Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

was held in Anderson's School, Norfolk Street, on the 6th October 1854, Mr James Frisken, chairman. The following resolution was unanimously agreed to:-"That this meeting considers that, from the increase of the population in that part of the city situated on the south side of the river, there is an existing necessity for increased church accommodation, and more particularly in connection with the United Presbyterian Church." Other resolutions giving effect to the above were also passed; and, in pursuance thereof, an application was made by the parties interested to the Presbytery of Glasgow to form them into a congregation. The application was granted, and the congregation formed on the 12th December 1854 The congregation met in Wellington Place Academy till the erection of a church. A site being obtained in Caledonian Road, the church was built thereon, and was named accordingly. The church was opened on the 4th Sabbath of March 1857. The number of sittings was 1049, but, by alterations on the gallery, 60 additional sittings have been added. The cost of the building was about £7500.

Ist Minister.-ROBERT T. JEFFREY, M.D., formerly of Denny. Inducted 29th April 1856.

Author of "Voices from Calvary;" "Sermon on the Indian War;" on "The Commercial Crisis, 1857;" "The God-Man, Christ Jesus;" "Have we a Sabbath to Keep?" and "A Tribute of Affection to the Memory of a Beloved Wife.”

ST ROLLOX.

The Rev. David Forrest having resigned his charge of the congregation of Troon, 13th April 1852, removed to Glasgow, where he took up his abode. In 1853, he began missionary work in the district of St Rollox; and in 1855, the persons whom he had gathered together were formed into a congregation. In 1856, he was inducted as minister of the congregation. Next year an effort was made to procure funds for the erection of a church, but owing to the commercial collapse, it was not successful. A site was obtained in 1860, and assistance given by many Christian friends, as well as a liberal grant from the Ferguson Fund. The church was opened on 24th March 1861, containing 440 sittings, and costing £1100.

1st Minister.-DAVID FORREST, previously of Troon. Inducted 4th March 1856.

MITCHELL CHURCH.

A few individuals, mostly belonging to Wellington Street Church, being impressed with the amount of intemperance, immorality, and practical disregard of religious ordinances prevailing in a large portion of Anderston, met together in the beginning of 1852 to deliberate as to the best means of remedying these evils. They secured the Temperance Hall in Jameson's Lane, for the purpose of carrying on mission work. Public worship was conducted there morning and evening, city missionaries, and sometimes laymen, presiding. In this way the work was carried on for about three years, when it was felt that, in order to secure permanent results and establish a congregation, a minister was necessary. The committee having learned that the Rev. William Miller, late of Longridge, was disengaged, secured his services. Mr Miller began his labours on 4th November 1854 in Catherine Street schoolroom. In June 1855, a petition, signed by 130 names, was presented to Glasgow Presbytery, praying to be congregated, which was granted. The church in Cheapside Street was opened for public worship in November 1856; sittings, 632; cost, exclusive

of site, about £1400. Cheapside Street church has been disposed of, and the congregation is now (1872) erecting a new one in Breadalbane Street. For the last ten years the congregation has been self-sustaining.

1st Minister.-WILLIAM MILLER, previously of Longridge. Inducted 3d January 1856. Died 13th January 1860, in the 56th year of his age, and 29th of his ministry.

2d Minister.-JOHN WILSON, Ph.D. of Heidelberg, from Edinburgh (Nicolson Street). Called to Arbroath (Grimsby), and Glasgow. Ordained 5th June 1860.

MARYHILL.

In 1854, the Rev. Robert Niven, missionary in Caffraria, returned to Scotland to await the issue of the sore affliction which befel his wife by reason of the Caffre War of 1850-3. As he was unwilling to hamper the Mission Board, he declined several inviting offers to undertake settled ministerial work at home. On consulting Dr Robertson of Shamrock Street, and Dr Struthers of Anderston, as to a field of temporary labour, both agreed that Maryhill was a good field. Dr Robertson accompanied Mr Niven to spy out the land. They found it reported to be "the Dead Sea, with the Jordan running into it," and a convenient out-field for Shamrock Street Church, two miles to the north-west. The congregation of Shamrock Street accordingly adopted it as their mission field. The matter was further submitted to the Established and Free Church ministers of the place, and a beginning made. The Oddfellows' Hall, seated for 250, was rented as a place of worship, and opened as a preaching station on 5th February 1853, the services being conducted by Rev. Drs Robertson and Anderson, and Mr Niven, the collection being £25. Household visitation among a population of 3000 souls-one-third of whom were Romanists, with a chapel and resident priest among them—was forthwith begun, and district Sabbath schools were opened. The attendance in the Hall during the day averaged one hundred, and double that number in the evenings. Application was made to the Presbytery of Glasgow in July 1835, to be congregated; and in October, 29 members and 71 adherents were formed into a congregation. The Rev. John M'Laren was appointed to ordain elders and moderate in the Session. The Lord's Supper was dispensed for the first time on the last Sabbath of October by Mr Niven, when 63 communicated. In March 1856, a call was given to Mr Niven, signed by 75 members and 30 adherents. The foundation of a church was laid on 18th September 1858, and on 3d Sabbath of May 1859, the new church was opened by Drs Robertson, Frew, and J. L. Aikman, with sittings for 430, at a cost of £1340. A gallery was added in May 1865 with sittings for 140, making in all, 570. A manse was built in 1868 at a cost of £1069.

