LIBEAEY
OF THE
Theological Seminary
PRINCETON, N. J.
BX 9225 .W35 H39 1851 Hay, James, 1770-1849. Memoir of the Rev. Alexande Waugh, D.D.
M EMOI R
R]
9 i
No. 285 BROADWAY.
1851.
M EMOI R
REV ALEXANDER WAUGH, D.D.
WITH SELECTIONS
FROM HIS EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE.
BY THE
REV. JAMES HAY, D.D.
AND THE LATE
REV. HENRY BELFRAGE, D.D.
"The Law of Truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: Ho walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity."
NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS,
No. 28 5 BROADWAY.
1851.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
FREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, VH
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, viil
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION, ix
LINES TO THE MEMORY OF DR. WAUGH XI
CHAPTER I.
EARLY LIFE OF DR. WAUGH.
Parentage of Alexander Waugh. Character and mode of life of Scottish husbandmen of olden times. Change of manners. His parents and their family. Education of Alexander for the ministry. His early days. Earlstoun. Parochial schools. Stitchell. Rev. George Coventry. Course of University edu- cation prescribed by the Secession Church. Prosecution of his studies at Edinburgh — at Haddington, under the Rev. John Brown — and at Aberdeen, under Doctors Campbell and Beattie. Misgivings respecting his fitness for the ministry. Receives bcense, and proves highly acceptable as a preacher. Rise of Wells Street congregation, London. Rev. Arch. Hall. Ordina- tion and settlement of Mr. Waugh at Newtown. Competing calls from London and Edinburgh, and his final appointment to the charge of tlie Wells Street congregation, . . . .13
IV CONTENTS,
HIS MINISTRY IN WELLS STREET.
PAGE
Mr. "Waugh's ministry in London. Visit to Scotland in 1783. Private diary. His marriage. Ordination of Rev. Alexander Easton. Intercourse with Rev. John Newton. Deliverance from danger at sea. Address to the congregation on his illness. Visit to Scotland in 1806, for recovery of health. Memorial on the Psalmody. Congregational addresses. Accident at Clapton, in 1823. Increasing infirmities. Letters to old friends — youth- ful reminiscences. Letters from Harrowgate. Funeral sermon on Rev. Dr. Bogue. Delight in ministerial duties. Kindness and liberality of his congregation. Correspondence respecting an assistant. His last public services. Character of his public ministrations. His lectures in Fetter Lane, &c. Congregational labors. Anecdote. Non -interference in church secularities. Christian liberality, 86
CHAPTER III.
HTS CONNECTION WITH PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
Remarks on associations for the spread of the Gospel. Dr. Bogue's appeaL Co-operation of Dr. Waugh in establishing the London Missionary Society. His sermon on the second anniversary of that institution. Notices of its proceedings, from his corres- pondence. Journal of his tour to Paris in 1802. Missionary tours to various parts of England and Ireland ; letters. Inter- view with the Synod of Ulster. Letters from Rev. Dr. Baird. Tours in Scotland in 1815 and 1819 ; letters. Circular letter to brethren in Scotland. Addresses to Missionaries. Sketches of his character as a director and associate laborer of the Mis- sionary Society. Connection with the British and Foreign Bible Society. Speech at the formation of an auxiliary asssociation. His support of the Scottish Hospital, and of other philanthropic and charitable institutions. Anecdotes, . . . .161
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
HIS FRIENDSHIPS.
PAGK
Extracts from his correspondence, with remarks, viz., Letters to a youth at college — to a young friend in India — to another, an emigrant to South Africa — to a friend ordained to the ministry. Readiness to assist country ministers. Visitation of the dis- tressed and dying — anecdote. Letters of consolation: — to a mother bereaved of her child — to a father on the death of an only son — to a widowed mourner — to the widow of a deceased friend — to a friend on the death of a parent — to a friend dis- tressed— to a friend dying. Address at the funeral of Rev. Mr. Townsend. To a friend under misapprehension of his conduct. A good-humored hint. Ordinary correspondence. Reminis- cences of early days. Miscellaneous extracts. Description of natural scenery. Advice to a young lady. Friendships with the high and the humble : old John Ker. His general character as a friend and companion — urbanity — talent for anecdote — pleasantry — aversion from evil speaking — modesty — letter — cheerfulness. Kindness to his predecessor's widow, . . . 239
CHAPTER V.
HIS DOMESTIC CHARACTER.
Conjugal happiness. Character as a husband. Letters to his wife. Conduct as a fattier. Letters to his daughters. Habits of punctuality. His son Alexander: notice of his death : letters to him and to his widow. Paternal counsel to one of his daugh ters and her husband on their marriage, and afterwards. Let ters to his daughter Jeane Neill, during her illness. Short account of her illness and death. Letters to his sons : counsel to one of them on his entering the University. Family gather- ings. Letter. Sketch of his domestic character and habits, by one of his daughters : kindness to the poor — hospitality — commission and correspondence — strict sense of duty — course of Sabbath duties — personal economy — cheerfulness — miscella- neous notices. Sketch by one of his sons: his nationality — de- scription of a tent preaching — Stitchell Brae — recollection of earlv scenes and friends— patriotism— poetical imagination, 810
Yl CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
HIS CONDUCT IN AFFLICTION AND DEATH.
PASS
Submission and cheerfulness in distress: letters. Addresses to his people during his illness. Resignation under increasing in- firmities and bereavements. Anticipations of approaching dis- solution; letters. Last public services. Last illness. Death- bed scenes. His decease. Resolution of Directors of London Missionary Society on this event. His funeral. Tributes to his memory. Conclusion, 395
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
The Memoir now presented to the public was pro- pared by two of Dr. Waugh's friends resident in Scot- land. Its object is to delineate a character richly marked by the image of Christ, to record the leading incidents of a life devoted to goodness, and to present an example whose excellence demands that imitation to which its beauty allures.
The facts detailed arc such as fell under the obser- vation of the writers, or were communicated to them from respectable sources. Among the persons whose valuable communications have enriched this "Work, jus- tice and gratitude require that the Rev. George Bur- der of Fetter Lane, the Rev. Gteorge Collison of Hackney, the Rev. Dr. Morrison, of Brompton, the Bev. Dr. Philtp of the Cape, and A. Chalmers, Esq., of London, should be especially mentioned. The thanks of the compilers are also due to Thomas Prin- gle, Esq., Secretary to the Anti-slavery Society, not only for his able editorial superintendence of the Work during its progress through the press, but also for .some most judicious alterations and additions, which his frequent and recent intercourse with the members of Dr. Waugh's family has enabled him to introduce.
The letters inserted in this Memoir will be found peculiarly interesting, from the views which they give of Divine truth and duty, the scenes they describe, the incidents they detail, and the qualities of heart which they so delightfully exhibit. Other specimens of Dr. Waugh's talent for letter- writing, fully equal to any of these, could have been given : but that which
yiii PREFACE.
charms in friendship cannot in all cases be rendered interesting or suitable for the public.
For the deficiencies of this Work the candid will find an apology in the distance of the writers from the scenes of Dr. Waugh's life, and in the impossibility of doing full justice to services so extensive and to qualities so various. To the good of all parties it is affectionately dedicated, for he was the common friend of the pious of every name ; and at the feet of that Saviour it is laid, to whose grace their venerable friend ascribed so piously all that he did and all that he enjoyed, and in whose service he was faithful to the death.
JAMES HAY, A.M., Kinross. HENRY BELFIIAGE, D. D., Falkirk.
Mauch 1, 1830.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In presenting a Second Edition of this Work, the writers cannot repress the expression of their high gratification at the favorable manner in which the public has been pleased to receive the First; the rapid sale of which evidences the deep interest felt by the wise and good in the memory of Dr. Waugh, and excites the hope of the extending influence of his spirit and example.
In this Edition will be found some additional let- ters and anecdotes, illustrative of the combined cheer- fulness and piety of his character, and some further passages from his pulpit discourses, exhibiting more fully the light, beauty, and fervor of his teachings as ;» master in fsrael.
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
It is gratifying to the surviving Author of this Me- moir, that, after two large and high priced London Editions have been for some time entirely exhausted, a Third Edition, in consequence of an arrangement with the present respectable Publishers, is about to issue from the press in Scotland, Dr. "Waugh's native and beloved land, where his memory is still tenderly cherished, and to be sold at such a moderate price, as will put it in the power of every class of readers to profit by that example of fervent piety, and expansive benevolence, for which he was eminently conspicuous. It may be proper to mention that, from the relinquish- ment on the part of Dr. Waugh's family of all pecu- niary advantage in this Edition, it will be sold at one half the price of the former ones, though printed ver- batim from the Second, with which they are so well satisfied, that they have agreed that nothing shall be added, and nothing suppressed.
Although but a few years have elapsed since the publication of the Second Edition, two highly re- spected individuals who took a deep interest in the preparation of the Work, are, alas ! no more : — Dr. Belfrage, my highly esteemed fellow-laborer and my bosom friend for nearly half a century, who, by his excellent and justly popular works, has bequeathed a rich legacy to the religious public ; and Mr. Thomas Pringle, the able and faithful superintendent of the First Edition, when it passed through the press, who, by his Sketches on South Africa, his poems, and his unwearied exertions to break the fetters of the slave, 1*
x PREFACE.
has gained an honorable name among those benefac- tors of the human race, who have distinguished them- selves in the great cause of civil and religious liberty. The present writer must also soon close his eyes on this transitory scene, and he cherishes the humble but cheering hope, in regard to those dear relatives and friends, in whose society he has spent many of his sweetest and most profitable hours, that he will meet them again in that world where death never enters, and where all the children of the same common fam- ily shall ever be with one another, and ever with the Lord.
JAMES HAY, D.D. Kinross, December 6, 1838.
LINES
TO
THE MEMORY OF THE REV. DR. WAUGH.
Whoe'er thou art whose eye may hither bend, If thou art human, here behold a friend. Art thou of Christ's disciples ? He was one Like him whose bosom Jesus leant upon. Art thou a sinner burthened with thy grief? His life was spent proclaiming sin's relief. Art thou an unbeliever ? He could feel Much for the patient whom he could not heal. Whate'er thy station, creed, condition be, This man of God has cared and prayed for thee.
Do riches, honors, pleasures, smile around ? He would have shown thee where alone is found Their true enjoyment — on the Christian plan Of holiness to God and love to man. Are poverty, disease, disgrace, despair, The ills, the anguish to which flesh is heir, Thy household inmates ? Yea, even such as thee He hailed as brothers of humanity ; And gave his hand and heart, and toiled and plead, Till nakedness was clothed and hunger fed ; Till pain was soothed, and even the fiend Despair Confessed a stronger arm than his was there.
And ye far habitants of heathen lands, For you he raised his voice and stretched his hands ; And taught new-wakened sympathy to start With generous throb through many a British heart ; Till wide o'er farthest oceans waved the sail That bade in Jesus' name the nations hail, And Afric's wastes and wildered Hindostan Heard the glad tidings of " good will to man."
LINES TO THE MEMORY OF DR. WAUGH.
Such was his public ministry. And they Through life who loved him till his latest day, Of many a noble, gentle trait can tell, That as a man, friend, father, marked him well : The frank simplicity ; the cordial flow Of kind affections ; the enthusiast glow That love of Nature or his Native Land Would kindle in those eyes so bright and bland ; The unstudied eloquence, that from his tongue Fell like the fresh dews by the breezes flung From fragrant woodlands ; the benignant look That like a rainbow beamed through his rebuke — Rebuke more dreaded than a despot's frown, For sorrow more than anger called it down ; The winning way, the kindliness of speech, With which he wont the little ones to teach, As round his chair like clustering doves they clung — For, like his Master, much he loved the young.
These, and unnumbered traits like these, my verse Could fondly dwell upon ; but o'er his hearse A passing wreath I may but stop to cast, Of love and grateful reverence the last Poor earthly token. Weeping mourners here Perchance may count such frail memorial dear, Though vain and valueless it be to him Who tunes his golden harp amidst the seraphim.
T. P.
1827.
.MEMOIR
OF THE
REV. ALEXANDER WAUGH, D.I).
CHAPTER I.
Parentage of Alexander Waugh. Character and mode of life of Scot- tish husbandmen of olden times. Change of manners. His parents and their family. Education of Alexander for the ministry. His early days. Earlstoun. Parochial Schools. Stitchell. Rev. George Coventry. Course of University education prescribed by the Seces- sion Church. Prosecution of his studies at Edinburgh — at Hadding- ton, under the Rev. John Brown — and at Aberdeen, under Doctors Campbell and Beattie. Mi.-givings respecting his fitness for the ministry. Receives license, and proves highly acceptable as a preacher. Rise of Wells Street congregation, London. Rev. Arch. Hall. Ordination and settlement of Mr. Waugh at Newtown. Com- peting calls from London and Edinburgh, and his final appointment to the charge of the Yv'ells Street congregation.
Alexander Waugh was born on the 10th of August, 1754, at East Gordon, a small village in the parish of Gordon, Ber- wickshire. Thomas Waugh and Margaret Johnstone, his parents, belonged to the class of small farmers, who for some centuries were the cultivators of the soil throughout every part of Scotland ; and who, being generally considered by their landlords as the hereditary feudatories of their families, were accustomed to succeed each other from father to son, with nearly as little variation as the proprietors themselves.
This valuable order of husbandmen, who constituted a very considerable proportion of the population, was, at this period, of the third generation in descent from the Covenanters, who
14 SCOTTISH HUSBANDMEN OF OLDEN TIMES I
lived towards the latter end of the seventeenth century ; to whom their country owes a deep debt of gratitude, for their pious zeal, their patient sufferings, and their severe, long- protracted, and ultimately successful struggle with a despotic and persecuting government. Like their ancestors, whose memory they warmly cherished and venerated, besides being zealous Presbyterians, they were distinguished by frugal habits, simple manners, and an ardent regard for evangelical doctrines. In addition to a regular and exemplary attendance on the public ordinances of divine worship, they faithfully performed the exercises of devotion in their families, and labored with patriarchal diligence, to instil into the minds of their children and domestics the principles of sound doctrine and a holy life. The strict and regular observance of the duties of family reli- gion, appears to have been one chief cause of the high emi- nence in scriptural knowledge, in sobriety of manners, as well as in every domestic virtue, for which the northern part of Great Britain was then justly celebrated.
The patriarchal simplicity of manners which, about the mid- dle of last century, so especially characterized Scottish husband- men, was calculated, in a high degree, to foster deep affections, and a sober but manly earnestness both of principle and de- portment; and it maybe fairly stated as one of the happy privileges of the Secession Church, that so large a number of its ministers have sprung from this virtuous and valuable order of men. On this latter account, as well as with a more imme- diate reference to the subject of the present memoir, we shall endeavor to give a brief description of the mode of life and household discipline of a Scottish farmer of former days. It is a sketch from early recollections of scenes long gone by — " When old simplicity was yet in prime ;
For now among our glens the faithful fail,
Forgetful of their sires in olden time :
That gray -haired race is gone, of look sublime,
Calm in demeanor, courteous, and sincere ;
Yet stern when duty called them, as their clime,
When it flings off the autumnal foliage sere, And shakes the shuddering woods with solemn voice severe."
THEIR MODE OF LIFE. 15
The habitation of a Scottish husbandman in the southern counties, sixty or seventy years ago, was generally a plain, substantial building, holding a middle rank between the res- idences of the inferior gentry and the humble cottages of the laboring peasantry. The farm-house, with the small win- dows of its second story often projecting through the thatched roof, occupied, for the most part, the one side of a quadrangle, in which the young cattle were folded ; the other three sides being enclosed and sheltered by the barns, stables, and other farm offices. A kitchen-garden, stocked with the common potherbs then in use, and sometimes with a few fruit-trees, extended on one side, sheltered perhaps by a 'hedge of boor- tree or elder, and often skirted by a few aged forest-trees ; while the low, thatched dwellings of the hinds and cottars stood at a little distance, each with its small cabbage-garden, or kail-yard, behind, and its stack of peat, or turf fuel, in front.
An upland farm, of the common average size, extended to about four or five hundred acres, partly arable and partly pastoral, and usually employed three or four ploughs; and the master's household, exclusive of his own family, consisted of six or seven unmarried servants, male and female. The mar- ried servants, — namely, a head shepherd, and a hind or two (as the married ploughmen were termed), — occupied cottages apart; as likewise did the cottars, who were rather a sort of farm retainers than servants, being bound only to give the master, in lieu of rent, their services in hay-time and harvest, and at other stated periods. The whole, however, especially in remote situations, formed a sort of little independent com- munity in themselves, deriving their subsistence almost ex- clusively from the produce of the farm. The master's house- hold alone usually amounted to fifteen or twenty souls ; and the whole population of the farm, or onstead, to double or treble that number ; — a number considerably greater, perhaps, than will now be commonly found on a farm of the same ex- tent,— but maintained with much frugality, and always indus- triously occupied, though not oppressed with labor.
16 SCOTTISH HUSBANDMEN OF OLDEN TIMES I
Little of the jealous distinction of ranks which now sub- sists between the farming class and their hired servants, was then known. The connection between master and servant had less of a commercial and mere of a patriarchal character. Every household formed but one society. The masters (at that time generally a sober, virtuous, and religious class) extended a parental care over their servants, and the servants cherished a filial affection for their masters. They sat to- gether, they ate together, they often wrought together; and after the labors of the day were finished, they assembled to- gether around the blazing fire, in the " farmer's ha'," convers- ing over the occurrences of the day, the floating rumors of the country, or " auld warld stories ;" and not un frequently relioious subjects were introduced, or the memory of godly men, and of those who, in evil times, had battled or suffered for the right, wras affectionately commemorated. This familiar intercourse was equally decorous as it was kindly, — for decent order and due subordination were strictly maintained. Tt was the great concern of masters and mistresses, when new servants were required, to obtain such as were of sober and religious habits : if any of a different character got in, his dismissal, at the first term, was certain. Servants in those days never thought of changing masters, unless something occurred which rendered the change indispensable.
At ordinary meals, the master (or good-man, as he was termed) took his seat at the head of the large hall table, the mistress sitting on his right hand, the children on his left, the men-servants next in station, and the maid-servants at the bottom, — one of the latter serving. The use of tea was then unknown, except in the houses of the gentry. Porridge was the constant dish at breakfast and supper ; at dinner broth and meat, milk, cheese, and butter. Twice in the year, ex- clusive of extraordinary occasions, there was a farm festival, in which every inhabitant of the place partook; namely, the kirn, or harvest-home, at the close of autumn, and the cele- bration of the new year. On these occasions, an abundant feast of baked and boiled cheered the heart of the humblest
THEIlt MODE OF LIFE. 17
laborer on the land, and was closed with decent hilarity by a cheerful beaker or two of home-brewed ale.
But the religious order of the family was the distinguish- ing trait. The whole household assembled in the hall (or kitchen) in the morning before breakfast, for family worship, and in the evening before supper. The good-man, of course, led their devotions, every one having his Bible in his hand. This was the stated course even in seed-time and harvest : between five and six in the morning was the hour of prayer in these busy seasons.
On Sabbath all went to church, however great the distance, except one person, in turn, to take care of the house or younger children, and others to tend the cattle. After a late dinner, on their return, the family assembled around the master, who first catechized the children, and then the servants. Each was required to tell what he remembered of the religious services they had joined in at the house of God ; each repeated a por- tion of the Shorter Catechism ; and all were then examined on heads of divinity, from the mouth of the master. Throughout the whole of the Sabbath, all worldly concerns, except such as necessity or mercy required to be attended to, were strictly laid aside ; and nothing was allowed to enter into conversa- tion save subjects of religion.
These homely details may perhaps seem, at first sight, cal- culated to corroborate, in some respects, the exaggerated no- tions which prevail in England respecting the religious auster- ity of the old Presbyterians ; and readers, looking exclusively to the strictness of their discipline, their alleged " proscription of all amusements," the limited education, the want of books, and, above all, the want of refinement, which, according to our modern notions, might be expected to be the necessary result of familiar association with menial servants, — may pos- sibly picture to themselves a state of society altogether clown- ish, melancholy, and monotonous. Yet this would be a very false estimate of the real character and condition of the old Scottish tenantry.
