Robert Haldane - Buried (1842)
At the end of August 1842 Robert Haldane became unwell, he asked the doctor his chances of recovery. The doctor replied, “Mr Haldane, you are a man of firm mind and not afraid of death. I have, therefore, no fear of alarming you when I say that it looks like a last illness.”His body was giving out after so much had been asked of it in a lifetime of service. In his last weeks he did not allow many visitors, except his brother, preferring to be alone. His mind continued to be sharp until the very end. He died quietly on December 12th, 1842, rejoicing in the faith he had preached, and the love and Christian charity which his whole life had so beautifully exemplified. His remains lie interred in one of the aisles of Glasgow Cathedral. His wife died just six months later, and her body was buried in the same vault with her husband. Their only child, Margaret, left one son and three daughters, the grandchildren of Robert Haldane.
The ‘Witness’ remarked on his death, “Mr Haldane was one of those eminent men who leave an impress of their character on the age in which they live; and devoted, as his whole energies from an early period were, to the cause of the Redeemer, and with an efficacy rarely in any age equalled, his is a name which will be remembered among the worthies of the Church when merely worldly fame is gone.”
After his brothers death the ‘Witness’ again testifies, “Viewed in his capacity of theologian, we have long regarded Robert Haldane, with all the disadvantages of non-professional education, as one of the GREATEST THEOLOGIANS of whom Scotland can boast, and in one important point of view, --in his uncompromising advocacy of sound doctrine, -- the very type of the man of the age.”