I « w^- i representative of a vast host, who felt that their Hbcrties were invaded and their rights refused by the riding classes of the day. By common consent, by an unwritten agreement, Hugh Miller stood before the world as the champion of the people's rights. What he wrote, they read with more eagerness than any speeches delivered in the great battle. What he maintained, they backed him out in, as a fair expression of their wishes. When the oratory of the pulpit or the church court would have failed to awaken an echo in their hearts, his words of fire stirred them to joyous action. He asked what his countrymen felt they needed, and in a way that commended itself for outspoken manliness. " I am one of the people," he wrote, "full of the popular sympathies — it may be of the popular prejudices." What Chalmers was among the ministers of the Church, Hugh Miller was among the laymen, at once an expounder of their rights and a standard-bearer to rally round. That he was neither bigot nor fool, but a man of sterling common sense, was proved in 1874, when the least intelligent on the opposite side of church politics were glad to accept, as their only plank of safety from destruction, what he claimed as the heritage of the whole people, in his " Letter to Lord Brougham," in 1839. Of the fearlessness with which he wrote when truth and right were at stake, both friends and foes were thoroughly aware. What the Regent Morton said of John Knox may with all truth be said of Hugh Miller, " He never feared the face of man." Compared with his country's welfare, everything else was in his eyes lighter than vanity. Whether fighting the great battle of the Church against the State, or demanding for the people, a few years afterwards, the heritage of a truly national system of education, as it was bequeathed to them from their fathers, or with indig- nant scorn branding the depopulators of a great county, in his papers on " Sutherland as it Was and Is," love to his native land breathed from every word he wrote. But it was sometimes expressed in fiercer language than men of a different way of thinking relished. Witness the manly ;!^ HUGH MILLER. freedom with \\-hich he handles a Lord Chancellor in his famous " Letter to Lord Brougham," not to mention later outbursts of this inner fire. High-souled men respected the striker, even while they sought to moderate his language or to appease his wrath, for they felt that the battles of such a life as the present are not fought with blunted foils. All that was loving and kindly in his heart was stirred to its deepest depths by these good and generous friends. All the soldier-fire of his warrior nature was blown into a fiercer glow by opposition from hirelings, like "the creatures of the proprietor," in "Sutherland as it Was and Is ;" so true it is, and so sad withal, that a host of little men have often more power to vex great hearts by petty slights, than noble minds have to soothe them by respectful sympathy. Of the freedom and power with which he hit his adversaries, not a few of them carried through life scars that nothing could efface or heal. His was neither gloved hand nor honeyed tongue. Regret for rashness, into which he was unfairly hurried by wrong reports received from smaller men, it was natural a man of his warmth of heart would not fail to feel and express. But for men who betrayed their trust, or found it convenient to call truth one thing to-day and another thing to-morrow, he had neither regard nor pity. Adherence to principle in his opponents Hugh Miller could and did respect ; but " the two Mr Clarks " ofifered an irresistible chance to a naturalist like him of pinning to his album a specimen of transformation such as even the insect world could barely equal. Even when the dust of battle has long been laid, and slayer with slain are together sleeping in the narrow house, it is difficult for an impartial historian to deny the justice of Hugh Miller's onslaughts and the fairness of his fighting. Others could not wield the weapons he carried, or put on the armour he wore. He struck with a might that seldom needed a second blow to complete the work ; the fallen were crushed beneath a giant's stroke, not half-slain by repeated thrusts from a pigmy's arm. A strong love of truth, combined with an equally strong I If m ^^' :¥ pow cr of expression, makes a man as dangerous a foe to all dalliers with falsehood as Hector found Achilles : Him as the gates of hell my soul abhors, Whose outward speech his secret thought belies, Hugh Miller was not a public speaker. However quick thought may have been with him, language was slow, well weighed, and accurate. The fire, that fiercely blazed in his writings, would have been a feeble flame at the best, or an extinguished spark, on the platform. Even in private his words were few, but they were well ordered. One day he was at dinner with several friends, some of them leading men in the Free Church. Most of the conversation was absorbed for a time by a guest, whose fancy had been excited by a small hand-book on popular science, then recently published. His descriptions were entertaining enough, but they were so full that it was difficult to do more than listen. Hugh Miller had nothing to say. At last the conversation swung into a different channel. Some one told of a yachting voyage in which a young lady and a young gentleman found themselves the only two of nearly the same age in the cabin. What could be expected to result, was asked, but marriage.' "As well think of Adam refusing Eve," was Hugh Miller's comment in reply. When Dr Whewell and Sir David Brewster were waging war with each other on the subject of " More Worlds than One," a friend happened to express to Hugh Miller his feeling of the absurdity of supposing that, because several fixed stars may be immeasurably bigger than our earth, or even than our sun, their bulk should lead us to regard them as the seats of nobler races of beings. "Ay," he said, "it may be comparing Newton with a whale." J.S. 4^: '^^^O^fi^K CEOBOE BUCHAN. OF KELLOE. (Btox^t ^utljan. (OF KELLOE.) @)HE late Gecrge Buchan, Esq. of Kelloe, was born on the 29th of May 1775, in Adam Square, Edinburgh. Excepting one who died in infancy, he was the eldest son in a family of seven sons and seven daughters. Of the sons, only General Sir John Buchan, a distinguished peninsular officer, and the subject of this Memoir, lived to years of maturity. One of the daughters afterwards became Mrs Fordyce of Ayton. Mr Buchan was of ancient and honourable lineage on both sides. His great-grandfather was a son of Mr Buchan of Auchmacoy, in Aber- deenshire, and Avas descended from the early Earls of Buchan. His grandfather owned the estates of Letham in East Lothian, and Kelloe and Cumledge in Berwickshire ; and his father succeeded to the Ber- wickshire property. His paternal grandmother was Christian, daughter of Sir Francis Grant, Bart, of Monymusk, in the county of Aberdeen. His own mother was Anne, fourth daughter of the Right Honourable Lord President Dundas of Arniston, sister to Henry Dundas, the first Viscount Melville, and sister-in-law to Admiral Duncan of Camperdown. He was thus connected with many distinguished Scotch families. When about fifteen years of age, Mr Buchan obtained an appoint ment in the Madras Civil Service, and sailed for that destination ir DISRUPTION WORTHIES. c May 1792, in the Wintcrton East Indiaman, commanded by Captain George Uundas. The voyage was a most disastrous one. On the 20th August, after the Indian Ocean had been reached, the vessel, with 280 souls on board, w^as wrecked on a coral reef north from Augustine's Bay, on the coast of Madagascar. A narrative of the loss of the Winterton, with an account of Madagascar, was published by Mr Buchan in 1820, which contains a vivid and heartrending account of the loss of life involved in the shipwreck, and the sufferings endured by the hapless survivors. Two days after the wreck, on the vessel breaking up, the captain and forty-seven others were drowned. Mr Buchan was thrown into the sea, the darkness of night adding to the horrors of the situation ; and after having been twice washed from a plank to which he had clung, was providentially floated alongside part of the dismembered ship, which formed a raft, whereon were about forty of his companions, who drew him up among them. This raft grounded on an inner reef, and for four days they suffered fearfully from hunger, thirst, and cold : the blood and raw flesh of a live pig which had been on the wreck forming their chief sustenance. On the sixth day after the wreck the famished castaways were rescued by some native canoes ; only to commence a toilsome week's journey on foot to TuIIear, where the king resided. Mr Buchan had lost his shoes, and, to use his own words, "had all in life depended on it, he could not have gone many miles further." Though kindly treated, it was seven months ere an opportunity occurred of leaving the island, and during that time nearly a hundred of the survivors died. Those who still remained experienced a further delay of two months at Mozambique ; and when near Ceylon they were captured by a French privateer, and detained three months more at the Mauritius, so that they did not reach Madras until January 1 794, having been over twenty months on the passage. In his appointment, Mr Buchan's talents and faithfulness soon raised to a high position, and he became chief secretary to the government t I 4 1 at Madras; in which responsible office he served his country till 1S09. Continued ill health and urgent private reasons then induced him to return to Scotland, when he took up his residence chiefly at Kelloe. Disastrous as Mr Buchan's voyage to India had been, it was not the only occasion on which he was exposed to the perils of the deep. At one time the ship in which he was a passenger grounded on a shoal, and was nearly lost ; at another, the vessel sprang a leak in rough weather, and, though suffering from the effects of a recent illness, he had to take his turn at the pumps along with others, until the sea was wash- ing over the deck. In this case the ship went down only a few minutes after those on board had left her. They suffered several days of great privation in a small boat, and had relinquished all hope of escape, when they were providentially carried through a raging surf to the rocks. Again, an unseen Hand guided him past a ship in which it seemed likely he would take his passage for Malacca. His luggage was actually sent off, but circumstances prevented his leaving by the same vessel ; and shortly after, every European on board of her was murdered by the Malays. At yet another time his passage home had been taken in one of the vessels of a fleet about to leave Madras. To his great disappoint- ment, he was prevented from embarking. The fleet encountered a storm, and the ship in which he had engaged to sail was never again heard of A month later he was sent home on confidential business by the Madras Government, and arrived in England as soon as the remaining part of the ill-fated fleet. But notwithstanding all these deliverances, and though possessing high mental endowments, and transparent integrity and truthfulness in all his engagements, yet — as he after^vafds lamented and published — Mr Buchan was still under the darkness of unbelief, and it was not until after his return from India that he was called out of this darkness into God's marvellous light. The influence of near and dear relatives, including the late Mr Robert Cathcart of Drum, W.S., was, we believe, ^t^ 'h^}.y^^^^ s^^C DISRUPTION WORTHIES. T^ greatly blessed to him in this connection ; and one work which he read '7 ^ at this time with absorbing interest, and to which he frequently in after ^/f- ," life referred, was Lord Lyttleton's treatise on the conversion of Paul. hf \ As was to be expected in one of his naturally decided and energetic jl character, Mr Buchan now heartily joined his excellent sisters in carrying J out the works of Christian benevolence in which he found them engaged, !} and in promoting others on a large scale. Amongst these we can only !' mention the multiplication of Sabbath schools, himself taking active part 'i as a teacher ; extension of a valuable circulating library, and the wide |- ]' dissemination of religious and morally wholesome periodical literature ; I also, at a somewhat later period, the establishment of a day-school at ! fKelloe House, and the maintenance of home missionaries in various " localities. Kelloe House thus became a sacred centre, and the Sabbath \ fcji?: school was long a nursery for heaven. J, In 1825 Mr Buchan was ordained an elder in the parish church ,0' of Edrom, and, as such, he most worthily exercised the elder's office, ", " ^'r spending great part of his time in visiting throughout a wide district, r I' at the same time dispensing a munificent but discriminating charity. 'ji Among many striking instances of the blessed results of these visits, we can only briefly refer to two. One was a veteran soldier and huntsman, who had been in the royal army at Prestonpans, and had 1^ reached extreme old age in a state of great spiritual ignorance, but who | before his death, which happened in 183 1, in his losth year, gave I undoubted evidence of having passed from darkness to light, through ", ij Mr Buchan's agency. The other was the writer's own brother, who in ^ jl '^y\\ his last days was brought to a clear view and blessed experience of \'t(\ ''W' salvation through the visits and conversation of Mr Buchan ; the thought "'(V". IV: of whose great kindness still calls up deep emotions of admiration and .l/I- ^fKj gratitude. '• ^l^ JAMES MAITLAND HOG. OF NEWLISTON. ^^:- ■M\^f^ f fam^s JEaitlantr Unj. (OF NEWLISTON.) R HOG was one of the comparatively small number of " lairds," or landed proprietors, in Scotland who, having been attached to the Evangelical party in the Establishment previous to 1843, "came out" at the Disruption. In his own county of Linlithgow he stood alone. From the year 1828 (the date of his ordination to the eldership by Dr Gordon), he had taken an active interest in Church affairs, as well as in Christian work generally. He resided at that time in Edinburgh, having been called to the bar a few years previously, — a contemporary and confrere of such men as Graham Speirs, Alexander Earle Monteith, and Mungo P. Brown, who were ordained to the eldership along with him. In 1834, when, at the call of the General Assembly, Dr Chalmers placed himself at the head of the " Church Extension Movement," Mr Hog was his chosen ally ; and, having his time largely at his own com- mand, he did more, perhaps, than any other man in the way of personal service to promote its success. He accompanied the great doctor on most of his tours throughout Scotland, and took charge of the general subscrip- tion, which (having his own name next to the doctor's at the top of it) swelled up to what was then thought the munificent amount of _^ 200,000, in the course of the ensuing twelve months. '^fr)^Q^ DISRUPTION WORTHIES. During the ten years of the " conflict," until within a^ear and a half or so of its close, Mr Hog was a trusty and much esteemed member of the " Non-intrusion Committee." About that time, however, being con- stitutionally "conservative" and cautious, and having taken alarm at what appeared to him to be rash, or prematurely exacting, in the demands of the Committee, he was one of a small minority who retired, and thus kept themselves uncommitted by any of the subsequent negotiations. For so doing, he lost his seat in the Assembly of 1842 ; the Presbytery of Linlithgow, which for several years he had represented, withdrawing from him for the time their confidence, and returning a more decided non- intrusionist in his stead. It is amusing as well as instructive now to remem- ber, that when the day of trial came, it was not he that proved faithless, but they, so little did they know either him or themselves. Of the sixteen members of Presbytery who should have come out, only five came. Mr Hog was among the very last to be convinced that the case of the Church was hopeless. He clung to the persuasion that Lord Aberdeen meant bo}ia fide to acknowledge the Church's jurisdiction, and that Sir George Sinclair's clause might have done. He could not bring himself to believe that the Conservative Government was capable of so destructive a deed as the breaking up of the Establishment. He refused to admit that a Disruption was inevitable, until it had actually taken place. And even then he tried to persuade himself that it was premature, or that the breach was not irreparable. It ^^'as not till a week or more had elapsed, till the two General Assemblies had got through the greater part of their business, till the Deed of Demission had been signed, and the separation was complete, that he finally made up his mind. And it was not, after all, what the State had done, or rather refused to do ; it was not even the Queen's letter that decided him ; but what the Church herself (the "remanent" part of it) did, in formally homologating and adopting as her own the policy of the civil courts. The point on which he had all along felt most strongly, which alone touched his conscience as :.=^i#;: JAMES MAITLAND HOG. a Christian man, which he regarded as absolutely vital (vital no less to " the body," than it is to each member in particular), was Christ's headship of the Church, — its absolute dependence tipon Him, its inherent hidepen- dence and freedom under Him : and so it was, when he came to see that not only had that independence been trampled on by the civil courts, and repudiated by the State, but surrendered and sacrificed at the State's bidding by the Church herself, — and not till then, that he saw the path of duty made plain before him. He did not hesitate a moment after that. The reponing of the seven deposed ministers of Strathbogie, or rather the finding that they had never been deposed, because the Court of Session said so, was what at length convinced him, that though the Establishment still remained, the dear old "Church of his fathers" was no longer to be found within its walls. It was on Friday, the 26th May, that the " Seven " were thus re- habilitated ; a minority of thirty-three protesting against the deed, on the same ground substantially as that on which Mr Hog condemned it, — and one of the number (Mr Story of Roseneath) denouncing it as being equivalent to a declaration that "what had been had not been, and that a sentence pronounced by the Assembly was not a sentence." These thirty-three protested, and remained. Next day Mr Hog wrote the following letter to Dr Gordon : — " NeWLISTON, 27t/i May 1S43. " My Dear Dr Gordon,— Having been confined to the house since the i6th by an attack of influenza, I have been unable personally to witness the events of the last ten days ; but this solitude has been favourable to that calm review of all the circum- stances affecting the Church, which I had always resolved to take before committing myself to any particular step. I can no longer hesitate to which communion I shall attach myself. " Believing that the constitution of the Church has been violated by the decisions of the civil courts exceeding their province in suspending ecclesiastical sentences, declaring them null and void, and interdicting the preaching of the gospel ; seeing no disposition on the part of the Government to admit any grievance, or to secure what is essential to the existence of a Christian community ; and, finally, having observed the ' remaining ' Assembly bowing in the dust, and echoing the very words of the % DISRUPTION WORTHIES. courts, declaring the solemn sentences of the Church to be ' null and void,' I feel that I have no choice but to turn from her with the most melancholy aversion. " If I have been tardy in declaring myself, it is because I felt it my duty to watch the last struggles of the Church as I would the death-bed of an eNpiring parent, not feeling at liberty to depart till the spirit was fled, and the work of corruption begun. My duty to myself, to my children, and, I believe, to my country, requires me, therefore, to join the communion of those who have sacrificed their all to maintain their principles. " I make this communication through you, because it was from you that I received my ordination as an elder ; and it was my difference of opinion with yourself in the Non-intrusion Committee that gave me the greatest pain. — Believe me to be, my dear Dr Gordon, with the greatest respect and regard, yours faithfully, "J. M. Hog. " To the Rev. Dr Gordon." Such was the enthusiasm awakened by the reading of this letter, when the Assembly met on Monday, the 29th, in the Brick Church, Lothian Road, that a demand was made for its being read a second time, and that Dr Gordon should re-read it, in Tanfield Hall (which, as always, was crowded to the roof), in the evening. The rev. doctor in coming forward " was received with loud and long continued cheering from the immense assemblage." When the applause had subsided, he said, " I appear before you this night as a proxy, and therefore I thank you for the way in which you have received me. I take your approbation as offered to my dear and much esteemed friend Mr Hog, who is worthy of it all." Dr Guthrie used to say, " that letter of Mr Hog's was a stroke of genius." One of Mr Hog's oldest and most intimate friends (his brother-in-law) was Mr Patrick Fraser Tytler, the historian, and it is interesting to know what he thought of this "weighty and powerful" letter. Writing from London a few days after, he says : — " I liked your letter to Dr Gordon much, and do not see how, consistently with your principles and belief in what constitutes a true Presbyterian Kirk, you could have acted otherwise. Had I been a Presbyterian, I must have done the same. Popular election of their ministers and complete spiritual independence, were, from the first, the two great principles laid down by Knox as the foundation on which their whole superstructure rested. And, indeed, without the last, no Church could stand." * From that day forward Mr Hog threw himself, heart and soul, into *This important document is deposited in the Library of the New College, Edinburgh. JAMES MAITLAND HOG. the movemciit — indeed he devoted to it the rest of his hfe, feehng him- self called (as he said) to do double service, to work " double tides," as " one born out of due time." His first care was to "shew piety at home," by looking after the supply of ordinances for " those of his own house," and by associating himself with those of his fellow-elders and fellow-parishioners of Kirkliston who had already been moving, or who might afterwards adhere to the Free Church ; and, having learned that steps had been taken, in view of the event, both for the erection of a church and the providing of a house for its future minister, he at once offered to relieve his brethren of all further anxiety about either by providing both himself, on the single condition that the whole sum which had been or might be contributed for local purposes should be transmitted to the Central Church Building Fund. How fully and handsomely he implemented this engagement need not here be told. Dr Chalmers laid the foundation-stone of the new church in August, and Dr Guthrie opened it (introducing at the same time its first minister) in December following. Of his public services to the Church, its records supply ample informa- tion — and, indeed, they speak for themselves. Of the three great move- ments with which he specially identified himself, it may be truly said that he completed them all, leaving little or nothing for any one else to do. The Bursary Scheme for the New College was his scheme alone, — he, in accordance with the advice of Dr Chalmers and his colleagues, having taken it up in the first instance, rather than another which he had con- templated, for the endowment of the Professors' Chairs. He went about quietly among his friends, informing and interesting them in the subject, getting one and another to do as he had done — to found a bursary, and name it ; and only ceased from his assiduities when he had secured what he thought enough — an annual income of somewhere about ;^6oo. In 1848, after the lamented death of Sheriff Speins, Mr Hog was selected as, next to him, the fittest man in the Church to preside over I f < i DISRUPTION WORTHIES. the Committee on " Refusal of Sites," and manage the difficult business entrusted to it. How well he acquitted himself in this position is proved by the fact that the battle was successfully fought, and sites ultimately obtained, — "owing mainly," said Dr Candlish, "to the tact, judgment, patience, and perseverance of Mr Hog." The Debt Extinction Scheme was mainly his scheme also, having associated with him in it a "true yoke-fellow," Mr William Campbell of Tillichewan. The multitude of letters he wrote, of meetings, public and private, he attended, and of journeys he undertook in this cause, would seem almost incredible, were it named ; but he grudged neither time nor labour, any more than he grudged money, for any good cause which he embarked in ; and it is interesting to remember, that at the last meeting of his Committee which he was able to attend, when he had to be carried into the room in his chair, he had the satisfaction of intimating that the whole contemplated sum of ;^ 50,000 had been subscribed, with several hundreds over, — that his work in connection with it was done. The " Sabbath Question " was one in which, it may be added, he took a lively interest, especially in connection with the running of pas- senger trains on the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway ; and it was to him, in conjunction with his much esteemed co-director, Mr Henderson of Park, more than to any one else — to his combined firmness of purpose and suavity of bearing — that the satisfactory settlement of the contro- versy tlien arrived at was due. The "Elders' Association" of the Free Church was formed in 185S ; and had he been able, he would have been its first president. As it was, he could only write (and with great difficulty), within a month or two of his death — in the form of a letter to Mr Robert Paul — some of his thoughts on the subject of the eldership, which formed, I believe, the basis of Mr Paul's own address at the next general meeting, and which are as judicious and wise as in the circumstances they were felt to be impressive — like a message to his brethren frcm the other world. 1 p( , the most generous and amiable of men. He was attacked by paralysis, and died of that disease after a long and most painful illness : an event which occurred some fifteen years after the Disruption. It began with a pain and weakness in one of his limbs, and at length extended itself over the whole body, making him, so far as k y IMEi, MAITLAND HOG During the last two )'ears of his hfe Mr Hog was an invalid, confined, not to his bed nor his room, but to his chair or his pony-carriage, by a stealthy paralytic affection, which deprived him of all power of loco- motion. Beginning at his lower extremities, the disease " crept " up gradually over his body, reducing him to great physical prostration ; and in the end — some months before his death — producing a painfully depressing effect on his mind. From being the sunniest, the most cheerful, he became one of the saddest of men. His countenance lost the smile, which no one had ever missed before. But never did his character shine out more impressively, or the genuineness of his piety make itself more evident (to all but himself), than under that severely trying discipline. Even when cheerfulness was no longer possible, his patience never gave way. No murmur ever crossed his lips, nor, sad though his countenance looked, did it ever betray a symptom of peevish- ness or of unwillingness to bear. He seemed to grow, even in the absence t^ of sensible comfort from his religion. His graces ripened in the shade. ff^ I may have read or heard of, but certainly I never witnessed, either a humility, a sense of sin so deep, or a faith so simple, so exclusive, as his. jl He could see nothing in himself from which to derive comfort, even in '■' the way of evidence. " Assurance " he had none. But all the more did he cling, did he adhere, to Christ, who was truly "all in all" to him. And at the very worst, he could not help admitting, with as sweet a ;i smile as of old, that Christ ivas "precious" to him, though refusing to fl admit the inference that he was one of " them that believe." !L In his recently published Autobiography (written within a month or J[ two of his own death), Dr Guthrie makes the following reference to Mr ) l( Hog, and to these his last da)s : — *f ■ Mr Hog, with whom I have spent many a happy day at Newliston, was one of m DISRUPTION WORTHIES. moving life or limb was concerned, perfectly helpless. The only way, latterly, that he could communicate with his family, was by pointing with a little reed in his mouth to letters of a prmted alphabet. On one occasion he made signs of wishing to indicate something. The reed was fixed between his teeth, and the alphabet held before his face. The words he spelt were, ' last day '— ' up,' casting at the same time a sweet glance heavenwards." It was not the last day of his hfe when the above incident occurred, but it ivas the last day he was able to be dressed, or to leave his room. There were other two days remaining, which, though they were days of severe suffering (from fever, oppression in breathing, and otherwise), were yet days of perfect calmness, and apparently undisturbed peace. The cloud was being dispersed ; the sun was gleaming, shining, through. It was " evening time," and it was " light." An hour or two before the close, calling once more for the little tube, he spelled out his dying testimony thus : " I am looking to the Saviour : my only hope is in Jesus." Then he asked that a psalm might be read to him, the 143d; after that, Charles Wesley's hymn, "Jesus, lover of my soul" ; also that other sweet hymn (long a favourite with him), "Just as I ain, without one plea." Then, declining to hear anything further, and knowing that he had nothing more to do but to die, he expressed a wish to be reir^oved to his bed from the chair, where he had been sitting all night (taking his farewell look, from the window, of the sweet landscape which he knew so well) ; and this had scarcely been done, when the loud breathing ceased, the oppressed bosom gave its last heave, and all was over. " It was somewhat singular," a dear friend of his and mine, Mr Robert Paul, afterwards remarked, "he died at twelve o'clock on the night of Saturday, the 31st day of July ; and the glorified spirit opened his eyes then, on a new day, a new week, a new month, a new Sabbath, a new life, a new heaven — an eternity, at once 1 " Had Mr Hog been spared till that day week he would have entered on a new year also — the fifty-ninth year of his age — having been born on the 7th August 1799. J. C. B, # I ANGUS MAKELLAR.D.D. ^ngus JItaki>nar, B.- HE Rev. Dr Angus Makellar of Pencaitland was a native of the county of Argyll. As to his parentage and the place of his birth, as well as his early history, his univer- sity studies, and the exact date of his receiving licence to preach the gospel, we have been unable to obtain accurate information. But there can be no doubt that he was "brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," and gave decided indications of early piety, and of his desire to dedicate himself to the Lord's service in the work of the holy ministry. He was born in the year 1780, and died at Edinburgh in 1859, ''"^ the seventy-ninth year of his age, and the forty-eighth of his ministry. As he received in 1835 his degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow, it is probable that his literary and theological studies had been pro- secuted there. His first pastoral charge \\-as the parish of Carmunnock, in the imme- diate neighbourhood of Glasgow. There he was ordained in the year 18 12; and at a time when evangelical preaching in the Established Church was comparatively rare, he soon attracted notice, and won esteem and regard, by his full and faithful proclamation of the gospel, and by his earnest and devoted efforts to win souls to Christ, and to advance His cause and kingdom. It was there that he formed the acquaintance and gained the affections of her who was afterwards to J T.sX^ K^;^W IM"|A M h TS '@,y E f DISRUPTION WORTH IE be his life companion, and whose decided piety, amiable character, singular sweetness of temper, and readiness to every good work, rendered her a most suitable helpmate to her like-minded husband, and made religion so attractive to all who came within the sphere of her influence. She was the eldest daughter of William Stirling, Esq. of Keir, near Stirling. In 1 8 14, after a ministry of between two and three years at Car- munnock (where he was succeeded by the Rev. Dr Patrick Clason), he was translated to Pencaitland, in Haddingtonshire ; and in about two months thereafter, he was united in marriage to Miss Helen Stirling. At that time, and for some years after. East Lothian was under the reign of a cold Moderatism, and in most of its pulpits the gospel of the grace of God was supplanted by a frozen and dead morality. The chief exceptions were the pulpits of the patriarchal Mr Innes of Yester, who for sixty-one years held forth faithfully, in that parish, the word of life ; and of the able and venerable Dr Lorimer of Haddington, who was long a bright light " shining in a dark place," and who verified the truth of the old appellation given to his parish church — " Lucerna Laudoniae." With these exceptions, the faithful ministers of the gospel in the Establishment had been "few and far between." From the time, however, of Dr Makellar's accession to their ranks, a happy change was gradually brought about. There was a shaking of the dry bones, and a new life was breathed into them from above. The deserted churches began to be filled with eager worshippers and anxious inquirers ; and a blessed influence, commencing in a revival of the Lord's work at Pencaitland, spread over the district, till at length, at the Disruption of 1843, eleven, out of the eighteen members of the Presbytery of Haddington, cast in their lot with the Free Church, and were followed by very large numbers of their flocks. In two parishes, for instance, containing a population of 1050 and 800, the number of Free Church adherents was 830 in the one, and 600 in the other. It was made abundantly manifest that, beneath the mere eccle- siastical conflict, the real source, as well as the strength, of the movement )\(\ ANGUS MAKELLAR, D.D. was a revival of the life and power of vital godliness among the people. To this revival Dr Makellar's able and effective preaching, as well as his holy life and his high-toned spirituality of mind, contributed in no ordinary degree. Previous to the passing of the Veto Act in 1834, patrons had come to see that it was their interest, as well as their dut}-, to give presentations to those who would preach the gospel faithfully, and would care more for the spiritual welfare of the flock than for the fleece ; and the people, having begun to taste of the old wine of Reformation theology, refused to receive any longer the new wine of Moderatism. Hence arose, in a great measure, the moral and spiritual change to which we have referred, and which was mainly promoted by the ministers already named, as well as by Dr Makellar, and his much- esteemed friend the Rev. Daniel Wilkie of Yester, whose earnest and happy Christianity told with great power upon all who knew and heard him. It was in the year 1831 that the writer first became acquainted with Dr Makellar ; and he looks back, with much interest, to the friendship with him which he had ever after the privilege of enjoying, and the many happy days he spent under his hospitable roof. Of him it might be truly said, that he "walked within his house with a perfect heart ;" and that what he was, as seen by the outside world, that he was also in his own house at home. When any new phase of the "ten years' conflict" appeared, his like-minded brethren were summoned to Pencaitland ; and most readily did they obey the call, and consult and pray together as to the measures to be adopted for maintaining the Church's independ- ence against the encroachments of the civil courts. To him they all looked up as their leader and counsellor, and they often had cause to admire his remarkable wisdom, his steadfast adherence to principle, and his entire freedom from everything like bitterness, or evil- speaking against those of opposite views. His influence with all classes, and especially with the higher classes, was as great as it was well deserved ; and it was no small trial to him to be compelled to adopt a course which -^A m^^ il DISRUPTION WORTHIES. they disapproved. But none of these things could mo\-e him from his path of duty, or cause him to hesitate or falter in his attachment to the vital principle of Christ's sole Headship over the Church, and her spiritual independence under Him alone, and her right to he free from the coercion and control of civil courts, in conducting her own spiritual affairs. While he and his brethren were resolutely opposed to the abuses of patronage in the Church, yet it was not the miere existence of patronage, but the Church's right to her blood-bought freedom, that, in their opinion, formed the real essence and ground of the controversy. In 1840, the universal esteem and confidence with which Dr Makellar was regarded led to his appointment as moderator of the General Assembly. It was a critical period of the Church's conflict with the civil courts, but he was fully equal to the occasion, and gained the respect of all by his Christian courtesy and gentlemanly deportment, as well as by his indomitable firmness and his steadfast adherence to his cherished principles. As to his conduct on that occasion, and his eminent qualifications for such an important office, we may quote the following passage from a speech of Dr Duff, on proposing him a second time for the moderatorship of the General Assembly. He said : — " His very antagonists eulogised our friend as ' an excellent man, pious and fervent as a Christian, and an honour to the Church to which he belonged.' His election to the chair being carried by a majority, it was unanimously agreed on all hands, alike by friends and foes, that amid scenes, at times the most perplexing, he discharged his official duties throughout with an uncommon mixture of ' firmness, kindness, dignity, impartiality, ability, and fidelity.' To his wise and saintly suggestion in the Assembly of 1842, we are indebted for the very great improvement in conduct- ing our daily devotional services, namely by the introduction of the reading of a portion of Scripture, and the singing of a Psalm. ' Instead,' said he, 'of this being a waste of time, it will, by the blessing of God, save much, and dispose our hearts to the exercise of those feelings of brotherly kindness and mutual forbearance which we might otherwise overlook." To those who enjoyed Dr Makellar's intimate friendship, and partook of his hospitality, this last-mentioned circumstance will seem very charac- teristic of him, and in full harmony with his own invariable custom in the i'A .■hXCUS MAKELLAR, D.D. Manse. It was his practice, after dinner, to have the Bible produced at his own table, and to read a portion of it in the hearing of his guests. Nothing could be better fitted to give a right tone to the subsequent conversation, and to maintain the character of a Christian household, which should ever be " sanctified by the Word of God and by prayer." As the day of the Disruption drew near, the writer (who then acted as Clerk of the Presbytery of Haddington) was necessarily much in the society of Dr Makellar, in making arrangements rendered necessary by the immediate prospect of that memorable event ; and in all these it was impossible not to admire his clear and calm judgment, the practical wisdom of his suggestions, and the intelligent and intense interest he manifested in the work of up-building the Free Church in East Lothian. The sacrifice of pecuniary emoluments was the smallest part of the trial to the out-going ministers; but the quitting of the manse, with its tender associations and memories, the renunciation of worldly position and status, the alienation of some, and the bitter opposition of others, few though they were in most cases — these were extremely painful to a sensitive and honourable mind. But no hesitation was felt by Dr Makellar in making the sacrifice ; and when the day of trial came, he was not found wanting, and he cheerfully obeyed the dictates of his conscience and the demands of Christian principle. At the first meeting of the Free Presbytery of Haddington, held on the 4th June 1843, Dr Makellar was chosen moderator, and "constituted the Presbytery in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only King and Head of His Church." He stated, as the minute bears, that "he had pro- cured a large granary, and also a site for a new church at Fountainhall ;" to the mansion-house of which he, in due time, removed his family. He presided also at seven subsequent meetings of Presbytery in July, August, September, October, and November, when his counsels were in\aluable in rebuilding the ruined walls of our Jerusalem, and in pro- \iding for the due celebration of Christian ordinances throughout the I -f OF f DISRUPTION WORTHIES. county, while he himself "preached in various places by appointment of Presbytery." Although those, who resigned their office in large towns and wealthy congregations, rendered most signal services to the Church ; at this eventful period, yet their labours, and difficulties, and privations, \; j- supported as they were by numerous flocks and influential laymen, can ■:-. [■• scarcely be compared with those of their brethren in country districts, -jj I where the chief labour often devolved upon the minister himself, and \\ where the difficulty of obtaining suitable dwellings was often very great. ! I At the meeting of the General Assembly at Glasgow, in October 1843, ; 1* Dr Makellar was unanimously appointed chairman of the Board of 1 \i Missions, in room of Mr Alexander Dunlop, who resigned the office, after ^• # having for some time ably discharged its important duties. As these ^C ,'j|:~ duties were "sufficient to occupy his whole time," and rendered it kft- ,- 1- necessary that Dr Makellar should reside in Edinburgh, he was released ^: from his pastoral charge ; and his son, the Rev. William Makellar, was ';< '' elected and ordained as his successor. • ; Soon afterwards Dr Makellar removed to Edinburgh, and devoted •'; his whole heart and energies to the cause of Missions. At such a time, \ when all the foreign missionaries of the Establishment declared their adherence to the Free Church, and when so many as between 200 and 300 congregations at home were unsupplied with ministers, it was most ; important that one possessed of his sagacity, and zeal, and aptitude for ■ II business, should be placed at the head of the Mission Board ; and it is ■• •; well known that his services were of the greatest value in supplying the ;| j J means of grace at home and abroad, in promoting and fostering a spirit ^ l| ^( of large-hearted liberality among the people, and in consolidating the ;qP }^^ extensive operations of the Free Church in so wide a mission field. As mj; to this Dr Duff truly said : — "The addresses \\hich, in this new capacity, Dr Makellar was wont annually to "i dehver at the opening of subsequent Assembhes can never be forgotten,— addresses '/tl"^ abounding with large and comprehensive views of the gospel, as the sole panacea for -■: ' Si fallen humanit\, in all its endlessly varied developments of corruption,— addresses : - i * pervaded throughout with the unction of sanctified experience, and redolent witl bahiiy fragrance of devoted piety." In the year 1852, the General Assembly unanimously called Dr Makellar a second time to preside over their deliberations as Moderator. All who were present at that Assembly cannot but remember the remark- able ability and tact, as well as the urbanity and self-command, which he displayed in difficult circumstances. Painful cases were brought before the Assembly, and there were keen discussions, and considerable differences of opinion, on various subjects, such as the right ordering of the Sustenta- tion Fund ; and great fears were entertained of unpleasant collisions. But, owing in no small degree to the Moderator's wisdom, impartiality, and unfailing courtesy, these fears were happily disappointed. There was, however, one memorable event which occurred at that Assembly, and which greatly rejoiced the heart of the Moderator, viz., the consummation of the Union between the Synod of United Original Seceders and the Free Church of Scotland, warranting as it did the hope that ere long all the dispersed of our Israel would be gathered into one. In reference to this, the words of Dr Makellar, in welcoming Dr M'Crie and his much-esteemed brethren, will be read with interest. He said : — " It is with emotions of gratitude and joy, which no language can adequately express, that you and we are met together on this occasion. It necessarily presses upon our minds the recollection of that period of misrule and oppression when your fathers withdrew from the communion of the Church of Scotland, and entered into a state of separation that has now continued for more than a hundred years. In the recollection of that sad event, it is consoling to know that, though lost to the Estab- lishment, they were not lost to their country, or to the Church of their fathers. On the contrary, they carried with them, into their new position, the love of the truth, as it is in Jesus, that was rooted and grounded in their hearts ; the deep conviction of the independence and spirituality of the Church, without which it is but the contrivance of man, instead of the ordinance of God ; and that faithful ministration of the gospel on which He has promised His effectual blessing. May our union be hallowed with the divine blessing, and may you and we receive grace so to act as that the world shall be constrained to say, ' Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity !' and may ours be the earnest of a still more comprehensive union among the Churches of Christ, — the dawn of that blessed day when there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain." I I @ V E [5 A M t7iS3^'^'^4^^^ ^15^ % DISRUPT/ ON WORTHIES. During the few remaining years of his Hfe, Dr Makellar did not often appear in pubhc ; but he continued to give his earnest attention to ail that pertained to the welfare of Zion, and to manifest a growing interest in the extension of pure and undefiled religion, while his example of faith and love and hope, rendered him still more a living epistle of Christ, known and read of all. By his wise counsels, by his meekness and gentleness, by his humility and charity, by his heavenly temper and conversation, by his large-hearted generosity and numerous benefactions to the worthiest objects, he continued still to flourish like the palm tree, and "brought forth fruit in old age." His latter end was peace and good hope. The Rev. James Dodds, of Dunbar, who frequently visited him on his death-bed, and who was among the last of his brethren that saw him and prayed with him, informs us, that he died as he had lived, in the firm faith of the gospel which he had so earnestly preached, and in the sure hope of the eternal reward. He says, that Dr Makellar was "a really good and kind man ; and as long as I live I can never forget the kindness he shewed to me when I was at Humbie." His kindness to young ministers, as many can testify, was very characteristic of him, and the benefits which he thus conferred cannot be told. But the day will declare it. Dr Makellar died at Edinburgh on the loth of May 1859, having reached the seventy-ninth year of his age ; thus passing away, as a shock of corn fully ripe, to the heavenly garner — " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." His devoted partner, who was spared so long to him, died about a month after her husband. " They were lovely and pleasant in their lives ; and in their death they were not divided." It is a cause of regret that no permanent record has been left of his pulpit addresses. Those who heard his able expositions of Scripture, and his full and earnest proclamation of the gospel, cannot but desire that one or more volumes had been published from his manuscripts. J. T. WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM, D.D. Milliam Cunningljam, B.B. mi- RINCTPAL CUNNINGHAM was born on the 2d of October 1805, at Hamilton, where he also sj^ent the earlier years of his youth, and was taught to read. His father, a merchant in the town, having died suddenly, the widow, with three orphan sons, removed to the grand- father's farmhouse of Drafane, near Crossford, in the parish of Lesmahagow ; and amid the happiest advantages of rural seclusion and domestic comfort, the education of the boys went on as hitherto. But the aged tenant of Drafane was taken away by death not long after, and the family whom he had so generously sheltered, exchanged Lanarkshire for Berwickshire, to be comfortably settled at Cheeklaw, a farm-steading not far from Dunse. There were kind relatives at Dunse, and a superior school, where the lad who had excelled in all the branches of Elementary tuition, kept still the highest place in Classical competition. No boy is more eager than William Cunningham on the playground, but even at this stage he was not less bent on reading. It is not improbable that the blood of Peden was in the mother's veins ; and at all events, in mental sinew, as well as in outward frame, the matron was worthy of the hero. But if slightly austere, as a covenanter might well be, tenderly did the mother love her son, and as affectionately did the son love his mother ; and though then he knew not God at all, yet, anxious to ease her of any burden, and win ■35 ^1^ DISRUPTION WORTHIES. her smile, William took his mother's place in conducting family worship, whilst he was no more than fourteen years of age. In 1820, William Cunningham proceeded from the provincial school of Dunse to the University of Edinburgh, and there he lost no time in shewing that he was a match, both in Latin and Greek, for even the duxes of the Metropolitan High School. Only a week after the Session had commenced, Professor Pillans asked the meaning of a hard pas- sage in a difficult Roman author, and William Cunningham was the first out of the large Humanity class who stood up ready to give the translation. All the classes embraced in the Literary curriculum of the college William Cunningham attended, in their usual order, with marked distinction. But he did not graduate. And for this reason, that in his day, the degree of M.A. was no badge of merit, and even Professors discouraged students from making it an object of ambition. It was in 18 16 that the Edinburgh University Diagnostic Society was set on foot, and in 1821 William Cunningham became a member. We record this fact with especial interest, for now had he taken a step, or entered on a path, which was eventually to change the entire direction and object of his life. From the first he was punctual in his attendance at all the meetings of the society, and evinced the same readiness in debate, the same fearless candour, and the same lucid, though bald ex- pression, which were the characteristics of his eloquence ever afterwards. But it was here he was brought into contact with those who now became the constant companions of his day and the chosen friends of his bosom —young men like himself in tastes and aims, but who, perhaps, in Christ before him, were the means of waking him up to spiritual thoughtfulness and concern. Born and bred a Moderate, William Cunningham had up to this hour no inward wants which required more than what the negative theology and hollow ethics of Moderatism were sufficient to meet. Drawn, however, by his new associates within the sphere of evangelical influence, he now often attended the ministry of Gordon ; :^^ 1843. Without loss of time "the New College" was constituted, and Dr Cunningham appointed Junior Professor of Theology, with Apolo- getics as his department. Though this was a department of theological literature in which he never felt peculiar interest, yet he at once addressed himself to it w ith thorough earnestness, as the following extract from a letter, dated bth August 1844, will shew : — " It is my earnest wish that I may be enabled to do something for promoting the cause of sound thfological education, and to contribute to nuke our future pastors able ministers of the New Testament. I hope I may be able to cany out some of the leading views upon the subject which have been put forth in the Prcshtii laii Review, and w^hich I know to be approved by many of the best ministers in our church As I will have only the first year's students under my charge ne.xt winter, I must be mainly occupied with the origin, authority, character, objects, and uses of the Word, and the way and manner in which it is to be interpreted and applied as the sword of the Spirit — that is, very much in illustrating the first chapter of the Confession, and bringing out the information which the Word of God gives us concerning itself, and the means by which the knowledge of it is to be acquired. I propose to give some promi- nence to the subject of the Bible as the rule of faith — not merely negatively, by expos- ing the Apocrypha and Tradition, but positively, by opening up the sufficiency and perfection of the Scriptures, as these topics used to be discussed between the Papists and the Reformers. "All these subjects may be handled in such a way as to bring the students a good deal into contact with the Bible itself; and when taken together, they should, I think, lay a good foundation for their theological studies." At the request of the Church, and just at the time when he was in much sorrow for the loss of a beloved child, Dr Cunningham crossed the Atlantic in mid-winter of 1844, to inquire into the constitution and working of the Presbyterian theological seminaries in the States ; as also to explain the principles of the Free Church. Soon after he had arrived (in 1845) from- America, owing to the lamented death of Dr Welsh Dr Cunningham was placed in the Chair of Church History ; and two years afterwards (in 1847) he became Principal of the New College, as suc- cessor to Dr Chalmers, of whom the Church had been suddenly bereaved. Earnestly alive to his responsibility, as Principal, for the develop- f &^^ ' ^^Pr DISRUPTION WORTHIES. ^f 3'" ment of theological education, and the advancement of theological ''J', . science, Dr Cunningham now directed all his energies to the equipment ;;[ , of the New College as a Model institute for training students of divinity ; )' and his hope was, that he might be allowed to carry out his ideas in r all their extent before other Halls were contemplated. But what he ;- pleaded for was not granted. Aberdeen and Glasgow insisted on being i dealt with, from the outset, as Edinburgh, and their claims were looked ; upon with favour by those who guided the affairs of the Church. The \ College controversy then broke out, and after an arduous struggle, ' Dr Cunningham, to his chagrin and sorrow, was foiled. A wide chasm after this severed Dr Cunningham from those with whom he had hitherto acted in the Free Church, and the alienation, 1%,:^ as obvious as it was unhappy, continued from 1852 to 1858, when the I .V wound was closed, ^\'hether it were healed or not. Old friends were induced to come together once more, and in 1859 Dr Cunningham was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly, amid the acclamation of the whole Church. Perhaps it would have been well had this honour been postponed ; for jl there can be no doubt that his official duty in the chair told against the f failing health of Dr Cunningham, and ripened the seeds of lurking disease. During the summer, however, Dr Cunningham seemed to rally ; and in i860 he opened the Assembly, as retiring Moderator, with a masterly L discourse upon the Atonement. This was the last sermon he ever I preached, and it was his greatest. The greatest speech he ever delivered {!