William Garden Blaikie 1820-1899
BLAIKIE, WILLIAM GARDEN (1820 – 1899), Scottish divine, was born on the 5th of February 1820, at Aberdeen, where his father had been the first provost of the reformed corporation. After studying at the Marischal College, where Alexander Bain and David Masson were among his contemporaries, he went in 1839 to Edinburgh to complete his theological course under Thomas Chalmers. In 1842 he was presented to the living of Drumblade by Lord Kintore, with whose family he was connected. 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. It received public commendation from Lord Brougham, and 60,000 copies were sold. 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. In 1864 he was asked to undertake the Scottish editorship of the Sunday Magazine, and for this magazine much of his most characteristic literary work was done, especially in the editorial notes, then a new feature in magazine literature.
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, abtmdant 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. He prolonged his visit to make a thorough acquaintance with American Presbyterianism, and this, followed by a similar tour in Europe, fitted him to become the real founder of the Presbyterian Alliance. Much of his strength in the later years of life was given to this work. In 1892 he was elected to the chairmanship of the general assembly, the last of the moderators who had entered the church before the disruption. In 1897 he resigned his professorship, and died on the 11th of June 1899.
Blaikie was an ardent philanthropist, and an active and intelligent temperance reformer, in days when this was far from easy. He raised £14,000 for the relief of the Waldensian churches. Although he took an active part in the affairs of his denomination, he was not a mere ecclesiastic. He had a keen eye for the evidences of spiritual growth or decline, and emphasized the need of maintaining a high level of spiritual life. He welcomed Moody to Scotland, and the evangelist made his headquarters with him during his first visit. His best books are The Work of the Ministry—A Manual of Homiletic and Pastoral Theology (1873); The Books of Samuel in the Expositors' Bible Series (2 vols.); The Personal Life of David Livingstone (1880); After Fifty Years (1893), an account of the Disruption Movement in the form of letters of a grandfather; Thomas Chalmers (1896).
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Blaikie,_William_Garden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Garden_Blaikie
Published works
- Saving Knowledge: Addressed to Young Men by Thomas Guthrie and WG Blaikie
- Six Heroic Men: John Frith; T. Fowell Buxton; David Livingstone; Richard Baxter; John Lawrence; Claude Brousson.
- Unser Herr ALS Lehrer Und Seelsorger: Eine Biblische Pastoral Theologie... Autorisierte Ubersetzung
- Champions of the Truth: Short Lives of Christian Leaders in Thought and Action
- Outlines of Bible Geography, Physical and Political
- A Manual of Bible History: In Connection With the General History of the World (Classic Reprint)
- Present Day Tracts on Subjects of Christian Evidence, Doctrine and Morals Vol. 2: William Garden Blaikie, George Rawlinson and R. Radford Thomson
- Historical evidences of the Old Testament
- Bible History, in Connection with the General History of the World Christianity and Secularism Compared in Their Influence and Effects
- The Catholic Presbyterian Volume 2 and 6
- The Personal Life of David Chiefly from His Unpublished Journals and Correspondence in the Possession of His Family... by William Garden Blaikie
- Ephesians (The Pulpit commentary)
- Ephesians. Exposition and homiletics by Rev. Professor W. G. Blaikie ... Homilies by various authors, etc. (Pulpit... by William Garden Blaikie, Thomas Croskery and David Thomas (1886)
- The Theology and Theologians of Scotland ... Second edition, etc. Edited by N. L. Walker and W. G. Blaikie by James Walker, William Garden Blaikie and Norman Lockhart Walker (1888)
- Reply to Letter of Professor Blaikie ... to Rev A A Bonar... on statement issued on the Dods and Bruce cases ... Second edition with... by Robert Howie, William Garden Blaikie and Alexander Balmain Bruce (1890)
- Dr. W. G. Blaikie, divine and philanthropist by James Silvester and William Garden Blaikie (1922)
- The right aim and spirit of the Free Church: A sermon by William Garden Blaikie (1866)
