Who Was James Hamilton? The Scottish Pastor Who Wrote Life in Earnest
James Hamilton was a Scottish Presbyterian minister who lived from 1814 to 1867. For twenty-six years he was pastor of the National Scotch Church in Regent Square, London, and he was one of the most loved Christian writers of his day. His short book Life in Earnest, on serving Christ in your daily work, sold widely in Britain and America. He also wrote warm, picture-filled lectures on prayer, on Ecclesiastes, on Moses and on the life of Christ, and memoirs of believers he admired.
There were several men of the same name in his century, so it helps to be clear: this is James Hamilton of Regent Square, sometimes listed as James Hamilton, D.D., F.L.S. Here's the story of his life, what he taught, and where to start reading him.
A minister's son from Paisley
Hamilton was born in Paisley, Scotland, on November 27, 1814. His father, William Hamilton, was a minister of the Church of Scotland at Strathblane, north of Glasgow, and James grew up in the manse there, taught at home by a tutor until he was fourteen. Then he went to the University of Glasgow.
He was a bookish boy. His friend and biographer William Arnot found a journal of his "literary occupations" that he began at thirteen. While still in his teens he wrote short lives of Richard Baxter, Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Boston and others for a tract society in Glasgow.
In 1835, the year he graduated, his father died suddenly. As the eldest son, James took on the care of his mother and his younger brothers and sisters. The next year he moved to Edinburgh to hear the lectures of Thomas Chalmers, the great leader of the evangelical party in the Scottish church.
Abernyte, Edinburgh and London
He was licensed to preach in 1838 and served for a while as an assistant to Robert Candlish at St. George's in Edinburgh. In 1839 he took charge of the country parish of Abernyte, near Dundee, helping a minister who was past his work. After a short spell at Roxburgh Church in Edinburgh, he was called in July 1841 to the National Scotch Church in Regent Square, London, a large church first built for Edward Irving.
He stayed there for the rest of his life. When the Church of Scotland split in the Disruption of 1843, Hamilton took the side of the ministers who left to form the Free Church, and he worked hard to build up Presbyterian churches in England. In 1847 he married Annie Moore. Arnot's Life of James Hamilton shows a happy home, a crowded study and a congregation that grew under his care.
A preacher who painted pictures
Hamilton's sermons were full of images. He loved nature, especially plants, and he was a Fellow of the Linnean Society, a scientific society for natural history. He wrote the articles on plants for a Bible dictionary. That eye for the natural world shows on every page. He gave his lectures on Ecclesiastes titles like "The Museum," "The Clock of Destiny" and "Dead Flies," and he could turn a doctrine into a line you won't forget.
On prayer, for example:
Prayer is a living heart that speaks in a living ear, — the ear of the living God.
The Mount of Olives, Conclusion
And on why busy people most need it:
The man must be busier than Daniel who has not time to pray, and wiser than Daniel who can do what Daniel did without prayer to help him.
The Mount of Olives, Bible Instances
Life in Earnest
His best-known book began as six lectures to his own congregation, part of a course on Romans. Two of them were printed badly in a religious newspaper without his consent, so he published the whole set himself in 1845. Arnot says the circulation "was very great," and letters of thanks came to him for the rest of his life.
The book takes one verse, Romans 12:11: "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." Hamilton opens plainly:
Two things are very certain, — that we have all got a work to do, and are all, more or less, indisposed to do it.
Life in Earnest, Industry
He calls readers to honest, steady work, and then goes underneath the work to its motive, which is love to Christ:
Deeper than the love of home, deeper than the love of kindred, deeper than the love of rest and recreation, deeper than the love of life, is the love of Jesus.
Life in Earnest, An Eye to the Lord Jesus
That's the heart of Hamilton. He wanted Christians to be diligent, cheerful and useful, and he believed the power for that comes from being near to Jesus. A fervent spirit, he said, isn't something you whip up. It's the warmth of a heart at peace with God.
His other books
Hamilton wrote steadily. His lectures on prayer, The Mount of Olives, start with Jesus going "as he was wont" to pray on the mountain, and go on to the Intercessor in heaven, the Spirit who helps us pray, secret prayer and why some prayers go unanswered.
The Royal Preacher is a series of twenty-one lectures on Ecclesiastes. Hamilton follows Solomon as he tries learning, pleasure, building and wealth and finds them all vanity, and then he points to Christ, a greater than Solomon, who gives what Solomon was looking for. He spoke to young people in it again and again.
Lessons from the Great Biography is a set of devotional studies on the life of Christ, starting before Bethlehem with the Son's life in eternity. Moses, the Man of God gathers twenty-five lectures he gave at Regent Square in the winter of 1859 to 1860, printed after his death. In one, on the bitter waters of Marah, he says that God "sometimes sends His people trials where they looked for blessings."
He also wrote two memoirs. A Memoir of Richard Williams, Surgeon tells of a young English doctor who went with Captain Allen Gardiner's mission to Tierra del Fuego and died of starvation there in 1851, joyful in Christ to the end. A Memoir of Lady Colquhoun is the life of a Scottish noblewoman who gave herself to Bible and Sabbath-school work around Loch Lomond.
Beyond these he edited magazines, including Excelsior and Evangelical Christendom, put together a series of readings from the older divines called Our Christian Classics, and helped prepare a hymn-book for the English Presbyterian churches.
His last years and death
In his last years his health failed. He died in London on November 24, 1867, three days before his fifty-third birthday, still minister of Regent Square. His collected works were published soon after, and William Arnot wrote his biography in 1870. Arnot opened it by calling his aim "a trap to catch a sunbeam," because that was how Hamilton's friends remembered him: bright, kind and full of God.
Why he's still worth reading
Hamilton writes for ordinary Christians with jobs, families and too little time. He doesn't scold. He shows you Christ and lets that do the work. His sentences sparkle, and he puts the Christian life in pictures you can carry into your day:
If God be your chiefest good, and conformity to God be your great desire, the future contains no real evil for you.
The Royal Preacher, Bright Moments on the Wing
Where to start
TheWay Library has fifteen of his books, all free to read. Start with Life in Earnest. It's short enough to read in an evening, and it's the book he's remembered for. Then read The Mount of Olives for his teaching on prayer, and The Parable of the Prodigal Son, published the year he died. If you'd like his life in full, read Arnot's Life of James Hamilton.
Our guide to James Hamilton's books describes each one, and our collection of James Hamilton quotes gathers his best lines. All his books are on the James Hamilton author page.