/ was on the Australian Union, in 1861, and it was his last. ']■;; Throughout the summer and autumn of 1861, Dr Cunningham had l Dr Chalmers judged of human nature from the way in which she '';" did. Presently the preacher proceeded to shew, that as rebels might ;•: be just and fair in their dealings one with another, while they were traitors to their lawful sovereign, so all he had described might consist with entire alienation of the heart from God, and entire disregard of His authority. This Mr Monteith used to refer to as his first lesson in the doctrine of the depravity of human nature. But '•, Dr Chalmers' sermon seems to have had a wider and a deeper influence I — at least it was after it that he began the regular reading of his Bible, jj (; writing down as he read what each book or passage seemed to teach, | I'/ and summing up its doctrines and lessons. In this way he went through \c P;i the whole of the Scriptures, and came substantially to the views which he A ■_ ^1,. ever afterwards held. His practice of studying the word of God is worthy . \ ' -fe "^ notice and of imitation. Whenever he was in doubt about anything in n'lj, fi doctrine or practice — and the metaphysical character of his mind exposed '■ him not a little to such doubts on religious questions — his habit was to '. mark down every passage of Scripture which he thought could bear in any way on the subject, and when he had the whole collected together, he read it all over, and saw to what conclusion it appeared to lead. j In his religious life, of which this proved the beginning, he used to say I he as well as others was greatly helped by Mr Mungo Brown, who married {' -; his favourite sister. He left the English Church, attaching himself ■!' ) to the ministry of the Rev. Dr Gordon ; and in process of time he ; became an elder in the High Church. He visited his district, and dis- !- Jj,( charged the other spiritual duties of his eldership, and was year by \|[. yX year returned to the General Assembly, and so came to take an active '}[ /air' interest in all the affairs of the Church. ''if^ 4jV-' On the important questions which then agitated the public mind and -^ ' occupied the attention of the Church, Mr Monteith formed and main- Of^l. tained a very clear opinion. He objected to Patronage, not as anti- I'inI" scriptural, but as opposed to the principles of the Presbyterian Church ; ■/> ALEXANDER EARLE MONTEITH. / fy and among these he very clearly stated, in his speech during a debate in ^|^^ 1S42, " Spiritual independence and non-intrusion." With these views, he '1 , entertained no doubt as to the right of Chapel ministers to be admitted 1 to the courts of the Church, and as to the right of the Church to inde- ■•■ pendent jurisdiction in the purely spiritual province. When these rights ,'''■ were assailed by the decisions of the Civil Courts, he disregarded these [i, decisions ; and when, on the other hand, the somewhat insidious com- I promise was proposed of giving to Presbyteries the power of judging ]];, of the objections of congregations, he foresaw the danger arising in this !; direction, and denounced it as inconsistent with the rights and liberties J of the Christian people. ;/-■ He accordingly, without any hesitation, joined the Free Church in its ,■i^:: si course in 1843 ; and he took an active and constant interest in all its |jl, •^; proceedings. In consultation and in debate, both before and after the >|j ^>, Disruption, his legal knowledge, his judgment, and his eloquence, proved ,r of the greatest service. In some of the subjects which occupied the ' ; attention of the Church he naturally took a more active part than in others. He supported the proposal of modifying the distribution of the Sustentation Fund, so as to rescue it from the too evident perils of the simple Equal Dividend. He joined in the endeavour which, after a vain but prolonged resistance, was at last successful, for the abolition of tests I in the non-theological university professorships, maintaining that the •i mere subscription of a formula gave no adequate security for religious Ij character, and that a Christian legislature ought not to extend its aim i| ■ beyond the provision, that nothing contrary to certain truths should be f\ taught from the professorial chairs. On the question of a plurality of V ( colleges, he sided with the late Principal Cunningham and others in p,v favour of one central institution in Edinburgh. The New College, with all its arrangements — first, in the erection of the building so much ad mired, and then, in the selection of its professors — was a very special object of his interest and care. It was he who, on his own responsibility. "SI J>^Vi / DISK UP TION IVOR THIES. and with many an anxious thought, acquired the admirable site on which it and the Free High Church now stand, and for which he knew a sum of ^10,000 must be provided. The marble bust placed in the New College Library is a suitable memorial of his deeply cherished regard for this important Free Church institution. He annually sat in the General Assembly as one of the representatives of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, his last appearance being in 1859, when he opposed the continuance of the Chair of Natural Science. The Assembly in 1861 passed a minute embodying a sincere and universally felt tribute of respect for his memory. In his later years Mr Monteith's health began to give way, under the result of disease of the heart, with which he knew he was affected. In a journal which he kept he more than once referred to this, and those who were nearest to him and most intimate with him, observed the maturing and ripening for the Master's presence, which is so often noticed in the people of God as they draw towards their end. In his case the end came sooner than his friends expected. He died on I2th January 1S61. In a sermon which he preached with reference to the event, the Rev. Dr Rainy, Dr Gordon's successor, alluded to his last visit to him but a few days before. He spoke of Mr Monteith's calmness and humility, and the simplicity of his faith — the secret of which is probably to be found in an extract from his diary, with which this record of his worth may be suitably closed. " O God, give me grace to follow fearlessly wheresoever Thy Spirit leads me, and to listen to the softest whisper of the still small voice, and to carry about with me continually as the oil to feed the divine lamp of my soul, the self-sacrificing love of my dying and risen Saviour." Mr Monteith was twice married, first in 1829 to Miss Emma Clay, and afterwards in 1838 to Frances, daughter of the late General Dunlop of Dunlop, who for many years represented the Stcwartry of Kirkcudbright in the House of Commons. He had two daughters, of whom only one now survives. F. B. D. i I: -'^i y-^::^! ^'-^-Ar^^t^ F@R^^i^f|IRDSTS\dE#;|JWIi^!AM©°'©€iV^ WILLIAM CAMPBE.LL, OF Tl LLIECHEWAN. mtlliam CampblL 'ILLIAM CAMPBELL was the fifth child of a family of nine, and was born in 1793, near the Port of Monteith, in Perthshire, where his father was tenant of a farm on the Gartmore estate. All the schooling, strictly so called, which he ever got, he received at the parish school. But the most valuable part of his education — the education of principle — was imparted at home, under the careful culture of a godly mother, who was supremely concerned that her children should be taught to fear God, and keep his commandments. She was a woman of capacity as*well as piety, and her influence pervaded the whole family. To the pains and prayers of this excellent parent, and to the influence of her character, the subject of this sketch was wont, under God, to ascribe whatever " good thing was found in him toward the Lord God of Israel." In the year 1805, when he was yet a boy about eleven or twelve years of age, his father removed with his family to Glasgow, with the view of finding in that centre of industry suitable employments for his children. Being intended for a mercantile life, William began at the beginning. In order to give him a thorough practical knowledge of goods, he was taught weaving ; and in due time, after having thus far qualified himself, he entered the employment of Mr John Craig, who at that time carried on a respectable Scotch cloth business in the High Street, near 'J'EM^S^^^::^r!v i '1^ ' DISRUPTIOy WORTHIES. the Cross. Here he remained for some years, in the course of whicli his attention to business, his mercantile abiUty, and his upright and amiable character, secured for him the good-will and patronage of several influential friends, and earned for him a good name wherever he was known. Offers of assistance were made him ; and thus aided and encouraged, he (having now attained the age of twenty-two) resolved to start in business on his own account. His first place of business was situated in the Saltmarket, and consisted of a flat, one stair up, of an old tenement in that, even then, somewhat unfashionable locality. The build- ing has since been demolished, in order to make way for London Street. Here his success was unprecedented. The warehouse was crowded from morning till night. The tide of prosperity flowing on and increasing, until the business had outgrown the ability of any single individual personally to superintend it, his brother, the present Sir James Campbell of Stracathro, and sometime Lord Provost of the city, brought his talents and business habits to his help. A partnership was formed between the two brothers, and the firm was, and continues to be, conducted under the name of "J. & W. Campbell & Co., General Warehousemen." Under their joint management the same extraordinary success as before continued to attend them, until every flat and attic of the old tenement being turned to use, they were compelled to contem- plate the necessity of leaving the too contracted premises, and seeking more commodious accommodation elsewhere. In this needful step their pace was quickened in consequence of the condemnation by the public authorities of several old houses, among which was " Campbell's ware- house in the Saltmarket." They got notice to quit it in fifteen months. This of course subjected them to great inconvenience and anxiety. But, cheered by the wise counsels of their mother, who " was sure an open door would be found somewhere," they in due time secured a property in Candleriggs, on which they undertook to erect a suitable warehouse. And so concerned were they to lose no time, that the builder, after the ^JM?'iyi!^j;;'©f|li;Rfi_STg S©E,,^;^^^ I^A M i)?©@¥i: UVLLIA3I CAMPBELL. first floor was built, gave them a floor a week, and the firm speedily moved into their new and spacious premises. But in process of time even these became too narrow for them, and they were obliged ultimately to take refuge in the palatial warehouse now occupied by them in Ingram Street, which not only continues to be the seat of their original home trade, but has become the centre of an extensive commerce with all parts of the world. Such is a brief sketch of a prosperous career which has been rarely equalled in the mercantile world. It is worthy of consideration whether there were any special circumstances to account for it. Doubtless it was greatly owing to Mr Campbell's intense energy, his strict attention to the duties of his calling, with which no temptation to ease or pleasure was suffered to interfere, and to his upright character and popular manners. But besides these qualities, which were common to him with other merchants of his day, his success is, without doubt, to be mainly attributed to the introduction of a system which was a novelty when he began business. Of this system the leading features were — (i) small profits, (2) quick returns, (3) no abatement of the price asked. The last rule was rigorously enforced, and aimed at the overthrow of the corrupt and discreditable practice of " prigging," then commonly followed. The principles of the Campbells were so sound and reasonable as to com- mand the favour of the public. In point of fact, they revolutionized the system of buying and selling then in vogue ; and in founding on them the conduct of his business, Mr Campbell was greatly fortified by the influence of Dr Chalmers, on whose ministry he was a regular attendant, and whose " Commercial Discourses " were of immense service in arousing the public conscience to a sense of evils and dishonesties, to the immorality of which custom had reconciled society at large. But in seeking to account for Mr Campbell's great and rapid success, can we warrantably leave out of view the manifest blessing of God on one who sought habitually to realize that he was not a proprietor, but )« f DISRUPTION WORTHIES. merely an administrator and steward, of God's manifold mercies ? In his case the promise was strictly fulfilled, " Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase : so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst with new wine." As his riches increased, his benefactions multiplied ; and as these multi- plied, God supplied him with the means of still further extending his usefulness. He took an active part in promoting the scheme of Mr William Collins for the building of twenty new churches in Glasgow, and that of Dr Chalmers for the erection of two hundred additional churches in Scotland. These, and similar efforts, seem to have been a preparation, in the providence of God, for the still grander and more comprehensive schemes that were soon after to be demanded by the Disruption of the Church. When that event took place in 1843, he was among the fore- most and most munificent of the contributors to the various funds of the Free Church, and to every movement by which her efficiency and usefulness could be advanced. Indeed, it has been affirmed by those who had the best opportunities of knowing the extent of his private and public liberalities, that he laid out a handsome income year by year in charity ; and that during his lifetime he expended in this way a fortune of not less than from ;{;8o,000 to ^90,000. The larger proportion of this wealth being consecrated directly or indirectly to the service of the Free Church, afforded unmistakable evidence of the strength and constancy of his loyal and devoted attachment to her cause and principles. Indeed, her interests were ever as dear to his heart as his own ; and with her prosperity and progress he identified the progress of the country in vital spiritual religion and social happiness. Thus did he honour God with his substance. And how has God honoured him .' He has assigned him a distinguished place in the noble company of Disruption Worthies ; and this, not because of any eminent services on the field of debate or diplomacy — for these he had personally neither taste nor talent, though ever a generous admirer of them in [r^® M^j-l-fjgl s T s \Sll^w mjih. m m .T©"i;v e' tr^UWlEBAT WILLIAM CAMPBELL. others — but because of the heartfelt, practical, self-sacrificing interest he ever cherished in the social and religious wellbeing of his fellow-men. And God has further honoured him by making him largely instrumental to the introduction of a new era and standard of Christian liberality in the days in which we live. The narrow, selfish, grudging views which were previously entertained on this subject, were wholly unadapted to the circumstances and wants of a new age. The Disruption was approaching, and an impressive example was needed of that unbounded liberality which should replace the surrendered endowments of the State by the voluntary endowments of the people. Mr Campbell was one ' of those who supplied this want. And it is pleasing to think that he had the satisfaction of knowing before he died that his large-hearted » benevolence had a double value : it not only directly helped many a |, good cause, but it exercised a wide-spread and permanent influence in \»"p enlarging the views of others on the duty of giving, and in stimulating ^] them to "go and do likewise." (' Mr Campbell's public spirit discovered itself, as occasion offered, with regard to other things than public charities and Free Church objects ' ' He was for some years in the Town Council, having been carried by j' the Catholics for the Saltmarket and Bridgegate wards. When asked to support him, an Irish voter exclaimed, in a fit of enthusiastic gratitude, " What ! not vote for William Campbell, who sends the half of our people I to the infirmary ! " As a councillor, he took an active interest in a scheme | for buying up old house property in the wynds, as it came into the "i / market, with a view to the sanitary good of the city. Also, through his )f V exertions in a large measure, and in the face of much opposition, the jll" market-day was changed from Monday to Thursday, by which means * p much unnecessary work on the Sabbath was stopped, and the rest of the ^ sacred day better secured. On no subject did he kindle into greater earnest ness than the importance of the Sabbath, in every view— physical, social and religious — especially to the working-classes. His sentiments on this i: ISTpCJ NiSIFi@>\,7n AjIE) •'G@^j EF/^ 3^^Sig DISRUPTION WORTHIES. subject entirely accorded with those of his friend, Sir Andrew Agnew, by whom he was much esteemed, and who frequently consulted him on his measures with reference to Sabbath desecration. His generous interest in the working-classes was farther notably evinced by his contribution of ;^500 to the funds of the Botanic Garden, on the condition that those classes should have free admission to the gardens during the Fair week. His sympathy with the friendless and homeless poor was shewn in the active part which he took in instituting and maintaining the " Glasgow Night Asylum for the Houseless," to which he bequeathed a legacy of ;^lSOO. And many are the "indigent gentlewomen" who, when enjoying M the benefits of the fund specially provided for their relief, will remember with gratitude the kindness and consideration of Mr Campbell, who was one of its founders and most zealous promoters. Indeed every enterprise, religious or benevolent, had in him a warm and generous friend. He was a living illustration of the words, " A cheerful giver, rich in good works, %J(\ ready to distribute, willing to communicate." j;,7 Mr Campbell's successive family residences, like the successive ware- ji houses in which his business was carried on, indicated the progressive improvement of his temporal circumstances, until ultimately he became the proprietor of that charming mansion, Tillichewan Castle, with its ';, splendid surroundings. To its attractions he was by no means insensible ; \. for he possessed an intense love of nature, and had a quick eye for the perception of the beautiful and sublime in scenery. Here he spent his days of well-earned rest and relaxation from the cares and toils of business surrounded by fields and woods, yet ever planning or executing some improvement — the opening of some new vista, giving a new direction to some gurgling stream, or clearing his trees and shrubs of their superfluous branches. Nor did he confine his enjoyments to himself and family. His grounds were open to all who desired to visit them, a liberty which was never abused. He was, moreover, fond of society, and delighted to be surrounded by his friends. Tillichewan was accordingly the resort of .!C^ many who, singly or in company, paid it at least- their annual visit, and its hospitable gates were ever open to welcome any who came on an errand of religion or benevolence. Every stranger of distinction who \ isited the west of Scotland, or whose love of Scottish scenery attracted him to the neighbouring shores of Loch Lomond, was sure of a hospitable reception at the castle, which seemed often to partake more of the character of a hotel than of a private residence. Here the genial nature of the host, and his mental peculiarities, while they made every one feel at home, diffused through the whole company a happy and improving influence. For Mr Campbell thought for himself on every matter of public and private concernment, and was distinguished by an originality of mind, a raciness of expression, and sometimes a touch of drollery, which imparted a singular zest to his conversation. Among those who visited occasionally at Tillichewan, there was no one whose arrival was hailed throughout the family with more joyful anticipation than Dr Chalmers, between whom and Mr Campbell there existed a cordial feeling of mutual esteem and affection. They thoroughly sympathised in their views on the great questions of their time, eminently so on all that concerned the extension and spiritual independence of the Church- And Mr Campbell's mercantile experience enabled him sometimes to throw out practical suggestions which the other knew how to turn to useful account. Mr Campbell was likewise a warm friend and advocate of the union of the Presbyterian Churches of this country. He was impatient of the delay which has taken place in conducting the measure to a pros- perous issue. But he lived and died in the happy assurance that another generation would see it consummated, and all the sound Presbyterianism of Scotland comprehended and united in one Church, founded on a disestablished basis. The following description from the graphic pen of a lady friend of Mr Campbell will fitly close this part of the narrative : — " One must not forget Mr Campbell's Sundays. They were not gloomy days to .U f If ■^PAc- DISRUPTION WORTHIES. him, but clays of rest and enjoyment in serious things. He hked a sedateness throughout his household, and he never absented himself from church. Good preaching was to him an intellectual and spiritual feast. His sympathetic nature was responsive to everything the minister said, the tear was ever ready to start, and his whispered 'hear, hear,' shewed where a sympathetic chord was struck. Do you remember his delight in the Old Testament .' and what a picture he was of the old Scottish Presbyterian, with his glengarry bonnet laid reverently aside, whilst he conducted family worship ? If the subject was Job, or Joseph, or David, tears invariably choked his utterance, and he became so absorbed in the story as to be wholly insensible to what was passing around." But the time came when this good man had to die, and be carried to "the house appointed for all living." His death was gradual, and its advances were borne with that calmness and serenity which are the fruit of a believing dependence on Christ and His finished work, and with the resignation and preparedness of one whose mind was familiar with the contemplation of his latter end. When told he was dying, he clung with increased earnestness to the great truth of reconciliation through the blood of atonement, a gleam of the coming glory seemed to light up his face, and shaking hands with two friends who stood by his bedside, he said " he was perfectly happy : he had lived his threescore and ten years, but his life looked like yesterday." After about a month's serious illness, his spirit quitted its earthly tenement on the forenoon of 2d April 1S64, in the seventy-first year of his age. And it may be said with truth, that rarely has any one descended to the grave more beloved and lamented by survivors, and to whom the words more appropriately apply, " The memory of the just is blessed." In June 1S22, Mr Campbell married Margaret, second daughter of Archibald Roxburgh, merchant. Their married life was eminently happy. Mrs Campbell still survives, surrounded by a numerous circle of children and grandchildren, endowed with not a few of the excellent qualities of their progenitor, and all of them inspired with a profound respect for his memory. J. R. JAMES CRAWFORD JUN. |amiJ5 Crafof0r&. AMES CRAWFORD was born in North Berwick, in December 1808. Part of his education he received in that town, and part in Edinburgh. In his native town he always took the deepest interest to the last, and was con- nected with the burgh by legal ties throughout his life, as well as by relationships and old friendships. With the whole surrounding region he was intimately acquainted ; each spot was an old friend to him. He delighted to shew his friends the beauties of North Berwick Law, Tantallon Castle, and Dirleton, and to point out the small islands that lie out in the bay ; but especially did his eye turn to the Bass Rock, the prison-house of the martyrs, which he visited and re-visited, and of which he at last secured a permanent memorial in a handsome volume, embodying all that can be told historically and geologically of that well-known and picturesque island. In Edinburgh he betook himself to the law, and entered the office of Walter Dickson, Esq., W.S. There he was known for his diligence and conscientiousness, and especially for his benevolence and good nature ; so that to try to " provoke Crawford " was one of the feats which his fellow apprentices sometimes attempted but had to give up as hopeless. In 1 83 1 he was one of a small band who planned the Presbyterian Rcviezv — a periodical, literary, ecclesiastical, and theological in its character, wliich in aftcf years exercised no small influence upon the (T^'^pmw: f 3 DISRUPTION WORTHIES. affairs of the Church of Scotland. Though not, in the strict sense of the word, a " literary man," he shewed by his unwearied energetic support of that Quarterly, how thoroughly he appreciated literary work, and how intelligently he sympathized with the literary labours of others. In the religious poetry of the olden time Mr Crawford was much interested, and had a large and accurate acquaintanceship with the names and works of the old poets, from the Reformation downwards. More than one of his favourite hymns he printed in neat leaflets for letters, and for general distribution. Perhaps we might say that his favourite book was " Rutherford's Letters," with which he was thoroughly versant, and from which he delighted to quote to friends when sitting by the fireside or walking by the way. It is in great measure to him that the public are indebted for that splendid edition of the " Letters," in two handsome octavo volumes, which was published in Edinburgh in the year 1863. It was one of the last things to which he set his hands, and he was greatly gladdened at being helpful in raising this monument to the memory of his beloved divine before he himself was taken away. Having all along taken an interest in ecclesiastical affairs, and being well versed in Church law, he assisted in editing the " Book of Styles," published under the superintendence of the Church Law Society, of which he was a lay member. He was one of a small committee of that society to whom were entrusted in 1S42 the editing of the Acts of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The volume was published in the following year, with a brief preface by the Rev. Thomas Pitcairn, dated just three days before the Disruption, 15th May 1843. At the Disruption he was appointed Depute Clerk of the Free Church General Assembly, which office he continued to discharge till he was taken from us with singular exactness, urbanity, and painstaking toil. He grudged no labour in the discharge 'of his duties, and no one JAMES CRAWFORD. ever saw him rufilcd in temper by the pressure of business, or the inconsiderateness of those who had to deal with him as clerk. He was firm and decided, not only in principle, but in his actings. With all his gentleness, he would not allow himself to be moved away from what he believed to be the path of duty. He was not only the Christian friend in private, but he was the Christian man of business in public. He did not obtrude his religion upon others, but he made them feel at all times " whose he was, and whom he served." A thorough Presbyterian, and an intelligent Free Churchman, he was yet a Christian all over, and knew how to recognise Christ in his members everywhere. Not confounding distinctive testimony with sectarianism, he was not ashamed of his creed or his church ; yet he always held his own without censorious depreciation of others. Full of the charity which thinketh no evil, he yet possessed a far greater amount of shrewdness and accurate discernment of character than he was credited with. With- out artifice or subterfuge, without aff'ectation or show, he went about his daily duties, whether sacred or secular, shewing how to resist as well as how to yield. With a punctuality and attendance to business rarely equalled, he found time in the midst of common duties for reading, for prayer, for visiting the poor, for assisting the many religious institutions of the city. Business did not blunt the edge of his spirit, nor unfit him for the study of the Word, which was to him not a book of theology, or poetry, or sentiment, but a book of life, a well of living water for his thirsty soul. While studying the whole Scriptures, he dwelt specially on those passages which revealed the person of his Lord, either in the grace of his first coming, or the glory of his second. The prophetic Word he pondered much, and delighted to meditate on the predictions of the coming glory of the Church and of Israel. He " loved the appearing" of Christ ; "^ he "watched" for it ; he longed to see the King in his beauty. He not only read, but studied his Bible. It was his companion wherever he went. He treasured up and noted down ex^cry illustration y\c\ I DISK UP TIOX 1 1 'O R THIE.S. of it tliat he could lay hold of, from friends, from books, from sermons. One could not be with him five minutes without having the attention called to some passage on which he had been meditating, or on which he had obtained fresh light. The Bible that he was in the habit of using daily is all written over with references and remarks, sometimes original and sometimes borrowed. The interlinings and the marginal annotations frequently cover the page, and almost hide the print. It may be worth while to gather up a few of these, not so much for the importance or originality of the remarks, as for the exhibition of the writer's mind. On Rev. iii. 14, he remarks, " Laodicea is sunk in lukewarm apathy, dreaming of peace when on the edge of an undone eternity ; but not conclusively abandoned." On the margin of ist John v. 11, there is written : " Boston says, Sweet and comfortable prop of my soul." On the words, "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" (Jas. i. 15), we have, "Perhaps 'finished' has allusion to the sin of our first parents not being finished till the forbidden fruit was eaten, although both Eve and Adam had sinned before— the former by believing the devil, and the latter in also believing a lie." On Heb. xiii. 15, we read, "Nothing shews the degeneracy of the heart more than the not praising God. David did it continually." At the title of the Epistle to the Hebrews is written, "The royal and eternal priesthood of the Messiah." On Phil. i\'. 13, " I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me," his brief remark is, "Every one should be able to say this." Above 2d Cor. iii. 6 is a-rittcn in red ink, "Quoted by Dr Cunningham on his death- bed, as a message to the students, December 1861"; and over ist Cor. XV. is written, " This chapter was read to John Knox by his desire on the afternoon of the day of his death." On ist Cor. ii. 14, he writes, "A man who is in the Spirit discerns things ; docs not judge, but has perception or discernment of which the world is totally ignorant." At the top of the eighth of Romans is written, "The secret of living in the faith of an ever-present Saviour ; loving, tender, watchful, faithful." At ^£1® '^""tf^liiilf "^-f \? '^%;F ^ ^-^ ^ ir© (!:,,¥ fi^^ff^^)'"' JAMES CRAWFORD. Prov. xi. 24, " He that watercth shall be watered also himself," he has written these four words, as if expressive of his own experience as a teacher and elder: "What encouragement to teachers." On the Sony of Solomon iv. 6, " Until the day break," &c., there is this note, "This verse was wished to be put upon a tombstone in Rome by a Protestant father for a daughter. It was forbidden, as the Bible ; for, if permitted, it would admit the possibility of Protestants being saved." At the close of the fifty-third of Isaiah he writes, " The Church (believers) is in Christ, complete in Him, holy in Him, powerful in Him, hopeful in Him, i glorious in Him." At Isaiah Ivii. i, this note is made : " Dr Duncan, St Luke's, Edin., 25th October 1853, after Dr Gordon's death:" "Salt" (Matt. V. 12), "light" (Matt. v. 14). Psa. cxix. 20, "My soul breaketh," &c., he marks by a quotation from Dr Chalmers, which was evidently meant to be a declaration of his own feeling as in coincidence with that of Dr Chalmers, " Most descriptive of my own state and experience of any in the Bible." And on the same Psalm, ver. 130, he quotes the saying of another, "You cannot handle any saying of God in a true frame of '.".' spirit without finding yourself, in so doing, at a door which may lead '.ij you far in into the palace, — to the innermost thoughts of God's heart jj^ toward us." On Amos v. 18, he writes briefly, "Woe to those who are 'v not prepared, as wise virgins, for the coming of the Lord." On Obadiah '. and the brevity of his prophecy, he makes or quotes the remark, "If angels were to write books, we should have few folios." On the side of j the first verse of the 1 3th of Zechariah, about the fountain opened, there is ^1 this entry, "Tent at Ballachulish, September 1846." On Matt. xi. 28, iS^ ' I will give you rest," he writes, "Unrest is the great characteristic of .^'. the world ' On Matt, xxviii. 10, he writes, "' My brethren! No change '~-t|r in Chii^t'b feelings after His resurrection — 'My Father and your Father, !^£ my God and your God.' How lovely!" On Mark xiv. 8, "She hath done what she could," he says, "Sweet foretaste of things yet to come! Jesus will plead oui cause, as he pleads this woman's." - '^-^'^ I niSRUPTIO.X U-QRTHIES. It is interesting to notice the different places and ministers recorded in the margin of this well-used Bible. We have Dr Cunningham, Dr Chalmers, Dr Duncan, Dr Candlish, Dr Bruce, Dr Hamilton, Mr Hewit- son, with others. We have many of the Edinburgh churches, such as St Andrew's, St Luke's, Lady Glenorchy's, as well as North Berwick, Dirleton, and Regent Square, London. He delighted to go where he might hear the words of grace, Sabbath or week-day ; and he was above many " a lover of good men." The image of Christ in any one had an irresistible attraction for him. Loving the Master, he loved the disciple. The prayer meeting, the Bible reading, or the gathering of the "two or three" he delighted in. No one who observed him at these gatherings will forget his attitude of earnest looking and listening, as if drinking in every word. He was sensitive as to the soundness of the doctrine taught, and turned away from novelties that please the ear, but do not feed the soul. One of the last conversations which the writer of this memoir had with him was when he lay upon his death-bed. The subject was "Christ our life," on which his mind had evidently been dwelling. Once and again did he repeat the words, " The promise of life which is in Christ Jesus " (2 Tim. i. 2). Having in his days of early manhood found his way to the Cross, and learned there the forgiving love of God, he had walked this life as one who had tasted that the Lord was gracious, and who sought to lay everything that he possessed at the foot of the Cross. Surrounded with friends, burdened oftentimes with business, called to do much secular work, he yet maintained his conversation in heaven. " Blessed are the meek," might be his epitaph ; for with an uncommon meekness, gentleness, and tranquillit)', did he pass through earth, leaving most blessed fragrance behind him. He died in November 1863; and he lies buried in the Grange Cemetery, not far from Chalmers and Cunningham and the other wor- thies of his generation, to whom he was so fondly attached. H. B. I JOHN MAITLAN D. ^ C^TM^'^^V^',. «' Jobtt JHattlaittr. I T is difficult to convey to a younger generation an adequate idea of tlic remarkable manner in which Scottish minds, hearts, and consciences were possessed and moved during the Disruption period. Most of those who, at the time, were old enough to understand what was going on, and had already given themselves to the Lord, felt, as by a religious instinct, that the question at issue was a vital one — was in reality and essentially the same question which has been contested on divers fields in all ages of the Church : " Shall the Lord Jesus Christ, or shall He not, rule in and over His own house ?" or, in other words, " Shall any earthly or temporal authority be suffered to interpose between Him and His true church. His body, His bride, His believing people ? " If the religious instincts of one party were clear and unhesitating, there was a corresponding unanimity on the side of their opponents, who, not appreciating the religious aspects of the question, allowed themselves to be swayed by political sentiments, by a constitutional dread of change, and perhaps, too, by an overweening estimate of the importance of State support. In trying to recall that momentous period, we must remember that it had been preceded by, and was in fact the natural outcome of, a remark- able season of religious awakening and revival. Many young persons, just entering on the serious responsibilities of life, had shortly before re- ■M ^^^^^o^. .:=?-:i'^i DISK UP T/OX 1 1 -OR THIES. ceived a baptism from above ; a constellation of men, so to speak, all born about the same time in the early years of the century, had risen, specially prepared and fitted to take up and carry forward the ancestral testimony handed down by Knox, Melville, and Henderson, and latterly maintained i by Sir Henry Moncreiff, by the elder M'Crie, by Thomson and Chalmers ; \ and it seemed as if a glorious work was in store for the Church of Scot- land, under the fostering care of a recently reformed, a liberal and paternal , government. The cause of Establishments had virtually triumphed, in \ spite of a formidable assault, conducted with great ability and earnestness y for several years by the nonconformists of both England and Scotland, while a scheme of church extension, conceived on the most enlightened jirinciples by Dr Chalmers, was pressed upon the mind of his countrymen with that burning eloquence and enthusiasm which already made him the acknowledged leader of a third Reformation. But this splendid prospect was not to be realised in the manner which man ignorantly anticipated. It was to be learned once more, as events thickened during the "ten years' conflict," that the great Head of the Church had higher and more comprehensive lessons to teach than His servants had imagined. He shewed them that the politicians and legislators of this world will not tolerate that spiritual independence which He claims for His bride, and j that State support can be obtained only by her submitting to unwarrant- |; able limitations of that blood-bought inheritance. The controversy which j commenced, as is well known, with the comparatively small question of I how the scriptural choice and call of ministers might be reconciled with II I the law of Patronage, unjustly restored to the statute book by the Act of >f! Queen Anne, raised, in rapid succession, a series of questions still more 1 1^ vital to a church of Christ, until it became too obvious to be doubted, ■^i'^- that unless a legislative enactment could be obtained, recognising the X'-^ claims of the Church in a full and satisfactory manner, no alternative was ', left to her but to abandon her connection with the State, and trust to the providence of her divine Head, who, having the hearts of men in His i:¥ E IM A„!^iS'>f|^r^:'' ' At ^'/M^ '^^"SM JOHN MA IT LAND. hand, can incline them to give what is needed of their worldly substance for the maintenance and extension of His own cause and kingdom. The sacrifice was made on the i8th of May 1843, and the greatness '^ of it we can hardly realise. A few considerations may help us to do so ji' in some degree. Chalmers himself, backed by many of those whom he il had inspired with his enthusiasm for State endowments and an Estab- \ lished Church, felt the sacrifice in giving up the splendid purpose so jf long and ardently cherished, when it could no longer be carried out, \ without a still greater sacrifice of principle, and without disloyalty to the t Lord Jesus Christ ; hundreds of ministers resigned for the same reason ' their charges, and with their families abandoned, at the call of duty, the pleasant homes in which they had reasonably hoped to spend their lives ; professors had to leave their posts of time-honoured influence in the universities, and to undertake, amid new surroundings, the theological training of students, who in great numbers flocked to them with youthful ardour and confidence ; all the missionaries of the Church cast in their lot with the faithful minority, and, of course, they and their work in foreign parts had to be maintained by contributions from a willing people, already burthened with many anxieties at home ; while parish school- masters — and these the best — whose sympathies were on the same side, justly claimed similar support. In short, the whole machinery of the Church of Scotland needed to be set up afresh, so great was the Disrup- tion in its results, so real and deep-seated were the relifjious convictions :| I which called for the sacrifice. History can now tell that the demands ]i which all these changes made on the liberality of the faithful people of Scotland, were responded to in a manner so remarkable as to prove y, ' emphatically that they too considered the question at issue to be one of \;^\ vital and religious moment. So indeed it was ; and no lower considera- .']