Our History

Burns' successor was the equally Scottish Alexander Topp who was called from Edinburgh in 1858 after Knox had experienced one of its not infrequent lengthy vacancies. Not the heroic pioneer leader that was Burns, he was a leader nonetheless. Under his gentler but firm and solid leadership Knox grew, while he became a key denominational figure, being convener of the union committee for the Free Church which resulted in the pan-Presbyterian union of 1875. Just prior to his retirement in 1879 he had a hand in organizing the overseas missionary work of the denomination, whose first missionary was the Rev. George Leslie Mackay of Taiwan, grandfather of Anna, Isabel and Margaret, all active in Knox for so many years.

Knox was surely guided in the choice of its next minister, who would serve from 1880 to 1900. Henry Martyn Parsons did not fit the mold, as an American pastoring a Presbyterian congregation in Buffalo. But he was exactly what Knox needed. A big man in every way, he had to set the pattern of how Knox would respond to the theological shift that would begin to take place in worldwide Protestantism during the 1880s and '90s. This new approach would seek to keep Jesus Christ central, but it would argue that the Bible did not give us abiding statements about God and his salvation, but rather it contained insights into God's activity which might well change as newer and supposedly richer understanding would come about.

This was a confusing period for many, since how could those who sought to honor Christ be moving in an unhelpful direction. Parsons was not confused. He saw the need of Bible preaching in the congregation, and his work became a model for many others. He sat on the Board of Knox College where he let his desires and concerns be known. He also was one of the key figures in the founding of Toronto (now Ontario) Bible College, which he saw as a centre of basic biblical orthodoxy. So he linked commitment to the denominational with involvement in and exposure to the parachurch. His ministry at Knox coincided with the burgeoning period of Canadian overseas missions and he was thoroughly involved. He had a major part in Jonathan Goforth, perhaps the greatest of all Canadian missionaries, going with his wife to China under the Presbyterian Board, where their ministry of evangelism and revival was without parallel. Parsons was also deeply involved in bringing the China Inland Mission (now OMF) to Toronto, and thus also aligning Knox with the new transdenominational 'faith' missions. He was a prominent speaker at the Bible and Prophetic conferences which were springing up throughout North America, particularly in the one at Niagara-on-the-Lake, and where many discovered a new depth and richness in Scripture. He also nurtured a body of laymen in Knox who gave much leadership in the transdenominational home mission world which was appearing in Toronto in the 1890s and which was represented by the Yonge St. Mission, the Toronto City Mission and a host of other evangelistic and compassionate organizations.

The next minister was A. B. Winchester, who served from 1901 to 1920, and who united the characteristics of the Scots who had preceded him with the emphases of Parsons. A native of Aberdeen, he had hoped to go to China with Hudson Taylor and the CIM, but he was turned down for health reasons. A period of service at the Chinese Presbyterian Church in Victoria prepared him for Toronto. In a day when orthodox theological conviction and spiritual life were declining together, Winchester was a glorious exception.

I once remember Herbert Powell, a long-time elder of Knox, telling me that when Winchester got into the pulpit, opened his Bible and began to preach, it was as if heaven was opened. How blest Knox has been, in darkening days, to have had such ministry. Winchester not only exalted Christ in his preaching ministry at home, but was well known as a Bible teacher across North America. He also had some remarkable people around him, such as John McNicol, long-term principal of Toronto Bible College, who served as both elder and assistant, and Sir Mortimer Clark, leading Toronto lawyer, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, clerk of Session, Chairman of the Board of Knox College and President of the Bible League, which sought to keep before the Christian community the need and reasons for believing in a fully inspired Bible. A pleasant memory is the day when Charles Hargrave, senior elder of Knox for many years, and a pressman at the Toronto Star, whose daughters Ruth and Lillian are actively with us, told me how Sir Mortimer had recruited him to assist in the Sunday morning gospel service at the General Hospital, a ministry which Mr. Hargrave was to continue for decades. And it was during the Winchester ministry that our present building was erected on Spadina Avenue.

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