228 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
he would walk about the streets of Dunfermline, declaring that he was sent to
“rule the nations with a rod of iron.” Abhorring every one who had even
the appearance of making “gain of godliness,” he one day, in his magisterial
wanderings, observed a “ causeway preacher ” in the act of sermonising for the
sake of the few halfpence which might be thrown into his hat, which, for the
purpose of receiving the gifts, lay open before him. Andrew’s ire was kindled
at the exhibition ; he stepped forward, repeating in a solemn tone-“ Thou
shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a
potter’s vessel ; ” and, suiting the action to the words, with one blow of his iron
Tod he felled the unlucky propounder of the Gospel to the ground. For this
breach of the peace, the only one he was ever known to commit, Andrew was
imprisoned in the jail of the burgh, from which he was in a short time liberated
on bail. In after life he often referred to his incarceration, remarking, in ridicule
of the circumstance, that ‘I such a place was more likely to make a wise man
mad, than to cure the frenzy of a madman, which the magistrates in error
thought he was.”
Andrew was undoubtedly an excellent scholar ; and, on relinquishing the
Grammar School of Dunfermline, he came to Edinburgh, giving himself out as
a private teacher of Greek and Hebrew. Although well qualified to act in this
capacity, it was not to be supposed, from the state of his mind, that his employment
would be extensive, or that he was capable of pursuing any vocation with
the necessary application and perseverance. A small circle of friends-of whom
the late Mr. William Anderson, ironmonger, foot of West Bow, was one-who
were pleased with the simplicity of his manners, contributed the moderate sum
required for his subsistence.‘ But acting upon the Scripture injunction, that “if
any would not work, neither should he eat,” Andrew, with honourable independence
of mind, refused all gratuitous aid. Either professionally as a teacher,
or in any other way he could be serviceable, he always insisted on rendering an
equivalent ,
His peculiarly conscientious idea of independence occasionally placed him
in circumstances somewhat ridiculous ; and his scruples against eating when
he did not work were frequently carried so far as to threaten starvation. His
objections were only to be overcome by his friends suggesting the performance
of some trifling piece of labour, such as bringing a “rake ” or two of water
from the well, or arranging the goods on the shelves of the sale shop, Having
applied a salve to his conscience in this way, he would then sit down to dinner,
But even this device ceased to be effective, some of the young wags persuading
him that such labour was unprofitable, and tended only to indulge the
indolence of the housemaid or shopboy. Thus driven to extremities, and
effectually to appease the phantom by which he was pursued, Andrew at one
time hired himself as a labourer to a master builder ; and what further proved
the disinterested nature and purity of his motives, as he had q competency, his
revibnt in England.
Latterly he was chiefly supported by the remittances of a distant relative, a medical gentleman
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 229
wages were to be given away in charity. One day, while engaged with his fellowbarrowman
in carrying up stones to the masons, as might have been expected
he felt much fatigued; and a passage of Scripture-“Do thyself no harm’-
coming opportunely to his recollection, he at once laid down his portion of the
barrow. His companion behind, still holding the shafts, and provoked by the
untimely delay, broke out into a volley of dreadful oaths and imprecations ; to
prevent which Andrew resumed the burden sooner than he intended. When
the labours of the day were over, he was asked by a friend, to whom he
repeated the occurrence, if he had forgot the sum of the second table of the
law, which says, “ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself 1” Andrew replied
that it did not occur to him at the time. On his friend reminding him that,
had he been the undermost bearer of the barrow, his own safety would have
dictated a different course, he cordially assented--“ You say right ; that is very
true.’’
His opposition to the prevailing customs of society arose from an indiscriminate
and rigid interpretation of particular portions of the Sacred Writings ; and
probably the same cause led to his dissent from the ordinary modes of public
worship. He used to say that he had read of a church in Ethiopia, where the
service chiefly consisted in reading the Scriptures. ‘‘ That,” said he, “ is the
church I would have attended.” He preferred reading the Bible in the original ;
and to his extreme fondness for expounding the Scriptures, the attitude in which
he is portrayed in the Print evidently refers. At the time the building of the
South Bridge was in progress, Andrew has been often seen at a very early hour
on the Sabbath morning-long before his fellow-citizens were roused from their
slumbers-seated in the fresh air to the south of the Tron Church, with hie
Hebrew Psalter in his hand.’
He frequented those churches where the greatest portion of Scripture were
read, and generally visited more than one place of worship in the course of a
forenoon. He repaired first to the Glassites, who met in Chalmers’ Closethen
to the Baptists, in Niddry Street, or to the Old Independent Church in
the Candlemaker Row, The former he preferred for their Scripture reading,
and the latter for the doctrines taught. In short, the Bible was the standard
to which he seemed desirous of assimilating himself, not more in faith than in
manners ; and his language formed on the same model, abounded in Scripture
phrases and quotations, applicable to almost every circumstance in life, Mistaken
he might be in some of his views, and over rigid in others; but in
1 On the fint leaf of a Hebrew Grammar, which he occasionally used, he had inscribed two lines
“ I rise each day from my bed with the impression that it may be, and with the purpose of spendof
classical Latin, copied from Melancthon, somewhat to the following effect :-
ing it aa if it were to be, my last.”
After which was mitten, as under :-
‘‘ Nothing but GOD, and GOD done you’ll find,
Can fill a boundless and immortal mind.”
