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Life and Times of D. M. Stuart, D.D.

Chapter IX. — Falstone

page 56

Chapter IX.
Falstone.

Me Stuart had seen the mischievous results of multiplying denominations in small centres. "The scramble," he wrote, "to occupy villages with three churches when there is room for only one is abhorrent to me. When I was licensed, I made up my mind to refuse work in such places, and to take it only where I would have elbow room and a fair field."

Such a parish as he desired presented itself to him in Falstone, in the uplands of Northumberland, on the English border. He visited the district, and made such a favourable impression on the people that they gave him a call, which he cordially accepted, and, in 1849, he was ordained and inducted in the old, plain, stone church, which had been built hard by one of the fords of the Tyne. One of the ministers who officiated on that occasion was the Rev. Mr Storey, who subsequently accepted a Colonial charge, and whose name was associated with the kindling of controversial strife in the Tasmanian Church: but the Doctor to the end spoke always in the kindliest terms of him for the sake of the service which he had contributed to render to him at Falstone.

He had ample scope for all his energies in this new field of labour which had now opened to him. It was a very extensive one, and embraced pastoral page 57and agricultural, and colliery interests. The bulk of the population were Presbyterians, as their fathers had been before them right down from Reformation times, and they were attached with a robust conservatism to their old customs and modes of worship. Mr Stuart, on one occasion, before he had come to know the ways of the people, was conducting Divine service in a crowded building, badly lighted with tallow "dips," and, in his inexperience, gave out a paraphrase to be sung. The ominous silence of the precentor, and the hostile looks of some of the people, hardly prepared him for the defiant demonstration which was made from the body of the hall, where a man stood up, and stretching forth a great hairy arm, menacingly shook his clenched fist at the preacher, and with stentorian voice called out, "We sing none of those things here." But that man, when he came to know the preacher better, proved himself to be one of his staunchest and most devoted friends.

Mr Stuart entered with ardour upon his work, made the acquaintance of the people as soon as possible in their own homes, and at length set about his preparations for the high solemnities of holy communion. In the "Old meeting by the Tyne," as the devout company who worshipped there loved to speak of their church, the first Communion of his ministerial record took place in October 1849. The impression which that dispensation of the Lord's Supper made upon him as he stood there surrounded and supported by the lairds, farmers, and grave shepherds of the upper reaches of North Tyne and the adjacent fells and glens, was never obliterated from his mind. His page 58heart, always true to home and loyal to ties of kindred and friendship, turned at such seasons of spiritual elevation and enjoyment in thoughts of love to those around whom his strong affections were twined, and he sent to his parents a full and particular account of the service, including the number of those admitted by examination, and of those enrolled by certificate. "My parents liked," he said, "to get a few leaves to enable them to construct a tree of Paradise under which to rest and breathe, and feel glad for an hour": and to his intimate friends—to the very last communion which he was permitted to celebrate on earth, he was wont to give particulars of the celebration of that high feast, similar to those which he used to send to his parents from the Northumbrian parish in the long ago.

About twelve months after his settlement at Falstone Mr Stuart returned to the south to bring-home his bride, to whom he was united in marriage in Slough church, in July, 1850. Among those who mourned their removal from Windsor was the Rev. E. P. Williams, of Eton College, who wrote on the fly-leaf of a Bible which he presented to them:—"To my dear friends, Jessie Robertson and Donald M. Stuart, on the eve of their marriage July 3rd, 1850, in affectionate remembrance of much sweet religious communion, and with an earnest desire and my heart's prayer to God for them that they may be abundantly blessed of the Lord, and that dwelling together on earth as fellow-heirs of immortal life, they may find the joy of the Lord to be their strength." That indicates to us the high estimation page 59in which Mr Stuart was held by those who had an opportunity of discerning his personal worth and the unblemished purity of Christian character, which as a teacher in a public school he had already established for himself.

In the manse at Falstone their three sons, William, Alexander, and Donald, were born; and while Mrs Stuart devoted herself to the Christian nurture of her children, and discharged in an exemplary manner the household duties incumbent upon her, she nobly aided her husband in his pastoral work, and secured for herself a place in the warmest affections of the people.

Mr Stuart found time, amid all the pressure of parochial duties, to make the most of his glebe. "It was not large," he said, "but by top-dressing and care I brought a treasure out of it year in and year out. I am persuaded that health and profit are to be found in a cared-for glebe."

On every alternate Sabbath he rode to the Castle of Kielder, where he conducted Divine service, which was attended by all the people in the vicinity. On these occasions he was, according to ancient custom, entertained by the Duke of Northumberland, "who used," it is said, "to dismiss the servants when dinner was served, so that unrestrained conversation might be enjoyed."

Wherever he could secure an audience, he preached the Gospel of God's grace—even when the discharge of that high duty might have subjected him to Civil pains and penalties he never quailed, but fearlessly declared unto the people the way of page 60Salvation. A relic of the old ecclesiastical bondage under which they used to lie still survived in the Statute Book in an Act of Parliament which prohibited all meetings for public worship in unlicensed buildings; but in the sacred cause of religious liberty he quietly ignored it, and was never seriously molested in his ministerial work.

Many of the farmers and hill shepherds travelled long distances to church—the remoter families upwards of ten miles. The roads, as a rule, were either broken and rough, or mere tracks in their natural state, which sometimes led over bog and morass, and when a fresh in the river covered the stepping-stones, they had to wade across the Tyne to reach the church. The people had been accustomed to that, and their fathers before them, and they made no complaint. But Mr Stuart set himself vigorously to work to remove the disadvantages under which they laboured. He enlisted the required public sympathy and help, and roads were speedily made, and bridges were built, which facilitated traffic and religious and social intercourse among the people. For the repair of one of the bridges built at that time through his own instrumentality "he regularly remitted," his son informs us, "a pound annually during his lifetime."

