Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/90

 therefore uncle to King Robert. The reader may perhaps remember the pioud saying of the last Lady of Clackmannan, who, on being complimented by Robert Burns as belonging to the family of the Scottish hero, informed the poet, that King Robert belonged to her family: it will be seen from our present statement that the old lady made a slight mistake.

While the eldest son of Sir Alexander Bruce was designed to inherit the property of Airth, a comparatively small appanage, consisting of the lands of Kinnaird, was appropriated to Robert; but to eke out his provision for life, he was devoted, like many other cadets of Scottish families, to the profession of the law. With a view to qualify him for the bar, he was sent to Paris, where he studied the principles of Roman jurisprudence under the most approved masters. Afterwards returning to his native country, he completed his studies at Edinburgh, and began to conduct his father's business before the Court of Session. That court was then, like the other parts of government, corrupt and disordered; the judges were court partizans; and justice was too often dispensed upon the principles of an auction. Young Bruce, whose mind was already tinctured with an ardent sentiment of religion, shrunk appalled from a course of life which involved such moral enormities, and, without regarding the prospect of speedily becoming a judge, which his father, according to the iniquitous practice of the time, had secured for him by patent! he determined on devoting himself to the church, which, it must be confessed, at that time opened up fully as inviting prospects to an ambitious mind as the bar. His parents, to whom the moral status of a clergyman in those days was as nothing compared with the nominal rank of a judge, combated this resolution by all the means in their power, not excepting the threatened withdrawal of his inheritance. But Bruce, who is said to have felt what he considered a spiritual call towards his new profession, resigned his pretensions to the estate without a sigh, and, throwing off the embroidered scarlet dress which he had worn as a courtier, exchanged his residence at Edinburgh for the academical solitude of St Andrews, where he commenced the study of theology.

At this period, Andrew Melville, the divinity professor of St Andrews, was undergoing banishment on account of his opposition to the court; but being permitted to resume his duties in 158G, Bruce enjoyed the advantage of his prelections for the ensuing winter, and appears to have become deeply imbued with his peculiar spirit. In the summer of 1587, he was brought to Edinburgh by Melville, and recommended to the General Assembly, as a fit successor to the deceased Mr Lawson, who, in his turn, had been the successor of Knox. This charge, however, Bruce scrupled to undertake) lest he should be found unfit for its important duties; he would only consent to preach till the next synod, by way of trying his abilities. It appears that he filled the pulpit for some months, though not an ordained clergyman; which certainly conveys a strange impression of the rules of the church at that period. He was even persuaded, on an emergency, to undertake the task of dispensing the communion—which must be acknowledged as a still more remarkable breach of ecclesiastical system. He was soon after called by the unanimous voice of the people to become their pastor; but partly, perhaps, from a conscientious aversion to ordination, and partly from a respect to his former exertions, he would never submit to any ceremonial, such as is considered necessary by all Christian churches in giving commission to a new member. He judged the call of the people and the approbation of the ministry to be sufficient warrant for his undertaking this sacred profession.

So rapidly did the reputation of Bruce advance among his brethren, that, in six months after this period, at an extraordinary meeting of the General Assem-