John Glas

John Glas (5 October 1695 – 2 November 1773) was a Scottish

In the same year he formed a society separate from the multitude, numbering nearly a hundred, and drawn from his own and neighbouring parishes. The members of this ecclesiola in ecclesia pledged themselves to join together in the Christian profession, to follow Christ the Lord as the righteousness of his people, to walk together in brotherly love, and in the duties of it, in subjection to Glas as their overseer in the Lord, to observe the Lord's Supper once a month and to submit themselves to the Lord's law for removing offences. From the scriptural doctrine of the essentially spiritual nature of the kingdom of Christ, Glas in his public teaching drew the conclusions that:

• there is no warrant in the New Testament for a national church
• the magistrate as such has no function in the church
• National Covenants are without scriptural grounds
• the true
  Reformation
  cannot be carried out by political and secular weapons but by the word and spirit of Christ only.

Treatise

This argument is most fully exhibited in a treatise entitled The Testimony of the King of Martyrs (1729). For the promulgation of these views, which were at variance with the doctrines of the national church of Scotland, he was summoned (1726) before his

Suspension from ministry

For these opinions he was in 1728 suspended from his ministerial functions, and finally deposed in 1730. The members of the society already referred to, however, for the most part continued to adhere to him, thus constituting the first

Ultimately in 1730 Glas returned to Dundee for the remainder of his life. He introduced in his church the primitive custom of the osculum pacis and the agape celebrated as a common meal with broth. From this custom his congregation was known as 'the kail kirk'. In 1739 the General Assembly, without any appeal from him, removed the sentence of deposition against him, and restored him to the status of a minister of the gospel of Christ, but not that of a minister of the Established Church of Scotland, declaring that he was not eligible for a charge until he should have renounced principles inconsistent with the constitution of the church.

Personal life

In 1721 Glas married Katherine Black, the youngest daughter of

John Glas died on 2 November 1773 and was buried at The Howff in Dundee on 5 November 1773.^[3] The grave lies in the south west near a north-south path. The original sandstone monument eroded and was replaced by a long-lasting red granite monument around 1880.

Non-Denominational Christianity

As Glas found inconsistencies with the Church of Scotland and what he found in the New Testament, he led a church movement during the first half of the 18th century which promoted the ideal that the church should be governed by the simple order in the New Testament rather than by human councils and synods. About thirty Churches of Christ were established in Great Britain through the efforts of Glas and others, including his son in law, Robert Sandeman. These churches emphasized the wearing of only New Testament names - usually "Church of Christ," taught baptism is for the remission of sins, and practiced a cappella singing in worship.

Publications

Glas's published works bear witness to his vigorous mind and scholarly attainments. His reconstruction of the True Discourse ef Celsus (1753), from

Though the Glasite Church is now 'extinct', certain former Glasite chapels, which tended to be of unusual form, survive, e.g. in Edinburgh, Dundee and Perth. The former Dundee Glasite church is still used for religious purposes, having been acquired by the adjacent St Andrew's Parish Church in 1973 and transformed into part of a complex of halls.^[4] The archives of the Glasite Church are held by Archive Services, University of Dundee.^[5]

Notes