Ministry at Abernyte

Early in 1839, about three months after the commencement of his mission work in Edinburgh, Mr. Hamilton received and accepted an invitation to be assistant minister in the parish of Abernyte, in the Presbytery of Dundee. The circumstances connected with this appointment, while strikingly providential on their higher side, are on their lower side quite romantic. The late Mr. Nairne of Dunsinane, a proprietor in the parish of Collaee, a gentleman of high social position and distinguished Christian character, enjoying the rich evangelical ministry of Mr. Andrew Bonar in his own church, benevolently interested himself in the spiritual condition of the neighbouring parish of Abernyte. The incumbent was aged and infirm; the congregation had melted away to a handful; the people were scattered as a flock without a shepherd. Having obtained from the minister and other parties interested a kind of unofficial yet substantially authentic commission to look out for a suitable assistant, Mr, ISTairne betook himself to the metropolis, in prosecution of his delicate and important errand. On the Sabbath he went to worship in St. George’s. Instead of the eminent preacher who then was, and still remains, minister of the congregation, a youth entered the pulpit, slender in form, and somewhat awkward in gait and gesture. By the opening prayer the Christian country gentleman was carried into the holy of holies. As soon as the devotions were closed, and he had regained his sight, — for he was blind with weeping, — he ejaculated, “This is the minister for Abernyte.” No time was lost. Inquiries subsequently made confirmed first impressions, and it was forthwith arranged that Mr. Hamilton should preach at Abernyte, in the first instance by way of feeler, to give Mr. Wilson and his people a specimen of his gifts. The minister, a kind and hospitable old gentleman, with an old-fashioned spencer above his coat, and an old-fashioned wig on his head, received the stranger with hospitality at the manse on his arrival from Edinburgh, and manifested towards him ever after a sincere and increasing affection. Of nervous temperament, and shy towards strangers, Mr. “Wilson, notwithstanding, was not long in getting over the preliminaries, and admitting the new inmate of the manse to a position of familiar friendship. As a result and a proof of his growing confidence, he placed all his manuscripts at the disposal of his assistant, saying, as he pointed to the receptacle which contained his treasures, “My dear, these are my sermons; I give them to you; I have no further use for them; make what use of them you please; they will be of use to you.” I do not know what answer Mr. Hamilton gave to this queer proposal, but in declining the offer he would no doubt take care to let his venerable friend softly down. At this time, and for long after, the minister took it for granted that his assistant would become his successor. His estimate has been preserved in a letter written some months later by one who knew all the parties: — “Yesterday I was at the manse, but did not see Mr. Hamilton, as he was at a funeral. I had a nice chat with good old Mr. Wilson. I never felt such an affection for him before; he could not speak of Mr. Hamilton without emotion; his heart seemed quite overflowing with love and gratitude to him. He spoke of his numberless qualities, the great comfort he had in him, his condescending kindness to himself, and his shining piety and talents. He said a college friend of Mr. Hamilton’s had visited him on Monday, of whom Mr. H. had a high opinion. He conducted family worship, but, says Mr. Wilson, it was not to be compared to Mr. Hamilton’s. During this conversation the tears were dropping from the worthy old man’s eyes.”

He began his ministry in Abernyte about the middle of February. The people of the parish and neighbourhood soon became interested in his preaching. The congregation rapidly increased. On March 13th, writing to his brother, he says, — “I am still new enough to bring out a good congregation. Though the snow was pretty deep, a number of people came up last Sabbath from Inchture. The people are remarkably attentive, but I fear novelty may account for most of it.”

No sooner had he begun his ministry in this place than he fixed his attention on the young with the steadiness and strength of an instinct. A class was invited to assemble in the church on Sabbath afternoon, and the whole parish was canvassed for young persons above the age of fifteen. A fair beginning was immediately made, and the work went on increasing both in breadth and depth. A part of the time was occupied with examination, and part by a familiar lecture. It was, for work Mke this, a virgin field; and the workman possessed rare talents for its cultivation. Good fruit began to appear. Old and young were interested. Already the ardent teacher perceives “some hopeful faces.” His desire for such a sight doubtless went far to produce it. The hearts of his youthful audience were kindled at his fire. He looked to this class “as the thing likely to do most good,” and he did not look in vain.

Some hvely notices appear in the letters of this period regarding the table-talk of the manse, where the old minister and his helper were the only interlocutors. Though very affectionate and fatherly, Mr. Wilson holds fast by his own opinions, and defends them, even when they are of doubtful orthodoxy, with extraordinary pertinacity. At one time he holds a spoonful of porridge in transit between the dish and his mouth for a full half-hour, until he has finished a dispute on the doctrine of reprobation. At another he consumes ten minutes in the process of pouring out a cup of tea for his thirsty helper, because that helper will not concede to him that the moon has nothing to do with the tides.

To his brother he writes, 8th April 1839: — “This is a bright day after many dark ones. Our three cats are very happy in the sun — for we have three cats, — but owing to the vigilance of the gamekeepers the term of feline longevity is greatly abridged in this part of the world, and vacancies are constantly occurring in Mr, Wilson’s rat-poKce establishment, A Monday is a day of idleness with me. I cannot fall soon asleep on a Sabbath night; and though I lie in bed till half -past eight on Monday morning, I am tired till evening. My class now numbers twelve young men and fifteen young women, I have got hold of all the unmarried farm-servants except three, and these I hope to secure in time.

“I will go to Dundee some day after William Burns arrives. He is one of the right spirit; and a little sharpening on such an iron as his, is what I greatly want and long for.”

Already the waste caused by nervous prostration has begun. It need not be denied that when the spirit within is highly sharpened, it is apt to cut deeply into its corporeal sheath. If members of the clerical profession be good subjects for an insurance society, it must be under the provision that they should not be over-earnest in their work. A race like that which James Hamilton now began to run does tend to take the breath away, and shorten the runner’s days. When an eager spirit is associated with a fragile frame we need not look for longevity. But what this life may lack in length, it will make up in brightness. If it fly like a shuttle through its appointed course, it will throw off many streaks of heavenly light as it threads its way through the world,

“Ahernyte, April 14, 1839. — Never felt such up-hill work in committing a sermon as yesterday. Bodily languor got the blame, but not earnest enough in praying for assistance in that particular thing. Lay down veryanxious — all the more so as the church would likely be full, the Seceders having no sermon. This morning prayed often and earnestly to be helped, and set above the fear of man, and particularly the love of applause, and I trust was heard and helped, for I felt unusual freedom; remembered all that I had tried to commit, and the part which I had not came almost as good as the MS. Church very full Eph. v. 14.”

