Alexander was born into a Puritan home in Scotland the end of May in 1701. Since his extracurricular activities were significantly limited by his strict father he often entertained himself by tracing words through the Bible.
Alexander left Scotland and moved to London. He became a recognized scholar and was said to be fluent in Greek and Latin. Accordingly, he found work as a tutor, printer, proofreader and bookseller. He also took upon himself the title, “Alexander the Corrector,” making it his life’s duty to protect his country from all vices; from misspelling and poor grammar, to all matters of morality. He often carried a sponge with him and whenever he encountered any inappropriate writing he would symbolically wipe it clean with his sponge!
While Alexander fell in love on a number of occasions, the objects of his affection inevitably rejected him, and so he never married. Consequently, his significant accomplishments were punctuated with romantic embarrassments that rivaled insanity and so led to most of his numerous stays in lunatic asylums. He would eventually come back to his senses and be released; until he would commit his next social blunder.
During his early days in London, Alexander began the laborious work of putting together a Bible reference book. After working long hours on his job, he would come home to read his Bible, recording on thousands of sheets of paper his tedious findings. He recorded every one of the 777,746 words in the King James Bible and noted every place each one occurred! All this by himself, and with no modern technology! The fruit of his painstaking work was the most comprehensive and useful work of its kind ever published! The first edition was presented to Queen Caroline in 1737, and Cruden’s Concordance eventually became a best seller and has remained in print ever since!
Charles Spurgeon was said to have written in the flyleaf of his copy of Cruden’s Concordance, “For ten years this has been at my left hand when the Word of God has been at my right.” After Cruden’s death, Spurgeon was quoted as saying, “This half-crazy Cruden did better service to the church than half the D.D’s and L.L.D.’s of his time.”
Towards the end of Cruden’s life he devoted himself to studying the Bible, helping the poor and downcast, and handing out gospel tracts. Though he was known to be very benevolent and pious, his contemporaries had little respect for him. He was found dead in 1770, on his knees, his head lying on the open Bible in front of him.
Though dead for hundreds of years, his work still lives on! And it continues to give life to all who avail themselves to it! Evidently it took a crazy man to undertake the monumental task of compiling a complete concordance of the Bible in his spare time and in his humble home!
Cruden’s life teaches us to not discard an unusual person’s value too quickly! One generation’s trash can become many generation’s treasure!