James Stalker

1848-1927. Scottish minister, scholar, and writer. Born in Crieff and educated at Edinburgh, Berlin, and Halle, he was ordained in the United Free Church* and ministered in Kirkcaldy and Glasgow before becoming professor of church history in the United Free Church College, Aberdeen (1902- 26). He was well known as a visiting lecturer in various American colleges and seminaries, and the lucidity of his scholarship is seen in his many writings, among them his lives of Paul and (notably) Jesus (1891). Nevertheless it is as a preacher that he was best remembered. He had shared in the revival movement following the 1873 Moody and Sankey mission, and it had a lasting effect upon him. With evangelistic preaching he coupled also a marked social concern which “caused some douce hearers to become uneasy.” He was fearless, untroubled by personal ambition (he declined both a principalship and the moderatorial chair), and encouraged every movement that carried the Gospel to the people.