tracts. In the present day, when publications of this kind descend like snow-showers, and too often melt away as rapidly, such a mode of doing good has
come to be held in little account. But very different was the state of things at
the close of the last century. As yet the Tract Society had no existence, and
many can well recollect the "perilous stuff" which, under the name of "ballants,"
was plentiful in every cottage of Scotland, and constituted the principal reading
of the people, both young and old. And what kind of training did the youthful
mind receive from the "Exploits of John Cheap the Chapman," "Leper the
Tailor," and "Lothian Tom?" It was much, indeed, that one man should
have set himself to stem such a tide, and this Mr. Haldane did. At his own
expense he caused useful religious tracts to be printed, and these he distributed
over the country in myriads. In this manner slim broadsheets insinuated their
way through every opening, and the attention of all classes was awakened to
doctrines which they were too seldom accustomed to hear from the pulpit. While
he thus anticipated the work of the Tract Society, he also forestalled that of the
British and Foreign Bible Society, by a copious dissemination of the Scriptures
at his own expense. He formed, and aided in forming, Sabbath-schools, at that
time sorely needed in Scotland, in consequence of the new mercantile character
impressed upon it, through which children became sons and daughters of the
loom and the spinning-jenny, instead of the legitimate offspring of Christian
men and women. And wherever missionary work was to be undertaken,
whether at home or abroad, there his counsel and his purse were equally open;
and the Serampore translations of the Scriptures, for the use of India, were
benefited by his aid, at the same time that he was labouring for the circulation
of the gospel among the huts and cottages of his own native country.
But of all the attempts of Robert Haldane, that of the establishment of a new church in Scotland was certainly the most remarkable. It was a daring, and at first sight a superfluous attempt, in the land of John Knox and of Solemn Leagues and Covenants. For was not Scotland already famed over Europe as the most religious and most spiritually enlightened of all countries? But this was the reputation of a past age, upon which a spendthrift generation had now entered, and which they were squandering away in handfuls. At the close of the hist century Moderatism had attained its height, and alongside of philosophy and metaphysics, these sciences so congenial to the Scottish national character, infidelity and scepticism had kept equal pace; so that, both in college and church, the doubts of Hume and the doctrines of Socinus had well-nigh eradicated all the visible landmarks of the national faith. Happily, however, for Scotland, its creed, thus driven from both school and pulpit, found a shelter among the homely dwellings of our peasantry; and through the writings of such men as Guthrie, Boston, and Willison, of our own country, and Bunyan, Flavel, and Hervey, of England all equally prized and carefully studied the people were in many cases wiser than all their teachers. Still, without further aid these defences must have gone down, and the whole land been inundated with the prevalent tide. Then, however, a few ministers were raised up, by whom that aggressive warfare against the general evil was waged, which was finally attended with such beneficial results; and then also was Robert Haldane, a layman, a man of rank, and therefore a disinterested witness, brought forward to corroborate these clerical efforts, and give effectual aid in the coming revival.
The necessity of a faithfully-preached gospel was at that time peculiarly urgent in Scotland, and here, therefore, it was that Haldane directed his chief
