ROBERT and JAMES HALDANE: By REV. D. M. MACDONALD,
Edinburgh.
(Continued from page 117.)
One of the most distinguished Continental ministers to be led into Gospel peace was the famous Dr. Malan. He valued Mr. Haldane’s lectures highly because it was through his instrumentality he obtained a saving knowledge of Christ. Dr. Malan says of him: “This man, grave and profoundly skilled in a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, came to pass some months at Geneva at the same time that the friends of whom I have just spoken were there. I saw him at the house of one of them, and I paid him the first visit, for he was a retiring man and unostentatious, who neither sought to make himself known or listened to. You cannot form too high an idea of the wonderful sweetness, the staid prudence, which accompanied all the words and actions of this venerated man. His countenance was peaceful and serene. There was in his expression a charity so profound that it was impossible in his presence to condemn or judge harshly of anyone. Never did he allow me to do so. I was young and animated by first zeal, which is always imprudent and bitter. I spoke with some warmth of persons opposed to the Gospel. ‘Leave persons, my friend,’ said my father in the faith; ‘they are all under God’s judgment and in no way under yours. Speak to me only of their errors in order to avoid them, both on your own account and that of others.’ How many times have I seen him moved with sorrow at the sight of the enmity which already declared itself against the Word of God. He said to me, as had also the Rev. Dr. Mason of New York, ‘Oh, if it were necessary to give my blood to bring over those who raise themselves against the Gospel I would shed it.’ But, added he, ‘It is not the blood of man which is necessary: it is that of the Son of God shed upon the cross.'”
Dr. Malan had great admiration for Mr. Haldane’s Commentary upon the Epistle to the Romans, and said it was an admirable course of the purest theology. He further declared, “One finds there, united with the candour of a soul devoted to Jesus, all the depth of the science of salvation and the judgment, the common sense and exquisite tact of a veteran, prudent and accustomed to the wiles of the human heart and to the lies in which it envelops itself. I invite you, strongly, my friends, to make a serious study of this commentary. I consider that every minister who shall read it before God and verify by the Bible all the quotations which it contains, will have made the most ample provision of knowledge and of strength against the errors of our day—against that religion of words and beautiful phrases with which so many people amuse themselves or nourish others.”
Mr. Haldane had now considered his work accomplished at Geneva and decided to proceed to Montauban in France. The Faculty for the education of French Protestants was established here, and it was regarded as the centre of all the French Protestant Churches. His wife accompanied him, and they arrived in the city in July, 1817. Its name is inseparably associated with the struggles, triumphs and reverses of Protestantism in France. In the past the Churches of the French Reformation had produced many bright examples of enduring faith and of a patience that nothing could subdue, but the words of Scripture were fulfilled in connection with them: “The beast would wear out the saints of the Most High, making war and prevailing against them.” The martyrdoms of the early Christians at Lyons and Vienne by the Pagans were only the prelude to the equally bitter and merciless persecutions of the Papists. Ceaseless efforts were made to exterminate those who refused to submit to Papal authority through successive centuries. The crowning attempt instigated by the Jesuits with the help of the King was the terrific massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572 when, it is estimated, 70,000 Protestants were slaughtered throughout France. It is sad to think that at one period France was almost Protestant but stopped short!
It is noticeable that the vengeance of heaven came upon many of the members of the Royal families of France because of their monstrous cruelty to the rest of their subjects. They died miserable deaths. The common people in France were oppressed by Royalty and the ruling classes, aided by the Church of Rome. Excessive taxation was causing dire poverty and there was no redress. At last, led on by clever but reckless leaders, the people became infuriated with a sense of their wrongs and rose in revolt against the government. They armed themselves, attacked the aristocracy and the priests, and slaughtered great numbers of them without mercy. The slogan now was—Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Class distinctions were abolished as well as religion. The retributive justice of God was manifested in the bloody Revolution of 1789. The King and Queen were arrested when trying to escape, and after trial were condemned to death and publicly executed. The descendants of those who had persecuted God’s people in the past were now mercilessly slain. The sins of the fathers had been visited on their children. Most of the people became infidels and the Protestant Churches became lukewarm, and some of them even heretical in their doctrines.
Such was the low condition of religion when Mr. Haldane commenced his work in Montauban. Yet there were a few who loved the Gospel and to whom Christ was precious. He was delighted to meet with them and became a tower of strength to them. He soon noticed that there was a great lack of Bibles. The Word of God was proscribed by the Church of Rome and infidelity caused it to be ignored. One of the first things he did was to give an immediate donation of £100 for the printing of French Bibles, and he obtained a grant of £300 from England to help the undertaking. Very soon an edition of 6,000 copies was followed by another of 10,000 at Toulouse in spite of opposition from some unfaithful ministers. For the use of the students he printed Luther’s celebrated Letter to Erasmus on Justification by Faith and got copies of them distributed amongst the students studying theology. At his rooms he received visits from students and ministers whom he endeavoured to instruct in the doctrines of the Gospel. His sojourn in Montauban became a landmark in the history of the Protestant Churches. One after another received the Gospel at his hands. Some were turned to the Lord and many were strengthened in the faith. One who wrote from Montauban in 1827 says: “Believe it, that your abode in the midst of us has been blessed to many and the word of truth is announced this day in many Churches, when they would not perhaps have yet heard anything but the teaching of a fatal Rationalism if we had not had the advantage of knowing you.”
