A Memorial of 1843
The Free Church of Scotland.
Published 1876
WILLIAM KING TWEEDIE, son of John Tweedie and Janet King, was born at Ayr, 8th May 1803. The family removed very early to South America, where the father became intendant of the public gardens at Buenos Ayres. William was left under the care of a kind relative at Maybole, where he spent his boyhood, and received his early education. His parents did not return to this country, and he never saw them again. His friend and guardian made him his heir, and hence he was enabled to enter upon his studies with great advantage.
He spent his first and second sessions at the University, Glasgow. He afterwards passed one or two sessions in Edinburgh. His University education was completed at St Andrews, (in 1851 he received from this University the degree of Doctor in Divinity) to which his chief attraction was Dr Chalmers, then Professor of Moral Philosophy, and whose rare and commanding genius entranced the minds of many other aspiring young men. Here also he obtained the friendship of Professor Ferrie, minister of Kilconquhar - a friendship which continued even after they were separated ecclesiastically. While there, he became tutor to the son of Mr Mudie of Pitmuis, and in this character travelled about fifteen months on the Continent. The young tutor and young pupil visited France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. Both had their minds enlarged by this lengthened sojourn, and the former obtained, those stores of knowledge which he turned to such important uses in his subsequent life. Pitmuis is in the parish of Guthrie, of which the gifted Dr John Bruce (afterwards of Free St Andrew's, Edinburgh) was then the minister. He was thus brought into close contact with a man who was the means of conveying to him those clear views and deep impressions of divine truth which he ever after retained. Some of his first earnings as a young man were expended in the purchase of a copy of Calvin's voluminous writings; and although he called no man his master on earth, he considered that the great French Reformer expressed the mind of God more correctly than most of the divines of that period.
His veneration for Calvin himself was affectionately profound, and he wished much that there should be a more adequate memoir of his life and doctrines than was then to be found. He diligently sought for information on this subject, and had collected documents which he hoped to bring before the public. It illustrates his own noble character, that while thus employed, he learned that the biographer of Knox was engaged on a biography of Calvin, and he did not hesitate to relinquish his own purpose, and transferred to Dr M'Crie the information he had obtained. At a later period, in 1846, he published a translation from the French of M. Rilliet, entitled, 'Calvin and Servetus: The Reformer's Share in the Trial of Michael Servetus, historically ascertained.' He received a licence to preach the gospel from the Presbytery of Arbroath on 2nd December 1828, and on 26th July 1832 he was ordained as minister of the Scots Church, London Wall. Here he had a small congregation, but the connection was a happy one: there was mutual regard between pastor and people, and good was done in the highest sense.
When in London, he married Miss Margaret Bell, and thus secured the blessings of a happy domestic life. In London, also, he acquired the friendship of Mr John Macdonald, who was minister of the Presbyterian Church at River Terrace. This friendship did not terminate after both had left London, but continued unbroken till the death of the missionary minister of Calcutta. In 1849 he published an interesting memoir of his beloved friend.
The reputation for intellectual power and ministerial faithfulness which he had now acquired, led to his appointment as minister of the South Parish of Aberdeen. His induction took place on 1st September 1837, and on the following Sabbath Dr Duff introduced the young minister to the congregation. Dr Duff had been the first choice of the congregation, but he refused the call, because he considered India as still his mission field. The sermon was printed, and in it Dr Duff refers to Mr Tweedie's 'gifts and graces, whether in the pulpit or in the closet, at the family altar or at the weary pilgrim's death-bed, his walk and conversation, his outgoings and incomings.' In this charge he occupied a position of great influence; his labours were very abundant, and his high powers were appreciated by all who knew him.
In September 1841 the congregation of the Tolbooth Parish, Edinburgh, sustained a heavy affliction by the secession, into the Episcopal communion, of their beloved minister. They desired to have as his successor one who should combine pulpit talent with vigorous intellect and parochial activity. When Mr Tweedie's name was suggested to them, scarcely any of them had heard him preach; but there was so unvarying a report of his character from all quarters, that they applied in his favour to the Town Council, then patrons of the city churches. Their application was successful; he accepted the call, and was inducted on 10th March 1842, leaving in Aberdeen a much attached congregation.
