Dr Bruce Ritchie on James Clerk Maxwell and the 1859 Aberdeen Revival

Okay folks, here we are already at the final lecture of this conference and it's Arun Bruce Ritchie who's going to be leading us here. Not sure that Bruce needs any introduction to anyone but just in case there's somebody who doesn't know him, Bruce is from originally from the Bordish himself, the Bordish area. He was originally a graduate in maths and those of us who were at the launch of his recent book on James Clerk Maxwell, recognised something of the connection there between maths and physics and what he has been writing about. Church of Scotland minister right through, he's been coming towards heaven. The further he went on in his ministry, started off in the south, deep south in the Borders, managed up to Creef and laterally up to Dingwall. He had a spell in Africa as well at Zumba Theological College and I think at that time was working on his PhD on Robert Moffat. Since retiring he's been just an author, not just an author, he's written quite a number of books. The first one I think on Columba is over there on the table on the bookstall. He did another one on Tom Torrance and again those of us who were at the recent book launch recognised the connection between that and his work on James Clerk Maxwell. In between he wrote another little book, a lighter book on the basis of some diaries of trips to the Holy Land and to Jordan. He's also been a part-time lecturer with us here in HTC, teaching on Scottish church history but also on understanding worship module. He's also served as, he did a spell with us as the chair of board of the college, continues to supervise postgraduate students and he's also the one who's really been pushing forward the church history forum or the fora and this conference over a number of years. Today he's going to be speaking again on James Clerk Maxwell but in relation to the 1859 Aberdeen Revival. So looking forward to that very much, not least in that my own great-grandfather was actually converted in Lewes in the 1859 Revival there and his name was also Hector, so I was called after my father but after my great-grandfather. So please welcome Bruce. Thank you very much indeed, Hector Ford, you're welcome. So the title of this talk is James Clerk Maxwell and the 1859 Aberdeen Revival and with the spark of originality that lecturers possess, I propose to split the presentation into three segments. First, who was James Clerk Maxwell? Second, what was the 1859 Aberdeen Revival? And third, what was the connection between them? We'll not in fact limit ourselves to the Aberdeen Revival but we'll use it as a springboard for considering some aspects of James Clerk Maxwell's faith and spirituality. First then, who was James Clerk Maxwell? It's the year 1879, one great scientist dies, another is born. We know why Einstein is considered a great scientist but why Maxwell? Well, when Einstein was asked if he stood on Isaac Newton's shoulders, he replied that that statement is not quite true. I stood on Maxwell's shoulders and Einstein also stated that before Maxwell, people used to conceive physical reality as material points whereas after Maxwell, they conceived physical reality as represented by continuous fields. And Einstein regarded this transformation in the understanding of reality as the most profound change in physics since Isaac Newton. In other words, Maxwell fostered a totally new way of understanding the universe. So what did Maxwell achieve? Well, he linked light and electromagnetism, he developed a notion of field theory in physics, he made us rethink the nature of reality as a continuum, he set out the initial Maxwell equations which are fundamental to modern physics, he did pioneer mathematical work on the rings of Saturn with his theories confirmed by flypasts by satellites in the late 20th and early 21st century, he established the principles of the theory of colour and he produced the first colour image in photography etc etc. So James Clark Maxwell was born 14 India Street Edinburgh on the 13th of June 1831 and a few weeks later an entry was made in the local Church of Scotland birth and baptismal register. After two years, the family moved to Glenlair down in Galloway and there it was his mother who gave him his early education. And later in life Maxwell said that his mother taught him to look through nature to nature's God. And we have paintings of Maxwell's childhood made by his cousin Jemima Wedderburn who was a talented artist, one of them depicting James playing with his father and as a small child James wanted to know how things work. Toddlers exasperate parents and grandparents by asking why and James went better his repeated question was what's the go of that? In other words why does it work the way it does? And apparently if the answer was not satisfactory he'd say but what's the real go of that? Came from his three-year-old lips. In 1839 his mother died of cancer and the decision was made shortly afterwards for James to attend Edinburgh Academy and