HALDANE, JAMES
ALEXANDER.—It seldom happens that when a great work is to be
accomplished, in which co-operated effort is required, the same family
which produced the originator should also furnish the effectual seconder
of the movement. From this general rule the family of Haldane of
Airthrey is an honoured exception; for while Robert was building
churches over the whole extent of Scotland, his younger brother, James,
was ably preparing the way by preaching in its most destitute
localities, and reviving that religious spirit which had sunk for years
into cold apathy and indifference.
James Alexander Haldane
was born at Dundee, on the 14th of July, 1768, within a
fortnight after the death of his father. He also lost his mother when he
had only reached his sixth year. After attending the High School of
Edinburgh with his brother, and distinguishing himself not only by
holding a high place in the class, but being foremost in every
school-boy frolic and adventure, he went to the university, which he
attended for three years, until he had completed his studies in Latin
and Greek, and gone through the curriculum of logic, metaphysics,
mathematics, and natural philosophy. Having thus established sufficient
groundwork for future self-improvement, and made a tour through the
north of England, he joined, at the age of seventeen, the service for
which he had been early destined, by entering as midshipman the Duke of
Montrose, East Indiaman, bound to Bombay and China. This department of
naval life ranked high at a period when the monopoly of the East India
Company, and the risks of war, made their ships be manned and armed on a
scale approaching that of the royal navy. By the family compact it had
also been agreed, that as soon as he was qualified by age and service,
he should succeed to the command of the Melville Castle, which had been
provided with an interim captain, under the prospect of this
succession. This was a most unhopeful commencement of the course that
afterwards awaited him, but the alternatives that were proposed against
his going to sea were equally so. His female relatives wished that he
should complete his studies, and take orders in the Church of England,
in the hope of attaining a bishopric; while the great Croesus of the
day, Mr. Coutts, the warm friend of Haldane’s father, to whom he had
been greatly indebted, offered to take the youth into his own
counting-house as a partner, and make him a thriving banker. Who would
have thought that a youth with so many tempting offers at the outset of
life, would finally prefer to them all the lowly office of an itinerant
preacher!
On embarking upon his new
profession, James Haldane devoted himself earnestly to his duties,
ambitious to become an active seaman and skilful navigator. Besides
this, his love of general literature, which his previous education had
imparted, made him spend all his leisure time in the study of the best
authors, of which he carried with him a well-stored sea-chest, and in
this way he was unconsciously training himself to become an able
theological writer and eloquent preacher. He made in all four voyages to
India and China; and during the long period over which these extended,
he saw much of the variety of life, as well as experienced the usual
amount of hair’s-breadth escapes so incidental to his profession. During
his third voyage, in which he was third officer of the Hillsborough, and
while returning from India, he encountered one of those dangers so
frequently attendant upon the naval and military service, and so
unreasonable and contemptible in services so full of perils of their
own, because so utterly gratuitous. One of the passengers, a cavalry
officer, notorious as a quarrelsome bully and a good shot, picked a
quarrel with James Haldane, and at the mess-table threw a glass of wine
in his face, which the other retorted by throwing a decanter at the
captain’s head. A challenge was inevitable, and Haldane was the more
ready to receive it, as, from his antagonist’s reputation as a duelist,
a refusal might have looked like cowardice. Such was that law of honour,
now so generally abjured, which in a few years more will evaporate
amidst the general derision. No opportunity occurred of a hostile
meeting until the ship arrived at St. Helena, where the parties went
ashore early in the morning, to settle their quarrel by mortal
arbitrament. James Haldane who, the night before, had made his will, and
written a farewell letter to his brother, to be delivered in the event
of his death, raised his pistol at the signal, and inwardly ejaculating,
with fearful inconsistency, the solemn prayer, "Father, into thy hands I
commend my spirit," he drew the trigger. The pistol burst, and one of
the splinters wounded him in the face, while his opponent, whose weapon
at the same instant missed fire, declared himself fully satisfied. Thus
terminated the first and last affair of the kind in which he ever was
engaged. His amiable disposition, as well as his acknowledged courage
and spirit, alike prevented him afterwards from giving or receiving
injury.