From this date till his death in 1863, he was the loved and honoured minister of the Tolbooth Church. On 18th May 1843 he ceased to be minister of the parish, as he, with the entire kirk-session, and nearly all the congregation, withdrew from the Establishment, and joined the Free Church; but they retained the name, and with it the religious and ecclesiastical principles which had characterised the Tolbooth Church for a long series of years. They continued their schools and their other parochial labours. During the brief period that Mr Tweedie occupied the place of a parochial minister in Edinburgh, he pursued with much zeal his parochial duties. Among other things, he printed a tract addressed to the parishioners, which was intended to be the first of a series.
Mr Tweedie took an active part in the proceedings which led to the Disruption, and for many years subsequent to this, his high business talents enabled him to promote the success of the Church in every one of its departments.
For a short time he was convener of the Sustentation Committee. He was also Convener of the Committee on Popery, and for fifteen years he was Convener of the Committee on Foreign Missions. This last office he would not have resigned, had he not felt that, with his impaired health, he could not fulfil, to his own satisfaction, the duties of it and of his pastoral office at the same time. His close relations with Duff, Anderson, Wilson, Mackay, Ewart, Johnston, Macadam, Smith, Mitchell, besides Macdonald and other honoured names, gave him a weight and influence which no one else could have. His letters to the missionaries during the long period of his convenership were greatly valued. Indeed, wherever there was need for work in the service of the Master, there he was a willing, untiring, disinterested worker.
To his own congregation and the varied interests connected with it, he gave his heart and all his powers. There was much difficulty in obtaining a suitable place of worship. On the first Sabbaths after the Disruption he conducted public worship in Freemasons' Hall, Niddry Street, but the accommodation was quite inadequate for the hearers. An ineffectual attempt was made to induce an existing congregation to alter somewhat their hours of worship; and at length the church in Infirmary Street, where Mr Paxton had been minister, was purchased, and there the congregation assembled till 1853, when the Music Hall in George Street was obtained. This was in many respects a comfortable place of meeting; but it was not suitable as a 'Sabbath Home,' and efforts were made to obtain a site for a permanent structure. Of course, nearness to the former parish was felt to be the first requisite; but at least five or six situations on the High Street, or on the northern slope of the Old Town, were successively selected, examined by an architect, and abandoned. With great reluctance, one in St Andrew Square was finally adopted, and it was. occupied by the congregation on 16th May 1858. Considering the difficulties of the site, Mr Bryce, the architect, might be said to be successful; but many of the congregation were much inconvenienced.
The style of Dr Tweedie's discourses could not be called flowing oratory, but he stated the truths which he himself believed with clearness and force. Every hearer knew that the preacher was in earnest, and that it behoved him to be in earnest as well. He rarely addressed the congregation without having written what he said. He never preached a sermon to his people a second time; although the sermon may have been the same, he invariably re-wrote it, assigning as his reason for this, that his people ought to have his freshest thoughts, and that in writing again he thus gave any new views, or even new expressions, which had occurred to him. His sermons were clear expositions of Scripture, searching delineations of character, and telling addresses to the consciences of his hearers. The illustrations drawn from natural objects and from books gave force to his doctrinal statements.
He had classes for the instruction of the young, and his conversations with intending communicants, while tender and skilful, were unusually faithful and searching, and were specially owned of God in preparing for the solemn step in life which they contemplated. For several years he held a meeting in his house for students every Saturday evening, which was largely attended, and was greatly valued by many who now occupy important positions in the ministry, both at home and abroad. In the Kirk-session and Deacons' Court, his clear and large views of the business transacted at the meetings promoted the success of every undertaking and the solution of every difficulty. His frank address and his friendly consideration of those with whom he came into contact, tempered the differences of opinion which are so ready to occur in the intercourse of life.
Dr Tweedie's writings form an important part of his life-work. He had the love of writing, and the power of writing. His works were numerous, and if not profound or exhaustive, led on the reader from one step to another in the path of truth and righteousness. Many were especially written for the young, and not a few young men and young women were guided upward in the Christian life by the perusal of these varied volumes. His aim in all his writings was to promote the cause of Christ and the good of souls, and in doing so, he never shrunk from declaring the truth, even although it might be unpalatable.
