Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
When I was in Coleraine yesterday I came across this obituary of the Free Church theologian, William Cunningham:
THE DEATH OF PRINCIPAL CUNNINGHAM
WHEN Abner fell by the murderous hand of Joab, in the gate of Hebron, the royal David said to loving subjects, who would console him, “Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?” This nation mourns to-day the removal from among the living of both “a Prince” and “a great man.” The amiable and honoured Consort [Prince Albert] of our beloved Queen is numbered with the dead; and a man in the truest sense of the word “great” has been taken away from loving friends, and a Church of which he was an ornament and a bulwark. Of “the mighty men” of the Free Church of Scotland, William Cunningham had every claim to be reckoned among “the first three.” In intellectual power, in transparent honesty, in indomitable energy, and in fearless courage, he had few peers and no superiors. Very few combined in a larger degree than he did the vigour and force of the manly intellect with the tenderness, the delicate tastes, and the loving gentleness of woman’s less rugged nature. Woe to the adversary who came under the strokes of his intellectual arm, and happy was the heart which gained a place in the loving tenderness of his own. One was often reminded by his bearing and demeanour of his countryman Scott’s description of Lord William Howard –
“Than whom knight
Was never dubb’d more bold in fight;
Nor, when from war and armour free,
More famed for stately courtesy.”
But we have no intention of writing a panegyric on Dr Cunningham. We intended rather to give expression to the regret which we feel, in common with so many, that he has been taken away, in the midst of his usefulness, from a Church of which he was an ornament, and from a College of which he was the worthy head. It will not be easy in all respects to fill his place. His sound judgment and deep erudition fitted him in an eminent degree to be the instructor of the ministry of the Free Church, in the good old sound theology for which she is a faithful witness, in a day of back-sliding and defection. May his mantle fall on some worthy successor in his important office; and may many of those whom he trained and instructed strive in their imitation of his courage and zeal and conduct to “Let their profiting appear to all!”
Coleraine Chronicle, 21 Dec. 1861.
THE DEATH OF PRINCIPAL CUNNINGHAM
WHEN Abner fell by the murderous hand of Joab, in the gate of Hebron, the royal David said to loving subjects, who would console him, “Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?” This nation mourns to-day the removal from among the living of both “a Prince” and “a great man.” The amiable and honoured Consort [Prince Albert] of our beloved Queen is numbered with the dead; and a man in the truest sense of the word “great” has been taken away from loving friends, and a Church of which he was an ornament and a bulwark. Of “the mighty men” of the Free Church of Scotland, William Cunningham had every claim to be reckoned among “the first three.” In intellectual power, in transparent honesty, in indomitable energy, and in fearless courage, he had few peers and no superiors. Very few combined in a larger degree than he did the vigour and force of the manly intellect with the tenderness, the delicate tastes, and the loving gentleness of woman’s less rugged nature. Woe to the adversary who came under the strokes of his intellectual arm, and happy was the heart which gained a place in the loving tenderness of his own. One was often reminded by his bearing and demeanour of his countryman Scott’s description of Lord William Howard –
“Than whom knight
Was never dubb’d more bold in fight;
Nor, when from war and armour free,
More famed for stately courtesy.”
But we have no intention of writing a panegyric on Dr Cunningham. We intended rather to give expression to the regret which we feel, in common with so many, that he has been taken away, in the midst of his usefulness, from a Church of which he was an ornament, and from a College of which he was the worthy head. It will not be easy in all respects to fill his place. His sound judgment and deep erudition fitted him in an eminent degree to be the instructor of the ministry of the Free Church, in the good old sound theology for which she is a faithful witness, in a day of back-sliding and defection. May his mantle fall on some worthy successor in his important office; and may many of those whom he trained and instructed strive in their imitation of his courage and zeal and conduct to “Let their profiting appear to all!”
Coleraine Chronicle, 21 Dec. 1861.
