BR 785 .R38 1888 
 Religious life in Scotland 
 
Religious life in Scotland,- 
 from the reformation to 
 the present day. 
 
rVELIGIOUS LIFE IN SCOTLAND; 
 FROM THE REFORMATION TO 
 THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 By 
 
 PROFESSOR LINDSAY, D.D. 
 
 REV. CHARLES G. JIPCRIE. 
 
 REV. DR. BLAIR. 
 
 REV. DR. LAND ELS. 
 
 REV. NORMAN L. WALKER. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW, 
 
 Edinburgh; and new york. 
 
 1888. 
 
pg^rcfiirc. 
 
 The ecclesiastical history of Scotland has been often 
 written ; but little has been done in the way of trac- 
 ing its religious life, or of showing, in anything like 
 a systematic manner, how that life has told on the 
 epoch-making movements of the past. 
 
 This work does not profess to meet so as to satisfy 
 that manifest want. It is not, and does not pretend 
 to be, a history of Scottish religion. To supply that 
 would require something more elaborate. But it is a 
 contribution toward such a history ; and its informa- 
 tion may be accepted as of some interest and value, 
 because furnished by men who are, most of them, in 
 a sense specialists in their respective departments. 
 
 It will be observed that the largest amount of 
 space is given to the last of the five periods dealt 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 with — the past half century. The editor's apology 
 for that is, that the subject was so far fresh. The 
 story of the half century has yet to be told, and the 
 outline he has given may be acceptable to those, and 
 they are not few, whose acquaintance with what has 
 been happening during the immediately bygone and 
 current generations is but vague and indefinite. 
 
 It is necessary to add that each writer is respon- 
 sible for only that portion of the volume to which his 
 name is attached. 
 
 Norman L. Walker. 
 
©Tonteuts. 
 
 Bt tbe 1Reformatiou» 
 
 Bj' Trofessor Lindsay, D.D., Author of Handbook of " The Reformation." 
 
 I. OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME, ... ... ... ... H 
 
 II. THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SCOTLAND BEFORE THE REFOR- 
 MATION, ... ... ... ... ... ... 25 
 
 III. THE SPIRITUALITY OP THE REFORMERS, ... ... ... 32 
 
 IV. THE CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION AND ITS RELIGIOUS LIFE, 39 
 
 5n Covenantinc} Zimcs, 
 
 By Rev. Charles G. M'Crie, Author of " Studies and Sketches 
 
 I. THE COVENANTING DOCUJIENTS, 
 
 II. COVENANTING LIFE, 
 
 III. COVENANTING PREACHING, 
 
 IV. SPIRITUAL OUTCOME OF COVENANTING EFFORT, 
 
 During tbe Seceasion. 
 
 By William Blair, D.D., Author of " Leighton," and Editor of Mackelvie's 
 " Annals of United Presbyterian Church." 
 
 I. THE PERIOD, ... ... ... ... ... ... 85 
 
 n. ORIGIN OF THE SECESSION, ... ... ... ... 94 
 
 III. TIMES OF REFRESHING, ... ... ... ... ... 105 
 
 IV. REVIVALS IN THE HIGHLANDS, ... ... ... ... 119 
 
^'111 CONTENTS. 
 
 5n tbe 5)av6 ot tbe IbalDanes. 
 
 By ^y. Landels, D.D., Author of " The Great Cloud of Witnesses." 
 
 I. THE MAINSPRING OF THE NEW 3I0VEMENT, ... ... 135 
 
 II. THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY AT ITS COM- 
 MENCEMENT, ... ... ... ... 139 
 
 III. THE CONVERSION AND EARLY LABOURS OF THE HALDANES, 144 
 
 IV. OPPOSITION, ... ... ... ... ... 154 
 
 V. CAUSES WHICH INTERFERED WITH THE PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 MOVEMENT, .. ... ... 170 
 
 VI. THEIR WORK OUTSIDE CONGREGATIONALISM, ... .. 182 
 
 2)urlng tbe Xaet IDalf Century. 
 
 By Rev. Norman L. Walker, Author of Handbook of " Scottish Church 
 History." 
 
 I. THE RISE OF THE TIDE, ... 
 II. THE REVIVAL OF 1839-40, 
 
 III. THE SUMMER OP THE DISRUPTION, 
 
 IV. CROSS CURRENTS, 
 
 V. A NEW AWAKENING (1859-GO), 
 VI. THE CHURCHES, ... 
 VII. THE MOODY AND SANKEY VISITS, 
 VIII. RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES, 
 IX. THE OUTLOOK, 
 
 
 189 
 
 
 205 
 
 
 214 
 
 
 227 
 
 
 243 
 
 
 255 
 
 
 272 
 
 
 282 
 
 
 299 
 
AT THE REFORMATION. 
 
 By Professor Lindsay, D.D., 
 
 Author o/ Handbook of " The Rcfortiuztioti. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 
 
 The soul of the Reformation — Its environments — A Scottish people— 
 Liitheran books — Martyrs — Begimiing of i)opiilar movement — George 
 Wishart and John Knox — The Scots Confession — Queen Mary — 
 Struggle— The Parliament of 1567. 
 
 THE great Reformation of the sixteenth century 
 had for its soul a genuine revival of religion ; 
 but this soul was incased in a body of fleshly elements. 
 The Scottish Reformation had the same mixed char- 
 acter. Within, it was a fulfilment of the promise of 
 the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon his waiting 
 people. As it appeared in history, the spiritual move- 
 ment took bodily shape in political and social changes. 
 The Reformers were men who, under the impulse of 
 a great religious afflatus, desired freedom to worship 
 God in their own way, as conscience, moved by Scrip- 
 ture and the influence of the Holy Spirit, demanded. 
 They lived in the midst of peculiar intellectual, 
 economical, and political surroundings; and their simple 
 longing to worship God as heart-religion prompted, in- 
 volved such changes in the conditions of society that 
 
12 OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 
 
 it is impossible to tell the story of the religious revival 
 without introducing a great deal that seems to belong 
 to ordinary political history. 
 
 The Reformation in Scotland was not free to win 
 its way as a simple revival movement. Its course 
 was bent and twisted by the political and social forces 
 between which it flowed ; and some of those forces 
 were of a somewhat questionable kind. Everything 
 has its environment, which helps to make it what it 
 actually becomes. The Reformation in Scotland had 
 its environment also. 
 
 For generations the foreign policy of Scotland had 
 been enmity to England and friendship with France. 
 The times of the Reformation saw that policy first 
 questioned, then combated, and at last reversed. For 
 generations the kingly power had been overshadowed 
 by the strength of the great feudal nobles, wdio made 
 periodic revolts, during which the country suffered all 
 the evils of civil w^ar. At first sight the Reformation 
 seemed only a larger war of barons — this time the 
 Lords of the Congregation — against the kingly or 
 central authority ; but as the months passed it was 
 found that a new power had come into being, and 
 Lords and Queen discovered themselves face to face 
 with a Scottish people. For generations the medieval 
 Church had been growing in wealth and in that power 
 which the possession of large landed property must 
 always give. The Reformation saw the Church stripped 
 of her estates, and the creation of a large number of 
 
OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 13 
 
 small landed proprietors, who inherited the political 
 power of the impoverished ecclesiastics. 
 
 It is impossible to describe the Reformation in 
 Scotland, or in any other country, without taking into 
 account these political and economic changes. There 
 can never be a purely religious history of the Reforma- 
 tion movement. 
 
 When the Reformation began in Germany and 
 Switzerland, James V. ruled in Scotland. During his 
 long minority the baronage, unchecked by the con- 
 trolling presence of a strong central authority, had 
 subjected the land to all kinds of misrule. The whole 
 policy of the king was directed towards curbing the 
 powers of these petty tyrants. This led him to sup- 
 port the Scottish Church (to w^hose bishops he trusted 
 for assistance in overawing his nobles) in its endeavours 
 to keep Reformed doctrines out of Scotland. The Acts 
 of the Scots Parliament enable us to trace clearly the 
 advance of Reformed opinion, and the measures used 
 to combat it. The Lollardy which had infected the 
 universities in the. east, and the peasantry in the west, 
 of Scotland appears to have died out ; and the bishops 
 were chiefly anxious to prevent any manner of persons 
 (strangears) who happened " to arrive with thare schip 
 within ony part of this realme " from bringing with 
 them " any bukis or workis of the said Luther, his 
 
 discipulis or servandis under pane of escheting of 
 
 thare schipis and guidis, and putting of thaire personis 
 in presoun." This was in 1525. Two years later, it 
 
14 OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 
 
 was ordained that "all uther, the kingis lieges, assistaris 
 to sic opunyeoiis be punisht in semeible wise." There 
 is evidence for believing that even before 1525 
 Luther's books had entered the kingdom ; that they 
 were eagerly read ; and that all along the east coast 
 from Aberdeen to Edinburgh were men who had em- 
 braced and strove to propagate Lutheran ideas. Young 
 Patrick Hamilton, of noble birth, was the first Lutheran 
 martyr. He suffered death at the stake on the last 
 day of February 1528, condemned by the Archbishops 
 of St. Andrews and Glasgow, and the Bishops of Dun- 
 keld, Brechin, and Dunblane. Other martyrs followed 
 in quick succession — Henry Forrest, a Benedictine 
 monk, in 1530 ; David Straiton and Norman Gourlay 
 were burned at Greenside in Edinburgh in 1534 ; 
 Thomas Forrest, Kyllor, Beveridge, Simson, and Fores- 
 ter were burned at Edinburgh, and Russell and Ken- 
 nedy at Glasgow, in 1539. The king, by his presence 
 at two of these burnings, lent his support to these per- 
 secutions. Henry VIII. of England twice attempted 
 to induce James to break with Rome, and assert the 
 royal supremacy over the Church in Scotland. The 
 Scottish king was too dependent on the bishops to 
 follow the advice of the English monarch. His re- 
 fusal, the alienation of his barons, who hated the 
 bishops V)ecause of their influence in the State, and the 
 lukewarmness of his people, led to the rout of Solway, 
 and to the death of the king at Falkland in 1542. 
 Mary, the only surviving legitimate child of James V.; 
 
OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 15 
 
 was five days old at the date of her father's death. 
 The bishops and the barons struggled for the supremacy 
 which the regency would give. The barons were suc- 
 cessful. James, Earl of Arran, became regent, and 
 the claims of Cardinal James Beaton for that office 
 were rejected. The policy of the kingdom was changed. 
 The regent and the nobles favoured the Protestant 
 opinions, in order to combat the power of the chief 
 ecclesiastics, and in 1543 an Act of Parliament was 
 passed permitting the translation and circulation of 
 the Scriptures in the common tongue. 
 
 The domineering policy of Henry VIII., who de- 
 manded the betrothal of the babj^-queen to his son 
 Edward, roused the old jealousy of Scotland. The 
 regent and the nobles united with the bishops in 
 resisting the English king, and this new political com- 
 bination resulted in the revival of persecution. In 
 January 1544 a large number of persons were tried 
 for heresy before the regent and Cardinal David 
 Beaton : four men and one woman were condemned 
 to death, and the others were banished. The earlier 
 martyrs had been, with one exception, learned men, 
 who had by study or foreign travel met with and 
 adopted Protestant opinions; the martyrs of 1544 
 belonged to the common people. The Reformed 
 opinions had gone deeper and taken firmer root. 
 
 In 1546, George Wishart was seized, condemned, 
 and burned for heresy at St. Andrews. His martyr- 
 dom marked the beginning of the popular movement 
 
16 OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 
 
 in Scotland in favour of Reformation. He had 
 preached a pure gospel fearlessly in many parts of the 
 country. His gentle fearlessness, his blameless life, 
 his eloquence, and the gospel he preached, had all pro- 
 duced a deep impression on the people of Scotland. 
 Before the burning of Wishart there are no traces of 
 any widespread sympathy with the Reformed opinions ; 
 but after his martyrdom the general feeling in Scot- 
 land underwent a great, sudden, and almost inexplicable 
 change. One of those silent revolutions which the 
 most careless historian cannot help seeing, and which 
 the most profound cannot hope adequately to account 
 for, took place in Scotland. Wishart's burning dates the 
 new birth of the Scottish Church and of the Scottish 
 nation. The cardinal, who had successfully conquered 
 the revolt of the barons, who had become the most 
 popular nian in Scotland from his energetic opposition 
 to the English alliance, not only became himself an 
 object almost of hatred, but his anti- English policy 
 became from this moment disliked by a large propor- 
 tion of the people. The cardinal was assassinated in 
 154G. His slayers held the castle of St. Andrews for 
 more than a year, and only capitulated when a French 
 fleet was brouo-ht aoainst them. 
 
 The anti-Eno'lish feeling: was ao^ain in the ascendant 
 when the English invaded Scotland. The regent was 
 induced to resign in favour of the Queen-Dowager 
 Mary of Lorraine, and in 1554 the time-honoured 
 French alliance seemed as secure as ever. The queen- 
 
 (110) 
 
OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. IV 
 
 dowager was a princess of ability and experience in 
 government. She was supported by her brothers, the 
 princes of the House of Guise, who at that time practi- 
 cally ruled France. The young Queen of Scots was 
 married to the Dauphin of France in 1558. The 
 French or Romanist party was triumphant ; the Re- 
 formation movement seemed stifled or stamped out. 
 
 But the leaven of Wishart's death was working be- 
 neath the surface. John Knox, Wishart's friend and 
 defender, had returned to Scotland in 1555, and the 
 country began to feel his presence. 
 
 John Knox, the Reformer of Scotland, born in 1505 
 at Giffordsgate, a suburb of Haddington, had embraced 
 the Reformed faith in 1542, and had attached himself 
 to Wishart, accompanying him in his preaching tours 
 throughout Scotland. When the martyr was appre- 
 hended Knox wished to share his captivity, but Wishart 
 refused his request. " Nay, return to your bairnes," 
 he said, " and God bless you ; ane is suflficient for 
 a sacrifice." Knox had found protection for some 
 time in the families of Douglas of Longniddrie and 
 Cockburn of Ormiston ; and when stricter search was 
 made for him, he, after many wanderings, took shelter 
 in the castle of St. Andrews, then held by the slayers 
 of Cardinal Beaton. In this stronghold he was first 
 called on to exercise his marvellous gifts as a preacher. 
 Sir David Lindsay of the Mount — who had been a 
 favourite of both James IV. and of James V.; whose 
 satires had exposed the vices of the clergy in Scotland : 
 (110) 2 
 
18 OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 
 
 who had been one of the Reforming counsellors of the 
 regent, the Earl of Arran — had been obliged, like Knox, 
 to take shelter in the castle of St. Andrews. He, 
 along with Henry Balnaves of Halhill, a man scarcely 
 less distinguished, and John Eough, justly esteemed 
 since the death of Wishart as the leading Reformer in 
 Scotland, insisted that Knox should undertake the 
 duty of publicly preaching the word. His reluctance 
 was overcome, and Knox found his true vocation. 
 He became preacher to the garrison in the castle. 
 The townspeople flocked to hear him. A congrega- 
 tion of the Reformed grew up in St. Andrews, and on 
 one memorable day the Lord's Supper was dispensed 
 amid the company of believers. Nineteen months in 
 the French galleys, which followed the capitulation of 
 the garrison, did not break his spirit nor deaden his 
 faith. When released with his companions at the in- 
 tercession of Edward VI. of England, he went to that 
 country, where he received a hearty welcome, and was 
 employed as a preacher in the service of the king. 
 He was stationed at Berwick-on-Tweed, then trans- 
 ferred to Newcastle, and in the end of 1551 he was 
 appointed one of the king's chaplains. He soon be- 
 came an influential adviser to the leaders of the English 
 Reformation. He w^as offered and refused a bishopric. 
 It was at his suggestion that the Declaration on the 
 subject of kneeling at Communion was inserted in the 
 Second Prayer Book of Edward YI. Driven from the 
 kingdom on the accession of Mary, he went to France, 
 
OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 19 
 
 and spent the year 1554 in visiting the leaders of the 
 Reformed Churches of that country and of Switzerland. 
 Enriched with all this hard-earned experience he re- 
 turned to Scotland in 1555. 
 
 He found that the Reformation had made some 
 advance during his absence from his native land. 
 Many martyrs had sealed their testimony with their 
 blood ; others had suffered confiscation of goods and 
 banishment from their native land. Cockburn of 
 Ormiston and Crichton of Brunston were banished 
 and their estates confiscated ; Sir John Melville of 
 Raith had been beheaded ; Adam Wallace had been 
 burned on the Castlehill at Edinburgh. Stringent 
 laws had been passed against the dissemination of the 
 Reformed opinions. In sj)ite of all these terrors and 
 restraints, men and women met in small secret assem- 
 blies to study the Scriptures and confirm each other's 
 faith ; while, to prevent suspicion, they attended mass 
 publicly. When Knox returned, he began, with his 
 usual indifference to danger, to preach in his lodgings 
 in Edinburgh. John Erskine of Dun took him to 
 Forfarshire. Sir James Sandilands prevailed on him 
 to come to Calder House. While in Forfarshire he 
 persuaded his friends to avoid their temporizing 
 practices, and to separate themselves from the Romish 
 communion. At Calder House he adudnistered the 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the Re- 
 formed rite. He gathered round him a band of sym- 
 pathizers, some of whom were men of high standing 
 
20 OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 
 
 and influence. Archibald Lord Lorn, John Lord 
 Erskine, James Stewart, afterwards Earl of Moray, 
 were all inspired by his preaching. His success en- 
 couraged him to preach more openly than before. The 
 Reformed party were emboldened by his courage ; and 
 the gentlemen of Forfarshire made open profession of 
 the Reformed faith, and united in a common " band " or 
 covenant to maintain and promote the preaching of 
 the true gospel. The clergy became alarmed. Knox 
 was summoned before the ecclesiastical authorities ; 
 but his supporters were so numerous that he was left 
 unmolested. Recalled to Geneva in 15 56 by his con- 
 gregation there, he left Scotland, to be tried, condemned, 
 and burned in effigy in his absence. Scotland, however, 
 had need of Knox. He was sent for ; and to prepare 
 for his coming, a confederation of nobles and gentlemen 
 was formed, who published a Covenant, in which they 
 resolved to maintain the gospel and renounce the 
 superstitions of Popery. The confederacy thus con- 
 stituted was styled the Congregation, and organized 
 the Reformed movement. 
 
 Meanwhile the queen's French troops and French 
 officers roused the national pride of Scotland ; while 
 the burning of Walter Mylne exasperated the people 
 against the Popish clergy. The Congregation became 
 a power in the land, and felt strong enough to petition 
 the queen for leave to assemble publicly or privately 
 to read prayers in the common tongue and for ex- 
 pounding the Scriptures. 
 
OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 21 
 
 Easter was kept with unusual pomp and solemnity 
 by the regent and court in 1559, and a decree was 
 published prohibiting any from preaching or adminis- 
 tering the sacraments without the authority of the 
 bishops. The Reformed preachers disregarded the 
 decree, and were summoned to appear before the 
 Justiciary Court at Stirling. The Congregation armed 
 themselves to protect their preachers, and the regent 
 gathered troops to suppress armed revolt. 
 
 At this critical moment Knox landed at Leith, and 
 went straight to Perth, where the Congregation had 
 assembled. The queen- dowager marched towards 
 Perth. Lord Glencairn brought two thousand five 
 hundred troops to strengthen the Congregation. Argyle, 
 Lord James Stewart, and other Lords of the Congrega- 
 tion, tried to mediate and prevent a civil war. The 
 Court party promised to dismiss the French troops 
 and grant toleration. But the regent did not keep 
 faith ; she actually garrisoned Perth with French 
 troops. Then all felt that this state of matters must 
 be ended. An English alliance was better than French 
 domination. The Cono^reo-ation entered into neo'otia- 
 tions with Elizabeth's Government. English troops 
 were sent to their aid. The French were beaten in the 
 field and shut up in Leith. The regent died in June 
 1560, and the Lords of the Cono-reo-ation were masters 
 of Scotland. 
 
 Events marched with rapid stride. The Scottish 
 Estates met in August. A petition was presented 
 
22 OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 
 
 craving Reformation in doctrine, in discipline, and in 
 the administration of the sacraments, and asking that 
 the patrimony of the Church be reserved for the 
 support of " the true ministrie of the word of God, 
 schools and godly learning, and the poor." Within 
 four days the document known afterwards as the 
 Scots Confession was presented, voted upon, and 
 adopted. The Pope's jurisdiction within the realm 
 was declared to be abolished, and the practice of the 
 Roman Catholic religion was prohibited. 
 
 No collection of Scots Acts of Parliament contains 
 these statutes of 1560. The Scottish sovereign, with- 
 out whose signature they had not the force of law, 
 was in France. When Mary was informed of what 
 had been done, and her signature was asked, she 
 refused to give it. Her husband, the young King of 
 France, died at the close of the year, and Mary Queen 
 of Scots returned to her native land in 1561. 
 
 She came determined to put the Reformation down. 
 She played for heavy stakes, and she lost. She was 
 undoubtedly the lawful Queen of England, for no one 
 will pretend that Elizabeth was the legitimate daughter 
 of Henry VIII.; and her Scottish policy, sketched by 
 the Jesuit advisers of her uncles, the Guises, was to 
 make Scotland a vantasfe-oTound for a Romanist risino- 
 in England, which, along with her legal claims, might 
 seat her on the English throne. " Full of ambition, 
 she had many chances before her. If the Catholics 
 prevailed in France, she might rely on help from that 
 
OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 23 
 
 country ; if there were any movement of Catholics in 
 England, it must be in her name ; if anything were 
 to befall Elizabeth, she was the next heir to the En- 
 glish throne. The future was full of possibilities. 
 Meanwhile she must win the goodwill of the Scots, — 
 perhaps she might even succeed in winning them back 
 to Catholicism ; anyhow she must have Scotland under 
 her control as a safe starting-point for her future 
 plans." 
 
 At first Mary's rule was wdse. With marvellous 
 reticence and power of dissimulation she waited the 
 course of events. She allowed the great leader of the 
 Congregation', her half-brother James, Earl of Moray, 
 to ruje the land. She claimed and obtained toleration 
 for her own Catholic worship ; she fomented the dis- 
 content in her kingdom against the inflexibility of 
 Knox; she charmed the people with her beauty and 
 graceful manners. Almost insensibly she built up in 
 Scotland a strong Queen's party, and she lulled into 
 fancied security almost all her opponents. Four years 
 of self-restraint, then she struck her first blow. She 
 married her cousin, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. 
 He was a Catholic, and the marriage menaced the 
 Scottish Reformation. He was a o-reat-oTandson of 
 Henry VII., and the union was a threat to Elizabeth. 
 The Catholic lords were recalled to Scotland, and 
 Catholic conspiracies caused the ground to tremble 
 under Elizabeth's feet. One man alone in Scotland 
 had not been blinded. Knox had refused to submit to 
 
24 OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TIME. 
 
 the queen's blandishments. From his pulpit he had 
 published the danger to the Reformation in her secret 
 plans. He had warned the people against the great 
 Catholic conspiracy in which France and Spain had 
 engaged ; he had denounced the marriage ; he had 
 exposed every step taken towards undermining the 
 Reformation and endangering the alliance with En- 
 gland. His friends thought him over-suspicious, too 
 headstrong and violent. Erskine of Dun counselled 
 patience. George Buchanan wrote to Cecil that he 
 was doing his best " to mitigate somewhat his [Knox's] 
 acerbity." All in vain. Knox stood firm, and could 
 not be silenced. In the end the country saw that he 
 had been right from the beginning — had foreseen 
 what they did not perceive until after the event. 
 After six years of intrigue there came civil war, im- 
 prisonment and deposition of the queen, and the coro- 
 nation of the baby king James VI. The Parliament 
 and the regent in 1567 confirmed the Acts of the 
 Parliament of 1560, and the Reformation was estab- 
 lished in Scotland de jure as well as de facto. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SCOTLAND BEFORE 
 THE REFORMATION. 
 
 A dark age— Revivals in the medieval Church — Force spent before 
 reaching Scotland — An evangelical bishop — The nobles licentious 
 and superstitious — Enriching of the Church and corruption of the 
 clergy — Dr. M'Crie's picture of the time — The Lollards— Sir David 
 Lindsay — The people's ignorance of the gospel — A parish priest de- 
 scribed. 
 
 WE know singularly little about the religious 
 condition of Scotland in the stormy period 
 which elapsed between the wars of the Bruce suc- 
 cession and the beginning of the sixteenth century. 
 These wars and their consequences — weakness of 
 kingly authority, and the independence, turbulence, 
 and tyranny of the greater barons — had the most 
 disastrous effects on the civilization and social pros- 
 perity of the country, and could not fail to be injuri- 
 ous to religion and pious living. Scotland never 
 seems to have been visited by those revivals of 
 religion which, from time to time, awakened the 
 medieval Church to its Christian duties ; the force 
 of these great movements always seems to have spent 
 
26 THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SCOTLAND 
 
 itself before they reached Scotland. The Scottish 
 Church did not lack pious and energetic ecclesiastics 
 — men who lived noble lives, and who died like 
 Bishop Brown of Dunkeld, who, "throwing himself 
 entirely on the mercy, rather than on the justice, of 
 God, expressed a firm trust in his salvation, not for 
 his own merits, but through the passion of Christ." 
 Yet there is abundant evidence to prove that such 
 men were rare among the Scottish ecclesiastics. 
 
 The nobles of Scotland were turbulent, licentious, 
 and superstitious ; men who led brawling and immoral 
 lives, and who made a death-bed repentance, which 
 consisted frequently in buying pardon for the sins of 
 their lives by bequeathing to the Church possessions 
 which they could not carry away with them after 
 death. These bequests were not interfered with in 
 Scotland, as in most other countries, and the Scottish 
 Church was comparatively wealthy. 
 
 It was almost unavoidable that in Scotland the higher 
 clergy should become a political rather than a religious 
 organization. Even before the wars of the Bruce suc- 
 cession, and when the kingly power was strong, the 
 kings of Scotland were accustomed to regard the 
 authority of the bishops as a means of curbing the 
 pretensions of the barons : and in the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries, Avhen the central authority was 
 almost impotent, the kings had no other bulwark 
 against the barons. Scotland Avas too poor a country, 
 too uncivilized, too remote from the centre of Eu- 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 27 
 
 ropean life, to attract greatly the attention of the 
 popes, and her kings do not seem to have found it 
 necessary to protect themselves from the encroachments 
 of the temporal supremacy of the Church. All these 
 various causes led the Scottish monarchs to favour 
 the aggrandizement of Scottish churchmen, and to 
 protect them in their secular possessions and privileges. 
 
 This special characteristic of the Scoto-Roman 
 Church was hurtful to its spiritual life and religious 
 character. Younger sons of the turbulent nobles, by 
 embracing an ecclesiastical career, won political power 
 and secular position almost at once. They entered 
 the Church from worldly motives, and their presence 
 in it could not fail to demoralize religion. It is not 
 too much to say that the state of the Scottish Church 
 in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries finds no 
 parallel, save in the fearfully corrupt and degraded 
 Frankish Church of the later Merwings and the 
 earlier Carlings. 
 
 The example of the greater ecclesiastics could not 
 fail to influence evilly the parish clergy ; and the 
 records of Scottish provincial councils show the moral 
 degradation of . churchmen of all classes, and the 
 powerlessness of the authorities to restrain shameless 
 living. A lurid light is cast on the character of the 
 Scottish provincial clergy by the fact that parish 
 priests, vowed to celibacy, and unable by Church and 
 civil law to marry, were commonly succeeded in their 
 benefices by their sons. 
 
28 THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SCOTLAND 
 
 The late Dr. M'Crie draws a dark picture of the 
 state of i-eligion in Scotland, but not darker than the 
 facts disclose. " The full half of the wealth of the 
 nation belonged to the clergy, and the greater part 
 of this was in the hands of a few individuals who 
 had command of the whole body. Avarice, ambition, 
 and the love of secular pomp, reigned among the 
 superior orders. Bishops and abbots rivalled the 
 first nobility in magnificence, and preceded them in 
 honours. They were Privy- Councillors, and Lords of 
 Session as well as of Parliament, and had long 
 engrossed the .principal offices of State. A vacant 
 bishopric or abbacy called forth powerful competitors, 
 who contended for it as for a principality or petty 
 kingdom. It was obtained by similar arts, and not 
 unfrequently taken possession of by the same weapons. 
 Inferior benefices were openly put to sale, or bestowed 
 on the illiterate and unworthy minions of courtiers, 
 on dice-players, strolling bards, and the bastards of 
 bishops. The lives of the clergy, exempt from secular 
 jurisdiction, and corrupted by wealth and idleness, 
 were become a scandal to relioion and an outrao-e on 
 decency. While they professed chastity, and pro- 
 hibited, under the severest penalties, any of the eccle- 
 siastical order from contracting lawful wedlock, the 
 bishops set an example of the most shameless profli- 
 gacy before the inferior clergy, — avowedly kept their 
 harlots ; provided their natural sons with benefices ; 
 and crave their dauo^hters in marriao-e to the sons of 
 
 O o o 
 
BEFORE THE REFORM A TION. 20 
 
 the nobility and principal gentry, many of whom were 
 so mean as to contaminate the blood of their families 
 by such base alliances, for the sake of the rich doweries 
 thev brouo'ht." 
 
 The medieval revivals which did so much to purify 
 from time to time the Church in England, France, 
 Germany, and Italy, do not seem, as has been said, to 
 have reached Scotland ; and Lollardy, introduced from 
 England, was the only pre-Reformation protest against 
 the spiritual deadness and unholy lives of the Scottish 
 churchmen. The history of Lollardy in Scotland is 
 yet to be investigated. It appears, however, that 
 Lollard teachers found their way into the University 
 of St. Andrews soon after its foundation, for we find 
 more than one decree ordering search to be made for 
 such men. James Besly, a disciple of Wyclif, made 
 a preaching tour through part of Scotland, and at- 
 tracted great attention by his vigorous denunciations 
 of the w^ealth and immorality of the clergy. A 
 council of the Scottish ecclesiastics met, under the 
 presidency of a certain Lawrence of Lindores, in 1406 
 or in 1407, examined Besly, and pronounced him a 
 heretic. He was burned at Perth. His writings, 
 with other Lollard tracts, were carefully preserved, 
 and circulated among the common people, especially 
 in the west of Scotland. They tended to keep alive 
 the desire for a purer faith and a holier life ; and 
 their complaints against the clergy were reproduced 
 at the era of the Reformation in the pungent satires 
 
30 THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SCOTLAND 
 
 of Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, Lord Lyon King- 
 at-Arras to James IV. and to James Y. 
 
 In Lindsay's Dreme, the poet has a vision of hell, 
 and says : — 
 
 " Thare saw we mony cairfull Cardinall 
 And Archebischopis, in thair pontificall ; 
 Proud and perverst Prelates, out of nmnmer, 
 Priouris, Abbottis, and fals flatterand Preris." 
 
 He asked why all these clergymen had come to 
 the place of woe, and was told : — 
 
 " The cause of thair unhappy chance 
 
 Was covatyce, luste, and ambitioun : 
 
 Als they did nocht instruct the ignorant 
 
 Provocand them to penitence, be preicheing ; 
 But servit wardhe Prencis insolent 
 
 And war promovit be thair fenyeit fleicheing, 
 
 Nocht for thair science, wysedome, nor teicheing ; 
 Be symonie, was thair promotioun 
 More for deneiris, nor for devotioun. 
 Ane uther cause of the piuiytioun 
 
 Of thir unhappy prelattis, imprudent. 
 They made nocht equale distributioun 
 
 Of haly Kirk the patrimonie and rent : 
 
 But temporallie they have it all mispent, 
 Quhilkis suld have bene trypartit in to thrie ; 
 Pirst, to uphauld the Kirk in honestie ; 
 The secund part, to sustene thair estaitis ; 
 The thrid part to be given to the puris." 
 
 The people, under such religious guides, could not 
 fail to know nothing of the gospel of Christ. The 
 bishops did not preach, and the parish clergy gave 
 no public exhortation. What sermons were delivered 
 were spoken by the Dominican and Franciscan friars, 
 who, in that corrupt period, had sadly declined from 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 31 
 
 their early zeal and piety. Their texts were commonly 
 taken, not from Scripture, but from that curious book 
 of tales, the Gesta Rovianoruon, and were usually more 
 provocative of mirth than of conversion. The parish 
 clergy confined their religious duties to the hearing of 
 confession and the repeating the service in Latin, which 
 was an unknown language to most of their audience. 
 
 Lindsay paints the parish priest and his penitent 
 in Kitteis Confession : — 
 
 " He me absolvit for ane plak 
 Thocht he na pryce with me wald mak, 
 And mekil Latyne he did mummill, 
 I hard na thing hot hummill bummill. 
 He schew me nocht of Goddis Word, 
 Quhilk scharper is than ony sword, 
 And deip intill oiir hart dois prent. 
 Our syn quharethrow we do repent ; 
 He pat me na thing into feir, 
 Quharethrow I suld my syn forbeir ; 
 He schew me nocht the maledictioun 
 
 Of God for syn, nor the afflictioun 
 
 Of Christis bhide na thing he knew 
 Nor of His premisses full trew, 
 That saifis all that wyll beleve, 
 
 That Sathan sail us never greve 
 
 Of this na thing he cud me tell, 
 
 Bot gave me pennance, ilk ane day 
 
 Ane Ave Marie for to say : 
 
 And Fridayis fyve na fische to eit, 
 
 Bot butter and eggis ar better meit ; 
 
 And with ane plak to buy ane Messe, 
 
 Fra drounkin Schir Jhone Latynelesse." 
 
 The Church had become a mere worldly estate : its 
 ministers, men who lived a hardened, coarse, and licen- 
 tious life ; the people, men who despised the avarice 
 and the vices of the clergy, and yet were superstitious 
 in the last deoTce. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE REFORMERS. 
 
 The reticence of the Scottish Reformers — Contrast to Luther — Knox's 
 letters and confessions — Recognition of the great fact of sin and 
 the gospel message of pardon — The theology of St. Augustine — 
 Reformation not a political or social movement — Gospel sermons 
 — First petition to the Congregation — How the movement grew — 
 James Melville hearing Knox — Demand for preaching. 
 
 IT is easy to speak against the leaders of the 
 Scottish Reformation — to describe their intoler- 
 ance, their interference in secular affairs, and the 
 rudeness of their lanoTiaoe and manners. The men 
 belonged to the times they lived in, and had rough 
 work to do. Nor were they, for the most part, men 
 who cared to talk much about their own spiritual 
 life, nor of what first moved them to embrace a purer 
 and more spiritual religion. 
 
 The singular reticence about their personal conver- 
 sion is a marked feature in the lives of the Scottish 
 Reformers. They had none of the genial, homely 
 outspokenness of Luther. We know all about the 
 great German Reformer. He gossips over his peni- 
 tence, deep spiritual anguish of soul, his conversion — 
 
THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE REFORMERS. 33 
 
 its time, place, and manner. The Scottish Reformers 
 take after their great leader, John Calvin. The 
 grave Frenchman tells us almost nothing about his 
 own personal spiritual experience. Once only, in that 
 marvellous Preface to his Commentary on the Psalms, 
 does Calvin unbend. There he says that he came to 
 Christ by a sudden conversion. How Knox, or 
 Rough, or Wishart, or gentle Walter Mylne found 
 their Saviour has never been disclosed ; and yet 
 there is not wanting evidence to tell how deep the 
 tide of personal piety ran. 
 
 The deep spirituality of the great Scottish Reformer 
 finds constant expression in his letters to his mother- 
 in-law, Mrs. Bowes. " Blessed be God, the Father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ," he writes on one occasion, " I 
 am not left so bare without comfort, but my hope 
 is to obtain such mercy that, if a short end be not 
 made of all my miseries by final death (which to me 
 were no small advantage), that yet, by Him who never 
 despised the sobs of the sore afflicted, I shall be so 
 encouraofed to fiofht that England and Scotland shall 
 both know that I am ready to suffer more than either 
 poverty or exile for the profession of that doctrine 
 and that heavenly religion whereof it has pleased His 
 merciful providence to make me, among others, a 
 simple soldier and witness-bearer unto men." 
 
 No man was so ready to examine himself, none so 
 quick to mark his own failings and besetting tempta- 
 tions. He accused himself of carelessness for the 
 
 (110) 3 
 
34 THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE REFORMERS. 
 
 souls of his countrymen ; he ought, he thought, to 
 have gone more from place to place. He bewailed his 
 rudeness of speech, his deficiency in impartiality and 
 fidelity. " Besides these," he says, " I was assaulted, 
 yea infected, with more gross sins — that is, my 
 wicked nature desired the favours, the estimation, 
 and the praise of men : against which, albeit that 
 sometimes the Spirit of God moves me to fight, and 
 earnestly did stir me (God knoweth I lie not) to sob 
 and lament for these imperfections, yet never ceased 
 they to trouble me when any occasion w^as ofiered ; 
 and so privily and craftily did they enter into my 
 breast that I could not perceive myself to be wounded 
 till vainglory had almost got the upper hand. 
 Lord, be merciful to my great ofience, and deal not 
 with me according to my great iniquity, but accord- 
 ing to the multitude of thy mercies ! " He who had 
 gone through so much for the cause of his Master 
 had a very tender sympathy for all who suffered for 
 Christ's sake. " But if God shall strengthen you (as 
 unfeignedly I pray that His Majesty may), then is 
 there but a dark cloud overspread the sun for a mo- 
 ment, which shortly shall vanish, so that the beams 
 after shall be sevenfold more bright and amiable nor 
 they were before. Your patience and constancy shall 
 be a louder trumpet to your posterity than were the 
 voices of the prophets that instructed you, and so is 
 not the trumpet ceased so long as any boldly resisteth 
 idolatry. And therefore, for the tender mercies of 
 
THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE REFORMERS. S5 
 
 God, arm yourselves to stand with Christ in this his 
 short battle." 
 
 These leaders of the Scottish Reformation, one and 
 all, were men who recognized the great fact of sin and 
 the gospel message of pardon through tlie atoning 
 life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were 
 fed on the theology of Augustine, which is the the- 
 ology of St. Paul. It was Augustine who brought 
 Thomas Forrest to Christ. " Oh, happy and blessed 
 was that book to me," he said, " by which I came to 
 the knowledge of the truth." Augustine sent him to 
 the Scriptures, and there he learned what sin was 
 and what the gospel was. " There is no pardon for 
 our sins," he told his hearers, " that can come to us 
 either from pope or any other, but only by the blood 
 of Christ." Sense of sin, temptation, struggle, perse- 
 cution, sent them to Christ, and made them prove the 
 power of prayer. " Trouble and fear are the very 
 spurs to prayer," wrote Knox ; " for when man, com- 
 passed about with vehement calamities, and vexed 
 with continual solicitude, having by help of man no 
 hope of deliverance, with sore oppressed and punished 
 heart, fearing also greater punishment to follow, from 
 the deep pit of tribulation doth call to God for com- 
 fort and support, such prayer ascendeth into God's 
 presence, and returneth not in vain." 
 
 The Reformation was for them no political move- 
 ment or social upheaval. It was a revival of religion 
 in their own hearts, accompanied by the necessity of 
 
36 THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE REFORMERS. 
 
 proclaiming to others the gospel that had gladdened 
 them. They preached. Necessity was laid on them. 
 They could say with Paul, " Woe is unto us if we 
 preach not the gospel." 
 
 It was their preaching, their message of the gospel 
 which came warm from the hearts of men who them- 
 selves had felt its power, that changed Scotland. 
 " Thou preachest quietly and privately in houses, and 
 openly in the fields," said the public prosecutor to 
 Walter Mylne. " Yea, man, and on the sea, also, sail- 
 ing in the ships," was the answer. " It is too much 
 to preach every Sunday," said the Bishop of Dunkeld 
 to Thomas Forrest ; " for in so doing you may make 
 the people think that we should preach likewise." 
 It was this evangelical preaching, these gospel ser- 
 mons, that created that revival in Scotland which we 
 call the Reformation. 
 
 Throughout the history of the Reformation move- 
 ment, liberty to preach was constantly demanded and 
 asserted. The earliest demands made by the sup- 
 
 ^ C- porters of the Reformation were for the liberty of 
 reading the Holy Scriptures ; leave to assemble pub- 
 licly and privately at common prayers in the vulgar 
 tongue ; leave to meet for the dispensation of the 
 sacrament of baptism and of the Lord's Supper in the 
 common tongue ; leave to expound the Scriptures in 
 assemblies. 
 
 The first petition of the Congregation stated that 
 
 ' as the reading of Scripture had been permitted by 
 
THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE REFORMERS. 37 
 
 authority of the Estates, so the government should 
 sanction that " the common prayers be read weekly 
 on Sundays and other festival days, in the parish 
 churches, with the lessons of the New and Old Testa- 
 ment, conform to the Book of Common Prayers;" and 
 that " if the curate cannot or will not read them, the 
 most qualified person in the parish should be allowed 
 to act in his stead." It also asked that "the doc- 
 trine, preaching, and interpretation of the Scriptures 
 should be used privately in houses." The nobles and 
 gentlemen who favoured the Reformation took Re- 
 formed preachers to be their private chaplains, and 
 devout and poorer neighbours were welcomed to what 
 was called " family," but to what was really " public," 
 worship. One of the articles in all the earlier cove- 
 nants was an obligation to maintain the preaching of 
 the pure gospel as God shall give opportunity. 
 
 It is interesting to notice how the movement began 
 and how it grew. After heroic and wandering preach- 
 ers had sown the good seed throughout the land, 
 little companies of disciples met in private for mutual 
 study of the Scriptures and pious exhortation. These 
 congregations had no pastors: they met in private 
 houses, and provided for religious instruction and for 
 mutual edification as they best could. They refrained 
 from the dispensation of the sacraments, and con- 
 tented themselves with the services of pious and in- 
 telligent men, whom they selected from their own 
 number, to read the Scriptures, to exhort, and to ofi"er 
 
38 THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE REFORMERS. 
 
 up prayers in their assemblies. When a preacher 
 came round on a preaching journey, these exhorters 
 might be seen, pencil or pen in hand, taking notes of 
 the sermon, to be used afterwards in the more private 
 meetings of the little Protestant communities. It 
 may be well imagined, however, that the hearers were 
 sometimes too interested to take notes. James Mel- 
 ville tells us that on one occasion, while listening to 
 Knox, he had his pen and his little book in his hand, 
 and took away such things as he could comprehend. 
 " But when he entered on the application," he adds, 
 " he made me so to grew and tremble that I could 
 not hold a pen to write." 
 
 As the Reformation spread, the Protestants got 
 bolder, their services became more public and more 
 formal. " They cleansed the parish churches of images 
 and all other monuments of idolatry, and commanded 
 that mass should not be said in them, and in place 
 thereof the Book set forth by the godly King Edward 
 is read in the same churches." Thus the Reformation 
 flourished by the preaching of the Word, and the 
 pulpits, occupied by faithful and earnest preachers, 
 became a power in the land. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION AND ITS 
 RELIGIOUS LIFE. 
 
 History of its organization unique — Protestantism in France — Anxiety 
 to promote life among the people — Scarcity of ministers — Exhorters 
 and readers— Sh(jrt services— Catechetical exercises — Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer — Singing — Note-taking encouraged — Care for the chil- 
 dren — Example of the instruction in use — A favourite scholar — Music 
 — An early communicant — A first "hansell" to Heaven. 
 
 AFTER 1560 the Reformation emerged into dis- 
 tinct and visible shape, and the growth of 
 the Church reformed is easily traced. The history of 
 the organization of the Reformation Church in Scot- 
 land is unique. In Germany and in Switzerland the 
 Reformers first won over the civil authorities to their 
 side, and the organization of the infant Churches was 
 largely moulded by the State. Calvin's Ecclesiastical 
 Ordinances were issued in the name of the Town 
 Council of Geneva. In France, the kirk-session or 
 consistory was the earliest Church court. The Pro- 
 testants in Paris, who met together in a private house, 
 formed themselves into a church by electing some of 
 their number to be a session of elders, and by calling 
 
40 THE CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 a young and eloquent preacher to be their pastor. 
 The example of the Protestants in the capital was 
 speedily followed all over the land. Hundreds of 
 separate Presbyterian congregations existed before any 
 means were provided for more extended organiza- 
 tion. Then those congregations sent representatives 
 to a National Synod, and gradually a Presbyterian 
 Church was organized on a wide basis. 
 
 In Scotland, the first Church court appears to have 
 been the General Assembly ; then came Kirk-sessions, 
 then provincial Synods, and lastly Presbyteries. 
 
 For a long time the two Church courts in Scotland 
 were the Assembly and the Kirk-session. The one 
 vindicated the independence and liberty of the Church, 
 the other was the court mainly instrumental in regu- 
 lating the religious life by a firm and salutary dis- 
 cipline. It was not till 1581 that the Presbyterian 
 polity was thoroughly established by the institution 
 of the Presbytery. 
 
 The Reformers in Scotland, as in other Reformed 
 Churches, souoht to create and maintain reliorious life 
 among the people by preaching the Word, reading 
 the Scriptures, and catechising their parishioners. 
 The preaching of the Word, regularly, earnestly, and 
 by duly qualified men, was their first care. It was 
 difficult, however, in the beginning's of the Reformed 
 Church to find suitable men to intrust with this 
 solemn public duty, and our Reformers were careful 
 not to appoint men Avho had not the requisite gift. 
 
AND ITS RELIGIOUS LIFE. 41 
 
 It was impossible to find pastors for the thousand 
 parishes of Scotland. In 1567 the Reformed Church 
 had only two hundred and fifty-seven ministers, and 
 in 1574 the number had grown only to two hundred 
 and eighty-nine. At the earlier date they supplied 
 the lack of ministers by men who were either ex- 
 horters or readers. The readers, most of them priests 
 who had conformed, read in public the Scripture 
 lessons in the order set forth in what is called Knox's 
 Liturgy, and the prayers given in that Book of Com- 
 mon Order ; while the exhorters were permitted to 
 catechise the grown-up people and the children. The 
 Church, however, seems to have been dissatisfied with 
 the work of these exhorters, and in 1574 we find 
 that they had all disappeared, and the parishes were 
 supplied by two hundred and eighty-nine ministers 
 and seven hundred and fifteen readers. In parishes 
 where there was a minister who could give his whole 
 time to the one parish, it was ordained " that there 
 shall be four sermons in the week — two on Sundays 
 and two on week-days : one before noon and another 
 after on the Sabbath ; and on the week-days, one on 
 Wednesday and another on Friday." It was also 
 made matter of regulation that the Sunday services 
 " shall pass not the space of an hour and a half," and 
 that the week-day services " shall pass not the space 
 of an hour." Besides these services common prayers 
 were read daily, and an exhortation given, " but in 
 such shortness that the whole time occupied exceed 
 
42 THE CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 not the space of half an hour." The afternoon ser- 
 vice on the Sundays was usually spent in catechising. 
 " Every minister was earnestly exhorted to his private 
 exercise of fervent prayer, reading, and meditation 
 of things heard and read, that thereby he may be 
 stirred u^d to grow day by day more and more zealous 
 and devout in spirit, familiar with his God, armed 
 with spiritual armour against all adversaries, and 
 diligently moved to practice of doctrine in a godly 
 life and holy conversation." 
 
 Few parishes, however, had the full services of a 
 minister, and it was by no means uncommon for one 
 pastor to have charge of so many congregations that he 
 was able to give but one sermon to each in the week. 
 The readers conducted the other services enjoined, 
 and the people met to hear prayers and Scripture read. 
 
 Our Reformers held fast by the principle that the 
 reading of the Word is itself a means of grace, and 
 in their order of public worship, prayers in the com- 
 mon tongue, not in Latin, and the reading of Scrip- 
 ture without note or comment, held an important 
 place. In the earlier years of the Reformation the 
 English Prayer-book (the Second Prayer-Book of King 
 Edward VI.) was commonly used, and continued in 
 use till 1564, when it was gradually superseded by 
 the Prayer-book which bears the name of the Book 
 of Geneva, Knox's Liturgy or the Book of Common 
 Order — a book which seems to have been based on 
 the Second Prayer-Book of King Edward VI. 
 
AND ITS RELIGIOUS LIFE. 43 
 
 The service began with prayer, but it seems to 
 have been the custom, as it is at many of our evan- 
 gelistic meetings, to sing the people in ; and gradually 
 the psalm or hymn sung while the people were as- 
 sembling became the first part of the congregational 
 worship. 
 
 The young people were encouraged to bring pen 
 and note-book with them to the church, and the notes 
 of the sermon thus taken were afterwards used in the 
 family catechising. 
 
 The Keformation Church paid great attention to 
 the godly upbringing of children ; and while it in- 
 sisted on parental duty, recognized its own churchly 
 obligations in this respect. As has already been said, 
 the afternoon service on every Sunday was what we 
 should now call a children's service. It was a catechis- 
 ing, and the old people as well as the young attended 
 and took part. The Catechisms used differed in differ- 
 ent parishes and under different pastors, but the three 
 most popular were Calvin's Catechism, Craig's Cate- 
 chism, and the Heidelberg or Palatine Catechism. I 
 am inclined to believe that the last gradually super- 
 seded the two former, and was in almost universal 
 use throughout Scotland till displaced by the Shorter 
 Catechism of the Westminster Assembly. An edition 
 of this Palatine Catechism was issued by authority 
 of the General Assembly, " with the arguments and 
 use of the several doctrines therein contained." It 
 may be interesting to quote one question, answer, 
 
44 THE CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 and " use," in order to show the instruction given to 
 our Scottish young of the Reformation Church. 
 