His correspondence was very extensive. Indeed he delighted to address his friends in this way, and the letters were of a valuable character. They were representative of himself as a Christian friend and instructor, and they supplied the counsel, or comfort, or expostulation that might be respectively suitable. Some people resented this but many more relished it, and felt grateful. One replied to him, 'Write a common-sense letter. When I wish a sermon, I can get one on the other side of the street.' But the same individual, at a later period said, 'He was right, and I was wrong.' Dr Tweedie used conversation for the same purpose for which he made such large and effective use of correspondence. He often spoke a word in the ordinary intercourse of life which arrested the attention of the careless, or gave a spark of light to the downcast. His pastoral visitation was systematic and faithful. He addressed himself at once to the important business about which he had come. Even in casually meeting with his people on the street, it was his habit to leave a good word as he passed on. He illustrated well the remark, 'A word spoken in season, how good is it!' He was never a robust man. He often suffered from cough, and this sometimes interfered with his pulpit duties. Other ailments were superadded, and he became infirm. In the summer of 1861 he went with his family to the Continent, and passed several months in Switzerland and Germany, enjoying very much the salubrious climate, and delighting in the varied scenery spread around him. His health was considerably benefited by this sojourn, and he returned home strengthened for his important duties. But he became more easily influenced by atmospheric changes, and his loved work was performed with greater difficulty. He at length became convinced that the services of an assistant or colleague were necessary. He was less sanguine than others as to the issue. He thought the disease had now taken a deeper hold of his body, and that his active working life would probably not be very long; yet he spoke calmly and cheerfully, and in his graceful, dignified manner, acquiesced in the arrangements made and intended for his comfort.
It pleased God to withhold His blessing from the means used for his recovery. His death-bed was a bed of suffering - of very great suffering, with few interruptions. In the early part of it, there were intervals when he was comparatively free from pain, and then his conversation was cheerful as was his wont; but latterly pain and exhaustion gave a sombre hue to all that he said. More than once he declared that he knew whom he had believed, and felt thankful that he had not left till that hour of weakness the grand work of life. He addressed striking admonitions to some of those who were beside him, which they are not likely ever to forget; he gave utterance to his affectionate feelings; he expressed his thankfulness for services rendered to him. To one friend he said, 'Be sure that you have Christ.' On one occasion he exclaimed, without reference to anything that had been said either by himself or others, 'There is light before the throne.' We cannot tell certainly, but we may imagine what he meant by these words. He was in a dark valley: all was dark except one spot, and that spot was the throne of God and the Lamb. There was light there, and when the valley had been passed through, all was light.
It can be truly said that he bore a life-testimony to the Saviour whom he loved and served. Having dedicated himself to the ministry - first perhaps, merely as a profession, but afterwards as a heart-work - he gave all his energies of mind and heart to its prosecution. He derived his views of doctrine and of duty from the holy Scriptures; and the written word, as he often said, 'led to the Incarnate Word.' He preached the freeness of the gospel invitation to all sinners without exception; but he never lost sight of the grand cardinal truth, that God is supreme, all in all; that man's salvation originated in the mind of God, and that in the case of each individual soul, it is the grace of God which draws the sinner to Himself. He was not only a bold, uncompromising herald of the heavenly message, but a skilful, painstaking, loving pastor; and in both capacities his ministry was blessed with peculiar success, alike in the awakening and conversion of sinners and in the edification of believers. He never belied his character as a Christian minister, or as a Christian gentleman.
Need it be added that he was emphatically 'a lover of good men'? He cherished such wherever he found them, and co-operated with them in works of faith and labours of love. He was Secretary of the Society for Relief of the Destitute Sick from 1843 to his death, and did what he could to promote the success of that admirable association.
Dr Tweedie died on the 24th March 1863 (being survived by Mrs Tweedie, two sons, and three daughters), and on the Saturday following his remains were laid in the Grange Cemetery, not far from the resting-place of his revered and beloved friend Dr Chalmers.
W. B.
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