“April IQth. — The passage in my preaching hitherto which seems to have produced the greatest impression was a mere description on John xiii. 1. Several have spoken of it; and I remember seeing a grown man shedding tears abundantly — the first time I made a man cry. But the truly practical and most touching part of all — the love of Christ, on which I extemporized at the close with some warmth, produced no perceptible effect. Natural feeling and spiritual-mindedness are not identical.”

••Abernyte, April ISth, 18.39.

“My dear William, — Few things have dehghted me more than the envelope of your Edinhurgh Advertiser. I have nothing more to wish for you on the score of prizes, unless it be Dr. Welsh’s and Dr. Duncan’s. This should give you confidence in yourself. You have only to go on, and with God’s blessing you will become the minister that you wish to be. This winter will do you far more good than if it had been spent on mere mathematics. They do not give any hints for reaching men’s hearts, and a minister has more to do with hearts than heads. I see that a sentence or two spoken in the fulness of one’s feeling, even though it should be extempore, is far more eagerly listened to than a fine sentiment, or even a good illustration. My evening lectures, of which not the twentieth part is written, are as interesting to the hearers as the sermons which are committed nearly word for word. Perhaps they are a little plainer, but the chief reason is because in them I ‘ettle’ more directly at the heart; and oh, this work of preaching is chosen employment! As I sometimes feel now-a-days, I could let everything else go for the sake of it. Your prizes may get you speedily into a church, and once you are there I hope there will be but one wish left, and that wish fulfilling every day in the case of some of your hearers. Yes, there is but one thing worth living for; and since God has been pleased to give you and me the opportunity and means of living for it, I hope we will be able to show that we are sincerely His. What I mean is this, that we who have” ‘a little of our own’ will show no self-seeking in looking out for a rich or comfortable living. There are some comforts which I must have, and so must you, for we could not live without them; but with humble notions, and with a judicious wife, or without one altogether, I believe that the poorest charge in the Kirk might keep you or me. And if such a one cast up we should not refuse it because it is poor. It may be too large, or have some other fault, but poverty should rather weigh in its favour with you and me. Indeed, at this day when so many churches are unendowed, and some getting up that will not be able to pay even the £80 bond, is it not the duty of such as can to serve these churches (or rather to serve the Head of the Church in them) not for filthy lucre’s sake? So completely do I feel this, that if an unendowed church were offered me now — one of which I could discharge the duties with any sufficiency — I could not refuse it. In the meantime I have been kindly sent to a place not beyond my strength, and where I may perhaps acquire strength for a larger. And what I would like is, that ray dear brother, to whom God has given gifts which may one day be coveted, should bestow them on the place which most needs them, not that which can pay best for them.

“I am glad that you are so carried by Dr. Duff. It is good to get such a shove now and then as will tell for some time to come....

“When I saw how well my father is remembered in Dundee, where he spent only twenty months, I almost grudge that he was not a town minister all along.”

“April 1 th. — Pain in shoulder. Eheumatism or liver complaint? What if something lay me aside when only ’ thinking about beginning to begin.’ Writing a sermon all day for India Mission collection, and from the subject grudged all the while that so little of the Gospel, so little of what sinners need to hear, could be brought in. Hope to make up in afternoon lecture somewhat.

“April 2lst. — Church full both forenoon and evening, but examined so long that no lecture. Thirty-four have now joined the class. An extempore passage, telling the state of matters here in Druidical times, seemed very interesting to young people. Therefore must always have a bit for children expressly,

“April 2Zd. — A very agreeable compliment from a cottar’s wife, that no one ever ’ made the thing so plain to her!’ Another wished she was young again, for the sake of joining the class, etc.”

“Edinburgh, May 18, 1839.

“My dear Uncle, — ... I am here on a visit of a few days. It is the Assembly week. Such an Assembly never met since 1638. The independence of our Church must now be asserted, or she must lay in the dust the honour of 300 years. There are ministers in Scotland yet who would sooner follow their forefathers to the Bass or the Castle Hill than prove unfaithful to our Church’s only Head, The Church of Scotland is the only Establishment which neither owns a secular jurisdiction in her things spiritual, nor claims a jurisdiction for herself in things temporal. I am thankful that I belong to such a Church.”

At this time he steadily declined to put himself in the way of being chosen as minister in any vacant church. A very strenuous effort was made to induce him to accept a new charge at Greenock; but after much earnest consideration, and with great difficulty, he resolved to remain. The decision of such a question becomes a very important matter with such a man. His journal under that date is charged with long parallel columns, headed “For Greenock,” and “For Abernyte,” “Against Greenock.” and “Against Abernyte.” These columns were weighed and weighed again. Prayer and pains were employed successively and simultaneously in order to reach a sound judgment. In the scale against Greenock occur such items as these, “too nervous; too weak: cannot commit two sermons: cannot visit 3000 people: plenty of good ministers there already: break down and do no more good.” One of the entries on the side of Abernyte is — “Improve health.” The reasons for remaining in the country on the ground of health had more force than he was inclined to ascribe to them. Even at that early period the extreme willingness of the spirit concealed in part from himseK the weakness of the flesh. The conclusion of the whole was: — “Very harrowing parting interview with Messrs. Fairie and Gray; nearly five hours together. Decided not to go. Sought direction, but would have liked more clearness.” And soon after he writes, — “I cannot at this conjuncture leave Abernyte; and if it was a dreadful thing to part with these good men after giving the final No, I have had it all made up in the comfort of my own mind in thinking that it was best for them and for me, and I hope for Abernyte.”