The life of the husbandman and his dependants, iu those
18 SCOTTISH HUSBANDMEN OF OLDEN TIMES :
days, was so far from being unenlivened by mirth and enjoy- ment, that there was in truth much more real enjoyment than is now often to be witnessed. They had more leisure to be merry than their descendants, and there was, in reality, no proscription of innocent amusements. Spring and autumn were the only seasons that required very arduous labor in the old system of husbandry; and then those seasons came round with an air of more festivity, had more of a heart- stirring aspect about them, and their toils were encountered with a more grateful alacrity, than in our days of regular ro- tations and improved machinery. At other seasons of the year the labors were comparatively light. The winning of peats and hay, ewe-milking, sheep-shearing, the dairy, and the tending of the flocks and herds, chiefly occupied the jo- cund days of summer. In winter their leisure was still greater and their enjoyments not less diversified. Field sports were eagerly followed in the intervals of labor, or when frost and snow had stopped the progress of the plough ; nor were the peasantry then restrained from such hardy amusements by the enforcement of demoralizing game-laws. At other times, the grave good-man would toss down to his sons and servant-lads the foot-ball or the kitticat, and bid them take a bout to warm their youthful blood. And in the long winter evenings, when seated around the fire, harmless mirth and jocularity pleasantly alternated with more serious and in- structive conversation ; nor did any puritanical sourness for- bid the recitation of the old romantic border ballads and legends, or the singing of the sweet pastoral songs, of which both the poetry and music were, like the broom and birch of the braes around them, the spontaneous and unso- phisticated growth of their own beautiful country. And thus, with scarcely any books of amusement, without any games of chance, without stimulating liquors, and without ever seeing a newspaper, our simple ancestors managed to beguile their hours of leisure and relaxation cheerfully and innocently; and, on the whole, perhaps quite as rationally, if not quite so elegantly, as their more bustling and ambitious offspring.
THEIR MODE OF LIFE. 19
Amidst the manifold improvements of more recent times (the value of which, in some respects, we are far from denying), it may yet be considered very questionable, whether all that has been abandoned of former manners has been equally well replaced, and whether even our progress in knowledge and re- finement has not been but too dearly purchased by the sacrifice of qualities still more valuable.
This brief outline (for it is nothing more) of a state of ru- ral society which many of our older readers must have wit- nessed in their youth, though few vestiges of it now remain, may perhaps to some persons seem here unnecessary or mis- placed ; but, besides our desire to present to English readers a picture, sketched from real life, of the lovely simplicity of the olden day, we think that it will serve as a key to much of what is most interesting in the subject of this memoir; for in a household somewhat similar to the one we have described, were spent the early days of Alexander Waugh ; and to the influ- ence of such scenes upon a heart of no ordinary sensibility, may be fairly ascribed many of the most valuable, as well as delightful, traits of his character.
Towards the latter end of the last century, a new state of things commenced in Scotland, which has greatly changed both its external condition and the manners of the people. The introduction of manufactures into the towns and villages^ by raising the price of labor, greatly ameliorated the outward circumstances and comforts of the operatives; but this sud- den flow of worldly prosperity, accompanied, as it necessarily was, by the promiscuous intercourse of numerous bodies of people thus brought into close collision, and intermixed with persons of doubtful or licentious character, produced a bane- ful effect upon the religious habits and good morals of this class of the population. About the same period, the small farmers were almost entirely superseded in a number of the agricultural counties by an improved system of hus- bandry, which, together with a more considerable capital, and greater economy of labor, required a wider field of operation; and which, by affording a higher rent, offered a
20 MODERN CHANGE OF MANNERS.
strong inducement to the landholders to let out their prop- erty in more extensive farms. Many of this new class of farmers, who, by their skilful enterprise, were soon raised to a state of wealth and independence, instead of walking in the steps of their predecessors, by regularly worshipping God in their families, and cultivating sober and pious habits, made it their chief ambition to imitate or outstrip the worst extrav- agances of their superiors, by indulging in every species of luxury and dissipation, of vice and impiety. And if it be true, that evil communications corrupt good morals, the examples of such masters must have been followed by most injurious consequences, not only to their own families, but also to their servants and dependants, and all who came under their in- fluence.
The bitter fruits produced by this new state of things soon began to manifest themselves, particularly in the neglect of the duties of domestic devotion, for the observance of which our fathers had been eminently distinguished. The great dis- regard of this sacred service, of such vital importance for pre- serving the fear of God in the hearts of the rising generation, has been accompanied, step by step, by scenes of profaneness and vice, which would have caused the men of a former gen- eration to tremble. Notwithstanding our Sabbath-schools, and the numerous and zealous exertions made in every part of the country to communicate salutary and useful instruction to the young, — exertions to which there is nothing parallel in any preceding part of our history, — crimes, instead of being di- minished, appear to be still on the increase ; and the calendars of our justiciary courts are stained by a multiplicity of daring and enormous acts of wickedness and depravity, committed by young delinquents.
In such a discouraging aspect of matters so vitally connected with the best interests of the country, every pious and well- constituted mind will be disposed to ask with anxious alarm, What will the end of these things be ?
The following observations, by a celebrated divine, appear to us deserving of most seriou* consideration, and by no
IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY RELIGION. 21
means irrelevant to the objects of the present work : — " The public state of religion in the world must entirely depend on the care bestowed on the cultivation of it in private families. If the nursery be neglected, how is it possible that the plan- tation should prosper? Such as the families are of which congregations, churches, and kingdoms, are composed, such will be the nourishing or decayed state of religion in these larger communities ; and consequently it is as clear as noon-day, that the disregard shown to God in our households is the fatal source of that amazing corruption of manners in the present age, which almost every one pretends to lament, but almost none sets himself in earnest to reform. Would you put a stop to abounding iniquity, and promote the cause of God and re- ligion, begin at home, and let your Maker have that honor in your families to which he is entitled."*
The subject of this memoir has left an interesting account of the moral worth and fervent piety of his parents ; and it gives us pleasure to remark, that in those holy and auspicious days of Scottish history, there were few towns, or villages, or glens, in the lowland counties, where persons of similar charac- ter were not to be found.
" My father was an industrious and kind parent. He was, I believe, an upright Christian before God, as he was confessedly a just and honest man before the world. He had been nominated to be an elder by Mr. Bell, minister of Gordon, in the Established Church ; but declined to accept, both from the modest sense of his inability, and from a set- tled disapprobation of the violent measures in the planting of ministers in vacant parishes by lay patronage, which w7ere at that time employed by the ruling party in the General Assembly. These sentiments led him to countenance the public-spirited steps of the first ministers who stated a se- cession from that ruling and overbearing party. lie united with the congregation of Stitchell and Morebattle in calling the Rev. Mr. Hunter to be their pastor. Afterwards ho joined in the call to the Rev. Mr. Coventry to be minister of * The Rev. Robert Walker of Edinburgh.
_1 DR. WAUGh's CHARACTER OF HIS FATHER.
Stitchell ; and continued to walk, to the time of his death, with that church, in all the ordinances of the Lord blame-
: d in his family regularly morning and evening; and on the L :amined his children in re-
gard to their acquaintance with ::.. He took them,
whenever they i bo go wilh him, to the house of
God, and endeavored to form their minds to the love of verything, under God, to his piety and af- :;<rmer he was led to devote me to God in ice of his £ .to lay out a consid-
of his substance for my education for that ser- in addition to these B short and simple annals," extracted rivate diary, we may add, that to the habits of devotion, more particularly, which characterized I - : :;iers house, he frequently, in after-life, reverted with the most lively 1 «a _ ght. He was wont
-ed by his father in
family prayer, and in expounding the Scriptures to his house-
fa . — _. on occasions of special solemnity, the hinds
and c-: - ith their assembled families. He mentioned,
happened to be from home, the family
- lis mother, — as, at that time,
. was the practice generally observed by religious mis-
■ - of families. Of the impressions made upon his young
heart' md by other congenial scenes
r. "vYaugh would often talk to his own
h tears in his eyes ; and to the puri-
g onobling influence of such scenes, not a little
of the a 1 moral elevation of his own
character, may be clearly traced. The most marked peculi-
of his h ght and feeling were evidently
formed, at a ver ge, under his father's hallowed roof,
and in the pastoral seclusion of his native moorlands. The
"um of character (if we may so e irselves), —
at least where it possesses any natural depth, — is laid proba-
DR. WAUGIl's CHARACTER OF HIS MOTHKU. 23
bly at a much earlier period of life than most persona are aware of; and though the surface may he afterwards moulded and modified, as manners are superinduced, and the mind care- fully cultivated, or allowed to run to waste, " like an unweeded garden," yet the intrinsic qualities of the intellectual soil, and the peculiar flavor of its fruits, are, in most cases, subsequently susceptible of but little substantial alteration.
Concerning his mother, Dr. Waugh has left the following account : — " Piety and meekness, and the tenderest regard for the happiness of her children, formed the outline of her character. Born of eminently pious parents, Alexander John- stone, farmer in East Gordon, and Elizabeth Waugh, her mind, at an early period, was formed for the love of goodness. Through life she maintained the character of a godly, modest, and inoffensive woman. Her devotions were regular and fervent: the law of kindness to all was on her lips; but towards her children her affection was uncommonly strong, and her religious principles directed her affection into the path of tender solicitude about their eternal welfare. By prayer, by exhortation, by example, and by many tears, did she study to advance our knowledge of the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. She had herself experienced the sweetness of unaffected godliness, and was greatly concern- ed that her children might also taste and see that the Lord is gracious."
A warm-hearted and prudent mother will exert almost un- limited influence over her children during the first six or eight years of their life — a period of all others when the heart is most susceptible of deep and lasting impressions. The divine Author of our frame hath thus, in his infinite goodness, fur- nished a pious mother with efficient means of moulding the tempers of her children, and implanting in their tender minds those principles of piety and virtue which will excite them to everything great and excellent in conduct, and prepare them, as immortal beings, for the high destinies of a never-ending existence. She will lead her tender and interesting charge to the feet of the good Shepherd, and till their glowing I
24 INFLUENCE OF A PIOUS MOTHER.
with high admiration of his condescension and grace, by- reminding them, that when parents brought their children to him whilst he sojourned on earth, he laid his hands on them and blessed them ; and that now, when he is exalted to the skies, he still promises to gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom. Solomon frequently ad- verts, with great tenderness, to the pious counsels of his mother. Timothy appears to have been instructed, when a child, by his mother and grandmother, in the knowledge of the Scrip- tures ; and it would be difficult to find an instance of children brought up in the fear of God and the love of the Saviour, while their mother showed no marked solicitude to cherish a life of piety in her family.
" Delightful task ! to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot, To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind, To breathe the enlivening spirit, and to fix The generous purpose in the glowing breast."
What an incalculable blessing to the church — what a glo- rious prospect of the revival of religion — to behold our young females, amidst all the amiable and useful accomplishments which adorn their sex, engraving the words of Solomon on the frame and temper of their hearts — " Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain ; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised !" Few men have attained to high eminence, either in science or in religion, who have not expressed deep- felt gratitude for the example, and counsels, and prayers of an affectionate and pious mother ; and in the case of Dr. Waugh, this grateful feeling was strikingly manifested. It were injustice to her memory not to record most prominently the reverential affection with which he ever spoke of the char- acter of his mother. It was his delight to breathe into the ears of his own children the story of her piety and kindness ; to her he looked back, even at the age of threescore years and ten, with all the humility and fondness of a child ; and when, nearly forty years after her death, he heard the summons is-
INFLUENCE OF A PIOUS MOTUElt. 25
sued that was to gather him to his fathers, his filial tenderness, as will be seen at the closing account of his life, even then prompted the wish — that his pillow could have been softened by the hand of his mother, and his heart refreshed and strengthened by her prayers ! — thus recommending on his death-bed the performance of that duty to which he was ever so anxious to direct the attention of the young — " Ilonor thy father and thy mother."
The laudable exertions of this excellent parent, in the re- ligious education of her children, were followed by a rich recompense of reward. With a mind constituted like hers, she tasted the sweetest of all pleasures, in beholding her three children give satisfactory evidence of fearing God from their youth.
Elizabeth, her only daughter, experienced in her childhood the fulfilment of God's gracious promise — " They that seek me early shall find me." She was equal to her mother in tender sensibility, in ardent piety, and in the faithful dis- charge of every Christian and domestic duty, as a wife, as a mother, and as a friend. She had a numerous family of children, towards whom her heart yearned with all the kindly affections ; but her chief and deepest solicitude was ever oc- cupied about their eternal interests, in her estimation infinitely more important than to see them in possession of thousands of gold and silver : they were indeed children of many pious counsels and fervent prayers. Her dying chamber was like the gate of heaven. The affections of her heart seemed to be altogether overpowered whilst contemplating the unsearch- able riches of sovereign grace, and telling the members of her family, and her Christian friends who came to visit her, what God had done for her soul. So long as she was able to ex- press her feelings, the high praises of redeeming love were continually on her lips. On the evening of the 27th October, 1809, when her articulation had become so indistinct that it was with great difficulty she could make herself to be under- stood, the last request she made to her family was to sing the twenty-third Psalm. Her lip- were perceived to move
26 THOMAS WAUGH.
all the time they were singing ; and in about ten minutes after, she breathed her last, without a struggle or a groan, and fell peacefully asleep in the arms of her God and Saviour.
Thomas, the elder son, who succeeded his father in the farm, appears to have been also decidedly religious in early life. He was a man of acute and vigorous intellect, of simple manners, and of unbending integrity : wedded to old forms and customs — the only valuable effect of which was, his sturdy attachment to the old-fashioned and scriptural notions of the holiness of God's law, and the strictness of its moral sanctions — the fixedness of resolution with which he adhered to what he conceived to be the path of duty in his religious concerns, as well as in his intercourse with the world, dis- played in high perfection the tenacem projiositi virum. His friends sometimes thought that he carried this temper of mind too far ; but he was esteemed and respected by all who knew him, for his pious, upright, benevolent character. The pecu- liarities of his manner, though numerous, were perfectly in- offensive ; and, under a rough exterior, he possessed much kindness of heart. No two brothers could have evinced, generally, dispositions more striking and contrasted than did Thomas and Alexander Waugh. The former had no strong partiality to the barren moors of East Gordon, or to the rec- ollections of Caldron-brae, any further than as these localities afforded support to his numerous children. Two things he loved to see —
" The fleecy flocks the hills adorn, The valleys rich with waving corn."
Imagination formed no element in his mental structure : while to Alexander, on the other hand, the wild heaths, moss-haggs, and gray stones of Gordon, were as Arcadian meads and mar- ble columns — replete with beauty and poetry, and pregnant with " thoughts more deep than tears !"
His younger brother used to delight in mentioning the following pleasing instance of fraternal affection. On setting out from home, to attend his usual course of study at the
ALEXANDER JUS EARLY EDUCATION. 27
University, after receiving all the money that liis father judged necessary, Thomas generally followed him to some short dis- tance, under pretence of taking leave, and thus found an oppor- tunity of putting into his hands an additional sum, in order that his mind might be easy in regard to his future means. In ad- verting to this matter afterwards, in the presence of some of the near relations of the family, he added, that his brother never kept any account of the money thus advanced, considering it to fall under that Scripture rule — " Let not thy left haud know what thy right hand doeth."
Through the blessing of God on his patient industry and fru- gal habits, Thomas Waugh was enabled to purchase a farm of considerable value on the banks of the Tweed, where, in the bosom of his family, he died, 8th August, 1820, in the full assurance of faith that he should have boldness to enter into the holiest of all, by the blood of Jesus.
Alexander, who was the youngest of the family, was de- voted by his parent.-, whilst yet a child, to the Christian ministry. With many of the small farmers it was customary, besides educating all their children at the parochial school, to bring up one of their sons to a learned profession. To this honorable parental ambition we are indebted for many of the professors in our different universities, many of our most eminent physicians, and by far the greater part of the clergy, both in and out of the establishment, who flourished in this part of the island during the preceding century. The subject of this memoir continued at the school of his native parish till nearly twelve years of age, occupied in the ordi- nary exercises of reading, writing, and arithmetic. It de- serves to be mentioned, that at every Scottish parochial school a portion of the Bible was then daily read by all the scholars, who were also required to commit accurately to memory the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, often with the quotations from Scripture, or proofs, as they were called, attached to each question. In this most perspicuous and comprehensive sum- mary of divine truth it was imperative on the master regu- larly to examine all the children every Saturday. Through
28 EARLSTOUN SCHOOL.
the watchful and parental superintendence of the presbyteries of the established church, these beneficial regulations are still enforced in most of the parochial schools, each of which is regularly examined by a committee of presbytery every year.
As a preparatory step for the University, Alexander Waugh was removed from Gordon school, at the commencement of 1766, and sent to Earlstoun, a neighboring parish, the school- master of which had obtained high celebrity as a teacher of Latin and Greek. His parents, for their station of life, were in what might be called easy circumstances ; and they expended with cheerful liberality a very considerable sum during the sub- sequent thirteen years, in giving him a more finished education than most young men intended for the ministry were then ac- customed to receive.
The village of Earlstoun, where Alexander Waugh prose- cuted his education during the greater part of the succeeding five years (the important five years from twelve to seventeen) lies in the very centre of that romantic region so long and justly celebrated as the Arcadia of Scotland. The hill of Cowdenknowes, famed in many a Doric lay, overhangs the village on one side, whilst on another the ruins of the Rhymer's Tower, associated with so much that is interesting both in history and romance, are still to be seen on the " pas- toral haughs of Leader." At a short distance, the Tweed, after receiving the subsidiary streams of Ettrick and Gala- water, pursues its stately course through a rich and beauti- ful country, diversified by the picturesque hills of Eildon, and embellished by the monastic ruins of Melrose and Dry- burgh. These, and a hundred other scenes of old renown, to be viewed from the Black Hill of Earlstoun or the neigh- boring heights, could not fail to make a vivid impression on the heart and fancy of such a youth as Alexander Waugh ; and doubtless contributed, in no ordinary degree, to foster the national enthusiasm which formed so remarkable a trait in his character, as well as to awaken the slumbering powers of that rich poetical imagination, which in after-life so often
EARLSTOUN SCHOOL. 29
astonished and delighted his auditors, both in his pulpit dis- courses, and on more familiar occasions.
The pleasing account which he has himself left, in his pa- pers, of the scenes of Earlstoun school, will call to the recol- lection of many of our readers " the incense-breathing morn" of youth, when
" The sooty blackbird Mellowed his pipe and softened every note, The eglantine smelled sweeter, and the rose Assumed a die more deep ; whilst every flower Vied with its fellow plant in luxury Of dress."
"January 1, 17GG, entered the grammar-school of Earls- toun, in the county of Berwick : John Mill, master. The providence of God directed my worthy father to send me thither, by the good character which the schoolmaster bore? and by its nearness to Gordon. Though the progress we made in the Latin language was slower than what is usually made in the grammar-schools of large towns or cities, yet the sim- ple and innocent manners of the place, the regard to the duties of religion, which was universal, and the wild and pleasing scenery of that part of the country, brought advantages to my heart which in many other places were not to be expected. I cannot recollect the manners of that happy village, and the innocent pursuits of former days, especially when I com- pare them with the far, fir other manners which prevail in London, without sighing and longing for the past. Goldsmith has, in his Deserted Village, touched those days with so happy a pencil, that it needs little more but to change the names, to make his poem a description of Earlstoun, with this dif- ference, that it is not yet, and I trust never will be, a ' desert- ed village.' But Goldsmith's minister, schoolmaster, and pub- lican, were the minister, schoolmaster and publican of Earl- stoun, when I first knew it.
" The people of Scotland reap important advantages from the establishment of parochial schools in all parts of the na- tion. This, depending not on the precarious charity of the
30 EARLSTOUN SCHOOL.
times, but on the authority of Parliament, will continue to be a source of knowledge and instruction for youth, I trust, to late ages. By the care that is taken to make them at school acquainted with the doctrines of the Assembly's Catechism ? they are prepared for taking a respectable part in the an- nual parochial examination, and fitted for understanding the public instructions which, on every Lord's day, are given to the people. The cheapness of education also brings it within the reach of the poorest laborer. One shilling a quarter for read- ing ; one shilling and sixpence for reading, writing, and ac- counts ; and half-a-crown for Latin and Greek, were the stated wages. The care which the worthy master took of us, his joy at our proficiency, and his uneasiness at our sloth, were truly parental. I shall reverence his memory while I live.*
* This system owes its existence to the Scottish Reformers. The First Book of Discipline, published in 1560, by Knox and his com- panions, contains the first suggestion: " Seeing that men now-a-days are not miraculously gifted, as in the times of the apostles, for the con- tinuance of knowledge and learning to the generations following, espe- cially for the profit and comfort of Christ's kirk, it is necessary that care be had of the virtuous and godly education of youth. We judge, therefore, that in every parish there should be a schoolmaster ; such an one as is able at least to teach the grammar and the Latin tongue, where the town is of any reputation." This suggestion, aided by fre- quent resolutions, to the same effect, of the General Assembly of the Kirk, sufficed for a beginning ; but tbe scheme did not take sufficient root till 1616, when it was enforced, with some necessary details, by an order of the Scottish council The order needed a legislative sanction; and this it obtained, in 1633, in a parliament held during one of Charles the First's visits to Scotland, which added some provisions for the sup- port of the schools and the teachers. By these means the wants of the more populous districts were supplied ; and, during the fervor of "the covenanted work of reformation" which soon followed, these schools concurred with the zealous labors of the presbyters in spreading among high and low a very fair degree of common knowledge suited to their different ranks, and a degree of religious knowledge which would put the attainments of the present generation, in that respect, to the blush. The gravity of character, the intense regard to duty, the stern zeal of the Scottish people of that age, were primarily owing to religious sentiment; but their susceptibility to this sentiment was
EARLSTOUN SCHOOL. 31
"On one or other of the da)^s of January in 1*767 or 1768, it pleased God to visit me with the small-pox. Inoculation was then unknown in that part of the country. My dear father, on being sent for, came himself, and brought me to East Gordon behind him on horseback, in the midst of the snow, which lay a foot deep on the ground. To this circumstance it was probably owing that I had so small a number of pustules, — little more than fifty : they were also of a good kind. I soon recovered, and returned back to school. To thee, the God of my life, and the length of my days, I ascribe praise and glory for my preservation. 0 that the life saved in thy mercy were ever employed in thy service.
owing to the early and general culture of their minds. The conse- quences to the civil and religious liberties of Scotland, where the first heave was felt, and, through sympathy and connection, to England and to Europe, it would be difficult to over-estimate.