After his fourth voyage
was completed, James Haldane, now at the age of twenty-five, was found
fully competent to assume the command of the Melville Castle; and on
passing his examinations he was promoted to that office in 1793. After
his appointment, he married Miss Joass, only child of Major Joass,
fort-major of Stirling Castle, and niece of Sir Ralph Abercromby. As his
fortune was still to seek, while his bride was a young lady of great
attractions and high prospects, some demur was made by her relatives to
her marriage with a younger brother; but the mutual affection of the
pair at last reconciled all parties to the measure. At the end of the
year, the Melville Castle was at Portsmouth ready for an Indian voyage,
in company with a large fleet of Indiamen lying at the same port, and
Haldane, having parted with his wife at London, had already joined his
vessel, when delays occurred that prevented its sailing till some months
afterwards. While the fleet was thus lying at anchor, a mutiny broke out
in the Dutton, which grew to such a height that the chief officers were
obliged in terror to abandon the ship; and the crew, arming themselves
with what weapons came to hand, threatened to sink every boat that came
alongside to board them, or at the worst to blow up the ship, or carry
it into a French port. In this state of wild uproar, Captain Haldane
threw himself into one of the boats of the Melville Castle, and
approached the Dutton, amidst the cries of "Keep off, or we’ll sink
you!" Undeterred by these threats, he boarded the hostile deck, cutlass
in hand, relieved the remaining officers, who were about to be
overpowered on the quarter-deck, and by his prompt decided measures so
appalled the mutineers, that they were soon brought to a surrender. But
while this was going on upon deck, a noise was heard below, and on
learning the cause, he rushed to the powder magazine, which two men were
about to enter, with a shovel-full of live coals, after having wrenched
off the doors, swearing that they would blow the ship to heaven or hell,
no matter which. He clapped a pistol to the breast of the most forward,
and compelled him to stand; and ordered the crew to put the two
offenders instantly in irons, which was done almost as rapidly as it had
been commanded. The daring demeanour and prompt decision of the young
captain of the Melville Castle so completely quelled the ship’s company,
and recalled their habits of obedience, that the chief mutineers
submitted, and order was restored.
By this time Haldane had
acquired a high character in his profession. His skill as a sailor, and
his excellent qualities as an officer, had endeared him to seamen and
passengers alike; his courage in trying emergencies had been well
proved; while the political influence by which he was supported, not
only through his friends at home, but in India, where his wife’s uncle,
Sir Ralph Abercromby, was commander-in-chief of the British army,
insured him the speedy attainment both of rank and fortune. Such a
consummation was also expected of him as a duty, both on the part of his
wife’s relatives and his own, who saw no reason why he should sink, with
all his prospects and attainments, into the rank of an obscure bonnet
laird, or idle country gentleman. And yet he had even already resolved
to abandon the sea, and all its alluring advantages! The cause of this
is to be traced to his early religious education, which had more or less
clung to him in his after-career, so that in all he had undergone and
enjoyed, as well as all that he hoped or feared, he had felt the
contention of two hostile elements within him—he had been a man divided
against himself. With an earnest longing that the spiritual should
prevail, so that he might be renewed and sanctified, he felt withal as
if such an end could not be attained in his present pursuits and
occupations. But as this constituted the great turning-point of his
life, it is right that we should hear his own account, which he has
given in his manuscript memoranda in the following words:—"Some
circumstances which took place tended, before I left the
sea, to render me more circumspect; yet was my heart still unchanged. I
lived on board ship nearly four months at Portsmouth, and having much
spare time, and being always fond of reading, I was employed in this
way, and began, more from a conviction of its propriety than any real
concern about eternity, to read the Bible and religious books, not only
on the Sabbath, but a portion of Scripture every day. I also began to
pray to God, although almost entirely about the concerns of a present
world. During all this time I did not go on shore to public worship
above once or twice, though I could have done so, and heard the gospel
with the same form of worship (at Dr. Bogue’s) as in Scotland. At length
some impressions seemed to be made on my mind that all was not right;
and knowing that the Lord’s supper was to be dispensed, I was desirous
of being admitted, and went and spoke with Dr. Bogue on the subject. He
put some books into my hand on the nature of the ordinance, which I
read, and was more regular in prayer and attending public worship. An
idea of quitting the sea at this time was suggested, apparently by
accident, and literally so, except in so far as ordered of God. The
thought sunk into my mind, and although there were many obstacles, my
inclination rather increased than abated. Being now in the habit of
prayer, I asked of God to order matters so that it might be brought
about, and formed resolutions of amendment, in case my prayer should be
heard. Several circumstances occurred which seemed to cut off every hope
of my being able to get away before the fleet sailed; yet the Lord
overruled all to further the business about two days before it left
England. A concern about my soul had very little influence in this step;
yet I was now determined to begin to make religion a matter of serious
consideration. I was sure I was not right. I had never joined at the
Lord’s supper, being formerly restrained partly by conscience, while
living in open sin, and partly by want of convenient opportunities, and
I had been prevented by my engagements in the week of quitting the sea
from joining at Gosport, as I had proposed. However dark my mind still
was, I have no doubt but that God began a work of grace on my soul while
living on board the Melville Castle. His voice was indeed still and
small, but I would not despise the day of small things, nor undervalue
the least of His gracious dealings towards me. There is no doubt that I
had sinned against more light than many of my companions who have been
cut off in their iniquities, and that I might justly have been made a
monument of his wrath."
