spicuous as a politician, in opposition to the ministry of the day. The impulse given by the French Revolution, in stimulating active minds, had had its influence upon him, and he was not a man to hide his opinions, or to hold back from expressing them. This, at a time of such political excitement as then existed, when the public mind was stirred to its greatest depths—the active spirits calling for reform in every department of the State, and the conservative spirits laboring to stifle and silence all such demands-rendered him a marked man, whose wealth and status in society made him the more dangerous. Moreover, while he was thus jealously regarded by the government and its supporters in Scotland, especially those in his own neighborhood, he was at the same time in ill odor with the ruling party in the kirk. He had spoken often and freely of them, as blind leaders of the blind; and this was a sin in their eyes, neither to be forgotten nor forgiven. He was, besides, a liberal supporter of the two missionary societies, foreign and home, which they had denounced.

As, therefore, the managers of political affairs, and the managers of kirk matters, were one and all alarmists, who looked on every opponent as an enemy to order, and a revo lutionist in principle; a formidable opposition to any missionary project emanating from him, was certain to be encountered.

This he had not anticipated, conscious of the rectitude of his purpose, and anxious to carry it out; depending, too, upon the influence of his family connections, he saw no obstacle in the way of its accomplishment, and, everything being ready, he memorialized the directors, explaining his object, detailing his plan, and soliciting their sanction to the mission he proposed to establish.

While he was thus engaged, matters were progressing most prosperously with the Home Mission. His brother had been induced, by John Campbell, to preach in the village of Gilmertou, where service had been sustained, for years; and so effec tive was his discourse, that he was entreated to continue his la bors. He resolved, therefore, to carry out the object of that so

ciety by itinerating through the more destitute portions of the country. A favorable opportunity soon offered. The celebrated Simeon of Cambridge, had been invited to visit Scotland, by the Rev. Dr. Buchanan, of the Canongate Church, and came, intending to make a short tour through the Highlands. In Edinburgh he met with the Haldanes, and after a stay of a few weeks went to Airthrey, where Mr. James Alexander Haldane met him, and it was agreed to make the proposed tour one of preaching. The Rev. Mr. Innes, and the indefatigable John Campbell, joined them afterwards, and all labored diligently, in those dark parishes to which the gospel was a new thing.

The Scottish Missionary Magazine, which, at the instance of Mr. Pillans, printer, and Dr. Charles Stuart,* had been

* Dr. Stuart was, at one time, minister in the parish of Cramend, near Edinburgh, but left the kirk because he could not baptize the children of those parishioners who gave no evidence of piety. He afterward practiced as a physician, but being possessed of a good estate, he soon retired, and devoted himself to schemes of usefulness. He was an excellent Greek scholar. He prepared an edition of Campbell on the Gospels, with notes, corrections, and addenda, but never published it. It was sold along with his library, after his death, and was bought for Dr. Joseph Bell, St. Andrews Square, and, as yet, is lost to the church. His library occupied fifteen days in selling. Dr. Stuart was of an anxious, querulous temperament, and while he took a great interest in the work then going on, and watched its progress with delight, was yet nervously unsettled in his own views, on many points of duty, and as to the true order of a Christian church. In this respect he exercised a great influence on Mr. James A. Haldane, whose scrupulousness resembled his own. This querulousness led him out of the kirk, took him into the new movement, connected him with it for a time after it took a distinct form of church order, prompted him to adopt Baptist views, induced him to withdraw from fellowship with any already or ganized body, and to form a church in his own house, of which, he and his cook were the only members; and finally, when evangelical views got the ascendancy in the kirk, and Dr. Chalmers was in his zenith, brought him back to his first love.

His views of duty often took a strange turn. "William," said he, one day, to Mr. W. Finlay, (the founder of a city mission in Edinburgh, twenty years before another was thought of elsewhere,) "I have got new light as to the way I should deal with my children," (two sons and three daughters.) "I intend to let them alone as to religious instruction. It is interfering with the work of the Holy Spirit." "Well, Doctor," answered Mr. Finlay, "you may let them alone, but the devil wo'nt."

begun by John Campbell, and was now under the management of Rev. Greville Ewing, furnished a convenient medium for the publication of their letters and journals, and added prodigiously to the interest already excited.

In these happy times Mr. Simeon preached regularly, sometimes in a pulpit, sometimes in the open air, officiated at the ordinance of the Supper with evangelical ministers of the kirk, and was greatly refreshed at witnessing the interest which was occasioned by the services of himself and his. friends, wherever they came. This was the beginning of a series of itinerancies which exercised a wonderful influence, and spread throughout the length and breadth of the land the tidings of salvation. In these itinerancies Mr. James A. Haldane took a very prominent and active share, and along with Mr. John Aikman and others, awakened multitudes to a concern about religion.