during term time he stayed with his father's sister Aunt Isabella in Heriot Row. And on James opening day of school he arrived with two problems. First his father had designed his clothes and second he had a broad Gallowidian accent so he was immediately called Dafty. The Dafty name faded out but his Gallowidian accent never did. During his days in Edinburgh he attended St Andrew's Church of Scotland in the morning in George Street and St John's Episcopal Church in the afternoon with his Aunt Jane. His father was Presbyterian, his mother had been Episcopalian. And in one he learned the shorter catechism and in the other he read Dean Ramsey's Catechism for Young People. And so he became familiar with the theological approach of both strides. At age 14 his first paper was read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh and he was in Edinburgh at the time of the Freetown Disruption in 1843. An issue which we'll come back to. After leaving school he attended Edinburgh University from 1847 to 1850 as a non-graduating student and this left him free to audit courses in chemistry, physics, maths and philosophy. And he loved the philosophy lectures given by Sir William Hamilton and although Sir William came from a family with a covenanting pedigree, his forebears were to the fore at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge, Sir William himself was agnostic. But although Maxwell and Sir William differed on faith, Maxwell drew heavily on Sir William's scientific philosophy and much of it became significant for Maxwell's overall view of science. And then he went to Cambridge in 1850, he graduated in 1854 and he had two years as a fellow until 1856. And these years also saw him go through a crisis of some type in 1853. And some authors interpret that as Maxwell's conversion to a more evangelical faith, more probably in my opinion it was a crisis which deepened an existing piety. And during these years he presented several creative papers to various groups including some of his initial work on light, electromagnetism and field theory. And then in 1856 he became professor of natural philosophy or science at Marshall College in Aberdeen. And at that time Aberdeen had the two universities, one was Marshall College, the other was King's College. And in Aberdeen his work on Saturn's rings won him international acclaim. He met and married Catherine Dewar, who was the daughter of Daniel Dewar, the Marshall principal. And every morning James and Catherine read the scriptures together. And even when apart, Maxwell would write to Catherine with his thoughts on the Bible reading for that day. One of the things I failed to pin down was which Bible reading plan they were following, because there's quite clearly a particular plan. I don't think it was his father-in-law's plan, I managed to find that, but that's something maybe I'll be able to pin down in the future. He was in Aberdeen during the Aberdeen religious revival of 1859, but we should really refer to the years 1858 to 1860 as part of that revival, and we'll return to this. His letters to Catherine give some insight into a Christ-centred faith. He stressed the Christian union with Christ. He wrote of knowledge of God coming through Christ. And in Maxwell's inaugural professorial lecture of November 1856, he stressed that the university should not be about being an academic conveyor belt. Instead, university life should be about enabling graduates to serve God in church and state. And so at the very start of his professional life, Maxwell set the study of science within a religious and a civic context. The two Aberdeen universities fused in 1860. He was then appointed by King's College London, and during his years there, he further developed his electromagnetic theory. And at all times, he saw Michael Faraday as an inspiration. And of course, Michael Faraday was also a very strong Christian believer. And it's arguable that Maxwell's greatest accomplishments were actually in extending Faraday's ideas and giving them mathematical strength. Faraday had a brilliant mind, but he couldn't do maths. What Maxwell did was to bring Faraday's ideas to bring to them that mathematical rigour, and then extend them because of that ability. And Maxwell began to realise that reality needs to be rethought. It needed to be seen not in terms of individual particles, as Isaac Newton thought. Instead, reality should be conceived of as continuous fields. And it was this which Einstein referred to when he said, before Maxwell, people used to conceive physical reality as material points, whereas after, they conceived it as continuous fields. But Maxwell himself always stressed that Faraday had pointed the way. Maxwell's father died in 1856, and so Maxwell became Laird of the Glen Lair Estate just outside the village of Corso, near Castle Douglas in Galloway, in what had been the heart of Covenanting country. And after he resigned from London in 1865, he and Catherine spent six years at Glen Lair. He was now free from academia, and could write and