315 
of Edinburgh, Session 1873 - 74 . 
following title : “ Account of a Meeting held at Arbroath on the 
16th April 1834, in Defence of Church Establishments, with a full 
Report of the Speeches delivered on that occasion by the Rev. 
Messrs Stevenson, Meek, Whitson, Lee, Guthrie, and Muir.” 
This publication attracted considerable attention, and brought the 
speakers prominently before the public ; one of them was the Rev. 
Dr Robert Lee, afterwards Professor of Biblical Criticism, then 
minister of a Chapel-of-Ease at Inverhrothock. In 1839 Mr 
Stevenson’s health gave way, and he suffered so much from chronic 
bronchitis that he had to spend the winter of that and the follow- 
ing year at Torquay. 
On the re-establishment of his health, Mr Stevenson was in 1844 
presented by the Crown to the first charge of the parish of South 
Leith. This valuable preferment enabled him to gratify his in- 
tense love of reading, and he collected rare and valuable books, not 
only on theology, but on every subject illustrating the history and 
antiquities of Scotland. In 1848 he was elected a Fellow of the 
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and in 1849 he received the 
degree of D.D. from the University of Edinburgh. 
Whilst minister of South Leith Dr Stevenson took much interest 
in his parochial duties, and in 1851 published a small volume, 
entitled “ Christianity and Drunkenness.” He was also a con- 
tributor to Macphail’s “ Edinburgh Magazine,” and the topics he 
handled were “The Buchanites,” “ Pusey and the Confessional,” 
and matters relating to the great Gorham controversy in the 
Church of England. He took part in the proceedings of the 
General Assembly, and was appointed Convener of the Colonial 
Committee in 1859. 
In 1858 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edin- 
burgh. 
In 1861 he was appointed to the Chair of Divinity and Eccle- 
siastical History in the University, on the death of the Rev. Dr 
Robertson. As Professor, his method of conducting the class was 
somewhat peculiar. In place of giving in each session a simple 
outline of his very extensive subject, he chose rather to take a 
limited period in the Church’s history, and illustrate this in the 
most minute manner. Every heresy or controversy that had 
cropped up in the period selected received due attention, and was 
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