WILLIAM LEASK, D.D. (1812-1884), Congregational scholar and editor, was born in the Orkney Islands. In childhood he was brought up amid rugged scenery and the hardships of poverty, where popular beliefs regarding ghostology and witchcraft were rife. Rising above delicate health in infancy, he developed into a precocious child. He had a fondness for Bible narration, and long wanted to become a minister and missionary. Leask left home for Edinburgh, arriving there almost penniless. He worked hard for his education by representing a benevolent society, and acquired a rich fund of critical and general knowledge. CFF2 380.4
Picture 1: Dr. William Leask
Dr. William Leask (d. 1884), congregational scholar and editor—editor of conditionalist journal The Rainbow.
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He was ordained to the Congregational ministry in 1839. Then a pastorate opened for him in an Independent church at Chapmanslade, Wiltshire. Though short of stature, he had unusual height in intellectual attainments, and was dominated by an unswerving loyalty to the integrity of Scripture—that it means just what it says. After several smaller pastorates he became minister of the important Maberly Chapel, London, where he served for about twenty years, until his death. CFF2 381.1
His reputation was enhanced through editing The Rainbow, launched in London as a journal on prophecy. This he conducted ably for twenty years—from 1864 to 1884. Starting out as a forum for discussion of opinion, the journal soon became a veritable battleground of effective debate. And Maberly Chapel likewise became the scene of wide discussion and growing fame, as Leask became an avowed exponent of the tenet of Conditional Immortality. CFF2 381.2
One of his earliest ventures in this field was to take up the cudgels with Henry Smith Warleigh, rector of Ashchurch. Eternal life is a gift of sovereign grace, Leask held, while the concept of an innate, conscious, separate immortal soul is a heathen notion. But the issue was brought sharply to the forefront by publication, in the March, 1869, number of The Rainbow, of William Maude’s forthright article, “Immortality,” in the beginning of which he asks, “Is Man by Nature an Immortal Being?” The die was thereby cast, and the battle was on. Epithets of reproach were hurled at the journal. Article after article by the daring editor appeared, followed by some by other able writers, such as Canon Henry Constable. CFF2 382.1
But the unanticipated cancellation of five hundred subscriptions, and the withdrawal of a number of well-known writers—who thought that the appearance of their names therein would jeopardize their good standing—brought on a crisis. Leask was called a “fallen star.” For a little time it was feared that The Rainbow would founder in the storm. Suspension seemed inevitable. But it proved able to ride out the waves of criticism and recovered from the shock of attack. Fresh subscriptions more than compensated for former losses. New writers of prominence appeared. In fact, it soon came to exert an influence greater than ever before. But it was the center of one of the great controversies of the time. CFF2 382.2
Leask was a writer of charming style, as seen in his Royal Rights, his Struggles for Life, and even in his earliest book, The Hall of Vision. He believed profoundly in the separation of church and state and in the infinite justice of God. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Jefferson College. CFF2 382.3
Along with Canon Constable and William Maude he was one of the speakers at the epochal 1876 London Breakfast Conference on Conditional Immortality, in the Cannon Street Hotel. And growing out of his vigorous advocacy of Conditionalism, in 1878, at the Mint Lane Baptist Chapel, in Lincoln, the Conditional Immortality Association was formed, with such charter members as Leask, Vasey, Ward, Waylen, Warleigh, and Brown. The Bible Standard, edited by George A. Brown, was chosen as the official organ. Leask was vice-president of the association for a time and was a regular attendant at the annual Conditionalist conferences. CFF2 383.1
