172 BIOGRAPHICAL SRETC HES.
his talents, and were therefore entirely hostile to his views. Their opposition,
however, could not shake his resolution-he persevered in his theological studies,
and was, in 1742, licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Dunblane.
The future progress of the young divine, till his settlement in the metropolis,
is easily told :-“ In May 1744 he was ordained minister of Kirkintilloch, in
the Presbytery of Glasgow, where he remained till 1754, when he was presented
to the parish of Culross, in the Presbytery of Dunfermline. In June 1758 he
was translated to the New Greyfriars, one of the churches of Edinburgh, In
November 1766, the University of Glasgow conferred on him the honorary
degree of doctor of divinity; and, in July 1767, he was promoted to the collegiate
charge of the Old Greyfriars, where he had for his colleague his early
friend Dr. Robertson.”
In these various movements towards that field of honour and usefulness in
which his talents ultimately placed him, Dr. Erskine carried along with him
the universal respect of his parishioners. They had been delighted and improved
by his public instructions-and were proud of having had a clergyman
amongst.them, at once combining the rare qualifications of rank, piety, and
learning. He was most exemplary in his official character ; ever ready to assist
and counsel his parishioners, he “grudged no time, and declined no labour, spent
in their service.“
Dr. Erskine was not only zealous for the interests of religion at home, but
equally so for its diffusion abroad ; and in order to obtain the earliest and most
authentic intelligence of the state of the Gospel in the colonies of North America,
where a remarkable concern for religion had manifested itself about the time he
obtained his license, he commenced a correspondence with those chiefly interested
in bringing about that interesting event. He also, some time after, opened
a communication with many distinguished divines on the Continent of Europe
-a correspondence which he unweariedly cultivated during the remainder of
his life. This practice added much to his labour, not only by an increased and
voluminous epistolary intercourse, but in “ being called upon by the friends of
deceased divines to correct and superintend the publication of posthumous
wor ks.”l
In his Continental correspondence, the Doctor had seriously felt the want of
a knowledge of the Dutch and German languages ; and, at an adv‘mced period
of life, actually set about overcoming this difficulty, which he successfully accomplished
in a remarkably short space of time. A rich field, in the literature
of Germany, being thus thrown open to him, the result of his industry was
soon manifested by the publication of “Sketches and Hints of Church History
and Theological Controversy, chiefly translated and abridged from modern
foreign writers,’’ the first volume of which appeared in 1790, and the second
.in 1798.’
t1 The greater part of the works of President Edwards, of Dickenson, of Stoddart, and Fraaer of
9 On the appearance of this volume, Dr. Erskine waa violently assailed by an anonymous writer
Allness, were brought out in this way.
