Blaikie, William Garden

BLAIKIE, WILLIAM GARDEN: Free Church of Scotland; b. at Aberdeen Feb. 5, 1820; d. at North Berwick June 11, 1899. He studied at Marischal College and at Edinburgh (M.A., Aberdeen, 1837); was ordained minister of the Established Church at Drumblade, Aberdeenshire, 1842; joined the Free Church of Scotland, 1843; was minister of Pilrig, Edinburgh, 1844–68; professor of apologetics and pastoral theology in New College, Edinburgh, 1868–97. With the Rev. William Arnot he was delegate from the Free Church of Scotland to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States at Philadelphia in 1870 to convey congratulations on union; he took a leading part in the Alliance of the Reformed Churches; was deeply interested in measures to improve the condition of the poor and the working classes; and active in behalf of home missions, temperance, church extension, and all the work of the Free Church. In 1892 he was moderator of the General Assembly. He edited The Free Church Magazine 1849–53, The North British Review 1860–1863, The Sunday Magazine 1873–74, and The Catholic Presbyterian 1879–83.

Bibliography: The more important of his many books were Bible History in Connection with the General History of the World, London, 1859; Better Days for the Working People, 1863 (originally published as Six Lectures Addressed to the Working Classes on the Improvement of their Temporal Condition, Edinburgh, 1849); Heads and Hands in the World of Labor, 1865; For the Work of the Ministry, a Manual of Homiletical and Pastoral Theology, 1873; Glimpses of the Inner Life of our Lord, 1876; The Personal Life of David Livingstone, 1880; The Public Ministry and Pastoral Methods of our Lord, 1883; Leaders in Modern Philanthropy, 1884; Robert Rollock, first Principal of the University of Edinburgh, 1884; The Preachers of Scotland from the Sixth to the Nineteenth Century (Cunningham Lectures for 1888); Thomas Chalmers, Edinburgh, 1896; David Brown, a Memoir, London, 1898. He also edited Memorials of the Late Andrew Crichton, 1868, and James Walker's Theology and Theologians of Scotland, 1872; wrote five of the Present Day Tracts, 1883–1885; contributed the "Expositions and Homiletics" for the Epistle to the Ephesians in the Pulpit Commentary, and prepared the Books of Joshua and Samuel for the Expositor's Bible. For his life consult his Autobiography, edited with introduction by N. L. Walker, London, 1901, and DNB, supplement vol. i, 212–213.