think unencumbered by academic responsibilities. And as soon as Maxwell inherited Glen Lair, he also became a heritage. And being a heritage made himself and others responsible for funding parish institutions, such as the kirk and the minister. In 1863, he was ordained as an elder of the kirk in Corso, and when he became an elder, he knew he was required to affirm the Westminster Confession of Faith. He had already read it, but he read it again very carefully, and then went forward for ordination to the eldership. He did his cottage visiting, he prayed with his parishioners, he was involved in discipline cases, and in later years, the Corso folk remembered his pastoral visits with deep affection, especially his prayers. His minister was a George Sturrock from Aberdeen, who was himself interested in science. And on Sunday afternoons, Maxwell's habit was to read the great Puritan theologians, such as John Owen and Jonathan Edwards. He was also a poet and a hymn writer, and one of his hymns, the student's evening hymn, has several verses, of which this is one. Give me love a right to trace thine to everything created, preaching to a ransomed race by thy mercy renovated, till with all thy fullness sated, I behold thee face to face, and with ardour unabated, sing the glories of thy grace. And then, in 1871, he was enticed back to Cambridge to teach natural philosophy, and also to set up a new research laboratory. This became known as the Cavendish Laboratory, and famous internationally until today. And up until 2019, the Cavendish could boast of 30 Nobel Prize winners. And it was Maxwell who had the words of Psalm 111 engraved into the stonework of the Cavendish Laboratory. The works of the Lord are great. They are pondered by all who delight in them. The Cavendish was relocated, a new building was made in the 21st century, and to begin with, they weren't going to have Maxwell's text on the wall of the building. But there's a PhD student who is a very strong Christian, he said, you've got to do that. You can't have Maxwell's laboratory without Maxwell's text of scripture. And so they have it up in Latin, and also in the version attributed to Myles Cupperdale. James Clerk Maxwell died on the 5th of November 1879, aged 48. The same age his mother had been, the same type of cancer his mother had had. And he was buried in Carparton Kirkyard, a few miles from Glenlair House. Our second heading is the 1859 Aberdeen Revival. Although it was over several years, 1858 till 1860. In the September of 1859, the British Association for the Advancement of Science chose Aberdeen as the place for its annual meeting. The association had been formed in the 1830s by individuals who felt that existing institutions such as the Royal Society were too stuffy, too exclusive, and too London-centric. And this new association had as its goal the philosophy of inclusivity, and the determination to take major scientific conferences to every part of the United Kingdom and Ireland. And Aberdeen in 1859 was the furthest north they had yet ventured. And by 1859, every British scientist of note was a member of the association, ranging from Clerk Maxwell to Charles Darwin, from David Brewster to Thomas Huxley, from Michael Faraday to Thomas Murchison. And in Aberdeen, the newly refurbished Music Hall, which seated 2,000, was the scene of the opening meeting. And this was addressed by no less a person than Albert the Prince Consort, and husband of Queen Victoria. And he was the honorary president that year, and he delivered a significant speech in which he observed that advance in every area of human knowledge, but especially sciences, depends upon an open democratic approach, rather than an elitist approach. And in a memorable phrase, Prince Albert emphasised, advancement in the sciences come not through a process akin to the action of the monarchy of a paternal government, but akin to the republican activity of the Roman Forum. So in his scientific philosophy, if not in his politics, Prince Albert was progressive. And in these association meetings, Maxwell was busy and active, not only did he present several scientific papers, but he was heavily involved in the organising of the event, which was a huge success. A month later, and in the same Music Hall, which had welcomed Prince Albert, a quite different event took place. And it was connected to the wave of religious revival which had started in Ulster, and was now impacting Scotland, especially Aberdeen, and the North East. And the revivalist preacher Charles Finney had come from the United States to take part in this spiritual movement. And the Aberdeen Music Hall was one of his venues, as announced by the Aberdeen Press and Journal. The Reverend Finney, a professor in Oberlin College, Ohio, United States, a noted preacher, is present on visit to Aberdeen. He preached in the Evangelical Union Church for the Reverend Ferguson, St. Paul Street on Sabbath afternoon and evening, and is again to preach today and on Thursday and Friday evenings. Mr. Finney's style is