Parish life in the north of scotland
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| The two great branches of the Secession, after various conferences and consultations, had united under the name of the Associate Synod. Dr. Kidd rejoiced at the union, and said that he believed that it was entered into by both parties under divine guidance. For, he added, had such a proposal been made many years ago, and had the very angels of heaven come among them to recommend it, the Seceders would have driven them away with pitchforks. There was nothing, however, which I more admired than Dr. Kidd's method in conducting divine service whenever he preached. After giving out a psalm, and uttering a beautiful prayer, he read a chapter. But, before doing so, he directed the attention of his hearers to the lessons found in it. This done, he read the chapter without note or comment from first to last. The simple reading of the chapter exactly corresponding with the previous running commentary brought the lessons prominently into view, and let his hearers at once into the scope and substance of the whole taken in connection. I never more fully entered into, nor highly relished, the reading of a chapter of the Bible than when I was listening to Dr. Kidd.
But the most interesting conversation I had with Dr. Kidd was on the almost insurmountable difficulties which he met with in preaching the gospel soon after he was licensed. One evening, which he spent with me in my own house at the Braehead of Gilcomston. has left a vivid and most endearing recollection of him by the frankness and Christian sincerity with which he stated the following particulars of his first outset in the ministry. "The great question with me then," said he, "was not what the gospel was in itself, for that, I thought, I riot only- understood, but in some measure felt in its power. But my difficulty was How was I to preach the gospel as a trust committed to my charge. I was altogether dissatisfied with myself. I felt that I had taken too much upon me, that I had run unsent, and therefore, to satisfy my mind on the subject. I visited and consulted those who were considered pillars in the church." He then mentioned several eminent ministers with whom he had conversed on the subject. None of them, however, found for him a solid bottom in the deep waters through which he was passing, and in which he was frequently very nearly sinking altogether. He had nothing for it at last but to cast himself simply and entirely on the Head of the church, and on His promise, "Go ye and preach, and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." "0 Sir," he added with much fervency and with tear-moistened eyes, "men have failed me, and I have more than once fainted and failed myself, but He has failed me never, and I bless His holy name that He ever put me in trust with the gospel." He died of apoplexy on Wednesday, the 24th Dec. 1834, at his own house in Aberdeen, in great peace and in the exercise of a good hope through grace. He was in the 74th year of his age and 34th of his ministry. With Dr. Cruden of Nigg, near Aberdeen, I became intimate, and I cherish the most pleasing and kindly remembrances of him. He was then an old man, and his personal appearance was truly venerable. His face was lone;, very thin and minutely marked with the wrinkles of old age. When he preached or addressed a public audience, it would be exceedingly difficult, indeed, for those who only saw or heard him for the first time, to keep their gravity, as, not being a very fluent speaker, and not at all eloquent, he did not find it easy to express himself, and the difficulty which he felt in doing so was embodied in the most ludicrous contortions of countenance ever witnessed. To overset one's gravity and to excite an irresistible sense of the ludicrous, therefore, was the impression made at first on the mind of a stranger. But a more intimate acquaintance with this venerable man, and anything like a right estimate of his moral worth, speedily wore it off, so that, screw his features as he choose, he would never excite one solitary smile on the face of any audience who knew and valued him as he deserved. He was a man of simple but fervent piety, of unshaken and unwearied zeal, and was ever labouring in the service of Christ among the people committed to his care. He assisted at every sacramental occasion and preached, at an average, four or five sermons per week. One minister, indeed, characterised him as a preaching machine. This was not, however, at all an epithet descriptive of Dr. Cruden. It was true that the worthy doctor's sermons did not cost him much previous study, nor did they exhibit much reach of thought, or depth of theological knowledge. They were the artless and unaffected effusions of a deeply serious mind, full of faith and love, and breathing a Christian and philanthropic spirit. Dr. Cruden was a most zealous supporter of the many religious societies then established at Aberdeen. He