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HOMAS  GUTHR! 

U  OLIPHANT 
SMEATON 


•SCOTS* 
-SERIES- 


/<s.  30,  ii 


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Professor  Heniattttn  iBmkhtrftgr  fflarftrlfc 

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BX  9225  .G85  S63  1900 
Smeaton,  William  Henry 

Oliphant,  1856-1914. 
Thomas  Guthrie 


THOMAS 
GUTHRIE 


FAMOUS   SCOTS   SERIES 

The  following  Volumes  are  now  ready : — 

i.  THOMAS  CARLYLE.     By  Hector.C.  Macpherson. 

2.  ALLAN  RAMSAY.     By  Oliphant  Smeaton. 

3.  HUGH  MILLER.     By  W.  Keith  Leask. 

4.  JOHN  KNOX.     By  A.  Taylor  Innes. 

5.  ROBERT  BURNS.     By  Gabriel  Setoun. 

6.  THE  BALLADISTS.     By  John  Geddie. 

7.  RICHARD  CAMERON.     By  Professor  Herkless. 

8.  SIR  JAMES  Y.  SIMPSON.     By  Eve  Blantyre  Simpson. 

9.  THOMAS  CHALMERS.     By  Professor  W.  Garden  Blaikie. 

0.  JAMES  BOSWELL.     By  W.  Keith  Leask. 

1.  TOBIAS  SMOLLETT.     By  Oliphant  Smeaton. 

2.  FLETCHER  OF  SALTOUN.     By  G.  W.  T.  Omond. 

3.  THE  BLACKWOOD  GROUP.     By  Sir  George  Douglas. 

4.  NORMAN  MACLEOD.     By  John  Wellwood. 

5.  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT.     By  Professor  Saintsbury. 

6.  KIRKCALDY  OF  GRANGE.     By  Louis  A.  Barbe. 

7.  ROBERT  FERGUSSON.     By  A.  B.  Grosart. 

8.  JAMES  THOMSON.     By  William  Bayne. 

9.  MUNGO  PARK.     By  T.  Banks  Maclachlan. 

20.  DAVID  HUME.     By  Professor  Calderwood. 

21.  WILLIAM  DUNBAR.     By  Oliphant  Smeaton. 

22.  SIR  WILLIAM  WALLACE.     By  Professor  Murison. 

23.  ROBERT  LOUIS  STEVENSON.     By  M.  M.  Black. 

24.  THOMAS  REID.     By  Professor  Campbell  Fraser. 

25.  POLLOK  and  AYTOUN.     By  Rosaline  Masson. 

26.  ADAM  SMITH.     By  Hector  C.  Macpherson. 

27.  ANDREW  MELVILLE.    By  William  Morison. 

28.  JAMES  FREDERICK  FERRIER.     By  E.  S.  Haldane. 

29.  KING  ROBERT  THE  BRUCE.     By  A.  F.  Murison. 

30.  JAMES  HOGG.     By  Sir  George  Douglas. 

31.  THOMAS  CAMPBELL.     By  J.  Cuthbert  Hadden. 

32.  GEORGE  BUCHANAN.     By  Robert  Wallace. 

33.  SIR  DAVID  WILKIE.     By  Edward  Pinnington. 

34.  THE  ERSKINES.     By  A.  R.  MacEwen. 

35.  THOMAS  GUTHRIE.     By  Oliphant  Smeaton. 


THOMAS 
GUTHRIE 

BY 

oliphant  i 
ismeaton 

Ifamous 
scots: 

SERIES 


PUBLISHED  BY  : 
CHARLES  *9r<*£J& 
SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1G2&T  NEW  YORK 


PREFACE 

To  return  thanks  to  all  by  name  who  have  assisted  me 
with  information,  letters,  etc.,  in  the  preparation  of  the 
present  work,  would  be  impossible.  I  can  only  record 
my  sense  of  gratitude  to  the  majority  of  such  helpers 
collectively.  To  three  of  these,  however,  I  must  return 
especial  thanks,  viz.  to  Mr.  C.  J.  Guthrie,  Q.C.,  for  his 
kindness  in  revising  my  ms.,  and  for  many  useful  criticisms 
and  suggestions  which  have  been  gratefully  adopted;  to 
Mr.  Mathew  S.  Tait  for  making  me  free  of  his  stores  of 
information  regarding  Disruption  times ;  and  to  Mr. 
James  Sime,  M.A.,  late  Principal  of  Craigmount  School, 
for  valuable  facts  regarding  the  relation  of  the  Free 
Church  to  Education. 

The  severest  condensation  and  abridgment  have  been 
necessary  to  compress  the  enormous  mass  of  material 
within  the  authorised  limits  of  the  series.  Many  valuable 
facts  have  had  to  be  omitted ;  and  his  early  life  until 
his  call  to  Edinburgh  has  had  to  be  sketched  in  the 
compass  of  a  very  few  pages.  I  trust,  however,  the  main 
features  in  the  story  of  Guthrie's  life  have  been  so  kept  in 
view  throughout,  that  a  recognisable  portrait  of  the  great 
preacher-philanthropist  has  been  cast  upon  the  literary 
canvas. 

O.  S. 

Edinburgh,  May  1900. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

CHAPTER  I 

A  Midsummer  Sabbath's  Scene  in  Free  St.  John's      .  9 

CHAPTER  II 
Birth  and  Early  Years 17 

CHAPTER  III 
Parish  Minister  of  Arbirlot 23 

CHAPTER    IV 

The  Vineyard  of  Apollyon 35 

CHAPTER  V 
The  Non-Intrusion  Struggle 44 

CHAPTER  VI 
The  Eventful  Last  Year 56 

CHAPTER  VII 
Guthrie  the  Free  Churchman 61 

CHAPTER  VIII 
Arabs— Bedouin  and  City 76 


viii  FAMOUS  SCOTS 


CHAPTER  IX  PAGE 

Guthrie— the  Apostle  of  Temperance  .        .        93 


CHAPTER  X 
Guthrie  as  the  Friend  of  Education  and  of  Missions     104 

CHAPTER  XI 
Final  Years  of  Activity— From  Mouth  to  Pen   .        .       120 


CHAPTER  XI  [ 
Last  Scene  of  All 


•133 


CHAPTER  XIII 

Critical— Guthrie    as    Ecclesiastic,   Philanthropist, 
and  Man 


144 


IMDEX 


.       158 


THOMAS   GUTHRIE 

CHAPTER   I 

A  MIDSUMMER  SABBATH'S  SCENE  IN  FREE  ST.  JOHN'S 

At  the  point  of  junction  of  three  thoroughfares  in  the 
Scots  capital — the  Castlehill,  the  Lawnmarket,  and  the 
West  Bow, — thoroughfares  with  a  Past  as  splendid  as  their 
Present  is  squalid — stands  a  church  placed  on  high  like  a 
lighthouse,  to  cast  the  beacon-gleams  of  the  Gospel  over 
the  seething  sea  of  misery  and  vice  among  the  'lapsed 
masses '  of  the  Grassmarket  and  Cowgate.  Fifty-five  years 
ago,  in  St.  John's  Free  Church,  that  light  was  kindled  by 
the  devotion  and  spiritual  enthusiasm  of  Thomas  Guthrie, 
and  its  cheering  ray,  though  trimmed  now  by  other  hands, 
is  burning  brightly  yet. 

A  midsummer  Sabbath  morning  in  the  later  'fifties'  of 
the  nineteenth  century  !  A  firmament  of  cloudless  blue 
and  a  June  sun  warm  on  the  towering  '  lands,' 1  on  the  quaint, 
crow-stepped  gables  and  peaked  dormer  windows,  on  the 
carven  architraves  and  deeply  mullioned  casements  of  the 
romantic  '  capital  of  the  Stuarts ' ! 

Ten  of  the  clock  had  only  recently  '  chappit ' 2  from  the 
steeples  of  St.  Giles'  and  the  Tron.  At  the  'Bowhead,' 
however,  a  crowd  had  already  collected  before  the  still 
closed  doors  of  Free  St.  John's.  Momentarily  it  increases, 
swelled  by  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  and  women. 
Will  these  doors  never  open  ?  Patiently  the  crowd  tarries 
as   the    'half-hour'  approaches,   a   hum   of  conversation 

1  Tenements.  2  Struck. 


io  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

rising  the  while  from  the  densely  packed  mass,  while  the 
bloated  and  blear-eyed  dwellers  of  the  Bowhead,  in  whom 
godliness  and  cleanliness  alike  have  become  vanished 
virtues  along  with  the  days  when  a  '  Bowhead '  Saint  was 
a  synonym  for  shining  piety,  lounge  at  their  doors  or  lean 
over  their  windows,  discussing  in  strident  Milesian  altissimo 
what  could  be  the  attraction  thus  to  induce  people  to 
stand  for  half  an  hour  in  a  blazing  sun. 

At  last  the  doors  are  opened.  Then  the  rush  and  the 
push  commence.  One  American  minister '  described  his 
experiences  as  'fighting  my  way  in  to  hear  Guthrie  through 
a  crowd  that  almost  tore  the  coat  from  my  back.'  When 
the  hour  of  service  arrived  every  available  inch  of  space  in 
the  great  edifice  was  occupied.  An  extraordinarily  varied 
audience  it  was,  when  the  tourist  season  was  at  its  height, 
and  Edinburgh  was  filled  to  overflowing  with  strangers 
from  well-nigh  every  clime  under  heaven,  few  of  whom 
returned  to  their  homes  without  having  heard  that  won- 
derful orator  of  the  Castlehill,  whose  discourses,  in  their 
persuasive  earnestness,  their  ■  passion  and  compassion,'  as 
Lord  Cockburn  phrased  it,  were  likened  to  those  of  the 
great  Massillon  in  France. 

What  with  his  regular  congregation  and  casual  hearers, 
his  audience  was  representative  of  every  class  in  the 
community,  from  the  peer  to  the  peasant.  St.  John's  was 
often  called  '  the  great  leveller,'  inasmuch  as  scions  of  the 
proudest  families  in  the  aristocracy  sat  side  by  side  with 
the  working  tailor  or  the  journeyman  mason.  Yonder, 
seated  in  the  front  of  the  gallery,  is  the  well-known  face 
and  figure  of  the  most  popular  of  all  the  Scots  Dukes — 
the  MacCallum  Mohr,  otherwise  George  Douglas  Campbell, 
Duke  of  Argyll,  who  has  brought  a  brother  peer  to  hear 
the  'Champion  of  the  Ragged  Schools'  proclaim  that 
Gospel  of  Salvation,  full,  free,  and  finished,  which  makes 
every  partaker  of  it,  be  his  colour  what  it  may,  a  man  and 
a  brother  in  the  fraternal  unity  of  the  Sons  of  God.  There 
also,  busily  conning  the  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms 
1  Rev.  J.  W.  Alexander,  D.D. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  n 

ere  the  service  commenced,  might  be  seen  William  Ewart 
Gladstone,  greatest  of  England's  Chancellors  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, and  yet  to  be  four  times  Premier  of  Britain. 
Yonder,  in  Episcopal  apron  and  cassock,  is  Samuel  Wilber- 
force,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  who  had  worthily  earned  the  title 
'  Remodeller  of  the  Episcopate.'  Not  far  from  him  towered 
the  massive  frame  of  William  Makepeace  Thackeray, 
whose  expressive  features  surmounted  by  his  silvery  hair 
attracted  the  gaze  of  many  an  admirer  of  Becky  Sharp  and 
Pendennis.  Immediately  in  front  of  the  pulpit,  and  but  a 
short  distance  from  each  other,  were  seated  two  notable 
and  noticeable  men — Hugh  Miller,  next  to  Chalmers,  the 
sturdiest  and  most  vigorous  of  Scottish  thinkers  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  yet,  alas  !  within  half  a  year  to  perish  by 
the  saddest  of  all  deaths ;  and  Dr.  James  Young  Simpson 
(not  yet  Sir  James),  to  hundreds  '  the  beloved  physician,' 
his  name  even  then  wreathed  with  the  imperishable  laurels 
of  having  robbed  surgery,  and  especially  maternity,  of  its 
terrors  by  the  discovery  of  chloroform. 

We  cannot  even  name  all  the  notables  present  in  these 
pews, — peers  and  judges,  professors  of  European  fame, 
merchant  princes,  artists,  litterateurs  British  and  American, 
soldiers  of  world-wide  celebrity,  sitting  side  by  side  with  the 
labourer  and  the  domestic  servant,  with  the  tradesman  and 
the  clerk,  with  strangers  of  well-nigh  all  lands  and  languages 
who  could  make  shift  to  understand  our  tongue — and  all 
attracted  by  the  genius  and  eloquence  of  a  great  orator. 

But  the  hour  of  service  had  come.  Scarcely  had  the 
'  bells '  ceased  when  the  old  beadle,  John  Towert,  was  seen 
entering  with  'the  books,'  and  a  hush  of  expectancy  fell 
upon  the  vast  congregation  as  the  preacher  made  his 
appearance.  \  It  was  an  impressive  and  commanding  figure 
that  met  the  eye.  His  stature,  at  least  two  inches  over  six 
feet,  his  erect  carriage,  his  lithe  and  sinewy  frame,  his 
broad  square  shoulders,  which  the  folds  of  his  severely 
simple  Genevan  gown  could  not  hide,  impressed  the 
spectator  with  an  idea  of  latent  power,  which  a  view  of 
head  and  features  burdened  with  the  sense  of  a  mighty 


i2  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

message  tended  to  confirm.  The  face,  crowned  with 
locks  powdered  with  the  frost  of  the  '  fifties,'  was  suggestive 
of  great  intellectual  strength.  The  high  pile  of  forehead 
sharply  chiselled  back  towards  the  temples  and  the  occiput, 
but  overhanging  the  eye  sockets  with  an  almost  excessive 
frontal  development,  would  denote,  if  the  readings  of 
phrenology  be  worth  aught,  superior  imaginative  faculties. 
The  eyes,  bright  and  piercing,  by  their  quick,  almost 
restless,  glances,  lent  an  expression  of  intense  alertness  to 
the  visage.  The  cheeks  were  thin  and  long,  the  nose 
prominent,  the  chin  resolute  and  firm  in  outline  and 
moulding.  The  face  would,  in  truth,  have  left  the  impres- 
sion of  a  somewhat  stern  and  severe  character,  an  idea 
still  further  strengthened  by  the  shaggy,  protuberant  pent- 
houses of  eyebrows,  had  it  not  been  relieved  by  the 
influence  of  the  wonderfully  mobile  and  expressive  mouth. 
The  lips,  finely  and  delicately  curved,  were  so  sensitively 
alive  to  the  emotions  of  the  mind,  that  almost  every  feeling 
could  be  read  by  their  subtle  index.  When  he  smiled  the 
whole  features  seemed  irradiated,  every  line  and  wrinkle 
appearing  to  laugh  in  concert.  Altogether  it  was  a  noble 
and  impressive  figure  that  stepped  into  the  pulpit  of  Free 
St.  John's  on  that  Sabbath  morning  in  June  and  faced  his 
audience. 

The  opening  psalm  was  announced  and  read  in  mellow, 
resonant  tones,  and  with  faultless  articulation.  After  this 
had  been  sung  a  prayer  followed,  not  too  long,  but  full  of 
unction  and  earnestness,  while  the  voice  in  its  rise  and  fall 
was  just  touched  and  no  more  with  that  subtle  rhythmic 
cadence  that  exercised  a  hallowing  influence  upon  the 
hearer.  A  chapter  from  Holy  Writ  came  next,  read  with 
appropriate  accent  and  emphasis,  but  with  no  elocutionary 
embellishments  to  catch  the  sensation-lover.  Another 
psalm,  and  then  ensued  a  visible  settling  down  of  the  con- 
gregation each  into  his  special  attitude  wherein  to  listen 
to  the  sermon.     The  preliminary  exercises  were  over. 

Up  to  this  point  there  had  been  nothing  in  either  voice 
or  action  to  indicate  that  one  of  the  greatest  pulpit  orators 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  13 

of  the  nineteenth  century  was  before  that  audience.  Had 
Guthrie's  eloquence  been  a  mere  elocutionary  trick,  it 
would  have  made  itself  manifest  in  all  he  did.  But  the 
great  deeps  of  his  emotions  and  his  sympathies  needed  to 
be  broken  up  before  the  irresistible  flood  of  his  oratory 
could  find  adequate  means  of  expression.  He  only  re- 
vealed himself  the  peerless  orator  when  his  feelings  were 
stirred  to  the  inmost  Siloam-depths  of  his  many-sided 
nature. 

The  preacher  now  announced  his  text,  1  Cor.  i.  17-18  : 
'  Lest  the  Cross  of  Christ  should  be  made  of  none  effect. 
For  the  preaching  of  the  Cross  is  to  them  that  perish  foolish- 
ness; but  unto  us  which  are  saved  it  is  the  power  of  God.' 
For  a  moment  he  allowed  his  gaze  to  wander  over  the  sea 
of  faces  surrounding  him  on  all  sides,  as  he  slowly  and 
impressively  repeated  the  words,  '  The  Cross  of  Christ 
made  of  none  effect — the  Cross  of  Christ  the  power  of  God.' 
His  voice  as  he  entered  upon  the  introductory  part  of  his 
discourse  was  pitched  almost  on  a  conversational  key.  He 
talked  of  this  great  theme  being  'the  prime  problem  of 
every  man's  being,  more  vital  to  his  welfare,  temporal  and 
spiritual,  than  the  most  crucial  question  of  science  or  of 
metaphysics.' 

But  ere  long  his  utterance  became  more  rapid.  His 
emotions  were  beginning  to  be  stirred.  His  eyes  were 
sparkling  with  animation,  his  face  was  lighted  up  with  the 
reflected  gleams  from  his  spirit's  lofty  enthusiasm,  his 
long  arms  were  used  with  perfect  gesture  to  lend  still 
further  emphasis  to  the  '  forcibleness '  of  his  language  as 
it  rapidly  mounted  towards  its  climax.  Then  with  a  burst 
of  eloquence,  impetuous  and  irresistible  as  some  mighty 
mountain  torrent  swollen  with  winter's  snows,  he  broke 
forth  into  the  following  lofty  passage,  which  at  once  lifted 
his  discourse  on  to  a  higher  plane  alike  of  thought  and 
feeling.  He  was  describing  Christ's  utter  desertion  and 
loneliness  at  the  Cross,  and  a  thrill  of  emotion  like  an 
electric  shock  vibrated  through  the  audience  as  they 
heard  the  words  : — 


i4  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

'  Christ  was  alone,  awfully  alone,  in  that  last  terrible  conflict 
with  the  Prince  of  Darkness.  The  day  had  been  when  crowds 
followed  Him,  tracked  His  steps  from  city  to  city,  from  shore  to 
shore,  hanging  on  His  lips,  thronging  the  streets  through  which 
He  passed,  and  besieging  the  houses  where  He  lodged.  The 
day  was  when  ten  thousand  tongues  would  have  spoken  and 
ten  thousand  swords  would  have  flashed  in  His  defence  ;  but 
the  day  had  arrived  when,  during  for  a  while,  they  all  fell  away, 
and  of  the  crowds  that  swelled  His  jubilant  train  all — all  deserted 
Him,  the  only  voice  lifted  up  in  His  behalf  coming  from  the 
cross  of  a  dying  thief,  "  This  man  hath  done  nothing  amiss  : 
Lord,  remember  me  when  Thou  comest  into  Thy  kingdom."' 

The  full,  rich  tones,  now  deep  as  the  diapasons  of  some 
mighty  organ,  sweet  anon  as  the  strains  of  a  well-tuned 
harp,  gradually  sank  in  pitch  as  he  neared  the  close  of  the 
passage,  until,  with  hushed  voice,  and  eyes  and  hands 
raised  pleadingly  to  Heaven,  he  uttered  the  pathetic  words 
of  the  dying  malefactor,  '  Lord,  remember  me  when  Thou 
comest  into  Thy  kingdom.' 

The  audience  was  now  thoroughly  in  his  thrall.  Every 
word  was  followed  with  a  jealous,  hungry  interest  that 
never  for  an  instant  flagged.  Every  type  of  lofty,  persuasive 
oratory  was  impressed  into  the  service  of  demonstrating 
that  the  Cross  of  Christ  is  worthy  of  having  all  things 
accounted  loss  for  it.  Now  he  thundered  forth  indignant 
remonstrance  against  the  scoffer  who  sneered  at  the 
'  Carpenter  of  Galilee  ' : — 

1  The  history  of  infidelity,  were  it  written,  would  present  a 
succession  of  ignominious  defeats — defeats  due,  not  to  any  want 
of  ability  in  those  who  have  assailed  the  truth,  but  to  this,  that 
its  defenders  have  driven  them  out  of  all  their  positions.  We 
have  seen  the  soldier  return  from  the  fields  of  war  with  scars 
as  well  as  medals  on  his  breast ;  but  the  Cross  of  Christ  and 
our  religion,  based  upon  it,  has  come  out  of  a  thousand  fights 
unscarred,  from  a  thousand  fires  unscathed.  Our  faith  bears 
no  more  evidence  of  the  assaults  she  has  sustained  than  the  air 
of  the  swords  that  have  cloven  it,  or  the  sea  of  the  keels  which 
have  ploughed  its  foaming  waves ;  than  some  bold  rocky  head- 
land of  the  billows  that,  dashing  against  it  in  proud  but  im- 
potent fury,  have  shivered  themselves  on  its  sides.' 

At  other  times  his  voice  became  tenderly  low  and 
pleading  as  he  described  the  love  of  Christ  for  the  sinner  : — 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  15 

'Ah,  dear  friends,  He  can  and  will  be  all  in  all  to  us.  Am  I 
wounded?— He  is  balm  !  Am  I  sick? — He  is  medicine  !  Am 
I  naked  ? — He  is  clothing  !  Am  I  poor  ? — He  is  wealth  !  Am 
I  hungry  ? — He  is  bread  !  Am  I  thirsty  ? — He  is  water  !  Am 
I  tried? — He  is  my  advocate  !  Is  sentence  passed,  and  am  I 
condemned? — He  is  my  pardon  !  O  blessed  Jesus,  whose  Cross 
of  shame  has  become  the  sinners'  crown  of  justification  !' 

Presently  he  began  to  picture  the  career  of  a  noble- 
minded,  noble-spirited  youth  setting  out  on  the  voyage  of 
life  without  religion  as  his  compass.  He  likened  him  to 
a  stately  vessel  leaving  harbour  with  all  her  sails  set,  a 
thing  of  beauty  and  of  grandeur.  But  ere  long  her  course 
is  cut  short.  She  gets  among  the  breakers  of  temptation. 
In  vivid  and  picturesque  language  he  described  the  awful 
scene  of  the  wreck,  the  launch  of  the  lifeboat  of  salvation, 
and  the  terrible  struggle  with  the  powers  of  evil.  As  he 
worked  up  the  various  details  of  the  picture  with  realistic 
skill,  his  hearers  lost  the  consciousness  of  its  parabolic 
character.  The  whole  scene  became  visualised  to  them. 
At  one  time  a  sob,  at  another  a  gasp  of  excitement,  passed 
over  the  whole  church.  Some  in  the  back  seats  involun- 
tarily rose  as  though  to  view  the  scene  better.  As  the  cry 
was  echoed,  'Man  the  lifeboat ! '  a  young  sailor  in  the  front 
of  the  gallery,  oblivious  of  everything,  leapt  to  his  feet  and 
began  to  pull  off  his  coat  to  volunteer,  until  he  is  drawn 
down  into  his  seat  again  by  his  friends.1  Then,  when  the 
great  picture  is  completed,  and  the  salvation  of  a  soul 
achieved,  a  long  sigh  of  relief,  betokening  the  loosening 
of  the  tension  of  the  feelings,  seemed  to  break  involuntarily 
from  the  great  gathering. 

But  the  preacher  is  now  nearing  the  conclusion  of  his 
discourse.  Only  the  personal  application  remains  to  be 
enforced.  With  what  earnestness,  what  depth  of  love, 
what  fervour  of  appeal — nay,  with  what  keen  knowledge  of 
the  human  heart — was  that  application  of  his  sermon  not 
driven  home  ?     The  orator  seemed  to  bend  down  from  the 

1  An  actual  occurrence. 


1 6  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

pulpit  and  literally  entreat  the  sinner  to  accept  Christ  as 
his  individual  Saviour  : — 

1  The  day  is  quickly  dying. ;  soon  will  come  the  night  of  death 
for  all  of  us,  when  life's  fitful  fever  shall  be  over.  By  all  you 
hold  dear,  by  the  memories  of  your  beloved  dead  who  have 
passed  within  the  veil  before  you,  by  the  value  of  that  immortal 
essence  within  you,  which  is  neither  yours  to  give  nor  yours  to 
take  away,  I  charge  you  this  day,  this  hour,  this  moment,  to 
look  well  to  it  that  your  calling  and  your  election  is  made  sure, 
for  it  is  a  fearful  thing  for  an  unrepentant  soul  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  living  God  ! ' 

The  solemn  close  of  the  sermon  produced  a  deep  im- 
pression. People  looked  at  each  other  anxiously,  as  though 
mutely  inquiring, '  How  does  that  affect  us  ? '  Ten  minutes 
more  and  all  was  over.  The  mighty  audience  was  slowly 
pouring  out  from  the  church  into  the  brilliant  sunshine, 
discussing  the  while  the  merits  of  the  remarkable  discourse 
to  which  they  had  been  listening.  As  the  preacher  passed 
down  from  his  pulpit  to  the  vestry  he  overheard  two  young 
and  beautiful  ladies  of  title  referring  to  the  sermon  :  '  Oh, 
what  a  charming  discourse  it  was  !  Is  he  not  a  delightful 
preacher?'  said  one  to  the  other,  an  opinion  the  latter 
warmly  indorsed.  The  man  of  God  looked  back  at  them 
sadly,  and  the  light  seemed  to  die  out  of  his  face.  'O 
my  Saviour ! '  he  unconsciously  murmured  in  the  hearing 
of  one  of  his  elders  who,  unseen  by  him,  stood  near, 
'why  will  they  always  exalt  the  instrument  and  not  Thee? 
My  preaching  is  a  failure  if  I  can  only  charm  but  not 
change ! ' 


CHAPTER    II 

BIRTH    AND    EARLY    YEARS 

Thomas  Guthrie,  the  twelfth  child  and  the  sixth  son  of 
David  Guthrie  and  Clementina  Cay,  was  born  in  Brechin, 
Forfarshire,  12th  July  1803. 

Both  his  parents  were,  to  quote  the  old  Scots  phrase, 
'by  ordinar  folk' — that  is  to  say,  they  were  possessed  of 
characteristics  and  qualities  differentiating  them  from  the 
general  run  of  their  neighbours.  His  father,  David 
Guthrie,  who  at  the  time  of  his  distinguished  son's  birth 
was  the  leading  merchant  in  Brechin  and  the  Provost  of 
the  burgh  in  addition,  was  a  man  of  sincerely  religious 
principles,  upright  in  business,  exemplary  in  his  family 
relations,  a  model  citizen,  and  a  staunch  friend.  He  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Town  Council  when  only  twenty- 
two  years  of  age,  and  all  his  life  remained  one  of  the 
pillars  of  the  municipality — a  position,  curiously  enough, 
'inherited'  by  two  of  his  sons,  the  elder  brothers  of  the 
subject  of  our  sketch. 

Dr.  Guthrie,  however,  owed  much  of  his  intense 
spirituality  to  his  mother.  She  appears  to  have  been 
a  woman  whose  piety  was  of  the  most  real  life-leavening 
type.  Finding  that  in  the  Established  Church  of  that 
epoch,  icebound  in  Moderatism,  she  failed  to  obtain  the 
spiritual  nourishment  she  considered  indispensable  to  her 
soul's  health,  though  attached  to  the  State  Church  by 
many  ties,  past  and  present,  she  decided  to  leave  it,  and 
to  connect  herself  with  the  Burgher  section  of  the  Seces- 
sion Church  in  Brechin,  presided  over  by  the  well-known 
David  Blackadder. 


18  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

The  home  life  of  the  Guthries  of  Brechin  was  of  the 
most  elevated  character.  The  harmonious  conjugal  rela- 
tions of  the  heads  of  the  house  and  the  atmosphere  of 
peace  enfolding  all  within  its  walls,  caused  their  example 
to  act  as  a  sort  of  '  object-lesson '  to  the  community 
around  them.  The  paternal  discipline  was  strict,  but  not 
stern. 

The  farms  of  Guthrie's  paternal  grandfather  and  uncles 
were  all  in  the  vicinity  of  Brechin.  He  early  learned 
to  love  Nature  by  visits  to  these  scenes  of  rural  beauty 
and  peace,  and  the  lessons  thus  early  acquired  were 
never  forgotten  through  life.  Nor  was  his  scholastic 
education  neglected.  When  but  four  years  old,  he  was 
sent,  along  with  his  brother  Charles,  to  an  elementary 
school  taught  by  a  worthy  Christian  man  named  Jamie 
Stewart,  who  combined  the  dual  vocations  of  pedagogy 
and  weaving.  Here  Thomas  Guthrie  remained  for  up- 
wards of  two  years,  receiving  a  thorough  drilling  in  the 
three  R's.  When  the  slender  store  of  the  weaver-dominie's 
accomplishments  were  exhausted,  the  two  boys  were  sent 
to  a  school  in  connection  with  the  Anti-Burgher  Church 
in  Brechin,  where  once  the  great  Dr.  M'Crie  had  acted  as 
teacher.  At  this  seminary  Guthrie  received  the  remainder 
of  his  education.  When  he  closed  his  school-days  he  was 
just  twelve  years  old — an  age  when  others  are  usually 
only  entering  upon  the  grammar-school  curriculum. 

To  a  different  sphere  he  was  now  called  upon  to  proceed. 
Early  in  November  1815,  accompanied  by  a  friend  named 
John  Whyte,  who,  being  somewhat  older,  was  supposed 
to  play  the  dual  roles  of  a  Mentor  as  well  as  a  Pythias, 
he  journeyed  to  Edinburgh  to  enter  himself  as  a  student 
at  the  University  of  the  Scots  capital.  Guthrie's  college- 
days  were  comparatively  uneventful.  Though  never  a 
brilliant,  he  was,  as  his  certificates  from  his  professors 
show,  always  a  faithful  student.  His  work  was  conscien- 
tiously performed,  although  a  child  of  thirteen  could 
scarcely  be  expected  to  understand  the  subtleties  of 
metaphysics  or  appreciate  the  differences  between  Plato 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  19 

and  Aristotle.  Natural  Philosophy  as  expounded  by 
Professor  Leslie  alone  attracted  his  interested  attention. 
To  it  he  applied  himself  with  an  enthusiasm  that  would 
have  ensured  success  had  his  powers  been  developed.  I 

At  first  he  felt  the  loneliness  of  the  great  city,  where 
all  but  him  seemed  to  have  friends.  Gradually  he  formed 
acquaintanceships  which  lent  a  savour  and  a  sweetness 
to  life.  In  the  society  of  such  friends  as,  like  himself, 
loathed  the  very  suggestion  of  vice  while  they  delighted 
in  the  display  of  pure,  healthy  animal  spirits  and  the 
sports  which  gave  scope  for  them,  his  spare  time  during 
his  Arts  curriculum  was  passed.  /  His  hours  for  study 
were  carefully  observed  and  were  never  less  than  '  five ' 
per  day,  in  addition  to  his  class  hours.  His  general 
reading  during  his  spare  time  was  of  a  miscellaneous  yet 
thoroughly  healthy  character,  comprising  Scott,  Cowper, 
Bacon,  the  Morte  U  Arthur  >  Milton,  Shakespeare,  Allan 
Ramsay,  Buchanan,  Sidney's  Arcadia^  etc. ;  while  Satur- 
days were  always  devoted  to  long  rambles  into  the 
country,  where  he  and  his  companions  would  be  brought 
face  to  face  with  God  in  Nature.  During  the  last  years 
of  his  Arts  course  he  was  a  member  of  a  University 
Debating  Society  called  the  '  Forfarshire  Literary  Associa- 
tion,' in  the  work  of  which,  I  am  informed,  he  took  a 
deep  interest,  and  frequently  contributed  papers. 

No  other  profession  than  that  of  the  pulpit  seems  to 
have  even  been  considered  possible  for  the  young  Brechin 
lad.  Nor  did  he  shrink  from  the  sphere  thus  pressed 
upon  him.  Those  years  spent  partially  at  least  under 
the  ministry  of  godly  Mr.  Blackadder  of  the  Burgher 
Church  in  Brechin,  had  implanted  the  good  seed  in  his 
heart.  To  the  Divinity  Hall  in  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh he  therefore  proceeded,  where  he  spent  four  years 
more  of  hard  study,  under  Professors  Ritchie,  Meiklejohn, 
and  Brunton — none  of  whom,  however,  were  men  of  any 
great  eminence.  At  the  termination  of  those  years,  after 
satisfying  his  teachers  of  his  proficiency  in  the  subjects 
taught   by   them,   he    presented    his    credentials    to    the 


20  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

Presbytery  of  Brechin,  and  by  them  was  licensed  to 
preach  the  Gospel.  The  '  Trial  Discourses '  delivered  by 
him  on  the  occasion  are  still  extant.  In  them,  even  a 
partial  eye  can  detect  no  trace  of  the  future  eloquent  orator. 
They  are  good  average  productions,  but  rise  little,  if  at 
all,  above  mediocrity.  However,  they  satisfied  his  clerical 
examiners,  which  was  the  chief  desideratum ;  and  on  the 
2nd  February  1825  he  was  admitted  a  licentiate  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland. 

To  him  this  successful  consummation  of  all  his  studies 
was  robbed  of  one-half  its  anticipated  pleasure.  In 
the  previous  year  his  father,  who  had  taken  such  keen 
delight  in  his  progress,  and  whose  judicious  praise  had 
been  his  stimulus,  was  removed  by  death.  The  effect  of 
the  blow  on  young  Guthrie  was  for  a  season  almost 
overpowering,  until  Time,  the  great  healer,  mitigated  the 
severity  of  his  sorrow. 

In  Guthrie's  licentiate  days  the  democratic  method  of 
settling  ministerial  elections,  now  practised  in  connection 
with  the  Established  Church,  was  unknown.  The  trail  of 
patronage  lay  over  every  parish  in  Scotland.  This  was,  how- 
ever, not  a  disadvantage  to  the  young  preacher.  His  family 
influence  was  such  that  he  could  confidently  expect  to 
be  presented  to  a  charge  at  once  on  taking  licence.  And 
such  would  have  been  the  case,  had  he  been  prepared  to 
join  the  Moderate  party  in  the  Church  of  Scotland.  But 
when  he  declined  to  do  so,  and  preferred  to  leave  himself 
freedom  of  action,  the  Moderates  brought  all  their  influence 
to  bear  against  him  when  he  applied  for  any  '  cure.'  The 
consequence  was,  he  had  the  mortification  of  seeing  four 
presentations,  any  of  which  he  might  have  had  if  only  he 
would  have  bowed  to  the  Moderate  yoke,  given  to  others. 

So  marked  was  the  hostility  shown  by  the  Moderate 
party  towards  young  Thomas  Guthrie,  and  so  hopeless 
did  the  outlook  appear,  that  some  of  his  friends  advised 
him  to  think  of  some  other  profession.  To  this  suggestion, 
however,  he  declined  to  lend  an  ear.  But  that  the  time 
might  not  be  lost,  he  first  of  all  entered  upon  an  extensive 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  21 

course  of  reading  at  home,  then  determined  to  return 
to  Edinburgh  University  and  take  out  one  or  two  extra 
classes  in  Chemistry  and  Natural  History  under  Professors 
Hope  and  Jamieson  j  also  Surgery  and  Anatomy  under  the 
extra-mural  lecturer  Dr.  Knox — within  three  years  to 
become  unpleasantly  associated  with  the  Burke  and  Hare 
horror.  In  all  these  subjects  the  young  man  displayed 
conspicuous  proficiency. 

The  step,  however,  which  more  than  aught  else  put  the 
copestone  on  the  academic  culture  of  Thomas  Guthrie, 
was  the  visit  he  paid  to  the  Continent  for  the  purpose  of 
studying  at  the  University  of  Paris.  He  proceeded  thither 
in  the  autumn  of  1826,  being  attracted  by  the  fame  of 
Gay-Lussac,  professor  of  Natural  Philosophy;  Geoffrey 
St.  Hilaire,  the  Comparative  Anatomist  \  Louis  Jacques 
Thenard,  the  great  Chemist ;  also  by  Lisfranc,  Dupuytren, 
and  Baron  Larrey,  the  distinguished  Surgeons.  He  made 
a  short  stay  in  London  en  route  both  going  and  returning, 
when  he  met  the  Hon.  W.  Maule,  Joseph  Hume,  M.P., 
and  others,  whose  friendship  afterwards  proved  useful 
to  him.  Llis  stay  in  Paris  influenced  him  beneficially  in 
more  ways  than  one,  in  expanding  his  intellectual  outlook. 
It  broadened  his  sympathies,  it  widened  his  ideas  of  the 
brotherhood  of  humanity,  and  taught  him  many  lessons 
in  catholicity  of  sentiment  which  bore  fruit  in  the  years  to 
come.  There  also  he  studied  very  hard,  and  carried  back 
with  him  the  approbation  of  his  teachers.  He  likewise 
walked  the  hospitals  in  the  'train'  of  the  great' surgeons, 
where  he  picked  up  much  of  that  medical  knowledge 
which  stood  him  in  good  stead  in  after  years.  Despite 
the  benefits  he  received,  intellectually  speaking,  from  his 
visit  to  Paris,  his  pictures  of  Parisian  society,  both  of  the 
bourgeois  and  of  the  better  classes,  are  mournfully  black. 
He  recoiled  with  horror  from  the  shameless  vice  which  met 
him  on  all  sides ;  but,  as  he  said  after  a  visit  to  Frascati's 
gambling-saloon,  which  was  maintained  at  the  expense  of 
the  Government,  who  drew  a  vast  revenue  from  it,  '  what 
else  can  be  expected  of  a  people  whose  rulers  actually 


22  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

pander  to  and  provide  means  for  the  gratification  of  the 
vilest  vices  ? ' 

He  returned  home  in.  April  1827.  He  had  gone  forth 
a  youth  full  of  boyish  ways  and  ideas  ;  he  returned  a  man 
who  had  seen  the  world  and  studied  the  world's  ways 
under  different  conditions  of  life  from  the  majority  of  his 
fellows,  and  whose  desire  now  was  to  utilise  the  know- 
ledge thus  acquired  to  the  best  possible  advantage. 

On  his  return  he  found  his  prospects  of  obtaining  a 
charge  on  conditions  he  could  accept  as  remote  as 
ever.  Not  for  a  moment  did  he  lose  heart.  He  felt 
that  God  was  preparing  him  for  some  service,  and  that 
his  duty  meantime  was  simply  to  wait.  Accordingly 
he  resumed  his  methodised  course  of  reading  at  home, 
preaching  from  time  to  time  as  opportunity  offered. 
While  thus  engaged,  a  curious  call  to  duty  came  to  him — 
no  less  than  to  take  the  management  of  a  bank.  His 
elder  brother,  Bailie  John  Guthrie,  who  had  been  manager 
(Scottice  agent)  of  the  local  branch  of  the  Dundee  Union 
Banking  Company,  a  position  held  by  members  of  the 
family  for  nearly  sixty  years,  died  very  suddenly.  His 
eldest  son  was  then  a  boy  in  the  later  'teens,  but  still  too 
young  to  assume  charge  of  so  important  an  institution. 
The  great  influence  of  the  family  caused  the  directors  of 
the  bank  to  desire  that  the  son  should  succeed  the  father, 
if  only  the  place  could  be  held  open  for  a  year  or  two. 
Thomas  Guthrie  was  asked  both  by  his  relatives  and  the 
bank  to  act  as  locum  tenens.  After  some  hesitation  he 
consented,  and  was  accordingly  duly  installed. 

He  made  a  splendid  banker.  In  a  few  weeks  he  had 
mastered  all  the  details,  and  his  success  in  carrying  on 
the  branch  may  be  gauged  by  the  remark  made  by  the 
manager  of  the  Head  Office  on  Mr.  Guthrie  taking  leave 
of  him,  when  about  to  begin  work  at  Arbirlot.  ■  Sir,'  he 
said,  '  if  you  only  preach  as  well  as  you  have  banked,  you 
will  be  sure  to  succeed.' 


CHAPTER    III 

PARISH   MINISTER   OF   ARBIRLOT 

At  last  the  object  of  Thomas  Guthrie's  ambition  was  to  be 
realised  after  five  years  of  waiting.  He  was  to  be  placed 
as  minister  over  a  parish  for  whose  moral  and  spiritual 
welfare  he  would  be  responsible.  In  the  early  months  of 
1830  the  Crown  appointed  him  to  the  Forfarshire  parish 
of  Arbirlot,  on  the  recommendation  of  the  Hon.  William 
Maule.  The  presentee  having  preached  before  the  con- 
gregation to  their  manifest  satisfaction,  the  'call'  was 
signed,  and  on  the  13th  May  the  'new  minister'  was 
inducted  into  his  charge. 

Arbirlot — Aber-Elliot,  the  place  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Elliot — is  a  beautiful  country  parish  on  the  eastern  coast 
of  Scotland,  situate  about  three  miles  from  Arbroath  and 
sixty  from  Edinburgh.  .  The  geographical  position  of  the 
parish  causes  it  to  combine  in  itself  the  somewhat  diverse 
natural  charms  of  rich  landscape  and  bold  seascape. 
From  several  points  in  the  district  one  can  command 
views  of  either  kind,  unrivalled  on  the  eastern  seaboard 
of  Scotland  for  peaceful  beauty  and  impressive  grandeur.1 
It  had  the  advantage  of  being  easy  of  access,  and  was, 
moreover,  within  twenty  miles  of  Brechin,  so  that  he  was 
not  cut  off  from  intercourse  with  his  kindred.2 

The  parish  was  neither  very  large  nor  very  populous. 
In  1824  it  had  been  returned  as  numbering  1077  souls, 
while  by  1830  it  had  only  reached  1086,  showing  that  the 
ratio  of  increase  was  not  rapid. 

1  Edwards'  Description  of  Angus  (1678  :  repub.  1791). 

2  After  a  time  his  mother  came  to  reside  in  Arbirlot  to   be  near 

her  son. 

23 


24  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

To  Mr.  Guthrie  this  was  an  advantage,  and  from  the  first 
he  regarded  it  as  such.  How  many  promising  young 
ministers  are  dwarfed  and  stunted,  both  intellectually  and 
spiritually,  by  being  placed  at  the  outset  in  onerous 
charges  where  the  work  is  beyond  their  strength  !  Robert 
Hall's  remark  about  the  ratio  of  sermon-production  should 
be  laid  to  heart  by  every  young  preacher. 

From  the  outset  Mr.  Guthrie's  preaching  was  accept- 
able to  his  people.  Of  this  fact  there  are  many  proofs 
extant,  chiefly  the  testimony  of  those  who  had  heard  the 
older  residents  speak  of  it.  Among  others,  that  of  the 
saintly  David  Key,  one  of  his  elders,  and  given  at  length 
in  the  Memoir,  is  the  most  remarkable.  And  yet,  from 
existing  specimens  of  his  sermons  in  those  early  days  of  his 
Arbirlot  ministry  we  can  detect  few  traces  of  those 
qualities  of  figurative  diction,  picturesque  illustration,  and 
striking  apostrophes  and  appeals  so  familiar  in  the  dis- 
courses of  later  years.  The  style  is  severely  simple  and 
chaste,  while  ornament  is  rare. 

No  sooner  was  Mr.  Guthrie  fairly  settled  down  in  his 
sphere  of  work  than  he  began  to  evince  that  tireless 
activity  in  the  service  of  his  Master  characteristic  of  him 
all  his  days.  He  threw  himself  into  parochial  work  with 
an  energy  and  concentration  of  purpose  that  astonished 
and  delighted  all.  For  five  years  he  had  been  eating  his 
heart  out  in  enforced  idleness.  The  stock  of  restrained 
activity,  kept  in  check  all  that  time,  now  had  free  course 
to  flow  out  from  him  in  a  mighty  tide  of  far-reaching 
achievement.  Probably  that  weary  delay  was  the  Creator's 
mode  of  fitting  His  instrument  for  the  glorious  work  before 
him.  Had  he  stepped  into  the  ministry  fresh  from  college, 
he  might  never  have  learned  that  great  lesson  of  'patience 
till  God  opens  the  way '  which  was  not  the  least  of  his 
virtues.  Disappointment  is  oftentimes  the  greatest  of 
teachers,  and  so  it  proved  to  Thomas  Guthrie. 

His  parochial  schemes  and  enterprises  were  both  varied 
and  numerous.  Five  months  after  his  induction  into 
Arbirlot  he  took  unto  himself  an  'helpmate,'  who,  in  the 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  25 

highest  and  noblest  sense  of  that  word,  proved  herself  his 
coadjutrix.  For  some  years  he  had  been  engaged  to  Anne, 
the  eldest  daughter  of  the  Rev.  James  Burns  of  Brechin ; 
and  on  6th  October  1830  they  were  married  by  the  bride's 
father. 

Though  Arbirlot  was,  morally  speaking,  an  earthly 
paradise  into  which  the  darker  and  more  revolting  sins 
of  our  great  cities  scarcely  entered,  the  spiritual  state  of 
the  parish  was  decidedly  'dead.'  His  predecessor  had 
held  the  living  for  the  lengthened  period  of  fifty-nine  years, 
occupying  the  pulpit  in  person  until  he  was  eighty-seven. 
Though  at  first  a  sound  Evangelical  preacher,  the  advent 
of  age  brought  listlessness  and  torpor,  so  that  vital  religion 
and  warm  spirituality  burned  low  in  consequence. 

To  suffer  such  a  state  of  things  for  any  length  of  time 
would  not  have  been  in  keeping  with  the  splendid  activity 
of  Mr.  Guthrie's  nature.  He  immediately  set  to  work  to 
remedy  it.  fin  the  first  place  he  established  a  weekly 
prayer-meeting.  One  of  these  was  held  at  Arbirlot,  but  he 
had  two  or  three  other  '  cottage-meetings '  throughout  the 
parish  for  those  living  at  a  distance.  These  were  superin- 
tended by  his  elders,  and  to  each  of  them  he  paid  a  visit 
once  a  month.  Though  successful  in  Arbirlot,  the  '  cottage- 
meetings  '  elsewhere  scarcely  came  up  to  his  expectations, 
largely  owing  to  the  diffidence  and  modesty  of  the  elders 
conducting  them. 

Another  means  of  reaching  his  people,  and  thus  pro- 
moting their  intellectual  as  well  as  their  spiritual  ameli- 
oration, was  through  the  congregational  library,  which 
he  instituted  and,  in  conjunction  with  Mrs.  Guthrie, 
personally  superintended.  The  books  were  given  out  on 
Saturday  evenings,  and  were  retained  a  week.  When  the 
parishioners  returned  them  they  found  their  pastor  or  his 
lady  always  ready  to  discuss  the  volumes  with  them  and  to 
elicit  even  from  the  shyest — but  without  seeming  to  do  so — 
their  opinions  on  what  they  had  read.  The  parish  library 
was  one  of  the  most  successful  of  Mr.  Guthrie's  means  for 
raising  the  status  of  intellectual  culture  among  his  people. 


26  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

But  while  their  spiritual  and  mental  improvement 
was  thus  carefully  considered,  he  felt  that  the  lessons  in- 
culcated regarding  thrift  and  economy  would  be  shorn  of 
half  their  value  if  there  were  not  at  hand  some  agency 
whereby  the  savings  of  the  people  might  be  looked  after 
for  them.  Hitherto  the  time-honoured  bank  of  the 
Scottish  peasantry — the  stocking  or  the  old  teapot — had 
prevailed  in  Arbirlot  as  elsewhere.  But  such  a  system 
had  its  evils.  The  money  was  always  at  hand,  and  the 
pedlars' packs  were  oftentimes  pitfalls,  leading  the  indus- 
trious country-folk  into  extravagances  they  afterwards 
regretted.  A  parish  savings-bank  was  therefore  initiated 
and  proved  a  conspicuous  success,  the  minister's  banking 
experiences  now  standing  him  in  good  stead  in  suggesting 
the  best  means  of  organising  and  carrying  on  such  an 
institution. 