. tions could have sustained the nascent Free Church in the crisis through which she had to pass. The hand of God was visible in the DisrujJtion ; and on looking back, after thirty-three years, the worthies of that eventful /- I "B DISRUPTION WORTHIES. period are now seen, when most of them are gone to their reward, to have been specially chosen, endowed, and equipped for the work which each liad to accomplish. Who that witnessed these men and their arduous ' labours with a sympathetic interest in the struggling church of his fathers, can ever forget the glad sense of relief, the hopeful enlargement ; of heart, the gratitude to God which prevailed on every hand, recalling vividly those early pentecostal da)-s which we read of in the second chapter of the Acts. In making these preliminary remarks, we have not lost sight of John Maitland, but have been trying to explain those deep convictions which underlay his quiet energy and zeal, rendering him in great measure the useful man he was in his generation. The fourth son of the late Sir Alexander Gibson Maitland, Baronet, of Clifton Hall, county of Edinburgh, he was born on the 17th of January 1803. We do not possess many particulars of his boyhood and youth, but old surviving friends speak of him as being then the same sensible, well-conducted, and reliable person that he continued to be during his ;,/ subsequent career. At what period he came under serious and saving j' impressions is not known ; but he shewed in early manhood what side he '■ had taken, by devoting himself to Sabbath-school teaching and other occupations and duties of like significance. When the time came for choosing a profession, following his own natural bias, he became an accountant in Edinburgh, a calling which he followed on his own account for many }'ears with reputation and success. Latterly he was associated in business \\\t\\ his future brother-in-law, Mr 1* William Wood, C.A., a gentleman of like mind and kindred tastes. Mr / f Maitland's professional aptitude and benevolence led him at an early - 1^ period to take a deep interest and a very influential part in the organiza- - (^ ' tion and development of the National Security Savings Bank. We are ,'"|^ informed on good authority, that by devising a method whereby all the V 4 numerous small accounts of such useful institutions could be brought -i$''\%-': ''t:^^' 41 JOHN MAITLASD. annually to an exact balance, he solved a difficulty which had previously stood in the way of their success, and made the Edinburgh Savings Bank a model for others throughout the country. The institution has now grown to such large dimensions, and its admirable management has been so prolific of good elsewhere, that it would be difficult to over- estimate these early services of Mr Maitland. During the years of public earnestness and anxiety of which we have already spoken, our friend was no idle onlooker ; but like his contemporary and brother-in-law, the late Mr James Hog of Newliston, stood by the Church of Scotland with unwavering firmness in the time of her trials, and when the Disruption came, like him, " turned from the remaining Establishment with the most melancholy aversion." Is it conceivable that either of these earnest calm-thinking men, had they lived to the present day, could possibly have entertained a thought of retracing their steps — even with Patronage abolished — until the General Assembly of the Established Church, which then " bowed in the dust, and echoed the very words of the Civil Courts, declaring the solemn sentences of the Church to be ' null and void,'" had, as a preliminary, acknowledged its unfaithfulness, and endorsed the Claim of Rights presented by the Free Church of Scotland } From the very first Mr Maitland threw himself with heart and soul into that round of active labour which an event so momentous demanded from all who would help the Free Church in her emergency ; and his business capacity, his soundness of judgment, his social position, made him a most valuable and a trusted coadjutor. He became a deacon in 1843, and in 1846 an elder, in Free St George's, Edinburgh, and being thus in the centre of affairs, was enabled to render much effective service. His professional talents were at all times available ; and no man probably bestowed more earnest and successful thought than he did upon the general Sustentation Fund and other financial departments of the Church. Several able pamphlets, remarkable for clearness, terseness, and pith, did ^k D/SA' UP HON I VOR THJES. ' \: a great deal towards enlightening the minds of those who were mainly responsible, and inaugurating those principles of distribution which have rendered the Sustentation Scheme so eminently successful, and made it a model, probably, to other self-supporting churches in the future.* These ;?" exertions of Mr Maitland were very disinterested in the eyes of those ir who could duly appreciate them, inasmuch as they partially estranged towards him not a few friends in the upper classes of society, with whom he had been associated by family relationship. ; , In the year 1850, when the public office of accountant to the Court of i' Session was created, he was nominated by the Crown to fill it ; and the s appointment was all the more honourable and gratifying, that it was conferred without solicitation made or influence exerted on his behalf. 1.'^ He filled the position for fifteen years, until the day of his death, and the admirable manner in which the duties were discharged fully justified the confidence reposed in him. His public responsibilities did not preclude the performance, and that very efficiently, of those duties which devolved upon him as a private Christian and an office-bearer in the Church. Although frequently a member of the General Assembly, he was not in j; the habit of addressing the house, because his inclination, perhaps his talent, did not lead him in that direction ; but a more intelligent, a more shrewd and trustworthy adviser, was not to be easily found, and there was something too in his appearance, in his handsome countenance and i. aristocratic bearing, which made him a conspicuous member of the court. i He was a director of the Commercial Bank and of the North British J(i' Insurance Company, both positions indicating unmistakeably the value i/j\ attached, by competent judges, to his good sense, his knowledge of affairs, /w * Mr Maitland wrote an admirable tractate, entitled, " A help to Adherents of the Free Church, to decide on principle and for themselves the question, What contribution is equitably due by me to the Sustentation Fund?" It was very useful at the time, and is well worthy of republication. "The Political Economy of the Sabbath" also engaged his pen; and a very able anonymous painphlet, with a clear statement of principles, true for all time, oa " Spiritual Independence in its lower or Civil and Ecclesiastical Bearings." .^-Jl. 1' JOHN MAITLAND. and his business habits. It would be no easy task to enumerate the many other fields of usefulness in which any spare time at his disposal found occupation. One or two may be specially noted — the Home 'j Mission operations of the Free Church, and everything connected with j the reparation of those breaches which the shock of the Disruption had occasioned. In the building of churches, of manses, of schools, he took a very warm interest ; and the extent of his contributions in such cases was remarkable, considering his means, and only to be accounted for by the strength of religious principle which animated him, and by the good ^ .scriptural habit, early formed, of setting apart a fixed portion of his income Ij for philanthropic and Christian objects. In this matter he was, so to . | speak, a reformer before tlie reformation, — his sagacity shewing him how greatly the pecuniary means needed for the promotion of these great causes would be multiplied, were jr;'.y/i7«rt//c ^«'/;/_i^ the rule, and not the exception. A few years before his death, Mr Maitland eclipsed all his previous benefactions, by building on a most eligible site, which he had secured in close proximity to the New College, veiy commodious and handsome premises for the various offices of the Church, nicluding a spacious hall | of elegant proportions, worthy of the metropolitan Presbytery. Although © ©:,¥ E," ■^ S DIi> R UP riON 1 1 'O K THIE-S % important positions in the ministry, both at home and abroad. In the Kirk-session and Deacons' Court, his clear and larc^e views of the business transacted at the meetings promoted the success of every under- taking and the solution of every difficulty. His frank address and his friendly consideration of those with whom he came into contact, tempered the differences of opinion which are so ready to occur in the intercourse of life. Dr Tweedie's writings form an important part of his life-work. He had the love of writing, and the power of writing. His works were numerous, and, if not profound or exhaustive, led on the reader from one step to another in the path of truth and righteousness. Many were especially written for the young, and not a few yoimg men and young women were guided upward in the Christian life by the perusal of these varied volumes. His aim in all his writings was to promote the cause of Christ and the good of souls, and in doing so, he never shrunk from declaring the truth, even although it might be unpalatable. His correspondence was very extensive. Indeed he delighted to address his friends in this way, and the letters were of a valuable character. They were rcpresentati\-c of himself as a Christian friend and instructor, and they supplied the counsel, or comfort, or expostulation that might be respectively suitable. Some people resented this, but many more relished it, and felt grateful. One replied to him, " Write a common- sense letter. When I wish a sermon, I can get one on the other side of the street." But the same individual, at a later period said, " He was right, and I was wrong." Dr Tweedie used conversation for the same purpose for which he made such large and effective use of correspondence. He often spoke a word in the ordinary intercourse of life which arrested the attention of the careless, or gave a spark of light to the downcast. His pastoral visitation was systematic and faithful. He addressed himself at once to the important business about which he had come. Even in casually 'l^@n^^;^'¥ifi^jE T s \6 i^^,^;;w M i A Kl © ^' ^•^ 1 meeting with his people on the street, it was his habit to leave a good word as he passed on. He illustrated well the remark, " A word spoken in season, how good is it !" He was never a robust man. He often suffered from cough, and this sometimes interfered with his pulpit duties. Other ailments were superadded, and he became infirm. In the summer of 1861 he went with his family to the Continent, and passed several months in Switzer- land and Germany, enjoying very much the salubrious climate, and delighting in the varied scenery spread around him. His health was considerably benefited by this sojourn, and he returned home strengthened for his important duties. But he became more easily influenced by atmospheric changes, and his loved work was performed with greater difficulty. He at length became convinced that the services of an assistant or colleague were necessary. He was less sanguine than others as to the issue. He thought the disease had now taken a deeper hold of his body, and that his active working life would probably not be very long ; yet he spoke calmly and cheerfully, and in his graceful, dignified manner, acquiesced in the arrangements made and intended for his comfort. It pleased God to withhold His blessing from the means used for his recovery. His death-bed was a bed of suffering — of very great suffering, with few interruptions. In the early part of it, there were intervals when he was comparatively free from pain, and then his conversation was cheerful as was his wont; but latterly pain and exhaustion gave a sombre hue to all that he said. More than once he declared that he knew whom he had believed, and felt thankful that he had not left till that hour of weakness the grand work of life. He addressed striking admonitions to some of those who were beside him, which they are not likely ever to forget ; he gave utterance to his affectionate feelings ; he expressed his thankfulness for services rendered to him. To one friend he said, " Ee sure that you have Christ." On one occasion he exclaimed, without refer- j A is'i © y & @: ¥ E m hMmm DISRUPTION WORTHIES. ence to anything that had been said either by himself or others, " There is light before the throne." We cannot tell certainly, but we may imagine what he meant by these words. He was in a dark valley : all was dark except one spot, and that spot was the throne of God and the Lamb. There was light there, and when the valley had been passed through, all was light. It can be truly said that he bore a life-testimony to the Saviour whom he loved and served. Having dedicated himself to the ministry — first, perhaps, merely as a profession, but afterwards as a heart-work — he gave all his energies of mind and heart to its prosecution. He derived his views of doctrine and of duty from the holy Scriptures ; and the written word, as he often said, " led to the Incarnate Word." He preached the freeness of the gospel invitation to all sinners without exception ; but he never lost sight of the grand cardinal truth, that God is supreme, all in all ; that man's salvation originated in the mind of God, and that in the case of each individual soul, it is the grace of God which draws the sinner to Himself He was not only a bold, uncompromising herald of the heavenly message, but a skilful, painstaking, loving pastor ; and in both capacities his ministry was blessed with peculiar success, alike in the awakening and conversion of sinners and in the edification of believers. He never belied his character as a Christian minister, or as a Christian gentleman. Need it be added that he was emphatically a lover of good men ? He cherished such wherever he found them, and co-operated with them in vrorks of faith and labours of love. He was Secretary of the Society for Relief of the Destitute Sick from 1843 to his death, and did what he could to promote the success of that admirable association. Dr Tweedie died on the 24th March 1S63 (being survived by Mrs Tweedie, two sons, and three daughters), and on the Saturday following his remains were laid in the Grange Cemetery, not far from the resting- place of his revered and beloved friend Dr Chalmers. W. B. ^ ^■•fe- ROBERT PAUL. ' ^-'f^^^ti ^ahtxt f auL f r preaching, gregation. OBERT PAUL was born at Edinburgh on 15th May 1788. His father, the Rev. WilHam Paul, was Colleague of Sir Henry Moncreiff in the pastorate of the West Kirk, and in 1780 married Miss Susan Moncreiff, Sir Henry's sister. His ministry was brief, but in a marked degree useful ; his views of Divine truth being evangelical, and his in these dark times, attractive to a very large and earnest con- At the time of his father's death, Robert was only fourteen years of age ; and although he dated the commencement of his religious life somewhat later than this, he was even then singularly thoughtful and mature, taking his part in the direction of household affairs, guiding the studies of the younger children, conducting family worship, and engaging at his spare moments in works of benevolence. Having completed his High School and University curriculum, he commenced business life, and entered the Commercial Bank in one of its subordinate appointments, from which, by rapid strides, he rose to be its Manager, which office he held until 1853, when he retired from the arduous position, but became one of the Bank Directors. He married, in 1814, Miss Charlotte Erskine of Aberdona — a union which endured, and was characterised by a very tender affection, until 1847, when he was left a widower. In a letter addressed to a friend in 1862, Mr Paul said : "It is the t 7 Py'^^O Ir^ ~---:-^^ DISRUPTION WORTHIES. very busy men who find time for everything, not your leisurely men who sit with their feet on- the fender and read newspapers." This remark found a striking illustration in himself Placed at the head of a great public Company whose interests required constant thought and watch- fulness, and whose demands upon his time were incessant, he found, or made, leisure for added work of the most multifarious kinds. His experience, sagacity, and readiness to help, led to his being appealed to for counsel and for aid in connection with matters political, benevolent, and religious. Never a keen party man in State politics, he threw himself into such movements as those connected with Slavery and the Test and Corporation Acts, his sympathies with everything that advanced the cause of freedom leading him to associate himself in these and other questions with the Liberal party. But his available leisure and strength were reserved for Church matters. Hereditarily attached to evangelical opinion as regarded both doctrine and discipline, he had carefully formed his own judgments regarding these matters ; and then with characteristic energy he threw himself into the current of affairs which deepened in interest and im- portance until the Church threw off its State connection in 1S43. Along with the wonderful roll of men who clung to her in her day of trouble, he became one of the Disruption Worthies. He had a striking and memorable way of expressing himself in connection with matters in which his affections were deeply engaged. It was in the view of the Disruption that, in speaking at a congregational meeting of the necessary breaking up of a Missionary Association which had done good service, he said, " I consent to its dissolution very much as I consent to my own — in the hope of a better resurrection." His mental and physical activities were at their best in these memor- able times. He had no misgivings as to the course pursued by the Church, or as to her future. He was emphatically a man of faith and prayer, and, as those who knew him best will remember, used to accept ^_^4 ROBERT PAUL the promises of Scripture with a singularly natural and childlike trust. On 3d June 1843, writing to a distance of the great events of the past weeks, he says, " God will overrule all for His own gloiy in the advance- ment of His spiritual church and kingdom." Mr Paul was ordained an Elder of the West Kirk by Sir Henry Moncreiff in 18 16;. and it was not until after the Disruption that he became an Elder of St George's. His admiration of the unrivalled preaching of Dr Candlish, between whom and himself a very true and tender friendship existed, was great. To a friend he wrote in 1864, when •Dr Candlish preached the last of his sermons on the First Epistle of John, " A magnificent sermon as he closed his long series of discourses on First John, the text being, ' This is the true God, and (the) eternal life.' I wish I could give you a notion of its aim and scope, and some of its noble passages." His discharge of all his congregational duties in the midst of his burdened life throughout the week, are examples and encouragements to the hardest worked men of business to give some of their time and strength to the service of the Lord. While interesting himself in all the needful administrative arrange- ments consequent on the Church's new condition, he specially identified himself with matters affecting the Theological College and Library and the Educational Schemes of the Free Church generally, associated in these great questions with his much-loved friend Dr David Welsh. The General Assembly of each )-ear brought round a time which he much enjoyed. His wide acquaintance with Ministers and Elders in all parts of Scotland led him to open his house, with even more than its wonted hospitality, to the members who came up to this great annual gathering. In Assembly business he was constantly consulted, his judgment beino- felt to be of the highe.st value in delicate and difificult questions. His bright cheerfulness of spirit, his ready sympathy with those in doubt, and his pleasant jest as things seemed to be taking a warm or excited f m^' DISRUPTION WORTHIE; turn, were of the utmost service in the Church's Business Committee. And in the Assembly itself, although — owing to a somewhat feeble voice — not a powerful speaker, his presence on the platform elicited an imme- diate call for silence ; and his words, always delivered with clearness ii of expression and earnestness of purpose, were listened to with marked J" respect. ;'. In his latest days the work in which he was most deeply interested was the formation of a Society for aiding the education and business training of the sons and daughters of Ministers and Missionar-ks of the [ Free Church ; in the originating of which the writer of this notice had j' the happiness of being associated with him. It was a movement much after his own heart, and he worked at it with marvellous energy. Among the many benevolent institutions in whose welfare he was interested, and in the management of which he took part, was the Orphan Hospital. From a very early period of life he was one of its Managers, and contributed by his wise and practical help to lay the foundations of the admirable system under which it has become a model institution. 1 Mr Paul was a man of quite unique character. Having received a liberal education, he followed it up by varied reading and careful reflection. His constant use of his Bible made him one of the most completely furnished of Scripture students. It was an exercise at once intellectually and spiritually refreshing to hear him expound the Word, I and illustrate it by comparisons of passages and texts. He was singularly '■ thoughtful, with perhaps an over-fastidious taste, and with a tendency ' ^ . — sometimes too pronounced — to dwell upon fine distinctions. These 3,i(' features of mind revealed themselves not only in conversation, but in his 'l'- writings, which were the product of an original and cultivated mind, and "2\ were marked by great elegance and grace of diction. His Memoir of the mV Rev. James Martin, who succeeded Dr Andrew Thomson as Minister of St George's, and his many contributions to the periodical publications of •EBAT^ y^^ ROBERT PA UL. the day, abundantly illustrate his literary power. As a letter writer he was quite remarkable, having a singular gift of selecting topics congenial to his correspondent, and communicating them with the most graphic description and with exquisite touches of humour or pathos, as the subject demanded. In social intercourse he was a charming companion. Full of anecdote of the best kind, told in the best way, he at once instructed and amused. From the seniors of the party with whom he was holding grave discussions of Church questions and principles, he turned with perfect naturalness to the more youthful, and with some kindly jest drew them into conversa- tion ; they in their turn easily attracting him to join in their games, or to tell them once again some familiar story associated in their minds with former visits from their old friend. His villa of Kirkland Lodge, near Edinburgh, was the rendezvous of the choicest men, clerical and lay, of his acquaintance ; and there on the bowling-green, with its grand view of the Pentlands and the intervening valley, he presided over hard-contested games ; and with alternating con- versation on high themes, or ready quotation applicable to some passing incident, or boy-like rush after the ball that threatened to dispute his own or his partner's claim to be victor, he kept the scene full of the purest and most joyous life. The happy party around liis table afterwards, and the closing " worship " ere the guests dispersed, are memories that refuse to leave ns. But the outward man began to perish. Early in 1S65 he wrote to a friend : " The springs of life are gradually weakening, I am veiy conscious ; . . . yet the remembering and thinking powers are in great, I had almost said in terrible, force, concentrated on fewer subjects, "^'jC but on these intensely." In April 1866 the process of physical decline ^M was accelerated, but the mind and heart were as fresh as ever. "Though Hf' grave and more silent than formerly, I am not downhearted, and very )\| far from joyless. Indeed I have sometimes wonderful gleams. Conflict i I f DISK UP TION I VOK THIES. no doubt often betwixt flesh and spirit, yet I do feel that the blessed hope is burning brighter every day." And yet again on 226. May, within two months of his death : "This day the General Assembly meets, and it does seem a strange thing, that instead of being there in the thick of it, I should be here reposing in quiet and comparative solitude." Still he carried on his reading and writing, received his friends, and continued to hold his Sabbath evening meetings in the carpenter's shop at the gate, or under his own roof at Kirkland, and with rare taste and spiritual fervour "opened the Scriptures" to the gathered cottars and servants. To his greatly loved friend Lord Cowan, who saw him a few days before his death as he sat on the lawn in the bright sunshine, and who asked him as to his feelings in view of his approaching departure, he replied, looking up into the blue sky, " I feel, my dear friend, as if my true life were just about to begin." On the night before he passed away — a calm and quiet Sabbath evening — he was carried in his chair to be present at the meeting, which was that night held under Kirkland roof, and the services of which were conducted by his friend the Rev. J. H. Wilson of the Barclay Church. When Mr Wilson reminded him of the Saviour's legac}', he replied, "Yes! I have no terror, but a solid, substantial, abiding peace." The service was closed by singing the twent\--third Psalm. "And so, with sootlied, confiding heart, And cheering smiles of peace, He hasted through the shadow dark Unto the bright release !" Within a few hours— in the early morning of i6th July iS66 — he had " departed out of this world unto the Father," — which he was wont to call " the grandest definition of the death of a believer." D. M. SIR DAVID BREWSTER. ^ir BabiiJ ^xtb^sttx. # )OUR church may well be proud of her men of science — Brewster, Fleming, Miller, and Lands- borough," said Edward Forbes in 1854, in the course of a pleasant geological ramble, as we rested in sight of the thatched cottage, Kirkroads, Bath- gate, where Fleming was born. These men had won a fame widci than European, and were then drawing the attention of the foremost thinkers of their day to the principles for which the Free Church of Scotland had been honoured to witness and suffer. Ere six or seven years had passed, all, except Brewster, had gone to " A higher place, More to behold, and more in love to dwell." David Brewster was born on the nth December 1781, at Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, where his father was rector of the grammar school. David was the third of six children — four sons and two daughters. One son became minister of Craig, another of Scoonie, and a third of the Abbey Church, Paisley. David also entered the University of Edin- burgh, with the view of qualifying himself for the ministry of the Scottish Church, but other work was to be laid to his hand. The chief subjects of interest in the life of a man of science, are the records of his observations and discoveries ; his influence on scientific progress and on public culture. This outline sketch of Brewster's life is f fi ^^^^^ DISR UP TION H V/f THIES. '^^^ necessarily very general, but it may indicate what he was, and what he did, as " by the force of liis own merit he made his way." The man who conquers adverse circumstances, or makes them the steps of the ladder by which he climbs to eminence, is nobler and worthier than he to whom high position is secured bv birth. It is not necessary to dwell on David Brewster's boyhood. The quiet beauty of the scenery around Jedburgh, the lingering legends of the stirring strife of feudal times, and the weird stories of superstition still rife in the district, together with the genial influence of Dr Somer- ville, the parish minister, and the companionship of lads whose mental bent was towards physical studies, all helped to mould and fashion the mind and habits of " the young philosopher." He entered college when only twelve years of age, and graduated at nineteen. Self-reliant from the outset, he acted as a tutor from 1799 to 1807. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1S04. He early identified himself with the Evangelical party in the Church, several of whose dis- tinguished members anticipated for him a brilliant and useful career as a minister. Even before his licence, public attention had been turned to him, and he had won the high regard of many literary and scientific men. When it was known that he was to preach his first sermon in the West Church, Edinburgh, there was an unusually large muster, both of the congregation and of strangers. W^e are assured by one who was present that the discourse was thoughtful, earnest, full of gospel truth and good sense. " He had his discourse thoroughly committed to memory, and delivered it with great energy, increasing to the close, which was in these words : — ' Let it be our firm resolution, our earnest endeavour, our im- portunate prayer, that, so long as we have being and breath, we will serve the Lord.' " After this he preached frequently, with much accept- ance, in Edinburgh and the neighbourhood. But, from the outset, Mr Brewster suffered from a nervous infirmity, which led to most painful feelings whenever he was called in person to address others. This ulti- ^fe^-^^lT IF® IR-JIJ l)|^i'i S lr,gr\© K,"p;W d Ia \ I ■S/J^ DAVID BRFAVSTER. im to leave the profession of is early choice for the mately determined service of science. The twofold curriculum through which he had passed served him well in after years, when, like other physicists, he reached points where observa- tion must give place to faith — points which lie on the edge of that great mystery of Being, at whose closed gates all science comes, sooner or later, to knock, and where all true workers are made to feel that, if they are to enter in, it will not be in the light of the transient fire, struck out by their own efforts like sparks from flint, but in the steady light of faith. The discipline of the arts' course ripened in him that trained common sense which finds its highest scope and satisfaction in rigidly scientific methods of observation and research, while the theological course gave a healthy tone and definiteness of doctrinal view to his religion. To all his scientific work he brought a quick habit of the eye, great breadth of view, strong imagination, a vigorous mind, persistent capacity of application, and, withal, a faith which kept the heart awake to, or on the alert for, hints of the unseen world among the patent phenomena of this. At the time of Mr Brewster's birth Scottish physical science had begun to attract great attention. Black, Robison, and Playfair were in the heart of their fruitful labours. Walker had left his manse at Moffat for the Natural History Chair in Edinburgh University. Geology was just about to take a step forward, prophetic of the high place since assigned to it. Hutton's " Theory of the Earth " was laid before the Royal Society in 1789. Brewster hastened to take part in the move- ment, and to give direction to it. While yet in his teens, he began to publish his researches on the inflection of light, — a department in which he continued to gather fresh laurels till he was within six or seven of a hundred years of age. Revived science very soon began to influence the work of the Church. Unbelief turned to it for weapons against revealed truth. The battle of the Evidences came to be fought on physical rather than, as in the past. :i UjylE^^ATU^- DISRUPTIOA' WORTHIES. on inetaph)'sical ground. And men -were needed whose attainments commanded the respect of scientific workers, and in whose theological acquirements the Church herself had confidence. Such were Chalmers, Brewster, and Fleming. A work of vast moment fell to them. They secured for men of science the sympathy and encouragement of thought- ful churchmen, while they held back the opposition to science on the part of an imperfectly instructed Christian community. In 1806 Mr Brewster projected the "Edinburgh Encyclopaedia," which he edited till its completion in 1830, and enriched by valuable contributions. An event occurred in connection with this work destined to have vitally important bearings, not on Scottish Christianity only, but on Christian thought throughout the world — an event, moreover, closely related to that religious and ecclesiastical movement within the Church which culminated in the Disruption. I refer to the remarkable spiritual change through which Chalmers passed when preparing the article, " Christianity," for Brewster's Encyclopaedia. When he began the work, he had only a name to live ; but, in the course of it, views of the God- head of Christ, the divine origin of the religion of Christ, and of his own need of a personal Saviour, filled his mind, and were used by the Holy Spirit to give him a place " among the living." In conjunction with Professor Jameson, Dr Brewster started the " Edinburgh Philosophical Journal." Indeed, from the commencement of the Encyclopaedia, he continued to take a leading part in the literature of Scottish science. In the appendix to the admirable memoir — " The Home Life of David Brewster" — by his daughter Mrs Gordon, the titles of three hundred and fifteen papers are given, contributed by him to learned societies or to scientific journals. A searching analysis of these, in their relations to the views of other workers, has still to be made. When the scientific life of Sir David Brewster shall be written, it will be a record of untiring application, painstaking research, persistent devo- tion to scientific method, careful generalisation, and brilliant discovery. k A !?© K'^;'1^'||iIR'b S T f^" ^';f ;W IM 5 A Kl © ' S/R DA]- ID BREWSTER. His papers on Light — the phenomena of refraction, polarisation, and absorption — won for him a foremost place among physicists. Even his kaleidoscope, "the philosopher's toy," has been turned to good practical account. "Where got you that striking pattern.''" I once asked in a Birmingham warehouse. " In the kaleidoscope," was the ready reply. Sir David also published several popular works, as " The Life of Newton," " Martyrs of Science," " Letters on Natural Magic," and " More Worlds than One." His articles in the quarterlies were many and interesting. Among those contributed to the " North British Review," one deserves special notice. In 1845 Sir David reviewed the fourth edition of " The Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation," a work which, at the time, was as much talked of as Mr Darwin's "Origin of Species" was later. In this paper Sir David's great ability, varied accomplishments, and tact as a Christian apologist, stand very boldly out. His facts in disproof of the author's confident assertions were overwhelming. Indeed, the review was virtually the death of that work as a plea for materialism. It contains, moreover, the refutation of several of the strongest pleas recently urged in support of the factless theory of organic evolution. My personal acquaintance with Sir David began in 1S58, when I became editor of the " North British Review." From that date till my resignation of the editorship, I had frequent communications from Sir David, both personally and by letter. At this time an article written by him gave so much offence to certain workers, that strong efforts, successful for a time, were made to keep him from a position which was his by merit. At the request of Sir James Simpson, in whose house at Trinity he was then living, and several other friends, it fell to me to inform Sir David of the cabal. I have a lively recollection of the dignified bearing of Sir David as a philosopher and as a Christian gentleman, in circumstances peculiarly trying to a man of science. The honour was later bestowed, and lustre shed on it by Sir David consenting to receive it.* * We have not space for the list of his honours. Here are the chief :— M. A., Cambridge, DISRUPTIOM WORTHIES. Sir David continued loyal to the evangelical party ni the Chuic whose views of doctrine and work he had deliberately chosen at the outset of his career. And when, on the i8th of May 1843, the Disrup- tion took place, he joined the procession from St Andrew's Church to Canonmills Hall, his brother, the venerable Dr Brewster of Craig, leaning on his arm — fit representatives of Scottish science and Scottish piety. Sir David had^ in the heat of the conflict, been a valued adviser of those who took an active and prominent part in it. Its close brought him into even more familiar and friendly relations with them. The College arrangements of the Free Church got much of his attention. The institution of the Chair of Natural Science in the New College, and the appointment of his friend Dr Fleming as its first Professor, greatly gratified him.* Sir David was twice married — first, in iSio, to Juliet, youngest daughter of James Macpherson, M.P., Esq. of Belleville, editor of "Ossian." Four sons and one daughter were the fruit of this marriage. Second, in 1857, to Jane, daughter of Thomas Purnell, Esq., Scarborough, by whom he had one daughter. Sir David died at his favourite country residence, Allerly, Melrose, on the loth Februaiy 1868. His last words were, " Life has been very bright to me, and now there is the brightness beyond." " I shall see Jesus, who created all things ; Jesus who made the worlds ; I shall see Him as He is." "I have had the light for many years, and oh ! how bright it is ! I feel so SAFE, SO S.VTISFIED." 1807; LL.D., Aberdeen, 1807; F.R.S.E., 1S08; Copley Medallist, 1815 ; French Institute Prize, 1816 ; Rumford Medallist, 1818 ; six other royal medals subsequently; F.R.S., 1818; M.I.C.E., 1822; Corresponding Member of French Institute, 1825; Guelphic Order, 1830; Knighthood by William IV., 1832 ; Principal of the United Colleges of St Salvador and St Leonard's, St Andrews, 1S38; one of the Eight Associates of the French Institute, 1S49 Principal of the University of Edinburgh, 1S59. * See article on " The Vestiges," referred to above. J. D. ^ n, ^Hi ^% mfc?^ ^^^^^^ S(Oi ri ^^^ V ^^^^^^^^K ^ \ f J ito ^^^ ~\ / JAMES BANNERMAN. D.D. y lamfs Dann^rmatt, B.D. F the ministers who felt themselves constrained to withdraw from the Establishment in 1843, not a few were sons of the manse, and of these the subject of this sketch was one. He was born on the 9th of April 1S07, in the manse of Cargill, Presbytery of Dimkeld, of which parish his father was minister. His grandfather, the minister of St Martin's, Presbytery of Perth, married Janet, daughter of Sir John Turing, Bart, minister of Drumblade.* He died in June 18 10, in the ninety-eighth year of his age, and the sixty-ninth of his ministry, and was at the time of his death the father of the Church of Scotland. This aged minister's father, ordained in 1703, was settled first in the parish of Inveravon, Presbytery of Aberlour, and translated to Forglen, where he died in 1749. In the session records of the former parish there are not a few curious entries very characteristic of the times. The district was a wild Highland one, full of feuds and fightings, and the minister and his elders, with the occasional aid of the Laird of Grant, appear to have exercised discipline after a most vigorous fashion. His son. Professor Bannerman's grandfather, afterwards removed to St Martin's, was appointed assistant and successor to his father in 1742. * The baronetcy, dating from 163S, was for some reason allowed to fall into abeyance, but was revived in 1792 by the minister of Drumblade's grandson, Sir Robert Turing of Banff Castle, who was the son of the Rev. Alexander Turing, minister of Oyne. DISRUPTION IVORTHIES. Another son, Patrick, was minister of St Madoes in 1741, was translated to Kinnoull in 1746, and thence to Salton, Presbytery of Haddington. His sister married his successor at St Madoes, the Rev. Archibald Steven- son, who was distinguished for his general talents, and especially for his knowledge of Church law. In the well-known debate on the subject of the repeal of the penal statutes against the Roman Catholics, in the Assembly 1779, he seconded the motion made by the Rev. Dr M 'Parian of the Canongate, which, with certain suggestions proposed by Principal Robertson, became the judgment of the house. The subject of our sketch, whose father died in 1S07, received his ele- mentary education at the Perth Academy, and had as his tutor the late Dr Gordon of Edinburgh, for wliom he ever cherished the warmest affec- tion. He resided in the immediate neighbourhood of Perth, and attended the ministry of Dr William Thomson, until he went to Edinburgh University in 1822. He was a distinguished student — Professor Wilson's certificate bearing that he " was one of the most distinguished students," and Sir John Leslie's running thus, " He distinguished himself so much as to carry the highest prize." He graduated A.M. in 1S26, an honour at that period rarely coveted, at least in Edinburgh. After the usual attendance at the Divinity Hall, Edinburgh, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Perth in January 1830. His gifts as a preacher were speedily perceived and appreciated. E.xtensive acquaintance with theo- logy even then, the capacity of taking a large view and a firm grasp of the subject-matter of which he was treating, and a masculine style of writing, characterised his discourses. His own estimate of his pulpit gifts was modest enough. The writer of this notice remembers well walking with him in Nicolson Square (in the Methodist chapel there, during the repairs of St Giles, the New North congregation W'orshipped) on the day when he was first to ofiiciate for Dr Gordon, whom they had both heard in the forenoon, and his saying, "The idea of my going up to preach after him ! " 1 ^®"^^^|s^^^' i^,|^w i'l^ 5^ ©Wi;vlffl!^l^^^^ )j;yp0'$ ^fesi«^^&. -^ ;oj JAMES BANNERMAN, D.D. During his residence in Perth he took a deep interest in the Apocry- i;\c phal controversy, and aided in more ways than one the labours of those "/j", who were protesting against the conduct of the committee of the British -I' and Foreign Bible Society. During this period also, and on the occasion K of the death of Dr Andrew Thomson of St George's, Edinburgh, he . j prepared for one of the Perth papers a short but discriminating article on the life and character of that eminent man, a few sentences of which we ''k may quote, to shew at once the style of the writer, and the estimate that ; he had formed of the subject of his article : — r "As a public debater, he was confessedly unrivalled. His knowledge of Church law was extensive and accurate, and the power with which he brought this knowledge to bear on any particular point was truly astonishing. He seized upon the arguments of his adversary with the grasp of a giant, and tossed them about in every form, until their emptiness and insufficiency were obvious, even to the simplest comprehension. He was superior to the trickeries and claptraps of a mere public declaimer. He pro- ceeded directly and unflinchingly to the establishment of his object ; and although he frequently rose to the highest pitch of eloquence, he disdained to turn from his way in search of a figure, or to attempt to move a feeling without at the same time implanting a principle. Disingenuousness in all its forms was most alien to his nature, and never failed to arouse his keenest indignation, and the cutting sarcasm and stern reproof which he thundered forth against every e-xhibition of it in public men, often made the stoutest heart to quail with terror. The votes of the Assembly, and the voice of an interested itv!, may have often been against him ; but where is the case in which the conviction of his auditors, and the voice of the country, were not ultimately in his favour ? No public man was ever more entirely free from the influence of interested motives. Even his most inveterate enemies have never dared to bring an accusation against him." In the month of August 1833, ]\'Ir Bannerman was settled at \ Ormiston, in the Presbytery of Dalkeith, and in 1839 he married the younger daughter of the Hon. Lord Reston, one of the senators of the College of Justice. Mr Bannerman's influence and weight of character were soon felt in his own Presbytery and Synod, and on him, as convener of the com- mittee appointed to examine and report on the writings of Mr Wright of Borthwick, no small share of the responsibility and labour of conducting the case devolved. \Mien the case came before the Assembly in 1841 Mm ^^K®?'* J!