Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/316

264 tion of his time every year to the labours of itinerancy, to which he conceived himself, in the providence of God, to be especially called." He thus became the first minister of the first church formed among the new Congregationalist churches of Scotland which, however needed at the time of their appointment, are now passing, and will soon pass away. A firmer Presbyterianism than before seems the inevitable result of every Scottish religious revival.

According to the promise made at his ordination, Mr. J. Haldane devoted a large portion of every summer to an extensive missionary tour. This continued till 1805, when the increase of his congregation in Edinburgh, as well as the renewed spirit of the public mind over the country, made such arduous exertions the less imperative. He still continued afterwards, however, to make short trips to those portions of the Highlands, and the north and west of Scotland, that were as yet the least accessible to the change ; and wherever he came, his stirring eloquence was calculated to rouse the attention and win the hearts of those who listened. Few, indeed, were so well qualified to redeem the office of an itinerant preacher from the obloquy and contempt into which it had fallen; for, independently of his stalwart figure, and bold, dignified, gentlemanly bearing, that commanded the respect of every class, his station in society gave him weight among a people where the old feudal feelings were still a part of the national characteristics. What but love for their souls could induce such a one to undergo labours and hardships which even the love of gain could scarcely inspire among the poorest, and from which the stoutest would have recoiled? And was this worthy descendant of the good old barons of Scotland to be treated like a gaberlunzie preaching for pence, and looking to his hat or plate more carefully than to his text? "Captain Haldane is to preach" "the son of the Laird of Airthrey is to give a sermon" and the stair-head or hillock upon which the sermon was delivered, instead of lowering, only aggrandized the discourse. But who in Scotland so circumstanced, except himself and his brother, would have submitted to such a trying experiment?

The rest of the life of James Haldane, as an Edinburgh Dissenting minister, although it passed over such a course of years, may be briefly summed up. It was an occupation with which, however important in its bearing upon national character and events, the trumpet of fame or the pen of the historian is seldom troubled. When the whole world rings with some heroic and virtuous achievement, by which a Christian nation creates an important epoch, how seldom is it traced to that lowly and silent ministry in which it truly originated!

The first important event that occurred in Mr. Haldane's life as the minister of a settled charge, arose from the divisions in that party of which he was so important a member. While a religious body is small, with the whole world arrayed against it, there is neither time for discord nor motive for division, and in this very feebleness its strength mainly consists. But with its expansion grows security, which promotes dissension, until it falls asunder by its own weight. This dissension had now commenced among the Independent congregations of Scotland, and it was based upon the trying questions of ecclesiastical polity and discipline. It was agreed on all hands that the apostolic model was the only authoritative rule: but what was that model? Here every one had his own theory or interpretation. The frequency with which the Lord's supper should be administered, the mode of conducting their weekly fellowship meetings for social worship, and the amount of pastoral duty that might be conceded to gifted lay members in exhorting the church and conducting the public devo-