James Smith
James Smith [1]
a Presbyterian minister, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He became a deist from reading the works of Volney and Paine, came to America, settled in Tennessee, and edited a paper in Nashville. Soon, however, he was converted, and began to preach. In the winter of 1839, while upon a visit to Columbus, Mississippi, the home of Olmstead, author of the work, The Bible its Own Refutation, he was challenged to a public debate on the evidences of Christianity, and achieved a great victory. He afterwards compiled his argument, and published it in a book entitled Christian. Evidences. Dr. Smith was connected with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, but was thoroughly Calvinistic in his theology. The Springfield Church, in Illinois, of which he became pastor, April 11, 1849, prospered under his ministry. He was dismissed December 17, 1856; acted for two or three years as agent for Peoria University, and, on Mr. Lincoln's accession to the presidency, was appointed consul to Glasgow. There he spent the closing years of his life, and died at Dundee, but the date does not appear. See Hist. of the Presbyterian Church in Illinois, page 398.
