Category: Historical
Hugh Miller: Dukes and Hinds
In the 1840s few names were better known in Scotland than Hugh Miller’s; and few Scottish names were better known world-wide.
Miller owed his fame to his editorship of the Witness, a newspaper which rivalled, and sometimes outsold, the Scotsman. Established in 1840, the Witness was the voice of the Evangelical Party in the Church of Scotland, then locked in its bitter struggle over lay-patronage: a struggle which would culminate in the tragic Disruption of 1843. Evangelicals argued that the right to choose their own ministers was a sacred right of Christian congregations. Their rivals, the Moderates, were happy to let that right lie with patrons, usually the local lairds. Parliament, the Court of Session and the Scottish press were all on the side of the lairds.
Luther on Galatians
The Gospel for a Wounded Conscience
Last week I decided to re-visit Martin Luther’s Lectures on Galatians. Readers will remember, perhaps, that John Bunyan commends this book most warmly in Grace Abounding: " I do prefer this book of Martin Luther upon the Galatians , excepting the Holy Bible, before all books that ever I have seen, as most fit for a wounded conscience."
Hugh Martin
Hugh Martin (1822-1885) was one of a remarkable group of theologians produced by Scottish Presbyterianism in the mid-nineteenth century. Pre-eminent among them were Thomas Chalmers, William Cunningham and Robert Candlish, all of whom were household names in Victorian Scotland. The others were less prominent, but this bespeaks no inferiority in point of theological ability. Such men as Martin, James Buchanan and George Smeaton were not inspirational statesmen like Chalmers; nor formidable debaters like Cunningham; nor again brilliant administrators like Candlish. Nor have they had the same influence on subsequent theological developments as their American contemporaries, Charles Hodge, Robert Dabney, William Shedd, James Thornwell and Archibald Hodge. But as theologians they were in the very first rank.
Read more about 'Hugh Martin'...Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford was born in 1600 and died in 1661. These were turbulent years. They witnessed the reigns of the three most despotic Stewart kings, James VI, Charles I and Charles II; the signing of the National Covenant in 1638; the English Civil War; the deliberations of the Westminster Assembly; the beheading of the King; the occupation of Scotland by Cromwell's army; and the restoration of Charles II in 1660. No other period in British history saw such upheaval.
Read more about 'Samuel Rutherford'...Hugh Miller
Imagine it’s 1842 and in the thick dusk of an Edinburgh winter you’re walking across the Meadows. You take little notice of passers-by, but suddenly one approaches who commands instant attention. Dressed in tweeds and over-wrapped in a plaid, his tackety boots hit the road resolutely with every stride. An eccentric, perhaps even a poser, but not a man to be trifled with.
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