THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
WORKS BY RALPH CONNOR
THE DOCTOR.
THE PROSPECTOR.
GLENGARRY SCHOOL DAYS.
THE MAN FROM GLENGARRY.
THE SKY PILOT.
BLACK ROCK.
THE ANGEL AND THE STAR.
GWEN.
The Life of
James Robertson
Missionary Superintendent
In the Northwest Territories
By
CHARLES W. GORDON
(Ralph Connor)
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
Fleming H. Re veil Company
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
Copyright, 1908, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street
PREFACE
TO say that the book is not worthy of its subject
is to anticipate the verdict of every reader who
knew and loved the great Superintendent. But
to portray in fitting words his service and his worth, is
beyond the pen of living man.
The book is my best attempt to set him forth as he was
among us ; not to praise him he needs no praise not to
tell of his character nor to describe his work, but to show
him living, loving, toiling, suffering, as we saw him. It
is my humble hope that this, in some measure at least, I
have achieved.
I gratefully acknowledge the kindness of his family, of
brethren in the ministry, of friends, and especially of con-
veners of committees and officials of Presbyteries and
other Church courts, who have placed their correspond-
ence at my disposal, and who have assisted much with
reminiscences and appreciations. Especially and gladly
do I record my debt to Mrs. H. J. Parker, of Winnipeg,
for invaluable aid in arranging and classifying material,
for suggestion and criticism, for reading of manuscript
and proof, and for help in many ways. And all the more
gladly do I acknowledge her aid, that I know it was
freely given in loving and grateful tribute to him whose
life-story was being recorded.
The book is sent forth in the hope that it may inspire
my brethren in the ministry with something of that spirit
of devotion, so free of taint of self, that made Dr. Bobert-
son what he was, and that it may, perhaps, determine
7
MS1966
8 PEEFACE
some young man who has not yet made choice of his
career, to give his life to his country and his God in this
great service which commanded the life of this great
Canadian.
CHARLES W. GORDON.
Winnipeg, November, 1908.
CONTENTS
I. DULL 13
II. THE BOY ROBERTSON . . . .16
III. His FIRST COMMUNION .... 27
IV. His FIRST AND ONLY LOVE ... 32
V. THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ... 38
VI. AT PRINCETON 44
VII. A CITY MISSIONARY . . . 57
VIII. WIFE AND MANSE 68
IX. THE ROBERTSON LAND .... 76
X. PIONEER PRESBYTERIANS IN THE WEST . 79
XI. THE CALL OF THE WEST .... 86
XII. THE WESTWARD TRAIL . . . 94
XIII. THE MAKING OF A SUPERINTENDENT . 101
XIV. A WINNIPEG EXPERIMENT . . . 115
XV. A MISSIONARY MINISTER . . . .119
XVI. THE CALL TO KNOX CHURCH, WINNIPEG . 1 30
XVII. THE PASTOR OF KNOX CHURCH, WINNIPEG 138
XVIII. His WIDER MINISTRY . . . .148
XIX. FROM PASTOR TO SUPERINTENDENT . .153
XX. FAREWELL TO THE PASTORATE . .161
XXI. GETTING INTO THE SADDLE . . . 171
XXII. THE CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND 177
XXIII. FIVE GREAT YEARS I . . . .200
XXIV. FIVE GREAT YEARS II . . . .222
9
10
CONTENTS
XXV. FRICTION 242
XXVI. GETTING His MEN . . . .256
XXVII. HANDLING His MEN .... 269
XXVIII. CARING FOR His MEN . . . .286
XXIX. THE SUPERINTENDENT AND THE PEOPLE . 301
XXX. PUBLIC MAN AND SCHOLAR . . .313
XXXI. A LONG PULL ... 321
XXXII. THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE THE
YUKON . . ' . . . . 344
XXXIII. THE NIGHT COMETH AND ALSO THE
MORNING 369
XXXIV. MEMORIALS 395
ILLUSTRATIONS
Facing page
JAMES ROBERTSON Title
DR. ROBERTSON, TEACHER AT WOODSTOCK ... 24
DR. ROBERTSON, MEMBER OF THE QUEENS OWN RIFLES,
TORONTO UNIVERSITY ...... 40
DR. ROBERTSON, STUDENT AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY . 54
DR. ROBERTSON, AS MINISTER AT NORWICH . . .72
HISTORIC KILDONAN CHURCHYARD WHERE A NUMBER OF
THE WESTERN PIONEERS ARE BURIED .... 392
DR. ROBERTSON'S GRAVE IN THE KILDONAN CHURCHYARD . 400
ii
The Life of James Robertson
DULL
OP all Scotland's lovely valleys, none is lovelier
than that through which flows the lordly Tay,
and of the Tay valley there is no lovelier bit
than that which stretches west and north from the town
of Aberfeldy. Out from the mountains flows the river,
down the wide valley, past sloping fields rich and fertile
with their cosy farmsteads, sheep-runs, lands high and
bare, decked out with birches, firs and beeches, singly
and in groups and plantations, past great houses set within
their policies, past pretty villages, quaint and straggling,
every mile rich in surpassing beauty and historic
interest.
But there is one spot where it were worth while to
pause, for it is the birthplace of a great man, whose name
is written in large letters over the Canadian West. Four
miles west of the town of Aberfeldy the river takes a turn
about one of the Grampian spurs which ends here in a
bold bluff crag. At the foot of the rock, on the river's
north bank, lies one of those quaint straggling villages.
This bluff crag is the Kock of Dull, and this straggling
group of houses huddling at its base is the village of Dull.
In this village James Eobertson was born.
The glory of the village lies in the past. The ruins
strewn everywhere about, gaunt and bare or half- covered
13
14 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
with kindly turf, proclaim that. It is an ancient village
getting its name from the ninth abbot of lona who, when
dying, commanded that they should bear his body east-
ward towards Strathray till the withes by which the cof-
fin hung, should break. At the foot of a precipitous
rock on the north side of the Tay the withes broke.
There they laid his saintly body to rest, and from the
breaking of the withes, dhullan, they named the spot
"Dhull," modern Dull. The place became a famous
educational and ecclesiastical centre. A college was es-
tablished and a monastery founded, with right of sanc-
tuary attached, within a radius marked by crosses, of
which one, sorely battered, still stands in the village. In
the time of Crinan, the fighting Bishop of Dunkeld, son-
in-law to King Malcolm II, and father of Duncan, the un-
fortunate victim of Macbeth' s ambition, the landhol dings
pertaining to the monastery of which Crinan was tenth
abbot, were greatly extended. The memory of this mon-
astery demesne is preserved in the Appin Abbatania of
Dull. But long before the Reformation the monastery
was dissolved and the college transferred to St. Andrew's,
thus becoming the nucleus of the oldest of the Scottish
universities.
In those great old days Dull was not only an educational
and ecclesiastical centre ; it was a populous, commercial
metropolis as well, with streets devpted to certain trades
and offering the principal produce market for the sur-
rounding district. But now of this ancient greatness, ed-
ucational, ecclesiastical and commercial, all that remains
is the parish school, the parish church, itself a pre-Ref-
ormation relic recently restored to its former splendour,
the straggling village, and those eloquent gaunt or turf-
clothed ruins. Unchanged by the passing years, the old
gray Rock abides, and the flowing river, for the genera-
tions of men come and go, leaving ruins behind to show
DULL 15
where they have been and where they have wrought !
Euins I Yes, but more than ruins. For lives of men are
more enduring than grim rocks and flowing rivers. They
never die, but in a people's character and in a people's
influence and in a people's work in their home lands and
in lands far across the sea, they live eternally.
II
THE BOY ROBERTSON
r ""^HE Eobertson clan is numerous and widely dis-
tributed throughout Scotland. A very humble
JL member of the clan was James Eobertson who,
leaving his father's farm of Lurgan, near Dull, went up
to Loch Tayside and took to himself a wife, a farmer's
daughter, one Christina McCallum, and settled to work
upon the Breadlabane estates near by, thence to a farm
for a time, later to work as a day-labourer for a brother
of Sir Eobert Menzies. Afterwards he ventured to take
a small sheep-farm, but all along it was a struggle, and
he never made very much out of it.
To James Eobertson and Christina McCallum were
born six sons and two daughters. Of these, James, the
subject of this biography, was the third child and son,
born April 24, 1839. His father was a " quiet" man,
hard-toiling, God-fearing, patient and persistent, whose
only pride was his honesty, and whose only ambition was
to rear his family " respectably " till they could do for
themselves. Of the mother something more must be said.
For it was to her that the boy James owed his eager, am-
bitious spirit, his indomitable will, his shrewd common
sense, and that genius for getting things done which dis-
tinguished him in after-life. " She was a little woman,"
writes one of her daughters. " There was nothing that
any woman could do that she could not do, and when it
was done it needed no second doing." She was, indeed,
a rare woman, alert of mind and quick of speech, devoted
16
THE BOY ROBERTSON 17
to the well-being of her family, toiling early and late in
the unceasing struggle for daily bread, but cherishing se-
cretly an ambition for her children that became the con-
trolling force in her life. From his earliest days she had
unbounded faith in the future of her boy James, and this,
with her native pride, made her impatient of anything
like criticism of the lad. One record says that James
Robertson was one of the most ragged children who went
to the Dull school. One day a neighbouring farmer hav-
ing some words with the mother, reflected somewhat
scornfully upon the boy's somewhat ragged appearance.
With a quick flash of her Highland and family pride, the
mother retorted, "Indeed, and very likely my son will
some day think himself low enough to dip his spoon in
the same basin with any of your family.' 7
She was clever not only with her tongue, but with hand
and foot. It is told of her that being in need of a shawl
of particular make and not being able to buy it in Dull,
she walked all the way to Crieff, a distance of twenty-
seven miles over the hills, to secure the shawl. She was
back with her purchase the same day.
From the very first the mother saw that of all her chil-
dren it was James who was possessed of the greatest apt-
ness for learning, and so, as far as was consistent with the
necessities of the home, he attended the parish school, his
attendance being interrupted by the demands made upon
him for herding on the neighbouring estates, for acting as
gillie in the shooting time, or for the performance of
household work while his mother was employed upon the
neighbouring farms. But in spite of all they could do,
his early school days were much broken, not only by the
need of his labour in the home and in the fields, but by a
severe illness as well, which seriously interfered with con-
tinuous study. At twelve years of age, however, the boy
began something like steady attendance at school, and
18 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
when the opportunity so long delayed came to him at
last, he went eagerly at his books.
He was distinguished for a memory of remarkable
tenacity, and by a perseverance unconquerable in the
pursuit of knowledge. We are told he took little part in
the school games, preferring to walk about with a book in
his hand. But in spite of this he was well liked by the
boys, and as a friend says of him, i i He was no duffer, but
enjoyed fun as much as any of them." Though even of
temper and self-controlled, he was a " terrible fighter,"
his master says, "when fighting was to be done." So,
though he won no distinction on the playground, he held
his own with his mates, and easily carried the palm as
being the most notable scholar of the district school.
His old master, Alexander McNaughton, writes as fol-
lows :
" James was very often taken from his lessons to help
his mother in household work when she would be em-
ployed at outdoor toil on neighbouring farms, yet, de-
spite this, he outstripped his classmates, especially in
Latin, arithmetic, and geometry. He had a clear head,
great powers of concentration, and a memory so retentive
that he seldom forgot what was worth remembering. Of
all the boys whom I have put through the scholastic mill
in a period of forty years, none gave me more pleasure
or raised my hopes of his success higher than did James
Robertson."
When he was about fifteen years of age there was a
contest instituted between schools of the three parishes.
The best scholars from each of the schools competed, and,
with them, some lads who had been two years at the
college. There seemed small chance for the Dull scholar,
handicapped as he was by his late beginning and his
broken attendance. But undaunted, he entered the com-
petition with all the energy he possessed of body, mind
THE BOY ROBERTSON 19
and spirit. The great day arrived, and at it they went
and continued at it the whole day long. As the hours
pass the combatants fall out one by one till a college lad
and Eobertson of Dull are left alone. On into the night
they continue the struggle until, dazed but undaunted, at
two o'clock next morning, Robertson is declared the
winner. a He never let go what he once took a grip of,"
says another friend, a significant forecast, surely, of a
later characteristic.
He was good at Latin, and though Gaelic was his
mother tongue and the only tongue he knew to converse
in till he was sixteen years of age, he was good at book
English, too ; but his strong point was arithmetic. When
he was about sixteen, a problem that had given some
trouble in the college in Edinburgh was sent down to the
master at Dull.
" If any of them can solve it," said the master, "it will
be Robertson." And to Robertson he gave it, who took
it home and fell upon it. When his father was going to
bed that night he said to his boy :
" Are you not comin' to your bed, lad?"
" Yes, after a while," replied the boy, hardly looking
up from his slate. But when next morning the father
came in to light the fire, James rose from the spot where
he had been left sitting the night before, with the solu-
tion of the problem in his hands. No wonder that he was
the delight and pride of the master and of his fellows in
the school !
But as the years went on, times with the Robertsons
grew worse and the mother's dream of a college educa-
tion for her son, in which he secretly shared, seemed to
become less and less likely to be realized, till in 1854 a
terrible storm fell upon the Tayside, burying flocks and
herds and cots beneath its masses of snow, and bringing
ruin to many a small sheep -farmer. There followed a
20 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
period of great depression, so great, indeed, that James
Robertson, who had lost almost all that he had, lost heart
as well, and resolved to leave his native land and try his
fortune in Canada.
Canada was at that day a far-off place and wild, and it
is almost impossible for us to imagine the feelings with
which these Scottish people, with their passionate love
for their native hills and their yearning for their "ain
fowk," contemplated emigration to the backwoods of
Canada so far and so fearsome. But, while Scotland held
all or almost all that their hearts could cling to, Scotland
had little to offer the labouring man in the way of reward
for present toil, and less in the way of hope of future ad-
vancement for his family. Then, too, the word that came
back from James McCallum, Mrs. Robertson's brother
who had gone to Canada some years before, was encour-
aging. He had done well for himself and his family out
there. So, after long deliberation and much prayer, and
after earnest consultation with their minister, though
with few others, for the Robertsons kept " themselves to
themselves," the resolve was taken and to Canada they
would go.
At this juncture arose a question of the greatest im-
portance to the family as a whole, but especially to the
boy James and to his mother. Shortly before their de-
parture the parish minister brought an offer from the
trustees of what was known as the Stewart bequest, the
proceeds of which were to be devoted to the education of
bright lads in the district, to undertake the education
of James if he would remain behind. It was a time of
sore trial for them all, but at length one and all agreed
that it could not be. 'Not even for the college education,
so long desired and so toilfully sought, could they bear
to leave the boy behind.
So, in 1855, James Robertson and his family set sail in
THE BOY ROBERTSON 21
the George Roger for Canada, and settled beside James
McCallum in the township of East Oxford, Ontario.
Among his few possessions the lad carried as his most
priceless treasure the certificate from his old master, as
follows :
" That James Robertson attended the parish school of
Dull from December, 1851, to date hereof, and was edu-
cated in English, reading, grammar, writing, arithmetic,
geography, and religious knowledge, that he acquired^,
reasonable acquaintance with the elements of Latin and
was reading Csesar and Ovid, that he studied mathe-
matics with much success, having mastered the first four
books of Euclid's elements and algebra as far as quad-
ratic equations, that his progress in the above enumer-
ated branches was more than usually rapid, and his
moral character and conduct in the highest degree satis-
factory ; but notwithstanding his being a young man of
modest and unassuming manners, his natural abilities
were conspicuous as well during ordinary school exercises
as on examination days, on which occasions he invariably
carried away the highest prizes. That he is leaving this
locality for the purpose of emigrating to America and
that whether he be there employed in teaching the young,
in which capacity he has had some experience while
assisting me, or in any other occupation to which Provi-
dence may call him, I feel sure that his wonted diligence
and perseverance will accompany him and success crown
his labours, is certified at the schoolhouse of Dull, in
the county of Perth, by Alexander McNaughton, parish
schoolmaster, May 9, 1855."
With a certificate of this kind from a parish school-
master of Mr. McNaugh ton's well-known ability and
reserve of speech, James might indeed front much. On
a visit to his native parish many years afterwards he
writes as follows to his old master :
22 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
"No. 20 Mound Place, Edinburgh, April 2, 1897.
"MY DEAR MR. McNAUGHTON I
" I have never lost my interest in the school of Dull or
in its pupils, and I anticipate no small pleasure in my intended
visit to renew acquaintance with scenes once familiar. Rivers
and roads, hills and woods continue the same, although familiar
faces have disappeared and strange faces have taken their
place. I wish, therefore, to send some three pounds' worth of
books to my old school in prizes to the pupils attending there
now and I would like very much if you would oblige me by
selecting them. I have perfect confidence in your judgment
as to the books and the subjects for which they are to be given.
I mention three pounds, but should three pounds not do justice
to the school, make it four or even five. To the teacher and
not to the school as such do I owe what of good I got in Dull,
but yet this is the only way I can indicate that I have not
forgotten the scenes of early days.
" With much respect I am, dear sir,
" Yours sincerely,
" JAMES ROBERTSON."
Western Ontario was, at that time, but sparsely settled.
The Great Western Railway had not long been opened.
At the front, along river and lake, settlements clustered,
but in the backwoods counties, vast sections of the forest
primeval remained unbroken and immigrants, pushing
their way past the homes of early settlers, found them-
selves in the midst of this unbroken forest, and faced
with the labour of hewing themselves homes out of its
gloomy and terrible depths.
The first summer was spent in enlarging the clearing
upon their farm. The winter following, James with the
other boys, chopped cord -wood and hauled it to the neigh-
bouring village of Woodstock. For a part of the follow-
ing summer he laboured again at farm-work, but for a
few weeks of that summer he walked night and morning
a distance of six miles to attend school at Woodstock,
carrying his dinner with him. When the time for the
THE BOY EOBEETSON 23
teachers' examinations arrived, James asked for the privi-
lege of writing. His teacher, however, objected because
of his short attendance upon school. The boy was not to
be balked. Too long had he had the university and
college in view. Other boys were making their way,
therefore why should not he ? He went to his minister,
the Eev. Mr. McDermot, of Chalmers Church, Wood-
stock, and stated his case, showing his much prized
certificate from the parish schoolmaster of Dull. The
minister was greatly impressed, not only with the certifi-
cate he presented, but also with his determined spirit.
The boy had, indeed, a " terrible jaw." He tried to
persuade young Eobertson that it would be wiser for him
to delay his attempt, urging that he was not used to the
Canadian style of work and of examinations. It was all
in vain. Eobertson would not be stopped. He only
wanted a chance, and finally the minister went to the
teacher and persuaded him to let the lad have his way.
That "terrible jaw" of the boy had appealed to the
minister. The teacher agreed and the papers were given
to Eobertson who, when the examination was over, went
back to his home and his work at the clearing of the land
and the gathering in of the crops.
The weeks passed and there was no news of the exami-
nation. Young Eobertson was disappointed. He had
been too impatient and too confident of himself, and it
would have been wiser to have taken the minister's ad-
vice. It was his first failure, and the lad took it quietly
enough, but with a keen sense of defeat.
One day in the late fall, his younger brother, Archie,
was sent with another lad to a neighbouring post-
office. Hearing his name, the postmistress called out to
him:
" Have you a brother James? "
"Yes."
24 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
"Then here's a letter for him that's been here for
three months," and handed out a long blue envelope.
It was the teacher's certificate, long coveted and long
despaired of. The envelope was opened in the presence
of the family and became the occasion of a suppressed
jubilation. But afterwards the boy carried it out to the
back of the house and there gloated upon it.
And now for a school. The Corner School where the
Governor's Road meets the Tenth Line of East Zorra, was
vacant. Robertson applied for it, sending in his certifi-
cate. The boy had not walked his six miles back and
forth, to and from Woodstock, without being noticed.
He got his school and began work as teacher in January
of 1857, at the age of eighteen.
He was a raw, awkward, uncouth lad. His clothes
were made by the travelling tailor, and none too elegant.
His manners and speech were abrupt almost to the point
of rudeness at times, but he carried into his work a pur-
pose to get the best out of himself and out of that little
company of boys and girls that faced him in the Corner
School. He was stern in discipline a distinguished mem-
ber of the House of Commons, the Hon. James Suther-
land, wrote that he remembered well a birching he had at
his hands but he seldom needed to use the birch. He
kept his pupils so busy that they had little time for mis-
chief. He filled them with his own enthusiasm for work.
One of his pupils, who lived at the teacher's boarding
place, writes :
"One evening we came upon a problem in Gray's
Arithmetic about oxen grazing in a field, and the grass
growing uniformly, the question being how long the grass
in the field would support the oxen. This was one of the
knotty questions of that day. The solution not coming
as easily as was customary and bedtime having arrived,
I proposed retiring. I can see him yet, how he rose up,
Dr. Robertson
TeacKer at \Voodstock
THE BOY ROBERTSON 25
put off his coat and sat down to it. I went to bed and
was soon in the land where such problems cease to trouble
a boy, but after some time he wakened me up, solution in
hand, and sought to make plain to me, still drowsy with
sleep, the points of the problem. There was no shirking
and no scamping in the work done in that school."
The teacher's boarding place was the house of Mr. Peter
McLeod, who was a distiller in a small way. This dis-
tilling industry throughout Ontario was primitive in its
nature and primitive in operation. It was the custom for
the farmers to take their " tailings" of wheat and rye and
barley to the mill in Woodstock, where they were chopped
and made ready for Peter McLeod' s still. Peter was an
honest man and made honest whiskey, part of which he
gave to the farmers for their chopped tailings, and the
rest he retailed at twenty-five cents a gallon. Oh, blissful
days for drouthy Scots ! Of course, to all in the house
the whiskey was as free as water, for Peter was as kindly
as he was honest, so the young teacher with the rest was
welcome to his " fill " of whiskey. In those good old days
there were no faddy notions about total abstinence and
that sort of thing. Whiskey was not so much rated
among the luxuries, but among the necessities of life. No
house could afford to be without it. Hospitality de-
manded that it should welcome the coming and speed the
parting guest. At the logging-bees and raisings, the
chopping and the threshing, whiskey was a plain neces-
sity, while at weddings, christenings, and funerals, it was
equally indispensable. For who would be so mean as to
fail to provide what would lend wings to dancing feet,
pledge life and prosperity to the newly christened babe,
and bring comfort to the heart in sorrow? Wrong?
What wrong could there be in honest whiskey made by
Peter McLeod out of their own wheat and rye and barley ?
And didn't the ministers and the elders and all godly men
26 THE LIFE OF JAMES EOBERTSON
take their decent glass, asking God's blessing over it as
over any other good creature of His? Tut, man, what
would you have ! And what if some of the weak-headed
did take "a wee drap 7 ' too much! No blame to the
whiskey for that, surely, but to the men who were not fit
to use it. And as for hurting any one, look at Peter Mc-
Leod himself, who had barrels of it and who dipped it
out with a dipper. Did any one ever see him the worse ?
Not a bit.
This was the temperance atmosphere of the day, and in
Peter McLeod's distillery it was that the young Scotch
Canadian lad took up his abode on his first venture from
home. But it was Peter McLeod's distillery, too, that
made young Robertson a total abstainer for life, and an
enthusiast in the propagation of total abstinence princi-
ples. For he had seen that same Peter McLeod' s whiskey,
good and honest as it was, make beasts out of men, turn
the kindly gatherings of neighbours into scenes of revelry
and brawling, and, indeed, not even the sacred ranks of
the church-members were safe from its dreadful inroads.
Peter McLeod might take his own whiskey in sober mod-
eration and with little hurt to him, but there were others
who could only drink it to their ruin and degradation.
Robertson became a rabid teetotaler, and it says something
for the influence of his personality that a young man liv-
ing in the same house with him became, like him, a total
abstainer. Long years afterwards that young man, now
an honoured minister of the Gospel, wrote :
" Robertson always acted the missionary, and I was one
of his converts to total abstinence on principle. We did
not take or make any pledge, but I can thank God for
meeting Robertson when I was young. 77
Ill
HIS FIRST COMMUNION
A ^SHE joyful and awful solemnities of a Highland
Communion are no longer known except in the
JL more remote parishes of Canada and perhaps of
Scotland. But fifty years ago the Communion Season was
a great event in a Highland congregation. It was, in-
deed, the great ecclesiastical event of the year. It was
more ; it was the social event as well. It was the chrono-
logical pivot of the seasons. By it men calculated their
days. A month before the appointed date, due intima-
tion was made of the approach of the sacred time, and as
the announcement fell from their minister's lips, the con-
gregation experienced their first solemn thrill of self-ex-
amination. The ministers from a distance, who six months
before had been engaged to assist, were reminded of the
engagement and assigned their parts. As the day drew
near, the people gave themselves to a general cleaning up
both of hearts and of homes. Housewives were especially
active " redding up " and stocking larders in preparation
for a generous hospitality. For from far and near came
the people without thought of invitation, assured of a
welcome ; every home stood wide open and every table was
free.
The season opened on Thursday with a solemn fast,
the sermons of the day being especially fitted to assist in
the serious business of self-examination. There was no
trifling with facts, no glossing over of sins, no juggling
with conscience. With truly terrible and heart-shaking
eloquence, the preacher pursued the agonized sinner from
27
28 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
one "refuge of lies" to another, till, at the foot of the
Cross, humble, broken, penitent, but justified by faith,
he found peace with God. It was a tremendous experi-
ence and through this experience of the fast day the
intending communicants passed, emerging as from a bath
of fire, with a sense of cleanness unspeakably precious,
prepared to enjoy the " further exercises " with chastened
exultation. Who that has known this experience can
ever forget it? And who can say how much is lost out
of the Church's life by the passing of the Communion
Season. To the men of that day there were great and
awful verities behind the words " holiness, " "sin," "re-
demption" j and the Church from whose vision these
verities have faded has lost the secret of moral and spirit-
ual dynamic.
Friday was the Question Day, the great field-day of
Presbyterian democracy, when the ministers and the
" men " upon equal terms discussed high themes in their
purely theological as well as in their more practical
bearing.
On Saturday the "tokens" were distributed to the
"intending communicants," and as each went up before
the assembled congregation to receive the token of ad-
mission to the Table, a solemn sense of responsibility
deepened upon the soul.
Then came the Sabbath day, the great day of the
feast, when the Table was spread and, after the action
sermon and the fencing of the Table, in solemn quiet the
sac-red emblems were distributed to a people who, with
hearts humble, chastened, cleansed, were waiting in glad
expectation for the coming of the Master.
The season closed with the Thanksgiving on Monday,
a service in which the deepest, sweetest, tenderest emo-
tions flooded the heart. Then from the "Mount of Ordi-
nances" the people descended to the plane of common
HIS FIRST COMMUNION 29
life with hearts subdued but strong and jubilant and
ready for the pilgrimage and the conflict.
He reads Scottish religious life only upon the sheerest
surface who finds in it chiefly gloom and heart-heaviness.
Gravity there was, for men were facing serious issues
earnestly ; sorrows, too, the poignant sorrow of honest
hearts conscious of their sin. But the deepest emotions,
sacredly guarded from curious eyes and indulged with
due moderation, were warm gratitude, love, and humble
joy.
Young Eobertson had been possessed from childhood
of deep religious feeling, with a profound reverence for
things sacred the Church, the Word of God, the Sab-
bath day, but especially the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper. He shared with the Highlanders of his time
their almost superstitious veneration of that sacred ordi-
nance, and the mere thought of making a public pro-
fession of his faith, filled him with awe. In the common
opinion of the day, to "go forward " was to assume a
most solemn and even dreadful responsibility. To many,
doubt was a sign of depth of spiritual experience and of
insight into the mysteries ; fear was the symbol of pro-
found knowledge of the subtleties of Satan and of the
sin native to the human soul. Any indication of assur-
ance or confidence towards God was regarded with suspi-
cion. Consequently, the privileges of l i full communion "
were supposed to belong only to men of years and of ripe
experience. That a young man should take upon him-
self such a responsibility was regarded as savouring of
that ignorance and presumption characteristic of the
heart as yet unacquainted with its own possibilities of
error and unregenerate pride. And so at a Highland
Communion, among those who surrounded the Table,
there were comparatively few with young faces. These
were to be found in the side pews or in the gallery,
30 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
regarding with often sadly wistful eyes the observance
of the sacred rite.
But with Robertson the sense of duty was overpower -
ingly strong and, though he shared to a large degree the
opinions, the superstitions, and the feelings of his time and
of his people, the fact that he had, as teacher of the district
school, stepped out into life for himself and assumed the
responsibilities of manhood, laid upon his conscience the
duty of making profession of the faith that was in him.
As an adherent of Chalmers Church, Woodstock, he
had made it his weekly custom to attend both morning
and evening services, although this involved a walk of
eight miles every Sabbath day. Having made up his
mind as to his duty, Robertson immediately approached
his minister, the Rev. Mr. McDermot, as an applicant
for admission to the church. The minister encouraged
him in his purpose and in due time he was accepted by
the Session. The week preceding the Communion was one
of unusual solemnity to the young man. His thorough-
going nature, his religious training, his own fidelity to
conscience, impelled him to rigid and unflinching self-
examination. His motives were viewed and reviewed
with the exactest scrutiny. His state of heart was con-
sidered with anxious care. His daily life was scanned
with searching thoroughness. The experience of that
week Robertson never forgot. But the Sabbath morning
found him calmly resolved. With a young friend he set
off early for his two mile walk to the church. The
memory of that serene Sabbath morning is still vivid in
the heart of his young friend who thus writes :
"We started as usual to walk two miles to church.
As we went along the Governor's Road there was a bush,
f Light's Woods, ' on the south side of the road. Rob-
ertson suggested that we turn aside into the bush, not
saying for what purpose. We penetrated it a short
HIS FIRST COMMUNION 31
distance when, with a rising hill on our right and on
comparatively level ground, the tall maples waving their
lofty heads far above us and the stillness of the calm,
sunny day impressing us with a sense of the awful, we
came to a large stone. Robertson proposed that we
engage in prayer. We knelt down together. He prayed
that he might be true to the vows he was about to take,
true to God and ever faithful in His service, and then he
prayed for me also. This scene was deeply impressed
upon my mind. We rose up, put on our hats, regained
the road and went on our way to church. The youngest
member at the Table that day was the young master
from the Corner School."
Uniting with the church, with characteristic energy,
he set himself to make good the profession of his faith.
He took up Sabbath-school work, taught a class himself,
and was frequently called upon to review the lesson be-
fore the whole school. But even at this early day, Rob-
ertson had the missionary's eye for the people of the
byways and hedges. There were in Woodstock at this
time a large number of Gaelic-speaking people from
Cape Breton. To these he became a missionary, visiting
them and conducting services for them on the Sabbath
day in their own language. This instinct for the neg-
lected and forgotten it was that became so large a part of
his equipment for the great work that fell to him in later
life.
Chalmers Church, Woodstock, may be allowed some
laudable pride in the fact that the two great representa-
tive missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in Canada
in both foreign and home lands Mackay of Formosa and
Robertson of Western Canada took their first Com-
munion in fellowship with that congregation.
IV
HIS FIRST AND ONLY LOVE
THE reputation gained as a teacher and especially
as a master of discipline, during his two and a
half years in the Corner School, secured for him
a larger sphere of work in a school near Innerkip, where
for three years, from 1859 to 1863, he gave himself with
the same vigour and conscientiousness to his work as had
made him so successful in his first school. His experience
as teacher had developed him in many ways, but more
particularly had wrought in him a self-confidence and a
mastery of himself and others that led him to take a po-
sition of influence in the community. He is still remem-
bered by those who were his pupils at that time, for the
fearless and indomitable spirit which distinguished him
above others. " He was afraid of nothing/ 7 writes one
of his pupils, "man, beast or devil. There was a frac-
tious colt on the farm where he boarded which none of us
dared to handle. Eobertson mastered him and rendered
him tractable." The same spirit that made him wrestle
all night long with the Edinburgh problem and after-
wards with that of the oxen and the grass would not let
him rest before any unconquered difficulty. " Fre-
quently, " writes the same pupil, " I remember when there
were tougfy gnarled pieces of wood lying around the yard
that had baffled the skill and prowess of others to make
stove wood out of them, he would go at them with that
vim and vigour which later became so characteristic of
the man, and in a little while he would stand victorious
over their scattered members. What seemed to others
32
HIS FIRST AND ONLY LOVE 33
impossible, that was the thing that had a peculiar charm
for him."
He had his own opinions and was not to be moved from
them without reason by any man soever, no matter how
great he might be. His minister tells us that at a Sun-
day-school picnic where some three or four hundred peo-
ple were assembled, the orators of the day, both lay and
clerical, had been emphasizing the importance of aiming
high, pointing to high places in Church and State which
might be attained. Not a bit abashed by the high stand-
ing or the eloquence of ministers or Members of Parlia-
ment who had preceded him, the young teacher of Inner-
kip, in the rough eloquence of common sense, proceeded
to demonstrate the impracticable nature of much of the
counsel given. " You cannot all attain high positions ;
there are not enough to go round. You cannot all be
preachers or premiers, but you can all do thoroughly and
well what is set you to do, and so fit yourselves for some
higher duty, and thus by industry and fidelity and kind-
ness you can fill your sphere in life and at the last receive
the 'well done' of your Lord."
His stay in Innerkip was marked by two events which
determined for him the course and quality of his after-
life. It was at this time that he finally decided upon his
life calling. From his childhood, he had shared with his
mother the hope that he might become a minister, though,
after the manner of their race, they never openly to each
other expressed such a hope. It was his experience in
Chalmers Church as teacher and superintendent of Sab-
bath-school, and as missionary to the Gaelic Cape Breton
folk settled in Woodstock, that quickened his desire and
strengthened his hope into a firm resolve to be a preacher
of the Gospel. This aim he henceforth kept steadily be-
fore him, and to its accomplishment he bent every energy
of his being.
36 THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
work of the Session commenced, is not to be thought of, espe-
cially when one is alone with no kindred spirit to make up what
is really needed to make all go off well.
" I was going to add, and I may just as well do it, that I
hope this will be the last time that I cannot be with you on the
return of this day. It is God's mercy that we cannot see so
very far down the way. This is, of course, hoping, that is all
we can do for the future except active preparation in the pres-
ent. It will be soon ten years since I made your acquaintance
first. You know I loved you at first sight. During that time
considerable changes have taken place. I have ceased to be
the Innerkip teacher, the very house in which I taught has
been removed. I have passed through my grammar school
studies. I have lived in Toronto for three years and am now
spending one in New York, and still I think my first impres-
sion of you has not changed except in one way, namely, that
it is deeper. The lines that appeared then drawn on the sur-
face, are now cut deep into the solid, so that effacing them
would be destruction. It might almost appear reckless to
choose on the instigation of an impulse, but never have I
regretted my choice, except at those times when its object
appeared to be beyond my reach. Wherever I am, I can look
back on my choice and now turn to the object of my love with
a warmth of feeling, the pleasure of which can be experienced
but not expressed. Long engagements are considered an evil.
I really think that, generally speaking, they are so. Long
engagements like mine are not. Could I be free I would not.
Had I the course to pursue again with my present experience,
I would act in that respect as I have done. My engagement
has been to me a source of profit, the fountain of my affections
has been kept open, and while I have been living and acting
among men, my heart has been educated as well as my intel-
lect, and this I consider a real benefit. Had I been unen-
gaged till now, I think I would stand a good chance of being a
bachelor for life. Study is fascinating to me. But now things
are different and I am glad of it. Of course, your part in the
matter has not been so easy as mine. You had to wait, while
with me there has been no waiting. When you consented to
take me you consented to wait these long years, for you were
ready to marry then. The exciting activity of work you lacked,
and your part was harder to bear. Work may not appear
easy, yet it is a relief when you are called upon to lend a hand
HIS FIKST AND ONLY LOVE 37
rather than stand and look at another work. I had the work,
you the looking on, waiting till I was done. Your part appears
the more difficult. I hope for your sake as well as my own
that this waiting will soon cease. None can wish this more
than I.
" But I must bid you good-night, merely asking you to send
one photo out of your album. I could have given a good deal
to have had it to-day, and regretted my having forgotten it
since I came. Forget me not as you are not forgotten.
" Yours ever,
" JAMES."
He is no master in the art of writing love-letters per-
haps, but lie is a master in the fine art of loving, and in
this fine art his heart never loses its skill through all the
after-years.
THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
FOE three years Eobertson taught the Innerkip
school, working hard meantime in private study
preparing for his university course, and giving
full service besides to his church and Sabbath-school.
They were years of strenuous toil, but toil was his de-
light, nor did the days ever drag, for they were light-
ened by love. In 1863, he matriculated at the University
of Toronto, but of his university career little is known.
While not a brilliant scholar, he took a good general
stand, being devoted particularly to mathematics, modern
languages, and metaphysics. But while he won little dis-
tinction in the class lists, he laid very solid foundation
for his future study and developed in a marked degree
the student instinct and habit which kept his mind fresh
and open to truth, and made him throughout his labo-
rious life keenly alive to all that was new in every depart-
ment of knowledge.
His photograph taken during his college course shows
him a full-bearded man, grave, thoughtful, mature of
face, and withal somewhat stern and rugged. His clothes
were not of the most fashionable cut, the travelling
tailor at home despising all newfangled notions, and his
whole appearance was such as to expose him to the ridi-
cule of the smart and " sporty" set. But, as a fellow
student, who afterwards came to hold him in high regard,
writes :
" Though he wore his trousers at high water mark, and
though his hats were wonderful to behold and his manners
38
THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO 39
abrupt and uncouth, still l Jeemsie,' as he was dubbed by
the irreverent, commanded the respect of the giddiest of
the lot for his fine heart and for his power of pungent
speech, for he would fire words at you like a cannon-
ball. And for the ridicule of the boys, Jeemsie cared not
a tinker's curse."
He kept himself aloof from much of the college life.
His earnest purpose and thoughtful, intense nature found
little congenial in the college societies and the college
sports and politics of the day. But if he took little
interest in these sides of the university life, when there
was anything serious afoot Robertson was not found
wanting. Hence, when at the close of the American
Civil War, rumours began to run of invasion of Canada by
the Fenians, he joined the University Corps of the
Queen's Own Rifles and gave himself diligently to drill,
so that when news of the actual raid came he was ready
with his fellow students to obey his country's call to
arms. The following extracts from letters to Miss Cow-
ing show the spirit in which the men of the Queen's Own
Rifles responded to the call and incidentally throw light
upon the extent to which the feeling of alarm prevailed
through the country. The letter is dated from Toronto
University, Feb. 21, 1866.
" We were all called in by Croft and Cherriman the
other day and told that he, Croft, had received a tele-
gram from headquarters asking him to have all his men
ready to be called out at a moment's notice, the Govern-
ment having received definite information that the
Fenians were going to make a raid. The place of attack
was not known ; it was suspected, however, to be one of
the cities, the main object of the raid being to obtain
funds. The banks, consequently, were to be specially
guarded. The guards throughout the city were doubled
and all held in readiness. We of the University Corps
40 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
took our rifles and greatcoats home with us and ten
rounds of ammunition, after a place of rendezvous was
named. I sincerely hope that these deluded men will
not engage in so foolish an undertaking as the invasion
of the British Provinces since they must expect nothing
else than to be shot down or hanged. But fanaticism
may do mischief and it is to prevent anything of the evil
results that arise from such that these precautionary
measures are adopted. If all things are in readiness they
cannot do nearly the amount of damage that might other-
wise be effected. Of course, incendiarism and everything
of that kind has to be guarded against. The banks have
lights burning through the whole night, men guarding
the front and rear, and so forth and so forth."
The incident of the Fenian raid is well known to all
students of Canadian history. It was planned in folly,
carried on in a spirit of bravado and ended in ruin to
those who were responsible for it. Robertson, with his
fellow members of the University Corps, took part in the
unfortunate skirmish at Ridgeway. A comrade in arms
writes as follows :
"In May, 1866, the call came to the Canadian Volun-
teer Militia to put into practice on the field of strife what
they had been acquiring so steadily during the past
years. With the Thirteenth from Hamilton, the Queen's
Own Rifles appeared on that bright, beautiful day in
June, 1866, at Ridgeway. No regiment could more
gallantly go into action than did the Queen's Own
Rifles that morning. Our company, Number Nine, was
ordered to the right, and after marching through a
couple of fields along the edge of a wood, we turned
eastward through the fields to meet the invaders, under
whose fire we had .been since leaving the wood, though
by order no reply was made by us.
"We advanced in the wide-open, skirmishing order;
Dr. Robertson, Member of the Queen s
Own Rifles, Toronto University
THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO 41
our left file was McKenzie and Robertson, and I, rear
rank, stood next to Robertson. In our advance we took
advantage of fences, stumps, stones, and so forth. When
we had covered about two-thirds of the distance between
the edge of the wood referred to above and the wood in
which the Fenians were, beside a fence the gallant
McKenzie yielded up his life for his native country.
So did young Tempest to our left and Milburn to our
rear. Thus out of the twenty-seven men of the University
Corps who were at Ridgeway that morning, three were
killed and five wounded.
1 i The following day, Sunday, a dull misty morning,
we set out again from Port Colborne and marched to
Fort Erie under the command of Captain Akers. Ar-
rived at Fort Erie quite late in the afternoon, we pitched
our tents on the heights overlooking the Niagara River,
and not having had any food since we left Port Colborne,
we were all ready to plead necessity for any requisition
we might make upon the resources of the farmers of the
neighbourhood for food or fuel.
" Robertson and I were in the same tent, and being
both well accustomed to farm life, in the dusk of the
evening we paid a short visit to the good people near
at hand, returning soon, one with rails to cook the
simple but tasty spoil of chicken, etc., secured by the
other.
" During all this brief but eventful campaign, Private
Robertson was strenuously attentive to all the duties of
a soldier of the Queen in time of war. He and I have
been most intimate friends ever since."
A letter from Robertson, dated Stratford, June 6th,
throws the light from another point of view upon the
affair at Ridgeway :
" I am, as you see, a soldier after all, and have endured,
to some extent at least, the dangers of a soldier's life. I
42 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
scarcely ever expected to see a battle r much less take part
in one, although I have been called upon to do both now.
It will be an occasion which I shall ever remember, and
that for more reasons than one. I passed through all
safe, however, and now how thankful I should be ;
amidst dangers I was protected and by God's provi-
dence I am yet in the enjoyment of good health and
buoyant spirits.
"I see by your letter that you did not get any tidings
at all of the battle when you wrote. I suppose when you
were in Woodstock I was in the middle of the fight,
thinking only of seeing foes and dispatching them.
When I went away from home even, little did I think
of the danger. It is really good that we have no knowl-
edge of the future. If we had, what gloomy thoughts,
continual fears, what a depression of spirit ! When I
think of my poor comrade McKenzie, my heart is turned
at once. Just before we reached Port Colborne he spoke
to me and said, 'Well, who would ever have thought
that we two should be sitting in a car grasping each a
rifle, to go to meet an enemy.' I feel sure that he had a
kind of foreboding that he should never come back safe.
I tried to cheer him up by telling him to banish gloomy
thoughts from his mind. When fighting, he seemed to
have the same fear and foreboding. But alas ! poor
fellow, he is gone. B came up with the body and
he was buried in Woodstock with military honours. There
never was such a funeral in Woodstock. All the stores
were closed and flags at half-mast. All seemed to do
him honour. A telegram sent up at my request reached
there in time to be read at the grave. I am really sorry
that I did not know at the time that it was he who was
shot, but I was in such a position that I could not see
who it was.
" They told me of the great turn-out in Toronto on the
THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO 43
arrival of the dead and wounded. Stores were closed and
all honour paid them. The people of Toronto sent the
Queen's Own a great lot of stuff to Fort Erie and we en-
joyed it well, I can assure you. Tardy honour is now
being done our brave little company. Every body -is
speaking of the way in which they acquitted themselves.
I cannot regret too much that we were not supported,
for then things might have been different from what
they are, but it cannot be helped now. The artillery
came up last night and we are ready for any place to
which we may be called. The rest of our boys are
coming up from Toronto. Our company is pretty strong,
growing fast and in good spirits. We have no cowards
with us."
The raid was soon over, the men disbanded and dis-
persed to their homes. A few graves and a quickened
spirit of loyalty were the general results of the short
campaign. The country learned that it could rely in
case of need upon its young men, and upon none more
surely than upon the students in her colleges.
The year of the Fenian raid saw the close of Robert-
son' s university course. He left college without win-
ning distinction in the way of medals or prizes, but
thoroughly well-grounded in arts and with his mind
well disciplined, especially in dialectics, in which he
took peculiar delight.
VI
AT PRINCETON
r ""A HE work being done in Knox College at this
period was not up to that high standard de-
JL manded by the ministry of the Presbyterian
Church, and there was, consequently, considerable dis-
satisfaction among the students attending. Hence, when
the College opened in the autumn of 1866, a large number
of Canadian students found their way to Princeton, which,
under the Hodges, was then attracting men from both
continents. Among the Canadian students was James
Eobertson, who, though an ardent lover of his country
and of her institutions, was determined that nothing that
he could prevent should stand between him and a
thorough equipment for the life-work he had chosen.
He had striven towards this goal too long and at too
great sacrifice to be checked now in any degree, so turn-
ing his back upon the college which naturally should
have been his alma mater, he entered the seminary
at Princeton as a student in theology for the session
1866-67.
It was not long before there arose among the Canadian
students at Princeton heart-searchings as to their duty to
their own Church and their own country, when their days
of preparation were done. The following letter shows
Robertson's mind on two questions to which in after life
he was forced to give very careful consideration ; the
questions, namely, of the relative claims of Canada and
the United States upon Canadian students and the ques-
44
AT PKINCETON 45
tion of the manning of our colleges. It is written from
Princeton Seminary under date of the 12th of Jan., 1867.
* ' I have heard nothing from Mr. G nor from Mr.
MacC . Mr. D tells me that Paris Presbytery took
up and discussed the matter of so many students coming
over here. There was no definite action taken upon the
subject. It would be a good thing if it would rouse men
to think of what is needed to be done for Knox College.
D says there are only thirty men attending Knox this
year. If the college is to serve the purposes of the Cana-
dian Presbyterian Church, it must be overturned and laid
on better principles. " The young man is somewhat radi-
cal in his remedies, but without a doubt both colleges and
churches have severely suffered from lack of courage to
apply just such remedies. " I hope they may start a
college at Montreal and get some men from Britain.
Should Canadians come over here, the inducements to
stay are such that many will be persuaded to do so.
Should a person go out into the field here, there are
plenty of opportunities to get places and the chances are
much better than in Canada. Men who have nothing to
do with politics, who merely look to do good, will not
think much about being under a different flag. The
acquaintances formed would soon lead them to forget old
prejudices and live contented here. I see the effects al-
ready on our own men. If such is the case with men who
are here but one year, what will be the result with men
who may take three, and who may enter relations that
make it an inducement to stay ? Moreover, when a per-
son gives himself to the work of the ministry, he should
not arbitrarily decide where he is to go. He is to do his
Master's work, and that wherever he is called to do it.
He must not scruple to live under a flag different from
that under which he was born if God in His providence so
directs." With which liberal spirit we would heartily
46 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
agree, but it is iDteresting to observe how in later years
when looking at the subject from another point of view,
Mr. Robertson saw reason to modify his opinion very
considerably. Meantime, in a man of his strong national
prejudices and deep patriotic feeling, these sentiments do
him no dishonour. " And by coming here," he pro-
ceeds, " and being brought into contact with the work
and seeing an evident need of his services, and being in a
true sense of the word i called,' is he to refuse merely be-
cause he happens to be in the United States? Should
such be the spirit of Christians, no heathen need look for
a ray of light from a Christian country." The logic of
this can hardly ^ be considered faultless, but he goes on :
" Is not the principle involved in this the very one that
is chief among the reasons for having a Presbyterian col-
lege in Montreal ? There is the same clashing of claims
between East and West in Canada, only here, instead of the
claims being those of rival provinces, they are those of
rival countries. These boundary lines, however, are
political and not spiritual. They divide the kingdoms of
this world and not that of Christ. His kingdom ex-
tends to all. No man can justify himself in making a
resolution to go to a place to study and refuse to
stay whatever circumstances may arise. He would
then be making a distinction where his Master had made
none."
From the graver subject of this letter he turns with
that love of humour that afterwards marked him so
strongly, to retail two stories brought in by one of his
fellow students.
" One of the students was attending a negro prayer-
meeting. The leader was offering up prayer and in so
doing offered special petitions for the children, praying
that they might be ' filled with all manner of concupis-
cence/ Another leader, in praying for a young lady who
AT PRINCETON 47
was lying ill, petitioned i That she might be restored
again and permitted to go about like a roaring lion seek-
ing whom he might devour.' "
Let us hope that mercifully the petitions were not
granted.
College life at the seminary in Princeton, at least with
the Canadian contingent there, was an earnest business.
These men had left their homes under pressure of high
purpose and at no small cost. They were called upon to
incur no inconsiderable financial outlay, to sacrifice per-
sonal and family ties as well as national sentiment.
Hence they were determined to make the most of the
privileges which Princeton had to offer them. The fol-
lowing extract gives us a glimpse into the workshop where
they were being hammered and fashioned into preachers
of the Gospel.
" Our class preaching commenced Tuesday. I got a
sermon in to-day for criticism. I am afraid I must be
severe on the man and I am sorry, for he is a good fellow.
I must, however, injustice to him and to myself, tell him
what I think of it. We get two sermons every week,
half an hour long, with a written criticism of fifteen
minutes on each. The exercise is good for the mind."
Good for the mind it is without a doubt, and would there
were more of this same wholesome exercise in the making
of our preachers to-day !
" I have just come in from hearing two of our Canadian
preachers, Messrs C and F . They did very well
indeed. The American students thought a good deal of
them too. I heard one of them say that he never heard
anything in the seminary to beat it. I feel very sensitive
for the honour of Canadians here. I only now realize
that, in sentiment at least, I am a Canadian." A Cana-
dian ! That he is, and ever growing into a better. His
twelve years of Canada have made this young Scot no
48 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
less a Scotchman, but they have tinged his blood with a
strong Canadian strain. We shall come across this
feeling for Canada's honour once and again during his
life.
In another letter he writes : " Thursday night came, and
though an excitable character, I seemed to grow more
cool and collected as the time drew near for me to preach.
There were four of us to preach ten-minute sermons.
I came third. The modus operandi is as follows. One
gets up and preaches ; the professor then criticises him on
his manner and matter. Of course, everything is taken
notice of, a word mispronounced, a gesture inappropriate
or awkward, a proposition not correctly expressed, any-
thing, in short, that is not just as it should be is corrected.
Now a man is criticised for bad pronunciation, then for
want of proper enunciation, now for speaking too loud,
then for having a nasal twang. It is rather difficult to
steer clear of all the shoals. I got no criticism, only that
the whole was very clearly stated and tersely expressed,
and that the line of argument was clear throughout. I
was rather excited at first, but soon grew confident.
I took my manuscript with me, but did not need it while
I was speaking. Every eye was fixed on me and not a
move was made. " That is easy enough to believe. We
have seen something of this fixed and motionless attention,
and we are prepared to believe it true even of that most
critical of all critical audiences, and in those crude days.
" After the whole was over, the Canadian students and
some of the Americans came in to * congratulate ' us, as they
term it. There seems to be a spirit of good-will among all
the students towards us, but the Canadians have a decided
preference for each other, and when one of the number
preaches, all are sure to be there and feel as if the name
and honour of the country were at stake." And no un-
worthy sentiment this, for these young exiles to cherish,
AT PRINCETON 49
and not without its effect upon themselves and their after-
career.
"It appears the preaching last night was more than
usually attractive, and there is a good deal of comment
on it to-day. One of the students of the second year was
in seeing me. He told me that if I sermonized like that
to any congregation they would not appreciate it at all,
but he said they were all interested in it at once from the
novelty of the method and the compactness of style." A
method and a style most surely, whose novelty and com-
pactness by no means diminished with the passing years,
as many congregations, both East and West, can attest.
"Those who spoke with me did remarkably well. I
could judge of their work, of course, but can say nothing
of my own. Junior though the year is, and few in num-
ber, we have the name of having more real talent than
any other year, by admission of the students of the other
years themselves." No great need here for the Scotch-
man's prayer, "Oh, Lord, gie us a good conceit of our-
selves." The pride of class, however, and the joy of the
dawning consciousness of strength may well be pardoned.
All loyal -hearted, strong men have it, but with consistent
modesty as here. Moreover, we are not to forget that
this outpouring of the soul is not for all, but for the one
true and loving heart with whom he shares all his secret
thoughts and emotions.
Outside the class room this same eager spirit prevails.
At table and in their walks, those young men are keen
to exercise their intellectual muscles, more especially
those governing their dialectic powers. Nor do they
shrink from high themes, themes political, themes theo-
logical, themes ethical, heaven and earth furnishing
them, but all worthy and befitting the thing they would
become. For instance : " The other Canadians here and
myself had rather a keen discussion for about a week. I
52 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Living as they do under an alien flag, these young men
are intensely interested in the doings in Canada, and
there are great doings there at this time. The question
of temperance is appearing in the political world and
the advocates of total abstinence and prohibition are pro-
posing legislation thereupon. A long campaign is before
them. Longer, indeed, than their most prescient leader
can forecast, and they have need of all their courage, for
against them as yet are arrayed a distinguished band of
economists and theologians, not to speak of place-hunting
politicians and drouthy electors. But they may well fight
on. The stars in their courses are with them.
But overshadowing all other Canadian questions is that
of Confederation. The loosely-tied bundle of Provinces
are about to be welded into one solid State. And on
these matters our young dialectic student has opinions,
nor is he chary of setting them forth. These are inter-
esting enough to us to-day, viewed in the light of history.
We look in upon them at the breakfast table one morn-
ing and listen to their talk.
"It is Monday morning. I rise, split up some old
shingles, fix them in the stove, place some small wood on
top, and by applying a match, have the whole blazing in
a short time. "While the fire is getting a-going, I wash
and dress. Pat gets up and does the same. Then I sit
down to read Taylor's * Manual of History/ Break-
fast is announced in due time. We all assemble. Mr.
Sinclair acts as general distributor of provisions, assisted
on the left by Pat. Mr. McKay acts as mother for us
all, carefully pouring out the coffee and supplying the
requisite quantity of cream (?) and sugar, while your
humble servant acts as chaplain. We sup our porridge,
and then partake of our coffee and toast." Frugal fare,
but luxurious in comparison with that of other men from
Dull who, carrying on their back a bag of meal, bore
AT PEINCETON 53
that which was to be their main support in the ascent of
Parnassus and other hills of intellectual difficulty.
" For the first few minutes nothing is said, but after a
little Pat inquires :
"'Is there anything new in the Globe this morn-
ing V
" 'Yes,' says McKay, 'it contains an account of the
dinner given by John A. Cartier was there. Cam-
eron was in the chair and they had a jolly time of it.
These are the really great men of Canada, and not one of
them said a word about Brown. They can get along
without him. It is the names of John A. and Cartier
which will be remembered in the history of our country
and not that of Brown. 7 "
Canadians of to-day will be slow to accept that judg-
ment as final, but Mr. McKay must be allowed his say.
" ' They spoke also of reciprocity, but very little.
They have just fooled Brown out. They have returned
from Washington. There is no treaty, and so Brown
might as well have kept in the Cabinet. 7
" ' Yes,' says Eobertson, 'but if Brown had remained
in the Cabinet he would have been responsible for this
abominable conduct.'
1 i ' What conduct ? ' inquires McKay hotly.
" ' The conduct of offering the terms they did to the
Americans,' says Eobertson.
" 'What terms, man?'
" ' The terms of Derby's recommendation.'
"'What's the matter with the recommendations?'
says McKay.
" ' The matter with them ! Why the whole press of
Canada, except the Free Press, condemned the terms.'
" 'But how do you know these terms were offered ? '
"'The American papers say so,' replies Eobertson,
' and Gait's friends do not deny it.'
54 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
" * That's so,' chimes in Pat, i every one knows that
Brown has been the means of preventing the too humil-
iating terms, which the Government would have given,
from being offered. He has been far more useful out of
the Government than in it.' " Which all will acknowl-
edge at this day an unquestionable fact.
"'But/ persists Mac, 'he had no influence in the
Government, and that is why he left it.'
" ' He has done far better then,' replies Pat, l to leave
it, if he could do more out than in.'
"'Oh, pshaw!' says Mac impatiently, 'these men
could have done with Brown just as they liked.'
" ' That they could not,' says Robertson, ' or else they
would have kept him in the Cabinet and saved the howl
that was raised against them.'
" ' Well, he has not the ability that these men have, at
any rate/ says McKay.
< < < Why not ? He has gained influence and is steadily
gaining influence still. He has won over the majority of
the Upper Canadians and has more weight in Canada
West than any other man now.'
" 'Why then,' retorts McKay, 'why then does John
A. carry on the Government ? '
'"Anyone can see that,' replies Robertson, 'because
he sides in with the Lower Canadians.' "
And that is not far from the mark. We have, even in
our day, known somewhat of that astuteness of the prac-
tical politician that knows how to utilize inharmonious
elements in the national life and make them all serve in turn.
'"It is a manifest fact that John A. has been losing
influence in Upper Canada for the last fifteen years and
it was through Brown that his Government was brought
to a standstill.'
" 'Then how is it that John A. has brought on this
Confederation ! '
Dr. Robertson
Student at Princeton University
AT PRINCETON 55
"'John A. ! Not a bit of it. It is due to Brown's
steady influence, for never would John A. and Cartier
have consented to anything of the kind till Brown
brought them to a dead stand. Brown is the man, after
all, we have to thank. 7 "
So it would appear that Brown, the object of much
obloquy in that day and afterwards, had even then not
a few to do him honour, and more will join that company
as Canadians come to understand their history.
'" That's so!' cries Sinclair. ' Everybody knows
that's true, and so does Mac, but he won't acknowledge
it. He's going to be a lawyer himself and he wants to
fish a little for office. I fear he will be as venal as the
rest of his brethren.'
"'That, however, would be better,' continued Sin-
clair, ' than trying to gain a little notoriety by opposing
Duukin's bill. Did you hear about that, Eobertson ? '
"'No, I did not.'
" ' Well, you see this youth here had nothing better to
do but try to help these poor drunkards get liquor easier
and cheaper. What a generous youth he is ! 7
"'Surely he was not guilty of that!' exclaimed
Eobertson.
"'Yes, that he was. 7
" ' Well,' explained Mac, ' I was opposed to the bill as
it stood.'
" ' Oh, yes ! ' said Sinclair, ' you could not get all the
good done your noble soul desired, and so you must do
none at all.'
"'Well,' replied Mac, 'that bill would do no good
anyway.'
" ' How do you know ? You did not give it a trial. 7
" 'I believe,' says Mac, 'that if liquor was cheaper
and if there were none of these restrictive measures, the
people would be much more sober than now. 7 "
56 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
An argument, by the way, not unknown even in this
advanced day, but deserving of respect more for its hoary
age and its marvellous tenacity of life, than for any in-
herent value.
" But Mac continues, * Look at the old country ! See
how much they have to pay for whiskey, and yet they
are more drunken than here.'
"' Prove that/ flashes Robertson. 'And even sup-
posing that to be the case, you cannot institute a compar-
ison between any two countries in regard to these things.
The one thing you ought to do is to compare any two
towns in the same country. Where a duty of thirty
cents a gallon was placed on whiskey in Canada, a good
deal less of it was drunk, as appeared in the reports, and
since duty was put on in the States, several million fewer
gallons were drunk. And besides, Mac, you are just
talking nonsense, for you are saying, " Put on plenty of
duty and far more will be drunk ; give it to them for
nothing and they will not have it." But there's the bell.
We must be off. We have the old chief to-day and he
will be in on the minute.' "
And so we may leave them to their serious work, and
more serious play. They will bring no discredit on their
country, and, please God, may serve her well ere their
day is done.
VII
A CITY MISSIONARY
AT the close of his first session at Princeton, Eob-
ertson returned to Canada for the summer and
took up his first mission field, supplying the
stations of Thamesville, Botany, and Indian Lands. His
experience at his first service was prophetic of much that
was to meet him in after-years.
" I arose Sabbath morning between six and seven and
got ready for my drive to Indian Lands, nine miles away.
After breakfast Mr. Caven got the buggy and we set off.
It had rained through the night, but was fair now. Mr.
Caven drove me down about a mile and got one of his
member's sons to drive me the rest of the road, as he had
to preach himself at eleven. The roads were very muddy
and full of water. The time was short, we had a good
distance to go, and as we went through mud and water
at a good rate, the usual result followed mud flew in all
directions, covering us pretty well up. Soon we came to
a part of the road that was through bush. The horse
could not trot for water, stumps on one side, quagmire on
the other." We well remember those same swamp
corduroy roads, common enough in pioneer days. " We
scarcely knew which was better, to run against the one or
plunge into the other. Judging that the chances lay in
favour of the superior resistance of the stumps, we tried
the quagmire and succeeded in all cases in getting to the
other side."
This is the beginning of a habit that becomes inveter-
ate with him. He has the saving sense of humour that
57
60 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
all too scanty living, but few were possessed at once of
the physical vigour and the concentrated devotion neces-
sary to make the work truly successful. Robertson pos-
sessed both in the highest degree, and entered upon his
work in the slums surrounding the Alexander Mission
with that tremendous energy which distinguished his
every activity.
" I am working away," he writes, " in connection with
the mission. The numbers are increasing. I hope be-
fore winter is over that we can command a good attend-
ance. The people pay good attention and are very quiet.
I am visiting a good deal, but have not got yet thoroughly
acquainted with the field. There is a great deal of misery
among the people. Their life cannot be a happy one.
How many of them live we can scarcely tell."
The terms of engagement are set forth in true American
businesslike style in the following document :
"68 Wall Street, N. K, or n East Ninth Street,
11 October yth, 1868.
" To MR. JAMES ROBERTSON.
" MY DEAR SIR :
"To prevent misunderstanding between us as to the
terms of your engagement by the Alexander Mission which
commenced October ist, I now write as to the same.
" i st. You are engaged to preach every Sabbath evening
and to conduct the weekly Tuesday evening lecture or a prayer-
meeting as required ; and you are to be present at the Tuesday
evening meetings when required as well when the meeting may
be a lecture as when it may be a prayer-meeting.
" 2d. You are to be present at the teachers' meetings when
held and assist in the consideration of the Sabbath-school les-
sons, and conduct the meetings if required.
" 3d. You are to hold yourself in readiness to prepare with
the school managers a programme for making the Tuesday
evening meeting or any of the meetings interesting and profit-
able.
"4th. You are to visit twelve hours per week upon the
families connected with the mission, and try and build up the
A CITY MISSIONARY 61
evening meetings by including a greater attendance of adults if
possible. After you become acquainted with the field, arrange-
ments will be made as to visiting generally.
"5th. You are occasionally during each month to attend
the Sabbath afternoon mission meetings and make pastoral
visits, and make the acquaintance of the older scholars con-
nected with the school.
"6th. When the sewing school shall be in session during
the winter you are to look in upon the children occasionally
gathered in said school.
" yth. You are to make monthly reports of the mission, di-
rected to the treasurer, H. S. Terbell, and hand the reports
either to Mr. Thomas S. Adams or to me, and in these reports you
are to speak of the work generally, also of any cases of interest,
number of visits made, the attendance upon your meetings and
of any other matters that may occur as naturally to be reported
upon.
" 8th. Any cases of need or cases requiring attention are to
be reported immediately.
" 9th. In short, you are to hold yourself in readiness to at-
tend to any special cases and to care for the interests of the
mission generally, and to visit with any teacher desiring your
aid in visiting upon members of the school.
" loth. You said you should not continue with us if you
found you were not giving satisfaction.
"The only cause of dissatisfaction, I think, could be your
metaphysical turn of mind. The people require plain, earnest,
practical, illustrative preaching, and if you can satisfy on this
point, I have no doubt of your success.
" However, as it is in a measure uncertain as yet how far you
may succeed in adapting your preaching to the people, we have
thought it best to make your engagement to continue so long as
both the mission managers and yourself shall be mutually satisfied
with each other, provided, however, that in any event (even if
we were satisfied with each other) your term of service or en-
gagement by the mission shall terminate with the i8th of May,
1869, unless renewed for a further term by mutual agreement.
" nth. For your services to be rendered as above you are
to receive forty dollars per month, and to make out your ac-
count therefor, which, when approved by either Mr. Thos. S.
Adams, or myself, will be paid by Mr. H. S. Terbell, treasurer,
39 Walker Street.
62 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
" 1 2th. A committee of the Board of Management will from
time to time meet with you to talk over the work and its
needs, etc.
" Hoping your connection with the mission will be greatly
blessed and will result in a church organization, I remain,
" Yours very respectfully,
" LEONARD A. BRADLEY,
" In behalf of the Board of
Managers of the Alexander
Mission, King Street.
" P. S. A written reply to the above is requested.
"L. A. B."
Forty dollars a month ! In all his life he had never
had such wealth at his disposal ! But will any one say
that with preaching and lecturing, Sabbath-school and
sewing meetings and prayer-meetings, not to speak of
monthly reports and i ' attendance upon any teacher de-
siring aid in visiting members of the school," each and
every dollar of the forty was not fully earned ?
The shrewd and businesslike managers of the Alexander
Mission seemed to hold this opinion, for before three
months are passed they are determined to secure the
Canadian missionary for their own. A proposition is
made to him of which he writes the following letter from
University Place, New York, under date Jan. 13, 1869 :
" Since I came back a proposition has been made to me
about the mission, namely, as to whether I would be
willing to stay on here permanently. There are no pre-
liminaries arranged at all about the matter, but granted
that an adequate salary, say fifteen hundred dollars to
start with, would be given, should I consent to stay ?
They say they have been for years looking for a man for
the work. They once found one, but he proved too weak
physically. They say I am just such a one as they have
wished for. I have the bodily strength and the mental
vigour necessary. Will I accept ? They told me to think
A CITY MISSIONARY 63
of the matter till spring and that then I would be able to
tell them what I thought of it."
And for the following weeks this business was the oc-
casion of many an anxious thought and the theme of
many a letter to her who was concerned in its issue
equally with himself. He is very frank with her and
does not shrink from discussing the matter from a
domestic point of view.
" If I stay here even a year I am afraid my connection
with Canada will be gone, and yet I don't know that I
ought to run away from the work. One thing is certain,
I would not like to commence housekeeping in New
York, nor especially would I like to raise a family here.
That may be looking too far ahead, but I think I must
look further than next year."
And would to heaven all prospective fathers had the
grace and sense to look ahead more than a year ! But he
is a Scot and the shrewd Scotch thrifty head on him takes
note of another aspect.
" Should I stay here merely for one year unmarried, it
would be better for me financially than anything I could
do in Canada, for I should be some six or seven hundred
dollars in pocket a year from next spring, with which to
start housekeeping. I have no opinion on the subject as
yet ; I am merely looking at a few items."
Canny man ! It is a matter of life-issues, yes, and of
eternal issues, and there is much thought and prayer
a- needing before it be finally settled. He must think for
more than himself, too, and so he writes as in every letter
for advice.
" What advice can you give me on the subject ? This
is a matter which touches yourself and how am I to act in
reference to it ? Would you be willing to wait if I should
stay here for a year on trial and then go back to Canada ? "
Wait ! Ay, that she would, but she has waited ten
64 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
years and he can hardly bring himself to feel that it is
right to make her wait longer, and so on through the
following weeks he discusses with himself and her.
Meantime the work grows under his hand. The poor
people come to love and trust him. The school and other
departments flourish beyond all expectation. The at-
tendance at all the services is greater than ever before.
He begins to feel the pull of the work upon him and the
question thrusts itself in upon his conscience, Ought he
to abandon his work for any cause ? The managers and
the people earnestly press him. Dr. Hall adds his solici-
tations. At length he determines to bring the matter to
a clear understanding. His strong, clear sense demands
definiteness in the proposition before he can accept or re-
ject. He has a consultation with the managers, the re-
sult of which he thus records :
"I met the managers of the Alexander Mission last
evening and discussed the whole question. They were
ready to grant everything I wanted. The points that
were discussed may be reduced to four.
" (1) Organization. They have had preaching for the
last fifteen years but never organization. Hence those
who have been converted through the instrumentality
of the mission have been obliged to connect themselves
with other churches, This has all along been a hin-
drance. When the question of organization was proposed
they would not hear of it. They were for the work con-
tinuing as in previous years. I refused at once to con-
sider the subject at all without this first condition. After
discussion they decided that they would organize as soon
as I chose.
* l (2) Church building. The place in which we worship
now is merely a place fitted up by knocking two double
houses into one. I wanted them to build or buy a church,
and give us a good place to meet in as soon as possible.
A CITY MISSIONARY 65
This they promised to do as soon as the work would grow
a little.
"(3) Am I the man for the place? I questioned my
fitness for the work. This they all set aside. Dr. Hall
was consulted and he said, * Keep him if you can. 7 The
managers themselves heard me preach and their opinion
was that I was decidedly the best they had had in fifteen
years ; the teachers, the people, and all of them were
unanimous in wishing me to stay. I scarcely knew what
to do, so the matter rests there at present.
" (4) Salary. The church promised twelve hundred
dollars, but I was told that if I was not satisfied the
managers would add more to it. I told them I could say
nothing till I had looked about me to see the price of
living and so forth. I was given time."