The atrocious endeavors of Charles the Second to extirpate presby- tery had trodden down the system ef education so closely connected with it. Where any schools were left, teachers had intruded who were ignorant and worthless ; and after the revolution, it was found neces- sary, by a Scottish act, passed in 1693 ("for settling the quiet and peace of the church"), to ordain that every parochial teacher should be liable to the Trial-judgment and censure of the presbyteries of the bounds for their sufficiency, qualifications, and deportment in their office ; and by an act passed in 1696, the whole system was re-established and re- modelled. It required a teacher to be provided in every parish, who was to be appointed by the minister and heritors (landholders) of the parish, with a fixed salary of not less than 100 mcrks (5/. lis. Id stg.) nor exceeding 200 merks (11/. 2*. 2d.) annually, to be paid by the heritors in proportion to their valued rents, in the same manner as the tiends or stipends of the ministers. The teacher was, besides, to have a house and a garden, and was permitted to exact moderate fees (sub- ject to the control of the minister and heritors) from the scholars. Un- der this enactment, the parish schools of Scotland flourished for a con. tury. The scholars were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and, if they chose, book-keeping, mathematics, Latin, and Greek. The school was opened and closed with prayer. The books principally used for reading were the Bible and catechisms. Each scholar, as soon as le was able, was required, every morning, to repeat a part of the Shorter Catechism, with or without Scripture proofs ; and the Satur-
32 EARLSTOUN SCHOOL.
" As I believe that a sparrow falls not to the ground with- out the agency of Divine Providence, I think it right to pre- serve the memory of the care of that Providence about my life during the period of youthful rashness and inexperience. How often was I in danger of being dashed in pieces while I was climbing the tree, the loose fragments of old towers, and the rugged precipice jutting out over the river! I almost feel the trembling of my joints while I look back on these dangers at Cowdenknowes, Rhymer's Tower, and particularly the Gaitheugh opposite to Old Melrose. The least slip of my foot, or withdrawment of my hand, might have proved fatal to my existence in this world. I never repeat these beauti-
day forenoon was appropriated to a review of what had been learned during the week, especially in religious knowledge. The only vacation was for one month during harvest ; and, immediately before this (some- times oftener), the school was publicly examined in presence of the whole presbytery. To eke out his income, the teacher usually held other small parochial offices. He was precentor, or clerk, session clerk (i. e. he kept the book containing the proceedings of the minister, elders, and heritors, attended their meetings, and kept the parish registers), col- lector of cess (a sort of poor-rate), and land-surveyor for the parish ; and for a considerable period, men of excellent qualifications were tempted, by these various emoluments, to become candidates for the situation. The male scholars (for boys and girls attended the same school, though in different classes and seated apart from each other) were thus fitted for the college at a small expense ; and though few or no great schol- ars were produced, yet all had enough to give their shrewd perseve- rance its full play. The perfervidum ingenhim Scotorum was attem- pered down to a firm purpose in a rational pursuit ; and the result may be seen in the vast numbers of Scotchmen who, since the above period of 1696, have risen to wealth, rank, and renown, in every department of active life.
The changes that had taken place in everything in the course of a century rendered the emoluments of the parochial teacher inadequate, and in the same proportion had lessened the qualifications of the candi- dates for the office. In 1803, therefore, the British parliament passed an act, increasing the salary ; so that, for the twenty-five years next following, it should not be less than 300, nor more than 400 merks, and that at the end of every twenty-five years it should be augmented in proportion to the average price of a chalder of oatmeal.
EARLSTOUN SCHOOL. 33
ful lines of Addison's, but my imagination hurries back to the period I speak of :
' When in the slippery ptiths of youth With heedless steps I ran, Thine arm, unseen, conveyed me safe, And led me up to man.
Through hidden dangers, snares, and deaths, It gently cleared my way ;'
O that I could add, with equal truth !
' And through the pleasing scenes of vice, More to be feared than they.'
" In the midst, however, of these dangers, I was gathering health, and strengthening my constitution. My school-fellows and I were accustomed to rise in the summer mornings some- times at five o'clock, and, to the number of ten or twenty, to visit ;The White Cleugh Well,' a kind of mineral spring, about a mile and a half from the village, where, if the waters did us no signal good, we were certainly much indebted, as somebody calls it, to the goddess of the waters.
"At the earlier season of the year, we were accustomed to rise very soon also, for the important business of drawing our fishing lines, which had been set over nio-ht in the Leader.
"To those and similar excursions, particularly bird-nesting in the country, the most pastoral and sweet that my eyes ever beheld, and where every brae is replenished with bushes, and every bush vocal, — is to be ascribed the good health which our youth generally enjoy, and the enthusiasm with which every native thinks and speaks of Leader haughs and Tweedside : —
' Yes ! let the rich deride, the proud disdain, These humble blessings of the lowly train ; To me more dear, congenial to my heart, One native charm, than all the gloss of art.'
2*
34 EARLSTOUN SCHOOL.
" I recollect the friendships of youth with reverence. They are the embraces of the heart of man ere vice has pol- luted, or interest diverted its operations. In the churchyard of Earlstoun lies the friend of my youth. John Anderson was a young man of the gentlest manners and of unassumed piety. Often, when the public service of the church was over, have we wandered among the broom of Cowdenknowes, and talked of the power of that Being by whose hands the foundations of the mountains we beheld were laid, and by whose pencil the lovely scene around us was drawn, and by whose breath the flowers among our feet wrere perfumed. On our knees have we many a time in succession lifted up our hearts to him for knowledge, for pardon, for the formation of his image in the soul. We looked forward to the days of coming prosperity, and fondly hoped it might please God that, hand in hand, we should pass through life to that world we were taught to love and aspire after. But Heaven thought otherwise, and by a consumption carried my friend to the grave in the bloom of life. I cannot, even at this distance of time, read his letters, but the recollection of the past over- comes my soul with weakness.
" John Anderson had a sister : if ever piety and mildness of soul, with most becoming softness, inhabited a female form, it was the form of that excellent young woman. Through solicitude about her brother, she caught his disor- der. I hurried to Earlstoun the moment I heard of her danger : she made an effort to rise up to receive me. ' My brother, my brother, he whom you so loved, is gone! I heard the trampling of the horses' feet as his funeral passed by the door. I shall soon be with him. My God will sup- ply all my wants out of his fulness in glory by Christ Jesus.' Her strength was spent ; — in four clays after, I held the cord which let her down into the grave. She was buried in the grave adjoining to her brother's, and but ten days after his interment. 'They were lovely in their lives, and in their deaths they were not divided.' They were the boast of the village. Their memory is still fragrant ; reproach couJd not
EARLSTOUN SCHOOL. 35
sully their fair character ; I do not remember of an enemy they ever had. Their religion was truly like apples of gold in pic- tures of silver. Farewell, my earliest friend ! I will hold up your image to my heart, and trace on my own the sincerity, friendship, love, and goodness of yours."*
One of his surviving class-fellows at Earlstoun school, who has attained to honorable distinction in his profession, has kindly favored us with an account of this interesting period of his life : " Alexander Waugh was the most active, lively boy at the school, and the leader of all frolics. It was im-
* The above John Anderson was the brother of the late Mr. Ander- son, surgeon in Selkirk, the father of Mrs. Mungo Park. With Mr. Park, who was a native of the same part of the country as himself, Mr. Waugh was on terms of great intimacy ; and when in London in 1805, previous to his setting out on his second journey to Africa, in which he lost his life, Mr. Park, with Mr. Alexander Anderson, his brother-in- law, who accompanied him on his travels, was in the habit of spending the greatest part of his spare time at Mr. Waugh's. Independent of the interest taken by him in the extension of geographical knowledge, Mr. Waugh was deeply solicitous for the temporal and eternal interests of the inhabitants of that unhappy country; and the manner in which they might be best promoted upon the return of those two interesting men from their hazardous undertaking, was by them all fondly and ar- dently anticipated. Mr. Anderson had not the appearance of a strong man : he wanted the athletic form and well-braced nerves of Park, whom, however, he was firm in his determination to accompany, not- withstanding an apprehension delicately expressed one evening by Mr. Waugh, that the climate might be more distressing in its effects upon him than upon Mr. Park, who immediately replied, with great anima- tion, " My dear friend, I have no fear of him ; he's the very man for the climate. I'll bring him back as tough as wire." Poor fellow ! he died a very few months after they set out on their journey.
At this time, Mr. Waugh became acquainted with the late Sir Joseph Banks, who kindly and voluntarily communicated to him any intelligence he received of the travellers; and when the first re- port of Mr. Park's death reached this country. Sir Joseph sent Mr. W. immediate word. It may be observed, that Mr. W. thought, from the first, that there was sufficient consistency in the report, not then gener- ally credited, to warrant him in not entertaining any hope of its being either premature or false.
36 EARLSTOUN SCHOOL.
possible to detain him at home in the mornings : he was of- ten out before sunrise ; and the places he visited were Carrol- side, Cowdenknowes, but more generally Gaitheugh, distant about two miles, — a steep ravine opposite Old Melrose, for ages noted as the best cover for foxes in all the country. Yv'hen asked, on his return at breakfast-time, where he had been, his answer generally was, ' I have been seeing foxy, and hearing the linnets.' His taste for the beauties of nature was born with him, and constituted a leading feature of his mind. It was at Gaitheugh that, one morning, he fell from a tree, when climbing for a gled's nest, and lay for some time insen- sible, no one being with him. In the midst of all his ram- bles and frolics, he was the best scholar at school, especially in Latin, and equal to any of the other boys in Greek. Many a time his class-fellows exerted themselves to excel him, but in general failed. Most of his companions rose in after-life to re- spectable rank, either in the military or medical department. Here he learned to play on the violin, of which he was very fond."
Besides the accident mentioned by his class-fellow, he had nearly lost his life at Gordon, when, during one of his childish rambles, he fell into a peat hagg, where he would have been inevitably drowned but for the efforts of his brother Thomas, who caught him by his clothes, and rescued him. The same watchful eye which saved David, when a stripling, from the paw of the lion, and the paw of the bear, and preserved him to be the swTeet singer of Israel, watched over Alexander Waugh in his childhood and }7outh, and elevated him to a sphere of distinguished usefulness in the church of Christ. There are few who cannot recollect instances of the signal in- terposition of a gracious Providence, when there was but a hair's breadth betwixt them and death. " Bless the Lord, O my soul ! who hath redeemed thy life from destruction, and crowned thee with losing-kindness and tender mercy."
It is pleasant, amidst all the youthful sprightliness which characterized this spirited and lively boy, to find the princi- ples of fervent piety deeply rooted in his heart. He read the
EAULY riETY STITCHELL. 37
Scriptures frequently and devoutly, delighted in secret prayer, and labored to imbibe the holy temper of Ilim "who in- creased in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and man." It is stated by one of the few surviving companions of his boyhood, that it was their custom, perhaps in the spirit of a very natural desire to imitate their superiors in years, to meet together under the shade of an elder-tree, whose withered trunk still remains, and with much decorum to conduct the ordinary services of a prayer-meeting. On these occasions, Alexander Waugh, being the eldest boy, generally offered up the prayers ; and it was from observing the early indications of the opening qualities of his head and heart thus given (and no doubt most gratefully listened to by his mother, who stood concealed in the vicinity), that her mind was first im- pressed with the desire of iitting him for the sacred ministry. We are also informed by one of his earliest associates at Gor- don, that before he left Earlstoun school, when he was little more than fifteen years of age, he occasionally attended a re- ligious society which met at East Gordon for fellowship and prayer, in the house of James Spence, an elder of the Secession Church ; and that, even at this early period, he was marked, both by the aged and the young, for his singularly appropriate and interesting manner of expressing himself in prayer. Our informant also recollects receiving a letter from him about this time, in commendation of such religious societies, " full of se- rious thoughts and good advices."
In 1770, when sixteen years of age, he joined the Secession congregation of Stitchell, of which he continued a member till 1779, when he was licensed to preach the everlasting Gospel. The holy enthusiasm with which, in after life, he was wont to speak of the sacramental occasions on Stitchell Brae, will be particularly noticed in a subsequent part of the memoir.
The congregation of Stitchell was at that period under the pastoral charge of the Rev. George Coventry, of whom he never spoke but in terms of affectionate veneration and grat- itude. To mention, indeed, the name of that most excellent
38 REV. GEORGE COVENTRY.
man, is to recall to the minds of all who knew him, every- thing in the ministerial character that was pious, kind, peace- able, lovely, and of good report. His conversation, his ser- mons, his prayers, all breathed the spirit of that Master who was meek and lowly of heart. It seemed to afford him pe- culiar pleasure to communicate information to the young from his rich store of knowledge. By the kindly affections of his heart he was given to hospitality, and being in easy circum- stances, his house became the frequent resort of minister?, and of young men during the time of their preparatory course for the sacred office. In this latter class he always took a very deep interest, lending them books, directing their studies, giving them salutary counsel, and in urgent cases, adminis- tering pecuniary aid. The obscure village where he dwelt ac- quired importance and interest, as the scene of his pious la- bors, and works of benevolence and goodness. The writer of these pages, after an interval of thirty-five years, still feels his bosom glow with gratitude for the many profitable and happy days which, during the yearly vacation from college, he was wont to spend in his hospitable mansion, listening to in- structions which have proved more beneficial in his future ex- perience of life, than all the books he has had occasion to pe- ruse. He breathed out his soul at Edinburgh, 30th June, 1795, in lively hope of eternal blessedness; his wonted heav- enly and placid temper still beaming on his countenance. The habitual tenor of his life formed a commentary on the words of the apostle, whom he greatly resembled in the leading fea- tures of his mind, — " God is love ; and whosoever dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."
Before adverting to the course of study requisite to pre- pare young men for entering on the sacred office, we may re- mark, that in a national institution for advancing the interests of science and literature, all possible facilities should be given to students of every rank in society, and of every religious denomination ; because a government increases its own sta- bility in proportion as it augments the happiness of its sub- jects by the general diffusion of sound and wholesome know-
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 39
ledge. It is, therefore, to be regretted, that the two English Universities, which have acquired such honorable celebrity, should, by the exclusive system on which they are regulated, seal up their precious treasures of instruction from all who are not members of the established church, however deserving as subjects of the state, or eminent for their rank in society. The continuance of this distinction, so injurious to a consider- able part of the population, and so invidious and offensive in itself, can only be ascribed to that jealous dislike of innovation, which often retains the customs of a barbarous age for a long period of years after they have been generally reprobated by every candid and well-informed mind. The Scottish Univer- sities, happily, have no exclusive test to prevent students, whatever be their religious sentiments, from enjoying every literary and scientific privilege. In consequence of this liberal system, the students for the holy ministry, from the different bodies of dissenters in Scotland, pass through the same course of education as those who are trained up for the national church. This state of things has been of incalculable advantage in elevating the character of the Secession ministers, and, through them, of the Secession church, which constitutes the great and leading body in a state of separation from the national establishment. No church will maintain respecta- bility of character, without a learned as well as a pious min- istry. "The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; fur he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." llu whose office it is to instruct others, should be careful to have his own mind richly stored with knowledge, that as a scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God, he may bring forth out of his treasures things both new and old. Few men would be willing to employ a person without literature and experience as a physician or a judge ; and shall it be thought that a man destitute of such qualifica- tions is fitted to explain the most obscure passages of Scrip- ture, solve perplexed cases of conscience, or give such a lumi- nous, convincing statement of an abstruse doctrine of theology, as will satisfy the humble inquirer after truth, and impart
40 COURSE OF STUDY
peace and consolation to the troubled heart ? There have been, we will admit, exceptions to this ; but these have been extraordinary cases, which serve only to give greater force to the general maxim. No one, indeed, has been more forward to acknowledge than those highly-gifted individuals them- selves, the great disadvantage they have suffered by the de- ficiency of their early life in literary acquirements. How shall he who is a stranger to the learned languages unfold the mind of the sacred writers, by analyzing the phrases of the original, so necessary, in many instances, for elucidating the meaning, and giving energy to the sentiment \ How shall he who is not versed in general knowledge, unravel those subtle and disingenuous sophisms by which men of corrupt minds labor to ensnare the simple and uninformed ? or how shall he present such a perspicuous and well-arranged ex- hibition of divine truth as will enable the simple-hearted Christian to give a reason of the hope that is in him, with meekness and fear ? There is no branch of knowledge from which a minister may not derive advantage, and which, if he be a pious man, he will not diligently improve, for furnish- ing himself with new facilities to unfold the mind of the Spirit in the Holy Scriptures.
The presbyteries of the Secession require attendance at the University for four years before they take a young man on trial, in order to his admission to the study of theology ; and he is then subjected to a strict examination regarding his knowledge in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, logic, and natural and moral philosophy. By a late arrangement, the Synod have appointed two theological tutors ; the one to give instructions in Biblical literature, and criticism immediately connected with the original languages in which the Scriptures were written ; the other to give lectures on the doctrines and duties of theology, and to hear and remark on the discourses which have been prescribed to the students for fitting them to become public teachers. The students are required to at- tend the first of these professors two sessions of nine weeks ; and the second, three sessions of the same period. Dunne
PRESCRIBED BY THE SECESSION CHURCH. 41
the space of five years, which this course occupies, the presby- teries in whose bounds they reside are accustomed to assign certain books for their perusal, on which they are occasionally examined ; and to appoint one discourse, at least, to be delivered before them every year, to ascertain what progress they have made in their studies.
Regarding the qualifications of the Secession ministers, we may adduce the testimony of a minister of the Church of Scotland, who, during a long public life of more than half a century, was respected and honored by men of all parties and denominations, for a sound judgment, a candid mind, a high-toned, incorruptible integrity, and for exerting his great influence in the settlement of evangelical ministers throughout the country : — " The candidates for orders in the Secession have at least the means of being as well educated as the min- isters of the establishment. This fact, whatever additional strength it may give to the Secession, is of no small import- ance to the country at large ; for, from the congregations of eight seceding ministers, deposed by the Assembly in 1740 (adding to them the Presbytery of Relief, which sprung from the deposition of a single individual, many years later), there have risen up at last nearly three hundred and sixty seceding meetings, which, at a moderate computation, may, in round numbers, contain a fourth or fifth part of the population of Scotland.
" When so large a proportion of the inhabitants of the kingdom is concerned, it is at least consolatory to believe, that they have access to instructors who are qualified to do them justice. The doctrines now delivered in the seceding meetings are in no essential article different from the instruc- tions received in the established churches. Though, by being more numerous, and always well educated, the established clergy can certainly produce a much greater number of con- siderable men ; it cannot be denied that, among the ministers belonging to the Secession, there are individuals not inferior to the most respectable ministers of the establishment ; and, it ought to be in candor admitted, that their people are, by
42 STUDIES AT EDINBURGH.
a great proportion of them, as well instructed as those who adhere to the church."*
In 1770, Alexander "Waugh entered the University of Edin- burgh, where he continued four sessions prior to his theological studies. He attended the Latin class taught by Mr. Stewart ; the Greek, by Mr. Hunter ; the logic, by Mr. Stevenson ; the natural philosophy, by Mr. Russell ; the moral philosophy, by Dr. Ferguson ; and, in a subsequent year, after he had entered on the study of divinity, he attended Dr. James Robertson, professor of Hebrew.
