Hetherington, William M

Hetherington, William M.

a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, was born June 4, 1803, near Dumfries. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he distinguished himself in Greek and in moral philosophy. His first service in the ministry was at Hamilton, where he was assistant to Dr. Meek, whose daughter he married. In 1836 he became minister of Torphicken, and in 1844 at St. Andrew's. At the "disruption" he went out with the Free Church. In 1848 he was appointed to Free St. Paul's Church, Edinburgh, and in 1857 he was called to the chair of Apologetics and Systematic Theology in the Free-Church College, Glasgow, where his labors as lecturer were excessive. In 1862 he was struck by paralysis, and on the 23rd of May 1865, he died. His writings, besides the- editorship of the Free-Church Magazine (1844-48), and numerous contributions to the Presbyterian Review and the North British Review, include the following: Dramatic Sketches (poems, 1829,8vo): — The Fullness of Time (1834), characterized by Southey as a very original and able treatise: — Roman. History (in Encyclop. Brit.; separately printed, 1852, 12mo): — The Minister's Family (1847; 5th edit. 1851, 12mo): — History of the Church of Scotland (1841, 8vo; last edit. 1853, 2 vols. 8vo): — History of the Westminster Assembly (1843, 12mo): — posthumous, The Apologetics of the Christian Faith; being a course of University lectures, with Introduction including a brief biographical sketch of the author by Dr. Alexander Duff (Edinburgh, 1867, 8vo).