He himself was willing to spend and be spent
in the spiritual interests of East Elgin; that was
abundantly proven; what he could not comfortably tolerate
was the deviation of congregational funds, the very blood
of the body of belief, into other than legitimate channels.
He fought for his view with all his tactician's resources,
putting up one office-bearer after another to endorse it
but the matter was decided at the general yearly meeting
of the congregation; and the occasion showed Knox Church
in singular sympathy with its struggling offspring. Dr
Drummond for the first time in his ministry, was defeated
by his people. It was less a defeat than a defence, an
unexpected rally round the corporate right to direct
corporate activities; and the congregation was so anxious
to wound the minister's feelings as little as possible
that the grant in aid of the East Elgin Mission was
embodied in a motion to increase Dr Drummond's salary by
two hundred and fifty dollars a year. The Doctor with a
wry joke, swallowed his gilded pill, but no coating could
dissimulate its bitterness, and his chagrin was plain
for long. The issue with which we are immediately concerned
is that three months later Knox Church Mission called to
minister to it the Reverend Hugh Finlay, a young man from
Dumfriesshire and not long out.
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