It is to be regretted, that none of his papers of this period can be found, which might enable us to trace the gradual de- velopment of his mind. We have seen that, during his attend- ance at the grammar-school, he was greatly distinguished for his proficiency in Latin ; and this language appears to have been always with him a favorite study. He was familiarly ac- quainted with the Latin classics, and particularly with Virgil, whom he was accustomed to quote in a very appropriate and happy manner, and in the illustration of whose rich and glowing imagery, his extensive general knowledge and fine fancy shone eminently forth. When thus engaged in the pres- ence of the young, there was an absence of ostentatious criti- cism, that removed all fear of the examiner, combined with an exuberance of striking anecdote from ancient and modern his- tory, and of playful illustration of ancient manners by those of our own days, which gave an interest and a definite mean- ing to the text, that learned criticism alone generally fails to impart. To his intinrnte acquaintance with the Latin writers we are to ascribe, in no inconsiderable degree, his fine classical taste in composition, that copia fundi, that facility of express- ing his sentiments in elegant and forcible language, which characterized him in future life In regard to Greek, he appears to have restricted his study of that beautiful and copious lan- guage almost exclusively to the New Testament, which he read with great facility, at the same time analyzing the words
* Life of Dr. Erskine, by Sir Henry Moncrieff "Wellwood, Bart., D.D. pp. 454, 455.
DR. FERGUSON S LECTURES. 43
and phrases, so as to bring forth the meaning and beauty of the sacred writers, when expounding the Scriptures, in a manner which never failed to leave a deep impression on his hearers. In Hebrew literature he never attained to eminence. It is, perhaps, difficult to explain how the Hebrew language, in which so considerable a part of the Scriptures was originally written, has been but little studied in Britain ; and how we should be so greatly inferior in this department to the Ger- mans, who have devoted themselves to the diligent study of a language highly venerable, not merely for its great antiquity, but for being the first medium in which the God of heaven condescended to record the all-important discoveries of his covenant mercy to sinful men.
Mr. Waugh discovered a strong predilection for moral philosophy, as it was then taught by Dr. Ferguson ; and it appears, from the college records, that he attended two courses of lectures under that celebrated person, whose vivid eloquence, and powerful reasoning on the important topics which came under his review, had raised the class to a high degree of ce- lebrity. The great and leading fault of his prelections was, that he did not ground his arguments on Divine revelation ; the only competent authority to which the appeal must ever be made in all moral discussions regarding the relations which subsist betwixt man and his Creator and Judge. By keeping the Scriptures entirely out of the view of his students, they were led to think too favorably of the capabilities of human nature, and less deeply to feel their obligations to that atoning blood which hath appeased the wrath of God for man's trans- gression, and to that sovereign and almighty grace which can alone change and renovate the faculties of our depraved and fallen nature. To his lectures, which were published after he had resigned his chair in the University, he prefixed the follow- ing advertisement : — " It may be asked, perhaps, why the pro- fessor should restrict his argument, as he has done, to the mere topics of natural religion and reason ? This being the founda- tion of every superstructure, whether in morality or religion, aud therefore to be separately treated, he considered as that
44
part of the work which was allotted to him. Farther in- stitutions may improve, but cannot supersede, what the Almighty has revealed in his works, and in the suggestions of reason to man.
' "When first we from the teeming womb were brought, With inborn precepts then our souls were fraught.'
Rowe's Lucan, book ix. line 984."
It is difficult to comprehend how a person of Dr. Ferguson's acknowledged candor should have satisfied his mind with such reasoning ; as if the founders of a class of moral philosophy in a Christian university could have intended that the students should rest contented with the imperfect discoveries of natural reason regarding the perfections of the Deity, the immortality of the soul, the nature of virtue and true happiness — the most important discussions which can interest or agitate the human mind ; — as if the Scriptures had never been written, and stu- dents had been listening to the prelections of Socrates or Cicero — men, it may be observed, who would have gratefully availed themselves in illustrating such topics, of the superior light of Divine revelation, had that invaluable boon been com- municated to them.
Dr. Paley, in his preface to a course of lectures on moral and political philosophy, which he delivered in the University of Cambridge, nearly at the same time, justly reprobates those teachers who divide too much the law of nature from the pre- cepts of revelation, and industriously decline the mention of Scripture authorities, as belonging to a different province. In support of this opinion, he quotes, with high approbation, the following sentiment of Dr. Johnson's : — " When the obligations of morality are taught," says a pious and celebrated writer, " let the sanctions of Christianity never be forgotten, by which it will be shown that they give strength and lustre to each other; religion will appear to be the voice of reason, and morality will be the will of God."
About this period a confidential correspondence commenced betwixt Alexander Waugh and a young man of congenial
CORRESPONDENCE WITH GEORGE GRAHAM. 45
temper, who then belonged to a mercantile house in Berwick, and afterwards settled in the West Indies. He appears to have been animated by a spirit of fervent piety, and to have possessed mental accomplishments greatly superior to his station in life. We insert the two following letters as a specimen of the dispo- sitions of mind which characterized both the writer and the in- dividual to whom they are addressed : —
" TO MR. ALEXANDER WAUGH, CALDRON-BRAE.
Berwick, August 18, 1773. " Dear Sir, — As I have not had the pleasure of seeing you at Berwick, will you allow me to request of you, that an epistolary correspondence may take place during the intervals of seeing one another ? It would of all things be very grateful to me. — Mrs. Johnston acquaints me that you propose attending the University another season. I flatter myself it is not solely with a view of venerating the polite arts ; but that you intend dedi- cating these jewels borrowed from the Egyptians, to the build- ing of the house of the Lord. My dear Sir, see you get inti- mately acquainted with the Lord of the vineyard, previously to your entering as a laborer. It will sweeten the work vastly, both to yourself and others, and render it pleasant and profit- able. Being in haste, I conclude with compliments to your father, mother, and brother, and am, dear Sir, your sincere well- wisher,
"George Graham."
"to mr. alexander waugh, edinburgh.
"Berwick, Jan. 1, 1774. " My Dear Sir, — May you enumerate many happy revolutions of this season ! May you long be preserved an ornament to re- ligion, a blessing to friends and connexions, a useful member of society, and, after a few pre-reqtiisites, a faithful and successful laborer in the Christian church ; and, at last, in a good old age, may you exchange a hoary head for an unfading crown of glory, books and symbols, faith and hope, for palms of victory, immediate vision, and full, satisfactory fruition ! Unseasonable compliments these to our contemporary Lorcnzos ! — but what mean our wishing happy new years, unless most part of the
46 CORRESPONDENCE WITH GEORGE GRAHAM.
above be implied ? ' Here is firm footing, here is solid rock ; all is sea besides.' It would certainly be a laudable practice, were we to anticipate, in imagination, what Charles Emperor of Ger- many did really in every circumstance, — I mean the solemnizing of our own funeral while in life. We should thus make death familiar to our minds, although he be the king of terrors, and stimulate ourselves to converse with our past hours, and ask them what report they bore to heaven, and how they might have borne more welcome news. But, alas, how epidemical is this distemper ! — ' all men think all men mortal but themselves.' I remember (for although very young at the time, I never could eradicate the presumptuous speech out of my mind) that a young gentleman, when writing, ' Jan. 2, 1762,' thus addressed one Mr. M'Donald, of Leith, a surgeon, a young man more than six feet high, and stout in proportion, ' Tammy M'Donald, it is probable we shall be in our graves before 1772.' ' Shall we ?' said the person addressed : ' it will be a grievious disappointment if we be !' Disappointed he was ; but whether the event deserved the epithet he bestowed on it, is not rny province to determine ; for early in 1769 he gave up the ghost, leaving a young widow. Uncertain is life, and happy they that have nothing to do but to die ; therefore, my dear friends, while others are murdering time in unlawful pastimes, let us be inquiring into our state be- fore God, and asking ourselves what progress we have made in our Christian course. As another year, 'that lately smiled, is drowned in that great deep that nothing disembogues;' so let us remember, that ' the spirit walks of every day deceased, and smiles an angel, or a fury frowns.' I do not tender these as ad- monitions to you, since I have no doubt but your exercise in practice exceeds this theorem considerably. This is only a faint in- timation that, for the future, I intend corresponding with you as a Christian, and not as a scholar ; for while you are associated with men of learning and science, I by reason of the imbecility of my un- derstanding and circumvening mists of ignorance, must stand at the foot of Parnassus friendless."
After continuing four years at the University of Edin- burgh, Mr. Waugh was examined by the Presbytery regard- ing his proficiency in philosophy and the learned languages, in order to his admission to the study of divinity, which he
STUDY OF DIVINITY. 47
commenced in August, 1774, under the tuition of the Rev. John Brown of Haddington, the well-known author of " An- notations on the Bible," and many other theological works, which discover a deep acquaintance with the Scriptures, and a laborious research into the history of the church.
The following notices of the mode of theological instruction pursued by this eminent man (with which we have been kindly furnished by two of his sons, who have long been faithful and zealqus laborers in the vineyard of Christ), will, we conceive, be found interesting to most of our readers.
In the early part of his ministry, he preached catechetical sermons, in the order of the Shorter Catechism and Confession of Faith. From these he formed the first edition of his lectures to his students, which, after writing twice or thrice himself, he caused the students to write also. He composed his " Cases of Conscience," published some time ago, first for his own use, and then employed them in instructing his students; also his " Letters on the Behavior of Ministers, and on Gospel Preaching." The two latter he also caused the students to transcribe.
For some time the term of study was four years ; but by order of the Synod it was extended to five years. He was particularly anxious that the students should be present at the commencement of the session, and remain all the time. The discourses he assigned them were, a homily for the first war ; a critical discourse on a passage of the Greek Testa- ment, with a lecture, for the second : for each of the other years a lecture and a popular sermon, the latter being usually delivered in public. The students were accustomed to make criticisms on the discourses, after which the professor gave his own remarks. The students carefully committed to mem- ory several pages of the " System of Divinity," and of the " Cases of Conscience," with the Scriptures referred to ; and he examined them on these every forenoon, and made obser- vations on the passages of Scripture. Iu the evenings lie employed an hour in reading his Church History to them. On the Wednesday afternoon the students formed themselves
48 REV. JOHN BROWN.
into a debating society, and maintained an argument regard- ing orthodox and heterodox doctrines. On the Saturday afternoon a prayer-meeting was held. With regard to per- sonal religion, the professor was particularly urgent in im- pressing it on their minds, as a matter of the greatest magni- tude, and of indispensable necessity. He was accustomed to read the practical reflections in the System with peculiar earnestness of manner, and took every opportunity, in the class and elsewhere, to exhort them to practical godliness. The "Reflections of a Candidate for the Ministerial Office," now printed in his " Remains," and the " Christian Student and Pastor," were prepared with a particular view to their in- struction.
He carefully inquired after their private conduct during the time of the session, and admonished or rebuked as he saw cause. This was done, however, so privately that none but the offender knew of it. Though his own finances were but small, he assisted those who, through poverty, would have been unable to continue all the session. He was anxious that his students should improve in the Hebrew, and drew up a short Grammar and Vocabulary to aid them in their study of a language of such high importance to the right understand- ing of the Scriptures. He was among them as a father among his children : he loved them, and studied their good ; and they loved him and regarded his counsel. No time of the year was so pleasant, either to the professor or the stu- dents, as the two months of their attendance at the divinity hall.
On the last day of the session his advices were peculiarly solemn and impressive, as will appear from the following spe- cimen, which has been kindly sent us by one of his pupils ; — u Thinking this morning on your departure, two passages of Scripture came to my mind, and you would do well to take them into your serious consideration. 'Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil V One may be called to special service, may fill a public station in the church, may be a preacher, may go abroad into the world
STUDY OF DIVLNITY. 49
and address people on things of deep and everlasting impor- tance, and yet be a devil ; may be under the power of Satan, in a state of enmity against God, may be a traitor at heart, and act the part of an open traitor at last, may betray the Master he professed to serve, and come to shame and dis- grace. Jesus knows all things ; he searches the heart, and tries the reins of the children of men : what state you are in, what are the reigning principles in your breasts, what are the motives you are influenced by, and what the ends you have in view ; whether you are indeed what you profess, and what your outward appearance would indicate, — all is known to him. To commend a Saviour one has no love for ; to preach a Gospel one does not believe ; to point out the way to heaven, and never to have taken one step in that way ; to enforce a saving acquaintance with religion, and to be an en- tire stranger to it one's self, how sad, how preposterous ! Tremble, O my soul, at the thought, still more at the thing ! Better follow the meanest occupation, than to enter into the holy ministry solely or chiefly to serve some secular, some selfish design. While I would be far from setting limits to the Divine sovereignty, I am afraid it but seldom happens that a person is converted after he has become a preacher. Was there a Judas, a devil among the twelve ? — what if there should be one for every twelve among you ? Lord, is it I ; is it I ; is it I ?
" The other passage comes more closely home, and is still more alarming. ' And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.' Is it only one half of the number here present that are wise, that are truly serious, prudent, and thoughtful, wise unto salvation, that are savingly instructed in the mys- teries of salvation, in the mysteries of the kingdom, in whom Christ is found, and in whose hearts he dwells by faith, who have felt his Gospel to be the power of God and the wisdom of God, who have taken him for their only Lord and King, and have given themselves unto him ? Are there so many of an opposite character, foolish, mere nominal Christians, in the >ame state in which you were boru ; who, whatever ligkt
-3
50 REV. JOHN BROWN.
you may have in your heads, have no saving grace in your hearts ? And is the Bridegroom coining ? will he come quickly, come at an hour that ye think not ? and shall they that are ready enter in and the door be shut, and you stand without and cry for admittance, but cry in vain? How dreadful the thought, how fearful the issue ! I would be far, very far, from judging uncharitably of you ; but I know the deceitfulness of the human heart. Surely they who propose to undertake an office, the design of which is to win souls, had need to be convinced, deeply convinced, about their own souls."
The most profound silence reigned while from these passages he addressed the students : all were dissolved in tears. The language, the tone, the general manner, every circumstance was calculated to make a deep impression.
This eminently faithful man, after laboring for twenty years with indefatigable zeal in training up the youth of the Associate Synod for the Christian ministry, died at Hadding- ton, in 1787. With respect to his own ministry, it has been observed, that " though his learning was considerable, he never showed it in the pulpit, except by bringing down the great truths of God to the level of common capacities." He sometimes used to repeat to his acquaintances the saying of the great Usher, " It will take all our learning to make things plain." It is the testimony of an English divine, who heard him for some time about the year 1770, that his grave appearance in the pulpit, and his solemn, weighty, and ener- getic manner of speaking, used to affect him very much. " Certainly," he adds, " his preaching was close, and his ad- dress to the conscience pungent. Like his Lord and Master, he spake with authority and hallowed pathos, having tasted the sweetness and felt the power of what he delivered."*
* Dr. Waugh long afterwards used to mention the following anec dote of his venerable instructor, which had occurred within his own knowledge : — It happened that at some public solemnity, where " an infidel blade" was one of the audience, Mr. Brown was preceded in ministerial duty by an ambitious young man, who delivered a very
STUDY OF DIVINITY. 51
Iii his <>\vii congregation, small as it was, a number claimed him for their spiritual father : and others acknowledged him to be the helper of their faith and joy. Nor was it only at home that he was instrumental in doing good to souls. In various parts of the country, where he had occasion to preach, there were seals of his ministry, who will be his joy and his crown in the day of Christ. We conclude our account of this truly great and good man, with the following extract from his " Select Re- mains,'' to which we are indebted for some of the above ob- servations. " Now after near forty years' preaching of Christ, and his great and sweet salvation, I think that I would rather beg my bread all the laboring days of the week, for an oppor- tunity of publishing the Gospel on the Sabbath to an assembly of sinful men, than, without such a privilege, enjoy the richest possessions on earth. By the Gospel do men live, and in it is the life of my soul."
But to revert to the subject of this memoir : The conduct and character of Alexander Waugh, during the period of his studies at the University and divinity hall, are so well described in the following memoranda, with which we have been favored by some of his most esteemed fellow-students, that we cannot bet- ter convey a picture of the moral aspect of his mind at that time than in the words of the writers : —
"It was about 17 73," says one of his early friends, "that our first acquaintance commenced, being my third year at the University, and his second. It was promoted by his great anxiety to acquire knowledge, by his open and unsus- picious character, and by that kindness of heart which was particularly conspicuous, and was his ornament through life. It cannot be supposed that we reasoned with sagacity on each other's characters ; but it has been, and is, a pleasing reflection, that I then obtained, and I believe never lost, his
eloquent and florid address — the old divine following in one equally remarkable for its simplicity and earnestness. " The first preacher," said the sceptic to one of his friends, " spoke as if he did not believe what he said : the latter, as if he was conscious that the Son of God stood at his elbow."
52 REV. JOHN BROWN.
affections. His amusements were always innocent, though lively ; and if he at any time appeared to display inattention to the feelings of others, this proceeded solely from an exuberant flow of animal spirits, and never from insensibility to what others felt. One feeling I saw was strong: in him : he was evidently actuated by an ardent desire to attain excellence ; not a mere vulgar ambition to make a show, or to exhibit his superiority over others, but to advance forward to higher at- tainments.
"After leaving the University, at the vacation, we had no intercourse till about eighteen months after, when we met at Haddington, under Mr. Brown, where we studied divinity for five sessions, of two months each. Then our intimacy was revived and increased : it was my second session, and his first. It was then that I could discern, and I still well recollect, those solid religious principles and solemn views by which he was actuated. With all his flow of animal spir- its, he not only showed a serious mind, but that warm heart, and those unpresuming and pious affections, and open, benevolent feelings, which afterwards so eminently shone in him.
"I still recollect the agitation of his mind, under a dis- couraging criticism of his first discourse, by Mr. Brown : it was a homily on Rom. viii. 2. That agitation was confided to me alone, and I found it difficult to prevail on him to pursue his theological studies, which in the end have been so ser- viceable to the interests of religion. The circumstance arose from an unfavorable opinion formed by Mr. Brown of the system of moral philosophy taught by Dr. Ferguson — a sys- tem which Mr. Waugh and I had studied with great attention, although our young minds might be incapable of doing- full justice to it. By his continuing in attendance on Mr. Brown (which I soon prevailed on him to persevere in), the suspicion respecting his theological principles was quickly eradi- cated from the discerning mind of that eminent and judicious instructor.
"After this, our intimacy continued, nut only at Had-
STUDY OF DIVINITY. 53
dington, but when we returned to our parents, being kept up by letters. In one of the years of our attendance on Mr. Brown, before leaving Haddington, we agreed to spend the winter in Edinburgh together, for our mutual improvement. The usual course of academical studies was finished, but each feeing a class, we were entitled to the library; and living in the same house, and having the same parlor, we employed our hours as we thought most useful for ourselves. One portion of our time was occupied in reading one or two chap- ters of the New Testament, in Greek, daily, and making re- marks on the expressive words ; a line of study in which he advanced much farther afterwards under Dr. Campbell, of Aber- deen, whose prelections he attended one season ; and of the ad- vantage of v/hose instructions he always spoke with much esteem and gratitude. Another of our chief employments was reading and remarking on books of taste, for the purpose of forming the habit of composition. Permit me to remark, that I was struck with an expression used upon his death-bed, to which I had that winter turned his attention, in Ossian's sublime address to the sun, — 'Age is dark and unlovely.' That address had left an abiding impression on his mind, although Ossian was no fa- vorite with him."
We are informed by another contemporary, " that his first discourse at Haddington was a mere philosophical essay, at which the professor and students were extremely grieved ; but that even then he manifested that amiable disposition for which, in after life, he was so distinguished. When Mr. Brown said, with much concern, 'I hope I shall never hear such a dis- course again in this place,' Mr. Waugh expressed his sorrow at giving him uneasiness. The second year of his attendance, there appeared a remarkable change on his mind, and the professor ever afterwards esteemed him very highly, and was accustomed to use great familiarities with him, both in conversation and in writing ; and so far wras he, on the other hand, from feeling re- sentment, that he never spoke of Mr. Brown but in terms of veneration and gratitude."
" Let the righteous smite me," saith David, " it shall be a
54 STUDIES AT ABERDEEN.
kindness ; and let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil, •which shall not break my head." The professor's faithful and well-timed admonition produced most salutary effects. It shook Mr. Waugh's confidence in Dr. Ferguson's specula- tions on human nature, on which we have taken the liberty to animadvert, and feelingly taught him the deep importance of the apostolic caution, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, and the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." He now studied the Scriptures with close attention, and re- solved to adopt no theological sentiments but such as were derived from the pure and uncontaminated fountain of Divine truth. Henceforth we behold him, in every subsequent period, sitting at the feet of the great Master of Israel, and listening with meekness and humility to the words of grace and life that fell from his lips. His philosophy, instead of leading him again into devious paths, now became subsidiary to the great object which constituted its chief value, by en- abling him to illustrate, in a more forcible manner, those all- important truths which the Scriptures alone reveal, and the knowledge of which is necessary to make men wise unto eternal life.
