Volume 3 > Half-Volume 6

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bell resigned his editorship, and the trustees and
managers indicated their sense of the value of his
services by a gratuity of �500, which they voted to
him on his retirement from the charge.
In the formation of the London City Mission by
Mr. Nasmith, Dr. Campbell took great interest,
although at first he viewed it with distrust, feeling
that one of the evils of the day was the endless
multiplication of new societies, through which the
old were neglected. When Nasmith died five years
afterward exhausted by his heroic labours, Dr. Camp-
bell, who had been acquainted with him in Glasgow
when a youth, was thought the fittest person to write
his biography. And well and affectionately he ful-
filled this duty in the Memoir of David Nasmith,
which he published in 1844. But however home
and city missions might interest him, it was to
foreign missions that his enthusiasm was chiefly
devoted; and when the news arrived of the untimely
death of John Williams, who fell a martyr to his
missionary zeal, being murdered by the natives of
one of the South Sea Islands, the writing of his life
also was devolved upon Dr. Campbell. This choice
was appropriate, as Williams had received his first
spiritual impressions and religious education in the
Tabernacle; and well did the minister of the Tab-
ernacle satisfy the general expectation, by The Mar-
tyr of Erromanga, in which the character, labours,
and death of the devoted missionary, as well as the
philosophy of Christian missions, are so eloquently
portrayed.
In 1846-7 Dr. Campbell was involved in a per-
sonal controversy in consequence of having written
a series of articles in the Christian Witness upon
Wesleyan Methodism. The reply of the party was
characterized by such bitterness and calumny that
the Doctor could not do otherwise than refute it;
but while doing this both ably and satisfactorily, he
caught the infection from his opponents, and returned
their asperity in no stinted measure. It was in no
such contests that he was best qualified to shine. A
more congenial occupation in which he employed
himself at this time was the preparation of a volume
of Sermons on Self, delivered to his congregation, for
the press, "to promote the present gratification and
the future welfare of an affectionate flock." The
chief topics of these discourses, ten in number, will
give by their titles a general idea of the work, and
are as follows :�'' Self-examination," " Self-appro-
val," "Self-condemnation," "Self-denial," "Self-
indulgence," "Self-distrust," "Self-confidence,"
"Self-preservation," and "Self-destruction."
For some time past Dr. Campbell had been
impressed with regret at the immense numerical
superiority of the pernicious immoral newspapers as
compared with the counteracting works of the Bible
and Tract Societies, and although already the editor
of two magazines, he also wished to have a news-
paper of his own in which he could maintain a daily
and hourly opposition to the preponderating evil.
While his thoughts were in this direction, he received
a letter from the committee of the Patriot newspaper
intimating the means by which his wishes might be
gratified. His observations in the Christian Witness
had suggested the project, and they were anxious to
establish a new weekly periodical, devoted to the
interests of benevolence and religion, and connected
with those of noncomformity�and of this they
earnestly desired him to undertake the editorship,
otherwise the attempt must be abandoned. To
insure its success, they also offered to relieve him of
his pulpit duties for twelve months by procuring sub-
stitutes for their performance, while future arrange-
ments might be made according to contingencies.
VOL. III.
After several weeks of deliberation he decided on ac-
cepting the offer, moved by these words of Mordecai:
"If thou altogether hold thy peace at this time, then
shall enlargement and deliverance arise from another
quarter; but thou and thy father's house shall be
destroyed; and who knoweth whether thou art come
to the kingdom for such a time as this?" He under-
took the management upon the express condition
that beyond having his pulpit supplied he was to
receive no emolument whatever; he drew up the
plan, and announced the principles upon which this
periodical, to be called the British Banner, would
be conducted. "We will never cease to insist," he
thus announced, "that national can only be the
effect of individual regeneration. On these grounds,
not simply rejecting, but resenting the idea that the
ignorant, the idle, the improvident, the vicious can
be raised to happiness and respectability by mere
legislation, the conductors of the British Banner
will strain every nerve to elevate the moral character
of the people, as the only path which will infallibly
place them within the pale of the constitution. Po-
litics, in their columns, will occupy much the same
proportion as, in their judgment, they should in the
mind of a superior Christian citizen. As to social
economics, while they contend for the rights of
labour, they will boldly assert the claims of capital,
not forgetting, however, the duties of the capitalist.
They will take the moderate common-sense practical
view of all subjects, to the exclusion of crotchets;
and they will in no case waste their breath in the
pursuit of the airy, to the rejection of the substantial;
but notwithstanding this, their motto will be�PRO-
GRESS IN EVERYTHING."
The new journal first appeared at the commence-
ment of 1848, and its early success was unparalleled r
no religious newspaper had hitherto commenced under
such promising auspices. Year after year it con-
tinued to display the force of its public influence and
the choice character of its editorship. Dr. Campbell
was also enabled to commit himself more exclu-
sively to the work, as at the commencement of his
labours on the British Banner his voice broke down,
and from this and other causes he was unfitted for
his ministerial work, which he was obliged to resign
into other hands. His literary energy and persever-
ance were remarkable. When his newspaper was
started he had four amanuenses established in his
office at Bolt Court, who were successively summoned
to his room, each of whom received from him almost
a quarter of an hour's dictation either written in
short-hand or dictated extemporaneously; for his
habits of extemporaneous preaching had given him
great quickness of thought, and remarkable facility
in language. While thus so closely occupied, he
was impatient of interruption, especially by frivolous
callers; and when any of these appeared, he would
look at his watch, which was always placed in front
of him, and say, "Now, sir, two minutes is all I can
give you. What do you want? Come to the point."
But his busiest day was Thursday, in which none,
under whatever pretence, was to enter his room; and
when this rule was transgressed, the Doctor invariably
said to the intruder, "I cannot see anybody, I can-
not see even angels to-day." On one occasion, when
a visitor strongly recommended, and coming on
urgent business, came upon him thus occupied, he
only heard him for a few moments, and added by
way of apology, "If the angel Gabriel was to call,
I should ask him to retire and walk up-stairs." The
management of his Penny Magazine, Witness, and
Banner, independently of the pastoral duties of
Tottenham Court Road Chapel and the Tabernacle,
which he still retained�each of which would have
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