I have long observed with much regret a disposition, pretty generally prevaihng, in the public to treat the expressed difiiculties of Christian ministers in similar straits as so many hollow conventionahties, and to assume, with some measure of grossness, that beneath the surface the decision uniformly leant to the side which offered the larger stipend. I am willing, of course, to confess that there are mercenaries in every profession, and wherever these are detected I give them up to the will of their enemies; but I am convinced that the imputation, in the general form which it ordinarily assumes, is a mistake, and consequently a calumny. One swallow does not make a summer; and I am aware that to exhibit a single example of magnanimous self-sacrifice and godly simplicity in the character of James Hamilton does not prove my case: but his case is not singular. For the sake of those who heedlessly give currency to the charge, rather than for the sake of those who are its objects, I put in my protest, for it is a lighter calamity to be the object than the author of an untrue imputation.

He threw himself into the pastoral work with all his might. He loved his work, and formed a strong attachment to the people. In visiting the sick he strives, with an extraordinary union of faithfulness and tenderness, to remove every species of self-righteous trust, and lead the sufferer in simplicity to the Saviour. Partly in his own journal, and partly in the testimony of surviving residents, I find many evidences of success. He watched every symptom, and turned every circumstance to account. “Four or five of my young people are in the way of meeting in the evening for the purpose of studying the Bible together, on a plan which I explained to them. The bond of union is a bible with marginal references, of which one of them is the fortunate possessor, and the meetings are held in rotation in their several houses.” Already his love of nature, and his steadfast belief that the works of God might be usefully employed in illustrating His word, had begun to operate and to tinge his ministry. He certainly did not work his way” from Nature up to Nature’s

God” in the free and easy manner of those who, never halnng taken a deep view of sin, have never appreciated the need of a divine Redeemer; but having learned to know God through Christ, he was accustomed to meet and commune with them everywhere. The God whom this student met in the wayside flowers was the same loving Father to whom he had been reconciled through the blood of the cross. Thus he found a gospel everywhere in the world; and thus he was sometimes, even to the last, misunderstood by good people, who had not passed through his experience, and could not sympathize with his enthusiasm. “When in his preaching he expatiated with delight on vegetable life, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall, he did not turn aside to another gospel, but drew the same old gospel of grace through a greater variety of texts than lay within the range of other men. “I do not wish to preach in Edinburgh,” he writes to his brother on the 10th May; “I want to get time for some little affairs, such as consulting books on the botany of Palestine. I still have a hankering that I would like to deliver a few lectures to my people on the natural history of the Bible. Henceforth I would consecrate all that I may anyhow have learned to the making the Bible interesting. This is a delightful place, as you shall see when you come. The lambs are very happy, and the gean trees in very fine flower.’”

Acting on the noble resolution announced above, to consecrate all the information he possessed to the elucidation of the Scriptures, he was not very scrupulous in preserving conventional forms. Indeed an enthusiast.

with his soul towering to a considerable height above the commonplaces of a neighbourhood, and bent with all his might on one great aim, is apt to go straight to his point, walking over a good many venerable prejudices that happen to stand in his way. Forgetting altogether the methods by which the dignity of the pulpit had been maintained, and the slumbers of the congregation left undisturbed from time immemorial, James Hamilton was wont to bring the flowers he had gathered by the way bodily into the desk where he presided in the weekly prayer-meeting, and exhibit their characters to his rural audience, in explanation of biblical facts and allusions. Visiting on one occasion at the house of a neighbouring proprietor, he espied a fig-tree in the garden, and begged a branch. Having borne his treasure home in triumph on his shoulder, and prepared his discourse for the evening meeting, he took it with him to the church. In due time, when the prelection had advanced to the proper point, the fig branch was displayed from the desk, and bore its part in the demonstration. At that time a great spiritual awakening was spreading in the neighbouring town of Dundee. A plain woman, whose spirit had been stirred in that movement, was present in the prayer-meeting at Abernyte, thirsting mightily for the word, and longing to draw water from the wells of salvation. Amazed at the strange phenomenon of a young minister partly preaching a gospel which her quickened heart recognised as the truth, and partly flourishing over the side of the pulpit the branch of a tree covered with huge green leaves, accompanied by discourse not perfectly comprehensible,

Janet succeeded in restraining her spirit and holding her peace until the meeting closed; but as soon as the last utterances of prayer were over, she made her way up to the minister and exclaimed, “Oh, Maister Hamilton, hoo do you gie them fig leaves when they are hungerin’ for the bread o’ life?” Those warm-hearted, unlettered Christians comprehended their minister in part, and in as far as they comprehended they revered and loved him; but some sides of this man they did not understand, and before these they stood amazed and bewildered. His heart was as deep in the revival as their own. He was the beloved friend and coadjutor of Burns and M’Cheyne in its commencement, and through its course; but his poetic temperament, and enthusiasm for nature, gave a tinge to his preaching, which now and then became a stumbling-block in the way of the more prosaic sort of Christians, not only in Abernyte, at the beginning of his ministry, but even in London, down to its close.

But while the peculiarity of his character and experience affords a sufficient explanation as far as regards his own appreciation of the Gospel throughout his ministry, it ought to be confessed that there was, and continued to be, some measure of ground for the objection urged by the simple woman at Abernyte. By obtaining access to his inner life, and marking his habitual eagerness to win sinners unto Christ, we can well’ understand that he tasted for himself of the grace of God in every discourse; but it remains true that in some discourses the gi’ace of God in the Gospel was not, in the judgment of intelligent hearers, articulated with sufficient fulness. I find that some of those who loved him, and leant on his ministry for spiritual edification, confessed and lamented that occasionally a sermon opened and closed, steeped indeed throughout in the spirit of the Gospel, but without such a positive declaration as would enable a listener, on that occasion, to learn the way of life.

“July 5 th. — Preached yesterday evening at Blairgowrie. Delightful friend Mr. Macdonald. Suggestion about written questions for self-examination to young communicants.

“I am too sensitive. Find the image of myself more in Mrs. Huntington than any one of whom I have read. All her susceptibility to friendship, and that sensitive dread of hurting friends, and nervous fear of cooling them. To-day have been in utter misery, and am only getting over it, because neglected to thank Mrs. Kinnear for the use of her gig, and because, in coming out of Miss Eliza’s room, I complained of being fatigued, and Mrs. K. seemed concerned that I should have gone to see her in that state. Fear that my visit was of little service to Miss E. and J., and this aggravates my distress. Lord, send her a better teacher, and grant that she may be one of those sheep who shall never be plucked out of Christ’s hand.”