 " QlTES. 26. What helievest thoit when thou say est, 
 I BELIEVE IN God the Father Almighty, Maker of 
 Heaven and Earth ? 
 
 " Ans. I believe in the everlasting Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, Who created of nothing the heaven 
 and the earth, and all things that are therein, and 
 doth uphold and govern the same by His everlasting 
 counsel and providence, to be by the means of Christ 
 r)iy God and ray Father : therefore I so trust in Him, 
 and so repose myself upon Him, that I doubt not but 
 He will provide all things necessary both for my soul 
 and for my body ; and moreover, also, that whatsoever 
 evil He sendeth upon me in this miserable life. He will 
 turn the same to my salvation ; seeing He is both 
 able to do it, as being God Almighty, and willing to 
 do it, as being my bountiful Father. 
 
 " the use. 
 
 "This article of our faith, and the doctrine therein 
 contained, maketh much for the comfort of the godly ; 
 for seeing we are joined in league with that God 
 Who is our Father, Who is almighty. Who created 
 heaven and earth. Who governeth us and preserveth 
 us, what is there that we may not look for from such 
 a Father ? what is there whereby we may not make 
 ourselves sure ? For example, the leper was per- 
 suaded only of the power of Christ, he knew not His 
 
AND ITS RELIGIOUS LIFE. 45 
 
 will ; therefore he said, ' Lord, if Thou wilt. Thou 
 canst make me clean' (Matt. viii. 2), and he was 
 cleansed. How much more shall tve obtain those 
 things which we ask, if both we be persuaded of His 
 almighty power, and also doubt not of His promises ? 
 From hence is our love to our neighbour set on fire ; 
 for when God hath promised that He will increase 
 His blessings upon them who are liberal to the poor, 
 and He is God Almighty, who would not be pricked 
 forward to bestow alms liberally and cheerfully. By 
 the same doctrine I am admonished not to doubt of 
 any man's salvation, though he seem cast away of God, 
 and withal to keep myself in the fear of God, be- 
 cause God is able to raise up again my neighbour 
 that is fallen, and to call him home to the way of 
 salvation, and also to suffer me to fall into grievous 
 sins, and to cast me off unless I abide in faith." 
 
 James Melville, in his Diary, a beautiful uncon- 
 scious record of a pious and gentle life, tells us that 
 his minister, Mr. Thomas Anderson, made him, a small 
 boy of twelve, frequently repeat the Catechism (Cal- 
 vin's) on the Sabbath afternoons, " because he heard 
 that the people liked well the clearness of my voice 
 and my pronouncing with some feeling ; and thereby 
 God moved a godly, honest matron in the town to 
 make much of me therefore, and to call me her little 
 sweet angel." The sentence reveals a pleasant picture, 
 — the worthy pastor, " a man of mean gifts, but of a 
 sino'ularly good life," putting questions in the con- 
 
46 THE CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 gregation assembled for afternoon public worship ; the 
 boys and girls ready to answer the questions ; one 
 little favourite scholar ; the people taking singular 
 interest in the service, and learning the truths of God 
 from the answers given by their children in the 
 church. 
 
 James Melville tells us, too, how our Reformers 
 were at pains to instruct the children in music, in 
 order to improve the praises of the sanctuary. The 
 Laird of Dun " of his charity entertained a blind 
 man who had a singularly good voice." This blind 
 sino'er tauo-ht the teacher and the school children 
 " the whole Psalms in metre and the tunes thereof," 
 and to sing them in church, " by hearing of whom 
 I was so delighted that I learned many of the Psalms 
 and tunes in metre, which I have thought ever 
 since a great blessing and comfort." Melville also 
 learned to repeat and to sing Wedderburn's songs 
 " with great diversity of tunes." When the boy was in 
 church he yearned to become a minister, " but thought 
 it a thing impossible that he could ever have the 
 ability to stand up there and speak when all held 
 their tongues and lookedJ' He tells us too — " Finally I 
 received the communion of the body and blood of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, first at Montrose, when I was in my 
 thirteenth year, with greater reverence and sense in 
 my soul than often thereafter I could find. When 
 comino^ from the Table, a srood honest man, ane elder 
 of the kirk, gave me an admonition concernino- li^ht- 
 
AND ITS RELIGIOUS LIFE. 47 
 
 ness, wantonness, and not taking tent to the preach- 
 ing, and Word read, and prayers, which remained 
 with me ever since." 
 
 Reverence, searching self-examination, and earnest- 
 ness after higher things marked the spiritual life of 
 the Reformation times. Witness James Melville and 
 his sister, boy and girl. " I loved her exceedingly 
 dearly, and she me more than the rest. She showed 
 me one day, among others, a ballad set out in print 
 against ministers that, for want of stipend, left their 
 charg^es, beo-innino^ — 
 
 ' Who so do put hand to the plough, 
 
 And therefrom backward goes, 
 The Scriptures make it plain enough, 
 My kingdom's not for those.' 
 
 With this she burst into tears, and said, ' Alas ! what 
 will come of them at that latter day ? God keep my 
 father, and Mr. James Melville, and Mr. James Bal- 
 four from this.' " 
 
 Our Reformers were strong men, fearless, honest, 
 outspoken. " The reformation of religion in Scotland 
 was done as the men in the Gospel, who, bringing a 
 man sick of the palsy, carried by foursome in a bed, 
 broke the house above where Christ was, without 
 askino' leave of the o-oodman and master thereof, for 
 the great desire which they had to come to Christ for 
 the man's health. Yet Christ found no fault there- 
 with, but seeing their faith, approved the same and 
 healed the man. So throus^h zeal the kino^dom of 
 
48 TEE CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 heaven suffered violence at the beginning, and men 
 sought to come to Christ without asking leave of 
 king or Csesar." But these fearless preachers were 
 men of singularly tender heart and trustful faith, who 
 knew the love of God and wondered at it. James 
 Melville's little son Andrew, " beautiful, loving, and 
 merry," whom his father set at the end of the table 
 at dinner and supper, that he might feast his eyes 
 with the sight of the child, " pined away, keeping the 
 sweetest and pleasantest eye tliat could be in any 
 one's head." " Wien he died," says Melville, " I mar- 
 velled at my own heart that was so wrung and moved 
 with it, so that even yet, when I write this, I feel the 
 yearning of natural affection. And if we, that are 
 earthly worms, can be so affected to our children, 
 what a love bears that heavenly Father to us ! He 
 was my first propine and hansell to Heaven." 
 
IN COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 By Rev. Charles G. M'Crie, 
 
 Author- of " Studies and Sketches." 
 
 (110) 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE COVENANTING DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Form taken by the reforming movement — The gentlemen of the Mearns 
 — The Common Band — The King's Confession — Solemn League — 
 Testimonies and Declarations — Torwood Excommmiication — Deeply 
 religious spirit — Impassioned devotion to the person of Christ. 
 
 THERE are some quarters in which the term 
 " religious revival " does not meet with much 
 favour. Revival movements are apt to be regarded 
 by scholars and historians with coldness, if not positive 
 aversion, being associated in their minds with what is 
 sensational and emotional, noisy and vulgar, illiterate 
 and unstable. The historian John Hill Burton was 
 not a man likely to be attracted by a religious re- 
 vival movement, or to be lightly induced to turn aside 
 from State affairs in order to give a narrative of such 
 in his "History of Scotland." And yet, when he 
 reaches the years 1581-83, that erudite Historiog- 
 rapher-Royal for Scotland chronicles the appearance 
 of the Second Book of Discipline and the National 
 Covenant as the fruit of " a great religious revival," 
 and devotes a portion of his standard work to tracing 
 
52 THE COVENANTING DOCUMENTS. 
 
 the progress of what he calls " the great revival." * 
 In so doing, his historical insight and impartiality- 
 did not fail him. The Covenanting movement in 
 Scotland was, in all that gave it vitality and impulse, 
 a religious movement — a movement of genuine spir- 
 itual revival, the forces of which have not yet spent 
 themselves, but are still telling upon the religious life 
 of Scotland. 
 
 It is in this aspect of it alone that we propose to 
 deal with the period assigned us, leaving the historical, 
 political, and social sides of Covenanting times to be 
 ascertained from the abundant literature that has 
 gathered round them. 
 
 It seems only right to begin by directing attention 
 to those documents which have stamped the times 
 with the name they bear, and have given to those 
 who drew them up, and those who were ready to die 
 for them, the honoured name of Scottish Covenanters. 
 
 From its earliest period the Reformation movement 
 in Scotland assumed a Covenanting form. As far 
 back as 155G the o-entlemen of the Mearns, havino- 
 had " the table of the Lord Jesus " ministered to them 
 by John Knox, " banded themselves to the uttermost 
 of their power to maintain the true preaching of the 
 evangel of Christ, as God should offer unto them 
 preachers and opportunity." -|- 
 
 Their example was followed in 1557 by the Re- 
 
 * "The History of Scotland." By John Hill Burton. Vol. v., 
 chap. Iviii., p. 201. 
 
 + "The Works of John Knox," vol. i., p. 251. 
 
THE COVENANTING DOCUMENTS. 53 
 
 forming noblemen of Scotland. Convened at Edin- 
 burgh, they drew up " a Common Band," which was 
 subscribed by the Earls of Argyle, Glencairn, Morton, 
 and others, in which they bound themselves " to strive 
 in their Master's cause, even as to death, being certain 
 of the victory in Him," and also " to maintain, set for- 
 ward, and establish the Word of God and His Congre- 
 gation." * Two years later a similar "band" was entered 
 into by representatives from various shires, convened 
 at Perth in the name of Jesus Christ, and which " the 
 hail congregationis " ordained and appointed several 
 noblemen to sign in their name.-j- 
 
 These local " bands," signed by influential leaders of 
 the Reforming party, paved the way for the National 
 Covenant of 1580. The correct title of this im- 
 portant document is, " The Confession of Faith of 
 the Kirk of Scotland ; or, The National Covenant." 
 It is sometimes called " The Second Confession," thus 
 distinguishing it from that of 1560; sometimes " The 
 Negative Confession," as it concerns itself largely with 
 a repudiation of false doctrine ; and sometimes " The 
 King's Confession," as James VI. was the first to ap- 
 pend his signature. Rightly to appreciate the spirit 
 and form of this national testimony to Christ, the 
 peril of the times which gave rise to it must to some 
 extent be realized. In France the League had been 
 formed. In Spain the mailed and cruel hand of 
 Philip was uplifted to strike at religious and civil 
 
 '• "The Works of John Knox," vol. i., p. 273. + Ibid., p. 344. 
 
54 THE COVENANTING DOCUMENTS. 
 
 liberty. In Scotland Queen Mary was alive, and 
 active in communicating with her co-religionists on 
 the Continent. Popery had its Scottish supporters 
 in the north, as also in the western districts of the 
 country. In such circumstances the Protestants of 
 Scotland deemed they had good cause to dread the 
 restoration of the Church which had no mercy for, as 
 it kept no faith with, heretics, and so drew up this 
 " short and general Confession of the true Christian 
 Faith and Relio'ion, accordino: to God's Word, and Acts 
 of our Parliament." * 
 
 Leaving it to the historian to tell the story of the 
 National Covenant — how it was sworn and subscribed 
 by James VI., and thereafter by all ranks of persons 
 through the kingdom ; how in 1638, one of the years 
 of the troubled reign of Charles I., it was enlarged 
 and renewed, and those who had called themselves 
 " Supplicants " were for the first time called " Cove- 
 nanters ; " how it was twice signed by Charles II. ; 
 and how, when that perjured monarch thought him- 
 self securely seated on the throne of his beheaded 
 father, the Covenant was torn in pieces at the Cross 
 of Edinburgh and burned in Linlithgow, thereafter, 
 in 1662, to be legislatively abjured and condemned 
 by Act of Parliament — we pass on to the next Cove- 
 nanting document, the Solemn League and Covenant 
 of 1643. 
 
 By that time Charles I. had quarrelled with his 
 
 * " Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland," part ii., p. 515. 
 
THE COVENANTING DOCUMENTS. 55 
 
 English Parliament, and civil war had broken out. 
 The Parliamentary party was not slow to perceive the 
 benefit to be derived from cultivating the goodwill 
 of the Covenanters of Scotland. In the General As- 
 sembly, and in the presence of English commissioners, 
 Alexander Henderson produced a draft of the proposed 
 bond. The revised document was assented to by the 
 Convention of Estates that very afternoon. In the 
 following month the English Parliament and the As- 
 sembly of Divines (then engaged in drawing up our 
 present Confession of Faith) met in Westminster, and 
 as the League was read, article by article, the whole 
 Assembly stood and swore to it with uplifted hands. 
 Thus was formed and adopted " The Solemn League 
 and Covenant," which bears in its title to be "for 
 reformation and defence of religion, the honour and 
 happiness of the king, and the peace and safety of 
 the three kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland. ■' 
 This religious and civil bond was renewed in 1648 by 
 all ranks of people in Scotland, accompanied with " a 
 solemn acknowledgment of public sins and breaches of 
 the Covenant ; " and it received the same treatment of 
 feigned acceptance, followed by hearty rejection, on the 
 part of Charles II., as did the National Covenant. 
 
 The latter half of the seventeenth century brings 
 us into what are generally regarded as the Covenant- 
 ing times. Then were fought the engagements at 
 Rullion Green, Drumclog, and Bothwell Bridge ; then 
 were witnessed the sufferings of Scotland's glorious 
 
56 THE COVENANTING DOCUMENTS. 
 
 army of Covenanted martyrs, with the conspicuous 
 figures of Argyle, James Gutlirie, Hugh Mackail, 
 Richard Cameron, Donald Cargill, James Renwick, 
 Margaret Wilson, and John Brown ; then were held 
 the field-meetings and the armed conventicles, when 
 gospel-preaching could only be enjoyed by those who 
 were willing to go in search of it " through mosses 
 and moors and inaccessible mountains, through excess 
 of heat and extremity of cold ; " ''" then, with the fur- 
 nace of persecution heated sevenfold, were " the killing 
 times " of Scotland. 
 
 This period of our Church's history was fruitful in 
 covenants that took the form of Testimonies and 
 Declarations. Immediately before the skirmish at 
 Drumclog in 1679 there were emitted the Declaration 
 at Rutherglen in May of that year, and that of Glas- 
 gow in the following month. Subsequent to the 
 battle of Bothwell Bridge there w^ere the Sanquhar 
 Declarations of 1680 and 1685, the Torwood Ex- 
 communication of 1680, and the Declaration at Lan- 
 ark in 1682, The series closes with the Society 
 people's Declaration of 1684, posted up at market 
 crosses and church doors in Nithsdale, Galloway, 
 Ayrshire, and Lanarkshire, and concluding with the 
 prayer, " Let King Jesus reign, and all his enemies be 
 scattered." -f* 
 
 Such then arc the leading documents of the Scot- 
 
 * Shield's " Hind Let Loose. Testimony of the Sixth Period," p. 82. 
 + Wodrow's History, book iii., chap, viii., p. 148. (Bums's edition.) 
 
THE COVENANTING DOCUMENTS. 57 
 
 tish Church in Covenanting times. They have often 
 been denounced as manifestoes of persecution and 
 treason, sneered at as displays of sectarian narrowness 
 and intolerance, held up to ridicule as replete with 
 presumptuous and pietistic phraseology. They have 
 not wanted vindications at the hands of historians 
 profoundly versant in the history of the period, and 
 of national bards gifted with insight to perceive the 
 secret of Scotland's greatness. We are not called 
 upon to enter the lists, and we pass on with the re- 
 mark that even in the case of the Cameronian declara- 
 tions of the ultra- Covenanters, in which the House of 
 Stewart is denounced and the right of subjects to have 
 recourse to arms against tyrants is argued, there is 
 more to be disposed of than strong language ; and no 
 one has a right to pronounce judgment upon the ques- 
 tions raised in these documents wdio knows them only 
 through the pages of fiction and the ballads of Jaco- 
 bite poets, but has failed, either through ignorance or 
 incapacity, to master the close reasoning of such a 
 work as that of Shield's, in which he argues " Con- 
 cerning owning of Tyrant's Authority." * What we 
 desire to give prominence to, with reference to the 
 entire series of documents from 1556 to 1684, is the 
 deeply religious spirit which pervades them all. They 
 have in them the secular, the political, the purely 
 ecclesiastical. The times in which, and the purposes 
 for wdiich, they were drawn up, demanded this. There 
 
 * "The Hind Let Loose." 
 
58 THE COVENANTING DOCUMENTS. 
 
 is consequently in them that \Yhich is only temporary 
 in interest and application, as also that which may 
 not be fully abreast of nineteenth century ideas. 
 
 But before all and above all other things Scot- 
 land's Covenanting standards display impassioned de- 
 votion to the person of Christ, burning affection for 
 " the true Christian faith and religion, pleasing God, 
 and bringing salvation to man, which now is, by the 
 mercy of God, revealed to the world by the preaching 
 of the blessed evangel." * It is this passion for Christ 
 and his gospel that made the Covenanters the men 
 they were — that made the Covenanting struggle the 
 blessing and the glory it has been to Scotland. 
 Robert Burns w^as both seer and singer in the day 
 he penned the lines : — 
 
 " The Solemn League and Covenant 
 Now brings a smile, now brings a tear. 
 But sacred freedom, too, was theirs : 
 If thou'rt a slave, indulge thy sneer." 
 
 * The National Covenant, opening paragraph. 
 
CHAPTER IL 
 
 COVENANTING LIFE. 
 
 Glasgow Assembly— A scene— The Earl of Argyle— His great offence- 
 Conduct in prison — His confidence in death — Andrew Hislop, the 
 boy-martyr— Margaret MacLauchlan— The Wigtown Martyrs— The 
 water of Blednoch — The Cameronians—" Faithful Contendings Dis- 
 played "—A Book of Dying Testimonies— Janet M'Ginnies— James 
 Masson. 
 
 IT may be well now to turn from Covenanting lit- 
 erature to Covenanted lives — from the religion 
 inscribed on parchment to the same religion lived out 
 in the sacrifices and sufferings of the men and women 
 of Covenanting times. 
 
 Let us start with a Covenanter representing one of 
 the oldest and most powerful families in Scotland. 
 The General Assembly which convened in the Cathe- 
 dral Church of Glasgow in 1688, viewed as a moment- 
 ous historical event, vies in interest with the Long 
 Parliament, which it preceded in time, and possibly 
 prepared the way for. Before the last of the twenty- 
 six sessions of that Assembly had been held, a young- 
 nobleman intimated his adherence to the reformed 
 religion. Not up till then a Covenanter, he had 
 
60 COVENANTING LIFE. 
 
 striven to maintain an attitude of impartiality, but 
 now felt compelled by the force of conviction to take 
 a decided stand. " I have not," were his words to 
 Alexander Henderson and his brethren, " striven to 
 blow the bellows, but studied to keep matters in as 
 soft a temper as I could ; and now I desire to make 
 it known that I take you all for members of a lawful 
 Assembly and honest countrymen." The youthful 
 speaker was Archibald Campbell, then Earl, subse- 
 quently Marquis, of Argyle. Possessing mansions in 
 Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Stirling, with properties in 
 the counties of Eenfrew and Ayr, and along by the 
 Ochils, MacCallum More was the uncrowned king of 
 the Highlands. With domains that extended from 
 Glenmore in the far north to the Mull of Cantyre in 
 the south, through the mountains of Lochaber and the 
 forests of Badenoch, this chieftain reigned over tens 
 of thousands of devoted clansmen, and could with 
 ease bring five thousand claymores to the aid of any 
 cause he espoused. As is certain to be the case with 
 one standing so high and wielding so great an influ- 
 ence, unfavourable things have been said of the Cove- 
 nanting nobleman. Even friendly critics are inclined 
 to regard the wisdom with which he was universally 
 credited as sometimes taking the form of craft. The 
 impenetrableness that lay behind the finely - knit, 
 capacious brow was allied with a certain shiftiness 
 that found expression in the squint vision of him 
 whom his contemporaries called " the gleed Marquis.^ 
 
COVENANTING LIFE. CI 
 
 Giving due weight to what both friends and enemies 
 have said regarding him, we contend that nothing 
 will explain the character and conduct of the Cove- 
 nanter leader except the theory that he was first a 
 sincere Christian and then a true patriot. Never did 
 the Christianity and the patriotism of this Scottish 
 peer shine out more clearly than at his trial and 
 execution. The principal counts in his indictment 
 were, entering into the Solemn League and Covenant, 
 and submittinof to Oliver Cromwell. But if the 
 author of " The Hind Let Loose " be correctly in- 
 formed, that which incensed Charles 11. against his 
 old friend, and rendered his downfall certain, was the 
 fact that Argyle had, when no one else was brave 
 enough to do it, reproved his sovereign as John the 
 Baptist reproved adulterous Herod.* 
 
 When sentence was pronounced, the doomed man 
 received it with serenity, saying, " I had the honour 
 to place the crown on the king's head ; and now he 
 hastens me to a better crown than his own." On 
 returning to the common prison he told his wife not 
 to concern herself about his judges ; " they may shut 
 me in where they please, but they cannot shut out 
 God from me." On the morning of Monday, the day 
 of execution, came good George Hutchison, an Edin- 
 burgh minister, to whose inquiry, " What cheer, my 
 Lord ? " he replied, " Good cheer, sir ; the Lord hath 
 said to me from heaven, ' Son, be of good cheer ; thy 
 
 * Shield's "The Hind Let Loose," part ii., p. 128. 
 
b2 COVENANTING LIFE. 
 
 sins are foroiven thee.' " He then became so over- 
 
 o 
 
 powered with a sense of the love of God that he re- 
 tired to the window to hide from others his emotion ; 
 but he soon returned to the fire-place, and taking 
 Hutchison by the hand, he said, " I thought to have 
 concealed the Lord's goodness, but it will not do ; his 
 kindness overpowers me. But God is good to me that 
 he lets not out too much of it here, for he knows I 
 could not bear it." Although constitutionally of a 
 timorous, sensitive disposition, his bearing on the scaf- 
 fold was one of perfect composure. When they came 
 in sight of the Maiden, the Edinburgh minister coun- 
 selled him to hold fast his confidence in Christ, using 
 the expressive words, " Grip sicker." " Mr. Hutchi- 
 son," was the reply, " you know what I said : I am 
 not afraid to be surprised with fear." The moment 
 before the head was laid on the block his medical 
 man touched his pulse : the beat was normal and 
 strong. 
 
 Thus fell the proto-martyr of Covenanting times in 
 Scotland. He was mighty in life, but mightier far in 
 death. " I could die like a Roman," was one of his 
 last utterances, " but choose rather to die like a Chris- 
 tian." As a patriot he had lived and laboured ; as a 
 Scottish Covenanter, for him to live was Christ, and 
 to die was gain. 
 
 The Marquis of Argyle sealed with blood his testi- 
 mony for the Covenanted religion of Scotland in 1661. 
 Passing down the years of bloodshed which that mar- 
 
COVENANTING LIFE. 63 
 
 tyrdom inaugurated, we come to 1G85, when the fiery 
 persecution which had raged in the reign of Charles 
 II. waxed still hotter in that of his brother James VII. 
 The 11th May in that year was black in respect 
 of the barbarous murders committed, but bright on 
 account of the testimony borne to the sustaining 
 power of a simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 The testimony on this occasion was not that of noble- 
 men who fought for high stakes and knew what de- 
 feat would bring; it was that of humble peasants, 
 of young men and maidens not out of their teens. 
 In the morning of that day a lad called Andrew 
 Hislop saw his widowed mother's house pulled down, 
 the furniture carried away, while mother, brother, and 
 sisters were left to wander in the fields, all because 
 shelter had been given to a proscribed Covenanter 
 who came there to die. Later in the day Andrew 
 himself fell into the hands of Claverhouse, who would 
 have spared him had it not been for Sir James John- 
 stone of Westerhall, a renegade Presbyterian, who in- 
 sisted that the youth should be shot on his grounds. 
 With some difficulty three dragoons were got to exe- 
 cute the outrage. The muskets were loaded, and 
 young Andrew was told to draw down his cap over 
 his eyes. He refused, and stood confronting the 
 murderers with his Bible in his uplifted hand. " I 
 can look my death-bringers in the face without fear," 
 were the words of this stripling hero. " I have done 
 nothing of which I need be ashamed ; but how will 
 
64 COVENANTING LIFE. 
 
 you look in that day when you shall be judged by 
 what is written in this Book ? " The body of Andrew 
 Hislop, the boy-martyr of the Covenant, lies buried 
 where he was shot in Eskdale Moor.*"* 
 
 While that was done in Eskdale, an act of still 
 more revolting cruelty, if that were possible, was 
 perpetrated in Wigtownshire. Margaret Lauchlison 
 or MacLauchlan, a widow in the parish of Kirkinner, 
 was, when upon her knees in prayer, carried to prison, 
 where she was kept — so runs the kirk-session record — 
 " without the benefit of light to read the Scriptures." 
 After being the inmate of more than one prison, she 
 was finally sentenced to death at Wigtown by Grier- 
 son of Lagg "for conventicle keeping and alleged 
 rebellion," this last charge being grounded upon her 
 refusal to take the oath of abjuration with which the 
 government followed up Renwick's Apologetical De- 
 claration. About the same time Margaret Wilson, 
 whose parents lived in the parish of Penninghame, 
 and who, with her brother and sister, aged respec- 
 tively sixteen and thirteen, had been " keeping the 
 mountains " rather than accept the test and hear the 
 curates, was taken prisoner and thrust into the thieves' 
 hole of Wigtown. Tried at the same time, and found 
 guilty of the same charges, the widow of sixty-three 
 and the maiden of eighteen were sentenced " to be 
 tyed to palisados fixed in the sand, within the flood- 
 
 * Wodrow's History, book iii., chap, ix., p. 249; Lord Macaulay's 
 "History of England," chap. iv. 
 
COVENANTING LIFE. 65 
 
 mark, and there to stand till the flood overflowed 
 them and drowned them." The awful sentence moved 
 them not ; they received it with a composed, smiling 
 countenance, judging it all honour to suffer for the 
 truth that Christ alone is King and Head of his 
 Church. Part of the time between the passing and 
 the executing of the sentence was spent by Margaret 
 Wilson in writing to her friends, giving expression to 
 a deep and affecting sense of God's love to her soul, 
 and vindicating her refusal to save her life by taking 
 the abjuration oath. 
 
 On the 11th May, amid a vast crowd of spectators, 
 the two women were taken out to the bank below 
 which. the sea, when the tide is coming in, rushes up 
 the channel of the river Blednoch, and gradually over- 
 flows the banks on both sides. Allowed to engage in 
 prayer, they did so with such Christian calmness and 
 sweet submission to the pleasure of God, and with 
 such expression of dependence upon him for salvation 
 through Christ, as to draw tears from some of the 
 soldiers that o-uarded them. Cords were then tied at 
 one end to two stakes driven deep into the sands of 
 the bank, and at the other round the bodies of the 
 victims, who were thrown over the brink of the river 
 into the advancing tide of the terrible Solway. The 
 death of the elder sufferer was hastened by the action 
 of one of the town officers, who, keeping his halberd 
 at her throat, held her body forcibly down till she 
 ceased to struggle. Thinking that the sight of death 
 (110) 5 
 
66 COVENANTING LIFE. 
 
 agonies might terrify her into submission, some in the 
 crowd asked Margaret Wilson what she thought of 
 her friend. '' What do I see," was her reply, " but 
 Christ in one of his members wrestling there. Think 
 you that we are the sufferers ? No, it is Christ in 
 us ; for he sends none a warfare upon their own 
 charges." With a great deal of cheerfulness she 
 prayed and sang verses of psalms, and repeated por- 
 tions of the eighth chapter of Romans, while the flow- 
 ing tide filled the deep channel of the river. Just 
 before the bitterness of death she was pulled up to 
 the bank on which her executioners stood, and when 
 so far recovered as to be able to speak, she was asked 
 if she would now pray for the king, and she was im- 
 plored by pitying friends, " Dear Margaret, only say, 
 God save the king !" With perfect composure she re- 
 plied, " I wish the salvation of all men, and the dam- 
 nation of none ; God save him, if he will, for it is 
 his salvation I desire." When, however, the officer in 
 charge came up and demanded of her whether she would 
 take the oath or return to the water, she deliberately 
 put aw^ay from her the former alternative, saying, " I 
 will not ; I am one of Christ's children, let me go." 
 "Upon which," says Wodrow,"shewas thrust down again 
 into the water, where she finished her course with joy." ''■' 
 
 * The above narrative of the Wigtown martyrdom, which differs in 
 some details from commonly received accoimts, and corrects the inac- 
 curacies of Lord Macaulay, is dra^vn from material to be found in Wod- 
 row's History, book iii., chap, ix., and in " History Vindicated in the 
 case of the Wigtown Martyrs," by the Rev. A. Stewart, 18G9. 
 
COVENANTING LIFE. 67 
 
 We have reproduced the scene at the ^Yater of 
 Blednoch, not because of the barbarous cruelty of 
 the death inflicted, nor because, having been subjected 
 to the utmost severity of destructive criticism from 
 Jacobite quarters, the story is now corroborated in 
 every detail by a mass of evidence simply irrefragable, 
 but because it bears witness to the existence in these 
 heroines of Covenanting times of a faith in and an 
 affection for the Christ of their salvation which 
 carried them to a height of daring and enduring 
 truly sublime. Whether the reader gathers his im- 
 pression from the homely pages of Wodrow, the 
 pictorial sentences of Macaulay, or the touching lay 
 of Mrs. Stuart Menteath, it comes to the same thing 
 in the end — he cannot put away the conviction that 
 these women were not martyrs by mistake or out of 
 mere enthusiasm. As the historian of the suffering 
 Church of Scotland says, it is a jest to suppose 
 women in their rank of life, and of their age, guilty 
 of rising in arms and of rebellion. They were 
 drowned because of their adherence to the Covenant- 
 ing testimony of the Church of their day ; and that 
 testimony was dear to them because of the homage 
 which it paid to the crown rights of their adorable 
 Redeemer. And so there is truth in the artless 
 words of the urchin who, guiding an inquirer in the 
 churchyard for Margaret Wilson's tombstone, and 
 bending over it with child-reverence in his features, 
 exclaimed as he pointed to the scarcely legible in- 
 
68 COVENANTING LIFE. 
 
 scription, " Look, she was but a lassie, yet she deed 
 for the Covenant ;" and there is truth in the state- 
 ment of one of the lines of that rudely-executed 
 inscription,— 
 
 " She suffered for Chidst Jesus' sake." 
 
 All honour to the Wigtown martyrs ! 
 
 " The earth keeps many a memory of blood as water poured— 
 The peasant summoned at his toil, to own and meet his Lord ; 
 The secret hungering in the hills, where none but God might see, — 
 Ay, earth had many martyrs, but these two were of the sea." * 
 
 At an earlier stage we referred to the separation of 
 the ultra- Covenanters from the general body of Pres- 
 byterians. The extreme party testified against ac- 
 ceptance of the indulgence, against paying the tax 
 levied expressly to maintain the persecuting troops 
 under the name of "cess;" testified in favour of 
 armed conventicles, and in vindication of throwing 
 ofif all allegiance to the House of Stewart. Those who 
 thus testified came to be known as Hillmen, Society- 
 men, Wild Western Whigs, latterly and more widely 
 as Cameronians, from Eichard Cameron, one of their 
 most prominent leaders, who read the Declaration, 
 and left it nailed on the market cross of Sanquhar 
 in 1G80. The official record of the doins^s of the 
 Hillmen is to be found in a volume well known to 
 historians of the period — " Faithful Contendings Dis- 
 played." The reading therein furnished cannot be 
 said to be more interesting than what might be 
 
 * " Lays of the Kirk and Covenant," by Mrs. A. Stuart Menteath, 1850. 
 
COVENANTING LIFE. 69 
 
 found in a volume of ecclesiastical minutes. The 
 testimonies and declarations of the early Cameronians 
 may constitute what Hill Burton calls a " literature 
 of bewailment, remonstrance, and castisfation ; " but, 
 as that historian admits, there is another literature 
 of the period " of a sadder and sweeter character." 
 To that we would fain turn in order to ascertain the 
 religious life and spirit of those who suffered for 
 righteousness' sake in the long dreary age of perse- 
 cution. There is in our possession a little golden 
 treasury called ''A Collection of the Dying Testi- 
 monies of some Holy and Pious Christians who lived 
 in Scotland before and since the Revolution." In this 
 volume there is no sparing either of left hand declen- 
 sions or of right hand extremes ; there is the employ- 
 ment of abusive terms which no strength of conviction, 
 no pressure of trouble can justify; and there is an 
 indulging in dislikes and detestations, a lifting up 
 witness and bearing testimony against individuals and 
 parties, which appear far from seemly coming from 
 those who set out by declaring they are "near to step 
 into eternity." But there are also in this collection 
 glimpses into inner spiritual life and experience of 
 great beauty and tenderness, outbursts of rapture 
 and attachment, felicitous turns and touches which 
 even Sir Walter Scott would find it impossible to 
 spoil through caricature. Janet M'Ginnies, " who 
 lived in the Parish of Dairy, in Cuningham, in the 
 Shire of Air, and died in the Town of Dairy," gives 
 
70 COVENANTING LIFE. 
 
 " a short but true relation of the Lord's way of 
 dealing with " her. And it is thus she expatiates : — 
 " Oh, what a sweet and pleasant life it is to travel up 
 and down the fair field where the Kose of Sharon 
 e^rows, where evervthins: smells of that Rose ! Oh, 
 how pleasant is it for the soul to run to him and to 
 seek everything from him that it hath need of ! The 
 soul, by a continued tract of going to the Lord, wins 
 to be familiar with him. He (as it were) knows the 
 knock of their hand, and they have a free and fair 
 entrance to the chambers of his presence, where all 
 their suits get a hearing, and that as often as they 
 list (when there), so that I may say. Oh, how con- 
 descending is the Lord, to hear poor bodies' secrets ! 
 And he imparts his secrets to them again ! He feeds 
 them with the secrets of his love. Oh, how great 
 loving-kindness is it and favour that the Lord con- 
 fers and gives poor things, when he puts such a noble 
 and honourable piece of work in a poor body's hand, 
 as to be concerned in his noble cause Avith his head- 
 ship in his house, and all his kingly and royal rights 
 and prerogatives ; in a day when all is going to 
 wreck and ruin, when all that fair plenishing and 
 vessels of the house are carried away into captivity, 
 not only by avowed enemies, but chiefly by Zion's 
 professed friends. — Sic suhscribitur, Janet M'Ginnies." 
 One of the most prolix of the testimonies in this 
 collection is that of William Wilson, " some time 
 Schoolmaster in Park, in the Parish of Douglas." 
 
COVENANTING LIFE. 71 
 
 But the dryness and sternness of the document are 
 relieved by the occurrence of such a statement as this 
 — " Now, upon due and serious consideration of the 
 Lord's dealing with my soul, I am sure and certain 
 that I have been in an actual state of grace more than 
 forty and eight years. It is that long since I closed 
 with Christ, at a dyke-side in Bettyknowes, in the 
 Parish of Lochrooton, in Galloway." 
 
 Robert Knox has something of the same kind to 
 tell of when he thus appeals to One whom he calls 
 " my former covenanted Lord and Master, my God, and 
 my King : " — " Thou knows what did pass betwixt 
 Avretched me and holy thee in the Bought-hills, in 
 the barn, and in the byre, and frequently about the 
 yeard-dyke and the brae-nook down beneath it." The 
 lives of peril and of wandering which many of the 
 Covenanters were forced to lead resulted in their 
 associating localities with their spiritual experience 
 in a way that imparts the picturesque and the vivid 
 to their narratives. Thus James Masson, described 
 as " that old, flourishing, and great Christian, princely 
 wrestler with his Master, and valiant contender for 
 Christ's truths, and rights, and royal prerogatives," 
 tells of his taking the Covenant " in the Kirk of 
 Traquier, about the year of God 1645. Four only 
 of us, with the minister of the parish, took it there. 
 When I heard it first mentioned I thought my heart 
 flightered within me for joy. Then thereafter several 
 times and in several places I took it — as at Dumfries, 
 
72 COVENANTING LIFE. 
 
 Penpont, Kirkmahoe, and Irongray — which I never 
 rued to this day, and hopes never to do." Of com- 
 munion seasons, as of Covenanting times, he writes 
 with equal rapture. "The back -looking to them 
 now and then," he exclaims, " does not a little refresh 
 my soul — as at Lochen-Kitt and the Shalloch-barn, 
 where, besides the sweet manifestations of himself to 
 my soul and the souls of many others then present, he 
 was seen to be a wall of fire round about us, de- 
 fendino; us from our enemies." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 COVENANTING PREACHING. 
 
 Disadvantage of reports — Sir Walter Scott's caricatures — "Collections" 
 of Howie of Lochgoin — John Blackadder's sermons — A free gospel — 
 Gabriel Temple — Practical teaching. 
 
 WE have as yet said nothing regarding the 
 influence of Covenanting preachers and 
 their sermons upon the religious life of the times, 
 preferring to take our illustrations from private 
 rather than from professional walks of life. In the 
 case of printed sermons purporting to have been 
 preached at conventicles, there is this drawback under 
 which they all labour, that, so far as can be ascer- 
 tained, they were not published during life-time, and 
 were not even published from the notes of their 
 authors. They are simply bare outlines or skeletons 
 of discourses furnished by hearers, mostly illiterate 
 and not experts in the art of the reporter. Taken, 
 however, as we have them, and allowance being made 
 for the circumstances — so unfavourable to finish and 
 elaboration — in which tliey were prepared and de- 
 livered, the specimens of Covenanting preaching 
 
74 COVENANTING PREACHING. 
 
 which are genuine show that the preaching of these 
 days must have exercised a powerful influence on 
 both the morality and spirituality of the people. 
 If instead of taking his impressions of Covenant- 
 ing preaching from the gross caricatures furnished 
 by Sir Walter Scott in the wild rhapsodies of his 
 fictitious Gabriel Kettledrummle, Ephraim Macbrier, 
 and Habakuk Muckle wrath, any one will betake 
 himself to the " Collections " of honest John Howie 
 of Lochgoin, we answer for it he will find that the 
 sermons preached and listened to by Covenanters 
 Avere full of the marrow of the gospel, rich in 
 their unfoldings of the doctrines of grace, marked 
 by sobriety of spirit and plainness of speech. How 
 earnestly the gospel call was pressed home in 
 Covenanting preaching can be gathered from a 
 sermon of Mr. John Blackadder's on the text : " He 
 shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be 
 satisfied," in which the preacher pleads for the ac- 
 ceptance of his Master in this strain : — " Is there 
 any of you that will give him the great reward 
 he came to the world for — to save poor sinners ? 
 Have none of you a soul to save ? That is the 
 thins: he seeks. Art thou in bonds under the 
 devil ? Art thou a poor, needy thing, made up of 
 wants and necessities ? And hast thou anything 
 ado for him ? Then let him thereby see the 
 
 travail of his soul and be satisfied Is there any 
 
 ungodly sinner, debauched profane swearer, drunkard. 
 
COVENANTING PREACHING. 76 
 
 ranter, or even the back of an old persecutor, or 
 malignant ? Hast thou any satisfactory news for us 
 to take back unto our Master ? Wilt thou give us 
 these news to carry back, ' This day I fully renounce 
 all my former kind ' of life and conversation, and 
 resolve to stand to my word, and from henceforth 
 will not go back nor turn from Thee at all ' ? Come 
 away, poor man and woman, that is glad to close the 
 bargain ; thou that hast been, as it were, putting thy 
 hand to the pen, and yet dare not seal it, wilt thou 
 come and put thy hand to the covenant that thou 
 hast entered into long since ? He loves that thou 
 should set thy seal to it ; seal it with thy hearty 
 consent ; say with Thomas, if thou can say no more, 
 
 'My Lord and my God.' For the Lord's sake do 
 
 something satisfactory to him, and it shall be your 
 own satisfaction for ever."* 
 
 How practically the morality of the Sermon on the 
 Mount was inculcated is strikingly illustrated in what 
 Gabriel Temple placed before his hearers as matter for 
 Christian forgiveness and prayer with reference to the 
 ten thousand Highland savages brought down and let 
 loose upon the western counties of Scotland armed 
 with dirks fastened to the muzzles of their guns, and 
 provided, not only with spades and shovels and mat- 
 tocks, but also with iron shackles and with thumb-locks 
 to extort information from their prisoners concerning 
 
 * From "A Collection of very valuable Sermons, ])reached on several 
 Subjects and in divers Places in the time of the Late Persecution." 
 
/b COVENANTING PREACHING. 
 
 treasure supposed to be concealed. Specifying times 
 wherein God is to be sought and found, the preacher 
 comes to the morning of the gospel, under which 
 head he remarks : — " We have got a new morning of 
 it now ; but there was a black night of it by the 
 Glasgow Act in Scotland. Many places of the land 
 to this day are like the land of Zebulun and Naph- 
 tali, especially many of those places in the north of 
 Scotland that are sitting in darkness. Pray for them. 
 I think the Highland host that lately came from 
 thence amongst you might draw prayers from you. 
 What would they say ? ' Pity us ; we are your 
 mother's children ; we were baptized in the same 
 Church : ye minded your own corner, and ye see we 
 are but a parcel of savages. Ye did not pray for us 
 as ye should have done ; and it is but just with God 
 that we should be a plague unto you. If ye have 
 the light and the knowledge of Christ yourselves, ye 
 care not for others, and therefore God has sent us 
 to chastise you for this fault amongst others.'"* 
 
 When such was the preaching to be heard on the 
 mountains and moors of Scotland, the gospel banner 
 was not allowed to droop, but was kept waving till it 
 attracted the vigilant eye of William of Orange, and 
 convinced him that the nation which could maintain 
 such a testimony for what Alexander Shields calls 
 " these two twins. Religion and Liberty," was fast 
 ripening for revolution. 
 
 * Howie's "Collection," ut supra. 
 
 i 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SPIRITUAL OUTCOME OF COVENANTING EFFORT. 
 
 State of the country— Kirkton's testimony— A significant test— Andrew 
 Donaldson of Dalgety— First Book of Discipline— The religion of 
 the time. 
 
 IT may be said that it is not easy to judge the 
 spiritual life of a people from the sentiments 
 of their preachers ; and some more direct evidence 
 may be called for bearing upon the religious condition 
 of both people and preachers. Such evidence is not 
 wanting. Here is that of James Kirkton, the 
 Chronicler of " The Secret and True History of the 
 Church of Scotland, from the Restoration to the Year 
 1G78:" — "At the king's return every parish had a 
 minister, every village had a school, every family 
 almost had a Bible ; yea, in most of the country all 
 the children of age could read the Scriptures, and 
 were provided of Bibles, either by the parents or 
 their ministers. Every minister was obliged to 
 preach thrice a-week, to lecture and catechise once, 
 besides other private duties wherein they abounded, 
 accordino- to their proportion of faithfulness. None 
 
V8 SPIRITUAL OUTCOME OF COVENANTING EFFORT. 
 
 of them mio'ht be scandalous in their conversation 
 
 o 
 
 or negligent in their office so long as Presbytery 
 
 stood Nor did a minister satisfy himself except 
 
 his ministry had the seal of a divine approbation, 
 as might witness him to be really sent from God. 
 I have lived many years in a parish where I never 
 heard an oath, and you might have ridden many 
 miles before you heard any. Also you could not, for 
 a great part of the country, have lodged in a family 
 where the Lord was not worshipped by reading, 
 singing, and publick prayer. No body complained 
 more of our Church government than our taverners, 
 whose ordinary lamentation was their trade was 
 broke, people were become so sober."* 
 
 Into the piety of our Scottish Covenanters at a 
 later date, wdien " Bloody " Claverhouse had the chief 
 command in the west of Scotland, and employed 
 dishonourable measures to discover the retreats of the 
 intercommuned, we gain insight from what took place 
 at Duchal Castle, Renfrewshire, in 1684. Thither 
 two men had been sent to collect information. Pro- 
 fessing to be persecuted Covenanters, they applied for 
 quarters and food. Arrangements were made for 
 accommodating them in the barn, and a supply of 
 porridge was sent for their supper. They fell to 
 eating the food ivithout asking a blessing. That 
 
 * "The Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland, from the 
 Restoration to tlie Year 1G78," by the Rev. James Kirkton. Edited 
 from the manuscripts by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq. Edinburgh, 
 1817. 
 
SPIRITUAL OUTCOME OF COVENANTING EFFORT. 79 
 
 omission created suspicion in the mind of the ser- 
 vant who waited upon them, and resulted in the 
 detection and summary expulsion of the pseudo- 
 Covenanters.* 
 
 It may extend acquaintance and heighten apprecia- 
 tion of the practical side of Covenanting piety, if 
 attention is directed to an east country minister of 
 those days, and the ecclesiastical work of which he 
 was the head -centre. Of Andrew Donaldson,f 
 minister at Dalgety, Fifeshire, it was testified by 
 the neio'hbourino^ minister of Inverkeithino- " that 
 he was singular for a heavenly and spiritual temper ; 
 and very much of a holy tenderness and ardent love 
 to Jesus Christ at all times discovered themselves in 
 everything he did." J In 1664 the Bishop of Dun- 
 keld, at the instigation of Archbishop Sharp, de- 
 prived this worthy man of his charge for venturing 
 to preach without the sanction of the bishops. Ten 
 years later he was " put to the horn,"^ — that is, de- 
 nounced as a rebel; and in 1676 he was intercom- 
 muned, the result being similar to the boycotting of 
 our day. When an old man and infirm, he was 
 forced out of bed and taken to Linlithgow prison, 
 where he was confined for more than a year, being- 
 set at liberty after the Bothwell Bridge engagement, 
 
 * Wodrow's History, vol. iv. , book iii. , p. IGO. 
 
 t Material for the above sketch has been largely drawn from tliat most 
 interesting work, " Glimpses of Pastoral Work in the Covenanting 
 Times, etc.," by Rev. W. Ross, LL.D., 1877. 
 
 X Wodrow's History, vol. i., book i., chap, v., ]}. 400, 
 
80 SPIRITUAL OUTCOME OF COVENANTING EFFORT. 
 
 when he accepted the indulgence. What was the 
 condition of things in Andrew Donaldson's parish 
 during the twenty years of labour that preceded 
 these sufferings ? That can be gathered from such 
 facts as these. Public worship was regularly con- 
 ducted, forenoon and afternoon, winter and summer 
 alike ; a lecture was delivered on one of the ordinary 
 days of the week ; and a weekly meeting was held 
 for catechising, to which the parishioners came accord- 
 ing to the districts into which the parish had been 
 divided. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was 
 dispensed twice in the year ; and prior to each cele- 
 bration people of all ranks were examined by the 
 minister with the aid of the elders. Some ten days 
 previous to the communion Sabbath the young men 
 and women who had been under instruction with a 
 view to becoming communicants appeared before the 
 session, and having been " seriously exhorted to study 
 the knowledge of God and follow the exercise of 
 piety," received tokens. The parish was mapped out 
 into twelve districts or quarters, and the kirk-session 
 numbered sixteen all told. Each elder was expected 
 to visit his quarter, containing from twelve to fifteen 
 families. When doing so he was " to take notice of 
 such as want family worship, as mock prayer and the 
 power of godliness, as are profane and scandalous, 
 that they may be brought to censure ; as also to take 
 special notice of any that are gracious and seekers of 
 God, that they may be strengthened and encouraged 
 
SPIRITUAL OUTCOME OF COVENANTING EFFORT. 81 
 
 in that way." Meetings of kirk-session were held 
 weekly, and the usual day of meeting was Sabbath. 
 The judgment of the Reformers, expressed in the 
 First Book of Discipline, " that every several kirk 
 have ane schoolmaister appointed," was carried into 
 effect in the parish of Dalgety ; and the school was 
 diligently visited by minister and elders, who from 
 time to time reported " that the bairns are in a good 
 way of proficiency." Provision was made by the 
 session for paying the school fees of those children 
 whose parents were unable to meet them ; and also for 
 the spiritual instruction of herds, and " such as are 
 tied to keep cattle in the summer season." Care was 
 taken by the session that the Scriptures were placed 
 within the reach of all, and were in the homes of the 
 poorest, sums of money being frequently given out 
 of the kirk -box for " Bibles to poor bodies," or for 
 " poor folk in the parish." Out of the same box, 
 replenished with the weekly offerings dropped into 
 the " brod," was supplied relief to the ordinary poor, 
 the casual poor,* the sick poor,-f* and the poor in time 
 of war who " had been spoiled with the enemie.":J: 
 
 Such items as these, illustrating the external 
 machinery and the inner working of our Scottish 
 Church during her Covenanting struggle, may tend 
 
 * " Given to ane pure distressed man that came from Ireland, lying 
 sick in the bellman's house, 12s." 
 
 t " Given out off the boxe for the use off a poor diseased lasse, Francis 
 Lamb, 42s." 
 
 % "Given to a lame souldier, 4s." 
 (110) 6 
 
82 SPIRITUAL OUTCOME OF COVENANTING EFFORT. 
 
 to show that the religious life of Scotland in those 
 days was no fitful, spasmodic thing, which could only 
 thrive in the excitement of conventicles and find 
 expression in rhapsodical efiusions ; but that, on the 
 contrary, it was intensely practical and methodical, 
 concerning itself as earnestly as any evangelical 
 Church of the present day in the welfare of j^outh, 
 in the state of religion and morals, in the interests 
 of all that is pure, lovely, and of good report. 
 
 It was a religion in all respects worthy of " times 
 whose echo rings through Scotland to this hour." 
 
 I 
 
DURING THE SECESSION. 
 
 By William Blair, D.D., 
 
 Author of " Leighton," and Editor of JMackelvies 
 "Annals of United Presliytcrian C/i7(7ch." 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PERIOD. 
 
