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Anderson, John (1), D.D.

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Anderson, John (1), D.D.

an Associate minister, was born in England, near the Scotch border, about 1748. After completing the usual course of studies, he was licensed by the Associate or Secession Church of Scotland, but on account of a weak voice and hesitates manner his pulpit services were not acceptable. He came to America in 1783, arriving in Philadelphia some time in August. He spent several years in preaching in various sections of this country, and in 1788 he crossed the Alleghany Mountains and preached to congregations in Beaver County, Pa. He was ordained in Philadelphia Oct. 31, 1788, preached awhile in Eastern Pennsylvania, and in 1789 returned to the scene of his former labors. He was settled as pastor over the congregations of Mill Creek and Harman's Creek, Beaver Co,, in 1792. He was chosen professor of theology for the Associate Church during the same year. "A small two story log building was erected on the farm on which he lived for the accommodation of his theological students. A library was also collected, consisting of about a thousand volumes of rare and valuable works, most of which were donations from the brethren of the Associate Church in Scotland. In his office of professor he continued until the spring of 1819, when, owing to the infirmities of age, he resigned." He still attended to the duties of the pastoral office until his death, which occurred April 6, 1830. The number of students under his care was usually five or six, and perhaps never exceeded ten. His chief employment as a professor was in reading Marck's Medulla Theologice. These he enlarged on each repetition of them until they became so voluminous that, although he read each day of the week except Monday and Saturday from the middle of the day till from three to five o'clock during the four months of the session, he was not able, with his last class, to finish the whole system during the four years of their attendance. Among his publications are, Essays on Various Subjects relative to the Present State of Religion (Glasgow, 1782): — A Discourse on the Divine Ordinance of Singing Praise (Phila. 1793): — The Scripture Doctrine of the Appropriation, etc. (eod.): Vindicice Cantus Dominici (1800): Precious Truth (1806): — and a Series of Dialogues on Church Communion (Pittsburgh, 1820). See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, IX, 3, 17.