RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Brown
BROWN, JOHN: The name of several Scotch ministers, the most noteworthy being:
1. John Brown of Edinburgh: Scotch Burgher minister, eldest son of Rev. John Brown of Whitburn (21 m. w.s.w. of Edinburgh), Linlithgowshire (b. 1754; d. 1832), and grandson of John Brown of Haddington (q.v.); b. at Whitburn July 12 1784; d. at Edinburgh Oct. 13, 1§58. He studied at Edinburgh and the divinity hall of the Burgher Church at Selkirk; was licensed 1805 and ordained minister of the Burgher Church of Biggar, Lanarkshire, 1806; became minister of the Rose Street Church, Edinburgh, 1822, and of the Broughton Place Church in the same city 1829; was professor of exegetical theology to the United Associate Synod after 1834. He was strongly in favor of the separation of Church and State, and in 1845 was tried (and acquitted) before the synod on a charge of holding unsound views concerning the atonement. He was a fine orator and a voluminous writer; the most prominent of his works are: Expository Discourses on First Peter (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1848); Exposition of the Discourses and Sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ (3 vols., 1850); The Resurrection of Life, an exposition of I Cor. xv. (1852); Expository Discourses on Galatians (1853); Analytical Exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans (1857). He was the father of the wellknown John Brown, M.D. (b. 1810; d. 1882), author olRabandhis Friends (Edinburgh, 1859).
Bibliography: J. Cairns, Memoirs of John Brown, Edinburgh, 1861; DNB, vii. 18-19.
2. John Brown of Haddington: Scotch Burgher minister; b. at Carpow, near Abernethy (on the Frith of Tay, 6 m. s.e. of Perth), Perthshire, 1722; d. at Haddington (12 m. e. of Edinburgh) June 19, 1787. He was poor and self-taught, but acquired no small amount of learning; was a herd-boy, pedler, soldier, and school-teacher; studied theology under Ebenezer Erskine and James Fisher of Glasgow; was licensed in 1750, and in 1751 settled as pastor of the Burgher branch of the Secession Church of Haddington, where he remained till his death, declining a call as professor of divinity in Queen's College, N. J. After 1768 he was professor of theology to the Associate Synod. His yearly income from his church never exceeded £50, and his professorship had no salary; nevertheless he brought up a large family, gave freely in charity, and wrote books (which brought him no pecuniary profit) not only popular but valuable. They include: Two Short Catechisms Mutually Connected (Edinburgh, 1764); A Dictionary of the Bible (2 vols., 1769; revised ed., 1868); The Self-interpreting Bible (2 vols., 1778; often reprinted); and A Compendious History of the Church of England and of the Protestant Churches in Ireland and America (2 vols., Glasgow, 1784; new edition by Thomas Brown, Edinburgh, 1823).
Bibliography: Sketches of his life are prefixed to various editions of his works; the best is that by his son, prefixed to his Select Remains, ed. his Sons, J. and E. Brown, this edited by W. Brown, Edinburgh, 1856. Consult also DNB, vii. 12-14.
BROWN, JOHN NEWTON: American Baptist; b. at New London, Conn., June 29, 1803; d. at
Germantown, Penn., May 15, 1868. He was; graduated at Hamilton Institute (Colgate University), Hamilton, N. Y., 1823; preached at Buffalo, N. Y., Providence, R. I., Maiden, Mass., and Exeter, N. H.; was professor of theology and church history in the New Hampton (New Hampshire) Theological Institution, 1838-45; pastor at Lexington, Va., 1845-49; editorial secretary of the American Baptist Publication Society 1849 till bis death. He prepared (1833) and revised (1852) the " New Hampshire [Baptist] Confession of Faith." His most important literary work was the Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (Brattleboro, 1835).
BROWN, PETER HUME: Scotch historian, Layman; b. at Haddington (18 m. e. of Edinburgh), Haddingtonshire, Dec. 17, 1850. He was educated at Edinburgh University (M.A., 1873), and had originally intended to enter the Church. He gave up this plan, however, and ultimately turned his attention to history. In 1898 he was made editor of the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, and three years later was appointed to his present position of professor of ancient (Scottish) history and paleography in the University of Edinburgh. He has written: George Buchanan, Humanist and Reformer (Edinburgh, 1890); Early Travellers in Scotland (London, 1891); Scotland before 1700, from Contemporary Documents (Edinburgh, 1893); John Knox: a Biography (2 vols., 1895); History of Scotland (2 vols., Cambridge, 1898-1902); Scotland in the time of Queen Mary (Rhind Lectures for 1903; London, 1904); and George Buchanan and his Times (1906).
BROWN, PH02BE ALLEN (HINSDALE): Hymnwriter; b. at Canaan, Columbia County, N. Y., May 1, 1783; d. at Marshall, Henry County, 111., Oct. 10, 1861. She was left an orphan at the age of two, and in early life suffered great hardship and even cruel treatment at the hands of strangers; she first learned to write at the age of eighteen. In 1805 she married Timothy Brown (d. 1853) and moved to East Windsor, Conn. In 1813 the family went to the neighboring village of Ellington, and in 1818 to Monson, Mass. Her husband was a village mechanic, the family was poor, and her life was hampered by care; nevertheless she read much, kept up systematic Bible study, and found money to devote to Christian work, especially to the cause of missions. She wrote for her own amusement, but published newspaper articles, tracts, and a volume of tales, The Tree and its Fruits (New York, 1836); she left an autobiography in manuscript. Her best known hymn,
" I love to steal awhile away From every cumbering care,"
is said to have been written at Ellington at a time when poverty and domestic duties left little opportunity for meditation at home and she was in the habit of going out for a walk every day at dusk; some thoughtless remarks of neighbors being reported to her, she wrote " An Apology for my Twilight Rambles." The second line originally read "From little ones and care." The poem was first printed (abridged and revised) in Nettle-
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