From His Settlement in London in 1841 to the Disruption of the Scottish Church in 1843

After the date of his removal to London the narrative will necessarily be less minute and continuous, and this for two reasons, — first, because, under the pressure of a more exacting public sphere, his private memorials naturally become more scanty; and, second, because the editor, busy with his own duties at a great distance, could not take particular note of facts as they occurred, and that lack can never be afterwards made up. There is, however, the less reason to regret the comparatively meagre history of his daily life in its maturer stages, because then it was a light set on a hUl, and all might see it; whereas the progress of his mind, and especially of his spiritual life in his earlier years, was little known until now that this memoir has revealed it. We submit further at this point, that perhaps the most valuable service that a biography can render, is to lay open the springs of a life for the benefit of those who have been arrested by its force in maturity; as when we have navigated with profit the lower reaches of a great river near the sea, we desiderate an explorer who shall reach and reveal to us its source in the interior.

If the record of successive events be henceforth less complete, notices of his many literary labours may profitably take the place of a more detailed personal history.

After the death of James Halley a demand sprang up in the Christian community of Glasgow for some memoir of his life. The task of preparing it was by common consent assigned to Mr. Hamilton and the compiler of this memoir conjointly. We had only begun to form our plan for the distribution of the labour when he was summoned from Edinburgh to London. Partly on account of the distance rendering united action more difficult, but mainly because of the exacting and exhausting claims of his new sphere, he reluctantly withdrew from the partnership, and so, providentially, the honour of performing that labour of love fell to the remaining member of the firm. Mr. Hamilton, however, gladly consented to revise the proof sheets, and the memoir profited by his affectionate and sagacious suggestions. In three successive editions the little book served its generation; and has now, in a figure, fallen asleep in as far as the publishers’ lists are concerned, but it has not yet faded from the memory of those survivors who shared the friendship or admired the learning of that extraordinary young man.

Of those three students who met in the dingy quadrangle of Glasgow College, about forty years ago, and enjoyed for several seasons there a tender and hallowed brotherhood both in the prosecution of human science and the exercise of the spiritual life, the sole survivor has been led through a noteworthy and solemnizing experience. He was the oldest of the three, and yet it has been his sincmlar lot to begin his own literary life-work by composing the memoir of one of his friends, and to close it by composing the memoir of the other. His hand is steady as he traces these lines, and his eye clear; he stands in awe as the question rises, Wherefore has he been spared? The ripe have been taken, and that same Sun of Righteousness who made them mellow early, is able also to fill and sweeten in His own time those survivors who even unto old age retain much of the greenness and acidity that belongs to a too close rooting into the earth.

These two have entered within the veil; a quarter of a century intervened between the dates of their departure. Halley was the greater, both in learning and sheer power of intellect; but Hamilton excelled in feminine tenderness of spirit, and the imaginative or analogical faculty which lies at the foundation of all poetry. Both alike were reconciled imto God through the death of His Son, and ardently devoted to the service of the Lord that bought them. One was called “up higher” ere his ministry began; the other was promoted to the general assembly of the first-born that are written in heaven, after a public ministry of more than a quarter of a century. Both understand the matter now, and sing in concert, “He hath done all things well.”

James Halley, himself at once a great scholar and a sound judge of character, said of his friend Hamilton, while both were students at Glasgow, that he was peculiarly qualified, and therefore probably destined, to serve the Church with his pen. This estimate the result has proved to be just. From a very early age he had been constantly exercising, and so improving, his gift. He was yet a slender boy when he wrote biographies, and offered them to the Religious Tract Society. About the same period, in college vacations, he was wont to deliver lectures on chemistry and kindred subjects to his father’s parishioners at Strathblane. The memoir of his father, although in his maturer years he desired to revise and amend it, was creditable to his courage and skill, as well as to his filial reverence. During the later years of his course at college, especially in Edinburgh, he wrote much for the press, and wrote well. In biography, criticism, and the discussion of the questions between Church and State that were then agitated, he had obtained a good degree. But it was in that middle sphere where science comes in contact with theology that he found his most congenial occupation.