not only contributed very liberally to them all but, at public meetings, advocated the cause most earnestly. When Dr. Cruden intimated his intention to the Town Council of Aberdeen (who, as the patrons, had the living of Nigg in their gift), of having an assistant and successor, on account of his increasing infirmities, Mr. Alexander Thom, Rector of Gordon's Hospital, was by them nominated to the office. His settlement accordingly took place soon afterwards. On the evening of that day Dr. Cruden, after attending the services in church and inviting his relatives to meet him, retired to his manse. After partaking of a slight repast, he said with much cheerfulness that he had now got his heart's wish in regard to his beloved flock fully gratified, in having such a man as Mr. Thom settled among them, and that he now felt that his course was finished and his work ended. He told them that he had on his mind the irresistible impression that the first peep of dawn on the coming day would be the hour of his departure, and he begged his friends to watch with him, just to accompany him, as he said, to the borders of the heavenly Canaan. His friends agreed to the proposal, but fancied that the old man had got into his dotage. He asked them all to seat themselves beside him on the sofa, and then began to speak with an earnestness and fervour which they had never, till then, witnessed. He continued thus to address them for several hours, till at last his voice faltered and then failed altogether, when, gently reclining his head on the back of the sofa, he breathed his last. The dawn of day was observed at that moment to break upon the sky. 3: With the other members of the Presbytery or Synod of Aberdeen I had no sort of intercourse or acquaintance whatever, with the exception of some of those of their number already mentioned. There was hardly one of them who could be said in truth either to preach the gospel or even to understand it. While such was their general character as a body, many of them individually were so openly profane that they were known to be the most ungodly men in their respective congregations. Ross-shire they denounced as the hotbed of fanaticism, but Aberdeenshire, with far more truth, might justly have been denominated the icy region of stern, unmitigated Moderatism. Two of their number especially were the faithful representatives of the genuine Moderates of that day. They stuck at nothing, Sabbath desecration, profane swearing, drunkenness, or the most open contempt of God's truth and ordinances. Men guilty of such palpable recklessness, while daring publicly to hold the ministerial office, thus became prominent examples for evil in their parishes. My acquaintance among the dissenting ministers was not very intimate nor extensive. The Secession body, consisting as they did of the two great divisions, burgher and anti-burgher, underwent about this time two great changes. The first was their union into one body as the united associate Synod. To this union, however, many ministers of both sections would not agree. The Original Seceders, or Cameronians, did not join them at all. Another and far more vital change to which this united body subjected itself, and in which it made common cause with other dissenting churches, was its adoption of the voluntary principle. This nostrum effected a complete revolution in the Secession Church. It consisted simply in this: that a Christian church must necessarily be contaminated by being connected with the State in the matter of receiving temporal support from it; and that it ought to be upheld by its members, who in this religious capacity only are under obligations to do so, while in a civil capacity no one is under any such obligation. This notion when first started spread like wild-fire among the Seceders, particularly after the union of these two septs, and by its adoption they renounced one of the leading principles held by the eminent founders of the Secession when they left the National Church. To some of the professors of Marischal and of Kings Colleges I may now briefly allude. I renewed my intercourse with my kind old friend Professor Stewart, of Marischal College, and his amiable family. I have frequently been at his house as one of a numerous tea-and-supper party, where the old man was full. of fun and anecdote. It was towards the close of my residence in Aberdeen that he lost his excellent wife. I attended her funeral. She was buried close by the west wall of the churchyard of St. Nicolas. Her maiden name was Mowat, and she was the very last descendant of the Mowats of Ardo, in Aberdeenshire, a family who could, until half a century ago, by almost an unbroken descent, trace up their ancestral pedigree considerably beyond the age of King Robert the Bruce. The professor himself was of a good family in Kincardineshire. He was the proprietor of a small estate in that county, called Inchbrake, which he inherited from his ancestors through many generations. He