DEATH OF THE REV. PETER HOPE, B.D.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1349, 11 June 1878, Page 3

DEATH OF THE REV. PETER HOPE, B.D.

We (“Sydney Morning Herald,” June Ist) regret to announce the death of this reverend gentleman at Ewingwood, Ashfiold, on Monday evening last. Mr Hope was the secretary to the Colonial and Continental Committees of the Free Church of Scotland, and bad been appointed a deputy to visit the Presbyterian Churches of Australia and New Zealand, to whom ministers had been sent by the Free Church. Mr Hope’s health had not been good for some time, and it was expected that the long voyage to and travel through these colonies might prove beneficial. He arrived at Lyttelton, New Zealand, in January' last, but not improved by the voyage. He met with the ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Canterbury and Otago, and made an effort to address them. He manifested great eagerness to gain information that might be useful to the colonial committee in providing suitable clergymen to send to Australasia. His strength, however, was not equal to the task, and he was ordered away at once to a warmer climate. He reached Sydney in the end of March, and, though he rallied a little, yet generally sank. His faculties were active and his faith strong to the very last. Mr Hope was a Graduate of Arts and of Divinity of the University of Edinburgh, and a licentiate of the Church of Scotland. He joined the Free Church in 1843, and was settled in 1844 as minister in Wamphray, Dumfriesshire, in his native county, where for [twenty-six years he laboured with zeal and efficiency. He had taken much interest in the public business of the Church, especially in aiding to provide ministers for the colonies and the continental watering places, and he was unanimously appointed secretary to the Colonial and Continental Committees by the General Assembly in 1870. Mr Hope proved very useful in that sphere of labour; and the Presbyterian Churches of all the British colonies, and espefially those in Australia, are indebted to him cor his efforts to provide suitable clergymen for the necessities of the people. Like the Church to which he belonged, he took a very warm interest in the union of Presbyterians into one Church on the historic standards in the colonies, and he favored the movement initiated in Scotland for the reunion of the Churches. Mr Hope was accompanied by his wife, who is sister to the widow of the late Principal Thomson, of St. Andrew’s College. He was buried on Wednesday, in Mr Thomson’s grave, at the Necropolis. The funeral was attended by most of the Presbyterian ministers of this city and suburbs, and by several of the elders of the Church. The services at the house of Mr Goodlet, where Mr Hope died, were conducted by the Revs, Messrs Auld and Jarvie, of Ashfield, and at the grave, after the reading of Scripture by Mr Auld, the Rev. Dr. Steel gave an address, and the Rev. Principal Kinross offered prayer. Mr Hope was sixty-three years of age. His family are in Scotland, where his eldest son is a student for the ministry.