 Relief brought by the Revolution of 1688 — The reconstructed Church — 
 Its defects — The Union with England — Laj- patronage — Doctrinal 
 controversy — " Marrow of Modern Divinity" — Rise of Moderatism — 
 Hadow and Robertson — The "Marrow" men. 
 
 THE Revolution of 1688 was a great step in the 
 religious life of Scotland. To the old Scottish 
 Church it was what the return from captivity had 
 been to the weary exiles. By the suspension of 
 the penal laws against Nonconformists in 1687, 
 Presbyterian ministers who were abroad returned 
 home, and resumed their preaching in such places 
 as could be provided for them. But the relief 
 afforded was not on a large scale, and it was held 
 by a doubtful tenure so long as James II. was the 
 ruler. The Revolution, on the other hand, was the 
 introduction of large liberty and freedom from civil 
 pains and penalties to the oppressed heritage, in the 
 possession of which they were as men that dreamed ! * 
 
 * " It was a salvation never to be forgotten by the friends of religion 
 and liberty. In particular, the Church of Scotland ought always to 
 commemorate the glorious deliverance and revolution, 1688, whereby 
 she was raised out of the dust, and to be thankful to the great God, the 
 author thereof. " Rev. J. Willison. 
 
86 THE PERIOD. 
 
 Forthwith, amid mingled emotions, began the recon- 
 struction of the old Zion ; for while many shouted 
 aloud for joy, there were ancient men, that had seen 
 the first house, who wept with a loud voice. Presby- 
 terianism was restored, " the city was built on its 
 own heap, and the palace remained after the manner 
 thereof." About sixty ministers who had been in 
 office before the Restoration survived till the Revolu- 
 tion, and became the Conscript Fathers of the Church - 
 State. To them the king committed the keys of 
 authority. As for William, he had no preferences for 
 any ecclesiastical system except so far as it served his 
 purposes ; and latitudinarian as he was, and dealing 
 with a mixed community, though he laid down a Presby- 
 terian basis, he studied comprehension in the structure. 
 The spirit of compromise governed the reconstruc- 
 tion, and heterogeneous elements were drawn together 
 that foretokened disturbance, if not disruption, at no 
 distant day. Prelacy was disestablished in July 
 1689 ; and in June of 1G90, the Confession of Faith 
 was ratified by Act of Parliament, and the Presby- 
 terian government and discipline established, as in 
 1592. In the new programme of the Church the 
 Covenants were left out in the cold — an intentional 
 but ominous omission, in view of the wrangling and 
 bloodshed of fifty weary years. " The strict Presby- 
 terians brought themselves to accept the new ecclesi- 
 astical constitution under protest, as a large instalment 
 of what was dua They missed indeed what they 
 
THE PERIOD. 87 
 
 considered as the perfect beauty and symmetry of 
 that Church which had forty years before been the 
 glory of Scotland." * Exception, too, was taken to 
 the easy terms of admission which were held out to 
 such of the Episcopal incumbents as should conform 
 to the new regime. -^ In consequence it was seen 
 that as in 1662 Presbyterians conformed to Episco- 
 pacy, so now there were Vicars of Bray who remained 
 untouched by ecclesiastical changes. 
 
 The wall so built of distempered materials was 
 liable to unsteadiness, and its stability was tested by 
 the political changes that ensued. King William died, 
 and was succeeded by Queen Anne ; and then came 
 the Union of England with Scotland, with all its 
 safeguards and Act of Security, ratifying and estab- 
 lishing the Confession of Faith and the Presbyterian 
 form of government, " to continue without any altera- 
 tion to the people of this land, in all succeeding 
 generations." This document looked like the Magna 
 Charta of the Church, or as a sheet-anchor to hold her 
 fast in all storms and commotions. The security was 
 of the most limited description, both in time and 
 degree. Five years afterwards, in 1712, the Jacobite 
 and High Church party hastily re-imposed the yoke 
 of Patronage — a bold stroke, in flagrant violation 
 
 * Macaulay. 
 
 + In the Royal Letter to the General Assembly, at which Lord Car- 
 michael was High Commissioner, the king said : " Our authority shall 
 never be a tool to the irregular passions of any party. Moderation is 
 what religion enjoins, what neighbouring Churches expect from you, and 
 what we recommend to you." 
 
88 THE PERIOD. 
 
 of the Union Treaty ; a piece of State-craft which 
 well may be called " treacherous in motive and 
 manner." Appeals and remonstrances were in vain. 
 The chain was foro^ed and riveted, and for the long: 
 period of one hundred and sixty-two years the Church 
 dragged it along. " Even long before the Union," as 
 Professor Story tells us, " the Church had dreaded 
 a joint-attack through toleration and the restoration 
 of patronage," so that the thing she had feared came 
 upon her, and proved a most potent factor in the 
 cleavages she sustained. 
 
 The mischief arising from the exercise of lay 
 patronage was not immediate, as probationers for a 
 time were shy of accepting presentations to benefices, 
 and as the call of the people as well as the con- 
 currence of the local Presbytery were required to 
 give validity to the presentation. But in course of 
 time patrons refused to relax their rights, and forced 
 settlements of obnoxious presentees took place, some- 
 times even with the aid of a military force, and the 
 rights of the people in the election of their ministers 
 were trampled down.* In 1732 the General As- 
 sembly passed an Act restricting the right of election, 
 under the Jus devolutum, to heritors and elders in 
 landward parishes, and to magistrates, town council- 
 lors, and heritors in royal burghs. A paper sub- 
 scribed by forty-two ministers and several elders was 
 
 * " These intrusions came gradually into the Church, but were not 
 commonly practised, nor countenanced by su]ierior courts, till after the 
 year 1728." — Willison's "Fair and Impartial Testimony," p. 55. 
 
THE PERIOD. 89 
 
 submitted to the Supreme Court regarding that mea- 
 sure, which the Assembly refused to hear ; and 
 another paper on the same lines, signed by fifteen 
 hundred people, was treated with greater indignity. 
 The march of events was rapidly towards absolutism. 
 For only two years before, the Assembly had decreed 
 that the reasons of dissent against decisions and 
 determinations of Church judicatories should not be 
 recorded. This was an effectual means of stifling 
 the voice of the minority and overbearing conscien- 
 tious convictions, and all the more exasperating from 
 the fact of its having been passed without observing 
 the forms of the Barrier Act. Such a cloture was 
 daring in its defiance of the constitution of the 
 Church, and, " in the light of the spirit and practice 
 of Presbyterianism, nothing short of a revolution." * 
 
 For now forty years the Church of the Revolution 
 had been the religious mother of the land, and done 
 homao^e to four sovereio-ns. Her career had not been 
 uninterrupted, nor was her peace without conflict. 
 In 1692 her autonomy had been challenged by King 
 William through his Commissioner, and her prerogative 
 of calling her Assemblies only saved by the courage 
 of her sons. By the pressure of the Oaths of Assur- 
 ance and of Allegiance in 1694, she was pushed to the 
 very brink of rebellion, and delivered at the eleventh 
 hour by the policy of self-sacrifice of William Car- 
 stares. In 1712 her constitution was invaded by the 
 
 * Rev. Dr. Leckie. 
 
90 THE PERIOD. 
 
 Patronage Act, and the Oath of Abjuration ahnost 
 rent her in twain. Two years later she was called 
 to examine the quality of the teaching of her pro- 
 fessors of divinity, in consequence of heretical ten- 
 dencies on the part of Professor John Simson of 
 Glasgow. The process of trial was tardy in its 
 evolution, and, when completed, was strongly sus- 
 pected of partiality ; and, like smothered fire, it 
 broke out afresh ten years afterwards with alarm- 
 ing consequences. Then there came the prosecution 
 of a little book which Thomas Boston, minister of 
 Simprin, had found lying in the cottage of a parish- 
 ioner, and of which he had spoken to Drummond 
 of CriefF as they sat together in the Assembly. The 
 book bore the name of " The Marrow of Modern 
 Divinity," and after being edited and reprinted with 
 a preface by James Hog of Carnock, it became the 
 missionary of new modes of preaching the gospel, 
 to which some of the best ministers became converts, 
 till they became involved in the controversy which 
 the Assembly conducted. Principal Hadow of St. 
 Andrews, by sermon and speech and pamphlet, im- 
 pugned the " Marrow " and its defenders, and persuaded 
 the Assembly to condemn the book and prohibit its 
 use ; and when a representation for liberty came up 
 afterwards, the petitioners were rebuked for their 
 pains.* There ranged under the St. Andrews princi- 
 
 * The names of the twelve ministers who signed the Representation 
 for the Repeal of the AntiO»Iarrow Act were — Messrs. Hog of Carnock, 
 Boston of Ettrick, Bonar of Torphichen, Williamson of Inveresk, Kid of 
 
THE PERIOD. 91 
 
 pal other two principals — namely, Stirling and Wishart, 
 with Professors W. Dunlop and W. Hamilton of Edin- 
 burgh, and such ministers as Anderson of St. Andrews, 
 and Craig, Flint, Smith, and Maclean, of Edinburgh ; 
 with Linning, Cameron, Kamsay, Gowdie, Colden, 
 and almost all the friends of Professor Simson. The 
 party of defence, besides the twelve already named, 
 numbered such men as Sethrum of Gladsmuir, a man 
 of a serene and saintly type of piety ; Brisbane of 
 Stirling, who is called " the learned and pious ; " * 
 Hamilton of Stirling (formerly of Ecclesmachen and 
 Airth), the teacher of, and afterwards the successor to, 
 Brisbane, as well as the true friend of Ebenezer 
 Erskine, both before and after his secession. A 
 like-minded neio-hbour was Warden of Garofunnock, 
 whose little book on " The Lord's Supper " is still 
 extant. Among other names that have floated down 
 as defenders of the doctrines of grace are Cuthbert, 
 Mair, and Eraser of Culross, Brown of Abercorn, 
 Charles Moore of Stirling (the grandfather of Sir 
 John Moore), Professor Osburn of Aberdeen, and 
 Robert Riccaltoun of Hobkirk, whose grasp of 
 theology and of logic were alike powerful. -f* 
 
 Queensferry, Gabriel Wilson of Maxton, Ebenezer Erskine of Portmoak, 
 Ralph Erskine and James Wardlaw of Dunfermline, Henry Davidson of 
 Galashiels, James Bathgate of Orwell, and William Hunter of Lilliesleaf. 
 They were jeeringly nicknamed "the Twelve Apostles." 
 
 * He wrote a Catechism " Concerning the Three Special Divine Cove- 
 nants and the Two Gospel Sacraments," on the lines of federal theology, 
 the first-fruits of the Evangelical party. Brisbane published a sermon 
 which was challenged. 
 
 + It is not pretended that these were the sole " defenders of the faith." 
 
92 THE PERIOD. 
 
 On the merits of the " Marrow " controversy we do 
 not enter further than to say that the abettors of the 
 " Marrow " theology contended for a free, full, and un- 
 hampered offer of the gospel of the grace of God 
 to men. Principal Hadow, and many of those who 
 aided him in their prosecution, were of the ultra- 
 orthodox Calvinistic type ; and yet it is curious to 
 I reflect that they became, in the course of things, the 
 forerunners of the soulless, sapless, " legal " preaching 
 that sank down into pagan ethics in such men as 
 Carlyle of Inveresk. 
 
 Principal Tulloch classes his predecessor Hadow 
 with the founders of the Moderate school of the 
 Church. Dean Stanley calls Leighton a " latitudin- 
 arian," and "the pattern of the Moderates in liberality 
 and latitudinarianism of sentiment, the most moderate 
 of divines in the apostolical sense of the word, which 
 was the sense in which the Moderates took the name 
 for themselves." * The term has a twofold import, 
 describing the doctrinal form of the preaching and 
 the ecclesiastical administration of the courts. As to 
 
 Currie of Kinglassie, Willison of Dundee, M'Laurin of Glasgow, Bisset 
 of Aberdeen, were all valiant for the truth. But when the Representers 
 were before the Commission in August 1821, E. Erskine calls them 
 "the poor handful." For fuller information regarding the "Marrow" 
 men see Bro\\Ti's "Gospel Truth," Edin. 1817 ; and Agnew's "Theology 
 of Consolation," Edin. 1881. 
 
 * In a letter to the writer, of date 6th December 1873, the Dean uses 
 the language we have quoted, and refers to the application of the terra 
 " for the first time by the Lord High Commissioner in 1G90." It should 
 have been " the Roj^al Letter," and not the Commissioner. DearrStanley 
 adds : " He was regarded on that accomit by Wodrow and others M'ith 
 the same suspicion as ' the Moderates ' of later days have been since." 
 
THE PERIOD. 93 
 
 the former, it began with what were called " criminal 
 omissions," or defective statements of gospel truth, 
 and in course of time graded into cold Socinianism ; 
 and as to the latter, it seems as if the name of 
 Moderate were misapplied by the toleration of error 
 and the extreme rigour with which, under Patronage, 
 unwelcome ministers were thrust on reclaiminof con- 
 gregations and parishes. Mr. Walker of Dysart is 
 inclined to postpone the date of the beginning of the 
 era of Moderatism till 1752, the time of the accession 
 to power of Principal Robertson.''^' No doubt the 
 party lines were hard and fast in 1752, when such 
 a minister as Thomas Gillespie was incontinently 
 deposed ; but the lines were forming and becoming 
 more and more visible before the party had such a 
 leader as Pvobertson — " the prevailing party," as the 
 seceders named them. And to find the natural pro- 
 genitors of the party called "Moderate," who thwarted 
 the popular will and withheld the simple gospel from 
 perishing men through such a long period, we must 
 go back to the early days of the Revolution Church. 
 It was then the seed of dragons' teeth was sown 
 broadcast which yielded a crop of armed men. 
 
 * "Scottish Church History," p. 111. Edinburgh, 1882. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE SECESSION. 
 
 Ebenezer Erskine's sermon at Perth— The Synod censure— Suspension 
 and excision of the Protesters — Gairney Bridge — First Presbytery 
 — Breach completed— Might they have returned ?— Burghers and 
 Anti-Burghers— Defenders of evangelical religion. 
 
 AS there were Eesolutioners and Protesters in 
 the Church before the Restoration, so in the 
 Revolution Church there was a party of Constitution- 
 alists who claimed to be the representatives of the 
 old Church ; and opposed to them was the Moderate 
 party, who constituted a majority in the Church 
 courts. The enactments of the Assembly pressed 
 hard upon the Evangelical party, and redress was 
 sought in vain, as even reasons of dissent were not 
 recorded. It seemed, therefore, that the pulpit and 
 the press were the only channels of expression that 
 were left open to the disaffected. In the belief that 
 that was so, Ebenezer Erskine, minister of Stirling, 
 as the retiring Moderator of the Synod of Perth and 
 Stirling, on the 10th October 1732, preached a ser- 
 mon at Perth from the text, Psalm cxviii. 22, "The 
 
ORIGIN OF THE SECESSION. 95 
 
 stone which the builders refused is become the head- 
 stone of the corner." He took occasion to speak 
 pretty freely against the defections of his Church 
 and time, and " the invasions and encroachments 
 made upon the authority of Christ, the rights of 
 his crown, and the immunities of his kingdom." 
 Using the figure of a building and of a man being 
 regularly called to build, and of the call of the 
 Church lying in the free choice and election of the 
 Christian people, of the natural privilege of every 
 house or society of men to have the choice of their 
 own servants or officers, he asked, " Shall we suppose 
 that God granted to any set of men — patrons, heritors, 
 elders, or whatever they may be — a power to impose 
 servants on his family without their consent, being 
 the freest society in the world ? " '^ 
 
 As soon as the Synod was constituted, some mem- 
 bers complained that the Moderator had exceeded the 
 freedom of the pulpit; and a committee being ap- 
 pointed to deal with him, the Synod sat out six 
 sederunts, stretching over three days, when, on the 
 12th October, the following was the finding: — "After 
 long reasoning as said is, the question was put : If or 
 not Mr. Erskine be censurable on the account of ex- 
 pressions he emitted in his sermon before the Synod ? 
 
 * " ' The freest society in the ivorld ' are words which will bear frequent 
 repetition and much pondering. It is on words like these that histories 
 are built. They are words to inscribe on a banner, to be seen by friends 
 and foes. To get down to the ground of these words and see their full 
 bearing and appHcation, how much does this involve? "—Lecture by Bev, 
 Dr. Leckie, Glasgoiv. 
 
96 ORIGIN OF THE SECESSION. 
 
 Then the vote was stated : Censurable or not ? Rolls 
 called and votes marked it carried by plurality : 
 Censurable.'' From this finding, fifteen members, in- 
 cluding the Moderator, Rev. George Meik, dissented 
 and protested. As Erskine had gone home when the 
 Synod called him up to its bar, he was ordered to 
 appear before the Synod in April next year. And 
 when that occasion came he was refused a hearing, 
 upon which he protested again and withdrew. He 
 was recalled, and permitted to read his paper of 
 defence.* The cause passed on to the General 
 Assembly of 1733, which rebuked and admonished 
 Erskine. He lodged a protest for himself and for 
 three ministers, William Wilson of Perth, Alexander 
 Moncrieff* of Abernethy, and James Fisher of Kin- 
 claven, who had appealed against the sentence of the 
 Synod and adhered to the protest of Erskine. The 
 Assembly disallowed the protest, and the paper, being- 
 thrown upon the table, might have been swept away 
 
 * Among other things, he said : — " According to the utterance given 
 by the Lord to me at Perth I delivered his mind, particularly with 
 relation to some prevailing evils of the day, which to me are matter of 
 confession, and therefore I dare not retract the least part of that testi- 
 mony. I am heartily sorry that ever the reverend Synod should have 
 commenced a process against me for what I am persuaded was nothing 
 else but truth ; especially when they have never yet made it appear tliat 
 I have in the least receded from the Word of God and our approven Stand- 
 ards of Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and Government. Every man 
 has his own proper gift of utterance, and according to the gift bestowed 
 on me, so I expressed myself at Perth. And if I had given offence by any 
 expression uttered by me at that time, I should very Avillingly retract and 
 beg pardon ; but I hope my reverend brethren will excuse me to say that 
 I am not yet convinced of any just ground given for a rebuke and 
 admonition." 
 
OFdGIN OF THE SECESSION. 97 
 
 with the heap of unread and unrecorded ecclesiastical 
 lumber, doing harm to nobody, and all four ministers 
 might have exercised their functions and the liberty 
 they claimed " to preach the same truths of God and 
 to testify against the same or like defections of this 
 Church upon all proper occasions." In that case the 
 Secession would have been postponed, if not averted. 
 But the paper fell from the overloaded table to the 
 floor, and one of the members picked it up and read 
 rebellion in it, and anew the Protesters were arraigned 
 at the bar, and a fresh committee appointed to sit 
 upon them. " The Four Brethren," as the Assembly 
 called them, were in due course handed over to the 
 Commission at its meeting in August, with a threaten- 
 ing of higher censure unless signs of penitence ap- 
 peared. When August came, "the Four Brethren" 
 had not changed ground ; and though very urgent 
 representations for delay of procedure came up from 
 presbyteries and sessions, the Commission suspended 
 the Protesters " from the exercise of their ministerial 
 function and all the parts thereof." At next meeting 
 of Commission in November, the question of "pro- 
 ceeding to a higher censure " was carried by the 
 casting vote of the Moderator, John Gowdie, and 
 on 16th November 1733 "the Four Brethren" were 
 loosed from their charges, and their churches were 
 declared vacant. 
 
 The Secession was now an accomplished fact. The 
 
 Rubicon was crossed, and " the Four Brethren " went 
 (no) 7 
 
98 ORIGIN OF THE SECESSION. 
 
 forward with unfaltering steps in the way God led 
 them.*"* Cast forth from their mother's door, they 
 took the step of again appealing to Heaven for light 
 and direction. The place of their meeting was a 
 small wayside inn at Gairney Bridge, about three 
 miles south of Kinross, with Benarty full in view 
 and Loch Leven couching at its feet, and visible 
 across the dim waters the old kirk of Portmoak. It 
 w^as on the 3rd of December Ebenezer Erskine left 
 Stirling for Dunfermline ; and next day the two 
 brothers journeyed on to Miss Bennet's cottage, where 
 they were joined by the brethren from the north — 
 Alexander MoncriefF, William Wilson, and James 
 Fisher, and also Thomas Mair of Orwell, afterwards 
 one of the Seceders. The next day was wholly spent 
 in prayer and conference, and the day following wit- 
 nessed the same fervent importunity, " till about two 
 o'clock they came to the resolution of constituting 
 themselves into a Presbytery, which accordingly they 
 did." 
 
 It was in no schismatical spirit that the Seceders 
 took up this new and unprecedented attitude to the 
 Church of Scotland. Though she had cast them out, 
 
 * Before the Commission, in September, they met at Kinclaven, 
 " seeking counsel of the Lord as to what they were next to do, and found 
 that in their circumstances it was fit they sliould think, in case of their 
 deposition next Commission, to be ready before it to constitute them- 
 selves into a Presbytery, and declare themselves not of the communion 
 of the Church, with certain reserves." — Life ami Diarii of Ralph Erskine, 
 pp. 203-4. Ralph Erskine and John Gow of Cargill were present at this 
 conference as sympathetic correspondents. 
 
ORIGIN OF THE SECESSION. 99 
 
 they loved her, and claimed to be her true and faith- 
 ful sons, as they had made a secession only from 
 " the prevailing party, with whom they could have 
 no ministerial communion, till they should see their 
 sins and mistakes, and amend them." We verily 
 believe the thought of their being regarded as the 
 founders of a new Church, by which their names 
 would be handed down to coming generations, was 
 never present to their mind. If they appear to some 
 to have been " sullen and stubborn towards the judi- 
 catories " of the Church, they were not so without 
 good cause ; and wherever there are deep conscien- 
 tious convictions under strain, honest men cannot 
 smilingly abandon them. No doubt there were men 
 left behind in the Church " loyal to evangelical 
 principle, and anxious to vindicate popular rights," 
 and with such the Seceders lived on friendly terms. 
 Others, such as Currie of Kinglassie and Willison of 
 Dundee, renounced the Seceders and fulminated 
 pamphlets against them. 
 
 It has been said that " had Erskine and his fol- 
 lowers remained, as Willison and others did, co- 
 operating against the abuses and corruptions in the 
 Church, the labours of the Evangelical party would 
 probably have been crowned with success — Patronage 
 abolished and future secessions prevented." But it 
 does not seem as if the facts of the case justify 
 such prophesyings. The General Assembly did make 
 a change of front in 1734, rescinding some of the 
 
100 ORIGIN OF THE SECESSION. 
 
 obnoxious legislation, because it had been found to 
 be " hurtful to the Church," and recommendino- the 
 Synod of Perth and Stirling to restore " the Four 
 Brethren," — which recommendation the Synod gener- 
 ously carried out. Not only were they reponed in their 
 charges, but Ebenezer Erskine was chosen Moderator 
 of Stirling Presbytery. Here was a door opened for 
 reunion ; was it unreasonable in them to decline the 
 invitation to return ? In this they were in a better 
 position to judge than we are, as they were able to 
 measure the full extent of the concessions made in 
 their favour.* They were sensible of the kindness of 
 their friends who obtained a respite from high-toned 
 discipline, but they knew that the special acts of a 
 repentant Assembly would not govern the Church 
 for all time. And they grounded their secession not 
 merely on the treatment they received at the hands 
 of the Assembly, but on " a complex course of de- 
 fection, both in doctrine, government, and discipline, 
 carried on with a high hand by the present judi- 
 catories of the Church, justifying themselves in their 
 procedure and refusing to be restrained." -f* The new 
 
 * Sir Henry Moncreilf Well wood, D.D., in his " Life of Dr. Erskine," 
 1818, p. 449, says: — "The members of the Church who had been most 
 determined in disregarding the opposition made to the induction of 
 presentees, if they concurred in this enactment [Act against intrusion 
 of ministers into vacant congregations, 173G], could have intended it as 
 nothing more than a concession, in terminis, to the ]:)rejudices of the 
 people, mthout any view to its influence on their decisions in particular 
 cases, or to cuch a change of system as could have had any practical 
 effects." 
 
 t Wilson's "Defence of Reformation Principles," p. 40. 
 
ORIGIN OF THE SECESSION. 101 
 
 and strange zeal of the upper powers for reform 
 was suspicious ; and they spoke of " the lamentable 
 consequences that have followed, and may yet follow, 
 upon the separation of Messrs. Ebenezer Erskine, Alex- 
 ander MoncriefF, and James Fisher, from this Church 
 and the judicatories thereof," in the speech and tone 
 of those who dreaded schism or dissent would weaken 
 the power of the Church. We cannot charge Erskine 
 and his associates with pride or vengeance engendered 
 by the new position they occupied, or by the sense of 
 injury wakened up within them. They claimed to 
 be still a part of the old historical Church, the heirs 
 of its grand traditions, and the sworn defenders of 
 its truth and liberty.* It was not for them to fore- 
 cast that " the little runlet which then began to How 
 would be swollen into a formidable flood." f Present 
 duty, and not selfish or personal considerations, moved 
 them to decline the irenicum of the Assembly, that 
 they might be freer to resist the chill, cold air of 
 the Deism and Rationalism of the age. Yet they 
 took no immediate step to widen the breach, and 
 their new Presbytery was two j^ears old before it 
 proceeded to acts of jurisdiction. 
 
 Would they have gained all they contended for 
 by a return ? There was a harvest waiting to be 
 
 * " The Seceders would have proved far from being wise as serpents 
 had they listened to the charming of the dominant party, and certainly 
 they would not have been harmless as doves." — Rev. Dr. Leckie. 
 
 + "Scottish Church History," by Rev. iST. L. Walker. Edinburgh, 
 1882. Page 108. 
 
102 ORIGIN OF THE SECESSION. 
 
 reaped, from the sowing of the untoward legislation 
 of bygone years, the upgrowth and fruit of the re- 
 pression of popular freedom in the choice of ministers. 
 These white fields of evangelization beckoned them 
 to a work which they could undertake, in response 
 to wide popular sympathies awakened by their con- 
 tendings. Had they returned, their influence would 
 have been absorbed — their high, resolute position com- 
 promised. " The centuries," says Dr. Ker, " belong to 
 those who know how to seize the hours. Had they 
 re-entered the Church, and felt themselves compelled 
 again to leave, it would have been to meet hesitation 
 and chill of feeling among the people." * 
 
 After all, the logic of events is the best settlement 
 of doubtful questions. In 1740 the General Assembly 
 de230sed " the Four Brethren," and four others with 
 them. Seven years after this, the new Church was 
 rent in twain by a wedge driving home civil oaths, 
 and for other seventy-three years the disrupted body, 
 under the vulgar names of Burghers and Anti-Burghers, 
 maintained the struggle for existence outside the pale 
 of the National Zion. But for the life and spiritual 
 growth inherent in them, these two seceding Churches 
 must have exterminated each other. Most certainly 
 they clung to the traditional theology, when the 
 majority of the churches of the Establishment had 
 gone over to Moderatism, which excluded the gospel 
 
 * " The Erskines, Ebenezer and Ralph." Edinburgh, 1881. Pages 36, 
 37. The passage is one of great beauty, and institutes a comparison with 
 the cases of Spener and Francke in Germany, and Wesley in England. 
 
ORIGIN OF THE SECESSION. 103 
 
 from its system. Thomas Carlyle mentions that in 
 his early days " a man who awoke to the belief that 
 he actually had a soul to be saved or lost, was apt 
 to be found among the Dissenting people, and to 
 have given up attendance on the Kirk." Allowing 
 for Carlyle's intensive and extreme statements, we 
 are forced to admit that at the beginning of this 
 century matters had reached a low ebb where Moderat- 
 ism was in the ascendant, and had so continued for 
 fifty years or more. 
 
 As if to pour contempt on the Secession, ignoring 
 its existence, the policy of Principal Robertson and 
 his distinguished colleagues w^as one of Erastian in- 
 tolerance and utter evacuation of spiritual life. Who 
 does not know the ecclesiastical tragedy, deplored by 
 Churchmen and Dissenters alike, of the deposition of 
 Thomas Gillespie of Carnock, the pupil of Doddridge, 
 the correspondent of Jonathan Edwards, who, when 
 deprived of his ministry, solely for conscience' sake, 
 said "he desired to receive his sentence with real 
 concern and awful impressions of the Divine conduct 
 in it, but rejoiced that to him it was given in the 
 behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but to 
 suffer for his sake " ? Gillespie owed his conversion 
 to the preaching of Thomas Boston, and Thomas 
 Boston owed his conversion to Henry Erskine, the 
 father of Ebenezer and Ralph ; so that whatever of 
 heredity Gillespie and the two Erskines owed sprung 
 from a common source. The Secession and Relief 
 
104 ORIGIN OF THE SECESSION. 
 
 Churches united in 1847 into what is now known 
 as the United Presbyterian Church, the representa- 
 tives of the old historical Church of Scotland thereby 
 finding their counterpart of truth, freedom, and 
 catholicity derived from the liberalizing influences 
 of the descendants of English nonconformity. In 
 the two Secessions of 1732 and 1752 the men who 
 acted the leading parts were men of God ; and they 
 were immensely helped in their contendings by the 
 prayers and sympathies of God's people who were 
 longing for deliverance. " The Seceders stood for 
 truth and life in days when the battle went sore 
 against them. And as long as truth and life are 
 maintained in Scotland, it will not be forgotten that 
 a great share of the honour of having carried them 
 safe through some of our darkest days was given by 
 God to the Seceders." ^'^ 
 
 * "Lectures on the Church of Scotland," by Principal Rainy, D.D., 
 p. 142. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 TIMES OF REFRESHING. 
 
 Spiritual origin of the Secession — Movements of the Spirit — Germany — 
 Moravia — Jonathan Edwards — Pi-aying societies — Preaching of 
 Whitefield — M'Culloch of Cambuslang — Kevival at Kilsyth — Glas- 
 gow — Kirkintilloch — Denny — General spirit of inquiry. 
 
 THE Secession was an outburst of religious life, 
 as incapable of being held in as the buds of 
 spring can be prevented from breaking their sheaths 
 by the chill winds of April. It was a spring-time 
 which came not by observation, or human policy 
 planning its own ways. The leaders of the move- 
 ment were themselves led in a way they knew not. 
 It was a time of conflict when new methods of action 
 were taken, and new weapons furbished for the 
 attack ; when those that were weak were as David, 
 and David was as the angel of the Lord. Though 
 the combatants were few in their contention for truth 
 and liberty, they had the moral support of the great 
 body of the people, and the warm sympathy and 
 concurrence also of not a few in the Established 
 Church who were not at one with them on the 
 
106 TIMES OF REFRESHING. 
 
 question of Secession. It is beyond dispute that 
 there were ministers who preached a full gospel who 
 yet remained within the old lines ; and we proceed 
 to notify the special times of blessing the Holy Spirit 
 appointed to some of these. 
 
 We have the highest authority regarding the 
 mystery of the operations of the Holy Spirit, and 
 the limits of our knowledge of his gracious influences, 
 which come and go like the viewless winds. We 
 may not ask that old question, " Which way went 
 the Spirit of the Lord ? " but we can trace the ves- 
 tiges of his operations when he comes down on the 
 parched places as a dew of blessing. We can tell 
 when souls are aglow with love to the Saviour, when 
 spiritual decision takes the place of doubt and hesita- 
 tion, and when worldly and torpid spirits get thor- 
 oughly roused and wakened out of sleep. It is a 
 striking fact that the features of revived life in the 
 Church in various periods of history bear so close 
 a resemblance to one another, that the most recent 
 seem to be but a reproduction of the most remote, 
 the upheaval of life in the nineteenth century being 
 in nowise different from that of centuries that went 
 before. 
 
 In the year 1732 there was a remarkable out- 
 pouring of the Divine Spirit at Salzburg in Germany, 
 when a whole community shook off the j^oke of Rome, 
 and willingly suffered the loss of all things for the 
 gospel's sake. A similar effusion came upon the 
 
& 
 
 TIMES OF REFRESHING. 107 
 
 Moravian Church in 173G, when their bishop, Count 
 Zinzenclorf, sent forth his missionaries to " Greenland's 
 icy mountains and India's coral strand." On the 
 other side of the Atlantic, at Northampton, in New 
 England, there was a marvellous work effected under 
 the able ministry of Jonathan Edwards, in the years 
 1734—35. Neither class nor age nor description was 
 untouched. Within half-a-year, upwards of three 
 hundred persons became the subjects of the renewing 
 pTace of God. Georo-e Whitefield visited Edwards in 
 1740, and his visit was followed by a fresh awaken- 
 ing, which extended over a wide area. Edwards pub- 
 lished several works bearing on the revival,* which 
 were extensively circulated throughout England and 
 Scotland, and proved the harbinger of glad tidings to 
 many. 
 
 Willison tells us that " promising tokens began to 
 appear of a revival of Christianity in 1740 and 
 afterwards ; for in Edinburgh and elsewhere some 
 new praying societies were set up, and sundry stu- 
 dents did associate with them, which gave hopes of a 
 further reviving ; and for this many prayers were 
 put up through the land, and that a good time before 
 Mr. Whitefield came to Scotland." f The "praying 
 societies " here mentioned were not a novelty. They 
 seem to have originated in the early part of the 
 
 * One of these was, " Narrativ^e of Surprising Conversions ;" another, 
 "Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in New England;" also "Five 
 Discourses on the Soul's Eternal Salvation," 
 
 t "Fair and Impartial Testimony," etc. Glasgow, 1765. Page 109. 
 
108 TIMES OF REFRESHING. 
 
 seventeenth century, when Prelacy was in the ascend- 
 ant, as a relief for those that could find no life nor 
 edification in the ordinary ministrations. The exer- 
 cises at the meetings consisted of prayer, praise, 
 reading the Bible, and mutual exhortation. After 
 the Revolution Settlement, the praying societies lived 
 on, under thorough organization and rule. There was 
 one or more in each parish : in Portmoak, Ebenezer 
 Erskine's first parish, there were as many as five. 
 They met once a week ; and when several of these 
 societies assembled together, they constituted an " asso- 
 ciation ;" and when delegates from these associations 
 met once a year, they formed a " correspondence." 
 In the case of the' Cameronians, such " praying socie- 
 ties " were virtually congregations in a state of separ- 
 ation from the Established Church ; but those to which 
 we refer, while meeting privately, were in sympathy 
 with the parochial agencies in so far as they minis- 
 tered to the spiritual life, and constituted a network 
 of spiritual influences by which the life of the mem- 
 bers was held together, akin to that which obtained 
 in the old Church in the last days of the Hebrew com- 
 monwealth (Mai. iii. 16). The longing for new and 
 higher life found a vent in these praying societies. 
 
 It has often been observed that the tidings of 
 revival have been, to those, that received them, the 
 means of revealinof their own need of revival, of 
 begetting an earnest desire for the blessing, and 
 eventually conducing to its reception. This was 
 
TIMES OF REFRESHING. 109 
 
 undouLtedly the case with those " outlettings of the 
 Holy Sph'it/' as they were called, about the middle 
 of last century, which came in response to the faith- 
 ful ministration of the word, and the fervent sup- 
 , plications of the Lord's people, and which stimulated 
 / and sustained spiritual life within the pale of the 
 / Church of Scotland, in spite of the sapless, lifeless 
 I ethics which had been so widely substituted for the 
 gospel. News of what great things God had wrought 
 in America gave a finer edge to the preaching, and 
 imparted a new impulse to the praying for showers 
 of blessing similar to those with which he had re- 
 freshed their brethren across the seas.* 
 
 Another powerful factor in the production of the 
 religious quickening of the period, was the singularly 
 awakening preaching of George Whitefield. From 
 1732 and onwards, the University of Oxford had 
 under training the men who, under God, were to 
 revolutionize the religious life of England in the 
 
 * " Scotland was at that time favoured with the labours of many- 
 clergymen respected for their piety and talents, among whom were the 
 Rev. W. M'Culloch of Cambuslang-, James Robe of Kilsyth, John 
 M'Laurin of Glasgow, Thomas Gillespie of Carnock, John Willison, 
 Dundee, and John Erskine, Kirkintilloch, afterwards Dr. Erskine of 
 Edinburgh. These gentlemen, and many of their associates in the 
 ministry, preached not only with great plainness and fervency, but with 
 the strongest confidence of immediate and great success ; and as a natural 
 consequence the Church of Scotland soon witnessed a state of things to 
 which she had long been a stranger."— i?/e of Jonathan Edicards. Lon- 
 don, 1840. Page cxiv. Letters bearing upon the revival in America and in 
 Scotland, and also on points of theology, from the ministers named above, 
 to Mr. Edwards, and from Mr. Edwards to them, will be found in Mr. 
 Edwards's Life. Dr. Erskine invited Mr. Edwards to become a minister 
 of the Church of Scotland after his separation from Northampton. 
 
110 TIMES OF REFRESHING. 
 
 brothers Wesley, James Harvey, and George White- 
 field. It is to Whitefield we now turn our attention 
 as the pioneer of a great work in Scotland. We 
 find him opening a correspondence with Rev. Ralph 
 Erskine, 17th April 1739.'" Eventually the Asso- 
 ciate Presbytery invited Whitefield to Scotland in 
 June 1741, and on 30th July he landed at Leith. 
 It is not our business to discuss the rupture which 
 took place between Whitefield and the Seceders. His 
 visit extended to three months, during which he 
 visited Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Mon- 
 trose, Brechin, Forfar, Criefi", and other places. His 
 preaching was charged with a life and energy to 
 which the Moderate party were strangers. The 
 Evangelical ministers rejoiced in him as a man after 
 their own heart, "f* And though the Seceders no 
 longer countenanced him, but deemed him as help- 
 ing their enemies, he was moving on the same lines 
 with them. The praying societies, regarding the 
 spiritual harvests Whitefield was reaping as the dawn 
 of better days, became more earnest " in their prayers 
 and wrestlings with God, that he might pity them 
 
 * See "Life and Diary of Rev. E. Erskine, M.A.," by Dr. Donald 
 Eraser. Edinburgh, 1834. Page 297. Several letters are given, in one of 
 whicli Whitefield says of the Seceders, "Though I die with you, yet by 
 God's help I will not deny you in any wise." The narrative of the negotia- 
 tions with Whitefield and the Associate Presbytery is also given. White- 
 field calls them " a set of grave, venerable men," 
 
 t Willison said of him : "This worthy youth is singularly fitted to do 
 the work of an evangelist, and I have been long of opinion that it would 
 be for the advantage of the world were this still to be a standing office 
 in the Church." 
 
TIMES OF REFRESHING. Ill 
 
 and the whole land, and pour out his Spirit upon 
 them as on other places." 
 
 Ministers who had listened to the preaching of 
 Whitefield felt a new force within them, and adapted 
 their preaching more than before to the spiritual 
 wants of their hearers. Among others, Mr. William 
 M'Culloch, minister of the parish of Cambuslang,* near 
 Glasgow, had begun a series of sermons on Kegenera- 
 tion, and in the end of January 1742, about ninety 
 heads of families in his parish subscribed a petition 
 " desiring a weekly lecture should be set up." This 
 was granted ; and as there was a meeting of praying- 
 societies on Monday, 15 th February, at the manse, 
 followed by another prayer-meeting on Tuesday " re- 
 lating to the public interests of the gospel," a third 
 meeting was held on Wednesday ; and Thursday, the 
 18th, was the day of the weekly lecture. That was 
 the beoinnino' of a PTeat commotion in the com- 
 munity ; as many as fifty persons that day " came 
 to the minister's house under convictions and alarm- 
 ing apprehensions about the state of their souls." In 
 order to deal with so many anxious inquirers, not 
 only the minister, but also some preachers and elders 
 who assisted him, were occupied all that night and 
 two or three more — exhorting, praying, and singing 
 psalms ; for hymns were not then forthcoming. The 
 
 * The parish of Cambuslang has now a population of nearly 10,000, 
 and may be regarded as a suburb of Glasgow. Public works abound, 
 but there are also parks with numerous "acres of skating ice " advertised 
 for the benefit of winter pleasure-seekers. 
 
112 TIMES OF REFRESHING. 
 
 desires and exigencies of the people were such that 
 it was found necessary to provide daily service, with 
 after-meetings for the inquirers ; and during twelve 
 weeks, three hundred were awakened to a deep con- 
 cern about salvation. Ministers from neighbouring 
 parishes and from a distance, visited Cambuslang to 
 witness the wonderful work and assist Mr. M'Culloch. 
 Among these we may mention Willison of Dundee, 
 Connell of Kilbride, Dr. John Hamilton of the 
 Barony, William Hamilton of Bothwell, William 
 Hamilton of Douglas, M'Knight of Irvine, and John 
 M'Laurin — each and all of whom give their at- 
 testations to the work. The ordinary communion 
 in July was so appreciated that a second communion 
 was kept in August, and was preceded by extraor- 
 dinary meetings for prayer.* There were thirty 
 thousand present at the tents, and three thousand 
 communicants. The assistants were Whitefield, Dr. 
 Webster of Edinburgh, M'Laurin and Gillies of Glas- 
 gow, Robe of Kilsyth, Currie of Kinglassie, M'Knight 
 of Irvine, Hamilton of Douglas, Maxwell of Ruther- 
 glen, Adam of Cathcart, and John Bonar of Tor- 
 phichen, the great-great-grandfather of the three Drs. 
 Bonar who are still with us. Mr. Bonar was then 
 upwards of seventy, and took three days to ride 
 eighteen miles, and had to be lifted up into the tent. 
 But such were his zeal and spirit that he preached 
 
 * Among other things, "they asked mercy of the God of heaven to 
 themselves, and they prayed for the Seceders and others who unhappily 
 oppose this work of God ! " 
 
TIMES OF REFRESHING. 113 
 
 three times with great acceptance. The evidences 
 of the practical outcome of the movement were the 
 reformed lives of those once notorious sinners ; the 
 laying aside of cursing, swearing, and excessive drink- 
 ing ; remorse for acts of injustice ; restitution, forgiv- 
 ing of injuries, brotherly love, family religion, increase 
 of societies for prayer, love to the Bible and the 
 means of grace. Whatever objectionable features 
 there may have been — such as physical collapses, 
 shoutings, frenzied visionaries and delusions — it was 
 obvious that the finger of God was in it, and " the 
 Cambuslang work " left a large residuum of blessing. 
 
 In the wake of the religious outburst at Cambus- 
 lang there came the revival in Kilsyth, under the 
 ministry of James Kobe. That gentleman had min- 
 istered to his people about thirty years, and, like 
 M'Culloch of Cambuslang, had latterly for more than 
 a year been boring down to the foundation of things 
 in a series of discourses on regeneration. News of 
 the outpouring at Cambuslang rejoiced his spirit, and 
 intensified his earnestness in prayer for the widening 
 of the blessing to his own parish. In April 1742 
 Willison of Dundee came to Kilsyth, on his homeward 
 journey from Cambuslang, and Mr. Kobe induced him 
 to preach to his people next day, Friday, Avhen " a 
 distinct, plain, and moving sermon " was preached 
 from Psalm xl. 2, 3. Fresh from the scenes of the 
 revival, with the smell of holy fire about his gar- 
 
 (110) 8 
 
114 TIMES OF REFRESHING. 
 
 ments, he roused the people, and several experienced 
 anxious concern about their souls. Mr. Robe on 
 Sabbath resumed his exposition o£ regeneration from 
 Galatians iv. 19, and displayed unusual tenderness even 
 in the reading of his text. A few Sabbaths passed 
 with slight movements of the Spirit on the face of 
 the waters; but on 16th May, when he "pressed all 
 the unregenerated to seek to have Christ formed in 
 them, an extraordinary power of the Spirit from on 
 high accompanied the word preached. There was a 
 great mourning in the congregation as for an only 
 son. Many cried out, and these not only women, 
 but some strong and stout-hearted young men, and 
 some between forty and fifty." The congregation 
 was dismissed, and an effort was made to get the 
 distressed gathered into the barn ; but they were too 
 many, so they were convened in the kirk. A psalm 
 was sung and prayer offered, but when the minister 
 tried to speak to them there was such a Bochim of 
 bitter cries and groans and the voice of weeping that 
 he could not be heard. For some time he had gone 
 about in deep concern, thinking the Lord had passed 
 by his parish ; but now the wave of spiritual life came 
 in like a flood. The river was overflowing its banks 
 in the time of harvest. He ordered them one by one 
 to be brought to him in his closet, while psalms were 
 being sung in the kirk, and the precentor and two or 
 three elders there prayed with the distressed. " It 
 would have moved the hardest heart, that, as the 
 
 I 
 
TIMES OF REFRESHING. ] 15 
 
 children of Israel under Pharaoh's oppression, when I 
 spake unto many of them, they hearkened not, for 
 anguish of spirit, and the sense of the cruel bondage 
 they were under." More than thirty were that day 
 awakened, and many more on the Wednesday follow- 
 ing, when Warden of Campsie and John M'Laurin of 
 Glasgow preached. The work went on with amazing 
 success. " I looked up and saw what I never saw 
 before — the fields already ripe unto harvest. I heard 
 the Lord of the harvest commanding me to put in 
 my sickle and reap. I considered that I had now 
 an opportunity put in my hand that was not to last 
 long, the harvest being the shortest time of labour 
 in the whole year, and therefore I resolved to bestir 
 myself to this very thing." Four days in the week 
 were set apart for the awakened, who came from 
 morning till night. Ministers and preachers also lent 
 assistance ; " but of all others, the Kev. Thomas Gil- 
 lespie, minister of the gospel at Carnock, was most 
 remarkably GocTs send to me. He came upon the 
 Monday before the Lord's Supper was given in the 
 congregation, and stayed ten days ; and without him 
 it would have been impossible for me to have man- 
 aged the work of that week." Other ministers 
 assisted in the work, such as Dr. Alexander Webster, 
 Edinburgh ; John M'Laurin, Glasgow ; James Warden, 
 Calder ; John AVarden, Campsie ; James Burnside, 
 Kirkintilloch ; John Smith, Larbert ; James Mackie, 
 St. Ninians ; Kobert Speirs, Linlithgow ; William 
 
116 TIMES OF REFRESHING. 
 
 Hally, Muthill ; David Blair, Brechin;* James Ogilvie, 
 Aberdeen ; Mr. Hunter, Saline ; Mr. Porteous, Moni- 
 vaird ; and James Young, preacher. As at Cambus- 
 lang, there was an extraordinary communion in Octo- 
 ber, the service beginning at half-past eight in the 
 morninof, and continuino' till hal£-an-hour after eio-ht in 
 the evening. There were twenty-two table services, 
 each table consisting of about seventy communicants, 
 so that upwards of fifteen hundred communicated. In 
 many respects the movement resembled the times of 
 reviving at Stewarton, Irvine, Kirk-of-Shotts,-|- and 
 other places, in 1625, 1626, 1630, and those in An- 
 trim in 1628, of which Robert Fleming, at one time 
 minister in Cambuslang, writes in his book on " Ful- 
 filling of the Scriptures." John Livingstone and Robert 
 Blair have written regarding the same awakenings. And 
 to prove its solidity, the minister of Kilsyth, at a meet- 
 ing of session in 1751, read over the names of above 
 a hundred persons who had been brought under spirit- 
 ual concern in 1742—43, almost all of whom had main- 
 tained a conversation becoming the gospel. Similarly 
 Dr. Erskine, in 1748, bore testimony concerning his 
 
 * Mr. Blair was the first minister of the Church of Scotland who began 
 to teach a Sabbath school, about 1700. 
 
 f In 1G30 John Livingstone was preaching from Ezekiel xxxvi. 26, 27, 
 and was on the point of closing his discourse, when a few drops of rain 
 began to fall, and the people began to put on their coverings. He asked 
 them if they had any shelter from the drops of Divine \\Tath, and was 
 thus led to enlarge for nearly another hour in exhorting them to flee to 
 Christ, with so much of the power of God that above five hundred per- 
 sons were converted.— if'/e of Rev. Wm. C. Burns, by Professor Islay 
 Burns, D.D., p. 95. 
 
TIMES OF REFRESHING. 117 
 
 parish of Kirkintilloch, that one hundred had in 1742— 
 43 become deeply concerned about their eternal in- 
 terests. The outpouring of the Spirit in Kilsyth, under 
 Mr. Eobe, had a signal counterpart nearly a century 
 later, under the preaching of William C. Burns, 23rd 
 July 1839.* 
 
 The outpouring of the spirit of grace in Cambus- 
 lang and Kilsyth, in 1742 and afterwards, extended to 
 the Barony of Glasgow, Kirkintilloch, Cumbernauld, 
 Denny, Campsie, St. Ninians, Gargunnock, Kippen, 
 Carnock, Killearn, Mu thill, Monivaird, Madderty, and 
 other parishes. The evangelistic spirit was greatly 
 fostered by the visits of Whitefield to Scotland be- 
 tween 1741 and 1767, during which period he had 
 made at least thirteen visits. In 1751, he writes 
 to Lady Huntingdon that for twenty-eight days to- 
 gether he had preached in GlasgOAV and Edinburgh 
 to nearly ten thousand souls every day. " It would 
 have melted your ladyship's heart to have seen us 
 part." At his last visit the marks of affection to- 
 wards him were as pronounced as ever. He writes : 
 " Twenty-seven-year-old friends and spiritual children 
 remember the days of old. They are seeking after 
 their first love. Could I preach ten times a day, 
 
 * The service was on a Tuesday morning at ten o'clock, and the text 
 was, "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power " (Ps. ex, 3), 
 when " the feelings of the audience became too strong for all ordinary 
 restraints, and broke forth simultaneously in weeping and wailing, tears 
 and groans, intermingled with shovits of joy and praise from some of the 
 people of God. Some strong men fell to the ground as if they had been 
 dead." 
 
