David Alan Currie PhD Thesis

490 Pages·2008·26 MB·English

LMS London Missionary Society
LSPCAJ London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the
Jews
NESS National Bible Society of Scotland
NCL New College Library
NLS National Library of Scotland
NMS Northern Missionary Society
RSCHS Records of the Scottish Church History Society
SBS Scottish Bible Society
SGPRR Society in Glasgow for Promoting the Revival of
Religion
SMS Scottish Missionary Society
SPCS Society of Probationers of the Church of Scotland
SPGH Society for Propagating the Gospel at Home
SRO Scottish Records Office
SSPCK Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge
SSPRKP Society in Scotland for Promoting Religious Knowledge
among the Poor
SSUS Sabbath School Union for Scotland
StAUL St. Andrews University Library
STAUMA St. Andrews University Missionary Association
INMODUCTION 1
SECTION I--PERIODICALS: EVANGELICALISM'S CalMUNICATIONS NETWORK 10
CHAPTER 1--PERIODICALS: THE FOUNDATIONAL YEARS, 1793-1810 12
CHAPTER 2--THE EDINBURGH CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTOR--THE KEYSTONE OF
THE NEW EVANGELICAL PERIODICAL PRESS 51
CHAPTER 3--THE KIRK-RELATED RELIGIOUS PERIODICAL PRESS IN SCOTLAND
1831-1843: MULTIPLICATION AND SPECIALISATION 94
SECTION II--SOCIETIES: EVANGELICALISM'S ACTIVE EXPRESSION 139
CHAPTER 4--THE FIRST WAVE--1795-1809: MISSIONARY SOCIETIES 145
CHAPTER 5--THE SE(X)ND WAVE--1809-1824: BIBLE SOCIETIES 189
CHAPTER 6--THE THIRD AND FOURTH WAVES 233
SECTION III—EVANGELICALISM'S INSTITUTIONAL INHERITANCE:
EDUCATION & PRAYER 276
CHAPTER 7--EDUCATION: EVANGELICALISM'S COGNITIVE
FOUNDATION—Part 1 280
CHAPTER 8--EDUCATION: EVANGELICALISM'S COGNITIVE
FOUNDATION--Part 2 314
CHAPTER 9--PRAYER: EVANGELICALISM'S SPIRITUAL DYNAMIC 349
CONCLUSION 387
APPENDICES 402
BIBLIOGRAPHY 421
pROSOPOGRAPHY: INDIVIDUALS FRCM THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND PARTICIPATING
IN EVANGPITCAL INSTITUTIONS, 1793-1843 442
1
INTRODUCTION
In 1793 the Evangelical Magazine, Britain's first large-scale, long-
term religious periodical, began to circulate in Scotland. Fifty years
later, in 1843, a large portion of the Evangelical Party of the Church of
Scotland withdrew from the Establishment at the Disruption to form the
Free Church. Were these two events connected? Was the first a direct
cause of the second? Their common association with the word 'evangelical'
suggests that they were related, but how? In short, what did it mean to
be an 'Evangelical' in the Church of Scotland during the first half of the
nineteenth century?
Most discussion of the Church of Scotland during this period has
tended to answer this last question in relation to ecclesiastical
politics. The Disruption era historians defended their particular party's
role in the conflict, portraying 'Evangelicals' as heroes or villains
depending upon their perspective.' Reacting against this partisan
approach, several later historians covered the same ground seeking to
clarify the roles of each party and to argue against biased claims such as
1. Robert Buchanan gave the Evangelical Party version in The Ten
Fears' Conflict: Being the History of the Disruption of the Church of
Scotland, 2 vols. (Glasgow: Blackie and Son, 1849); James Bryce gave the
Moderate Party version in The Church of Scotland from 1833-1843, 2 vols.
(Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1850); and Alexander Turner gave
the Middle Party version in The Scottish Secession of 1843 (Edinburgh:
Paton and Ritchie, 1859).