Settled as the minister of a Christian congregation in London, he now found himself precisely in the sphere best fitted for the effective outlay of the talent intrusted to his care. Although pastoral work was heavy and exacting, it did not absorb all his energies. Literary effort, indeed, was with him an irrepressible instinct. He was too intelligent and faithful a servant to hide in the ground a specific talent given to him by his Lord.

The first product of his pen in London was in its theme and method eminently characteristic. It was a tract entitled “The Church in the House,” and had for its object to recommend the observance of family worship. In style and manner, as well as in substance, it presents at once the strongly marked idiosyncracies of the man.

As a writer of religious tracts he adopted at first, and maintained ever afterwards, a well defined and original style.

It was all his own; not so much that he constructed it, as that it flowed naturally from the character of his mind.

The series of tracts which began with “The Church in the House” would have made his name dear to the Church of Christ, although he had done nothing in other departments. Each several tract exerted a power at the time, and has left its mark on the religious history of the period. These messengers, as they successively appeared, attracted much attention, and provoked much criticism. Ecclesiastical red tape was rudely shaken, and much scandalized. The tracts of this new adventurer did not march rank and file like so many soldiers. They did not keep step, and knew nothing of the regulations. They dared to seize plain facts and set them forth in a homely, piquant style, and altogether natural order. But the greatest shock was given by a certain vein of humour that could be detected here and there under the surface, and occasionally might even be seen boldly cropping out. Sometimes the reader was beguiled into a smile ere he knew what he was about; but, in all probabihty, ere he turned the page his eyes were moistened by a tear. These tracts did not let a man alone; they grasped him without asking his leave, and shook him about from side to side until they shook the indifierence out of him. A tract with hills and dales in it, like a landscape of nature, is, in one respect at least, better than those that maintain the dead level — people buy it and read it. It does not cost so much to get it circulated, and it is not so apt to be laid on the shelf.

“The Church in the House” was eminently useful We know of cases in the country where the distribution of it was followed by a great increase of family worship. Its peculiar power lay in the happy skill with which it relieved the exercise of its formidable character, and gently introduced it as a pleasure and a privilege. Without diminishing in aught the solemnity of divine worship, as conducted in the family circle, he did much to remove the stiffness and austerity with which, especially in Scotland, it had become too much associated. It was his blessed function, on this and many other kindred themes, to throw in the glow of his own more bhthe and buoyant hopefulness to help inexperienced and timid spirits, who somehow fell into the error of supposing that they could not be rightly religious without being and appearing frightened and sad. He had largely learned in his own experience the scriptural principle, that “the joy of the Lord is your strength;” and he most lovingly laid himself out to teach the precious secret to others. It is a high honour to have won many families over to the practice of private social worship, by showing them that the commandment of God in that matter “is not grievous.”

As there were “Reformers before the Reformation,” so there were earnest unionists among the churches before the Evangehcal Alliance was formed. It was according to the nature of things that James Hamilton should gravitate towards any nucleus that might be in the process of formation with a view to the increase of brotherly love among Protestant Christians, and a more distinct manifestation of the love that might already have been attained. It so happens that the earliest of his letters, after the date of his removal to London, that has fallen into our hands refers to this subject. It is addressed to his beloved and venerated friend Mr. William Hamilton, who evidentlyhad asked his opinion on some points bearing on the question of union in spirit and co-operation in effort among the disciples of the Lord. His views at this early stage are important, in relation to the distinguished services which he afterwards rendered to the cause of Christian union.

Let it be borne in mind that this is not a public manifesto, but a private letter to a friend who held office along with himseK in a Presbyterian Church. It is natural in these circumstances that he should express fully his preference for Presbytery, and the grounds of his judgment. But failing what he considers best, he is ready to labour a lifetime for what may be attainable in the direction of imion.

“My views are these: —

“I. The Lord Jesus lives. He is of the same mind as when He prayed ’ that they all may be one, — that the world may know that Thou hast sent me.’ It is the duty, therefore, of His disciples to seek union, the duty of individual Christians and of Evangelical Churches to maintain a friendly correspondence. If such correspondence be begun and conducted with purity of motive and warmth of affection, it cannot but lead to increasing mutual respect and increasing congeniality, i.e., union.

“II. The most scriptural form of church government is likely to be the most efficient in extending and upholding the kingdom of Christ. I am deeply persuaded that the Presbyterian is the most scriptural form, and that could we get it more largely adopted we should do much to advance the cause of Christ.