118 TIMES OF REFRESHING. 
 
 thousands and thousands would attend. I am here 
 only in danger of being hugged to death. Friends of 
 all ranks seem heartier and more friendly than ever." 
 In conclusion, there can be no doubt that the 
 extraordinary events that had their centre in Cam- 
 buslang and Kilsyth sent out vibrations all over the 
 land, and were instrumental in promoting the prac- 
 tical relio-ion of the time. To use the words of Sir 
 Henry MoncreifF — " The converts of that time, who 
 persevered to the end, would leave the impression of 
 their characters on the society in which they lived ; 
 on the families whom they left behind them ; and on 
 all those who had the means of observing the effects 
 of genuine religion which they exemplified ; while 
 the marked and continued testimony given by them 
 in private life to the efficacy of genuine religion 
 might go much further. It might operate widely 
 during their own lives ; it may be operating still in 
 many forms which our observation can never reach."* 
 
 * "Account of the Life and Writings of John Erskine, D.D.," by Sir 
 Henry Moncreiff Welhvood, Bart., D.D. Edinburgh, 1818. Page 500. 
 Dr. Erskine wTote a pamphlet called "The Signs of the Times Con- 
 sidered ; or, The high probability that the present appearances in New 
 England and the West of Scotland are a prelude to the glorious things 
 promised to the Church in the latter ages." Edinburgh, 1742.— Other 
 writers on the same subject were Rev. John M'Laurin, Glasgow ; Dr. 
 John Hamilton of the High Church, Glasgow ; James Robe, A.M., 
 Kilsyth, in his " Narratives of the Extraordinary Work of the Spirit of 
 God at Cambuslang, Kilsyth, etc.," 1742, which was translated into 
 Dutch; Dr. A. Webster of Edinburgh, "Divine Influence the True 
 Spring of the Extraordinary Work at Cambuslang;" Dr. Gillies's "Life 
 of Whitefield ;" Willisim's " Testimony." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 REVIVALS IN THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Peculiarities of Highland religion — Course of the wave of spiritual life- 
 Mr. Hally of Muthill — Ross-shire awakening — Fraser of Alness- 
 Balfour of Nigg — Rosskeen— Golspie — Rogart — Moulin — Kiltearn. 
 
 HE religion of the Highlands has an indi- 
 
 T 
 
 X. viduality of its own, like the scenery and 
 the ancient garb of its men. As befits "the land of 
 the mountain and the flood," where the sublime and 
 the beautiful impress themselves on nature, it is 
 of a pronounced character, with a depth and intensity 
 that admit of no question. It is not superficial, but 
 penetrates the man, vitalizing his being. Some con- 
 tend that it is too subjective, too experimental ; that 
 its preaching and practice do not take in the details 
 of daily life. Certainly there is a zone of spiritual 
 ideas and feelings of marked difference when one 
 passes from the Lowlands into the Highlands ; a dif- 
 ference so far in doctrine and also in discipline, as the 
 sacramental exclusiveness shows. The worship has 
 an undertone of melancholy in it like the wail of a 
 coronach from a silent glen. The singing of Gaelic 
 psalms, preceded by the reading or rather chanting 
 
120 REVIVALS IN THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 of the line, in a prolonged fashion, interlaced with 
 grace notes and improvisations in the minor mode, 
 vibratino' for several minutes over a sinoie stanza, 
 has a strange effect on a southern ear, and calls up 
 the labours of Columba's missionaries, who itinerated 
 far and wide, and gave the Celtic nature its first hold 
 of the Christian faith. While the Highland religion 
 is distinct from that of the Lowlands, just as the 
 races and lano^uao^es are distinct — a s^ulf, as it were, 
 separating the Celt from the Saxon as to ancestry, 
 and a formidable, forbidding barrier in the Gaelic 
 tongue warding off the Southron — we cannot go so far 
 as Dr. Kennedy would have us in differentiating the 
 types of religion prevailing north and south of the 
 • Grampians. Perhaps we might, on Dr. Kennedy's 
 showing, be inclined to use the words of the Apostle 
 Paul on Mars' Hill to the men of Athens, with refer- 
 ence to the redundant beliefs of the men of the north. 
 To employ the words of another: "The system of the 
 Highlands we believe to have been defective, both 
 externally and internally, in doctrine and in discipline ; 
 but the gospel force which descended upon the district 
 and seized upon a people naturally religious and ar- 
 dent was very powerful, and the system did supply 
 important channels — not the least important those 
 which were scooped out by enforced and abnormal 
 overflow — for transmittino- and diffusino- it."* 
 
 o o 
 
 * Article on "The Relif^ion of the Highlands," in The. British and 
 Foreign EvaiKjelical Review for July 1872, pp. 413-446, by Mr. A. Taylor- 
 
REVIVALS IN THE HIGHLANDS. 121 
 
 The wave swept round the shores of the Moray 
 and Cromarty Firths, and, so far as evidence exists, 
 did not flow along the glens of the Grampians. We 
 have no hesitation in affirming that both in New 
 England, which was then a dependency of Great 
 Britain, and in the south and north of Scotland, the 
 religious current was one. Like the fiery cross of 
 old which passed from hand to hand, rousing to battle 
 the clansmen of a province, the sacred fire which 
 the Divine Spirit kindled under the preaching of 
 Edwards was transmitted to Scotland by such chan- 
 nels of communication as were then open ; and " The 
 Monthly History," published by Mr. Robe of Kilsyth 
 in 1743 and afterwards, spread the fiame over the 
 land to give foreshadows of better days drawing- 
 nigh. 
 
 Mr. Hally of Muthill, for instance, relates that 
 " after public worship crowds of people come to the 
 manse, filling the house and the close before the door, 
 discoverino' a great thirst after the Word, and such 
 a concern in hearinor it, that their mournino- cries 
 frequently drown my voice, so that I am obliged to 
 stop till they compose themselves. Before this good 
 work began, we had but two praying societies ; and 
 now they are increased to eighteen, with six praying 
 meetings of young ones. With great satisfaction I 
 admitted forty of these young ones to the communion 
 
 Innes, in which the writer displays a masterly analysis of his subject, and 
 an earnest sympathy with all that is highest and best in the religion of 
 the north. 
 
122 REVIVALS IN THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 table this summer, which occasion the Lord signally 
 owned." It was owing to Kilsyth, and the sympathy 
 he had in the work there, that Mr. Hally was able to 
 report such fruits among his people."* 
 
 Following the example of America, several minis- 
 ters and others in Glasgow entered into a concert for 
 prayer in the year 1744. Its continuance was orig- 
 inally contemplated for two years, but was extended 
 to seven years. A part of Saturday evening and 
 Sabbath morning of each week, and the first Tues- 
 day of each quarter of the year, were the times 
 appointed for this exercise. This concert survived 
 the lapse of three generations, and like the fire on the 
 altar of incense, kept burning on and on.-f* Where 
 there was a faithful ministry, and a praying people 
 waiting on such ministry, the seed was wafted swiftly 
 thither and took root. Dr. Kennedy says the exten- 
 sive revival that took place in Ross-shire resulted 
 from the faithful preaching of the gospel, and was 
 not beholden to extraneous agencies. He adds that 
 " it was preceded by much prayer. It began in the 
 hearts and closets of the people of the Lord." All 
 true revivals are like John the Baptist with the 
 
 * Not fewer than twenty-seven persons from Muthill attended a great 
 communion at Kilsyth in October 1742. 
 
 + So late as 1835 this concert was renewed and remodelled. Dr. 
 Hamilton of Strathblane preached a special sermon on its behalf. These 
 concerts for prayer were precursors and concomitants of the revival, pre- 
 paring the hearts of the people for the new life, and preserving the sweet 
 spirit of renovated affections from being crushed out by worldly pressure 
 or conformity. 
 
REVIVALS IN THE HIGHLANDS. 123 
 
 message, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; the king- 
 dom of heaven is at hand." 
 
 The time of the Ross-shire revival, according to 
 Dr. Kennedy, was after the first quarter of the 
 eighteenth century had passed. Some of the minis- 
 ters of the Synod were men of God, and had the 
 seal of the Divine Spirit on their labours. One of 
 these was Mr. James Fraser of Alness, who was 
 settled in 1725, and is well known for his work 
 on Sanctification. His preaching was pre-eminently 
 awakening. To use his own phrase, " The Lord gave 
 me a quiver full of arrows to be cast at the hearts 
 of his enemies till the quiver was empty." Next 
 came Porteous of Kilmuir, a Barnabas and son of 
 consolation ; and alongside of both were John Bal- 
 four of Nigg, M'Phail of Resolis, Beaton of Ross- 
 keen, and Wood of Rosemarkie. All of these were 
 honoured of God in winning many souls. We shall 
 begin by noticing the revival under Mr. John Balfour. 
 
 The parish of Nigg, in Easter Ross, is a rich arable 
 tract of several miles in length, with the hill of Nigg 
 rising as a ridge, commanding a wide stretch of land- 
 scape. Conspicuous in the distance is Tarbert light- 
 house ; and nearer are the remains of the Abbey of 
 Fearn, which has a sort of sacredness to our eyes 
 as the abbey of which our martyr, Patrick Hamilton, 
 was abbot. Before the Revolution, the curate of 
 Nigg lived at some distance from his church, and 
 the state of morals in the parish was low. Things 
 
124 REVIVALS IW THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 began to amend under his successor, Mr. Munro, 
 who sowed the seeds of a better time. Mr. John 
 Balfour was translated from Logie- Easter to Nigg 
 on 21st March 1729, having received a unanimous 
 call from the people. He had scarcely been settled 
 more than a year when, by the Divine blessing on 
 his labours, a revival of piety and life began. Meet- 
 ings for prayer and religious conference were in- 
 creased. With ebbs and flows the tide kept moving 
 till 1739, when "several persons awakened and 
 applied to their minister about their spiritual in- 
 terests each day in the week for one week, Saturday 
 not excepted. The awakening which had been here 
 from time to time had not been in that extraordinary 
 way, for the number of persons awakened at a time, 
 nor attended at all with such unusual bodily symp- 
 toms, as were in sundry instances the effect of awak- 
 enings in some other parts ;• but in other respects 
 the work of grace upon convinced souls appeared to 
 be, in its rise, progress, and issue, in the same scrip- 
 tural way, and the same in kind and substance, as 
 
 in these other parts The general meeting for 
 
 prayer and spiritual conference, which for some time 
 consisted only of the members of session and a few 
 others, became at length so numerously attended 
 that it was necessary to divide it into two. Besides 
 these general meetings, which convened in two places 
 of the parish every third Monday respectively, and 
 in which the minister always presided, there were 
 
REVIVALS IN THE HIGHLANDS. 125 
 
 ten societies which met in several places of the 
 parish every Saturday for prayer and other religious 
 exercises." * 
 
 The revival marched forward in 1744, "on new 
 subjects more currently, with several more distinct 
 and lively than formerly." The Gaelic popula- 
 tion knew only Gaelic, and were illiterate as to 
 worldly matters ; but, says Mr. Balfour, " I never con- 
 versed with more intelligent, savoury, and distinctly 
 exercised private Christians than some illiterate men 
 in this county. In the most literal sense, Surgunt 
 indocti et coeluni rapiunt — the men of letters dispute 
 heaven, these live it. Oh, what a sweet significance 
 there is in our Lord's words, ' To the poor the gospel 
 is preached ' (tttcoxoI evayyeXi^ovTai, ' the poor are evan- 
 gelized ')." Such was the earnest work which stirred 
 the common heart of that parish all through the year 
 1744. Mr. Balfour wrote to Mr. Robe in January 
 1745 : "To the praise of sovereign grace, matters pro- 
 ceed still in my parish as formerly. New awakenings 
 continue, and those formerly awakened persevere, and, 
 I hope, are making progress in Christian experience." 
 That Nigg was then visited by a blessed revival was 
 the settled opinion of that good pastor who reaped 
 the fruits thereof. He entered his rest in 1752, but 
 
 * It is a singular fact, that after nearly a century and a half the United 
 Presbyterian congregation of Nigg maintains these same meetings, and on 
 the same days of the week, as in the days of Mr. Balfour. After public 
 worship on the Lord's day the families of each neighbourhood meet for 
 prayer and repeating discourses, as in 1744. 
 
126 REVIVALS IN THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 the work was not buried with him. The spiritual 
 tone of the people was elevated, and to this hour one 
 can feel, on coming into contact with the representa- 
 tives of the older generations, that the blessing is 
 there according to the Divine promise : " The children 
 of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be 
 established before thee." 
 
 In the correspondence Mr. Robe of Kilsyth had 
 with Jonathan Edwards of Northampton, he writes 
 on 16th August 1743 : "I am not without hopes of 
 having good accounts of the outpouring of the Holy 
 Spirit in the shires of Ross and Nairn, among the 
 northernmost parts of Scotland. There was more 
 than ordinary seriousness in some parishes in hearing 
 the Word and in a concern about their souls, in the 
 spring, when I saw some godly ministers from those 
 bounds. This more than ordinary seriousness in 
 hearino' and about communion times, is observable in 
 several parts in Scotland this summer. Societies for 
 prayer are setting up where there were none, and in 
 other places increasing." Mr. Balfour, already referred 
 to, was one " of those godly ministers " from whom Mr. 
 Robe derived his information. Another was Mr. 
 John Wood, minister of Rosemarkie, who wrote in 
 May 1744 regarding the state of religion prior to 
 1743 as low and disheartening. "Since the com- 
 munion in July last the bulk of the congregation 
 seemed to have a desire after instruction and the 
 knowledge of the gospel much greater than formerly. 
 
REVIVALS IN THE HIGHLANDS. 127 
 
 There are now about thirty persons under convictions 
 and awakenino^s of conscience throuoh the Word. I 
 found several had been under some gradual work of 
 this sort before, though they never discovered it till 
 now." The same letter bears reference to " the Re- 
 deemer's grace and power appearing at Nigg, Ross- 
 keen, Kilmuir, Logic, Alness, Killearn, Cromarty, and 
 Kirkmichael." 
 
 The minister of Rosskeen was Mr. Daniel Beaton, 
 who was settled in 1717, and is called "the first 
 Presbyterian minister there since the Restoration." 
 Things went on languidly with his people till 1742, 
 when thirty-six persons "fell under a concern about 
 their salvation," and were afterwards admitted to the 
 Lord's table. " Boys and girls between nine and fifteen 
 years of age met in a private house every Lord's- 
 day evening and Monday's night, when they exercised 
 themselves in prayer by turns, singing, and conferring 
 about what they heard in public." Dr. Kennedy 
 says : " At Nigg, Kilmuir, Rosskeen, and Rosemarkie, 
 especially, the Lord's right hand wrought wonders 
 of grace in turning many ' from darkness to light,' 
 and in other places throughout the county many souls 
 were then gathered to the Lord." The revival was 
 extensive as well as intensive, though specific details 
 regarding its progress are not available. 
 
 Thus far have we followed the tidal wave that swept 
 round the Black Isle. It was a work of grace unat- 
 tended by the external physical phenomena of earlier or 
 
128 REVIVALS IN THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 later times, such as " the Stewarton sickness," or " the 
 strikings down" of the Irish revival of 1859. It 
 was a calm, earnest, deep work of the soul, in which 
 the conflict with sin was felt to be overwhelming and 
 its guilt inexcusable, the only relief being found in 
 the saving grace of God. Those who were awakened 
 realized their need of a new birth, of their becoming 
 little children in order to enter the kingdom of God, 
 and gave themselves over to the regenerating grace of 
 the Holy Ghost. And having found peace in be- 
 lieving, they grew up to the full measure of the 
 stature of Christ, earnestly contending for the faith 
 once delivered to the saints ; and as Dr. Kennedy says 
 of them, " they were a preserving and seasoning salt 
 to Ross-shire till the Lord removed them from it." 
 
 The only other place we notice to which the 
 blessed influences of the revival extended in the 
 north is Golspie in Sutherlandshire. This is on 
 the verge of the Celtic frontier ; but we may re- 
 gard the work there as part of the Highland move- 
 ment. Mr. John Sutherland was admitted minister 
 of Golspie in 1731. Previous to 1688 Golspie had 
 been a sanctuary for oppressed Christians, driven 
 thither, like the men and women whom the perse- 
 cution of Paul sent to Damascus, because they there 
 enjoyed the protection of the Sutherland family, who 
 steadily adhered to the interests of religion. These 
 refugees became settlers, and instead of returning at 
 the Revolution to their own locality, they evinced 
 
REVIVA LS IJY THE IIIGHL A NDS. 1 29 
 
 their gratitude and attachment to the family by 
 remaining there and becoming a blessing to others. 
 The posterity of these early settlers in 1731 were 
 devout Christians ; but by-and-by they departed. 
 There were few awakenings till 1744, and the 
 minister had " greater fears than hopes." But when 
 there came the inspiriting intelligence of the success 
 of the gospel in the British colonies of America, in 
 the published accounts of it by Edwards and Cooper, 
 Mr. Sutherland kept his people advised of these 
 blessed and wonderful doings, and latterly, when 
 there were " displays of Divine mercy and grace in 
 Cambuslang, Kilsyth, and elsewhere," he communicated 
 the o^lad tidino\s to his flock. When he returned 
 from the General Assembly in 1743, and reported 
 what with great joy he had observed at Kilsyth, 
 Cambuslang, and Muthill, so as to provoke his people 
 to emulation, no visible effect followed. In August 
 he assisted at the Nigg communion, and opened his 
 heart to good Mr. Balfour, lamenting his unsuccess. 
 Mr. Balfour told him how he had set up societies for 
 prayer, from which he traced the success of the gospel 
 among his people. Mr. Sutherland went home and 
 did likewise ; but for a whole year the Saturday night 
 prayer-meetings brought no returns. How often has 
 the same process of praying and waiting been fol- 
 lowed in mission fields, as if to " prove herewith " 
 those who prayed and waited ! Let us hear Mr. 
 Sutherland describe the final issue : — " But when our 
 (no) 9 
 
130 REVIVALS IN THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 hopes were almost gone, the great and bountiful God, 
 who ever does wonders, was mercifully pleased to 
 breathe upon a number of dry bones and to visit 
 them with his salvation ; for from the beo'innino^ of 
 November till August there were upwards of seventy 
 persons came to me under various exercises of soul." 
 Some of them had been months " bowed down in spirit 
 under a sense of guilt, but could not get themselves 
 prevailed with to disclose their sad case to any." 
 The work advanced in some slowly, in others more 
 rapidly, but in both classes " a decent, grave, solemn 
 deportment or shedding abundance of tears, which 
 they concealed all they were able, were all the visible 
 signs we had in time of hearing of the inward 
 concern of their minds. About forty of them have 
 with weeping eyes and trembling hands received 
 tokens for the Lord's table ; and it is hoped the rest 
 will be encouraged to follow their example in a little 
 time." We need not give details of the bodily effects 
 of the awakened — their restless, sleepless nights, their 
 loss of appetite, their bodily tremblings and strength 
 diminished under apprehensions of the divine indig- 
 nation. Nor is it necessary to say that God's own 
 people were sensibly revived and enlarged, as is al- 
 ways the case in like circumstances, and " the secure 
 multitude attended ordinances better and listened with 
 greater attention to the Word." Most of the awakened 
 were between twenty and fifty years of age, a few 
 under twenty, and four only from sixty to seventy. 
 
REVIVALS IN THE HIGHLANDS. 131 
 
 The preaching that had been most blessed was a 
 course of lectures on the sufferings, death, and resur- 
 rection of our Lord. 
 
 In the neighbouring parish of Rogart in 1740 
 fifteen persons were awakened, and finding in 1741-42 
 a sad decay in practical godliness, they gave them- 
 selves to prayer, and in 1743-44 about fifty more 
 were awakened, and went on in a hopeful way. 
 
 Not till the beginning of the present century, from 
 1745 onwards, was there any other general awaken- 
 ing.* God then visited the Highland parish of Moulin, 
 under Dr. Alexander Stewart, with a plenteous rain ; 
 but the details of that blessed quickening lie beyond 
 the scope of this chapter. Some seeds of plants and 
 flowers are fitted wdth light wings, that, when fully 
 ripe, they may fly abroad on the gentle air to repro- 
 duce their kind in fresh fields. It is our prayer and 
 hope that the Divine Spirit may render these notices 
 of bygone days of blessing in our land the seeds of 
 fresh outbursts of life and fertility. 
 
 * Dr. Kennedy says : " There met at Kiltearn, on a communion occasion 
 in 1782, under the preaching of Dr. Fraser of Kirkhill, perhaps as 
 blessed a congregation as ever assembled in Scotland. Himdreds of 
 God's people from the surrounding district were there, and all of them 
 had as much of the comforting presence of the Lord as they were able to 
 endure. It was then the culminating point of the spiritual prosperity of 
 Ross-shire was reached. Under the ministry of the Calders, Macadam, 
 Mackenzie, the Mackintoshes, Forbes, M'Donald, and others, the Lord's 
 people continued to be edified, and souls were still ' added to the Church ;' 
 but the former days of power have never yet returned," — Days of the Boss- 
 shire Fathers, p. 15. 
 
IN THE 
 DAYS OF THE HALDANES. 
 
 By W. Landels, D.D., 
 
 Aiithor of " The Great Cloud of M'itnesscs. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE MAINSPRING OF THE NEW MOVEMENT. 
 
 Early Congregationalism — The Glasites — Ecclesiastical principles — 
 Faithful preaching of the gospel. 
 
 AMONG the waves o£ spiritual life by which 
 Scotland has again and again been visited, 
 the uprise of modern Congregationalism, both because 
 of the principles at work in it and the results in 
 which it has issued, well deserves the notice of the 
 historian ; and there are no names which can be more 
 appropriately associated with it than those of the 
 brothers Robert and James Haldane. 
 
 Congregationalism, however, did not originate with 
 them. More than thirty years before they com- 
 menced their labours, Baptist churches, which were 
 Consfrea^ational in their order, had been formed in 
 Edinburgh and other parts of the kingdom ; and 
 nearly forty before that, the secession of John Glas 
 from the Church of Scotland was followed by the 
 formation of Pedobaptist Congregational churches 
 which bore his name. But as these communities. 
 
136 THE MAINSPRING OF THE NEW MOVEMENT. 
 
 especially the latter, were small, meeting in hired 
 rooms and without permanent place of abode, ex- 
 clusive, moreover, and forbiddinof rather than evanofel- 
 
 ' ' O CD 
 
 istic and aggressive in spirit, they could scarcely be 
 reckoned among the ecclesiastical forces of the time. 
 The Scotch Baptists, indeed, without advancing much, 
 have been able, in some centres, to hold their ground 
 from that time until now ; and among several others 
 which might be named, a large and flourishing church 
 now assembling in Bristo Place, Edinburgh, represents 
 that which was formed in 1765 by Mr. Carmichael, 
 with whom was shortly afterwards associated in the 
 pastorate the much more famous Mr. Archibald 
 Maclean. But the Glasites are all but extinct. And 
 modern Congregationalists, as well as the larger section 
 of Baptists, trace their origin to the Haldane move- 
 ment. 
 
 These results were not what the movement origin- 
 ally contemplated. In its first stages it was not 
 ecclesiastical, but purely evangelistic in its character 
 and aims. Nor did it spring from any proclamation 
 of Church principles, but from the preaching of those 
 great fundamental doctrines of the gospel which 
 dominant Moderatism not only neglected but inten- 
 tionally suppressed. It may safely be afiirmed that 
 no great religious movement ever sprang from a mere 
 exposition of ecclesiastical principles. Questions of 
 Church order and sfovernment — such as the com- 
 parative merits and claims of Episcopacy and Pres- 
 
THE MAINSPRING OF THE NEW MOVEMENT. 137 
 
 bytery and Independency, or those relating to tlie 
 subjects and mode of baptism — important as they 
 may be in themselves, are not the questions by which 
 the hearts of men are deeply stirred, or which lie at 
 the root of national revivals of religion. Even the 
 movement which issued in the great Disruption 
 of 1843, although it culminated in the triumphant 
 assertion of the Headship of Christ in opposition to 
 the encroachments of the State, derived its inspiration 
 and its force from the great evangelical doctrines 
 which had supplanted the cold morality of Moderatism 
 in most of the pulpits of the land. So was it with 
 the Haldanes. Congregationalism sprang out of the 
 movement which they were the means of originating, 
 and was adopted by them at an early stage in their 
 course. It was partly forced upon them by the op- 
 position they encountered from the National Church, 
 of which they were members ; approved of by them 
 also as affording scope for the new life which had 
 been awakened, and as countenanced, they thought, 
 by the Word of God. But its propagation was never 
 regarded by them as a part of their mission, and at 
 the commencement of their work it does not appear 
 even to have entered their thoughts. Theories of 
 Church order and government were not what Scotland 
 then required. She was not sufficiently in earnest to 
 consider such questions. Their discussion would not 
 have sufficed to rouse her from her indifference, even 
 if the preaching which dwelt on them had succeeded 
 
138 THE MAINSPRING OF THE NEW MOVEMENT. 
 
 in Dfainino: her ear. What she needed to rouse her 
 from her spiritual slumber was the gospel of the 
 grace of God. The faithful preaching of this gospel 
 throuofhout the leno-th and breadth of the land was 
 the spring of the movement which led to Congrega- 
 tionalism, and to other good things which will fall to 
 be noticed as we proceed. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY AT ITS 
 COMMENCEMENT. 
 
 Condition of Scotland— A Presbytery dinner — Missions — Moderatism 
 and infidelity — Neglect of discipline. 
 
 SUCH preaching was urgently required by the 
 state of the Church and the country. It was 
 what has been called " the midnight of the Church 
 of Scotland," at its darkest hour. While here and 
 there evangelical truth was held and taught by 
 faithful ministers in the Church and by the different 
 bodies of Seceders, especially that founded by the 
 Erskines, it was neither preached nor understood by 
 the clergy as a whole. The visits of Whitefield, and 
 the revivals of Kilsyth and Cambuslang, had either 
 failed to move the Church generally, or their influence 
 had gradually died away ; and even some of the 
 Dissenters, as will appear by-and-by, had lost their 
 first love. " Many of the clergy," says Dr. Hamilton 
 of Strathblane, " were genuine Socinians ; many of 
 them were ignorant of theology as a system, and 
 
140 THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY 
 
 utterly careless about the merits of any creed or 
 confession. They seemed miserable in the discharge 
 of every ministerial duty. They eagerly seized on 
 the services of any stray preacher who came within 
 their reach. When they preached, their sermons 
 generally turned on honesty, good neighbourhood, and 
 kindness. To deliver a gospel sermon, or preach to 
 the hearts and consciences of dying sinners, was as 
 completely beyond their power as to speak in the 
 language of angels. And while their discourses were 
 destitute of everything which a dying sinner needs, 
 they were at the same time the most feeble, empty, 
 and insipid things that ever disgraced the venerated 
 name of sermons. The coldness and indifference of 
 the minister, while they proclaimed his aversion to 
 his employment, were seldom lost on the people. The 
 congregation rarely amounted to a tenth of the par- 
 ishioners, and the one half of this small number were 
 generally, during the half-hour's soporific harangue, 
 fast asleep. They were free from hypocrisy. They 
 had no more religion in private than in public. They 
 were loud and obstreperous in declaiming against 
 enthusiasm and fanaticism, faith and religious 
 zeal." 
 
 The biographer of the Haldanes mentions, as a 
 " proof of the degraded state of the dominant party 
 in the Church, a Presbytery dinner to which James 
 Haldane was invited in Edinburgh, upon a special 
 occasion, and to which he had gone, hoping for useful. 
 
AT ITS COMMENCEMENT. Ml 
 
 perhaps spiritual, or at least rational, conversation on 
 those topics in which he was now chiefly interested. 
 Instead of this, the company were treated to Bac- 
 chanalian songs, the folly of which was aggravated 
 into something approaching to wickedness by an 
 admixture of ridiculous, if not profane, allusions to 
 their own sacred calling and functions. The burden 
 of one song was the prescription of ' a bumper of 
 Nottingham ale ' in the pulpit at the different stages 
 of a Presbyterian discourse." 
 
 With such a spirit prevailing among the clergy, it 
 is not to be wondered at that an overture to the 
 General Assembly of 1796, setting forth that ''it is 
 the duty of Christians to convey the gospel to the 
 heathen world," met with little favour from that body. 
 Although ably supported b}^ Dr. John Erskine of 
 Edinburgh, the leader of the Evangelical party in the 
 Church, and one of the ablest of theologians, the 
 votes, as has often happened, swamped the arguments, 
 and the overture was summarily rejected by a large 
 majority. The leading speaker in opposition to it, 
 whose arguments were glossed over with an " affecta- 
 tion of reverence for the Word of God," was even 
 honoured by election to the Moderator's chair. Thus 
 did the supreme court of the Church justify the 
 suggestion of Mr. Hugh Miller, that " its infidelity was 
 of mark enough to have a character of its own ; an 
 infidelity that purported to be anti-Christian on Bible 
 authority ; that at least, when it robed itself in the 
 
142 THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY 
 
 habiliments of unbelief, took the liberty of lacing 
 them with Scripture edgings." 
 
 Another witness, who, according to the biographer 
 of the Haldanes, " enjoyed the best opportunities of 
 knowino' the relisrious state of Scotland at the end of 
 the last century," has thus testified in the Quarterly 
 Revieiu : — " We should be sorry to malign either the 
 living or the dead ; but it is our deliberate opinion 
 that, with the exception of France, there was not a 
 more infidel country on the face of the earth than 
 Scotland sixty or seventy years ago ; and we further 
 believe that she was mainly indebted for this bad 
 distinction to the active exertion of her professors, 
 and the indifference, disguised under the title of 
 Qnoderation, which generally distinguished the teach- 
 ing of her more accomplished and influential clergy." 
 
 With such ministers occupying most of her pulpits, 
 we can very well understand that the ordinances of 
 religion were attended to in the most careless and 
 perfunctory manner, and not unfrequently, for slight 
 reasons, entirely omitted. But many will find it 
 difficult to believe that, in a Church in which the 
 teaching of morality had taken the place of gospel 
 preaching, such grossly immoral practices should have 
 been tolerated as are mentioned by James Haldane in 
 his journal of a preaching tour in the north, where he 
 says of Caithness : — " It is a mournful fact that it 
 is the universal practice to commute for a sum of 
 money the public profession of repentance enjoined by 
 
AT ITS COMMENCEMENT. 143 
 
 the Church of Scotland on those guilty of adultery or 
 other open transgressions. When such persons have 
 paid the fine, they are admitted to the communion 
 table without scruple. When such practices as these 
 take place to any extent, no wonder if the land 
 mourns, and that the Lord threatens to visit us with 
 his sore judgments." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CONVERSION AND EARLY LABOURS • OF THE 
 • HALDANES. 
 
 The Haldane family — A pious mother — Conversion of the two brothers — 
 Dr. Innes — Sale of Airthrey — Plans for India frustrated — The home 
 field — James Haldane and John Campbell — Evangelistic work — 
 Encouraging success, 
 
 WHILE this was the condition of the clergy 
 generally, there were here and there in 
 different parts of the country faithful evangelical 
 preachers ; and among many of the people there was 
 the felt want of something better than the preaching 
 of a cold morality, and also memories and traditions 
 of the faithful evangelical preaching which they had 
 enjoyed in happier times. These were somewhat 
 prepared for the reception of the gospel, and pro- 
 vision was made for their want. The Lord had a 
 favour to our land ; and while the appointed 
 guardians of the truth proved unfaithful to their 
 trust, or failed to preach what they did not under- 
 stand, he was raising up chosen instruments, and pro- 
 videntially preparing them for the accomplishment of 
 
CONVERSION AND EARLY LABOURS OF IIALDANES. 145 
 
 his gracious purpose. It is interesting to trace, as far 
 as we may, the process by which they were graciously 
 prepared for, and ultimately almost shut up to, that 
 work which was to prove the great business of their 
 life. 
 
 Robert and James Haldane were born to what may 
 with propriety be called good estate. Robert, as the 
 elder, inherited the broad acres and beautiful grounds 
 of Airthrey, near Stirling, and James, from several 
 minor properties, was possessed of a competence ; so 
 that both of them, when they had become the subjects 
 of converting grace, were free to devote their time 
 and talents to Christian work. Their father died 
 before the younger of them was born, and their first 
 religious instructions were received from the lips of 
 a pious mother. After receiving a liberal education, 
 such as became their position, they both in course of 
 time entered the navy, where the younger remained 
 until he reached the full rank of captain, and dis- 
 tinguished himself by the characteristic firmness and 
 courage with which, during the absence of the captain 
 and lieutenant, he quelled a mutiny in a neighbouring 
 ship. 
 
 They experienced the saving change at about the 
 same time, when the one was in his thirty-first and 
 the other in his twenty-seventh year. But although 
 up to this time the}?" were in what the Scriptures call 
 a state of nature, had not experienced the throbbings 
 of the inner life, and were strangers to the heaven- 
 (110) 10 
 
146 CONVERSION AND EARLY LABOURS OF HALDANES. 
 
 born principle which distinguishes tlie children of 
 God from the children of the devil, they were not 
 without serious impressions. The tones of a mother's 
 voice linger in their ears, like strains of unearthly 
 music from a far-off land, telling them of something 
 higher and better than their present life. A mother's 
 form comes up before the eye of their memory. The 
 influence of a mother's prayers surrounds them ; and 
 now and again they are reminded of her instructions 
 and her counsels : but as yet their impressions have 
 issued in no decided results. Now, however, we 
 perceive some symptoms of an approaching change. 
 Shadows on the brow of the younger as he sits in 
 the cabin or paces the deck of the Melville Castle ; 
 solemn musings on his responsibility as the commander 
 of so many men ; feelings tinged with melancholy as 
 he sets out on his vovao-e, while his youno- wife is 
 left behind, are soon followed by the earnest inquiries 
 of a sinner seeking the Saviour, and these by the 
 apprehension of Christ and the peace wdiich passeth 
 all understanding. The elder brother, expecting the 
 regeneration of humanity from the French Revolution, 
 was doomed to bitter disappointment; but the thought- 
 fulness thus excited led to a happy result. Grasping 
 at a shadow, as he tells us, he found the substance. 
 In his inquiring state of mind he was happily situated. 
 Airthrey being near to Stirling, where the amiable 
 and accomplished Dr. Innes was then settled, he had 
 the opportunity of forming an acquaintance and friend- 
 
CONVERSION AND EARLY LABOURS OF HALDANES. 147 
 
 ship with that good man which lasted through hfe ; 
 and though it is not said that he was the means of 
 his conversion, it is certain that their conversations, 
 protracted sometimes till after midnight, had an im- 
 portant influence in fostering his religious decision ; 
 and ultimately, in conversation w^ith a humble stone- 
 mason during a walk through the estate, he saw 
 clearly the method and ground of a sinner's justifica- 
 tion, and entered on the enjoyment of settled peace. 
 And thus it came to pass that within a short time of 
 each other, though in different ways, the two brothers 
 passed through the crisis of being, experiencing a 
 change in feeling, in thought, in motive, in the prin- 
 ciples and ends of action, the issues of which eternity 
 alone will disclose. 
 
 The genuineness of their conversion was soon mani- 
 fested in their efforts for the salvation of others. 
 Naturally men of great decision and force of charac- 
 ter, they could not be idle, but must throw all their 
 energy into the propagation of their new faith. 
 
 After his conversion, Robert Haldane came to the 
 deliberate conclusion, in which every man must agree 
 with him, that religion if worth anything was worth 
 everything, and, in consistency with this, resolved to 
 make its promotion the business of his life. He 
 accordingly, with a liberality seldom equalled, sold his 
 ancestral estate of Airthrey, which he had beautified 
 until its improvements, combined with its natural 
 advantages, rendered it famous throughout the sur- 
 
148 CONVERSION AND EARLY LABOURS OF HALDANES. 
 
 rounding neighbourhood, that he might devote its 
 proceeds to the promotion of the cause of Christ. 
 His hrst intention was to commence a mission in 
 Benares, taking with him Dr. Bogue of Gosport, a 
 man of great weight among the EngKsh Independents; 
 Mr. Innes of Stirling ; and his brother-in-law, Mr. 
 Greville Ewing, assistant minister of Lady Glenorchy's, 
 Edinburgh ; together with a Mr. Ritchie, " a respect- 
 able and pious printer," who was to superintend the 
 printing work of the mission. These were to be 
 " aided by catechists, city missionaries, and school- 
 masters;" and all of them were to be supported, the 
 whole work of the mission carried on, at Mr. Haldane's 
 expense. The scheme was a magnificent one, credit- 
 able alike to the Christian zeal and wisdom of its 
 originator. But the opposition of the East India 
 Company's directors prevented its being put into 
 operation, and the funds intended for it were directed 
 into other channels, in which, perhaps, they were not 
 less usefully employed. 
 
 In the General Assembly's debate on foreign mis- 
 sions, previously referred to, an argument had been 
 used by the Moderate party which bore fruit other 
 than was intended — the argument that there were 
 heathen enouo-h at home demandino- the Church's at- 
 tention and energies before she sent out missionaries 
 to heathens abroad. It is a stock argument still 
 with those who seek to repress all missionary zeal, 
 and to find a pretext for withholding the contribu- 
 
CONVERSION AND EARLY LABOURS OF HALDANES. 149 
 
 tions by which foreign mission work requires to be 
 sustained. It was not meant then, any more than 
 it is now, to stimulate to home missionary efforts ; 
 for we cannot find that those who used it ever 
 originated any such efforts, nor were they ready to 
 countenance them when put forth by others. But 
 the aro'ument had sunk into the mind of Mr. James 
 Haklane, and it led him to brood over the spiritual 
 condition of his countrymen with very notable results. 
 
 He had not yet attempted to preach. It had been 
 remarked by a friend that he " would by-and-by 
 become a preacher," and by another he was asked the 
 question if he did not regret that he had not been a 
 minister. The suggestion pleased him, and in his 
 heart he secretly cherished a desire for the work he 
 deemed the most honourable. But he was not very 
 confident that his wish would ever be realized ; and 
 he could only wait " in hope that the Lord would 
 direct." 
 
 His entrance on the work was at length brought 
 about through the acquaintance he formed with Mr. 
 John Campbell, an ironmonger in the Grassmarket, 
 Edinburgh, a most devoted and earnest Christian 
 worker — " the living model of a city missionary, a 
 district visitor, a Scripture reader, a tract distributer, 
 a Sabbath-school teacher, and a Sabbath -school orig- 
 inator, long before Christians had learned to unite 
 themselves together in societies to promote these 
 objects ; " and through him, with a Mr. John Aikman, 
 
150 CONVERSION AND EARLY LABOURS OF HALDANES. 
 
 a gentleman ^Yho had also been in business, in the 
 West Indies, which he relinquished from conscientious 
 motives, and was now studying divinity with a view 
 to the ministry of the Church of Scotland, which he 
 was destined not to enter. 
 
 In 1797 James Haldane set out with Mr. Campbell 
 on a tour through the west of Scotland, in connection 
 with a society Avhich had been formed in Edinburgh, 
 " independent of clerical superintendence, for the estab- 
 lishment of Sabbath schools in destitute localities." 
 Although he did no preaching on this tour, it was 
 really the commencement of active service in the 
 cause of Christ, which extended over, more than half 
 a century. It resulted in the formation of sixty 
 Sabbath-evening schools ; and it gave him such ac- 
 quaintance with the religious condition of his country- 
 men as no doubt whetted and strengthened his desire 
 for the work of preaching in which he afterwards so 
 excelled. 
 
 His first sermon was preached at the village of 
 Gilmerton, where a preaching-station had been opened 
 by himself and Mr. Aikman, and was to be occupied 
 by Mr. Rate, a student from Dr. Bogue's academy at 
 Gosport. On Mr. Rate's being .suddenly called to 
 England, the duty of taking his place devolved on 
 his two friends. Mr. Aikman at first declined to 
 preach, and was only induced to consent by Mr. 
 Haldane promising that if Mr. Aikman would supply 
 one Sunday evening, he would undertake the next. 
 
CONVERSION AND KABLY LABOURS OF HALDANES. 151 
 
 In this way it came to pass that he preached his tirst 
 sermon on the 6th May 1797, and with sucli power 
 and such results as, in the estimation of competent 
 judges, proved that this was his proper work. 
 
 The correctness of this estimate was soon to be 
 made manifest in a more conspicuous manner; for only 
 a few weeks had elapsed before he was in the full 
 swing of his ministry as an evangelist among his 
 countrymen. It was in July that same year that, 
 along with Mr. Aikman and Mr. Rate, he set out on 
 a preaching tour in the north, after being commended 
 to God in prayer in the house of their pastor, the 
 Rev. David Black of Lady Yester's Church ; and thus 
 commenced that series of evangelistic journeys in the 
 course of which, now accompanied by one friend and 
 now by another, he visited every district of the 
 country, preaching the gospel in nearly every town, 
 and many of the principal villages, from the Orkneys 
 to the banks of the Tweed. 
 
 A man of commanding presence and powerful voice, 
 he was well qualified for such work. The fact of his 
 having been a captain in the navy helped to attract 
 large audiences. And, above all, the doctrines of the 
 gospel, which were now a strange sound to many, 
 thrilled the hearts of the people, and were welcome to 
 them as cold water to thirsty souls. 
 
 In the prosecution of these journeys he had much 
 to encounter and endure. Penetrating into the most 
 remote and unfrequented parts, he sometimes, after 
 
152 CONVERSION AND EARLY LABOURS OF HALDANES. 
 
 travelling and preaching by day, could find no better 
 accommodation for the night than the mud floor of 
 a Highland cottage. He was opposed by the clergy 
 — dragged unjustly before magistrates — interrupted 
 and assailed by men who called themselves gentlemen. 
 Men of less nerve would have faltered before such 
 opposition ; but his constitutional qualities and his 
 naval experience rendered him admirably qualified to 
 grapple with and to master it. He had confronted 
 death without fear ; he had for years contended with 
 the boisterous ocean, and controlled the more unruly 
 passions of hundreds of untutored men ; and he was 
 not the man to quail before magisterial frowns or 
 clerical intolerance. In spite of their opposition he 
 went from place to place, preaching now in churches 
 or in chapels, as the case might be, and now in the open 
 air. In churchyard or college grounds, village greens 
 or public squares, wherever people could be gathered 
 too'ether, crowds flocked to hear him, drawn at first 
 perhaps by curiosity ; but often those who came to 
 scofif or to wonder remained to weep and to pray. 
 Thus the movement as it advanced increased in force 
 and volume. Larger numbers were attracted as the 
 spiritual results became known. The hearers were 
 animated by a more earnest spirit, and oftentimes in 
 the drenching rain they stood listening with intense 
 interest to his clear, faithful, and searching exhibitions 
 of truth. Thus he scattered the fi^ood seed throuo^hout 
 the length and breadth of the land, and witli results 
 
CONVERSION AND EARLY LABOURS OF HALDANES. 153 
 
 bearino- a closer resemblance to those which attended 
 
 o 
 
 the preaching of Whitefield than anything in modern 
 times. 
 
 To the movement thus commenced the attention of 
 his brother, who had been frustrated in his missionary 
 purposes, was naturally directed ; and to its main- 
 tenance and organization he devoted the property 
 originally designed for India. A fortune of sixty or 
 seventy thousand pounds was, in the course of a few 
 years, cheerfully spent in training hundreds of young 
 men for the ministry, in building chapels or taber- 
 nacles, as they were called in various parts of the 
 country, and in printing and circulating myriads of 
 gospel tracts and other religious publications. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OPPOSITION. 
 
 Unwise method — Lessons of experience— Society for Propagating the 
 Gosi)el at Home— Mr. Cowie of Huntly — Intolerance of the Church 
 — UnfriendHness of the Seceders — Opening of the Circus— No thoi;ght 
 of forming a new order of churches— What was chiefly regarded — 
 Gradual formation of Congregational churches — Spirit of the Hal- 
 danes — English Evangelicals — Revived interest in religion — Marked 
 attention to the gospel — A time of refreshing from the presence of the 
 Lord. 
 
 THE preaching of James and his companions fell 
 like a thunder-peal on the ears of a slumbering 
 Church, and was not long in rousing the opposition 
 of the clergy, whose false teaching their doctrines 
 condemned, and to whose supineness their activity 
 and zeal presented such a striking contrast. They 
 were not very wise, perhaps, in the first instance. 
 On his first tour, it was not an unconnnon thing for 
 James Haldane, at his open-air service in the after 
 part of the day, to denounce the doctrines subversive 
 of the gospel he had heard at church in the morning, 
 and to caution the people against the false teaching of 
 their own minister. This, of course, did not conciliate 
 the clergymen whose discourses were made the sub- 
 
OPPOSITION. 155 
 
 ject of remark, nor did it command the approval of 
 the Evangelical leaders who were well disposed to- 
 wards the itinerant preachers. Even to Dr. Erskine, 
 their boldness as laymen in attacking " the false 
 doctrines of unfaithful ministers seemed subversive 
 of Church order. To the judgment of such men they 
 were willing to bow ;" and before setting out on their 
 second tour, therefore, Mr. James Haldane and Mr. 
 Aikman addressed a letter to the Missionary Maga- 
 zine in which they announced their " intention to 
 adopt a different line of conduct " in future. Their 
 action, they say, " afforded a handle to those who did 
 not approve of our design, to represent us as actuated 
 by party spirit and ill-will to individuals. While we 
 can safely say our consciences bear us witness that 
 our motives were very different, yet we now see the 
 propriety of cutting off occasion from those who seek 
 occasion, as well as of removing prejudice from some 
 of our brethren, who, in this particular, disapproved 
 of our conduct. We accordingly take this opportunity 
 to state, that we are resolved to confine ourselves in 
 our intended journey to the declaration of what we 
 consider as the truth of God, without making personal 
 remarks on any individual." 
 
 This letter does not seem to have had much effect 
 in disarming opposition. Even among the Evangel- 
 icals there were those who could not approve of lay- 
 preaching as such ; and lay-preaching was increasing 
 to an extent which could not fail to be disquieting 
 
156 OPPOSITION. 
 
 to the Moderates, although they had previously affected 
 concern for the state of the heathen at home. Not con- 
 tent with such preaching being engaged in by those who, 
 like Mr. James Haldane and Mr. Aikman, could do so 
 at their own cost, the Haldanes, in December of that 
 year (1797), established a society "consisting of Chris- 
 tians of different denominations under the name of 
 ' The Society for Propagating the Gospel at Home.' " 
 This society, whose funds were chiefly supplied by 
 Mr. Robert Haldane, was not designed " to form or to 
 extend the influence of any sect," but " to make known 
 the evangelical gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by 
 employing itinerants, schoolmasters, or others," on 
 whom it neither conferred ordination nor appoint- 
 ment to the pastoral office, but simply sent them out 
 to supply the means of grace wherever there appeared 
 to be a deficiency. It was greatly blessed in its 
 labours, ably defended in the Missionary Magazine 
 by Mr. Cowie of Huntly, an Anti-Burgher minister, 
 who was designated the Whitefield of the North, and 
 by Mr. Greville Ewing in a sermon preached on behalf 
 of the Edinburgh Sabbath-evenins: schools. It roused, 
 however, the opposition of the clergy both in and out 
 of the Establishment ; and when the publication of 
 Mr. James Haldane's journal of his tour in the north, 
 which passed in a short time through three large edi- 
 tions, "served to swell the mingled tumult of censure 
 and approval," the feelings which had long been surg- 
 ing found expression in formal votes passed in the 
 
OPPOSITION. ' 157 
 
 courts of the Churches, which confirmed the itinerants' 
 determination to continue the course on which they 
 had entered, and made manifest the impossibility of 
 their working in connection with the ecclesiastical 
 organizations to which they had clung. 
 
 As might have been expected, the most determined 
 opposition to the new movement was offered by the 
 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. On 
 the 28th May 1799, an overture was presented from 
 the Synod of Aberdeen, and that of Angus and Mearns, 
 respecting vagrant teachers and Sunday schools, irre- 
 ligion and anarchy." " The Assembly unanimously 
 agreed to the overtures, and prohibited all persons 
 from preaching in any place under their jurisdiction 
 who were not licensed as above ; and also, those ivlio 
 are from England, or any other place, and who had 
 not been educated and licensed in Scotland ; — and 
 resolved that a pastoral admonition be addressed by 
 the Assembly to all the people under their charge." 
 The Procurator of the Church was also empowered to 
 proceed legally against unauthorized Sunday-school 
 teachers, on the strength of certain obsolete Acts of 
 the Scottish Parliament ; and, as the biographer of 
 the Haldanes remarks, " it was not owing to any for- 
 bearance on the part of the Assembly that the enmity 
 of Moderatism was not manifested in the form of 
 direct persecution." 
 
 Other religious bodies showed no greater friend- 
 ship. The Cameronians, the Relief, the Anti-Burghers, 
 
158 • OPPOSITION. 
 
 issued hostile decrees, which some of them enforced 
 by excommunication. The Cameronians pronounced 
 it a sin in their members to Hsten even to a mis- 
 sionary sermon from a minister who was not of their 
 own communion. The Belief Synod, although their 
 founder, Mr. Gillespie, had finished his theological 
 education under Dr. Doddridge of Northampton, for- 
 bade their members to listen to preachers who had 
 not been educated at some of the universities of the 
 nation. The Anti-Burghers deposed and excommuni- 
 cated the Rev. George Cowie of Huntly, of whom 
 Dr. Morison, who knew him well, says : — 
 
 " He had no competitor, no equal in the north of 
 Scotland. He was a man of genius, bold and fearless 
 in all his movements, and in his feelings of charity 
 and liberality half a century at least before the ecclesi- 
 astics of his day. In the pulpit Mr. Cowie was truly 
 great. His appearance was that of dignified simplicity. 
 He could declaim, and he could be pathetic. His dis- 
 courses partook of the colloquial. He had studied 
 human nature, and he knew how to approach it at 
 every avenue. The power he had over an audience 
 was great beyond description. He could make them 
 smile or weep. His appeal to the conscience was un- 
 ceremonious and direct. He never lost sight of the 
 theme of the pulpit. All things were by him counted 
 loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ 
 Jesus his Lord. He was a stern reprover of sin ; but 
 he melted with tenderness over the sinner, beseeching 
 
OPPOSITION. ' 159 
 
 him to be reconciled to God. I have seen hundreds 
 dissolved in tears under his ministry, and I have wept 
 from pure sympathy when I was too young to under- 
 stand his message." 
 
