engineer, in 1820. After following out a course of study at the
University of Glasgow, he was licensed as a preacher in 1844. In the
following year he was ordained minister of Newton-upon-Ayre, from which
in 1846 he was translated to Lady Yester's Church, Edinburgh. The
patronage of this appointment lay with the Town Council of the
Metropolis, and Dr. Caird was nominated almost unanimously. Here Dr.
Caird was building up a great reputation--his popularity being quite
extraordinary, and his church habitually crowded--when he found it
necessary to retire to the country to get rid of the demands made upon
his physical energies by a metropolitan congregation. He soon found what
appeared to be a more congenial sphere at Errol in Perthshire, to which
he was translated in 1850, and where he ministered with much acceptance,
drawing to his church strangers from far and near, for a period of
about eight years. It was while at Errol that Dr. Caird fell out with
the more orthodox Calvinists of his church, his breadth of sympathies
failing to meet with approbation from the older members who were still
leavened with the leaven of "persecuting and intolerant principles in
religion." It is related of one old lady that on leaving the church,
after hearing Dr. Caird deliver one of his most powerful and
characteristic sermons, she exclaimed, "What's the use o' gaun to hear
that body preach; ye never get a word o' gospel frae his lips." During
the period of his pastorate at Errol, Dr. Caird preached, in 1865, a
sermon, entitled "The religion of common life," before the Queen at
Crathie. This sermon was subsequently published by her Majesty's
command, and secured a very large sale. Indeed, it is recorded, in an
article on the book trade in Chambers's Cyclopaedia, as an evidence of
the kindness which publishers sometimes show to authors, that the Messrs
Blackwood, of Edinburgh, made Dr. Caird a present of L400, in addition
to the L100 which they had agreed to pay him for his Crathie sermon--so
extensive was the sale which, in the form of a shilling pamphlet, it was
able to command. The same sermon was translated on the Continent, under
the auspices of the Chevalier Bunsen, Ambassador from the German Court
to London, who has since died. Bunsen was well known as one of the most
accomplished scholars of his day, and the preface which he wrote for
this sermon suddenly carried the fame of the preacher into all parts of
the Christian world.
In 1857 Dr. Caird accepted a call to Park Church, Glasgow. During the
following year he published a volume of sermons marked by great
chasteness and beauty of language, strength and delicacy of thought,
and, above all, by spirituality of tone, and breadth of earnest sympathy
with men. By this time his fame as a preacher had reached its zenith.
The demands made upon his powers of endurance were such as no one could
possibly last for any length of time. His sermons were not the mere
inspirations of the hour. They were rather like the _chef d'oeuvre_
of a great painter or sculptor--well thought out, carefully and
conscientiously reasoned, and polished until their lustre was perfectly
dazzling. We have before us an extract from _Fraser's Magazine_,
published about this time, which justly estimates Dr. Caird's oratorical
gifts and graces. The writer states that Dr. Caird "begins quietly, but
in a manner which is full of earnestness and feeling; every word is
touched with just the right kind and degree of emphasis; many single
words, and many little sentences which, when you read them do not seem
very remarkable, are given in tones which make them absolutely thrill
through you; you feel that the preacher has in him the elements of a
tragic actor who would rival Kean. The attention of the congregation is
riveted; the silence is breathless; and as the speaker goes on gathering
warmth till he becomes impassioned and impetuous, the tension of the
nerves of the hearer becomes almost painful. There is abundant ornament
in style--if you were cooler you might probably think some of it carried
to the verge of good taste; there is a great amount and variety of the
most expressive, apt, and seemingly unstudied gesticulation; it is
rather as though you were listening to the impulsive Italian speaking
from head to foot, than to the cool and unexcitable Scot. After two or
three such climaxes, with pauses between, after the manner of Dr.
Chalmers, the preacher gathers himself up for his peroration which, with
the tact of the orator, he has made more striking, more touching, more
impressive than any preceding portion of his discourse. He is wound up
often to an excitement which is painful to see. The full deep voice, so
beautifully expressive, already taxed to its utmost extent, breaks into
something which is almost a shriek; the gesticulation becomes wild; the
preacher, who has hitherto held himself to some degree in check, seems
to abandon himself to the full tide of his emotion; you feel that not
even his eloquent lips can do justice to the rush of thought and feeling
within. Two or three minutes in this impassioned strain and the sermon
is done."