^- T S\^ |^,||W Cl |;a M 0^0 T DISRUPTION WORTHIES. for final judgment, the opening speech was made by him ; and his reply to the defence offered by Mr Inglis (now the Lord Justice-General), Mr Wright's counsel, was most characteristic, shewing that as he knew when to speak, he knew also when speaking was unnecessary. In the conflict which preceded the Disruption Mr Bannerman was not idle, and a letter which he addressed to the Marquis of Tweeddale, and published in March 1840, in reply to the speeches made at an intrusion meeting held in Haddington in the month of February of that year, did great and good service. His knowledge of the history and constitution of the Church, his full acquaintance with the principles involved in the struggle then raging, his ability to defend his own convictions, and to meet the statements and repel the arguments of opponents, are most apparent. The commencement of this letter shews how effectively Mr Bannerman could have employed sarcasm, had he chosen to use that weapon. The concluding sentences may be quoted : — '• I have already probably bestowed more attention on the speeches at Haddington than their worth or importance demanded. I doubt not that your lordship now looks back upon the meeting over which you presided with anything but emotions of pleasure. Allow me to say, my lord, that it is neither a very suitable nor a very safe position for the aristocracy of our country to occupy, when they place themselves in opposition to the people and the Church of Scotland, and league themselves with those who would deny her Christian rights, and help on her present affliction. I observe in the resolutions of the meeting, signed by you as chairman, that the advice is tendered to the Church to yield obedience, in the first instance, to the sentence of the Civil Court, as a means of obtaining the interposition of the Legislature in her favour afterwards. My lord, if we could submit to the sentence of the Civil Court at all, there would be no need for the interposition of the Legislature— it is because we cannot, that we decline that interposition. We cannot submit, because in doing so we would sacrifice our own consciences, we would sacrifice the rights of the Christian people, we would sacrifice our duty to our living and exalted Head. If the friendship and support of your lordship are to be purchased only by that submission, they would be purchased at too dear a price. There are, indeed, fearful odds against the Church in her present conflict, if you look merely to outward appearances. On the one side is the power of the Civil Court, armed by those civil sanctions which the bravest must feel, althotigh he does not fear them. And on the other side, there is to be ■M ^:^^i-l~- JAMES BANNERMAN, D.D. found only reason and scripture, and the prayers of a Christian people. But the eye of faith, even amid all this darkness, will behold a brighter sight. The servant of the man of God in Dothan could discern nothing but the host of the Syrian around him, and apprehended nothing but death approaching, until his eyes were opened to behold the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And even so the eye that is lifted up to God in faith, and looks beyond the darkness that covers the field of our present contendings here below, will be enabled to discern the horses and chariots of fire round about the Church of our fathers." The Assembly of 1S40 appointed a Special Commission to co-operate with the Presbyteiy of Strathbogie in providing for the preaching of the gospel, and the administration of the ordinances of religion and the exercise of discipline in the parishes of the seven suspended ministers of that Presbytery ; and as indicating the high estimation in which by this time Mr Bannerman was held, he was named Convener of this Commission ; and nine years afterwards, when moving that he should be appointed to the vacant professorship, Dr Candlish thus spoke of the manner in which he had discharged the duties of Convener: — " He (Dr Candlish) had taken the liberty of referring formerly, and he would refer again to the fact, that in one of the most weighty matters the Church had in considera- tion before the Disruption, during the ' ten years' conflict,' he alluded to the matter of the Strathbogie Commission, the Church committed that business to Mr Bannerman, and was thoroughly satisfied with the admirable manner in which he discharged it." From the Report of the Commission given in by him to the Assembly of 1 84 1, a few sentences may be quoted : — " The Commission have reason to know that the preaching of the gospel, both by the licentiates and the ministers of the Church appointed by them, has met with peculiar and very general acceptance among the people of the different parishes, and they have good reason for believing that in not a few instances the blessing of God has accompanied and given testimony to his own word. And further, your Commis- sion must be permitted to say, that considering the manifest blessing which has followed the labours of the Church in the district of Strathbogie, even in circumstances of much painfulness, they have been encouraged to entertain the assurance, that in the midst of present trials her God has not forgotten to be gracious, but that he takes pleasure in her stones, and favours the dust thereof." In September 1841 Dr M'Farlan of Greenock, along with M Bannerman, weie m London as a deputation to pieparc the way for 1 DISRUPTION WORTHIES. the larger party who followed, and, as he wrote at the time, they had " very disagreeable work " in holding meetings with official people. They were joined by Dr Gordon, Dr Candlish, and others, and on 25th September 1841 had their interview with Sir Robert Peel. A letter of Mr Bannerman's of that date states — " He was very courteous, but very close ; . . . was not prepared to say anything decisive, but was ready to hear all we had to say." After the Disruption, Mr Bannerman continued minister of the con- gregation at Ormiston adhering to the Free Church, till he was appointed Professor of Apologetics and Pastoral Theology in the New College, Edinburgh, by the Assembly 1849. This is not the place to speak of his fitness for the office, nor of the admirable manner in which he discharged its duties, and neither is it necessary to do so. The introductory lecture, on " The Prevalent Forms of Unbelief," published in 1849; another lecture on " Apologetical Theology," published in 185 1 ; the treatise on "Inspiration: The Infallible Truth and Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures," which was given to the Church in 1865 ; and the posthumous volumes on the " Nature, Powers, Ordinances, Discipline, and Government of the Christian Church," edited by his son, and published in 1S68, afford ample proof of his qualifications ; and they who studied under him are not slow to tell of the benefit which they derived from his lectures, and from his kind and considerate counsels. In his address as Moderator to the Assembly of 1868, Mr Nixon of Montrose well said : — "And we have lost Dr Bannerman, the able and accomplished Professor of Apologetical Theology, enduring proofs and memorials of whose clear, massive, energetic, logical mind, have been furnished by his teaching to not a few ministers of the Church in their student days, and by his admirable, but alas ! too scanty writings to the Church at large." Doubtless had his life been spared, his writings would have been more numerous ; but in addition to the works alreadv mentioned — and .Kl ©/©©;¥ IE 1 J& ■JAMES BAXXERMAi\\ D.I). the largest of these was unpublished when Mr Nixon spoke — Dr Bannerman was the author of a number of articles in the North Britisli Review on a variety of subjects. A posthumous volume of Sermons has also been edited by his son. And we must not forget to mention the large share he had in the responsibility of preparing for publication the posthumous works of his much loved and intimate friend, Principal Cunningham. The death of this eminent man was felt by him, not only as an irreparable loss to the Church, but as a deep personal affliction. Theirs was a long-tried friendship, endeared and strengthened by the truest fellowship in the work of the College, over whose welfare they had many an earnest and prayerful deliberation. In 1850 Mr Bannerman received the degree of D.D. from the Princeton College, New Jersey, In the movement in favour of union with the United Presbyterian, the Reformed Presbyterian, and the English Presbyterian Churches, Dr Bannerman took a warm interest and a decided and active part from the first, and soon became one of the most prominent advocates of the measure. However much some of the members of the joint-committee differed from him, all admitted his ability and the fairness with which he stated and defended his own convictions. The substance of the speech which he made in his Presbytery in January 1867, when he moved and carried an amendment to a motion made by Dr Begg, was afterwards published, and contains, in brief compass, a most clear and distinct vindication of the motives by which he and his friends were actuated, and at the same time an admirable statement of the principles embodied in the word of God and recognised by our Church, that should regulate the duty of union between separate churches. Elected a member of the Assembly 1867, he was not able to take any part in the proceedings, and though, with his usual self-denial, he continued to meet his classes till the following spring, increasing weak- ness too plainly intimated that his valuable life was near its close ; and ij^/i^^i r n/SJi UP TIOX 1 1 Y-) A' THIES. the end came on 27th March 1868. The truth, as it is in Jesus, wliich he had so firmly held and so faithfully preached and taught, was the ever-abiding foundation of his hopes, and the presence of the Master whom he loved sustained him to the end. His \\eakened frame was resting on her who was dearest to him, when he said, " This is death ; " and to the remark, " Yes, but )-ou have peace," he replied, " Let Tin' sei-vant now depart in peace. I ha\-e waited for Thy salvation, O God ! " Thus passed from among us one who only required to be known to be loved. A natural reserve made him appear to superficial observers cold and somewhat distant in manner, but he was, on the contrary, easy of access, with ver}- true and tender sympathies. Early brought under the saving power of divine truth, there was a reality and a symmetry about his Christianity that commanded confidence and respect in all who knew him. Generous, high-minded, and thoroughly trustworthy, with a heart true to God and true to all around him, loveable and loving, he had a large circle of deeply attached friends, who greatly felt his departure ; and he left his widow and nine children — seven of whom still survive — to mourn his irreparable loss. J. R. O. JAMES BONAR. V 3amts ^onar. 4 HE Bonars with whom the subject of this sketch was connected are descendants of an old family belonging to Perthshire, who possessed considerable property, in- cluding part of Kilgraston, in that county. They have been largely — indeed almost hereditarily — connected with the gospel ministry in Scotland. The son of John Bonar of Kilgraston was minister of Torphichen. His eldest son was the Rev. John Bonar of Fetlar, in Shetland ; and his son again, also John, became minister successively of Cockpen and Perth. The son and grandson of this Rev. John Bonar of Perth were respec- tively the Rev. Archibald Bonar of Cramond and the Rev. John Bonar of Larbert ; while no fewer than three brothers of James Bonar, the subject of this memoir, are well-known ministers of the Free Church of Scotland at this day, viz., the Rev. Drs Horatius and Andrew Bonar, and John James Bonar of Free St Andrew's Church, Greenock. The father of the subject of this sketch was James Bonar, Depute- Solicitor of Excise in Edinburgh, — himself a man of varied and extensive literature and Christian excellency, author of several philological and other treatises, and a valued correspondent of the most learned men of his day. In his public situation under Government, he proved himself to be also a man of most self-sacrificing integrity. His virtues and strict Christian piety descended in large measure DISK UP TIO\ 1 1 -ORTHIES. upon his son, James Bonar, of whose hfe and cliaracter we present the following outline. Like his father, he too was a scholar ; and having a well-cultivated mind, based on a good foundation early laid, by dint of reading and continuous study he kept up his literary tastes and attain- ments to the last. Not only was this his own habit from student life upwards, but in his earlier correspondence, we find him earnestly pressing upon his fellows an equal course of diligence. Though never intended for a sacred or theological profession, there was scarcely a class in the University or in the Theological Hall which he had not attended. Along with a rich and varied acquaintance with general literature, he was par- ticularly partial to the writings of the Puritan divines, for whose views in theology, as well as for their personal piety, he cherished a high regard. Brought up domestically under unusual advantages, both as to literary culture and habits of strictest, yet cheerful, piety, James Bonar shewed himself an apt scholar in both departments ; and such had been his advance in early piety, that when his father was removed by death, though the son was only about nineteen, the evening of that day found him quietly taking his father's place at the family altar, the duties of which place he never afterwards relinquished, much to the joy of his godly mother and of the younger members of the family, of which, from that hour, he became the honoured and acknowledged head. In those da}-s when young men's associations for mutual improve- ment were little known, Mr Bonar became, in December 1821, a member of " The Homiletical Society." Being composed of a few devout young men, chiefly students, its meetings for many }'ears were held in one or other of their rooms. In its later stages the ordinary meeting-place was the session-house of St Andrew's Church. The character of the society was eminently devotio;jal, consisting chiefly of prayer and praise, Bible reading, and exhortation. In the conducting of its business, Mr William Brown, surgeon, now an elder in Tolbooth Free Church, and Mr James Bonar, took a leading part. /^^i^Q^Sil'' ^.? "^iitf 1# f J 'lir^^^^ ^^\^ '^^ ©T©i;.^Y'^ " •i^> : g,U WIEBAT Jb '^'^^ JAMES BONAK. "^"^ Mr Bonar was an original member of another young men's society, that which is now known as the Diagnostic, though it was then formed under another name. Besides Mr Bonar, who was secretary, we find the following among its original members : — John Purves, John Archibald Bonar, John Henderson, James Thomson, James Cochrane, of Harburn. I This society, at its earliest stages, met in Mr John Purves's room, Rich- mond Place; next in the house of Mr James Bonar's father, Paterson's Court, Broughton ; afterwards in the school-room, Greenside, under the Tabernacle. It was afterwards joined by John James Bonar, William '• Cunningham, John Brown Paterson, Thomas Pitcairn — names well known and revered amongst us. Mr Bonar's calling in business life was that of a Writer to the Signet. For this profession he was trained, first in the office of his uncle, Mr Tawse, and afterwards in that of the late Sir James Gibson Craig. Business in those days being often carried over into the Sabbath, and tlie clerks' attendance at the office required on that day, young Bonar expressed a conscientious objection, upon which, to the credit of the late head of that firm, he was at once exempted from all such duty. Closely and originally attached as his parents had been to Lady Glenorchy's Chapel (so called from the name of its noble and pious foundress), then under the pastorate of the late venerable Dr Jones, Mr Bonar was early admitted a member. In the summer of 1830 he was called to the eldership ; and of his modesty and humility, as well as conscientious consideration in accepting and entering upon that office, we | have a record in a letter then addressed to one of his brothers : — i "I have not consented to this nomination," says he, "without much hesitation, •','N nor, I can safely say, without great reluctance ; never did I feel more disinclined to _ / \ engage in any duty, and never have I seen more of my disqualifications for any public 'V responsible situation than I have seen since this resolution was taken. . . . Anything ' fj ' like publicity is a snare into which so many far older men than I am have fallen, that I begin to fear that it may prove too strong for me. . . . One benefit I have no doubt found from having my mind directed to the subject of the eldership, that it has led me to seek more earnestly direction in prayer, and to strive to act more circumspectly ; A^^^^-'*^ ™ ' 55^ °- T.s'^fi d;w m '^A M^IWiA DISRUPTION WORTHIES. and this is one advantage which I anticipate, should I be ordained, may still con- tinue I cannot see that, with the exception of preaching and administratiort of ordinances, an elder stands in a different situation from a minister, and he surely must (as one who rules well) be able to rule well himself, and his own family, before he can undertake or expect to rule well the Church." What ultimately decided him was, that " he could not see that he would not have been, in some measure, rejecting an invitation from Christ, made through His Church, had he given a negative to the proposal." Notwithstanding this serious reluctance to enter upon public reli- gious office, so characteristic of his humbleness of mind, yet never was there, in fact, a more diligent, devoted, or practically useful elder. He was not only for many years clerk to the session, but he devised and carried out, at his own instance, very many practical measures for raising and maintaining the spiritual standing of the congregation, such as getting up sessional meetings specially for prajer, establishing similar district meetings, instituting Bible classes for young persons and children belonging to the congregation ; and lamenting, moreover, the condition of the territorial locality in Greenside, he was in the habit of hiring a room in that locality, at his own expense, to which he might call wanderers in, and there conduct classes and prayer-meetings for that neglected population. In all such efforts Mr Bonar was ever active for good. In the congregational class which he conducted, he prescribed regular exercises on some head of religion to be written out by the pupils in private during the week ; and, considering his extensive professional business, it was marvellous what time he contrived to spend, not only in correcting the many papers given in, but in writing out at length his comments upon each in particular. Along with such self-imposed duties as these, in which he took great delight, Mr Bonar was also an active member and official in \'arious other societies of religious and philan-thropic tendency. These included, e.g., the Edinburgh City Mission, the Orphan Hospital, the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge in the Highlands and Islands, also JAJ/ES BON.lA\ the Edinburgh and Lcith Seamen's Friend Society. Of this last Mr Bonar was a director almost from its commencement in 1S20, and held the office of secretary till he died. It was mainly by his exertions that the proposal to erect a church (Free St Ninian's) was brought to a successful issue. In carrying out these undertakings he not only gave gratuitously his valuable professional services, but also, from time to time, large pecuniary aid. For a series of years he was secretary to the Senatus of the New College, which brought him much in contact with both professors and students, who not only enjoyed his kindred sympathies, but also valued greatly his counsel and assistance. He held also a Government appoint- ment in connection with the Bible Printing Board for Scotland. While his attachment to Lady Glenorchy's Chapel, and subsequently \i Free Church, was unbounded, he, at the same time, cherished a truly '^ catholic spirit, his sympathies not only embracing the whole church of i which he was a member and office-bearer, but leading him to take a very warm interest in every mission enterprise undertaken for the conversion of the heathen, and more particularly of the Jews. Throughout the " ten years' conflict " the non-intrusion and spiritual independence party had not a more conscientious or ardent supporter than James Bonar ; and when the Disruption came, he threw himself, heart and soul, into the Free Church, and became the zealous agent in defence in the lawsuit forced on by the Established .Presbytery of Edinburgh, in their too successful attempt to wrest Lady Glenorchy's Chapel and endowments out of the hands of the Free Church Trustees. Mr Bonar's personal character and attainments, along with an honest plainness and frankness of expression, were, as indicated, of a high order, and in every respect worthy of the family name which he bore. He had, very manifestly, a most invincible love of truth, and though naturally quiet and unobtrusive in his general bearing, this did not prevent his thorough and outspoken repudiation of everything that was ll @ K^--©'|g| s T s \e" M%yy ci |;a m mfWM^ f DISRUPTIOX WORTHIES. mean or disingenuous, or immoral in conduct. His Christianity, while deep and all-pervading, was yet ever of the most cheerful and attractive kind. Combined with a lofty seriousness, there was, especially when among young people and at his own fireside, often a playfulness of spirit, which never failed to win their affections, and thereby to render his instructions all the more acceptable and lasting. The love and veneration indeed in which he was held by the young who had been under his charge, may be gathered not only from the interesting and edifying correspondence which he kept up with some of them long years after they had parted, but no less from the following expression which passed involuntarily from the lips of one such as he approached the house in which his loved and revered instructor died — " I never pass this house without feeling as if I should take off my hat." Having removed to the country in hope of benefit from the change, he there sank rapidly, his cheerful composure and entire submission to his heavenly Father's will continuing to the last — the silence of the death-chamber broken only at intervals by such breathings as these: " The Rock is everything." ..." What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me." Indeed, even in the most affecting moments — such a.s, when crossing the threshhold of his much-loved home in York Place, fully believing it to be for the last time, and stepping into the carriage which was to convey him to the country — his first care was to seek to cheer and comfort Mrs Bonar and the other dear ones who accompanied him. He died without the shadow of a cloud upon his brow, at Juniper Green, in the parish of Currie, on the i ith of July 1867, his last words being, " Peace as a river." G. R. D. p. B. MURE-MACREDIE. OF PERCETON. f atrirk IB05U fftnxt M^ncUt, (OF PERCETON.) I t m M iT was not possible for one to know Patrick Boyle Mure Macredie without receiving a very deep impression of the soundness of his judgment, the extent of his information, the warmth of his heart, and the depth of his piety ; and though from constitutional diffidence he was not fitted for debate, and never entered the arena in the " ten years' con- flict," yet from his great moral worth, and his high tone of Christian consistency, he was of great service to the Disruption cause, and his name must ever rank high among Disruption Worthies. He was born at Warriston, near Edinburgh, on the 28th of September 1800. His father was Thomas Mure, Esq. of Warriston. His mother was the eldest daughter of the Honourable Patrick Boyle of Shewalton. He had the misfortune to lose both his parents in very early life ; but he came under the care of his maternal grandmother and uncle at Shewalton, as well as of his mother's sister, Mrs Smollet of Bonhill, at Cameron House ; and it was one of the enjoyments of his later life to recall the happy days he spent there. He was one of a large family. George, his elder brother, was in the Grenadier Guards, and carried the colours at Waterloo. Thomas, his younger brother, entered the navy, and died of fever in the fatal Irrawady. Patrick, destined for the Bar, entered the University of Edinburgh in F® K'-^-j-'i' i};|i^,i I s T s\'© iC^''W ml:jh m ©^ DISRUPTION WORTHIES. 1812, and passed with credit and approbation through the usual curri- cukun of the Arts Classes, as well as those of the Law. In 1822 he was one of nineteen who passed Advocate — seven of them on the same day, among whom were Sir Charles Ferguson of Kilkerran, Mr Hog of Newliston, and Lord Neaves, who alone survives. Eager in the pursuit of knowledge, and honourable in his whole bearing and deportment, Mr Mure was still a stranger to the saving grace of the gospel. In those days Moderatism prevailed in the pulpit. In many parts of the country the proclamation of a free salvation, through the atoning blood of the Lamb, was the exception and not the rule. Towards the close of 1822 he begins to take note in his diary of the sermons he heard. The preaching of Dr Andrew Thomson pro- duced a powerful impression on his mind ; but it was chiefly through tlie ministry of Dr Henry Grey that he was brought to a knowledge of the truth. Under date 2ist December of that year, he writes: "Heard two sermons from Mr Grey ; like his preaching very much ; first time." March 2. 1823 — " Heard an excellent sermon from Mr Grey, from Exodus xii. 42. It is a night much to be remembered," &c. To this he has appended, at a later date, " This sermon, if I remember right, caused me to consider if ever I could speak of such a day." March 21 — "Fell in with a tract on the work of the Holy Spirit, which taught me some things of which I was ignorant." May 18 — "Received at church deeper alarm — driven almost to despair. How much I have been changed this last week ! — despair, little sleep. I am wretched ; everything appears a dream." May 21 — " I called to-day on Mr Grey; received by him very kindly. I go home with much joy and peace,- but my joy like the crack- ling of thorns — the joy of nature at seeing a hope." Pages might be filled with most interesting extracts, which re\'eal the struggle that was going on within — his eager thirst for the word, and the delight he had in the ministry of Mr Grey. His eldest sister was of great service to him at this eventful period of his life ; and though for a season he was dis- 2:6 PATRICK BOYLE MURE M ACRE DIE tressed with doubts and fears, yet these eventually passed awa)-, and he settled down into that child-like repose in the Saviour that continued unbroken to the end. P'rom this time forward he became a daily and systematic student of the Bible, availing himself of all the helps he could obtain. He soon afterwards became a Sabbath-school teacher, and his diaries reveal how deep was the interest he took in his class, and how diligently he prepared himself for it. When Dr Chalmers was appointed ;' to the Divinity Chair, like many others who were non-theological, he attended his lectures, and caught the enthusiasm for theological inquiry. Church history became a favourite study ; and he set himself to acquire a knowledge of Hebrew, that he might be able to read the Old Testa- ment Scriptures in the original tongue. For ten years of his Edinburgh life, he and his life-long friend,. Alexander Dunlop, occupied the same apartments, and there can be no doubt that his intimacy with one so versed in ecclesiastical law could not fail to awaken his interest in ecclesiastical affairs, and this must have been deepened by the part he took in connection with the two settlements at Dreghorn. Twice over within the space of two short years that unfortunate parish was subjected to protracted litigation before the ecclesiastical courts, and in both Mr Mure was employed as ~\ counsel on behalf of the heritors and people. In the spring of 1830 a '• licentiate was presented, \\\\o was suspected of holding unsound views in j; regard to the sinless humanity of Christ. A libel was prepared, and \ evidence led. The General Assembly of 1831 found the libel proven, '1 and the presentation was set aside. An acceptable appointment fol- lowed ; but as the health of their new minister was extremely delicate, the people of Dreghorn trembled lest he should pass away before some ^ - , other vacancy had occurred in the patron's gift, for it was known what 3(f ^ name stood next on the patron's list. Their fears were realised — in the /-^^^ spring of 1834 their pastor died, the obnoxious presentation was issued, x'^/ and the parish was plunged anew into conflict. This was the memorable ^, i" ^^-© ^^1% tfiS$W^[m I A m V-@ ®y [E ^'. ^'U DISRUPTION ]\-ORTHIES. year of the Veto Act, and the pecuHarity in the case of Dreghorn was that the Act was passed betwixt the time of the issuing of the presenta- tion and the moderation of the call. On all hands it was admitted that the special provisions of that Act could not apply ; but forasmuch as that Act declared " that it is a fundamental law of this church that no minister should be intruded on a congregation against the will of the people," the parishioners very naturally held that respect should be had to this fundamental principle in the settlement of the minister of Dreg- horn. On the day of the moderation, the call was signed by very few, while the great majority objected to his settlement. The Presbytery decided in favour of the people, and the case was brought up by appeal to the next General Assembly ; after a keen discussion, by a majority of one, the presentee was rejected. The people went home rejoicing in the victory they had won, but it was short-lived. It turned out that, in answer to the name of a gentleman who was not present, some one had voted in their favour. How it occurred, and by whom it was done, was never discovered. It was believed to have been accidental. It was most unfortunate for the people ; but for this, the votes being equal, they would have obtained the benefit of the casting vote of the Moderator, but from this, in the peculiar circumstances, they were precluded, and it was held that no decision had been given. This involved the delay of another year. The whole question was re-argued in the General Assembly of 1836, when it carried by a majority of thirty-one in favour of the pre- sentee, who was intruded on the parish with the usual results. Having married the heiress of Perceton in 1835, he assumed the name of Macredie, and gave himself heartily to the discharge of the duties that now devolved upon him. In all the affairs of the county he took an active interest. An adept in figures, he was made Chairman of Finance, and from the intelligence and impartiality he brought to bear upon every question, his opinion was felt to be of value. A Conservative in politics, he threw himself with characteristic energy into every electioneering PATRICK BOYLE MURE MAC RE DIE. contest, and in the winter of 1854-5 he nominated Sir James Ferguson for the county of Ayr, who carried the election. Nor were his scientific studies laid aside. He became a member of the Royal Society, and other kindred institutions. He joined the British Association at its commence- ment, and was seldom absent from any of its annual gatherings. But while he kept himself abreast of the progress of science, he took the deepest interest in all the religious questions of the day. Having been ordained an elder in 1832, he sat in the General Assembly during nearly the whole of the ten years preceding the Disruption, and, as might have been expected, alike from his religious convictions and his Dreghorn experience, he was always found on the side of loyalty to Christ, and liberty to the people. When, in his own immediate neighbourhood, the Stewarton case arose, involving the right of the quoad sacra ministers to a seat in the church courts, he stood nobly forward in the defence, and. rendered essential service to the Presbytery in the conduct of the case. True to his convictions, never wavering for a moment — neither before nor after — he left St Andrew's Church on the memorable Disruption day ; and though it brought along with it an experience which, from his sensitive nature, he keenly felt — he bore it, he outlived it, quieter times came, and it passed away. In addition to his other duties, Mr Macredie devoted a large share ot time and attention to the mines and the fire-clay works which he carried on. This involved him in much hard work, but success attended his efforts, and supplied him with the means of giving to the cause of Christ on a scale of liberality that is very rare : his private account-book is before me, from which I find that sometimes a fourth and sometimes a fifth of his income was consecrated to the Lord. The welfare of those immediately under his charge lay very near his heart. At a time when the question of improved accommodation for the labouring classes had not come to the front, he built fifteen miners' cottages, of three apartments each, for which he received a medal from ^ f;,^ I % ^ DlSKUPTIOy WORTHIES. the Highland Society. He taught a class of grown-up lads on the Sabbath evenings, and besides employing a missionary to labour among them, he held prayer-meetings in the cottages. When the revival of 1 859-60 visited the West of Scotland, he threw himself into it with the greatest zeal, aided in building a mission hall, and, at his own expense, provided additional labourers to cultivate the field— a work which his family still continue. But his interest was not confined to his own locality. The cause of Christ in every land shared his liberality. He sowed beside all waters. One example may be given. From his frequent intercourse with the South, he found that the Westminster Catechism was scarcely known to the clergy of the Church of England. He printed a special edition of the Catechism, and sent a copy to every Episcopal clergyman. In the summer of 1863 he was visited with a very serious illness, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. The few remaining years of his life passed quietly away. He was suffering from disease of the heart. Though it weakened, it did not confine him. He was able to conduct family worship till within two days of his death ; and when no longer able to read the portion of Scripture, he continued to lead their devotions. His mind was unclouded, and his peace unbroken. On the morning of 15th April 1S6S he breathed his last, leaving behind him a widow, two sons and two daughters, to revere his memory and follow in his steps. T. M. [This Sketch should here have closed, but the appalling railway accident at Abbots Ripton, on the evening of the 21st January 1876, whidh plunged so many families into such deep and crushing sorrow, sent the thrill of anguish to this happy home. Among the sufferers was Thomas Mure, the eldest of the two sons. Partially injured in the first collision, he was crushed beneath the engine in the second. There for three hours he lay amid the drifting snow of that awful night. Never a murmur escaped his lips. His Christianity shone out as with a blaze of bril- liancy, and his unselfishness did not fail him in death. — " Tell my mother that I die in Jesus." "Try and help the man that is near me," were his words to those who were kindly helping him. For two days he lingered. He sent touching and weighty messages to his friends and fellow-officers in the militia. On Sabbath the 23d he died, in the presence of his mother and sisters, who had hastened to be with him. And so there passed away, at the early age of thirty- four, one of the purest, gentlest, and most generous of the children of men.] MARQUIS OF BREADALBANE. f b^ ^ari]|ms oi ^uaUihum, IS. ^HE Marquis of Breadalbane ^\■as born at Dundee on the 26th October 1796. At an early age he followed in the footsteps of his ancestors by embracing Liberal opinions, when the very name of Reformer was odious, and by joining himself to the Scottish Whigs, who strenuously supported those principles which have long since been in the ascendant. Entering upon public life at a period of great excitement, when the Reform of Parliament was the absorbing question of the day, he threw all his energies into the struggle. To the memorable contest in 1832 for the representation of Perthshire, which he sustained with such spirit, and brought to so triumphant an issue, — his rank, position, prospects, as the Earl of Ormelie, gave special significance and weight. It struck a blow at the old system which re- sounded through the land ; and it produced an effect on public opinion in favour of Liberal politics which did not speedily pass away. And though in later years, and especially from the time when as Lord Cham- berlain he became connected with the Court, Lord Breadalbane took little if any part in Parliamentary discussions and public business, to the last he was a steady and consistent supporter of the Liberal party, and never for a moment swerved from his early views. 4 i * For our sketch of the Marquis of Breadalbane we are mainly indebted to tribute to his Lordship by the Rev. Professor Chalmers, D.D., London. DISRUPTION WORTHIES. Vr~ It is hardly to be wondered at that in 1843, when the Disruption of _J|^ the Church of Scotland took place — this strenuous advocate of popular 1 - ' right and devoted friend of civil and religious liberty should cast in his lot with the Free Presbyterian Church. His sympathies had been with the Non-Intrusion party throughout the whole of the controversy; and, when the crisis arrived, he did not fail them. He acted, indeed, with his usual deliberation ; for it was not till some days after the Disruption had taken place that he announced his decision. Reposing a degree of con- fidence in the intentions of the Government, he waited in the hope that some satisfactory settlement would be made ; but as soon as he ascer- tained that his confidence was misplaced, he sent the following letter to Mr Dunlop, intimating the resolution he had formed : — " London, J/(!_>' 23. 1843. s^-C^ " Dear Mr Dunlop,— I received your note of the 19th instant yesterday morning, >';>.-. and as I have also received the Scotch papers, I am aware of all your proceedings down to Saturday. After a careful perusal of these, and having given my an.xious con- sideration to the various topics of the Queen's Letter, and the spirit which pervades it, I am most reluctantly obliged to give up that hope which I had till now fondly enter- tained, that the Government were really in earnest in their desire to bring in a measure consistent with the rights and privileges of the Presbyterian Church, and securing to the parishes of Scotland the appointment of ministers acceptable to the people. My resolve is therefore now taken, to vindicate my own principles as a Presbyterian, and to leave the Established Church ; and I beg of you to command my humble services in any \yay which can be most useful in the cause of the Free Presbyterian Church. I remain, dear Air Dunlop, very faithfully yours, BreadalbaNE." This step was most gratifying to thousands of his countiymen, and was of immense importance to the cause of the Free Church. His character stood so high — superior even to the rank which he held — that his adher- ence among the laity was what that of Dr Chalmers had been among the clergy — an answer to a thousand calumnies, and a very tower of strength. : Who could connect anything of the fanatical or revolutionary with the name of Breadalbane, or believe that he was the patron of "rebellion against the laws of the land," or the supporter of any schemes of " priestly , THE MARQUIS OF BREADALB.iyE. ambition or clerical domination"? And yet, standing as he did almost alone among his peers and the aristocracy of Scotland, there must have been such a sacrifice of feeling demanded of him as only a high sense of duty, sustained by rare independence of mind, and no ordinary amount , of moral courage, could have enabled him to make. But the patriotism jj and the religion of Lord Breadalbane combined to bear him through. ' He saw and appreciated what many Liberal politicians failed to see or recognise — the bearing on the national life and best interests of Scotland : of the questions that had been raised by the Non-Intrusion controversy, ! as to the supremacy of conscience and the liberties of the Christian Church ; and, warmly attached as he was to the principles of evangelical truth, and knowing their power, he gave his influence, heart and soul, to the party and the cause which held forth the best promise of their y: ascendancy. His pecuniary support of the principles he had espoused V'- was munificent. Churches, manses, and schools were built by him in the different parishes of his extensive property, and ample provision of reli- gious ordinances made for the adherents of the Free Church on his estates. The manses he built on his own estates were valued at £'4000 ; he also contributed £1000 to the General Manse Fund, and an equal sum for the New College in Edinburgh, while an almost unlimited draft of slates for Free Church requirements was allowed from his quarries at Ballachulish and Easdale. To the ground taken up by him in 1843, he resolutely adhered to the end of his life. No opinions he had ever entertained were held by him \ with greater tenacit}-, or asserted by him with greater emphasis to the veiy last, than those he had formed on the freedom of the Church. Li e\ery subsequent discussion of them he took the warmest interest ; and " ; /■ in reference to the Cardross case, he declared himself less than ever fTjff disposed to acknowledge the civil judges as his spiritual chiefs. But, decided in his own opinions, he was most tolerant of others ; and the freedom which he claimed for himself he cheerfully accorded to them. • . i. 2L ■;■■© !H|«K II s T gXl m.^;^ nfh m ©T@ i:v e i 1 1 i- A DISRUPTION WORTHIES. His treatment of the Established Church which he had left, and of her adherents, was uniformly fair and honourable. His patronage he exercised with a view to her advantage, and in deference to the wishes of the congregations ; while over the broad lands of Breadalbane no man ever suffered at his hands for his religious convictions ; and never was the question raised by him, in regard to tenant, servant, or dependent, to which Church he belonged. We might justly advert here to the decided part taken by Lady Breadalbane, a descendant of Baillie of Jerviswood and of John Knox himself, on the occasion of the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843, and to her steadfast maintenance of the great principles on which the Free Church is founded. Devoted to her noble husband, the faithful companion for nearly forty years, the wise counsellor and active coadjutor in whatever engaged his attention or effort, the light of his home and the pride of his heart, — in her removal fourteen months before his own death, the noble Marquis met with an irreparable loss. The tomb which closed over her mortal remains on 6th of September 1S61, was re-opened on Tuesday, 25th November 1862, to receive those of her lamented husband, the noble Marquis. Lord Breadalbane's general character was that of manly strength. Like his person, square, and firmly built, it was solid, sturdy, simple, un- pretentious, but breathing unmistakably an air of conscious elevation, inborn dignity, and native greatness. His intellect, though not of that order which is marked by rapidity of movement, or needle-like acuteness and power of penetration, was never- theless uncommonly vigorous, searching, and comprehensive ; capable of grappling with any subject ; sure to examine it on every side ; fond ot entering into minute details : and almost certain, not swiftly, but after due deliberation, to arrive at the soundest conclusion. Indeed, his common sense and practical sagacity were truly remarkable ; and, although not a man of business habits, he had the greatest aptitude for business, and was THE MARQUIS OF BREADALBANE. able to get through a large amount of it : and no sooner did he direct his ^' mind to any question than he saw all its bearings, would detect real Ijjj difficulties which escaped the attention of an ordinary observer, and start ' sound objections, which had not previously been raised, infallibly putting his finger upon a blot, if any such existed, and so sifting the whole matter in hand, that the result reached in the end could hardly fail to be satis- factory and safe. No doubt, there was a certain amount of irresolution in his character, and a tendency to procrastinate, and delay action, which increased with his years ; but, though a weakness, it was the irresolution, not of a weak, but of a strong-minded man. He was not quick in making up his mind ; but then he had much more of mind to make up than many, and an immense variety of subjects on which to make it up. His irresolution was mainly due to his Scottish caution and his strong con- scientiousness, to his want of confidence in his first impressions, coupled ■»'-_ with his anxiety to do what was right, and to his consequent habit of '" going over the ground again and again, and weighing thoroughly the issues to which it was leading him. And well for him it was so. For when once his decision was reached, he moved steadily in the path he had chosen, and could with difficulty be brought to listen to any change. His Lordship's moral qualities were of the first order : honour, bright '; as the or emblazoned on his shield ; truth, that could not equivocate, and ;•• was abhorrent of a lie ; a sense of justice, keen and strong, and carried ll out inflexibly, at any cost to his interests or his feelings ; and a heart, as -: warm and tender in its affections as ever throbbed in human breast. Never perhaps was there a man more marked by strict integrity, manly sincerity, and downright honesty, in all he did and said. He 1, despised everything like meanness or chicanery, and was incapable of ;'? taking an unfair advantage of another. Where he had the advantage ; , his chivalrous spirit would not permit him to press it ; and he was always most disposed to be generous then, when his opponent lay at his mercy. Even in his school-days, he was the champion of the weak or the DISRUPTION WORTHIES. oppressed. " Send for Glenorchy," was the cry at Eton, when any of his Scottish comrades was maltreated by Enghsh boys ; and his impetuous courage and stalwart arm soon SA\'ept the assailants away. Had he been a soldier, we doubt not his spirit would have lightened forth in deeds of heroism, and, in battle, his clansmen would have found in him a daring leader, from whose lips no words could have more fitly sounded than the motto of his house — " Follow me." If there was a degree of inertness in his composition, it was either the calmness and the quiet of ji conscious strength, or the smouldering of a fire that needed only to be 1 stirred in order to blaze. On all questions involving principle there was \j a ready response. The metal, when rightly struck, instantly and in- variably rang true. If he was slow to repose confidence in others, or to admit them to his love — when once that confidence was gained and given, it was unbounded ; and where his judgment went along with his heart, there was no friend more firm or fast — no cause that could have supporter more staunch and true. His deepest sympathies were with his people. A Highlander himself, his heart was in the Highlands, and devoted to everything which concerned the honour and prosperity of that romantic country. It was his pride to be hailed, and to bear himself among his people, as a Highland chieftain ; whilst the cause dearest to him on earth was that of their mental and moral elevation. He had his reward. The day before the news of his death arrived at Taymouth, a ij person was expressing to some of the crofters in the neighbourhood * concern for the state of their crops, still out and rotting in the rain, — " We are not caring at present about the weather," they said ; "we are anxious .j about the Marquis." ii'A \\ S T i^!S¥?wl't^ M ifWi^WEK^ REV. RODERICK M*:- LEOD. Erh. iUhtxhk Jlt^Irotr. )MONG tlie great and good men of Disruption days a prominent place may well be claimed for Roderick M'Leod ; and the Church acknowledged the claim by unanimously calling him to preside over her General Assembly of 1863, thus conferring upon him the highest honour she had to bestow. Mr M'Leod was born in Glen-Haltin, Isle of Skye, in the year 1794. His father, the parish minister of Snizort, was a younger son of M'Leod of Raasay. His family connection thus gave him a position in society, and may also have contributed to the formation of that chivalrous bearing which characterised him through life. He possessed great natural force of character, superior intellectual power, and a fearlessness of disposition that even in early youth made him a hero among his asso- ciates at school and college. Having completed his college course at Aberdeen, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Skye as a preacher of the gospel, and was soon thereafter appointed to the mission of Lynedale, in his father's parish. At this period of his life, and for a year or two thereafter, Mr M'Leod was still a man of the world ■ — gay and light-hearted — and from his gentlemanly bearing was a universal favourite in the society of Skye. He felt little interest in the souls of others, for he was a stranger to the requirements of his own soul and to the love of the Saviour. But, by the perusal of Bellamy's "Chris- 227 -■. ,^^|;< f © ^a,i;:'^'Mt !, ® Ti' s N.'S ^.^'^ I DISRUPTION WORTHIES. tian Religion Delineated," he was awakened to a sense of his spiritual state, and when he was thus exercised it happened in providence that Dr Chalmers' " Lectures on the Romans "fell into his hands. He studied these lectures prayerfully ; and to the light and comfort he obtained by means of them he made a touching allusion in his address at the close of the General Assembly in 1S63. At the time of this crisis in Mr M'Leod's history, there lived in his neighbourhood a remarkable man in humble circumstances whose enlightened views and ripe Christian experience were the means of keeping and strengthening him in the way of the Lord. This man was blind Donald Munro, a name revered in Skye only second to that of Mr M'Leod himself When the histoiy of living religion in Skye shall be written, one of its most interesting chapters will be the life and labours of this man ot God. He was converted through hearing a sermon preached by Mr Farquharson, an itinerant preacher sent to Skye by the Messrs Haldane ; and soon it became evident that God had raised him up to be a faithful and much-acknowledged labourer in His vineyard. He had rare mental gifts, and was mighty in the Scriptures. His meetings for prayer and exhortation were abundant, and the power of the Lord was present in those humble gatherings at the river side in Snizort. Along with the great spiritual change in the minister, there was seen a very striking change in the Mission House of Tynedale. The preaching was new. The services were multiplied. Meetings were held on week days as well as Sabbaths. Soon these meetings became crowded, for the people flocked to them from the surrounding districts, and many who afterwards became eminent Christians dated their first deep impressions from the earnest services of that time. When the parish of Bracadale became vacant by the death of Mr Shaw, a minister of eminent piety, Mr M'Leod was presented to the living, and inducted into that charge in 1823. He used to remark that it was with his sword and his bow that he gained this preferment i!^-. "@iR'--"!gMKIl REV RODERICK MCLEOD. referring to the manner in which he formerly commended himself to his patron, by excelling in the use of the gun and in other amusements. His ministry in Bracadale extended over fifteen years. Here he had trials, but he had also great encouragement in his work. His church was crowded from Sabbath to Sabbath with eager hearers. Not only his own parishioners, but many from the surrounding parishes resorted to his ministry. Bracadale became famous as the birthplace of souls, and the memories still floating in the Island of the success that attended Mr M'Leod's labours there would fill a volume. His views of the sacraments caused him to delay in some cases the administration of baptism, and this unusual strictness gave rise to com- plaints and appeals to the Presbytery of Skye. His Presbytery had no sympathy with him or his views, and endeavoured to force him into compliance with their own laxer notions. But standing as he believed he did on the firm foundation of God's trutli, Mr M'Leod was not the man to be moved from his strong convictions. And so his refusing baptism to a parishioner came up before the General Assembly of 1824 by reference from the Presbyter)-. At three different Assemblies Mr M'Leod's case was under discussion in one form or another. His Presbytery treated him with the utmost harshness, and gave him no rest. They harassed him, at first with threats, then by suspending him from the functions of the ministry for a }ear, and finally they proceeded against him by libel with the view of deposing him from the ministry. It was to this treatment that Mr (afterwards Lord) Cockburn, who was Mr M'Leod's counsel, referred, when in an eloquent speech before the Assembly, he lashed the Presbytery of Skye with his powers of ridicule, describing them as a troop of foxhunters, who had not much to occupy them, and who agreed to keep a bagged fox, at which they might have a run when they wanted a hunt. The case was ultimately disposed of in 1827, when the Assembly appointed a committee of its most respected members to make full investigation, and t i DISRUPTION WORTHIES. f i to report to the House. This committee vindicated Mr M'Leod, and recommended that the suspension be removed, and the hbel be rejected. The Assembly unanimously adopted their committee's report, and Mr M'Leod was set free, and returned to his home and his flock a happy man. Mr M'Leod continued his ministry in Bracadale till the year 1838, when, on a vacancy occurring in the parish of Snizort, the people peti- tioned the Home Office, praying that Mr M'Leod should be presented to the charge. The application was successful, and he was accordingly translated to Snizort. It was now the period of the "ten years' conflict," and into that movement Mr M'Leod threw himself with all the ardour of his heart. His .sympathies were entirely on the side of the spiritual inde- pendence of the Church and the spiritual rights and privileges of the Christian people. The circumstances of the time called for a large amount of extra-parochial duties, and perhaps no man passed through more bodily toil and privation in the service of the Church than Mr M'Leod did on to 1843. But however excessive his labours may have been before, it was the Disruption in that year that laid on him a burden which demanded all the mental vigour and elasticity, and all the physical strength, with which the Lord had endowed him. The Island of Sk}'e, containing eight ministerial charges, with a population of 20,000 souls, was the field he was called to occupy, and he held it for years single-handed. Of his brethren in the island, none .stood by him when the day of trial came, except one who was called to another charge a few months after the Disruption. But it was not only Sk\-e which he had to hold for the Free Church. That portion of the Long Island which extends from Harris to Barra Head, with its population of 16,000 or more, and with only one minister who joined the Free Church, was added ^ ^ to the Presbytery of Skye, and demanded a large share of Mr M'Leod's -'-) thoughts and labours. He did not however shrink from the work, but courageously and cheerfully set his face to the duties before him. His labours for some years after the Disruption were not exceeded by those ^^- A' AT. RODERICK Af-LEOD. of any minister in tlie P'ree Church. It was no uncommon thing witli ''^'/.