The Life and Letters of Christopher Anderson

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Preface

The writer has no other apology to offer for presenting the Life and Letters of his venerable and beloved relative to the public, than his belief thAt so disinterested and useful a career deserved a more extended and permanent record than the pages of a monthly periodical afford, — and his hope that the record might become useful in inducing others to pursue the same high-principled and self-denying course in the service of God.

From the suspicion of partiality, or the charge of incompetency, the writer will say nothing to vindicate himself, but leave the reader to judge. He did not rashly enter on the task, or hastily perform it. It was not till repeatedly urged by some old friends of Mr. Anderson, who wished to see a Memoir of one they had loved so long, that he thought of attempting it, nor did he take up the pen till he despaired of seeing another more competent for the work undertake it. Having now " done what he could," he has no wish to shrink from the responsibility attaching to it, or to deprecate fair, though severe criticism on the manner in which he has performed it.

The writer has to acknowledge with thanks the kindness of Mr. Anderson's Executors in placing his correspondence and

▼Ill PREFACE.

other papers at his disposal, and of those friends who have allowed him the use of Mr. Anderson's letters for this work. How much the correspondence . has augmented his interest in the volume, every reader will own ; how much it has lightened his task, the writer gladly confesses.

He has only to pray that all who re€id, but especially the rising ministry in our Churches, may derive many instructive lessons from their perusal of the "Life and Letters of Christopher Anderson."

LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON.

Chapter I. His Birth, Parentage, Education, Conversion, And Early

CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.

Christophbr Anderson was the youngest son of William Anderson, Ironmonger in Edinburgh, by his second wife, Jean Moubrat. He was born on the 19th February 1782, in the West Bow of that city. " To us as a family," he was wont to say, " God has been gracious beyond all reckoning." A brief review of the history of that family for two generations, as illustrative of " the genius and design of the Domestic Constitution," may perhaps be interesting to some readers.

Robert Anderson, the grandfather of the subject of this Memoir, was bom about the beginning of last centuiy. The family to which he belonged had resided for many generations on the estate of Pittencrieflf in the neighbourhood of Dunfermline, from whence a branch of it came to Edinburgh about the same time. He was educated for the ministry of the Church of Scotland ; but while studying the Word of Gk)d, he was brought to a knowledge of the truth, and soon after to a conviction of the unscriptural constitution of the Church, as by law established ; he therefore resigned at once its membership and its ministry. He then united himself to a small body of evangelical dissentere, (if he was not one of the original mem-

A

2 LIFE OF CHRISTOPHJEH ANDERSON.

bers of it,) known as the " Old Scotch Independents," of whom a few congregations yet remain in Scotland. In Edinburgh they met in the Candlemakers' Hall, and had elders who pursued their secular callings through the week, and "spoke" at their meetings on Lord's-days. The celebrated David Dale of New Lanark was an elder of the same body in Glasgow, and was wont to preach in the Candlemakers' Hall when visiting Edinl)urgh on business. But though Robert Anderson declined the ministry and entered on business as a drysalter, he was ever a student of the Word of God, as the marginal references and notes on his Latin Bible in his handwriting shew. In 1742 he married Alison Pringle, daughter of Captain Pringle of Spylaw. " She was a sincere, frank, and upright Christian, liaving an uncommon aversion to everything that had the least appearance of dissimulation or equivocation. She was a kind, affectionate mother, and was ever more anxious about our wellbeing in another world than in the present." Her eldest son Jabies, who thus writes, died in 1764, at the early age of twenty-two, leaving behind him some memorials of his ingenuity and skill, and a short autobiography, which gives a pleasing impression of his unaffected piety and tenderness of conscience. His younger brother William, the father of Christopher, was born in 1744. Though, like James, of weak constitution, he was able to attend school with little interruption, and received a sound mercantile education, which he afterwards extended by cultivating some acquaintance with the Hebrew and Greek languages.