- The story of the Bohemian church by William Garden Blaikie (1885)
- The Book of Joshua Volume V.6
- The Sunday Magazine, Volumes 10 & 13
- Heads and hands in the world of labour by W.G. Blaikie 1865
- Memorials of Andrew Crichton, Ed. by W.G. Blaikie
- Better Days for Working People
- On the atomic theory: Prize essay in the chemical class, Marischal College, Aberdeen, session 1836-7 by William Garden Blaikie (1837)
- Six Lectures addressed to the Working Classes on the Improvement of their Temporal Condition ... Third edition... by William Garden Blaikie (1849) *The Head of the House by William Garden Blaikie (1866)
- Counsel and Cheer for the Battle of Life by William Garden Blaikie (1867) *The colleges and theological institutions of America: A lecture delivered by desire of the principal and professors... by William Garden Blaikie (1870) *The religious awakening in Edinburgh,: In connexion with the visit of Messrs. Moody and Sankey by William Garden Blaikie (1874)
- Select Remains of Islay Burns ... Edited by Rev. James C. Burns. With memoir by Rev. W. G. Blaikie by Islay Burns, William Garden Blaikie and James C. Burns (1874)
- Letter to the Right Hon. Lord Polwarth on the Union of Churches in Scotland by William Garden Blaikie (1875)
- The inner life of Christ, (1876) Hodder & Stoughton
- Archbishop Leighton by William Garden Blaikie (1883)
- The Public Ministry of Christ (1883)
- Leaders in Modern Philanthropy, ... with Fifteen Portraits by William Garden Blaikie (1884)
- Ought the Free Church to resume connection with the state? by William Garden Blaikie (1886)
- The Work of the Ministry. A Manual of Homiletic and Pastoral Theology, 1873
- Glimpses of the Inner Life of Christ (2nd edn., publ 1878 by Hodder & Stoughton, 27 Paternoster Row, London)
- The Personal Life of David Livingstone, 1880, 2nd edition 1881, 525 pages
- The Books of Samuel in the Expositor's Bible Series, 2 volumes
- The Book of Joshua in the Expositor's Bible Series 1886
- David, king of Israel: The divine plan and lessons of his life (Limited Classical Reprint Library)
- Life and Reign of David (1880)
- My Body (1883)
- Christianity and the life that now is (Present day tracts on subjects of Christian evidence, doctrine and morals... by William Garden Blaikie (1883)
- The Witness of Palestine to the Bible (Present Day Tracts. no. 10.) by William Garden Blaikie (1883)
- The Vitality of the Bible (Present Day Tracts. no. 23.) by William Garden Blaikie (1884)
- Robert Rollock, first Principal of the University of Edinburgh (New Biographical Series. no. 5.) by William Garden Blaikie and Robert Rollock (1884)
- The adaptation of Bible religion to the needs and nature of man (Present day tracts on subjects of Christian evidence... by William Garden Blaikie (1885)
- The Preachers of Scotland from the Sixth to the Nineteenth Century (publ. 1888 by T. & T. Clark, 38 George Street, Edinburgh
- The family: its scriptural ideal and its modern assailants, (Present day tracts on subjects of Christian evidence... by William Garden Blaikie (1889) *Summer Suns in the Far West; A Holiday Trip to the Pacific Slope (1890)
- The Psalms compared with the hymns of different religions an evidence of inspiration (Present day tracts) by William Garden Blaikie (1892)
- Heroes of Israel (1894)
- Is socialism advancing in England? by William Garden Blaikie (1895)
- Household Prayers for use in Family Worship: with a plan of daily Bible readings by William Garden Blaikie (1898)
- After Fifty Years or Letters of a Grandfather: On Occasion of the Jubilee of the Free Church of Scotland in 1893.
- After Fifty Years, 1893, an account of the Disruption Movement in the form of letters of a grandfather
- Thomas Chalmers, Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, Dec 1896, ("Famous Scots Series")
- Is Christianity True?; Answers from History, the Monuments, the Bible, Nature, Experience, and Growth of Christianity. (1897)
- David Brown, D.D., LL.D.; Professor and Principal of the Free Church College, Aberdeen a Memoir (1898)
- Forty-Nine English Hymns Rendered in Latin Rhyme (1900)
- Recollections of a Busy Life (1901) his autobiography
- Champions of the Truth. Short lives of Christian leaders in thought and action, by W. G. Blaikie, W. M. Colles... by Augustus Robert Buckland and William Garden Blaikie (1903)
- Steps unto heaven: Meditations and prayers on the Psalms by William Garden Blaikie (1909)
Posts
