MINISTER OF CROY, INVERNESS-SHIRE. BORN, 1712; DIED, 1775.
Edited from the Original MSS., with Illustrative Notes,
BY THE LATE REV. WM. TAYLOR, M.A., STIRLING.
(Continued from page 253.)
THE following obituary notice appeared soon after Mr. Calder’s death in a contemporary periodical, the Religious Monitor:— “Upon the 24th day of February, 1775, died at the manse of Urquhart, the Reverend Mr. James Calder, minister of the gospel at Croy. A man of primitive simplicity, distinguished by the success of his faithful ministrations no less than by his cheerful and unremitting attention to the duties of his office. In doctrine he showed uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity; in his practice he followed after righteousness, goodness, faith, love, patience, meekness. These qualities shone with so mild a light through that genuine humility with which he possessed them, that while he was an example to believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity, he at the same time had a good report of them which are without, and was reverenced and beloved by all who knew him. In the rank of scholars he was justly entitled to a very respectable place; but he merits a higher commendation as a preacher. A sound judgment directed the choice of his subjects; and his manner of treating them discovered a strength of genius and delicacy of taste which few possess in the same degree of eminence. He was peculiarly happy in a warm and animated address, which gave a dignity and force to his discourses from the pulpit, and by the blessing of God, for which he ardently prayed, contributed to render them not only acceptable but uncommonly useful both for the conversion of sinners and the comfort of saints. This excellent person finished his course with joy in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and the thirty-fifth of his ministry, and on the morning of the day of sacred rest entered into that undisturbed and everlasting rest which remains for all the people of God. His family and his flock, while they rejoice in his gain, deeply feel and lament their own loss; and his memory will long be precious to the hearts of all who occasionally attended his ministry, or had the happiness to be acquainted with him.”
Of the character of his Christian experience, and of his humble, holy walk with God, the extracts we have given from his copious Diary—and they are fair specimens of the whole—have spoken for themselves. There is contemporary evidence that even men of the world, who disliked evangelical religion, and who regarded him as an enthusiast, were constrained to acknowledge his sincerity. And we know with what affection pious people gathered round him from every quarter, and what multitudes thronged his ministrations. But, most of all, we know with how great usefulness God honoured him in his day, and many in the
Northern Highlands are aware how the memory and fruits of his life have been prolonged through successive generations.
The reader must have observed how much given this holy man was to self-examination—how watchful he was over his heart—how sensitive to every manifestation of sin or unbelief or presumption there—and what keen distress, and sometimes fear, the discovery of these things caused him. Yet they must have observed, on the other hand, how much spiritual enjoyment he had, what peace and often joy in believing, what delight in communion with Christ, what unwearied, loving activity in His service. This is a remarkable combination. While he habitually examined himself, he habitually cast himself—in the exercise of present faith—on the Lord Jesus. So he was kept humble; and so he found peace and hope and joy in believing, and found also calm expectancy in the continuous consciousness of this living faith. At the same time he possessed the ever-growing evidence, furnished by his perseverance in the faith and by all the holy fruits of the Spirit, that his faith was indeed of God, and that he should be preserved in it to the end.
Perhaps the most uncommon feature of his spiritual life was to be found in his frequent—sometimes fortnightly—“days of retirement.” Whenever he felt things going wrong with him, or saw them going wrong with his family or flock or friends, he at once took the alarm, and set apart a day to be spent alone with God. He believed that in such circumstances he was “called” by God to do this. So he came into God’s secret presence, and listened to hear his charges against him. Then, with thanksgiving and prayer, he made confession “upon the head of the great atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God”; and listening to hear God’s answer in His Word, he watched for the breaking forth of the light of His countenance through the clouds which his sins had interposed. So he went forth to his family and flock pardoned and revived, blessed and to be a blessing. In his own expressive Scotch phrase, he believed that it was God’s “tryst” he was keeping; and his recorded experience is that God never fails him, but invariably fulfils His promise by keeping the tryst.
This practice of his is one little in accord with the hurry of our bustling age. Nor does Scripture indeed lay down any precise rule regarding such a practice. Yet in so far as James Calder’s experience bears on its utility, the fact is manifest in his whole Diary that these “days of retirement” had the closest influential connection with the steadfastness, holiness, and comfort of his Christian life, and with his extraordinary ministerial success.
But even apart from this, the Diary and the life seem to us well fitted to stimulate and edify all Christians, and especially Christian ministers. “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” May we who read be stirred up by grace to be “followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.”
THE END.