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Alexander Whyte
Alexander Whyte, born 1836, died 1921, was a Scottish preacher and theologian whose powerful sermons and imaginative biblical expositions left a profound mark on the Free Church of Scotland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born on January 13, 1836, in Kirriemuir, Angus, to an unmarried mother, Janet Thomson, and an absent father, John Whyte, he grew up in poverty, raised by his mother and stepfather, James Low. Largely self-educated while apprenticed to a shoemaker, Whyte’s intellectual gifts led him to teach at a local school before entering the ministry. He studied at King’s College, Aberdeen, and New College, Edinburgh, under luminaries like Alexander Duff, and was ordained in 1866, first serving at Free St John’s in Glasgow before moving to Free St George’s in Edinburgh in 1870, where he preached for over 30 years. Whyte’s ministry at St George’s drew large crowds with his vivid, character-driven sermons, often exploring the inner lives of biblical figures like Jacob and Paul, as seen in works like Bible Characters (1896–1902). Appointed principal of New College, Edinburgh, in 1909, he also served as Moderator of the Free Church General Assembly in 1898, balancing pastoral duties with academic leadership. A prolific writer, his books—Bunyan Characters (1893–1908), The Walk, Conversation and Character of Jesus Christ Our Lord (1905), and others—blended scholarship with devotional depth, earning praise from figures like Charles Spurgeon. Married twice, first to Jane Elizabeth Duncan (d. 1880) and then to Jane Barbour Stewart, he fathered eight children. Whyte died on January 6, 1921, in Edinburgh, and as of March 21, 2025, his legacy endures through his writings and influence on Scottish Presbyterianism.
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Alexander Whyte delves into the importance of faith in pleasing God, drawing parallels between the faith of Jesus as the author and finisher of faith and His life of unceasing and believing prayer. Jesus, through His continuous prayer and intercession, exemplified unwavering faith in God as the Hearer of prayer, relying on Him at every step of His redemptive work. Our Lord's intimate relationship with the Father, demonstrated through His strong assurance in prayer, serves as a model for believers to approach God with faith and confidence.
Believing Prayer
"But without faith it is impossible to please him..." (Heb. 11:6). "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17). First in His believing study and believing appropriation of the Messianic Scriptures, and then in His life of unceasing and believing prayer, our Lord stands at our head as the author and finisher of faith. And not more in His believing reading of the word than in His believing prayer and intercession continually. 'Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared.' Day and night, early and late, our Lord lived and moved and had His being in believing prayer. He could never have entered on His great work, far less could He ever have finished it, but for His faith in His father as the Hearer of prayer. At every successive step in the process of our redemption, He took that step after a season of prayer, till He had fulfilled in His own experience what He preaches with such point to us concerning believing prayer. Preaching clearly and undeniably from His own experience in prayer, He says to us in one great place--concerning prayer: 'What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. 'There is a window opened into our Lord's secret life of prayer in these wonderful words--words much too wonderful for the best believer among us, but true to the letter of Him and of His faith in His Father. 'I know,' He said to His Father, at the grave of Lazarus, 'I know that Thou hearest me always. But because of the people that stand by I said it, that they might believe that Thou hast heard Me.' Such close communion of faith, and such strong assurance of faith, was there between the Father and the Son in the Son's life of believing reading and believing praying.
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Alexander Whyte, born 1836, died 1921, was a Scottish preacher and theologian whose powerful sermons and imaginative biblical expositions left a profound mark on the Free Church of Scotland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born on January 13, 1836, in Kirriemuir, Angus, to an unmarried mother, Janet Thomson, and an absent father, John Whyte, he grew up in poverty, raised by his mother and stepfather, James Low. Largely self-educated while apprenticed to a shoemaker, Whyte’s intellectual gifts led him to teach at a local school before entering the ministry. He studied at King’s College, Aberdeen, and New College, Edinburgh, under luminaries like Alexander Duff, and was ordained in 1866, first serving at Free St John’s in Glasgow before moving to Free St George’s in Edinburgh in 1870, where he preached for over 30 years. Whyte’s ministry at St George’s drew large crowds with his vivid, character-driven sermons, often exploring the inner lives of biblical figures like Jacob and Paul, as seen in works like Bible Characters (1896–1902). Appointed principal of New College, Edinburgh, in 1909, he also served as Moderator of the Free Church General Assembly in 1898, balancing pastoral duties with academic leadership. A prolific writer, his books—Bunyan Characters (1893–1908), The Walk, Conversation and Character of Jesus Christ Our Lord (1905), and others—blended scholarship with devotional depth, earning praise from figures like Charles Spurgeon. Married twice, first to Jane Elizabeth Duncan (d. 1880) and then to Jane Barbour Stewart, he fathered eight children. Whyte died on January 6, 1921, in Edinburgh, and as of March 21, 2025, his legacy endures through his writings and influence on Scottish Presbyterianism.