plain, familiar, and direct. He has had a large number of hearers. Mr. Finney's meeting this evening takes place in the Music Hall. Now Finney did not initiate revivalism in Aberdeen. Revivalism had started at least a year earlier with the inauguration of revival-seeking prayer meetings, and various evangelistic campaigns had already begun in the city, featuring invited preachers such as Grattan Guinness, Brownlow North, and Reginald Radcliffe, all of whom addressed large gatherings. Kenneth Jeffreys' book, When the Lord Walked the Land, focuses on the Aberdeen revivals, and Jeffreys points out that the movement exhibited distinctive characteristics in different areas. So the city reaction was different from that of the farming interior, which in turn was different from that of the seaports in culturation. And Jeffreys noted that meetings in the fishing villages could be highly emotional, whereas congregations elsewhere were extremely orderly. And Jeffreys suggests that this contrast may have arisen because the fishing village services were conducted apart from the established churches and ministers, because the ministers tended to try and ensure that emotionalism did not surface. James Clerk Maxwell was interested in the revival, and we come to the evidence for that. Now we don't know if he went to Charles Finney's event in the music hall, but he may well have. In my opinion, he almost certainly would have. The meeting took place within term time, his own father-in-law was intensely interested, and Maxwell was also. And what we do know for certain is that several of Maxwell's fellow academics and personal friends were deeply involved in the movement. One such person was William Martin, professor of moral philosophy at Marshall. And after Maxwell first arrived in Aberdeen, he and William Martin were regular companions on daily walks together until Martin became unwell. And William Martin was intensely evangelical. In fact, he saw his professorial position as an opportunity to influence students spiritually. He was also a preacher of some renown. And during university vacations, Martin made himself available for preaching engagements in far-flung districts, including Orkney and Shetland. And the year before Maxwell came to Marshall, Martin had published a book on Butler's Analogy, commending it to his Sabbath class at church. And Butler's Analogy was a book published primarily as an answer to the deists who acknowledged that God made the universe, but who derided the Bible's affirmation that God governs and cares for those whom he created. And Maxwell's friendship with William Martin probably explains why Maxwell himself was reading and admiring Butler's Analogy soon after arriving in Aberdeen. And in connection with the Revival, William Martin was key in inviting Reginald Radcliffe to the city in 1858. And Martin also tried to get the use of some of Aberdeen's large parish churches for Radcliffe to speak in. And when this was rebuffed, it was Martin who hired a small mission hall in Albion Street for Radcliffe's first meetings. Another academic who was a keen supporter of Revival meetings was Dr. William Pirrie, the Regius Professor of Surgery at Marshall. And Pirrie not only went to Reginald Radcliffe's meetings, but he attended services addressed by key speakers such as Brownlow North, James Smith of Greyfriars, and D. T. K. Drummond. Drummond was an evangelical Episcopalian whom Maxwell had already met in Edinburgh when he was a schoolboy. And William Pirrie's commitment to the cause of Revival is illustrated by an advertisement in the Press and Journal in July 1860. And that edition of the newspaper announced that there would be open-air meetings at Huntley in the Castle Park, use of which was granted by the strongly evangelical Duchess of Gordon. The meetings were prayer meetings and the focus was to be prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the district and land and for the preaching of the everlasting gospel. And advertised amongst those who would take part were William Pirrie, Reginald Radcliffe, D. T. K. Drummond, Brownlow North, and the Reverend James Smith. And as we've noted at the start, the Revival meetings took place apart from Church of Scotland buildings. The landscape changed after the Reverend James Smith, Minister of Greyfriars, was moved by the Revival, prompting him to open the doors of his church to Radcliffe. Greyfriars Kirk was the collegiate church for Marshall College and as one of Marshall's professors, Maxwell worshipped there frequently. Smith opening the doors of Greyfriars to revivalist preachers brought the Revival into the heart of college life. And not all were happy with what he had done. Smith was censured by his presbytery. He appealed to Synod. He was censured by his Synod on a technical breach of church law of being guilty of allowing an unqualified person to preach in Greyfriars. Smith appealed against that censure, taking the matter first to the Synod and then to the General Assembly. And when the matter was raised at