2
the assertion that one party was more orthodox than the other. 2 Recent
scholarship has examined General Assembly voting records in an attempt to
discover the identity of the Evangelicals on the basis of their response
to various motions, especially those related to patronage. 2 All of these
historians have tended to define an 'Evangelical' of the pre-Disruption
era as one who voted according to the party line. This definition reached
its ultimate precision at the Disruption itself when 'true' Evangelicals
could be determined on the basis of who joined the Free Church.4
While this approach may have been precise, it provides an incomplete
picture of what was happening in the Church of Scotland during the half-
century preceding the Disruption. Party division diminished significantly
following the French Revolution in 1789, remaining in decline until the
conclusion of hostilities with France in 1815. How does one determine the
identity of the Evangelicals, therefore, during this period, when, out of
a common desire to present a united front in the face of an external
threat, patronage and most other controversial issues were neither debated
nor voted upon in the Assembly? Even after ecclesiastical politics began
to heat up again in the mid-1820s, some ministers and most lay people in
2. Andrew J. Campbell, TWo Centuries of the Church in Scotland,
1707-1929 (Paisley: Alexander Gardner, Ltd., 1930);and Andrew L. Drummond
and James Bulloch, The Scottish Church 1688-1843: The Age of the Moderates
(Edinburgh: St. Andrew Press, 1973).
3. Don Chambers, 'Mission and Party in the Church of Scotland, 1810-
1843' (Cambridge University, Ph.D. Thesis, 1971); and lain F. Maciver,
'The General Assembly of the Church, the State and Society in Scotland:
Some Aspects of their Relationships, 1815-1843' (Edinburgh University,
M.Litt. Thesis, 1977).
4. This approach, initially developed by James M'Cosh, The Wheat and
the Chaff Gathered into Bundles (Perth: James Dewar, 1843) has been sup-
plemented on a national scale by James E. Robb, 'Kirk Parties in Scotland,
circa 1843: the Non-theological Factors' (Edinburgh University, M.Litt.
Thesis, 1977) and on a local scale by George B. Robertson, 'Spiritual
Awakening in the North-east of Scotland and the Disruption of the Church
in 1843' (Aberdeen University, Ph.D. Thesis, 1970) and Roderick MacLeod,
'The Progress of Evangelicalism in the Western Isles, 1800-1850' (Edin-
burgh University, Ph.D. Thesis, 1977).
3
the Kirk5 declined to take a partisan position, and many did not vote in
the church courts on key party-related issues. How then can Evangelicals
be identified?
To answer these questions, and thus to provide a more complete pic-
ture of Evangelical developments within the Church of Scotian& as well as
a more contextual understanding of the Evangelical Party, this thesis will
attempt to examine Evangelicalism as a broadly-based intellectual and
social movement which sought to shape the overall thought and life of the
Kirk during the first half of the nineteenth century. A set of distinc-
tive organisations --religious periodicals, voluntary societies, educa-
tion, and corporate prayer-- provided the institutional structure of this
movement .7 They represented the practical response to a general concern
for revitalising the Church, for evangelism, and for social morality.
Evangelicals were those who combined participation in this set of institu-
tions with a fundamental commitment to the Church of Scotland as an estab-
lished, national church.
5. Unless otherwise qualified, 'minister' refers to the Established
clergy, and 'Kirk' is synonymous with the Church of Scotland.
6. Since Thomas Chalmers has received so much scholarly attention,
this thesis, while discussing Chalmers, will focus more upon the work of
other Evangelical leaders. Chalmers, like so many great figures, was
idiosyncratic in some of the things he did, and thus, there is danger in
drawing generalisations about Evangelicalism as a whole from him. This
thesis will attempt to sketch an overall picture of Evangelicalism in
which to place Chalmers, supplementing recent efforts in this direction
such as: W. John Roxborogh, 'Thomas Chalmers and the Mission of the
Church, with Special Reference to the Rise of the Missionary Movement in
Scotland' (Aberdeen University, Ph.D. Thesis, 1978); Stewart J. Brown,
Thomas Chalmers and the Goolly-Ciammonwea/th (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1982); and Alexander C. Cheyne, ed., The Practical and the Pious:
Essays on Thomas Chalmers (Edinburgh: St. Andrew Press, 1985).
7. While this movement was related to the similarly named
ecclesiastical party, the two were not identical. In this thesis, unless
otherwise qualified, 'Evangelical' will relate to the broadly-based intel-
lectual and social movement within the Scottish Established Church
('Evangelicalism'), and 'Evangelicals' will refer to those who partici-
pated in the set of ministry institutions associated with this movement
regardless of party affiliation. When referring to parallel movements
outside the Church of Scotland, 'evangelicalism' will be used.