^ him in tho.se j'cars to preach to congregations on the hillside in the yyl'f ' midst of a snow-storm ; and although he felt no injurious effects at the J) time, privations and continuous exertions, which were far beyond what jr any ordinary human strength could bear, left their mark upon him. But il ^ in the midst of it all no one ever found him desponding. He was always •; ' cheerful, and often even playful. By degrees relief came to him, and his ; labours were lightened. One after another of the island charges was filled up ; and before his removal he saw the whole island supplied with \ ministers, from Rhu Hunish to the Point of Sleat. Mr M'Leod was married to Miss Anne M'Donald, of Skeabost, in whom he found a partner who sympathised with him in all his labours, and who strengthened him in his various trials. They had a family of thirteen children ; and before it pleased the Lord to visit them with bereavements, the well-ordered and happy household greatly impressed many a visitor to the manse. But one after another they were taken awa_\', until at the time of his own removal, only four remained. His bearing in connection with those family sorrows was very remarkable. He meekly and quietly took all from a F"ather's hand. , Mr M'Leod continued in robust health till he neared the threescore '-! years and ten. But at length the iron frame began to yield. In the year \^ 1S64 he had an illness which confined him to the house for several weeks ; ^-;| but he rallied again, and continued to labour with unabated zeal for some J years longer. It may be said of him, that he fell in the field ; for it was || ' on returning from South Uist, after several days of preaching, that his ^ j last illness came on. He performed this long journey in an open boat, /'f^ where there was neither shelter nor comfort. Exposure to storm and "~^vr; ,, wet, for a night and a daj', left evil effects behind, and his strength Qf, ■ rapidly forsook him. The end was like a summer sunset, calm and ^-5- tranquil. There was no ecstacy, and there was no fear ; and without a i . struggle he passed away. S It is difficult now to credit the "gross darkness" tliat covered the population of Skj-e at the commencement of this century. But a re- formation period arrived. A tide of religious feeling set in through the island, and the trusted leader of the movement was Roderick M'Leod. No one acquainted with the religious histoiy of Skye can doubt that he was an instrument specially raised up by God to guide and mould the revived spiritual life of the people at that time. But Mr M'Leod was no mere revivalist. He was a man of wide s)-mpathies, who took a deep and intelligent interest in all matters civil and ecclesiastical. In eccle- siastical questions he was ahva>'s in harmony with the great leaders of the Church. This was true, not only previous to the Disruption, but since that event. When there was an agitation on the subject of Church Unions in the colonies, he strongly advocated the side of union. And when the question of union among the unestablished churches of our own countr)' came on, he entered into it most cordially. It was charac- teristic of him, that when once he took up a position, he was not to be moved from it. And so, on the subject of union, having made up his mind, he never wavered to his dying day in giving it his earnest support. Those who had the privilege of intimate acquaintance with him, found him a man of very warm affections, a most congenial companion, and a confiding and steadfast friend, who could be relied on in any emergency. Among his younger brethren, instead of seeking to lord it over them, he often made them feel ashamed by refusing to take the place that they thought belonged to him of right. In their manses none was a greater favourite with the little children. Such a man could not fail to be beloved by the people of his native island, and his sufferings for right- eousness sake gave him a place in their hearts that no other man has ever -had. It will be indeed a degenerate race of Skyemen that will cease to cherish with reverence and love the memory of Mr Roderick M'Leod. J. S. M. ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, OF MON Zl E. ^Irirantti^r Camplii^U. ;;^^!J:^\ @ HE Monzie branch of tlie Clan Campbell springs from Sir &) .^^Ss^—^ Duncan of Glenorchy, well known to genealogists as " Black Duncan of Lochow," the patriarch of the noble house of Breadalbane. Archibald, a younger son of this old knight, inherited from his father various estates in several of the Highland counties, and transmitted them to his lineal descendants, the Campbells of Monzie.* The original designation was " of Fonab," a property in Perthshire, near Killie- crankie, where Viscount Dundee was slain ; and the tradition is, that Claverhouse fell by a shot fired by Fonab himself, or by one of his dependants who followed his chief to the field. The Fonab of 1702 commanded the British troops sent to protect the interests of the colonists of Darien against the attacks of the Spaniards, and obtained a signal and decisive victory over a vastly more numerous force of the enemy at Toubocante. For this gallant action a gold medal, bearing on one side a plan of the battle, was voted to him by the Directors of the Indian and African Company of Scotland ; while the British Crown rewarded him with a grant of a special coat of arms, with supporters, bearing the motto, * Among the matrons of the Monzie family are found ladies of the noble houses of Lennox, Mar, Athole, Ruthven, Sinclair, Sec, and one of the gentlemen became a Lord of Session, taking the name of Lord Monzie. DISRUPTION IVORTHIES. Quid lion pro patria ; and as this latter honour was bestowed on him as ■'Campbell of Monzie," that designation has been retained ever since. The subject of this sketch, born on the 30th December 181 1, was the eldest son of Lieutenant-General Alexander Campbell of Monzie, M.P., and his wife Christina Menzies. After his education, parth- at home and partly at Sandhurst College, he entered the army in 1828 as ensign in the 32d Foot, of which regiment his father had been colonel. Serving some time in Canada with that regiment, he changed into the 15th Hussars under the Earl of Cardigan; but in 1S35 he left the army, and betook himself to the management of his landed property, his father having died in 1832. When he thus assumed the position of a country gentleman, the non-intrusion controversy was agitating all Scotland ; and Mr Campbell having carefully studied the question, at once cordially adopted the views of the evangelical party in the Church. About this time he was asked by the Conservative electors in Argyllshire to oppose the Liberal candidate ; but though he was unsuccessful in the election of 1S37, he so effectively advocated the Church's claims during his canvass, as to draw the attention and win the confidence of the non-intrusion leaders. Having been ordained an elder in 1838, he began still more prominently to plead the Church's cause; for instance, when in 1840 he proposed Mr Home Drummond on the hustings at Perth, he embodied in his speech a proposal for Parliamentary interference to obviate the dead-lock between the ecclesiastical and civil courts, which Dr Chalmers characterized as "presenting a most felicitous solution of the whole difficulty." In 1841 he was returned MP. for the county of Argyll without a contest. He entered Parliament as a Liberal Conservative, and so attracted the notice of Sir Robert Peel as to be offered by him a subordinate place under Government ; but Mr Campbell felt it better to be free from party control, and declined the appointment. At this period, in addition to his strong ecclesiastical convictions, he held P'ree Trade principles, and j^ was a supporter of Vote by Ballot, both of which he insisted would -!■ '?@V-€''!1|^1RI1S" '!i> * ALEXANDER CAMPBELL prove truly Conservative measures. His first speech in tlie House of Commons on Scotch Church matters was delivered in March 1842, in the debate on Sir A. L. Hay's motion as to the exercise of Crown Patronage in the case of Elgin, — a speech which again drew forth the encomiums of Dr Chalmers, who, at the same time, urged him to push his proposed motion that the House should appoint a committee of its members to inquire into the Church's claims. This motion he did bring forward soon thereafter, and pled the expediency of such a step with great force of argument; but the motion was lost by 139 to 62. These Par- liamentary appearances so commended him to the Church Defence Committee in Scotland, that, after the Duke of Argyll's Bill was coldly received in the House of Lords, Mr Campbell was requested to introduce a similar bill into the House of Commons. Acceding heartily to this request, he, on the 14th April iS 4.2, brought in a "Bill to regulate the exercise of Church Patronage in Scotland." Though not granting the anti-patronage claims which the Church regarded as the best settlement, it would have saved both the rights of the people and the Church's spiritual independence, and thus have prevented the secession of ne.xt year. When the order of the day for its second reading was moved in the beginning of May, Sir James Graham, on the part 01 Government, requested Mr Campbell to postpone the second reading for six weeks, as Government intended to propose a course which would put an end to the collision between the Church and the civil courts. Mr Campbell consented to this, with the distinct pro\iso, that, should the Government measure prove unsatisfactory, he would that day six weeks proceed with the second reading of his own Bill ; but Mr Fox Maule, intimating his hopelessness of any proper measure from Government, moved "That the Bill be now read a second time," and, after some debate, Mr Maule's amendment was lost by 131 to 48. Thus ended what was called "Monzie's Bill.' Sir James Graham's pledge was never fulfilled, for Government did nothing. Most people now saw — and none i more plainly than Mr Campbell— that a Disruption was imminent. In the prospect of this, the memorable Convocation of ministers was held in Edinburgh, followed by active arrangements throughout many congregations in Scotland in preparation for the event. The rejection of Mr Fox Maule's motion by the House of Commons in the spring of 1843 rendered the Disruption so certain, that Mr Campbell left London for a time, and at once set about the building of a wooden church for his residential parish of Monzie. This was quickly finished at his own expense, while he purchased a church which was for sale in Crieff, and presented it to the Free Church congregation there. After delivering several earnest speeches in Scotland on the impending crisis, he resumed for a time his place in Parliament, and wrote what has been called "a solemn letter to Sir Robert Peel, imploring him even at the eleventh hour to avert the breaking up of the Church, by instantaneous and satisfactory legislative interposition." All in vain. The General Assembly met. Mr Campbell, as a representative elder, was present; and after Dr Welsh had read the Protest, bowed to the Lord High Commissioner, and stepped down from the chair, Dr Chalmers took Mr Campbell's arm, saying, " Come away now, Monzie," and the two \valked together down to the Canonmills Hall, where the first Free Church General Assembly was constituted. Before the sessions of that Assembly were concluded, Mr Campbell returned to London, to make final arrangements for retiring from Parliament ; but the Assembly, on the 30th of May, passed a cordial vote of thanks to him for his eminent services, which was communicated to him by a much-prized letter under Dr Chalmers' own hand. On the very day of the Disruption, Mr Campbell wrote a circular to the Argyllshire constituency, intimating his resolution to resign his position as their representative, having felt constrained in conscience to differ widely from many of those who had originally elected him. Being thus, as it were, set free from other influences, he devoted himself to ALEXAXDER CAMPBELL. promote the interests of the Free Church, the object " nearest and dearest to his heart." Hence he was much occupied for several years in labours connected with the Sustentation Fund, the General Assembl)-, the formation of the Evangelical Alliance, the Christian education of the people, the endowment of Popery, the sanctity of the Sabbath in ■;! reference to railway traffic, the destitution in the Highlands, and many ji other Christian and patriotic undertakings. His open hand also con- .;; tributed liberally to every scheme of usefulness, specially those of his jj own Church, giving ;^iooo to the building of the Free Church College | in Edinburgh, ;^300 to the manse fund, ;^250 towards extinguishing ■' debt on Free Church buildings, along with notable yearly subscriptions to the Sustentation Fund in the various districts where his property was situated. As a public testimony of how much he was esteemed for his many labours of love, the ladies of the West of Scotland presented him with a carpet, sewed by their own hands, and valued at ;^200. The pre- sentation was made in Glasgow, on the 14th April 1846, by Dr Thomas Brown, in presence of an enthusiastic audience ; while, on the iSth of May following, the East of Scotland shewed their appreciation of his services by choosing him to lay the foundation of the John Knox Memorial Church, hard by the house of the Reformer in the city of Edinburgh. "5'; Mr Campbell was a man of great natural ability, captivating address, v and geniality of manner, besides possessing in a peculiar degree the gift J of ready, racy, pointed, telling speech, carrying his audience with him in | his public appearances, and proving the life and soul of private society. \ His bearing was ever frank and fearless. Constitutionally impulsive, he 1! was often impetuous, and sometimes rash ; but none could ever doubt the generosity of his spirit and the warmth of his heart. His uniform bene- - r , volence to the poor, and acts of kindness in aiding struggling merit, were Oi^ very marked ; but he ever resiled from ostentation, considering himself as a p!^ brother indebted to every man who needed a helping hand. A favourite with all who knew him, his general popularity was undoubtedly increased ^1-^ ., Ja.«:_,~,-™»»*&wtej;ii:;:--»«..,;5 — .«ja*v., f r^^<^ rr^^^ M DISRUPTION WORTHIES by the fact that he was a singularly accomplished spoit^man In this character he was selected to initiate the lato Prince Consort into the mysteries of deer-stalking in the romantic wilds celebrated in the openmg of "The Lady of the Lake ;" and when, shortly afterwards, he presented to the prince a Scotch deer-hound, his Royal Highness replied, through his secretary, that " while he returned his best thanks for the hound, it was not necessary for him to see it to remind him of the time spent with him in Glenartney forest." During the last ten years of his life, Mr Campbell laboured under insidious disease, which gradually unhinged his whole nervous system, and rendered him increasingly and painfully unlike his former self This state of things was much aggravated by several accidents, by which his head was severely injured. His robust and active frame partially recovered strength ; but after much suffering, he died at Leamington on the Sth of January 1S69, having just completed the fifty-seventh year of his age. Li RLiy 1S44 Mr Campbell married Christina, only child of the late Sir Duncan Cameron of Fassfem, Bart, who survives him, with three daughters, the eldest of whom is the wife of Henry Spencer Lucy, Esq., of Charlecote Park, Warwickshire ; and the second has been lately married to Colonel J. P. W. Campbell of the Bengal Staff Corps. Mr Campbell's remains were buried in the vault within St Mary's Church, Warwick, where his father and his only son are also interred. S. M. ']0^^'>e I .^^-^•S^^rrr-. JAMES BUCHANAN, D. D. lam^s ^nnjattatt, B,^., II.B. R JAMES BUCHANAN was one of those members of the Disruption band who won for himself, in the pulpit and through the press, a more than Scottish reputation, and thus shed lustre on the Church with which he was connected and the cause which he espoused. He was born in Paisley in the yejjr 1804. He studied at the University of Glasgow, and although he had to cope with competitors of no ordinary ability, of whom Dr Candlish was one, he took a most distinguished place among his fellow-students, and one that seemed to warrant the highest expectations of his future career. Nor were these expectations belied by the actual result. After a brief ministry spent in a quiet country parish amid the classic scenes of Roslin and Hawthornden, Mr Buchanan was called to the populous and important parish of North Leith in the year 1828. Here the fame of his preaching soon filled the large church to overflowing with a crowd of admiring and delighted hearers. Many carry with them to this day a vivid remembrance of the way in which their attention was rivcttcd, their minds instructed, and their hearts moved by the lucid exposition, the eloquent illustration, and the tender appeal, that poured forth from the lips of the preacher in rich mellifluous stream. At times his eye would kindle, and his voice become tremulous with emotion, and a burst of impassioned earnestness would sweep over the congregation like a gust of wind upon the waters of Wihm Ci^i-; D/SA i -P TIOS WOR TRIES. a lake. But more commonly he was the Barnabas rather than the Boanerges of the pulpit. His doctrine dropped as the rain and distilled as the dew. His eloquence was more like the waters of Siloah that { flowed slowly, than the impetuous torrent that carries everything before '; it. In short, while the preaching of Mr Buchanan was not wanting in intellectual force, it was much more conspicuous for its theological \ completeness, the chaste beauty of its style, the impressiveness and |, unction of its delivery. A lady who had been long in India used to say ;> that he always reminded her of Henry Martyn. 1. How many actual conversions took place under that North Leith \' ministry the "day" alone will declare, though there is reason to be- lieve they were not few. And we cannot doubt that it contributed largely, along with the preaching of Chalmers and Thomson, Gordon and Grey, Candlish and Guthrie, to promote that revival of evangelical ; , religion of which we arc now enjoying the fruits. During his ministry in Leith, Mr Buchanan was repeatedly laid aside for a season through ill- health, the result partly of his studious habits, and partly of the labours j; connected with so heavy a charge. One incidental consequence of this I was the publication of those practical and consolatory works — " Comfort |f in Affliction," " Improvement of Affliction," " The Office and Work of ■-i; the Holy Spirit" — which have obtained so wide a circulation, and with \, which, probably, more than his later and more strictly theological works, \ his name will be permanently associated. J These illnesses may have contributed, along with other causes, to j) ) induce him to accept, at considerable pecuniary sacrifice, the appointment '^\ to the High Church, Edinburgh, made by the Town Council in 1840. Ji-- In this new position he enjoyed the advantage of having Dr Gordon for ^(ir- '' '"■ his colleague. Never surely were colleagues more suitably or happily conjoined. Never was there a congregation more highly privileged than that which enjoyed the ministry of two such men. But this pleasant fellowship and this position of peculiar privilege were not destined to be % JAMES BUCHANAN, D.D., LL.D. of long continuance. The Disruption took place on the i8th of May 1843, and the following Sabbath found Dr Gordon and Mr Buchanan, with almost the entire congregation of the High Church, worshipping in the Music Hall. The colleagueship continued for two years longer, when it was dissolved by mutual consent, that Mr Buchanan might devote himself to the task of raising and organizing the congregation of Free St Stephen's, of which he was the first pastor. In 1844 Mr Buchanan received the degree of D.D. from Princeton University, well known and deservedly esteemed in this country from its own high standing, and from its connection with Princeton Theological Seminary, the scene of the labours of the Alexanders and the Hodges, and the principal school for the training of the Presbyterian ministry in the Northern States of the Union. It was greatly to the honour of that University that it had the generosity and the discrimination to confer degrees on such distinguished foreigners as Candlish, Cunningham, and Buchanan, while it reflects lasting discredit on the governing bodies in our own Universities at the time, that they left it to Americans to recog- nise and reward the merit of their most distinguished sons. At a later period, when more liberal counsels began to prevail, his own Alma Mater made some amends by conferring upon him the degree of LL.D. On the death of Dr Welsh, Dr Cunningham was, as if by acclammation, appointed his successor in the Chair of Church History. With equal unanimity Dr Buchanan was called to the Chair of Apologetics vacated by Dr Cunningham, his ripe scholarship and sound judgment, the com- pleteness of his theological survey, and his power of clear and interesting exposition, pointing him out as the most suitable man whom the Church could find to occupy the post. Another change, consequent upon the death of Dr Chalmers in 1847, placed Dr Buchanan in the Chair of Systematic Theology, which he continued to occupy till his retirement, owing to deafness and increasing infirmity, in 1868. Of the way in which he discharged the duties of both these chairs, we i DISRUJ'TIO.y J\-ORTHIES. have a sample in the works which he published during his professorial life, entitled, " Faith in God and Modern Atheism," "Analogy : a Guide to " c. Truth and an Aid to Faith," and "The Doctrine of Justification" — this '; last being the Cunningham Lecture for 1866. It is only necessary to add j that, besides the clearness, comprehensiveness, and sound learning of which j these works give evidence, Dr Buchanan's prelections were marked by | a calm dignity and impressiveness ; that there breathed through them .( the fragrance of a deep personal piety; and that he was affable and j kindly in his private intercourse with the students. There was indeed j a marked contrast in some respects between him and his beloved j colleague. Principal Cunningham — the one a lion-like Luther, the other \ a gentle and retiring Melancthon. It is not difficult to see which would ;;; be the more popular with a band of ardent and impetuous young men, ,' ' having their own share of the pcrferviduin ingenium Scotonuii. But let - ,- us rather rejoice in the variety of these gifts, as tending to the better \'';' edification of the Church, and rejoice in this, also, that they laboured side by side for so many years with the utmost mutual confidence and esteem. . Dr Buchanan, with his fervent personal piety and strong evangelical ';' convictions, could not but feel a deep interest in the conversion of the heathen world. Of this he gave a striking proof when, at the call of the •,, Church, he undertook for a time the arduous and responsible work of ri the Convener of the Foreign Missions Committee. In this capacity he , worthily followed in the footsteps of his revered predecessor Dr Gordon. '; During the short period in which he held this office, he published one 1 interesting tract upon the Indian Mission ; and had he not been obliged )' to resign, in consequence of his many other duties, he would doubtless -.; ,' have succeeded in extending and deepening the interest felt in this great 1 jj . cause, by the eloquence and impressiveness with which he enforced it. y^ As might have been expected from his sensitive and shrinking dis- position, Dr Buchanan did not often come forward on the arena of ; , -^y^l/^ JAMES BUC//ANA.V, D.D., LL.D. ecclesiastical debate. He had, however, decided views of the Church questions of the day, defended them fearlessly when he had opportunity, and acted on them faithfully when the time for action came. In 1843 he published a short treatise on the "Tracts for the Times," in the form of seven letters to an Englishman. The work is an admirable specimen of the way in which such controversies should be carried on. While the writer is thoroughly in earnest contending for the faith he loves against dangerous and deadly error, he writes as a Christian gentle- man, with fairness and candour, never reviling or misrepresenting his opponents. The treatise is at once popular and learned, and it served more than any other at the time to direct the attention of the Christian public to the true bearing and tendency of the Tractarian movement. In the Voluntary Controversy he took an important part, by writing a prefatory discourse to a series of lectures on Church Establishments, in which he ably maintained the thesis, that Church and State, though essentially different and rightly independent of each other, have yet certain ends in common, and may act harmoniously towards the attainment of these ends, without any encroachment being made by either on the peculiar prerogatives of the other, and that if any evil results from such a connection, it is to be ascribed, not to the fact, but to the faulty terms of the alliance. It is easy to see that this line of defence was carefully adjusted with reference to another controversy then emerging as to the spiritual independence of the Church, and that consistency would require the writer to renounce the benefits of State connection if that independence could not be enjoyed in the Established Church. And, accordingly, when this became too evident to admit of doubt, he at once resigned his status and emoluments as a minister of the Establishment, believing that such an encroachment had been made upon its peculiar prerogatives as no church of Christ is at liberty to submit to. In the movement towards union with the United Presbyterian Church, begun in 1863, Dr Buchanan at first took no. part either for or DISRUPT/OX irORTHIES. against it. When, liowever, a difference of opinion arose within the Free Church on the subject, some advocating the proposed union as a thing in the circumstances warrantable and expedient, and others opposing it as involving a derehction of important principles, Dr Buchanan took the latter view ; in this differing from his beloved friend and colleague, Dr Bannerman, with whom on most subjects he cordially agreed. Dr Buchanan was twice married. His widow and family survive him. In his last illness he suffered much, but bore his suffering with exemplary patience and resignation to his Master's will. He died on the 19th of April 1870, and was buried in the Grange Cemetery, the resting-place of Chalmers, Tweedie, Guthrie, and many more who, like them, having served their own generation by the will of God, have fallen on sleep. " They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." R. G. B. IF® iR"'f'imiR'o s T sX© K&yM t^l A- m ©T©! JOHN DUNCAN, L. L. D. flnljit Buttran, II.B. M )OHN DUNCAN was born in Aberdeen in 1796. He was a delicate, dreamy, clever, engaging, affectionate, high- spirited, and occasionally passionate boy, sometimes crying bitterly under the severity of paternal discipline, some- times abruptly laughing aloud at the brightness or at the humour of his own hidden thoughts. His father, who was of ':,tnct religious principles, and a member of the Secession Church, was by tiade a shoemaker, and meaning to bring up his son in his own calling, he set him on a stool beside himself But manual labour was very irksome to the boy ; and his father, whose character was extremely stern, had little patience for his blundering work, and no pleasantry to make shoemaking attractive. After a time he was released from this bondage, through his mother's intercession, and to his great joy was sent to the grammar school, whence he worked his way to the university, where, with a hard struggle, he supported himselt by teaching. In his college course he seems to have had the characteristics of his later years ; acquiring great fluency in writing Latin, yet not distinguishing himself in the regular work of the classes, but labouring hard in his own fitful way in languages, literature, and philosophy. His insatiable love for languages grew side by side with an intense delight in philosophic speculation, into which he threw himself with an ardour that would recognise no barriers in heaven or earth. The ground of Revelation was w DISRUPTION WORTHIES. unbi lost, he sank down through unbehcf, deism, pantheism, into material atheism ; and man was in his eyes a mere animal, like the other beasts, living onl}' to go through the degrading sameness of the daily round of natuie's wants and supplies, "born to eat, and to drink, and to digest, and to die." Atheism had not on him the effect of exciting pride in man's greatness ; but, on the contrary, he was deeply mortified at his own littleness and the littleness of all humanity, for man without God and without immortality, presented to him nothing to interest, to admire, to respect, or to love. His inward history is inseparable from his outward life, both on account of its marked and singular character, and because he was remark- ably communicative about those personal transactions in the region of the great unseen, on which most men are apt to be reserved. Along with deep abstraction, he had an irrepressible love of intercourse with others, which often took the form of asking prayer for relief in doubt about his own salvation, but sometimes also of narrating the mental facts of his past life. Chief among these were three outstanding events — his deliverance from atheism, his conversion, and his recovery out of spiritual declension. His recovery out of atheism he ascribed, in the first instance, to Dr Mearns, whose cogent reasonings in his lectures, along with his prayers to the " Great King," convinced him of the existence of God. But the conviction had been reached by a logical process without any more direct mental perception ; and the full breaking in of the light on this first of all truths he looked back upon to the last as a great era in his life. " I first saw- clearly the existence of God," he said," in walking along the bridge at Aberdeen ; it was a great discoveiy to me ; and I stood in an ecstacy of joy." But while he could now "thank God for His existence," this measure of light wrought no abiding change on his heart or life, and he accepted of licence to preach the gospel while practically a Socinian, though nominally a Sabellian, and with nothing, either in his character or his views, consistent with the high calling on which he was entering. ■f k ' r @ R^^^'i^'f ^ij s T j"^" m^-w i"|X^r©Vi( li.v JOHN DUXCAN, LL.D. The next great event, after eight years intellectually fruitful but spiritually barren, was meeting with Dr Malan of Geneva, who visited Aberdeen in 1S26, and pressed him closely with salvation freely given and to be instantly accepted. Towards the close of their conversation, Mr Duncan quoted a text of Scripture which Dr Malan instantly seized, and said, " Man, you have got the word of God in your mouth ;" to which he replied, " And may He not take it utterly out of my mouth." He frequently spoke with deep impression of the electric power which in that moment accompanied the word that was at once in the heart of God and in his own heart, and he regarded it as the great beginning of all communion between God and himself in time and in eternity. This turning event in his life was followed by liberty and light and joy in his own spirit, and holy boldness in testifying of free grace both in preaching and in conversation. His third great inward event was the recovery of his soul out of declension after a year or two had passed, and he had lost the fervour of his first love. Through an exclusive adherence to promise and privilege and peace, apart from repentance, self-scrutiny, and \\'atchfulness, his love and joy had lost their freshness, and all the fruits of the Spirit had withered. His words were the same as before, the doctrinal assurance remained, and the profession was as high as ever ; but the reality and power were gone, the lips and tlie heart were not one. He could not endure this hollowness. " Tm not a hypocrite," he said, " and I won't be one." He let go the " name to live," that he might recover the life itself ; and he fell into darkness, doubt, fear, all but absolute despair. Through a conflict very protracted and at length severe, with a deep submission to the sovereign will of God, he was restored to a good measure of light and liberty. After his conversion he was never troubled with doubts about the word of God ; but he said that " he was naturally of a sceptical turn of mind, but his scepticism now took the form of doubt about his own salvation." His conversion and his recovery embraced the two extremes of spiritual exercise ; and they formed the man in his long iM0- l T,S\!©' ^''&f ^X'^ ^ ® °' ^ f subsequent life. Each was the complement of the other ; and if for a time the last became first, the fervour and simplicit}- of the first recovered and retained its place. The two combined introduced him into a marvellous fulness of the word of God, which he cordially received in its length and in its breadth as few men have ever done. Through life his anger burned against a surface gospel that did not grapple with the conscience, but it kindled as keenly against the gospel withheld or robbed of its simplicity. " The best preaching," he said, " is, Believe on Jesus Christ, and keep the Ten Commandments." In the earlier part of his course, and indeed throughout his life, his own preaching at its best was of a very high order. At its worst it was scarcely possible for him to speak without uttering weighty truths in an original and memorable form ; his reading of the Bible was singularly instructive and impressive, and his prayers were the words of one standing in the immediate presence of the great Jehovah. But his preaching was too abstract, and was sometimes the slow utterance of thoughts that seemed to be gathering themselves in drops while lie was in the pulpit — big drops, but with great intervals between them, and the whole occupying an excessive time before he could be satisfied that there was enough in the cup to offer to a thirsting soul. But at other times his whole discourse was a continuous flow of heavenly eloquence, in which both the intellect and the spirit soared in so lofty a region that the body itself seemed to partake of the elevation. On such occasions his language was concise, oracular, and singularly beautiful ; every word was a thought sought out as a jewel, and artistically fitted in its place. His discourse was not one idea presented in many forms, nor many ideas fitted up with looser materials, nor a chain of successive arguments ; but a unity made up of parts, each fine in itself, and each helpful to the whole, fitted together as in a beautiful mosaic, and lighted up with the frequent flashes of sanctified genius. In beauty it was a picture ; but in power it was the rushing of sparkling wine that had burst its bottles. :^-^% yOH.X DUNCAX, LL.D. '/\f ', In 1830 Mr Duncan was appointed, but without ordination, to tlie ?i^^ very rural charge of Persie Chapel, in the eastern borders of Perthshire. On the brief period of his pastoral duty there he always looked back with peculiar interest ; and a deep mutual attachment was formed between himself and the people of the district, who highly appreciated his -,' ministry. His tenderness and the strength of his affection tempered his I faithfulness, which at that time was occasionally characterised by a jj' severity which would otherwise have given offence. In 1831 he was j called to a Sabbath lectureship in Glasgow, where he was afterwards '\ ordained i.i minister of Milton Church, and where, in 1837, he married \ Miss Gavcn, of Aberdeen, who died after two years, to his great grief ,1 While thee he received from Aberdeen the degree of LL.D. in acknow- 'v, ledgment of his Hebrew and Oriental learning, in which he had few- equals ; but by a strange omission none of the Universities enrolled him among their Doctors in Divinity, although beside him most other men seemed scarcely to be theologians. In 1 841 Dr Duncan was appointed as a missionary to the Jews in the beautiful city of Buda-Pesth, on the Danube, where the Archduchess of Hungary had been long praying for the help of a man of God. Before w leaving Scotland, he had been married again to a widow lady, Mrs -| Torrance, who entered with great energy and wisdom into all his i; missionary work. His work in Hungary was in all respects one of the happiest and most fruitful portions of his life. His intimate acquaintance with their sacred language and their literature excited an interest in the Jews, and rendered them unusually accessible ; the spiritual power that rested on himself was divinely used for their religious awakening ; and J; ^ there was abiding fruit in some remarkable conversions. At the same -'<\^ time he was greatly honoured and beloved by the leading Protestant ^]irv ministers ; and his memory is cherished with a singular affection by ™^. pastors of the Reformed Hungarian Church. At a later period he took a similar interest in the Protestant Churches of Bohemia ; and nothing DISKUPTIO.X WORTHIES. could exceed the gratitude and attachment of the Bohemian pastors toward him. In the ever memorable era of 1843, Dr Duncan, with all his mind and heart, cast in his lot with the Free Church of Scotland ; and not alone, but along with all the missionaries to the Jews from the Church of Scotland, for the character of the grand event of that time was not mainly ecclesiastical, but deeply religious. He was then recalled to fill the Hebrew Chair in the New College, Edinburgh ; and this position he occupied till his death in 1870. In genius, in learning, and in devotion, Dr Duncan was one of the most remarkable men of the Disruption. His knowledge of languages was so great, that Dr Guthrie spoke of him in the General Assembly as " the man who could talk his way to the wall of China ;" but he knew languages better than he could use them, and he said himself that English and Latin were the only tongues in which he could speak with fluency. His irregularity of habit, his mental abstraction, and his weak- ness of will in ordinary life, made him in many things of less service than inferior men. But his wonderful insight into divine things ; his fruitful thoughts clothed with light and beauty ; his acute, brilliant, sententious sayings ; his deep devoutness, his tenderness of conscience, his transpar- ency, his humility, his continual repentance toward God, and his ardent love to the Lord Jesus Christ, have left priceless impressions that can never be erased from the hearts of his hearers, his students, and his friends. His own words form the best memorial of his character : — " Methought I heard the song of one to whom much had been forgiven, and who therefore loved much ; but it was the song of the chief of sinners, of one to whom most had been forgiven, and who therefore loved most. I would know, O God, what soul that is ; O God, let that soul be mine ! " A. M. S. ALEXANDER MURRAY DUNLOP. ^hxanbcr JEnrran lunlnp. iLEXANDER DUNLOP was born in Greenock on the 27th of December 1798. He was educated at the Grammar School of that town, and at the University of Edinburgh. After the usual attendance on the classes in the faculties of Arts and of Law, he was called to the Scottish Bar in the year 1820. He was the fifth son of Alexander Dunlop, Esq. of Keppoch, and belonged to a family which had furnished many leaders to the Church and people of Scotland. Soon after he was called to the bar, Mr Dunlop began to study care- fully the working of the poor-law system of Scotland, and it was in this way that he began to take an interest in Church questions. Like most well-educated young Scotchmen, he had had a transient admira- tion for Episcopacy, but his sympathetic nature soon threw that off; and when his poor-law investigations led him to study carefully the ecclesiastical system of his country, wliich his ancestors had so greatly helped to fashion, he soon came to see the real grandeur of the old democratic Church government of Scotland. The first edition of his book on the Poor Law was published in 1825, and the foiirth which appeared in 1834 contained an appendix upon the Law of Patronage. During the first ten years of his life at the bar, he devoted himself to the work of his profession. In 1822 he became one of the editors of Shaw and ^^^ DISRLPIIO V ]] OR! HIES. Dunlop's Reports, nnd in this capacity and otliers gave evidence of his legal attainments. Rut ere long Church questions absorbed the greater portion of his time. In his early life Mr Dunlop was a Tory. His family held Tory ;, principles ; and in the pleasant letters which passed between the busy .;■ young Edinburgh advocate and the lively family circle in Greenock, there Jj t are many half-bantering, half-earnest references to the family political i';- j creed. His opinions gradually changed, however; and at the Dumbarton- • V shire election of 1832, he published a letter to the electors of the county, I which was warmly welcomed by the Scotch Whig leaders, more especially j;/ as " coming from one," wrote Cockburn, " not steeped like me in the ;j/: errors of Whiggery, but rather addicted to the follies of Toryism." ^5 The year 1S32 saw the beginning of Mr Dunlop's public life. He ^^ became really well known and a confidential leader, just when the party ^^W. in the Church which he supported became dominant in the Assembly, ^j^ His great knowledge of old Scotch law, especially in its bearing on , the relation between Church and State, as well as his powers of clear thought and expression, made his services specially valuable. He was the mediator in every dispute, the confidant in every plan, he active \ manager in all the more important matters of popular Church business. ~'j His correspondence on public affairs soon grew very voluminous, and \. now reads like the inner history of the " ten years' conflict." He was an J active member of the various Church societies — of the Church Law ;i Society, of the Anti-Patronage Society, and so 01 —and his whole time \ i/ was occupied in the business which Church affairs brought upon him. . A ''^)d In 1833 he was busiest with the Chapel Act, and was actively engaged }\\\ /]^/ in promoting anti-patronage meetings; in 1834 he became editor of the "N-A ^^fy " Presbyterian Review," which did good service to the cause which lay _ \'p nearest his heart ; in 1835 Church extension occupied him ; in 1S37 and ; ,e in 1838 the Auchterarder case, the conflict between the Church and the :,'/ jl^- Court of Session, and non-intrusion meetings, absorbed his attention. In ALEXANDER MURRAY DUNLOP. the busy years that followed, Mr Dunlop's activity was enormous. The Church then entered on a double struggle ; self-defence was added to self-reform, and double labour fell to the lot of the leaders of the movement. Among Church reforms Mr Dunlop took special interest in the restora- tion of the eldership to its old place in the Church of Scotland. He wrote two valuable articles upon this subject in the " Presbyterian Review," and prepared an elaborate report for the General Assembly. He also left some valuable historical notes upon the place of the eldership in the ancient Church of Scotland, which have not been published. Church extension, too, interested him greatly ; but, as was natural from his pre- vious studies, the relation of the Church to education and to the poor occupied most of his attention. The inforrnation furnished by the Church to the Government about the number of paupers in Scotland, and the elaborate Report on the same subject presented to the Assembly of 1841, were both the result of Mr Dunlop's almost unaided labour. He took an active part in the Voluntary controversy, and so thoroughly matured were his opinions upon the real connection which ought to subsist between State and Church — opinions framed not on a sentiment of what things ought to be, but on an historical study of the old Scottish Church — that, in later days, none of his speeches on the Irish Church or the Union questions in any way contradicted his earlier statements or ideas. Mr Dunlop's services, however, in the struggle between the Church and the majority of the Court of Session, are those which will ever be held in kindliest remembrance. He had already made himself obnoxious to most of the heads of the Parliament House by his anti- patronage views, and by his support of the Veto Act ; but when he followed his church in her quarrel with the Court of Session, he deliber- ately surrendered all hopes of professional advancement. The services he rendered the Church in this unhappy strife, by pamphlet and by speech, ^^__^^£®i?i':©'M,K|STg\di^^,i>vyf^TI> .^, DISRUPTION WORTHIES. in the couit and at public meeting, can scarcely be over-estimated. The ground which he took up at first he never abandoned. He did not indulge in promiscuous declamation ; he always appealed to the history of the Church. His argument, the same in speech and pamphlet, and at last set forth in detail in the Claim of Rights, was substantially this : There is no need in Scotland to dispute about the precise meaning and effects of the abstract doctrine of spiritual independence. In virtue of a concordat between Church and State, the Church of Scotland has had certain rights and liberties which can be enumerated, guaranteed her, and recognised as hers. These she claims to possess, not merely by inherent right, but also by legal recognition, and these are now being illegally wrested from her. This was the position he took up, and he maintained it to the last. It would be impossible to give a list of all the pamphlets and speeches which he published during the struggle. The most important was his answer to the letter of the Dean of Faculty Hope; but the short tract, "Which Party breaks the Law.'" was equally telling; and the pre- face and appendix to his edition of Wedderspoon's "Maxims for the Moderates," were full of very effective sarcasm. When a compromise was found to be impossible, and when the Church felt that either State connection or liberty must be surrendered, the task of preparing documents befitting the occasion was entrusted to Mr Dunlop. He prepared that memorable overture setting forth the ancient relation between Church and State, and the guaranteed rights of the Church, which was afterwards published as the Church's Claim of Right. I have before me now the various proof-sheets, which shew the gradual growth of the document, and the changes which w ere made upon it ere it saw light in the form in which we now ha\"e it. On the margins are corrections, mostly in Mr Dunlop's handwriting ; but here and there ^/•^ occur suggestions made by others to whom the sheets were submitted. I^jlf; On one, Dr Candlish has nervously pencilled two important additional ALEXANDER MURRA V DUNLOP. clauses ; on another, John Hamilton has suggested additions and altera tions ; but perhaps the most interesting is the one on which Dr Gordon ' > was set to work, where he begins by suggesting alterations which tend to :i soften the sternness of the document, and ends, for divine wrath has kindled in him, with emendations which make the draft sterner and more severe. Those old proof-sheets, yellowish with age, stained with printer's ' ink, and scored over with hasty pens and hastier pencils, bring back in a - strange vivid way the mingled anxiety and resolution of the times. The ^ MS. draft of the Protest which Dr Welsh left upon the table of the ■ : Assembly on the day of the Disruption, is also an interesting document Its corrections are all in Mr Dunlop's handwriting, except one clause, wliich seems to have been added by Mr Hamilton. Among Mr Dunlop's -_ papers there are two drafts of the programme of procedure on the day of .'^ the Disruption; the first proposes to have a discussion before leaving .'