Macleod, NORMAN

Macleod, NORMAN, a divine of the Church of Scotland eminent for his pulpit oratory, his writings, and his liberal Christianity, the son of a parish minister, was born at Campbeltown, Argyllshire, June 3, 1812. He was educated at Campbeltown and Campsie, to which his father had been translated, attended Glasgow University, and entering the church became minister of London, in Ayrshire (1838-43); of Dalkeith (1843-45); and of the important Barony Church, Glasgow, from July 1851 till his death, June 16, 1872. He received the degree of D.D. in 1858, and was appointed one of the Queen's Chaplains in Scotland, the Queen valuing highly his sermons, sympathy, and advice. An utterance of his on the Sabbath question in 1865 startled his brethren and the public, and he was threatened with prosecution; but wiser counsels prevailed. In 1869 he was moderator of the General Assembly, and was designated Dean of the Chapel Royal and Chaplain of the Order of the Thistle. In 1845 he visited Canada as a church deputy; he was in Palestine in 1864-65, and in India in 1867, on mission business for the Church of Scotland. One of the most eloquent and powerful addresses he ever delivered was that on missions before the General Assembly, after his return. From 1850 to 1859 Macleod edited the Edinburgh Christian Magazine, for a year the Christian Guest (1860), and from 1860 till 1872 Good Words, to which he contributed tales, essays, verses, sermons, most of which were reprinted in book-form. Full of healthy life and human sympathy himself, his writings show shrewd observation, lively description, and good-humour; his tales are lacking on the constructive side. He possessed a large, simple, childlike nature, full of tenderness, and was broad and catholic in his sympathies, which bound him to humanity at many points. He published The Earnest Student (1854), Deborah (1857), Daily Meditations (1861), The Gold Thread (1861), The Old Lieutenant (1862), Parish Papers (1862), Wee Davie (1864), Simple Truth (1866), Eastward (1866), Reminiscences of a Highland Parish (his grandfather's parish of Morven, 1867), The Starling (1867), Peeps at the Far East (1871). See Memoir (1876) by the Rev. Donald Macleod, and articles by Strahan (Contemporary Review, July 1872) and Dean Stanley (Good Words, 1872).