The earthly life of James Haldane came to an end just one hundred and fifty years ago. He was the younger brother of Robert, and, between the two of them, no men did more for the cause of Christ in Scotland, and beyond. To separate the two brothers in their lives and in their labours is a virtual impossibility, as they were involved in so many ventures on a united basis. Perhaps the slight distinction drawn by their biographer, Alexander Haldane¹, gives us a clue. Looking back over the lives of the two men, he says:

Both were content for a time to be sneered at by the world, and accounted madmen for the sake of Christ. Both dedicated intellectual talents of no common order to the same cause. The one by his preaching, but still more by his writing (Robert), the other by his writings, but far more by his preaching (James), taught and vindicated the same great truths.

The Haldanes were aristocrats. The Perthshire family into which they were born in the 18th century was able to trace its ancestry back to around six hundred years before the two boys came on the scene. The biographical account of their lives by Alexander Haldane, overflows with names from the 'high society' of their day, and, in a very real sense, their position in that society, in the will of the Lord, was to have great influence in the work of the gospel in later years.

Robert was born in London in the year 1764, and James in Dundee, four years later. It would appear from what we are told in the biography that both the father and mother were believers in Christ, and in later years the two brothers bore testimony to the influence of their mother in their lives. Their father had died just two weeks after the birth of James, and their mother also when the children were still quite young. 'My mother died when I was very young', James tells us, 'I believe under six, yet I am convinced that the early impression made on my mind by her care was never entirely effaced ... I mention this more particularly', he says,  'because it may lead Christian parents to sow in hope the seed of divine truth in the mind of their children, and may prevent their considering their efforts unavailing, even when the things which they have taught seem to have been uttered in vain.' (There was also a sister in the family, but she died when just eight years old.)

On the death of the mother the children were sent to live with their maternal grandmother, but the general impression is that of two young boys developing into two young gentlemen, and entering into all the pursuits that the life-style of their position afforded them. They continued to go to church, and read the Bible and other outward forms. But James admitted: 'I had no pleasure in any religious duty ... I was well pleased if any slight illness, or anything occurred which seemed a sufficient excuse to myself for staying at home on the Lord's Day.' 'Are we, then, to suppose', asks their biographer, 'that the instruction of his sainted mother had not fallen like the good seed into good ground?' That was not to be the case, and in God's good time, the seed sown would bear fruit, in this case, 'an hundred-fold'.

The next major step in the lives of the Haldane brothers was their enlisting in the Royal Navy, each when they had reached their seventeenth year. The narrative of events relating to that period of time is the stuff that novels are made from. Epic sea battles were fought, and James, on one occasion, was called on to quell a mutiny. On board and ashore, the order of the day was drinking, swearing and fighting, and each of the two brothers took their share in these things, in one degree or another.

In the midst of all this, however, the issues of eternity repeatedly rose to the surface. On one occasion James ended up in a brawl and was called upon to fight a duel – the accepted way of vindicating one's honour in those days. 'The signal was given', we are told, 'and Mr J. Haldane raised his pistol; with strange inconsistency he breathed the secret prayer ­"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit".' As James Haldane pulled the trigger, his pistol shattered, and he sustained some injuries to his face as a result of this; but the pistol of the other man failed to fire altogether, and Haldane saw that it was God's goodness that had kept him from being a murderer, or being murdered, even though he was following an accepted practice of his times. On another occasion, returning to his ship in a drunken stupor, he fell down an open hatchway, and only escaped death – as he later recognized – through God's preserving hand upon him.

On more than one occasion, he was snatched out of what would have been a watery grave, and one of these instances at least left a deep impression on his mind. The ship on which he was serving had run into a severe storm, and 'it became necessary to take in sail'. James Haldane was ordered to 'go aloft' with a party of men, but just as he was about to mount the rigging, the Captain of the vessel called out for him to stop, and he sent an able seaman by the name of James Duncan to go first instead. The seaman was blown into the sea and drowned, and James Haldane never forgot the 'anxious look' of the drowning man as he 'eagerly sought, but sought in vain, for succour'. The man was a staunch believer in Christ and that had not gone unnoticed by the one whose place he had taken in the sea. Others knew it too. In later years, when Haldane related the incident, he said that 'it was the general remark that it would be well if all on board were as fully prepared for death as James Duncan'.

