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Note: Was born at Leiter, near Derry, Ireland, in 1799. About the age of eighteen he experienced, as he was well persuaded, that change of heart, without which no one can enter into the kingdom of God. He immigrated to America, and shortly after became connected with the Scots Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, then under the care of Rev. W. L. McCalla. In 1828 he joined the First Reformed Presbyterian Church, in which he became a ruling elder in 1836. He was for many years a very efficient teacher in the Sabbath-school, and for some time its Superintendent. When the subject of Foreign Missions began to attract attention in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, he became deeply interested therein, and in addition to his other efforts he offered himself as a missionary to Northern India. Being accepted by the Presbyterian Board, in company with his wife, he arrived in Saharunpur in 1838, and shortly after took charge of the English school, which he continued to teach until his last illness. He died August, 16, 1845. The faith which he had cherished from his youth sustained him in his dying hour. He was a man of eminent integrity and truthfulness; reserved in his manners, yet kind; serious, thoughtful, and prayerful. ------------------ "The Presbyterian Historical Almanac and Annual Remembrancer of the Church, for 1860", by Joseph M. Wilson, Volume Second, p 176. _________________________________________________________________________________ Accompanying letter from Kenneth J. Ross, Reference Librarian, Presbyterian Historical Society - "Mr. James Craig (1799-1845) is sketched in a Presbyterian Almanac entry for 1860. His career is unusual for a missionary of the PCUSA in that he was not an ordained minister, and began his devotional life with a former Associate Reformed Presbyterian church. The Scots Presbyterian Church, under Dr. McCalla, joined the PCUSA in 1822 as the Seventh Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, PCUSA. Mr. Craig moved his membership to a more liturgically conservative denomination, the Reformed Presbyterians (the "Covenanters") in 1828, but when he felt the call to foreign mission, he applied to the Board of Foreign Missions of the PCUSA, the Reformed Presbyterians having no board of their own at the time. We have some letters from Mr. Craig in India to the Board preserved on microfilm as part of the PCUSA Board of Foreign Missions Secretaries' Correspondence, India Mission."
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