He was early apprenticed to Mr. James Grant, Ironmonger, to whom he was successively manager, partner, and successor in the business.* This was a connexion which had as happy an influence on his spiritual as on his temporal prospects.

* Mr. (irant was for some time Ji majzistrato of Edinlnirgli, and was once elected ProvoBt of the city, but au attendance at the High Cliurch, then the seat of a uon- •'vangclical ministry, was required of the chief magistrate, he declined the oflBcc, :ind offored n cheque on his banker for the amount of fine levied in such a case.

HIS PARENTAGE. 3

He married in 1767. His wife, Agues Greig, belonged to a seafaring family of Inverkeithing, distinguished alike for its piety and the enterprise of some of its members in their dangerous profession. One of them, Samuel Greig, cousingerman to Mrs. Anderson, left the British navy on the peace of 1763, and entered the Russian service, in which he quickly rose to the chief command, and from the reform he effected in every branch of that service, and the efficiency to which he raised it. Admiral Greig is often styled in history the Father of the Bussian Navy. His mother's supplications on his behalf had followed him in that career, so perilous to piety, and she lived to hear from his lips, on a visit he paid her, late in life, that he had not forgot a father's instructions or a mother's prayers. His son followed his father's profession, and was some time ago Admiral of the Black Sea Fleet.* His youngest daughter was married to Dr. Paterson, late of St. Petersburg.

Mrs. William Anderson was a woman of great piety, and of keen, perhaps morbid sensibility. She was the mother of five sons, four of whom reached manhood. The death of John, an interesting child of four years of age, so deeply affected her,

that she soon followed him to the grave in 1777, at a com-

*

He was a Christian of no common piety. Warmly attached to the Churcli of Scotland, of which he was an elder, he was ever " a lover of good men" in every circle. Possessed of a competency, he early retired from the active share of his business, and gave himself to benevolent pursuits and meditative habits. Delighted with the Old Scottish melodies, but disliking the words to which they were set, he composed some sweetly plaintive experimental hymns, to be sung to theui. These are now little known, but one of them having found its way into almost everj* selection of hymns for public worship, will not soon be forgotten. Few of those who sing it now know anything of the author of

" Zion, afflicted with wave upon wave,"

or that its numbers were strung while he was listening to the rich nielo<ly of " The yellow-hair'd Laddie."

* Hobert Borthwick, Admiral of the Baltic Fleet at the same time, was a nephew of Mr. William Anderson, and had been apprenticed to him ; but preferring a seafaring life, he got an introduction from his uncle to Admiral Greig. and rose to the highest rank in the Russian Navy.

paratively early age. Left thus with four very young children, Mr. Anderson, in the hope of having one that would assist him in bringing them up, soon married again. But the health of his second wife was more delicate still than that of his first. After giving birth in rapid succession to three children, two of whom died in infancy, she was so enfeebled as to be laid aside from all active exertion for the welfare of the family. The youngest and only surviving child was Christopher, the «$ubject of this Memoir. His mother was the daugtiter of Cliristopher Moubray, cashier of the Friendly Insurance Company in Edinburgh. Her father and mother were both righteous before God, though their piety was of the old Presbyterian kind, somewhat austere, and dreading change. The Moubrays were one of the numerous Korman families which ibund their way into Scotland from the south, in the reigns of David, Alexander, and James the First, and retained to a late day a dash of the lofty bearing and sense of superiority which distinguished that stock. Something of this family teraperar ment might be traced in Christopher s mental constitution.

Being of delicate health, and his mother's only surviving child, his parents were exceedingly anxious that his life should l^e spared. By the advice of the family physician, and others who were consulted, he was sent, when quite young, to the country, to be brought up as a hardy cottage child. To make the change and its privations easier for him, his brother Charles, about six years older than himself, was sent along with him. A pious cottager* at Poltoii, near Lavsswade, a few miles from Edinburgh, received the boys under his humble roof, where, faring with his own children, they grew up strong and healthy. The cottage was lately standing, and was then the last of its ancient kind in that neighbourhood. Tlie fireplace of the Aa ,

* This good man lived to a very advanced age, occapying the same cottage till his death. His name was William Paterson. His son, James Paterson, late Road Surveyor for Forfarshire, disputed wilh Macadam the original discovery and application of the new system of road making.

