Alexander Smellie (1857-1923) was an Original Secession Church minister and writer. Born at Stranraer, he graduated at Edinburgh, and after theological studies was ordained and inducted to Stranraer in 1880. During 1892-4 he edited the Sunday School Chronicle in London, but returned to Scotland to minister in Thurso (1894-1900) and Carluke (1900-23).
Smellie always had the vision of ‘a reunited Evangelical and Presbyterian Church of Scotland’, and retained cordial relations with those in other Churches. For some years he contributed weekly to the Sunday School Times of Philadelphia. He wrote biographies of R. M. M’Cheyne and Evan Hopkins, and a number of devotional works, but is chiefly remembered for his beautifully written Men of the Covenant, the 1924 edition of which was reproduced in 1975 by the Trust, and which has been translated into several languages.
[Slightly edited from the article on Smellie by J. D. Douglas in
Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology.]
