‘It’s a queer trade our trade,’ a minister’s wife used to say, with a melancholy sigh, and she never explained. ‘Fine profession ours,’ remarked a gay licentiate, ‘if it were not for the preaching and the visiting.’ Some are no pedestrians, but good pulpiteers, and _vice versâ_: some avoid Church courts; others glory in them. Macleod not only attended to all departments of a minister’s work, but availed himself of every official privilege, if it implied service to the Church or the community. Early in his Barony period he became a distinct force in the General Assembly, and that in two directions,--ecclesiastical liberality, and the India Mission. If the Establishment, he argued, was to have a future, it must recognise the tide that was surely breaking down the ecclesiastical barriers which stood in the way of the secular advance. Hence he advocated, to the horror of the House, the repeal of the theological tests for university professors. But it was in connection with the cause of the heathen that his name rose in the religious world. He preached every year for the London Missionary Society, and when he spoke in the General Assembly on the Mission Reports there was always a crowd. CHAPTER V EDITOR AND AUTHOR Pursuing his aim of putting life into the Establishment Macleod had, in 1849, started a little paper, the _Edinburgh Christian Magazine_, which may be described as a miniature plan or first sketch of _Good Words_. Its circulation did not exceed five thousand, but ‘the blue magazine,’ as it was called, was no mean agent in the revival of the drooping Church. While yet minister of Dalkeith he was frequently seen about the office of the publishers, Messrs. Paton & Ritchie, in George Street, Edinburgh; but after his removal to Glasgow the editorial instructions were given in correspondence with the head printer, Mr. J. C. Erskine. That gentleman writes: ‘Usually he was behind time, and I had consequently to poke him up about the middle of each month. But we were always on the best of terms, and I always felt honoured as well as delighted in being associated with so lovable a man and having the privilege of his acquaintance.’ These are some of the letters, in whole or part:-- (1) Erskine,--I have worn crape for two days for you, having made up my mind that you were out of print, or in Death’s _Index Expurgatorius_. What has become of you? Well, the concern must pay, _but_ the proof-sheet must be corrected or the whole article cancelled, as I MUST not give the facts from a private letter in _that_ style. Delay the publication if you like, but put it right, or let the concern of P. & R. perish! (2) Erskine,--You know what it is to be done up in sheets, with a second volume in the Press. Have patience! I _bind_ myself to be ready by the 20th, though at present I am a blank sheet.