The result of these
reasons may be easily surmised, enforced as they were by the earnest
entreaties of his brother Robert, who had also quitted the navy, and was
about to devote himself to that career of religious usefulness by which
his whole life was afterwards distinguished. James Haldane accordingly
sold his interest in the Melville Castle for a sum that insured him a
decent independence for life, bade adieu to the sea for ever, and, on
rejoining his wife in Scotland, and establishing a peaceful home in
Edinburgh, he became a diligent student in theology in the best sense of
the term. It was in this way that both the brothers qualified themselves
for their appointed work. In their case it was from no sudden fit of
enthusiasm that they devoted themselves to a career which excited the
wonderment of society, and that had to be persevered in through much
scorn and opposition for years; on the contrary, they were led to the
faith upon which they acted through a long course of inquiry; and this
being attained, they were able deliberately to count the cost, and
prepare themselves for the sacrifice. In this spirit, while Robert was
earnestly straining every nerve to obtain the privilege of deportation
and exile as a missionary, James was qualifying himself for the equally
humble and self-denying duties of an itinerant preacher. Had such
instances occurred in the Romish Church, they would have been emblazoned
as choice episodes in the Acta Sanctorum, if not exalted into
full claims for canonization. The steps by which James Haldane was
conducted to the "highways and hedges," he has thus detailed in language
of straight-forward simplicity:—" For some time after I knew the truth I
had no thoughts towards the ministry. My attention was directed to the
study of the Scriptures and other religious books, for my own
improvement, and because I found much pleasure in them. When I first
lived in my own house, I began family worship on Sabbath evenings. I was
unwilling to have it more frequently, lest I should meet with
ridicule from my acquaintance. A conviction of duty at length determined
me to begin to have it every morning; but I assembled the family in a
back room for some time, lest any one should come in. I gradually got
over this fear of man; and being desirous to instruct those who lived in
my family, I began to expound the Scriptures. I found this pleasant and
edifying to myself, and it has been one chief means by which the Lord
prepared me for speaking in public. About this time some of my friends
remarked that I would by and by become a preacher. A person asked me
whether I did not regret that I had not been a minister? which made a
considerable impression on my mind. I began secretly to desire to be
allowed to preach the gospel, which I considered as the most important,
as well as honourable employment. I began to ask of God to send me into
his vineyard, and to qualify me for the work."—While these wishes were
thus forming and growing within his heart, events were occurring to draw
them into action. He first confined himself to the silent distribution
of tracts, and afterwards advanced to the visitation and establishment
of Sabbath-schools, where a "word of exhortation" was expected as a
matter of course; and, finally, having accompanied John Campbell (his
brother’s friend) and another preacher to the large collier village of
Gilmerton, where a preaching station had been established, he found
himself drawn, in the course of necessity, to take his turn in that
apostolic labour which he had already thus far countenanced and
commended. He preached his first sermon on the 6th of May, 1797, and by
that decisive act committed himself to the vocation in which he
persevered to the end of his long-extended life.
