Part 4 (1/2)
John likewise had a loving friend, A e, The Rev AC Fraser, he Of the sanctified New College”
Cairns found it needful to issue a second pamphlet, _Scottish Philosophy: a Vindication and Reply_, in which, while tenaciously holding to what he had said in the last one, he challenged Ferrier to le instance in which he had th the vote came to be taken, and Fraser was elected by a majority of three, there were feho doubted that the intervention of the Berwickabout this result
Two years later George Wilson, as now a professor in the University, had the satisfaction of inti to his friend that his _alree of DD, and in the following year (1859) a her honour was placed within his reach The Principalshi+p of the University became vacant by the death of Dr John Lee, and the appointment to the coveted post, like that to the two professorshi+ps, was in the hands of the Town Council It was inforain he sent a declinature, and again he kept the matter carefully concealed It was not, in fact, until after his death, when the correspondence regarding it cae of forty this great and dignified office ht have been his
These declinatures on Cairns's part of philosophical posts, or posts the occupation of which would give hiinal work in philosophy, are not on the whole difficult to understand e bear in iven himself to the Christian ministry, and he meant to devote the whole of his life to its work He was not to be turned aside froenial, or of any leisure however splendid His speculative powers had been consecrated to this object, as well as his active powers, and would find their natural outlet in harmony with it And so the hopes of his friends and his own aspirations must be realised in his work, not in the field of philosophy but in that of theology Accordingly, he decided to follow up his work in the periodicals by writing a book
He took for his subject ”The Difficulties of Christianity,” andon so far as to write several chapters
Then he was interrupted and the as laid aside The great book was never written, nor did he ever write a book worthy of his powers
A hteenth Century,” a volume of sermons, most of which ritten in the first fifteen years of his ministry, a Memoir of Dr Brown,--these, with the exception of a quantity of paave to the world after the ti How are we to account for this? The tireat intellectual activity and unsettlement--time that, in the opinion of uidance he could have given; and yet he stayed his hand Why did he do so? This is the central problem which a study of his life presents, and it is one of no ordinary co to it which go far to solve it, and these it may be worth while for us at this point to exa must be allowed for the special character of the influence exerted on Cairns by Sir Willia In the letter to Ha chapter, Cairns tells his hty, the ie of existence,” and, strong as the expression is, it can scarcely be said to be an exaggeration But Hamilton's influence, while it called out and stiree, was not one which reat upholder of the doctrine that truth is to be sought for its own sake and without reference to any ulterior end, and he had strong ideas about the discredit--the sha on any subject until it had been mastered down to its last detail This attitude prevented Ha full justice to his powers and learning, and its influence could be seen in Cairns also--in his delight in studies the relevancy of which was not always apparent, and in a certain fastidiousness which often delayed, and so pen to paper
But another and a much more important factor in the problem is to be found in the old Seceder ideal of the ministry in which he was trained and which he never lost It has been truly said of hilis and Stockbridge any ot away fro to the Seceder view, there is noon earth than that of the Christianis one which concerns itself first and chiefly with the conversion of sinners and the edifying of saints This work is so awful in its importance, and so beneficent in its results, that it hts and in the disposition of his time; and if it requires the sole place, that too e Gilfillan in 1849, ”love seee and the noblest distinction of humanity--the humble minister ears himself out in labours of Christian love in an obscure retreat as a more exalted person than the mere literary chareat at Fathers and Schooliants to confront the Goliath of scepticism--not that I do not think such persons useful in their way, but because I think Christianity far more impressive as a life than as a speculation, and the West Port evangelism of Dr Chalmers far more effective than his Astronomical Discourses”[11]
[Footnote 11: _Life and Letters_, p 307]
It was to the ministry, as thus understood, that Cairns had devoted hiain just before he took license as a probationer, when for a short time, as we have seen, he had been drawn aside by the attractions of ”sacred literature” He never thought of becoth into philosophy and theology Not that he now forswore all interest in either, but from the moment of his final decision, he had determined that the mid-current of his life should run in a different direction
Yet another important factor in the case is to be found in the circumstances of his Berwick ministry Had his lot been cast in a quiet country place, with only a handful of people to look after, the great book ation whose membershi+p was at first nearly six hundred, and afterwards rose to seven hundred and eighty and, with his standard of pastoral efficiency, this left him little leisure Indeed it is wonderful that, under these conditions, he accomplished so much as he did--that he wrote his _North British_ articles, maintained a reputation which won for him so many offers of academic posts, and at the sa in Patristic and Refory Akin to his strictlyout of it, was the work he did for his Church as a whole--the share he took in the Union negotiations with the Free Church during the ten years that these negotiations lasted, and the endless round of church openings and platfor fame as a preacher and public speaker laid him open