As we read over these four points of his, these words
ring in our ears with a strange familiarity, " Organiza-
tion, Visibility, Fitness, Finance.' 7 How often do these
key words ring from him in after-years ! He meets his
managers again and gives them his final decision. He
cannot stay with them. To this decision he is brought,
not by personal interests nor by family considerations
alone, influential as these may be. It is his country that
calls him. The unmanned fields of Canada, the little
backwoods settlements demand labourers. True, the
congregations are small. They are poor. Growth
will be slow. The sphere will always be limited, offer-
ing small scope for his powers, of which he is beginning
to be clearly conscious, but it is his own country, the
country of his kindred, and its claims cannot be un-
heeded.
Before he leaves New York, he is approached by
another congregation and offered a large salary to re-
main. Ambition appeals to him. His fellow students
all advise him to stay. His friend Eemick writes him,
66 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
"Stay, Robertson, and you will become the pastor of a
large church in New York. You have the ability and
you only need it brought out by circumstances. "
Dr. Hall urges him not to leave New York. He would
be sure to rise much quicker there than he could possibly
in Canada or elsewhere. The following letter lets us into
his mind :
" I got a letter to-day from Mr. Mac . He urges a
great need of men in Canada, the number of stations
without supplies, the number of congregations without
pastors. In this respect he is of your opinion, although
perhaps on different grounds. You will not decide in
favour of any particular place. You will not even allow
yourself to think of a place as yet, but all unconsciously
you were applying your argument more powerfully than
he. You were willing to go with me in my choice, yet
you wished to be near your parents, and you were sure
they would not move away with you. Your parents
would think it very hard if you went away from home
to some different country, as would, no doubt, be the
case with my father. If I could see my way clear other-
wise, I do not think that would hinder me, nor do I
think it would you, however difficult for a time."
The future years of separation and of mutual denial
of self, each for the other and both for their common
Master, offer a striking and pathetic commentary upon
this faith of his in her he had chosen for companion.
For, during all the long years that followed, so large a
proportion of which they spent apart from each other,
she never grudged him to his work, though often the
denial of love was bitter enough and the weight of re-
sponsibility and care almost more than could be borne.
But from the first, they were clear about this matter of
mutual sacrifice, so he continues :
" We are no longer our own in that respect now. The
A CITY MISSIONARY 67
time for self is gone with us. When we entered this
sphere it was with the understanding that we were ready
to do the Master's work wherever He wished. If true to
Him, this we must still do or else bear the consequences
of going at our own charges. It would be a fearful thing
to think of in our future course, that we had regarded
self and selfish considerations and not our Master's
work. If His work did not prosper, we could scarcely
ever forgive ourselves. But I acknowledge to you
that it is not an easy matter for me to decide what to
do."
But he had seen his way and it lay towards Canada,
and once having seen it, nothing could turn him from it.
In a short time he is settled in a small charge at a
quarter of the salary offered by the big New York con-
gregation. "The time for self is done." That was the
key-note of his life then and after, as all men can testify
who knew him well. His long and arduous struggle
with severe poverty and untoward circumstances was at
an end. By dint of unremitting industry, strong resolve,
unswerving adherence to his purpose, he has arrived at
the goal he had set before him years before.
VIII
WIFE AND MANSE
HAVING decided for Canada, Eobertson was
relieved of further anxiety as to a sphere of
labour. For in Western Ontario there were
not a few fields, such as they were, standing vacant.
There remained, however, another matter of the first im-
portance demanding due and earnest consideration, and
that was his marriage.
The following letter is so unusual with him in its self-
revelation, so full of tender affection, that it does much
to quell in us anything of impatience with the deter-
mined, almost imperious self-confidence, of this young
man who has a way of making things move out of the
path before him. Hence we give it in full, with the ad-
dress and date, No. 9 University Place, New York, Feb-
ruary 3, 1869.
" Just twelve years ago to-day I left home to endeavour
to do something for myself. How brief the time appears,
and yet what changes since ! Little did I think at that
time that I should be spending the twelfth anniversary of
that day in New York City in the last year of my theo-
logical course. Less still, that I should be writing a
letter to Miss Cowing ! Well I know and feel that I have
not had the shaping of my own life. Goodness and mercy
have followed me, and now I ought to raise my stone of
remembrance to Him who is the Author of all my bless-
ings. When I left home then, I was a green lad without
any experience of the world "
68
WIFE AND MANSE 69
That is true enough ; no need to tell us that, James,
with your " high- water trousers, " your unspeakable hats
and your clothes so fearfully and wonderfully made, the
result of the untutored genius of the travelling tailor.
Not but what you had earned money enough to buy you
finer, but your brothers and your father were in need of
it, both then and in the hard college years afterwards.
But green though he was, he had his deep thoughts and
his lofty aims, as witness :
' ' I had some aspirations higher than those of a school-
teacher, but how they were to be realized was more than
I knew. The first two years of my course were rather
dreary, nothing having been realized. I was too recently
from home to effect much. It was when I went to Inner-
kip that I became fixed in opinions and began to draw
out the faint outlines of my future course. Ten years
appeared long to look ahead. When once my resolve
was taken, however, I was committed to it and my only
aim was to attain my goal."
That characteristic of his that came to stand out so
clearly seems to have been early bred in his bones. Once
committed to a resolve, there is no more shilly-shallying
for him, but straight at it he goes. Now he turns to her,
who through these years has had the harder part, and
speaks thus tenderly :
" With the whole of these ten years you are familiar.
You have known all. I had neither ability nor inclina-
tion to conceal anything from you. My troubles you
have shared and lightened. My joys you have doubled.
Your sympathy has ever cheered me in gloomy hours, and
the thought of you has often served as a guardian angel
in the hour of temptation.
"These ten years have not been without their trials,
light though they may seem to me now, but if they have
given me more of a spirit of self-reliance, if they have
70 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
made rue more practical, if they have acted as a fire to
purge away considerable dross, I am content. These
difficulties, however, have never made any difference be-
tween us. We have been together and separated, but I
hope we have only learned to love each other the more.
Had our circumstances been different we might not have
had so much real pleasure, and although I am buoyant
enough in spirit to hope that greater pleasure is in store
for us, yet I must say that if the future has in its bosom
an amount equal to that of the past I shall not quarrel
with it. The future is, of course, to be to me a time of
trial ; it is to be a time of activity as well, if my life is
spared, and as in all the past I have had your sympathy
and support, I expect it still in the future, only more so,
inasmuch as you will be equally interested in the work
with me. In the past I have worked alone to a great ex-
tent. In the future I hope to be in partnership where I
shall have a right to expect counsel and ad vice. "
And nothing in the man during this period of his life
stands out more honourably than this, his watchful care
that there should come no gulf between the student with
developing powers and ever- widening views and growing
ambitions, and the simple, bright- eyed country lass who
had, in spite of herself, given him her heart's love years
ago. What pains he takes that she shall know all about
him, not only the more external happenings, but the
inner movements of his life as well. With her he shares
his thoughts, his changing opinions, his aims, his plans.
He guides her reading, stimulates her intellect by sug-
gesting topics of study, so that when he comes to claim
her he finds her fit for companionship and ready to share
in his life-work.
On the 23d of September, 1869, they were married.
Never had man a wife more loyal, more faithful, more
steadfast under burdens, more ready to offer herself in
WIFE AND MANSE 71
sacrifice upon the altar of her own or her husband's serv-
ice. For thirty-three years she stood beside him, sharing
with equal readiness his sorrow and joy, thus joining with
him in his great ministry, in her place and according to
her ability, without faltering and without complaining
till the very close, assuming after a few brief years the
whole care of family and home that he might be care-
free for his wider work. Something of what Canada
owes to her husband, many Canadians will ever grate-
fully acknowledge, but what Canada owes to this silent,
faithful, courageous woman, no one will ever know.
A few weeks after their marriage, on the 18th of No-
vember, 1869, Mr. Eobertson was ordained and inducted
into the pastoral charge of Norwich, a small village in
the southeast of Oxford County, in the Province of On-
tario, where they settled down in the cozy little manse to
a few years of busy, happy life. Writing of this period
Mrs. Eobertson says :
" We set up our first housekeeping at Norwich in the
manse, a pretty white cottage in a garden. We had plenty
of work and we had pleasures too. The people were ex-
ceedingly kind and the years passed quickly. Three of
our five children were born during these years, Tina with
her charms and winning ways, the pride and pet of the
congregation, then Willie and Jamsie, sturdy little fel-
lows, fond of their own way."
We should expect just that of Willie and Jamsie, re-
membering that they were children, and knowing some-
thing of the father they had.
There was nothing to distinguish this congregation
from scores of others in Western Ontario. There were
two out-stations, Southeast Oxford and Windham, at-
tached to Norwich, and these three constituted a charge
somewhat widely scattered, involving long drives and
very considerable exposure. The congregation was made
72 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
up for the most part of small farmers who, though in
much easier circumstances, retained in their ways of
thinking and living much of the primitive simplicity of
the early pioneer days. But though the congregation
was ordinary, their young minister was by no means so.
His very first sermon, such was its extraordinary force
and vigour, took the people by storm, and during his stay
with them he never failed to grip his people with his
preaching. He was frequently asked to exchange pulpits
with neighbouring ministers. One day after hearing
him preach, the minister of a neighbouring town, him-
self one of Canada's most distinguished preachers of that
day, exclaimed :
" There's a man who will one day be great, likely a
professor in one of our colleges."
He was a tremendous worker. He planned large
things and such were his great physical powers that he
could carry through his plans to completion. Difficulties
could not daunt him. An incident is related by his
wife :
" Having three regular stations and really four others,
there was much visiting to be done and much driving.
We provided ourselves with a horse and named him
1 Derby.' He was a fine animal and did us good service.
He was well fed and well treated, but he must not let the
grass grow under his feet if his master was behind him. If
the driver lost his way, for then he was fond of exploration
as in after years, he need only to loosen the reins and
Derby would bring him safely home, whatever the state
of the roads or however dark the night. On one occasion
only, if I remember rightly, did he refuse to do his
master's bidding. It was the time of the spring freshets.
The pastor was to speak at an important meeting some
eight miles distant. Other speakers were to be there too.
He got about half-way when the road was blocked by
Dr. Robertson
Minister at Norwich
WIFE AND MANSE 73
running water, ice and logs. Derby positively refused
to go through. Turning to the nearest farmhouse he
left there his wife and horse, but he went to the meeting.
Taking off his boots and stockings, he rolled up his
trousers, waded through the stream and reached the
place in time to make his speech, the speech of the even-
ing it turned out, none of the other speakers being able
to get there. He afterwards said that he found little in-
convenience in the crossing, except that his bare feet
occasionally stuck to the ice."
"On another occasion," writes a parishioner of his,
"our minister was to dispense communion in his East
Oxford charge, and a brother minister from Woodstock
was to preach for him in Norwich and Windham, or
Bookton, as it came to be called. By some misunder-
standing,' the Woodstock man came on the Sabbath
morning to East Oxford instead of to Norwich.
Mr. Eobertson had driven out from Norwich, a distance
of some nine miles, and scarcely got his horse unhitched
when, to his astonishment, the Woodstock man drove up.
Mr. Eobertson immediately hitched up his own horse
again, and rushing his Woodstock friend into the buggy,
gave him the whip and reins and said,
" ' Drive on, and be sure you don't spare the horse.
He'll carry you through.'
" And as the Minister drove down the road at a furious
pace, Mr. Eobertson continued to call after him, ' Don't
spare the horse, he'll carry you through.' "
Mr. Eobertson was more than a mere minister to his
congregation. He was a man with the best of them. It
is related how on a Sabbath evening after he had begun
his service, the fire-bell rang. At once Mr. Eobertson
dismissed the congregation, for fire protection there was
none, unless such as could be provided by the bucket
brigade. It was discovered that a neighbouring hotel
74: THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
was on fire. Immediately the minister took command
of the situation, organized the crowd, and by dint of the
most strenuous exertions had the fire suppressed. In
gratitude for his services, and in sympathy with his ex-
hausted condition, the hotel keeper brought him a bottle
of brandy with which to refresh himself.
"Never will I forget/' writes another member of his
congregation, "the manner in which he seized that
brandy bottle by the neck, swung it round his head and
dashed it against the brick wall, exclaiming, as he did
so, ' That's a fire that can never be put out.' "
He had done more work than any two men at the fire,
and was in consequence more in*need of refreshment than
any other, but he had a perfect hatred of drink and drink-
ing habits.
Mr. Robertson was more than minister to his people ;
he was friend, counsellor, arbiter as well. They came to
him not only with their spiritual difficulties, but also with
their family troubles and business differences.
"Two of his congregation were in partnership for
some time," writes one of his members. "They were
both church workers, but when the time of the partner-
ship expired there was some trouble in winding up their
affairs. One day when Mr. Robertson was entering the
office, he met one of them coming out, bade him good-
morning, and receiving a very brief reply, said to the
other partner, l Mr. W seems to be in a hurry. 7
" ' Yes,' replied the partner, l we have been trying to
settle up our affairs, but we are having some trouble. 7
" l l am sorry to hear that/ says Mr. Robertson, 'it
will never do. If I can do anything to help you I shall
only be too glad. 7
"The men agreed to have Mr. Robertson act the part
of arbitrator and soon both were satisfied."
The five years of their stay in Norwich were to the
WIFE AND MANSE 75
Bobertsons years of hard but happy toil in the congrega-
tion, and of quiet domestic joy in their home. To these
years how often in the midst of loneliness and separation
for them both did they look back with wistful yearning.
For never were they to know again the full peace and
content and joy of unbroken family life. This their cross
was laid upon them, and without murmur they took it
up and carried it to the end.
IX
THE ROBERTSON LAND
AT the head of the great waterway that reaches
from the Atlantic westward into the heart of
Canada, stands Fort William, once the point of
departure for the far West and the far North by the great
fur brigades in the brave days of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany's regime. At Fort William there used to gather
for annual council those fur-trading lords of forest and
river whose fame has floated down to us through a hun-
dred years. It is at this point that Western Canada
proper begins, that Canada whose discovery as a field for
settlement made a Dominion of Canada an assured reality
and a Canadian nation a possibility. From that ancient
trading post west for four hundred miles stretched a
waste of rock and water, impassable at that time except
by canoe brigade in summer and dog-train in winter.
And a forbidding barrier that same rocky waste has
proved through all these years. Beyond this rocky bar-
rier lies the prairie country, then one vast empty, bound-
less plain, offering in those old days a home to the red
man, the buffalo and all wild things, a stamping ground
to the fur trader and in later years a precarious dwelling
to the remote and infrequent settler. For a thousand
miles the prairie land stretches and rolls till it brings up
against the bases of the mighty Eockies.
Far away to the West, between the Eocky Mountains
and the Pacific Ocean, lies the most Western colony in
British North America, British Columbia, consisting of
a series of mountain ranges and intervening valleys heavy
76
THE ROBERTSON LAND 77
with forests and cut deep by rapid rivers. Until recent
years this Pacific coast, to most men, was the limit of
Canada's territory, but the time came when far to the
North, fifteen hundred miles away, a new land was found,
and into the Yukon country men thronged and crushed
in their struggle for gold.
Before the year 1870, when Canada took over from the
Hudson's Bay Company the administration of the West,
all that vast territory that lay beyond the Great Lakes
and swept up the coast line to the far North, was to all
but the fur trader and the adventurous explorer, a tellus
ignotum. No living man dreamed, not even the most far-
seeing of the Hudson's Bay factors who knew the country
best, that the day would come when down that same
Kaministiquia River, where there floated back the
rythmic chant of the voyageurs who had gone swaying
round the bend in their canoes, there should come the
hoarse roar of three transcontinental railways. A few
men of prophetic soul had a vision that in some favoured
spots men might make homes in security and in comfort ;
but the vast majority of Canadians and, of course, all
others, regarded the great West as an extremely doubtful
asset to the Dominion. And the tales that came of ter-
rible Arctic winters which few men could support and of
vast barren spaces where no man could dwell, made
people content to abide where they were safe, if somewhat
cramped in opportunity to live.
But the year 1870 changed all this. That was the year
of that very needless and very unhappy little rebellion in
which men of solid sense and worth, exasperated beyond
endurance by the chafing of stupid misgovernment upon
their own inflamed prejudices, allowed themselves to be
led by the nose by a shallow-pated Frenchman, vain and
none too courageous, who, after bringing brave men into
difficulty and danger, fled to safety, careless of their fate,
78 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
to return at a later day to perpetrate an even more foolish,
base and cowardly outrage upon those who trusted him
and upon an all too lenient government. The rebellion
concentrated the eyes of Canada, and to a certain extent
of Great Britain, upon the West. The troops returning
from the suppression of the rebellion, the officers who
commanded them, the politicians and the shrewd business
men who followed in their wake, all came back enthusi-
astic immigration agents. Then there began that suc-
cession of tidal waves of immigration which has continued
to flood the Western country with men hungry for land,
from that day to this.
In the far North, too, in late years, it has been found
that men can dwell in comfort ; that not only adventurous
miners taking their lives in their hands, but men of less
heroic mould, can make homes, if not fortunes, in the
great valleys that lie between those mountain ranges with
their eternal snows.
This vast country which, reaching from Fort William
across prairies and mountains to Victoria and up along
the rugged and indented coast line from Victoria to
Skagway and far into Dawson City, this great West
which gave the Dominion a new basis and a new hope
for empire, this is the Eobertson land ; the Eobertson
land because it was the scene of his labours, the arena
upon which, during twenty-five years, he made proof of
his powers of administration, and, more than all, the Eob-
ertson land because it bears to-day the mark of James
Eobertson' s hand more than that of any other one man's,
and that mark is cut deep into the heart and conscience,
into the very life, of the Western people. For not only
was he more than any other the maker of a great Church
in this land, but, as we shall see, his hand was felt in the
tracing of those other structural lines that enter into the
building of a nation.
PIONEER PRESBYTERIANS IN THE WEST
THE religious history of Western Canada reflects
little glory upon Canadian Presbyterianism in
the early decades of that history. Indeed, not
to any Church in Canada, but to those of the motherland,
is largely due the credit for the earliest efforts in evangel-
izing the native races of the Western half of British
America, as well as for the care of the religious life of the
early settlements. The great Eoman Catholic mission-
aries were men from the home land, sent forth and sup-
ported by the various religious orders of France. The
missions of the Anglican Church were to a large extent
and to a comparatively late day, manned and supported
almost entirely by the great missionary societies of Eng-
land. Early missions conducted by the Methodist Church
were carried on by men sent out by the Wesleyan body
of England to the Indian races and to the white settlers.
So, too, the Presbyterian Church of Canada was slow to
enter in and possess the great land that lay beyond the
Lakes. It is not hard to account for this indifference of
the Churches in Eastern Canada to the West. These
Churches were divided into factions and were absorbed in
the struggle for their own existence ; the settlements in the
West were few, unknown, and insignificant.
Before 1870 the land, as we have seen, was practi-
cally unknown to all except the fur trader and the ex-
plorer. Along the waterways that led from Fort William
to the Bed Eiver, were only the fur-trading posts with
their dependent groups of natives, half-breeds and whites.
79
80 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Here, but for the occasional ministrations of a Roman
priest or Anglican missionary en voyage, there was noth-
ing to suggest religion in any of its forms.
Far away, on the Western Pacific coast, in the few
small settlements that were to be found on Vancouver
Island, on the mainland coast and along the rivers, the
Presbyterian Church of Canada had not a single mis-
sionary until the year 1862, when the Canada Presbyterian
Church sent out the Rev. Robert Jamieson as their first
missionary to British Columbia. On arriving at Victoria
he was surprised to find that post occupied by the
Rev. John Hall, who had been sent out the year before
by the Irish Presbyterian Church. Jamieson went to
New Westminster, then the capital of the province, and
there for twenty-two years he rendered splendid service
to the Church and the cause of religion in British
Columbia. Two other men from the Canada Presbyterian
Church joined him, Duff in 1864 and Aitken in 1869.
It is, however, to the Church of Scotland that the chief
credit is due for the early prosecution of Presbyterian
missions in British Columbia. Up to the year 1887 work
was carried on by that Church at some nine or ten points
upon both island and mainland by such men as Mmmo,
Somerville, and McGregor. Indeed, the first Presbytery
of British Columbia was one formed in connection with
the Church of Scotland. In 1887, that Church withdrew,
handing over all its work to the Canada Presbyterian
Church. But its interest in Western Canada has not
ceased, as evidenced by the fact that many of the lead-
ing congregations of that body in Scotland, in 1894, re-
sponded to the appeal of the Canadian Church and under-
took the support of missions of their own in British
Columbia. It is interesting to note that among those
so contributing was the congregation of the Rev. Mr.
Somerville, who, twenty years before, was one of those
PIONEER PRESBYTERIANS 81
early missionaries from the Church of Scotland to British
Columbia.
In 1872, the Pacific Province had begun to loom some-
what more distinctly above the horizon of the Canadian
Church, for at that date the mission was transferred from
the Foreign to the Home Mission Committee. But the
field was far away, little known and difficult of access,
and the work was not pushed with any degree of vigour
and enthusiasm. In the coast towns the congregations
grew with the growth of population. But far up in the
interior were mining and ranching communities almost
entirely neglected by the Presbyterian as by the other
Churches. It is not strange, therefore, that men min-
gling with the native races descended to the level and
often below the level of those pagan people, and, for-
gotten by their Church, themselves forgot their fathers'
religion and their fathers 7 God. Certain it is that
many years after, their sons were discovered grown to
young manhood, who had never heard, except in oaths,
the name of Jesus, and knew nothing of the story of
man's redemption.
As the Presbyterian Churches both in Scotland and in
Eastern Canada can claim little glory in connection with
the planting and nurturing of religion in the Pacific
Province, so also the early religious history of the vast
provinces lying between British Columbia on the west
and that rocky barrier by the Great Lakes on the east,
reflects little credit upon these Churches. But while
these Churches failed in their duty to their co-religionists
in these distant settlements, there remains in the story
of that settlement of Scottish people on the banks of the
Red River of the North, an example of loyal fidelity to
Church and to conscience under specially trying cir-
cumstances, not often paralleled in the history of our
Church.
82 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
The story of the Selkirk settlers has often been told.
There are those to whom it is not a tale of unmixed hero-
ism. But it is a tale of which no people need be ashamed.
From the Highlands of Scotland they came in various
detachments between the years 1812 and 1815 under the
auspices of Lord Selkirk, and settled in the tract of land
secured for them by purchase from the Hudson's Bay
Company, that lay in the valley of the Red River,
reaching southward from the fort that stood at the
junction of the Red and the Assiniboine. They were a
very small company, in all under three hundred souls,
and never at any one time many more than half that
number. But they clung to the banks of the Red River,
and though harried by a hostile fur-trading company
and driven off once and again from their homes, they re-
turned to their place, exhibiting, during those first
terrible years of the existence of the colony, a patience
and an endurance and a courage that few would fail to
call heroic. But none will be found to refuse the claim
to heroism to those who, through all trials and dis-
couragements in unceasing struggle with the rigours of
climate and stubbornness of soil, their lands devastated
by fire and flood, their homes swept by plague, main-
tained their faith in God and held to their Church with
a tenacity and loyalty that could not be shaken. It
had been one of the conditions attached by Lord Selkirk
to the founding of his colony, that with the Scotch
emigrants should be sent a minister of their own Church.
For a variety of reasons, some less creditable than others
to those concerned with the administration of the
colony's affairs, this promise of Lord Selkirk's was
never kept. Again and again, in one form and then in
another, petition was made to the representatives of
Lord Selkirk, to the noble earl himself, to the honour-
able the Hudson's Bay Company, to the Church of Scot-
PIONEER PRESBYTERIANS 83
land, but without result. True, for some three years
after the colony was founded, a worthy elder of the
Church of Scotland with special ordination, Mr. James
Sutherland, ministered to the spiritual wants of the
settlers. But by the machinations of the Northwest
Company, he was removed to Eastern Canada. Thus for
nearly forty years these sturdy Presbyterians waited for
"a minister of their own," keeping alive the holy flame
of true piety by the daily sacrifice of morning and even-
ing worship upon the family altar, the head of each
family being priest in his own house.
Presbyterians of the West are not likely to forget the
generous and considerate kindness with which the clergy
of the Church of England of those days cared for that
shepherdless flock. By the descendants of the Selkirk
settlers the names of John West, William Cochrane,
David Jones will long be cherished, who, with a liberality
that may appear strange to rigid Anglican churchmen of
to day, but, happily, characteristic of those primitive
times, not only performed for those Presbyterian people
all the pastoral functions of which they stood in need,
visiting their sick, baptizing, marrying, burying, but
even went so far as to adopt at one of the services of the
Sabbath, a form of worship more nearly akin to that so
dear to Presbyterian hearts. There are not wanting of
the Anglican Church to-day some who say that West
and his fellow clergymen erred in their liberality and
that a more unyielding policy would have resulted in
the shepherding of this stubborn flock into the Anglican
fold. But they who thus speak know not the love of
Church and creed inwrought with the very fibre of Scot-
tish character; and more, they forget that in those
primeval days men lived nearer the simple and real
things, and that to them religion was more than Church
and brotherly love than forms of worship.
84: THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
At length the petition of the Selkirk settlers reached
the ears of the Free Church of Scotland. By that Church
it was passed on to the Free Church in Canada. There-
upon the Rev. Dr. Burns, professor in Knox College, act-
ing for the Foreign Mission Committee, laid hands upon
a young man who had shown vigour and sense in mission
work among the French Canadians, and thrust him forth
to be the first Presbyterian missionary to Western Canada.
And so one bright September Sabbath morning the forty
years of faith-keeping by these Red River Presbyterians
were rewarded when three hundred of them gathered to
hear the Rev. John Black, from Canada, preach the first
Presbyterian sermon delivered in that new land.
That was a notable gathering. The preacher was a
great man, though none of them of that day knew just
how great. It took thirty years of knowing to reveal that
to them, and to many others. They were great men,
too, who formed that congregation. They had convic-
tions in them about their Church and the forms of their
religion, and while they had gratefully availed them-
selves of the religious services of their Anglican neigh-
bours, adapted as far as might be with true Christian
courtesy to their taste, when John Black appeared, the
iron of Calvinism in their blood forbade that there should
be any falling away from the faith of their forefathers,
and so with one accord and without reproach, they
gathered to him to worship according to their ancient
ritual.
They were well suited to each other, minister and peo-
ple, and with the years they grew into each other's trust
and love till a bond was formed between them that neither
time nor death itself could snap. Along the banks of the
Red River lay John Black's parish. They loved the
river, did those lonely exiles. Every farm, therefore,
must have its river front, sometimes three chains, never
PIONEER PRESBYTERIANS 85
more than twelve in width, with its rear reaching from
two to four miles back on to the prairie, and on every
farm front there stood a house overlooking the Red River.
Small wonder they loved that river. It was their line of
communication by boat and canoe in summer, by snow-
shoe and skate, dog-sled and toboggan in winter, and it
was at all times the bond of their social life. And thus
it was that John Black's parish consisted of a double row
of houses, one on either side of that street of tawny flow-
ing water. In and out of these river homes by day and
by night, through summer and through winter, faithful,
loving and indefatigable, wrought the minister for ten
long years alone, but for his band of godly elders and his
devoted wife, Henrietta Ross.
During these ten years the settlement continued to
grow, not only in numbers, but in extent as well, oif-
shoots from the parent colony venturing the daring ex-
periment of farming the bleak and unsheltered prairie
back from the river. About the fort, too, a little village
was springing up, ambitious, seditious, vicious Winnipeg,
requiring constant spiritual oversight and care. Thus
the work grew far beyond the strength of even this tire-
less missionary. But with an apathy inexplicable, the
Church in the East remained unmoved, and though year
by year Black kept sounding his lonely cry for helpers,
he was forced to toil on at his post unaided and alone.
But he never faltered, nor did he ever think of retreat.
To this work and this land he had given himself, and
here he would abide till the call should come which
would set him free from all his weary toil and summon
him to his larger service and to his reward.
XI
THE CALL OF THE WEST
THE reports of the strange wild land west of the
Lakes, and of the settlements forming, kept com-
ing back to Eastern Canada through many
channels. By private letters, by traders, travellers and
explorers, and by John Black's regularly recurring peti-
tions for assistance, the Christian people of Eastern
Canada began to be aware of that distant point of British
North America, and to have a conscience towards it. At
length, in response to his appeals for helpers, Eev. James
Nisbet was sent out in 1862, and for four years this mis-
sionary assisted the heroic Black, ministering to the
settlements at Kildonan, Little Britain, Fairfield, Head-
ingly, Park's Creek, and Fort Garry.
But in addition to the burden of responsibility which
he carried day by day for his people scattered thus widely
through these growing communities, Black's heart went
out towards the native races whose proximity made con-
stant appeal to his conscience and to whom many of his
people were bound by ties of blood. It is this yearning
after the Indian peoples of the land that inspired his
famous letter sent in 1864 to the Synod of the Canada
Presbyterian Church.
"I am not satisfied," he writes in noble complaint,
" with our Church's position in regard to missions. We
are doing nothing directly to spread the Gospel among
those that are without. We are leaving the high places
of the field to other communions ; and, what is worse,
there are places of the field loft uncultivated and uncared
86
THE CALL OF THE WEST 87
for altogether because we and others are not doing our
share of the work. I do not lightly esteem the work our
Church is actually doing. I recognize with thankfulness
the energy and zeal she is displaying. I do not forget
her great work in Canada, or her missions to her own
people in British Columbia and Kupert's Land. It is of
vast importance to keep what we actually have, and to
establish ourselves with the very earliest in the new
colonies. I would not have this work cut short, but
rather prosecuted more vigorously. Still, there is an-
other branch of the Church's work in which we clearly
fail. We have no heathen mission. If 'missions are
the chief end of the Christian Church, ' then so far, at
least, we fail in our chief end. We are incomplete, we
lack one essential part of the Church's equipment, we do
not fully implement our great commission, * Go ye into
all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. 7
I am not satisfied with this state of things. I feel it a
check on my prayers for missions that we are not labour-
ing for missions. I have little heart in trying to stir up
a missionary feeling amongst the people when I cannot
point out an appropriate channel by which that spirit
may vent itself, nor can I plead freely for a liberal col-
lection for the Foreign Mission Committee when in the
usual acceptance of the term, we have no foreign missions
at all.
"I cannot but think that many of you must feel on
this subject much as I do. The missionary element
seems to enter into the very conception of a church, but
in looking at our own, we see that that element is want-
ing, and we feel there is something deficient. We try to
persuade ourselves that our work is rather among our
own people than among the heathen, and for a time,
when the pressure of a special need is upon us, we make
ourselves think so, but when the pressure is removed and
88 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
our thoughts and Christian instincts return to their
natural course, our former dissatisfaction returns, we feel
that there is something wanting, something incomplete,
a duty undone or not attempted to be done. Nor does it
seem to mend matters much that we contribute to the
missions of the other Churches. There seems to be a
conscience for our own Church that nothing will satisfy
but direct, earnest effort on our own part, a mission or
missions of our own. It is surely time that the present
state of things was changed and our Church put in her
right position j that she should be put ahead of other
Churches and, what is far more, abreast of her duty in
doing the work of God among the heathen. I think, in-
stead of finding such a work a burden, we should feel it
a relief, that we should feel a liberty and enlargement in
our minds which we do not experience. I know that
many of you have been giving this matter prayerful and
earnest thought, and that various plans and schemes have
been proposed ; but now it is surely time to take practical
action. Let this be the distinction of the Synod of 1864.
Let it begin the work of heathen missions, and first of all,
let it acknowledge the claims of the heathen of our own
country, of British North America. I for one would not
have you think in the meantime of any other field.
Other fields may be, indeed, more promising, but that is
not the question. Providence clearly points out this
field as ours, and that is all we have to look at. Nor is
it so discouraging as is sometimes supposed. I know of
nothing more cheering anywhere than the state of the
Episcopal missions in the far North under the charge of
my dear friends Mr. Kirby and Mr. McDonald. And
there are points yet unoccupied where we might hope to
labour, if not with equal, at least with an encouraging
measure of success. Details about one of them are al-
ready in the hands of your committee.
THE CALL OF THE WEST 89
"And do not be afraid of expense. There can be
little doubt that such an effort made by their own Church,
and giving them a mission of their own, would call forth,
by God's blessing, a spirit of liberality among our peo-
ple which would disappoint all our fears and make us
glad and thankful. "
Two years later, the desire of Dr. Black's heart was
satisfied in the appointment of Msbet as missionary to
the Cree Indians of the plains. Nisbet established his
mission at a point of the North Saskatchewan five hun-
dred miles northwest of Fort Garry, where he founded
the town of Prince Albert, which thus became the head-
quarters of the first Presbyterian mission to the Indians
of the northwest, as also the nucleus of a rapidly growing
white settlement.
After eight years of unwearied service, Nisbet and his
devoted wife, a native of Kildonan, returned to the old
home, spent and broken in health, both to die. They
sleep in the sacred ground of the old Kildonan church-
yard, but their work abides.
Meanwhile the staff of workers continued gradually to
increase, till between the years 1866 and 1870 there were
five ordained ministers in the field : Black. Nisbet,
Matheson, Fletcher, and McNab. But far beyond the
powers of these men the settlements were extending.
The streams of immigration kept steadily trickling into
the Bed Eiver valley, till the rising tide flowed far out
upon the plains east, west and north, so that in addition
to the claims of the settlements already supplied with
Gospel ordinances, daily appeals came from groups of
settlers strewn over the prairie at such points as High
Bluff, Eockwood, Portage la Prairie, and Palestine.
The year 1870 was, undoubtedly, the annus mirdbilis
in the history of Western Canada. It was the year of the
First Eebelliou, the year when the change of govern-
90 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
ment from that of the Hudson's Bay Company to that of
the Dominion Government went into practical effect ; it
was the year, too, that saw the birth of the Province of
Manitoba ; it was the year when Canadians discovered
their great West. By Presbyterians it is remembered
as the year in which Manitoba came near enough to the
Eastern Church to be considered a home mission rather
than a foreign mission field, and the year also in which
the Presbytery of Manitoba was erected.
The organization of that Presbytery, which took place
on the 16th of June, 1870, was conducted with appropri-
ate solemnities, full care being taken to have everything
"done decently and in order. " The official sermon was
preached by the Moderator appointed by the Synod of
the Canada Presbyterian Church, Rev. John Black,
from the text : " Therefore seeing we have this ministry,
as we have received mercy, we faint not." It was a
brave text, uttered first by a brave man, and now after
many centuries chosen by a brave man to set his fellows
and himself at their work with sufficient faith and cour-
age. And they had need of both courage and faith, for
the responsibilities and the opportunities of that day.
The sermon done, the assembled congregation of Kildonan
folk remained to meet with the a fathers and brethren. "
There they sat, three ministers, Black, Fletcher, and
McNab, the fourth, James Msbet, being five hundred
miles away at his lonely post among the Crees, and their
elders, Angus Poison, John Sutherland, and Donald Gunu.
There they sat to deliberate concerning the affairs of the
kingdom in that land so remote and limitless and so
rapidly swallowing up the incoming people for whom
they must care. Their moderator had bidden them
"faint not." Faint? Not they. Men wearing such
names faint not easily. With assured confidence they
grappled with their business and when they rose for the
THE CALL OF THE WEST 91
benediction that sent them off to their various fields,
several great things had got done. They had named and
set forward as pace a congregation in the capital city of
the province, Knox Church, Winnipeg. They had or-
ganized a Home Mission campaign and they had planned
a college. In very deed there was no "fainting" in
John Black and those who sat with him in presbytery.
Under their hand the work rapidly progressed.
The General Assembly of the Canada Presbyterian
Church, of course, granted the prayer of this Presbytery >s
overture and duly established Manitoba College as an
institution for higher learning. The site chosen for the
college was Kildonan, suitable buildings having been
provided by the congregation. A college meant pro-
fessors. Accordingly, next year, 1871, Rev. George
Bryce, M. A., came West to be the first professor in
Manitoba College, to preach for the congregation of Knox
Church in Winnipeg and incidentally to enter upon that
career of missionary activity which he has pursued ever
since with such remarkable energy and zeal. A few
months later, in the following year, the Church of Scot-
land Synod, cooperating with the Canada Presbyterian
Church in both the missionary and educational move-
ment, sent out the Eev. Thomas Hart, M. A., as pro-
fessor of Manitoba College, who, coming to the West and
finding the mission work far beyond the powers of those
in the field, took up in addition to his college duties his
full share of missionary labour, in which varied service
for thirty -five years he has toiled on with unwearied zeal
and unassuming devotion.
But toil as they might, the whole force of ministers,
missionaries and professors could not keep pace with the
country. Along the black trails by which the freighters
made their way West and North, the pioneer prairie
"schooners" steadily streamed, for no matter if land in
92 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
abundance and of the best lay unclaimed at the door of
the settlements already formed, the far cry of the alluring
West haunted the newcomers and they could not rest till
they had passed beyond the limits of civilization, leaving
their Church to follow if she cared or could. Day after
day and week after week this stream passed on unheeded
of all except those who had been bidden to watch.
It was no easy task to secure missionaries for Western
Canada. The country was remote, the field was hard,
distances were great, privations many, isolation trying.
Occasionally a man broke down and retired to the East.
Nisbet dropped at his post and ever as the Presbytery
met, rumours were exchanged of settlements still beyond,
unreached by the message of, the Gospel. No wonder if
that cry of the West, new then, now grown so old, for
men and more men began to assail Eastern ears with un-
varying insistence. From sheer monotony of its repeti-
tion the Church began to grow indifferent to the cry.
Besides, every man was busy with his own, and the West
was very far away. But in one case and that a most
notable, the call found response. The young, vigorous,
and ambitious congregation of Knox Church, Winnipeg,
proud of its newly organized Session and its, for the
second time, enlarged church, seeking a minister, ap-
proached no less a person than the Convener of the Home
Mission Committee himself, Rev. William Cochrane,
with a view to call. They were not encouraged to pro-
ceed. But in the Convener's Presbytery of Paris there
was a young minister who, ever on the alert for the
neglected and outcast, was continually stirring up his
Presbytery to Home Mission effort. James Eobertson, of
Norwich. To him the appeal was sent to go West to
preach in Knox Church for six months, to spy out the
land, find out the true condition of things and report.
The West had often appealed to him as a field for mis-
THE CALL OF THE WEST 93
sionary effort. He was in need of a rest and change, and
so he resolved to see this new and wonderful land, to give
such help as he could for the space of time indicated and
to return. It was the dead of winter and no time to go
exploring that land of frosts and blizzards. Besides, it
was the holiday season. But for Eobertson frosts and
blizzards had little terror, and times and seasons mattered
not when the call of duty sounded. There was work to
be done. He had undertaken to do it and the sooner he
was at it the better. So he left his home, his wife and
family of babies a day or two before the New Year and
set his face westward.
XII
THE WESTWARD TRAIL
ON the evening of Tuesday, December 30, 1873,
a young minister from the country, tall and
spare of form and rugged of face, stood in the
Union Station at Toronto, facing the westward trail. It
was the Eev. James Eobertson, of Norwich. There was
none with him to bid him Godspeed, and yet a very con-
siderable interest attached to his journey. He was going
on a mission for his Church to that great wonderland of
the new West. And while the vast majority of his fellow
churchmen knew nothing of his purpose and, indeed,
would be but slightly interested had they known, there
were a few among those who had looked farthest into the
future and estimated the possibilities of Western develop-
ment to whom this mission was of the most profound
importance.
It took him ten days to make his first trip to the West.
Twenty-three years before, it had taken John Black
eight weeks to make the same trip. To-day a servant
of the Church going on a Western mission spends two
nights and a day in the palatial comfort of a Pullman
car and arrives at the metropolis of the West. Robert-
son' s route lay by Detroit, Chicago, and St. Paul. His
New Year Day he spent on the journey between the two
latter cities. On the second of January he left St. Paul,
got stuck in a snow-drift and so did not reach Brecken-
ridge, the end of the railway, till Sunday afternoon, a
94
THE WESTWARD TRAIL 95
day late. Writing his wife from Breckenridge under
date of January 5th, he says :
" We got in here all right last night, without making
much delay after we started from where we got fast. For
those thirty-nine miles the prairie was perfectly level,
with no wood in sight till we came near Breck, where we
saw some along the Sioux Wood River. Breck is at the
confluence of the Sioux and Otter Tail, which two after-
wards flowing due north form what is called the Red
River of the North. Here there are but few inhabitants,
perhaps about a hundred, and very few in the neighbour-
ing country. The Sioux forms the boundary between
the state of Minnesota and Dakota territory. The river
is not navigable as far as this, owing to the shallowness
of the water and sandbars. Up to Moorhead boats come.
I am writing in the morning, and may find out more
about the place before I go away.
" When I came here last night I found that there was
but one hotel in the place. There I got good food, clean
and well cooked ; sausage, beefsteak and roast chicken
that should satisfy any person. I did justice to what I
knew. I never cared to buy a pig in a ' pock,' nor did
I care much about eating a pig, or something worse, in a
<pock.'
While en route he had his introduction to some new
gastronomic experiences. He writes :
" Meals cost seventy-five and fifty cents each, a bed
accordingly. Accommodation was tolerable to Moorhead,
but in the three staging days things were intolerable. I
never tasted butter ; beef and potatoes only kept me alive.
Bread was an outrage on the name. Potatoes were good
if left whole, but when they mashed them you did not
know what you had. The beef would do for patent
leather soles ; you could eat it, but rubbing it on a dirty
plate and cleaning a dirty knife in trying to cut it, you
96 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
ate your peck of dirt certainly. After all, however, I
felt none the worse. The next day I was hale and
hearty. "
Arriving at Breckenridge on Sunday afternoon, like
a true Presbyterian he set about to discover a place of
worship.
1 1 Found out on inquiry that there was no service but
by one man in the place, and that he was sick. Found
out he was a Presbyterian and a Scotchman, by calling
on him after supper. He had been ill with inflammation
of the bowels, but was getting better. They had to get a
doctor one hundred and seventeen miles off to attend him.
He is from Ohio originally from Scotland. Has a wife
and nine children, one only eighteen months, like our
Gi, I suppose. Appears to have had no good time. The
good man, among the people, longs to get under the old
flag and be among Scotch folk. He is much opposed to
present changes, etc., among the American people. Is
uncertain whether he will stay here. I am afraid he is
too old for the place."
Indeed, it is a land that cannot tolerate the old. The
young, the vigorous alone, can keep their feet in this
rough and tumble "West. He leaves Mr. Thomas, the old
Scotch minister, a little less lonely and much comforted,
and carries away with him as a token of the old man's
gratitude a fur coat, the first he had ever worn, which
will stand him in very good stead in the two hundred
and nineteen miles of stage journey that wait him.
In Breckenridge he has his first experience of low
temperatures. He will have many more before he is done
with them. But Robertson enjoys it.
1 ' Had a comfortable sleep after retiring. Piled plaid,
overcoat, clothing, etc., over me and felt quite warm.
Room was full of snow and water solid ; the thermometer
stood at twenty-eight below zero after I got up. " " Twenty-
THE WESTWARD TRAIL 97
eight below " disturbs him but little. Indeed, his philo-
sophic temper and his God-given sense of humour carry him
through much. " Can't get away from the place till to-
morrow, and hence must rest contented. It takes four
days to get through even if no storms come on. If it
storms we stay on the way." Sensible man, and, indeed,
what else is there to be done f
On Friday evening, the ninth of January, 1874, he
drives up the straggling street of shacks and stores that
huddled on the bleak prairie about the big stone fort,
over which floats the flag of the honourable the Hudson's
Bay Company, an unlovely, irregular, but very bustling
hamlet, calling itself Winnipeg. There was little welcome
for him, no deputation of congregation or social gather-
ing for the incoming minister. He puts up at the Davis
Hotel and makes himself as comfortable as he can in that
roaring, crowded hostelry till morning.
His first business is to send a wire to his wife, and
thus he establishes a line of communication between the
West and the home that holds those dear to him far away,
a line of communication that will not be closed for over
a quarter of a century, though neither he nor they guess
that any such heart-stretching is to be their fate. In a
letter to his wife, dated January 12th, 1874, he says :
" I called on Bryce on coming in here, and found things
not very pleasant. There were no preparations made for
boarding, etc., the reason of which perhaps appears in
the sequel."
And the sequel is not altogether pleasant. The facts
appear to be that some four weeks before the representa-
tive of the Canada Presbyterian Church arrived in Winni-
peg, the Church of Scotland Synod in Canada had sent in
a minister, Rev. Dr. W. Clark, to supply the congregation
of Knox Church in the meantime, and to assist in the
mission work in which the Church of Scotland was anxious
98 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
to take part. It will throw much light upon the painful
events that follow if we remember that at this date the
two branches of the Presbyterian Church, namely, that in
sympathy with the Established Church of Scotland, the
"Auld Kirk," and that in sympathy with the Free
Church of Scotland, had not yet come together, and con-
sequently between these sister Churches so closely allied,
there was a very considerable and bitter jealousy, with
intense rivalry. Members of both these branches of the
Presbyterian Church were living in Winnipeg, and al-
though Knox Church was formally attached to the
Presbytery of Manitoba which was erected by the Canada
Presbyterian Church, a number of those adhering to the
" Auld Kirk" had associated themselves with the con-
gregation and were active and influential members of the
same. The simple and just solution of the difficulty
which confronted Robertson on his arrival was that
Dr. Clark should give place to the man who had been
invited by the congregation and had been officially ap-
pointed by the authoritative body recognized by the
congregation, the Home Mission Committee. But ap-
parently that is just what the reverend and worthy doctor
was most unwilling to do. He finds himself in charge
of Knox Church. The position is much to his liking.
He is a minister of years and standing and he hesitates
to surrender at the bidding of this stranger. The del-
icacy of the situation is sensibly increased by the fact
that while the party of the " Auld Kirk " in the congre-
gation are not numerically great, they are socially in-
fluential and are decidedly not to be sniffed at.
" So we went down to see Mr. Black," writes Robert-
son, "about the whole matter Mr. Bryce and I. They
all felt that it would not be fair to me to do anything else
than preach if I insisted on it at once, but that it might
do harm if that should be done, by the ' Auld Kirk >
THE WESTWARD TRAIL 99
party thinking that others, i. e., those of our own Church,
wished to have things all their own way." Robertson's
answer is characteristic and significant : "I told them,"
he says, "that I expected to preach here, but that I
would not for a while say anything, that I had come to
help and not to obstruct, that I would not on any account
be the means of giving umbrage and leading to the set-
ting up of another church. Consequently, I am going
away after about two weeks, up to Palestine, about one
hundred miles away, to preach in the place vacated by
Mr. McNab. I will stay there for about six weeks and
then come back to take charge of this congregation per-
manently. I did not quite like it, but I suppose it is
best." His good sense, his philosophic temper, and,
above all, his missionary spirit, help him to his wise self-
denial. So off to Palestine (now Gladstone) he will go,
one hundred miles west, for six weeks ; a field forbidding
enough, but possessed of one great lure. " I can, while
away, see all the stations up there, and this will save me
time again." Besides, he has the, hope that by this
move the difficulties of the situation will be smoothed out,
for " Presbytery meets on the 4th of March, and after
that time Dr. Clark, I suppose, will go up to Palestine."
But will he ? Not if we have rightly estimated the doc-
tor. But we shall see. This settled, he retires with Mr.
Bryce to Winnipeg for the night.
We learn how his first Sabbath in the West is spent
from his first Winnipeg letter to his wife. That Sabbath
is remarkable for this, among other things, that on that
day he heard two men preach while he himself preached
but once, which arrangement will not often be made
again while he remains in the work.
"Went down yesterday," he writes, "to preach for
Mr. Black at Kildonan. He has a good congregation,
almost all Highland people and their descendants. Their
100 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBEKTSON
forefathers came here in 1815." But in the afternoon he
heard Mr. Black preach, and then in the evening caine
back to Winnipeg, where he heard Dr. Clark in Knox
Church. "I cannot say I like him," he frankly con-
fesses to his wife. Well, hardly. We must not expect
too much of a man standing outside and seeing through
the window another eating the dinner that should have
been his. Besides, preaching, as we shall see, was ap-
parently not Dr. Clark's strong point. What a pity he
did not enjoy that sermon ! It is the last he will hear for
many a day. Hereafter, wherever he is and preaching
is being done, Mr. Eobertson himself will be doing it.
That day closes as many a day will for him in the years
to come, though he knows it not, in homesick loneliness.
"Now about home," he writes; "how are you all I I
went to the post-office to-day to see if there might not be
something, but was disappointed as I might expect, for
you have had no time yet. How I would like to look in
on you all and see how you are doing ! Tina and Willie
will be just about going to bed, and what about 'Ba
Buddy ' ? I feel lonesome already without you all. How
shall it be before July ? You must write me often and
regularly else I am afraid I cannot stand it."
The westward trail is a hard trail. Fifteen hundred
miles away the children are going to bed without their
father's good- night, and he without their warm kisses on
his lips. Their mother will need to do for them that
night, as for many, many nights to come. Truly the war-
fare is costly. " He that forsaketh not all that he hath,"
said the Master. That is true. And He might have said,
and He meant, " He that loveth husband more than Me."
For as husband and father must pay the price, so that
price the lonely wife and mother will pay in the slow,
dropping coinage of the heart as the years go on.
XIII
THE MAKING OF A SUPERINTENDENT
NOT every day is a superintendent made. Cer-
tainly not in the democratic, independent, in-
dividualistic Presbyterian Church of ours with
its reverence for the doctrine of the parity of elders. Yet
it was no new thing, but as old as John Knox, that an-
cient church- maker, strong of faith, strong of heart and
strong of common sense, as witness his parish school, his
catechisms, and his superintendents. So old was the
office that few had remembered its existence, and thus it
seemed a new thing and fraught with danger as, to some,
are all new things. If it is true that poets are born, not
made ; it is also true that our superintendent was both
born and made; born of a good sturdy breed, made,
shaped, hammered, ground, polished in the battering
Western life till he became God's own instrument for
God's good work for Western Canada.
It began with that trip to Palestine which, with the
courtesy and common sense that distinguished him, he
agreed to take, leaving Dr. Clark in charge of the church
at Winnipeg. He had thought to get away to the West
by the next week's stage, but the 26th of January still
finds him in Winnipeg. Writing to his wife, he says :
" The stage went away yesterday evening and was so
loaded with mail matter that it could not take any per-
son. Hence I am here. Was down at Kildonan and am
to take one of Mr. Black's horses and keep him while I
am away. This is perhaps the best way after all. I am
101
102 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
sorry to have lost to-day, however, for it was very fine.
Hope for .good weather yet. Expect to be away in the
liiorning. Houbes for at least sixty miles are all along
rl-f vi.y. I ani noi so sure after, but from, that point I
expect a guide." Meantime, he is not losing his time.
His days are full of work and his moments of observation.
i 1 1 preached here yesterday. Day intensely cold in
the morning. Attendance good evening better I am
told it is generally so here. Congregation strongly male
and young. Quite a number of them unmarried. They
want me very much to take charge of them. I am some-
what apprehensive of trouble unless they are happily
settled. We have had a good deal of cold weather since
I came. There is not much snow on the ground not a
foot, I think, on the level. There has been keen frost
continuously with the exception of a day or two since I
arrived. They never have rain here in winter. In con-
sequence of the dryness of the atmosphere and the frosty
weather, all can wear moccasins, as almost all do on ac-
count of the greater warmth. It looks odd to see men
and women going to church moccasined, and especially
to see a reverend gentleman," the good Mr. Black,
" dressed in gown and moccasins ascending the pulpit
stairs." However odd it may appear to him, he has all
the tenderfoot's desire for new experiences, hence he con-
tinues, ' ' Have been presented with a pair, but they are
too small, I fear, for me, and I purchased a pair of moose
skin for $1.25. Will put them on to go to White Mud or
Palestine. In consequence of the dryness of the atmos-
phere and the keen frost, there is really no good sleigh-
ing, for the snow does not pack. You can go anywhere
over the prairie."
At length, on the 27th of January, with Mr. Black's
"old nag, harness and rig to match," he set forth for
Palestine. His account of his trip is interesting. "It
THE MAKING OF A SUPERINTENDENT 103
was nearly noon ere I came away. I stopped at Head-
ingly at Mr. Me 's for dinner. Things were rather
primitive, but the people were very kind. Went about
nine miles farther and came to a tavern where I stopped
for the night. Found a large number of travellers there
going up and down." Yes, and, doubtless, took full toll
of them concerning country, settlement, crops, schools,
stray Presbyterians, church services and all the rest of it.
He drives with eyes and ears and heart wide open.
* l Got a comfortable room a sort of bedroom. Started
away and came to Poplar Point, about sixteen miles, and
then nine miles farther to High Bluff. Took dinner at a
miserable looking place called a tavern, got a good din-
ner though, and I hope my horse fared as well." We
sincerely hope so too. The true traveller cares for his
horse, sorry nag though he be, for upon these Western
houseless plains that horse may stand between him and
death any day. But this traveller only thinks that his
horse means to him transportation and that exploration.
" Came out four miles farther to Portage la Prairie, to
the Eev. Mr. Matheson's, where I stayed all night." Sat
up most of it too, without a doubt, the eager tenderfoot,
inquisitive, insistent, shrewdly observant, the old timer
overflowing with information, with congenial hospitality
and with the burden of the West hard upon him.
" From this place to what is called the First Crossing of
the White Mud Eiver is about eighteen miles, all prairie,
without house or tree. The day was sharp and the roads
heavy, owing to a good deal of drift. I set out with good
heart, with pony doing but indifferently. Mr. Matheson
thought he would not get through. There were some
oak posts set up all along the road within every half
mile not long ago, but some miscreant cut down the most
of them," this same miscreant not unlikely in despera-
tion for firewood upon this treeless plain. We can hardly
104 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
blame him. " It is a great pity, for it would be almost
impossible to find the road in a storm without them. At
last I came to the Crossing. Got dinner a good one at
Bell's tavern, and got horse fed and paid eighty -seven
and a half cents. Started for the Second Crossing, and not
wishing to try the pony's strength further, concluded
to stay there for the night, which I did, at Mr.
McR 's, one of our own people. This is about eight
miles from First Crossing. Started next morning and got
to Palestine, eight miles farther, but through wrong di-
rection it was at least eleven miles." And no small
achievement for a man unused to the plains. For even
with oak posts, a drifted trail is easy to lose.
Thus he installs himself in Palestine to put in as best
he can the six weeks' time till he gets back to the place
properly his in the city. They are the six weeks of
severest weather in the year, and do what he will, doubt-
less the time will seem long. Let his weekly home letter
tell.
" Visited," visited ! The word arrests us with its
familiar ring. We shall hear that word frequently from
his lips. " I visited the people." Is there a difficulty in
a mission station? " I visited the people." Is there a
deficit in the missionary's salary? Is there a new settle-
ment to be explored and organized ? It is always the
same phrase. " I visited the people." The letter goes
on, "visited all the families," note that comprehensive
adjective, " at Second Crossing when there six, and a
couple of bachelors. All those do not belong to us.
There is a good deal of land owned by our people there,
and if the field is looked after things will do well with God's
blessing. Came over then to Pine Creek on Thursday,
found a young girl of about fifteen very ill in one house.
Doctor over thirty miles away and family not well off."
What then will he do ? He is a traveller, his journey is
THE MAKING OF A SUPERINTENDENT 105
imperative. He is a minister. Does he offer spiritual
comfort aiid depart, leaving behind him his benediction f
No, not he. This minister is also a man, and so, " I ad-
vised the mother to go and see the doctor at once, and not
being able to get a horse, gave them mine. They were to
be back on Saturday, but the doctor being away, they re-
turned only on Sabbath at four o'clock, just in time for
me to go to Pine Creek to preach. Got another person to
take me to Palestine." For he must keep his appoint-
ment. His main business in this country is to preach the
Gospel after all.
As he visits the settlement with his eyes wide open for
everything, the serious social and economic disability
under which the country is suffering begins to attract his
attention, the deplorable lack, namely, of the softening,
humanizing, prophylactic influences of womankind.
"Pine Creek settlement, " he writes, "is not large,
and most of the persons having claims are bachelors. I
never knew a better chance for old maids anything will
go here. Women have come here that would never have
had an offer in Canada, and tfiey have been picked up in
a trice, and that by good-looking, active fellows, one by
a man at least ten. years younger. I wish I had a boat-
load here, for they would soon be disposed of and that to
their own advantage. He would be a public benefactor
who would bring women here a benefactor to this land
and to that left." It is perhaps not unnecessary to ex-
plain that though this latter observation may seem to be
a joke, the situation in Western Canada at that day was
anything but a joke, and the wisdom of the remark a
wider experience will only illustrate and emphasize.
More than once Robertson refers to this.
In a later letter he says, " There are quite a number of
bachelors here. Many of them are not clean. For this I
make no excuse. Can you not get some hopeless cases of
106 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
old maids coaxed to coine here. Good chances wait them.
A man with a large family of girls coming here would be
considered a public benefactor. The bachelors I have
visited would make your heart sore to see them. Some
of the men have been here a year or more, and it would
not be true to say that a plate, spoon, table, pot, frying-
pan or anything else had been washed since. They cook
no porridge, but the layers of grease and dirt are inde-
scribable."
"But," for he is no matrimonial agency, " to return.
Called on all the families but two bachelors. Got a
Mr. Whaley to take me to Palestine Saturday night.
Had a good congregation on Sabbath at all the services
and a good deal of interest manifested. Hope they may
continue to turn out. Announced school meeting at Pine
Creek and was persuaded to remain and help them start
a school. Did so, and we got all things arranged to
build a house when spring opens. Logs, etc., are to be
got out at once and as soon as it is possible the house is
to be raised and then by letting it in small jobs it is to
be finished." He is to be in the district only a few
weeks, yet he seizes the opportunity offering and guides
the people in the organizing and directing of the first
school building that district has ever seen. " I expect,"
he continues, "to see a school next winter." Next
winter ! What of Norwich t Unconsciously the coun-
try has claimed him already. "I am going to get one
on foot here I helped to start one at Second Crossing.
This will be doing good as well as preaching to the peo-
ple, I hope." Not a doubt of it, oh, most valiant son of
Knox! "There are not many settlers yet, but they ex-
pect a good number in the spring and summer. There
are quite a number of children here now, for all the
families are large, and with those coming in spring, will
afford plenty material for a school in each neighbour-
THE MAKING OF A SUPERINTENDENT 107
hood." Yes, schools and plenty of them, with collegiate
institutions and university as well, before your day is
done !
He finds Palestine sadly lacking in organization.
They had had a minister, but the work had proved too
difficult for him and he had resigned. There was little
or no organization of the work. Eobertson takes hold
with firm hand. In a letter to his wife, under date
February 20th, 1874, he says :
"Have been making some arrangements for the or-
ganization of congregations here. Called the Palestine
congregation together and had $186 subscribed on the
spot. We will get at least $225 at Pine Creek, and the
Second Crossing of the White Mud, as the river is called,
will give $100 more. There must be a station also, at the
First Crossing of the White Mud. This White Mud is
a river that enters Lake Manitoba, and being very
crooked in its course, the road to the Saskatchewan
crosses the river three times as the river runs from
west to east.
u Visited about thirty or more families here in the
three places, and many more are coming in in the spring.
I have got up a petition and want to take it down to
Winnipeg to the meeting of Presbytery so as to have
them organize at once. We must send here with them a
good minister, if possible, else the cause will suffer.
Should such a minister be here, I am inclined to think
our cause would soon be strong and that the church
would be self-sustaining. The families are widely scat-
tered just now, but soon the spaces will be filled. Many
of the people are poor yet, but a few years must make a
change."
He sees clearly even now and later years only make his
vision the clearer, that the great essential for successful
missionary work is permanent organization with a good
108 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
minister in charge. Oh, if only a good minister, that
ram avis, could be discovered and be persuaded to give
himself to the cause in such a spot ! There is growing
up in his heart a sense of responsibility for the country
and a loyalty to the cause hitherto unknown to him. In
the same letter occurs another word of significance and
prophetic import :
"I wrote a letter to the congregation in Norwich, and
so you had better go down at once and get a reading of
it or hear it read. It is in connection with mission work
here. I wrote one to Mr. B and also to Mr. D .
I am going to write to Mr. McK to-day, and to
others. I think I must write a letter to Mr. M and
a few others. " He finds time amid his many and press-
ing activities, to write a formal letter to his congregation
as well as some half dozen others to friends, giving
pictures of the country, of its needs and its opportunities.
This is the beginning of a habit that will grow upon him
year by year, a habit fraught with tremendous results
both to country and to Church, but a habit that will rob
him of many hours of sleep and will do much to rob the
Church of years of his service.
He is greatly impressed with the country, and takes
pains to acquaint himself with its resources, the experi-
ences of the settlers, their prospects for the future. He
writes:
" I could wish that all my brothers were settled here on
320 or 640 acres of land. I am half in the notion of
coming out here myself. It is a much better country for
a poor man than Ontario. We could take up land for
our children and keep them with us here much better
than in Canada, " (in Canada, note) "arid when they
would grow up we would be in better circumstances to
give them a good education. What do you say t I am
anxious to take up some land, at any rate, and wish I
THE MAKING OF A SUPERINTENDENT 109
could invest a few thousand dollars." He is too much a
Scot, too sensible a man and too good a Christian to fail
to lay plans whereby he should be able to provide for his
own. Ah, if he only could get a few thousand dollars !
But so far during the years of his ministry at Norwich,
plain in his living as he is, and thrifty as his wife may
be, they have been able to save, as he tells us in another
place, at the utmost only one thousand dollars. That he
could save as much is greatly to his credit. It were well
that he should invest this now. His chance will never
be better, and in the future there will be too many needy
missionaries and missions to permit the accumulation of
many thousands. " Just now," he continues, " there is
a good chance, but next summer hundreds, yes. thousands,
will come in here and get as good claims as they can.
There is plenty of open prairie, but for a short time there
must be good land along the rivers. . . . The coun-
try is much better than people in Ontario think. If a
person can buy a claim along a river where there is a
good deal of wood, he is much more comfortable than
even in Ontario during winter. I think I never enjoyed
a winter better than this one. Grain may, nay, will not,
sell at so high a figure as in Ontario, but it will pay as
well because you can raise it more easily. Stock, like-
wise, can be much more easily raised, and hence must
pay well. Milk, I am told, is much richer than in
Canada. You can make much more butter from a cow
than in Ontario. To a poor man this is a much better
country. To all sober, industrious men this land will be
a boon.
"I have visited a good many of the people and have
inquired about how they like the country, and find al-
most universal satisfaction. None of those with whom I
met would return to Canada. There is no wealth here,
but men in a few years will be comfortable. Things
110 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
must be rude and not very pleasant for a time, but that is
always the case in a new country. Time will effect a
great change. I have been saying that in two or three
years, if spared, we must conie West here, at any rate to see
the country. It would be quite a sight to see miles of
roses rose-bushes in bloom to see the prairie for miles,
as far as the eye can reach, sometimes, in bloom. One
crop of flowers succeeds another, and it is only the
winter's frost that puts an end to this luxuriant herbage.
For ages this has gone on one year after another, and I
have often imagined how the land of prairie chickens,
geese and ducks and all kinds of fowl, of buffalo and
deer, has for ages been kept till man should come and by
the plough claim it for his own. The wonderful provi-
sion of the Creator in this respect often claims serious
thought. Here a hardy race must spring up, a race to
play an important part in future."
Later on he finds opportunities for investing which,
with faith in the future of the country, he embraces.
" I wrote you a note on Saturday which I hope you will
receive in due time. I stated there that I had purchased
land, one hundred and sixty acres. ... I purchased
now because in this country wood and water are of great
importance, and there is for that lot plenty of both. The
wood here affords splendid shelter. I paid, as I told you,
$155 for the one hundred and sixty acres. I bought a
volunteer warrant and put that on the lot and thus saved
five dollars. All the volunteers that came up here got a
warrant from the Canadian Government entitling them to
one hundred and sixty acres of land. They could locate
there wherever they liked. Instead of locating them,
many sold them for forty or fifty dollars at first. But
owing to the greater number of people coming into the
country, and the fact that the Government will not sell
more than six hundred and forty acres to any one man,
THE MAKING OF A SUPERINTENDENT 111
these warrants have risen in value. ... I have re-
served the right of buying from Government at any rate
six hundred and forty acres after this if I please.
i i I am going to look about while I am here and try and
invest the little I can command for future use. I do not
know how much I can command after paying expenses, but
think we might invest in all about one thousand dollars.
. . . There are no municipal taxes or anything of the
kind just now, and I do not think there will be much of
that kind for years to come. There will, of course, be
school tax, but what amount I do not know. I think,
however, that there will be no such tax as in Canada.
For school purposes I am willing to help. ... I
might say that there are not many settlers here yet. The
population of the province, exclusive of Indians, is not
more than fifteen thousand. The Canadians are in a few
settlements, mostly Sunny side and Springfield, Bock-
wood, Portage la Prairie, Burnside, High Bluff, Palestine,
etc. A large number are expected next summer, how-
ever, and a good deal of land near us will be taken up.
If I wish to sell in five years, I expect, at the least cal-
culation, to double my investment. But as I jokingly
told you in my last letter, I think we shall all move out
here yet. I have enjoyed myself a good deal this winter,
and think that I could live happily here. There is a
much better chance for a poor man and who poorer than
a minister to get along. The only thing wanting is a
railway, and that must come before long. It is true peo-
ple cannot get such a price for wheat here, but they can
raise more of it and easier, and that will make up for the
price. But I think I must write a few letters for one of
your Woodstock papers, and then you can have my views
more in detail."
Like many another investor of that period, he had to
wait for many years for the profits from these invest-
112 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
ments. But before many years have passed he will have
forgotten all about investments in land.
During this Palestine pastorate of six weeks he is con-
tinually storing up and cataloguing a vast amount of varied
information that will serve as fuel for the fires of his own
enthusiasm and will serve to kindle those same fires in
others as well. Difficulties and privations he meets with,
of course, but those disturb him not. His philosophic
temper and his quick sense of humour carry him through
everything with a shrug and a smile. The following ex-
perience will recall to the early missionaries and settlers
of the West many of a similar kind.
"I have had some rough experience. Have been
boarding in a place in which there is but one room. It is
not easy to rise or go to bed comfortably. Manage to
make a screen of my coat and vest on the back of a chair
while I get off my pants and go to bed. It is rather
amusing, but what can you do f People are up before me
in the morning, and I avail myself of the wife going out
after water, etc., to spring out of bed and get dressed.
They sleep upstairs, but how they keep from coming
through the floor is more than I know. They are very
kind, and are very much afraid I may take cold in their
not very warm house. You would laugh to see the wife
coming to stuff the clothes around my back before going
to sleep herself, when she thinks I am asleep and not well
covered. They are from the ' Island of Prince Edward/
as they call it, and are of Celtic origin." In return for
which kindness he gives his Highland hostess from the
"Island of Prince Edward" some much needed lessons
in the art of preparing the roast of beef for the fire and
in the cooking of the same. Experiences of another kind
he has as well, more exciting than pleasant. " We had
considerable trouble at election. Free fight. One man
stabbed, but heds getting better. I am sorry to say that
THE MAKING OF A SUPERINTENDENT 113
our Canadian people are more to blame than the half-
breeds."
But the time is wearing on. The congregation at
Palestine and the other stations are growing rapidly.
The services are well attended though held under dis-
couraging circumstances, but these will disappear.
"The roads between the stations are not good. I
have to break a road every Sabbath. There is no team-
ing that way. The driving, however, does not appear to
hurt me in any way. I have never felt better. Our
meetings are all held in private houses, and often we can
scarcely accommodate those who come. Last Sabbath the
people had to go on beds, etc., to make room. Soon
schoolhouses will be available for service and churches
will be erected."
He is due in Winnipeg about the middle of March and,
consequently, he arranges that his hundred mile drive
shall become a missionary tour his first in the country.
So:
" Next Monday I go away to Portage la trairie. I am
going to preach at the First Crossing on Monday night on
my way down. I did not hear from Matheson, but ex-
pect he will be here the Sabbath following. I go away
from the First Crossing on Tuesday morning and go to
Eat Creek to Mr. McK >s. Go from there to the
Portage the next day and attend a missionary meeting
there and in High Bluff the day following. The Monday
following I go away to Winnipeg, which I expect to
reach on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning." A
not inconsiderable programme this, for the blizzard season,
over trails unmarked for the most part and drifted, and
that old nag none too reassuring in his powers of endur-
ance. "On the whole," he concludes, "I am glad I
came up here to encourage and get the people to take
active measures for organization."
in THE LIFE OF JAMES EOBERTSON
The superintendent is by no means yet made. But
there is a beginning of that in him which will never die
and which, through the grace of God working in the
heart of him together with the daily experience which
will be his, of the needs and opportunities of this new
land, will shape him for this high place and for great
work.
XIV
A WINNIPEG EXPERIMENT
THESE were the ante-union days. Negotiations
for union were being carried on between the
Church of Scotland in Canada, popularly known
as the Kirk, and the Canada Presbyterian Church. The
issue was still doubtful, and for all who were desirous of
seeing one great Presbyterian Church in the Dominion,
it was a time of great anxiety. As is almost always the
case, the danger to the cause of union and the delay in
its consummation arose not so much from essential differ-
ences in foundation principles, but from local and often
personal rivalries and jealousies, the very existence of
which was one of the strongest arguments for union.
Throughout the whole of Canada the greatest interest was
taken by Presbyterians in the discussions, and in many
places intense feeling was aroused. This was true of the
congregation of Knox Church, in far-away Winnipeg.