died in 1827. Dr. Hamilton was then living, but he had retired from the public duties of his professorship, and one John Cruickshanks, a contemporary of mine in Marischal College, had been appointed his assistant and successor. He had left his house at the college, and resided, after he had retired from his public duties, in a country house at the west side of the town. Mr. Cruickshanks was appointed to the chair in 1817, and the doctor died in 1829. The professors of King's College were, since my attendance at the Divinity Hall, almost all removed by death, and their places filled by their successors. Principal MacLeod, brother of the Laird of Harris, was in 1816 succeeded in the principalship by Dr. Jack, the sub-principal and professor of mathematics, a native of Shetland. Dr. Gilbert Gerard, professor of divinity, was in 1815 succeeded by Mr. Duncan Mearns, the minister of Tarvas. The appointment to the theological chair in King's College was vested in the Synod of Aberdeen, and when a vacancy occurred candidates were invited to compete for the office. Trial exercises were prescribed, and a decision thereafter given in favour of one of the competitors. Dr. Mearns' competitor was the late eminent Dr. Love of Glasgow. Though much inferior to Dr. Love, Dr. Mearns was by no means unworthy of the office to which he was thus elected. He was a man of superior ability, extensive and accurate information, and whose views of Divine truth, if not profound, were strictly according to Scripture and the Standards of the Church. He was besides one of the ablest lecturers I ever heard, while his criticisms on the pieces of trial delivered before him were judicious, candid, and instructive. He was both a Christian and a divine, in knowledge and in form; but the animating principle was wanting, and he more resembled the highly-finished, but cold and lifeless, marble bust, than he did the living reality which it is intended to represent. When at Tarvas he had no heart for the work of a parish minister. But his discharge of the duties of the professorial office, which were more congenial to the habits of his literary mind, was most able, while his conduct was uniformly consistent and irreproachable. 4: William Ogilvie, the renowned professor of Humanity and Natural History at King's College, died about the year 1816. His successor was Patrick Forbes, minister of Boharm, afterwards of Old Machar. Professor Ogilvie was fresh in the memory of all my contemporaries at Aberdeen College. They never wearied talking of him, and of his unrivalled translation of Virgil's Eclogues. It is much to be regretted that these were not published. He devoted nearly every third hour of his literary life to the study of these magnificent specimens of ancient pastoral poetry. Mr. Eden Scott was, during my college years, professor of Moral Philosophy at King's College. He was unquestionably at the head of his contemporaries in point of mental capacity and knowledge of the particular science which he taught. He died about 1815, and was succeeded by Mr. Andrew Alexander, who, in 1819, was appointed to the Greek professorship at St. Andrew's College. When Dr. Daniel Dewar, who next filled the chair, resigned it after a year, it was conferred on Dr. John Lee, professor of Church History at St. Andrew's, who contemplated holding both offices by employing a deputy to read his lectures at Aberdeen. In the May following, he resigned both charges on being installed minister of Lady Yester's Church, Edinburgh. Dr. Lee is now Principal of the Edinburgh University. He had held more offices than any other Scottish churchman, and that restless spirit which induced his many changes has procured him the sobriquet of the "Solicitor General." 5: Prof. John Tulloch was appointed to the Mathematical Chair of King's College in 1811, and became the successor of Dr. Jack, when he was promoted to the office of Principal of the University. Prof. Tulloch had previously been, for some years, one of the teachers of the Inverness Academy, where his diligence and success as a teacher, and his high character as a man, procured him universal esteem. He was a native of the parish of Reay, and a contemporary at school and at college of the venerable Dr. MacDonald of Ferintosh. One of my earliest recollections is seeing them one evening at my father's house at Kildonan on their way to or from Aberdeen. Prof. Tulloch was my most intimate friend during my residence in that city. We walked together in every direction to and from both Old and New Aberdeen, then we dined together alternately at his house a brought me to converse with each other in the house and by the way the knowledge of his private history and of many things else which constituted the domestic and historical occurrences of that period. He had a rare capacity for drollery, and was a determined punster. It happened that a theft had been committed both in his house and Principal Jack's in the course of the same