Scotland in the latter part of 1882 he was appointed assistant minister to the Rev. John Fraser, of the Free West Church, Brechin, Forfarshire, and was licensed to preach by the Free Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1883. This assistantship, founded in 1877 by a bequest of the late David Duke, Esq., of Esk Park, Brechin, has been held by a succession of able men, beginning with Mr John Rae, author of "Contemporary Socialism," &c., and including the Rev. George Adam Smith, the eloquent expositor of Isaiah, and the late gifted and lamented Rev. E. W. Barbour, of Bonskeid. While at Brechin Mr Davidson was invited by the Rev. Dr Saphir, of London, to become his assistant, and had the offer of an appointment as Professor of English Literature on the staff of one of the Colleges in India, but he decided to continue his work there till, in 1886, he received and accepted a unanimous call to the Free Church of St. Fergus, Aberdeenshire. At Mr Davidson's departure from Brechin, where he had laboured with great acceptance and success for three and a half years, much regret was expressed not only by the members of the Free West Church, but by many friends outside the congregation, who, at a well-attended farewell meeting, cordially united in asking his acceptance of a purse of sovereigns as a mark of the esteem in which he was held during his residence amongst them.
It has already been mentioned that, while prosecuting his college studies in Edinburgh, Mr Davidson devoted a large portion of his spare time to literary work. He was assistant editor of the "Globe Encyclopædia," published in six large volumes (Edinburgh, 1876–79); he was afterwards a member of Messrs W. and E. Chamber's literary
My wife, daughter, and I, in our passage to England in 1882, had as fellow-passengers between Melbourne and Naples our old Dunedin friends Mrs and Miss Henry and their young charge Miss Sperrey (now Mrs Mair). We left them at Naples, where they resided for several months. An interesting correspondence was maintained between Miss Sperrey and my daughter, and in some of her letters the former mentioned the great kindness and assistance received by her guardians and herself from Mr Davidson, a young Scotch Presbyterian minister who was then in charge of the Presbyterian Church and Schools at Naples. She represented him as being a man of a genial and obliging disposition, and as being an excellent preacher, and quite a favourite with the British and other foreign residents who came in contact with him. Miss Sperrey strongly advised that I should seek him out on his return to Scotland, as her guardians and she had very decidedly formed the opinion that Mr Davidson was the very man for Knox Church, and would make a most suitable assistant to Dr Stuart. I failed to meet Mr Davidson in Scotland, and his name escaped my memory until I was reminded of it by Miss Henry, who happened to be in Dunedin at the time of that gentleman's arrival. She was, I believe, the first to grasp his hand and cordially welcome him as he left the train at Dunedin railway station.—J.H.
