- Home
- Speakers
- Alexander Whyte
- Truly Penitent
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.
Download
Topic
Sermon Summary
In this sermon by Alexander Whyte, the importance of forsaking sin to receive comfort and mercy from God is emphasized. It is highlighted that God does not offer His consolations to those living in known sin or neglecting their duties. The message stresses the need to choose between God's comfort and continuing in sin, as true peace and comfort can only be found when sin is put away. The call to keep God's words and have a contrite heart to receive His presence and blessings is a central theme of the sermon.
Truly Penitent
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God" (Isa. 40:1). No man living in any known sin is ever comforted of God. The Holy Ghost never yet spake one word of all His abounding consolations to any man so long as he lived in any actual sin, or in any neglect of known duty. You have that much-needed caution bound up into the very heart of God's great name, when He proclaimed His great Name to Moses. "The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin--but"-- and here comes this great correction and caution--"will by no means clear the guilty." That is to say, as long as you are living in any guilt, as long as your conscience accuses you, He will by no means clear or comfort you. "He that forsaketh his sin shall find mercy"--but he only You do not really care for God's mercy or His comfort either, so long as you live in any sin. And it is well that you do not; for you can have neither. Your peace will be like a river, when you put away your sin; but not one word of true peace, not one drop of true comfort, can you have till then. You will have to put out God's eyes, and pervert His judgment, and turn His Throne upside down, before you can have His comfort with your sin. Choose which you will have: "If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him." Are you that man? Are you intending to be that man? And when and in what are you to begin? Are you from this day to keep that word of His, which up to this day you know you have not kept? Then, from this day Jesus and His Father will come to your good and honest, if broken and contrite heart, and will make Their abode with you. And from this memorable day it will be said over you from heaven, what was said from heaven in Israel over all the men in Israel like you: "To this man will I look, saith the Lord, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembleth at My word."
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download
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.