UNITY AND DIVERSITY
The Founders of the Free Church of Scotland
By Sandy Finlayson. Christian Focus. 310 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978-1-84550-550-9
What does the 19th century, and a (currently) small Scottish church, have to do with wider evangelical world? A great deal, when you can see it as presented in this volume. In today’s world a Christian title joining unity with diversity should pique plenty of interest.
The book draws attention to the formative elements of the Free Church’s sense of purpose, through short sketches of ten central personalities from the days around the founding of the church in 1843. Sandy Finlayson tells the basic facts of each man’s story, and then expertly highlights their respective contributions, not only in the Free Church, but also in general society.
Each man was very able, and intensely engaged in the advance of the gospel, including the one non-minister, Hugh Miller (who established and edited a paper to publicise the cause of the evangelical party in the Church of Scotland). Perhaps inevitably, given their strength of character, they had fallings out, which Finlayson deals with openly. But they also remained in the same denomination serving Christ together, and exercising significant influence in British society.
Thomases Chalmers and Guthrie, with James Begg, were leaders in works for the poor alongside formidable work in their regular preaching and pastorates; Alexander Duff was one of the most eminent mission leaders of his day; and William Cunningham and others were among the finest theologians for generations. Andrew Bonar is also included, the brother of Horatius the hymn writer and biographer of Robert Murray McCheyne.
After a chapter for each of these men, the last draws some lessons for our own time. The variety between these men, in gifts, interests, influence, attitudes, and even theological emphases, is laid out very clearly through the book. But equally clear, against that very background, is the unity they upheld in the church, at the heart of which was their common insistence on the final authority of the Bible as God’s Word. As such, there is something here for readers in every church, whether or not they are ‘in ministry’ or not — it is very readable, hardly seeming to run to around 300 pages (including good footnotes).
David D. Miller,
minister of Cobham Presbyterian Church, a congregation of the Free Church of Scotland in Surrey, England
