McCready, Jonathan Sharp, a Presbyterian min-
ister, was born near New Galilee, Pa., April 15, 1828 ; en- joyed in earl}' life the advantage of religious instruc- tion, discipline, and example; graduated at Franklin College in 1852 ; studied theology in the AsBociate Seminary at Canonsburg (class of 1855) ; was licensed by the Associate Presbytery of Ohio in October of the same year; in 1856 was ordained and installed pastor of the Associate congregation of Cadiz, and there con- tinued to labor until 1862, when he volunteered in the service of the government. While in the army he con- tinued to preach, and perform every other ministerial duty as occasion offered, until he was killed, Sept. 7, 1864. Mr. McCready was endowed with a clear and penetrating intellect; his education was comprehensive, his style logical and energetic, his manner positive and emphatic. See Wilson, Presb. Hist. A Imanac, 1866, p. 2G5. (J. L. S.) McCrie, Thomas, D.D., a noted Scotch divine, cel- ebrated as a writer on ecclesiastical history and polem- ics, was born at Dunse, in Berwickshire, in November, 1772. "Dr. McCrie's parents," says his biographer, "being connected with that branch of the secession usually termed Anti-Burghers, he was brought up under . . . the primitive strictness of that communion . . . and received that thoroughly religious education, of the importance of which he was ever afterwards so strenu- ous an advocate, and of the success of which he was himself a striking example." After securing the ru- diments of education at the parish school of his native place, he entered, in 1788, the University of Edinburgh, and in 1791 commenced his theological studies. In 1795 he was licensed to preach by the Associate Pres- bytery of Kelso, and he was immediately afterwards chosen pastor of a congregation of the same body in Ed- inburgh, where he served the following ten years, ap- plying himself with great assiduity to the discharge of his professional duties, and occasionally publishing able pamphlets on some of the gravest and most difficidt subjects of theological inquiry. The differences of opin- ion, and the appearance of Ketc-Lights with peculiar doctrines quite unknown to the primitive belief of the "Secession Church," caused McCrie in 1806, with five friends, among them the celebrated Bruce, to separate from the " General Associated Synod," and to form "the Constitutional Associate Presbytery," avowing "strict adherence to the princijiles of the original secession." (Here compare Hist. Sketch of the Oi'igin of the Secession Church, by the Eev. A. Thomson, and the History of the Rise of the Relief Church, by the Kev. Gavin Struth- ers [Edinburgh, 1858, 12mo]). During the controversy which this change provoked he gave himself largely to the study of the Peformers, and came to admire so much his great countryman, John Knox, that he zeal- ously applied himself to the composition of a Life of .John Knox (Edinb. 1812, 8vo, and often), a masterly work, that combines the highest excellences of which biography is capable, and was by his contemporaries regarded as "a literary phenomenon." "It placed the character of the Scottish Keformer," says Jamieson {Cy- clop. Pel. Biog. s. v.), "in an eniirely new light, and showed him to be so widely different from the rude and illiterate demagogue he had been hitherto represented, that its appearance was hailed with patriotic pride and gratitude. It placed the name of McCrie at once in the foremost ranks of living historians. The highest liter- ary honors were conferred on him" (compare Hethering- ton, IFtst. Ch. of Scotland, ii, 369). He received from the University of Edinburgh the honorary title of D.D., being the first Dissenter to whom that distinction was awarded ; and his book, besides passing through several editions in Scotland, was translated into most of the lan- guages of Europe. Encouraged by the success of his first literary cll'ort. Dr. JlcCrie published, as the fruits of his researches regarding a later period of Scottish ec- clesiastical liistory, the Biography of Andretc Melville, a celebrated champion of Presbyterianism in the reigii of James YI of Scotland. This work, composed on the same principle of combining the memoirs of an ii.divid-
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ual with a narrative of public events (it illustrates the formation of the Kirk of Srotlaiul. and the peculiarities of the I'resbj'teriau establishment), evinces a vast amount of erudition and research. Critics of Anglican teniiency have always been inclined to accuse INIcCrie of great |iartisan zeal and unfairness to his opponents : thus Jlr. Ilallam designated his writings as the products of "I'resbj'terian Hildebrandism." But these censures are unjust and unmerited. His impartiality and can- dor, and his luiaffectcd desire to investigate the truth, to whatever conclusion it might lead, have been clearly conccdetl even by liberal opponents, and unmistakably impress themselves on every thoughtful reader. A ■writer, commenting on a later production from Dr. McCrie, in the Westminstei- Review (Jail. 1857), aptly says : " McCrie belongs to the higher class of writers to whose earnestness, thoroughness, and genuine research we turn for relief from the superficial second-hand show- iiiess of books written from a transient impulse, in order to supply only a transient need." After McCrie's forma- tion of the " Constitutional Associate Presbj'terj'," ditfi- culty arose among his people respecting their Church property. The result finally was the building of a new place of worship in West Nicholson Street, and there he ministered for nearly thirty years. In 1821 he made a tour to the Continent, mainly with a view to study the Continental Reformation, and, after continuing his in- vestigations until 1827, published the 1/ist. of Ike Ref. in Itali/. and in 1829 the Hist, of the Ref. in Spain, both of which had the honor of being prominently placed in the list of the Koman Index of forbidden books, and are spoken of " as the very best accounts we possess of the protest made against Komisli corruption by the races of the South — a protest not less ardent, but unhappily less persistent than that of the phlegmatic North." At the time of his death, Aug. 5, 1835, the doctor was engaged on a "Life of Calvin," which unfortunately he left un- completed. All his completed works were published under the title of Worls of the late Thomas McCrie, D.D., by his son Thomas, in 4 vols. 8vo (Edinb. 1855- 57). They contain, besides the works already men- tioned, Discourses on the Unity of the Church (1821): — Memoirs of William Veitch and George Bryson (1825) : — Lectures on the Booh of Esther (1838): — Vindications of Christian Faith and his Sermons (1836). See Life and Times of Thomas McCrie, D.D., by his son Thomas (Edinb. 1840, 8vo) ; Blackwood's Magazine, xxxviii, 429; Gentl. Magazine, 1835, pt, ii, p. 434; The Amiucd Biogr. and Obit. (Lond. 183(1, 8vo), xx, 442; AUibone, Diet. Brit, and Amer. Authors, vol. ii, s. v.; Cunning- ham, Hist. Studies, i, 411. (J. H. W.)