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Jardine, Rev. Robert, M.A., B.D., D.Sc., Pastor of the
St. John’s Presbyterian church, Brockville, was born in the township of
Augusta, County of Grenville, Ontario, on the 19th of June, 1840.
He is a son of John Jardiun and Jane McCreath, who were both natives of
Girvan, in Ayrshire, Scotland. His father’s family had lived in Ayrshire
for three generations, having moved there from Annandale, in
Dumfriesshire, the original seat of the Jardine family, where they had
lived probably from the time of the Norman conquest. In the family of John
Jardine there were one daughter and three sons, the youngest of whom died
in youth. The daughter married Rev. Alexander Hunter, a. Presbyterian
clergyman (since dead). The eldest son is Alexander Jardine, chief partner
in the " Pure Gold Manufacturing Company, Toronto. The first education
received by Robert Jardine was on a farm owned by his father, who, in
addition to his work as a builder and contractor, cultivated a farm. In
the common school, near Algonquin, the son obtained the first rudiments of
knowledge, but his chief preparatory education was obtained in the Grammar
school of Brockville, under a distinguished teacher, J. J. Dunlop, a
graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. Having come under deep religious
convictions about the age of thirteen, the lad became a member of St
John’s Presbyterian church, Brockville, and resolved to prepare for the
ministry. He matriculated in Queen’s University, Kingston, in October,
1860, and attended classes in arts in the college, taking the degree of
BA. in April, 1863. He commenced the study of theology in the autumn of
the same year, and continued till the spring of 1866, when he took the
degrees of M.A. and B.D. During the two preceding summers, he had laboured
as a missionary in Laprairie and Owen Sound. Upon the 18th of June, 1866,
be was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Perth, and in
the autumn of the same year he went to Scotland to prosecute his studies
in the University of Edinburgh, giving attention chiefly to philosophy, in
which he was greatly interested when at Queen’s. There he took the degree
of Doctor of Science (D. Sc.), in the department of mental
philosophy, in the spring of 1867; and he returned to Canada during the
summer. In the autumn of 1867, Dr. Jardine was appointed professor of
rhetoric and mental and moral philosophy in the University of New
Brunswick, which position he held for two years. In the summer of 1869 he
went to Scotland for his holidays, and during a walking tour in the
Highlands, fell in with the Rev. Dr. Norman Macleod, of Glasgow, who had
lately returned from India. By him he was induced to go as a missionary to
India, and was appointed principal of the General Assembly's institution
in Bombay, with instructions to add a college department if possible. In
December, 1869, he proceeded to Scotland, en route for India, and,
having received final instructions from the Foreign Mission Committee of
the Church of Scotland, he was ordained as a minister by the Presbytery of
Glasgow, on the 5th January, 1870, and soon there-after started for India,
via Marseilles, Alexandria, and the Red sea, reaching Bombay on the 12th
February, 1870. He cornmenced work at once in the missionary institution
there, but found that the prospects of organizing a college faculty were
not promising. Having remained in Bombay one year, he was ordered to
Calcutta, to assume the principalship of the General Assembly's College
there, vacated by the death of Rev. Dr. Ogilvie, who had held it for
twenty-live years. There he remained for six years. The institution
(school and college) grew rapidly, numbering eventually more than one
thousand pupils. It was affiliated with the University of Calcutta, and
annually passed a considerable number of matriculants, as well as
graduates (B.A. and M.A.); and its history is of very considerable
interest, having been originally founded by Dr. Duff, who, at the
disruption in 1843, vacated it and founded another. It was missionary in
character. Christian instruction being given in all the classes, and it,
along with other similar institutions, has exercised a wide and powerful
influence in revolutionizing Hindu thought and life. In addition to his
duties connected with the college, he gave attention to other missionary
work, and aided the Bengali Christians connected with the mission in
organizing themselves into a congregation, and building a church. He was
associated frequently with the other missionaries of Calcutta in friendly
conference, and was present at the general missionary conference at
Allahabad In the winter of 1872-3, where he read a paper upon the Brahrna
Samaj. In the summer of 1876 he wrote a series of letters to
English-speaking Hindus upon important religious subjects, which were
published. An edition of five thousand copies was issued, and nearly all
sold during the course of publication. The letters, bound together in a
volume of two hundred and twenty-four pages, entitled, "What to Believe,"
were very favourably received. His work of a more general educational and
literary character, while in Calcutta was of considerable importance. He
was a frequent contributor to the Calcutta Review and other local
papers; was appointed every year as an examiner for degrees in the
University of Calcutta; and had the honour of an appointment by the
governor-general as a Fellow of the University, thus having a permanent
seat in the University Council. On the 16th February, 1877, he left
Calcutta for Scotland, on furlough, where he spent some months, preaching
and lecturing occasionally. He was employed lecturing at the four Scottish
Universities during the winter of 1877-8, upon "Comparative Theology,"
from a missionary stand-point. After some time spent in Scotland,
where he preached for a few months in Dalbeattie, and took charge of the
Park Church, Glasgow, in the absence of the Rev. Dr. Donald Macleod, its
pastor, for three months, he returned with his family to Canada. He had
been offered special inducements by the Foreign Mission Committee to
return to CaIcutta, but, on account of the health of himself and his wife
in India, decided not to go. He was
called to St. Andrew’s Church, Chatham, Now Brunswick, and settled there
in February, 1879, where he remained for two years and
four months in charge of that large
congregation. He was called, early in
1881, to St. John’s Church, Brockville, whore he settled on the 1st of May
of that year. The year following, the church was enlarged to double its
former capacity. He has been a member of the Foreign Mission Committee of
the Presbyterian church in Canada ever since his return, and has been for
two years convener of the Sabbath school committee; and also a member of
the board of trustees of Queen's College. Rev Dr. Jardine is a man of
marked enthusiasm and force of character. Upon his congregations he has
exercised an altogether unusual influence; and some of the sermons that he
has preached have been among the most thoughtful and striking ever
delivered from a Canadian pulpit. While the soundest of churchmen,
his views are remarkable for their liberality,
for their independence, and for their enlightenment. Likewise, too, Rev.
Dr. Jardine has published works of a
high and permanent value, but the most remarkable of his books is, "The
Elements of the Psychology of Cognition," brought out by Macmillan &
Company, and which has gone through several editions since its first
appearance in 1874. This work may be regarded as an elementary text-book,
and though the subject on which it treats is seemingly not one to arouse
enthusiasm, yet the doctor has made a dry subject readable, and a profound
one within the range of general comprehension. The work has been very
favourably received by the press, having called forth elaborate criticisms
from many of our most capable pens. On October 27th, 1873, Rev. Dr.
Jardine married, in Calcutta, Agnes Hunter, eldest daughter of John
Hunter, of Glasgow, a retired manufacturer, since deceased.
There have been three sons and one
daughter by this union. |
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