William Garden Blaikie

“ This despatch was really inspired by Duff, and embodied the very views with which he had started his work in 1830. It proceeded on the principle that ‘ the education we desire to see extended in India must be effected by means of the English language in the higher branches of education, and by that of the vernacular languages to the great mass of the people.’ The plan embraced a system of universities, secondary schools, primary schools, normal schools, art, medical, and engineering colleges, and finally female schools. The system of grants in aid was to be applied without restriction. ”

“ After studying at Glasgow he was licensed as a preacher in 1647. That a man of his position should make such a change excited some comment among his old friends and neighbours, but his whole soul was in his new occupation, and he vindicated himself with great fervour. For a time he exercised his ministry in Glasgow, and in 1650 he was appointed professor of divinity in the university there. ”

“ The books which he edited and published in this country were chiefly works of Jonathan Edwards and other American divines.
Erskine was very heartily devoted to the doctrines and aims of the evangelical party in the church, of which his family connections, his stainless character, and his abilities as a preacher and a writer contributed to make him one of the leading champions. It was a testimony to the amiability of both that he and Principal Robertson, the leader of the ‘moderate’ party, should have been friendly colleagues in the same congregation for a quarter of a century. ”

“ To promote industry, self-control, and useful labour, to make men faithful to the obligations of home and country and religion, were his constant aims. It would not be easy to tell how much the life of Shaftesbury has availed in warding off revolution from England, and in softening the bitter spirit between rich and poor. ”

“ Bruce and others gave thanks, but in terms more general than the king desired. After much negotiation, and many efforts of friends to get the matter settled, the king carried his point, and ordered Bruce to leave Edinburgh. The prospect of his leaving was felt profoundly by the christian community, who hung on his lips, and enjoyed in a rare degree his eloquent and powerful preaching. But the king was inexorable, and Bruce's ministry in Edinburgh came to an end. ”

“ For many years he laboured very earnestly to promote an education scheme of the church, and was highly successful in raising the status and improving the equipment of the normal colleges. In other respects, the plan of having a school connected with every congregation did not prove very popular, especially among the laity. And when, by act of parliament, the test which confined the office of parish schoolmaster to members of the established church was abolished, a strong feeling sprang up in favour of a national system of education that should absorb the existing schools. ”

“ The mother of Gurney died while he was an infant, so that his domestic training fell to a large extent to his elder sisters, and especially to Mrs. Fry. Of a tall and manly figure, a handsome face, and a very affectionate disposition, Gurney was a favourite both with young and old. In his boyhood he was sent to study at Oxford under a tutor, though being a quaker he never became a member of the university. He was greatly and permanently attracted by classical study, and found that its discipline harmonised well with the discipline of self-control so characteristic of the Friends. ”

“ But the measure which is most honourably connected with his name was the institution of savings banks. The first savings bank was instituted at Ruthwell in 1810, and Duncan was unceasing in his efforts to promote the cause throughout the country. His influence was used to procure the first act of parliament passed to encourage such institutions. By speeches, lectures, and pamphlets he made the cause known far and wide. The scheme readily commended itself to all intelligent friends of the people, and the growing progress and popularity of the movement have received no check to the present day. ”

“ Believing, in opposition to the current impression, that trees might grow in the Shetlands, he made a plantation near his house of about a hundred trees and shrubs, and found, to his great satisfaction, that many of them lived and throve. ‘In a land altogether treeless,’ says a writer in ‘Chambers's Journal,’ ‘this feature was at once a striking and most pleasing one. Every tree was planted by the naturalist himself, with what cost and labour was known to him only. ”

“ From his earliest years William, their second son, manifested a profoundly spiritual disposition, and in after years would say that 'in looking back on his earliest religious experience he could not remember a time when he was not sensible of the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart.' After his education was completed he declined to follow his father's profession, and, having taken part in quaker meetings for two years, was recognised as a minister in 1805, in his twenty-second year. For several years he was an itinerant minister, and visited many parts of England and Scotland. ”

“ In 1843 he was chosen lord rector of the university of Glasgow. During the controversy between the church of Scotland and the civil courts Breadalbane was conspicuous for his earnest advocacy of the 'non-intrusion' cause. In that connection he was by far the most outstanding man among the laity. Though not a great speaker he advocated the cause in the House of Lords, as well as in public meetings, and when the Free church was set up he cordially adhered to it, and was one of its most munificent supporters. ”

“ In 1884 he received the freedom of the city of London. In May 1885 he was presented with an address from old scholars of the ragged schools. In reply he declared that he would rather be president of the ragged schools than of the Royal Academy; but for himself he would only say that the feeling in his heart was, ‘What hast thou that thou hast not received?’
Shaftesbury retained a great part of the vigour both of his mind and body to very near the end of his life. The infirmities of old age showed themselves chiefly in gout and deafness. ”

“ Cameron had received no university training, but, having a gift of natural and persuasive eloquence, he was considered by John Welsh, Gabriel Semple, and other leading field preachers to have a call to the office of preacher, and was licensed by them accordingly. In Annandale and Clydesdale hundreds and thousands hung upon his lips, and, moved by his tender and melting appeals, ‘fell into a great weeping.’ In 1678 he went to Holland, where many like-minded men were in banishment, and in his absence a new indulgence was proclaimed which many accepted. ”

“ The intelligent and considerate spirit in which he looked on the struggles of the working class, while at the same time fully realising both the rights and responsibilities of employers, led to the belief that in his hands the problem of the relations of capital and labour would have found a solution acceptable to all. ”

