i 4 8 



I he Review of Reviews. 



February 20, 1906. 



ministers only, but all save the very few outstanding 

 writers. How many, or rather how few, of George 

 MacDonald's contemporaries are really read or 

 known by the younger folk of to-day 1 The Walhalla 

 of abiding fame permits but very few to find en- 

 trance. And so. perhaps, it is needful to give in 

 briefest outline an idea of his career. 



He was born at Huntly, in Aberdeenshire, just 

 over eighty years ago. He came of a sturdy Scotch 

 stock. His ancestors were among the fugitives, who 

 Hid the massacre at Glencoe. The sturdiness 

 of the stock may be found in the fact that his 

 parents separated themselves from the distinctively- 

 Scotch Churches, and associated themselves with 

 the Independent Church which has never hail a 

 large following in Presbyterian Scotland. Emers 

 has said that ever) true man must be a Noncon- 

 formist — that is to say, he will not conform to 

 the existing or popular simply because it is such. 

 George MacDonald was brought up in the freedom 

 of Independent y. or. at all events, in such freedom 

 as the Church of that day possessed, which in an 

 ecclesiastical sense was great enough, but in a 

 doctrinal sens: was nut very great. The atmosphere 

 of his home was deeply religious, perhaps as 

 actual worship a little tin. religious. In the matter 

 of reading the provision was not of the amplest. 

 Beyond the Bible the only food for the imagination 

 was to be found in the " Pilgrim's Progress " and 

 • Rob'nsiin Crus^ Even hi^ great countryman, 



Sir Walter Scott, was forbiddf n. Scant}' Tare this 

 for a bov fonder of reading than of games. From 

 the parish school he passed to King's College. Al 

 deen, where he had gained a Bursary. 



There is no sign that he distinguished hims If 

 in the way of scholarship — beyond taking prizes in 

 chenvstry and natural philosophv. When he reached 

 man's estate he found his way to London as a tutor 

 in a familv. Here he connected himself with Trevor 

 Chapel. Brompton. where Dr. Morrison, also an 

 Aberdonian and a friend of his father, nvnistered. 

 Then his thoughts were turned to the ministry, and 

 he entered Highburv College, which has since been 

 merged in New College. London. His stay there 

 was. T believe, of the shortest. - Tn this respect he 

 was like a kindred-minded man. Thomas Toke 

 Lynch. Neither of these men found what they 

 wanted in the theological college of that day. Thev 

 were both Seers, and thev wanted to see for them- 

 selves and not through other men's eves. It is 

 astonishing, when you come to think of it, how 

 many of the most potent preachers owed nothing 

 to the training of a Divinity School. To name only 

 the departed. This was the case not onlv with 

 George MacDonald and Thomas Lvnch. but with 

 Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Joseph Parker. 



George MacDonald's first and only charge was of 

 the Congregational Church at Arundel, in Sussex, 

 almost opposite the gates of Arundel Park, the seat 

 of the Duke o r Norfolk. It was a short-lived minis- 



try. His teaching was too original for many of 

 the people to follow, and so it soon came to an 

 end the ministry to one Church was but the pre- 

 lude to a ministry to all the Churches. One can- 

 not help being sorry that such a man was thus 

 severed from the Church of his youth which really 

 was most in harmonv with his ideas, and where 

 there was the fullest scope for their dissemina; 

 But after all he was best suited to a kind of uni- 

 versal ministry. And though he afterwards became 

 a lav member of the Established Church, yet to 

 the last he found the chief scope for his preaching 

 in the Church of his early days, where, too. he had 

 the largest number of disciples. 



From Arundel he ] - to Manchester. Ther< 

 he seems to have preached in a room unconnected 

 with any Church and with little visible succ 

 Hut to Manchester he owed his friendship with 

 Alexander John Scott, principal of the then recently- 

 established Owens College. He once said to me. 



A. J. Scott was the biggest man I ever knew. 

 Mr. Baldwin brown said the same thing. A. J. 

 - tt is one of the forgotten prophets of the last 

 century. The world floes not know how much it 

 owes to him. He has left behind him only a single 

 book, and that consisting only of reported dis- 

 courses, but he taught the teachers. He was one 

 the few men whose thoughts went from heart and 

 brain direct to his hearers without being commit! 

 first to paper. On the most difficult subjects and to 

 the most critical audiences he always spoke without 

 writing. But he was the inspirer of men like Thomas 

 Erskine of Linlathen, Frederick Denison Maurice. 

 MacLeod Campbell. Baldwin Brown, and George 

 MacDonald. During his life he was always the 

 speaker to the few. An old friend of mine — the 

 Rev, John Lockwood — once told me that he 

 numbered a course of lectures in Manchester by Mr. 

 Scott attended by only three persons — Mr. Allanson 

 Picton, George MacDonald. and himself. 



George MacDonald found no place for himself 

 as a preacher, and so he turned to teaching and 

 writing for a livelihood. His first works were in 

 poetry. But readers of poetry are few, save of the 

 well-known poets, and so his verse did not do much 

 to keep the wolf from the door. But one dav his 

 wife said to him. "You could write a story. Why 

 don't you?" Wise advice — which he wisely followed. 

 The first result was the publication of the three 

 stories bv which he will be longest remembered. 

 •David F.linbrod," "Alec Forbes," and "Robert 

 Falconer.'' These three books had an immense in- 

 fluence on the religious thinking of that time. At 

 last he had found his vocation, and he followed it 

 as long as strength permitted. All his life he had 

 to battle with weakness of chest. And so he was 

 obliged to seek in winter the sunnier shores of Italy. 

 There, at a house called Casa Coraggio, built for 

 him bv the generosity of some friends, he carried 

 on a ministry of his own to all who cared to come 



