No. 19
TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
Founder of the British Association
SIR DAVID BREWSTER, Bart., M.A., F.R.S., LL.D., M.L.C.E., founder of the British Association, Principal of Edinburgh University, Inventor of the Kaleidoscope, etc., author of many works. The most important period in his life is thus described by his daughter .
She is recording a conversation which her father had with her sister-in-law, Mrs. Macpherson, who says: “I had a long talk with dear papa upon the suffering of Christ, from which we passed on to speaking of the gratitude due to God. . . . We spoke of the possibility of feeling any love towards God, and agreed that such a sentiment of love as is possible between man and man, was impossible between man and God. ‘How can we love Him,’ he said—’One whom we have not seen ? We admire Him in His works, and trust from the wisdom seen in these that He is wise in all His dealings—but how can we love Him?'” After this conversation, his daughter-in-law being herself led to understand how alone the love of the unseen Christ can be shed abroad in the heart by the working of the Holy Spirit, felt that she must confess this change in her views and feelings. “He listened most attentively, and when I had finished, took me in his arms, kissed me, and said, in such a child-like manner, `Go, now, then, and pray that I may know it too.”
Many striking incidents are recorded which show how real was the work of grace in his soul. On one occasion he was listening to a brief memoir of a man of science, a medical man, of whom it was said that “notwithstanding his high talents and his great literary and scientific attainments, he received Christ as his Saviour.” Brewster interrupted the reader with an exclamation of vehement disapproval. “Notwithstanding his talents! That disgusts me,” he said; “a merit for a man to bow his intellect to the Cross! Why, what can the highest intellect on earth do, but bow to God’s Word and God’s mind thankfully?”
At another time he spoke with deep regret of a conversation he had with one who held what are called broad church views. Tears filled his eyes as he said, “Oh, is it not sad that all are not contented with the beautiful simple plan of God’s salvation—Jesus Christ only, who has done all for us?”
Of the Atonement, he said to a friend, “It is everything to me: it meets my reason, it satisfies my conscience, it fills my heart.”
He finished his course in 1868, at the ripe age of 87.