Who Was Alexander Whyte? Edinburgh's Preacher of Bible Characters
Alexander Whyte was a Scottish preacher who lived from 1836 to 1921. For more than forty years he preached at Free St George's, one of the leading churches in Edinburgh, and he became the best-known preacher in Scotland. He is remembered for his character studies: Bible Characters, which takes the people of Scripture one by one from Adam to Timothy, and Bunyan Characters, on the pilgrims of The Pilgrim's Progress. His great subject was the human heart, its sin and its need, and the grace of God in Jesus Christ that meets it.
Here's a fuller look at his life, his preaching, and which of his books to read first.
A hard start in Kirriemuir
Whyte was born on January 13, 1836, in Kirriemuir, a small weaving town in Forfarshire, in the east of Scotland. His mother, Janet Thomson, was not married to his father, and she raised her son alone and in poverty. She was a woman of strong faith, and she brought him up in the Free Church of Scotland.
At about twelve he was apprenticed to a shoemaker. He read every book he could find while he worked. In his late teens he became a schoolteacher in nearby villages, and a local minister taught him Latin and Greek. With help from others, including some money from his father, he went to the University of Aberdeen and then trained for the ministry at New College, Edinburgh, the college of the Free Church of Scotland.
He never forgot where he came from. All his life he had a tender heart for the poor, the struggling and the ashamed.
Free St George's, Edinburgh
After four years as a colleague minister at Free St John's in Glasgow, Whyte was called in 1870 to Free St George's in Edinburgh, to serve beside the famous Robert Candlish. When Candlish died a few years later, Whyte became its minister. He stayed until 1916.
St George's was a large, wealthy congregation in the New Town of Edinburgh. Whyte didn't flatter it. His sermons were searching and often severe. He spoke about sin, especially the hidden sins of respectable people, more plainly than almost anyone of his day. But he always did it to lead his hearers to Christ, and his people loved him for it.
In 1881 he married Jane Barbour. They had several children, and their son Robert was killed in the First World War.
His Bible classes
Much of Whyte's best work was done not on Sunday mornings but in his classes. For years he held Sunday evening classes, for young men and for young women, where he worked through the Shorter Catechism, the great Christian classics and, most of all, the people of the Bible. His Commentary on the Shorter Catechism grew out of those classes.
The character studies began there too. Whyte would take one person, gather everything Scripture says about him, and then turn the story on his hearers. He didn't treat Bible people as heroes to admire from a distance. He treated them as mirrors. Of Peter he wrote:
His hot heart was always in his mouth, and he spoke it all out many a time when he should have held his peace.
Bible Characters: Joseph and Mary to James, Chapter LXXV: Peter
And on what God is first concerned with in every one of us:
God had many matters, first and last, with David; but God's first matter with David, as with all men, was David's sin and David's soul.
Bible Characters: Ahithophel to Nehemiah, Chapter LI: Heman
A preacher of sin and grace
Whyte believed you can't love Christ much until you know how much you've been forgiven. So he preached on sin with a seriousness that some found hard to bear. He wasn't gloomy, though. He preached sin so that grace would shine.
He was also a great reader of the saints of every age. He loved the Puritans, above all Thomas Goodwin, John Bunyan and Samuel Rutherford. He also read and wrote about men from other traditions, such as William Law, Lancelot Andrewes and Cardinal Newman, because he found in them a deep knowledge of the heart and of prayer. His book Samuel Rutherford and Some of His Correspondents shows how much he loved those old letters of spiritual counsel.
Prayer was close to the center of his life and preaching. He told his people plainly that prayer is hard work:
Prayer worth calling prayer: prayer that God will call true prayer and will treat as true prayer, takes far more time, by the clock, than one man in a thousand thinks.
The Apostle Paul, Chapter VIII: Paul as a Man of Prayer
And he wouldn't let anyone think the Christian life is a matter of one decision long ago:
The final perseverance of the ripest and surest saint is all made up of ever-new beginnings in repentance, in faith, in love, and in obedience.
Bunyan Characters, Second Series, Chapter XXXII: Temporary
Moderator and principal
Whyte's church honored him. In 1898 he was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, its highest office. In 1909 he became principal of New College, Edinburgh, where he had trained, and that same year Edinburgh made him a freeman of the city. He led the college until 1918.
He retired from St George's in 1916 and spent his last years in England. He died on January 6, 1921, at eighty-four, and was buried in Edinburgh.
His books
Whyte's books came straight from his pulpit and his classes. The best known are:
- Bible Characters, published in several volumes, from Adam to Timothy, with a volume on the people in Christ's parables.
- Bunyan Characters, his lectures on the pilgrims and the people they meet in The Pilgrim's Progress.
- The Apostle Paul, studies of Paul from many sides.
- The Walk, Conversation and Character of Jesus Christ Our Lord, sermons on the life of Jesus.
- A Commentary on the Shorter Catechism, his notes for Bible classes.
- Short "appreciations" of saints and writers he loved, from Rutherford and Bunyan to William Law and Newman.
Why he's still read
Whyte is still read because he is honest about the heart. Few writers make you see yourself in a Bible story as he does, and fewer still leave you so sure that Christ will take a sinner like you. He reads like a man who has looked hard at his own sin and found Christ greater. Preachers learn from him how to make a Bible character live. Ordinary readers find in him a friend who doesn't let them hide.
Where to start
TheWay Library has fourteen of his books, all free to read. Start with Bible Characters: Adam to Achan, the first volume of the series. If you love The Pilgrim's Progress, read Bunyan Characters, Second Series beside it. For the parables, try Bible Characters: Our Lord's Characters. For the life of Christ, read The Walk, Conversation and Character of Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Our guide to Alexander Whyte's books describes all fourteen, and our collection of Alexander Whyte quotes gathers his best lines. For the book behind his Bunyan Characters, see our guide to The Pilgrim's Progress characters. You'll find all his books on the Alexander Whyte author page.