the 1859 Church of Scotland General Assembly, the Assembly agreed with the lower church courts in terms of church law, though strong speeches from the likes of Norman Macleod, supportive of Smith's intentions, were made by senior Kirk figures. Despite the Assembly's rebuke and probably buoyed by the supportive speeches, Smith continued to allow Radcliffe to preach in Greyfriars with William Martin presiding at several meetings and conducting the devotions. A few years later, James Smith moved from Greyfriars Church in Aberdeen to Ellen Parish Church, and there he succeeded the late Donald Dewar, who had been Maxwell's brother-in-law, appointed by the patron, the Lord Aberdeen. But the most powerful support for revivalism within Marshall College came from Maxwell's father-in-law, Principal Daniel Dewar. And given the controversy raised in Presbytery Synod and General Assembly concerning the use of Greyfriars Church for revivalist preaching, the fact that Daniel Dewar threw his weight behind the movement so publicly was significant. In December 1859, a year after Radcliffe arrived in Aberdeen, seven months after James Smith defended his position at the General Assembly, and one month after Charles Finney's meetings in the Music Hall, Daniel Dewar republished one of his monographs entitled The Work of the Holy Spirit and the Revival of Religion and the Duty of Christians in regard to it. The monograph sold for four pence, postage free for three copies, and distributed widely. Dewar had written this monograph 20 years earlier, following a remarkable communion season in Kilsaith, which had affected him deeply. And that was when Kilsaith experienced a season of revival during the ministry of the Reverend William Burns. Now, of course, there had been a famous revival in Kilsaith a century earlier, but it was the one of 1839 which Daniel Dewar experienced. And remembrance of these dramatic days in Kilsaith meant much to Daniel Dewar, and he was excited at the possibility of them being repeated in Aberdeen. He recalled the huge gatherings of between 10 and 12,000 persons. He recalled 1,200 taking the sacrament on the Communion Sunday. He recalled over 80 new professions of faith in one day alone and of baptisms in the local mill pond. He recollected William Burns Jr. from Dundee preaching to thousands by moonlight. He remembered the ministry of Dr. Cesar Millan, who had come over from Geneva. And he recalled himself preaching from a high exterior flight of stairs to thousands who were gathered in the fields before him. And Dewar's openness to what happened at Kilsaith came from his deeply ingrained sympathy with evangelistic campaigns. And this was rooted in the formative influence of one of his own Christian faith from the itinerant preacher, John Farquharson. Now, the Kilsaith revival had also seen various ecstatic phenomena such as swooning and convulsions and shouting, not all of which Daniel Dewar was comfortable with. But for Dewar, the dominant personal memory of the Kilsaith revival was of a mighty movement of the Spirit of God. And so in May 1860, Dewar showed that he was committed irrevocably to the revivalist cause. At the Church of Scotland General Assembly, he moved that it should give thanks to God for the revivals. And here we recall that only a year earlier, the General Assembly had rebuked James Smith for allowing Greyfriars to be Radcliffe's preaching station. Now Daniel Dewar was showing which side of the fence he was on. And his carefully worded motion, approved by the Assembly, proposed the following. While by no means committing itself to an approval of all that may have accompanied recent religious movements, this Assembly agrees to recommend to all ministers and elders of this Church special watchfulness and prayer in regard to the progress of vital religion in their parishes. Watchfulness, lest that which is holy may be abused or that which is good discouraged, and prayer that God may be pleased still further to revive his own work in the midst of the years, and to grant unto this Church and the world a yet fuller outpouring of his Holy Spirit. That was the milieu surrounding Maxwell in Aberdeen. But what was his personal reaction? Lewis Campbell was Maxwell's friend and biographer. And in Lewis Campbell's Life of James Clerk Maxwell, we have the briefest of references to what was going on spiritually in Aberdeen. And Campbell records, amongst the human phenomena surrounding him, one which genuinely interested him, was a religious revival which took place about that time in Scotland. His intercourse with evangelical friends in England had prepared him to sympathise with such experiences, and his Calvinistic reading had familiarised him with the language used. Now there are two things to note here. First, although Lewis Campbell was Maxwell's lifelong friend from school days in Edinburgh, Campbell was not of an evangelical persuasion himself. Campbell was heavily influenced at Oxford by Benjamin Jowett, one of the most influential but theologically liberal