Introduction

Biography

Turnbull at­tend­ed the Uni­ver­si­ty of Glas­gow, and the theo­lo­gic­al lec­tures of Dr. Chal­mers at Ed­in­burgh.

After com­plet­ing his stu­dies, he preached in West­man­cote, Wor­ces­ter­shire, Eng­land, for a year and a half.

In 1833, he emi­grat­ed to Am­eri­ca, and ac­cept­ed the pas­tor­ate of the Se­cond Bap­tist Church in Dan­bu­ry, Con­nec­ti­cut.

Two years lat­er, he be­came pas­tor of the First Bap­tist Church in De­troit, Mi­chi­gan. He stayed there two years, then moved to Hart­ford, Con­nec­ti­cut, where he was pas­tor of the First Bap­tist Church un­til 1869.

After leav­ing pas­tor­al work, he con­tinu­ed to preach and pro­mote the cause of the church.

In 1872, he was elect­ed cor­res­pond­ing sec­re­ta­ry to the Con­nec­ti­cut Bap­tist Con­ven­tion. Up to the time of his last ill­ness, he de­vot­ed him­self to the in­ter­est of small­er church­es in the state. Ma­di­son Uni­ver­si­ty award­ed him an hon­or­ary Doc­tor of Di­vi­ni­ty de­gree in 1851.

Works

He ed­it­ed Sir Will­iam Ham­il­ton’s Dis­cuss­ion on Phi­lo­so­phy, and for two years was as­so­ci­ated with Dr. J. N. Murdock as ed­it­or of the Chris­tian Re­view. He al­so con­trib­ut­ed to the Bib­lio­the­ca Sac­ra and va­ri­ous li­ter­ary ma­ga­zines.

His oth­er works in­clude:

• The The­ater, 1840
• Olympia Mo­ra­ta, 1842
• Vinet’s Vi­tal Chris­ti­an­ity, 1846
• The Ge­ni­us of Scot­land, 1847
• The Ge­ni­us of It­aly, 1849
• Theophany, or the Ma­ni­fes­ta­tion of God in Christ, 1851
• Vinet’s Mis­cel­la­nies, 1852
• Pulpit Ora­tors of France and Swit­ze­rland, 1853
• Christ in His­to­ry, or the Cen­tral Pow­er, 1856
• Life Pic­tures, or Sketch­es from a Pas­tor’s Note Book, 1857