TO REV. J. WILLIS.
“Abernyi’e, by Inchture, 27</t Aug. 1839.

“My dear Sir, — ... You will have heard of the movement in St. Peter’s, Dundee. I hope that much real good is going on. I have addressed Burns’ congregation twice, on a week evening, and never met a more attentive or more impressed audience. He has had a meeting every night since Thursday fortnight, and so eager are the people to hear the Word, that every night he has an overflowing congregation. On the first three evenings there was much excitement among the people, and many (as at Kilsyth) cried out under the force of strong convictions. These expressions of feeling, and the lateness of the first meetings, have supplied a handle to gainsayers; hut the work makes progress in spite of them, and from what I have seen and heard from Mr. Burns, I have no doubt that there is a remarkable pouring out of the Spirit of God upon many. I have seldom seen any preacher who so vividly realized things unseen, and who had so strong faith in the imparted strength of his heavenly Master as Burns himself. I would say that he is more distinguished (primd facie) by zeal for the glory of Christ than, as I have noticed that many are, by mere concern for perishing sinners. This gives a lofty bearing and an apostolical character to his ministrations, and keeps him from many sources of vexation to which others not so actuated are liable. I do not say that he wants the other motives to ministerial fidelity, but I do say that every other is with him subordinated to that noblest of all, the exalting of Christ in the salvation of souls. He speaks, too, with such warmth and solemnity, such empressement, that his hearers cannot for a moment forget his earnestness and sincerity. I find three difficulties which ordinarily oppose the success of the Gospel message: It is very difficult to secure the attention of the hearers, still more difficult to make them discover that you are sincere in what you say (that you will not be put 0/ ), and most difficult of all to convince them that God is sincere in what He says. After the example of M’Cheyne and Andrew Bonar, we have set agoing here a weekly prayer meeting. I hope that good will come of it. It has had the effect of letting me see that there are more seriously disposed people in the country-side than I would have thought, but most of them come from without the parish. Indeed the parish is so small that of itself it could not haK fill the church. There is nothing that has been so intimately forced home on my conviction of late as the powerlessness of all means till vitahzed by the Spirit’s energy. And I have been imploring the praying people here to cry mightily to God for the descent of the Church’s Comforter.”

“Abeenyte, Sept. 9, 1839.

“Dear Mrs. Vetch, — This is a Monday, a day when I am often wearied, but perhaps the more on that account the day which most reminds me of my friends. It is the day that I have most leisure for thinking of them, and, if I were not very lazy or very tired, for writing to them. I must not let another Monday pass without writing to you, though amongst my unanswered letters I see some as old as March. You know that I have been here for half a year as assistant to the old minister of this parish. Since the end of June I have had the great enjoyment of a visit from my mother and all the rest of them. They have been living here in the manse as Mr. Wilson’s boarders — an arrangement which I daresay mamma feels a little queer, after being all along accustomed to preside over her own establishment; but still it has been good for us all, and particularly for Andrew, who seems quite renovated after his two fevers. They all leave me at the end of this week, unless I can manage to retain Jeanie for a little longer. The greatest external drawback to this place is the want of a house of my own, to which I could bring my friends. It would be pleasant during those winter months which must soon be here, if I had my mother or sister, or some one to enliven the monotony of a manse with no occupant save its ancient minister. In most respects the place is one for which I should be thankful, and am thankful. It is not large beyond my strength, and I think there are appearances of good among some of the people. You are fond of fine scenery: we look down on the rich Carse of Gowrie, the Firth of Tay, and the coast of Fife, — places very interesting to me at this moment, for they bring to my mind an excursion with Mary at this same season last year. There are some pleasant walks, and some sweetly retired spots. To-day I sat a long while at the foot of a cascade which tumbles from the most romantic hill I ever saw, and I could have sat half the day, the sound of the water ’ devalling into a pool profound’ was so soothing; and it was amusement enough to watch the waterfall itself. I had no idea that so gi-eat variety could have been produced by the descent of a not very large stream. Such a waterfall is not the uniform thing people take it to be. There is an endless diversity in the form of the cataract. It seems to come in pulses, — fits of alternate enlarging and lessening. And then there are a multitude of smaller jets well worth

K watching, “What helped to enliven it was the anxiety of sundry trout to jerk themselves up the precipice. Of course the nimblest of them failed, but this did not daunt the rest. One enterprising fellow made such a somerset that he fell back on the mossy rock below, at a considerable distance from the water, but he soon regained his proper element. One thing I noticed in this adventurer was that he did not find his way back to the water by a succession of leaps, as I have seen less practised fishes do, but he wriggled over the slimy rock like a serpent, and made directly for the water. You do not say whether you have found out any good people in your neighbourhood. I know of few things so likely to be useful to us as a friend willing to talk freely and naturally on the ’ great tilings of God.’... There are some people who profess religion who are so cold and stiff and unnatural when they speak about it, but it is delightful to meet with one whose heart is so warmed by the love of Christ that it is more pleasant and natural for him to speak the words of eternal life than to converse on any other subject.... I sometimes find it very delightful to pray for my friends. Besides the far higher end, it has the effect of increasing our affectionate interest in them. When I say that I often pray for you, I hope that you will do the same for me; and the things which I have the most need of are not temporal mercies (for of them I have had more than my share), but a forgetfulness of myself in the service of God, and more concern for the souls of dying men. ... I had a long letter from Mr. Halley lately. He is wearing slowly away to the ‘Happy Land,’ and as full of sprightliness as ever, though he can only walk on crutches.... James Hamilton.”

About this time he became connected with a select society, about twelve in number, bound together in a common covenant to devote themselves with all their might to the advancement of the kingdom — the revival of the Church. Two of the members, Leslie Miller and Hewitson, after fulfilling their course, have entered into rest. Several are now in the high places of the heathen field, and the rest are labouring in the ministry at home. The bonds were intimate and peculiar: the union and its objects were, for prudential reasons, kept strictly private. The primary object was their own advancement in the divine life. After this, and by means of it, they sought the good of Zion, the prosperity of their own Church, and of Christ’s cause in the world. Their means were prayer, each apart, or any two or three who might be near, in company — but whether apart or together, all in concert, — and mutual correspondence. From such roots as these, striking deep unseen, sprang great and beautiful fruits for Scotland and for the world.

