2.7.2014 DR. ALEXANDER WHYTE

taken from a biography by g.f. barbour

whyte as pastor and friend...

358 instructions to an assistant in the pastoral ministry while away from the church at
which he was head pastor, Free St. George in edinburgh, scotland.

...'this is my first letter from this place
and i write it because i left so much of my work in your hands.
take from two to three hours five days a week among the sick, etc and your other visiting
and be good enough to send me as full a report as you can of whom you have seen
and how they all are.
let me have your report once a week or so.
all my men (assistants in the ministry) have done this when i was from home.
but mr. davidson beat them all in the business like way he kep his book
and kept me up in everything.
i felt as if i visited every afternboon when i read his diary.

...throughout his ministry it was his custom to keep such members,
who were prevented from joining in the outward fellowship of the church,
especially in remembrace at the time of the quarterly communion in Free St. George's.
on the friday before each communion sunday he would send them post cards,
generally written out in his own hand,
giving the full order of service, including praise, scripture and
the subjects of the action sermon and the table address,
that so, beginning at 11 oclock, they might follow from their own rooms
each successive act of the service.
and for those whose illness was very long continued or dangerous
he would hold a simple communion service by the sickbed, accompanied by one of his elders,
according to the presbyterian usage.

another feature of his work at these seasons was that he tried, as far as possible,
to be present at preparatory gatherings which were held in three of the congregational districts
-in one case in a boarding school for girls
and in the others in the leder's house.
one of these had begun very simply by the meeting of two or three members for prayer
in view of the communion;
then others gathered in, until the whole membership of the district was represented.
Dw was singularlyhappy in the informal fellowsip of the earlier part of these evenings
and singularly impressive in conducting the worship with which they closed.
one who did much to arrange these gatherinfgsa speake of the sense of unity that pervaded them
-a sense not so readily attained in a large congregation-
as those present realised with great clearness their oneness with Christ and with one another.

family partings, too, brought DW thus intgo the homes of his people.
he always endeavoured to be present to conduct Family Worship on sunday evening
in any household where death had entered during the receding week.
or, if a daughter were sailing for the mission field,
ofr a son setting out to take up work in the indian civil service
or  in a business house in the far east,
a post car telling him of the approaching departure would bring him to the house on the evening before.
those who remember the originality, the tenderness,
and the deep sense of the presence of God
which marked his conducting of family worship on such occasions as these,
can readily believe that his words travelled far
and remained long as a safeguard and an inspiration
in the hearts of those who went forth to work in distant lands.

two other stories of his pastoral work my best be told in the words of dr. kelman (an associate):

'one poor old woman whom he visited had complained during the whole of twenty minutes
about everybody and everything
and he had sat silent.
then he lifted his gloves and hat and shook hands with her to bid her good bye, saying only,
'and, mind you, forget not all His benefits!

on another occasion, visiting one who had more cause for complaint
and whose heart was well nigh broken,
he kneeled down with her in her poor room and said simply,
'O Lord, here's two poor old folk needing You sorely.
You won't be hard upon us!'

resolute as was DW's character, he had seasons of deep depression regarding the results of his work
in the pulpit or among his people;
and at such times a message of gratitude from one of them
-sometimes from a retiring and little known member
-brought great refreshment  to his spirit.
on one occasion the sense of failure in his ministry coloured his evening sermon
and prompted one of his hearers to write and tell him something of what that ministry meant to her.
she posted the letter before midnight, i order that it might rfeach him on monday morning
and that afternoon's post brought his reply:
'your letter is a cup of wine to me this morning-Believe me, AW

if he at times accepted with gratittude the consolations which others brought,
he himself was a minister of comfort to many.
little can be said regarding this intimate and sacred part of his work
but a letter may be quoted, addressed in 1895
to a friend whose daughter had died:
'I have been much touched by your bereavement.
the best way to get one's heart touched by our brother's trials is to put ourselves in his place.
when i do that and look on my own girls, my heart goes out to you.
God bless you and your house. -with great regard and sympathy, AW

a yet briefer lettter was called forth by the death of DW's tried friend, Sir thomas clark,
who passed away on christmas eve, 1901.
this single sentence brought greater comfort ot his widow than anything else could have done:
'dear lady clark, -what a glorious christmans morning this is for Sir thomas. AW

to a friend who asked his advice on a difficult life problem, DW replied in these words:
'if any man chould testify to the power and the good ness of God in his life,
i think i am that man.
and my testimony to you is this:
trust in God.
still trust in God.
and though He slays you, still trust in Him.
all things are in His hand.
all the keys are at His girdle.
and we have His oath that all things shall work together for good
to them that love Him.
Thou knowest all things;
Thou knowest that i love Thee!

let me hear form you soon.
and never hesitate to tell my wife and me what concerns you.
i think i can say that nbowhere have you friends who love you more than we do.

to another young friend who was faced with a sudden break in his work he wrote:
'this arrest makes me all the more distressed on account of the work.
but He who has laid this arrest on you and on your work,
does all things well.
not a heair of our head falls to the ground without Him.
we repeat this and do not disbelieve it at other times:
but it is at times of sore personal tribulation that we come to
KNOW IT EXPERIMENTALLY AND UNCHALLENGEABLY.
He has His eye on you to make you a great sewrvant of His:
and this is one of His ways.
may you have a victorious and joyous sense of His presence and preace.

DW did not write long letters of spiritual counsel,
nor did he enter in his letters into elaborate argument on religious truth.
when he wrote at all, his words were few and weighty, summoning, as in the instances just quoted,
to a trustful acceptance of the divine guidance.
but, if it were possible, he preferred that the seeker for his help should come to his study for a quiet talk.
one who had such a conversation in a time of deep religious perplexity in his study in melville street
towards the close of the first decade of his edinburgh ministry,
preserved these notes of the counsel which he gave:

'draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you.
ACT faith if you do not feel it.
if you cannot think spiritually about Christ,
think natually of his work, a passage in His history, a word of His sayings.
better think thus than not at all.
though cold and faithless at first