James Hamilton (minister, born 1814)

[2] James Hamilton was therefore destined from an early age to enter the ministry,[2] and to that end he studied at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

[2] Although Hamilton enjoyed poetry, he once read a novel by Sir Walter Scott and had the following reaction: No sooner had he entered the charmed circle than the spell of the mighty magician was upon him, and every object that had hitherto appeared commonplace and tame was invested with fresh beauty and grandeur.

[2]He became assistant to Robert Smith Candlish at St. George's Church in Edinburgh, in 1838, and upon finishing his college studies, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1839 and "commenced his clerical life as assistant minister in the small secluded parish of Abernyte, in Perthshire".

[2] His best known works were: Life in Earnest (London, 1845), of which 64,000 copies had been sold before 1852; The Mount of Olives (1846); The Royal Preacher (1851), a homiletical commentary on Ecclesiastes; and Our Christian Classics (4 vols., 1857–59).

In addition to his religious writings, Hamilton continued to have an interest in botany throughout his life, publishing several articles in journals on the subject.