Mr. M’Cheyne, Mr. Burns, Mr. A. Bonar, and Mr. E. M’Donald frequently visited Abernyte, and contributed by their addresses at the weekly prayer-meetings to kindle and spread the flame of spiritual zeal that, to a large extent, at that time pervaded the district.

MR. M’CHEYNE TO ME. HAMILTON.

“15th Jan. 1840. Wed.

“My dear Friend, — Will you excuse lack of ceremony, and come down to-morrow and preach to us the unsearchable riches of Christ? We have the Communion on the Sabbath; we have no Fast-day, but only a meeting in the evening at a quarter-past seven. Come, my dear Sir, if you can, and refresh us with your company. Bring the fragrance of the bundle of myrrh along with you, and may grace be poured into your lips. — Yours ever,

“EoBT. Murray M’cheyne.”

This is an interesting morsel. It exhibits almost to the reader’s eye one of the most memorable scenes in the spiritual history of Scotland. It reveals the bond of sacred brotherhood between M’Cheyne and Hamilton at the crisis of a movement which has contributed much to mould the religious character of the age. Although the revival at its spring felt the hand of William Burns more than any other human agency, providential circumstances connected it more with M’Cheyne in its subsequent course. Besides his personal work for a short time as minister of St. Peter’s, Dundee, the early and sudden removal of the workman contributed greatly to spread and deepen the evangelical earnestness that characterized the period. There is a close analogy between the experience of Hedley Yicars and that of Kobert M’Cheyne. Upon both, in diverse spheres, the Spirit of God was poured out in great measure. Both in early youth were raised by Divine grace to measures of attainment in the life of faith seldom attained by the ripest believers, and then suddenly removed from conspicuous positions. The result of this peculiar providential arrangement in regard to both was, that through their earlyremoval they became the means of advancing the Redeemer’s kingdom more than, in all probability, it could have been advanced by lengthened, even though devoted, lives.

Mr. Hamilton was grieved with popular ignorance when it crossed his path, and consumed with a desire to enlighten it. Eager to communicate needful knowledge in the shortest and surest way, he was restive under such restraints as he thought were imposed only by custom, and not sustained by reason. I have heard him lament that it was not competent to a minister, when expounding such a book as the Acts of Apostles, to hang a big map on the wall behind the pulpit, and secure a long pointingrod, as a part of his preaching furniture.

From his youth upward, he loved hymns. To some of the good people of the parish, the hymns were as distasteful as the botany. One elder, surviving still in an honoured old age, held fast by the view which is still maintained by some worthy Christians, both in Scotland and America, that it is wrong to sing anything in public worship but the Psalms of David. Being a good singer, and a willing helper in good works, he had much difficulty in avoiding compromise on this point. One instance is recorded, much to his credit, in which he actually led the congregation in singing one of the Scotch paraphrases that had been given out by a stranger, when there was no other precentor present, and the alternative was presented of singing a hymn or no praise. Long afterwards, an opportunity was afforded to the minister of repaying the worthy elder in kind. The farmer of Abernyte, having occasion to visit London, accepted there the hospitality of Dr. Hamilton. When “the Church in the house” had assembled, and the worship was about to begin as usual with the singing of a hymn, Dr. Hamilton, suddenly remembering the presence and the prejudice of his friend, laid aside the book, saying, “We shall omit the hymn to-night, and sing one of the psalms of David.”

It has been already incidentally mentioned that, by an arrangement with Mr. Wilson, satisfactory to all the parties, his mother, with her two younger sons, took up her summer quarters in the manse of Abernyte. In this way the family obtained their usual vacation in a rural district, and, in addition, a period of delightful union after the natural dispersion had begun. It was a plan that postponed for a little that final upbreaking of the house, which the maturity of the children renders necessary at length. For these three summer months the son enjoyed the privilege of looking up to his mother in the house, and the mother in the public assembly enjoyed and valued the privilege of hearing the word of life from the lips of her son. It was a green spot in the landscape of the family life which threatened now, in the ordinary course of time, to become somewhat sere.

The private records of his ministry at Abernyte are very full, and very precious, but they must for the most part remain private. They were not meant for the public eye, and therefore publication would spoil them. Like some tender plants that have been nursed in the shade, they would lose their beauty and fragrance if exposed to the rays of the noonday sun. To place those self-inspections, and those notes of alternate disappointment and success with individuals and families, under the public gaze, would be to misplace them; and nothing is beautiful out of its place. The extracts that have been submitted consist of portions which, in the Editor’s judgment, might be published without breach of confidence towards either the living or the dead. For the rest, the reader must be content with the testimony of an eye-witness, that the tracks of James Hamilton’s daily life in the parish are those of an ambassador for Christ, beseeching all to be reconciled to God; of a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth; of a seeker for souls who laboured in season, out of season, becoming all things to all men that he might gain some; of a wakeful watcher, who marked every symptom, grieving over failure, and rejoicing over every instance of success; of a servant who so lived and laboured that he might be ready, at whatever time the Master might come, to give in his account with joy.

The fruit, according to the testimony of surviving observers, was abundant. Not a few live to thank God for sending him for a time to the parish; and not a few have departed, rejoicing in the Saviour of whom they learned from his lips.

“ith September 1839. — On two Thursdays preached in St. Peter’s, Dundee, and saw something of the glorious work going forward there. The first time, was lamentably

dull myself, not so the second time. Wonderfully eager congregation both times. Each visit greatly refreshed me. Slept all night with Wm. Burns. ‘Oh, James, I cannot tell you what I have seen and felt upon this bed. I have been obliged to spring to my feet. One time at Glasgow, manifestation of the holiness of God which, if continued, would have separated soul from body.’ *

“Sept. 27. — Three weeks ago got the best news I ever heard. In a letter occasioned by some desponding remarks of mine as to prospects in this place, Mrs. K. says that she must regard me as the instrument of her soul’s salvation, and that, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, her Bible has been quite another book.”