“III. From a variety of causes the Presbyterian is the most unpopular denomination in England; in other words, the most efficient agency for spreading the gospel is the agency of which Enghsh Christians are most jealous. The only form of government capable of offering effectual and combined resistance to popish encroachments is that form which Protestant Europe has adopted, but which in England is monopolized by a handful of Scotchmen.

“IV. Did Presbyterian Christians cultivate the friendship of orthodox denominations, and invite them to study the constitution and workings of Presbytery, I am certain much prejudice would be removed and a highway opened for the advance of Presbyterianism.

“V. That even did we fail in prevailing on them to join our Synod, or assume to themselves a presbyteric name, if they were supremely bent on advancing vital godliness and spiritual Christianity through this and other lands, it were our duty to maintain brotherly intercourse with them, and to unite openly from time to time in measures for the furtherance of our common Christianity, e.g., in a manifesto showing the essential unity of that God-built and Spiritinhabited Church of which each regenerate man is a living stone, in opposition to the mock unity of the worldly sanctuary of mere churchism; in a course of lectures on the modern heresy, in an evangelistic effort to preach the gospel to every creature in England should the gross darkness of Puseyism settle down on its parishes, etc.

“Therefore, and as a conclusion of the whole matter, I “REMEMBERING ZION.” 197

would seek by all pacific means to enlist under Presbyterian banners as many as I could for the sake of that grander ultimatum, the enlisting through a lively and influential Presbyterian church increasing numbers under the banner of the Cross.

“I despair of the Church of England. It never took honest leave of Babylon. It is going back in time to share Babylon’s overthrow. If deliverance is to come to the Church of God in England, it must be from some quarter more evangelical, — most probably from a union of all that is evangelical in England. On the Presbyterian platform I see room enough for all to meet, and find it an impregnable position.

“James Hamilton.”

After dealing with family worship his next care was the public worship of the Sabbath. The Church in the House was published on the 1st of January, and Remembering Zion followed on 10th February 1842. This second tract is addressed to Scotchmen in London, and its design is to commend the doctrine, discipline, and worship of their fathers and their fatherland. Although it gives a certain sound in favour of his own cherished Presbyterian system, it breathes throughout a spirit of the most generous and catholic sympathy with all the members of the Christian brotherhood. Observing that many of his countrymen when settled in the great metropolis, like individual trees not seen in the wood, glided away first from the Presbyterian Church, and next from the Church altogether, he set himself to counteract the danger by the

198 SCOTCHMEN m LONDON.

methods which he understood and could employ. With him it was certainly not a sectarian movement. He knew not of any way by which he could do more good to Scotchmen in London than by inducing them to attend the Scottish Church.

The introductory sentences of the tract, written in his own pecuKar vein, with its characteristics perhaps even more strongly marked than in later years, is a good example of the apostolic method of taking by guile those whom you desire to win. The patriotism, and the principles, and the habits, and even the prejudices of Scotchmen, are touched skilfully, and all compelled to contribute their share to the result.

“When the Israelites were in a city vast and ungodly like London, — a city without a Sabbath, — they used, when they had opportunity, to sit down and talk of the fair land and the lovely temple from which they had been wrenched away. * By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down; yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.* Dear fellow-countrymen, most of you are so far like the Israelites that you remember with tenderness the land of your birth, and cannot bear that others should speak of it disparagingly. You like to be reminded of the scenery of Scotland, the summer verdure of its straths and glens, and the polished fulness of its deep bine lakes; its wailing winter torrents, and the snow-laden mountains which feed them. And you love its ancient minstrelsy — the gathering songs in whose high pulse the hero-hearts of the olden time still. throb, and those pathetic dirges which were nature’s own anthems chanted by woodland rills and lonely waterfalls long before man set them to his music. But there are glorious things of Scotland which you have still more reason to remember. You have not forgotten the schools and sanctuaries, and Sabbath days, which once were Scotland’s own; and perhaps you will not refuse to listen a few moments whilst we would call them to remembrance. Let us here, in this busy tumultuous Babylon, sit down for a little and remember our Zion.

