Happy birthday to William Robertson Nicoll, a man whose name may not be familiar to many students and younger pastors today, but who contributed greatly to the body of theological works in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nicoll was born on this day in 1851 in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire. He was the son of a very studious pastor and went into the ministry himself, becoming “the most prolific and respected religious journalist in the English-speaking world from 1886 to his death in 1923” (Warren W. Wiersbe, Walking with the Giants, p. 103).
Trained and licensed to preach by the Free Church of Scotland, Nicoll married and settled into a pastoral ministry, eventually becoming editor of a monthly theological journal called The Expositor. However, Nicoll’s health was never good, his lungs being weak, making it very difficult to preach full time. In 1885 Nicoll came down with a serious case of typhoid, which nearly took his life, as it had taken the lives of some of his family. Nicoll resigned his church and moved to the south of
Since by his gifts and inclination he was more of a writer and editor than a pastor, Nicoll changed his ministerial emphasis and began the great work for which he is mostly remembered. On November 5, 1886 the first issue of the British Weekly was published. This was an influential religious journal which he founded. He authored many books of his own, but it is as an exacting editor that he achieved his enduring legacy. Nicoll edited several large sets of theological books aimed at helping pastors. He enlisted a group of talented, godly writers and produced The Expositor’s Bible, which ran to fifty volumes. Since it employs many different writers, this commentary set is uneven in some areas, but many of the volumes have become classics, like Kellogg’s commentary on Leviticus and Alexander Maclaren’s three-volume commentary on the Psalms. Though old, these volumes have stood the test of time and are still valuable to serious students of Scripture.
Nicoll also edited The Expositor’s Greek New Testament and The Sermon Bible, reprinted as The Sermon-Outline Bible, part of the fourteen-volume “Preacher’s Homiletic Library.” The latter series employed the sermons of well-known preachers of the 19th Century. One of the best books that Nicoll wrote himself is Princes of the Church, biographical vignettes of famous preachers, including Spurgeon.
As an editor Nicoll was a hard taskmaster, but he and his writers had a significant impact on the scholarship of their day. His work no doubt helped to counteract the liberalism creeping into
For more information on Nicoll, see Warren Wiersbe’s Walking with the Giants (Baker Book House, 1983). Also look for used volumes of his commentary series. Some of these (the best ones) were reprinted by Klock & Klock and some reprinted by Kregel. It would be expensive to buy The Expositor’s Bible (if you can find the whole set), but you can have the whole content of the set by ordering this CD.
One lesson from the life of W. Robertson Nicoll is that if the Lord sidelines you in one area of service, He isn’t necessarily through using you. Perhaps He is redirecting you into another field. Maybe He wants you to be a writer. Feel free to start by leaving comments. :-)
Please let us know of more resources on either Nicoll or old theological works that are still useful today. Just like Nicoll, our burden at TheoSource is to help the church of our day.
I found a complete set of Nicoll's The Expositor's Bible some years ago on ebay. When I've had the time to do extra reading I've always profited from the informed, yet warm expositions found in those volumes. Yes, the volumes are a bit dated, however they still provide for the student/preacher a view of careful scholarship link with experimental exposition.
ReplyDeleteHere's a sample from the Scottish divine and Biblical scholar, George Adam Smith comments on Habakkuk 2:4:
"Such, then, is the tenor of this passage. In face of experience that baffles faith, the duty of Israel is patience in loyalty to God. In this the nascent scepticism of Israel received its first great commandment, and this it never forsook. Intellectual questions arose, of which Habakkuk's were but the faintest foreboding--questions concerning not only the mission and destiny of the nation, but the very foundation of justice and the character of God Himself. Yet did no sceptic, however bold and however provoked, forsake his faithfulness. Even Job, when most audaciously arraigning the God of his experience, turned from Him to God as in his heart of hearts he believed He must be, experience notwithstanding. Even the Preacher, amid the aimless flux and drift which he finds in the universe, holds to the conclusion of the whole matter in a command, which better than any other defines the contents of the faithfulness enforced by Habakkuk: 'Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man.' It has been the same with the great mass of the race. Repeatedly disappointed for their hopes, and crushed for ages beneath an intolerable tyranny, have they not exhibited the same heroic temper with which their first great questioner was endowed? Endurance--this above all others has been the quality of Israel: 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.' And, therefore, as Paul's adaptation, "The just shall live by faith," has become the motto of evangelical Christianity, so we may say that Habakkuk's original of it has been the motto and the fame of Judaism: 'The righteous shall live by His faithfulness.'" (IV, 594)
Eerdmans published the entire set in six large volumes in 1940. I obtained this set for a pretty good price at our favorite erstwhile used bookstore (remember that place?). However, I have purchased a few individual volumes, either older ones or Klock & Klock reprints. There are some real jewels in that series.
ReplyDeleteYes, Booklovers. I remember the place fondly.
ReplyDeleteWasn't Maclaren's work on the Psalms originally in the Expositor's Bible series? I think so. It was also reprinted by Klock & Klock.
Yes, Maclaren on the Psalms was part of this series. Nicoll enlisted what was practically a "Who's Who" of 19th Century preachers to contribute to the Expositor's Bible. For that reason the books contain not only scholarship but also a pastoral touch.
ReplyDeleteMany of the commentaries in this series will repay the time taken to study them and will enrich the preacher's knowledge and meditation.
The inside jacket cover of my copy contains endorsements by men like Henry C. Thiessen, William Arndt, Edward McDowell, Louis Berkhof, and Wilbur Smith. They specifically point out worthy volumes from this series like S.H. Kellogg on Leviticus, William G. Blaikie on the Books of Samuel, Maclaren on Psalms and Colossians, H.C.G. Moule on Romans, George Findlay on Galatians and Ephesians, and J. Rawson Lumby on the Epistles of Peter. I personally enjoyed reading part of Samuel Chadwick's comments on Exodus.
Also, the Expositor's Greek New Testament series (also edited by Nicoll) contains one of the best older treatments of the Greek text of the Book of Acts, the volume by R.J. Knowling. W. Robertson Nicoll was a very busy, productive servant of the Lord.