Throughout the course of Scottish Church History there
have been many important movements which have brought the Church
of Scotland to hor present state. Hot the least of these was
the Great Disruption in I8I4.3* Much has been written concerning
the causes of this disruption but too little notice has been
made of one of the great evangelical leaders of the immediate
pre-disruption period, Dr. Andrew Hitchell Thomson,
The contribution which Thomson made to the Church was
an Important one and commands serious study. This thesis is an
attempt to present the man and his work in relation to the
Evangelical Revival in the Church of Scotland at the beginning of the
nineteenth Century.
His activities were many and varied, and most of them
are mentioned in this work. Those that have a direct bearing on
the Evangelical Revival are carefully examined and considered.
Church historians have written very little concerning
Andrew Thomson, as he was overshadowed by Thomas Chalmers and
the momentous events relating to the Disruption of 1843. There
is only one brief biography of Thomson, which is very inadequate.
Unfortunately, little information is available concerning his
early life and interests.
This thesis is divided into two major parts, plus an
evaluation. The first part is treated-rather briefly, however,
because of the lack of primary material and the fact that the
second part covers the portion of Thomson's life which bears
directly on the Evangelical Revival in Scotland during the
first quarter of the nineteenth Century
Thomson's influence upon this Revival is demonstrated
in every phase of his life and work. Serving as an able and faf
Use other side if necessary.
distinguished minister, as editor of an Influential evangelical
periodical, and party leader in the Church, he rendered a two-fold service to evangelical religion. He took away the reproach
from what had been called the narrow, the pietistic, the
fanatical party, and formed a strong Evangelical body to face
the Moderate ranks. He gathered and marshalled the younger men
in the Church who were willing to fight for spiritual independence
and Christian rights inside the Establishment.
His seal in promoting the religious culture and intellectual improvement of the people, a characteristic which was not so
pronounced in the earlier evangelicals, served to render the
Evangelical Revival more acceptable in certain areas of society,
Thomson was a reformer and his often controversial writings
reflect that character. A careful analysis of his speeches and
his writings reveal that their distinctive feature is their powerful and sifting argumentation. His aim often appeared to be to
find and refute error, and in the passion of debate he sometimes
spoke and wrote more severely and harshly than the occasion
warranted. He sometimes crossed the boundry line of fair debate;
he occasionally took an exaggerated view of his subject, and too
often penned unguarded expressions in regard to those with whom
he differed. It may be said that considering the stirring
nature of the warfare in which he was engaged, and the fact that
an ardent tamper seems to be an inseparable element in a mind
fitted for enterprises of noble daring, some of his actions
were not surprising, but are by no means to be commended. He
has been compared with Luther, and Knox, and Melville; and despite
his occasional injudicious conduct, he greatly helped to bring
Ills Church to a renewed awareness of her protestant heritage.
