Wardlaw, RALPH, a great Scottish divine, was born at Dalkeith, 22d December 1779. A great-grandson of Ebenezer Erskine, he studied at the Selkirk theological hall of the Secession Church after his university course at Glasgow, but embraced Congregationalist views, and settled as pastor in Glasgow. In 1811 he was appointed professor of Theology to the Congregational body in Scotland, an office he retained along with his pastorate to his death, 17th December 1853. Wardlaw was a powerful preacher, a sound theologian, able and vigorous controversialist, and a voluminous writer. He took an active part in the anti-slavery agitation, and in the formation of the Evangelical Alliance (1846).
The most important of his works are Discourses on the Socinian Controversy (1814); Lectures on Ecclesiastes (1821); Discourses on the Sabbath (1832); Christian Ethics (1833); National Church Established Examined (1839); Lectures on Female Prostitution in Glasgow (1842); Discourses on the Nature and Extent of the Atonement of Christ (1843); Congregational Independence (1848); On Miracles (1852).—See the Memoir by Dr W. L. Alexander (1856).