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 BX 9225 .L45 W3 1871 
 Walker, Norman L. 1826-1905. 
 An earnest pastorate 
 
AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
" We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the 
 word." — Acts vi. 4. — manuscript Motto in his Study Bible. 
 
.^6« 
 
 ulJlyOCl /CXiJCuJ 
 
 EnnrajveA'by WiMam. Jloll.afUf ay Tkotogi-aph- 
 
AN 
 
 EARNEST PASTORATE 
 
 MEMORIALS 
 
 REV. ALEXANDER LEITCH, M.A. 
 
 MINISTER OF THE SOUTH CHURCH, STIRLING 
 
 BY THE / 
 
 REV. NORMAN L. WALKER 
 
 u;thor of 'life in the smrit,' 'christ at sychar,' etc. 
 
 ' He wore out his life in quiet work, beneath his Master's eye.' 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 ANDREW ELLIOT, PRINCES STREET 
 
 I 87 I 
 
Printed by R. Clark, Edinl'iir^h. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER FIRST. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 His Earlier Life ....... i 
 
 CHAPTER SECOND. 
 Ministry at Gartmore ...... 14 
 
 CHAPTER THIRD. 
 First Years in Stirling ..... 29 
 
 CHAPTER FOURTH. 
 After the Disruption ...... 48 
 
 CHAPTER FIFTH. 
 In his Closet ........ 69 
 
 CHAPTER SIXTH. 
 Over his own House ...... 88 
 
 CHAPTER SEVENTH. 
 Pastoral Methods . . . . no 
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTH. 
 The Prayer Meeting 121 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER NINTH. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Pulpit ........ 138 
 
 CHAPTER TENTH. 
 His Friends . . . . . 170 
 
 CHAPTER ELEVENTH. 
 The End 187 
 
CHAPTER FIRST. 
 
 HIS EARLIER LIFE. 
 
 Birth and Education — Dr. John Muir — License — Broughty Feny — 
 Mr. Erskine of Linlathen — Professor Martin — Dr. S. Miller — 
 Chapel of Ease — Dr. Love — Settlement at Gartmore. 
 
 From one to half-past two o'clock on the afternoon of 
 Thursday, the 23d day of April 1868, the town of 
 Stirling appeared as it usually does on a Fast-day or a 
 Sabbath. The shops were shut, and all business was 
 suspended ; the streets were full of people, whose aspect 
 indicated the pressure of some common sorrow ; and 
 the tolling of the town bells at intervals intensified the 
 feeling of solemnity which was abroad. 
 
 It was the funeral day of the Rev. Alexander Leitch, 
 minister of the South Free Church — a man who never 
 delivered one set speech in the General Assembly, 
 who contributed nothing to the literature of his country, 
 with whose very name, it is possible, many of his own 
 brethren were little familiar, but who, by a long life of 
 single-minded devotion to the glory of God and the 
 highest good of his fellow men, had made such an im- 
 pression upon the community in which he lived, that it 
 was now mourning his death as if it had been a public 
 calamity. 
 
 The memory of such a man will no doubt long 
 B 
 
2 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 remain green in the recollections of many, and the 
 monument which, has since been erected over his grave 
 will also help to keep his name from being speedily for- 
 gotten. But it may always be a question, in a case of 
 this kind, whether a memorial may not be prepared 
 which shall do more than it is possible for memory or a 
 monument of stone to accomplish ; — a memorial which 
 people can preserve in their own homes, and which will 
 make them even better and more beneficially acquainted 
 with their dead friend than they perhaps ever were while 
 he lived in the midst of them. Often there are no 
 materials out of which such a memorial can be con- 
 structed, and it makes a poor substitute to offer instead 
 a series of empty panegyrics on the departed. But if 
 materials do exist, and other circumstances admit of it, 
 we can conceive of many advantages likely to follow 
 from the attempt to continue after his death the useful- 
 ness of a good man, by the publication of a sketch of 
 his life and of selections from his remains. It is in this 
 spirit that the present work has been undertaken ; but 
 the compiler wishes to say at the very outset that, greatly 
 as he respected the subject of this memoir, he would 
 not have faced the preparation of a volume intended to 
 enshrine his memory, if he had not been beforehand 
 convinced that much could be brought out in connec- 
 tion with his history which was fitted to be, in many 
 ways, practically useful. While, therefore, those may be 
 disappointed who take up the memorial in the expecta- 
 tion of finding a constant repetition of the fact that Mr. 
 Leitch was a good man, full of faith and prayer, he 
 hopes that others will experience more soUd gratification 
 in getting from these notices some useful practical hints 
 and some substantial spiritual benefit. 
 
HIS EARLIER LIFE. 3 
 
 Mr. Leitch was born in Glasgow on the 24th of 
 February 1803. A communicant's certificate, preserved 
 among his papers, and signed by Dr. Burns of the 
 Barony, on November ist, 1819, mentions that he had 
 Hved in that parish from his infancy, and had maintained 
 up till that time, when he was sixteen years of age and 
 was about to enter the Divinity Hall, a character every 
 way consistent with his profession and prospects. But 
 we have no intimate knowledge of this early period of 
 his life. He must have gone to College when he was 
 but a boy of twelve or less, for his Master of Arts dip- 
 loma is dated April 1 8 1 9 ; and the very fact that at such 
 an age he did take his degree, speaks with sufficient 
 explicitness for his diligence during his undergraduate 
 course. There is nothing to tell, however, of his actual 
 work during these years, nor of the beginnings of his 
 religious life, nor of the companionships which he made 
 while at the University. We know what classes he at- 
 tended, because, with that business-like carefulness for 
 which he afterwards became remarkable, he preserved 
 the tickets of his professors ; but not until he had com- 
 pleted his theological curriculum, and is about to take 
 license, have we the means of forming anything like a 
 distinct idea of what manner of person he was or pro- 
 mised to become. 
 
 Two passing glimpses of him, indeed, we get while 
 he is yet a student. For some months, from November 
 1819 to January 1820, he taught a private school at 
 Harkosyke, in the parish of Loudon, Ayrshire, to the 
 entire satisfaction, as appears, of his employers ; and 
 while in Glasgow, at the University, he came across the 
 path of Mr. Nixon, of Montrose, in such a way as to 
 leave upon his mind a pleasant recollection. 
 
4 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 " I went very very young to College," writes Mr. 
 Nixon, " and was there for years before I ever began to 
 be anything like an earnest student. And it was in 
 those earlier years that I came in contact with Mr. 
 Leitch, and that only in going to or returning from 
 College, as our homes lay so far in the same direction. 
 And the most which I can at present recall, was the 
 impression which I then took up, that he was much 
 more like one that felt his responsibilities than I could 
 pretend to be." 
 
 This is not much, but it confirms the impression 
 which is conveyed to us by his conduct as a probationer, 
 that when he was licensed to preach the Gospel he was 
 able to speak to those whom he addressed of a Divine 
 love which he had himself already experienced. 
 
 While passing through the Divinity classes, Mr. 
 Leitch appears to have been attracted from the Barony 
 Church to St. James's by the preaching of Dr. Muir, and 
 thus early the foundation was laid of a friendship which 
 continued uninterrupted till the Disruption. Dr. Muir 
 proposed him for license in the Presbytery — he procured 
 him his first situation afterwards at Broughty Ferry — he 
 was largely instrumental in opening the way for him 
 both into Gartmore and into Stirling — and for many 
 years in succession they regularly assisted each other 
 at their respective communions. The story of their 
 relationship is indeed highly creditable to them both. 
 No father could have more earnestly sought to further 
 a son's interests in the world than Dr. Muir sought to 
 further the interests of one for whom, though he was no 
 kinsman of his, he had conceived a peculiarly high re- 
 gard ; and Mr. Leitch would have been altogether inex- 
 cusable if he had not met such unremitting kindness 
 
HIS EARLIER LIFE. 5 
 
 with gratitude and affection. As it was, the friendship 
 continued, as we have said, until that trying event came 
 which made them ministers of separate churches ; and 
 we are not surprised to find that, whatever other letters 
 he lost, Mr. Leitch seems to have preserved to the last 
 all that were ever sent to him by Dr. Muir. 
 
 These letters, especially the earUest of them, furnish 
 a fine specimen of the kindly Christian intercourse 
 which was carried on forty or fifty years ago between 
 the Evangelical ministers of Scotland and the preachers 
 who sympathised with them in their views of the Gospel; 
 and in tracing Mr. Leitch's career as a probationer, 
 we shall have very frequent occasion to refer to their 
 contents. 
 
 On Thursday, 7th November 1822, Dr. Muir writes 
 to his young friend to say that he had the day before 
 proposed in the Presbytery of Glasgow that he should 
 be taken on trial for license ; and, as it was necessary 
 that he should be known to at least six ministers within 
 the bounds, he gives him an open letter of introduction, 
 wdth which to call upon the required number of the 
 brethren. Among the ministers to whom Mr. Leitch 
 was thus commended, and who, no doubt, stood spon- 
 sors for him when he was admitted to be a probationer, 
 were, we observe. Dr. Chalmers and the " Pastor of 
 Kilsyth." 
 
 The license, however, did not take place immedi- 
 ately. He was, in fact, too young to be entitled to re- 
 ceive it at the time when his name was first submitted 
 to the Presbytery. And other things also must have 
 come in the way to prevent the process from being 
 rapidly accomplished. It was not until the ist of 
 October, 1823, that he was at last enabled to go for- 
 
6 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 ward, with the full sanction of the Church, to the public 
 discharge of those high functions, for the exercise of 
 which he had been so long and so earnestly preparing. 
 
 His first sermon was preached in the Barony Church 
 — the same, probably, in which he had been baptized — 
 his text being Genesis iii. 15 : "And I will put enmity 
 between thee and the wornan, and between thy seed 
 and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt 
 bruise his heel." During the remainder of the month 
 of October he also officiated in other pulpits in Glasgow 
 or its neighbourhood. But so long before as the 8th of 
 August, he had, through the mediation of Dr. Muir, been 
 appointed to the charge of a new school at Broughty 
 Ferry, erected by the liberality of the well-known Mr. 
 Erskine of Linlathen ; and, as he had to enter on the 
 duties of this office on the 17 th of November, his 
 ministry came to be exercised, from that date and for a 
 year onward, chiefly in the north and east of Scotland. 
 
 On the 1 6th of November, for example, he preached 
 at Monifieth ; and from the carefully kept sermon 
 journal which he left behind him, and which contains a 
 record of where and how he spent every Sabbath that 
 passed over him, from the date of his license to the 
 week before his death, we learn that during the year 
 which elapsed between November 1823 and November 
 1824, he officiated at, among others, the following 
 places in Fife and Forfar : — St. Andrew's, St. David's, 
 and Steeple Church, Dundee ; Forfar and Broughty 
 Ferry, Logic and Monimail. 
 
 Regarding this school in Broughty Ferry, Mr. 
 Leitch has preserved the copy of a letter written by a 
 Captain Paterson on behalf of Mr. Erskine, and addressed 
 to Dr. Muir, from which we gather that the qualifica- 
 
HIS EARLIER LIFE. 7 
 
 tions required in the teacher to be appointed were not 
 exclusively scholastic. Mr. Erskine, whatever he be- 
 came afterwards, was then regarded as one of the most 
 earnest and evangelical men within the communion of 
 the Church of Scotland ; and it is evident that he had in 
 his eye not merely the secular education of the village, 
 but the promotion of the highest interests of its inhabit- 
 ants. Although Mr. Leitch, therefore, was by this time 
 a preacher, he probably did not find, even apart from 
 the occasional opportunities which were offered to him 
 of occupying pulpits in the neighbourhood, that his 
 energies were altogether turned aside from what had 
 become the main purpose of his life. 
 
 " It is quite unnecessary," says Captain Paterson, 
 " for me to say anything of Mr. Erskine's views in erect- 
 ing the school, as you probably know them as well as 
 I do, and the qualifications of Mr. Leitch seem all that 
 can be desired for their fulfilment. We have a Sunday 
 school of from 80 to 100 scholars, to which he will 
 have no objection to give his superintendence. There 
 is also a small library for the use of the village, which 
 will be placed under his charge ; nor, I am sure, will he 
 refuse to give his exertions on behalf of the Bible 
 Society which has lately been set agoing. May the 
 Lord direct him and bless him as an instrument in turn- 
 ing many wandering souls to the truth of the Gospel." 
 
 These expectations were fully realised. Among his 
 pupils was Professor Martin of Aberdeen, who to this 
 day " remembers well the order which characterised the 
 school, and the invariable kindness and faithfulness of 
 its teacher;" while a letter now before us, written by 
 an octogenarian, who was old enough in 1823 to be 
 able to take notice of what was going on outside of 
 
8 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 school, mentions several things which help to make Mr. 
 Leitch's religious position in Broughty Ferry perfectly 
 intelligible to us. He says, for example : " At that time 
 the Moderates and the Evangelicals formed two distinct 
 parties, and this parish had its full share of moderatism." 
 Again : " The laws of the church were very stringent in 
 regard to preaching, without liberty being asked and 
 granted by the parish minister," Mr. Leitch, however 
 (he goes on to explain), was in the habit of giving an 
 address at the close of his Sabbath school ; an address 
 which consisted very much just of an " improvement" of 
 the lessons taught in the classes, but which was attractive 
 enough to induce the regular attendance of a consider- 
 able number of grown-up people ; so that it might fairly 
 be said that, in addition to the work which he was 
 engaged to .perform, he voluntarily conducted, all the time 
 he was in Broughty Ferry, a set Sunday evening service. 
 And our correspondent adds, " As Mr. Leitch was on 
 the Evangelical side, and often commented very severely 
 on the evils of the time — speaking of the failures of 
 teachers as well as of scholars — his remarks sometimes 
 gave rise to a great deal of discussion among those who 
 heard him." 
 
 It is easy to see what sort of a life this was. Here 
 was a young and ardent evangelical preacher, fresh from 
 mission work in the wynds of Glasgow (for Dr. Muir, 
 in one of his communications, refers to his having had 
 charge, as a divinity student, of a district meeting in his 
 parish), set down in a place where moderatism prevailed, 
 yet with limited opportunities of good-doing. The laws 
 of the church did not permit him to open his mouth to 
 declare the unsearchable riches of Christ where and 
 when he pleased. If he had attempted a regular service 
 
HIS EARLIER LIFE. 9 
 
 on his own account, he would at once have been cen- 
 sured as insubordinate. But his zeal had one outgate, 
 — through his Sabbath school — and there he appears to 
 have spoken his mind in the hearing of the people so 
 frankly, that many who had been accustomed, all their 
 days, to hear nothing but smooth things, were startled 
 out of their indifference. 
 
 And we are not in the least surprised to hear that 
 his style of preaching not merely excited interest but 
 provoked opposition. On this point he had written, 
 apparently, to his faithful friend and counsellor in Glas- 
 gow; for, in a letter of Dr. Muir's, dated January 8, 
 1824, we find these sentences : — 
 
 " It gives me pleasure to hear you are so comfortably 
 settled : it gives me yet more pleasure to hear that you 
 are countenanced by God in your preaching occasion- 
 ally. And, because you are so countenanced, therefore 
 you must expect to be opposed, . . . Nor will the 
 opposition do you any harm in the end. It will in the 
 meantime show you the fulfilment of the word of God, 
 and put an edge on your mind in prayer, and it will in 
 future be better to you than much study without such 
 trials in the way of preparation for preaching." 
 
 Mr. Leitch's occasional services in the neighbouring 
 pulpits at this period appear to have been extremely 
 acceptable, whereof two testimonies, among a number, 
 may be given. He officiated again and again, while 
 living in Broughty Ferry, at Monifieth ; and Mr. Bisset, 
 who was then the assistant-minister there, thus writes on 
 the 8th of June 1824 : " He has several times preached 
 in this parish, in Dundee, Forfar, and other places, 
 when he has been ' particularly' remarked for the extent 
 of his Scrijjtural knowledge, the impressive manner of his 
 
10 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 delivery, his ardent zeal in defence of the truth, and the 
 peculiar orthodoxy of his evangelical sentiments." The 
 other testimony is of a more indirect kind. In the 
 month of August he was asked to supply, for several 
 Sabbaths in succession, the pulpit of Monimail, while 
 Dr. Martin was in London baptizing" one of the children 
 of Edward Irving. He did so, and on that occasion left 
 on one of his hearers an impression, which is described 
 in the following terms by a grandson of Dr. Martin's, 
 Dr. Samuel Miller of Glasgow : " Talking one day," he 
 writes, " with Mr. Wilson of Maryhill, immediately after 
 Mr. Leitch's death, we noted, among other things, the 
 uniformly savoury character of his discourses ; and I 
 remarked, that this must have been the case from the 
 very beginning of his career, while yet a young preacher, 
 for I remembered a remark made by an aunt of mine long 
 long ago (perhaps forty-five years ago), to the effect that 
 she did not expect such doctrinally mature and unctional 
 preaching from so young a licentiate." 
 
 All this while Dr. Muir was not losing sight of the 
 ecclesiastical advancement of his protege. " So early as 
 the 7 th of February he sent to him at Broughty Ferry 
 this letter, which speaks volumes for the esteem in 
 which he held him : — 
 
 " Although it be now nearly two years since the 
 building of a Chapel of Ease in St. James's parish here 
 was proposed, and nearly one year since the authority 
 of the General Assembly for building said chapel was 
 obtained, yet I have been hitherto rather indifferent 
 about seeing the building begun, because till lately I 
 did not see where a fit minister could be found for it, 
 even though it were finished ; and chapels of ease with- 
 out good and sufficient ministers in them, I consider 
 
HIS EARLIER LIFE. 11 
 
 as lumber indeed. Of late, however, I have been casting 
 my eyes toward you as the future minister of our 
 chapel, and I intend to take the earliest opportunity of 
 saying so to our elders and others concerned in this 
 projected undertaking. All this I mention to you in 
 this early stage of the business, because I find several 
 of the leading people in Dr. Love's congregation asking 
 where you are, and speaking as if they would like to see 
 you assistant to Dr. Love in his present feeble state. 
 When they have asked me where you are, I have told 
 them, but added you were engaged till Martinmas next 
 in your present situation. It may happen, however, 
 that some of them may take it upon them to write to you ; 
 and, if so, I could wish you would make no promises to 
 them nor to others till you have first written to me." 
 
 Nothing, however, ultimately came of either of these 
 movements, nor yet of another which Dr. Muir originated 
 about an assistantship at Kilbarchan ; and Mr. Leitch, 
 at the close of his engagement at Broughty Ferry, re- 
 turned to Glasgow again for a time as a probationer at 
 large. But his indefatigable friend had his success in 
 the vineyard too much at heart to permit him to rest 
 satisfied with this state of matters ; and in February 
 1825, we find him taking the necessary steps to secure 
 a favourable hearing for him at Gartmore. This village 
 is in the south-west corner of Perthshire, in the parish 
 of the Port of Monteith. The parish church being five 
 miles off, and a portion of the adjoining parish of 
 Drymen being equally isolated, a desire early sprung up 
 among the people of the district to have a church and 
 minister of their own. This desire was gratified toward 
 the close of last century. A chapel of ease in connec- 
 tion with the Church of Scotland was erected in 1790, 
 
12 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 and the election of a minister was vested in the male 
 heads of families. From the outset the cure was 
 favoured with the services of a succession of able men ; 
 but, of course, from its position, it did not possess the 
 means of retaining ministers of mark when it was fortu- 
 nate enough to secure them, and the vacancy which 
 occurred in 1825 was niade by an event, the like of 
 which must have happened often — the translation of the 
 incumbent of the time to the parochial charge of 
 Fossoway. 
 
 For the vacant office there was no lack of candidates, 
 but Mr. Leitch's way into it was happily made very 
 smooth. He preached in the chapel on the 20th of 
 February, the election took place on the 7 th of March, 
 he was formally called on the 28th of April, and he was 
 ordained on Thursday the 7th of July. " The call," 
 says one of his hearers in Gartmore, "was hearty and 
 unanimous, there being only one dissentient, and this 
 person became a most attached hearer and a very warm 
 friend." It was, in a worldly sense, a situation of no 
 great profit, the stipend promised amounting to about 
 seventy pounds a-year, with a house and garden, but it 
 offered what the young and zealous preacher must have 
 been ardently desiring — a sphere in which there was full 
 scope for the exercise of his ministerial gifts, and we 
 shall immediately see that he proved himself a workman 
 needing not to be ashamed. 
 
 In his sermon-diary, there is usually nothing entered 
 but the name of the place at which he preached and the 
 text, but on the 7th and loth of July the entries made 
 are somewhat fuller. Under the first it is recorded, 
 " This day I was ordained minister of the chapel of 
 Gartmore. Mr. Gray, minister of Kincardine, preached 
 
HIS EARLIER LIFE. 
 
 13 
 
 from these words (John xv. 8) ' Herein is my Father 
 glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my 
 disciples ; ' " while under the second we have this record, 
 "This day I was introduced to the congregation at 
 Gartmore by Mr. Muir, St, James's parish, Glasgow, who 
 preached from Matt. ix. 3 8, ' Pray ye therefore,' etc. 
 I preached in the afternoon from Luke ix. i, 2." 
 
CHAPTER SECOND. 
 
 MINISTRY AT GARTMORE. 
 
 Revival of Religion — Dr. Finlayson of Edinburgh — Communion 
 Seasons — Snow-storm of 1827 — Marriage — Letters of Dr. 
 Muir — Mr. Hamilton Thorn — Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Clason 
 — Catholic Emancipation — Mr. Campbell of Row — Vacancies 
 and Probationers — Woodside, Aberdeen, and the late Mr. 
 Gray of Perth — Presentation to Stirling. 
 
 " At the time of Mr. Leitch's coming to Gartmore," 
 writes one who belonged to the district, and received 
 lasting good from his ministry there, "the spiritual life 
 of the place was at a low ebb, and all around, amidst 
 nature's loveliest scenery, was a moral wilderness." The 
 young pastor, however, was not discouraged, but, " full 
 of faith in the Word of the truth of the Gospel," he ad- 
 dressed himself to the task of reclaiming the waste, with 
 a zeal, perseverance, and energy, which, by the blessing 
 of God, soon issued in most satisfactory results. 
 
 " He organised," we are told, " a missionary society 
 and Sabbath schools. Classes for young men and 
 young women were conducted by himself personally. 
 He also established prayer-meetings on Sabbath and on 
 week-days, both for young and old." 
 
 " By these various means of grace, and, above all, 
 by the faithful preaching of the Word, a marked change 
 was produced on the lives of the people. The careless 
 
MINIS TR Y AT GARTMORE. 1 5 
 
 and godless feared him, while, by those who knew the 
 truth or were seeking the way into the kingdom, he was 
 much loved, and his ministry highly prized. To the 
 young, especially, he was kind and attentive, and he 
 was blessed in leading to the Saviour many whom he 
 afterwards tenderly watched and safely guided into the 
 fellowship of the Church. Of these, not a few remain 
 to this day as seals of his earnest and successful minis- 
 try, while many have gone to glory, leaving unmistakeable 
 evidence of their interest in the inheritance." 
 
 " In short, without any of the stir which usually ac- 
 companies a revival of religion, a deep and permanent 
 interest was awakened in divine things among the 
 members of the church and in the surrounding district ; 
 and though not appearing particularly remarkable in the 
 light of recent movements, yet the fact is not without 
 interest when one thinks of the time, and more espe- 
 cially of the valley of death in which the whole thing 
 took place. These recollections go back fully forty 
 years." 
 
 Another account, kindly furnished to us by another 
 friend, also connected with Gartmore, says — 
 
 " Having no seat in the Courts of the Church, Mr. 
 Leitch gave himself wholly to the work of the ministry, 
 to visitation from house to house, and to the organisa- 
 tion of Christian agencies suitable to the circumstances 
 of the people and the place. He established district 
 prayer-meetings, bringing neighbouring families together, 
 enlisting the services of the grave and godly in conduct- 
 ing them, strengthening the spiritual life of many, and 
 supplying healthy matter of conversation to all. Mr. 
 Leitch early formed an auxiHary association in connec- 
 tion with the Bible Society, to aid its funds, to stimulate 
 
16 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 the grace of liberality among his hearers, and, through 
 the Society, to secure a copy of the Word of God for 
 such as had it not. 
 
 " The outstanding features of Mr. Leitch's ministry 
 in Gartmore were twofold — viz., his deep interest in the 
 young and his zeal for the revival of family religion. He 
 carefully superintended the Sabbath school, encouraging 
 parents to send their children, cheering the teachers by 
 his presence, and dropping a kindly word to the scholars. 
 Nor was his interest confined to the Sabbath school ; 
 the village day-school shared his devoted zeal ; the class- 
 books were improved, the classes examined, and the 
 very games of the children were not overlooked. One 
 of these games, the barbarous and cruel custom of cock- 
 fighting on Eastern's E'en, was, after some ill-feeling and 
 not a little opposition, finally abolished through his 
 exertions. 
 
 " The fruit of Mr. Leitch's ministry in Gartmore the 
 Day will declare ; but the immediate result was a large 
 increase in the attendance on the means of grace, much 
 attention to the form of Divine ordinances, and an intel- 
 ligent sympathy with every department of missionary and 
 Christian work." 
 
 All this was just such an outcome as one might have 
 expected from the beginning at Broughty Ferry, We 
 had there a young man with the love of Christ in his 
 heart and the spirit of an Evangelist — eager to preach 
 the Gospel to the last, but lacking full opportunity. 
 Here he has an open door, and he throws himself into 
 the work with all the ardour of one who has been wait- 
 ing to give himself to it wholly. Nor need we have the 
 least hesitation in saying, what was manifestly the fact, 
 that his settlement in Gartmore was followed by a 
 
MINISTRY AT GARTMORE. 17 
 
 revival of religion. The district was not then Gospel- 
 beaten, the good news of salvation through the free 
 grace of God was yet comparatively fresh to the people, 
 and an increased attention to Divine things was a result 
 which was quite to have been anticipated from abundant 
 labours of the kind that have been described above. 
 A ministry so earnest, so faithful, so diligent, and so 
 prayerful, could not but be a fruitful ministry. 
 
 With regard to the character of his preaching at this 
 time, we have before us a variety of testimonies. We 
 select, however, but one, occurring in a letter addressed 
 to Mr. Leitch's son by the Rev. Dr. Finlayson of Edin- 
 burgh, lately Moderator of the United Presbyterian 
 Church. 
 
 " My memory," says Dr. Finlayson, " associates him 
 with the Port of Monteith, and recalls him to me as then 
 remarkable for his fervour and earnestness as an evan- 
 gelical preacher. In this respect he stood very eminent 
 in the public estimation of that wide district. His ser- 
 vices were greatly sought for on communion occasions. 
 They attracted great multitudes, and formed the theme 
 of much earnest conversation over the country side. 
 In opposition to some who admired mere decorum and 
 dull propriety in the pulpit, and who were ready to call 
 his passionate fervour extravagance, I quite remember 
 others used to say, in admiration and in justification, 
 ' He was at times ca?'ried aivay by his anxiety to bring 
 the sinner to Christ' When I heard him on one of 
 these sacramental occasions, this was quite the impres- 
 sion made on me. The great fervour was manifestly all 
 honest and true, and arose from the depth and sim- 
 plicity of his own personal convictions of the truth and 
 preciousness of the message he had to deliver, and of 
 
 C 
 
18 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 the paramount importance of its immediate and cordial 
 reception by the sinner." 
 
 Such a description enables us to complete the pic- 
 ture already partially drawn for us by these two hearers 
 of Mr. Leitch. It appears that the zeal of God's house 
 consumed him. His diligence in parochial work was 
 equalled by his passionate fervour in the pulpit ; and 
 when one remembers his youth (he was but twenty-three 
 when his ordination took place), and this additional fact 
 also, that in the Church of Scotland at the time the 
 Evangelical party had scarcely begun to lift up its 
 head, it is not surprising that this ministry at Gart- 
 more should have impressed itself, as a noteworthy 
 phenomenon, on the minds and memories of many con- 
 temporaries. 
 
 Those communion occasions to which Dr. Finlayson 
 refers, are again and again spoken of in the papers in 
 our possession. They were important seasons at Gart- 
 more as well as elsewhere. Ministers were brought to 
 officiate from great distances, and people flocked to 
 attend from all the surrounding country. At one time, 
 in addition to the service held in the church, there were 
 two sermons preached simultaneously from tents outside. 
 These were what we may call the " Camp Meetings " of 
 Scotland ; and, in the old days, when Moderatism over- 
 spread the land, and Evangelical preaching was scarce, 
 they must have afforded precious opportunities to many. 
 In Gartmore a well of living water was opened in the 
 desert, and some may have at times got there a refresh- 
 ing draught who usually sat under a ministry which 
 tended to set them to slumber. 
 
 One communion time appears to be particularly well 
 remembered by the old people of the district. It was 
 
MINIS TRY AT GARTMORE. 1 9 
 
 that of March 1827. It happened during what, we 
 suppose, was the greatest snow-storm of the century. 
 Dr. Hamilton of Strathblane was to have assisted on the 
 Sabbath, and had come a considerable distance on the 
 way to fulfil his engagement, when the depth of the 
 snow (22 feet, it is said) prevented his further advance. 
 Mr. Leitch was therefore under the necessity of conduct- 
 ing the whole of the service himself, which, in addition 
 to the usual action sermon, and fencing the tables, con- 
 sisted of five table services and an evening sermon. As 
 only one elder was able to get forward, Mr. Leitch was 
 also obliged to assist in the distribution of the elements ; 
 and by all this he was so thoroughly exhausted, that he 
 was constrained to sit down while addressing the com- 
 municants at the last table. It ought to be added that, 
 at the close, the feeling of the hearers was that for 
 double duty the minister had received a double portion 
 of the Spirit. 
 
 While still at Gartmore, on the 21st of December 
 1829, Mr. Leitch married Miss M'Kechnie, in connec- 
 tion with which event a characteristic anecdote is told : 
 " On the first Sabbath after the marriage," writes a 
 hearer, " the curious were eager to know who was to 
 preach. They fully expected a stranger, but Mr. Leitch 
 led his young wife to his seat, and then himself quietly 
 ascended the pulpit, taking for his text this passage in 
 ist Corinthians vii. 29 : "But I say, brethren, the time 
 is short, it remaineth that they that have wives be as 
 though they had none." It was the last Sabbath of the 
 year, and the subject was every way extremely suitable ; 
 but not many, under the circumstances, would have ven- 
 tured to announce at the moment such a theme. " He 
 preached, however," it is added, " with such power, that 
 
20 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 the congregation soon forgot the speaker and his pecu- 
 liar position." 
 
 During all these years a kindly intercourse, episto- 
 lary and ministerial, had been going on with Dr. Muir, 
 and in his letters many allusions to public and other 
 affairs occur, which give us interesting glimpses into the 
 ecclesiastical incidents of the period. 
 
 Thus, in the autumn of 1825, not many years 
 after Mr. Leitch's settlement at Gartmore, his friend in 
 Glasgow mentions that the Presbytery had had before it 
 the case of a Mr. Thom of Liverpool. Mr. Thom, well 
 known afterwards as a Unitarian minister and as the 
 biographer of Blanco White, had received his license in 
 Glasgow at the hands of the Church of Scotland, and 
 although he had moved across the Border, the Court 
 from which he had got formal authority to preach did 
 not suffer him to diverge into the paths of error without 
 making an energetic effort to save him. It turned out 
 to be a troublesome business. The case was not finally 
 settled until the meeting of the General Assembly in 
 May 1828 ; and then nothing remained but to complete 
 the deposition of the heretic. But good Dr. Muir and 
 his correspondent drew one useful practical lesson from 
 it. " It shows," writes the former, " what an unsafe 
 thing it is to receive the gospel of the grace of God 
 sciefiiifically only, into an unhumbled mind. Let us 
 not quarrel with God, then, because of our humiliations. 
 Nothing does the soul more good, under God, than 
 sanctified afflictions." 
 
 Then here, in a letter dated December 1828, is a 
 nice little bit of gossip about two good men, with whose 
 names we are all familiar. " Dr. Chalmers has taken 
 seats for himself and family in Mr. Clason's chapel of 
 
MINISTRY AT GARTMORE. 21 
 
 ease What a pity that he should 
 
 be popishly affected ! But the Lord reigns ! And what 
 is it that will harm us if we be followers of that which is 
 good." 
 
 It seems odd to say that Dr. Chalmers was " popishly 
 affected ;" but this is abundantly explained in other 
 letters of the same period. His meaning was, that Dr. 
 Chalmers was not disinchned to Catholic emancipation, 
 while Dr. Muir, and, we may add, his friend Mr. Leitch, 
 opposed it with a vehemence which the people of the 
 present day will have even some difficulty in under- 
 standing. 
 
 "The enemy," writes Dr. Muir in February 1829, 
 " now threatens to come in upon us like a flood; but truly, 
 says our God, it shall be well with thy remnant. Our 
 general session, trades'-house, individual corporations, 
 and city at large, have petitioned against admitting 
 Papists to rule over us. Our Presbytery and Synod are 
 immediately about to follow their example." 
 
 As is well known, these and other like efforts were 
 vain ; and, in a later communication, the changed posi- 
 tion of the country is pathetically lamented. 
 
 " Alas ! for the restraints taken off sin in the land, 
 and off the agencies of Satan in our affairs, ever since 
 we took off those restraints in the government of the 
 country which our wise and pious forefathers imposed 
 to prevent the growth of a diabolism, otherwise called 
 Popery." 
 
 " I cannot get my spirits up," says the good man 
 again, " since the time we voluntarily ceased to be a 
 nation witnessing for Christ in the midst of the earth, 
 and against Antichristian idolatry. . . . We have nibbling 
 schemes on foot here to counteract the growth of Popery j 
 
22 AN EA RNES T PAS TOR A TE. 
 
 but, when God withdraws, all self-devised schemes prove 
 abortive. . . . Reges ipsi delirant. . . . Our rulers are out 
 at sea, and act literally as children. . . . Their very plans 
 of Reform, if effected, must hasten the evil day, by bring- 
 ing in a great many Popish members into the legislature 
 of our country. . . . Well, here have we no continuing 
 city. . . . Let us be seeking one to come." 
 
 One of those "nibbling schemes" he speaks of is 
 referred to in another letter. 
 
 " Our popishly-afifected men in this place," he says, 
 " have set up what they call an anti-popery lecture, 
 delivered by sundry ministers in rotation, in the Tron 
 Church once a fortnight, on Tuesday evenings. I do 
 not join them, because, having done what they could to 
 cause our favoured land to cease from being a witnessing 
 nation for Christ and against idolatry, they cannot expect 
 the blessing of God to attend their self-devised projects 
 for preventing the growth of popery. . . . Psalm Ixxxi. 
 from verse 1 1 to the close fitly describes our condition. 
 . . . Nor can we expect that either our present popishly- 
 affected ministers of state, or our popishly-affected minis- 
 ters of the church, will so far condemn their own recent 
 proceedings in favour of Papists, from motives of mere 
 expedience, as to seek the one to advise, and the other 
 to pray the king, to call the nation to a national 
 fast." 
 
 Once more, after telling his friend, in May 1832, 
 that he had been appointed a member of the approach- 
 ing General Assembly, he adds : — 
 
 " I go with rather a heavy heart, aware that God 
 will continue to visit us as a church, and a nation, for 
 the dishonour we have cast on His Sofi, by exalting 
 antichrist to the seat of legislature along with him. But 
 
MINISTRY AT GARTMORE. 23 
 
 sometimes we are called to Do, and sometimes rather to 
 Bear, the holy will of God ; and in both cases we must 
 endeavour to ' do with our might what our hands find to 
 do, for there is no work,' etc., ' in the grave whither we 
 are going.' " 
 
 In these views Mr. Leitch very much concurred. 
 Like many other good men of the time he viewed the 
 admission of the Papists to a share in the government 
 of the country with extreme disfavour, and one of his 
 parishioners speaks emphatically of the exertions which 
 he put forth in Gartmore to oppose Catholic Emancipa- 
 tion. It is not likely, however, that the passage of the 
 act produced upon his young and genial nature the same 
 gloomy and desponding impression which it did upon 
 Dr. Muir. Whether he ever got heartily reconciled to 
 the theory or not we cannot say ; but he certainly came 
 to be able to acquiesce in the inevitable. 
 
