The book Arran; - Cook Clan

204 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
his appreciation of the reHgious character of the people/
had, of course, a different measure of judgment, a measure,
too, which has httle in common with the phenomena of
enthusiasm and emotional outpouring which are the grounds
of judgment of the later critics. To these Evangelicals
being moderate was to be in spiritual darkness. It is a
moderate mind who viewed the characteristics of revival
in the following fashion :
' Upwards of twenty years ago,
owing in a great degree to the encouragement given by the
minister of one of the parishes, a great number of people
were led to believe that their conversion must be instantaneous
and palpable, and that the operations of the Holy
Spirit should be as manifest now as in the time of the
apostles.' ^ The fuller bearing of this statement will be
made clear presently : it is cited in this connection only
to help in showing the radical difference in point of view,
and how what is admirable to one side may seem obnoxious
to the other. And it is quite possible to exaggerate either
way : neither were the people of Arran so bad before one
particular date, nor so good after another, unless we take
a very narrow test of goodness.
Moreover, it is very possible to read wrongly the habits
of a people. For example, in 1800 the brothers Haldane
visited Arran on a preaching tour. Robert and James
Haldane had both resigned promising positions in the Navy
and devoted themselves and their wealth to the propagation
of their own reading of Christian teaching, which finally
brought them into conflict with the Church of Scotland and
resulted in their setting up independent congregations of
worshippers in ' tabernacles,' as their meeting-houses were
called. In the year mentioned these men preached in the
villages and townships of the island, generally, as their habit
' See p. 141.
2 Mr. Paterson's (factor) 'Account of the Island of Arran' in Prize Essays of the
Highland Society, N.S., vol. v. pp. 141-2.