1st Minister.-ROBERT NIVEN, previously of Caffraria. Inducted 30th April 1856. Author of "Correspondence with Sir George Cathcart on the Caffre War and Caffrarian Missions."

POLLOK STREET.

A few members of the United Presbyterian Church residing in the south-west portion of the City of Glasgow, taking into consideration the rapid increase of the population in that locality, deemed the erection of a place of worship there very desirable and necessary. In November 1855, forty-five members of the United

Presbyterian Church presented a petition to the Glasgow Presbytery, asking to be congregated. The petition was granted, and the Rev. Dr John Macfarlane of Erskine Church being appointed Moderator, constituted the members into a congregation on the evening of 17th December 1855. On the Sabbath following, the hall adjoining the church afterwards erected in Pollok Street was opened for public worship by Rev. Drs Macfarlane and Anderson.

The building of the church began on 28th March 1855, and the church was opened on 16th March 1856. The number of sittings is 986, and the entire cost of the church, hall, offices, and church officer's house, was £6013, 9s. rod.

1st Minister.-JAMES KNOX, A.M., D.D., previously of Ayr, Wallacetown (now Darlington Place). Inducted on 2d September 1856. Had the degree of D.D. conferred upon him by the University of Glasgow in April 1870.

Author of "Sermon on the Death of the Duke of Wellington " (2 Sam. iii. 38) in 1852; "The Pastor's Farewell" (2 John 8) in 1856; "Lecture delivered before the Theological Society of the United Presbyterian Divinity Hall" (September 1867); "On the Combined Progressive and Conservative Elements in Nature and Religion," in 1870.

CLAREMONT.

In the year 1855, members of the congregations of Greyfriars, Wellington Street, Anderston, Shamrock Street, and Cambridge Street, began a preaching station in Sandyford Collegiate School, in order to provide church accommodation for the United Presbyterians resident in Sandyford district in the west end of Glasgow. They were congregated in November 1855, and in February 1856 applied to the Presbytery for a moderation in a call to one to be their minister. A call was presented to the Presbytery in April, signed by twenty-five members, and a paper of concurrence by twenty-nine adherents, to Rev. Alexander MacEwen of Helensburgh. In due time Mr MacEwen accepted the call, and entered on his new charge on the 17th August 1856, the day the church was opened.

Claremont Church was built from designs furnished by the Messrs Hay of Liverpool, and the interior is considered one of the finest produced by these eminent architects. The church has cost upwards of £9000, and lets for 1100. The whole debt was paid off within five years of Mr MacEwen's settlement, a fact, we believe, almost without a precedent. For several years now every sitting in the church has been let. The congregation raise annually, for congregational and missionary purposes, about £4000.

The origin of this congregation, it may be added, attracted particular attention, from the fact of an organ being put into the church, and the discussions which ensued thereupon. The congregation appeared at the Synod in 1856, and again in 1858, to ask liberty to use their organ in conducting their psalmody, but their request in both cases was refused. Though they were quite unanimous in their desire to employ instrumental music in public worship, it is to their credit that they never used their organ in any way, after the dates of the Synodical decisions, till 1872, when the Synod relaxed its enactment regarding instrumental music. They have been from the first most liberal contributors to the missionary and other schemes of the Church.

1st Minister.-ALEXANDER MACEWEN, D.D., previously of Helensburgh. Translated to Glasgow in 1856. Received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University in 1864.

ALBERT STREET.

