James Hamilton (1814–1867)


James Hamilton was a Scottish minister and a prolific author of religious tracts.

Life

Born in Paisley, Scotland, seven miles west-southwest of Glasgow, Hamilton was the eldest son of William Hamilton, a preacher and religious author of local renown. James Hamilton was therefore destined from an early age to enter the ministry, and to that end he studied at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. He enjoyed courses on the natural sciences, particularly chemistry and botany, and contemplated a career in one of those fields. Although Hamilton enjoyed poetry, he once read a novel by Sir Walter Scott and had the following reaction:
He became assistant to Robert Smith Candlish at St. George's Church in Edinburgh, in 1838, and upon finishing his college studies, he "commenced his clerical life as assistant minister in the small secluded parish of Abernyte, in Perthshire". Early in 1841, he relocated to Roxburgh Church in Edinburgh, and in July of that year became pastor of the National Scotch Church, Regent Square, London, where he would remain until his death. In 1849 he became editor of the Presbyterian Messenger, and in 1864 editor of Evangelical Christendom, the organ of the Evangelical Alliance. He was an incessant literary worker and the author of some of the most widely circulated books of his day. His best known works were: Life in Earnest, of which 64,000 copies had been sold before 1852; The Mount of Olives ; The Royal Preacher, a homiletical commentary on Ecclesiastes; and Our Christian Classics. Following his death, his collected works were published in London ; and his Select Works appeared in New York. In addition to his religious writings, Hamilton continued to have an interest in botany throughout his life, publishing several articles in journals on the subject.