The Life of Col. James Gardiner

Transcribed from the 1800’s Religious Tract Society edition, by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
No. 17.
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, INSTITUTED 1799; DEPOSITORY, 56, PATERNOSTER-ROW.
Colonel James Gardiner was the son of Captain Patrick Gardiner, who served many years in the armies of King William and Queen Anne, and died abroad with the British forces in Germany.
The Colonel’s mother was a lady of very excellent character; but it pleased God to exercise her with uncommon trials; for she lost not only her husband and her brother in the service of their country, but also her eldest son, Mr. R. Gardiner, on the day which completed his sixteenth year, at the siege of Namur, in 1695. But God blessed these afflictions as the means of forming her to an eminent degree of piety.
The second son, the subject of this Memoir, was born in Linlithgowshire, Jan. 10, 1687–8, the memorable year of the glorious Revolution, in defence of which his own life was eventually sacrificed.
In early life, his mother took care to instruct him with great tenderness and affection in the principles of true Christianity. While at the school at Linlithgow, he made a considerable progress in literature.
In the younger part of his life the good effects of his mother’s prudent and exemplary care were not so conspicuous as she hoped; yet there is great reason to believe they were not entirely lost. Could she have prevailed, he would not have thought of a military life; but it suited his taste; and the ardour of his spirit, animated by the persuasions of a friend, who greatly urged it, was not to be restrained. Nor will the reader wonder at this, when he knows that this lively youth fought three duels before he attained the stature of a man; in one of which, when but eight years old, he received from a boy, much older than himself, a wound in the right cheek, the scar of which was always very apparent. This false sense of honour might seem excusable in those unripened years, and considering the profession of his father; but he often mentioned it with regret. And after his conversion, he declined accepting a challenge, with this truly great reply, which in a man of his experienced bravery was exceedingly to be admired, “I fear sinning,” said he, “though you know I do not fear fighting.”