" BROAD PRESBYTERIANISM." [To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—At
St. Giles's, Edinburgh, on July 23rd, 1837 (as Carlyle tells us), when " Land's pretended Bishop " tried to read the Collect for the day, Jenny Geddes' stool and shriek, " Deil colic the wame of thee, thou foul thief ! Wilt thou say Mass at my lug ?" silenced him, and with him all read prayers in Scotland,
even in Episcopacy, for fully a century. At the Settlement
after the Revolution, the Cathedral received a Presbyterian minister. It is now being restored by Dr. W. Chambers, and its rebuilding seems synchronous with happier spirit and utterances. A few years ago, Dr. Cameron Lees, its minister, asked an Episcopal clergyman—Dr. Ross, of Stepney—to preach in its pulpit, and bade him before the sermon use the Collect (the one for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity) which "the pretended Bishop from his tippets" could not out with :— " Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things ; Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increase in Am true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy 'keep ns in the same ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
A fortnight ago, the tenth of a series of lectures on "Scottish Divines" was given by Dr. Lees. The subject was "Bishop Ewing." I commend to your readers the report of the lecture (too long to ask you to insert in your columns), given in the Scotsman of March 26th. The evident sympathy of Dr. Lees with the Bishop's views as to the Fatherhood of God, as opposed to Imperialism, the nature of the Atonement as different from the "forensic " scheme, inspiration, and the destiny of the unsaved in this world, is a sign of how much liberality and breadth of hope and faith those who are bound by the Confes- sion of Faith (even as those bound by the Athanasian Creed) may exercise. Would that both they and we were " well rid of" -such sham and hideous ligatures !—I am, Sir, &c., St. .Lawrence, Jewry, April 4th. MAIN S. A. WALHOND.
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