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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 profound truth of God's pleasure in bruising His Messiah-Son for the salvation of sinners. Despite the agony and sacrifice involved, God's eternal plan for redemption was fulfilled through the willing sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This act of atonement not only displayed God's abhorrence of sin but also showcased His justice and love for humanity, providing a way for sinners to be justified through faith in Jesus' blood.
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What Pleases God
"Who hath believed our report?" (Isa. 53:1). Among the amazing things of which this amazing chapter is full, there is nothing that arrests us, and overawes us, and, indeed, staggers us more than this--that it "pleased the Lord to bruise" His Messiah-Son. But the simple truth of God in this matter is this. God was so set, from everlasting, on the salvation of sinners that the most awful steps that had to be taken in order to work out that salvation are here said to have absolutely pleased Him. It is somewhat like our Lord's own words--"I delight to do Thy will": even when His Father's will led Him to the garden of Gethsemane and the Cross of Calvary. God so loved the world that He gave up His only-begotten Son to die for the sin of the world. God could not be pleased with the death of His Son--in itself. No. But nothing has ever pleased Him more than that His Son should lay down His life in atonement for those sinners whom the Father had chosen and ordained to everlasting life. Paul has everything. And he has the Father's indebtedness to His Son and His good pleasure in His death in this great passage: "God hath set forth Christ Jesus to be a propitiation through faith in His blood: to declare His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. " It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, because in this way alone could God's full hatred of sin be declared to men and angels, and at the same time God's justice might be manifested in the salvation of sinners.
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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.