Mearns, easily obtained this situation. Here he remained for three or four years, until a rupture with his principal obliged him to leave it. Mr Jobson was what may be called, of the old school. He warmly espoused (as a great many clergymen of the Church of Scotland in those days did), the system of the Marrow of Modern Divinity, a book written by Edward Fisher, an English dissenter, about the middle of the seventeenth century. This work had a vast circulation throughout Scotland. The celebrated Mr Thomas Boston of Ettrick, when visiting his parish ministerially, casually found it in the house of one of his parishioners. He carried it home, was a warm admirer of the system of divinity it contained, and was at the labour of writing notes upon it. Boston's name secured its success among a numerous class of readers. For many years this book occasioned a most serious commotion in the Church of Scotland, which is generally called, "The Marrow Controversy." It was, indeed, the remote cause of that great division, which has since been styled the Secession.
But there was another cause for the widening of this unfortunate breach. The well known Mr John Glass, minister of Tealing, near Dundee, had published in 1727, a work entitled, "The Testimony of the King of Martyrs." With the exception of the Cameronians, this gentleman was the first dissenter from the Church of Scotland since the Revolution, and it is worthy of remark that the founders of the principal sects were all originally cast out of the church. Mr Glass was an admirer of the writings of the most celebrated English Independents, (of Dr John Owen in particular) and of their form of church government. Mr Barclay, who was no independent, heartily approved of many of his sentiments respecting the doctrines of the Gospel, and as decidedly disapproved of others, as shall be mentioned in the sequel. At no time were disputes carried on with greater violence between Christians of different denominations. Mr Barclay had a system of his own, and agreed with none of the parties; but this, if possible, rendered him more obnoxious to Mr Jobson. Much altercation took place between them in private. Mr Barclay publicly declared his sentiments from the pulpit, Mr Jobson did the same in defence of himself, so that a rupture became unavoidable.
About the time of Mr Barclay's leaving Errol, Mr Anthony Dow, minister of Fettercairn, in the presbytery of Fordoun, found himself unfit for the full discharge of his duties. He desired his son, the Rev. David Dow, then minister of the parish of Dron, in the presbytery of Perth, to use his endeavour to procure him an assistant. Mr Dow, who, we believe, was a fellow student of Mr Barclay at St Andrews, was perfectly well acquainted with his talents and character, and the cause of his leaving Errol, immediately made offer to him of being assistant to his father. This he accepted, and he commenced his labours in the beginning of June, 1763. What were Mr Anthony Dow's peculiar theological sentiments we do not know, but those of Mr David Dow were not very different from Mr Barclay's. Here he remained for nine years, which he often declared to have been the most happy, and considered to have been the most useful period of his life.
Mr Barclay was of a fair, and in his youth, of a very florid complexion. He then looked younger than he really was. The people of Fettercairn were at first greatly prejudiced against him on account of his youthful appearance. But this was soon forgotten. His fervid manner, in prayer especially, and at different parts of almost every sermon, rivetted the attention, and impressed the minds of his audience to such a degree, that it was almost impossible to lose the memory of it. His popularity as a preacher became so great at Fettercairn, that anything of the like kind is seldom to be met with in the history of the Church of Scotland. The parish church being an old fashioned building, had rafters
