TABLET IN INFIRMARY CHAPEL. 245 that proselytising would take place, but the experience of the work carried out in the Newcastle Infirmary and in the Tynemouth workhouse proved that such fears were groundless, and even had there been any danger of the kind it would have been easy for the Guardians to have made regulations to prevent it. In order to perpetuate the regard which the ladies of the singing band entertained for the memory of Dr Bruce, they erected in the chapel of the Royal Infirmary a marble tablet bearing the following inscription : “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, THIS TABLET IS PLACED HERE BY THE MEMBERS OF THE INFIRMARY SINGING BAND, IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF PRESIDENT AND LEADER FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS. DEPARTED THIS LIFE, APRIL 5TH, 1892, AGED 86 YEARS. It is intended to place this tablet in the chapel of the new Victoria Infirmary. CHAPTER XIII. 1851, DR BRUCE LEAVES CLAVERING PLACE CHAPEL-CONDUCTS SERVICES IN HIRED ROOM-JOINS BLACKETT STREET CHURCH-1854, VISIT TO LONDON-1855, HIS ELDEST SON GOES TO LONDON-SECOND SON BORN-OXENDON CHAPEL-1841, DR ROBERT MOFFAT VISITS DR BRUCE JOHN SMITH MOFFAT BECOMES A PUPIL AT PERCY STREET SCHOOL-1857, DINNER TO DR LIVINGSTONE-1862, HARTLEY PIT CATASTROPHE-RELIGIOUS REVIVAL IN NEWCASTLE-1863, PREACHES AT WHITTINGHAM-1864, RELIGIOUS MEETINGS IN THE CIRCUSOTHER RELIGIOUS WORK-PREACHES AT KEILDER-1882, PREACHES AT BELLINGHAM AND AT WOOLER-1886, AT OTTERBURN-ASSISTS AT SERVICES AT KEILDER. As we have seen from a statement in the first chapter, John Bruce became a member of the Presbyterian congregation worshipping in Clavering Place Chapel, under the ministry of the Rev. James Pringle, and John Collingwood Bruce, with other members of the family, became attached to the same congregation and so continued until May 1851, when matters occurred which gave great pain to the subject of this memoir and caused him to leave the congregation. The Rev. James Pringle, the minister of the chapel, was much esteemed by his congregation and respected by all who knew him. Dr Bruce was warmly attached to him as an old family friend from whom he had received assistance and encouragement during his preparation for the ministry. Mr Pringle had been minister of the congregation since October 1804, LEAVES CLAVERING PLACE CHAPEL. 247 and in 1845, or about that time, it was determined that he should have the assistance of a colleague. The Rev. J. Brown Johnston was ordained to fill this office, but owing to failing health he resigned not many months after his ordination. To fill the vacancy thus created, the Rev. John Clarke Houston was ordained on the 30th of June 1847. Mr Houston was a young Irishman of ability, but possessed of more activity than discretion, and was without any experience in the management of affairs. He had not been the unanimous choice of the congregation, and a coldness arose between him and a number of the members which, as time went on, increased so as to create feelings incompatible with the relationship which ought to exist between a minister and his people. Accordingly it appeared to a large number of the members of the Clavering Place Church that no other course was open to them than to leave the congregation, and on the 28th of April 1851 a petition signed by 120 of the members praying that they might be erected into a separate congregation was presented to the session. The matter was adjourned from time to time until the 2nd of July. In the meantime an effort was made by Commissioners, appointed by the Synod to act with the Newcastle Presbytery, to devise means of accommodation between the contending parties, but without success. At length, on the 2nd of July, certificates of disjunction were granted to 140 members, of whom Dr Bruce was one. The majority of those persons had since the 5th of May ceased to attend the services at Clavering Place, and there was danger of their losing all connection with the Presbyterian Church. In these circumstances, pending the delay caused by the proceedings of the Session and in order to afford to the persons who had determined to leave the congregation an opportunity of considering the course they should ultimately pursue, Dr Bruce, as a licensed preacher of the Church, was asked to undertake for a time the duty of conducting Sunday services for the benefit of those who had ceased to attend Clavering Place Chapel. He considered that the keeping of the people together was a matter of sufficient importance to justify his compliance with this request, and for several weeks he conducted services regularly in a hall hired for the purpose, and so succeeded in preventing those who had left Clavering Place from becoming scattered. This was a great effort to him, considering his heavy week-day duties, but his ministrations were eminently acceptable to the people, and they were successful in their main object. Shortly afterwards nearly the whole body joined the Blackett Street Presbyterian congregation. Dr Bruce's services on this occasion were acknowledged by the presentation to him of a silver teapot bearing the following inscription : Presented to the REV. J. C. BRUCE, A.M., BY A NUMBER OF CHRISTIAN FRIENDS IN TESTIMONY OF THEIR ESTEEM FOR HIS CHARACTER AND GRATITUDE FOR HIS LABOURS. NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, 11th of Sept. 1851. JOINS BLACKETT STREET CHURCH. 249 The Blackett Street congregation "called" the Rev. Matthew McNaughton, who was ordained as minister, and he laboured with great acceptance until his death in February 1862. He was succeeded by the Rev. Richard Leitch, M.A., who was ordained minister of the congregation in January 1863, the duties of which office he continues to discharge with conspicuous zeal and ability. Dr Bruce, who had been ordained an elder at Clavering Place, became an active member of the Session of the Blackett Street congregation, and was always ready to exert himself to the utmost to promote the welfare of the Church, alike under the ministry of Mr M'Naughton and Mr Leitch. both of these ministers he was sincerely attached, and they in turn often sought his advice and always placed confidence in his judgment.1 Το The Rev. Richard Leitch, in a sermon preached by him in Blackett Street Church on the Sunday after Dr Bruce's death, thus alluded to him : "To this congregation, of which he was an elder for over forty years, he was ever cordially and closely attached. "In the poor he took a special interest, being always ready to render pecuniary aid, whilst over the weak and the erring he was ever disposed to throw the mantle of forgiveness and charity. "Regarding what he was to me during all my ministry, I dare not trust myself to speak. 1 In 1903 the congregation moved from Blackett Street into a new Church in College Road. |