Introduction

Biography

Thomson was edu­cat­ed at the par­ish school of Mar­kinch, Fife, af­ter his fa­ther moved there, and at Ed­in­burgh Uni­ver­si­ty, which he left in 1800.

He was li­censed to preach by the pres­by­te­ry of Kel­so, but be­fore re­ceiv­ing a cler­ic­al post was school­mas­ter at Mark­inch. In 1802, he be­came par­ish min­is­ter at Sprous­ton, Rox­burgh­shire.

In 1808, he was trans­ferred to the East Church, Perth; in 1810 to New Grey­fri­ars, Ed­in­burgh; and in 1814, on the op­en­ing of the church, moved with­in the ci­ty to St. George’s, stay­ing there the rest of his life.

Works

• A Ca­te­ch­ism for the In­struct­ion of Com­mu­ni­cants (Ed­in­burgh: 1808)
• Lectures Ex­po­si­to­ry and Prac­ti­cal, two vol­umes (Ed­in­burgh: 1816)
• Lovers of Plea­sure More than Lov­ers of God (Ed­in­burgh: 1818). Ed­it­ed, with an in­tro­duc­tion by Ro­bert Smith Cand­lish, and re­is­sued in 1867.
• Sermons on In­fi­de­li­ty (Lon­don, 1821)
• A Col­lect­ion in Prose and Verse for Use in Schools (Ed­in­burgh, 1823)
• Sermons on Hear­ing the Word (Ed­in­burgh, 1825)
• The Scrip­ture His­to­ry (Br­istol: 1826)
• Scripture His­to­ry of the New Tes­ta­ment (Lon­don: 1827)
• Sermons on Va­ri­ous Sub­jects (Ed­in­burgh, 1829)
• Sermons and Sac­ra­ment­al Ex­hor­ta­tions (Ed­in­burgh, 1831)
• The Doc­trine of Uni­vers­al Par­don (Ed­in­burgh, 1830)