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Milligan, George Macbeth

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Milligan, Rev. George Macbeth, B.A., Pastor of Old St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Toronto. This rising and popular divine was born at Wick, Caithnessshire, Scotland, on the 11th of August, 1841, and when a mere lad came to Canada, and shortly after his arrival the family made Kingston their home. His parents were William Milligan and Catharine Macbeth. George received the first rudiments of his education at Pulteney Academy, Wick, and for some time after his arrival in this country he devoted himself to mechanical pursuits, but finding his inclinations lay in another direction, resolved to educate himself for the ministry, and with this object in view he entered Queen’s College, Kingston, and from this seat of learning he graduated in 1862, taking the first place in all his classes, and highest honours as a B.A. On the 4th of February, 1868, he was ordained to the ministry, and his first charge was at English Settlement, about fourteen miles distant from London, Ontario, and in this charge he remained until July, 1869, when he was called to Detroit. Here he laboured until the fall of 1876, doing good work for the Master, and making for himself many friends in the church, which in a great degree was built up under his pastorate. In 1876 Old St. Andrew’s Church, Toronto, was without a pastor, and the members invited the young preacher to cast in his lot with them. He therefore left Detroit and came to Toronto, and in October of that year he took charge of the congregation. At this time Old St. Andrew’s Church was in a weak condition, the greater part of its members having left the old building and gone with the Rev. Mr. Macdonnell, who for several years had preached in it, to the new St. Andrew’s Church, erected on the corner of King and Simcoe streets. Therefore Mr. Milligan had a hard task before him but he resolved to do his best to keep together the members that remained in the old church edifice, which was situated on the corner of Church and Adelaide streets. At this time the membership only numbered forty-eight persons, but he went to work, and in a very short time enthused his people to such an extent—the membership and congregation having considerably increased in the meantime—that they resolved to abandon the old building and erect a more handsome one on the corner of Jarvis and Carlton streets, which was soon done, and the Rev. Mr. Milligan had the satisfaction of taking possession of the new pulpit in March, 1878. Since then everything has progressed most satisfactorily, and he can now boast of having one of the largest and most influential congregations in the city. Its present membership is 500, and last year the congregation raised, for all purposes, $15,000. But Rev. Mr. Milligan did not confine himself entirely to his duties as pastor. He found the Ministerial Association in a very languid condition, and he resolved to raise it to more vigorous action. He was elected its president during the second year of its existence, and under his presidency it began to be recognised as a power for good in the community, and to-day it exerts an influence far beyond its narrow city bounds. He has also been connected in Toronto with various other public associations, such as temperance, and that for the suppression of crime. He was for years one of the examiners in connection with the intermediate examinations; has been invited by the trustees of Queen’s College, Kingston, to become lecturer on Church history; and for a long time has occupied a position in the Senate of Knox College, and taken a prominent part as an examiner in the same institution. During the election campaign in Ontario, in 1886, he took a prominent part in the discussion then raging with regard to Roman Catholic interference in the Central prison, and in educational matters in our public schools, and helped to clear the atmosphere, to a considerable degree, of the fog some of our politicians attempted to introduce into the controversy. Rev. Mr. Milligan, though a busy man, often finds time to communicate his thoughts through the columns of the newspapers and magazines, and a short time ago the Executive committee of the Foreign Mission Board of his church induced him to write a series of letters to the Globe on the foreign mission work of the Presbyterian Church, which attracted considerable attention at the time. Several of his sermons have been published, and have been well received, and his articles on scientific and ecclesiastical subjects in the magazines always find readers. During his summer vacations he frequently visits Britain. In 1881 he made an extensive tour through Europe, first visiting Britain, and penetrating as far north as John o’ Groat’s, which, by the way, is not very far from where he was born, and then travelled through France from Dieppe to Marseilles, along the shores of the Mediterranean through Cannes to Geneva, where he remained some time, and afterwards visited Paris, Pisa, Florence, Venice and Milan. While on this trip he took copious notes of what he saw, and afterwards embodied them in a course of lectures which he delivered in Toronto, and other places in Ontario, to large and appreciative audiences. He is also familiar with the greater portion of the Dominion from Prince Edward Island to Calgary in the North-West Territory. Rev. Mr. Milligan, it is needless to say, has been from his youth up a Presbyterian, and is conservative in some of his views on theology; yet he is in deep sympathy with many of the other branches of the Christian church. On the 19th November, 1867, he was married to Harriet Eunice Rowse, of Bath, Ontario. This lady is descended from the U. E. loyalists, who settled on the Bay of Quinté, and her grandfather was one of the elders of the Rev. Mr. McDowell, the founder of Presbyterianism in Western Canada. The fruit of the union is one son and three daughters.

A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography

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