A Scottish Lawyer-Evangelist.

(This editorial is based on a résumé of “Memorial Notes from Gordon Forlong,” by his daughter.
GORDON FORLONG, D.C.L., in early life was a barrister. After his conversion he became an indefatigable preacher of the Gospel. He was of aristocratic lineage, descended from the Huguenot Count de Forlongue who, to escape death at Catholic hands, settled in Scotland. On his mother’s side, his grandfather was General Gordon of Parkhill, head of the Gordon clan, and he was born and brought up in Pollok Castle, Renfrewshire. 
His happy, early life was suddenly darkened by an accident which left him permanently lame after years of pain. Months at a time, he lay on couches where he read much, and was educated by tutors. His uncle urged him to become a clergyman of the Church of Scotland, but he then had no faith in Christ, having saturated himself in his long reading, with deist literature. Of this incident he said years later, “I was offered, when a mere boy, a parish living if I would study for it.” Instead, he studied law in Edinburgh University, ending with highest standing. For some years, he practiced in the Scotch capital, and engaged in writing on professional subjects. His “Epitome of Scottish Law” was for years a textbook of students’ reading for the Scottish bar, and for this he was given the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. 
He also engaged in philanthropy as founder of an institution for securing positions for capable men out of work. This institution secured posts for thousands, and won the commendation of the famous logician, his cousin, Sir William Hamilton. Although at the time, quietly preparing notes and reading infidel literature with a view to writing against the Bible, he attended St. Thomas’ Church regularly. Considering Scripture largely legendary, he was, nevertheless, puzzled by the fact that “wherever this Book goes it does good.” 
His institution for finding positions was heard of in London, and he was asked to establish a similar one there. This he undertook in co-operation with the Earl of Shaftesbury, an English evangelical leader of the time. Among those he sought out for subscriptions was George Hitchcock, a London merchant. Mr. Hitchcock, after giving him a substantial check, quietly said: “What a pity, Mr. Forlong, that you are not a Christian.”  “But I am,” returned Forlong in surprise; “you know all Scotsmen are Christians.” 
Taking no notice of this remark, Mr. Hitchcock repeated: “What a pity you are not a Christian.”  
“But of course I am,” again came the reply. 
“Well, if that is so, sit down in that chair, where you have just pleaded so eloquently for your philanthropy, and talk to me about Christ.”
For a moment the younger man looked at the kind old face. All he could say was: “Talk about Christ? What is there to say?” Certainly, he could have talked about religion, or about churches, but about Christ! No, he was staggered. Mr. Hitchcock continued: “You are, indeed, Mr. Forlong, not a Christian, a Christ’s one. He is nothing to you; you cannot talk about Him.” Then he gave him a little treatise entitled, “The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation,” [by James Barr Walker], which Forlong agreed to read carefully. This he did on the small coasting vessel on which he returned to Scotland. 
He was astonished beyond words. He realized that he had treated the Bible unfairly in not examining it closely before attacking it. “I would never have treated a client’s deed so.” Of this time he wrote later: “I went to London in 1851 to establish this Bank of Character and Skill and, with the names of the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Hon. A. Kinnaird, Professor Sir William Hamilton, and many other patrons, I established it in Moorgate Street, and was succeeding slowly, but well, when I was suddenly converted through reading ‘The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation,’ a small, American work. My self-righteousness and my mere moral labor now appeared to be poor work, and I had no heart in it. I wished to bear personal witness in behalf of God’s Word.” 
He began Christian testimony with tract distribution, his wife going about with him from house to house. In this, he met much opposition, one curate boasting that he had burned 500 tracts which he had collected. Many of these were from the pen of the great evangel-ical bishop, Dr. Ryle. After a time, he returned to Scotland for systematic Bible study, in which he engaged for months. This intense, long-continued study of Scripture was the key to his extraordinary knowledge of the English Bible. He learned swiftly and unerringly to compare Scripture with Scripture. On Sunday he conducted a short service in a barn for the servants and tenants on the estate, contenting himself with reading a tract to them. One Sunday, however, the tract had been forgotten and he was forced to give a short address. That ended the reading aloud of tracts, for when he had finished, the people begged him never to read again to them, they had so enjoyed his address. Now began many years of vigorous, powerful, and successful preaching. He never used commentaries; declaring the Bible to be its own interpreter. 
In 1859-61, Forlong was active in the great revival movement which swept the south of Scotland. Later he associated himself with Brownlaw North in lay evangelism. Enormous crowds gathered to hear these two “laymen of the Church of England.” In London he frequently challenged deists to discussion, but never apart from the Bible. Of these encounters he said: “God always gave me more and more light when meeting a deist over the Bible. Bible points poured into my mind during the discussion as if the Holy Spirit Himself was feeding me.” At this time in London, he also studied Hebrew for six years, going through the entire Old Testament with a rabbi, word for word. From him he learned the truth that “the first time a Hebrew word is used it is shut up to one meaning.” This rabbi was converted to Christ during these studies. 
Forlong preached in West London for eight years, first in a theater, then in a tabernacle, which was chiefly built at his own expense. After this he went on an evangelistic tour of New Zealand, intending only a brief stay. It lengthened out into twenty years of intense service there.
“The Sunday School Times” Dec. 1941