Another successful method of spreading the Gospel was the restoration of the old system of colporteurs. They had done much good at one time and the idea was at once approved of by M. Pyt, a zealous missionary in touch with Mr. Haldane, who, at his own expense, supplied detached portions of the Bible printed for distribution by the colporteurs in the form of tracts. The labours of the Bible colporteurs appeared to have been much blessed in France and Switzerland.
The declining health of Mrs. Haldane’s father was the immediate cause of the return to Scotland of herself and her husband in September, 1819. Soon after this he established the Continental Society. Its faithful missionaries, in the midst of dangers, discouragement, and toil, proclaimed with joy the Gospel in the North, Centre, and South of France. They became for multitudes the instruments of life and salvation.
In the winter of 1821-22 Mr. Haldane had the unusual experience of attending two convicts who had been sentenced to death for murder and piracy on the high seas. One was a Swede and the other a Frenchman. They were captured and condemned to death. Peter Heaman, the Swede, gave strong reason that he had received repentance to believe the truth. A sketch of his life written by himself was afterwards published as a tract, and an account of him in the gaol and at his execution by Robert Haldane, Esq. It was satisfactory to Mr. Haldane that the judges expressed an opinion that this tract was free from those objections which too often apply to the accounts of converted criminals. When he began to converse with Heaman, he replied to his excuse that his occupation at sea caused him to neglect religion, that he himself knew the life of a sailor, and that nowhere was there a better opportunity for reading the Scriptures, for meditating on them, and holding communion with God; and nowhere was there a louder call to exercise habitual dependence on God than on board ship. The Gospel was then stated to him. He was shown that the atonement made by Christ was complete. His righteousness is applied to every individual of the human race united to Him by faith. For the great purpose of sanctification the outpouring of the Spirit is obtained through the mediation of Christ. At the end of another conversation Heaman stated that he never before met a single person who presented to him such views of the Gospel. It was after this he made his confession and gave up a sum of money, in token of his true repentance, which he could have left to his wife and family. For eight days before his death his countenance indicated a settled peace and his composure continued to the last. He expressed his entire confidence in his Redeemer, and his last words were: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
In August, 1821, to make inquiries about Martin’s French Bible, he called at the offices of the British and Foreign Bible Society when in London and discovered that the Apocrypha—a number of Jewish religious fables—was appended to the Bibles for distribution on the Continent. He at once advised that this should cease because it was improper. Friendly negotiations followed for some time but nothing was done, and then he saw that the moment for action had come. A public controversy now started which continued for several years. Mr. Haldane proved in several pamphlets that the policy of the Society was wrong and unscriptural. He was ably supported by Dr. Andrew Thomson, apart from Dr. Chalmers, the most eminent minister in Scotland. It is said of him that “he was a man of gigantic intellect, unflinching courage and indomitable industry.” He was one of the leaders of the evangelical party in the Church of Scotland, and as a debater not one of his opponents could stand before him. On occasions he triumphed over them when Dr. Chalmers himself with his thrilling eloquence failed to do it. The result of their joint efforts was that many of the evils against which they warred were removed and the rest greatly abated.
Not only did Mr. Haldane consecrate his life and talents to the service of his divine Master, he spent a great portion of his wealth on the propagation of the Gospel. It is estimated that from 1798 to 1810, the years of his extraordinary exertions, he spent in round figures, or gave away within that period, more than seventy thousand pounds.
At the end of December, 1841, Mr. Haldane left Auchingray, his country home, and arrived in Edinburgh. His strength had been failing for some time. In August he became very unwell but rallied slightly. By November it was evident that his end could not be far off, but his intellectual powers were as keen as ever. He spoke to a friend of the importance of the 9th chapter of Romans and of the view it gives of the sovereignty of God. He said he could not express the comfort which he had received from it at all times, and especially in a recent season of trial. To a relative he remarked that, however praiseworthy in the eyes of the world anything he had done might appear, he in no way rested on it as a ground of acceptance in the sight of God; that, on the contrary, he renounced his good works as well as his bad ones and desired only to be wrapt in the robe of his Redeemer’s righteousness. He added that the words which the Saviour uttered on the cross, “It is finished,” gave him solid peace and comfort. The last words he was heard to utter were, “For ever with the Lord, for ever, for ever.” He departed peacefully on Monday, the 12th December, 1842, and was buried within one of the aisles of the old Cathedral at Glasgow.
A noble tribute was paid to his memory by the Witness, from which we quote an extract: “Mr. Haldane was one of those eminent men who leave the impress of their character on the age in which they live; and devoted as his whole exercises were from an early period to the Cause of the Redeemer and with an efficacy rarely equalled in any age, his is a name which will be remembered among the worthies of the Church when mere worldly fame is gone.”
(To be continued.)