Biggar and the House of Fleming

266 BIGGAR AND THE HOUSE OF FLEMING.
ter. In the pulpit his appearance was commanding, his voice
rich and powerful, and his delivery impressive. His discourses
were pervaded by a strain of ardent piety. His theology was
that of the severest Calvinism ; and, of course, he was well
versed in all the subtleties of that abstruse creed. It is
worthy of notice, that at the time of his settlement he had a
valuable collection of theological works. They consisted of 5 6
folio volumes, 44 quarto volumes, and 70 volumes of inferior
sizes, all of a solid and standard character. The only relic of
his library that we have seen, is the well-known controversial
work on the origin and authority of episcopal church govern-
ment, entitled " Altare Damascenum," etc., by the historian,
David Calderwood. It has Mr Low's autograph on the mar-
gin, and is now in the library of Mr Sim, at Coultermains.
Mr Low, shortly after his settlement at Biggar, entered into
the marriage relation with a lady whose name was Janet Hen-
derson. By this lady he had the following children : — Mar-
garet, Helen, Kobert, John, Janet, James, and Ebenezer. Mr
Low continued to discharge his ministerial duties at Biggar
for a period of forty- three years, and died on the 1st of Nov-
ember 1804.
The successor of Mr Low was the Rev. John Brown. He
was the son of the Rev. John Brown, Whitburn, and Isabella
Cranston, a native of Kelso, and was born on the 1 2th of July
1784. He studied general literature and philosophy at the
University of Edinburgh, and theology at the Divinity Hall,
Selkirk, under the direction of Dr Lawson. He was licensed
to preach the Gospel, by the Presbytery of Stirling and Fal-
kirk, on the 12th Feb. 1805, and after a short probation, re-
ceived calls from Biggar and Stirling. The Synod, which at
that time held the power of deciding in the case of competing
calls, assigned him the charge of Biggar. He was ordained
on the 6th Feb. 1806. The weather at the time was remark-
ably stormy ; and the consequence was, that only three mem-
bers of the Presbytery of Lanark attended on the occasion.
Dr Harper of Leith, a son of the Rev. Alexander Harper of
Lanark, at the jubilee services of Dr Brown, in Broughton
Place Church, Edinburgh, on the 8th April 1856, said, "I
have a boyish recollection of the event which you are met to
commemorate, and of being almost, I cannot say altogether, a