In 177*7 he repaired to the university of Aberdeen, and attended, for a session, the lectures of Dr. Beattie, professor of moral philosophy, and of Dr. Campbell, professor of di- vinity in the Marischal College. Both these eminent men had at this time acquired merited celebrity by their pre- lections in their college, and by their writings in defence of Christianity against the sophistry of David Hume, who degraded his acuteness of mind and his high powers of style, by abetting principles equally hostile to natural as to re- vealed religion. Dr. Campbell had distinguished himself in the cause of religion by his " Essay on Miracles," one of the most acute and convincing treatises on that great and fundamental doctrine of revealed religion that has ever ap- peared. His prelections were highly esteemed for the just and original views which they afforded of Divine truth, per-
STUDY OP DIVINITY. 55
spicuously expressed, and ably illustrated by criticisms on the Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldaic languages, with all of which he was familiarly acquainted. The high respect in which he was held as a Biblical scholar, has been amply justified by the publication of his Translation of the Four Gospels, with the accompanying Dissertations, — a work of profound erudition, cal- culated to raise the fame of his countrymen in this department of literature. We insert the following short specimen of the manner in which this learned and able divine was accustomed to instruct the theological students who attended his class : —
" Gentlemen, the nature of my office has been much misunderstood. It is supposed, that I am to teach you everything connected with the study of divinity. I tell ye honestly that I am to teach you noth- ing. Ye are not schoolboys ; — ye are young men who have finished your courses of philosophy, and ye are no longer to be treated as if ye were at school. Therefore, I repeat it, I am to teach you noth- ing ; but, by the grace of God, I will assist you to teach yourselves every thing.
" Begin with studying the Scriptures in the original languages ; attend carefully to the distinction, that should always be made, between classical or pure Greek, and the Greek of the Septuagint and Testament, where the words, taken separately, are pure Greek, but where the idiom of the language, and even the acceptation of many of the words, is derived from the Hebrew, the Chaldaic, or the Syriac. Be acquainted with the civil history, the man- ners and customs of ancient times and nations, especially with that of the Jews, where the reading of Josephus will often be useful. But whatever books you read occasionally, read the Scriptures frequently. Mark the different passages which you do not understand, read them with patience, not being too anxious to understand everything at the first reading over; but persevere, and read the Scriptures in the original a second and a third time; ami, without consulting any commentator, those difficult passages will always become fewer as your knowl- edge increases. Read the Scriptures also with modesty, leither being too full of yourself, nor supposing that human •eason can always comprehend divine mysteries ; and read them lways with fervent prayer to God, the source of wisdom, and ight, that he would assist and direct you in your researches
56 DR. BEATTIE.
after truth. Do not complain that you want books, when you have the Scriptures themselves in the original languages. If you have a Hebrew Bible, a Septuagint, and a Greek New Testament, you have the most necessary and the most useful of all books to a Christian divine. Read carefully all the versions which are given of disputed passages; make much use of versions, and compare them all carefully with the original. Read the Vulgate, though a translation authorized by the Romish Church, as well as the versions of individuals, such as Castalio, Beza, Junius, and Tremellius ; and also Houbigant, if you have access to his trans- lation. You cannot be hurt by reading versions, and comparing them with the original. But put no confidence in commentators : consult them sparingly : never use them till the last, and then use them only as dictionaries. In this view, however, read commenta- tors of all parties ; and judge of them more from their freedom of thought, abilities, and erudition, than from considering to what party they belong." *
Dr. Beattie had also, prior to this period, published his " Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, in op- position to Sophistry and Scepticism ;" a work exceedingly popular at that time, and still deserving of attention for its argument and most laudable object. Regarding the man- ner in which, as a professor, he communicated instruction to his students, his amiable biographer observes : " There is one excellence of Dr. Beattie's lectures on moral philosophy, on which I cannot but dwell with peculiar emphasis, and that is his happy manner of fortifying his arguments from natural re- ligion on the most important points, by the aid of revelation. "While he details with precision the proofs which natural rea- son alone affords, he never omits any proper opportunity of appealing to revelation in support of his doctrine ; sometimes in the very words of Scripture, at other times by a general reference to the subject, as it is to be learned there ; thus making them mutually support and strengthen each other, as ought ever to be the study of every teacher of ethics. Dr. Beattie is, therefore, justly entitled to the most distin-
* Life of Dr. Campbell, prefixed to his Lectures on Church History, by Dr. Skene Keith.
moral rniLOSoriiv. 57
guished of all appellations, that of a Christian moral philoso- pher. In his second chapter of Natural Theology, speaking of the Divine attributes, he says, 'revelation gives such a display of the Divine goodness, as must fill us with most ardent gratitude and adoration ; for in it we find that God has put it in our power, notwithstanding our degeneracy and un worthiness, to be happy both in this world and forever, — a hope which reason alone could never have permitted us to entertain on any ground of certainty. And here we may repeat, that although the right use of reason supplies our first notions of the Divine nature, yet it is from revelation that we receive those distinct ideas of his attributes and prov- idence which are the foundation of our dearest hopes. The most enlightened of the heathen had no certain knowledge of his unity, spirituality, eternity, wisdom, justice, or mercy, and, by consequence, could never contrive a comfortable sys- tem of natural religion, as Socrates, the wisest of them, ac- knowledged.'
" Discoursing on the nature of virtue, Dr. Beattie says : ' These speculations might lead into a labyrinth of perplexity, if it were not for what revelation declares concerning the Divine gov- ernment. It declares that man may expect, on the performance of certain conditions, not only pardon, but everlasting happi- ness, not on account of his own merit, which in the sight of God is nothing, but on account of the infinite merits of the Re- deemer, who, descending from the height of glory, voluntarily underwent the punishment due to sin, and thus obtained those high privileges for as many as should comply with the terms announced by him to mankind.'
" On the subject of public worship, he says : ' These consider- ations alone would recommend external worship as a most excel- lent means of improving our moral nature ; but Christians know farther, that this duty is expressly commanded, and that par- ticular blessings are promised to the devout performance of it. In us, therefore, the neglect of it must be inexcusable, and highly criminal.'
"Such was the mode of teaching moral philosophy, as ap- 3*
58 MORAL PHILOSOPHY.
pears from his published Lectures, practised by Dr. Beattie, during the long course of upwards of thirty years, in his public lectures at Aberdeen. Let the reader compare those animating and comfortable doctrines inculcated by this ex- cellent writer, with the cold and cheerless speculations of natu- ral reason alone; and then let him say which method most de- serves the preference, or is most likely to promote the happiness of mankind." *
We have been the more particular in our account of these two distinguished persons, as their instructions appear to have had a most beneficial effect in elevating the subject of this memoir to that honorable eminence to which he subsequently attained as a Christian minister. Of both of them he was accustomed to speak with warm gratitude; but particularly of Dr. Beattie,. whose name he scarcely ever mentioned but with a kind of admiration bordering on enthusiasm, not solely for his intellectual powers, but chiefly for the amiable temper and affec- tions of his mind, which particularly endeared him to all who were honored with his intimacy and friendship.
We feel deep obligations for the subjoined account of Mr. Waugh by a fellow-student of Aberdeen, who repaired to the metropolis about the same time with himself, where he has attained honorable distinction in the literary world. The friendship thus early formed, continued, notwithstanding their different lines of pursuit, without abatement, for more than half a century,— a rare occurrence, it is to be apprehended, amidst the numerous jealousies and collisions of this anxious and ever- changing life.
"My acquaintance with Mr. Waugh began about October 1777, when he came to Aberdeen. Previously to this he had been a student in the Burgher Secession Academy, then super- intended by the well-known Rev. John Brown, of Hadding- ton. I well remember he wTas much captivated, as all young men were at that time, with Blair's Sermons, one volume of which was published, and was in everybody's hands, on account of the style. Mr. Waugh's object in coming to Aber- * Life of Dr. Beattie, by Sir William Forbes, Bart.
CHARACTER AT COLLEGE. 59
deen, was to attend the classes, in the Marischal College, of Dr. Beattie, professor of moral philosophy, and of Dr. Camp- bell, principal of this college and professor of divinity. He at- tended likewise, as was usual for students destined for the church, the divinity lectures of Dr. Gerard, King's College. Ac- cording to the plan of study at Marischal College, these courses of moral philosophy and divinity were usually attended by schol- ars in the fourth and last years of their regular studies, and were followed by their taking the degree of M.A. if found qualified. On Mr. Waugh's application to Dr. Beattie, he was discovered to be amply qualified, by previous attainments, to take his rank in the fourth class or year, and accordingly he received his de- gree of M.A. along with the writer and a few other students on April 1st, 1778.
" I had many opportunities of knowing that he had a very high esteem for Dr. Beattie ; there were, indeed, many resem- blances in their personal temper and disposition. He often repeated, with approbation, the concluding passage of Dr. Beattie's last lecture, which may be given here, as it is not added to the printed copy : — ' Learning, when one applies to it with a sincere purpose of improving his nature, and of ren- dering himself more useful to his fellow-creatures, is of all earthly possessions the most valuable ; but still, let it be re- membered, that piety and virtue are the chief principles for which man was made, and the only certain means of happi- ness. The time is fast approaching, when learning and all the ornaments of human life shall disappear forever, and nothing be found of any real value but the Divine approbation. If that is secured, all is well ; and without that, all other attainments are nothing.'
"Of Dr. Waugh's character at this period of his life, I have rather a general than a minute recollection, but one which I can call up with reverence. It is impossible to for- get it ; since, according to all I know, or have been told of him in after-life, it wras uniforn and consistent. It evidently had been formed on the firm and unalterable principles of true piety ; it was as evidently adorned by those Christian nrr8CAs
58
MORAL PHILOSOPHY.
pears from his published Lectures, practised by Dr. Beattie, during the long course of upwards of thirty years, in his public lectures at Aberdeen. Let the reader compare those animating and comfortable doctrines inculcated by this ex- cellent writer, with the cold and cheerless speculations of natu- ral reason alone; and then let him say which method most de- serves the preference, or is most likely to promote the happiness of mankind." *
We have been the more particular in our account of these two distinguished persons, as their instructions appear to have had a most beneficial effect in elevating the subject of this memoir to that honorable eminence to which he subsequently attained as a Christian minister. Of both of them he was accustomed to speak with warm gratitude; but particularly of Dr. Beattie,. whose name he scarcely ever mentioned but with a kind of admiration bordering on enthusiasm, not solely for his intellectual powers, but chiefly for the amiable temper and affec- tions of his mind, which particularly endeared him to all who were honored with his intimacy and friendship.
We feel deep obligations for the subjoined account of Mr. Waugh by a fellow-student of Aberdeen, who repaired to the metropolis about the same time with himself, where he has attained honorable distinction in the literary world. The friendship thus early formed, continued, notwithstanding their different lines of pursuit, without abatement, for more than half a century, — a rare occurrence, it is to be apprehended, amidst the numerous jealousies and collisions of this anxious and ever- changing life.
" My acquaintance with Mr. Waugh began about October 1*7 7 7, when he came to Aberdeen. Previously to this he had been a student in the Burgher Secession Academy, then super- intended by the well-known Rev. John Brown, of Hadding- ton. I well remember he was much captivated, as all young men were at that time, with Blair's Sermons, one volume of which was published, and was in everybody's hands, on account of the style. Mr. Waugh's object in coming to Aber- * Life of Dr. Beattie, by Sir William Forbes, Bart.
CHARACTER AT COLLEGE.
59
dcen, was to attend the classes, in the Marischal College, of Dr. Beattie, professor of moral philosophy, and of Dr. Camp- hell, principal of this college and professor of divinity. He at- tended likewise, as was usual for students destined for the church, the divinity lectures of Dr. Gerard, King's College. Ac- cording to the plan of study at Marischal College, these courses of moral philosophy and divinity were usually attended by schol- ars in the fourth and last years of their regular studies, and were followed by their taking the degree of M.A. if found qualified. On Mr. Waugh's application to Dr. Beattie, he was discovered to be amply qualified, by previous attainments, to take his rank in the fourth class or year, and accordingly he received his de- gree of M.A. along with the writer and a few other students on April 1st, 1778.
" I had many opportunities of knowing that he had a very high esteem for Dr. Beattie; there were, indeed, many resem- blances in their personal temper and disposition. He often repeated, with approbation, the concluding passage of Dr. Beattic's last lecture, which may be given here, as it is not added to the printed copy : — ' Learning, when one applies to it with a sincere purpose of improving his nature, and of ren- dering himself more useful to his fellow-creatures, is of all earthly possessions the most valuable ; but still, let it be re- membered, that piety and virtue are the chief principles for which man was made, and the only certain means of happi- ness. The time is fast approaching, when learning and all the ornaments of human life shall disappear forever, and nothing be found of any real value but the Divine approbation. If that is secured, all is well ; and without that, all other attainments are nothing.'
"Of Dr. Waugh's character at this period of his life, I have rather a general than a minute recollection, but one which I can call up with reverence. It is impossible to for- get it ; since, according to all I know, or have been told of him in after-life, it was uniforn and consistent. It evidently had been formed on the firm and unalterable principles of true piety ; it was as evidently adorned by those Christian orr8^,s
60 CHARACTER AT COLLEGE.
which were prominent throughout his long life. His heart and affections, all were calculated to prepare him for the sacred du- ties he was about to take upon him. His conversation, when we walked on the banks of the Dee, which was almost every day the weather permitted, turned upon those important sub- jects which were to engage his thoughts and his prayers for the whole of his future life.
" He was, when I first knew him, remarkable for cheerfulness of disposition, mildness of temper, and an utter aversion to every- thing harsh and censorious in treating the character of the ab- sent. His mind seemed always bent on forbearance and forgive- ness in speaking of such persons as were known to us both : when objections were stated, he was more of the advocate than the judge. It often appeared as if he was suffering for the faults of others ; and when facts were brought forward, which it was impossible to palliate, he was always more inclined to postpone the trial than to give judgment.
" His mild, meek, and forbearing temper predominated in all his conversation, as it is well known it did when he was afterwards called to take a more public interest in matters where decision was unavoidable. I know not if Dr. Waugh was cautious in bestowing his friendships, but once bestowed it was difficult to shake them. It seemed to afflict him deeply when compelled to alter his opinion of any one. This I early observed was likely to be the severest trial he would have to encounter, when he came in contact with the many varieties of human character ; but, whatever might happen, he never could be an enemy ; there was not an atom of fixed animosity in his whole composition.
" He left Aberdeen soon after taking the degree of M.A. above mentioned. For some time we corresponded ; but I am not able to trace his progress until his being appointed to the congregation over which he presided for so many years in London. This occurred in 1782, when our acquaintance was renewed, and was continued without loss of friendship on either side during his life ; but the great distance betwixt our residences, and the difference of our pursuits, rendered our
CHARACTER AMONG YOUTHFUL ASSOCIATES. Gl
intercourse less frequent, though not less cordial, than I could have wished. When we did meet, which was sometimes in pri- vate and sometimes in public, I recognized the same man, both in heart and spirit, that I had known in my early days; and those who approached him more closely and frequently, can hear witness to that uniformity of character, and steady adhe- rence to the service of his great Master, which have been uni- versally acknowledged."
Another of Mr. Waugh's early associates, who frequently met him in the country, at the houses of their respective relatives in Berwickshire, during the intervals of his academical and the- ological studies, speaks of him in the following glowing terms: — "He was at this period, on account of his prepossessing appearance, his constant cheerfulness, his affability to all, his talents in conversation, and his kindness of heart displayed in innumerable benevolent actions, the most universally beloved person I have ever known. His presence diffused a spirit of gladness; and all gloom, quarrelling, selfishness, and meanness, were banished wherever he appeared. He had high feelings of honor, far beyond most of his learned as well as unlearned as- sociates ; and in this respect, as well as in demeanor and ad- dress, was a perfect gentleman."
With all this social cheerfulness, lie did not neglect to apply himself with due diligence to those preparatory studies which every young man, whose chief ambition it is to be a faithful and efficient minister in the church of Christ, will deem of in- calculable value. We subjoin the following passages of a let- ter (from his much-esteemed friend of Aberdeen, already re- ferred to) addressed to him at Edinburgh, where he appears to have spent the winter of 1*7*78, previously to his entering on trial for license : —
"Aberdeen, December 11, 1778. " I have not procured the Septuagint, but I shall endeavor to fol- low you in the New Testament : I feci many difficulties ; but still I would wish to keep in mind
1 Nil est tarn difficile, quod non solcrtia vincatJ
62 LETTER FROM A FELLOW-STUDENT.
" You made use of a phrase in your last letter which Mr. Dick would have taken much amiss ; I mean good-hearted : indeed, it is so much abused in common conversation, that I would wish it avoided altogether. One who, at the expense of his health and character, sacrifices every virtuous principle to the love of pleas- ure or mirth, is called a good-hearted man ; another, who by his excesses has brought himself into such a situation as to be obliged to leave his country, is nevertheless a good-hearied man ; a third, who in companies makes no scruple to ridicule the most sa- cred things, and whose life is one uninterrupted series of immorality and vice, is a good-hearted man. These and other cases I have ob- served repeatedly; but I think it is a shameful prostitution of lan- guage ; nay, worse, for this gradually impairs our sense of the de- formity of vice. I need not add, that I make no reference from this to what you said.
" I hope in a short time to be a humble auditor of my friend, and to be one of his ' my brethren.' I expect and insist upon every qualification of a good, pious, respectable Seceder preacher. By the by. I'll tell you a bit of my mind. I positively won't have any blank-verse sermons; not a syllable that smells of the Arminian ; don't quote even from Cicero, nor Thomson either. None of your high-flying rant, which people nickname oratory. Beware how you lay your emphasis on the breast of the pulpit, it may break. Be plain and intelligible, and never lose sight of your Bible : consider that the meanest of your audience has as good a right to understand you as those who have M.A. tagged to their recommendation. You see I take many freedoms with you, and you won't let me make the physic more palatable with a little sweet syrup of duplicity.
" Mr. and Mrs. Dick join me in compliments. May you be amply supplied by him whom giving does not impoverish, nor withhold- ing enrich ! — I am your friend,
"A. C."
For some time prior to this period, he appears to have labored under very considerable discouragement, regarding his becoming a public teacher in the church. He experi- enced a good deal of difficulty in composition ; he was doubtful of his ability to make useful discourses, and apprehensive that he should never attain to respectability as a preacher; and
LETTER FROM GEORGE GRAHAM. C3
the more he reflected on the deep and awful responsibility of the Christian ministry, his mind was involved in deeper un- easiness and perplexity. So far from rushing forward into the sacred office as some have done, without fear or solicitude, it required every encouragement on the part of his friends, sup- ported by weighty arguments and motives, to prevail with him to receive license as a preacher of the Gospel.
On this subject he had laid open his mind to his confidential friend Graham, now settled in the West Indies ; and the fol- lowing letter is written in reply : —
" Torlola, November 14, 1776.
" Mr Dearest Friend. — You tell me that I probably shall never hear your declamations : this may be so, but I hope it will not be owing to the impediments you point out, viz. the difficulty you find in the composition of your discourses. Follow my advice, and I'll warrant a speedy removal of them. I recommend to you neither to be too vain, nor too diffident, of your own abilities. Of these extremes, inter utrumque tene, medio tutissimus ibis. The attending to the former will induce you at all times to acknowl- edge your dcpendance on Divine aid ; and while you reflect on the latter, you will be stimulated, as a rational agent, in the use of means.
" Your good opinion generally of the parts and abilities of others, makes you diffident of your own. Your aspiring genius ardently desires to equal, if not excel, your contemporaries; while your generosity of heart, and your favorable opinion of others, fetter you with the chains of despondency and imaginary disappointment. The desire of approbation was implanted by God in the soul of man for excellent and laudable purposes, — one of which is obviously intended to stimulate men to make the Divine approbation their chief and ultimate object: beware, therefore, lest this desire should look no farther than the ap- probation of men. Satan, though not omniscient, nor yet omni- present, is well acquainted with our weak side, and watches our unguarded moments, and lays his snares accordingly. Perhaps he is apprized, that, by your instrumentality, many may be con- verted to righteousness, and a great inroad made on his dominions. He is, perhaps, permitted to tempt you with an ardent avidity of human applause, and despondency of ever attaining it. But,
J
tol , ..'
hf
64 LETTER FROM GEORGE GRAHAM.
my dear sir, let this be the inscription on your life, Nee aspera terrent. I therefore adjure you to consider these discouragements as temptations, every one of which is an alarm to you to learn your own exercise before you commence to be a leader of others. Your glorious Captain suffered the same treatment when tabernacling with the sons of men ; and does the servant expect better treatment than the master ? Temptation, meditation, and prayer, were the preparation for his public ministry ; and this is an excellent school for training all his ambassadors, and is often the academy where his most valuable servants acquire the principal part of their education. This informs them that man's science is the culture of his heart.
" You tell me the office of a clergyman is awful and important. I heartily congratulate you on account of being one who thinks so ; for too many rush into that sacred office with less premedita- tion than I open store, or sit down at my desk. I acknowledge it is awful and important ; yet it is honorable, advantageous, and, if faithfully executed, receives an exceeding great though gracious reward. Persevere, therefore, my dearest sir, in the diligent prosecution of your studies ; keep a constant intercourse with Heaven by prayer; and let the awfulness and importance of the ministerial office not intimidate you, but spur you on to double your diligence in preparing you for its faithful discharge : and take this for an encouragement, and as an evidence that the Lord has need of you, that, in the course of his providential dis- pensations, he has revealed to ycu that the office of a clergyman is awful and important.