scholars of the Church of England. He almost married Florence Nightingale, although I don't think that had anything to do with his liberal theology. And what we see at various points in Lewis Campbell's biography of Maxwell is that he tends to downplay the evangelical angle. Second, despite that bias, Campbell does acknowledge Maxwell's deep interest in the revival movement. And here, as so often in historical work, we bemoan the fact that much of Maxwell's personal correspondence was lost in a fire at Glenlair. What, however, can we reconstruct of the connection between Maxwell and the revival? After James Clark Maxwell married Catherine Dewar in 1858, they lived the first few years of their married life in her parents' house during term time, and obviously at Glenlair when outside term time. It is certain that revivalism would be the hot topic of conversation in the Dewar household, which now included James and Catherine. And we've already seen that, like his father-in-law, Maxwell welcomed the movement. At the same time, as we shall consider, Maxwell was wary of aspects of over-excited religious fervor with his remarks on some of the features of the 1843 disruption testifying to his concerns. Lewis Campbell noted that Maxwell gave the revival a, quote, cautious welcome, end quote. And to understand this caution, we need to return to the family home at Glenlair in Galloway. When the Clark Maxwell's first went to Glenlair in the 1830s, the parish kirk for them was at Parton, several miles away, over rough tracks, which were almost unusable in the winter. And James Clark Maxwell's father, John, was not only a heritage of Parton kirk, but one of its elders. And when the kirk at Parton was being rebuilt in the 1830s, John Clark Maxwell argued that it should not be rebuilt in the same site, but should be repositioned more centrally in the parish to make it easier for the farming folk to get to. Parton is on the extreme western edge of that particular parish, and farmers, shepherds, farm workers, villagers, and the various hamlets found it too great a distance. John Clark Maxwell failed to persuade his other heritage to rebuild a more central location. And so Parton kirk was rebuilt on the traditional site. Nonetheless, John Clark Maxwell did not give up. And so, as well as paying for Parton kirk to be rebuilt, he and his friend and fellow heritage, Major Charles Fletcher, built another kirk near the village of Corsack, completed in 1839. And this was officially designated a mission station of Parton kirk, with weekly services and other meetings. And this new kirk was a huge success. The congregation grew and flourished. They had their own minister, who was under the overall authority of the Parton minister, and folk who in the past struggled to make the journey to Parton now became regular worshippers. Then came 1843 and the disruption. Almost overnight, this new congregation in Corsack was split in two. Half stayed, the other half left and formed a group in Kirkpatrick Durham. And this split and the effect on this new young congregation distressed John Clark Maxwell deeply. He became suspicious of what he interpreted as emotional fervor. And this feeling was handed on in part to his son, James Clark Maxwell. And so when James Clark Maxwell experienced the 1859 revival in Aberdeen, it seems that he was pulled in two directions. On the one hand, along with his father-in-law, Daniel Dewar, along with his academic friends at university, he welcomed the revival and the spiritual forces which were at work. On the other hand, he was suspicious about over-emotional responses. In 1843, his father had felt that some who were initially caught up in the excitement and emotion of the event later fell away totally from where they had been. And Maxwell had similar fears. He agreed with the theology of the revival. He welcomed its impact, but he was hesitant about the more extreme emotions attached to it. By 1860, Maxwell's time in Aberdeen had come to an end. He now became professor of natural philosophy at King's College in London. And during his years in London, we can see where their spiritual hearts lay. At several of his posts, he was expected to attend the university chapel connected with his college. But in London, there was no obligation. It's significant, therefore, that the Maxwell's attended, by their free choice, John Offord's Baptist Chapel, which is near their home. Maxwell loved Offord's ministry. Maxwell had an aversion to smart, alec preachers. He especially disliked university dons who could take a verse of scripture and then ingeniously make it mean its opposite. What Maxwell wanted was a preacher who dug into the Word of God. He wanted a preacher to treat the Word of God as a scientist treats the works of God. The preacher should allow scripture to reveal its own truth, just as a scientist should allow nature to make itself known. From time to time, James Clark Maxwell also went to listen to Baptist Risley Knoll. And in one of his letters, he told Catherine about Pastor Knoll's