18 June 2025

In his ‘Diaries of a Dying Man’, William Soutar writes about a worthy minister at Redgorton called the Revd. Dauvit Grahame. Apparently, he was too fond of his dram. Inevitably, he was called to account before the Kirk Session.

Right at the start of the meeting, the minister rose to his feet and said, ‘Gentlemen, a preliminary word, please. I am well aware why you have summoned me here this evening but allow me to ask two questions before we proceed.

‘First, has any man among you assisted me home when I have been the worse of liquour? And second, is there any man among you whom I have not assisted home when he was the worse for liquour?’ Since the answer to both questions was, ‘No!’’, the minister turned about and, as Soutar wrote, ‘no doubt left for the inn at Pitcairngreen’.

I like the author’s sense of humour. And the minister’s. Kirk Session meetings can be very serious affairs. A sense of humour allows us to be transported into a broader landscape with a larger perspective, a better judgement, a happier outcome.

And I like the author’s celebration of our common humanity. The bubble of hypocrisy was punctured sensationally and what was left – a group of human beings united in their inability to do the right thing and yet in their unity discovering a greater love which bound them together for good or ill.

A sense of humour and an appreciation of our common humanity enable friendships to develop and deepen. William Soutar knew that only too well. For the last thirteen years of his life, he was confined to bed and depended on friends visiting him. He enjoyed what he called ‘jawing’ and in one year entertained ‘six hundred friendly visitations’!