In 1862, Dr. Caird was appointed Professor of Divinity in the University
of Glasgow. Since that time his pulpit ministrations have been
comparatively few. In fact, although his eloquence is in some respects
as powerful and unique as ever, his voice has lost much of the charm of
former days, and this is perhaps one of the most weighty reasons that
actuated the reverend gentleman in seeking the _otium cum dignitate_ of
a Professor's chair. As a teacher no less than as a preacher Dr. Caird
has made his mark. In reference to both functions we find personified in
him the attributes of
"Echenus sage, a venerable man,
Whose well-taught mind the present age surpassed,
And joined to that the experience of the last.
Fit words attended on his weighty sense,
And mild persuasion flowed like eloquence."
If there is one thing more than another that has brought Dr. Caird a
special name and reputation as a thinker, it is the broad and somewhat
latitudinarian notions which he holds on religions matters. So far does
he carry his toleration and charity that he has, we believe, given
serious offence to not a few of his most attached admirers in questions
other than religious. Briefly stated, Dr. Caird's belief is that all the
theological distinctions that ever distracted Christendom are not worth
a single breach of charity. In a sermon which he preached before the
Senate, at the opening of the new University Chapel, on the 8th of
January last, he set himself to show that the mere holding of the
Catholic faith, in the sense and form of the creed, cannot be the
essence of religion--first, because the great mass of mankind are
incapable of doing justice to the definitions and evidences of the
creeds; yet need religion, and are, in point of fact, pious in spite of
their want of theological accomplishments; secondly, there is an organ
or faculty of the soul deeper than the intellect, by which (apart from
accurate doctrinal notions) the force of religious realities may be
apprehended and appropriated; and, thirdly, men of the most divergent
and even opposite dogmatic convictions may be, and are, religiously one.
Accordingly, he maintains that the essence of religion must lie in
'something profounder than ecclesiastical and dogmatic considerations.
And could we get at that something--call it spiritual life, godliness,
holiness, self-abnegation, surrender of the soul to God; or, better
still, love and loyalty to Christ as the one Redeemer and Lord of the
spirit--could we pierce deeper than the notions of the understanding to
that strange, sweet, all-subduing temper and habit of spirit, that
climate and atmosphere of heaven in a human breast, should we not find
that there lies the essence of religion?' Religion, in short, is a
matter of feeling rather than of knowledge, a hallowed condition of the
spiritual sentiments and instincts, rather than an orthodox complexion
and arrangement of the spiritual ideas; a thing of the heart rather than
of the head. On this view, it has been argued, though Dr. Caird does not
expressly draw the inference, orthodoxy is not essential to "salvation,"
and heathenism is not a barrier to the blessings of heaven.
One distinguishing characteristic of all Dr. Caird's sermons--and,
indeed, of everything to which he applies himself--is that they are
carefully and conscientiously manipulated. He does not commit himself to
a mere superficial treatment of the subject in hand, but, like John
Bright--to whom in more than one respect he presents a striking
parallel--he takes the utmost pains to provide thoroughly acceptable and
nourishing pabulum for his hearers, believing that whatever is worth
doing, is worth doing well. No man alive has furnished a more fitting
illustration of the lines--
"The heights by great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight;
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upwards in the night."
Every sentence which Dr. Caird utters in his discourses is turned and
polished with the consummate art of which he is such a master until it
is a sparkling gem. Hence his diction bears the most crucial test; like
his oratory, his composition is unique.
When the British Association held its meetings in Edinburgh in August,
1871, Dr. John Caird was selected to preach the sermon which it is
customary to deliver before the _savants_ at any town at which they may
happen to meet. On this sermon a pungent critic in a well-known
metropolitan magazine, who rejoices in the _nom de plume_ of Patricius
Walker, Esq., has the following remarks:--"Mr. Caird (who spoke somewhat
huskily, but with much emphasis) was on the broad Liberal tack. He
quoted passages from Herbert, Spencer, Comte, and other modern
philosophers; not showing them up as monsters or deluded--O dear no!--or
taking refuge behind his Bible or any 'cardinal doctrine' of faith, but
professing a profound respect for these writers, and bringing his facts
and logic against their facts and logic. It was a clever exercise and a
very curious discourse to hear in the High Kirk of Edinburgh, but it was
hard to suppose it could do anybody much good.