After having continued to
preach for a short time at Gilmerton, James Haldane’s views extended
over Scotland at large, so that he resolved to commence the
work of an itinerant preacher in good earnest. But an ambulatory
ministry and lay preaching—these are irregularities which only a very
urgent emergency can justify; and yet, perhaps, Scotland at this time
needed them as much as England did the labours of her Wesleys and
Whitefield. James Haldane also went forth, not as a minister, to
dispense the higher ordinances of religion, but simply as an evangelist,
to call men to repentance. This his first tour, in 1797, extended
through the northern counties of Scotland and the Orkney Islands, and
was made in company with Mr. Aikman, originally settled in a prosperous
business in Jamaica, but now a student in theology, with the view of
becoming a minister. They preached wherever they could find a place to
assemble men together—in school-rooms and hospitals, at market-crosses,
and in church-yards, and upon stair-heads—and assembled their auditories
by announcing their purpose through the town-drummer or bellman. In this
way they itinerated through Perth, Scone, Cupar, Glammis, Kerrymuir,
Montrose, and Aberdeen. At the last-mentioned place Haldane had hearers
in thousands, who were attracted by the novelty of a captain of an East
Indiaman turning preacher. The tourists then proceeded to Banff, Elgin,
Forres, Nairn, and Inverness; and having learned that a great fair was
soon to be held at Kirkwall, to which people were wont to assemble from
every island of the Orkneys, they resolved to comprise this Ultima Thule
of the modern as well as the ancient world—this remote nook, which even
steam has as yet failed wholly to conquer—within the sphere of their
operations. And miserable indeed was the spiritual state of the Orkneys
at this time, where the ministers were so far removed beyond the ken of
the General Assembly, that they might live as they listed; while the
difficulties of navigation in the performance of their duties were so
numerous, that they might leave as much undone as they pleased. Here,
then, was the field for a devoted Christian, earnest in his sacred work,
and fearless of wind and weather; and from Kirkwall, as his
head-quarters, the bold sailor was ready to scud before the wind in an
open boat, to preach the gospel at whatever island might most require
his services. In some of these desolate places there had been no
religious ordinances for several years; while in Kirkwall, where he and
his fellow-traveller preached daily during the fair, they had
congregations by the thousand. It was the old Scottish spirit of the
days of Knox and the Covenant revived among a people who had long and
most unjustly been neglected. After having thus visited the twenty-nine
inhabited islands of Orkney, and sometimes preached three times a-day in
their several places of labour, the tourists, in their return, crossed
over to Caithness, and began to preach in its principal town of Thurso.
On this occasion Mr. Haldane laboured alone, his companion having been
disabled by an accident during six weeks of their stay in Caithness, and
there his usual auditory numbered from 800 to 3000 persons. The next
scene of his labours was the town of Wick, and here his auditories were
equally large, and his labours as abundant. A note from his journal of
proceedings in this place is applicable to many others which he visited
in the course of his tour, and shows the necessity that was laid upon
him to labour as he did. It is as follows:—"Lord’s-day, October
1.—Preached in the morning to about 2500 people. Heard the minister, in
the forenoon, preach from Matt. xxii. 5: ‘And they made light of it.’ He
represented that men, in becoming Christians, first began to work out
their own salvation, and that when God wrought in them, &c. He spoke
much of the criminality of such as found fault with ministers, ‘who
were,’ he said, ‘the successors of the apostles—the ambassadors
appointed to carry on the treaty of peace between God and man!’ In the
afternoon preached to about 4000 people, and took notice of what
appeared contrary to the gospel in the minister’s sermon, himself being
present."
On the 11th of October, 1797, Mr.
James Haldane left Wick, the very day on which his uncle, Admiral
Duncan, gained the celebrated naval victory off Camperdown, and the
firing of the guns was heard upon the coast of Caithness, while the
nephew of the conqueror was preaching his farewell discourse in the
market town. On his return from this evangelistic tour, Mr. Haldane
preached at the different towns of his long route until he reached
Airthrey, on the 7th November, having been employed nearly four months
in this important mission, and undergone an amount of labour which only
an iron constitution, animated by the highest sense of duty, could have
endured. Although he preached almost daily two, and sometimes three
times, he was no mere rhapsodist or declaimer, but a studious,
painstaking preacher, anxious to instruct as well as persuade, and
careful that the style of his message should correspond with its dignity
and importance. "I and several other ministers," thus writes the Rev.
Mr. Cowie, of Huntly, the Whitefield of the north, "heard Mr. Haldane on
his late tour; and I confess, though I have been little short of thirty
years a minister, have heard many excellent preachers, and laid my hand
on many heads, I have very seldom heard anything so much to my
satisfaction, and nothing that could exceed Mr. Haldane’s discourses. I
could even say more, but I forbear. He
carries his credentials with him, and needs not recommendatory letters."
This was but the first of
a series of tours of a similar character, which were continued at
intervals for years, not only in the north, south, and west of Scotland,
but in England and Ireland, and which only ceased when the increase of a
faithful ministry, and the general revival of a religious spirit,
superseded the necessity of such itinerancy. They also abounded in
striking incident, not only of bold adventure and fierce hostility, but
of wonderful conversions from darkness and guilt to the light and
holiness of a renewed life—cases by which the heart of Haldane was
animated in a career otherwise so thankless and profitless. But these
were only incidental advantages, compared with the influence of his
labours upon the general change that was now at hand. The public
attention was awakened to those great principles of religion which had
been rapidly passing away, and the progress of that apathetic
Socinianism arrested, which, in course of time, would have converted
Scotland into a wholesale Geneva of religious doubt and indifference.