week. Dr. Jack's silver plate was stolen, while the professor lost a fat Caithness goose. Dr. Jack, who loved a joke, rallied the professor on the particular commodity which had taken the fancy of the nightly depredators in his house. “Aye,” said Tulloch, “but pray notice the' distinction, in my house the thieves took the goose and left the plate, but in yours they took the plate and left the goose.” I have already mentioned Mr. William Brown, oldest son of the Provost of Aberdeen. He had three brothers, Alexander, David, and Charles John. Alexander was a very thoughtless youth. He had been abroad. When his brother and sister came under serious impressions of the truth, which were cherished by their mother, he and his father ridiculed them mercilessly. Returning on one occasion, however, on a steamer from Leith to Aberdeen, Alexander had, as a fellow-passenger, the late eminent Caesar Malan. a French Protestant minister, who was then rejoicing in the days of his spiritual youth. Mr. Malan asked of him some close and pointed questions regarding his spiritual state. This conversation, under God, led to his conversion. David and Charles were, during my residence at Aberdeen, very young men, students at college, and very intimate with Mr. Black of Tarvas, a most learned man, who, on the death of Principal Brown, became his successor in the Theological Chair at Marischal College. David Brown, some years later was licensed to preach, but his views of the truth became distorted and visionary, and he sank into the errors and delusions of Edward Irving. He continued for some time as Irving's missionary in London, but reason at last returned to him, and, disgusted with the errors and ravings of that sect, he renounced them and re-entered the church which he had forsaken. 6: Since then he has been engaged as a minister in Glasgow, and he has written long articles on the Millennium in modern periodicals. His brother Charles, from youth upwards, seemed to be one of God's chosen vessels to honour. The Bible and the Confession of Faith were his most familiar acquaintances. He was licensed to preach in due course, and became, first the successor of the eminent Dr. Love of Glasgow, and afterwards minister of the New North Church in Edinburgh. He is now an honoured minister of the Free Church of Scotland, is married, and has a family. 7: Provost Brown, the father of this interesting family, is still alive. and upwards of eighty years of age. He long retired from business, but when I was in Aberdeen he was active and prosperous in it. His old shop was in Broad Street, at the sign of homer's head-a huge gaunt-looking effigy of that patriarchal poet painted on a board, with the name in Greek characters beneath. When his business extended, and Union Street became the great commercial thoroughfare, his shop was removed thither. Mrs. Brown still lives also, and is, as she then was, the punctual, scrupulous, and truly pious member of Mr. Aitkin's congregation. They had two daughters; the one was married to the devoted Mr. Joseph Thorburn, minister of Union Chapel, Aberdeen, afterwards of Forglen, in Banffshire. The youngest daughter married Mr. William Barclay, minister of Auldearn. She died some years ago, quite young, but decidedly pious. 8: 1: Afterwards Mrs. Mackay of Garrochty, now the only survivor of the family. Two sons died while attending their classes at college. Mr. Forbes married Miss Jane Sage on 29th Nov., 1813: he died 12th May, 1838, in the 72nd year of his age and 48th of his ministry. Mrs. Forbes died at Edinburgh, 29th Dec., 1852. For interesting particulars regarding the ministry of Mr. Forbes, see volume of his sermons, published by Gemmell, Edinburgh. 2: Dr. Murray died 1st March, 1861, in the 77th year of his age and 46th of his ministry. His wife died 4th Feb, of the following year. 3: Dr. David Cruden died 8th Nov., 1826, in the 81st year of his age and 58th of his ministry. 4: Dr. Duncan Mearns of Tarvas was admitted Professor of Theology at King's College in 1817; he died 2nd March, 1852, in the 73rd year of his age and 53rd of his ministry.-En. His father, Alexander Mearns, was minister of the parish of Cluny, in the Presbytery of Kincardine o' Neil, and during my time at Aberdeen died at a very advanced age. 5: Principal John Lee, D.D., LL.D., was a man of varied culture, but delicate health impaired his energy. He had been Professor of Divinity and Church History at St. Andrew's. In 1825 he was translated from Can on gate parish to Lady Yester's, and from thence in 1835 to the Old or High Church in Edinburgh. In 1837 he was appointed Principal of St. Andrew's United Colleges; on 12th March, 1840, he became Principal of Edinburgh University. He died 2nd May, 1859, in the 80th year of his age and 52nd of his ministry. 6: "At length Mr. Irving called me, and after being seated, and a long pause-each appearing to expect the other to break silence - he rose up and said, ' Well, Mr. Brown, you have left us.' 