Says Caird, 'I'll quote and then refute,
Each modern philosophic _doot_'--
And so he did; but each quotation
Seem'd to outweigh the refutation.
Some of the old-fashioned worshippers must have felt uncomfortable, like
the villager who, after a clever sermon on the Evidences of the
Existence of the Deity, said he never thought of doubting it before."
Professor Caird is one of her Majesty's chaplains for Scotland.
REV. DR. NORMAN MACLEOD.
Those who believe in the transmission of hereditary qualities and
predilections from generation to generation will find a rare practical
illustration of their theory in the Rev. Norman Macleod, who is known
and recognised as _par excellence_ Her Majesty's Chaplain for Scotland.
With as unfailing certainty as if they had been regulated by the laws of
primogeniture and entail, this estimable clergyman has inherited the
gifts and graces of his esteemed father. Nay more, he has even fallen
heir to whatever honours and emoluments of value accrued to the latter
during his long and useful career. The two men are in many respects
"similar, though not the same." Both have answered to the same name;
both have been popular preachers; both have held prominent positions in
the Established Church of Scotland; both have prosecuted their
ministerial labours in the same city; and both have been honoured with
special marks of favour and distinction from their Sovereign. There are
other minor points of resemblance upon which we cannot stay to dwell.
Dr. Norman Macleod, the elder, was ordained a minister of the
Established Church at Campbeltown in 1807, where his son, the present
minister of the Barony, was born. From Campbeltown the father removed to
Campsie parish in 1855; and subsequently he was inducted minister of the
Glasgow Gaelic Church, afterwards St. Columba's, in 1836. While in
Glasgow, he preached once in Gaelic and once in English every Sunday.
Like his son, he had broad sympathies, and soared far above the petty
barriers of denominational forms and prejudices. He was Moderator of the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1836, and it was greatly
due to his efforts that the Presbyterian Church obtained such a firm
hold in the province of Ulster. In the year 1824 he brought the state of
education in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland so fully and so
eloquently under the notice of the General Assembly that the education
scheme of the Established Church was projected to remedy the evils
pointed out. Along with Principal Baird, he was appointed on three
different occasions to inquire into the existing means of education in
the Highlands and Islands, and in many other ways he contributed
valuable service in "building up," consolidating, and expanding the
distinctive schemes and agencies of the church to which he belonged. His
labours were rewarded by the appointment--through the late Sir Robert
Peel, with whom he had considerable influence--to the envied position of
one of Her Majesty's Chaplains for Scotland, and by his preferment to
the Deanery of the Chapel Royal.
But we have only said so much by way of introduction. It is with the son
and not with the father that we have to deal. Young Norman, after
spending his earlier days amid the rustic environs of his father's
manse--the Scotch equivalent for parsonage--at Campsie, entered the
University of Glasgow as a divinity student. So far as we have been able
to ascertain, he made his first public appearance, while still in his
"teens," at a banquet given to Sir Robert Peel on the occasion of the
right hon. gentleman's installation as Lord Rector of the University of
Glasgow. This event, memorable in the annals of the city, happened on
the 6th Jan. 1837. Considered in relation to all its accessories, the
banquet was perhaps the most brilliant affair of its kind that ever took
place in Glasgow. On making an analysis of the attendance, we find that
there were altogether 3300 gentlemen present, including 12 members of
the peerage, eight baronets, ten members of Parliament, a host of
military men, and all the gentry for many miles round. The total cost of
the feast was L2434 13s 8d, and the toasts were thirty-seven in number.