HIS EDUCATION. C>

or outer apartment, was spacious and seated all round, the fire being contained in a grate in the centre. In that '^ ingleneuk" many a winter night sat the Edinburgh boys, with their country companions, conning the lessons of the following day. The day-school at Lasswade was a very superior one, and was then taught by Mr. Hume, who was not only a good classic himself, but famed for turning out very proficient scholars. The elder brother Charles was one of three who always retained their place at the head of the school in the Latin and Greek classes. One of these, whose name the writer has forgot, was a professor in the University of St. Andrews, and the other, the late Dr. Scott, minister of Corstorphinel^ well known for his attainments in Oriental literature. Christopher, though never fond of the study of languages, or very proficient in any but his own, was eager in his pursuit of general knowledge ; and the sketches and commonplace books which remain shew that geography and map-making were favourite studies. To the close of life, topography and geographical history were full of interest to him, of which he has left many memorials among his papers.

Whether he returned to town with his brother in 1791, or continued some time longer in the eountry, is uncertain. The latter is the most likely. It was not till 1796, when just fourteen years of age, that he was apprenticed to Mr. John Muir, Ironmonger, Boyal Exchange, two of his elder brothers being already engaged with their father in the same trade. His indenture bears date 7th February 1796, and engages that he shall serve five years, but, with the consent of his master, who discharged his indenture with honourable notice, he left the ironmongery business early in 1800, and entered as junior clerk the Friendly Insurance Ofiice, an old and successful company of Mutual Insurance on a peculiar plan. His maternal grandfather was cashier, and a considerable proprietor of its stock, and naturally wished to unite him with his own son in the management of the Company's concerns when he withdrew ffbm it. He engaged to serve in a subordinate capacity for the term of four years, after which it was hoped he would be able at once to take tlie oflSce of secretary, and eventually that of cashier to the Company when his uncle retired. But Gk)d designed him for another sphere.

When Christopher returned from the country, he attended with his father on the humble ministry of the congregation assembling in the Candlemakers' Hall. But the discourses of William Cook, a worthy but uneducated man, were little calculated to attract or retain their hold of young and inquiring minds. One by on# his brothers had left in search of something more interesting and adapted to their spiritual wants, and Christopher was not long in availing himself of his father's permission to accompany them to the Scotch Baptist Meeting- House, Richmond Court, or to the Circus, recently opened for public worship by Mr. Robert Haldane. The choice in his case, indeed, was the result of mere taste, not of religious conviction of any kind. He was naturally of an impulsive and fearless disposition, with a strong dislike to whatever was deceptive, and impatient of anything that was doubtful. With a more than usual aversion to hypocrisy of every kind, he never made the smallest pretence to religious feeling as long as he was conscious he had none. Till he could enjoy religion, he was determined to enjoy the world, and went as far in gratifying his taste for the gaieties of life as his place in a well-ordered religious family would permit. Whilst his walk was " after the course of this world," he needed no prompter to its pleasures. He was then, as afterwards in a better cause, ever the leader, never the led. The early conversion of all his brothers had left him companionless in that courae. One after another, and in the very order of their age, they had been called by divine grace to the possession of that truth which weaned them from the pursuits that continued for some years longer to charm their youngest brother. He owned in a letter

His £AliLY RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. /

to Charles, with whom in boyhood he had spent most of his time apart from tlie others, that while they must have exercised an influence on each other, and that for evil, he was unconscious of it. " My delight in folly," he adds, " was my own choice. The lengths I went in the country were trivial compared with those I went in town, when your example was removed from my sight. But God had mercy, and I cannot prevent astonishment when I look back." In the country, rural f§tes, where music and dancing formed the chief attractions, in botli of which the elder brother was an adept, and tlie younger a devotee, had been eagerly frequented. In town, where the accompaniments are less harmless, these gratifications were no less keenly sought aft^r and indulged in by Christopher, whose love of music became an absorbing passion.

