Macleod was born in Campbeltown on 3 June 1812, a son of the manse. His father, later minister of St Columba's in Glasgow, founded a scheme to provide schools in remote parts of the Highlands.
Macleod moved to Glasgow in 1825 and from 1827 studied at the university there. From 1831 he read theology in Edinburgh and from 1833-36 worked as a tutor to the son of the High Sheriff of Yorkshire. He was ordained at Loudoun in 1838 and in 1843 moved to Dalkeith before becoming, in 1851, minister of the Barony parish in Glasgow. Like his father, he was interested in education, establishing day schools for more than 2,000 pupils.
In 1869 he became Moderator of the General Assembly, and also made church-related visits to Canada and India. This latter journey, in 1867, undermined his health, and he died on 16 June 1872.
TO compress into a few pages the lives of men who have associated themselves by their intellect or by their industry with the history of Glasgow during the present century, must have been found by many of the contributors to this volume a difficult task. In the case of Norman Macleod it approaches an impossibility. Though only the last twenty years of his life were spent within it, he had become so associated with the great city of the West that, to hundreds of those who knew and loved him, Glasgow was less known as the Scottish mart of industry than as the home of one who for "goodness, rich humanity, childlike faith, catholicity and devotion" has left few equals and no superior. All that can be attempted in the few lines that follow, is to sketch in briefest outline the history of his life, leaving its multitudinous details, and anything like a true conception of the inner history of the man himself, to be gathered from the admirable Life with which his brother has enriched our ecclesiastical biography.
Norman Macleod was born in Kirk Street, Campbeltown, on 3rd June, 1812. His father, the Rev. Dr. Norman Macleod - at that time minister of Campbeltown, afterwards in succession of Campsie and of St. Columba's Church, Glasgow, and Dean of the Chapel Royal - was one of the most remarkable men of his day. Himself the son of a minister of Morven, his whole heart was bound up in the Highlanders of Scotland, to whose spiritual and intellectual necessities he devoted every energy of an intellect exceptionally powerful, and a mind in which humour and pathos were curiously blended. He was not only the author of a literature which Professor Blackie describes as the "great work of classical Gaelic prose that shines above the rest as the moon among the lesser lights," and of which, says the Professor, "the most brilliant papers are written in a dialogue form, enriched by the dramatic grace of Plato and the shrewd humour of Lucian," but he was to all practical purposes the founder of the educational scheme for the Highlands and Islands which supplied schools in districts up to that time neglected. He was an earnest and untiring advocate of the interests of the Highland population, and his name will ever be held throughout the North and West of Scotland in affectionate veneration.
Norman's mother, Agnes Maxwell, was descended from a family who in the bad times under Charles II. had fled from Newark to Kintyre, and her father, who was Chamberlain to the Duke of Argyll, lived at Aros in Mull, on the side of the sound opposite to Morven. Like her husband, she inherited from her ancestors much of the warmth of the old Celtic spirit, and her deep and intense religious earnestness combined with all that was gentle and loving to fit her to be not only the guide but the friend and the trusted adviser of all her children.
At the age of twelve Norman was sent from Campbeltown to Morven, where, first at the manse and afterwards in the house of the parish schoolmaster, he spent many happy months. In 1825 the father was presented to the parish of Campsie, and in 1827 the son commenced his curriculum of Arts at the University of Glasgow.
Four years afterwards he went to Edinburgh to study theology under Chalmers and Welsh, and on the recommendation of the former was in 1833 appointed tutor to the son of Mr. Preston of Moreby Hall, High Sheriff of Yorkshire. In this capacity he acted for three years, one winter being spent with his pupil in Edinburgh, and the rest of the time on the Continent - mostly at Weimar - or at Moreby Hall.
