BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 371
which he was destined so long and so honourably to fill. After attending the
usual academical courses, and having obtained authority to preach, his character
and talents soon procured for him the parish church of Langton, in Berwickshire,
to which he was ordained in 1759. He remained there, however, only about
six years, having been then called to the more important charge of North Leith,
the population of which, though at that time only seven hundred, had increased
to as many thousands before his death.
There are seldom any striking incidents to record in the biography of a
parish clergyman. “ The even tenor of his way ” is less liable to be disturbed
by those ruder shocks which frequently assail men in other spheres of life. This
observation is peculiarly applicable to the subject of the present sketch. If we
except the frequent alarms experienced by the inhabitants of Leith during the
early part of the last war, when the country was threatened with foreign invasion,
and the interesting yet arduous duty which he faithfully discharged in consoling
the fears and animating the courage of his people, no occurrence very peculiar
falls to be narrated within the scope of his history; but it would require a
volume of no ordinary dimensions to note down all the acts of genuine Christian
philanthropy in which he was engaged almost every day of his existence. In
the pulpit he inculcated, with earnestness and power, those principles and
doctrines which all feel to be the very basis of the moral structure ; while, in his
parochial visitations, he sedulously laboured to carry the precepts of religion
home to the firesides of his parishioners.’ Many still alive remember with what
diligence their venerated pastor continued, even in old age, to visit the bumble
dwellings of the poor, and to attend the bed of sickness and of death, carrying
along with him that consolation which the mission of peace never fails to bestow.
Neither was his solicitude confined to the spiritual welfare of his people. In
their temporal affairs he took a lively interest, and felt for their misfortunes as
if they were his own. “ To the widow, he wm as a husband-to the orphan, as a
father-to the destitute and helpless, a steward of Heaven’s bounty ; their
protector, patron, and support.”
He was no
sentimentalist, to weep at the recitation of a well-told tale, and yet turn his
eyes away from actual misery. In a maritime district such as North Leith,
where a great portion of the inhabitants are engaged in the precarious and
dangerous occupation of fishing, casualties are of frequent occurrence. The
moment he heard of a case of distress, he could not remain satisfied without
instantly doing something to assist the sufferers ; and, while he was no niggard
of his own means, he was indefatigable in his endeavours to procure aid from
others. Whether his charity was exerted in behalf of individuals or of institutions,
he was equally unremitting in his endeavours ; and whenever a benevolent
project was pointed out to him, he entered into the scheme with the most ardent
Dr. Johnston’s philanthropy was of the most active description.
On one of hia cakchetical-rounds among the cottagea of the Lhennen of Newhaven, the curioua
veraion of ddam’u fall ~ ~ g8ive9n, whicb, aa the anecdote is illustrative of that peculiar class of.
people, will be found related in our notice of e “ Newhaven Oyster Lass.”
