Background
Walter was born on October 31, 1796 at Moffat, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, the sixth child of John Scott, a music teacher, and Mary (Innes) Scott.
Walter was born on October 31, 1796 at Moffat, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, the sixth child of John Scott, a music teacher, and Mary (Innes) Scott.
Walter Scott received a good musical education, became a skilled flutist, and was graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1818.
In 1818 on invitation of his uncle, George Innes, who had a position in the New York custom house, Walter Scott emigrated to the United States. For a time he served as tutor in an academy on Long Island.
Traveling to Pittsburgh on foot, he arrived there May 7, 1819, and became assistant to George Forrester, who was conducting a private school. On Forrester's death by drowning, Scott took over his duties both in connection with the church and with the school. Having read a pamphlet put forth by a Scotch Baptist Church in New York, he resigned his position and went there to learn more about the institution, but was not greatly pleased with what he found. Invited back to Pittsburgh by Nathaniel Richardson as tutor for his son Robert, he returned to establish a small school and care for the church.
In the winter of 1821-22 he first met Alexander Campbell in Pittsburgh and was deeply impressed by his teaching. Scott suggested the name The Christian Baptist for the magazine which Campbell began to publish in August 1823, and contributed to the second number an article entitled "On Teaching Christianity, " which an editorial note announced as stating "a Divinely authorized plan of teaching the Christian religion. " This was followed by three others on the same theme.
He continued to conduct his academy in Pittsburgh until 1826, but early in that year moved to Steubenville, Ohio. In August he visited the annual meeting of the Mahoning Baptist Association (of which Campbell was then a member) and preached before it; in 1827, he visited it again and was invited to preach. Although he was neither a member of the Association nor a Baptist, he was chosen as its evangelist. Under his preaching over a thousand new members were added in a year to the churches of the Mahoning Association.
Scott, who had already moved to Canfield, Ohio, soon moved to Cincinnati, where he began the publication of a monthly magazine, the Evangelist, and then to Carthage, Ohio, where he lived for thirteen years, traveling and preaching in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, and Missouri. For a very short time he was president of Bacon College.
In 1844 he returned to Pittsburgh, preached for a church in that city and for one in Allegheny, and published a weekly paper, the Protestant Unionist. From 1850 to 1854 he was principal of a female academy at Covington, Kentucky. From the latter date until his death in 1861 he lived in Mason County, Kentucky.
Applying to the process of conversion the principles on which Campbell had based his proposed reformation of the church, Scott developed a remarkably effective technique of evangelism, stressing three points: faith (the belief of testimony regarding the sonship and messiahship of Jesus); repentance (of past sins); baptism (by immersion for remission of sins).
M. M. Davis, in The Restoration Movement of the Nineteenth Century, wrote: "His warm heart, his musical voice, his chaste and charming language, his tender pathos, his winsome personality, his burning zeal and his great theme-the MESSIAHSHIP-made him almost irresistible".
Quotes from others about the person
Dabney Phillips, in Restoration Principles and Personalities, wrote: "With his analytical mind, Scott was able to simplify a subject that all might understand. He told the people that the gospel was threefold - facts, commands, and promises. The facts were to be believed, the commands were to be obeyed, and the promises were to be enjoyed. He applied the gospel by emphasizing: (1) faith to change the heart, (2) repentance to change the life, (3) baptism to change the state, (4) remission of sins to cleanse from guilt, and (5) the gift of the Holy Spirit to help in the religious life and to make one a partaker of the divine nature . . . He once preached on 'Three Divine Missions'-one hour on the mission of Christ, one hour on the mission of the Holy Spirit, and one hour on the mission of the Church. He was able to hold his audience spell-bound for three hours".
Scott was thrice married: on January 3, 1823, to Sarah Whitsett, who died in 1849, having borne him four sons and a daughter; in 1850, to Annie B. Allen, who died in 1854, by whom he had a daughter; and in 1855, to Mrs. Eliza Sandige, who survived him.