Professor Robertson Smith.

Otago Witness, Issue 1555, 27 August 1881, Page 27

Professor Robertson Smith.

Professor Smith (writes ' Anglicanus,' from Edinburgh, in the Times of June 3rd), as ia generally known, ia a Hebrew scholar of the highest distinction, an eminent mathematician, and a writer of considerable ability. He is, or was till tnis vote removed him, the holder of a theological professorship in the

Free Ohnroh College in Aberdeen, When the new edition of the ' Encyclopaedia Britan. nloa ' was In preparation he was engaged to write biblical artioles ; and as soon as the article ' Bible' appeared it; was impugned by * party in the Free Oharoh as heretical. Long debates took plaoe, whioh resulted in . Mr Smith being first removed from his Chair, and then, May, 1880, replaced in it, with the admonition that he must take oare not again to offend against Church prlnoiple. Shortly afterwards, however, another volume'appeared, containing an article on the Heb>ew language and literature, and as this contained no retraotation, but rather a repetition of the obnoxious statements, Mr Smith was last Ootober formally suspended from the functions of professorship during the coming session, the further consideration of his case being reserved to last month. The i breathing time thus allowed him waß turned; by the Professor to a perfectly natural use, but one that does not seem to have been contemplated by his opponents. He an- , nounoed a course of leotures on ' The Old Testament in the Jewish Ohuroh,' to be delivered in, Glasgow and Edinburgh. The .dectj-inee whioh would otherwise have been confined to a college olass wew thus spread far' and wide, Eighteen hundred persons attended the leotures, whioh in their published form will loon, no doubt, be read, -throughout the English-speaking world. But the.party who had oarried the suspension of Brofeiaor Smith oould not but regard the, :dellv6ry of these lectures as a defiance, and they determined, to presevere to the end in •the endeavour to remove him from all official connection with their body. Accordingly, , Edinburgh has been this week the scene of; a fierce religious struggle, reoalling in its rheat and passion the days of Disruption; the hall of the Free Church has been thronged by angry orowds of partisans, long: aiid F fierce 'debates have taken place to the gooompaniment of shouts and groans and oheera, and the matter has ended for the present In the pausing of Dr Adam's resolution, which declares Mr Smith's professorship Vaoant from the end of the month.