“Abernyte, Dec. 4, 1830. “My dear Uncle, — In your letter you speak as if all attempts to arrest the relapse of the Church into Popery utterly failed, and it is very likely that they will continue to fail till it becomes high time for God to work. There is one thing of which I am very sure, that mere controversy, argument, however able, will neither keep out nor expel Popery. But the energetic preaching of the Gospel wilL It was by exalting Christ that Luther reformed the Church of Rome, and Whitfield reformed the Church of England. And the same has been seen in Scotland at present. Mere attacks on intemperance and infidelity produced no impression on the drunkards and Chartists of Kilsyth and Dundee; but the preaching of the Gospel made new men of them. Since I wrote to you I have been once at Kilsyth, and often in Dundee, and I must say that I have nowhere felt the reality of religion more irresistibly; nor did I know till then the efficacy of the prayer of faith, that prayer which asks blessings of God, ’ believing that it shall have them, The converts in these places are Christians of a superior style to the professors who have long filled the Church. Religion is all in all with them, and sits so naturally upon them, that even worldly men can hardly call them either hypocrites or enthusiasts. They have exemplified nobly the rare virtue of making sacrifices for the sake of Christ, and the consequence of having identified themselves so completely with him is that they are joyful and assured believers. They hnoio whom they have believed.”

Thus early in London Mr. Thomas Hamilton, himself conforming with Episcopacy, saw and lamented the tendency of High Churchmen and High Church principles to Romish superstition and to Rome. He, like many others, remains in that Church to this day, obtaining in it sufficient communion with kindred spirits for his own need, and sufficient sustenance for his own soul, but helpless to arrest the progress of corruption in the huge ecclesiastical body. The answer of his nephew, sent forth from the heart of the great revival, contains truth on the point, but not the whole truth. Without the pure and effective preaching of the Gospel there is no deliverance for any church in any period; but besides the cherishing and proclamation of the Gospel by individual ministers, the event has proved that a reform of the Prelatic and Erastian system which prevails in England is an absolute necessity. Modern emissaries of Rome have tried, with too much success, to creep back into the framework of the English hierarchy, from which their ancestors were ejected by Henry viil.

‘’Jan. 30, 1840.

“How do you get on with Mr. M’Intosh? You are getting an old fellow, Andrew, but I hope you will be learned before you are the venerable. You are not very strong, but I believe you would be stronger if you read more Latin. Brisk study and gentle play keep up the spirits, and are good for a constitution not naturally robust. To dream over a book is a bad habit for the mind, and I believe bad for the body too. It brings on listlessness and languor, and a sluggish motion of the animal spirits, and these again bring on headache and other ailments. Last Sabbath I was preaching on the fourth commandment, and I said it was a commandment which some people reserved for the Sabbath-day, but I thoiTght it was meant for every day. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, — labour and not play. And I do not think people enjoy the Sabbath rightly unless they have been doing useful work through the week. Nor can people enjoy the week, on the other hand, who have not kept the Sabbath. We should be keeping the fourth commandment every day of the week.”

He has a father’s place to fill, and right well he fills it, distributing to each his portion in due season.

“2bth March 1840. — This morning, on awakening in Perth, had been dreaming that I saw a man up among the mountains (of Strathblane, I think), plying a great hammer with amazing speed and perseverance on some refractory substance. Pained looking at him hour after hour; was told that this was the heart of a sinner. He did not weary repeating his energetic blows, though I fancied that he had been at work so long that I was obliged to go home to dine. Still through the window I saw, far up among the mountains, the gleam of his indefatigable hammer as it tilted up and down in the sunbeams, and heard its strokes ringing on the echoes, when I awoke to hear the city bells pealing six o’clock (Strathblane, Abernyte). It was impressed on my mind, in awaking, that the mass was to yield to some means. * My Spirit, saith the Lord.’”

“Strathblane Manse, June 1, 1840.

“My dear Uncle, — It is long since I dated a letter to you from this place. Yesterday I preached for the first time in the church of Strathblane. My coming was known beforehand, and the church was very full. Mr. Buchanan was present, but did not hinder me from speaking freely out. One of my texts was, ‘Awake, thou that sleepest,’ and the other, ‘The Spirit and the Bride say come.’ The people were very attentive, but I could not help feeling that they were a more unmovable audience than my own at Abernyte. A few seemed to feel, but the greater part only listened. Mr. Buchanan is very kind to William and me, and has some estimable qualities.”

“HuNTLY, June 16, 1840.

“My dear William, — The war must be carried on at all points. Like you, we have got Sabbath-schools, and, like you, I mean to enlighten the children on Bible botany. This letter is an order for the requisite ammunition, and, though it implies a vast deal of trouble, your ecclesiastical zeal will come to the help of your patience, and your brotherly love to the help of both. Send me, therefore, the following articles: — Three volumes Library of Entertaining Knowledge, — Forest Trees, Fruits, Vegetable Stibstances, — Harris’s Natural History of the Bible, Paxton’s Illustrations, the botanical volume (these two from Divinity-Library), and, failing these, any good book on the subject. Edinburgh University Annual, if you can get it from any one, for my essay. Item, from Jane the brown parcel of fruits which I gave her, the cone from Lebanon, and the twig of sycamore. Among the papers in my herbarium next the window is a twig of olive, and a piece of red everlasting from Tabor. I think they are wrapped up in a piece of paper. They are in the division next the window. Item, roll up the palm leaf into a coil, which, I think, may be done without breaking him. Buy a pomegranate, by all means, if it can be got, a few almonds and walni ts, both in the shell. In some apothecary’s or perfumer ,1; you may be able to get me a bit of frankincense, and it would be a great affair if you could get a few olives well preserved in a phial. They may be had in confectioners’. Also, some dates from a fruiterer. When all these are packed send them per Saturday’s steamer. Address them, not to me, but Thomas Christie, Esq., merchant, Huntly, and they will come speedily, — Ever yours affectionately, James Hamilton.”

