MAD MINISTERS OF THE SCOTTISH KIRK.
THE Clergy of the Kirk of Scotland are going on at a strange rate. They are espousing a quarrel which ought in nowise to concern them—the quarrel of the Episcopal Church of Ireland—
with a fury, and blind recklessness of consequences to their own Establishment, which savour much of fatuity. We have already
had occasion to notice the violent harangues of Dr. CHALMERS
and others on the subject of the Commission for inquiring into the state of their Church, and the " declaration " of the Synod of Aberdeen, denouncing the Government for its apprehended design of reestablishing Romish supremacy in Ireland : and the last week has furnished some additional instances of the spirit of bigotry and intolerance with which the members of the Venerable Kirk seem to be so deeply imbued. These instances are really ludicrous ; but, if we have many more of them, they may turn out to be " very tragical mirth."
The General Assembly appointed a day in July last to be held as a day of fasting and humiliation " for the sins of the Church ; or, in other words, a day on which the Tory parsons might have an ostensible ground for making the pulpit a "drum ecclesiastic," and beating the generale against the enemies of the Church,— under which denomination they class every friend of Reform. Mr. HORSMAN, a respectable barrister, who was then at the resi- dence of his uncle, Sir Joust DALRYMPLE, in the parish of Cran- stoun, having occasion to see the schoolmaster of the parish, called at his door on the evening of that day, and asked if he was at home : being informed he was not, Mr. Hoessi A sr walked away, without even leaving any message for him. Mr. HORSMAN is in bad odour with the Tory parsons, for two reasons,—because he is the relative of a distinguished Liberal ; and, still more, because he is a member of the Church Commission, which has put the reverend bide into such a commotion. Will it be believed, that the mi- nister of the parishrof Cranstoun actually brought a formal charge before his Kirk-Session against Mr. HORSMAN, for desecrating the Assembly's Fast-day, by transacting secular business on that day ! The members of the Kirk-Session, (who are laymen of the parish,) not choosing to make themselves the reverend pastor's tools, he applied to the Presbytery of Dalkeith, (in conformity, we suppose, with EGMC form of procedure "for such case made and provided,") to appoint certain of their own number to sit as members of the Kirk-Session, and thus influence their proceedings. This appli- cation the Besbytery decently entertained, and appointed two of their number as delegates to the Kirk-Session accordingly. Mr. HORSMAN, as soon as he was made aware of these strange pro- ceedings, defended himself with energy : and public feeling was so strongly expressed on the subject, that the reverend gentlemen at length found that they had gone somewhat too far; and have now come to the resolution that it is not necessary to proceed further in the investigation. This is pitiful ; but what comes next is still more so. At a meeting of the Presbytery of Paisley, a few days since, that body passed a vote of censure on one of their members for attending the dinner given to Mr. O'CONNELL at Glasgow ! The proceed- ings were very curious. Dr. BURNS called upon the individual in question—Mr. BREWSTER, the brother of Sir DAVID BREWSTER- to say whether or not he attended that dinner ; and also whether he accompanied Mr. O'CoNstsee from Glasgow to Paisley, and Was one of the auditors of his speech, delivered in the Old Low Church of that town ? Mr. BREWSTER admitted (and exulted in doing so) that he had been present at the dinner ; but declined answering further questions, put to him so irregularly. A lows debate ensued, which ended in the following judgment- " That the Presbytery disapprove of the conduct of Mr. Brewster, rue of their members, in his attending a public dinner given to Daniel O'Connell, 1.■1:1). ; because such conduct was unseemly, disrespectful, and calculated to -svure the Church of Scotland : and the Presbytery defer giving judgment OT the pretext on the other questions, which he has declined to answer."
The mover of these mild and tolerant proceedings said some notable things, which we shall advert to presently.
Now, what do these worthy clergymen, and Presbyteries, and Synods of the Kirk of Scotland, mean by their violent efforts to frustrate the Reform now in progress in the Episcopal Church of Ireland? What community of feeling, or community of interest, is there between these churches ?—None, certainly. Community of feeling there is none; because the Presbyterians have always looked upon Episcopacy as near akin to Popery, partaking of many of its errors of doctrine, and almost all its abuses of eccle- siastical government. Community of interest there is none; because the Church of Scotland has, in reality, nothing whatever to fear from the measures now taking to purge the Episcopal Church of its grossest abuses. As to the feeling between Presbytery and Episcopacy, hear the Reverend Mr. BURNS, in the very speech in which he denounces Mr. BREWSTER- " What he blamed Mr. Brewster for (says the report of his speech), was his countenancing O'Connell in his triumphant progress through Scotland ; and he looked upon such a course as compromising his principles as a Protestant mi- nister. Ile referred to Mr. O'Connell's letter to Mr. Buchan, which he styled a hypocritical effusion ; and would refer to the injunctions of the Churcli, so far back as the sixteenth century, against those keening company with malig- aunts. These maliouants were not so had as the Papists—they were merely Episcopalians : and if their fathers had forbidden the communication with Episcopalians, how much more were they bound to refrain from communication with Papists !" This was an unfortunate line of argument ; for it would have been equally conclusive in establishing the delinquency of at- tending a dinner given to such an Episcopalian malignant as Sir ROBERT PEEL. But this ill-considered speech flowed from the habitual feeling of the Presbyterians, and their well-known pro- pensity to place Romanism and Episcopacy side by side, and to consider the members of the one Church as well as the other in the light of malignants. Then, what has the Church of Scotland to fear from the medi- tated reforms in the Episcopal Church, either in England or Ire- land ? It is proposed to lessen the enormous inequality in the condition of the priesthood ; to diminish the revenues of a bloated hierarchy, and give to every minister of the gospel the means of living in respectability, without which there can be little use- fulness. This has already been done in Scotland. It is proposed to put an end to the thousand abuses—the scenes of oppression, contention, and scandal, which arise out of the present system of Tithes : this has already been done in Scotland. It is pro- posed to check, at least, the prostitution of benefices which arises from patronage : a measure which has been sanctioned, in Scot- land, by a vote of the General Assembly of the Church. And it is proposed, in Ireland, to reduce the Church Establishment to a scale corresponding in some sort to the wants of a country in which five sixths of the people are not in communion with the Established Church : a measure which cannot in the slightest degree affect a church so differently situated as that of Scotland. Our Church Reformers, indeed, generally point to the Church of Scotland as being already in a condition to which it is their object as nearly as possible to approximate. Danger to their Church, therefore, is all a pretence with these reverend Scotch zealots. Their motives are political; and their ardour in the cause of religion is a mere cloak for their factious hostility to a Liberal Government. Their own Church, too, though comparatively, is not absolutely pure. Abuses have crept into it, the removal of which, though not sufficient to affect its existing constitution, would be galling to those who cling, by a sort of instinct, to every abuse.
But let them consider what they are about. The disgust pro- duced by their present conduct is deep and general, and must be shared by the nation to which they belong. The people will re- fuse spiritual instruction, and the offices of religion, from men whom they see the slaves of political rancour and worldly passion: and when once the bulk of the Scottish community discard them as their pastors, who will then maintain them for doing nothing?
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