Here, though the congregation had been formally re-
ceived by the Presbytery of Manitoba and was, therefore,
a congregation of the Canada Presbyterian Church, there
was a very influential portion of the congregation ad-
hering to the Kirk who naturally were anxious to secure
the greatest advantage possible for their own party. The
result was strife which only became more bitter as the
congregation grew in strength by accessions from the
East, and as the prospects of union became more and
more cloudy.
With the congregation in this condition, Mr. Eobert-
son took charge. It was a situation requiring the guiding
of a man of strong common sense, of fairness, and of a high
115
116 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
sense of duty. And it is no small tribute to Mr. Robert-
son that he was not found wanting. He takes his wife
into his confidence in regard to affairs in the congrega-
tion as follows :
" Things here are not in a good state. The two parties
in the church are quite distinct, and they are likely to
continue so, as far as I can judge. They have been jeal-
ous of each other all along, and the prospect of a failure
of union in June is having an influence just now. I am
afraid that both parties were for union on the condition
that things should be more or less in their own hands.
It was perhaps unfortunate that four-fifths of the congre-
gation should be Canada Presbyterians and the remain-
ing part only belonging to the Kirk, but so it is. The
most of the Kirk party are men of influence and respecta-
bility, while the other party, although having several
men of wealth and high social standing, are more or less
socially below them. This has had its influence. It
became with the Kirk party a question of patronage
because of their position, etc., and to this the other would
not submit. It looked as if the former were saying, i We
will give respectability and social standing to the church,
we will give considerable cash, too, but you must let us
have things our own way, and get our minister in the
church. ' The other party could not be expected to do
that, and here they took issue. I believe this question
has a great deal to do with the present state of things.
"Some time ago elders were chosen, and organization
was asked and granted by the Manitoba Presbytery.
This gave offense, because by this action the congrega-
tion became connected with the Canada Presbyterian
Church. The Old Kirk party could not accept office as
elders because to do so, since the church is in connection
with the Canada Presbyterian Church, they must join
that Church. This they could not do. The congregation
A WINNIPEG EXPERIMENT 117
drew up a constitution and came to presbytery to sanc-
tion it. Presbytery did so, and this again was another
grievance. Dr. Clark then was sent for by the Kirk
party in a quiet way, to come up here and it was sup-
posed that in the general chaos he would be elected pas-
tor, because supposed to be superior to anything here.
This, too, failed. Then again Dr. Clark was sent away
and I was taken in here to preach. I told them that I
was not a candidate present or prospective for the pulpit,
and that if they gave a call to Dr. Clark or anybody else,
I was prepared to resign my position to-morrow, but that
I would and could not in deference to anybody, give
Dr. Clark the pulpit now. I came here to supply the
pulpit and no other did so, at the request of the congre-
gation, at personal sacrifice congregational and family
sacrifice and if they would not agree to fulfill their part
of the arrangement. I would at once go away I represent
the Church in Canada and could not yield to Old Kirk
or any other.
" The whole of the Canada Presbyterian people are of
one mind in having me here. The Governor and the
other party come to church regularly, and I am on good
terms with them. I am only blamed, I suppose, because
I happen to be acceptable as a preacher. It is exceed-
ingly unpleasant, but I suppose I must make the best
of it."
Sensible man he is, but none the less is the situation
vexing to his soul. Through the weeks that follow the
unhappy squabble goes on. Meantime, the congregations
are growing in numbers and the services in interest, so
he wisely resolves to keep out of the trouble and let the
parties fight out their foolish petty fight between them-
selves. And indeed, there is no need for him to interfere,
for both parties appear to be under sufficiently able
generalship.
118 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
"I am happily not in the matter at all," he writes
under date April 30th, 1874. " The difficulty is between
themselves and Professor B . He has been working
in the interests of our Church, as he ought, but still for
the common good. The other party thought he was do-
ing for the Canada Presbyterian Church altogether.
Hence, everything was looked on with suspicion." It
was a condition fruitful in mutual misunderstanding,
the most innocent deeds and words being misinterpreted,
as witness, "The late trouble was with Dr. Clark. It
appears that Professor B in speaking to Dr. Clark,
said that if this contention and strife were to continue,
that if there was no way of peace, it was the opinion of
some men in the congregation that it would be better to
separate. The Doctor then asked who they were that
would be apt to go. Professor B replied that he
did not now know, he only knew those who were Old
Kirk in their antecedents. This was only what any
person might have said. The construction put on his
words is, that the Canada Presbyterian Church party
wish the others to leave the church, which is quite
another matter. Feeling has run high about this whole
matter for a week or two ; now all other grievances are
not thought of in comparison with this last. I do not
think they will go off.
u I am personally and as a preacher not in the case at
all. I understand that even Mr. McM who is the
head of the other party, speaks very favourably of my
preaching. Governor Morris still attends. He was
there last Sabbath and I had quite a chat with him after
service was over. He appears to be a quiet nice man.
If he was alone there would be no trouble. It is a great
pity Dr. Clark is here at all." With which all will de-
voutly agree.
XV
A MISSIONARY MINISTER
FULLY occupied though he is with his congrega-
tion, he never loses his touch with the mission
work in the new country. On his return from
Palestine he makes his report to Presbytery in regard to
his experience while West. He carries with him a peti-
tion from the Palestine congregation signed by over eighty
people, asking for organization, and promising three
hundred dollars for the first year, should they get a min-
ister. The fathers and brethren listen amazed to his
story. The extraordinary vigour of the man, his re-
sourcefulness, his promptitude in seizing the favourable
opportunity and in getting things done, impresses them
much. He has been in the country less than three months
and yet during that short period he has firmly gripped
the mission situation and has gathered such a store of
facts about the country and the people as to astonish
those who have been there years before him. And no
wonder, for they have each been so heavily burdened with
their own immediate labours that they have allowed a new
world to grow up about them of which they have only the
vaguest knowledge.
The Presbytery granted the petition from Palestine,
erecting it into a supplemented congregation and by a
formal vote, recorded its appreciation of the efficient
service rendered.
"And to reward me," he writes, "sent me back to
Portage la Prairie, High Bluff and Burnside, to try and
organize there. Ministers here apparently are afraid of
119
120 THE LIFE OF JAMES EOBERTSON
speaking of money to the people, and I am supposed to
have cheek for any business of that kind. Mr. Matheson,
their own minister, and Mr. Fraser are to be there, but it-
appears that I am to have charge of the money. I go
away to-morrow morning and am to be back for next
Sabbath."
The story of that trip he shares, as he shares all his ex-
periences, with his wife. The letter is dated from Win-
nipeg, March 16th, 1874 :
" MY DEAR MARY ANNE :
" When I wrote last week I told you I was going
away to the West as far as Burnside, by appointment of
presbytery, to hold meetings in reference to their petition
for ordained supply. We left here Tuesday morning,
Mr. Fraser and myself, with a snail-paced horse. Got as
far as White Horse Plains, twenty-six miles from Winni-
peg. The day was clear but frosty and we got on well.
Next day we stopped at a tavern to water Mr. Fraser' s
horse. I went into the supposed barroom to warm.
Found at the door quite a strong smell saw a stove and
a couple of calves warming themselves at it milk pails
and a general litter on the table. Faced left about and
saw another calf at the foot of a flight of stairs with a lit-
ter of straw, and thought I was there long enough and had
seen enough. Mr. Fraser comes in after me, takes in the
whole situation at once. A door opens at the rear of
calf-parlour and the kitchen stove is seen in full blast.
The host informs us that he entertains bovine and not
human guests for the present, and we leave, ruminating
over the beauties of prairie scenery. Got dinner in good
style at Poplar Point, about seventeen miles from any
houses. Charley was fed some barley but did not eat it.
Felt afraid he was going to give out, but he did very well.
Bather an amusing incident occurred. We both got out
A MISSIONARY MINISTER 121
of the cariole and let the horse go ou. He walked slowly,
and when we came up to him we gave him two or three
cuts and sent him on his way rejoicing. This was done
several times, the horse trotting away for some distance
and then slackening till we overtook him. At last when
he would see us coming near he would run off before we
got up to him. Finally, we got tired and wanted to ride,
but Charley felt shy, and when we called Whoa, he would
dart off and leave us behind. This was very amusing for
a time, but when we began to contemplate walking all the
way it was serious. We stole up quietly behind Charley,
and before he saw, Mr. Fraser got so near that although
Charley started off, Mr. Fraser got a hold of the cariole
behind. After some running, he managed to leap on
board and stopped him.
" We got to Poplar Point in good time, got tea at Mr.
F 's brother's and went away to the meeting. They
had got it announced that I was going to preach, and we
found a good congregation gathered. Told Mr. Fraser
that Presbytery had sent us on a purely business errand,
bat that I would preach if so announced. Did so and
held a meeting after to see what they would give if they
got service every Sabbath instead of every alternate Sab-
bath." He is instinctively finding his way. This
method of mingling business and preaching he will prove
during many years of experiment, to be sound and profit-
able. First he will hold up to men's wonder and grati-
tude the marvellous benefits of the Gospel, then call upon
their loyalty in its support. And wherever the Gospel
has found a home in the heart, there the call will never
fail of response. " We got one hundred and fifty dollars
subscribed, and some three heads of families yet to see.
This is about double of what we got last year. Had meet-
ing at Portage la Prairie Thursday forenoon and had
elders to ordain. Preached and addressed elders, and
122 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Mr. Fraser the people. Held other meeting after and ex-
plained the whole case to people. Got one hundred and
fifty dollars subscribed, and this will be made up to two
hundred dollars at least. Went back to Mr. Matheson's
(Mr. M is missionary here) for dinner and went to
Burnside for the evening. Had a good meeting. Got
Mr. F coaxed to preach as I did not wish to do all
the work. He consented on the understanding that I
would do all the money talk. We got one hundred and
twenty-one dollars, with the prospect of one hundred dol-
lars more. Think we will get about five hundred and
sixty dollars. This where only two hundred and eighty
dollars at most, was promised (promised but not yet
paid) last year. This year only some five hundred dol-
lars all told given to missions. That Western field will it-
self with Palestine give nine hundred dollars, not to speak
of Springfield and Suunyside, Rockwood, Little Britain,
Headingly, etc." To persuade people in their circum-
stances to increase their giviugs from $280 to $560 is a
good bit of work well done, for money is scarce as yet in
the country and with many the church is the last thing
paid for. The fire, however, is burning in his own
heart. He does not blame the people so much. They
are not ungenerous. They are poor enough, and they
have not yet caught the glow of missionary enterprise.
The great need as he sees it is that of leadership. " The
great difficulty is the sort of men they have here. There
is no push, no system. Men are men of small ideas and
little zeal. I do hope they may get some vigorous man
to take hold in Winnipeg and work up the whole prov-
ince. ... I sometimes get out of patience with some
of the men here. The Church has lost a great deal by not
having the right material in the field. I have written
privately to Mr. Cochrane about the whole matter." We
should much like to have a reading of that letter, for he
A MISSIONARY MINISTER 123
has a fine gift of descriptive phrases in such cases. More
and more he is beginning to feel the pull of this magnifi-
cent work. i l People wish me to take some Western field.
What would you say to High Bluff or Portage la Prairie
or Palestine ? Should I come, one man says he will give
fifty dollars. He now gives twenty-five dollars. An-
other will give twenty-five dollars who gives five dol-
lars now. How would you like to be out on the
prairie or on the lee side of a poplar bluff? I told every-
body that I had a congregation at home and could think
of nothing but them now." This last we venture to
doubt. He is loyal to his congregation, ,but mighty
thoughts are moving beneath that bit of pleasant sugges-
tion to his wife whose heart will beat the quicker with
premonitory fears as she reads.
Finishing his work, he goes back to Winnipeg, but
not without incident through which his sense of humour
sustains him.
" Got a man to take me down to Poplar Point Friday,
so that I might come with the mail Saturday. Got down
in good time. Very stormy through night. Up at
3:15 A. M., stopped at mail driver's house. Had a
shake-down on floor he on spree night before. Got
up at 3 : 15 thought he was to get ready, and I got up
and dressed. He went to bed again and there I was.
Got a fire on and after some time wife, etc., got up and
got breakfast. At daylight we got off. Wind blew
furiously and snow drifted badly. Crossed over large
prairies but did not find it difficult to go. Changed
horses twice and got to Winnipeg at 2 p. M., forty-two
miles, tired out." And small wonder, poor soul, and
with the duties of the morrow waiting him which he
discharges as follows : " Preached yesterday twice
here and in the afternoon at Kildonan for Mr. Black.
Congregations very good."
124: THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
Now he must buckle down to his congregational work
which sadly wants doing, so he congratulates himself :
' 1 1 have no more work to do outside now than what I
may do of my own accord at least I think so." Let
us hope so indeed. But from the little we have seen we
may not be blamed if we ask leave to doubt.
With all energy he throws himself into his congrega-
tional work, but through it all he is conscious that this
wretched bickering of the two parties, stand aloof as he
will, chills his spirit and hampers him in his ministerial
labours. He has never yet preached with his accustomed
freedom, but he will continue to do his best.
" I am going to undertake visitation as soon as possible.
I think we will take two or three families every evening
as we can. Hope to get Mr. McV or some other of
the elders with me. We have a prayer-meeting on
Wednesday and I take charge. Young men's class in
the Sabbath-school I conduct too. Plenty of work for
me to do all the time I am here, but must do the best I
can with it. I felt very much the difficulty here of
which I heard nothing till I came. Hope for the best,
but do not expect that the Old Kirk party and our
people will ever get on well here. 77 And so through the
spring months he toils away at his preaching and his
visitations, his classes and his meetings. But deep
as he gets into his congregational work, he has ever an
eye for the larger movements in the Church and the
country about him.
On the 30th of April he writes to his wife, with whom
he shares his every experience :
" Bryce and myself got up a Home Mission scheme and
presented it to Presbytery. Till that time Fraser goes
west to Portage la Prairie, Mr. McKellar goes to Pales-
tine, Currie to Eockwood, Vincent to Pembina and
Emerson settlements. Mr. Fraser is to moderate in a
A MISSIONARY MINISTER 125
call to Palestine in June and Donaldson in Portage la
Prairie. I got my plan carried out in dividing this
field, and I hope that Matheson will be called and settled
here at once when he comes back. Palestine people think
of calling Mr. Ferguson of Glenniorris. Things are mov-
ing on energetically and if some push was manifested,
we would soon take a leading part." Energetically
enough if only one could be found to pour the hot fire of
this man's enthusiasm into scheme, system or plan. One
wonders how the fathers and brethren of the Presbytery
regard this arranging and rearranging of fields, this call-
ing and settling of men. Do they realize what is happen-
ing? Doubtless some do and the nobler souls are re-
joicing. But have a care, young man, you are very
considerable of a tenderfoot as yet !
The country, with its present needs and its prospects,
ever stirs his eager interest.
"I am afraid," he writes about the middle of April,
"that the river will not break up for some time yet,
although should such weather as we have continue, I
would not wonder to see it open by the first of May.
Am afraid a change will set in in a day or two again,
and then we would get another siege of slush. I am
informed that the Missouri River is open right up to the
boundary line ; if so, the Red will soon be open too. I
am afraid that if not, it will be difficult to get mails out
or in for about a month. Frost is not out of the ground
at all yet. I am not sure it ever gets out. They have
moved a building away from a lot on the front street, and
they commenced digging a cellar. Frost was down under
the building six feet ! They are boring the ground and
blasting with gunpowder as if it were rock ! It certainly
beats all I have ever seen in the shape of frost. The
roads here, however, never wait for the frost to get out
before drying up. A good part of the road is dry now,
126 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
although only thawed to the depth of a few inches.
Should rain come, however, I am afraid things will be in
an awful mess. It is heavy to-day and such may be the
issue. The city is not drained or sidewalked yet, and it
is difficult to get away from the main street. The Council
are going to do something this summer, I understand.
All people provide themselves with boots for the mud.
Dr. Clark bought a pair and paid fourteen dollars for
them ! They are like my high boots with this difference,
that there was a lining of leather opposite the seams.
They are supposed to be water-tight, but I do not know.
I am not to invest in that line."
Canny Scot ! Let Dr. Clark experiment if he likes.
He will tie on his rubbers and wade through the Winni-
peg mud, tenacious, greasy and black though it be.
" Rubbers are good, but no person can keep them on un-
less tied to the boot or foot. Mud is very tenacious,
greasy and black. I think the whole is the deposit at
the bottom of a lake. There is no making of a road from
such stuff. It is all good, dry and hard in a short time,
but when wet, I am told, you go down down down
till you can't get downer. The great wonder to me is,
how coolly the people take the whole matter. I begin to
think now that Manitobans can put up with any sort of
thing cold, mud, peace or rebellion. " But philosophic
as Manitobans may be, there are certain things even they
cannot endure. " There has been a good deal of dis-
content in the city because of the delay in commencing
public works. The greater part of the country has had
no crop for two years and grain of all kinds having to be
imported, money has gone out rapidly. Hence, there is
little or none here just now, nor is there anything to
bring it in but public works till people can export pro-
visions. Having to import food, clothes, etc., and hav-
ing only the little money from the fur trade and that
A MISSIONARY MINISTER 127
brought in by immigrants, the amount is small. Hence
the desire that the Government should spend as much
money as possible till the Province should grow a little.
We think things are more favourable now. There has
been a great scarcity of employment so far. The most of
the men here are now engaged, but yet many are seen
lounging about the city. Of course, if a person has
enough to keep him he can go out and work on a farm
and do well, but if not, there has not been a great deal
to do here this spring, and board is very high. The
weather has been favourable for spring work, and every
person is putting in all he has. Government has been
furnishing seed wheat at two dollars per bushel to all
who wished to buy. The spring was not so late as we
would think. Wheat was sown here on the 29th of
April, and farther west I suppose earlier."
With the Red River farmers, too, this spring is one full
of trial.
"Things are very slack here just now," he observes.
"There is little or no money in the country. All along
the Red River there was no crop last year. Grain and
provisions were brought in from Minnesota, and money
went out in exchange for it. This has left the country
bare of all money. The old settlers here are not rich.
In the early days they had no market, properly speak-
ing, for their grain, and often they put in none at all be-
cause they had enough. They lived on from year to year
and sowed and reaped much as you get your wood. If
you have a good pile there is no need of getting the
sawing- machine this year. Many, in fact most of them,
cultivated but little strips of land, enough to keep them
well. Now there is a good market, but grasshoppers
have troubled them for two years, so that no crop has been
raised." But already the optimism of the West has
possessed his soul. Not even the devastating grass-
128 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
hoppers can damp his spirit, so he continues, "They
think that there will be none this year, and if so quite a
change will take place. Of course, they did not trouble
the whole province. At the Portage and west of that
there was a good crop. Heard a few days ago the lowest
estimate of Mr. McK 's crop. He is a farmer west of
Portage. This is from himself.
Wheat at least 3,000 bushels at $1.50 = $4,500.00
Barley " " 1,000 " "1.26= 1,250.00
Onions" " 300 " "2.50= 750.00
Potatoes " 1,000 " "1.00= 1,000.00
Peas and Oats 150 " " 1.00= 150.00
Carrots and Turnips 500 " " .50= 250.00
$7,900.00
This is the crop, exclusive of all he made from stock,
and this is the lowest estimate. What he made was
nearer $10,000. He made a great deal from stock, selling
cows at from fifty to seventy dollars, and oxen at two
hundred dollars and upwards per yoke. He is, however,
the largest farmer in the country. Such prices cannot be
realized for another year, I think, but yet for a good time
to come there must be a good market."
His optimism is of the kind that demands exact knowl-
edge. His insatiable greed for statistics is beginning to
assert itself. Occasionally he allows himself to take the
wings of hearsay and soar into the regions of prophecy.
" A good many people are expected in here this year ;
they think about five thousand will come. There is plenty
of land for them, and I trust it may be taken up. Gov-
ernment is going to build a railroad from Pembina to
Winnipeg next summer. It is also going to put a
bridge across Red Eiver, and put up several public build-
ings. This will cost a good deal, and hence a good deal
of money must be spent in the next summer in employ-
A MISSIONARY MINISTER 129
ment of men. Wages have been very high all along, but
I think that they must be lower. A larger number of
people will be employed on laud this year that were about
the city last summer because no laud was cultivated."
But his mind soon swings back to his own special busi-
ness. ' t Quite a stir was made here by a sale of lots in
the town of Totogan at the foot of Lake Manitoba. A
large number bought lots at one hundred dollars, fifty
feet by one hundred and twenty. Did not care to invest
in that town site, but got a lot for our Church there by
getting Bryce to buy one. We have numbers thirty-
seven and thirty-eight on the map a corner, as you see.
We have a fund here for such purposes. I am going to
recommend the Presbytery to give services there next
summer and connect it with the First Crossing of the
White Mud. We must live in the future here, and if I
can give any life to things here I must do so." Where
Totogan is in this day of grace, none but the old timers
know. But wherever it is, let us hope that corner lot is
registered in the name of the Presbyterian Church.
He has now been away from his wife and family for
three months and a half, and occupied as he is with con-
gregational, Church and State affairs, in the pauses of his
work he feels keenly this his first separation from those
he loves, and his letter closes as ever with a word of
tender longing and of loneliness.
" Kiss our children for me. Hope you are all well and
that you enjoy yourselves. Would wish much to have
you even for an hour, but must say nothing. Time will
soon pass. Have only eleven more Sabbaths. That
won't be long passing if all spared and well."
And once more the mother kisses the children, tucking
them safely in bed and sets herself to wait for the passing
of eleven more Sabbaths, with never a thought of the long
vista of lonely Sabbaths the years will bring her.
XVI
THE CALL TO KNOX CHURCH, WINNIPEG
r~ n ~^HERE could be only one issue to Mr. Robertson's
$ period of service in Knox Church. During the
A few weeks of his ministry he had seized the
congregational helm with so firm a grip, had directed its
course through fogs and storms with such unerring skill,
that the hearts of the members of his congregation turned
to him as the only one in sight to whom they could with
confidence intrust themselves. About the middle of
April the question of a call began to be mooted. At this
time he was confidentially approached by one of the most
influential of the citizens of Winnipeg, one of his own
elders, to discover whether he would under any circum-
stances consider a call. As we have seen, opportunities
for settling in the West had been offered him by the con-
gregations of High Bluff and Palestine, but to all he gave
the same answer. In a letter to his wife he discusses the
question.
"I told him that I did not come with a view to settle
in the country, and that I was on the best of terms with
my own people, and hence never thought of a change.
He wished me very much to do so, and expressed himself
confidently as to the future of the congregation should I
consent to be pastor. What do you say to this ? If I
wish to stay in Manitoba it is evident I can, if not in one
place, certainly in another. What does mamma say?
Shall I put my foot down and say no t There is much,
very much here to do. It would be no easy charge, but
I am not sure that work is to be shirked. But what
130
THE CALL TO KNOX CHURCH 131
about poor Norwich? They would think it treason
should they hear that I was speaking so.
"None of these things are of my seeking. I may say,
however, that I do not feel at home here never preached
satisfactorily here yet. Nor am I getting much better.
Am not quite myself, am bilious. I am afraid of Eed
Eiver water in spring. They say its tendency is to pro-
duce biliousness. Feel a good deal the distracted state
of the congregation, too, and am annoyed. What am I
to say to these people f "
A month passed. The matter of a call was earnestly
discussed pro and con. One great difficulty in the way
of his accepting was the attitude of the Old Kirk party.
The adherents of that party were seriously hampered in
their line of action by the fact that they were still uncer-
tain as to the result of the union negotiations then pro-
ceeding. Should the union fall through, the rivalry be-
tween the Churches would, doubtless, be keener than ever,
in which case loyalty would forbid members of the Old
Kirk party amalgamating with those of the Canada
Presbyterian Church. It was for them a truly difficult
situation and, indeed, for all. Robertson's engagement
would terminate by the end of June. People were pour-
ing in every week. The interests of the congregation de-
manded that some man should be in charge continuously
during the summer. About the middle of May a congre-
gational meeting unanimously agreed to ask Presbytery
for moderation in a call, offering two thousand dollars
stipend but, of course, mentioning no name, though it was
perfectly understood that only one man was in the mind
of the congregation. Leave was granted by the Presby-
tery and thus for Robertson the situation became acute.
In a letter to his wife of May 15th, 1874, he goes over the
matter thus :
"The moderation is to take place in June, and Pres-
132 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
bytery meets in July according to appointment, for
Presbytery granted the prayer of the congregation at its
last meeting on Wednesday. If I ani called then what is
to be done ? I am not asked and can say nothing. I had
to promise Presbytery to give a day or, if necessary, two
in July. The position is very difficult. Professor Bryce
is away in Canada and is not going to return till the fall.
He is collecting for the college. Dr. Clark is away, but
going to return in July. Another man cannot come here
till after I am through and they do not want one if I am
called."
His difficulties increase as time goes on. By the end of
May he and Dr. Black are left almost alone in the whole
Western field. No relief can be expected till the middle
of July. Presbytery begs him to remain for the first two
Sabbaths of that month, and anxious as he is to return to
his congregation and his home, there is nothing for it but
that he should agree to the Presbytery's request. He
cannot bring himself to think of leaving the Western
fields in such desperate straits. Desperate, indeed, must
they have been before he would venture to write his wife
in the following strain :
" If I agree to stay here if called, I suppose I cannot
return to Canada at all. Could you all come out without
me ? Mr. and Mrs. Bryce are coming out in September.
Could you come then with them t My whole mind gets in
rebellion when I think of it, and yet I do not know what
I am to do. I do not think I am justified in putting my
own feelings in opposition to the best interests of the
cause here, and evidently the cause here is of great con-
sequence in the beginning of the history of the province.
I wish very much I had some good man to consult with.
Bryce says he would accept at once if in my place. Of
course, the place is better than Norwich, and will be all
the time growing. There is more of a chance here, too,
THE CALL TO KNOX CHURCH 133
to do well. My only fear is that I am not strong enough
for it. If the congregation unanimously call, I shall be
in a great perplexity. I am trying beforehand to think
of what is to be done if the call comes. "
That must have been a hard letter to write and a hard
letter to receive. But with him always it is the Cause
first. Distressed as he is by his own perplexities and
troubled for his wife and family, he is even more deeply
anxious for the condition of the mission fields, and hardly
pressed by the burden of work laid upon him. Under
date May 26th, he writes to his wife :
" I must cut short my letters to you for a time. You
must be content with a note instead of a letter. In my
last I told you I had to take charge of Professor Bryce's
classes in Ladies 7 School and College when he was away.
To-day, in answer to a telegram from Toronto, Professor
Hart went away, and I am to take charge of his classes as
well. To do the work of these two men as best I can, and
to do my own duties as minister of Knox Church, will
require all my time. I am sorry the way things are, but
cannot help it now. I am extremely sorry that both
these men should be away now and that the field should
be left desolate as well by the departure of Mr. Matheson
for Canada to attend General Assembly. Messrs. McKellar
and Currie are not expected to start from Toronto till the
1st of June and things will be at sixes and sevens till
they are here. There should be a man just now at Pem-
bina when the Emerson colony is coming in. There has
been no person in Palestine since the 1st of April, and
no hope of one till the 1st of July. Eockwood, Victoria,
Greenwood and Woodlands, four stations in a group, can
only get supply once in a long time. Gris Isle cannot be
opened up at all. The Boyne settlement can have no
supply till July. Fraser is the only man between Burn-
side, Portage la Prairie, High Bluff, Portage Creek,
134: THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Poplar Point, First Crossing and Totogan. No person,
but such supply as we can give, for Pine Creek, Little
Britain, Mapleton and three stations at Point du Chene
and Headingly . I do not know what to do. I came here
for rest, but never had so much work to look after in all
my life.
"It is not known when Professor Bryce comes back,
Matheson not till July 12th and Professor Hart in October.
If the work is not better managed then we must lose a
great deal here. This is the best time and yet we are
without men to work."
The man is at his wits' end. These empty fields weigh
heavy on his heart. He has made this work his own and
its breakdown fills him with dismay. How those lists
impress us ! How characteristic of the man and how
prophetic of the future ! Undoubtedly for this kaleido-
scopic Western mission work, for these rapidly growing
and rapidly dividing mission fields, a man thus endowed
with this marvellous faculty for details is sorely needed.
But he carries these fields in his head, chiefly because he
holds them in his heart.
Happily, the union negotiations came to a successful
issue and at once the good effect was felt in the congrega-
tion. The Old Kirk party in Knox Church was thus set
free to unite as, indeed, most of them had desired, in a
call to their present minister. But for some weeks the
tension for him is still great and the anxiety unabated.
This, however, does not damp his impetuous missionary
ardour. On the 19th of June he writes :
' * Time is passing rapidly and I trust I shall be able to
get home soon. Last Sabbath I went to Rockwood and
Greenwood to preach, Mr. Vincent preaching in the city.
Took a man out with me who came in from Ontario.
Got out about nine o'clock and got a young man there
ready to start in the morning and warn the people in the
THE CALL TO KNOX CHURCH 135
settlement of the service. Preached at eleven and had
about twenty-five persons in all. Drove ten miles then
over the prairie and came to Eockwood. Found only
twelve grown-up people here. Preached, and made ar-
rangements to preach two weeks from that day or send
some one. There are four townships here, one behind the
other, and we must try and have service in all of them
during the summer. A good many settlers are going
in there and they must be looked after. There is quite
a settlement west of those places, too, and service must be
begun there. Those young men, the missionaries from
Canada, are not here yet and we are very much cramped
in supply. We don't know what to do. Things are
much neglected. There appears to be no system, no
regular laid down scheme according to which to work,
and hence but little is done. I feel more every day the
need of doing well what is to be done here. There was a
great mistake committed in allowing so many of the
ministers to go away to Ontario, and another in not hav-
ing Messrs. McKellar and Currie here two months ago.
This is the time for us to work our mission field.
" Immigrants coming in rapidly and in great numbers,
land being settled fast. Many are going outside province
and soon the tide will go all to the West."
This is an impressive letter. How these imperative
and oft reiterated u musts" smite on our hearts ! Those
four townships, who told him about them? " We must
try and have service in all of them during the summer."
il Incoming settlers must be looked after." In the settle-
ments to the west " Service must be begun there." How
the word hammers us ! How the fire of his hot impa-
tience burns against the neglect of these opportunities !
Where other men might regret and deplore and do noth-
ing, Robertson burns with indignant resolve that these
things shall not continue. That is a noble sentence of
136 THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
his, " I feel more every day the need of doing well what
is to be done here." It is the man's conscience, his pre-
science of the future, his love of his country and his zeal
for his cause that, working together, produce this feeling
of anxiety and this determination that things must be
thoroughly done.
Five days after that visit to Eockwood, on the 24th
of June, Dr. Black moderated in a call in Knox Church.
There was but one name before the people, and without
a dissenting voice a call was made out in favour of the
Eev. James Eobertson of Norwich, Ontario. The
Presbytery of Manitoba sustained the call, appointed
Dr. Bryce and Eev. William Cochrane commissioners to
prosecute it before the Presbytery of Paris. And so it
came that with this in his hand, Eobertson came back to
his congregation and to his wife to settle the momentous
question of his future ; momentous not for himself and
family alone, but, though he knew it not, for his Church
and for Western Canada. The call, signed by forty-three
members and forty-eight adherents and duly attested by
the Moderator of the Presbytery of Manitoba, was presented
on the llth day of August, 1874, to the Presbytery of Paris.
When the parties were called to the bar, there appeared
for the congregation of Knox Church, Winnipeg, and
the Presbytery of Manitoba, the Eev. William Cochrane,
for the congregations of Norwich and Windham, Messrs.
Barr, Donald, Dean and others, and the Eev. James
Eobertson for himself.
The last month had been for him and for his wife one
of anxious, earnest, prayerful deliberation. But even up
to the day of Presbytery meeting, he was still uncertain
as to his duty. After the commissioners had supported
their respective causes, he was called upon for his answer,
whereupon stating his great difficulties in coming to a
right decision, he cast himself upon the judgment of the
THE CALL TO KNOX CHURCH 137
Presbytery to translate or not as they saw fit. The parties
having been removed, the Presbytery proceeded to give
judgment, whereupon it was moved by Mr. McTavish,
seconded by Mr. McMullen and unanimously agreed,
" That the translation sought for be granted and the
pastoral tie between Mr. Kobertson and the congregations
of Norwich and Windham be dissolved with a view to
his induction to the charge of Knox Church, Winnipeg,
such dissolution of pastoral tie to take place on and after
the first Sabbath of September, and that Mr. Eobertson
be, as he is hereby, instructed to hold himself in readiness
to obey the orders of the Manitoba Presbytery after that
date."
And, indeed, nothing else could have been done, for
when Eobertsou had told his Presbytery of Paris the story
of his six months and a half experience in the far West,
he had practically predetermined the action of Presbytery
in regard to the call from Winnipeg. The Presbytery,
listening to his recital, had become possessed of the con-
viction that the Church was summoned to vast and im-
portant work in that new and wonderful land, and of
another conviction as well, that for the strategic position
of minister of Knox Church, Eobertson was the man.
And though Eobertson himself might fear that he " was
not strong enough," none of his co-presbyters shared his
fear, but rather felt sure that there was no man among
them so fit for this position of leadership, and hence their
minute. And so with a sharp wrench, the pain of which
remained for many days and even for years, Eobertson
was translated from the little country congregations of
Norwich and Windham in peaceful Ontario, to Knox
Church, the leading congregation of Winnipeg, the bust-
ling, hustling metropolitan city of the West.
XVII
THE PASTOR OF KNOX CHURCH, WINNIPEG
WHILE Presbytery was discussing the Winnipeg-
call, a little woman was waiting the issue in
the Norwich manse, anxious and praying for
she hardly knew what. For though she had read in
her husband's heart solicitude for the future of the
Western country which he had already grown to love,
and longing as yet unacknowledged even to himself to
have a hand in its making, and though in her heart of
hearts she knew there could be only one result of the
deliberations in progress, still she waited, anxious and
hoping that somehow it might be that their present quiet
and happy life might remain undisturbed. And so it
was with a sinking of heart that she received her hus-
band's report that by a decision of Presbytery they were
under orders for the West. She realized fully all that
was involved, the breaking of those bonds that had bound
her to the people among whom they had made their home
for the past six years, the leaving behind of her own folk,
the facing of the new land and all its unknown terrors,
the uncertainty of the life before them, the isolation, the
heart-sickening loneliness, all this she had already gone
over till she knew it like a well -conned lesson. But this
day for the first time what had been an anxiety and a
fear, became a reality which must be faced at once. And
face it she did, however her heart might sink, without
a word of murmur or regret. The new land and the new
life were to her unknown, but she knew her husband and
138
THE PASTOR OF KNOX CHURCH 139
could trust his j udgment. There would be hardship and
loneliness, but these she was ready to share with him.
Besides, he had heard the call, and to that call he must
give heed, and she was not the one to bid him pause.
Nor did he pause. Leaving his family behind him in the
meantime at Norwich, he proceeded westward in the
second week of October, 1874.
His journey was uneventful. His route lay through
the United States by Duluth, thence by train to Glyndon,
and thence to Crookston, where he hoped to find the boat
for Winnipeg. To his chagrin he found the boat gone,
and Crookston full of impatient passengers, among them
the Bishop of Saskatchewan with his whole family who
had been there for five days unable to get passage.
What was he to do I He was due in Winnipeg for his
induction on Tuesday of the following week. The next
boat would not arrive in Winnipeg till Thursday.
Should he wait patiently, or impatiently, with the worthy
Bishop and then take a pleasantly tedious boat trip down
the sinuosities of the Red River ? No such programme
would suit this impetuous traveller. He writes his wife :
1 i Found the boat gone. The next would not get down
till Thursday night and unless I came by stage I could
not arrive at all for induction. So got away from
Crookston on Sabbath evening. The roads were good
and we made good time. Arrived in Winnipeg on Tues-
day morning about four o'clock. They had all been de-
spairing of my being here on time, except a few brave
souls who maintained that such was not the character of
the man. Got nicely rested before induction came on.
Presbytery met in the afternoon at two o> clock and I at-
tended. "
Very different was the welcome waiting him this time
from that which met him at his first coming to Winnipeg.
Then, without a word of greeting, he made his way to
140 THE LIFE OF JAMES EOBERTSON
his uncomfortable hotel, chilled to the bone with his long
drive through the fierce January frosts and depressed
with loneliness and homesickness. Now he is welcomed
by hosts of friends and by a united and enthusiastic con-
gregation. As that day he looked upon Winnipeg, the
impression made upon him by the straggling city never
left him. . Many years afterwards, recalling his feelings,
he writes :
1 1 1 stood at Fort Garry gate and looked over the black
trail with its clustering variegation of shops and shacks
that marked the main street of the capital. From that
day, my hope for the West has never faded, nor have I
ceased to be grateful for its rich opportunities for service."
His congregation and, indeed, the whole city were
waiting him. His letter to his wife goes on :
"The meeting at the induction was quite a large one
the church was full. It was also a good representation
of all parties in the Church. There were quite a number
of strangers people belonging to our own Church who
had come here during my absence. They appeared to be
all hearty and pleased. The Kirk people, too, I think,
will work well. I want to pursue the policy of forgetful-
ness of the past, and active effort for the cause of Presby-
terianism and Christianity for the future."
He came at a time when he was badly needed. The
congregation had become somewhat disorganized during
the interregnum, and there was much sickness, for the
city was full of the typhoid fever that for many years con-
tinued to haunt the banks of the Bed Eiver. In addition,
immigrants were arriving in large numbers, some dis-
tributing themselves in shacks and tents upon the prairie
on the outskirts of the city, others pushing on to seek the
better country that to them seemed to lie nearer the setting
sun. By " the Dawson route " and by steamer they came,
many of them poor, some of them sick, all lonely, all
THE PASTOR OF KNOX CHURCH 141
needing help, comfort and cheer. Robertson took hold
of the situation with a firm grasp. First he proceeded to
organize his force of workers.
"Things here are quiet," he writes to his wife under
date October 30th. 1 1 There is still a good deal of sickness
with fever, but there are very few deaths. The weather
has turned cold now, and I think we shall have no new
cases. I have done a good deal of visiting, but there is a
great deal yet to be done. I am falling in with new peo-
ple every day, and no person seems to have any idea of
where our people are. Things are not in a good state
generally, but they may take a better turn soon now.
There is much work to be done and single-handed I can-
not overtake it all. The Sabbath-school has been low ow-
ing to sickness and no one being here to take an interest
in it. Next week we have a meeting of teachers and ex-
pect to do something to set matters right. Prayer-meet-
ing and all have suifered, but we hope to make things
better there too. 77
And again a week later he writes :
" Am very busy visiting, etc., here just now. Had a
meeting of Session last night and tried to get things in
order. We did a good deal of business and found mem-
bers willing to aid as much as possible. We agreed to
have regular meetings once every month and oftener if
necessary. We agreed to get some men in the respective
districts into which the city is divided to aid the elders in
keeping trace of those coming in and going out. Session
are going to visit themselves as much and as faithfully as
possible. Measures are to be adopted to see strangers to
seats and to welcome those who come to our services, and
we are also to arrange about advertising services in papers
and posting notices in boarding-houses and hotels. We
have adopted measures to have a society for the relief of
the poor, too, and I expect we shall get some aid in at-
142 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
tending to cases of real want. Things are beginning to
be organized, and before long we shall be on our way.
We must vigorously push and do what we can, for unless
this is done we must suffer. I meet with people who have
never been in our church yet although here all summer.
I am coming in contact with people and finding out
Presbyterians of whose existence Session and congregation
were ignorant. Such things must not be if it can be pre-
vented."
Again that imperative " must " makes itself felt. The
Session and congregation gather about him loyally. The
leaders of the Old Kirk party, won over by his courtesy,
his preaching power and his administrative ability, at-
tach themselves to him. Dr. Clark retires from the city
and after a short experience of mission work, retires
from the Presbyterian Church into the Anglican fold
where we lose sight of him forthwith. There was no
place now for party feeling or division. The pressing
necessities of their work forced minister and people to
united and earnest cooperation. Never a boat or stage
arrived but the minister of Knox Church was there to
seek out and welcome first the Presbyterians and then
any others that may need him. Dr. Young, the veteran
missionary of the Methodist Church, once remarked in
those times, " There is no use of my going to meet in-
coming travellers. Robertson is always there and they
are all Presbyterians anyway." Not all Presbyterians,
but certainly a very large proportion of them, and it was
characteristic of Robertson that he frankly accepted re-
sponsibility for these from the moment of their arrival in
a new country, and to these he gave himself without stint
of time or energy or means.
Immediately the congregation begins to grow in
strength and in unity. As the winter approaches, the
problem of increased accommodation looms up.
THE PASTOE OF KNOX CHURCH 143
" Church affairs quiet," he writes. "Our attendance
is good, especially at night. Measures must be adopted
about a new church during this winter. The question of
our site is not settled and hence nothing can be done.
The Hudson's Bay Company want to give us a lot in an-
other place. This we are unwilling to take, for the pres-
ent site is central. More room, however, we must have.
Book racks are put in all pews and we are to have
psalm-books also. They are sent for."
Thus his first winter passes, his days filled with varied
work that taxed even his great physical powers to the
utmost and left him often spent of strength and greatly
needing the care and comfort of his home and family.
About the end of the first year of his pastorate, his
wife and children arrived in Winnipeg. That was a
great day for them all. Its incidents never faded from
his wife's mind during the twenty-five years that fol-
lowed. It was in early September. The boat came late
at night to the wharf that lay imbedded in the muddy
bank of the Eed Eiver. It was black and rainy when
Mrs. Eobertson, standing on the deck piled high with
baggage and freight and crowded with passengers, her two
children beside her and her baby in her arms, saw by the
dim light of the wharf her husband's tall form under an
umbrella held high. The baby was crying, and to the
father's disappointment, refused utterly to go to him.
So up the long flight of steps, slippery as only Eed Eiver
mud can make things slippery, they toiled, and through
the muddy streets to the hotel for the night. It was a
dismal enough introduction to the new country for the
wife, but next morning the sun was shining brightly over
this wonderful Western town. Her husband' s friends and
her own came about her, offering hospitality of heart
and home, and soon Mrs. Eobertson found herself happy
and content, busy to the full with her own and more
144 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
with her husband's work, to his infinite comfort and
peace.
During these years Winnipeg was full of young men.
By scores and by hundreds they poured in, the most ad-
venturous, the most enterprising, the most ambitious
of the peoples from which they came. To win and hold
these men, Mr. Robertson organized a Bible class that
became one of the most striking features of the congrega-
tional life and work. His method of teaching stimulated
thought and provoked discussion. Those were vigorous
days, and the young men and young women who attended
the class were intellectually alert and keen, so that many
a day the hour passed unnoticed, and long before the dis-
cussion was done the time for closing had come. In this
way and by regular social gatherings of the class at his
own house, where he was as young as the youngest of
them, the minister grew into the affection and confidence
of the younger portion of his congregation.
The story of the Knox pastorate during those seven
years, from 1874 to 1881, so remarkable in Winnipeg's
history, deserves separate telling, so rich is it in striking
incident and so vivid with the shifting colours of that
kaleidoscopic period. But here it can have no larger
space. As pastor, Mr. Robertson was indefatigable in
his toil, unstinted in his sympathy, unfailing in resource.
Old timers in Winnipeg are full of stories that illustrate
his tact, sympathy, humour. Here is one.
An old Scotch lady lay dying. The minister visiting
her could elicit from her mind, dulled by approaching
death, no response. Falling back upon his long unused
Gaelic, he repeated a Psalm and offered prayer in that
ancient tongue. The effect was immediate and magical.
The eye lighted up, the spirit came back again for a few
brief moments, recalled by the sound of the mother tongue
of her childhood days.
THE PASTOR OF KNOX CHURCH 145
A friend of those early days tells of another incident
illustrative of the courage and endurance of her minister :
"His pastoral duties often called him to take long
drives into the surrounding country. These drives in
winter time were always attended with hardship, some-
times \vith danger. Once during the winter of 1877 he
went to Stony Mountain to perform a marriage ceremony.
On his return a storm came up with startling suddenness.
The sun was shining brightly and there was no appear-
ance of a storm, when Mr. Robertson noticed a great
white cloud like snow rolling along near the ground, while
the sky still remained clear. In another instant the storm
was upon him, a blizzard so blinding that the horse
stopped, turned round, and left the trail. With a great
deal of difficulty he got the horse back to the road, un-
hitched it from the cutter, took off the harness, and let it
go, then set off himself to fight his way through the
storm. A short distance from Kildonan he overtook a
man driving a load of wood who had lost his way, and
who was almost insensible from cold and fatigue. He
turned the horses loose and took the man with him to a
house in Kildonan. After half an hour's rest he set off
again for Winnipeg, for he had left his wife sick in bed
and he well knew she would be in terror for him. So
once more he faced the blizzard, and, after two hours 7
struggle, he reached his home.' 7
During the seven years of his pastorate the congrega-
tion continued to grow, not only in numerical and
financial strength, but in spiritual life and in missionary
zeal. The congregational report at the end of the first
year of his pastorate showed 100 families, 100 communi-
cants, three elders, a small Sabbath-school and Bible
Class, with insignificant contributions to the Mission
funds of the Church. At the end of the second year,
1876, the figures stood : families 135, communicants 177,
14:6 THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
elders 9, Sabbath-school 120, Bible Class 45. In 1878,
the statistics showed a still greater advance : families
185, communicants 235, Sabbath-school and Bible Class
250, and in addition to paying a stipend of $2000.00, the
congregation contributed $160.00 to Home Missions,
$75.00 to French Evangelization, and $400.00 to benevo-
lent purposes. The last year of Mr. Robertson's
pastorate the annual report recorded 265 families, with
an additional 125 single persons, 411 communicants,
Sabbath-school and Bible Class 350, contributions to
Home Missions $280.00, to schemes of the Church $532.00,
to benevolence $483.00, a total for all purposes of
$9,359.00, no insignificant sum for such a congrega-
tion.
With his business men he was simple, direct and manly
in his methods. His managers consulted him regularly
and his advice came to be trusted and followed. He
despised the circuitous and ethically doubtful methods
employed too often for the raising of money for church
purposes. " Don't charge for your social," he said once
to his Ladies 7 Aid ; " when we want money, I'll ask the
people for it straight." And ask the people he did, and
with such good effect did he practice this habit, that
when the large undertaking of building a new church
was upon them, he went to his men and in a single week
raised twelve thousand dollars of the twenty-six thousand
needed. That church building was at once a triumph of
architectural skill and test of congregational loyalty and
of ministerial genius in finance.
There is no doubt that it was during his pastorate in
Knox Church, that Mr. Kobertson received that training
in business method and financial management that
proved so valuable to him in his later career. And
certain it is, too, that if Knox Church owed much to his
leadership and his organizing genius, he owed much to
THE PASTOR OF KNOX CHURCH 147
Knox Church and to the able and vigorous men with
whom he was brought into contact day by day in his ad-
ministration of the congregation's affairs in those stirring
and strenuous times.
XVIII
HIS WIDER MINISTRY
WINNIPEG in those days was the Mecca of the
fortune seeking and the land hungry from
the older portions of the Empire and from
other countries as well. For all Scotch folk, and for all
folk of Presbyterian extraction, connection or leaning,
the Presbyterian minister was the natural resort for all
in need of advice, of guidance, of cheer, of aid financial
and other, and the minister's home became a kind of
Immigration Office, a General Information Bureau, an
Employment Agency, an Institution for Universal Aid.
This meant to the minister that his time and strength,
and often his money, were at the command of all who
came to his door. To his wife it meant a good deal more.
For not only did they keep open house, but an open
table as well. This necessitated a larder continually
stocked, a kitchen never anything but busy. This was
hard enough upon the mistress of the house, with her
young family about her, and her congregational duties
demanding her time, strength and thought ; but for all
ordinary exigencies Mrs. Robertson was always ready.
But when at the dinner hour her husband calmly ushered
in some half dozen or dozen hungry folk, if her nerve
failed her for the moment, what wonder? There was,
however, no breakdown of the spirit of hospitality, and
no failure upon the part of either minister or minister's
wife to show kindness to the stranger. By the minister
this was accepted as a part of his regular duty, and as
affording a valuable opportunity of service. By the
148
HIS WIDER MINISTRY 149
minister's wife, as part of the burden, not to say cross,
laid on her as her husband's wife.
But through all the years of the Knox Church
pastorate no immigrant called on Mr. Robertson in vain
for aid, and none was turned away from that hospitable
door. Many years afterwards one of these immigrants,
remembering gratefully his kindness to the stranger,
thus writes :
" On my arrival in Winnipeg twenty-four years ago,
at that time a town of five thousand people, I called on
Mr. Robertson who was then pastor of Knox Church.
He came with me at once and guided me to a desirable
hotel where our family of seven persons could be
accommodated. Besides, he spent a forenoon in aiding me
to get my effects through the Customs, a thing that a
stranger could not do.
"Nearly every day he was called on by some strangers
from the Old Land and from our Eastern Provinces with
many questions to ask, and he patiently heard them and
intelligently answered them. He knew more of the
Prairie province than most men, and newcomers were
always befriended by him. Knox Church was then a
large congregation, and rapidly becoming larger, and de-
manded much of his time. But with all the pressure
upon his time, he never complained of being over-
burdened in seeing to the wants of newcomers from other
lands.
"I know of some instances of men who, when they
came to our Province, were short of funds. Though Mr.
Robertson had no money to spare, they came to him in
their distress and he handed them what money they
wanted. And I have the best of reasons to believe that
these borrowings were never repaid."
Patience of spirit was by no means a striking
characteristic of Mr. Robertson in those eager, busy
150 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
years. But for the stranger, lonely, poor, heart- sick, his
patience never failed. Often imposed upon, he never
sent men away without an attempt, at least, to meet their
wants. They came to him for meals and lodgings, and he
took them in. They came seeking work and he tramped
the street with them. They came selling extraordinarily
unuseful articles and he purchased of them all. His
wife remembers one unhappy agent selling coat hangers
from whom the minister bought half a dozen, though at
the time he had only a single coat needing a hanger.
Another day a gentleman too proud to beg and too honest
to borrow, offers for sale a pair of high riding boots. The
minister buys them for $6. 00, though he knows they are
sizes too small. He is gaining experience and other
things besides, for which he is paying dear, but ever
without a grudge. The time will come when in settle-
ments far away he will meet those who will think it joy
to serve him and for his sake the cause he loves.
After many years had passed, a friend of his came
upon one of those who counted it honour to do him
service. This friend writes :
"I drove up to a comfortable looking homestead.
The house was built of logs, not grand, but comfortable.
The barn, however, was truly magnificent and thoroughly
equipped with the most up-to-date appliances for scien-
tific stock-raising. I had never seen anything like it
even among the wealthy farmers in Ontario. The stables
were full of horses and in the fields far away a large herd
of cattle could be seen. It was evidently a farm of great
prosperity, and indicated growing wealth.
" In the house I found an old Scotch lady and her two
sons, fine young fellows. I mentioned the name of Dr.
Robertson and at once the shrewd old face took on a
different look. It seemed to fill up with kindness, and
she began to talk. She had a remarkable story to tell.
HIS WIDER MINISTRY 151
Twenty-one years before, she, with her husband and two
baby boys, had couie to Winnipeg. They had not much
money, and all they had they invested in an ox-team,
waggon and general outfit. They spent a Sunday at the
immigration sheds in Winnipeg. The Presbyterian min-
ister came down to preach to the immigrants in the after-
noon. The place was uncomfortable and crowded. Her
baby was fretful, and so the mother sat outside the door ;
it was a warm spring day, and there she listened to the
sermon. She could not see the preacher's face, but she
gave me a good bit of that sermon. The theme was
Abraham and his northwest adventure, and the parallel
was drawn between him and these people who were about
to seek their fortune in the West. The two main thoughts
that the old lady carried with her for these twenty years
were these : ' God is going with you. Do not be dis-
couraged. Never give up hope, 7 and ' You are going to
make a new country, build your foundations for God. 7
She remembered the grip of the minister's hand as next
day he went with them far out on to the prairie to set
them on their westward journey, and how standing there
he bade them a cheery farewell and watched them almost
out of sight. His words of cheer stood them in good stead
on that journey. As they neared the Portage plains they
found the prairie one great wide expanse of black mud
and water through which laden teams were frantically
struggling, trying to get through. Again and again the
husband was forced to unload his stuff, the mother hold-
ing her two babies in the waggon, till at last in despair he
was for turning back. But the wife would not hear of it.
The words of the preacher rang in her heart, l Never
fear. God is with you. Don't turn back. 7 And they
did not.
"They reached their location and began to farm.
Within two years her husband died and the mother with
152 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
her two little boys were left alone. But the neighbours
were kind. She could get plenty of work to do. She did
the washing for the bachelors round about, and baked
bread for the villagers. She had no one with whom she
could leave the children, but back and forward she went
with her washing and her bread, leading one child by the
hand and carrying the other upon her back, going bare-
foot through the water of the slough to save her boots.
" Her people in Scotland were anxious to have her
return home, but she would not. She believed that God
was with her and that she should not turn back. To-day,
with a section and a half of the best land that the sun
shines on, with barn and stables, cattle and horses, she
has proved again that God keeps His promises. And
often through these years by her devotion to the cause
he represented, has she shown her gratitude to the min-
ister who preached to her in Winnipeg that day and
whose words upheld her for many a day afterwards. "
But many are the stories that could be told of the wider
ministry of the pastor of Knox Church of that day in be-
half of those needy immigrants, and many of these same
immigrants, now prosperous merchants or wealthy farmers,
remember with grateful hearts and hearty greeting, the
sympathetic hearing, that firm, strong, downward grip
of the hand of the Presbyterian minister of Winnipeg to
whom they appealed for help when help was needed, and
never vainly.
XIX
FROM PASTOR TO SUPERINTENDENT
THESE seven years were years of extraordinary
growth in the country and in the city and, con-
sequently, in the mission and college work of
the Church. This remarkable development is clearly re-
flected in the annual reports of Manitoba College and of
the Manitoba Presbytery's Home Mission Committee, and
in the reports of the College and of the Home Mission
Committee of which he was Convener, the hand of Bob-
ertson is very clearly seen, as is his influence apparent
in the directing and prosecuting of both these depart-
ments of Western work.
At the first General Assembly of the United Church in
1875, a reference from the last Assembly of the Canada
Presbyterian Church was brought forward by Mr. Eob-
ertson, asking permission to raise thirty-five hundred dol-
lars for the College. This permission was granted and
the money raised, with the result that in the following
year the College was reported to be in good condition.
At that General Assembly it was decreed that henceforth
Manitoba College must stand upon its own feet and must
no longer be a charge upon the Home Mission fund.
The professors were reported as giving, with the two set-
tled pastors, very efficient service in the exploratory and
other Home Mission work of the Church. As we read the
record of the lives of these men we are amazed at the
extent and variety of their labours. No man is allowed
to devote himself exclusively to his own special depart-
153
154 THE LIFE OF JAMES EOBERTSON
ment. Every professor is a home missionary taking his
full share of the toil and dangers inseparable from the
work. Similarly, Robertson, besides his congregational
duties and that wider ministry in behalf of the incoming
settlers, began, in the year 1877, a course of lectures in
Manitoba College which he continued for a number of
years. In this year, too, he was made a member of the
College board, and took his full share in the administra-
tion of College affairs. He also took an important part
in the founding of the University of Manitoba and in
bringing about the affiliation of the College with that in-
stitution. This proved to be a great uplift to Manitoba
College, and at once the Presbyterian constituency in the
West began to take a new pride in their College and to
plan for its expansion. But the same year saw the terri-
ble grasshopper plague which swept the country bare,
and so reduced the revenue that it became necessary for
the College to report a serious financial deficit. At once
there rose a cry for retrenchment, but to this Mr. Robert-
son would not listen, and set about a vigorous campaign
for further expansion which, however, owing to circum-
stances over which he had no control, was only partially
successful.
But though the College made heavy demands upon him,
and though he gave himself with all diligence to his
multifarious congregational and other duties as minister
of Knox Church, it was the Home Mission work that,
more than any other, pressed hardest upon him during
these years. It was characteristic of him that at his first
Presbytery meeting, before he himself was inducted, he
was found earnestly advocating a plan for the maintain-
ing of work in the Prince Albert district, vacated by the
death of Mr. Nisbet.
"When I wrote you last, I was talking of going to
Portage la Prairie to help to license and ordain Mr.
FROM PASTOR TO SUPERINTENDENT 155
McKellar to send him away to Prince Albert mission.
As you will recollect, Mr. Nisbet, who was our first mis-
sionary to that district, died a short time ago. His wife
was taken ill and he came down here with her. The five
hundred mile journey was too much for her and she died.
He was reduced very much owing to the fatigue incident
to the journey, and through care and anxiety in refer-
ence to his wife. Her death was too great a blow for
him and he followed her in about two weeks. The mis-
sion in the West was thus left without a pastor. The
Presbytery of Manitoba tried to get Mr. Donaldson sent,
but the Foreign Mission Committee objected. Things
thus indicated that the mission was to be without any
supply during winter. On my way here I heard that
Dr. M was going west, and to make Prince Albert
his headquarters for the winter. He is a dangerous man,
and were he among these simple-minded people for a
winter doing all he could to wean them away, I feared
for the future of our mission. ' ' Needless to say, Dr. M
was not a Presbyterian. " At the meeting of Presbytery
I proposed to license and ordain Mr. McKellar if he
would accept a call from our Presbytery. Professor
Bryce was instructed to communicate with him, the Pres-
bytery falling in with the suggestion made. The Presby-
tery agreed to adjourn to meet in Portage la Prairie.
Mr. McKellar accepted and we went west and all things
were arranged. We got all necessary outfit for him at
the Portage, and he holds himself in readiness to go west
at once. There is a Mr. McDonald down here just now
from Fort Ellice, and I have made arrangements with him
to take him west with him and to put him on the other
two hundred and fifty miles as soon as possible. Dr.
M would go too with Mr. McDonald, but he would
not take him. I expect he will get west some way, but
McKellar will be before him and can counteract any-
156 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
thing he may try to do there. I am not sure how the
Foreign Mission Committee will take the matter, but can-
not help it unless we were willing to endanger the exist-
ence of our mission. We can, I think, justify our
course."
Without a doubt he can justify his course in this in-
stance and in many others to follow. Mr. Robertson is
keenly zealous for his Church. He heartily believes in it
as a democratic institution eminently suited to the needs
of a new country and holding a creed which, entering
into the thought and feeling of a people, will do much to
establish it in righteousness. Hence, while being fair
and honourable with other denominations, he gives him-
self heart and soul to the extension and consolidation of
his own. And once having planted " the blue banner "
in any position of importance, he will not see it lowered
without a fight. He is out and out, and very frankly, a
Presbyterian, and by all honourable means he will main-
tain the Presbyterian cause where he can. In a letter to
his wife he writes :
* * I think I told you in my last letter that Mr. Currie
was to go west to Palestine. He has gone and is to re-
main there all winter. Last week Mr. Black of Kildonan
and myself were at Headingly consulting about building
another church and changing the site. Matters pro-
gressed a good deal, and we expect to go up another day
and finish. I find that things of that kind are left to my-
self when sent out. Mr. Black did nothing but sit and
listen." Well he has earned the right to sit and listen.
Let the younger brother do battle. " We had three hun-
dred dollars subscribed on the spot and a grant of an
acre for a new church. We appointed two arbitrators
to decide how much the old site and the church are worth,
and the man on whose land it is promises to take it off
our hands at that figure. Am going to suggest that they
FROM PASTOR TO SUPERINTENDENT 157
have a Tea Meeting which may get one hundred dollars
for them without much trouble."
The habit is growing on Presbytery unobserved, as is
the case with all habits, of laying upon the minister of
Knox Church the burden of Home Mission work, not be-
cause he has any less to do than others, nor simply be-
cause he is the minister of the leading congregation in
the West, and not solely because he is the Convener of
the Home Mission Committee, but because he is rapidly
developing a genius for administration, a capacity for
swift, concentrated action, and, more than all, he has
burning in his heart a kind of passion of responsibility
for the incoming settlers belonging to his own Church
and for the future of the country they are helping to
build.
About this time we catch the first notes, low and still
distant, of those contending cries on the one hand of ap-
peal from the vigorous and growing child in the West
and, on the other, of warning protest from the nurturing
mother in the East. It was in this year, too, that Robert-
son began his long series of railroad missions. In one of
his missionary journeys a hundred miles east of Winni-
peg, he discovered a thousand men working within
twenty miles of the line, with no opportunity for religious
privileges of any kind. He held a meeting with them ;
got promises from the men for seventy dollars a month
for the support of a missionary, board and lodging
promised by the contractor, and thus established his first
railway mission. This mission in the year following con-
tributed nine hundred dollars towards the work, and
called for a second man.
The Home Mission operations of 1878, as reported to the
Assembly, were shown to extend from Rat Portage for
seven hundred and fifty miles west, and from the bound-
ary line to Battleford, two hundred and seventy-five miles
158 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
north. Over this territory forty-four mission fields have
been carried on and many more were reported as wait-
ing to be opened up, the liberality of the settlers being
abundantly attested by their voluntarily contributing out
of their scanty means almost ten thousand dollars.
And now with each succeeding report from the Presby-
tery of Manitoba, we begin to get visions of new fields
ever opening up on the horizon of unclaimed territory far
beyond where, Mr. Robertson addressing the Church,
says, "your children are making for themselves homes
and are in danger of being neglected and forgotten."
We begin to hear now those tales of heroic endurance on
the part of the prairie missionary with which in later
days we are to become so familiar ; of his long journeys
from five to fifty miles on a Sabbath day, of his facing
the perils of frosts and blizzards and of his cheerful
courage through it all.
When the Home Mission report for the Manitoba Pres-
bytery for 1880 was presented, the General Assembly for
the first time seemed to become aware of what had been
happening during the past ten years. The Presbytery's
western limit of the previous year had been pushed back
some three hundred and fifty miles by the demand of far-
off Edmonton for a missionary. In the report for this
year occur the noble words breathing high statesmanship
and high devotion : " Presbytery realizes that the first
missionary who appears in any field obtains most impor-
tant hold. Presbytery regards it as wise and most hon-
ouring to Christ, that so soon as any considerable num-
ber of people are settled together, the pioneer Presby-
terian missionary should visit them and collect the people
at central points for prayer and praise in the open, or in
a log dwelling of some godly settler. As soon as any
region is fairly settled the Presbytery aims to send a resi-
dent missionary. The missionary on an average can
FROM PASTOR TO SUPERINTENDENT 159
overtake fifty or sixty families scattered among four or
five stations. "
The Assembly awakens to the fact that the work in the
West must henceforth be taken very seriously. The
Manitoba Presbytery this year spends nine thousand four
hundred dollars in their Home Mission field, and still the
call is for more men and more money. The following
year, 1881, the crisis is reached. It is a year of great
material progress throughout the whole West. The Pres-
bytery has increased its staff of workers by fourteen, em-
ploying in all twenty-one ordained missionaries and fif-
teen catechists. A thousand miles beyond Winnipeg the
field has been occupied, but on every side, from southern
Manitoba, from the west and from the northwest, still
rises the cry for workers. To the Presbytery the situa-
tion appears desperate. Never in the history of the
Church has a Presbytery been entrusted with so vast a
field, and with such enormous responsibilities. With
everything that they have been able to achieve in the
way of supplying settlements, the Presbytery is painfully
conscious of much work lying undone and many districts
lying neglected. Professors, pastors, missionaries and
catechists are all working to the limit of their powers,
and yet whole sections of the country are unorganized
and unexplored. The Presbytery determines upon a
bold step. The extraordinary need must be met by ex-
traordinary means. After much deliberation an overture
is prepared and sent forward to General Assembly, pray-
ing for the appointment of a Superintendent of Missions
over the field occupied by the Presbytery. Anent the
overture, the veteran pioneer missionary from the West,
Dr. Black, is invited to address the Assembly. In a
speech of remarkable force, lacking though he is in phys-
ical vigour, Dr. Black supports the overture.
The prayer is granted. A committee consisting of Dr,
160 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Waters, Convener, Dr. Cochrane, Messrs. Pitblado, King,
Macdonnell, Black, Warden, ministers, and Messrs.
Laurie, Vidal, McMicken, Munns, elders, was appointed.
The committee recommend that James Robertson, pres-
ently pastor of Knox Church, Winnipeg, be appointed
Superintendent of Missions in the Northwest, his salary
to be two thousand dollars, this to cover all expenses
while he may be labouring in Manitoba or the immediate
neighbourhood. Journeys to distant points such as Ed-
monton to be paid by the Assembly's Home Mission
Committee.
The appointment of Assembly is telegraphed to Mr.
Robertson where, toiling at his work alone, for his wife
and family are in the East, he finds himself summoned to
make one of the most momentous decisions of his life.
XX
FAREWELL TO THE PASTORATE
WITH the Assembly's telegram in his hand, Mr.
Eobertson summons his Session, and together
they deliberate upon this most momentous
call. The Session had been more or less prepared for
some such action of Assembly. Long before he was ap-
pointed Superintendent their pastor had been superin-
tending. They knew well enough that though the Pres-
bytery's overture made no nomination for the office, there
was only one man to whom the West would intrust their
missions, and only one man fit for the work. Impressed
as they are with the necessities of Knox Church, Winni-
peg, the greater necessities of the vast mission field of
the West impressed them more deeply. The Church had
called their minister to a larger and more important
sphere of labour. With affection and regret, therefore,
but without hesitation, they advised his acceptance of the
appointment. He wired the Assembly his decision. He
will accept the appointment, but stipulates that his salary
be that of Manitoba College professors, with all travelling
expenses added. In a letter to his wife who, with the
family, had gone on a visit to her home in Eastern
Canada, he describes his line of action and discusses a
little the future. It is dated from the Manse, Winnipeg,
June 16, 1881 :
" MY DEAR WIFE :
" Your letter bearing intelligence of your safe arrival
at home I just received. The notes of the children from
161
162 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
St. Paul I also received. From Chicago I heard through
Mrs. Hart. I was glad to find that you all got down
there so well, and hope the stay there may do you all
good. I am inclined to think that it will be protracted
beyond our first anticipations. As you will have learned
ere this reaches you, I have been appointed Superintend -
dent of Missions in Manitoba and the Northwest by the
unanimous vote of the Assembly. I have accepted the
appointment. Would like to have communicated with
you ere taking the final step, but the Assembly's call was
urgent and there was no time to write. I called the Ses-
sion together on receipt of telegram and consulted with
them. They regarded the offer as a step in advance and
would not oppose the wish of the Assembly, thinking it
useless. They regarded me as the most fit man for the
position, the most fit, they thought, in the Church. They
considered the office necessary in the interests of the
Church, and telegraphed to this effect to the Assembly.
The salary offered was two thousand dollars and I was to
pay my own travelling expenses. After maturely con-
sidering the question, I telegraphed ' Accept call of As-
sembly, but cannot live here respectably on conditions
stated. Make salary equivalent to that of professors of
Manitoba College and travelling expenses. 7 To this
Cochrane replied at once, 'You are appointed on con-
dition stated and will enter on work in July/ He is
coming out here to induct or help induct. I will arrange
as soon as convenient for going over all the fields, return-
ing here in the fall, after which I will likely go east to
spend the winter. ... I regret much that I shall be
away from home a great deal. This cannot be helped."
How little either of them guessed how pathetically pro-
phetic of their future experience were these words ! The
future is to them quite unknown. They had made ar-
rangements for the building of a house and the establish-
FAREWELL TO THE PASTORATE 163
ing of a home in Winnipeg. " What now about build-
ing? " he writes. " Am I to go on at once and build, or
to postpone till next year? The money for the house
has been paid and I can proceed, but if you are to stay
down all summer and I am to go down in the fall, it
would seem as if we had better postpone building till
next year. You could get a house in Woodstock and the
children could go to school there. But when you write
you could let me know what you think of the new situa-
tion. As you see, I am yet in the manse. They are in
no hurry fixing it up. I make my own bed and clean
my own boots and fix up my own room, and board at the
Queen's. Time will decide my future. 77
The parting from Knox Church was not without pain
to minister and people. The congregation were losing
their first minister and he had made them what they
were. The minister was severing the bond that had been
strong enough to draw him to this new land and had
grown stronger during the seven years of his labour in it.
But to both people and minister the feeling that the
Church had called him to a wider sphere and to higher
work, made acquiescence easier. To the congregation
the loss of their pastor at that particular period in their
history was a serious blow. The line of cleavage between
the two elements in the congregation was still pretty
clearly defined. Indeed, many feared that once the strong
unifying personality of the minister was removed, disin-
tegration would ensue. Happily these fears were ground-
less, though to a certain extent they were shared by the
minister himself. Writing to his wife soon after his ap-
pointment he says :
' ' There are elements in the congregation that are diffi-
cult to manage. They may now divide according to their
predilections. The Knox Church part may try to get a
Kirk minister, while the other will likely get an Old
164 THE LIFE OF JAMES EOBERTSON
Canada Presbyterian. In any case I fear that a division
is inevitable and perhaps this will help the matter. I
am sorry to part with a congregation which I was to so
large a degree instrumental in building up."
The affection and the regret with which his people bade
him farewell find expression in various addresses and
presentations. The address from the Session was as fol-
lows :
" To THE REV. JAMES ROBERTSON :
" In taking leave of you on your entrance upon the re-
sponsible duties of Superintendent of Missions in Manitoba and
the Northwest, we as a congregation desire to express our
heartfelt appreciation of the services which, as our pastor, you
have rendered us during the past seven years.
