THE CONGREGATION AT SANDHILLS AND IN CALTON.
James Dodson
CHAPTER VI.
IT will not be needful that we should trace any further the development of the Reformed Presbyterian Church at large. Our primary purpose was to sketch the history of the oldest of its Congregations, and to that we will now confine ourselves, drawing our information, as far as possible, from such of the Congregational records as have been preserved.
When Mr John M‘Millan, the second, was set apart as one of the Ministers of the Northern Congregation, his place of residence was not fixed. For a time he resided at Pentland, but he ultimately purchased the small residential estate of Sandhills, near Shettleston, and there he continued to reside till his death. On his ground and near his dwelling house, the first meeting house of the first Reformed Presbyterian Congregation was built
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about the year 1781. It was a small and very plain building, having a thatched roof, and a small gallery in the end opposite the pulpit. Even on ordinary occasions it was often filled to overflowing, and on sacramental occasions, it proved totally inadequate to accommodate the crowds that flocked to “the preachings.” The tent, as it was called—a movable wooden pulpit—was then erected in an adjoining field, and from it the ministers preached to the people seated on the green grass around. There too the Communion tables were spread, at which the members of the Church from all parts of the country reverently took their place.
In those days public worship on an ordinary Sabbath commenced at Sandhills about ten o’clock. About two o’clock the Congregation was dismissed till 2.45, when they again assembled for the afternoon service, which was also of unusual length. Mr M‘Millan’s appearance in the pulpit was solemnity itself. He commenced the public services with an “introduction,” consisting of allusions to providential occurrences, &c., and the duty of regular attendance on the ordinances. He then gave out a Psalm for exposition, which occupied nearly as much time as an ordinary discourse of the present day. The subject of lecture was then
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announced, which was lengthened out to about one hour and a half. He was sometimes spoken to about the length of his discourses, but his general reply was, “Waes me! that I should weary myself and ither folk wi’ my preaching.”
On a Sacramental Sabbath the services were much more protracted. The Congregation met at ten o’clock, and the services, which went on without intermission, were sometimes not concluded till after ten o’clock at night.
To suit the convenience of the increasing number of members resident in the city, the Congregation, on 20th March, 1790, purchased an old meeting house, containing six hundred sittings, which stood on the site in Kirk Street, Calton, now occupied by the Kirk Street United Presbyterian Church. To that church the Congregation removed shortly thereafter. The old meeting house at Sandhills was closed, and the green braes around ceased to witness any longer the great gatherings of the summer Communion. But the old building stood till after 1803, when the managers of the Congregation sold the old pulpit and seats for £21.
Although the Congregation met for worship in Glasgow, the members were drawn from a wide circle. In November, 1800, a Congregational meeting was held, composed, as all such meetings
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then, and for a considerable time afterwards were, of delegates from the fellowship meetings connected with the Congregation. The meetings mentioned are the following:—Green’s Society; Airdrie; Gartloch; Kipburn; Kirkintilloch; Baldernock; Calderbridge; Langside; Eaglesham; Kilbride; Sandyhills; Budhill; Parkhead; Camlachie; Bridgeton; Robert Meikle’s; Stuart Murray’s; Daniel Carse’s; Mr Fairley’s; James Rankine’s; William Aiton’s; Colin Campbell’s; Anderston; and James Bennett’s. Twenty-four fellowship meetings in one Congregation! No wonder the Congregation prospered, and that among the office-bearers there were found not a few men of eminent piety, the savour of whose memory is still held dear in many a godly home. The meetings are scattered over an area measuring fifteen miles from north to south, and thirteen miles from east to west. No insignificant diocese for the two presbyterian bishops of the Kirk Street Cathedral.
When the Congregational meeting which we have mentioned was held, Mr M‘Millan had been a minister for fifty years. The removal of the church from Sandhills to Calton imposed on him labour that he was then little able to undergo: he had proposed to retire altogether from the ministry, and only continued to
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retain his office at the urgent request of his attached people. The meeting appointed two of their number to get made as soon as possible, and to present to Mr M‘Millan in name of the Congregation, a “corricle” for the use of himself and family. The Managers at the same time wrote to Mr M‘Millan expressing their gratification that he had agreed to continue his ministry, and assuring him that they were satisfied with what of his labours they received, and at no time would ask or expect more than he found himself able to give. Mr M‘Millan refused to accept of the carriage “for the time,” and at the following meeting it was agreed to make him a present of five pounds.
The Congregation had shown consideration for their minister in other and more substantial ways. It is not known what Mr M‘Millan’s stipend was when he first became one of the ministers of the Northern Congregation; but we have seen that when Mr Fairley was ordained as Colleague to Mr M‘Millan in 1795, the Congregation promised to each a stipend of £60. In 1802 the stipend paid to each of the ministers had been increased to £80.
At that time the ministerial stipends were not paid from funds collected at the church door or paid for seats rents. Each fellowship meeting
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contributed quarterly a certain fixed proportion of the total stipend.