4
Understanding Evangelicalism as a intellectual and social movement
reveals that its influence upon the Kirk extended far beyond the church
courts and partisan ecclesiastical politics. As an intellectual movement,
Evangelicalism affected how people thought, providing them with a general
worldview. It communicated its own distinctive ideas, especially regard-
ing the Christian life and the Church. As a social movement,
Evangelicalism affected not only people's ideas, but the way in which they
put them into practice, especially the way in which they interacted with
one another. It encouraged particular forms of corporate activity and had
its own characteristic organisations. Evangelical institutions promoted
the spread of both the intellectual and the social dimensions of the move-
ment.
Kirk Evangelicalism during the first half of the nineteenth century
was not unique in being an intellectual and social movement embodied
within a distinctive set of institutions. Twentieth-century
evangelicalism in New Zealand may be understood in a similar way, s as may
the Scottish Enlightenment" and Moderatism' s in the eighteenth century.
The latter two examples suggest that nineteenth-century Evangelicalism as
well as Moderatism was influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment, at least
in its structural form.
Comparing Evangelicals and Moderates as representatives of different
intellectual and social movements flowing in part from the Scottish
8. Peter J. Lineham, 'Finding a Space for Evangelicalism: Evangeli-
cal Youth Movements in New Zealand' in Voluntary, Religion, ed. W. J.
Sheils and Diana Wood, vol. 23 of Studies in Church History (Worcester:
Billing & Sons, 1986), pp. 477-494.
9. Anand C. Chitnis, The Scottish Enlightenment: A Social History
(London: Croom Helm, 1976), see especially chapter seven: 'New Institu-
tions and the Scottish Enlightenment'.
10. Richard B. Sher, Church and University in the Scottish
Lhlightenment: The Moderate Literati of Edinburgh (Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 1985), see especially chapter three: 'Institutionaliza-
tion'.
5
Enlightenment and not simply as opposing ecclesiastico-political parties
illumines three important differences between the two groups. Firstly,
they promulgated different ideologies. While Moderates valued most highly
the maintenance of order and harmony within the Kirk and between Kirk and
State, Evangelicals accorded the highest priority to the encouragement of
spiritual vitality and conversion. Secondly, in part because of these
differing ideologies, Evangelicalism was a broadly-based intellectual and
social movement, whereas in contrast, Mbderatism was elitist. Thirdly,
Moderates concentrated their institutional focus upon the Established
Church, while Evangelicals tended to develop a range of extra-
ecclesiastical institutions to assist in the furtherance of their aims.
Thus, the process of examining differences in institutional partici-
pation among ministers and members of the Church of Scotland can provide
an important means of distinguishing between Moderates and Evangelicals.
This approach also helps to explain some of the seemingly curious
similarities between the two groups. Because their primary differences
lay elsewhere, both Evangelicals and Moderates used the same order of wor-
ship.11 There were no explicit doctrinal differences between them.
Evangelicals were not 'more orthodox' than Moderates since almost everyone
in the Church of Scotland during the first half of the nineteenth century
shared a common orthodoxy as defined by the Westminster Confession.12
While some Moderates may have flirted with heterodoxy in the early and
mid-eighteenth century, the French Revolution led to a closing in the Mod-
11. Allan B. Henderson, 'Evangelism, Worship, and Theology: A Study
of Certain Revivals in Scottish Parishes Between 1796 and 1843, and their
Relationship to Public Worship' (St. Andrews University, Ph.D. Thesis,
1977), pp. 1-4.
12. Alexander C. Cheyne, 'The Westminster Standards: A Century of
Re-appraisal,' INGE 14 (1963):200-202. Don Chambers, 'Doctrinal Atti-
tudes in the Church of Scotland in the Pre-Disruption Era: the Age of John
MbLeod Cambell and Edward Irving,' journal of Religious History, 8
(1975):159-182.
6
erate ranks as they rallied around the Confession as a buttress of the
Establishment. Theological differences between Moderates and Evangelicals
were primarily a matter of emphasis, usually emerging indirectly in prac-
tice as a result of the Evangelicals' participation in their own distinc-
tive institutions rather than in open doctrinal debate.
