ECCLESIASTICAL MOVEMENTS IN SCOTLAND.
THE Scottish Ecclesiastical Parliaments, attendance upon which year by year crowds "the grey metropolis of the North" during the month of May with Presbyterian clergy- men from all parts of the country, have concluded their annual sessions. In various notable respects the meetings of this year have been specially significant. Not only have they illustrated anew the strength of that representative system which, by its power of stimulating free action at each local centre, under re- servation of a right to every member of the society to urge ark appeal upon its collective wisdom as the highest recognised authority, drew the admiration of David Hume as an em- bodied ideal of deliberative and administrative government,— not only have they well fulfilled their double function of an alembic through which the doings of the Churches in every department of exertion are severely passed, and a semaphore by means of which fresh signals are displayed,—they have afforded in unusual force and abundance indications, outside the range of mere routine, which are available to lookers-on in helping them to estimate the temper and prospects of the several communions.
Every well-wisher of the Established Church may find more than enough in the proceedings of her Assembly to evoke and justify warm congratulation and favourable hope. Throughout, though quieter than usual, they were marked by more of earnestness and elevation, of unanimity and catholicity, than always happens. If, according to the old saw, the nation is happy whose annals are dull, a full share of that good for- tune seems to be presently enjoyed by the Presbyterian Estab- lishment in Scotland, — the dullness being the product
not of enervation or stagnancy, but of smooth though vigorous effort, successfully directed to the prosecution of the work entrusted to her hands. She has largely recovered from the tremor which shot through her frame consequent upon the downfall of the Irish Establishment, its only per- manent effect being discernible in a quickened activity as regards her proper vocation. There may have been a little over-sensitiveness manifested in regard to the statistics of her attendance and membership, and a disposition to coax or strain the figures so as to bring out results which Dissenters will angrily repudiate ; but the error was venial. The plain indisputable truth is that, whatever the exact relative posi- tion of the Established Church as regards the rival Presby- terian organisations, or the whole number of the outside population, her state is not one of decrepitude and decay. She has gathered to herself an access of vivifying fervour ; she grows at a rate which keeps even pace with her competi- tors ; she is full of courage and incitement ; and, as becomes her commanding position, she is learning to widen her horizon and to cultivate more intimate sympathies with the catholic world. The only exciting subject that came before her Assembly was the case of Professor Wallace, the gentleman who was nominated some months ago to the Chair of Church History in the Edinburgh University. It was disposed of with much fairness and discretion. The circumstances, to a certain extent, run on all-fours with the more famous case of Bishop Hampden's appointment to the See of Hereford. Like Dr. Hampden, the minister of Old Greyfriars had been a good deal spoken about and clamoured against as one who vended unsound doctrines. Like Dr. Hampden, also, he had not been disturbed by any valid challenge in respect of his com- petency for the appointment he held. Holding it, he was, of course, eligible for promotion on being nominated by any one having a better appointment in his gift. A Professorship is, to a Scottish clergyman, the equivalent of a Bishopric to an English one, and Dr. Wallace naturally jumped at the offer made him by the Crown. Then arose a yell of rage and pain from many good and respectable persons,—partly because they thought it was flouting the Church to prefer an extreme and suspected man to one of her highest offices, and partly because they guessed that Dr. Wallace was sure to hang on both by his Church and his Chair, thus reviving the hateful tradition of pluralism, whereof his predecessor, Dr. Lee, had given the only recent example. As commonly happens with persons who are scared and angered, his assailants lost their wits. They remonstrated with the Government when it was -too late to recall the nomination. They urged Dr. Wallace's Presbytery to make an inquisition as regards his teaching, .oblivious of the fact that the proceeding would infallibly be deemed spiteful, seeing he had so long been suffered to go unmolested, and that the Bole ground of accusation must consist in the revival of antiquated and unauthenticated stories. His Presbytery, thus subjected to a species of coercion, had nothing for it but to address themselves to the task. Their conduct soon showed that it was utterly dis- tasteful. They undertook, in a hugger-mugger style, a sort of preliminary investigation, and then, either satisfied that there was nothing to be discovered by perseverance, or afraid that by persevering they