It was scarcely })ossible that, surrounded as he was with all the circumstances favourable to early piety, he could be altogether free from convictions of sin ; but the ministry he had hitherto attended was not calculated to deepen these. When, however, he accompanied his brother James to the Circus, he met with a mode of address which at once arrested his attention. More direct in their appeals to the conscience, the preachers there seemed to their young hearer to be reasoning with him alone. Divine truth laid hold of him more closely. Ever in earnest himself in all his pursuits, he saw that these men were in earnest too, and about matters of infinitely more importance than those to which he had given himself Rowland Hill of London, Little of Birmingham, afterwanls of Perth, Burder ot Coventry, Roby of Manchestei*, Griffin of Portsea, Bogue of Gosport, Parsons of Leeds, with others from England, and more frequently Greville Ewing and John Aikman, lent their occ*isional services at that time in the Circus ; but it was the preaching of James Alexander Haldaue, the pastor of the church, that produced the strongest impression on Christophers mind, and if not the direct means of his conversion, contributed n)ore than anything else to that important event. He had

8 LIFE OF CHKISTOPHEU ANDBIR80N.

been taught by his father and elder brothers, from childhood^ to take notes of the sermons he heard, which were compared in the evening of the Tjord's-day with their own, and enlarged, while his parent's remarks on them formed a part of the religious instruction of his early home. The task of reporting the sermons of William Cook at the Candlemakers* Hall was often, no doubt, a tasteless one, addressed as they were exclusively to a state of mind of which he had no experience. But the practice itself was excellent, and he continued it voluntftrily under the Circus preachers, when parental authority in the matter was withdrawn. The very act of recalling the rousing appeals to which he there listened, and committing to writing as much as he remembered of them, could hardly fail to make some impression on a mind like his, which either engaged in a subject heartily, or as heartily threw it aside. In the early part of 1799, when about seventeen years of age, he was sometimes alarmed at the course he was pursuing, and shuddered at the thought of where it must end ; but would not allow himself to think long enough on the subject, lest it should cost him those pleasures which he knew to be inconsistent with a godly life. Returning late one evening of the following summer from a concert of music, an amusement in which he took great delight, he was suddenly and strongly impressed with a sense of the vanity of the world and all its pleasures. From that hour he resolved to " seek after God ;" nor was it long till he found Him. The impression remained in all its force, and the resolution was adhered to, till he could write in the book in which he kept notes of the sermons he heard : — " Thursday 3d, or Friday 4th July, I began first to know, in some small measure, my interest in the Redeemer and the joys of religion, but fell off towards the middle of the next week. On Tuesday 16th, I recovered by the help of the Lord, to my great joy, from the lethargy into which I had fallen, and continued happy until that day eight days, when I was again drawn away by the snares of Satan, the temptations of the world, and the deceit-

HIS OONVEKSION. 9

fulness of my own heart. To my great shame, I have committed the sins of lying, unbelief, carelessness about eternity ; but eternal thanks to my dear Bedeemer, who has recalled me from my former stupidity, and made me see the riches of His grace, His will and power to save, as well as, in some degree, my haixlness of heart and rebellion against the kindest of Savioui-s, and the most loving Lord. do Thou in mercy, my Father, ever keep me from falling from that joyful hope of eternal life, for without Thee I can do nothing. ... Lord, keep me ! Lord, guide me ! I am happy in Thy communion. I have no pleasure in this world of vexation and vanity when Thou art with me. Oh, then, do Thou in mercy keep me from offending Thee, and afterwards receive me to Thyself and glory, for Jesus Christ's sake. — Amen. Aug. 2." — Repeatedly has he stated to Christian friends that in his case the sensible transition from darkness to God's marvellous light, from the spirit of bondage to the spirit of adoption, was nearly instantaneous. In less than one hour he was conscious of the change, and was seldom afterwards troubled with doubts re« specting its reality.

