Unity and Diversity: The Founders of the Free Church of Scotland is a set of mini-biographies by Sandy Finlayson and is published by Christian Focus.
I've just finished reading this book after borrowing it from William Gibson. It is very easy reading and a straightforward topic and Sandy Finlayson writes very sympathetically of the Fathers of the Free Church. His purpose is to provide a modern, honest appreciation of some of the men who stood on principle in the mid-nineteenth century against the interference of government in the affairs of the Church and walked away from manses and stipends not knowing what the future held (but knowing who held the future!).
The selection of men he chose to study is eclectic. The diversity of men who stood together in the Free Church is notable. They all held to a Biblical Conservatism yet some were tight confessionalists whilst others held loosely to some confessional teachings. Some were influenced by their own local culture and heritage whilst others were interested in high culture and wished to better society through music and art and science. Some had a burden for their home city, whilst others took the message of the cross to foreign lands. Some were highly concerned with the social troubles of their congregations while others were not so much but all were concerned for the welfare of the souls of their congregations. They had a passion to get the gospel spread at home and abroad. They saw the gospel as having a spiritual application and being for the eternal welfare of body and soul. They had rejected a worldly attitude to ministry and a cold attitude to the Scriptures whilst retaining a warmth and love for people and for evangelical fellowship with all who loved the Lord Jesus in sincerity.
Thomas Chalmers, Robert Candlish, William Cunningham, Hugh Miller, Thomas Guthrie, James Begg, Andrew Bonar, Rabbi Duncan, Alexander Duff and John Kennedy are all given a brief chapter of biography.
The Scottish Church could do with taking an interest in her forefathers. If we would have this kind of Christianity perhaps we could be used to win back the lost land of Scotland to Jesus. That that would be our passion and aim.
