Site Map > |
BOGUE, DAVID, the Father,
as he has been called, of the London Missionary Society, was born at
Hallydown in the Parish of Coldingham, Berwickshire, on the 18th February,
1750. His father, who farmed his own estate, was descended of a
respectable family which had been long settled in the county. His studies
are said to have been carried on at Dunse under the superintendence of the
distinguished Cruikshanks, not less remembered for the success of his
tuition, than for the severity of his discipline. He afterwards removed to
the university of Edinburgh, and studied moral philosophy under Adam
Ferguson, the well-known author of the "History of Civil Society." After
undergoing the usual course of study, and being licensed as a preacher in
connection with the church of Scotland, from want, perhaps, of very
flattering prospects in his native country, he removed to London (1771),
and was for some time employed in the humble, but meritorious, capacity of
usher in an academy at Edmonton, afterwards at Hampstead, and finally with
the Rev. Mr Smith of Camberwell, whom he also assisted in the discharge of
his ministerial duties both at Camberwell and at Silver Street, London,
where he held a lectureship, the duties of which were at one time
performed by the celebrated John Home. The zeal with which Mr Bogue
discharged his duties in both of these capacities, contributed not less to
the satisfaction of Mr Smith, than to the increase of his own popularity.
At length, on the resignation of the minister of an independent chapel at
Gosport, Mr Bogue was unanimously chosen to fill the vacant charge. The
duties of his new situation were such as to require all the strength of
judgment and uncompromising inflexibility, tempered with Christian
meekness, which entered so largely into his character. The charge was one
of great difficulty, and of peculiar importance. The members of the
congregation were divided among themselves, and part of them had indeed
withdrawn from the communion altogether, during the ministry of his
predecessor, and formed themselves into a separate congregation, under a
rival minister; but the exemplary conduct of Mr Bogue, and his zeal in the
discharge of his duties, were such, that he had scarce occupied the pulpit
twelve months when a re-union was effected. His fame, as a solid and
substantial scholar, and an evangelical and indefatigable minister, now
spread rapidly; and, early in March 1780, he entered into the design of
becoming tutor to an establishment for directing the studies of young men
destined for the Christian ministry in connexion with the Independent
communion. For the ability with which this establishment was conducted,
both now and when it afterwards became a similar one for those destined
for missionary labours, his praise is indeed in all the churches. It was
in this period, though occupied with the details of what most men would
have felt as a full occupation of their time, that his ever-active mind
turned its attention to the formation of a grand missionary scheme, which
afterwards resulted in the London Missionary Society. The influence which
the establishment of this institution was calculated to have on the public
mind was grand and extensive, and the springing up of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, and the Religious Tract Society at short intervals,
proves how much good was effected by the impetus thus given by one
master-mind. In the establishment of both of these he likewise took an
active part, contributing to the latter body the first of a series of
publications which have been of great usefulness. In the year 1796, Mr
Bogue was called upon to show whether he, who had professed himself such a
friend to missionary enterprise, was sufficiently imbued with the spirit
of the gospel to enable him to forsake home and the comforts of civilized
society, to devote himself to its sacred cause. The call alluded to, was
made—and it was not made in vain—by Robert Haldane, Esq. of Airdrie, who,
to furnish funds for this grand enterprise, sold his estate. Their design
was, in connection with two other divines, who had recently left the
established church of Scotland, and become Independent ministers, to
preach the gospel to the natives of India, and likewise to form a seminary
for the instruction of fellow-labourers in the same field. The names of
the two other ministers who intended to join in this, perhaps the noblest
enterprise of Christian philanthropy of which our age can boast, and which
will ever reflect a lustre on the church with which it originated, were
the Rev. Greville Ewing of Glasgow, and the Rev. W. Innes of Edinburgh.
But the design was frustrated by the jealousy of the East India Company,
who refused their sanction to the undertaking—a most fortunate
circumstance, as it afterwards appeared, in as far as the missionaries
were individually concerned; for a massacre of Europeans took place at the
exact spot where it was intended the mission should have been established,
and from which these Christian labourers could scarcely have hoped to
escape. In 1815, Mr Bogue received the diploma of Doctor of Divinity, from
the Senatus acádemicus of Yale college, North America, but such was the
modesty of his character that he always bore this honour meekly and
unwillingly.
His zeal for the cause of missions, to which he consecrated his life,
continued to the last: he may truly be said to have died in the cause. He
annually made tours in different parts of the country in behalf of the
Missionary Society; and it was on a journey of this kind, in which he had
been requested to assist at a meeting of the Sussex Auxiliary Society,
that he took ill at the house of the Rev. Mr Goulty of Brighton, and, in
spite of the best medical advice, departed this life in the morning of the
25th of October, 1825, after a short illness. The effect of this event
upon the various churches and religious bodies with which Dr Bogue was
connected, was great: no sooner did the intelligence reach London, than an
extraordinary meeting of the Missionary Society was called, (October 26,)
in which resolutions were passed expressive of its sense of the
bereavement, and of the benefits which the deceased had conferred upon the
society, by the active part he had taken in its projection and
establishment, and subsequently "by his prayers, his writings, his
example, his journeys, and, above all, by his direction and
superintendence of the missionary seminary at Gosport."
The only works of any extent for which we are indebted to the pen of Dr
Bogue, are, "An Essay on the Divine Authority of the New Testament."
"Discourses on the Millennium," and a "History of Dissenters," which he
undertook in conjunction with his pupil and friend Dr Bennet. The first of
these he commenced at the request of the London Missionary Society, with
the purpose of its being appended to an edition of the New Testament,
which the society intended to circulate extensively in France. In
consideration of the wide diffusion of infidelity in that country, he
wisely directed his attention to the evidence required by this class of
individuals - addressing them always in the language of kindness and
persuasion, "convinced," as he characteristically remarks, "that the wrath
of man worketh not the righteousness of God,"—and if usefulness be taken
as a test of excellence this work is so in a very high degree. No work of
a religious character, if we except perhaps the Pilgrim’s Progress, has
been so popular and so widely circulated: it has been translated into the
French, Italian, German, and Spanish languages, and has been widely
circulated on the continent of Europe, where, under the divine blessing,
it has been eminently useful. In France, in particular, and on the distant
shores of America, its influence has been felt in the convincing and
converting of many to the cause of Christ. It is, indeed, the most useful
of all his works. The discourses on the millennium are entirely practical
and devotional, and though they want the straining for effect, and the
ingenious speculations with which some have clothed this subject, and
gained for themselves an ephemeral popularity – for to all such trickery
Dr Bogue had a thorough aversion – they will be found strikingly to
display the enlarged views and sterling good sense of their venerable
author.
|
|
Featured Hotel |
Alverbank
Country Hotel |
|
● Without doubt one of Gosport's best
hotels that successfully combines style and elegance with a very
relaxed atmosphere. |
Local
Information |
Advertise your business |
Accountant |
Builder |
Car Valet |
Cake Maker |
Dance School |
Electrician |
Fencer |
Gardener |
Hairdresser |
Interpreter |
Joiner |
Lion Tamer |
Manager |
Night Club |
Operator |
Printer |
Quality video |
Restaurant |
Supplier |
Travel Agent |
Fun Facts |
The original
captain of Star Trek's starship 'Enterprise' was Jeffrey Hunter, and
not William Shatner, as Christopher Pike, in the pilot episode 'The
cage' (1964). The cast was quite different from that of the classic
series except for Leonard Nimoy as Spock.
Besides Star Trek, William Shatner, Leonard Nemoy, James Doohan, and
George Takei have all appeared at one time or another on The Twilight
Zone |
|