Rev. Henry Douglas
Henry Douglas, (30th August 1811 - 15th June, 1849) the son of
the the Rev. James Douglas, minister of Stewarton, was minister of
Kilsyth Church.
In 1843 the Church in many places received a double blow. The
resignation of ministers beloved and trusted was an injury in itself
of a serious kind. On the other hand, it was often the case that the
ministers called to fill the numerous vacancies were by no means
possessed of the talents of those who had seceded. In the emergency,
men of mediocre power were promoted to parishes which, otherwise,
they never would have had the least chance of obtaining. Such
appointments were, without doubt, greatly hurtful. But there was no
one to blame. The Church had to work with such tools as she found at
the crisis lying to her hand. In the circumstances, picking and
choosing were out of the question, and so the vacant pulpits were
replenished and the work went on. And it was attended with a success
which far surpassed the most sanguine expectations of the Church’s
best friends. The sowing in tears was succeeded by a reaping time of
joy. From the ground the Church rose rapidly to be a power and
influence for good in the land she had never been before.
In
Kilsyth the Church had only one of these sufferings to bear. Dr.
Bums, but coldly welcomed at the first, had in the course of his
ministry established himself in the respect and esteem of the
parishioners. When he seceded, consequently a considerable number
seceded with him. Although on the Sunday after his return from
Edinburgh there were not a dozen worshippers who gathered in the
parish church, there was still a much larger number that remained
faithful. And these had no occasion to hang their heads because of
any short-coming in his successor. Than Henry Douglas a better
appointment could hardly have been made. He was a man of singular
loving-kindness, of gentle and urbane manners, and of agreeable and
friendly disposition. He was deeply read in Scripture, a man full of
the Holy Ghost, and a minister who knew nothing amongst his
parishioners saving Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He fed the flock
with the finest of the wheat. Certainly he led them by the still
waters. I have looked over all his sermons, and not one have I found
dealing with the prevailing controversies* or openly expressed
malice of the times and circumstances amidst which his lot had been
cast. He received from many in the parish indignities and’insults,
but he walked straight onward in the footsteps of his Master. He did
not return railing for railing, and being reviled he reviled not
again. And the result of his beautiful patience and tenderness is a
memory that is sacred, a name that is fragrant like an ointment
poured out, and a lingering regret in the place of his ministry that
as a faithful ambassador of Christ he was neither honoured nor
appreciated as he ought to have been. In the place where he worked
as a probationer, and in the first parish to which he was appointed
he was honoured in his life; in the parish of Kilsyth, however, the
esteem that has been extended to him has been entirely of a
posthumous character. It is only on looking back, the people of
Kilsyth recognise his moral dignity and spiritual elevation.
The father of Henry Douglas was the Rev. James
Douglas, minister of Stewarton (where he succeded Mr Maxwell). Mr. Douglas was ordained to
Stewarton on the last Thursday of May, 1793, and he was married to a
lady named Annabella Todd on the 15th January, 1795. He had a family
of seven sons and six daughters; amongst the latter were twins.
Janet Douglas, the fourth child, was born nth Feb., 1802. Her first
husband was Dr. John Torrance, surgeon, Kilmarnock. Her second
husband was the well-known peripatetic philosopher and colloquialist,
the Rev. Dr. (“Rabbi”) Duncan, to whom she was married in 1840. To
the professor she bore one daughter, named Maria Dorothea, after the
Empress of Austria. She received her name at the request of the
empress. The Rev. James Douglas died at Stewarton on the 11th April,
1826. His widow died at the manse of Kilsyth on the 19th July, 1847,
aged seventy-three years, and was buried at Stewarton.
Henry
Douglas was the fourth son of the family, and was born at Stewarton,
30th August, 1811. Through his mother he was related to the Wallaces
of Ayrshire. Having completed his course at the University of
Glasgow, he was appointed parochial assistant in Saline parish. The
young man at once gave evidence of his fitness for the profession he
had chosen. The ladies presented him with a magnificent chronometer
in appreciation of “his unwearied zeal and ability in the discharge
of his duties.” On the 22nd April, 1841, he was ordained to the
charge of Alexandria. There he was even more appreciated than he had
been in Saline, and as a preacher he became so widely and favourably
known, that when the secession took place he was very much sought
after. At Alexandria, he was joined by his mother and Annie Arnot,
the old nurse of the family. The latter, as she had attended him at
the beginning of his life, was also to be with him at the end. Henry
Douglas never married. He and the Rev. Robert Murray M'Cheyne were
engaged to two sisters, the Misses M-, daughters of a respectable
west-county family. The lady to whom Mr. Douglas was to be married
fell a prey to consumption, and died at Madeira. To this disease,
Mr. Douglas and Mr. M'Cheyne also succumbed. When it became known
that their minister had accepted a call to Kilsyth, the people of
Alexandria were possessed of a feeling of universal regret. They
confessed they had been richly benefited by his ministry, and they
highly approved of his conduct during the time of the Patronage
conflict He preached his last sermon in Alexandria Church on the
24th September, 1843.
