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Was born at Glasgow,
Scotland, on 13 November 1844. After some preliminary education at Glasgow
Academy he came to Australia and went to Scotch College, Melbourne. He
joined the civil service, but in 1864 passed the matriculation examination
of the university of Melbourne and graduated B.A. in 1868. Going on to the
university of Edinburgh he graduated B.D. in 1872 and gained the
Cunningham fellowship. Returning to Australia he was appointed English
master at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne, became headmaster
in 1877, and in 1879 principal. He resigned at the end of 1888 leaving the
school with a high reputation among the secondary schools of Victoria. In
the same year he was appointed professor of Hebrew and Old Testament
Exegesis at Ormond College, university of Melbourne. He became editor of
The Messenger of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1895, and
during the following five years carried it on with much ability and
success. In 1901 he was appointed Hunter-Baillie professor of Hebrew and
principal of St Andrew's College, university of Sydney. He resigned the
office of principal in 1921 and the professorship in May 1924, being then
in his eightieth year. He retired to Edinburgh where he died on 25
November 1936, a few days after his ninety-second birthday. He married (1)
Miss Craig and (2) Barbara Rainy, daughter of Dr Robert Rainy, principal
of New College, Edinburgh, where Harper had studied for his divinity
degree. She survived him with two sons and five daughters.
Harper was a fine scholar
but did not publish a great deal. The Book of Deuteronomy in the
Expositer's Bible series, published in 1895, gave him a wide
reputation, and it was everywhere recognized as a work of great value. He
also contributed a volume, The Song of Solomon, to The Cambridge
Bible for Schools and Colleges in 1902. His The Hon. James Balfour
M.L.C., a Memoir, is an interesting record of a leading Mellbourne
merchant and politician whom Harper had known for nearly 50 years. A
series of lectures to the Sydney University Christian Union was published
under the title Christian Essentials; he printed a few pamphlets,
and he also contributed the chapter on "The White Australia Policy" to
Australia, Economic and Political Studies, edited by Meredith Atkinson
and published in 1920.
Harper was a good speaker
and debater who exercised much influence in the Presbyterian Church in
Australia, and more especially on the candidates for the ministry who
studied under him. He had decided convictions but could realize the
difficulties of others. Personally he was modest and thoroughly sincere,
loyal to the Christian faith yet believing in scientific inquiry, a wise
and understanding mentor at a period of transition and reshaping, when
many beliefs once firmly held were being attacked. |