“You remember the Sabbath days of Scotland. You remember how the Sabbath was wont weekly to set every house in order throughout the land. You remember the Saturday evening’s preparation for the Sabbath’s rest — the early cessation of labour in the fields and factories, the timely marketing, the lustration of each apartment, the arranging of household furniture, the fetching home of water from the well, the storing of fagots for fuel, the busy exertions of young and old to anticipate and supersede all Sabbath toil, which resulted in imparting beforehand a look of Sabbatic neatness and tranquillity to the weU-ordered habitation. You remember too the friendly visits which neighbour families were wont to exchange that evening, loth to invade the sanctity of each other’s houses on the Lord’s own day, but glad to take advantage of this breathing-time to cement those friendships which they meant to be hereditary. You remember the Sabbath dawn, with its morning orisons and the prompt preparations for the house of God. You remember the fresh and wholesome aspect of the mustering population as they wended slowly through the churchyard: the spectacled matron with her bulky Bible wrapped in its snowy kerchief, and provided with a fragrant sprig of some favourite herb; the cottar in the homespun suit which the Sabbath storms of many winters had washed, but had not tattered; and the artisan with his children, whose countenances forgot their week-day toil as they put off their week-day garments. If it were a parish over which a man of God presided, you remember the reverence of their worship and the solemnity of their bearing; whilst one who understood the case of each spoke home to the hearts of all, and their common confessions and thanksgivings and supplications, uttered by one voice, were echoed by a hundred hearts. You remember the heart-music which you sometimes heard at the uprising of the great congregation, when the burly voice of manhood and the quivering notes of palsy-stricken age, ’ young men and maidens, old men and children,’ praising God, told that he had made their hearts right glad. You remember the Sabbath eve, when the children’s tasks were over, and the sermons had been repeated, and with the Bible or the Pilgrim’s Progress, or the Fourfold State, each hied way to the barn or the fir-plantation, or some of the thousand cottage oratories which God knows full well in that land of many worshippers, till the downward sun reminded them that it was time to close these solitary studies, and gather round the household hearth once more.”

Having thus sought to insinuate himself into the favour of his countrymen, he proceeds in a strain of the gentlest brotherly kindness, but at the same time of the clearest logic, to commend to their understandings and their hearts the Standards, the Worship, the Government, the History, and the spiritual attainments of the Scottish Presbyterian Church.

But that Church, so dear to him in his partial exile, was by this time advancing deep into a sea of troubles. Forward, in obedience to her fundamental principles, and the command of her Divine Head — forward she must of necessity go; although every minister and every member knew right well by this time that the path of duty was the path of danger. The conflict within the Church on the one hand, and between the Church and the civil courts on the other, was approaching its crisis. The principles involved in the controversy, and the gravity of its result, are better appreciated by poKticians now, twenty- six years after the event, than they were at the time. The ministers and elders of the Scottish Church knew the stake and the conditions thoroughly from the first; but those who in that day occupied the position of statesmen were profoundly ignorant both of the principles contended for, and the earnestness of the contenders. Adopting cynically the shallow rule that churchmen, although they make a great noise, will succumb in the long-run if you control them by their pecuniary interest, they peremptorily declined to listen to the demand made by the Scottish Church for independence in its own spiritual sphere and action. The consequence was the Disruption, — an event which was destined, as it now appears, to become one of the great cardinal points of our national history.

Sympathizing thoroughly with his brethren in Scotland, James Hamilton saw, in 1842, the shadows of the coming event, and applied himself in his own fashion to prepare for it. When his heart was full of a great subject it discharged itself by a tract. In this direction he had already discovered that he possessed a means of access to the public ear, and in such a crisis he would not neglect his opportunity.