 And they cast him out because he went to hear 
 such preachers as James Haldane — " for countenancing 
 what are called missionary preaclrers, by hearing them 
 preach, and in various other ways." 
 
 Such was the opposition they encountered in the 
 various ecclesiastical organizations. Simeon of Cam- 
 brido'e countenanced them : other Evano-elical ministers 
 in the Church of England were favourable to them. 
 Rowland Hill came down to Scotland to help them 
 by his preaching and influence, and spoke and wrote 
 valiantly in their defence. But Scotland, which had 
 reaped the benefit of their labours, was forbidden by 
 its ecclesiastical authorities to tolerate or listen to 
 them. What were they to do ? Succumb to the 
 storm ? quail before their opponents and perse- 
 cutors ? Their natural courage forbade that. Better 
 still, they saw too clearly, and were too firmly con- 
 vinced of their Divine mission, to admit of it. God 
 had set his seal to their labours. They knew the 
 blessing which had attended them in all parts of the 
 country. They could say, like the apostles, " Whether 
 it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you 
 more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but 
 speak the things which we have seen and heard." 
 
 The opposition only led them to take steps to con- 
 
IGO OPPOSITION. 
 
 solidate and extend the movement. In 1789 the 
 Circus Avas opened in Edinburgh as a place where 
 different evangelical ministers might preach the gospel, 
 and the seats being all free, the poor might be able to 
 attend. A Cono-reorational church was formed there, of 
 which James Haldane was chosen pastor. From this 
 church, which afterwards met in the Tabernacle, came 
 that in Argyle Square, and now on George the Fourth 
 Bridge ; and, less directly, that which now meets in 
 Dublin Street. Other tabernacles on a similar footing 
 were opened in other places — one in Glasgow, of which 
 Mr. Greville Ewino- took charo-e : one in Dundee, of 
 which Dr. Innes at first declined to become minister, 
 because he had not made up his mind to leave the 
 Church of Scotland, but afterwards consented when 
 forced to a decision because required by the Presby- 
 tery of Stirling to take part in the ordination of an 
 openly ungodly minister. Gospel tracts were freely 
 distributed. At Robert Haldane's expense, young men 
 of piety and promising talent received a short training 
 for the ministry, partly under Mr. Ewing in Glasgow, 
 and partly under Dr. Innes in Dundee — young men 
 who, though unordained, could nevertheless tell to 
 others the story of the Cross, and beseech men to be 
 reconciled to God. 
 
 It was not in their thoughts to found a new sect 
 or to form a new order of churches, but simply to 
 spread the knowledge of the gospel among their 
 countrymen. And had they been allowed to pursue 
 
OPPOSITION. 161 
 
 their evangelistic labours unmolested by the ecclesi- 
 astical authorities of the time ; had there been spir- 
 itual life enough in the Church to appreciate their 
 labours, or wisdom enough even to tolerate their zeal 
 and turn it to account, they might have remained, to 
 all human appearance, members of the Church of 
 Scotland to their dying day. But the Lord was 
 leading them by a way that they knew not, and to 
 a position which they did not anticipate. A great 
 principle, more important and vital than any question 
 of Church order or Church government — a principle 
 of which nearly all sections of the Church of Christ 
 are now happily recognizing the importance, in theory, 
 at least — required to be prominently asserted — and 
 few men could be more favourably situated, or by 
 their character better qualified for the work — the 
 principle, to wit, that only regenerate persons, par- 
 takers of spiritual life, are qualified for meriibership 
 in the Neio Testament Church of Christ 
 
 This principle belongs to a different category from 
 the independency and self-government of the several 
 churches as held by Congregationalists, and ranks, in 
 the judgment of those who accept it, next in impor- 
 tance to the fundamental doctrines of the gospel. It 
 is, they believe, the principle on which the churches 
 of the New Testament were based ; for their members 
 are called " saints and faithful brethren in Christ," 
 and are always spoken of and addressed as those who 
 have undergone the saving change. It is a principle, 
 
 (110) 11 
 
162 OPPOSITION. 
 
 moreover, which they hold to be essential to the pur- 
 poses for which churches exist, to the maintenance 
 of Christian fellowship among their members, and to 
 their success in the conversion of the world. Where 
 the distinction between the Church and the world is 
 obliterated — although in such a community the Lord 
 knows those who are his, and those who fear the 
 Lord, attracted by mutual sympathy, may speak often 
 one to another — there is no cohesion among her mem- 
 bers, and little power to influence the world for good. 
 
 It was this principle which the Haldanes and their 
 friends had in view when the church at the Circus 
 was formed in 1799. Two or three things were 
 among the factors which led to this. Some of the 
 English Congregational ministers who took part in 
 the services at the Circus gave expression to their 
 views as to the nature and constitution of a Christian 
 Church. In 1795 a Congregational church had been 
 formed in Paisley, and another in Aberdeen in 1798. 
 The feelings in which the latter originated appear 
 clearly in an extract from its Minute Book, given by 
 Mr. Kinniburgh in his Historical Survey of Congre- 
 gationalism in Scotland : — 
 
 ''Aberdeen, September 1797. — For some time past 
 several persons here observed and lamented that most 
 churches or parties are remarkably strict in demand- 
 ing assent and subscription to human creeds and con- 
 fessions of faith ; remarkably lax in their inquiries 
 into the knowledge, experience, and moral character 
 
OPPOSITION. 163 
 
 of such as desire admission; remarkably languid and 
 indifferent about the one thing needful, and very 
 zealous about some things needless They con- 
 versed about these things occasionally, and although 
 belonging to different communions, they perceived 
 that the love of God in the heart is a more sweet 
 and steady bond than a professed belief of any human 
 creed." 
 
 When formed into a church, as they were the 
 following year, Mr. Kinniburgh says, " the brethren 
 resolved to unite liberality with purity ; to abandon 
 the lax worldly system of communion ; and to admit 
 to occasional fellowship all who gave evidence of con- 
 version, although differing from them in their modes 
 and forms ; and that the pulpit of their chapel should 
 be open to faithful ministers of every denomination 
 who preached Christ Jesus and him crucified." 
 
 The brethren at the Circus were no doubt acquainted 
 with these movements. They also knew of the meet- 
 ings for prayer and Christian fellowship in which 
 godly men in different parts of the country found 
 means of fostering their spiritual life, such as their 
 church services did not supply. These, with the things 
 previously named, may very well have suggested to 
 them the desirableness of forming a church which 
 aimed at admitting to its membership only those who 
 gave credible evidence of conversion to God. Such 
 was the great object for which the church at the 
 Circus was formed. Mr. James Aikman, who was 
 
164 OPPOSITION. 
 
 one of the original members, and afterwards co-pastor, 
 gives the following account of its formation : — 
 
 " The chief principle which influenced the minds of 
 the brethren who, I believe, constituted the majority 
 of the small company first associated for observing 
 divine ordinances in the Circus, was the indispensable 
 necessity of the people of God being separated in 
 religious fellowship from all such societies as per- 
 mitted visible unbelievers to continue in their com- 
 munion. This was a yoke under which we had long 
 groaned ; and we hailed with gratitude to God the 
 happy day when we first enjoyed the so-much- wished- 
 for privilege of separating from an impure communion, 
 and of uniting exclusively with those whom it was 
 meet and fit that we should judge to be the children 
 of God. Some of our brethren, however, did not unite 
 with us on this principle. They were attached indeed 
 to the fellowship of the saints, and would by no means 
 consent to the admission of any amongst us who did 
 not appear to be such ; yet they were not then con- 
 vinced of the absolute unlawfulness of their continuing 
 in connection with societies confessedly impure. Our 
 brethren were well aware of our decided difference of 
 sentiment, not only respecting the great inconsistency 
 but also unlawfulness of any persons connected with 
 us continuing to go back to the fellowship of those 
 societies from which they had professed to separate ; 
 and they knew that our forbearance did not imply 
 any approbation of this conduct. Persuaded, however, 
 
 I 
 
 J 
 
OPPOSITION. 165 
 
 that they did not intend by this to countenance any- 
 thing they judged to be contrary to the mind of 
 Christ, we deemed it our duty to forbear, in the hope 
 that that Saviour whom we trusted it was their 
 supreme desire to serve and to please, would grant 
 us the happiness of being likeminded in this as in 
 our other views of promoting the honour of his 
 adored name." 
 
 It thus appears that the formation of their first 
 Congregational church was the result of their spiritual 
 life instinctively seeking scope and nourishment such 
 as they thought was not to be found in the societies 
 with which they had been connected. It is true that 
 their views of Church order and government were at 
 a later date much more clearly defined, and firmly 
 held as well as consistently carried out. But they 
 never interfered with the Catholic spirit with which 
 they regarded Christians of every name. In a letter, 
 written in 1822, to a son who had gone to reside in 
 London, James Haldane says : " I see plainly that the 
 order of a Church is not unimportant ; and that, 
 although at present there are many defects in all 
 parties, we ought to love all who love the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and that our love to them ought to abound in 
 proportion as we see the great features of the king- 
 dom of God, righteousness and peace and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost, abounding in them ; and when these are 
 observed, it ought to enable us to throw a mantle of 
 love over their defects." This was pretty much the 
 
166 OPPOSITION. 
 
 spirit, we believe, which actuated the Haldanes both 
 before and after the division which took place on 
 their embracing Baptist principles. Mr. Greville 
 Ewing appears to have attached more importance to 
 the principles of Congregationalism than any of his 
 associates ; but in this the brothers Haldane never 
 sympathized with him, and their difference on this 
 point was partly the cause of the estrangement which 
 sprang up between him and the elder brother. 
 
 The formation of the church at the Circus was 
 followed by that of others in different parts of the 
 country, under men who, in Mr. Haldane's seminaries, 
 had been trained for home mission work. 
 
 " So far," says the biographer of the Haldanes, " as 
 these schemes were confined to the conversion of 
 sinners, they were blessed in a way which commended 
 them, in a greater or less degree, to the approbation 
 of such men as Mr. Newton, Mr. Simeon, and Mr. 
 Scott. But so far as they involved a new system of 
 ecclesiastical polity, in the end they signally failed. 
 To the poor the gospel was preached ; sinners were 
 saved, and Christians glorified. But when Churches 
 were established on the fancied model of primitive 
 times, they only flourished for a time." In the same 
 connection he proceeds to speak slightingly of the 
 ardour of those who " think it as easy to reform 
 wisely as to censure sharply, to apply the antidote as 
 well as to indicate the disease, whether practical or 
 theoretic, in any system of ecclesiastical polity." 
 
OPPOSITION. 167 
 
 Whether the " new system of ecclesiastical polity " 
 ultimately and signally failed will appear as we pro- 
 ceed. Meanwhile the fact, which even this Epis- 
 copalian biographer does not question, deserves to be 
 noted — that although the attention of their founders 
 was occupied with ecclesiastical questions, there was 
 no sign of diminished usefulness for some time after 
 these places of worship had been opened. The Circus 
 was found too small for the numbers who sought to 
 attend ; and when the Tabernacle was built, although 
 it was equal in the accommodation it afforded to the 
 largest church in the city, it was frequently crowded 
 as the Circus had been by "thronging multitudes, 
 hanging on the preacher's lips, singing the praises of 
 the Lord with their whole hearts, remaining during 
 long services without wearying, and retiring in solemn 
 silence, afraid, as it were, to desecrate the place where 
 the Lord himself was present, and that presence was 
 felt." 
 
 There is little sign here that their attempt to 
 establish a purer communion than they could find 
 in existing Churches, and their adoption of a new 
 ecclesiastical polity, had interfered with their useful- 
 ness. And how well the community they had formed 
 served the purpose, and answered to the ideal of a 
 New Testament Church, is also shown by the follow- 
 ing testimony borne by Mrs. Matthewson, the daughter 
 and biographer of Mi\ Ewing : — " With many souls it 
 was the season of first love ; and even those who had 
 
168 OPPOSITION. 
 
 long known the grace of God in truth looked back to 
 it ever after as a time of life from the dead. There 
 was a fervour of spirit, a love to each other for the 
 truth's sake, a delight in all the ordinances of the 
 gospel, which makes it resemble more perhaps the 
 Pentecostal period in Jerusalem than any that has 
 succeeded it. The fear of singularity and the love 
 of the world seemed alike for the time to have lost 
 their power. The work of God, in seeking the con- 
 version of sinners, was made the business of life 
 
 The multitudes also who crowded to the Circus, the 
 zeal and activity of those engaged in Sabbath schools 
 and various other useful institutions, the intelligence 
 received from others sent forth to more distant labours — 
 all these were animating in the highest degree. They 
 furnish in abundance topics for the most improving 
 conversation, while they become alike the source of 
 
 thanksgiving and encouragement to prayer To 
 
 warn, to beseech, or to exhort their fellow-sinners, 
 was a spontaneous delightful employment ; to describe 
 the blessedness of 'peace with God, through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ,' was but to express the overflowing of 
 their actual experience. And to crown all, they were 
 at peace among themselves." 
 
 We do not think, as we have previously said, that 
 views of Church order and government, however 
 scriptural, will prove the spring of a national revival 
 of religion, such as took place in the time of the 
 Haldanes. Nothing but the faithful proclamation of 
 
OPPOSITION. 169 
 
 gospel truth will lead to that. But that truth pro- 
 claimed, and that revival promoted, should not prevent 
 but secure our inquiring into the will of the Lord on 
 such questions, and following it so far as it becomes 
 known. It is the becoming too much engrossed in 
 them to the neglect of other more important matters, 
 and especially the controversial spirit which they 
 sometimes kindle, not the giving due heed to them, 
 against which we need to be on our guard. 
 
 The church at the Circus, as the foregoing account 
 of it shows, was anything but a failure. Its member- 
 ship increased until its dimensions and claims rendered 
 it desirable that Mr. Aikman should be associated 
 with Mr. James Haldane in the pastorate ; and not 
 long after, its size rendered it expedient that he and 
 a number of the members should hive off and form 
 another church in Argyle Square, which continues till 
 this day, and after enjoying for many years the 
 ministrations of the late Dr. W. L. Alexander, now 
 meets in a stately edifice on George the Fourth 
 Bridge, under the pastorate of Mr. Gregory, while 
 others which sprang from them, more or less directly, 
 assemble in different parts of the city. And much 
 the same thing may be said of the other towns in 
 which the Haldanes planted their tabernacles ; and 
 even throughout the country there are hundreds of 
 churches, many of them in a thriving condition, which 
 have been established, as their founders believe, on 
 what is called " the fancied model of primitive times." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 CAUSES WHICH INTERFERED WITH THE PROGRESS 
 OF THE MOVEMENT. 
 
 Differences arising — Testimony to the supremacy of conscience — Question 
 as to Church fellowship— General awakening — Dr. Andrew Thomson 
 — Mr. Greville Ewing — Troubles — The position of the Haldanes — 
 Theii- biographer's estimate of their success — Has the movement been 
 a failure ? 
 
 OTHER questions, however, very soon arose which 
 seriously affected the movement ; questions 
 which were fitted to test its genuineness, and which 
 could not properly be evaded ; questions relating to 
 Church order and to the ordinances of Christ. The 
 weak part of their work, in fact, was that these 
 questions had been too long evaded. They ought to 
 have been at the beginning thoroughly and prayer- 
 fully studied, and the conclusion, intelligently and 
 conscientiously arrived at, acted on from the very 
 first. 
 
 After these questions occupied their attention there 
 was some apparent reason for speaking of their work 
 as a failure, especially after they publicly avowed 
 their adoption of Baptist principles, and were baptized 
 
THE PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT 171 
 
 by immersion in 1808. But the failure was more 
 apparent than real. Differences of opinion naturally 
 arose ; for it was not to be expected that a whole 
 community would be prepared to follow its leaders in 
 such a step. These differences, however courteously 
 expressed, as naturally resulted in a degree of estrange- 
 ment ; for even good men cannot always agree to 
 differ. The Tabernacle community was divided and 
 scattered in consequence, and the influence the Hal- 
 danes exerted over a wider circle was also diminished. 
 Yet, in our judgment, the step they took in carrying 
 out their conscientious convictions was attended by 
 at least a compensating, if not a greatly preponder- 
 ating, good. It was a valuable and much -needed 
 testimony to the supremacy of conscience. The Hal- 
 clanes, Robert perhaps most conspicuously, had previ- 
 ously borne this testimony by the manner in which 
 they had relinquished worldly possessions in obedience 
 to their own sense of right. But the principle re- 
 quired then, as it does still, a more extended application. 
 It is not enough that there should be a readiness to 
 forego worldly good when the will of Christ requires ; 
 obedience to his will should not be withheld even for 
 the sake of supposed religious advantages. Every 
 believer is bound to make it the supreme and sole 
 rule of life in all things. He is not at liberty to 
 disobey even though obedience may seem likely to 
 hinder his usefulness. Christ's will, so understood, 
 must be done, be the consequences what they may. 
 
172 CAUSES WHICH INTERFERED WITH 
 
 The testimony which the Haldanes bore to this was 
 enhanced in value by the so-called disastrous con- 
 sequences which followed. The disruption and rapid 
 diminution of the Tabernacle congregation, the loss of 
 popularity and influence throughout the country, the 
 alienation of friends with whom they had been lov- 
 ingly associated, borne without a murmur, and without 
 their questioning the propriety of the step they had 
 taken, could not fail to exert a salutary influence on 
 thoughtful men, elevating the standard of religious 
 action as far as that influence was felt. Men who 
 could meekly bear all this, sufler the loss of what they 
 with good reason valued so highly, because strong in 
 their sense of right, were men at once of sound judg- 
 ment and heroic mould. Their example was of 
 priceless value when men needed to be taught that 
 on no account should they " do evil that good may 
 come," and that not even the prospect of a great 
 advantage to the cause of Christ would justify either 
 a wilful neglect of duty or a slight deviation from the 
 path of rectitude. 
 
 But whatever we may think of the wisdom or the 
 unwisdom of their course, such men could not act 
 otherwise than they did. Their past was the earnest 
 of their future. Their antecedents might have led 
 men to anticipate their action under the new condi- 
 tions that had arisen. Having sacrificed everything 
 for conscience' sake hitherto, they will, not prove 
 faithless to conscience now. Though that which they 
 
THE PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT. 173 
 
 hold dearer than either property or position — that for 
 which they have ah'eady sacrificed both — may he at 
 stake, they cannot refuse to do what their conscience 
 tells them the Lord wills. We may think them mis- 
 taken in their judgment on this matter — many who 
 admire their character do think them mistaken — but 
 all must acknowledge that, understanding Scripture as 
 they do, they have no alternative. Necessity is laid 
 upon them. Like Luther at the sublimest moment in 
 his life, they may each say, " Here I am. I cannot be 
 otherwise. God help me. Amen." 
 
 The Haldanes claimed the liberty to act out their 
 own convictions, and desired to continue in Church 
 fellowship with their brethren from whom they dif- 
 fered. To this some of those brethren would not 
 agree. Thus the Tabernacle church was broken up 
 and dispersed. Other causes, however, operated in 
 the same direction. Their proceedings had lost the 
 charm of novelty. The interest excited by the fact 
 of two such men sacrificing their worldl}^ position and 
 prospects, and devoting themselves, their talents, and 
 their means to the propagation of the gospel, one of 
 them travelling throughout the country as an itinerant 
 open-air preacher, the other countenancing and sup- 
 porting him in his work, and contemplating and 
 attempting schemes of quieter but more extended 
 usefulness, naturally died away in course of time. 
 The very success which had attended their efforts, 
 moreover, rendered the carrying on of the work to 
 
174 CAUSES WHICH INTERFERED WITH 
 
 which they had been the means of giving such an 
 impulse less dependent on themselves. Men trained 
 under their auspices were now preaching the gospel 
 in different parts of the country with a simplicity and 
 directness something like their own. These rendered 
 the preaching tours of the younger brother less neces- 
 sarj^, while prolonged absences from home were pre- 
 vented by his increasing duties as pastor of a church. 
 Some who had been associated with them from the 
 commencement of their public course were now, 
 through the help they had afforded them, occupying 
 prominent spheres, in which they attracted large 
 audiences. Public attention had been roused to their 
 statements of evangelical truth, and in other ecclesi- 
 astical circles than those in which they moved their 
 doctrines were discussed. Those who agreed with 
 them were emboldened by their courage to bear more 
 pronounced testimony to the truths they held. Others 
 who had more recently embraced them had become 
 their most eloquent and efficient advocates. The con- 
 version of Dr. Chalmers, which took place shortly 
 after the events we have noticed, was an epoch in 
 the history of evangelism in Scotland more important 
 even than theirs. Fired with the enthusiasm of a 
 young convert for the truth which had taken posses- 
 sion of him, he devoted his splendid talents and 
 energies to the propagation of his new faith ; and 
 preaching the gospel with a force and eloquence all 
 his own, he burst upon the country with a dazzling 
 
THE PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT. 175 
 
 brilliance which eclipsed all lesser lights. And while 
 he was attracting all eyes in the capital of the west, 
 Dr. Andrew Thomson of Edinburgh, with an equal 
 energy and a clearer logic, though less gorgeous 
 imagination, was in the zenith of his glory. Around 
 these central luminaries various stars of greater or 
 less mao'nitude were revolvino; • and when there were 
 so many, and some possessed of superior talents to 
 their own, preaching the gospel as freely and faith- 
 fully as they did — when their views of gospel truth 
 thus ceased to be novel and singular, it was hardly 
 to be expected that the Haldanes could retain the 
 same prominence or exert the same influence as when, 
 among all the ministers of the Church of Scotland, 
 there were scarcely any who held it so purely, and 
 none who preached it so faithfully, as themselves. 
 It detracts nothing from their honour, however, that 
 the movement they had been the means of originating 
 grew until it passed beyond their own guidance and 
 personal influence, and by its very magnitude threw 
 its originators into comparative obscurity, while other 
 men whom it had raised up took their place in the 
 public eye, and became more prominently connected 
 with it. 
 
 Then that aspect of gospel truth to which they 
 gave prominence, although admirably adapted to the 
 state of Scotland at the commencement of their course, 
 had not the same adaptation to the state which after- 
 wards obtained. We know the tendency of the 
 
176 CAUSES WHICH INTERFERED WITH 
 
 human mind to extremes, and the consequent re- 
 action by which great movements are generally suc- 
 ceeded. When men were taught to trust, not in the 
 Saviour's merits, but in their own virtue, nothing was 
 so fitted to counteract the error as the assertion of 
 man's entire dependence on God for salvation. By- 
 and-by, however, a great part of the thinking com- 
 munity of Scotland had rushed to the extreme of 
 theological belief. From many of the pulpits in 
 which Moderatism had inculcated a heathen morality, 
 men were addressed as if they were mere machines, 
 having no power to comply with the requirements of 
 the gospel, and assured that, notwithstanding their 
 utmost efforts, there was no hope except for a few 
 whose salvation had been eternally decreed. So ex- 
 tensively did this preaching prevail, and such was its 
 influence, that many regarded the decrees of God as 
 the cause, and not a few appealed to them in vindica- 
 tion, of their sin. It was evident that the doctrines 
 which had formerly been so influential could not be 
 so well adapted to this new state of things ; yet, so 
 far as we can learn, the Haldanes never saw the im- 
 portance of giving prominence to that aspect of the 
 truth which the change had rendered necessary, but 
 rather opposed those who did, and thus failed to keep 
 pace with the progress of a movement in the origina- 
 tion of which they had the honour of taking the most 
 prominent part. 
 
 We must not overlook, however, the controversies 
 
THE PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT. 177 
 
 which arose, not only, not even so much, on the ques- 
 tion of baptism, as on some other subjects, and the 
 consequent dissolution of existing friendships. The 
 difference between the elder brother and Mr. Ewing 
 was especially painful, both to themselves and their 
 friends. But that was not traceable simply to, al- 
 though it was intensified by, the change of views the 
 brothers had undergone. Mr. Ewing, who preached 
 in the Tabernacle which Eobert Haldane had erected 
 in Glasgow at his own expense, and superintended 
 the education of the students, was in the estimation 
 of Mr. Haldane too pronounced and persistent in his 
 advocacy of Congregationalism. This led to the re- 
 moval of the students from Glasgow, and consequently 
 to the termination of Mr. Ewing's connection with the 
 educational work of the movement. There is some 
 reason for believing that Mr. Ewing felt this some- 
 what keenly ; and the dissatisfaction and irritation 
 were increased when, after his change of views, Mr. 
 Haldane demanded from Mr. Ewing's congregation the 
 repayment of part of what he had spent in the erec- 
 tion of their tabernacle. Into the merits of this 
 quarrel it is not our province to enter, but it brings 
 us face to face with what we believe to have proved 
 in the end a source of weakness. Helpful at first as 
 supplying the means by which operations were sus- 
 tained, the money of Mr. Robert Haldane became a 
 hindrance and a snare when, through fostering a 
 spirit of dependence in the people, it restrained their 
 (110) 12 
 
178 CA USES WHICH INTERFERED WITH 
 
 own liberality. In another way, too, it may have 
 proved detrimental to the prosperity of the Tabernacle 
 church. The position and character of the men, the 
 remembrance of their devoted labours, gave them 
 legitimately a high place in the estimation of their 
 fellow-Christians ; and when to this was added the 
 fact of their comparative wealth, they could scarcely 
 fail to exert a predominating influence not quite com- 
 patible with the freedom and equality recognized in 
 churches in which all members not only stand on the 
 same level, but are entitled to a voice and a vote in 
 the settlement of every question. From such causes 
 we can quite understand how, without any defect in 
 their order or organization, the churches they formed 
 would, when their early fervour abated, naturally 
 dwindle away, and thus aflford some pretext for the 
 assertion that they had " signally failed." 
 
 To endorse this statement, however, or to allow it 
 to pass unchallenged, might lead to a very erroneous 
 impression of the facts. Whether the churches were 
 established only on the fancied, or on the veal, model 
 of primitive times, the attempt to establish them can- 
 not be said to have proved a failure. Although their 
 prosperity in the time of the Haldanes was interfered 
 with by the causes we have glanced at, they have 
 grown steadily from that time until now, when, in- 
 cluding the three sections into which they are divided — 
 the Congregationalists "pure and simple;" the Baptists, 
 who have added their views of an ordinance to their 
 
THE PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT. 179 
 
 Congregational Church polity ; and the Evangelical 
 Unionists, who attach less importance to church order 
 than to their views of gospel truth — they number in 
 Scotland some three hundred churches, with an ao-are- 
 gate membership of more than thirty thousand. Can 
 it fairly be said, then, that efforts to establish them 
 have in the end signally failed ? The end is not yet. 
 But come when it may, we can see nothing to justify 
 a prognostication of failure ; rather do we trace such 
 a steady growth as may end in a result such as few 
 anticipate, and as it may not be wise for us to name. 
 
 Of the three sections, the Congregationalists proper 
 appear to us to be now making the least progress ; for 
 they have about the same number of churches now as 
 they had at the time of their jubilee thirty-eight years 
 ago. But if so, the fact is not to be traced to any 
 mistake on the part of the Haldanes or their co- 
 adjutors. It may on quite other grounds be easily 
 accounted for. A difference of church order is not 
 enough of itself to prove a source of power. The 
 question of whether each church should be independent 
 and self -governed, or whether a number should unite 
 and be governed by a Presbytery of their own election, 
 is not one which possesses any great interest for ordi- 
 nary minds ; and it seems doubtful whether it be one 
 on which Scripture gives any certain sound — whether, 
 in New Testament times, it was not determined by 
 the circumstances which existed in different localities. 
 And if this has become the main distinction between 
 
180 CAUSES WHICH INTERFERED WITH 
 
 Congregationalists and their Presbyterian brethren ; 
 if on the much more important question of purity of 
 communion there has been a change of ground more 
 or less perceptible, an approximation to each other in 
 practice ; if Congregationalists, influenced by the broad 
 views of some of their confreres in England, and other 
 causes, have become less strict in their admission of 
 members, while many Presbyterians, influenced by 
 their Congregational brethren, have become more 
 strict — Cona-res'ationalists have so far lost their coign 
 of vantage, and under present conditions are not likely 
 to make much way in Presbyterian Scotland. 
 
 The progress of the Congregational body proper, 
 however, has been aflected by another cause, which 
 must not be overlooked if the position of Congrega- 
 tionalism is to be rightly estimated. There were 
 many Congregationalists who became members of 
 what are now called Evangelical Union churches, 
 and several Congregational churches also joined or 
 helped to form that body. These all retained their 
 Congregational principles, without giving to them any 
 great prominence. Their mission has been rather to 
 proclaim the universality of the gospel provision. In 
 the course of forty years they have grown until they 
 number some ninety or a hundred churches ; while 
 their most important work, perhaps, has been to dif- 
 fuse among other bodies, in part at least, their views 
 of evangelical truth. 
 
 In the other body we have named, Congregational 
 
THE PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT. 181 
 
 principles are more emphatically and prominently, 
 and, we think, more consistently, taught than by 
 either of the foregoing — the body of Baptists, to 
 which the writer has the honour to belono-. As we 
 have seen, they carry out and emphasize the principle 
 of pure communion by not only requiring a credible 
 profession of faith as a condition of church member- 
 ship, but also as a qualification for rightly observing 
 the ordinance of baptism. They thus occupy a posi- 
 tion distinct from that of all other bodies; and in 
 this lies the reason of their mission and the source 
 of their strength. Notwithstanding the unpopularity 
 of their practice, their principles have continued to 
 spread from the time of the Haldanes until now, and 
 are spreading more rapidly now than ever before. 
 The Baptist Union of Scotland, in which many Bap- 
 tist churches, some of them containing hundreds of 
 members, are not included, now numbers eighty-six 
 churches, with about ten thousand members. Since 
 its formation, not quite eighteen years ago, twenty- 
 five new churches have been formed, and thirty-one 
 new chapels built, exclusive of four now in course of 
 erection. In addition to this, there are not a few 
 Baptists connected with the churches of other de- 
 nominations ; and many more who look favourably on 
 their principles without being prepared to adopt their 
 practice. In view of these facts we cannot admit that 
 their attempt to form churches on what they believe 
 to be the New Testament model has signally failed. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THEIR WORK OUTSIDE CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 A concession— The great service which the Haldanes rendered — The 
 elder brother's work abroad — The spiritual results of their labours 
 at home — Their relation to the evangelical movement in the Church 
 of Scotland — The spring principle of their whole movement. 
 
 IT is freely admitted, however, that the Haldanes' 
 greatest work was done outside the churches 
 they formed, and consisted in the services they ren- 
 dered to evangelical truth. In addition to all at 
 which we have so briefly glanced — the liberality of 
 the elder, and the preaching of the younger brother — 
 they both used their pens and their purse in produc- 
 ing publications for the exposition and defence of the 
 truth. Robert was the abler writer, if James was 
 the better preacher. But neither confined himself 
 to either department of eflbrt. James was the author 
 of several important works. Robert, as co-pastor of 
 the church at the Tabernacle, took part in the public 
 ministrations ; and the work he did by his oral teach- 
 ing at Geneva and Montauban, the headquarters of 
 Protestantism in France, was almost more remarkable 
 
THEIR WORK OUTSIDE CONGREGATIONALISM. 183 
 
 than anything that took place in Scotland. Both 
 places were overrun with Rationalism and Socinianism. 
 Tutors and students were steeped in infidelity. Robert 
 Haldane's expositions of Scripture at Geneva were 
 attended by almost the whole body of theological 
 students. Out of twenty-five, all but one were 
 touched, and the greater part of them savingly 
 clianoed. In Montauban similar results followed, 
 although not to the same extent. And when among 
 those to whom his labours were blest we have to men- 
 tion such names as Merle Daubigne, Malan, Monod, 
 and others, it will be seen what a source of blessing 
 liis labours there have proved, not only to France, but 
 to the world. How much they were directly or in- 
 directly instrumental in accomplishing in Scotland it 
 is impossible for us to estimate. Every good cause 
 received their help, and profited by the influences 
 they set in motion. Tract and Bible distribution 
 received a fresh impulse. Continental and Home 
 Missions were originated or supported. Foreign Mis- 
 sions had indeed been commenced in Scotland, although 
 the General Assembly rejected the overture on that 
 subject. The Edinburgh, afterwards known as the 
 Scottish, Missionary Society, and the Glasgow also, 
 had been formed, each composed of Christians of dif- 
 ferent denominations ; but neither of them had been 
 able to attempt much, and the latter had been sin- 
 gularly unsuccessful in finding suitable agents. The 
 labours of the Haldanes originated a new order of 
 
184 THEIR WORK OUTSIDE CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 things. They had an important share in rousing a 
 missionary spirit in the Churches, which has increased 
 and strengthened until every important denomination 
 has its Foreign Missions, and our country is now repre- 
 sented by some hundreds of agents, and annually con- 
 tributes to the work of evanerelizing the world some 
 hundred thousand pounds. And, finally, who shdl 
 say how much we are indebted to their labours for 
 that greatest ecclesiastical movement which living 
 men have witnessed, which issued in the Disruption 
 of 1843 ? Hundreds, there is reason to believe, who 
 were converted by the instrumentality of the Hal- 
 danes, remained connected with the National Church. 
 Their doctrines permeated that Church more or less, 
 and their influence was felt throughout the land. And 
 we cannot doubt that, could we trace those lines which 
 are visible to God alone, we should find that these two 
 men had an important share in bringing about that 
 event, which has been justly said to be, notwithstand- 
 ing all drawbacks, one of the greatest of modern 
 times, and with which, in any age, there are but few 
 to compare — the formation, or rather the reconstitu- 
 tion, of a Church whose subsequent liberality, activity, 
 and enterprise, harmonizing with the self-sacrifice 
 which marked its origin, have rendered it the wonder 
 of the world. 
 
 We have only to add that the whole history, so 
 far as we have passed it in review, both in the suc- 
 cesses and the alleo-ed failures it records, verifies the 
 
THEIR WORK OUTSIDE CONGREGATIONALISM. 185 
 
 observation with which we started, that the main^ 
 spring of the movement was not the advocacy of Con- 
 gregationalism or any other principle of ecclesiastical 
 polity, but the preaching of the simple gospel, — salva- 
 tion by grace ; justification by faith without works, 
 and irrespective of frames or feelings ; free forgive- 
 ness through the blood of Christ ; implicit trust in 
 him as the only and all-sufficient Saviour : doctrines 
 which in substance have been the spring of every 
 great religious revival — the Reformation in Europe 
 in the sixteenth century, the awakening in England 
 under Wesley and Whitefield, the great Free Church 
 movement in Scotland, and others of minor note. 
 These doctrines are as old as Christianity and as true. 
 Modern discoveries have not disproved them. Modern 
 inventions do not enable us to dispense with them. 
 And the Church which substitutes for them human 
 devices, or human learning, or systems of "philosophy 
 falsely so called," which places her dependence on 
 something more suited to the wants of the age, will 
 only succeed in writing on her front the deep imprint 
 of disgrace, " Ichabod ; for the glory is departed." 
 
DURING 
 THE LAST HALF-CENTURY. 
 
 By Rev. Norman L. Walker, 
 
 A utJior of Handbook of ' ' Scottish Church History. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 
 
 Date of the current era— Forecasts— Tides of thought— Movements for 
 reform— Scottish characteristic— The Veto Act— New question raised 
 —The stand made for Christ's supremacy— Revival— Robert M. 
 M'Cheyne— William Burns— Widespread awakening. 
 
 THE later religious history of Scotland may be 
 said to date from about the year 1830. 
 Before that year, however, there appeared in various 
 places stirrings which seemed to forecast the begin- 
 nings of a new era. For example, the ministry of 
 Dr. Andrew Thomson has been already alluded to.* 
 That ministry commenced in 1814, and exercised an 
 extraordinary influence on Edinburgh. " Occupying," 
 as Dr. Buchanan says, " a pulpit in the very centre 
 of the most influential classes, the prodigious energy 
 of Dr. Thomson's character speedily gathered around 
 him, and brought under the influence of his ministry, 
 many of the most vigorous and cultivated minds in 
 the city. And while his preaching was rapidly gain- 
 ino' for evano-elism its former footing in those ranks 
 
 * By Dr. Landels. 
 
190 THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 
 
 of society from which it had been long ahnost ex- 
 cluded, his advocacy of Reformation principles, on the 
 platform, through the press, and in the courts of the 
 Church, was telling not less powerfully on men's 
 views of ecclesiastical affairs." 
 
 . A still more memorable event was the conversion 
 of Chalmers and the bringing over in him of the 
 ablest Moderate minister of the day to the ranks of 
 the Evangelical party. That event resembled the 
 accession to the early Church of the champion of 
 Pharisaism. What the minister of Kilmany would 
 have become had he continued as he began we can 
 only guess. But we are absolutely sure of this, that 
 so forceful a character as his must have told influen- 
 tially on his generation in one way or another, and 
 those are manifestly right who see in his change one 
 of the turning-points of history. The conversion 
 took place in 1810, and at that date there was cer- 
 tainly opened a new spring in the Scottish Church. 
 The life which first appeared at Kilmany was trans- 
 ferred in 1814 to Glasgow, again in 1823 to St. 
 Andrews, and yet again in 1828 to Edinburgh. 
 Wherever Chalmers went there followed an intellectual 
 and religious awakening. Glasgow was stirred to its 
 heart by his preaching ; in St. Andrews he not 
 merely gave a new character to the moral philosophy 
 which he taught, but imparted a fresh spiritual im- 
 pulse to his students ; while in Edinburgh, where at 
 last he gained a position from which he could tell on 
 
THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 191 
 
 the whole Church, he became the leading spirit of the 
 time. 
 
 Besides the two outstanding men we have named, 
 there were others in various parts of the country who 
 were helping to set the fire a-blazing. Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow both enjoyed, before 18*30, the minis- 
 trations of eminently godly men ; and such men were 
 to be found also scattered here and there alike over 
 the Highlands and Lowlands. Not to speak of others, 
 there was Dr. Macdonald of Ferintosh — the Apostle of 
 the North as he has been called — who was ordained in 
 1813. And apart altogether from the Established 
 Church, it is well known that a work of revival and 
 reformation was quietly proceeding all through those 
 days in connection with the labours of the Seceders. 
 
 Nor, in glancing back on those times, ought we to 
 forget the stir that was caused in Scottish religious 
 circles by the movement which was headed by Edward 
 Irving and Campbell of Eow. There can be no doubt 
 whatever about the sincerity, earnestness, and ability 
 of these men. Whatever we may think of their doc- 
 trines and methods, we cannot deny that they had 
 something to do with the bringing in of the new era. 
 Campbell was ordained in 1825, and deposed in 1831. 
 Irving had his license taken from him in 1833. And 
 in seeking for the springs from which the flood came, 
 we cannot overlook the influence of either. 
 
 Perhaps it may be thought that with so many 
 marks of a new life appearing in Scotland before 
 
192 THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 
 
 1830, an earlier date than that should be named for 
 the chapter in our religious history to which we have 
 now come. But the truth is, that all the streams 
 we have spoken of might have issued only in local 
 and temporary results, had it not been for other and 
 later influences tending to give a national character 
 to the movement Avhich has more or less made the 
 existing generation. 
 
 It is a noteworthy circumstance that every now 
 and again a wave of thought and emotion seems to 
 sweep in a mysterious way over the world, or rather 
 over those parts of it that are in touch with one 
 another. The secondary causes which produce this 
 phenomenon can generally be pointed out easily 
 enough, especially after the events are over ; but the 
 significant fact remains that like secondary causes are 
 often seen at work without producing similar results, 
 and the conclusion is suggested that God at times 
 interposes in an extraordinary way in human affairs, 
 and with the breath of his Spirit stirs men's minds 
 into unusual activity. You have been out some still 
 night while the stars were shining brightly, and all 
 nature seemed hushed in sleep, when suddenly a 
 breath of wind has sprung up, and you have seen it 
 in a moment set all things in motion, and heard it 
 rush as with a great sigh over the neighbouring 
 woods. Such a breeze springs up every now and 
 again, nobody can tell how, within the sphere of 
 mind, and produces unaccountable changes in the con- 
 
THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 193 
 
 sciousness of nations. Men waken up as from a 
 sleep, and a period of extraordinary mental activity 
 supervenes. 
 
 The revival which thus takes place is not always 
 religious in its nature. It may, to begin with, be 
 only a revival of thought, of intelligence. But we 
 need not doubt about the origin of it. The holy men 
 of old, to whom we owe the Scriptures, spake as they 
 were moved by the Holy Ghost in a manner which 
 gave a supernatural authority to their words. The 
 sense in which the Bible is inspired is peculiar and 
 distinctive. We must not, however, take too limited 
 a view of the activity of the Spirit of God. It may 
 be said of all the men of genius that have ever en- 
 lightened the world, that " the inspiration of the 
 Almighty gave them understanding." And in the 
 great intellectual awakenings which have taken place 
 from time to time among the civilized nations, as well 
 as in the religious revivals that have occurred in them, 
 it is not only lawful but right to recognize the inter- 
 position of a Divine Mind. 
 
 It is a historical fact that one of these memorable 
 seasons of widespread intellectual awakening took 
 place about the year 1830. The tidal wave appeared 
 first in France, where it produced a Ee volution. It 
 rolled on to England, and brought about notable 
 political changes, — the Reform Bill, for example, 
 which was carried in 1882. It told, too, upon the 
 most conservative of our universities — 1832 marking 
 
 (110) 13 
 
194 THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 
 
 the rise of that remarkable Oxford movement which, 
 under Pusey and Newman, carried so many in the 
 Church of England in the direction of Eome. And it 
 influenced our national literature so distinctly that, 
 among other things, a visibly new school of poetry 
 was the result. 
 
 How did this wave tell when it reached Scotland ? 
 Its effects were equally tangible. But Scotland is a 
 country which, ever since the Reformation, has con- 
 cerned itself in a very special way about religious 
 questions ; and although it felt the swell of the tide 
 like the other nations of Europe, and took its own 
 share in the effort to promote political reform, the 
 new life which appeared found most characteristic 
 and most enduring expression in connection with 
 ecclesiastical matters. 
 
 For example, the Voluntary controversy broke out 
 about this time, and raged with a violence which of 
 itself was an indication of the electric condition of the 
 age. Then, too, we reach the beginning for the 
 Church of Scotland of the missionary era. It was in 
 the summer of 1830 that Dr. Duff first set foot on 
 the shores of India ; and when, a few years later, he 
 returned to tell of his experiences, and the people 
 were found prepared to welcome him with enthusiasm, 
 the result was probably due not altogether to his own 
 fiery eloquence, but in part also to the peculiar con- 
 ditions of the period. The popular mind was no 
 longer stagnant, but was alive and quick to take on 
 
THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 195 
 
 new impressions. But in 1834 another event oc- 
 curred which, while it was not less certainly a natural 
 outcome of the time, was still more far-reaching in its 
 consequences. This was the passing by the General 
 Assembly of the Veto Act. 
 
 We know it for a historical fact that the demand 
 put forth on behalf of the people for the removal of 
 their civil disabilities had a very direct connection 
 with the rise of the Non-Intrusion movement within 
 the Church. It began to be seen and felt that when 
 the political enfranchisement of heads of households 
 had been conceded, it would not do to keep the same 
 parties in a state of pupilage in ecclesiastical matters. 
 The power bestowed on lay patrons to appoint 
 ministers to pastorates without regard to the feelings 
 of those more immediately concerned might have re- 
 mained unchallenged in a duller time — in a time when 
 there was less mental activity ; but in such a time as 
 we have been describing, such an inconsistency could 
 not long have been overlooked, As a matter of fact 
 it was not overlooked. The aversion to the anomaly 
 which had always existed in the minds of intelligent 
 Presbyterians, looking at it from the historical side, 
 was now strengthened by the sense or consideration of 
 practical injustice ; and as a consequence of the agita- 
 tion which arose, a law was enacted by the Assembly 
 decreeing that where a majority of heads of families 
 (being communicants) in a parish objected to the 
 settlement among them of a minister presented by a 
 
196 THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 
 
 patron, the Presbytery of the bounds should refuse to 
 proceed to his induction. 
 
 We are now happily unanimous in this connection. 
 Nobody in Scotland now-a-days professes to stand by 
 the old theory that when a Christian congregation 
 wants a minister it is unnecessary to consult it as to 
 his acceptability. Patronage has been abolished, and 
 in every Presbyterian Church in the world the stand- 
 ing of the people is recognized. But fifty years ago 
 the justice of the principle of Non-Intrusion was not 
 accepted as axiomatic. The demand for the popular 
 rights, on the contrary, was regarded by many as the 
 outcome of fanaticism or worse, and the granting of 
 the very moderate reform of " the Veto" became the 
 occasion of a far more serious agitation than the 
 country had yet seen. 
 
 A new question, in fact, arose — a much deeper- 
 cutting question — one which came to be regarded by 
 not a few as involving directly the honour of Christ 
 and the freedom of his Church in the world. 
 
 The question was raised by the civil courts, — which, 
 in dealing with the cases of disputed settlements sub- 
 mitted to them, began to put forward titles to reverse 
 and set aside spiritual sentences, to interdict where 
 they pleased the preaching of the gospel, to order 
 Presbyteries to ordain particular men or to refrain 
 from ordaininGf them, and even to control Kirk-sessions 
 in admitting applicants to the Lord's Supper. 
 
 We are speaking here, of course, not of the ecclesi- 
 
THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 197 
 
 astical but of the religious history of Scotland ; and 
 in referring to the course of events just indicated, we 
 are not called upon to go into particulars. Fortu- 
 nately, too, in this, as in the other connection, we have 
 in Scotland come to be, to a wonderful extent, of one 
 mind ; that is to say, one does not often meet now-a- 
 days any man claiming to have an intelligent acquaint- 
 ance with what happened in those days who is pre- 
 pared to argue that the civil courts were ]"ight. It is 
 quite a common thing to hear from adherents of the 
 present Established Church — descendants of those who 
 fought for Erastianism in the Ten Years' Conflict — 
 confessions to the effect that their fathers were wrono-. 
 
 o 
 
 If they themselves had lived in that generation, they 
 would, they say, have been on the other side. And 
 now they would be ready, they tell us, to have a re- 
 constructed Establishment on practically Free Church 
 principles. 
 
 All this must be. gratifying to those who have 
 fought for the now universally recognized truth all 
 through, and it is well that the significance of the 
 professed conversion should be fully recognized. 
 
 But the battle was a momentous enough one at the 
 time it took place, and our special business now is to 
 show how it affected the spiritual condition of the 
 country. 
 
 It has been said that many were led to regard the 
 encroachments of the civil courts on the domain of the 
 Church as virtually trenching on Christ's honour and 
 
198 THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 
 
 supremacy. They believed him to be, not in a meta- 
 phorical or mystical sense merely, but in a very real 
 respect, Head over his own house. What they in- 
 ferred from this was that to disreo-ard the rules he 
 had himself laid down for the regulation of his 
 Church was to be guilty of disloyalty to him. And 
 in resisting the intrusion of a foreign authority into 
 what they regarded as his kingdom, they persuaded 
 themselves that they were lifting aloft again an old 
 banner which their forefathers had fought under, and 
 which had inscribed upon it the legend, " For Chrisfs 
 Croivn and Covenant" 
 
 Now it is conceivable that those who took up this 
 position deluded themselves, — that no question of 
 Christ's honour was in fact concerned, and that what 
 moved them to do what they did was not a genuine 
 and intelligent sympathy with the Reformers and 
 Covenanters, but simply some devout imagination of 
 their own. Still, this is absolutely undeniable, that 
 they earnestly and even passionately believed as we 
 have said ; and however we may account for it, that 
 belief and what it led to came to be forces of extraor- 
 dinary influence in shaping the spiritual history of 
 the period. 
 
 It is here indeed, in our judgment, that we reach 
 the point where the tide turned into that distinctly 
 religious channel within which the conflict of those 
 days took its best and most attractive colouring. 
 
 Most of the results spoken of above might con- 
 
THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 199 
 
 ceivably have followed without any special deepening 
 of the spiritual life, — from the impulse imparted by 
 the tidal wave which swept over a great part of 
 Europe. The democracy had begun to assert itself. 
 The people were demanding what they regarded as 
 their rights. And the agitation for Non-Intrusion 
 might have had very much the same inspiration as 
 that out of which rose the cry for political reform. 
 
 But now a new thought, of a higher sort, was 
 taking possession of the minds of many of the best 
 of the Scottish people. Justly or otherwise, they 
 saw in the struggle forced upon their Church by the 
 civil courts the revival of an ancient conflict. The 
 connection thus recognized led naturally to a fresh 
 study of the history of Reformation and Covenanting 
 times. And just as the reading of patristic literature 
 promoted in Oxford a return to medievalism, so a 
 review of what had been borne of old for the sake of 
 the liberties of the Church issued now in the re- 
 awakening of the Covenanting spirit. 
 