This congregation (originally Blackfriars) owes its origin to Regent Place Church, hile under the ministry of Rev. Dr Edmond. The congregation of Regent Place ook a deep interest in the non-church-going population around. By the Presbytery's Ommittee a place of worship was purchased in Blackfriars Street, and the church as opened for public worship, 1st July 1855, when the Rev. William Cowan, forerly of Buckhaven, who had accepted an invitation to cultivate the district, began is labours. On 12th March 1856, the station was congregated, and on the 23d eptember 1856, a call was given to Mr Cowan. His induction took place on st October 1856. The money necessary for maintaining ordinances was raised t first by subscription among the members of Regent Place; and up till 1864, when he Home Mission Board took charge of Blackfriars, and the connection with Regent Place was dissolved, the sum of £1519 had been raised by the parent hurch on behalf of the infant cause. The church in Blackfriars was bought for 1400, and has sittings for 650. The secluded position of the church, and the nnoyances sustained during divine service from the brawling and fighting in the eighbourhood, induced the congregation to look out for a more open position. The memorial stone of a new church in Albert Street was laid on 6th October 1871, by William Graham, Esq., M.P. for Glasgow. The church was opened on 8th Sepember 1872, by Rev. Dr M'Michael, Mr Brunton, and Rev. A. N. Somerville, Anderston, with sittings for 750, at a cost of about £3000.

1st Minister.-WILLIAM COWAN, previously of Buckhaven.

Admitted Ist

October 1856. Died 15th August 1863, in the 48th year of his age, and 17th of his ministry.

2d Minister.-ALEXANDER BRUNTON, previously of Oban. October 1864.

Inducted 25th

BERKELEY STREET.

In March 1856, commissioners appeared before Glasgow Presbytery from the second congregation, East Campbell Street, and presented a petition, signed by 140 members of said congregation, bearing that they had erected a new church in Berkeley Street, and craving that they be disjoined, along with the Rev. William Ramage, their minister, and formed into a separate congregation. At next meeting of Presbytery it was stated that the congregation had agreed not to oppose the petition, and to wish their brethren who were leaving them all success. Mr Ramage intimated his concurrence in the petition, and the Presbytery granted the disjunction as requested.

Berkeley Street Church was opened on Sabbath, 11th May 1856, when Professor Lindsay, Mr Ramage, and Dr Robson preached. The collections amounted to £283, 8s. 2d.—the members having previously contributed for the building the sum of £1500. The church contains 900 sittings, and cost five thousand guineas.

1st Minister.-WILLIAM RAMAGE, previously of East Campbell Street Church. Removed to Berkeley Street, 11th May 1856.

2d Minister.-GEORGE LINDLEY CARSTAIRS, from Edinburgh (James' Place). Called to Tillicoultry, Kilmarnock, and Berkeley Street. Ordained as colleague to Mr Ramage, 3d October 1871.

SPRINGBURN.

This congregation originated with persons belonging to the denomination resident in the district, but who had been in the habit of travelling to their respective places of worship in Glasgow. They made application to the Presbytery of Glasgow to be formed into a congregation, and on the 12th February 1856 they were congregated accordingly. The church was opened for public worship on the 17th August 1856. It contains sittings for 450, and cost £816, 17s. 5d. The congregation is now engaged (1872) in building a new and more commodious church. Before obtaining a fixed minister, a call was given to Mr M. Crawford, but declined.

1st Minister.-WALTER CHISHOLM, from Galashiels (West). Ordained 31st August 1858. Died 29th November 1859, in the 38th year of his age, and 2d of his ministry.

2d Minister.-JAMES A. JOHNSTON, previously of West Linton. 3d July 1861.

Admitted

LANGSIDE ROAD.

In the summer of 1856 it was thought desirable to open a mission station in the neighbourhood of Langside. Services were commenced in the Crossmyloof schoolroom on the 13th July 1856. For a number of Sabbaths the station was supplied by various ministers. The committee in charge at length invited the Rev. Henry Erskine Fraser, M.A., of North Shields, to become the resident missionary. He accepted the invitation, demitted his charge of North Shields 2d September 1856, and began his labours on the 21st September. In August 1857 the station was congregated by the Presbytery with 33 members, and in February 1858 the congregation unanimously called Mr Fraser to become their minister. The church was opened on 6th March 1859; cost £1600, and contains 450 sittings.

1st Minister.-HENRY ERSKINE FRASER, M.A., formerly of North Shields. Admitted 23d March 1858.

CUMBERLAND STREET.

On the 10th June 1862, a petition from 106 persons attending ordinances in the Tontine Reading Room, Glasgow, craving to be erected into a congregation, was received by the Glasgow Presbytery. The usual steps were taken with this application, and on the 9th September, 65 members were formed into a congregation. The congregation, then under the care of the Rev. John Frazer, removed from the Tontine to Wellington Academy, Commercial Road, 12th May 1863. On the 14th July 1863, it was reported to the Presbytery that they had secured a site for a church at the head of Matheson Street and South Wellington Street. A call was issued in favour of Mr Frazer on 25th January 1864, and his induction took place on 23d February. The Presbytery, on 10th April 1866, agreed to raise £125, on condition that the congregation raised a like sum, in order to build a brick church capable of holding from 400 to 500 persons.

1st Minister.-JOHN FRAZER, formerly of Goderich, Canada. Admitted 23d February 1864.

« ZurückWeiter »