BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 83
The reputation of Mr. Baine as a preacher soon spread far beyond the
retired scene to which his pulpit ministrations were confined. Being somewhat
remarkable for the musical sweetness of his voice, he was honoured by his
people with the characteristic epithet of the “Swan of the West.” In 1756
he was presented to the High Church of Paisley, then a new erection. Upon
the arduous duties of his important charge he entered in the month of April,
with a high degree of popularity ; and throughout the period of his ministration
in that town, continued to be greatly esteemed by a large and affectionate
congregation, as an eloquent preacher, and an able and sound divine. His personal
appearance in the vigour of life was prepossessing-his manner in the
pulpit, and his powers of elocution, were peculiarly attractive ; and, though he
had the celebrated Dr. Witherspoon for his colleague, who was considered one
of the most able clergymen of his day, his church was commonly crowded t,o
excess.l
When minister of the parish of Killearn, Mr. Baine was intimate with many
of the most distinguished clergymen in the Church, and was regarded, particularly
by his co-presbyters, as a young man possessed of much personal piety
and ministerial zeal and fidelity. 80 early as 1745,‘his name is mentioned with
particular honour, as having been warmly engaged amongst his parishioners in
From the perusal of a volume of his sermons, which he published in 1777, during the period of
his ministry in Edinburgh, we have heen led to consider him, in point of arrangement and composition,
superior to many of his contemporaries. In this volume is to be found a judicious discourse on
the subject of the Pastoral Care, which he delivered in the Low Church of Paisley at the admission
of his colleague, in June 1757.
Dr. Witherspoon, the colleague of Mr. Baine, was a man greatly distinguished in his day for his
litemry acquirements, and as a preacher and theological writer. He was the son of a clergyman,
minister of the parish of Yester, in the Presbytery of Haddmgton ; born in 1721, and educated in
the University of Edinburgh. In early life he became a licentiate of the Scottish Establishment, and
was soou afterwards presented to the parish of Beith, in Ayrshire. Being a young man of an ardent,
enterprising, and patriotic mind, on January 17, 1746, he appeared at the battle of Falkirk with a
party of volunteer militia belonging to his parish ; and, on that unfortunate occasion, when the royal
army suffered great loss, he was taken prisoner by the rebels. Along with Mr. Home, author of the
“Tragedy of Douglas,” and othen, he was confined in the Castle of Doune, near Stirling, from which he
and his fellow-prisoners, after having suffered some severe privations, made an adventurous and hairbreadth
escape. In June 1757 he was translated from the parish of Beith to the Low Church of
Paisley, in which charge he continued eleven years.
From an early period of his ministry, Dr. Witherspoon was known to his contemporaries as a
clergyman particularly versant in the knowledge of the constitutional polity of the Church of Scotland.
Like his colleague Mr. Baine, he was keenly opposed to what he considered the tyrannical measures
of the moderate, and at that time the dominant, party of the Church, and became one of their ablest
opponents by the publication of his “ Eccldastical Characteristics, or the Arcana of Church Polity,”
and the grave “Apology ” he afterwards published for that ingenious performance. Having published
in London three volumes of his sermons and essays in 1764, the fame of his talents 89 a
theological writer not only spread over Britain, but extended across the Atlantic to the British Colonies.
In consequence of the reputation he had acquired, he was repeatedly solicited by the Trustees of Nassau
Hall College, Princetown, New Jersey, the Presidency of which had become vacant, to accept of that
office.
Upon the arrival of Dr. Withenpoon in America he was cordially received by the Trustees, and for a
number of years afterwards directed the attention of his sagacious and reflecting mind in originating
and maturing various educational improvements in that seminary, over which so many eminent men
He waa at last induced to consent, and left his charge in Paisley, May 1768.