Nor  were  the  young  children  neglected.  Several 
Sabbath-schools,  conducted  by  the  elders  in  various  parts 
of  the  parish,  were  started  and  proved  successful.  To-day 
the  Sabbath-school  is  the  invariable  adjunct  and  feeder 
of  every  congregation.  Then,  however,  they  were  few 
and  far  between,  the  opinion  being  too  often  entertained 
that  such  classes  destroyed  parental  responsibility  for  the 
religious  education  of  their  children.  At  Arbirlot  the 
schools  were  so  arranged  that  they  did  not  interfere  with 
family  catechising  where  such  existed,  but  rather  acted 
as  valuable  aids  to  such  domestic  instruction. 

Nor  was  the  social  welfare  of  his  parish  beyond  the 
limits  of  his  personal  oversight.  Though  not  yet  a  total 
abstainer,  he  was  a  strong  advocate  of  temperance,  and 
impressed  its  necessity  upon  his  people.  Not  that  the 
vice  of  drunkenness  was  very  prevalent  in  Arbirlot. 
When  Mr.  Guthrie  went  there  he  found  only  two  public- 
houses  in  the  district.  One  of  these,  after  a  fatal  accident 
to  an  inebriate  had  roused  the  community,  he  succeeded 
in  getting  closed.  The  remaining  one  being  at  the  ex- 
treme end  of  the  parish,  offered  little  temptation  to  the 
Arbirlot  people. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  27 

While  Mr.  Guthrie  was  attaching  his  parishioners  to  him 
by  the  closest  ties  of  mutual  love  and  respect,  his  relations 
with  his  brethren  of  the  Presbytery  of  Arbroath  were  of 
the  most  friendly  character.  He  likewise  interested  himself 
in  the  business  of  the  Synod  of  Angus  and  the  Mearns, 
and  was  a  Commissioner  to  the  General  Assembly  in  1832, 
a  position  he  also  filled  in  the  years  1834  and  1835. 

Among  his  important  speeches  in  the  Presbytery  was 
one  he  delivered  in  January  1834,  when  he  moved  the 
notable  resolution  that  the  Presbytery  should  petition 
Parliament  to  repeal  the  Act  relating  to  Church  Patron- 
age. His  speech  on  that  occasion  was  a  cogent  and  con- 
vincing one,  and  he  carried  his  motion  by  three  votes, 
notwithstanding  all  the  efforts  of  the  Moderate  party  in 
the  Presbytery.  This  Anti-Patronage  resolution  brings  us 
at  last  to  the  time  when  the  first  'soughings'  became 
audible  of  that  mighty  storm  which  was  first  to  shake,  but 
in  the  end  to  rend  Scotland,  in  a  social  as  well  as  an 
ecclesiastical  sense,  to  her  foundations. 

In  1830,  when  Mr.  Guthrie  began  his  ministry  at  Arbirlot, 
there  were  in  reality  two  questions  adopted  by  the  Evangeli- 
cals of  the  day  as  their  rallying  cries  against  the  dominant 
Moderatism — '  No  Patronage '  and  'No  Intrusion.'  Though 
logically  separable  and,  as  was  proved,  capable  of  attracting 
each  its  distinctive  class  of  supporters,  yet  the  two  topics 
were  virtually  the  obverse  and  the  reverse  of  the  same 
great  problem — 'Was  the  Church  of  Scotland  "  Erastian" 
or  "free"? — in  other  words,  was  it  the  thrall  of  the  State, 
or  had  it  inalienable  rights — rights  that  might  indeed  have 
remained  dormant  for  many  long  decades,  yet  rights  that 
had  never  been  legally  abrogated  ?  Moderatism  1  main- 
tained the  right  of  the  State  to  intervene  in  the  purely 
spiritual  affairs  of  the  Church,  while  the  Evangelicals 
claimed  that  Christ's  Headship  over  the  nations  and  His 

1  The  '  high '  Moderates,  that  is,  of  the  type  of  Dr.  Cook  of  St. 
Andrews  ;  for  there  were  several  members  of  the  party,  such  as 
Dr.  Robertson  of  Ellon  and  Mr.  Story  of  Roseneath,  who  went  quite 
as  far  as  Dr.  Chalmers  in  denying  any  rights  to  the  State  of  jurisdiction 
over  the  spiritual  concerns  of  the  Church. 


28  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

Church  left  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  latter  indepen- 
dent of  the  Civil  Power,  save  what  was  implied  in  formal 
recognition,  protection,  and  maintenance. 

Mr.  Guthrie  was  not  only  an  '  Evangelical '  in  a  party 
sense,  he  was  one  by  conviction,  temperament,  and  bitter 
experience  of  the  evils  inflicted  alike  on  the  doctrine  and 
polity  of  the  Church  by  Moderatism  and  its  methods.  Not 
because  Dr.  Nicoll  and  his  followers  had  long  debarred 
him  from  exercising  the  office  of  the  ministry  did  he  now 
put  forth  all  his  efforts  to  destroy  the  influence  of  the 
party.  His  motives  were  not  dictated  by  such  personal 
considerations.  As  he  says  in  a  letter  written  a  little  later, 
1  my  aim  all  through  this  bitter  but  monotonous  struggle 
has  been  solely  to  vindicate  the  Headship  of  my  Saviour 
over  His  Church  and  people,  to  lead  men  to  see  that  no 
one,  not  even  the  State,  has  a  right  to  come  between 
Christ  and  His  Redeemed.' 

Mr.  Guthrie  accordingly  threw  himself  into  the  struggle 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  a  youthful  warrior,  conscious  of  the 
justice  of  his  cause.  Never  minister  '  educated '  his  people 
better  in  the  principles  at  stake.  Though  with  that  lofty 
reverence  he  always  manifested  for  the  sanctity  of  the  pulpit, 
he  never  introduced  controversial  topics  into  the  Sabbath 
services,  he  was  assiduous  on  week-nights  in  lecturing  to 
his  parishioners  on  the  subjects  then  bulking  so  largely  on 
the  public  attention.  He  also  held  meetings  in  the  dis- 
trict, at  which  his  friends  were  brought  from  far  and  near 
to  speak,  and  he  proposed  motions  both  in  Presbytery 
and  Synod  on  the  Abolition  of  Patronage.  As  yet  the 
Auchterarder  and  Strathbogie  cases1  had  not  made  the 
question  of  Non-Intrusion  so  prominent  and  crucial  as 
afterwards  it  became.  To  an  Anti- Patronage  crusade, 
therefore,  rather  than  a  Non-Intrusion  one,  his  efforts 
were  at  this  stage  devoted. 

Several  of  the  addresses  he  delivered  on  such  occasions 

1  The  Auchterarder  case  was  then  only  in  its  initial  stages ;  the 
vacancy  did  not  occur  until  August  1834.  The  Strathbogie  case  was 
still  in  the  womb  of  the  future. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  29 

are  still  extant.  They  are  characterised  by  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  subject,  sound  logical  reasoning,  vigorous 
thought,  stirring  personal  appeals,  pithy  apophthegms, 
almost  proverbial  in  their  epigrammatic  conciseness,  while 
the  whole  is  seasoned  with  the  Attic  salt  of  his  wit  and 
humour.  No  wonder  opponents  even  were  constrained 
to  admit  the  force  of  his  arguments. 

This,  however,  was  not  the  only  controversial  campaign 
wherein  he  was  then  engaged.  Voluntaryism  and  the  State 
Church  principle  were  being  subjected  to  keen  discussion 
and  comparative  analysis.  Into  what  is  known  as  the 
1  Voluntary  Controversy '  Mr.  Guthrie  threw  himself  with  as 
much  gusto  as  spirit,  involving  as  it  did  the  defence  of 
what,  at  this  stage  of  his  career,  he  believed  to  be  absolutely 
indispensable  to  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  country — the 
national  maintenance  of  religion.  In  the  war  of  words 
characterising  the  assertion  by  either  party  of  its  distinctive 
principles,  Mr.  Guthrie  took  a  prominent  part,  and  crossed 
swords  with  the  redoubtable  '  Ajax '  of  Voluntaryism  him- 
self, 'Potterrow  John,'  otherwise  Dr.  John  Ritchie  of 
Edinburgh. 

The  efforts  made  by  Dr.  Chalmers  and  his  friends  to 
promote  the  cause  of  Church  Extension  in  many  districts  in 
Scotland  had  filled  the  Secession  churches  with  dismay. 
At  this  time  there  may  be  said  to  have  been  four  separate 
denominations  coming  under  the  generic  designation 
1  Seceders ' :  the  United  Associate  Secession  Church,  formed 
by  the  re-union,  after  seventy-three  years  of  disruption  over 
the  terms  of  the  Burgess  oath,  of  the  General  Associate  or 
Anti-Burgher  Church,  and  the  Associate  or  Burgher  Church; 
the  Associate  Synod  of  Original  Seceders,  the  Original 
Burgher  Associate  Synod,  and  the  Relief  Synod.  The  raison 
d'etre  of  these  bodies,  apart  altogether  from  the  high-handed 
oppression  shown  towards  the  original  founders  of  the 
Secession  churches,  had  largely  been  the  inertia  and  abuses, 
along  with  the  lack  of  spirituality,  peculiar  to  the  State 
Church  under  the  reign  of  Moderatism.1  There  can  be  no 
1  See  Dr.  M'Crie's  Statement. 


3o  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

doubt,  as  an  unprejudiced  study  of  contemporary  facts  will 
demonstrate,  that  in  many  districts  the  Church  of  Scotland 
was  either  most  inadequately  represented,  or  not  repre- 
sented at  all.  In  some  instances,  incumbents  who  came 
under  the  designation  of  '  Slothful  Shepherds,' 1  alienated 
the  mass  of  the  piously  inclined  people  from  the  Church ; 
while  in  the  case  of  others  who  ostensibly  did  their  duty, 
the  icy  apathy  of  Moderatism  to  all  higher  spiritual  interests, 
with  the  Socinianism  and  Rationalism  preached  from  the 
pulpits,  drove  from  the  '  parish  kirk '  to  the  '  Secession 
meeting-house '  those  who  felt  that  to  remain  under  State 
Church  ordinances  would  be  to  allow  an  Arctic  winter  of 
religious  indifference  to  settle  down  upon  their  souls. 

To  counteract  in  some  measure  these  patent  evils-,  Dr. 
Chalmers  had  initiated  his  great  Church  Extension  move- 
ment. His  aim  was  to  infuse  life  into  the  whole  organism 
by  commencing  aggressive  religious  effort  in  certain  parts 
of  it;  and  by  begetting  a  spirit  of  emulation  among  the 
clergy,  to  induce  the  sluggards  from  mere  shame,  if  from 
no  higher  motive,  to  bestir  themselves  in  their  respective 
spheres.  But  the  Secession  ministers,  in  place  of  welcom- 
ing such  evidence  of  'the  coming  spring'  in  the  State 
Church,  looked  upon  the  Anti-Patronage  and  Church  Ex- 
tension crusades  as  threatening  their  existence.  If  the 
State  Church  were  reformed,  where  would  be  the  logical 
vindication  of  the  continuance  of  Dissent?  Hitherto  none 
of  these  Secession  Churches  had  definitely  pronounced 
against  the  principle  of  State  Aid.2  But  with  the  ripening 
reformation  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  before  them,  with 
the.  steady  decay  of  Moderatism  and  the  consequent  pre- 
dominance of  Evangelicalism,  after  the  turning-point  of 
the  passing  of  the  'Veto  Act'  in  1834,  the  Seceders  felt 
that  they  must  have  some  more  positive  and  definitive 
foundation  for  their  existence  than  mere  negative  dissent 
to  certain  abuses  in  the  State  Church.     Thus  came  into 

1  See  Wodrow's  description  of  the  Church   early   last  century  in 
vol.  ii.  of  the  Analecta. 

"  Once  more  see  Dr.  M'Crie's  Statement. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  31 

being  what  is  known  as  ■  the  Voluntary  principle,'  which,  be 
it  admitted  or  not,  forms  the  chief  stone  in  the  foundation 
of  every  Dissenting  Church's  standards. 

Mr.  Guthrie,  albeit  in  after  years  he  was  to  hold,  proudly 
and  tenaciously,  the  Voluntary  principle,  in  most,  if  not  all, 
of  its  ramifications,  considered  his  duty  meantime  to  lead 
him,  as  parish  minister  of  Arbirlot,  to  a  vehement  opposi- 
tion to  the  doctrine.  Yet  he  did  so  in  no  spirit  of  bigotry. 
Though  a  State  churchman,  he  was  a  liberal-minded 
Christian,  and  only  resisted  what  he  esteemed  an  unwar- 
rantable aggression.  He  would  not  have  been  the  honest 
and  honourable  man  he  was,  in  fact,  if,  holding  the  senti- 
ments he  did,  he  had  not  rushed,  when  the  battle-bugle 
sounded,  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  his  nature,  into  the 
thickest  of  the  fight. 

But  Mr.  Guthrie,  however  busy  with  Church  politics, 
never  permitted  the  interests  of  his  congregation  to  suffer. 
He  might  do  battle  with  *  Potterrow  John '  to-day,  and 
with  the  Moderates  of  Presbytery  and  Synod  to-morrow ; 
Church  Extension  meetings  might  occupy  one  part  of  the 
week,  and  schemes  for  the  social  and  moral  improvement 
of  the  parish  the  other ;  but  when  the  Sabbath  came  round 
he  entered  his  pulpit  as  carefully  prepared  as  though  he 
had  done  nothing  else  all  week  than  write  his  sermon.  We 
have  already  noted  with  what  honesty  he  worked  when  a 
student  at  College,  and  also  when  removed  from  every 
beneficial  home  and  social  influence  during  his  stay  on  the 
Continent.  To  him,  as  to  Carlyle,  albeit  their  spiritual 
and  ethical  standpoints  were  so  diverse,  the  Gospel  of 
Work-a-day  Duty  presented  its  moral  Categorical  Impera- 
tive so  forcibly  as  to  require  no  external  authority  to 
induce  him  to  be  instant  in  industry.  He  loved  work  for 
its  own  sake.  With  regard  to  the  exercise  of  his  powers, 
until  he  went  to  Arbirlot  his  character  was  still  tinged  with 
much  of  the  impulsiveness  and  prodigality  of  youth.  His 
chief  anxiety  was  to  do  a  thing  well,  without  giving  much 
consideration  to  the  expenditure  of  time,  talents,  and 
energy  on  the  undertaking.     He  was  too  apt  to  take  a 


32  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

Nasmyth  hammer  to  crack  a  nut,  in  place  of  apportioning 
the  degree  of  effort  to  the  importance  of  the  end.  He  did 
not,  as  yet,  understand  that  the  subtle  laws  of  the  Con- 
servation of  Energy  hold  as  potently  in  the  mental  as  in 
the  physical  economy. 

When  placed  in  charge  of  a  parish,  however,  and  when 
he  realised  that  he,  and  he  alone,  was  responsible  for  its 
progress,  both  in  a  religious  and  a  moral  sense,  his  character 
underwent  a  rapid  change.  To  the  irresponsibility  of 
youth — and  of  such  a  youth  as  his  had  been,  engirt  with 
pious  home  influences,  and  where  the  strictness  of  the 
family  regime  had  precluded  any  member  being  left  open 
to  the  assaults  of  early  temptations — had  succeeded  a 
sense  of  personal  obligation  and  liability,  with  a  realisation 
of  all  the  duties  the  position  of  pastor  and  teacher  implied. 
Only  a  few  months  were  to  pass,  ere  those  who  had 
known  him  in  pre-Arbirlot  days,  scarce  recognised  in  the 
sagacious,  far-seeing  clergyman,  the  volatile  youth,  brimming 
over  with  laughter  and  humour,  and  ready  for  all  kinds  of 
innocent  amusement.  The  laughter  and  the  humour  re- 
mained as  the  salt  and  savour  of  his  gracious  yet  dignified 
personality.  But  into  the  laughter  had  crept  a  new  note 
as  of  one  who  had  looked  upon  the  mystery  of  the  world's 
misery  and  sin  and  had  been  awed  by  the  sight ;  while  the 
humour,  if  less  piquant,  was  more  human,  having  lost 
somewhat  of  its  careless  abandon,  as  though  the  possessor 
had  learned  to  regard  all  humanity  as  his  brethren,  because 
bound  to  him  in  the  universal  '  Brotherhood '  of  Christ. 

Meantime,  the  light  of  a  man  so  prominent  as  Mr. 
Guthrie  was  becoming,  both  in  a  spiritual  and  intellectual 
sense,  could  not  longer  be  hid  under  the  bushel  of  a 
country  charge.  Already  the  eyes  of  many  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Evangelical  party  in  Edinburgh  were  turning  towards 
Arbirlot,  anxious  to  devise  means  whereby  a  minister  of 
such  gifts  and  controversial  ability  might  be  secured  for  the 
metropolitan  pulpit  and  the  central  councils  of  the  party. 
More  than  one  deputation  went  to  the  beautiful  seaboard 
parish  from  the  capital,  to  hear  the  young  preacher. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  33 

To  such  deputations  as  appealed  to  himself,  Mr.  Guthrie 
gave  no  encouragement.  He  was  happy  at  Arbirlot.  He 
believed  God  was  blessing  his  labours.  His  'Ebenezer' 
— or  sign  that  hitherto  the  Lord  had  helped  him — was 
raised  in  those  numerous  fruits  of  his  ministry  that  had 
come  under  his  personal  knowledge.  His  stipend  was 
sufficient  for  the  simple  needs  of  his  family :  '  not  a  royal 
revenue  would  tempt  me  to  leave,'  he  wrote  to  a  friend  in 
Edinburgh,  'were  mere  social  position  and  increased 
remuneration  the  sole  inducements  held  out.'  Therefore, 
when  the  new  and  fashionable  parish  church  of  Greenside 
was  built,  and  negotiations  were  opened  with  him  to  see 
if  he  would  accept  the  pastorship,  his  reply  was  an  uncon- 
ditional negative.  He  could  not  discern  the  Master's 
leading  therein. 

When  he  was  sounded  with  regard  to  Old  Greyfriars' 
Collegiate  Church,  however,  the  matter  presented  itself  in 
a  different  light.  Though  at  the  outset  he  discouraged 
the  proposed  transfer,  yet  when  he  was  informed  that  the 
charge  was  about  to  be  '  uncollegiated,'  and  that  his  work 
would  really  lie  in  that  field  where  he  had  always  desired 
to  labour — the  slums  of  the  Cowgate — he  felt  that  the 
Lord's  voice  was  present  in  the  '  invitation  '  to  '  come  over 
to  the  Macedonia  of  sin,  suffering,  and  sorrow,  and  help 
us.' 

But  another  reason,  and  one  of  a  more  secret  and 
personal  character,  decided  his  acceptance  of  the  call  to 
Old  Greyfriars.  During  the  fatal  winter  of  1 836-1 837, 
when  the  epidemic  of  influenza  passed  like  a  scourge  over 
the  land,  he  had  been  brought  within  view  of  the  dusky 
shores  of  death.  For  months  he  had  lain  helpless  as  a 
babe.  Restored  at  length  to  life  and  labour  in  response 
to  earnest  prayers,  he  felt  that,  in  return,  notwithstanding 
his  love  for  Arbirlot  and  its  rural  peace,  that  life  with  ail 
its  splendid  possibilities  must  in  future  be  consecrated  to 
higher,  nobler,  and  wider  issues.  Peaceful  and  pleasant 
beyond  most  though  his  pastorate  had  been,  the  irresistible 
call  had  come  for  the  young  labourer  to  proceed  to  that 

c 


34  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

new  sphere,  to  carry  the  'good  news'  of  the  Gospel,  with 
all  the  force  of  his  burning  eloquence,  to  that  '  submerged 
tenth'  in  our  population  that  had  fallen  away  from  the 
means  of  grace.  On  the  conditions  named,  therefore, 
Mr.  Guthrie  accepted  the  call  to  Old  Greyfriars,  and  amid 
the  regret  of  his  Forfarshire  parishioners  he  took  leave  of 
them  in  September  1837,  after,  as  he  says,  'seven  busy, 
happy,  and — I  have  reason  to  know  and  bless  God  for  it — 
not  unprofitable  years  spent  amongst  them.'  The  radiance 
of  those  golden  days  of  his  early  ministry  followed  him  on 
into  life — nay,  was  never  dimmed  until  the  great  end 
came.  During  those  years  in  {  Bonnie  Arbirlot '  he  had 
realised  the  mission  of  his  manhood.  There  first  he  had 
learned  the  secret  of  true  eloquence — viz.  to  touch  the 
heart  in  such  a  way  as  to  tell  on  the  life;  there  first 
he  had  known  the  holy  joy  of  leading  a  sin-stricken  soul 
to  the  divine  Sin-bearer;  there  first  he  had  adequately 
understood  the  possibilities  as  well  as  responsibilities  of 
the  pastor's  office ;  there  first  he  had  come  to  see  that  not 
by  might  of  intellect  or  of  eloquence,  not  by  power  of  will, 
but  by  the  working  of  the  Spirit  of  the  living  God — was 
the  world  to  be  won  for  Christ. 

And  in  ever-deepening  dependence  on  that  divine 
source  of  all  success,  he  set  up  the  banner  of  the  Cross 
and  marched  forward  into  the  unknown  future,  to  achieve 
fresh  conquests  for  his  King. 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE   VINEYARD   OF   APOLLYON 

Apollyon  has  his  vineyard  in  all  great  cities,  and  no 
sadder  sights  can  be  conceived  than  those  revealed  there 
from  time  to  time.  His  terrible  vintage  is  always  being 
gathered,  and  his  gatherers  leave  no  gleanings. 

Many  of  my  readers  have  doubtless  stood  on  the  spot 
where  George  iv.  Bridge  spans  the  Cowgate.  The  stranger 
who  comes  to  view  the  place  for  the  first  time  expects 
to  see  a  river  flowing  beneath.  A  '  river '  there  certainly 
is,  but  of  a  different  type  to  what  he  anticipates.  When 
he  gazes  into  the  ravine  below,  he  beholds — a  river  of 
seething,  pulsating  human  life,  perpetually  swollen  with 
the  vices  and  follies  of  mankind. 

But  as  the  observer  looks  down  into  the  Cowgate,  he 
descries  not  only  a  river  of  human  life,  but  a  drama  of 
existence  being  enacted  before  his  eyes — a  drama  Protean 
in  its  variety  and  infinite  alternations.  He  beholds  a 
teeming  population  beneath,  moving  hither  and  thither, 
but  a  population  bearing  the  stamp  on  well-nigh  every 
countenance,  of  that  sullen  hopelessness  which  ensues 
when  a  soul  has  relinquished  the  moral  struggle  to  subdue 
its  own  vicious  propensities.  Right  below  lies  the  narrow 
street  of  towering  tenements  whose  chimney-pots  reach  the 
level  of  the  bridge,  and  whose  patched  and  battered  roofs 
are  emblematic  of  the  character  and  fortunes  of  the  tenants. 
Of  these  some  are  lying  over  the  sills  of  windows  inno- 
cent of  glass,  or  stuffed  with  old  hats  or  dirty  rags ;  others, 
coarse-looking  women  with  children  in  their  arms,  stand 
around  in  groups.  Able-bodied  men  who  should  have  been 
at  work  are  moodily  smoking  at  the  mouths  of  the  closes, 

35 


36  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

or  brawling  among  themselves  over  some  partition  of  the 
proceeds  of  crime ;  brazen-faced  girls  who  have  long  lost 
woman's  subtlest  charm — virtuous  modesty — are  either 
egging  their  male  friends  on  to  quarrels,  or  shouting  coarse 
jests  to  one  another;  wrinkled  crones,  upon  whose  locks 
the  snows  of  the  '  sixties '  and  '  seventies '  have  fallen 
heavily,  are  gossiping  conveniently  near  the  public-house; 
while  troops  of  children  prematurely  old  and  hardened — 
many  of  them  born  out  of  wedlock,  and  therefore  left  to 
hang  as  they  grow — are  darting  in  their  noisy  games  hither 
and  thither,  picturesque  in  their  raggedness,  but  by  their 
gaiety  introducing  the  one  human  element  into  the  picture; 
fish-hawkers  and  fruit-sellers  are  shouting  their  wares  ;  while, 
high  over  all,  two  termagants,  who  have  quarrelled  over 
a  lover,  are  tearing  each  other's  hair  out  to  a  running 
accompaniment  of  oaths  and  shouts  from  their  respective 
partisans.  The  public-houses  are  nearly  as  numerous  as 
autumn  leaves — and  they  are  all  well  patronised  !  Disease 
is  present  on  all  sides ;  while  sin,  sorrow,  and  suffering,  are 
writ  large  on  almost  every  face. 

Such  then  was  the  Vineyard  of  Apollyon  Mr.  Guthrie 
was  called  upon  to  take  as  his  parish.  I  will  not  say  that 
the  magnitude  of  the  task  did  not  appal  him,  much  though 
he  longed  to  engage  in  such  work.  He  wras  standing  at 
the  point  of  view  named  above,  a  day  or  two  after  his 
arrival  in  Edinburgh,  and  was  gazing  somewhat  despon- 
dently upon  the  awful  epics  and  tragedies  of  misery  being 
enacted  below,  and  contrasting  the  scene  with  the  rural 
peace  of  '  Bonnie  Arbirlot,'  when  an  arm  was  slipped 
through  his,  and  the  broad,  Luther-like  face  of  Dr. 
Chalmers  looked  up  into  his  own,  with  an  encouraging 
smile.  For  a  moment  or  two  they  stood  both  silently 
eyeing  the  Cowgate.  Then  the  great  man,  with  a  sweep  of 
his  arm  that  took  in  the  whole  district,  said  in  tones  of 
genuine  rapture — '  A  grand  field,  sir,  for  your  work  ;  yes, 
indeed,  a  beautiful  field.  Far  greater  is  He  that  is  for  you, 
than  all  that  are  against  you.'  Like  the  morning  cloud 
Mr.  Guthrie's  despondency  vanished,  never  to  return. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  37 

Largely  to  Dr.  Chalmers  did  he  owe  the  opportunity  now 
about  to  be  afforded  him  of  exercising  his  powers  in 
evangelising  the  masses.  That  extraordinary  man,  at  this 
time  only  slightly  past  the  meridian  of  his  superb  intel- 
lectual force,  had,  since  the  death  of  Sir  Henry  Moncreiff 
and  of  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson,  been  the  recognised  leader 
of  the  Evangelical  party  in  the  Church  of  Scotland.  He 
was  now  engaged  in  carrying  into  effect  his  great  scheme  of 
Church  Extension,  a  prominent  feature  in  which  was  his 
plan  for  evangelising  the  '  Lapsed  Masses '  by  the  system 
of  '  Territorialism.'  To  understand  this  thoroughly  we 
must  realise  what  the  Edinburgh  parochial  system  compre- 
hended. 

In  1625,  Charles  1.,  affirming  the  scheme  formulated  by 
his  father,  enacted 1  : — 

'That  the  town  of  Edinburgh,  including  the  Westport, 
Cowgait  Street,  and  the  head  of  the  Canongait,  incorporated 
with  them  by  ane  late  Act  of  Parliament,  and  whole  sail  be 
distributed  in  four  several  paroches  .  .  .  and  that  eache  of 
the  said  Parochins  and  Congregatiouns  sail  be  provided  with 
twa  Ministers,  so  that  the  Town  sail  have  eight  Ministers  in 
the  whole.' 

In  1 64 1  the  number  of  churches  was  raised  to  six,  and 
at  a  later  date  to  eleven?  *  In  all  the  churches'  (as  Hugo 
Arnot  said  in  1777) 3  'within  the  royalty,  excepting  Lady 
Yester's  and  New  Greyfriars',  two  ministers  officiate.'  But 
after  the  city  overflowed  its  ancient  boundaries,  and  spread 
north  and  south  and  east,  when,  in  addition,  the  wealthier 
parishioners  left  the  older  churches  to  attend  quoad  sacra 
places  of  worship  erected  in  the  '  New  Town,'  the  Town 
Council  found  a  difficulty  in  paying  the  stipends  of  two 
ministers  who  were  doing  work  that  could  easily  be 
overtaken  by  one.  Accordingly,  one  by  one  they  were 
;  uncollegiated.'  In  1834  the  Town  Council  definitely  put 
the  question  whether  the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh  would 
give  its  consent  to  the  same  course  being  applied  to  the 

1  Conn.  Regist.,  vol.  xiii.  f.  289. 

2  Maitland's  History  of  Edinburgh,  p.  277. 

3  Arnot's  Edinburgh,  p.  275. 


38  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

five  remaining  charges  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
regality — to  wit  the  High  Church,  the  Old  Church,  the 
Tron,  Old  Greyfriars,  and  St.  Andrew's. 

This  consent  the  Presbytery  expressed  its  willingness  to 
grant,  upon  condition  that  the  city  should  be  divided  into 
eighteen  instead  of  thirteen  parishes,  each  parish  to  have 
a  minister  of  its  own  !  But  eventually  the  Council  shrunk 
from  the  undertaking — nay,  at  one  time  even  from  fulfilling 
its  pledge  to  provide  a  new  church  for  Mr.  Guthrie.  Then 
Dr.  Chalmers  interposed  to  relieve  the  Council  of  its  diffi- 
culty. Thirty  individuals  were  induced  by  him  to 
subscribe  ^ioo  for  the  erection  of  a  church  in  the 
Cowgate,  one  of  the  most  destitute  places  in  the  whole  of 
Edinburgh.1 

The  proposal  was  not  destined  to  be  promoted  by  the 
Town  Council  to  the  extent  hoped,  and  had  help  not  been 
extended  by  Lord  Medwyn,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  Court 
of  Session,  and  a  son  of  Sir  W.  Forbes  the  banker — a  man, 
moreover,  who  though  a  bigoted  Episcopalian  and  cherish- 
ing a  dislike  to  Presbyterianism,  yet  placed  benevolence 
above  sectarian  feeling — the  erection  of  the  building 
would  have  been  indefinitely  delayed. 

Lord  Medwyn,  with  some  other  prominent  citizens  of 
Edinburgh,  had  started  what  they  called  '  a  Savings-Bank ' 2 
in  the  city.  As  soon  as  his  lordship  understood  that  the 
Church  of  Scotland  was  about  to  try  the  experiment  of 
reviving  the  old  parochial  or  territorial  system,  and  that 
there  was  a  difficulty  in  securing  the  necessary  funds,  he 
proposed  to  his  fellow-managers — then  engaged  with  him 
in  winding  up  their  institution,  which  had  been  superseded 
by  the  National  Savings  Bank — that  some  ^1700  of  un- 
claimed deposits  should  be  devoted  to  the  purpose. 
Help  never  came  more  opportunely. 

We  now  behold  Mr.  Guthrie  installed  in  his  new  sphere 
as  colleague-minister  of  Old  Greyfriars,  a  position  he  would 

1  Hanna's  Life  of  Chalmers,  vol.  iii.  p.  446. 

2  In  fact,  Lord  Medwyn  claimed  to  be  the  originator  of  savings- 
banks,  as  against  the  claims  of  Dr.  Duncan  of  Ruthwell. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  39 

hold,  sharing  the  pulpit  duties  alternately  with  the  Rev. 
John  Sym,  until  the  new  territorial  church  was  built.  Into 
the  work  of  this  new  sphere  he  threw  himself  with  an 
energy  and  enthusiasm  which  astonished  some  of  his 
patrons  of  the  Town  Council,  accustomed  to  the  '  easy-ozy 
ways '  of  most  of  his  brethren.  His  many-sided  nature, 
cramped  hitherto  within  the  narrow  bounds  of  a  quiet 
rural  parish,  where  the  poor  were  few,  the  destitute  fewer 
still,  while  the  vicious,  criminal,  and  reprobate  classes  were 
practically  unknown,  had  now  free  scope  to  expand  itself. 
Now  he  had  been  'called'  to  the  Vineyard  of  Apollyon, 
where  his  parishioners  would  largely  be  found  among 
those  who  were  not  merely  indigent,  but  vicious  as 
well. 

The  oversight  of  the  Old  Greyfriars'  congregation  he, 
in  great  measure,  left  to  his  colleague,  whose  flock  they 
would  continue  to  be  after  the  charge  was  uncollegiated. 
Mr.  Guthrie  opened  a  vigorous  campaign  against  the 
powers  of  evil  by  a  '  house-to-house,'  nay,  we  may  almost 
say  a  'room-to-room'  visitation — for  few  of  the  residents 
could  afford  more  than  a  single  apartment — of  the  whole 
field  of  his  operations.  Of  the  awful  sights  he  wit- 
nessed he  speaks  again  and  again  in  his  works.1  They 
were  sights  which  filled  him  both  with  sorrow  and  despair. 
More  than  once  he  remarks  that  had  his  faith  not  been 
firmly  grounded  on  the  Lord's  grace  being  sufficient  to 
enable  him  to  achieve  all  things,  he  would  have  relin- 
quished the  work  as  hopeless.  The  frightful  destitution, 
the  ravages  of  disease  among  people  with  constitutions 
undermined  by  want  and  excess,  the  unblushing  brazenness 
of  vice,  the  callous  criminality  of  those  who  lived  by 
robbery  and  violence,  the  hateful  hypocritical  deceit  which 
feigned  religious  impression  in  order  to  obtain  money,  the 
prevalence  of  juvenile  depravity,  with  the  almost  general 
indulgence  in  the  most  degrading  forms  of  drunkenness 
— all  combined  to  form  a   picture  of  '  sin,   sorrow,   and 

1  See  particularly   The  City — its  Sins  and  Sorrows  ;  his  Pleas  for 
Ragged  Schools,  Man  and  the  Gospel,  Sketches  of  the  Cowgate,  etc. 


4o  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

suffering '  never  absent  from  his  thoughts  until  life's 
latest  hour. 

But  he  never  faltered..  He  took  as  his  motto  ' Jehovah- 
nissi :  The  Lord  my  Banner,'  and  every  disappointment 
and  failure  only  caused  him  to  redouble  his  efforts  and 
his  prayers.  '  We  must  win  if  we  have  only  faith  enough,' 
he  was  wont  to  say  to  those  critics  who  were  inclined  to 
sneer  at  a  man  of  his  ability  throwing  himself  away  '  on 
a  lot  of  paupers  and  pickpockets.'  But  despite  his  hope- 
fulness and  cheery  good  spirits,  the  position  was  one  of 
great  anxiety.  He  knew  he  was  being  watched,  not  only 
by  his  own  Church,  but  by  all  the  other  denomina- 
tions, who  were  on  the  qui  vive  to  see  how  the  experi- 
ment of  reviving  '  Territorialism '  would  work.  He 
realised  that  not  only  his  own  reputation  but  that  of  Dr. 
Chalmers,  and  others  who  had  so  eagerly  promoted  the 
scheme,  were  all  involved  in  his  successful  achievement 
of  the  great  work  set  before  him.  Therefore,  in  season 
and  out  of  season,  morning,  noon,  and  night,  Mr.  Guthrie 
and  his  devoted  helpmate  were  at  work  visiting,  re- 
lieving the  sick  and  destitute,  obtaining  work  for  the  un- 
employed, clothing  the  naked,  and  feeding  the  hungry. 
He  virtually  lived  in  his  parish  in  every  sense  of  the  word, 
for  his  dwelling  was  situate  d  upon  the  southern  ridge 
overlooking  the  Cowgate,  viz.  first  in  Argyle  Square  and 
next  in  Brown  Square.  Within  two  minutes  he  could  be 
at  the  bedside  of  any  sufferer  who  summoned  him. 

Such  an  existence,  lived  at  pressure  so  high,  neces- 
sarily detracted  much  from  that  quiet  home  life  which 
was  Mr.  Guthrie's  keenest  delight  during  his  Arbirlot 
days.  His  arrival  in  Edinburgh  marked  the  close  of  what 
may  be  described  as  the  'domestic  period'  of  his  life. 
Henceforward  he  had  to  pay  the  price  of  popularity1  and 
metropolitan  position,  in  diminished  domesticity;   hence- 

1  A  good  proof  of  his  wide  popularity  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  his  'figure'  was  selected  by  Crombie  to  form  one  of  the  repre- 
sentative '  Modern  Athenians '  in  the  volume  of  portraits  published 
under  that  title.  He  appears  in  plate  21  in  company  with  John 
Menzies  of  Pitfoddels. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  41 

forward  he  had  to  keep  'open  house.'  His  table  and 
the  warm  '  Guthrie  welcome '  were  ever  made  free  to  all 
his  country  brethren  and  friends  who  might  come  to 
town.  His  growing  fame  also  drew  strangers  to  his 
roof,  who,  after  being  electrified  by  his  eloquence  on  the 
Sabbath,  desired  to  see  if  the  great  pulpit  orator  practised 
in  private  what  he  inculcated  in  public.  I  have  always 
maintained  that  Dr.  Guthrie  preached  as  powerfully  by 
his  life  as  by  his  lip,  for  those  who  came  to  see  found 
that  for  him  the  precepts  of  the  Sunday  moulded  the 
practice  of  the  Monday.  Though  for  thirty-six  years  he 
lived  continually  in  the  fierce  light  of  public  scrutiny 
which  beats  on  our  prominent  men,  the  words  of  Monod 
express  no  more  than  the  truth,  '  He  is  even  more  mar- 
vellous as  a  man  than  as  a  minister.' 

On  the  19th  November  1840,  Mr.  Guthrie's  new  church, 
named  St.  John's,  was  opened,  and  as  the  Witness  of  the 
day  remarked,  '  the  event  formed  an  important  era  in  the 
history  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.'  The  whole  area  of 
the  building,  containing  six  hundred  and  fifty  sittings,  was 
reserved  as  absolutely  free  seats  for  residents  in  the  parish, 
while  the  gallery  was  let  to  applicants  from  all  parts  of  the 
city.  As  might  be  expected,  within  a  day  or  two  every 
seat  was  taken  up,  and  hundreds  were  unable  to  obtain 
accommodation.  Mr.  Guthrie's  reputation  as  a  pulpit 
orator  had  now  been  unquestionably  established.  When 
he  was  announced  to  preach  in  aid  of  a  scheme  or  charity 
at  any  church  other  than  his  own,  the  fact  was  -sufficient 
to  ensure  the  building  being  packed  to  suffocation  long 
before  the  hour  of  service.  In  consequence,  he  was  over- 
whelmed with  applications  for  such  occasions,  the  pro- 
moters being  thereby  assured  of  a  good  collection. 
Though  the  Edinburgh  pulpit  was  at  this  time  exceedingly 
strong  in  pious,  evangelical,  and  earnest  ministers — the 
Revs.  Dr.  R.  S.  Candlish  being  in  St.  George's,  Dr.  Gordon 
at  the  High  Church,  Dr.  Cunningham  at  Trinity  College 
Church,  Dr.  Bruce  at  St.  Andrew's,  Dr.  J.  Buchanan  at 
North  Leith,  Dr.  Charles  Brown  in  the  New  North,  and 


42  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

Dr.  Begg  at  Liberton — yet  the  opinion  was  widely  current 
that,  with  the  solitary  exception  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  Dr. 
Guthrie  was  the  greatest,  pulpit  orator  in  the  city.  While 
he  never  manifested  the  metaphysical  subtlety  of  Cardlish, 
nor  the  massive  thought  of  Cunningham,  nor  the  airiosa 
feliritas,  at  times  even  approaching  quaintness,  of  Bruce, 
nor  the  majestic  stateliness  of  Buchanan,  and  thus  was 
not  their  equal  as  a  '  preacher '  or  theologian,  in  all  the 
supreme  qualities  of  oratorical  pre-eminence,  in  range, 
volume,  and  compass  of  voice,  in  knowledge  of  the 
human  heart,  and  skill  in  adapting  tone  to  tenor  of 
thought,  in  vividness  and  warmth  of  imagination  united 
to  wealth  of  diction,  Guthrie  took  rank  before  all,  in  seme 
respects  even  excelling  Chalmers  himself.  He  was  the 
popular  pulpit  orator,  the  magic  of  whose  tones  swayed 
thousands  at  will ;  but  there  was  in  his  oratory  something 
higher  as  well,  the  poet's  love  of  the  picturesque  and  the 
beautiful. 

From  1837  to  1840,  when  the  Non-Intrusion  struggle 
began  in  grim  earnest,  Mr.  Guthrie  spared  neither  time 
nor  trouble  to  make  the  territorial  experiment  so  great 
a  success  under  God's  blessing,  that  it  would  justify  other 
schemes  of  a  cognate  character  being  tried.  "What  those 
scenes  of  horror  and  of  misery  cost  him  in  agony  of 
spirit  when  witnessing  a  destitution  so  widespread,  only 
an  infinitesimal  portion  of  which  he  was  able  to  relieve, 
can  be  guessed  by  those  alone  who  knew  the  great  com- 
passionate heart  of  the  man,  or  who  peep  into  his  note- 
books and  memoranda. 

With  regard  to  his  new  church  and  the  special  purpose 
it  was  designed  to  serve  in  the  neighbourhood,  Mr. 
Guthrie  at  this  stage  held  very  strong  views  with  regard 
to  the  absolute  necessity  for  State  connection  and  State 
aid  in  prosecuting  effectively  such  operations.  On  this 
subject  he  remarked  in  a  speech  delivered  in  1838  : — 

'  I  have  read  of  a  cave  from  which  the  most  thoughtless 
came  out  sobered,  the  most  talkative  came  out  silent ;  and 
I  have  often  fancied  that  if  I  could  get  some  Voluntary  to 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  43 

accompany  me  on  my  parochial  visitations  for  a  single  clay, 
the  College  Wynd  and  the  Cowgate  would  rival  that  cave  in 
the  wondrous  change  they  would  work  on  him.  He  might 
go  in  a  Voluntary,  but  he  would  come  out  for  an  Establish- 
ment, .  .  .  and  with  the  conviction  that  there  was  no  means 
which  would  move  and  lift  up  these  people  but  that  thorough 
parochial  system  and  that  pastoral  superintendence  which  is 
inseparable  from  an  Establishment,  never  has  existed  with 
Voluntaryism,  and,  what  is  more,  never  can.' 

I  quote  these  words  at  length  in  order  to  show  how 
far  Dr.  Guthrie  had  modified  his  views  on  this  subject 
when,  in  November  187 1,  at  the  centenary  of  the  Wallace 
Green  U.P.  Church,  Berwick  (Rev.  Dr.  Cairns'),  he  re- 
marked amid  thunders  of  applause  : — 

'There  is  nothing  in  our  formula  binding  our  ministry  or 
any  one  now  to  hold  the  principle  of  endowments,  .  .  .  and 
though  the  Government  were  to  ofler  me  endowments  to- 
morrow, I  would  fling  them  in  the  face  of  the  Government, 
and  I  would  say — "  I  have  learned  to  walk  on  my  own  feet, 
and  am  no  more  disposed  to  lean  on  your  crutches,"  knowing 
perfectly  well  from  the  whole  history  of  the  past  that  when  I 
lost  the  power  of  walking  and  depended  on  your  crutches,  you 
would  knock  them  out  from  below  me  and  lay  me  at  your 
feet.' 

What  the  process  of  '  Territorialism '  would  have  effected 
in  the  direction  of  evangelising  the  masses  can  now,  how- 
ever, only  be  matter  for  speculation.  The  promising  and 
daily  increasing  interest  in  Church  Extension  was  to  be 
arrested,  to  the  intense  grief  of  Dr.  Chalmers  and  Mr. 
Guthrie,  by  the  chilling  frost  of  ecclesiastical  controversy 
which  for  years  laid  its  numbing  hand  upon  the  healthy 
development  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  The  Evangelical 
party  had  to  lay  down  the  spiritual  mattock  and  hoe  and 
take  up  the  controversial  sword  and  breastplate.  Scotland, 
however,  was  to  be  covered  with  churches  in  another  way 
than  to  either  of  the  two  friends  of  'Extension'  had 
appeared  possible  or  expedient.  But  the  Lord  had  His 
own  methods  of  ecclesiastical  development  to  work  out, 
and  when  despair  was  deepest,  the  dawn  of  a  new  era 
of  spiritual  blessing  for  Scotland  was  even  then  ruddyirg 
the  east, 


CHAPTER    V 

THE   NON-INTRUSION   STRUGGLE 

Only  two  and  a  half  years  remained  wherein  Mr.  Guthrie, 
as  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  might  labour 
to  bring  to  fruition  those  carefully  matured  schemes  of 
his  for  evangelising  the  masses.  But,  at  the  very  time 
when  his  utmost  efforts  were  required  to  cope  with  the 
demands  of  his  great  charge,  other  matters  claimed  his 
attention — matters,  moreover,  of  such  cardinal  moment, 
not  alone  to  himself  but  to  the  Church  as  a  whole,  as 
even  to  warrant  time  being  taken  from  parochial  duties 
for  their  consideration. 

Scarcely  was  Mr.  Guthrie  settled  in  Edinburgh  than  the 
horizon-cloud  of  conflict  between  the  Church  and  the 
Law  Courts — a  cloud  hitherto  not  larger  than  a  man's 
hand — began  steadily  to  overspread  the  entire  sky-line  of 
that  Church's  future.  The  vigorous  efforts  of  the  Evan- 
gelicals on  behalf  of  Church  Extension,  as  well  as  in 
repudiation  of  the  allegations  of  the  Voluntaries,  had 
aroused  the  antagonism  of  two  widely  differing  types  of 
adversaries,  viz.  the  Moderates  within  the  Church,  who 
were  angry  that  their  slumber  had  been  broken  by  the 
misdirected  enthusiasm  of  the  '  Highfliers,' x  as  the 
Evangelicals  were  styled ;  and  second,  the  Seceders 
without  the  Church,  who,  as  we  have  said,  saw  their 
raison  d^etre  threatened  by  this  evidence  of  vitality  within 
the  Establishment,  and  were  therefore  compelled,  in  order 
to  preserve  a  logical  reason  for  their  continued  existence, 

1  '  Highfliers.' — This  name  gave  rise  to  a  misconception  in  England 
at  the  time  of  the  Disruption.     Some  supposed  the  Scottish  Evangeli- 
cals to  be  identical  with  the  party  now  known  as  Ritualists, 
44 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  45 

to  advance  to  the  final  position  of  out-and-out  opposition 
to  all  State  connection. 

These  controversies  were  still  being  waged,  when  the 
early  echoes  became  audible  of  a  more  terrible  conflict 
than  any  yet  experienced — the  attempt  of  the  State,  as 
represented  by  the  Court  of  Session,  to  coerce  the  Church 
in  the  discharge  of  her  spiritual  functions.  When  Mr. 
Guthrie  went  to  Edinburgh,  both  the  Auchterarder  and 
the  Lethendy  cases  had  already  come  before  the  Supreme 
Courts  of  the  Church  and  of  the  country.  Scotland's 
Church  and  Scotland's  Judicature  were  rapidly  coming 
into  collision.  Dr.  Guthrie  in  after-life  maintained  that 
had  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson  lived  beyond  1831  to  combat 
the  desire  of  Dr.  Chalmers  and  Lord  MoncrierT  to  preserve 
patronage  under  certain  restrictions,  there  would  have 
been  no  Disruption.1  That  event  would  never  have 
occurred  had  the  Evangelical  party  been  united  in  their 
course  of  action — if,  in  other  words,  under  the  altered 
state  of  things  in  the  electorates,  due  to  the  Reform  Bill, 
the  party  had  first  sought  to  influence  the  Legislature 
through  the  polls,  then  gone  to  the  Reformed  Parliament 
asking  that  the  same  principle  of  reform  be  applied  to 
the  Church,  and  that  the  fetters  of  patronage,  which  had 
been  reimposed  by  Queen  Anne's  Jacobite -tinctured 
Government  against  the  will  of  the  people,  should  be 
knocked  off.  By  this  means  the  Evangelical  party  would 
have  been  kept  out  of  conflict  with  the  Law  Courts,  whose 
decisions,  of  course,  an  English  Government,  sitting  so 
far  away  as  London,  accustomed  moreover  to  the  absolute 
dependence  of  the  Church  of  England  on  the  State,  and 
also  to  a  large  extent  ignorant  of  Presbyterianism  and  its 
principles,  was  bound  to  uphold. 

