Chapter 2 of this book gives a biographical profile of John Love (1757-1815), at one time an important evangelical leader in London and Glasgow, as well as a promoter of foreign missions, but who is almost forgotten today. During his years in Glasgow University Cook attended Love’s church and inevitably was influenced by him. Love’s ministry in Glasgow was also attended by converted Highlanders who had moved to the city as well as those from southern Argyll who attended his communion seasons. Love also preached in Arran during its periods of spiritual revival in the early nineteenth century.
Love was influential in the formation of the London Missionary Society and the Glasgow Missionary Society, and his contribution to missionary activity was recognised by those who named a mission station in South Africa after him (Lovedale). In addition to promoting foreign missions, Love also reminded Christians (in a sermon preached in 1794) of the necessity of evangelising the Scottish Highlands, of which many districts were beginning to hear the gospel in power around that time.
At that time, the inhabitants of the Highlands mainly spoke Gaelic. In addition to urging individuals to evangelise the Highlands, Love also realised the importance of suitable Christian literature being available in Gaelic. He endorsed the proposal that Thomas Boston’s Human Nature in its Fourfold State should be published in the Gaelic language (which is interesting given that it is unlikely that such a comprehensive book of theology would be the choice of today’s missionary strategists for use in work among new converts). Several men linked with Love’s ministry in Glasgow became ministers or Christian workers in areas of the Highlands, and it is inevitable therefore that Love played an important role in the evangelising of the Highlands, with features of his ministry style and his doctrinal emphases being passed on by these men.
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