The Rev. A. M. Ramsay was another of the well-known men of a bygone age. Like Parson Grylls and father Geoghegan, he inclined to the under-sized order of mankind.
A gentleman of highly cultivated
intellect, and no m e a n attainments, his oratory was of the vehemently eloquent style; and when
you
listened to his impassioned orations, though you might not concur in his deductions, you could not soon forget the speaker, so intense was his earnestness, and so thoroughly did he throw himself into his subject.
The moment
he mounted
a pulpit or rostrum, the
mild,
high, decided, forehead prepared for action, the firmness with which
he
pale, thoughtful gathered
face, the
himself
up, the
stra.ghtness with which he held back his head, and the manner in which he set to his work, and went through it, unmistakably testified that there was no nonsense in the m a n ; that he knew well what he was about, and determined to do it thoroughly.
S o m e of Mr. Ramsay's public utterances were printed;
and whether delivered in church or at a public meeting were well worthy of preservation.
In private life he
was amiable and kind-hearted, whilst his unostentatious charities often exceeded his means.
Th ou gh he
died m a n y years ago, he is worthily represented in Victoria by his son, Mr. Robert Ramsay, M . P . T h e United Presbyterians erected a church with almost as m u c h speed as the Free Churchmen. The site procured was in Collins Street East, opposite, but somewhat more westerly, than the Scots' kirk. T h e foundation stone of the United Presbyterian Church was laid on the 24th September, 1850, with the customary formalities.
Dr. M'Arthur, senior Elder, was the principal personage of a group, comprising the
Revs. A. M . Ramsay, J. AV. Clow, and W . J. Jarrett, with divers Elders, Deacons, and an assemblage, small, but select and highly respectable.
Following the example of the Free Church adherents, the United
Presbyterians concocted an enormous inscription, which, engrossed on vellum, was read in a loud, ringing voice by the Rev. M r . Ramsay. ever so interred in the colony.
For elaborate comprehensiveness it distanced any foundation literature
A s it deserves immortalising, here it is verbatim et literatim:—
INSCRIPTION. " Within this, the City of Melbourne, and Province of Port Phillip, on this, the Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Fifty, was laid the Foundation Stone of this Place of Worship. " T h e stone was laid by P E T E R M ' A R T H U R , E S Q , M . D , of Arthurton, one of-the Justices of the Peace for the Colony, and a Ruling Elder in the United Presbyterian Church, at present assembling in the Protestant Hall, Stephen Street, for whose accommodation and by whose exertions this edifice is erected. " Without affecting by any ceremony or religious service to impart to this building any Sanctity or Sacred character, and without proscribing from within its walls any assemblage whieh the cause of Truth, or Humanity, or Freedom might in seasons of emergency require; this Edifice is erected expressly and designedly for the Worship and Service of the one living and true G o d ; the faithful preaching of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; the due observance of the various Ordinances ; and the full enjoyment of the privileges of a N e w Testament Church. " B y the congregation purposing under the kind providence of G o d to assemble within these walls, the Lord Jesus Christ is held to be the Sole Head and L a w Giver of the Christian Church, and the Scriptures of the Old and N e w Testaments to be the ultimate appeal in all matters of Ecclesiastical Controversy. T h e Church is considered and declared to be complete in herself, having a Constitution and Administrations, Ordinances and Immunities all her o w n ; requiring no Civil enactment to give effect to her discipline, and no State provision for the maintenance of her Ordinances—Self-sustaining, Self-extending, Independent and Free. ' M y Kingdom is not of this world.'—John xviii. 36. " T h e Presbyterian Church accordingly disavows all connection with the Government of this world, repudiates all State endowments of religion whatever they m a y assume, and cheerfully, and from choice, rests her entire support upon the free-will offerings of the people, according to the grandfinanciallaw of Christ's Kingdom.—1st Cor. ix, 14—Gal. vi, 6. " W h i l e holding a special connection with the United Presbyterian Synod of Victoria, recently formed, this Church would cherish and cultivate the most extensive Christian affiance. Without particularising any of the branches of the great Christian commonwealth, this Church extends the right hand of fellowship to all w h o love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth, by whatever name or denomination they are known among men. Faith and holiness are deemed the essentials of Christianity, and are hailed with delight as the offspring of grace, wherever they appear ; and, being sincerely desirous of maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace, she rejoices in the mutual approximation which at at the present time is manifesting itself amongst the various evangelical Denominations. " This undertaking is commenced in humble and prayerful dependence on the grace and blessing of the Supreme Sole H e a d of the Church, in the year of our Lord M D C C C L , and while this colony is in daily expectation of a new Constitution from the Imperial Parliament in England, detaching it from N e w South Wales, and erecting it into a separate and independent colony under the designation of Victoria. In the fourteenth year of the reign of H E R M O S T G R A C I O U S M A J E S T Y V I C T O R I A , Oueen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; S I R C H A R L E S A U G U S T U S F I T Z R O Y , being Governor of New
South W a l e s ; C H A R L E S J O S E P H L A T R O B E , E s q , Superintendent of Port Phillip, and A U G U S T U S
E s q , Mayor of Melbourne."
F. A. G R E E V E S ,