 That was not all, however. A far more important 
 phenomenon also appeared. It is matter of history 
 that the time of the Ten Years' Conflict became a 
 time of spiritual revival. Evangelical preaching grew 
 to be common everywhere. Those who had preached 
 the gospel before did so now with increased earnest- 
 ness and effect. And so widespread was the blessing 
 that there was more appearance of life in the Church, 
 and a larger number of apparent conversions, between 
 
200 THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 
 
 1835 and 1845, than there had been durmg the pre- 
 vious half century ! 
 
 Is there any way of accounting for this ? It is, of 
 course, always open to us to refer results to the sov- 
 ereignty of God. " The wind bloweth where it listeth." 
 But even spiritual movements have an intelligible his- 
 tory, and we have not a doubt in our own mind that 
 there was a vital connection between the religious 
 condition of Scotland at that time and the battle 
 that was then fought for the honour of Christ. The 
 significant parenthesis which we find in one of the 
 Gospels to the efiect that " the Holy Ghost was not 
 given, because that Jesus ivas not yet glorified," had 
 a plain historical meaning. The ascension was still 
 future, and the time for the fulfilment of the promise 
 of the Father had not arrived. But underlying the 
 historical sense was an everlasting verity. The Holy 
 Ghost is never given but in connection with the glori- 
 fication of Christ. That truth has been proved over 
 and over again in the experience of the Christian 
 Church. Whenever, in the preaching of a period, 
 Christ is allowed to fall into the background, spiritual 
 deadness invariably ensues. Whenever, on the con- 
 trary, a change appears, and men begin to lift up the 
 Cross before the sight of all, streams sooner or later 
 break out in the desert. And here, I conceive, is the 
 key to the history of the time. Even suppose it to 
 be true that some illusions mingled with the strife, 
 no one whose opinion is worth listening to for a 
 
THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 201 
 
 moment can doubt that Chalmers and his associates 
 were honestly concerned for the glory of their Master. 
 And the reward that came was precisely that which 
 they were warranted to expect. The Holy Ghost 
 was given, and what began as a movement for ec- 
 clesiastical reform developed into a religious revival. 
 
 It was in the General Assembly of 1838 that the 
 Church formally and emphatically reaffirmed the doc- 
 trine of the Confession that the Lord Jesus Christ, as 
 King and Head of the Church, has therein appointed 
 a orovernment in the hand of Church officers distinct 
 
 o 
 
 from the civil magistrate, and declared its determina- 
 tion to maintain at all hazards the integrity of his 
 kingdom ; and it is, to say the least of it, a sugges- 
 tive circumstance — a noticeable coincidence, if nothing 
 more — that the year 1839 saw the commencement of 
 a new series of religious awakenings, such as had not 
 been witnessed in Scotland before since the middle of 
 the previous century. 
 
 Amonof the saints in our Scottish calendar none 
 holds a more honoured place than Robeet Murray 
 M'Cheyne. It seems so long since he passed away 
 that we tend to think of him as if he had belonged 
 to a bygone age. But the truth is he might quite 
 well have been labouring among us at this hour 
 (1887). His contemporary and chief friend, Dr. 
 Andrew Bonar, is still alive, and carrying on, single- 
 handed, all the work of a city pastorate ; while 
 another associate, Dr. Somerville, is actively engaged 
 
202 THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 
 
 in the prosecution of an evangelistic scheme which 
 seems to embrace as its sphere the whole habitable 
 globe. Events succeed each other in these days with 
 marvellous rapidity, and cross currents may arise to 
 alter within a comparatively short time and in ma- 
 terial ways the character even of one generation ; but 
 we can scarcely feel ourselves to be at an immeas- 
 urable distance from the beo-innino's of a movement 
 when, though these date from half a century back, 
 we have still with us men who shared in its origina- 
 tion. 
 
 M'Che3^ne was ordained over the congregation of 
 St. Peter's, Dundee, in 1886, and his ministry was a 
 fruitful one from the first. But it was while he was 
 himself in Palestine, as one of a deputation sent out 
 by the Church of Scotland to prepare the way for a 
 mission to the Jews, that the spirit of inquiry, which 
 had previously appeared among his people, assumed 
 the dimensions of a revival — this remarkable mani- 
 festation occurring in immediate connection with the 
 labours of William Burns, who afterwards became so 
 famous as a missionary in China. 
 
 Just a month before, it had been proved in a very 
 notable way that upon that young preacher had been 
 bestowed the gift of " utterance." While visiting his 
 father, who was minister of Kilsyth, at the com- 
 munion season, he had been invited to preach, and 
 his preaching was " with demonstration of the Spirit, 
 and with power." " During the whole of the time 
 
THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 203 
 
 that I was speaking," he himself tells, " the people 
 listened with the most riveted and solemn attention, 
 and with many silent tears and inward groanings of 
 the spirit ; but at the last their feelings became too 
 strong for all ordinary restraints, and broke forth 
 simultaneously in weeping and wailing and groans, 
 intermingled with shouts of joy and praise from some 
 of the people of God." 
 
 The movement in Dundee followed a few weeks 
 later. " There was no visible or general movement 
 among the people," says Mr. M'Cheyne, " until August 
 1839, when, immediately after the beginning of the 
 Lord's work in Kilsyth, the Word of God came with 
 such power to the hearts and consciences of the people 
 here, and their thirst for hearing it became so intense, 
 that the evening classes in the schoolroom were changed 
 into densely-crowded congregations in the church, and 
 for nearly four months it was found desirable to have 
 public worship every night. At the time of my re- 
 turn from the Mission to the Jews, I found thirty- 
 nine prayer-meetings held weekly in connection with 
 the cono^reo'ation, and five of these were conducted and 
 attended entirely by children." 
 
 But the fire thus kindled was not confined to 
 Kilsyth and Dundee. It spread on every side, until 
 tidings of awakening came in from Perth, and Blair- 
 gowrie, and Jedburgh, and Kelso, and Collace, and 
 many parts of the Highlands, and the whole land 
 seemed more or less quickened and refreshed. We 
 
204 THE RISE OF THE TIDE. 
 
 associate the movement specially with the names of 
 M'Cheyne and Burns, because the blessing came first 
 in connection with their work, and also because, of 
 the evangelists of the time, they were admittedly the 
 chief ; but there w^ere others likewise who were then 
 remarkably owned of God, and who, in connection 
 with the religious history of Scotland, ought never to 
 be forgotten — John Milne, for example, and Andrew 
 Bonar, and Eobert Macdonald, and Alexander Moody- 
 Stuart. The ministr}^ of these men told influentially 
 on their generation, and much of what continues to 
 be hopeful in the condition of the country at the 
 present day is due to the influence they exerted. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE REVIVAL OF 1839-40. 
 
 Mr. William Burns in Aberdeen — The dissatisfaction of the Herald — 
 A Commission of Inquiry — Testimonies as to results — The character 
 of the preaching — The Presbytery's finding— Historical interest of 
 the investigation. 
 
 ONE of the places visited by the Rev. William 
 Burns during the revival of 1839-40 was 
 Aberdeen. His preaching produced quite a commo- 
 tion in the Granite City — so much so, that the Herald, 
 a local newspaper, was scandalized at the fanatical 
 manifestations which it witnessed, and did its best to 
 write the movement down. 
 
 Its standpoint may be guessed from the following 
 extract from one of its leading articles : — 
 
 " We have too much confidence in the good sense 
 of our citizens to imagine that many of them will be 
 smitten with the revival mania ; still we are sorry to 
 see it spreading to any extent, and we cannot conceal 
 from ourselves the fact that the course pursued of 
 late by our Non-Intrusion clergy, both in their public 
 and private ministrations, has been the most effectual 
 
206 THE REVIVAL OF 1839-Jp. 
 
 paving of the \Yay for such enthusiasts as Mr. Burns. 
 Their sermons and prayer-meetings, although they do 
 not exhibit the same extravagances in language and 
 behaviour as those of the revivalist, have a strong 
 tinge of the same character. They dwell almost con- 
 tinually on the mysteries of the gospel, and neglect to 
 preach up its practical injunctions ; they are at more 
 pains to exaggerate the wickedness of human nature 
 than to teach their hearers to correct such vices as 
 they really indulge. If they would but enforce on 
 their hearers the plain truths of the gospel, without 
 leading their minds perpetually to the contemplation 
 of abstract questions which cannot be solved, they 
 would have a better chance of promoting virtue, and 
 would be in less danger of bringing up a large num- 
 ber of their female hearers to be either fools or hypo- 
 crites. We trust that, after seeing the effect of their 
 system of preaching and acting fully carried out in 
 the case of Mr. Burns and his silly hearers, they will 
 learn to throw aside their unscriptural affectations, 
 and become a little more truly what they call them- 
 selves — evangelical preachers." 
 
 These words, printed in 1840, will be read now 
 with a smile. In the counsel oiven to abandon the 
 evil practice of " dwelling continually on the mysteries 
 of the gospel," and to be content instead " to teach 
 people to correct such vices as they really indulge," 
 we easily recognize the familiar handwriting of " the 
 IVlDderate " of the time. But by its violent attack on 
 
THE REVIVAL OF 1839-40. 207 
 
 Mr. Burns, the Aberdeen Herald became unintention- 
 ally the means of rendering a permanent service to 
 the Scottish Church historian. So frightful were the 
 pictures which it drew of his meetings, and so shock- 
 ing were its reports of what he himself did and said 
 at them, that the Presbytery of the bounds felt con- 
 strained to interfere. Happily, however, that court 
 did not allow its attention to be limited to the case 
 of Mr. Burns. It recognized the fact that he was the 
 type of a class — the representative of a movement 
 which was threatening to become general ; and to 
 satisfy the public mind upon the whole question, it 
 appointed a Committee on Revivals. That Committee 
 addressed itself to the task assigned to it of investi- 
 gating the whole subject in a most thorough and pains- 
 taking way. It summoned witnesses (including Mr. 
 Burns himself and the Herald's reporter), and ex- 
 amined and cross-examined these in a manner which 
 would have done credit to any civil tribunal. It 
 put itself also into communication with such persons 
 in the Highlands and Lowlands as were known to 
 have themselves seen any of the "manifestations" dis- 
 puted about. And, in the end, it came to the deliberate 
 conclusion that, so far as they could judge, the great 
 awakening, into the nature of which they had been 
 directed to inquire, was a genuine fruit of the Spirit 
 of God. The whole proceedings of this Committee 
 were published at the time, and the Report, of which 
 probably not many copies remain, constitutes an im- 
 
208 THE REVIVAL OF 1839-40. 
 
 portant historical paper, furnishing, as it does, most 
 valuable testimony to the character of the time to 
 which it refers. 
 
 For the fact that a widespread religious impression 
 was then made, men in all parts of the country were 
 ready to vouch. It may be interesting and useful to 
 quote here what some of these witnesses had to say. 
 
 Mr. Andrew Gray of Perth, who was not a man 
 likely to be led away by impulses or illusions, wrote 
 under date of January 1841: — "In the month of 
 February last year, sixteen persons applied to me for 
 admission to the Lord's table. I saw them twelve or 
 fifteen times, had private conversations with each of 
 them, and had therefore the fullest opportunity of 
 knowing their state of mind. I found that no fewer 
 than ten of their number were under deep and solemn 
 impressions of a religious nature, which had been 
 derived from the ministrations of Mr. Burns ; and 
 eight of these, at least, I could not but judge, were 
 truly converted from sin to holiness, from the power 
 of Satan unto God. Never had I so interesting and 
 delightful a class of catechumens as on that occasion. 
 It may be supposed I have anxiously watched their 
 subsequent deportment. I have done so ; and I 
 rejoice to state that all I have observed is confirma- 
 tory of the reality of that change which seemed to 
 have taken place." 
 
 Mr. Milne of the same city told of " the unusual 
 and long-continued thirsting for the Word which the 
 
THE REVIVAL OF 1839-40. 209 
 
 people manifested Night after night, for many 
 
 weeks, the church was one dense mass of human 
 beings, all the passages being crowded with persons 
 who remained standing for hours together, and seem- 
 ino'lv inaccessible to weariness and fatimie. I would 
 observe, also, that the awakening extended to miles 
 around." 
 
 Dr. Andrew Bonar, then of Collace, a country 
 parish, reported his weekly prayer-meeting to be 
 attended by five hundred persons, and added that 
 a marked change had taken place on the whole aspect 
 of the locality. 
 
 Mr. M'Cheyne also spoke of the impression pro- 
 duced on the general community. " It seems now to 
 be allowed," he wrote, " even by the most ungodly, that 
 there is such a thing as conversion. Men cannot any 
 longer deny it. The Sabbath is now observed with 
 greater reverence than it used to be, and there seems 
 to be far more of a solemn awe on the minds of men 
 than formerly. I feel that I can now stop sinners in 
 the midst of their open sin and wickedness, and com- 
 mand their reverent attention in a way that I could 
 not have done before. It is a different thing to 
 preach to the people now from what it once was. 
 Any minister of spiritual feeling can discern that 
 there are many praying people in the congrega- 
 tion." 
 
 Testimony of a similar kind came fi-om the High- 
 lands, more particularly from Ross -shire and the 
 (110) 14 
 
210 THE REVIVAL OF 1S39-40. 
 
 district of Breadalbane — the instrument used in these 
 quarters being Dr. Macdonald of Ferintosh. 
 
 In every case the blessing came in connection with 
 the preaching of the Word ; and it is natural to ask 
 what kind of preaching that was on which the Spirit 
 of God put so plainly his seal. The Aberdeen Pres- 
 bytery's Report enables us to answer. 
 
 An intelligent witness, in the course of his examina- 
 tion, was asked the question : " Have you ever made 
 it your business to inquire what the particular circum- 
 stances were in Mr. Burns's preaching and addresses 
 which produced a change, as you believe, on the hearts 
 and characters of the [supposed converts] ? " And his 
 reply was as follows : — " They have told me that it 
 was while Mr. Burns was stating the doctrine of com- 
 plete depravity; of the impossibility of reconciling 
 themselves to God ; of the doctrine of divine sover- 
 eignty, as illustrated in the case of Saul of Tarsus, of 
 the jailer, of Zaccheus, of the publican : at the same 
 time directing them to behold the Lamb of God, which 
 taketh away the sin of the world ; of the duty and 
 privilege of looking on Him whom they had pierced 
 as applied to themselves ; and of the encouragement 
 held out to such to come to him, from such passages 
 as, ' This man receiveth sinners,' that the effects referred 
 to were produced." 
 
 A similar question was sent to the ministers and 
 others at a distance, whose testimony was thought 
 impo-rtant, and their answers were all in harmony 
 
THE REVIVAL OF 1S39-40. 211 
 
 with the account thus given. " One feature," wrote 
 Mr. Gumming of Dunbarney, "distinguishing all these 
 heralds of salvation who have been useful in alluring 
 sinners to Christ (at least all those whom I have 
 known), is the strong grasp they have taken of the 
 doctrine of justification by faith, and the remarkable 
 prominence into which they bring the enlivening 
 truth that the obedience of Christ will be imputed 
 to the sinner that believes, as if it had been his own. 
 The distinct elucidation of this tenet has exerted a 
 wonderful effect in enabling convinced arid heavy- 
 laden souls to arrive rapidly at a well-grounded 
 peace." 
 
 " Ruin by the fall," was the reply of Dr. Macdonald 
 of Blairgowrie, " redemption by Clu'ist, and re- 
 generation by the Holy Spirit, were the truths we 
 chiefly preached, and which God seemed specially to 
 bless. Plain and earnest statements of the gospel 
 were, I conceive, the only means employed in promot- 
 ing the revival." 
 
 "As to the causes why revivals occur in some par- 
 ishes and not in all," wrote Dr. Andrew Bonar, "the 
 causes surely lie in the divine sovereignty, so far as 
 respects all ministers wJio honour the Holy Sjnrit and 
 preach the Lar^ib of God." 
 
 "I do not know of anything," answered Mr. 
 M'Cheyne, " in the ministrations of those who have 
 occupied my pulpit, that may with propriety be called 
 peculiar, or that is different from what I conceive 
 
212 THE REVIVAL OF 1839-40. 
 
 ought to characterize the services of all true ministers 
 of Christ. They have preached, so far as I can judge, 
 nothing but the pure gospel of the grace of God. 
 They have done this clearly, fully, solemnly, with 
 discrimination, urgency, and affection. They all, I 
 think, seek the immediate conversion of the people ; 
 and they believe that, under a living gospel ministry, 
 success is more or less the rule and want of success 
 
 the exception So far as I am aware, no unscrip- 
 
 tural doctrines have been taught, nor has there been 
 a keeping back of any part of ' the whole counsel of 
 God.' " 
 
 Once more : Mr. Purves of Jedburgh thus described 
 his own method and its results : — " I endeavoured to 
 proclaim the good news of a free salvation, through 
 
 the blood of Christ alone, to the chief of sinners 
 
 I attribute any change produced, under God, to the 
 simple proclamation of a free, unconditional gospel." 
 
 The Presbytery, after hearing the report of their 
 Committee, came to this definite conclusion : — " That 
 the evidence derived from answers to queries sent to 
 ministers and others in different parts of the country, 
 amply bears out the fact that an extensive and de- 
 li oh tftd work of revival has commenced, and is in 
 hopeful progress, in various parts of Scotland." That 
 conclusion was not arrived at unanimously. A small 
 minority of the members, sharing probably the sus- 
 picions of the Herald in regard to the general ten- 
 dencies of the time, dissented from the finding of 
 
THE REVIVAL OF 1839-40. 213 
 
 their brethren. But they did not place on record the 
 special grounds of their dissent, and we may reckon 
 it as established beyond the possibility of reasonable 
 question that, during 1839-40, a very real "time of 
 refreshing " came to the Church of Scotland in con- 
 nection with the earnest preaching of the fundamental 
 points of evangelical religion. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. 
 
 Greatness of the event — Impression produced by it— A year of grace — 
 The men who came out^EvangeHcals in Enghind and Scotland — 
 Baptism of the Spirit — An oj)en ear — Fruit — The glory of Christ and 
 the gift of the Spirit. 
 
 SUCH an event as the Disruption of the National 
 Church could not take place in a small country 
 like Scotland without profoundly stirring the hearts 
 of the people. In one day some five hundred men 
 resio-ned their livino-s under the constraint of con- 
 science, and went out into the wilderness, " not know- 
 ing whither they went." The spectacle was one which 
 produced a deep impression even upon onlookers from 
 a distance who had no sympathy with the cause for 
 which the sacrifice was made. Mr. Gladstone, for 
 example, in a letter to Dr. Robert Buchanan, speaks 
 of a friend of his, a conscientious and earnest-minded 
 French Roman Catholic, who once told him " that 
 amidst his discouragements in witnessing the progress 
 of unbelief in so many quarters, he had found a 
 singular comfort in the testimony borne by the minis- 
 
THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. 215 
 
 ters and members of the Free Church of Scotland to 
 the authority of conscience and of positive religious 
 belief." 
 
 Men of the world, judging others by themselves, 
 scoffed at the idea of those who were in the enjoy- 
 ment of comfortable livings surrendering these for 
 the sake of a principle. And the damage to the cause 
 of religion, and even of morality, would have been 
 incalculable if the conflict which had gone on for ten 
 years before 1843 had ended in a fiasco. As it was, 
 however, the issue was very different. It culminated, 
 on the contrary, in a demonstration so remarkable 
 that to find a parallel to it in Scottish religious 
 history we must go back to the ejectment era of 1662. 
 Lord Jeffrey, Dr. Hanna tells, w^as sitting reading, 
 on the day of the Disruption, in his quiet room, 
 when one burst in upon him, saying, " Well ! what do 
 you think of it ? — more than four hundi^ed of them 
 are actually out ! " The book was flung aside, and 
 springing to his feet. Lord Jeffrey exclaimed, " I'm 
 proud of my country ! — there is not another country 
 upon earth where such a deed could be done ! " 
 
 Lord Jeffrey, it might be said, was predisposed to 
 think well of the men who acted in this way. He 
 had maintained their cause on the bench. There 
 were others, however, for whom the lesson was not 
 so palatable, but who needed it more ; and they, we 
 may hope, were permanently benefited. To that class 
 belono^ed a well-known minister of the time, who, in 
 
216 THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. 
 
 a pamphlet written to persuade the Government to 
 stand firm, " ventured to assert, from pretty accurate 
 information, that less than one hundred will cover 
 the whole secession ; " and who, after thinking over 
 the whole matter aofain, came to a more discouraoino^ 
 conclusion — " / am not satisfied that any luill secede." 
 The meaning of that, of course, was that in the 
 opinion of this writer it was in the highest degree 
 doubtful whether any minister in the Church of 
 Scotland would be found so faithful to his convictions 
 on the day of trial as to be ready to make sacrifices 
 for their sake. Looking at the matter from this point 
 of view, it is not necessary to think of the merits of 
 the controversy. What we want to note first of all 
 is that the exodus which took place from the Estab- 
 lishment in 1843 was in itself an evidence of the 
 power of conscience, and was fitted to convey to the 
 unbelieving world itself an impression of the reality 
 of religion.* 
 
 In the impression which the event was thus calcu- 
 lated to produce we find so far an explanation of the 
 fact that the year in which it occurred became con- 
 spicuously " a year of grace." The surrender by so 
 many good men of their earthly all, professedly for 
 Christ's sake, was a moral miracle ; and like all 
 
 * Mr. Mather of Stanley tells of one of the ministers who had turned 
 back on the day of trial, and who, when railing at the Free Church in 
 
 the hearing of a United Secession elder, received this reply : " Mr. , 
 
 had all the Non-Tntrusion ministers acted as you have done, a greater in- 
 jury would liave been done to the interests of religion and morality than 
 could have been repaired by a hundred years' preaching." 
 
THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. 217 
 
 miracles, it startled those who witnessed it, and 
 arrested attention. That, as we all know, is one 
 great point to gain in connection with spiritual work ; 
 and the universal testimony is that seldom has the 
 ear of the Scottish people been more open to the 
 Word than during the summer of the Disruption. 
 Nor was it a mere ordinary willingness to listen that 
 was awakened. It was natural that men should be 
 heard with special respect who had just given very 
 real evidence of the sincerity of the faith which they 
 professed. Among the ministers w^ho came out, for 
 example, was the holder of the richest living in the 
 Establishment ; and when he preached the gospel 
 afterwards, it is not wonderful that his hearers were 
 apt to forget that he was professionally called to do 
 so, and rather remembered the circumstance that he 
 had given recent practical proof of the depth and 
 earnestness of his own beliefs. 
 
 But there were other things which contributed to 
 make 1843 a time of revival. 
 
 It is a simple historical fact that at that date the 
 living element in the Church of Scotland, to a large 
 extent, left the Establishment. That many good men 
 remained is heartily conceded, and it is likewise as 
 readily allowed that that fragment of the Church 
 which continued to retain its connection with the 
 State has since then wonderfully rallied. But there 
 is no denying that at the Disruption the men who 
 formed the Free Church were, in the main, just those 
 
218 THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. 
 
 who had previously done most for the promotion of 
 evangelical religion at home and abroad. One proof 
 of that can never be forgotten. It stands out in un- 
 mistakable significance. All the missionaries of the 
 Church, to Jew and Gentile, luithout a single exception, 
 cast in their lot tuith those luho luent out Scarcely 
 less significant, however, was this other circumstance, 
 that all those ministers likewise went out, equally 
 without exception, in connection with whose labours 
 the revival of 1839-40 had taken place. M'Cheyne 
 died just before the final catastrophe, but there is no 
 question about what he would have done had he lived ; 
 and as to all the survivors who were of one mind 
 with him — Burns, the Bonars, Milne, Macdonald, 
 Moody- Stuart, etc,, in the Lowlands ; and the Apostle 
 of the North, Mackintosh, Campbell, etc., in the High- 
 lands — every one of them joined the remarkable pro- 
 cession which, with Chalmers at its head, created on 
 the 18th of May so great a sensation in the streets of 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 This last fact, we may say in passing, is a some- 
 what suggestive one, bringing out as it does the dif- 
 ference between the intense Evangelicals of the two 
 Churches of England and Scotland. In England the 
 Evangelical has usually been indifi'erent to questions of 
 Church polity. Content with being left to cultivate 
 his own corner of the vineyard in peace, to preach 
 the gospel Avithout interference, he has troubled him- 
 self very little about the Erastian constitution of the 
 
THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. 219 
 
 Establishment whose shelter he enjoyed. Our most 
 earnest Scottish Evangelicals, on the contrary, have 
 never been able to shut themselves up in this way 
 with their own private interests. 
 
 Dr. Horatius Bonar, for instance, speaking of one 
 of the latter (Mr. Milne of Perth), says: " In the move- 
 ments of the ' Ten Years' Conflict ' he took no luke- 
 warm part, though by no means an ecclesiastic in the 
 
 common sense of the word Those who counted upon 
 
 his laxity in regard to Church principles, and who 
 were persuaded that a man so spiritual and so silent 
 in Church courts would take no part in the struggles 
 of these years, were surprised at the resolute decision 
 which he showed in adopting, and the energy m 
 maintaining, the great ecclesiastical principles then 
 
 battled for The ecclesiastical turmoil seemed to 
 
 elevate, not to depress — to spiritualize, not to secularize. 
 All the brethren whom he loved, and in whose fellow- 
 ship he delighted, were of one mind on the questions 
 which were dividing the Church courts. Hence they 
 could meet together, confer together, pray together. 
 All were of one heart and of one soul." 
 
 That, however, is by the way. Our present object 
 is simply to bring this out, that among the forces 
 which Came directly under the spiritual influences of 
 the period, and ^^'hich were baptized into the spirit of 
 self-sacriflce that characterized the Disruption, was 
 the very force which had, before 1843, been doing 
 most for the evangelization of the country. And if 
 
220 THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. 
 
 the wave told even upon the general population in 
 making it more ready to hear, it may well be imagined 
 that they must have experienced a still more powerful 
 impulse who were themselves in the very bosom of it. 
 But here we do not require to guess or speculate. 
 The evidence is abundant that ministers and others 
 received in those days a manifest blessing, and were 
 enabled to preach and speak with a new interest and 
 power. " I am conscious/' says one who passed through 
 the trial of sacrificing his living for Christ's sake, — " I 
 am conscious, speaking generally, of more liberty and 
 freedom both in prayer and preaching." It was a 
 common experience. Such fidelity to conscience, such 
 loyalty to the Head of the Church, could not but be 
 followed by enlargement of heart and fervour of 
 spirit. The number cannot be great now of those 
 who retain very distinct recollections of the Disrup- 
 tion summer, but most of us probably have heard 
 men speak of it. It was a summer of peculiar beauty. 
 Scarcely any rain fell to interrupt the numerous open- 
 air services that required to be held. The outed con- 
 gregations often met under unfavourable outward 
 circumstances — in barns, sheds, or haylofts ; in dis- 
 used quarries, on the roadside, or on the sea-shore ; — 
 but there was a charm in these assemblages which 
 later times have not retained. The ministers, amid 
 all their privations, — and these, it is well known, 
 were in many cases serious, — were not depressed. On 
 the contrary, there was a lightsoraeness, almost an 
 
THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. 221 
 
 exultation, about them which gave a certain elasticity 
 to their services ; and this, with the unconventional 
 character of their surroundings, imparted a freshness 
 and interest and effectiveness to their preaching 
 which had never been observed before. 
 
 One of the most accomplished of the young minis- 
 ters who came out w^as Mr. Grant of Ayr. He was 
 settled in Wallacetown only a month or two before 
 the Disruption ; but he had fully made up his mind 
 beforehand as to what it would be his duty to do in 
 the event of a disruption, and so it came about that 
 on him and a few others was laid in 1843 the heavy 
 charge of providing ordinances for the many Free 
 Church congregations which sprang up in that year 
 within the bounds of his Presbytery. What the 
 nature of that w^ork was, and how it was performed, 
 is told by himself in the following interesting terms. 
 His account may be accepted as a sample of what was 
 taking place at the time all over the country. 
 
 " The months that followed the Disruption were 
 busy months," says he. '' The eleven who came out 
 undertook to supply ordinances in thirty-three charges. 
 It was no easy task. I find that I preached on an 
 average twenty times a month. My brethren were 
 equally busy. But two things combined to make it 
 very pleasant work. First, there was little rain — 
 Sabbath seemed invariably to be calm and sunshiny — 
 so that our meeting in the open air was really more 
 pleasant than it would have been in a crowded church ; 
 
222 THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. 
 
 secondly, the earnestness ivith whicJi the people listened 
 vjas remarkable. I have now lived to see the revival 
 of 1859, and the religious movement o£ 1874. I 
 cannot and therefore do not speak of other localities, 
 but I may safely say that in Ayr the earnestness was 
 deeper and the fruit more abundant in the summer 
 and autumn of 1843 than during any other part of 
 my ministry. It was not merely nor mainly a time 
 of ecclesiastical controversy about Church government, 
 but especially a time of deep, earnest, and widespread 
 spiritual awakening. As I gazed on the upturned 
 countenances of the assembled people they always 
 seemed to me to say, ' Sir, ive would see Jesus! " * 
 
 Mr. Grant speaks of the abundant fruit that was 
 gathered at this period. Others are named in the 
 admirable " Annals of the Disruption " as giving 
 similar testimony. Dr. Lorimer says that many of 
 the young people in his congregation who applied for 
 admission to the Lord's table in 1844 "attributed 
 their first serious thoughts of religion to the great 
 event of the Disruption, and its immediate consequent 
 widespread and warm gospel preaching." " My la- 
 bours," writes Dr. Taylor of Flisk, " lay among the 
 farmers and ploughmen and villagers. Amongst these 
 God's saving grace was effectually put forth in the 
 Disruption year, and in some of the years that im- 
 mediately followed. It is true that things did not 
 
 * " Annals of the Di.sruption," p. 201. Edinburgh : Macniven and 
 AVallace. 
 
THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. ' 223 
 
 turn out as I expected and praj^ed for. My hope was 
 that there would be some marked and outwardly 
 recognizable work of grace, some visible acknowledg- 
 ment from God of what, as a Church, we were en- 
 deavouring to do to his glory. It was not so ; and 
 doubtless this expectation was my infirmity. The 
 great scriptural principle was literally fulfilled — the 
 kingdom of God cometh not with observation. There 
 was a measure of hearty interest among the people 
 and hopefulness in connection with ordinances which 
 was encouraging ; hut it ivas years afterivards before 
 I kneiv of cases of conversion which had really taken 
 lolace at that tivie. I remember well the first inti- 
 mation I got. A poor ploughman, of simple mind 
 and manner, called for his certificate. He had been 
 with us at the Disruption, and had worshipped with 
 us in the barn. He was afi'ected at parting, and he 
 said, with much feeling, ' Sir, the Word gripped me in 
 the barn.' One and another of the most decided of 
 the people have spoken to that as the time when they 
 were affected by spiritual things as they had never 
 been before." 
 
 " The visible acknowledgment from God " which 
 Dr. Taylor had hoped for, but which was denied to 
 him, was actuall}^ given elsewhere. In the spring 
 and summer of 1843 a very remarkable awakening 
 occurred in Skye in connection with the labours of 
 the Rev. Roderick M'Leod of Snizort, one of the out- 
 going ministers, and a man held in such high esteem 
 
224 THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. 
 
 that he was subsequently called to fill the Chair of 
 the Free Church General Assembly. " One Wednes- 
 day," we read in the " Annals," " he preached from 
 the words, ' Behold, I stand at the door and knock.' 
 On this occasion the presence of the Spirit of God 
 was manifested in great power. Mr. M'Leod was 
 using the words, ' Oh, it is not my fear that Christ 
 will not accept you, but my fear is that you will not 
 accept of Christ ! ' when the cries of the people were 
 such that his voice was drowned, and he had to stop 
 speaking. Some, after that solemn sermon, refused to 
 move from the place. When their friends offered to 
 take them they would cry, ' Oh, will I go away with- 
 out Christ! will I go home without Christ!' The 
 
 power which on many occasions about this time 
 attended the preaching of the word at Fairybridge 
 was overwhelming." 
 
 " The year of the Disruption," says Mr. Brown, the 
 compiler of the " Annals," '' proved to be a great time 
 of evangelistic effort in all parts of the land, and the 
 Word of God had free course to the awakening of 
 sinners and quickening of believers. In some locali- 
 ties the work was more quiet, in others its results 
 were more openly manifest, but everywhere there was 
 reason to believe that God, in no common measure, 
 was giving testimony to the Word of his grace, and 
 owning his servants, in bringing sinners to Christ and 
 building up his people in their most holy faith." 
 
 In a word, there took place in 1843 exactly what 
 
THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. 225 
 
 was to have been expected. Those who fought in 
 the conflict for what they believed to be the honour 
 of Christ, received a measure of blessing before the 
 Disruption; and now a greater blessing came upon 
 them in connection with their sufferings and sacrifices 
 for the same end. Again, the great law of the king- 
 dom was illustrated, " The Holy Ghost was given he- 
 cause Jesus was glorified" That the glorification of 
 Christ was the chief aim of the demonstration of the 
 18th of May is certain. The whole thing may have 
 been a delusion, and impure motives may have mingled 
 at many points with the springs of the movement ; 
 but that man is incapable of recognizing truth and 
 sincerity when he sees them who does not feel that 
 the outgoing ministers believed in their heart of 
 hearts that they were suffering for Christ's sake. And 
 we may be sure of this, that Christ saw the honesty 
 of their intentions, and accepted the sacrifice. 
 
 " What has been to me," says Dr. Taylor, " a source 
 of constant satisfaction is that we did not provoke 
 Christ to blast our ministry by a deliberate disowning 
 of him in his kingly office. Probably there was no 
 feeling which more effectually constrained me to join 
 in the Disruption movement than just the fear that 
 Christ would refuse to remember me among his ser- 
 vants should I have followed any other course." 
 
 On various accounts we may say that the Disrup- 
 tion of the Church of Scotland was a great misfortune. 
 But looking at it in the light of spiritual religion it 
 (110) 15 
 
226 THE SUMMER OF THE DISRUPTION. 
 
 very manifestly brought substantial compensations. 
 It was attended, there cannot be a doubt, with an 
 outpouring of the Spirit. It imparted fresh life and 
 energy to the evangelistic forces which had begun to 
 gather strength in the land. And by throwing down 
 those barriers of law or etiquette which had shut in 
 the parishes where Moderatism reigned, it opened the 
 whole country to the preaching of the gospel. In the 
 whole history of Scotland there is no revival era to 
 be compared in intensity and extent to that of 1848. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CROSS CURRENTS. 
 
 Edward Irving — Rowism — Bishop Swing's extraordinary statement — 
 Scottish Episcopacy — Broad Church view of the Atonement— Dr. 
 Norman Macleod — Dr. James Morison — Finney— Revivals among 
 Nonconformists — Condemnation of Morison — Atonement contro- 
 versy in United Secession Church — Evangehcal Union — Dr. John 
 Brown — Effect on Scottish theology. 
 
 THE main stream of religious life in Scotland 
 has, ever since the Reformation, been dis- 
 tinctively evangelical — evangelical after the Calvin- 
 istic type. There have been times when the currents, 
 all over the country, appeared to run in a contrary 
 direction. But then the Church was not itself. The 
 stream stagnated and became putrescent. No sooner 
 did the life return than the original channel was 
 regained. 
 
 It was not always, however, by what is historically 
 known as " Moderatism " that the free flow of the main 
 stream was disturbed. Once and ao^ain movements have 
 sprung up which could by no means be called non- 
 evangelical, yet which were far from being in harmony 
 with the national faith as represented by the accepted 
 standards. 
 
228 CROSS CURRENTS. 
 
 Not very much came out of the teaching of Edward 
 Irving so far as Scotland is concerned. There re- 
 main among us one or two congregations (not so 
 many apparently as to be reckoned worth mentioning 
 in the Almanac) which owe their origin more or less 
 directly to his inspiration, and it is probable that 
 scattered here and there among people who are at 
 once cultured and visionary there are a few isolated 
 individuals who would call themselves his disciples. 
 But he has left little visible impression on the country, 
 and except that his views of the human nature of 
 Christ have percolated through society, and find ac- 
 ceptance in circles wdiich are much more literary than 
 theological, his permanent influence on our religious 
 life would not be worth calculating. 
 
 It is diflferent, however, with Campbell of Row — 
 better known in after life as Dr. M'Leod Campbell — 
 who was associated with Irvino- in the beoinnino- of 
 his career, and shared his fate as a heretic ; but who 
 lived to be rehabilitated by the Established Church 
 after the Disruption, and to take a leading place in a 
 movement the precise value of which has yet to be 
 estimated. 
 
 The following extraordinary statement appears in 
 the Life of Bishop Ewing.* Dean Stanley had just 
 delivered his lectures on Scottish Church History in 
 Edinburgh. It was not the opinion of Presbyterians 
 
 *" Memoir of Alexander Ewing, D.C.L., Bishop of Argyle and the 
 Isles," p. 560. London : Daldy, Isbister, and Co. 
 
CROSS CURRENTS. 229 
 
 in general that the dean showed on that occasion " a 
 marvellous acquaintance with Scotch facts and their 
 bearings ;" but the bishop thought that he did, and 
 complimented him accordingly. The lecturer, how- 
 ever, had been guilty of one oversight, and Dr. Ewing 
 called his attention to it. 
 
 "I could mention, if you would excuse me, that 
 you have omitted an act which, if injurious and dis- 
 creditable to the Establishment, is yet the hinge on 
 which most of its recent history turns — the deposition 
 of Dr. Campbell. To that is mainly owing the influx 
 into the Episcopal Church of a valuable portion of 
 the Establishment ; and their desertion so weakened 
 the latter that at the Disruption the Calvinistic party 
 carried the day." 
 
 The closing clause in the sentence is sufficient to 
 show that the bishop knew very little about the 
 Disruption. His statement is, in fact, nonsense, and 
 his biographer. Dr. Ross, who was himself to begin 
 with a Presbyterian and Free Churchman, would 
 have acted wisely in suppressing it. The Disruption 
 did not turn upon questions in theology, but upon 
 questions of administration ; and on the points of 
 non-intrusion and spiritual independence Irving and 
 Campbell would have been at one with Chalmers. 
 But as to the assertion preceding this reference, the 
 Bishop of Argyle and the Isles may be accepted as a 
 competent witness, and this is what he says — that, as 
 the result of CamyhelVs deiDosition, such an influx 
 
230 CROSS CURRENTS. 
 
 took place into the Scottish Episcopal Church as 
 seriously to affect the balance of parties in the 
 Establishment 
 
 If that is a fact, it is an interesting and important 
 one, because it enables us to trace the course of the 
 cross current which appeared half a century ago in 
 the west of Scotland. So far as appearances go — so 
 far as those outside can judge of the prevailing drift 
 in a communion which has no popular assemblies in 
 which its mind can be expressed — we should have 
 said that the strongest tendencies in the Scottish 
 Episcopal Church were toward sacerdotalism. There 
 is a very palpable strain of that even in the quasi 
 liberal Charges of Bishop Wordsworth ; and the very 
 advanced ritual which is tolerated in some of the 
 churches, taken in connection with the marked dis- 
 position which has of late been displayed to keep 
 aloof from Presbjrterian contact, indicates, one would 
 say, with sufficient significance that High Churchism 
 is not the least influential of the forces that control 
 this body. But Bishop Ewing must have known the 
 condition of his own Church, and he would not have 
 written to Dean Stanley as he did, if he had not 
 been certain that there were many in it like himself. 
 Mr. Erskine of Linlathen was one ; and that few of 
 the school in Scotland have become publicly kno^^Ti 
 is probably due less to their being a numerically 
 small party than to their aversion to tie themselves 
 down to any particular forms of doctrine. 
 
CROSS CURRENTS. 231 
 
 Bishop Ewing made no secret of the fact that he 
 himself was a disciple of Campbell. " No one," he 
 wrote, " owed more to his theology than I did, though 
 many have turned it to better account. His works 
 and those of my first teacher, Mr. Erskine, form a 
 double star which has lightened an otherwise dark 
 and dreary night." 
 
 What the bishop was personally his biography 
 shows. He was not in the least like a traditional 
 " Moderate." Religion was to him a great reality. 
 He had a profound love for Jesus Christ. And in 
 his journals and letters there constantly appear utter- 
 ances which could only come from a devout and 
 earnest and spiritually-exercised mind. 
 
 But he was an Evangelical of a type altogether 
 different from that with which the religious history 
 of the country makes us most familiar ; and this will 
 appear at once if we quote his view (which is Camp- 
 bell's also) of the atonement. 
 
 " We must discover," says he, " what is the fittest 
 language in which to declare to the nineteenth century 
 what St. Paul proclaimed in the first — that the Son 
 of God came among us to reveal the way by which 
 alone we can return to his Father and our Father, to 
 his God and our God, and thus he saved — that is, 
 have the saving health of God flowing through all 
 our thoughts and words and acts. Surely we have 
 the secret of this salvation, security for the uprising 
 of our hearts into a newness of affectionate and 
 
232 CROSS CURRENTS. 
 
 adoring life, in the word : ' Herein was love, not that 
 we loved God, but that he loved us, and gave his Son 
 that we mio'ht live throuo-h him.' The outward suf- 
 ferings of Christ were, so to speak, the accidents of his 
 mission. They were the results of the contradictions 
 of sinners ao^ainst himself — thino-s which he en- 
 countered and endured and triumphed over in his 
 love for us, to awaken within us the resolve, ' I will 
 arise, and go to my Father ; ' but they are no more 
 to be looked on as penal than were the sufferings of 
 all that goodly fellowship of the prophets who pre- 
 pared his way." 
 
 The language here used is perfectly plain and in- 
 telliofible. " The outward sufferings of Christ " — his 
 sufferings on the cross — were the mere " accidents of 
 his iinissionr There was nothing " penal" about them; 
 nothing to distino-uish them in their essential nature 
 from those of the martyrs ; and their sole design was 
 to promote the uprising in the heart of new affections. 
 
 Dr. Norman Macleod, who also claimed Campbell 
 as his master, refused to go this length. Speaking 
 of a work on a like subject by another author, he 
 writes : — " I think Young's view of sacrifice super- 
 ficial in the extreme, and that in his desire to give 
 prominence to j^&'^'sonal righteousness as the grand 
 end of Chrisfs ivorlc, in luhich I cordially sympathize, 
 he leaves really no room for pardon as an act of 
 mercy."* The objection is a fatal one to such theories 
 
 * "Memoir of Norman Macleod, D.D.," vol. ii., p. 256. 
 
CROSS CURRENTS. 233 
 
 as Bishop Ewing's. A doctrine of the atonement 
 which does not take account of the sense of guilt as 
 well as the sense of sinfulness, can never meet the 
 deepest needs of men ; and even if that difficulty could 
 be got over, one feels that on a subject so mysterious 
 nothing can be much worth listening to which is, on 
 the face of it, of the nature of a mere speculation. 
 Dr. Norman Macleod admits, in regard to the work 
 of his namesake, that " it has defects when brought to 
 the severe test of exegesis!' But that is a very severe 
 thing to say ; for the criticism amounts to this, that 
 Dr. M'Leod Campbell can be shown to go beyond the 
 record. Such in any case can be said of Bishop 
 Ewing's expositions. They are not based on a fair 
 and intelligent interpretation of Scripture, and in so 
 far as they are spun out of his own brain they wdll 
 be reckoned of more or less value just as readers are 
 disposed or the contrary to take the law at his lips. 
 
 It is not, however, our business here to argue out 
 theological questions. We have been seeking to 
 follow one of the cross currents which was produced 
 by the awakening of religious inquiry in the early 
 part of the half century, and we have directed atten- 
 tion to this, that if one who ought to be a competent 
 witness is to be relied on, Rowism in at least its 
 doctrinal aspect found a home under Scottish Epis- 
 copacy. 
 
 But, as has been already indicated, it found other 
 outlets elsewhere. Dr. Norman Macleod openly pro- 
 
234 CROSS CURRENTS. 
 
 claimed himself to be a disciple of his namesake, and 
 we make a very modest assumption when we say that 
 Dr. Norman in turn had his followers. There is 
 good reason to believe that at this moment the in- 
 fluence of Rowism is felt in some of our Scottish 
 pulpits, and that the " cross current " is to be traced 
 in the vague views of the atonement which one fre- 
 quently meets with in newspapers, and among the 
 class of religious laymen whose knowledge of theo- 
 logy has been derived from general literature. 
 
 A very different man from Bishop Ewing was Dr. 
 James Morison, now so well known as an expositor of 
 Scripture. The son of a Secession minister, he was 
 licensed to preach in 1839. In his first efforts, al- 
 though his ability was recognized, he made little or 
 no impression on his hearers. But a remarkable 
 change came over the character of his ministrations 
 while he was taking charge of a small station on the 
 borders of Banffshire ; and from that time he became 
 the leader in a movement which issued, by-and-by, in 
 the formation of a new denomination. 
 
 It will be remembered that 1839 was one of our 
 revival eras. From the prominence given to the 
 labours of Burns and M'Cheyne and others, it has 
 been too generally assumed that the quickening was 
 confined to the Established Church. But that was 
 not the case. The swell of the movement was felt 
 more or less by all the non-conforming bodies, and 
 
CBOSS CURRENTS. 235 
 
 one of the fruits of the awakening was young Morison. 
 He is described as setting out for the station in which 
 the change referred to took place, carrying with him 
 for reading by the way " Finney's Lectures on Re- 
 vivals," and as having at the time a deepening convic- 
 tion that there was something amiss in his style of 
 preaching.* What befell him was afterwards described 
 by himself in his defence before his Presbytery. " For 
 many years," he said, " he had laboured under total 
 darkness as to the way of salvation. By patient re- 
 search and study he at last found a truth in the Bible 
 which had the effect of introducing him all at once 
 into a new world. It changed all his views, all his 
 feelings, all his desires, all his conduct. This gracious 
 and glorious truth which he had discovered in the 
 Bible was nothing else than the love of God to him 
 in particular, in giving his own dear Son to die for 
 him. This Bible truth he saw clearly stated in many 
 portions of Scripture ; and having seen it, and wonder- 
 ing that he had never seen it before, he burned with 
 intense desire to make it known to others, that they 
 also might receive the same unspeakable peace and 
 joy which it had imparted to his own soul. Animated 
 by this desire, he began to preach it everywhere ; and 
 he had no sooner begun to preach it than he saw 
 sinners finding peace in believing it, and deriving 
 from it a motive to live entirely to God." 
 
 * "A History of the Evangelical Union." By Fergus Ferguson, D.D. 
 Page 7. Glasgow : T. D. Morison, 1876. 
 
236 CBOSS CURRENTS. 
 
 How the young preacher should have concluded 
 from his experience that he had got hold of a great 
 and neglected truth ; how he should have proceeded 
 to preach it with a force and a fervour corresponding 
 to the depth and freshness of his convictions ; and 
 how, wherever he went, people were impressed and 
 moved by his enthusiasm, is what we can all easily 
 understand. 
 
 It was the same with John Henry Newman, who 
 tells that, Avhen what he called the light flashed into his 
 mind, the exulting confidence with which he entered 
 on the task of reviving medievalism imparted a visible 
 change even to his outward appearance. " My health 
 and strength," says he, " came back to me with such 
 a rebound that some friends at Oxford, on seeing me, 
 did not well know that it was I, and hesitated before 
 they spoke to me." 
 
 That the reception of a new idea has marked the 
 beginning of an epoch in a man's mental history is no 
 proof in itself that the idea is a true one ; and we are 
 not surprised that in the Church to which he belonged 
 Mr. Morison's teaching was regarded with intense dis- 
 favour. At the same time it will always be found 
 that where masses of people are moved to repentance 
 under a particular kind of preaching, some needed 
 truth must have been presented ; and in accounting 
 for the spiritual awakenings which did undoubtedly 
 take place about this time in connection with Mr. 
 Morison's ministrations, we have no difiiculty in trac- 
 
CROSS CURRENTS. 237 
 
 ing these in great part to his free proclamation of the 
 love of God and of the grace of the gospel. It was a 
 time when many were prepared to listen ; there was 
 a stirring among the dry bones ; and when a sense of 
 guilt is awakened in a soul, it is apt to think only of 
 the open door, without concerning itself much about 
 the principle on which the door has been thrown open. 
 What really told in producing permanent spiritual 
 effects was something that was common alike to 
 Morison and M'Cheyne. 
 
 Mr. Morison did not become all at once a full- 
 fledged Arminian. His theology grew. The first 
 idea he got hold of was that Christ died in the same 
 sense for all men ; and this he preached as his gospel, 
 assertinof that all those who believe that Christ has 
 died for them will certainly be saved. For a 
 number of years after this he adhered to a doctrine 
 of election which he called one of the most delightful 
 doctrines of Scripture — albeit the view he took of it 
 was not very high. According to his teaching till 
 1843, "election in the order of nature comes after 
 
 the atonement God foresaw that not one of the 
 
 whole human family would be willing to be saved 
 [through the atonement], and then he elected." This 
 doctrine, however, necessitated his continued accept- 
 ance of the Calvinistic idea of " effectual calling " by 
 the Spirit, and by-and-by he parted still further from 
 the Westminster Confession, and taught that election 
 is not a thing of eternity but of time; not an absolute 
 
238 CEOSS CURRENTS. 
 
 decree, but a selecting process ; not an election to faith, 
 but an election through faith. These views naturally 
 led to a new estimate of human ability. Original sin 
 was not denied ; nor was it asserted that any man has 
 the power, apart from grace, to save himself. But 
 under the economy of the gospel, circumstances have 
 so changed that salvation is literally within the reach 
 of all who choose to use the ability they now possess. 
 " When the atonement has been made, and the Holy 
 Spirit has not only embodied the record of it in the 
 inspired gospel, but is himself present to persuade 
 and guide the sinner to the faith of it, the sinner 
 is able to surrender himself to this divine influence 
 and believe and be saved."* 
 
 The ordination of Mr. Morison as minister of a 
 Secession church in Kilmarnock was not carried 
 through without difficulty ; but his preaching was 
 extremely popular, and his meeting-house was soon 
 crowded. This led of course to public attention being 
 all the more quickly called to his doctrine; and within 
 six or seven months of his settlement, which took 
 place in September 1840, he was summoned to answer 
 for himself at the bar of his Presbytery. There, by a 
 majority of twenty to five, he was declared to have 
 been proved guilty of teaching error, and was sus- 
 pended from the ministry. Against this decision he 
 appealed to the Synod, but without effect. The judg- 
 
 * "Doctrinal Declaration." Issued by the Evangelical Union Com- 
 mission. Glasgow, 1881. 
 
