DEATH OF THE REV. ANDREW ROBERTSON.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4338, 13 February 1875, Page 5

DEATH OF THE REV. ANDREW ROBERTSON.

(From the Melbourne Daily Telegraph). It is with the sincerest regret that we have to record the demise of tho Eev. Andrew Robertson, the honored pastor of the Presbyterian Church at West Melbourne. The death was a very sudden one, and gave a severe shock to his numberless friends when the news of it was circulated throughout the city. Mr. Robertson had been ailing for several days, previously, but there were no indications that his decease would have taken place so suddenly. He preached to his congregation last Sunday both morning and evening, both sermons being from the same text, viz., Psalms cxix., 1, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.’ The usual prayer meeting was held in his church next evening. He has been in the habit of taking a prominent part in these services, hut last evening, feeling more than unusually unwell, he asked Mr. Cross, one of the elders of the church, to take his place, and complaining of a slight choking sensation, he returned to the manse, which adjoins the church, and sat down on a couch in the verandah, while the service proceeded. Mrs. Eobcrtmn and two or three friends were in the garden fronting the manse at the time, and about half-past seven o’clock, hearing him make a rather sudden movement, they rushed to the verandah just in time to see him fall down in the doorway leading into the house. They thought at first that he had merely fainted through the heat of the weather, hut on lifting his head they found he was_ dead. Dr, Fitzgerald, who had attended him in the morning, was immediately called in, and that gentleman stated that death. had resulted from rupture of one of the valves of tho lungs. Mr. Robertson had suffered from his lungs for a long time, and about twelve months ago, by the advice of Dr. Fitzgerald, ho took a trip to South Australia for the benefit of his health, and it was his intention to have shortly gone to his native Scotland to reside there for the remainder of his life ; but recent events connected with the last sittings of the Presbyterian Assembly of this colony, of which our readers are well acquainted, led him to delay his departure for the old country until a settlement of the matter had been effected. Mr. Robertson was educated in the University of Glasgow, and was subsequently trained for tho ministry at the Theological-hall of the United Secession Church. He received his ordination in the year 1838, being then a very young man, and his first charge was the congregation at Stow, in one of the southern districts of Scotland. He continued the pastor of that congregation for twenty-five years, when he determined upon seeking fresh fields of labor in Australia, and he came to this colony in the year 1863. On his arrival here he became minister of the Presbyterian Church at Castlemaine, where he remained about two years. He then received a call to the West Melbourne church, which he accepted, and in 1865 he commenced his pastoral duties at West Melbourne, and continued there until the time of his .death, revered by every member of ins congregation, and respected by the entire community. Mr. Robertson’s abilities were of a very high order, and it was seldom his church had not a crowded congregation. His literary attainments were considerable. He took a prominent part some time ago in the Presbyterian Assembly sitting in Melbourne, on the question of marriage with a deceased wife’s sister, and insisted upon his right to celebrate such marriages, notwithstanding the dictum of the Assembly that such mai'riages ,vere contrary to the laws of God. His age was fifty-seven years, and he leaves a widow to mourn his loss. He had just embarked in a speculation for the production ’of a newspaper devoted to political and religious subjects on a liberal basis ; but bis death came before he saw the first number issued from the Press.