The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Glas, John

GLAS, John, founder of the Glassites, better known as the Sandemanians: b. Auchtermuchty, Fife, 1695; d. Perth, 2 Nov. 1773. He was educated at Saint Andrews and Edinburgh, took orders and became a preacher of note. In 1727 appeared his “Testimony of the King of Martyrs,” in which he maintained that all religious establishments and all interference by the secular arm in ecclesiastical matters are contrary to the true nature of the Church. For advocating these views he was deposed from the ministry in 1730. He founded an independent congregation at Dundee and later removed to Perth, where he built a church. He was joined here by Sandeman, who became his son-in-law, and who became a prominent leader in the independent church movement in Scotland. His works were issued at Edinburgh in 1761 and at Perth in 1783. His “Christian Songs” passed through its 13th edition at Perth in 1847.