Nineteenth-century Evangelicalism was built firmly upon the theologi-
cal foundation forged in the fires of the Scottish revivals of 1742 and
hammered out by the Popular Party in the course of doctrinal debate
throughout the remainder of the eighteenth century. In the 1780s John
Erskine turned the attention of the Popular Party away from the external
threat of infidelity as something which threatened to overwhelm orthodox
Christianity, concentrating instead upon the internal threat of a dead
faith which promised to undermine it. Erskine was one of the first to
question Scotland's status as a godly commonwealth. As he reflected upon
the nature of saving faith, he wondered if being a communicant member of
the Church of Scotland was sufficient for salvation, or, at least, if this
was a sufficient measure of sanctification.13 Erskine and his colleagues
began to search for new solutions to the problems of dead orthodoxy and
nominal adherence.
These solutions were forthcoming in the 1790s as a result of the col-
laborative efforts of others, primarily in England, who were struggling
with similar problems. Kirk Evangelicals were involved in these efforts,
and reproduced in Scotland a number of the new institutions being
developed in England that were designed to further spiritual awakening and
evangelism. Thus, Evangelicalism in the Church of Scotland was in part a
manifestation of a larger pan-British and even international evangelical
13. The author is grateful to Dr. John R. McIntosh of Dollar Academy
for sharing this result of his research in advance of the publication of
his thesis, 'The Popular Party in the Church of Scotland, 1740-1805'
(Glasgow University, Ph.D. Thesis, 1989).
7
movement that underwent a major growth spurt around the turn of the
century. 14
Kirk Evangelicalism was also a product of its specifically Scottish
context, reflecting not only the separate ecclesiastical and theological
developments of the Scottish Established Church, but also the overall
social conditions of Scotland. The movement was affected by the multiple
transitions that Scotland underwent during the first half of the nine-
teenth century as it headed from a rural to an urban society, from an
agricultural to an industrial economy, from the cultural values of the
Enlightenment to those of Romanticism, and from the politics of the age of
management to those of the age of Reform. Evangelicalism combined ele-
ments from both sides of each of these changes, a fact which made it
attractive to people who were themselves caught in transitional crises and
were looking for some way of bridging the gap between two states.
Evangelicals felt free to draw ideas and practices from a variety of
sources both within Scotland and elsewhere. The unifying feature in the
midst of this diversity was their central concern for spiritual vitality
and mission. They were willing to use almost anything to further this
overarching aim. The ability of this goal to hold together so many dif-
ferent, sometimes conflicting, elements was both a source of the vitality
and dynamism of Evangelicalism and a cause of its instability, as the ten-
sions inherent in the movement's diverse composition became stretched on
various occasions, finally reaching their breaking point when subjected to
the extreme social and ecclesiastical pressures of mid-century Scotland.
14. David W. Bebbington outlines four main characteristics of this
movement in Britain: conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism
(Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History-from the 1730s to the 1980s
[London: Unwin Hyman, 1989], pp. 2-19). CT these four, this thesis will
focus upon activism, and will supplement Dr. Bebbington's second and third
chapters, providing a more detailed discussion of the particularities of
Kirk Evangelicalism than is possible in such a broad survey.
8
The keys to understanding Evangelicalism as a broadly-based intellec-
tual and social movement within the Church of Scotland, and the focus,
therefore, for this thesis, are its four distinctive institutions designed
to promote awakening, evangelism, and social morality. These four
institutions were the primary means of spreading Evangelical ideas and
practice, and while they worked together to reinforce one another, each
had a special role to play within the overall movement. Corporate prayer
was Evangelicalism's spiritual dynamic, emphasising the need for divine
power in order to effect conversion and sanctification. Education was
Evangelicalism's cognitive foundation, formulating and spreading Evangeli-
cal ideas among succeeding generations of students. Both of these
institutions were manifestations of a long religious tradition in the
Kirk, going back to the Scottish Reformation.
In contrast, the two remaining institutions were new, being developed
around the turn of the nineteenth century as a result of technological and
organisational advances in the wider British society. Participation in
these institutions distinguished nineteenth-century Evangelicals from
their predecessors in the Popular Party, and hence will be given special
attention in this thesis. Religious voluntary societies were
Evangelicalism's active expression, enabling its members to translate
their general, theoretical concern for religious revival and mission into
concrete action on a wide range of specific issues. Religious periodicals
acted as EVangelicalism's communications network, spreading information
about Evangelical ideas and practice widely throughout the Kirk.
This thesis will examine each of these four institutions separately,
highlighting their particular influence upon clerical and lay participants
from the Church of Scotland. Special attention will be paid to the dis-
tinctive patterns of institutional participation developed in each suc-
ceeding generation of Evangelicals, particularly in relation to periodi-