 Another notable incident of this period could 
 scarcely fail to be referred to in the correspondence of 
 two Scottish Evangelical ministers — the rise of Rowism. 
 We find, in fact, several allusions to it in the letters of 
 Dr. Muir. Thus, in December 1827, he writes : " Mr. 
 Campbell, minister of Row, has been preaching here of 
 late. I have not heard him ; but while his zealous 
 manner gains the approbation and excites the minds of 
 some, his bold assertion (as they tell me) of the neces- 
 sity of our knowing we are believers in order to our bang 
 behevers in Christ, and consequently safe, provokes the 
 indignation of others. If it were not for this, he might 
 in all probability be thought of as Mr. Marshall's succes- 
 sor. He is certainly, according to his light, a Christ- 
 exalting preacher, and these we much need everywhere." 
 Two years later the character of the new light was more 
 
24 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 perfectly understood, as the system had developed itself 
 more fully, and the doctor speaks of the state of things 
 with greater severity. " Mr. Erskine of Linlathen," 
 says he [and the information would be particularly inter- 
 esting to Mr. Leitch, who had known Mr. Erskine so 
 well at Broughty Eerry], " expounds daily at Row, Loch- 
 gairside. . . . He now denies the substitution of Christ for 
 the ungodly, the intercession of Christ in heaven, and the 
 imputation of righteousness to the believer. . . . And yet he 
 has such zeal and apparent love to the souls of men, 
 that he deceives many. . . . He is, in fact, a mystic, and 
 lives next door to Popery itself 2 Cor. xi. 3 is still in 
 requisition among us, and so is the text which says : ' If 
 it were possible they would deceive the very elect' " 
 
 Dr. Muir had been chiefly instrumental in opening 
 the way for Mr. Leitch into Gartmore, but before the 
 year was out he was moving for his translation into a 
 more important sphere. The stipend was certainly very 
 inadequate, and the manner in which the young minister 
 had conducted himself in his first charge had fully con- 
 vinced his friend that he well merited preferment. These 
 considerations led probably to the writing of a letter 
 which is now before us. It is addressed to Archibald 
 Lyle, Esq., and has respect to a vacancy at Slamanan. 
 After giving it as his opinion that the heritors and people 
 should endeavour to unite upon one good man, and 
 referring to the fact that the claims of another candidate 
 had already been brought forward, he says : " A good 
 
 man Mr may be, but sure I am that Mr. Leitch is 
 
 such ; and I think, could he be heard, his preaching 
 would please all parties. At all events, he is a talented 
 man, and a man of God, and may be trusted. If you 
 were to ask him to preach for Dr. Begg, in the church of 
 
MINIS TR Y AT CAR TMORE. 25 
 
 New Monkland, seven miles from Slamanan, and were 
 he or you to write me that he consents and desires to do 
 so, I would ask from Dr. Begg his pulpit for him on some 
 early and convenient day." 
 
 What came of this innocent little plot does not ap- 
 pear, but the vacancy at Slamanan was not by any means 
 the only one which the indefatigable minister of St. 
 James's wrote about to Gartmore. The Doctor kept a 
 watchful eye apparently upon the whole Church, and in 
 his letters references occur, with more or less distinct- 
 ness, to openings in Glasgow and Aberdeen, Dundee 
 and Montrose, Rutherglen and Newton-Stewart. And 
 of course, in connection with some of these, Mr. Leitch 
 had his disappointments. For example, he was induced 
 to preach in July 1830 in Woodside Chapel, Aberdeen, 
 and the result was that he was proposed for the charge 
 in opposition to another good man, who was also a 
 candidate, Mr. Andrew Gray, afterwards of Perth. The 
 congregation divided upon the two men, and, owing to 
 some alleged irregularities attending the election, a rather 
 unpleasant dispute arose, which was carried first before 
 the Presbytery and then before the Synod. The point 
 in debate was whether certain names were legally on 
 the roll of electors. Mr. Leitch's friends affirmed that 
 they were not — that they had been added after the roll 
 had been formally made up, and they claimed that, if 
 these names were excluded, the choice of the people 
 had fallen on Mr. Leitch. Mr. Gray's friends asserted, 
 on the other hand, that everything had been done in a 
 perfectly legal way, and that they had the majority in 
 either case. It is not worth our while, of course, to stir 
 the mud of this old controversy. Enough to say that 
 
26 AN EA RNES T PA S TOR A TE. 
 
 the decision was, rightly or wrongly, given in favour of 
 Mr. Gray, and that Mr. Leitch cheerfully acquiesced in 
 the shutting of another door which at one time seemed 
 to be providentially opening to him. 
 
 It is almost touching. to hear how good Dr. Muir 
 sought to comfort his young friend under such trials. 
 The aspirants after ecclesiastical preferment in those 
 days seldom found their path strewn with roses. There 
 were comparatively few posts to fill, and when vacancies 
 occurred there were always plenty of men eager to fill 
 them. Nor did it follow then any more necessarily 
 than it does now, that the successful candidate was in- 
 variably the one who deserved the appointment. 
 
 " Of ninety-three students examined by our Presby- 
 tery during the last seven and a half years, forty-two 
 licentiates, ' it is lamented,' remain unemployed. How 
 are these to be disposed of? Were a reformation of 
 religion to take place in Ireland, tJwe would be a field 
 for them. But before the reformation, there must, I 
 fear, be deterioration — in other words, the ascendancy 
 of Popery. The Lord will do all His pleasure." 
 
 Again, he says, " It is remarkable that of forty-seven 
 preachers licensed by the Presbytery of Glasgow since 
 June 182 1, only two have hitherto been appointed to 
 parish churches ; so that no temptation or trial in this 
 respect has befallen you but what is common in our 
 day. Yet God is good to Israel. Still trust in Him, 
 for He shall give you cause yet to praise Him, who is 
 the health of our countenance and our God." 
 
 The grievances of probationers still furnish a fruitful 
 theme for comment and complaint, and it is not for us 
 to say that they even now get justice. But this is cer- 
 
MINISTR Y AT GARTMORE. 27 
 
 tain, that the former days were not in this connection 
 better than these. Not in Ireland, to which Dr. Muir 
 looked as a possible outlet for the superabundant sup- 
 ply, but in our great colonial dependencies, immense 
 fields of usefulness have been opened up for the ener- 
 getic, and these, with the increased demands at home, 
 render it greatly less likely now than it once was that 
 men with anything like the requisite qualifications will 
 be long left idle for lack of the offer of suitable occu- 
 pation. 
 
 Forty years ago a man in the position of Mr. Leitch 
 ran a very considerable risk of being left in a chapel of 
 ease all his days. He appears to have had the ear of 
 no patron in the Church of Scotland, he was a thorough- 
 going Evangelical, and the parochial charges were very 
 few in number the appointment to which lay in the hands 
 of the people. But his laborious and successful ministry 
 at Gartmore had made him sufficiently well known 
 within a very considerable circuit, and when a vacancy 
 occurred in Stirling in consequence of the translation of 
 Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Macfarlane to Stockbridge, Edin- 
 burgh, a popular court, like the Town Council of that 
 place, in whose hand the patronage was vested, could 
 not altogether overlook his claims at least to a hearing. 
 He was invited therefore to preach in the burgh on a 
 particular Sabbath, and he agreed to do so. The day 
 fixed on was (we find on referring to his sermon journal) 
 the 8th of April 1832. He officiated in the forenoon 
 in the East Church, and in the afternoon in the West, 
 taking as his texts Heb. xi. 16 and i Pet. 5-7 ; and the 
 result was his election on the 9th of June following. 
 " The members of Council present were twenty, whereof 
 
28 
 
 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 fourteen voted for Mr. Leitch, two for Mr. John Rox- 
 burgh of Glasgow, and four decUned to vote." This 
 was in due time succeeded by a call from the congrega- 
 tion, and his induction into the charge took place on 
 the 13th of September, when Mr. Dempster of Denny 
 preached and presided. 
 
CHAPTER THIRD. 
 
 FIRST YEARS IN STIRLING. 
 
 Trying Nature of his Position — Mr. Thomson of Paisley — Sym- 
 patliy witli the Cause of the Gospel — Beginning of the Ten 
 Years' Conflict — His First Vote in the Assembly — Anxieties 
 about the Future — The Disruption Assembly — New Church 
 in Stirling. 
 
 The nature of the position in which Mr. Leitch found 
 himself in his new sphere of labour, and the manner in 
 which he met its peculiar difficulties, are well described 
 in the following communication from Mr. Thomson of 
 Free St. George's, Paisley. 
 
 " I remember well," says Mr, Thomson, " Mr. 
 Leitch's translation from Gartmore to Stirling between 
 thirty and forty years ago, in circumstances peculiarly 
 trying to a young minister entering on a new charge. 
 I was a student at the time, and a member of the West 
 Church congregation, between which and the East Church 
 a lengthened and angry feud had existed, causing great 
 alienation and strife, and illustrating the truth of the 
 words : ' Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth.' 
 As the first minister claimed the right to a colleague, 
 and refused to leave the West for the East Church, and 
 as the East Church congregation had previously engaged 
 the services both of the first minister and of a colleague, 
 it was found necessary for the sake of peace to appoint 
 
30 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 Mr. Leitch to be colleague to both ministers, and conse- 
 quently to preach every Sabbath in both churches. A 
 more awkward and difficult position it is scarcely possible 
 to conceive. It was like being placed between two fires, 
 and there was much danger of being scorched by both. 
 It required no ordinary tact and temper to be able to 
 walk wisely, and to avoid being wrecked on Scylla or 
 swamped in Charybdis. But Mr. Leitch was found 
 fully equal to the occasion, and was enabled to draw 
 forth an amount of general confidence, warm affection, 
 and deep respect, which very few could have been 
 expected to obtain. His transparent simplicity of char- 
 acter, his manifest unselfishness, his intense earnestness 
 in his Master's work, and his indefatigable devotedness 
 to the highest interests of the people of his charge, com- 
 pelled them to regard him as a true and faithful friend, 
 who sought not theirs but them." 
 
 This testimony is thoroughly confirmed by Dr. J. 
 Julius Wood, who was himself one of the ministers of 
 Stirling from 1836-9. "Inasmuch," says he, "as Mr, 
 Leitch was colleague to both the other ministers, and 
 preached to both their congregations, he charged 
 himself with the pastoral charge of both their congre- 
 gations. By wliat I always regarded as a great mal- 
 arrangement, though there were three ministers in 
 Stirling, there was only one parish, and each of the 
 ministers was expected to attend to the whole parish 
 (which contains between 8000 and 9000 souls), instead 
 of each having a definite territory marked off for his 
 exclusive oversight. This made pastoral work and 
 visiting very laborious and somewhat unsatisfactory. 
 But Mr. Leitch was unwearied in going about among 
 the people as a minister; and wherever there was 
 
FIRST YEARS IN STIRLING. 31 
 
 distress of any kind, there he was sure to be found, 
 with kind Christian sympathy and a word of comfort. 
 I think this dropping in on his people as their minister, 
 over and above his formal pastoral visits, was charac- 
 teristic of his ministry." 
 
 We see, then, clearly enough how matters stood. 
 In the first place, the cure was a more than ordinarily 
 laborious one. With, not a manageable district, but the 
 whole parish, placed under his pastoral superintendence — 
 all the inhabitants, without exception, having an equal 
 claim upon his services — Mr. Leitch could never have 
 felt at any particular moment that his work was done. 
 Then, there would have been something, even under 
 the most favourable circumstances, unsatisfactory in the 
 relation which he sustained to his brother ministers. 
 He was a colleague, but that was not all. He had to 
 divide himself as such. In the morning he appeared 
 in the pulpit of the East Church, and preached as the 
 co-pastor of the congregation assembling there ; in the 
 afternoon, he was to be found in the West Church, in a 
 new connection, ministering with equal authority to an 
 entirely different people. A careless man, with no 
 particular interest in the flock or the work, might like 
 the variety which this arrangement made ; but for one 
 who felt himself to be a steward, requiring by and by 
 to give an account of his labours, the thing could not 
 be pleasant, and Mr. Leitch must often have longed to 
 enjoy a larger measure of freedom and independence. 
 But the drawback to his position had special aggrava- 
 tions. Mutual jealousies existed between the churches 
 to which he was attached ; and nothing but the single- 
 ness of his aims and the blamelessness of his hfe could 
 have prevented his being more or less entangled in the 
 
32 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 strife. It was not, therefore, a particularly attractive- 
 looking sphere that on which he now entered ; and it 
 says not a little for his wisdom and faithfulness as a 
 Christian minister, that he was able to fill it so as to 
 earn the cordial respect of all. 
 
 He was now, what he had been supremely even in 
 Gartmore, the diligent and laborious pastor. He loved 
 the pulpit because he loved to preach Christ ; and 
 " very seldom," says Dr. Wood, " did he ask his 
 colleagues to take his duty for him." " But although he 
 was greatly owned in the proclamation of the gospel, 
 and many seals were given to him of his ministry, it 
 was not as a preacher that he made himself most 
 distinguished in Stirling. It was, above all things, as a 
 man who, wherever he went, gave people the impression 
 that "he was about .his Father's business." He carried 
 the light of the Word, as he had opportunity, from 
 house to house ; he was unwearied in his visitation of 
 the sick and sorrowful ; he took the deepest interest in 
 the godly up-bringing of the young; and very many 
 still live to testify that they could not exchange half-a- 
 dozen words with him upon the street without being 
 reminded of what was uppermost in his own thoughts. 
 We have by us proofs and illustrations of these things 
 in any quantity — books kept by himself at this period, 
 showing how systematically and unweariedly he had 
 waited with the gospel on those who would not come to 
 hear it in the house of God ; letters from both men and 
 women, who are able to speak with a still fresh feeling 
 of thankfulness of his " Saturday class ; " reminiscences 
 of not a few who can recall, as if it had happened 
 yesterday, what he said at sick-beds, or in short notes 
 of condolence after deaths, or in the course of casual 
 
FIRST YEARS IN STIRLING. 33 
 
 meetings on the street or highway. But these are matters 
 to which we shall have occasion to refer more particu- 
 larly afterwards, when we come to speak of his pastoral 
 " Methods ;" and meantime we shall confine ourselves to 
 giving, as heretofore, an outline of his more public career. 
 
 There were two ways in which, thirty or forty years 
 ago, clergymen of the Church of Scotland showed on 
 which side they were — the Evangelical or its opposite ; 
 and these were, first, associating with other good men in 
 the revival of religion at home, and its propagation 
 abroad ; and, second, helping the constitutional party in 
 the Church to recover the rights of which the Establish- 
 ment had been unjustly deprived. Mr. Leitch was a 
 thorough -going Evangelical in both respects. His 
 chosen friends were those who loved the Lord Jesus 
 Christ ; his sympathies went warmly with all enterprises 
 which aimed at the establishment of the kingdom of 
 grace ; and one of his earliest, if not his very earliest 
 vote in the General Assembly, was given for the 
 abolition of lay patronage. 
 
 The general bent of his mind to the cause of evan- 
 gelical religion is plainly shown in all the letters which 
 were written to him during this time. The following is 
 from Mr. Dempster of Denny, a singularly holy and 
 earnest man: — 
 
 " God," he says, " has been very gracious in en- 
 lightening you in the knowledge of Christ, and in 
 honouring you as the means of imparting saving light 
 and comfort to the minds of others. What if God has 
 some special work for you in the West Church 1 No 
 doubt He is, by your present discipline, taking the very 
 best way which infinite love and wisdom can devise for 
 your personal sanctification, and of bringing you to 
 
 D 
 
34 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 experience, in increased measure, the blessedness ot 
 David when he ' encouraged himself in the Lord his 
 God.' I would not wonder had you already found this 
 to be the case, and you will do so more and more, con- 
 tinuing constantly, as you have been taught, to acknow- 
 ledge the Lord in all your ways, and in many prayers 
 to commit yourself to Him. . . . One cannot but 
 feel, I admit, and perhaps painfully, the turning away of 
 those supposed formerly to have been friends. But I 
 think it is one of the wise observations of Milner, the 
 Church historian, that there are no persons in a 
 minister's flock he will find steadily attached but those 
 who are really friends in Christ — born from above. It 
 is one of the very humbling and distressing features of 
 the dark times in which we live, that, amidst an apparent 
 zeal for the truth and liking to sound doctrine, there are 
 really so few that seem savingly to know it, or to 
 manifest the spirituality which it produces. O may the 
 Lord give us and ours much of the Spirit, even more 
 and more ! O to bear the image of Christ with increas- 
 ing truth of expression, and to manifest it more and 
 more distinctly in the meekness of heavenly wisdom ! " 
 The same spirit also continues to breathe through 
 the letters which still passed periodically between Mr. 
 Leitch and his old friend Dr. Muir. There is not one 
 of these, however short, which does not contain some 
 remark about or allusion to spiritual things — something 
 to indicate how near to the hearts of both was the 
 cause of evangelical religion. One note from Dr. Muir 
 ends abruptly thus : — '■^ For He is good, for His mercy 
 endureth for ever. When this was sung with one accord 
 by the worshippers of old, then 'the glory of the Lord 
 filled the house of the Lord ! " In another, there is 
 
FIRST YEARS IN STIRLING. 35 
 
 this brief sentence : — " Dr. Scott of Greenock died on 
 Saturday. Life from the dead is the most exquisite of 
 all kinds of life, and such is the life God ordains for His 
 people whom He accepts and loves in Christ Jesus our 
 Lord." A third letter, written in 1837, contains the 
 following : — " Your inference from your text of last 
 Wednesday evening was perfectly legitimate. We love 
 Him because He first loved us. And love is the fulfilling 
 of the law. As said a godly woman whom I visited 
 
 yesterday : ' I lived long in P , before I came to 
 
 Glasgow, now eight or ten years since. While there I 
 
 regularly attended the ministry of Dr. , one of the 
 
 ministers of the town, and there I was continually kept 
 on the ground under the law. However, since I came 
 to Glasgow I have had my bonds loosed, and I know 
 and enjoy the Gospel' It is a surly husband that old 
 husband of ours, the law. And now that God has de- 
 clared him to be dead by the coming of Christ, 'tis a 
 pity that we should not know it, and be married to that 
 other husband Christ ; calling God no longer Baali (my 
 Lord), but Ishi (my husband), as he permits and com- 
 mands us." 
 
 But Mr. Leitch was not merely a lover of good men, 
 he evidently took a warm interest in all the schemes 
 which, concurrently with the quickening of spiritual life 
 in the Church, were originated about this time for the 
 extension of Christ's kingdom. When he began his 
 ministry the Church of Scotland had under its direct 
 charge neither a home nor a foreign mission. There 
 were, however, independent societies formed outside the 
 Ecclesiastical Courts, which drew their chief means of 
 support from the godly members of the Church, and he 
 was apparently one of the first to give such agencies his 
 
36 AN EA RNES T PAS TOR A TE. 
 
 countenance and sympathy. We have by us two letters 
 which illustrate this — one from his colleague Mr. Mar- 
 shall, himself a most saintly man, arranging for a collec- 
 tion for the Inverness Society (probably a home-mission 
 agency operating in the Highlands) ; and another from 
 Dr. William Brown, asking him to act as one of a de- 
 putation in aid of the Scottish Missionary Society, which 
 began its work among the heathen of South Africa, be- 
 fore the General Assembly could see its way to enter on 
 the field on its own account. 
 
 It is a specially noticeable fact, however, that Mr. 
 Leitch commenced his ministry in Stirling just as the 
 Ten Years' Conflict was beginning. The nature of that 
 conflict is now so well understood that it would be 
 superfluous to introduce any account of it here. Suffice 
 it to say that it commenced not in consequence of certain 
 individual ecclesiastics having adopted new views of the 
 abstract rights of the Church, but as the direct result of 
 a revival of religion. The Scottish people came to take 
 a deeper interest in the cause of the gospel generally. 
 They grew to be more and more convinced of the im- 
 portance of an earnest ministry, and it was, in the first 
 instance, to satisfy this natural desire for that, that the 
 General Assembly was moved to take the steps it did to 
 prevent the intrusion of unwelcome presentees into re- 
 claiming parishes. As all parties are now agreed that 
 lay patronage has wrought much evil in Scotland, and 
 that it would have been better for the whole land if the 
 rights of the Christian people had been earlier recognised, 
 we do not need at this time of day to vindicate the 
 wisdom of those who, in 1833 or 1834, were in favour of 
 the principle of a Veto law. That the people should have 
 an influential voice in the election of their own ministers 
 
FIRST YEARS IN STIRLING. 37 
 
 is at last accepted as an axiom. Let us, however, do 
 full justice to the men who saw the fairness of the prin- 
 ciple at a time when it was not so fashionable to uphold 
 it. The very first Assembly of which Mr. Leitch was a 
 member was the famous one of 1S33 ; and from a printed 
 paper now before us we learn that he came out at once 
 on the Evangelical side by voting for the motion of Dr. 
 Chalmers. That motion asked the Assembly to declare 
 that " the dissent of a majority of the male heads of 
 families resident within a parish ought to be of conclusive 
 effect in setting aside a presentee." It was met on the 
 part of Dr. Cook by a counter-motion in favour of a 
 Veto with reasons, and was lost ; but it was renewed next 
 year by Lord Moncreiff, and finally carried. Then new 
 questions came to be raised. The Moderate party, find- 
 ing themselves in a minority in the Assembly, sought help 
 from the civil courts ; and a contest, which in its begin- 
 ning had aimed only at the restriction of patronage, 
 developed into a battle for the essential and inalienable 
 freedom of the Church. In this second phase of the 
 conflict Mr. Leitch displayed an equal interest with that 
 which he had shown in regard to the first ; and, as his 
 papers testify, he was all along looked to as one who 
 might be confidently counted on to sustain the cause of 
 liberty and evangelical truth. 
 
 One testimony to the known fidelity of Mr. Leitch in 
 maintaining the constitutional principles of the Church of 
 Scotland may be referred to in passing. Among his 
 hearers in the East Church was the Provost of the town 
 — Mr. Thomson, a man of high character and worth, but 
 an Original Seceder. Circumstances had compelled him 
 to leave the congregation to which he had been attached, 
 and he had afterwards attended the Parish Church, but 
 
38 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 he had never communicated there. After the Assembly 
 of 1833, however, when a work of reformation seemed 
 so manifestly begun, he resolved to take the step which 
 his communion took as a body at a later period ; and in 
 carrying out his plan he sent a letter to Mr. Leitch, which 
 appears to us in the highest degree creditable at once to 
 the writer and to the receiver. 
 
 " In consequence," says he, " of your intimation last 
 Sabbath [the letter is dated October 16, 1833] that the 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is to be dispensed in 
 the East Church on the 27 th, I take the opportunity to 
 address you, having been for a number of years only a 
 hearer in the East Church, but not a joined member, 
 arising from the peculiar circumstances in which I have 
 been placed. I was brought up among the Original 
 Seceders, and was an office-bearer, laid under the usual 
 solemn vows to maintain the end of the Original Seces- 
 sion Testimony ; but some distressing circumstances 
 having occurred in the congregation to which I belonged, 
 I was compelled, very reluctantly, to withdraw from it. 
 For some time past I have enjoyed the solemn ordinance 
 in a neighbouring parish, on terms consistent with my 
 vows. And as the leading object of the Original 
 Secession Testimony was an unfeigned attachment to the 
 Constitution of the Church of Scotland in her best days 
 of Reformation purity and splendour, and a witnessing 
 against the evils that prevailed in later times, and 
 believing that you siihstantially hold the same priticiples 
 which I hold in high veneration., as the most consonant to the 
 Divine i'ule, I propose, if agreeable to you, to join you 
 in the approaching solemnity." 
 
 Mr. M'Corkle of St. Ninians also mentions a circum- 
 stance which shows at what an early period Mr. Leitch 
 
FIRST YEARS IN STIRLING. 39 
 
 took up a decided position in relation to the Church 
 question : "I have a pleasing recollection of your father," 
 he writes to Mr. Leitch's son, " shortly after he came to 
 Stirling, as agent of the Glasgow Association for promot- 
 ing the interests of the Church of Scotland. I visited 
 Stirling with the view of lecturing on lay patronage, and 
 of advocating its abolition. Your father was the only 
 minister in the town who supported me on that occasion, 
 and the kindness and hospitaUty which I then received 
 from him are fresh in my grateful remembrance at the 
 present day." 
 
 The principles he then held he maintained consist- 
 ently throughout the whole conflict ; and although his 
 natural sphere was neither the platform of the popular 
 assembly nor the floor of the Ecclesiastical Courts, there 
 are not wanting evidences that he spoke in favour of 
 his principles as he had opportunity. We have by us 
 now notes of addresses delivered by him on Spiritual 
 Independence and Non-intrusion ; and the high ground 
 which he took up in regard to both, proves that he re- 
 garded them not as the mere passing expedients of eccle- 
 siastical poUticians, but as points which had the most vital 
 connection with the Church's welfare and prosperity. 
 
 With all that, however, we are not surprised that he 
 viewed the Disruption, which he saw approaching, with 
 the deepest anxiety. So early as 1833 he supported, at an 
 anti-patronage meeting in Denny, a resolution to the follow- 
 ing effect : — " That the meeting, being fully convinced of 
 the rectitude and Scriptural foundation of the cause of 
 Establishments, have no doubt that the novel associa- 
 tions called Voluntary Church Societies must be of brief 
 continuance, and be productive of injury to the cause 
 of true religion, if adopted in any country to the exclu- 
 
40 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 sion of a Church Establishment." As time wore on, 
 and further Hght was shed upon matters, he came to 
 see that this was put rather strongly ; but he had, like 
 many of his brethren, a profound faith in the need of 
 religious establishments, and very serious misgivings as 
 to the adequacy of Christian liberality ; and, not know- 
 ing what might befall the cause of the gospel beyond 
 the bourne, he continued to hope that something might 
 occur to prevent the irrevocable step being taken, even 
 after others had abandoned themselves to despair. He 
 did not attend the Convocation — his reason probably 
 being the same as that which we find in the letter of 
 one of his co-presbyters, a letter which we quote, 
 because it so curiously illustrates the recurrence, in 
 successive periods, of the same objections to proposed 
 ecclesiastical action. " I think it quite inexcusable," 
 it is argued, " that anything so important as the Convo- 
 cation should have been definitely fixed by parties in 
 Edinburgh without consulting the Presbyteries, and 
 particularly ministers of large towns ; and I am about 
 writing to Edinburgh to say so decidedly. It is just 
 one of those hasty things they have of late been doing ; 
 not much to be wondered at, perhaps, under the 
 excitement of the times, but to be deeply deplored 
 when they occur." Probably it was some such idea as 
 inspired these sentences which induced Mr. Leitch to 
 frame an overture, asking that the resolution to disrupt 
 the Church should not be adopted bi-cvi manu by the 
 Assembly, but should be sent down, in terms of the 
 Barrier Act, for the consideration of Presbyteries. What 
 became of this overture we do not know. Perhaps it 
 was never even submitted to the Stirling Presbytery ; 
 but we find it among Mr. Leitch's papers, and in his 
 
FIRST YEARS IN STIRLING. 41 
 
 own handwriting, and we refer to it simply as indicating 
 the state of his mind. 
 
 This is a subject, however, in which so many will 
 naturally take an interest, that the following extracts 
 from letters written by intimate friends of Mr. Leitch 
 will, we are sure, be generally acceptable. The Rev. 
 Andrew Milroy, of -Edinburgh, writes thus : — 
 
 " I have a distinct recollection of Mr. Leitch being 
 deeply exercised about the contendings of the Church — 
 deeply impressed Avith the magnitude of the principles 
 maintained — and very solemnly resolved to uphold 
 these principles to the utmost. He had a great affec- 
 tion for Dr. Bonar of Larbert, and sympathised in his 
 clear and earnest views of the obligation to uphold 
 great principles at every cost — not to evade them, but 
 exhibit them in their preciousness and power. As the 
 Disruption drew on, and seemed near at hand, a feeling 
 of anxiety took hold on his mind, and an aspect of 
 sadness, which appeared in tender anticipations of the 
 hardships and sufferings to which the wives and families 
 of ministers were about to be subjected. I can well 
 remember one occasion, after a communion season, 
 when one or two brethren indulged in a little good- 
 humoured banter with him as to such fears. He took 
 it kindly, and even entered into the more hopeful views 
 some of us were disposed to cherish. 
 
 " The light in which he dwelt chiefly on the grandeur 
 of the principles we were seeking to vindicate, was 
 their bearing on the kingly glory of the Mediator. This 
 strongly possessed his mind, and stirred his ener- 
 gies in contending for them, and made him willing to 
 encounter all the difficulties and troubles connected 
 with the steadfast upholding of them, through good 
 
42 AN EA RNES T PA S TOR A TE. 
 
 report and bad report. One thing which seemed to 
 weigh heavily on his mind, both in prospect of the 
 Disruption and afterwards, was its effect in separating 
 his ministerial connection with many to whom he had 
 regularly proclaimed the everlasting gospel, watching 
 over their souls, as keeping in view the ' giving an 
 account.' " 
 
 Mr. Wilson of Maryhill, the son-in-law of his oldest 
 friend, Dr. Muir, was still more intimately conversant 
 with the state of Mr. Leitch's mind about the same 
 time ; and through the following account, kindly fur- 
 nished by him, we get a very clear and a somewhat 
 affecting view of how the crisis of 1843 was actually 
 passed : — 
 
 " We were both," says Mr. Wilson, " in St. 
 Andrew's Church when the Disruption took place. 
 We witnessed that memorable event, but did not at the 
 time join in it. We were aware that Lord Aberdeen's 
 Bill was forthcoming, and we delayed, in the hope that 
 its provisions might enable us to remain where we were. 
 I left the church when the Disruption took place, but 
 Mr. Leitch remained to see what would happen. We 
 met, however, in the evening, and he told me how sad 
 he felt when he witnessed the benches that had been 
 vacated by his brethren, and that, looking round on the 
 party that remained, he could not bear the thought of 
 being associated with them as members of the same 
 Church. This showed pretty clearly on what side he 
 was ; and I have no doubt that this feeling had a good 
 deal to do with the course which he actually followed. 
 I am not prepared, however, to say that he took the 
 same deep interest as some in the questions which led 
 to the Disruption. That he clearly understood these 
 
FIRST YEARS IN STIRLING. 43 
 
 questions, and carried out his convictions of duty in 
 leaving the Church, there can be no doubt. Still they 
 were subjects, as it appears to me, which held a subordi- 
 nate place in his regard. The Pulpit was his main 
 concern, and preparation for it his chief study and 
 delight. ... I have referred to our meeting on 
 the evening of the Disruption. When about to part, 
 our thoughts were naturally turned to the course which 
 it behoved us to follow ; and I remember him saying 
 that he was going home to consult his wife on a matter 
 of such grave importance ; and I verily believe that his 
 own convictions of duty were much strengthened by her 
 firmness of purpose." 
 
 This last statement is confirmed by others ; and we 
 gladly record this here as one which, while it reflects in 
 no way on Mr. Leitch himself, is especially creditable 
 to the partner of his life and trials. What the ministers 
 suffered in 1843, and how much throughbearing grace 
 they needed to carry them through the crisis of the 
 Disruption — these are the things the world chiefly 
 thinks of. But if all were known, it would be found 
 that the Christian heroism of the time was not confined 
 entirely to the men who actually signed the Deed of 
 Demission. There were worldly wives in those days, 
 who succeeded in keeping their husbands in when their 
 convictions and inclinations would have disposed them 
 to go out ; but these, we have reason to believe, were 
 few in number compared with the many others of a 
 different stamp, who not only faced cheerfully their own 
 sacrifices, but made the thorny path easier for the 
 witnesses who were compelled to do battle for the truth 
 on the high places of the field. 
 
 It is easy, with the explanations given, to understand 
 
44 . AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 the position of Mr. Leitch. He was attached to the 
 EvangeUcal party, less as an ecclesiastic with high theories 
 of Church Government than as a religious man con- 
 cerned about setting up in the land the kingdom of 
 Jesus Christ, While, therefore, he all along went with 
 his party in their demands, because convinced that the 
 interests of true religion required that the Christian 
 people should have a voice in the election of their 
 ministers, and that the Church should be left free from 
 civil compulsion to obey what it regarded as the law of 
 its Divine Head, he had no such stereotyped ideas as to 
 how these ends might be attained in alliance with the 
 State, as to be unwilling to consider any new plan that 
 might be submitted to him. His peculiarly affectionate 
 nature also shrunk from the contemplation of the hard- 
 ships which he believed the Disruption would infallibly 
 entail ; and he would, as we have seen, have averted the 
 evil day as long as he possibly could. To crown all, 
 friends in whom he had confidence, among others Dr. 
 John Muir himself, saw it to be consistent with their 
 duty to remain ; and among his papers we find at least 
 one well-reasoned and elaborate remonstrance addressed 
 to him about this time, pointing out all the conse- 
 quences of demission. But whatever difficulties he had 
 were, one after the other, removed, and with a clear 
 conscience, a reheved heart, and a reinvigorated faith, 
 he crowned his ministerial testimony in Stirling by 
 sacrificing his living for the sake of his principles, and 
 becoming thenceforward a minister of the Free Church 
 of Scotland. 
 
 We have carried this account onward, without in- 
 terruption, to 1843, that the unity of the narrative might 
 not be disturbed ; but now we must go back for a 
 
FIRST YEARS IN STIRLING. 45 
 
 moment, to notice an event which, while it so far cleared 
 Mr. Leitch's way at the Disruption, made also the step 
 which he took on that occasion a little more trying than 
 it would otherwise have been. This was the building of 
 a third church in Stirling — a circumstance which secured 
 to him a flock of his own, and made his position as a 
 parish minister far more satisfactory than it was at his 
 first settlement. 
 
 The need for a new church had been long re- 
 cognised, but it was not until the 24th September 1838 
 that the first decisive step was taken to secure its erec- 
 tion. On that day a meeting was held of all who were 
 friendly to the formation of a third charge — Provost 
 Galbraith presiding, and Mr. Leitch opening with prayer. 
 It was then resolved unanimously : " That as at present 
 there are only two churches connected with the Estab- 
 lished Church of Scotland within the parish of Stirling, 
 situated at the same place, and at one of the highest 
 and most inconvenient parts of the town, with three 
 ministers officiating therein collegiately, and having one 
 kirk - session, while the population of the parish 
 exceeds considerably the present church accommo- 
 dation; and, in order to promote the spiritual and 
 religious instruction of the people, a Third Church, to 
 contain not less than 1000 nor more than 1200 
 sitters, shall be erected in a suitable place, as near the 
 foot of King Street as ground proper for the purpose 
 can be obtained, and at an expense not exceeding 
 ^^2500 sterling, exclusive of the price of the site of. 
 the church." The result of this meeting was the 
 building of the North Church ; and in the new distribu- 
 tion of the ecclesiastical edifices among the three 
 parish ministers, the West Church fell to the lot of Mr. 
 Leitch. 
 
46 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 " It was expected," writes Mr. Murdoch of Pitsligo, 
 whose reminiscences of StirUng go back to this period, 
 " it was commonly expected that when the change took 
 place, Mr. Leitch's congregation would be small, and I 
 suppose he had made up his mind to this himself It 
 turned out, however, to be a very fair one. Mr. Leitch 
 had always a good deal of humour, and a saying of his 
 went about that so many people went up to his church 
 to see the nakedness of the land, that they made a 
 tolerable congregation. It was all very well for him to 
 say so, but of course nothing but a strong attachment to 
 his ministry, and a sincere love to himself, could have 
 drawn so many to the top of the hill to attend his 
 church." 
 
 Another account of the change gives even a more 
 favourable description of Mr. Leitch's congregation : — 
 " My own distinct recollection," says the writer, " of the 
 period when each minister got a church of his own, 
 was that the West Church was crowded." But the 
 matter is not of much importance. It is enough to say 
 that such a number of persons attached themselves ex- 
 clusively to Mr. Leitch's ministry, as to give him quite 
 enough to do in connection with their pastoral over- 
 sight, and that from this time forward he possessed what 
 he had often before longed for, a distinct parochial 
 territory which he could strictly call his own. His 
 connection with the East Church terminated on the 
 the afternoon of the 2 2d of May 1842, and he com- 
 menced to take the sole charge of the West Church on 
 the Sabbath following. The farewell words which he 
 spoke in the East Church were from 2 Thes. ii. 1 6 and 
 17, "Now our Lord Jesus Christ, etc., comfort your 
 hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work ;" 
 
 I 
 
FIRST YEARS IN STIRLING. 
 
 47 
 
 while in the West Church he at once began to lecture 
 on the Epistle to the Romans, and in the afternoon he 
 preached from Phil. ii. i and 2, " If there be therefore 
 any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any 
 fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, ful- 
 fil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same 
 love, being of one accord, of one mind." 
 
CHAPTER FOURTH. 
 
 AFTER THE DISRUPTION. 
 
 His last Sermon in the West Church — The Upper Guild Hall — 
 Mr. Milroy's Recollections — Mrs. Leitch — Presbyterial Cita- 
 tion — Mr. Munsie — Entering the South Church — Building up 
 a Free Church Congregation — Executions of Criminals — 
 The 93d Regiment — Tract Enterprise — Revival. 
 
 It has been said that Mr. Leitch went home from the 
 Assembly of 1843 without having signed the Protest, 
 but his mind was soon made up as to his course of duty, 
 and on the 28th of May he preached his last sermon in 
 the West Church as a minister of the Scottish Establish- 
 ment. One sentence in his sermon on this occasion 
 made an abiding impression on a hearer. Speaking of 
 his reasons for coming out, he said : " If I had found 
 anything in I^ord Aberdeen's Bill that could justify my 
 remaining in the Establishment, I would not leave it ; 
 but, rather than be a party to the forcing of a minister 
 on a reclaiming congregation, I would see my children 
 begging their bread from door to door." 
 
