well-to-do folks in our connection.1 The congregation caught the tone of his tender loving spirit, and through his influence we cared more for each other than we had ever done before his coming." It is perhaps also worth while observing that the inquiries which he made before accepting the invitation, indicated the prudence and insight which added so much to the significance of his absolute subordination of material interests to higher claims. It was not from any ignorance or recklessness that pecuniary considerations held so little place in his mind, it was because they were so entirely outweighed by the claims of duty. Of his creed nothing more need be added here, Undoubtedly it had gained a depth and maturity during his six years' pastorate, with all its experience of teaching and of suffering; but in substance it was that same doctrine of the Universal Love of God in Christ, which he had been debarred from preaching in the United Presbyterian Church, that he came to declare in Rusholme.

And so in October, 1865, began the pastorate which was to continue without a break for the twenty-seven remaining years of his life. Of incidents there are few to be recorded. The story is one of deepening attachment within the limits of his own congregation, and of widening influence and recognition outside of it. The growth in numbers was not great or rapid. Dr. Macfadyen had already pointed to a hindrance which was likely to arise from the nearness of Union Chapel, which the eloquence, genius, and spiritual

1 It is touching to remember that the last social gathering which he was able to have at his Rusholme home was one of the maid-servants of the congregation.

force of Alexander Maclaren was already crowding to the doors. He thought that the distance was sufficient to exclude unseemly rivalry, and certainly of unseemliness there was never a trace. No two neighbours were ever more closely united by brotherly sympathy and mutual respect, deepening on both sides into something like reverence, than Finlayson and Maclaren. None the less it was a fact, all the more evident after the congregation of Union Chapel moved to a much more spacious and attractive building considerably nearer to Rusholme, that each Sunday hundreds of persons, who might have naturally found a home at the Rusholme Church, were drawn past its doors by the magnetism of the famous preacher half a mile further townwards. Nor did Rusholme remain wholly unaffected by the streaming of the population into the remoter suburbs, which has tried so severely all our town churches. The young especially, as they settled in homes of their own, commonly found these in parts from which the country fields and lanes were more easily accessible. But in spite of this, the church at Rusholme continued to prosper, and the number of its members, which had been less than forty, increased to more than four times that number. Their only anxiety arose from the minister's frequent lack of strength. At one time his state of nervous depression and weakness was such that it was evident that something must be done. As early as 1876 or 1877 he had consulted his brother James Finlayson, M.D., of Glasgow, as to the wisdom of escaping the strain of preaching, which was trying his general health severely, by taking up literary work. At this time a way was found to relieve him, which proved

most helpful and acceptable. Provision was made by the congregation for the appointment, for a time, of an assistant minister of his own selection. Mr. Finlayson was happy enough to find one after his own heart in Mr. J. A. Mitchell, B.A., of New College, London, who came to him in April, 1877, and for more than eighteen months worked with him "as a son with a father in the gospel." The feeling that there was always some one ready to take any part of the service (sermon included) to which he might not at the time feel equal, was an inexpressible relief to Mr. Finlayson ; and often his mere presence freed him from nervous apprehensions which otherwise would have been quite disabling. When Mr. Mitchell was invited to the church over which he still is pastor at Nottingham, Mr. Finlayson had regained sufficient strength to take up full work again, but not without much shrinking self-distrust. In 1879 the question of literary work was raised again, at a time when he was stronger physically than he had been, but not less distressed nervously. His brother then wrote, "If you had a change from the constant anxiety about preaching, which assumes the character of a '-phobia,' I would expect you to recover, even as to you have done as regards walking." in a small college was regarded as highly desirable; and in some subjects Mr. Finlayson, with his clearness and consistency of thought, and his faculty of exposition, would have made an admirable teacher, but no opening of the kind offered itself, and so he went bravely on with his pastorate. It may be remarked that the want of a degree would have proved no barrier to an academical appointment with any who knew the facts

preaching, just as A professorship

of the case. His University distinctions pointed to attainments much above the standard of the ordinary M.A.; and that he did not happen to take his degree was due to causes familiar enough to all who are interested in the history of the Scottish Universities forty years ago.

With the exception of the time of break-down, the only incidents that marked this stage of his ministry were the publication of various books. A volume of sermons- -The Divine Gentleness and other Sermonswas issued in 1874, reaching a second edition (now also exhausted) in 1884. The Christian Voyage, published by the Religious Tract Society, followed in 1877. It is interesting to know that this has been translated into Samoan, and has been found attractive to natives of the South Sea Islands. A little volume on Nehemiah, his Character and Work, was issued by the same society in 1880. In 1885 there was published Biological Religion: an Essay on "Natural Law in the Spiritual World"-the substance of a course of lectures on Prof. Drummond's extraordinarily popular book, delivered in the previous winter. This is not the proper place to offer any criticism of this essay, and any remarks upon it had better be postponed; but it may be observed that, small as was its compass, no previous publication had done so much to extend and heighten Mr. Finlayson's reputation for exact thinking, clear expression, and perfectly courteous but most effective polemic. A second edition was quickly called for, and this in its turn went rapidly out of print. In this same year Mr. Finlayson received and declined a tempting invitation to go out to Sydney, N.S.W. In 1886 the twenty-first anniversary of his

settlement at Rusholme was celebrated by the presentation of a testimonial, including a purse of three hundred guineas. The meeting was one of those quiet gatherings at which, without formality or fuss, friends have a chance of saying out what is in their hearts, and the keynote set by Mr. Finlayson's dignified simplicity and frankness was happily sustained throughout. In 1887 he published what is, on the whole, the maturest and most continuous of his works-The Meditations and Maxims of Koheleth, a practical Exposition of Ecclesiastes. This is also now out of print and

scarce.

The difficulty which he often felt in discharging even his regular duties made him very reluctant to accept engagements elsewhere, and it was rarely that he would either preach or speak at meetings at other churches-never, indeed, except when the claim upon him was exceptional; but by degrees he rose to a prominent position in the esteem of his brother ministers in Manchester, and indeed in Lancashire, as much by his character as by the strength of his convictions, and the dialectical powers which he showed at their fraternal meetings. In 1884 his name came out at the head of the ballot for the chairmanship of the Lancashire Congregational Union. This office is entirely honorary, the sole duty being to give the address at the annual meeting of the Union, and it is conferred simply as a mark of general respect, or as an acknowledgment of conspicuous services. But Mr. Finlayson shrank from undertaking even this duty, and declined to serve. Four years afterwards, in 1888, he was again elected. This time he accepted the position, but only on condition that a friend of his would read his