" The aid of my prayers you may always depend upon, while a serious reflection on the long-suffering patience of God, on the unbounded love of Christ, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, con- tinuing to strive against the corruptions of my own heart, incites my attention to the supreme interest of my dearest friend. — Yours ever and unfeignedly,
" George Graham."
The following letter is from a fellow-student, who, like himself, was now on trial, before the Presbytery, for license. He was afterwards settled at Berwick, where he labored in a large and prosperous and affectionate congregation, with great faithfulness and acceptability, betwixt thirty and forty years : —
LETTER FUO.M MB. BLACKBALL, C5
" Selkirk, April 27, 1779.
" My Dear Sir, — Your last gave mc both pleasure and pain : pleasure, for I longed to hear from you, and wished to know whether you were disengaged from your secular matters ; pain, on account of your continued irresolution about accepting of license. All the grounds of your discouragement will, when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, be found light, and the considerations for your accepting will preponderate. You com- plain of your powers of composition ; and will you not endure want of sleep, and painful study, for Him who for you spent many a cold sleepless night on the side of a mountain ; who for you, I say, groaned, thirsted, died ? You think you will not be acceptable to the vacancies. It is, I am confident, every person's opinion who knows you, that you will be very acceptable. Try three years of it, and then speak of declining ; and will not these three years, in your last moments, appear the best spent in your life ? And, as you are young enough, three years are neither here nor there. Granting you should not be very acceptable to the people, fcince you seem to have the call of God by his servants, go on, and you shall by no means lose your reward. ' Your sins are great and aggravated.' Be it so. Though sin abounds like a flood, grace reigning through Christ's righteousness abounds like an ocean. The chief of Saviours is still on a throne of mercy, founded on justice and judgment. ' You have not the qualifi- cations which make up the character of a young divine, accord- ing to the Scriptures.' But where is the man that possesses them all in perfection ? and who made you sole judge of your own abilities ? A court of Christ pronounces you qualified ; rest in their verdict as to this, lest you be found fighting against God ; and this rest need not hinder you from using all means for grow- ing in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
" You have attempted, as I too have done, to get away from the Lord's work, but Providence has hitherto frustrated all our tlesjgns — so that you appear to be shut up to it ; and were we to try any more schemes, who knows but we might be baulked in them too ? Let me ask, dear Sandy, are you content to be reck- oned among the meanest, the poorest, and weakest of his servants ? Is it your supreme desire that Christ should be glorified by your gifts? Dare you say that God hath given you no suita- ble furniture for serving him in the Gospel of his Son ? If you
66 LETTER FROM MR. BLACEHALL.
say so, the Presbytery are liars. Remember what became of the unprofitable servant that hid his Lord's money. Follow the ex- ample of the Divine Preacher : ' I must work the work of Him that sent me, while it is day,' said Jesus : ' the night cometh, when no man can work.'
" Your resolution not to take license at Musselburgh discourages me greatly. Ah ! Sandy, can John accept, when you refuse ? — you, who, I dare say, are judged by the Presbytery, and every intel- ligent person who has heard you, better qualified in every respect for preaching the Gospel. I don't flatter, no : Assentatio, vitiorum adjvtrix, ab amicilia procul amoveatur.
"I design to go to the next Pr33b ery ; and though I am the chief of sinners, and the weakest of all students in knowledge and utterance, I would fain lay myself down at their feet, to be disposed of as God shall see fit ; and should you decline, think how you shall be able to look Jesus in the face, when he calls you to give an account of your stewardship. ' The more weak and sinful you are,' says our professor, in a letter to me, ' have the more recourse to Christ ; but never dare to flee from him. If you refuse coming to the help of the Lord against the mighty, I have no manner of doubt but the vengeance of God will pursue you : Judges v. 23.'
" I am sorry I cannot come down to Caldron-Brae, and accom- pany you to Musselburgh. It is quite inconvenient for me to get a horse sooner than Monday. May the Lord God and his Spirit accompany you, give his angels charge concerning you, to keep you in all your ways, and preserve you from doing, in yonder town, what you may perhaps reflect upon with anguish of spirit till the last moment of your life ! — I am, my dearest Sandy, yours most affectionately, and while
" John Blackhall."
The following letter, from the Professor of Divinity, breathes that tender affection and faithful freedom for which that great and good man was so highly distinguished in all his inter- course with his students : —
" Haddington, Feb. 13, 1779. " Dear Alexander, — The hint I heard concerning Mr. Black- hall vexed me. I have written to him, and I hope he will be up at the Presbytery. I beg you will have all your trials ready.
PASSES HIS TRIALS. 67
Cast your burdens on the Lord ; but beware of any attempt to slight what in Providence you are called to, otherwise the Lord may avenge it on you while you live. God makes our strength as our days are. Cast all your care on Him. I am far from thinking it a token that a man is not called, that he, when it comes near to the point, is terrified. Christ got forty days of sad tempta- tion before he was licensed to preach the Gospel, Matt. iv. But if we will sit God's time, the consequences arc apt to be dangerous. My advice to you is, to make a solemn surrender of yourself to God, before coming to the Presbytery. I hope the Lord has let some of the wind cut of you, that I thought was in you when I first knew you. Beg of him to fill its room with himself and his grace. — Yours affectionately,
" John Brown."
Every pious and considerate man entering into the ministry, when lie contemplates the difficulties and temptations which arise out of that sacred office, and the all-important trust of souls, for which lie makes himself responsible, will be disposed to say with Paul, " Who is sufficient for these things ?" And his chief encouragement will be derived from a confidential reliance on the power and faithfulness of that Master who hath kindly promised, " My grace is sufficient for thee ; for my strength is made perfect in weakness." After long and ma- ture reflection on the arguments and reasoning employed by his friends, accompanied with fervent supplications to the Father of Lights for his guidance and blessing, he at last resolved to dedicate his whole heart and soul to the service of God in the Gospel of his Son. When he had completed, in a very honorable manner, the course of trial that had been prescribed to him, he was licensed to preach the Gospel, by the Presbytery of Edinburgh, at Dunse, June 28, 1779 ; his affectionate and pious minister, Mr. Coventry, presiding as moderator on that occasion.
It ought to be noticed here, that, during the intervals of his academical studies, the residence of his parents (latterly removed to the farm of Caldron-Brae, a few miles distant from Gordon) had always been Mr. Waugh's ordinary home ;
68 HIS ACCEPTABILITY AS A PREACHER.
and this continued to be the case even after he had assumed a more public character, by becoming a licensed preacher of the Gospel (or a Probationer, according to the Scottish term), and being of consequence frequently deputed to carry on the work of the ministry in different quarters, as need required. And thus the simplicity of his early feelings, his warm domes- tic affections, and all the delightful associations of his school- boy' days, were stamped, as it were, indelibly into his character, and, in lovely combination with the higher aspirations of his ripened intellect, were carried by him, fresh and unimpaired, into the active scenes of his manhood.
After obtaining license, Mr. Waugh justified the sanguine expectations of his friends, by uroving both an able and very acceptable preacher. In every part of the church where he was called to labor, he was esteemed as a workman who need- ed not to be ashamed. His prayers were distinguished by a copious variety of Scriptural expressions, and a most happy adaptation to the condition and circumstances of every class of the audience, uttered with a gravity of manner and a melt- ing pathos, which solemnized the mind, and warmed the heart with devotional feelings. His discourses were richly stored with evangelical truth, illustrated occasionally by a series of striking imagery, chiefly borrowed from Scripture, expressed in elegant and forcible language, and delivered with tones of voice, and an earnestness of manner, which manifested to every hearer how deeply the preacher felt in his whole soul that it was the word of life which he was addressing to sinful and perishing men. In his private intercourse with the people, his well-informed mind and prepossessing appearance, his ur- banity of manners, his great conversational talents, and the unaffected interest he evinced in all that concerned their wel- fare, made him a universal favorite.
The following congratulatory letter is from his tried and confidential friend, whose affectionate and pious counsels ap- pear to have had no inconsiderable influence in inducing him to get over his scruples and doubtful misgivings regarding his fitness for the Christian ministry : —
LETTER FROM GEORGE GRAHAM. G9
" St. Croix, July 30, 1779.
" Dear Sir, — I flatter myself (according to a fashionable mode of speech), that I may wish you joy. I entertain not the least doubt of your being now licensed, although you seemed not as- sured of it when you wrote me last. May you be long preserv- ed, my dear friend, as an ornament to religion, as an able, faith- ful, and successful minister of the Christian church, and a useful member of society ; so that, after a long and honorably labo- rious life spent here, you may be welcomed into the mansions of eternal bliss, and peace, and joy, with a ' Well done, good and faithful servant !' As to your fears and diffidence, search out the source from whence they flow. I hope you don't mean to court popularity. If you administer good and wholesome food and physic to the perishing souls of men, without once attending to their disliking the taste or dress thereof, this will be no restric- tion to your becoming all things to all men ; not in the least. Again let me advise you to be fully convinced of your own insufficiency for so arduous an undertaking as the drawing of souls to Christ. Paul may plant, and Apollos may water, but the increase is of God. May this drive you to Christ's fulness for a supply of every gift and grace ; and may you rejoice in being- only an instrument in his hand, if you have been the means of turning one soul from the error of his ways. Above all, let me be- seech you to be incessant in prayer. I sincerely am of opinion that many a minister who recommends this duty to his hearers feels but little of its efficacy, and seldom tries the experiment himself. This may seem harsh and uncharitable, but I fear is too true a charge.
" You preached your trial sermon at Berwick ; I could wish to have a copy of it. Mr. Blackball has not declined? I should really be sorry if it were so.
" Ever yours,
"George Graham."
In about two months after receiving license, Mr. Waugh was appointed by the Presbytery to supply the Secession con- gregation of Wells Street London, recently left vacant by the death of their beloved and highly respected minister, the Rev. Archibald Hall. Providence having chosen this field, as it af- terwards appeared, to be the great scene of his future ministra-
70 REV. ARCHIBALD HALL.
tions in the service of the sanctuary, we may here briefly notice the rise of that respectable Christian community, and the valu- able labors of his excellent predecessor.
In the year 1758, a few pious young men from Scotland, having previously associated for prayer and mutual edification, made application to the associate Synod for a supply of min- isters, which being acceded to by that religious body, they sent to them the Rev. Mr. Pattison of Edinburgh, who preached in a chapel that had been purchased in St. Giles's, and was the means of increasing their numbers, and of forming them into a church, by the ordination of elders. A succession of ministers was subsequently sent ; and, in 1*705, the Rev. Mr. Hall, by appointment of Synod, was placed over them as their stated pastor. Towards the end of the year 1768, the congre- gation removed to another chapel, which they had purchased in Wells Street, Oxford Road. It was a merciful interposi- tion of Providence that they left the chapel in St. Giles's at the time they did, as, in about three weeks afterwards, it fell to the ground.
Mr. Hall had been previously ordained in 1759, minister of a small congregation in Scotland, at Torphichen in West Lothian. " We have heard little of him," says the author of a short memoir lately published, " during his residence in that retired situation, which could much interest the public ; only that he labored in the ministry to the great satisfaction and edification of that people, and that he gained the affections both of his own congregation and others, by his instructive and judicious discourses, his kind and obliging disposition, and his uniformly pious deportment."
After his translation to Wells Street, through the grace given him, he labored with high respectability, and, from the superior opportunities he enjoyed, added greatly to his acquirements. To other useful subjects he occasionally turned his attention, but sacred literature was his great de- light, and he often perused the oracles of God in the original languages in which they were written. He was diligent in preparation for the pulpit, exemplary in his attention to the
liKV. ARCHIBALD HALL. 71
duties of visitation from house to house, and never a stranger to his people in the day of distress.
During some of his latter years lie pursued his studies and exercised his ministry under the disadvantage of a weak and sickly constitution. In October, 17 7 3, over-exerting him- self in preaching at the Lord's Supper, his complaints re- turned in the following winter, and at last issued in his death.
" For some weeks, or rather months, before his departure," says one of his attendants, " he talked of death with as much serenity as any one could do of going to sleep. He could take a long and formal farewell of every one that was dear to him ; he was able to do this with a resigned, easy, and calm spirit, which was calculated to soothe the distress of mourning survivors." Near his end, when some, sensible of the great loss the church of Christ would sustain by his removal, were weeping around him, he said, with truly dignified Christian composure, " I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. This God will give you another pastor, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." He also addressed them nearly in these words of his Lord and Master, 4'If ye loved me, ye would not weep, because I said, I go to the Father." Soon after, he fell asleep in Jesus, May 6, 1778, in the forty-second year of his age, and nineteenth of his ministry, and was interred in Bunhill Fields' burying- ground. It may be interesting to add, that, after a lapse of forty-nine years, the same grave received the mortal remains of his successor.
His knowledge was truly extensive, and he thought with uncommon accuracy and precision. His public discourses were well adapted for informing the judgment and warming the heart. To the Presbyterian form of church government he was firmly attached, from a conviction that it is the form laid down in the New Testament. In conversation he was easy, instructive, and entertaining. In the parlor he used to descant upon Gospel truths in a distinct, engaging, and pleasant manner. He never spent his time in empty, foolish
72
talking, much less in making reflections injurious to the rep- utation of others ; but in every company it seemed to be his aim either to do good, or get good, or both. The benev- olence of his disposition led him to attend to those minute offices of kindness which are so necessary to smooth the in- tercourse of mankind with each other, and have so great an influence on general happiness. His pleasing, generous, and \ery acceptable attentions were not soon forgotten by those who were the objects of them. He was much in the devout exercises of prayer and praise, giving vent to the grateful emotions of a feeling heart ; and used, even in the solitude of the closet, to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
He published several valuable works : " A Treatise on the Government of the Christian Church," and another on " Church Fellowship ;" two volumes on " Gospel Worship ;" and two sermons, which he entitles " Grace and Holiness." He also left a small work " On the Faith and Influence of the Gospel," in a state of preparation for the press, which was published many years ago. To these may be added a small collection of his letters, which has been very recently edited by one of his sur- viving friends, who has prefixed to it a short memoir, from which we have extracted the above notices respecting this truly excellent man.
Mr. Waugh, after his arrival in London, continued to sup- ply AVells Street congregation for about ten Sabbaths, and met with a most cordial reception from that pious and affec- tionate people. His public ministrations, and his private in- tercourse with the members, produced a very favorable and lasting impression ; which afterwards displayed itself by their strenuous exertions to procure his stated services, in which they persevered, under great discouragement, till their efforts were ultimately crowned with success. The exemplary char- acter of the congregation, the private worth of such of them as he was acquainted with, and the marked instances of kindness and regard which he received, produced a strong reciprocal affection in his mind. A wise and gracious Provi- dence was thus silently opening, hi.^ wav to that highly irn-
NATIONALITY OF CHARACTER. 73
portent scene of labor and usefulness to which the subse- quent part of his life was devoted, and in which his great Master, at his coming, found him faithfully and zealously oc- cupied.
It may here be remarked, that Mr. Waugh was, on many accounts, fitted to make a highly favorable impression upon the Scotch people in London ; — by his talents in the pulpit ; the affectionate earnestness of his ministry, both, on public and private occasions ; by his open generosity of disposition and pleasing urbanity of manners ; and, more particularly, by the strong nationality of his character and feelings. This latter peculiarity was indeed fitted, in the most eminent de- gree, to awaken the dormant but deep-rooted sympathies of his countrymen ; and to it we may, without derogating from qualifications of a more consecrated character, fairly ascribe no slight portion both of his immediate acceptability and of his ulterior usefulness : for (as will afterwards be apparent) the influence of his personal intercourse with his hearers was aided exceedingly by the fervor of his national sympathies, and by the tender, and touching, and pious associations which he pos- sessed the happy art of awakening even in the most callous bosoms. The effect of this influence in keeping alive, in the heart of London, the most valuable features of the Scottish character, as manifested in the Wells Street congregation, ought not to be overlooked, though it would be premature here to dwell upon it.
On his return to Scotland, he was appointed to supply, on the first and second Sabbaths of November, the congregation of Bristo Street, Edinburgh, recently vacant in consequence of the death of the Rev. John Pattison, who was highly es- teemed as an able and faithful minister of Christ, not only in his own congregation, but in every part of the church where he had occasion to labor. Here his ministrations were also highly acceptable, and a very considerable part of that large and respectable congregation felt warmly inclined to call him for their pastor. In the meantime, a unanimous call was given to him by the congregation of Newtown, and sustained
4
74 HIS CALL TO NEWTOWN.
by the Presbytery at their meeting, December 21, 1779. This was a very small congregation, in the parish of Melrose, Roxburghshire, which had never enjoyed a stated ministry. Although such a situation possessed, for a person of his de- cidedly national and rural predilections, some peculiar allure- ments, and had, moreover, the advantage of fixing him in the near vicinity of his family connections, and of the much-loved scenes of his early years, he yet appears to have hesitated not a little whether it would be prudent on his part to accept the charge.
One of his early associates, at this time, writing to a friend in London, an eminent virtuoso, speaks of him in the follow- ing terms ; which we quote, not only as adverting to his general reputation as a young preacher, but as also evincing the very affectionate regard in which he was held by those to whom he was most intimately known : — " I admire Mr. Waugh as much as any of his acquaintance, but not for his taste for antiquity ; for often has he rallied me on the pos- session, and I him upon the want of inclination for it. But he has a real genius for the investigation of divinity and mor- als, and for composition ; he possesses the finest disposition for friendship and for company ; and seems to me one who will long be improving in excellence — longer, indeed, than any person I know : so that I expect, if Providence spare him and me, that he will make an eminent clergyman, and that I shall rejoice in such a friend. He has got a call to Newtown, — a poor place. Many of the people in Edinburgh wish to have him ; sincerely do I desire that they would give him a unanimous call. I hope he will be a blessing to the congregation, and to the Secession in general. But whither am I going ? When Waugh is the subject, I can no more get off it than a young lover can get his mistress out of his head."
The following letter will show how another of his most valued friends felt on the subject of his call to Newtown.
LETTER FROM GEORGE GRAHAM. 15
St. Croix, Aug. 21, 1780.
" My Deahest Friend : — Wednesday last being the anniver- sary of the birth-day of the Rev. Mr. Waugh, it did not pass un- noticed. May you live, my dear Sir, to see many happy returns of the 16th of August! May you bean able, faithful, and success- ful laborer, to whatever part of the Lord's vineyard you may be appointed ; so that many, by your instrumentality, being turned from the error of their ways, may bless the day in which your mother forgot her sorrows by being told that a man-child was born ! and may you, after a long, happy, and useful life spent here, enter the gates of the heavenly Zion amidst the joyous acclamations of holy angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and confessors, exerting themselves afresh in singing praises to Him that was dead, and is now alive; who by means of a helpless infant, sent into the world on the 16th August, 1754, has added many members to the church triumphant ; and hath appointed him, as the gracious reward of having turned many to righteousness, to shine with them as stars forever and ever!
" But let us return to the place of our present sojourning. Pray, my dear solitudinarian, have you really accepted the charge at Newtown ? Were it lawful to repine at any of the dispen- sations of Providence, at this I would really murmur. I think the Presbytery ought to annul the call. Truly, Sir, one pos- sessing such a share of urbanity as you do (I shall say this be- twixt ourselves), would be more useful in a town or a city than in such a moorland hermitage, a rural cloister, as I take Newtown to be. What could induce the people to give you the preference? You will tell me, perhaps, that the election of a minister is providential. I readily grant you that ; but is it not also preceptive ? We ought to make choice of those, when we have a choice, that can become all things to all men in the place they are called to ; whose tempers, dispositions, and way of life, adapt them in some measure for their situation, and offer least violence to their natural feelings. However, if my remarks are too late or impertinent, may congregation and pastor be happy in one another, is my sincere prayer. 'Whatever is, is right,' says Alexander Pope ; so must I say relative to the election of a Se- ceding minister for Newtown.
"Yours forever,
" George Graham."
76 HINT TO MINISTERS.
The subject of this memoir, after long deliberation with himself and his friends, and much fervent prayer for Divine direction in this important step of life, came at last to see that it was the will of Providence that he should take the pastoral care of this infant society. He therefore resolved to go forward in what now appeared the path of duty, devolving all his apprehensions and anxieties on that affectionate and faithful Master who hath kindly promised to his ministers, " As thy day is so shall thy strength be." His trial for ordi- nation being completed at a preceding meeting of Presbytery, he was set apart to the office of the holy miuistry at New- town, by prayer and the laying on of the hands of the Pres- bytery, on August 30, 1780. The Rev. Mr. Riddoch, of Cold- stream, as moderator, gave the charge to the minister and the congregation.
