THE REV. MR STEWART. . 159 



flintiest heart melt ; the cry that has gone up from cities 

 given over to fire and sword, the shuddering throe of 

 earthquake which hurries myriads to death ; but except 

 the cry on Calvary, which corresponded to it, no more 

 solemn and melancholy sound has been heard by human 

 ears than that which passed into the evening stillness 

 when the broad green earth was left to be the grave of 

 mankind, and God shut the door of the ark. Once 

 again God will shut the door. Man will not do it. Angel 

 will not do it. But oh, what a sigh and shudder will 

 pass through the listening universe when God will shut 

 the door of the heavenly ark upon the lost ! ' 



Such, or something like such, was Stewart's manner 

 of preaching. He had brief outlines before him in writ- 

 ing, and he brought out his picture, touch by touch, as 

 he went along. His strokes were few, decisive, memor- 

 able. I shall not say that all I have given above was his ; I 

 never put my impressions of his discourse into black and 

 white until now ; but this is my honest attempt to repro- 

 duce from the fossil bed of memory so much of the living 

 sermon. And a living word it was. The preacher, speak- 

 ing in clear, intense, low, yet rich and ringing tones, 

 held a large congregation, for, I should say, at least an 

 hour, in attention as fixed and silent as that of a child 

 hearing a wondrous tale from its mother. 



The two men of whom Miller used to speak as having 

 done most to form his character and powers were 

 Chalmers and Stewart. It was the general feeling in 

 the Church of Scotland at this period that these were her 

 most remarkable preachers ; and considering the remote- 

 ness of Cromarty, and the shy and retiring nature of 

 Stewart, this fact must be held to demonstrate that he 

 was a man of a high and peculiar order. After the 

 disruption of the Scottish Church in 1843, when it was 