would discover too much, they en- deavoured to quash the whole thing by advising Dr. Wallace to avoid for the future the reckless and equivocal style of preaching to which, they thought it evident, he was rather prone. Here was a compromise which con- tented nobody. To the upholders of purism, it seemed an unholy concession to the lax spirit of the age. To the friends of Dr. Wallace it seemed the infliction of a censure without any trial as to whether the censure was deserved. The Assembly were invited to review the proceedings. Discriminating with a nice adroitness among the complicated elements of the case, and working a way through the labyrinth of imputed motives and suspected ends to the heart of the controversy—namely, whether the inculpated Professor be a heretic or a true man— they have cancelled all that has been done, and have instructed the Edinburgh Presbytery to prepare an articulate statement of what they think can be charged upon Dr. Wallace that is amiss, with the view to its investigation in a legal and valid fashion. Should it turn out that the worst which can be charged is that Dr. Wallace has spoken from his pulpit in praise of Schleiermacher, our readers will be inclined to deem it no offence at all ; and though nine-tenths of his judges have never heard the name before, a verdict to that effect will be the inevitable upshot. But should it appear that he has spoken, as he is said to have done (though the report, we do not doubt, must be due to ignorant blundering), of Christ's resur- rection as incredible in a miraculous sense, there is no guessing what may befall. In any case, the occurrence is regrettable. Dr. Wallace is a man of robust, forcible, and intrepid mind ; but he is scarcely the champion to win over spiritual-minded men to clearer insight or greater comprehensiveness of view, and we could wish for the advocates of a true, wise, and Christian toleration a more congenial leadership.
Apart from this question, affecting a vital element in the Church, which was decided well, there came up another, affecting its outward framework, which was decided ill. It aroused no sort of interest, however ; and it was plain the proceeding was reckoned nothing more than a formality. The Anti .Patronage Committee reported that they have fruitlessly continued their efforts to influence Government in favour of abolishing the right of presentation to cures in the Church, leaving each congregation to elect its own qualified clergyman ; and in a thin House, the assent of the Assembly was given to a pro- posal that the motion of a private M.P. on behalf of this object should be supported. This was a mistake. The motion has no chance. Till a Tory Government comes in it never will have a chance. Even then should it only succeed by setting aside with an unjust and domineering exclusiveness the claims of those Dissenters who hold themselves to be, both de jure and de facto, branches of the national Kirk, and who, save for the disintegrating element of patronage, would have maintained their places in that capacity, the success would have to be counted a misfortune. Mr. Gladstone understands this question thoroughly. There was kindness as well as knowledge in the advice he bestowed upon the deputation who visited him four years ago upon the subject. Had the magnanimous and equitable policy he reconammended been taken up, we should now be in a fair way to witness the reconstruction of Scottish Presbyterianism.
Outside events favour that process, and invite to it. Chief among them is the break-down of the effort, upon which ten years of. anxious negotiation have been spent, to gather into one the various sections of Presbyterianism which exist beyond the pale of that section which is partially endowed by the State. This failure has now culminated in a manner which affords room and encouragement to a fresh start from a wider basis. The intricacies of the negotiation, the causes of the failure, we dare not attempt to rehearse. They run into labyrinths too obscure for penetration ; they turn upon points too narrow to be grasped. Let it suffice to say that a growing majority in the Free Church, the latest-born of the Dissenting com- munities, resolutely opposed the scheme of Nonconformist fusion. They did it on the score chiefly that they could never consent to recognise as fellow-members of the same Church men who denounce State endowments as a wrong little short of sacrilege. The United Presbyterian Church has never exacted from her clergy any profession of faith upon the subject, but it is well known that a vast majority of her following are disciples of Mr. Miall. The Free Church at her formation was careful to repudiate all sympathy with that view, though it is unquestionable that many of her members and office-bearers have now come to entertain it. In deference to the objections raised, the plan of an incorporating Union was dropped. But the majority felt that they could not afford to confess absolute defeat, and so they insisted upon an alternative plan by which clergymen of one Church asked to serve congregations belonging to another might be rendered transferable, upon compliance with the