A SCOTTISH ENABLING BILL.
(To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPLCIAT01."3
Suc,—The letter of Dr. G. Mitchell in your last issue must convey an entirely false impression to English readers. The Church with which the Church of Scotland is seeking reunion, and which your correspondent describes contemptuously as " a body of Dissenters," is the United Free Church of Scotland. (United Free Church is merely a convenient abbreviation.) She is the non-established half of the Church of Scotland. The two Assemblies meet every year at the same time on the mine hill, separated only by a narrow Edinburgh street. They have the same Creed, the same Government, the same hisborloal traditions, the same type of service. They work side by side in every corner of Sootle.nd. To English eyes they are as like as two peas! And they both claim to represent " the ancient and historic Church of the proud old Kingdom of Scotland." Unhappily, they were rent asunder in the last century by the question of patronage, which involved the larger question of the freedom of the Church in her own spiritual sphere. The disruption was largely due to the failure of the English Government to understand the fierce strength of Scottish idealism. Parliament endeavoured to repair the mistake forty years later by the abolition of patronage, but the legislation was too tardy at once to heal old wounds. Of recent years, however, the sister-Churches have drawn nearer and nearer. During the war the TheologicalColleges have been conjoined; congregations have worshipped together; Foreign Missions have been
combined; misunderstandings have melted away. Everything is ripe for a rebuilding of the National Zion on larger lines. The bitter and discourteous tone of your correspondent is now a quite rare' exception. The Reconstruction proposals have been carried in both Assemblies with great enthusiasm and almost absolute unanimity. The leaders of the Church of Scotland have shown a wise, statesmanlike spirit. So far from being " dragged at the tail of a Dissenting body," they Gave initiated and guided the whole Union movement. Their aim is to make the National Church of Scotland, in actual reality, not in ideal only, " the Church of the whole Scottish nation." The United Church would even in the first instance embrace the vast majority of the Scottish people, and the Enabling Bill leaves room for union with any other Church which desired to unite at a later time. It would conserve the ancient alliance between Church and State, which has been so good for both, and yet leave the Church free in her own spiritual sphere. There can be no fear of clerical domination, for in the democratic Presbyterian Government laymen must always have an equality of votes; at least in every Church Court. Practical business men vigorously support the union because they see the woeful waste of men and resources caused by division.
I have been a reader of the Spectator for forty years, and I am sure you will sympathize with a great effort to make a National Church more wide, liberal, and comprehensive.—I
am, Sir, &c., L/Niosisr.
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