GUTHRIE, THOMAS: Free Church of Scotland; b. at Brechin (60 m. n.n.e. of Edinburgh), Forfar shire, Scotland, July 12, 1803; d. at St. Leonards on the Sea (now a part of Hastings), Sussex, Eng land, Feb. 23, 1873. He entered Edinburgh Uni versity in his thirteenth year; was Life and licensed by Brechin Presbytery in Ministry. 1825; and after two years of further study in Edinburgh and Paris, fol lowed by two years as a bank agent in Brechin, became parish minister of Arbirlot, Forfarshire, in 1830. His Evangelical preaching, pastoral zeal, and strenuous opposition both to voluntaryism and to patronage attracted public notice, and led, in 1837, to his translation to the Collegiate Church of Old Greyfriars, Edinburgh. In 1840, the charge was divided, and a new church (St. John's) was built, of which Guthrie became minister, with the Cowgate as his territorial sphere.

Meanwhile the conflict between church and law courts over the Veto Act had culminated in 1838, when the Court of Session enjoined the Church to induct a qualified but unpopular presentee to Auchterarder. Guthrie would have preferred agitation for the abolition of patronage to a Veto Act of disputed legality; but he attached himself cordially to the non-intrusionists. In 1840 he preached in Strathbogie by instruction of the General Assembly, in defiance of the Court of Session. He itinemted in behalf of non-intrusion and "spiritual independence." His sagacity and' tact helped to prevent division in the convocation of 1842:

After the Disruption,.Guthrie became minister of Free St. John's, Edinburgh, erected fifty yards from his former church. For about twenty years he ministered to a large and influential congregation, and attracted crowds of strangers from all parts of

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the world. His chief service to the Free Church after the Disruption was the raising in 1845-46 of £115,000 as a manse fund. In 1862 he was elected moderator of the Free Church Assembly. III health, brought on by overwork, constrained him to retire from the pastorate in 1864, when a testimo nial, including a gift of £5,000, was presented to him in the name of contributors from all ranks and of many churches and lands. Guthrie's most signal philanthropic service was the institution of "Ragged Schools" for the reclamation of juvenile "waifs," who His Pllilan- were fed, taught, and trained for in thropic dustrial work. His efforts in this Efforts. sphere, along with those of Sheriff Watson of Aberdeen, and of Dr. W. Robertson of New Greyfriars Parish, Edinburgh, awakened public interest, and resulted in various Industrial Schools Acts, through which magistrates received power to "commit" to such schools vagrant and neglected, even though not criminal, children. Guthrie was also an early and powerful advocate of total abstinence. His work, The City: its Sins and Sorrows (London, 1857), and three tracts (1851-53) on the sinful folly of New Year drinking customs, were widely circulated and fruit ful. He was a warm friend of foreign missions and devoted his sermon as retiring moderator to their advocacy. He was still more notable in pleading for the Waidensian Church and its mission work. Guthrie was an ardent but not narrow Presby terian and Free-churchman. He was a zealous advocate of union with the United Presbyterian Church. In 1843, he exerted his influence to pre vent the insertion in the Free-church His Broad- standards of what might preclude mindedness. union with the Secession Churches. His Plea for Union in 1867 and some of his latest letters strongly urged the consumma tion of the union. He disapproved of the estab lishment of Free-church schools after the Disrup tion, and looked forward to a national system of education. After his retirement from the ministry Guthrie exerted a most extensive influence by his pen. Literary distinction had already been Writings. obtained through his Gospel in Ezekiel (Edinburgh, 1856), Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints (1858), and several vol umes of sermons. He now became editor of a new periodical, the Sunday Magazine, in which appeared originally, in serial form, Man and the Gospel, The Angels' Song, The Parables, Our Father's Business, Out of Harness, Early Piety, Studies of Character, and Sundays Abroad. All his works were repub lished in the United States and were as popular there as in Great Britain.

Henry Cowan.

Bibliography: Autobiography of Thomas Guthrie . . and Memoir by his Sons . . D. K. and C. J. Guthrie, 2 vols., London, 1874-75; O. 9meaton, Thomas Guthrie, Edin burgh, 1900; D71rB, xxiii. 380-382.