COOK, REV. GEORGE, D.D.—This
learned divine and ecclesiastical historian was born at St. Andrews in
1773. His education was conducted at the schools and colleges of his
native city, at that time distinguished for its high literary character
and the eminent men it produced, while his subsequent career fully
showed how well he had availed himself of such opportunities of mental
improvement. From the early period of boyhood, the studies of George
Cook had been directed towards the church, in which his family had
considerable influence; and at the age of twenty-two he was ordained
minister of Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire. On settling down into such a
tranquil residence, the young divine did not resign himself either to
rural indolence or literary epicurism; on the contrary, his studies were
of the most laborious, indefatigable character, as well as directed to
the highest interests of his sacred profession; and it was while
minister of Laurencekirk that he produced most of those works by which
his fame was extended over the world of ecclesiastical literature. As an
author, his first work, published in 1808, was "Illustrations of the
general Evidence establishing Christ’s Resurrection." His next, in 1811,
was the "History of the Reformation," the most popular of all his works,
until it was eclipsed by the more attractive productions upon the same
subject at a later period, and by writers possessing more ample
opportunities of information, of whom we need scarcely mention the name
of D’Aubigne. After this work in general ecclesiastical history, Dr.
Cook turned his attention to that part of it which concerned his own
church and country, aud published, in 1815, the "History of the Church
of Scotland, from the Reformation to the Revolution," a work in which
the research was of the most trying character, so many of the materials
being at that time in obscure, moth-eaten manuscript, which have since
been printed mainly through the public spirit of our antiquarian
societies. In 1820 appeared his "Life of Principal Hill," and in 1822
his "View of Christianity."
The learning and talent
displayed in these works, as well as the subjects which they
illustrated, and the high interests which they were designed to advance,
naturally brought Dr. Cook into the front rank of the most talented of
his clerical brethren, and in church courts his opinions obtained that
ascendancy to which they were so justly entitled. To these also were
added the highest honorary distinctions which our primitive national
church, so jealous of the doctrine of Presbyterian parity, reluctantly
accords to the most favoured of her children. Thus, in 1825, he was
moderator of the General Assembly, and in the following year he was
appointed a member of the royal commission for examining into the state
of our Scottish universities. He was also dean of the order of the
Thistle, and one of his Majesty’s chaplains.
On the death of Dr.
Inglis, which occurred in 1834, the leadership of his party in the
church, which that eminent divine had so ably conducted, was by
universal choice conceded to Dr. Cook. Always a situation of difficulty
and trouble, even in the most quiescent periods of our church’s history,
it was peculiarly so at the present crisis; for the Moderate party,
which Dr. Cook headed, and that for so long a period had been in the
ascendancy, had now lost its prestige; and the evangelical portion of
the church, already increased from a handful into an army, and backed by
the popular suffrage, which had always inclined to it since the days of
the Solemn League and Covenant, was advancing with all the energy of a
newly resuscitated cause, and giving certain promise that at no distant
day it would recover the superiority which it had formerly enjoyed.
Against such an onward tide it was not wonderful if Dr. Cook and his
brethren were unable to make head, although they struggled bravely and
to the last. Consistently with the principles which he had adopted from
the beginning, and advocated on every occasion, both as an author and a
divine, Dr. Cook could not be expected to sympathize with the opposite
party in their claims for the abolition of patronage, and the entire
exemption of the Church from State control, and accordingly he contested
every step of ground with a zeal and honesty equal to their own. At
length the result took him as completely by surprise as it did the
wisest politicians and profoundest calculators of the day. The memorable
18th of May, 1843, occurred, on which the disruption of the Kirk of
Scotland took place; and when, after it had been confidently asserted
that not even twenty ministers would abandon their livings, nearly five
hundred rose from their places in the General Assembly, bade a final
farewell to the Established Church, with which they could no longer
conscientiously agree, and departed to form, at whatever sacrifice or
risk, a church more consistent with their principles. It was a
melancholy spectacle, a stunning blow to the upright affectionate heart
of the leader of the Moderates. The labours of his past public life were
thus destroyed by a single stroke, and while history recorded the
calamitous event, he must have guessed that it would reproach him as one
of the chief causes of the evil. And besides, in that departing train,
whose self-sacrificing devotedness he was well disposed to acknowledge,
how many were there whom he had revered for their commanding talents,
and loved for their piety and worth, but who were now lost for ever to
the church with which he was identified, and whom he must henceforth
meet or pass by as the ministers of a rival and hostile cause! Such to
Dr. Cook was the disruption; and, although his own party exonerated him
from blame, while his church still continued as before to be directed by
his counsels, the rest of his life was clouded by the recollection of an
event which the best men, whether of the Free or Established Church,
will never cease to regret.
The latter years of Dr.
Cook’s life were spent at St. Andrews, as he had been appointed to the
chair of Moral Philosophy in its university, in the room of Dr.
Chalmers, when the latter was called to Edinburgh. Here his end was
sudden, his death having been instantaneous, and occasioned by the
rupture of a blood-vessel, while he was walking in the Kirk Wynd, on his
way to the college library. This melancholy event occurred on the
forenoon of the 13th of May, 1845. It is much to be regretted that a man
of such talent and worth should as yet have found no biographer among
the many who, while he lived, availed themselves of his counsels, and
were proud to be numbered among his friends. It is not yet too late.
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