"When your pastorate began we were a mere handful, and
worshipped in a small, plain structure. Under God you have
been the means of building up a large congregation, and to
your perseverance and energy was largely due the erection of
our present beautiful place of worship. Your genuine piety,
courteous manners, and deep solicitude for the welfare of all
with whom you came in contact, have won you lasting grati-
tude. The afflicted and the stranger have always found you a
true friend and wise counsellor. Many of your self-denying
acts are known to your friends, but we are satisfied that very
many are known only to yourself and to Him who seeth all
things.
" In addition to the various duties of your pastorate, you
have responded to the calls that came to you from time to time
to take an active part in the educational interests of our coun-
try, in temperance, and in all matters pertaining to the general
weal.
" We wish you Godspeed in your new and honourable
sphere of labour, and * Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the
sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you
perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that
which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ ; to
whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.'
(Signed) " THOMAS HART, M. A., B. D.,
" Session Clerk."
FAREWELL TO THE PASTORATE 165
"Without a doubt the fineness of touch in the diction of
this address and the warmth of affection breathing
through its words, reveal the hand of that very fine
Christian gentleman who was the minister' sfidus Achates,
Professor Hart. And few things in this period of Mr.
Robertson's life are more beautiful than his affection for
the man who, when he might have easily allowed himself
to be prejudiced by his sense of loyalty to his own Kirk
against him who represented another Church, received
him instead with generous affection and stood by him
with unshaken loyalty, then and through all the follow-
ing years during which it was given these two to live and
work together.
But nothing touched the minister more than the fare-
well of the ladies of the congregation. Loyally had they
stood by him, and with unwearied fidelity had they toiled
with him in the varied departments of work represented
in the congregation. In those days the men were often
so absorbed in the rush and crush of business that much
of their work as members of the Church had been rele-
gated too often to their wives and daughters. But nobly
had they answered to the often unreasonable demands of
the congregation, and without faltering they had followed
the leadership of their pastor. Their devotion to him
and their regret at his departure found expression in the
following address, which was accompanied by a gift of
$632.00 :
" To THE REV. JAMES ROBERTSON, SUPERINTENDENT OF MIS-
SIONS FOR MANITOBA AND THE NORTHWEST :
" We, the ladies of Knox Church, Winnipeg, cannot
allow the tie to be severed that has bound us, pastor and peo-
ple, without expressing to you on behalf of the congregation
our appreciation of your devoted services during the past seven
years.
" The congregation at the beginning of your pastorate was
small in number and very poorly provided for the work of ad-
166 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
vancing Christ's cause in the then unorganized community in
which our lot was cast.
" We rejoice to acknowledge your services to the congrega-
tion in the very earnest assistance given by you in the erection
of our church building, which has been a credit to the city and
a factor in advancing our cause.
" We remember gratefully your attention to your duties at
the three turning points of life morning, noon, and night
when, in performing the initiatory ordinance of our Church, in
uniting together kindred hearts, and in performing the last sad
rites, you were always willing to lend your aid.
" We would thank you for the faithful instruction given
from the sacred desk, for the instruction given to the young of
the congregation, and the private advice so affectionately given
to the disconsolate or the wayward.
" We regret at the present time the absence of your beloved
partner in life, who has with such kindness and at great per-
sonal sacrifice, done her duties in a quiet and unobtrusive
manner as pastor's wife.
" We congratulate you on the high honour paid you in the
unanimous call given by the highest court of our Church, to
the office which you now occupy. We feel it to be a matter of
great importance to our cause at the present time, to have one
so well fitted as yourself for the work of advancing the rapidly
spreading principles which we profess, in the great Northwest,
and knowing that an expensive outfit is necessary for your
onerous work, we beg that you will accept, as conveyed by the
gentlemen of the congregation through our hands, this purse of
$632.
" We pray that God's blessing may still attend you ; that
you may be preserved safe in your abundant labours, and that
you may have an ( inheritance among all them that are
sanctified.'
(Signed) " JANE AGNEW,
" SAIDIE McKiLLiGAN,
"M, BRYCE."
In connection with the presentation of this purse an in-
cident occurred that cut Robertson to the quick and
aroused very considerable feeling at the time among the
people. By two of the speakers on the occasion of the
FAREWELL TO THE PASTORATE 167
presentation, this gift was referred to as being intended
for the purchase of an outfit for the new Superintendent.
This interpretation was immediately and strongly re-
pudiated by the ladies who had solicited the subscriptions
in the following note sent soon after the meeting was
held:
" Winnipeg, July 27, 1881.
" A difference of opinion having been expressed as to the ob-
ject for which subscriptions were solicited for a purse to be
presented to the Rev. Mr. Robertson, we beg to say that the
money was obtained for Mr. Robertson's personal benefit
absolutely.
(Signed) " SAIDIE MCKILLIGAN,
"JANE AGNES BEATRICE BATHGATE,
" LIZZIE GERRIE,
"MARGARET A. McLEAN,
"SARAH LAPP,
"ELIZABETH A. LAIDLAW."
These ladies had no intention of making contribution to
the Assembly's Home Mission Committee. Not they.
Their gift was to their minister whom they loved, and
they determined that there should be no uncertainty in
the matter.
Mr. Robertson's farewell sermon was preached to a
densely crowded congregation on the 24th of July, 1881.
His text was Philippians 1 : 27 : " Only let your conver-
sation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ: that
whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may
hear of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit, with
one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel. "
It was a brief but comprehensive statement of the prog-
ress of the city, the country and the congregation dur-
ing the seven years of his pastorate, and closed with an
earnest appeal to the congregation to be worthy of their
great opportunity to measure up to their responsibility as
168 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
the premier congregation of this new country, and with a
few words of affectionate farewell.
From the Ladies' Missionary and Charitable Associa-
tions there came the following address, which was accom-
panied by the gift of a valuable gold chain :
" To THE REV. JAMES ROBERTSON, SUPERINTENDENT OF
MISSIONS FOR MANITOBA AND THE NORTHWEST :
" We, the ladies representing the Missionary and Chari-
table Associations of Knox Church, Winnipeg, beg to present
to you, on beginning the important duties to which you have
been called in behalf of the missions of our Church, our warm-
est congratulations. We believe that the work of our Church
for missions is but in its infancy ; that we have not yet begun to
realize the importance and urgency of our Saviour's command,
1 Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every crea-
ture.' We feel that at the threshold of the great Northwest
especially, an important duty rests on us of sending the Gospel
to our fellow countrymen who are settling on these wide prairies,
and also to the wandering tribes who are crying at .our doors.
" We regret that our efforts have resulted in raising so little
means in the past, but we rejoice that in your appointment there
has been recognized the importance of this great work, by call-
ing one so useful as you are to this sphere.
"But while this is the case, we would not forget the past.
We are glad to know that it is your intention still to reside in
our midst. We pray for the speedy return to health and
strength of your beloved partner in life, and your family.
" Be pleased to accept this chain in memory of past associa-
tions, and kindly regard it as a token of our desire that we may
be still closely joined together in the mission work of the
Church, and that you and yours may be bound up with us in
the same bundle of life and may reach the same heavenly home.
(Signed) "JANEAGNEW,
" SAIDIE MCKILLIGAN,
" MARY A. SWINFORD,
" ELIZABETH A. LAIDLAW,
" MRS. LAPP,
"MRS. J. P. ROBERTSON,
"M. BRYCE.
"July 26th, 1 88 1."
FAREWELL TO THE PASTORATE 169
On July 22d the Manitoba Presbytery met at Portage
la Prairie and made arrangements for the induction of
Mr. Robertson into his new office. In severing the pas-
toral tie between the minister and congregation of Knox
Church, Presbytery, in a formal resolution, took the op-
portunity of recording its high appreciation of the serv-
ice rendered by Mr. Robertson not only to the congrega-
tion and the community, but to the whole Church in the
West, and expressed the most earnest hopes for his suc-
cess in his new work. For the most part there was en-
thusiastic approval of the appointment, though there were
not wanting those who predicted difficulties, constitu-
tional and other, in the working of the new office.
The induction of Mr. Robertson to his new position was
deemed by the Presbyterian Church an event of sufficient
importance to warrant the appointing of a special Com-
mission for this purpose, consisting of the Rev. Dr.
Cochrane, Convener of the Home Mission Committee, and
the Rev. George Bruce of St. Catharines. Others took
part in the interesting function, among them Professor
Hart and Rev. A. Bell. The service was held on the
evening of July 26th, in Knox Church, with Professor
Bryce in the chair.
In the eloquent address of the Convener of the Home
Mission Committee occurs this very significant sentence :
" To Mr. Robertson is due largely the present standing of
Presbyterianism in Winnipeg and the great Northwest. "
The Convener, at least, of the Committee that has had
charge of this vast and growing work has had borne in
upon him something of the magnitude of the toils en-
dured and the service rendered to the Church and to the
Western country by the minister of Knox Church during
the seven years of his pastorate. It will be some years
yet, however, before he will come to his own with the
Church as a whole.
170 THE 'LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Thus, carrying with him the affection of his people to
whom he has ministered for seven years, the gratitude of
the Committee which he has served with such conspicuous
success, the esteem and confidence of the Presbytery of
which he has been for these years a guide and leader, the
Superintendent enters upon his new sphere of labour, not
without his fears and misgivings, but conscious of a high
resolve to do his best to serve his country and his God as
opportunity may be his.
XXI
GETTING INTO THE SADDLE
FOR ten years the fame of the Canadian West had
been spreading abroad, not only throughout East-
ern Canada, but across the sea to European coun-
tries as well. Year by year the volume of immigration
had been growing steadily. In 1878, the railroad from
the south reached St. Boniface. It was not until 1881,
however, that it crossed the Bed Eiver and entered the
capital city of Manitoba. "With the advent of the rail-
way to the Province, the growth of immigration was
vastly increased. Settlers poured in, with money and
without money, filled up the vacant spaces about the city,
all demanding homes and building sites, and passed
through and out of the city by the trails leading south,
west and north, buying land, securing homesteads and
squatting on claims. Colonization companies, land syndi-
cates, railroads, were all smitten with the fever of land
speculation. In consequence, prices rose enormously, till
the climax was reached in the famous " boom " of 1881.
The stories that float down to us from the days of the
Winnipeg "boom" read almost like fairytales. It is
difficult to believe that sane men could have become so
rabidly mad in so short a period of time. Not only did
the value of corner lots in the city of Winnipeg soar out
of sight, but far out upon the prairie, in anticipation of
projected and wholly imaginary railway lines, town sites
were surveyed, then from alluring and beautiful pictures
of prosperous towns built upon these sites, with post-
office, railway station, court-house, beautifully treed
171
172 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
avenues depicted in harmonious colours, lots were sold
at fabulous prices. Not only in Winnipeg and the West,
but in Eastern Canada and the United States, those
building sites were greedily snapped up. The spirit of
adventure seizing many who approached this land of
promise, led them far off into wilds remote from civiliza-
tion, from market, from means of transportation, from
school and church privileges. The cry was "Ho! for
the far West ! " In every direction nuclei of settlements
were set down upon the empty prairie.
All this made enormous demands upon the Church.
From Port Arthur to British Columbia, two thousand
miles and more, stretched this vast mission field. No
wonder that the Home Mission Committee of 1880, after
passing grants to the amount of nearly $11,000 to
twenty-eight groups of mission fields in Manitoba and
the Northwest Territories, and with a debit balance of
$14,500 should sit down and, without argument, pass the
following resolution :
" The Committee having regard to the injunction of the
General Assembly to keep the expenditure of the fund
within the income, agree, as a measure of precaution, to
make the grants to mission stations and supplemented
congregations, as now revised, for the six months ending
31st March next ; these grants for the following six
months being subject to revision at the next general
meeting of the Committee."
The terror of the West was upon the committee.
They knew not whereunto this thing would grow.
Reaching the limit of their own resources, they appeal,
and not without result, to the Churches of the Homeland.
But still they find themselves with means inadequate to
the demands made upon them. So they pass resolutions
urging retrenchment. But however the Committee may
resolve, the West cannot and will not halt. It was the
GETTING INTO THE SADDLE 173
next year, 1881, that answering the far-off cry from
Edmonton, A. B. Baird, newly graduated from Knox
College, and newly ordained by the Presbytery of Strat-
ford, hitched up his buckboard at Winnipeg, packed in
his " grub " and outfit, and took the westward trail for
his outpost nine hundred miles away.
With this vast mission field reaching from the Lakes
to Edmonton, nearly fifteen hundred miles from east to
west, and with the Home Mission Committee in such
financial straits, it was that the Superintendent entered
upon his work.
The institution or revival of the office of Superintend-
ent was for all concerned a somewhat perilous departure.
"What does this office mean?" many were asking.
"What are its rights and its limitations? What of
Presbytery authority and the authority of the Assembly's
Home Mission Committee, and of the Presbytery's Home
Mission Committee ? What of the sacred doctrine of the
parity of Presbyters?" Surely this man will need to
give heed to his steps that he slip not. To aid him in
this the Home Mission Committee prepare a series of
regulations for the guidance of the Superintendent for
Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. These are
afterwards approved by the Presbytery of Manitoba and
by the General Assembly, and are as follows :
1. His duties shall include the oversight and visitation
of all the mission stations and supplemented congrega-
tions within the aforesaid territory ; the organization of
new stations and the adjusting of the amounts to be paid
by the different stations and congregations for the
support of ordinances, and the amounts to be asked from
the Home Mission Committee, and in general the super-
vision and furtherance of the entire mission work of our
Church in Manitoba and the Northwest.
2. In the prosecution of his work he shall consult and
174 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
report to the Presbytery of Manitoba or such other Pres-
byteries as may be hereinafter erected. He shall also
submit to the meetings of the Home Mission Committee,
in March and October, a detailed statement of the
progress of the work, including the adaptability of the
missionaries to the fields assigned to them, and the fulfill-
ment on the part of stations and supplemented congrega-
tions of the engagements entered into for the support of
the missionaries.
3. He shall transmit to the Home Mission Committee
an annual report for presentation to the Assembly, con-
taining complete statistics of the membership, families
and adherents in each mission station and supplemented
congregation ; also the additions made during the year,
the amount of contributions for the support of ordinances
and for the Home Mission fund during the year, and the
extent of new territory occupied during the same period,
with any other information and recommendations that
may be deemed important for the Committee and the
General Assembly to know.
4. All Home Mission grants shall be paid by the
Superintendent to the stations and supplemented congre-
gations, and he shall be empowered, should he see cause,
to withhold payment of said grants in cases where the
stations and supplemented congregations have not ful-
filled their monetary engagements, or where statistics
have not been regularly furnished.
5. Payments shall be made to the stations and supple-
mented congregations quarterly.
6. No draft shall in any case be drawn by the Super-
intendent of Missions until he has sent to the Convener of
the Home Mission Committee a detailed quarterly state-
ment of the amounts due to each station and congrega-
tion, and until he has received his sanction to draw for
said amounts upon the treasurer of the Church.
GETTING INTO THE SADDLE 175
7. In the meantime, the missionary of Prince Albert
shall receive his payments directly through the Convener
of the Home Mission Committee.
8. The Superintendent of Missions shall spend a por-
tion of each year as directed by the Home Mission Com-
mittee in the other Provinces, with a view to enlist the
sympathies and evoke the liberality of the Church in the
mission work of Manitoba and the Northwest.
9. The Superintendent shall report his travelling ex-
penses every six months to the Presbytery, to be passed
by it before being paid by the Home Mission Committee.
There is a significant hint of the sense of peril attach-
ing to this departure in Church government in the objec-
tion lodged by the Eev. Hugh McKellar, a member of
the Presbytery of Manitoba, against the word " over-
sight ' ' appearing in the rules. Mr. McKellar is anxious
lest the Superintendent should assume anything like
episcopal control. But before the rules could reach him,
the Superintendent was at his work.
There is no railway as yet leading west through his
field, so he buys a horse and buggy and starts out early
in August, taking the Portage trail, upon his first mis-
sionary tour, as Superintendent. On that first missionary
tour he drove two thousand miles, at first through heat
and dust and rain, and later through frosts and blizzards,
for it was after the middle of December before he returned
to Winnipeg, delivering some ninety-six sermons and
forty missionary addresses.
That trail and others he will press for twenty years
without halt or break or reprieve, till he lays him down
to his long rest. That trail, pursued by buggy and buck-
board. by cutter and "jumper," by passenger train and
freight train, would girdle the earth ten times and more.
Pressing that trail, he will break the way for many a
pioneer missionary, who, passing beyond the sky-line of
176 THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
the prairie, may pass out of sight, and often out of mem-
ory of his Church, but will never be forgotten by him
who first showed him this pathway to service and to
glory.
XXII
THE CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND
TO the General Assembly of 1881 were sent from
the Presbytery of Manitoba two overtures big
with potentialities for the cause of Presby-
terianism and of religion in Western Canada. One of
these overtures received the approval of the Assembly
and resulted in the appointment of the Eev. James Eob-
ertson, Minister of Knox Church, Winnipeg, as Superin-
tendent of Missions for Manitoba and the Northwest Ter-
ritories. The fate of the other overture hung in the bal-
ance for some months. It was an overture to authorize
the creation of a fund to aid in the erection of churches
and manses in the West.
The origin of this overture was to be found in the ex-
perience of the minister of Knox Church, Winnipeg,
while acting as Convener of the Presbytery's Home Mis-
sion Committee. During his various missionary tours it
was pressed upon his mind with painful insistence that
the missionaries in charge of the outposts of our Church
were called upon to suffer what seemed to him unneces-
sary privation from the lack of comfortable homes, and
that congregations were seriously retarded in their devel-
opment from the lack of suitable buildings in which to
worship.
For men and women of culture and of fine instincts to
be forced to live in mud-roofed shacks, or board with
families in houses of a single room, where all the domes-
tic activities were carried on, could not fail to seriously
177
178 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
impair the efficiency of their service. Nor was there
much hope of a permanent settlement being effected in a
congregation till a home could be found for the minister
and his family. Further than this, while so large a pro-
portion of the settlers were young men, unmarried and
living wretchedly uncomfortable lives, it was not difficult
to imagine how great an impetus would be given to the
work of the Church and how vastly increased would be
the hold of the minister upon his flock, had he a com-
fortable home into which he might welcome the stranger
and the homeless of his congregation.
Mr. Robertson had often experienced, too, the depress-
ing effect of uncongenial surroundings in connection with
public worship. He had been forced to preach to the
people in curious places, in shacks through whose sod
roofs the rain trickled in muddy streams upon the head
and down the face of the preacher. He tells us how,
upon entering a sod-roofed shack during a rain-storni one
day, he found the children arranged like soldiers on
parade along the centre of the little room. Closer obser-
vation revealed the wisdom of this arrangement, for the
only dry place in the little shack was the line underneath
a wide beam that formed the ridge pole of the roof.
Another time, while the missionary was nearing the
climax of his sermon, from under the bed whereon a por-
tion of the audience had found sittings, there came the
premonitory clucks of a hen indicative of a virtuous
sense of duty fulfilled. At once there ensued a struggle
for the attention of the audience between the zealous mis-
sionary and the industrious fowl. More and more elo-
quent waxed the missionary's periods, louder and louder
the duckings of the hen, till finally emerging into the
open, with a few surprised if not indignant clucks at the
unwonted invasion of her privacy, and then with a wild
volley of frantic clucks and cluckoos, she flew through
CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND 1T9
the open door, leaving the vanquished missionary to
gather up the scattered members of his body of divinity
and the shattered attention of his audience.
In buildings of all kinds and devoted to all purposes
religious services were held, in schoolhouses, where there
were any, in unfinished stores, in blacksmith shops, in
granaries, hay-lofts and stables, often redolent of other
than the odour of sanctity. Liberal use, too, was made of
the offer of its station-houses on the part of the Canadian
Pacific Eailway. But often the effect of the sermon and
of the whole service was marred by uncongenial and in-
congruous surroundings. This was notably the case when
the only available spot for service happened to be the
bar of a hotel. Once Mr. Robertson, coming to a settle-
ment late on a Saturday evening, where the largest build-
ing was the hotel and the largest room the bar, inquired
of the hotel man :
" Is there any place where I can hold a service to-mor-
row?"
" Service?"
" Yes, a preaching service.''
"Preaching! Oh, yes, Pll get you one," he replied
with genial heartiness.
Next day Mr. Robertson came into the bar which was
crowded with men.
"Well, have you found a room for my service?" he
inquired of his genial host.
"Here you are, boss, right here. Get in behind that
bar and here's your crowd. Give it to 'em. God knows
they need it."
Mr. Robertson caught the wink intended for the
"boys" only. Behind the bar were bottles and kegs
and other implements of the trade ; before it men stand-
ing up for their drinks, chaffing, laughing, swearing.
The atmosphere could hardly be called congenial, but the
180 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
missionary was " onto his job," as the boys afterwards
admiringly said. He gave out a hymn. Some of the
men took off their hats and joined in the singing, one or
two whistling an accompaniment. As he was getting
into his sermon one of the men, evidently the smart one
of the company, broke in.
"Say, boss," he drawled, "I like yer nerve, but I
don't believe yer talk."
11 All right," replied Mr. Robertson, "give me a
chance. When I get through you can ask any questions
you like. If I can I will answer them, if I can't, I'll do
my best."
The reply appealed to the sense of fair play in the
crowd. They speedily shut up their companion and told
the missionary to " fire ahead," which he did and to such
good purpose that when he had finished there was no one
ready to gibe or question. After the service was closed,
however, one of them observed earnestly :
"I believe every word you said, sir. I haven't heard
anything like that since I was a kid, from my Sunday-
school teacher. I guess I gave her a pretty hard time.
But, look here, can't you send us a missionary for our-
selves? We'll all chip in, won't we, boys? "
A missionary was sent in and it was not long till a
strong congregation was established in that community.
But in the hands of a weaker man such a result was
hardly likely to follow the services conducted in the bar-
room.
In pressing the overture upon the attention of the
Presbytery of Manitoba, Mr. Robertson urged the neces-
sity of such a fund, not only in the interests of a more
harmonious and effective preaching service and a greater
efficiency in Church work generally, but upon a ground
which he crystallized in a great phrase that has become
historically associated with the memory of its creator.
CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND 181
He urged the importance of a church building as giving
" visibility and permanence" to the cause of religion.
That phrase, " visibility and permanence," became a
battle-cry on his lips during his campaign for this fund,
and a great battle-cry it proved. Those who have lived
their lives within sight of a church and within sound of
a church bell, will find it difficult, if not impossible, to
estimate at full value the ethical effect of the mere build-
ing upon the moral life of the community. But men of
the frontier have learned by experience how great this
effect is.
A missionary writing in regard to the change wrought
in the mind of the community by the building of a church
says :
" Before the church was built in this village only the
decidedly religious people could be got to attend service.
The store was open, the bar was full, the ordinary busi-
ness of the week went on as usual. But the very day the
church was opened all this was changed. The store
closed up, the bar was empty of all except a few recog-
nized and well-seasoned 'toughs,' the ordinary work of
the week stopped, and many came to church who would
not think of coming to the service in the shack. The
silent appeal of that building with the Gothic windows
was a more powerful sermon than any I had ever
preached."
But Mr. Eobertson was not at the Assembly of 1881 to
press his overture. The Assembly was doubtful. A
money scheme to many of the fathers and brethren is
ever a suspicious innovation. Opposition developed.
The overture was in the hands of Professor Bryce and the
Western representatives. So serious did the opposition
become that its supporters lost heart and a motion was
proposed by Mr. W. T. Wilkins, seconded by Professor
Bryce, asking leave to withdraw the overture. But to
182 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
the rescue came the venerable Dr. Reid, seconded by that
always champion of Western Canada, Principal Grant,
with an amendment to remit the overture to the Home
Mission Committee. The amendment carried, and the
Church and Manse Building scheme was saved for the
time being.
In the Home Mission Committee, however, there was
opposition, but here Mr. Robertson, now become Super-
intendent, was able to show the large advantage that
would accrue to Home Mission work from such a fund.
He was further able to report that already a considerable
amount had been promised for the fund. The first con-
tribution, to the amount of one thousand dollars, had come
from a friend in Newfoundland. Presbyterians in the
West had promised support. The Home Mission Com-
mittee, still uncertain as to the ultimate effect of a can-
vass for a new fund upon their Home Mission revenue,
were still unwilling to bestow their benediction, but
allowed the Superintendent to go on with the canvass.
With all the concentrated energy of his being, the new
Superintendent "goes on," putting his hand to a work,
the magnitude of which not even he has begun to esti-
mate. With shrewd foresight he begins in the West.
His old congregation in Winnipeg backs him up with a
handsome contribution ; other congregations subscribe in
proportion. Leading Presbyterians of the West, catching
the spirit of the Superintendent, give largely. Then to
the East he proceeds, sowing broadcast over the Church
a Catechism on the Church and Manse Building Fund.
It was not, indeed, the Shorter Catechism of high and
honourable fame, but a new edition of the Mother's
Catechism, as one said, l l for it was in the interest of the
boys." Wherever he can get an opening he pleads his
cause. On every hand he meets opposition, from le-
thargic pastors, from penurious congregations, from men
CHUtiCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND 183
with rival schemes, but with unfailing good humour and
with indomitable perseverance he keeps pushing the
Church and Manse Building scheme.
Writing from Cobourg, under date March 7th, 1882, to
his wife, he, as always, takes her fully into his confi-
dence :
" To-night I have no meeting. I tried to arrange and
the telegraph failed me. Came here last night and had a
good meeting, collections $34.46. But the congregation
is without a pastor and in a bad state. Tried to do some-
thing for our Church Building Fund, but met with little
success. Got only about $190, but have promises of
more. Hope to make it $500. Peterboro I was not able
to canvass. Several things promised and I am going
back there some time. I think $1,500 or $1,800 could be
got there. This part of the country is not very hopeful
and the young people are leaving. To-morrow I go to
Madoc. I am vexed at being sent to a place so little
likely to do anything for our cause, but I must go." He
is labouring under the direction of his Committee, and
apparently not altogether unhampered.
Again from Kingston he writes :
" Got here Saturday afternoon and am with Dr. Smith.
He met me at the hotel. Called on McCuaig and Eev.
Andrew Neilson about services. Preached for McCuaig
yesterday morning. Congregation not large, but I under-
stand that his is the most wealthy in Kingston. I did
not get him to give a collection for the Home Mission
Committee. Took tea there, however. He is soured at
something about the Home Mission Committee. Which
indisposition, however, is only temporary, his good
sense coming to his aid. Preached for Neilson in the
evening. There was a good deal of interest manifested,
and I trust good will be done. But no collection was
taken up for our fund. Last evening Principal Grant
184 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
came to Dr. Smith's and we had a chat on matters. He
goes to Ottawa to attend the Legislature anent the
Union Act. The anti-Unionists are doing all they can to
defeat the measure and Sir Hugh Allan, Hickson of the
Grand Trunk, etc., are lobbying with the Antis. But
the bill will go through, I think.
' ' This morning I was trying to get men out to our
meeting to-night so as to get them interested in our
Church Building scheme. They fight shy of the measure,
but several promised to be there. Dr. D went with
me. We are going out this afternoon again. Belle-
ville gave but little for our fund, but I trust to go back
there again and we will do better. I address the students
here to-morrow. We want as many as possible of them
out there of the right kind. The desire to go out is
general, and I hope we may get the right men."
" Money and men ! " He does not know it, but he has
entered upon his life-long hunt. Ever as he tramps the
streets of these Ontario towns and drives his long drives
against storm and sleet, he is thinking of the little home-
less congregations on the prairie and of the homeless
missionaries and missionaries' wives he is trying to settle
in those homeless congregations. And, therefore, he
cannot yield to discouragement, and no matter who or
what may oppose, he presses hard upon his mission.
From Brockville on this same tour, under date March
22d, 1882, he writes :
" I have just got down-stairs to write you a note before
I leave for Ottawa. I got here last evening and held a
meeting. The day was very stormy and my attendance
somewhat slim. The collection t ditto.' I called on sev-
eral before the meeting and they all appeared to be inter-
ested, but the night was such as would deter people from
going out. I have no time to wait this morning to call on
any for the Church and Manse Building Fund, but think
CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND 185
that I will call here again. They think that $1,000 can
be got, at any rate. I saw ex-Governor Morris at Ottawa
and got $1,000 from him ! I never expected the half of
it." Though it is safe to say he never allowed His
Honour to suspect any such modesty in his canvasser.
"But I had a regular 'set to> with him in Toronto and
hence he came down handsomely. Dr. Schultz promised
me land to between $500 and $1,000, and I got $300 from
Senator Sutherland. I am going to see some of the other
men in Ottawa to-day and hope to do something. I must
go to Montreal for to-morrow evening. Our meeting in
Ottawa was large on Monday evening. Principal Grant,
Macdonnell, and myself spoke. Grant made a capital
speech. Macdonnell and myself were not so happy, but
I got a good chance with them on Sabbath. I will go
west from Montreal to Toronto, likely on Monday or
Tuesday."
Stormy days and slim attendances do their worst, but
men with vision of the coming greatness of the West are
beginning to take an interest in his scheme, and so with
better heart he goes to meet his still doubtful Committee.
From Toronto he writes on the 29th of March :
"I got here yesterday and was until late at the Home
Mission Committee meeting. Not much business yet
done. I do not know when we shall be through, but will
go up to see you all as soon as I can get away, likely to-
morrow.
" My Church and Manse Building scheme has not yet
the approval of the Committee. They want the General
Assembly to be seized of the matter and they recommend
changes. I did not object and hence all, I trust, will go
well." He has the genius that can wait and that knows
when it is good to wait. The Committee, too, wise heads
that they are, know that it will do nothing but good to allow
the Assembly to view this work from many sides. He
186 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
continues : "I found Montreal hard to move, but after
Sabbath's services things went better. Several told me
that they were much pleased with the account given of
the country and would help in this scheme. Some even
went so far as to call on me about the matter next
morning." They are slow to move, these Montrealers,
but their day for moving will come, and when they begin
to get the " vision, " they will be found in the line of ad-
vance. One of them has his eyes wide open already, for
we read : " Dined with D. A. Smith yesterday evening,
and he gave me $1,500. This is the only subscription
from Montreal yet." Courage ! A goodly number will
follow Mr. Smith's excellent lead.
So from town to town and from congregation to congre-
gation he pushes his relentless canvass with the help of
his somewhat cautious Committee, and without it, till he
arrives at Toronto, the stronghold of Presbyterianism in
Canada. He is expecting much, but he is doomed to
grievous disappointment.
" I am just getting ready to go out canvassing to-day.
Spent a part of two days and got $1,500 more. Toronto
is hard to get at. Knox College has a scheme of endow-
ment and people have got a hint to reserve their strength
for that. Toronto was always selfish. It is Toronto first,
last, and always. They will support what will build up
Toronto, but for outside objects they give as little as they
decently can."
Which all goes to show that Toronto is like other cities
and like mankind generally, endowed with a very con-
siderable amount of human nature. But Toronto, like
Montreal, will change her mind about this man and about
his work. The day will come when she will respond with
loyal and eager enthusiasm when he leads. So off he goes
to Montreal, where he remains till the meeting of the
General Assembly which this year takes place in St. John.
CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND 1ST
With a brave heart he meets this august and venerable
body and, indeed, he well may. It is his first appear-
ance as Superintendent of Missions. To most of the
fathers and brethren he is quite unknown by face. But
already there is rumour attaching to him, and it is with
keen expectancy that they wait his first appearance. He
is asked to address the house in regard to the Church
and Manse Building Fund. Tall and spare of form,
rugged of face, and with the burr of the land of his birth
still ringing in his voice, he rises to address the As-
sembly. Modestly, but with masterly management of his
facts and with quiet touches of pawky humour here and
there lighting up his narrative, he recounts his initial
experience as a canvasser for Church funds.
It is the story of an extraordinary triumph. He has
succeeded in enlisting the moral and financial support of
leading Presbyterians of both East and West. He has
secured from the Canadian Pacific Eailway Company the
promise to transport all building material at two-thirds
the ordinary rate. Manitoba has already pledged $36, 000
for the fund. With a very partial canvass he has sub-
scriptions from the East amounting to nearly $28,000.
His total subscriptions to date amount to the magnificent
sum of $63, 726 and this, with promises more or less defi-
nitely given, he has reason to believe will give a grand
total of $66, 626!
While he is addressing the Assembly he holds in his
hand a small black note-book. Ah, that note-book !
What dismay it has struck to the heart of many an un-
wary critic ! What foreboding it has brought to the
mind of an unhappy and unwilling contributor ! But
what cheer and inspiration to many a doubtful Church
court and depressed congregation ! The Assembly listen
amazed. That by a single man during the few months at
his disposal, with the hesitating support of a Committee
188 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
not yet fully committed to the scheme, this large sum
and for those days it was, indeed, a large sum should
have been raised, seemed an almost impossible achieve-
ment. The effect upon the minds of the fathers and
brethren was great and immediate. There and then
they, and especially the great leaders among them, took
their new Superintendent to their hearts and gave him
their confidence. He will have many a battle yet to
fight ; opposition, hostility, criticism, are yet in store for
him, but from this moment his Church will not waver in
following his lead. The future of the Church and Manse
Building Fund, by the statement of the new Superin-
tendent, was fully assured.
The raising and organizing of the Church and Manse
Building Fund was, indeed, an achievement which might
entitle any man to a high place in the esteem and the
remembrance of his Church. The history of the growth
and the operations of this fund only add to the lustre
of his name who had the eye to see its necessity, the
courage to plan, and the genius to carry out to a success-
ful issue a scheme so fraught with blessing to the whole
of Canada, both "West and East. The phenomenal success
of the first canvass made the further prosecution of the
work an easier task. The Newfoundland friend who had
given the first thousand dollars, hearing of the work be-
ing accomplished through the fund, secured from sympa-
thetic friends a second thousand. A Toronto contributor
returning from a tour of the West and seeing the work
done through the country, expressed himself as highly
pleased, and offered to increase his subscription.
"When a leading Episcopalian was speaking to me," he
said to the Superintendent, " about the energy of our
Church and her success, I felt proud of being a Presby-
terian." Another contributor of Toronto, similarly im-
pressed with the value of the fund, volunteered to be-
CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND 189
come a life-subscriber. Before five years had passed, the
subscription list had grown to $114, 792, though it is fair
to say that owing to the severity of the financial de-
pression following the collapse of the boom in the West,
a considerable portion of the money subscribed could not
be collected.
In his campaigning for funds, the Superintendent
literally obeyed the Scriptural injunction to be instant
in season and out of season. He never let an opportunity
slip. On one occasion a good friend of his living in
Ottawa, a university classmate, learning that the
Superintendent was one of a party snow-bound for two
or three days on the line between Pembroke and Ottawa,
met him at the train on its arrival and with warm hospi-
tality carried him off to his home, where he entertained
him for some days right royally. As a farther courtesy,
the Ottawa gentleman put him up at the Eideau Club.
Eunning his eye one day over the list of club members,
the Superintendent made the happy discovery of some
forty or fifty names of good Presbyterians. It looked
like good hunting to him, and, like a hound upon the
scent, he took up the trail. Not a man of them escaped,
and it was many months before his Ottawa friend heard
the last of the joke he had unwittingly played upon his
unsuspecting club members.
Eager though he was to secure contributions for his
cause, the Superintendent never sacrificed his self-
respect and never allowed any man either to bully
or to patronize him. On one occasion when in Ottawa
he met a Canadian Pacific Eailway magnate coming out
of the Parliament Buildings.
"Well, Mr. Eobertson," said the C. P. E. magnate,
" I suppose you are on one of your begging tours."
"I am doing your work, sir," replied the Superintend-
ent with dignity.
190 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
" My work?"
" Yes, sir. You are a Presbyterian, you are a Canadian,
and you are interested in the West." And he proceeded
to indoctrinate his listener in regard to his duty and
privilege as a good Presbyterian and loyal Canadian
towards the country from which he drew no inconsider-
able portion of his income.
"Well," replied the great man, "Til give you fifty
dollars."
"No, sir. I can't take fifty dollars from you."
" Why not ? " was the indignant reply.
" I am going this afternoon to see Mr. X, Mr. Y,
Mr. Z," mentioning the names of prominent wholesale
men in Ottawa. " If they see your name down for fifty
dollars they will at once put down their names for ten."
" You won't take fifty, then?"
" No, sir, I can't afford to."
"Well, good-morning," was the reply, and off went
the C. P. R. magnate with his head in the air.
The Superintendent rolled up a good subscription
list in Ottawa and Montreal, and the year following met
the railway gentleman in the Parliament Buildings at.
Ottawa.
"Well, Mr. Robertson," was his greeting, "you are
still on the warpath."
"Still at your work, sir," was the reply.
" What will you take this year ? "
" What will you give, sir ? " was the cautious answer.
"I'll give you $250, but don't come back again."
"I'll take this," was the reply, " and thank you, sir,
but I make no promises for the future. Good-morning,
sir." And with that swift downward grip of his he left
the railway man looking after him with covetous eyes.
It was a pity that such a man should be wasted on can-
vassing for Church funds.
CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND 191
Not often did the Superintendent suffer abuse, and
not always did he suffer in silence. During a canvass
in the city of Toronto a friend who had subscribed liber-
ally to his fund inquired, l i Why not call upon my friend
Mr. Blank? He is a Presbyterian and wealthy. He
ought to give you something. " He did not add that the
friend in question was notoriously and constitutionally
averse to subscription books of all kinds soever. In due
time the Superintendent tapped at this wealthy Presby-
terian's office door.
" Come in," called a gruff voice.
He opened the door and stood with a pleasant smile,
waiting an invitation to enter.
"Oh, I know you. You're after money for that God-
forsaken country of yours," was the almost fierce greeting
hurled at him over the desk. " Well, I tell you, you
needn't come in here." And without pause, the loyal
Presbyterian poured forth his indignation and contempt
upon the surprised canvasser and his cause. But he had
chosen the wrong man upon whom to vent his fury.
With growing wrath the Superintendent listened till the
man had quite exhausted his breath and his vocabulary,
then took a turn himself.
"Mr. Blank, I came to your office, sir, at the sug-
gestion of a friend of yours," he said in that vibrant
voice of his. ' 1 1 thought I was coming to see a gentleman.
I was mistaken. You didn't even offer me a seat. You
gave me no opportunity to tell my business, you have
heaped abuse upon me, but more than that, sir, you have
vilified the cause which is the cause of the Church of
which you profess to be a member, sir." And with
cold and merciless deliberation he proceeded to remove
the successive layers of pachydermatous tissue till he
had the man on the raw. Then he poured forth an array
of facts in regard to the country and the work he had in
192 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
hand, driving them home with that long, bony index
finger till the man was glad to get him out of his office
with a proper apology and a check for one hundred
dollars. Neither of them, however, saw the humour of
the situation till the following year when the Superintend-
ent was calling for his next annual installment.
When once a man whose conscience was normally active
allowed the Superintendent to get him at short range, the
result was almost always a subscription. On one of his
hasty tours through British Columbia he took the oppor-
tunity of calling upon a Provincial Cabinet Minister, a
gentleman of considerable wealth and devoted to the
Presbyterian Church. The Superintendent laid the
necessities of his cause before his sympathetic hearer
and was gratified to receive a prompt response. The Cab-
inet Minister drew forth his check -book and writing out
his check, handed it to his visitor. The Superintendent
glanced at the check without reply. It was drawn for
one hundred dollars.
" Well," said the subscriber with considerable surprise,
" is not that satisfactory ? "
" Hardly, from you, sir."
"Why, how much do you want ? "
"Just another nothing, sir," pointing to the last figure
on the check.
1 < What ! A thousand dollars f ' >
" A thousand dollars, sir," replied the Superintendent,
and sitting down, he drew his chair close to that of the
Cabinet Minister, leaned towards him and with his hand
upon his knee, went seriously at the business of revealing
to him his privilege in the matter. It took one hour's
talk, but as the Superintendent naively remarked, "It
was worth it. I got my thousand dollars ! "
The summary of what the fund had accomplished dur-
ing the first five years of its history is the most complete
CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND 193
justification of its existence. This summary is found
in a statement by the Superintendent accompanying the
Annual Eeport of the Board for the year 1887, and forms so
remarkable a paper that it should have a place in the
memory of all Presbyterians who love their Church and
of all Canadians who love their country. It is as
follows :
"The Church and Manse Building Fund was born of
necessity. For several years before the Northwest was
connected with the outside world by rail, settlers in con-
siderable numbers were coming in. Their numbers in-
creased as the prospects of a railway brightened. A
large proportion of the newcomers were Presbyterians.
Many of them were young, with characters unformed and
with religious convictions unsettled. Some were in quest
of homes, others of wealth. The wholesome restraints of
settled society were wanting. With the break-up of home
associations and the absence of restraint there lay the
danger of the religious instincts becoming enfeebled and
the sense of moral obligation blunted. If religious insti-
tutions were not planted among them and the teachings of
early life followed up, indifference, irreligion, and vice
were certain to become prevalent. The facts were laid
before the Church, and prompt and energetic action was
taken. Missionaries were appointed, and money voted
to support them.
" But no sooner did missionaries appear on the ground
than other difficulties presented themselves. There were
neither churches in which to hold services, nor houses to
shelter missionaries and their families. The Foreign
Mission Committee appropriates its money to erect
chapels, purchase bungalows, or procure health retreats.
The moneys of the Home Mission Committee can only be
voted to help to pay the salaries of missionaries.
"My first tour through our mission fields opened my
194: THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
eyes. Settlement was being rapidly effected, but for the
eight years between 1874 and 1882 only fifteen churches
had been erected. Schoolhouses were very few in
number, and when available the low seats and narrow
spacing proved rather trying to the long leg and longer
thigh of the athletic Manitobans. I shall say nothing of
the trials of female dress, with its projections and disten-
tions. Services were, consequently, held for the most
part in private houses, and as the ceiling was sometimes
low and formed of hay or sod, it seemed a blessing to be
short of stature. In summer, stables and stable lofts,
byres and granaries, were fitted up ; but the crowing,
clucking and cackling of irreverent poultry, the barking
of dogs, or the gambols of cattle, were too trying to the
risibilities of the young ; and odours more pungent than
pleasant gave the sensitive nostril or the refractory
stomach an excuse to rebel.
" Railway stations and section houses, unfinished stores
and dwelling-houses, private and public halls were ex-
temporized into churches wherever available ; but the rent
of halls frequently left little of the revenue to be applied
on salary, as such halls were built 'on spec, 7 and sup-
posed to pay themselves in three years. Hotel parlours
and dining-rooms, billiard and bar-rooms were secured,
but only occasionally. It was feared by the owner that
the service might interfere with the legitimate trade of the
place. I have preached in the front of a house when
the proprietor was selling whiskey in the rear, but I had
the satisfaction of knowing that he was fined $200 and
sent six months to jail. Ludicrous incidents could be
given and laughable stories told. But missionaries com-
pelled to labour in this way felt as if they laboured in
vain and spent their strength for naught.
" The need of manses was greater still. Missionaries
could get houses to rent at only a few points, and twenty
CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND 195
dollars per month was asked for very inferior accommoda-
tion. When it is borne in mind that the salary was only
eight hundred dollars, it will be seen that it was impossible
for a minister to engage a house at such a figure. I have
visited delicate, refined women and cultured ministers in
houses scarcely fit to shelter cattle. Dr. Guthrie, in ap-
pealing to Scottish audiences for money with which to
build manses for Free Church ministers, pointed his ap-
peals with instances of heroic suffering. Cases of greater
hardships could be cited in the history of missions in
Manitoba. Disappointment, sickness, and diminished
power for work followed. Men lost their ' spring '
their energy, and the work languished. An effort was
made to reach the ear of the East, but a wilderness lay be-
tween, and Eastern pastors were busy with their own work.
" But why did not the people build t They could not.
Many of them were poor financial depression drove
them from the homes of their youth. For the first few
years it was all outgo and no income with them. Build-
ing timber could not be had but at a few points ; lumber
and hardware were dear. Something had to be done to
encourage, to stimulate, else the work would fail. Such
were the circumstances that called the fund into exist-
ence, and similar circumstances created funds in the
American churches.
" The effect of the fund on the work of the Church has
been unmistakable. It has given visibility to Presby-
terianism. There is not a village or town of any impor-
tance between Lake Superior and the Eocky Mountains
that is not provided with a church, and many of the
buildings are creditable structures. Eat Portage, Car-
berry, Brandon, Oak Lake, Yirden, Whitewood, Mooso-
min, Wolseley, Grenfell, Indian Head, Qu'Appelle, Ee-
gina, Moosejaw, Medicine Hat, and Calgary, on the main
line of the C. P. E. ; Gladstone, Neepawa, Minnedosa, Eapid
196 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
City, Strathclair, Shoal Lake, and Birtle, on the Manitoba
and North- Western Railway; Morden, Manitou, Pilot
Mound and Boissevain, on the Pembina Mountain Rail-
way, not to speak of Lethbridge and McLeod, Edmonton,
Battleford, Fort Saskatchewan, Carman, Fort Qu'Appelle
and the rest, all owe their churches to this fund. Dur-
ing the last five years eighty-two churches, four church
manses and seventeen manses have been built, or one
hundred and three structures in all, and of these ninety -
four were assisted from the Church and Manse Fund.
For the eight years prior to the existence of the fund
only fifteen churches and manses were built, or not quite
an average of two, while since the existence of the fund
the average has been nearly twenty-one a year.
" The possession of a church has increased the audience,
and widened the sphere for the ministers' usefulness.
Jones would not attend services held in Brown's house,
and Brown honestly paid Jones back ; both attend serv-
ices in the church.
" A church affords facilities for the prosecution of Sab-
bath-school work. In a country where religious training
is too often neglected at home, the Sabbath-school is
scarcely less important than the public service. The at-
tendance at the Sabbath-schools has increased nearly ten-
fold since the fund was organized.
" Churches have increased attendance on public service
and swelled the revenues of congregations. Until Port
Arthur had a church it received $300 from the Home
Mission Fund ; with the dedication of its church the con-
gregation became self-sustaining. The contributions of
Edmonton went up from $300 to $700, and those of Rat
Portage from $550 to $1,000. Calgary became self-sus-
taining in three years, and now gives its pastor $1,200
per annum. Regina, Boissevain, Virden, Qu'Appelle,
Oak Lake, and other centres experienced similar benefits.
CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND 197
1 1 The increase in congregational contributions has en-
abled the Church to extend her operations. The money
saved in older districts has been available for work in
new fields. If to-day there is no settlement of any size
or a centre of any promise where a missionary of the
Church is not ministering to the religious wants of the
people, it is to a considerable extent due to the operations
of the Church and Manse Board. The fund has been a
valuable aid in church extension.
"It has saved money directly to missionaries and the
funds of the Church. Seventeen manses have been al-
ready erected. At an average rental of $15 per month,
an annual saving of $3,060 is effected. This sum capital-
ized at eight per cent., the ruling rate of bank interest,
would amount to $38,250, or four-fifths of the total
amount expended by the Board. Wherever the minister
of an augmented congregation is provided with a manse,
he receives $50 less from the Augmentation Fund.
These manses have contributed to the comfort of our
missionaries, and so removed the reproach of neglect on
the part of the Church. It has increased their power to
help young people, and so to weld the congregation into
a compact whole.
"The timely aid extended has cheered the hearts of
missionaries and people ; it has helped to make the Church
one and keep the West closely attached to the East. In
their times of political disintegration this is a national
blessing.
" With all that has been done, the work of the Board
is only beginning. New fields in considerable numbers
are being occupied every year. Four-fifths of the minis-
ters are without manses, and three-fourths of the points
occupied are without churches.
* l During last summer several contributors to the fund,
from Toronto, Montreal, and other centres, visited the
198 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
country. They expressed themselves much pleased with
the work of the Board, and they have increased their
former contributions. Their cordial approval influenced
their acquaintances to help the work."
And so from year to year this fund will continue to
be a source of blessing to both congregations and mission-
aries and a mighty influence in the establishing of true
religion in the hearts and lives of the people of Western
Canada. Long years afterwards, in the last report which
he will submit to his Church, this significant record of
nineteen years' work will find a place :
"It is nearly nineteen .years since the Board was or-
ganized ; at that time the Presbyterian Church owned
only eighteen churches and three manses between Lake
Superior and the Pacific Coast. During these nineteen
years, the Board has aided in erecting 393 churches,
eighty -two manses, and three schoolhouses to be used as
churches, or 478 buildings in all, worth about $574,000."
A year later, the report will open with this pathetic
word :
"The report this year is drawn by a new hand. The
hand that for the last twenty years prepared the annual
statement of the work done by the Church and Manse
Board is still, alas, forever." And then the report will
proceed to give this magnificent summary of twenty
years' work : "It would be impossible to estimate the
value of the aid given by the fund to our whole work
by the erection of church buildings during the last twenty
years. This fund has assisted in the erection of 419
churches, ninety manses, and four schoolhouses, and has
put the Church in possession of property worth $603,835 ;
but the value to the Church in Western Canada cannot
be estimated in dollars and cents. The equipment in
churches and manses is the least of the advantages that
have come to the Church by means of this fund."
CHUKCH AND MANSE BUILDING FUND 199
It is largely due to the influence of the Christian
Church that in no part of Western Canada has there ever
been a "wild West" in the American sense of that
word, and of that part of the credit due to the Presby-
terian Church for this, a large share must be ascribed to
the operation of this Church and Manse Building Fund,
which has helped to give " visibility and permanence "
to religion in nearly 500 settlements widely scattered
throughout Western Canada. In this connection, a para-
graph in the London Times of August 18th, 1904, refer-
ring to the proposed visit of the Archbishop of Canter-
bury to Canada, makes good reading :
"Informal consultations with such Canadian bishops
as the Archbishop can find an opportunity to meet on
their own ground cannot but be an advantage for the
future development of their work. He will get far enough
West to realize that prompt pioneer work in the interests
of the Anglican Church is essential, but he will under-
stand the urgency of such work and will admire the en-
terprise of his fellow Scots, who are planting the Presby-
terian ministry all over the remote West."
And in that planting the master hand was his to whose
seeing eye the possibilities of harvest were so vividly
evident, and to whose genius was due that splendid in-
strument of spiritual garnering, the Church and Manse
Building Fund.
XXIII
FIVE GREAT YEARS I
THE year 1881 will be remembered by Western
Canadians as long as an old timer survives to
recount the wild tales of those wild days. The
country was possessed of a spirit of adventure. Land
fever, the germs of which lie in every human heart, had
smitten the peoples into whose ears had come the rumour
of the wheat lands of Western Canada. For three years,
ever since the railway had made the West easily accessi-
ble, this rumour had spread till in the townships of
Eastern Canada the sturdy farmer and his sons had
caught a vision of wide stretches of waving wheat reach-
ing to the horizon, and, selling their narrow fields, they
had "struck" the Western trail. Into the remote and
secluded hamlets of the home countries, too, across the
sea, this rumour of land had made its way, and falling
upon the ears of the land-hungry among these sorely be-
taxed and be-feud folk, had set a fever burning in their
bones till they sold all and sailed for the far away West.
And, small wonder, for here was land, rich and deep and
free to all who cared to "take it up, 77 land without feu or
rental, with no shadow of overlord or factor or rent-
racker to fall across it, land free as God's free air. No
wonder the peoples went mad. But, alas ! out of this
fever greed would make gain, for however land may be
free from the hand of God, by man's hand are burdens
soon laid upon it. Hence, men began traffic in land,
till for the poor man none was available but such as lay
far from civilization.
200
FIVE GREAT YEARS I 201
And so west and south and north the land-seekers
thronged the back trails, disappearing over the riin of
the prairie and forgotten but not by all. Fathers and
mothers could not forget their sons, and the great mother
Church, too, remembered her children with longing, and
with a sense of responsibility more or less deep. Hence,
the Superintendent of Western Missions.
His was even then a field of ''magnificent distances. "
For though the settlements lay for the most part within
a radius of two hundred miles from Winnipeg, from the
far hinterland there came tales of little settlements and
lonely homesteaders beyond touch of their Church, and
now and then a cry from some distant outpost for help, as
from far-off Edmonton, nine hundred miles away. None
too soon had the Manitoba Presbytery overtured the
Venerable the General Assembly for a man to be given
the task of finding out and of caring for these lonely set-
tlers, and none too soon that august body, charged with
the spiritual shepherding of nearly a thousand families
that were known to be strewn far and wide over a thou-
sand miles of prairie, had, set apart a man to be eyes and
ears and hands to the Church on behalf of these her far-
strewn children, who, in their hunger for land and treas-
ure, were sorely tempted to forget that better country and
the treasure that will not pass away. But to find them
out and to bring them under the Church's care was a task
which seemed to the Committee in Toronto almost beyond
their resources to accomplish. The treasury was empty,
labourers could not be had, and the Church as a whole was
all but indifferent, because only vaguely aware of the facts.
To this as a first duty, therefore, the new Superintend-
ent set himself, to get to know the facts himself, and then
to get his Church to know them. For he had this faith,
that having clear knowledge of these facts, at once terri-
ble and inspiring, the Church could not rest indifferent
202 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
to them. And throughout the whole course of his super-
intendency this twofold duty he kept steadily in mind and
ever strove to fulfill, to know the facts and to make his
Church know them.
Given a work to do, the Superintendent was not the
man to delay its doing. And so, in less than a week
after he has entered upon his office, we find him on the
trail. On the 24th of July of this year, 1881, the Presby-
tery dissolved the tie that bound him to Knox Church,
and on July 29th we have him writing to his wife from
Dominion City : "I am making my first official visit as
Superintendent of Missions to this place to-day." Do-
minion City is in a tangle and is discouraged, and it is
significant of all his future service that his first bit of
work is to compose difficulties and to cheer on the dis-
couraged. From Dominion City he proceeds to Morris,
where he conducts service on the Sabbath day, returning
to Winnipeg the day after. " I do not know what course
I shall take after that," he writes. a I am now inclined
to visit the Little Saskatchewan country first. Things
are in a bad state there, I fear. 7 ' It will always be so.
Where things are in a bad state, there will this Superin-
tendent be found.
He decides that his first missionary tour shall be in the
Little Saskatchewan country, but before he leaves the
city there is a difficulty to be met which concerns his fel-
low-workers in^the West. Their fields have fallen into
arrears of salary till there is due the somewhat serious
amount of $1,789.67. With the Convener of the Assem-
bly's Home Mission Committee upon the spot, the moment
is favourable for settlement, and so a conference is held,
and it is agreed that the missionaries shall lose $568.00,
the Manitoba Presbytery shall raise $761.67, and the re-
maining $500 the Convener undertakes on behalf of the
Eastern Committee. So, in the month of August, with
FIVE GREAT YEARS I 203
the slate clean, the Superintendent with his new horse
and backboard, into which he packs his new tent and
cainp outfit, sets off for the Little Saskatchewan country.
The 20th of August finds him in Brandon, from which
he writes to his wife :
" MY DEAR WIFE :
" By the heading of this you will see that I have
reached the city of Brandon at last. My last to you was,
I think (I am passing so quickly, though, I almost for-
get), from Milford. I went up to Lang's Valley and ar-
ranged for service there, and finding I could not cross
the Souris without some risk, I concluded to return to
Milford and cross by the ferry. I then came to Mair's
Landing and stayed there all night. Yesterday morn-
ing I struck out for the Brandon Hills, about eleven miles
out, and called at Killam's. After finding out all the
Presbyterians in that neighbourhood, I came over to
Bertram's, about two miles, and had the horse fed and
got dinner for myself. It was raining some, but not
much. I started away and called at Mr. Chapman's.
They were busy shocking up some wheat. Moving on, I
called at one house and found three women ; explained to
them the object of my visit and inquired as to the pos-
sible injury R might do us in the course he has
chosen to adopt." R is a disgruntled missionary
who, being unequal to the task of shepherding the flock,
determines to have his rightful share of the fleece as com-
pensation ; a natural enough desire, but one wholly re-
pellent to the soul of the Superintendent and disastrous
to the work he has in hand. "I found his influence is
little. He has disgusted many by his selfish and secular
course. I found, moreover, that the Nova Scotians who
came over with him to the south side of the Assiniboine
are few in number. Proceeding on my way, I came to
204 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
his house, and they asked me to stay to tea. I accepted
the offer and left soon after. I ascertained from him that
there were several Presbyterians to the west and north of
the Brandon Hills. Got the names of all he knew. Got
him to give me a statement of his claim for expenses. It
is rather flimsy, but it is better paid. He got $150 from
the people, and claims $300 more for expenses.
* ' After leaving his house, went on my way to Brandon
after dark, and a dark, murky, rainy night it was. Had
to cross about four hundred acres of breaking. When I
got there, went with my horse to a stable and had him
looked after. Went up to Mrs. Douglas' house and found
that she could not accommodate me. Concluded to tent.
Her young fellows offered to help me to pitch tent and
get hay. Got to work and soon had things snug and
comfortable, and was soon asleep. This morning I got up
betimes and looked out foggy it all looked and a heavy
odour of skunk was in the air. Got breakfast and found
horse all right. Stay here to-morrow and go to Grand
Valley and Boggy Creek. Am in excellent health and
enjoy trip very much."
Thus filling his note-book with statistics of all kinds,
he pursues his way, going still north and west, every-
where discovering lost and strayed sheep of the Presby-
terian fold, and everywhere leaving behind him some-
thing in the way of organization for their shepherding
and much good hope and comfort. A letter, dated four
days later, finds him still further north and west of Bran-
don. Having left Rapid City behind him, he writes as
follows :
"You see I have made another stage in my tour. I
sent you a letter from Brandon in the morning. The at-
tendance at Brandon was about sixty. The service was
held in an unfinished house. In the afternoon, I preached
at Grand Valley, about three miles down the river. The
FIVE GREAT YEARS I 205
building was a rude shanty. The gaps between the
boards were large and the place was airy. There was no
floor, not even a door, except a board nailed across to
keep cattle out. Birds had come in freely during the week
evidently, and left traces of their presence on the desk.
'There was an attendance of about sixty-five. At the close
of the service in both places I explained to the peo-
ple the state of our Mission fund and got committee ap-
pointed and to work. Got back to Brandon by dusk and
found about seventy teams crossing the ferry from the
north to the south side of the Assiniboine loaded with
railroad plant and oats. It is too bad that there should be
such utter disregard of the Sabbath and its claims.
" Was in time to hear part of a sermon from Professor
Burwash of Victoria University, Cobourg. Went out on
Monday to Elton, about twelve or thirteen miles, to a
station of Mr. Hyde's. Quite a number assembled there
and I preached and organized committees and gave direc-
tions. I returned home and went to call on a minister, Mr.
F , who is settled at Grand Valley, but who does not
come to church. I found him at home, but his residence
was rude and uncomfortable. He had some men harvest-
ing for him and a neighbour woman cooking. The place
was very uninviting. Had a long talk with him and a
service with him and men, and found that he made the ex-
cuse of poverty the plea for non-attendance on ordinances.
" Drove to Brandon, and, after putting horse away,
went through the town to find out who lived in it. No-
body appears to know anybody else there. They speak
to each other, but do not know each other's names.
Went to one store and found a man taking in some goods
that had been exposed all day at the door. I asked whose
store it was, thinking him a clerk. He scratched his
head and said, ' Well, I don't know what his name is.
We call him Johnny.'
206 THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
1 i Next morning did the rest of Brandon and found out
who the Presbyterians are. Gave a list to Mr. Ferries
and told him to visit them all and any others coming in.
It will never do to have him stationed out so far. If he
is to be minister there he must reside in the town." Mr.
Ferries is, doubtless, on a homestead, seeking to establish
for himself and his family a home, a laudable enough
idea, but inconsistent with the best results for " the
Cause, " hence the Superintendent will have him change
his base. The Cause is first ; all else, however worthy, is
second. "Took steps also for a place in which to wor-
ship all winter. Nobody there has any means, and all
are too busy with their own affairs to do anything except
they are urged. Mr. F has not the confidence either.
Fear I must return in a short time there. Nothing was
done in either place for winter supply. Left Brandon
and travelled to Eapid City, twenty or twenty -five
miles. Left there to come to Mr. Smith's."
At this point he is upon the borderland of civilization,
but still he presses his way into the then unknown terri-
tory, till he reaches the Hudson's Bay Company's post at
Fort Ellis, from which he writes the following note to his
wife :
" I arrived here last evening at sunset and held service
with the men at the Fort. Mr. McDonald is absent at
Grand Valley. Mrs. McDonald did much to make me
comfortable. Mr. Hodnett came up with me. He goes
back this morning, and I go alone to Shell Eiver, thirty-
five miles distant. There is a good trail, the day is fine,
and I have no fear. There was frost here last night, the
first of the season. The sceneiy here is very fine. Next
year I must bring you West here to see snatches of
scenery that have pleased me much. The country here
differs much from what we have in Eastern Manitoba."
By September 27th he is on his return journey, work-
FIVE GREAT YEARS I 207
ing his way back towards Winnipeg where he has to meet
his Presbytery with his Report. Arriving at Gladstone,
he writes to his wife as follows, anxious to keep in touch
with her as best as he can :
"You see I am coming nearer the borders of civiliza-
tion. I am now within forty miles or so of the cars, and
that distance can be travelled in a day.
" I left Salisbury on the morning of yesterday and
drove to the Beautiful Plains country. For a time the
land looked well, although it is somewhat light.
"We reached McGregor Station about three o'clock,
and saw quite a number of people about the door. The
house was full of very respectable people and I found
that there were eight children to be baptized. After
service we discussed Church matters and had fifty or sixty
dollars subscribed on the spot for Mr. Stewart's salary.
The McGregors are from near our place and knew my
father's people. Stayed all night. I knew we should be
among the beasts at Ephesus at night, but I was resigned.
They were all very kind not the beasts but one could
see at once that the whole place must be full of ."
This was a condition of things almost universally preva-
lent at that time in stopping places throughout the West,
and one it was almost impossible to prevent, but none the
less trying for that. Many a night will he be driven
from his bed before < i the beasts ' ' have done with him.
"Such were my thoughts, and I was not disappointed.
My arms and neck had plenty of pink marks with a dark
spot in the centre as I washed myself this morning. This
morning they took us out after breakfast to see the
garden, and it was a fine sight.
" Made a number of calls this afternoon. To-morrow
(D. V.) we go to Blake township, northwest of Gladstone.
To-morrow evening there is a tea meeting when they ex-
pect to pay off the debt on the church. Friday we go to
208 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Pine Creek and Saturday we have a meeting here. Sab-
bath I preach here in the morning, at Woodside in the
afternoon and Westbourne in the evening. Next morn-
ing I drive to Portage la Prairie and reach Winnipeg
that night. The meeting of Presbytery is the following
Wednesday and I must prepare my report of work done
and get ready for the meeting in Toronto. I intend to
come back to Burnside and preach on October 8th, and
see the stations under Mr. McRae's charge. This will
occupy my time for two days or so. I intend to leave
for Toronto about Thursday of that week and will try
and reach you Saturday, so as to spend Sabbath and Mon-
day there. I am trying to arrange ahead, although it is
not easy. I ought to return in time to visit stations south
of the Assiniboine before winter."
In this whirlwind manner, preaching, visiting, organ-
izing, crowding his days and his nights full of work, he
brings to a close his first missionary tour, having driven
his buckboard over 2,000 miles and having conducted
nearly 200 meetings of various .kinds.
He brought back with him a great wealth of knowledge,
exact, and in detail, concerning every village, every set-
tlement and, indeed, every homestead he had visited.
The country and its resources, the people, their ancestry,
their characteristics, their prospects, their difficulties, too,
and their needs, the progress of railway building, the ad-
ministration of Government, the undeveloped wealth of
the country, the educational requirements, on these and
other subjects relative to the country and its people, he
had gathered interesting, full and accurate information.
Into his little black note-book, but still more into his
tenacious memory, he had packed this knowledge, and
all of it he will use some day, for the good of his people
and for the glory of God.
On the llth of October the Assembly's Home Mission
FIVE GREAT YEARS I 209
Committee met in Toronto, and to this Committee the
Superintendent presented his first report. That was a
distinguished Committee, and it was not without trepida-
tion he met them. He was new to the work and there
were great men on that Committee, some of the greatest the
Canadian Church has known, among them leaders like
Cochraue, King, Warden, Macdonnell, Laing, Taylor.
No wonder he is conscious of some tremors. But the
day will come when he will stand the peer of any of them.
Modestly he presents his report, making light of his la-
bours, but making much of the needs of the people he
represents, and of the opportunities the field offers. The
report is received and considered, and, doubtless, is
adopted, though of this there is no record. Nor is
there mention of a single word of appreciation by this
Committee of the work done by the new Superintendent.
But there is demand made of him by this financially ex-
acting and painstaking Committee for a report as to the
expenditure of a thousand dollars granted the spring be-
fore for exploratory work. This, happily, the Superin-
tendent can give, but only in the merest outline. The Com-
mittee, however, with a conscience for trust funds will have
no outline report in the matter of expenditure of money.
So, with the thanks of his Committee, or without them,
the record does not say, but with their demand that he
should account rigidly for that thousand dollars, he goes
back again to his work, and December finds him again on
the trail in Southern Manitoba, where, in company with
the newly appointed missionary of Pilot Mound, the Rev.
James Farquharson, a man truly after his own heart, he
drives over a large section of that country. The follow-
ing extract from a letter written long afterwards by
Dr. Farquharson gives a vivid picture of some of their
experiences on that trip :
"Dr. Robertson came to my place December, 1881.
210 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
He visited the stations now organized as Pilot Mound,
Crystal City, LaRiviere, and Snowflake. Preaching on
the Sabbath at Preston and Pilot Mound, on Monday he
held a meeting at Clearwater to see what would be done
towards calling a minister. After dinner we started for
Cartwright, sixteen miles west.
"I stayed in a shack, the Doctor visiting two families.
He came back that night, not having received an invita-
tion to remain at either place he visited over night.
We passed a night never to be forgotten by either of us.
"Next morning we went to Mr. LaRiviere' s at Turtle
Mountain, a distance of thirty miles, over a bleak prairie.
The Doctor preached there and left an appointment for
organization on our return. Mr. LaRiviere had treated
us with very great kindness. He was a French Canadian.
The next morning we drove along the base of the moun-
tains sixteen miles, and had dinner at Mr. Miller's. Left
an appointment for our return ; continued west sixteen
miles to Mr. Newcome's and stayed over night, preached
and organized there, and baptized some children. Kindly
treated by Mr. Newcome, who was Dominion Land Agent.
" Returned for the night to Mr. Miller's. The Doctor
preached, organized, and baptized. We took a list of
members of the Episcopalian and Methodists to present
to their own Churches." He is frankly and very keenly
a Presbyterian, but he is a gentleman as well, and a
Christian, and on his record there is no stain by reason
of failure in the Christian courtesy that refuses to take
advantage of a sister Church. " Were very kindly
treated. Returned to Mr. LaRiviere' s, preached, organ-
ized, and remained over night. It was pleasant to see
how he would get the confidence of the people. He
was simply Mr. Robertson, one of themselves.
' l We broke our cutter, and had to buy a jumper from the
half-breeds. We fastened the cutter on top of the jumper,
FIVE GREAT YEARS I 211
and the next morning drove to my place, a distance of
fifty miles.
" It was on that tour that Dr. Robertson decided that
the number of children for a school should be changed
from fourteen to eight. Owing to the amount of railroad
land, the country was very thinly settled. As he ex-
pressed it we must meet the educational needs of the
children, or the next generation will grow up in igno-
rance. At the first meeting of the School Board in Win-
nipeg he brought the matter up and had the number
changed from fourteen to eight scholars for a school.
" I have heard Dr. Robertson tell how the vermin he
carried with him after that night at Cartwright became
so intolerable that when he reached LaRiviere's little
store at what is now Wakopa, he bought a suit of under-
clothing. When he asked for the clothing, LaRiviere
said, 'What? Did you sleep at the Badger? 7 (The
early name for Cartwright.)' 7
A little later the tour of this part of Manitoba was
completed, of which Dr. Farquharson writes as follows :
" Again I accompanied him on a tour of visitation for
four or five days. He usually addressed two meetings a
day, and always one, and drove from ten to twenty miles.
We had expected that the meeting on the Friday evening
would close the week's work, so that each of us might
return to our place of preaching for the Sabbath ; but at
the close of the Friday evening meeting we learned .that
there was a settlement about twelve miles further on,
composed largely of Presbyterians, in which there was no
service. Immediately our plans were changed, so that
Saturday could be spent in the new settlement. That
night was spent in <a stopping place,' and Dr. Robertson
and I roomed together in a small bedroom off the sitting-
room. We roomed together, but we slept not, neither
did we lie down to rest. A hurried inspection revealed
212 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
the fact that the bed was preempted by the living pest
which a man shakes not off, as in the morning he crawls
from under the bedclothing. We determined to keep
the fire in the sitting-room going, and so maintain a
degree of comfort during the winter night. But some
parties, by making a bed beside the sitting-room stove,
spoiled our plan and imprisoned us in our room for the
night. We walked the floor, we jumped, and, if not
very artistically, at least with some vigour, we danced,
that the temperature of the body might be maintained at
a considerably higher rate than the temperature of the
room. The night passed, and so did the breakfast hour,
and we started on our twelve- mile drive.
" On arriving at the centre of the settlement, a house
for the evening meeting was very cordially placed at
our disposal, and we started to drive round the settle-
ment for the purpose of inviting the people to the meet-
ing. Returning, we had supper and awaited the arrival
of the congregation.
