II. Haldane-Contender at Geneva Over Apocrypha

ROBERT HALDANE (1764-1842) was born in London, inheriting large property holdings. His early life was spent in the British Navy. He went through the French Revolution, but was shortly afterward converted, and devoted his life to missionary endeavor. He sought to go to India, but when per mission was refused by the East India Company, he joined Roland Hill and others in spreading the evangelical revival in Scotland. Haldane seceded from the Established Church, and at his own expense erected a place of worship under the name of the Tabernacle. He also organized a theological school in Paris. He next turned his attention to the evangelization of Africa, taking twenty-four young natives from Sierra Leone and giving them a Christian education. His personal labors awakened an interest in southern France. Then he turned his attention to Geneva and Montauban, taking a prominent part in the management of the newly formed Continental Society, and the Bible Society of Edinburgh. ^{16Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 8, p. 898.}PFF3 439.1

Haldane was prominent in the current controversy over the Apocrypha, which he found had been appended to the Toulouse Bible. Discussion was followed by public rupture with the British and Foreign Bible Society, as he believed the supremacy and integrity of the Bible was at stake-the Bible Society having been founded on the principle of an excluded Apocrypha. This led to the establishment of the Edinburgh organization. ^{17Haldane, op. cit., pp. 484-507; The Gentleman’s Magazine, February, 1843 (New Series, vol. 19), p. 222.}PFF3 439.2