Brown, John

BROWN, JOHN: English Congregationalist; b. at Bolton-le-Moors (12 m. n.w. of Manchester), Lancashire, June 19, 1830. He was educated at Owens College, Manchester, and the Lancashire Independent College, Manchester (B.A., London University, 1853), and was minister of Park Chapel, Manchester, from 1855 to 1864, and of Bunyan Church, Bedford, from 1864 to 1903, when he became pastor emeritus. He was chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales in 1891, Congregational Union lecturer in 1898, and Lyman Beecher lecturer at Yale in 1899. He was also president of the County Association of Free Churches in Bedfordshire from 1878 to 1902, and chairman of the committee of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, 1893–95. He represented the latter body at the Triennial Union of the United States at Minneapolis in 1892, and at the Congregational Union of Ontario and Quebec at Toronto in 1905. In Biblical criticism he is a liberal conservative, and in theology belongs to the evangelical school. In addition to numerous pamphlets and magazine articles, he has written: Lectures on the Book of Revelation (London, 1866); God's Book for Man's Life (1881); John Bunyan, his Life, Times, and Work (1885); The Pilgrim Fathers of New England (1895); The Bedfordshire Union of Christians (1896); Apostolical Succession in the Light of History and Fact (Congregational Union lectures, 1898); The Present Crisis in the Church of England (1899); Puritan Preaching in England (Yale Lectures for 1899, New York, 1900); Eras of Nonconformity (2 vols., London, 1904). He likewise edited Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Holy War, and Grace Abounding (3 vols., London, 1887–88), and the same author's complete works for the Cambridge University Press (2 vols., Cambridge, 1905–06).

Brown, John

BROWN, JOHN: The name of several Scotch ministers, the most noteworthy being:

1. John Brown of Edinburgh: Scotch Burgher minister, eldest son of Rev. John Brown of Whitburn (21 m. w.s.w. of Edinburgh), Linlithgowshire (b. 1754; d. 1832), and grandson of John Brown of Haddington; b. at Whitburn July 12, 1784; d. at Edinburgh Oct. 13, 1858. He studied at Edinburgh and the divinity hall of the Burgher Church at Selkirk; was licensed 1805 and ordained minister of the Burgher Church of Bigger, Lanarkshire, 1806; became minister of the Rose Street Church, Edinburgh, 1822, and of the Broughton Place Church in the same city 1829; was professor of exegetical theology to the United Associate Synod after 1834. He was strongly in favor of the separation of Church and State, and in 1845 was tried (and acquitted) before the synod on a charge of holding unsound views concerning the atonement. He was a fine orator and a voluminous writer; the most prominent of his works are: Expository Discourses on First Peter (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1848); Exposition of the Discourses and Sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ (3 vols., 1850); The Resurrection of Life, an exposition of I Cor. xv. (1852); Expository Discourses on Galatians (1853); Analytical Exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans (1857). He was the father of the well-known John Brown, M.D. (b. 1810; d. 1882), author of Rab and his Friends (Edinburgh, 1859).

Bibliography: J. Cairns, Memoirs of John Brown, Edinburgh, 1861; DNB, vii. 18–19.

2. John Brown of Haddington: Scotch Burgher minister; b. at Carpow, near Abernethy (on the Frith of Tay, 6 m. s.e, of Perth), Perthshire, 1722; d. at Haddington (12 m. e. of Edinburgh) June 19, 1787. He was poor and self-taught, but acquired no small amount of learning; was a herd-boy, pedler, soldier, and school-teacher; studied theology under Ebenezer Erskine and James Fisher of Glasgow; was licensed in 1750, and in 1751 settled as pastor of the Burgher branch of the Secession Church of Haddington, where he remained till his death, declining a call as professor of divinity in Queen's College, N. J. After 1768 he was professor of theology to the Associate Synod. His yearly income from his church never exceeded £50, and his professorship had no salary; nevertheless he brought up a large family, gave freely in charity, and wrote books (which brought him no pecuniary profit) not only popular but valuable. They include: Two Short Catechisms Mutually Connected (Edinburgh, 1764); A Dictionary of the Bible (2 vols., 1769; revised ed., 1868); The Self-interpreting Bible (2 vols., 1778; often reprinted); and A Compendious History of the Church of England and of the Protestant Churches in Ireland and America (2 vols., Glasgow, 1784; new edition by Thomas Brown, Edinburgh, 1823).

Bibliography: Sketches of his life are prefixed to various editions of his works; the best is that by his son, prefixed to his Select Remains, ed. his Sons, J. and E. Brown, this edited by W. Brown, Edinburgh, 1856. Consult also DNB, vii. 12–14.