Reminiscence of Dr. T. Guthrie - from Studies in
Scottish History by Taylor Innes
Relating to the
awful days after the Disruption
This was the point of one of the most striking
reminiscences of Dr. Thomas Guthrie at a later date; “I remember passing a
manse on a moonlight night, with the minister who had left it, for the cause of
truth. No light shone from the house, and no smoke arose. Pointing to it in the
moonlight, I said, ‘Oh, my friend, it was a noble thing to leave that
house.’ ‘Ah, yes,’ he replied; ‘it was a noble thing, but
for all that it was a bitter thing. I shall never forget the night I left that
house till I am laid in my grave. When I saw my wife and children go forth in
the gloaming; when I saw them for the last time leave our own door; and when in
the dark I was left alone, with none but my God in that house; and when I had
to take water and quench the fire on my own hearth, and put out the candle in
my own house, and turn the key against myself, and my wife, and my little ones
that night - God in His mercy grant that such a night I may never again see
!
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