 The Upper Guild Hall was the place in which he 
 and those who adhered to him found a temporary re- 
 fuge. It was far from being a suitable substitute for a 
 church, and it could ill accommodate the worshippers 
 who crowded into it; but many other outed congregations 
 during the same period had to meet on the hill-side or 
 on the sea-shore, and nobody in these bright days cared 
 
AFTER THE DISRUPTION. 49 
 
 very much to complain. " Immediately after the Dis- 
 ruption," writes Mr. Milroy, " I happened to be in 
 Stirling on a Sabbath, and officiated at one of the diets 
 of worship for Mr. Leitch. The remembrance is still 
 vivid of the crowded hall in which the congregation 
 following him were assembled, and especially of the 
 fervour and warmth of the devotional service, of the 
 genial and gladdening cordiality of the worshippers with 
 each other, as banded together in maintaining a great 
 and blessed cause. At that time, it is not too much to 
 say, there was an enlargement of heart on the part of 
 ministers in proclaiming the joyful message direct from 
 the King, and a fervent frame in the hearers in listen- 
 ing to the setting forth of the character, perfections, 
 promises, and will of their exalted Head. In all this 
 Mr. Leitch visibly participated. There was a felt 
 delight manifest in the countenance of the good man, 
 and a humble consciousness of grateful thanksgiving for 
 all the goodness that had been made to pass before 
 him." 
 
 Like most of his brethren, Mr. Leitch did not at 
 this time serve the Lord with what cost him nothing. 
 He made worldly sacrifices. " My mother," says one of 
 his sons, whose recollections go back to this period of 
 trial, " my mother, who was a remarkably sweet, gentle, 
 amiable woman, very prudent and of great intelligence, 
 was also a firm Free Churchwoman. She kept up my 
 father's purpose, cheered him on, and when we went to 
 a greatly smaller house — so small that our surplus furni- 
 ture had to be stowed away elsewhere (an indication 
 perhaps not less of present hardship than of faith in 
 the future) — she dispensed with one of our two servants, 
 both of whom had been with us for a long time. 
 
 E 
 
50 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 To the cares and anxieties attendant on the new cir- 
 cumstances, her premature death was mainly due. It 
 was sudden, and was caused proximately by typhus 
 fever. She was with us at worship on Sabbath evening, 
 though complaining of a sick headache, and died on 
 the Wednesday following. We had sung in course on 
 Sabbath evening the hymn, " The hour of my de- 
 parture's come ; " and after worship she went to my 
 father, as we rose from prayer, and sitting on his knee 
 and throwing her arms around his neck (which we had 
 never seen her do before), she exclaimed that the hymn 
 represented her case. . . At dinner one day, imme- 
 diately before the Disruption, my father, in dividing what 
 was on the table, said : ' Children, eat plenty of food 
 now — I don't see how I am to provide food for you in 
 the future.' My mother, I remember, struck in with 
 some remark, cheering, though almost rebukeful, — and 
 full of faith." 
 
 People who are only able to view such forebodings 
 and anxieties as Mr. Leitch seemed sometimes to have 
 in the light of the success which actually followed the 
 establishment of the Free Church, are far from being in 
 a condition to appreciate either his state of mind or the 
 sacrifices of the Disruption period. It required not 
 merely a great deal of faith, but a good deal of imagina- 
 tion, to realise the formation, within a reasonable time, 
 of such a fund as would afford even the barest subsist- 
 ence-allowance to five hundred ministers ; and we know 
 it to be a certain fact that many a country pastor de- 
 mitted his living without knowing, or even being able to 
 guess, how himself and his family were to be provided 
 with bread and water. Some we could name had made 
 up their minds to emigrate ; others saw no way of earning 
 
AFTER THE DISRUPTION. 51 
 
 a living but by betaking themselves to some new profes- 
 sion. Literally, they went out not knowing whither they 
 went — impelled only by the sheer force of their convic- 
 tion that it was their duty to go forward. The very 
 thickness of the cloud which appeared to Mr. Leitch to 
 darken his worldly future, gives increased lustre to a 
 faith which proved strong enough to triumph over all his 
 apjDrehensions. 
 
 In connection with the step which he finally took, 
 we have by us a number of papers of more or less in- 
 terest. Here, for example, is an exact copy of what 
 some of our readers may never have happened to see — 
 the presbyterial citation served upon those parochial 
 ministers who " deserted their charges" at the Disrup- 
 tion : — 
 
 '■^Stirling, Y^th June 1843. 
 
 " I, James Ferguson, officer of the Presbytery of 
 Stirling, by the authority of said Presbytery, hereby 
 summon and charge you, Alexander Leitch, minister in 
 Stirling, to attend the Presbytery of Stirhng on the 
 twenty-seventh instant, to answer to a faina that you 
 have adhered to the Protest and Act of Separation, and 
 Deed of Demission, and subscribed one of the same 
 import, and deserted your charge. 
 
 " This I do on the seventeenth day of June eighteen 
 hundred and forty-three, before these witnesses, Alexander 
 M'Alister and Daniel Watson, both indwellers in Stir- 
 ling. James Ferguson." 
 
 Probably Air. Leitch let the fama speak for itself, 
 and neglected to obey the summons ; but the Presbytery 
 appears to have been willing to use more than merely 
 
52 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 judicial means to keep their clerk within the Establish- 
 ment, for on the ist of July the following letter was 
 received from a neighbouring minister : — 
 
 " Manse, \st July 1843, 
 
 " My dear Mr. Leitch — Will you favour Messrs. 
 Brotherston and Balfour, and myself, with an interview, 
 on Tuesday next, at 1 1 o'clock, within the Royal Hotel, 
 or elsewhere % We propose that Mr. Greig and Mr. 
 Mackray be invited to attend the meeting, and I shall 
 request them to do so. 
 
 " I do not think that the amendments proposed in 
 the Bill, and the Lord Chancellor's explanation of them, 
 affect its general character. It is quite clear to me, that 
 all possible objections on the part of the people to the 
 settlement of any presentee, with the exception that they 
 have fixed their minds upon another, must be personal 
 to him, and refer to his gifts and qualities, or to his 
 suitableness for the particular parish. 
 
 " With regard to the interference of the civil courts, 
 it amounts to nothing but the control necessary to keep 
 Presbyteries within their own spiritual province, and to 
 the provisions of the Bill. This seems to me quite fair, 
 and I believe such a form would not be found in prac- 
 tice to be any restraint upon perfect freedom of judg- 
 ment. 
 
 " Excuse these hasty remarks, and believe me to be 
 very sincerely yours, ." 
 
 Mr. Leitch naturally preserved a copy of the letter 
 which he sent in reply to this communication. It is as 
 follows : — 
 
AFTER THE DISRUPTION. 53 
 
 '■'■Stirling, \st July 1843. 
 " My dear Sir — I beg to acknowledge receipt of 
 your kind note of this day, requesting me to meet 
 with yourself and Messrs. Brotherston and Balfour, on 
 Tuesday next, in reference to my present situation in 
 connection with the Established Church. I feel very 
 much obliged to you and them for offering this friendly 
 conference ; but I think it unnecessary to hold it. I 
 have seen no reason to change the position I have taken. 
 I sincerely thank the committee for their kindness to 
 me, and regret that anything should have occurred to 
 produce the separation as to church communion which 
 now exists. With kindest regards to yourself and my 
 dear friends, I am, my dear Sir, yours truly, 
 
 Alexr. Leitch." 
 
 Those who recollect the keenness of feeling which 
 prevailed at the time this letter was written, especially 
 with reference to those who not only turned back them- 
 selves, but did their best to shake the fidelity of others, 
 will be able to appreciate the mingled firmness and 
 sweetness which characterised Mr. Leitch's reply. He 
 has no doubt about his own line of duty, but he has no 
 bitterness toward any who may not agree with him. 
 The very attempt to induce him to take a step which 
 would have tarnished his reputation in the eye of the 
 world, he is able to regard as the generous act of friends 
 who have no thought but for his wellbeing. 
 
 Another letter, written by one of his oldest and 
 dearest friends — Mr. William Munsie of Glasgow — also 
 reached him on one of these days, and must have 
 greatly strengthened him in his purpose. It has been 
 mentioned already that the man, above all others, whom 
 
54 AN EA RNEST PASTOR A TE. 
 
 Mr. Leitch had most cause to regard as a father — Dr. 
 John Muir of Glasgow — did not see his way to leave 
 the Establishment at the' Disruption. The explanation 
 of this does not seem to us far to seek. He had 
 thoroughly persuaded himself that the passing of the 
 Catholic Emancipation Act had unchristianised the 
 Government of this country, and vitiated the entire 
 relations of the Church to the State. After that event, 
 therefore, he seemed very much to lose interest in all 
 the Church's contendings ; and although a good man 
 and an evangelical, whose whole sympathies were natu- 
 rally with the Non-Intrusion side, his views grew dis- 
 torted as the bitterness and disappointment of his heart 
 increased. So warm, however, was the attachment to 
 his person and ministry of those who knew him best, 
 that some were placed, by his resolution to remain, in 
 an exceedingly painful and perplexing position. They 
 did not appreciate his difficulties about Catholic Emanci- 
 pation — they had been taught by himself to love the 
 gospel — and all their leanings were in favour of the cause 
 which -came to be represented by the Free Church. 
 And yet they shrunk from breaking a tie which had 
 been, in the best and truest sense, a bond of love. In 
 this view the following letter seems to us an exceedingly 
 affecting one. We quote it for vatious reasons. For 
 one thing, we regard it as a most interesting illustrative 
 memofial of Disruption times. But, besides that, it at 
 once throws a side-light on one who was more intimately 
 associated than any other with the subject of these 
 notices, and enables us to realise what was probably 
 one of Mr. Leitch's intensest personal trials in connection 
 with his retirement from the Establishment. Mr. 
 Munsie was one of Dr. Muir's elders ; and, from the 
 
AFTER THE DISRUPTION. 55 
 
 pain of parting experienced by him, we may guess how 
 keenly Mr. Leitch felt the severance of communion and 
 church-fellowship with his early friend : — . 
 
 '■'■Dunoon^ 2(ith June 1843. 
 
 " My very dear Friend — I owe you a long apology 
 for permitting your kind note to remain unnoticed. 
 The truth is, at the time I received it, and till last week, 
 my mind has been quite unhinged and beyond measure 
 distressed by the posture of Church affairs, and espe- 
 cially from the necessity of separating myself officially 
 from Dr. Muir, Now that that trial is over, my mind 
 is comparatively tranquil. Indeed, I was glad to 
 escape to a retired cottage here from the many meetings 
 and harassing conferences of the city. Although there 
 were no pecuniary considerations connected with myself 
 and my dear brethren of the eldership, the struggle ot 
 leaving a man so long so valued as Dr. Muir was not 
 little. Many of us tried to make it consistent with our 
 principles to remain, and all of us postponed the 
 catastrophe to the last. The disruption of our Session 
 took place on the 13th, and I came here on the 19th. 
 Mr. alone remained. . . . We were, con- 
 trary to our own desire and will, shut up to the course 
 we took. I would like to read to you the short cor- 
 respondence of the Session with Dr. M. This I will 
 do some day. It will amaze you not a little. And I 
 was truly refreshed when I saw yotir name, my dear 
 friend, among the list of witnessing ministers. I trust 
 that, since that time, the light of the Divine countenance 
 has peculiarly shone on you. His presence gives con- 
 solation in the midst of the most painful circumstances. 
 I wish I could indulge the hope of coming to see you ; 
 
56 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 it would be refreshing to me. ... A few short 
 years — it may be very few — and this vain world will 
 pass away. Let us live by the faith of Christ, that 
 when the period of our dismissal shall arrive, we may 
 enter into the joy of our Lord. — I am ever, my very 
 dear friend, yours most truly, Wm. Munsie." 
 
 Of the four Stirling ministers who joined the Free 
 Church in 1843, one, Mr. Mackray, had belonged to that 
 section of the Old Light Seceders who conformed to the 
 Establishment a short while before the Disruption. Mr. 
 Mackray and his congregation had brought a place of 
 worship with them, when they united their interest with 
 what at the time promised to fulfil the aspirations of 
 their fathers, and become the Free Reformed and really 
 National Church of Scotland ; and when this hope was 
 blasted, and they found themselves once more in a con- 
 dition of nonconformity, they were better prepared than 
 many to meet the crisis, for they had still uncontrolled 
 authority over their church, which had never been 
 allowed to go out of their own possession. The cir- 
 cumstances of the time, however, were not favourable 
 to the growth of congregations of this particular descrip- 
 tion ; and when the minister accepted a call to another 
 charge, the people wisely resolved that they would not 
 attempt to maintain a position of ecclesiastical isolation. 
 They accordingly offered to sell their church to the 
 congregation which had been formed in the Guild Hall 
 under the ministry of Mr. Leitch. 
 
 It may well be questioned whether it was altogether 
 a fortunate thing that this offer was ultimately accepted. 
 No doubt it was an advantage to be early housed, but 
 the building was not architecturally attractive ; it was, 
 
AFTER THE DISRUPTION. hi 
 
 besides, in a bad situation, being too high up the hill, 
 and otherwise out of the way ; and, apart from all that, 
 as an old church with traditions of its own, it wanted 
 the prestige which would certainly have belonged to it 
 if it had been a new place, erected in connection with the 
 associations and under the impulses of the Disruption. 
 
 On the whole, however, it was judged best to fall 
 in with the arrangement. The plan which had been 
 formed, and the execution of which had actually been 
 commenced, of building a new church in Queen Street, 
 was abandoned; and, on the 26th of November 1843, 
 Mr. Leitch and his people took formal possession of 
 the old Secession Meeting-house in Spittal Square, be- 
 stowing upon it at the same time the designation by which 
 it has been known ever since, that of the South Church. 
 The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was dispensed on 
 the following Sabbath, the first time that an opportunity 
 had occurred for doing so since the exodus from the 
 Establishment ; and there can be no doubt that the 
 minister meant, on both occasions, to define his position 
 in the new circumstances under which he found himself 
 placed, when, in the former case, he preached on Moses 
 " esteeming the re^Droach of Christ greater riches than 
 all the treasures of Egypt," and in the latter selected as 
 his text that grand evangelical declaration of Paul to 
 the Galatians, " I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless 
 I hve ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." 
 
 Mr. Leitch's work in these years was very similar to 
 that which of necessity engaged the attention of the 
 great majority of his brethren. The Free Church had 
 to be organised — that is to say, new buildings had to be 
 erected, or procured in room of those that had been left 
 behind ; a sustentation fund had to be established, sufii- 
 
58 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 cient not merely to meet the wants of the outed 
 ministers for one year, but to supply the means of support 
 to a standing ministry which promised to be for ever in- 
 creasing ; and, beyond these, great missionary and educa- 
 tional agencies demanded attention, which a generation 
 before would have seemed more than enough of them- 
 selves to tax the whole strength of the undivided Church 
 of Scotland. Much of the labour in these connections 
 necessarily fell upon the ministers, and Mr. Leitch had 
 his own share of it. The Spittal Square Church, for 
 example, did not cost much, but his congregation con- 
 sisted mostly of the humble classes of society; and, even 
 with such help as was got from the Central Building 
 Fund in Edinburgh, they were not able all at once to 
 clear their way. An appeal, therefore, required to be 
 made to the richer friends of the Church outside ; and 
 that appeal now lies before us, modest and unobtrusive, 
 like himself, in the handwriting of Mr. Leitch. What 
 else was needed in the same line of things he did cheer- 
 fully. Under his superintendence, the whole machinery 
 of a Free Church congregation was established ; and 
 there is abundant evidence to show that the various 
 schemes which he organised were worked from year to 
 year with energy and success. 
 
 Such a life was, of course, an extremely busy one, 
 but the incidents which happened in it were, generally 
 speaking, of quite an ordinary description. He has left 
 behind him memorials of all, or almost all, that occurred 
 in these days — the correspondence which he carried on 
 with the authorities in Edinburgh with reference to a 
 new church and manse ; annual abstracts, showing what 
 his congregation contributed from year to year; copies 
 of bills announcing sermons or lectures on special occa- 
 
AFTER THE DISRUPTION. 59 
 
 sions ; and registers, containing all manner of informa- 
 tion about his flock and his labours among them. All 
 this, however, has little pubHc interest, and we need not 
 go into detail. But the usually even tenor of his career 
 was occasionally broken by events of a more stirring 
 kind, and we may notice one or two of these. 
 
 In the autumn of 1843 ^^ ^^.d, for the second time 
 in his life, to perform a service for which he must have 
 been well fitted, but which could not but have been to 
 him extremely painful. This was to offer the consolations 
 of the gospel to a criminal on the eve of his execution. 
 In 1837, he had for this end attended a young man, 
 Alexander Millar, on the very scaffold, and had the satis- 
 faction of seeing the wretched youth join interestedly in 
 his prayers. But the second case was a sadder one. 
 Allan Mair was a very aged man. The crime he was 
 charged with was brought so conclusively home that 
 all hope of mercy was denied to him, but he utterly 
 refused to admit his guilt. He was thus in a very un- 
 favourable state for receiving religious impressions, and 
 the closing scene was as dark as could be. The follow- 
 ing, from the Stirlmg Observer of October 12, 1843, 
 will be read with painful interest : — 
 
 " In the room in which the condemned man had 
 been confined, the Rev. Messrs. Leitch and Stark had 
 been labouring, but without effect, to fix his mind upon 
 the awful circumstances in which he was placed. At 
 twelve minutes past eight o'clock, the Rev. Mr. Leitch 
 came into the Court-room, and was followed by the 
 prisoner, half carried by the Rev. Mr. Stark and the man 
 who had been guarding him all night. At this moment 
 the spectacle was most humiliating — a hoary old man, 
 in his eighty-third or eighty-fourth year, bent together 
 
60 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 with age and mental suffering, and oppressed with a five- 
 months' imprisonment, his whole appearance indicating 
 the utmost degree of human frailty, borne down with the 
 intense idea of grief, struggling to bear up against what 
 he considered the greatest injustice. The prisoner hav- 
 ing been seated, the Rev. Mr. Leitch, animated with a 
 depth of feeling which could not be concealed, read and 
 sung the two first stanzas of the 51st Psalm, dweUing, 
 with lingering fondness, on ' After th) loving-kindness. 
 Lord,' and then ' For thy compassions great, blot out 
 all mine iniquities.' He then read from the nth chap- 
 ter of Matthew the words, ' Come unto me, all ye that 
 labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' 
 ' Now, Allan,' said he, ' this is the Lord Jesus Christ 
 that is speaking to you. He says. Come ; come now, 
 with all your sins upon your head, and just when you 
 are going to step into eternity, and you shall have rest. 
 He stands with outstretched arms to receive you ; only 
 come.' Again he read from the ist chapter of ist 
 Timothy, ' This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all 
 acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to 
 save sinners, even the chief ' Here, Allan, you are 
 told that no amount of sin can stand between you and 
 salvation, for Christ is able to save to the uttermost all 
 that come unto God by Him, and He is as wiUing as 
 He is able. O, Allan, come to Him even now, and you 
 will be accepted, justified, sanctified, just as the thief 
 upon the cross was when he sought His mercy. To- 
 day, said Christ, thou shalt be with me in Paradise. 
 So may you, Allan, as says the Gospel invitation.' Surely 
 this, we thought, is the triumph of the Gospel, and of the 
 Gospel ministry, holding forth life — immortal life — within 
 one minute of temporal life — ' Death is swallowed up 
 
AFTER THE DISRUPTION. 61 
 
 in victory.' The Rev. Mr. Stark (the chaplain of the 
 prison) then prayed in a most appropriate manner. . . 
 . After the condemned had dehvered a speech, 
 the Rev, Mr. Leitch engaged in prayer, with a pious 
 eloquence and fervour properly adapted to the occa- 
 sion, and towards the conclusion his whole soul was 
 engaged with an earnestness which the truth and mercy 
 of heaven, whose minister he was, could alone have in- 
 spired. Verily, this good man and zealous minister of 
 Christ has his reward in the approval of a good con- 
 science, and in that of the immense multitude assem- 
 bled, who heard with pleasure the pleadings of goodness, 
 after the pouring forth of such language as the culprit 
 himself had uttered." 
 
 One year later Mr. Leitch sustained one of the very 
 greatest trials that could have befallen him. In the 
 beginning of 1845 his wife was seized with typhus 
 fever, and died after a few days' illness. '' My very dear 
 friend," wrote Dr. Muir, on receiving the sad intelli- 
 gence, " I sympathise with you from the bottom of my 
 heart, under your present affliction. The announce- 
 ment conveyed to me this day of your dear wife's 
 departure yesterday out of our fallen world so completely 
 unmanned me that I could not articulate my words in 
 reporting the event to my family. We knelt down to- 
 gether and prayed for you and yours, to the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, asking that He would 
 comfort you again in due time. Your case is not unlike 
 what my own was in 1 8 1 2, now three-and-thirty years ago. 
 Be not afraid with any amazement. Man's extremity is 
 God's opportunity, as Elisha found in his day, according 
 as it is written in 2 Kings vi. 2>Zi compared with 
 chapter vii. ver. i, etc. But I stop, for I know that your 
 
62 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 grief is very great." The following year, in June 1846, 
 a second bereavement befell him. One of his children, 
 a boy of seven, was removed. " Jacob of old," again 
 wrote his faithful friend of many years. Dr. Muir, " Jacob 
 of old spoke the language and expressed the feelings of 
 every right-minded parent, when he said, ' If I be 
 bereaved of my children, I am bereaved^ for bereavement 
 of children is a bereavement indeed. Your little boy 
 has had but a short respite, as we speak, from the execu. 
 tion of that sentence under which we all of us come into 
 the world. But the race is long enough when the prize 
 is won ; and his connection with believing parents fully 
 warrants the conclusion, according to i Cor. vii. 14, that 
 in his case the prize is won." Looking into Mr. Leitch's 
 Sermon Register, we find that he preached once in his 
 own church on the Sabbath after his child died, and the 
 text chosen by him is the last verse of the 46th Psalm : 
 " The Lord of hosts is with us ; the God of Jacob is our 
 refuge." We can have no doubt that these words indi- 
 cated his state of mind. The affliction touched him 
 keenly ; but he was enabled to feel a quiet confidence, 
 trusting in the Lord. 
 
 As all the world knows, there is a castle in Stirling 
 with a garrison. This circumstance tends to give occa- 
 sionally a special aspect, even in a rehgious connection, 
 to the town. For not only do red coats appear not in- 
 frequently among the civilian worshippers in the churches, 
 but sometimes very earnest Christians happen to be 
 stationed on the spot, who are to be found almost more 
 in the military than in any other profession. It fell to 
 Mr. Leitch to be brought into contact with the piety of 
 the army, under very pleasant conditions, in 1848. In 
 that year the 93d Regiment arrived at Stirling from 
 
AFTER THE DISRUPTION. C3 
 
 Canada. This is distinctively a Scotcli regiment, and 
 a considerable number of the men had followed intelli- 
 gently the course of the Ten Years' Conflict, and were 
 keen Free Churchmen. They had, in fact, testified for 
 their principles rather emphatically in Quebec, having 
 refused to enter the door of an Established Church in 
 that city, after having been marched to it by their oflicers. 
 On reaching home, therefore, one of the first things they 
 sought after was a place of worship belonging to their 
 own communion, and this they found conveniently in 
 Spittal Square. Mr. Leitch and his people gave to the 
 soldiers a very hearty welcome, and we have reason to 
 believe that the time during which they worshipped in his 
 church made one of the sunniest eras in his whole minis- 
 try. Here is some account of the episode, supplied by 
 one of the men themselves, Mr. William Bell, late a 
 sergeant in the 93 d. 
 
 " The 93d Regiment landed at Granton from Quebec 
 on the 31st August 1848, and came to Stirling the same 
 day. They remained in Stirling until the 5 th of April 
 1850, a period of nineteen months and five days. 
 What made our case somewhat interesting was, that at 
 that time we had a good number of pious men who had 
 just returned from the wars — I mean the Church wars. 
 Perhaps it has gone out of memory in the course of 
 twenty years ; but not long before we left Quebec, it 
 happened one day when there was no service in the 
 Free Church, the commanding ofticer marched the whole 
 of the Free Church men to the Parish Church. Of 
 course they went to the church door, but to go inside 
 of the church they would not, consequently the com- 
 manding officer had just to march them home again. 
 
64 AN EA RNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 Meantime the occurrence appeared in the Quebec news- 
 papers, and from them found its way to the Edinburgh 
 IViiness, where a full account of the whole thing ap- 
 peared ; also a sketch of some of the petty persecutions 
 we had been subject to for a considerable period before. 
 This was all fresh when we came to Stirling, and I sup- 
 pose it was this that was the cause of the 93d being 
 taken so much notice of, for many of the good people 
 of Stirling were like to kill us with kindness. After 
 these events our liberty was secured to us ; we were 
 troubled no more after coming home. In connection 
 with this, I remember an incident that happened be- 
 tween Mr. Leitch and our commanding officer, Colonel 
 Spark. The different ministers were allowed to visit 
 their own people who were in the hospital, at proper 
 hours : there was a visitation-book in the hospital, where 
 the chaplain recorded his visits, but other ministers were 
 not allowed to record their visits there. Mr. Leitch 
 could not understand why he should not be allowed to 
 record his visits as well as the chaplain or parish 
 minister. He therefore wrote immediately to the Duke 
 of Wellington, who was then Commander-in-chief, giving 
 the Duke an account of the matter. Down comes a 
 letter from the Duke by return of post to Colonel 
 Spark, with a copy of Mr. Leitch's letter enclosed, de- 
 manding an explanation. This of course the Colonel 
 had to give without delay ; and that explanation was sent 
 down to Mr. Leitch with a letter from the Duke himself, 
 if I remember right. The explanation ran thus : ' That 
 the hospital-book was kept for the chaplains only, to 
 show how they did their duty.' The Duke was satisfied 
 with the explanation, and informed Mr. Leitch in his 
 letter that no slight was intended to be shown him on 
 
AFTER THE DISRUPTION. 65 
 
 account of his not being permitted to record his visits 
 in the hospital-book, and thanked him for his zeal in 
 attending to the men of his persuasion. 
 
 " When the regiment came to Stirling they were 
 nearly divided; one half went to the Establishment, and 
 the other half went to the Free Church. During the 
 first six weeks after we came, there would be about 350 
 attending every Sabbath ; but afterwards, when the service 
 companies were broken up, and numbers went away to 
 Perth and Dundee, the attendance every Sabbath would 
 be from 150 to 200. Of course numbers attended the 
 prayer meetings, and a i^v^ occasionally conducted them. 
 It was a great triumph to Mr. Leitch when he got a few 
 red coats to assist, because he had some difficulty with 
 some of his session : he could not get them to take 
 part in these meetings, and he tried to stir them up by 
 means of the soldiers, I remember an incident that 
 happened with a person in Stirling. I was one day 
 transacting some business with him, when he made use 
 of a good deal of profane language. Some days after 
 I was down in Mr. Leitch's house with a few of our 
 brethren, and mentioned this circumstance to Mr. Leitch, 
 and how I was annoyed at it. He lost no time in 
 calling upon the man, and soundly reproved him, adding 
 that it was a man who wore a red coat that had taken 
 notice of his language, for which he ought to be 
 ashamed. Some time after we came, I wrote a tract 
 against the horse-races, which was revised by Mr. 
 Leitch, printed and distributed in the seats of the church 
 and elsewhere. This is a public nuisance you are 
 happily rid of long ago. Then again, there was the 
 presentation of a handsome Bible from the congregation 
 to the brethren in the 93d. This was presented shortly 
 
 F 
 
66 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 before we left. I believe it is in the regiment still. The 
 church was pretty well filled with soldiers and people 
 the evening it was presented. It was a happy meeting, 
 and we lingered so long that the bugles were calling us 
 home from the castle when we separated. I could not 
 say anything about the fruits of Mr. Leitch's ministry 
 among the military, as I left the regiment about two 
 months after leaving Stirling. 
 
 " I don't think there is a place in all my wanderings 
 over the world that I have so many pleasing recollec- 
 tions of as Stirling." 
 
 There was another thing which helped to complexion 
 Mr. Leitch's ministry in Stirling at a later date. This 
 was the establishment in the town of a religious enter- 
 prise, which exercised a very considerable influence over 
 the whole country. Of this enterprise Mr. Peter Drum- 
 mond was the originator, and the chief agency at first 
 employed was the publication and circulation of awaken- 
 ing tracts ; but the circle of interest gradually widened, 
 and Stirling became the centre of a great revival move- 
 ment. It need scarcely be said that in such a movement 
 Mr. Leitch took the deepest interest. He opened his 
 church freely to the strangers, who were brought from a 
 distance to address meetings in the town, and at a time 
 when the churches in general were much less disposed 
 than they are now to recognise and welcome the services 
 of lay evangelists. He acted without hesitation on the 
 principle, that under abnormal circumstances it is folly 
 to stickle, in a red-tapeist spirit, for mere points of order. 
 He had his own high notions of the excellence of Pres- 
 byterial rule, and he was quite prepared in season to 
 maintain it in its rigidity ; but if such as he had lived in 
 
AFTER THE DISRUPTION. 67 
 
 the days of the Haldanes, there would probably have 
 been no Congregational Church of Scotland existing at 
 this hour. For, recognising in these men the presence 
 of the Spirit of God, and admitting their call, as Christian 
 men, to invite others to the Saviour, he would not only 
 have placed no bar in their way when they sought op- 
 portunities of carrying the Gospel into districts which 
 were notoriously unenlightened, but would have facili- 
 tated their labours in every way in his power, arid would 
 have bid them most heartily God speed. This readiness 
 to countenance and encourage all well-intentioned efforts 
 to save souls and further the interests of the Redeemer's 
 kingdom, was one of the most conspicuous features in 
 his character ; and there can be little doubt that his 
 sustained loyalty of spirit to the Master contributed 
 much toward securing a blessing for himself and for his 
 congregation. 
 
 It need scarcely be said that Mr. Leitch, like other 
 ministers, had his own public trials and anxieties. But 
 it would serve no useful purpose to refer to these here. 
 It is enough to say that, as his private papers abundantly 
 show, he bore these in the spirit of Christian meekness, 
 and was far more anxious to get spiritual good out ot 
 them for himself, than to achieve triumphs in connection 
 with them over other men. Passing these by, then, there 
 is only one thing more which we shall notice before pro- 
 ceeding to speak of what we may call the interior history 
 of Mr. Leitch's ministry. What we allude to is the fact, 
 that both before the Disruption and after it, he held the 
 office of Clerk of Presbytery. Somehow, we hardly look, 
 as a rule, for the kind of gifts required for such an office 
 in men of the class to which Mr. Leitch belonged. 
 But, as we shall have occasion to see, the possession of 
 
68 
 
 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 " business habits " was one of his most distinguishing 
 characteristics. Punctuahty, carefulness about details, 
 accuracy of statement, method, — these, and all the other 
 features which are usually understood to mark a man 
 of affairs, appear on the very face of his private books j 
 and we may say at once, that it is here, as it seems to us 
 that the special or distinctive element in his life is mainly 
 to be sought for. Multitudes of good men happily have 
 lived among us — multitudes of spiritual men and of 
 earnest ministers. But, so far as we have observed, it is 
 not a very usual combination, that which we find in this 
 case — a combination in a remarkable degree of the 
 spiritual and the practical — of eminent personal piety on 
 the one hand, and on the other of remarkably metho- 
 dical and businesslike habits of mind. And we hope to 
 be able to show that something is to be learned from 
 the records of such an experience. 
 
CHAPTER FIFTH. 
 
 IN HIS CLOSET. 
 
 Notices by Mr. Goldie — Early Family Worship — Books of Devo- 
 tion — Preparations for Prayer — ^Substitute for Liturgies — 
 Breathings. 
 
 Hitherto we have followed the outline of Mr. Leitch's 
 public life. We propose now to draw closer to him, and 
 mark the character of his pastorate, from, so to speak, 
 the interior. And as the "basis of operations " in this war- 
 fare is the closet, we begin by supplying some illustra- 
 tions of what manner of man he was in his private inter- 
 course with God. Here we are glad to avail ourselves 
 of the kind help of Mr. Goldie, his successor in Stirling, 
 who has looked through some of his diaries, and, as the 
 result, has drawn up the following : — 
 
 Some men write diaries for publication. That 
 idea is present in every sentence. Hence it is not so 
 much the men before God as before their fellows — not 
 so much what they were as what they wished others to 
 think of them. The record is unreal if not untrue, and we 
 turn from it with the feeling that we have been imposed 
 upon by the portrait of a semi-angelic creature for that of 
 a crafty sinner. 
 
 But no one who knew Mr. Leitch, and no one who 
 has perused his private diaries, can for a moment sup- 
 pose that he was limning himself for public exhibition. 
 
70 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 In these artless records of his inner life we have his true 
 self — a humble and devout child in the presence of the 
 " Father in secret." His beautiful love to his children — 
 his ardent attachment to his people, and prayerful 
 earnestness, almost agony, for their spiritual welfare — 
 his sympathy with the afflicted — his Christian sociable- 
 ness — his brotherly regard for the members of his 
 Presbytery — his panting after God and personal holi- 
 ness — his single-eyed aim to adorn the doctrine of 
 God his Saviour in all things — are manifested with a 
 genuine simplicity and transparency. 
 
 What is here published may help to preserve his 
 image to his friends as one they are already familiar 
 with, and may give to strangers some idea of a man 
 who was worth knowing. The selections, as will be 
 seen, are so brought together and arranged as to bring 
 out distinctive personal characteristics. Hence dates 
 are dispensed with as unnecessary for this purpose. 
 
 " Subject my wishes and desires, my whole soul, to 
 thy law. Give me victory over the lusts which war 
 against the soul." 
 
 " Arrested and somewhat humbled by that Scripture 
 this evening — James iii. 14, 15. O enable me to look 
 at myself in the light of this Scripture ! O fill my heart 
 with love to the Saviour and to souls ! " 
 
 " Little spiritual feeling throughout this day. O 
 Lord, give me fixedness of heart on thine own self! 
 May my soul follow hard after thee. Lord, give me the 
 wisdom which is profitable to direct. May I ever be 
 occupied in working out my salvation with fear and 
 trembling." 
 
 " Miserably little done this day. Little thought of 
 
IN HIS CIO SET. 71 
 
 God. How little have I walked with Him this day or 
 any day !" 
 
 " Can't get that realising abiding sense of the 
 Divine presence which I know it is my duty and privi- 
 lege to possess." 
 
 " O thou God of all grace ! pardon the shortcomings 
 and iniquities of this day. Enable me to use for my 
 soul's comfort and satisfaction that infinitely precious 
 blood which cleanseth from all sin." 
 
 "Accept the confessions made by the officiating 
 minister last night as my confessions. O Lord ! cancel 
 my guilt." 
 
 " How much thou art out of my thoughts when I 
 am out of doors, as has been the case this day. Lord, 
 I lament it." 
 
 " O my leanness ! May the zeal of thine house 
 consume me." 
 
 " Want of proper affection of mind and heart 
 towards Christ. Ill treatment of the gracious spirit." 
 
 Mr. Leitch had great regard for the feelings of others, 
 and great sympathy with the afflicted. In this, as in 
 other respects, he was so sincere and artless that he 
 thought he greatly failed. Hence such records as these^ 
 " I could weep with the afflicted family. O sustain and 
 comfort them. Let their trials be of much benefit to 
 them." " In visitation to-day witnessed various cases of 
 distress. Lord, give me a real, a lively, an affectionate 
 sympathy with the afflicted, for in this I acknowledge 
 myself to be sadly deficient. May I indeed weep with 
 those who weep." " Unto any whom I have offended 
 I ask thee to show mercy, Givet hem a right state of 
 mind. May offended feelings pass away, be extinguished. 
 
12 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 May I have a place in their love. Keep me from giving 
 offence. Pardon wherein I have wrongously offended." 
 " How egregiously and constantly I sin against others ! " 
 
 " Going to drink tea with . Keep me in thy 
 
 fear. Enable me to give the conversation a profitable 
 turn. Enable me to demean myself as a Christian and 
 Christian minister. Let me not forget Thee. May I 
 ever seek the good of those with whom I am brought into 
 conversation. My mind seldom took the direction of 
 God when in company this evening. Little prayer inter- 
 mixed for direction and guidance." 
 
 " Do not turn intercourse with others to such good 
 account as might be done. Would that I were more the 
 Christian than I am ! " 
 
 " O Lord ! I regret that I have not conducted myself 
 better when out of doors to-day, that I have not acted 
 and spoken with more wisdom, that I have not realised 
 a more Christian frame of mind, been more in fellowship 
 with God, have not noticed several opportunities of use- 
 fulness, and have lost them now for ever. Have not 
 regarded as I ought to have done the persons with whom 
 I have been brought into contact, casually or otherwise. 
 Enable me to spend the evening profitably." 
 
 " Increase my gift of conversing with the sick to 
 their edification ; furnish me with suitable matter for con- 
 versation. Enable me better to improve funeral occasions. 
 May my mind be ever exercised about Christ." 
 
