Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/298

  For this adorn'd, graceful in Roman dress, Deserved thanks the Scotian Muses pay To him who gave them life decreeing thus Upon his tomb unfading light shall play, From torches burning bright, that ne'er shall know decay. 

, the Father, as he has been called, of the London Missionary Society, was born at Hallydown in the Parish of Coldingham, Berwickshire, on the 18th February, 1750. His father, who farmed his own estate, was descended of a respectable family which had been long settled in the county. His studies are said to have been carried on at Dunse under the superintendence of the distinguished Cruikshanks, not less remembered for the success of his tuition, than for the severity of his discipline. He afterwards removed to the university of Edinburgh, and studied moral philosophy under Adam Ferguson, the well-known author of the "History of Civil Society." After undergoing the usual course of study, and being licensed as a preacher in connection with the church of Scotland, from want, perhaps, of very flattering prospects in his native country, he removed to London (1771), and was for some time employed in the humble, but meritorious, capacity of usher in an academy at Edmonton, afterwards at Hampstead, and finally with the Rev. Mr Smith of Camberwell, whom he also assisted in the discharge of his ministerial duties both at Camberwell and at Silver Street, London, where he held a lectureship, the duties* of which were at one time performed by the celebrated John Home. The zeal with which Mr Bogue discharged his duties in both of these capacities, contributed not less to the satisfaction of Mr Smith, than to the increase of his own popularity. At length, on the resignation of the minister of an independent chapel at Gosport, Mr Bogue was unanimously chosen to fill the vacant charge. The duties of his new situation were such as to require all the strength of judgment and uncompromising inflexibility, tempered with Christian meekness, which entered so largely into his character. The charge was one of great difficulty, and of peculiar importance. The members of the congregation were divided among themselves, and part of them had indeed withdrawn from the communion altogether, during the ministry of his predecessor, and formed themselves into .1 separate congregation, under a rival minister; but the exemplary conduct of Mr Bogue, and his zeal in the discharge of his duties, were such, that he had scarce occupied the pulpit twelve months when a re-union was effected. His fame, as a solid and substantial scholar, and an evangelical and indefatigable minister, now spread rapidly; and, early in March 1780, he entered into the design of becoming tutor to an establishment for directing the studies of young men destined for the Christian ministry in connexion with the Independent communion. For the ability with which this establishment was conducted, both now and when it afterwards became a similar one for those destined for missionary labours, his praise is indeed in all the churches. It was in this period, though occupied with the details of what most men would have felt as a full occupation of their time, that his ever-active mind turned its attention to the formation of a grand missionary scheme, which afterwards resulted in the London Missionary Society. The influence which the establishment of this institution was calculated to have on the public mind was grand and extensive, and the springing up of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Religious Tract Society at short intervals, proves how much good was effected by the impetus thus given by one master-mind. In the establishment of both of these he likewise took an active part, contributing to the latter body the first of a series of publications which have been of great usefulness. In the year 1796, Mr Bogue was called upon to show whether he, who had professed himself such a friend