QUARRELWOOD ChURCH AND ITS MINISTERS. 171 



" Mr Fairley was a man of commanding presence, being in 

 his prime fully six feet high. He had an iron frame and portly, 

 symmetrical figure, with a stern, pellucid azure eye ; his com- 

 plexion was fresh, his countenance comely, grave, and expressive ; 

 his voice was rich, deep-toned, and highly sonorous, so that his 

 general appearance gave him a prepossessing and commanding 

 aspect in tent or pulpit. Unless he had possessed an uncommonly 

 robust constitution he could never have sustained the exposure 

 and toil of travelling amidst the pelting of the pitiless storm over 

 the mountains and moors of Nithsdale and Galloway, when 

 accomplishing his annual circuit of 15 or 16 weeks' duration." 

 The Cameronians had not a single house for worship until about 

 1790, so that he had to preach in barn or building convenient, 

 and often on the hillsides, even in the depth of winter. 



He was a well-read theologian, and also in the book of the 

 human heart. He is said to have been minute and practical in 

 his applications, and earnest in condemning the vices of the 

 times, so that those who did not like to have their faults told 

 them in order to amend them, said he was scolding. " What 

 took ye out yesterday before the sermon was finished?" asked 

 a man of his neighbour. " I waited till the end of the sermon," 

 was the reply, "but I could not stand 'the flyting.' " He was 

 greatly displeased when people hurried away before the benedic- 

 tion, not waiting to take the blessing with them ; and one morning 

 as a female more gay in her attire as he thought than becom- 

 ing passed the pulpit, he remarked : " Some individuals appear 

 to have spent more time in decking their heads than in the closet 

 at their prayers." 



Once, preaching on "patronage " and kindred topics from a 

 tent in Nithsdale, the incumbent of the parish, being present, 

 stood up at the dismission and announced that if Mr Fairley 

 would come to the manse he would refute all he had said. 

 "No, no," was the reply, " I will do no such thing; but will you 

 come here to-morrow at noon, when you may do it, if you are 

 able, before the people, who will be our judges?" This ended 

 the matter. He did not appear. 



\\ hen in Ireland preaching he spoke out against Roman 

 Catholicism, when some of those present vowed they would take 

 vengeance on him. His friends warned him of the danger he 



