EVANGELICAL UNION. 



FAIKIIAIKX, WILLIAM. 289 



of tlio publication interests, and director of 

 all the synmlii-al machinery. The particular 

 synods meet every year, and the General Con- 



i i- wry thr.o years. A delegate from 

 tlm General Synod, South, of the Lutheran 

 Church, att.-inli-il the present meeting. The 



r.-lical Synod of tlio West consists ex- 

 eltisiv.lv of (ierman-speaking congregations, 

 and niiiiilu -ivd, in 1874, 276 clergymen, 250 con- 

 .tiniis, and about -l<U>iMt communicants. 



LNGELICAL UNION. The thirty- 

 si'vcnth annual conference of the Evangelical 

 I'nion of Scotland was held in Glasgow, in 

 September. The conference is composed of 

 tho ministers of the several churches and two 

 lay delegates from each church. The Rev. 

 .:o Gladstone, of the Evangelical Church, 

 was chosen president. Two ministers were re- 

 ported to have died during the year. Two 

 churches one in Wishard, with one hundred 

 and eighty-five members, and one in Mother- 

 well, with ninety-seven members were re- 



ceived Into the Union. Two iniiii*ttr* were 

 also received. Tho report of the Home Mif- 

 nion showed that nineteen churches of the 

 Union were without settled pastors. Several 

 legacies and gifts to various connectional in- 

 stitutions were announced. Favorable reports 

 were made of the condition of the chapel 

 debt and building-fund, of the ministers' aug- 

 mentation fund, and of tho worn-out minis- 

 ters and ministers' widows' fund. The last 

 fund is supported by contributions from the 

 churches, and the payment by those who be- 

 come entitled to its benefits of one pound ster- 

 ling each annually. Such persons, on failure 

 of their health, become entitled to an allow- 

 ance of at least 40 a year. The widow of a 

 member dying receives a grant of 40. The 

 Union supports an institution called the Acad- 

 emy, at which the theological students are 

 trained. Eighteen such students had been at- 

 tending the institution at the time the confer- 

 ence met. 



F 





FAIRBAIRN, Rev. PATRICK, D. D., a cler- 

 gyman of the Free Church of Scotland, and for 

 twenty years principal of the Free Church Col- 

 lege at Glasgow, born in Edinburgh in 1805 ; 

 died at Glasgow, August 6, 1874. He was edu- 

 cated at. the University of Edinburgh, was set- 

 tled over one of the parish churches of the 

 Scottish Kirk, followed Chalmers and Guthrie 

 and their associates in the Disruption of 1843, 

 and was, of course, obliged to give up his 

 parish and his manse. He became soon after 

 minister of the Free Church parish of Salton, 

 whence he was called, in 1853, to the Free 

 Church College at Glasgow, first as professor, 

 and later as principal. A man of great and 

 varied learning, and one of the ablest writers 

 in tho Free Church, he was yet one of the most 

 accessible, simple-hearted, and genial of men, 

 but withal a man of the most untiring indus- 

 try. His published works have nearly all come 

 to be regarded as standards, for their profound 

 research and their careful accuracy of state- 

 ment. The following are those best known : 

 " The Typology of Scripture," 2 vols., 8vo 

 (this has passed through many editions) ; " Ex- 

 position of the First Epistle of Peter," 2 vols., 

 12rao (1836); " Hengstenberg's Commentary 

 on the Psalms," translated by Dr. Fairbairn, 

 8 vols., 8vo (1845-'48); "Jonah: his Life, 

 Character, and Mission," 12mo (1849); "Eze- 

 kiel, and the Book of his Prophecy," 8vo (1851) ; 

 "Hengstenberg's Revelation of St. John," a 

 Commentary, translated by Dr. Fairbairn, 

 2 vols., 8vo (1851); "Prophecy," etc., 8vo 

 (1856) ; " Hermeneutical Manual," 8vo (1858). 

 He was also the editor of the " Imperial Biblo 

 Dictionary," not yet quite completed. He was 

 a powerful and eloquent speaker, and had taken 

 a deep interest in the revival work in progress 

 VOL. xiv. 19 A 



in Scotland, as a result of tho American evan- 

 gelists, Messrs. Moody and Sankey. His death 

 was attributed to heart-disease. 



FAIRBAIRN, Sir WILLIAM, Bart., C. E., 

 LL. D., F. R. S., an eminent British civil en- 

 gineer and iron-worker, born in Kelso, Scot- 

 land, in 1789 ; died at Manchester, England, 

 August 18, 1874. Having learned the rudi- 

 ments of education at a parish school, and re- 

 ceived some instruction from an uncle, he was 

 apprenticed to an engine-wright at a British 

 colliery. When his apprenticeship terminated, 

 he wrought two years in London, and then vis- 

 ited many places in England, Wales, and Ire- 

 land, working a short time in each, in order to 

 acquire a general knowledge of mechanical en- 

 gineering. Eventually, he began business on 

 his own account at Manchester, in 1817, and 

 persevered in it despite many discouraging cir- 

 cumstances. The first important improvement 

 which he introduced was the general substi- 

 tution of iron for wood in the shafting of cot- 

 ton-mills, and the use of lighter shafting where 

 metal was already in use. This change reduced 

 the cost of machinery, and enabled the motion 

 to be speeded from forty to one hundred and 

 sixty revolutions per minute. Mr. Fairbairn 

 afterward directed his attention to iron ship- 

 building, and was the first in England to con- 

 struct an iron ship. Tho construction of iron 

 vessels eventually became one of the principal 

 branches of his business, his firm having built 

 more than a hundred, varying from the small- 

 est size to the war-frigate of 2,600 tons. In 

 1834-'35, Mr. Fairbairn and Mr. E. Hodgkinson 

 were invited by the British Association to seek 

 out the cause of certain supposed defects in the 

 iron produced by hot-blast furnaces. He and 

 his associate accordingly investigated the sub- 