CEOSS CURRENTS. 239 
 
 ment of the court below was affirmed, and on the 1 2th 
 of June 1841, Mr. Morison was declared to be no 
 longer connected with the Secession Church, and all 
 the ministers of that Church were prohibited from 
 holding official communion with him. 
 
 From that date we trace the rise of a body which 
 still exists, and has attained to considerable dimensions 
 — the Evangelical Union. Popularly, and for many 
 years, the members of that Church were called Mori- 
 sonians. That nickname has been dropped ; but the 
 influence of the founder of the sect still continues, 
 and whatever may be thought about his theology. 
 James Morison must always be regarded as one of 
 the religious forces of the last half-century. Other 
 ministers from his own Mother Church subsequently 
 joined him ; their number was swelled by additions 
 from among the Congregationalists ; as time went on 
 a theological seminary was founded, of which Morison 
 became the principal, and students were educated for 
 the ministry; and so by slow degrees an Arminian 
 communion was established in Calvinistic Scotland. 
 But this was not all that resulted from this move- 
 ment. Although the Secession Synod was unanimous 
 in expelling Morison, there were some prominent 
 members of it who agreed to the verdict with reluct- 
 ance. Among those was Dr. John Brown of Edin- 
 burgh, who, in connection with the case, spoke in a 
 way to awaken suspicions of his own orthodoxy. The 
 result was an internal controversy on the subject of 
 
240 CBOSS CURRENTS. 
 
 the atonement which seriously disturbed for a time 
 the whole denomination. Ultimately peace was re- 
 stored, but, if we may accept the testimony of Dr. 
 Cairns, not without a permanent impression being 
 left on the theological sentiment of the country. 
 
 " Upon the whole," says Dr. Cairns,* " it may be 
 affirmed that the controversy, though confined, with 
 the exception of the Scottish Congregationalists, to the 
 United Secession Church, has, by its remote as well 
 as its direct impression, exerted a valuable influence 
 in liberalizing the tone of Scottish theology, while it 
 has done nothing to derange its equilibrium or remove 
 its landmarks." 
 
 Morison's view of the atonement was in one respect 
 as different as possible from Bishop Swing's. The 
 bishop held the sufferings of Christ to be in no sense 
 penal. The Evangelical Union doctrine is the very 
 opposite of that. " We believe the Saviour's ' obedi- 
 ence unto death ' to have been strictly vicarious and 
 substitutionary, and to have constituted a propitiation 
 or sacrificial satisfaction for the sins of men." 
 
 At the same time extremes met in the case of the 
 two men. Both taught that in consequence of some- 
 thing or other done by Christ for the whole world, all 
 men are safe if they will only believe it — thus making 
 the object of saving faith in each case an assertion as 
 to matters of fact which many hold to be on good 
 grounds disputable. 
 
 * "Memoir of John Brown, D.D.," p. 255. 
 
CEOSS CURRENTS. 241 
 
 Dr. Ferguson, in his " History of the Evangelical 
 Union," connects the awakening of a new life in the 
 mind of Morison with his perusal of " Finney's Lec- 
 tures on Revivals." That the connection was real we 
 do not doubt ; more real than another which the same 
 author tries to establish* between the rise of " Mori- 
 sonianism " and the labours of M'Cheyne. It was 
 natural, therefore, that Finney, when he came to Scot- 
 land in 1859, should find his way into the society of 
 those who regarded Morison as their religious leader. 
 It is curious, however, to find that the American re- 
 vivalist, broad as his evangelicalism was, was not 
 so much at home in this communion as he expected. 
 
 " This Evangelical Union," he writes,-|- " had grown 
 out of a revival in Scotland at the time of the first 
 
 publication of my Revival Lectures Mr. Kirk 
 
 represented my vieAvs as identical with the views of 
 their Church. But on some points I found that I 
 very considerably differed from them. Their views 
 of faith as a mere intellectual state I could not re- 
 ceive. They explained away, in a manner to me 
 unintelligible, the doctrine of election. However, Mr. 
 Kirk insisted that he entirely accepted my views as 
 he heard me preach them, and that they were the 
 views of the Evangelical Union Church. Thus, with- 
 out intending it, he shut the doors of other pulpits 
 against me." 
 
 * "Evangelical Repository." 
 
 t "Charles G. Finney: an Autobiography." London: Hodder and 
 Stoughton. Pages 381, 382. 
 
 (110) 16 
 
242 CROSS CURRENTS. 
 
 Mr. Finney's perplexity and dissatisfaction suggest 
 the hope that some of the differences which appear 
 between this body and the orthodox communions 
 around it may be to some extent verbal. The body 
 itself is no longer so completely isolated as it was. 
 Dr. Morison's Commentaries are welcomed to the 
 libraries of all theologians. And although it sounds 
 to us, to say the least of it, a bald gospel to tell a 
 man that Christ died for all, and therefore for him, 
 and that he will be saved if he accepts the fact, we 
 know enough to be certain that practically as much 
 stress is laid in this denomination as in others on 
 personal dealing with the Saviour and the necessity 
 of the work of the Holy Ghost. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 A NEW AWAKENING (l859-60). 
 
 Revivals in America and Ireland — The wave reaches Scotland — The 
 Glasgow Wynds — Robert Cunningham — Dumfriesshire — Dr. Julius 
 Wood — Features of the period — Brownlow North — A new order — 
 Lay evangelists. 
 
 IN 1858 a remarkable revival of religion took 
 place in the United States of America. The 
 movement seemed to stir the whole country. It was 
 said at the time that " a traveller might go for three 
 thousand miles, and stop where he would, in town 
 or country, there was no place where he might not 
 turn aside and go into a prayer-meeting." Above two 
 thousand cities, towns, and villages were reported to 
 have been visited by the blessing ; and the fruit 
 gathered into the Churches was proportionally great. 
 The Old School Presbyterians alone added to their 
 communion that year more than twenty thousand 
 members — a larger accession than they had received 
 in any one season for a generation before. 
 
 Tidings of this awakening were brought of course 
 to this country, and as its dimensions and wonderful 
 
244 A NEW AWAKENING {1S59-60). 
 
 character came to be more and more fully known and 
 realized, the interest in it deepened, until among ear- 
 nest people everywhere a passionate desire arose that 
 the Churches on this side of the Atlantic might ex- 
 perience a similar quickening. The result was that 
 prayer was multiplied, that ministers became more 
 fervid in their preaching, and that the interest in 
 religion generally grew to be much more intense. 
 And by-and-by the cloud of blessing broke over our 
 islands also. 
 
 The shower fell first upon Ireland, which enjoyed 
 in 1859 truly " a year of grace." It is not a little 
 touching, at this time of day, to read Professor Gib- 
 son's summing up of the results wdiich he says fol- 
 lowed the good work described by him.* " Now," 
 says he, " through this great revival Ireland has been 
 lifted up to the gaze of universal Christendom. Visi- 
 tors from many lands — from Continental Europe, 
 Asia, and America — have come to admire the wonder- 
 ful work which has been produced among her people ; 
 and the spiritual change produced through her nor- 
 thern province has given a new impulse to the cause 
 of truth and righteousness, even to the ends of the 
 earth." Ten thousand six hundred and thirty-six 
 communicants were, during this harvest season, added 
 to the membership of the Presbyterian Church in 
 Ulster ; and the commissioner whom the Times sent 
 
 * " A History of the Ulster Revival." By the Rev. W. Gibson, Pro- 
 fessor of Christian Ethics, and Moderator of the General Assembly of 
 the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. Edinburgh : Andrew Elliot. 18G0. 
 
A NEW AWAKENING [1859-60). 245 
 
 to make inquiry on the spot (recognizing in this way 
 the notoriety and significance of the events which 
 were taking place) could not help acknowledging 
 that, however the phenomena were to be explained, 
 changes of a most remarkable and beneficent kind had 
 been effected in the country. 
 
 What was being experienced in Ireland naturally 
 increased the anxiety of the good people in Scotland. 
 Many of them went across the Channel to see the 
 work for themselves, and returned with their hearts 
 on fire. Prayer became more importunate. The 
 means of grace were plied with increased diligence. 
 And at last the blessing came ; not to the same 
 extent as in Ulster and America, but in a manner 
 which made it certain that the movement which fol- 
 lowed was the result of an outpouring of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 Glasgow appears to have been the place in which 
 there were the earliest manifestations of a quickened 
 interest in religion, and we can have no hesitation in 
 connectinof those manifestations with the memorable 
 work in the Wynds. That work owed its origin to 
 the efforts made by Dr. Robert Buchanan to evangelize 
 the waste places of his own parish. At first these 
 efforts were purely local, no more being contemplated 
 in them than the support of a congregational home 
 mission. But as the character and extent of the field 
 came to be better known, Dr. Buchanan's ideas ex- 
 panded, and in January 1850 he delivered a public 
 
246 A NEW AWAKENING (1859- W). 
 
 lecture, under the presidency of the then Lord Provost, 
 in which he showed that the barbarism of the Wynds 
 was ah'eady threatening the peace and well-being of 
 the more orderly districts of the city.* His main 
 object in that lecture was to move the municipal 
 authorities to look after the education of the people ; 
 but the conviction grew upon him that the field he 
 had entered was one for the reclamation of which the 
 whole energy of the Church was required, and accord- 
 ingly we find him, in the beginning of 1851, bringing 
 the matter first under the notice of the Presbytery, 
 and then, in the May following, seeking to secure the 
 co-operation of the General Assembly. The response 
 which he met with was on the whole encouraging. 
 A new building society was formed, by whose help 
 places of worship were erected in various localities ; 
 and a work was thus begun on which a manifest 
 blessing has rested, and which has done so much for 
 Glasgow that one thinks with a sort of dismay of 
 what might have happened if it had never been 
 attempted. 
 
 In 1854 the Wynd Church proper was opened, and 
 Mr. D. Maccoll ordained as its minister. In four 
 years it was filled, and a new church — an overflow 
 church, as one might call it — was erected in the 
 Bridgegate. To this Mr. Maccoll moved with his 
 cono^re^ation, and the oriofinal buildino^ was then occu- 
 
 * " Robert Buchanan, D.D. An Ecclesiastical Biography." By Rev. 
 Norman Tv. Walker. Edinburgh : T. Nelson and Sons. 
 
A NEW AWAKENING {1S59-G0). 247 
 
 pied by Mr. Howie. Again the church filled, and Mr, 
 Howie migrated with his people to Trinity. After 
 him came Mr. Wells ; and he too, having gathered a 
 third congregation, was transferred to the Barony. 
 Lastly, a fourth congregation was collected by Mr. 
 Riddell ; and both were in course of time moved to 
 Augustine. Trinity, Barony, and Augustine were 
 each built to hold eleven hundred sitters. 
 
 It would be difficult to point to a more remarkable 
 record than that in the modern history of the Church. 
 That it prospered as it did was due to the fact that 
 God put his seal in a very conspicuous way upon 
 the undertaking. A blessing attended Mr. Maccoll's 
 ministry from the first. Long before the wave of 
 spiritual life from across the Atlantic reached our 
 shores, drops from heaven fell upon the city desert in 
 which he laboured ; and w^hen at last the tide came, 
 there was no part of the country in which its influ- 
 ence was sooner or more powerfully felt. There was 
 another explanation of the extraordinary success which 
 attended the ministrations of the men w^e have named. 
 They were all preachers of the " revival " type, men 
 who had the strongest belief in the power of the 
 gospel, when accompanied by the Spirit, to convert 
 sinners ; and, in point of fact, so great was the har- 
 vest which those of them who w^ere earliest in the 
 field were permitted to gather, that a special periodical 
 w^as established to report the results. For many 
 months together a weekly serial, entitled The Wynd 
 
248 A NEW A WAKENING [1850-60). 
 
 Journal, edited by Mr. M'Coll, informed all interested 
 of what God was doing in a region toward which, in 
 1850, the citizens of Glasgow were directed to look 
 with apprehension. 
 
 Very many still living date their conversion from 
 " the revival in the Wynds." Many more, probably, 
 who were then awakened have been gathered to their 
 rest. Among the latter was a remarkable man, who 
 afterwards became famous as an evangelist — Robert 
 Gunninghcon. He was forty-six in 1859. He could not 
 read then, and had so little acquaintance with churches 
 that he had never seen the Lord's table spread. More- 
 over, his character was of the worst. A butcher to 
 his trade, his favourite place of recreation was the 
 prize-ring, in which his size and skill gained him 
 honours as a pugilist. This man, after his conversion, 
 developed a wonderful gift of natural eloquence, and 
 thus became the means of awakening to concern not 
 a few others like himself. " Wherever he went he 
 had," says Mr. Macpherson, " but one text, one theme — 
 ' I am a monument of grace,' corresponding to Paul's 
 ' By the grace of God, I am what I am.' It was the 
 story of his conversion ; and though told a thousand 
 times, the recital never grew stale nor lost any of its 
 freshness and power. Many scores of thousands up 
 and down our country listened with profound interest 
 and with tears to the testimony borne to Jesus and 
 his Spirit by this untutored child of grace. At 
 Huntly, for instance, we have seen an assemblage of 
 
A NEW A WAKENING {1S50-60). 249 
 
 ten thousand, including persons of rank and culture, 
 men of all the learned professions in great numbers, 
 officers of the army and navy, and many of every 
 class, melted to tears under the simple heart utter- 
 ances of one who had learned to love much because 
 he had been forgiven much."* 
 
 The spiritual movement of this time, however, was 
 not confined to Glasgow, although it was in the Wynds 
 that its first and perhaps its most remarkable mani- 
 festations appeared. The country was far better pre- 
 pared for a visitation of the Spirit now than it had 
 been in 1839, and there was a far more general expec- 
 tation of blessing. All the Churches were more or 
 less quickened, and hardly any part of the country re- 
 mained entirely unmoved. In the north and south of 
 Scotland especially very marked awakenings occurred, 
 and everywhere there was manifested a greater readi- 
 ness to hear than had been displaj^'ed since the memor- 
 able summer of 1843. Nor did the interest pass very 
 quickly away. In some places the fiood did not come 
 for a long time after there had been heard the sound 
 of abundance of rain. The following, for example, is 
 an account given by Dr. Julius Wood of what he 
 himself witnessed in the county of Dumfries. We 
 give the narrative the more readily because it so 
 exactly describes what, at the outset at least, wa^ a 
 common experience. 
 
 * " Eevival and Revival Work." By Rev. John Macpherson. Lou- 
 don : Morgan and Scott. 
 
250 A NEW A WAKENING {1S59-60). 
 
 " When the revival took place in America/' he says, 
 " the attention of God's people, Loth ministers and 
 members of the Church, was fixed upon it with lively 
 interest. When, subsequently, Ireland was made a 
 partaker of the heavenly blessing, an interest still 
 more intense was awakened. A number of ministers 
 and members of the Churches visited Ireland. When 
 they returned they told what they had seen and 
 heard. Prayer-meetings became more numerous, and 
 were largely attended ; news from America and Ireland 
 were communicated at them. A deep and solemn 
 interest and expectation were excited. Prayer was 
 made to God that he would be pleased to pour out his 
 Spirit on the towns and congregations of Dumfries- 
 shire. And soon there began to be droppings, as the 
 precursors of a common shower. That was in the 
 end of 1859 and beginning of 1860 — that is, twelve 
 months before the blessing came." 
 
 Dr. Wood then proceeds to tell how the first out- 
 burst took place. It was in Annan, and in connection 
 with the preaching of Mr. Hammond, a young Ameri- 
 can who had come to Scotland as a student. The 
 awakening, however, soon extended to Dumfries. And 
 there " the largest church in the town was crowded 
 in every part every evening, and other churches had 
 to be opened to receive the multitude Avho eagerly 
 came together to hear the word of life. A profound 
 impression was made by these crowded meetings, not 
 caused (humanly speaking) by anything that was said,* 
 
A NEW A WAKENING {1S59-60). 251 
 
 for the truth was not put forward with great intel- 
 lectual power or eloquence, or in the wisdom of man's 
 words, but only stated pointedly with plainness and 
 faithfulness. Many who came from curiosity, and 
 who at first were rather offended at what they saw 
 and heard, had their attention arrested, and were 
 awakened to concern about their souls. The inquir}^- 
 meetings became crowded with persons whose very 
 countenances indicated the trouble and anxiety within. 
 
 Beyond all question there was a great work of the 
 
 Holy Spirit. Many wxre convinced of sin, and after 
 a longer or shorter period of distress and anxiety 
 were enabled to believe in Jesus and find peace." * 
 
 Mr. Macpherson, who has made a study of our 
 Scottish revivals, and who on that and other accounts 
 is very competent to speak on the subject, specifies 
 some features which he thinks were peculiarly dis- 
 tinctive of the awakening of 1859. " Assurance of 
 personal salvation, for example," he says, " came then 
 to be more widely regarded as the privilege of every 
 Christian. It was held by a vastly increased number 
 that it was neither unreasonable nor unscriptural that 
 young believers should have as real joy and peace in 
 believing as the ripest saints. And from this," he 
 adds, " it followed that a much more general and 
 happy tone of Christian thought and feeling was 
 recognized as proper to the godly." 
 
 * " Sketch of the Remarkable Religious Awakening in the South of 
 Scotland in the Spring of 1861." News of the Churches for 18G1. 
 
252 A NEW AWAKENING {1S50-60). 
 
 Whether that is true or not, there is another remark 
 he makes to the correctness of which all will assent 
 who have any recollection whatever of the period. 
 It is this, that " the proper use and value of lay 
 agency in carrying on the w^ork of Christ were more 
 fully acknowledged ; and henceforth it became an 
 article of common belief in the Churches that every 
 Christian ought in some w^ay to work. Out of the 
 movement sprung a host of devoted workers, who, 
 having in remembrance the happy days of their spirit- 
 ual youth, laboured and prayed incessantly for another 
 season of grace." 
 
 What Mr. Macpherson had specially in his mind 
 when he wrote these words was without doubt the 
 rise of what might almost be called a new order in 
 the Scottish Church — that of the lay evangelist. A 
 few representatives of the order had appeared before 
 — notably Brownlow North, who w^as converted in 
 1854, and began to preach immediately — but it is a 
 somewhat noticeable circumstance that it was in May 
 1859 (the revival year) that the order was first form- 
 ally recognized by a General Assembly. On that 
 occasion Mr. North's gifts were brought under the 
 notice of the supreme court of the Free Church by a 
 number of its best known men. A committee which 
 was appointed to converse with him reported their 
 high satisfaction with his doctrine and spirit ; and 
 thereafter, under the presidency of Principal Cunning- 
 ham, the Assembly publicly extended to him the right 
 
A NEW AWAKENING {1859-60). 253 
 
 hand of fellowship, and he was sent forth with the 
 ir)ipri7)iatur of the Church, not as a probationer, but 
 formally as a lay evangelist. 
 
 Mr. Kenneth Moody-Stuart, in his interesting Life 
 of this remarkable man,* makes a suo-o-estive reference 
 to the significant development implied in that trans- 
 action. During the struggle for the Church's liberties 
 before 1843 there came to the front a number of 
 laymen whose nobility of character and devotion to 
 the honour of Christ contributed largely to secure for 
 the cause with which they identified themselves the 
 respect even of the world. " The band of Disruption 
 elders," as Mr. Moody-Stuart says, " was indeed a dis- 
 tinofuished one." It included such names as these — 
 Alexander Dunlop, Graham Spiers, Earle Menteith, 
 Claud Alexander of Ballochmyle, Hog of Newliston, 
 Buchan of Kelloe, Thomson of Banchory, Christie of 
 Durie, John Hamilton of Ninewar, John (afterwards 
 Lord) Cowan, Mackgill Crighton of Rankeillor, etc. 
 All of these men could speak, and did speak ; but none 
 of them, so far as we know, ever preached or addressed 
 evano^elistic meetino^s. It remained for the awaken- 
 ing of 1859-60 to produce a new development, and 
 Mr. Moody-Stuart gives a long list of men who, after 
 that time, took their part with the clergy in publicly 
 inviting sinners to come to Christ. This band of 
 " evangelizing elders " was not less distinguished than 
 
 * *' Brownlow North, B.A., Oxon. Records and Recollections," p. 118. 
 By the Rev. K. Moody -Stuart, M.A. London : Hodder and Stoixghton. 
 
254 A JVEW A WAKENING [1859-60). 
 
 the other, its members not belonging exclusively to 
 any one branch of the Scottish Church. We have 
 now become familiar with many of their names. 
 Along with Brownlow North appeared Lords Polwarth, 
 Kintore, and Cavan, Mr. Hay Macdowall Grant of 
 Arndilly, Mr. Gordon of Parkhill, Sheriff Maitland- 
 Heriot of Ramornie ; and besides these, not a few of 
 inferior social rank, yet of at least equal effective- 
 ness as evangelists — like Robert Annan and Duncan 
 Matheson. 
 
 We have spoken of the formation of a " new 
 order," but some may rather see in what occurred 
 in 1859 the revival of an order which existed in 
 apostolic times and in the Church of the Reforma- 
 tion. Anyhow, a new emphasis was then given to 
 the obligation which lies upon all who have heard for 
 themselves to invite others to come to a Saviour ; and 
 thus, there can be no doubt, the evangelistic force in 
 the country has undergone a great practical expansion. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CHURCHES. 
 
 A centripetal tendency — The exception of 1843 — United Secession and 
 Kelief — Free and United Presbyterian Churches— Established Church 
 efforts at readjustment — Original Seceders and Reformed Presby- 
 terians — Biblical and theological inquiry — The Free Church—Robert- 
 son Smith case — The Macrae case — The "Scotch Sermons." 
 
 OUR aim here is not to write the ecclesiastical 
 history of the half century, but simply to 
 indicate some of the things which have affected the 
 religious life of the period. And it is solely in view 
 of that purpose that we devote a chapter to a brief 
 review of the experiences of the Churches as such. 
 
 One of the features of the time has been a more 
 or less anxious desire to heal the breaches which from 
 time to time have been made in the Reformation 
 Church. In 1843 what looked like a decidedly con- 
 trary current prevailed, and caused a new division. 
 But we may safely say that those who were mainly 
 responsible for that breach have regretted it. The 
 statesmen, on account of whose obstinacy the Dis- 
 ruption became inevitable, made the amende very 
 heartily when it was too late, — Sir James Graham 
 
256 THE CHURCHES. 
 
 and Lord Aberdeen confessing frankly to Dr. Buchanan 
 that they had committed a grand mistake ; and al- 
 though that fragment of the Church which remained 
 in possession of the endowments was slower to 
 acknowledge its error, it has since left the world in 
 no doubt as to its later views by adopting the prin- 
 ciples of the party it banished. Putting aside, then, 
 what occurred in 1843 as a temporary aberration, we 
 may repeat that during the half-century there has 
 been manifested an intermittent but, in the long run, 
 a steady tendency in the scattered branches of the 
 Presbyterian family to get reconciled to one another. 
 This tendency, with what it has led to, has told in 
 various ways on the religion of the country. 
 
 The centripetal force appeared before the Dis- 
 ruption when the Old Light Burghers joined the 
 Established Church. The body itself was too small 
 to tell very materially on the larger denomination by 
 which it was absorbed, but the union was regarded 
 with interest as a testimony to the value of the re- 
 forming work in which the Evangelical party was 
 engaged. When the Erskines left the Establish- 
 ment they did not become Dissenters. All that they 
 professed to do was to secede from the corrupt and 
 intolerant majority which then dominated the Church 
 courts ; and they indicated their willingness to return 
 when thino's were made better. In course of time 
 most of the Seceders became Voluntaries, and their 
 return to any State Church was made impossible. 
 
THE CHURCHES. 257 
 
 But the " Old Light " bodies still maintained their 
 ancient faith, and one of the two saw their way to 
 lower their protest when the party of Chalmers had 
 gained the ascendency in the Assembly. Though the 
 stream thus received then was not large, it was accept- 
 able on historical grounds, and the accession, doubtless, 
 helped to swell the tide of the new life which was 
 rising in the Establishment. 
 
 A more important event, however, was the union 
 of the United Secession and Relief Churches in 1847, 
 the result being the formation of the United Presby- 
 terian Church. The two parts of this whole were, 
 even in a state of separation, influential factors in the 
 religious life of Scotland ; but upon their combination 
 their influence increased. There came naturally to be 
 in the enlarged body a more sensible consciousness of 
 strength, which led it to undertake greater things than 
 it had before attempted. It at once took steps to 
 make a better provision for its home ministry ; it 
 enlarged its foreign missions ; it improved its organi- 
 zation in many different ways ; and it has thoroughly 
 established its reputation as one of the most vigorous 
 ecclesiastical institutions in the country. 
 
 How far the union affected the general attitude of 
 the new body is a question which it would be difficult 
 to answer, but that it did in that way tell to some 
 extent is distinctly declared by those who are most 
 likely to know. Dr. Cairns, for example, tells us 
 that "when the Articles of Union were being prepared, 
 
 (110) 17 
 
258 THE CHURCHES. 
 
 Dr. Brown exerted himself to oive the new associa- 
 tion, which was to embrace more than five hundred 
 congregations, the widest and most nnsectarian char- 
 acter, and some peculiarities of the old Secession basis, 
 to which he had always objected as too narrow, were 
 dismissed ;" and Dr. Struthers, in his historical sketch 
 of the rise of the Relief Church,* dwells with some 
 emphasis on the denominational principles which he 
 was carrying with him into the Church of which he 
 was to become a minister. The Relief Church did 
 not start by laying down an elaborate system of 
 doctrines. What those sought who joined it first was 
 simply relief from Patronage. Making thus no great 
 point of anything but a love for the gospel, it de- 
 veloped naturally the practice of "free communion;" 
 and in coalescing with the United Secession Church, it 
 no doubt carried with it a liberalizing element which 
 has told upon the United Presbyterian denomination. 
 It is said, also, that the Relief style of preaching was 
 different from that of the Secession, being more florid 
 and more regardful of literary form. Perhaps a ter- 
 tiiiin quid of superior excellence to both has been 
 the result of the amalgamation. 
 
 In 1852, another breach was healed, though not so 
 perfectly but that some splinters remained. The 
 Old Light Anti-Burghers — better known by the name 
 of the Original Secession — sought admission into the 
 
 * "United Presbyterian Fathers." Kdinbiirprli : A. Fnllarton and Co, 
 1848. 
 
THE CHURCHES. 259 
 
 Free Church, and were cordially welcomed. Lord 
 Cockburn, noticing the event in his Journal, says : — 
 " These Originals were small in number, but they 
 were the pure stock of Ebenezer Erskine. They 
 stuck to the old creed in favour of an Establishment, 
 and only seceded because our Establishment had ceased 
 to be what they held to be the Church of Scotland. 
 They now, after a separation of about one hundred 
 and fifteen years, returned to this Church, which 
 
 they find in the Free The junction is received 
 
 as a striking homage to the principles which the 
 Establishment once owned." The Rev. J. C. Johnston, 
 in his admirable and valuable storehouse of historical 
 memorabilia, says of the same incident : " The Free 
 Church received [by the union] not a little Covenant- 
 ing blood into its constitution when it added to its 
 roll the names of Dr. Thomas M'Crie, Dr. Shaw of 
 Whitburn, Mr. Paxton of Glasgow, Mr. White of 
 Haddington, and others of the Covenant." * 
 
 A still more important alliance than this, however, 
 was proposed in 1868. Previously to that, the ques- 
 tion had often been asked. Why the Free and United 
 Presbyterian Churches should not become one. An 
 obvious difficulty, of course, presented itself at the 
 threshold — namely, that the two Churches were 
 known to differ about the relioious functions of the 
 civil magistrate. But this difficulty had been seen 
 
 * " Treasury of the Scottish Covenant," ]). 217. By Rev. J. C. Johnston. 
 Edinburgh : Andrew Elliot, 
 
260 THE CHURCHES. 
 
 and made light of even in the Disruption Assembly. 
 " I am the very last person," said Dr. Candlish, " who 
 would stand on the rigid assertion of the mere theory 
 of Establishments for the purpose of keeping up 
 division or schism in the Church. So far from that, 
 it appears to me that the distinct refusal of the states 
 and kingdoms of this world to recognize the only 
 principle on which we can consent to have the Church 
 established, leaves to us a very great degree of prac- 
 tical liberty, and a large measure of practical discretion 
 as to the terms on which we should stand with other 
 Churches. Is the division and schism of the Christian 
 Church to be kept up by a question as to the duty of 
 another party over whom we have no control?" These 
 words were twenty years old, and the sentiments con- 
 tained in them had been received at the time they 
 were spoken with unanimous applause. It did not 
 seem likely, therefore, that trouble from that quarter 
 would come now in 1863, when there appeared to be 
 no chance at all of the Free Church ever being re- 
 established. Nor indeed was there any trouble to 
 begin with. Committees were appointed to confer on 
 the subject, by the supreme courts of the two bodies, 
 not only with unanimity, but with enthusiasm ; and 
 the negotiations commenced under the happiest aus- 
 pices, their aim being to combine, not the United 
 Presbyterian and Free Churches only, but the Reformed 
 Presbyterian Church also. 
 
 But a breeze soon sprang up which increased by- 
 
THE CHURCHES. 261 
 
 and-by to a storm, and after ten years' contending the 
 idea of a union had to be given up to save tlie Free 
 Church itself from shipwreck. It was surprising how 
 quickly that Church seemed to settle down again to 
 its direct work after the commotion, and how com- 
 pletely the private feuds it caused appeared to heal. 
 Very serious damage was done, however, to the cause 
 of religion in various ways by the controversy ; and 
 its marks will not be wholly effaced until the genera- 
 tion which engaged in it has entirely passed away. 
 
 At the same time, it would be very far from the 
 truth to say that only evil came of the abortive at- 
 tempt at union. In the process the Churches con- 
 cerned went to school again, and got the benefit of 
 what may truly be called a liberal education. The 
 ideas of those who cared to think came to be cleared 
 up upon many points ; and in the " Articles of Agree- 
 ment," accepted by all the parties with greater or less 
 unanimity, there is stored up an elaborately prepared 
 mass of material which will be turned to good ac- 
 count some day when the suspended negotiations shall 
 be resumed. 
 
 In the meantime the Established Church had been 
 looking interestedly on. It did not at first seem as 
 if it had very much concern with the efforts which 
 the non-conforming bodies of its neighbourhood were 
 makino- to combine their forces, and it did not inter- 
 
 o 
 
 meddle, in a direct way at least, with the struggle. 
 But when the fight proceeded, and a party appeared 
 
262 THE CHURCHES. 
 
 in the Free Church which declared that it would 
 rather break up that Church altogether than consent 
 to the lowering of the Establishment flag, it saw, not 
 unnaturally, its opportunity; and in 1869 (six years, 
 it will be observed, after the union negotiations had 
 commenced) a deputation, headed by Dr. Norman 
 Macleod, waited on the Government of the day to ash 
 the abolition of Patronage. No secret was made of 
 the motive which chiefly inspired the appeal. Dr. 
 Macleod told Mr. Gladstone that there was no sacri- 
 fice he and his brethren would not make, and no 
 legislation that they would not accept, to put an end 
 to "the secession;" and when, in 1874 (the year 
 after the negotiations were abandoned). Parliament 
 conceded what was asked, it was on the distinct as- 
 sumption that the claims of the Free Church would 
 thereby be met, and its continued separation from 
 the Establishment rendered inexcusable. 
 
 Here then, we may say, was another instance of 
 the centripetal force that is working in our ecclesias- 
 tical world. The body which is in alliance with the 
 State is equally with its non-conforming neighbours 
 dissatisfied with the present state of things, and would 
 be glad to see the breaches healed. But unfortunately 
 its methods have not been very happy. Failing to 
 recognize the fact that its readiness to accept the 
 principles of those whom it had expelled from the 
 Establishment involved virtually an acknowledgment 
 that these parties had been wronged, it began its 
 
THE CHURCHES. 263 
 
 union efforts on transparently selfish lines, seeking 
 from the Government what it thought would break 
 down the Free Church, not what might open the way 
 for an honourable reconciliation. Two attempts made 
 in this spirit having failed — the passing of the Patron- 
 age Act in 1874, and the submission of Mr. Finlay's 
 Bill more recently — a course worthier of the circum- 
 stances w^as taken in 1887, when the General As- 
 sembly of the Free Church was asked to confer with 
 its sister court on equal terms. But the proposal 
 came too late. Events have satisfied the Q-reat 
 majority of Free Churchmen that in any conference 
 of Scottish Churches the question must be faced of 
 whether the solution of our present perplexities may 
 not be best found in disestablishment. The Estab- 
 lished Church refused to entertain that question even 
 for discussion, and hence the suspension of all nego- 
 tiation for the present. But the progress already 
 made forbids despair. In a year or two this difficulty 
 also will be got over, and a new ecclesiastical re- 
 adjustment may be made with mutual consent. 
 
 All these experiences, however, could not have 
 been gone through by this Church without its religious 
 condition being materially afifected. Not to dwell 
 upon anything else, it underwent a mighty change 
 when its ministers came to be, not appointed by 
 patrons, but elected by the people. This arrangement 
 gave it a popular standing which it did not possess 
 before, and largely explains the progress which it has 
 
264 THE CHURCHES. 
 
 recently made. We cannot doubt, too, that the 
 " candidating " which has been called forth has given 
 greater liveliness to the preaching. AVhile the efforts 
 it has had to make to defend itself against attacks, 
 and to assert what it believed to be its rights in the 
 midst of the many who were disputing them, have 
 imparted to it a conscious vigour which is inspiring it 
 with a natural confidence. 
 
 With a word of reference to two other unions we 
 must leave this subject. In 1876 the Reformed 
 Presbyterians joined the Free Church. The event 
 was one of no little interest and importance. This 
 body was not a branch of " the secession." It repre- 
 sented those who, at the Revolution Settlement, re- 
 fused to enter the new Establishment set up by 
 William and Mary. They had a good deal to say for 
 themselves. There are many now living who, if their 
 lot had been cast in those days, would, with their 
 present views, have stood by their side ; not on the 
 ground of their opposition to all Establishments, but 
 on the ground of reasonable objections to the Estab- 
 lishment which was then formed. In any case, here 
 was a stream which began an isolated and independ- 
 ent course nearly two hundred years ago, finding its 
 way at last into what it recognized as the central 
 current of the Church of Scotland. That such an 
 accession would prove infiuential for good might have 
 been anticipated, and the anticipation has been fully 
 realized. 
 
THE CHURCHES. 265 
 
 The other alliance is still in contemplation only — 
 that between the Congregational and Evangelical 
 Unions. What stands in the way of a consummation 
 is that there exists in the latter body a difference of 
 opinion as to Church government, some of its ministers 
 and members being strong Presbyterians. It is pos- 
 sible that this difficulty may be got over, because, as 
 a matter of fact, all are at this moment practically 
 Independents. But if the combination is pressed, the 
 result may be a break up of the Union, the majority 
 joining the Congregationalists, the minority asking 
 readmission into the Church out of which they were 
 originally expelled, formerly the United Secession, now 
 the United Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Other things besides efforts at mutual re-adjust- 
 ment present themselves to our notice as we look 
 back on the history of the Churches during the last 
 half-century. All of them have felt the strain of 
 the times in connection with Biblical and theological 
 inquiry. It is not very surprising that the Free 
 Church was the first to show itself sensible of the 
 strength of the new currents. While it was strong 
 in its desire to retain its traditional character as an 
 Evangelical body, it was also keenly alive to the im- 
 portance of providing a well-instructed ministry ; and 
 it is the simple fact that in no Church of its size is 
 there so thorough an equipment made for the training 
 of divinity students. 
 
266 THE CHURCHES. 
 
 Very remarkable and generous testimony to that 
 effect was borne lately, at the opening of Airedale 
 College, by the Rev. Dr. Duff, Professor of Old Testa- 
 ment Theology. " Among Presbyterian schools," he 
 said, " I may point you chiefly to the Free Church 
 Colleges, which are by far the strongest, and are 
 model schools in their way. Whenever in these 
 schools a department requires a teacher, it is always 
 possible to choose among several candidates who are 
 masterly students, enthusiastic in devotion to the 
 gospel, specialists in the particular department of 
 study, and known and honoured by thoughtful men 
 both at home and abroad. How is this condition of 
 things obtained ? Primarily by the quality of their 
 three theolosjical colles'es in Edinburgh, Glaso-ow, and 
 Aberdeen. They are taught by faculties of seven 
 strictly theological teachers in Edinburgh, six in 
 Glasgow, and four in Aberdeen, aided by large endow- 
 ments for students' scholarships The lesson of the 
 
 whole is that where thorough study is maintained 
 there are never wanting abundant theological teachers." 
 
 Such being the state of things, we repeat that it is 
 not to be wondered at that the Free Church was the first 
 in Scotland to feel the strain of the times in connection 
 with Biblical inquiry. 
 
 In 1870 a brilliant young student, who had carried 
 all before him at the university, was appointed Pro- 
 fessor of Hebrew in the Free Church College, Aber- 
 deen. His professional studies necessarily brought 
 
THE CHURCHES. 267 
 
 hiin into contact with the revohitionary school of 
 Biblical critics, who were then causing some stir in 
 Holland and Germany. It seemed to him that what 
 they had to say about the authorship and composition 
 of the books of the Old Testament had a great deal 
 of truth in it, and, without considering very seriously 
 beforehand what was likely to be the effect of his 
 reproducing with approbation the same views in Scot- 
 land, he published in the Encyclopcedia Britannica 
 an article in which the traditions of his Church were 
 deliberately set aside, and such an account given of 
 the construction of the Bible as seemed to many to 
 be inconsistent with the idea of its inspiration. 
 
 This incident became the signal for the outbreak 
 of a controversy which lasted for several years, and 
 which ended in the dismissal of the professor, Dr. 
 Robertson Smith, from his chair in 1881. 
 
 We shall not enter into the merits of the contro- 
 versy here. It is enough to say that it convulsed the 
 Church wdiile it lasted, and did not leave it quite 
 what it had been when it closed. Many supported 
 Professor Smith, not because they in the least agreed 
 with his opinions, but because they believed that the 
 ends of truth will be best served by leaving Biblical 
 science, like any other science, to work freely in its 
 own field. These distinguished between his " dis- 
 coveries " and his " speculations," and were not moved 
 from their former position in any way. But the 
 popular impression produced was not quite so innoc- 
 
268 THE CHURCHES. 
 
 uous. The Old Testament was thenceforth regarded 
 by some as not so supreme an authority as had been 
 supposed ; its contents came to be handled in a less 
 reverential manner than formerly ; and, encouraged 
 by the freer atmosphere into which they were intro- 
 duced, one and another began to plead for progress 
 also in theology. In short, the controversy brought 
 out the fact that a Broad School had grown up in 
 even the Free Church, and w^ould be found telling in 
 future in its councils.* 
 
 The Biblical controversy was in full flood in the 
 Free Church when the United Presbyterian Church 
 also was made to feel the pressure of the time. In 
 January 1877 the Rev. David Macrae, then of Gourock, 
 moved in his Presbytery for a readjustment of the re- 
 lations between his Church and the Westminster Con- 
 fession. The line which he took was to a large extent 
 the same as that along which Dr. James Morison pro- 
 ceeded in 1841. He objected to the Calvinistic 
 doctrines of election, and particular redemption, and 
 depravity, etc. ; but the point upon which he chiefly 
 insisted was that the Confession does not teach the 
 truth of Scripture on the subject of eternal punish- 
 ment. The final result of his maintaining opinions 
 in that last connection inconsistent with the teaching 
 of his Church, was that in the summer of 1879 he 
 was separated from his charge and declared to be no 
 
 * " The New Lines and the Old ; or, The Evangelical Outlook in Scot- 
 land. In some Letters from a Scot at Home to a Scot Abroad." Lon- 
 don : Nisbet and Co. 
 
THE CHURCHES. 269 
 
 longer a minister of the United Presbyterian Church. 
 But the movement which he originated was not with- 
 out its effects, and his friends did not speak altogether 
 without warrant when they described as follows the 
 course of events : — 
 
 " Mr. Macrae's speech was condemned, and his 
 motion rejected, by the Presbytery ; but the hour 
 had come for reform, and the movement could not 
 be suppressed. Within two months the Rev. Fergus 
 Ferguson had tabled a motion in the Presbytery of 
 Glasgow embodying another formidable indictment 
 against the Subordinate Standards. A few months 
 more saw the supreme court of the United Presby- 
 terian Church appointing a Revision Committee ; and 
 now, within three years of the inception of the move- 
 ment, the Declaratory Act, which registers an enor- 
 mous theological advance, is part of the creed of the 
 Church." * 
 
 We say that there was some warrant for these 
 sentences, but we would decidedly underline the word 
 8ome. The assertion tliat the Declarator}^ Act adopted 
 registered " an enormous theological advance " is an 
 enormous exaggeration. It was well that it satisfied 
 the restless spirits in the denomination and allowed 
 them to proceed with their proper work, but we are 
 certain that the Declaration is one which could have 
 been signed by such old-fashioned theologians as 
 Chalmers and M'Cheyne. How far Mr. Macrae's 
 
 -" "The Macrae Case," p. 20. Glasgow : John S. Marr and Sons. 
 
270 THE CHURCHES. 
 
 peculiar views about retribution have spread it is 
 impossible to guess. He has now for a number of 
 years been ministering to a congregation in Dundee, 
 but there have as yet appeared no signs of his having 
 attracted many disciples to himself or of his founding 
 a new sect. 
 
 The year following that which saw the end of " the 
 Macrae Case " witnessed an event which ought to 
 have produced an immensely greater sensation. That 
 was the publication of '' The Scotch Sermons," * in the 
 preface to which it was announced that they con- 
 tained specimens of " a style of preaching which in- 
 creasingly prevails amongst the clergy of the Scottish 
 (Established) Church." Among the contributors to 
 this volume were men of the highest mark in the 
 denomination, headed by the principal of one of our 
 universities and a professor of theology. It is pretty 
 plain that the authors overshot their mark. They 
 miscalculated the amount of progress which had been 
 made in their direction in the country, and the book 
 has been allowed to die. But it is a significant cir- 
 cumstance that a work in comparison with which the 
 famous " Essays and Reviews " was a temperate pro- 
 duction,-|- and in wdiich all the " heresies " of Macrae 
 and Robertson Smith are calmly assimilated, awakened 
 
 * " Scotch Sermons," 1S80. London : Macniillan and Co. 
 
 f As a sample of its advanced character we quote a sentence : — " Be- 
 tween our imrely animal avcestors and the savage who was first subdued 
 by tlie glory of the sky and the mystery of life, there was an interval as 
 great as that which separates the latter from ourselves.'' 
 
THE CHURCHES. 271 
 
 SO little anxiety and alarm in the Church from which 
 it issued, that only one of the contributors was called 
 to account for what he said, and he was rebuked very 
 mildly. We may attach too much importance to the 
 drift of this straw ; but that it means something will 
 readily be conceded, and the friends of evangelical 
 religion may well be excused if they think with a 
 little concern of the fact that two of the preachers 
 of the " Scotch Sermons " have since had intrusted to 
 them the training of candidates for the ministry.* 
 
 It is a striking testimony to the practical character 
 of the Scottish Churches that the convulsions they 
 pass through from time to time do not paralyze them. 
 After a while they go on again as before. It would 
 indeed be folly to try to believe that the movements 
 we have been describing have left no permanent marks 
 behind them. It is absolutely certain that that is 
 not the case. But whatever changes may have been 
 wrought upon their principles or position, their activ- 
 ities have never been for long interrupted, and all of 
 them are now as busy as if they had never been dis- 
 turbed. 
 
 * Professor Story of Glasgow and Principal Cunningham of St 
 Andrews. Two of the sermons were contributed by Principal Caird. 
 
CHAPTER YII. 
 
 THE MOODY AND SANKEY VISITS. 
 
 The man and his history — Arrival in England — Invited to Scotland — 
 Work in Edinburgh — In the country — Glasgow — His message — 
 Second visit — Effect on our religious environment — Brightening of 
 our song, 
 
 FEW have been honoured of God to do more 
 good work of the highest kind in the world 
 than the great American evangelist. Mr. Moody is 
 not a loquacious man. His addresses are generally 
 short. In society he is silent. He has never taken 
 the trouble to defend himself against the numerous 
 attacks that have been made upon him. And he is 
 seldom heard talking about his methods. But he is 
 a broad-shouldered, sagacious, self-possessed, capable 
 man ; and, apart from that wonderful something with 
 which he has been endowed — unction, spiritual power, 
 call it what you will — he would unquestionably have 
 told influentially on his generation. 
 
 Born at Northfield, Massachusetts, in 1837, he was 
 left fatherless at four, and, being one of a large family, 
 and poor, his early advantages were few. At seven- 
 
THE MOODY AND SANKEY VISITS. 2V3 
 
 teen he went to Boston, where, in a boot and shoe 
 shop, he showed such business capacity that his suc- 
 cess in the world seemed assured. But a great spir- 
 itual chanofe came over him in 1853, and from that 
 date his heart was given to Christian work. To find 
 more scope for his energies he moved to Chicago, and 
 there his evangelistic efforts grew to be so conspicuous 
 that he was invited to leave his secular occupation 
 and take charge of a territorial mission. 
 
 His first visit to England was paid in 1872, when 
 he attended the Mildmay Conference. What he saw 
 then awakened in him a strong desire to return, and 
 he ao-ain landed on our shores in June 1873. He 
 
 o 
 
 did not come without an invitation. Mr. Pennefather 
 had uro-ed him to return, but on his arrival he learned 
 to his sorrow that that good man had just died. At 
 the request, however, of the York Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association, he proceeded to the north of England, 
 and there, along with Mr. Sankey, who had been his 
 fellow-traveller from America, he held meetings in 
 several towns with more or less acceptance. 
 
 It was while he was in Newcastle that he was 
 heard of in Edinburgh. " Mr. Kelman of Leith," Mr. 
 Macpherson tells us * " learning from his brother, who 
 had witnessed the awakening at Newcastle, the true 
 character of the movement, was so deeply impressed 
 that he could find no rest antil he visited the scene 
 
 * "Revival and Revival Work," p. G7. By Rev. John Macpherson. 
 London : Morgan and Scott. 
 
 (110) 18 
 
274 THE MOODY AND SANKEY VISITS. 
 
 of the work and examined it for himself. The feat- 
 ures by which, on previous information, he had been 
 most struck, assumed still greater prominence under 
 personal observation. The incisive and trenchant 
 preaching of Moody, together with the intelligent 
 and impressive singing of the gospel by Sankey, 
 seemed to produce the most satisfactory spiritual re- 
 sults ; for the blessing of God, in the gracious opera- 
 tion of the Spirit, obviously rested on the work. 
 Having asked the promise of the evangelists to visit 
 Edinburgh, he returned home, and in connection with 
 Mr. [now Dr.] J. H. Wilson, minister of the Barclay 
 Church, proceeded to enlist the aid and sympathy of 
 
 the other ministers of the city In preparation for 
 
 the visit a prayer-meeting was held once a week in 
 the Craigie Hall for some time, and afterwards daily 
 in the Upper Queen Street Hall. In point of fact, 
 the awakening began here. Such was the conscious 
 nearness to God, such the sense of divine help in 
 prayer, such and so manifest the answers vouchsafed, 
 such the blending of hearts in unity and love, and 
 such the deep solemnity that rested on the meetings 
 day by day, that those who attended say it formed 
 one of the most memorable periods of life to them." 
 
 The evano'elists reached Edinburo-h on the 22nd of 
 November 1873, and it is the simple truth that they 
 had not been long there till the whole city was stirred. 
 Day after day the Free Assembly Hall and other 
 places were crowded to their utmost capacity by 
 
THE MOODY AND SAN KEY VISITS. 275 
 
 people eager to hear ; and such visible impression was 
 produced that only those who were determined to 
 disbelieve could doubt for a moment the gracious and 
 supernatural character of the work. 
 
 But the awakening was not confined to Edinburgh. 
 The news of what was occurring there brought multi- 
 tudes from all parts of the country to see for them- 
 selves. These carried back the fire, and there came 
 to be reproduced in Scotland a state of things similar 
 to that which was witnessed in America in 1858, 
 when no town or village could be entered which had 
 not its earnest prayer-meeting. 
 
 To quote again from Mr. Macpherson : — " During 
 1874 the movement, while it seemed to lose nothing 
 in point of intensity, gained in strength day by day. 
 The quietest schools were stirred, the dullest churches 
 were moved. Every sermon had its reference to the 
 work, every prayer its special burden. Every news- 
 paper had its paragraph, in which, for the most part, 
 criticism was somehow disarmed. Every traveller had 
 his story. In the train, in the busy mart, on 'Change, 
 no place was too secular, no business too pressing, no 
 company too gay, to exclude all reference to the topic 
 of the day. Everywhere the new Songs of Zion fell 
 upon your ear. The streets and highways were full 
 of earnest conversation on the work of grace and the 
 way of life. I have seen a group of children, the 
 oldest not more than twelve, eng-aged in solemn con- 
 verse upon the street, and overheard one explaining 
 
276 THE MOODY AND SANKEY VISITS. 
 
 to the rest the plan of salvation by Jesus, who died 
 for sinners." 
 