In  August  1834,  the  parish   of  Auchterarder2   having 

1  See  also  the  Life  of  Hugh  Miller ;  by  Peter  Bayne,  M.A.,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  185-186. 

2  My  father,  the  late  Rev.  Professor  Smeaton,  D.D.,  was  the  first 
minister  of  Auchterarder  Free  Church.  I  here  draw  largely  on  notes 
left  by  him  with  reference  to  the  state  of  the  parish  as  he  found  it 
after  the  Disruption. 


46  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

become  vacant  through  the  death  of  the  incumbent  (the 
Rev.  Charles  Stewart),  the  patron,  the  Earl  of  Kinnoul, 
appointed  Mr.  Robert  Young,  licentiate,  to  the  living. 
But  after  preaching  to  the  people  on  two  Sabbaths,  his 
ministrations  proved  so  unacceptable  to  them  that  his  call 
on  being  presented  to  the  Presbytery  of  Auchterarder,  was 
found  to  be  signed  by  no  more  than  three  individuals, 
only  two  of  whom  belonged  to  the  parish,  while  the 
dissentients  to  the  call  numbered  287  out  of  a  total  of 
330  eligible  to  exercise  the  privilege.  The  Presbytery 
therefore  had  no  hesitation  in  refusing  Mr.  Young's 
application  to  be  ordained  minister  of  the  parish.  There- 
upon the  patron  and  the  presentee  carried  the  matter  to 
the  Law  Courts.  The  latter,  in  his  petition  to  the 
Judicature,  affirmed  not  merely  his  right  to  the  stipend, 
manse,  and  glebe,  but,  disregarding  all  distinctions  between 
things  spiritual  and  things  temporal,  he  asked  to  have  it 
declared,  not  only  that  he  was  entitled  to  the  benefice, 
but  that  the  Presbytery  was  bound  to  ordain  him,  regardless 
of  the  parishioners'  opposition,  provided  only  they  were 
satisfied  with  his  moral  and  intellectual  qualifications. 

The  case  was  argued  before  the  entire  bench  of  thirteen 
judges,  the  Dean  of  Faculty  (John  Hope)  being  leading 
counsel  for  Young,  and  the  Solicitor-General  (Andrew 
Rutherfurd,  afterwards  Lord  Rutherfurd)  representing  the 
Church.  The  decision  of  the  Bench  was  given  in  March 
1838 — six  months  after  Mr.  Guthrie's  translation  to  Edin- 
burgh— eight  judges  pronouncing  in  favour  of  the  presentee, 
the  Lord  President  Hope,  Lord  Justice-Clerk  Boyle,  Lords 
Gillies,  Mackenzie,  Corehouse,  Meadowbank,  Medwyn, 
Cunningham  ;  while  five — comprising  the  ablest  and 
most  brilliant  members  of  the  Judicature,  in  particular 
Glenlee  (the  acutest  legal  intellect  of  his  time),  Jeffrey, 
Moncreiff,  Cockburn,  Fullerton — were  on  the  side  of  the 
Church. 

This  decision  of  the  Court  could  not,  of  course,  be 
submitted  to.  The  matter  was  appealed  to  the  House 
of  Lords.     The  specific  point  on  which  the  Church  took 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  47 

its  stand  was  that  clause  in  the  order  of  the  Judicature 
that  'the  Presbytery  was  bound  to  take  Mr.  Young  on 
trials  with  a  view  to  ordination.'  The  Church  declined 
to  recognise  the  control  attempted  to  be  arrogated  by 
the  Civil  Courts  over  the  purely  spiritual  function  of 
ordination,  and  declared  that  under  no  circumstances 
could  coercion  be  applied  to  her  to  compel  her  to  dis- 
charge duties  within  her  spiritual  province  which  she 
held  to  be  unscriptural.  The  Judicature,  on  the  other  hand, 
contended  that,  under  certain  circumstances,  it  did  possess 
the  power  of  coercion,  and  that  these  circumstances  had 
now  occurred. 

The  Law  Courts,  with  a  sort  of  dogged  obstinacy  the 
individual  members  of  which  were  afterwards  bitterly  to 
regret,  proceeded  to  push  matters  to  an  extremity.  They 
interdicted  the  Presbytery  of  Dunkeld  from  ordaining 
Mr.  Kessen,  licentiate,  to  the  vacant  charge  of  Lethendy 
in  place  of  a  Mr.  Clark,  who  had  been  vetoed  by  the 
congregation.  When  the  Presbytery,  however,  under  in- 
structions from  the  General  Assembly,  actually  did  ordain 
the  former,  the  Court  of  Session  summoned  them  to  its 
bar  and  rebuked  them.  On  that  occasion  Lord  President 
Hope  remarked  that  *  the  next  time  the  ministers  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  broke  an  interdict,  they  would  be 
visited  with  all  the  penalties  of  the  law — the  penalty  of 
the  law  being,  the  Calton  Jail.' 

This  was  followed  by  the  famous  Strathbogie  case, 
wherein  the  cleavage  within  the  Church,  between  Moderates 
and  Evangelicals,  became  mournfully  apparent.  Seven 
Moderate  ministers  of  the  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie  were 
suspended  by  the  Commission  of  Assembly  for  attempting 
to  ordain  to'  the  parish  of  Marnoch  a  licentiate  named 
Edwards,  whose  call  was  only  signed  by  one  individual 
—the  innkeeper  where  the  Presbytery  dined!  The 
Court  of  Session  actually  interdicted  any  of  the  other 
ministers  of  the  Church  from  entering  the  parishes  of 
any  of  the  seven,  to  announce  the  terms  of  the  suspen- 
sion    to    them,   or    to    perform    the    public    or   sealing 


48  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

ordinances  of  religion  to  the  congregations  under  ecclesi- 
astical discipline.1 

Of  all  these  proceedings,  both  before  and  after  "his  trans- 
lation to  Edinburgh,  Mr.  Guthrie  was  an  interested  spec- 
tator, and  in  some  of  them  he  played  a  prominent  part. 
In  February  1840,  Mr.  Guthrie  took  his  turn  with  his 
brethren  in  supplying  the  ordinances  of  the  Church  to 
the  flocks  of  the  suspended  ministers  in  Strathbogie,  and 
his  conduct,  under  exceptionally  perplexing  circumstances, 
evinced,  as  much  as  any  other  episode  in  his  career,  what 
a  fund  of  practical  sagacity  he  possessed.  The  seven 
suspended  ministers  had  made  a  renewed  application  to 
the  Court  of  Session,  which,  by  a  majority,  consented  to 
issue  an  extended  interdict,  forbidding  Mr.  Guthrie  or  any 
other  of  the  delegates  of  the  Church,  to  preach  or  dispense 
ordinances,  in  any  building  whatever  within  that  district 
— nay,  not  even  on  the  highroad  or  open  moor.  I  here 
subjoin  a  copy  of  the  interdict : 2 — 

'  I,  Robert  Falconer,  Solicitor  in  Keith,  notary  public,  by 
virtue  of  an  attested  copy  of  the  interlocutor  pronounced  by 
the  Lords  of  the  First  Division  of  the  Court  of  Session,  dated 
the  fourteenth  day  of  February  1840,  on  the  Reclaiming  Note 
for  the  Rev.  John  Cruickshank  and  others  against  the  Rev. 
David  Dewar  and  others,  in  Note  of  Suspension  and  Interdict 
for  the  said  complainers,  of  which  attested  copy  of  Interlocutor, 
Note  of  Suspension  and  Interdict,  Statement  of  Facts,  Note  of 
Pleas,  Interlocutor  pronounced  by  the  Lord  Ordinary  dated 
the  1 6th  day  of  January  1840,  and  Reclaiming  Note,  the  31 
preceding  pages  are  a  full  double,  in  Her  Majesty's  Name  and 
authority,  lawfully  intimate  the  said  Interlocutor  to  you,  the  Rev. 
Thomas  (Guthoric)  Guthrie,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh, 
and  require  you  to  conform  thereto,  and  meantime  interdict 
and  discharge  you  in  terms  thereof  with  certification.  This  I 
do  upon  the  17th  day  of  February  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  forty  years,  before  these  witnesses,  Hugh  Wilson  and 
Robert  Shearer,  both  residing  in  Keith,  and  William  Thorburn, 
Solicitor  in  Keith,  and  James  Petrie,  bank-agent  in  Dufftown. 

Robert  Falconer,  N.P.' 

Such  a  veto  upon  his  freedom  of  action  was  altogether 

1  Cf.  Hugh  Miller's  telling  article  in  the  Witness  of  Feb.  5,  1S40, 
entitled  '  The  Twin  Presbyteries  of  Strathbogie.' 

3  Now  hanging  in  the  Common  Hall  of  the  New  College,  Edinburgh. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  49 

an  abuse  of  its  powers  on  the  part  of  the  Court  of  Session. 
Not  only  by  the  Evangelicals,  but  by  many  of  the  fairer- 
minded  members  of  the  Moderate  party,  such  as  Mr. 
Robertson  of  Ellon,  the  interdict  was  strongly  condemned. 
It  also  opened  the  eyes  of  the  people.  As  Buchanan  says,1 
it  overshot  the  mark,  being  Erastian  overmuch.  It  brought 
the  arm  of  the  civil  power  too  grossly  and  palpably  into 
the  domain  of  the  Church.  The  Government  itself,  re- 
ceiving so  many  warnings  as  to  the  possible  consequences 
of  the  Court  of  Session's  illegal  act,  became  alarmed.  '  Has 
your  lordship  heard  of  the  extended  interdict?'  said  a 
minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  addressing,  two  days 
after  the  interdict  was  pronounced,  a  distinguished  Con- 
servative statesman  (Lord  Aberdeen)  on  the  streets  of 
London.  '  I  have,'  was  the  reply.  '  What  may  be  your 
lordship's  opinion  of  it?'  said  the  clergyman.  'I  am  not 
a  lawyer,'  answered  the  sagacious  senator,  speaking  with  an 
air  of  reluctance,  yet  with  unusual  emphasis ;  '  but  I  con- 
fess I  do  not  understand  it.  According  to  the  law  of  this 
country,  any  one  that  pleases,  any  minister  of  any  sect, 
any  infidel  or  Chartist,  may  go  and  preach  in  Strath- 
bogie  :  how  then  can  it  be  lawful  to  hinder  the  ministers 
of  the  National  Church  from  doing  so?     In  fact,' added 

his  lordship  after  a  little  pause,  '  I  have  written  to 2 

to  tell  him  that,  in  my  opinion,  he  has  brought  the  Court 
of  Session  into  a  great  scrape.'3  Apparently  this  remon- 
strance from  so  influential  a  source  gave  the  Scots  judica- 
ture seasonable  warning.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  interdict 
was  never  enforced. 

Mr.  Guthrie,  however,  was  not  to  know  this,  and  the 
courage  of  his  action  in  deciding  to  do  what  he  believed 
his  duty,  be  the  consequences  what  they  might,  savoured 
not  a  little  of  the  heroic.  He  was  met  by  the  interdict 
when  he  arrived  in  Keith,  en  route  for  Strathbogie.  Let 
us  hear  what  he  says  himself  on  the  matter  : — 

1  In  going  to  preach  at  Strathbogie,  I  was  met  by  an  interdict 

1  Ten  Years'  Conflict,  chap.  ix. 

2  Supposed  to  be  Lord  President  Hope.  3  Buchanan. 

D 


5o  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

from  the  Court  of  Session — an  interdict  to  which,  as  regards 
civil  matters,  I  gave  implicit  obedience.  On  the  Lord's  Day, 
when  I  was  preparing  for  divine  service,  in  came  a  servant  of 
the  law  and  handed  me  an  interdict.  I  told  him  he  had  done 
his  duty,  and  I  would  do  mine.  The  interdict  forbade  me, 
under  penalty  of  the  Calton-hill-jail,  to  preach  the  Gospel  in 
the  school-houses.  I  said,  the  school-houses  are  stone  and 
lime  and  belong  to  the  State  ;  I  will  not  intrude  there.  It  for- 
bade me  to  preach  in  the  churchyard,  and  I  said  the  dust  of 
the  dead  is  the  State's,  and  I  will  not  intrude  there.  But  when 
these  Lords  of  Session  forbade  me  to  preach  my  Master's 
blessed  Gospel  and  offer  salvation  to  sinners  anywhere  in  that 
district  under  the  arch  of  heaven,  I  put  the  interdict  under  my 
feet  and — I  preached  the  Gospel.' 

In  a  word,  then,  during  that  eventful  period,  1838  to 
1843,  Mr.  Guthrie  bore  his  share  nobly  of  the  heavy  duties 
devolving  on  the  Evangelical  leaders.  He  was  a  Non- 
Intrusionist  not  merely  in  theory  but  in  practice. 

Among  other  services  to  the  party  and  to  the  future  Free 
Church,  was  the  share  he  had  in  bringing  Hugh  Miller  to 
Edinburgh.  That  great  man — one  of  the  noblest  intellects 
Scotland  ever  produced — and  Mr.  Guthrie  maintained  an 
unbroken  friendship  until  the  day  of  Miller's  lamented 
death.  It  is  the  fashion  nowadays  rather  to  overlook  than 
to  undervalue  Miller's  services  to  the  cause  of  spiritual  inde- 
pendence, consequent,  perhaps,  on  Dr.  Robert  Buchanan's 
extraordinary  omission  of  all  mention  of  him  in  his  Ten 
Years'  Conflict.  Guthrie  first  met  Miller  at  dinner  at  Mr. 
Paul's  of  the  Commercial  Bank,  when  the  '  Author  of  the 
Letter  to  Lord  Brougham,'  as  he  was  known  then,  came 
down  to  Edinburgh  in  1839  to  consult  about  editing  'a 
Non-Intrusion  newspaper.'  Guthrie  and  Miller  were  mutu- 
ally attracted  from  the  first.  The  former  became  one  of 
the  original  guarantors  and  subscribers  to  the  Witness. 
His  name  stands  sixth  on  the  list  of  the  '  Committee  of 
Managers'  to  whom  Hugh  Miller  addressed  his  famous 
letter  with  reference  to  the  unfortunate  misunderstanding 
with  Dr.  Candlish.  Miller  was  a  mighty  force  in  Scottish 
journalism  from  1840-56,  and  did  more  to  mould  the 
mind  of  his  country  on  many  important  questions  than 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  51 

any  other    man   of  his    age,    ecclesiastical   or   lay,   save 
Chalmers.1 

A  reference  to  the  Scotsman  of  the  period  gives  one  an 
idea  of  Mr.  Guthrie's  tireless  activity. 

On  December  20,  1838,  he  delivered  a  speech  in  the 
Assembly  Rooms,  Edinburgh,  at  the  great  public  meeting 
'to  Commemorate  the  Restoration  of  Civil  and  Religious 
Liberty,  and  of  Presbyterian  Church  Government  as  secured 
by  the  Glasgow  Assembly  of  1638.'  On  June  19,  1839, 
he  took  part  in  the  meeting  in  the  Assembly  Rooms,  called 
1  to  Consider  an  Effectual  Remedy  against  the  Intrusion  of 
Ministers  on  Resisting  Congregations.'  In  both  cases  his 
speeches  were  powerful  and  convincing  appeals.2  In  July 
1839  he  contributed  '  No.  vi.'  to  the  series  of  Tracts  on  the 
Intrusion  of  Ministers,  a  paper  still  to  be  read  with  interest 
and  admiration.  During  the  same  month  and  the  succeed- 
ing, we  find  him  addressing  '  Non-Intrusion '  meetings  at 
Liberton,  Dunfermline,  Perth,  Ayr,  and  elsewhere,  at  all 
of  which  places  he  was  enthusiastically  welcomed. 

In  1840,  however,  his  '  Non-Intrusion '  labours  maybe 
said  to  have  commenced  in  real  earnest.  When  we  con- 
sider they  were  prosecuted  contemporaneously  with  his 
parochial  work,  and  in  addition  to  those  kindly  services  in 
consenting  to  preach  for  such  special  charities  as  the  Edin- 
burgh Female  Society,  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty 
to  Animals,  Indigent  Old  Men's  Society,  Orphan  Hospital 
Fund,  etc.,  one  realises  how  relentless  was  his  economisation 
of  time,  so  as  to  find  seasons  for  study,  private  reading, 
and,  above  all,  for  that  daily  communion  with  his  Heavenly 
Father  without  which,  as  he  once  remarked,  he  found  his 
whole  existence  stale,  flat,  and  unprofitable.  To  him  of 
a  truth  prayer  was  at  once  his  '  supreme  desire '  and  his 
1  vital  air.' 3  His  increasing  popularity  as  a  preacher,  and 
the  crowds  which  everywhere  flocked  to  hear  him,  rendered 

1  For  an  admirable  estimate  of  Hugh  Miller,  see  Mr.  Keith  Leask's 
monograph  on  him  in  this  series. 

2  They  were  both  published  in  pamphlet  form. 

3  Letter  to  the  Duchess  of  Argyll,  1851. 


52  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

the  most  careful  preparation  imperative,  so  as  to  provide 
spiritual  food  for  so  many  diverse  temperaments. 

To  follow  Mr.  Guthrie  through  all  the  storm  and  stress 
of  those  eventful  years  immediately  preceding  the  Disrup- 
tion would  be  foreign  to  the  purpose  of  this  monograph. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  from  1840  to  1843  he  accomplished  an 
amount  of  stern,  hard  work  on  behalf  of  the  Non-Intrusion 
propaganda  that  has  never  really  been  estimated  at  its  true 
value.  People  were  apt  to  regard  him  as  merely  the  great 
pulpit  orator,  the  Scots  Chrysostom  or  Golden-Mouth,  and 
to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  for  years,  both  before  and  after 
the  Disruption,  he  literally  '  stumped '  the  country  on  be- 
half of  various  principles  and  schemes.  There  was  nothing 
of  the  faineant  about  Guthrie.  When  a  duty  had  to  be 
done,  be  it  as  thankless,  as  menial,  as  onerous  as  it  might, 
to  it  he  went  with  that  cheery  Christian  courage  and 
bonhomie  that  was  so  beautiful  a  trait  of  his  character. 

In  company  with  others  of  his  brethren,  he  itinerated 
throughout  Scotland,  impressing  with  the  magic  of  his 
eloquence  vast  masses  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  to  whom 
he  made  clear  the  momentous  issues  involved  in  the 
struggle  between  the  Judicature  and  the  Church,  in  a 
manner  equalled  by  few  of  the  other  Non-Intrusion 
speakers.  No  wonder  his  services  were  in  such  request. 
As  Dr.  Candlish  said  when  preaching  his  funeral  sermon, 
'  His  eloquence  alone,  so  expressive  of  himself,  so  thoroughly 
inspired  by  his  own  idiosyncrasy,  so  full  always  of  genial 
humour,  so  apt  to  flash  into  darts  of  wit,  and  yet  withal  so 
profoundly  emotional  and  ready  for  passionate  or  affec- 
tionate appeals  —  that  gift  or  endowment  alone  made 
Guthrie  an  invaluable  boon  to  our  Church  in  the  time  of 
her  "Ten  Years'  Conflict"  and  afterwards.' 

As  the  conflict  deepened,  and  as  the  Church  perceived 
that  the  ministry  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  to  manifest 
itself  markedly  unsympathetic  towards  the  principles  the 
majority  within  her  pale  held  so  dear,  the  Non-Intrusionists 
redoubled  their  efforts.  '  Scotland  is  in  a  flame  about  the 
Church  question,'  wrote  Lord  Palmerston  to  his  brother, 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  53 

Sir  W.  Temple,  and  the  phrase  was  no  exaggeration. 
Much  of  that  fire  was  the  direct  result  of  the  fervid  appeals 
by  the  pastor  of  St.  John's.  His  own  heart  on  flame  with 
a  burning  sense  of  wrong,  is  it  wonder  if  he  communicated 
the  same  lofty  indignation  to  all  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact?  Nay,  not  in  Scotland  alone  did  he  succeed  in 
so  doing.  Sent  in  1841  as  one  of  a  deputation  to  Ireland, 
on  the  invitation  of  the  Irish  Presbyterian  Church,  he 
produced  the  same  profound  impression  as  in  his  own 
country. 

In  this  year  (1841)  Mr.  Guthrie  was  greatly  interested  in 
the  Bill  introduced  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll  into  the  House 
of  Lords  for  legalising  the  Church's  'Veto  Law,'  and  thus 
removing  the  cause  of  conflict  between  the  Church  and  the 
Civil  Courts.  Though  he  would  have  preferred  a  more 
thoroughgoing  remedy  —  a  measure  aimed  at  the  total 
abolition  of  Patronage — still  he  warmly  espoused  the  Duke's 
cause,  and  in  company  with  Hugh  Miller  sorrowed  sincerely 
when,  owing  to  the  opposition  it  encountered,  the  Bill  had 
to  be  withdrawn.  Not  that  he  regarded  the  abolition  of 
Patronage  as  the  sole  or  even  the  main  point  at  issue 
between  the  two  great  national  institutions.  Lord  Cock- 
burn  *  wraps  up  this,  important  distinction  within  the 
compass  of  a  nutshell :  '  The  contest  at  first  was  merely 
about  patronage,  but  this  point  was  soon  absorbed  in  the 
far  more  vital  question  whether  the  Church  had  any 
spiritual  jurisdiction  independent  of  the  control  of  the 
civil  power.  This  became  the  question  on  which  the 
longer  coherence  of  the  elements  of  the  Church  de- 
pended.'2 

The  year  1842 — the  last  of  the  Church  of  Scotland's 
existence  in  its  undivided  state — was  both  a  busy  and  an 
anxious  one  for  Mr.  Guthrie.  Each  month  made  the 
situation  look  darker,  while  the  prospects  of  final  adjust- 
ment and  settlement  of  differences  became  increasingly 

1  See  Life  of  Jeffrey. 

2  Hugh  Miller's  articles  entitled  '  Tendencies '  in  the  volume  Head- 
ship of  Christ  deal  with  this  question  most  cogently. 


54  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

faint.  In  the  Assembly  of  that  year  the  motion  for  the 
abolition  of  patronage,  proposed  in  a  speech  of  wonderful 
logical  cogency  and  perspicuous  force  by  Mr.  (afterwards 
Dr.)  Cunningham,  had  been  carried  by  a  majority  of  69 
in  a  'house'  numbering  363  members.  The  'Claim  of 
Rights ' — the  modern  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  a 
document  intended  as  a  declaration  against  the  uncon- 
stitutional encroachments  of  the  Civil  Courts,  and  a 
vindication  of  the  people's  privileges  against  the  State's 
pretended  prerogatives — after  having  been  carefully  drawn 
up  by  Mr.  Dunlop  and  signed  by  161  members  of  the 
house,  was  presented  to  the  Assembly  by  Dr.  Chalmers 
in  a  speech  which  takes  rank  as  one  of  the  grandest  dis- 
plays of  ecclesiastical  forensic  oratory  ever  heard  in  any 
Church  Court.  No  wonder  that  the  overture  in  which 
the  { Claim  of  Rights '  was  embodied  was  carried  by  a 
majority  of  131. 

In  this  eventful  year  the  Government  showed  its  anti- 
pathy towards  the  Church  by  the  paltry  manoeuvre,  as 
discreditable  to  himself  as  it  was  damaging  to  his  adminis- 
tration, whereby  Sir  Robert  Peel  got  rid  of  Mr.  Campbell 
of  Monzie's  Bill— or,  rather,  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  Bill 
already  alluded  to  transferred  to  the  House  of  Commons 
and  'fathered'  by  the  gentleman  in  question.  When  first 
introduced,  the  Government  had  induced  Mr.  Campbell  to 
delay  pressing  it  on  through  its  stages  by  leading  him  to 
believe  they  would  bring  forward  some  measure  of  their 
own.  When  that  promise  could  no  longer  be  advanced, 
they  intimated,  on  the  very  day  when  the  second  reading 
was  to  come  on,  that  as  the  object  of  the  Bill  was  to 
modify  the  law  of  patronage,  and  as  the  Crown  held  the 
patronage  of  a  number  of  churches  to  which  the  measure 
was  intended  to  apply,  no  Bill  which  affected  any  such 
risrhts  of  the  Crown  could  be  introduced  into  Parliament 

O 

until  the  consent  of  the  Crown  had  been  obtained.1    This, 
of  course,  meant  the  loss  of  the  Bill,  and  it  also  gained 

1  Hugh  Miller,  who  seldom  gave  way  to  strong  language,  character- 
ised the  trick  as  'dishonourable  chicanery.' 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  55 

time,  as  Buchanan  says,  for  the  expected  development  of 
that  defection  from  the  evangelical  ranks  to  which  Sir 
Robert  Peel  and  Sir  James  Graham  were  looking  forward  as 
destined  to  solve  all  the  difficulties  of  the  Scottish  Church 
question.  For,  as  the  latter,  years  after,  confessed,  states- 
men on  both  sides  of  politics  were  led  to  believe  by  Hope, 
the  Dean  of  Faculty,  and  others,  that  all  apprehension  of 
a  secession  from  the  Church  was  chimerical.  'Were  the 
crisis  to  come  to-morrow,'  Hope  is  stated  to  have  remarked, 
'not  ten  ministers  would  leave  their  charges.'  This  assur- 
ance it  was,  coupled  with  the  advice  that  severity  was  the 
best  deterrent,  which  led  the  Government  to  persist  in  a 
policy  they  were  subsequently  bitterly  to  rue. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE   EVENTFUL   LAST   YEAR 

In  the  General  Assembly  of  1842,  Mr.  Guthrie  delivered 
a  speech  which  attracted  attention  even  amid  the  many 
splendid  efforts  of  Chalmers,  Candlish,  and  Cunningham. 
Certainly  the  subject  was  one  calculated  to  interest  the 
majority  of  the  members  irrespective  of  party,  and  it  was 
one,  moreover,  on  which  he  spoke  con  amore.  The  occa- 
sion was  a  motion  for  the  repeal  of  the  infamous  Act  of 
Assembly  of  1799,  whereby  Missionary  Societies  were 
condemned,  and  their  agents,  who  were  insultingly  termed 
'  vagrant  teachers,'  were  debarred  from  entering  the  pulpits 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland.1  A  resolution  aiming  at  the 
repeal  of  an  Act  so  discreditable  to  Scotland's  National 
Church  would  appeal  strongly  to  Mr.  Guthrie's  broad, 
catholic  sympathies.  He  bitterly  condemned  the  feelings 
prompting  so  un-Christian  a  measure,  adding,  '  I  look 
upon  this  Act  of  1799  as  one  of  the  blackest  the  Church  of 
Scotland  ever  passed,  and  I  rejoice  with  all  my  heart  that 
this  motion  has  been  made.'  When  we  further  add  that 
shortly  before  this  time  Dr.  Duff,  then  at  home,  had  been 
using  all  his  influence  to  induce  Mr.  Guthrie  to  proceed  to 
India  along  with  him,  and  that  the  latter  had  for  a  short 
time  seriously  considered  the  proposal,  a  clue  to  the  depth 
of  his  interest  in  mission-work  is  discovered. 

In  June  of  that  year  decision  was  given  by  the  House  of 

1  Those  who  desire  to  obtain  further  information  regarding  that  ex- 
traordinary Act  and  the  debate  preceding  it  in  the  Assembly  of  1799, 
cannot  do  better  than  read  Hugh  Miller's  articles  on  '  The  Debate  on 
Missions'  in  the  Witness,  from  September  25  to  October  9,  1841  ;  or 
in  the  volume  of  his  works  on  the  Headship  of  Christ,  p.  130. 
56 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  57 

Lords  in  the  '  Second  Auchterarder  Case,'  wherein  Lord 
Kinnoul  and  Mr.  Young  sought  to  obtain  a  decree  requir- 
ing the  Presbytery  of  Auchterarder  to  take  the  rejected 
presentee  on  trials,  and  sanctioning  his  claim  for  damages 
in  the  event  of  their  refusing  to  obey  the  order  of  the  Civil 
Courts.  The  'Lords '  pronounced  in  favour  of  the  pursuers. 
Lords  Lyndhurst,  Brougham,  Cottenham,  and  Campbell — 
two  of  them  with  Scots  blood  in  their  veins,  and  the  third 
intimately  connected  in  many  ways  with  Scotland — in 
their  judicial  opinions  showed  an  unaccountable  ignorance 
not  only  of  Scots  law,  but  of  Scots  history  and  customs  ;  for, 
as  Buchanan  indicates,  from  one  end  to  the  other  of  their 
1  findings,'  there  is  not  to  be  discovered  so  much  as  one 
solitary  reference  to  those  laws  by  which  the  spiritual  juris- 
diction of  the  Church  of  Scotland  is  declared  and  ratified, 
nor  one  single  precedent  adduced  from  the  history  of  the 
Church  to  support  the  doctrine  which  this  decision  laid 
down. 

As  soon  as  this  decree  became  known,  Mr.  Guthrie 
saw  that  the  end  was  not  far  off.  Considerable  difference 
of  opinion  existed  among  the  Non-Intrusionists  as  to  the 
course  now  to  be  followed.  One  section,  including  amongst 
others  the  Revs.  Begg,  C.  J.  Brown,  and  Elder,  contended 
they  should  remain  in  the  Establishment  until  driven  out, 
doing  all  the  duties  that  belonged  to  them.  Mr.  Guthrie's 
ideas  as  to  the  duty  of  the  Church  now  that  the  important 
principle  had  been  settled  that,  in  certain  circumstances ; 
the  Courts  of  the  Church  were  liable  to  be  coerced  by 
the  penalties  of  law  in  the  performance  of  their  spiritual 
functions,  appear  to  me  to  be  characterised  by  a  keener 
sense  of  ecclesiastical  dignity  and  individual  self-respect. 
He  embodied  his  views  in  one. word,  'Retire.' 

After  a  '  Convocation '  held  in  Roxburgh  Church,  Edin- 
burgh, attended  by  four  hundred  and  sixty-five  ministers 
from  all  parts  of  Scotland,  and  at  which  the  two  great 
questions  were  thoroughly  discussed:  (a)  'What  is  our  griev- 
ance, and  the  remedy  for  it  ? '  {b)  '  What,  if  that  remedy  be 
refused,  is  it  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  do?  '  a  definite  plan 


58  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

of  action  was  finally  decided  upon.  In  this  Convocation 
Mr.  Guthrie  took  a  prominent  part.  More  than  once  his 
sagacity  recalled  the  party  to  the  paths  of  prudence  and 
moderation,  when  even  Chalmers  and  Candlish  allowed 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  moment  to  carry  them  away  from 
the  highroad  of  wise  self-restraint.  I  remember  the  late 
Dr.  John  Moir  informing  me  that  from  several  distinct 
sources  he  had  heard  the  remark  made,  that  Guthrie's  tact 
and  prudence  at  the  Convocation  had  gone  a  long  way 
towards  turning  what  might  have  proved  a  lamentable 
deadlock  between  the  Begg-Brown-Elder  party  and  their 
other  brethren  into  an  harmonious  agreement. 

Well  might  Dr.  Candlish  say  of  Mr.  Guthrie  that  he  had 
been  '  a  tower  of  strength '  to  his  party  during  the  deadly 
conflict  of  the  Disruption.  His  invariable  cheerfulness,  his 
exuberant  spirits  even  in  the  darkest  hour,  his  immovable 
faith  in  the  Providence  of  God  providing  for  the  future — 
all  tended  to  strengthen  the  courage  of  weaker  brethren. 
1  With  shame  I  say  it,'  said  a  godly  Free  Church  minister 
to  my  father  many  years  afterwards,1 

1  but  I  fear  I  should  not  have  come  out  at  the  Disruption 
had  it  not  been  for  Dr.  Guthrie.  My  wife  was  a  confirmed 
invalid,  dying,  as  I  thought,  of  an  incurable  disease  ;  I  had  a 
family  of  nine  young  children,  two  of  whom  were  threatened 
with  pulmonary  disease.  I  had  a  comfortable  manse  and  a 
good  stipend  :  was  I  justified  in  exposing  these  delicate  plants 
to  the  inevitable  hardships  consequent  on  secession,  I  reasoned 
with  myself?  I  chanced  to  meet  Dr.  Guthrie  in  the  darkest  hour 
of  my  depression,  and  mentioned  my  fears  to  him.  He  looked 
at  me  most  sympathetically,  but  said  nothing.  The  season  was 
one  of  intense  cold  ;  frost  had  prevailed  for  several  days.  A 
row  of  starving  sparrows  was  perched  on  a  house  opposite. 
At  the  moment  I  spoke,  a  coachman  had  been  feeding  his 
horses,  and  took  the  nose-bags  from  them  preparatory  to  start- 
ing. One  of  them  fell  from  his  cold  hands,  and  some  of  the 
grain  was  spilt  on  the  ground.  As  soon  as  the  carriage  moved 
away  the  sparrows  swooped  down,  and  their  joyous  twitterings 
showed  how  they  relished  the  food  so  strangely  provided.  For 
a  moment  Dr.  Guthrie  raised  his  eyes  to  heaven  ;  when  he 
turned  to  me  they  were  brimming  with  tears  :  "  My  friend,"  he 
said,  "the  good  God  who  has  just  fed  these  sparrows  will  give 
thy  children  bread." ' 

1  Recorded  in  his  Commonplace  Book. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  59 

And  accordingly,  it  was  in  humble  dependence  that  the 
God  who  feedeth  the  sparrows  would  not  permit  His 
servants  to  lack  their  daily  bread  that,  on  the  18th  of  May 
1843,  f°ur  hundred  and  seventy-four  ministers,  for  the 
sake  of  what  they  unfalteringly  '  believed '  to  be  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christ's  Covenanted  Church,  laid  down  their 
earthly  all  on  the  altar  of  conscience,  and  went  forth  to 
possess  their  new  spiritual  heritage.  Ten  weeks  previous, 
the  last  hope  of  any  redress  of  the  ecclesiastical  abuses 
had  been  extinguished,  when  the  Government,  in  fulfil- 
ment of  the  intimation  contained  in  Sir  James  Graham's 
reply  to  the  Church's  Claim  of  Right,  denied  the  request 
preferred  in  Mr.  Fox  Maule's  motion  for  an  inquiry  into 
the  alleged  grievances — a  motion  based  on  a  petition  from 
the  Commission  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  The  Ministry, 
misinformed  as  we  have  seen  by  Dean  of  Faculty  Hope 
and  Dr.  Cook,  the  Moderate  leader,  obstinately  refused  to 
believe  the  danger  of  secession  to  be  as  grave  as  represented, 
and  declined  to  grant  relief.  This  was  the  real  signal  for 
the  Non-Intrusionists  to  gird  up  their  loins  and  set  their 
houses  in  order,  for  the  hour  of  departure  was  at  hand. 

On  Sabbath,  14th  May  1843,  Mr.  Guthrie  preached  what  * 
was  destined  to  be  his  last  sermon  in  'Old  St.  John's.' 
His  text  was,  '  Here  we'  have  no  continuing  city,'  and  one 
who  was  present  on  the  occasion  informs  me  it  was  the 
most  pathetic  and  solemn  service  he  had  ever  heard. 
Twice  the  preacher's  voice  broke  through  overpowering 
emotion,  and  the  sound  of  weeping  was  heard  all  over  the 
church.  The  sorrow,  however,  was  not  for  themselves,  but 
at  the  thought  of  leaving  that  Zion  they  had  loved  so  well, 
in  whose  stones  they  took  pleasure,  and  whose  very  dust 
to  them  was  dear.  Thoughts  of  flinching  from  the  ordeal 
there  were  none.  On  the  morning  of  the  eventful  18th 
May,  as,  with  a  friend,  he  was  quitting  the  door  of  his 
house  in  Lauriston  Lane,  Mr.  Guthrie  turned  round  for  a 
moment  to  his  wife,  and  said  in  a  resolute  yet  cheerful 
tone  to  that  staunch  and  great-souled  helpmate — 'Well, 
Anne,  this  is  the  last  time  I  go  out  at  this  door  a  minister 
of  an  Established  Church.'    He  was  right.     When  he  re- 


6o  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

turned  that  night  the  Rubicon  had  been  crossed,  the  great 
victory  of  principle  over  personal  self-interest  was  won,  and 
he  was  a  minister  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 

The  scene  of  the  Disruption  is  a  familiar  narrative  to 
every  Free  Churchman.  I  do  not  attempt  to  describe 
what  Dr.  Buchanan  and  Lord  Cockburn  have  embalmed 
and  immortalised  in  language  so  glowing  and  felicitous. 
To  their  pages  I  refer  the  reader  for  the  description  of 
the  solemn  scene  of  separation  on  the  part  of  these  nine- 
teenth-century Spartans  ;  the  anguish,  yet  the  triumph,  of 
their  everlasting  farewell  to  the  church  of  their  fathers ; 
the  glorious  procession  to  Tanfield  Hall  between  the 
closely  packed  lines  of  spectators,  whose  admiration  was 
even  too  deep  for  cheers ;  the  dignity,  yet  the  devoutness, 
of  their  conduct  throughout — all  these  are  household 
words,  and  need  not  be  recorded  here.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  Thomas  Guthrie  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  that  band 
of  heroes  who  on  the  18th  May  1843  laid  down  their  'all' 
on  the  altar  of  conscience  for  the  sake  of  principle.1 

The  admiration  and  wonder  excited  by  the  act  thrilled 
like  an  electric  shock  throughout  the  country.  Lord 
Jeffrey  was  reading  in  his  library  in  Moray  Place,  when  a 
friend  burst  in  upon  him  with  the  news,  'Over  four 
hundred  of  them  are  out ! '  In  an  instant  the  great  critic's 
book  was  thrown  aside.  He  sprang  to  his  feet,  saying,  '  I 
am  proud  of  my  country  !  In  not  another  land  in  the  world 
would  such  a  thing  have  been  done.' 

1  My  revered  friend  Mr.  Mathew  S.  Tait,  organiser,  and  for  forty 
years  first  superintendent  of  the  Ferguson  Bequest  Fund,  is  able  to 
locate  for  me  Mr.  Guthrie's  precise  place  in  the  procession.  He 
occupied  the  centre  place  in  the  third  row.  Mr.  Tait,  who  was  then 
in  the  service  of  the  Royal  Bank  of  Scotland,  had  come  to  St. 
Andrew's  Church  to  witness  the  final  result  of  the  day's  proceedings. 
Just  as  he  reached  the  gate,  having  pushed  his  way  through  the 
immense  crowd  gathered  at  the  spot,  he  perceived  the  leaves  of  the 
inner  door  thrown  back,  and  the  departing  ministers  already  appearing. 
First  came  the  Moderator  (Dr.  Welsh),  supported  on  either  side  by 
Dr.  Chalmers  and  Dr.  Gordon.  In  the  second  row  were  Dr.  Candlish, 
Dr.  Cunningham,  and  Dr.  Macfarlan,  and  in  the  third  Dr.  Clason, 
Mr.  Guthrie,  and  a  third  who,  he  thinks,  was  Dr.  Begg,  but  on 
this  point  he  is  not  certain.  Mr.  Tait  stepped  forward  and  shook 
Mr.  Guthrie's  hand,  being  the  first  to  congratulate  him  on  the  step  he 
had  just  taken. 


CHAPTER  VII 

GUTHRIE  THE  FREE  CHURCHMAN 

Great  as  he  had  been  as  a  minister  of  the  Establishment, 
it  was  as  a  Free  Churchman  that  Thomas  Guthrie  achieved 
his  most  splendid  triumphs  and  obtained  his  widest  recog- 
nition. No  sooner  was  he  liberated  from  the  trammels  of 
the  State  Church  system  and  breathed  the  stimulating  air 
of  '  The  Church  of  Scotland — Free,'  than  his  whole  nature 
seemed  to  receive  a  fillip.  '  Opportunities  reveal  our 
capabilities  as  much  to  ourselves  as  to  others,'  says 
Rochefoucauld,  and  the  aphorism  holds  true  in  the  case 
before  us.  In  the  new  circumstances  wherein  he  was 
placed,  Mr.  Guthrie's  intellect  grew  more  robust  and 
vigorous  as  he  felt  himself  more  and  more  regarded  as  a 
moulder  of  popular  opinion.  He  became  increasingly 
conscious  of  the  powers  wherewith  Heaven  had  endowed 
him,  but  so  far  from  the  fact  rendering  him  self-assertive 
or  supercilious,  it  only  caused  him  to  be  more  scrupulously 
conscientious  as  to  the  discharge  of  his  duties  in  the 
diverse  spheres  his  activity  opened  up  for  him.  The 
eloquence  of  his  pulpit  oratory  became  permeated  with  a 
bolder  yet  more  impressive  strain  of  feeling,  his  diction 
more  picturesquely  figurative  and  ornate.  He  threw 
himself  with  heart  and  soul  into  the  work  of  building  up 
the  walls  of  the  new  ecclesiastical  Zion,  until  it  came  to 
pass  that  when  a  duty  had  to  be  done,  and  no  satisfactory 
individual  was  available  to  do  it,  Thomas  Guthrie  was 
invariably  appealed  to  as  the  '  saviour '  of  the  situation. 

Characteristic  of  him  it  was,  the  moment  the  Disruption 
was  an  accomplished  fact,  to  set  about  the  reorganisation 

61 


62  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

of  his  own  congregation  as  a  unit  in  the  new  Free  Church. 
The  bread  of  kindness  cast  by  him  on  the  waters  of  bygone 
years  now  came  back  to  him  after  many  days.  He  had 
generously  assisted  the  Wesleyans  of  Nicolson  Square 
Chapel  by  preaching  on  more  than  one  occasion  in  aid  of 
their  funds.  The  managers  of  that  place  of  worship  at 
this  juncture  came  forward  and  unsolicitedly  offered  the 
use  of  the  building  to  Mr.  Guthrie  and  his  people,  until 
they  were  able  to  erect  a  church  of  their  own.  Needless 
to  say  the  offer  was  thankfully  accepted.  To  house  the 
congregation  which  had  followed  their  minister  out  of  the 
Establishment  a  very  large  hall  was  required,  and  the 
Chapel,  although  spacious,  was  taxed  to  its  utmost  capacity. 
Upwards  of  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the  seatholders  in  Old 
St.  John's  had  relinquished  their  connection  with  the 
Establishment,  of  his  session  all  save  two,  so  that  the 
new  church  may  be  said  to  have  started  into  existence 
almost  full-fledged.  The  sum  of  ;£"6ooo  was  subscribed 
by  the  congregation  for  the  erection  of  a  new  place  of 
worship.  A  site  was  secured  at  the  head  of  the  West 
Bow — about  fifty  yards  from  Old  St.  John's,  and  there- 
fore still  in  his  former  territorial  parish, — and  on  the 
1 8th  April  1845  Free  St.  John's  was  opened.  From  the 
very  outset  Mr.  Guthrie's  congregation,  though  not  one 
of  the  wealthiest,  was  certainly  one  of  the  largest  in  the 
city,  its  members  and  adherents  being  drawn  from  all 
classes  in  the  community.  Men  and  women  celebrated 
in  literature,  learning,  science,  and  the  arts,  distinguished 
judges  and  prominent  lawyers,  world-renowned  physicians 
and  warriors,  landed  gentry  and  members  of  the  nobility, 
sat  side  by  side  with  tradesmen  and  artisans,  with  Betty 

the   cook   and   Sandy   S the   dustman — all   hanging 

upon  the  'golden  speech'  of  this  great  orator,  who  united 
melting  pathos  of  appeal  to  stern  denunciation  of  indiffer- 
ence or  irreligion. 

Before  many  months  were  over  the  working  machinery 
of  the  ecclesiastical  organisation  of  St.  John's  Free  Church 
was  so  efficiently  adjusted  in  accordance  with  its  pastor's 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  63 

sagacious  views  of  '  system  and  order  in  everything,'  that 
he  was  able  to  be  absent  for  weeks — nay,  months — 
at  a  time,  engaged  upon  the  business  of  the  '  Manse 
Fund'  and  other  objects,  and  yet  retain  the  comforting 
consciousness  that  his  office-bearers  and  coadjutors  were 
carrying  on  the  work  as  effectively  in  his  absence  as 
in  his  presence.  To  give  an  idea  of  the  far-reaching 
character  of  these  efforts,  I  should  like  to  quote  the 
following  paragraph  from  the  Memoir : — 

'  Besides  a  Congregational  Sunday  School  held  in  the 
morning,  there  was  another  of  three  hundred  children  gathered 
from  the  poor  and  squalid  neighbourhood  around,  and  con- 
ducted in  the  evening  under  the  superintendence  of  David 
Duncan,  Esq.  Two  senior  classes  were  likewise  held  beneath 
the  church  :  one,  containing  one  hundred  young  women  of  the 
humbler  class,  was  taught  for  years  by  Miss  Greville  (now  Mrs. 
Hogarth),  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  the  other,  a 
class  of  from  seventy  to  ninety  working  lads,  who  had  other- 
wise been  lounging  on  the  street,  was  collected  and  conducted 
by  one  of  the  elders,  Maurice  Lothian,  Esq.,  then  Procurator- 
Fiscal  for  the  county.  While  these  were  being  taught  down- 
stairs, the  church  itself  was  occupied  by  Bible-classes  for  the 
young  men  of  the  congregation,  taught  by  three  young  lawyers 
attached  to  Mr.  Guthrie's  ministry,  viz.  W.  G.  Dickson,  Esq., 
now  Sheriff  of  Lanarkshire,  Thomas  Ivory,  Esq.,  Advocate,  and 
John  Carment,  Esq.,  S.S.C.5 

The  immense  crowds  which  had  attended  his  preaching 
in  '  Old  St.  John's '  even  increased  in  numbers  when,  as  he 
was  wont  to  say,  'he  crossed  the  street.'  So  great  were 
these  gatherings,  especially  in  summer  when  strangers 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  who  passed  through  Edinburgh 
flocked  to  hear  the  Chrysostom  of  the  Free  Church,  that 
regular  seat-holders  were  being  kept  out  of  their  pews. 
Accordingly  the  rule  had  to  be  made  that  strangers  should 
only  be  admitted  after  the  first  psalm  and  prayer  were 
over.  Mr.  Guthrie  had  now  reached  the  maturity  of  his 
powers,  and  the  result  was  an  almost  unique  combination 
of  acute  rather  than  profound  thought,  with  an  intensely 
vivid  glow  of  poetical  imagination.  Nature  and  her  multi- 
form beauties,  man  and  his  mysterious  moral  and  spiritual 
attributes,  were  to  him  as  open  books  whence  he  could 


64  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

draw  an  exhaustless  fund  of  impressive  images  and  apo- 
logues calculated  to  appeal  to  every  range  of  intelligence. 
Lord  Cockburn  thus  describes  Dr.  Guthrie's  preaching 
in  the  'forties.'1 

'Practical  and  natural ;  passionate  without  vehemence  ;  with 
perfect  self-possession,  and  always  generous  and  devoted,  he 
is  a  very  powerful  preacher.  His  language  and  accent  are  very 
Scotch,  but  nothing  can  be  less  vulgar  ;  and  his  gesture  (which 
seems  as  unthought-about  as  a  child's)  is  the  most  graceful  I 
have  ever  seen  in  any  public  speaker.  He  deals  in  the  broad 
expository  Ovidian  page,  and  is  comprehended  and  felt  by  the 
poor  woman  oh  the  steps  of  the  pulpit  as  thoroughly  as  by  the 
strangers  who  are  attracted  solely  by  his  eloquence.  Every- 
thing he  does  glows  with  a  frank,  gallant  warm-heartedness, 
rendered  more  delightful  by  a  boyish  simplicity  of  air  and 
style.' 