church in London. He had enjoyed the simplicity of the message and the worship. And Pastor Knoll's seriousness in his evangelical preaching appealed to him. This is what he wrote to Catherine. He said, I have come from Mr. Baptist Knoll. The church was full to standing, and the whole service was as plain as large print. The exposition was a parable of the talents, and the sermon was in John 3.16. The sermon was a text writ large, nothing ingenious or amusing, and hardly any attempt at instruction, but plain and very serious exhortation from a man who evidently believes neither more nor less than what he says. Interesting, Baptist Knoll had the old form of there being an exposition and a sermon in the service. And when I was doing my research, I was amused by the fact that some people didn't understand this type of liturgy. And so when Maxwell said that in the sermon there's nothing ingenious or amusing, that they thought he didn't like it. They didn't understand the two types of preaching that went on in the one service. Maxwell loved this. Maxwell's choice on ministry in London, to me, revealed his heart. Away from university context in which he was obliged on most Sundays to attend college worship in the college chapel, he chose preachers such as John Offord and Baptist Knoll. Back in Corsock, the wounds and the pain of the disruption took time to heal, but they did. For the closing decade of James Maxwell's short life, the Church of Scotland minister in Corsock was George Sturrock, and the Free Church minister was Robert Smith, who had been Free Church evangelist to the Jews in Amsterdam. Together, Sturrock and Smith did much to heal the raw wounds created by the rift of 1843. Maxwell died on the 5th of November 1879. Two days later, the Corsock Mutual Improvement Society, at that meeting, his own minister George Sturrock spoke on the topic of science and religion. In the chair was Robert Smith of the Free Church, and the Galloway News and Kirkcudbright Advertiser in reporting the meeting particularly noted that Dr. Smith of Corsock Free Church occupied the chair and introduced his brother of the established church in very graceful terms. That amity would have gladdened the heart of James Clark Maxwell. He was a man, a Christian man, of whom it could truly be said that he lived justly, loved kindness, and walked humbly with his God and Saviour. Thank you. Many thanks for that, Bruce. Any comments or questions for Bruce? Bruce, I have a question about Marshall College. Is there any conspiracy theory that would say that at the beginning of the end for Marshall College it was going to be adopted into King's? I don't know the story really, but it just sounded a bit worrying. Well, in 1860 the two became one, and in each department there was only one professor who could stay. Now what's interesting is that in each department it was chosen that the younger professor would stay, and the older one was given a life annuity from the government. In the natural philosophy department the opposite happened. The younger professor, Maxwell, had to go, and the older professor stayed. There could have been two reasons for that. The older professor might have pulled a few strings, or, as is widely acknowledged even by his greatest admirers, Maxwell was a terrible lecturer. People who loved him had to confess that he wasn't a great lecturer. In a seminar situation, or what we would call a seminar situation, he was brilliant. But in actually speaking to the class, his mind just went all over the place with connections. And so Maxwell appears to have been the only one when the two professors for the younger one stood down. But he did get a lifetime annuity from the government, and so that plus the income from his father's, or now his estate and so on, that meant he was able to have that six years at Glenlair with no income problems, and all the creative work that went on during these six years as well. So he was fine, and of course that's important. Yeah, yeah. Did we know anything about Marshall Pollard? No. It seemed to, the institutions joined together, so that was usually not a good sign. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Donald, do you know from your Aberdeen? No. No, he retired in 1860 there, although at an earlier period of his life he was actually a professor of moral philosophy at King's. But when he came back, he was principal at Marshall. But he retired when the fusion took place, that Daniel Dewar. It's all Kilsyth that I knew of, because that was a publication that he republished. I must say when I was doing my research in this area, Donald was a tremendous help on Daniel Dewar and his history, and he's written articles on John Farquharson, who was instrumental in Daniel Dewar's faith in his young days. And one of the problems for Daniel Dewar is that he followed Thomas Chalmers in Glasgow, and he followed him very, very ably. And leading up to the disruption, everybody thought if there's going to be a disruption, Daniel Dewar would also walk out. He didn't. And