“ As a Dumfriesshire man he early became acquainted with Thomas Carlyle, and had much correspondence with him. Dodds was of literary habits, and when other engagements permitted made much use of his pen. ‘Famous Men of Dumfriesshire’ consists of sketches of honourable names in the annals of his native country, marked by the strong local sympathies of one born and brought up on its soil. ‘The Lily of Lammermoor’ is a story of disruption times, and ‘A Century of Scottish Church History’ is a sketch of the religious history of Scotland from the first secession to the disruption in 1843. ”

“ Though Cargill's very stringent views were not generally accepted by his countrymen, both he and his friend Cameron took a great hold on the popular sympathy and regard. Personally, Cargill was an amiable, kind-heart man, very self-denying, and thoroughly devoted to his duty. Wodrow ascribes some of his extreme sentiments to the influence of others. Among the people he seems to have won admiration for the profoundness of his convictions and the fearlessness with which he acted on them, when the result to himself could not fail to be ruinous. ”

“ M'Cosh, in his work on the 'Scottish Philosophy,' says of him: 'He sets out (in his "Delineation") with the principle that private happiness must be the chief end and object of every man's pursuit; shows how the good of others affords the greatest happiness; and then, to sanction natural conscience, he calls in the authority of God, who must approve of what promotes the greatest happiness. This theory does not give morality 'a sufficiently deep foundation in the constitution of man on the character of God, and could not have stood against the assaults of Hume. ”

“ The religious influence which she had already exercised on him was much deepened at her death. She was a strong-minded woman, well read in the popular theology of Scotland, and deeply imbued with its spirit. ”

“ For popular education, too, he worked hard. In social questions he took a lively interest, and especially in endeavours to improve the houses of working men. But his influence was chiefly shown in his later years in resisting the proposal for union between the Free and the United Presbyterian churches. Begg clung to the idea that terms between the Free church and the state might one day be made, and he would enter into no union that virtually abandoned that hope. Though he was supported only by a minority, its influence was powerful enough to prevent the union. ”

“ Dr. Anderson was a great favourite with the community of Glasgow, and, in a sense, held a similar position to that of Dr. Chalmers before him, and that of Dr. Norman Macleod after him. He encouraged independence of thought and action, and had no fear of the traditionary opinion that politics ought not to be introduced into the pulpit. He was a strenuous opponent of the Church of Rome. He was a strong millennarian, and in early life had come under the influence of Edward Irving and Mr. Cunninghame of Lainshaw.
Dr. Anderson published many pamphlets and several books. ”

“ But what gave peculiar emphasis to the whole was what we shall venture to call the propelling power of the mind—that animal energy which seems to act the part of the moving mind in the mechanism of intellect, which gives force to action and depth to the tones of the voice, and impresses a hearer with the idea of immense momentum.’
The general assembly of the Free church in 1843 appointed Cunningham to one of the chairs of theology in the New College ”

“ In the centre of the educational buildings of Calcutta a marble hall was erected as a memorial of him. Four Duff scholarships were instituted in the university. A portrait was placed in one college, a bust in another. A few Scotchmen in India and adjacent countries offered him a gift of 11,000l., the capital of which he destined for the invalided missionaries of his own church. Conspicuous among those who gave utterance to their esteem for him as he was leaving them was Sir Henry Maine, who had succeeded to the post of vice-chancellor of the university. ”

“ Of his treatise on justification a writer says: ‘It is by far our most thorough exposition and dismission of the doctrine it handles; and it is all the more to be prized because of the particular bearing it has on the new views which Baxter and others had begun to propagate, and which in some shape are ever returning among ourselves’ (JAmes Walker, D.D., Carnwath, The Theology and Theologians of Scotand) . ”

“ He became in 1793 one of the founders of the Religious Tract Society of Scotland, six years before the London society was formed. The Scotch society still exists, but on a wider basis, employing about two hundred colporteurs for the circulation and sale of religious and useful literature in Scotland and part of England. He was one of the founders of Sunday schools, sometimes itinerating over the country in order to promote them, and with such success that on one occasion he and his friend Mr. J. A. Haldane made arrangements in one week for the establishment of not less than sixty. ”

“ Eadie's biblical labours were crowned in 1876 by the publication of a work in two volumes—‘The English Bible: an external and critical history of various English translations of Scripture; with remarks on the need of revising the English New Testament.’ In the movement for a revision of the English New Testament he was greatly interested. He was one of the original members of the New Testament revision company, and while he was able he attended the meetings very diligently. He studied carefully the passages that were discussed, and made up his mind after thorough inquiry, but seldom spoke. ”

“ Allix was on intimate terms with many of the most eminent men of letters of the day, by whom, as indeed by all classes in England, he was highly esteemed for the firmness of his principles, the variety and extent of his learning, his social disposition, and the integrity and consistency of his character. ”

“ CALDERWOOD, DAVID (1575–1650) , ecclesiastic, historian, and theological writer, was born (as is believed) at Dalkeith, Midlothian, and educated at the college of Edinburgh, then in the vigour of its youth, and full of the enthusiasm of study. In 1604 he was ordained minister of Crailing in Roxburghshire. It was the time when King James was doing his utmost to introduce prelacy into the church of Scotland, and from the very first Calderwood showed himself one of the sturdiest opponents of the royal scheme. ”