stant to the Free Church minister in
the same district of the town when I was assistant to the Parish
minister. When in my twenty-sixth year I returned as a Professor in the
College where so shortly before I had been a student, I can never forget
the kindness with which I was received by my aged instructors there,
especially by Principal Haldane, whose kind counsels were then
invaluable to me, nor the kindness of Professors Duncan and Alexander,
the only two of my instructors remaining in the Old College. St Andrews
about that time had the reputation of being rather a hot place. The
conviction that I was a man of rather placid temper, who would not add
fuel to the flame, I believe weighed considerably with Lord Advocate
Rutherfurd in finally recommending me for the Chair. Within St Mary's
College we were a happy family, and the youth of twenty-six and the two
aged Professors beyond threescore and ten continued to work in unbroken
harmony--the youth deeming it a special privilege to aid the venerable
Principal in his class-work during the last year of his life, as well as
to aid him and his aged colleague in their pulpit work. It was soon
after this that I began to take an active part in Church work, attending
the General Assembly as an elder and as Convener of the Jewish
Mission--doing what I could to reorganise it in Turkey, first in
conjunction with such venerable fathers as Drs Muir, Hunter, Grant, and
James Robertson, and with several brethren nearer my own age, who were
bearing the burden and heat of the day--Drs Crawford, Nicholson, Nisbet,
William Robertson, and Elder Cumming, and such laymen as Sheriff Arkley,
David Smith, Henry Cheyne, John Elder, John Tawse, and the good Edmund
Baxter, all now gone to their rest and their reward. Principal Haldane
was succeeded by my old class-fellow, Principal Tulloch, in harmony with
whom I wrought for thirty years in the College, occasionally taking part
of his work, as I had of his predecessor's, when he was laid aside by
ill-health, and also taking part with him in Church work, especially in
the work of the Anti-Patronage Committee, on whose success so many in
the Church had set their hearts. After his untimely removal, though I
had served for seven or eight years beyond the statutory thirty, I
continued at my post, and in the most kind and cordial relations both in
Church and University work with his successor, Principal Cunningham,
heartily co-operating with him in the re