STllATHBOGIE. 157

TO HIS COUSIN. ’

‘•HuNTLY, June 17, 1840. “My DEiUi James, — You would have heard from me ere now had I not been suddenly ordered off from Edinburgh to take part in ’ the Eeel of Bogie.’^ I crossed that famous river on Saturday, and am likely to remain here for some weeks to come; and though the work be very hard, from the people’s anxiety to hear, I find that very anxiety of theii’S animates and strengthens me. You would be delighted to see our crowded congregation of eager listeners, never one sleeping. Tears, and looks pale with anxiety, are no unusual thing in these congregations. The Word comes with power. Visiting is very useful, for when they see a minister go into a house a few neighbours are sure to drop in, so that we have soon a little conventicle.”

“HuNTLY, Aberdeenshire, Jmie 24, 1840.

“My dear Uncle, — Your letter did not find me, as you expected, quietly settled at Abernyte. It has followed me to the banks of the Bogie. I have been carrying on the war in this debateable ground for a fortnight past, and will remain here another week. I do not grudge my visit to this place. The people value the Gospel. It seems almost as new to them as when Whitfield first carried it to the colliers of Kingswood. The crowding to church on Sabbath is a fine sight. A good many are staunch to the suspended minister, but in this town we have the large

* A noted caricature of the period, which represented some of the most eminent and venerable ministers of the Church in the act of dancing the reel of Bogie. This and similar pleasantries, while they showed how much the whole country was agitated by the conflict, did not turn the evangelical party one hair’s-breadth from their course.

majority. Many of the people have awakened to a new life, and many more are aroused, if they be not allowed to fall asleep again. You must not be startled above measure if you soon get a letter dated from the Calton JaiL A new interdict is to be taken out on I’riday, and it is said the seven intend to enforce it. We, of course, intend to disregard it. It would be dreadful to leave these parishes destitute at a time like this, when they would come out to a sermon every night of the week if they could get it.... You must wait for my preferment as patiently as I am waiting myself. It gives me no anxiety. The manse garden and other pleasant things of the temporalities look now like dreams of the past. Preferment to reproaches and sufferings seems now in store for the honest party in the Church. But I do not wish to make you dull by dwelling on that theme. It does not make me dull, for I have looked at it so long that I can now look beyond it. I often think of what you said in a recent letter about first principles. It is a pleasant thing to feel one’s standing secure on such. Believe me ever, my dear Uncle, your affectionate nephew,

“James Hamilton.”

Mr. Hamilton’s visit to Huntly was connected with one of the great turning-points in the “Ten Years’ Conflict,” which issued in the Disruption of the Scottish Church. The General Assembly, in carrying out the principle that no minister should be intruded into a parish contrary to the will of the congregation, had found it necessary to suspend seven ministers of the Presbytery of Strathbogie for taking their orders in that matter from secular courts, and disobeying their ecclesiastical superiors. Having suspended the ordinary ministry in the district, the Church found it necessary to supply the people with the administration of ordinances. Ministers from the south were accordingly despatched in relays to the place. The suspended officials demanded, and obtained from the Court of Session an interdict prohibiting the ministers sent by the Assembly from officiating in the parishes. The Assembly, and their delegates, acknowledged the competency of the Court, and obeyed the interdict, in as far as it prohibited them from making use of the parish churches, schools, and church-yards; but in as far as it absolutely interdicted them from preaching the Gospel within the limits of the territory, they counted it incompetent, and set it at defiance. In fields, when the weather was favourable, and in barns granted by friendly farmers, or proprietors, when it was bad, they preached and administered the sacraments. Then there was exhibited the strange spectacle of officers watching the arrival of the mail coach on Saturday afternoon, and serving a copy of the interdict on such passengers as were deemed, from their dress, to be ministers from the south. For many months, the delegates of the Assembly exercised their functions in open breach of the law, as then declared by the Judges. This they did with entire impunity. The principles of toleration, and the power of public opinion, were too strong for the Court. The interdict, though pronounced and served, was never enforced. The results were additional strength imparted to the foundations of civil and religious liberty in the land, and a great advancement of evangelical religion in the district.

“HuNTLY, June 23, 1840.

“]My dear Jane, — My sojourn here for the present will likely terminate next week. Eight glad would I have been to prolong it. Short and memorable, like all pleasant things: I will not take a final leave, but keep a door open for a future visit. They are far too interesting a people to quit for good and all. This evening I had a catechizing in the church.^...

“Besides a large audience, sixty grown-up people presented themselves for examination from the district which I had specified....

“Some of the people ask if I would not just stop still till the new church be bigged. And, indeed, as George of Langrig says, * A body might happen on a waur bit.’ The church attendance is delightful The place was packed on Sabbath night. The people are very free in telling through the week what passages went to their heart, or hit their case. They are just in such a case that if they fall into heartless hands it will be enough to break my heart. I hope some of them are past danger. Others have not got that length but that they may relapse into carelessness if they be not plied with awakening truth....

“Never enjoyed better health, and never so busy. Have lost the feeling of nervousness on Sabbath mornings; eat like a hawk, or rather like four hawks, for they take only one meal in the day and I take four; and, except last Sabbath, never perspired any.”

1 A nonconformist place of worship lent for the occasion.

“Abernyte, Oct. 6, 1840.

“My dear Uncle, — That awakening which we enjoyed in this district last year seems to have passed away to the north. It has left many peaceful fruits behind it. But it is not a good state when the Lord is not adding daily to the Church such as shall be saved. There are few instances of recent conviction now, except it be in Mr. M’Cheyne’s church in Dundee. But both in Dundee and Perth, and the parishes around, there is a great increase of vital Christianity since this time twelvemonth.

“I have been reading almost exclusively the works of our Scottish worthies, — Brown of Wamphray, William Guthrie, and Binning, The eloquence of this last is wonderful He keeps you floating in a balmy, lightsome atmosphere, where you constantly catch the fragrance of the bundle of myrrh, and in God’s purest light see all things clearly. Invisibles were realities with these old worthies. — Your ever affectionate nephew,

“James Hamilton.”

