Background
Robert Milligan was born on 25 Jul 1814, in County Tyrone, Ireland. He was the son of John and Margaret Milligan, who with their children emigrated to the United States about 1818 and settled in Ohio not far from Youngstown.
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Robert Milligan was born on 25 Jul 1814, in County Tyrone, Ireland. He was the son of John and Margaret Milligan, who with their children emigrated to the United States about 1818 and settled in Ohio not far from Youngstown.
Robert attended academies in Zelienople and Jamestown, Pennsylvania. Entering Washington College, Pennsylvania, in 1839, he received the degree of A. B. the following year, and at once became a professor of English in that institution. In 1843, Professor Milligan received from his alma mater the degree of master of arts, and in 1849 or 1850 he was transferred to the department of chemistry and natural history.
In 1837, Milligan opened a classical school of his own at Flat Rock, Bourbon County, Kentucky. He was at that time a member of the Associate Presbyterian Church, but a thorough study of the Greek New Testament resulted in his accepting the views of the Disciples of Christ as Scriptural, and in 1838, he united with that body. Milligan was ordained to the ministry in 1844 by Thomas Campbell, but although he preached frequently he held no regular pastorate. Among the Disciples, he occupied a position of leadership, but his influence was exerted chiefly as an educator and writer. He was connected with Washington College for some twelve years, where, after teaching English and the classics, he became a professor of chemistry and the natural sciences. In 1852, he was called to Indiana University, but two years later became a professor of mathematics at Bethany College. While here he also served for some time as co-editor of the Millennial Harbinger. Becoming president of Kentucky University in 1859, and also a professor of sacred history and mental and moral philosophy, he managed the institution successfully through the difficult days of the Civil War. After the destruction of the college building by fire, in February of 1864, had made the removal of the institution from Harrodsburg necessary, he was a member of the committee that decided in favor of removal to Lexington. When Kentucky University, which had now attained university proportions, was reorganized in 1865, with its founder as the head of the associated colleges, President Milligan was placed at the head of the College of the Bible, a place most congenial to his tastes and purposes, which he filled until his last illness. Few educators have had as laborious a preparation for their noble calling as had Robert Milligan. In the interval between the beginning of his life as a teacher in colleges in 1940, and his death thirty-five years afterward, he taught, and that efficiently and acceptable, in four institutions of learning and in all the departments of the curriculum of liberal studies, as that curriculum then was, except that of modern foreign languages. To his assiduous work in colleges and universities, he added the labor of preaching often, sometimes regularly, for churches in or near the towns of his residence. He had been ordained in 1844 a minister of the gospel, with the imposition of the hands of Elder Thos. Campbell, the venerable father of Alexander Campbell. When, after its removal from Harrodsburg to Lexington, it was united with Transylvania University in 1865, he voluntarily relinquished the presidency and became head of the College of the Bible, which position he held until his death. During the last decade of his life, he published a number of religious works. He addressed educational meetings of different kinds, he lectured in other institutions of learning, he wrote much for religious periodicals. The community, the college, the university, in which he lived and labored always felt that there was present a quiet but active influence which could be counted on in whatever concerned morality or religion. To the Tract on Prayer, which he had written before, he added in the last ten years of his life the volumes entitled Reason and Revelation, The Scheme of Redemption, The Great Commission, Analysis of the Gospels and Acts, and, which was published as a posthumous work, Commentary on Hebrews. And all this was in great physical weakness, the result of the impairment of his constitution first by the accident already mentioned as having befallen him in his youth, and afterward by diseases, none of which ever left him after it had attacked him, and the mere mention of which is sufficient to excite wonder how suffering so much he could do so much, and how doing so much he could suffer so long. His purpose of taking a rest before the last scene should release him from weakness and from suffering was thwarted by an erysipelas which, attacking a body now almost defenseless against disease, left him too feeble to recover. He died peacefully, in full possession of his faculties, and surrounded in his home by his family and by friends, on March 20, 1875. His death was lamented in the communities in which he had lived and was deplored throughout the Christian brotherhood.
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Milligan's aim was always to bring about a clearer understanding of the Scriptures. He saw the Bible as a whole and his views were formed after intensive study of Scripture. His writings reveal that he taught much on fundamental and doctrinal subjects such as conversion, the Holy Spirit, the Judgment, baptism for the remission of sins, instrumental music and church worship. Some of his thoughts on prophecy and his position on the millennium question would differ from most of us holding the Restoration Plea today, but this would not reduce his major impact as a meticulous and prolific writer. His love for God and his word seemed to be the dominating factor in his life. He was a liberal giver to the poor, and especially to his poor students. His pain and sufferings, especially in the later days, did not prevent his living an humble, obedient, and useful life. We are sometimes amazed at his success.
Quotes from others about the person
"He was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. " - John T. Brown
In 1842, Milligan married Ellen Blaine Russell.
