The Annals of the Parish | Page 3

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ANNALS OF THE PARISH Or The Chronicle of Dalmailing during
the ministry of the Rev. Micah Balwhidder. Written by himself and
arranged and edited by John Galt

INTRODUCTION

In the same year, and on the same day of the same month, that his
Sacred Majesty King George, the third of the name, came to his crown
and kingdom, I was placed and settled as the minister of Dalmailing. {1}
When about a week thereafter this was known in the parish, it was
thought a wonderful thing, and everybody spoke of me and the new
king as united in our trusts and temporalities, marvelling how the same
should come to pass, and thinking the hand of Providence was in it, and
that surely we were preordained to fade and flourish in fellowship
together; which has really been the case: for in the same season that his
Most Excellent Majesty, as he was very properly styled in the
proclamations for the general fasts and thanksgivings, was set by as a
precious vessel which had received a crack or a flaw, and could only be
serviceable in the way of an ornament, I was obliged, by reason of age
and the growing infirmities of my recollection, to consent to the earnest
entreaties of the Session, and to accept of Mr Amos to be my helper. I
was long reluctant to do so; but the great respect that my people had for
me, and the love that I bore towards them, over and above the sign that
was given to me in the removal of the royal candle-stick from its place,
worked upon my heart and understanding, and I could not stand out. So,
on the last Sabbath of the year 1810, I preached my last sermon, and it
was a moving discourse. There were few dry eyes in the kirk that day;
for I had been with the aged from the beginning--the young considered
me as their natural pastor--and my bidding them all farewell was, as
when of old among the heathen, an idol was taken away by the hands of
the enemy.
At the close of the worship, and before the blessing, I addressed them
in a fatherly manner; and, although the kirk was fuller than ever I saw it
before, the fall of a pin might have been heard--at the conclusion there
was a sobbing and much sorrow. I said,
"My dear friends, I have now finished my work among you for ever. I
have often spoken to you from this place the words of truth and
holiness; and, had it been in poor frail human nature to practise the
advice and counselling that I have given in this pulpit to you, there
would not need to be any cause for sorrow on this occasion-- the close

and latter end of my ministry. But, nevertheless, I have no reason to
complain; and it will be my duty to testify, in that place where I hope
we are all one day to meet again, that I found you a docile and a
tractable flock, far more than at first I could have expected. There are
among you still a few, but with grey heads and feeble hands now, that
can remember the great opposition that was made to my placing, and
the stout part they themselves took in the burly, because I was
appointed by the patron; but they have lived to see the error of their
way, and to know that preaching is the smallest portion of the duties of
a faithful minister. I may not, my