^ the hall. This difference is probably explained by the following MS. |fe note appended to the MS. draft of the Protest, which is the only reference Mr Dunlop makes to the obloquy thrown upon him by many of the Scotch and English newspapers for the part he was taking in Church affairs: — "The Times gave Dr Chalmers great credit for the quiet and orderly way in which the Disruption was effected — contrast- ing it with what it might have been supposed would have taken place had Candlish or the author of the Protest had had their way. How little did they know of the matter! Till Chalmers read this draft, he was fierce for a discussion before leaving the hall, and that in opposition to the arguments of all his intimate friends. The 'arch agitator,' in the Times' estimation, was the person really entitled to credit for the course followed." t' After the Disruption, Mr Dunlop was made legal adviser of the Sl[ Church, an office which he held till his death, and in which he continued •'■^^ to render eminent service to the cause which he had made his own. But want of space compels me to refrain from even mentioning the ) R^;;i§':|||iJ S T.sX© 1»W B^ |;A K) © ^-^ ©"it¥ f a DISRUPTION WORTHIES. numerous evidences of his labours which are to be found among his papers. In 1844 Mr Dunlop married EHza Esther, only child of John Murray, Esq., of Ainslie Place, Edinburgh. On the death of his father-in-law in 1849, he assumed the name of Murray, to which he added the additional surname of Colquhoun-Stirling, on succeeding, in 1S66, to the estate of his cousin, William Colquhoun-Stirling of Law and Edinbarnet. It was Mrs Murray Dunlop's rare good fortune to be able to make amends to her husband for the sacrifices which his devotion to the Church had cost him. His marriage rendered him independent of the hostile influences of the Parliament House, and enabled him at last to yield to the wishes ot his friends, who had long been urging him to enter Parliament. Mr Dunlop's first efforts were unsuccessful. In 1845 and 1847 he failed ; but in 1852 he was returned by the electors of Greenock, his native town, and he kept the seat until failing health compelled him to resign. Mr Dunlop's Parliamentary career was very successful. Few Scotch members have had as much influence in the House, and none were able to pass so many useful measures. His position was due almost entirely to his weight of character, and to the wisdom and diligence he shewed on committees and in the House ; and although hindered by a weak voice and a somewhat hesitating manner, he was always respectfully listened to when he rose to speak. As was to be expected from his pre- vious training and character, Mr Dunlop assiduously devoted himself during his Parliamentary career to the cause of legal and social reform. The Parliamentary work which he himself looked back upon with most satisfaction was that done in connection with the marriage law of Scot- land, the series of measures regarding reformatories and industrial schools which culminated in Dunlop's Act, and the Act to facilitate the erection of dwelling-houses for the working classes. His Parliamentary career was marked by the same lofty moral courage and disdain of all that was tyrannical and selfish which had characterised his earlier public life. I^; i?'@ ^':;,*':iai.iis T s \B iFi;@^w n 5s ,*iSi|M.,,,ss_,HWtfc^5U#''" " i/ ALEXANDER MURRAY DUNLOP. In the "Arrow" affair, he testified his abhorrence of the conduct of the Liberal Government in the war with China in 1857. The defeat of the Ministry involved a general election, and it was felt that many of the Liberals who had voted against the Government would lose their seats. Mr Dunlop at once placed his resignation in the hands of his constituency, and declared, with his usual high sense of honour, that he would not even stand as a candidate if they disapproved of his conduct. The people of Greenock, however, were not unworthy of their member, and re-elected him in such a way as to shew their admiration for his honourable and high-minded course of action. Perhaps Mr Dunlop's conduct in his vindication of Sir Alexander Burnes was still more courageous. The Government sought to justify the Afghan war in which they had engaged, by extracts from the despatches of the late envoy at the Afghan court. The papers thus published were so different from the documents sent home by Sir Alexander to his relatives in this country, that they were led to seek an explanation. The result shewed that " mutilated, false, forged opinions of a public servant, who had lost his life in the public service," had been offered to the House, to support a policy which Sir Alexander had always opposed. Members of the House of Commons have described the appearance of Mr Dunlop on the occasion when he led the attack upon Lord Palmerston. His quiet and almost timid manner disappeared, and in a firm, almost loud tone, he said that he had read the papers with amazement, indignation, and shame ; he declared that these papers had been laid on the table of the House by her Majesty's command ; that her name was appealed to as the stamp of their truthfulness, and that her servants had not shrunk from using that name as the voucher and the cover of a lie. Although, with the help of the leader of the opposition, the Government were not defeated on the vote, yet the character and reputation of Sir Alexander Burnes were vindicated ; it was felt that such a mutilation of Parliamentary documents could not again take place, and a great victory was gained in the interests of public morality. ;j«;'|m s T s \© m.. ^;> w iM 1^ Ki © > © it¥ e^ k a,ki^i^||| DISRUPTION WORTHIES. In 1868, at the general election, Mr Dunlop resigned his seat in Parliament. His health, never robust, had begun to give way, and he wished to spend the rest of his life out of the din of public service, and in calm preparation for the rest that remaineth to the people of God. That rest came soon after. He died the 1st of September 1870, and was buried in the beautiful little grave-yard of the Free Church at Corsock. He left to mourn him his widow, four sons — three of whom were not long separated from their father — and four daughters. Mr Dunlop never received any of the honours which the Scottish Bar has to bestow upon her distinguished sons, but this was from his own unwillingness to accept them. Even in his early days, when he experienced considerable persecution, Cockburn, when Solicitor-General, offered him a sheriffship, which Mr Dunlop declined, because he thought it would interfere with his work for the Church ; and later he was offered a judgeship, and the office of Lord Advocate. I cannot close this sketch in a better way than by quoting Lord Cockburn's description of Mr Dunlop's character, lately published in his journals. He ranks him in everything, except impressive public exhibition, superior to both Dr Chalmers and Dr Candlish. " Dunlop," he says, " is tlie purest of enthusiasts. The generous devotion with which he has given himself to this cause [that of the Church], has retarded and will probably arrest the success of his very considerable talent and learning ; but a crust of bread and a cup of cold water would satisfy all the worldly desires of this most dis- interested person. His luxury would be in his obtaining justice for his favourite and oppressed Church, which he espouses from no love of power, or any other ecclesiastical object, but solely from piety, and love of the people." i JAMES GIBSON. D.D. lamrs O^ibson, R JAMES GIBSON was born in Crieff on the 31st of January 1799, of parents who were much respected in the place. Their house was the resort of the pious ministers who, at communion times, came to officiate there. After leaving college, where he proved an indus- trious and, especially when attending the Divinity Hall, successful student, he was employed as tutor in a family in the Presbytery of Hamilton, and it was from his residence there that he obtained licence from that Presbytery. He next filled the same office in a family in the Presbytery of Jedburgh, where he remained three and a half years. In 1825 Dr Gibson became travelling companion to Captain Elliot, a cousin of the Earl of Minto. They first went to Portugal, and as they remained a considerable time in Lisbon, he had full opportunity, by visiting the churches and cathedrals of that city, of witnessing the corruptions and gross superstitions of the Church of Rome. Returning to this country, Dr Gibson was appointed assistant to Mr Steel of the West Church, Greenock. After labouring there for two years, he accepted an offer unexpectedly made to him, to be tutor to a young gentleman who was about to travel on the Continent. But before leaving Greenock, he received a testimonial from the congregation, expressive of their esteem for him both as a man and a minister. DISRUPTION WORTHIES. His continental tour occupied a year and a half. In company with ,,,^-f his young charge he travelled through France, Switzerland, and Italy, ^\ especially visiting Paris, Geneva, and Rome ; and what he saw of the \ irreligion, infidelity, immorality, and licentiousness of these countries, he traced in a great measure, after the depravity of the human heart, to the r monstrous forms of popery which fell under his observation. Indeed, \_ what he saw of the corruption of popery, had a saddening and yet a ' beneficial effect upon his mind. Writing to a friend, he says, " I have just come from St Peter's, disgusted with the crowd, noise, bustle, glare, . folly, trickery, absurdity, and impiety of ceremonies called religion. In \i the great part of the popish ceremonies which I have seen, it would vV'-', baffle any human being not initiated into the mystery to find any § resemblance to religion either Pagan or Christian. It is a strange compound of human pride, gaudy show, and abject degradation. How the earth does not shake it off its bosom, I cannot comprehend ; but, by the most ingenious methods and deep-laid policy, it has laid hold of the strongest principles of our nature, and drawn into its sphere everything, good and bad, by which it can rivet the chains on poor human nature." This was a training for the future. And the hand of God in leading him by the way was also seen in his unsuccessful attempts to obtain a ministerial charge. He longed for rest after so much wandering. He would have deemed himself happy could he have obtained a " guid little charge," with the opportunity of devoting himself to his Master's service, and many were the efforts made by himself and others to obtain such a charge. The highest influence was put forth on his behalf, and on one occasion there was the almost certain prospect of obtaining a rural parish in the south of Scotland. But this hope, so bright, was doomed to disappointment. In short, every door was closed. There was to be no " guid little charge " for him. It was to be on a wider sphere that he was to be engaged in his Master's service ; and the training having in God's providence been completed, that wider field was JAMES C/BSO.V, D.D. opened up. Returning from the continent, Dr Gibson became assistant to Dr Lockhart of the College Church, Glasgow. It was during the heat of the Voluntary Controvers}-, and having ' been led from circumstances to take part in that controversy, he so ably 1 defended the cause of Establishments by his writing, that certain influential Jr members of the church put it in his power either to accept a sum of money, i> which, it is believed, amounted to ^2000, or that a church should be built t! in a destitute locality of Glasgow, of which he should be the minister. I, He adopted the latter alternative, and in 1839 he was inducted into ! Kingston Church. In 1843 came the Disruption, and having joined his brethren who formed the Free Church, he was obliged to leave his place of worship ; but soon after another was erected for him and those of his congregation who adhered to the principles of the Free Church. The Clerkship of the Glasgow Presbytery having become vacant, Dr ^WL. Gibson was unanimously requested to accept the office ; and such was '^S' his knowledge of Church law and practice, that he rendered important service to the Presbytery in that office. On resigning it, the Presbytery recorded their sense of the painstaking zeal and careful efficiency with j which, for twelve years, he had discharged its duties. I' In 1855 the Assembly resolved to proceed with the erection of a Theological College in Glasgow, Dr Clark of Wester Moffat having promised a grant of iJ'30,000 for its erection and endowment, and it is jl well known that he frequently communicated with Dr Gibson on the I subject, whose influence with Dr Clark contributed materially to his liberal proposal. In 1856 Dr Gibson was elected by the Assembly Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History. Dr Gibson had a vigorous mind, and was quick of apprehension. ^ When he once formed his opinion, no one was better able to hold and \ defend it. Tenax propositi (firm of resolve) was a characteristic feature of him. He was of a noble and generous disposition. He could not brook anything that was mean and grovelling. He shrank from it as m DISR UP TION 1 1 -OR THIES. 1 ■^1 from the touch of a loathsome reptile. We remember with what con- tempt he spoke of a fellow-student who had stooped to a low artifice to secure a prize. " It was," he said, " the essence of meanness." It was the noble in conduct which fired his soul. He looked up to it with the admiration with which we gaze on a lofty mountain. In debate there was no want of the fortiter in re. He would have liked a little more of the suaviter in modo, but then we must make some allowance for the warmth of his feelings; and however he might treat the argument of his opponent, there was no ill-feeling towards the opponent himself On the contrary, we have known him burst into tears when the hand of reconciliation was stretched out, and the hope expressed that no difference of opinion should henceforth mar their social intercourse. Nor was this generous regard for the manliness of his honesty confined to his brethren of the Presbytery ; the same justice was done him by the A\-orld outside. But under the stern countenance of the polemic, there was a genial loving heart. It shone forth in his family, rendering it a happy home, and in private life ; and those who experienced his friendship can best speak of its warmth. As a minister, he admitted that he was not " popular in his manner," and thus did not attract crowds ; but his discourses were rich in gospel truth. His writings on the Voluntary Controversy, on the Claims and Protection of the Sabbath, on the Marriage Affinity Question, on the Errors of the Church of Rome, and on the Distinctive Principles of the Free Church, shew the good he was the means of doing by the press as well as the pulpit. And no doubt the students who listened to his instructions from the chair can bear testimony to the advantages they received from his teaching. [Tn tlie foregoing Sketcli, which is substniitially the Minute adopted by the Free Presbytery of Glasgow expressive of its appreciation of the life and work of Dr Gibson, no reference is made to his views on the Union question. Throughout these negotiations he ably and consistently main- tained that Union was inadmissible on the footing of the proposals of the majority of the Church.] ■# i ;BK;|;'Wif^I^iHi©7^.^ CRAUFURD, AUFU R DLAND. MiUiatn Hoinkson CraufurJb. (OF CRAUFURDLAND ) 4! FINER specimen of a country gentleman could not anywhere be found than William Ho\\ieson Craufurd. He was the representative of one of the oldest families in Scotland. His mother was the onl)- surviving child of John Howieson of Braehead, in the county of Mid- lothian, and Elizabeth Craufurd of Craufurdland, in the county of Ayr. By this marriage the two families of Howieson and Craufurd were united, and eventually the two properties passed into the possession of Mr Craufurd. Each of these has a history of its own — a romantic interest attaches to the one, a legal interest attaches to the other. The possession of Braehead dates as far back as the time of James V. The king had sallied forth unattended on one of his adven- turous expeditions, and, according to the tradition, he was attacked by four or five gipsies, who were proving more than a match for him, when John Howieson, a bondsman on Braehead farm, came to his rescue, and delivered him out of their hands. The king in\'ited him to i' call next day at Holyrood, and inquire for the goodman of Ballengiech, and he would at least shew him the king's apartments. On doing so, he Pf., found to his surprise that it was the king he had befriended. In token of ac his gratitude he conferred upon him the lands of Braehead ; and from that W: day to this they have continued in the family in an unbroken line. This 1^ =6^ f 4( D/SA'L'PT/O.y WORTHIES. ift was coupled with the condition, that whenever the king came to Holyrood or passed over Cramond Bridge, the Laird should bring forth a basin to him in which to wash his hands. When George IV. visited Scotland in 1822, Mr Craufurd had the honour of performing that service to his majesty at the banquet given to him by the city of Edinburgh on the 24th of August. The ceremony is thus described by authority : — "As soon as the king had dined, a silver basin containing rose water was brought to his majesty by William Howieson Craufurd, younger 01'" Braehead, who, in the right of his mother as proprietrix of Braehead, in the county of ]\Iidlothian, claims this privilege, the service performed being the ancient tenure by which the estate of Braehead is held." The succession to Craufurdland was the subject of protracted litigation. In the year 1793 Colonel Craufurd of Craufurdland died in Edinburgh unmarried. By a deed made on his deathbed he settled his estate on Thomas Coutts, Esq., banker, London. The validity of this deed was disputed by his aunt and heir, who had married the Laird of Braehead, and an action of reduction was instituted. Dying before it was finished, it was carried on by her daughter who succeeded her, and after many long delays, it was eventually reduced by a decree of the House of Lords. This decision is frequently appealed to as determining the question of law in all such cases. Born on the 29th of November 1 78 1, Mr Craufurd was educated at the High School of Edinburgh, from which he passed to the University, where he prosecuted those studies that enlarged his mind and fitted him for fining worthily and well the position he was afterwards to occupy. At a comparatively early period he was brought under the power of divine grace. This was in answer to the prayers of an invalid sister, to whom he was greatly attached. Before she passed away, she had the unspeakable joy of finding that he had passed from death to life. The change was decided, and its genuineness was attested by a long life of .sustained consistent Christianity. While nature gifted him with all the ,1 Ki © /©""(iiV E M A,Mi,Wg|^^ ^.■^^^^F^ M(^ ALEXAXDER DYCE DAVIDSOX, D.D. strength to it. He might have been the most influential man in the affairs of the city in which he was so much loved and revered, but he retired from all public and social life, that he might discharge fully the office to which he was ordained. Dr Davidson was never so happy as when he was at work in his study. Perhaps he denied himself needful relaxation in his unceasing care for each Sabbath's work. Considering his power and popularity as a preacher, it was often remarked how little he was from home ; and we have heard it told by ministers whom he assisted at communion seasons, how resolute he was in getting home by the first opportunity after his work was done. He would on no account lose a day from the work he loved so well, and consequently fulfilled with such signal success. Dr Davidson's facility hi composition was very great, and it was no doubt largely the result and reward of the honest, regular, daily work he performed through a long and happy ministr)-. His methods of composition were such as we might have expected from the mental characteristics and scholarly habits of the man. He wrote only after the greatest industry in preparing his matter, but A\hen he once sat down to write, his work immediately took on its peculiar neatness and accuracy. It passed in the first draft from under his hand in a state of correctness and finish to which he could add nothing. Happy workman! He never needed to recast and correct, to destroy and restore! Indeed, he has been heard to say that he never drafted a discourse in his life. With such gifts and habits, natural and acquired, we come to see how it was possible that every Sabbath he went up to the pulpit with his work so thoroughly prepared, and carried to, and sustained at, such a high level of theological and homiletical excellence. There was one part of his daily pulpit work which alwa}'s was particularly, and indeed unapproachably, well done. It was his regular practice to give a running commentary on the passage of Scripture read each Sabbath morning. In few, sagacious, clear, and suggestive words 0,' m I DISK UP TIOX I VOR THIES. he laid open the sense and bearing of the passage read, and that in a space of time that did not seem to add materially to the mere reading of the verses. But this, too, was only another result of those habits of mind which ruled and shaped all his life. Careful preparation, method, and a fine sense of fitness and proportion, were all characteristically displayed in this incidental looking exposition. It could not but be that offers of promotion to offices of wider theological .influence, and other preferments and promotions, should be set before such a man ; but his quiet and retiring manner of dealing with all personal and public matters made these offers to be little heard of. Thus it was that Dr Davidson lived and laboured, and died in the city which had given him birth, and which is so justly proud of, and grateful for, his memorJ^ A. W. 1 HOMAS GUTHRIE. D.D. ^^-A'S^.v>^ W -. f IjcmEis d^utbm, H.B. iHOMAS GUTHRIE, to be known as Dr Guthrie the preacher and philanthropist, was born in Brechin on the 1 2th of July 1803, and died at St Leonard's, Hastings, 4th February 1S73, having all but completed his three- score years and ten. His father, David Guthrie, a burgher of some note in the town, was a man of strong sense and Christian principle ; his mother, Clemintina Cay, had force of character and deep piety. The ancestors on both sides were farmers of the hill country of Angus. Thomas, the twelfth child and sixth son, had his lot early cast for the ministry. His College course commenced in Edinburgh in 1815, and he was licenced to preach the gospel in 1825. Lay patronage, as then exercised in the Church of Scotland, delayed his settlement, and only in 1830 did he obtain a charge. With the energy that afterwards marked him, he gave part, of that interval to scientific and medical studies in Edinburgh and Paris, and part to the management of the paternal bank in Brechin, preaching and public speaking not being intermitted, and the knowledge he gained of men and of practical business bestowing a second training for his life-work. In 1830 he was ordained to Arbirlot, a country parish near Arbroath, and the same year married to Anne, the eldest daughter of the Rev. James Burns of Brechin. Here he entered with great earnestness on the chief lines of action to which he devoted himself through life, PISKUPTJOX WORTHIES. I I preaching to his congregation of farmers and labourers with all the clearness, warmth, and power of illustration which shone out afterwards, visiting from house to house, organising prayer meetings. Sabbath schools, a library and savings bank, and taking share in the movement against Patronage which was then stirring the heart of Scotland. His power and originality as a preacher, and his effectiveness as a platform speaker, brought him rapidly to the front, and with a sore wrench to himself and his people (" they were a' greetin' " is the account given by one of them), he was, in 1837, transferred to Old Greyfriars', Edinburgh, the historic church of the covenant and the martyrs. Here began that wonderful popularity which continued to grow for years, and attended him while he could ascend a pulpit. It was a very busy period with him, occupied with constant pastoral work, his hands full of the benevolent and religious movements of the time, and with a large share in the Church discussions which were shaking the country ever more widely and deeply. In 1840 he entered the new church of St John's, a parish formed from Old Greyfriars', to carry out the territorial principle — one of the chief reasons which had forced him from Arbirlot, and a favourite conception of Chalmers. He laboured at this with incessant vigour till the Disruption came in 1843, to change his position and the condition and prospects of the Church of Christ in Scotland. The movement which ended in this event had been progressing in the "ten years' conflict"; a battle waged over the breadth of the land, in country homes and hamlets as well as in church courts, in remote islands as keenly as in the great towns, by lecture and debate, through book, newspaper, and pamphlet, and every agency of speech and pen by which the heart of the people could be reached. It was one of the periodical uprisings that have made the nation what it is. " Scot- land," wrote Lord Palmerston, " is in a flame about the Church question," and men who imagined the ages of faith gone, and materialism lord of the future, were surprised to see the same unquenched spirit that leapt THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D. into being at the voice of Knox, and signed the covenant amid tears of enthusiasm on the tombstone in Greyfriars' churchyard. In the surging eddies of the fight Thomas Guthrie was often seen, and his winged words, with the pen of Hugh Miller, were powerful co-efficients in bringing out the response which the heart of the people gave to the self-sacrifice of the ministers, and in securing, under God, the success of the Free Church from the first day of its existence. He was in the band that burst from the doors of St Andrew's, Edinburgh, on the iSth May 1843, and which, beginning with 474 ministers, has grown to 900 churches, three Divinity Halls, and a yearly free-will revenue of half a million sterling. He formed one of a deputation that visited the chief towns of England and Ireland, to explain the principles of the Church, and not long after commenced his operations for the Manse Scheme, which ended with his reporting .^116,370 for this one object, as the result of a year's labour. The journeys, speeches, and business work compressed into this effort might have been spread through an ordinary life, and shook a frame of unusual strength. From homeless ministers, his exertions turned to what had long been in his heart, houseless children, and in 1847 came out the "Plea for Ragged Schools." Its effect was electric, for the Christian conscience was ready ; and he became identified with the move- ment personally in his own city, and, in name and influence, throughout the country. One plea followed another ; hundreds of " life-boats," to take his own favourite figure, were launched, and he was called on to advocate the cause with the people, and to watch the part taken in it by Parliament. To the close of his life it held the place nearest to his heart of all public questions ; not as a piece of politics, or branch of social improvement, but as a chief part of the religion of Christ. His numerous speeches, and his fervent pleadings through the press, have entered deeply into the general zeal for the education and elevation of the people which is one of the best features of our time. In the midst of these multiplied efforts his health broke down, and 2S3 DISRUPTION WORTHIES. silence of two years from pulpit work made many fear that his public course was finished. But it had half its way to run. In 1850 the happy settlement of Dr Hanna, the son-in-law and accomplished biographer of Dr Chalmers, as co-pastor in St John's, divided his pulpit labour, and doubled his power and opportunity. His name as a preacher had been growing like sunlight ; it was now at its zenith, and audiences representing all classes of rank and culture, mixed with strangers frnm every part of the world, were drawn to listen to the same gospel preached with a clearness and force, a vividness and human interest, that satisfied a common need. Another field opened in the use of his pen. It is seldom that eloquence of speech can flow through the press without losing a large portion of its colour and vitality, and accordingly his first " Plea for Ragged Schools " took many by surprise, and was the revelation to himself of a latent power. His heart had been touched in what lay nearest to it, and the string of his tongue was loosed to speak on other matters. In 1S55 his first volume, "The Gospel in Ezekiel," appeared, and at this date it has reached its fortieth thousand. " The City : its Sins and Sorrows," rose to fifty thousand, with others corresponding, too long here to mention. His books cannot represent him to those who never heard him, as he was in his mastery over an audience, not merely by gesture, and voice, and look, but by the mysterious soul magnetism which some speakers possess ; nevertheless it is remarkable how much of his heart and life he was able to transmit through the conducting rod of the pen. It is proof of the great store of impressive power with which his spiritual nature was charged, and also of an instinctive literary skill, for though his style in both was the same, there was a change of manner and proportion of which few orators are capable. To thousands who never saw him, he was familiar as the editor of the " Sunday Magazine," known as " Dr Guthrie's Magazine," which reached a great circulation in his hands, and where he gave to the world not only many of his sermons, but his view of things civil and sacred, his observations on men and manners, as, in later years, he extended his journeys at home and abroad. His independence and breadth of handling made his papers always racy reading, while there was felt through them the discrimination of the best touch-stone — "A good understanding have all they that do his commandments." To number up the subjects in which he took the interest, not of a man who is an editor, but of an editor who is a man, and proved it also by speech and action, would be to give a list of most of the great concerns that touch the welfare of mankind. Anti-slavery, total abstinence, the purity and morality of national law, the improve- ment of the condition of the army, sanitary reformation, better homes for the people, working-men's clubs, continental missions, with a peculiar love for the old Church of the Valleys, the union of the Presbyterian denominations, are some of the questions that occupied him. His fugitive papers have an interest, in shewing the comprehensiveness of his nature as well as its intensity, the curious pleasure he took in peering into, and the curiosa felicitas he had in touching, whatever belongs to genuine human nature, and helps it on. Differing as he and the late Dr Norman Macleod did in Church polity and some other things, these two distin- guished men had the same ground of a true and broad humanity in them, playful in its rippling creeks, sadly earnest in its depths, with the sure sign of this breadth, a sympathy that moistened into humour and melted into tears ; and, never far off, the endeavour to make a wider, nobler, human nature, of which Christ is the alone possible centre. Some of his later papers were entitled, " Out of Harness," but this condition he never reached till he lay down to die. A winter's preaching in Rome, and a visit to America, to work his way across the States to California, where he had a son, were am^ong his last plans, an extra- ordinary proof of courageous energy on the verge of his seventieth year ; and with his heart still pressing forward, his strength failed. His end was by the border of the sea, which had been making its music within him for many years, and he looked out on it, as Bunyan describes his 4l mm I 1 DISR UP TION WOR THIES. pilgrims by tlie brink of the ri\er tliey had to cross, exchanging messages with friends near and far, rehearsing memories and expressing hopes with an affection and faith and humiHty that were very touching ; and at the close of Sabbath the 23d February, he entered into his rest, or should we not say of him, began his new work ? He was laid in the Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh, beside numbers of his old companions, eminent ministers and faithful elders, with many a tribute of love and sorrow from the vast multitude that gathered to his burial, but with none felt so deeply as the song of the children of his own Ragged Schools, a requiem very fitting, and also the echo of a welcome, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these little ones." While liis life-work went beyond the Disruption, we cannot estimate his character without going back to it. Whatever view may be taken of the claims involved in that event, no thoughtful man can help seeing that it contained immense quickening influences. It was an epoch in Scot- land, moving and magnetising it as perhaps nothing has done since the Reformation, and those who were most hostile to its principles have not been able to escape its impulse. W^e should be blind and ungrateful did we not acknowledge the obligation which the entire Christianity of this land, and of others, owes it for its noble testimony to the power of con- science, for the spirit of self-sacrifice and generosity, of free-giving and zealous working, that have flowed from it into many channels, as from a swelling river. If it was a mistake, the world could stand a few more such errors ; abnegation is not such a common thing even in the Christian Church that we can afford to want this instance of it ; our history would have been poorer, and our life lower, at this day without it, and this is its best practical justification. But, doubtless, it told most on those who were directly engaged in it, and brought out whatever was in them of heart and capacity — an Ithuriel's spear, with a better result in its touch. Under the frown of Government, and with the door of Parliament shut in their face, they carried their appeal to the people, put the rights and js^Ki© ''e@:,¥E THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D. M'. resources of the Church, under its Head, in their hands, and the reply inspired a confidence which made them strong for Christian work every- where. After Chalmers was so soon withdrawn, there was no one perhaps of the survivors who felt so much this quick beat of the heart for fresh enterprise as Dr Thomas Guthrie. The Disruption, like every other great providential movement, had its men made for it — we omit the living — each fitted to his place ; the central fire and upheaving force of Chalmers ; Cunningham the Ajax of debate, with his colossal blows ; the sinewy strength and marshalling skill of Candlish ; the calm sagacious statesmanship of Robert Buchanan ; the pen of Hugh Miller, dipped in poetry and feathered with history and philosophy. But Dr Guthrie represented its sense of new-found power not only to maintain itself, but to give out energy as never before ; its obedience to the command, " to launch out into the deep and cast the net on the right side ; " its interest in the children of the poor, in the home heathen, in the continent of Europe, in the world. It was mainly this spirit which determined hence- forth his ecclesiastical outlook, and turned it not back, but forward. From the first he went for the entire abolition of Patronage, when Patronage only was in question. When the independence of the Church in her spiritual domain was invaded in the course of the struggle, he was forced, with many more, to give up connection with the State ; but when once that tie was broken, new feelings and considerations came in, and grew with the new experience. A different kind of life brought its own pleasures, in its sense of freedom, its activities, its struggles, its very sacrifices, its growth of affection to objects for which, and friends with whom, these sacrifices had been made — the joy of life in life itself — and it became a question, not difficult to answer, whether all this should be forsaken for the former position, even if it lay open. It is the ancient parable of putting the new wine into the old bottles, with the fact, that the bottles had given way before. Dr Guthrie felt, as he expressed it, "when he had got rid of the crutch and found his limbs," no desire to go m. i i 4 DISRUPTION WORTHIES. back to that kind of lielp, and the fear that, if he did, he should lose what he had gained. And, after all, this is what will determine the form of Church reconstruction in Scotland, not the lines drawn across the water by statesmen, but the deep currents below — the necessities and cravings of spiritual life in the Christian people. Statesmanship has often had to recognise that there are things done in the world by its mistakes which it cannot undo. The abolition of the tea tax would not have reclaimed America when independence was declared ; and when Israel was once across the sea, in the freedom of the wilderness, with its divine provisions, and Canaan before, not the land of Goshen and a constitution, octroi or other, under a repentant Pharaoh, could have brought them back, though some would fain have tried. In describing a man, it is the custom to begin with his appearance, and the likeness which this sketch is to accompany invites its continu- ance. He was tall beyond the ordinary stature, with a strength of frame that would have made him a "shepherd of the people" in the old Homeric time, as his other gifts made him in the movements of ours. The face was not regular, but had much expression, first in the eyes, keen and gray, and then in the mouth, which spoke by its lines, as well as its words ; a face that was the farthest from being a cover to the feelings, but let them through in their quick changes, flitting up in sympathy and mirth, and honest anger and righteous scorn. The photographer cannot give this, the reader's imagination must help. The complexion was swarthy, especially in youth, with long dark hair, which retreated as age advanced, and waved in a cloud-like white about his temples, the general remark being that he grew comelier as he grew older. His intellectual nature was not of the abstract or contemplative order, but strongly concrete and objective, thinking in analogies and speaking in figures, as old Homer used them, with picture-like fulness that would have been dangerous to the sustained interest but for the glow and movement that made them one with the subject. It recalled the eddy E,® '^#'^%1|„? ''^(^ \© i?i'%.w m\hn '©7©"i;¥"E ' ' of a Highland pool in love with the overhanging birch and rowan, but still part of the stream. His knowledge was drawn from nature more than science, and from men more than books, gathering all his life from every one he met, and having his library of fact and incident and observa- tion ready at hand. The amount and variety of these, and the power of putting them in easy dramatic form with naturalness and geniality, were the charm of his conversation. Those whose conception of Scottish divines is represented by the dried mummies that fill the vaulted niches of the Capucin Monastery at Rome would have had their ideal disturbed ; and yet the type to which he belonged has great antiquity, as any one may see who will study the character of John Knox himself in his " History of the Reformation.'' Connected with this was a stock of prompt common sense in reaching instinctive judgments about men and things, much of what is thought to be the national peculiarity of shrewd- ness, that is, penetration for cases of entanglement, and much also of what is thought to be not so national, tact, the perception of things delicate. But the centre of his natural character was his power of emotion — commonly called heart — a great breadth of human nature, inflammable all round, crackling in playful flames, burning also with steady worklike purpose, and capable of deepening to a still white heat. This made him the preacher and philanthropist he was — a preacher who needed to fill his study in thought with his congregation, and kindle himself thereby to fire them in turn ; and a philanthropist, not of the Benthamite school, but with a personal friendship for waifs and strays, a romantic interest in them, and a human naturalist's study of the curious shell under which he hoped to find his pearl. In little things it was seen, in the ready confidences he made up with children, and the good understanding he was on with dogs ; for humane is only human widened out. And humanity lay at the root of his theology. Not but that he was sound to the core in his Christian and Calvinistic faith, that " all things are of God," and drew it from God's book. But there are different Tr^f DISRUPTIO.V WORTHIES. -L-i wa}s of realising it, as there are different roads leading up to Christ, though He is the one only door. One way of theology is by reasoning the matter down, as is done in systems ; another is by thinking it up, and this last was according to his bent. Given man, his sin and unhappi- ness, and how can he be cured and raised } Is not the gospel the only possible solution of this .' Is not its fitness for humanity the seal of its divinity, and is not the centre of its power, as well as its mystery, God manifest in the flesh .' It was in this way, we believe, that he reached it for his own comfort ; and it was in the presentation of the gospel as the great human need, in the application of it to the circumstances and wants and sorrows and sins of men, as he had learned to know them, that the power of his preaching lay. He had truthful realism, and vivid fancy, and passionate force ; but natural as these were in him, they were successful, under God, from their having something in their midst more deeply human, because divine, the presence of Jesus Christ brought close to the heart, as the only Satisfier of its yearnings and Healer of its wounds. He did much for his own Church, but more for the Church of Christ ; and though it may seem a narrower thing to close with, it needs to be said, he did much to represent the best parts of the Scottish character — deep feeling, with a tenderness that seeks to hide itself under humour ; sagacity of the head with warmth of the heart ; shrewdness with self- devotion ; outbursts, resolute to obstinacy, against human authority when it crosses the path of the fear of God ; a nature very jealous of its rights, and very fervid for what it believes to be the cause of freedom and truth. History has written down this character of the people for three centuries or more, and it will put the name of Thomas Guthrie among those who in different ways have helped to keep up, and hand forward, the old renown. J. K. A'^^iji® '^ flii^%l l,f "i^.® \©' i^^.f ;w m"\A w^fWS^^€^^^^^ __ <^ \ ROBERT S. CANDLISH. D.D. GTS^B^Tf^^" Kokrt ^mitl) (Imhlxslh JB.B. N the list of our Disruption Wortliics, the place belonging to Principal Candlish is altogether unique as well as emi- nently illustrious. Dr Chalmers takes precedence, by the combination of considerable seniority with the extra- ordinary character of a very original genius. But, after deducting what is due to this remarkable exception, Dr Robert Smith Candlish will appear in the pages of our ecclesiastical history as the chief and wonderfully qualified instrument who was raised up by God's providence for expounding the principles, directing the spirit, and organising the government and system of the Free Church of Scotland. JHis father having died a month after his birth, he had the benefit in his mother of a strong character watching over him in his youth. But he seems to have been largely indebted, under God's guidance, to the secret workings of his own vigorous, quick and impulsive, but deep and penetrating, mind. He had a full and regular Scotch education in Glasgow. Attending the literary and philosophical classes of the University during five sessions, he afterwards prosecuted studies in the Divinity Hall for three full sessions till the month of December 1S23, when he had the advantage of varying the scene of his occupation by going to Eton as a private tutor. Significant fruits of his continuance for three years in this position might be discovered even in the brightest <1' VISKCPTIOy WORTHIES. manifestations of his powers at subsequent periods. And long before he shone forth as an accomplished leader of men, he had very happily exhibited his familiarity with the best English writing. No intelligent judge of literary acquirement could fail to perceive, in listening to his preaching, the tokens of a cultivated intellect alive to the beauties of Shakespeare and other English classics. At what stage of his life he first felt the full power of the gospel, and was stirred by zeal for the cause of Jesus and for the salvation of souls, there may be no evidence to shew. But whether the highest influence laid hold of his powerful nature at an earlier or a later period, indications of conscientious devotion to his Master's work may be found in his correspondence for some time before his ordination. While still a probationer of the Established Church of Scotland, he had, as assistant, the entire charge of two very different congregations in succession — the one in Glasgow, from 1829 (the twenty-third year of his age) till 1831 ; and the other in the country, at Bonhill, from 1831 till 1833. Thus, in addition to his protracted course of education and tutorship, he had an extended experience of ministerial work both in town and country before he was called to occupy what was in many respects, in 1834, the most conspicuous pulpit in Scotland. Who can tell what progress of thought or what spiritual growth went on in that lively, clear-sighted and fervent soul, while the great ones of the earth and even the approved guides of the Church had taken no note of him .' Mr Martin, the excellent and much loved person who immediately followed Dr Andrew Thomson in the pastorate of St George's, Edinburgh, was so quickly removed by death, that the name of Dr Candlish must always stand out in a commanding light as the name of the real successor to that extraordinary man in building effectively and largely on the foundation which his energy and earnestness had laid. The assistant at Bonhill had become in some measure known to the late Dr Welsli, Professor of Church History, \\ho afterwards, as Moderator, laid the --.w/^ ^0^-^^ ROBERT SMITH CANDLTsH, D.D. Disruption Protest on the table of the Assembly in 1843. That distin- guished and consistent man was a member of the congregation of St George's at the time of Mr Martin's illness. Through him Lord Moncrciff ; and others heard of Mr Candlish, and thus came his nomination to occupy j a pulpit which he afterwards illustriously adorned. At the very outset / of his course in it, he exhibited so much greater minuteness and subtlety [; of discussion than the hearers of Dr Thomson had been accustomed to, { that there was some division of opinion about him. But the present I . writer remembers well that, in the view of Dr Thomson's experienced ■ admirers, such as Lord Moncreifif, Mr Donaldson, Mr John Thomson, Mr John Tod, Mr Shank More, and others, members of session, the ^( differences between his style and that of the young preacher whom they tnow welcomed, were as nothing in comparison with the manifest signs in the latter of uncommon mental power and special capacity for effective speaking, both to the understanding and the heart, along with independ- ence and earnestness of spirit. Their judgment was thoroughly justified by the result. He speedily commanded the attention and regard of all classes in the congregation, and, as a preacher, gradually acquired the reputation which has become so great and well known. Having been occupied only as an assistant during five years previously to the full appreciation of his ministerial gifts and his ordination for I the charge of St George's, an equal number of years elapsed before his ; - eminence in the pastoral office was accompanied by the discovery and I exercise of his unrivalled ability for the management of affairs and the J' leadership of the General Assembly. He took no prominent part even ^^[ in the Presbytery of Edinburgh till 1S39. In the spring of that year the adverse judgment of the House of Lords in the first Auchterardcr Case was pronounced. Great anxiety was felt by the Evangelical party on the question of having adequately qualified persons to take the lead in the ensuing Assembly. Though the name of Mr Candlish was in the order of rotation for the representation of his Prcsb)-tcry, no such opinion DISK UP TIUN I I'OK THIES. had as yet been formed of him as to relieve that anxiety. The character and superiority of his eloquence appeared for the first time when he spoke in answer to Dr Muir, and supported the motion of Dr Chalmers for maintaining the principle of Non-intrusion in the continued exercise of spiritual independence. But the brilliant displays which elevated him to the undisputed leadership of the Non-intrusion party and of the Church, were made at the meetings of the Assembly's Commission in the latter portion of 1839 and the beginning of 1840, when that body was called to deal with the rebellion of the majority of the Presbytery of Strathbogie against the authority of the Assembly. The position thus acquired by him was maintained till 1873, the year in which he died. In the Free Church Assembly of that year he was specially blessed as an instrument of peace ; and though enfeebled much in bodily strength, shewed a large measure of his former mental power. From 1840, the enumeration of the services rendered by Dr Candlish, first to the majority of the Established Church before the Disruption, and subsequently to the Disruption Church herself, not only in the prime of his life, but for the advantage of her action in his more advanced age, would be to recount the history of Scottish ecclesiastical events for more than thirty years. From the suspension of the seven ministers in the Presbytery of Strathbogie to the final passing of the Act in 1873, by which, in connection with a fresh Overture then agreed to, the object of Mutual Eligibility between the Free Church and the United Presby- terian Church was attained, so as to prevent disruption in the Free Church, this remarkable man made his influence predominantly ielt in the prospering, the safety, and the vigorous working of his church. The confidence of an overwhelming majority never ceased to follow him. The high qualities of an eminently Christian and, at the same time, of a singularly master mind, were luminously evident in him along