On the Thursday following, Henry
Douglas was inducted minister of Kilsyth. Principal M'Farlane
conducted the service. On the succeeding Sunday, the 1st October,
1843, he was introduced by the Rev. Mr. Dun of Cardross, and at the
second diet of worship he preached his introductory sermon. His text
was 2 Cor. x. 4, “ For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but
mighty through God to the putting down of strongholds.” The sermon
was of a weighty character, and both it and the manner of the
preacher—not demonstrative, but full of quiet earnestness—had in
them a promise of blessing for the future. In March, 1844, when he
dispensed his first sacrament, there communicated 210. In the July
of the same year, 237. At the July sacrament of 1846, there
communicated 246, and in the July of the following year, 239. The
former session. clerk having seceded, refused to deliver over the
church records and plate. The session, which consisted of the Very
Rev. Dr. Smith, the present minister of Cathcart, and two elders, by
the advice of the presbytery were on the point of taking strong
measures before the Civil Court, when, the books and vessels having
been restored, further proceedings were rendered unnecessary. This
was exceedingly fortunate for the new minister, as it freed him from
all legal entanglements, and allowed him at once to proceed with his
proper pastoral and spiritual work. He paid no attention to the
divisions that existed, and seems to have regarded it as his duty to
visit the body of the parishioners. By a large portion he was kindly
welcomed; by a few, he was not. The field was unpromising at the
first. He was not, however, many months settled when he began to see
the work of the Lord prospering in his hands.
Mr. Douglas
extended the session—a work in Kilsyth and the West often attended
with considerable difficulty.
On the 12th Jan., 1847, he
opened a parish library. The session did not now order families to
quit the parish, but they still educated a large number of poor
children free of expense, and they took pains to see that every
child which received this privilege was regular in attendance at
public worship. Evidences are not wanting that the wages of a
collier was four shillings a day, and of a weaver a very little more
per week. In the case of a birth of triplets the session allowed 3s.
6d. a week for » the nursing of one of the children. William Henry
was appointed church officer in 1847. He occupied that position for
over forty years, and during that long period he was only twice off
duty!
In personal appearance the Rev. Henry Douglas was tall
and slight and fair. He had an intellectual appearance, and there
hung about him an air of refinement, both in look and manner. Some
time after his induction, his health began to fail. When riding one
winter day to Kirkintilloch to preach, he caught a severe cold. His
illness began with clerical sore throat. That he might throw off his
disagreeable symptoms, he passed the dead of the Scottish winters in
Spain and elsewhere. In 1847, he went to the
West Indies. Whilst in
Jamaica, on a visit to his brothers, he rallied in health so much
that he was able to preach in the Scotch church at Kingston. He was
offered the charge of the church, and was tempted to accept it. The
illness of his mother, however, hurried him home. After he had laid
her to rest, he felt his own days were numbered. When he was struck
down for the last time, he wrote to a near friend: —“All my hope and
contemplation in death is derived from that glorious Gospel which I
have endeavoured, however weakly and imperfectly, to declare to you,
so that if I was spared, I would have no new gospel but much added
experience of the preciousness of Christ as all my salvation and all
my desire.” His sister, Mrs. Duncan, was with him at the last, and
to her he spoke these his last words:—“For I know whom I have
believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have
committed unto Him against that day.” It was a beautiful departure,
full of Christian peace and trust. He preached his last sermon in
Kilsyth Church on the 1st April, 1849. The text was Heb. vi. 18:
“That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to
lay hold upon the hope set before us.” He died on the 15th June,
1849. His garden was his only recreation, and many of his flowers
were in richest bloom.
Alexander Hill was a very different
man from Henry Douglas, but their differences fitted him all the
better for carrying on that work which his predecessor did so well.
The nature of Douglas was the more spiritual, that of Hill the more
warm and kindly. Hill mingled amongst his parishioners after a
manner Douglas never did and could never do. He came nearer and
closer to them. To Douglas, Kilsyth was the terminus of his
ecclesiastical career, to Hill it was the starting point. But he
should never have gone, and left to his better judgment he never
would. He was happy in Kilsyth, he with his parishioners and his
parishioners with him. It was his first place, his first parish. He
came young and untried, but he at once gave evidence of the
possession of those gifts and graces which the circumstances most
required. He had a fine presence, and a full-toned mellifluous
voice, which remained with him to the last. The voice was a family
possession, and recalled with marvellous distinctness the utterance
of his distinguished father, and still more distinguished
grandfather.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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