In 1835 his father again removed - this time to St. Columba's, Glasgow, a charge which he held to his death, and to the University of that city his son returned to complete his theological curriculum. He was licensed in May, 1837, and on 15th March in the following year was ordained minister of Loudoun, on the presentation of the Dowager Marchioness of Hastings, to whose attention he had been recommended by Dr. Chalmers. Here he remained for over five years - memorable years in the history of the Church - was a member of the General Assembly of 1843, and contributed to the literature of the Disruption period two tracts, the well-known "Cracks aboot the Kirk for Kintra Folk," who are likely, from their inimitable humour and force of his expression, to be about the last of that multifarious literature to survive in after years. For the part he took in that controversy we must refer to his biography, where will be found, on every page, evidence of the intense feeling of responsibility and deep spiritual earnestness under which he threw in his lot with those who resolved to stand by the old Church of their fathers. In December, 1843, he was offered and accepted the parish of Dalkeith, where he remained till July, 1851, when he was inducted minister of the Barony Parish, Glasgow.
Such is the chronological record of a life which, had it closed at the date last-mentioned, would have stood out in the memories of those who knew the man as that of one of singular and varied powers. Reading the record of his years at Loudoun and Dalkeith, we find everywhere the proof of that intense earnestness of purpose, that devotion to the service of his Master and the interests of his Church - that skill of speech and flow of thought - that marvellous power of entering into and adapting himself to, and thus developing to the best all the shades of enthusiasm, of pathos, of humour, and of individuality in the minds of those with whom he came into contact - and that magnetic power of attraction, which combined in after years to make him not only the most notable figure in the Scottish ecclesiastical history of the day, but perhaps the most generally looked up to, and beloved of any Churchman of his time. But it was with his life in Glasgow, and while minister of the Barony, that his memory will be specially bound up.
Of the energy with which he threw himself into all the multifarious details of the work of his enormous parish, it is impossible here to speak. He had long held and long taught that the personal influence of living Christians was the only effectual agency to meet the needs of society, and to this end he perfected a scheme of parochial organization such as had never been realized before: first, by the organization of a large kirk-session of elders and deacons, and the subdivision of the whole parish into districts, under the direction of special members; then by the institution of district meetings; by the establishment of day schools where, during the first ten years of his incumbency, accommodation was provided for upwards of 2,000 scholars, and each of which schools he personally inspected month by month; by the consolidation of twelve Sabbath schools into one single society under the care of the session and his own constant supervision; and by the foundation of the first congregational penny savings bank in Scotland, and the establishment of cheap refreshment rooms, not to speak of his young men's association, his clothing society, and similar agencies.
Add to this, his scheme for church extension in the parish itself, which resulted during his ministry in the reorganization of four chapels which he found vacant on his arrival; in the erection of six new ones; in the increase of his mission staff for overtaking destitute localities, from one missionary in 1852 to five missionaries with three Bible women and a collector, at the time of his death. His congregation, which was largely composed of the artizan class, contributed to the general missions of the Church more than almost any of its congregations in Scotland, and that, too, as he was wont to point to with pride, made up generally of very small sums. Over and above his weekly duty of preaching twice a day, he conducted services in the evening for working people only, in their working clothes. All this might have seemed more than enough for any ordinary minister, yet it was but a portion, though always to his thinking the most important portion, of the whole.
To the interests of the great city in which he soon found himself the most prominent figure, he was keenly alive, and ready to devote his eloquence and his talents to all schemes for her spiritual, moral, and sanitary advancement. His heart's desire was to break down if he could the barrier that existed between rich and poor - to name, as he used to phrase it, the east and the west unite together. His heart, too large to know distinctions of class, knew as little of distinctions of sect, and the very catholicity of his spirit was perhaps the only weapon which was ever employed to wring his own heart. For it was sometimes said he was too "broad." Too broad! "So long," he said, in a noble passage from the last speech he ever delivered in the General Assembly, "as I have a good conscience towards God, and have His sun to shine on and can hear the birds singing, I can walk across the earth with a joyful and free heart. Let them call me broad.' I desire to be broad as the charity of Almighty God, who maketh His sun to shine on the evil and the good: who hateth no man, and who loveth the poorest Hindoo more than all their committees or all their Churches. But while I long for that breadth of charity, I desire to be narrow - narrow as God's righteousness, which as a sharp sword can separate between eternal right and eternal wrong."