"In a small dwelling-house with low ceiling, some
twenty settlers gathered for the service. What is there
in such a meeting place or in such a company to arouse
the enthusiasm of the preacher? There would have
been nothing surprising if the languor incident to a
week of such work and a sleepless night had robbed the
address of every particle of life. Yet Dr. Robertson
spoke with all the vigour of the man who steps out from
his comfortable study to an equally comfortable church
and a congregation capable of inspiring enthusiasm for
the one service of the day. That night another station
was added to Manitoba's rapidly growing list of preach-
ing stations.
" Early next morning we parted, Dr. Robertson to go
west and I east. He would travel at least forty miles
that day, probably more."
FIVE GREAT YEARS I 213
Nothing appeared to tire him, so, at least, we thought
at that time. We found later that the eager, invincible
spirit was chafing thin even that sinewy body.
So the winter months find him still on the trail, heed-
less of frost or blizzard, till the holiday season is upon
him, and he writes this touching Christmas letter dated
December 26th from Winnipeg, Man.
"MY DEAR WIFE :
u It is nearly four in the morning and I have not
gone to bed yet. I am going west to-morrow, or rather
to-day, as far as Big Plains, and I am getting things into
shape. I have been writing all day and have just got
through. Xmas was a quiet day with me this year. Many
a time during the day I wondered what you were all
doing. I would have given a good deal to have been
with you. What did my poor children get for presents
this year, and mamma? I could not get anything
through the post of any account, and I concluded to get
my presents when I went down. How I would have
liked to see their pleasant glee and to hear their noises
in the morning. But I must do without, this year. I
went into several stores on Saturday and envied the folks
buying for their children. But after this year I trust to
be with you at Xmas. Mr. Hart invited Thomson and
myself for midday dinner. We had a swell affair,
though no plum pudding. A special dinner was served
at the Queens at night. I send you the bill of fare. The
place was hung with Chinese lanterns and everything
was most tastefully arranged. The waiting, as usual,
was abominable, and the dinner was spoiled. The folks
succeeded in getting well drunk. I got away after the
eating was done. I thought I saw some women who
were a little funny after the affair. ... I am try-
ing to get up a church building scheme. I enclose a
214: THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
circular so that you can see what it is. It is necessary
that something be done. I am promised some aid here,
and after canvassing the city I will see what can be done
below.
"Knox Church is talking about selling the Church
again. They want $100,000, for it. Should they get it
I want them to head the list with $10,000."
Christmas is a great family festival with the Robert-
sons, but this Christmas is to the father and mother, at
least, one of the sad days of the year, for on that day of
all days the fact of separation is borne in upon them most
heavily. " After this year I trust to be with you at
Christmas." How little they knew, and how good they
did not know, that once and once only during nineteen
years will he eat Christmas dinner with his family.
Every year he plans to get home, and every year duty
imperatively forbids his indulging his desire. So a letter,
and always a telegram, will need to bring the Christmas
greetings to wife and children year after year.
Early in March he is touring the East in the interests
of the Church and Manse Building Fund, in which busi-
ness he will persist till the meeting of the General As-
sembly. To that Assembly he presents his first report
as Superintendent of Missions. That report goes far to
settle the mind of the Church as to the wisdom of its ac-
tion in making appointment of a Superintendent of Mis-
sions. The report does more. It impresses upon the
Church the fact that henceforth, and for some years, there
must be serious reckoning with the mission field lying
beyond the Lakes. There is something doing in that
country, and the Church would do well to take heed
thereof. Those buckboard journeys of the Superintend-
ent have been productive of valuable discoveries, 1,000
families, for instance, 900 Presbyterian young men and
young women, mostly young men, 900 members in full
FIVE GREAT YEARS I 216
communion, all of whom, till the Superintendent found
them, had escaped the observation of the Church. More
than this, the report awakened suspicion that there were
still many undiscovered in the byways of the new land.
But something had been accomplished for the shepherd-
ing of these. No fewer than forty new stations had been
planted upon the prairie, and fourteen new congregations
had been settled, while, to use his own great phrase,
"visibility and permanence" had been given to the
cause by the erection of ten new churches. Further, the
report makes evident that the appointment of a Superin-
tendent has been financially justified, for by reason of
organization and good management there has accrued to
the coffers of the Church a gain of $26,000 over last year,
and for the Home Mission Fund alone an increase of more
than what will pay the Superintendent's salary.
In that first report we catch two notes that presage a
policy in mission and educational administration fraught
with large advantage to the West. One, the warning
that the abandoning of mission fields during the winter
season means serious loss to the Church ; the other, the
suggestion that for the adequate supply of missionaries
for the West there must one day be a Western Theological
College. In this warning and in this suggestion we have
the germs of the Summer Session, and of the Theological
Department of Manitoba College.
But wonderful as had been the development of the
country and the expansion of Home Mission operations
during the year 1881-1882, when the Superintendent met
the General Assembly of 1883 he had a story to tell that
made that venerable body sit wide awake. This report
for 1883 is perhaps in some senses the greatest paper ever
presented to the Presbyterian Church in Canada. It is a
striking presentation of startling and inspiring facts and
is a masterpiece of logical and incisive reasoning, and it
216 THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
is worthy of a permanent place in the story of the making
of Western Canada. It is the statement, not of a church-
man alone interested in the progress of his peculiar de-
nomination. True, he is an official of the Presbyterian
Church, but he is more ; he is a Canadian, loyal, devoted
to his country's good, and enthusiastically optimistic for
the West and pledged to its development. He is a states-
man with a statesman's eye for strategic moments in the
national life. He is a man of affairs with instincts for
financial returns. But, more than all, he is a man with
human sympathies, keenly alive to the trials and struggles
of men and women fighting their long lonely fight as
pioneers in a new land. The report is worth reading.
Here, for instance, is a picture of the West striding on
to greatness :
"Last year witnessed a greater advance in the work of
our Church in the Northwest than any previous year
in its history. The construction of the Canadian Pacific
Railway has given a great impetus to settlement. Large
numbers of men find employment in building the road
and in procuring ties and timber. The railway affords
to settlers a quick and easy method of reaching the fertile
lands of the interior, and provides a market for the prod-
ucts of the soil. The Government Railway and Land
Companies have also succeeded in directing a considerable
portion of the stream of emigration, from Great Britain
and the continent of Europe, to the Northwest. Few are
aware of how rapidly the country is being settled. Nearly
450 miles of the main line were graded and ironed last
season. For 300 miles west of Brandon the road lies
through a continuous stretch of good agricultural land.
For twelve or fifteen miles on both sides of the line the
even numbered sections have been preempted, or entered
as homesteads. The railway company, owing to its lib-
eral terms, has also disposed of a good deal of its land
FIVE GREAT YEARS I 217
contiguous to the line. Large settlements are also found
along the left bank of the Qu' Appelle and the right bank
of the South Saskatchewan. Southwestern Manitoba has
attracted a large number of immigrants, and they have
passed westward over the boundary line into the new
Province of Assiniboia. For 125 miles west of the Turtle
Mountain there is now a continuous settlement. It would
be within the mark to say that between eighty and one
hundred townships, of thirty -six square miles each, were
settled in this quarter alone during the year. In other
words, there were two belts settled last season, the one
along the railway west of Brandon, about 300 miles in
length (as far as from Toronto to Montreal), and from
twenty-five to fifty in width ; and the other in South-
western Manitoba, 125 miles in length, and from eighteen
to twenty-five miles wide."
And who in all Canada was aware of all this taking
place ? And who would look for such facts in a Church
report I The report proceeds : ' ' Much land in the
eastern parts of the country, which had been passed over
by the fastidious settlers of a few years ago, was also
taken up. Settlement is also stretching northward, from
Fort Qu' Appelle towards Prince Albert, a number of
families having found a home last year in the neighbour-
hood of the Touchwood Hills. Along the railway, towns
and villages are fast springing up, which will soon be-
come important centres of trade. Two years ago, in
Brandon there was not a house ; now there is a town of
4,000 souls. Steps are taken everywhere to effect munici-
pal organization, and to provide schools and the other
requisites of civilized life."
He can speak with authority, for well does he know
every municipality. He has driven through them all in
his buckboard or cutter. Then like a knife-thrust he
pierces the conscience of his Church with this pertinent
218 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
question, "What is to be done for the spiritual welfare
of such centres'?" That question he will continue to
press, now in one form and now in another, till the
Church will take heed. Then, remembering he is ad-
dressing himself especially to Presbyterians, he gives
them this as food for thought :
"The volume of immigration last season was estimated
at between 45,000 and 50,000. As in the past, the new-
comers were largely members and adherents of our own
Church. The arrivals from England and Scotland were
more numerous than in any previous year. They express
themselves as pleased with the country and their pros-
pects, and are inviting their relatives and acquaintances
to join them. Through the influence of our present
population we may confidently expect that for years to
come immigration from Ontario and Britain will be
largely of the religious complexion of past years. The
Presbyterian Church, therefore, should regard as settled
the fact that upon her falls largely the responsibility of
giving the Gospel to this incoming population."
" Responsibility," that is the word for a Church with a
conscience towards God in regard to the country in which
by His eternal decree she finds herself placed. She has
been attempting to meet this responsibility, and with
some success. But the report goes on : " Only occa-
sional supply could be given west of Brandon during the
autumn and winter. There were nearly 400 townships in
which were to be found thousands of Presbyterians to
whom no minister of our Church broke the Bread of Life.
During the last six months there were extensive districts
in which no minister of any Church conducted religious
services." And then follows this pregnant word : "If
Christian effort is thus stinted in the infancy of the coun-
try, permanent injury will be inflicted."
The problem of mission work in the West is, in the last
FIVE GREAT YEARS I 219
analysis, a problem of men. Given a sufficient number
of missionaries and of the right stamp, and the highest
interests of the country will be secure. But not every
man will do. So the Superintendent has discovered.
"The minister that will attract and hold these people
must commend himself to them as a man and a Christian.
With them the office and denomination will avail little ;
but personal character and pulpit-power much. The lame
in intellect, or the limping in education, will have a thin
audience. 77 Good men they must be, but they must be
well cared for. Hence salaries must be adequate and
homes provided. " No Church can afford to starve its
pioneers. 77 But though the supply of labourers has been
wofully inadequate, the progress of the work has not
been inconsiderable. Whereas in 1882 there was reported
a gain of. forty stations, this year the gain is fifty-one,
and fourteen congregations have erected church build-
ings.
The Superintendent always has an eye to the hard-
headed Scots that form the majority of the business men
of his Church, and to whom he well knows he must look
for the financial support of this great work, and, there-
fore, he is at pains to make it clear that this Home Mis-
sion business is a paying investment. And hence, the re-
port calls attention to the fact that there has been a gain
throughout the Presbytery in contributions for the sup-
port of the ministry of over $12,000, in contributions for
the schemes of the Church, a gain of nearly $2,500 and for
all purposes a gain of nearly $40,000. This astonishing
result will be in the Superintendent 7 s hands a mighty
lever for the prying open of the money chests of these
same business men.
The report closes with an exhaustive estimate of the
undeveloped resources of the country in agricultural
products, cattle and horses, coal and other minerals.
220 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
The final words of this report constitute this noble ap-
peal :
i( The next few years are to decide largely the religious
future of this country. God is calling on us to go in and
possess the land. The success vouchsafed to us in the
past, the possibilities of the country and the religious
wants of its people, should stimulate us, as patriots, as
men and Christians, to accomplish what God has given us
to do. May God grant that we may discern the signs of
the times and in His strength go forward."
The effect upon the Assembly of this great report and
of the modest but great speech of the Superintendent is
remembered yet by many who were present that day.
In that brief hour, it is safe to say, the Church passed into
a distinctly new era of Home Mission work. She began
to realize somewhat dimly, it is true, that the day of
small things had gone, that the time for large measures
had come.
It was this Assembly of 1883 that, in response to an
overture from Manitoba Presbytery, instituted a Theolog-
ical Faculty in Manitoba College, and appointed as Prin-
cipal and Professor in Divinity, one of her most distin-
guished ministers, holding one of the most important
charges in the Church.
Seldom has the wisdom of the General Assembly been
more signally manifested than in the choice of the Rev.
J. M. King, at that time minister of St. James' Square
Church, Toronto, to be Principal of Manitoba College.
In a time of serious financial depression throughout the
Province, and with the College almost hopelessly in debt,
he took charge of its affairs, and before many years had
passed was able to report the College free of debt, with
its building doubled in size, and with an endowment
fund of very considerable magnitude. From the time
of his appointment till his death, Manitoba College
FIVE GREAT YEARS I 221
ranked easily first among the educational institutions in
the West.
In the promoting of the overture in Presbytery, and in
supporting it before the Assembly, the Superintendent
took a leading part. None saw more clearly than he that
the moral and intellectual future of the West was bound
up with the establishing and equipping of adequate insti-
tutions of learning. Throughout its whole history, the
Superintendent was a warm friend of the College, and be-
tween the Principal and himself there remained unbroken
to the end a bond of mutual affection and respect. Their
spheres, though distinct, included much common ground,
for the progress of the one involved that of the other,
and though each of these strong men pushed his own
special work with all the intensity of his nature, they
each recognized that ultimately the aim of both was the
same, namely, the moral and spiritual elevation of West-
ern Canada. There was no more enthusiastic champion
of Home Missions than Principal King, and no more
staunch friend of the College than the Superintendent of
Missions, though the Principal was heard to aver with
that grim humour that was his own, i i The Superintendent
preaches on Manitoba College and takes up a collection
for Home Missions. "
It was this year, too, that the Manitoba Presbytery
presented a memorial to the Assembly praying for the
division of the Presbytery into three, and setting forth at
length the arrangement desired, with reasons therefor.
The Assembly appointed a special committee to deal with
the memorial, which committee suggested that the matter
be referred to the Assembly's Home Mission Committee.
XXIV
FIVE GREAT YEARS II
IMMEDIATELY after the rising of Assembly the
Superintendent paid a short visit to his family, but
even these few days were filled up with interviews,
correspondence, and meetings, and in a very few weeks
he was once more on the Western trails.
Settlement had been rapidly extending during the sum-
mer in the country lying north and west, towards Prince
Albert and Battleford. And, indeed, far beyond that
outpost, on the way towards Edmonton, settlers had
planted their homes upon the wide and trackless prairie.
Hence they must be followed and cared for. From a
point fifteen miles north of Fort Qu' Appelle on his way
to Prince Albert, in company with the Eev. Mr. McWill-
iams, who is to be installed as minister of that field, the
Superintendent writes to his wife under date, September
25th, 1883, giving the following description of the country
through which he is passing :
"The country south of the Qu' Appelle Valley, i. e.,
between Qu' Appelle Station and Fort Qu' Appelle, is
rolling, with a few bushes and pond holes. Owing to the
dry weather these are dry. There were but few settlers'
houses to be seen, and only two or three patches of grain
broke the monotony of the unreclaimed waste. I under-
stand that a company owns much of the land, and if so,
it is evident that these companies are proving a curse
and not a blessing hindering rather than helping settle-
ment." He is somewhat before his time. Not yet have
the people of Canada come to the determination that the
222
FIVE GREAT YEARS II 223
lands of the Dominion shall be held or sold for the good
of the Dominion and its people, and not for that of any
company or corporation soever. " Fort Qu'Appelle is
as attractive as ever. It lies in the valley at the east end
of a lake, with the Qu'Appelle River flowing past. To
the east, within a mile, another lake gleams in the sun.
To the north the brown hills, deeply furrowed, look down
upon it, with a few whitewashed, thatch- covered build-
ings used by the mounted police as barracks nestling at
their foot. On the south rise the banks, as on the
north, to a height of about three hundred feet, but their
face is softened with clumps of poplar that now are yellow
and rich* Through the valley, which is about a mile
wide, are scattered houses that were and are used as pri-
vate residences, stores, stopping-places, and stables. The
Hudson's Bay Fort is like the majority of their buildings,
and with a stockade which is no longer kept in repair.
The town itself has grown a good deal since I saw it last
year. There are several good buildings, and more are in
course of erection. One large hotel is being built. " This
was one of the new fields erected the year before, and the
Superintendent is pleased to note the good work done.
" Mr. Brown, our missionary in the district, held services
here last summer, occupying some five other posts be-
sides this. The place of meeting is a hall built by Mr.
Arch. McDonald. This hall is used for public gath-
erings of all kinds, whether social, political, or religious.
The company owning it charge $2 per Sabbath for the
use of it. No doubt this will give fair interest on the
capital ! . . . On inquiring, we found that a good
deal of land is settled upon, and Mr. McDonald of Fort
Qu'Appelle informed us that within twenty miles of the
Fort scarcely a good section of Government land was un-
allotted. The settlers are principally Canadian, although
there is a sprinkling of French half-breeds, and English
224: THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
and Scotch. Mr. Brown was the only missionary of any
Church that held services here, and his work was very
much appreciated.' 7 But there can be no delay. They
must make Prince Albert as soon as possible, for Mr.
Sieveright, the minister in charge, is anxious to leave
the field, so on they go. " To-morrow we drive forty-
five miles and stop, they say, at Touchwood Hills. We
have a bed here to-night, and will have a house for shel-
ter every night but one, when we must be content with a
small tent. Provisions we carry with us, including a
boiled ham. Canned meats and biscuit constitute the
staple of our fare. I will try and send you a note to-
morrow. Waggons and carts go down all the time and I
may be able to get a letter sent. Telegraph line goes all
the way to Humboldt."
The following day he writes from Touchwood Hills,
giving a vivid picture of his experience on the trails :
" Another day's journey is over, and we have just dis-
posed of our supper and are at leisure for a short time.
The Hudson's Bay post is within half a mile of us, and I
propose to go down and hold a service there this even-
ing." Let the others stretch their weary limbs in rest.
This man has a message in his heart for these men of the
far-away plains of Canada, and he is, indeed, straitened
till it be delivered. " The day was dry, but somewhat
cold. In the morning there was a frost that would indi-
cate that the thermometer had fallen as low as twenty -five
or twenty-six degrees. It was quite misty at the start,
but a breeze began to blow about eight o'clock and the
mist cleared away. We drove twenty-two or twenty-
three miles and had dinner. This distance we travelled
in about four hours, leaving O'Brien's at six and making
our stopping-place at ten. There was a house, but Mc-
Lean forgot the key and we could not get in. We kin-
dled a fire outside and boiled the kettle and had dinner
FIVE GREAT YEARS II 225
bread, canned tongue, butter, and tea. We all relished
our meal after our morning drive. The fire we had to
watch carefully to prevent spreading, and as soon as the
kettle was boiled we drowned out the fire. Tea was black
and strong, and our tin, being without a lid, we'got a good
infusion of ashes and smoke. . . . Late in the after-
noon we passed at the Touchwood Hills quite a number
of teepees and several half-breed houses. The latter had
patches of grain, and much of it was still in the field.
The weather is dry, however, and no doubt all will be
safely stacked. The land at Touchwood is hilly, but
the soil is good, and no doubt in a short time will be set-
tled. We arrived here at five o> clock, making the twenty-
two or twenty-three miles this afternoon in five hours.
To-morrow we are at Salt Plains.' 7
The next day he makes some twenty-five miles, and
camps at night in an old shack, none too comfort-
able.
" To-night we are to lodge in a place 7x12, partitioned
off from the stable. A lot of hay covers the floor, a rusty
stove is standing in the corner, which, with a rickety
table, constitute the furniture. We found a lantern which
will answer for a light. The side is quite airy, the boards
having shrunk a good deal. But I have a good tuque,
or nightcap, and I hope to keep warm enough. I have
two buffalo robes, two pairs of blankets, and other appli-
ances that will likely keep me comfortable. Three teams
besides our own drove in here just now and are going to
remain all night. I think the room will afford sufficient
accommodation to enable us to lie down. To-morrow we
expect to make Humboldt at six."
A letter written the following day gives an account of
his night's experience :
" Last night our quarters were humble enough. Seven
of us lay side by side in the shanty, and the open spaces
226 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
let in a good deal of cold. Some of our company were
great snorers, the horses were pawing and coughing, and
Mr. Me Williams, I fear, slept but little. The frost was
decidedly sharp when we got up. Breakfasted before
daylight and got a good start before sunrise. The road
this morning for nearly twenty miles lay along the Salt
Plain, when we struck higher land and timber. The
day is clear and bright, and travelling comfortable. But
dinner is ready things are primitive and plain and I
must go to work and do justice to my share. The plates
of the rest of our company, and cups, were left behind,
and Mr. Me Williams and myself eat off the same plate
and drink out of the same cup ! "
At this point he meets Sieveright and pumps him dry
in regard to his mission field. In due time, the Superin-
tendent reaches Prince Albert, spends a couple of days
there getting Mr. Me Williams settled in his charge, per-
fecting the organization of the congregation, and making
acquaintance with the Presbyterians in the village and
the surrounding country ; then once more he takes the
trail to Battleford. The genial days of September
are gone, the nights are sharp with frost, and oc-
casionally the ground is covered with snow, but he
makes light of all discomfort and writes from Battle-
ford, under date Oct. 12, 1883, in the following buoyant
strain :
DEAR WIFE:
" I have just called at the post-office and find that
a mail goes out in a few minutes, and hence write you
a note. We left Prince Albert on Tuesday and got to
Carl ton that night. Next morning the ground was covered
with snow, but we got off betimes and reached the Elbow
(forty miles) after dark. Camped beside a willow
bush no trees. Cleared the snow off and spread my
FIVE GREAT YEARS II 227
oilcloth and made a bed in the corner of our tent. We
got some dry willow and got a fire made and had a good
warm supper. Went to bed and slept soundly. Got off
the next morning in good time, and were going through
a country overrun with fire. Found it hard to get wood
and water. Camped beside a low swail. It was empty
of water, but we got grass for the horses. I gathered some
snow to make tea (snow nearly all gone), and got a few
willow bushes to make fire. Had a good dinner and
started off again, to pass over a rough hilly country
with a few creeks running into the Saskatchewan. (You
can follow our course by the line of railway adopted in
McKenzie's time along the North Saskatchewan.)
Camped at night after going about thirty -five miles, and
got two old telegraph poles to make fire of. Yesterday,
we passed over a rough country, but it was well watered
and had plenty of timber. We got here last night, and
I paid the man off ($45 he charged) and got lodgings
with Mr. McKay, of the Hudson's Bay Company. I have
been trying to hunt up the Presbyterians here and have
been partially successful. I think we must send a man in
here to look after them. "
He has been only a few hours in the place after two
months' journey, but he takes no time for rest and re-
cuperation, but at once sets out to "hunt up Presby-
terians," for Presbyterians he must have at all costs,
and that is why he gets them. He plans to extend his
trip to Edmonton, nearly 300 miles away. Ever since
his appointment he has had it in mind to visit that far
outpost, but for two years, to his great regret and to the
great disappointment of the missionary in charge, he has
been forced to defer his trip. Now that Edmonton is
only 300 miles away, the weather fine, the roads excellent,
and he himself in fine fettle, he resolves to essay the
journey, and to the great joy of the missionary at that
228 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
point, after a week's hard drive he safely arrives, com-
pleting a trip of some 1,200 miles.
His visit to Edmonton proved a great stimulus to the
missionary and the little congregation. Two days he
spent organizing the finances of the congregation, visit-
ing the different stations in connection with the field,
and then bidding farewell to this brave missionary,
A. B. Baird, and his gallant little company, he takes
his homeward journey, leaving both missionary and
people greatly encouraged and much fitter for their
winter's work.
The experiences of the Superintendent on this north
trip give tone and colour to his report to the Assembly of
1884. Remarkable as was the growth of the previous
year, the expansion of this year was even more extra-
ordinary. The report for 1882 showed forty new fields,
that for 1883 showed fifty-one new fields, but this year
the Superintendent is able to report the opening up
of seventy new fields. Between Winnipeg and Edmon-
ton these fields lie scattered, with great empty spaces
between, but organization has been effected, often
the merest skeletons of congregations, it is true, at
these seventy points. And with the growth of settle-
ment the intervening spaces will be filled up and the
skeletons be rounded out into full-grown, vigorous con-
gregations.
Through the eyes of the Superintendent, the Assembly
begins to get visions of these vast prairie reaches, and
of their possibilities for good to Canada and to the
Kingdom of God therein, and is, therefore, the more
easily persuaded to plan largely for Western work.
It is no wonder that the Assembly, reversing the re-
port of its Home Mission Committee and in response
to the prayer of the Presbytery of Manitoba, agrees
that that Presbytery should be divided into three, to
FIVE GREAT YEARS II 229
be called Winnipeg, Rock Lake and Brandon, and that
these Presbyteries should be erected into the first Western
Synod under the name of the Synod of Manitoba and the
Northwest Territories. It is interesting to read in the
minutes of that Assembly the terms in which are de-
scribed the boundaries of the Presbytery at Brandon,
that lying farthest to the West :
" Presbytery of Brandon. The Presbytery of Brandon
shall embrace the portions of the Province of Manitoba
not included in the preceding Presbyteries, and the
Northwest Territories, and shall include the following
congregations and mission stations, and such others as
may hereafter be erected within its bounds. "
The list of fields in this most Western Presbytery is also
illuminating and is quite worthy of record :
1. High Bluff, and Associated Stations
2. Portage la Prairie, " " "
3. Gladstone, " " "
4. Neepawa, " " "
5. Minnedosa, " " tl
6. Rapid City, " " "
7. Brandon, " " "
8. Burnside, " " "
9. McGregor, " "
10. Carberry Petrel, " " "
11. Chater, " " "
12. Rosedale, " " "
13. Milford, " " "
14. Oak Lake, " " "
15. Virden, " " "
16. Cypress River, " " "
17. Auburn, " " "
18. Cadurcis and McTavish, " "
19. Rolling River, " " "
20. Souris, " " "
21. Moosomin, " " "
22. Strathclair, " " "
23. Birtle, " " "
230 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
24. Binscarth, and Associated Stations
25. Shell River, " " "
26. Beulah, " " "
27. Broadview, " " "
28. Grenfell, " " "
29. Indian Head, " "
30. Fort Qu' Appelle, " " "
31. Touchwood Hills, " " "
32. Regina, " " "
33. Moosejaw, " " "
34. Medicine Hat, " " "
35. Calgary and Fort McLeod,
36. Edmonton,
37. Battleford,
38. Prince Albert,
39. Carrot River,
40. Whitewood, etc.,
41. Oakwood, etc.,
42. Dumfries, etc.,
43. South Moose Mountain,
44. Mistawasis Reserve,
45. Okanase,
46. Crowstand,
47. Sioux Reserve.
It is further ordered that the name of the Superintend-
ent shall be placed on the roll of the Presbytery of
Brandon, and that his relations- to that Presbytery are
to be the same as formerly to the Presbytery of Manitoba.
Before the Assembly rises, it signalizes its approval of
the Superintendent of Missions and its appreciation of
the work he is doing by accepting the recommendation
of the Home Mission Committee to increase his salary to
the sum of $2,000, this being the figure to which that of
the Professors of Manitoba College had recently been
raised.
The history of the next three years is one full of in-
spiration and romantic interest. From year to year the
settlement of the country proceeds with greater or less
FIVE GREAT YEARS II 231
rapidity, and with the growth of settlement there marches
the expansion of mission work. Farther and ever far-
ther the Superintendent pushes back the limits of his
great mission field. Week after week, month after
month, both summer and winter, when he is not engaged
in the arduous and difficult task of extracting revenue
from willing and unwilling members of the Church in the
East, he presses his tireless journeys over the prairies by
railroad which now traverses the field from east to west,
but mostly by trail, returning from each journey with
some names to add to the rapidly growing roster of his
mission fields, and with his black note-book as well as
his heart and head crammed with additional facts where-
with to quicken the enthusiasm of his Church and to
deepen her sense of responsibility for the new Empire so
rapidly building in the western half of the Dominion.
In the General Assembly of 1885, on overture from six
Ontario Presbyteries and from the Presbytery of Brandon
in the West, the first suggestion of a Summer Session in
one of the colleges is made. This overture the Superin-
tendent strongly supports. The proposal is remitted to
the favourable consideration of the Presbyterian College
of Halifax, which college, however, in the following year
declines to consider the . proposal to change the time of
its theological session from the winter to the summer
months. And so the Superintendent must struggle on,
doing what he can to man his fields, gathering such re-
cruits as offer from the Old Land and from the United
States.
An overture from the Presbytery of Brandon trans-
mitted with the approval of the Synod, results in the
erection of the new Presbytery of Regina. The decision
of Assembly is given in the following terms :
*' That the prayer of the petition of Brandon Presby-
tery, as transmitted through the Synod of Manitoba and
232 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
the Northwest Territories, be granted, and a new Presby-
tery erected ; that its extreme eastern boundary be the
western provincial boundary line of the Province of
Manitoba, and that it consist of the following congrega-
tions and Mission stations : Alameda, Battleford, Broad-
view, Calgary, Carlisle, Carrot River, Cathcart, Cut Arm
Creek, Dumfries, Edmonton, Fort McLeod, Fort Qu' Ap-
pelle, Fort Saskatchewan, Green Valley, Grenfell, Indian
Head, Jumping Creek, Long Lake, Medicine Hat, Mooso-
min, Moosejaw, Pine Creek, Prince Albert, Qu'Appelle
Station, Regina, Southworth, Moose Mountain, Touch-
wood Hills, Whitewood, Wolseley, Yorkton, Broadview
Reserve, Crowstand, Mistawasis Reserve j that the name
of the Presbytery be Regina, that the Rev. P. S. Living-
stone be the first Moderator, and that it hold its first
meeting at Regina, in the church there, on the 15th day
of July, 1885, at eleven o'clock."
The newly erected Synod of Manitoba and the North-
west Territories in 1885, at its second meeting, honours
the Superintendent and itself by choosing him to be its
first elected Moderator. It is the year of the second re-
bellion. The following letter to his wife is interesting
as furnishing contemporary opinion upon that unhappy
affair :
''Mr. Pitblado, I think I told you in my last, I went
with the Halifax Battalion. Mr. Gordon went off to the
front with the Ninetieth. I presume he is with the troops
before now on the South Saskatchewan. There has been
no further conflict there since the affair of Fish Creek.
Middleton has been inactive, why, I do not know. Some
say that he had neither the men nor the ammunition he
required. If not, he was much to blame. He had plenty
of time, and why he does not push on I do not know.
Every day he delays is giving the Indians time to organ-
ize and rise, because they think Middletou has been
FIVE GREAT YEARS II 233
checked if not defeated. To us the whole affair seems a
puzzle. There has been mismanagement from the outset.
I wonder when it will end. To-day tidings came from
Battleford that Colonel Otter had an engagement with the
Indians on Poundinaker's Reserve. Eight of our troops
were reported killed and double that number wounded.
Had there been any despatch in sending troops up there
first, an outbreak at Battleford might have been averted.
It is becoming clear that the men who are managing this
whole affair are not equal to the task. Herchmer and
Otter will put Poundmaker and his band down, but I
fear more blood will be spilt yet, and blood spilt now
may mean more hereafter. The quelling of the rebellion
will not restore the confidence nor secure the feeling of
safety that existed before. You speak of this growing to
larger proportions than I thought. Consul Taylor told me
last week that his opinions were exactly mine and he
should be a good judge and that if the Government had
taken hold of the matter promptly, the end would have
been reached long ago. Mr. Gordon and a host of the
best men here are holding the same views. A fire may
be a small affair and easily put out, but let it alone with
a lot of inflammable matter around, and it may take a
good deal to cope with it. So it was here. The dilatori-
ness of the Government encouraged Indian and half-
breed to rebel or continue in his rebellion."
By this rebellion the attention of the whole country is
centred upon the Indian and half-breed population of the
West ; there is a quickened sense of responsibility to
these people, and, in consequence, the Synod is aggres-
sively Foreign Mission in its spirit and legislation. But
in spite of this, and perhaps, indeed, because of this, the
Superintendent on leaving the Moderator's chair to pre-
sent his report, rouses the Synod to a point of enthusiasm
rarely surpassed in all its subsequent history.
234 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Right there on the Western field and speaking to West-
ern men from whose eyes experience had torn the glamour
which distance and unfaniiliarity often lend to stern
realism, he told them of their own work, showed it to
them in its true perspective, related each little patch of
the field to the great whole, threw upon it the golden
colours of the glowing future till as they looked and lis-
tened, they were ready to toil and suffer without murmur
or hope of reprieve for the sheer glory of the work itself,
and for His glory whom they had pledged themselves to
serve. It was a triumph, indeed. No man present at
that Synod meeting of 1885 will ever forget that speech
and its effect upon the toil-worn, sun-baked group of
missionaries who had travelled from ten to well-nigh ten
hundred miles to be present.
In the autumn of that year the Superintendent prose-
cutes two extended tours, one through Southwestern
Manitoba and far south and west beyond the boundaries
of the Province, the other through the ranching country
of Southern Alberta. During the first tour he writes to
his wife the following characteristic letter, under date,
Virden, August 13, 1885 :
" MY DEAR WIFE :
" Yesterday I returned from the Moose Mountain
country where I had gone to open two churches. One of
them was not finished and was not opened, the other was
finished and opened. I drove on Saturday sixty-five
miles, and on Sabbath morning to the finished church,
twenty miles. I rarely saw a finer stretch of country than
lies south of the Moose Mountain. We have a healthy
cause there, although it is not strong. Coming back, I
stopped at Green Valley and attended to work there.
Found that some of the people had suffered much through
hail. Some sixteen families of crofters lost a good deal.
FIVE GREAT YEARS II 235
I did what I could to encourage and cheer them. We
are thinking of building two churches among these
people. The missionary in Green Valley is a green Glas-
gow man. I wish Jamesy was out here to teach him how
to harness and drive a horse, and how to ride one. He
got an Indian pony and he (the pony) completely mas-
tered him (the missionary) so that he (the missionary)
had to sell him (the pony). I am almost afraid the
second one will do the same. He has rather contracted
ideas, too, about work, and so I have had to give him a
few hints. He thought a minister's duty was to preach
the Gospel and not to be bothered with horses. I had to
tell him that if he could not reach the people to whom he
preached without a horse, then he must learn to drive
and ride in fact, that if these were his ideas he had no
business in the Northwest that I would far rather have
a man know less Latin and more Horse, and that without
some knowledge of horses a man was useless. The man
looked amazed, but took all well and is going to work.
" Had the misfortune to break my buggy spring and'
mended it on Sunday morning on the road with a halter
strap.
"Moosomin was reached yesterday and I found a sale
of cavalry horses going on. It was interesting to see a
large number of scouts in the late campaign buying their
old horses and taking them home. But I am going away
across the river to a meeting. I got here this morning
and have a meeting to-night. Elders are to be ordained
and inducted. "
From Fort McLeod he writes on his second tour a let-
ter, the facts contained in which he afterwards made
public. The publication of these facts awakened a feel-
ing of horror and shame throughout the whole country
and determined the Church to establish at McLeod at all
costs a permanent mission. For this mission an elder in
236 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
the city of Ottawa, burning with indignant grief and
shame over the horrible revelations, offered $600 for two
years.
The following year the Assembly adds a further name
to the list of its Presbyteries, in the erection of the Pres-
bytery of Columbia, which is made to include all congre-
gations and mission stations in British Columbia, and
which is connected with the Synod of Manitoba and the
Northwest Territories, though it does not as yet come un-
der the Superintendent's jurisdiction.
The report presented by the Superintendent in 1886
showed that in spite of the rebellion of the year before
and of the continued financial depression, there had been
steady progress made during the year. The number of
stations had gone up from 318 to 351, a gain of thirty-
three ; the number of communicants from 4,457 to 4,769,
a gain of 312. In regard to this matter of communicants,
the Superintendent sounds this warning note :
"It will be noticed that there are not as many com-
municants as families. Of the young men coming to us,
not fifteen per cent, ever made a profession of faith.
There is a source of danger here should there be neglect."
There is, however, a very cheering fact to record in re-
gard to the supply of fields. The Church is evidently be-
ginning to take heed, for the report says :
" During the past summer not a settlement of any size
in the country was left unprovided with ordinances. Ef-
forts were also put forth to furnish supply during the
winter, and with a good deal of success. There was not
a point along the lines of railway which was left unsup-
plied, and districts removed from the railway had at least
partial supply. When no other missionaries were avail-
able, catechists were secured for six months, and students
of Manitoba College were employed during the Christmas
holidays."
FIVE GREAT YEARS II 237
The Superintendent seizes the opportunity furnished
by the taking of the Dominion Census to indulge his
penchant for statistics, and presents to the Assembly certain
valuable and inspiring information, with his reflections
thereupon. Among other facts he notices that out of a
total population for the Territories of 48,362, there are
23,344 whites, and of this number 7,712 are Presbyterians.
He thus estimates that the Presbyterians form over thirty
per cent, of the population of these Territories, as they
form over forty per cent, of the population in Manitoba.
This fact he uses to lay heavier the weight of responsi-
bility for the people of the "West, upon the conscience of
the Presbyterian Church.
Towards the end of that year, the Superintendent
makes a swift dash into British Columbia, stirring up the
people wherever he can pause, to organization and self-
support. From Donald, the most ambitious and most
ungodly town in British Columbia at that time, he
writes :
u I spent the day at Donald trying to do two things
to get a church building under way, and to get support
for a minister. I got $600 promised for the minister and
got arrangements made to have the church built, $700
being subscribed in cash and 14,000 feet of lumber."
The General Assembly for 1887 met in the city of
Winnipeg, a significant testimony to the importance
which the Western metropolis had assumed in the opinion
of the Church. It is a Home Mission Assembly, and the
minds of the fathers and brethren are largely occupied
with the expansion of their "Western heritage. In the
minutes of that Assembly is found the following very
significant paragraph :
"On motion of Mr. James Robertson, seconded by Mr.
James Herdman, the following resolution was adopted,
That the prayer of the Presbytery of Regina be granted,
238 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
that the General Assembly hereby erects a new Presby-
tery to be bounded as follows : ' ' And then the resolu-
tion proceeds to describe the boundaries of the new Pres-
bytery by lines truly majestic in their sweep: "The
eastern limit of said Presbytery shall be the one hundred
and ninth degree of longitude j the southern limit the
forty-ninth parallel of latitude ; the western limit, a line
passing north and south through the western crossing of
the Columbia River by the Canadian Pacific Railway ; the
northern limit, the Arctic Sea."
In what magnificent terms these men conceived their
work ! Here are the names of the fields constituting this,
the greatest Presbytery the world has ever seen : Indian
Head, Lethbridge, Fort McLeod, High River, Calgary,
Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, Red Deer, Cochraue,
Banff, Anthracite, Donald, and Revelstoke. And here
are the names of the men to whose care this stupendous
Presbytery is entrusted : Messrs. James Herald, Charles
McKillop, Richard Campbell Tibb, Angus Robertson,
James C. Herdman, Andrew Browning Baird, Alexander
H. Cameron. By the appointment of Assembly the first
meeting of this great Presbytery is to be held on the third
Tuesday of July, 1887, and of this Presbytery the first
Moderator is to be Angus Robertson, well known and
greatly loved by all who toiled with him as a Western
missionary during his all too brief life.
By this Assembly, also, the eastern boundaries of the
Presbytery of Winnipeg are extended to White River, a
point 248 miles east of Port Arthur, the former boundary.
To this Assembly the Superintendent presents a brief
report of the work accomplished during the five years
that have just passed. It is characteristic of the report
that there is absolutely no hint or suggestion of the toils
and tribulations, of the perils and privations, that he has
endured, to whom, under God, the great results achieved
FIVE GREAT YEARS II 239
have been largely due. It is a record of truly magnifi-
cent progress, and of startling achievement. When he
came to his work as Superintendent, he found 116 Mis-
sion stations scattered throughout Manitoba and the
neighbouring parts of the Territories. His first report
gave the names of 129 fields lying, for the most part,
within a radius of about 200 miles of Winnipeg, isolated
from each other, unknown to the Church, uncared for in
any adequate manner, financially hopeless, and provided
only with supply of the most spasmodic kind. Beyond
these 129 fields lay new settlements without missionary or
Church services, and over the whole West were hundreds
and thousands of undiscovered Presbyterians.
In five years what a change ! Instead of 129 stations
there are reported 389, a growth of 260, fifty-two for
every year, one for every week of that period, and almost
every station the result of a personal visit of the Superin-
tendent, and in almost every case of his personal organi-
zation. His first report showed a communicant roll of
1,355 for all the West ; the report for 1887 showed 5,623.
When he came to his field the Presbytery of Manitoba
had knowledge of only 971 families. In a single year he
discovered 1,000 more and placed these formerly un-
known and isolated families into Church homes, and dur-
ing the five years he discovered and set in Church rela-
tion over 3,000 Presbyterian families. When he took
into his hands the reins of superintendency, he found in
all the West some fifteen churches. Before five years
were over there were nearly 100, and these the result
largely of the help given by the Church and Manse Build-
ing Fund, whose creator he practically was.
In Eastern Canada the results achieved were no less ex-
traordinary. In 1882, the Western Missions were practi-
cally unknown to the Church in the East. The Home
Mission cause held an insignificant place in the mind of
THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
the Church, the appeal for funds brought very inadequate
response. But before five years had passed, by his re-
ports, his speeches, his sermons and addresses, the
Superintendent had made the West visible, and brought it
near. More than that, becoming visible and real to the
Church in Eastern Canada, the West and its marvellous
mission work acted as a magnet for the unifying of the
different parts and varied elements of the Church in the
East. Home Missions began to bulk large and the Church
awakened to a new self-consciousness by reason of this
great mission enterprise she was carrying on in Western
Canada. In short, by the work of these five years the
straggling, scattered missions in Western Canada, the
disintegrated and isolated fragments of a Church, un-
known to each other and to the Church as a whole, were
organized into one body whose members fitly framed and
compactly joined together by that which every joint sup-
plied, began to grow with a common life into a Church
pulsing with vigour, conscious of power, and alert for the
mighty enterprise laid to her hand by her Lord.
The Assembly of 1887, meeting for the first time in the
capital of Western Canada, received many courtesies
from various public and civic bodies, but none was more
appreciated than the invitation of the Canadian Pacific
Railway to visit the Pacific Coast ; and few greater
pleasures ever came to the Superintendent during his life
than that he experienced in conducting the Commissioners
across the reaches of his mission field. It was from first
to last an experience of wonder and delight to the whole
party, and of pride and joy to the Superintendent who
organized and conducted it. One incident in the journey
across the plains is worth recording. It is given in the
words of an eye-witness :
"I shall never forget one scene. While on the way
westward, we arrived at some point where the train was
FIVE GREAT YEARS II 241
to stop for some minutes, for water, I think. There was
nothing but a station in sight. Being towards dusk, he
proposed that the whole party should gather on the
prairie during the stop, for worship. It was heartily re-
sponded to, and the words of a familiar Psalm floated on
the breeze from a hundred voices, followed by a brief
prayer. It was like a consecration of the boundless open
space to the service of Christ, and of ourselves, as repre-
senting the Church, to its evangelization, when it should
be occupied, as he believed it soon would. "
His faith in the West never faltered, and every suc-
ceeding year only served to justify it. His work through
the years that followed was in detail largely a repetition
of that of the five years just passed. Failure never
checked him, success never sated him, but day by day
and week by week until the very last, he followed the
gleaming steel or the black line of the trail across the
prairies and through the mountains, eager, insatiable,
undaunted.
XXV
FRICTION
r~ ""^HE Presbyterian Church is a democratic insti-
tution and historically and sensitively loyal to
JL two great principles in polity, one the su-
premacy of Presbytery, the other the parity of Presby-
ters. The first principle guards against the encroach-
ment on the part of any other Church court or of any
Church dignitary upon the absolute authority of Presby-
tery, a body which owes its existence ultimately to the
will of the people. No right is more jealously guarded
by Presbytery than that of absolute control over all con-
gregations and ministers within its jurisdiction.
The principle of parity of Presbyters opposes itself to
every assumption of authority on the part of any indi-
vidual, no matter how richly endowed in mental and
spiritual gifts or how vested with authority by virtue of
office. Before the Presbytery all Presbyters stand equal,
and any authority held or exercised is so held and exer-
cised only by delegation of Presbytery.
It was inevitable that in the exercise of the functions of
his office the Superintendent should come near to being
wrecked upon these constitutional rocks. It was ominous
of future trouble that immediately after the appointment
of the Superintendent, and when the regulations govern-
ing his office were being discussed, the Eev. H. McKellar,
a worthy and conscientious member of the Manitoba
Presbytery, should feel it his duty to oppose with might
and main the use of the word "oversight" in defining
the Superintendent's duties, and should feel called upon
242
FKICTION 243
to table his dissent against the finding of the General
Assembly in this regard. To his mind " oversight " was
an un- Presbyterian infringement upon the rights of
Presbytery and a denial of the doctrine of the parity of
Presbyters. But the word went into the regulations and
the thing into the duty of the new Superintendent, and
with a vengeance. For not unfrequently the Presbytery
or the Home Mission Committee would find itself ignored
and would be asked, with what grace it could muster, to
approve, homologate, or condone some action of its Super-
intendent as in the following instance :
In the discharge of the duties of his office, the Super-
intendent happened upon a congregation which had
reached such a stage of development as seemed to de-
mand for its highest good the settlement of a pastor.
The procedure in such cases is clearly defined in the Book
of Forms. The Presbytery is consulted by the congrega-
tion, leave is obtained to moderate in a call, the congre-
gational organization and standing are thereupon carefully
examined, the congregation duly summoned by edict of
Presbytery to exercise its right of call, and having exer-
cised this right the Presbytery proceeds, if satisfied that
the interests of all have been guarded, to sustain the call
and effect a settlement. In this particular case the Su-
perintendent finds the congregation clearly in need of a
pastor, but absolutely without organization, there being
not even a Communion Eoll. The presence of a pastor
would greatly strengthen the cause not only in that con-
gregation, but in the whole community. Moreover, the
congregation has fixed its affection most happy circum-
stanceupon a certain minister who, it is believed, recip-
rocates this feeling. What is to be done ? The proper
and ordinary course is well known to the Superintendent,
but there are other considerations. The Presbytery will
.not meet for weeks, perhaps months f the calling of n
244 THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
special meeting is a serious matter involving expenditure
of money and time on the part of brethren who have
little of either to spend. Why put the brethren to this
expenditure? Why, indeed, when the Superintendent
can do all that is necessary himself, and when the Pres-
bytery will doubtless approve, homologate or condone, if
need be, at its first meeting, what he does 1 The Super-
intendent assumes Presbyterial powers, issues the edict,
summons the congregation, grants leave to moderate in a
call, has the call issued forthwith, sustained, accepted,
the minister duly settled and the whole business reported
to Presbytery at its first meeting, with the suggestion
that the proper and only course now open to that court is
to approve, homologate or condone if need be. And
this, indeed, the Presbytery perforce and very sensibly
proceeds to do and then sits back to digest its surprise,
horror or indignation, according to the temper or eccle-
siastical training of each Presbyter concerned.
To most of the brethren the Superintendent's course
appears to be the only one open to a man of earnest pur-
pose and of common sense, and so the whole matter is
accepted with a smile. But it would be strange, indeed,
if some worthy brother were not found to whom the
whole procedure appeared not only entirely un-Presby-
terian, but also little short of sacrilege. The Superin-
tendent, however, neither unduly affected by the depre-
catory smile of approval or the upraised brow of horror,
goes calmly on his way to do it again, if the exigencies of
the work should demand.
But there were those in whose breasts this rough shod
trampling upon the rights of Presbytery and of Presbyters
rankled and who were determined that this should end.
Hence, once and again the Superintendent is arraigned
before the Home Mission Committee and Presbytery only
to make his defence with smiling urbanity, or with hot
FRICTION 245
indignation, according to the nature of the criticism,
to the effect that at all costs the work must be done,
with Presbytery or without Presbytery, as the case may
be, and then depart to his work unrepentant, though
promising to exercise all care in the future, but leaving
in the minds of his fellow- Presbyters no assured confi-
dence that such care will result in any marked change
of conduct. With most of his brethren forgiveness was
easy, when from his long-drawn and arduous tours the
Superintendent came back to them with his marvellous
reports that told only of the things accomplished, and
made light of the toils endured. There were some, how-
ever, who allowed themselves to import such bitterness
into their criticisms of the Superintendent and his
methods in these early years, as would suggest that they
were not wholly free from personal animus. The follow-
ing anonymous letter which appeared in the Toronto
Mail would seem to be the outcome of such animus.
The letter has value now, as showing the atmosphere in
which the Superintendent did his work, and the serious-
ness of the hostility he now and then encountered. The
letter is a curious survival of a spirit long since dead and
buried, and is as follows :
" Another matter that demands immediate attention
is the abolition of that nondescript office of Superintend-
ent now paraded in Winnipeg. For pity sake if we are
to have a bishop let him be a man of education and
culture, of enlarged mind and entire devotedness to his
work, and not a man of very little education, of wretched
pulpit ability, of abnormal sectarian bias, of little judi-
ciousness and of less sense, who fell into this position
which had been humanely provided for him before the
fall, when he was kicked out of the upper windows of
Knox Church of Winnipeg, to make room for a better
man ; who, uubishoplike, lives apart from his family
24:6 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
with his wife's friends, while he boards like a boss-
walker at Winnipeg's Queens, which grand hotel is
the land bourse of the Northwest where speculators
from everywhere congregate and gamble in ' Manitoba
dirt.' If there must be such an office, let it be filled by
a pious and laborious minister of the Gospel and not by
a moneyed land-grabber who deceived the Church by
his assumption of zeal and his long-winded, threadbare,
harangues on the greatness and fertility of that country.
Two thousand dollars a year and all his travelling ex-
penses to and from the Northwest several times in the
year should be saved to be applied in Supplementing four
or five congregations in that country. How such men
as the Revs. Gordon and Pitblado of Winnipeg can con-
sent to continue such a farce, is more than I can under-
stand. Of this I am sure, for I have heard it, that there
is a wide-spread dissatisfaction throughout all that country
at the career of the present incumbent of the superintend -
ency who is only fit and infinitely fitter to i run ' a farm
than to ' oversee ' what in reality amounts in some de-
gree to a bishopric.
" I call upon the enlightened Moderator of the General
Assembly to stand up and utter his undisguised Scottish
sentiment about this Superintendent matter. I call upon
the able and pious ministers of Winnipeg to come to the
fore and aid their people in that great prairie land by
having immediate and liberal measures devised in their
behalf. I call upon the members of the Home Mission
Committee to drop at least a score of our moribund East-
Oxford-like stations in Ontario and apply the money thus
wasted in assisting (if only for two or three years) our
Presbyterian people and their families out in the North-
west. And if in their wisdom this queer Superintend-
ency be perpetuated or even upheld but one year more,
for conscience sake appoint a man to it who will, at least
FRICTION
to some little extent, resemble Chaucer's l Poor Parson 1
supposed to refer to Wyclif :
" Wide was his parish and houses far asunder;
But he ne left not for ne rain, ne thunder ;
In sickness and in mischief to visile
The forest in his parish moche and light
Upon his fete and in his hand a staff."
Prologue to Canterbury Tales.
" ' That man is mistaken who thinks to prevail upon
the world by conforming himself to its fashions and
manners' (Quesnel). I would humbly add thereto
< speculations > in Northwestern lands by so-called
Superintendents. {
" Yours, etc.,
" March 21, 1883. A BLUE PRESBYTERIAN."
With this letter, however, very few if any of those
most severely critical of the Superintendent and his
methods would be found to sympathize. The chief effect
of its publication was to elicit a storm of indignant pro-
test against such a venomous attack. The following
letter would fairly represent this general feeling of in-
dignation :
" A letter appeared in your issue of the 23d inst. on
the condition of the Church in the Northwest, to which
as a member of Knox Church, Winnipeg, I beg space fo~
a few words in reply.
"I shall not trouble you with any comment upon the
paragraph referring to the 'fact,' which is not a fact,
that there is not a settled Presbyterian minister on the
C. P. R, west of Portage la Prairie. As I fail to see
what connection an i old cranky congregation ' in East
Oxford has with the state of the Church in the Northwest,
248 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
I need notice it no further than to call attention to the
animus of the writer who, if I ani not mistaken, is a
* tramp of a minister ' who makes the state of the Church
(not that he cares for the Church) the pretext for a vile
attack upon the Superintendent of Missions. Any one
who has the privilege of knowing the Rev. Mr. Robert-
son, the Superintendent of Missions, intimately, does not
need to be told that the statements respecting him are
either utterly false or the cruellest misrepresentation and
give expression to the bitterest malice. Far from being
* kicked out of the upper windows of Knox Church/
Mr. Robertson was never more beloved by his congrega-
tion than he was when, at the command of the General
Assembly, the pastoral tie was severed.
" In proof of this, were it necessary, I might refer to
the minutes of the Session of the congregation, and if
i A Blue Presbyterian ' wishes to know how Mr. Robert-
son is still lovingly regarded by his late congregation,
let him come and witness the affectionate greeting he
always receives. As to Mr. Robertson's education, there
is abundant evidence in the letter of l A Blue Presby-
terian 7 that he is not competent to judge. As to his
pulpit ability, if I may be permitted to use a sporting
phrase, I would say one hundred to one Mr. Robertson as
against ' A Blue Presbyterian.' As to his sectarian bias,
it must be 'abnormal,' for Mr. Robertson gained and re-
tains the respect and good-will of all sects. As to his
'little judiciousness' and 'less sense,' suffice it to say
that hitherto Mr. Robertson has enjoyed the confidence
of the Church.
"Extreme personal dislike of Mr. Robertson, coupled
with a dog-in-the-manger spirit, pervades every line of
*A Blue Presbyterian's' letter. Can it be true that in
his extensive travels in ' that vast country ' he was in the
position of the dove which left the ark, and that all this
FRICTION 249
overflow of bile is because the Superintendent did not
follow the example of Noah and take him in ?
" Yours, etc.,
" A MEMBER OF KNOX CHUECH.
" Winnipeg, March 31, 1883."
To Mr. and Mrs. Robertson, the first letter brought
the greatest pain, as is evidenced by the following letter,
of date March 30th, 1883 :
"I suppose you saw that letter that appeared in the
Mail of Friday. I think it must have been that to
which you referred in your letter on Monday. I never
saw it till I came here. It is a most diabolical attempt
to ruin my character, but I trust it will fail. The Home
Mission Committee came nobly to my rescue, and I am
going to see if I cannot have the matter set right here,
etc. The Mail apologized for inserting it already. I
went to see Dr. King, but he was out. This has worried
me a good deal. I do not like to suspect any one. The
Home Mission Committee would feel like insisting on put-
ting any one guilty of such an action out of the Church.
But I trust we shall get over all this with God's
help."
The Assembly's Home Mission Committee, then con-
vened in Toronto, deeply resented this slanderous attack
upon its honoured and trusted Superintendent, and gave
the matter into the hands of a Committee consisting of
Dr. King, Dr. Cochrane, Messrs. Macdonnell, Farries,
and McKenzie. This Committee presented the following
report which was unanimously adopted :
"The Home Mission Committee having had its atten-
tion called to an anonymous communication which, as
admitted by the editor, was allowed without due consid-
eration to appear in the Toronto Mail of Friday, 23d of
March, reflecting injuriously on the Committee's admin-
250 TPIE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
istration, and throwing very grave and slanderous asper-
sions on the character of the Superintendent of Missions
in the Northwest, resolves as follows :
"1. That the statements contained in the letter re-
specting the working of the Home Mission field both in
the Northwest and in Ontario, are in many particulars
misleading and untruthful.
"2. That Mr. Robertson, the Superintendent of Mis-
sions, has proved himself to be an intelligent, indefati-
gable and self-sacrificing agent of the Church ; that dur-
ing the short period in which he has filled the position,
he has been singularly successful, in developing the lib-
erality of the people in Manitoba and the Northwest, both
in the support of ordinances and in the creation of a
Church and Manse Building Fund ; in securing the acces-
sion to the field of valuable labourers, both ministers and
students, and, generally, in promoting the rapid extension
of the work therein.
U 3. That the Committee has seen with pain and in-
dignation this attempt to damage the ministerial stand-
ing and personal character of Mr. Robertson, not refrain-
ing from invading even the privacies of domestic life ;
that it assures him of its deep sympathy with him under
an attack at once so undeserved, so malignant, and so
cowardly ; that it embraces the opportunity to express
the high esteem in which its members hold him for his
mental vigour, his breadth of view, his devotion to the
Church's interests, and his zeal in discharging the duties
of his difficult position, and to assure him of its hearty
support in carrying on the work to which the highest
court of the Church has called him."
Somewhat similar in spirit and even more cowardly in
manner was the attack made upon the Superintendent
and his administration from another quarter. "With his
customary vigour the Superintendent defends himself
FRICTION 251
and with good effect, as appears from a letter written to
his Mend Professor Hart :
"From Dr. Cochrane I learned that Mr. Blank was
sending down statements to him about our financial state
that are absolutely false. He represented that we are
$1, 700 behind for the work of last summer, and, of course,
he laid the blame on my shoulders. The fact is, that if
the stations pay as expected, every cent will be wiped
out. Our assets and amounts due from stations cover our
liabilities. The Doctor kindly read letters received, that
will compel me to make Mr. Blank keep a copy of all let-
ters sent for perusal, for I find that he is a sneak and a
coward, not sticking to the truth by any means in his
statements. This I showed the Doctor to his satisfaction.
"The difficulty in Dr. Reid's office was no difficulty at
all. Instead of our account being overdrawn, there was
something coming to us. Not only so, but a check of
$64 of Mr. Moodie's charged against us was paid, and
$150 sent to Mr. Warden not accounted for. It likely
went to pay some minister sent out permanently. The
tactics of the gentleman are now known and he can be
checked."
While the mission work of the West was administered
by the single Presbytery of Manitoba, the Superintend-
ent, by frequent consultation with members of his Com-
mittee, was able to prevent friction to a large extent, but
after the erection of the Presbyteries of Brandon and
Rock Lake and of the Synod of Manitoba and the North-
west Territories, each of these three courts having its own
Home Mission Committee and Home Mission Convener,
the occasions of misunderstanding and the opportunities
of friction were, of course, multiplied fourfold. In the
disposition of men and in the payment of grants it was
charged that the Synod's Home Mission Committee, and
especially the Convener of that Committee, who also was
252 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
the Superintendent of Missions, acted arbitrarily and
without consulting the Presbytery authorities.
The irritation in the Presbyteries of Brandon and Rock
Lake found expression in various appeals to the As-
sembly's Home Mission Committee, but at length was em-
bodied in two overtures from these Presbyteries to the
General Assembly of 1886. The General Assembly re-
ceiving the overtures, determined to get to the bottom of
the difficulty. There was an uneasy feeling in the mind
of the Assembly that there must be some serious cause
for the discontent and the irritation that was said to be
so wide-spread in the West. The overture from the
Presbytery of Brandon sought relief against the method
presently in vOgue of distributing grants, and prayed for
the abolishing of the Synod's Home Mission Committee.
The overture from the Presbytery of Rock Lake prayed
the General Assembly so to amend the instructions given
to the Superintendent of Missions as to prevent the pow-
ers entrusted to him from conflicting with the undoubted
rights and privileges of Presbyteries. The overtures
were supported in the Assembly and afterwards in Com-
mittee by men, some of whom were warm personal friends
and admirers of the Superintendent's who were opposed,
some to the idea of a superintendency altogether, and
others to the peculiar methods employed by the Superin-
tendent and the Synod's Home Mission Committee. The
fate of the overtures is told in the following extract taken
from a letter written by one who took a somewhat promi-
nent part in the settlement of the affair :
1 i The chief speaker in the presentation of these over-
tures was the Rev. James Todd, at that time minister of
Burnside. Mr. Todd was strong on constitutional law and
saw no place in the government of the Presbyterian
Church for such a personage as a Superintendent. He
has presumably changed his mind since that day, for he
FRICTION 253
now occupies with credit to himself and no little useful-
ness to the Church, the position of Superintendent of Mis-
sions in the New England States, in the interests of the
American Presbyterian Church. The debate in the As-
sembly was lengthy and complicated, and after three
several motions had been proposed, it was agreed to refer
the matter to a special Committee to be made up :
" 1. Of the Home Mission Committee,
"2. Western Commissioners who were present at the
Assembly, and
" 3. Six members of the Assembly nominated by
the Moderator. This Committee met and spent a whole
evening in deliberation. Feeling, especially among
the Western members, was tense, and the discussion will
long linger in the minds of those who were present at it.
The chief men in advocacy of the policy recommended
in the overtures were, in addition to Mr. Todd, Eev. C. B.
Pitblado, of St. Andrew's Church, Winnipeg, Dr. Bryce,
and Mr. W. D. Eussell. The leading men who ad-
vocated the maintenance of the Superintendency were
Eev. D. M. Gordon, minister of Knox Church, Winni-
peg, Professor Hart, Messrs. Arch. McLaren of Spring-
field, and A. B. Baird, of Edmonton. The time of the
Committee was taken up chiefly in the discussion of
specific instances, showing the unsatisfactory nature of
the management of Home Missions in the West. The
Committee insisted that it needed such specific instances
in order to judge of the merits of the case. The oppo-
nents of the Superintendency were somewhat at a loss, be-
cause as is usual in such cases, what they were able to
present was in a considerable measure only hearsay evi-
dence, about the details of which, when they were cross-
examined, they were rather hazy. The gist of the charges
was that the Superintendent had acted in an arbitrary
way, overriding or failing to give effect to the decisions
254: THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
of Presbyteries, transferring men from one field to an-
other without Presbyterial authority and such like. The
feature of the evening which lingers most clearly in my
mind is Dr. Robertson's defence. It was a masterpiece ;
he had perfect control of his temper (something which
could not be said of every member of the Committee), and
he had the advantage, too, of replying to charges in which
he was more complete master of the facts than any one
of those who brought the charges. Indeed, he, in excess
of candour and with some humour, pointed out in one or
two instances where the allegations against him were not
as strong as they might have been made, and indicated
where his fault had been greater than alleged. He took
up in detail the instances brought forward, and showed
that however arbitrary his conduct looked on a partial
statement of the facts, when the facts were fully stated,
his procedure was seen to be not only capable of defence,
but the most suitable and even the inevitable course in
the circumstances. The freedom from bitterness which
marked his statement, the marvellous memory which kept
in view the names and details of each case, the organiz-
ing faculty which made him ready, at risk to his own rep-
utation, to make the most of every strategic situation,
and his manifest devotion to his work made that evening
an impression which, instead of causing the Church to
mistrust him, placed him higher in her confidence than
he had ever been before. The report of this Committee
when it was presented to the General Assembly contained
a large number of clauses dealing for the most part with
the constitution and work of the Synodical Home Mission
Committee. But among other things the Committee de-
clared that ' It is undesirable to effect any change in the
regulations affecting the duties of the Superintendent or
his relationship to the Synod or the Presbyteries within
its bounds.' And in another clause the Committee rec-
FRICTION 255
ommended to the Assembly to place on record its appre-
ciation of the services rendered by the Superintendent of
Missions i whose labours have resulted so beneficially in
the furtherance of the work of the Church in the North-
west. >
This deliverance of the Assembly broke the back of all
opposition to the Superintendency and cleared the air of
all the clouds of suspicion and distrust that had hovered
about the administration of Western missions. It also de-
fined more clearly the limits within which the various com-
mittees and officials should exercise their functions, and
revealed this fact, that as in so many cases the misunder-
standings and difficulties that had arisen were to be traced
not so much to the perversity of those engaged in the
work, as to defects in the system under which the work
was carried on. Henceforth the Superintendent will
claim no powers but such as are delegated by Presby-
tery, though it is to be feared that he will continue to be
what an indignant critic once called him, " a walking
Presbytery himself. ' ' There will be criticism both of the
man and of his methods, and there will be misunder-
standings with Committees and Conveners, but the triumph
of the Superintendent, both before the Committee and
upon the floor of the General Assembly itself, was so com-
plete and so conspicuous, that no one henceforth will ever
venture to hale him before any Church court soever.
And it is fair to say that those who opposed him that day
were, for the most part, uninfluenced by personal animus,
and those who continued to be co-labourers with him in
Western work came to give him full confidence and af-
fection, freely forgiving what in their judgment they
could not approve as being in harmony with Presbyterian
polity.
XXVI
GETTING HIS MEN
THE Superintendent's first business was to get his
men, and this proved to be as difficult a task as
the catching of the proverbial hare ; more so, in-
deed, for as a rule the hare stayed caught and without
further ado went duly into the soup. But the men after
being caught had to be held and handled with extreme
care. The sudden and wonderful expansion of missionary
work between the years 1881 and 1885 created an unusual
demand for missionaries, far greater than could be sup-
plied by the graduates of our Colleges. One consequence
of this inadequacy of supply was a keen competition for
desirable men on the part of the various Presbyteries
east and west, the principle of selection being too often
every man for himself, with the result that in spite of
stern regulations by the Home Mission Committee against
"private arrangement, " the Conveners nearest the source
of supply, for obvious reasons, often fared much better
than those more remote. And although the Home Mis-
sion Committee made earnest efforts to furnish the Super-
intendent with his full quota of men, it came to pass that
when the supply was exhausted, many Western fields
were still vacant.
In 1885, the situation was so serious that the Superin-
tendent was sent to Union and Princeton Theological
Seminaries in search of men. His visit to Princeton is
described by one who has given long and distinguished
service to the West and who still holds an honoured place
in his Church.
256
GETTING HIS MEN 257
" As I sat one evening in my room at the l Old Semi-
nary/ Princeton, in February, 1885, a rap was heard at
the door. Thinking some friendly neighbour was com-
ing, I roared out in student fashion, * Come ! '
" Slowly the door swung back, and there, as if waiting
a more formal invitation, stood a tall, gaunt-looking
stranger. I arose and assumed a civilized demeanour
when the stranger advanced and, extending his hand,
said, 'How do you do, sir? My name is Eobertson,
from the Canadian Northwest. I saw your name, sir, in
the directory in the hall, and came to your room think-
ing there might have been an error in one of the initials.
We had an E. C. Murray in our Western work last sum-
mer, who is taking a post-graduate course somewhere,
and I thought possibly it might be he who roomed here/
"To set him at his ease on the matter of intrusion, I
said :
" 'No, sir, I am S. C. Murray, and I am very glad to
see you, Mr. Eobertson. I have been reading a good
deal about our Northwest, and I have thought of ventur-
ing west myself when I get through/
"There was a sudden light in the eye as he almost
greedily asked, ' Are you a Canadian ! '
"'Iain.'
" l When do you graduate ? '
"'This year/
" 'How many Canadians have you in Princeton this
year ! >
" 'Nineteen altogether/
" ' How many graduate f '
"'Five/
" ' Where could I see these men? I am most anxious
to meet with all the Canadian students before I leave to-
morrow/
" 'If you will remain here, I will go at once and ask
258 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
them to meet you, and I shall be very glad to have you
occupy this room this evening and to-morrow, as you may
be able to arrange interviews with the fellows.'
' ' i Thank you, sir, very much ; that is very kind of
you, indeed. '
"From that time Mr. Robertson was my very warm
friend, and never awaited an invitation to my home, and,
no matter when he came, he was a welcome guest.
" In a short time the Canadian boys came dropping in.
That evening and the next forenoon we heard of the great
Canadian West, its resources, its vastness, its future.
' How about the winters ? ' i How are settlers supplied
with fuel ? ' i How will the rebellion affect missions ? '
i Do you think the country will ever be well settled ? '
All manner of questions were put, not forgetting i What
salary do you pay your men ? ' of course. I shall never
forget the magnificent confidence of the man as, with one
prophetic sweep, he brushed aside all the questioners'
doubts by exclaiming :
" l If there is anything, young gentlemen, in Divine
Providence, I cannot believe that He has locked up such
vast resources as are found in the Canadian West, with-
out intending that country to be one day well populated.'
" He dipped into the future as far as human eye could
see, saw the vision of the West and all the wonder that
would be. I had to attend lectures part of the day, but
had opportunity to see a good deal of the man and hear
a good deal of the West. When we were alone he said :
" ' I want to tell you about my coming here. A few
of us met in Toronto, and we were feeling keenly the
need of men. We knelt in prayer to ask Divine guid-
ance. Immediately upon rising, two or three of the Com-
mittee said almost simultaneously, "Mr. Robertson, go
down to Union and Princeton and see what you can do."
I left Toronto at once, and you know, sir, how I got to
GETTING HIS MEN
259
your room. And as you have been waiting for the provi-
dential guidance as to your future field, I think you
should have no difficulty in settling the difficulty now.'
" And I hadn't."
The student came in July of that year, and with the
West he has been identified ever since, taking his full
share of the toil, exposure, and privation incident to the
planting of the Western Church, and winning and hold-
ing to the very end the affection and the esteem of his
great chief.
It was at the Assembly of 1885, as we have seen, that
the attempt was made to establish a Summer Session in
Theology in one of the colleges. But the college selected
by the Assembly declined the experiment, and the Super-
intendent and his Committee were left to struggle as best
they could with the question of supply for the Western
fields.
Like other questions, the Western service could be
viewed from different standpoints, with very different
results. There was the view-point of the theological
graduate seeking a congenial field of labour. And it
would not be surprising if Ontario, offering all the com-
forts and congenialities, physical, literary, social, of a
civilized community should make strong appeal over the
remote, laborious, unbroken fields of the far West. There
was the view-point also of the college professor, who, am-
bitious for his college and with an eye for future harvests,
would prefer to sow his seed in the fertile fields of
wealthy Ontario. It is not impossible to understand how
he might offer such advice as one professor did to a fa-
vourite graduate. "Oh, Mr. Blank, there is surely no
need for you to go West. You would find no difficulty
in securing a good congregation in Ontario." Of course,
there were other students and other professors ; students
whose ears were open to the call of service without regard
260 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
to place or circumstance ; students to whom the call to
difficulty, privation, and peril came with irresistible force,
and who stood ready to follow the trail whether leading
east or west. There were professors, too, who placed
Church before College and who were quick to recognize
the day of opportunity for the Church and for Canada.