Hume was already taking the place of Knox, while the theology of the
pulpit was little more than the morality of Seneca without its depth, or
the vague aspirations of Plato without their earnest, heart-stirring
eloquence. And was it a small matter that Haldane should have been so
influential in checking that downward progress which would have
terminated in national degradation and destruction, and bringing back
the spirit of the land to that Rock of strength from which it had so
mournfully wandered?
While Mr. James Haldane
was thus pursuing his course as an itinerating and lay preacher, events
soon occurred by which the office of an ordained minister, and the
superintendence of a regular congregation, were added to his
employments. His brother Robert, after having failed in his attempt to
establish a great Indian mission, was now employed in the opening of
tabernacles and the extension of evangelical religion at home. It was
natural that in such a work he should seek the able co-operation of his
brother, and that, too, at Edinburgh, the metropolis and head-quarters
of the new movement. The circus or tabernacle, a large place of worship
capable of holding 2500 hearers, had been opened for this purpose, and
on the 3d of February, 1799, Mr. James Haldane was ordained as its
minister. It was opened upon those eclectic principles which
Independency has constantly advocated; and the following extract from
the account of Mr. J. Haldane’s ordination will fully explain his views
and purposes on entering into the solemn office. He "expressed his
intention of endeavouring to procure a regular rotation of ministers to
assist him in supplying the tabernacle. He declared his willingness to
open his pulpit for the occasional labours of every faithful preacher of
the gospel, of whatever denomination or country he might be. He
signified his approbation of the plan of the church which had chosen him
for their pastor, as being simple and scriptural, but disavowed any
confidence in it as a perfect model of a church of Christ, to the
exclusion of all others. He wished to remember himself, and ever to
remind his hearers, that the kingdom of heaven was not meat and drink,
but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Finally, he
declared that he meant not to confine his exertions to that church, but
to devote a portion of his time every year to the labours of itinerancy,
to which he conceived himself, in the providence of God, to be
especially called." He thus became the first minister of the first
church formed among the new Congregationalist churches of
Scotland—which, however needed at the time of their appointment, are now
passing, and will soon pass away. A firmer Presbyterianism than before
seems the inevitable result of every Scottish religious revival.
According to the promise
made at his ordination, Mr. J. Haldane devoted a large portion of every
summer to an extensive missionary tour. This continued till 1805, when
the increase of his congregation in Edinburgh, as well as the renewed
spirit of the public mind over the country, made such arduous exertions
the less imperative. He still continued afterwards, however, to make
short trips to those portions of the Highlands, and the north and west
of Scotland, that were as yet the least accessible to the change; and
wherever he came, his stirring eloquence was calculated to rouse the
attention and win the hearts of those who listened. Few, indeed, were so
well qualified to redeem the office of an itinerant preacher from the
obloquy and contempt into which it had fallen; for, independently of his
stalwart figure, and bold, dignified, gentlemanly bearing, that
commanded the respect of every class, his station in society gave him
weight among a people where the old feudal feelings were still a part of
the national characteristics. What but love for their souls could induce
such a one to undergo labours and hardships which even the love of gain
could scarcely inspire among the poorest, and from which the stoutest
would have recoiled? And was this worthy descendant of the good old
barons of Scotland to be treated like a gaberlunzie preaching for pence,
and looking to his hat or plate more carefully than to his text?
"Captain Haldane is to preach"—"the son of the Laird of Airthrey is to
give a sermon"—and the stair-head or hillock upon which the sermon was
delivered, instead of lowering, only aggrandized the discourse. But who
in Scotland so circumstanced, except himself and his brother, would have
submitted to such a trying experiment?
The rest of the life of
James Haldane, as an Edinburgh Dissenting minister, although it passed
over such a course of years, may be briefly summed up. It was an
occupation with which, however important in its bearing upon national
character and events, the trumpet of fame or the pen of the historian is
seldom troubled. When the whole world rings with some heroic and
virtuous achievement, by which a Christian nation creates an important
epoch, how seldom is it traced to that lowly and silent ministry in
which it truly originated!