To all these claims on his time must be added the innumerable other claims that arose from speedy recognition of his position as a leader in the Church. He was appointed convener of her India Missions - a branch of her missionary enterprise specially dear to his heart, and his devotion to which, there is too much reason to fear, greatly induced the illness from which died - and in 1869 was appointed Moderator of the General Assembly. He visited Canada in the interests of the Church in 1845, and was unfortunately persuaded to make a more important visit still - one to India in 1867, an undertaking of great peril considering the state of his health, then far from satisfactory. And in all the questions of a stirring and anxious kind that affected her welfare he not only took the deepest interest but often the foremost part.
To add to all, he had in 1849 undertaken the editorship of the "Edinburgh Christian Magazine," and in 1860 was induced to undertake that of "Good Words," at the earnest solicitation of its projector. "He had long cherished," says his brother, "the conviction that a periodical was greatly required of the type sketched by Dr. Arnold, which should embrace as great a variety of articles as those which give deserved popularity to publications professedly similar, but having its spirit and aim distinctively Christian." How successful he was in its editorship was proved by the remarkable circulation to which it attained, but the labour involved was a terrible addition to those other duties which he of all men was the last to neglect.
To its pages for nearly all that remains to us of what he wrote and taught must reference, alas! be made. For his life was too busy to leave time for more serious literary work than the necessities of the week called forth, and with the exception of papers reprinted from "Good Words," he left little behind him save the life of his brother-in-law, John Mackintosh, and one or two small works or rather tractates, such as "Deborah." But in those republished works, in "The Old Lieutenant," "The Highland Parish," "Character Sketches," "The Starling," and above all, "Wee Davie," will be found some of the finest touches of pathos and humour of which our language can boast; while in "Eastward" - a description of a tour in Egypt and Palestine - he has given one of the truest and best modern descriptions of the morning land, and in his last volume, "Glimpses at the Far East," he gave an equally vivid picture of India.
He was appointed Dean of the Chapel Royal, like his father before him, and from 1861 to his death it is perhaps not too much to say that he was the trusted friend of his Queen. In her last published "Diary" Her Majesty has put on record in touching language her grief at his loss. "How I loved to talk to him, to ask his advice, to speak to him of my sorrows, my anxieties! But, alas! how impossible I feel it to be to give any adequate idea of the character of this good and distinguished man! So much depended on his personal charm of manner, so warm, genial, and hearty, overflowing with kindness and the love of human nature; and so much depended on himself, on knowing and living with him, that no one who did not do so can truly portray him."
It is not necessary to refer in more than a single sentence to two of the greatest trials of his life. The virulent attack in the "Record" on "Good Words" and its editor, because of the latitudinarianism which it was asserted they sought to introduce into religion, though it tried him sorely at the time, he could yet more easily afford to forget, as with him were associated men like Charles Kingsley and Principal Tulloch. The bitter outcry raised against him in regard to his vindication of the Christian Sabbath from Judaistic associations was harder to bear. It, too, is a thing of the past. But Scotchmen who now enjoy in their observance of the day which commemorates the crowning proof of their Saviour's immortality, a freedom unknown to their fathers, should not forget that for that freedom they are indebted under God to no one more than to Norman Macleod. It was indeed a bitter time. Letters came to him anonymously, addressed to "the modern Judas who had again betrayed his Maker."
Let us see, from what the Queen has written, what was the real teaching of the man. "No one ever felt so convinced, and so anxious as he to convince others, that God was a loving Father, who wished all to come to Him, and to preach of a living personal Saviour, One who loved us as a brother and a friend, to whom all could and should come with trust and confidence. No one ever raised and strengthened one's faith more than Dr. Macleod. His own faith was so strong, his heart so large, that all - high and low, weak and strong, the erring and the good - could alike find sympathy, help, and consolation from him."
