Reminiscences of Scottish Life & Character Part 8

THOMAS ERSKINE to DEAN RAMSAY.

127 George Street, 19th Oct. 1869.

Dear Dean--I return you many thanks for that kind letter.

Neither you nor I can now be far from death--that commonest of all events, and yet the most unknown. The majority of those with whom you and I have been acquainted, have pa.s.sed through it, but their experience does not help us except by calling us to prepare for it. _One_ man indeed--the Head and Lord of men--has risen from the dead, thereby declaring death overcome, and inviting us all to share in his victory. And yet we feel that the victory over death cannot deliver us from fear, unless there be also a victory over that which makes death terrible--a victory over him that hath the power of death, that is the devil, or prince and principle of sin.

And our Lord has achieved this also, for he put away sin _by the sacrifice of himself_; but this sacrifice can only really profit us when it is reproduced in us--when we, as branches of the true Vine, live by the sap of the root, which sap is _filial trust_, the only principle which can sacrifice _self_, because the only principle which can enable us to commit ourselves _unreservedly_ into the hands of G.o.d for guidance and for disposal. We are thus _put right_ by _trust, justified_ or _put right_ by faith in the loving fatherly righteous purpose of G.o.d towards us.

Dear George Dundas's death has taken from me my chief social support in Edinburgh. I was fourteen years his senior, but I had known and loved him from his childhood. Our mothers were sisters, and thus we had the same family ties and traditions.

I think of him now in connection with that verse, "to those who by patient continuance in well-doing," etc.

And now farewell. Let us seek to live by the faith of the Son of G.o.d--his filial trust I suppose, which I so much need.--Ever truly and gratefully yours,

T. ERSKINE.

The three following letters hardly help on the story of the Dean's life, but I could not pa.s.s them when they came into my hands.

The writer is Adam Sedgwick, the well-known Cambridge Professor and Philosopher. In another capacity he was still better known. He was tutor and vice-master of Trinity, and in his time an outside stranger of any education, even a half-educated Scot, dropping into Cambridge society, found a reception to be remembered. Take for choice one of their peculiar festivals--Trinity Sunday comes to my mind--the stranger partook of the splendid feast in that princely hall of Trinity, where the ma.s.sive college plate was arrayed and the old college customs of welcome used, not from affectation, but kindly reverence. When the dinner was over, the large party of Doctors and Fellows, with hundreds of the n.o.ble youth of England, all in surplice, moved to the chapel, all joining with reverence in the august service of the church, and later, they and their guests, or as many as could be held, crossed to the Combination Room, where Sedgwick filled the chair, and led the conversation, not to glorify himself, not to display his own powers, which were great, but to let his guests know among whom they were placed--philosophers, first men of science, first scholars, leaders in all kinds of learning, meeting in a n.o.ble equality, proud to meet under his presidency--_that_ I take to be the highest triumph of civilised hospitality. At the time of these letters the philosopher is old, but vigorous in mind, and even gay at the age of eighty-eight.

The death of Bishop Terrot called forth the following letter from the venerable Professor:--

PROFESSOR SEDGWICK to the Rev. Mr. MALCOLM.

Trinity College, Cambridge, May 1, 1872.

Dear Mr. Malcolm--I had been previously informed of the death of my dear old friend, the Bishop of Edinburgh, but I am very grateful to you for thinking so kindly of me, and for communicating particulars about which I was not acquainted previously. Accept my expressions of true-hearted sympathy, and pray impart them to the surviving members of dear Bishop Terrot's family. He was an old, an honoured and beloved friend; G.o.d laid upon his old age an unusual load of the labours and sorrows of humanity, but they are over now, and he has reached his haven of shelter from external sorrow and his true and enduring home of joy and peace, in the presence of his Maker and Redeemer. I am very infirm, and am affected by an internal malady, which, through the past winter, has confined me to my college rooms, but I have to thank my Maker for thousands of little comforts to mind and body, by which I am hourly surrounded, and for His long-suffering in extending my probation till I have entered on my 88th year.

My eyes are dim-sighted and irritable, so that I generally dictate my letters; now, however, I am using my own pen to express my thanks to you, in this time of your sorrow for the loss of one so nearly and dearly connected with your clerical life. My memory is not much shaken, except in recalling names not very familiar to me, and I think (with the painful exception I have alluded to) that my const.i.tutional health is sound. When my friends call upon me, my deafness generally compels me to use an ear-trumpet, and I yesterday took it to our college walks, to try if I could catch the notes of the singing birds, which were piping all round me. But, alas! I could not hear the notes of the singing birds, though I did catch the harsher and louder notes of the rooks, which have their nests in some college grounds.

May the remaining years of your life be cheered and animated by good abiding Christian hope.--I remain very faithfully yours, ADAM SEDGWICK.