These students and these professors were the joy of the
Superintendent's heart. His view-point in regard to
Western missions was very easily arrived at. The future
of Canada was bound up with that of the country lying
beyond the Great Lakes. The concern of the Church was
that the foundations of empire in that vast land should
be laid in righteousness. The rapid development of that
country created immediate and pressing demand for mis-
sionary effort. Before all other fields this took prefer-
ence, and for these present formative years the claims of
this work upon the Canadian Church were paramount.
With him it was The West, The West, and ever The
West. The vastness of responsibility, the magnificence
of opportunity, the urgency of need kindled in his heart
a fire that never burned low, much less died out. He
could never get all his fields filled, and in consequence he
was always hungry for men, and the longer the list of his
vacancies, the fiercer this hunger grew. From college to
college he went year after year haranguing, appealing,
pleading for men and with varying success.
" I am going, " he writes, " to all the colleges to advo-
cate a larger number of grads going West. We must
advance in our present policy. Four or five licentiates
went to Princeton this winter to take a post-graduate
course, simply because not called last summer and they
will come out next spring fresh like an old maid the
second term. Oh, the folly of thinking you have a call
to preach, and will not hear a voice from any place but
Ontario !"
GETTING HIS MEN 261
In a letter to that sturdy pioneer missionary, Eev.
D. G. McQueen, he says with fine irony :
"Fort Saskatchewan should have an ordained man
now if possible, but men are very scarce, and our young
men religiously avoid missions and augmented congrega-
tions. Providence never guides their steps to them. He
seems to take charge of places with large salaries and
comfortable surroundings, and missions 'and such 7 are
left to . So I interpret the cant I am compelled to
hear.' 7
Successive disappointments wrought in him a distrust
of the motives animating some of those studying for the
Gospel ministry. To a Western Convener he allows him-
self to write as follows :
" Our young graduates in the East think that God calls
them to places where the work is easy, the meals good
and the beds soft, and that a call where work is hard and
the climate severe must be from the evil one, and I fear
they act on this impression.' 7
To another he writes in a somewhat severe strain in
regard to the supply for a difficult British Columbia
field:
"As for Princeton, I do not think that we have got
the man yet that will suit. I am afraid that the most of
our men have neither grit nor leg enough to climb 5,000
feet and travel thirty-five miles in the specified time, and
we don't want any Mr. F 7 s to go in there. Mission-
ary fakirs are the worst fakirs, and it would seem as if
Canada was getting quite a number of them now. I
think they should be left severely alone, and I am of the
opinion, moreover, that some men are possessed not so
much of love for mission work as of hatred for other
work. These are not the men for us. 77
There is no doubt of that, for these are the men whose
courage will break, to the ruin of the cause and the dis-
262 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
courageinent of all who labour in it. But the Superin-
tendent has in a marked degree a saving sense of humour,
and a gleam of this same grim humour of his lights up
his most doleful letters.
* ' Men not available, and although you could make
even a husky team 'get* by picturesque profanity, you
cannot start an ordinary Ontario man. He simply looks
at you, rubs his hands, and says, * I think I shall stay at
home this winter. I'll think about it in the spring. I
hope I am not disappointing you.' Keep F at
Beaver and M at Leduc better a dinner of herbs
than starvation."
In the following manner he strives to bring comfort to
a Western Convener sorely disappointed in the quality of
the supply sent him :
" Your letters are always welcome, and there is no
mistaking your fist, but you were in bad humour when
you wrote the last. We could have stationed your men
for you, but we did not think that quite fair, and so sent
them through that you might put the big ox in the wide
stall and the small one in the narrow. And, truth to
tell, we took some of them because they offered for a
year, on the certificate of members of the Committee ; our
eyes never beheld them. Faith plays a very important
part in the appointments of the Committee. S has
backed out, and R was sent to take his place. He is
not much to look at, but he is a good one to work so I
am told. I take all responsibility for your appoint-
ments. If you get some hickory sticks and some plain
basswood, people are unreasonable in supposing that you
can change the inferior into the superior timber."
The Superintendent was especially critical of those who
would pick and choose their spheres of labour. One
year he was sorely put out by the attitude of a number of
men who, finding it impossible to secure appointments to
GETTING HIS MEN 263
the Foreign Mission field for which, they had volunteered,
declined service in his beloved West.
"I pleaded the case with them," he writes, "and
finally a number of them promised to lay the matter be-
fore the Lord. I told them that they need not take the
trouble, for I could tell them now what the answer would be,
for I had found that whenever a man proposed to ask the
Lord about Western work, the Lord as a rule indicated a
less laborious sphere. Indeed, if I were to judge by
the experience of these men, I would be forced to believe
that the Lord had a kind of grudge against the West.' 7
He discovered a peculiarly fine vein of sarcasm in deal-
ing with men who shrank from the hardships of mission-
ary life and were fertile in excuse. In the following
manner he writes a British Columbia Convener :
1 1 A number of men were approached with a view to
going to Horsefly, but all complained of some ailment or
physical defect that seemed to incapacitate them for this
field. One had something the matter with his spine, an-
other had his back wrenched by a chair being pulled
from under him at college, a third could not ride with-
out becoming seasick, the mother of a fourth was old, the
father of another delicate and he could not go away so
far, while the sixth was engaged to be married and
Horsefly was not a place to which to take a wife. I hope
that next spring so many of the men will not offer ex-
cuses of that kind when approached."
The Superintendent used to relate with grim relish an
experience with a college graduate, a young man of fine
ability and of genuine missionary spirit, who, under the
inspiration of one of those great addresses of the Superin-
tendent's, offered for Western work. Greatly delighted
with his spirit and with his appearance, the Superin-
tendent selected a field in British Columbia remote from
civilization and calling for very considerable self-denial.
264 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
"But to my surprise, sir," said the Superintendent,
relating the incident, "the very next morning I received
a letter declining the appointment. I afterwards learned
the cause. This sudden change of mind was due to his
young lady and her family. For on hearing the news of
the appointment, it appears that the mother burst into
tears, the sister went into hysterics and the young lady
herself lapsed into a succession of swoons from which
nothing would recall her but a promise that her lover
would abandon forever so desperate a venture as a British
Columbia mission field. I was hardly surprised to learn, ' '
he added with evident relish, * l that within a year that
engagement was broken. And for his sake, sir, I was
glad of it.' >
There were times when the Superintendent allowed his
disappointment and desperation to extend the sickly hue
of suspicion from the students to the college in which they
were trained, and to the professors whose stamp they were
supposed to bear.
"There is something sadly wrong," he writes, " about
our young men and the mission field, and the same dis-
ease seems to trouble the American Church, as their re-
ports disclose. People are praying for a revival of relig-
ion ; the dry places of our Church, the places that need
most to be revived, are the colleges, including the profess-
ors, for had the professors done their duty all the years
of the past, the state of things we have would not exist.
The Church has left the College to forage all over the
Church for itself; the professors, consequently, wish as
many of their own students as possible to be settled in
Ontario and in good charges, so that the congregations of
these men may help the College. There is, consequently,
no effort made to keep the frontier before the students.
Nor do professors go out to see the field for themselves j
they stick about the towns or go to Britain, watering-
GETTING HIS MEN 2C5
places, etc., and the wants of the field are not known.
The American Assembly is bringing this matter before
the colleges, and, evidently, if their students shirk the
work, the Assembly would like to know why. I wish to
visit these colleges ere long and tell the students a few
plain things. "
And without a doubt this wish was gratified to his own
relief and, let us hope, to the wholesome stirring of these
same dry bones.
On another occasion, hearing that a college professor
had been criticising a proposal to bring out men from
Britain, he proceeded to deal with the situation in the
following manner :
" I got him into the chair in a meeting in his own col-
lege last week, and gave him an exposition of the situa-
tion, and showed how absurd it would be for us to have
work undone, asking British people to help us to do it,
getting their financial help, and yet refusing their men,
when our own refused to go even when subsidized by
British funds. I told of my experience of writing to
nearly thirty graduates last autumn, and of getting one a
solitary grad. to go. He had nothing to say, but affirmed
that he was favourable to men going west. My reply
was that his students did not heed his advice then, for
since I was Superintendent we had got but an average of
half a man a year.' 7
The need of missionaries for Western supply at length
passed beyond the bearing point, and compelled the
serious attention of the whole Church. In 1891, the ques-
tion of a Summer Session in Theology was revived.
Overtures requesting the establishment of such a session
were presented to the General Assembly from the Presby-
teries of Toronto and of Brandon. These overtures were
discussed with more than ordinary eloquence and energy,
and were sent to a Committee representing almost all the
266 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
great departments of the Church's work. The Committee
laboured with the proposal for many hours and finally re-
ported unfavourably to the proposed change. At this
juncture a Western representative, Professor Bryce,
backed up by Professor Scriinger of Montreal, submitted
an amendment asking for the establishment of a Summer
Session in Manitoba College. This was fiercely opposed,
but at length it was given to another Western representa-
tive to suggest a solution that seemed to indicate the way
of least resistance. On motion of the Rev. HughMcKel-
lar, the matter was remitted to the various Presbyteries
for judgment. The following year forty-six Presbyteries
reported, thirty-three favouring the establishment of a
Summer Session and twenty -three expressing preference
for Manitoba College. This report was again referred to
a Committee, large and influential. Once more the Com-
mittee laboured with the question and referred the whole
matter back to the Assembly. A motion to lay on the
table was proposed and lost. Finally, on motion of Rev.
D. M. Gordon, former minister of Knox Church, Winni-
peg, the Assembly agreed that a session in Theology
should be held in the summer of 1893 in Manitoba Col-
lege, which session was duly held, Principal Grant, Pro-
fessors Maclaren, Scrimger and Thomson, and the Rev.
Peter Wright of Portage la Prairie, assisting the staff of
Manitoba College.
To the Assembly of 1893 the Superintendent was able
to report that during the previous winter, in anticipation
of the Summer Session, twenty-six Mission stations, with
a constituency of over 1,200 Presbyterian families, had
enjoyed Gospel ordinances and with an increased expend-
iture of only $1,400. The Summer Session was proved
to be an unqualified success, and for nine years continued
to give most valuable service to the Church, both west
and east.
GETTING HIS MEN 2G7
But in spite of the relief thus afforded, the phenomenal
expansion of settlement consequent upon the growing
volume of immigration into Western Canada, rendered
the supply of mission fields increasingly difficult, until in
1900 the Superintendent in his report is forced to say
somewhat bitterly :
"For a number of years past the supply of mission-
aries has been inadequate for winter service, and the work
of the Church has accordingly suffered. Last winter,
seventeen missions were without supply, and several more
with only partial supply. This spring, after all the men
available for Western work were selected, there were still
fourteen vacancies. Subsequently, eight of those ap-
pointed declined to serve in the West, bringing the
vacancies up to twenty-two. By getting men from Britain
and the United States, by appointing graduates of the
Bible Training School in Toronto, and through the efforts
of a few gentlemen who have the interests of the West at
heart, a number of these vacancies have been filled, but
eleven missions at this moment stand vacant. This lack
of supply has done great harm in the West already ; it
has inflicted severe, irreparable losses on the Church in
Northern Ontario, and should be remedied. The supply
of men in the Church seems ample. The moment a
prominent congregation in the West is vacant, letters
pour in asking for a hearing many of them from men
who never had a charge. Were the General Assembly to
require all graduates to labour a year in the mission field
before settling, great relief would come to Home Mission
work. And if, while engineering, law, and medical
students are salted with heavy fees, the Church exacts no
fees from the theological student, surely it is a small thing
that they give one year's service to advance her work, es-
pecially when they are liberally remunerated. And if not,
why should the students not pay for their own education f "
268 THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
Eleven fields unmanned meant between thirty and forty
preaching stations uusupplied, and this, to the Superin-
tendent, seemed well-nigh intolerable. In that year over-
tures from the Presbytery of Algoina and the Synod of
British Columbia, with a strong resolution from the
Assembly's Home Mission Committee, were presented
to the Assembly, asking, among other things, that the
course in theology should be extended from three to four
years, the last year to be spent in a mission field. The
overture was, as usual, debated at great length, referred
to a Committee, killed and decently buried beneath what
proved to be a perfectly futile resolution, the truth
being that the General Assembly knew full well that
the democratic spirit in the Presbyterian Church now
and then runs, to seed to the utter subversion of all dis-
cipline, and that in consequence it was impossible to
enforce any such regulation as that desired by the over-
ture.
XXVII
HANDLING HIS MEN
IT was hardly to be expected that the Superintendent
could escape criticism of his method of handling
his men. To him the work was ever first, before all
else, and he, therefore, demanded and expected from his
men loyalty, sincere and complete. And this, as a rule,
he received. Occasionally, however, it was his misfor-
tune to find among the ranks of his workers the lazy, the
shiftless, the selfish, the unfaithful, and with these
he was relentlessly severe. A minister repeats with
great delight a story he once heard from the Superin-
tendent :
" I remember him telling me of a student whose zeal
was less than his indolence. He was in charge of a mis-
sion somewhere near Eegina, and lived in rooms which
were attached to the church. Dr. Eobertson drove over
one morning, knowing that he was due to preach in an
outlying station ten miles away at eleven o'clock.
" 'I knocked at the outer door at ten o> clock, sir, and
when I got no answer I concluded that he had started on
his journey. However, I opened the door and walked in.
I went upstairs and rapped on the door of his bedroom.
I heard a sleepy voice say, " Come in," and I opened the
door and found him yet in bed. He preached that morn-
ing without his breakfast, sir. 7 "
A lazy minister or missionary, and he, alas, is not
altogether a rara avis, drew his unmeasured contempt.
Writing to a Western Convener, he thus discourses in
regard to ministers of this class :
269
270 THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
" I fear that the indifference you refer to in ministerial
ranks is not confined to Kirk wall and Strabane j I meet
it widely, and I am inclined to think it is doing more
harm than the Higher Criticism. Men who work hard
themselves are intolerant of idle and lazy ministers.
Men appreciate an industrious, hard-working minister,
and they despise the lazy slouch. But how are you to
get such men retired t They will not resign, they cannot
work, to beg they are ashamed. "
In a British Columbia mining town in the Boundary
Country, no end of trouble might have been saved had
the missionary in charge been simply faithful to his
duty. As it was, he shirked, to the permanent injury
of the congregation and of the cause of religion in that
town. The Superintendent visited the town a little later.
The missionary then in charge tells the story :
" A year before, a young man had been in charge, and
had been exceedingly popular. All agreed that if
Blank had just said 'build a church/ the church would
have been built with little trouble and no strife. Be-
sides, the town was then in its most prosperous condi-
tion. That was the tide in the affairs that was missed.
But Blank had not * bothered/ Indeed, Dr. Eobertson
had heard that he had said he did not want to meddle
with money matters. How the Doctor did hold this up
to scorn ! l Didn't want to meddle with money matters !
A very fine sort of gentleman, indeed ! None of your
coarse-grained, commercial sort. Didn't want to meddle !
He was too downright lazy. That is what was the matter
with him. Popular preacher ! Liked afternoon teas,
I suppose. Liked the ladies to tell him how well he had
preached on Sunday. But to build a church ! No, he
was of too fine, ethereal material to meddle with such
mundane matters. What did we pay him for anyway ?
What did we send him here for ? To have a good time f
HANDLING HIS MEN 271
To be popular ? That's not the kind of man we want in
these mountains. 7 '
And, indeed, it added not a little to the Superintend-
ent's burden that he had to assume the load too often that
these men refused to bear. While he was full of en-
couragement for the " tenderfoot," he had little sym-
pathy with a shirker, and exerted himself to develop
in his men that indifference to discomfort, toil, and even
danger, that was so conspicuous a characteristic of him-
self.
" Talking with a whining student one day," says one
of his Conveners, " who was relating what he considered
hardships in the way of uncomfortable beds in which
there were crawling things, and irregular meals not
always prepared in .the most tasty form, the Superin-
tendent began very sympathetically telling some of his
own experiences. Sleeping one night in a dug-out,
wrapped in his blanket on the clay floor which was
several feet below the surface of the ground, he felt cold,
clammy things on his neck and face. He would brush
them off and turn over, and by the time he was getting
off to sleep again there would be another visitation,
and so he kept brushing them away the whole night.
" l And what were these things f ' asked the wondering
student.
"'Well, you see the floor was two feet below the
ground, and there was an inclined approach cut out
towards the door. The ground was worn away several
inches lower than the door, and the lizards would fall
over the edge of the cutting and crawl under the door,
and during the night creep over the floor. And these
lizards were enjoying a warm nest on my neck and face.'
(i The poor student stood horrified. The Superintend-
ent enthused for a few moments on lice and lizards and
snakes, as though encounters therewith were as valuable
272 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
as theology in a true missionary's education, and the
complaining dude subsided. His hardships vanished
into thin air. He was rebuked and shamed, but could
not reply, and the conversation drifted to other themes."
Writing to one of his Western Conveners, he descants
thus severely upon the lack of heroism in some of the
students of this present age :
" This afternoon, without giving your name, I told the
students that there was need of a Professor of Ethics in
our Theological Colleges to teach men that when work
was not done pay was not to be expected. I find that two
or three men that shirked work and were not paid, have
been poisoning the minds of men against the West.
. . . In the ordinary student of to-day there is a good
deal of poltroonery, and hence cold frightens him when
any Northwest point is mentioned."
Greatly disturbed over the failure of men to keep
appointments, he wrote to the Rev. C. W. Gordon, who
was at that time assisting him in his work, one day as
follows :
" Why would not A go to Melita? M would
do good work there, but he seems to be afraid of getting too
much work to do. His grandmother, mother, aunt, and
the whole connection were particularly severe on men
broad in their theology, or in search of an easy berth it
would be a pity if they have raised an over- fastidious
man under their own roof. But try him."
,The lash of sarcasm once fell sharp and keen upon a
student whose intellectual indolence and a certain fatal
facility of speech led him to suppose that no serious prep-
aration was necessary for his sermons on the Lord's Day.
It was after a meeting of a British Columbia Presbytery,
and the Superintendent was chatting informally with a
number of the men, that methods of preparing sermons
came up for discussion. One said he carefully wrote his
HANDLING HIS MEN 273
sermons and generally read them. This particular student
was loud in his condemnation of this laborious method,
stating that he never read his sermons. The Superin-
tendent looked at him steadily and then blandly asked,
" Mr. Blank, do you ever read anything I " The student
lapsed into silence and the subject was speedily changed.
His demand for absolute devotion wrought in him a
pity not unmingled with contempt for the man who was
determined at all costs to enter upon the married state.
With the Superintendent, even the sacred and inalienable
right of a man to marry was held to be hardly a sufficient
justification for his refusal to take a difficult field
demanding the service of an unmarried man. With
the Apostle Paul, he considered the present distress suf-
ficiently severe to warrant a postponement of marriage.
" What is the meaning," he used to say, " of this un-
seemly haste on the part of our graduates to be married f
One would think that they considered the ministry
chiefly as a stepping-stone to matrimony. Can they not
wait a year or two I "
A young minister who had rendered fine service in the
mission field and was now the pastor of a settled congre-
gation, tells the following story :
' ' When he had made several remarks which seemed to
be designedly personal, I said :
1 i i Well, Doctor, it is not at all necessary for you to
warn me against that mistake. I have no intention of
entering the married state in the near future. In fact, I
have no one in view, and it is exceedingly doubtful
whether or not I shall ever marry. '
" Immediately on hearing this, the Doctor's look of ab-
straction vanished ; he sat upright in his chair, stretched
out his hand and said with great animation :
" 'Give me your hand, my boy. You are just a man
after my own heart.' "
274 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
This young minister has persisted with perhaps un-
necessary fidelity in the path of celibacy.
The Superintendent could not bear with anything that
savoured of indifference to the claims of honour on the
part of his missionaries. With him, an appointment ac-
cepted carried with it an obligation which honour de-
manded should be fulfilled. Too often students, after ac-
cepting appointments, would calmly write announcing a
change of intention, with never a consideration of the ef-
fect of such change upon the plans of the Superintendent
or upon the interests of the field. Of course, this made
confusion and carried disappointment to all concerned.
In reference to a case of apparently aggravated selfish-
ness, the Superintendent writes thus vigorously to one of
his Conveners :
"I have read Mr. M 's letter, and I think it could
only have been written by a man half out of his head.
If he is not satisfied, and will not be satisfied till he gets
to the Coast, then he can go and stay there at his own ex-
pense. The Home Mission Fund is not in existence to
gratify whims on the part of unreasonable men. The
missions on the Coast are not such as he can supply, and
we must be judges in such cases. He says he has claims.
What are they t For that matter, no one has claims. He
would not do at Penman, for he would have miles and miles
to row, and sometimes in a rough sea. He would not do
at Northfield, for he would have a drive of eighteen miles
out to Englishman's Eiver. At Cooke, we have Lloyd
whose home is on the Coast, and his appointment saved
us travelling expenses. Fender would give him constant
rowing, and this he could not do. Mt. Lehman and
Surrey require driving amidst roads almost impassable for
four months. Mission is supplied by Thomson whose re-
tention there saves travelling expenses. Mr. M was
placed at Swift Current because trains passed there in the
HANDLING HIS MEN 275
daytime. Were he at Gleichen, Sicamous, or Ashcroft,
he would have night trains all the time. This was what
he wanted to avoid. He wanted a mission where there
was no driving he could not stand the exposure. This
we gave him.
" I write you in this way that you may know the
situation. This man wants the moon, and will not be
satisfied unless you give it to him. I do not think he
will do in Banff. Copeland writes me he did not do well
at Saskatoon, and that his money cannot be collected."
As the work grew, this breaking of faith on the part of
missionaries began to embarrass so seriously, not only the
Superintendent, but the Conveners in the various Presby-
teries as well, that the matter became the subject of the
following overture to the General Assembly by the Pres-
bytery of Minnedosa, through the Synod of Manitoba and
the Northwest Territories :
1. Whereas ministers and missionaries have made
application to the Home Mission Committee for work,
received regular appointments to fields within the bounds
of Minnedosa Presbytery, and have accepted the same
and have in several instances failed to fill the appoint-
ments;
2. Whereas such failures have embarrassed the Ex-
ecutive of the Presbytery and created friction between
said Executive and the field to which they have been ap-
pointed ;
3. Whereas the work of the Church in important fields
has been seriously retarded and the cause of Christ in-
jured by such failures, and
4. Whereas such disappointments tend to weaken the
faith of our people in the general integrity of our minis-
ters and missionaries, and the vexed delays in supply
which inevitably follow, together with the consequent
suspense and uncertainty of future supply, rapidly des-
276 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
troys the confidence of our people in the system of supply,
and is leading to unrest and dissatisfaction with the
general polity of our Church ;
Therefore, the Presbytery of Minnedosa humbly over-
tureth, etc.
The overture was transmitted to the General Assembly
simpliciter and by the General Assembly was referred to
the Assembly's Home Mission Committee, and there dis-
appeared from view. It is an index of the difficulty of
administration often experienced by the Superintendent,
that the Synod refused to express approval of the over-
ture, but transmitted it to the Assembly simpliciter.
Occasionally the Presbytery of Winnipeg, as the gate-
way Presbytery and the Presbytery most easily convened,
would be asked to ordain a man en route to a Western
field. Sometimes the Presbytery, for one reason and an-
other, demurred. After one such refusal the Superin-
tendent writes to a Western Presbytery as follows :
1 i The Presbytery of Winnipeg is too large its men
are for so small a matter as the ordination of a minister.
An elephant has a trunk to pick up small things ; the
metropolitan Presbytery was made without a trunk.
Ordain S yourselves. It is well that efficiency does
not depend on ordination. "
But he never sulked, nor cherished any feeling of bit-
terness. The work was too great to permit of anything
paltry in spirit or in policy. Nor was he ever known to
cherish any feeling of bitterness even against a student,
no matter how grievously he had disappointed him. He
was ever ready to give a man his second chance. This
spirit is shown in a marked degree in a case which
caused very considerable trouble at the time. A student
employed in the Presbytery of Calgary, left his field
without leave from his Convener, and was, in conse-
quence, refused his Presbyterial certificate to college.
HANDLING HIS MEN 277
The young man betook himself to an American college,
and, returning the year following, applied to the Assem-
bly to have his year allowed. The Assembly granted his
request, and the young man was joyfully proceeding on
his way. But his Convener was a man not to be trifled
with, and he promptly entered a caveat. The young
man's course was blocked, and so continued until, upon
recommendation of his Presbytery, the caveat was with-
drawn. The Superintendent writes as follows to his
Convener about the matter :
" Enclosed please find the extract minute of the Pres-
bytery bearing on the Blank case. It was sent me by him,
with the simple request that I give my approval. The
Clerk wrote me saying he thought Blank had been suffi-
ciently punished, and that if you and I saw fit to release
him it would be well. The correspondence with the
Presbytery I have not seen, but judge in part what it was
by this resolution. Nor am I sure it was quite straight-
forward. I fear Mr. Blank suffers from 'lubricity of
memory J occasionally. However, this may be a lesson
to him for a long time, and it may be better to err on the
side of mercy than to hold the balance rigidly for justice.
However, write me and let me know your mind. I told
Blank I was sending the extract to you and that I would
write results later."
A second letter closes the incident :
" Yours of 14th January was duly received here to-day,
and, as you know, I entirely agree with your ' sizing up '
of Mr. Blank. Taking a conjunct view of the whole,
however, it is as well perhaps to err on the side of mercy.
I am more and more impressed, however, with the lax-
ness of some of our young men, and such conduct, if perse-
vered in, will do much harm. Many of them need a course
in Ethics rather than in Theology. 7 '
The financial arrangement under which missionaries
278 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
were employed, was often the cause of misunderstanding
and heartburning. It was as follows : Upon recom-
mendation of the Presbytery's Convener, or of the Super-
intendent of Missions, the financial ability of the field
was estimated at so much per week, the balance required
to bring up the amount to full salary was guaranteed by
the Assembly's Home Mission Committee. It was part
of the duty of the missionary in charge to see that
the field implemented its part of the bargain, and,
indeed, that it did its full share in the support of ordi-
nances.
Not infrequently men were found who cherished griev-
ances against the Superintendent, the Convener, and, in-
deed, the whole Western work, because of the failure on
the part of fields to pay the full amount pledged. In
many cases these men were discovered to be those who
had failed, through ignorance or carelessness or inca-
pacity, to attend with proper diligence to the financial
side of their work, and hence left their fields with their
salaries in arrears. These excited in no slight degree the
wrath of the Superintendent. Upon this subject the fol-
lowing extract from a letter gives us his mind :
"Complaints as to treatment are so common that one
scarcely knows what to say j and they are more common
in other Churches, and rest on a better foundation than
in ours. We had a meeting here with the students last
week, when grievances were ventilated, and the matter
of deficits and arrears discussed. I frankly told the men
that there was another side, and gave instance after in-
stance where men complained where there was no room,
because presents made to students amounted to more than
the deficit. Frequently men do not discharge their whole
duty and people refuse to pay, of which instances were
given ; men are not acceptable, have not the conditions of
acceptable service in them, and such men are apt to have
HANDLING HIS MEN 279
arrears. If in every case these are to be paid, then we
must cease to employ them. Here one man has arrears
every half year, and yet has a grant of five dollars a
week ; another follows him and has no arrears, and yet
has no grant at all, does not ask any. Should the Home
Mission Committee pay a grant of five dollars arrears and
all? I doubt it."
The meeting referred to was held in Manitoba College
and was the climactic result of accumulated grievances on
the score of arrears. A member of the Home Mission
Committee who was present at that indignation meeting,
thus describes it :
" The room was filled with men hot and apparently
thirsting for vengeance. A sympathetic professor occu-
pied the chair. It looked like a bad half hour for the
Superintendent. The sympathetic professor stated the
reasons for calling the meeting a growing feeling of
dissatisfaction with the methods of administration of
Home Mission work. Many students had suffered
financially, some so seriously as to be prevented from
continuing their college course. There was a strong
feeling that something ought to be done. The Superin-
tendent was listening eagerly.
"' That's right,' he said shortly, when the professor
had finished. ' Now let us hear the facts. >
"The facts were slow in coming. At length up rose
a student, modest, with the reputation as a hard worker.
Hesitatingly he stated his case. His field had been un-
able to pay the amount estimated, and he was the suf-
ferer to the extent of $60. He would not have spoken,
but from a sense of duty. He sat down amid enthusi-
astic applause. Encouraged by the applause, student
number two rose and, touching somewhat lightly upon
his own case, launched forth a statement of grievances
in general, going somewhat fully into both ancient and
280 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
recent history. Another followed and then another,
telling with variations the same story.
a The case looked black for the administration, and
now came the defence. All waited for the long-looked-
for opportunity to i heckle ' the Superintendent. But
the opportunity did not come that afternoon, nor ever,
for in not more than half a dozen sentences the Superin-
tendent had them on the defensive by enunciating two
principles. First, it was the duty of the missionary to
keep his Convener informed of the financial condition
of his field, so that any discrepancy might be promptly
attended to. Secondly, the supreme end of the Church
in conducting Home Mission work was not the furnish-
ing of students with the means of completing their college
course. That part was purely incidental. Then he pro-
ceeded to elaborate and illustrate his first principle.
There were cases of real hardship ; for instance, student
number one. In his field frost had cut down the crop,
there was no money, consequently, the field was unable
to pay its share. The student was too modest to com-
plain, though he should have reported. 'But we all
know Mr. Blank. He should have made a claim for
special consideration ; such a claim would have been
met.' (Cheers.) And every such claim would be met
when properly presented. (More cheers.) But there
were other students. And for half an hour he held up
to the admiring and delighted gaze of at least a part of
his audience, a series of pictures of men who had left
their fields with salaries in arrears. One with luxurious
habits had bought freely grapes, cigars, etc., but could
not pay his board bill. Another was too spiritually
minded to organize a Board of Management, much less
suggest a subscription list. A third was of so studious
a turn of mind that he more frequently wore out the seat
of his trousers than the soles of his boots. A fourth ex-
HANDLING HIS MEN 281
hausted his energies in attending young ladies to picnics,
Sunday-school and other. (Great applause.) A fifth
disgusted his congregation with slovenly sermons, conse-
quently they * would not pay for slop.' A sixth came
away with a large present in his pocket, leaving the
Home Mission Committee to pay arrears. A seventh
and so the list went on, gleaming with humour, irony, and
now and then with flashing indignation.
"By this time every student was apparently happy,
those with real grievances satisfied that their claims
would be adjusted, the others unwilling to classify
themselves in that terrible list of incompetents. But
the real defence of the administration came in the
elaboration of the second principle, and here the Super-
intendent turned himself loose on the theme that lay so
near to his heart the necessity, the opportunity for
Home Mission work. Statistics in regard to country
and Church, stories of missionary heroism were poured
forth with marvellous richness of colouring and detail.
"The close was a word of warm commendation of the
missionaries before him who had toiled and suffered in
the work, till they were listening with shining .eyes and,
I have no doubt, each with a lump in his throat. Then
they gathered round him, each eager to get that quick,
warm, downward grip of the Superintendent's hand.
And that was the end of that indignation meeting."
But where he could not meet his missionaries face to
face, and where financial grievances were complicated
with questions of rights of Presbytery and of Presbyters,
the trouble assumed serious proportions. This was the
case with the Calgary Presbytery. The fields in this
Presbytery consisted chiefly of vast reaches of sparsely-
settled ranching country, of long drawn strips of railway
lines, and of a few sordid and drink-sodden mining camps.
The work was depressing and difncult, the financial
282 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
returns from mission fields always precarious and often
meagre. The Home Mission grants, therefore, were
always large, and these the Committee sought steadily
to reduce. Under the inspiration of a visit from the
Convener or Superintendent, the fields would promise
liberal support, but from any one of a variety of causes,
the failure of crop or of cattle market, the shifting of
population, the inadaptability of the missionary, these
promises often failed of fulfillment. Whatever the cause,
all faults were laid at the Superintendent's door. He
was the scapegoat for all offenders.
An appeal for relief from grievances was addressed to
the Assembly's Home Mission Committee by the Presby-
tery, to deal with which the Home Mission Committee
appointed a special Committee, with Rev. Dr. Laing as
Convener. The finding of the Committee is embodied
in the report, of which the following is an extract,
transmitted by Dr. Laing to the Rev. J. C. Herdman,
Clerk of the Presbytery and prince of Home Mission
Conveners :
" It is evident that in past years many things happened
which imposed inconvenience and even hardships on mis-
sionaries. As, however, not a few of these unhappy oc-
currences have as far as possible been rectified, and the
parties more immediately interested seem to be willing
to let the past rest, while more particularly under the
new arrangement for conducting the Synod's business,
every effort will be made to prevent the recurrence of
such things, the General Assembly's Committee does not
deem it necessary to make further reference to the alleged
grievances.
" As to the remedies suggested by the Presbytery, the
Committee carefully considered these with the following
result :
"1. They cannot approve of the suggestion that the
HANDLING HIS MEN 283
whole salary of missionaries shall be guaranteed by the
Assembly's Committee.
" 2. They think that any reduction in grants should be
arid naturally will be known to the Presbytery, and that
the missionary should be informed of the change ; also,
that some time should elapse between resolving on the
change and giving effect to it.
* 1 3. That no allowance can be made for Sabbaths dur-
ing which a minister is absent from his field except in
cases of sickness or inability to fulfill appointments.
* 1 4. That not only should Presbyteries have a voice in
estimating the amounts required from mission fields and
congregations, and in the appointments made to them,
but that the responsibility in these matters lies primarily
and chiefly on Presbyteries.
"5. It was resolved to refer to a small sub-committee
to prepare a plan for meeting travelling expenses from
the Eastern Provinces to Winnipeg ; and for expenses
from Winnipeg to the particular field of labour, for which
expenses alone the Assembly's Committee shall be respon-
sible.
"6. Also it was resolved, with the view of prevent-
ing misunderstandings, to issue to every missionary ap-
pointed by the Assembly's Committee a commission, stat-
ing in detail all the particulars connected with the ap-
pointment, and showing clearly what each missionary
may expect, without reference to the terms of the appoint-
ment of any other."
Beading between the lines, it is not hard to see that the
causes of trouble lay in the system rather than in the ad-
ministration. In reference to this, which was at the time
to the Superintendent a very painful episode, and all the
more because of his high regard for some of those actively
engaged in pushing this appeal, notably the Rev. Angus
Eobertson, than whom the Superintendent had no more
284 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
loyal friend in after-years, the judgment of the Rev. J. C.
Herdman will be illuminating :
' i The Presbytery of Calgary was formed in July, 1887.
When we met and began to get under way for work, we
found ourselves almost at a standstill caused by the un-
pleasant fact that so many of the missionaries of the
Presbytery (good men they were, too) had grievances, real
and alleged, which Dr. Robertson was supposed to be, or
was counted to be, responsible for. Actually then, the
first year of our life as a Presbytery had to go to getting
together a string of difficulties and disabilities and set-
ting them at length before the Assembly's Home Mission
Committee. I was clerk of Presbytery at the time. I
remember that many i grievances ' disappeared at the tell-
ing, but yet a number remained and had to be taken up
seriously. The final answer to all the counts is given in
Dr. Laing's communication. One or two individual
cases of hardship were dealt with, in a reassuring way,
outside this communication. On the whole, though the
grievance list began somewhat pointedly in the use of the
Superintendent's name, the progress of negotiations
showed increasingly that whatever grievances had existed
were grievances against the conditions, and to a certain
extent against the system of work, nowise against the
man who was in the first instance held responsible. Of
the missionaries then, in this Presbytery, who were most
insistent and vehement in their denunciations, one soon
after became the most devoted friend and admirer of the
Superintendent, and the other greatly modified the asper-
sions in which he had at first abounded."
It is pleasant to think that, for the last decade of his
life, the voice of criticism was never heard from those who
wrought under him or in cooperation with him in the
Western field. Mistakes might be made, and as the bur-
dens of the ever-growing work accumulated upon his
HANDLING HIS MEN 285
shoulders mistakes were made, but by that time men had
learned to know and appreciate the single-hearted devo-
tion and the sheer greatness of the man who was paying
out his life to his cause.
XXVIII
CARING FOR HIS MEN
IF the Superintendent worked his men hard and
made large demands upon their self-denial and their
loyalty, he gave them in return all he had of that
priceless gift of sympathy expressed not only in words,
but in deeds as well. Many a man in financial straits ap-
plied to the Superintendent for advice, and not only did
he receive advice, but also that financial aid he was too
sore at heart or too proud to ask. None knew better than
the Superintendent the severity of the trial imposed upon
the missionary, and more upon the missionary's wife, by
poverty. And none was quicker in sympathy and
readier to help with a loan, to tide over a period of em-
barrassment. And it is only just to say that where there
was an honest attempt at repayment, the Superintendent
was never known to humiliate his debtor by pressing for
payment. But where there was neither attempt to meet
the debt nor any sense of obligation apparent, as was too
frequently the case, the Superintendent's sense of honour
was offended and his righteous wrath would burn. He
considered it an injury to the honour of the Church that
a missionary should be careless of his financial obliga-
tions. In this regard he writes to a Western Convener as
follows :
"Mr. Blank wrote me about the balance in your hands
coming to me. He seems to be in straits, so I allow you
to remit him the amount, but when the twenty -five per
cent, is sent you from the Committee, I want you to retain
that for me. It is to me clear that unless Blank finances
286
CARING FOR HIS MEN 287
differently and better, lie is soon to get hopelessly in-
volved, and in such a case his connection with us cannot
continue. Please govern yourself accordingly. "
Apparently Mr. Blank, however, was able to work upon
the sympathies of the Superintendent, for a little later he
writes to the same Convener in this way :
" I was sorry to learn of Mr. Blank's difficulties, but
have no idea that his past will in any way be a lesson to
him. Those who know him and his family should never
have advocated his ordination. When once ordained, he
seems to have thought that he was to get a certain salary,
and up to and beyond this figure he pitched the scale of
his living, and when the part of the salary promised by
the people was not paid, he fell into arrears. There is
no use trying to keep him up at the present rate. My
idea was to get half of mine now and half next spring,
but this now seems impracticable. I must, however, have
part now, for I have obligations to meet, and must leave
it with you to do your best in the circumstances. He
begged me not to ask anything at present, but I could not
afford this, as at least a dozen men are in my debt and all
are asking favours. I question, in the light of my ex-
perience, whether in every case it would not be better to
let every man manage his own finances and learn from
the outset how to square his outlay with his income. Do
not let any of them get you involved. Keep your hands
off other people's paper, if you would escape being
scorched."
A very wise advice, indeed, but one exceedingly diffi-
cult to follow, especially by a man occupying a high po-
sition in the Church. We are glad to learn from the
following letter that Mr. Blank made an attempt to meet
his obligations :
" Yours enclosing check for fifty-eight dollars in part
payment of loan to Blank. I am willing to wait till
288 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
spring for balance, but see he does not wheedle you out
of it I could not trust myself when he begins to tell his
story as I cannot afford to lose this money. I am sorry
for him, but yet his foolish ways are at the bottom of the
whole trouble."
And these " foolish ways" are responsible, not only for
much misery to those immediately concerned, but to all
who seek in any way to assist them. Yet it is because of
these " foolish ways " of foolish men that wiser men must
bear their burdens. But whether the Superintendent
chose the wisest plan is open to question. Perhaps he
did, for though his method might be judged by many to
be wholly unbusinesslike and his benevolence to be wholly
misplaced, it may be that in the long run his folly proved
the highest wisdom. There is evidence still in existence
that by reason of these advances the Superintendent was
financially the poorer by many thousands of dollars. But
it is safe to say that he had compensations which could
not be estimated in the money market.
Before the Assembly's Home Mission Committee the
Superintendent invariably stood forth as the champion
of the West and of the Western missionary. Not un-
frequently strict justice and sound business principle
were upon the side of the Committee who were acting as
trustees for Church funds. The Superintendent's appeal
in such cases was based upon the quality of mercy and
that wider justice in which the element of humanity and
the claims of a common brotherhood have large place.
The late Superintendent of Missions for North Ontario,
the Rev. A. Findlay, whose wide experience in matters
of this kind lends weight to his words, gives an instance
in the following letter :
"How long ago I cannot say, nor who the man was,
but I remember the incident very distinctly. It appeared
that the Superintendent had sent a man to some new
CAKING FOR HIS MEN 289
point, counting on certain returns from the field, but had
been disappointed. There was due the missionary some-
where in the neighbourhood of $200, for which the Doctor
asked a special grant of the above sum. It was discussed
by the Committee at length. A vote was taken on the
motion ' that inasmuch as he had not consulted the Com-
mittee in the matter, it be not granted/ I can see the
Doctor yet, his tall figure towering over the head of the
Convener as he explained the circumstances to the breth-
ren. When the decision was announced, he resumed his
seat with the remark :
"'That is an honest debt. I promised him that he
should get it, and he shall. I will pay it out of my own
pocket/
"Later a motion to reconsider was carried, and the
amount passed."
This failure to consult the Committee was a sore point
with the brethren, and the cause of many a severe criti-
cism of their Superintendent, but all to no purpose. He
was far from headquarters, the necessity for prompt ac-
tion was imperative, hence the Superintendent acted and
explained afterwards to the Committee, to their amuse-
ment or to their fury. Finally they surrendered. The
Superintendent could not be " regulated.' 7
There were two passions at work in his heart, the pas-
sion of sympathy and a passion it was for the hard-
worked and poverty-stricken missionary, and the passion
to guard his own honour and that of his Church. He
was ever ready to show his personal interest in the work
of his missionaries, and his delight in its progress by a
contribution to that work. To a hard-working missionary
in Manitoba, famous as a builder of churches, he writes
as follows :
"Please find enclosed check for fifty dollars, being
twenty-five dollars contribution towards the Building
290 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Fund of the church at Arden, and twenty-five dollars of an
advance on salary. I wish very much I could have made
your Building Fund a larger contribution, but I have
more claims than usual this year.
"Wishing you every success in your work, and ex-
pressing my high appreciation of the spirit shown by you
and work done as a contribution to the Church."
A missionary striving to give u visibility " to the cause
in a British Columbia town, thus writes :
"I sent him an account of the progress we were making
towards building the church at Cascade. We had sub-
scriptions for twenty dollars, ten dollars, and so on down.
Shortly afterwards I received a letter from him express-
ing his great pleasure in hearing of the work at Cascade,
and adding, ' Put my name down on your twenty dollar
list. 7 I told him when I saw him later, that it was with
no thought of his contributing that I had sent him the
account.
" ' I know it. I know it,' he answered. ' But it does
me good to encourage the people and the missionary, and
it will do the people good to find that there are others
beside themselves interested in their welfare. 7 "
Upon another occasion he wrote a missionary who had
passed through an unhappy squabble with a sister de-
nomination in the matter of a union church, in which
squabble the Presbyterians had come off, as was usually
the case, second-best, as follows :
"But are his people willing to carry out Mr. H >s
dishonourable policy in the matter of services? The
building was said to be a union building, and all were to
share alike in it till they got places of worship of their
own. Will he not concede something on that score?
Were I in your place, however, I would arrange to put
up a shell of a church, the people giving as much as
possible, and the Church and Manse Board loaning you
CARING FOR HIS MEN 291
say $500. Why, with that and what your people could
do, should you not be able to erect a building without
plaster and without seats, but suitable for service? For
such a building I would try to send you fifty dollars my-
self. I shall try to visit you in September, but go on
now if you can. I shall write the Board to help you."
But far more than any financial help could be to his
men, was the sympathetic understanding of all their trials
and their needs. His visit to a missionary always brought
inspiration and fresh courage.
On one occasion it was the writer's great privilege to
accompany the Superintendent on a missionary tour
throughout Alberta and British Columbia. The visit to
Lethbridge, Alberta, then in charge of the Rev. Charles
McKillop, a man whose heroic service and whose personal
worth will ever be remembered with pride and affection
by those who knew him, was thus recorded at the time :
11 Between two and three in the morning we were mak-
ing our way to the manse, piloted by the minister, I ready
to drop at every step, but the chief apparently good for
an all-night walk. We spent next forenoon in the study,
talking about Lethbridge, its prospects, its depressions ;
the church, its standing financially and spiritually ; the
country about, the morals of the community, temperance,
Sabbath observance, the Mormon settlement not far
away, the state of the work there, etc. At first I
thought we were only having a friendly chat, but I soon
perceived that the Superintendent was doing his work,
and before the chat was over he had got full knowledge
of the congregation and its work, its strength and its
weakness, its successes and its failures ; he had got the
minister's judgment upon the prospects of the country,
with the facts upon which the judgment was based ; in
short, he had mastered the subject of Lethbridge. Dur-
ing this conversation he had been giving his opinion,
292 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
too, on many points, suggesting methods of work, point-
ing out defects, emphasizing the extreme importance of
maintaining a high standard in our Western Church, and
all in such a way that the minister, instead of feeling as
if he were being catechized, felt that he was having
a fine time, as, indeed, he was, and that Dr. Robertson
could spin a first-class yarn, which also was perfectly
true. Next morning, however, when we bade farewell
to Lethbridge, he left the minister and the minister's
wife in braver heart for their work, and that is much."
It was a continual source of wonder to his co-labourers
in the work how, by the touch of his personality, he
could lift a man out of discouragement and defeat into
hope and determination to win at all costs.
"I shall never forget, " writes one of his fellow-
labourers, " the new view I had of our Superintendent
one night as he sat in a dreary little room of a Western
hotel, trying to brace up a young missionary on his first
visit to the wild West. It was immediately after the
meeting of the Synod of Regina. The young man had
sat through the Synod, more and more impressed every
hour with the snap and swing of its procedure. The
wide outlook, the far-reaching plans, the calm courage
with which these men of the West assumed their respon-
sibilities, the absence of pettiness and especially of per-
sonal considerations, had stirred the young man's blood.
He was ready for anything heroic. But he had been
billed for Nelson, British Columbia, and was en route
to his field. On the way up, a British Columbia man
had been filling him up with ghastly stories about Nelson's
wickedness and Nelson's depravity, and had ended up
his tale by assuring the prospective missionary that the
town was dead, too dead to be buried. The missionary
was hesitating and unwilling to go forward ; not because
of the difficulties and terrors of the town, but because it
CARING FOR HIS MEN 293
was dead. He had only one life and he was unwilling to
waste it in a funeral service. He had in his hand a call
from a Western American town of 1,200 people, with no
church and no Christian service, offering him a fine
opportunity and, incidentally, although this did not
weigh much, a big salary. The Superintendent took
him in hand like a father. He had had a fatiguing day
at Synod, but there was no sign of weariness in the way
he went at that young man. Patiently, kindly, earnestly,
he dealt with him, showing the desperate need and the
splendid opportunity in Nelson.
" ' Go and see/ he said finally. ' Remember you have
a great Church behind you, and if in six months you
think you are wasting your time, we will take you out. 7 "
The young man went, and the story of the work done
in Nelson by Thomas H. Rogers, the first missionary to
that mining town, lives still with the old-timers and with
all his co-presbyters. In six months he came to his
Presbytery red hot. Abandon Nelson f Never ! The
very least that would satisfy him was two additional
workers. He had demanded three. Ten years after-
wards this missionary, looking back through a mist, not
of years only, but of tears as well, for his chief was dead,
speaks in this way :
"Ten years vanished like a morning mist, and I was
standing again on the wharf at Robson, B. C., awaiting
the arrival of the big stern -wheeler from Revelstoke with
Dr. Robertson on board. I had come over from the
Kootenay Valley to the Columbia to meet him. How it
all comes back again ! I can even hear the raucous cry
of the raven from the spruce and cottonwoods. across
the Columbia hurrying its water past the sloping dock,
and a French Canadian telling somebody to ennui that
what this country needs is development, with a strong
accent on the first syllable.
294 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
"All at once the chiming steamboat whistle sounds
and the Columbia around the bend is heading straight for
the dock as if she would like to devour it. She is twice
her usual size, but that is because Dr. Robertson is on
board. There he stands, a striking figure in any com-
pany, tall, commanding, the only form I saw on that
deck. Who will ever forget the huge black planter hat
he wore? There is a smile and two or three satisfied
nods as he recognizes me standing on a stanchion, thrilled
to the marrow of my bones. I was over the rail with my
arm around him in short order.
" 'So you came thirty miles out to meet me/ he soon
got time to say.
" ' If you knew what your visit down here means to
us, you would not be surprised at that/ I answered.
" l How is Martin ? 7 he asked.
" l He is well and on the crest of the boom as usual, 7 I
was glad to reply.
"Rev. D. M. Martin, now of Cannington, and I were
the only Presbyterian missionaries south of the main line
at that time between the Okanagan Valley and Leth-
bridge. Now there is a Presbytery.
" On that visit the Superintendent mastered every de-
tail of the Kootenay work, and was able to direct its de-
velopment from his headquarters in closer touch with his
base of supplies.
"In Nelson it soon became known that a great man
had come, and a crowded church faced him on his return
from the north end of the field. He spoke to the people
of the country and the country's God. He gave facts
and figures relating to the wealth of the country, which
I have never heard gainsaid, and which astounded his
hearers there. And he spoke of the shame of sin and
disloyalty to our nation's God, asking significantly if
they were not ashamed of the huge heaps of empty
CARING FOR HIS MEN 295
bottles which, after the reduction of freight rates, were
shipped out by the car-load. Further, he praised the
missionary to the people before his very face.
" 'It's worth while to hear a man like that talk ; he
knows something,' was the comment of a shrewd lawyer
on the sermon.
"It is a fact that he declined the pleasure of a half-
day's fishing, the very best in America, for the sake of
the work. This means much to any -man who knows
how to coil a fifty-foot line.
"This is given as a mere sample of a visit from Dr.
Robertson, and I feel assured that from that date the
importance of the Presbyterian Church bulked larger
than ever before in Nelson, as, in fact, it must wherever
he went."
The Superintemdent had a quick eye for the man who
was down, but still striving to do his best. To his fel-
low missionaries he might appear a failure, to himself he
certainly did, but to his Superintendent the heroism of
his losing campaign strongly appealed. The following
incident is told by a co-Presbyter of a discouraged man :
"I remember one case of a missionary who had not
been well and who had suffered from a sort of chronic
disability that at times completely prostrated him. At a
meeting of Presbytery he was overcome going to the
church, and fainted on the street. We were all very
sorry, of course, but did not show the practical sympathy
that the Doctor did. After the Presbytery meeting we
were all going home, the Doctor and I to Vancouver.
This minister was on the train, and was to get off at a
station reached about three o'clock in the morning. This
was after the Doctor had been so ill that it was feared he
would not recover. We were all anxious to spare him as
much as possible, and it seemed necessary to take him in
hand at times and peremptorily order him to desist from
296 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
working, so that he could take needed rest. It was not
customary for him to take a sleeping-car, so this night,
fearing that he would not, I exacted a promise from him
before I retired, to do so when he finished his conversa-
tion. Next morning when I met the Doctor, I knew he
had not been in bed. I at once reminded him of his
promise, for I felt guilty in having left him the night be-
fore. He said :
1 1 i You know how discouraged Mr. H was, so I
waited up to chat with him until he left the train, think-
ing I could give him some encouragement, and after that
it was not worth while to go to bed, for the train was late,
and it was nearly morning when he left me. 7
" And so he had gone without a night's rest for the
one purpose of giving cheer to a missionary who was dis-
couraged. And as a matter of fact, that man, who had
failed before in his field, now succeeded most wonder-
fully."
A man saved from defeat in the presence of his enemies
is a man endowed with victory. And no finer bit of work
did the Superintendent do for his Church in many a year,
than he did that night.
To see him transacting business, to note his shrewd
common sense, his demand for accuracy in detail, one
would think that he was lacking in those heart qualities
that are necessary to real greatness. But whoever read
him so, read him superficially. There is one missionary
in the West to-day who can scarcely speak of the Super-
intendent without tears, for there comes with his name
the memory of how, in the hour of his shame, the Super-
intendent came to him, lifted him, stood beside him, and
stood for him till he was fully restored to his place. He
is now an honoured minister in a Western Church, and
rendering good service. And this is how he writes :
"He never forsook me. When friends became cold
CARING FOR HIS MEN 297
and many former acquaintances refused to recognize and
speak to me, he stood by me. When, after almost total
starvation having faced me and mine, I got a situation,
he seemed to be overjoyed. He took up my case, and by
his effort on my behalf I was restored to the ministry.
No sooner was this done than he wrote me to prepare to
come west and take up the work.
u In the winter of '99 he spent two days with us. We
were proud to have him under our roof. He went away
and I never saw him again, but his influence on my life
will never leave me."
There is no more difficult or painful duty that falls to
a superior officer, than to tell a subordinate that he is un-
fit and has failed. And it is only the truest sense of
loyalty to the trust imposed in him by his Church that
forced the Superintendent now and then to tell a mis-
sionary the painful truth about himself. To the Con-
vener of a missionary of this kind he writes as follows :
"You will see Mr. Blank's people and confer with
them shortly, but neither he nor they need expect any in-
crease in grant ; rather they must be prepared for a re-
duction. The Church has dealt generously with him and
them ; he has done more to make himself and family com-
fortable since he joined us than in all his life before, ap-
parently. His present home, with its comforts, has come
to him through his stay with us. . And that he is able to
keep his children in town is the best proof that he is
fairly well-cared- for. Large grants to stations may be
made at the start, but they should not be expected to con-
tinue, the extension of work forbids it. ... Keep
your eye on this. It is not easy to move a man with such
a large family, but the Home Mission Fund cannot be
relied upon to perpetuate a state of things that in the last
analysis is not equitable."
To the missionary himself he writes in this way :
298 THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
"Your letter was sad reading, but what do you pro-
pose to do f It would seem that there are no openings
for you in your own Presbytery, nor yet in the Presby-
tery adjoining. You would not find it congenial work in
the mining district, nor could you easily get about. To
come further east would be to remove far from your
family ; nor are the conditions any better than where you
are. I would scarcely advise you to try the probationer's
role, but if you can save little money as a missionary, you
could save less as a probationer.
"Your statement of expenses for eighteen months is
scarcely fair, is it? You do not need a new buggy every
eighteen months, nor a new cutter, nor a new team, nor
a new set of harness ? Would these not serve two eight-
een months ? If not, the tear and wear must be unusually
heavy. And yet you charge them all to the eighteen
months.
" Have you carefully inquired as to the causes of your
non-success, and have you tried to remedy them ? . . .
"When I mentioned your name in connection with a
number of fields, they all said no. And yet they all
acknowledged that you were a good preacher. I shall
think the matter over, and if I can suggest any remedy I
shall write you."
That was a difficult letter to write. It required cour-
age of the highest quality, simply because his heart was
overflowing at the time with sympathy for the man and
his family. It was a great relief to the Superintendent to
be able to find another sphere of work for this particular
missionary, and to discover that his faithfulness in deal-
ing with him was not lost, for in his new field he is meet-
ing with great success.
Eesolute as the Superintendent was that the work
should not be sacrificed to the missionary, he was the last
man on the Committee to give a man up, and in the West-
CARING FOR HIS MEN 299
em Sy nodical Committee, the whole question of supply
would often be reopened in the hope of finding a field for
a weak brother, whom no Presbytery had been anxious to
employ. He would indignantly resent anything like un-
fair treatment of a missionary on the part of any congre-
gation. The following letter sets his attitude before us in
clear light :
"Mr. F has written me twice about Mr. M ,
and I do not know what these people mean. Surely they
do not want us to dismiss Mr. M in the middle of the
six months. I wrote Mr. F that there was a certain
orderly way of doing business and that that would be
followed. Mr. M >s reputation is part of his capital,
and we do not intend to destroy that to please a few fussy
people. They know the Presbytery meets on the llth,
that the half year does not end for a month yet, and I
cannot understand why they should become hysterical in
this way. He tells me that unless assured of Mr. M >s
removal, they will not go on to build the church. To
yield to such a threat as that would be poltroonery. If
they will not build without blasting Mr. M >s reputa-
tion, let the church go unbuilt till they come to a better
frame of mind. If no higher motive actuated, it does not
pay to do wrong. The course pursued is calculated to
arouse Mr. M 's friends to oppose any settlement and
so divide a congregation now too weak. Counsel these
people to act in a sane and seemly way and not lose their
heads. It seems to be nothing to some of them that Mr.
M might be handicapped in getting another place.
Ministerial reputation is too delicate for such rough
handling. But I shall see you at Presbytery."
His determination to defend the honour of his Church
was illustrated in another manner. Visiting a mission
field on one occasion, he fell in with a man who had a
grievance against the Presbyterian missionary, and on
300 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
being asked the reason, declared that he had been
cheated, that the missionary had refused to pay a bill.
u Bring me the bill," said the Doctor, " and I will pay
it. The Presbyterian Church shall not lie under any
such charge."
The bill could not be produced and the accuser was
convicted of fraud.
Men who have not had the privilege of working side
by side with the Superintendent, of sharing his trials and
his hardships, have found it impossible to understand
that marvellous power he had of binding men's hearts to
himself. The strongest and most enduring strands in
that bond were their sharing in a common devotion to a
great cause, and their undying admiration for his zeal
that never tired, his enthusiasm that never waned, his
courage that never faltered. But, more than all, he
gripped them with the deep love of a great heart. Writ-
ing to one of his "Western missionaries, he uses these
touching words :
" I highly appreciate the service that you are render-
ing, and especially the quiet plodding way in which,
without pause and without complaint men, like yourself
carry on your work. May God sustain you and may
your heart be cheered by seeing many brought from
darkness to light and from the service of sin to the service
of the living and true God !
" There is scarcely a night after I retire to rest that I
do not begin at Lake Superior and pay you all a visit be-
fore sleep benumbs the brain."
And brain and body and heart were weary enough to
need every precious hour of the few left him for sleep.
XXIX
THE SUPERINTENDENT AND THE PEOPLE
THE Superintendent possessed in an extraordi-
nary degree that quality so essential to the pub-
lic speaker, a sensitiveness to the temper and
feeling of his audience. He was quick to read faces, and
quick to detect and analyze the play of emotion.
Early in his career as Superintendent, he visited a
newly-settled district on the North Saskatchewan, a dis-
trict which he discovered to be settled largely by people
of Scottish extraction. On the Sabbath morning they
gathered for a service on the leeside of a little poplar
"bluff." It was their first service in that lonely new
land. Most of them had come for many miles by waggon,
by ox-cart, on horseback, and on foot. The Superintend-
ent, standing upon an upturned waggon box, announced
that Psalm so heart-penetrating for homesick folk :
Lord, Thee my God, I'll early seek ;
My soul doth thirst for Thee ;
My flesh longs in a dry parched land,
Wherein no waters be.
Through the first verse they bravely sang, but not with-
out some quavering. The second verse they found more
difficult.
That I Thy power may behold.
And brightness of Thy face,
As I have seen Thee heretofore
Within Thy holy place.
301
302 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
The voices faltered and many broke into sobbing. At
the third verse none could sing. Then the Superintend-
ent preached to them of home and God and their duty to
the new country. The folk of that community would be
unwilling to let the story of that service die out of their
traditions.
The Superintendent was never more at home than when
addressing a crowd of rough men, whether miners, rail-
road men, or lumbermen. On one occasion he was visit-
ing Rossland, a British Columbia mining town then at
the height of its boom. Mr. H. J. Robertson was the
missionary in charge, and by sheer grit and energy, and
by unfailing tact, he had got the first church built in that
part of the mountains, and this was the night of its open-
ing. One who was present thus describes the meeting :
"The Superintendent stood up before that mining
crowd and began to address them upon what would seem
to many a strange theme, Home Missions. But in his
magic hand the subject became at once arresting. The
men listened with open eyes and ears to that thrilling
series of statistics, incidents, and appeals. After all was
over one of them said to me in a grave, subdued excite
ment :
"'Say, ain't he a corker?' and then solemnly, after
due thought, ' He's a Jim Dandy corker ! '
"Most of them were lads from Eastern Canada or from
the Old Land across the sea, and the burr in the Doctor's
voice, the genuine human warmth and the manly straight-
forwardness of his address, went straight to their hearts.
As he closed with an appeal for a pure and manly Chris-
tian life, in the name of all that was best and noblest in
their past, picturing for them their homes, and remind-
ing them of the dear ones there, many a poor fellow found
it necessary to surreptitiously wipe away the tears that
gathered, lest they should fall and shame him.
THE SUPERINTENDENT AND PEOPLE 303
"After the meeting the fellows gather round him,
some to claim personal acquaintance, for the Doctor has
travelled far, others to make inquiry in regard to their
1 people.' And then many a chap goes to his shack and
writes to his mother that night."
His perfect courtesy made it easy for the Superintend-
ent to adapt himself to any circumstances. A service hav-
ing been arranged in a lumber camp about twelve miles
away from a British Columbia village, in company with
a lady who was interested in the work and who was to
assist in the singing, the Superintendent drove out to the
camp, the missionary following on a broncho. The party
arrived, by appointment, in time for supper. The ordi-
nary lumbermen's supper of pork and beans, and fried
potatoes, and pies and cakes, was on this occasion supple-
mented, in honour of the Superintendent's visit, with an
extra in the shape of a stupendous and altogether marvel-
lous and fatal plum pudding.
"Nothing could be more admirable than the heroism
with which the Superintendent attacked that supper, al-
though the balking of both Superintendent and lady at
the plum pudding, appeared to lay upon the missionary
the necessity of doing duty for the whole party, which he
did by insisting upon a second supply. By the time the
supper was over, the foreman and the men within hear-
ing of the Superintendent's stories, were more than ready
to listen to his sermon. The sermon was based upon
those immortal words that have become known to Chris-
tian people the world over as the Golden Eule. And by
no other words could he have got so quickly their sympa-
thetic attention. From the study of the Golden Kule, it
was easy to pass to the commendation of Him whose rule
it was and whose whole life so conspicuously illustrated
it. The closing hymn was l The Sweet By and By,' and
the men, standing up in the dim light of the smoky Ian-
304 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
terns, sang it with no delicate shadings, but with throats
full open. It was their only way of expressing their ap-
preciation of the Superintendent and of his sermon, for
there was no collection. "
It was a large part of the Superintendent's duty to
stimulate the liberality of his Western missions, and to
develop their sense of independence. The following ex-
tracts from letters to Conveners will indicate the policy
he followed and the ideals he set before his fellow -
workers :
1 ' In making appointments see that they are for a defi-
nite period, and that they terminate at a fixed date.
Should it be found that a missionary is not acceptable,
he should not be continued in the field, for his usefulness
is impaired, and the field suffers. Every consideration
must be given to all our missionaries, but the men are
for the work, and not the work for the men. Every man
should know, whether ordained or not, that if unaccept-
able the Church cannot carry him."
"Mr. M tells me the Presbyterians are about as
strong at Wetaskiwin as the Methodists, and I wrote him
saying that, if practicable, steps should be taken to build
a church. I warned him against any union arrangement
of any kind, and asked him to tell his people to reserve
their strength for an effort of our own. It is most de-
sirable that visibility should be given to our cause there
and that the people should know that we are not there
simply on a visit."
11 1 want to call in to see you next week. I am going
up to Rosedale which must become self-sustaining. It is
situated in one of the best districts in the whole "West, it
has received long and generous help, it is in a good finan-
cial position and should go off the list unasked. If it has
not spirit to do that, then it must be forcibly ' weaned/
I was at Franklin and they agreed to rise to $700 a year.
THE SUPERINTENDENT AND PEOPLE 305
Dauphin should go off the list now, too, and Mekiwin,
Arden, and Macdonald should call and soon be self-sus-
taining."
He was constantly being challenged and quizzed by
members of the Assembly's Home Mission Committee
upon the aid-receiving capacity of the Western Mission
fields, until he became sensitive on this point, and he
used to seize every opportunity to inculcate upon these
missions the doctrine of self-support. In regard to this
habit of his, a missionary writes :
' 4 Our congregation was on the augmented list. He was
not long in finding out by a few direct questions what the
state of the congregation was. He soon asked :
"'When can you become self- sustaining ?' And in
parting he said, 'See that the calf does not suck the
mother longer than is necessary,' and then added, 'The
East is doing great things for the West, and the West
must do all it can to help itself.' '
The Superintendent had an unfailing instinct for the
right word in the right place, and he used to excite the
admiration of his missionaries by getting congregations
to do at his simple request what they had for weeks been
begging them in vain to do.
Having received a report on one occasion, that a rail-
way missionary had been unfortunate enough to "fall
out" with his rough and ready congregation, the Super-
intendent paid a visit to the gravel-pit where the con-
struction gang were working for the day. At the noon
hour he obtained permission to address them. He dis-
cussed with them his never-failing theme, Home Mis-
sions, and to such good purpose that, before he had done,
he had won the sympathy of the entire crowd.
"Now," he said, "men, we have sent you this sum-
mer our missionary, Mr. Blank, and I have no doubt he
has given you faithful service. And we believe that you
306 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
are willing to show your appreciation of that service and
to help in this great work of Home Missions. I want
some man to head a subscription list for the support of
this summer's work."
Not a man moved. The Superintendent waited in si-
lence. At length he called out, " Is there not a Presby-
terian here? It's a queer crowd that has no Scotchman
in it, or a 'blue nose/ or a t herring-back ' (men from the
Maritime Provinces) and if there is that sort of Presby-
terian here, it is the first time I ever knew him to refuse
to support his Church or to pay his just debts."
It was not long before the subscription list was com-
pleted.
The Superintendent could be relentlessly severe when
a congregation, or especially when a Board of Manage-
ment, were detected trying to shirk duty and to escape
responsibility. A congregation in a little Western town
which was just emerging from a boom, found itself some-
what heavily in debt. The Superintendent visited the
congregation and after the usual Home Mission address,
called the Board of Management together and proceeded
to investigate with the most searching minuteness. The
financial side of the congregational life, the assets and
liabilities, the methods of raising and of spending mon-
eys, and finally the debt to the Church and Manse Board,
all passed under strict review. The debt to the Church
and Manse Board amounted to $600.
" Has the interest been paid I " inquired the Superin-
tendent.
"No," said the Chairman, a young business man of
the town.
" Has there been any attempt to pay it ? "
"No," replied the young man, and proceeded to sug-
gest that it really did not matter much about a debt of
this kind ; that, in fact, the Church and Manse Board
THE SUPERINTENDENT AND PEOPLE 307
might show a better spirit than to press a weak and
struggling mission to pay this debt.
"Sir," said the Superintendent, and the vibrant voice
took a deeper note and a richer burr, * * the Presbyterian
Church pays its debts, and any congregation proposing
to repudiate the just claims against it must be prepared
to write itself off the roll of Presbytery. "
And such was the gleam of indignation that shot from
under the shaggy eyebrows, that the unfortunate repudia-
tor hastened to disclaim any intention of repudiation.
And the whole Board united in a solemn promise to set
about the raising of that debt with all possible speed.
There was one occasion, however, when the Superin-
tendent took quite another tone with a congregation
which he was visiting. The account is given by one who
was present at that meeting. It was in a mission station
of Northern Alberta.
"I remember well the day we drove from Innis-
fail to Olds. It was late in August, and the sun was
shining in all its splendour upon magnificent fields of
wheat. It was a sight to rejoice one's heart, but there
was no rejoicing that day, for the night before a frost had
fallen and the whole country was waiting anxiously to
know the full extent of the injury. As the day wore on,
the Doctor would now and then stop to examine the ears
of grain. One could hardly have a more perfect symbol
of smiling deception than those same fields of wheat so
apparently rich in value, but so actually worthless for
market. As the afternoon wore on, the certainty of total
loss for the district became well established.
"The Superintendent was to address a meeting in a lit-
tle schoolhouse not far from the village of Olds. As we
drove up to the door, we could not fail to notice the
gloomy faces of the men gathered outside. For many of
them the failure of this crop was the blighting of their
308 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
last hope. I wondered how he would handle that crowd.
I shuddered as I thought of the possibility of his deliver-
ing his Home Mission address with its appeal for more
liberal support. I need not have feared. The Superin-
tendent knew his men, and more than any man of them
felt the bitter disappointment of that day, for he bore the
load of hundreds of like sufferers.
"At first there was no word of Home Missions, but
with exquisitely tender emphasis he read the immortal
words of the Master that have stood between so many dis-
couraged hearts and despair. ' Lay not up for your-
selves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth cor-
rupt. . . . Lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven. . . . Where your treasure is, there will
your heart be also. . . . Take no thought for your
life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink. . . .
Behold the fowls of the air. . . . Your heavenly
Father feedeth them. . . . Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow. . . . Therefore, take no
thought saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink.
. . . Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
need of all these things.' Then leaving the desk, he
drew near them and began to comfort them like a father.
He spoke of the things that were left, that no frost could
touch, the eternal treasures which even here and now men
may possess. And then he turned to his great theme, for
he could not long be denied, and talked to them about
'the work we are carrying on in this country/ But
never a word of depression or of discouragement did he
utter. His statistics and his stories were all to show the
triumphs of faith and endurance that irradiate the history
of Western missions. His final words were- those not
often heard from his lips.
" i We are not here to-night to ask you for support, we
are here to help. Don't be discouraged. Better days are
THE SUPERINTENDENT AND PEOPLE 309
sure to come. Be faithful to your Churcli. You cannot
do much this year, but your Church will not forget you.
Trust in your heavenly Father and hold on.'