Yes, truly, those who knew him best know best what permeated his whole heart and soul. It has been said that he was hardly ever known to force a reference to religious thought and feeling, but that it was simply impossible to be in his presence for a quarter of an hour before "his confidential talk, however conversational, however humorous even, did not, as it were of itself and as of necessity, disclose the centre round which his whole life revolved." There are hundreds living now who, looking back upon their lives, count it among the highest blessings received from God that they had the friendship and the example of this great and good man.
He died on 16th June, 1872, in his sixtieth year, having, it is much to be feared, never overcome the fatigue of his Indian tour. His last public act was the noble appeal on behalf of his Indian fellow-subjects from which we have already quoted.
His funeral was a day of mourning in the city he had loved so well. The magistrates of Glasgow, the Sheriffs, the representatives of Royalty, and the Senate of the University accompanied the remains from the various churches in which services had been conducted by ministers of the three great Presbyterian denominations, to the outskirts of the city, on their way to the churchyard of Campsie, where he rests beside his father. But more striking than all was the long line of mourners, uncalled, and of all classes in the community, numbering nearly three thousand, who followed in silent array, and the vast multitude through which they passed along, - mostly of working men and of the poor, - who came to pay honour to his memory. "There goes Norman Macleod," a brawny working man was heard saying as the dark column moved past; "if he had done no more than what he did for my soul, he should shine as the stars for ever."
In 1851 he married Catherine Mackintosh, the sister of his dearest friend the "Earnest Student," whose life he has written, and to her loving care was due, not only that his life was blest with the greatest of earthly blessings, a happy home, but that so much of what we read of his inner life in his brother's memoirs has been preserved and given to us. By her he left three sons and six daughters.
On 26th October, 1881, his statue by Mr. John Mossman, erected by public subscription before the Barony Church, was unveiled. The eloquent words of Principal Caird on that occasion may form a fitting close to this imperfect sketch. "Though few men have ever worked so hard - though seldom, if ever, into the compass of one brief life has so much true and noble effort been condensed - yet much of that work was of a kind which those who come after us will never be able to appreciate as we can do. They may be told that he was a preacher of rare and commanding power - that never had the cause of the poor, the ignorant, the wretched, a more skilful or persuasive advocate - that an enthusiastic ardour for Christian missions to the heathen fired his tongue with an eloquence which awakened a new and wide-spread interest in the cause which was so dear to him; but the few records that have been left of his sermons and speeches can convey to others but a faint reflection of the magic power of that living voice to whose utterances our hearts have so often responded. They may be told again of the untiring energy and zeal of the Christian pastor, of his marvellous faculty of organization, of his capacity to call forth in men's minds a sympathetic interest in whatever he undertook, and of his manifold labours for the regeneration of the masses and the elevation of the neglected multitudes from the slough of ignorance and sin. But though in itself such work is of undying influence, its operation is in a great measure silent and secret, its results can be discovered only by the All-seeing Eye, and the worker's reward is not earthly fame, but the approbation of Him who has said, 'Forasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the least of these thou hast done it unto Me.' Yet who will doubt that, in living as he did, he of whom we speak chose the better part. Had his end been permanent literary fame, the intellectual force, the intuitive insight, the pathos and the humour, the power to touch the springs of laughter and of tears - these, combined with the exuberant energy, the almost inexhaustible faculty of labour that was in him, might easily have achieved some lasting literary result.
Some of the things he threw off in the mere fragments of his time were, of their kind, better than the best productions of many to whom literature is a profession. But though he was far from insensible to the approbation of his fellow-men, the call of present duty was to him more imperative than the instincts of personal ambition, and the question with him was not how he could secure for himself a place in the temple of fame, but what he could do for the Master he loved, and for the highest welfare of mankind. To sum up all in the words of the foremost statesman of the day, who has described with singularly appreciative insight the character of him we mourn - 'He was a man brave and tender, manful and simple, profoundly susceptible of enjoyment, yet never preferring it to duty, overflowing with love, yet ever chivalrous for truth, full of power, full of labour, full of honour - a great orator and pastor, and a noble and true-hearted man."'
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