Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/333

Rh benefited by the biblical scholarship and profound exegetical theology of Mr. Ewing, or the clear logic, graceful eloquence, and critical tact of Mr. Wardlaw. The latter continued to discharge the duties of this important office till the close of his life, and for the greater part of that time wholly without remuneration. At length, when a salary was attached to it, the amount was so small as scarcely to defray the mere expenses which were involved in the labour. This parsimony was thought strange, considering how many wealthy members belonged to his flock; but, on the other hand, the numerous exigences of a new and rising cause, and the expensive missionary enterprises in which it was engaged, may account for this stinted liberality to the professor of theology. In the enthusiastic affection of his pupils, however, who were proud of the growing fame of their teacher, as if it had been their own; in the proficiency they made under his charge, in consequence of which many of them took the highest prizes in the university of Glasgow; and in the eminence which several of them reached as ministers, both in Scotland and England, Mr. Wardlaw enjoyed a requital which no salary, however liberal, could have equalled. The character of his teaching is thus described in one of the discourses delivered at his funeral:—"His lectures were admirable specimens of acute disquisition, perspicacious reasoning, and solid conclusion. Their aim was principally directed to the elucidation and defence of that system of truth which their author believed to be revealed in the Scriptures. His theology was primarily biblical, secondarily polemical; he sought first to read the mind of the Spirit as unfolded in the written word, and having satisfied himself on this point, he summoned all the resources of his logic to defend the judgment he had formed from cavil or objection. Beyond this he did not go much into the region of systematic or historical theology; while of the speculations of mere philosophical theologians he took little note, as either lying beyond the sphere which he had prescribed for himself, or not likely to be directly useful to those whom it was his ambition to train to be ’able ministers of the New Testament.' To those who were privileged to attend his prelections, they were valuable not only for the amount of sound theological knowledge which they imparted, but also as models of theological disquisition, and as affording an excellent discipline for the faculties of those who were destined to teach others."

After Mr. Wardlaw had continued for sixteen years to officiate as the minister of Albion Street chapel, his congregation had increased so greatly, that the building, though not a small one, was insufficient for their accommodation. They therefore erected that larger edifice in West George Street, where he continued to officiate till the close of his life. Soon after, his widely-spread reputation procured for him the degree of D.D. from one of the principal colleges in America, and this, too, at a time when literary degrees from that quarter were more rarely given than now, and therefore more worth having. But how our own Scottish universities allowed themselves to be anticipated in conferring this honour upon such a man as Dr. Wardlaw, is one of those anomalies which, perhaps, not even their learning and acuteness would be sufficient to solve.

Allusion has already been made to the popularity of Dr. Wardlaw's ministry, and the steadiness with which this went onward to the end. And yet he was not a Boanerges, to take the popular mind by storm—a preacher that could strike, rouse, or astonish. His pulpit excellencies, indeed, were of a far less obtrusive, but, on that account, of a more sure and permanent character: he