The overall picture during these years is of two men living the seafaring life to the full, and yet never able to fully throw off what they knew to be the truth of God. The strange mixture is expressed by James as he reflects back to the time when he first began his naval career:

After going to sea, I went on much in the same way for about a twelvemonth, having no more fear of God than others around me, excepting that I abstained from taking His name in vain, and that I read my Bible on the Sabbath, and still used a form of prayer.

The two brothers served in several vessels during these years and James was able to pin-point the workings of God in a very definite way to his time on a vessel called the Melville Castle. 'However dark my mind still was, I have no doubt but that God began a work of grace on my soul living on board the Melville Castle. His voice was indeed still and small, but I would not despise the day of small things, nor undervalue the least of His gracious dealings towards me.'

By the year 1796 the work was ready to begin. Both had now come to a full assurance of faith, and it was their earnest desire to share the faith with others. It has to be said that the dominating force in their life's work, from the beginning and right through to the end, was the Word of God which told of Christ. It was their adherence to the Word of God that God was pleased to honour in his sovereign will and purpose, to bring life out of deadness in so many ways. It was their adherence to the Word of God that motivated them, and impelled them, in every step that they took in their lives, right to the end. And it was their adherence to the Word of God that inspired so many others in the revival of a true evangelical Christianity that brought glory to God, through that Word.

It was in evidence when Robert went to Geneva to teach God's Word there in 1816. It was no less in evidence when James began his work as an itinerant evangelist.

The whole work really began like this. At the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1796 a resolution was brought to the Assembly: 'That it is the duty of Christians to carry the Gospel to the heathen world.' This was bitterly opposed by the Moderate party, who were dominant at that time in the Church of Scotland. This period has been well termed 'the midnight of the Church of Scotland'. At this assembly John Erskine arose and uttered his famous words: 'Moderator, rax me that Bible' (Reach me that Bible). Erskine championed the cause of the spread of the gospel overseas, but he was swamped by the volume of opinion that was against him. One of the favourite arguments of the Moderates was, 'Why not look at home? Why send missionaries to foreign parts, when there is so much ignorance, unbelief, and immorality at your own doors?' This was certainly the case. 'Dark as midnight' was the general assessment of the religious scene in Scotland at that point.

Seated in that Assembly was James Haldane. Like his brother Robert, he had had a great desire to go to India. This had never materialized, but in the providence of God, as he listened to the words of the Moderates that day, the ways of the Lord opened up before him.

In the words of the biography:

James Haldane felt the force of the appeal; he saw the difficulties interposed in the way of his going to India; and when he afterwards carried the gospel into the parishes of Inveresk, or Gladsmuir, or Musselburgh, or preached at the cross at Ayr, or in the College Close of Aberdeen, or in the town of Thurso, he could not forget the exhortation of the Moderate ministers in the General Assembly when they resisted foreign missions by insincerely talking of the necessities of their own people.

Like others before and since, those men had said more than they realized, and the Lord was to have them in derision through their own folly.

In the years that followed, James and Robert Haldane were to go forth preaching the words of eternal life all over Scotland. It would probably be easier to list the places where they did not preach than those where they did. At the conclusion of James' third preaching tour, we are told: 'He had now preached the Gospel in every part of Scotland, and abundantly distributed religious tracts from the Solway Firth in the south round about to the Tweed, and thence beyond Caithness and the clustering islands of the Orkneys and Shetlands. He had also skirted the fastnesses of the Highlands from Dunkeld to Sutherland…'

James Haldane was not alone in these ventures. There were other zealous souls who also put their lives in jeopardy for the sake of the gospel. Robert sold his family home at Airthrey to advance the work of the gospel. The two brothers were beloved by many; and hated by as many more. They and their companions were branded as 'vagrant preachers' by the General Assembly of 1799. But, in the words of their friend Rowland Hill, 'We shall shine all the brighter for the scrubbing we have got from the General Assembly.' And so it proved to be.