Soon after this he applied for communion with the church meeting in the Circus. It was natural that a sense of the benefit he had there received should attach him to the ministry of Mr. Haldane, a ministry which he considered the most useful with which Edinburgh was then favoured.

In the winter of 1800 he occasionally fell into the society of pious students from England, both of the Independent and Baptist persuasion, who were completing their studies at the University of Edinburgh. With two of the latter he contracted a friendship which exercised a considerable influence on his future course. Conversing with them on the nature of Christ's kingdom, his attention was again drawn to the subject of Christian baptism ; for previous to this he had been convinced that the ordinance ought to be administered to believers only, and would have followed the example of three of his brothers, who had been Imptized and united to the Scotch Baptist Churcli, had he approved of their views of church government, and the ministry of the Word. But now, sympathizing with the view he got of the English Baptist Churches, and hoping one day to enjoy fellowship with them, he was baptized by one of his new friends in March 1801, along with several females, also members of the Circus Church, who had for some time cherished the same convictions of duty.

It is painful to have to add, that those baptized were immediately excluded on that account from communion with the church of which they were membens ; and though two of the females made frequent application for re-admittance, their suit was rejected, except on the condition of renouncing their views of believers' baptism.

Their fellowship with a Christian Church being thus dissolved, and the yearning desire for communion still cherished, the separated few resolved to meet together for prayer and conference every Wednesday evening. For a while they felt very happy in this substitute for what they had been deprived of. But shortly after, (May,) the students from England had to leave, and they began to feel their desolate condition. The}' had promised to awaken the sympathy of the Churches in England on their behalf, and by sending a preacher, endeavour to raise a cause in Edinburgh. Accordingly Mr. William Gray* was prevailed on to spend the following winter there, to preach the Gospel and baptize such believers as offered themselves, but to avoid a proselytizing spirit and conduct. Mr. Gray was a student at Bristol College, and had accepted a call to the j>astorate of the Church at Bratton, Wilts, but obtained its consent to spend the winter in Edinburgh. He was supported there by the few to whom he ministered, while his travelling charges were paid by a few friends in Bristol.

The letters of Christopher Anderson, during the summer pre-

* Long afterwards the rcsportcjl Bapti-st minister of Ob ippinc: -Norton and Xortlinnipton.

ATTEMPTS TO FORM A CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 11

vioiis to Mr. Gray's arrival, shew that the little band oontiDued to meet on Wednesday evenings for prayer, and united their contributions for future necessities. He was the only one among them who could engage in prayer, and though only in his twentieth year, seems to have been very acceptable to them in his hortatory and devotional services. A few extracts from his letters may afford an idea of his feelings and prospects at this time.

" 4^h July^ 1801. — We are like a few sheep in the wilderness, but as the friends were anxious to continue to meet once a week, I had no objections. Upon the whole, I do not think things look a bit worse. We are far from being persecuted, — rather the opposite ; I do not know from what motives, I believe they are not bad ones. . . . My dear brother William, who was ill when you were here, is now made a partaker of that incorruptible inheritance which is reserved for U8 also, if we continue faithful unto death. He died on the 6th of June. His latter end was a most beautiful example of that full assurance of hope. He spoke with the greatest composure, and sometimes rapture, of the sufficiency of Christ's atonement, and his taking away the sting of death ; how different from the death-bed of a sinner, and what a powerful evidence of the truth of Christianity !*

