THE dust of this worthy man lies in the Glasgow Necropolis, where an imposing monument stands to his memory, which was erected by the citizens of Glasgow. Our readers may be familiar with his name as the one who superintended a new and improved edition of the Scots Worthies in 1827, and wrote a fairly long preface to it. In this preface he recommends the life and example of these “Worthies,” “as men of sound religious principles, strict integrity, and true patriotism, to whom as instruments under God, we are indebted for our civil and religious privileges.”
William McGavin was born in 1773, in the Parish of Auchinleck, Ayrshire. In that Parish his father rented a farm from Lord Auchinleck, and afterwards from his son James Boswell, the biographer of Doctor Johnson. Both his parents came from Covenanting families. They were true Seceders, and they were both in the habit of riding on the one horse every Sabbath to the nearest Seceder Church twenty miles away.
When William was ten years old the family removed to Paisley with a view to emigrate to America, but the death of their youngest child prevented their setting foot on board ship, so they remained in Paisley. William, who, as yet, had learned no more than to read, started as an apprentice to a weaver. Long hours were the order of the day and the boy started work at six every morning. He, however, had a mind for study and during his leisure hours attended to his books to improve his meagre education. His master, on seeing his diligence, said to him one day:—”William, its clear, whatever you are meant for, it’s no’ weavin’.” After spending four years at the weaving he started work in a bookseller’s shop—a more congenial situation. Here he made the acquaintance of many literary men who proved a help to him, and after a time he was encouraged to read papers at the meetings of the local Literary Society. At this Society he distinguished himself among his companions for the ability of his essays.
From the information at our disposal we cannot trace the means used in leading him to Christ but it is stated that he became a member in full communion at the age of eighteen years. At that age he took a great interest in the young as a Sabbath-school teacher. Besides, he was instrumental in opening several schools for instructing the young in religious matters.
In 1799 he removed to Glasgow where he became a clerk to an American cotton merchant and seven years later he entered into partnership with the same merchant. He became a very successful business man but not a rich one, as he gave practically all his money to help the poor and the cause of Christ. Religion was at a very low ebb in Glasgow in those days. The cold teaching of the Moderate party in the Established Church chilled the air and brought death upon the souls of men. It was about this time that Robert and James Haldane came on the scene, the former a private gentleman and the latter a retired sea captain, and began to preach the evangelical doctrines. These powerful lay preachers and their missionaries travelled to many parts and even penetrated the Scottish Highlands and Islands preaching Salvation from Sin through the blood. This roused the anger of some of the clergy of the Establishment, who were of the Moderate type, and they were opposed in every way—”brought before magistrates, fined, condemned in the General Assembly”—but the work was fearlessly carried on and greatly blessed. The evangelistic labours inaugurated by the Haldanes had for McGavin the greatest charm. As often as possible he secured a few days or weeks free from business to go on a preaching and tract-distributing tour to the West Highlands. He visited fishing hamlets and lonely shepherd cottages to tell them of the love of Christ. On his tours he met many heathen-like people while on the other hand he came across ripe Christians, some of whom were brought to the light by the preaching of the “missionaries” as the Haldane evangelists were known. He found that it was characteristic of these Christian people that they would walk any distance to hear the gospel. He met a bright trophy of grace, a woman, once in Glencroe in Argyllshire, and he tells what passed between them. When he entered the cottage she was seated in bed. One of his first salutations was “you are an old servant of Christ, I understand.” “Servant of Christ!” she responded, “No, No; I am nothing but a poor sinner. It’s nine and forty years since He began to serve me.” “Serve you! how?” asked McGavin. “Do you not ken that?” she replied, “In the house of Christ the Master serves all the guests. Did He not Himself say I am among you as one that serveth? When He brought me home to Himself He then began to serve me and He served me ever since. None ever complained of Christ as a servant.” “Well,” said McGavin, “but I hope you are a servant for all that. You know it is said of the state of glory His servants shall serve Him; and what is perfected there must begin here!” “That’s very true,” said the old woman, “I ken that, but somehow I did not like to think much of my service to Christ, it gives me no comfort.” Grace, evidently, was her sheet anchor. The change that came about in the souls of men under the gospel of the “missionaries” in those days is indicated by the definition which Lord Breadalbane’s factor gave of a “convert.” His lordship had a certain man on the black list as a poacher, and his factor had told him that he had become a “convert” and that he would give him no more trouble. His lordship asked what was a “convert.” The factor answered:—”A convert, my Lord, is a man who will neither steal deer, nor kill salmon, nor sell smuggled whisky.” “Well then,” said his lordship, “I wish all Breadalbane were ‘converts.'”
Busy man as McGavin was he found time for writing. Besides his work in connection with the “Scots Worthies” already mentioned, he saw an edition of John Knox’s history of the Church through the press. He wrote a long introduction to it “containing an historical sketch of the state of religion in Scotland from the introduction of Christianity till the time when Knox’s history commences.” Besides the introduction he wrote a biographical sketch of Knox which is also bound with the History. The most famous of all his writings was “The Protestant” a weekly periodical which lasted for four years. It was designed to expose the errors of the Church of Rome. In its collected form, in four volumes, it went through no fewer than seven editions in the first ten years. Robert Hall said of it: The Protestant, a series of periodical papers composed by Mr. McGavin, Glasgow, contains the fullest delineation of the Popish system, and the most powerful confutation of its principles in a popular style, of any work we have seen. Whoever wishes to see Popery drawn to the life in all its hideous wickedness and deformity, will find abundant satisfaction in the pages of that writer. The periodical was started in 1818 and was occasioned by the building of an R.C. chapel in the city of Glasgow. The chapel was spoken of in one of the Glasgow papers as “a building which for ages to come would adorn and ornament the city.” Mr. McGavin responded that he had no objection to the city being adorned with stately buildings by those who could afford to do it, but “he asked whether that house was not built at the expense of the poor, and in some instances, a starving people, and whether money was not extorted by fear of future punishment.” “The Almighty” he continued, “hated robbery for burnt offering: and if the means by which the house had been reared were inscribed upon its front it would remain for “ages to come” a monument of Popish hardheartedness and cruelty.” A hot controversy began about Popery itself and in order to give himself more scope Mr. McGavin started his periodical. The Papists started a counter periodical, The Vindicator, but it was crushed in the grip of the powerful controversialist.
Mr. McGavin died by an attack of apoplexy in August, 1832. We close by giving his minister’s testimony concerning him quoted from the Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen:—His personal disposition was that of the publican who pleaded with God for mercy when he went up into the temple to pray, and returned justified, because he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Like Nathaniel, he was an Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile. Like Paul he was ready to call himself less than the least of all saints, and to ascribe his salvation to Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners, of whom he was chief. He had, even in his natural temper, much tenderness of heart, much sincere and generous benevolence. If conscious of any quickness, which I have heard him acknowledge, but never saw, it was guarded by the vigilance of Christian meekness, and by the genuine modesty of superior good sense. Those who knew him only from feeling of the lash of his controversial writings, may have been tempted to think of him as an austere man. In truth, however, he was the very reverse.—A.B.