hrough the Disruption of 1843. We find both Lord Lorne, and
Earlston his factor, sitting as elders beside one another in the Glasgow
Assembly of 1638, and then we find Earlston the member for Galloway in
the Parliament of 1641.

We do not know exactly on what occasion it was that Earlston refused to
accept the knighthood that was offered him by the Crown; but we seem to
hear the old Wycliffite come back again in his great-grandson as he said,
'No, your Majesty, excuse and pardon me; but no.' Alexander Gordon felt
that it would be an everlasting dishonour to him and to his house to let
his shoulder be touched in knighthood by a sword that was wet, and that
would soon be still more wet, with the best blood in Scotland. 'No, your
Majesty, no.'

Almost all that we are told about Earlston in the histories of his time
bears out the greatness of his spirit; that, and the stories that gives
rise to, take the eye of the ordinary historian; but good John
Livingstone, though not a great historian in other respects, is by far
the best historian of that day for our purpose. John Livingstone's
_Characteristics_ is a perfect gallery of spiritual portraits, and the
two or three strokes he gives to Alexander Gordon make him stand out
impressively and memorably to all who understand and care for the things
of the Spirit.

'A man of great spirit, but much subdued by inward exercise.' I do not
need to tell you what exercise is--at least bodily exercise. All that a
man does to draw out, develop, and healthfully occupy his bodily powers
in walking, riding, running, wrestling, carrying burdens, and leaping
over obstacles--all that is called bodily exercise, and some part of that
is absolutely necessary every day for the health of the body and for the
continuance and the increase of its strength. But we are not all body;
we are soul as well, and much more soul than body. Bodily exercise
profiteth little, says the Apostle,--compared, that is, with the exercise
of the soul, of the mind, and of the heart. Now, Alexander Gordon was
such an athlete of the heart that all who knew him saw well what exercise
he must have gone through before he was subdued in his high mind and
proud spirit to be so humble, so meek, so silent, so unselfish, and so
full of godliness and brotherly kindness--what a world of inward exercise
all that bespoke! Alexander Gordon's patience under wrong, his low
esteem of himself and of all he did, his miraculous powe