'Yes, Mr. Irving, I have; but not, as you know, while there was in my mind any shadow of ground to think that this work was Divine. But when that was gone, I had no option.' After a momentary pause, he said, with a good deal of suppressed feeling, `Your intellect, sir, has destroyed you.' ' Yes, sir, I confess it; my intellect has done the deed, whatever that may mean; I am responsible for the use of my intellect, and I have used it.' With his hand held to mine and mine warmly grasping his, he left me-my feelings very acute, and his I am sure the same. And thus ended my connection with this grand man, whose name can never be uttered in my hearing without a feeling of mingled reverence and love arising within me." (Principal David Brown, D.D., of Aberdeen, in "The Expositor" of Oct., 1887.) 7: Dr. Charles Brown was ordained minister of Anderston Church, Glasgow, in 1831; was translated to New North Church, Edinburgh, in 1837; at the Disruption his whole congregation adhered along with him to the Free Church of Scotland. He died 3rd July, 1884, aged 78 years. He was an eminent leader in all the great movements which agitated the church in his time, and he excelled as a preacher and a pastor. During the seven years he was laid aside from work, he continued by letters to comfort the bereaved among his flock: and to the last he kept a list of the members of his congregation that he might remember them in prayer. (Minutes of Assembly.) 7: Mr. Thorburn finally became minister of the Free High Church congregation at Inverness, where he died in 1853 of typhus fever caught by visiting patients in the Infirmary of that town. He was one of the most devoted and beloved of pastors - a true servant and follower of the Lord Jesus. The present handsome church edifice at Inverness was erected during his incumbency. CHAPTER XVIII. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1820. 1820 I MUST now advert to the state of opinion in the Church of Scotland during the years 1820-21. Perhaps at no former period of its history did the two opposing church parties pit themselves with greater energy or more uncompromising hostility against each other. These were the “Moderates and the “Evangelicals.” The contest between them appeared to be equally well sustained, particularly on the battlefield of the General Assembly, where each side was led on by men of influence and ability. Dr. John Inglis of Edinburgh was at the head of the Moderate party. His known principles led him to adopt a carnal, worldly policy, and his mind, stern and unbending, was altogether free from what he regarded as the mere trammels of pietism or fanatical precision. Every minister of a parish who looked to stipend, manse and globe more than he looked to Christ, ranged himself at once under the guidance of Dr. Inglis. He was the pole-star of ministerial duty! he was the oracle of the Church of Scotland! But Dr. Inglis thought for himself, and was quite capable of so doing; in all matters of policy or duty he acted sturdily, and with homespun honesty and straightforwardness, up to his light. He took up his own position with dogged determination. If others followed him good and well, if not, he was somewhat displeased, perhaps not a little rude, may be even ferocious, but still he let them have their way, he could not help them, and would not undertake to furnish them with the understanding which God had evidently denied them. Such was Dr. Inglis, the helmsman of the Moderate party of that day. 1: In his wake followed Dr. Nicol, Principal of the United Colleges of St. Andrews, and the wealthy proprietor of a goodly estate in Morayshire. His intellect, nevertheless, was but third-rate, and in any undertaking he was at his wits' end if some one of more acuteness and resolution than himself, did not go before him to break the ice, and mark out a path or track for him which he could distinctly see and manfully follow. He was always watchful, therefore, to avail himself of such golden opportunities. He was annually elected a member of the Assembly, and his great ambition was to be one of its leaders. His social position and literary qualifications contributed not a little to gratify the wish of his heart, all the more that he had a rare capacity for "wording " himself into a subject when he took it in hand, and out of a scrape when he happened to get into one. Side by side with Dr. Inglis as a leader, although of course in a subordinate capacity, seeing he was a much younger man, was Dr. Duncan Mearns, Professor of Theology in King's College. As a ruler of the church, Dr. Mearns exceeded all his compeers in the characteristic of consistency. His course in all the outgoings and incomings of church policy was even, undeviating and pertinacious, and the older men, in prospect of soon passing from the stage, looked upon him as one of the main props of their party for the coming years. Download 1.26 Mb. Share with your friends:
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