Walter Scott › Hymnals

Scott, Walter. (Scotland, 1796--1861). Disciple. Along with the two Campbells and B.W. Stone, he is one of the "founding fathers" of the Disciple movement. "He received a good musical eduction, became a skilled flutist, and was graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1818" (DAB). Came to U.S.; although reared in the Church of Scotland, he soon joined a "primitive Christianity" congregation (on Sandemanian or Haldanean origin) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; after studying the Bible in the light of Locke, Glas, Sandeman, and Haldane, he came to a five-point (or six-point) plan of salvation based on what he believed to be the essential fact for Christian faith ("Jesus is the Christ"); having met A. Campbell in 1821/1822, he became (from 1826) the leading preaching evangelist in the Campbell movement (cf. A.S. Hayden and William Baxter).

He published in 1893 Christian Psalms and Hymns; and, after the Campbell-Stone merger of 1832, edited (along with Campbell, Stone, and John T. Johnson) the common hymn collection Christian Hymn Book (1835); was elected one of the four vice-presidents at the first national convention of the Disciples (1849).

--G.B., DNAH Archives