205
Under this impulse he resolved to be a missionary,
with Africa for his sphere of occupation. Accord-
ingly, he somewhat hastily abandoned his mercantile
employment, and betook himself wholly to study,
but on applying to the managers of the Theological
Academy, they did not judge it fit to admit him as a
pupil. Keen as was his disappointment, he meekly
submitted to this rejection, and turning again to
business, he was for several months unable to obtain
a situation, until at last he happily succeeded. It
was now also that he turned to his proper work
of a home missionary. He had a Sabbath-school,
where he administered religious instruction to 200
children. He took a very active share in the estab-
lishment of adult schools in Glasgow in connection
with the Sabbath-evening School Youths' Union.
In addition to these laborious and gratuitous services,
he was secretary to the Bridewell Association for the
moral and religious improvement of the male pri-
soners, and a visitor in the Glasgow prison to cri-
minals under sentence of death. This was much for
a youth only in his nineteenth year, and who had his
daily occupation to employ him.
After having been employed in these self-imposed
tasks of Christian philanthropy, which had now be-
come the great charm of his existence, a change
occurred by which David Nasmith was enabled to
give himself wholly up to his beloved work. The
arrival of Dr. Chalmers in Glasgow had given such
a new impulse to religious benevolence and activity,
that the old societies were renovated, and new ones
formed, which had the diffusion of divine truth and
the improvement of public morals for their object.
But as their aim was one, however various their
titles and modes of operation, it was deemed expe-
dient to combine them for mutual support in their
common effort, and they had accordingly procured
a large and commodious edifice, which was divided
into rooms and offices suitable for their respective
purposes. These establishments being thus collected
under one roof, a manager and overseer of the whole
was found necessary, and accordingly a public adver-
tisement was published in October, 1821, to the fol-
lowing effect: '' Clerk wanted. —A person acquainted
with books and accounts, to act as assistant-secretary
to the religious societies connected with the Institu-
tion Rooms, No. 59 Glassford Street, to whom
liberal encouragement will be given. None need
apply but such as can satisfy the committee that their
character is unexceptionable, and that they have the
interest of such societies at heart." This was pre-
cisely the situation for Nasmith: it would furnish
him with the means of following out his chosen life-
long occupation upon a wider scale, and with larger
means of action, and he accordingly hastened to
answer the advertisement. As yet he was only
twenty-two years old, and might be objected to on
the score of his youth and inexperience; but he
stated in his application that such institutions had been
"the delightful and interesting employment" of his
leisure hours for the space of ten years, during three
of which he had officiated as secretary to the Glasgow
Youths' Bible Association—and for proof of his con-
tinued interest in it and other religious societies, he
referred to several distinguished gentlemen in the
city, both clerical and laic. In reference to his busi-
ness habits and knowledge of books and accounts,
which were also of such importance for the office, he
offered to produce testimonials from his employer,
the manufacturer in whose service he had been em-
ployed nearly five years. His application was suc-
cessful, and the committee of the Religious Societies'
Rooms elected him for their clerk. In stating this
to him, however, the convener also notified that the
salary fixed for the first year was not more than
sixty pounds ! It was the pittance of a shop-porter
for the work of a scholar, a gentleman, and a clergy-
man—and this too from a combination of twenty-
three institutions, whose principle of action was based
upon Christian liberality! But David Nasmith, with
such an amount of work before him, and such scanty
remuneration, was not a man to stickle upon pounds,
shillings, and pence, however provident the directors
might be on that head, and he closed immediately
with the offer in terms of grateful acknowledgment.
But the situation had benefits for him in return which
money cannot buy, and which are thus stated by
his biographer : "The three-and-twenty committees
with and for whom he acted, were composed of min-
isters and laymen of all sects and of all parties, both
in religion and politics. . . . To David this
became not only a high sphere of religious and phil-
anthropic action, but of moral and intellectual educa-
tion. The most distinguished men in the city be-
came his personal friends and his daily companions.
Close and constant contact with such society could
not fail to refine his manners, enlarge his views, and
elevate his character. To his lengthened training
here he mainly owed that free, and easy, and noble
air which, on all occasions in after-life, so distin-
guished him. With scholars and gentlemen he was
quite at home. His manner was nevertheless
marked by singular modesty, without a particle of
the embarrassments of bashfulness; and by the most
perfect self-possession, without one particle of the
offensiveness of arrogance. . . . To the training
through which David passed during his lengthened
connection with the Institution House, and the know-
ledge of men and things he there acquired, his suc-
cess in afterwards dealing with mankind may very
mainly be attributed. He thus became thoroughly
conversant with associated operation; he obtained a
very deep insight into the true condition of city so-
ciety, and thus discovered its wants; he saw directly
before him the amount and character of the agency
provided for the supply of those wants; and hence
he ascertained how much of those wants still re-
mained unsupplied. Living society was in fact the
great theme of his constant and intense study.
Morning, noon, and night he was deeply employed
in pondering the book of human nature." Nor was
Nasmith indifferent to those scholastic aids by which
his training might be matured and perfected. For
this purpose he attended the course of lectures on
logic and rhetoric delivered by Professor Jardine in
the university of Glasgow, and the morning lectures
of Dr. M'Gill, professor of theology. He also em-
ployed every moment of his leisure time in perusing
the current literature of the day, and especially of
such as was connected with his own avocations.
After attending to the Sabbath-schools, in the
establishment, visitation, and teaching of which he
showed a tact, energy, and persuasiveness that were
unrivalled, David Nasmith's attention was called from
the condition of children to that of young men of a
better class with which every such mercantile city as
Glasgow abounds—the youths especially who serve as
clerks and apprentices in shops, warehouses, and pub-
lic works, and who, being largely recruited from the
rural districts, are at a distance from the restraints of
home, and exposed to the allurements of a town life—
and university students from the country, who are
liable to the same temptations. To collect these and
other such young men together for mutual religious
instruction and improvement was now a great aim
of Nasmith, and in this he succeeded so well, that in
1824 fifteen associations of the Young Men's Society
for Religious Improvement were established within