Dingwall is a royal burgh in the heart of the Scottish Highlands; in the mid-nineteenth century, it was the administrative centre of the county of Ross and Cromarty, and a busy market town with a settled population of around 2000 people. Like much of the Highlands, Dingwall was firmly Episcopalian during the seventeenth century. A mob thwarted an attempt to hold a Presbyterian service there in 1704, and an attempted settlement of a Presbyterian minister four years later was similarly prevented. Gradually, over the course of the eighteenth century, a peaceful and stable Presbyterian ministry was established.
A previous article in the journal described the preaching ministry of John Kennedy (1819–1884), minister of Dingwall Free Church of Scotland from 1844 until his death, and the leading preacher of the Highland section of the Free Church of Scotland during the second half of the nineteenth century. That account of Kennedy’s preaching ministry underlined the importance of the work of pulpit ministry, fulfilled in faithful Scriptural exposition, experimental application and earnest evangelistic appeal. The present article explores what one can learn of Kennedy’s preparation for the pulpit, and practice there, in fulfilling his significant and influential preaching ministry.
Robert Bruce deserves to be remembered today. He was a faithful and powerful preacher in days when the reigning King James VI was using his authority to put a stop to Reformed doctrine and worship in Scotland. Bruce had a wonderful God-given authority as a preacher. This is a mark of God’s rich grace in any age. It is something we greatly need everywhere today.
For a considerable number of years previous to 1842, many belonging to the Established Church of Scotland believed that the Civil Courts of the country were interfering with and encroaching on the jurisdiction of the Church in matters spiritual; and at the General Assembly of that year, a Claim, Declaration, and Protest was adopted, setting forth the interference and encroachment of which the Church complained, and seeking redress from the Queen and Parliament.
Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, faithful servant of Christ, and excellent theologian, was born on November 5th, 1851, in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. At that date, Lexington had only just over 8,000 people. The Breckinridge family was well-to-do, and so Benjamin and his brothers were given education in private schools. Here the young boys heard superb Christian doctrine. They had to memorise the excellent Puritan Westminster Catechism, along with the prooftexts from the Bible.
We say, that even in reference to the plainest and most unquestioned doctrines of religion, there is to be observed a difference of treatment between the congregation and the classroom; but there is a still wider difference to be observed when, from the generally admitted truths of the simply and purely didactic, you pass to the much agitated truths of the controversial theology.
