THE SCOTTISH CHURCHES AND THEIR " ASSEMBLIES."
THAT gradual loosening and decline of dogmatic aus- terity in Scotland, about which various correspondents have written to us, receives a signal illustration from the fact that since the time of the great split in the Scottish Estab- lishment, not one case of heresy has been pushed to an issue in the Supreme Court of that Church. It would be impossible there, now-a-days, to repeat the procedure against Irving, Macleod-Campbell, and Scott ; and the only repetition that has taken place since that group of cases was disposed of, it would be even more impossible to make a precedent. It occurred two years before the Disruption ; it was due entirely to the hot- headedness of the " Evangelicals," then in the heyday of their fresh ascendancy ; and it led to the casting-out of an amiable, pious, and modest man, who, if approached in less peremptory style, might in the simplest manner have eased himself off from the conclusions that were forced out from utterances mainly devotional—Mr. Wright, of Borthwick. Since then what are called the minor judicatories of the Church have repeatedly been pestered and distracted by inquiries or threatened prosecu- tions, but in every case the soothing process has been applied suc- cessfully, and the resort to extreme measures has been more or less dexterously avoided. Even more remarkable is it that in the other two great branches of the native Presbyterian stock, where the principle of comprehension, multitudinism, or toler- ation is less clearly understood, and is sometimes directly disavowed, the practice has likewise grown into increasing favour. The propugnators of heresy within these denomin- ations are undoubtedly more numerous, eager, and determined than in the sister-communion ; but their zeal has almost uni- formly spent itself in vain. A formal judicial process is shrunk from with something of nervous dread ; the expedient of a Committee to deal with the erring brother is almost invariably adopted, and the method of dealing pursued as invariably issues in leaving him at peace, however much he may be pitied or condemned as the victim of his own over-subtlety, or a vagrant into paths that lead in a wrong direction. There is no reason to doubt this approved course would have been followed in the case of the " Free Church with Professor Robertson Smith," had it not been for his own chivalry. Instead of calmly waiting for the customary de- velopment of procedure, he defied his adversaries to frame a "libel" against him,—that is, according to the terminology of Scottish ecclesiastical law, to formulate an instrument of accu- sation, setting forth his alleged offences, and showing in what respects any averment he has made contradicts the language of the Westminster Confession. He was safe in making the challenge, for no passage from his inculpated writings can be set over against any citation from that document so as to exhibit a patent conflict. He has never denied, in truth he expressly maintains, the inspiration of all the Scriptural books. It nowhere makes any assertion as to their human authorship. The two do not clash. The contradiction lies
not between Mr. Smith and the Confession, but between him and certain traditional ideas which it has been supposed to sanction, though when looked for they cannot be found. Strong in this knowledge, it is no marvel that he should have been bold. Nor do we doubt that his courage has had the best results, though they involve his own temporary suspension. Those good folks who are astonished and pained by the notion of a pseudo-Moses having had aught to do with the literature of the Bible, who revolt from the thought of subsequent edit- ing and enlargement having been applied to any part of it, who blink the fact that every explanation of admitted diffi- culties must involve the hypothesis of after-alteration, were indeed not to be defied and silenced. So they proceeded to frame their indictment upon the principle of constructive treason. They arraigned Mr. Smith not for what he has directly advanced, but for what they hold it to imply and point to. The strain and tendency of his writing are what is really impugned. His own Presbytery having demurred to go on with such a prosecution, the General Assembly have had to determine whether such hesitation and recalcitrancy were warrantable. This was the question argued last week. It was argued, on the one side, in the narrowest legal manner. The previous General Assembly, it was contended on the one side, having sustained this form of charge, there could be no stoppage or going back in the judicial process thus begun. The counter-motion was that in respect of the novelty and perplexity of the case, the process ought to be broken in upon, and the plan of a Committee for conference be substituted. The fact that one of the largest divisions ever taken in the Assembly barely missed the pro- duction of a tie indicates unmistakably what the end will be. The " libel " will be served ; Mr. Smith will be called to answer ; but when the question of proof conies up, such con- fusion will ensue, that the discarded suggestion will be gladly accepted, with the result that smouldering anxieties will be allayed,—that " the Standards " of the Church will be found patient of such theories as have been put forward, if they are put forward with considerateness and caution—and that thus, though in a sneaking sort of way, there will be introduced an enlargement of liberty in the straitest of sects. Of course, it is comprehensible enough how the Free Church cannot afford to disregard the alarms of the uninformed and unintelligent men within her pale who have been so scared by Mr. Smith's speculations; but one cannot conceal that the fanatic zeal of these good folks for the authority of Scripture is resolvable into a form of inward mistrust.
This Smith case was by much the biggest affair that en- gaged attention in those parliaments of the rival Presbyterian Churches which have now dispersed. The Assembly of the Establishment did, indeed, discuss for the third or fourth time an analogous subject,—a proposal to relax the terms of sub- scription in the case of those lay office-bearers within the Church called " Elders." At present they are as tightly bound as the Clergy to the multifarious and precise definitions of those symbols which carry the rigidities of sharp detail to an extreme unknown in any other form of creed. Orthodox Conservatism looks askance at this movement ; but it grows in strength year by year, and is certainly destined to a speedy success. Apart from this, the only subject of general interest brought under review was the relations of these Churches to each other. Last year the Established Assembly sent a courteous letter to every other member of the Presbyterian family, inquiring as to the terms upon which a reunion might be possible. The proceed- ing had in it more of smooth-speaking amiability than practical sense. Certainly it has done more to retard than to help any reconciliation of such a kind as the Established Church is alone disposed to look at. The replies, though in every case as courteous as the overture, naturally empha- sised the specific difference upon which each Church takes its stand as against the Establishment. The sum of them came to be that incorporation is not to be thought of, but that co-operation in divers respects, both at home and abroad, is desirable. The more sensitive and arrogant class of Church- men think the Dissenting communities have cleverly ex- alted themselves at the expense of " the national Church," and are indignant over the mistake which gave them the chance. The irritation which has been induced may prove short-lived, but meantime it has unques- tionably inflamed existing prejudices and jealousies. The effect was visible on the one side in the subdued chuckling over a return of membership in the Established Church, obtained on the motion of Mr. Maclaren, M.P., which goes to show that her adherents number slightly more than one-half
of the population ; on the other, in a larger vote for Disesta- blishment than was ever carried in the Free Church before. The return, it is clear, is stuffed full of exaggerations. In many instances, it would reduce to nothingness flourishing Dis- senting congregations, the membership of which is sure to be accurately known and checked, by reason of the fact that the rules as to the distribution of clerical payment, instead of tempting to an over-statement of its strength, operate in the reverse mode ; while the most complacently patriotic even of Scotsmen cannot hug the delusion that there are no habitual non-church-goers north of the Tweed. The delight with which the return has been received in one quarter, as if a Balaam who meant to curse had been constrained to bless, is therefore foolishly misplaced. Equally so may be the scornful heat with which it has been derided and denounced on the other, though the performance and the motive are alike intelligible. One thing is sure, that existing estrangements have been widened, and that a new impulse has been given to the movement for what is termed religious " equality." The Scottish Churches are not so political in their discussions as English Dissent ; but it is a significant thing that while the Liberals in the late meeting of the Established Assembly did not count by more than units, in the rival gatherings Tories were every whit as scarce.
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