One  other  opinion  I  would  quote,  and  though  it  bears 

the  date  of  a  few  years  subsequent,  yet  it  may  find  a  place 

here,  to  save  referring  to  the  matter  again.     The  writer  is 

an  American  visitor,  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  W.  Alexander2  of 

New  York  : — 

'At  two  p.m.  I  went  to  Free  St.  John's.  Strangers  (how 
truly  I  comprehend  the  term  !)  are  admitted  only  after  the 
first  singing.  I  found  myself  waiting  in  a  basement  with  about 
five  hundred  others.  At  length  I  was  dragged  through  a 
narrow  passage,  and  found  myself  in  a  very  hot  overcrowded 
house,  near  the  pulpit.  Dr.  Guthrie  was  praying.  He  preached 
from  Isaiah  xliv.  22 — "Return  unto  Me,  for  I  have  redeemed 
thee."  It  was  fifty  minutes,  but  they  passed  like  nothing.  I 
was  instantly  struck  by  his  strong  likeness  to  Dr.  John  H. 
Rice.  If  you  remember  him  you  have  perfectly  the  type  of 
man  he  is  ;  but  then  it  is  Dr.  Rice  with  an  impetuous  freedom 
of  motion,  a  play  of  ductile  and  speaking  features,  and  an 
overflowing  unction  of  passion  and  compassion  which  would 
carry  home  even  one  of  my  sermons — conceive  what  it  is  with 
his  exuberant  diction  and  poetic  imagery.  The  best  of  all  is, 
it  was  honey  from  the  comb,  dropping,  dropping  in  effusive 
gospel  beseeching.  I  cannot  think  Whitefield  surpassed  him 
in  this.  You  know  when  you  listen  to  his  mighty  voice  broken 
with  sorrow,  that  he  is  overwhelmed  with  the  "love  of  the 
Spirit."     He  has  a  colleague,  and  preaches  usually  in  the  after- 

1  Lord  Cockbunvs  Journal. 

2  Forty  Years'  Familiar  Letters  oj  James  W.  Alexander,  D.D. 
Constituting,  with  the  Notes,  a  Memoir  of  his  Life. — Edited  by  the 
surviving  correspondent,  Rev.  John  Hall,  D.D.  (New  York,  Charles 
Scribner.     i860.) 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  65 

noon.  As  to  manner,  it  is  his  own,  but  in  general  like  Duff's, 
with  as  much  motion,  but  more  significant  and  less  grotesque, 
though  still  ungraceful.  His  English,  moreover,  is  not  spoiled 
so  much.  The  audience  was  rapt  and  melting.  It  was  just 
like  his  book,  all  application,  and  he  rose  to  his  height  in  the 
first  sentence.  .  .  .  Dr.  Guthrie  is  the  link  between  Evangelical 
religion  and  the  aristocracy.  People  of  all  sects  go.  Nobility 
coming  down  from  London  and  stopping  here  cannot  pass 
without  hearing  him.  They  are  willing  to  pay  any  sum  for 
pews  in  order  to  secure  an  occasional  hearing.  Dr.  G.  called 
on  me,  and  was  very  cordial.' 

But  Mr.  Guthrie  was  not,  as  he  had  fondly  hoped  to  be, 
allowed  to  settle  down  to  steady  congregational  work.  '  I 
am  glad  to  get  rid  of  controversy.  I  wish  to  devote  my 
days  to  preaching,  and  to  the  pastoral  superintendence  of 
my  people,'  he  remarked  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the 
first  Free  Church  Assembly,  a  few  days  after  the  Disrup- 
tion had  occurred.  Doubtless  he  believed  that  all  calls 
of  duty  summoning  him  to  other  labours  than  that  of 
preaching  '  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ '  now  lay  in 
the  past,  and  that  henceforward  he  would  become  the 
pastor  pure  and  simple.  But  for  the  man  who  of  all 
others  could  sway  vast  multitudes  of  his  fellows  not  alone 
by  his  sermons,  but  in  almost  equal  measure  by  his 
speeches,  who  at  one  and  the  same  time  could  persuade 
by  his  eloquence,  charm  by  his  flights  of  fancy,  and  amuse 
by  the  iridescent  play  of  wit  and  humour,  the  infant 
Church  had  important  work  to  do.  A  fortnight  after  '  the 
great  Exodus '  he  was  sent  as  one  of  an  important  deputa- 
tion to  visit  the  chief  towns  of  England,  to  explain  the 
principles  of  the  Free  Church,  and  to  solicit  help  for  the 
new  cause.  His  speeches  during  this  triumphal  progress 
— for  the  tour  was  nothing  short  of  it — were  regarded 
by  competent  judges  as  being  as  remarkable  specimens 
of  persuasive  popular  eloquence  as  had  ever  been  de- 
livered in  England  since  the  days  of  Whitefield.  The 
well-known  statesman  Sir  George  Grey  heard  him  speak 
on  one  occasion,  and,  after  expressing  his  high  admira- 
tion, said  that  Mr.  Guthrie  in  many  respects  realised  his 
conception  of  what  the  great  French  preacher  Massillon 

E 


66  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

must  have  been,  and  he  applied  to  him  the  felicitous 
epithet,  'The  Scots  Massillon.'  Besides  successfully 
arousing  interest  and  sympathy  in  the  cause  of  the  Free 
Church,  the  deputation  received  substantial  proofs  of  the 
admiration  awakened  by  the  self-sacrificing  action  of  its 
members,  in  the  promises  of  large  sums  of  money.  The 
most  gratifying  result  of  all  their  efforts,  however,  was  the 
dispelling  of  those  mists  of  malicious  misrepresentation 
raised  by  the  less  generous  of  their  foes,  that  the  '  Seces- 
sionists'  were,  a  horde  of  ignorant  fanatics,  and  that  the 
'  flower '  of  the  National  Church's  learning  and  culture  had 
remained  '  in.'  Mr.  Guthrie  preached  while  in  London  in 
Regent  Square  Church.  Among  the  audience  was  Lord 
Campbell — one  of  the  Lords  of  Appeal  who  had  given 
his  decision  in  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Upper  House 
very  strongly  against  the  Church.  The  Fife  Sentinel  of 
the  day  reports  that  at  the  conclusion  of  the  sermon  he 
said  to  a  reverend  doctor  sitting  beside  him,  '  If  this  be 
a  fair  specimen  of  the  ministers  of  the  Free  Church,  it  has 
nothing  to  fear.'  The  intellectual  calibre  of  this  deputa- 
tion was  of  the  very  first  order,  including  as  it  did  Dr. 
Cunningham — a  man  of  gigantic  learning  and  great  mental 
ability — and  one  or  two  other  clergymen,  all  of  notable 
reputation,  all  dignified,  courteous  gentlemen^  and,  above 
all,  each  one  of  them  with  his  soul  aflame  with  the  living 
fire  of  a  piety  as  sincere  as  it  was  intense. 

This  duty  was  for  Mr.  Guthrie  only  a  preliminary 
foretaste  of  what  was  yet  to  be  laid  to  his  hand.  The 
Free  Church  had  scarcely  been  launched,  when  the  fact 
became  evident  that  a  determined  effort  was  to  be  made 
to  stamp  out  the  movement  by  refusing  sites  for  churches 
and  manses.  Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  this  persecution 
was  to  any  great  degree  either  proposed  or  promoted  by 
the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  who  had  remained 
behind.  Once  the  struggle  was  over,  such  men  as  Dr. 
Cook,  Robertson  of  Ellon,  and  Norman  Macleod,  had 
nothing  but  admiration  for  a  course  they,  however,  con- 
sidered a  mistaken  one.     One  or  two  of  the  more  bigoted 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  67 

Moderate  ministers  in  rural  districts  may  have  counten- 
anced a  policy  so  contrary  to  the  Christian  principles  they 
professed,  but  in  general  the  refusal  of  sites  was  the  result 
of  personal  hostility  on  the  part  of  heritors  who,  as  they 
said,  'did  not  wish  these  pestilent  "highfliers"  to  gain  a 
footing  in  any  of  their  parishes.'  Nor  was  this  action  in 
every  case  the  outcome  of  blind,  unreasoning  animus 
against  persons  or  principles.  No  heritor  was  more  bitter 
and  unyielding — unyielding  even  to  a  point  far  beyond  the 
border-line  of  cruelty,  when  he  compelled  the  Canonbie 
congregation,  through  his  interdicts,  to  worship  a  whole 
winter  on  the  highroad — than  Walter  Francis  Montague, 
fifth  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  Lord  Privy  Seal  in  Peel's  ad- 
ministration of  1842-46.  But  his  action  was  dictated  by  a 
sincere  desire  to  promote  the  welfare  of  Scotland's  National 
Church,  and  to  limit,  as  he  erroneously  thought,  the  radius 
of  Dissent.  We  are  sometimes  apt  to  consider  that  actions 
involving  hardships  to  ourselves  or  others  proceed  from 
sheer  blind  animus  against  us,  when  perhaps  the  '  cruelty  ' 
of  which  we  complain  is  as  much  the  outcome  of  clearly 
defined  principles,  as  the  patient  endurance  thereof  which 
we  either  exhibit  or  admire. 

This  action  of  the  heritors,  however,  awakened  great 
indignation  in  Scotland;  In  no  breast  did  the  feeling 
burn  more  intensely  than  in  Mr.  Guthrie's,  and  he  ex- 
pressed himself  with  all  his  wonted  vigour  against  the 
actions,  but  in  no  case  against  the  actors.  He  deprecated 
personalities,  and  it  is  an  interesting  point  to  note  that 
while  he  strongly  condemned  the  cruelty  of  the  deed,  the 
doer  is  never  referred  to.  Even  over  the  Canonbie  case, 
after  he  had  visited  the  parish  as  one  of  the  Assembly's 
deputies,  and  beheld  on  a  cold,  sleety,  wintry  Sabbath 
a  sight  which  moved  him  even  to  his  latest  hour — the 
spectacle  of  upwards  of  five  hundred  of  God's  people 
worshipping  Him  under  the  broad  vault  of  heaven,  exposed 
to  all  the  inclemency  of  that  wintry  day — he  had  no  harder 
terms  of  reprobation  to  apply  to  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch 
personally,   than   that   '  I   felt   the  deepest  regret   that  a 


68  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

nobleman  so  kind  and  generous  as  the  Duke  should  have 
been  led  to  put  himself  in  a  position,  as  I  thought,  injurious 
to  his  own  standing  in  the  country.' 

To  many  of  the  rural  districts  of  Scotland  where  diffi- 
culties regarding  sites  existed,  Mr.  Guthrie  was  sent  as  a 
deputy  to  convey  to  the  people  the  sympathy  of  the  Free 
Church,  with  the  assurance  that  all  was  being  done  that 
was  humanly  possible  to  compel  the  heritors  to  accede  to 
the  request  of  the  Church  for  sites.  To  many  a  faint- 
hearted and  well-nigh  despairing  congregation  Mr.  Guthrie's 
presence  and  stirring  words  brought  renewed  courage  and 
determination  to  wage  the  struggle  with  the  weapons  of 
patient  endurance,  and  such  remedies  as  the  legislature 
might  provide.  When,  under  the  Whig  Government  of 
Lord  John  Russell,  a  Select  Committee  was  appointed 
'to  inquire  whether,  and  in  what  parts  of  Scotland,  and 
under  what  circumstances,  large  numbers  of  Her  Majesty's 
subjects  have  been  deprived  of  the  means  of  religious 
worship,  by  the  refusal  of  certain  proprietors  to  grant  them 
sites  for  the  erection  of  Churches,'  Mr.  Guthrie1  was 
selected  along  with  Dr.  Chalmers,  Sheriff  Graham  Spiers, 
and  others,  to  give  evidence  before  it.  The  result  was 
such  an  overwhelming  testimony  in  support  of  the  com- 
plaints of  the  Free  Church  congregations,  that  the  Com- 
mittee arrived  at  an  unanimous  finding  in  their  report. 

One  by  one  the  site-withholding  heritors  gave  way,  and 
by  the  year  1850  nearly  all  the  Free  Churches  in  Scotland 
had  been  built  in  fairly  convenient  positions. 

But  this  great  question  was  a  bifurcate  one.  It  had 
two  'legs,'  the  one  scarcely  of  less  importance  than  the 
other.  Granted  that  the  very  existence  of  the  new  Church 
demanded  that  with  the  least  possible  delay  edifices 
should  be  provided  wherein  its  members  and  adherents 
could  worship  God  in  accordance  with  its  standards.  No 
sooner  were  these  provided  than  the  other  prong  of  the 
fork  had  to  be  considered  :    where  are  our  ministers  to 

1  See  his  evidence  before  the  Parliamentary  Committee  on  the 
Refusing  of  Sites. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  69 

be  housed  while  they  thus  supply  the  ordinances  of  the 
Church  to  their  people  ?  Hard  as  it  had  been  to  relinquish 
the  parish  churches,  sanctified  as  they  were  to  many  a 
minister's  heart  by  the  recollection  of  past  outpourings  of 
God's  Spirit  on  their  work,  the  wrench  of  bidding  adieu  to 
the  manses  had  been  even  harder.  They  were  endeared 
to  them  and  theirs  by  reminiscences  of  bygone  family 
felicity,  by  the  memories  of  dear  ones  now  passed  within 
the  veil,  with  whose  laughter  and  pattering  footfalls  the 
walls  had  once  resounded,  but  whose  existence  was  only 
marked  now  by  some  green  mounds  in  the  churchyard, 
and  the  silent  hicjacets  of  the  dead. 

On  abandoning  their  comfortable  manses,  many  country 
ministers  had  no  other  means  of  housing  their  families 
after  the  Disruption,  save  in  some  vacant  cottage  in  the 
vicinity,  or,  conveying  them  to  a  neighbouring  town,  to 
rent  a  house  out  of  such  scanty  savings  as  can  be  laid 
past  out  of  a  clergyman's  stipend.  Obviously,  therefore, 
one  of  the  first  duties  of  the  infant  Church  was  to  provide 
manses  for  its  ministers  in  those  districts  wherein  their 
work  lay.  Immediately  after  the  secession  was  an  accom- 
plished fact,  a  committee  was  formed1  for  inaugurating  'a 
Manse  Fund.'  To  the  honour  of  the  Disruption  ministers, 
be  it  said,  however,  that  they  themselves  laid  an  arrest 
upon  the  work  of  that  committee,  declaring  that  until  the 
Church's  necessary  machinery  was  all  in  working  order, 
they  would  not  allow  their  personal  comfort  to  be  con- 
sulted. Such  was  only  one  instance  out  of  many,'  charac- 
teristic of  the  unobtrusive  heroism  that  ennobled  many 
individuals  whose  lives  were  otherwise  essentially  common- 
place. 

But  ere  the  close  of  the  second  year  of  the  Free 
Church's  existence,  viz.  1844-45,  her  adherents  had  raised 
.£697.000  ;  her  five  great  missionary  schemes,  with  her  Sus- 
tentation  Fund,  her  College  and  School  Building  Funds, 
had  all  been  organised  and  liberally  responded  to.  The 
splendid  generosity  and  self-sacrifice  of  her  people,  from 
1  Memoir,  vol.  ii.  p.  86. 


7o  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

the  peer  to  the  peasant,  had  presented  an  object-lesson 
in  'sanctified  giving'  to  the  civilised  world  which  had 
filled  it  with  amazement.  One  scheme  only  remained  to 
be  undertaken,  but  it  was  of  such  cardinal  importance  as 
to  involve  within  itself  much  of  the  future  welfare  of  the 
Church.  There  was  more  than  appeared  at  first  glance  in 
the  remark  made  by  Dr.  Candlish,  that  the  '  Manse  Fund ' 
was  the  ribs,  if  the  Sustentation  Fund  was  the  backbone, 
of  the  Free  Church's  temporal  wellbeing.  But  who  would 
undertake  such  a  task  as  to  solicit  one  hundred  thousand 
pounds  from  a  field  of  Christian  benevolence  which,  in 
less  than  twenty-four  months,  had  yielded  such  a  harvest 
to  the  various  reapers  and  gleaners  that  had  gone  forth  as 
six  hundred  and  ninety-seven  thousand  pounds  ? 

For  the  Assembly  to  send  any  other  delegate  than  its 
most  effective  pleader  upon  such  a  mission,  at  such  a  time, 
and  over  a  field  traversed  by  so  many  previous  gleaners, 
would  be  to  court  failure.  Who  therefore  was  fitted  for 
a  task  so  difficult?  Chalmers,  the  mighty  Nestor  and 
Demosthenes  in  one  of  the  Church,  was  now  too  old  for 
the  wear  and  tear  of  such  a  campaign.  To  neither 
Candlish  nor  Cunningham  did  the  special  faculty  belong 
which  constitutes  the  persuasive  'clerical  beggar,'  to  use 
Dr.  Guthrie's  own  phrase.  There  was  only  one  man  who 
at  the  moment  possessed  the  rare  combination  of  an 
eloquent  tongue,  high  enthusiasm,  an  inexhaustible  fund 
of  humour,  profound  knowledge  of  human  nature,  business 
capacity,  unfailing  patience  and  ready  tact  in  seizing  the 
most  suitable  times  and  seasons  wherein  to  make  appeals 
for  help.  That  man  was  Thomas  Guthrie,  and  it  was 
due  to  the  keen  insight  into  character  peculiar  to  Dr. 
Chalmers  that  the  eyes  of  the  Free  Church  leaders  were 
directed  towards  him.  To  have  sought  such  a  mission 
would  have  been  the  last  thing  he  would  have  done ;  to 
refuse  it  when  laid  upon  him  as  a  sacred  duty  would  have 
been  equally  foreign  to  his  nature.  Yet  he  entered  on  the 
work  with  no  slight  misgivings.  To  ask  ^100,000  from 
people  who  had   already  subscribed  so  liberally  seemed 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  71 

even  to  him  to  strain  liberality  to  the  breaking-point. 
Were  not  the  demands  of  the  Free  Church  beginning  to 
savour  a  little  of  the  spirit  of  'the  daughters  of  the  horse- 
leech,' whose  constant  cry  was  '  Give,  give.'  Such  might 
have  been  the  ideas,  had  the  nature  of  the  people  been 
less  noble,  the  objects  for  which  the  money  was  solicited 
less  necessary.  But  Mr.  Guthrie  knew  his  countrymen, 
and  as  he  often  said  in  after-days,  '  he  never  had  a 
moment's  doubt  of  the  result  after  the  first  day.' 

Thus  in  May  1845  Mr.  Guthrie  began  that  great  under- 
taking which  was  to  complete  the  external  framework  of 
the  Free  Church — the  Manse  Fund.  His  efforts  on  behalf 
of  it  were  gigantic,  his  success  phenomenal.  His  appeal 
to  the  constituency  whence  he  hoped  to  draw  the  funds 
was  characteristically  humorous  : — 

1  By  building  manses  you  will  complete  our  ecclesiastical 
machinery,  and  give  the  Free  Church  a  permanence  in  the 
country  which  it  would  not  otherwise  possess.  Some  one, 
a  foe  to  our  Church,  said  to  a  friend  of  mine  in  Glasgow  : 
"  Well,  we  had  some  hope  you  would  all  go  to  pieces  and  be 
driven  out  to  sea  after  the  Disruption.  When  we  saw  you 
build  churches  we  had  less  hope ;  when  we  saw  you  build 
schools  we  had  less  still ;  but  when  you  have  built  your 
manses,  you  will  have  dropped  your  anchor  and  there  will  be 
no  driving  you  out."  I  would  much  rather  have  stayed  at 
home  with  my  own  flock  and  my  own  family.  I  have  had 
enough  of  speaking  and  travelling  and  fighting,  and  I  am  tired 
of  it.  Were  it  not  that  I  have  reason  to  believe  I  am  the  last 
"big  beggar-man"  you  will  ever  see,  and  were  it  not  that  the 
cause  has  all  my  sympathy  and  deepest  interest,  I  would  not 
have  undertaken  it.' 

His  sympathy !  Ah,  there  was  the  secret  of  his  mar- 
vellous success  as  a  special  pleader  in  the  cause  of  the 
Manse  Fund.  From  the  very  inmost  depths  of  his  great, 
big,  tenderly  sympathetic  heart,  every  word  of  every  appeal 
he  uttered  came  welling  forth.  None  better  than  he 
knew  the  martyr-like  sufferings  through  which  many  of 
the  Free  Church  ministers  passed  in  the  years  immediately 
subsequent  to  the  Disruption.  '  Gentlemen '  of  cultured 
instincts    and    refined    sensibilities,   delicate   ladies,   and 


72  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

tender  children,  were  compelled  to  crowd  together  into 
some  humble  cottage  in  the  parish,  where  that  minister 
once  had  been  surrounded  with  every  comfort.  Laborious 
students,  whose  days  and  whose  nights  had  been  spent  in 
their  libraries,  were  often  compelled,  for  lack  of  space, 
to  make  the  hillside  their  study,  the  grove  their  oratory. 
The  sights  Mr.  Guthrie  witnessed  while  itinerating  through 
the  country  from  Shetland  to  Solway,  pleading  the  cause 
of  the  Manse  Fund,  made  an  impression  upon  him  time 
could  never  efface.  His  feelings  were  harrowed  with  the 
scenes  of  suffering  he  could  not  relieve.  But,  at  the  same 
time,  his  warmest  admiration  was  awakened  by  the  mute 
patience  that  heroically  endured  anguish  untold  for  con- 
science' sake — anguish  whereof  the  physical  privations 
were  held  of  less  account,  as  compared  with  the  aban- 
donment of  homes  whose  every  room  was  eloquent  with 
memories  of  the  dear  and  of  the  dead. 

Those  who  heard  Mr.  Guthrie  at  the  outset  of  his 
mission,  and  again  at  its  close,  stated  with  some  degree 
of  surprise  that,  if  eloquent  at  the  start  of  his  '  pilgrimag- 
ings,'  he  was  well-nigh  overpowering  towards  their  finish. 
No  need  for  wonderment  at  the  reason.  He  had  looked 
upon  such  sufferings  among  his  country  brethren  as  wrung 
his  very  heart,  and  made  the  comfort  of  his  town  home 
almost  unbearable  to  him.  He  had  seen  the  saints  of  God 
who,  for  Christ's  Crown  and  Covenant,  had  sacrificed  on 
the  altar  of  conscience  all  that  the  world  holds  essential  to 
the  sweetening  of  life,  dauntlessly  standing  at  the  post  of 
duty,  while  in  several  instances  they  realised  that  their 
renunciation  of  the  comforts  of  home  to  face  privation, 
cold,  out-of-doors  services '  in  winter,  insufficient  meals, 
and  the  thousand-and-one  hardships  that  befell  the  rural 
ministers  in  the  Disruption  year,  entailed  their  death- 
sentence  as  surely  as  though  signed  and  sealed  under 
judicial  warrant.1  The  silent  heroism  of  these  men 
thrilled  him  with   admiration,   but   also   with   an  infinite 

1  This  was  literally  true  in  the  cases  of  Mr.  Baird  of  Cockburnspalh, 
of  the  two  M'Kenzies  of  Tongue,  and  of  at  least  four  others. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  73 

sense  of  compassion.  Often  when  weary,  exhausted,  and 
suffering  from  the  first  premonitory  symptoms  of  that 
disease  which  all  too  soon  was  to  render  mute  the  eloquent 
voice — nay,  when  others  would  urge  on  him  the  advisability 
of  rest  for  a  few  days — he  would  shake  his  head  and 
reply:  'The  Manse  Fund  cannot  be  delayed.  The  re- 
membrance of  those  suffering  saints  banishes  sleep  from 
my  eyes  o'  nights.' 

The  sum  aimed  at  had  been  ^100,000 — one-half  to  be 
available  at  once  as  a  Central  Fund  to  meet  pressing 
present  needs,  and  the  remainder  to  be  called  up  gradually 
as  required.  The  number  of  manses  required  was  seven 
hundred.  Each  congregation  was  to  receive  from  the 
Fund  a  grant  of  ^200,  on  the  understanding  that  it 
raised  the  remainder  of  the  cost  locally,  or  at  least  by 
its  own  exertions.  The  Highland  ministers  were  to  have 
their  wants  supplied  first,  save  such  exceptions  as  were 
of  unusual  hardship  elsewhere;  secondly,  the  Lowland 
country  parishes  were  to  be  attended  to ;  third,  ministers 
in  the  smaller  towns ;  and  lastly,  ministers  in  the  large 
towns  and  cities.  Such  was  the  scheme  formulated  by 
Messrs.  Paul  and  Meldrum,  the  conveners  of  the  Manse 
Fund. 

No  light  responsibility,  therefore,  rested  on  Mr.  Guthrie. 
Though  he  had  a  few  misgivings  at  the  outset,  they  did 
not  last,  as  I  have  said,  beyond  the  opening  day  of  his 
campaign.     Let  us  permit  him  to  speak  for  himself: — 

'  I  have  spent,'  he  said,  when  addressing  a  huge'  meeting 
in  the  City  Hall,  Glasgow,  '  three  of  the  happiest  days  I  ever 
spent  in  my  life  in  this  city.  I  have  gone  from  house  to  house 
and  from  counting-room  to  counting-room,  and  I  have  found 
no  cold  looks,  but  genuine  kindness.  I  have  been  often  told, 
"  O  Mr.  Guthrie,  there  is  no  use  making  a  speech,  we  are 
quite  prepared  for  you,  sir  :  where  is  your  book?" ' 

He  had  considered,  and  his  brethren  among  the  leaders 
of  the  Church  had  shared  his  view,  that  if  he  secured 
^1500  as  the  result  of  his  first  day's  work,  it  would 
form  a  good  augury  for  the  future  that  the  sum  aimed 


74  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

at  would  be  realised.  But  when  the  result  of  his  first 
appeal  to  any  individual  produced  ^1500,  and  when  the 
sum-total  of  that  first  day's  efforts  came  nearer  .£5000 
than  ^4000,  Mr.  Guthrie,  feeling  all  doubts  disappearing 
like  morning  mists  before  the  sun,  determined  to  aim  at 
^100,000  as  the  amount  of  the  original  or  Central  Fund. 
No  one  will  ever  know  the  hardships  this  devoted  servant 
of  God  went  through  when  pleading  the  cause  of  the 
Manse  Fund.  But  when  all  was  over,  when  he  was  able 
to  announce  in  the  General  Assembly  of  1846,  amid  a 
deafening  storm  of  applause,  that  even  his  second  mini- 
mum had  been  far  surpassed,  and  that  the  grand  total  of 
subscriptions  to  the  Manse  Fund  collected  by  his  year's 
work  amounted  to  ;£i  16,370,  his  reward  came  to.  him 
not  in  those  cheers  and  applause,  pleasant  though  they 
were,  but  in  the  silent  pressure  of  his  hand,  in  the  words 
of  thanks  spoken  in  tones  broken  with  emotion,  in  the 
grateful  gaze  of  eyes  brimming  with  tears  of  joy  from 
brethren,  whose  future  comfort  he  had  secured  beyond 
all  possible  doubt.  The  Manse  Fund  was  the  greatest 
of  Mr.  Guthrie's  many  great  services  to  the  Free  Church. 
It  is  his  memorial,  his  monument,  aere  perennius,  whereby 
he  shall  be  imperishably  commemorated  while  the  Free 
Church  preserves  her  corporate  existence.  After  such 
labours,  well  might  he  say,  '  I  have  now  only  one  request 
to  make  of  the  Church,  and  that  is — that  they  would  let 
me  alone.' 

But  during  those  years,  1843-46,  when  his  hands  were 
so  full  of  ecclesiastical  work,  he  never  neglected  his  duties 
as  .  a  husband,  a  father,  and  a  good  citizen.  As  much 
time  as  he  could  spare  he  spent  in  the  bosom  of  his 
family — no  father  fonder  than  he  of  his  children,  no 
parent  more  beloved  in  turn  by  those  for  whose  welfare, 
in  both  a  spiritual  and  a  temporal  sense,  he  was  so 
solicitous.  '  The  Guthries'  was  the  happiest  home  I  was 
ever  in,'  said  a  lady  now  a  missionary  in  the  East,  'and 
the  Doctor  [Guthrie]  was  the  merriest  of  them  all.'  His 
religion  was  as  sunny  as  it  was  sanctifying.     He  had  no 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  75 

sympathy  with  that  grim  creed  which  condemns  innocent 
gaiety  as  wanton  levity,  and  regards  '  a  grave  deportment ' 
as  the  cardinal  evidence  of  a  Christian  character.  Sancti- 
fied happiness  and  harmless  amusements,  he  maintained, 
have  their  rightful  niche  in  the  Christian  economy.1  In 
their  place  and  season  they  are  to  be  encouraged  rather 
than  repressed.  This  was  Mr.  Guthrie's  carefully  formed 
opinion,  and  he  accounted  that  day  shorn  of  some  of 
its  brightest  moments  in  which  he  was  not  able  to  spend 
some  time  in  sharing  the  innocent  pleasures  of  his  sons 
and  daughters.  '  Show  me  his  family  and  I  shall  tell 
you  what  kind  of  father  he  is,'  says  Firdausi  the  Persian, 
and  the  passionate  devotion  wherewith  his  children  even 
to  this  day  cherish  the  memory  of  him  who  is  gone,  is 
proof  sufficient  that  Thomas  Guthrie  was  one  '  of  noblest 
virtues  full  compact.' 

1  See  his  admirable  booklet  on  Popular  Innocent  Entertainments, 
published  under  the  auspices  of  the  Scottish  Temperance  League. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

ARABS — BEDOUIN   AND    CITY 

Accidental  circumstances  are  often  the  seedlings  whence 
spring  the  stately  trees  of  beneficent  institutions.  To  such 
an  origin  the  scheme  still  known  amongst  us  as-' Dr. 
Guthrie's  Original  Ragged  Schools'  was  due. 

'Strolling  one  day'  (probably  in  1845  or  1846)  'with  a  friend 
among  the  romantic  scenery  of  the  crags  and  green  valleys 
around  Arthur  Seat'  (says  the  subject  of  our  sketch),  '  we  came 
at  length  to  St.  Anthony's  Well,  and  sat  down  on  the  great 
black  stone  beside  it  to  have  a  talk  with  the  ragged  boys  who 
pursue  their  calling  there.  Their  "tinnies"  were  ready  with 
a  draught  of  the  clear  cold  water  in  hope  of  a  halfpenny.  By 
way  of  introduction  we  began  to  question  them  about  schools. 
As  to  the  boys  themselves,  one  was  fatherless,  the  son  of  a 
poor  widow  ;  the  father  of  the  other  was  alive,  but  a  man  of 
low  habits  and  bad  character.  Both  were  poorly  clothed. 
The  one  had  never  been  at  school ;  the  other  had  sometimes 
attended  a  Sabbath-school.  By  way  of  experiment  I  said, 
"  Would  you  go  to  school  if,  besides  your  learning,  you  were 
to  get  breakfast,  dinner,  and  supper  there?"  It  would  have 
done  any  man's  heart  good  to  have  seen  the  flash  of  joy  that 
broke  from  the  eyes  of  one  of  them,  the  flush  of  pleasure  on 
his  cheek  as — hearing  of  three  sure  meals  a  day — the  boy 
leapt  to  his  feet  and  exclaimed,  "Ay  will  I,  sir,  and  bring  the 
haill  land1  too"  ;  and  then,  as  if  afraid  I  might  withdraw  what 
seemed  to  him  so  large  and  munificent  an  offer,  he  exclaimed, 
"  I  '11  come  for  but  my  denner,  sir  ! "  ' 

This  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  step  towards  the 
origination  of  a  movement,  the  benefits  accruing  from 
which  have  been  simply  incalculable.  But  although  Mr. 
Guthrie  was  the  eloquent  apostle  of  the  Ragged  School 

1  haill  land :  the  whole  tenement. 
76 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  77 

System,  although  he  formulated  many  improvements  on 
the  original  design,  with  characteristic  honesty  he  was 
always  careful  to  disclaim  the  credit  of  being  the  founder 
of  the  scheme.  As  is  well  known,  that  belongs  to  the 
Portsmouth  cobbler,  John  Pounds,  as  far  as  England  is 
concerned,  and  in  Scotland  to  Sheriff  Watson  of  Aberdeen. 
These  two  men,  independently  of  each  other — nay,  un- 
known to  each  other — had  been  wrestling  with  the  problem 
aptly  stated  by  Charles  Dickens1  as  'an  effort  to  introduce 
among  the  most  miserable  and  neglected  outcasts  some 
knowledge  of  the  commonest  principles  of  morality  and 
religion ;  to  commence  their  recognition  as  immortal 
human  creatures  before  the  gaol-chaplain  becomes  their 
only  schoolmaster;  to  suggest  to  society  that  its  duty  to 
this  wretched  throng,  foredoomed  to  crime  and  punish- 
ment, rightfully  begins  at  some  distance  from  the  police 
office. '  As  appeared  from  the  conversation  he  held  with 
the  boys  at  St.  Anthony's  Well,  Mr.  Guthrie's  conception 
of  a  'ragged  school'  was  one  where,  along  with  education, 
both  sacred  and  secular,  food,  clothing,  and  industrial 
training  should  be  gratuitously  supplied.  This  was  a 
development  of  the  idea  entertained  by  John  Pounds 
and  Sheriff  Watson,  whose  scheme,  however,  contemplated 
the  supply  only  of  food  as  the  incentive  to  learning. 
The  former  '  was  sometimes  seen  hunting  down  a  ragged 
urchin  on  the  quays  of  Portsmouth  and  compelling  him 
to  come  to  school,  not  by  the  power  of  a  policeman,  but  of 
a — potato  I  He  knew  the  love  of  an  Irishman  for  a  potato, 
and  might  have  been  seen  running  alongside  an  unwilling 
boy  with  one  held  under  his  nose,  with  a  temper  as  hot 
and  a  coat  as  ragged  as  his  own.'  But  Mr.  Guthrie  not 
only  proposed  to  save  the  children  of  the  City  Arab  class 
from  the  contamination  and  misery  of  their  surroundings 
for  so  many  hours  a  day — to  save  them,  moreover,  from 
drifting  towards  their  inevitable  goal,  the  jail — through 
association  with  criminal  companions;  he  aimed  also  at 
teaching  them  some  kind  of  trade  along  with  their  educa- 

1  Letter  to  Daily  News,  1846. 


78  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

tion,  so  that  they  might  be  able  to  earn  their  own  living, 
and  not  be  compelled  to  prey  on  society. 

The  City  Arab  presents  many  features  of  analogy  with 
his  prototype,  the  Bedouin  of  the  desert.  Of  these  none 
is  more  striking  than  his  dislike  of  restraint.  Great  tact 
and  skill  are  essential  in  dealing  with  him,  lest  you  scare 
where  you  hoped  to  secure.  In  such  a  quest  Mr.  Guthrie 
was  not  averse,  like  Pounds,  to  displaying  the  wisdom  of 
the  serpent  as  well  as  the  gentleness  of  the  dove  in  order 
to  lay  hold  of  promising  subjects.     But  I  am  anticipating. 

The  fact  is  noteworthy  that  Mr.  Guthrie's  first  efforts  to 
follow  in  the  footsteps  of  Pounds  and  Watson  ended  in 
failure  and  disappointment.  He  invited  his  own  office- 
bearers to  embark  on  the  scheme,  but  they  dreaded  the 
responsibility  and  declined.  The  disappointment,  how- 
ever, was  a  blessing  in  disguise.  Had  his  first  attempt 
been  a  success,  the  Ragged  Schools  movement  might  have 
been  merely  a  sectarian,  perhaps  only  a  congregational, 
scheme  in  place  of  the  wide-spread,  catholic  organisation 
that  claimed  support  from  all  creeds  and  classes. 

From  his  congregation  he  appealed  to  the  general  public. 
His  celebrated  first  Plea  for  Ragged  Schools1  was  the  re- 
sult of  this  disappointment.  He  published  it  in  February 
1847  with  fear  and  trembling,  as  he  stated  in  a  letter  to  a 
friend,  inasmuch  as  he  was  entirely  without  experience  in 
literary  work.  '  I  remember,'  he  says,  '  of  returning  home 
after  committing  the  MS.  to  the  printer,  and  thinking, 
"  Well,  what  a  fool  I  have  made  of  myself !" '  He  was  not 
long  in  being  undeceived.  No  sooner  was  the  '  Plea ' 
published  than  its  eloquence  and  its  sincerity,  its  utter 
lack  of  any  claptrap  or  rhetorical  self-glorification,  its 
simple  statement  of  mournfully  patent  facts,  and  its  sugges- 
tion of  a  remedy  that  seemed  at  once  feasible  and  adequate, 
caused  it  to  strike  a  responsive  note  in  many  sympathetic 
hearts.    The  very  enthusiasm — of  which  in  his  humility  he 

1  Seedtime,  and  Harvest  of  Ragged  Schools,  by  Thomas  Guthrie,  D.  D. 
(the  three  Pleas  bound  in  one  volume).  Edinburgh  :  A.  and  C.  Black. 
i860. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  79 

had  felt  half  ashamed — and  the  unstudied  character  of  its 
appeals  constituted  its  charm.  Before  a  fortnight  had 
elapsed  letters  of  thanks,  of  sympathy,  of  admiration,  and 
others  enclosing  substantial  pecuniary  help,  poured  in 
upon  him  from  all  quarters  of  the  compass,  as  well  as 
from  all  classes  in  the  community.  His  doubts  dis- 
appeared; the  opening  battle  of  the  Edinburgh  Ragged 
Schools  was  won. 

I  may  state  here  that  in  addition  to  delivering  many 
speeches  and  lectures,  to  giving  evidence  before  a  Parlia- 
mentary Commission,  and  to  'interviewing'  Cabinet 
Ministers  and  statesmen  innumerable  on  the  theme  so 
near  his  heart,  Dr.  Guthrie  published  'three'  masterly 
1  Pleas '  explanatory  of  the  principles  on  which  the 
'  Original  Ragged  Schools '  were  conducted,  and  in  favour 
of  them  being  extended  to  all  the  great  cities  in  the 
kingdom.  The  three  booklets  in  the  triune  volume  Seed- 
time and  Harvest  constitute  a  magazine  of  facts  and  figures 
indispensable  to  all  interested  in  the  work  of  the  reclama- 
tion of  our  juvenile  city  waifs.  In  these  '  Pleas  '  Guthrie 
the  philanthropist  is  seen  at  his  best.  Apart  from  their 
extrinsic  value  in  the  accuracy  of  the  statistics  he  furnishes 
— information  of  importance  to  the  social  reformer  and 
the  criminologist1 — the  'Pleas'  possess  an  intrinsic  value 
in  their  literary  merits,  in  the  charm  of  their  graceful 
English  style  and  vivid  imagery,  and,  finally,  in  the  '  life- 
likeness  '  of  the  scenes  described.  In  these  he  appears  as 
a  great  literary  genre  painter.  At  times  his  pictures  seem 
steeped  in  a  Salvator  Rosa  gloom  of  sorrow,  sin,  and 
suffering  when  depicting  the  sights  and  haunts  of  that 
poverty  and  vice  whence  the  children  were  drawn ;  anon 
suffused  with  the  tenderest  tints  of  love  and  of  sympathetic 
joy,  when  portraying  the  happiness  of  lives  dragged 
from  the  maelstrom  of  crime  to  be  consecrated  to  useful 
ends. 

1  Professor  Lombroso  of  Turin,  the  author  of  many  standard  works 
on  criminology,  Dr.  Antonio  Marro,  and  Dr.  Cone  have  all  spoken  in 
high  terms  of  Dr.  Guthrie's  •  methods  '  in  endeavouring  to  create  what 
they  term  a  new  •  atmosphere  '  for  the  children  of  criminal  parents. 


80  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

The  first  '  Plea,'  as  I  have  stated,  appeared  on  February 
20,  1847,  the  second  on  10th  January  1849,  the  third  on 
25th  April  i860.  The  ground  was  no  sooner  broken 
than  a  favourable  review  of  the  first  '  Plea '  appeared  in 
the  Witness  from  the  pen  of  Hugh  Miller,  followed  a  day 
or  two  after  by  a  leading  article,  wherein  the  work  of  Dr. 
Chalmers  with  his  '  territorial  scheme '.  and  of  Dr.  Guthrie 
with  the  Ragged  Schools  was  compared  and  discriminatingly 
eulogised.  To  Hugh  Miller  a  project  such  as  this  now 
formulated  by  his  pastor  warmly  commended  itself,  and  to 
the  hour  of  his  lamented  death  the  editor  of  the  Witness 
was  the  staunchest  of  advocates  in  favour  of  the  new 
system.1  The  immediate  outcome  of  '  Plea  No.  1  '  was  a 
preliminary  meeting  of  those  interested  in  the  movement, 
held  on  March  24th,  under  the  auspices  and  patronage 
of  the  Lord  Provost,  Mr.  Adam  Black.  At  that  meeting 
Mr.  Guthrie  gave  an  outline  of  the  tentative  framework  of 
the  scheme,  as  the  matter  presented  itself  to  his  mind, 
adding  with  a  humility  as  rare  as  it  was  graceful,  '  My 
friends  and  I  who  originally  moved  in  this  matter  are 
desirous  to  be  lost  sight  of,  and  to  be  merged  in  a  general 
committee  containing  a  full  and  fair  representation  of  all 
classes  in  the  community.'  A  general  committee  was 
thereupon  nominated  by  the  Lord  Provost,  who,  at  Mr. 
Guthrie's  request,  took  care  to  place  upon  it  representa- 
tives of  all  classes  of  the  community,  of  all  creeds  present 
at  the  meeting,  and  of  all  shades  of  politics.2  By  this 
committee  a  constitution  and  code  of  rules  for  the 
association  was  prepared  and  laid  before  a  great  public 
meeting  in  the  Music  Hall  on  10th  April.  At  this  gather- 
ing, after  an  eloquent  appeal  from  Mr.  Guthrie,  the  con- 
stitution of  the  new  organisation  was  approved,  and  the 
society  thereupon  took  shape. 

1  In  his  review  of  the  'Plea'  {Witness,  Feb.  20),  he  styles  it  'a 
singularly  interesting  pamphlet  in  which  we  promise  a  treat  of  no 
everyday  kind  to  every  admirer  of  graphic  pictures,  lively  illustrations, 
vigorous  sense,  and  unsophisticated  feeling.' 

2  No  Roman  Catholics  attended  the  meeting,  and  therefore  none 
Were  included  on  the  committee. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  81 

Meanwhile  letters  laudatory  to  himself  and  eulogistic  of 
his  project  poured  in  upon  him  from  many  of  the  leading 
men  of  the  day.  Scarce  a  journal  in  the  country  but 
reviewed  the  '  Plea '  and  praised  its  aims,  even  the  Edin- 
burgh Review  devoting  one  of  its  articles  to  a  warm 
appreciation  of  the  beneficent  motives  underlying  the 
plan. 

Francis  Jeffrey,  Lord  John  Russell,  W.  E.  Gladstone, 
John  Stuart  Mill,  and  others  also  acknowledged  copies  of 
the  pamphlet,  and  in  many  cases  sent  subscriptions  to- 
wards the  funds  of  the  Association.  Space  debars  me 
dwelling  longer  on  the  circumstances  of  the  inception  of 
this  great  scheme.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  premises  were 
secured  on  the  Castlehill,  children  were  induced  to 
attend,  and  success  seemed  certain  when,  within  ten 
weeks  of  the  commencement  of  the  undertaking,  a  differ- 
ence of  opinion  arose,  based  on  those  sectarian  cleavages 
which  have  been  Scotland's  curse  for  the  past  two  hundred 
years. 

The  controversy  turned  on  the  meaning  attached  to 
certain  words  in  the  Constitution  and  Rules  of  the  Asso- 
ciation.    These  read  as  follows  : — 


'  It  is  the  object  of  this  Association  to  reclaim  the  neglected 
or  profligate  children  of  Edinburgh  by  affording  them  the 
benefits  of  a  good,  common,  and  Christian  education,  and  by 
training  them  to  habits  of  regular  industry  so  as  to  enable 
them  to  earn  an  honest  livelihood,  and  fit  them  for  the  duties 
of  life.  The  general  plan  on  which  the  schools  shall  be  con- 
ducted shall  be  as  follows  : — 

'  To  give  the  children  an  allowance  of  food  for  their  daily 

support. 
'To  instruct  them  in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic. 
'To  train  them  in  habits  of  industry,  by  instructing   and 

employing  them  daily  in  such  sorts  of  work  as  are  suited 

to  their  years. 
'  To  teach  them  the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  making  the  Holy 

Scriptures  the  groundwork  ofinstructio7i? 

The  cause  of  this  contention  arose  out  of  the  last 
1  regulation.'     One  of  those  hornets  of  society,  an  anony- 

F 


82  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

mous  writer  in  one  of  the  Edinburgh  newspapers,  stated 
with  the  utmost  assurance  that  Roman  Catholics  were 
excluded  from  the  school.  That  charge  being  proved 
false  by  the  logic  of  facts,  the  ground  was  changed  and 
the  assertion  made  that  the  original  scope  of  the  consti- 
tution of  the  society  was  being  covertly  changed  and  the 
school  so  conducted  with  regard  to  religious  instruction,  as 
virtually  to  exclude  Roman  Catholic  children.  Notwith- 
standing the  indignant  disclaimer  by  Mr.  Guthrie  and  the 
acting  committee  of  such  action  or  intention,  the  fact 
became  evident  that  a  serious  difference  of  opinion  existed 
among  the  committee,  as  to  whether  the  Bible  should  be 
read  in  the  schools,  or  the  education  be  limited  entirely 
to  secular  subjects.  The  controversy,  which  had  already 
agitated  Aberdeen  and  Dundee,  was  now  broached  in 
Edinburgh.  The  majority  of  the  committee  agreed  with 
Mr.  Guthrie  that  the  Bible  should  be  read  in  the  Ragged 
Schools ;  otherwise,  if  religious  instruction  were  to  be 
relegated  wholly  to  the  home  sphere,  these  unfortunate 
waifs,  whose  only  home  was  a  hell  on  earth,  would  re- 
ceive none.1  An  influential  minority,  however,  numbering 
amongst  them  Lords  Dunfermline  and  Murray,  Professor 
Gregory,  and  others,  and  assuming  the  title  '  Liberal 
Protestants,'  took  the  opposite  view,  that  religious  instruc- 
tion should  be  given  separately  by  Protestant  and  Catholic 
clergy  or  teachers,  to  children  whose  parents  professed 
these  distinctive  creeds. 

On  July  2,  1847,  another  great  public  meeting  sum- 
moned by  the  Lord  Provost  was  held,  at  which  the  advo- 
cates of  the  opposing  views  severally  stated  their  opinions. 
The  speech  of  Mr.  Guthrie  was  not  only  beyond  question 
the  ablest  of  the  day,  but  was  one  of  the  finest  he  ever 
delivered.  The  occasion,  and  all  that  was  contingent 
upon  his  successful  vindication  of  his  case,  seemed  to 
inspire  him.      Wit,  humour,   sarcasm,    cogent   reasoning, 

1  Let  it  be  remembered  that  at  this  time  Sabbath-schools  were  very 
rare,  and  as  far  as  the  poorer  districts  of  Edinburgh  were  concerned, 
were  unknown. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  83 

melting  pathos,  and  persuasive  eloquence,  were  all  present 
in  it.  Even  Lord  Murray,  his  opponent,  characterised  it 
as  'a  marvel  of  splendid  oratory.' 

But  all  his  efforts  were  fruitless.  Secession  was  in- 
evitable. Accordingly,  the  supporters  of  the  '  secular ' 
view  '  hived  off,'  and  established  another  school  called 
the  '  United  Industrial,'  conducted  on  the  principle  of 
joint  secular  and  separate  religious  instruction.  Though 
the  loss  of  the  influential  friends  who  thus  withdrew  was 
to  be  deplored,  the  matter  did  not  in  the  least  injure  the 
1  Original  Ragged  Schools.'  The  controversy  had  tended 
to  diffuse  a  knowledge  of  its  principles  and  aims  among 
classes  of  society  to  which  its  appeals  might  not  have 
penetrated.  As  a  consequence,  money  and  supplies  of 
all  kinds  poured  in,  until  Mr.  Guthrie  jocularly  remarked, 
1  Our  weakening  was  our  strengthening ;  one  or  two  more 
discussions  and  we  might  begin  to  lay  by  money  for  a 
rainy  day.'  Nothing  seemed  to  depress  or  diminish  his 
energy,  while  his  versatility  was  just  as  wonderful  as  his 
vitality. 