The Congregational income for the two years ending in November, 1802, was £311 · 13 · 2, and the expenditure for the same period was £318 · 16 · 2, and a considerable sum was due to the treasurer. This was not a satisfactory position of matters, and the meeting, taking into consideration the great deficiency of the Congregational funds, judged it proper that a public collection be made; and ordained the precentor to intimate the same on the preceding Sabbath. The meeting further agreed that the Collector should write to those deficient in their quarter’s accounts, and particularly to the Managers of the Airdrie Meeting house, requesting them to pay up the arrears of their former quota for the support of the Gospel. These efforts to put the funds in a proper position were successful; and in December, 1803, the Treasurer was able to report, that he had not only regularly paid the ministers’ stipends—£20 each quarterly—but that he had in his own hands £45 · 7 · 4½; and that there was a further sum of £25 · 16 · 8½ in the hands of the Collector. We may state in passing that in those days the salary of the doorkeeper was £8 a year, while the precentor only received £4.
The Congregation, although large, was com-
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posed almost entirely of plain working people. They could not continue to give as they had done during 1803, and ere long they found it difficult to support their two ministers as they desired to do, although various plans were adopted to raise the necessary money. The Airdrie people, who desired a disjunction in 1806, were dissuaded from insisting upon it, “as it would be unreasonable on account of the present situation of our ministers;” and they agreed to remain connected with the Glasgow Congregation for a time, on condition of getting a better supply of preaching. The members in Glasgow agreed to want sermon occasionally to enable this to be done.
The position of the Congregation in relation to its ministers was at this time sad enough. Mr M‘Millan, after nearly sixty years of arduous labour, was little able to take the oversight of a large, widely scattered congregation. He was not even able to attend public worship regularly, although the Congregation for some years provided a conveyance for him every time he came to Glasgow. Mr Fairley, although a comparatively young man and generally enjoying very good health, had almost entirely lost his voice, so that comparatively few of the Congregation could hear him when he preached. Some of the members complained that when they
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attended public worship they were not edified, others that they were not visited regularly, and that examinations were not held so frequently as they thought desirable. It can hardly be a matter of surprise that a numerous Congregation scattered over an area of nearly two hundred square miles should have received comparatively little superintendence from the two ministers, one of whom was over eighty years of age, and the other disqualified in a distressing degree for the proper discharge of his official duties. The Presbytery was applied to for advice, the Congregation at the same time assuring both Mr Fairley and them, that they desired to act in the most liberal and friendly manner towards their pastors. The Presbytery met with the parties, and the meeting resulted in Mr Fairley’s retirement, the Congregation agreeing to pay him a sum of £300 in lieu of any permanent retiring allowance. Mr Fairley retired in 1807, and the £300 was all paid to him before the close of the following year. He remained in connection with the Congregation, respected and beloved, till his death in 1837.
On 11th February, 1808, the Rev. John M‘Millan, the second of that name, was gathered to his fathers. He died in a full age, as a shock of corn in his season. For one hundred and two
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years, he and his father laboriously and faithfully served the Church of “the Old Dissenters,” and saw it grow under their fostering care, from an ill-defined “general Correspondence of Societies” to a fully organized Church, with not fewer than fifteen Congregations. The whole Church felt that a Standard bearer had fallen in Israel, and some of the older members were disposed to cry, “My father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.” But the Head of the Church had not forgotten those who so long, and faithfully, had testified for His Crown and Covenant. Even while the people were mourning, a young man in Paisley was preparing his trial discourses, who in years to come was to fill, in the love and reverence of the whole Church, a place almost as great as had ever been given to the M‘Millans.
During the year 1807, the Society of Airdrie was, by the mutual consent of parties, disjoined from Glasgow, and erected into an independent Congregation, the boundary of the Congregations, being the centre between the two places.
In July, 1808, the Congregation petitioned Presbytery to moderate in a call. The petition was granted, and a unanimous call was given to the Rev. Andrew Symington, of Paisley, who had just been licensed.
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The Stipend offered was £130. That call Mr Symington declined, and accepted one to a newly-formed Congregation in his native town. There he was in due course ordained, and there he laboured till his death in 1853. After the death of the Rev. John M‘Millan the third, the Rev. Andrew Symington was appointed Professor of Divinity to the Church, and the hall was removed from Stirling to Paisley. For more than a generation, the ministers of the Church were trained by him, and received an impetus from contact with the powerful intellect, and holy life of their beloved teacher, the value of which it would be difficult to over-estimate.
Although the Congregation had received the special permission of the Presbytery to elect, as their minister, any member of Court or probationer they might desire, it was long before a successor to Mr M‘Millan was obtained. In 1810, the Session record that the elders had called separately on the members of the Congregation, and found that there was so great a diversity of opinion as to who should be called, that a moderation should not, meantime, be applied for. Various proposals were made to proceed to the election of a minister, but the Congregation agreed to wait till some young men, then studying theology, should be licensed.