formalities that are usual when such a transference is made within the bounds of the same denomination. This rendered the opposition more furious, if possible, than before. The opponents saw in it a surrender of the principle they maintained, and the introduction of a method by which the counter - principle might be carried into effect piece-meal. Unless one has chanced to come across specimens of the voluminous litera- ture which the controversy has originated, the calmest representation of the lengths to which the dispute was carried would sound incredible. By dint of that controversial trick which charges home upon an antagonist all the inferences that can be deduced from his premisses, the supporters of the scheme were branded as abettors of national atheism ; and with that daring familiarity in the abuse of sacred terms which marks religionists of this type, and constitutes, in the judgment of sober men, an offence it is difficult to distinguish from rank blasphemy, it was urged that, just as the Establishment deny the Crown rights of the Redeemer over His Church (meaning that the jurisdiction of a civil court in relation to ecclesiastical disputes is acknowledged), so here there was a denial that Christ is King of Nations. The whole country was stirred by excited appeals of this outrageous description ; and when it was found that they did not shake the majority, recourse was had to the menace of another disruption, such as should split in twain the Church which Chalmers founded thirty years ago. Amid storm and convulsion of this character the Assembly met. Soch was the intensity of feeling, that the members could not trust themselves to choose a President. In order to avoid a conflict, an arrangement was adopted by which the oldest ex-Moderator was reinstalled as chairman. This proved to be the venerable missionary, Dr. Alexander Duff, a name held in profound respect by the mass of Scotsmen, as well as by a multitude of Anglo-Indians. No better man could have been fixed upon. His conduct showed that he had a full appreciation of the crisis, and how to meet it. His introductory address was, in effect, a magnificent plea for a true conception of Church work, by comparison with the trifle which engrossed his auditors. No doubt his eloquence and enthusiasm rather ran away with him, prompting alike to undue copiousness of words and to an erroneous estimate of things. We do not believe the world is either so bad or so irredeemable as the good Doctor pictured it ; and we have a persuasion our readers will hold the same opinion, when they learn that among the evil symptoms which gave him pain are Britain's acceptance of the Alabama arbi- tration, the introduction of "strikes " among maid-servants, and the style in which the Newspaper Press generally (includ- ing, as he indicated with regret, even the Spectator) canvass alleged deviations from orthodoxy. To smile at this would be easy ; nevertheless, the speech struck the right key-note, and it did not go without its reward. Whether influenced by such considerations as it marshalled, or by the dreary outlook that lay before them, or by the recurrence of old sentiments of brotherhood and companionship, it is hard to tell, but at any rate, the minority halted on the very brink of secession, and accepted, with a meaningless abatement, the proposal they had been denouncing through all the moods and tenses of indignant rhetoric. One cannot feel much respect for these men. They are the narrowest and most rigid of their class. It is they who shrink from instrumental music in public worship as an abomination, who demur to singing God's praise in any words save Rouse's uncouth metrical version of the Psalms, who shrink from prepared forms of prayer in favour of those turgid and undevotional addresses to the Deity which they themselves extemporise, and who, on the strength of isolated texts, preach the restricted gospel of the straitest Calvinism. Yet through the very measure of success which has attended their zealous efforts at obstruction, it may turn out—and if the Established Church is wise, she will embrace the opportunity of so shaping the course of events— that they have unwittingly furthered the cause of peace and progress. They have not been strong enough to arrest and extinguish the proposal for making all Nonconforming Presby- terians eligible for translation from one denomination to another. But their continued presence, in the Free Church will suffice to prevent that body from drifting, as she might have done, into a political league against the Establishment. What reason is there that the Established Church should not be embraced in the "mutual-eligibility" proposal, and recipro- cate its terms ? The initiative of such a suggestion ought to come from her ; but were it made, there are multituas who would respond to it, and no more efficacious plan could be hit upon for strengthening herself, checkmating political antagonists, abating unworthy jealousies, promoting a great Presbyterian Union like that consummated in Australia, in Canada, and in the States, and fostering a more liberal and intelligent type of Christianity than now prevails.
Previous page