 " About to proceed to ministerial visitation. Lord, 
 let this work be done properly by me. Enable me to 
 speak tp each person I visit as I ought, seeking thy 
 glory and the person's good. Make me grave yet affable, 
 dignified yet courteous. Keep me from doing the work 
 
IN HIS CLOSET. 73 
 
 carelessly and negligently, reproving, rebuking, exhorting, 
 with all long-suffering and doctrine." 
 
 " Preparing this day for the forenoon of Sabbath 
 next. Lord, give me suitable matter, give me the word 
 needful in the preparation of my discourses. I would 
 seek to make full proof of my ministry. O Lord ! spiritu- 
 alise the congregation. May the word I am preparing 
 for them be spirit and life to them. Arouse them from 
 apathy." 
 
 " Finished my discourse for the forenoon. The 
 Lord use it for His glory and the people's good ! Dis- 
 courses finished. O Lord ! let the delivery of them be 
 accompanied with power. O Divine Spirit ! impress. — O 
 impress every soul ! " 
 
 " Public work of the day over. Some measure of 
 comfort experienced. Lord, blessed be Thou that Thou 
 dost not confound me ! O carry home to the hearts of 
 the people the word spoken to them, though in much 
 weakness ! O make them wise ! May they, in the 
 language of one of the passages handled this day, attain 
 unto wise counsels, and manifest that they have done so." 
 
 The diary manifests much anxiety and much prayer 
 at communion seasons, e.g., " May this communion 
 week prove edifying to myself, to my family, and to all 
 connected. O direct them [the ministers assisting] to 
 use their services for the good of the people ! Prepare 
 the people for receiving the truth to be addressed to 
 them. May the ministers have their own souls refreshed 
 and edified. May there be much searching of heart on 
 the part of the people. Let none come to the holy 
 table with sin unforgiven, unrepented of" " Give the 
 minister who is to preach this evening much grace, com- 
 passion for perishing souls. Give the Spirit largely. 
 
74 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 Honour this first day of the communion season. Let 
 conversions be made." " The preparation of the heart 
 Cometh from Thee ; give it very largely to minister, 
 office-bearers, and people." 
 
 The following seems to indicate special prayer for 
 the parties mentioned : — " Special donors and benefac- 
 tors, beadle, the sick of the congregation, bereaved in 
 the congregation, workers, non-workers, the concerned, 
 the careless, the collectors — may they be received kindly. 
 May the people consider that they are doing a great 
 work for the congregation." 
 
 " About to go to my classes for Bible-reading. Lord, 
 let Thy presence go with me. Let me be a blessing 
 to each of the young people. Give me affection for 
 them, and them affection for me. Enable me to deal 
 closely and kindly with them." " Was with the class for 
 young people this evening ; pleased to be with them. O 
 that I may be a spiritual father unto them ! Give me 
 access to their minds and hearts." 
 
 '' Got some freedom and some measure of comfort in 
 
 dealing with , with reference to the baptism of his 
 
 infant child. The Lord bless the conversation." 
 
 The following is evidently a prayer — " My ministry 
 and all connected with it — a pure ministry — a zealous 
 ministry — a faithful ministry." On this subject, and just 
 because of his earnestness and faithfulness, Mr. Leitch 
 writes hard things against himself — " A careless ministry 
 — an unblessed ministry — a profitless ministry. The 
 ends and objects of the ministry not kept in view — not 
 sought after. Not impressed with the dead state of the 
 congregation. Not laying to heart their irreligion, their 
 worldliness. Unimpressed myself by the hohness of God, 
 by the consideration of His dreadful majesty. Thought- 
 
IN HIS CLOSET. 75 
 
 lessness with reference to my spiritual interests." Years 
 after he prays — " O Lord God ! I mourn over an ap- 
 parently unblessed and unprofitable ministry. O God ! 
 whatever hinders the ministry from producing those 
 glorious results which the gospel ministry is designed to 
 effect, let it be forthwith removed." 
 
 Mr. Leitch, as Clerk of the Presbytery, was never 
 absent from his place, and always took more than a 
 formal part in the proceedings of the court. Not unfre- 
 quently there were sharp discussions, and though he 
 generally took a firm and decided stand on debated 
 questions, he never did or said anything that for any 
 length of time lessened in the least degree the brethren's 
 deep affection for him. The following entry reveals the 
 exercises of his spirit regarding the Presbytery : — 
 
 " Meeting of Presbytery to-day. Let the spirit of 
 understanding and wisdom rest on it. Let love be 
 among the brethren. Enable me to conduct myself pro- 
 perly — to exemplify the gentleness of Christ — which He 
 exhibited and which He enjoins. Lord, give me calm- 
 ness. Let me ever have and manifest Christian dignity, 
 and gravity, and amiableness, in union. Enable me, O 
 Lord ! to set thee always before me this day ; and may I 
 be kept from being moved, by the consideration that 
 Thou art at my right hand. lo p.m. — Lost that calm- 
 ness and self-possession at the Presbytery to-day which 
 I am so anxious to realise ; Lord forgive. A believing 
 look, given to Thee, O Jesus ! might have made all right 
 as to state of mind. How few of these looks were 
 given ! How sad it is that I won't hold communion 
 with thee ! " 
 
76 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. ■ 
 
 " The brethren of the Presbytery, may they be per- 
 sonally holy — grow in holiness. May they be remarkably 
 successful in bringing souls to Christ. Revive Thy work 
 in all their congregations." 
 
 " May guilt contracted at the Presbytery on Tuesday 
 be cancelled^O remove it ! What was amiss in speak- 
 ing and temper forgive." 
 
 These breathings, which Mr. Goldie has gleaned from 
 Mr. Leitch's ordinary diaries, exhibit the good man as 
 bearing about with him everywhere a habitual sense of 
 the Divine Presence. And no one could cross his path 
 at almost any point without being made to feel that in 
 very deed God was in all his thoughts. The writer did 
 not himself become acquainted with Mr. Leitch till after 
 he was well stricken in years, and not knowing him, 
 therefore, at his best, he is unable to speak of the intel- 
 lectual gifts which he possessed in his prime. But age 
 had only mellowed his spiritual nature, and rendered it 
 more attractive; and the one thing above all others 
 which impressed us most was just this, that he was, par 
 excellence, a man of prayer. There was apparent in all 
 his own approaches to the mercy-seat an unmistakable 
 familiarity with the exercise — a tender, filial, trustful 
 pleading with a living God — and a wonderful fulness 
 and variety in the matter of the supplications. One 
 thing in particular struck us the very first time' we spent 
 a night under his roof It was that he had family wor- 
 ship at as early an hour in the evening as possible, in 
 order, as he explained to us, that the children might not 
 only be able to join in it, but that they might do so before 
 the period of weariness had arrived. The plan, as we have 
 always thought since, is well worthy imitation. In many 
 
IN HIS CLOSET. 11 
 
 families early evening worship is simply impossible. But 
 in many cases where it is possible, the arrangement 
 actually made is such that either the children are in bed 
 before the hour for service arrives, or are half-asleep 
 while the service is proceeding. We refer, however, to 
 Mr, Leitch's system chiefly to show how real and all- 
 pervading was his belief in the preciousness and power 
 of prayer. 
 
 It has been said that Mr. Goldie gleaned the utter- 
 ances quoted above from Mr. Leitch's ordinary diaries. 
 These diaries contain, scattered over them here and 
 there, a good many such outbreakings of the soul, seek- 
 ing relief for itself in lamentations for sin, and cries for 
 grace and deliverance. But, as a general rule, they do 
 not say much about spiritual exercises. Usually they are 
 very short, and note only the common incidents that were 
 happening to him or his household in the course of 
 their outward and everyday experience. It is only in 
 special circumstances that, in this connection, he reveals 
 his feelings at all. The Sabbath, for example, frequently 
 calls forth some word indicative of the working of his 
 mind ; or if even the Sabbath is sometimes allowed to 
 pass without particular notice, he seems seldom or never 
 to have been able to remain silent under the spiritual 
 pressure of an approaching communion season. We do 
 not think it necessary to go farther into this field than 
 Mr. Goldie has done, for he has given illustrations enough 
 of how, on this side, an earnest pastorate was carried on ; 
 but it will not, we hope, be regarded as superfluous if 
 we quote more entries — showing how a conscientious 
 gospel-minister feels on those days which the church has 
 wisely set apart at sacramental occasions for humiliation, 
 confession of sin, and prayer : — 
 
78 AN EA RNEST PASTOR A TE. 
 
 " Thursday, xdth June 1859. 
 
 " First day of this Communion season. — Lord, make 
 thyself known to the people as the God of grace. Bless 
 the minister to preach to-day ; qualify him for his work. 
 May the word of the truth of the gospel be accompanied 
 with power. May there be much experience of the power 
 of the truth. 
 
 " Lord, prosper my own soul. May the graces of 
 holiness prosper in my soul. 
 
 " Lord, forgive me. Hide thy face from my sin. 
 Blot out mine iniquities. Come to us graciously at this 
 time. Come to pardon ; come to quicken ; come to 
 strengthen. 
 
 " May we look upon Him whom we have pierced, 
 and mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, 
 and be in bitterness for Him as one that is in bitterness 
 for his first-born." 
 
 " Thursday, 1st December 1859. 
 
 " Communion Fast-day. — In the review of the past 
 may I be deeply humbled. Shortcomings — deficiencies 
 — failures — open acts of transgression — self-seeking — 
 keeping aloof from God — cherishing evil thoughts — little 
 true love — impure — defiled — not seeking the good of 
 the people — want of earnestness in the ministry — blind 
 to the Lord's deahngs with me in providence — want 
 of attention to the family — failing to attend to their 
 spiritual interests — not seeking their good. 
 
 " I commend to Thee the ministers who are to preach 
 to-day. Strengthen, direct, be very gracious unto them." 
 
 Such outpourings as these, although they had oc- 
 curred only very occasionally in an otherwise common- 
 place record of the day's doings, would, of course, have 
 
IN HIS CLOSET. 79 
 
 been enough to show what manner of man Mr. Leitch 
 was. But, knowing how habitually spiritually-minded he 
 was, we confess that we felt not a little surprise at first 
 when we glanced through his diaries and found com- 
 paratively so few references to Divine things. A further 
 examination of his papers, however, soon and most 
 satisfactorily reHeved us of all perplexity. Simultaneously 
 with his ordinary diary he was carrying on a very dif- 
 ferent kind of record — a record devoted exclusively to 
 the conmiunings of his soul with God. 
 
 We have by us now several entire books in which 
 there is nothing whatever but prayer — books, however, 
 in which the method pursued is so peculiar, that, before 
 quoting from them, we must say a word about their 
 nature and construction. In the first place, then, these 
 books are not of the class with which we are all familiars- 
 mere collections of pious meditations. There are pious 
 meditations in them. The writer, you can see, is often 
 thinking aloud ; and you can gather from what he utters 
 what is the actual state of his mind — his fears, his hopes, 
 his sorrows, his aspirations. But they diff"er from or- 
 dinary experimental compositions in this respect, that 
 the main object which their author has in view is some- 
 thing more than the mere furtherance of his own sancti- 
 fication. Hence we don't see the process of self-dissection 
 going on, nor are we enabled to follow with any minute- 
 ness the fluctuations, the ups and downs, the triumphs 
 and backthrows, of the individual Christian life. The 
 truth rather is, that the books are the gathered aspira- 
 tions of one who never for a moment forgot that he was 
 a pastor. We fancy the writer sitting daily down with a 
 blank page of this record before him, and asking him 
 self such questions as these — " What do I need this 
 
80 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 day % What do my people need ? What ought I to 
 pray for in view of such or such circumstances ?" These 
 inquiries will be often made by all earnest ministers. 
 But here was a peculiarity in the case of Mr. Leitch. — He 
 wrote the aspirations down. In the closet, before going 
 to the pulpit, he prayed the prayers for himself, and 
 having deliberately made up his own mind as to what it 
 was right and necessary to ask, he was able to spread 
 out his requests before the Lord, not in that blind hap- 
 hazard way which, we fear, is too common among us, 
 but with the precision and coUectedness of one who 
 knows what he is going to say, and fully understands the 
 terms of the petitions which he has taken it upon him to 
 present. 
 
 Let us not be misunderstood here. If we were to 
 say that Mr. Leitch prepared his prayers as well as his 
 sermons, there are some who would not think the better 
 of him on that account. They would immediately recall 
 to their recollection stories they had heard of ministers 
 who were so deficient at once in talent and spirituality 
 as to be afraid to trust themselves to the inspiration of 
 the moment. We do not stay to consider whether it is 
 altogether wise this tendency to suspect prayers that have 
 been carefully prepared beforehand. It is open to 
 question whether such prayers may not be more honour- 
 ing to God, and more profitable to congregations, than 
 incoherent utterances, which have nothing at all to recom- 
 mend them but that they are fresh from the speaker's 
 mind. In any case, however, we are not dealing at 
 present with a man who felt any intellectual or spiritual 
 necessity requiring him to write out this part of the 
 service. As has already been indicated, Mr. Leitch, if 
 he had any gift, had the gift of prayer; and hence no 
 
IN HIS CIO SET. 81 
 
 minister could with more reason have left himself to be 
 guided in his public supplications by the feelings and 
 thoughts which were suggested to him at the time. And 
 Mr. Leitch did not prepare his prayers in the ordinary 
 sense of the word. But just because prayer was in his 
 eyes so great an instrument, he sought to make more of 
 the instrument than many believed to be necessary. 
 These books of his contain no prayers cast into com- 
 pleted forms ; but they are full of materials for prayer, 
 and exhibit very much the kind and degree of prepa- 
 ration which it would be desirable to see becoming 
 general. For those churches in which liturgies are not 
 allowed, ought not to be shutting their eyes to the tend- 
 encies of events. The increasing wealth of the country 
 is bringing about changes of various kinds. Cultivation 
 and refinement are becoming more general. Slovenli- 
 ness in the performance of the services of the sanctuary 
 will be less and less tolerated. Men will come to bear 
 as impatiently an ill-considered prayer, as they now listen 
 to an undigested sermon. And even were there no higher 
 motive than this, it would be very well if ministers 
 were to reflect beforehand how they are to order their 
 speech at the footstool. That, however, is a very low 
 consideration, compared with that which presses always 
 — the consideration that our prayers are addressed to 
 God, and that, therefore, the words we use should be well 
 chosen. If this were more constantly realised, we 
 should certainly feel that (speaking in the most literal 
 way) a good part of ministerial preparation for the pulpit 
 ought to be made " in the closet." 
 
 Turning to the papers before us, here are such a 
 number of extracts as will sufficiently exhibit the nature 
 of Mr. Leitch's system in this connection : — 
 
 G 
 
82 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 1. Give us to experience Thy presence — not the 
 presence of superintendence merely — but the presence 
 of fellowship. 
 
 2. If we be not the death of our lusts, our lusts will 
 be the death of our souls. That which we are willing 
 should tempt us, we shall find will vex us. 
 
 3. The people are gathered together ; oh! give them 
 water, 
 
 4. Oh ! we thank Thee, that death is gain to the 
 believer ; that it is gain as putting a final termination to 
 all sorrow and trial ; as perfecting holiness in Him ; that 
 it is gain in respect of increase of knowledge, increase 
 of felicity ; that it is gain as uniting to an innumerable 
 company of angels, and the "general assembly and 
 church of the first-born, who are written in heaven." 
 
 5. Arise (Ps. cii. 13) — arise in Thy power — in Thy 
 love — in Thy mercy. Arise not in judgment. Arise 
 now. It is time for Thee to arise. Thou shalt arise. 
 We believe that Thou wilt arise. Thou hast arisen. It 
 will be for Thy glory — the glory of Thy grace, of Thy 
 faithfulness. Christ will see of the travail of His soul. 
 Arise to convert the people — to deliver the people — to 
 establish the reign of righteousness — to accomplish 
 a spiritual creation. Let this be the time to favour 
 Zion. Let not the time be postponed. Have respect 
 unto the prayers of Thy people. 
 
 6. (April 1868.) — It was never so seen in Israel — in 
 Stirling — in this place ; such seriousness, such love, such 
 zeal, such melting of heart. 
 
 7. May I rise each morning with an active and 
 steady purpose to do something for God. 
 
 8. May this be indeed Sii/i-ddij to all of us. 
 
 g. Let there be growing seriousness among the 
 
IN HIS CIO SET. 83 
 
 people witnessed — deepening interest in religion felt — 
 intenser earnestness — fresh light given to Thy people. 
 May I preach with greater point and power, with more 
 fervour and earnestness, more faith, more expectation. 
 
 10. Thou hearest prayer — We bless Thee that Thou 
 dost — bless Thee for experience of this which we have 
 had, and for the experience which the Church has had of 
 it in all ages. Save us from asking amiss — as to matter 
 — as to manner — as to motive ; may our asking be 
 beheving asking ; may it be earnest, continued, united, 
 successful. 
 
 11. May the Bread which we have brought to feed 
 the people to-day be made Living Bread. As we break 
 it, let it be multiplied to them. May the water which 
 we have to-day brought to them to drink, prove living 
 water. Yea, turn the water into wine. 
 
 1 2. May the river of my existence flow evermore in 
 the channel of Thy Will. 
 
 13. Sabbath. — Bless Thee for the calm of the Sab- 
 bath — so sweet, so delightful. Make us to experience 
 and to rejoice in the spiritual brightness of this day — a 
 day so bright in promises, so bright in associations — the 
 richest fruit this world yields, and the bud of still richer 
 and more precious fruit to be produced in the world to 
 come. 
 
 14. Whilst we spread the net of Thy love — the net 
 of gospel truth — may souls not a few be enclosed 
 therein. Help me to make it my aim to convert fellow- 
 men. May I " occupy myself" at this work. 
 
 15. May our closets be very dear to us. May we 
 enter into our closets, enter them eagerly. May we 
 enter them frequently — in the morning — in the evening 
 — as often during the day as we have opportunity. 
 
84 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 Times of entrance ; manner of entrance ; purpose of 
 entrance. 
 
 1 6. Deliver us from all unbelieving fears relative to 
 the fulfilment of Thine own promises or as to Thy grace 
 being sufficient for us in respect of any duty or service 
 to which we are called. Deliver us from all unbeliev- 
 ing fears in respect of present suffering, or suffer- 
 ing in future days, as to the issue of it, or ability to 
 bear it. 
 
 17. O Jesus! we bless Thee that sayest to us — let 
 all thy wants lie upon Me. Let us not make ourselves 
 strange unto Thee. 
 
 18. In Thy mercy, slay our foes, slay our lusts, our 
 corruptions, evil dispositions, vain thoughts, unbelief, 
 pride. 
 
 19. Remember young people not walking in the 
 ways of their pious parents, young people from home, 
 or going from home. May they be effectually dealt 
 with by Thy Holy Spirit. 
 
 20. Keep back souls from the pit. 
 
 Lord ! Thou seest people going towards the pit. 
 Deliver from going into it. 
 
 21. Ho7ne Missiofis. — Lord, employ this instru- 
 mentality ; by means of it awaken and diffuse an interest 
 in religion. For good done by it we thank Thee ; for 
 souls converted, edified, or any way benefited. May 
 the operations of this scheme be extended and main- 
 tained in vigour. May the Church at large take a deep 
 interest in it, and show much liberality in its support. 
 
 22. Triumph gloriously this day. Get thee a name 
 this day — a name for compassion, for power. Get thee 
 a Name — a Saviour. Let no soul be hid from the heat 
 or heht of the Sun of Righteousness. 
 
IN HIS CLOSET. ' 85 
 
 23. Let these Scriptures be verified this day among 
 us : "A people whicli I knew not shall serve me " — 
 " Strangers shall submit themselves unto me " — " As 
 soon as they hear, they shall be obedient unto me." 
 
 24. Enable us to distinguish between the precious 
 and the vile — precious and vile as to persons, as to senti- 
 ment, as to practice, as to speech, as to desires, as to 
 principles, as to motives. 
 
 25. May afflictions convince of sin, humble the 
 soul, wean from the world, make serious, teach to pray, 
 turn from iniquity. 
 
 26. We praise Thee for the sweet Psalms, that they 
 are so sweet in their references to Christ, in descriptive 
 experience, in the views of God they set before us. 
 
 27. Keep me from wasting Sabbath time. Let it 
 be impressed on my mind that Sabbath time is peculiarly 
 precious. 
 
 28. May we have a right state of mind in regard to 
 those who have treated us injuriously. 
 
 29. O eternal Son of God ! help us to admire 
 Thy condescension and love in submitting for us to be 
 mocked and insulted, to have that crown of thorns 
 which they platted put upon Thy sacred head, and to be 
 spit upon ! 
 
 30. Show vie a toketi for good. Tokens for good, 
 what might they be % Delight in the Word — desire to 
 obtain good — prayerfulness — thoughtfulness about 
 spiritual things — convictions of sin — disposition to 
 wait on the ordinances of religion. 
 
 3 1 . The hour is come that the Son of Man should 
 be glorified. May this be that hour. Thou who art 
 both Son of God and Son of Man, be glorified this day 
 among us. Great Immanuel ! let there not be occa- 
 
86 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 sion to say — " Who hath beheved our report, and to 
 whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed 1" 
 
 32. Give us a feeHng of humihation that we have 
 done so Httle in a cause that demands so much. 
 
 ■^■^. May we perceive a "religious meaning" in the 
 events of life, and in all the objects about us. May we 
 make a religious use of them all. 
 
 34. Thou God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of 
 Jacob, — the God of our Fathers ! glorify thy Son 
 Jesus ! Stretch forth Thy hand to heal — let signs and 
 wonders be done by the name of thy Holy Child Jesus. 
 
 35. "For God is with us." O God, be with us 
 during this communion season ; be with us on each day 
 of it ; be with us as the God of grace — as the God of 
 salvation ; grant us more grace, and further experience 
 of thy salvation. 
 
 36. Careless families do Thou reclaim — may parents 
 give an example to their children of reverencing God's 
 sanctuary, of hallowing God's Sabbath, of attending on 
 divine ordinances. Spare us the pain of having to deal 
 with careless families. 
 
 We have no doubt that many of these ejaculatory 
 petitions were used by Mr. Leitch in the public prayers 
 which he offered in his congregation, and we have as 
 little doubt that these were frequently written down 
 beforehand by himself, for the purpose of being so 
 used. But their broken and fragmentary style suffi- 
 ciently shows that in no case was it his aim to provide 
 himself simply with set forms or " Collects," and that in 
 fact what he did contemplate was just the opening out 
 of so many channels through which his thoughts might 
 properly and profitably flow. It often happens, indeed, 
 
IN HIS CLOSET. 
 
 87 
 
 that he altogether loses sight of the public purpose to 
 which so much of the book is devoted, and we have 
 only his own quiet musings upon his Scripture readings, 
 the events which were daily happening in his social 
 circle or in the world. Yet even then it is always 
 assumed that God is a listener, and those passages 
 which look most like soliloquies are uttered under an 
 evident consciousness of the Divine presence. On the 
 whole, these papers have impressed us greatly, as re- 
 vealing to us more distinctly the nature of the springs at 
 which this good man sought habitually to refresh his 
 spirit, and as suggesting a ministerial " method " which it 
 misfht be worth while to imitate. 
 
CHAPTER SIXTH. 
 
 OVER HIS OWN HOUSE. 
 
 Significance of the Home Life of a Public Man — A Minister's 
 Family — Testimony to Mr. Leitch — Sons out in the World — 
 An unprecedented Correspondence — Fatherly Counsels — 
 Extracts from Letters. 
 
 A BISHOP, we are told, must be " one that nileth well 
 his own house, having his children in subjection with all 
 gravity ; for if a man know not how to rule his own house, 
 how shall he take care of the church of God V What 
 the subject of it, then, was to his family is not a ques- 
 tion which is at all irrelevant, when we are telling the 
 story of an Earnest Pastorate. On the contrary, we 
 have this feeling very deeply, that just as we very pro- 
 perly tend to suspect that there is something hollow 
 about a ministry which is influential abroad, but nearly 
 ineffective at home ; so it is quite natural to be more 
 fully persuaded of the sincerity and real value of a 
 ministry, when you see it telling upon those who come 
 close to it within the family circle, as well as upon those 
 whom it touches in what we may call a more strictly 
 professional way. 
 
 It is but too true, indeed, that grace is not necessarily 
 hereditary, and it is also important to bear in mind that 
 there are men whom God in His providence calls forth 
 so manifestly into public life, that it is simply impossible 
 for them to give the attention which others do to their 
 
VER HIS WN HO USE. 89 
 
 more private or domestic interests. We must be very 
 slow to judge, therefore, in particular instances. The 
 child of a well-cared-for household may disappoint all 
 reasonable hopes and turn out a prodigal ; and if the sons 
 of busy men, whose duty calls them much from home, 
 give sometimes after-proofs of manifest want of training, 
 it may be right to attribute that result, not to the fault 
 so much as to the misfortune of the parents. At the 
 same time, it is a just instinct which leads the world to 
 draw general conclusions. If home is not made attrac- 
 tive to children — if the atmosphere is not pure and 
 genial and sweet, and when the younger members go 
 out in life you see not only no centripetal force tending 
 to draw their hearts back to the old rooftree, but a dis- 
 position to choose new ways, and new principles, and 
 new connections, you cannot wonder if onlookers should 
 say that there must have been something amiss to begin 
 with in the parents themselves. On the other hand, if, 
 wherever a young man goes, he carries a pleasant 
 remembrance of home along with him, if the tie of filial 
 affection is strengthened instead of being weakened by 
 time and distance, and if he is seen, not flying after 
 novelties, but solidly and steadily cleaving to the old 
 ways in which he was brought up — then you cannot be 
 far wrong in inferring that here is a family certificate. 
 Depend upon it there was a pleasant fountain to send 
 forth so wholesome a stream. 
 
 These general conclusions, we repeat, are in them- 
 selves just and natural, and nobody need be surprised 
 if the principle in them is especially applied to ministers. 
 We must all heartily sympathise with those who incline to 
 stand in doubt of a man who is very loud in his professions 
 of zeal and orthodoxy, but whose family circle cannot bear 
 
90 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 inspection, and we must allow that those have a good deal 
 to say for their position who affirm that he, on the con- 
 trary, cannot be very far from the centre, who, though 
 he does not conform altogether to our standard, is yet 
 able to exhibit the spectacle of a loving Christian home, 
 and of sons and daughters growing up in the fear of God 
 and the love of the Gospel. 
 
 At any rate, it is something to be able to say of the 
 subject of this biography, that as he could well bear to 
 be looked at " in his closet," so he could well bear to be 
 looked at as " ruler over his own house." His was not 
 a mere professional religion — a religion which concerned 
 itself about the pulpit, and church-courts, and pastoral 
 visitation, but which was cast off on 'crossing the threshold 
 of his own door. What he professed to be outside he 
 saw within, and certainly his people on the Sabbath 
 would not have listened to him with a less assured con-" 
 viction that he profoundly believed all that he said to 
 to them, if they had overheard his communings with 
 God and his conversations with his children. ' 
 
 This sketch of his life is in effect a filial tribute to 
 his memory. His sons have, by a stedfast adherence to 
 those principles which he instilled into them, already 
 attained to positions of trust, and they loyally desire to 
 preserve a distinct recollection of one to whose counsels 
 they owe so much. These facts constitute in themselves 
 a testimony to this side of Mr. Leitch's character. But 
 what he was as the head of a household will be best seen 
 in the light of a particular illustration. 
 
 It has happened to not a few Christian parents that 
 they have been obliged to send their children from home 
 at a very early period of their lives. Many of these 
 have necessarily been located in large towns, and been 
 
OVER HIS OWN HOUSE. 91 
 
 exposed to such temptations as usually attend young 
 men from the country, living, with few acquaintances, in 
 solitary lodgings. Everywhere, therefore, there will be per- 
 sons who will fully understand the nature of Mr. Leitch's 
 anxiety when sons began to leave his home-circle to 
 engage in business in distant cities. What fathers in 
 such circumstances are most in the habit of doing we do 
 not know. One, no doubt, will try one plan, another 
 another. But we venture to think that not a great num- 
 ber will be able to say for themselves what can be said 
 for Mr. Leitch — viz. that in the case of a son of his who 
 went early to London, he wrote to him eveiy day without in- 
 tennission for seven or eight years, his own death alone 
 interrupting the correspondence. If this is not an abso- 
 lutely unparalleled incident, it is an incident the like of 
 which has occurred so seldom that we have never met any- 
 thing resembling it in any biography which has crossed 
 our path. A mother's patient and persevering love may 
 have occasionally found expression in such like unwearied 
 watching, but one certainly does not look for oversight 
 so assiduous and tender in the sterner nature of a man. 
 The young man had no mother, and it was evidently the 
 father's wish to be mother and father in one. 
 
 A sheaf of the letters, written under these circum- 
 stances, now lies beside us, and, in looking through 
 them, we have found their contents to be just such 
 as one might have expected. They are of course short, 
 but no space is wasted in superfluous introductions. 
 Whatever is meant to be communicated is said out 
 at once, in plain, and loving and familiar language ; and 
 in fact the whole series reads hke so many broken 
 sentences in a continuous conversation. It seems evi- 
 dent, indeed, that to realise that was the writer's distinct 
 
92 AN EARNEST PA S TOR A TE. 
 
 intention. He wished to make his son feel that he was 
 linked to home as closely as ever, that he was still 
 under a father's eye, and within hearing of a father's 
 voice ; and the talk that went on so ceaselessly during 
 all these years between Stirling and London was just 
 such talk as would have taken place had there been no 
 separation. The incidents that were happening around 
 of family or local interest — the sermons that were preached, 
 and the prayer-meeting addresses that were delivered — 
 the new books that were read, and the subjects dis- 
 cussed in newspaper leaders, or articles in reviews — 
 church politics — young men's temptations, trials, and 
 encouragements ; these were the sort of topics which 
 furnished unfailing material for this daily correspondence 
 between father and son. And we are bound to add 
 that throughout it exhibits no tendency to degenerate 
 into mere unprofitable gossip. One worthy purpose 
 sustains the correspondence throughout — to form, in all 
 respects, good habits in the person addressed — to in- 
 crease his knowledge — to stimulate his powers of obser- 
 vation — to strengthen his religious principles, and to 
 make him a useful member of the church and of 
 society, and a fellow-heir with himself of eternal life. 
 
 The following are some extracts from these letters. 
 They are not taken in any order from the series, but just as 
 they happen to turn up as we glance through the mass : — 
 
 I. "I have been reading this evening an account of the 
 late Rev. Alexander M'Callum, missionary at Madras, and 
 have been much impressed with the singular excellence 
 of his character. I greatly wish mine was anything like 
 it. He is described as one, pure and elevated in his 
 motives, honest in all his doings, laborious and self- 
 
OVER HIS OWN HOUSE. 93 
 
 denying in his labours, generous and kind to all around 
 him. One expression of his I like greatly — viz. ' Firm 
 in Jesus.' Oh! to be firm in Jesus — then we are truly 
 safe. One says that ' the leading features in Mr. 
 M'Callum's character were great simplicity, integrity, 
 love, and unfeigned faith in the Lord Jesus.' It is 
 added that ' he scorned all that was mean and deceitful, 
 and that he was singularly open, manly, and true in all 
 his ways.' It was in June 1862 that this good man 
 died. Previous to his going to India he was missionary 
 to the late Dr. Tweedie's congregation, Edinburgh, and 
 while thus employed, he wrote to a friend saying, ' I go 
 to my work, I am sure, as joyously as the Australians to 
 the diggings. I like my Master, and I like my work.' " 
 
 2. " There is something affecting in the Mtvithly 
 Visitor for this month. There is one point in which the 
 narrative it contains fails in application to you, and that 
 is the ' Mother ' part of it. You have not a mother's 
 image imprinted on your mind. You have no hallowed 
 recollections of a mother, or of a mother's counsels and 
 sympathies to cheer you amidst difficulties, and to con- 
 firm you in right acting. The Lord has been pleased 
 thus to order it. Still you will always have home recol- 
 lections, recollections of home lessons, home counsels, 
 and home training ; and these, I trust, will powerfully 
 contribute, along with other favouring influences, to keep 
 you always on the proper side of the line which divides 
 sin and holiness, truth and error, right and wrong. I 
 suppose the railway accident alluded to in the tract is 
 that which occurred two or three years ago, on a Lord's 
 Day, between London and Brighton. 
 
 " The lesson taught in the tract relative to the Sab- 
 bath is an important one. 
 
94 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 " We are specially to remember this, that the Sabbath 
 is not an obnoxious tax the Lord has imposed upon us, 
 but an immense boon which he has conferred upon us." 
 
 3. "You mingle, I see, a good deal with others. 
 Have a care of your words, your temper, and your acts. 
 The Keeper of Israel keep you." 
 
 4. "I suppose there would be a good deal of com- 
 motion in London yesterday on account of Palmerston's 
 funeral. 
 
 " Is it not strange that the Queen would decline to 
 travel yesterday, from respect to the late Premier, 
 and travel on Sabbath, to-morrow ; thereby, apparently, 
 showing more respect to him than to the Lord and His 
 day % " 
 
 5. "I was told yesterday that Mr. Matheson, paro- 
 chial minister, Kippen, when ascending the pulpit stair 
 last Sabbath morning, of his own church, was struck by 
 some illness which caused immediate death. 
 
 " An awful dispensation of Providence, teaching 
 most solemn and important lessons. ]\Iany are the 
 ministers whom God might justly arrest as they are 
 about to enter the pulpit, and say. What have you to 
 do to enter that holy place 1 You have no call from 
 me to occupy it. You have hitherto been profaning it." 
 
 6. " ' Justifieth the ungodly ' is a strange, and an 
 apparently inconsistent expression. It is true, however, 
 the ungodly are justified ; the ground of justification 
 being a righteousness imputed. That is a distinctive 
 and glorious truth of the Gospel." 
 
 7. "I have so little to do with Good-Friday that I 
 was not thinking of it till your note brought it to my 
 mind, and I have just looked into the almanac to ascer- 
 tain when it is. I find that to-morrow is the day. 
 
OVER HIS OWN HOUSE. 95 
 
 Well, I hope it will be a Good-Friday to you — good in 
 all respects, good as to mind, as to body, good as to 
 weather." 
 
 8. " The Earl of Aberdeen died yesterday. He was 
 only in his forty-eighth year. It is only a few years since 
 his father died. The father was a leading statesman in 
 his day. He could have prevented the Disruption of 
 the Scottish Church. Dr. Chalmers carried on a long 
 correspondence with him on the subject. But the Earl 
 allowed himself to be influenced in his action in the 
 matter by the chiefs of the party known by the designa- 
 tion 'Moderates,' — Moderates not in a good sense, 
 but the opposite ; for they are those described in Scrip- 
 ture as ' at ease in Zion,' who base justification on 
 personal righteousness, and not on Christ's, and who 
 reduce sanctification to respectability of character, with 
 a modicum of benevolence. The Earl who died yester- 
 day has, for a number of years past, been a thoughtful, 
 serious, religious man. May the hand of God be always 
 upon you for good." 
 
 9. " I recollected that this was your Communion 
 Sabbath. May you find Sacramental bread and wine 
 to be indeed fellowship with the Lord Jesus." 
 
 I o. " The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the 
 communion of the blood of Christ ? The bread which 
 we break, is it not the communion of the body of 
 Christ ? I wish you understood the passage. It is an 
 important one. Generally, it expresses the idea that 
 the right-minded communicant, in partaking of the Holy 
 Supper, holds communion with Christ, in respect of 
 Christ's sufferings and death, and in all the good which 
 Christ by His obedience unto death has obtained. The 
 believer may say, Christ's death is regarded as mine; the 
 
96 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 blessings, of which that death was the purchase, are 
 mine. 
 
 "The sacrament helps to the realisation of this 
 blessed communion. 
 
 " The fulness of the realisation of this communion 
 constitutes heaven. Next Sabbath is the Communion 
 Sabbath here. Remember to pray for us, that God 
 would largely bless us by the communication of His 
 Spirit." 
 
 11. " Mr. Blaikie, a Free Church minister in Edin- 
 burgh, delivered last night a lecture there, to young 
 men, an abstract of which I have been reading this 
 morning with much pleasure. His subject was, ' The 
 importance of T^jfr^/ principles and high aims for young 
 men.' Among such principles he mentioned particularly 
 the following, viz. — The will of God must always be 
 regarded as supreme, never doing that which will have 
 to be repented of; regarding this present life mainly as a 
 great training-school for the soul, the mind, the whole 
 inner being ; the value of labour, the benefit of self- 
 denial, and kindred virtues ; the advantage of looking at 
 the future more than at the present. 
 
 " Adverting to the passage (Tit. ii. 6), ' young men 
 exhort to be sober-minded,' Mr. Blaikie remarked that 
 the word ' sober-minded,' in the original Greek, cor- 
 responded with the words, self-government, self-control, 
 self-restraint." 
 