At  this  time,  when  one  would  imagine  all  his  powers 
concentrated  on  the  development  of  his  Ragged  School 
scheme,  he  could  nevertheless  turn  from  it  to  assist  his 
brethren,  by  preaching  .at  the  opening  of  their  new 
churches,  when  the  mere  fact  of  his  presence  was  certain 
to  attract  larger  crowds  than  otherwise  would  have 
assembled ;  also  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  Wesleyan 
Missions,  to  protest  against  any  relaxation  of  Sabbath 
Observance,  to  take  his  share  in  Presbytery,  Synod,  and 
Commission  of  Assembly  work,  and  yet  to  maintain  at  its 
high  standard  the  quality  of  his  Sabbath  discourses,  as 
well  as  to  fulfil  all  other  necessary  pastoral  duties.  To 
discharge  these  functions  with  the  ability,  assiduity,  and 
popular  acceptance  ever  attending  his  efforts,  showed  a 
rare  power  of  mental  concentration,  coupled  with  a  most 
versatile  adaptability  to  circumstances. 

To  detail  the  whole  of  Mr.  Guthrie's  work  in  the  cause 
of  Ragged  Schools  would  require  all  the  available  space 


84  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

in  this  volume.  He  was  the  philanthropist  born,  not 
made.  To  the  day  of  his  death,  this  movement,  next  to 
the  high  and  holy  duties  of  his  ministerial  office, 
held  prime  place  in  his  heart.1  Among  the  very  last 
speeches  he  made  was  one  in  1S71  on  behalf  of  these 
'  Schools,'  in  which,  moreover,  he  intimated  his  unfaltering 
adherence  to  the  principle  of  the  Bible  as  an  element  in 
the  instruction  supplied ;  or,  as  he  put  it,  '  The  Bible,  the 
whole  Bible,  and  nothing  but  the  Bible — the  Bible  without 
note  or  comment,  without  the  authoritative  interpretation 
of  priest  or  presbyter — as  the  foundation  of  all  its  religious 
teaching,  and  of  its  religious  teaching  to  all.'  By  the  end 
of  1847,  three  Schools  had  been  established  in  Edinburgh 
under  the  auspices  of  the  '  Original  Ragged  Schools 
Association,'  with  a  total  attendance  of  two  hundred 
and  sixty-five  children.  In  1849,  in  n*s  second  'Plea,' 
he  implored  fresh  assistance,  as  the  work  was  increasing 
so  enormously  that  the  existing  Ragged  Schools  were 
inadequate  to  overtake  the  juvenile  destitution  in  Edin- 
burgh. He  appealed  to  the  statistics  furnished  in  each 
annual  report  to  bear  testimony  to  the  success  achieved ; 
while  in  the  fifth  report,  that  for  185 1,  he  joyfully  records 
the  fact  that  two  hundred  and  sixteen  children  trained 
in  his  'Schools,'  were  then  known  to  be  earning  their 
living  by  honest  industry.2  From  Governor  Smith,  also, 
of  the  Edinburgh  Prison,  one  of  his  warmest  admirers 
and  staunchest  supporters,  he  received  this  additional 
proof  of  the  beneficial  influence  of  the  system,  that 
whereas  in  1847  more  than  five  per  cent,  of  the  total 
number  of  prisoners  in  Calton  Jail  were  under  fourteen 
years  of  age,  viz.  315  out  of  5734,  in  1851  the  proportion 
had  fallen  to  less  tha?i  one  per  cent.,  viz.  56  out  of  5869. 
'  From  careful  observation  of  the  operation  of  the  Ragged 
Industrial  Schools,'   wrote    Mr.    Smith,    'I   can    have   no 

1  On  his  deathbed  he  tenderly  and  touchingly  commended  the 
Ragged  Schools  to  the  interest  and  care  of  his  family.  Nobly  have 
they  fulfilled  their  trust. 

2  Seethe  annual  reports  of  the  Schools  for  full  details  of  the  progress 
made. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  85 

doubt  they  have  been  the  principal  instruments  in  effect- 
ing so  desirable  a  change.'  Cheering  evidence  this  to 
the  noble-hearted  founder  that  his  labours  were  being 
followed  by  results  so  unmistakable. 

So  marked  a  success  fully  warranted  an  appeal  to 
Government  to  obtain  the  insertion  of  a  clause  into 
the  Minutes  of  Council  on  Education  embracing  the 
Ragged  Schools,  in  order  that  they  might  receive  aid  out 
of  the  public  funds.  The  institutions  were  conferring 
great  benefit  on  the  community ;  why  then  should  not 
the  radius  of  their  beneficent  influence  be  extended  by 
Government  supplementing  what  private  endeavour  had 
commenced  ?  The  directors  of  the  Edinburgh  Original 
Ragged  Schools,  therefore,  decided  to  send  an  influential 
deputation  to  London  to  interview  Lord  Lansdowne, 
President  of  the  Privy  Council.  Upon  this  deputation 
the  leading  place  was,  of  course,  assigned  to  Dr.  Guthrie. 
His  name  was  well  known  in  London,  and  his  great 
services,  both  as  a  Free  Churchman  and  philanthropist, 
appraised  at  their  true  value. 

The  welcome  he  received,  accordingly,  was  most  en- 
thusiastic. Immense  crowds  flocked  to  hear  him  preach 
or  address  meetings,  even  on  a  week-day.  '  What 's 
wrong  ?  Is  there  a  house  on  fire  down  that  street,  or  is  the 
Queen  in  town  ? '  said  one  Londoner  to  another,  when  he 
saw  dense  masses  of  people  completely  blocking  one  of 
the  metropolitan  thoroughfares.  '  Oh  no,  it 's  Ragged 
Schools  Guthrie  addressing  a  meeting,  and  all  London 
is  on  the  trot  to  hear  him.' 1  The  remark  was  no  more 
than  truth.  From  royalty  to  the  '  roughs '  for  whom  he 
was  labouring,  peers,  members  of  parliament,  merchant- 
princes — in  a  word,  the  rank,  wealth,  beauty  and  fashion, 
as  well  as  the  elite  of  its  intellectual  and  spiritual  life — all 
flocked  to  hear  him,  and  hearing,  were  captivated.  Not 
even  Lord  Lansdowne  escaped  the  fascination.  His 
lordship  received  the  deputation  in  his  official  capacity, 
and  was  visibly  impressed  by  the  eloquence  and  earnest- 
1  A  paragraph  from  a  London  weekly. 


86  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

ness  of  the  speaker,  as  well  as  by  the  facts  adduced  : — 
1  One  of  my  friends  told  me  afterwards,'  says  Dr.  Guthrie, 
'  that  I  was  sitting  on  a  chair  three  times  the  breadth  of 
the  table  away  from  him  when  I  began  to  address  him, 
but  that  as  I  got  on,  I  edged  nearer  and  nearer,  till  at 
last  I  was  clapping  him  on  the  'knee.  I  gave  it  to  his 
lordship  in  a  speech  nearly  an  hour  long,  at  which  he 
seemed  lost  in  astonishment.' 

No  wonder  he  was  so,  when  informed,  on  the  most 
irresistible  statistical  authority,  that  each  criminal  costs 
the  country  on  an  average  ^300,  that  before  reaching  the 
age  when  crime  has  become  habitual,  the  Ragged  Schools 
take  one  of  these  boys  off  the  streets,  and  place  him 
in  an  institution,  clothe,  feed,  train,  and  educate  him, 
then  hand  him  back  to  society  a  useful  and  valuable 
member  of  the  community,  while  the  whole  cost  of  doing 
so  is  only  £25.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  he  is  left  to 
pursue  his  evil  courses,  the  State  does  not  finish  with 
that  boy,  either  by  hanging  or  by  penal  confinement,  under 
^£300.  Lord  Lansdowne  could  not  fail  to  perceive  on 
which  side  the  advantage  lay,  and  I  may  add  that  what 
was  true  in  1850-51  is  even  more  so  to-day.  The  upshot 
of  the  interview  with  the  President  of  the  Privy  Council 
was  that  Dr.  Guthrie  was  asked  by  Lord  Lansdowne  to 
place  his  statements  in  '  black  and  white  '  and  to  forward 
them  to  his  lordship.  Thus  took  shape  the  famous 
Memorial^  printed  and  despatched  to  the  Government 
in  1851. 

Largely  as  a  result  of  the  spirited  efforts  of  Dr.  Guthrie 
in  this  direction,  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons 
was  appointed  in  1852  to  inquire  into  'the  condition  of 
criminal  and  destitute  juveniles  in  this  country,  and  what 
changes  are  desirable  in  their  present  treatment  in  order 
to  supply  industrial  training  and  to  combine  reforma- 
tion with  the  due  correction  of  juvenile  crime.'  Before 
this  Parliamentary  Committee  Dr.  Guthrie  was  requested 
to  give  evidence,  and  gladly  complied  in  February  1853. 
His  examination  was  a  lengthy  and  a  searching  one,  but 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  87 

the   amount   of  information  elicited    from  him  surprised 
the  members.1 

On  every  phase  of  the  question  they  chose  to  examine 
him,  he  was  able  to  adduce  facts  previously  unknown  to 
them,  and  to  substantiate  them  by  reliable  statistics. 
The  upshot  of  all,  to  Dr.  Guthrie's  great  delight,  was  that 
the  Parliamentary  Committee  reported  (a)  that  reforma- 
tories, instituted  and  supported  entirely  at  the  public 
expense,  ought  to  be  established ;  and  (0)  that  the  exist- 
ing Ragged  Industrial  or  preventive  schools  ought  to 
participate  in  the  benefits  of  the  national  grant,  under  the 
administration  of  the  Committee  of  Council  for  Education. 
This  was  encouragement  and  reward  for  Dr.  Guthrie's 
long  years  of  persevering,  self-denying  effort.  He  and 
his  friends,  basing  their  claims  on  the  Committee's  report, 
vigorously  pressed  their  case  on  the  attention  of  the 
Government.  Owing  in  large  measure  to  the  statistics  Dr. 
Guthrie  was  ceaselessly  collecting  and  forwarding  to  Lord 
Lansdowne,  Parliament  at  length  was  induced  to  move. 
Two  Acts  were  passed :  the  first,  known  as  '  Lord 
Palmerston's  Act,'  applicable  to  criminal  children;  the 
second,  introduced  by  Mr.  Dunlop  (Dr.  Guthrie's  friend) 
and  known  as  '  Dunlop's  Act,'  dealing  with  vagrant 
children.  Together  they  fulfilled,  in  large  measure  at  least, 
what  was  considered  necessary  by  Dr.  Guthrie,  to  give 
magistrates  'powers  of  commitment,'  whereby  promising 
cases  might  be  sent  to  the  Schools  even  in  the  face  of 
parental  opposition,  when  such  parents  or  guardians 
were  found  unfit  to  be  intrusted  with  the  care'  of  these 
children.  The  pecuniary  aid  so  earnestly  desired  was 
also  afforded.  By  a  Minute  of  Privy  Council,  dated  June 
1856,  a  capitation  allowance  of  fifty  shillings  per  annum 
was  granted  for  every  child  in  the  certified  Industrial 
Schools,  whether  committed  by  a  magistrate  or  not ! 

Dr.    Guthrie's   satisfaction   was    now    complete.       His 
great  scheme  was  being  slowly  but  surely  realised.     Mean- 
time  he  was  unwearied  in  pressing  its  claims  upon  the 
1  Vide  Official  Report  of  the  evidence  taken  before  the  Commission. 


88  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

attention  of  all  classes  in  the  community.  At  no  small 
expenditure  of  time  and  energy,  in  days  when  travelling 
was  not  attended  with  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of 
these  latter  years,  he  visited  all  the  large  towns  in  England 
and  Wales,  as  well  as  in  his  native  country,  establishing 
new  Ragged  Schools,  as  well  as  extending  the  sphere 
of  operation  of  the  old;  and  whithersoever  he  went, 
meeting  enthusiastic  receptions,  as  the  great  philan- 
thropist who,  in  the  words  of  an  optimistic  admirer  in  the 
Witness,  'bids  fair  to  banish  crime  from  our  land  by 
the  simple  expedient  of  training  destitute  juveniles  to 
earn  their  own  living.'  Far  and  wide  his  name  was 
carried  on  the  wings  of  countless  grateful  blessings,  until 
'  Ragged  Schools  Guthrie,'  as  he  was  styled  by  the  Daily 
Neius  after  his  great  lecture  in  1855  in  Exeter  Hall, 
London — a  lecture  characterised  as  'the  high-water  mark 
of  his  powerful  and  pathetic  oratory  ' — became  a  familiar 
name  all  over  Europe. 

Nothing  daunted  his  courage,  no  reverse  dimmed  his 
cheery  faith  that  '  Our  Father  doeth  all  things  well.'  The 
disappointment  was  great  when,  after  one  year's  trial,  the 
Privy  Council  Minute  was  recalled,  and  in  the  new  one 
issued  in  December  1857,  the  capitation  grant  was 
reduced  from  50s.  to  5s. ;  but  it  only  nerved  him  to  greater 
exertions.1  Up  to  London  he  went,  stirring  up  popular 
interest  in  the  cause  through  his  eloquence,  interviewing 
Ministers  and  influential  statesmen,  and  finally  bombard- 
ing the  Government  position  of  non  possumus  with  the 
1  Third '  and  greatest  of  his  '  Pleas  for  Ragged  Schools.' 
Wisely  he  decided  to  issue  all  three  appeals  in  one  volume 
under  the  heading,  Seedtime  and  Harvest  of  Ragged  Schools, 
and  it  was  when  reviewing  the  little  volume  in  the  issue 
of  September  28,  i860,  that  the  Times  paid  the  following 
tribute  to  him  : — 

'  Dr.  Guthrie  is  the  greatest  of  our  pulpit  orators,  and  those 
who  have  never  heard  him  will  probably  obtain  a  better  idea 

1  See  article  in  the  Times  on  this  sudden  change  of  policy  in 
December  1857. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  89 

of  his  wonderful  eloquence  from  his  work  on  Ragged  Schools 
than  from  his  published  sermons.  .  .  .  They  [the  Pleas]  are 
the  most  finished  of  his  compositions,  and  are  well  worthy  of 
his  fame.  It  is  impossible  to  read  them  unmoved.  .  .  .  We 
are  inclined  almost  to  rank  him  as  the  greatest  living  master 
of  the  pathetic' 

But  all  his  efforts  could  not  induce  that  incarnation  of 
the  Utilitarian,  the  Right  Hon.  Robert  Lowe,  to  unloose 
the  national  purse-strings.  In  1861,  the  Industrial  Schools 
Act  became  law,  whereby  even  the  reduced  capitation 
grant  of  five  shillings  was  lopped  off,  and  only  those 
children  in  the  Industrial  Ragged  Schools  that  had  been 
committed  by  a  magistrate  were  to  receive  any  grant. 
Although  the  grant  in  question  was  greatly  raised,  Dr. 
Guthrie's  Schools  would  benefit  by  it  only  to  a  very  small 
extent,  inasmuch  as  the  proportion  of  '  committed '  to 
1  uncommitted  '  children  was  exceedingly  small.1 

To  many  a  philanthropist  such  a  blow  to  his  hopes 
would  have  been  staggering.  Not  so  Dr.  Guthrie  !  The 
moment  he  realised  that  further  knocking  at  the  Govern- 
mental door  was  useless,  he  wheeled  round  and  appealed 
to  the  general  public.  At  the  Social  Science  Congress 
held  in  Glasgow  under  the  presidency  of  Lord  Brougham, 
Dr.  Guthrie  delivered  an  address  in  the  '  Punishment  and 
Reformation  Section,'  which  elicited  warm  encomiums  from 
the  aged  President.  The  effects  of  it  were  visible  a  month 
or  two  afterwards,  when  a  public  meeting  was  called  in 
Edinburgh  '  to  consider  what  steps  should  be  taken  to 
meet  the  serious  deficit  of  ^700  in  the  funds  for  the  year 
of  the  Original  Ragged  School,  caused  by  the  withdrawal 
of  the  Government  Grant  for  non-committed  children.' 
At  this  meeting  Dr.  Norman  Macleod  made  one  of  his 
lofty  Christian  appeals  to  the  charity  of  the-  community 
not  to  allow  the  Schools  to  perish.  He  was  followed  by 
Dr.  Guthrie;  and  both  of  these  noble  orators,  each  peerless 
in  his  own  specific  type  of  eloquence,  produced  a  profound 

1  From  the  Privy  Council  Report  for  1861,  we  observe  that  in  the 
year  in  question  6172  children  were  in  attendance  at  the  Ragged 
Schools  in  Britain,  of  which  only  242  had  been  committed  by  magis- 
trates. 


9o  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

impression  on  the  Edinburgh  public.  Their  united  efforts 
were  irresistible.  In  place  of  ,£700  as  requested,  that 
public  meeting  realised  ^2200.  We  next  find  him  in 
1 86 1  attending  a  conference  of  the  friends  of  Ragged 
Schools,  held  at  Birmingham  under  the  presidency  of  Sir 
John  Pakington.1  On  that  occasion  he  made  another  telling 
speech  when  moving  the  second  resolution,  which  deplored 
the  fact  that,  while  destitute  children  formed  so  large  a  class 
in  the  community,  no  educational  aid  in  any  equitable  or 
adequate  proportion  is  given  for  their  education  from 
Parliamentary  grants.2 

For  five  years  more  he  fought  on  with  heroic  persistency. 
At  length,  largely  owing  to  his  efforts,  in  1866  a  new 
'  Industrial  Schools  Act '  was  passed,  by  which  •  these 
establishments  were  placed  on  a  much  more  satisfactory 
footing,  through  increased  facilities  being  given  to  magis- 
trates for  committing  children  accused  of  petty  thefts,  as 
well  as  destitute  or  vagrant  children  not  accused  of  any 
actual  crime.  By  this  means,  through  the  increased 
number  of  'committed  children,'  the  Ragged  Schools 
benefited  to  a  much  larger  degree.  Dr.  Guthrie  continued 
to  agitate  as  long  as  life  lasted  in  the  interests  of  that  vast 
mass  of  ignorant  and  destitute  children  who,  being  'un- 
committed/ are  beyond  the  pale  of  any  of  these  statutes. 
Death,  in  fact,  met  him  while  strenuously  urging  that  an 
amendment  should  be  made  in  the  Education  Act  of  1872 
to  meet  this  crying  need.  When  the  mighty  voice  was 
silent  and  the  great  heart  stilled  by  '  the  Shadow  feared  of 
man,'  the  destitute  children  of  Edinburgh  lost  a  friend  whose 
like  their  class  will  never  see  again.  He  laboured  much 
because  he  loved  much  those  whom  no  other  heart  loved 
so  well  and  with  whom  no  other  worker  sympathised  in 
equal  degree.  He  has  long  ago  passed  to  his  rest. 
Monuments  and  statues  become  soon  forgotten,  but  in  the 
'  Original  Ragged  Schools '  his  descendants  have  the 
assurance  that  his  works  will  imperishably  'follow'  him. 

1  Afterwards  Lord  Hampton. 

2  Vide  Official  Report  of  Conference  published  in  1861. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  91 

Meantime,  from  1846  to  1849  St.  John's  Free  Church 
continued  to  increase  in  numbers,  in  efficiency  in  Christian 
work,  in  sanctified  liberality.  Mr.  Guthrie  had  the  blessed 
consciousness  to  cheer  him  that  he  was  surrounded  by  a 
band  of  prayerful  workers,  who  bore  him  up  daily  and 
hourly,  by  their  prayers  before  the  throne  of  grace,  that 
he  might  be  sustained  with  divine  strength  amidst  his 
manifold  labours. 

In  1849  his  people,  as  well  as  his  many  friends  all  over 
the  world  'from  China  to  Peru,'  were  delighted  to  hear 
that  his  ancient  Alma  Mater  had  conferred  on  him  the 
degree  of  '  Doctor  of  Divinity.'  His  writings,  while  not 
characterised  by  striking  theological  scholarship,  are  dis- 
tinguished by  that  broad  catholicity  of  culture  which,  for 
the  peculiar  work  laid  to  his  hand,  was  of  infinitely  more 
service  to  him  than  if  he  had  been  a  profound  authority 
on  the  Hebrew  points,  or  versed  in  the  '  variorum  readings' 
of  all  the  Codices.  By  Dr.  Guthrie  the  degree  was  valued, 
not  for  the  added  prestige  it  conferred  on  himself,  but 
because  thereby  honour  was  paid  to  the  clergy  of  the 
Church  whose  interests  to  him  were  so  dear. 

But  amid  all  this  noble  and  self-denying  work,  the  con- 
gregation of  St.  John's  was  called  upon  to  pass  under  the 
shadow  of  a  great  anxiety.  Their  beloved  minister  was 
brought  once  more  to  the  gates  of  death.  The  anxieties 
and  colossal  labour  attached  to  the  Manse  Fund  Scheme 
and  to  the  initiation  of  his  Ragged  School  System,  ex- 
hausted even  the  vitality  of  his  strong,  muscular  frame. 
Symptoms  of  serious  cardiac  affection  began  to  disclose 
themselves.  Leave  of  absence  was  eagerly  allowed  to  him 
both  by  congregation  and  Presbytery,  in  the  hope  that  a 
few  months'  cessation  from  work  might  restore  all.  But 
at  the  end  of  the  term  he  was,  if  anything,  worse  than 
before.  Clearly  a  lengthened  rest,  undisturbed  by  anxieties 
of  any  kind,  was  imperatively  essential.  Drs.  Miller, 
Alison,  and  Fairbairn  urged  him  to  give  up  active  work 
for  a  year  or  two,  and  then  to  accept  the  assistance  of  a 
colleague.     For  a  time  he  refused  to  make  application. 


92  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

At  length  he  became  so  ill  that  he  had  no  choice.  After 
three  months'  rest,  on  January  23,  1848,  against  all  his 
friends'  advice,  he  attempted  to  preach.  With  the  utmost 
difficulty  he  got  through  "the  service  and  had  to  be  assisted 
from  the  pulpit.  He  never  entered  it  again  for  nearly  two 
years — until  Sabbath,  7th  October'  1849.  When  he  did  so, 
it  was  as  collegiate  minister  of  St.  John's,  along  with  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Hanna. 


CHAPTER   IX 

GUTHRIE — THE   APOSTLE   OF   TEMPERANCE 

The  night  was  cold,  wet,  and  cheerless  in  the  winter  of 
1 84 1.  A  tempest  had  been  raging  all  day,  and  as 
evening  closed  in  the  storm  increased  rather  than  mode- 
rated its  violence.  An  Irish  car,  with  two  Scottish  Non- 
Intrusionist  clergymen  and  an  Edinburgh  lawyer  in  it, 
had  been  toiling  across  the  wind-swept  stretches  of  County 
Tyrone,  as  the  road  winds  along  from  Omagh  to  Cooks- 
town.  The  occupants,  as  well  as  the  driver — a  strong, 
ruddy-faced  Milesian  with  laughter  and  good-humour 
peeping  out  of  every  line  of  his  countenance — were  soaked 
with  the  drenching  rain.  Half-way,  a  small  roadside  inn 
was  reached,  into  which  the  clergymen  went,  ordered 
whisky  and  hot  water,  and  made  toddy.  Out  of  kindness 
to  the  car-driver  they  called  him  in  and  offered  him  a 
rummer  of  the  steaming  liquor.  To  their  surprise  he 
warmly  thanked  them,  but  declined  it.  '  Plaze  your 
riv'rence,  I  am  a  teetotaler,  and  I  won't  taste  a  dhrop.'  He 
was  one  of  Father  Mathew's  converts  to  total-  abstin- 
ence. Lo,  what  mighty  results  are  obtained  from  humble 
causes !  One  of  these  clergymen  was  Thomas  Guthrie. 
The  example  of  the  car-driver  deeply  impressed  him. 
The  lesson  was  never  forgotten.  Gradually  the  seed  of 
conviction  germinated,  producing  the  assurance  that  if 
a  man  intends  to  become  a  social  reformer,  he  must 
commence  by  being  an  abstainer,  inasmuch  as  the  cause 
of  nine-tenths  of  the  destitution  and  crime  in  our  large 
cities  is — drunkenness  ! 

Before  Dr.  Guthrie  became  a  philanthropist,  therefore, 

93 


94  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

he  had  been  for  some  years  a  strong  advocate  of  total 
abstinence.  While  no  bigot  on  the  question,  he  ever 
sturdily  maintained  that  strong  drink  was  the  deadliest 
weapon  used  by  the  devil  to  ruin  humanity.  '  I  have 
four  reasons  for  being  an  abstainer,'  said  Dr.  Guthrie  :  '  my 
head  is  clearer,  my  health  is  better,  my  heart  is  lighter,  and 
my  purse  is  heavier';  to  which  may  be  added  this  other 
remark  made  on  another  occasion,  '  I  would  rather  see  in 
the  pulpit  a  man  who  is  a  total  abstainer  from  this  root  of 
all  evil — drink,  than  a  man  crammed  with  all  the  Hebrew 
roots  in  the  world.' 

He  gives  a  very  graphic  account  of  his  first  appearance 
as  an  abstainer  at  a  dinner-party  given  by  Mr.  Maitland  of 
Dundrennan,  at  which  Lords  Jeffrey  and  Cockburn'  with 
their  wives,  and  others  of  the  elite  of  Edinburgh  literary 
and  legal  society  were  present — people  who  might  have 
heard  of  teetotalers,  but  certainly  had  never  seen  one 
before,  and  some  of  whom  never  dreamed  of  denying 
themselves  any  indulgence  whatever  for  the  sake  of 
others  \- — 

'  But  by  my  principles  I  was  resolved  to  stick,  cost  what  it 
might.  So  I  passed  the  wine  to  my  neighbour  without  its 
paying  tax  or  toll  to  me  often  enough  to  attract  our  host's 
attention,  who,  to  satisfy  himself  I  was  not  sick,  called  for  an 
explanation.  This  I  gave  modestly,  but  without  any  shame- 
facedness.  The  company  could  hardly  conceal  their  astonish- 
ment. But  when  Jeffrey,  who  sat  opposite  to  me,  found  that  in 
this  matter  I  was  living  not  for  myself  but  others,  denying 
myself  the  use  of  luxuries  to  which  I  had  been  accustomed  that 
I  might  by  my  example  reclaim  the  vicious  and  raise  the  fallen 
and  restore  peace  and  plenty  to  wretched  homes,  that  generous- 
hearted,  noble-minded  man  could  not  conceal  his  sympathy  and 
admiration.  He  did  not  speak,  but  his  look  was  not  to  be 
mistaken,  and  though  kind  and  courteous  before  my  apology, 
he  was  ten  times  more  so  after  it.' 

This  incident,  which  occurred  in  all  likelihood  in  1845, 
was  the  initial  act  in  a  profession  of  total  abstinence  which 
lasted  nearly  as  long  as  life  itself.1     No  sooner  did  he 

1  During  the  last  year  or  so  he  was  imperatively  ordered  by  his 
doctor  to  take  a  certain  quantity  of  stimulants  every  day.  For  a  time 
he  refused,  but  at  last  had  to  yield. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  95 

begin  his  great  philanthropic  labours  on  behalf  of  the 
Ragged  Schools  than  the  opinion,  formed  as  the  result  of 
his  unwearied  visiting  in  the  Cowgate,  Grassmarket,  and 
West  Bow,  when  pastor  of  the  territorial  parish  of 
St.  John's,  that  drunkenness  was  the  prime  enemy  of 
the  Church  of  Christ — an  enemy  to  which  all  the  other 
vices  were  auxiliaries  and  subordinates — became  settled 
conviction. 

Against  an  enemy  so  omnipresent  and  so  powerful,  Dr. 
Guthrie  neither  sought  nor  gave  quarter.  While  never  a 
fanatic  or  extremist,  imposing  his  views  on  all  alike,  and 
denouncing  those  who  did  not  agree  with  him,  his  testi- 
mony to  the  necessity  of  temperance  principles  for  young 
men  beginning  life  was  unqualified  and  unceasing.  '  When 
you  get  religion  dying,  drink  is  like  a  fungus  growing  on 
the  rotten  tree ;  when  religion  begins  to  revive,  along  with 
it  revive  temperance  and  total  abstinence  societies.  To  a 
young  man  beginning  business,  to  be  an  abstainer  is  as 
good  as  ^100  a  year  of  additional  capital.' 

He  was  unwearied  in  his  efforts  to  induce  the  legislature 
to  make,  and  the  municipal  authorities  strictly  to  enforce, 
stringent  yet  fair  laws  for  the  regulation  of  the  liquor 
traffic.  He  denounced  Sunday  trading,  and  contended 
every  licensed  house  should  be  closed  at  the  very  latest  at 
ten  o'clock.  He  protested  against  the  crime  of  serving 
drink  to  young  lads,  and  said  the  father  who  sent  his 
children  into  the  public-house  to  fetch  beer  ought  to  be 
severely  punished,  as  exposing  the  moral  health  of  his 
offspring  to  contamination.  How  many  of  the  legislative 
seeds  he  sowed  long  years  ago  have  now  sprung  up  and 
borne  golden  grain  for  the  reaping  of  to-day  ?  By  deputa- 
tions to  those  in  authority,  either  in  London  or  Edinburgh 
— deputations  whereof,  in  nearly  every  case,  he  was  chosen 
the  spokesman, — by  numerous  public  meetings,  by  the 
institution  of  temperance  and  total  abstinence  societies, 
he  sought  to  diminish  or  stamp  out  this  national  curse. 

Inebriety  was,  of  course,  much  more  prevalent  in  the 
days  when  Dr.  Guthrie  lived  and  laboured  than  now.     We 


96  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

are  becoming  a  more  '  sober'  nation,  not  made  so  by  legis- 
lative enactments,  but  by  the  steady  diffusion  of  education, 
of  popular  science,  and  by  the  cultivation  of  that  saving 
grace  of  common-sense"  which  presents  the  case  to  a  man 
in  this  way  that,  apart  from  all  religious  and  moral  con- 
siderations, on  the  low  ground  of  £  s.  d.,  sobriety  is  pre- 
ferable to  indulgence,  while  total  abstinence  is  better  than 
all.  I  wish  to  emphasise  the  fact  that  we  largely  owe  what 
moral  and  social  improvement  there  now  is  to  the  labours 
of  Dr.  Guthrie,  and  such  as  he,  forty  or  fifty  years  ago — 
noble-hearted  men  who,  in  a  good  cause,  had  the  courage 
to  be  singular,  when  such  singularity  entailed  not  a  few 
disadvantages,  and  even  a  faint  soup f on  of  disapproval. 

In  the  temperance  field,  as  in  that  of  social  reform,  Dr. 
Guthrie's  '  works '  live  after  him.  He  was  one  of  the 
earliest  '  teetotalers '  in  the  Free  Church,  and  stood  nearly 
alone  :  he  lived  to  see  the  profession  of  such  principles  as 
were  implied  thereby  becoming,  if  not  incumbent  on,  at 
least  expedient  for  each  minister  to  adopt.  Along  with  the 
late  Drs.  Grey,  Burns  of  Kilsyth,  Horatius  Bonar,  and  one 
or  two  others,  he  founded  the  Free  Church  Temperance 
Society,  and  was  spared  to  see  it  become  one  of  the 
strongest  of  the  Church's  institutions.  He  sympathised 
warmly  with  the  formation,  by  his  dear  friend,  James 
Miller,  Professor  of  Surgery,  of  a  Students'  Temperance 
Society  in  connection  with  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 
More  than  once,  Dr.  Guthrie  addressed  the  members  of 
the  association  in  words  of  sound  practical  wisdom  ;  and  he 
frequently  invited  youths  belonging  to  it,  whom  he  knew  to 
be  alone  in  Edinburgh,  to  spend  an  evening  at  his  house. 
Another  group  of  young  people  whom  he  rejoiced  to  meet 
were  the  Normal  School  students.  To  them  he,  in  like 
manner,  spoke  more  than  once  on  the  subject  so  near  his 
heart — appeals  instinct  with  wit  and  humour,  yet  withal 
permeated  by  that  rarest  of  all  virtues  in  a  humorous 
speech,  common-sense. 

As  I  have  said,  Dr.  Guthrie  was  never  a  bigot  in  enforc- 
ing his  own  opinions  on  others.     None  more  clearly  than 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  97 

he  recognised  the  right  of  each  man  to  hold  his  own 
opinions.  He  was  always  ready  to  co-operate  with  all  classes 
of  temperance  reformers.  Though  personally  holding  firmly 
by  the  principle  of  total  abstinence,  he  joined  many  lead- 
ing citizens  in  founding  in  1850  the  'Scottish  Association 
for  the  Suppression  of  Drunkenness,'  in  which  there  was 
scarcely  an  abstainer  save  himself.  In  order  to  interest 
the  public  in  the  work  of  the  Society,  the  members  deter- 
mined to  issue  a  series  of  short,  pithy  statements  upon  the 
subject  in  question,  and  what  remedial  measures  seemed 
demanded.  His  two  '  Pleas  for  Ragged  Schools '  had 
shown  him  the  unsuspected  power  he  possessed  in  literary 
composition.  Therefore  we  find  him  opening  the  series — 
to  which,  as  he  says  in  a  letter  to  the  Hon.  Fox  Maule, 
Drs.  Candlish,  Norman  Macleod,  Begg,  Lindsay  Alexander, 
and  others,  were  to  contribute  succeeding  numbers — with 
a  pithy  pamphlet,  'A  Plea  on  behalf  of  Drunkards  and 
against  Drunkenness.' 

To  many  the  fact  may  be  of  interest  that,  although  the 
1  Association  for  the  Suppression  of  Drunkenness '  has  long 
since  passed  away,  it  was  able  to  effect  one  reform,  and 
that  was  to  contribute  in  a  very  large  degree  to  the  passing 
of  the  legislative  measure  known  as  the  Forbes-Mackenzie 
Act,  which  still  forms  the  basis  at  least  of  our  present 
Scots  Licensing  Laws.  In  the  securing  of  that  excellent 
Statute,  Dr.  Guthrie  materially  assisted  by  voice,  pen,  and 
personal  influence,  and  in  the  minutes  of  more  than  one 
of  the  temperance  societies  of  Scotland  there  still  stand 
expressions  of  grateful  thanks  to  the  great  orator  who  so 
powerfully  aided  the  efforts  of  social  reformers  by  his 
eloquence.  His  pamphlet  appeared  in  1850,  a  few  months 
subsequent  to  his  restoration  to  health  after  his  severe 
illness  of  1848-49;  and  he  followed  it  up  with  three  New 
Year  Tracts,  'New  Year's  Drinking'  (185 1),  'A  Happy 
New  Year'  (1852),  and  'The  Old  Year's  Warning'  (1853). 

But  this  was  not  all.  So  impressed  was  he  with  the 
ravages  committed  by  this  social  cancer,  so  saddened  by 
the  cases  coming  under  his  knowledge  of  wives  mourning 

G 


98  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

the   moral   shipwreck   and   degradation    of   husbands,   of 
husbands  bewailing  their  wives,  of  fathers  and  mothers 
bowed  to  the  dust  by  the  ruin  of  sons  and  daughters,  of 
sons  and  daughters  lamenting  the  fall  of  parents,  that  he 
determined  to  address  a  series   of  sermons  to  the  com- 
munity at  large,  particularly  to  that  of  the  great  city  where- 
in his  lot  was  cast.     In  these  he  aimed  at  setting  forth  the 
duty   of  parents    and    guardians    in    training    the    rising 
generation   in   the   principles   of   total    abstinence.     The 
sermons  were  afterwards  published  under  the  title,   The 
City — Its  Sins   and  Sorrows.      Both  when   delivered   as 
sermons  and  in  their  book  form,  these  discourses  exercised 
a  widespread  influence.     To  this  I  can  bear  personal  testi- 
mony.    Away  in  far-distant  Australia  I  chanced  to -meet 
a  wealthy  Scots  squatter.     In  conversation  this  estimable 
Christian,  whose  charities  and  benefactions  were  almost 
princely  in   their  liberality,   informed   me   that  when   in 
Edinburgh  he  had  been  rushing  headlong  to  ruin  through 
intemperance  and  other  vices.     His  friends  had  despaired 
of  him,  when  by  chance  he  wandered  one  day  into  Dr. 
Guthrie's   church  when   he   was   preaching  that   remark- 
able series.     The  young  man  was  arrested   at  once,  he 
listened   spellbound,   and    at    the   close  was   greatly  im- 
pressed.    He  left  the  church,  and  all  through  the  week 
struggled  to  drown  the  voice  of  conscience  by  plunging 
into  dissipation.     But  on  Sunday,  he  could  not  refrain 
from  again  attending  Dr.  Guthrie's  sermon.     This  time, 
he  confessed,  he  went   much  the  worse  of  drink.     But 
as  the  orator  proceeded,  every  sentence  seemed  to  sting 
the  youth  like  a  fiery  dart,  until  at  last,  when  the  great 
preacher,  bending  over  the  pulpit,  uttered  in  tones  of  ex- 
quisite  sweetness   and   pathos   these  words — 'There   are 
few  families  among  us  so  happy  as  not  to  have  had  some 
one  near  and  dear  to  them  either  in  imminent  peril  hang- 
ing over  the  precipice,  or  the  slave  of  intemperance  al- 
together sold  under  sin.'     He  could  endure  the  torture  no 
longer,  and  bursting  into  tears  he  hurried  from  the  place. 
'  Never  shall  I  forget,'  he  said,  '  either  the  words  or  the 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  99 

tones  of  overpowering  yearning  with  which  they  were 
pronounced.  I  could  not  rest.  After  the  most  miserable 
night  I  ever  spent,  I  called  to  see  Dr.  Guthrie  early  next 
day.  His  fatherly  kindness  still  further  broke  me  down, 
and  when  he  had  knelt  with  me  at  the  throne  of  grace, 
and  offered  up  a  prayer,  the  like  of  which  I  never  heard 
before  or  since,  he  bade  me  farewell,  inviting  me  to 
return  and  see  him ;  but  I  never  did  so.  Two  weeks  after 
I  was  on  the  ocean,  on  my  way  to  these  fair  lands  under 
the  "Southern  Cross,"  but  now  you  will  understand  how 
it  was  I  could  not  restrain  my  emotion  on  hearing  you 
name  Dr.  Guthrie.' 

I  could  cite  numerous  cases,  never  yet  published,  that 
have  come  to  my  knowledge,  of  men  and  women  arrested 
either  by  the  sermons  or  the  book,  The  City — Its  Sins  and 
Sorroivs.  One  of  the  most  brilliant  members  of  the 
Canadian  legislature,  whose  eloquence  was  the  admiration 
of  the  Dominion,  informed  a  friend  of  mine,  '  Had  it  not 
been  for  Guthrie's  Sins  and  Sorrows,  I  should  have  been 
lying  in  all  likelihood  by  this  time  in  a  drunkard's  grave.' 
Testimonies  such  as  these  are  assuredly  evidence  irrefrag- 
able of  the  permanent  character  of  the  work  achieved 
in  temperance  reform  by  Thomas  Guthrie. 

I  have  already  said  more  on  this  head  than  I  intended. 
Suffice  it  to  add  that,  although  in  his  later  years  able  to 
do  less  than  before  and  certainly  much  less  than  he 
desired,  to  aid  the  cause  of  temperance,  he  never  ceased 
to  urge  on  young  people,  and  especially  on  young  ministers, 
the  importance  of  becoming  abstainers.  One  of  the  most 
scholarly  of  Free  Church  ministers  informs  me  that,  spend- 
ing an  evening  at  Dr.  Guthrie's  house  about  a  week  after 
he  was  licensed,  and  chancing  to  mention  that  he  had 
resolved  to  become  an  abstainer  from  motives  of  con- 
science, as  thereby  he  would  have  greater  freedom  in 
impressing  the  principles  of  temperance  on  others,  Dr. 
Guthrie  rose,  and  with  much  solemnity  laying  his  hand  on 
the  young  licentiate's  head,  he  said,  '  May  the  God  of  our 
Fathers,  the  God  who  has  been  to  me  a  buckler  and  a  sure 


ioo  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

defence  in  every  day  of  trouble,  be  the  same  to  you,  and 
make  you  a  mighty  blessing  in  extirpating  this  hideous 
disease  from  our  land.'  'I  felt,'  said  the  minister,  'as 
though  the  dying  saint — for  this  was  within  a  few  months 
of  his  death — were  laying  on  me  the  work  he  had  done  so 
long.  It  was  a  consecration — a  setting  apart,  and  from 
that  day  to  this  I  have  fought  the  battle  of  total  abstinence 
wheresoever  it  raged.' 

It  is  seven-and-twenty  years  since  Dr.  Guthrie  passed  to 
his  rest.  New  temperance  apostles  have  come  to  the 
front,  but  I  question  if  any  of  them  have  quite  filled  the 
niche  occupied  by  him.  In  comparison  with  Gough — who 
was  his  contemporary  for  some  time — Dr.  Guthrie's  tem- 
perance speeches  appealed  to  a  class  over  whom  Gough 
had  no  influence,  the  educated  and  refined  portion  of  the 
population.  He  might  not  possess  the  whirlwind  eloquence 
of  the  great  American  orator,  but  his  effective  range  was 
infinitely  wider.  The  late  Professor  Blackie  said  'he 
had  heard  Dr.  Guthrie  deliver  speeches  on  behalf  of 
temperance  which,  in  all  the  higher  characteristics  of 
oratory  fell  little,  if  at  all,  short  of  Demosthenes.'  The 
work  he  accomplished  in  the  cause  of  temperance  (i)  in 
Society,  (2)  in  the  Free  Church,  (3)  in  influencing  the 
Town  Council  of  Edinburgh,  (4)  in  placing  the  Legislature 
in  possession  of  such  a  body  of  facts  and  statistics  of 
priceless  value,  as  aided  them  to  come  to  some  decision 
with  regard  to  licensing  legislation,  is  such  as  to  entitle 
him  to  one  of  the  highest  places  in  the  ranks  of  temper- 
ance apostles. 

Meantime  his  congregational  work  was  ever  upon  his 
mind.  After  his  serious  illness,  and  when  the  verdict  of 
the  doctors  became  known,  his  congregation  determined 
that  a  colleague  should  be  appointed  to  relieve  him  of  a 
portion  of  it.  Notwithstanding  that  the  Free  Church  had 
set  its  face  against  collegiate  charges,  at  that  epoch  of  her 
history  at  least,  the  circumstances  here  were  felt  to  be 
altogether  so  exceptional,  that  the  General  Assembly  at 
once  granted  the  request  of  the  congregation,  and,  after 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  101 

some  little  delay,  the  Rev.  William  Hanna,  LL.D.,  son-in- 
law  and  biographer  of  Scotland's  greatest  ecclesiastic  next 
to  Knox — Dr.  Chalmers, — was  appointed  in  1850  as  Dr. 
Guthrie's  colleague  and  successor.  For  fifteen  years  they 
worked  together  in  harness  with  that  brotherly  accord  and 
mutual  consideration  only  to  be  expected  from  two  men  of 
such  intellectual  gifts  and  deep  spirituality.  Dr.  Hanna 
was  aware  of  the  precarious  nature  of  his  colleague's 
health,  and  that  a  rather  alarming  opinion  had  been  given 
regarding  it,  by  Sir  Andrew  Clark,  the  Queen's  private 
physician,  to  Dr.  Alexander  Guthrie  of  Brechin. 

Beautiful  indeed  it  was  to  behold  how  solicitous  for 
his  'partner's'  health  was  Dr.  Hanna  when  the  warning 
contained  in  Sir  Andrew  Clark's  opinion  was  made  known. 
Dr.  Guthrie  on  his  side  was  no  less  'affectionately'  kind, 
so  that  when  the  separation  at  length  came  in  1864,  on 
the  senior  colleague's  heart-affection  becoming  so  pro- 
nounced as  to  preclude  the  discharge  of  regular  pulpit 
duties,  Dr.  Hanna  could  write  of  him : — 

'  It  was  my  happy  privilege,  counted  by  me  among  the 
greatest  I  have  enjoyed,  of  being  for  fifteen  years  his  colleague 
in  the  ministry  of  Free  St.  John's,  Edinburgh.  To  one  coming 
from  a  remote  country  parish,  ten  years'  residence  in  which 
had  moulded  tastes  originally  congenial  with  its  quiet  and 
seclusion,  into  something  like  a  fixed  habit  of  retreat,  the 
position  was  a  trying  one — to  occupy  such  a  pulpit  every 
Sunday,  side  by  side  with  such  a  preacher.  But  never  can  I 
forget  the  kindness  and  tenderness,  the  constant  and  delicate 
consideration,  with  which  Dr.  Guthrie  ever  tried  to  lessen  its 
difficulties  and  to  soften  its  trials.  Brother  could,  not  have 
treated  brother  with  more  affectionate  regard.' 

His  family  was  also  increasing,  and  he  deeply  felt  the 
responsibilities  laid  on  him  as  a  father  in  view  of  the  tempta- 
tions of  the  great  city.  He  was  wont  to  say,  when  returning 
from  mourning  with  those  that  mourned  the  bereavement  of 
loved  ones,  that  his  Heavenly  Father  had  been  peculiarly 
gracious  in  this  respect  to  him,  inasmuch  as  the  angel  of 
death  had  never  folded  its  wings  over  his  roof.  Seven 
sons  and  four  daughters  were  born  to  him  and  his  beloved 


io2  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

spouse,  twenty-four  years  elapsing  between  the  births  of 
the  eldest,  the  late  Rev.  D.  K.  Guthrie,  Liberton  Free 
Church,  Edinburgh,  and  of  the  youngest,  'wee  Johnnie,' 
who  after  twenty  months'  abode  on  earth  winged  his  way 
back  unto  the  heaven  whence  he  came.  This  was  the 
only  occasion  that  Dr.  Guthrie  had  to  sorrow  over  any 
of  his  offspring  predeceasing  him.  When  to  him  the 
summons  did  come  to  leave  those  scenes  of  earth  wherein 
he  had  played  so  prominent  a  part,  it  was  by  an  unbroken 
phalanx  of  stalwart  sons  that  he  was  borne  to  his  rest,  the 
babe  that  had  passed  away  in  early  infancy  constituting 
all  that  could  be  called  a  gap  in  the  circle  round  his 
family  board.  As  they  grew  up  to  boyhood,  youth,  and 
finally  to  manhood,  his  anxiety  was  that  they  should  be 
good  rather  than  great  men.  'True  greatness  lies  in 
goodness,'  he  would  say,  'and  the  greatest  man  is  he  who, 
with  all  his  greatness  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  nevertheless 
in  the  presence  of  his  Saviour  becomes  as  one  of  those 
little  ones  of  whom  it  was  said,  "  Of  such  is  the  kingdom 
of  heaven."  ' 

During  that  period,  1849-185  5,  the  catholicity  of  his 
sympathies  caused  him  to  make  many  friends  in  every 
walk  of  life  and  in  every  class  of  society.  With  Lord 
Jeffrey  he  had  enjoyed  some  delightful  intercourse.  After 
the  death  of  the  Judge,  Dr.  Guthrie  was  asked  to  conduct 
the  religious  services  at  the  funeral.  This  he  did,  and  it 
was  the  only  occasion  whereon  he  wrote  a  prayer  and 
committed  it  to  memory.  '  I  was  anxious,'  he  said,  '  to 
avoid  the  use  of  one  word  that  could  hurt  the  feelings  of 
the  family;  on  the  other  hand,  I  was  bound  in  duty  to 
my  Master  to  say  nothing  that  would  encourage  scepticism.' 
The  prayer  was  a  very  impressive  one,  and  was  styled  by 
Wordsworth,  who  was  present  and  heard  it,  '  a  sublime 
apostrophe  to  the  Almighty.'  At  this  time,  also,  it  was 
that  the  intimacy  with  the  family  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll 
commenced,  which  continued  unbroken,  a  treasured 
privilege  on  both  side'?,  until  the  day  of  his  death.  With 
Lord  Southesk,  the  Right  Hon.   Fox  Maule,  afterwards 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  103 

Earl  of  Dalhousie,  the  Duchess  of  Sutherland,  and  others 
of  the  nobility  he  had  much  pleasant  intercourse ;  while 
with  many  of  the  highest  dignitaries  in  the  Church  of 
England,  from  the  Bishop  of  London,  Dr.  Tait,  afterwards 
Primate,  and  Dr.  Fraser,  Bishop  of  Manchester,  to  the 
Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  Dr.  Milman,  and  the  Dean  of  West- 
minster— '  the  beloved  Stanley ' — he  entered  upon  relations 
of  close  friendship  only  severed  by  '  life's  last  consumma- 
tion.' 

