BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 313
prayers, to lead them to the balm that is in Gilead, and the Physician who is
there. The widow and the fatherless were his peculiar care: he sought out
their cause ; and many had occasion to bless him for the seasonable soothing
and relief, both temporal and spiritual, which they received through his
instrumentality,
He was a member, and from time to time in the direction, of almost every
charitable institution in Edinburgh, but took a more especial and active interest
in those of them connected with the religious instruction of the rising generation
and the more extensive diffusion of the knowledge and influence of Gospel truth,
whether at home or abroad. It need scarcely now be added that Mr. Dickson
was conscientiously and firmly attached to the principles, and approved, in
general, of the measures adopted by what is called tho popular party in the
Church. But it may be right to mention, that besides, in earlier life, taking
no small share in the discussions connected with the questions about patronage
and Popery, his first sentiments and convictions respecting both of which he
retained till the close of life, he was one of the small majority in the General
Assembly who voted against receiving the explanation of Dr. M‘Gill of Ayr, as
a satisfactory recantation of the heresy with which he had been charged.’ On
two several occasions, also, viz. the settlements of Biggar and Larbert, he actually
braved the highest censure of the ecclesiastical courts, rather than surrender
the dictates of his conscience to what he had thought their time-serving policy
and unconstitutional decisions.
In domestic and private life, Mr. Dickson was all that a Christian husband,
and father, and friend and companion, could be wished to be. Tender, affectionate,
kind, habitually cheerful, yet always dignified, there was a charm in his
manner, arising from the natural warmth of his heart, hallowed by genuine
religious feeling, which not only endeared him to those with whom he was more
intimate, but irresistibly commanded the respect and esteem of all with whom
he became but partially acquainted in the intercourse of social life.
After a
very painful, though not very lengthened illness-during which not a murmur
of impatience was heard from him, but, on the contrary, the constant language
of submissive resignation, and peaceful waiting for his departing to be with
Christhe calmly entered into his rest about midnight on the 3d of August
1820, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, and forty-fourth of his ministry.
His surviving family were his eldest son, the Rev. Dr. Dickson, one of the
ministers of St. Cuthbert’s ; one married, and two unmarried daughters ; and
James Wardrobe Dickson, Esq., Sheriff-Substitute of the Falkirk district of
Stirlingshire.
And, as he lived, so he died in the faith and hope of the Gospel.
-
The heresy of Dr. M‘Gill occasioned great excitement at the time ; and the satirical poem of
“The Kirk’s Alarm,” by Burns, has given the affair a celebrity likely to last as long as the fame of
the bard himself.
VOL. 11. 2 s