- Home
- Speakers
- Robert Haldane
- A Soul In Agony
Robert Haldane
Robert Haldane (1764–1842) was a Scottish preacher, theologian, and philanthropist whose ministry significantly shaped evangelical Christianity in Scotland and beyond during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Born on February 28, 1764, in London, England, he was the eldest son of James Haldane of Airthrey and Katherine Duncan, part of a prominent Scottish family. Orphaned by age ten, he was raised by his grandmother, Lady Lundie, and uncles, attending Dundee Grammar School, the Royal High School in Edinburgh, and briefly the University of Edinburgh. At 16, he joined the Royal Navy, serving under his uncle Adam Duncan on HMS Monarch and later HMS Foudroyant during the American Revolutionary War, distinguishing himself in combat before retiring in 1783 after the Treaty of Paris. Converted in 1795 amid the French Revolution’s tumult, influenced by David Bogue of Gosport, Haldane dedicated his life and fortune to spreading the gospel. In 1785, he married Katherine Cochrane Oswald, with whom he had one daughter, Margaret. Haldane’s preaching career emerged from his wealth and evangelical zeal, though he was never formally ordained. After selling his Airthrey estate in 1798, he funded the construction of preaching tabernacles, like the Circus Church in Edinburgh, and established seminaries to train itinerant preachers, countering the Moderate dominance in the Church of Scotland. With his brother James, he planted 85 independent churches across Scotland and Ireland, practicing baptism by immersion and congregational governance, influenced by thinkers like John Glas and Robert Sandeman. His most impactful ministry came in 1816–1819, when he traveled to Geneva and Montauban, sparking a revival among theological students—including César Malan and Frédéric Monod—through his expositions of Romans, later published as Commentaire sur l'Épître aux Romains (1819). A prolific writer, his works like The Evidence and Authority of Divine Revelation (1816) and Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans bolstered evangelical theology. Haldane died on December 12, 1842, in Edinburgh, buried in Glasgow Cathedral’s Oswald family plot, leaving a legacy as a preacher whose resources and conviction fueled a widespread gospel movement, despite resistance from established churches.
Download
Topic
Sermon Summary
Robert Haldane delves into the profound suffering and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, emphasizing that His pain on the cross went beyond physical agony to encompass the spiritual wrath of God against sin. By becoming a curse for us, Christ endured the spiritual separation from God that sin brings, as symbolized by His crucifixion. Haldane highlights that Jesus' cry of feeling forsaken by God reveals the temporary but intense suffering He bore to atone for our sins and restore communion with God.
A Soul in Agony
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2). When sin was condemned or punished in the Son of God, to suppose that He felt nothing more than bodily pain, would be to conclude that He had less confidence in God than many martyrs who have gone to death cheerfully and without fear. The extremity of the pain He suffered when He said in the garden, 'My soul is sorrowful even unto death,' was the sentiment of the wrath of God against sin, from which martyrs felt themselves delivered. For the curse of the law is principally spiritual, namely, privation of communion with God in the sense of His wrath. Jesus Christ, therefore, was made a curse for us, as the Apostle says, Gal. 3:13, proving it by the declaration, 'Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. ' For this punishment of the cross was the figure and symbol of the spiritual curse of God. As in His body, then, He suffered this most accursed punishment, so likewise in His soul He suffered those pains that are most insupportable, such as are suffered by those finally condemned. But that was only for a short time, the infinity of His person rendering that suffering equivalent to that of an infinity of time. Such, then, was the grief which He experienced when on the cross He cried, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' What forsaking was this, unless that for a time God left Him to feel the weight of His indignation against sin? This feeling is the sovereign evil of the soul, in which consists the griefs of eternal death; as, on the other hand, the sovereign good of the soul, and that in which the happiness of eternal life consists, is to enjoy gracious communion with God.
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download
Robert Haldane (1764–1842) was a Scottish preacher, theologian, and philanthropist whose ministry significantly shaped evangelical Christianity in Scotland and beyond during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Born on February 28, 1764, in London, England, he was the eldest son of James Haldane of Airthrey and Katherine Duncan, part of a prominent Scottish family. Orphaned by age ten, he was raised by his grandmother, Lady Lundie, and uncles, attending Dundee Grammar School, the Royal High School in Edinburgh, and briefly the University of Edinburgh. At 16, he joined the Royal Navy, serving under his uncle Adam Duncan on HMS Monarch and later HMS Foudroyant during the American Revolutionary War, distinguishing himself in combat before retiring in 1783 after the Treaty of Paris. Converted in 1795 amid the French Revolution’s tumult, influenced by David Bogue of Gosport, Haldane dedicated his life and fortune to spreading the gospel. In 1785, he married Katherine Cochrane Oswald, with whom he had one daughter, Margaret. Haldane’s preaching career emerged from his wealth and evangelical zeal, though he was never formally ordained. After selling his Airthrey estate in 1798, he funded the construction of preaching tabernacles, like the Circus Church in Edinburgh, and established seminaries to train itinerant preachers, countering the Moderate dominance in the Church of Scotland. With his brother James, he planted 85 independent churches across Scotland and Ireland, practicing baptism by immersion and congregational governance, influenced by thinkers like John Glas and Robert Sandeman. His most impactful ministry came in 1816–1819, when he traveled to Geneva and Montauban, sparking a revival among theological students—including César Malan and Frédéric Monod—through his expositions of Romans, later published as Commentaire sur l'Épître aux Romains (1819). A prolific writer, his works like The Evidence and Authority of Divine Revelation (1816) and Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans bolstered evangelical theology. Haldane died on December 12, 1842, in Edinburgh, buried in Glasgow Cathedral’s Oswald family plot, leaving a legacy as a preacher whose resources and conviction fueled a widespread gospel movement, despite resistance from established churches.