W. Robertson Nicoll (October 10, 1851—May 4, 1923)

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 19^th and early 20^th 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 England to recuperate.

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 19^th 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 England from continental Europe. Wiersbe says, “In a very real sense Nicoll was the father of modern religious journalism” (Walking with the Giants, p. 108).

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.

W. Robertson Nicoll (October 10, 1851—May 4, 1923)