The full account of those years of preaching 'in season and out of season', indoors and out of doors, has to be read if we are to appreciate the extent of the labour involved, and the activity of the hand of the Lord in their ministry. Here one can only glance at a few of the details.

The evidence that God was with them is seen in the vastness of the crowds which gathered to hear the preaching of the Word. As we have already said, much of Scotland was then 'dark as midnight'. Yet the accounts of their preaching tours reveal that large crowds attended their preaching: Kirriemuir, 1500 in the open air; Elgin, one thousand; Wick, four thousand; Kirkwall, three thousand; Thurso, three thousand. A town crier would be sent out to announce the preaching at a given hour, and by the time they had arrived the crowds had gathered and were ready to listen. At one point while they were in Kirkwall, a fair was convened and multitudes flocked to it from the mainland and the islands round about. For all the attractions of the fair, the congregations grew for the preaching of the Word, reaching six thousand by the time the Lord's Day arrived. James Haldane's own words show the cause of all this:

We have here much reason to remark the goodness of God is disposing the people, the whole time the fair lasted, to continue with regularity in their attendance. The fair was, in a measure, emptied every evening. May he, whose blessing alone giveth the increase, be pleased graciously to water the seed which hath been sown with the dew of heaven...

It was not only the 'great congregations' which heard the words of life from the Lord's servants. There are many precious incidents of a 'single' brand plucked from the burning. One such involved an old man of ninety-two, whom James Haldane visited in his home. The man was bedridden, and Haldane recounts the visit in his Journal: 'Asked him what was to become of him after death? He replied he was very ignorant, could not read, but had sometimes prayed to God. On being asked whether he knew anything of Christ, he acknowledged his entire ignorance.' The biography then tells us about how the old man, eighty years before, as a young boy had been concerned about eternity and prayed that God would send a teacher to enlighten his ignorance. To the old man, the biographer tells us, James Haldane was that teacher, and he 'preached to him the Gospel, declaring that now the Lord was waiting to be gracious, and that if he believed what the Word of God testified of his guilt and misery, and of the person and work of Christ ... he should be saved'. 'He cried to God for the pardon of his sins', Haldane goes on to tell us, 'and being informed that his prayers could only be heard through Jesus Christ who came to save the very chief of sinners, he called upon the Saviour for mercy, and repeatedly exclaimed, "I believe, I believe".'

The message which James Haldane proclaimed to the old man within the confines of his own home was the same message that was proclaimed everywhere, and in all circumstances. There was no trimming of the facts, no accommodating of the truth to suit the times. 'It would be difficult to name any town, or important village in Scotland', we are told, 'where, at one period or another, James Haldane did not ... give utterance to a full, free, and impressive invitation to "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world". Filled with a deep and penetrating sense of the saving grace and power of Christ, it was from first to last his desire to make known that grace and power.' This he did, we are told, 'with the assured confidence that the Gospel, whether it be received, or whether it be rejected, never can be preached in vain'.

The first church building which they purchased was 'The Circus' in Edinburgh, which had previously belonged to the Relief Congregation in that city. Rowland Hill preached at the opening services to about two-and­-half thousand people. So the pattern was established for the opening of other 'Tabernacles', as they came to be called, in other parts of the country.

One of the most notable battles that the two men engaged in was a further expression of their devotedness to the Scriptures of God. It was what became known as the 'Apocrypha Controversy'. The controversy began not long after Robert Haldane's return from the Continent in 1819. It was conducted within the British and Foreign Bible Society of that day, and it centred on the Society's plans to include the Apocrypha in those editions of the Bible which were to be circulated overseas.

It is now one hundred and fifty years since James Haldane went to be with the Lord. What vast changes have taken place in the churches of Christ! What a changed attitude there is now towards the Word of God! May God Himself reverse that soon.