 12. "I wish that you were in circumstances to have 
 a house of your own to which [his sister] could go — 
 Patience ! and this may be — work on ; do present duty 
 well — acquire a good character for yourself It is after 
 many days of diversified and hard labour, that the hus- 
 bandman reaps his harvest. Control your wishes and 
 
O VER HIS WN HO USE. 97 
 
 desires. Reason and Religion must rule, and rule 
 firmly. Wishes, and anticipations, and feelings, must 
 obey. Direfial results take place, when these succeed 
 in getting possession of the throne. ' Thou,' i.e. the 
 Lord, 'hast a mighty arm.' The Lord will be our 
 strength." 
 
 13. " When you get an article of clothing, you should 
 pay it at the time. It is easy to get things, unpaid for 
 at the time — the ease with which they are got is a snare ; 
 but the day of reckoning comes at last, and there is ex- 
 perienced the mortification of having to pay, it may be 
 with difficulty, for an article now far gone in the wearing. 
 For myself, I have no pleasure in using what is unpaid. 
 I always fancy I hear it chiding me, saying, You are 
 using what is not yours, it is another's. My principle 
 through life has been to pay at the time what was pur- 
 chased, and the circumstance of its being really my 
 own out and out, greatly increased my comfort in the 
 use of it. The pen of inspiration has written the direc- 
 tion, ' Owe no man anything.' " 
 
 14. "Study the best forms of expression; yet the 
 extreme of finical and pedantic niceness is to be 
 avoided. 
 
 " Wisdom [in this too] is profitable to direct." 
 
 15. "I could not but notice in reading at household 
 worship this morning, in regard to the barren fig-tree 
 (Matt. 21), that after the Lord said, ' Let no fruit grow on 
 thee henceforward for ever,' presently the fig-tree withered 
 away. May we be kept from the withering influence 
 of divine judgment." 
 
 16. " Have you considered the import of the decla- 
 ration of the Saviour, read at worship here this morning 
 (John iii. 3), ' Except a man be born again, he cannot 
 
 H 
 
98 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 see the Kingdom of God f The statement is clear and 
 unambiguous. The great spiritual change to which it 
 refers must be undergone in order to one's entering 
 into the Kingdom of God, even as it exists on earth. 
 The change is no slight one. It is deep, thorough, 
 influential, and abiding — a change which human power 
 cannot produce — a change, which, by whomsoever felt, is 
 effected by the Divine Spirit. 
 
 " It should concern us greatly to know whether that 
 change has been experienced by us." 
 
 17. " Very dear Robert — I have been recollecting 
 that this is your communion Sabbath. It has been a day 
 of storm here. I hope that it has been otherwise with 
 you, and that the weather has not interfered with your 
 comfort and edification. I hope also, that the Lord's 
 table has proved a meeting-place between Him and your 
 soul. 
 
 " A tremendous blast blew here just when the people 
 were leaving church in the afternoon. The lecture 
 was on Psalm Ixxxvi. 11, 12, 13 verses. The passage 
 supplies much matter for meditation. ' Teach me thy 
 way, O Lord ; I will walk in thy truth ; unite my heart 
 to fear thy name.' Unite — sin divided the powers of 
 the heart. The prayer is. Let them be united in the 
 fear or reverence of God. Let these powers converge in 
 this. 
 
 " We should have a holy dread of the Lord. His 
 greatness, His supremacy. His holiness, and even His 
 goodness should inspire us, with this blessed fear. 
 Unite my heart, then, to fear thy name. Fear of God, 
 not exclusive of love, is the right condition of heart. 
 May we reahse it." 
 
 18. "The first day of October; well, only one 
 
VER HIS WN HO USE. 99 
 
 quarter of the year now remains, let us redeem the 
 time. Let us turn it to the best account. It is not 
 a thing to be lost, even a lost day is a serious matter. 
 It is a loss through eternity, even though we obtain 
 a place in heaven. We will not have such a large 
 amount of happiness there as we would have had, 
 had the day not been lost." 
 
 ■ ig. "It is an affecting question. I came to it 
 in reading this morning (Zech. i. 5) — Your fathers, 
 where are they ? And the prophets, do they live for 
 ever % They are gone, into the unseen world ; and 
 we are following. God of our fathers ! be the God 
 of their succeeding race." 
 
 20. "Will you have the kindness to say to John 
 that Professor Binnie called yesterday here (I was not 
 within at the time), and left the second volume of Heng- 
 stenberg on John's Gospel. John's kindness, to me at 
 least, is in excess. I don't wish him to be at expense 
 on my account, though I feel grateful to him for his 
 kindly disposition towards me. The maintenance of his 
 family must be getting annually more costly, and he has 
 church and other claims, not a few, to meet. I am per- 
 fectly satisfied with manifestations of his kindness in 
 inexpensive forms. Some of the most valuable books 
 in my possession are gifts from J. The one you 
 spoke of as forwarded in Mr. Henderson's parcel has 
 not yet come to hand." 
 
 21. "I fell in with a passage of Scripture last night, 
 which Dr. Chalmers frequently quotes as containing a 
 guiding principle — ' The secret things belong unto the 
 Lord our God : but those things which are revealed be- 
 long unto us and to our children ' (Deut. xxix. 29). 
 There is a tendency in us to pry into, and speculate on, 
 
100 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 things as to which the Lord has given us no informa- 
 tion, and on which human reason can throw no hght ; 
 while what is revealed is not used and improved by us 
 so much as it ought. It is surely the most unprofitable 
 employment to which we can betake ourselves, to en- 
 deavour to find out the unrevealed, and what was 
 designed should continue unknown to us in our present 
 condition." 
 
 2 2. " Our Lord, speaking of His kingdom, says 
 (Luke xiii.), ' Many will seek to enter in, and shall not be 
 able.' And why are they not able to enter in % Because 
 they are under mistake in regard to the manner of 
 entrance. But the fact that many seek to enter in, and 
 are not able, should make us all the more anxious to 
 secure for ourselves, and to enjoy, eternal life. May we 
 be among the saved." 
 
 23. " The following remarks of Scott the commen- 
 tator, on the case of Achan (Josh, vii.) are excellent and 
 most just : — ' We must repress the first movings of evil 
 desire, and pray earnestly not to be led into temptation. 
 We must habituate ourselves to meditate on the future 
 consequences of sinful gratifications to our characters, 
 families, connections, and temporal interests ; to our 
 conscience, peace, and eternal concerns ; to the Church 
 of God, and the world around us ; and to place our- 
 selves, by an effort of the imagination, in those very cir- 
 cumstances in which we should be were the sin com- 
 mitted, and the infatuation vanished ; and to consider 
 what our judgment and feelings in that case would be. 
 We should also treat all expectations of secrecy and 
 impunity as the delusions of Satan. We should also 
 accustom ourselves to self-denial and patient waiting ; 
 for the blessings that God reserves for his people are 
 
O VER HIS O WN HO USE. 101 
 
 like fruit, which will be wholesome when it has had time 
 to ripen, but will certainly be noxious if greedily and 
 prematurely gathered.' 
 
 " These are words of wisdom. To ponder them 
 must be profitable." 
 
 24. "I have read the article in the current number 
 of The British and Foreign Evangelical Review, on His- 
 toriography, with considerable interest. There is a 
 difference between history and historiography, the latter 
 word referring more particularly to the mode in which 
 history is written. The author of the article speaks of 
 the chronicle mode — or the bare statement of facts — the 
 annalistic mode, the pragmatic, and the philosophical. 
 Discussion has been raised on the point whether history- 
 writing be an art or a science. The writer of the article 
 says that, in his opinion, it partakes more of a science 
 than of an art. Have you read the article ?" 
 
 25. " I have been reading Henry's Commentary this 
 evening. He is fond of introducing some Latin pro- 
 verbial expressions — and this he does very deftly and 
 appropriately. In regard to Abimelech's death (Judges 
 ix.), Henry very pithily says — qualis vita, finis ita. The 
 termination of life is of a piece with the character of life 
 itself As one lives, so, usually at least, he dies. Qualis 
 vita, finis ita. Let us Hve well, and we will die well. 
 To me to live is Christ, to me to die is gain. One Gaal 
 is spoken of in that same chapter, but he is not again 
 mentioned in the subsequent history of Israel^, and 
 Henry somewhat ludicrously closes his remarks on him 
 by saying — exit Gaal. Gaal now goes off the stage. 
 Gaal disappears, and does not re-appear. This, alas ! 
 will be true of each of us ere long in respect of the stage 
 of life. Let us act our part well whilst we are on it, 
 
102 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 until the ' exit ' come. ' As obedient children, not 
 fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in 
 your ignorance ; but as he who hath called you is holy, 
 so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.' " 
 
 26. "How have you got on to-day? got on, in the 
 spending of the blessed, precious Sabbath 1 
 
 " What spiritual thoughts have occupied your mind ? 
 What have been your impressions and desires 1 What 
 the results of the exercises in which you have been 
 engaged 1 What books have you been reading 1 Have 
 you got new views on any religious topic 1 or former 
 views enlarged or corrected ? 
 
 " Have you been able to speak wisely, affectionately, 
 and intelligibly to the children of your class? Did you 
 succeed in arresting their attention, and interesting them 
 in the truth in regard to which you spoke to them ? " 
 
 27. " Denny and Mr. Dempster are intimately con- 
 nected in my mind. He was for a long period minister 
 there. He was as spiritually-minded as any person ever 
 I knew. However short the time might be you were in 
 his company, you felt yourself in the presence of a holy 
 man. I often felt myself quickened both by his preach- 
 ing and his conversation. 
 
 " He was withal a polite man, and he liked to see 
 politeness in others ; and who does not like to see this ? 
 Good breeding and polished manners are, I should sup- 
 pose, agreeable to every one. The gospel is a great 
 polisher of the mind and the conduct, though its main 
 design is to save and to restore to men the lost image of 
 God." 
 
 28. " Have you looked into the new number of the 
 British and Foreign ? The first article is on Strauss, 
 Schleiermacher, and Renan. Three heretics — Schleier- 
 
O VER HIS O WN HO USE. 103 
 
 macher not so great as the other two. Each has acquired 
 great notoriety. 
 
 " The article on Bushnell gives a very good account 
 of his recent work on ' Vicarious Sacrifice.' Bushnell is 
 also a heretic, inasmuch as he does not hold the doc- 
 trine of atonement, at least in the orthodox sense of that 
 term. 
 
 " Bushnell's sentiments on vicarious sacrifice are 
 exceedingly absurd and wild. 
 
 " The atonement is the grand outstanding doctrine 
 of the gospel. If satisfaction has not been made to 
 justice for our sin, we are for ever undone. We are 
 utterly hopeless. Apart from the atonement, there is no 
 ground on which we can find acceptance with God. 
 But Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. 
 He suffered, the just for the unjust. Bushnell's compo- 
 sition is, it seems, very attractive. This makes his 
 publications all the more dangerous. 
 
 ' Hold up my goings, Lord, me guide 
 In those Thy paths divine ; 
 So that my footsteps may not slide 
 Out of those ways of Thine.' " 
 
 29. "You ought to be now saving money. Emer- 
 gencies may be expected to arise in the course of pro- 
 vidence requiring you to fall back on a reserved fund. 
 And when they do so, it is sad when nothing has been 
 provided to meet them. Borrowing makes the evil 
 worse, and to beg, though not so bad as borrowing, is 
 somewhat humiliating. It was once a common thing 
 in this country among poor people, not so common, I 
 fear, now as formerly, to lay aside, and regard as sacred 
 and inviolable, as much money as would secure them a 
 decent interment. 
 
104 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 " Many now are satisfied with the prospect of being 
 interred at the expense of the Parochial Board. 
 
 " Life on earth is a noble thing. The great purpose 
 of it should be kept in view, and it should be our con- 
 stant aim to fulfil it. Let us realise, as vividly as we 
 can, our relationship to God and to Christ Jesus." 
 
 30. " Scott, the commentator, says, ' May the Lord 
 teach us to repress all our earthly desires, to govern our 
 appetites, to acknowledge candidly our mistakes, and 
 completely to rectify them when discovered ; and to be 
 gentle and tender to others, and only severe against 
 our own sins.' 
 
 " So I pray for you ; so likewise I pray for myself. 
 " Enoch had this testimony (Heb. xi. 5), that he 
 pleased God. 
 
 " May we make it our constant aim to please God." 
 
 31. "Neatness in writing — indeed, neatness in all 
 things — is desirable. Neatness pleases the eye, while 
 the want of it is disagreeable to the sight." 
 
 3 2. " The first letter of this year which I write, I 
 write to you. This, however, is not the result of any 
 special intention or arrangement. It is a merely 
 accidental circumstance. But it is just as well that it 
 is so. You have entered on the great battle of life, and 
 are fighting your way through the world, and need a 
 word of encouragement from your friends, and specially 
 from your father, who, at least, should be the most 
 loving to you of these. 
 
 " I would like you to fight your battle better than 
 I have fought mine, to fight it with more skill, and 
 also with more success. 
 
 " It is of vast importance to have a proper idea of 
 what the battle is, and, of course, how it is to be fought. 
 
O VER HIS O WN HO USE. 105 
 
 To find one's-self in the heat of conflict without correct 
 notions of these points is a terrible evil. 
 
 " It is, moreover, a great evil to fight this battle 
 irregularly ; the mode of procedure should be determined 
 upon, and adhered to as far as circumstances will permit. 
 
 " One great means of getting on satisfactorily, is, 
 realising the Lord's gracious presence, and committing 
 our way unto Him continually, seeking His guidance 
 and blessing." 
 
 2,Z- " The thaw is very agreeable after such a 
 lengthened period of frost and snow. 
 
 "We speak of the weather, without adverting to 
 Him by whom it is produced and regulated — in whose 
 power, it wholly is. Elihu asks (Job xxxvii. i6), Dost 
 thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous 
 works of Him who is perfect in knowledge % How are 
 thy garments warm, when He quieteth the earth by the 
 south wind ? " 
 
 34. "I have been reading the article in the current 
 number of the British and Foreign Evangelical Review, 
 on ' human responsibility as related to divine agency in 
 conversion.' It is racy and forcible ; indeed, I felt it to 
 be very impressive ; but the language employed as to 
 human moral ability, seemed to me vague. I have 
 no doubt the author is orthodox, but the language 
 employed may be interpreted in a sense not orthodox, 
 in a sense different from Rom. viii. 7. The carnal 
 mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
 can be. 
 
 " Have you perused the article % It engaged my 
 attention very much, especially that part of it which 
 refers to human responsibility, a subject of momentous 
 importance to each of us." 
 
106 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 35. "The text yesterday afternoon was Acts xx. 
 32 — 'And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and 
 to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, 
 and to give you an inheritance among all them which 
 are sanctified.' 
 
 " The words occur in an address by Paul to the 
 elders of the Ephesian Church, whom he met, at his 
 own request, at Miletus, on one of his journeys to 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 " The mention of the words at this time reminds me 
 of my duty and privilege to commend you, as I now do, 
 to God, to His protection and guidance. I commend 
 you to Him, in whom all fulness dwells. I commend 
 you to Him as the God of salvation, entreating that He 
 may bless you with all blessings, temporal and spiritual. 
 Further, I commend you to the word of His grace, 
 which is able to build you up, and to give you an 
 inheritance among all them that are sanctified. 
 
 " The word of God's grace is the Bible. Sanctifica- 
 tion is the grand qualification for the heavenly inherit- 
 ance, as the vicarious righteousness of Christ is the 
 only title." 
 
 36. "Wliat a precious blessed day is the Sabbath. 
 When it comes, well may we exclaim, 
 
 ' Blest morning, whose first dawning rays 
 Beheld the Son of God 
 Arise triumphant from the dead, 
 And leave his dark abode.' 
 
 " The Sabbath comes with inexpressible and inex- 
 haustible good to the children of men. What a 
 pity they should not be sensible of the benefit of the 
 Sabbath, grateful for it, and not spend it so as to 
 derive the greatest amount of good from it ! 
 
OVER HIS OWN HOUSE. 107 
 
 "The earthly Sabbath is a delightful type of the 
 heavenly, and the former is a grand means of preparing 
 for the latter. One of the subjects of discourse here 
 to-day was (Isaiah lii. 7) — ' How beautiful upon the 
 mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good 
 tidings, that publisheth peace ; that bringeth good 
 tidings of good, that publisheth salvation ; that saith 
 unto Zion, Thy God reigneth ! ' 
 
 " I hope that you have had much delightful con- 
 verse with God this day, and that it has been a sweet 
 day spiritually to you." 
 
 37. "I hope that your business and other engage- 
 ments don't prevent you from carrying on your reading 
 of standard books — books, by the perusal of which your 
 mind will be instructed and cultured. I have not 
 heard anything of late as to your reading, but I hope 
 that it is not neglected. 
 
 " You must now be left very much to your own 
 judgment, and to your own sense of responsibility." 
 
 38. "The Times received this morning; but I don't 
 wish you to expend money on my account. Save your 
 money ; it will be needed when I come to spend my 
 last days with you. But I am obliged to you for kind- 
 ness evinced in sending the paper." 
 
 39. " Notice is taken in the Review to-day of a 
 lecture on the subject of the law of compensation pre- 
 vailing in the natural world. Have you paid any atten- 
 tion to that subject % It is an interesting one, and 
 manifestive of the wisdom and goodness of God." 
 
 40. "This is the day of J. O.'s funeral. I intend 
 being present. He was seventy-two years of age. 
 Thus we pass, each one at his own appointed time, into 
 the unseen world — none being allowed to remain on the 
 
108 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 earth. Here, there is none abiding ; there is a continu- 
 ing city elsewhere, where perpetual sunshine and happi- 
 ness are enjoyed. To that glorious city let us unin- 
 terruptedly march onward, under the guidance of our 
 gracious and condescending Saviour. ' He led them 
 forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of 
 habitation' (Ps. cvii. 7)." 
 
 41. " This is the concluding day of our communion 
 season. But I write this in the morning, previous to 
 church time. Mr. Roberton of Dunipace is to preach 
 to-day, but he has not yet arrived. The morning is 
 fearfully stormy ; dashing rain and high winds. In the 
 celestial Canaan no storm ever arises ; its atmosphere is 
 always calm ; its sky is always clear. There, no vestige 
 of the curse shall ever be seen or felt. May that happy 
 land be the place of our final and everlasting abode. 
 — With best love to you, I am always, your very affect, 
 father, Alex. Leitch." 
 
 Nothing needs to be said by way of indicating the 
 significance of these sentences. Their good sense — the 
 Christian spirit which breathes through them — the wise 
 counsels which they inculcate — the fatherly love and care 
 which they reveal, exhibit unmistakably the character 
 of their author. Whatever may be said in other con- 
 nections about Mr. Leitch, this cannot but be affirmed 
 regarding him, that he sought, in a very honest, earnest, 
 and persevering way, to command his children, and his 
 household after him, to keep the way of the Lord, to do 
 justice and judgment. Nor was his anxiety confined to 
 his own immediate descendants. By-and-by there were 
 grandchildren born within the circle of his family. It 
 was his uniform custom to take them, when they visited 
 
OVER HIS OWN HOUSE. 109 
 
 him for the first time, into his study, and there formally 
 dedicate them to the Lord ; and a number of letters 
 now before us addressed to the little ones, who thus 
 came to have claims upon his attention, speak very 
 touchingly for his longing to see them brought under 
 the saving influence of the gospel. There was clearly 
 nothing hollow or unreal about his ministry. Wherever 
 you come upon him who exercised it, you find him en- 
 gaged in his Master's work.* 
 
 * Special mention is made in the text of Mr. Leitch's letters 
 to one of his sons ; but his care for all his children was equally 
 tender and assiduous. "During twenty years in my case," says 
 another of his sons, "and not much less in my brother A.'s, he 
 once a week wrote to each of us, even when he himself was from 
 home, and he fixed stated separate days weekly for hearing from us. 
 When we had occasion to be absent from our usual place of resi- 
 dence, he followed our movements on the map ; and, as if to have us 
 in his mind continually, he had marks on the map indicating the 
 spot where our house was situated. For those we came in contact 
 with, and about whom he heard from us, he offered special prayer 
 — particularly for our employers, and others who showed us 
 kindness." 
 
CHAPTER SEVENTH. 
 
 PASTORAL METHODS. 
 
 Free use of the Pen — Its Advantages — Business Books — Sermon 
 Journal — Memorandum of Scriptures read — Register of Bap- 
 tisms—Sick List — Roman Catholic Priest — Household Visita- 
 tion — Sabbath Schools and Bible Class — Passing Words. 
 
 If ever there was a man who made an honest, conscien- 
 tious, and painstaking effort to discharge wisely all the 
 duties of his stewardship, that man was Mr. Leitch. In 
 the most literal sense of the word, he made a business of 
 his ministry. There are some, as we all know, who take 
 their work just as it comes. They preach regularly on 
 the Sabbath, because this is an arrangement that is made 
 for them ; and they visit the sick when they are expressly 
 invited to do so. But they have no method, no plans, 
 no system ; and hence their labours too often fail in 
 producing those lasting effects at which a settled pas- 
 torate chiefly aims. Mr. Leitch was not one of this 
 class. He kept a set of books as carefully as a merchant 
 keeps his day-book and ledger, and in these we find not 
 only a perfect record of all his professional work, but 
 what helps us also to form a clear idea of his pastoral 
 methods, the kind of organisation which he employed 
 for making full proof of his ministry. 
 
 It is said of Jonathan Edwards, that even while a 
 boy he began to study with a pen in his hand, and this 
 most useful practice was steadily pursued by him all his 
 
PASTORAL METHODS. Ill 
 
 life through. The result of that is well known. He 
 became distinguished above most others for the exact- 
 ness of his thoughts and the precision of his statements. 
 Now there are {q\n who can ever hope to approach the 
 great President in vigour and acuteness of mind. But 
 the habit which he so early formed is beyond the reach 
 of no one, and there can be no question about the bene- 
 fits which would flow from it, if it were more generally 
 adopted. This habit was evidently soon formed by Mr. 
 Leitch. His commonest attitude in his study must have 
 been with a pen in his hand; and, using writing material 
 thus freely, he speedily got beyond the narrowness of 
 those who, because they write so little, are of opinion 
 apparently that paper is gold-leaf, and that they are 
 exercising a praiseworthy thriftiness in covering with 
 nearly invisible manuscript the blank pages of circulars 
 or the backs of letters. On good-sized sheets, with open 
 margins, and plenty of space between the lines, Mr. 
 Leitch recorded with a free pen the incidents of his 
 ministry, his own passing thoughts, and his earnest 
 aspirations ; so that it has cost his surviving friends as 
 little labour to decipher these memorials as it must have 
 cost himself to go back upon them in his lifetime. 
 
 We have a motive for dwelling upon this point. 
 After ten or twenty years' experience, one does not easily 
 get out of ruts ; and many a minister of so long a stand- 
 ing can only look at plans and admire them with a feeling 
 of helplessness. If they had been suggested to him at the 
 outset of his career he would have accepted them as a 
 matter of course. But now he cannot make them fit 
 into the system he has actually adopted ; and all he can 
 do is to hope that others who are beginning life will be 
 more fortunate than himself. But there are young 
 
112 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 ministers who have still their plans to make, and to them 
 we would venture very earnestly to commend the prac- 
 tice of a constant and liberal use of the pen — not simply 
 in the way of writing sermons, but in compiling statistics, 
 preserving memorials of passing events in their ministry, 
 and giving definite expression to ideas and impressions, 
 hopes and fears. 
 
 The advantages of the method are manifold and 
 obvious. One use of it has been referred to already — 
 it tends to promote exactness in thinking. But two 
 other benefits may also be named. In the first place, 
 it helps to the formation of business habits, and the 
 times are such as more and more to require that as a 
 ministerial qualification. But secondly, and chiefly, the 
 writing down, and thus putting into an objective form 
 the aims of a ministry, and its actual achievements, 
 is well fitted to have a stimulating eff"ect upon the 
 conscience. It is frequently said that after a while 
 ministers tend to fall into a routine. They honestly 
 seek to do all their duty, and there is probably no one 
 part of it which they can be said to neglect. But there 
 is no stir in their congregations, no visible sign of an in- 
 tense or earnest life ; and when all things this year con- 
 tinue just as they were during the last, they themselves 
 begin to feel the soporific influence, and to work in a 
 sort of heartless, mechanical way, as from the force of 
 habit only. Now one preservative against this paralysis 
 is the putting down upon paper what you have attempted 
 to do, how you have done it, and what has been the 
 result. Such a thing is equivalent to a process of sus- 
 tained self-examination. And the natural issues of both 
 are the same. If a man pursues a certain course with- 
 out ever looking around him, there is no telling how far 
 
■ PASTORAL METHODS. 113 
 
 he may proceed in it. But if he pauses now and again, 
 looks before and behind and on each side of him, 
 thereby marking the direction in which he is tending, 
 the chances are certainly less that he will go very far 
 astray. So with the exercise of the Christian ministry. 
 The more carefully a man takes conscious note of all his 
 efforts, failures and successes, the less likely is he to do 
 things in a spirit of routine, or to sink into indifferent- 
 ism or self-complacency. 
 
 We have spoken of Mr. Leitch's business books. 
 They are numerous and complete, and, as we have said, 
 they bear marks of having been kept with as much care 
 and exactness as the ledger in a counting-house. One 
 series of volumes describes, in orderly fashion, the whole 
 course of his life as a preacher of the gospel. He never 
 on any occasion entered a pulpit without recording 
 when he went home where he had spoken, and on what 
 theme he had discoursed. From his first essays as a 
 probationer down to his last utterances at the com- 
 munion in Glasgow, there is nothing omitted ; and, as 
 we glance through these journals, one thing strikes us 
 exceedingly, — the amount of preaching which he under- 
 took, and the extraordinary infrequency with which his 
 labours were interrupted. As a specimen of one of 
 his methods, and also as supplying a sample of his 
 preaching engagements, we extract a single page from 
 his sermon journal for 1849. We select it entirely at 
 hazard. Preaching so often as he did, his rule was to 
 use the sermons last delivered to his own congregation, 
 these being fresher in his mind. 
 
 1849. 
 June 24. South Church, . Fore. Eph. ii. i. 
 
 „ „ Do. . . . After. Song. viii. 6 v. 
 
 [ 
 
114 
 
 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 June 
 
 28. 
 
 Tillicoultry (Fast), . 
 
 Fore. 
 
 Eph. ii. I. 
 
 » 
 
 11 
 
 Do. . 
 
 
 After. 
 
 Song. viii. 6 v. 
 
 T> 
 
 11 
 
 Do. . 
 
 
 Even. 
 
 Isai. liii. 6. 
 
 July 
 
 I. 
 
 South Church, 
 
 
 Fore. 
 
 Eph. ii. 2. 
 
 II 
 
 11 
 
 Do. 
 
 
 After. 
 
 Gen. XXV. 28. 
 
 J) 
 
 11 
 
 Do. 
 
 
 Even. 
 
 Rom. xvi. 17-25. 
 
 J5 
 
 8. 
 
 South Church, 
 
 
 Fore. 
 
 Eph. ii. 3. 
 
 11 
 
 >) 
 
 Do. 
 
 
 After. 
 
 Gen. XXV. 2 9, etc 
 
 11 
 
 !) 
 
 Do. 
 
 
 Even. 
 
 Rom. xvi. etc. 
 
 11 
 
 9- 
 
 Dunning (Monday), 
 
 
 Eph. ii. 3. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gen. XXV. 29, etc 
 
 11 
 
 II. 
 
 Slamanan (Fast 
 
 Day) 
 
 
 Eph. ii. 3. 
 Gen. XXV. 29. 
 
 11 
 
 15- 
 
 South Church, 
 
 . 
 
 Fore. 
 
 Eph. ii. 3. 
 
 11 
 
 ?' 
 
 Dunblane, Com. 
 
 Sab. 
 
 Ev. 
 
 Gen. XXV. 29. 
 
 Another book kept by Mr. Leitch contained a 
 memorandum of the Scriptures read by him in public 
 worship. It was begun on the 23d of June 1839, when 
 he was preaching as a parish minister in the East and 
 West Churches alternately, and was certainly con- 
 tinued by him down to the time of the Disruption, 
 in May 1843. It is not likely that he then gave up the 
 practice of keeping such a record, but we do not 
 happen to have fallen upon any later among his papers. 
 We observe that he commenced in 1839 with Isaiah 
 and Hebrews, and that he thereafter read every day 
 consecutive portions out of both Testaments. From the 
 circumstance that he did not always read a whole 
 chapter, and that he sometimes began towards the end 
 of one and read into that which followed, we infer that 
 he aimed not merely at formally going over a certain 
 part of the Word every day, but at giving the people an 
 intelligent interest in what was presented. And we 
 
PASTORAL METHODS. 115 
 
 have no doubt he was right in this. For the pubUc 
 solemn reading of the Scriptures in the congregation, 
 without a single note or comment, a good deal may be 
 said, looking at the matter theoretically; but if the 
 intention is not to go through a form, but to produce an 
 impression, we are quite sure that it is a wise thing to 
 interject in the course of the reading an occasional 
 remark, or adopt other means of a similar kind, to 
 stimulate attention and help to the intelligent appre- 
 hension of the passage. 
 
 It need scarcely be said that Mr. Leitch kept a 
 register of baptisms, but his register is fuller than any 
 we have seen. It tells the name of the child, the names 
 of its parents, and the day on which it was baptized ; 
 but it does more than this. It mentions the place 
 where the baptism occurred — whether in church, in the 
 vestry, or in a private house, and preserves also (for the 
 private information of the minister) a record of the cir- 
 cumstances, if there was anything peculiar in them, 
 under which the ordinance was administered. He thus 
 kept a more perfect list of the baptized than is, we 
 believe, at all usual in Presbyterian hands, although it is 
 probable that even he failed to carry out the plan 
 which our theory of the church seems really to require. 
 We keep, in our several congregations, an exact roll of 
 communicants, — adding from time to time the names of 
 new members, and removing also the names of those 
 who, by death, or change of residence, or discipline, have 
 ceased to have places in the record. But we are apt to 
 forget that the church recognises the possession of cer- 
 tain hereditary rights by the children of those who are 
 members in full communion. The church itself is 
 composed of " those who profess the true religion, with 
 
116 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. - 
 
 their childrejir And " the infants of such as are 
 members of the visible church are to be baptized." 
 Hence, when the baptism of a child takes place, this is 
 what, among other things is done ; its statiding in the 
 visible church is taken formal notice of and acknowledged. 
 It has thereafter as good a title to have its name 
 registered in the church books as any member in full 
 communion ; not, indeed, as having attained to the 
 enjoyment of all the privileges of the church, for it has 
 after that to be admitted to partake of the other sacra- 
 ment, but as having a special right to such care and 
 oversight on the part of the church as its condition 
 allows. On this account, there is a growing conviction 
 in the minds of many that in every congregation there 
 ought to be another carefully kept roll — the roll of the 
 baptized; one which should contain the names of all to 
 whom the initiatory ordinance had been administered, 
 and which should be as assiduously " purged " as the 
 register of the communicants. If this arrangement were 
 attended to, so that names should be dropped out of it 
 only when their bearers died, or became members in 
 full communion, or removed (with certificate of some 
 form, if possible) to another locality, it is easy to see 
 how greatly the superintending power of the church 
 would be increased, and the risk of lapsing into home 
 heathenism would be diminished. It seems to us that 
 we very inadequately realise the advantage of infant 
 baptism, and make far too little use of it as a means of 
 grace ; and although a good deal of what we have been 
 saying now is slightly irrelevant, we hope that, in a 
 chapter on Pastoral Methods, we may be excused for 
 expanding a little the idea which we cannot but think 
 was in its germ in Mr. Leitch's mind. 
 
PASTORAL METHODS. 117 
 
 Of course Mr. Leitch kept a Sick List.^ It was 
 indeed in this connection that his labours were most 
 abundant. Many outside his own congregation prayed 
 him to visit themselves or their friends when illness 
 entered their households ; and multitudes of persons in 
 Stirling and the neighbourhood are ready to testify how 
 assiduously he waited on the afflicted, and with what 
 kindliness and fidelity he sought to comfort and direct 
 them. Quite a number of books are now beside us, in 
 which are noted down, with characteristic carefulness, the 
 sick visits which he paid from day to day through a long 
 succession of years. The number of these visits is 
 extraordinary. Not a single day of the week — not 
 even Saturday — is reserved entirely to himself. Not 
 unfrequently even the Sabbath is trenched upon ; per- 
 haps when he wished to see for the last time one who 
 was not likely to survive till another morning. Opening, 
 for example, at random, the volume for the summer of 
 1857, and taking the first week of June, we find notes 
 of the following visits : — Sabbath, one visit ; Monday, 
 three ; Tuesday, four; Wednesday, four ; Thursday, four; 
 Friday, three ; Saturday, four — twenty-three visits in one 
 week. If this were a singular instance there might be 
 no great cause to remark upon it. Many ministers of 
 large congregations have occasionally as large a sick 
 list, and go over it faithfully every week. But there was 
 nothing exceptional about that week in the case of Mr. 
 Leitch. He habitually visited as largely. There were 
 times when the demands upon him were far more nume- 
 
 * Other business books kept by him were a Marriage Register, 
 Comnninion Roll, Record of Annual Visitations of his congregation 
 (containing, besides other things, the names and ages of the child- 
 ren of each family, with notes of whether they were residing at home 
 or elsewhere), and a List of the Poor he cared for. 
 
118 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 rous ; and when we repeat that this went on year after 
 year with unvarying zeal, we cannot wonder that he 
 came to estabhsh for himself so warm a place in the 
 affectionate recollections of his fellow-townsmen. Mr. 
 Goldie, his successor, tells us that when his coffin was 
 being lowered into the grave, many pressed forward to 
 have a last look of that which contained his remains ; 
 and conspicuous among these was the minister of a 
 church the furthest possible removed in doctrine, 
 worship, and sympathy, from his own — the Roman 
 Catholic priest. The flock of the priest was chiefiy 
 among the poor of Stirling, and their minister required, 
 therefore, to be often moving through the most destitute 
 districts of the town. There he constantly encountered 
 Mr. Leitch. The position of the two men was widely 
 different, and their teaching utterly discordant, but to 
 one thing even a Popish priest could not remain insen- 
 sible — that was, to the honesty, kindliness, and bene- 
 ficence which distinguished the Protestant pastor, on whose 
 track he so often came. These features in his character 
 so impressed themselves on his mind that he was led to 
 entertain for him a feeling of almost affectionate respect, 
 and while on the Sabbath after the death he paid a 
 tribute to his memory from within his own altar-rails, 
 calling him " the Minister of Stirling," he became one 
 of the mourners at his funeral, and, as has been said, 
 pressed forward to catch a last glimpse of his coffin 
 as it was lowered into the grave. The testimony thus 
 borne to Mr. Leitch was, in its own way, not a little 
 significant, and was, we have no doubt, in a great mea- 
 sure called forth by his gracious and assiduous visitation 
 of the sick. For it is at those seasons, when trouble 
 presses, that words of kindness go most direct to the 
 
PASTORAL METHODS. ' 119 
 
 heart, and leave behind them the deepest and most 
 abiding impressions. 
 
 But Mr. Leitch did not confine his visitations to the 
 sick and sorrowful. He systematically, once a year, 
 visited the families of his own congregation also (com- 
 prising 300 or 400 communicants), and there are proofs 
 by us in plenty that he frequently singled out neglected 
 districts, and visited in them from house to house. In 
 the notes which he took on these occasions, the eccles- 
 iastical condition of each family is mentioned — whether 
 it was church-going at all, and whether the children had 
 been baptized ; but when he refers to their spiritual 
 state, he resorts generally to his short hand, under the 
 veil of which, we do not doubt, many an earnest aspira- 
 tion is concealed. Altogether, the impression we get 
 from an examination of his papers is this, — that he came 
 much into personal contact with the people whose en- 
 lightenment he sought ; that he attached great and just 
 importance to the influence which he exercised in this 
 connection ; and that, as a matter of fact, he did accom- 
 plish, through his visitations, an amount of good which 
 it is impossible to calculate, but whose greatness the day 
 will declare. 
 
 It may well be supposed that in his pastoral system 
 he gave a very prominent place to the oversight of the 
 young. He took, as a matter of course, a warm inte- 
 rest in the Sabbath Schools ; but he did more. From 
 the commencement of his ministry to near its end he 
 never was any year without a Bible class of his own, in 
 which he personally instructed the young men and 
 young women of his congregation, and any others who 
 chose to attend. These classes were often very largely 
 attended, as we see from the lists which he has himself 
 
120 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 preserved, and we have letters from old scholars, now- 
 occupying good positions in society, who still look back 
 with pleasure and gratitude to the lessons which they 
 received in earlier days. 
 