a particularly chequered course of trial and success. It was said at the commencement of this sketch that he was a chief ■^?i^ ROBERT SMITH CANDLISH, D.D. instrument for expounding the principles, directing the spirit, and organizing the government and system of the Free Church of Scotland. His exposition of her principles was given in its clearest and most impressive manner, at dates previous to the actual escape of himself and his associates from the harassment of the Erastian chains which in 1843 were threatening to encompass them. The principles specially concerned in that memorable escape were at the time represented as two in number — the principle of non-intrusion, and the principle of spiritual independence. His exposition of the principle of non-intrusion began with the striking outburst of eloquence already referred to, by which, replying to Dr Muir in 1839, he proclaimed the necessity of giving to the members of congregations an absolute right to prevent the settlement over them as pastors of persons whom they could not conscientiously receive as such. Throughout the various negotiations, consultations, and discussions which followed during the next four years, Dr Candlish took a leading part in maintaining and guarding the ground thus taken up by him at the outset. The integrity of her adherence to it was an essential element in the liberty which his energy, more than that of any other man, enabled the Church, by God's blessing, to achieve when she carried away her standard to the hall at Canonmills. The benefit of his acute, perspicacious, and thoroughly comprehensive intellect, was still more felt and enjoyed in his dealing with the great principle of spiritual independence. Not to speak of his splendid asser- tion of ecclesiastical liberty, in his treatment of the grave case in which the ministers of the Strathbogie Presbytery were concerned, nor of the instances in which, from time to time after the Disruption, he defended and enforced the Free Church view, it is well that attention should be fixed on the lucid declarations which appear in his speeches between the date of the judgment of the Court of Session in the Stewarton case and the date of the meeting of Assembly thereafter. The masterly manner in which he met the conceptions of the majority of the court as tending * « f X>T\!Z;1 DISRUPTION WORTHIES. to the destruction of all religious liberty, produced a lasting effect upon the convictions of multitudes of earnest people. Adverting to the imputation brought against the Church, of claiming to be the sole judges of what is spiritual and what is civil, he electrified his audience by the three following declarations. He said, first of all, "Whoever may put forth this monstrous claim to be sole judge of what is spiritual and civil, tramples under foot the rights, spiritual and civil, of all mankind, and establishes a despotism altogether intolerable." He said, secondly, "If this claim be put forth by a Church, it necessarily follows that that Church is dragging under her superintendence, to the exclusion of civil courts, all ecclesiastical persons, and assuming an authority in all causes, civil as well as in those ecclesiastical." He said, thirdly, " But if this amounts to a violation of civil liberty when the claim is put forth by a court of Christ, is it less a violation when put forth by a Court of Session .' If such a claim be admitted on the part of civil authorities, they may crush under their foot every vestige of religious liberty ; they may put an end to the free holding of Assemblies ; they may put an end to the free preaching of the gospel." These and other statements of Dr Candlish were welcomed with great applause and sympathy. They had a chief part in carrying to a largely prevailing extent the mind of the Scottish religious population into a clear persuasion, that a principle which lawyers and statesmen rejected as extravagant and dangerous, was nevertheless a sacred principle not to be abandoned, and the only principle on which the scriptural freedom of a Church could safely rest. The idea became fixed among multitudes of carefully considering men, that no adjustment of ecclesiastical relations could satisfy conscience which did not fix "that," to use the words of Dr Candlish, "the Church should be fully entitled to determine for herself, and for the regulation of her own con- duct in spiritual matters, what falls under her spiritual jurisdiction ; leaving the Court of Session to determine for itself, and for its own guidance, in deciding ci\'il questions, what falls within its civil jurisdiction." ROBERT SMITH C.l.XDLISH, D.D. Dr Candlish not only expounded Free Church principles in a felicitous manner ; he also had much to do with directing the spirit of Free Church action. Besides the force of his inspiriting addresses, imbued as they were v.ith the influence of the gospel in its highest tone, he gave a peculiar impulse at once by example, by exhortation, and by his proposals, to a habit of personal disinterestedness and self-sacrificing zeal in the various ecclesiastical movements of the emancipated Church. The success of the new organization, and its continually growing strength, even in the face of outward assaults and inward conflicts, are due in an incalculable measure to the strength of the spiritual fire which was thus cherished, by God's grace, in response to the endeavours of Dr Candlish, and those who went along with him or followed him. Dr Candlish was the chief instrument in organising the government and system of the Free Church of Scotland. He possessed a marvellous combination of high-reaching thought so as to be always applying the most commanding principles, with a capacity for sifting and arranging the most minute details. This combination, accompanied as it was by a most unselfish disposition, produced in him one very rare quality, the absence of which is often manifest in very excellent and intelligent persons. He had so great a habit of putting himself in thought into the place of other men, that he almost always saw things not only from his own point of view, but also from theirs. Whether he were dealing with the minister of a small country congregation, or with the office-bearers of a large one in the Highlands, or with any party in a large town, or with the clerk of a Presbytery, or with the clerk of the General Assembly, or with the convener of a committee, he scarcely ever failed to shew that he appreciated the other person's difficulties, and made every allowance for the necessities and obligations of his position. Hence arose the great and general confidence placed in him. Thus, whatever faults he had were regarded by those who knew him, and by great numbers of persons who had experience of his consideration and tenderness, as well as of his -^ * DISRUPTIOX WORTHIES. ability and his painstaking and disinterested labour, as nothing in com- parison with his surpassing merits. It is astonishing how he was enabled, amid his incessant work for the Church during more than thirty years, to maintain the character of a pastor and preacher of a very high order, and to keep gathered round him an overflowing congregation of intelligent and devoted men and women. His success, both in the pulpit and among those to whom he ministered otherwise, went on increasing in place of abating, while he gave so much of liis vigour to the general and public cause. At the same time he contributed various publications to theological literature, which of themselves are sufficient to establish a high place for him among the gifted servants of Christ. He was not a mere advocate of Free Church opinions. His mind took a large grasp of Christian interests and objects throughout the world, and he heartily sympathised with all sincere efforts for their promotion by churches and denominations differing from his own. Great as the loss of him was to his congregation and the Free Church at large, those who had the privilege of his personal friendship are, next to his own family, the greatest mourners in thinking of the bereavement occasioned by his removal. That friendship was indeed a treasure. He was very true and faithful. He was full of loving-kindness and sympathy. He thought, in any contingency, of the interests and prospects of others in the view of their comfort and usefulness, even before they had begun to look at that contingency themselves. He entered readily into their anxieties, and did his best to guide them. He cordially reciprocated all confidence placed in him. He quickly forgot all unpleasant occurrences, and dealt with the persons concerned as if those occurrences had never been. To any one now called upon to take any measure of responsibility with respect to Free Church affairs, the feeling is strongly brought home that a channel of strength and goodness has been withdrawn, to which he formerly had recourse with lively expectation and with continual satisfaction. H. W. M. JOHN FORBES. D.D. LL.D. |0bit 3Forks, B.B. Il.i, ilHILE the Presbyterian Churches in Scotland have ahvays maintained an honourable place in respect of the general intelligence and culture of their clergy, they have never at any time had a large number of men who occupied foremost places in the fields of literature or science. Probably the third part of a century immediately preceding the beginning of the " ten years' conflict," on account of the revived activity of ministerial work, was less productive of literary or scientific attainments of a high order among the clergy than the days of Moderatism, when pulpit preparation and pastoral duties claimed a smaller share of men's thoughts and energies, or had not their claims allowed. In point of fact, we believe that we do no injustice to any, when we say that the Church of Scotland on the morning of the Disruption day contained three men who occupied places in the first rank of scientific men, and that on the evening of that day the Established Church contained not one. It so happened that this trio consisted of a minister, a probationer, and a layman, though the probationer had for a long time ceased to be more than nominally such. Their special depart- ments of science were respectively the demonstrative, the experimental, and the observational — mathematics, physics, and geology. The men were John Forbes, David Brewster, and Hugh Miller. We do not mean to say that Dr Forbes was as eminent as a mathematician as Sir David D/SA' UPTIOX n 'OR THIES. Brewster was as a phj'sicist, or Hugh Miller as a geologist. But he had long before given evidence that he had the power to do anything in mathematics, and had left it beyond doubt that if he had abandoned the work of the ministry at an early age, as Brewster had done, and had made mathematical study the business of his life, as Brewster had made physical research the business of his, he would not merely have been, as he actually was, in the foremost rank of mathematicians, but he would ] have occupied one of the foremost places in that rank. V It will be through our incompetency if it be not made to appear that, while of the heroes of the Disruption, none but Dr Chalmers and Dr Gordon came near him in the faculty of mathematical investigation, he did not ', fall behind either of them in simplicity and godly sincerity, in zeal for the j|K' • glory of God, and for the salvation of men ; while it is freely admitted «^^' that in the power of leading a great movement and stirring up men to enthusiasm in a great cause, he was not for a moment to be compared to one, and in pulpit eloquence and power he was much inferior to both. Those who have read much of Scottish ecclesiastical biography have become familiar with the sentence which might be stereotyped as an almost universally applicable introduction, that " the subject of this memoir was the son of poor but pious parents." From the way in which .; we have frequently heard our friend allude to his early days, we presume ; ' that the statement is strictly applicable to him. A native of Perthshire, ![ and shewing even at an early age a liking for the ministry, he was ^^ placed as a pupil at the Perth Academy, — a seminary which has sent \^ forth many who have done it honour. In Forbe.s's daj's one of the 1 '. teachers of mathematics in the Perth Academy was Mr Gordon ; and the relation of close friendship, cemented by congenial tastes and similar J sentiments, which led to so close an association of Robert Gordon '_; \ and John Forbes in the thoughts of those who enjoyed their friend- ../j V ship, began while the one was the earnest teacher and the other the Mfc' earnest pupil. Often have we heard Dr Forbes speak of all that he \}^' JOHN FORBES, D.ll, LL.D. %\ ^' j - owed to Dr Gordon, both as the first cultivator of his mathematical powers, ■^^\, and as his ideal model of a Christian man and a Christian minister. At ~m an early age Forbes became a student in the University of St Andrews ; \ and, as a matter of course, when his natural abilities, his habits of '^ application, and his previous advantages are taken into account, he \^ passed through his university course with distinction and high credit. I At the close of it he was licensed as a preacher ; but whether because in I those days of patronage there was no place open to him, or whether ij because he desired to have time to consolidate his knowledge and \ prepare himself more fully for the great work of the ministry, he docs j,; not seem to have been much occupied in preaching for a time. He V)'^ became instead an assistant-teacher in his old Perth Academy ; and J^r, on the appointment of Mr Gordon as minister of the parish of Kinfauns, §Mr Forbes succeeded him in the mathematical mastership of the Academy. From Kinfauns Mr Gordon was translated to Buccleuch ','1- Chapel, Edinburgh, thence to Hope Park Chapel (now Newington Church), thence to the New North, and ultimately to the High Church of Edinburgh. On his removal from Hope Park to New NortlT, Mr Forbes became his successor there, and was ordained to the ministry in 1826. From this time onward, for very nearly half-a-century, his life was that of a faithful, laborious, earnest city minister. In Edinburgh he remained only about two years, and was removed to Glasgow, to what was then called the Outer High Church. In consequence of the incon- venience of having two congregations meeting in the old Cathedral, the / church of St Paul's was built for him and his congregation. Thither he I * ^ and they removed, and there he continued to minister to a large and ■■ u •ii|- intelligent congregation, who regarded him with a singular union of ~"^v£^ ' v~^ affection and reverence. The cares inseparable from the life of a city -Qjip " ■) minister did not press so heavily on him as they do on some, not because ''l^^ I j V he discharged his duties more perfunctorily, but because his well-balanced J^ mmd and his methodical habits embkd him to go through moie woik DISRUPTION WORTHIES. with less appearance of effort, and probably less consciousness of effort, than a less amount of work woTild have cost almost any other man. At no time did he take a prominent place in the discussion of public questions, social or ecclesiastical. The pulpit was more appropriate to his powers than the platform ; and of this he was perfectly aware. He took indeed such a share in the public work of the Church through her courts as every Presbyterian minister ought to feel himself conscientiously bound to take ; and when the Voluntary controversy, and the Church Extension controversy, and the unhappy Moderatorship controversy, arose one after another, he did not withhold the sagacity of his counsel and the influence of his character, but heartily threw them into the scale. And his brethren always knew that when any matter arose which required sustained thought and clear logical exposition, they could count upon Dr Forbes as ready to render the aid which they needed. Speaking now of the time when our own interest in such matters began, the decade from 1830 to 1840, we recall with pleasure the interest which students in Edinburgh took in the then comparatively young and chivalrous champions of the truth and of the Church in the western metropolis — Lorimer and Buchanan, Gibson and Forbes — now, alas ! all passed away. It was on such occasions that he produced almost the only professional publications that he ever gave to the world, with the exception, probably, of a few occasional sermons, and one or two pamphlets on subjects of comparatively temporary interest. In 1838, a course of lectures was delivered by ministers in Glasgow, on the Evidences of Revealed Religion, which were afterwards published in a volume ; and in the following year another course was delivered on Infidelity. Each of the volumes contains a lecture by Dr Forbes. We have just read these lectures, and cannot state in too strong terms our admiration of the clearness of the arguments, and of the felicity of the illustrations. The former, especially, on the " Harmony of Scripture and true Philosophy or Science," is one of the most comprehensive treatises that we have ever seen on this most important subject. It contains passages of real eloquence ; and the whole bespeaks the earnestness which was characteristic of the man. In the "ten years' conflict" he sustained exactly the part that his friends would have expected him to take. While he never occupied a very prominent place in the discussions, no one who knew him ever doubted for a moment on which side he would be when the crisis should come. Cautious and somewhat slow in coming to a conclusion, balancing the arguments for and against a particular course of action, rather than coming to a conclusion by intuitive or instinctive perceptions, strongly conservative in all his mental leanings, and knowing that a Disruption would break many ties which to him were very binding, when once he had made up his mind as to the right, few men could be more confidently counted upon to pursue unhesitatingly and unflinchingly the path of duty. If a solution of the difficulty had been offered which should have con- served the great principle for which the Church contended, he would have been one of the first to hail it with joy. His extreme simplicity of character might even have rendered him liable to be imposed upon by the plausible schemes which were propounded ; and the fact that none of these schemes ever made him hesitate, is to us one of the strongest proofs that their glitter was not of gold. We are persuaded that amongst out- siders, intellectual scientific Englishmen, who never could understand what the controversy was about, there were not a few who began to think that there must be something in it after all, when they came to learn that John Forbes was one of those who unhesitatingly signed the deed of demission. For by this time Forbes was well known to the mathematicians of Europe. It must have been very scanty leisure that the minister of St Paul's could give to the study of mathematics ; but it was the only relaxation for which he cared, and to him it was really a relaxation. Some years before the Disruption he had published a most remark- able book on the Difi"erential and Integral Calculus ; not remarkable merely on the ground that it was composed in the snatches of leisure i# >i2^\l^ DISRUPTION WORTHIES. busy life, but remarkable in itself, by whomsoever composed. We have made a careful examination of this book with a view to the preparation of this sketch, and have no hesitation in saying, that it is as original a work on a purely mathematical subject as has appeared in this country in our time. Almost all our books on this subject are largely borrowed from the French ; they have been ^\■ritten by mathematical teachers, with a view to their being used as text-books, and in most of them rigidity of investigation has been occasionally sacrificed to simplification. We do not know whether Dr Forbes expected that his book should be used as a text-book. It is certainl}' not suited to that use. But it is suited to a higher use, even to point out to the mathematician hundreds of unsuspected connections betwixt the truths which he has learned apart, and so to contribute to the unification of mathematical science. We are afraid that we may expose ourselves to some measure of good-natured ridicule on the part of some who may peruse these pages, when we say that Dr Forbes's book suggests to our thought the singing of a lark on a summer's morning ; and that because of the recklessness with which he throws out his formulse, and tj the abandon with which he revels in the profusion of his harmonies. Be I' it noted that there is not a sentence in the book in which he tells us his ■■j' delight — indeed there is scarcely anything in it that can be called a [;• sentence at all, only formula;, — but neither does the lark tell us that he '! delights in his own song. We only infer it from the wa\- in which he V'. sings. |; J It may be as well to say here that Dr Forbes never abandoned his mathematical pursuits. About a dozen years ago he told the present writer that he would take it as a great favour if he would look over a manuscript, containing an investigation of some questions relating to " elliptic functions," as the results that he had brought out were so strange that he thought he must have introduced some erroneous assumption, which a stranger's eye might perhaps detect. Having very willingly "1^, JOHN FORBES, D.D., LL.D. M undertaken the task, we were not a little taken aback when, after a few days, we received some tlircc hundred closely-written folio pages ! We were obliged to break the promise which we had rashly made, and we do not know what has become of the MS. When the Disruption occurred in 1S43, Dr Forbes became minister of Free St Paul's. A great portion of his congregation quitted the Establishment along with him, and the affection betwixt him and his congregation grew with length of years. They were to him as wife and children, and he was to them as a father whom they revered, a friend in whom they confided, and of whose character and reputation they were far prouder than he ever was himself His preaching, without being eloquent, as eloquence is commonly understood, was earnest, impressive, solemn, in no ordinary degree. Few men have given sound instruction to so many, or given it so acceptably, as Dr Forbes did during his long ministry. Up to the last his preaching lost none of its freshness, while of course it gained in those qualities which depend upon experience, and continued converse with God and with divine things ; and his pastoral dealings with his people were in accord with his strong common sense, and with the tenderness of a peculiarly sensitive nature, sanctified by a large measure of divine grace. There are two points on which we must touch before we close, and, upon the whole, we are not sorry that our exhausted space compels us to touch upon them with extreme brevity. A vacancy having occurred in one of the Chairs in the Glasgow Free Church College, it fell to the Assembly of 1864 to appoint a professor. Dr Forbes was proposed, but was not elected. Tho.se who opposed his election grounded their opposition mainly on his age, and strongly expressed their respect and affection for his character, their admiration of his gifts, and their gratitude for the services which he had rendered to the Church and to the cause of truth. It fell to the lot of the present writer to take a somewhat prominent part in advocating the claims of Dr f ^i| 1 T i\d u'^yM €1:^ m i 4:;;:-;, DISRUPTION WORTHIES. '^M'^ Forbes ; and while thankfully acknowledging that the appointment ■'l^ . actually made was a good one, he still regrets that Dr Forbes was not :'[ then put into a position for which he had very singular qualifications. ' The other point on which we must touch was the part that Dr Forbes took in the Union negotiations. He was a member of the Assembly of 1863, made a long speech on the Union question, and accepted a place in the Committee. Afterwards, when he and some of his brethren came to believe that union with the United Presbyterians could not be achieved but by the relinquishment of one of the fundamental principles of the Free Church, he felt that he had no alternative but to withdraw from the Committee. This is not the place to argue the question of the ;.. accuracy or erroneousness of his belief No one could doubt the sincerity rjf(j of it. Very keenly he felt the painfulness of the position which he had M^; henceforth to occupy, of antagonism to those with whom he had so long W'_ and so lovingly dwelt together in unity ; and his somewhat recluse '''~ habits made him more sensitive than those who arc more habituated to the rubbings and knockings of public life. Although time seemed to sit but lightly on his stately frame, and it seemed to his friends that he might yet do good work for his Master on earth ; yet with his characteristic conscientiousness, he would not under- "j: take responsibilities which he felt himself not able fully to discharge ; !■• he therefore applied to the Assembly of 1874 for a colleague and j! successor, spontaneously abandoning his right to a retiring allowance i either from the general funds of the Church or the particular funds of the i congregation. While steps were being taken to obtain a colleague, he continued to discharge his full duties. On the 20th of December he conducted the services as usual in his own pulpit ; on the Wednesday following he was seized with an inflammatoiy affection in the chest, and on Christmas day he closed a seventy-three years' service of his genera- tion according to the will of God, and fell on sleep. T. S. PATRICK FAIRBAIRN.D.D. 5patrirk JTatrbairn, il.i]. I ATRICK FAIRBAIRN was born on the 2Sth January 1S05, at Hall}-burton, in the parish of Greenlaw, Ber- wicksliire. He was the second son of a family of five children. His father, a respectable farmer, gave all his children a good education. Two of them he educated for the ministry, Patrick, the subject of this sketch, and John, now minister of the Free Church at Greenlaw. In November 1S18 Patrick was sent to prosecute his studies at the University of Edinburgh. On leaving the Divinity Hall, he was licenced as a preacher of the gospel by the Presbytery of Dunse on the 3d October 1826. In the year following he went to Orkney as tutor in the family of Captain Balfour, a large Orkney proprietor. Through the interest of that gentleman he was appointed by the Crown in 1830 to the Parliamentary parish of North Ronaldshay. In his new sphere of action Mr Fairbairn found the need of all his natural firmness and resolution. His parishioners were addicted to many semi-barbarous practices ; and many of them had the repute of being "wreckers." They had not formerly enjoyed the benefit of a faithful gospel ministry, and their standard of morality was very low. But the young minister, by his powerful pulpit services and faithfulness in dealing privately with the people, soon wrought a great reform in the island. While diligently discharging his pastoral duties, he had ample time D/SA' UP rii \\ WOR THIES. hi a for private study. During his whole college career he had always been a laborious student, forced to depend more on his own efforts than on the assistance of his teachers. In this way a spirit of independent and original research was fostered as he pursued his studies. In the manse of North Ronaldshay he carried out \\\\.\\ great regularity a scheme of study which he had previously planned. He made himself an excellent Hebrew and German scholar ; but he read largely in theology, and laid the foundation of that eminence in biblical literature which he after- wards attained. When appointed to his Orkney parish, he had been asked how long he was likely to be buried in that remote locality, and had replied that he would not probably remain in it above six years, as he had given himself that period to complete the course of study he had projected. This prediction was one that was likely to lead to its own fulfilment. At all events, when he had been about six years in North Ronaldshay he was called to the new " Extension " Church of Bridgeton, in the city of Glasgow. As the minister of a new and iipportant city charge, Mr Fairbairn laboured with great zeal and energy. He soon collected a good congre- gation, and gained the entire respect of his people by his vigorous preaching and faithful pastoral labours. But he had scarcely entered on his work in Glasgow when he lost his wife and two fine children. In Orkney he had married Miss Margaret Pitcairn, sister of Mr Thomas Pitcairn of Cockpen, afterwards well known as the first Clerk of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. Of his children by that lady only one survived, John Fairbairn, who, after spending some years in Java, ultimately settled in Australia, where he died a few days after receiving intelligence of his father's death. When he had been about three years in Glasgow, Mr Fairbairn was presented to the parish of Salton, East Lothian, of which his distinguished friend, Dr Robert Buchanan, had once been minister. Salton is also noted as having been the first charge of the celebrated Dr Gilbert PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D. Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, who left an endowment for the education of a number of poor children, and for the foundation of a ministerial library. This library, which had long been neglected, Mr Fairbairn put into excellent order, and turned to much better account than had been done by any of his predecessors. When he went to Salton in 1840, the conflict which led to the Disruption was approaching its climax, and he thoroughly identified himself with the Evangelical or Non-Intrusion party. In 1843 he cast in his lot with the Free Church of Scotland, and was the first in the Presbytery of Haddington who left a pleasant manse to brave all the hardships of a trying period. He took an active part in organizing the Free Church Presbytery of the district, and in supporting every movement that bore upon the diffusion of scriptural principles and practical religion. With some difficulty he procured a site for a church and manse in the parish of Salton ; and in the course of a few years he was enabled to reside once more among his people. In 184s Mr Fairbairn pubhshed, in one thick duodecimo volume, his " Typology of Scripture," a work which had occupied much of his leisure for several years. It was afterwards published in two octavo volumes, and in its greatly enlarged form it reached a fifth edition. It was instantly recognised both in this country and America as a work of extraordinary merit. Not so much from any elegance or splendour of style, or from the sterling weight and value of its matter, it was hailed by the best judges as a real contribution to modern theology. The Old Testament types had never previously been expounded in a truly philosophical manner, and it was reserved for the Free Church minister of Salton to produce a work on the subject which, for grasp of principle, soundness of judg- ment, and solid, though unostentatious learning, has not been surpassed, if ever equalled, by any similar performance. The publication of the "Typology" naturally fixed the eyes of his brethren on its author as a man qualified to fill with distinction a theological chair. Mr Fairbairn had translated, when at North Ronaldshay, two German niSRUPTIOM IVORTHIES. works — "Stieger on 1st Peter," and "Lisco on the Parables," both of which were pubHshed by Messrs Clark of Edinburgh as parts of their " Biblical Cabinet." Soon after the appearance of the " Typology," the same emi- nent firm published, in three volumes, Hengstenberg's " Commentary on the Psalms," translated by Mr Fairbairn and the Rev. John Thomson, now minister of St Ninian's Free Church, Leith. His knowledge of German introduced Mr Fairbairn into the vast region of German theology, and no Scottish minister ever explored that region to better purpose. It has been justly observed, that his works present an excellent combination of some of the best fruits of German erudition with the solid attainments of Scottish orthodoxy. In 1851 Mr Fairbairn published, in one volum.e, " Ezekiel and the Book of his Prophecy," which was well received by the public, and added to its author's reputation. He next published a translation, in two volumes, of Hengstenberg's " Commentary on the Revelation of St John," a performance which, whatever may be said of the general views of its learned author, is certainly an important contri- bution to Apocalyptic literature. In the autumn of 1852 Mr Fairbairn was appointed assistant to Dr Maclagan, Professor of Divinity in the Free Church College, Aberdeen. He had scarcely entered on his duties when he met with a most painful bereavement in the death of his second wife, Mary Playfair, who died soon after giving birth to her fourth child. In spite of this terrible trial, he, through grace given him, performed his work at Aberdeen with signal energy and success. Dr Maclagan having died before the winter session began, Mr Fairbairn was appointed his successor by the following General Assembly. The new professor gave fresh life and vigour to the Aberdeen College, which in the course of a few years became a well-equipped Theo- logical Institution. While Professor Fairbairn was at its head, he received the well-merited distinction of D.D. from the University of Glasgow. In 1S56, when the Free Church College of Glasgow was instituted, Dr Fairbairn was appointed its first professor, and in the year following ta '-"© ©,;,¥ F €^^ PATRICK FAIRDAIRN, D.D. he was elected to the office of Principal. In this new and important situation he taught his classes with distinguished ability, and managed with consummate prudence the general affairs of the college. Everything connected with the buildings, the endowments, the library, and the business of the different classes, were directed by him with great zeal and judgment. He also endeared himself to the students, not only by his ability in the chair, but by the genuine and kindly interest he took in their welfare. They came to look upon him as a father and a friend as well as a learned and judicious theological instructor. When he had presided over the college about fifteen years, his "present and former students," with enthusiastic eagerness, subscribed a sum of ;£'200, in order to present the Principal with a portrait of himself by an eminent artist. This was but a demonstration of that feeling of affectionate reverence with which, from first to last, he was regarded by the young men who studied under his care. The portrait, painted by Mr Norman Macbeth, A.R.S.A., was publicly presented to the Principal, and by his directions hung up in the College library. There it still remains, having been bequeathed by him to that Institution. Between 1856 and 1858 Dr Fairbairn published a volume on " Prophecy," as a sequel to the "Typology," and a Hermaneutical Manual intended chiefly for the use of theological students. Both of these works bear the impress of the author's learning and intellectual power, and are characterised by good sense and sound judgment. But neither of them has attained any degree of popularity, though they well deserve to be studied by professional theologians. During many years of his residence at Glasgow, Dr Fairbairn acted as editor of the " Imperial Bible Dic- tionary," published by Messrs Blackie & Son. His labours in conducting this great work were exceedingly onerous. Many of the best articles proceeded from his own pen, and the necessary correspondence with his contributors severely taxed his energies. The work has taken a high place m Biblical literature. Soon after he had finished his editorial m f DISRUPTION WORTHIES. labours, he was appointed to deliver tlie third scries of " Cunningham Lectures." He chose for his subject the " Revelation of Law in Scrip- ture," which he treated in nine separate lectures, the first six of which he delivered in Edinburgh early in March 1868. The whole of them were published soon after their delivery. The work is very profound and able, but is too abstract in subject and style to be popular. Principal Fairbairn was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church in 1864, and by his excellent bearing in the chair, he amply justified the confidence of his brethren. None ever better deserved the honour of the chair, or bore it with more dignity. Though eminently a scholar, versed in books and devoted to theological studies, Dr Fairbairn was an admirable man of business, well acquainted with ecclesiastical forms, and not shrinking from his fair share of the burden of Church government. Wlien he spoke in the Presbytery or General Assembly, he was always listened to with marked respect. The gravity of his character added force to the weight of his arguments, and commanded the attention, if they did not change the convictions, of his keenest opponents in debate. He warmly advocated the Union side in the great controversy that agitated the Free Church from 1863 to 1873 ; but he always spoke with studied moderation, and strove to mitigate the fierce contentions that for some time estranged so many of his brethren from one another. \\\ 1S67 Principal Fairbairn, along with the Rev. James Wells of the Barony Free Church, Glasgow, visited America, to represent the Free Church of Scotland in various Presbyterian General Assemblies held in the LTnited States and in Canada. Dr Fairbairn's name had travelled before him across the Atlantic, and American scholars vied with one another in doing him honour. He visited President M'Cosh at Princeton, and had an interesting interview with Dr Hodge at Washington. Principal Fairbairn was chosen one of the Committee appointed to revise the Authorised Version of the Old Testament Scriptures. He was ••AME).^©»VE^ -mr^ PATRICK FA 1KB A IRA', D D. one of four Free Church professors selected to represent Scottish scholar- ship in this great matter of national concern. He attended to the close of his life the meetings of the Committee with remarkable regularity, and was held in great respect by his learned colleagues. He took a deep interest , in the work of revision, and contributed not a little to its real progress. ' Early in 1874 Principal Fairbairn published a volume on the " Pastoral Epistles." It contains a learned introduction vindicating the authenticity of the epistles, a new translation of the Greek text, and a valuable commentary on each verse. This is one of the best of his works, and ought to be in the hands of every minister of the gospel. For judicious criticism, sound theology, and a practical spirit, it is not surpassed by any modern work of the kind. An excellent sequel to it, " Pastoral Theology," which he had prepared for the press, was pub- lished shortly after his death, under the superintendence of the writer of this sketch. These two volumes are legacies to the Church of Christ, which would of themselves have been sufficient to give their author a good place in theological literature. While this distinguished man was spending his best energies in the service of that religious denomination which he adorned, and in the cultivation of that sacred learning which belongs to the Church of Christ at large, he never forgot what was due to his own spiritual life ; and to ;: the very last he grew in that spirituality of mind which best becomes 1;^ intellectual accomplishments. Holding fast the great doctrines of evan- i gelical religion, he took a deep interest in all evangelistic work. He |! ' gave his hearty support to the remarkable evangelistic labours asso- '-' ciated with the names of Messrs Moody and Sankey. He presided ."!,'' over several meetings at Glasgow at which Mr Moody was the chief - ; ivD speaker, and on the i6th April 1874 he attended the Evangelistic '^},fj^' 'i^i Convention held in the Glasgow Crystal Palace. After delivering a very .'v earnest address, he suddenly felt unwell, and was obliged to go home, where he was confined several days by what was his first serious illness. p^O'V^ DISK UP TIOX 1 1 -O /C THIES. A hitherto unsuspected affection of the heart was discovered by his physician, and he was advised to take some quiet relaxation in the country. Accordingly he went with Mrs Fairbairn and a few relatives to Arrochar, where he gradually recovered strength, and soon was fit to resume with caution his ordinary duties. On the 30th June he went up to London to attend a meeting of the Revision Committee : and after paying several visits in Berwickshire on his way home from England, he returned to Glasgow, and resumed his ordinary work ; but on the evening of Thursday, the 7th August, after he had retired to rest, he was suddenly seized with a fatal illness, and before Mrs Fairbairn could summon any medical aid, he calmly expired. Thus, while his usefulness was undiminished, and his mental faculties were as strong as ever, this honoured servant of the Lord was called to his eternal rest and reward. Deeply was his departure lamented by good men in all the churches. His eminence as a learned theologian was universally acknowledged, and every one felt that his death had made a blank in the ranks of sacred scholarship which could not be easily filled up. But while he was an undoubted ornament of Scottish theology, he was a true-hearted Free Churchman, whose character and talents raised him to a high place among the heroes of the Disruption. \\\ manners and bearing he was mild, yet dignified. To great force of will and soundness of judgment he united meekness of temper and a conciliatory disposition. His tall, well- formed figure and majestic presence were admired wherever he went, and appropriately set off the solidity and strength of his intellectual powers. Principal Fairbairn was married in 1861 to Miss Frances Turnbull, sister of a worthy Disruption minister, the late Rev. John Turnbull of Eyemouth. This lady survives him, as well as three children, two sons and a daughter, all by his second wife. He was buried in the Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh, where Chalmers, Cunningham, Guthrie, and other mighty men of the Free Church are laid, in the hope of a blessed resurrection. J. D. -■'P -^r; i EARL OF DALHOUSIE ■;-£; aijt iatl nf SalljDnsb, ft.®. )HIS nobleman, for more than forty years, from 1831 to 1874, lived in the public eye, taking an active and influ- ential part in all the stirring and important questions — civil and ecclesiastical — which agitated the country during that eventful period. As one of the Disruption Worthies, this memoir has principally to record the services which he rendered to tlie Church. Yet the nature and importance of these services cannot be fully under- stood without adverting to his position in society, and to his political career. He was lineally descended from two of the oldest families of Scotland — the Ramsays of Dalhousie and the Maules of Panmure, both famous in Scottish story. The Ramsays of Dalhousie trace their descent to the days of David I. Nearly two hundred years ago Allan Ramsay the poet wrote of the Earl of that day — " Dalhousie of an auld descent. My pride, my stoiip, my ornament. " And throughout their history, down to the subject of this memoir and his cousin and immediate predecessor, the Governor General of India, the Ramsays have been represented by many famous names, not unworthy of the poet's praise. The Maules of Panmure are of an equal antiquity, tracing their DISRUPTION WORTHIES. descent to the days of William the Conqueror. In 1224, one of the Maules married Christian,* the heiress of the Panmure estates. As a race the Maules seem to have been distinguished by great strength of will, determination of purpose, and unwavering fidelity to every cause they espoused. On the death of one of the heads of the House of Maule without issue, the estates of Panmure passed to his nephew, the seventh Earl of Dalhousie. At his death the estates of Panmure were inherited by his second son, the Hon. William Ramsay, who then assumed the name of Maule. In token of his admiration of the great Whig statesman, Charles James Fox, he named his firstborn son, the subject of this memoir. Fox. This early dedication to political principles was fully accepted by his son in after life. Fox Maule was born in Brechin Castle, 22d April 1801. He was educated at the Charter House, London. In 18 19 he received his commission as ensign in the 79th Regiment of Cameron Highlanders. It is not a little characteristic of the man that, when he joined his regiment in Edinburgh Castle, he used after drill to doff his uniform and attend the Humanity Class in the University, and at the close of the session carried off the prize for Latin declamation. For some years he served in Canada on the staff of his uncle, the Earl of Dalhousie. The practical knowledge which he then acquired oi military duties and of a soldier's life was eminently useful to him as a member of Parliament, and especially as Secretary- at War during the latter part of the Crimean war. In 1 83 1, having attained to the rank of captain, he retired from the army, and having married the Hon. Montagu, daughter of the second Lord Abercrombie, he took up his residence at Dalguise House, on the banks of the Tay, near Dunkeld. This was his home for twenty years. Being then thirty years of age, in the freshness of manly strength, fond of society, and devoted to field sports, his life might long have been one * A name still nobly represented in the family. 3.6 EARL OF DALHOUSIE. of mere pleasure. But those were the stirring days of the Reform Bill when Scotland was excited to an unusual degree. Fox Maule caught the enthusiasm of the times, and issuing from his Highland home, plunged with his whole heart into the midst of the first election for Perthshire, canvassing in favour of his friend, the Marquis of Breadalbane, then Lord Ormelie. It was greatly owing to his indefatigable and persuasive efforts that the contest was won. The die was then cast. His aptitude for a political life was manifest at once. As he afterwards said, "I was politically born then." At the next election, in 1834, he was returned as member for Perthshire. Having lost his .scat at the next election, he was returned for the Elgin Burghs. Having resigned his seat for the Elgin Burghs, he was elected by the city of Perth, which he continued to represent for ten years, until he was called to the House of Lords after his father's death. But Fox Maule was more than an ordinary member of Parliament. During his Parliamentar}' career he filled several important offices of State. He was successively Under-Secretary for the Home Department, Vice-President of the Board of Trade, President of the Board of Control, and twice Secretary at War. He was also a Privy Councillor. On the overthrow of the Aberdeen Ministry in 1855, on account of the alleged mismanagement of the Crimean war. Viscount Palmerston was called to the helm of aff'airs, and Lord Dalhousie, then Lord Panmurc, was selected by him to extricate the War Department from the difficulties in which it had become involved. His Lordship fully justified the confidence reposed in him, and by his good management and persevering labours, the British army was at the close of the war in a more eff"ective state than at its commencement. His administration at the War Office was eminently successful. One of his first achievements was so to minimise and regulate the use of the lash as speedily to lead to its entire abolition. He introduced the system of competitive examination for commissions, which-has tended so much to raise the standard of military education. l^^^^-N^^y^^^ft^- - - , i^ii^SWi: ^i: DISRUPTION WORTHIES. He also reduced the period of enlistment ; and in many ways promoted •/^'V the comfort of soldiers. -fjl I The position which he had earned for himself as a public man was '■■ manifested when in 1S42 he was elected as Lord Rector of Glasgow University, though his opponents were the Marquis of Bute and the Duke of Wellington. In token of his sovereign's favour, he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Forfarshire, and made Knight of the Thistle and Knight Commander of the Bath. Midway in his political career, when after twenty years' service in the House of Commons he took his place in the House of Lords, a farewell banquet was given to him by his constituents at Perth. Lord John Russell said of him : " During the whole time I was at the Home Office, and since which I had to conduct in a higher sphere the afifairs of the nation, I have derived the greatest advantage from the sentiments, the intelligence, the perseverance, and the ability of my noble friend. But all this would not have so recom- mended him had I not been satisfied that he is thoroughly impressed with the great maxim of the great statesman (Mr Fox), from whom he has derived his name, that what is morally wrong cannot be politically right." Educated in England, for ten years actively occupied in military duties chiefly in Canada, surrounded by social enjoyments, and then plunging into political life, it seemed unlikely that Fox Maule would ii interest himself in the ecclesiastical questions that then agitated the \ Church of Scotland. Perhaps till he entered public life they had never j'^! engaged his attention. And probably at that time he might have ^7'i thought it most unlikely that he would ever take any prominent part in religious questions. Various influences, however, prepared his mind and led him on. Among the earliest and most powerful of these was the teaching and example of a pious and much-loved mother. As the excitement of the first election after the Reform Bill led him into the _ , arena of political life, so there were external circumstances which forcibly ^^< !:c I EARL OF DALHOUSIE. drew his attention to ecclesiastical affairs. Dr Chalmers was urging his scheme for church extension on the notice of the legislature when Fox Maule entered public life. As Under Secretary for the Home Department, Scottish affairs were largely submitted to his consideration. Being thus brought into contact with such men as Drs Chalmers and Guthrie, he could not but feel their influence. Again, at the election for Perthshire, in 1834, when he secured his seat in the House of Commons for the first time, the question of non-intrusion occupied so prominent a place, that both parties found themselves constrained to profess themselves to be friendly to the popular side of that question. This may have been his first introduction to the subject. But from the professions then made he never swerved nor drew back. In addition to this, the disputed settle- ments of Lethendy and Auchterarder, both in Perthshire, must have led him more thoroughly to consider the principles which were involved. But however this may have been, from that date Fox Maule was the zealous friend of all philanthropic and missionary enterprises, and the staunch supporter of the rights and principles for which the Church was then contending, the refusal of which led to the Disruption. When the conflict thickened, and the Church refused to obey the orders of the civil courts in regard to spiritual things, Sir Robert Peel, in 1842, in his place in the House of Commons, accused the Church of Scotland as " defying and opposing the law." " This attack," writes the author of the " Ten Years' Conflict," " was not unanswered. It called up one whose enlightened and unflinching advocacy of the great scriptural principles, and constitutional privileges for which the Church was con- tending, had earned for him the gratitude and esteem of all who venerate the work of the Scottish Reformers, and who know how to appreciate that integrity and manly firmness of character, which fears not to avow honest convictions, and to defend them wherever they may be assailed. It is told in Scripture, to the honour of Onesiphorus, that even at Rome he was not ashamed of Paul's chain. It will be told, in the ecclesiastical £®Sl^l^^i?X i^:aw mX^'^fW^^^np^ DISRUPTION WORTHIES. history of liis country, to the honour of Mr Fox Maule, that he was not ashamed to identify himself, even in the House of Commons, with the calumniated Church of Scotland." " If," said he, in replying to Sir Robert Peel, " that Church had set itself up against the law of the land in matters of civil right, he would be the last man to stand up in its defence. But the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland had over and over again declared, that as far as civil rights were concerned, it would bow implicity to the decisions of the land. All that the Church and the General Assembly had done was to say that, while on the one hand ; they obeyed the law as to benefices — still, they owed a duty to a higher authority than man when they inducted to any portion of their Church an individual who had a cure of souls." No better estimate can be formed of tlie position which Fox Maule had earned for himself in Parliament, and of the confidence which the Church reposed in him, than is manifested in the fact, that when, after ten years' conflict, the Church resolved to make a last appeal to the Legislature to inquire into and to redress its grievances, by special appointment of the Commission he was requested to bring the matter before the House of Commons. On 7th March 1843, little more than two months before the Disruption, he did so in a speech of singular power and lucidity. " No Free Churchman can read without unfeigned ; gratitude the clear, intelligent defence of her position and privileges made by Mr Fox Maule in the House of Commons. His statement of the < independent spiritual jurisdiction of the Church on the occasion referred to may be read at the present day with interest and instruction, and , '\ shew what a just and true grasp his mind had taken of the controversy which terminated in the Disruption." * ^ .