During the summer of 1840 an effort was made, with the zealous concurrence of the aged minister, to obtain from Government a presentation in Mr. Hamilton’s favour, so that he might be immediately ordained as colleague and successor. This measure, if it had been carried into effect, would have increased his efficiency for the present, and secured his succession in any event. The effort, however, was destined to end in disappointment. Various unexpected difficulties sprung up to hinder the attainment of the object. The movements produced some local commotion at the time, but they do not possess such permanent interest as to render them worthy of being recalled and recorded. For our own part we are not disposed, at this date, to scrutinize very closely any small jealousies that may have sprung up in any quarter to impede the progress of the negotiations. We own a somewhat kindly feeling towards the obstructors, as the instruments used by Providence in lifting an effective well-oiled light from a hollow with the circumscribed dimensions of a bushel, where it was in danger of settling down, and setting it on a candlestick, whence its beams might radiate through all the house. There are a good many people living now in the world who would be by no means disposed to quarrel with either the men or the things that prevented James Hamilton from being ordained minister of Abernyte, and so paved the way for his settlement in London.

A series of letters to the members of his own family will convey all the information regarding the circumstances that is profitable or necessary: —

“Abernyte, Oct. 23, 1840.

“My dear William, — .. The heart is deceitful above all things, but in coming and remaining here I hope I have not sought my own things. I would desire to say this with humility and thankfulness, for if my motive was pure, it was not I myseK who made it pure. I have had selfish feelings often, have sometimes felt my natural indolence gratified with the lighter duties of the charge, and at other times have felt my natural ambition aspiring to something which would give me a wider field and greater stimulus, and at other times have shrunk from the prospect o£ protracting years in a limited enjoyment of all your society, and amidst a multitude of petty restraints. And when I have prevailed on myself to hold on, it was often affection and gratitude to those friends who are now so dear which weighed most powerfully with me. But amidst all my conflicting and secondary motives I have a trembling hope that it was the grace of God which eventually prevailed over my carnality, and that He did enable me to seek His honour in remaining here. He has helped me, or I would have wearied long ago. He has shown me things worth waiting for, and sent me more help and sympathy than I ever looked for, and has admitted me to intimacy with some who live as near Himself as any people that I ever saw. I wish I may now be made submissive to go or stay as He directs. ‘He that believeth shall not make haste.’ Here or anywhere, your most affectionate brother, James Hamilton.”

“Abernyte, Oct. 24, 1840.

“My dear William, — .. And now in reference to the main subject of your letter, I see the hand of the Lord is in it. If I should get a call to Eoxburgh church at the present conjuncture, I would feel that it was a call from God, and would accept it, though it be a call to a fastidious and gospel-beaten city, in the hope that He will teach me what to say (Ex. iv. 10-12; Rom. i 14, 15). I will be sorry to leave my ’ dear barbarians,’ even to come amongst you Greeks (I am not sure if this be a right way of speaking), but this door which once seemed to be opening wide is here closed again. I feel very grateful to Mr. Candlish and Mr. Paul for keeping me so long in remembrance. Say to Mr. Candlish that if appointed I wUl accept. Who all are the patrons?

“Write to me as soon as the matter is decided. If I am to enter on such an important charge I would like two or three months of preparation, and would therefore come home immediately. I will forbear to say more at present. Though a whirligig of schemes is ready to come racing into my mind, and though I feel relieved and thankful, the very date of this letter reminds me to join trembling with my mirth. It was on the 24th of October two years ago that I got a presentation to Morningside. But if on. this day the Lord should turn our captivity (and in some respects this has been a place of exile), then it will be as it was with the sinful Jews in the year of their release (Zech. viii. 1 9). You must not tell Mr. Candlish that I have an eye on his Sabbath-school Bishop for the see of Eoxburgh.

“Abernyte, Nov. 18, 1840.

“My dear Jane, — Tell Willie that I will be glad to preach in Eoxburgh church on Sabbath afternoon. I will not encounter the whole day; I will be too jumbled and tired for that.

“I have been seeing my dear people to-day. I borrowed Mr. Eitchie’s pony that I might go over the ground more cleverly. Few shook hands without tears in their eyes, and some wept bitterly. This people’s love is very strong. With some it is a sanctified affection.

“I packed my books yesterday. Andrew Melville volunteered to put on the lids and pack the chest of drawers. John Miller from Ballindean came with a cart this morning at five, and he and Andrew carried out the boxes as quiet as pussy, so that I did not awake to see if all was right, but have no doubt that things would be properly done. If the packages get away by to-day’s steamer you should have them by to-morrow.

“As I will have two or three different packages by the coach, it may be as well for Willie or Andrew to meet me at the Coburg coach-office with a noddy. In this way I will make my entry in state, and at the same cost as if I had employed a porter.

“And this is my last letter from Abernyte. A few things have occasionally tempted me to impatience, but goodness and mercy have surely followed me. God has given me wonderful favour with the congregation, and with most of the parishioners, and now I know that I have not laboured in vain, and that is enough. We ended last Sabbath with the twenty-third psalm, and it is the best ending of my correspondence from this place.”

“Aberkyte, Nov. 13, 1840.” Liv dear Uncle, — It is even so. He who has foreappointed the times has fixed the bounds of my future habitation in Edinburgh. It is my great joy to know that He has done it. The door in this place was shut (as perhaps you saw in the proceedings of Dundee Presbytery in the Witness of Oct. 31st) on a Friday, and next morning it opened in Edinburgh, for that morning I got a letter asking if I would accept Eoxburgh church in the event of

166 ANTICIPATION OF A NEW SPflERK

a presentation. The choice by the ministers and managers was unanimous, and quite unsolicited by me. The charge is sufficiently arduous. The parish and congregation are both to be formed. It is a part of the town where there are many other churches. But believing it to be the call of God, I am not greatly afraid. There is one agreeable circumstance. Though a Voluntary church, it is free of debt. I will re-enter my mother’s house, and be a member of that Presbytery which contains most of my friends in the ministry. But I must no longer hope for the studious leisure and moderate toil of this sequestered place.

“God has been working in this place. There are some beautiful instances of transforming grace, and many inquirers. Yesterday I had visits from thirteen people wishing to converse with me. The greater part of them give Scriptural evidence of being created anew, and in most places all of them would pass for very good Christians, lu Edinburgh they have a different standard of vital godliness. They love the world, and yet are the friends of God. Still there are some eminent saints in Edinburgh.”