Alexander Stewart

In 1786, at the age of twenty-two, Alexander Stewart became parish minister of Moulin, near Pitlochry, Scotland. He was as yet unconverted. Sermons from those early years he would later denounce as ‘youthful trifles, produced in the season of ignorance and darkness, possessing nothing of the savour of the gospel, abounding in errors, fit only to be pitied, fit only to be destroyed.’ When the change came it deeply impacted not only his preaching but his congregation. At the time of his settlement in Moulin most were as ignorant of the gospel as he was. As he puts it himself, ‘The opinion of their own works recommending them to the favour of God, and procuring a reward from his bounty, was almost universal.’ Now they began to think as differently about such things as their minister did. Indeed, it was not long before Moulin was in the grip of a revival that resulted in many conversions.

James Sievewright’s biography, long out of print, is an invaluable account of the steps by which Stewart was led from darkness to light, of the revival that followed, and of Stewart’s subsequent ministries in Dingwall and in Edinburgh. It introduces us to David Black, the young evangelical minister who played a major role in Stewart’s conversion, and is enriched by a selection of the letters that passed between them. It shows us, too, what a remarkable and far-reaching ministry an unconverted minister may one day exercise if God should be pleased to save him.