The most important of the many assemblies held in Scotland by the reforming party within the Church, for mutual counsel and defence, was that which was convened in Edinburgh in November 1842, and has ever since been known as “the Convocation.” Unlike all other Presbyterian councils, it consisted of ministers only. Its deliberations were conducted with closed doors; and by common consent no layman, not even an elder, was once admitted. The reason for both the privacy of the assembly and its exclusively clerical constituency was abundantly strong, although to outsiders not at first sight obvious. The moment that the reason is stated, not to say explained, every fair mind instinctively acquiesces in its propriety. All had now been done that men of honour could condescend to do, with the view of retaining the spiritual freedom of the Church in conjunction with its position as a national establishment; and the time had come when it behoved the party who were faithful to the scriptural principles and glorious history of their Church to make a final stand, and intimate to all concerned that if a certain definite measure of relief should not be granted by the Legislature within a certain definite space of time, they should abandon their connexion with the State, in order to maintain allegiance to their heavenly King. Now, as it was on the side of the ministers almost exclusively that the contemplated measure involved a pecuniary sacrifice, and as in their case it involved the sacrifice of all that they possessed, it was felt that they alone should discuss the policy of the plan, and frame their resolution upon it, apart from the influence, and even the presence, of other parties not so deeply interested in the result.

The place chosen for the sittings of the Convocation was Eoxburgh Church, — the same building in which James Hamilton had exercised a brief ministry immediately before his removal to London. He attended all the deliberations, and cordially cast in his lot with the brethren. Immediately after his return appeared another tract, entitled “The Harp on the “Willows,” in which he describes the assembly, and explains to the English people its resolutions, and their grounds. The Irochure was eminently useful in conveying correct information to Englishmen on a subject with which they were not familiar.

A letter, written at Edinburgh during the sittings of the Convocation, possesses much historical value, as indicating the general tone of its members at the critical moment in the history of the Church: —

TO MR. WILLIAM HAMILTON.

“15 BuccLEucH Place, Edin.,
Nov. 19, 1842.

“My dear Mr. Hamilton, — The Convocation has adjourned for this week, and if its future proceedings be conducted in the same spirit of conciliation and harmony as hitherto, I have no doubt that the effect on the country will be great. The effect on the ministers themselves is evidently good. They met, almost as many minds as there were men. But the proceedings were opened by a mos» appropriate and impressive sermon by Dr. Chalmers on the spirit in which these deliberations should be conducted. There was much prayer intermingled with all their proceedings; and though yesterday there were three different proposals, this morning they very unexpectedly and wonderfully were fused together, and all agreed that in going to Government they should demand as a minimum a satisfactory non-intrusion measure (the liherum arlitrium being held unsatisfactory), and the uncontrolled spiritual jurisdiction of the Church courts. On Monday, it will be considered what ought to be done in the event of no answer, or a negative being returned to this application. The prevailing feeling is, that rather than be decimated one by one, they should stand together and hold themselves ready to secede in a body, and make this intention known. Some will be for remaining till they be driven out, but these I think are very few, and perhaps on this also there will be a unanimous resolution.

“Nearly 500 are present. The feeling is that of much mutual confidence (with some few exceptions), and a solemn realization of their position as in the crisis of the Church’s history. In the remarkable harmony of this day it was generally felt that the Spirit of Love, and of a sound mind, was the Author of it, and every one saw that it was an answer to prayer.

“I have seen almost all your friends, Mr. S. Martin, Mr. Anderson, etc. But the Convocation consumes the day, and, except for a few moments in the lobby, or with a “the harp on the willows.” 205

neighbour beside you, there is little opportunity for news or talk. I am very glad I came, and very glad that Regent Square sent its token of good-will. It verifies Rom. i. 8.

“To-morrow morning I preach in Eoxburgh Church, and nowhere else. I would have written more minutely, but from the private nature of the meetings I am not sure yet whether it is right to enter more into particulars.

“Remember me most kindly to Mrs. Hamilton, and to those brethren of the Session who may be at the Monday prayer-meeting. The Convocation will, at the time of that meeting, be deciding the point which involves the temporal interests of the ministers, and I am sure you will not forget to seek for them a self-renouncing spirit. — I remain, yours most affectionately,

“James Hamilton.”