 There is only one other feature of Mr. Leitch's 
 ministry which may be referred to here. It is, that it 
 was part of his plan, as a minister of the gospel, to utiUse 
 even those chance encounters which he had with people 
 in houses or in the street. Many of the private letters 
 received by his surviving relatives speak of words 
 dropped by him in their hearing in this accidental way ; 
 and as this kind of work had daily a distinct place in 
 his prayers in the morning ere setting out, and in the 
 evening, we cannot doubt that now and again the arrow 
 went home, and became the precursor of a blessing. 
 " I never heard anything out of place attributed to him," 
 writes one, " or anything of a kind to give offence. 
 The occasion furnished him with the word in season ; 
 his beneficence, or his guilelessness, or his consideration 
 of others' feelings (a very characteristic quality) made it 
 acceptable ; and a certain kind of quaintness rendered 
 it often memorable." Always bearing about with him 
 the dying of the Lord Jesus — ever on the watch for 
 opportunities to commend his Master to those who 
 despised or neglected Him — he carried on his ministerial 
 work not in a rigid professional way, as having exclusive 
 regard to times, and places, and seasons, but as one 
 who could never forget that wherever he was he was an 
 ambassador for Christ, commissioned to beseech men, 
 everywhere, to be reconciled to God. 
 
CHAPTER EIGHTH. 
 
 THE PRAYER MEETING. 
 
 Its Theory — Fluctuations in Attendance — Causes of its Neglect — 
 Means of Revival — Consideration of its Importance — Prepara- 
 tion — Devotional Variety — Young Men's Fellowship Meetings 
 — Experience of Mr. Leitch — Volume of " Brief Notes." 
 
 The theory of what is called in Scotland the Weekly- 
 Prayer Meeting, and what is best known in England by 
 the name of the Weekly Lecture, is a very excellent one. 
 Its chief aim is to give, in each locality where it is held, 
 an opportunity to the neighbouring people of God to 
 step aside together, on one of the working-days of the 
 week, into one of the refreshment places planted by the 
 King on the way to the Celestial City, and there to 
 speak to one another of the trials, and difficulties, and 
 encouragements of the road, and by their united suppli- 
 cations to stir up the grace that is in them, and to seek 
 the extension of the Redeemer's Kingdom all over the 
 earth. It is, however, a sad fact that this institution, 
 which might obviously be of unspeakable advantage to the 
 Church, has not, as a general rule, received the hearty 
 and sustained support which it was entitled to expect. 
 During seasons of revival these meetings invariably grow, 
 and for a time after the excitement is over they continue 
 to maintain their ground. But they begin to show a 
 tendency to subside the moment the high pressure is 
 removed, and by-and-by it often happens that there are 
 
122 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 no places in which the attendance is so low as in those 
 which have had their times of refreshing. Apart from 
 that, however, the complaint is almost universal that com- 
 paratively few avail themselves of the Week Evening 
 Service ; and if it is right to maintain such a thing, it is 
 certainly right that people should be asking why it is so 
 ineffective, and if there is nothing that could be done to 
 increase its force as a means of grace. 
 
 We all know how the neglect is usually accounted 
 for. The prayer meeting, it is often said, is the thermo- 
 meter of the church, and from its condition you may 
 judge of the state of spiritual religion. But while we 
 must admit that there is a considerable amount of truth 
 in this, we do not believe that we have here the whole 
 truth, or anything like it. We must make some allow- 
 ance for changes in our social habits, and some also for 
 local circumstances, of which no general law can properly 
 take account. Besides, we have no doubt whatever that 
 there is religion enough among us to revive the institu- 
 tion, if only two things were done : First, if thoughtful 
 Christian people would really reflect on its utility, and 
 give their hearty help to make it attractive ; and. Second, 
 if very much more pains were expended on the manner 
 of its conduct. 
 
 It is very certain that the addresses given at prayer 
 meetings are often extremely raw, and that the supplica- 
 tions offered there are sometimes cold, formal, and unin- 
 teresting. We cannot wonder then, that a person going 
 fortuitously into one, and finding nothing either to edify 
 or warm, should not much care (if he considered himself 
 alone) to come again. Well, it will perhaps be said 
 that the remedy is plain. Let the ministers, and other 
 conductors of the meetings, whose heartless services repel 
 
THE PR A YER MEETING. 123 
 
 — let them turn over a new leaf, and the face of things 
 may alter for the better. So say we. But let those who 
 are ready with this simple counsel look a little round the 
 subject. Ministers are but men — men of like passions 
 with others ; the same east wind chills them — the same 
 causes make them depressed — the same influences tend 
 to paralyse their mental efforts. It is very wrong no 
 doubt to let the quality of your preparations be affected 
 by the number of your audience, and to suffer your soul 
 to be cooled by the atmosphere of other men. Still, it 
 cannot be denied that both things are so very natural, 
 that in the ordinary course of events you must lay your 
 account with their constant recurrence. Grace can do 
 anything. It can make a man prepare as conscientiously 
 and elaborately to speak to a few ignorant old women 
 as to a large and intelligent crowd, and it can keep 
 a heart burning even in a cave. But we must not ex- 
 pect miracles ; and if, therefore, the institution of the 
 prayer meeting is to be made to tell through its in- 
 creasing attractions, this result must be brought about 
 by the hearty co-operation of the Christian people. 
 Let them allow themselves to appreciate the excellence 
 of the ordinance — let them consider the benefits that 
 would result from an increase to its power on the life of 
 our congregations and the propagation of the Gospel — 
 and let them, as the result of this wise review of its capa- 
 bilities, not stand aloof from it, but countenance it by 
 their presence, and help it by their prayers, and give spirit 
 to it by their fervour, and we venture to predict that few 
 will by-and-by have any cause to complain either of undi- 
 gested addresses or of devotions in which there is no soul. 
 With all that, however, the conductors of prayer 
 meetings cannot claim to be entirely free from blame in 
 
124 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 this connection. It will be readily acknowledged by all 
 of them who are very much in earnest, that more might 
 conceivably be done to render their services interesting 
 and effective, and few will be so unreasonable as to insist 
 that the whole burden of beginning a better state of 
 matters must rest with the people, or their coming to 
 see their duty more clearly and carrying it out more 
 thoroughly, by attending in increasing numbers upon the 
 ordinance. As to possible improvements, one of course 
 is this : that, without waiting for a larger audience or a 
 warmer atmosphere, they should prepare more carefully 
 themselves — prepare, that is, not only by having some- 
 thing more worth listening to to say, but by having also 
 their own spirits made more fervent by spending a larger 
 space of time previously in secret communion with God. 
 But there is another thing. It is well known that in 
 America the prayer meeting is almost universally con- 
 ducted in a manner different from that which obtains 
 among ourselves. There is seldom a formal, and never a 
 lengthened address, but in place of this there is greater 
 variety in the devotions ; a larger number of persons 
 being usually present than we can prevail upon to take 
 part in our social worship. It is probable that the 
 American churches owe their greater command of such 
 persons to the frequency of their Revivals, and it is no 
 doubt from our having had experiences similar to theirs 
 that our deficiency in this respect has of late years 
 become so far made up, at least in Scotland. However 
 that may be, we are quite sure that it would add greatly 
 to the attractiveness of our prayer meetings if (retaining 
 their well-considered addresses, which we would by no 
 means abandon) they had more of the American charac- 
 teristic of devotional variety. How we are to secure a 
 
THE PR A YER MEETING. 125 
 
 larger number of persons capable of taking part in them 
 is another question, but in view of the want which is felt 
 in this connection, and in view also of what is even a 
 more serious consideration, the maintenance of the habit 
 of family worship, it appears to us that there are few con- 
 gregational adjuncts which better deserve encouragement 
 than Youfig Men's FelloivsJiip Meetings. In these more is 
 accomplished than the quickening of the devotional feel- 
 ings. The habit is formed of expressing the desires of 
 the heart in vocal prayer, and thus a training is carried 
 on, the good fruit of which will appear in very many 
 different ways. One chief cause of the neglect of family 
 worship has certainly been this, that heads of households 
 were never taught to pray aloud in their youth. Let care 
 be taken to correct this evil, and we may see a change for 
 the better in the place, of all others, where it is most de- 
 sirable to see religion flourishing ; and if there is improve- 
 ment there, the influence may be confidently expected to 
 extend — those who are accustomed to lead the devotions 
 of a family circle coming naturally to take a part likewise 
 in the devotions of the prayer meeting. 
 
 We have been led into making these remarks by find- 
 ing how much prominence was given by Mr. Leitch to 
 this particular department of his ministry. The prayer 
 meeting was not something which was attended to by 
 him only in an incidental way, and in a perfunctory man- 
 ner. It was far from always realising his expectations. 
 He, like others, had to complain often of a deficient in- 
 terest in it ; and he, too, failed to find at all times laymen 
 able and willing to unite with him in taking part in its 
 services ; but he never wearied of the agency for himself, 
 nor does he appear to have attempted to serve God 
 through it with that which cost him nothing. There 
 
12S AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 were seasons {as for example when so many soldiers sat 
 in his church, and also when the wave of revival passed 
 over the town in which he lived) — there were such seasons 
 when his meetings almost satisfied his aspirations, and 
 were really sources of the highest possible enjoyment to 
 himself. There were other times when the tide of feel- 
 ing receded, and he was left with a comparatively small 
 number of faithful associates to seek and abide the return 
 of the blessing. But whatever were his surroundings he 
 held on his way — looking to the weekly meeting as an 
 established means of grace, and most conscientiously 
 preparing for it both in mind and spirit. How many 
 importunate prayers were offered up in anticipation by 
 him in his own closet may be guessed ; but no one who 
 has not examined his papers can have any idea of his 
 diligence and fidelity in providing himself with materials 
 for appropriate and edifying addresses. It was not a few 
 off-hand remarks which he was in the habit of arranging 
 to make. He wrote down his thoughts in a careful and 
 thoughtful way ; and so excellent and suggestive are 
 many of these so far fragmentary utterances that we can 
 well imagine they were frequently more useful than even 
 the elaborate pulpit discourses of the Sabbath. 
 
 A whole volume of Brief Notes used at prayer meet- 
 ings is now beside us. We say a volume, for it was 
 another of Mr. Leitch's business habits that he did not 
 suffer his notes to be scattered abroad, to find their way 
 into the waste-paper basket, or sink into chaos at the 
 bottom of his sermon chest ! He wrote them on sheets 
 of paper of uniform size, he laid them in their discon- 
 nected state in some secure but accessible corner, and 
 in due time, when they had accumulated sufficiently, he 
 bound them together for convenient reference. How 
 
THE PRA YER MEETING. 127 
 
 many ministers there are who would have been thankful 
 if they had been put up to this plan at the outset of their 
 pastorate. Some of our best thoughts, as is well known, 
 occur to us at informal gatherings — some of the fittest 
 materials for sermons take shape first in prayer meeting 
 addresses — and, in the absence of any means for saving 
 these, an inexcusable waste is taking place continually. 
 The following are a specimen of Mr. Leitch's notes. 
 The whole volume is, of course, but a basket of frag- 
 ments. But the examples given may be of use two ways : 
 They may suggest to some a method of prayer meeting 
 preparation ; and they will, we are sure, furnish to the 
 thoughtful reader some matter for personal, — profitable 
 meditation : — 
 
 I. THE CROSS AND THE BRAZEN SERPENT. 
 
 John iii. 14, 15. — "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
 wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be hfted up ; that whoso- 
 ever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." 
 
 I. The lifting up of the Son of Man. 
 
 I. Jesus the Son of Man. 
 
 Truly man — clothed with humanity ; yet something 
 in his humanity pecuhar — no earthly father — " a body 
 hast THOU prepared me " — the Word " made " flesh, not 
 flesh originally ; his humanity did not exist by itself — 
 always subsisted in connection with his divinity; not 
 included in the covenant of works — all mankind were 
 comprehended in that covenant ; that Jesus, being God, 
 should be the Son of Man is exceeding strange (Philip, 
 ii. 6) — the Son of Man by eminence, not a Son of Man, 
 as every one of us is, but '•'■the''' Son of Man — Son of 
 Man in a sense peculiar to himself — the Son of Man as 
 there is no Son of Man like him, pure, divine, etc. 
 
128 AN EA RNEST PA S TOR A TE. 
 
 2. The lifting up of the Son of Man. 
 
 (i.) He is lifted up on the cross^why lifted up? — 
 to suffer as a sacrifice — the cross the altar. (2.) Many 
 were concerned in this lifting up — the Father was con- 
 cerned in it, " it pleased the Lord to bruise him ;" Jesus 
 himself was concerned in it, — it was a voluntary surrender 
 of himself; wicked men had a hand in this lifting up 
 (Acts ii. 23) — by wicked hands ye have crucified and 
 slain ; devils had a hand in this lifting up of the Son of 
 Man, — instigated Judas to betray, etc. (3.) The Son of 
 Man must be lifted up ; the purpose and plan of God 
 make it necessary ; the character of the sinner's Surety 
 assumed by Christ — fulfilment of prediction. (4.) There 
 has been a lifting up of the Son of Man into Heaven — 
 to the right hand of the Majesty in the Heaven. 
 
 II. The object for which the Son of Man was lifted up. 
 It was to prevent perdition, to obtain everlasting life — 
 life, felicity, glory. For whom % Who are to be bene- 
 fited % JSeliez'ers. Whosoever believeth. It was a glori- 
 ous object. 
 
 III. The correspondence between Moses lifting up the 
 serpent in the wilderness, and the Son of Man being 
 lifted up. 
 
 1. The correspondence consists in the Divine order- 
 ing of both. It was the Lord who commanded Moses 
 to erect the pole on which the serpent of brass was 
 placed. 
 
 2. The correspondence consists in similarity of 
 object contemplated to be gained — cure and deliver- 
 ance. 
 
 3. The correspondence consists in the strangeness of 
 the means in both cases. 
 
THE PRAYER MEETING. 129 
 
 4. Also, in the simplicity of the means employed — 
 no complication or involution in the means — no intricacy 
 or complexity — what simpler than looking. 
 
 5. The correspondence consists in the efficacy of the 
 means in both instances ; in the case of the brazen 
 serpent the cure was thorough (whosoever looked was 
 healed). So every one who beholds the Lamb of God 
 has salvation conferred upon him. 
 
 Conclusion. — If you perish, it is owing to your disre- 
 garding the means of salvation. Salvation ! if not saved 
 in this way, not in any other. Whosoever ! No case so 
 desperate as to be incurable ; if there be a looking to 
 the right object, there can be no failure. 
 
 II. THE MYSTERY OF THE FAITH. 
 
 I Tim. iii. 9. — "Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure 
 conscience." 
 
 I. The Gospel a mystery ; much in it that cannot be 
 known. 
 
 1. Much can be known by study of the Scriptures 
 and prayer. We know, for example (Matt. i. 21), " He 
 shall save his people from their sins ;" (Matt. vi. 9-14) 
 some of the leading things for which we ought to pray ; 
 (Mark xvi. 16) " He that beheveth, and is baptized, shall 
 be saved;" (John iii. 3) the fact of the necessity of re- 
 generation, etc. etc. 
 
 2. Much is unfathomable, as for instance regenera- 
 tion, as to the mode of its operation ; union to Jesus, the 
 formation of it and its maintenance ; the blessedness of 
 the righteous in Heaven, in what it consists — the misery 
 of the lost in Hell, in what it consists ; the Gospel being 
 sent to some of mankind and not to others ; resurrec- 
 
 K 
 
130 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 tion, what sort of body the righteous shall have, what sort 
 of body shall be provided for the wicked ; the person of 
 Christ, — the subsistence of his human nature in union 
 with the Divine ; the exercise of Divine sovereignty as 
 seen in things innumerable. Rom. xi. 33. How unsearch- 
 able are his judgments, and his ways past finding out ! 
 
 II. The Gospel has respect to things which are to be 
 believed — "mystery" oi " the faith" — ^^ believed" in the 
 meantime. They cannot be seen, at least many of the 
 things connected with the Gospel. 
 
 1. But though matters only of belief at present, they 
 are of such a nature as powerfully to influence our prac- 
 tice, concerning as they do such objects as the following 
 — God the self-existing one — Christ, the Son of the 
 Father — the Spirit, applying redemption — Heaven, the 
 dwelling-place of God, and the home of the Redeemer — 
 Hell, with its fearful and never-ending wretchedness — 
 Judgment, the account taken by the Lord God in the end. 
 These are matters which appertain to our highest interests, 
 to our salvation. 
 
 2. For reality of the things we are to believe there 
 is abundant proof. We have a sure basis for our faith. 
 
 3. Much stress is laid in Scripture on the exercise of 
 faith. There is much scope for its exercise. May we 
 have this faith in the things of the Gospel. 
 
 III. The mystery of faith must be held. " Holding 
 the mystery." 
 
 I. The knowledge of it must be possessed. Don't 
 be ignorant of it, let your knowledge of this mystery be 
 constantly on the increase, " to you it is given to know 
 the mystery." 
 
THE PRAYER MEETING. 131 
 
 2. Profess the reception of it. Do not be ashamed 
 of it. 
 
 3. Hold it — intelUgently — professedly (not secretly 
 but openly) — constantly (not intermittently) — everywhere 
 (not merely in certain places) — firmly (not loosely) — 
 practically, as affecting our life — hold it up to the view 
 of others — hold it in spite of all temptations to abandon 
 it, even under the persecution and suifering which may 
 come on you for its sake. 
 
 IV. The mystery of the faith must be held in a pure 
 conscience ; — a conscience purified by the gospel, en- 
 lightened, quickened, pacified, made tender — indeed the 
 mystery of the faith will not benefit us unless it be held, 
 believed, and maintained conscientiously. 
 
 It is implied that the mystery of the faith may be held 
 in an impure conscience. A pure conscience is a con- 
 science purified from guilt by the sprinkling on it of the 
 blood of Jesus — a conscience which will not suffer im- 
 purity, like the bird of Paradise which will not suffer dust 
 to remain upon its wings. 
 
 In one important sense the gospel is no longer a 
 mystery. At one time it was, under a former dispensa- 
 tion — a dispensation of darkness. But the darkness is 
 past and the true light now shineth. Let us remember 
 that it is not for ourselves alone that the mystery is held ; 
 but for the good of the world. 
 
 III. THE GREAT DAY. 
 
 Acts xvii. 31. — "Because he hath appointed a day, in the 
 which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom 
 he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, 
 in that he hath raised him from the dead." 
 
 I. The Great Fact — that the World is to be Judged. 
 
132 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 1. It is the tuoi-ld that is to be judged — the world 
 comprehending all mankind, not collectively, but indi- 
 vidually, every person — all generations, from the begin- 
 ning of time to the end of the world — you, men, women, 
 children ; not one of you passed over, not one forgotten, 
 not be able to hide yourselves. (Amos ix. 2.) 
 
 2. What it is that is to be done with you — -judged — 
 called to account — reckoned with ; your life reviewed, 
 and every part of your life, period of youth, manhood, 
 and more advanced age ; this review will embrace every- 
 thing connected with you, your thoughts, your emotions, 
 your desires, imaginations, dispositions, your temper, 
 your speech (Eccl. xii. 14; Rom. ii. 14 ; Matt. xii. 37), 
 deeds done in the body ; as to the use of privileges — 
 Bible — offers of the Gospel — time. 
 
 3. The judgment described, in Matt. xxv. 31-46; 
 Rev. XX. 12. 
 
 4. Remember then that you are to be judged ; it is 
 a serious thing to be subjected to earthly judicial pro- 
 cesses, how much more serious is it to think of the last 
 assize. 
 
 II. Judgment shall be conducted in Righteousness. 
 
 1. This cannot always be said of the judicial pro- 
 ceedings of men. Solomon says (Eccl. iii. 16) " And, more- 
 over, I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that 
 wickedness was there ; and the place of righteousness, 
 that iniquity was there." What unrighteousness did Jesus 
 Christ experience at Pilate's tribunal ! What unrighteous- 
 ness did the Apostles experience from the Sanhedrim! 
 
 2. It is different with the judgment here referred to. 
 It will be impartial (Isaiah xi. 3), " He shall not judge 
 after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hear- 
 
THE PRA YER MEETING. 133 
 
 ing of his ears. But with righteousness shall he judge 
 the poor." 
 
 3. The inflexible justice of the Divine procedure is 
 secured by two things — his omniscience securing a know- 
 ledge of all the facts — and his moral character ensuring 
 a just estimate of them. 
 
 4. This consideration fitted to impress people differ- 
 ently according to their character. It is satisfying to 
 some, it is matter of joy and comfort to those who have 
 obtained the answer of a good conscience toward God. 
 It is the reverse to those who are still impenitent and 
 under guilt, for they have in this connection everything 
 to fear and nothing to hope for. 
 
 III. God will Judge the World by Jesus Christ 
 
 1. God the Father will not judge the world personally 
 (John v. 22), " The Father judgeth no man." 
 
 2. He hath committed all judgment to the Son 
 (John v. 22; Rom. ii. 16), "The day when God shall 
 judge the secrets of men, by Jesus Christ." It is essen- 
 tially the Father's judgment. God will judge the world, 
 but it is by the Son (Acts x. 42), " He commanded us to 
 preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which 
 was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and 
 dead." 
 
 3. It is expressly said that Ihe Son was specially 
 ordained to the office of judge — why this ordination ? 
 
 (i.) Being man, he will be seen by those who are to 
 be judged. 
 
 (2.) It is the reward of his humiliation, his obedience, 
 sufferings, and death. 
 
 (3.) It is an expression of the Father's delight in 
 the Son — he " honoureth the Son." 
 
 (4.) The arrangement is made on the ground of 
 
13i AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 congruity. Christ's relations to the world were very 
 intimate. He created it — he tabernacled in it — he was 
 crucified there — the government of it had been upon his 
 shoulders. 
 
 (5.) The appointment of the Son to this work is also 
 for the comfort of the elect. Happy they, who being one 
 with Christ are able to recognise their friend and surety 
 in the person of their judge. 
 
 IV. The Time of the JudgJiient. 
 
 1. It is fixed. It is not uncertain. The day is 
 " appointed " — fixed — unalterably fixed. God has ap- 
 pointed it, and Divine appointments cannot become 
 effete. 
 
 2. Some things relative to the day. What a day ! 
 Consider its solemnity — its eventfulness — the mystery 
 attending it (" that day knoweth no man "). Many re- 
 markable days have occurred in your history, but this 
 will be the most remarkable, and the most important of 
 them all. Do not forget then that there is no dubiety 
 about its coming. 
 
 V. The Assuratice which has been given that God will 
 Judge the Wo7'ld. — " He hath raised Jesus Christ from 
 the dead." The resurrection of Christ is ascribed to the 
 Father (Acts ii. 24-32). This, generally, is the 'assurance 
 that he hath appointed Christ to be judge. But how is 
 this? 
 
 1. The resurrection of Christ proves the truth of his 
 teaching, and the truth also of the Scriptures at large. 
 
 2. It assures that all the arrangements of the covenant 
 of redemption shall be fulfilled, and Christ's judging the 
 world is one of these. 
 
 3. Christ's resurrection was the first step in his pre- 
 
THE PRAYER MEETING. 135 
 
 dieted and promised exaltation ; and the first fruits are 
 an earnest of the entire harvest. As surely as Christ was 
 raised from the dead so surely will he proceed to the 
 further work of judging the world. 
 
 This is God's assurance. It is neither defective nor 
 vague ; does it satisfy you ? God does not force the 
 conviction on you of the judgment to come, but he gives, 
 or affords, an assurance that it is approaching. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 1. How is it likely to fare with you in the judgment % 
 What is the issue likely to be in your case % Judgment 
 will, unquestionably, be pronounced upon you — and 
 upon you, each of you, individually. O ! shall it be — 
 " Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make 
 thee ruler over many things, enter into the joy of thy 
 Lord?" or "Cast the unprofitable servant into outer 
 darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
 teeth?" 
 
 2. Does the consideration of the judgment exert any 
 conscious influence upon you % Has it a restraining in- 
 fluence — does it restrain you from evil — from entertain- 
 ing evil in the mind — from evil speech — from evil 
 conduct % Has the consideration of the coming judg- 
 ment a stimulating effect upon you % — urging you to do 
 what the Lord requires at your hands % 
 
 3. Do you pray in reference to the judgment? — 
 pray that you may find mercy of the Lord on that day % 
 So Paul prayed for Onesiphorus (2 Tim. i. 18). It is 
 certain that you will find either mercy or vengeance. You 
 deserve vengeance. Let it be your prayer while you are 
 on earth — your daily prayer, that you may find mercy on 
 that eventful day; accepting mercy, delivering mercy, 
 
136 AN EARNEST PAS TOR A TE. 
 
 commending mercy, rewarding mercy. Prayer for mercy 
 on the day itself (if never offered before) will be altogether 
 unavailing. 
 
 4. See the necessity of an interest in the righteous- 
 ness of Christ. Put on Christ ; and then you will secure 
 the friendship of the Judge. Is unrighteous judgment 
 now meted out unto you by man 1 Be patient. You 
 will have righteous judgment done you by-and-by. 
 Those who execute unrighteous judgment upon you 
 will themselves ere long be judged by the righteous 
 Judge. Nor will it be without comfort to you to think 
 that you will be individually dealt with by the Judge. 
 Each man's case will be fully investigated. Every man's 
 work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, 
 because it shall be revealed by fire. The fire shall try 
 every man's work, of what sort it is. 
 
 Imagine the great white throne set — the Judge in 
 his seat — the books opened — you called, summoned — 
 standing before the throne, and in the presence of the 
 judge — close, personal dealing with you begun — search- 
 ing examination instituted and carried on ; ah ! me — 
 what will become of you who have no part in Christ — 
 no part in his law -magnifying righteousness. 
 
 Repent ! God commandeth all men to repent (Acts 
 xvii. 30). He commands yon to repent — to repent of 
 your thoughtlessness, your slighting of Christ. The Lord 
 give you to repent, and to turn to him, that you may 
 find mercy in that great and terrible day when God will 
 determine the final destinies of men. 
 
 These are fair specimens of the kind of prayer meet- 
 ing addresses with which a whole volume is filled. We 
 
THE PRA YER MEETING. 
 
 137 
 
 make no comment upon them, except so far as to say 
 this — that their author was most manifestly not one of 
 those who thought lightly of the week evening oppor- 
 tunities afforded to him for preaching the Word. There 
 is a fulness, an elaboration, about these addresses which 
 is very remarkable, and which show that even on what 
 seemed unimportant occasions he did not serve the 
 Lord with that which cost him nothing. 
 
CHAPTER NINTH. 
 
 THE PULPIT. 
 
 A Sabbath-Day's Work — Mr. Leitch as a Preacher — Preparatory 
 Prayer — Selection of Texts — Composition of Sermons — Two 
 Discourses — Communion Address. 
 
 The description given of the manner in which Mr. 
 Leitch usually spent his Sabbaths, is strongly confirma- 
 tory of all that has been already said in illustration of 
 the earnestness of his pastorate. He rose at seven, 
 and went direct to his study, in which, with a short 
 interval for worship and breakfast, he remained until 
 the hour approached for going up to the house of God. 
 His manner throughout was serious and absorbed, but 
 there was no hurry or confusion in his arrangements for 
 leaving home, and he was punctual to a minute in 
 entering the pulpit. " His love for the Sabbath, we are 
 told, was intense." His anxiety for the welfare of his 
 congregation was very great, and towards the close of 
 his ministry it was overwhelming. He looked forward 
 to meeting with his people on the holy day with love 
 and fear. His heart yearned for the flock. Every 
 member of it seemed to be upon his mind ; and never a 
 Sabbath passed without his feeling, with a fresh keen- 
 ness, the responsibility of meeting them in the Sanctu- 
 ary. At the close of the afternoon service he invariably 
 remained to open the congregational sabbath school 
 
THE PULPIT. 139 
 
 which met in the church, and, before leaving, went 
 round all the classes, speaking words of cheer or coun- 
 sel to superintendent and teachers, and showing a per- 
 sonal interest also in all the scholars. He then looked in 
 upon the Mission school, which met at the same hour 
 in the High School, exhibiting the same kindly interest 
 in its affairs, and on his way home he visited, if there 
 was a call for it, any special case of sickness or sorrow 
 which had been brought under his notice. Even after 
 he had reached his own house, and seemed to be settled 
 down for the evening, there was always a chance of his 
 being summoned to pay a pastoral visit to a family in 
 distress. He was, par excellence^ the visiting minister in 
 the town, and he was sometimes called out of his bed 
 at midnight to direct or comfort. But if nothing of 
 this sort occurred, he spent the last hours of the Sab- 
 bath partly in conversation with his own family, in the 
 course of which he would often break out into such an 
 exclamation as — " Oh that I could do these people 
 good ! " and partly in his study, where it was his cus- 
 tom to commence at once his preparations for the 
 succeeding Sabbath. 
 
 Mr. Leitch was not in the popular, or in the merely 
 intellectual sense, a great or remarkable preacher. We 
 cannot claim for him that he was endowed with the gift 
 of original genius, or that he was possessed of profound 
 and extensive learning, or that he had, in any great 
 degree, those graces of manner which sometimes make 
 up for the lack of almost everything else. But this is 
 what we can say of him, with the utmost confidence, 
 that he possessed the one altogether indispensable quali- 
 fication of a gospel minister, a thorough personal 
 acquaintance with evangelical truth ; tliat he usually 
 
140 AN EARNEST PASTOR A TE. 
 
 preached with an unction and a fullness of Christian 
 experience, for which eloquence alone would have been 
 a miserable substitute ; and that his discourses were 
 often so well put, and delivered with so much force and 
 fervour, as deeply to interest many even who had no 
 particular relish for his doctrine. Besides, and this 
 after all is the principal thing, his labours in the pulpit 
 were notably blessed to the conversion of souls. In 
 the exercise of this part of the ministry he had this 
 distinct testimony, — that he pleased God. 
 
 People are so little in the habit now-a-days of read- 
 ing sermons of any sort, that we do not think it would 
 serve any good purpose to burden this memorial with 
 many " remains." But following the plan we have had 
 in our eye throughout, we propose to give here three 
 specimens of his work in this connection — two sermons, 
 and a closing communion address. These will show, 
 better than any number of explanatory words, what was 
 the general style of his pulpit ministrations. Before 
 quoting these, however, we wish to indicate one or two 
 things we have noticed in looking through his papers in 
 reference to this department of his labours. 
 
 Once more, we must say that we have been greatly 
 affected to find how much of his time apparently was 
 given to prayer. Since speaking of this part expressly, 
 in a former chapter, we have discovered several addi- 
 tional books, wholly filled with spiritual reflections, aspi- 
 rations, and intercessions ; and not a few of these 
 groanings have reference to the public preaching of the 
 word. " Lord ! " he pleads, " thou hast told us that 
 hope deferred maketh the heart sick, — let not our hope 
 as to the outpouring of the Spirit be further deferred." 
 " May we so speak to the people — so present the truth 
 
THE PULPIT. 141 
 
 of the gospel to them — so reason with them — so appeal 
 to their minds and consciences, that they will not be able 
 to resist." " More conversions, Lord ! Oh ! how few 
 they have been ! " " O Lord ! why hast thou connected 
 me with this people, many of whom constantly resist the 
 truth, yield not to thine authority, receive not the mes- 
 sage of peace? Wilt thou not hear us on their behalf *?" 
 " If we have been deficient in the right warning of the 
 people — forgive. If there is anything wrong with my 
 teaching or my example — forgive. Let not the people 
 suffer ! " Breathing a spirit like this, Mr. Leitch habitu- 
 ally preached, and his words could not but have often 
 come home to his hearers in power. 
 
 We notice too, in Mr. Leitch, what we have fre- 
 quently observed as a characteristic of a certain class of 
 men, those namely, who read the Bible much and have 
 their hearts devoutly open to receive ever fresh impres- 
 sions from it, — a happy faculty for finding and setting 
 forth the gems with which the whole of Scripture 
 glistens. Many of his sermons are upon texts, the 
 simple utterance of which is arresting — as for example 
 " While I was musing, the fire burned." "Son, be of good 
 cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee." " Afterwards shall 
 they come out with great substance." " Salvation is of 
 the Jews." " The God of Jacob is our refuge." " The 
 beauties of holiness." " For God is able to grafif them 
 in again." " The members should have the same care 
 one for another." " Behold I am vile." " For all this 
 his anger is not turned away." " The Lord hath been 
 mindful of us." " He thanked God, and took courage." 
 " A wise son maketh a glad father." " I beheld the 
 transgressors and was grieved." " The day-spring from 
 on high hath visited us." " Make known His deeds 
 
142 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 among the people." " The things which God hath pre- 
 pared for them that love Him." " By Him actions are 
 weighed." " Worshipped, leaning on the top of his 
 staff." " Our conversation is in heaven." " Mercy shall 
 be built up for ever." " Thou fool !" " Mnason, an aged 
 disciple." "Thou, O Man of God." "Saviour of the 
 world." " The king hath brought me into his chambers." 
 " I will allure her into the wilderness." " That great 
 sight." " The precious sons of Zion." " When once the 
 master of the house hath risen up and hath shut to the 
 door." " Certain questions ... of one Jesus." " Ye 
 fools, when will ye be wise?" " Bless the lads" (ad- 
 dressed to young men). " They saw no man save Jesus 
 only." " This man receiveth sinners." " Compel them 
 to come in." The peculiarity in these texts is this, that 
 while they are all so short as to be easily remembered, 
 there is not one of them which does not contain an im- 
 portant principle, and which does not present that prin- 
 ciple in a striking and suggestive way. It may be taken 
 for granted that the man who, while not allowing him- 
 self to be led away by mere conceits, is often arrested 
 by such single sayings of Scripture — finding " hid trea- 
 sure " in parts of the field which are to others almost 
 wholly unproductive — is not only a careful student of 
 Holy Writ, but is one whose senses have been exercised 
 to discern spiritual realities. He may not have what 
 the world calls genius ; but he has what is better, powers 
 of spiritual perception, in virtue of which he is enabled 
 to see what to the natural man, however highly advanced, 
 is hidden by a veil. 
 
 It need not be said, however, that Mr. Leitch was not 
 content with bringing before his people any such frag- 
 ments of the Word as we have indicated. These 
 
THE PULPIT. 143 
 
 furnished topics for many of his sermons ; but besides 
 sermons, his stated pulpit ministrations embraced also 
 systematic expositions of the several books of Scripture. 
 We do not know how much of the Bible was overtaken 
 by him during his ministry of forty years, but we can 
 see from the numerous volumes of his MSS. lectures, 
 which, with his accustomed carefulness, he got bound and 
 lettered, that he opened up to his people the greater part 
 at least of the New Testament. These expositions are 
 not fully written out, but the preparation made by him for 
 their delivery seems to have been very careful and 
 elaborate. He began his lecture for the following Sab- 
 bath on the evening of the Sabbath which preceded it, 
 and often on every day of the succeeding week he added 
 something more or less to his accumulating mass of 
 material. The advantage of this plan was, that his 
 subject had time to steep in his mind — he had a fair 
 opportunity for seeing all round it — and when the day 
 arrived for its delivery, this was secured, not only that 
 the passage was thoroughly well considered, but that he 
 had usually ideas enough to make his discourse sub- 
 stantial in structure. As this particular method may 
 be new to some, we may give an illustration of it. 
 
 Towards the end of i860 Mr. Leitch began to 
 lecture through the First Epistle of John, and we find 
 that, on the evening of Sabbath 23d December, he con- 
 templated expounding, on the succeeding Sabbath, the 
 passage i John i. 8. ad finem. On the first page there- 
 fore of his paper he put down, to begin with, the date, 
 " So. Church, 30th December i860." This was not the 
 day on which he was then writing, but the day on 
 which he expected to deliver the discourse, which he 
 was at the moment commencing. The real date was 
 
144 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 the 23d, and under it (which is also given at the head of 
 the following page) there appear the introductory remarks 
 with which he proposed to himself to open the lecture. 
 On Monday the 24th nothing was added to the dis- 
 course. He was resting or busy, and the manuscript 
 remained the same as on Sabbath night. But upon 
 Tuesday the 25 th, the pen was resumed and no fewer 
 than five new pages appended to the preface. This 
 however, was nothing to what was accomplished on the 
 26 th (Wednesday.) Then the strength of the day must 
 have been given to the lecture, for as many as nineieoi 
 pages were added. Yet still the work was not complete. 
 He took up his pen once more on the 27th (Thursday), 
 and in six more pages he at last finished what he 
 preached on the 30th. Of course the handwriting is 
 large, and the mass is not actually so extensive as one 
 might be apt to suppose from hearing of so many pages. 
 But, with every allowance for that, there is unmistakable 
 evidence of elaborate preparation; and it is worth while 
 to note that all was done so early in the week as Thurs- 
 day, leaving thus two free days for what yet remained 
 to be achieved, — the composition of the weekly sermon. 
 We are responsible only for the right use of what we 
 actually possess, and hence no man will be condemned 
 for not being an eloquent, learned, or intellectual 
 preacher, if God has not bestowed upon him the gifts, 
 or afforded him the opportunities to become any of the 
 three. One cannot help, however, being persuaded 
 that the pulpit might be everywhere a greater power for 
 good, if all those who are called to occupy it would, 
 without reference to their natural endowments, make as 
 diligent and business-hke a use of their time in prepa- 
 ration, as was made by Mr. Leitch. 
 
THE PULPIT. 145 
 
 I. A KNOCKING SAVIOUR. 
 
 Rev. iii. 20. first clause. — "Behold, I stand at the door, and 
 knock." 
 
