Dr. Guthrie made a remarkable statement in Edinburgh on Friday
se'nnight. He was speaking of the waste of clerical power involved in the religious divisions of Scotland, "the Gospel, for example, in Lerwick, running like waste water" through the multiplicity of ministers, while the great towns are insufficiently cared for ; and strengthened his advocacy of unity by an assertion that he saw on every side a growing inclination towards the Episcopalian Church, and feared that the Presbyterian Church would be supplanted by its more liberal rival, which tolerated both latitudinarianism and mummeries. "it will be a black day for Scotland when the good old ship Presbyterianism goes down." If this speech is anything but a bit of rhetoric, a movement must
in going on in the Scotch mind of which the world at large is wholly unconscious. Latent scepticism there is in Scotland, and always has been, but a sway of the general mind towards Episco- palianism would be one of the most extraordinary facts in history, and would help to prove what has often been asserted in America, -that the richer a people grows the more it is attracted by the one 'Church which observes no rigour of discipline.
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