194 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
No. LXXX.
REV. GREVILLE EWING.
AS the subject of this sketch is still alive, and engaged in public service, propriety
forbids our entering into the minuter details of his personal history,
He is a native of Edinburgh, where he was born in 1767. Being originally designed
for a secular profession, he was, at the usual age, bound apprentice to an
engraver. A strong desire, however, to be engaged in the work of the ministry
induced him, at the close of his apprenticeship, to relinquish his intended profession
and devote himself to study. He accordingly entered the University of
Edinburgh, where he passed through the usual curriculum of preparatory discipline
; and, in the year 1792, he was licensed to preach in connection with the
National Church by the Presbytery of Hamilton. A few months after this he
was ordained, as colleague with Dr. Jones, to the office of minister of Lady
Glenorchy’s Chapel, Edinburgh.
A deep interest in the cause of missions seems, at an early period of Mr.
Ewing’s ministry, to have occupied his mind. At that time such enterprises
were to a great degree novelties in this country; and even, by many who
wished them well, great doubts were entertained of their ultimate success. By
his exertions and writings he contributed much to excite a strong feeling in regard
to them in Edinburgh ; nor did he content himself with this, but, fired with
a spirit of true disinterested zeal, he determined to devote himself to the work
of preaching the gospel to the heathen. For this purpose he united with a
party of friends, like-minded with himself, who had formed a plan of going out
to India and settling themselves there as teachers of Christianity to the native
population. The individuals principally engaged in this undertaking besides
Alr. Ewing, were the Rev. David Bogue, D.D., of Gosport; the Rev. William
Innes, then one of the ministers of Stirling, now of Edinburgh; and Robert
Haldane, Esq. of Airthrey, near Stirling,-by the latter of whom the expenses
of the mission were to be defrayed. With the exception of Dr. Bogue, all these
gentlemen still survive. The peremptory refusal of the East India Company,
after repeated applications and memorials on the subject, to permit their going
out, caused the ultimate abandonment of this scheme. Mr. Ewing, however, and
his associates, feeling themselves pledged to the missionary cause, and seeing no
opening for going abroad, began to exert themselves for the promotion of religion
at home. A periodical, under the title of The Missionary Magazine, was started
in Edinburgh, of which Mr. Ewing undertook the editorship, the duties of
which office he discharged in the most efficient manner for the first three years
.