 It is Christ Jesus, the Lord, who thus speaks. 
 
 The door, at which he represents himself as standing, 
 is the door of entrance into the human soul. 
 
 And the first remark, which it occurs to us to make, 
 in commenting on the text is, that Jesus has originally — 
 natively — no place in our soul ; for, if he had, it would 
 not be necessary for him to seek admission. The text 
 represents him as being without — not within. 
 
 Whoever are the occupants of the soul at first, Christ 
 is not one of them. Whoever may be inside, he is not 
 — the text represents him as outside the door. And who 
 are they that are in possession of the soul? Satan has 
 a place there. Nay, the soul is spoken of (Luke xi. 21) 
 as Satan's palace, which he not only occupies, but in 
 which he has much goods — where he has both arjnoiir 
 and spoils. He himself is spoken of as a strong man, 
 armed, keeping this noble, but impaired and usurped 
 palace. Satan, then, is an occupant of the human soul 
 — and his name is legion — -for unclean spirits go in bands 
 — they are associated in companies — and, as thus asso- 
 ciated, they occupy men's souls. 
 
 There dwell also in the human soul numberless foul 
 lusts, and corrupt desires and dispositions ; the soul is 
 crowded with these — such as envy, jealousy, malice, 
 deceitfulness, covetousness, pride, ambition, revenge, 
 ungodliness. 
 
 These are the native occupants of the soul — the 
 aborigines of that land. The soul may be described in 
 the language in which fallen mystical Babylon is, Rev. 
 
146 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 xviii. 2 — " the habitation of devils, and the hold of every 
 foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." 
 
 Has this fearful state of soul ever been seriously 
 considered by you 1 — has it ever truly impressed you 1 
 Remember that it is the natural state of your soul. Christ 
 without — outside, — and within these unclean spirits, 
 and loathsome feelings and dispositions. It is a most 
 lamentable and melancholy condition of soul. But such 
 is the true state. Oh ! know that it is so. Oh ! con- 
 sider that this is the case. Yoiir case, O hearer ! — the 
 soul full of all unrighteousness — like the sepulchre, full 
 of rottenness and dead men's bones — Christ seeking 
 entrance to purify the soul, but not suffered by you to 
 obtain it. 
 
 II. Consider Christ's knocking. He knocks at the 
 door — at your door — and why % that he may be permitted 
 to enter. 
 
 I. The door is shut — he finds it so — therefore he 
 knocks — knocks, that it may be opened. And here 
 appears a fearful feature of your ungodliness. Other 
 parties do not find the door shut : when Satan comes, 
 he does not need to knock, he finds the door open — yea, 
 wide open. When lust cometh, it finds the door open — 
 it does not need to knock ; or, should the door be 
 closed, lust's knock is at once recognised, and the door 
 is forthwith opened. When the world comes, it finds 
 easy and immediate admission. When vain and sinful 
 thoughts come — they have no difficulty in obtaining en- 
 trance — the door is open for them — they don't need to 
 wait ordinarily at the door previous to their admission. 
 
 But when Christ comes to the door, he finds it shut — 
 he finds it firmly closed against him — not only shut, but 
 barred and bolted. There is no access for him — he is not 
 
THE PULPIT. 147 
 
 welcome — he is regarded and treated as an intruder. 
 How shameful — how criminal your conduct ! It is virtu- 
 ally the same awful conduct which the Jews of old ex- 
 emplified when they preferred the infamous Barabbas to 
 the ever-blessed Jesus. 
 
 2. Jesus knocks to obtain admission. Behold, I stand 
 at the door and knock. In what manner does he knock % 
 
 He knocks in the calls and invitations of the gospel, 
 which he addresses to you. He knocks, for example, 
 when he says (Isaiah Iv. i), " Ho, every one that thirsteth, 
 come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money : 
 come ye, buy and eat : yea, come, buy wine and milk 
 without money, and without price." (Ezek. xxxiii. ii), 
 " Turn ye, turn ye fi'om your evil ways ; for why will ye 
 die, O house of Israel 1 " Jesus knocks when he says 
 (John vii. 37), "If any man thirst, let him come unto 
 me and drink." Jesus knocks at your door in the 
 representations, arguments, expostulations, and warnings, 
 which he addresses to you with reference to your 
 spiritual interests ; he knocks, for example, when he 
 speaks to you, saying, " Wherefore do ye spend money for 
 that which is not bread ? and your labour for that which 
 satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that 
 which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." 
 (Isaiah Iv. 2). " What is a man profited, if he shall gain 
 the whole world, and lose his own soul 1 or what shall a 
 man give in exchange for his soul 1 " (Matt. xvi. 26). 
 
 Jesus knocks at your door in the threatenings which 
 he addresses to you on account of disobedience per- 
 severed in and unrepented of: (Rom. ii. 5), "After thy 
 hardness and impenitent heart treasures! up unto thyself 
 wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the 
 righteous judgment of God." (v. 8), " But unto them that 
 
148 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey 
 unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and 
 anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil." All 
 these invitations, and expostulations, and threatenings, are 
 knockings of Jesus at our door. They are real and distinct 
 knocks — knocks, given by the infinitely gracious Saviour. 
 Jesus also knocks at your door by the suggestions and 
 strivings of his Spirit — his Spirit often suggests to you 
 what you ought to do — suggests to you that the things 
 which belong to your salvation demand your immediate 
 and most careful attention. 
 
 The Spirit of Christ strives with you by inward and 
 frequent promptings to the doing of what is obligatory 
 upon you. 
 
 The Spirit of Christ strives with you by producing in 
 you convictions, more or less strong, more or less abiding. 
 of what is right, what is needful to be done. These 
 promptings and convictions are Christ's knocks at your 
 door — for he gives you the Spirit to produce them. 
 
 Christ thus knocks by his Word and Spirit. 
 
 He knocks also by the religious ordinances which he 
 has instituted : every time that any of these ordinances 
 are administered to you, Christ knocks at your door — 
 every sermon preached to you is Christ's knock — every 
 prayer you hear is Christ's knock — every time you wit- 
 ness the dispensation of the simple but most instructive 
 sacrament of baptism, Christ knocks at your door — every 
 communion season which comes round to you is Christ's 
 knock at your door. Every Sabbath with which you are 
 favoured is, on account of the design of its institution, 
 Christ's knock. 
 
 Christ knocks at your door in his providence too, as 
 well as in those ways to which we have been adverting. 
 
 When he visits you with personal affliction — affliction 
 
THE PULPIT. 149 
 
 of a bodily or mental kind — that affliction is Christ's 
 knock at the door. 
 
 In the death of a member of your household, or 
 of a friend or neighbour, Christ knocks ; and some of 
 these knocks are peculiarly loud, solemn, and impressive. 
 Hezekiah's sickness, so alarming and threatening, was a 
 loud knock at his door. Rachel's death, near Bethle- 
 hem, was a loud knock at Jacob's door (Gen. xxxv). 
 Lazarus' death was a loud knock at the door of his sur- 
 viving sisters Martha and Mary, 
 
 Jesus knocks by blessings bestowed on us in provi- 
 dence, as well as by afflictions with which he visits us. 
 Every new mercy which he sends, whether of a temporal 
 or spiritual character, is an additional knock which he 
 gives at the door of our souls. 
 
 3. Christ's knocking at our door is a very serious 
 matter to us ; it places us in circumstances of great 
 responsibility. 
 
 The consequences of disregarding Christ's knocking 
 must be fearful indeed. Oh ! don't think it is a light 
 thing that Christ knocks at your door. Don't regard 
 these knocks as univiportant. I warn you that they are 
 not. Doiit trifle with them ; every knock will terribly 
 aggravate your condemnation in the world of retribution. 
 In this point of view there is something peculiarly 
 solemn in every knock which Jesus gives. 
 
 III. It is to be observed, in the next place, that 
 Christ STANDS at the door and knocks. 
 
 He stands at the door — he does not come to the 
 door and give one knock or two., and on the door not 
 being opened turn and go away, and knock no more. 
 He does not take the first refusal. He might do so. 
 Having been extruded from the soul at the fall, he might 
 remain away altogether. Why should he return at alk 
 
150 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 and seek a habitation in the soul from which he has 
 been banished ? He is not dependent in any way on the 
 creature man, or on any creature. It is wonderful to see 
 him at all at the door of the soul, from which he has 
 been expelled. But coming back and giving one knock, 
 and the door not being opened, he might forthwith go 
 away, declaring that he would never return. 
 
 That, however, is not the method of his procedure. 
 He does not go away, though at first, when he knocks, 
 the door is kept shut against him. 
 
 He stands at the closed door, and continues his 
 knocking. He perseveres in the exercise of his mercy 
 and compassion, while the poor infatuated sinner is per- 
 severing in awful and foolhardy opposition to the Lord 
 Jesus. And he may stand long. How long, O hearer ! 
 has Jesus stood at your door % Still outside — the door 
 not being yet opened for his admission. How true is it 
 that the Lord has no pleasure in the death of the sinner! 
 Jesus stands — continues — day after day, and night after 
 night, at the sinner's door. 
 
 It may be that the thoughtless, careless sinner, may 
 yet be prevailed upon to open the door. Therefore, 
 Jesus does not take the sinner's first repulse ; he bears 
 with him. He is unwilling to give up the sinner to the 
 damnation of hell — unwilling to inflict upon him merited 
 punishment. And therefore he stands — and knocks. 
 Truly may the Lord say, for my thoughts are not your 
 thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the 
 heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher 
 than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts 
 (Isaiah Iv. 8). Would you stand long at a neighbour's 
 door which was not opened to your knocking % Would 
 you not consider the refusal of the inmates to open the 
 door insulting % and, incensed by the contemptuous treat- 
 
THE PULPIT. 151 
 
 ment given you, you would turn away. But thus does 
 not act the compassionate and merciful Saviour. He 
 stands at the door, and knocks. 
 
 IV. Let it be further observed that Jesus does not 
 force an entrance into the soul. Jesus is not like the 
 
 thief and robber he himself describes (John x.), who 
 enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up 
 some other way. 
 
 If Jesus enters into the soul it must be by the door. 
 The door must be opened. If he enter, it must be through 
 the door of the sinner's own consent — the door of the 
 sinner's ozvn free zvill. O hearer, know this, that Jesus 
 will not come into your soul in opposition to your wishes 
 and desires — in opposition to your will. You must con- 
 sent to his admission. 
 
 The indwelling in your soul, which he seeks, is not 
 an indwelling to which you are opposed — against which 
 your will rebels. He must come in by the door of your 
 own will. And, unless you open this door for him, he 
 will never come in. You must consent to his entrance ; 
 otherwise, he will not come in. This door is your consent. 
 
 V. Consider who it is that knocks for admission a' 
 your door. 
 
 The text says, " Behold, / stand at the door, and 
 knock." Who is it ? 
 
 It is a glorious personage truly. It is the Son of 
 God. It is God in the person of the Son. Who is it % 
 It is he whom Isaiah describes (ch. ix. 6) as the Child 
 born, the Son given, on whose shoulder is the govern- 
 ment, whose name is Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty 
 God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. It 
 is he, whom the same prophet further describes (ch. 
 xxxii.) as the " King who reigns in righteousness — the 
 man who is the hiding-place from the wind, and a covert 
 
152 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 from the tempest ; as rivers of water in a dry place ; as 
 the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Who is 
 it that speaks, saying, Behold I stand at the door, and 
 knock ? It is the Word, who was in the beginning — the 
 Word that was with God — the Word which is God ; by 
 whom all things were made, and without whom was not 
 anything made that was made ; in whom is life ; that 
 life which is the light of men (John i. 4). 
 
 It is this glorious personage who desires entrance into 
 your souls. And from the admission of Jesus nothing 
 but good can flow. It is to bless, that he asks admission 
 into your soul — it is to do you good. It is to commu- 
 nicate to you the best, the richest blessings. 
 
 Do you ask why he seeks admission % It is not that 
 he needs you., but because you need him. He asks admis- 
 sion into your heart because it is rightfully his. He is 
 your creator and proprietor. He asks admission into 
 your heart, to purify it — to fill it with holy light and 
 holy life. He asks admission into your soul, to fill it 
 with hope, comfort, and joy. He asks admission into 
 your soul, to make it the honoured temple of his per- 
 petual residence. As it is written (i Cor. iii. 16), " Know 
 ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit 
 of God dwelleth in you % " 
 
 VI. There is a peculiar force in the word Behold, as 
 used in the text, to which we would now call your attention. 
 
 I. We are to behold Christ standing at the sinner's 
 door knocking, in order that we may be impressed with 
 the condescension of Jesus. Oh, what an attitude of con- 
 descension this ! — Jesus standing, and standing in the 
 humble position of a supplicant, at the sinner's door. 
 Earthly Majesty, standing at the cottager's door, desiring 
 admission, is nothing. That is but one fellow-creature 
 comina; into contact with another. 
 
THE PULPIT. 153 
 
 But the text shows us Divine Majesty, not only at the 
 creature's door, but at the sinner's door. Here is conde- 
 scension without a parallel. Admire that condescension. 
 Be astonished at it. Let it deeply impress your minds. 
 
 2. Behold Jesus standing at the door and knocking, 
 that you may see the greatness of Divine love. 
 
 What induces Jesus to come to the sinner's door, 
 and stand there and knock ? It is love. God is love. 
 See, here, its wondrous manifestation. 
 
 God seeking admission into the sinner's soul, to fill 
 it with light, purity, and joy. Herein, indeed, is love. 
 And if we are not impressed by it, it shows how dread- 
 fully hardened our hearts are. 
 
 3. Behold Jesus standing at the door knocking, 
 that you may see an amazing instance of human wickedness 
 and folly. Jesus refused admittance ; the door shut 
 against him. His knocks, however loud and solemn, 
 utterly disregarded. 
 
 And who is it that is guilty of this fearful wicked- 
 ness — of this consummate folly 1 It is you, O 
 hearer ! This egregious wickedness is manifested by you. 
 Oh ! be guilty of it no more. Cease to act such an un- 
 wise and culpable part. How strange your conduct — 
 admitting your enemies, and excluding him who comes 
 to bless you. Oh ! do you not see what a shameful 
 and blameworthy part you are acting 1 
 
 4. Behold Jesus standing at the door knocking, that 
 you may see an astonishi?ig instance of patience and for- 
 bearance. Such an instance there is in the conduct of 
 the Lord Jesus towards the sinner — continuing to main- 
 tain this position — standing at the sinner's door — seeing 
 the vilest and the most abominable admitted freely, and 
 at once, whilst the door is shut against him. 
 
 But the exercise of his patience towards you will 
 
154 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 come to an end. He will not stand there always. The 
 time will come when he will turn away — when he will 
 depart. Though he wait long, he will not wait always. 
 The last knock shall be given ; don't abuse the patience 
 of Jesus. Patience abused becomes fury in the end. 
 
 5. Behold Jesus standing at the door knocking, that 
 you jnay be induced to ope?i to him. Behold it is Jesus 
 that stands and knocks. It is Jesus — the Saviour. It 
 is he who is full of grace and truth — he who has the 
 keys of hell and of death — who has all power in heaven 
 and in earth. Will you not open to him % Behold 
 who it is. It is the best of friends — the most bountiful 
 and untiring of benefactors. Let the consideration that 
 it is Jesus persuade you to open unto him. 
 
 6. Behold Jesus standing at the door knocking, and 
 Icarn that measures and means for reconciliation origi- 
 nate with the Lord. The sinner does not first knock at 
 Jesus' door, but Jesus knocks first at the sinner's door : 
 (Luke xix. 10), " The Son of Man is come to seek and 
 to save that which was lost." 
 
 Have any of you given admission to Jesus into your 
 hearts % Oh ! I beseech you, retain him. Don't pro- 
 voke him to leave you — be jealous over yourselves lest 
 you do anything whereby you may provoke him to 
 depart from you. See what care the Spouse in the Song 
 of Solomon evinced regarding this very point ; enjoying 
 the presence and fellowship of Jesus, how great was her 
 anxiety that her high and spiritual enjoyment might not 
 h^ interrupted ! and, accordingly, you find her saying (ch. 
 iii. 5), "I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by 
 the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, 
 nor awake my love, till he please." Constrain him, as 
 did the disciples with whom he walked to Emmaus, to 
 abide with you. 
 
THE PULPIT. 155 
 
 But I would feel deeply concerned regarding you 
 who are still keeping Jesus outside the door of your hearts 
 and souls. Oh ! think of the deep dishonour you are 
 offering to the Lord Jesus. What does he seek 1 — ad- 
 mission into your souls. He knocks to obtain that admis- 
 sion — you deny him that which he condescendingly and 
 earnestly asks. Does not that denial dishonour him % 
 
 Think of the injury you are doing yourselves by your 
 conduct % By refusing admission to Christ you are re- 
 fusing salvation — you are refusing all the blessings, un- 
 speakably precious, which Christ brings along with him 
 into souls into which he gets entrance. Oh ! how un- 
 reasonable to act the part which you are now doing. 
 This day then, open the door to the all-loving, all-gracious 
 Redeemer. Be ashamed and confounded, that you have 
 treated him so insultingly as you have done. 
 
 Let his importunity prevail with you : importunity 
 prevailed in the case of the man who would not, at first, 
 on being applied to, rise and let in his friend at mid- 
 night (Luke xi. 8). Oh ! why is it that the importunity 
 of Jesus does not prevail with you % Not the impor- 
 tunity of man, but of Jesus. 
 
 But hark ! there is another knock — the knock of the 
 gospel preached at this time. Is that knock to prevail % 
 Who knows but it may be the last % Oh ! do you not 
 hear the gracious, entreating voice of Jesus % — " Open 
 unto me : my head is filled with dew, and my locks 
 with the drops of the night" (Song v. 2). What a 
 cutting, terrible reflection hereafter, that you did not 
 open to Jesus. Are you to be given up to that imper- 
 ishably bitter and poignant reflection % God forbid ! 
 (Acts xvi. 14). 
 
156 AN EARNEST PASTOR A TE. 
 
 II. FOUR SORTS OF MEN. 
 
 I Tim. V. 24, 25. — " Some men's sins are open beforehand, going 
 before to judgment ; and some men they follow after. Likewise 
 also the good works of some are manifest beforehand ; and they 
 that are otherwise cannot be hid." 
 
 There are four sorts of people described in this pass- 
 age, though they range themselves under two general 
 classes. These classes are, the unregenerated on the one 
 hand, and on the other those who have experienced the 
 new birth. Each of these classes is subdivided into two 
 different kinds of individuals : of the unconverted, two 
 kinds of persons are described, and of the converted, 
 two kinds also. 
 
 In directing our attention to these several sorts of 
 persons, we shall take them up in the order in which 
 they are mentioned in the passage. 
 
 I. Let us consider the two sorts of persons into 
 which the unconverted are divided. The two are, ist, 
 those whose sins are open beforehand, going before to 
 judgment ; and 2d, those whose sins follow after. 
 
 I. Those whose sins are open beforehand, going 
 before to judgment. 
 
 The persons referred to under this head are those 
 whose sins are quite patent, and of that description 
 which unquestionably indicate that they are in an un- 
 godly condition. It is not merely that they do sinful 
 things which are open to observation — for that is the 
 case with the best of men ; but such sins are done by 
 them, and done in such circumstances, as to leave no 
 room for doubt that they are unregenerated. God's 
 saints, while on earth, are not free from sins — sins, 
 many of which cannot be concealed ; but persons be- 
 
THE PULPIT. 157 
 
 longing to the class of which we now speak, show most 
 distinctly that they are so — their sins are open before- 
 hand, going before to judgment. There cannot be the 
 least uncertainty what the judgment shall be that shall 
 be pronounced upon them. We shall now mention some 
 things, in regard to persons of this class, which make 
 their sins declarative of their being in an unconverted 
 state ; or what sins prove people to be in that con- 
 dition. 
 
 Their sins are wilful. It is with their full consent 
 that they do evil. There are sins which are committed 
 by reason of sudden and powerful temptation — sins, into 
 which one may fall in consequence of surprise which has 
 taken hold of one at the time, — sins, which are not the 
 result of purpose and deliberation ; but wilful sins are 
 those which are committed with full consent — which are 
 the fruit of purpose and determination. In regard to 
 sin of this description, it is said (Heb. x. 26), " For if we 
 sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of 
 the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but 
 a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery in- 
 dignation, which shall devour the adversaries." 
 
 Again, presu?/iJ>fuoHS sins are sins which are open be- 
 forehand, going before to judgment. Sins characterised 
 by arrogance and boldness ; sins which are of a high- 
 handed and daring description. What a presumptuous 
 sinner was Pharaoh, king of Egypt, as shown by his own 
 insolent and profane language (Exod. v. 2), " Who is the 
 Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go ? I 
 know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." Let us 
 make it our prayer, as the Psalmist does (Ps. xix. 13), 
 " Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins ; let 
 them not have dominion over me." 
 
1 58 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 Again, sins connected with persecution are sins which 
 are open beforehand, going before to judgment — the sin 
 of oppressing, or otherwise injuring the people of God 
 on account of their rehgion, on account of their hold- 
 ing and professing the truth as it is in Christ Jesus— sin 
 like that of Herod the king, when he stretched forth his 
 hands to vex certain of the church, and killed James 
 the brother of John, Avith the sword ; and because he 
 saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take 
 Peter also. 
 
 Again, sins betokening hardness of heart and im- 
 pefiitence, are sins which are open beforehand, going 
 before to judgment — sins which betoken searedness of 
 conscience and insensibility of soul to religious impres- 
 sions, as it is said (Rom. ii. 5), " After thy hardness 
 and impenitent heart treasures! up unto thyself wrath 
 against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous 
 judgment of God." 
 
 Further, perseverance in wickedness shows one's state 
 to be unconverted. The judgment is manifest before- 
 hand which shall be pronounced on those who per- 
 severe in striving with their Maker — who persevere in 
 their unbelief and disobedience — persons who continue 
 in their evil courses, notwithstanding all the admonitions 
 and remonstrances which are addressed to them. 
 
 Those whose sins are open beforehand, going before 
 to judgment, are those who have no fear of God before 
 their eyes, who unblushingly avow their sinful principles 
 and practices, who avow and proclaim the erroneous 
 sentiments which they hold, and the evil actions which 
 they perform ; who glory in their shame. 
 
 All persons such as we have been describing belong 
 to the first of the classes specified in our text ; their sins 
 
THE PULPIT. ■ 159 
 
 are open, they are patent to observation ; there is no 
 covering thrown over many of them. At least the swearer 
 throws no covering over liis profane language ; the in- 
 temperate man throws no covering over his insobriety ; 
 the Sabbath-breaker throws no covering over his desecra- 
 tion of the Lord's day. 
 
 The sins of persons of this class are open beforehand ; 
 no inquiry needs to be instituted regarding them, as 
 to what manner of persons they are. Their evil actions 
 supersede all inquiry, and render it unnecessary ; their 
 sins go before to judgment ; their sins foretel what their 
 judgment shall be. We don't need to wait to know the 
 judgment that shall h^ prouoiaiced upon them ; their sins 
 go before to judgment. Their judgment is anticipated 
 and foreshown by their course of life — by the habits 
 which they follow — and the actions which are done by 
 them. 
 
 The works of the flesh, it is said (Gal. v. 19), are 
 manifest : the works which declare a person to be in a 
 carnal state, — "uncleanness, hatred, variance, emulations, 
 wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
 drunkenness, revellings, and suchlike ; of the which I tell 
 you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they 
 who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of 
 God." 
 
 2. The second sort of persons, into which the uncon- 
 verted are here divided, are those whose sins are said to 
 follow after. In regard to persons of the former class, 
 their sins are so open and undisguised, as manifestly to 
 go before to judgment. It is quite evident beforehand 
 what the judgment shall be that shall be pronounced 
 upon them ; but in regard to persons of this second 
 class, their sins don't so obviously go before to judgment, 
 
160 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 but they follow after — that is, so far as the view of men 
 is concerned. It is quite a different thing in regard to 
 the view of God. In his view the sins of men go before 
 to judgment. As soon as a sin is committed, it, in 
 the view of God, whether men are cognisant of it or no, 
 speeds on its unfailing course to the judgment. 
 
 But unconverted men may conceal their more flag- 
 rant sins from the view of their fellow-men ; they may 
 succeed in hiding their more odious offences from public 
 observation ; and thus, so far as the notice of fellow-men 
 is concerned, the sins of such persons follow after to the 
 judgment. Men cannot say, in regard of persons of this 
 class, what the judgment shall be which shall be pro- 
 nounced upon them, for their sins are concealed. But 
 this is certain, that their sins follow after them, and 
 that ultimately they shall be divulged. 
 
 Sins hid from the public eyes are nevertheless follow- 
 ing most surely the perpetrators of them. The sins 
 which are not open beforehand, going before to judg- 
 ment, are yet following after the doers of them. Men 
 may not indeed see this following-after — this pursuit, — 
 still it is rigidly going on. Judas Iscariot contrived to 
 hide his covetousness, his carnality, his want of love 
 to Jesus, and his unbelief, even from his fellow-disciples 
 with whom he was daily associating. These, his sins, 
 were not for many a day open beforehand, going before 
 to judgment ; nevertheless, notwithstanding their being 
 concealed, they followed after to judgment him who was 
 guilty of them. 
 
 There are unconverted men whose unregeneracy is 
 concealed. The proof of it is not so apparent as in the 
 case of those composing the former class. There is 
 abundant proof of it in reality, but it is very much hid 
 
THE PULPIT. 161 
 
 from public view : a covering is thrown over it, and not 
 unfrequently that covering is professed rehgion. 
 
 Oh ! how much concealed sin is there in the world — 
 concealed selfishness — concealed fraud — concealed false- 
 hood — concealed malice — concealed impurity — con- 
 cealed corruption of every sort. But sin, however suc- 
 cessfully it may be concealed, is following, and following 
 closely, the doers of it. It is all open to the observation 
 of the omniscient eye of Jehovah ; it is all recorded in 
 his book of remembrance, and will be fully disclosed in 
 the judgment of the great day. 
 
 The difference, then, between these two classes of 
 unconverted persons is, that in regard to the former their 
 sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment ; 
 while in regard to the latter, their sins, at least those 
 which decidedly show them to be in an unconverted 
 state, are not, in the meantime, visible to men, but 
 follow after them, to be revealed and declared. Their 
 sins do not now proclaim themselves, but they are 
 following their perpetrators, to be publidy divulged. 
 The concealment of sin is not the putting of it out of 
 sight for ever. It is merely the hiding of it for a time : 
 the covering will be ere long taken off, and the sin fully 
 exposed. 
 
 II. Let us now consider the two sorts of persons 
 into which the converted are divided in our text. 
 
 The two are — i. Those whose good works are mani- 
 fest beforehand ; and ii. Those in regard to whom it is 
 otherwise. 
 
 I. Those whose good works are manifest before- 
 hand. 
 
 And here let me request you to notice (i.) That 
 good works are characteristic of converted persons. 
 
 M 
 
162 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 Works which are really good spring from love to 
 God and love to men ; love is the grand principle of all 
 good works. So much so, that if love be awanting, there 
 cannot be any good works whatsoever. Love is the 
 foundation of all good action ; it constrains to the keep- 
 ing of the commandments generally, as Jesus declares, 
 saying (John xiv. 23), " If a man love me, he will keep 
 my words." 
 
 In another point of view, good works are the effect 
 of the indwelling Spirit. It is he who sheds abroad love 
 in the heart ; it is he who disposes and enables to the 
 performance of good works. The fruit of the Spirit is 
 in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. 
 
 Good works are characteristic of converted persons. 
 In conversion we receive a new nature, which, being 
 holy, inclines to the doing of good. 
 
 Unconverted men may do works which are apparently 
 good ; but the apparent goodness is not real, for that 
 which is born of the flesh cannot be anything else than 
 flesh. However seemingly good the works of any unre- 
 generated man may be at any time, the Scriptures call 
 them "dead works," — because they are the works of 
 those who are spiritually dead — the works of persons 
 devoid of spiritual life. 
 
 (2.) The characteristic feature of this first class of 
 converted persons is, that their good works are manifest 
 beforehand. 
 
 Their good works are manifestive of the judgment 
 which shall be pronounced upon them. Persons of this 
 class are shown to be regenerated by {a.) the abundance 
 of their good works. Like the saint Dorcas, of whom 
 we read, Acts ix., they are full of good works. It is not 
 an occasional good deed which is done by them, but they 
 
THE PULPIT. 163 
 
 abound in such deeds. They are not weary in welldoing, 
 but do good to all as they get opportunity. 
 
 (^.) Persons of this class are shown to be regene- 
 rated by the zeal which they exhibit in the good works 
 done by them ; for they are neither cold nor lukewann, 
 but hearty and energetic in doing good. They seek to 
 realise the spirit of Christ, as evinced by him when he 
 said, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up ; and, I 
 must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day : 
 the night cometh, when no man can work. The things 
 that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good 
 report, are the things which they delight in and are 
 anxious to do. 
 
 (<r.) Persons of this class are shown to be regene- 
 rated by their continuance in good works ; for they per- 
 severe in the doing of them, in spite of all the obloquy 
 and opposition which they may experience. They are 
 steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work 
 of the Lord. The good works of such persons tell before- 
 hand what the judgment shall be which shall be pro- 
 nounced upon them. We don't require to wait till it be 
 pronounced, to know what it shall be. Their works 
 anticipate the judgment, and foretell what it is to be. 
 The good works of some are manifest beforehand. 
 
 II. The second class of converted persons mentioned 
 in the text consists of those whose good works are not 
 manifest beforehand. 
 
 They do good works too ; as converted persons, they 
 must do good works ; the new nature, of which they are 
 the happy partakers, must act in the way of doing good ; 
 goodness of soul, which all of them possess more or 
 less, must regulate, necessarily, the outward life. But 
 various circumstances may prevent the good works from 
 
164 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 being so manifest as in the case of the persons compos- 
 ing the former class. They may not have the abiUty of 
 the others — nor the means. They may not occupy so 
 conspicuous a situation as the others ; theirs may be a 
 situation which does not bring them prominently before 
 the public. The principal cause is, that grace itself is 
 weaker in them than in the others. Still, in their own 
 place, and in their own sphere, they do good works. 
 Their good works for a time may be concealed, but they 
 shall not always be so. Just as the hidden sins of a 
 former class of persons, it is declared, shall be brought 
 to light ; so, in regard to concealed good works, it is 
 here declared that they shall be brought to light too. 
 They cannot be hid ; the Lord has them all registered, 
 and will publish them on the great day of reckoning. 
 
 The conversion of some men cannot be positively 
 ascertained just now. Their good works, owing to par- 
 ticular circumstances, don't unquestionably prove their 
 conversion to their fellow-men. They are converted, 
 but there is a defect in the evidence of that being the 
 fact, so far as fellow-men can take cognisance of the 
 evidence ; but the Lord will yet make the evidence 
 visible — he will cause it to appear. 
 
 This second class of converted persons are, speaking 
 of them generally, and without reference to exceptional 
 cases, not so worthy as the former ; for surely they excel 
 whose good works are manifest beforehand, and the 
 light of whose holiness shines clearly and steadily before 
 their fellow-men. Still, no converted man shall, in 
 regard to his being such, be ultimately hid ; but surely 
 it is, in every view, better that that fact appear now. 
 
 In conclusion, we shall briefly remark — i. That every- 
 thing done by us comes under the head either of sin or 
 
THE PULPIT. 165 
 
 good work. That which is not good work, is sin. Avoid 
 sin ; let that which you do be good. 
 
 2. Our conduct now is proving us either to be 
 Christ's or Satan's. He that committeth sin is of the 
 devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit 
 sin. 
 
 3. Amazing disclosures will be made on the last day 
 — disclosures of hidden good — disclosures of hidden evil. 
 Oh ! live, then, in view of the judgment, and act for the 
 judgment. 
 
 4. Oh ! be converted ; and let )'our life plainly show 
 that this is the case. 
 
 III. CONCLUDING COMMUNION 
 EXHORTATION. 
 
 Having declared yourselves the friends of Jesus, com- 
 municants, you must feel yourselves bound to keep 
 his commandments. You cannot be his real friends 
 unless you do so. And all the commandments are 
 summed up into two, which are these — Thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and soul, and 
 strength, and mind ; and. Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
 as thyself. 
 
 Cherish, then, love to God. This is your great and 
 primary duty, and is inclusive of all others : love him 
 sincerely — love him with all your heart. What can be 
 more odious to God than a profession of love which is 
 not founded upon genuine affection % Will it not pro- 
 voke his displeasure, and expose those who are guilty 
 of making such a profession to the direful expressions of 
 his indignation % Absalom pretended to feel a great 
 affection for his father David, the king, when, after 
 
166 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 having returned to Jerusalem, he said, Now let me see 
 the king's face, — and when he bowed himself on his face 
 to the ground before the king ; but it was all pretence, 
 for shortly after, in direct opposition to every sentiment 
 and feeling of affection, he usurped the throne, and 
 eagerly endeavoured to slay his father. So there 'are 
 many who profess to love God while they feel no affec- 
 tion to him. They profess to love him, but in works they 
 deny him. They draw near to him with their bodies, 
 saying, Lord, Lord, whilst he is not in all their thoughts; 
 yea, whilst their hearts are far from him. The law re- 
 quires us not only to give to God the outward profession 
 of love, but to yield him our very hearts. My son, he 
 says to each one of us, give me your heart. The affec- 
 tions must be placed on some object, and the law requires 
 that God should be that object. And he is an accurate 
 and infallible judge of the sincerity of our love to him. 
 For all things, even the secret recesses of our souls, are 
 fully exposed to his view. Darkness hideth not from 
 him, but the darkness and the light are both alike unto 
 him. Cherish holy and intelligent love to God. It is 
 not a blind or superstitious affection which the law 
 requires, but an affection arising from a knowledge of 
 the love-inspiring excellences of the nature and cha- 
 racter of Jehovah. Love is holy and intelligent when it 
 arises from the knowledge and esteem of moral qualities 
 in the object of it. The love of God, which the law 
 requires, is founded on the perception of the glory of the 
 Divine nature, and the excellence of the character of 
 God — on the knowledge of his unspotted righteousness, 
 his inflexible justice, his infinite wisdom, his unbounded 
 goodness and rich grace. It arises from the knowledge 
 of the relations in which he stands to us. He is our 
 
THE PULPIT. 167 
 
 God, as he created, and as he preserves us, and suppHes 
 all our wants, and in Christ engages to be our everlast- 
 ing friend and benefactor. Such undeserved kindness, 
 such matchless grace, should kindle an unextinguishable 
 flame of love in our souls. Your love to God must be 
 supreme. He must be loved above every other object ; 
 above those of your fellow-men who are most nearly 
 related to us ; above father and mother, brother and 
 sister, wife and children, yea, and your own life also. 
 The law enjoins us to love God supremely — to give him 
 the chief place in our affections. The language of such 
 love is, Whom have I in heaven but God % and there is 
 none on all the earth whom I desire besides him : he is 
 the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. 
 
 Your love to God must be practical. It must not 
 be confined to feeling or sentiment, but must be the 
 governing principle of the life and conduct. This is 
 love of the right kind, that we walk after his command- 
 ments. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is 
 the love of God perfected. This is the love of God, 
 that we keep his commandments. We read also of the 
 labour of love ; from all which expressions of the inspired 
 writings it is evident that the true love of God is of a 
 practical nature, constitutes an active principle, and dis- 
 poses all who feel it to keep his commandments. Your 
 love of God must likewise be constant. It is not suffi- 
 cient that the love of God be maintained for a day, or a 
 month, or a year, or any specified time ; or that it con- 
 tinue only whilst you are in the sanctuary, or seated at 
 the communion table. The law commands that it shall 
 be perpetual. The reason of this is obvious. The 
 attributes and perfections of the Divine nature — the 
 ground of love — being unchangeable, it must always be 
 
1C8 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 incumbent on those who are capable of knowing and 
 appreciating them, to love him on account of them. As 
 God is always amiable and lovely, so it must be always 
 a duty to love him. 
 
 This love of God will express itself ifi praising him. 
 Perceiving somewhat of the excellence of the character 
 and nature of God, and admiring and loving it, we will 
 naturally be led to praise him on account of it. " I will 
 praise thee" (says the Psalmist), "with my whole heart : 
 before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship 
 toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy 
 loving-kindness and for thy truth : for thou hast mag- 
 nified thy word above all thy name. O give thanks 
 unto the Lord ; for he is good : for his mercy endureth 
 for ever. O give thanks unto the God of gods : for his 
 mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks to the Lord 
 of lords : for his mercy endureth for ever. To him 
 who alone doeth great wonders : for his mercy endureth 
 for ever. I will extol thee, my God, O King : and I will 
 bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I 
 bless thee ; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. 
 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised ; and his 
 greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise 
 thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts." 
 It is natural to praise those whom we love : love is 
 frequent and abundant in the commendation of its 
 objects, whether God or any other being. 
 
