Erskine, EBENEZER

Erskine, EBENEZER, the founder of the Secession Church in Scotland, was the son of the minister of Chirnside, in Berwickshire, a scion of the noble family of Mar (q.v.), and was born June 22, 1680. He studied at Edinburgh, and, after acting as tutor and chaplain in the family of the Earl of Rothes, was licensed by the presbytery of Kirkcaldy in 1703. His abilities soon brought him into notice, and in the same year he was appointed minister of Portmoak, in Kinross-shire; and here the unction and piety which marked his discourses became exceedingly attractive to the people accustomed to the chilling 'legalism' which then predominated in the Scottish pulpit. He took a deep interest in all public questions, both in church and state, and consequently, on the rise of the Marrow Controversy (q.v.), he was one of the most prominent on the evangelical side. After having discharged the pastoral office in Portmoak for about twenty-eight years, Erskine was in 1731 translated to Stirling. Just then the patronage dispute arose, and Erskine distinguished himself by his powerful advocacy of the right of the people to choose their own pastors. Declining to receive censure for certain statements made by him on this question in a Synod sermon which had given offence to the prevailing party in the church, he, with other three ministers who adhered to him, was in 1733 suspended and then deposed from the ministry. The sentence, however, was recalled in the following year, and Erskine was invited to return. But this he declined to do unless the evils he contended against were removed. The invitation remained open until 1740, when, finding further effort hopeless, the Assembly again deposed Erskine, and ejected him from his church. On the first deposition, Erskine and those adhering to him stated a formal secession from the judicatories of the Established Church, and at Gairney Bridge, near Kinross, erected themselves into the 'Associate Presbytery.' This was the origin of the Secession Church (see UNITED PRESBYTERIANS). In the division in 1747 of the Seceders into Burghers and Anti-burghers, Erskine took the leading part on the side of the Burghers. He was twice married, and had fifteen children. He died 2d June 1754. His Sermons and Discourses fill 4 vols. (Glasgow, 1762). See Lives by D. Fraser (1831) and Harper (1849); and The Erskines: Ebenezer and Ralph, by John Ker, D.D., and J. L. Watson (Edin. 1882).