The fact that Dr. Norman Macleod took a very active part in promoting
Sir Robert Peel's candidature for the Lord Rectorship, which led to this
brilliant gathering, must be our excuse for dwelling upon it at such
length. In recognition of his exertions on Sir Robert's behalf, he was
selected to respond to the toast of "The students of the University of
Glasgow who have done themselves honour by selecting Sir Robert Peel to
fill the office of Lord Rector." There was little in his reply worthy of
quotation. It was neat, appropriate, and well put, and concluded by
expressing the anxious hope that "by the additional means which had been
adopted to promote Conservative principles and to unite Conservative
students within the University, and especially by the establishment of
our 'Peel Club,' the students may continue to heap additional honours
upon themselves by returning Conservative Lord Rectors."
After a very promising career as a divinity student, Dr. Norman Macleod
was at an early age ordained a minister of the Church of Scotland. His
first parish was Loudoun, in Ayrshire, from whence, in 1843, he was
translated to Dalkeith. He laboured with much acceptance in the latter
charge for a period of eleven years, and in 1851 he succeeded the late
Dr. Black as the minister of the Barony Parish of Glasgow--a position
which he still continues to fill. It is related of the doctor that,
while at Dalkeith, he happened one day to be strolling in the
"kirkyard," and met the sexton, a man of venerable years, who took quite
a pleasure in pointing out to the new minister the more notable graves
in the little God's acre. "This," he said, "is where Mr. So-and-So (the
former clergyman of the parish) is buried, and here--pointing to a still
unoccupied lair--is whaur ye'll lie, gin ye be spared!" It is worth
while mentioning that whereas the population of the Barony Parish in
1755 was only about 5000, it had increased in 1850 to 130,000, and at
the present time it is estimated at 200,000, so that Dr. Macleod's
parochial duties and responsibilities have been greatly multiplied since
he entered upon his present important charge.
Dr. Macleod has taken the most active interest in everything relating to
the welfare of the city, while the affairs of his own parish have
afforded him a source of unremitting care and anxiety. With every
movement projected for the purposes of Church extension or the
development of missions in Glasgow he has been closely identified; and
at the present time he is at the front of an association promoted some
eighteen months ago, with the view of providing additional churches in
certain neglected districts of the city. As the result of this
association's efforts, several new churches are now in course of
erection, one of them having been undertaken at Dr. Macleod's express
request. Closely allied to the means of grace are the facilities for the
acquisition of education, and of this important adjunct to the work of
the ministry Dr. Macleod has never for a moment lost sight. No less than
five large schools have been opened in connection with the Barony Church
since he entered upon his parochial duties; and several preaching or
mission stations, at each of which divine service is conducted every
Sunday, have also been opened up, with the most successful results.
The Church of Scotland has not always enjoyed its present exceptional
prestige. The time was when Presbyterianism had anything but a sweet
smelling savour out of Scotland. It is largely due to the efforts of Dr.
Macleod that the merits of Presbyterianism have come to be acknowledged
and its principles understood by other denominations. No man has done
more than Dr. Macleod to make the Church of Scotland famous and to give
her a position in Christendom. His influence both at home and abroad,
his abilities as a preacher, and his graces as a writer, have helped to
bring the Presbyterian Church before the country, and to induce the
respect alike of her friends and rivals.
It is in connection with her missions, more than any other agency of the
Church of Scotland, that Dr. Macleod has made himself conspicuous. In
these he has, from an early period of his ministerial career, taken a
deep and active interest. So far back as the year 1844-45 he was sent
out to Canada, along with his uncle and the late Dr. Simpson of
Kirknewton, as a deputation from the Church of Scotland to inquire into
the progress of the Church in the British Provinces. About four years
ago, he was sent to India in company with Dr. Watson, to visit the
missions of the Church in that country, and on their return to Scotland,
Dr. Macleod published a series of articles, giving the results of his
observations, which excited a considerable amount of public attention,
and elicited among educationists and others a warm discussion. For some
of his statements the rev. gentleman was taken severely to task, it
being argued that he could not, during his limited sojourn in India,
have acquired a sufficient knowledge of the country and its institutions
to enable him to speak with anything like authority on all the subjects
to which he referred.
