Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/424

Glas sophy.’ His notes on scripture texts (1747) exhibit a good deal of theological acumen; his monograph on the heresy of Aerius (1745) is a scholarly piece of work; and still better is his reconstruction, from Origen's citations, of the ‘True Discourse’ of Celsus, of which he prepared (1753) a translation with notes. His sacred ‘songs’ have no poetical merit.

Glas was of even and cheerful disposition, in company free from professional stiffness, and not without a sense of humour. ‘I too can be grave at times,’ he replied to an austere critic, ‘when I want money, or want righteousness.’ His strength of character in trying circumstances was remarkable. After the execution of the murderers of his son, his first thought was of the ‘glorious instance of the divine mercy, if George Glas and his murderers should meet in heaven.’ Glas died at Perth on 2 Nov. 1773. He married Katharine (d. December 1749), eldest daughter of Thomas Black, minister at Perth, and had fifteen children, all of whom he survived. Of his sons, Alexander was the writer of some of the best of the ‘Christian Songs’ published by the sect; George [q. v.] was the ablest of the family; Thomas became a bookseller at Dundee. His daughter Katharine married Robert Sandeman. In Scotland the sect is still known as Glassites; in England and America, to which it spread through the influence of Sandeman's labours, the name Sandemanian is given to it. In addition to the parent body there are several smaller sects which owe their origin to the writings of Glas, e.g. the Johnsonian baptists and the ‘separatists’ who follow the teaching of John Walker of Dublin.

Glas's ‘Works’ were collected in his lifetime and published, Edinb. 1761–2, 4 vols. 8vo; a second and more complete edition was issued at Dundee, 1782–3, 5 vols. 8vo. The most characteristic are: 1. ‘The Testimony of the King of Martyrs concerning his Kingdom,’ &c., Edinb. 1727, 8vo; also 1728, 8vo; 1729, 8vo; 1747, 8vo (preface by Robert Ferrier); 1776, 12mo; 1777, 12mo; 1813, 12mo. 2. ‘An Explication,’ &c., 1728. 3. ‘The Speech before the Commission,’ &c., 1730. 4. ‘A Letter to Mr. John Willison … concerning Illiterate Ministers,’ 1734. 5. ‘The Scheme of Justification by Faith agreeable to Common Sense,’ &c., 1753. Others are noticed above. Not included in the ‘Works’ is 6. ‘Christian Songs,’ 6th edit. Perth, 1784, 12mo; 9th edit. Edinb. 1805, 12mo (has unauthorised alterations); 13th edit. Perth, 1847, 12mo (the printer was R. Morison, who had printed the 6th edition sixty-four years previously; in this edition are sixteen compositions by Glas, besides two doubtful ones).

[Hew Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scotic.; Wilson's Dissenting Churches in London, 1810, iii. 261 sq.; Hurd's Religious Rites, 1811, pp. 644 sq.; Grub's Eccl. Hist. of Scotland, 1861, iv. 55; Anderson's Scottish Nation, 1870, ii. 307; Hunt's Religious Thought in England, 1873, iii. 222 sq.; Russell's Congregationalism, in Religions of the World, 1877, pp. 224 sq.; Glas's Works.]  GLASCOCK, WILLIAM NUGENT (1787?–1847), captain in the navy, entered the navy in January 1800 on board the Glenmore frigate with Captain George Duff, whom he followed in 1801 to the Vengeance, in which he served in the Baltic, on the coast of Ireland, and in the West Indies. In 1803 he was appointed to the Colossus and afterwards to the Barfleur, in which he was present in the action off Cape Finisterre on 22 July 1805, and later on at the blockade of Brest under Admiral Cornwallis. In November 1808 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Dannemark, and served in her at the reduction of Flushing in August 1809; in 1812 he was a lieutenant of the Clarence in the Bay of Biscay. He afterwards served in the Tiber, Madagascar, and Meander frigates on the home station, and in the Sir Francis Drake, flagship of Sir Charles Hamilton [q. v.] on the Newfoundland station, and was promoted from her to the command of the Carnation sloop in November 1818. In 1819 he commanded the Drake brig, from which he was obliged to invalid. In 1830 Glascock was appointed to the Orestes sloop, which he commanded on the home station during 1831; but in 1832 he was sent out to the coast of Portugal, and during the latter months of the year was stationed in the Douro, for the protection of British interests in the then disturbed state of the country [see ; (1786–1860)]. He continued in the Douro, as senior officer, for nearly a year, during which time his conduct under troublesome and often difficult circumstances won for him the approval of the admiralty and his promotion to post-rank, 3 June 1833, accompanied by a special and complimentary letter from Sir James Graham, the first lord. He did not, however, leave the Douro till the following September, and on 1 Oct. he paid off the Orestes. From April 1843 to January 1847 he commanded the Tyne frigate on the Mediterranean station, and during the following months was employed in Ireland as an inspector under the Poor Relief Act. He died suddenly on 8 Oct. 1847 at Baltinglass. He was married