" Even in the gathering gloom one could see the change
wrought in the faces of his hearers. They were their own
men again. The hopelessness was gone. Their vision of
eternal things had pierced the clouds of disappointment
and revealed the treasures that neither moth nor rust nor
frost could take away. I had seen the Superintendent do
many fine things, but never anything quite so fine as he
did for those people that evening. ' '
Dr. Eobertson was gifted with the rare capacity for
winning the confidence of men who might be supposed to
be quite hostile to his cause and to himself. It was while
he was making his first trip through Alberta and was
soliciting subscriptions for the erection of a Church in
connection with one of his mission stations, that he came
upon a young Scotchman who rejected his appeal, assert-
ing with an oath that he had never known a professing
Christian " who wasn't a blank hypocrite anyway."
" Well," said the Superintendent, " I am sorry, sir, that
you had such a poor mother."
"What do yon mean, sir?" was the angry retort.
" What do you know of my mother ? "
" Was she a professing Christian ?"
" She was."
" And was she a good woman ? "
"She was that, but," feeling his equivocal position,
" there are not many like her."
"We want to make Christians like your mother in
this country, and that is why we are building this
church."
Before the interview was over he had added another
name to his subscription list.
He was greatly assisted in getting hold of men by his
310 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
marvellous memory for faces, and missionaries all over
the Western country relate instances of this remarkable
faculty of his.
In Edmonton he was introduced to an ex- member of the
Northwest Mounted Police.
"I know you, sir," said the Superintendent promptly.
' ' How is that 1 I never met you. ' '
" Seven years ago I met you at McLeod."
The man was amazed. "Sure enough," he said, "I
was orderly in the Barracks there at that time."
At the close of a service in Balmoral, Manitoba, an
Englishman came up and said :
" You don't know me, but I wish to thank you for your
address."
1 1 Yes, I do know you, ' ' replied the Superintendent. 1 1 1
saw you in Winnipeg in such a house on such a street, let
me see, just seventeen years ago."
Needless to say, the man was perfectly astonished, for
he remembered that he had lived in that house, at that
time.
But perhaps the most remarkable of all the instances
reported is that of a man whom the Superintendent came
across in a mining camp in British Columbia. The young
man was standing amid a crowd of his fellows, pouring
forth a stream of profanity. The Superintendent stood
looking at him steadily for a few moments, then went up
to him and said gravely and sadly :
"Your godly father and mother would be grieved to
see and hear you now."
" What do you know of my father and mother 1 " said
the young man rudely. " You don't know me."
"Don't I? I ought to, for if I am not greatly mis-
taken, you were a lad in my Sabbath-school class in
Woodstock twenty-two years ago."
Further conversation revealed this statement to be
THE SUPERINTENDENT AND PEOPLE 311
true. The young man was dumbfounded, and over-
whelmed with shame.
"Yes," he acknowledged, "I was in that class."
And afterwards, to the Superintendent alone, he told
the sad tale of a careless and sinful life, ending with a
promise of repentance and return.
This ability of his to grip and hold individuals even
while he rebuked them for their sins, often gave him
entrance to a crowd or a community that otherwise
would have been closed to him. There is a famous
story of an encounter he had with a young cowboy
in Fort McLeod, which the old-timers of that town love
to recount.
It was the Superintendent's first visit to that part
of the country. Coming by the Lethbridge stage, he
made the acquaintance of the stage-driver Jake, famous
for his skill with the lines, famous also as a master of
varied and picturesque profanity. Arriving at the
stopping-place, the Superintendent gave his coat to
the bartender, who tossed it into a corner behind the bar.
" Hold on there," said the Superintendent. " I have a
bottle of lime juice in the pocket."
"Oh," replied the bartender with a wink (those were
prohibition days), " I never heard it called that before,"
and nothing short of sampling would convince him of
the harmless character of the beverage.
Later in the afternoon, the Superintendent was pin-
ning up a notice of a service to be held on Sunday, the
day following. A young fellow strode in, read the
notice, glanced at the Superintendent, and immedi-
ately broke forth into a volley of oaths. The Superin-
tendent listened quietly till he had finished, then said
blandly :
"Is that the best you can do? You ought to hear
Jake. You go to Jake. He'll give you points."
312 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
The derisive laughter that followed completely
quenched the crestfallen young man. In the evening
the Superintendent came upon him in the street, got
into conversation with him, found he was of Presbyterian
extraction, that he had been well brought up, but in that
wild land had fallen into evil ways.
"Come now," said the Superintendent, "own up
you were trying to bluff me this afternoon, weren't
you?"
"Well, I guess so," was the shamefaced reply. " But
you held over me."
"Now look here," replied the Superintendent, "you
get me a good meeting to-morrow afternoon, and we'll
call it square."
The young man promised, and next day's meeting
proved him to be as good as his word.
But above all qualities that gave him his power
over the people and enabled him to win and to hold
their affection and their confidence to the very end of
his life, was his genuine sympathy with them, arising
from his intimate acquaintance with the conditions
under which they lived. For by experience he came
to know their trials, their hardships, their loneliness,
their privations, their self-denials. And it was
this sympathy that made him at once so truly their
friend in the "West and so mightily their advocate in
the East.
XXX
PUBLIC MAN AND SCHOLAR
AMID the stress of missionary work the Superin-
tendent found leisure for the study of public
affairs and for the cultivation of an intelligent
interest in the things pertaining to the development of
national life.
In the performance of his duty it fell to him to criti-
cise the Dominion Government's administration of Indian
affairs, and especially to call attention to the very grave
scandals arising out of the practices of some of the Agents
employed by the Government upon the Indian Eeserves.
In 1886, he made a public statement in this connection in
the city of Montreal, which produced a profound im-
pression. In that public statement he accused the Gov-
ernment of neglecting its duties to the Indians, declaring
that, in many places, the Indians were starving, and also
Agents were employed who were " drunkards, gamblers,
and rakes. " The press gave the widest circulation to
his statement. It was challenged by politicians defend-
ing the Government of the day. The following extract
from the Hansard of 1886 gives the discussion upon the
floor of the House of Commons at Ottawa :
Mr. Paterson (Brant) " The Eev. Mr. Eobertson,
taking cognizance of some statements made by a gentle-
man in contradiction of what he stated, says : i Mr.
Andrews asks where are the Indians starving, searching
refuse heaps and swill-barrels, and ravenously devouring
crusts of bread and scraps of meat? At Minnedosa,
313
314 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Broadview, Birtle, Fort Qu'Appelle, Prince Albert, Bat-
tleford, Moosejaw, Medicine Hat, and the rest, I have
seen them doing this. It might have been because they
were curious, and preferred dirty crusts and decaying meat
to tender, well- bled beef, but I did not think of account-
ing for it in that way. I Mow the eager look, the shrunken
form, and the wolfish face that speak of want in the adult,
and the wan, pinched look that speaks of starvation in the
child ; and I have seen them near Fort Ellice, Fort Pelly,
File Hills, and other places, and have had my sympathies
drawn out to the owners. I have seen Indians eating
horses that died of disease, when the flesh was half-rotten.
I have seen them picking up the entrails of animals
about slaughter-houses when these were fast decompos-
ing, ay, and eating them without cooking, or even wash-
ing. They may prefer such carrion to good beef, well-
bled and cool when killed, but I doubt it.' This is the
statement of Mr. Robertson to which he attaches his
name in public print."
Mr. Ferguson (Leeds) " I happen to know something
about Rev. Mr. Robertson which I do not care to disclose
or discuss here, and which does not add much to the
weight of his statements on this subject. I am not going
to say anything further on the point just now."
Mr. Fairbanks "I rise to call attention to a very
improper remark by an honourable gentleman opposite.
He has spoken in reference to the Rev. Mr. Robertson, a
gentleman with whom I happen to have a slight ac-
quaintance, having met him in the discharge of his
duties, having listened to his preaching, and knowing
him well by reputation. When an honourable member
stands up in this place and makes a remark like this
'I know something about Rev. Mr. Robertson which I
do not care to disclose or discuss here, and which does
not add much to the weight of his statements on this sub-
PUBLIC MAN AND SCHOLAR 315
ject,' I submit that gentleman has either said too much
or not enough."
Mr. Watson "I would not have spoken at this late
hour but for the insinuations on the other side of the
House against the Eev. Mr. Eobertson and the Eev.
Jno. McDougall. . . . The Eev. Mr. Eobertson I
have known for ten years, and he is a man above re-
proach. He did not go to the Northwest on the same
mission as the honourable member who has been slander-
ing him . . . but for the purpose of doing good to
the white settlers and Indians."
The General Assembly, taking up the question of In-
dian administration, passed a very strong resolution in
support of Dr. Eobertson' s position, and called upon the
Government to put an end to the scandals and to remove
the unworthy Agents. And so deep was the feeling
aroused throughout the whole country, that the Govern-
ment appointed a Commissioner to inspect the Eeserves
and to inquire into the abuses, with the result that the
charges made by the Superintendent were abundantly
substantiated, and the necessary reforms at once insti-
tuted by the Government.
By instinct and by habit, Dr. Eobertson was a student,
with all the Scotchman's reverence for education. It is
not surprising that from the very first he took an active
interest in the educational affairs of Western Canada, and
used his influence to establish on sound foundations both
the University and the Public School system of educa-
tion. He was for years a member of the Board of Edu-
cation for Manitoba, and his advice was always listened
to with respect. He strongly supported the movement to
establish a Provincial University, in opposition to those
who were pouring contempt upon what they termed a
" University on paper." He was a staunch advocate of
a national system of Public Schools, and by the advocacy
316 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
of this system in Presbyteries, Synods, and General As-
semblies, as well as in public addresses both in Eastern
and Western Canada, he did much to strengthen public
opinion in support of the principle that State funds
should be appropriated to the support of only non-secta-
rian institutions. He saw clearly that for the future unity
and homogeneity of the nation, the great agencies were
the Church and the Public School. And at a critical
period in the history of the great struggle to maintain our
Public School system, the influence of Dr. Robertson did
much to conserve for the Province this priceless posses-
sion. One phrase of his that appeared in his report to
the Assembly of 1895 became a watchword in the cam-
paign " The dead hand has too long hampered the
freedom of the living. "
His desire to establish missions among the foreign peo-
ples settling in the West arose out of, not only his loyalty
to his Church and to her great mission to all classes of
citizens, but out of this conviction as well, that it would
be fatal to the national development to allow large sec-
tions of our country to remain untouched by the religious
life of the majority of the Canadian people. At an early
date in the history of the West he established missions
among the Icelanders, Hungarians, Germans, Finns, and
Scandinavians, not with the idea of making them Pres-
byterian, but simply to Canadianize these peoples and to
develop in them the Christian ideals held by the people
of Canada. The segregation of foreigners in large
colonies he considered a mistaken policy.
After the establishment of the large Galician colonies
in Western Canada, the Superintendent was anxious to
find some means of approach by which these people
could be reached. In faith they were about equally
divided between the Greek and the Roman Catholic
Churches, while the vast majority of those holding
PUBLIC MAN AND SCHOLAR 317
formally to the Eoman Catholic Church practiced the
Greek rite. The presence of large colonies of these
people in Western Canada, for whose religious care
no Church was making adequate provision, Dr. Robert-
son considered at once a challenge and a menace to
Canadian Christianity. But for some years no avenue
of approach seemed to open up. One evening there
came to 'the Rev. C. W. Gordon's study two Galician
students who expressed their eager desire that some-
thing should be done for their fellow-countrymen both
in the matter of education and in regard to religious
privileges. Mr. Gordon introduced the two young men
to the Rev. Dr. King, Principal of Manitoba College.
That clear-visioned educationist and statesman saw
immediately the importance of this opening. The
Superintendent was approached. At once an arrange-
ment was made by which these young men were entered
upon the roll of Manitoba College. There they received
the special attention and teaching of the Principal, the
Superintendent assuming the responsibility for their
support. This was the beginning of the important work
which the Presbyterian Church is carrying on among
the Galician people of Western Canada. Within a
year, schools were opened up among these people, and,
before two years had passed, as a result largely of
the effect of these schools and of the pressure brought
to bear by the Presbyterian and other Churches, the
Government of Manitoba so modified its educational
policy as to allow the extension of the Public School
system to the foreign populations within the Province.
One of the striking characteristics of the Superintend-
ent was his interest in contemporary thought. Pressed
as he was with the almost overwhelming details of his
immediate work, he snatched precious minutes to dip
into and devour the newest books.
318 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
" I was often surprised," says Principal Gordon, " at
the amount of reading he used to get through on the
railway. It was his only time for study, and far too
precious to spend on the ordinary style of railway
literature. He generally carried with him some new
book, and kept himself well up in recent criticism and
theology. Any minister who has enjoyed a quiet
hour's talk with him must have been struck with his
familiar knowledge and firm grasp of current ques-
tions."
A similar sentiment is expressed by the Rev. Dr. Ross :
" Another thing that impressed me was his grasp of
problems outside his own work. I delighted to turn
his conversation to subjects that I had been studying,
that I might look at them with his eyes. I was often
surprised to find him at home in some things that one
would scarcely have expected him to know, e. g., certain
aspects of the Kenosis theory. He spent so much time
travelling and his own work was so exhausting that he
trained himself to take the heart out of a book in a little
while, and all the time he was studying the subject in
the light of the bearing which it had on some phase of
life, thought, or work in the West. And the intense
thought he had given to his own work had proved a
splendid mental discipline for him."
He was interested in the study of Theology, but he
was far more interested in religion than in Theology,
and to those who knew him intimately it was always a
pleasure to discuss theological questions and to note how
Theology with him was ever related to the practical
problems of living. This appears to have impressed
President Falconer, who writes as follows :
" I was always much surprised at his grip upon theo-
logical problems and his modern attitude. . . . Re-
ligion was to him so much the dominant factor of life,
PUBLIC MAN AND SCHOLAR 319
arid lie was so sincere in his own, that he made Theology
the living, real expression of this hidden religious
life. That is what makes Theology vital ; that will never
allow practical men. of Dr. Robertson's stamp to de-
generate into ecclesiastics. And, in a living essential
Theology of this nature, lies our hope for the future."
And Dr. Pollock says :
"Men do not appear at their best at our Assemblies.
All that I could perceive of him there, was that he was
a man swallowed up, as it were, by a great work. The
practical side of life seemed to have absorbed all other
sides of it, and he was filled with one idea, the vastness
of the West and its necessities. After I knew him better
I found that he was a thinker as well as a pioneer and
practical worker."
Dr. Eobertson was far more than a Churchman. He
was a citizen of Canada, with a very practical interest
in the development of the resources and industries of
the nation. He was a warm personal friend of many
of the leaders in the commercial and the industrial world.
No man in Canada was more thoroughly acquainted
with the West and its varied resources than was Dr.
Eobertson, and not infrequently was his advice sought
and followed by men representing the largest business
interests of the country. It is well known that even so
large and important a corporation as the Canadian
Pacific Railway, with whose chief officers he maintained
throughout his life the most cordial relations, was more
than once guided by his judgment. On one occasion the
advice of Dr. Robertson was considered sufficiently
weighty to determine the direction of one of the
Company's branch lines. It was largely upon Dr.
Robertson's suggestion that the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way initiated that most happy and popular institution
of winter excursions to Eastern Canada. And it was
320 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
largely due to the Superintendent's ability to show
the railway officials the important and favourable
effect of Home Missions upon the material interests
of the country in which their Company was so heavily
involved, that they were prepared to grant missionaries
transportation privileges, not only upon grounds of Chris-
tian courtesy, but also upon the basis of sound business
principles.
Thus, such was his intellectual ability, his accurate
and wide knowledge of Western Canada, his shrewd,
practical common sense, and his lofty character, that
Dr. Robertson was able to move amid the leaders of
Canadian thought and enterprise as a man moves among
his peers, and to command their entire confidence and
respect.
XXXI
A LONG PULL
t AHrc ten years from 1887, when the General As-
sembly first met in Winnipeg, to 1897, when
\_ the Assembly revisited the Capital City of the
West, were for the Superintendent years of unceasing and
strenuous toil. During these years the lines of occupa-
tion were steadily advanced. From post to post, with
slow progress at times, but with never a stop, the Church
pushed on to take the new land. It was no summer
jaunt, but a fierce and bitter conflict, in which the West-
ern missionaries, led on by their great chief, paid out
literally their life's blood unknown to the Church that
sent them into the campaign. It was a great adventure.
Great in its issues ; it was for an empire and for an im-
perial base of world conquest for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Great in its sacrifices ; it demanded the lives of men and
women, who, without thought of heroism or of aught but
duty and privilege, gladly laid them down. Great in its
triumphs ; for in spite of losses and failures, the line of
advance never wavered, but moved steadily forward till
everywhere in Western Canada floated the banner of the
Church. But great as was the triumph and worthy of all
the sacrifice, it is sad and humiliating to look bac& and-
see how unnecessary much of this sacrifice was ; for the
simple fact emerges from the records that never for a
single year did the Church furnish adequate supplies to
those conducting the campaign. There was never enough
money and never enough men.
It was during the Assembly's excursion to the Pacific
Coast in 1887 that the Superintendent was approached in
321
322 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
regard to his accepting an honorary degree, and, in the
year following, the Presbyterian College of Montreal did
itself honour in honouring the Superintendent of Mis-
sions for Manitoba and the Northwest Territories with
the title of Doctor of Divinity. The granting of this
honour is a significant indication that the Superintendent
was coming to his place in the estimation of the Church.
In his report for that year, his Western field was de-
scribed as reaching from White River, on the north
shore of Lake Superior, to Revelstoke, in the mountains
of British Columbia, 1,800 miles long by 350 wide ; and
as a result of the work of the five great years preceding,
he was able to say, with surely pardonable pride, that
there was no settlement of any size, along the line of rail-
way, but was reached in some way with Gospel ordi-
nances. The population of Manitoba at this time had
risen to 108,640. a gain of 74.5 % in five years. Of this
population the Presbyterian Church claimed 28,406, a
gain of 104.4 %, leading all others by 5,200. This vast
field was organized into five Presbyteries Winnipeg,
Brandon, Rock Lake, Regina, and Calgary, exclusive of
the Presbytery of Columbia and manned by 149 workers
of all kinds. But every year settlement pushed on into
the unclaimed wilds, and hard upon the heels of settle-
ment followed the Church.
In 1889, such is the development in the northern and
western portions of the Presbyteries of Brandon and
Regina, that reorganization, is necessary, and the new
Presbytery of Minnedosa is formed. In the following
year, the building of the Calgary and Edmonton line of
railway opens up Northern Alberta, and the Superintend-
ent is discovered, as we should expect, far beyond the
limit of construction, planting new missions in anticipa-
tion of settlement. A characteristic letter gives an ac-
count of his return to civilization :
A LONG PULL 323
"Calgary, Nov. , 1890.
" MY DEAR MR. MCQUEEN :
"Got a good start on Monday and reached Ramsey's
for the night. Wolf Creek was reached for dinner Tuesday
and Red Deer in the evening. Hearing that a train was going
out early in the morning likely the last for the season I went
down to Gaetzboro and found camp-fires, men, mules and
horses, all over the site of the future city. Finding no better
place to rest, I went into a box-car and got a three hours'
sleep. The cries of teamsters loading stock soon compelled me
to get up. Breakfast was got under circumstances not very
appetizing, and I was prepared for the journey. After the
usual shunting, delays and false starts, we got off and reached
here at 15.45.
" Saw McLellan at Red Deer for a short time. Financial
outlook there gloomy. He boarded the missionary, but got
nothing, nor was anything raised for anybody. The mission-
ary's conduct is inexplicable, for he had printed instructions.
The board may be paid, but nothing more. An ordained man
must be planted at the Red Deer, one who will work up the
field. The town will be put on the market next spring, and
settlement is likely to increase. I find that a good deal of land
is being taken up, and that settlement will likely proceed
steadily.
" I shall submit the financial situation at Fort Saskatchewan,
etc., to Presbytery to-morrow and write you afterwards.
"With kind regards to Mrs. McQueen and yourself, and
many thanks for your hospitality and friendliness,
" In haste,
"J. ROBERTSON."
In 1890, he paid a visit to British Columbia and was
humiliated and disgusted to find that on the railway not
a passenger knew of any Presbyterian missionary or Pres-
byterian church in the mountains, except that one un-
usually bright youth "had heard tell of a Presbyterian
parson on the Coast somewheres. > ' But more than this, the
Superintendent was shocked beyond measure during his
trip through British Columbia, at the terrible evidences of
neglect everywhere apparent in the interior districts of the
324 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Province. As a result of this visit, the Columbia Pres-
bytery made a request that his constituency should be
extended to include British Columbia. At the General
Assembly of the same year this was done, and with such
good result that, two years later, the Assembly was called
upon to erect the Synod of British Columbia, consisting
of the three Presbyteries of Vancouver Island, West-
minster, and Kootenay, together with the Presbytery of
Calgary. His mission territory now extended from
White River, Ontario, to the Pacific, but his field of
operations knew no limits other than those that marked
the boundaries of the Dominion. The including of Brit-
ish Columbia within his constituency meant a wider
sphere of influence and greater opportunities of service,
but it demanded, as well, longer and more toilsome
journeys, larger expenditure of vital energy, and more
complete sacrifice of family ties. He was reaching more
nearly the ideal set forth in those sweeping words, " Yea,
and his own life also."
So great had been the growth of settlement in the older
sections'of the West that the Assembly of 1894 was asked
to erect four new Presbyteries Superior, Portage la
Prairie, Melita, and Glenboro making thirteen in all.
But in spite of all he had been able to accomplish, the
Superintendent was forced to lament in his report for the
year that there were 25, 000 Presbyterians somewhere in
the West uncared for by the Church. It was a startling
announcement, but with no very visible effect, for the
Church in Canada was but slowly waking to its respon-
sibility and its opportunity.
Two years later, in 1896, the Presbytery of Ed-
monton was erected, the most northerly in Canada,
possibly in the world. When one considers the rapidity
of expansion, one is not surprised that the Church should
lag behind, for never in the history of Christendom was
A LONG PULL 325
there ever such a pace set for the advancing line of Chris-
tian conquest.
In these ten years the mission fields went up from 81
to 176, a gain of over 100 % ; the preaching stations from
335 to 652, a gain of nearly 100 % j the church buildings
from 68 to 172, a gain of 152 % j the families from 3,148
to 5, 926, a gain of over 88 % J the communicants from
3,956 to 6,773, a gain of over 71%. No wonder the
Superintendent almost had to break his heart in his en-
deavour to secure men. No wonder the Home Mission
and Augmentation Committees had to appear before
General Assembly repeating year after year the disap-
pointing story of successive deficits. While his Com-
mittees loyally supported him, it was the Superintendent
in the long run who had to bear the brunt of the fight for
the securing of men and means, -and it is sad to remember
that, strive as he might, the spectre of inadequate supply
haunted him for the greater part of his life.
There was also a continuous struggle for funds. In
1888, for Western work, the Home Mission and Augmen-
tation Committees expended in grants alone over $25,000,
and yet were forced to report to the Assembly a deficit.
In the following year the deficit for Home Missions was
$745, and for Augmentation the very considerable sum of
$3, 768. These deficits sent the Superintendent on a tour
throughout the Maritime Provinces in the autumn of that
year. The story of a bit of that eager hunt is packed into
a 'characteristic letter to his wife written from Amherst,
N. S., under date of November 20, 1889 :
" MY DEAR WIPE :
"I have not had a letter from home for along
time, but I hope you are all well. I am as busy as I can
well be, in corresponding and holding meetings. Eleven
meetings per week is about the average, and I will soon
32G THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
have visited most of the congregations of any size or
substance down here. I have no appointments beyond
the 5th of December, so that I hope to get home by the
8th or 10th. The meetings here have been quite as suc-
cessful as I expected, and I look for $4,000 or $5,000 un-
less they have all been lying, which I cannot believe. I
feel, too, that a permanent interest in Western work is
created, and that we shall have a perennial source of
funds. The people have been most hospitable and cordial
in their reception of me everywhere. I shall go back with
the kindest feelings towards all of them."
" Eleven meetings per week!" This might satisfy
even so insatiable a worker as the Superintendent, but the
empty hours between meetings he fills in with his inter-
minable correspondence. Not till after it was too late,
did his Church realize how much she might have pro-
longed his life and extended his usefulness had she fur-
nished him with a secretary. " Four or five thousand
dollars!" Yes, and a great deal more money does he
carry from the loyal, warm-hearted men of the sea-
provinces, and " warm feelings" that have never chilled
to this present. Those provinces have bred great men
for Canada, and they were great enough to know one of
their own kind when he appeared among them. But in
spite of the Superintendent's tours, in spite of the energy
and eloquence of the indefatigable Conveners of Home
Mission and Augmentation, Dr. Cochrane and Rev. D. J.
Macdonnell, in spite of the financial ability of the Secre-
tary, Dr. Warden, this deficit continues to clog the west-
ward march of the Church.
The General Assembly of 1890 is informed that with
deep regret the Committee has found it necessary to re-
duce the salaries in Augmented charges because of insuf-
ficient funds. The General Assembly energetically pro-
ceeds to legislate, but the deficits continue.
A LONG PULL 327
In 1891 the matter is considered serious enough to war-
rant a Pastoral Letter from the Moderator. The spectre,
however, will not be laid, but insists on appearing the
following year with the Augmentation report. The
situation is desperate enough to harden the tender heart
of the Secretary of the Committee, who proposes strenu-
ous regulations governing Augmented congregations, and
a reduction of grants. But after the Superintendent has
pointed out that the West is doing its best, contributing
the past year some $238,000, one-ninth of the entire
revenue of the Church, and after he has given the As-
sembly some vivid and pathetic pictures of the interiors
of manses in Augmented charges, the Assembly will not
listen to the proposed regulations, much less to reductions
in salary. The regulations remain unchanged. A
second council of despair to reduce Augmented salaries
by thirty dollars, the Superintendent also succeeds in
having rejected, and the salaries remain at their normal
and surely meagre enough minimum. There being no
other hope, the Assembly orders another Pastoral Let-
ter, to be backed up by Deputies to Presbyteries.
Leaving the Pastoral Letter and the Deputies to their
work, the Superintendent again takes the trail. We find
him in the late autumn in the neighbourhood of Yorkton,
in Northern Assiniboia. His experiences in this district
are set down in a letter to his wife, of date November 19,
1892, and are worth recording :
"I had a stormy time in the West. Left Winnipeg
Saturday, and reached Saltcoats about 10 p. M. A man
frantically came on board the train and shouted if Dr.
Eobertson was on board. I assured him he was. He
then told me I would have to come off and marry a
couple. This I declined to do until I could see the con-
ductor. I told him the situation and got him to stop the
train till I could marry these good people, and the con-
328 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
ductor went with me to the hotel. But the bride was in
the kitchen working, ignorant of what was coming. She
was taken away, hurriedly washed and dressed and
ushered into my presence. She belonged to the Crofters,
and I had to marry partly in Gaelic and partly in Eng-
lish, but finally got them made one. Started for the
station, and got to Yorkton in good time. But when I
reached there I found the minister absent, and no place
where I could stop, and the night wild. I hunted round
and got a place about twelve o'clock, but when I went to
the room I found it was recently plastered, and that it
was not safe. I at last had a place pointed out to me
where the people had gone to bed. I knocked at the
door and a woman appeared. She had no place. I told
her I never saw a woman stuck yet in such an emergency,
and that I was quite prepared to sleep on the table or on
the floor. She invited me to go in, which I did. She
went away leaving me in the dark, and came back telling
me the best she could do was to let me in beside her hus-
band. I went, and slept soundly, not looking who slept
on the other side of him, but there were three in bed, as I
found in the morning.
" Morning stormy, but I hired a horse and drove out
eight miles. Found missionary storm-bound, and not go-
ing to station beyond at all. I told him I would go, and
instructed driver to take me there. Found a small con-
gregation, but was glad I went. Preached, and returned
to where the missionary was. He had Communion serv-
ice, and I preached and addressed people. Missionary
remained all night, and I returned to evening service.
"Waited to have the Crofter missionary come and take me
down there. He did not come, and I hired and drove
there. Found that the storm was too much for him, too,
and that he never left the house Sabbath. Drove to Salt-
coats, seventeen miles, and went next morning to Crofters.
A LONG PULL 329
They are badly off. I do wish you would try to get some
of your ladies to get some clothiug. There are twenty-
three families. No crop, not even potatoes. Held a
meeting that night at Saltcoats. Next day came to
Neepawa and held Thanksgiving service, and another in
evening at Eapid City. Got promise of twenty -five bags
of flour for Crofters."
The Christmas season of that year finds him still pur-
suing with invincible pertinacity the storm-blown trails
of the far Northwest. The following letters written to
his wife give us a realistic picture of how his days were
packed with work. There is something almost appalling
in that record of journeys and meetings. One does not
know whether to wonder more at that restless, resistless
energy that drove him through his work, or the invin-
cible buoyancy of spirit that made him indifferent to
toil, privation, and hardship. The first letter is written
from Calgary some time in the early part of December
and is as follows :
' l The Horse Hills meeting was well attended. Thence
we drove to the Sturgeon, but on the way our conveyance
a jumper broke down. In the old days we could
easily have mended it, for every one had his pocket full
of shaganappi and 'babeesh' (babiche), but, alas ! these
days are past and there was nothing for it but to try to
take pieces out of the harness ; were successful, but spent
so much time that we lost our supper. The meeting was
largely attended and much interest shown. After the
meeting I visited an old acquaintance, Sutherland, who
lost hig wife a year ago, and who fell into a threshing
machine and saved his life by his extraordinary strength.
He is crippled for life, but quite cheerful. His daughter
was away and he could not give us anything to eat. "We
did not tell him we had no supper. At eleven we started
to drive twelve miles to Edmonton, and reached it in good
330 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
time. On the evening of the next day I addressed the
Edmonton people on mission work, and they had a social
gathering afterwards. I saw quite a number of old faces
and spent a pleasant time.
"Till Sabbath I spent my time visiting South Edmon-
ton, and addressing the people, and organizing a mission.
Preached twice in Edmonton and once in South Edmonton
on Sabbath, and explored Monday. Tuesday I started
for Lacombe, and had a meeting in the railway station.
Wednesday drove eighteen miles south to Red Deer and
held a meeting, and on Thursday, eighteen miles here.
Last night we tried to reach Olds, eighteen miles south-
west, but the driver failed to reach there and we nearly
spent the night on the prairie. The missionary did his
best to get me through, but in vain. Stars were hidden
and we steered by instinct, or rather I did, for he got
confused and lost his bearings. We got within about
three miles of the place and fell into such drifts that it
was deemed prudent to retrace our steps. We reached
here about 1 A. M. Mrs. Buchanan and two other ladies
young women were here when we arrived and asked
us whether we lost ourselves. We replied no, that we
were here. Had we lost the trail, then ! Could we lose
what we never had ?
1 1 To-morrow we have the Communion dispensed here.
Monday I go north to Wetaskiwin, and return to Calgary,
Tuesday. I then go to Canmore, and return to Olds. On
the 24th I go to McLeod where I was to get a dish of an-
cient eggs a few years ago, but did not. I then return,
after visiting Pincher Creek, and go to Prince Albert. I
return and go down along the line of the Canadian Pacific
expecting to reach Winnipeg about the llth.
"I do not know how long after, ere I get to Ontario,
but likely not very long.
" To this district a large number of settlers are coming,
A LONG PULL 331
and where we have four missions now, we shall have nine
next spring."
One would think that after that terrific tour, packed
with " organizing," "addressing," " visiting," " explor-
ing," dashing through storms and drifts, bearing cold
and hunger, sleepless nights and disappointments, the
Superintendent had earned his right to a week's rest
in his home with his family. But he cannot reach them
and return to his work without a journey of 5,000 miles,
consuming twelve or fourteen precious days and costing
more money than he has to spend. So he closes the let-
ter with the words :
U I was glad to get so much home news. I hope you
are all well. I am sorry not to be at home on Christmas
Day."
On the 22d of December he writes from Calgary as
follows :
" I have just got in from Olds, forty miles north, where
I held a meeting yesterday, and I go over to-morrow
morning to McLeod, over 100 miles. The weather is
very cold and stormy, and travelling uncomfortable.
Monday I have to go up from McLeod to Pincher Creek,
a distance of thirty-two miles, and I fear it will not be
comfortable travelling. I expect to return to McLeod
Wednesday to take the train back here. While at Ed-
monton I had fine weather and enjoyed the trip. From
here I go to Prince Albert, and it is likely the weather
there is keen. However, I shall soon get through there.
I have had word necessitating, I fear, my taking a trip
to Southeastern Assiniboia after returning from Prince
Albert, and if I do, I cannot go East when I expected.
From Herdmau I learned that the Synod of British Co-
lumbia meets in March. I want to be present for various
reasons, and in that case it is scarcely worth while to go
East till March when I go to the meeting of the Home
332 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Mission Committee. However, I shall decide nothing
now, as much depends on how matters shape themselves
for the next two weeks."
It is because this man will not rest by day or night
that his Committee find it difficult to furnish him with
either men or money.
Before the Assembly of the following year, the Super-
intendent found time to make a memorable trip down the
Fraser Valley in British Columbia. Appointments had
been made at various points throughout that district.
Meantime, the Fraser, swollen by the June rains, had
burst its banks and rendered all the low-lying ground al-
most impassable. But the Superintendent was not to be
denied. He must keep his engagements at all costs and
at all hazards. And keep them he does. He gives an
account of some of his experiences in the following letter
to his wife :
" Calgary, June 7, 1893.
"DEAR WIFE:
" I reached here about an hour ago, intending to wait for
the meeting of Presbytery here to-morrow. The trip in British
Columbia was, on the whole, rough, owing to the late spring and
the shocking state of the roads, but appointments were in
every case kept, and I have reason to be thankful. I walked
till my feet gave way, rode where I could, drove where it was
practicable, took canoe, rowboat, steamer, and train. Had
I a chance to try a balloon I would have tested and tasted all
the usual methods of travel. No doubt I would have fared
better had I been web-footed on several occasions, but in the
absence of the webbed foot I was glad to own feet sufficiently
large to prevent me from sinking everywhere. For the first
time in almost twenty years I got drenched to the skin, and
had the luxury of sitting in the bottom of a canoe for hours,
which was constantly shipping enough of the tawny Fraser to
sink it, but for frequent bailing. And when I tried to buy a
suit of underclothing I was denied the privilege, and helped
myself of the shelf without leave. But so far I have escaped
arrest.
A LONG PULL 333
" After business is over here I go to Winnipeg, where I
am to remain for a day, and then I go East. Kisses for
Mamma, Tina, Jim, Stan and Terry.
" YOUR HUSBAND."
That year the Home Mission Fund is saved by a lucky
bequest, but no such good fortune befalling the Augmen-
tation Fund, the annual deficit with the consequent re-
duction in salary, is reported to the Assembly, the
Convener taking occasion sadly to remind the Church
that for years past this average deficit in the Fund has
amounted to almost $4,000 per annum. That is one side
of the picture. The other side is presented by the
Superintendent who, in his address, gives an account
of all his various journeyings and labours, reports ex-
pansion and consolidation, calls attention to the ominous
presence of a colony of 700 Mormons in Southern Alberta,
and with this last item of information presents a resolu-
tion of the Assembly's Home Mission Committee asking
that a mission be established among these people. The As-
sembly, however, has no money for Presbyterians, much
less for Mormons, and the resolution of the Committee
is hastily forgotten. The Superintendent gives a stirring
report of mining activity in British Columbia, and de-
mands the attention of the Church for incoming miners.
But all to no purpose. The Home Mission Fund has
been practically wiped out, the Augmentation Fund is
in an even less healthy condition, necessitating a cut in
salaries. The miners, too, must be forgotten. The
Superintendent further announces that the immigration
for the year has reached the inspiring figure of 38,000,
and that development will be rapid in the spring. The
Assembly is duly inspired, but is hopeless in regard to
funds.
The horizon is somewhat dark, but at one point there
is a light breaking. The Convener reports that during
334 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
the past year lie had issued a commission to the Rev.
C. W. Gordon, who, on his return from his mission in
the mountains a year ago, had proceeded to Britain for
a year's study, after which he had been spending some
months in presenting the claims of the Northwest to the
Churches in the Homeland. Mr. Gordon had received
so hearty a welcome and was meeting with such large
success, that the Convener was hopeful that very sub-
stantial help would be given by the British Churches.
The Assembly is greatly relieved and much rejoiced that
at length the home Churches are beginning to take an
interest in their children over seas, passes resolutions
and dissolves, much comforted.
The financial depression continues throughout the
year, and into 1894. 'The Home Mission Committee
meets the Assembly with the gloomy announcement
that the receipts of the Fund have been $6,000 less than
those of last year, and that the situation has been saved
only by special donations and grants from Churches
abroad. The Augmentation Fund, too, is in a deplorable
condition, the only relief in the situation being achieved
by the simple but hardly satisfactory method of a further
cut in salaries.
The Superintendent reports a large increase in the
Mormon colony in Alberta, so large, indeed, that the
Calgary Presbytery was constrained on its own motion
to inaugurate a mission, the funds for which had been
secured by the Superintendent. Work had been begun,
too, among the foreign peoples who were settling in the
West. Two missionaries were to work among the Ice-
landers, one among the Hungarians, one among the
Germans, one among the Scandinavians. All this in-
volved the Church in larger expenditure. Retrenchment
was impossible. The Church must advance. But how
to advance without funds, the Assembly knows not.
A LONG PULL 335
The return of their deputy from the British Churches
is most opportune. Mr. Gordon is warmly received as
he presents his report. And a remarkable report it is.
Great Britain, but especially Scotland, is the happy
hunting-ground for all impecunious missionary schemes.
It had been difficult to gain access to the congregations,
but access having been effected through the good offices
of the various Colonial Committees and of personal
friends deeply interested in Canada, the Northwest
and its magnificent appeal had touched the hearts and
the imaginations of the people. To such an extent was
this true, that Mr. Gordon was able to report the assum-
ing of the support of between forty and fifty missions
on the part of the British Churches for a period of from
three to five years at $250 eaeh. This truly generous
response on the part of the home Churches, dissipates
in large measure the financial gloom overhanging the
Home Mission situation, and encourages the Superintend-
ent and those associated with him to a still more vigorous
prosecution of their work.
In 1895 the Church manifests its appreciation of the
Superintendent and his work by unanimously electing
him to the highest office within its gift. It has been
a hard year financially throughout the Dominion, and
the West has not escaped the general financial stringency.
In British Columbia there have been serious floods on the
Fraser, and a large section of the country is, therefore,
in straits. The Superintendent reports that the immi-
gration for the year shows a slight increase, that oppor-
tunities are greater than ever, the needs of the country
also greater. In the Cariboo district, with a population
of 3,000, about half that number are Presbyterian, and
without a single missionary. Work among the Mormons
is proving more difficult than was anticipated. Its
progress is not satisfactory, but it cannot be abandoned.
336 THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBERTSON
The work among the foreigners, too, is making larger
demands. With the help of Old Country moneys, how-
ever, the year closes without a deficit.
The election of Dr. G. L. Mackay in 1894, and of Dr.
Robertson in 1895, the outstanding representatives of the
Foreign and Home Mission fields, to the office of Modera-
tor, had brought these two great departments of Church
work into prominence and inevitably, to a certain extent,
into competition for the attention and support of the
Church. On retiring from the office, the great represent-
ative of Foreign Missions had preached a powerful ser-
mon, setting forth the claims and the opportunities of
that work to which he had given his life. In accepting
office, the great representative of Home Missions in the
Canadian Church made the following graceful reference
to Foreign Mission work :
" These are two sisters, the one is younger or perhaps
has more charms than the other, still an elder sister has
a warm place in the heart of the Church, and that we
found when an effort was put forth recently to relieve the
Home Mission deficit. "
For his retiring sermon he chose a text usually
selected for a Foreign Mission address : " But ye shall
receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you ;
and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem and
in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost
parts of the earth. "
The sermon was a noble exposition of the principles
underlying all mission work, and a splendid apology for
the view that held all mission work to be one. But, as
was expected of him, he proceeded to give a lucid and
comprehensive review of the work accomplished in the
Canadian West during the past fifteen years. It was a
sermon worthy of the great theme, and some of its periods
deserved to live in the memory of the Church. And it is
A LONG PULL 33T
to be regretted that no report remains beyond a single
reference in the press of the day, to the strength and
dignity of the utterance. In dealing with the difficulty
of overlapping, the following sentences are preserved.
After frank acknowledgment of the evil, he proceeds to
say :
" Overlapping could have been prevented in many
cases, and the evil mitigated if our own Church had made
up its mind to occupy its missions continuously. The
withdrawal of forty or fifty missions in the autumn, leav-
ing families like sheep without a shepherd, is an invita-
tion to another Church to step in an invitation seldom
declined.
" There is some overlapping, but less than is commonly
reported. The returns to Assembly show good value for
money spent. No good money thrown into muskegs.
But where there is overlapping is our Church always the
offender ? We offend less than some others. But if we
occupy a field, build a church, etc., etc., are we to sneak
away because others come in? There is no breach of
Christian comity. A timid, questioning, penurious
policy can only win contempt and defeat. Moreover,
Presbyterianism represents principles that have done man
and religion rare service in the past are these not to
find expression and exposition all over the West? To
play their part in shaping the national life ? Let over-
lapping be reduced to a minimum, but let no deserving
group of Presbyterians complain that their Church had
forsaken them, suppressed her principles to save her
pocket.' 7
There is a ring of sturdy manliness about this declara-
tion that cannot fail to win the approval of all self-
respecting Presbyterians. In a single paragraph the
sermon depicts the marvellous growth of twenty-one
years :
338 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
" Since the union, twenty-one years ago, over 200 mis-
sions have become congregations. Under our charge are
400 missions still, with 1,200 stations (one-sixth of the
families of the Church, one- ninth of her communicants).
Twenty years ago, one feeble Presbytery in the West, now
thirteen. Preaching places increased from 35 to 818,
communicants from 500 to 19,000. The strength and
prestige of the Church are increased by these gains, ena-
bling her to undertake and carry out work that else would
have been far beyond her. The spiritual life is deepen-
ing ; not one point has been abandoned ; the religious
barometer is rising."
It is a great Home Mission Assembly, but the report
from the Home Mission Committee is not calculated to
quicken the enthusiasm. While the year closes with a
balance of $4,000 to the good, this is not due to increased
liberality on the part of the Church, but rather to the
practice of the severest economy in administration, and
to the liberal assistance from British Churches. The
Convener, Dr. Cochrane, finds it necessary to warn
the Assembly solemnly that unless the support of the
Church for this branch of its work reach a point far
above any yet touched, retrenchment is inevitable.
But there is no idea of retrenchment in the mind of the
Superintendent, nor in the minds of the men in the
West. Indeed, retrenchment is the last thing thought of
there. The Calgary Presbytery has grown too big for
satisfactory administration, and hence upon its northern
confines the new Presbytery of Edmonton is erected, mak-
ing fourteen in all now in that part of Canada lying west
of the Great Lakes. All this expansion means larger
financial support, and realizing how inadequate are the
present sources of supply, and remembering that in some
cases the period of supporting their missions on the part
of Churches in Britain secured by Mr. Gordon has
A LONG PULL 339
elapsed, the Committee resolves to send their Superin-
tendent as a deputy to the Motherland, to lay the facts
before the Churches there, and to invite their continued
support and, if possible, in even larger measure.
There was another cause that weighed with the Com-
mittee, and one, the ominous significance of which at
the time was not fully understood. There were all too
evident signs upon the Superintendent of Missions that
his iron constitution and sinewy frame were at last be-
ginning to feel the strain of those fifteen years of toils
and trials immeasurable. And so he was sent across the
sea for a change and rest, they said. A change it was,
true enough ; but rest was to him impossible while his
work was undone.
In the autumn of 1896, Dr. Kobertson sailed for Scot-
land, and with the interval of but a single Sabbath, set
out at once on his quest for money. His first difficulty,
and it proved his greatest, was to get access to the peo-
ple. The way was blocked ; the Church treasurer or the
minister not unfrequently stood on guard. Then, too,
there were countless prior claims pressed upon the Chris-
tians of Scotland. To Mr. Gordon he writes some weeks
after his arrival, as follows :
' ' The Established Church people have a large Foreign
Mission debt, and are holding meetings in every centre
and canvassing in every quarter to wipe it out. It would
seem, from what was said here by Lord Low, Lord Pol-
warth, Dr. Macgregor, Dr. McLeod, and others, that the
good name of the Church was involved, and for honour
men will fight, when they would not even strive to enter
in at the strait gate. And the Free Church and the
United Presbyterian have their Foreign Mission deficits,
too, and debt is heard from all parts of the land. And
in Edinburgh, central congregations are losing by re-
moval to the suburbs, and the suburbs have to build
340 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
more spacious and pretentious structures to attract and
accommodate the newcomers, and neither class feels able
to assume new burdens. And, truth to tell, ministers
are not enthusiastic over the scheme. Nothing could be
finer than the spirit shown in the Presbytery, but when
you ask for an opportunity of addressing the congrega-
tion well, that is another matter.' 7
Further on he says :
"This seems the happy hunting-ground for all schemes
and plans. Has an Irish minister a church to build, a
manse to repair, or a hall to roof, he must come to Glas-
gow. Has a Highlander lost his cow, his boat, or his
bonnet, he must come to Glasgow to get wherewith to
buy a new one. And as for Colonial schemes, French
Canadians, Chiniquy, the Cape, West Australia, Cana-
dian Northwest, they all and a dozen other schemes pre-
sent their claims, and this every year, besides Bible So-
cieties, Tract Societies, Home Missions, Church building,
Foreign Missions. The trouble is that a select few are
always approached, while a large number of comfortable
people are not come-at-able. But Pessimism never helped
a cause, and I am not going to say anything more of
this."
There is no strain of pessimism or of cowardice in his
blood, and so, making no complaint, but calling upon all
his resources of full and detailed knowledge, of courtesy
and tact, of skill and energy, he goes at his work till by
sheer dogged perseverance he makes his way into the
pulpit and thence in short order into the hearts of his
hearers. The following extract from a letter to his wife
makes good reading to us who love to remember his
manner with the people :
"Last Sabbath the minister in introducing me said he
did not think they could give anything, but that I wished
to address them and that he could not well refuse, but
A LONG PULL 341
that while they could give no money they would give
their moral support and their prayers ! What could you
do after that? I was nettled and spoke out. I told them
that if they would talk in that way, they must allow me
to analyze their case. If they could give but simply
would not, how much was their moral support worth f
A good deal less than nothing. And if they were to
pray, they should be able to say, * Lord, Thou knowest
we have nothing and cannot help this work, deserving
as we believe it to be ; incline the hearts of those who
have, to help it forward.' God would hear such a prayer,
but I was afraid He would have little patience with the
man who prayed that others less able might give to save
his pocket. Some smiled aloud and Professor D ,
who was present, said that whatever the minister said,
they would try to see what could be done. He was much
pleased with the presentation of the case, and promised
help."
The good people of Scotland are a long-suffering and
much-hunted folk, but they are people of sense and of
conscience. None in the world know better a good in-
vestment, and none in the world respond more readily to
the claims of the Kingdom of Heaven. Towards the end
of his stay, he writes as follows in regard to the results of
his mission :
" Edinburgh has responded fairly. A number of them
thought that three years would end the matter, and since
these have come to an end, they are of the opinion that
no more should be asked. Dr. Hood Wilson's people
promised, as you know, for three years, but will go on.
St. Andrew's ' ditto.' Dr. John Smith was telling me his
people were much interested, and that I might depend
on their continuing theirs, too. A week ago last Sabbath
I was in Free St. George's, and I am informed they will
continue. Dr. Barbour told me he would give 50 as for
342 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
the past three years, and give ine 100 this year for the
Building Fund. Sheriff Jamieson gives me 10 a year for
five years for the Building Fund. Druinniond's people
(United Presbyterian, Lothian Road) will continue, and
Mr. Williamson's people who gave nothing last year, are
taking the matter up and will report. I told you, I think,
Morningside Free Church promises 60 for three years.
. . . I addressed Dr. Donald McLeod's congregation
last Sabbath. He brusquely told me in the vestry not to
ask for money, for they had none to give. He took the
devotional part of the service, but gave me twenty -five
minutes, then I was to engage in prayer, give out a hymn
to sing, and pronounce the benediction. After the hymn
was sung he came to the front of the platform, told the
people what he had said to me, but frankly stated that
the address had caused him to change his mind. He
offered to be one of twenty-five to give 2 a year, and
quite an amount was got at the close. He told me yester-
day he was to follow the matter up to-morrow, and ex-
pected to get the balance of the 50. Lord Overtoun I
saw, and he gave me 200 for building, and promised to
give 100 a year for the next four years, part for building
and part for support of a missionary, as we might decide.
I think 50 should go for each. Mr. R. S. Allan gives
me 100 for building, and I have promises of more, but
can tell nothing as yet as to how they will pan out."
It is impossible for him to map out any orderly itiner-
ary. He must suit other people's convenience rather
than his own, and go where and when he can find entrance.
So from Glasgow to Dundee, from Dundee to Edinburgh,
from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, from Aberdeen to London,
from London to Liverpool, he journeys, and having com-
pleted his work in England and Scotland, he crosses over
to Ireland for a short but vigorous campaign there. It
is hard work and often discouraging. Sabbath-days and
A LONG PULL 343
week-days he fills in with addresses, sermons, interviews,
journey ings and unceasing correspondence, till done out,
he takes steamer for home.
On his homeward trip, unfitted as he is for the sea-
voyage, he falls terribly ill. But once on land, his
strength quickly returns and he hurries across the conti-
nent to Winnipeg, where he appears once more in the
midst of his brethren convened in General Assembly, and
receives such a welcome from them as it is given few men
to receive.
The Assembly is busy with its legislation, but nothing
will do but that he shall stand up where they can see him
and listen once more to his voice. He cannot report any
great improvement in health, and we can all see that he
is worn and weary, but he has met with great kindness
and his visit has not been without success. In the even-
ing, in a speech of great vigour, he recounts his experi-
ences in the Homeland. He has made money out of it
for the Church, nearly $12,000, and support for over forty
missions. But the Church is doubtful whether it has not
paid somewhat too dearly for these financial returns, in
the expenditure of the life and strength of the Superin-
tendent of Missions.
XXXII
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE THE YUKON
IN the summer of 1897 the eyes of the civilized world
were suddenly turned upon that part of the Do-
minion lying between Alaska and the Eocky Moun-
tains, the Yukon. One word whispered on the banks of
the Klondike Eiver reverberated around the world, the
magic, mighty word "gold." From all the continents
and from the islands of the sea, they came, men of all
nations, of all colours, of all tongues, crowding, pressing,
struggling, fighting their way to the placer gravel reaches
of the Klondike and its various tributaries. At first in
scores, then in hundreds, then in thousands and in tens
of thousands, they flooded the river-bottoms, digging,
scratching, washing, fighting for gold. It was in some
ways the wildest, maddest rush ever seen on this conti-
nent. At first the more reckless and adventurous only
pressed in, but as the gold began to flow out, mad lust
seized upon cool-headed and sober business men from all
parts of the world.
They are all interested in gold. But there was one
man who had stood upon the Vancouver wharves piled
high with outfits and stores, eagerly scanning the crowds
of gold-seekers fighting for a place on the outgoing
steamers, in whose heart there was no thought of gold,
but of men. That man was James Eobertson, the Super-
intendent of Western Missions for Canada.
Already ten thousand men, some said twenty, had gone
north to tear their fortunes from the frozen placer- beds
344
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE 345
of the Klondike, and with them had gone the rumseller,
the gambler, the courtezan, the pimp, the vile parasitic
vermin from the city slums, but not a single missionary.
The thought kindled a fire in his heart that burned ever
hotter and fiercer. Something must be done, and that
straightway.
On his way back from the Pacific Coast he paused at
Winnipeg and there consulted .with the Rev. C. W.
Gordon, who was at that time secretary of the British
Canadian Missions, and was acting as assistant to the
Superintendent in his Western work. What was to be
done ? Plainly only one thing. A man must be selected,
outfitted and sent north forthwith. Navigation would
soon close in that northland, rendering travel difficult.
It was necessary to act at once. True, it was a matter for
the Assembly's Home Mission Committee, but long be-
fore that Committee could meet, the time for action would
be past. The Superintendent could trust the Committee
to support him in wise action. So to find the man.
In Mr. Gordon's study they sat, the Blue Book on the
table, the Superintendent canvassing the names of avail-
able men one by one. Not every man would do for this
mission. He must be a man of physical strength, sound
in wind and limb, of common sense, sane and strong.
He must possess high moral courage, lofty spirituality,
tender sympathy ; moreover, he must be unmarried. One
by one the Superintendent named the men, rejecting one
after another for various causes.
"Mr. A too weak, Mr. B too lazy, Mr. C cannot be
spared from his present position, Mr. D married, Mr. E
too worldly, could not be trusted in the presence of gold,
Mr. F too fat, couldn't climb the hills, Mr. G too colour-
less in his theology, not positive enough, Mr. H not
enough red blood in his heart, no sympathy."
And so through the list. The suitable are needed in
346 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
their present positions ; those who can be spared are un-
suitable for this first adventure. What of the graduat-
ing men in the colleges ? None that the Superintendent
knows to be suitable can be found in the East. What
of Manitoba College! Surely in this Western college
it is, if anywhere, the man should be found. But in
the graduating class no suitable man appears. Sud-
denly there comes to Mr. Gordon the suggestion of a
name.
" I know a man for you. He would suit you well, but
he is only in his second year."
" Who is he?"
"A young Irishman, B. M. Dickey."
" He's our man. I know him."
a But he is not ordained."
The Superintendent looked at his friend through half-
closed eyes. " We'll ordain him," he said with prompt
decision.
The younger man, accustomed as he was to the re-
sourcefulness of his chief, was startled at this calm pro-
posal to assume Assembly powers, and stated his fear
that even for the resourceful Superintendent this might
prove impossible. But not at all. The Superintendent
had in his mind an ancient regulation permitting the or-
dination for special service, of students who had com-
pleted their second year. The interview closed with a
line of action clearly determined. Mr. Gordon was to
see Mr. Dickey, who was a member of his congregation,
and prepare him for the formal call of the Superintend-
ent. The story of the result of this call is told by Mr.
Dickey himself :
" No man who ever met him escaped altogether the
spell of his personality. I experienced it perhaps more
than some others, in 1897. Probably you will remember
that at the close of the summer you told me that Dr. Rob-
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE 347
ertson and you had decided to ask me to go to the Yukon
for two years. I was so much astonished that I remained
silent. The disappointment at home where I was ex-
pected soon, the interruption in my study and, I suppose,
the unknown perils and hardships of such a journey, as
well as the responsibility of so many souls, weighed upon
me overwhelmingly. Seeing this, you asked me to go
back to the college, think and pray over it, and come to
no decision till after Convocation. In the meantime, my
friends and the professors advised against it. I went to
Convocation without having seen my duty. It was all
like a dream to me, till Dr. Robertson rose to speak. He
spoke, as he always did, from a soul on fire. After a few
introductory sentences, he told us of his visit to the Coast
and what he had seen there the steamers leaving the
piers, all crowded with eager gold-seekers bound for the
Yukon. Then folding his arms and closing his eyes in
his characteristic manner, he said :
Ui These men have souls. Some of them will make
fortunes and be tempted to destruction ; some will be dis-
appointed in their search ; all will endure hardships, and
many of them will die ; many will be broken down. We
must send with them some one to tell them of the treasure
more precious than gold, some one to warn them in their
day of prosperity, or remind them in their day of ca-
lamity, that God reigneth, some one to stand by the dy-
ing bed and point men to Christ. These men who are
facing a thousand perils have grit, courage, endurance ;
we must send a man to turn the faces of these strong men
heavenward/
" Later on he added, 'God has given us an oppor-
tunity which we dare not neglect. We have asked a
student of this college to go to the Yukon, and I believe
he will hear in our request the call of God. 7
" You will understand how such an address appealed
34:8 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
to niy heart as no other ever did, and I hesitated DO
longer. Aiid I think that was a fair example of the way
he managed to get men for the difficult outposts."
To Mr. Dickey that Convocation speech was memorable
indeed. It largely determined for him the whole course
of his future life. He had already planned to visit his
home and his mother in Ireland, in the spring after
graduation. He had still a year of study before him, but
to him the call sounded clear and plain, and having
heard, in spite of the opposition of friends and in spite of
the remonstrance of professors unwilling to see him break
his course, he accepted, and at once began his prepara-
tions for what was in that day regarded as an enterprise
involving very considerable hardship and no small
danger.
He was designated to his mission-field in a solemn
service held in St. Stephen's Church, in which Professor
Hart, Professor Baird, Sir Thomas Taylor, and his own
minister, Rev. C. W. Gordon, took part. And early in
October he left for the port of Skagway, pausing in Van-
couver long enough to be ordained.
The Assembly's Home Mission Committee, meeting in
October, swept off its feet by the enthusiastic report from
the Superintendent in regard to the great rush of miners
and gold-seekers to the Klondike, and the appointment
of the Rev. R. M. Dickey as first missionary, approved
of the action of the Superintendent and instructed the
Convener to " issue a check for Mr. Dickey's travelling
expenses and salary to date."
In the midst of this adventure there came news that
smote the heart of the Church with a sudden foreboding,
which is contained in the following brief note to Mr.
Gordon :
* 1 1 am still not well. I am afraid that something
serious is the matter. I was consulting Dr. Gilbert Gor-
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE 349
don this afternoon, and am to see him again in the morn-
ing."
After a few weeks' rest and treatment he is on his feet
again and in the fall pressure of the work he cannot and
will not lay down. In addition to his ordinary Home
Mission duties, the Yukon claims his full and enthu-
siastic attention. He is eager to secure additional mis-
sionaries for the Northern field. The trail has been
broken, the lines of communication are established, and
men must be found to follow.
Not in the history of our Canadian missions is there
clearer evidence of a Committee being guided in its
choice of men, than in the case of the Klondike. The
next man appointed is the Eev. A. S. Grant, a man fitted
in a very special way for work among the Klondike
miners, strong, fearless, sympathetic, with experience of
Western missions and with two years 7 medical training.
The people of the Edmonton district tell this story of
him.
An Indian woman in his field lay dying with a broken
leg that had begun to mortify from neglect. There was
no doctor to be had. Grant was on the spot with his case
of lancets, forceps, etc. The woman must lose her life or
lose her leg. Grant decided it should be the latter.
With a settler to assist him, he shut the woman's rela-
tives out of the cabin, got an old buck-saw which he ren-
dered antiseptic with boiling water, gave the woman
chloroform, sawed off the leg, tied up the arteries, sewed
down the flap, her relatives raging at the door outside all
the while. He had the satisfaction of seeing her stump
round afterwards on a wooden leg which he either made
or purchased for her.
Having secured Grant, the Superintendent looks around
for a third. He has his eye upon a man of whom he
writes in this way :
350 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
" Toronto, Nov. 29, 1897.
"DEAR GORDON:
" Yours of the i ;th I have replied to in part. The Rev.
A. S. Grant, as I informed you, is appointed and leaves here
about Christmas, and as soon as the West is ready for him 1
have another man who is ready to pull up stakes and go a
powerful man, sound in wind and limb, strong of joints, level
of head and deft of brain, and I am assured courageous withal.
The Principal and Professor Hart can rest assured that although
not in Winnipeg, I am not forgetful of the needs of the West.
My man is Crawford Tate. Keep quiet just now. He is
spiritually minded very necessary.
"Yours in haste,
"J. ROBERTSON."
That last phrase is a window through which we may
see the Superintendent's innermost heart. No man ever
hated cant with a more violent hatred than did he, but
no man ever knew how vitally important it was to suc-
cess in mission work on the frontier, that a man should
be spiritually minded. Something went wrong with this
appointment, and Mr. Crawford Tate was denied the
privilege of joining the Klondike force.
The designation service of the Rev. A. S. Grant of-
fered an opportunity unique in the Home Mission de-
partment of the Church's work, and the Committee
decided to make the most of it. The service is thus
referred to in the following letter written from Toronto,
December 31, 1897 :
MR. GORDON :
"The meeting designating the Bev. A. S. Grant,
took place last evening in St. James' Square Church, and
there was a good audience. Sir Oliver Mowat was in the
chair, and Principal Grant, A. S. Grant, Drs. Warden
and Cochrane and your humble servant were the speak-
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE 351
ers. At the close, two men told me they would give $100
each for Home Missions, and more, I trust, will follow.
Grant leaves here Monday by the 'Canadian Pacific Rail-
way and will reach Winnipeg Wednesday j I do not
know that he will stay off at Winnipeg at all, so you had
better arrange to see him at the station.' 7 There is no
doubt that the mission is appealing to the imagination of
the Church. The Superintendent is greatly encouraged.
"If $8,000 or $10,000 more are needed," he continues,
i i for the work in the Klondike, I think it can be got, for
prompt action and the character of our men are com-
manding attention throughout the Church. Even the
dailies in Toronto are catching the enthusiasm. I am
urging the appointment of more men, and without delay.
I am writing Cochrane to come down some day soon so
that we may outline our policy, select our men, and take
action intelligently. He speaks of delay, but I am to be
always opposed to a l to-morrow ' policy."
True enough. And never more opposed than in this
present situation of rush and stress. The crowding gold-
seekers struggling up the gulches will not wait till to-
morrow. The Bread of Life they must have to-day or
perish. And so, " Glenora must be provided for at once,
and Fort Wrangel sooner! And Teslin Lake demands
attention immediately, too. The Stickine route is evi-
dently favoured by the Canadian Pacific Railway people,
and since it admits of our reaching Canadian territory
speedily, it is to be much preferred. The other route,
however, we must provide for, especially on our own
side of the line, for both routes are likely to be fully
taxed. But men are an important element. If Herdman
could be secured for a place like Glenora, it would be
well. He knows frontier life and has a good way with
men." That he has, as all Calgary Presbyterians and all
his fellow labourers in the Presbytery will strongly tes-
352 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
tify. But Herdman cannot be spared from his present
strategic position.
With the intense and concentrated energy of his being,
the Superintendent is throwing himself into the adminis-
tration and development of the Yukon Mission. This
makes no small addition to the burden of work he is al-
ready bearing, but he has never shirked during his whole
career, and though fighting silently and secretly a deadly
disease, he will not shirk now. It is perfectly amazing
with what rapidity and thoroughness he masters the
geographical and other details of the Yukon mission field.
In a letter to Mr. Gordon, through whom Mr. Dickey has
carried on correspondence with the Superintendent, he
indicates a plan of operations in modification of one sug-
gested by Mr. Dickey, which the Superintendent con-
siders too large, too heroic and too costly.
u The whole situation disclosed by Dickey's letter we
must consider seriously. I am not sure, however, as to
the wisdom of incurring the whole expense and hardship
his plan would involve. The C. P. R. people say that
when steamer communication from Tesliu Lake is
established, the trip from Victoria to Dawson can be
made in twelve days' actual travelling. Moreover, they
say that the Stickine River is open about May 1st, and
continues open to October 31st, and Teslin Lake from May
15th to November 15th. Let us say this is the case.
There is a steamer on Teslin Lake now, and others will
likely be built at once, certainly they will be built if the
C. P. R. people are to make this their route. In any
case, since the distance between the head of Teslin Lake
and Fort Selkirk is only 400 miles, and only one rapid,
and that not a difficult one to navigate, and since there is
plenty of timber to make boats at Teslin Lake, and men
are likely to use it in making boats for themselves, even if
steamer accommodation is limited, it seems to me that our
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE 353
men could get down for a reasonable figure and reach
there as soon as miners are likely to do. Let our men
for the interior leave Vancouver May 1st, it would seem
that by June 1st or 10th at most, they could reach Fort
Selkirk, or even Dawson. The C. P. R. people will
carry men first class, meals and berth included, from
Vancouver to Glenora for forty dollars. If we had men
stationed at Glenora and Teslin, they could arrange to
have our men go in from Glenora to Teslin, or from Teslin
to Hootalinqua and on to Fort Selkirk at a small cost
compared with Dickey's figures. My view is, but of
course I am only considering the case without all the
data, that our best plan is to provide for Fort Wrangel,
Gleuora, and Teslin Lake at once, and any points on the
other route that are likely to assume importance such
as Bennett, Tagish, and other points farther down, and
then wait for the opening of navigation. Grant and
Dickey may be able to consult and throw light on the
situation ; my only concern is to combine, as far as prac-
ticable, economy with an enlightened, progressive policy. 7 '
To hear him describe to his Committee the physical
features, relative positions of camps, the richness of the
various placer beds, one would think he had travelled
over the ground and had taken copious notes upon the spot.
His Committee are nervous about his ambitious plans for
expansion, and fear that he has forgotten the painful
struggle of years past to make ends meet. But ambitious
as is his plan and eager as is his spirit, he is, or at least
thinks he is, on his guard against recklessness.
" There will be no disposition," he writes, " having put
our hand to the plough, to look back ; but we want the
Church to understand that there is no recklessness in the
methods employed."
The Yukon is booming ; the crowds of gold-seekers are
growing in volume week by week ; the terrors of the sun-
354: THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
less winter are added to those of the deadly trail over the
White Pass, but still the crowds pour in. The Home
Mission Committee would fain call a halt, but the Super-
intendent is able to persuade them that on purely finan-
cial considerations the Klondike Mission must not be
allowed to lag. In a letter to Mr. Gordon he writes as
follows :
" The Klondike situation I have no desire to boom, nor
will anything we do for it diminish contributions for
other work. When the Governor- General, Sir Oliver
Mowat, Principal Grant, Dr. Gordon of Halifax and
others endorse your course, and money is being sent
voluntarily to support the work some of it from people
outside our Communion it would seem as if we were on
the right track. Besides, unless you have a new ' battle-
cry y now and then, something to catch the ear and appeal
to the imagination, you will lose your influence with the
mass, and fail in getting their help. i Manitoba and the
great Northwest J has lost its novelty and potency ; you
can no longer charm with it nor fill your coffers. J1
The Home Mission Fund is filling up. Voluntary sub-
scriptions are beginning to come in, but still the Com-
mittee is burdened with a sense of responsibility for the
wise expenditure of Church funds. And they are becom-
ing more and more alarmed at this dashing policy of their
Superintendent.
" We shall let the American Church/' he writes, " care
for her own towns, although in the interests of our work
and men, it may be necessary to plant men at Fort
Wrangel and Skagway (American). I am willing, how-
ever, to be guided by those on the ground, about that part
of our policy." And here the Canadian empire-builder
speaks.
" For patriotic as well as religious reasons I am anxious
that the sentiment in the Klondike country should be
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE 355
strongly Canadian. We must take possession as if we
wished to hold the ground, and give no occasion for a
foreign Church to come in and, with so strong an Ameri-
can element, tamper with the loyalty of our people.
This ' Hinterland ' of ours is peculiarly surrounded, owing
to the ignorance of British diplomatists ; and Canada
Church and State should take care not to leave room
for more complications. And a large amount of Chris-
tian work is to be done if present expectations are half,
realized. ''
The mingled plea of patriotism, good business and
religious responsibility evidently prevails with the wary
Secretary and cautious Convener, for in a short time he
is able to write thus triumphantly :
"62 Admiral Road, Toronto, Jan. 6, 1898.
" DEAR MR. GORDON :
" Yours has only to-day been received, although dated
December 3ist.
" We are thinking of making a special appeal to the rich
men of the Church for $10,000 for the Klondike. As far as I
can see, ten men eight in addition to those we have are
needed. Fort Wrangel, Glenora, Teslin Lake, Skagway, Lake
Bennett, Lake Tagish, Hootalinqua River, Stewart River, Fort
Selkirk, and Dawson all need men, and the upper reaches of the
streams where mining is going on will see villages and towns
springing up for which we must provide. The C. P. R. will
evidently give the preference to the Fort Wrangel route, and we
should act accordingly. The Dalton route may also require
attention. I do not know what to say of the Prince Albert and
Edmonton trails, but evidently an effort is to be made to open
up communication from the east of the Rockies. Dr. Cochrane
seems hard to move. He is too timid about a deficit, and hence
there is danger of our losing the prestige we have gained by
former action.
" Yours sincerely,
" J. ROBERTSON."
" Eight men and $10,000 ! " No wonder the Convener
356 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
feels that with this engine of concentrated energy hitched
to the Home Mission train, he must sit with his hand
upon the brake. He has not had large experience of def-
icits for nothing. At the close of that letter the Superin-
tendent pauses to put in this postscript :
" Like you, I feel grateful for all the past year brought,
and only regret that more was not done. What a bless-
ing that God is merciful and forgiving."
How this shames us and humbles us who have so much
more need to be forgiven !
The tide of interest, however, in the Yukon Mission is
steadily rising in the country and in the Church. Canada
is sending in the best and bravest of her sons to join the
gold-seekers there. Money is pouring in to support the
mission and men are offering, and the Superintendent has
the altogether new and delightful experience of being
able to pick and choose his workers. One can imagine
the almost wicked delight he finds in this situation.
" 62 Admiral Road, Toronto, Jan. 81, 1898.
" DEAR ME. GORDON :
"I am going off to Ottawa in a very short time and
am just writing you a note.