* William Anderson had been brought to the knowledge of the truth in early life. While yet a youth he joined the Scotch Baptist Church, of which he proved H useful member. Long was his name fragrant, and his memory blessed among the poor of that flock, to whom he seemed an angel of mercy. His visits to them indeed were shorty but not far between, full of spiritual instruction and comfort. His conversation was ever with salt, and ministered grace to the hearers. Of a cheerful disposition himself, his presence seemed to inspire happiness everywhere. His sun went down while it was yet day, at the early age of twenty-seven ; but its setting corresponded with its shining course. No cloud obscured it. In full assurance of hope, while others mourned and wept, he sang and triumphed. As his wifr and brother watched his dying bed through the last night of his pilgrimage, " Sing me," said he, *' one of the songs of Zion." They attempted his favourite hymn, " In all my troubles sharp and strong," &c., but ere they reached its close, their feelings overpowered, left him to sing the lost couplet alone, and in a few hours his spirit rose from its " anchor- hold" amid the swelliwu; billows of life to its haven of

12 L1F£ OF CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON.

As to myself, I feel sin to be my greatest burden. No doubt present prospects have a considerable eflfect upon my spirits, so that I sometimes ardently long for the new heavens and the new earth, but patience must have her ' perfect work.' "

"25^ September, — . . . Brother Cox,* in his last letter to me, proposes, on coming here, to preach and teach alternately. Brother Gray's coming does away with this partly, but I wrote him that it could easily be settled after he came." After alluding to some unpleasant strife in one of the churches, he adds, "These internal commotions in churches make the godly, who have no part in the fray, weep, and the world laugh. O the blessedness of a hope beyond the grave, by which we can pry into an innumerable company who are of one heart and owe mind !"

Under date 17th November, he notices Mr. Gray's arrival, and expresses his ardent wish for his success. The congiegations were small, especially in the morning, and seldom exceeded a hundred persons, while often there were not more than twenty in all. Nor will those wonder at this who know the locality of their place of meeting, and the strong prejudices which must then have been aroused at the very name of Baptists. The only people so called were the Scotch Baptists, then under the eldership of Mr. Archibald Maclean and Mr. Henry David Inglis, assembling in St. Cecilia's Hall, not one hundred yards from the Masons' Hall, Blackfriars Wynd, where our young friends met. And there can be no doubt they were looked on with some suspicion by these, as these were, by their Presbyterian and Independent brethren around.

Mr. Gray, though assisted by Mr. Cox, who occasionally preached for him, was very soon discouraged. As the spring

of 1802 advanced, it became evident that his youth and inex-

t

I rest above. He left a young widow and infant dnugliter, of whom more will be

' said hereafter.

* The late Dr. Cox of Ilncknev, one of the students above mentioned, and then only nineteen yeais of ago.

FAILURE OP THE ATTEMPT. 13

perience would never overcome the difficulties of his position. It would have been advisable, at the expiry of his engagement, for them to have fallen back on the plan at first proposed, of getting experienced and esteemed brethren from the south to supply them for six weeks, or two months at a time. This had been done at the Circus with great success, but Mr. Bobert Haldane's heavy purse and powerful influence were ihei'e. Here were but a light treasury, and influence that reached not beyond the home circle of a few obscure individuals. Accordingly the design fell to the ground, and " all this died away." Mr. Gray left in the beginning, and Mr. Cox in the middle of May. The hall was given up, and the small but firmly united band were content to meet, as before, once a week at the house of one of their number. " A trial has been made," writes Mr. Anderson, on the 29th May, with a kind of melancholy resig-. nation, ^' without effect, and we are in the same state as we were this day last year. Well, I hope we have been in the path of duty, and had the glory of God at heart. The Lord's time, it would appear, is not yet come. Blessed be His name, although church ordinances are the ordinary ^ yet they are not the ordy means whereby He invigorates and animates His I)eople. The spiritual comfort of His children does not depend upon them. Yet I long exceedingly to be in a situation where I could observe those things my Bedeemer hath commanded, and shew that my faith is an operative principle."