BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 311
Gibson of St. Cuthbert’s, for whom, as well as for Sir Henry Moncreiff, he had
frequently preached, he was brought forward as a candidate for the vacancy
occasioned by the death of the former in 1785, but was subsequently withdrawn
by h;s friends, in order to ensure the appointment for Mr. Paul, in preference
to a third candidate, who, though there was every reason to apprehend that he
would have been anything but acceptable to the congregation, might otherwise
have obtained it. In 1792 he was urgently solicited to become colleague to
Dr. Jones in Lady Glenorchy’s Chapel, a situation to which the Rev. Greville
Ewing was soon after appointed ; but, on mature consideration, he felt it his
duty to decline the invitation, though strongly urged by all concerned to accept
of it. The Chapel of Ease in New Street, Canongate, having, however, been
erected and opened in the summer of 1795-chiefly through the pious and
beneficent exertions of the late Dr. Buchanan, then one of the ministers of that
parish, and who had not only been an early and esteemed class-fellow of Mr.
Dickson at Glasgow, but afterwards, while at Stirling, one of his most intimate
and endeared friends as well as co-presbyters-on being unanimously elected
by the managers and congregation, he accepted their call, and was admitted to
the pastoral office, as the first minister of that place of worship, in the month of
October the same year.
Under his ministry there, which continued very nearly three years and a
half, the chapel was completely filled, and even crowded ; and by the affectionate
earnestness, uncompromising faithfulness, and winning attract,iveness, a bond of
spiritual union was formed betwixt him and many of his flock of the tenderest
and the most enduring kind. A vacancy having occurred in the College Church,
Edinburgh, by the resignation of Mr. Lundie, he was, without the slightest solicitation,
either on his own part, or that of any relative or friend, who might
have had influence with the Town Council, then under the provostship of Sir
William Fettes, unanimously presented to that charge, to which he was inducted
in March 1799. And thither he was followed by a numerousIbody of his
former congregation, many of whom indeed became so increasingly attached to
him, that they again followed him to the New North or Little Church, to
which he was translated in November 1801, as successor to Principal Baird, and
colleague to Dr. Gloag. Dr. John Thomson, at that time in the New Greyfriars’,
having succeeded Dr. Gloag in 1803, Mr. Dickson and he continued associated
in the ministry as colleagues till October 1814, when, in consequence of Dr.
Andrew Thomson having been translated to St. George’s, and the New North
Church being uncollegiated, his father, Dr. J. Thomson, returned to his former
charge in the New Greyfriars’, having a stated assistant provided for him at the
expense of the Town Council j while Mr. Dickson, receiving at the same time
the promise of a similar assistant, should he afterwards find himself unable to
undertake the whole duties of the church and parish, remained sole minister of
the New North Church during the subsequent years of his life. Of the mutual
affection and Christian fellowship which subsisted between the Doctor and Mr.
Dickson, during the period of their collegiate labours, both of them used to