"I wished to have a meeting of the Executive of the
Home Mission Committee here this afternoon, but Coch-
rane could not come. I am getting impatient at this
dilly-dally ; it seems to me to argue a lack of grasp of
the conditions obtaining, but I can do nothing till the
authorities move." Whence this sudden reverence for
authority ? What has come to pass that he waits for any
of them ? Is there a suspicion of a rising impatience on
the part of his Committee unwilling to be hustled along
at this breathless and unseemly pace? " I want Glenora
and Tesliii occupied at once, and sooner if possible if
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE 357
that is not a bull. Some men offer and others are to be
pushed on us, I understand. To all so far I have said
no, and colleges may do as they please, but we are to re-
sist men who are not equal to the situation. I hope to
have two or three names to submit when the Executive
meets here Friday. "
The hunter is being hunted now. The appeal of real
danger and hardship has touched the heart of the noblest,
and the opportunity to win fame has stirred the other
kind of men and the colleges to apply. But now, for the
first time in his history, he will enjoy the luxury of pick-
ing his men.
It is hardly to be expected that the eager pushing of
the Klondike Mission upon the attention of Canada and
especially of the Presbyterian Church, should go without
challenge and criticism. He has already been violently
attacked by the Eossland Miner, to which he addresses a
vigorous reply. From another quarter there comes some-
what veiled criticism that disturbs him not a little. He
thus refers to it in a letter to Mr. Gordon :
"From all I can learn, we have the cordial approval
of the Church so far, only that the Synod of Manitoba
and the Northwest Territories, who, by their action in
the matter of the extra-mural legislation, would seem to
censure us for sending Dickey before he had completed
his course. I only wish all the men who complete their
course would show that they had that stuff in them that
he evidently possesses."
The overture in question originated with the Presby-
tery of Winnipeg, in which the College professors have
a preponderating influence, and was, doubtless, inspired
by a desire to protect the College from further violence
by this filibustering Superintendent. For unless some-
thing is done, no man can tell to what lengths he may
proceed in his raid for Yukon missionaries. The over-
358 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
ture is transmitted to Synod, and through Synod to As-
sembly, without injury to any one.
But more serious, in that it affected the opinion of the
Secretary of the Committee, was the following criticism
from a leading minister of Winnipeg, namely, i ' Winni-
peg is not in favour of the Klondike Mission. "
"What does this mean?" indignantly writes the
Superintendent. i i Surely you do not mean that we are
to leave that district uncared for ? One town or city or
Synod should guard against belittling or opposing what
another city or Synod regards as important, and is push-
ing. Winnipeg will gain nothing by opposing the work
in the Klondike ; the Home Mission Fund will be helped
by our action, for we shall get what we require for the
Klondike specially, and more for the Home Mission Fund
than if the Klondike matter was not taken up. You up
there have but a faint idea of the hold the Klondike has
taken of the people here. From Toronto, Hamilton,
Montreal, everywhere people are going off ; and we must
prepare to provide for them at places where they are sure
to congregate in the largest numbers."
But he is not to be deterred. The following week he
writes in this fashion :
11 We are going to send forward more men to the Klon-
dike at once. I am in correspondence with several, by
the authority of the Executive. We must not falter now.
Glenora and Teslin we must occupy at once. I heard
from Grant ; he was in good spirits."
But the trouble is not over, as is apparent from the
following letter, dated Toronto, Feb. 24, 1898 :
" DEAR GORDON :
" As you know, Dr. Blank was here, and discuss-
ing the Klondike with Dr. Warden, and Dr. Warden
was telling me of the ' opposition > in Winnipeg, and ask-
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE 359
ing for an explanation. I told him of the attitude of the
Free Press last autumn, and attributed it to the fear that
some young men might catch the fever and leave their
farms, and that thus the population of Manitoba might
suffer. This, in my opinion, is folly, for Manitoba
stands to gain a good deal by this advertisement, and our
prints are on the wrong track to decry the Klondike.
Dr. Blank quoted a Winnipeg layman as scouting the
idea of a Klondike Fund, or Churches sending mission-
aries there. Dr. Warden was affected by all this. I told
him that when the Rebellion took place Gordon, Pitblado,
Barclay, Mackenzie and others were sent out as chap-
lains, and surely when ten or twenty times as many
miners were going, we should provide for them ; that
British Churches provided for people who went to water-
ing-places in summer, and that digging-places where
people were likely to be summer and winter should not
be neglected."
Criticism and opposition, however, do not check his
pace, nor do they chill the ardour of his triumphant en-
thusiasm. He has got another man worthy to stand in
the front rank with his Klondike heroes. From the
time he had first seen him as a student, he had kept his
eye upon him, and now at this crisis he sent for John
Pringle. On the 23d of February, 1898, he writes thus
joyfully :
" DEAR GORDON :
" Pringle writes that he is leaving St. Paul for Winni-
peg on the 4th March. He will be with you over Sunday ;
arrange for your meeting for Monday, so that there may be as
little delay as possible. Should Presbytery meet at the time, it
would be, perhaps, as well to have Presbytery take charge,
although you might feel freer with the Home Mission Commit-
tee. Do what you and the brethren think best. I hope to be
with you by Saturday the 5th. I am writing Pringle and tell-
360 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
ing about suggestions and asking him to communicate with
you. I have just received a letter from Pringle.
" In haste,
" J. ROBERTSON."
In another letter he writes :
"Pringle seems to be prepared to go at once, and we
are anxious he should do so, because Dickey may go
away any time. Klondike Fund J. A. Macdonald's
is doing well; $128 to-day and we are hopeful. It is
thought better not to appoint more men till the Commit-
tee meets on the 22d, but letters received will determine
our action.
" In great haste,
" J. ROBERTSON."
Yes, "in haste," "in great haste," always so in these
days.
On the 20th of April, 1898, a fourth missionary was
designated to the Klondike Mission Rev. J. A. Sinclair,
of Spencerville, Ontario, a man worthy in every way to
take his place with those who were already in the Yukon.
Mr. Sinclair reached Skagway the latter part of May,
and there took up the work begun by Mr. Dickey, who
had gone on to Bennett.
In the March meeting of the Committee, the effect of
the letter and the visit from Winnipeg is plainly seen.
Doubt is expressed as to the wisdom of an aggressive
campaign in the Yukon. The Superintendent, on the
contrary, is consumed with the desire to have a "full
dress" discussion in regard to a Yukon policy. But
nothing is done. This means disappointment, keen dis-
appointment, not only to the Superintendent, but also to
all those in the Committee and throughout the Church
who had been following with interest the progress of this
mission. This feeling finds expression in an editorial in
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE 361
The Westminster paper of date April 2, 1898, in which
the Committee is severely criticised as follows :
" These are crisis- times in Canada. Not since Confed-
eration, indeed, never in our history, has a year been so
crammed with opportunity and risk. . . . But the
crisis-time of the nation is the crisis-time of the Church.
. . . Is there in the councils of the Church the states-
manship needed in this new time? the wide-visioned,
large-minded, risk-meeting statesmanship equal to the
sudden demands made by Northern Ontario, the North-
west, British Columbia, and the Klondike? Is the
Church's leadership strong, steady, statesmanlike?
. . . For answer to these questions the Presbyterian
Church turns to the Committee to whom was given the
solemn charge of that vast territory stretching from Gaspe
to Klondike. . . . It is the business of the Home
Mission Committee to lead the Church out into new fields,
and take possession in the name of Christ and His King-
dom. . . . This Committee, with imperial interests
pressing for a hearing, met on Tuesday forenoon and ad-
journed on Wednesday afternoon. The work attempted
was the passing of grants, revising of lists, and making
of appointments. At noon on Wednesday the list of ap-
pointments was complete, and adjournment was decided
on without one hour's discussion of a policy, without
even a hint of a policy being needed. . . . All this
is extremely discouraging. We had thought that there
was something in the Klondike work. The country
thinks so. The Church thinks so. ... If the Home
Mission Committee were to read the letters which every
mail brings to this office, it would have planned, not for
three men for the Yukon, or four or five, but for at least
twenty missionaries and a Presbytery. Had the Com-
mittee said to the Church : Give us $20,000 for work in
the Klondike, the money would ha"ve been on hand as
362 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
soon as the men were ready. Gentlemen of the Home
Mission Committee, the Presbyterian Church in Canada
is able and willing and ready, waiting only for the policy
you did not adopt, the call you did not issue, the leader-
ship you have not shown."
Of course, there was wrath among the conservatives of
the Committee. The Superintendent was charged, and
wrongly, with inspiring the article. The Convener and
Secretary were deeply grieved, considering that they
were specially criticised, though, as is often the case, it
was the system rather than the men that was attacked.
It cannot be denied that The Westminster article, while not
inspired by the Superintendent, gave him very consider-
able satisfaction. This is evident from the following letter :
" Toronto, March 31, 1898.
"DEAR GORDON:
"Macdonald called here last evening to show me your
letter which was in his other coat pocket and which I could
not, consequently, see and his Home Mission article. < The
fat is in the fire ' but the blaze will help some people to see the
density of the darkness in which the Committee is dwelling.
The article is courageous, cannot be passed by, and will
mightily help us in the West. Last Wednesday I had a card
from Cochrane saying that since Sinclair was now appointed
we could rest for a time. I wrote him a stiff letter at once,
pointing out to him that Skagway, Lake Bennett, Glenora,
Teslin, Leberge, Fort Selkirk, and Dawson needed to be occu-
pied immediately, not to refer to the Big Salmon, the Little
Salmon, the Stewart or the upper reaches of the Klondike at
all, that unless men started soon, they could not get in till late,
that they could not visit or explore during the open season, nor
get familiar with the country, and that the long and severe
winter would lock them as fast as the rivers. I also pointed
out that organization was absolutely necessary and that there
must be enough men in the northern part of the territory
to meet and deliberate and post the Church as to what is
needed. I have had no reply.
" In haste,
"J. ROBERTSON."
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE 3G3
War is brewing, and the Superintendent is not the man
to decline battle ; rather does he rejoice in the prospect.
This warlike spirit breathes in the following letter written
from Brockville, April 11, 1898 :
"DEAR MR. GORDON :
" The Westminster article is strongly resented by
Dr. Cochrane, who is to say nothing now, but to reply at
the Assembly. Dr. Warden does not like the article, as
he supposes it reflects on him, too, and he tells me that
several have written him saying that they disapprove of
it entirely. Some have written me, again, approving
of it, and saying that the article was called for. Dr.
Cochrane accused me of inspiring it, and based his accu-
sation on the correspondence between certain phrases in
letters of mine addressed to him, and certain phrases in
The Westminster article. I told him that I did not in-
spire the article, that the style was not mine, that the
editor had abundant opportunity of judging for himself,
and that it was for us to consider, not who inspired,
wrote or published the article, but how much truth it set
forth. Dr. Warden does not see that the Committee has
failed to do anything it ought to have done during the
past year, and points to all that has been done in the
West as an evidence of the Committee's enlightened
statesmanship ! Now there you are prepare your in-
dictment, marshall your arguments and let the Assembly
judge."
But the war-clouds blew over. Those men were too
big, too closely bound by ties of mutual affection and
esteem, and too deeply interested in the work of the
Church to allow their differences in opinion to threaten
in the slightest degree the interests of the work to which
they were giving their lives. An understanding was
arrived at in regard to the Yukon policy, and the As-
364 THE LIFE OF JAMES KOBEttTSON
sembly, which had been expecting war, was glad to pass
instead a resolution eulogistic of the Yukon Mission and
its vigorous prosecution.
The only legislative result of the disturbance was an
overture from the British Columbia Synod asking for a
reorganization of the Home Mission Committee and a
change in its methods of administration, which overture,
being duly presented, went the way of its kind, being
referred to a Committee and then buried, but achieving
results before its demise. The Church was fully roused.
The Home Mission Committee adopted a vigorous policy
and, being assured that the Church was behind the move-
ment, warmly and even enthusiastically prosecuted its
mission in the far north, to the great joy of all concerned.
It is pleasant to think that this slight flurry of a
difference in opinion between these great leaders, passed
so quickly away, and all the more that before the year
was out Dr. Cochrane, the Convener of the Home Mission
Committee for twenty-six years, in the very midst of his
service and in the full tide of his strength, was called
away. He was greatly missed and greatly mourned by
all his associates in the cause of Home Missions, and
by none more than by Dr. Eobertsbn, the Superintend-
ent, and Dr. Warden, the Secretary, with both of whom
his fellowship had been so close for a quarter of a
century.
In 1900, in response to an urgent request from Mr.
Pringle, two nurses, Miss Mitchell and Miss Bone, were
sent into the Yukon.
The excitement in connection with the gold-digging
in the Klondike gradually subsided and the mining of
gold settled down into a legitimate industry from which
the Dominion has continued to reap large revenue year
by year.
Early in March the whole Church, but especially the
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE 365
Church in the West, suffered a heavy loss in the death
of the Rev. Dr. King, Principal of Manitoba College.
His removal was a severe blow to the College and to its
important work, but it was a severe blow to the cause
of Home Missions as well, for there was no man in all
the West who stood closer to the Superintendent and
more warmly supported him, than did Principal King ;
and to no man in all the Church was the Superintendent
bound by stronger ties of friendship. And because the
Superintendent well knew how keen would be the grief
in the heart of every student of the College, he took .care
to write at once to Mr. Dickey in the Klondike, convey-
ing to him the sad news.
"You will be sorry to learn," he writes, "that Dr.
King is no more. Last evening I received a telegram
here from Winnipeg, informing me that yesterday he
had passed away quietly. His death is a distinct loss
to the College, the Church, and the country. Time and
opportunity were given him to do service ; he availed
himself of both, and he has reared for himself an endur-
ing monument.' 7
Throughout the whole period of their association in
Western work, these two leaders, each supreme in his
own department, wrought together in undisturbed
mutual confidence and affection. And none knew
better than Dr. Robertson how to appreciate the
simple sincerity and the superb self-devotion of Prin-
cipal King.
In the spring of the same year it was reported that
Mr. Dickey's health showed signs of breaking down.
The Superintendent thus writes to him :
" As to your coming out, we shall be glad to welcome
you to civilization again, but had your health permitted,
I would have been pleased to have had you remain till
the autumn of 1900."
366 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
But this was not possible. The evil effect of toil,
exposure, insufficient and improper food was so serious
that it was decided that Mr. Dickey must return. None
knew better than the Superintendent what he had borne,
and none could sympathize with him more truly. Under
date July 12, 1899, he wrote this truly beautiful
letter:
" DEAR MR. DICKEY :
"I was very sorry to learn that spring did not
restore your health and that you were compelled to
come out. We shall all do what we can for you on
your return, and hope that a change of scene and
diet, rest and medical treatment, may restore you com-
pletely to health. I know a little of what working
while unwell means, and I most sincerely sympathize
with you.
"As to your work and service, let me say that the
Church feels proud of the staff she has in the far north,
and that no one holds a higher place than the pioneer.
Your good sense, your intrepidity, your broad catholic
spirit, and the service rendered to men as men and Chris-
tians, all this has taken hold of the heart of the Church ;
and when you come out and appear on platforms and
are lionized, I hope your head will not be turned, but
that you may remain the modest and manly Dickey we
all knew and loved, and I believe you will. Nor is the
Church the only body that has learned of your work
and heroic spirit ; the public press has done much to
familiarize the names of all of you. You will find it
hard to live up afterwards to all that has been written
in your praise. But we deeply sympathize with you
in your travels and exposure, with hard roads and hard
fare ; but if some souls have been saved, some strength-
ened to resist temptation, some cheered, some brought
THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE 367
out of gloom and darkness, some inspired to hold fast,
surely there is some reward ' Inasmuch as ye did it to
one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it to
Me.' "
That letter Mr. Dickey will always cherish among his
household gods.
In the autumn of the same year Mr. Grant returns.
The following resolution of the Assembly's Home Mis-
sion Committee, prepared and moved by Dr. Robertson,
seconded by Dr. Armstrong, sets forth the high appre-
ciation of their missionary's work and their warm wel-
come to him on his return :
" That in welcoming Mr. Grant on his return from the
Yukon, the Committee desires to assure him of their high
appreciation of the valuable service rendered by him in
that new and difficult mission. To say of any man that
he found a mass of people and organized them into a con-
gregation ; that in a year's time he brought it up to the
point of self-support; that he succeeded in getting a
church built for the homeless congregation, and paid for,
at a cost of $8,000 ; that he acted as leader in building
such an hospital as the Good Samaritan Hospital at Daw-
son, and from its inception till the day of his departure
from Dawson, acted as its medical superintendent, is to
bestow high praise. These things Mr. Grant did, and
they will remain a monument to his loyalty to the Church,
his efficiency as a missionary, his power over men, the
largeness of his sympathies and his willingness as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ to endure hardness."
In the following spring it was found necessary on the
ground of broken health to recall Mr. Pringle, and this
is done by the following resolution :
"That in view of the privations and hardships ex-
perienced during the past two years, the Rev. John
Pringle be granted three months' leave of absence, that
368 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
lie be allowed the sum of $225 to cover his travelling ex-
penses, that on his return to the Yukon he be appointed
to the new field known as The Creeks (the Committee sug-
gesting to him the advisability of his taking his family
to Dawson City), and that all the arrangements in con-
nection with his holiday be left in the hands of the Home
Mission Executive."
At that same meeting of the Committee the administra-
tion of the Yukon was transferred from the Assembly's
Home Mission Committee to the Presbytery of West-
minster, with which Presbytery the Yukon has remained
associated to this present time.
During its short history the Yukon has suffered much
at the hands of lawless and wicked men and women, but
those who know it best join in testimony that it has been
saved from much by the noble character of those who
represented the Presbyterian Church in that northland,
and by the service they rendered to those to whom it was
their privilege to minister. And for the early establish-
ment and the energetic prosecution of that mission, the
Church has cause to be grateful to the faith, the courage,
the energy of the Superintendent who selected and hur-
ried forward these heroic missionaries to that remote and
perilous field.
XXXIII
THE NIGHT COMETH AND ALSO THE MORNING
THE years of the Yukon campaign were, per-
haps, the most intensely active years of the
Superintendent's whole life. Into no other five
years did he pack so much concentrated effort, and no
other years of effort were crowned with such brilliant
success. In the light of subsequent events we can now
recognize how truly heroic those years were, for during
the whole period, silently and without moan, he was
fighting and losing his last fight with a deadly disease.
It may be that he heard the call that warned him of the
coming night, and that he felt the compulsion of the hur-
rying minutes.
It was to the Synod of Manitoba and the Northwest
Territories of November, 1897, that Mr. Gordon made the
first public announcement of the Superintendent's serious
illness, and from that hour those who stood nearest to
him in work set themselves to lighten his burden and to
save him to the Church, but from that hour till his last,
he seemed to press more and more eagerly into the field.
From that Synod went this telegram to its old and trusted
leader :
" REV. DR. ROBERTSON, Superintendent of Missions,
11 62 Admiral Road, Toronto.
"The Synod unitedly prays that the God of all
comfort may be with you and restore you to us soon."
369
370 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Afterwards the following resolution of sympathy was
likewise sent :
"The Synod of Manitoba and the Northwest Terri-
tories learns with deep regret of the serious illness of the
Superintendent of Missions, by which he is prevented
from attendance at this meeting, expresses its warm
sympathy with Dr. Robertson and his family in his
affliction, and urges him to take such complete rest from
all work as may serve to hasten his recovery.
"The Synod prays, as it has already joined in praying,
that Almighty God may comfort and sustain Dr. Robert-
son in his affliction and bless the means employed for his
speedy recovery."
In response there came from him to his brethren the
following telegram :
"A grateful heart thanks Synod for message of
sympathy. Condition slightly improved. May Synod's
deliberations be abundantly blessed.
" J. ROBERTSON,"
and afterwards many warm and grateful letters to his co-
labourers in the West. The following letters breathe a
spirit of such tender, humble devotion to the Master
whom he served and of such grateful affection for his fel-
low workers, that we may be pardoned for printing them
in full. The first is to Mr. Gordon.
" 62 Admiral Road, Toronto, Nov. 15,
" DEAR GORDON :
" Your two letters were duly received and touched me
keenly, because I felt how unworthy I was of all that was said
and done at the Synod, and is being said now by letter by so
many of my brethren. After all the Synod and yourself and
THE NIGHT COMETH 3T1
others have done, it will be well-nigh impossible for me to go
West again. I no longer wonder how demigods and other gods
of that ilk were made and worshipped, after all that a grave
and Reverend I was going to write it with a small r but I
corrected myself as you, with your young eyes, will see Synod
will do in the case of a very ordinary mortal like myself. We
are all a band of brothers working with one Father and Elder
Brother to establish truth and righteousness in the West, and
should one fall, bury him and let the rest push on the work.
But I trust I am not to be taken yet 1 want to live a few years
longer to see the development that I feel sure is coming one
day, and I think is drawing near and I would like to do a lit-
tle more to express my love to Him who is all my salvation and
my desire. When you look over the past you are struck with
the barren waste. What have you done ? Whom have you
helped ? There has been opportunity, but it has not been em-
braced, souls to cheer, to guide, to comfort, but, alas ! it was
not done. But regrets are vain and I am not going to indulge
in them now. Thanks for all the news about the Synod. I
hear that you acquitted yourself well as usual thank you.
And I am glad Dr. King made a financial speech, and since he
can be strong and pointed and knows the situation, I hope he
did not put on gloves, but struck with bare knuckles. Some
men require to be struck a stinging blow in the ' solar plexus,'
not he of St. Stephen's.
" There was a Home Mission deficit of over $4,000 last
spring, as put in my report or rather yours. See the Home
Mission financial statement in Assembly Report.
" By writing letters when not too tired, I am doing some-
thing to stir up an interest. Pastors, I find, are reading letters
to congregations, and they find their way into the local papers.
" You do not know how you relieve me by your presence
and work in Winnipeg. May God reward you I never can.
" I am holding my own, I think; I cannot say I am gaining
yet. Dr. Gilbert Gordon was here Saturday. He seems to be
satisfied. All wish to be remembered to you.
" Yours sincerely,
"J. ROBERTSON."
Another of later date is to Mr. McQueen, in whose
fellowship and loyal affection he has ever found great
joy-
372 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
"DEAR MR. MCQUEEN :
" I hope to be able to be with you at the Presbytery meet-
ing, although I am recovering but slowly. I conducted the an-
niversary services at Blyth my late father's congregation and
gave an address Monday evening on Home Missions in the min-
ing districts of British Columbia, and I found that I had by no
means recovered my former staying power. However, I am
gaining and hope to be with you.
" I have been unwell for more than a year past, but did not
know that a dangerous disease had fastened itself upon me.
Weight, strength, energy went down, but by force of will I went
on doing work. A collapse came, and then the physician told
me my danger. He told me the case was not hopeless, but that
rest and regimen were absolutely necessary I am taking them
as best I can. But if I had to do nothing I fear I should die.
I think there is a slight change for the better, and I hope it
may continue. Brethren have been very kind ; in fact, it was
almost worth while to get sick to know how much good people
thought was in you. I do not think my brethren insincere
far from it but their praise was very embarrassing because you
who know yourself much better than they could, detect little of
what they appeared to see. Mental illusion or delusion. But
their kindness I shall never forget. But I have no idea of giv-
ing up yet, and I hope that God who has been gracious and
kind, will spare me to go to Edmonton.
" Give my very kind regards to Mrs. McQueen and the rest.
And my wife wishes me to thank for her all who show an inter-
est in my recovery. My dear fellow, do what your hand finds
to do now. Lost opportunities are an awful nightmare on a
sick-bed. Life looks so barren of good that you bless God for
being merciful.
" J. ROBERTSON."
With these letters should go two others. They are
from his wife to Mrs. Hart who, with Professor Hart, had
been through all the years a warmly sympathetic and un-
weariedly helpful friend, and they are a window into
that holy place of sacrifice where the Robertson family
have made offering year by year upon the altar of service
to Church and country, of which sacrifice and altar the
THE NIGHT COMETH 373
wife and mother stands high priestess. The first bears
the date November 26, 1897, and is as follows :
" MY DEAR MRS. HART :
4 'Your kind words of love and sympathy were very
much appreciated by us, and we thank you for them. It is
pleasant to know that you all take so much interest in one so
near and dear. I trust your prayers on his behalf are being
answered, and that in God's good time he may be restored to
health. We were thankful that he got home before he was
taken ill, and we are glad to have him with us even sick. We
need him, and he needs us none the less.
" He is improving, though somewhat slowly, and I hope he
may be induced to take sufficient rest now, so that there may be
no relapse.
"Though unable to go around to give addresses, he is busy
the greater part of the day with work for the Church writing,
writing too much, I think, but it is difficult to restrain him,
and he would be thinking of it anyway, which would be nearly
as bad.
" You Western people seem to think you own the Doctor.
All the cry is, ' Get better and come back to us. ' What about
wife and family ? I am rather jealous for my rights. But
really the people have all been extremely kind. Thank you
once more.
" Give our kindest regards to Professor Hart and the young
people. Remember me to Miss La wson . Love to your dear self.
" Your sincere friend,
" M. A. ROBERTSON."
" Jealous ! " alas, poor wife, she has him for a while to
herself, and what wonder that she stands almost fiercely
on guard.
To Mrs. Hart's answer there comes this reply which,
more than any quoted in these pages, penetrates the heart
with its poignant pathos. It is as follows :
"62 Admiral Road, Toronto, Dec. 18, 1897.
" MY DEAR MRS. HART :
"Judging from the number of letters that go to Winni-
peg from 62 Admiral Road, I presume you are in possession
374 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
of all the information I can give you. However, I want to
write to let you know how welcome your letter was with its
news and with its comfort, and how much I appreciate your
interest in us.
" The Doctor still continues to improve. He is stronger,
his colour better, his skin softer and more moist, the pains
or cramps in his limbs pretty much gone, and he feels better.
He can walk for an hour or even two each day, without being
very much fatigued, but he still keeps very thin, one might
say almost skin and bone. We get the best of everything he
is allowed to eat, and I do all the preparing and serving my-
self. He has a good appetite, too (I am told that is a char-
acteristic of the disease), and relishes four meals each day,
except occasionally when confined to bed.
"Maybe you saw from the papers that he attended the
Toronto Presbytery and gave an address. This evening he
went to Hamilton to address Dr. Lyle's congregation to-
morrow.
"He is very anxious to get better and to work, and I am
sure the prayers and expressions of love and sympathy from
his many friends have comforted and cheered him. To all
of those we owe a debt of gratitude, and especially to those
in the West, whose kindness we can never forget.
"Probably you were right when you said I would not like
it any better were you to say, ( Get better and stay in Toronto.'
I do not think he would be any better away from home. He
certainly would take work or make it, and he could not have
the care and attention he receives here.
" It will be quite a treat to have him with us during the
Xmas season. Never once since 1881 has he been at home for
the holiday season.
"Love from all of us to you and yours. May your Xmas
be a happy and joyous one.
" Your loving friend,
"M. A. ROBERTSON."
Home " once" only in sixteen years for the Christmas
season and that by reason of sickness.
Soon he is better and out again upon the field. In-
deed, his eager spirit has never for a moment been ab-
sent from its activities, and with such dash aud vigour
THE NIGHT COMETH 375
does he lead, that he deceives his friends and perhaps
himself as to his true condition.
At its March meeting in 1898, the Home Mission
Committee seeks to relieve him of the more laborious
features of his work, and appoints him Field Secretary,
hoping that he may give to others those long, wearisome
journeys through the wide extent of his Western field.
But it is quite useless. Field Secretary he may be, but
that will not withdraw him from the field. Nay, if he
be Field Secretary, surely the field must claim him more
and more. So in September of that year we find him
more in the thick of the work than ever. The two
following letters give us the programme for two of his
journeys :
" Gains boro, Assa., Sept. I, 1898.
" DEAR MRS. HART :
" The programme has been so far carried out to the
letter. The day I left you I got to Napinka and held a meet-
ing in the evening ; Thursday I got to Oxbow and went south
seventeen miles to a meeting, returning the same night ;
Friday I spent corresponding, and addressed a meeting in
the evening ; Saturday drove forty-seven miles with a lame
* plug ' that made me weary to finish the journey ; Sabbath,
three services and a drive of forty- three miles Moose Mountain
field ; Monday, a drive of forty-three miles, a runaway, a
broken pole, but ' nobody hurt,' and a successful meeting;
Tuesday, meeting at Carievale, well attended, and a drive
to Gainsboro afterwards, nine or ten miles ; Wednesday,
correspondence, drive south to Winland, meeting and return
here; to-day going to Estevan. Strength remaining, but
diet not quite the right kind. Country people are very
kind, but limited as to range in furnishing meals. White
bread, canned fruit, and jams are always in evidence, while
eggs, etc., have to be asked for. They are tired of them
themselves, and think others are too. But I am doing very
well.
" Missions I find in a state requiring attention. I am
getting them to pull up in some cases, to nearly double former
contributions.
376 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
" Mrs. R - and the rest were well, as I learned two days
ago.
" With grateful remembrances of all your kindness, and
asking to be remembered to Professor Hart, Miss Ethel and
Mr. William,
"With great respect,
" Yours sincerely,
"J. ROBERTSON."
" Revelstoke, B. C., Sept. 12,
" DEAR MRS. HART :
" So far I have got on my journey filling all appoint-
ments, and although I am not quite fresh, yet I am holding
out fairly well. I attended the meeting of the Presbytery of
Calgary at Medicine Hat on Tuesday last, and posted off that
night to Calgary, and reached Edmonton on Wednesday
evening, and gave an address at a public meeting. Thurs-
day attended Presbytery meeting, and we finished business
Friday, visited, and conducted service in the evening, baptiz-
ing six children, the minister's infant daughter being one.
Saturday returned to Calgary, and conducted two services
Sabbath, and got here this evening. To-morrow morning I
am going away to a meeting of the Presbytery of Kamloops
at Nelson, and returning to go to Vancouver. The first basket
I got safely, and saw the second at Calgary when going to
Edmonton, but could not get it this morning the agent was
absent. I am getting it sent here, so that on my return from
Nelson I may get it. I am very much obliged to you, but I
am ashamed to put you to so much trouble. I received con-
siderable help from the gluten bread.
" I have heard from home, and all are well. Mr. Gordon
I hope to meet in the Kootenay on Wednesday.
"Kind regards to Professor Hart, Miss Ethel, Mr. William
and your ' Scorrish ' cousin. With best thanks and warmest
esteem,
" Believe me to be, dear Mrs. Hart,
"Yours sincerely,
"J. ROBERTSON."
The anniversary of his wife's birthday and of their
marriage, the 23d of September, finds husband push-
THE NIGHT COMETH 377
ing along the dusty mountain trails, and wife waiting
at home in anxiety and fear for tidings. He cannot be
with her to celebrate ; a telegram and letter must do.
These anniversary letters are too sacred for any printed
page, but from this one we may select some paragraphs :
"Last night I sent you congratulations for to-day,
which is the anniversary of your birth and of our mar-
riage. I would have liked very much to have been able
to be with you, but it seems always difficult of being
realized, owing to my engagements.
" On my arrival here I got your letter, and after read-
ing it I felt doubly sorry to be away. I suppose you did
your best with the children. I spent last night without
sleep on the train, and to-day in a heated atmosphere till
4 P. M. It was not like the anniversary of our wedding,
but it could not be helped.
" I am sorry sorrier than you, I think, that we have
not been more together, and especially sorry for you. If
you have had the pleasure of the children's company
you have had all the trouble in connection with them and
their upbringing. Of this I would willingly have re-
lieved you in part, but could not. I am thankful to God
that you have been able to do it so well. And it will be
some satisfaction to you if in the providence of God they
turn out well, that you have been able to do so much for
them even although the work was hard and the task re-
sponsible.
" But as I was thinking of the past, I do not know that
you would have been better with any of the other fellows
who coveted your hand so much. Poor Adam left life
early, Mac has long since gone after him. Matheson and
you would not agree, nor would Wilson or Cowing. I
cannot really tell how many more you had. It would
seem as if S was your only hope in the matter of per-
manent companionship, and him you refused. Had you
378 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
known, however, that you would be so much of the time
separated from me, I suppose you would have had noth-
ing to do with me, and then our dear children would be
calling some one else father. As for me, I suppose had I
known that my life would have been such as it is, I would
not have presumed to ask any person to be my partner,
and my past and future would have a different hue.
Well, things are as they are, nor am I sorry, but the re-
verse, except in the matter of such frequent and long
separations. My wife promised to be loving and faith-
ful, and she has kept her part of the covenant during
these years, and if to-day ended the contract, I would
with all my heart ask her to renew it again for life.
Were I to say more, you would say I was trying to please
you without my heart being in my words, and this has
never been the case. My dear wife I loved and love
and will while life lasts or reason holds the throne. I
know she insists on measuring me by her own bushel, but
I think that mine is more just and I must continue to use
it. Kiss our dear children. Tell them the story of your
courtship, of your beaux and your troubles with them,
of your desire to marry two, if not three of them, if not
to please yourself, to please them, and the hard luck that
gave you their father. You could entertain them for an
evening, and I venture to say they would listen."
British Columbia with its mining activity is now the
danger zone of the Dominion, hence he must be on the
ground, and with his old disregard of personal comfort
and of health, he outlines his programme and then pro-
ceeds relentlessly to fill it in.
In August, 1899, the Superintendent spent two weeks
in the Boundary Country. The story of that campaign is
told in a paper by the Rev. H. J. Robertson. So simple,
so direct, so vivid is this narrative, and such a picture
does it give of heroic endurance on the part of the old
THE NIGHT COMETH 379
chief and of loyal devotion on the part of his young
clansman, that it is without apology set down here.
"It was in August, 1899, Dr. Eobertson came to Nel-
son on his way to Eossland, where the new Presbytery
of Kootenay was to be organized. He was looking exceed-
ingly well. We went on to Eossland together, and after
concluding Presbytery business, Dr. Eobertson left for
Marcus, Washington State, on Thursday morning, en
route to Grand Forks. From Marcus his travelling was
to be by stage forty -five miles to Grand Forks, twenty
miles to Greenwood, twelve miles to Midway and return,
with Cascade, Columbia, Phoenix and Eholt to visit by
the way. The following Thursday morning I met him
at the station in Nelson. He was old and haggard and
played out, scarcely able to walk. I took his l grip '
while he, in his fatherly way, took my arm, and as we
went up the hill together told me what he had been do-
ing during the past week. It had been long drives by
stage, meetings every night, consultations with minis-
ters and missionaries and managers, letter- writing till
after midnight, and up at daybreak to catch the early
stages. During the week he had averaged about two
hours' sleep a night. Little wonder, then, that he was
played out.
"He rested that day in Nelson in Mr. Frew's apart-
ments, and while he dictated I wrote many letters for
him. Friday morning he was off again by the seven
o'clock train for Slocan, where he held a meeting that
night. Saturday he visited New Denver, Eoseberry, and
Three Forks, getting to Sandon that evening. Sunday
morning he preached in Sandon, and by the afternoon
train went over to Kaslo, where he preached in the
evening.
"It was in Sandon, on Friday, that he was taken ill
with dysentery, and by Sunday evening was so weak that
380 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
he was unable to stand during the service, so sat down by
the pulpit and addressed the people. Monday evening
he was off by the boat for Ainsworth. A meeting had
been arranged for at that place and he simply had to
keep his engagements, so he said. At Ainsworth he lay
down in the missionary's shack during the day too ill to
move out, and in the evening presided at the meeting for
which he had come and again he was too weak to stand.
That night I passed up the lake bound for the Lardeau
district, which the Superintendent had asked me to ex-
plore, and as we saw the lighted church from the boat I
wondered how it was going with the old man, but little
thought that he was in such dire straits.
" Tuesday night Dr. Robertson was billed for a meeting
at Ymir, a little mining town seventeen miles south of
Nelson. This was the last engagement in West Kootenay
and he was determined to fulfill it. By steamer he came
down the lake from Ainsworth to Five Mile Point where
he got the morning train south to Ymir."
He was ill, dangerously ill, but getting medicine from
the Ymir druggist, he held his meeting. A week later
Mr. Robertson heard that the Superintendent was still in
Ymir, detained by sickness. At once Robertson set off
from Nelson for Ymir, walking the seventeen miles in
four hours, over the most difficult trail he had ever
travelled.
u On inquiring for Dr. Robertson, I was directed to the
home of a man whose name I have forgotten. Here I
found the old hero wonderfully well, as I had been im-
agining all sorts of things on my way over. Before I had
time to make any inquiry about himself, he began to ply
me with questions.
" ' Hello ! Where have you come from ? 9
"' From Nelson. 7
"'When?'
THE NIGHT COMETH 381
"< To-day.'
" l Where have you been since the train came in four
hours ago ? Where did you get the mud on your boots ! '
1 i l Oh, I got that walking over from Nelson. I missed
the train and walked over.'
" * Well, what did you walk over here for t I thought
you were up in Lardeau.'
" 'I came down last night to Nelson and heard this
morning that you were sick, so came over to look after
you.' It had never entered the old man's head that any
one would walk any distance to see him. When he heard
why I had come, he said nothing, but I saw his eyes fill
with tears, and I had my reward.
"We went back to Nelson that same afternoon, and
from the station, where we found Mr. Creasse waiting
with a cab, we drove to Dr. Arthur's, and from there to
Mr. James Lawrence, a son of the Eev. James Lawrence,
formerly of Stony Mountain. Here Dr. Eobertson re-
mained and rested another day, while I was kept busy
writing letters, making new engagements for the follow-
ing weeks.
"A few weeks later, he preached on Sunday morning
in St. Stephen's, Winnipeg. At the close of the service
he found out Mrs. Murray and told her that he had seen
her nephew, Eobertson, in British Columbia, and 'he
wlalked seventeen miles to see me when I was sick.' '
God bless the young man ! and God give him a great
ministry ! He served us all that day in serving Him
whom we would so gladly serve.
The great expansion in British Columbia and the estab-
(lishing of the Yukon Mission leave the Committee strug-
gling with a deficit, which deficit sends the Superintend-
ent through Eastern Canada on the hunt for funds till
his strength fails. Then the Executive, . needing men
more sorely than it needs money, hurries the Superin-
382 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
tendent off to Scotland to bear greetings to the Union As-
sembly of the Free and United Presbyterian Churches
there, and to win the continued interest of the united
Church in Western Canada, and to get men. The Exec-
utive is hopeful, too, that with leagues of sea between him
and his field, their Field Secretary may, perchance, be
manoeuvred into rest.
To their mutual delight, his wife accompanies her hus-
band upon this trip. His work the Superintendent ap-
portions to one and another of his colleagues, for he is not
the man to leave it uncared for. Hence the following let-
ter to Mr. Gordon :
" Cunard R. M. S. f Lucania? October 25, 1900.
" DEAR MR. GORDON :
" When I left Winnipeg a few things that I was to attend
to were left unsettled. Mr. McLaren of Vancouver wanted a
man for Fairview a part of Vancouver like Mt. Pleasant I
wanted to see G. C. Grant about going there, but did not have
a chance." And so through the whole list of men and fields,
each having received his personal care and attention.
" D 1 was trying to get settled at Leduc. He was ready
to go, but his wife was afraid of being, like Lot's wife, turned,
not into a pillar of salt, but a pillar of ice. But D has been
tried in a number of places in British Columbia, and does not
fit anywhere, and hence I was anxious to try him on the Alberta
plains to see how he would do. Will you follow this out,
too?
"I told Tina, before I left Toronto, to send you all letters,
after consulting Dr. Warden in reference to cases he should
consider, and I told Dr. Warden to send you any men he had
and that you would place them. The list of vacancies I sent
you ; for fear it got lost or miscarried, let me repeat. . . .
" I have asked the other Conveners to write you about men.
"I left on my table, when I left home, the material for a
Home Mission report to the Synod ; Tessie will likely send it
to you. You and Mr. Farquharson can arrange its matter, and
add to it as you deem best, and present it with my apologies
for my absence. The Augmentation report I sent you ere I
left.
THE NIGHT COMETH 383
" The treasurer's report you will also present. Get all moneys
due accounts were sent to everybody in time and enter them
in the book. I told Tessie to send you the book, the receipted
bills, and the stubs of checks Mr. Farquharson made out to
Conveners attending meetings of Home Mission Committee.
These will, I trust, be accepted as vouchers. The checks them-
selves are in the bank. If anything needs explanation I shall
give it on return.
"Best regards,
"J. ROBERTSON."
After two months of visiting training-schools, insti-
tutes and colleges, his physician sends him off with his
wife to the Hydropathic at Crieff, with strict orders to
rest. From this somewhat gay watering-place he writes
this delightfully bright and breezy letter to Mrs. Hart on
New Year's Day, 1901 :
" On this day that ushers in the new year and new cen-
tury, I feel I must write you, if only a note, to offer you,
Professor Hart, Ethel and Willie, the greetings of the
season. May heaven's best blessings be bestowed on you
all this year, and may the century be called old before
you are forced to admit that you feel as if you were be-
ginning to get old.
"Well, we are here by doctor's orders, and trying to
get back strength lost. Losing, I find, is easier than
gaining. In a sense I am gaining, and yet things are not
satisfactory. To-day, Mrs. E and I had a good walk
four miles and at the end of our trip she was more
tired than I. And yet, sugar is in my blood, in my feet,
in my hands I feel it, the crystals scratching and irri-
tating, and causing local swellings. But enough of this.
Mrs. E is well and enjoys her rest.
" I have not been addressing congregations or Presby-
teries. I did address the people here on two occasions,
and was given two contributions of 300 each, or nearly
$3,000 in all. I am willing to hire myself out for the rest
384: THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
of my days, well or ill, at that figure. I am writing
leaflets, letters, etc., etc., and trying to awaken an inter-
est in that way j but the people here are self-centred, in-
sular, provincial in their ideas small to a marvel, con-
sidering the talk about Empire and Evangelization, En-
lightenment, and all the other E's they are supposed to
have and use. And this Union has left little time for one
section of the Church to do but ask ' Where are we at t '
The United Presbyterians seem to be glad, but the Frees
look to me as if they thought that they had married just
a little below them. But tis done, the great transac-
tion's done/ and they must make the best of it. Meet-
ings have been held in all the centres of population, Glas-
gow, Paisley, Perth, Inverness, Dundee, Aberdeen, etc., to
celebrate the event, and all passed off very well. A Free
Church fragment mostly Highlanders stayed out
a great pity, as they cannot hope to accomplish anything.
It will take the congregations all their time to live, and
the ministers of some of them will scarcely command milk
for their porridge. Time will reveal the failure.
"This Hydro, just now is like a fair. There must be
250 people here. From all parts they come. And such
a display of silk and jewellery, of arms and shoulders, I
have never seen. But with their style and charms, I
think I have seen a girl near Manitoba College some-
where, that I would match against the most captivating
and capturing of them all. More than once I wished she
was here. To-night we had a splendid spread, haggis
brought in with Highland honours, regular big paunches,
steaming hot, on four huge trays borne aloft, followed by
as many bottles fully displayed. Down one aisle headed
by the piper they went, and up the other, guests stand-
ing and cheering. Afterwards i Comietta ' in the recrea-
tion-room, followed by dancing. We had prayers in the
drawing-room at 9 : 45. I looked in on the others after-
THE NIGHT COMETH 385
wards, waltzing iii full swing. Strange mixture of piety
and gayety here. I am in the ' writing-room now, all
alone not all alone couples come in here, and tete-a-t6tes
are proceeding. I long to tell them I cannot hear well, so
that they may have more freedom, but I ' don't like to.'
But enough.
"No plans for the future. I am going to address
students in Edinburgh next week, and Presbytery of
Perth. The following week I may go to Budapest;
Mr. Allan is arranging for ticket, passport, etc.
" With kindest regards from both of us to you all. I
wish we had a little of your weather. Nothing here but
fog, mist, cloud, rain, slop. Fall of soft snow Sunday,
but it did not stay."
By the kind thoughtfulness of Mr. E. S. Allan of
Glasgow, whose guests they are for a few days, Dr.
Robertson and his wife are sent off to Budapest where
there is to be a great gathering of students. He has a
most cordial reception and secures for Western work two
men. His experiences on the continent and his opinions
thereupon, are worth recording. We select the following
extract from a letter to Dr. Hart :
" Learning that there were colleges at Debritszen and
Koloszvar, I arranged to go there, and had enthusiastic
meetings, although the students had never heard of
Canada, and one of the professors, who interpreted for
me, stopped me in my address and asked me whether,
when I said Canada was nearly as large as Europe, I did
not mean Europe without Russia? When I answered
that I meant all west of the Ural Mountains and the
Ural River, the students made a sort of noise that I
never heard except in Hungary, but which I was told
was a cheer. At both places the bishops attended, and
showed great interest ; and when I called on one of them
privately he offered, if we sent two Hungarians home, to
380 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
educate and board and lodge them for the four years'
course in Theology free of cost. This offer he made as
Bishop, he said, and the interpreter, Professor Ciszy
pronounced Cheeky informed me that this was as good
as a bond, and binding on his successor.
" Returning to Budapest, we arranged to start for
Vienna, where we spent the Sabbath. We attended the
Free Church Mission in the forenoon, and I addressed
the Reformed Congregation in the evening, and the
Y. M. C. A. Monday on mission work in the West.
Tuesday we came to Prague, and I instituted inquiries
about the Bohemians. I made little of it. There is not
much of a Church, and it is morally rotten, not the
Church from which to get missionaries. Then we pushed
on here, where Mr. Macmillau, brother of Mr. Macmillan
of Lindsay, looked up quarters for us. I called on Dr.
Merensky, the head of a Foreign Mission College here,
and have the prospect of getting some men through him.
i i But I have concluded that it is scarcely safe to get
many men from Europe. They have the mercenary, far
more than the missionary, spirit developed ; spiritual life
is not as requisite for spiritual work, nor does a man
need to believe what he teaches any more than a lawyer.
Worse, they are not clean in the great majority of cases.
From ninety to ninety-five per cent, of the theological
students even of the Reformed Church are said by minis-
ters to be unclean. Unbelief is spreading rapidly, and
the ranks of the l Social Democrats J being rapidly re-
cruited. Can any good come out of Nazareth ? Better
try to get or train men amid better surroundings. But
enough of this. 77
From the continent he returns not greatly improved in
health, but still hopeful and eager for recruits for Canada.
He is home in the spring of 1901 in time for the March
meeting of the Committee. By the Committee he is wel-
THE NIGHT COMETH 387
corned with grateful affection for his own sake and for
the work he has done. He reports that he has secured
forty-two men and over $10,000 in cash or in promises,
and the Committee, lifted out of the slough of a threat-
ened deficit, faces the General Assembly with the report
of such splendid achievement as has never been equalled
in the history of the Church. This report is presented
by the Superintendent himself with his accustomed fresh-
ness and force, and is received by the Assembly with
great enthusiasm.
A supplementary report is presented by the Moderator,
the Eev. Dr. Warden, Convener of the Home Mission
Committee, praying the Assembly to arrange for some
adequate assistance to Dr. Eobertson in the matter of
superintendence. This request, upon motion of the
Eev. J. W. Macmillan, seconded by Dr. Bryce, is granted.
"With simple dignity the Superintendent thanks the
Assembly for the kind though tfulness in this matter, and
the work of superintendence of Western missions enters
upon a new phase.
He is often on his feet during this Assembly. Against
the advice of many of his friends who know the hope-
lessness of it, he moves the Home Mission Committee's
recommendation requesting the Women's Foreign Mis-
sion Society to widen the scope of its activity to embrace
Home as well as Foreign Mission work. It is the last of
a long series of efforts in this direction, and it fails.
Dr. Eobertson has sometimes been criticised as being-
hostile to Foreign Mission work. None who know his
attitude would so criticise him. To no one would he
yield in loyalty to the cause of Foreign Missions, but to
him it was simply a question of procedure. The great
world outside was the objective, but the immediate base
was the Canadian West. And no amount of devotion
to the work in China could atone, in his opinion, for
388 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
neglect of Canada ; and no amount of zeal for work in
the Foreign field would recover the ground lost to the
Kingdom of Heaven through indifference to the needs of
Canada. This was his attitude, and it is an attitude per-
fectly reasonable and one easily understood.
In this his last Assembly, Dr. Robertson is the prime
mover in a number of causes. He presses and carries
through an overture signed by Drs. Herdman, Herridge,
Soinerville, Mr. Carmichael, Mr. Gordon, and others in
regard to the training of men for Home Mission work,
the final issue of which is the establishment of the Min-
ister Evangelist Course now in operation in Manitoba
College. He supports the overtures that result in the
erection of the new Presbyteries of Dauphin, Qu ? Appelle,
and Prince Albert.
At the very close of the Assembly he presents the re-
port of the Church and Manse Building Fund. It is the
last report to be presented to the Assembly. Members
and officials are crowding work through with almost un-
seemly haste, when the Superintendent rises to make his
last address to the house. The moments are precious and
he knows it, and not one of them does he waste. With
the old fire and with unabated vigour, he recounts the
work accomplished by this Fund. The Assembly, for-
getting its weariness and its impatience, listens with de-
lighted interest to the hurrying stream of statistics and
stories, and to his final passionate appeal on behalf of his
beloved West. In moving the resolution adopting the
report, Dr. Herridge takes occasion to say that no more
fitting climax to the Assembly's work can be found.
Principal Grant, in seconding the resolution, speaks in
the same strain, closing with the significant and pro-
phetic quotation finis coronal opus.
His Assembly work is done, but there remain a few
weeks into which he can crowd some further service to
THE NIGHT COMETH 389
his Church and to his country. In August he sets off
for a tour of the West. Through the Presbyteries of
Kamloops, Kooteuay, Edmonton, and Calgary, he goes,
himself a veritable flying column, optimistic, buoyant as
ever ; counselling, cheering on his brethren with never a
word of complaint in regard to himself, and with only
now and then a suggestion of failing strength. Of his
Calgary visit his old friend, Dr. Herdrnan, a man of his
own kidney and dear to his heart, thus writes :
"His last visit to Calgary was September 18th to 20th
of 1901. I handed him a bundle of letters which had ac-
cumulated for him sixty-six in all ! The Home Mission
Committee of the Synod of British Columbia was in ses-
sion, and one of the meetings lasted till two o> clock in the
morning. Next day Dr. Lafferty called to give him a well
considered warning against overtaxing his small capital
of health. He was at once impressed and grateful, and
more than once referred to the excellent nature of the ad-
vice, on our way to "Winnipeg.
" The train should have reached Winnipeg early in the
evening, but it was just one o'clock when we got to our
destination. At the station he found two students await-
ing him, having arrangements about travelling to make,
which only he could effect for them. The better part of
an hour was consumed in this way, during which time my
duty was to keep the hotel bus waiting. For no other
man would it have waited, but the name of Dr. Bobert-
son prevailed with passengers and bus drivers, and when
he at last appeared, none but kindly greetings awaited
him all round, though it was now nearly two in the morn-
ing. When we reached the hotel I gasped to see the hotel
clerk hand him a bundle of letters ; and when I met him
next morning at breakfast, I found to my consternation
that he had not only read the letters, but ' Al though, ' as
he said apologetically, * my hope was that I might be able
390 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
to follow Dr. Lafferty's friendly advice/ he had found
several of them so urgent, and dealing with matters so
long delayed, that he had been compelled by a sense of
duty to take most of the few hours that remained of the
night, and reply at once. This was how between us all
we worked our Superintendent of Missions."
In October he is in Toronto for the meeting of the
Executive of the Assembly's Committee, and immediately
upon its close hurries to complete his tour of the West.
By November 7th he is on the east-bound train, busy with
correspondence. Here is a letter of instructions, terse,
crisp, pulsing with life and feeling which he addresses to
Mr. Gordon :
"You can scarcely imagine vivid as your imagina-
tion is how disappointed and flabbergasted I was to-day
to find you had gone out of town ; there were sheaves of
things I wished to discuss with you. But let me give
you first a list of men expected and where it is suggested
that they be sent." Then follows a list of names with
directions as to fields, his judgment in regard to salaries,
instructions as to leaflets and Synod Fund, after which
the letter proceeds : "In presenting the Home Mission
report, get the Committee to recommend
' * 1. That the Synod instruct all congregations and mis-
sions to contribute to the Fund.
" 2. That the Synod direct attention to the need of
more missionaries, and men better suited for the work.
" 3. Let missions like those I have indicated to you, be
frankly told that they must shift for themselves.
"To save Fund, let an Executive of the Home
Mission and Augmentation be appointed to meet in the
autumn.
"J. R.
"P. S. Apologize to Committee and Synod for my ab-
sence ; tell them how sincerely I regret not meeting my
THE NIGHT COMETH 391
brethren, but that it was inevitable. ' ' He never met with
them again.
The rest of November he spends in a Home Mission
campaign, in company with the Rev. J. A. Macdonald
and Mr. John Penman of Paris. The last month of the
year and of his life is packed full, the Sabbaths with
public services, the days bet ween with journeys, addresses,
and correspondence.
On Sabbath, November 24th, on his way to address the
Parkdale congregation, he has a fall which almost renders
him insensible. He makes his way to a doctor, bruised
and bleeding, but after being bandaged, he insists on
fulfilling his engagement and that same afternoon ad-
dresses Westminster Sabbath-school. Remonstrances are
in vain. He never has broken an appointment while
able to stand. From his shoulder to his finger-tips, he is
black and blue ; his arm is useless, but next Sabbath he
is preaching in Brampton, Cheltenham, and Mt. Pleasant.
On Tuesday following he addresses the Toronto Presby-
tery and, as he tells his old friend, Dr. Farquharson,
" stated a few plain things to them about the treatment
they were meting out to Home Mission and Augmenta-
tion, and tried to shame them, etc.," with some effect,
evidently, for a number of the brethren ask him for a
synopsis of his address to be used with their people.
The following Sabbath he is preaching in Paris, Farring-
don and Zion Church, Brantford. The Sabbath after, he
keeps an appointment, made three weeks before, and ad-
dresses Westminster congregation, Toronto, in its morn-
ing service.
"I shall never forget his appearance," writes Rev.
John Neil, "when he came into the vestry before the
service. He had a bandage over one eye, and his ap-
pearance indicated that he had been passing through some
trying experiences. He said, l Dr. Warden insisted upon
392 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
my not coming this morning, but when I make an en-
gagement I am always determined, if possible, to carry it
out. I hope your congregation will not resent my com-
ing in this form. 7 I have heard him frequently, both in
the pulpit and on the platform, and at the meetings of
our General Assembly and other Church courts, but I
never heard him speak with more power than that Sab-
bath morning. It was perhaps the most comprehensive
address I ever heard him deliver."
Writing to Dr. Farquharson of his experience in West-
minster Church that day, he says :
" Yesterday I addressed Mr. NeiPs congregation in the
forenoon, Mr. Frizzell's in the evening. A man came up
to me at the close of the forenoon service and offered me
$250, and Mr. NeiFs people are going to work to raise at
least $1,250 by way of special help so Dr. Warden told
me to-day. I am going to disable the other shoulder and
get my other eye blackened."
He does better in Mr. Neil's church than he knows, for
as a result of that address the Fund is richer by $2,000.
And yet in spite of this terrific pace, such is the extra-
ordinary vitality of the man, that he appears not only to
be holding his own, but to be even improving in health.
But it is not the vitality of physical strength, it is the
flaming fire of his invincible spirit that gives to his
emaciated and weakening body the energy and the glow
of health.
During the week following his appearance at West-
minster, he addresses Central Church, Hamilton. He has
two Sabbaths left of the year and of his life. He will
make a fair division of them. One he will give to his
life's work, pleading his great cause before the congrega-
tions of Appin and Glencoe, the other, the 29th of Decem-
ber, he will give oh, reckless prodigality ! to his wife
and family.
Historic Kiidonan Cnurckyard WLere a Number
of the ^Vestern Pioneers Are Buried
THE NIGHT COMETH 393
The next three days he remains quietly at home, fill-
ing up the hours with correspondence as his strength
will permit, for he is rapidly failing. It is Saturday, the
4th of January. In the midst of a letter the stupor of
his disease now and then overcomes him. He rouses him-
self to continue, till at length his hitherto unconquered
spirit surrenders. He turns to his wife and, with a word
strange upon his lips, " I am done out," he sinks into
slumber. The long day is done ; the night has come !
And also the morning !
The Church authorities come to proffer their loving
offices in the last service it is permitted men to render to
their honoured dead. A public funeral is proposed, but
the wife, heart- stricken and " jealous" of her rights in
that dear dust, will not hear of it. He is hers now at
last, and only hers, and she will hold him hers to the
end. But this only for a moment. Of her life's long
sacrifice but a poor fragment remains to offer. He is
hers, yes, but he belongs to his Church as well, and if his
Church asks the privilege of rendering this last loving
tribute, she will not interpose. She will make perfect
her sacrifice.
At the house a small company of close friends gather.
The great words of the immortal hope are read. There
is a prayer for pity and comfort, a prayer of grateful
thanksgiving as well, and he is carried forth from the
home which has been his so little.
In and about Bloor Street Church a great concourse of
the people have assembled. Dr. Wallace, the minister
of the church, presides and reads the Scripture. The
Eev. J. A. Macdonald oifers the prayers of the people.
Songs of hope and triumph lift their hearts to God. The
Moderator of the General Assembly, Eev. Dr. Warden,
pays the tribute of the Church' s love and gratitude. The
394 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Rev. C. W. Gordon speaks the word that tells the grief
of the men of the West, their loving pride in their dead
chief, their gratitude for his work, their joy in his tri-
umph. The people pass in a long-drawn file to look upon
his face upturned and still. Alas ! alas ! he is dead !
No message more from those pallid lips ! Then they bear
him out to his place in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
But he is of the West. In the West his life is sown ;
in the West the harvest will wave, and so upon the field
of his labour and of his triumph his dust must find its last
abode. To Winnipeg how different from that " cluster-
ing variegation of shops and shacks " that greeted him
twenty -eight years ago and thence to old Kildonan, he is
borne, and there in that sacred field of the dead those
who loved him best and wrought with him longest, laid
him down. Beside him Msbet, Black, and a little fur-
ther, King, a noble company for whom Western Canada
might well thank God. There let them sleep together,
their dust possessing this wide laud and claiming it for
God and things eternal, their spirits living in the un-
shrinking faith and unconquered love of those who, hear-
ing of their deeds, shall find within their own hearts a
fire that will consume until all dross of self is gone and
only the love of God and man abides.
XXXIV
MEMORIALS
IT is neither fitting nor necessary to reproduce here the
many resolutions recording the admiration, esteem,
and affection for the Superintendent of Missions and
the many expressions of regret at his early death he was
only sixty-three from Church courts and Committees,
nor is it necessary to publish any of the scores of letters
from distinguished citizens of Canada and from hum-
bler friends, breathing love and gratitude for his public
services to the nation as well as for his personal quali-
ties. But it seems right that here there should be found
a place for a few of these expressions that embody the
sentiments of those who wrought with him in official re-
lations in different parts of Canada. There have been
selected these four. The first is from the farthest west
of all the Presbyteries, the Presbytery of Westminster :
" The Presbytery of Westminster having learned with
profound regret of the death of Eev. Dr. James Robert-
son, Superintendent of Missions in Manitoba, the North-
west, and British Columbia, desires to place on record its
deep sense of the loss the Church has sustained.
" For twenty years the leader and representative of the
Church in the outposts of the rapidly-advancing frontier
of our Western civilization, he endured cheerfully the
hardships of pioneer life and discharged with splendid
fidelity and magnificent success the arduous duties of his
important but difficult position.
" Possessing in rare combination the statesman's out-
look and the prophet's fervour, and animated by an un-
395
396 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
faltering confidence in our country's future, he formed
his plans with a far-sighted wisdom that the course of
events has abundantly justified, aud bringing to the per-
formance of his great work the admirable qualities of
mind and heart for which he was distinguished, and dis-
playing the highest type of true patriotism as well as the
most attractive form of Christian service, he laid broad
and deep the foundations of national and religious life in
the western half of the Dominion of Canada.
" A man of heroic mould, but of tenderest heart, chari-
table in his j udgments of men, generous and sympathetic
in his dealings with them, he was himself a living em-
bodiment of that Gospel which he preached as the only
hope for the individual or the nation.
u His whole career was an exemplification of the spirit
of devotion and self-sacrifice which he expected to see
manifested by the servants of the Church whose work he
was appointed to superintend. Genial and kindly in his
disposition, and keeping himself in closest touch with the
world's best thought, his visits to the homes of the mis-
sionaries, living in isolated positions and doing their work
under many discouragements, were a source of keenest
delight and an inspiration to nobler effort.
" While mourning his loss, the Presbytery gratefully
recognizes that the story of his life will form one of the
brightest pages in the Church's history, and expresses
the conviction that the future of the country will show
with increasing clearness the impress of his marked indi-
viduality.
" To the sorrowing members of his bereaved household
the Presbytery begs to extend its respectful sympathy,
commending them to the Father of mercies and God of
all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulations."
There was one body of men with whom, more than any
other, Dr. Robertson was closely associated in his life-
MEMORIALS 397
work, and that body was the Home Mission Committee
of the Synod of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories.
He was its first and only Convener, and twice a year for
seventeen years the Superintendent met with this Com-
mittee to formulate policy and to make plans and to dis-
cuss ways and means ; and every year of their work to-
gether strengthened the bonds that bound them, till they
became, indeed, a band of brothers. It was not his offi-
cial position as head of the Committee, but his personal
qualities that drew and held their love and confidence.
There is no word in this resolution but properly carries
with it its full weight of meaning :
" It is with deep sorrow and an overwhelming sense of
loss that we, the members of the Synod's Home Mission
Committee of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories,
deplore the absence from our Committee to-day and from
henceforth, of our Convener, the Eev. Dr. Eobertson,
Superintendent of Missions. This Committee has never
known another Convener, for since its organization in
the year 1884, seventeen years ago, Dr. Eobertson has
guided our councils and presided at our deliberations.
During the twenty-one years of Dr. Eobertson' s superin-
tendency, the Home Mission work of our Church in
Western Canada has developed with a rapidity unpar-
alleled in the history of Christian missions, so that the
one Presbytery of 1881, with its four congregations and
eighteen missions, has developed into eighteen Presby-
teries with 141 congregations and 226 missions, giving
service at 1,130 points ; and to-day in the Canada that
lies west of the Lakes, we have the foundations of a great
Church laid solidly and well.
11 We, whose privilege it has been to be associated
with Dr. Eobertson in this work, know in a measure
how much these remarkable results have, under God,
been due to the statesmanlike leading and to the un-
398 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
tiring personal labours of our late Convener. But
neither we, nor the Church as a whole, will ever be
able fully to estimate the value of the service he gave
in this Western country, nor how much our country
owes to Dr. Robertson's fervent patriotism and wise
administration.
"For his position and his work Dr. Robertson was
thoroughly furnished. To his strong common sense
and sound judgment he added a genius for administra-
tion, for the selecting of men, and for the mastery of
detail, a singleness of aim, and a true sympathy with
his fellow- workers ; and thus it was that he was able
to gain and to hold, and ever more and more firmly, the
confidence and the admiring affection of those who shared
with him in his toil. How often at this table have we
been stimulated by his faith, cheered by his hope and
courage, rebuked by his surpassing self-devotion, and
encouraged by his sympathy. To-day we mourn not only
the leader who has so surely shown us the way, but the
friend and .brother to whom our hearts were knit with
true and tender ties.
"The loss the Church has sustained in the death of
Dr. Robertson is greater than we know. Our loss, as
a Committee, and that personal loss which we each feel
in our own lives by his removal, we are not yet able to
measure ; but with the Church we bow in humble sub-
mission to the will of God, in the faith that the influence
of that strenuous and devoted life will long abide in the
whole Church, and especially in this section of it to
which he gave his life ; and that we who laboured with
him will continue to feel the uplifting influence of his
splendid and heroic self-devotion. And we earnestly
pray that the same Lord who so richly endowed His
servant and gave him to us these many years, will not
forsake the work just begun, but will continue it to the end.
MEMORIALS 399
* ' To the bereaved wife and family we offer our sincere
and respectful sympathy. We measure the greatness of
their loss by our own, and pray for them the consolation
of the Divine Grace, and abiding presence of Him who
has declared Himself to be the husband of the widow and
the father of the fatherless."
The Church and Manse Building Fund owed its exist-
ence to Dr. Eobertson, and this Fund under his adminis-
tration became a means of blessing to Western Canada
greater than can be estimated. With the members of
the Board intrusted with the interests of this Fund, the
Superintendent of Missions kept in close and cordial re-
lation, and hence this resolution properly finds its place
with the others :
" At its first meeting after the lamented death of the
late Eev. James Eobertson, D. D., Superintendent of
Missions, the Church and Manse Building Board
wishes to place upon record its recognition of the im-
portance of his services in its department of the Church
work, and its sense of the loss sustained in his. removal.
" Dr. Eobertson was the founder of this Fund. He
collected nearly all the money which constitutes its
endowment, he recommended from his personal knowl-
edge a very large number of the loans and grants
which it made, he advocated the enlargement of the
sphere of its operations so as to include, as it now does,
British Columbia and a large portion of New Ontario,
and in general his assistance was invaluable in admin-
istering its business because of the extent of his infor-
mation, the sanity of his judgment and the depth of his
interest in the work. The success of this Fund which
has dotted the West with churches and manses will be
an enduring monument of the enthusiasm, the strenuous-
ness and the far ambition of Dr. Eobertson 7 s life."
The following is the resolution by the General
400 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
Assembly's Home Mission Committee (Western Section).
It was composed of those who stood among the very
ablest men in the Church. It was the Committee
under whose authority the Superintendent of Missions
worked, and there is no more striking testimony to the
quality of his work and the character of the man than
the increasing hold the Superintendent gained upon
the confidence of the Committee whose servant he was.
And as the members of this Committee came to see
more clearly the single-hearted devotion and the sane
and sound judgment of their Superintendent, the more
there grew up in their hearts a profound affection for
him, and a willingness to be guided by his counsel.
l< The Home Mission Committee (Western Section)
of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, at its first
meeting after his decease, does hereby record its sense
of the noble character and splendid achievements of the
late Eev. James Robertson, D. D.
"Appointed by the Church in hesitation and doubt
to the office of Superintendent of Missions for Manitoba
and the Northwest, in 1881, he lived to enjoy every
honour the Church could bestow, and to behold, amid
the marvellous development of the Canadian West,
largely as the result of his own efforts, the cause of re-
ligion militant everywhere, and flourishing in almost
every part.
1 'In the West, by his wonderful versatility, he gained
the respect and confidence of every class of the popula-
tion. Amid farms, or ranches, or mines, or villages,
or cities, he was equally known and venerated. He was
always looked upon as a hero, of the type the West
is proud of, and spent himself in tireless labours for the
spiritual welfare of that vast region. A loyal Presby-
terian, he was no sectarian. He wanted the West for
righteousness and the fear of God.
Dr. Robertson s Grave in
the Kildonan Churchyard
MEMORIALS 401
" To the missionaries under his superintendence he was
a comrade and most welcome adviser. A visit from him
was a stirring of hope and energy and trust in God.
Quick to condemn sloth and mismanagement, he was yet
quicker to sympathize with genuine misfortune and eager
to relieve it.
"In the older portions of the Church in Canada, and
across the Atlantic, he was known as an enthusiast in his
work. It was due to his frank and pressing appeals that
the money was raised for extending the territory of Home
Missions, and equipping the fields with churches, manses,
and pastors.
"It is a satisfaction to this Committee to remember
the perfect harmony and cheerfulness with which he and
its members co-laboured. While the docile servant of
the Committee, he was at the same time its chief leader
and ruler. Knowing the difficulties best, he was yet the
most ardent and progressive spirit of all.
"We praise God that He gave our Church such an
apostle, and recognize the Divine kindness which called
him to his reward. While we feel the human impos-
sibility of filling his place, we remember that he in our
position would be undaunted, and face with confidence
the task of carrying on the immense enterprise which he
began, and has left magnificently incomplete. We pray
for faith as we recall some of his last words, l The next
few years are critical in this work. The night cometh.'
" This Committee would convey to the family their
tender sympathy in the sorrow into which they have been
plunged, and pray that the God of all grace and consola-
tion may be to them a present and abiding refuge."
For many years the Presbytery of Calgary formed the
western limit of the Superintendent's mission field, and
the history of no other Presbytery in the West is so full
of the romance of missions. The Home Mission Com-
402 THE LIFE OF JAMES ROBERTSON
mittee of that Presbytery, under the leadership of the
Rev. Dr. Herdman, who himself became afterwards one
of the Superintendents of Missions for the Western
Church, was always the pride of the Superintendent's
heart. Between these two men there existed from first to
last the very strongest ties of personal affection and
esteem. It is not surprising, therefore, that upon the
wall of Dr. Herdman' s church this tablet should hang :
recognition of the
worth and work of the
Rev. James Robertson, D. D.,
Superintendent of
Presbyterian Home Missions
from 1881 to 1902,
This tablet
in a church and city situated
centrally among missions, is
erected conjointly by Presbytery
and congregation.
" ' Let no man glory in men, for all
things are yours, whether Paul, or
Apollos, or Cephas. 1
11 Canada, West of the Great Lakes, was his mission field."
In the cemetery of old Kildonan, above the grave that
holds his dust, there stands a block of granite bearing
this inscription :
"Rev. James Robertson, D. D.,
1839-1902
Pastor of Norwich 1869-1874
First Pastor of Knox Church, Winnipeg,
1874-1881
(Superintendent of Western Missions
1881-1902
MEMORIALS 403
*' Endowed by God with extraordinary talents, entrusted
by his Church with unique powers, he used all for the
good of his country and for the glory of God. The
story of his work is the history of the Presbyterian
Church in Western Canada, and while Western Canada
endures, that work will abide.
To his memory and to the Glory of God this stone
is erected by a few of those who loved him and
counted it a joy to labour with him in his great work.' 1
That monument of granite will become dust, blown by
passing winds, but coeval with Time the monument of
his Life will stand to the glory of His name who made
him what he was.
M31966
-BX
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY