ANDREW GRAY (PERTH)
Churches' Continuing Duty
The recent alteration in the law of Patronage does not
affect our position. It may or may not he satisfactory to the Established
Church. Of course we cannot approve of Patronage. We have never done so. It was
not in the Evangelical party that Patronage found support, nor can it find
support in the Free Church. But the new statute, whatever it does, does not
remove the causes of separation ; it does not secure, and was not intended to
secure, the spiritual independence of the Church ; and after thirty years
experience of Disruption life, all thoughtful
Free Churchmen must have been taught that Evangelical Nonconformity has in it a
charm and a power which the State cannot bestow, and must have been taught also
that the Church is freer, safer, and purer when depending only on the free-will
offerings of the Christian people.
This is the duty, then, which lies
on the Free Church, in the Providence of God ; the great principle for which
she made the sacrifice of 1843 must be maintained. It has, indeed, the most
sacred hereditary claims on her loyal support. Among the first
words, says the Rev. Andrew Gray, uttered by onr Church,
when she awoke out of Popery three centuries ago, that testimony was claimed as
her own. To the Parliament of the kingdom, and in the hearing of Christendom,
she said: We confess and avow Christ Jesus to be the only Head of His
Kirk, our just Lawgiver, our only High Priest, Advocate, and Mediator; in which
honours and offices, if man or angel presume to intrude themselves, we utterly
detest them as blasphemeus to our Sovereign and Supreme Governor, Christ
Jesus." Thus spake the Scottish Church the mouth of John Knox, and while yet in
her cradle. Providence must have guided her words. They announced her peculiar
vocation from God, and presented an epitome of her history fron that day to
this. She did not forget the lesson her lisping tengue had learned. The
Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King, formed
her watchword from generation to generation. In courts, in prison, on the
scaffold, at the stake, she cried; The Pope is not our head, the prince
is not our head, our only head is Christ.
To the Church of England,
to the Church of Holland, to the Huguenot of France, to the Protestants of
Germany, the language of her struggles and manifold sufferings was: Give
not the things of God unto Caesar, nor the prerogatives of Christ to the civil
magistrate; let kings he your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing
mothers, but let Christ alone be your Lawgiver aud Head. It is no light
matter to inherit such a testimony - a testimony in itself so great, and that
was so maintained. Especially is it no light matter to have such a testimony
committed to us gt a time like this. Everywhere, both at home and abroad, the
Churches of Christ are astir, and looking into their constitutional
foundations. All over Europe the relation between Church and State as it has
existed for centuries is becoming unsettled, and the servants and people of God
are daily growing more free and willing to consider what the true and proper
relation is. The Churches to which the Scottish testimony has made its appeal
so long, are now at last in a favourable condition for listening to it. Who
knows but that God had an eye to this crisis when he raised up the Church of
Scotland, and appointed both her recent baptism of tears, and her former
baptisms of tears and of blood.
Let us then, through the grace of God, keep
our banner aloft, that it may be seen from afar on these Scottish hills, among
which martyrs nsed to dwell, drawing hope and confidence from the cross of
Christ let us hold forth with one heart and soul the testimony for His crown.
But while this is a duty imperatively demanded, it would be an evil day for the
Free Church if her strength were chiefly given to such contendings. While our
people should know the principles of their Church, and be able on fitting
occasions to render a reason, yet a Church has other work to do, and in looking
forward to the future, we may be allowed to cherish the hope that all the
sections of onr divided Presbyterianism in Scotland may yet he gathered into
one. It may even he that the Disruption of 1843, in the mysterious Providence
of God, may be designed to prepare the way for such a result. Already, as we
have seen, three unions have taken place on the ground of these common
principles. The original Synods of both branches of the Secession, and the
Synod of the. Reformed Presbyterian Church, have made common cause with the
Free Church.
But apart from such ecclesiastical movements, the tendency of
events in Scotland, ever since the Disruption,
has been step by step to place all different Churches on the same level. Within
two years after 1843, a change was made in the administration of the poor-law,
by which the Established Church lost much of the influential position she
formerly held. Another change was the abolition of the tests by which all
University Professors were bound to attach themselves to the Established
Church. What brought the question into prominence was an attempt to expel Sir
David Brewster from the. office of Principal in the University of St. Andrews. He was the leading man of
science of his day in Scotland; but no sooner had he joined the Free Church
than the Presbytery rose in arms, and took action, on the 13th of June, within
less than a fortnight after the first Free Assembly. The most eminent advocates
were engaged, and a remarkable correspondence took place between the Presbytery
and one of their counsel, Mr. Inglis, now Lord Justice-General, whose opinion
was adverse to the proposed prosecution. The Presbytery were resolute, however.
After a long and anxious conversation with Dr. Cook, they wrote
that they had come to the resolution to libel Sir David Brewster. It was a
question involving, as we think the very existence of the
Establishment. They were ultimately persuaded - not without difficulty -
to refrain from prosecuting the case.
Other cases occurred; public
attention was called to the whole subject, and by Act of Parliament the
Professors, other than those in the Faculty of Divinity, were set free, the
Established Church losing the jurisdiction she claimed. A still more serious
change was made in regard to the parochial schools. We have seen with
what relentless severity all teachers adhering to the Free Church were
expelled, and how our great scheme of education was set up. But soon the need
of a national system became apparent. The Free Church threw her influence into
the scale; the public took the matter into their own hands, the present School
Boards were set up, and the exclusive control of the Established Church came to
an end. In these different changes something was due to the effect of the
Disruption. In connection with such national questions, the position of the
Establishment had become untenable. It was one thing to claim exclusive control
in the days when nearly the whole population belonged to a Church truly
national, but it was different when a majority of the people were outside its
pale.
Step by step the course of events has been moving in the direction of
religious equality. The Disruption, whose history we have endeavoured to trace,
has, it is obvious, left behind it many important lessons which well deserve
the careful consideration of every thoughtful mind. The simple duty of faith in
God, for example, was enforced in a way that was very memorable. Often in the
midst of the conflict the path of duty was dark. The world was full of scornful
mockery as to the folly of expecting that churches could be built, and incomes
provided for the outgoing ministers; and many a time, in our secret minds, we
were inclined to agree with the world that it was all very hopeless. The only
thing clear was that we must do the right. In mercy there was grace
given for the day of trial; and now, in looking back, the Free Church has
simply to tell of the faithfulness of a faithful God. This, then, is one
message which, in the most emphatic way, the Disruption brings to all men of
all Churches,- that, if only they walk in the path of duty, they will not be
forsaken. Many a time, in the midst of these Disruption experiences, mens
hearts have overflowed with gratitude as they were able to set up their
Ebenezer and say, Hitherto the Lord hath helped us. -
ANNALS OF
THE DISRUPTION.
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