The first important event
that occurred in Mr. Haldane’s life as the minister of a settled charge,
arose from the divisions in that party of which he was so important a
member. While a religious body is small, with the whole world arrayed
against it, there is neither time for discord nor motive for division;
and in this very feebleness its strength mainly consists. But with its
expansion grows security, which promotes dissension, until it falls
asunder by its own weight. This dissension had now commenced among the
Independent congregations of Scotland, and it was based upon the trying
questions of ecclesiastical polity and discipline. It was agreed on all
hands that the apostolic model was the only authoritative rule: but what
was that model? Here every one had his own theory or interpretation. The
frequency with which the Lord’s supper should be administered, the mode
of conducting their weekly fellowship meetings for social worship, and
the amount of pastoral duty that might be conceded to gifted lay members
in exhorting the church and conducting the public devotions, were all
severally and keenly contested as matters of religious, and therefore of
infinite importance. To these, also, was added the question of
Paedobaptism, in which Mr. James Haldane himself was personally and
deeply interested. He had been anxiously studying the subject for
several years, and after some time he announced to his flock, that
"although his mind was not made up to become himself a Baptist, yet that
at present he could not conscientiously baptize children." His mind was
made up at last: he was baptized; but still his wish was that the
difference of opinion should be no ground of disunion between Baptists
and Paedobaptists. This, however, was too much to expect from any sect
or class of Christians in the present state of human nature, and
accordingly a disruption ensued in his congregation, of whom nearly
two-thirds went away, some to the Establishment, and others to the two
tabernacles in College Street and Niddry Street. By this change, also,
the two Haldanes ceased to be the leaders of a sect which their labours
had originated in Scotland, and their resources hitherto supported. As
for James, he now ministered to a very limited congregation, and with
diminished popularity, but his elevated generous heart could endure the
change as far as it only affected himself. He saw that the good which he
had sought to accomplish was in progress under other agencies; and he
was content to be nothing, and less than nothing, if the gospel itself
should become all in all.
In this way the days and
years of James Haldane’s life went onward. He regularly officiated to
his own Edinburgh congregation, preached occasionally in the open air in
its neighbourhood, and diversified his duties by journeys of similar
usefulness to greater distances. He published several tracts upon the
most important religious doctrines, which were widely circulated, and
attended, it is believed, with much usefulness. He was also engaged as a
controversialist, in which capacity he published a "Refutation of the
Heretical Doctrine promulgated by the Rev. Edward Irving, respecting the
Person and Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ;" and when Mr. H. Drummond
came to the rescue of his pastor, with his "Candid Examination of the
Controversy between Messrs. Irving, Andrew Thomson, and James Haldane,"
the last replied with a volume of 277 pages. But controversy was not his
congenial element, and Dr. Johnson would have rejected him because he
was not a good hater. "I see many evils," he thus writes in a letter,
"both at home and abroad, which I hope the Lord will correct; but I do
not see anything which I can do, unless it be to live near to God, and
to preach his gospel where I am placed in the course of his providence."
In 1881 he published "Observations on Universal Pardon, the Extent of
the Atonement, and Personal Assurance of Salvation." The next important
event that occurred in his course was the decease of his brother Robert,
whose death-bed he attended, and whose triumphant end he witnessed; and
it was during the closing hours of his life that the dying man spoke
affectionately to his wife of the great benefit he had derived from the
sermons and publications of his brother James, from which, he said, he
had derived more solid edification than from any others. He also spoke
with fond affection of the complete harmony of mind and purpose that had
subsisted between them from the beginning. It seemed as if, in the
course of nature, the death of James Haldane must speedily follow, for
he was now seventy-four years old, and had already outlived many of his
early associates. But his term was extended eight years longer, and they
were years not of inert senility, but active diligent exertion. In 1842
he published a treatise entitled "Man’s Responsibility; the Nature and
Extent of the Atonement, and the work of the Holy Spirit; in reply to
Mr. Howard Hinton and the Baptist Midland Association." In 1848 he
reappeared as an author, by publishing an "Exposition of the Epistle to
the Galatians." Between these he also published two tracts on the
important subject of the Atonement. Until he had nearly reached the age
of fourscore, he was wont also, in addition to these labours, to conduct
three public services every Sabbath. In 1849, having completed the
fiftieth year of his ministery, his flock and the Congregationalists of
Edinburgh agreed to celebrate the event by a jubilee, which they did on
the 12th of April; and the meeting was attended by ministers
of all denominations, who were thus eager to testify their love for such
a venerable father in Israel. After this his life and labours were
continued till 1851, when both were terminated on the 8th of
February, in the eighty-third year of his age. His last illness was
gentle and brief, and his death the death of the righteous.
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