Many  of  England's  greatest  statesmen  were  not  ashamed 
to  consult  him  on  the  subjects  to  which  he  had  devoted 
so  many  years  of  earnest  study — juvenile  crime  and 
destitution  and  their  remedy,  pauperism  and  its  treatment, 
temperance  and  how  to  legislate  for  it,  etc.  From  him 
Lord  John  Russell,  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  Mr.  Gladstone, 
John  Bright  and  others,  received  carefully  verified  statistics 
and  ideas  founded  upon  the  unimpeachable  evidence  of 
facts,  which  they  were  able  to  utilise  in  legislating  for  the 
welfare  of  our  great  nation.  He  was  never  a  party 
politician  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word. 

'  I  am  a  Conservative  in  conserving  all  that  is  good ;  I  am 
a  Liberal  in  advocating"  a  wise  liberality  as  regards  Govern- 
ment funds  towards  all  institutions  that  aim  to  make  men 
better,  soberer,  and  wiser  ;  and  I  am  a  red-hot  Radical  in 
seeking  to  uproot  everything  tending  to  disgrace  the  grand  old 
name  of  Briton.'1 

In  Scotland,  after  the  last  lingering  echoes  of  the  '  storm 
and  stress'  of  the  Disruption  had  died  away  'into  the 
infinite  azure  of  the  past,'  he  was  eager  to  be  on  terms  of 
familiarity  and  friendship  with  his  ministerial  brethren  of 
all  denominations.  '  Guthrie  has  room  in  his  heart  for  all 
Churches,'  said  the  late  Dean  Ramsay  of  Edinburgh  ;  while 
one  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Catholic  Apostolic 
Church  remarked  with  regard  to  his  freedom  from  bigotry, 
1  Dr.  Guthrie  only  needs  to  know  that  you  love  the  same 
Saviour  that  he  loves,  to  care  one  straw  which  of  the 
"isms  "  you  belong  to,  or  whether  you  belong  to  an  "ism  " 
at  all.' 

1  Extract  from  one  of  his  Ragged  School  speeches. 


CHAPTER   X 

GUTHRIE   AS   THE    FRIEND   OF   EDUCATION    AND 
OF   MISSIONS 

To  trace  with  the  same  fulness  as  in  the  case  of  Dr. 
Guthrie's  connection  with  the  Ragged  Schools  and 
Temperance  movements,  his  labours  on  behalf  of  all 
those  others  wherewith  he  was  associated,  would  require 
more  space  than  now  is  left  to  me.  Scarce  a  cause 
was  there  whose  aim  was  the  achievement  of  social  or 
religious  reform,  which,  if  its  motives  were  worthy,  did  not 
receive  from  him  unstinted  and  unwavering  support. 
National  Education  in  all  its  diverse  ramifications,  Home 
and  Foreign  Missions,  the  Union  of  the  Churches,  Sabbath 
Observance,  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  the 
Bible  Society,  Female  Protection,  the  Housing  of  the 
Working  Classes,  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children, 
Shorter  Hours  for  Shop  Employes,  the  Saturday  Half- 
Holiday,  and  many  other  schemes  of  Christian  service  and 
of  benevolent  amelioration  of  hardship — all  benefited  by 
his  spirited  appeals  and  his  contagious  enthusiasm.  His 
speech  in  condemnation  of  slavery  at  the  time  of  the  visit 
of  Mrs.  Beecher  Stowe  was  said  by  her  to  have  rivalled  the 
efforts  of  Daniel  Webster.  Only  to  one  or  two  of  these  out- 
lets for  his  energy  can  I  refer.  Let  this  chapter  be  devoted 
to  his  work  in  Education  and  on  behalf  of  Missions. 

Dr.  Guthrie  was  a  firm  believer  in  education  as,  next  to 
religion,  the  great  lever  for  raising  the  moral  tone  of  the 
world.  '  Let  the  legislature  affirm  that  children  as  members 
of  society  have  a  right  to  protection  from  the  injury 
of  ignorance,  and  take  security  that  they  receive,  where 

104 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  105 

nothing  more  can  be  given,  at  least  a  good  secular  educa- 
tion.' *  He  was  never  weary  pointing  out  that  the  Romish 
Church,  by  the  persistent  ignorance  in  which,  at  that  time 
at  least,  she  kept  the  lower  classes  belonging  to  her  com- 
munion, was  offending  against  the  common  rights  of 
humanity,  adding  :  '  An  ignorant  community  is  too  often  a 
decaying  community,  and  can  that  be  denied  of  Spain, 
Italy,  and  the  Republics  of  the  Spanish  Main  ?  ' 2 

Such  then  were  Dr.  Guthrie's  views  regarding  education 
as  a  principle.  Let  us  note  the  form  of  it  he  desired  to 
see  established.  I  need  not  refer  to  that  excellent  system 
of  parochial  education,  first  formulated  by  the  efforts  of 
John  Knox — a  system  which  for  nearly  three  hundred 
years  raised  Scotland  to  the  proud  position  of  possessing 
the  best  organised  scheme  of  '  popular '  education  in 
Europe,3  serving  for  all  practical  purposes  of  instruction 
until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  A  new  order 
of  things,  however,  was  being  evolved,  consequent  upon 
that  rise  of  the  democratic  spirit  which  resulted  from  the 
Reform  Act.  All  the  old  institutions  were  being  again 
thrown  into  the  testing  crucible  of  specific  utility.  Among 
them  was  the  Scottish  parochial  system  of  Education. 
Many  of  its  principles  were  obsolete  when  considered  in 
the  light  of  that  widening  of  the  thoughts  of  men  which  is 

1  Out  of  Harness,  by  Rev.  T.  Guthrie,  D.D.,  p.  246. 

2  Curious  corroboration  of  this  saying  has  just  now  (February  1900) 
been  furnished  by  M.  Ives  Guyot,  in  the  well-known  Parisian  journal, 
Le  Sikle.  He  says  :  '  We  must  uncatholicise  France — that  is  our 
bounden  duty  ;  if  we  do  not,  we  shall  promptly  sink  to  the  level  of 
Spain.  But  how  are  we  to  do  it  ?  The  great  majority  of  the  people 
feel  the  want  of  a  religion.  But  modern  history  shows  the  decline 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  nations  and  the  rise  of  the  Protestant  peoples. 
As  we  compare  their  relative  situations,  we  are  bound  to  conclude 
that  France  has  everything  to  lose  by  remaining  Catholic ;  she  has 
everything  to  gain  by  becoming  Protestant.'  Note  that  27  per  cent,  of 
the  Catholics  in  France  can  neither  read  nor  write. 

3  In  his  first  Report  on  Education  presented  to  the  Free  Church 
Assembly  in  1843,  Dr.  Welsh  said:  'No  Church  aspiring  to  be 
National  could  be  fulfilling  its  mission,  if  it  were  not  providing  for  the 
religioustraining  of  the  young,  from  the  lowest  Elementary  School  to 
the  first  institutions  of  science  and  learning.'  It  was  in  pursuance  of 
this  spirit  that  the  Free  Church  at  the  outset  included  Logic  and 
Metaphysics  and  Moral  Philosophy  in  its  curriculum. 


106  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

continually  taking  place.  Nothing  in  either  thought  or 
matter  is  absolutely  permanent  and  stable.  Inasmuch  as 
a  new  system  of  Education,  therefore,  was  every  year 
becoming  more  imperative,  seeing  that  the  old  parochial 
scheme  was  no  longer  able  to  overtake  all  that  was  required 
of  it,  in  order  to  keep  pace  with  the  development  of 
scholarship  and  culture  after  the  Disruption,  Dr.  Candlish 
and  a  large  section  of  Free  Church  ministers  considered 
they  were  bound  to  institute  a  fresh  system,  which,  while 
it  occupied  the  same  relation  to  the  new  Church  as  the 
parochial  did  to  the  Establishment,  should  nevertheless  be 
superior  in  adaptability  to  the  wants  of  the  age.  Another 
reason  inducing  Dr.  Candlish  and  his  friends  to  do  as  they 
did,  was  the  fact  that  many  parish  schoolmasters,  having 
thrown  in  their  lot  with  the  Free  Church,  and  thus  lost 
their  appointments,  had  a  sort  of  tacit  claim  on  the  Church 
for  employment. 

Against  this  scheme  Dr.  Guthrie  and  Dr.  Begg  pro- 
tested vigorously.  They  maintained  that  for  the  Free 
Church  to  saddle  itself  with  a  huge  and  complicated 
educational  machinery  was  not  only  an  inexpedient 
course,  and  one  tending  to  absorb  funds  that  might  be  more 
beneficially  employed  otherwise,  but  that  by  doing  work 
legitimately  the  duty  of  the  State,  they  were,  in  reality, 
delaying  the  establishment  of  a  truly  national  system  of 
education.  This  common-sense  way  of  looking  at  things, 
however,  met  with  fierce  opposition  from  Dr.  Candlish  and 
his  party.  I  have  no  desire  to  rake  up  the  ashes  of  long 
dead  controversies,  but  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
Dr.  Guthrie  and  his  companion,  with  those  who  thought 
with  them,  were  for  some  years  exposed  to  no  little 
obloquy  and  misrepresentation. 

The  Free  Church  had  in  the  matter  of  education  shown 
a  renewed  example  of  splendid  liberality,  in  providing 
^■50,000  for  her  School  Building  Fund — a  Fund  owing 
much  to  the  energy  of  Dr.  Robert  M'Donald  of  North  Leith. 
In  the  year  1847 — the  one  in  which  the  Government  of  the 
day  offered  to  give  grants  in  aid  of  all  Schools  with  whose 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  107 

efficiency  it  was  satisfied,  leaving  the  active  conduct  of 
them  in  the  hands  of  the  parties  by  whom  they  had  been 
instituted,  provided  religion  should  be  taught — the  Free 
Church  might  be  said  to  have  six  hundred  and  fifty  Schools 
under  her  charge,  of  which  five  hundred  and  thirteen  were 
receiving  support  from  her,  directly  or  indirectly.1  Hard 
indeed  it  was  to  think  that  enthusiasm  so  noble  could  yet 
be  misdirected !  Yet  the  scheme  was  a  mistake,  and  like 
any  other  merely  sectarian  system  of  education  which 
conflicts  with  the  popular  ideal  of  a  national  scheme, 
was  foredoomed  to  failure. 

For  Dr.  Guthrie  to  take  up  a  position  of  antagonism  to 
such  men  as  Drs.  Candlish  and  Robert  Buchanan — church 
leaders  of  single-minded  probity  and  calm,  balanced 
judgment — was  not  done  without  strong  reason.  But  all 
through  his  life  Thomas  Guthrie  loathed  the  role  of  the 
hide-bound  partisan.  'Because  I  see  eye  to  eye  with  a 
man  on  one  topic,  is  that  any  reason  why  I  am  straitly 
bound  to  stifle  conviction,  and  agree  with  him  in  every- 
thing ?  That  is  reverting  to  Pre-Reformation  Popery  and 
the  subjection  of  the  individual  Will,'  he  replied  in  one  of 
his  letters  to  a  respected  minister  who  wrote  to  him  asking 
him  why  he  opposed  the  scheme  of  Free  Church  schools. 
The  case  of  Dr.  William  Gunn,  one  of  the  masters  of  the 
Edinburgh  High  School,  admittedly  also  one  of  the  ripest 
scholars  and  best  teachers  in  Scotland,  but  whose  views 
were  in  favour  of  a  national  as  opposed  to  a  denominational 
scheme,  still  further  widened  the  breach  between  Dr. 
Guthrie  and  the  Education  Committee  of  the  Free  Church. 
Dr.  Gunn  had  been  appointed  to  one  of  the  Government 
Inspectorships  connected  with  the  Free  Church  schools. 
He  had  resigned  his  position  in  the  High  School,  and  was 
about  to  take  up  his  duties,  for  which  no  man  was  more 
competent,  when  his  election  was  suddenly  cancelled. 
There  is  nothing  to  be  gained  by  timorously  covering  up 

1  Chapters  from  the  History  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  by 
Norman  L.  Walker,  D.D.  This  is  a  volume  every  one  should  read 
who  desires  to  peruse  an  impartial  presentation  of  the  Free  Church 
case. 


108  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

the  mistakes  of  public  men.  Let  them  be  fairly  faced  and 
admitted.  That  cancellation  was  due  to  the  influence  of 
the  Education  Committee  of  the  Free  Church,  and  to  a 
letter  written  by  Dr.  Candlish  in  his  capacity  as  Convener  ! 
' A  more  disgraceful  job  was  never  perpetrated,'  wrote 
one  of  the  Edinburgh  newspapers  of  the  day,  and  every 
fair-minded  man  will  say  the  same.  Dr.  Candlish  lived  to 
regret  the  step,  and  had  the  manly  courage  to  admit  the 
error,  but  by  that  time  the  heart-broken  victim  had  passed 
to  that  bourne  where  fallible  fellow-men  would  no  longer 
be  his  judges,  and  where  to  praise  and  blame  alike  he 
was  oblivious.1 

I  mention  this  matter  to  show  the  keenness  of  party 
feeling  in  the  Free  Church  at  the  time.  Dr.  Guthrie 
championed  Dr.  Gunn's  claims  to  the  last,  and  his  remon- 
strance addressed  to  Dr.  Candlish  is  inspired  by  a  noble 
disinterestedness  and  lofty  indignation  : — 

I I  never  liked  controversy  all  my  days,  and  such  experience 
as  I  have  had  of  it  does  not  recommend  it  to  me.  I  frankly  say 
for  myself  that  I  have  found  it  indispose  me  for  higher  duties, 
disturb  my  peace,  stir  up  the  baser  passions  of  my  nature,  and 
expose  the  parties  engaged  in  it  to  the  risk  of  quarrels  and 
alienated  affections.  I  am  now  less  disposed  for  it  than  ever; 
and  last  of  all,  I  am  thoroughly  averse  to  have  any  controversy 
with  you? 

In  opposition,  therefore,  to  his  former  friends,  Dr. 
Guthrie  worked  unceasingly  in  favour  of  a  national  system 
of  Education  as  distinguished  from  the  'parochial7  or 
Established  Church  scheme  and  that  supported  by  the 
Free  Church.  Not  that  he  refused  to  admit  the  excellent 
work  done  by  Free  Church  schools  and  teachers.  '  I 
do  not  deny,'  he  wrote,  'and  am  happy  to  know  that  our 
Free  Church  schools  have  done  much  good :  still  I 
thought  they  were  founded  on  a  wrong  basis,  in  such  a 
country  as  ours,  at  any  rate.'  What  distressed  him  most 
of  all  was  that,  while  denominational  schemes  of  education 
tended    to    widen    the     breach     between     the    different 

1  See  the  Scotsman  of  the  time  for  fuller  details. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  109 

Churches,  out  and  beyond  the  influence  of  any  Church,  a 
multitude  of  children  were  growing  up  in  Scotland  wholly 
without  instruction.  Writing  to  the  Right  Hon.  Fox 
Maule,  he  said  : — 

'  I  long  and  pray  for  the  time  when  such  unfortunates  (those 
outside  any  denominational  scheme)  will  be  educated  by  the 
State  ;  nor  from  such  a  prayer  will  I  ever  come  down  to  con- 
sider schemes  of  sects.  I  don't  care,  if  the  people  are  saved, 
whether  the  scheme  crack  the  crown  of  St.  Giles,  or  hurl  Free 
St.  John's  down  the  West  Bow.  /  love  my  Church  as  well  as 
any  one>  but  I  love  7?iy  country  more  than  I  love  my  denomina- 
tion.^ 

There  spoke  the  true  patriot.  Guthrie  is  never  so  great 
as  when  he  breaks  away  from  the  icy  fetters  of 
sectarianism ! 

In  view  of  securing  a  comprehensive  system  of  Educa- 
tion for  his  country,  Dr.  Guthrie  took  an  active  part  in 
founding  '  The  National  Education  Association  of  Scot- 
land,' composed  of  men  of  all  creeds  and  parties,  who  were, 
however,  united  in  this  one  patriotic  endeavour.  In  con- 
nection with  his  work  on  the  Committee  of  this  Society, 
he  had  an  interesting  correspondence  with  the  Duke  of 
Argyll,  to  whom  Scotland  largely  owes  the  final  settlement 
of  this  vexed  question  in  the  Education  Act  of  1872.  In 
a  letter  to  the  Duke  dated  February  18,  1850,  he  indicates 
one  of  the  essential  principles  in  any  system  of  Education, 
and  one  that  is  prominent  in  the  Act  which  has  worked  so 
well  in  Scotland,  viz.  that  of  local  control: — 

i  I  believe  that  the  sure  way  of  having  any  scheme  vigorously 
managed  is  to  give  those  a  considerable  power  at  least  in  the 
management  of  it  who  have  a  deep  stake  in  the  matter.  The 
parents  have  the  deepest  stake  in  the  schools,  and  we  may  rest 
assured  they  will  watch  and  work  them  better  than  parties  who 
have  but  a  remote  interest  in  their  success.' 

At  last,  induced  by  the  representations  of  Dr.  Guthrie 
and  others  of  the  Scottish  clergy  and  laity,  the  Govern- 
ment agreed  to  take  up  the  question,  and  in  1854  a 
measure  for  a  national  scheme  of  Education  in  Scotland 


no  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

was  introduced  into  Parliament  by  the  Lord  Advocate 
(Moncreiff),  afterwards  Lord  Moncreiff.  Though  not 
agreeing  in  every  detail  with  the  principles  of  the  proposed 
measure,  Dr.  Guthrie  lent  to  it  his  support.  Many  who 
knew  and  trusted  him  as  a  social  reformer,  but  who  knew 
nothing  of  the  scope  of  the  Bill,  became  its  supporters 
solely  from  the  belief  they  entertained  that  he  would  favour 
nothing  but  what  was  beneficial  for  the  nation  at  large. 
He  was  at  this  time  in  constant  communication  with  the 
Government  on  the  subject.  As  showing  the  value  they 
attached  to  his  support,  we  find  the  Lord  Advocate  writing 
in  April  1854  to  him:  'I  must  press  upon  you  the  im- 
portance— to  you  I  may  not  say  the  duty — of  giving  decided 
utterance  to  your  real  opinions.  You  have  only  to  make 
one  of  your  manly,  fearless  addresses,  and  you  will  confirm 
more  waverers  in  the  House  [of  Commons]  than  all  the 
Voluntaries  can  shake.  .  .  .  Depend  upon  it,  names  weigh 
far  more  than  numbers  up  here,  and  you  and  Adam  Black 
would  single-handed  make  all  the  agitators  kick  the  beam.' 

But  in  the  Bill  in  question,  as  well  as  in  the  six  other 
measures  dealing  with  National  Education  in  Scotland, 
which  were  introduced  into  Parliament  between  1854  and 
1872,  the  principle  which  ranged  all  the  sectarian  differ- 
ences of  opinion  in  the  country  upon  either  the  one  side 
or  the  other  was  the  presence  or  the  absence  of  religious 
teaching  in  the  schools.  Two  extreme  parties  existed,  one 
of  which  stood  out  for  no  Bill  which  did  not  enact  the  use 
of  the  Bible  and  Shorter  Catechism  by  express  statute  j  the 
other  would  oppose  any  Bill  which  made  allusion  to  the 
teaching  of  religion  at  all.  Between  these  poles  of  opinion 
were  grouped  other  differences,  and  the  problem  was  how 
to  reconcile  them.  Nor  was  the  matter  settled  until  the 
great  Education  Act  of  1872. 

Dr.  Guthrie  took  an  active  part  in  preparing  the  way 
for  Lord  Advocate  Young's  Bill  of  1872,  which  is  still, 
with  some  modifications,  our  educational  system  of  to-day. 
In  keeping  with  Dr.  Guthrie's  liberality  was  it  that,  in  order 
to  avoid  giving  offence  to  any  phase  of  faith  whatsoever, 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  in 

he  should  warmly  support  the  provision  that  religious 
instruction,  without  being  either  '  prescribed  or  proscribed ' 
by  the  Act,  should  be  left  to  the  decision  of  local  boards. 
His  heart's  desire  was  to  see  the  Bible  read  in  the  schools, 
and  he  knew  that  to  secure  this  something  of  less  moment 
had  to  be  conceded.  Never  did  his  practical  sagacity 
make  itself  more  manifest.  So  valuable  was  his  opinion 
considered,  and  so  urgent  were  many  official  and  private 
friends  of  the  Act  that  he  should  make  some  definite 
expression  of  his  views  regarding  it,  that  within  ten  months 
of  his  death  he  had  to  yield  to  their  importunity,  and  in 
his  famous  '  Letter  to  my  Fellow-Countrymen '  pronounce 
a  warm  eulogy  upon  it : — 

'  Can  any  man  in  his  senses  believe  that  the  Bible-reading, 
Bible-loving  people  of  Scotland  will  thrust  the  Word  of  God 
out  of  their  schools  ?  Lend  your  hearty  support  to  a  Bill  which, 
conserving  all  that  is  good  in  our  parish  schools,  will  carry  the 
blessing  of  education  into  every  mining  district,  dark  lane  of 
the  city,  and  lone  Highland  glen.' 

Fit  words  are  these  to  close  the  record  of  Dr.  Guthrie's 
labours  on  behalf  of  Scottish  Education  !  His  words  have 
come  true.  The  Bible  has  not  been  banished  from  our 
schools,  through  religious  teaching  therein  being  left  an 
optional  matter  in  the  hands  of  the  local  School  Boards. 
On  the  contrary,  this  wise  provision  has  reconciled  sec- 
tarian factions,  and  brought  peace  and  harmony  where 
formerly  discord  and  animosity  prevailed. 

With  such  catholic  sympathies  as  Dr.  Guthrie  possessed, 
to  say  of  him  that  he  was  the  friend  of  Foreign  and  of 
Continental  Missions  may  savour  of  a  truism.  Still  more 
will  this  seem  so  if  we  extend  the  remark  to  Home  Missions. 
The  '  Evangelist '  of  '  ragged  schools,'  the  man  whose 
scheme  had  brought  more  light  into  wretched  young  lives 
than  any  other — his  interest  in  Home  Missions  may  be 
taken  as  a  thing  in  course.  When  labouring  in  the  Cow- 
gate  and  in  his  territorial  charge  of  '  Old  St.  John's,'  he 
was  a  'home  missionary'  in  the  noblest  sense  of  the  word.1 

1  See  his  Sketches  of  the  Cowgate. 


112 


FAMOUS  SCOTS 


Nor  when  circumstances  forced  him  out  of  '  slum  work ' 
pure  and  simple,  to  become  the  eloquent  pastor  of  Free 
St.  John's,  neither  few  nor  seldom  were  the  glances  of 
half-regretful  yearning   he  cast  across  the  street,  at  that 
sphere  wherein  his  whole  heart  had  been  centred.     From 
the  day  he  set  foot  in  Edinburgh  to  begin  Dr.  Chalmers's 
great  territorial  scheme,  until  his  latest  hour  of  life,  Dr. 
Guthrie  was  an  intense  believer   in  the  value  of  Home 
Mission  work.     By  voice  and  pen,  from  pulpit  and  plat- 
form, in  presbyteries  and  assemblies,  in  books  and  journals, 
he  continued  to  fight  the  battle  of  the  evangelisation  of 
the  masses.    In  nearly  every  volume  he  wrote,  he  impressed 
the  fact  upon  his  readers  that  the  world  must  be  won  for 
Christ,  by  bread  for  the  body  as  well  as  bread  for  the  soul. 
But  in  Foreign  and  Continental  Missions  the  intensity 
of  his  interest  has  not  been  so  generally  recognised.     The 
grandeur  of  his  services  in  other  fields  has  eclipsed  the 
lustre  of  his  labours  in  these,  although  his  work  on  behalf 
of  the  Waldenses  was  such  that  his  name  to  this  day  is 
blessed  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Vaudois  Valleys.     The 
extent  of  his  sympathies  seemed  only  limited  by  the  field 
of  Christian   missionary  effort.     Soon  after   he  went   to 
Edinburgh,  as  we  have  seen,  so  keen  was  his  interest  in 
the  schemes  of  the  apostolic  Duff  for  the  evangelisation 
and  education  of  the  teeming  millions  of  Hindostan,  that 
he   contemplated   accepting   the    offers   of  the    latter   to 
proceed  thither.     Only  the  consciousness  of  heathenism 
nearer  home  and  the  representations  of  Chalmers  as  to 
its  paramount  claims  upon  him  led  him  to  decline.     But 
from  that  hour  his  heart  was  stirred  within  him  whenever 
the  cause  of  Foreign  Missions  was  mentioned,  and  some  of 
his  finest  speeches  were  delivered  in  their  support.     After 
the  Disruption  his  enthusiasm  seemed  to  wax  rather  than 
to  wane.     In   1845  we  ^nc^  mm  announcing  a  donation 
through  himself,  from  a  wealthy  Wesleyan  friend,  of  ^£500 
in  aid  of  the  Foreign  Missions  schemes  of  the  Free  Church. 
At  Dr.  Duff's  second  visit  home  in   1852  we  notice  from 
contemporary  press  reports  that  the  great  missionary  was 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  113 

speaking  in  Free  St.  John's  on  his  favourite  theme,  and 
that  Dr.  Guthrie  'also  gave  an  address.'  In  his  Modera- 
tor's opening  sermon  in  1863,  when  closing  his  year  of 
office,  he  made  a  stirring  reference  to  Foreign  Missions 
and  their  importance  to  a  Church,  saying  in  words  that 
have  often  been  repeated,  '  Foreign  Missions  beget  Home 
Missions.'  After  his  release  from  active  ministerial  work, 
he  seemed  to  find  a  joy  in  doing  all  he  could  to  aid  in 
the  spread  of  the  Gospel  in  foreign  countries.1 

In  Continental  Missions  his  chief  claim  to  the  gratitude 
of  all  Christian  people  was  in  his  advocacy  of  the  needs  of 
the  Waldensian  Church,  whose  bitter  persecutions  at  the 
hands  of  Rome  he  could  never  contemplate  without  keen 
indignation.  Though  in  the  second  General  Assembly  of 
the  Free  Church  he  had  been  named  as  one  of  the  com- 
mittee appointed  to  correspond  with  foreign  churches,  it 
was  1856  before  he  was  able  to  take  a  trip  abroad.  At 
that  time  he  visited  Switzerland  and  the  Alps  in  company 
with  Dr.  Cunningham,  Principal  of  the  New  College — a 
tour  which  lived  in  his  memory,  roseate-tinted,  for  the 
remainder  of  his  life.  Chamounix,  Interlaken,  Fribourg, 
Lucerne,  Brussels,  and  Ghent  were  all  in  turn  visited,  and 
the  pleasure  he  felt  is  to  be  estimated  by  his  remark  to 
any  one  who  said  he  had  not  seen  the  Alps :  '  Not  seen 
Switzerland !  then  save  up  as  much  money  as  will  take 
you  there.  You  will  get  a  new  revelation  of  the  Creator's 
glory.     I  say  to  everybody,  See  the  Alps  before  you  die.' 

In  1 86 1  he  returned  to  Switzerland  to  take  part  in  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  at  Geneva. 
Here  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  preaching  in  the  city  of 
John  Calvin.  From  Geneva  he  went  to  Sion  in  the  Rhone 
valley,  thence  to  Zermatt,  and  finally  to  the  celebrated 
chalet  on  the  RifTelberg,  after  which  the  party  returned 
slowly  home.  Then  in  1864  he  travelled  through  Brittany, 
making  Quimper  his  headquarters.  With  many  French 
Protestants  he  was  on  terms  of  friendship — the  Monods; 
MM.    Fisch,    Bersier,   Bost;    Professors   St.    Hilaire  and 

1  See  Sundays  Abroad,  one  of  the  most  delightful  of  his  works. 

H 


ii4  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

La  Harpe ;  Drs.  Merle  D'Aubigne  and  Gaussen.  While 
he  journeyed  on  the  Continent  to  admire  its  exquisite 
scenery  and  to  visit  with  delight  its  churches,  its  picture- 
galleries,  and  its  objects  of  antiquarian  and  historic 
interest,  he  liked  to  have  a  definite  end  in  view.  Hence 
he  often  travelled  as  a  deputy  to  some  of  the  Continental 
Protestant  Churches. 

It  was  in  this  capacity  he  first  visited  the  Church  of 
the  Waldensian  Valleys — a  Church  which  henceforward 
he  was  to  champion  from  pulpit,  platform,  and  press. 
In  1865,  when  he  first  visited  the  Vaudois,  he  was  so 
charmed  that  he  wrote  home  : — 

'This  land  of  most  beautiful  and  sublime  scenery  has 
associations  and  memories  surpassing  in  moral  grandeur  those, 
perhaps,  of  any  country  on  earth,  save  the  Holy  Land,  No 
Church  has  ever  suffered  for  the  truth  or  maintained  it  as  this 
has  done.  With  breathing-times,  the  Waldenses  were  per- 
secuted often  to  the  death  for  nearly  four  hundred  years.5 

But  his  sympathy  was  not  confined  to  words.  On  his 
return  home  he  became  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Wal- 
densian Aid  Society  ;  and  from  1868  to  1872,  accompanied 
at  one  time  by  Dr.  Revel,  President  of  the  Waldensian 
College  at  Florence,  and  later  by  Signor  Prochet  of 
Genoa,  he  itinerated  through  a  large  part  of  England 
and  Scotland  pleading  the  cause  of  the  Vaudois  Church. 
Mainly  through  his  exertions  some  thousands  of  pounds 
were  raised  annually.  Drawing-room  meetings  in  the 
houses  of  the  nobility  and  society  leaders,  where  he  could 
speak  freely  regarding  the  urgent  need  for  help,  became 
a  valuable  means  of  extending  a  knowledge  of  the  move- 
ment. Amongst  the  last  addresses — nay,  I  believe  the 
very  last — he  made,  was  one  in  aid  of  this  cause  at  the 
house  of  his  friend,  Mr.  D.  Matheson,  Queen's  Gate, 
London.  No  wonder  that  when  a  champion  so  powerful 
lay  dying,  '  fervent  prayer  was  offered  for  his  recovery  in 
every  parish  in  the  Waldensian  Valleys,  and  that  his 
death  was  mourned  as  that  of  a  well-loved  friend.'1 

1  Remark  made  by  Dr.  Stewart  of  Leghorn,  Moderator  of  the  Free 
Church,  when  referring  to  Dr.  Guthrie's  death. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  115 

Nor  was  his  interest  in  the  Colonial  and  American 
Churches  less  keen.  In  1857  he  was  urged  to  visit 
Australia,  and  the  people  '  by  the  long  wash  of  Australasian 
seas'  rejoiced  to  learn  he  was  to  be  with  them.  But 
health  reasons  debarred  him,  and  to  the  regret  both  of 
himself  and  the  Antipodean  Churches  he  was  unable  to 
go.  So,  too,  as  regards  America.  Though  he  had  many 
friends  there,  notably  Drs.  Alexander,  Adams,  Cuyler, 
Talmage,  and  others  whose  invitations  were  frequent  and 
pressing,  he  never  made  out  the  journey.  In  1867,  along 
with  the  late  Principal  Fairbairn  and  the  Rev.  J.  Wells, 
Dr.  Guthrie  was  deputed  by  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  Free  Church  to  represent  them  to  the  Presbyterian 
Churches  of  America.  A  mighty  reception  awaited  him 
on  the  other  side.  On  the  6th  April  1867,  accompanied 
by  his  wife  and  son  Charles,1  he  embarked  on  the  Cunard 
steamer  Scotia,  bound  from  Liverpool  to  New  York.  But 
after  two  days  of  the  voyage  had  been  passed,  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  the  vessel  at  Queenstown,  the  anguish 
he  had  endured  in  the  interim  having  been  intense.  As 
the  Memoir  puts  it,  'the  peculiar  heart  affection  from 
which  he  suffered  made  the  air  of  a  ship's  cabin  at  night 
intolerable  to  him.'  Disappointed  though  he  was,  he  felt 
that  to  persevere  would,  in  all  probability,  be  to  permanently 
cripple  even  that  measure  of  health  he  then  enjoyed. 

And  so  it  came  about  that  Dr.  Guthrie  was  able  to  visit 
the  Church  neither  in  Australasia  nor  America.  But  as 
though  his  heart  went  out  to  these  corners  of  the  vineyard 
all  the  more  because  he  was  unable  to  visit  them,  his  in- 
terest in  the  Colonial  and  American  Presbyterian  Churches 
continued  unabated  to  the  end.  When  he  heard  in  1872 
of  the  growth  of  the  Presbyterian  system  all  over  America, 
by  churches  all  of  which  looked  back  fondly  to  the  '  land 
of  the  mountain  and  the  flood '  as  their  common  parent, 
he  said  with  a  tremor  in  his  voice,  'Worthy  daughters 
of  a  worthy  mother — many  daughters  have  done  virtuously 
but  ye  have  excelled  them  all.' 

1  Now  Mr.  C.  J.  Guthrie,  Q.C.,  Advocate  at  the  Scottish  Bar, 


n6  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

That  period  of  Dr.  Guthrie's  life  from  1855  t0  1864, 
when  his  active  ministerial  labours  were  brought  to  a 
close,  may  be  said  to  have  been,  in  many  respects,  the 
most  richly  beneficent  of  all  others  in  great  and  manifold 
acts  of  religious  and  philanthropic  achievement.  In  the 
epoch  of  his  life  lying  between'  his  fifty-second  and  sixty- 
first  years,  or,  in  other  words,  just  before  his  final  break- 
down in  1864,  he  appeared,  as  it  were,  to  have  reached 
the  maturity  of  his  gifts,  the  supreme  range  of  his  broadly 
human  sympathetic  affinities.  Late  in  developing  as  his 
genius  was,  its  full  efflorescence  came  when  already  he 
was  well  up  in  years. 

During  the  epoch  in  question,  his  fame  became  world- 
wide, through  the  catholic  character  of  his  labours;  The 
agencies  that  sought  his  aid  were  almost  as  varied  and 
manifold  as  human  nature  itself.  His  eloquence  wras  now 
admitted,  even  by  so  competent  a  critic  as  the  Times,  to 
be  unsurpassed  in  Britain.  It  had  lost  the  ornate — some- 
times the  over-ornate — exuberance  of  earlier  years,  and 
had  become  more  tempered  by  reason  and  judicious  taste. 
His  best  friends  had  to  admit  that  of  old  his  platform 
oratory  sometimes  took  the  bit  in  its  teeth,  and  in  the 
excitement  of  the  moment  sacrificed  common-sense  to 
a  witty  epigram,  a  telling  story,  or  a  brilliant  bon-mot. 
But  in  those  later  years,  the  lucid  lamp  of  his  sagacious 
judgment  burned  supreme  over  all.  His  oratory  was  now 
less  the  efflux  of  strong  feeling  than  the  reflection  of  his 
lifelong  experience.  The  effect,  therefore,  became  in- 
creasingly powerful,  as  well  as  increasingly  permanent. 
Chalmers  alone  can  be  said  to  have  excelled  him  as 
an  orator,  but  that  was  rather  due  to  the  fact  of  the 
peerless  intellect  of  the  former,  ranging  as  it  did  with 
giant  stride  over  wellnigh  the  entire  realm  of  human 
knowledge,  impressing  into  the  service  of  his  eloquence 
the  aid  of  a  culture  almost  universal.  Chalmers  appealed 
to  the  emotions  through  the  intellect,  Guthrie  through 
the  imagination.  The  former  overpowered  by  the  lightning 
flashes  of  his   superb    mind,   the   latter  by  the  pictorial 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  117 

vividness  of  his  fancy.  Guthrie  exhibited  many  points 
of  resemblance  to  the  great  French  pulpit  orators  Bour- 
daloue  and  Massillon.  The  subject  of  our  study  possessed 
in  rich  measure  Bourdaloue's  gift  of  choosing  the  aptest 
language  to  express  his  meaning — a  quality  wherein  the 
great  Jesuit  preacher  stands  unrivalled  among  the  orators 
of  his  nation.  But  he  also  shared  Massillon's  power 
of  infusing  the  most  exquisite  pathos  and  a  strain  of 
the  subtlest  sympathy  into  his  sermons  and  speeches, 
without  any  seeming  premeditation  or  design.  Whitefield's 
vehemence  and  Boanergic  energy  he  did  not  much  affect, 
nor  had  his  style  of  pulpit  oratory  any  resemblance  to 
the  cultured  grace  and  sinuous  smoothness  of  the  late 
Canon  Liddon.  In  fact,  Dr.  Guthrie's  eloquence  was  so 
entirely  a  part  of  himself,  and  not  a  mere  accomplishment, 
that  when  asked  by  an  English  clergyman  to  give  him 
some  hints  as  to  the  improvement  of  his  pulpit  speaking, 
the  Doctor  replied,  '  My  dear  sir,  I  know  no  more  about 
oratory  or  eloquence  than  I  do  about  navigation.  You 
might  just  as  well  ask  me  to  teach  you  how  to  steer  a 
ship.  I  write  or  think  out  my  sermon ;  I  carefully  impress 
it  on  my  mind,  and  then  I  pray  God  to  enable  me  to 
deliver  it  to  His  praise  and  glory.'  What  the  Times  said 
of  his  oratory  sums  up  the  whole  matter : — 

'  Dr.  Guthrie  is  essentially  an  orator,  and  his  skill  lies  pre- 
cisely in  the  most  wonderful  but  also  the  most  evanescent 
faculty  of  the  orator — in  the  art  of  passionately  appealing  to 
the  imagination  rather  than  to  the  reason.  His  effect  on  his 
hearers  is  magical.  Once  within  his  circle  we  cannot  but 
listen,  and  as  we  listen  we  love  the  man.  He  does  not  argue — 
he  describes,  he  luxuriates  in  description  ;  he  makes  his  de- 
scription fascinating  by  the  feeling  which  he  throws  into  it 
in  a  gesture,  in  a  look,  in  a  pause,  in  a  tone, -as  well  as  in 
glowing  words  and  thrilling  sentences.' 1 

Adequately  to  realise  the  numerous  points  at  which  his 

sympathies  touched  the  manifold  life  of  society  and  of  the 

churches — for  his  energies  were  never  confined  to  his  own 

— one  has  to  select  a  sample  year  out  of  those  'nine,'  and 

1  Tunes,  Jan.  2,  1858. 


n8  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

pass  in  review  the  work  he  achieved  in  it.  In  doing  so 
we  must  keep  before  our  recollection  that  at  this  time  he 
was  the  collegiate  minister  of  one  of  the  largest  congrega- 
tions in  Edinburgh ;  that  he  never  neglected  any  item  of 
pastoral  work;  that  he  maintained  a  constant  supervision 
over  his  great  scheme— the  Ragged  Schools  ;  and  that  he 
was  the  magnet  that  drew  many  strangers  to  Edinburgh, 
to  most  of  whom  courtesy  and  hospitality  had  to  be  shown. 
Yet  that  man,  during  these  nine  years  from  1855-64, 
achieved  annually  such  a  vast  record  of  work  as  to  make 
even  the  most  diligent  despair.  Of  a  truth  he  exemplified 
the  aptness  of  the  saying,  that  '  it  is  always  the  busiest 
man  who  has  the  most  time.'  His  year  of  Moderatorship 
in  particular  was  one  when  the  burden  he  sustained  was 
simply  Atlantean. 

It  was  in  1862  that  his  Church  decided  to  confer  upon 
him  the  only  honour  at  her  disposal,  and,  because  the  only 
one,  on  that  account  ranking  with  the  highest — the  Moder- 
atorship. The  selection  was  unanimous,  and  was  received 
with  an  unbroken  chorus  of  approval  by  the  public.  He 
made  a  courteous  and  dignified  '  chief,'  firm  in  maintaining 
the  discipline  of  the  chair,  yet  exhibiting  consummate 
tact  and  common-sense,  in  which  his  ready  humour  and 
playful  satire  were  not  without  their  use  in  restraining 
excited  ecclesiastical  disputants.  The  Earl  of  Dalhousie,  in 
seconding  the  nomination  made  by  Dr.  Candlish,  said,  '  In 
honouring  Thomas  Guthrie,  this  Court  will  confer  honour 
on  itself.'  The  Caledonian  Mercury  said:  'It  must  be 
regarded  as  a  happy  circumstance  that  a  divine  so  eminently 
distinguished  for  broad  catholicity  of  spirit  should  this 
year  have  presided  over  the  Free  Church  Assembly.  There 
is,  if  we  may  so  characterise  it,  a  humanity  about  the 
Christianity  of  Guthrie — as  there  ought  to  be  about  the 
Christianity  of  every  man — that  commends  him  to  all  sects 
and  classes  of  British  society.' 

Long  was  his  year  of  Moderatorship  remembered.  He 
had  followed  in  the  chair  three  of  the  most  outstanding 
— Chalmers  excepted — of  the  great  fathers  of  the  Free 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  119 

Church — Cunningham,  Buchanan,  and  Candlish.  But 
without  exaggeration  may  the  remark  be  made,  that  the 
three  addresses  delivered  by  Dr.  Guthrie  during  his  term 
of  office  were  amongst  the  most  remarkable  in  the  history 
of  the  Church.  That  famous  passage  in  his  closing  address, 
so  full  of  broad  humanitarian  sympathy,  I  cannot  refrain 
from  quoting : — 

1  There  are  three  powers — the  Press,  the  Platform,  and  the 
Pulpit ;  and  if  the  talent  and  genius  of  the  country  go  into  the 
first  two,  it  will  be  a  bad  day  for  the  Church  and  for  the  country, 
when  our  pulpits  are  proverbial  for  dulness,  our  Sabbaths  for 
weariness,  and  when  the  highest  of  all  professions  has  the 
smallest  of  men  to  fill  it ;  when  the  power  of  moulding  public 
opinion  is  gone  from  the  pulpit.  That  will  be  a  calamity  to  us  ; 
and  I  call  on  the  Free  Church,  and  the  people  of  every  denomi- 
nation, to  avert  that  calamity,  and  never  to  starve  the  pulpit 
of  the  Christian  Church.  .  .  .  Did  our  youth  some  years  ago 
leave  titles,  estates,  luxurious  mansions,  fathers,  mothers, 
sisters,  brothers,  and  brides,  and  throw  themselves  on  the 
shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  on  frost  and  famine,  and  pestilence, 
and  the  iron  shower  of  death  before  the  walls  of  Sebastopol  ? 
Did  the  highest  and  the  noblest  of  the  youth  of  our  country  do 
that,  and  shall  piety  blush  before  patriotism  ?  Shall  Jesus  Christ 
call  in  vain  on  our  youth  for  less  costly  sacrifices  ?  I  trust  that 
the  words  I  have  uttered  will  stir  up  children  of  genius  and  talent 
to  give  themselves  to  the  ministry  of  the  Word.  I  have  served 
my  Master  now  for  more  than  thirty  years  :  I  am  grown  grey 
in  His  service,  but  I  can  say  that  even  when  I  saw  how  much 
richer  I  might  have  been  in  other  professions,  and  when  I  felt 
the  greatest  hardships  of  my  life,  I  never  regretted  my  choice. 
I  have  been  a  poor  servant ;  I  have  a  thousand  infirmities  on 
my  head,  and  sins,  .  .  .  but,  fathers  and  brethren,  poor  servant 
as  I  have  been,  I  '11  stand  up  this  day  for  my  Master  and  say, 
"  Christ  has  been  a  blessed  and  a  gracious  Master  to  me." 
To  Him,  with  confidence,  fathers  and  brethren,  I  now  com- 
mend you  all.' 

Alas !  little  did  those  who  heard  those  eloquent  sentences 
in  the  Moderator's  closing  address  foresee  that  when  the 
Assembly  of  1864  met,  one  of  its  items  of  business  would 
be,  to  consider  the  retirement,  through  ill-health,  of  her 
brilliant  son,  and  to  give  assent  to  arrangements  that 
would  close  the  lips,  as  one  of  her  regular  ministers,  of 
Dr.  Thomas  Guthrie, 


CHAPTER  XI 

FINAL  YEARS  OF  ACTIVITY— FROM  MOUTH  TO  PEN 

In  October  1863,  Dr.  Guthrie  wrote:  'I  have  arrived 
slowly  at  the  opinion  that  I  must  get  out  of  harness. 
More  than  any  supposed  or  knew,  but  those  within  the 
walls  of  my  own  house,  my  work  has  been  a  toil  to  me, 
and  one  which  is  getting  heavier  each  year.  Now  I  am 
forced  to  call  a  halt.     My  heart  has  got  bad  again."1 

The  ominous  intimation  contained  in  the  last  sentence 
explained  all.  The  great  preacher  was  a  doomed  man. 
Guthrie's  power,  as  I  have  already  indicated,  lay  in  his 
electric  energy  and  enthusiasm.  Whatsoever  he  did,  he 
had  to  do  it  with  his  whole  heart,  soul,  strength,  and  mind. 
That  was  all  very  good,  but  meantime  the  engine  of  his 
ceaseless  activity  was  exhausting  his  reserve  force,  and 
putting  a  strain  on  the  heart  no  organ  could  long  endure. 
The  opinion  of  Sir  Andrew  Clark  showed  that  he  had 
taken,  in  1847,  a  very  grave  view  of  Mr.  Guthrie's  case; 
yet,  on  the  understanding  that  he  was  '  to  take  things  easy,' 
he  had  been  allowed  to  resume  work.  As  soon  preach 
moderation  to  a  tornado  and  expect  it  to  listen  to  you,  as 
to  enjoin  on  Dr.  Guthrie,  to  diminish  his  expenditure  of 
vital  energy  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties.  If  he  worked 
at  all,  he  had  to  work  with  his  whole  heart,  and  at  the 
highest  possible  pressure. 

Even  his  medical  advisers,  however,  had  no  conception 

how  ill  he  really  was  until  a  minute  examination  was  made. 

Professor  Sir  James  Simpson,  Professor  Miller,  and  Dr. 

Warburton  Begbie  all  agreed  that  cardiac  disease  of  a  very 

aggravated  type  was  present,  due  to  overwork,  and  that 
120 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  121 

absolute  rest  and  withdrawal  from  public  work  was  im- 
perative. In  fact,  Dr.  Begbie,  on  completing  his  examina- 
tion, said  that  such  was  the  state  of  his  pastor's  heart's 
action,  that  the  wonder  to  him  was  he  had  not  seen  him 
drop  down  in  the  pulpit. 

Sorrowfully  Dr.  Guthrie  accepted  the  intimation  that  his 
work  as  a  preacher  was  over,  and  that  the  scene  of  his 
oratorical  triumphs  would  know  him  no  more.  In  a  letter 
addressed  to  the  'Congregation  of  Free  St.  John's,'  he 
took  leave  of  them,  in  terms  that  brought  tears  to  many 
eyes,  and  which  can  scarcely  be  perused  even  now  without 
emotion.  To  the  congregation  it  came  like  a  thunderclap. 
The  decade  immediately  preceding  his  retirement  had 
been  so  filled  with  notable  achievements  on  the  part  of 
their  minister,  had  been  so  crowded  with  splendid  projects 
for  the  amelioration  of  the  lot  of  stricken  humanity,  that 
his  people,  with  reason,  looked  forward  to  many  years  of 
pastoral  labours  amongst  them.  Now  all  was  at  an  end. 
Can  they  be  blamed  if,  with  regretful  grudging,  they  said, 
1  Had  he  done  less  for  others,  whose  only  desire  was  to 
see  how  much  they  could  make  by  him,  he  would  have 
had  many  more  years  among  us,  who  love  him  for  himself 
alone.' 

