THE BREAKING-UP OF DOGMA IN SCOTLAND.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THB "SPECTATOR."] SIE,-Will you permit another " Scotchman in London" to say a few words on this subject? While I believe generally, with your correspondent of last Saturday, that a theological thaw has set in in Scotland, I suspect he puts too much emphasis on the influence of such men as Macleod Campbell, Alexander Ewing, and Erskine. That they have had an in fluence with cultured Scotch laymen, just as Coleridge has had, I have no doubt ; but I can see no proof that, except in the most indirect way, they have affected the opinions, as Burns affected the emotions, of the mass of the middle-class and the upper (morally and intellectually so) poor class in the country. And these are the thews and sinews of Scotch Presbyterianism, as, indeed, they have been of the Scotch commonalty since the beginning of the War of Independence. The most influential of this school was the late Dr. 'Norman Macleod, and he was popular not because he was a theologian—he never pretended to be anything of the sort—but because he was an intensely human and thoroughly Celtic advocate of what Mr. Arnold calls " ex- pansion,"—a kind of Burns in bonds, and with no inclination to tilt against the Moral Law.
Nor would I put too much stress on the "applause of the gallery," when a case of heresy—a Mr. Macrae or a Professor Robertson Smith—is under discussion. Sympathisers with the " heretic " are much more likely to flock to "the gallery" than opponents. Besides, the Pres- byterian clergy may be supposed to know the minds of their constituents, and what have they done this year ? They have finally agreed, to put it mildly, that they will be better without Mr. Macrae and Professor Smith, unless these gentlemen "retract," which it is plain, from their latest utterances, that they will not do. "The gallery" may be, in time, triumphant in Scotland, but it will no longer be "the gallery" of the Scotch Assemby Halls. Look at the latest Parliamentary return of the communicants, in plain words, &c., the electorate of the clergy of the Scotch Esta- blishment, —a document, by the way, which may require Par- liamentary and other investigation. The total of 515,786 con- sists of 218,411 males and 297,375 females. In other words, the Church of Scotland, the typical Presbyterian Church, is in the hands of women, and is every year becoming more so. Putting aside the comic aspect of this situation, is it not certain that the ordina:ry feminine fear of change and love of vigour in man—being debarred in a creed-bound Church from choosing men of the Luther type—will tend to the election, not of thoughtful and retiring Broad Churchmen, but of brass-throated, if not brass-browed, pulpiteers, incessant pamphleteers, vigor- ous committee-men, and Warburtonian defenders of the Faith, to whom the Church and its activities are all in all ?
One may be thankful for small mercies, such as the "Hell in reduced circumstances" of Dr. Calderwood, and for the fact that Dr. Rainy lets his leadership of the Free Church go to the winds, rather than not throw his shield over Professor Smith. But none the less does it seem clear that the Scotch Churches are reluctantly following, not boldly leading, in the paths of theological progress.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Clapham, May 29th. WILLIAM WALLACE.
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