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Kay's Originals Vol. 2

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 245 Edinburgh, the duties of which office he performed with the utmost fidelity. While holding this situation, the Associate Union was accomplished-a measure in which he greatly rejoiced, and was one of the committee appointed to negotiate the conjunction. Mr. Culbertson is known to the religious world as a writer of considerable merit. He was one of the original editors of the Christian Magazine, of which the following account is given by his biographer, Mr. Duncan of Mid-Calder :- '' Among some brethren who were assisting in the dispensation of the Lord's Supper at Craignailing, in the year 1796, the Evangelical Magazine, then the only religious periodical publication, having become the subject of conversation, the project of setting on foot a work of the same description in Scotland was conceived, discussed, and resolved upon, provided proper and steady coadjutors could be found. With Mr. Culbertson, the Rev. Messrs. Black of Dunfermline, (one of the projectors), Peddie, M'Crie, and Moore, of Edinburgh, Whytock of Dalkeith, and others, were associated as editors ; and under their management, with a respectable body of contributors, that valuable repository of theological and biblical knowledge commenced. After being carried on for seven or eight years, it was left in the hands of Mr. Whytock of Dalkeith and (the late) Dr. RI'Crie. At the close of 1806, one year after the demise of the former, the work was given up by the latter. It was then claimed by Mr. Culbertson, as one of the original editors; and, in 1807, a new series was commenced by him, in conjunction with Mr. Black of Dunfermline, and the writer of this memoir. The Rev. Afr. Simpson, once ministe? at Thurso, who had been brought up under the pastoral care of Mr. Culbertson, having been admitted to the charge of the Associate Congregation, Potterrow, Edinburgh, was assumed next year into the editorship, and constituted chief conductor of the work. To this Magazine Mr. Culbertson contributed largely, both in the old and in the new series. At length, when occupied with his Lectures on the Revelation, he retired, together with Dr, Black, and left the work to the two remaining editors, by whom, with the help of respected brethren, it was carried on till the union of the two great bodies of Seceders, when it was conjoined with the Christian Repository, under the title of the Christian Monitor." The various publications by Mr. Culbertson appeared in the following order:- In 1800, "Hints on the Ordinance of the Gospel Ministry"-an exposure of lay-preaching, and the inconsistency of latitudinarian fellowship. The same year, "A Vindication of the Principles of Seceders on the Head of Communion j " and, in 1808, " The Covenanter's Manual, or a short Illustration of the Scripture Doctrine of Public Vows." Besides two sermons entitled " Consolation to the Church," Mr. Culbertson published, in 1817, "The Pillar of Rachel's Grave, or a Tribute of respect to departed Worth "-a sermon on the death of the Princess Charlotte, and her infant son ; and, in 1820, on the demise of George III., '' The Death and Character of Asa, King of Judah." His chief work-" Lectures, Expository and Practical, on the Book of Revelation ''-was fist published in two volumes, a few years prior to his death.
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246 BIOQRAPHIUAL SKETCHES. These, embracing the two latter of the three heads into which Revelation is usually divided, were so favourably received that the author was induced to undertake the elucidation of the first division of the subject. He had collected ample materials for this purpose, but did not live to see the additional volume put to press. While attending a meeting of Presbytery at Edinburgh, he was seized with an illness, and died nine days afterwards, on the 13th December 1823. A new edit& of his Lectures on Revelation, in three volumes, was published in 1826, containing a memoir of the author, and dedicated to the Marchioness of Huntly, by James Culbertson, his son. Mr. Culbertson married, in 1793, Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. John Richmond, seed-merchant in Edinburgh, by whom he had a family of five sons and four daughters. No. CCLIII. THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES HOPE OF GRANTON, WHEN LORD ADVOCATE OF SCOTLAND. CHARLES HOPE, Lord President of the Court of Session, was born in 1763. His father, John Hope,’ sometime an eminent merchant in London, and M.P. for the county of Linlithgow, was grandson of the first Earl of Hopetoun j and his mother was a daughter of Eliab Breton of Norton and Fortyhall, in the county of Middlesex. After obtaining the rudiments of education at Enfield School, in that county, he was placed at the High School of Edinburgh, where he was distinguished as dux of the highest class. Designed for a profession, in which several of his ancestors had risen to distinction, his studies at the University were directed for the Scottish bar, and he was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1784. Two years subsequently he was nominated Judge-Advocate of Scotland; in 1791 Sheriff of Orkney and Zetland; and in 1801 Lord Advocate of Scotland. Shortly afterwards he was presented with the freedom of Edinburgh, together with a piece of plate of one hundred guineas value, for his services in drawing out, and otherwise aiding the Magistrates in obtaining a Poor’s Bill for the city. At the general election in 1802 he had been returned member of Parliament for the Burgh of Dumfries ; but in December of the same year, in consequence of the elevation of Mr. Dundas to the Peerage, he was unanimously chosen member for the city of Edinburgh. During the few years he continued in Parliament, the Lord Advocate was Mr. Hope cultivated the muse, and produced a volume of poems in 8v0, entitled “Thoughts in Prose and Verse, started in his walks.” Stockton, 1780. One of the pieces is addressed “To Captain Fraser, superintending the Demolition of Dunkirk,” of whom a portrait appears in a previous part of thie Work.
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