The  parting  was  a  sad  one.  Although  he  was  prepared 
to  have  made  his  resignation  final  in  every  sense  of  the 
word,  and  thus  left  the  congregation  free  to  choose  their 
own  course  as  regards  the  future,  they  would  not  accept 
such  a  proposal.  As  pastor  emeritus  he  retained  a  nominal 
connection  with  Free  St.  John's  to  the  day  of  his  death. 
Though  no  longer  receiving  any  allowance  from  the  con- 
gregational funds,  an  arrangement  was  come  to  whereby 
he  was  enabled  to  draw  his  'dividend'  from  the  Sustenta- 
tion  Fund  of  the  Free  Church,  as  well  as  to  retain  his  seat 
as  a  member  of  the  Edinburgh  Presbytery.  Some  slight 
misunderstandings,  arising  out  of  trivialities,  for  a  time 
created  a  little  friction  between  a  few  members  of  the 
kirk-session  and  himself,  in  which,  unfortunately,  his 
colleague,   Dr.  Hanna,    became    involved.      But   such   a 


122  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

contretemps,  when  smoothed  away,  only  evinced  how  deep 
and  sincere  was  the  affection  on  both  sides  lying  under  any 
apparent  estrangement.  By  December  1865,  Dr.  Guthrie 
could  write  to  Dr.  Hanna :  '  I  propose  to  call  on  you  at 
ten  o'clock  to-morrow — not  that  we  may  discuss  or  even 
touch  on  the  past,  but,  burying  it  in  oblivion,  resume  our 
intercourse  as  of  old.' 

Situated  as  he  was,  however,  the  question  now  came  to 
be,  how  was  the  minister  emeritus  of  Free  St.  John's  to 
live  ?  He  had  never  been  a  man  who  could  save  money. 
Whilst  he  had  an  abhorrence  of  debt,  and  always  made  his 
income  suffice  for  his  wants,  he  had  not  been  in  a  position  to 
lay  by  much  for  what  is  figuratively  known  as  '  a  rainy  day.' 
His  family  was  large  and  their  education  was  expensive. 
He  had,  moreover,  literally  obeyed  the  Scriptural  injunc- 
tion, 'Use  hospitality  one  to  another  without  grudging,' 
and  his  table  had  been  almost  an  open  one  '  to  the  house- 
hold of  faith.'  His  income,  never  more  than  ^550  per 
annum,  was  therefore  no  more  than  sufficient  for  his  needs. 
If,  then,  he  declined  to  receive  aught  from  the  congrega- 
tion, where  was  his  support  to  come  from  ?  There  is  a 
delightful  verse  in  the  metrical  version  of  Psalm  xxxiv.  10, 
which  has  always  seemed  to  me  one  of  the  most  quaintly 
satisfying  of  promises  in  all  Scripture — 

1  The  lions  young  may  hungry  be, 
And  they  may  lack  their  food  ; 
But  they  that  truly  seek  the  Lord 
Shall  not  lack  any  good.5 

This  was  the  position  of  Dr.  Guthrie.  The  God  of  his 
fathers,  who  had  provided  for  him  and  his  hitherto,  would 
not  leave  them  to  want.     And  so  circumstances  proved. 

As  though  in  anticipation  of  his  retirement  from  active 
work  in  the  pulpit,  a  far-seeing  and  sagacious  London 
publisher,  Mr.  Alexander  Strahan,  had  offered  to  establish 
a  high-class  religious  periodical,  to  which  the  best  writers 
would  be  asked  to  contribute,  on  the  condition  that  Dr. 
Guthrie  agreed  to  assume  the  editorship.  As  the  contents 
were  intended  for  Sabbath  perusal,  the  name  proposed  to 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  123 

be  given  to  the  publication  was  the  Sunday  Magazine. 
For  a  time  he  hesitated.  Though  he  had  already 
published  several  works  whose  popularity  evinced  that 
he  could  'shpake  as  well  wid  his  pin  as  wid  his  tongue,' 
as  an  enthusiastic  Irish  admirer  said,  he  felt  a  diffidence 
in  entering  on  a  sphere  for  which  he  had  passed  through 
no  preparatory  training.  But  when  he  was  assured  that 
his  old  friend  Dr.  Blaikie  would  be  associated  with  him  as 
assistant  editor,  and  that  the  publisher  himself  would  act 
as  '  sub-editor,'  he  realised  that  here  was  the  provision 
made  for  him  by  the  Almighty  Father  whose  bounty  feeds 
the  sparrows,  and  at  the  same  time  gives  bread  to  the  sons 
of  men. 

Dr.  Guthrie  had  already  written  a  good  deal  in  religious 
periodicals,  especially  in  Good  Words,  under  the  editor- 
ship of  his  friend  Dr.  Norman  Macleod,  and  his  contribu- 
tions were  eagerly  sought  after,  for  their  picturesque 
brightness,  their  apophthegmatic  pithiness,  their  world- 
wise  common-sense  wedded  to  their  'other-world-wise' 
spirituality.1  He  had  also,  in  addition  to  his  Three  Pleas 
on  behalf  of  Ragged  Schools,  subsequently  reissued,  as 
we  have  seen,  in  one  volume,  under  the  title  Seedtime 
and  Harvest,  published  in  1855,  his  Gospel  in  Ezekiel 
— a  volume  of  sermons  dealing  with  the  suggestions  of 
Messianic  Advent  and  Atonement  as  given  in  Ezekiel 
xxxvi.  16,  38,  and  constituting  a  rich  magazine  of  Christian 
doctrine  and  stimulating  Christian  practice,  couched  in 
that  vivid  style  so  familiar  to  his  auditors.  In  1857 
appeared  The  City — its  Sins  and  Sorrows,  a  series  of 
discourses  on  the  vice  and  misery  present  in  our  large 
cities,  and  by  its  powerfully  realistic  pictures  and  almost 
Dantean  delineation  of  the  horrors  of  profligacy  and 
destitution,  forming  a  strong  argument  in  favour  of  Home 
Mission  work.  In  the  following  year  came  his  third 
volume,    Christ  and  the   Inherita?ice    of  the    Saints,    as 

1  I  do  not  take  into  account  the  numerous  'isolated'  or  'single' 
sermons  and  speeches  which  were  published  at  the  request  of  his  con- 
gregation or  friends.    Our  attention  is  directed  only  to  his  '  books.' 


i24  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

illustrated  in  a  series  of  discourses  from  St.  Paul's  Epistle 
to  the  Colossians — discourses  replete  with  exquisite  gems 
of  religious  thought  in  a  setting  of  rich  poetic  diction. 
These  were  succeeded  by  The  Way  to  Life  and  Speaking  to 
the  Heart,  the  former  a  series  of  twenty-one  sermons  on 
a  variety  of  topics,  but  all  dealing  with  the  doctrine  of 
Redemption ;  the  latter  consisting  of  twelve  not  over-long 
1  essays '  (rather  than  discourses),  on  subjects  of  cardinal 
importance  to  every  child  of  humanity,  who  has  the 
faintest  jot  of  realisation  as  to  his  moral  and  spiritual 
responsibilities. 

These  works,  with  a  short  '  Life  '  of  Robert  Flockhart 
the  Edinburgh  Street  Preacher,  prefixed  to  the  Autobio- 
graphy of  that  humble  but  highly  honoured  servant  of 
the  Saviour,  were  all  the  volumes  published  by  Dr.  Guthrie 
prior  to  his  assuming  the  editorship  of  the  Simday 
Magazine.  Many  editions  of  them  had  been  sold. 
People  who  had  never  heard  the  Free  Church  'Chry- 
sostom '  preach,  were  thus  able  to  enjoy  his  picturesque 
presentation  of  current  Christian  doctrines  in  their  own 
dwellings,  and  yet  feel  some  touch  at  least  of  that 
mysterious  witchery  he  exercised  over  all  who  came  within 
the  radius  of  his  influence. 

When  we  glance  at  the  preliminary  prospectus  of  the 
Sunday  Magazine,  and  note  the  somewhat  ambitious  role 
the  editor  marks  out  for  his  periodical — 

'  to  make  the  Sunday  a  more  pleasant  as  well  as  a  more 
profitable  day  to  thousands  ;  to  make  our  magazine  plain  to 
common  people  without  being  vulgar,  interesting  to  cultivated 
minds  without  being  unintelligible  to  men  of  ordinary  educa- 
tion ;  to  make  good  our  entry,  into  cottages  as  well  as  drawing- 
rooms  ;  to  be  read  by  people  of  all  Christian  denominations  ;  to 
be  of  no  class,  of  no  sect,  of  no  party,  but  belonging  to  all,  and 
profitable  to  all ' — 

one  feels  inclined  to  smile  at  his  naive  sanguineness. 
But  time  proved  the  truth  of  his  anticipations.  Strahan 
had  rightly  judged  that  '  edited  by  Dr.  Guthrie '  would  be 
an  announcement  to  conjure  with.  The  success  of  the 
Magazine  was  phenomenal  even  with  such  a  rival  as  Good 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  125 

Words  in  the  field,  and  the  sale   of  the  early  numbers 
exceeded  ioc^ooo.1 

The  reason  of  this  success  was  that  Dr.  Guthrie,  besides 
securing  the  best  writers  in  all  the  several  departments  as 
contributors,  wrote  largely  himself  in  the  pages  of  the 
periodical.  To  its  columns  he  gave  of  his  best,  and  in 
many  of  his  letters  of  that  period  he  expresses  intense  joy 
that  when  the  pulpit  had  been  closed  to  him  as  a  sphere 
of  labour,  the  press  had  been  opened  up,  where  he  could 
plead  for  the  schemes  so  dear  to  his  heart.  He  soon  caught 
the  journalistic  readiness  of  composition  and  the  knack  of 
uniting  rapidity  of  production  with  a  high  standard  of  ex- 
cellence. During  the  eight  years  of  his  editorship,  scarce 
a  number  appeared  that  had  not  some  contribution  of  his 
own  in  it.  He  wrote  the  opening  article  in  the  first 
number.  Ten  days  before  his  death  he  corrected  the 
proofs  of  The  Leper  s  Lesson,  which  was  published  when  he 
had  really  passed  away.  Many  of  his  books  appeared  first 
in  serial  form  in  the  Sunday  Magazine — such  as  Man  and 
the  Gospel  (1865),  The  Angels'  Song  (1865),  The  Parables 
(1866),  Our  Father's  Business  (1867),  Out  of  Harness 
(1867),  Early  Piety  (1868),  Studies  of  Character  (1868-70), 
Sundays  Abroad  (187 1) — to  be  published  afterwards  in 
book-form. 

The  audience  he  addressed  each  month  in  this  way 
was  enormous,  and  his  popularity  never  waned  until  the 
end.  Each  of  the  volumes  named  above  is  characterised 
by  all  Dr.  Guthrie's  peculiar  eloquence,  his  minuteness 
and  accuracy  of  observation,  his  spirituality,  his  lofty 
moral  grandeur  and  power  of  ethical  stimulation,  his 
catholic  benevolence  and  his  love  of  his  fellow-men.  The 
more  one  reads  of  Guthrie,  the  more  do.  we  realise  the 
fact  already  alluded  to  in  this  sketch,  that  if  he  was 
great  as  a  preacher  he  was  even  greater  as  a  man.  The 
Sunday   Magazine    proved    a    blessing    to    many   in    the 

1  Dr.  Macleod  and  Dr.  Guthrie  were  never  rivals  in  the  real  sense 
of  the  word.     They  assisted  each  other,  and  were  firm  friends  to  the 

Xz.'A. 


126  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

highest  and  best  sense  of  the  word,  and  from  1865  to 
1873  Thomas  Guthrie's  personality  was  impressed  on 
every  page  of  it. 

Dr.  Guthrie  was  late  in  life  in  discovering  the  literary 
faculty  he  possessed.  The  First  Plea  for  Ragged  Schools 
he  regarded  as  owing  its  success  to  the  intrinsic  interest 
attaching  to  the  subject.  But  when  the  Gospel  in  Ezekiel, 
The  City — its  Sins  and  Sorrows,  and  finally  Christ  the 
Inheritance  of  the  Saints,  had  all  proved  works  of  con- 
spicuous popularity  from  a  publisher's  point  of  view,  facts 
were  too  strong  for  his  incredulity,  and  he  was  obliged  to 
admit  that  perhaps  after  all,  God  might  have  work  for  him 
to  do  with  his  pen.1  From  that  hour  he  began  to  take 
greater  pains  in  polishing  his  periods  and  touching  up  his 
style.  Significant  is  it  that  his  latest  work,  Sundays  Abroad, 
was  as  successful  as  any  of  its  predecessors,  proving  that 
his  popularity  was  of  no  evanescent  quality.  To  this  day 
1  Guthrie's  Works '  are  in  demand  by  those  who  desire  that 
pure  spiritual  food  which  is  neither  highly  spiced  with 
the  'ologies'  nor  piquantly  seasoned  with  the  'isms,'  but 
presents  to  death-deserving  sinners,  in  all  sincerity  and 
truth,  the  cardinal  doctrine  of  our  faith,  that  'God  so 
loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only-begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish  but  have 
everlasting  life.' 2 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  characteristics  of  Dr. 
Guthrie  was  the  perennial  freshness  of  his  sympathies. 
To  the  end  of  life  he  never  lost  the  faculty  of  interesting 
himself  in  any  new  movement  that  promised  to  benefit 
his  fellow-men  either  temporally  or  spiritually.  The 
interest  taken  by  him  in  the  question  of  Union  between 
the  Free  Church  and  the  United  Presbyterians  is  a  case 
in  point.  We  have  seen  how  pronounced  an  Anti- 
Voluntary  he  was,  when  minister  of  Arbirlot,  and  how 

1  '  I  wonder  Dr.  Guthrie  did  not  discover  his  literary  faculty  twentv 
years  before  he  did,'  said  the  late  Dr.  Tweedie;  'if  he  had,  his  useful- 
ness would  have  been  trebled.' 

2  '  In  both  his  pulpit  work  and  his  books  Dr.  Guthrie  is  rather  the 
divine  than  the  theologian.' — Rev.  Pastor  Gavazzi. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  127 

he  got  to  grips  with  'Potterrow  John'  himself — the 
redoubtable  Ajax  of  Voluntaryism — over  the  assaults 
made  by  the  latter  on  the  State  Kirk.  Many  persons 
have  contemptuously  asked  what  dependence  could  be 
placed  on  the  views  of  a  man  who  in  1834  and  1838 
spoke  of  Voluntaryism  with  contempt  as  'that  blessed 
Voluntary  system,'  yet  in  1843  was  counselling  Dr.  Mac- 
farlan  to  see  to  it  no  bar  was  inserted  into  the  Free 
Church  standards  that  would  preclude  Union  with  the 
Secession  Churches. 

But  those  who  sneeringly  made  this  remark  failed  to 
perceive  that  Dr.  Guthrie's  position,  in  place  of  lying 
exposed  to  the  alternative  charge  of  being  either  illogical 
or  vacillating,  was  really  the  result  of  rational  development 
along  the  lines  of  the  very  same  principles  he  had 
championed  against  the  Voluntaries  before  the  Disrup- 
tion. Note  what  he  says  in  his  Moderatorial  (Closing) 
Address  in  1862  : — 

'  I  am  for  union  with  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  ;  I  am 
prepared  to  welcome  that  Church  to-morrow  with  all  my  heart, 
and  I  wish  that  these  doors  were  now  thrown  open  and  I  saw 
them  come  marching  in.  /  believe  I  shall  live  aitd  die  holdi?ig 
the  principle  of  a?i  Establishme?it,  but  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church  does  not  ask  me  to  give  it  tip,  .  .  .  but  is  willing  to  make 
it  a  debatable  ground  on  which  we  shall  agree  to  differ.  / 
believe  our  successors  will  ?iot  hold  the  high  Established  prin- 
ciple that  we  do  ;  but  I  got  it  with  my  mother's  milk,  and  I  am 
to  carry  it  with  me  to  the  grave.' 

Where,  then,  is  there  illogicalness  in  the  position  above 
assumed?  It  constitutes  only  another  proof  of  Guthrie's 
catholicity  of  sentiment,  while  the  prophecy  regarding 
the  views  of  successors  has  been  curiously  but  absolutely 
fulfilled  in  the  unanimity  prevailing  in  the  Free  Church 
with  respect  to  the  felicitous  Union  now  pending x  with  the 
United  Presbyterian  Church. 

As  regards  the  former  Union  movement,  which,  taking 
its   rise   formally  in   the   year    1862,   was   protracted   by 

1  May  1900. 


i28  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

regrettable  differences  of  opinion  until  1873,  when  the 
negotiations  were  broken  off,  Dr.  Guthrie  supported  the 
proposed  incorporating  coalescence  of  the  two  bodies 
with  all  his  wonted  enthusiasm.  Sectarianism  was  detest- 
able to  him,  and  he  endeavoured  by  voice,  by  pen,  and 
by  personal  influence  to  do  all-  he  could  to  promote  the 
contemplated  change.  In  addition  to  the  ex  cathedra 
references  to  the  subject  in  his  Moderator's  Addresses, 
during  the  '  Ten  Years'  Coquetting,'  as  the  period  of 
the  negotiations  has  been  termed,  he  delivered  several 
speeches  in  favour  of  Union,  and  moreover  published  a 
pamphlet  entitled  An  Unspoken  Speech,  or  Plea  for 
Union}  which,  by  its  wise  moderation,  its  calm  judg- 
ment, its  clear-sighted  reasoning  and  perception  of  the 
real  principles  at  issue,  produced  a  profound  impression 
throughout  the  Church.  As  is  remarked  by  his  sons  in 
the  Memoir — 'Dr.  Guthrie  would,  even  at  the  risk  of 
a  partial  secession  from  his  own  Church,  have  gone 
through  with  the  Union  on  which  his  heart  was  set. 
"It  clouds  the  evening  of  my  days,"  he  said,  "to  think 
that  we  cannot,  while  retaining  our  differences,  agree  to 
bury  our  quarrels  in  a  grave  where  no  mourner  stands 
by.'"  His  hopes  ran  high  that  in  the  course  of  time  the 
opposition  to  the  Union  would  diminish.  Alas  !  he  died 
while  matters  were  still  in  a  state  of  uncertainty  and  in- 
decision. Although  he  doubtless  would  have  regretted 
that  incorporating  Union  was  not  achieved,  yet  for  the 
measure  of  progress  accomplished  in  the  historic  General 
Assembly  of  1873  he  would  devoutly  have  given  thanks j 
for  to  him,  as  to  all  advocates  of  Union,  the  passing 
of  '  The  Mutual  Eligibility  Law '  would  have  presented 
itself  as  laying  a  secure  foundation  for  future  incorporation. 
The  careful  sifting  of  principles,  rendered  necessary  in 
order  to  prepare  the  basis  for  '  Mutual  Eligibility,'  proved 
the  oneness  of  the  negotiating  Churches,  and  demonstrated 

1  Published  by  A.  and  C.  Black  in  1867.  Consult  also  his  speeches 
at  the  '  Centenary  Services  at  the  Wallace  Green  Church  '  (Berwick-on- 
Tweed),  November  12  and  13,  1871. — Berwick  Advertiser  Office. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  129 

beyond  a  shadow  of  doubt  that  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church  held,  as  substantially  as  the  Free,  the  great  doctrine 
of  Christ's  Headship  over  the  nations,  and  the  responsi- 
bility of  civil  rulers  with  respect  to  religion  and  the  Church 
of  Christ.1 

To  the  last,  Dr.  Guthrie  hoped  against  hope  to  see 
Union  consummated  in  his  lifetime ;  and  among  the  last 
letters  he  dictated  were  those  to  his  friends,  Dr.  Candlish, 
Dr.  Blaikie,  Dr.  C.  J.  Brown,  earnestly  enjoining  upon 
them  not  to  leave  aught  undone  to  bring  about  a  con- 
summation so  devoutly  to  be  desired. 

I  have  designedly  left  to  the  end  of  this  chapter  any 
reference  to  a  circumstance  which  afforded  an  admirable 
gauge  of  the  feelings  entertained  towards  Dr.  Guthrie  by 
the  community  at  large.  After  his  resignation  of  the 
active  pastorship  of  St.  John's  had  been  accepted  with 
deep  regret  by  the  Free  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh,  and 
when  the  fact  became  known  that  he  received  nothing 
from  the  congregation,  a  movement  was  set  on  foot  to 
place  his  circumstances  on  such  a  basis,  that  the  man 
to  whom  the  Free  Church  owed  so  much  might  be  freed 
from  all  financial  anxieties.  Already,  at  a  period  earlier 
in  life — to  wit,  after  his  exertions  on  behalf  of  the  Manse 
Fund — a  suggestion  had  been  made  to  present  him  with 
some  token  of  the  gratitude  of  so  many  in  the  Church, 
for  his  mighty  exertions  to  ensure  their  comfort.  But  as 
soon  as  Dr.  Guthrie  heard  of  the  proposal  to  collect 
money  to  purchase  a  manse  for  the  'Big  Beggar  Man' 
of  the  Manse  Fund,  he  wrote  to  the  Convener  of  the 
Committee  appointed  to  collect  subscriptions,  begging 
that  the  scheme  might  be  dropped.  His  reasons  were 
as  noble  as  they  were  generous,  viz.  that  the  time  was 
one  of  great   public   depression,  and  that,  many  of  the 

1  In  some  of  his  letters  to  his  friend,  the  Rev.  D.  Cairns  of 
Stitchel,  the  brother  of  Scotland's  noble  son,  the  Rev.  Principal  John 
Cairns,  D.  D.,  Dr.  Guthrie  expressed  himself  in  terms  of  great  sorrow 
at  any  opposition  to  the  Union  being  shown.  He  also  wrote  to  my 
father — who  was  opposed  to  the  Union — begging  him  to  reconsider 
his  position. 

I 


1 3o  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

Church's  schemes  were  languishing.1  Not  until  1856 
would  he  allow  any  movement  of  the  kind  to  be  com- 
menced, and  then  he  only  consented  when  he  learned 
that  many  of  his  fellow-ministers  were  deeply  hurt  that 
he  would  consent  to  receive  no  expression  of  their  grati- 
tude. For  the  last  seventeen  years  of  his  life,  therefore, 
he  occupied  a  villa2  in  a  suburb  in  Edinburgh,  one  of 
whose  attractions  in  his  eyes  was  that  part  of  the  purchase- 
money  was  a  thank-offering  to  him  from  his  country 
brethren. 

The  scheme,  however,  which  took  shape  after  his  re- 
signation, was  of  an  altogether  different  character.  To 
it  the  whole  community  was  invited  to  subscribe.  When 
he  retired  from  active  service,  the  entire  Church  mourned, 
and  he  was  followed  by  the  sorrowful  benedictions  of 
hundreds — nay,  thousands — who  loved  the  preacher  much, 
but  the  man  more.  The  conviction  was  felt,  however, 
that  the  circumstances  of  the  man,  to  whom  not  only  his 
own  Church  but  the  community  at  large  owed  so  much, 
were  far  from  being  in  a  satisfactory  state.  To  relieve 
his  mind  from  the  apprehensions  of  a  poverty-haunted 
old  age,  and  yet  do  so  in  a  way  to  prevent  his  sturdy 
Scots  independence  from  rising  in  arms  at  any  suggestion 
of  charity,  was  the  problem  before  the  promoters.  His 
letter  to  the  congregation  had  made  the  matter  clear 
that  his  stoppage  of  active  duties  only  referred  to  per- 
manent ministerial  labours,  and  that  he  hoped  in  the  new 
sphere  of  periodical  literature  still  further  to  serve  his 
Master.  Such  a  step  was,  of  course,  more  or  less  experi- 
mental, and  the  fact  remained  to  be  seen  whether  that 
health  which  incessant  activity  for  a  period  exceeding 
thirty-five  years  had  undermined,  would  endure  the  un- 
wonted strain  put  upon  it. 

On  the  grounds,  then,  of  relieving  his  mind  from  all 
financial  cares,  while  he  sought  for  convalescence,  either 

1  Business  of  all  kinds  had  been  paralysed  by  the  effects  of  the 
railway  crisis  in  the  previous  year  (1847). 

2  That  historic  villa  has  now  been  swept  away  to  afford  space  for 
the  erection  of  huge  tenements. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  131 

complete  or  comparative,  and  while  he  still  strove  to  do 
what  work  the  Lord  laid  to  his  hand,  the  Committee, 
composed  of  men  of  all  creeds,  classes,  and  conditions, 
ranging  from  the  Earls  of  Dalhousie,  Shaftesbury,  Carlisle, 
Kintore,  and  Southesk,  the  Lords  Bishops  of  London  and 
St.  David's,  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone,  down  to 
humble  clerks  and  tradesmen,  asked  his  acceptance  on 
February  21,  1865,  of  a  'Testimonial  of  Admiration  and 
Esteem '  consisting  of  ^5000,  accompanied  also  by  a 
silver  tea  and  coffee  service. 

The  most  gratifying  feature  in  connection  with  the 
subscriptions  to  this  'Testimonial'  was  that  they  came, 
practically  speaking,  from  all  ranks  in  life,  all  ages,  and 
wellnigh  all  parts  of  the  world.  Dr.  Guthrie  had  no 
difficulty,  therefore,  in  accepting  a  testimonial  the  sub- 
scribers to  which  were  of  a  character  so  cosmopolitan. 
There  had  been  previous  expressions  of  gratitude  and 
regard  tendered  to  Drs.  Cunningham  and  Candlish.  They 
had  been  largely  promoted  by  Free  Churchmen,  and  given 
to  the  recipients  as  Free  Church  leaders.  But  Dr.  Guthrie's 
'  Testimonial '  had  nothing  to  do  with  either  Churches  or 
Chapels.  It  represented  the  most  catholic  and  cosmo- 
politan tribute  of  esteem  a  Scottish  Dissenting  minister 
had  ever  received. 

In  presence  of  a  brilliant  gathering,  representative  of  the 
nobility,  wealth,  arts,  science,  and  fashion  of  'the  grey 
metropolis  of  the  north,'  held  in  the  Royal  Hotel  on  Feb- 
ruary 20,  1865,  and  presided  over  by  the  Lord  Provost, 
the  '  Testimonial '  was  handed  over  to  Dr.  Guthrie.  His 
reply  was  dignified  and  impressive.  In  the  spirit  wherein  it 
was  offered,  the  testimonial  was  accepted.  '  Next  to  the 
approbation  of  God,  of  my  blessed  Master,  and  of  my  own 
conscience,'  he  said,  '  there  is  nothing  on  which  I  set  so 
high  a  value  as  the  assurance  this  testimonial  warrants 
me  to  entertain,  that  I  have  won  a  place  in  the  hearts  of 
other  Christians  besides  those  of  my  own  denomination.'1 

1  See  report  of  presentation  in  Scotsman  and  Daily  Review  of 
February  21,  1865. 


132  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

Of  this  feeling  in  the  hearts  of  all  classes  in  the  com- 
munity, from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  he  received  many 
evidences  daring  the  remaining  years  of  his  life.  Reports 
of  illness  drew  inquiries  from  castle  and  cottage  alike,  from 
our  gracious  Sovereign  as  the  highest  lady  in  the  land,  to 
the  Ragged-School  children  whom,  when  none  cared  for, 
he  loved  and  cherished  as  a  father.  Conspicuous  also  was 
the  sentiment  at  the  time  of  the  marriage  of  the  Princess 
Louise  to  the  Marquis  of  Lome  in  187 1,  when,  alone 
among  Scots  Dissenting  clergymen,  Dr.  Guthrie  received 
an  invitation  to  the  ceremony,  and  had  the  honour  of 
being  presented  to  the  Queen.  This  may  have  been  due 
in  some  degree  to  his  lifelong  friendship  with  the  Duke 
and  Duchess  of  Argyll — a  friendship  so  close,  so  sincere, 
so  based  on  mutual  regard  and  admiration,  as  to  lead  His 
Grace  after  Dr.  Guthrie's  death  to  write  to  the  sorrowing 
widow  a  letter  of  sympathy  as  noble  in  its  sentiments  as 
it  was  touching  in  its  sorrow  : — 

'  I  need  not  tell  you,'  he  said, '  that  we  all  quite  loved  him,  for 
a  nobler  nature  there  never  was.  This  was  also  the  feeling  of 
our  dear  mother  the  late  Duchess  of  Sutherland,  whose  nature 
was  one  thoroughly  to  appreciate  your  husband's.' 

But  I  prefer  to  see  in  it,  from  Her  Majesty's  subsequent 
solicitude  after  his  health  when  already  the  Death  Angel 
was  hovering  over  him,  that  desire  to  distinguish  the 
meritorious  with  marks  of  her  appreciation  which  has 
always  been  characteristic  of  her  who  will  go  down  to 
history  as  '  Victoria  the  Good.' 


CHAPTER   XII 

'.  .  .  Last  scene  of  all 
That  ends  this  strange  eventful  history.' 

The  closing  year  in  the  life  of  those  near  and  dear  to  us 
who  have  passed  'behind  the  veil,'  is  always  recalled  with 
the  bitter-sweet  hopelessness  of  regretful  reminiscence. 
What  the  Romans  termed  desideriu^n^  and  De  Quincey 
'the  yearning  too  obstinate  for  one  irrecoverable  face,'1 
usually  centres  round  the  sayings  and  the  doings  of  the 
last  year  in  the  existence  of  the  departed.  'This  time 
last  year  our  loved  one  was  doing  so-and-so.'  And  thus 
doth  Sorrow  feed  on  Sorrow,  until  Time,  the  great  Consoler, 
blunts  the  edge  of  its  hungry  desire. 

To  the  family  and  friends  of  Dr.  Guthrie,  the  last  year 
of  his  life  was  inexpressibly  painful.  Early  in  1872  he 
had  gone  to  London  with  the  view  of  visiting  certain  of 
the  leading  metropolitan  charities,  in  order  to  write  about 
them  in  the  Sunday  Magazine.  He  made  his  investiga- 
tions, dined  with  the  Benchers  in  the  Middle  Temple,  and 
in  reply  to  the  toast  of  his  health  delivered  one  of  his 
raciest  and  wittiest  speeches,  which  Lord  Chief-Justice 
Cockburn  declared  was  the  finest  after-dinner  speech  he 
had  ever  heard ;  preached  for  the  Rev.  J.  T.  Davidson, 
and  addressed  an  audience  of  three  thousand,  in  the  Minor 
Agricultural  Hall,  Islington;  attended  the  Thanksgiving 
Service  in  St.  Paul's  for  the  recovery  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  and  actually  wrote  that  his  health  was  better  at 
that  moment  than  he  had  ever  known  it  to  be. 

Yet  scarcely  had  he  returned  to  Edinburgh  in  March 

1  De  Quincey's  Autobiography ;  p.  33. 

133 


134  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

than  that  season  of  good  health  showed  signs  of  being 
but  evanescent.     As  the  Memoir  says  : — 

'An  undeveloped  gastric  attack  hung  about  him  throughout 
that  month  and  the  one  following,  which,  though  it  did  not 
prostrate  him  at  the  time,  predisposed  him  to  the  rheumatic 
affection  which  as  summer  advanced  aggravated  the  disease 
from  which  he  had  so  long  suffered.' 

He  was  able,  however,  to  go  to  London  in  May  to  attend 
and  officiate  at  the  marriage  of  his  fifth  son,  Alexander, 
who  had  come  over  from  San  Francisco.  His  daughter 
was  to  be  married  in  June,  and  the  week  before  that  event 
took  place  he  wrote  to  a  lady  friend  his  plans  for  the  next 
two  years : — 

'Some  days  after  Nelly's  marriage,  which,  God  willing,  comes 
off  next  week,  we  will  set  off  for  Lochlee.  About  the  middle 
of  November,  Mrs.  Guthrie  and  I  set  off  for  Rome  :  we  shall 
return  home  about  the  beginning  of  May  1873.  We  then 
embark  in  August  for  Yankeedom,  to  attend  the  Evangelical 
Alliance ;  and  from  the  Eastern  States  we  '11  go  to  San 
Francisco,  remaining  there  till  March  '74.  This  we  propose, 
ever  seeking  to  remember  the  good  old  adage,  "  Man  proposes, 
but  God  disposes."  If  I  am  spared  to  carry  out  these  plans, 
I  think  I  shall  then  cease  my  wanderings  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  and  live  quietly  till  they  cany  me  home? 

The  'carrying  home'  was  nearer  than  he  thought! 
Long  before  these  plans  had  time  to  ccme  to  fruition  in 
fulfilment,  the  silver  cord  was  loosed,  the  golden  bowl 
was  broken,  and  the  spirit  had  returned  unto  the  God 
who  gave  it. 

The  final  breakdown  in  his  health  took  place  in  June 
1872.  The  day  after  his  daughter's  marriage,  he  attended 
the  funeral  of  his  erstwhile  foeman  but,  later  on,  his 
beloved  friend,  Dr.  Norman  Macleod — a  man  who,  when 
he  passed  from  us,  left  not  his  equal  behind  in  those 
peculiar  gifts  and  graces  which  had  distinguished  him. 
Dr.  Guthrie,  however,  was  able  to  proceed  to  Lochlee — 
that  mountain  retreat  far  from  towns,  trains,  and  tourists, 
in  the  northern  part  of  his  native  Forfarshire  and 
in  the  very  heart  of  the  Grampians,  uhere  within  the 
solitudes  of  a  deer  forest,  and  on  the  banks  of  a  small, 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  135 

deep,  but  very  picturesque  mountain  lake,  buried  amidst 
birch-woods,  was  the  lonely  cottage  which  Lord  Dalhousie 
permitted  him  from  1849  t0  J^73  to  occupy  rent  free. 
No  sooner  did  he  reach  Inchgrundle  than  he  was  laid 
prostrate. 

'  Here  I  am  in  bed,'  he  wrote,  '  under  what  I  may  say  is  new 
to  me,  a  rheumatic  attack.  I  think  I  must  have  got  it  on  the 
day  of  Nelly's  marriage.  Then  I  was  wearied  and  worn  out 
the  next  day  attending  Norman  Macleod's  funeral,  and  the 
result  of  all  these  things — rheums,  which  have  got  worse  and 
worse,  refusing  to  be  arrested,  far  less  removed.' 

Dr.  Guthrie  was  an  enthusiastic  as  well  as  an  expert 
angler,  for  the  exercise  of  which  sport  Lochlee  and  its 
streams  offered  excellent  facilities.  He  was  wont,  during 
spare  hours,  to  pursue  the  gentle  art  of  Walton,  early  and 
late.     To  a  dear  friend  he  wrote  in  1849  : — 

'We  are  all  fishing  daft  here  :  my  brother  Patrick  says  that 
between  us  all  together  he  cannot  get  a  word  of  rational  con- 
versation—nothing but  "  trouts,  baits,  hooks,  bobs,  drags,  flies, 
dressings,  hackle,  and  tackle."  This  morning  we  had  our  boat 
grinding  off  the  beach  by  a  little  after  five,  and  brought  home 
seven  pounds  weight  of  trout.' 

Besides  herring-sized  trout  and  char,  Lochlee  also  con- 
tains the  great  '  lake  trout '  of  Scotland  (Salmo  ferox),  and 
in  learning  to  play  monsters  of  six,  seven,  and  even  eight 
pounds  weight,  Dr.  Guthrie  speedily  became  one  of  the 
most  skilful  anglers  of  his  day. 

He  was  also  fond  of  riding  and  driving.  He  rejoiced 
to  feel  '  a  good  bit  of  blood '  beneath  him,  and  he  knew 
how  to  gauge  the  '  points '  of  a  horse  as  well  as  most 
dealers.  An  eager  botanist,  likewise,  he  acquired  quite 
a  special  acquaintance  with  the  Alpine  flora  of  the 
Grampians.  As  his  sons  state,  he  would  often  come 
in  from  his  walks  at  Lochlee  with  a  miniature  nosegay 
tastefully  arranged,  containing  saxifrages,  triemalis, 
pinguicula,  polygala,  rockrose,  oakfern,  and  others  of 
his  favourites,  maintaining  that  no  Covent  Garden  bouquet 
was  half  so  beautiful. 


136  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

With  pain  his  wife  and  family  perceived  that  these 
sports  and  pursuits,  of  old  his  delight,  were  this  year 
quietly  demitted.  l  We  could  not  hide  from  ourselves 
that  much  of  the  wonted  spri?ig  was  gone.  He  planned 
our  various  mountain  expeditions,  but  no  longer  proposed 
to  join  us.'  In  a  word,  for  the  first  time  in  twenty-two 
years,  Lochlee  had  failed  to  recruit  his  spent  energies,  and 
those  around  him  sorrowfully  realised  that  at  last  the 
shadow  of  an  overwhelming  sorrow  was  slowly  but  surely 
falling  athwart  their  lives.  With  the  usual  interest  he 
displayed  in  the  affairs  of  the  Free  Church  Continental 
Mission,  he  had  agreed  to  supply  the  preaching-station  at 
Rome,  along  with  two  other  eminent  Scots  ministers,  Dr. 
Macgregor  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  and  Dr.  John  Ker 
of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church.  He  looked  forward 
to  a  pleasant  season  in  the  Eternal  City  and  to  brotherly 
intercourse  with  his  friends  from  the  two  other  denomina- 
tions, while  many  in  Rome  were  on  the  qui  vive  to  hear 
the  preacher-philanthropist  whose  fame  was  so  world-wide. 
But  long  before  the  date  of  departure,  he  had  become  so 
much  worse,  that  intimation  had  to  be  given  of  his  inability 
to  fulfil  his  promise. 

Deeper  grew  life's  twilight  shadows  around  him.  As  he 
was  only  too  evidently  becoming  worse  rather  than  better 
at  Lochlee,  his  medical  advisers  ordered  him  to  Buxton. 
For  a  time  he  rallied  there,  and  hopes  were  entertained 
that  the  cardiac  disease  had  been  checked.  On  his  return 
to  Edinburgh  in  the  autumn  his  friends  were  overjoyed 
at  the  improvement,  and  with  sanguine  anticipations  that 
the  peace  and  quietness  of  Lochlee  might  complete  what 
Buxton  had  begun,  they  saw  him  return  to  his  Highland 
retreat. 

While  there,  on  Sabbath,  25th  August  1872,  he  preached 
what  proved  to  be  his  last  sermon.  To  hear  him  on  that 
occasion  were  H.R.H.  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  the  Lord 
Chancellor  (Cairns),  and  many  distinguished  personages 
who  were  for  the  time  the  guests  of  Lord  Dalhousie.  Side 
by   side   they   sat   with   the   honest   farmers  and   simple 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  137 

peasantry  of  the  district — all  equally  hanging  upon  the 
words  of  the  orator,  now  pouring  out  his  last  fervid  appeal 
on  behalf  of  his  Master.  A  brilliant  man  of  letters  only 
recently  removed  from  us,  who  formed  one  of  the  audience 
on  the  occasion,  stated  that  all  through  that  impassioned 
and  impressive  discourse  he  could  not  prevent  the  thought 
continually  recurring  to  his  mind,  that  Dr.  Guthrie  was 
preaching  'as  a  dying  man  to  dying  men.'  His  text 
was  taken  from  Hebrews  x.  38  :  '  The  just  shall  live  by 
faith,'  and  more  than  one  who  heard  him  said  the  sermon 
was  one  of  his  best.  Like  the  dying  cygnet  of  old  Greek 
fable,  he  poured  forth  his  grandest  strain  at  the  last.  As 
the  Memoir  remarks,  when  he  descended  from  the  pulpit 
on  that  peaceful  autumn  Sabbath,  he  had  closed  his  forty 
years'  ministry.  Little  did  those  who  walked  away  silent 
and  softened  from  Lochlee  Church  that  day  realise  that 
the  mighty  voice  to  which  they  had  just  been  listening 
would  be  heard  by  them  no  more.  His  work  was  now 
completed.     '  Servant  of  God,  well  done  ! ' 

On  returning  to  Edinburgh  in  September,  to  the  surprise 
of  many  of  his  friends  he  insisted,  like  Hezekiah,  'on 
setting  his  house  in  order'  in  view  of  all  contingencies. 
Though  he  looked  well,  and  though,  humanly  speaking, 
he  appeared  to  have  made  an  excellent  recovery,  he 
must  have  had  some  premonition  that  the  last  turn  on 
the  road  of  life  was  already  in  sight.  Suddenly,  without 
warning,  the  blow  fell  in  the  last  week  of  September, 
when  an  attack  of  congestion  of  the  lungs  prostrated 
him,  and  from  that  time  until  the  24th  February  1873, 
when  the  end  came,  Thomas  Guthrie  knew  he  was  a 
dying  man.  Though  the  congestion  yielded  to  the  skilful 
remedies  applied  by  his  family  medical  attendant,  Dr. 
W.  Cumming,  in  consultation  with  Sir  Robert  Christison 
and  Dr.  Warburton  Begbie;  though  he  slowly  fought  his 
way  back  to  some  degree  of  strength  and  general  im- 
provement, while  wellnigh  all  Scotland,  and  friends  over 
the  length  and  breadth  of  Britain,  awaited  the  daily 
bulletins,  Dr.   Guthrie  himself  did  not  entertain  any  illu- 


138  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

sions  about  his  condition.     'The  first  summons  has  come, 
the  second  only  tarries  awhile.5 

But  when  'the  second  summons'  still  tarried,  and  when 
he  actually  appeared  to  be  so  distinctly  gaining  in  strength 
as  to  be  able  to  walk  up  and  down  once  or  twice  in  front 
of  his  house,  he  seemed  to  take  heart  of  courage  once 
more,  and  expressed  the  hope  '  he  might  yet  pull  through, 
even  though  it  should  be  at  the  price  of  wintering  abroad.' l 
During  the  dull,  grey  days  of  late  October  and  early 
November  the  slow  progress  towards  the  measure  of  con- 
valescence hoped  or  was  checked ;  the  digestive  system, 
sympathetically  affected  by  the  heart,  began  to  fail,  food 
lost  its  relish,  and  again  the  insidious  enemy  commenced 
to  make  headway.  Insomnia  supervened,  until  sleep  was 
only  obtainable  by  means  of  chloral,  and  the  restlessness 
inseparable  from  the  disease  was  accompanied  by  an  in- 
describable feeling  of  faintness  or  sinking,  even  when 
sleep  was  falling  upon  him,  that  caused  slumber  to  be 
regarded  with  dread  in  place  of  delight.  '  For  four  months 
continuously  it  was  necessary  for  some  of  his  family  and 
attendants  to  sit  in  the  room  with  him  through  the  night, 
trying  to  beguile  weariness  and  induce  "natural  repose" 
by  reading  to  him  in  a  monotonous  tone,  or  by  softly 
singing  a  psalm  or  hymn.'2 

Nothing  impressed  those  around  him  at  this  time  more 
than  the  courage  and  serenity  wherewith  he  contemplated 
the  future.  The  latest  symptoms  were  so  fatal  in  their 
significance,  that  to  his  medical  attendants  as  well  as  to 
himself,  they  conveyed  the  intimation  that  only  one  ter- 
mination could  be  looked  for.  But  the  constitutional 
strength  of  his  frame  was  remarkable,  and  that  saddest  of 
all  sights  had  to  be  endured  by  his  loving  family — the 
spectacle  of  a  conflict  between  physical  strength  and 
disease.  Yet  the  spirit  seemed  every  day  to  rise  more 
triumphantly  superior  to  the  ills  of  the  flesh.  His  interest 
in  all  that  was  going  on  in  the  world  around  was  unabated. 

1  Letter  to  Miss  Salt,  daughter  of  Sir  Titus  Salt. 

2  Memoir,  vol.  ii.  p.  473. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  139 

The  daily  newspaper  was  read  by  him  or  to  him,  according 
as  his  health  permitted,  and  each  item  of  intelligence, 
political,  ecclesiastical,  literary,  and  scientific  discussed 
with  undiminished  keenness  and  attention.  His  numerous 
friends  who  visited  him  found  his  intellectual  powers  as 
acute  as  ever,  while  his  spiritual  unction  and  depth  of 
religious  fervour  seemed  rather  to  increase  than  to  diminish 
as  the  vital  forces  failed.  Up  to  within  ten  or  twelve  days 
of  the  end  he  was  occupied  with  his  Autobiography  and 
the  affairs  of  the  Sunday  Magazine.  He  manifested  deep 
interest  in  certain  details  of  Ragged-School  work,  and  both 
by  mouth  and  by  letters  he  earnestly  impressed  on  the 
brethren  of  his  own  denomination — Drs.  Candlish,  Hanna, 
Duff,  Blaikie,  Brown,  etc. — the  importance  of  leaving 
nothing  undone  to  consummate  the  Union  between  the 
Free  and  the  U.P.  Churches.  While  the  body  was  steadily 
losing  its  vital  energy,  the  light  of  the  soul  seemed  to  burn 
ever  more  steadily  and  lucently,  until  merged  at  length 
into  the  supernal  brightness  of  the  perfect  day. 

After  four  months  of  tedious  suffering  in  Edinburgh,  as 
a  last  resource  he  was  moved,  on  the  31st  January  1873, 
to  the  genial  climate  of  St.  Leonards-on-Sea,  in  the  hope 
that,  as  of  old,  change  of  scene  might  rally  the  failing 
powers.  A  cheerful,  sunny  house  was  secured,  where  he 
could  look  out  on  trie  blue  expanse  of  waters,  and  both 
see  and  hear  the  'multitudinous  laughter  of  the  waves.'1 
For  some  days  the  novelty  of  the  surrounding  scenes 
stimulated  his  relaxing  energies.  He  delighted  in  the 
daily  drives,  and,  as  the  Memoir  informs  us,  would  often 
stop  to  chat  with  the  quaint  old  Sussex  fisher-folk  of  the 
ancient  port  of  Hastings,  and  to  purchase  zoophytes,  algse, 
and  other  specimens  of  natural  history .  prepared  by  a 
widow  in  the  village.  But  after  the  first  few  days  even 
the  indomitable  will  of  the  man,  and  his  hunger  after 
knowledge  of  all  kinds,  could  no  longer  battle  with  the 
deadly   complication    of  diseases    that   was    sapping    his 

1  De  Quincey  considered  that  the  '  avr\pi.d\xov  y4~Ka<r/JLa '  referred  as 
m  uch  to  the  sound  as  the  sight  of  the  waves. 


140  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

strength.  On  the  16th  February  he  returned  from  his 
drive  very  much  exhausted.  As  he  was  being  carried  into 
the  house  from  the  carriage,  he  turned  his  head  and  cast 
a  wistful,  lingering  look"  backwards  upon  the  sunny  land- 
scape and  seascape  around  him.  '  What  a  beautiful  world 
our  Father  has  given  us ! '  he  murmured.  It  was  his  fare- 
well to  Nature's  scenes  he  had  loved  so  fondly  for  these 
seventy  years.  When  the  door  closed  behind  him,  he  had 
looked  his  last  on  the  loveliness  of  earth. 

To  all,  the  fact  was  now  evident  that  the  end  was  only 
a  question  of  days.  His  family  were,  therefore,  summoned 
and  gathered  around  him.  Feeble  though  the  body  had 
become,  his  mind  still  kept  clear  and  unclouded.  His 
spiritual  state  was  tranquil  and  composed,  and  he  joined 
earnestly  and  devoutly  in  the  religious  exercises  which  the 
local  clergy  of  the  Anglican,  Congregational,  and  United 
Presbyterian  bodies  conducted  by  his  bedside.  He  re- 
mained much  in  secret  prayer  also,  experiencing  evidently 
great  consolation  in  the  thought  that  however  deep  might 
be  the  guilt  of  the  sinner,  the  atoning  power  of  the 
Redeemer  was  more  than  sufficient  to  cancel  all.  More 
than  once  he  was  heard  to  ejaculate,  '  O  Most  Mighty  and 
Most  Merciful!  have  compassion  on  me,  once  a  great  sinner, 
now  a  great  sufferer.'  Again  and  again,  too,  he  repeated 
those  lines  of  Toplady — 

'  Nothing  in  my  hand  I  bring, 
Simply  to  Thy  Cross  I  cling.' 

Meantime  the  intimation  of  his  dangerous  condition  had 
been  flashed  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 
Once  more,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  in  the  social 
scale  of  the  British  community,  a  wave  of  sympathetic 
devotion  to  the  philanthropist  who  had  done  so  much  to 
succour  the  most  friendless  class  in  our  great  cities,  rolled 
down  towards  the  peaceful  southern  watering-place,  where 
he  lay  fighting  his  last  battle  with  death.  Cheered  though 
he  was  by  the  universality  of  the  expressions  of  sympathy 
which  reached   his   family  and   friends,   he  was   likewise 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  141 

profoundly  humbled.  'What  have  I  done  to  call  forth 
such  a  tribute  as  this  ?  All  I  have  done  was  but  a  tithe 
of  what  I  ought  to  have  done.'  But  from  Her  Majesty 
down  to  the  poor  London  costermonger,  whose  brother 
had  been  rescued  by  Dr.  Guthrie,  and  whose  only  manner 
of  testifying  his  gratitude  was  to  call  his  trusty  donkey 
'  Dr.  Guthrie,'  all  sections  of  the  community  felt  that  in 
the  dying  man  there  was  passing  away  from  earth  one 
of  the  noblest  Britons  of  his  age. 

