Adam CAIRNS

CAIRNS, ADAM (b. Longforgan, Perthshire, Scotland, 29 Jan 1802; d. Richmond, Vic, 30 Jan 1881). Presbyterian minister, theologian and educator.

Cairns' father, also Adam Cairns, was the Church of Scotland minister at Longforgan. The younger Adam was educated at the local parish school, and privately by his father in foreign languages. Choosing to become a sailor he went to sea but after one trans-Atlantic voyage in 1814 he retired and enrolled at St Andrews University and, subsequently, the University of Edinburgh where he studied divinity from 1818. On 5 Oct 1824 he was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of Cupar and from 1825-2, was the assistant to Sir Henry Moncrieff at St Cuthbert's in Edinburgh. On 21 Aug 1828 he was ordained, and inducted to the Manor Church in Peebleshire from whence he moved to Dunbog on 3 May 1833. On 11 Feb 1834, he married Jessie Ballingall and had four daughters and a son. His final move was to Cupar on 1 Sept 1837. With the Disruption in the Church of Scotland in 1843 Cairns went over to the Free Church of Scotland leading his congregation out of the Established Church. Four years later he suffered a stroke which led to recuperation in Gibraltar where he carried out a very satisfactory ministry until returning once again to Cupar. In recognition of his work he received a DD from the University of St Andrews in 1853.

Before his arrival in Victoria in 1853, Cairns had already established for himself a considerable reputation as an evangelical churchman. With the gold rush of the 1850s in Victoria the Free Presbyterian Church of Australia Felix called on the Colonial Committee of the Free Church of Scotland to provide a supply of ministers. The Committee decided to send twelve ministers to assist with the Australian work. Consequently, ten young inexperienced men volunteered and two well-qualified and experienced ministers were added to the group in order to lead the mission. The older ministers were the Rev Dr Mackintosh Mackay of Dunoon and Adam Cairns.

Cairns was commissioned by the Colonial Committee to found a congregation, to establish some form of theological education, in order to provide for an indigenous ministry, to promote education in general and to build up the unity of the Presbyterians in the colony. He was the leading figure in all these movements until his death. A highly successful preacher, he had within twelve months 283 members at Chalmers' Church and by 1856 there were almost 350. Among the members were some of the most wealthy and influential Scots in the community. He remained minister of Chalmers Church until 1876, and was moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1859/60. He served the Church as first principal of the Theological Hall and professor of Divinity 1865-73.

While Cairns became involved in a number of philanthropic societies in order to aid the poor in Melbourne, based upon the work of his mentor, Thomas Chalmers, his main concern was for the spiritual state of Melburnians. In a sermon preached in 1856 he said: 'The first and most observable sign of this moral degeneracy is a forsaking of the assemblies of the saints, and of the ordinances of God's public worship'. He was particularly dismayed by the number of his fellow Scots who, faced with the greater freedoms of colonial society, and while still professing to be Christians, profaned the Sabbath and 'were thus despising the privileges of the Gospel'. Accompanying non-attendance at worship he also noted a decline in prayer within churches and, within his own church, a falling away from regular family worship. He concluded: 'Their (the Scots) piety has been withered, as by a blast from the desert'. (Cairns, 1856: 12)

His concern for seeing men reconciled to God through Christ led him to speak of an urgent need for cooperation within the colony in a tract on baptism published in 1863. He thought that the various denominations should seek 'to know nothing in the colony but Christ Jesus and Him crucified'. (Cairns, 1863:2) He was one of the prime movers that brought about the formation of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1859, but this vision for union did not extend beyond the bounds of Presbyterianism.

He founded a number of institutions and was involved in benevolent societies. In the field of education he was from the beginning active in the affairs of Scotch College, with his church on Eastern Hill being adjacent to the school. He also pushed for a system of national primary education prior to the 1872 Education Act. He made two visits to Scotland, in 1865, to recover from illness, and in 1876, when he retired from Chalmers' Church. On each occasion he spoke as an apologist for the Australian church and attempted to recruit more men for the ministry.

Although often portrayed in the popular press as narrow-minded and bigoted, particularly in his debates on baptism with the Collins Street Baptists, over marriage with a deceased wife's sister, and his rigid sabbatarianism, he was nevertheless greatly loved as a preacher. A measure of the affection with which he was held can be judged from the public subscription raised for the University of Melbourne Cairns scholarship in 1877.

Theologically, Cairns remained allied to the teaching of his old teacher, Thomas Chalmers. While he lived into the period when the continental influences of Schleiermacher and Hegel would begin to undermine the authority of the Bible, Cairns continued to adhere to the Westminster Confession of Faith. Likewise, he could not accept the Darwinian theories which sought to upset what he saw as the Biblical view of creation and order in the world. Ultimately, his concern for the improvement of society came out of a belief in an authoritative Bible which provided the basis for a Christian world view touching upon every aspect of life. Consequently, Cairns was until his death at his home in Richmond on 30 Jan 1881 above everything else a preacher of that Bible.

Age 31 Jan 1881; A Cairns, Some Objections to Universal Atonement Stated ... (Cupar, 1844); New Year's Sermon with remarks suggested by the decease of the late governor Sir Charles Hotham KCB (Melbourne, 1856); Baptism: Articles in Defence of Infant Baptism Republished from the Messenger (Melbourne, 1863); Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister: A Sermon (Melbourne, 1873); ADB 3; Don Chambers, Theological Teaching and Thought in the Theological Hall of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, 1865-1906 (Melbourne, 1967); J G Divorty, 'Adam Cairns, D.D.' A Memorial of The Disruption Worthies, 1843, Vol I, ed J Wylie (Edinburgh, 1881); Stewart D Gill, 'A Presbyterian Baptist: Adam Cairns and Baptism', RTR Vol 48, No 2; A Macdonald, One Hundred Years of Presbyterianism in Victoria (Melbourne, 1937)

STEWART D GILL