Volume 3 > Half-Volume 6

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suddenly a few weeks after his son Robert was born,
April 29, 1806; and thereupon his widow with her
family, consisting of two sons and two daughters,
removed to Glasgow, where they continued to reside
for many years. There, accordingly, Robert Cand-
lish spent his early days. He was at first a some-
what delicate and rather timid boy, but soon getting
over this, he joined with hearty enjoyment in the
games and amusements of his companions. He
entered Glasgow College 10th October, 1818, at the
early age of twelve; and attended the gown or under-
graduate classes for five sessions, during which he
gained many prizes, and in due time took the degree
of M.A. At this time Dr. Chalmers was minister
of St. John's church and parish, and had as his
assistant Edward Irving, whose great gifts as a
preacher were not in these days generally appreci-
ated. The church was crowded when Dr. Chalmers
preached, but comparatively empty when his assist-
ant was to occupy the pulpit. Robert Candlish,
however, with a few friends and fellow-students,
while fully appreciating the eloquence of Dr. Chal-
mers, enjoyed almost as much the services of his
then unpopular assistant, and was one of his regular
hearers. In 1823 he entered the divinity hall of
the Church of Scotland, which he attended during
three regular sessions, completing the course required
by the church by one partial session, and finally
leaving college in December, 1826. The professor
of divinity in those days was Dr. Stevenson Mac-
Gill, a man of earnest piety and decidedly evangelical
opinions, who contributed much, by his quiet influ-
ence, to the spread of sound doctrine and the advance
of spiritual life among the ministers of the Scottish
Church.
During a great part of his college course Robert
Candlish was largely employed in private teaching,
sometimes as much as eight or ten hours a day, in
addition to his studies. In 1826 he went with Sir
Hugh Hume-Campbell, as private tutor, to Eton
College, where he remained till 1829, thus getting
an opportunity of seeing something of English school
and church life. Meanwhile, when at home during
one of his vacations, he was licensed as a preacher
of the gospel by the Presbytery of Glasgow, August
6, 1828; and on returning to reside in Glasgow in
1829 he was engaged as assistant by Dr. Gavin
Gibb, the minister of St. Andrew's in that city.
Though not yet ordained as a minister, he had the
entire pastoral charge of the congregation, as well
as the whole work of the pulpit devolved
upon him; and he preached regularly twice every
Sabbath, only occasionally exchanging services with
other ministers. In this capacity, while almost
entirely unknown, he prepared and delivered, in the
ordinary course of his duty, some of those sermons
that afterwards made a profound impression in St.
George's, Edinburgh, and established his fame as a
preacher. He enjoyed at this time the companion-
ship and friendship of the Rev. David Welsh, then
minister of St. David's, who early appreciated his
gifts, and frequently invited him to preach to his
own congregation. This friendship continued warm
and unbroken till the too early death of Dr. Welsh
in 1845. With Dr. Smyth of St. George's, Dr.
Henderson of St. Enoch's, and Dr. Robert Buchanan
of the Tron church, he also formed early and life-
long friendships. During these years domestic
sorrow had visited the home of the young preacher.
One of his sisters had died in 1827, and his only
brother, James Smith Candlish, a young man of
great gifts, and much beloved by his relatives and
friends, was cut off, just as he was entering a most
promising career in the medical profession, and had
been appointed professor of surgery in the Ander-
sonian University. He died of fever, September 15,
1829; and his removal was regarded by the profession
in general as a great public loss.
On the death of Dr. Gibb in June, 1831, Mr.
Candlish's engagement in St. Andrew's came to an
end, and thereafter he became assistant to Mr.
Gregor, the minister of the country parish of Bonhill,
in the vale of Leven, Dumbartonshire. Here too
the whole of the pulpit and pastoral duties were in-
trusted to him, and he discharged them with such zeal
and diligence as to endear himself to the hearts of
the people. In this position he remained for two
years and three months. But though he had been
thus long engaged in full ministerial work, he was
still but little known beyond a small circle as an able
and evangelical preacher, and seemed as far as ever
from obtaining what was then the utmost aim of his
ambition, the position of an ordained minister in
some small country charge. So little prospect did
there seem of this, that he seriously contemplated
going out to the colonies, and actually offered him-
self for work in Canada.
But the great Head of the church had another
position preparing for him. The congregation of
St. George's, Edinburgh, had been raised to the
highest position in that city by the zeal and eloquence
of Dr. Andrew Thomson, who was suddenly cut off
in 1831. It was soon after deprived of the services
of his saintly successor, Mr. Martin, by the state of
his health, which required a residence in Italy. His
place was supplied by assistants; and in January,
1834, Mr. Candlish succeeded in this capacity his
friend Mr. Roxburgh, who had been appointed
minister of one of the churches in Dundee. When
Mr. Martin's ill health was found to continue, and
it became necessary to have an ordained assist-
ant and successor, the young preacher from the west
had so proved his gifts, and gained the hearts of the
flock, that he was chosen to this office; but Mr.
Martin having died in Italy in the following May,
Robert Smith Candlish was ordained to the entire
charge of the congregation on the 14th of August.
In the summer of 1833 he had preached on four
Sabbaths in the National Scotch Church, Regent
Square, London, then vacant by the removal of
Edward Irving, and had made so favourable an.
impression that the session and congregation desired
earnestly to have him as their minister. They were
not, however, in a position to give him any invita-
tion to London till the spring of the next year, by
which time steps had begun to be taken towards his-
settlement in St. George's. Though he accepted
this as the prior call, the circumstance now mentioned
led to a warm and lasting friendship between Dr.
Candlish and some of the elders of Regent Square
church, and was the first, though not the last link
that connected him with that congregation.
The new ministry in St. George's was thoroughly
efficient. Not only was the power of the pulpit
fully maintained, but pastoral visitation and works
of Christian beneficence were zealously and diligently
conducted; and the members of the congregation set
to working for the cause of Christ. One result of
these labours was the formation of the congregation
of St. Luke's out of a section of St. George's parish,
the first of a series of efforts in home mission and
church extension that the congregation successfully
made.
But the even tenor of this course of Christian use-
fulness was somewhat broken, though never inter-
rupted, by the troubles of the Church of Scotland,
which called the minister of St. George's to take an
active part in the conflict she was then waging for