And  so  the  weary  conflict  went  on  all  through  that  last 
week.  Not  a  murmur  escaped  him.  'What  are  my 
pains,'  he  said  on  one  occasion,  'to  those  my  Saviour 
endured  on  Calvary  for  me?'  The  only  sign  that  he  allowed 
to  escape  him  of  the  physical  distress  through  which  he 
was  passing,  was  an  ever-increasing  longing  to  be  released 
from  the  infirm  tabernacle  of  the  flesh,  that  he  might  see 
his  Lord. 

On  Admiral  Hamilton  entering  his  room  a  day  or  two 
before  his  death,  and  remarking,  '  Do  you  know,  I  think 
you  are  looking  better,  Doctor?'  he  replied,  'Ah,  then,  a 
good  man  comes  with  evil  tidings  ! '  On  the  same  day, 
referring  to  his  little  son  that  died  in  infancy,  he  said, 
'  Johnnie  was  a  sweet  lamb,  though  he  didna  like  me  :  he 
was  long  ailing,  and  aye  clung  to  his  mother.  Ay,  though 
his  little  feet  never  ran  on  earth,  I  think  I  see  him  running 
to  meet  me  at  the  Golden  Gate.'  On  the  Saturday  before 
he  died,  when  already  the  shadows  of  death  were  beginning 
to  steal  over  the  vital  powers,  he  motioned  that  his  grand- 
child, Anita  Williamson,  might  be  lifted  up  and  placed 
on  the  bed  beside  him.  He  feebly  kissed  her  chubby 
little  hand  and  murmured,  '  God  bless  you,  my  bonnie 
lamb,  both  for  time  and  for  eternity  ! ' 

On  Sabbath,  23rd  February,  the  issue  was  seen  to  be 
one  only  of  a  few  hours.  His  weakness  was  so  great  that 
the  pulse  could  not  be  detected,  yet  he  could  still  listen 
and  enjoy  the  reading  of  portions  of  Scripture  and 
1  hymns.'  Prayer  was  offered  for  the  dying  saint  at  nearly 
all  the  churches  and   chapels  both  in  St.  Leonards  and 


i42  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

Hastings,  and  the  thought  appeared  to  comfort  him  that 
he  was  being  borne  up  to  the  throne  of  grace  on  the  wings 
of  supplication. 

Weaker  and  yet  more  weak  he  grew  every  hour.  In  the 
afternoon  he  had  sent  a  message  to  his  old  friend  the 
Rev.  James  Robertson,  Newingtori  U.P.  Church,  Edinburgh, 
but  since  then  had  not  spoken  for  some  hours.  After 
night  had  fallen,  his  eldest  son,1  fearing  lest  the  power  of 
speech  had  already  left  him,  murmured  gently  in  his 
father's  ear — '  Christ  is  still  your  staff  and  your  comfort, 
father?'  The  loved  name  of  his  Redeemer  pierced 
through  the  gathering  mists  of  dissolution.  The  dying 
man  opened  his  eyes  once  more,  and  in  an  emphatic 
whisper  said  '  Certainly  ! ' 

Thereafter  he  spoke  no  more,  but  the  benediction  of 
eternal  peace  seemed  to  settle  upon  his  features  as  he 
passed  into  a  deep  slumber.  One  or  two  members  of 
the  family,  worn  out  with  incessant  attendance,  and  not 
apprehending  any  immediate  change,  retired  to  snatch  a 
short  period  of  repose.  The  others  sat  grouped  around 
the  deathbed  watching  the  slow  approach  of  the  King  of 
Terrors.  Gradually  the  hours  slip  by,  but  on  the  expres- 
sive countenance  of  the  dying  man,  trace  of  terror  there 
was  none — nothing,  save  a  glorifying  of  the  expression  of 
heavenly  rest  and  resignation.  Two  o'clock  on  the 
morning  of  the  24th  was  approaching.  Still  the  watchers 
maintained  their  vigil.  At  that  moment,  his  faithful 
Highland  maid,  who  had  been  scanning  his  face  intently, 
whispered,  '  Surely  the  wrinkles  are  all  being  smoothed 
out.' 

Yes,  she  was  right.  The  'Shadow  of  Death'  had  come 
at  last,  and  was  already  bending  over  the  old  man  to  lay 
that  summoning  kiss  upon  his  lips  which  needs  no  second. 
The  family  knelt  around  the  bedside  as  his  eldest  son 
commended  the  passing  spirit  to  the  care  of  a  loving 
Redeemer.  There  was  only  a  gentle  sigh  as  of  infinite 
restfulness,  then  the  spirit  of  Thomas  Guthrie  winged  its 
1  The  Rev.  D.  K.  Guthrie  of  Liberton. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  143 

way  from  earth,  to  where  beyond  these  voices  there  is 


peace 


Dr.  Guthrie's  death  evoked  an  outburst  of  sorrow  all  over 
the  world  such  as  rarely  attends  the  demise  of  any  clergy- 
man or  philanthropist,  however  distinguished.  Not  a  journal 
in  the  '  Three  Kingdoms '  but  published  a  long  obituary 
notice  detailing  his  life  and  labours.  Many  of  these  were 
written  by  the  leading  authors  of  the  day ;  while  in  the 
United  States,  Canada,  South  America,  South  Africa, 
India,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand,  the  same  volume  of 
sorrowful  sympathy  was  outpoured.  Nay,  even  in  France, 
Germany,  and  Italy,  the  leading  newspapers  paid  their 
tribute  to  a  departed  hero  who  had  worthily  played  his  part 
in  the  great  world-battle  with  destitution,  sin,  and  suffering. 

On  Friday,  28th  February  1873,  tne  remains  of  Dr. 
Guthrie  were  laid  to  rest  in  the  Grange  Cemetery.  Save 
on  the  occasions  of  the  interment  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  Sir 
James  Simpson,  and  Professor  Blackie,  during  the  last 
half-century  Edinburgh  has  never  witnessed  such  a  funeral. 
All  classes  in  the  community  were  represented  there. 
All  the  honour  his  fellow-citizens,  official  and  non-official, 
could  evince  towards  his  memory  was  paid.  But  best 
tribute  of  all  was  that,  coming  from  the  poor  of  the  city 
and  the  orphans  of  his  Ragged  Schools.  '  He  was  a 
father  unto  us  in  very  truth,'  said  one  old  man  who  had 
seen  better  days,  and  had  been  a  sort  of  humble  pensioner ; 
'  men  may  come  and  men  may  go,  but  it  will  be  long 
before  we  get  the  like  of  Thomas  Guthrie  again.' 

And  this  was  in  great  measure  what  formed  the  burden 
of  the  numerous  funeral  sermons  that  were  preached  on 
his  life  and  its  lessons,  on  the  succeeding  Sabbath. 
Perhaps  the  best  and  noblest  panegyric  pronounced  upon 
him  was  that  uttered  by  Dr.  Candlish  when  preaching 
the  memorial  discourse  in  Free  St.  John's, — '  Friend  and 
brother,  comrade  in  the  fight ',  companion  in  tribulation,  fare- 
well !  But  not  for  ever.  May  my  soul,  when  my  hour  comes, 
be  with  thine? 


CHAPTER   XIII 

CRITICAL — GUTHRIE    AS    ECCLESIASTIC,    PHILANTHROPIST, 

AND    MAN 

'  What  constituted  Guthrie's  greatness  ? '  is  a  question 
often  asked  nowadays  by  the  younger  generation  that  has 
grown  up  in  the  twenty-seven  years  that  have  elapsed  since 
he  passed  away.  To  give  a  satisfactory  answer  is  by  no 
means  easy.  All  the  world  admits  him  to  have  been  a 
man  of  genius,  a  great  and  gracious  personality,  looming 
large  against  the  historic  background  of  his  age.  When, 
however,  we  come  to  analyse  the  constituents  of  his  great- 
ness, the  puzzle  presents  itself. 

To  either  wide  or  exact  scholarship  he  never  made  any 
pretensions.  His  books,  despite  their  charm,  contain  not 
a  scrap  of  formal  doctrinal  teaching  to  earn  for  him  the 
title  of  'theologian.'  He  was  neither  a  great  Church  leader 
like  Chalmers  or  Cunningham,  nor  a  brilliant  ecclesiastical 
dialectician  and  organiser  like  Candlish  or  Rainy.  As 
he  said  of  himself,  in  the  controversies  of  the  Church, 
he  was  '  oftener  found  at  the  guns  than  at  the  wheel.' 
Then,  as  a  philanthropist,  there  have  been  men  whose 
services  in  the  cause  of  humanity  have  been  as  great 
as  his,  yet  whose  names  to-day  are  utterly  forgotten. 
As  an  educational  reformer  also,  he  was  so  far  ahead  of 
his  time,  that  men  like  Candlish  and  Buchanan  failed  to 
appreciate  his  catholicity  of  outlook,  and  on  some  occa- 
sions, when  he  declined  to  allow  Disruption  dissidences 
to  debar  him  from  extending  and  receiving  the  right  hand 
of  Christian  fellowship  to  and  from  Established  Church 
ministers,  they  were  inclined  to  think  his  liberality  savour- 
ing of  laxity  of  principle.  With  sectarian  exclusiveness  he 
had  not  an  iota  of  sympathy. 

144 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  145 

As  a  pulpit  orator,  moreover,  he  was  undoubtedly  great, 
but  in  his  day  there  were  at  least  six  other  preachers 
whose  claims  to  rival  him  in  that  department  he  would 
have  been  the  first  to  admit ;  while  as  a  pastor  he  did  no 
more  than  hundreds  of  his  fellow-ministers  were  doing  with 
equal  acceptance.  What,  then,  was  the  secret  which  made 
the  name  of  Guthrie  one  that  has  been  for  a  generation 
enwreathed  with  the  sincere  benisons  of  his  fellow-men  ? 
To  my  mind  it  was  his  versatility  that  constituted  his 
magnetic  influence  over  widely  diverse  temperaments. 
*  One  of  the  most  gracious  personalities  it  has  been  my 
fortune  to  meet,  whether  of  the  Court  or  out  of  it,'  said 
Mr.  Gladstone  to  Canon  Liddon  when  the  news  of  his 
death  was  made  public.  '  That  man  would  make  me 
religious  whether  I  would  or  not,  if  I  associated  much 
with  him,'  said  a  condemned  murderer  to  Governor  Smith, 
after  a  visit  paid  to  him  by  Dr.  Guthrie  at  the  request  of 
the  Jail-Governor. 

The  subtle  union  of  many  noble  qualities,  rather  than 
the  outstanding  possession  of  any  especial  one,  made 
Guthrie  what  he  was.  As  Fenelon  was  reported  to  have 
made  friends  for  life  by  the  manner  in  which  he  pro- 
nounced their  name,  so  Guthrie  bound  closely  to  him 
men  of  the  most  antagonistic  types,  because  each  seemed 
to  discover  in  him  points  of  sympathy  and  affinity  with  him- 
self. His  broad  humanity,  united  to  intense  earnestness 
of  conviction  and  to  transparent  truth,  rendered  him  ready 
to  concede  to  others  what  he  demanded  for  himself. 

Guthrie  the  'ecclesiastic,'  however,  was  utterly  distinct 
from  Guthrie  the  '  philanthropist,'  and  Guthrie  the  '  man  ' 
differed  in  many  particulars  from  both.  To  understand 
the  limitations  of  the  man,  we  must  take  into  account  the 
lifelong  trial  it  must  have  been  for  his  tolerant  catholicity 
to  be  so  closely  associated  with  the  sectarian  exclusiveness 
of  certain  sections  of  post-Disruption  Free  Churchism.  If 
he  were  not  so  intensely  fervid  in  the  support  of  some  of 
those  minor  principles  which,  nevertheless,  certain  of  his 
brethren  considered  as  well-nigh  essential  to  salvation,  it 

K 


i46  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

was  because  he  strove  always  to  reduce  points  of  difference 
between  denominations  to  a  minimum,  preferring  rather  to 
discover  in  how  many  points  they  agreed  than  in  how 
many  they  differed.  As  he  remarked  in  one  of  his  books 
when  touching  upon  this  very  subject,  '  a  river  cannot  be 
both  broad  and  deep.'  The  simile  may  be  applied  to 
himself — his  broad  catholicity  prevented  his  depth  of 
conviction  ever  becoming  so  profound  as  to  degenerate 
into  bigotry. 

'  Guthrie  the  Ecclesiastic,'  therefore,  must  not  be  held 
synonymous  with  '  Guthrie  the  Free  Churchman.'  Whilst 
one  of  the  most  loyal  of  her  sons,  he  was  never  one 
who  gloried  in  being  nothing  else,  and  who  exalted  her 
system  of  Church  Government  at  the  expense  of  other 
denominations. 

Many  people  marvelled  at  Dr.  Guthrie's  interest  in 
religious  societies  and  work — nay,  in  churches — that  seemed 
to  lie  wholly  outside  the  sphere  of  his  active  sympathies. 
Guthrie  found  truth  in  all  the  creeds,  and  no  finer  words 
were  ever  spoken  by  him  than  those  he  uttered  in  one  of 
his  Moderator's  Addresses — '  Wheresoever  we  find  Christ 
the  Saviour  worshipped  in  sincerity  and  in  truth,  let  us 
welcome  these  worshippers  as  brethren  in  Christ.'  The 
prime  fact  in  the  world's  economy,  as  it  was  the  prime 
doctrine  in  its  theology,  was  to  him  the  Atonement. 
Never  would  he  allow  that  cardinal  historical  fact  with 
its  accompanying  complement,  the  'Resurrection,'  to  be 
relegated  to  a  secondary  position,  or  to  any  other  position 
than  as  both  the  Efficient  and  Final  Cause — to  quote  a 
distinction  of  the  Scholastics — of  human  progress  and 
development  in  modern  times.  As  he  puts  it  in  one  of 
his  sermons  : — 

'  One  of  the  dangerous  tendencies  of  these  times  is  to  thrust 
Calvary  and  its  Cross  into  the  background,  to  modify,  and  by 
modifying  to  emasculate,  PauFs  grand  saying,  "  I  am  determined 
not  to  know  anything  among  you  but  Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified."  Many  people  know  Christ,  but  not  Him  crucified 
.  .  .  the  sacrifice  for  sin  and  the  Substitute  for  sinners.' * 

1  Our  Father's  Business. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  147 

Guthrie's  spiritual  instincts  were  so  keen,  yet  at  the 
same  time  so  catholic,  and  his  desire  for  unity  among  all 
who  named  the  name  of  Christ  so  earnest,  that  minute 
differences  of  doctrine  were  lost  sight  of  in  securing  the 
greater  desideratum  of  the  consolidation  of  all  sections 
of  Christ's  Kingdom.     On  his  deathbed  he  said  : — 

'  I  have  no  sympathy  with  Broad  Church  views,  but  there  is  a 
sense  in  which  I  am  a  Broad  Churchman.  There  are  some 
men  who  have  no  faith  in  the  salvation  of  any  beyond  their 
own  narrow  sect.  My  belief,  on  the  contrary,  is  that  in  the  end 
there  will  be  a  vastly  larger  number  saved  than  we  have  any 
conception  of.' 

Furthermore,  Dr.  Guthrie's  interest  in  Free  Church 
Schemes,  and  his  herculean  labours  on  their  behalf,  were 
not  due  to  any  such  narrow  motive  as  merely  to  put  his 
Church  in  the  first  place  as  a  great  missionary  agency,  or 
to  show  to  the  world  '  what  we  can  do.'  So  unworthy  a 
stimulus  provoked  the  lash  of  his  sarcasm,  when  he  heard 
such  sentiments  expressed  in  Church  Courts.  When 
Dr.  Guthrie  championed  a  scheme  such  as  Home  and 
Foreign  Missions,  he  did  not  solicit  aid  by  telling  his 
audiences  that  the  Established  Church  had  planted  a 
church  here  and  a  preaching-station  there,  or  that  the 
United  Presbyterians  were  breaking  ground  somewhere 
else  and  we  must  not  let  them  get  ahead  of  us.  In  the 
spirit  of  Paul,  who  rejoiced  in  the  fact  that  Christ  was 
preached,  though  it  was  done  of  contention  and  to  add 
affliction  to  his  bonds,  Dr.  Guthrie  rejoiced  to  hear  of  any 
Church  extending  its  boundaries.  '  Give  God  the  glory,' 
he  would  say ;  *  Christ  and  His  Cross  are  preached,  and 
whether  the  human  instrument  be  Presbyterian,  Baptist, 
Wesleyan,  or  Episcopalian,  is  quite  a  secondary  con- 
sideration.' 

Again,  with  regard  to  Dr.  Guthrie's  pastoral  work,  he 
discharged  it  not  merely  as  a  duty  to  be  performed  with 
perfunctory  monotony,  but  as  a  privilege  demanding  the 
exercise  of  his  highest  powers.  Cast-iron  routine  is  the 
curse   of  vital   congregational   religious   life.     There   are 


148  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

some  churches  where  the  people  are,  in  a  spiritual  sense, 
as  dead  as  a  palaeozoic  fossil.  And  what  is  the  reason? 
Because  the  minister  does  his  work  like  a  prisoner 
on  the  treadmill,  without  the  introduction  of  a  jot  of 
variety  to  break  the  deadly  reign  of  routine.  Where  there 
is  sluggishness  in  the  pulpit  there  will  be  somnolence 
in  the  pew,  and  routine  is  the  nursing-mother  of  dulness. 
Against  such  practices  Dr.  Guthrie,  from  the  earliest  days 
of  his  ministry,  set  his  face.  '  I  don't  care  about  being 
the  minister  of  a  large  church,'  he  said  on  one  occasion, 
'but  I  do  wish  to  be  the  minister  of  a  live  church.' 
He  had  his  desire  gratified.  Both  in  Arbirlot  and  in 
Edinburgh  his  congregations  were  characterised  by  the 
possession  of  the  best  kind  of  religious  life,  that  which 
diffuses  itself  abroad  in  far-reaching  effort  for  the  welfare 
of  others.  He  repeated  at  Free  St.  John's  what  he  had 
initiated  at  Arbirlot,  viz.  all  kinds  of  religious,  social, 
and  literary  agencies  for  the  employment  of  the  Christian 
efforts  of  his  people.  Aggressive  religion  is  the  only 
practical  religion,  and  Dr.  Guthrie's  motto  was  'Some- 
thing for  every  one  to  do,  and  every  one  engaged  upon 
something.'1 

Though  he  was  able  to  take  but  little  active  part  during 
the  later  years  of  his  ministry  in  the  numerous  agencies 
started  under  the  auspices  of  his  congregation,  he  was  the 
mainspring  that  kept  them  all  in  motion,  even  to  the  end. 
If  he  were  a  great  pulpit  orator,  he  was  also  a  great 
parochial  organiser.  His  sagacity  and  common-sense 
always  came  to  his  aid  on  occasions  when  a  zeal  without 
discretion  led  some  of  his  members  to  rush  into  schemes 
that  did  not  promise  to  be  successful.  'A  very  good 
suggestion,'  he  would  say  in  such  circumstances,  'but 
with  the  machinery  at  our  command  I  fear  it  would 
hardly  get  as  fair  a  chance  as  it  deserves.'  His  tact  and 
his  exquisite  courtesy,  even  to  the  humblest  members  of 

1  This  is  the  principle  of  the  Salvation  Army.  But  long  before 
William  Booth  was  heard  of,  Dr.  Guthrie  had  been  practising  this 
principle  in  connection  with  his  congregations. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  149 

his  flock,  endeared  him  to  them  all.  Any  one  who  had 
a  proposal  to  make  with  regard  to  the  working  of  the 
congregation,  was  convinced  that  from  one  individual  at 
least,  and  that  one  his  minister,  he  would  not  receive  a 
scoff  or  a  rebuff. 

Though  never  assuming  the  position  of  a  Church 
leader,  he  was  regular  in  attendance  on  the  meetings  of 
Presbytery,  Synod,  Commission,  and  Assembly  when 
momentous  questions  were  raised.  True,  he  rarely  inter- 
posed with  a  set  speech  in  any  of  the  great  debates,  save 
perhaps  when  Education  was  under  discussion ;  but  some 
of  his  happiest  impromptus,  some  of  his  most  humorous 
touches  that  amused  and  delighted  both  sides,  without 
leaving  a  rankle  of  irritation  behind,  were  delivered  in 
little  speeches  of  two  or  three  minutes  in  duration, 
wherein  he  would  sum  up  the  two  sides  of  the  question 
in  some  delightful  jeu  d'esprit^  which  oftentimes  averted 
angry  controversial  scenes. 

Be  the  subject  what  it  might,  Dr.  Guthrie  was  always 
in  favour  of  moderate  courses.  'Truth  never  lies  in 
extremes,'  he  remarked  in  one  of  his  Ragged  School 
speeches — a  saying  which  smacks  of  John  Stuart  Mill's 
famous  dictum  that  truth  is  generally  to  be  found  midway 
between  the  two  opposite  poles  of  belief.  Even  with  re- 
spect to  the  retention  of  the  Bible  in  the  Ragged  Schools 
he  was  prepared  to  have  made  many  compromises  short 
of  forbidding  its  use  altogether,  if  the  secular  party  had 
been  prepared  to  do  the  same. 

Viewed  as  an  ecclesiastic,  Dr.  Guthrie's  character  and 
work  entitle  him  to  a  very  high  place  among  the  clergy 
who  have  been  associated  with  Edinburgh.  Were  I  asked 
to  sum  up  in  one  word  his  nature  as  it  impressed  an  out- 
sider, I  should  reply  '  Christlikeness.'  Not  exactly  '  saint- 
liness,'  for  the  latter  implies  a  certain  element  of  '  passive 
goodness'  which  scarcely  realised  one's  idea  of  Guthrie. 
He  was  the  aggressive,  militant  champion  of  the  Cross, 
ready  to  do  battle  to  the  death  with  the  powers  of  evil, 
poverty,  and  suffering,  eager  both  to  account  all  things  but 


150  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

loss  and  to  suffer  the  loss  of  all  things  for  the  excellency 
of  the  knowledge  of  Christ. 

Broad  in  his  spiritual  sympathies,  catholic  in  his  inter- 
pretation of  Christian  doctrines,  lofty  in  his  ideal  of 
personal  goodness,  unsparing  in  lashing  his  own  weak- 
nesses, but  gentle  as  a  woman  in  dealing  with  the  moral 
or  spiritual  infirmities  of  others,  he  was  one  of  those 
types  of  character  which  appear  in  the  world  at  intervals, 
as  if  to  prove  to  men  that  it  is  possible  to  '  live '  Christ  as 
well  as  to  Move'  Him,  and  that  the  'Master'  asked 
nothing  beyond  the  capacity  of  humanity,  when  He  en- 
joined upon  His  disciples  that  imitation  of  Himself  which 
is  the  essence  of  true  religion. 

Closely  allied  with  Dr.  Guthrie's  labours  as  a  minister, 
and  owned  by  God  with  almost  equal  success,  although 
the  time  wherein  he  was  engaged  in  it  was  so  much  shorter, 
was  his  work  as  an  author.  The  good  he  was  able  to 
achieve  by  his  pen  while  editor  of  the  Sunday  Magazine  was 
great,  but  will  not  be  realised  in  its  fulness  until  the  day 
when  the  hidden  things  of  earth  are  made  plain.  Apart 
from  his  periodical  writings,  a  good  deal  of  which  was  of 
merely  temporary  and  ephemeral  interest,  he  wrote  in  all 
sixteen  larger  works,  reckoning  the  Three  Pleas  for  Ragged 
Schools  as  one  volume,  and  not  taking  account  of  the 
pamphlets  he  published  on  Industrial  Schools  and  the 
'  Union  Question.'  These  sixteen  volumes,  beginning  with 
the  Gospel  in  Ezekiel  and  ending  with  Sundays  Abroad, 
form  a  valuable  library  in  themselves  of  popular  evangelical 
teaching.  Of  the  professed  or  professional  theologian  there 
is,  as  I  have  said,  no  trace.  The  writer  is  simply  talking 
face  to  face  with  his  reader,  even  as  formerly  he  had  been 
face  to  face  with  his  congregation — for  most  of  the  papers 
were  originally  delivered  as  sermons — and  the  result 
achieved  is,  a  depth  of  impression  rarely  experienced  out- 
side the  walls  of  a  church.  Space  will  not  permit  me  to  deal 
with  these  books  in  any  detail.  I  only  can  add  that  those 
who  have  yet  to  read  them  for  the  first  time  have  a  rich 
spiritual  as  well  as  intellectual  treat  in  store : — the  Gospel 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  151 

in  Ezekiel,  for  its  picturesque  presentation  of  Scripture 
history  and  the  lessons  to  be  drawn  therefrom,  dealing 
with  the  problems  and  perplexities  of  this  present  worka- 
day world  ;  The  City — its  Sins  and  Sorroivs,  with  its  awful 
pictures  of  the  degradation  and  misery  in  our  great  centres 
of  population  ;  Christ  and  the  Inheritance  of  the  Saints,  as 
a  study  of  the  great  mystery  of  the  Love  of  Christ  and  of 
the  benefits  accruing  to  us  from  sincere  acceptance  of 
the  Covenant  of  Grace;  The  Way  to  Life,  as  a  practical 
application  of  the  scheme  of  salvation  to  the  needs  and 
necessities  of  the  everyday  world  around  us ;  Speaking  to 
the  Heart,  with  its  simple  yet  effective  demonstration  of 
the  applicability  of  Christ's  attributes  to  heal  the  sorrows 
and  the  sufferings  of  the  deepest  dyed  of  sinners ;  Man 
and  the  Gospel,  wherein  the  pricelessness  of  the  Cross  of 
Christ  as  a  safeguard  and  panoply  against  all  the  temp- 
tations and  assaults  of  the  Evil  One  is  proved  by  the 
testimony  and  experience  of  God's  saints ;  The  Parables, 
in  which  the  apologues  spoken  by  Our  Lord  are  read  in 
the  light  of  present-day  trials  and  temptations,  and  the 
conclusion  drawn  that  their  force  and  application  is 
just  as  cogently  appropriate  to-day,  as  when  the  God- 
man  uttered  them  beneath  the  sunny  Syrian  skies ;  Our 
Father's  Business,  with  its  lessons  to  commercial  men,  in 
common  with  all  others,  that  religion  is  a  thing  of  the 
counting-house  and  the  market  as  well  as  of  the  church 
and  the  meeting-house  ;  The  Studies  of  Character  from 
the  Old  Testament,  with  analogies  drawn  between  the 
Bible  heroes  and  the  men  and  women  of  ■  to-day — all 
these,  with  the  other  works  I  have  not  named,  for 
spirituality  of  aim  and  purpose,  beauty  and  cogency  of 
thought,  prodigal  profusion  of  metaphor  and  illustra- 
tion, scorn  of  falsehood  and  oppression,  pathos  and 
sympathy  when  dealing  with  the  afflicted  and  heart- 
sore,  are  as  unique  in  their  own  way  as  Dr.  Guthrie 
individually  was  unique  in  his.  They  are  still  read, 
and  will  continue  to  be  read,  for  that  note  of  keen 
human   sympathy  which  one   finds   on   every  page,    and 


152  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

for  their  vigorous  assertion  of  the  grand  old  truths  and 
cardinal  doctrines  of  our  faith. 

'Guthrie  the  Philanthropist'  was  even  more  widely 
known  on  the  Continent  of  Europe  and  in  America  than 
1  Dr.  Guthrie  the  Preacher.'  In  fact,  the  amount  of  work 
the  organiser  of  the  '  Original  Ragged  Schools '  succeeded 
in  accomplishing,  and  the  frequency  with  which  he  appeared 
before  the  public,  led  to  the  belief  on  the  part  of  some 
that  'Thomas  Guthrie'  and  '  Dr.  Guthrie'  were  two  different 
persons.  Dr.  Guthrie,  in  fact,  achieved  as  much  work  in 
the  cause  of  the  Ragged  Schools  as  would  have  sufficed 
for  many  a  man's  life's  labour.  Yet  this  was  at  the  very 
time  when  he  was  standing  forth  as  one  of  the  champions 
on  the  temperance  side;  at  the  very  time,  too,  when  he  was 
fighting  against  the  narrow  Sectarianism  of  denominational 
education ;  at  the  very  time,  in  fine,  when  he  was  making 
a  determined  effort  to  secure  shorter  hours  for  shop- 
employes,  and,  along  with  his  friend  Dr.  Begg,  was  agitating 
for  '  better  homes  for  the  working  classes.' 

As  a  philanthropist  Dr.  Guthrie  looked  first  to  relieving 
temporal  necessities  before  touching  spiritual  needs.  'You 
cannot  get  a  fellow-creature  to  see  the  felicity  of  the 
scheme  of  salvation  whose  idea  of  felicity  at  that  moment 
is  bounded  by  the  horizon  of  a  threepenny  loaf.'  Hence,  in 
all  his  efforts  to  relieve  the  misery  arising  from  crime  and 
destitution,  he  began  with  the  stomach  to  reach  the  soul. 
Starvation  and  salvation  do  not  constitute  a  promising 
combination  for  a  philanthropist  to  work  upon.  Although 
hunger  and  holiness  in  monkish  times  appear  to  have 
produced  results  by  no  means  despicable,  when  we  regard 
the  labours  of  the  early  Franciscans  and  Cistercians,  whose 
menu  was  summed  up  in  one  scanty  meal  per  day  of  pulse 
and  bread ;  in  these  degenerate  days  the  experience  of  all 
philanthropists,  from  Howard  to  Booth,  has  been  that 
moral  and  spiritual  reformation  among  the  lapsed  masses, 
in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  is  dependent  on — or  rather  the 
result  of — the  relief  of  temporal  necessities.1 

1  In  Darkest  England,  and  the  Way  Out,  by  General  Booth  of  the 
Salvation  Army. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  153 

Dr.  Guthrie's  Ragged  School  work  constitutes  a  page  in 
the  history  of  social  reform  which  is  not  the  least  bright 
with  encouraging  prospects  for  the  future.  He  had  the 
strong  practical  sagacity  of  his  countrymen  to  guide  him 
in  formulating  the  scheme  of  operations  which  was  laid 
before  his  committee  and  accepted  by  them  entirely.  He 
made  the  '  course '  or  '  curriculum,'  if  I  might  use  the  term, 
in  vogue  at  the  Ragged  Schools,  not  merely  of  an  educa- 
tional but  of  an  industrial  or  technical  character,  by  which 
lads  were  trained  manually  as  well  as  mentally,  and  furnished 
with  a  trade  as  well  as  with  scholastic  tuition.  His  common- 
sense  was  visible  at  every  turn.  A  dreamy  theorist  he 
never  was.  '  How  will  the  theory  work  out  in  practice  ?  ' 
was  always  the  first  question  after  any  new  idea  had  been 
propounded.  He  was  a  capital  man  of  business,  which 
perhaps  he  owed  to  his  early  banking  experiences,  and 
was  as  skilful  in  financing  as  in  formulating  his  schemes. 
To  this  day  '  Dr.  Guthrie's  Original  Industrial  Schools ' 
remain  in  as  flourishing  and  progressive  a  state  as  ever. 

But  as  I  have  said,  Dr.  Guthrie  was  not  a  one-sided 
philanthropist.  His  charity  was  as  catholic  as  his  religious 
sympathies.  Hence  we  find  him  throwing  himself  heart 
and  soul  into  such  widely  diverse  ameliorative  movements 
as  the  Missions  to  Cabmen  and  to  Lamplighters,  the 
abolition  of  the  Contagious  Diseases  Act,  the  establish- 
ment of  night-schools  for  shop  lads,  which,  singularly 
enough,  by  revealing  to  him  the  '  white  slavery '  of  these 
assistants,  started  him  on  one  of  the  most  successful 
crusades  he  ever  waged,  'Shorter  hours  for  Shop- 
Employes  and  a  Saturday  Half-holiday.' 

In  the  high  and  holy  work  of  seeking  to  save  the  heart- 
broken victims  of  seduction  from  drifting  into  the  deeper 
hell  of  prostitution — nay,  in  winning  many  from  the  last- 
named  class  itself — Dr.  Guthrie  and  his  noble  wife  achieved 
a  success  which  is  little  known  because  it  touches  upon 
a  subject  so  delicate.1  In  the  '  Home  for  Fallen  Women  ' 
at  Alnwick  Hill,  near  Edinburgh,  his  interest  was  deep  and 
1  See  The  City — its  Sins  and  Sorrows,  p.  22. 


154  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

constant.  Over  many  of  the  women  from  that  institution 
whom  he  assisted  into  respectable  situations,  where  they 
could,  as  it  were,  begin  the  world  again,  he  watched  with 
a  solicitude  tender  as  a  father's.  When  one  of  them, 
Mary  Craig,  lost  her  life  in  heroically  saving  from  drown- 
ing the  child  of  the  family  wherein  she  was  nurse,  the 
eulogy  he  pronounced  upon  her  was  one  of  his  finest 
flights  of  eloquence. 

He  took  a  deep  interest  also  in  the  affairs  of  the  Edin- 
burgh Royal  Infirmary,  and  his  appeals  for  contributions 
to  this  excellent  institution  always  met  with  a  liberal 
response.  For  some  years  he  was  a  manager  of  it,  and 
never  failed  to  visit  it  at  least  once  a  month.  Another 
charity  of  which  he  took  a  leading  part  in  administering 
the  affairs  for  a  time  was  the  Blind  Asylum.  In  more 
than  one  of  the  reports  his  name  appears  as  one  of  the 
directors,  along  with  his  friend  Mr.  Dymock. 

All  societies  whose  aim  was  the  relief  of  the  destitute 
poor  received  his  whole-hearted  help.  To  the  'Society 
for  the  Relief  of  the  Destitute  Sick,'  the  'Edinburgh 
Benevolent  and  Strangers'  Friend  Society,'  the  'House  of 
Refuge  and  Night  Refuge '  (Queensberry  House),  the 
'  Society  for  the  Relief  of  Indigent  Old  Men,'  and  many 
others  too  numerous  to  mention  in  detail,  he  not  only 
gave  his  services  as  a  director  or  member  of  committee, 
but  in  several  instances  preached  Charity  Sermons  in  aid 
of  the  funds,  by  which  the  institutions  benefited  materially 
in  a  pecuniary  sense.1 

Wherever  distress  or  suffering  was  brought  under  his 
notice,  Thomas  Guthrie  at  once  took  steps  to  mitigate  or 
remove  it.  His  great  heart  ached  when  he  contemplated 
misery  for  which  he  could  supply  no  remedy.  '  I  'm  sure 
you  must  be  often  swindled  and  deceived  with  regard  to  a 
lot  of  these  cases  you  are  so  constantly  relieving,'  said  a 
cynical  Philistine  to  him  one  day  with  a  sneer  on  his  lips. 
'  Perhaps  so,  my  friend,  notwithstanding  all  the  precautions 
we  take,'  said  the  Doctor  quietly ;  '  but  I  would  rather 
1  See  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  institutions  referred  to. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  155 

be  among  the  Good  Samaritans  who  relieve  suffering 
even  at  the  risk  of  being  sometimes  deceived,  than  be 
among  the  priests  and  Levites  who  talk,  and  criticise, 
and  sneer,  but  take  care  to  pass  by  on  the  other  side.' 

The  philanthropy  of  Thomas  Guthrie,  in  a  word,  did 
not  proceed  from  a  mere  sense  of  obligation.  He  did 
not  relieve  suffering  or  destitution  because  he  thought  it 
becoming  or  fashionable  so  to  do.  No  arrow  in  his 
quiver  of  sarcasm  was  too  sharp  to  employ  in  transfixing 
such  low  motives  when  he  came  across  them.  'Be  sure 
you  value  the  high  and  holy  privilege  of  charity,'  was  a 
phrase  he  frequently  used.  It  expresses  the  motive  of  all 
his  philanthropy.  He  did  as  he  would  have  desired  to 
be  done  by :  '  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do 
unto  you,  do  ye  so  unto  them.' 

Thomas  Guthrie — the  '  Man ' — had  laid  to  heart  Solon's 
dictum,  'Know  thyself.'  Better  than  most  men  he 
had  gauged  the  limits  of  his  own  capacity,  and  knew 
exactly  what  he  could  and  what  he  could  not  do. 
Never  do  we  find  him  attempting  anything  beyond  his 
powers.  He  never  failed  in  anything  he  essayed, 
because  he  never  essayed  anything  wherein  failure  was 
probable.  I  have  more  than  once  referred  to  his  pro- 
found sagacity  and  common-sense,  because  these,  along 
with  his  vivid  imaginative  force  and  intense  realism,  were 
the  chief  characteristics  of  his  genius.  Knowing  precisely 
what  his  powers  could  effect,  and  to  what  extent  he 
could  rely  upon  them,  he  never  strayed  outside  his  own 
domain. 

Furthermore,  his  buoyant  nature  made  work  light  to 
him.  As  he  never  regarded  it  as  a  task,  but  as  a  supreme 
pleasure,  inactivity  was  to  him  the  irksome  burden,  not 
work.  Each  day  was  carefully  mapped  out  in  advance, 
and  when  he  did  not  succeed  in  achieving  all  he  desired, 
he  took  himself  to  task.  Each  night,  as  he  remarks  in  one 
of  his  letters,  he  reviewed  the  actual  achievements  of  the 
day,  as  compared  with  his  '  purpose  '  or  scheme.  It  was 
this   habit  of  piecing   out  his  time  and  giving  to  each 


156  FAMOUS  SCOTS 

moment  some  duty  to  be  done,  that  enabled  Thomas 
Guthrie  to  accomplish  the  numerous  items  of  business 
whose  discharge  he  so  cheerfully  undertook.  But  this  very 
delight  in  work,  while  it  made  duty  easy  and  self-sacrifice 
light,  also  led  him  to  persevere  at  his  post,  when  the 
physical  frame  was  exhausted.  '  Weariness  he  did  not 
seem  to  feel,  languor  had  no  effect  upon  him.  Only 
when  the  deadly  anguish  of  his  cardiac  disease  brought 
him  in  more  senses  than  one  to  his  knees,  did  he  come 
to  realise  the  fact  that  for  years  he  had  been  doing  three 
men's  work  and  burning  the  candle  at  both  ends. 

Guthrie  influenced  his  age  and  his  fellow-men  as  much 
by  his  life  as  by  his  works.  '  Guthrie  the  Man  '  was 
found  to  practise  in  life  what  'Guthrie  the  Preacher' 
inculcated  in  precept.  Had  he  been  less  sympathetic, 
had  his  broad  humanity  touched  the  sorrow-seamed 
existence  of  his  fellow-men  at  fewer  points  of  contact, 
he  might  have  felt  less  call  to  spend  and  be  spent 
so  completely  in  the  cause  of  ameliorating  the  lot  of 
destitute  and  despairing  brethren.  But  in  that  case  he 
would  have  graven  his  name  less  deeply  on  the  hearts 
of  his  countrymen.  The  intensity  of  his  devotion  to  their 
cause  was  manifested  by  the  fact  that  he  was  shattered 
in  health  at  the  comparatively  early  age  of  fifty-nine.  To 
act  otherwise  than  he  did,  however,  would  have  been 
foreign  to  his  nature.  Besides,  he  would  have  fallen  short 
of  his  own  ideal  of  right.  His  lofty  enthusiasm  in  the 
cause  of  the  friendless  and  downtrodden  prevented  him 
from  feeling  aught  but  delight  in  suffering  for  those  whom 
he  sought  to  save.  Literally  with  the  price  of  his  own 
life  did  he  pay  for  the  souls  and  bodies  of  those  pariahs 
whom  he  succeeded  in  snatching  from  moral  and  spiritual 
ruin. 

But,  like  the  Divine  Master  he  served,  he  never  shrank 
from  the  sacrifice.  His  enthusiasm  carried  him  through 
all.  As  early  as  1848  he  knew  that  work  at  the  high 
pressure  at  which  he  was  running  would  sooner  or  later 
entail  certain  death.     For  a  time  he  tried  to  labour  at 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE  157 

'half-speed,'  as  he  called  it.  The  result  was  unsatis- 
factory in  every  sense.  He  had  then  to  choose  his  alter- 
native. Did  he  flinch,  or  decide  to  leave  the  perishing 
juvenile  and  adult  waifs  to  their  fate  ?    No  !— '  The  work 

THAT  MY  HEAVENLY  FATHER  HATH  GIVEN  ME  TO  DO,  SHALL 
I  NOT  DO  IT  ?  ' 


INDEX 


America,  115. 

Anti- Burghers,  18-. 

Apollyon,  the  Vineyard  of,  35. 

Arbirlot,  23. 

Argyll,  Duke  of,  10,  102,  132. 

Auchterarder  case,  28,  45,  57. 

Australia,  115. 

Black,  Adam,  80. 
Blackadder,  David,  17,  19. 
Blackie,  Prof.,  100. 
Blaikie,  Dr.,  123. 
Brunton,  Prof.,  19. 
Buchanan,  Dr.  R. ,  50,  60,  107. 
Burghers,  17. 

Candlish,  Dr.,  41,  42,  50,  52,  56, 

58,  60,  70,  107,  131. 
Canonbie,  67. 
Chalmers,  Dr.,  29,  36,  37,  45,  54, 

56,  6o,  70,  TOI. 
Christ  and  the  Inheritance  of  the 

Saints,  123. 
City — its  Sins  and  Sorrows,  98. 
Cockburn,  Lord,  46,  64,  94. 
Convocation,    the     Non-Intrusion, 

57- 
Cottage  meetings,  25. 
Court  of  Session,  45. 
Cow  gate,  the,  35. 
Cunningham,    Dr.,  41,  42,  54,  56, 

60,  66,  70,  113,  131. 

Disruption,  the,  60,  72,  106. 

Edinburgh,  Duke  of,  136. 
Eligibility,  Mutual,  128. 
V>8 


Evangelicals,  the,  28,  45. 
Extension,  Church,  29,  30. 

Faculty,  Dean  of  (Hope),  46,  55, 

59- 
Flockhart,  Robert,  124. 

Gladstone,  Right  Hon.  W.  E., 
11,  81. 

Gospel  in  Ezekiel,  the,  123. 

Graham,  Sir  James,  55. 

Greyfriars,  Old,  33. 

Gunn,  Dr.  W.,  107. 

Guthrie,  David,  17. 

Thomas,     birth     and    early 

years,  17  ;  education,  18  ;  decides 
for  the  ministry,  19  ;  licensed  by 
Presbytery  of  Brechin,  20;  blocked 
by  Moderates,  20 ;  visit  to  Paris, 
21 ;  banker,  22  ;  parish  minister 
of  Arbirlot,  23  ;  marriage,  25  ; 
work  at  Arbirlot,  25-34  ;  struggles 
against  Patronage,  27  ;  Voluntary 
controversy,  29  ;  moved  to  Edin- 
burgh, 34 ;  his  parochial  work, 
40  ;  takes  part  in  Non-Intrusion 
struggle,  44  ;  interdict  served  on 
him  over  Strathbogie  case,  48 ; 
assists  to  bring  Hugh  Miller  to  ■ 
Edinburgh,  50  ;  writes  one  of  the 
Non-Intrusion  tracts,  51  ;  his  busy 
life,  51 ;  great  speech  on  missions, 
56  ;  present  at  Non-Intrusion  con- 
vocation, 58 ;  preaches  his  last 
sermon  in  Old  St.  John's,  59 ; 
scene  of  the  Disruption,  Mr. 
Guthrie's  place,  60  ;  gets  Free  St. 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE 


i59 


John's  built,  62 ;  opinions  of  his 
preaching,  64 ;  evidence  before 
Commission  on  Sites,  68 ;  the 
Manse  Fund,  71 ;  amount  realised, 
74 ;  Ragged  Schools  scheme,  its 
inception,  76 ;  issue  of  First 
Plea,  78  ;  committee  formed,  80  ; 
Secession,  83  ;  work  on  behalf  of 
Ragged  Schools,  84-90  ;  honour  of 
'  Doctor  of  Divinity,'  91  ;  work  in 
temperance,  93-100 ;  work  in 
education,  104 ;  desires  to  see  a 
national  system,  not  a  denomi- 
national, 108 ;  helps  to  prepare 
Lord  Advocate  Young's  Bill,  no ; 
zeal  in  missions,  home  and 
foreign,  in  ;  visits  Waldensian 
Churches,  114;  invited  to  America 
and  Australia,  115  ;  his  oratory, 
116 ;  Moderator's  chair,  118  ; 
retires  from  Free  St.  John's, 
120  ;  appointed  editor  of  Sunday 
Magazine,  122  ;  great  success  of 
it,  125 ;  finds  his  sphere  as  an 
author,  125  ;  interest  in  Union 
movement,  127 ;  presented  with 
testimonial,  131  ;  closing  days, 
134 ;  delight  in  angling,  135  ; 
last  sermon,  136  ;  last  days,  138  ; 
death,  142  ;  funeral,  143  ;  sum- 
ming-up— Guthrie  the  ecclesias- 
tic, 145  ;  the  philanthropist,  152  ; 
the  man,  155. 

Hanna,  Dr.,  92,  101,  139. 
Interdict,  Strathbogie,  48. 

Jeffrey,  Lord,  46,  60,  81,  94. 
John's,  St.,  Old,  41,  63. 
St.,  Free,  62. 

Ker,  Dr.  John,  136. 

Lansdowne,  Lord,  86. 
Leslie,  Prof.,  19. 
Lethendy  case,  47. 
Lochlee,  134. 
Lome,  Marquis  of,  132. 
Louise,  the  Princess,  132. 


M'Crie,  Dr.,  18. 

Macgregor,  Dr.,  136. 

Macleod,  Dr.  Norman,  123,  134. 

Manse  Fund,  the,  63,  69,  74. 

Masses,  lapsed,  37. 

'  Massillon,  the  Scots,'  66. 

Mathew,  Father,  93. 

Maule,  Hon.  W.,  21,  23. 

Medwyn,  Lord,  38. 

Meiklejohn,  Prof.,  19. 

Midsummer  Sabbath's  scene  in  Free 

St.  John's,  9. 
Mill,  J.  S.,  81. 
Miller,  Hugh,  50,  56,  80. 
Milman,  Dean,  103. 
Missions,  Home  and  Foreign,  in. 
Moderates,  the,  17,  20,  30. 
Moncreiff,  Lord,  45. 
Sir  H.,  37. 

National  Education  Associa- 
tion, 109. 
Non-Intrusion,  28,  42,  44-57. 

Paris,  Guthrie's  visit  to,  21. 

Patronage,  27,  53. 

Peel,  Sir  R. ,  54. 

'  Potterrow  John '  (Dr.  J.  Ritchie), 

29, 
Pounds,  John,  77. 

Ragged  Schools,  76-90. 
Ritchie,  Prof.,  19. 
Robertson  (Ellon),  49. 
Russell,  Lord  John,  81. 

St.  Leonards,  139.  • 
Scotsman,  the,  108,  131. 
Seceders,  the,  29,  30. 
Seedtime  and  Harvest,  79. 
Slavery,  104. 
Stanley,  Dean,  103. 
Stewart,  Jamie,  18. 
Strahan,  A.,  122. 
Strathbogie  case,  28,  47. 
Sunday  Magazine,  the,  123. 

Tait,  Archbishop,  103. 
M.  S.,  60. 


i6o 


FAMOUS  SCOTS 


Temperance,  94,  97.  Vet0  Law>  53- 

Territorialism,  37,  40.  Voluntary  controversy,  29,  43. 

Thackeray,  W.  M.,n. 

Thomson,  Dr.  Andrew,  37,. 45-  ;  Waldenses,  113. 

Times,  the,  88.  j   Watson,  Sheriff,  77. 
Tracts  o?i  the  Intrusion  0/ Ministers,  >  Whyte,  John,  18. 

ex.  i  Wilberforce,  Bishop,  11. 


Union,  the,  127, 139. 


Young,  Lord,  no. 


DATE  DUE 

m*    iirtit'iBin 

J 

DEMCO  38-297