On the following Sabbath, September 3, he commenced his ministrations with a lecture on Psalm xlv. 1-9 ; and preached, in the afternoon, on verse 2 of the same Psalm. He did not regularly lecture in any particular book of Scripture, till a short time before his removal from this charge, when he commenced a course of lectures in Luke. It was a custom with Mr. Brown, soon after the ordination of any of his stu- dents, to write the individual ordained a letter of salutary counsel, regarding the particular duties which had devolved upon him in the new and serious relation into which he had entered. The very solemn admonition which Mr. Wavgfa re- ceived from the worthy professor on this occasion, he pub- lished, many years afterwards, in the Evangelical Magazine.
"hint to ministers.
" The Rev. J. Brown, of Haddington, tutor in divinity to the Associate Synod, in a letter of paternal counsels and cautions to one of his pupils newly settled in a small congregation, wrote thus : — ' I know the vanity of your heart, and that you will feel mortified that your congregation is very small in comparison with those of your brethren around you ; but assure yourself, on the word of an old man, that when yon come lo give an account ol
LETTER FROM GEORGE GRAHAM. 77
them to the Lord Christ, at his judgment-seat, you will think you have had enough."
It would appear that this short letter had sunk deep into his susceptible mind, so as not only to awaken that salutary anxi- ety which every minister will feel who watches for souls as one that must give an account, but to cause very considerable de- jection regarding his fitness for that sacred trust which had been committed to him. On this matter he had unbosomed his heart to his confidential friend, who thus writes: —
"St. Croix, June 19, 1781. " What is the cause of all this dejection, diffidence, and pu- sillanimity, so very discernible in my friend's letter ? Really, from your innate benevolence and generosity of disposition, of which I have had repeated experience, I imagined that, instead of fearing that your small congregation would appear too large at the day of final retribution, your exercise would be — studying a perfect resignation to the Divine will, that had been pleased to confine your labors and talents to so small a spot, thus preventing you from being more extensively useful in another corner of the Christian vineyard. I hope you are determined, with a humble, steadfast affiance on Divine aid, to act as a faithful watchman upon Zion's walls, to sound the trumpet, and warn the people when danger approaches, or is likely to ap- proach, whether your congregation be large or small. If they take not warning, they shall perish in their iniquity ; but you, by your faithfulness, will deliver your own soul. Our glorious, all- conquering Captain, has promulgated a manifesto long ago, and it stands still on record ; it is to this purport, that he sends none of his disciples on warfare at their own charge ; and that he will be with his faithful servants at all times, even unto the end of the world. Perhaps old Adam is too strong for my young friend. Consider, my dear Sir, ' no cross, no crown.' You must run be- fore you reach the goal ; you must fight ere you gain the prize. Be of good courage ; He that is for you, is stronger than he that is against you."
His settlement at Newtown was very agreeable to all his relations except his mother, who felt considerable disappoint-
78 MINISTRY AT NEWTOWN.
rnent that her beloved son, who had received so liberal an education, and had been the object of her unceasing solicitude, should be stationed for life in such a small and obscure place. The congregation was not in circumstances to give him an adequate support; and as no convenient house could be pro- cured in the neighborhood, he continued to reside at his fa- ther's, a distance of about twelve or fourteen miles, and usually rode to Newtown on the Saturday nfternoon, and returned on the following Monday, unless when detained by ministerial visitation or catechizing, or some other clerical duty. His non-residence must have been inconvenient for himself, and very disadvantageous to the interests of the congregation ; and yet never was there a people more warmly attached to a minis- ter. In his public instructions, they hung upon his lips with admiration and delight ; and his private conversation, when he had an opportunity of meeting with them, produced a still deeper impression.
We have already adverted to his very marked dislike of everything bordering on slander or defamation of character, — a vice so strongly interwoven with our fallen nature, that many good men, highly distinguished for other excellencies, do not watch with sufficient circumspection against this be- setting sin. The following is an illustration of his character in this point : — " One of his people had travelled all the way from Newtown to his father's, where he usually resided, to communicate to him an unfavorable report concerning an- other member of the conereffation. Some friends beino- with him, this person was requested to stay and dine with them. After dinner, he took occasion, in a jocular manner, to ask each person, in his turn, how far he had ever known a man travel to tell an evil report of his neighbor ; when some gave one reply, and some another : he at last came to this individual, but without waiting for his self-condemning reply* or unnecessarily exposing him, Mr. Waugh stated, that he had lately met with a Christian professor, apparently so zealous for the honor of the church, as to walk fourteen miles with no other object than that of making known to
CALL FROM LONDON. 79
his minister the failings of a brother-member. He then, in a warm and impressive manner, enlarged on the praise of that " charity which covers a multitude of sins ; which rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth."
At this time a considerable interest was excited about ef- fecting a union betwixt the two sides of the Secession (the Burghers and Antiburghers), who had been separated for about thirty-five years. Mr. Waugh entered with deep in- terest into a subject so peculiarly congenial to the temper of his mind, and wrote a paper in recommendation of the meas- ure, which was generally circulated through that part of the country. Several meetings were held ; but, from the warmth and jealousy displayed on each side, these terminated in no salutary result. "The time to favor Zion was not yet come." But though the lovers of peace were not able then to rear that comely structure which has been since so happily completed at a more auspicious period, it will be said to them, in the great day of account, by Him who weigheth intentions as well as actions, " that they did well that it was in their heart."
It was peculiarly gratifying to the subject of this memoir, to find himself, thirty-nine years after this period, spared by a kind and gracious Providence to be present at a meeting of the Synod in Edinburgh, September 1819, when arrangements were making by both sides of the Secession for effecting that union which now triumphed over every obstruction, and was successfully concluded on the following year. In those arrange- ments he took a most deep and lively interest ; and was depu- ted by his own Synod to offer up their fervent prayers to the exalted Head of the church, to crown that work and labor of love with his divine and efficient blessing.
While he was faithfully discharging both the public and private duties of his ministry at Newtown, the deep impres- sion his services had produced on the church at Wells Street began to appear. A call to him from that congregation was wrought before the Synod which met at Edinburgh, in May, 1781. By the Synod's minutes, it appears that, "after
80 CALL FROM LONDON.
parties were fully heard, he was continued in Newtown by a great majority." He had spoken in favor of his continu- ance at Newtown before the Synod proceeded to give judg- ment. "We extract from his own papers, written at this date, the following account of his sentiments on a matter to him of no common interest : — " The shortness of the time of my min- istrations at Newtown ; the yet unsettled state of that congre- gation ; the attachment which they had manifested to their pastor ; the struggles which they have made for the settlement of a minister among them ; above all, my unfitness for the office in which I now minister ; — these are the considerations which moved me to decline accepting of this call. Since that day, insinuations of several of my fathers in the ministry, in regard to that affair, have hurt my mind very much. They are pleased to say, that I have wantonly preferred my own ease before the good of a congregation which deserves well of every friend to the Secession ; that by my explicit refusal, I had put it out of the Synod's power to fulfil their engagements in the speedy settlement of a minister among them ; and that by this fresh disappointment I had given the congregation a thrust which might be followed by very unhappy consequences to the interest of the Secession in London. Though ray heart tells me that these charges are not applicable to me, yet I do not recollect many events of my life which have affected me more. The happiness of the congregation of Wells Street hath never been to me an indifferent matter : nay, were I as- sured that by my declining to accept of their call, they shall suffer more than a slight disappointment, or be in danger of applying to any other body of Christians, I am fully persuaded that no considerations, taken from my health, ease, native country, or any other quarter, would deter me from devoting to them my best and continued services in the ministry of the Gospel."
In mentioning the following incident, which took place this summer (and which has been communicated by the venerable ex-secretary of the London Missionary Society, whose praise is in all our churches), it is to be observed, in
SECOND CALL FROM LONDON. 81
explanation, that a chapel in connection with the Secession having been recently opened in Carlisle, Mr. Waugh, in his zeal for the cause, had made himself responsible for a consid- erable debt upon it: — "It was on the 4th of July, 1*781, that by desire of Lady Glenorchy, I went from Lancaster, where I then resided, to Carlisle, to purchase of Mr. Waugh a small chapel, in which he had occasionally ministered in connection with the Secession church. But as the cause was discourag- ing, he was desirous of parting with the place ; and Lady Glenorchy, who had engaged me and others to preach at various places in the north of England, authorized me to pur- chase it for her. I met Mr. Waugh there. I preached in the evening. Before sermon he baptized a child; next day I paid him the purchase-money, £120; and he has often told me since, how his heart was lightened from a heavy burden, as he had made himself responsible for the money, and was afraid of the consequences. He used to say it was a warning to him, never more to have to do with money matters in chapel-building. I little thought then, that fourteen years afterwards an intimacy would take place that would last for life."
A second call to him from London was on the 27th No- vember, 1*781, brought before an interim meeting of Synod, which again decided that he should be continued at New- town. The commissioners from Wells Street, in a letter to their constituents, inve the following statement rc^ai'dincr the decision : — " We are exceedingly vexed to inform you, that after all you have already suffered, our most arduous endeav- ors for the happy settlement of your congregation have once more proved abortive, to the universal grief of ministers and spectators, by the unaccountable keenness of the country elders to humble metropolitan congregations, as they are termed ; in spite of the plain, manly, and honest declaration made by the worthy object of your regard, that, owing to deaths, and other alterations which had taken place since he was settled in Newtown, he was willing to be removed. The Synod, in testimony of their sincere sympathy, are to
4*
82 THIRD CALL FROM LONDON.
send up the Rev. Mr. Dick, of Queensfeny, with all convenient speed ; and have also appointed some members to write to
you."
Matters could not continue for any length of time in such a dubious and painful state, and there was every ground to ex- pect Mr. Waugh's speedy translation from Newtown. The congregation of Wells Street had set their hearts most ardently and unanimously on obtaining him for their pastor, and stead- fastly persevered, notwithstanding the great discouragements they had experienced, in prosecuting their claims before the Synod. A third call from this congregation was laid before the Presbytery and sustained on the 19th March, 1782. At the same time, a call to him from the congregation of Bristo Street, Edinburgh, was also brought forward ; but when the two calls came before the Synod, some mismanagement or informality prevented their being brought into direct and open competition; and that of Bristo Street was ultimately with- drawn, after sundry discussions, chiefly on points of form, In which the generality of our readers could take but little in- terest. In the meanwhile, the question was finally discussed in Synod, whether Mr. Waugh should be translated to London or continued in Newtown ; and the commissioners on each side, and also Mr. "Waugh, having previously been fully heard, "after prayer for the Lord's direction and overruling of the decision to his own glory and the good of all concerned," the votes were taken, when it was carried in favor of Wells Street; and the Presbytery of Edinburgh was appointed to admit him, as speedily as possible, to the charge of the said church. This decision was accordingly carried into effect at Dalkeith on 30th May, 1782 ; on which occasion the Rev. Mr. Lowe, of Biggar, being moderator, preached from Psalm lxxi. 16, "I will go in the strength of the Lord God."
There can be no doubt whatever, that the subject of this memoir, with a mind constituted like his, by being trans- lated to London, was raised to a sphere where his exertions have been far more extensively influential in advancing the
MEMORIALS OF HIS MINISTRY AT NEWTOWN. 83
general interests of the kingdom of Christ, than they could have been had he presided over any church in Scotland, however respectable or numerous.
He preached at Newtown for the last time on May 5th, 1782, the Sabbath preceding the meeting of Synod at which he was translated to Wells Street : his text was in 1 John, iv. 8. And on 19th May he preached at Stitchell ; and it being understood that he would not again preach in the country prior to his departure for London, a great number of his old congregation attended, though it was about twelve miles distant. His text that day was from Eph. v. 2.
After the lapse of nearly half a century, it is pleasant to find that his memory is still cherished with grateful recollections, and that his name is never mentioned at Newtown, or in the adjacent country, but in terms of high esteem and regard, though few of his congregation, who were at that period church members, now survive. A pious and very aged woman gives the following simple narrative : —
" I was under great distress of mind on account of my husband's death, who was suddenly taken from me by a fever, and left me with three helpless children. I went to hear Mr. Waugh, who was then minister of the Burgher con- gregation of Newtown. He preached on the words : ' These arc they that have come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' The sermon had such a powerful effect on my mind, that it disburdened it of that sadness and gloom which had hung over me since my husband's death ; I then became a constant hearer at his meeting-house. His ministrations were greatly blessed at that place. He once preached a very alarming sermon on that text : ' But they made light of it.' These were some of his expressions : ' I take witnesses this day, the stones and the timber of this house, that I have made offer to you of the great salvation purchased for you by Jesus Christ, If it should be asked me on the great day, Did you make offer to these poor sinners of the great salvation of the Gospel ? I shall be constrained to say, Yes, Lord ; but
84 MEMORIALS OF HIS MINISTRY AT NEWTOWN.
they made light of it.' The last sermon he preached at New- town was on these words, ' God is love.' He once used an expression in prayer about the love of Christ, which," said she, weeping, " I have never forgotten : ' It is deep as the grave in which he lay, high as the heaven to which he ascended, ancient as eternity, and lasting as the interests of your immortal souls.' "
A respectable member of the congregation, now residing in Peebles, has also favored us with a few notices regarding his ministrations at Newtown : — " During the time Mr. Waugh remained there, the church was always full. Many respectable individuals in the neighborhood, belonging to the established church, regularly attended his ministry, and would have become connected with the Secession had he con- tinued. There was a general impression on the minds of the people, that he would not be permitted to remain long with them. Each Sabbath he had a new text ; and always fin- ished his subject not only to the admiration of those who heard it at the time, but even at this distant period his method of preaching is spoken of with delight by those of his hearers who still survive. The Lord's Supper was only dispensed once during his ministry at Newtown: it was attended by a great multitude, from the surrounding congre- gations of Selkirk, Stow, Stitchell, Kelso, and Jedburgh. Ilis action sermon was on Ephesians i. 7, and made a very deep impression on all who heard it. His directions after the table services were greatly admired. The individual who furnishes this information was one of the hearers, and distinctly recollects the introduction to the address, which was in the following words : ' My brethren, is there a reality in religion ? Yes, there is : but supposing there were no reality, still we, the professors of it, have the advantage of others, it makes us better members of society, better hus- bands, better wives, better parents, and better children, bet- ter servants, and better masters, and happier in all our rela- tions in life.' He then entered into a proof and illustration of religion, as revealed in the Gospel, and confirmed by the
MEMORIALS OF HIS MINISTRY AT NEWTOWN. 85
glory of the Lamb in heaven ; and concluded that part of the service in a manner never before witnessed in so young a person. Mr. Coventry, of Stitchell, under whom he was brought up, was assisting at the Sacrament, and present when that address was given ; and on retiring to take re- freshment, he said to some individuals that were with him, ' O what lofty expressions ! what exalted views of the perfections of the Almighty ! O what a bright star this young man prom- ises to be !'
"It is worthy of remark, that his addresses to communicants were always singularly impressive ; and it appears from the above details, that the two parts of pulpit services in which he afterwards most peculiarly excelled, namely, prayer and commu- nion addresses, are also the parts most vividly remembered by those who heard him fifty years ago."
"During the opportunities he had of mixing with his people, his conversation was cheerful and always edifying, and particu- larly soothing to those in distress, when he was called to visit them. And it may be observed, that whenever the name of Mr. Waugh is mentioned to any of the few yet remaining alive who heard him at Newtown, their countenances brighten, and their hearts glow with pleasure, while they recite any circum- stance they remember respecting him."
CHAPTER II.
Mr. Waugh's ministry in London. Visit to Scotland in 1783. Private diary. His marriage. Ordination of the Rev. Alexander Easton. Intercourse with Rev. John Newton. Deliverance from danger at eea. Address to the congregation on his illness. Visit to Scotland in 1806, for recovery of health. Memorial on the Psalmody. Con- gregational addresses. Accident at Clapton in 1823. Increasing in- firmities. Letters to old friends — youthful reminiscences. Letters from Harrowgate. Funeral sermon on Rev. Dr. Bogue. Delight in ministerial duties. Kindness and liberality of his congregation. Cor- respondence respecting an assistant. His last public services. Char- acter of his pulpit ministrations. His lectures in Fetter Lane, &c. Congregational labors. Anecdote. ISTon-interference in church secu- larises. Christian liberality.
When a minister removes from one part of the church to an- other, the change will lead to serious reflections. Besides the painful feelings of separation, he will often find reason for bitter regret, in the recollection of various instances of important du- ties which have been neglected, with many precious opportuni- ties of doing good, never to return ; and many anxieties will press on his mind regarding the difficulties of his new situation, the temptations to which he may be exposed, the obstructions he may have to surmount, and the steadfastness of the affection expressed by the people among whom he is probably to spend the remainder of his life.
The station to which Mr. Waugh was now appointed, as minister of the Secession church in London, involved in it arduous duties of a different kind from those which had hitherto occupied his attention in a small country charge, arising out of the various classes of which his new congrega- tion was composed, the different occupations in which they were engaged, the dangerous temptations to which they were
LETTERS FROM THE ELDERS OP WELLS STREET. 87
exposed, and the particular habits of life they had formed, — all which required that his prayers, his instructions, and the whole tenor of his ministrations, should be adapted to the changed circumstances in which he was placed. If he felt deeply anx- ious in this important crisis about his future prospects, the fol- lowing letter from the elders of Wells Street must have been consolatory to his mind, by leading him to cherish a pleasing- anticipation, that the prayers of such men would assuredly draw down from on high rich and seasonable blessings on both their minister and conoreo-ation.
o o
"London, May 20, 1782. " Rev. and Dear Sir, — It gives us great pleasure and satisfac- tion, for which we cannot be sufficiently thankful, that the great and compassionate Minister of the upper sanctuary hath confer- red on us the near and pleasant prospect of the fulfilment of one of his gracious words to us, though altogether unworthy ' that our eyes shall see our teachers,' and that we shall have one to break the bread of life among us, and to be an instrument in the Lord's hand of spreading the renowned fame of our Lord Jesus Christ, not to the present only, but also to the rising generation. Blessings are doubly sweet when they are received as the answer of prayer. It has been our concern, though with much imper- fection and much unbelief, to ask a pastor from the Lord ; and we hope he hath heard us. Therefore, we desire to take the blessing from his gracious hand, and to render unfeigned thanks- giving. It is our earnest prayer, that the Lord may speedily supply the people of Newtown, and make up their present loss ; and that he may direct your way to us in the fulness of the Gospel of peace."
We arc indebted for the following incident to one of his earliest friends at the University of Edinburgh, to whom we have referred in a preceding part of this Memoir: — "When he left Scotland, to take charge of the con ore nation in Wells Street, three of us, his sincere friends, nut him at llorndean, near Oornhill, where, next morning, he was to take the coach for London. He lay down upon a bed to prepare himself for the fatigue of the journey ; we sat by him ; and one of the
88 COURSE OF MINISTERIAL SERVICE.
most important subjects of conversation was regarding the way in which a Christian missionary should conduct himself in introducing the Gospel among rude and heathen nations, — a conversation in which he warmly joined. Of the four present, Mr. Waugh was afterwards eminently useful in bringing forward and establishing the London Missionary Society."
He arrived at London on the 14th, and commenced his ministry in Wells Street on the 16th June, 1782. His first sermon was from Psalm xlv. 2 : " Thou art fairer than the children of men ; grace is poured into thy lips : therefore God hath blessed thee forever." In this discourse he gave utterance to that ardent and affectionate regard to the best of masters which glowed in his bosom, and which communi- cated so much life and character to the whole of his ministry, manifesting on every occasion that he was indeed a minister of whom it might be said, " out of the fulness of his heart his mouth spake." He had three services every Sabbath : lecturing in the forenoon, and preaching in the afternoon and the evening ; and this he regularly continued till near his death. His first communion was on the 10th November, 1782, when he preached from Isaiah lii. 14. Agreeably to the practice of the Secession church, he observed a day of fasting along with the congregation in the preceding week, when he preached twice; preaching also on the Saturday evening, when, after public worship was concluded, tokens of admission to the Lord's table were distributed to the mem- bers of the congregation. During the first year of his minis- try he was not absent for a single Sabbath from his church ; and preached only twice out of his own pulpit on week days, once at Penge Common (where he then lodged) to a small congregation on the green.
For some years after his settlement in London he spent a great part of his time in retirement, and employed himself in reviewing his classical studies, in a critical perusal of the sacred Scriptures, in reading various writers on doctrinal and practical theology, and in making himself acquainted with
HIS PRIVATE DIARY. 89
general literature; so that his mind was richly stored with important and valuable information on every topic he was called to discuss. When his public avocations became after- wards very numerous, he was accustomed, in conversing- with his younger brethren, occasionally to refer, with his usual modesty, to that course of diligent and laborious study which he had found so advantageous, not only to his ministerial labors, but also in greatly furthering the exertions he had been enabled to make, along with pious and good men, to extend the interests of religion and charity both at home and abroad.