\ His motion for inquiry in the House of Commons was rejected by a ;| ■ majority of 135. " It is not undeserving of notice," writes the author of , ,-v the " Ten Years' Conflict," " that of the thirty-seven Scottish members , * Mimile of Ihe Geneial Asstml.ly of llie Fue Cliuich on the ileatli of Loid Dalhousie. 1 ;-K- ^ /^ EARL OF DALH0U.S1E. who were present, twenty-five voted with Mr Maule. It was not there- fore simply the voice of Scotland's Church, but the voice also of her national representatives that was that night overborne in the British Parliament. The fact is one which an impartial posterity will mark and remember." It is not a little remarkable that on the 6th of July 1874, the very day of Lord Dalhousie's death thirty-one years later, the debate on the Patronage Bill took place in the House of Commons. On which occasion it was fully acknowledged by all parties that the statesmen of 1843 had grievously erred in refusing to make such concessions as might then have satisfied the just demands of the Church. The same evening on which Fox Maule brought this subject before the House of Commons, a great public meeting was held in the City Hall, Glasgow. Dr Thomas Guthrie then said : — " The last battle is now at this moment fighting on the floor of Parliament. The voices of Maule, Rutherford, and Stewart — and I can hardly mention, in that House of five hundred men, more than these three that will stand up for our rights — they are now pleading our cause ; and did I not know that God rules on earth as well as in heaven, you might write ' Ichabod ' already on the brow of Scotland. I confess I have no hope. My motion says it is our duty to use every lawful effort to avert this calamity. Now we have used every lawful effort. We have petitioned, we have remonstrated, we have negotiated. . . . We have resolved never to give up our principles. We shall give them their stipends, their manses, their glebes, and their churches. They are theirs, and let them make ' a kirk or a mill of them.' But we cannot give up the crown rights of Christ ; and we cannot give up our people's privileges. ... If this night they say, ' You must sell your birthright for a mess of pottage,' then I say I am done for my lifetime with the Establishment." "And so," wrote Dr Guthrie at a later period, "we went forth under the old banner to enjoy that freedom without the Establishment which we were denied within its pale." Fox Maule was not awanting in the day of trial. He entered at once into all the preparations for the new state of the Church, and with an unflagging interest and most loyal enthusiasm continued his services to the last. No doubt his rank and public position lent value to his "•^^:^||_ J® ia^*i'''ft||i|S T S \B 1^'pj W it^ 5 a i-'i E) f-J& ©t.^ DISRUPTION WORTHIES. adherence and services; "but, apart from this, the warmth, the intelli- gence, the sagacity, the inherent weight of his counsels, the effective character of his advocacy, and the munificent liberality he displayed, gave him a prominent place among the leading and most trusted advisers of the Free Church." For thirty years he was returned by the Free Presbytery of Dunkeld as their representative elder to the General Assembly, and took an active part in its proceedings. After the Disrup- tion, when so many proprietors refused sites for the building of churches and manses, it was mainly through his firm, but calm, speeches in Parliament that the difficulty was surmounted. At the time of his lamented death it was well said, " It is no secret — the fact was made so public in many ways that there need be no delicacy in recalling it — that during the latter years of his father's lifetime, the relations of Mr Fox Maule towards him were exceedingly constrained and uncomfortable. It is proper to mention, however, that the cause of disagreement was well known to be highly honourable to the son. Its existence was the cause of bringing out, in a variety of ways, the firmness, the chivalry, and the good sense that were embodied in his character. In one way, this disagreement was connected with family and private arrangements. In another, it was of a more public nature. His property was left in a condition that, in the case of a person endowed with less of manliness, generosity, and clear-headedness, would have led to much embarassment and unpleasantness. He avoided this by taking his tenantry into his confidence at once, and laying down rules as to the re-letting of his farms, which they cordially acquiesced in. His rental was enormously increased during the period of his administration, and yet there was, by common consent, no better, fairer, or more liberal land- lord. The social qualities of his lordship were of the rarest order. He was the life of every circle in which he appeared. There was about him an irresistible charm of manner ; high and low alike owned the spell." By Her Majesty he was esteemed as a friend. In London society he was EARL OF DALHOUSIE. always welcome ; in his own county everybody was proud of him, and he knew almost everybody, and could make himself at home with them, whatever their rank or station. This picture, however, is not complete unless it be added that none could be more stern or repellant in his manner to mere tuft-hunters, or to those of whose character or conduct he disapproved. Firm in his opinions, and determined in action, he had many opponents. Yet transparently honest in his convictions, and genial in his manner of expressing them, he had few, if any, lasting enemies. During the last seven years of his life. Lord Dalhousie spent the winter at his charming villa at Cannes, on the shores of the Mediterranean. There he made arrangements, without expense to the Church, for the maintenance of Presbyterian worship, which he loved so well. During the last two winters of his life the writer of this memoir officiated there, and bears most loving and willing testimony that, on Sabbaths and week days, he had no hearer more regular or appreciative, nor any who took a more lively interest, not only in the temporal prosperity of the congrega- tion, but also in the spiritual welfare of its members. Though with characteristic modesty he sensitively shrunk from a loud profession of high personal religion, the depth, the earnestness, and the solemnity of his piety were manifest to all those to whom, in confidence of private conversation, he felt himself at liberty to open his heart. After the death of his wife, in 1854, the honours 01 his house were done by his sister the Lady Christian Maule. Brother and sister never loved each other more truly or tenderly. His latest energies were spent in the service of the Free Church. Hastening home from Cannes, at that season in its richest beauty, he attended, and took his wonted part in the meetings of the General Assembly at the end of May. In June he was in his place in the House of Lords, and took part in the debate on the Patronage Bill. Towards the close of the same month he laid the foundation stone of the new Free Church at Dunkeld. Full of vigour D/SA' i 7' T/Oy IVOR THIES. and of cheerful, though chastened hope, apparently in better health than for many years, it seemed unlikely that the end of his earthly career was so close at hand. On 24th June, accompanied by the Lady Christian Maule, he went to pay his respects to his sovereign at the Bridge of Dun station as she passed on her way south from Balmoral. The same even- ing he was taken ill, and on the 6th of July, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, he died in Brechin Castle in the same room in which he had been born. Though hopes were entertained of his recovery by his medical attendants, he anticipated the issue from the first, and trusting to the merits of Christ, he calmly waited to know the will of God. At the commencement of his illness, to one of whose love he was well assured, he sent the message, " Pray for me — but \\ hatever the issue may be, all is well." Among his last words, in reply to a question as to the grounds of his hope, he said to his pastor. " Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee." Many touching incidents might be given illustrative of the warmth and tenderness and humility of his heart, did not delicacy towards the living and the dead, in the meantime, forbid it. " It will be many a day ere the Free Church find a man to serve her with such devotion and capacity." Dying without issue, he has been succeeded in his Scottish titles by his cousin, Vice-Admiral George Ramsay, second son of the late Hon. Lieut.-Gen. John Ramsay, fourth son of George Eighth Earl of Dalhousie. W. G. I ROBERT BUCHANAN. D.D. -^^/tu^ Hotel fSurbanan, B.B. {Mr OBERT BUCHANAN was bom at St Ninians on 15th August 1802. The private history of his mind, and the circumstances which led him to study for the Church as his profession, are topics which cannot be entered on in this brief notice. It may be enough to refer to the fact, that the spiritual revival which was making itself felt in Scotland, as elsewhere, reached and touched various minds by various means. Young Buchanan was brought early into contact with some of the most powerful representatives of evangelical influence. Before his ordination to his first charge, he was already intimately acquainted with Dr Andrew Thomson. He studied, with distinction, at Glasgow, and afterwards at Edinburgh. For some years he acted as tutor in the family of Mr Home-Drummond, at Blair-Drummond during the summer, and at Edinburgh during the winter months. His first charge was at Gargunnock, where he was settled on 6th March 1827. The day before that fixed for his settlement a tremendous snow-storm took place, which made the roads all but impassable. The writer has heard him describe how he made his way from Edinburgh to Stirling on horseback, with great fatigue and considerable risk, reaching Stirling the second day. The larger part of the journey was accomplished across country, without reference to the roads, which in many places were 1 ■vlEBATU R~^ ■-^1 niSR UP T/OM 1 1 'OP THIES. perfectly impracticable. From Gargunnock he was translated, in 1830, to Salton in East Lothian, where he exercised his ministry for three years. The manner in which his pastoral efficiency and his ministerial character had approved themselves in these fields of labour, led to his being recommended for the important vacancy of the Tron Parish, Glasgow. This was the parish made famous as the scene of Dr Chalmers' ministry, during the first portion of his stay in Glasgow. Mr Buchanan was inducted on 23d August 1833. Long before Mr Buchanan's time, the congregation had ceased, to a great extent, to be drawn from the parish. They assembled from all parts of the city. But Mr Buchanan had embraced the maxims of Chalmers too cordially to be in danger of overlooking the interests of the parochial population. The growth of the city, and the movements of its inhabitants, had the effect of bringing to the Tron parish a continually increasing proportion of poor and neglected people. Here, for the first time, Mr Buchanan became practically acquainted with the wants and dangers of the city masses, and received impressions which were practically operative in his life, down to the very end of it. Meanwhile the activities of the evangelical revival within the Church of Scotland were in full progress, under the leadership of Chalmers ; and Buchanan's extraordinary capacities for practical church work, and his sagacity as an adviser, made themselves abundantly manifest. By none were they more appreciated than by Dr Chalmers, with whom he was associated in Church Extension projects and excursions, as well as in other movements of these days. It is still remembered how, in speaking of his younger friend, the doctor would comment on the distinction between his clear insight and efficient work and the high-sounding talk which vexed him in other quarters. It need hardly be said that Mr Buchanan took a cordial interest in the steps and measures, adopted with a view to reform the administration of i ROBERT BUCHANAN, D.D. the Scottish Established Church ; and when the difficulties arose which involved the church in danger and perplexity, he rapidly acquired great influence in the conduct of affairs. The earliest Assembly in which he took a very conspicuous position was that of 1838. The first Auchterarder decision had then been given in the Court of Session, and the principles which it indicated, as likely to be affirmed as law, w^ere occupying men's minds. It was manifest, that in addition to the question of the rights of the people in the settlement of ministers, the wider question of the inde- pendence of the Church in her own province was coming into debate. All that the Church could do, was to make it plain without delay, how serious the issues would prove to be, if the indications given by the civil courts were followed out. To Buchanan, accordingly, was entrusted the duty of moving the "Independence Resolutions," which struck the key- note of the struggle that followed. The manner in which he performed this duty confirmed him in his position as one of the remarkable cluster of leading minds to whom, under God, the Church looked for guidance during the years that followed. The position which he thus took up, was achieved wholl)- in virtue of his admirable strength and balance of mind, his e.xpertncss in all practical affairs, and his known and proved devotedness to the public cause. He was a forcible and polished speaker, but he did not attract admiration by rhetorical brilliancy. Neither did he interest men by picturesque manifestations of personal character ; for he was disposed to no singularities ; and although his sympathies were wide and his affec- tions strong, he was not the man to parade them. But he proved to be one on whom even strong men found it a comfort to lean. Very soon he was recognised as the most influential minister in the west of Scotland, and as the most powerful representative of the Evangelical party in that section of the Church. But few, comparatively, were then aware, or are yet aware, how powerfully he contributed to guide the counsels and the policy of the whole party during the years that preceded the Disruption. ■t I ''C f I DISRUPTIOX n -OKThlES. A service on which he was often and long employed was to act as deputy for the Church in the wearisome and anxious, and finally fruitless, negotiations with successive Governments which arose out of the successive phases of the Disruption Controversy. His knowledge of the world, his ease in intercourse with men of all ranks, his presence of mind, and his unfailing coolness and judgment, rendered him invaluable in this department. When things were in his hands, men felt sure that what was possible would be done, and well done. If his letters to private friends written during those visits to London are still preserved, they would prove to be, we believe, even now, full of interest. During the whole conflict he himself kept, and he was anxious that the Church should keep, carefully within the line of the position originally taken up. He was not more resolute to maintain the ground of principle, than careful to guard against exaggerations, which might expose the Church's position to misconstruction. The motives of this comparative moderation were not always understood ; and those who thought that strength of principle was synonymous with extremeness of principle, might consider him at times not sufficiently loud, or not suffi- ciently advanced. When the proceedings of the Convocation (November 1842) were drawing to a close, he took an opportunity of referring to this matter. He stated that he was aware that some might have thought him timid and cautious. But he had all along foreseen how the conflict might too probably end. And his anxiety had been that when the end came, the Church might be able to say, that she had all along simply maintained principles, and that no ground might exist for imputing the grave results of the controversy to mere rashness or temper on the Church's side. After the Disruption, Dr Buchanan's share in the work which devolved upon the Free Church was too large and multifarious to admit of its particularly described here. The remark already made; as to his _^^.^a. >t:r5— y® r'-'©' |}^!R|S T S\© ^^f -W f{l A Kl © ^ i ROBERT BUCHANAN, D.D. influence in counsel during the period before the Disruption ib, if possible, still more emphatically applicable to the period that succeeded. What- ever might be his share in the plans adopted, he was never anxious to be prominent in the public advocacy and execution of them. His cordial admiration of his distinguished fellow-labourers led him rather to desire to impel them to the front. But whatever good guidance the affairs of the Free Church experienced during many busy and anxious years, a very large share of the credit of it must be imputed to the counsels of Buchanan. It may be added, that in the department of silent and resolute subordination of all personal feelings and interests to the peace and the well-being of the Church, few names indeed can claim a rank near to his. Of specific services, two especially must be briefly noticed. His " History of the Ten Years' Conflict " is at once a statement of the events which led to the separate position of the Free Church, and a vindication of the principles she professed, and of the steps taken in defence of them. It is singularly clear and comprehensive ; the difficult work of selection, so important with a view to unembarrassed narrative, being performed with admirable judgment. As the Free Church grows older, the work will gain in value. Dr Buchanan publicly expressed an intention of writing an account of the first ten years of the Free Church, as the record of its upbuilding. Circumstances prevented him from executing this purpose. An expository volume on Ecclesiastes, and a very useful record of a tour in the Holy Land, were later contributions to professional literature. It was in 1847 '^h^t Dr Buchanan became Convener of the Siistenta- tion Fund Committee, and entered on the long series of important services which he rendered to that great fund. In addition to anxieties with respect to the amount of the yearly income and its adequacy to the purposes for which it is intended, others still more trying had to be encountered. Differences with respect to the administration and distribu- % v^-f^" J)JSK i 'P 1 lUX 1 1 -OR THIES. tion of the fund gave rise to controversies, which were not the less serious that, in some instances, men of high character and intellectual force were ranked on different sides. It would be difficult to say how much the fund, and the Church which benefits by it, owed to the circumstance that a man of Buchanan's weight of character, calmness, and firmness, presided over the fund during these periods. He had the strongest sense of the fatal effects, which the indulgence of a bitter and wrangling temper must produce in a matter like this. No labour, no sacrifice of personal feeling, no efforts of conciliation that seemed consistent with sound prin- ciples, wei-e grudged by him, in order to avert such evils. The convener of the Sustentation Fund, indeed, is far from being an autocrat in this matter. He presides over a committee which is very large, representative in its constitution, independent in its temper, and thoroughly awake to the bearings of steps which may be proposed. But the oldest members of the committee will be most forward to testify to the manner in which their remarkable convener infused his own spirit into his associates, and contributed to form the temper and mode of view which prevails in that committee, and, it may be added, in the Church at large. After the first absorbing years of the upbuilding of the Free Church had passed away, Dr Buchanan's mind reverted to the case and claims of the lapsed masses in the city where he ministered. He set himself to call attention to the facts and statistics bearing on the subject, so as to awaken and impress the Christian community. But, at the same time, he set himself to practical work, in the way of rendering more efficient the agencies which his congregation maintained among the people of the Tron Church parish. In the Wynds, in that parish, the work of Mr M'CoU was commenced, the centre of which was the Wynd Church, erected by Dr Buchanan's efforts. Out of the Wynd Mission have sprung directly four large congregations. These congregations have established seven other sanctioned charges, and five charges more have sprung, more or less directly, from the Wynd Church. This mission has therefore been the V ROBERT BUCHAXAN, D.D - means, directly or indirectly, of adding to the Presbytery of Glasgow six- %\\ teen sanctioned charges, besides assisting in the formation of others. The '' work has proved to be the nursery of some of the very best evangelistic j labourers whom Glasgow has seen. Dr Buchanan took the lead in i; it, in the most direct and practical wa)-. The writer well remembers f listening to him preaching, in the open air, in a close in the Wynds ; his \ hearers partly crowding a comparatively open space, partly presenting themselves at every window, on both sides, from top to bottom of the houses, for a considerable distance along the close. An interesting incident took place on one of these occasions. A man, who had become I ■ desperate, was on his way to the river to drown himself, when his atten- V; - tion was attracted by the gathered people, to whom Dr Buchanan was ', preaching. The subject happened to be the Philippian jailor. The suit- ;,;:v,- ableness to his own case of the statements made in illustration, struck the >Y 1 unfortunate man ; he became impressed, communicated after the sermon with some of those present, became apparently a changed man, and lived a consistent as well as an industrious life for years afterwards. In the year 1857 Dr Buchanan was transferred from the Free Tron ,! ' to the Free College Church, built in immediate proximity to the Free Church College. The step was the result of a strong conviction, that it ; was necessary to take vigorous steps to supply churches timeously, not I merely to the masses in the centre of the city, but to the new districts on I the outskirts, successively occupied by inhabitants of the wealthier classes. J It appeared to him, that a proposal by himself to remove, with part of his congregation, was a suitable and impressive way of turning attention to this subject. A large part of the congregation remained in their old place of worship, and soon became again a numerous and powerful con- gregation under the ministry of Dr Walter Smith. ■ -1^ In the year i860 Dr Buchanan was appointed moderator of the Free "/jl'v Church Assembly. His predecessor in that office, Dr Cunningham, recommended him to the Assembly as " one whose claims to this honour. w DISRUPTION WORTHIES. and to any honour the Church can confer upon him, are of the highest order." Another great and absorbing service remained for Dr Buclianan to discharge, which he was not destined to see rewarded by success. In 1863 he was named convener of the committee, appointed to confer with committees of the United Presbyterian, Reformed Presbyterian, and Enghsh Presbyterian Churches regarding union. The history and result of the negotiations, which lasted for ten years, are known. When Dr Buchanan's life is adequately written, the importance which he attached to this step in the history of his Church, and the sorrow with which he saw the expected union postponed for a time, may appear. For the present it may be enough to quote the statement which he made, in reference to this subject in the General Assembly of 1873 : — " Its history will be written and read when we are in our graves — written and read in a calmer and clearer atmosphere than that which now surrounds it ; and for my part I am not afraid of the verdict posterity will then pronounce on the views which have been advocated on this great question by the majority of this Church. It is true that no such merely human verdict will or can be infallible. It is a light thing to be judged of men or of man's judgment. He that judgeth us is the Lord. Speaking as in His presence, and in the great Assembly of this Church, all I shall say is this, that in looking back on what it fell to me to do, as Convener of the Union Committee of the Free Church, I am conscious of much imperfection, — conscious of having come miserably short in those high qualities that were needed for the fitting advocacy of so great and sacred a cause. But I also am conscious of having done my best to carry forward what, in my inmost soul, I believe to have been a work of God. And in this day resigning, as I shall do, into the hands of the Assembly the office which I have been so long honoured to hold, I shall do so with the earnest prayer and in the humble hope that from the field m which so much precious seed has been patiently and prayerfully sown, — sown latterly, I might truly say, in tears — some happier husband- man shall ere long come with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." It fell to the lot of Dr Buchanan to survive all the other leaders of the Disruption struggle. He did not allow the successive bereavements to abate his energy or to break his spirit ; but they touched his latter years with a visible tenderness, and brought out more evidently his regard to the things unseen and eternal. The death of Dr Candlish in 1873 ROBERT BUCHANAN, D.D. was a blow, whicli, tliough not unforeseen, inflicted a deep wound on Dr Buchanan's affections. A peculiar love and confidence, equally strong on either side, existed between the two friends ; and the previous bereavements which left them alone together, had tended to associate them more absolutely with one another. Whatever his feelings, however, Dr Buchanan, as usual, continued steadfastly to perform every service it was still possible to render to the Church and to the Christian cause. In the winter of 1874-75 he accepted the proposal that he would supply for a few months the place of worship which the Free Church maintains at Rome. A tendency to bronchitic ailment, which had begun to give him some trouble, made this proposal the more welcome. He proceeded to his destination with his usual cheerfulness ; and with the special interest which a residence at Rome could not but awaken, in one who felt the liveliest interest in history, and v.ho had special aptitudes for tracing out and storing up all manner of local relations and associations. Though the winter proved unusually severe, his health did not seem to suffer from it seriousl}^ An apparently slight indisposition had confined him to his room ; but he was looking forward to com- pleting some intended excursions before returning home. During the night, on 31st March 1S75, he unexpectedly and most peacefully passed aA\ay. Dr Buchanan was married, first, in 1S27, to Miss Anne Handyside, sister of the late Hugh- Handyside, Edinburgh. This lady died in 1841. He married, secondly, in 1843, Miss Elizabeth Stoddart, daughter of Laurence Stoddart, Esq., who survives him. Children of both marriages survive. A certain refinement and selectness, combined with strength and decision, were perhaps the qualities suggested by Dr Buchanan's countenance. Much the same impression might be derived from his whole appearance. Fond of all athletic exercises in his youth, and DISRUPTIOy WORTHIES. successful in tliem, his fine form and carriage were impressive to the last. In private, he was a charming associate ; full of knowledge, a strong and ready converser, and in the highest degree companionable. His Christian character partook of the stability and consistency which marked the whole man. It was not obtrusive or demonstrative ; but the more and the longer one knew him, the more one felt how the faith of Christ pervaded and determined his life. All men knew how calm and self-possessed his demeanour was, in the most trying circumstances. As usual, in such cases, this was often ascribed to a placid or insensible disposition. Those who knew better, knew how suppressed feelings and undisclosed anxieties signalised themselves occasionally by sharp and sudden fits of illness. R. R. m m t /,-!!-; JOHN WILSON. D.D. |0bn m:ls0n, ^M.. fSl3. )OHN WILSON was born at Lauder, in Berwickshire, on the nth December 1S04. He received his early education at his native town ; from which he proceeded to Edinburgh University, passing through the usual curriculum in the Arts classes to the Theological Hall. Mr Wilson threw himself with ardour into the various subjects of study which the College and Hall successively presented. Probably the special bent of his mind was towards the Natural History sciences. In these, especially Zoology and Geology, he took through life a deep interest. But his mind was wonderfully comprehensive ; he rapidly accumulated knowledge of all kinds, and seldom lost what he once acquired. His interest in missionary work, which began early, deepened in his progress through the Hall. Towards the end of his theological course he published a life of John Eliot, the great North-American missionary. He was one of the founders — if not indeed the founder — of the Missionary Society in the Edinburgh Hall ; and an earnest address, which he delivered to the members on the subject so dear to his heart, was given to the public. He had by this time been accepted as a candidate by the Scottish Missionary Society, a catholic institution, founded in 1796, which received support from the Evangelical party in the Established Church, as well as from other bodies in Scotland. f srf||(,, g"® K;;~©:'ft|!j^K| s T.S V© K:;f '-W ra I A INI 1 DISRUPTION WORTHIES. He was ordained by the Presbytery of Lauder in June 1S28. Soon after, he was married to Margaret, daughter of the Rev. Kenneth Bayne of Greenock — a woman remarkable in many respects, highly gifted, '\ highly cultivated, and entirely devoted to the great Master's service. The marriage ceremony was performed by Dr Andrew Thomson on the -i\ 1 2th August, and on the 30th of the same month Mr and Mrs Wilson -j sailed from Newhaven to London, on their way to Western India. I' The American Mission, after much opposition on the part of Govern- ;! ment, had commenced operations at Bombay in the end of 18 14. The J Scottish Missionary Society turned its attention to the great continent of '| India in 1822. The Society was by no means wanting in comprehensive- \\ ness of plan; and among other reasons for selecting the Presidency of - ;, Bombay, they mentioned its contiguity to Persia — to which they hoped to send missionaries. The Rev. Donald Mitchell, the first agent of the r Society, reached Bombay in 1823 — Messrs John Cooper, James Mitchell, Alexander Crawford, and John Stevenson following speedily after. Of this band of honoured men, Mr Cooper yet survives, " still bringing forth ^^\ fruit in old age." Mr Robert Nesbit joined them in September 1827. |t Mr and Mrs Wilson reached Bombay in P^ebruary 1829. They speedily !? proceeded to a village in the Southern Konkan, that they might learn ^' the Marathi language without distraction ; and, having made rapid pro- ;.- gress, they began their missionary labours at Bombay in the November ;:i following. ■ Even then Bombay was a large city— about as large as Edinburgh ; and Leith put together are now ; and it contained a truly remarkable yij- assemblage of races and creeds. Mr Wilson, with his usual quickness of y\ eye, surveyed the entire field. The American Mission, and one or two "^i'CX agents of the Church Missionary Society, were labouring with all fiidelity 3(jp among the Hindus. Not neglecting them — nay, with his zealous wife's ,"^ assistance, planting schools for males and females wherever he could find 'y;;/. an entrance — he was deeply moved by the spiritual destitution of the /.ir} ^M^^ )k ji JOHN WILSON, D.D. Mohammadans and Parsis. Mr and Mrs Wilson were heartily aided, in their efforts to arouse the people, by a band of Christian friends, among whom, without disparaging other excellent men, we may single out the late Dr Smyttan, and Messrs R. C. Money, J. Parish, and R. T. Webb, of the Bombay Civil Service, as specially remarkable. Mr Wilson was incessantly engaged in lecturing, preaching, writing, publishing. In 1830, along with two other friends, he establi.shed a monthly periodical called the Oriental Christian Spectator ; a valuable repository of infor- mation on Indian literature and missions. He also took extensive missionary tours. Having acquired the Marathi language, he next learned Gujarati and Hindustani ; and, following the example of his learned colleague, Stevenson — who early studied Sanskrit, and published a portion of the Rig Veda with a translation, before Rosen's celebrated " Specimen " had come out — he made progress in the far-famed holy tongue of the Brahmans. He then attacked the enigmatical Zend, which the distinguished savant Burnouf had just begun to elucidate ; and he was able to discuss, at least on equal terms, with the Parsi priests, the meaning of the Zendavesta. Mrs Wilson died in 1835 — a most grievous blow to her husband and the whole mission. Her Memoir, compiled by her husband, is one of the best of missionary biographies. About Mrs Wilson's letters, which make up a great part of the book, there is an indescribable charm. Two of Mrs Wilson's sisters — Anna and Hay Bayne — soon after her death proceeded to Bombay at Dr Wilson's earnest request, and were a great comfort to him in his solitude. Both of them were highly gifted and devoted women. The younger sister became the wife of the saintly Robert Nesbit. The same year, in the month of August, the three Scottish missionaries -^ A^ then labouring in West India — Messrs James Mitchell, Nesbit, and Wilson -^^N — were received as agents of the Established Church of Scotland. Mr Wilson had been the moving spirit in making the application, which was most heartily agreed to. In the year 1836 Mr Wilson received the degree of D.D. from the University of Edinburgh. Mr Alexander Duff, the General Assembly's first missionary, had reached Calcutta in May 1830; and the marvellous success of his educa- tional efforts had stimulated the desire that a seminary on the model of his should be set up in Western India. Mr Wilson did all that he could attempt single-handed to conduct such a school ; and by the end of 1838, when the Mission was reinforced by Mr Nesbit's return from the Cape, and Mr Murray Mitchell's arrival from Scotland, the General Assembly's Institution was fully organized. It was numerously attended by Parsis ; but the baptism of two Parsi pupils (now the Rev. Messrs Hormazdji Pestonji and Dhanjibhai Nauroji) speedily shook the school to its founda- tions. The attendance, from being nearly three hundred, fell at once to forty-five ; and these were nearly all Portuguese. Of the very few Hindus who remained, one was Narayan Sheshadri ; \\ho said he could safely do so, as he was determined the missionaries should never catch /inu in their net ! Dr Wilson now commenced a series of lectures, which, in the end of 1842, he published in a volume of fully six hundred pages, entitled, "The Parsi Religion." This was the most elaborate work on the Zoroastrian system that had appeared since Hyde had given to the world his cele- brated treatise. Be Veleri Rcligione Pcrsanmi. Dr Wilson sailed for Europe early in January 1843, accompanied by Mr Dhanjibhai Nauroji ; travelled through the Holy Land ; and reached Scotland soon after the great Disruption. No one had watched with deeper anxiety the sore struggle which the Church had been called to pass through. No one more firmly held the great principle of spiritual inde- pendence. He lost no time in signifying his hearty adherence to the Church of the Disruption ; he rejoiced and gave thanks to God that, on this deeply important question, all the missionaries of the Church, whether to Gentiles or Jews, were of the same mind ; and he took part at home in if Pv?''- yoHN ir/LsOiV, d.d. explaining and vindicating tlie position assumed by the I-'rce Church. Fie ''^K accompanied Dr Candhsh into England ; and at Oxford, in jjarticular, in _^jj- ^ presence of a somewhat critical audience, he preached on the spiritual glory of the Church of Christ and its inalienable freedom. Dr Wilson often mentioned with great giisto his delight at the answer given by one of the / boatmen when he landed at Dover. He had asked the man, "Any news f_ about the Church of Scotland .-" " " They're all out, sir," was the reply ; and ; to Dr Wilson they were thrilling words. " My mind," he used to say, " was j _^ made up ; I would have gone out although I had only had half a dozen : associates." It is right to add that, while strongly attached to the Pres- byterian form of Church government, and to the Free Church, Dr Wilson was a man of truly catholic sympathies, and ever ready to co-operate 'Ku in all good works with men of evangelical sentiments. He heartily ir^c; favoured the Evangelical Alliance, and he took his share in preparing the \" way for a great confederation or alliance — the doctor himself called it a consociation — of Presbyterian Churches in India. On the question of the union of the Free Church with the Reformed Presbyterian and United Presbyterian bodies, Dr Wilson sided with the majority of his own Church. Passing rapidly over the time he remained in Scotland, during which he was mainly occupied with the composition of an elaborate work on ii the " Lands of the Bible," we find Dr Wilson back at his post in Bombay t^ by November 1847. In 1846, he had married as his second wife Miss Isabella Dennistoun — an admirable woman, simply and earnestly ^j devoted to the work of God. He had been elected a Fellow of the jl / Royal Society during his residence at home, as he had been made Pre- "Ji(\ sident of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society during the -'^jlr latter part of his residence in India. 'lijC- The next ten years of Dr Wilson's life passed over without anj-thing 1-N very remarkable taking place. He was as active in mind and body as I j'V before, assisting In the revision of the translations of Scripture, gathering acquaintance with the aboriginal tribes, and promoting every religious DISRUPTION WORTHIES. and philanthropic effort in the western capital. The great Mutiny oc- curred in 1S57 ; and since tlien the main literary occupation of Dr Wilson has been the preparation of a very full, elaborate work on Caste, which he was led to take up by his conviction that caste-prejudices were closely connected \\ith the outbreak. But his pen was never idle. He published a careful risuinc of the efforts of the Bombay Government to suppress infanticide, and several Memoirs on the remarkable cave-temples of Western India. In the new and exceedingly important step taken for the advancement of education, in the establishment of three great Universities in India, Dr Wilson took a deep interest ; and by-and-by he J'/ received the honour of being appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bombay. Years passed on, and Dr \\'ilson had attained quite a patriarchal ,^: position in Bombay. He connected a present and past that were in ),\'-r- many respects strangely contrasted. No man had more acquaintance with India as it was ; and no man had so much with India as it is. His knowledge of Western India, in particular, with its endless complexity of tribes and dialects and customs, was perfectly marvellous. He became an authority superior to all others on any question connected with the native races. In his judgment as well as in his knowledge, both Govern- ment and the public could repose the most entire confidence. He was by no means a mere scholar ; he was a man of great practical sagacity. In the dark and trying times of the Mutiny — darker and more trying than any one who was not then in India can possibly understand — Dr Wilson was an invaluable counsellor to Government. Lord Elphinstone, who proved, under God, a ruler equal to the terrible emergency, often sought his sym- ^^Ij( pathy and advice ; and never did so in vain. -jj-^.' The applications made to him for information, for advice, were endless, '—■'.'' and would have worn out any ordinary man's patience ; but he hardly |i|j> seemed to look upon the tax as unreasonable. To every one who came to him, whether European or Asiatic, he was uniformly kind, accessible ^^^^||2® ia^;;^'|^ti'D S T s \"ci K,f ;W nlj ^#8 ■> '*' 'rnrjM u/tt ':n\7 nn W"'il? yO//N WILSON, D.D. obliging. The feeling of regard entertained for him was, beautifully c'^ witnessed in 1868, when a sum of 21,000 rupees was contributed by the --' Bombay community to form the Wilson Memorial, the interest being- drawn by Dr Wilson during his life, and the capital being devoted, according to his own suggestion, to the endowment of a chair of Com- j| parative Philology in the Bombay University. ' The death of his excellent wife in 1867 had been a very sore affliction, though his niece, Miss Taylor, did all she could to minister to his comfort. In 1870 he was called home by the Church to fill the Moderator's chair. ; We do not require to tell our readers how well he did his part. Courteous, ';: conciliatory, dignified, with a ready tact that seldom failed in doing and A saying the right thing, he was one of the best of Moderators. During 1 /■' the months that followed the Assembly, he did much to advance the i'v. cause of missions. If not an eloquent, he was a winning advocate. His powers of persuasion were great ; and he seemed to draw to himself the hearts of all. Since his return to India, with the infirmities of age becoming too ^.1 serious to be any longer doubted even by himself, his error was that he con- ''j tinned to attempt too much. Doubtless by so doing he wore himself out too soon. We often thought of a remark which Dr Candlish once made regarding the venerable Dr Gordon : " It is far more important that he ; should live ten years than that he should do any work." But the veteran ,,j i would work on in spite of entreaties, till he has fallen at his post. i \ One of his letters, dated 18th April 1S75, thus refers to the death of ';; his sister-in-law. Miss Bayne : " How few of my early friends now remain '\ on earth ! and how many of them have gone to heaven before me ! May V; ' upwards and onwards' be more and more my watchword !" -:.•''. On June iSth he wrote : — '^,,- ^-; " I have just got the Assembly papers, and am greatly pleased with the glance I ^i^ have been able to take of them. None of the great men removed from us will be •(4^V reproduced in their individualities and combinations. Yet the Lord will not overlook d|t the exigencies of His Church and people." /.I V>^ DISRUPT/ON WORTHIES. ^,K| - The last letter we received from him is dated November i. 1875 : — " You have no doubt heard of my severe illness. In the goodness of my heavenly Father I think I am a little better ; but if you saw my difficulty of breathing, &c., &c., you would much pity me. Let that pity pass into petitions addressed to the throne of : all grace." After tliis, " he fell by leaps," as Mr Beaumont expresses it. The '1 day before his death he said to a friend, " I have perfect peace, and am ' content that the Lord should do what may seem good to Him." He died without much suffering on ist December. He has passed away ; but neither the Church nor India ever can forget him. Dr Wilson has left two sons. The elder is the accomplished author ot " The Abode of Snow," and other works. The younger, who studied medicine, has long been in shattered health. The following resolution of the Senate will shew the estimate in \\hich Dr Wilson's services are held by the University of Bombay :— " That this University place on record its deep and unfeigned regret at the death of the Rev. John Wilson, D.D., F.R.S., one of the Fellows mentioned in the Act of Incorporation, late Vice-Chancellor, and for several years and at his death Dean and Syndic in Arts. In its foundation on a sound and permanent basis, in the preparation ■ of those rules and regulations which were necessary for carrying out the objects for i which it was established, in the prominent part he took in the examinations for its f: prizes and honours, and in the constant attendance he gave to the meetings of its v' various governing bodies, Dr Wilson shewed the great and never-failing interest he T. took in this Institution, the success of which is in no small degree due to the able advice and fostering care of this great and good man; and while lamenting his '■, removal, the University would point to the bright example of his life and conversation ! as a pattern to be followed by all engaged in the work of education, as well as by those \. who profit thereby. That although Dr Wilson's memory will be preserved in the '^. ' University by the ' Wilson Philological Lectureship,' which was founded in his honour '~"' \ in the year 1S70, yet as thcit testimonial was provided by friends and admirers of Dr ,- ,, Wilson outside of the University, it would, in the opinion of this meeting, be specially appropriate that the Senate as such should, in some manner to be hereafter determined, commemorate the distinguished services rendered by Dr Wilson to this University." J. M. M. ^USTi'Xf r I PHOTO-LITHOGRAPH INTRODUCTORY PAGES OF THE PULPIT BIBLE USED IX 1S43 AND SUBSEQUENT ASSEMBLIES, Containing Autographs of tlic various Moderators, and Otlicn ^^rP^-f^sM^ m: h S T,i£ '\''d IF.'.'I'Vy' f?"'^ .3'. ¥, B^¥l:«i E ' J^. '^"^^--^ :^ o^^ya^^j^:? yi^^-^ ^^.^/^-^i^^ji^ Ja.-^,^.^ M^/i-'C-t^- /6'^3. .^U^^'^"^ ^;^./^-: /"'^- /^V' Ca..c ^^;g^'^. /^^X^-^'^"^ ^-tca^-^^^^^^ ^^^f^'^?, C^ "i-«sCe;C'/, ^r^i: ■■ ' ^il' ■-; 3Pl'^*<^j::*'".