He found the district had been grievously neglected in the matter of education, and with a lofty estimate of the value of the school as the handmaid of religion, and as an important factor in the national well-being, he roused public attention and feeling on that great question, with the result that page 61schoolhouses were erected, and teachers appointed competent for all the requirements of the district; and after that was done he had to exert all his influence with the parents to induce them to give their children the benefits of the provision which had been made. Four schools were in course of time fairly established, and he never grudged the toil and anxiety which their support and efficiency entailed upon him. Building and capitation grants were at that time made by the Education Committee of the Privy Council to all denominations whose schools were attended by the Government inspectors, and, small as these were, they were thankfully received. The leading educationists of the country were grateful for the labours of the churches in the field of education, for they acknowledged that, outside their beneficent operations, there was a wide and ever broadening belt of ignorance, which augured ill for the future of the nation, and they urged the Government of the day more actively to interpose on the grounds of humanity and the social, economic, and moral wellbeing of the people.

Mr Stuart made special efforts also to expand the views and enlarge the intelligence of those around him by the establishment of district libraries and by promoting the circulation of newspaper and magazine literature among them. "As my acquaintance with them improved," he said, "I found that while some families were both intelligent and pious, taking a generous interest in the state of the nation; there were others, good and kind, but without any interest in the page 62outside Church and world: for while the former received reliable news from many lands from their weekly paper, the latter heard nothing of what was occurring in high places, except what chance tramps and travellers brought them. I decided to do my utmost to introduce a weekly paper and a monthly magazine into every family, in the interests of education and religion. I never hesitated to commend my scheme from the pulpit, for I noticed that the intelligent (other things being equal) were the Gospel's best and fastest friends."

The district was rich in old historic remains and ruins, which never failed to kindle interest in Mr Stuart's heart. His frequent journeys in discharge of pastoral duty familiarised him with the more notable memorials of the Roman occupation of Britain, and with lingering traces of the Border warfare which once prevailed. Sometimes the monotony of work was broken by a visit from some of his southern friends; and on one occasion an Eton boy, whose heart had been drawn to his Windsor "coach," and who had carried off the Botany prizes of his year, found his way to the quiet Northumberland manse to spend a holiday; but Mr Stuart found in the rambles which they took together over hill and dale and rock and fen that his young friend, in spite of his prizes, was unable to distinguish between alder and birch, or to tell the difference between rye and wheat.

In 1856 Mr Stuart was deputed by his Church to meet, at Portsmouth, the Highland troops, and to give them a cordial welcome home, on their return page 63from the Crimean war. For several weeks he remained among them, preaching and visiting them in barracks, and listening to the details of the mis-management and utterly reckless improvidence which, both in the camp and on the battlefield, had exposed so many of Britain's bravest sons to needless personal suffering and want.

About this time Mr Selwyn, now advanced to the dignity of Bishop of New Zealand, returned on a visit to the Home Country from his Colonial diocese, and, searching about for capable men to labour among the Maoris, he was attracted by the eminent qualifications which Mr Stuart offered for successful service in the mission field. He therefore made overtures to him to submit to Episcopal ordination, and to accept an appointment in the New Zealand diocese. But no allurements were sufficiently powerful to break Mr Stuart's allegiance to the Scottish Church. Its foundations were laid, he believed, deep and immovable on the very central truth of Scripture, and with such power of adaption to all our human circumstances and needs as it embraced within the limits of its constitution and standards, it is best fitted of all ecclesiastical organisations, he believed, to fulfil the high ends for which the Church exists.

In 1857 he received a letter from the late Dr John Bonar, Convener of the Colonial Committee of the Free Church of Scotland, covering a communication from Mr William Fox (afterwards Sir William Fox, several times Premier of New Zealand). It was to the effect that the entire population of the Rangitikei Dis-page 64trict, in New Zealand, had, after consultation on the subject, generally expressed a desire for the settlement of a Presbyterian minister among them, and that Mr Fox was personally prepared to give a glebe of twenty-five acres, and a subscription of £50 per annum towards the maintenance of the minister appointed. Mr Stuart was offered the position, and he would have accepted it had it not been that his father, who was seventy-seven years of age, and growing very frail, expressed a wish that, as he was the only son remaining in Great Britain, he would, in the meantime, resist all temptation to go abroad; and he bowed submissively to his aged father's will.

And so he continued to labour on with much acceptance and success, and every happiness—preaching, organising schools, diffusing a knowledge of literature, and giving an impulse to education in the upper reaches of North Tyne, until the end of 1859, when the way opened, in providence, for his removal to another land, where he would have freer conditions and wider scope for the exercise of the powers with which God had gifted him.

The only barrier which had crossed his path and kept under strong control his desire to emigrate had been removed, in 1858, by the death of his father, at Muirton, near Auchterarder, at the ripe age of seventy-eight years; and now there was no hesitation when the finger of God clearly pointed out that the path of duty lay across the seas. It was a rare tribute to his wide popularity and acknowledged usefulness that the Anglican rector—Mr Foster—was not only on intimate terms with him, and refused to accept page 65from him the customary tithes, but when the news of his proposed removal to New Zealand spread through the district, he expressed his unfeigned anxiety that all possible means should be used to induce Mr Stuart to remain in his Falstone charge.

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Dunedin.

Knox Church Manse.

Knox Church Manse.