The annual congregational soirée of Blantyre Free Church was held on Friday the 17th February 1893. This was also the Jubilee event for the Church which became Anderson Church on Stonefield Road.
Mr Campbell was accompanied to the platform by Rev. A. Buchan of Glasgow, Rev. D. M’Ewan Morgan of Partick, and Rev. T. Pearson of East Kilbride, along with Messrs Hugh and Burleigh of Blantyre. There was a large attendance at the event.
After tea, the Chairman addressed the gathering:
“Friends, our annual soirée reminds us that another year of our congregational life has drawn to a close — that time is swiftly gliding past — that improve, neglect, abuse its golden hours as we may, we are unable to arrest its ceaseless, onward flow.
It is not my intention in addressing you to confine myself to the past year, as has been our custom at former social meetings. We shall, however, depart from that tonight.”
The Chairman continued by highlighting the significance of the occasion:
“This, as you know, is a red-letter year in our Church’s history. It is her year of jubilee. It is now fifty years since the Disruption.”
It is also our Jubilee. We, as a congregation, are as old as the Free Church itself. Perhaps you will find it interesting if I take a few moments tonight to look back over our past history, and recall a few facts that concern us as a congregation.
The first minister was the Rev. James Anderson, who was ordained in the Parish Church in 1833. He was a man of quiet and earnest spirit. During the stirring and anxious ten-year conflict which preceded the Disruption, he saw his path of duty clearly marked out.
When he went to the General Assembly in Edinburgh in 1843, he went with his mind fully made up—resolved that rather than submit to State control, he would sever his connection with the Church to which he belonged. That decision did by no means come without cost.
When he returned to Blantyre, it was to find himself without a church and without a manse, but not without a congregation. A considerable number in the parish were attached to Free Church principles. First of all, a church was built— on one called “rented” land. It was a large plain edifice, without architectural adornment of any kind.
In these days Free Church Congregation were glad of a roof to cover them. In many places they could not even get that. The Lords of the soil refused sites on which to build and would have refused them standing ground had that been possible.
In Blantyre, where land was at a premium, a site was eventually secured. In a very short time, a church was built. One hundred and twenty sat down to the first communion. Immediately after the church was erected in 1846, a manse followed, as was common custom then.
The people of that time were few in number. They certainly were not wealthy, but they were enthusiastic, generous, and liberal. Like their minister, they had faith in God: “nothing was impossible to them.”
In those early days, there were difficulties that we know nothing about now. Pioneer work is always hard. Those who laid the foundations of the Free Church in Blantyre found it so; but they had a mind, a heart, and a will to work—and so were not dismayed.
For seventeen years, Mr Anderson continued to labour faithfully and zealously. On his death-bed, he was overheard in prayer, addressing his Lord:
“I thank Thee, O Lord, that in that trying hour Thou didst enable me to be faithful.”
He died in May 1860. Continued on Part 2 tomorrow.