PROFESSOR SEDGWICK to DEAN RAMSAY.

Trinity College, Cambridge,

29th May 1872.

My dear Dean--I this morning received your kind presentation copy of your Reminiscences, which I shall highly value for its own sake, and as your gift. I read little now because my eyes are both dim-sighted and very irritable; but your book will just suit me, as it is not a continuous tale, but a succession of tales, each of which is perfect in itself, and I hope to read it bit by bit without worrying my enfeebled powers of sight.

I meant to have thanked you in an autograph, but there has been a sudden change in the atmosphere, which is dark, heavy and wet, and when there is a defect of light I am almost constrained to dictate my letters to my _factotum_.

I am delighted, too, with the single sheet containing verses addressed to yourself. The first copy by Bishop Wordsworth appears to me quite admirable from the beauty and simplicity of his Latin; and the other copies are good in their way.

I dare say you have seen the short verses he wrote on the death of his first wife. They are of Roman brevity and of exquisite tenderness.

One of the very pleasant days of my life was spent in a visit to the small country living of Mr. Dawes of Downing, afterwards Dean of Hereford. Your late brother was one of the happy party. We returned together to Cambridge at a rattling pace, and I am not sure that I ever saw his face afterwards, for very soon he had a bilious attack which induced him to seek health in his native country, and, alas! he sought it in vain, for he sickened and died, to the deep sorrow of all his friends.--I remain, my dear Dean, very truly and gratefully yours,

A. SEDGWICK.

PROFESSOR SEDGWICK to Rev. Mr. MALCOLM.

Trinity College, Cambridge,

January 18, 1873.

My dear Mr. Malcolm--The infirmity of my sight compels me to dictate this letter to one who often writes for me. Such a bright day as this, and while the sun is s.h.i.+ning, I could see the traces of my pen upon a sheet of paper; but the act of writing greatly fatigues me, and I dictate nearly all my letters.

I very much value your melancholy memorial of my late dear and honoured friend, the late Bishop Terrot. Though the photo represents our late friend the bishop with his features shrouded in the cold fixity of death, yet it does bring back the original to the memory of those who knew him well, and I am greatly obliged to you for this memorial of one who has gone from our sight for ever, so far as this world is concerned. It was very kind of you to remember the photo.

I did not know Bishop Cotterell intimately, but I have met him many times, and I think you very happy in obtaining the services of a man of such experience, talent, and zeal, in the good cause of Christian truth.

I am now a very feeble, infirm, old man, toiling in the last quarter of my 88th year. I ought to be thankful that my mind, though feeble, remains entire: my memory is often defective, but I have been enabled, though with great labour to myself, and with many interruptions, to dictate a preface to a catalogue published by the university of the older fossils of our collection. They have kindly printed and given to me some extra copies of my preface, one of which I will forward to you by the book-post.

I know it can have no interest to you, excepting, perhaps, a few paragraphs in the conclusion of only two or three pages.--I remain, my dear Mr. Malcolm, very faithfully and gratefully yours, A. SEDGWICK.

I have printed already more than one letter from the Rev. D.T.K.

Drummond, from admiration of their intrinsic merit, and because I wish here to collect proofs that no diversity of Church rites or Church policy could separate our Dean from brethren whom he regarded perhaps as erroneous, but recognised as teaching and leading by the same principles of freedom, which he himself revered and followed.

Rev. D.T.K. DRUMMOND to DEAN RAMSAY.

Montpelier, Sat.u.r.day.

My dear Friend--Very many thanks for your most touching note, and for the extract from your book you so kindly sent me. The more I look into it the more I like it, and thank G.o.d for the testimony you so unequivocally and fearlessly hear to the _unity_ of the True Church of Christ of any age, however much the great army he made up of various sections, of diverse uniforms, and with special duties to perform.....

Again thanking you very warmly, and earnestly praying for all the precious consolations of the Great Head of the Church to be largely vouchsafed to you, believe me to be always most affectionately yours,

D. T. K. DRUMMOND.

The subject of the following letter cannot be overlooked by a biographer of Dean Ramsay:--

Rev. Dr. CANDLISH to DEAN RAMSAY.

52 Melville Street, 18th March 1872.

My dear Dean Ramsay--I have just read with most profound thankfulness and admiration your n.o.ble Christian letter in this day's _Scotsman_. I cannot deny myself the gratification of expressing my feelings to you in this feeble acknowledgment. You have done a signal service to the cause of our Blessed Lord and common Master. I am too infirm to write more fully all that is in my heart. You will pardon all defects, and believe me, yours very truly,

ROB. S. CANDLISH.

The letter referred to by the distinguished divine arose out of what is known in the Scottish Episcopal Church as the _cause celebre_ of the Bishop of Glasgow against the Bishop of Argyll.