William Lindsay Alexander
William Lindsay Alexander - A Famous Scottish Divine
William Lindsay Alexander (1808 - 1884), was born on the 24th of 1808 in Leith near Edinburgh. He graduated from the High School of Edinburgh and the University of St. Andrews at an early age and in 1827 he entered Glasgow Theological Academy where he studied under Ralph Wardlaw. In December 1827 he was appointed classical tutor at Blackburn Theological Academy (later moved to Manachester and renamed the Lancashire Independent College).
After a short course of study in Germany and London, in November 1834, he accepted the pastorate of the North-College Street Church, Edinburgh. As minister he chose to devote his time to the practice of biblical exposition and writing. In 1836 he became an editor at the Congregational Magazine and contributed works on biblical literature and theology including articles about the "voluntary" controversy. Religious voluntaryists believed in "Voluntaryism" which was the belief that worship "must be the free expression of individual minds" and, amongst other things that the "Church was never so vital, so convincing, so fruitful as in the first three centuries before her alliance with the State."
In 1840 Alexander delivered the Congregational Lecture in London on the "Connexion and Harmony of the Old and New Testaments (published 1840, new ed. 1853)." Although active in the discussion of the "voluntary" controversy he also maintained broad and catholic views of the spiritual relations between different sections of the Christian. Voluntaryism came to a natural end in 1843 with "The Disruption" - the split in the Church of Scotland which led to the formation of the Free Church of Scotland with the main reasons for the split being the churches relationship with the state.
In 1843 he published "Anglo-Catholicism not Apostolical ". William Lindsay Alexander also published "Switzerland and the Swiss Churches" which was an account of his 1845 trip to Switzerland during which he had had opportunity to study their religious life. In 1845 he also received the degree of D.D. from the university of St Andrews and in 1854 he was appointed professor of theology in the Scottish Theological Hall(resigned 1862). In 1854 he published "Christ and Christianity" and, in 1856, "Life of Dr. Wardlaw ". In 1861 he became examiner in philosophy at St. Andrew's University(resigned 1862) and undertook the editorship of the third edition of Kitto's "Biblical Encyclopaedia" and, in 1862 he published his "Christian Thought and Work".
In January 1870 he became a member of the Old-Test. company of the Bible Revision Committee and devoted much of the remainder of his life to this work. In 1877 he became principal of the Edinburgh Theological Hall.
William Lindsay Alexander died in December 1883.
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