We believe that Dr. Macleod commenced his career as an author by the
publication, during the fierce heat of the controversy which eventuated
in the Disruption, of three separate pamphlets, each bearing the title,
"Cracks about the Kirk, for Country Folks." Two of these pamphlets,
written in "broad Scotch," were remarkable for their pungency and
effective banter. Although published anonymously, it was generally known
that these pamphlets owed their existence to "young Norman," and they
contributed very materially to establish his growing fame as a writer
and preacher. During the memorable year of the Disruption he was a
member of the General Assembly, and took part in all the controversies
of the day. His efforts to keep up the drooping spirits of the
Establishment are worthy of honourable mention. His boundless good
humour, and cheerful, happy disposition kept alive the enthusiasm of
those who preferred to stick by the Kirk in the greatest crisis she has
ever known, and he was, above all, instrumental in preventing the
missionary operations of the Church from becoming
"To hastening ills a prey."
From that time until now he has never ceased to manifest the warmest
interest in the missions of the Church, watching over them with an
almost paternal zeal and solicitude; and no man in the Establishment is
so well qualified as himself to preside at the Indian Mission Board--an
office which he has occupied with equal credit to himself and advantage
to the church for a number of years.
Many who are quite unacquainted with Dr. Macleod's antecedents, will
have heard of him as the editor of _Good Words_. It is not too much to
assume that even the contributor to a New York journal, who lately
described him as "Dr. Macleod, one of the Court physicians," will know
him in this capacity. Commencing his editorial career on the _Edinburgh
Christian Magazine_, which he conducted from April, 1849, till April,
1869, Dr. Macleod, in the course of the latter year, became connected
with Mr. Strahan; and the _Christian Guest_, which was started in the
beginning of that year, appeared with Dr. Macleod's name as reviser. The
latter magazine, which was published by Messrs. A. Strahan & Co.,
Edinburgh, came to a conclusion at the end of the year which witnessed
its birth, and it was succeeded in January, 1860, by _Good Words_,
published by Messrs. A. Strahan & Co., London, and in which Dr. Macleod's
name appeared as editor. We need hardly criticise the merits of the
latter periodical, which, as we have indicated, owes its origin to the
joint labours of Mr. Strahan and its able editor. From the first it was
conducted on what might be called popular principles--being something
more than a religious magazine pure and simple. The result was that it
grew rapidly in public favour, and commanded the support and approbation
of the highest literary circles. Indeed, it may safely be said that
there is not a moral, religious, or scientific writer of any note that
has not in one form or another contributed something to its contents.
Mr. Gladstone, Dr. Vaughan, the Rev. Charles Kingsley, Dean Alford, and
Mrs. Oliphant are but a few of the many names that have adorned its
pages, and its popularity and merits are still maintained with
undiminished vigour. Mr. Strahan's boundless energy and excellent
discrimination have contributed more to this result than any other
cause; but Dr. Macleod's editorship has at the same time been singularly
able and judicious. Although Dr. Macleod never aspired to rank as a
theological writer, he has in his way been a prolific and successful
author. His works may be said to have merits peculiarly their own. His
graceful, easy, fluent style; his admirable capacity for illustration;
his graphic delineations of scenery and character; and, above all, his
unfailing use of simple, terse, homely Saxon, have combined to place him
in the front rank of living writers. Among his more notable publications
we may mention "The Home School" (Edinburgh, 1856, 12mo), a reprint and
extension of lectures for working men; "Deborah" (Edinburgh, 1857, cr.
8vo), a treatise on the duties of masters and servants; "The Earnest
Student--being memorials of John Mackintosh" (1854, cr. 8vo); "Parish
Papers" (Edinburgh, 1862, 12mo); "Reminiscences of a Highland Parish;"
"The Old Lieutenant;" "The Starling;" and "Wee Davie." He also published
numerous sketches of his travels in the Holy Land, in India, and in the
British provinces. His "Eastward," a diary of travels in Palestine, is
one of the most interesting and instructive works of its kind in our
literature; while his "Far East," in which his Indian experiences are
detailed, is not less full of useful matter. This leads us to mention
the fact that his travels in Palestine were undertaken on his own
account, and solely for the purpose of receiving correct impressions of
the Holy Land, with its hallowed traditions and deeply-interesting
associations. With the same object he has travelled in other lands, and
scarcely a year passes without his visiting some new clime or country,
and thus enriching his great stores of knowledge and observation.