he gave a series of evening lectures which were crowded
to suffocation, and as the fame of him went abroad throughout all the
city, he was often the cynosure of eyes that were neither friendly nor
devout. But, if he sometimes failed to make a deep impression, he always
succeeded in persuading his hearers of the seriousness and importance of
eternal things, so that "many who came to laugh remained to pray."

In most of the great political and ecclesiastical controversies of his
day, Dr. Anderson has stood forward as the unflinching champion of
justice and mercy. He was a prominent and effective speaker on the
Voluntary question; and he rendered effective service to the movement
for the repeal of the slave trade. Besides these pet themes, Dr.
Anderson has always been a vigorous assailant of Popery, on which he has
spoken perhaps more frequently, and with greater effect, than any other
man of his time. During his crusade against Popery he received an
anonymous letter threatening that if he proceeded with his lectures on
the subject of the Mass, his life would be in danger. Nothing daunted,
however, he sent the anonymous letter to the head of the Roman Catholic
Church in Glasgow, with the intimation that it was still his intention
to persevere with his lectures despite threats and cajolery. About this
time he challenged to a public discussion the well-known Dr. Cahill, who
was then regarded as the champion of the Romish Church in this country.
His challenge was respectfully declined; but so bitter was the _animus_
raised against him that on more than one occasion he had to be escorted
to the platform of the City Hall by policemen. Finally, he overcame the
opposition of the Papists so far as to secure a patient hearing, and it
has since been admitted that his lectures were greatly instrumental in
arousing public opinion to a just sense of the errors and insidious
influence of the priests and the Papacy. There are, doubtless, not a few
still living in Glasgow who will remember Dr. Anderson's scathing
denunciations of American slavery and the strong sympathy which, from
the outbreak of the civil war, he expressed with the Federals. When
Henry Ward Beecher visited and lectured in Glasgow, he was supported by
Dr. Anderson, who spoke so bitterly and with such emphatic
disapprobation against the Southern States and their policy, that his
sentiments evoked the hisses of his audience. Nothing discomfited, he
pursued the even tenor of