13 FEBRUARY 1886, Page 8

THE NEW ECCLESIASTICAL MOVEMENT IN SCOTLAND.

CLARENDON says that at the beginning of the troubles in 1638, " there was so little curiosity either in the Court or the country to know anything of Scotland, or what was done there, that when the whole nation were solicitous to know what passed weekly in Germany, Poland, and all other parts of Europe, no man ever inquired what was doing in Scotland, nor had that Kingdom place or mention in one page of any Gazette." There is no need to recall how soon the unwisdom of this neglect was illustrated, nor how great a part was borne by the Scots in the public affairs of England throughout the stirring times that ensued. It is worthy of note, however, that a like blunder of indifference has been often repeated at critical junctures. Within living recollection, the dispute which rent Scottish Presbyterianism, in the Established mode of it, was regarded by the mass of English opinion with a curious mixture of ignorant and apathetic disdain. Had a set of Moslems been splitting hairs, and pulling beards, over an alleged heretical reading of the Koran in the chapter on the cow or the dromedary, a more contemptuous disregard could not have been shown. To be sure, John Bull had his excuses, which were largely valid. The most honest and manful of all national characters, he would have been glad to do right, but he did not know how, and lacked the patience to inquire. Investigation would have been an irksome task. The contro- versy was waged over a subject he did not understand. The disputants expressed themselves in a terminology that set his teeth on edge. Any glimpse he was able to catch of what was meant and asked revealed, as it seemed to him, claims wildly extravagant, supported by reasons utterly preposterous. Incapable of recognising the movement as being what it was in principle, however marred by blundering in details, as natural, healthy, genuine, in perfect accord alike with the philosophic idea and the historic development of Presbytery, he deemed it a paltry sectarian squabble of a mongrel sort, in which a vulgar demagogy and a spurious priestcraft,_Chartist politics and an assumption of ultra-Papal arrogance, jostled each other in a style that defied comprehension. One party there was, the party of the then rising Oxford school, who understood, and would have sympathised, had they not been restrained by their inability to acknowledge a body of Presby- terians as a divinely constituted corporate society. As it was, except through a single paper in the British Critic—the writer of which showed himself agitated by " an undistinguishable throng " of feelings to find an Association having no title to the sacred name of a Church witnessing, at the peril of martyrdom, for a distinctively Church principle—those who became the founders of the Scottish Free Kirk met only with derision and rebuff. At last, after having run the gauntlet of the Law Courts, they were foiled in an appeal to Parliament. The House of Lords without a vote, the House of Commons by 211 to 76, scouted their representation that rights which were solemnly guaranteed had been invaded, and therefore peremptorily declined to hear any claim for redress. In the minority there was no English M.P. of any name or note except Sir George Grey. But it comprised a full two-thirds of the Scottish representatives. Thus was the disruption of the Scottish Church made inevitable, unless through an exhibition of subserviency which would have been infamous. The mass of those concerned chose the nobler part. Their exodus, as Mr. Gladstone—whose subordinate official place in those far-off days made him tongue-tied and impotent—shortly afterwards declared, gave to the little country north of the Tweed a European fame. Withal, it is now admitted not only that their behaviour was heroic, but that their demands—whatever judgment may be pronounced upon them in the abstract, either as dangerously democratic in one view of them, or as ultra-Hildebrandic in another—were thoroughly justifiable, regard being had to the

covenants upon which they were entitled to rely, and the conditions amid which they were placed.

Another crisis is at hand. There is again in Scotland much fermenting stir over ecclesiastical affairs. Again, the move- ment in that country coincides to a remarkable degree with tendencies that are strongly asserting themselves in England. There, as here, the clamorous demand for Disestablishment, which had grown to a considerable head, has been checked and thrown back. The enforced calm thus secured has been taken advantage of to push forward proposals for reform which go in the direction of " Home-rule " for the Church. The Scottish Establishment asserts, indeed, that she possesses all the self-governing powers of Dissenting Churches, and that these powers are assured to her by sanctions more express and decisive than any Dissenting communion can allege ; but, for the most part, she is very willing to have this declared and ratified by the Legislature. The movement will, however, run to larger issues. The words " reunion," " reconstruction," have been heard. They have proved seasonable and catching words. They have so taken hold of the popular mind, they have so fired the popular imagination, as to make it certain the idea that they embody cannot be dislodged, and must prove influential. The Scottish journals are full of the subject. Their columns teem with correspondence about it. The laity, to all appearance, are disposed to take its management out from the hands of ecclesiastics, whose prejudices and narrownesses, in part the natural effect of training and of position, are well under- stood and are wisely dreaded. There is a proposal on foot for summoning a Lay Convention, to be composed of delegates from the three great Presbyterian bodies, so that the whole case may be fairly considered. This is a hopeful project. Only good can come of it, even though it should miscarry or fall short of the object directly aimed at. It gives promise of an upshot deliberate, practicable, and beneficent. Already, so far have things advanced, it is safe to say that in Scotland the alternative to Disestablishment is not simply Reform, con- sidered as an internal remedy, but Reconstruction, considered in its bearings upon those who are without, and the attractions it offers them. The problem to be re-solved has, in fact, been reduced to this,—Can Reconstruction be gained except at the price of a partial Disendowment ?