But there is one other consideration which, although it is to some extent involved in what has already been said, deserves separate and very special attention Although his friends and the public regretted his withdrawal froretted it himself He had, it is true, worked in it strenuously and with conspicuous success, and had revealed a natural aptitude for Christian apologetics of a very high order But it does not appear that either his heart or his conscience were ever fully engaged in the work He never see for his life, because he always seeround of certainty on which he based his real defence There is a passage in his Life of Clark which bears upon this point so closely that it will be well to quote it here:--
”The Christian student is as conscious of direct intercourse with Jesus Christ as with the external world, or with otherChristianity It is a datum or revelation made to a spiritual faculty in the soul, as real as the external senses or any of the mental orcontact with a living person by faith and prayer is, like all other life, ultimate and mysterious, and must be accepted by him in whom it exists as its own sufficient explanation and reason, just as the principles of natural intelligence and conscience, to which it is so superadded, and hich, in this point of view, though in other respects higher, it is co-ordinate No one who is living in co that series of affections towards Him which Christianity at once prescribes and creates, can doubt the reality of that supernatural syste more is necessary than to appeal to his own experience and belief, which is here as valid and irresistible as in regard to the existence of God, of moral distinctions, or of the material world He has no reason to trust the one class of beliefs which he has not, to trust the other To minds thus favoured, this forms a _point d'appui_ which can never be overturned--an _aliquid inconcussuo sunature, and they have only to look within to discover its authenticity Philosophy uided by experience, and race at least as sacred as those inscribed by nature Such persons need not that any man should teach them, for they have an unction froratulations: 'Blessed art thou; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven'”[12]
[Footnote 12: _Frage and Pastoral Life_, pp 38-40]
These words contain the true explanation of Cairns's life There was in it the ”_aliquid inconcussum_”--the ”unshaken souments, and which kept him untouched by all the intellectual attacks on Christianity Other people who had not this inward testiard it as unshaken by the assaults of infidelity, he could argue with and seek to round; but for hiained here were superfluous, any defects left him unmoved
Was it always so with him? Or was there ever a tile for dear life for his Christian faith amid the dark waters of doubt?
There are indications that on at least one occasion he subjected his beliefs to a careful scrutiny, and, referring to this later, he spoke of himself as one who, in the words of the Roman poet, had been ”much tossed about on land and on the deep ere he could build a city”
This, coious experiences, our in the process, no withholding of any part of the structure froave way, that it ever ca down in ruins about hiain on new foundations, there is no evidence to show The ”_aliquid inconcussuh the experience This seee in a letter written in 1848 to his brother David, then a student in Sir William Haious susceptibilities injured by ular felicity I do not know, but I have heard others complain”[13]
[Footnote 13: _Life and Letters_, p 295]
This, taken in conjunction with the passage quoted above from Clark's Life, in which it is hard to believe that he is not speaking of hih, and in a rasp and activity it is reh the storm-zone of the nineteenth century,” writes one who knew him well, ”he comes untroubled by the force of the '_aliquid inconcussuel, Strauss, Renan, it is all the same The cause seems to ious intuitions were so deep and clear that he was able always to find his way by their aid They gave him his independent certainty, his '_aliquid inconcussuious life of his tiely due to the spiritual faculty in him that is here referred to He was the power he was, not so th as because of his character,--because he was ”a great Christian” But in this respect he had the defects of his qualities; and it is open to question whether he ever truly appreciated the formidable character of modern doubt, just because he himself had never had full experience of its power, because the iron of it had never really entered into his soul
George Gilfillan, ith all his defects, had often gleaht, wrote thus in his diary 14th January 1863: ”I got yesterday sent me, per post, a lecture by John Cairns on 'Rationalision,' or some such title, and have read it with interest, attention, and a good deal of admiration of its ability and, on the whole, of its spirit But I can see frorapple with the scepticise He has not sufficient sympathy with it, he has not lived in its atmosphere, he has not visited its profoundest or tossed in its storically he understands it as he understands most other matters, but sympathetically and experimentally he does not”
There is a considerable a somewhat in the sympathy which the critic desiderates in theCairns did not feel that the battle withis to which reference has beento the world that new stateet froive
CHAPTER VII
THE APOSTLE OF UNION