Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/314

262 then proceeded to Banff, Elgin, Torres, Nairn, and Inverness; and having learned that a great fair was soon to be held at Kirkwall, to which people were wont to assemble from every island of the Orkneys, they resolved to comprise this Ultima Thule of the modern as well as the ancient world this remote nook, which even steam lias as yet failed wholly to conquer within the sphere of their operations. And miserable indeed was the spiritual state of the Orkneys at this time, where the ministers were so far removed beyond the ken of the General Assembly, that they might live as they listed; while the difficulties of navigation in the performance of their duties were so numerous, that they might leave as much undone as they pleased. Here, then, was the field for a devoted Christian, earnest in his sacred work, and fearless of wind and weather; and from Kirkwall, as his head-quarters, the bold sailor was ready to scud before the wind in an open boat, to preach the gospel at whatever island might most require his services. In some of these desolate places there had been no religious ordinances for several years; while in Kirkwall, where he and his fellow-traveller preached daily during the fair, they had congregations by the thousand. It was the old Scottish spirit of the days of Knox and the Covenant revived among a people who had long and most unjustly been neglected. After having thus visited the twenty-nine inhabited islands of Orkne}', and sometimes preached three times a-day in their several places of labour, the tourists, in their return, crossed over to Caithness, and began to preach in its principal town of Thurso On this occasion Mr. Haldane laboured alone, his companion having been disabled by an accident during six weeks of their stay in Caithness, and there his usual auditory numbered from 800 to 3000 persons. The next scene of his labours was the town of Wick, and here his auditories were equally large, and his labours as abundant. A note from his journal of proceedings in this place is applicable to many others which he visited in the course of his tour, and shows the necessity that was laid upon him to labour as he did. It is as follows:—

"Lord's-day, October 1.—Preached in the morning to about 2500 people. Heard the minister, in the forenoon, preach from Matt. xxii. 5: 'And they made light of it.' He represented that men, in becoming Christians, first began to work out their own salvation, and that when God wrought in them, &c. He spoke much of the criminality of such as found fault with ministers, 'who were,' he said, 'the successors of the apostles the ambassadors appointed to carry on the treaty of peace between God and man!' In the afternoon preached to about 4000 people, and took notice of what appeared contrary to the gospel in the minister's sermon, himself being present."

On the 11th of October, 1797, Mr. James Haldane left Wick, the very day on which his uncle, Admiral Duncan, gained the celebrated naval victory off Camperdown, and the firing of the guns was heard upon the coast of Caithness, while the nephew of the conqueror was preaching his farewell discourse in the market town. On his return from this evangelistic tour, Mr. Haldane preached at the different towns of his long route until he reached Airthrey, on the 7th November, having been employed nearly four months in this important mission, and undergone an amount of labour which only an iron constitution, animated by the highest sense of duty, could have endured. Although he preached almost daily two, and sometimes three times, he was no mere rhapsodist or declaimer, but a studious, painstaking preacher, anxious to instruct as well as persuade, and careful that the style of his message should correspond with its dignity and importance. " I and several other ministers," thus writes the Rev.