In the summer of 1*783 he revisited his native country, where he continued about six weeks, generally preaching three times every Sabbath.
His private diary, from which we have previously taken some interesting extracts, will pleasingly aid us in carrying forward this section of the memoir. This brief record was so secretly kept, that none of his family were aware of its existence till it was discovered, among some other papers, after his decease. It appears to have been written solely to assist his own grateful recollections of what Divine goodness had done for himself and his family, and to give expression to the devout aspirations of his heart to the God of all his mercies. Many of the subsequent extracts will be deemed valuable, not merely as a record of transactions and events, but as affording a faithful representation of the prominent features of his mind, and particularly of the fervent piety which glowed in his bosom towards that heavenly Friend, " who seeth in secret," into whose ear he was accustomed to pour forth the unreserved and confidential breathings of his soul.
lie thus notices the death of his revered father, the intelli- gence of whose dangerous illness had hastened his journey to Scotland :
"July 6, 1*783. — It was six hours after his departure that I arrived at Caldron-I3rae ; where I found my dear, my ex- cellent mother, with my brother and sister, dissolved in grief, yet wonderfully supported by the consolations of our holy religion. This was on Sabbath ; and on the Tuesday follow-
90 LETTER OF ADMONITION.
ing, according to the usage of the country, he was buried in the church-yard of Gordon, and his funeral attended by a large and respectable number of the friends of the family. It happened, providentially, that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was dispensed on the following Sabbath at Stitchell ; the solemn services of which were found strengthening to our hearts.
" And now, blessed God ! when my earthly father is re- moved from me, do thou take me up. Under thy wise, and kind, and powerful administration, I shall enjoy more safe guidance, more tender care, and more sure protection, than from any created relation I could ever receive. I look up to thee ; on thine arm will I lean. Guide me with thy counsel while here, and afterwards receive me to glory. Be thou the husband of my widowed mother, and the father of her chil- dren. Bind us together with the cords of love, and enable us to soften and to smooth the rugged paths of old age to her feet."
It would appear, from a long letter addressed to him by one of his most intimate friends, soon after his settlement in London, that his great acceptability, not only as a minister, but in the intercourse of private life, and his fondness for literary society, excited considerable apprehension in the breasts of some of his brethren in Scotland. They naturally dreaded lest his pleasing urbanity of manners, his social frank- ness in congenial society, and his generous unsuspecting tem- per, might prove snares to him, by alluring him too much into company, which, whatever might be its recommenda- tions in some respects, had a tendency to occupy his thoughts with other pursuits than that of his high calling ; and which, if permitted to acquire undue influence over his affections, might even bring his ministerial character and usefulness into imminent hazard. This letter of admonition is too long, and otherwise unfit, for insertion ; but we may observe, that it is written with the unreserved plainness and earnestness of warm attachment, and is equally creditable to the friend who wrote, and to him who received and carefully preserved it.
HIS MARRIAGE. 91
It is a great blessing to a young man to possess such a friend ; it is still a greater to be so worthy of one as was the subject of this memoir. Whatever were the fears of his friends, they were, through the blessing of God, soon happily removed, by his diligent devotedness to his ministerial labors, and by the secluded studies to which for some years he chiefly de- voted his leisure hours. His marriage, which took place three years afterwards, opened to his heart a new range of duties and enjoyments, for which he was by natural disposi- tion most peculiarly adapted. The increase of his family, though necessarily bringing with it many temporal privations and many anxious cares, was yet accompanied with blessings and comforts which few men were ever more fitted than he deeply to appreciate. The new relationships of husband and father, while they unlocked the hidden fountains of his heart, by developing all his teuder sympathies and solicitudes, en- riched him at the same time, in the only mode in which he ever coveted riches, by an abundant harvest of reciprocal affec- tion.
In his diary, his marriage is thus recorded : — "August 10, 17SG. — After regular proclamation of bans in the churches of St. Mary-le-bone and of St. Clement Danes, I was married, by the Rev. John Kiddoch, minister in Cold- stream, to my dear wife, at her fathers house, in Edincrow, in the parish of Coldingham, and county of Berwick."
His aged widow (whose maiden name was Mary Neill) still lives to weep over his grave, and to anticipate with humble hope that " gathering day" to which he so often and so con- fidently alluded. It were indelicate, therefore, to record more prominently than by referring to his letters to her, how richly he experienced the fulfilment of the blessings promised by the inspired author of the Proverbs to the possession of a pious, prudent, and devoted wife. May the testimony so feelingly given by her husband to her devoted kindness, fidelity, and prudence, and the affectionate gratitude of her numerous family for her tender care and pious counsels, be taken by her as a pledge of the faithfulness of Hra who hath
92 DOMESTIC BLESSINGS.
promised to every such mother, " Her children shall arise up and call her blessed ; her husband also, and he shall praise her." It is incumbent, however, on the writer to state one fact — a fact which, if unnoticed, would justly expose him and others to the charge of an ungrateful omission, viz., that Dr. Waugh was deeply indebted to the sincere and unvarying friendship which this marriage created between him and his brother-in-law, Mr. Neill, of Surrey Street, London, for those constant and delicate attentions to his domestic comfort, and for that cordial co-operation in every plan calculated to advance the interests of his numerous children, which distinguished the conduct of that valued and surviving relative. — We revert to the diary : —
" May 7, 1787. — It graciously pleased God to preserve my dear wife, and to give her a son, whom at his baptism, on July 22, we named Thomas, from respect to the memory of my worthy father."
In a subsequent page of this record, we find the following testimony of his devout gratitude to the Bestower of all good for the domestic blessings with which he was surrounded : —
"January 1, 1793. — Blessed be God, who is the health of my constitution and the length of my days, for preserving me till the beginning of another year. My family all in good health, and our prospects in life serene. Several of my dear flock have been summoned away to the eternal world, who bade much fairer to enjoy more days than I did. Let the life hitherto spared in the long suffering of God, be devoted to his honor, and spent in his service. Father of mercies, I am thine ! Thou hast redeemed my life from sickness, and my soul from sin. Thou art lengthening out the love of re- lationship, the kindness of friendship, and all the joys which the ministry of thy Son bestows on my heart. Quicken my diligence in thy service ; make me faithful to the souls of thy people, who are the purchase of thy Son's blood, and the care of thy Providence ; bless them all with increasing measures of personal and family religion ; unite our hearts and hands in every good and pious work. May my dear wife and
SERMON ON MR. E ASTON S ORDINATION. 93
children continue to enjoy health and peace ; let thy fear be im- planted in their tender minds ; preserve them from sin and bad company ; preserve them from the dangers to which they are exposed, in the diseases that lie thick in the early stages of life ; form them for thyself, that they may show forth thy praise. Abundantly bless us all through this year ; make us to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen."
The formation of the second congregation in London con- nected with the Burgher division of the Secession Church, arose from the circumstance of a considerable number of the members of Wells Street chapel living at the east end of the town. It was judged highly proper on that account, as well as for the extension of the interests of the Secession body, that these should form themselves into a separate congrega- tion. The moderator and session of Wells Street, to accom- plish an object so desirable, engaged, in June 1*790, a chapel in Redcross Street. Providence so favored this enterprise, that by supplies of acceptable ministers being sent to them from the Synod, the people soon found themselves in such a prosperous state, that they petitioned the Presbytery to con- stitute them into a distinct congregation. The Rev. Alexander Easton was subsequently chosen to be their pastor, and was or- dained on the 27th September, 1792, a short time prior to their removal to Miles' Lane. The sermon before the ordination was preached by the minister of Wells Street, from Galatians iv. 19, " My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." The diary refers to this subject in the following terms: —
''January 14th, 1793. — Published, at the request of the elders, the sermon preached upon Mr. Easton's ordination. — Blessed God! may my own heart feel the ministerial concern which I endeavor to describe, and those Scriptural motives by which I would encourage it. If I do not exemplify, in my public ministrations, what I recommend to others, I shall stand condemned by my own lips, and my sermon will furnish articles of accusation against me. Blessed Jesus ! may I feel
94 LETTER FROM THE KEY. JOHN NEWTON.
thy love, and be inspired with cheerfulness and ardor in thy cause. May this discourse be read by the ministers of re- ligion, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. May it be made by God, however weak in itself, an effectual instru- ment of arousing the slothful, and confirming them that waver between the authority of God and the love of the world. May it please thee to secure from contempt and opposition thine own truths contained in it, and to pardon the excep- tionable manner in which, through my ignorance, vanity, or weakness, they may be represented. Eminently bless my dear brother in Christ, at whose separation to thy work they were delivered ; may he also be enabled to travail in birth till Christ be formed in the minds of his people ; may a spirit of mutual and profitable godly affection be poured out on us both, and we be helped to labor diligently in the vineyard, and see the plants of the Lord thrive and become fruitful under our care."
A copy of the sermon on Mr. Easton's ordination having been forwarded, among other friends, to the Rev. John New- ton, it was acknowledged by him in the following terms ; evincing the fervent cordiality with which these servants of the Captain of salvation, though there was "some difference in their regimentals," as Newton expresses it, united their hearts in promoting the cause of the high calling to which they were pledged : —
"Coleman Street Buildings, Jan. 24, 1793.
" Rev. and Dear Sir, — I heartily thank you for your accepta- ble present of your Ordination Sermon, which I have read with pleasure. May the Lord make a deeper impression of the great truths and motives you propose upon my heart ; and may his bless- ing rest upon you and upon your friend, and upon your respective congregations !
"I trust that you and I, though there is some difference in our regimentals, belong to one army, under the one Captain of salvation. Our weapons, our resources, our aims, and our ene- mies, are the same. And while the good soldier is concerned to maintain his own particular post, he feels an equal concern with the rest for the success of the whole. On whatever side the foe
KEV. JOHN NEWTON. U«3
is pushed, and advantages gained to the common cause, he will re- joice whether it be effected by those who do, or who do not, wear exactly his own uniform. My heart and hands, dear Sir, are with you, and with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ, and go forth under his banner.
'; When the campaign is happily terminated, the ministers and people of the word will be found more than conquerors, and shall assemble to join in the songs of triumph. Then all our present petty distinctions shall cease, and wo shall be perfectly and for ever united in one heart and one mind. The more this spirit of union prevails at present, the more the church militant will resemble the church triumphant. In the mean time, the same Lord of all is rich in mercy to all that call upon him.
" Your obliged and affectionate friend and brother,
" John Newton."
While referring to Mr. Newton, we may notice, that Mr, Waugh used frequently to introduce to him such of his Scottish brethren as happened to visit London, and who were naturally anxious to see that distinguished writer and excel- lent man. On one of those occasions, Mr. Waugh said, — " Well, Sir, I have brought another of my Northern friends to see you." " Ah, my brother," said the venerable Newton, " I was once a wild lion on the coast of Africa ; there God took me and tamed me, and brought me to London ; and now you are come to see me as they do the lions in the Tower !"
Besides his intercourse with Mr. Newton and other pious ministers of different denominations, Mr. Waugh was at this period, and had been for several years, on most affectionate terms of Christian brotherhood with the Scotch Presbyterian ministers in London ; viz. the Rev. Dr. Hunter, Rev. John Love, Rev. James Steven, and Rev. George Jerment, who will be afterwards more particularly noticed, as associated with him in the institution of the London Missionary Society. Ill the establishment also of the Evangelical Magazine, which tended so much to promote the objects of that society, he took at this time a very active share. But to this subject we shall revert in the next chapter. We now proceed with the diary.
96 DIARY, JUNE 11, 1*793.
"Feb. 12, 1793. — Reflections preparatory to the public service of to-morrow, the day of fasting before the holy communion.
" Blessed and holy Father ! pour out on my darkened and obdurate mind the enlightening and softening aids of thy good Spirit, that I may look on my heart with impartiality, and sincerely mourn over its corruptions. The more I look on my nature, the more reason have I to be displeasd with its prevailing inclinations. There dwells in ray heart naturally no good thing ; but there dwell in it hordes of carnal, selfish, and proud dispositions, notwithstanding all the care which my venerable parents took of my education, and all the privileges I have long enjoyed. How turbulent have been the risings of corruption within me, and to what imminent danger have my character, my peace of mind as connected with it, the credit of that holy religion of which I make pro- fession, the comfort of my affectionate relations, and my future estate in life, been thereby exposed ! In midst of de- liverances from the flood and from the flame, from the just alarms of an awakened conscience, from feared reproach, from the snares of the designing and the selfish, how ungrate- ful has my heart been ! In prosperous estate, how forgetful of the vows which in ray trouble I made to the Lord ! Father* forgive what thy pure eyes behold to be base, treacherous, and ungrateful in the past workings of ray heart ; sanctify me by thy word ; preserve me from falling ; aid me in the services of to-morrow."
"June 11, 1793. — -Thoughts on Mrs. Waugh's journey to Scotland, on Sabbath last, with some of the children, for the recovery of 's health.
" Long hath the good providence of my heavenly Father vouchsafed to the family health and comfortable estate : for the space of more than six years have the mother and the children been well, notwithstanding the unhealthy nature of the place, and the daily danger of bringing disease into the family, to which ray profession exposes me. But the storm at length begins to gather, and our feeble minds shrink at
DIABY, October 25, 1*793. 97
the prospect of the blast. The disorder which effects our dear child is of the most alarming nature; there is little ground to hope that her constitution will ever overcome the malignity of the distemper. But thou, my Father in heaven, hast done it ; and I desire to bow down before thy will* What am I, that I should speak again to God ? It is well. 0 for a more resigned and composed spirit ! Thou art just when thou judgest, and clear of all blame when thou thus speakest bitter things to us. We have sinned, and what shall we say against thee 1 O alleviate the pressure of the disorder ! Strengthen the mother to bear up under the trial ; make the means used successful for the end desired ; and 0 disap- point our fears ! Preserve them all on the mighty waters, and carry them in safety to the desired haven. May good accounts be received from them, and my oppressed heart be relieved. Thou art my God, and I will lean on thee. In many former hardships and fears, thou broughtest comfort; thou hast never yet deserted me, and my hope is in thee. May I be kept in the path of duty in their absence. May the holy purposes in the Divine mind, of this dispensation, be fully gained in my heart. From this world may I be weaned as a portion, and my soul return to thee as her rest- ing-place. May I be enabled to bring up my children in the fear of the Lord, and my dear wife be helped to take her part willingly and faithfully in the important duty. We both look up to thee as our Father and Friend. We have few to look to on earth, though many, many more than we deserve. But thou art our divine, abiding, and all-sufficient Friend. We would not wander from thee : this were to wander far from our happiness, our honor, and our privilege. May this blast bring in our straying affections and confidence to the covert of thy power, and the well-spring of thy love. Near to thee may we ever walk, on thy arm may we ever lean, with thy countenance may we be cheered and comforted through all our journey."
"October 25, 1*93.— Reflections on my safe arrival yester- day with Mrs. Waiiffh and the children from Berwick.
98 LETTER TO MRS. WAUGH.
" Blessed be the Lord God, who hath not turned away our prayers from him, nor his face from us. Under the means prescribed, he hath graciously put a check on the child's disorder, confirmed her general health, and encouraged us to hope that she may yet outgrow the distemper. He whom winds and seas obey hath vouchsafed to us a pleasant passage, and brought us all in perfect safety to our peaceful home. May Jehovah, the healer, mercifully heal our spirit- ual maladies, our unbelief, our pride, our worldly-minded- ness, our indifference about the concerns of the soul, and re- store our nature to its primitive soundness and beauty. O that our dear children may live before him, and we be en- abled to educate them in his fear ! Many are the dangers that surround us in this ensnariug and wicked place. May the Lord, who preserved Lot in Sodom, preserve their young minds pure and unsullied, in midst of abounding iniquity and bad example. We are required to bring them up for God. May our vows at their baptism be felt in their obligations on our souls, and it be our daily care to pay them. Strengthen us, our Father, with all might in the inner man to do ihy will ; for thou art our God."
The following extract of a letter to Mrs. Waugh will be found interesting, from its connection with the extract from his diary immediately following : —
" Whitby, Sept 24, 1798. " By a letter from Berwick on Saturday, I was informed that Captain Ramsay would sail that afrcrnoon, and that he had pro- mised to hang out a signal for me whenever he should come within sight of Whitby. I have had a coble-man looking out last night and this morning, but there is no appearance of the ship yet. My things are all put up, and I am waiting the call to depart : so should our souls ever be in readiness to leave this changing world, when God shall summon us away. Yesterday was our communion Sabbath here, and, like the first communion, it may be the will of God that I shall no more drink of the fruit of the vine with the church below. The will of the Lord be done. I leave you, my dearest friend, in the care of your Father and your God. He will not leave nor forsake you.
DANGER AT SEA. 99
"Lean on Him, and your soul shall attain divine composure, lie
is a rock, and as Dr. Young says, ' All, all is sea besides.'"
"September 26, 1798.— Went on board the Louch, a sloop of Whitby, bound for Hull, on my return to London, whence I had gone five or six weeks ago for the benefit of my health. Before wo were off Robin Hood's Bay, the wind began to blow high from the north-east, and was accompa- nied with rain. As the vessel was designed only to run along the shore to Hull, she had but two men and two boys to navigate her. About midnight, the master thought him- self off the Spurn Lights, but not daring to venture in, he kept the vessel out to sea. The wind increasing next day, and the rain continuing, he still bore out from the land ; and at night saw the Dudgeon Lights ; we passed on the outside of them, so near as to hear the men conversing with each other. By this time the hoops of the mainsail were almost all torn from the mast, though there was no more sail than was necessary to keep the vessel steady : in this state we drifted all the night. I was the sole passenger; and whe- ther it was from the fatigue and extreme sickness of the pre- ceding night, viz. the 26th, or from my solitary situation, in which there was nobody to hold any religious converse with, or from the apprehended danger, I do not recollect ever to have endured such sensations of distress. The thought of leaving this world and appearing before the judgment-seat of God, is at all times a most solemn thought ; it was rendered additionally impressive at that time by the suddenness of the journey, it having been resolved on at the time of dinner the preceding day ; by the absence of my religious friends, whose conversation and devotional exercises might have soothed and assisted the enfeebled mind ; and especially by the absence of my beloved wife and children, over whose future bereaved condition my heart hung with inexpressible tenderness.
" On the morning of the 28th, the master not knowing where he then was, and seeing a brig making her course to the southward, he concluded that she was steering for Yar-
100 GRATITUDE FOR DELIVERANCE.
mouth Roads : he resolved to follow her ; and the more so, as he himself had never taken a vessel into the Roads. The sight of land, near Cromer, gave to my mind unspeakable sat- isfaction ; and, by God's gracious providence, we anchored be- side Lord Duncan's fleet, in the Roads, by two o'clock.
" Never, O my soul ! never let this day pass by, without offering up fervent supplications to God for all endangered persons who go down to the sea in ships, and see God's won- ders in the deep ; nor without offering up the devoutest thanksgivings to thy Deliverer, for lengthening out thy days on earth, for hearing the voice of thy prayer in the day of thy calamity, and restoring thee in safety to thy family and people."
In regard to this providential deliverance, which he always mentioned, when the subject was introduced, in terms of deep and lively gratitude, one of his family has subjoined the follow- ing particulars :
" When my beloved father reached the shore, he imme- diately walked to the churchyard, and, kneeling behind a grave-stone, poured out his heart in gratitude to his God and his deliverer. After which, rinding himself quite worn out with fatigue and anxiety, and wanting much the comfort of a Christian friend, he wandered through the burial-ground, to find an introduction to one who served his Master. On a newly made tomb it was said that the departed had died in Jesus. This was what he wished : he went to the house where the family resided, introduced himself, and told his interesting tale, and with the aid of their kindness and hospitality was soon able to pursue his journey. I have often heard him speak, with the tear in his eye, of the despair and anxiety the poor sailors felt, when they feared their little bark would sink ; and with what pleasure he saw them join him in his prayer to God for protection and deliverance.
In his yearly pocket-book, at the anniversary of this deliv- erance, he invariably afterwards entered the motto — " God is love."
He arrived in London on Sabbath, 30th September, in a
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state of excessive exhaustion ; but notwithstanding this, and the anxious remonstrances of his family, he proceeded with joy and gratitude to preach at his own chapel in the evening, from Hebrews xiii. 5, last clause, " He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee ;" — a promise of which he had so signally experienced the fulfilment, by God's great power and stretched- out arm.
From the period of the establishment of the London Mis- sionary Society, in 1795, a very considerable portion of his time was given to the various active duties which devolved upon him in connection with that great object. We merely notice this at present as a point to be hereafter dilated on, and to account to the reader for the apparent meagreness of incident at a period of his career, which was in fact particularly active, and crowded with labors of pious exertion for the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom.
" May 1, 1800. — I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications