John Cairns

1818-1892. Scots divine. The outstanding leader of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland of his time. Brought up among the Seceders, the son of a border shepherd, he was ordained at Berwick-on-Tweed in 1845, where for thirty years he sustained a remarkable ministry. Having refused numerous calls to influential city pulpits and to university and college chairs, he moved to Edinburgh in 1876 to become professor of systematic theology and apologetics, and later also principal, in the U.P. divinity hall. He made his mark on the religious and public life of Scotland, alike by personality and character, and “his death called forth a manifestation of public feeling such as does not occur twice in one generation.”