How it happens that the situation has become thus favour- able may be briefly indicated. A chief cause consists in the revived prosperity of the Established Church. Left maimed and shattered by the shock of 1843, bereft for a while of enterprise and self-command, the Scottish Church lay for years like a vessel waterlogged and partially dismantled. She is now the briskest sailor in the Presbyterian fleet. Those aboard are full of heart and energy. They have known how to avail themselves of the full tide which makes towards a generous interpretation of creeds and a reverent ornateness in worship. They have caught the inspiration of that idea which pro- nounces Christianity in its deepest sense to be a life in Christ, and participation in that life to be the ground of Christian brotherhood. Hence, simultaneously with the growth of a more earnest regard to the style in which public praise and prayer are offered, there has been a change in the estimate of what is essential in religious truth and instruction. For a long while the sermons delivered from the pulpits of the Established Church have ceased to be a reproduction of the common- places embodied in that system of theology formulated by Calvin, rendered still more inexorably rigid by Witsius and the Dutch divines of his school, and set forth in the Westminster Confession with a positive definiteness which seems to have gone as far as it was possible to go in order to suppress differ- ences of opinion and to exclude doctrinal individuality as a crime. No doubt many of the Scottish clergy feel with Edward Irving, that "it is really an imposition upon a man's conscience to ask him to subscribe such a minute document," and that "there is no use in hard-fasting men at such a rate, though it be very necessary to exhibit a distinct standard of faith for them to rally under ;" but there has been no move- ment for having the Confession abrogated or revised, such as would provoke a heated and interminable war of words. All that has been done is quietly to throw into the shade what is deemed undeserving of its ancient pro- minence. At first the Establishment men were maligned and reviled for this conduct, which was stigmatised as lati- tudinarian and unfaithful by the adherents of orthodox Dissent. It is their boast that they, unlike the English Dissenters,

seceded from the Establishment not through dislike of its original principles, but by reason of a desire to uphold them in their integrity. In accordance with this profession, they have long guarded both doctrine and ritual with exceeding stringency, punishing the violation of rule by inflicting such penalties as have not been imposed by the Assembly of the Establishment during the last forty years. This, however, has largely ceased. The time-spirit has proved too strong for its endurance. The preachers of Dissent speak with the same voice as is heard from the pulpits of the State Church. Even as regards the forms and mode of worship, though they have not advanced very far, a great change has passed upon their congregations. Discrepancies of opinion and feeling still exist, but they spring from petty causes, and are miserably petty in themselves. The United Presbyterians (one of the sects) are almost unanimous in holding, with the Liberationists of England, that any formal alliance with the State, and especially the receipt of any State subsidy, are objectionable. The mass of Free-Churchmen are not pledged to this extreme view, but practically their position is identical. Both are supported by voluntary beneficence, which has been rendered with an astonishing liberality. They have cultivated intimate relationships. The leaders on both sides know each other better than they know the ultra men in their own ranks, and are more in accord. Their affinities would cause an immediate coalition as certainly as two globules of mercury placed near each other would unite were they not placed on a sanded board. What hinders is the fact that the Free Church contains a minority who dislike and mistrust the older Seceders as heartily- as they dislike and contemn those whom they still term Residuaries. This party has its head-quarters in the Highlands, where United Presbyterianism is unknown, but where Free- Churchism is supreme. The Celts, with characteristic fervour and tenacity, uphold the abstract idea of " Establishment " as a national tribute to religion ; and they would not object to share its concrete benefits. To facilitate their absorption is the object of Mr. Finlay's Bill. If legalised, it would unquestionably have large success in the Scottish North-West, though it would never work in the Lowlands. The strongest of the three Presbyterian denominations would be powerfully reinforced in the region where its weakness is a reproach ; but it would be by the accession of incongruous elements, for the Celt is devoted to conservative traditions, abominates gown and cassock, would refuse to join in read prayers, and sets as much store by the drawl and whine of a hereditary orthodoxy as others do upon intoning. Further, it would come far short of that reunion which has charmed the imagination of the Scottish people. It would leave the United Presbyterians out in the cold, and the mass of Free-Churchmen would hold aloof in their company. The only method to prevent this, would be were the Establish- ment to relinquish for public purposes that part of her income derived from tithe which is given her by the express authority of statute. The sacrifice would not impoverish her greatly. The amount involves less than a third of her income. The surrender would be amply repaid. She would earn by it the foremost place in ordering what should follow, and would stand out like the spear of Pallas, "huge, heavy, massive, and pointed with sharp steel." Unless the Lay Conference can devise something better, this is what it is likely to recommend.