for that, he was vilified, pretty much, by those who thought he would walk out. And so in a sense, 1859, throwing his weight behind the revival movement, even in the face of what the General Assembly had said the year earlier, really showed where he had nailed his colours there. So in one sense, it was partial redemption, partial redemption for Daniel Dewar. Because even when he died some years later in the obituaries, some sections of the press that were dominated, apologies, by Free Church editors were still going back to 1843. Why didn't you walk out? You know, he was two-faced, etc, etc. So he's a colourful quite late in the year. But it was already in the wind. And so when the association was meeting in August, September, people knew it was in the offing. And the president that year was, the official president was Prince Albert. Of course, he didn't attend all the meetings. So there was an acting president. And at one session, the acting president referred to what Darwin was going to produce. He hadn't read it yet, but he knew roughly the line of thought that Darwin had. And the acting president said that he was sure that there would be nothing which would disturb the faith of a believer. That was the only reference that I can find in the minutes of the 1859 British Association of the Advancements of Science minutes to that. Of course, in the years after that, there was a huge impact because then you have the Wilberforce. Huxley, very interesting, contrary to the next year in Oxford, at which Maxwell was also. You can read about that in a book over there. Any other questions? Comments? Afternoon session. Afternoon session. Very good. Many thanks then, Bruce, for what you shared with us there. Mark and I and others co-organise this and we're really delighted that so many people came along and we're delighted for the quality of the talks and the interaction. And so I think we would like to just say a thank you and also thank you to HTC and the tremendous support given by members of staff. I know that they would much rather be away marking exam papers, but they have sacrificed themselves to support all the lectures and we appreciate that. Mark? Yes, I would echo that. Thanks to Hector and the staff, but also to Church across the street and the minister there, who was very helpful and all that went on last night. I think that was a great success. I've very much enjoyed it and I think it was really good to see such a healthy turnout from people coming from all, well, not everywhere, but well, in one case from Canada, of course, but there's just a sense that there's quite a depth and a breadth of local interest in these kind of things, where we come from and to an extent where we're going. I mean, the story continues. I think we saw that a wee bit, particularly with Andrew Walls this morning, that we were talking about recent history, we're talking about the present, really. I think in some sense, while we talk very much about the need for revival, the need for the church to be spiritually more powerful, to be more of a worshipping force, more of a force that's active in society and politics, all the things that the church is called to do. Part of the resourcing of that, of course, is that kind of life that has been growing for many centuries, in recent decades too. I think if we don't intentionally nourish ourselves on that, we'll be missing out an awful lot. So, church history isn't just history. It's not just church either, I suppose. It's sort of, as Bill Shackley paraphrases, it's more important than that. So, thank you for making the effort to be here, for asking such good questions. This conversation may go on in the sense that we may come to sort of publish something in some shape or form, but I think just as important, maybe more important than that, is that we have something of this going forward. We had a bit of a gap. COVID's partly responsible for that, but you can't blame COVID for everything, forever. So, we would like to see that the next time we have this kind of gathering, it's not going to be, you know, six years time. It's going to be not too far away in the future, but we have different sorts of gatherings where we'll be doing sorts of different things. I also think it's really great when, for example, when Bruce launched his book about a month ago in Inverness, there was such a great turnout to that. And so, if we can keep the fires, the whole fires burning, I think that would be great. And the more that churches and members of churches and leaders of churches see the kind of academic endeavour that's being done by some people as relevant and sort of hand in glove or hand in hand with what practitioners and ministers are doing, so much the better for everyone, I think. And this bears a witness to that sense of cooperation between HTC and the churches in this area. So, again, grateful to you, grateful to the speakers, and not least to Bruce, whose idea, and more than just an idea, it was a lot of work put into it by Bruce himself. So, thanks very much.