Dugald Macfadyen

“ Allon was a man of sound judgment, strong will, great moral courage and personal kindness. His acquaintance with literature was wide, his own style lucid and decisive. In social and political affairs he was a convinced individualist. Both as leader of Union Chapel and in denominational affairs his courage and discretion, his simple faith, combined with a broad-minded sympathy with the intellectual movements of the time, made his ministry a widespread influence for good. ”

“ In 1868 Blaikie was called to the chair of apologetics and pastoral theology at New College, Edinburgh. In dealing with the latter subject he was seen at his very best. He had wide experience, a comprehensive grasp of facts, abundant sympathy, an extensive knowledge of men, and a great capacity for teaching. In 1870 he was one of two representatives chosen from the Free Church of Scotland to attend the united general assembly of the Presbyterian churches of the United States. ”

“ Concordances in this last sense were first made for the Bible. Originally the word was only used in this connexion in the plural concordantiae, each group of parallel passages being properly a concordantia. The Germans distinguish between concordances of things and concordances of words, the former indexing the subject matter of a book (“real” concordance) , the latter the words (“verbal” concordance) . ”

“ The school soon began to expand into a missionary college, and a government minute was adopted on the 7th of March 1835, to the effect that in higher education the object of the British government should be the promotion of European science and literature among the natives of India, and that all funds appropriated for purposes of education would be best employed on English education alone. Duff wrote a pamphlet on the question, entitled “A New Era of the English Language and Literature in India.” ”

“ His father suffered for his adherence to the Free Church at the Disruption in 1843, and removed to Edinburgh, where the son was educated, showing exceptional ability from the first. His early religious doubts, awakened especially by Strauss’s Life of Jesus, made him throughout life sympathetic with those who underwent a similar stress. After serving as assistant first at Ancrum, then at Lochwinnoch, he was called to Cardross in Dumbartonshire in 1859, and to Broughty Ferry in 1868. ”

“ In the middle of the 19th century Charles Hermann Bruder brought out a beautiful edition (Tauchnitz) with many improvements. The apparatus criticus was a triumph of New Testament scholarship. It collates the readings of Erasmus, R. Stephens’ third edition, the Elzevirs, Mill, Bengel, Webster, Knapp, Tittman, Scholz, Lachmann. It also gives a selection from the most ancient patristic MSS. and from various interpreters. No various reading of critical value is omitted. An edition of Bruder with readings of Samuel Prideaux Tregelles was published in 1888 under the editorship of Westcott and Hort. ”

“ The church, which was built at a cost of £50,000, was specially adapted for congregational worship and was mentioned by an architectural journal as one of the hundred remarkable buildings of the century. ”

“ Among these were several men learned in civil law and political science, and their society increased Melville’s knowledge of the world and enlarged his ideas of civil and ecclesiastical liberty. In 1574 Melville returned to Scotland, and almost immediately received the appointment of principal of Glasgow University, which had fallen into an almost ruinous state, the college having been shut and the students dispersed. Melville, however, set himself to establish a good educational system. ”

“ In November 1837 he returned to Edinburgh, where he became the most distinguished student of his time, graduating M.A. in 1841, first in classics and philosophy and bracketed first in mathematics. While at Edinburgh he organized the Metaphysical Society along with A. Campbell Fraser and David Masson. He entered the Presbyterian Secession Hall in 1840, and in 1843 wrote an article in the Secession Magazine on the Free Church movement, which aroused the interest of Thomas Chalmers. The years 1843–1844 he spent at Berlin studying German philosophy and theology. ”

“ He was educated at the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh, where he gained a lasting reputation for classical scholarship. He entered Glasgow Theological Academy under Ralph Wardlaw in September 1827, but in December of the same year he left to become classical tutor at the Blackburn Theological Academy (afterwards the Lancashire Independent College) . ”

“ The Disruption controversy reached its climax immediately afterwards, and Blaikie, whose sympathies were entirely with Chalmers, was one of the 474 ministers who signed the deed of demission and gave up their livings. He was Free Church minister at Pilrig, between Edinburgh and Leith, from 1844 to 1868. Keenly interested in questions of social reform, his first publication was a pamphlet, which was afterwards enlarged into a book called Better Days for Working People. ”

“ After a residence of three years, however, political troubles compelled him to leave France, and he went to Geneva, where he was welcomed by Theodore, Beza, at whose instigation he was appointed to the chair of humanity in the academy of Geneva. ”

“ The book, being attacked from the standpoint of high Calvinism, became the standard of a far-reaching movement in Scottish Presbyterianism. The “Marrow men” were marked by the zeal of their service and the effect of their preaching. ”

“ He played an effective part in expressing the popular desire for peace between England and America in reply to President Cleveland’s message on the Venezuelan boundary dispute, and was invited to Washington to preach in connexion with the endeavour to establish an international arbitration treaty. In 1896 he was elected chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. In 1898 his health began to fail, and he died suddenly on the 31st of January 1899. ”

“ He raised £10,000 to endow a missionary chair at New College, Edinburgh, and himself became first professor. Among other missionary labours of his later years, he helped the Free Church mission on Lake Nyassa, travelled to Syria to inspect a mission at Lebanon, and assisted Lady Aberdeen and Lord Polwarth to establish the Gordon Memorial Mission in Natal. ”

“ He formed an association for providing better homes for working people, and the Pilrig Model Buildings were erected. He also undertook the editorship of the Free Church Magazine, and then that of the North British Review, which he carried on until 1863. ”

“ Among his principal publications are An Examination of Ferrier’s “Knowing and Being,” and the Scottish Philosophy— (a work which gave him the reputation of being an independent Hamiltonian in philosophy) ”

“ Test. (the Synoptic Gospels, Lond., 1897) . With Open Face (Lond., 1896) ; The Epistle to the Hebrews (Edin., 1899) ; The Providential Order of the World, and the Moral Order of the World in Ancient and Modern Thought (Gifford Lectures, 1896–1897; Lond., 1897, 1899) . ”