 Nor was it only Scotland which was stirred. " In 
 the great cities of England and Ireland prayer-meet- 
 ings, some of them daily, were established, so great 
 was the interest awakened. Abroad, on the Continent 
 of Europe, in America, in the West Indies, in South 
 Africa, in all the British colonies, in India, and in 
 China, men were deeply impressed by the tidings of 
 
 the revival At a meeting in Dundee, the Rev. 
 
 John Fordyce of Simla stated that when he left 
 Northern India, early in the year 1874, the dry bones 
 were stirring under the life-giving breath of the Holy 
 Spirit. When he reached Southern India, the same 
 phenomena met his eye. On going on board ship, he 
 found the spirit of earnest inquiry stirring there. On 
 reaching London, he entered a church and found a re- 
 vival in progress. At Edinburgh he witnessed the 
 heart-moving indications of the remarkable work of 
 grace. Passing northwards to Aberdeen, he found 
 the daily meeting for prayer, saints rejoicing, and 
 sinners pressing into the kingdom of God. Retiring 
 for a little to a quiet rural parish in Aberdeenshire, 
 what was his astonishment to find a spiritual awaken- 
 ing in full tide. ' Such,' he added, ' is the might of 
 the Spirit.' In all this we perceive a little instalment 
 of the great promise yet to be fulfilled in all its 
 divine vastness — ' I will pour out my Spirit upon all 
 flesh.' " 
 
THE MOODY AND SAN KEY VISITS. 277 
 
 It would be vain to attempt to follow the evan- 
 gelists in their course through the country during this 
 memorable year. Suffice it to say that they left 
 Edinburgh on the 21st of January and proceeded to 
 Dundee, where a visible blessing also attended them. 
 On February 8, they moved to Glasgow, and remained 
 a month. First, night after night the large City Hall 
 of the western metropolis was crowded. Next, the 
 Kibble Palace was secured ; but though capable of 
 seating six thousand persons, it was found too small 
 for the number of those who wished to be present. 
 One evening a special meeting was held to receive 
 young converts, when three thousand appeared, to pro- 
 fess that they had recently found the Lord. And 
 when the farewell gathering took place, as many as 
 thirty thousand assembled in and around the Palace, 
 and Mr. Moody had to speak from a carriage. Paisley, 
 Greenock, and Gourock were next visited ; and then 
 the evangelists proceeded to the north of Scotland. 
 In Aberdeen, Inverness, and elsewhere, the same signs 
 followed — God always accompanying their message 
 with demonstration of the Spirit. And when at last, 
 in the beginning of September, they crossed the Chan- 
 nel to Ireland, they left behind them the grateful con- 
 viction that they had been sent in answer to prayer, 
 and had been made the means of bringing a more 
 widespread blessing to Scotland than it had perhaps 
 ever before enjoyed. 
 
 Moody's gospel was identical with M'Cheyne's. 
 
278 THE MOODY AND SANKEY VISITS. 
 
 There was positively nothing novel about it. " The 
 three R's — Ruin by the Fall, Redemption by the 
 Cross, and Regeneration by the Holy Spirit — were 
 fully recognized and clearly taught. For man, fallen, 
 guilty, helpless, lost, there is no salvation but in the 
 grace of God. No removal of the least stain of guilt 
 but by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. From 
 the thraldom of sin there is no escape but through 
 the power of the Holy Ghost. Man's works have no 
 merit ; his wisdom, his strength, his righteousness are 
 of no avail. Every mouth is stopped before God. 
 The efficacy of the blood of Christ, the exceeding 
 glory and worth of his mediatorial sacrifice, have 
 been constantly extolled. The marvellous love of 
 God in the gift of his Son, the riches of divine grace, 
 and the omnipotence of the Father's arm in the sal- 
 vation of sinners, formed a never-ceasing theme. The 
 absolute necessity of being born again, the grace, 
 work, and power of the Holy Spirit, were both the 
 burden of frequent teaching and the burden of in- 
 cessant prayer. The holiness of God, judgment to 
 come, heaven and hell, have been set forth in the 
 light of Scripture. The sanctities of the Christian 
 life as flowing from the grace of God in the heart — 
 truth, uprightness, purity, meekness, benevolence, and 
 fruitfulness in every branch of Christian activity — have 
 
 never been overlooked The preaching of the Cross, 
 
 which to many is foolishness, was often manifestly 
 the power of God unto salvation. The simple, un- 
 
THE MOODY AND SANKEY VISITS. 279 
 
 adorned sttatement of the great Bible truth, the very- 
 heart and soul of the gospel, the atonmg sacrifice of 
 the Son of God, was reiterated Avith primitive plain- 
 ness and divine unction. The ' theology of the blood,' 
 so offensive in the ears of many, was accompanied 
 with such power that scarcely did the dog of ration- 
 alism dare to wao- its tono-ue." * 
 
 The fact is worth emphasizing : What may be 
 described on various accounts as one of the most re- 
 markable general awakenings which Scotland has 
 experienced throughout all its religious history, arose 
 and was maintained in connection with the preaching 
 of the theology of the Westminster Confession. 
 
 The visit of 1874 was not the only one which Moody 
 and Sankey paid to this country. They returned 
 some years afterwards (in 1881) by special invitation. 
 But although much good was then done by them, the 
 impression produced and the fruit gathered were not 
 to be compared with those which attended their earlier 
 labours. In the former case, the stream sprang, as it 
 were, naturally, as from a fountain ; in the latter, it 
 appeared, so far, as the result of mechanical arrange- 
 ment, "f* 
 
 * "Eevival and Revival Work," pp. 134, 135. 
 
 + Perhaps some readers may think that this is hardly a just account ot 
 the character of the second visit, and we gladly append a note addressed 
 to us by Professor Simpson of Edinburgh. " It all the tune," he writes, 
 " seemed to me as if we had never got quite ready for him, or got 
 wakened up here to help. Perhaps it was partly because Mr. Moody set 
 to work in a different way. The first time, he went up and down the 
 town to different congregations, and from each some were gathered and 
 set to work. The last time, he kept to the Assembly Hall and the Corn 
 
280 THE MOODY AND SANKEY VISITS. 
 
 By the two visits, however, our whole religious 
 condition has been affected. Evangelistic work has 
 now become a habit in all the churches, and it is no 
 longer an exceptional and extraordinary thing to hear 
 of " missions," or weeks of meetings, or to be told that 
 in such and such localities there have been revivals. 
 It is even asserted by some that there is a risk of 
 this mode of Christian work being overdone. Men 
 have become evangelists who had little fitness for the 
 office ; services, providing entertainment rather than 
 edification, have been preferred to the sober worship 
 of the sanctuary ; and a taste has been created which, 
 if it is too much fostered, may end in a demand that 
 the Church shall be reformed after the model of the 
 Salvation Army. But these are only the excrescences 
 of a movement which has imparted to our whole 
 organization more life and activity and effectiveness, 
 and given an immense impulse to spiritual religion. 
 
 Exchange, and there were probably many more gathered in from the 
 class among which Carrubbers Close Mission is doing so much good. 
 But there was not nearly so much stir in the Christian community, nor 
 did there seem to be so many started out on the Christian enterprise, as 
 at first visit. But, you remember, he gave Glasgow a longer visit. The 
 workers there had got themselves ready to help him, and I always have 
 the impression that the kind of rescue work that was done in Glasgow 
 was greater than anything that had been previously done. And you 
 must bear in mind that London got the best of him in that last visit. I 
 think he worked all the u-inter of 1882-83 there, taking one part of the 
 city after another. It was at that time tliat the Studds and some of that 
 class got wakened up, and his visits to Oxford and Cambridge had to do 
 with the movement that afterwards began among the students, and Avhich 
 by-and-by touched us when Smith and Studd came three years ago. I 
 suppose you know that Drummond learned his evangelism from Moody, 
 and the two men have an intense love and admiration for each other. " 
 
THE MOODY AND SAN KEY VISITS. 281 
 
 Especially do we owe to the Moody movement the 
 brightening of our service of song. Sankey's hymns 
 may not be of unfathomable depth, and accomplished 
 singers may scoff at them and say that you soon get 
 to the end of the best of them. But this is undeni- 
 able, that they have gone to the hearts of the great 
 mass of our Christian people, and that they have 
 largely helped to cherish the life which the movement 
 was the means of conveying. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 The Americanizing of our religious methods —Professor Drummond — 
 His experience and question — His mode of preaching the gospel — Its 
 wisdom suspected— The " soul" and the " life" — The dynamic power 
 of Christ — Old and new evangelism. 
 
 W 
 
 E have .said that it is no longer an uncommon 
 
 •& 
 
 thing to hear o£ a work of oTace g-oino- on 
 in this part of the country and the other. Scotland 
 in that respect has come to resemble America, where 
 local revivals are incidents of constant experience. We 
 are warranted to believe that the change thus implied 
 has been on the whole a beneficial one. It does not, 
 indeed, follow that in those days Avhen there was little 
 outward excitement, and no inquiry-rooms, and no 
 protracted meetings, and no professed evangelists, con- 
 versions were few and the power of religion feeble. 
 Our Church history tells a different story. God has 
 always had a people among us who were prepared to 
 testify and suffer for his sake. We do well also to 
 remember what a wise American divine, the late Dr. 
 Alexander of Princeton, has said. "It has occurred to 
 
RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 283 
 
 me," he remarks — "and I have heard the same sentiment 
 from some of the most judicious and pious men that I 
 have known — that there must be a state of the Church 
 preferable to these temporary excitements, which are 
 too often followed by a deplorable state of declension 
 and disgraceful apathy and inactivity. Why not aim 
 at having a continuous lively state of piety, and an 
 increasing progress in the conversion of the impeni- 
 tent, without these dreadful seasons of deadness and 
 indifference ? Why may we not hope for such a state 
 of increasing prosperity in the Church that revivals 
 shall be no longer needed ; or, if you prefer the ex- 
 pression, when there shall be a perpetual revival ?" 
 
 At the same time, the testimony which comes to us 
 from America, with reference to the value of these 
 special times of refreshing, is far too weighty and 
 suggestive to be disregarded. 
 
 No name has a more honourable place in the re- 
 cords of relictions life in the New World than that of 
 the late Bishop M'llvaine of Ohio, and here is what 
 he says : " Whatever I possess in religion, began in a 
 revival ; and the most precious, steadfast, and vigor- 
 ous fruits of my ministry have been the fruits of re- 
 vivals." 
 
 " But for revivals," writes another minister, Dr. 
 Porter, a Congregationalist — " but for revivals, as it 
 seems to me, the Church would well-nigh have ceased 
 to exist, or have lost her distinctive character in the 
 spirit of the world." 
 
284 RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 " It has been remarked," says Dr. Sprague,* " by a 
 rainister who has probably been more conversant with 
 genuine revivals than any other of his age, that his 
 experience has justified the remark that there is a 
 smaller proportion of apostasies among the professed 
 subjects of revivals than among those who make a 
 profession when there is no unusual attention to 
 religion." 
 
 " If I were asked," says Dr. Baird,*!- " why revivals 
 are so frequent in America and so rare in Europe, my 
 first answer would be, that Christians on our side of 
 the Atlantic expect them, and on the other they do 
 not expect them. These seasons of 'refreshing from 
 on high' are part of the blessing that rested on our 
 fathers ; and the events of the last forty years espe- 
 cially have taught us that if we seek their continuance 
 in the spirit of those with whom they commenced, we 
 shall never seek in vain. Nor is there anything to 
 confine them within our own borders. They have 
 been carried by our missionaries to a number of 
 Indian tribes. Our stations in Ceylon have been re- 
 peatedly visited with the efifusions of the Holy Spirit, 
 and the Sandwich Islands, in 1839—40, were favoured 
 with one of the most glorious dispensations of divine 
 grace that the world has ever witnessed." 
 
 We have then no cause to regret that our liabits 
 have so far been Americanized. 
 
 * "Lectures on Revivals." 
 
 + " Religion in America." By Robert Baird. New York : Harpers. 
 
RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 285 
 
 But the very fact that revivals have now, if we 
 may so say, become naturalized among us, renders it 
 unnecessary that we should dwell particularly on all 
 our more recent spiritual experiences. Though in 
 various towns — Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, 
 for example — and in connection with different evan- 
 gelists, movements have taken place which in other 
 days would have awakened widespread interest and 
 attention, none of them have presented any feature 
 that was novel, and to repeat the story of them would 
 be simply monotonous. 
 
 One work of grace, however, occurring since Mr. 
 Moody's visit, must not be thus passed by in a sen- 
 tence. We refer to the movement among the students 
 of our universities. Those who have been directinor 
 
 o 
 
 it have rather shunned than courted publicity, and 
 our information about it is not very perfect. But it 
 is understood that the interest was first awakened by 
 the addresses of the Cambridge men, Studd and Smith, 
 whose manliness was vouched for by their reputation 
 as athletes, and who spoke to their fellows in a frank 
 and downright way without (as was said) the "whine" 
 of the professional evanf^elist. The impression they 
 produced was followed up by several of the professors 
 in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and by other like-minded 
 men of earnestness and culture, who saw in the open- 
 ing an opportunity to preach the gospel specially to 
 the educated classes. 
 
 Among those who took a lead in this effort to 
 
286 RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 reach the students, Professor Drummond of the Free 
 Church College, Glasgow, was conspicuous. He had 
 for long taken an interest in evangelistic work ; he 
 was known to be the author of a work which has 
 had an enormous circulation ; and while his speech 
 was choice in respect of literary form, it was seasoned 
 with the salt of that unction which gives to religious 
 appeals their spiritual power. His own proper sphere 
 was Glasgow ; but it was in Edinburgh that his in- 
 fluence proved greatest and his gathered fruit most 
 abundant. Sabbath after Sabbath he addressed large 
 audiences, of students only, in the Oddfellows' Hall, 
 and every night numbers of inquirers remained behind 
 to be further guided. From this place as a centre, 
 deputations went forth to visit the other university 
 seats ; and although we have no means of knowing 
 the numerical results, we have reason to believe that 
 the number of the converts, especially in the depart- 
 ment of medicine, was very considerable. 
 
 What is of peculiar interest in this connection is, 
 that Professor Drummond thinks he has had some 
 new light shed by his experiences on the subject of 
 evangelization. He has not, indeed, been in haste to 
 obtrude his views on the Church. We have learned 
 more of what he thinks about things from America 
 than from any discourses of his here. But upon one 
 point he has spoken in his own city. When Dr. 
 Joseph Parker was in Glasgow in the winter of 
 1886—7, a conference took place in which methods 
 
RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 287 
 
 of Christian work were discussed. Mr. Drummond's 
 name was not on the programme, but he was present ; 
 and Dr. Marshall Lang, who was in the chair, invited 
 him to say a few words. He accepted the invitation, 
 but stated he would only ^mention a fact and ask a 
 question. The fact was this, that in his large ex- 
 perience of recent revival movements the deep convic- 
 tions of sin lohich characterized former revivals were 
 not apparent ; and the question was, Was it because 
 the Holy Spirit had changed his mode of operation? 
 
 Professor Drummond did not answer his own 
 question, but that he would have replied in the affirm- 
 ative, if he had been pressed, may be assumed from 
 the method in which he has been presenting the gos- 
 pel. He has not, as we understand, preached the law ; 
 he has not sought very specially to arouse his hearers 
 to a sense of guilt ; he has not tried to awaken in them 
 a feeling of alarm about their souls ; he has not dwelt 
 on the wrath to come, or on the attractions of heaven. 
 But finding men unhappy, dissatisfied, and ignorant of 
 what they need, he has held up Christ before them as 
 their rest, and his service as the noblest they could 
 engage in. " The commonest phrase in all his ad- 
 dresses to young men," one of his greatest friends tells 
 us, " is ' your life! He is always speaking to them 
 about their ' life,' when other preachers speak to 
 people about their ' souls.' {Xote, in the New Testa- 
 ment these words are interchangeable.) He makes 
 young men feel that their life (that is, the time they 
 
288 RELIGIOUS INTEREST IX THE UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 are to live through, and what it is filled with) is a 
 great thing, — in fact, the one precious and priceless 
 thing they have to deal with. They may squander 
 it, or they may make it a great gift to God and the 
 world ; and accordingly as they do the one or the 
 other, it will be either a hurtful or a beneficent influ- 
 ence added to the whole of human history. Christ 
 and the devil (or Christ and the world — Christ and 
 self) are competing which is to get this gift from every 
 one ; and Drummond says, Give it to Christ. Instead 
 of saying to men, 'You have sinned,' he gets the 
 advantage of fresh phraseology by speaking of their 
 ' bad past,' or telling them they know they are losing 
 their ' life.' Instead of speaking of sanctification, he 
 bids them look forward to a big, satisfying, influential 
 life. The means by which this change from the old 
 to the new life takes place is by contact with Christ, 
 who cleanses, rehabilitates, and sustains the life. 
 Drummond is very strong on the necessity of re- 
 generation, and preaches Christ with great warmth 
 and power as the Friend in whose fellowship moral 
 and spiritual strength is obtained. No one, I should 
 imagine, has read as much as I have of the criticism 
 which has been poured forth against his book ; and 
 this I venture to say with perfect certainty, that the 
 reproach he has had to bear from all his really able 
 opponents is simply the reproach of believing fully in 
 the evangelical doctrine of the new birth. The read- 
 ing of these criticisms has been quite a revelation to 
 
RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 289 
 
 me as to the extent to which this doctrine is dis- 
 believed and despised by able men in the Churches 
 supposed to be evangelical." 
 
 At Mr. Moody's conference during the past autumn 
 (1887), no one was so welcome a guest as Professor 
 Drummond. Many other distinguished men were 
 there, but all were made to give way to the Scottish 
 evanofelist ; and on one occasion, at least, while the rest 
 of the speakers were restricted as to time, Mr. Drum- 
 mond was told he might speak all night if he chose. Mr. 
 Moody is much too cautious a man to commit himself 
 hastily to a new proposition, and we have not seen 
 or heard what he thought of the question raised in 
 Glasgow. But Mr. Sankey is less reticent, and we 
 have been told that he made no secret of his inclin- 
 ing to believe that the Holy Spirit has changed in 
 our day his mode of operation ; and that while for- 
 merly those who became concerned about religion felt 
 that they were down in a miry pit, now, in similar 
 circumstances, people rather feel themselves looking 
 up to an ideal far above them, which they cannot 
 reach till Christ lifts them up to it. 
 
 We have anything but a disposition to examine 
 Professor Drummond's views and methods in a criti- 
 cal spirit. We know, because we have felt, that a 
 spiritual power accompanies his preaching. We know, 
 also, in the directest way — from the testimony of 
 those who have been brought to Christ by his means 
 — that for some, at any rate, his mode of presenting 
 
 (no) 19 
 
290 RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 the gospel was the most suitable. At the same time, 
 we have in the movement which he represents a 
 novelty in Scottish evangelism, and it would not be 
 just not to give it serious consideration. 
 
 Well, the first thing that occurs to us to say is 
 that it appears much too large a deduction even to 
 suggest as capable of being drawn from the experience 
 of a single movement, that the Holy Ghost has changed 
 in our time his modes of operation. Neander, in the 
 Introduction to his Church History, brings out in a 
 striking way at how many points in the Greek and 
 Koman and Jewish worlds Christianity met the needs 
 and aspirations of men ; and it is not surprising that, 
 since " in Christ all the rays of an ideal excellence 
 are concentrated " — and this was the aspect in which 
 Professor Drummond delighted to present the gospel 
 — he should have found a response in the hearts of 
 many young men just starting on their career as 
 students. As another professor, who saw much of 
 this work, puts it : " He got alongside a class who 
 had never been effectively evangelized before. The 
 young fellows have, of course, been in the way of 
 hearing gospel addresses, but only from men of whom 
 they think that it was their business, or had become 
 their ' fad,' to preach. But now they heard the same 
 kind of language to which they are accustomed in 
 their class-rooms. I have never heard anything in all 
 his meetings that was inconsistent with anything that 
 I know of the truth as it is in Jesus ; but he pur- 
 
BELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 291 
 
 posely kept off the use of phrases which many of his 
 hearers had set down in their minds as cant expres- 
 sions." This fresh style of presenting the truth was 
 naturally fitted to interest. 
 
 Is it not possible, however, that if with equal 
 earnestness and power he had spoken of sin and 
 judgment to come, he would have touched at least as 
 many hearts, and brought as many to the Saviour ? 
 And if that had been the result, there would have been 
 just as little occasion as in the other case to speak of 
 the experience as indicative of a fixed habit in the 
 method of the divine administration. There have 
 always been " diversities of operation," and the variety 
 which Professor Drummond has observed marks no 
 suspension that we can see in the common law. 
 
 We confess to having even a little more difiiculty 
 about the form in which Professor Drummond ap- 
 peals to the unconverted. His use of the word 
 " life " instead of " soul " is, of course, perfectly 
 legitimate. The one term is as scriptural as the 
 other. And it is a most reasonable and searching 
 question which he is in the habit of putting when he 
 asks about our " bad past " (that is, our unprofitable 
 past), and whether we intend to use our potentialities 
 for the future in a like miserable way. But in 
 listening to him the feeling is sometimes produced 
 that he is seeking to make us think of sin rather as 
 a mean thing, an unworthy thing, an ignoble thing, 
 a something with which nobody would wish to have to 
 
292 RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 do who had any self-respect, than as an offence against 
 a just and holy God ; and that thus he is uncon- 
 sciously playing into the hands of those very " ra- 
 tional " relio'ious teachers who are for ever insistino: 
 that to thmk about a world to come is a waste of 
 energy, and that what alone concerns us is to attend 
 to our duties here. We say " unconsciously," because 
 we are assured, in the most emphatic way, that he 
 does not himself minimise the hopes and fears of the 
 world to come. The life he calls to is always 
 urgently shown to be the Eternal Life that will 
 outlast this creation. We are considering here, how- 
 ever, the question of whether the plan adopted by him 
 is one to be recommended in these times for general 
 imitation. And that we doubt for various reasons. 
 
 Sin is a mean thing, most certainly, and it is one 
 way to produce " conviction " to make that felt. It 
 is also true that to use well (in the highest sense) our 
 "life " here is the best preparation for the life to 
 come. But nobody who knows anything about the 
 religious literature of our time can help being aware 
 of what has ao;ain and again followed from a too 
 exclusive presentation of this aspect of sin, and from 
 the tendency to underrate as factors in our life the 
 hopes and fears that are inspired by the thought of 
 an eternity. 
 
 So strangely subtle are the workings of the human 
 heart that in some of those who have been moved by 
 appeals to live a noble life there have sprung up, 
 
RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 293 
 
 alonof with a certain amount of humiliation for the 
 past, the weeds of a hurtful self-righteousness. For 
 have they not, they ask, some cause to congratulate 
 themselves that they have had that in them which 
 has responded to such appeals ? These may be ex- 
 treme cases ; but this is not uncommon, that men 
 who have seen sin chiefly as ignoble have been slow 
 to feel it as guilt in the sight of God, deserving of 
 his wrath and curse, and needing an atonement, and 
 have, as a matter of fact, become content to remain, 
 though in a higher sense, citizens of the world. 
 
 Here, for example, is how one of the contributors 
 to the " Scotch Sermons " puts it : — " To whatever 
 world death introduces you, the best conceivable pre- 
 paration for it is to labour for the highest good of 
 the world in which you live. Be the change which 
 death brings what it may, he who has spent his life 
 in trying to make this world better can never be 
 unprepared for another." 
 
 It was our hap once to sojourn for a little in the 
 parish of one who, in his ministry, had harped con- 
 stantly on that string. He had just left his country 
 charge for a city ; but he had left behind him a very 
 definite reputation, and one of the things confidently 
 said about him was that he had taught from the iml- 
 pit that there is no immortality. This we could not 
 believe, and we sought for an explanation, which 
 was given with perfect confidence by an intelligent 
 parishioner. It was to this efiect, — that he had 
 
294 RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 spoken so continually of making the best of the 
 present life, and had so studiously avoided reference 
 to the soul and introducing considerations drawn 
 from a world to come, that his people had arrived at 
 the conclusion that in his opinion there was no world 
 to come at all. 
 
 We fancy that we see the like drift in the account 
 more recently given by one young minister — and 
 given with apparent approbation — of the preaching of 
 a contemporary : — 
 
 " He had a clear conception of the gospel," are his 
 words, " as the divine method of helping men to live 
 the life of Christian manhood in this world. His 
 mission was to teach people to trust in God and do 
 the riofht throuo^h Jesus Christ the Saviour." 
 
 We know that Professor Drummond's conception of 
 reliofion is a far hio^her one than this, and that the life 
 which he asks young men to consecrate to Christ is one 
 whose sphere is commensurate with their immortality. 
 But believing, as we do, that to move a man to walk 
 worthy of God in this world, it is necessary for him 
 to bear in mind the judgment and its issues, and to 
 " look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder 
 and maker is God," we think with some doubt of the 
 proposed change of phraseology, and have no con- 
 fidence that o^ood would come of Professor Drum- 
 mond's method in this connection being generally 
 adopted. 
 
 On two points Mr. Drummond insists with uncom- 
 
RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 295 
 
 promising earnestness — namely, the necessity of regen- 
 eration, and that the new life is to be received only 
 through personal dealing Avith Christ. His belief in 
 reference to the first of these positions has been 
 mightily strengthened by his scientific inquiries. He 
 has found it to be true in the natural world that for 
 any creature to pass up into a higher kingdom than 
 that to which it belongs, there is needed direct divine 
 intervention ; and this natural law he is taught by 
 Scripture to trace in the spiritual world also. " Ye 
 must he horn again," therefore — which to so many 
 philosophers has appeared a figure or a bit of trans- 
 cendentalism — is to him a scientific verity. 
 
 There is some ground, however, for saying that his 
 science has been occasionally a source of embarrass- 
 ment to him. Whether it is true or not, about the 
 whole argument of his book, that he has sought to 
 prove identity where there is only analogy, this is 
 certainly true, that his familiarity with scientific pro- 
 cesses has sometimes affected in curious ways his 
 opinions on religious questions. 
 
 For example, on asking one who had heard him 
 frequently, and who is himself an accomplished theo- 
 logian, on what Professor Drummond appeared to him 
 to depend for producing spiritual impressions, we 
 received at once the unhesitating reply, " On the 
 dynamic poiuer of Christ.'' " Do you mean," we 
 inquired, " the attraction lying in his character ?" " Far 
 more than that," was the answer : " he evidently 
 
296 RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 believes that in holding up Christ he is putting in 
 the way of being used a divine force which acts with 
 a mysterious energy on the souls of men." 
 
 The remarkable language we have quoted was not 
 Professor Drummond's own ; the influence exerted on 
 him by his scientific habits was in this case only 
 noticed by a hearer. But there was a curious illus- 
 tration of the same sort of thing we are now noticing 
 in one of his American experiences. The question 
 was raised of how a certain class of evangelists could 
 be better employed than they were, and his theory 
 was that their place was not the church, or the as- 
 sembly room, or the street, but the cellar, in which, 
 after the manner of a battery, they could help to 
 generate the spiritual force that was required outside. 
 Here, too, the power of the " natural law in the spir- 
 itual world" was plainly felt — the divine something 
 which converts have, being to him a species of heavenly 
 electricity. 
 
 Nothing can be said against the legitimacy of the 
 similitude. It is one which has been often employed 
 in the pulpit, and has served there once and again a 
 useful purpose. There is, indeed, a mystical power in 
 Christ, to the reality of which all true believers can 
 testify. More than that, we are strongly persuaded 
 that if Professor Drummond's method in this connec-. 
 tion were more followed in some respects our preach- 
 ing would be more fruitful. " He differs," writes one 
 who has heard him often, " from a good many of his 
 
RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES. 297 
 
 fellow-preachers — and I think it is a great part of his 
 power — in 'preaching Christ, while they preach about 
 Christ. He insists (I think this is his favourite quo- 
 tation) that it is Eternal Life to hnoiv the Father and 
 the Son. They too often are satisfied if tliey get 
 their hearers to know something about Christ's person 
 and work." But there is withal an obvious danger 
 attendant on the undue use of such analogies. 
 
 One is a temptation to forget, that what corresponds 
 to electric force in the natural world is not something 
 that resides as a quality or attribute in Christ, but 
 is the personal influence of the Holy Ghost ; and an- 
 other is a tendency to lose sight of the fact that sav- 
 ing faith is not merely an attraction of the soul to 
 Christ, like the irresistible gravitation of a smaller 
 body to a larger, but is an intelligent apprehension and 
 assurance of the fact that in Christ all our needs are 
 satisfactorily met. 
 
 Professor Drummond is not one who sympathizes 
 with the sneers which have been directed against 
 " theology." That science, like other sciences, may be 
 abused. Things may be assumed in it to have been 
 discovered which are still unknown, and among its 
 " dogmas " may be propositions which are only half 
 truths at the best. But, after all, it is a science— a 
 science with a noble sphere, and one which we must 
 know something of if we are to have any rest.^ As 
 reasoning beings, we can never be satisfied with a 
 Saviour whose " dynamic power " only we have felt. 
 
298 RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN THE UNIVERSITIES, 
 
 We must know all that can be known about him. 
 For the satisfaction of our intellects, not to speak of 
 our consciences, we must be told what he has clone 
 as our Saviour, and lioiu that meets oiiv case. It is 
 not his person alone that requires to be presented to a 
 sinner, it is his luorh. And impossible, for example, 
 as it may be to explain all about the atonement, 
 some theory of the atonement is indispensable, since 
 it is not easy to conceive of a convinced sinner com- 
 ing to have an intelligible peace apart from it. 
 
 That Professor Drummond holds and proclaims the 
 fundamentals is certain ; and it is just as certain that 
 the fruits of his work are genuine. But we should 
 be sorry to hear of the old methods being forsaken 
 for trust in " the dynamic power of Christ." That 
 power we know to be nothing but the power of the 
 Holy Spirit. The existence of that other agent, with 
 a free will of his own, may easily come to be lost 
 sight of ; and in place of the Spirit's work in persuad- 
 ing and enabling sinners to embrace Jesus Christ as 
 he is freely offered to us in the gospel, there may 
 come, in an unenlightened age, to be recognized a sort 
 of magical force acting upon the soul ex opere operato. 
 
 In favour of the old methods we have a long- 
 succession of testimonies from Pentecost downward, 
 and we have seen no sufficient cause as yet to recom- 
 mend a general resort to new expedients. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 Changed aspect of the country — Our better prospects — Mr. Spurgeon's 
 concern — Ethical preaching — Professor Story — The old gospel — 
 Bishop E.yle. 
 
 ^^ INGE fifty years ago a very noticeable change 
 ^.^^ has taken place on the ecclesiastical aspect of 
 the country. To take but one locality. In the parish 
 we know best there were in 1837 the parish church 
 and a chapel of ease, along with two Secession con- 
 Gfregations, one belonoino- to the Relief, the other to 
 the Old Light Anti-Burghers. Now, in 1887, there are 
 three Established churches, four Free churches, two 
 United Presbyterian churches, one Baptist congrega- 
 tion, one Evangelical Union, one Wesleyan Methodist, 
 one Original Secession, and one of the Salvation 
 Army. The population has, of course, grown, but not 
 by any means to such an extent as to require so im- 
 mense an enlargement of accommodation. 
 
 In some respects this is rather a disheartening 
 picture, suggesting as it does that sectarianism is 
 rampant among us, and that energies are being ex- 
 
300 THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 pended in civil conflicts which ought to be directed 
 against the common enemy. But there are considera- 
 tions which help so far to reconcile us to the state of 
 things described. In the first place, it is plain that so 
 many religious societies could not have been formed 
 and so many new churches built without the presence 
 of a great deal of life and earnestness. Secondly, 
 although there are numerous interests, or "causes/' in 
 the district, giving legitimate scope to the predilec- 
 tions of individuals, there continues to be but one 
 main stream, the Presbyterian — running meanwhile, 
 indeed, in three channels, but these promising ere very 
 long to coalesce. And thirdly, almost all the bodies 
 named have so much in common that their members 
 work together with immensely less of any feeling of 
 disharmony than is experienced in the different schools 
 of the Church of England. 
 
 Of course it is to be lamented that there is such a 
 waste of energy going on in the land. In not a few 
 places one church would better meet the wants of the 
 inhabitants than the three which are provided ; and it 
 is melancholy to think that here and there all over the 
 country men of ability are to be found who are either 
 breaking their hearts under the pressure of contracted 
 spheres, or, worse still, sinking into lethargy and in- 
 difference. But all the same, the former days were 
 not better than these. What has been said of Eng- 
 land is far more true of Scotland. " Though devoted 
 pastoral work was far from uncommon in 1837, no 
 
THE OUTLOOK. 301 
 
 one will deny that it is indefinitely more common, 
 more thorough, more sound, in 1887. The great 
 towns have been divided up into parishes of compara- 
 tively manageable size ; and though the increase of 
 population still defies our efforts to overtake it, a 
 visible impression has yet been made on vast human 
 hives like Leeds, and even on the most densely 
 crowded and impoverished quarters of London. The 
 standard of clerical activity has been greatly raised, 
 and the sense of pastoral duty immensely quickened."* 
 Before 1887 the people of Glasgow had seen in St. 
 John's, and elsewhere, how, under the inspiration of 
 men like Chalmers, congregations might become hives 
 of religious industry ; and the example thus set was 
 being slowly followed elsewhere. But it was later 
 that the work began in the West Port and in the 
 Wynds, and later still that the habit came to be 
 formed in all living cono^reo^ations of seekino- to tell 
 on the waste places around them. Fifty years ago 
 there were many Scottish parishes in which there 
 were no Sabbath schools, no Youno- Men's Christian 
 Associations, no layman capable of taking part in a 
 relioious meeting, and in which no interest was taken 
 by a single person in the evangelization of the world. 
 Now a spirit of religious activity pervades more or 
 less the whole land ; and although the power of the 
 world has also grown stronger, and sin abounds, and 
 the number of the non-church-going continues to be 
 * " An Ecclesiastical Retrospect." From the Guardian of June 23, 1887. 
 
302 THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 appalling, we have not a doubt that the prospects of 
 Christianity in Scotland are at this moment far more 
 hopeful than they were at the beginning of the half- 
 century. 
 
 The one thing which is causing anxiety is the 
 character of our modern preaching. If there is any 
 truth in the forebodings of Mr. Spurgeon in regard 
 to England, we cannot expect that we in Scotland 
 shall be able entirely to escape the sweep of the tide. 
 What he fears, evidently, is that there is coming over 
 us in this country a blight similar to that which 
 extino'uished for a time the Puritanism of New Eno-- 
 land. We hope and believe that these apprehensions 
 will not be realized. But in regard to the question 
 of fact whether there is or not a current the ten- 
 dency of which is away from Evangelicalism, it 
 appears to us that a great many words might have 
 been spared if the contending parties had come to an 
 agreement beforehand as to what could be recog- 
 nized as Evangelicalism. Dr. Clifford of London, in 
 an able address on " The Religious Life of England 
 during the Reign of Queen Victoria," speaks of a 
 return to Christ as one of the features of the age. 
 " Patent," he says, " to all of us stand out certain 
 indisputable gains ; the years are full of decided, 
 widespread, and unmistakable progress toward the 
 divine ideal presented in Christ Jesus." Now, in a 
 sense, that is absolutely true. In no earlier period 
 did there appear so many Lives of Christ, and never 
 
THE OUTLOOK. 303 
 
 has it been so common as of late for all sorts of earnest 
 men to speak well of him. If, therefore, you consent 
 to concede the title of " Evangelical " to all teachers in 
 whose systems a chief place is given to Christ, then 
 it is far from being true that Evangelicalism is decay- 
 ing. But Mr. Spurgeon understands the term in the 
 traditional, or, as we may fairly put it, the received 
 sense ; and if we accept his definition of the position, 
 it is simply undeniable that the drift, in England at 
 least, is away from it, — one very significant proof of 
 this being furnished by the circumstance that in cer- 
 tain circles the title of " Evangelical" has become as 
 distasteful as the title Protestant is to the Anglicans.* 
 
 * Since writing the above we have met the following sentences in a 
 letter addressed by a well-known Congregational minister, the Kev. 
 Henry Batchelor, to the Nonconformist. He refers to the correspondence 
 called forth by Mr. Spurgeon's warnings about the " Doiongrade." 
 " One thing is apparent in this correspondence— namely, that we had 
 better drop such epithets as ' Evangelical,' * Puritan gospel,' and such 
 like. They are being used to cover and accredit various departures from 
 the gospel of Christ. Men are anxious to retain the name when they 
 have parted company with the essence of what the name has always de- 
 noted. The time has come when men should proclaim what they beheve, 
 and let it be tested by the Word of God alone. The old designations 
 mean nothing, and can be stretched or contracted to any dimensions. 
 Even Dr. Mackennal, chairman of the Union, says, 'I use the word 
 Evangelical in a broad sense. I do not think the forensic idea of justifi- 
 cation, for example, would be welcome. But I am persuaded that our 
 people generally regard Christ as the medium of the forgiveness of their 
 sins.' Dr. Mackennal's ' broad ' is a different ' broad' from that of many 
 others. To the extent to which a ' forensic justification ' is unwelcome, it is 
 all the worse for ' our people.' This confession involves a great deal more 
 than it avows. It implies a foregone reconstruction of our Saviour's whole 
 redeeming work. When our Lord has been reduced to the * medium of 
 the forgiveness of sins,' in some vague and indefinite manner, a man has 
 so far lost his hold on the gospel as set forth by its insinred expositors. To 
 employ old names any longer is only playing a game at hide-and-seek. 
 It is one of the infelicities of times of transition from better to worse." 
 
304 THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 Confining our attention, however, to Scotland, it 
 will, we think, hardly be denied by any one who 
 has been watching the currents here, that the exclu- 
 sively evangelistic preaching which prevailed for a 
 time has had the effect of producing a reaction. 
 Those who were most forward in revival work knew 
 perfectly well what the evangelical system in all its 
 length and breadth required, and they did not forget 
 to insist upon personal holiness as an essential in the 
 Christian life. But there have always been men who 
 have shown themselves incompetent to comprehend 
 the gospel and its influences, and these in their fear 
 for morality have fled from what they regarded as 
 Antinomianism into the arms of legality. This alarm 
 for righteousness has undoubtedly led to the appear- 
 ance, even in most unexpected places, of a species of 
 Neo-Moderatism. The grace of God in these quarters 
 has ceased to be very prominently proclaimed, justi- 
 fication by faith is seldom heard of, little mention 
 is made of pardon through the blood of Christ, and 
 only far-away references are heard to such things as 
 regeneration and conversion. On the other hand, the 
 beauty of a good life is much enlarged upon, and the 
 impression is conveyed that Christian congregations, 
 as a rule, are already within the Wicket Gate, and 
 only need a little guidance to get safely to the Celes- 
 tial City. 
 
 To see the kind of thing into which this style of 
 preaching has developed, the " Scotch Sermons " are 
 
THE OUTLOOK. 305 
 
 well worth studying. One of these, by Professor 
 Story, is on " Christian Righteousness." In it he 
 deliberately sweeps aside with scorn the teaching of 
 his own Confession in regard to a sinner's justifica- 
 tion, and virtually insists that every man must be his 
 own Redeemer. 
 
 " If," says he, " I am honest in my desire to live 
 the life of Christ, it is nothing to me to be told that 
 his righteousness shall be imputed to me. Nay, were 
 it so imputed, it would be a hindrance in my way. 
 I should be inclined to say : Do not reckon that 
 mine which is not mine. Do not call me righteous 
 who am still unrighteous. Do not tempt me to 
 think I have learned or done or suffered enough. I 
 could go on unto perfection. I would know Christ 
 and nothing of his righteousness except as I see it in 
 Him, and try day by day to work it out in my own 
 
 self till he is formed in me the hope of glory If 
 
 I am wrongfully accused and brought to the bar of 
 the Lord, I do not wish to get off with a verdict of 
 Not 'proven. I wish to be discharged on full evidence 
 that I am Not guilty." 
 
 We must respect the anxiety displayed by the 
 writer of these sentences to prevent people from 
 thinking lightly of the great business of their personal 
 sanctification ; but we confess we are incapable of 
 sympathizing with his satisfaction in the prospect of 
 standing in his own virtue at the bar of God ! 
 
 But has this kind of preaching ceased ? It appears 
 (110) 20 
 
306 THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 not. A writer in an English magazine* tells that 
 during last summer he paid a visit to the cathe- 
 dral of St. Giles in Edinburgh, and heard a sermon 
 on the text, '* God is love ; and he that dwelleth in 
 God dwelleth in love." " The text," says the stranger, 
 " might have been chosen for the purpose of showing 
 how possible it is to preach with taste and eloquence 
 on the most glorious revelation of the divine grace 
 without introducing even a passing reference to the 
 work of redemption. It was a whittling away of 
 the distinctive truths of the gospel. There were 
 striking thoughts, expressed in chaste and eloquent 
 language, as to the power of love in the common 
 universal relations of life, and the chief object of the 
 preacher apparently was to show that he who cul- 
 tivated a loving spirit in these, dwelt in God and God 
 in him. There was nothing to remind men that they 
 were sinners, and that God had shown his love to 
 them in the unspeakable Gift. This was the preach- 
 ing of a popular preacher in the great church of the 
 Establishment." 
 
 A similar impression w^as produced on another 
 English visitor, w^ho happened to worship in a church 
 in the west. " The sermon," he says, " taught, or 
 seemed to teach, that Christ's chief end in coming 
 here was to make men happy all round, and that our 
 whole duty is to go and do likewise." 
 
 Nor is this style of preaching confined to one de- 
 
 * The Con(/rc(jationaI Rcvieio, for October 1887. 
 
THE OUTLOOK. 307 
 
 nomination. A minister of the Free Church, who is 
 well-known not to be a mere " ethical " preacher, has 
 been moved, nevertheless, by his fear for the interests 
 of righteousness to publish a volume of sermons in 
 verse, which a newspaper, not remarkable for its 
 religious earnestness, has been led to characterize in 
 the following way : — " The religion they express is 
 not of the sort that pours itself out in psalm and 
 song. It is a very good sort of religion, nevertheless, 
 and must not be condemned because it is not lyrical 
 like David's or even like Sankey's. It is a religion of 
 the mildly reflective and soberly practical sort, warmed 
 not heated by human loving-kindness, and mellowed 
 by what we may venture to call intellectual charit}^" 
 
 We confess to not expecting a great deal from 
 preaching of that sort. Take it at its very best, is 
 there any real inspiration in it ? Is it instinct with 
 any such spiritual force as to allow us to hope that 
 we have in it what is to regenerate the world ? He 
 is a very sanguine man who thinks so. If the history 
 of Scottish religion teaches us anything, it is this, that 
 our surest dependence for abiding religious results is 
 on the old gospel which Knox preached, and the 
 Erskines, and Haldane, and Chalmers, and M'Cheyne. 
 
 Of course, the grace of God may be so proclaimed 
 as to lead to license. That has happened before, and 
 may happen again. But instead of it being true that 
 the doctrine of justification through the imputation 
 to a believer of the righteousness of Christ neces- 
 
308 THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 sarily or naturally leads to indifference about holy 
 living, the very reverse can be demonstrated to be 
 the case. To affirm so much, in fact, is to evidence 
 at once ignorance of the nature of the gospel, and 
 blindness to the testimony of religious experience. 
 The holiest men the world has ever seen have been 
 those who were most profoundly conscious of their 
 own demerit, and all whose hopes for the future 
 rested on the mercy of God and the mediation of 
 Jesus Christ. The very morality of such men has 
 been of a higher kind than that of their critics ; 
 their whole lives being offered as a Eucharistic sacri- 
 fice to their Divine Redeemer. This is what they 
 have said, — 
 
 " thou bleeding Lamb, 
 The true morality is love of thee." 
 
 At the same time, while saying all this it is 
 not necessary to insist on the perfection of the 
 form in which evangelical doctrine has in any par- 
 ticular period been stated. We believe it to be true, 
 indeed, what some one has affirmed, that for many, 
 " Calvinism " is simply a nickname for the gospel. 
 People who talk of it as if it were an exploded 
 system forget how it has woven itself into the life of 
 the world. Lutheranism has extended influentially 
 but little beyond Germany. Calvinism has permeated 
 most of Europe and America * and has been a forma- 
 
 * Bancroft says: " He that will not honour the memory and respect 
 the influence of Calvin, knows but little of the origin of American 
 liberty." Ranke says: "John Calvin was virtually the founder of 
 
THE OUTLOOK. 309 
 
 tive power in all modern thought ; a mighty factor, not 
 only in religion, but in philosophy, literature, science, 
 and social life. It is readily admitted, however, that 
 there is such a thing as hyper-Calvinism — a presenta- 
 tion of unquestionable truth in such a way as to pro- 
 voke a justifiable revolt. And there ought to be no 
 difficulty in conceding that " the fundamentals " may 
 be held, thousfh different views are taken as to the 
 application of particular doctrines. Andrew Fuller 
 was long held in bondage because he was taught to 
 believe that the gospel offer was made only to the 
 elect. Is it wonderful that he by-and-by rebelled 
 and became one of the most earnest advocates of free 
 ofrace ? And if others insist that there is a universal 
 as well as a particular reference in the atonement; 
 that it is not true to say of the actions of unconverted 
 men that they cannot be good in any sense ; and 
 that we ought not to be held bound to believe that 
 any infants are lost, — it would be a serious business 
 to affirm regarding such that they had necessarily 
 ceased to adhere to the Evangelical or Calvinistic 
 system. 
 
 But there are certain points which, because they 
 are Pauline as well as Calvinistic, we cannot consent 
 to leave open — such as the divine sovereignty, elec- 
 
 America." Froude, the English historian, says : " John Calvin has done 
 more for constitutional liberty than any other man." Dr. Philip Schaff 
 says : "The principles of the Republic of the United States can be traced 
 through the intervening link of Puritanism to Calvinism, which, with all 
 its theological rigoiir, has been the chief educator of manly character and 
 promoter of constitutional freedom in modern times." 
 
310 THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 tion, human depravity, the atonement, particular re- 
 demption, justification by faith, regeneration by the 
 Holy Ghost, the free offer of the gospel, salvation by 
 Christ alone, and a new obedience the spring of which 
 is love. About these can be no compromise. When 
 they cease to be preached in Scotland, the glory of its 
 religious life will have departed. 
 
 It is a great satisfaction to know that the most 
 powerful preacher in Edinburgh at this day is never 
 ashamed to proclaim his continued faith in the Puritan 
 theology — setting forth Christ, not as a dynamic force 
 in contact with which a life is given producing the 
 righteousness which justifies us, but as " the propitia- 
 tion for our sins." That is the Evangelicalism Avhich 
 has done most for the world. And we heartily hope 
 that it is going to remain with us. " For, after all," 
 as Bishop Ryle says, " when modern scoffers at ' old 
 paths ' and worn-out creeds have had their say, there 
 remain some stern facts which can never be explained 
 away, and some questions which can only receive one 
 answer. 
 
 " I ask boldly, What extensive good has ever been 
 done in the world, except by the theology of the old 
 paths ? and I confidently challenge a reply, because I 
 know that none can be given. I affirm unhesitatingly 
 that there never has been any spread of the gospel, 
 any conversion of nations or countries, any successful 
 evangelistic work, except by the old-fashioned, distinct 
 doctrines of the early Christians and the Reformers. 
 
THE OUTLOOK. 311 
 
 I invite any opponent ot* dogmatic theology to name 
 a single instance of a country or town or people 
 which has ever been Christianized by merely telling 
 men that they must love one another, and be true, 
 and just, and unselfish, and generous, and high-souled, 
 and the like. No ! no ! no ! Not one victory can 
 such teaching show us, not one trophy can such teach- 
 ing exhibit. It has wrought no deliverance on the 
 earth. The victories of Christianity, wherever they 
 have been won, have been w^on by distinct doctrinal 
 theology : by telling men of Christ's vicarious death 
 and sacrifice ; by showing them Christ's substitution 
 on the cross and his precious blood ; by teaching them 
 justification by faith, and bidding them believe on a 
 crucified Saviour ; by preaching ruin by sin, redemp- 
 tion by Christ, regeneration by the Spirit ; by lifting 
 up the brazen serpent ; by telling men to look and 
 live — to believe, repent, and be converted. This is 
 the only teaching which, for eighteen centuries, God 
 has honoured with success, and is honouring at the 
 present day, both at home and abroad." 
 
 THE END. 
 
The Land and the Book. 
 
 LIBRARY AND PRESENTATIOX EDITION. 
 
 The Land and The Book. Bib- 
 lical Illustrations Drawn from 
 the Manners and Customs, the 
 Scenes and Scenery of the Holy 
 Land, By William M. Thom- 
 son, D.D., Forty-five Years a 
 Missionary in Syria and Pales- 
 tine. 
 
 Division I., entitled 
 
 Southern Palestine and Jeru- 
 salem. With 140 Illustrations 
 and Maps. Imperial 8vo. 592 pp. 
 Cloth extra, richly gilt side, back, 
 and edges. Price 21s. 
 
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 With 130 Illustrations and Maps. 
 Imperial 8vo. 714 pp. Cloth 
 extra, richly gilt side, back, and 
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BW5367 .R38 
 
 Religious life in Scotland; from the 
 
 Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00036 6064 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 GAYLORD #352