JOHN

See also:

• CAIRNS
• CAIRNS, HUGH MC CALMONT CAIRNS, 1ST EARL (1819-1885)
• JOHN CAIRNS (1818–1892)

CAIRNS (1818–1892)  , Scottish Presbyterian divine, was born at Ayton Hill, Berwickshire, on the 23rd of August 1818, the son of a shepherd . He went to school at Ayton and Oldcambus, Berwickshire, and was then for three years a herd boy, but kept up his education . In 1834 he entered Edinburgh University, but during 1836 and 1837, owing to financial straits, taught in a school at Ayton . In November 1837 he returned to Edinburgh, where he became the most distinguished student of his time, graduating M.A. in 1841, first in classics and philosophy and bracketed first in mathematics . While at Edinburgh he organized the Metaphysical Society along with A . Campbell Fraser and David Masson . He entered the Presbyterian Secession Hall in 184o, and in 1843 wrote an article in the Secession Magazine on the Free Church movement, which aroused the interest of Thomas Chalmers . The years 1843–1844 he spent at Berlin studying German philosophy and theology . He was licensed as preacher on the 3rd of February 1845, and on the 6th of August ordained as minister of Golden Square Church, Berwick-on-Tweed . There his preaching was distinguished by its impressiveness and by a broad and unaffected humanity . He had many " calls " to other churches, but chose to remain at Berwick . In 1857 he was one of the representatives at the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in Berlin, and in 1858 Edinburgh University conferred on him an honorary D.D .

In the following

year he declined an invitation to become principal of Edinburgh University . In 1872 he was elected moderator of the United Presbyterian Synod and represented his church in Paris at the first meeting of the Reformed Synod of France . In May 1876, he was appointed joint professor of systematic theology and apologetics with James Harper, principal of the United Presbyterian Theological College, whom he succeeded as principal in 1879 . He was an indefatigable worker and speaker, and in order to facilitate his efforts in other countries and other literatures he learnt Arabic, Norse, Danish and Dutch . In 1890 he visited Berlin and Amsterdam to acquaint himself with the ways of younger theologians, especially with the Ritschlians, whose work he appreciated but did not accept as final . On his return he wrote a long article on " Recent Scottish Theology " for the Presbyterian and Reformed Review, for which he read over every theological work of note published in Scotland during the preceding half-century . He died on the 12th of March, 1892, at Edinburgh . Among his principal publications are An Examination of Ferrier's " Knowing and Being," and the Scottish Philosophy—(a work which gave him the reputation of being an independent Hamiltonian in philosophy); Memoir of John Brown, D.D . (186o); Romanism and Rationalism (1863); Outlines of Apologetical Theology (1867); The Doctrine of the::CAIRO 953 Presbyterian Church (1876); Unbelief in the 18th Century (x881); Doctrinal Principles of the United Presbyterian Church (Dr Blair's Manual, z888) . See MacEwen's Life and Letter.; of John Cairns (1895) . (D .