Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/655

Rh  1em  GLAS, (1695–1773), the founder of the sect generally known as Glassites or Sandemanians, was born at Auchtermuehty, Fife, where his father was parish minister, on the 5th of October 1695. On completion of his educa- tion for the ministry at the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh, he was licensed as a preacher by the presbytery of Perth, and soon afterwards ordained by that of Dundee as minister of the parish of Tealing (1719). During his ministry there he gradually formed peculiar opinions, which as early as 1725 found expression in the formation of a society “ separate from the multitude,” numbering nearly a hundred, and drawn from his own and neighbouring parishes. The members of this ecclesiold in ecclesia pledged themselves “to join together in the Christian profession, to follow Christ the Lord as the righteousness of His people, to walk together in brotherly love and in the duties of it in subjection to Mr Glas as their overseer in the Lord, to observe the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper once every month, to submit themselves to the Lord’s law for removing offences” (Matth. xviii.), and SO on. From the scriptural doctrine of the essentially spiritual and heavenly nature of the kingdom of Christ, Glas in his public teaching drew the conclusions, not only that the church, as being identical with that kingdom, ought to consist of ' none but truly spiritual Christian men, but also that the civil establishment of the church was unlawful and utterly incon- sistent with the spirit of Christianity. For the promulga- tion of these views, which were confessedly at variance with the doctrines of the standards of the national Church of Scotland, he was summoned (1726) before his presbytery, where, in the course of the investigations which followed, he afﬁrmed with still more explicitness than formerly his belief that “every national church established by the laws of earthly kingdoms is antiehristian in its constitution and persecuting in its spirit,” and further declared opinions upon the subject of church government which amounted to an entire repudiation of Presbyterianism and an acceptance of Independency. For these opinions he was in 1728 sus- pended from the discharge of ministerial functions, and finally in 1730 deposed, the members of the society already referred to, however, for the most part continued to adhere to him, thus constituting the ﬁrst “ Glassite” or “ Glasite ” church. The seat of this congregation was shortly afterwards transferred to Dundee, whence Glas subsequently removed to Edinburgh, where he ofﬁciated for some time as an “elder.” He next laboured in Perth for a few years, but ultimately returned to Dundee, where the remainder of his life was spent. In 1739 the General Assembly, without any application either from him or from his friends, removed the sentence of deposition which had been passed against him, and restored him to the character and exercise of a minister of the gospel of Christ, though declaring that he was not to be esteemed a minister of the Established Church of Scotland, or eligible for a charge, until he should have re- nounced the principles embraced and avowed by him that were inconsistent with the constitution of the church. Besides the Testimony Glas wrote a number of papers, ex- pository, polemical, or practical, which were published in a collected edition at Edinburgh in 1761 (4 vols. SW), and again at Perth in 1782 (5 vols. 8vo). He died in 1773.

1em  GLASER,, one of the minor chemists of the, concerning the details of Whose life very little is known. He was a native of Basel, came to Paris, succeeded Lefebvre as demonstrator on chemistry in the J ardin du Roi, and was appointed apothecary to Louis XIV. and to the duke of Orleans. He is best known to us by his Traité de la Chynu'e (Paris, 1663), which gives a very favourable idea of the chemical science of his time. The little work went through some ten editions in about ﬁve- and-twenty years, and was translated into both German and English. Dumas and other writers indeed have spoken very disparagingly both of the Traité and of the author’s merits and character, but this adverse judgment appears to rest on altogether insufﬁcient grounds. One thing very much against Glaser is his alleged connexion with the marchioness de Brinvilliers. It d0es not appear, however, that he had any share in the notorious poisonings beyond making the deadly substances which the marchioness and others employed in secret. He appears to have died some years before 1676. A salt (the normal sulphate of potas- sium) which he showed how to prepare, and the medicinal properties of which he pointed out, was named Glasn'z' sal polyc/ireslum, or salt of many uses. The natiVe sulphate is still known as glaserz’te.