George Lawson of Selkirk. III: The School of the Prophets
George Lawson entered the Secession Divinity Hall in 1766 while John Swanton was Professor. But Lawson would only sit under Swanton’s instruction for one session, for the Professor died soon after. John Swanton’s last words were: “I would not now return to life for ten thousand worlds; for though my heart and my flesh fail me, ‘God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.’”
The Synod of the church appointed a well-known man, Rev. John Brown of Haddington, as Swanton’s successor. Brown was by any standard a genius. He had struggled against poverty and hardship, teaching himself Greek as he tended the sheep and walking barefoot to St. Andrews for a Greek Testament. John Brown had become one of the greatest scholars of his age, familiar with Latin, Greek and Hebrew and able to read Syriac (Aramaic), Arabic, Persian and Ethiopic. Author of the justly-famed ‘Self-Interpreting Bible’ (responsible for my doing my back in on Friday) and an excellent ‘Systematic Theology’ based on his lectures, Brown was one of the pillars in the denomination.
As was the custom in the Secession the whole Divinity Hall moved to Haddington. There was no building that could be called ‘the Divinity Hall’, it was an institution that was located where the Professor was. The Professor was always a working pastor, an arrangement that ensured that there would be no speculative or dry theology taught in the Hall. What was taught there was historic experimental Calvinism.
Brown believed in discipline. He had himself risen from his humble rank be sheer hard work and he taught his students the value of hard work. He believed that it was important students develop the habit of rising early, and between six and eight in the morning Brown would visit the students in the houses where they were lodging to ensure that they were awake and studying. Any student found in bed would be awoken by a poke delivered with the professor's walking-stick! Stories are told of students sleeping under their beds to avoid this fate. Brown apparently never looked there. Other students, when they heard the professor's tread on the stairs, would spring out of bed and pick up a book so that he would find them apparently hard at work. George Lawson was NOT one of these men - he was always wide awake and studying when the professor made his rounds.
Lawson was immediately attracted to his Professor, who combined a brilliant mind with a deeply Christian heart. The young student drank in the instruction of the great scholar and afterwards John Brown would say that one of the greatest services he had done to his generation was in training George Lawson.
Lawson profited greatly from his theological training, and when the course ended he was sent out a scholar and a preacher.
Next time, God willing, we shall look at Lawson’s entry into the ministry.
The Synod of the church appointed a well-known man, Rev. John Brown of Haddington, as Swanton’s successor. Brown was by any standard a genius. He had struggled against poverty and hardship, teaching himself Greek as he tended the sheep and walking barefoot to St. Andrews for a Greek Testament. John Brown had become one of the greatest scholars of his age, familiar with Latin, Greek and Hebrew and able to read Syriac (Aramaic), Arabic, Persian and Ethiopic. Author of the justly-famed ‘Self-Interpreting Bible’ (responsible for my doing my back in on Friday) and an excellent ‘Systematic Theology’ based on his lectures, Brown was one of the pillars in the denomination.
As was the custom in the Secession the whole Divinity Hall moved to Haddington. There was no building that could be called ‘the Divinity Hall’, it was an institution that was located where the Professor was. The Professor was always a working pastor, an arrangement that ensured that there would be no speculative or dry theology taught in the Hall. What was taught there was historic experimental Calvinism.
Brown believed in discipline. He had himself risen from his humble rank be sheer hard work and he taught his students the value of hard work. He believed that it was important students develop the habit of rising early, and between six and eight in the morning Brown would visit the students in the houses where they were lodging to ensure that they were awake and studying. Any student found in bed would be awoken by a poke delivered with the professor's walking-stick! Stories are told of students sleeping under their beds to avoid this fate. Brown apparently never looked there. Other students, when they heard the professor's tread on the stairs, would spring out of bed and pick up a book so that he would find them apparently hard at work. George Lawson was NOT one of these men - he was always wide awake and studying when the professor made his rounds.
Lawson was immediately attracted to his Professor, who combined a brilliant mind with a deeply Christian heart. The young student drank in the instruction of the great scholar and afterwards John Brown would say that one of the greatest services he had done to his generation was in training George Lawson.
Lawson profited greatly from his theological training, and when the course ended he was sent out a scholar and a preacher.
Next time, God willing, we shall look at Lawson’s entry into the ministry.
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