PROFESSOR JAMES ORR, Professor of Church History
in the U.P. College, Edinburgh; and Professor of
Apologetics in the U.F. College, Glasgow; author of
"The Supernatural in Religion," "The Virgin Birth,"
"The Bible Under Trial," and many other works, was
born at Glasgow, in 1844, and died in 1913.
Like many young men, he was beset with doubts as to the
fundamentals of the faith, but came out whole-heartedly
on the evangelistic side. His own statement of this tran-
sition period is worth repeating: "I will give you a page
of my own personal experience when I was a young man. It
was a time when the conflict between Christianity and un-
belief was stirring the country, and my mind was a good
deal upset, and very especially by one man--Joseph
Barker, of Newcastle. He was a very skilful debater, well
read, having at his finger-ends all the difficulties, objec-
tions, [so-called] contradictions, and immoralities you hear about in
the Bible, and could make the best use
of them; and for a
time my mind was a good deal impressed by this kind of
thing." Yet he emerged from the fiery trial a humble be-
liever in the Lord Jesus Christ, having the assurance of
Salvation. The method he
afterwards explained: "How
is that assurance to be had? Only by taking God's naked
word for it--assuredly in no other way. God gives His
sure Word to those who receive His
Son; hold by that
Word and all is well."
Entering Glasgow University when twenty years of age,
he graduated as M.A. with honours. During this time he
acted as City Missionary in one of the poorest districts,
preaching the Gospel in a building
which had been con-
verted from a slaughter-house to a mission hall. Getting
together a large Bible Class at 8 o'clock on Sunday morn-
ings, he thoroughly grounded the members in the founda-
tion truths of the Scriptures, and whole-heartedly
sought
to "by all means save some" (1 Cor. 9. 22).
Almost his last address, given in Sydney Place, where he
had commenced to preach fifty years before, indicated the
great truths he had grasped at conversion, stood by so
nobly during these fifty years, and was "assured" of
at the close of a remarkable career. Taking Ephesians
1. 7 as his text, he pointed out that it dealt with--
1. The greatest wonder in the world, . . "redemption."
2. The blessing Redemption
brings, "forgiveness of sins."
3. The Person through whom it comes,
"our Lord
Jesus Christ...In [W]HOM[.]"
4. The means by which it is accomplished,
"through [H]is blood[.]"
5. The way we become possessed of it,
United to Him, "In [W]hom ye also trusted"
6. The great fountain-head of all,
"the riches of [H]is GRACE[.]"