Mr. Robert Haldane's application to the Court of Directors was coldly received; sanguine however in everything he undertook, he was not discouraged, but promptly set off, in company with Mr. Ewing, to London, (where Dr. Bogue joined them), in order to obtain, if possible, by personal interview, a fa vorable consideration of his application. But nothing would move them to give their consent;-the fact was, they were jealous of the effects of introducing missionaries into India; moreover, Mr. Haldane was a suspected individual, his political opinions were regarded as democratic and leveling; he was known to be bold, headstrong, and strenuous in prosecuting what he considered to be his duty. He had besides abundance of means at his command, and was therefore not a man whom they would willingly see engaged actively in the midst of their subject millions; he had also reason to believe that some of the prominent leaders of the kirk had represented him as a dangerous man, and his coadjutors in the proposed mission as "wild men" who had occasioned much trouble in Scotland. The result was that his application was peremptorily rejected, and he with his friends returned to their

homes, he, by no means, more kindly disposed toward his secret but not unknown traducers.*

From this time we can date an increased energy and activity in the measures and proceedings of those in Edinburgh who had been laboring for the diffusion of the gospel. In the itinerancy of Mr. James Haldane a new feature was introduced, he and Mr. Aikman took with them twenty thousand tracts, all on stirring themes, and very forcibly written, their course was northward, and in every city, town and village, they preached (generally in the streets) to immense crowds of people, whom the novelty of the thing and the freshness and power of their discourses drew together. And wherever a moderate held the parish, the doctrinal and practical omissions and commissions chargeable against that party, were most unsparingly dwelt

upon.

In 1798, Mr. Simeon again visited Scotland and preached in many places, exciting great interest from the fact of his being a minister of the Church of England. Another tour to the south and southwest was undertaken by Mr. James A. Haldane and Mr. Aikman; and the effects produced were as great as they had been in other quarters; crowds assembled wherever a sermon was notified; there was life and there was power in the preachers, and religious concern was widely excited. At the same time the Circus, (formerly a theater), situated at the head of Leithwalk, but which had recently been occupied by Dr. Struther's congregation (Relief) while their chapel was building, was rented by Mr. Robert Haldane, and opened for worship by the celebrated Rowland Hill, and such was the throng of those who assembled, that it was

* It was wisely ordered for the comfort of three of the parties, that the scheme failed-viz, Mr. Haldane, Mr. Innes, and Mr. Ewing, for those good men were not from habit and disposition fitted to coöperate harmoniously for any length of time, especially as the two latter were entirely dependent on Mr. Haldane.

Old Dr. Innes, of Stenton, father of Mr. Innes, and father-in-law of Mr. Ewing, when he heard of Mr. Haldane's mission, and that his sons had consented to go with him as missionaries, said to a friend, "It will not answer, it will not stand, for Robert's high, Greville's hot, and my Willie's doure,-so they'll never 'gree," and subsequent events proved the old gentleman to have judged correctly.

judged advisable to change the place of meeting to the Calton Hill. There Mr. Hill preached on a spot now occupied by the Governor of the Jails' house, to a crowd estimated at eighteen thousand souls, this was continued during his stay, the attendance increasing rather than diminishing, and adding prodigiously to the interest already awakened in regard to religion.

At the same time the circulation of the Missionary Magazine increased amazingly, it was in all respects the organ of the movement party, and devoted its pages to chronicling all that was being done in Scotland for the extension of Christ's kingdom; it also gave accounts of the Sabbath schools which were in operation, the village missions that were sustained weekly, the prayer-meetings held, with a digest of all that was transpiring in other lands in furtherance of the great cause of vital Christianity. It contained, likewise, original papers of great power, all bearing on the great subject of Evangelical religion, and these directed public attention more forcibly to the coldness and deadness so prevalent in the pulpits of the establishment.

Besides preaching in Edinburgh on the Sabbath, Mr. Hill made short tours during the week, preached daily, and everywhere awakened a spirit of inquiry concerning the truth, and as in no very measured terms he inveighed against the unfaithfulness of the moderate ministers, he added greatly to their unpopularity, while he roused their hostility in return.

To succeed Mr. Hill and keep up the services in the Circus, Mr. Robert Haldane arranged a regular supply of some of the most distinguished dissenting ministers in England—the Rev. George Burder, Andrew Fuller, Parsons, Slatterie, Bedford, Boden, Taylor and others, these severally followed Mr. Hill's plan, in itinerating during the week; this was continued during the year without intermission, and the result was that religion became an absorbing topic with the reflecting portion of the community, and a matter of concern to those who had been habitually careless about it.

The energy and ability displayed at this time in the general management of the movement in Edinburgh, showed the hand