 True love of God will dispose those who feel it to 
 meditate upon hiin. It is natural to think frequently of 
 those to whom we are sincerely and warmly attached. 
 And if we love God, he will be frequently in our 
 thoughts. We will think of him when we walk by the 
 way, when we are in the field, when we sit in the 
 
THE PULPIT. 169 
 
 house, when we he down and rise up. He who loves 
 God will delight in meditating upon him as he is revealed 
 by the works which he hath made, and on those views 
 of his character particularly which are exhibited in the 
 Scriptures, — as God in Christ reconciling the world to 
 himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses — as the 
 God of all grace and the Father of consolation — as the 
 fountain of living waters, and the source of all enjoyment. 
 
 Your love of God, if it be sincere, will incline you 
 to seek much intercourse with him. The natural opera- 
 tion of love is to seek frequent intercourse with its 
 objects, and those who feel the love of God will be con- 
 strained thereby to cultivate much communion with him, 
 particularly through the medium of the public and pri- 
 vate ordinances of worship. It may be seen from the 
 case of the Spouse who personates believers in the Song 
 of Solomon, how ardently they who feel the love of God 
 desire communion with him. " By night" (says she), " on 
 my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth : I sought him, 
 but I found him not. I will rise now, and go about the 
 city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him 
 whom my soul loveth : I sought him, but I found him 
 not. The watchmen that go about the city found me, 
 to whom I said. Saw ye him whom my soul loveth % It 
 was but a little that I passed from them, but I found 
 him whom my soul loveth : I held him," etc. 
 
 The love of God is the fulfilling of the law ; it 
 makes obedience to all the commandments easy and 
 delightful. It sweetly constrains those who feel it to 
 live unto him in whom they live, and by whom they are 
 preserved. You may then leave this communion table 
 for the present, rejoicing in the thought that Jehovah, 
 whom you love, is your God — that he will be your God 
 for evermore, and your guide unto death. 
 
CHAPTER TENTH. 
 
 HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Remark by Mr. Harper — Mr. Muirhead's Sketch — Letter from 
 Mr. Yellowlees — Mr. Leitch's Catholicity — His interest in 
 Students — Mr. E. Hill and Mr. Carmichael— Funeral Ser- 
 mon by Mr. Wilson — Testimonies from Mr. Stevenson, Mr. 
 Smith, and Mr. Nixon. 
 
 " I NEVER knew a man," writes the Rev. John Harper 
 of Bothwell, who for a long time was one of Mr. Leitch's 
 near neighbours, " I never knew a man who had fewer 
 enemies and more friends." And nobody can glance 
 through the letters which he received, or which were sent 
 to his relatives after his decease, without at once observ- 
 ing the reason of this. " A man that would have friends 
 must show himself friendly;" and if ever a man showed 
 himself " friendly," it was the kindly pastor of the South 
 Church, Stirling. In his own house he was eminently 
 hospitable ; his quiet charities bestowed upon the poor 
 were such as constantly to exemplify his self-denying 
 benevolence; and the cases are very numerous in which, 
 visiting without regard to sectarian distinctions, he earned 
 the lasting gratitude of families whom he comforted in 
 their affliction. We notice this also as a distinctive 
 feature in his character, that while he attached to him, 
 and always actually enjoyed, the affectionate regard of 
 an unusually large number of his brethren, he was con- 
 stantly laying fresh foundations for after friendships by his 
 
HIS FRIENDS. 171 
 
 special and fatherly kindness to young men. He was 
 not one of those men who lose all interest in those who 
 have sat under them, the moment such persons have 
 removed beyond the bounds of their congregations. He 
 kept, as far as he could, a watch over such as had gone 
 out into the world; and letters are now beside us, not only 
 from students who speak of his exceeding anxiety about 
 their welfare, but from men in distant colonies of the 
 empire, who had carried to their far-away homes a grate- 
 ful recollection of his love and care. 
 
 We have, of course, no intention of giving here 
 merely a series of extracts from complimentary letters. 
 These might be read with interest by friends, but they 
 could have little value in the eyes of the general public. 
 Our endeavour, however, to present the portrait of an 
 Earnest Pastor would on one side be very defective if 
 we did not supply, out of the materials in our possession, 
 some illustrations of what manner of man Mr. Leitch 
 was in his intercourse with society and in the estimation 
 of his friends; and we have this object constantly in 
 view in the following paragraphs. 
 
 Here is first an admirably drawn up sketch, and one, 
 the fidelity of which all will recognise who knew Mr. 
 Leitch, written by his neighbour, the Rev. P. Muirhead 
 of Kippen : — 
 
 " I was long permitted to enjoy the friendship of 
 Mr. Leitch. Having been previously acquainted with 
 him, when, twenty-two years ago, I was settled in the 
 neighbourhood I was at once met as an old friend; and 
 from that time I felt I could look on him as one of the 
 kindest and most trusty of friends, and could always 
 count on a hearty and joyful welcome in his hospitable 
 house. In looking back on these years, many of my 
 
172 AN EARNEST PA STORA TE. 
 
 pleasantest recollections are connected with hours passed 
 in his society. I am well assured, for instance, that 
 many of the brethren of his own and neighbouring pres- 
 byteries will sympathise with me in looking back with 
 fond recollection on the reunions in his house on the 
 evenings of the Synod Meetings in Stirling, when his 
 hearty unfeigned kindness and quiet cheerfulness seemed 
 to diffuse a spirit of mutual confidence, and the plea- 
 sant interchange of opinions and friendly discussions of 
 the Synod matters tended, I am sure, much to cement 
 the bonds of brotherly love. 
 
 " What, above everything else, struck me in coming 
 into close intercourse with Mr. Leitch was, I think, this, 
 that in him you had to do with a thorough Christian, a 
 truly godly man. What you met was a Christian spirit — 
 a leaven of true godliness pervading his whole life, walk, 
 and conversation. It was not that religious conversation 
 was brought in, as if it were necessary to keep up the 
 ministerial character ; not that religion was in any way 
 thrust upon you ; not with him again as with some who 
 seem to move in two different spheres, now in the one, 
 again in the other — the one religious, the other worldly; 
 nor yet was it that his godliness ever assumed an aspect 
 approaching in the remotest degree to sternness or 
 severity, or that it in any degree crushed or stunted the 
 growth of any purely human affection or sympathy. In 
 the society of some good men you feel as if the very 
 atmosphere were oppressive. In your intercourse with 
 them you feel restrained, not to say chilled, by the air of 
 unbending severity which they seem to think it necessary 
 to assume towards the outer world, in all their intercourse 
 with it ; and while you cannot doubt the reality of their 
 worth and godliness, you cannot help regretting that true 
 
HIS FRIENDS. 173 
 
 religion should be presented to those without in an aspect 
 so unattractive, or even so repulsive. With our lamented ■ 
 friend it was far otherwise. With him, while on the one 
 hand there was that in his whole demeanour which was 
 indeed a rebuke to anything like baseness or unbecoming 
 levity and frivolousness ; on the other hand, his cheerful 
 temperament, the benignity of his very aspect, his ready 
 sympathy with all innocent mirth and joyousness, seemed 
 to give a most emphatic contradiction to the notion that 
 there is any necessary connection between true religion 
 and gloom or austerity. Mr. Leitch was naturally a man 
 of singularly warm affections and sympathies, of a cheer- 
 ful temperament, with keen appreciation of humour, 
 showing itself frequently in a happy playfulness of man- 
 ner ; and all this you found in him not at all weakened, 
 but only purified, by the spirit of true godliness with 
 which all was blended. Seeing him in his most cheerful 
 moods, you saw in him nothing of levity, but felt still 
 you were with an earnest Christian man. While, in his 
 gravest moods, you met with nothing that approached to 
 moroseness or severity. Were I in a single word to 
 attempt to name his most characteristic feature, I should 
 be disposed to say it was godly sincerity and truthful- 
 ness. One admirable peculiarity or gift that he had, can 
 scarcely fail to have been noticed by any one who was 
 much in his society — I mean the singularly happy power 
 he had of giving, in the most natural way, a serious turn 
 to conversation, and leading it to what was profitable 
 and edifying. It is well known to all his friends that 
 Mr. Leitch spent much time in pastoral visitation, and 
 that these visitations were highly valued. I well believe 
 that, very much owing to this gift, as I may call it, these 
 visits were singularly profitable to many. In the minis- 
 
174 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 ter thus going in and out among them, his flock — and 
 the many outside his congregation who always welcomed 
 his kind visitations — saw not the mere professional man 
 going through a certain round of duty, but the true, 
 warm friend, ever seeking their best interests, having a 
 word to encourage, strengthen, cheer, comfort, warn, or 
 mildly reprove, as need might require. In him they 
 could not but see the man of God, who, having himself 
 tasted that the Lord is good, and so himself knowing 
 the blessedness of being reconciled to God, felt ever 
 animated by the earnest desire that all around him 
 should be brought to partake of the same blessings 
 which he felt so precious to himself. 
 
 " It is superfluous to say that his house was a singu- 
 larly happy home. Even a stranger passing but a few 
 hours under his roof must have felt that it was so. The 
 portrait that forced itself on one's attention, in seeing 
 him thus in the midst of his family, was that of a father 
 as tender, loving, and indulgent, as he was strictly con- 
 scientious and faithful, and therefore alike beloved and 
 revered. 
 
 " To refer to his business habits and attainments lies 
 perhaps rather beyond the limits of what has been 
 assigned to me, still I may be allowed to say that, as 
 clerk of a neighbouring presbytery, I had frequent occa- 
 sion to consult him on matters of ecclesiastical business, 
 and always found the stores of his long experience most 
 readily made available. His advice was always charac- 
 terised by great good sense, and evinced extensive 
 acquaintance with church law and practice. 
 
 " I have often enjoyed the privilege of ministerial in- 
 tercourse with him on Sacramental occasions, as indeed, 
 long before my connection with Kippen, he had been in 
 
HIS FRIENDS. 175 
 
 the habit of frequently taking part in the communion 
 services. His ministrations were always highly appre- 
 ciated. On one of the last occasions, a Sacrament 
 Sabbath evening, I well remember his referring to old 
 recollections of communions at Kippen, and of the many 
 faithful sermons that had been heard there in former 
 days, pressing on the attention of the congregation their 
 deep responsibility in a way that was felt to be most 
 solemn and impressive, leaving, I trust, a lasting im- 
 pression on not a few. My remembrance of Communion 
 Sabbaths in the South Church of Stirling will always be 
 cherished. His grand theme then, as in all his ministra- 
 tions, was Christ and Christ crucified; and, in connection 
 with the peculiar services of the day, the joyful anticipa- 
 tion of higher communion above. Often, since he has been 
 removed from among us, have I thought of the words of 
 the paraphrase which used to be the closing hymn on 
 these occasions, with the feeling that he who used to 
 read out the words with such heart and emphasis is now 
 himself with that blessed company — 
 
 ' ' ' Now with triumphal palms they stand 
 
 Before the throne on high, 
 And serve the God they love amidst 
 
 The glories of the sky. ' " 
 
 So writes Mr. Muirhead. We may add that Mr. 
 Leitch's kindliness of nature and willingness to co-oper- 
 ate with all good men, whatever happened to be their 
 church connection, as well as his readiness to minister 
 comfort to the afflicted of whatever name, are referred to 
 constantly. 
 
 One of the magistrates oi Stirling, Mr. Yellowlees, 
 himself a Dissenter, mentions that Mr. Leitch, having 
 been acquainted with his wife before their marriage 
 
176 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 made it his custom to pay a visit to tlie house on the 
 birth of each child, and to offer prayer for the bestowal 
 of the promised blessing. Mr. Yellowlees, after stating 
 that these visits were always highly prized, goes on to 
 say — 
 
 " At a later period I was one of a deputation ap- 
 pointed to wait on him, the express object of which I 
 have forgotten, but we did not find him at home. As I 
 was going a little farther in the same direction, I said to 
 those associated with me that if they intrusted the matter 
 to me I would call on my return, and if Mr. Leitch had 
 come home I would state the object we had in view. 
 They all agreed to my doing so, and on my return I found 
 him in his own house. I told him the object of the 
 deputation's visit, and after talking over it, and engaging 
 in some general conversation, I rose to go away, when 
 he gently laid his hand on my shoulder, and said, ' Let 
 us have a word of prayer before you go;' and so he offered 
 up a very fervent prayer. I took it as exceedingly kind, 
 and thought if ministers generally would act the part he 
 had done, how much it would commend religion and 
 endear them to all around. I may mention also, as an 
 evidence of the great interest he took in his Master's 
 work, and of the desire he had to turn the attention of 
 others to a concern about the things that belong to their 
 eternal peace, that one could scarcely meet him at a 
 funeral, or in any other casual way, but he had some 
 suitable word to say, such as ' Time is short ;' ' How 
 necessary is it that we be interested in Christ !' This is 
 just a specimen of his way, which I know very many can 
 attest ; and thus, though he is dead, he yet liveth by his 
 fitly-spoken words in the hearts of multitudes who were 
 not connected with his congregation ; and his own people 
 
HIS FRIENDS. 177 
 
 can tell how incessantly he laboured by night and by 
 day, in season and out of season, for their spiritual wel- 
 fare. So much did he do so, that I almost despair of 
 his congregation finding one that will so unweariedly fill 
 his place. The consolation is that the grace that made 
 him what he was can make others. He long acted as 
 chaplain to the Stirling High Constables ; and being long 
 connected with that body myself, I can attest how well 
 and acceptably he performed the duties of the office. 
 He was always ready at the call of duty ; and at all their 
 meetings, whether ordinary or special, when an oppor- 
 tunity was afforded to address them, while he pointed 
 out the necessary, important, and honourable position 
 they occupied, he never failed to express his opinion 
 that their actings and influence in the community were 
 more of a moral than of a physical kind ; and would 
 sometimes descant largely on the influence for good 
 which forty gentlemen (for that was their number) spread 
 throughout the town, and countenanced by the Provost 
 and Magistrates, must necessarily have. As they highly 
 appreciated both the man and his services, he was always 
 listened to with attention. When his death occurred 
 a gloom of sorrow spread over their whole number ; and 
 when his funeral took place every one that was able 
 attended in full High Constable's dress, thus testifying 
 their great respect for one who had so long and so well 
 discharged the duties of chaplaincy ; and at their first 
 ordinary meeting thereafter it was proposed and unani- 
 mously agreed that two or three of their number should 
 meet and draw up a letter of condolence to the bereaved 
 family, expressing how much his services had been appre- 
 ciated by their body, and the deep sense they entertained 
 of the great loss they had sustained by his removal. 
 
 N 
 
178 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. 
 
 When the above proposal was made, one of their number, 
 a much respected merchant and Roman Cathohc, rose 
 and said he very cordially agreed to it, as he held their 
 late chaplain in very high esteem, not only on account 
 of his public services but also on account of his private 
 attentions ; and mentioned that when his wife died, 
 Mr. Leitch very soon thereafter called at his house to 
 express his sympathy with himself and bereaved family, 
 adding, ' I made him very welcome, and regarded it as a 
 very kind visit.' Mr. Leitch thus gave another evidence 
 of his large-heartedness and earnest desire to do good 
 to all within his reach." 
 
 These are not the only testimonies which are by us 
 to Mr. Leitch's catholicity. "Few," writes the Rev. 
 Andrew Russell of Bradford, a Congregational minister, 
 who for some time was a fellow-labourer with Mr. Leitch 
 in Stirling, " few laboured so faithfully as he did during 
 a lengthened ministry, and few were more ready to co- 
 operate with all good men in advancing the interests of 
 the Saviour's kingdom." And, probably, not very many 
 instances, such as the following, have anywhere occurred : 
 " I have always admired," writes Mr. Reid of Woodville, 
 Stirling, " Mr. Leitch's true catholicity, which, notwith- 
 standing our remaining attached to the Established Church, 
 never prevented him from visiting us regularly, showing 
 that his desire to bring souls to Christ was his highest ob- 
 ject. I knew that he never spared himself, whether in 
 public or private, and was always ready to visit rich and 
 poor ministerially. In the beginning of 1854, my wife 
 became a great invalid, and he took such an interest in 
 her spiritual welfare as to visit her every day., with the 
 exception of Sabbath, for twelve months, although several 
 weeks were spent by her at the Bridge of Allan." 
 
HIS FRIENDS. 179 
 
 Reference has been made to his interest in students. 
 In illustration of this we extract some passages from two 
 letters, the writers of which are now both ministers of 
 the Free Church. 
 
 The Rev. Ebenezer Hill of Lochmaben, sending to 
 Mr. Leitch's son some recollections of his father, says : — 
 
 " He had a wonderful power in gaining the affections 
 of the young, and in suiting his instructions to the capa- 
 cities of all. And this last was a prominent character- 
 istic of his more public teaching likewise ; and he was 
 not one man in the pulpit and another man out of it. 
 For who that knew him and met him in the ordinary in- 
 tercourse of life ever left his company without listening 
 to some word of counsel or comfort spoken 1 It is 
 recorded of the saintly Ussher that when in conversation 
 with friends he was wont to say ' A word of Christ before 
 we part.' Your father seemed invariably to act upon 
 this rule. This indeed was a marked feature in his daily 
 walk. May we try to follow his example in thus avail- 
 ing ourselves of opportunities of doing good to others. 
 I remember so well, after returning to Stirling from my 
 first session at college, meeting him on the street. He 
 seemed in a hurry — but there was the friendly grasp of 
 the hand, and the kindly look, as he said, ' Ebenezer, 
 hitherto hath the Lord helped you, may He bless you 
 still ; good-bye.' 
 
 " When a student, I frequently visited him, and never 
 failed to receive a hearty welcome. He was a faithful 
 counsellor, and a warm well-wisher. Our interviews 
 at such times usually terminated with his offering up a 
 few words of earnest prayer. He was indeed a man of 
 prayer, else he could not have been the man he was." 
 
 Even more closely connected with Mr. Leitch was 
 
180 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 the Rev. Heniy Carmichael, now minister at Peebles. 
 His own family belonged to the South' Church, and he 
 thus grew up from infancy under Mr. Leitch's eye. In 
 the communication which he sends there is a great deal 
 of interesting information given as to Mr. Leitch's 
 ministry at large. We would gladly have availed our- 
 selves of this had space permitted. But in a brief 
 memorial like the present minute details are impossible. 
 One paragraph, however, we must quote, as it throws so 
 pleasant a light on the character of Mr. Leitch's pastoral 
 hfe. 
 
 " He kept an eye on every member of each family, — 
 watched each with interest and prayerfulness. He did 
 not visit a household en masse, but acquainted himself 
 with all the individuals in it, even to the youngest. 
 He had a marvellous facility of recognising faces in 
 the street, even of the boys and girls, and of remember- 
 ing their names when calling on their parents. He 
 inquired after their lessons and pursuits — showed them 
 an attention most flattering to their youthful notions, 
 and thus endeared himself to both old and young. 
 Long even after certain members of a family had left the 
 parental home, he would ask after their welfare, and 
 remember them in his prayers with the rest. The 
 children, and the absent ones, are too often forgotten by 
 ministers, but Mr. Leitch's mindfulness of such was 
 really singular and admirable. One introduction to him 
 was tantamount to a place henceforth in his mind and 
 heart. He seemed to feel that in a sense he had a care 
 of every immortal who was once brought under his 
 notice. 
 
 " And then what an extraordinary power he possessed 
 of giving excellent advice everywhere. And yet, withal, 
 
HIS FRIENDS. 181 
 
 it was seldom that one missed him when calling at his 
 house. He possessed that marvellous ubiquity which 
 often strikes one in a laborious energetic man — that 
 Herculean enterprise and industry that enable them to 
 economise time with consummate and enviable skill. 
 Always on foot, yet always among his books and papers, 
 he impressed one as being a man who lived earnestly, 
 who wrought perpetually, and whose exalted object it 
 was to fill up the hours of life with labour that could 
 bear strict scrutiny, and result in permanent good to 
 the world." 
 
 Mr. Carmichael thus speaks of his student recollec- 
 tions : — 
 
 " When I visited him in his study, the pleased smile 
 that suffused his features, and the warm human grasp 
 with which he welcomed me, were really worth living for. 
 I know not a man whose bare presence ever made me 
 so happy, or threw around life so genial and inspiriting 
 a glow. Then he would inquire, interrogate, and cross- 
 question me in his own peculiar way, known so well to 
 all his friends, on the latest college news, the subjects 
 engrossing my attention, the books that were being read, 
 the progress that was being made. Directions, cautions, 
 and admonitions followed, — seasonable, precious coun- 
 sels, — soul-stirring words that nerved one for the toil and 
 the trial. And then the petitions — especially in the earher 
 years of my course — the simple and touching prayers 
 offered on my behalf, for my health, my prosperity, and 
 my protection, amid the temptations and dangers of 
 studies, and of the great world — these I can never forget. 
 They still ring in my ears, and bring tears to my eyes, 
 and involuntarily prompt the sad question, Is this 
 
182 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 precious intercourse also never again to be renewed on 
 earth ? ' Even so Father : Thy will be done.' " 
 
 Mr. Leitch's funeral sermon was preached by the 
 son-in-law of his oldest friend (Dr. Muir of St. James's), 
 — Mr. Wilson of Maryhill. That sermon is now before 
 us, and contains a very touching tribute to the manifold 
 excellences of the departed. Among other things, ]\Ir. 
 Wilson makes this most true remark — 
 
 " His pastorate extended over a period of forty-three 
 years, and truly it was a pastorate. The pulpit, not the 
 platform, was his favourite sphere. To prepare for it, 
 and when in it to serve his Master in faithfully dealing 
 with souls, was his great aim." 
 
 " But," Mr. Wilson goes on to say, " a minister may 
 preach earnestly and eloquently, may be diligent in his 
 ministerial visitations, and skilled in church law and pro- 
 cedure, but if his conduct when out of the pulpit does 
 not correspond with his appearances when in it, he will 
 fail to impress our minds with a sense of his consistency. 
 And, accordingly, it has been said of some ministers, that 
 either they should never have entered the pulpit, or, 
 having entered it, they should never have left it. But 
 how was it with your minister % ' Ye are witnesses, 
 and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblamably he 
 behaved himself among you that believe.' You knew 
 him to be a man of God. You have no doubt upon 
 that point ; but to know how much he was a man of 
 God you must follow him to his closet. I have observed, 
 with regard to persons who made a figure in the world, 
 that, if lacking the main thing, that is, if unconverted 
 persons, the less minutely you scrutinise their private 
 life the better. Your admiration of them, generally speak- 
 ing, will not be increased by a minute acquaintance. As 
 
HIS FRIENDS. 183 
 
 poets, or orators, or statesmen, or philosophers, you 
 may admire them in pubHc Hfe ; but I say that, if un- 
 converted persons, you must not watch them too narrowly 
 in private. But God's works admit of the minutest 
 scrutiny. God's works in nature admit of this — the 
 minutest insect, the more that it is examined, commands 
 our wonder the more. Now, the believer is God's work- 
 manship, and the more narrowly you examine him, the 
 better he too in public life may command our admira- 
 tion. He may fill a large space in the eye of the world, 
 but, follow him to his closet, and you will admire him 
 the more. You will there see the close communion 
 which he maintained with God. You will see that the 
 fire was there kindled which he carried with him into 
 public, and with which he inflamed the hearts of those 
 whom he addressed. 
 
 " How truly your minister was a man of God you all 
 know ; but you have no idea how closely he walked 
 with God till you follow him to his closet. He was 
 truly a man of prayer. Everything was matter of prayer, 
 even the least. And much did he pray for you. Listen 
 to some of the breathings of his soul on your account : 
 ' Lord, increase my gift of conversing with the sick to 
 their edification.' ' Lord, increase my diligence and 
 faithfulness. About to proceed to ministerial visitation, 
 enable me to perform this duty wisely, skilfully, affec- 
 tionately, effectively.' ' Preparing to-day for the forenoon 
 of Sabbath next. Lord, give me suitable matter, give 
 the word needful. In the preparation of my discourse I 
 would seek to make full proof of my ministry. O 
 Lord ! spiritualise the congregation ; may the word I am 
 preparing for them this day be spirit and life to them. 
 Arouse them from apathy.' ' About to go to my classes 
 
184 AN EARNESl PASTORATE. 
 
 for Bible-reading, Lord, let thy presence go with me ; 
 let me take a blessing to each of the young people ; 
 give me affection for them, and them affection for me. 
 Enable me to deal closely and kindly with them this 
 evening.' ' Lord God, enable me to make this day pre- 
 paration for preaching in the afternoon to-morrow ; give 
 me understanding of the passage to be handled ; suggest 
 to me the thoughts and views thereon which thou wilt 
 bless to the people when spoken. Holy Spirit, I crave 
 thine aid. Oh ! send forth thy light and thy truth. 
 O Divine Spirit, impress — oh ! impress deeply every 
 soul.' 
 
 " You see how truly, from these extracts, he was a 
 man of God, You can now understand the earnestness 
 with which he addressed you from the pulpit." 
 
 Among all the testimonies, however, to Mr. Leitch's 
 worth, few have seemed to us at once more true and 
 beautiful than those which follow, one contained in a 
 letter from Mr. Smith, minister at Greenock (formerly of 
 Alva) ; another in a note from Mr. Stevenson of Pulteney- 
 town, formerly minister of Tullibody ; and the last in 
 the address delivered by Mr. Nixon, of Montrose, from 
 the chair of the General Assembly. Says Mr. Smith — 
 
 " My lamented friend did not, as you know, take a 
 prominent part in the public controversies of the Church, 
 nor was he among the bustling spirits who are ever on 
 the move — never less at home than when at home, and 
 catching, wherever they go, the breath of popular applause. 
 On the contrary, he ' dwelt among his own people.' His 
 claims to be embalmed, as he is, in their hearts, do not 
 rest on isolated and ill-sustained, though dazzhng efforts, 
 but on a modest, sincere, affectionate, assiduous, and 
 uniform course of action, directed to the promotion of 
 
HIS FRIENDS. 185 
 
 their highest well-being. Perhaps this may be thought 
 ' faint praise ' in an age of. feverish excitement. But it 
 will be well to remember what has been beautifully said, 
 that ' we do not estimate the character of the Saviour 
 himself so much from his having given sight to the blind, 
 or restored Lazarus from the grave, as from his going 
 about continually doing good' " 
 
 Mr. Stevenson's letter is addressed to one of the 
 members of Mr. Leitch's family. In it he says — 
 
 " During these early years of my ministry I had fre- 
 quent intercourse with your father, and was always struck 
 with his devout spirit, and his habit of turning the con- 
 versation into a channel bearing on personal religion, 
 and the Hfe of God in the soul. He appeared to me to 
 be always breathing a heavenly atmosphere, and I ever 
 found him ready to converse with me on the difficulties 
 of the Christian life, and to encourage me in aiming at 
 the glory of God in all the trials and perplexities of my 
 ministerial work. It was his usual way, when we met 
 together, to engage in prayer ; and, when the visit was in 
 his own house, he would gather his children into the 
 room, and propose to me to remember them all in prayer. 
 This is one of my special reminiscences of your beloved 
 father. He had the spiritual welfare of his family deeply 
 at heart. He longed to see them all devoted followers 
 of the Lord Jesus. Your father was pre-eminently a man 
 of prayer ; and now that he is gone from you, and you 
 will have no more him to pray for you, surely the sacred 
 duty lies on you to pray the more for one another." 
 
 But more touching even than anything that has yet 
 been quoted, were the words of the Moderator of the 
 General Assembly, It is the custom for those who are 
 called to preside over the supreme courts of the Church 
 
186 
 
 AN EARNEST PASTOR A TE. 
 
 to take notice of the changes which have occurred in the 
 ministry during the previous year ; and it fell to Mr. 
 Nixon, an early fellow-student of Mr. Leitch, to men- 
 tion his removal. The allusion to him was necessarily 
 brief; but what more true or worthy could have been 
 said in the course of an hour's panegyric % In the hearing 
 of the whole Church, this was the eulogium pronounced 
 over his grave : — " He wore out his life in quiet 
 
 WORK, BENEATH HIS MASTER's EYE." 
 
CHAPTER ELEVENTH. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Communion at Maryhill — Return from Glasgow — His last Illness 
 and Death — His Funeral — Final Judgment of his Presbytery. 
 
 A FAITHFUL servant of Christ will be content to end his 
 labours as the Master wills, either by the quiet witness- 
 bearing of a serene though comparatively inactive old 
 age, or by working with unremitting diligence to the very 
 last. We are very sure that in either appointment Mr. 
 Leitch would have been able to acquiesce. At the same 
 time we can well believe that one who could scarcely be 
 restrained from conducting his weekly prayer meeting 
 while labouring under fever, and who strenuously opposed 
 the engaging of an assistant even for six weeks when he 
 was on his deathbed, would have reconciled himself with 
 difficulty to a long evening of enforced idleness in the 
 vineyard. And happily this trial was one to which he 
 was not subjected. On Sabbath, the 5th of April 1868, 
 he appeared for the last time in his own pulpit, but he 
 discharged a still later ministerial duty in the Free 
 Church of Maryhill. The 12th of the month was the 
 day of the Glasgow communion, and he had engaged to 
 assist on that occasion, as for more than thirty years he 
 had annually done, his friend of very many years, the 
 Rev. R. M. Wilson. At the beginning of the week pre- 
 ceding he caught a cold, to which at first he paid very 
 
188 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 little attention — visiting, and attending meetings, as if it 
 were too trifling an affair to be allowed to interfere with 
 any of his engagements. The consequence was that the 
 burden grew upon him, and on Thursday and Friday he 
 was so ill that he was compelled to try some remedial 
 measures. These so far succeeded. On Saturday he felt 
 better, and as he had set his heart on going to Glasgow 
 he was allowed to leave home by a forenoon train ; but 
 his daughter (who writes a most touching account of 
 these .last days) says that she saw him depart with 
 " fearful misgivings ; " and her worst fears were realised. 
 He arrived at Maryhill, and preached on the Saturday 
 afternoon with considerable animation. On the Sabbath 
 also, he was able to perform all his forenoon duty, serving 
 two tables ; but he was so manifestly labouring under 
 illness that Mr. Wilson sought medical advice. The 
 doctor came in as Mr. Leitch was preparing for the 
 evening service, and having ascertained that he was in a 
 high fever, interdicted him on the spot from attempting 
 to preach. He consented, reluctantly, to abandon what 
 had been previously a fixed purpose, and also to give 
 over all thoughts of fulfilling an engagement of a similar 
 kind for next day, which he had come under to the Rev. 
 Hugh Macdougall of Milton Church. But no amount 
 of kind persuasion would induce him to remain in Glas- 
 gow over Monday, in the hope that a few days' nursing 
 would see him better. A premonition of approaching 
 dissolution seems to have been upon him. At the com- 
 munion table he read with a strange emphasis, which 
 appears to have been noticed by all who heard him, the 
 words of the hymn — 
 
 " But oh ! eternity's too short 
 To utter all thy praise." 
 
THE END. 189 
 
 and when he took farewell of Mr. Wilson on the Monday, 
 he said to him significantly, " My work is done." He 
 was eager, therefore, to be home ; and when, at eleven 
 o'clock in the day, instead of at eleven at night, as 
 was expected, he found himself under his own roof, 
 and in the quiet of his own apartment, he uttered a sigh 
 of thankfulness and relief, as if he were now in circum- 
 stances to meet the end in the place of all others, where 
 the parting, when it came, would be the least painful. 
 
 A doctor was immediately sent for, and he pro- 
 nounced his ailment to be erysipelas, of a mild type ; 
 but the trouble was more serious than at first appeared. 
 The bad symptoms, instead of giving way to treatment, 
 became more aggravated ; a painful restlessness, which 
 sometimes approached delirium, took possession of him ; 
 and although, even at such times, his heart unmistake- 
 ably revealed itself in praising God and prayer, and in 
 expressions of affection, especially for the daughter who 
 had long been his chief stay and comfort, and who waited 
 on him till the end with a sleepless and unwearying love, 
 there was little opportunity offered for such quiet con- 
 versations as might have furnished the basis of a dying 
 testimony. But what needed such a man to say on his 
 deathbed that he loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and put 
 his whole trust in His blood and righteousness ? His 
 entire life was a proclamation of that fact, and nobody 
 needed better evidence than it supplied ! When the 
 time came for him to die, therefore, nothing but that 
 single work remained to be transacted. And, happily, 
 his suff'erings were not prolonged. He returned from 
 Glasgow on Monday the 13 th April, and on the Friday 
 following the news spread swiftly through the town and 
 neighbourhood that he was dead. 
 
190 AN EARNEST PASTORA TE. 
 
 The sensation produced by his sudden removal has 
 been already referred to, and was in itself a telling testi- 
 mony to the influence of his blameless life and his 
 faithful ministry. The hurricane is more noticed than 
 the quiet breeze, and the flood than the steady flow of 
 the peaceful river, and so those lives often awaken most 
 attention in which there is most noise. But the world, 
 for all that, never fails to learn in the long run what 
 acts upon it most beneficially. Many may have failed 
 to appreciate the full value of Mr. Leitch's unobtrusive 
 labours while they were yet in active operation, but their 
 cessation made them appear in a new and more real 
 light. People became aware of the importance of the 
 place which he filled, when they realised the blank 
 which had been caused by his removal, and the con- 
 course of mourning spectators which gathered on his 
 funeral day plainly enough announced that the town 
 was already conscious of its loss. The cofiin which 
 contained his remains was carried first to the church in 
 which for so many years he had ministered, and it lay 
 before the pulpit, while, in the presence of the bereaved 
 congregation, the usual services for such occasions were 
 performed. A procession was then formed, embracing 
 the High Constables, whose chaplain he had been, the 
 Provost and Magistrates of the town, the Presbytery of 
 which he had been a member, the Sheriff, many Ministers 
 of all denominations, including the Roman Catholic 
 Priest, and a very large body of personal friends and 
 fellow-townsmen. As the cortege passed to the cemetery 
 every shop was shut, the side walks of the streets were 
 crowded with sympathising onlookers, and the bell of 
 the town-house was tolled in recognition of the public 
 loss. Yet with all this sorrow there could happily mingle 
 
THE END. 191 
 
 no bitterness. Not one in all that company had the 
 faintest doubt about the fact that when they were com- 
 mitting to its last resting-place — " dust to dust, ashes 
 to ashes " — all that was mortal of him who had been so 
 lately in the midst of them, they were sowing in " God's 
 acre " seed which would certainly appear again, and be 
 gathered in the end into the garner at Christ's Harvest 
 Home. The following words form the answer to a 
 question in a catechism so condensed that it is often 
 spoken of as containing only the bones of a theological 
 system — but to one bereaved of beloved friends, who 
 have fallen asleep in Christ, no words, it seems to us, 
 could be more sensibly clothed with flesh and blood — 
 more warm and tender — more touchingly full of life and 
 heart cheer; and how pleasantly they read in looking 
 back on such a life as has been surveyed : — 
 
 " The Souls of believers are at their death made perfect 
 in holiness, and do imtnediately pass into glory, and their 
 
 BODIES, BEING STILL UNITED TO CHRIST, do REST in their 
 
 graves till the Resurrection." 
 
 From very many quarters there came, as might have 
 been expected, to Mr. Leitch's family, testimonies to the 
 worth of him who had been taken from their head. It 
 would serve little purpose of course to give these here. 
 But there is one with which it seems only reasonable 
 that we should end. It is the deliberate judgment of 
 those who, under our Presbyterian government, held 
 towards him the relation of the Episcopate. We have 
 been trying to show, from what may be called internal 
 sources, that Mr. Leitcli was one who well deserved the 
 title of an Earnest Pastor. Here is the opinion of the 
 church court which superintended his labours, and to 
 which he was immediately in ecclesiastical subjection : — 
 
192 AN EARNEST PASTORATE. ^ 
 
 At Stirling, the <^th day of Jim e 1868 : — Which day the 
 Free Presbytery of StirHng met and was constituted : 
 
 The Presbytery desire to record their deep sense of 
 the great loss they have sustained by the death of their 
 lamented brother, the late Rev. Alexander Leitch. 
 During a long period of labour in the office of the 
 ministry, Mr. Leitch proved himself to be a faithful and 
 devoted pastor, and was ever active and assiduous in his 
 Master's work. He commended the gospel which he 
 preached by a life of consistent godliness, and attained 
 to a high place of esteem and favour in the general 
 community. To his brethren in the Presbytery he 
 greatly endeared himself by his kindness and courtesy 
 and brotherly forbearance, while his whole conduct was 
 characterised by Christian simplicity and humility. The 
 Presbytery would especially record their great sense of 
 the loss of the services which he rendered as their clerk ; 
 an office he continued to fill with unusual acceptance 
 and success from the time of the Disruption. They feel 
 that they are deeply indebted to their late co-presbyter 
 for the valuable aid so long afforded by him as Clerk of 
 the Presbytery, and also in connection with the ordinary 
 business of the court. And considering God's dealings 
 in the sudden departure of their beloved brother from 
 the midst of them, they would seek, by the help of divine 
 grace, to be stirred up to greater zeal, diligence, and 
 prayerfulness, in the discharge of those solemn duties in 
 which they have been called to engage. 
 
 Printed by R. Clark, Edinburgh.