ERSKINE, RALPH, brother of the preceding, was born at Monilaws in Northumberland, March 18, 1685. Like Ebenezer he probably studied at Edinburgh, and having been licensed in 1709, he was placed as assistant minister at Dunfermline in 1711. Like him, too, he was a fearless advocate of evangelical opinions, and a stern opponent of ecclesiastical tyranny. This led him to homologate the protests which his brother laid on the table of the assembly, although he did not formally withdraw from the establishment till 1737. He sided with his brother in asserting the lawfulness of oaths administered to burgesses, but did not long survive the rupture which followed that unhappy controversy. He died after a short illness Nov. 6, 1752, being then in the sixty-eighth year of his age. His three sons, who lived to be ministers of the Secession Church, died in the prime of life. The works of Ralph Erskine consist of Sermons, Poetical Paraphrases, and Gospel Sonnets.