The introduction of the tract is characteristic: —” Two months ago I went to Edinburgh to attend the Convocation of Ministers. Like many of my countrymen my heart used to beat harder when I came in sight of that city of Reformers and Covenanters, of hallowed Sabbaths, and crowded churches, and solemn assemblies. Its towers and steeples used to say. Mount Zion stands most beautiful. But on this occasion ’ how did the city sit solitary! ‘Its pleasant sanctuaries had a look of widowhood; and the most melancholy object of all was a gorgeous unfinished structure on the Castle Hill, reared for the Assemblies of the Church of Scotland, but more likely to be their cenotaph. Ministers preached, and congregations worshipped, as under warning to quit, and there was much of a farewell solemnity in every service. In private it was the same; and, amidst many joyful meetings and much longed-for intercourse, there was a prevailing tendency to sadness. There was a mournful and foreboding feeling, like that which reigned in Jerusalem after the voice had cried in the Temple, ‘Arise! depart! ’ and just before the abomination of desolation took his stand in the holy place. There was a conviction deeper than ever that the cause of the Church was the cause of God, and therefore not soon likely to become the cause of man. However, a few ’ hoped against hope; ’ and the last evening I spent in Edinburgh, and being rather a cheering word I remember it better, in the course of a conversation about the Church’s prospects, an accomplished barrister said in my hearing, ‘I have great hope from the honesty of Englishmen. The English are a just people, and, if they understood our case, would do us justice.’

“Now, dear friends, to be as honest as yourselves, I have great fear that you do not understand the case, and some fear that you will not study it. If the Waldenses were about to be ejected from those valleys, which they hold by solemn treaty, I could count on your interference. Or if the civil courts of Constantinople were tampering with the internal arrangements of our ambassador’s chapel, I believe you would think it right that our Government should remonstrate. Now that the Queen of Madagascar is concussing Christian consciences, I know that many of you are indignant, and would interpose your protection if you could. If you will hear me patiently, I promise to show that the cases are too parallel; and as I shall endeavour to relieve the subject of all intricate details and metaphysical niceties, so I earnestly trust that, if I make out a case of grievance or suffering for conscience’ sake, you who have ere now listened to a voice from Piedmont, will not shut your ears against a voice from the Church of Scotland.

“At the Revolution — which you and we agree in calling glorious — the Government restored to Scotland the religion which the Reformers gave it. Presbyterianism was established; that is to say, a Presbyterian minister was planted in every parish. A house was assigned to this minister to live in; four or five acres of land were annexed to this house, on which some oats and barley might grow, and a cow might pasture; and then to purchase books, and furniture, and fuel, and other creature- comforts not indigenous to the glebe, a small salary from a portion of the ancient tithes was superadded. In consideration of the manse, glebe, and stipend, the people of that parish were entitled to the services of the minister, could claim their seat in the parish church, and enjoy, rich and poor alike, the ordinances of religion. In those happy days each parish chose its own elders, and they, along with such of the landed proprietors as were members of the church, chose the minister. And as they usually chose the best, Scotland ‘flourished by the preaching of the word.’”

He then proceeds to explain, in simple and graphic style, how this fair garden was turned into a desert by the tyrannical re-enactment of patronage in the beginning of the last century, and by the subversion of spiritual liberty in the Church through the agency of the civil courts in the earlier half of the present. It is true that in our day men in high places of the State distinctly announce their theory of an Established Church to be subjection of the Church to the Courts of the State in all their affairs, as the price of Establishment and Endowment by the resources of the nation; it is true also that various parties in the Church of England, including that which is reckoned distinctively evangelical, accept and even boast of that humiliating condition. Not so the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in its best days; not so the churches of Scotland that are free. It was a fundamental principle of the historical Church of Scotland, from the Reformation downwards, that no civil court had a right to review or reverse a sentence pronounced by a Church court in spiritual matters. That principle was frequently misrepresented by ignorant or prejudiced persons, as if the Church were setting up a Popish claim to exemption in favour of ecclesiastics from subjection to civil law. This was a grievous mistake; but it was difficult to get the mistake corrected where people were not willing to learn. Throughout the conflict the Church uniformly conceded the right of the civil courts to control all temporal interests according to law, and by their own methods. They were perfectly willing that the judges, if they found that a Presbytery had ordained the wrong minister, should adjudge the manse and church and stipend to another; but they did not concede that the judges were competent either to ordain a certain minister themselves, or to comr

pel the Presbytery to do it. The claim of the Church was, leave us free to pronounce sentence in matters purely spiritual, according to our own scriptural rules, without being liable to authoritative review in the civil court; and if the civil court find that we have transgressed any law, let the penalty be the loss of the temporalities. Let the courts of the State, if they see fit, take all that the State ever gave; but let them not presume either to reverse our sentences themselves, or compel us by penalties to reverse” them.

This liberty was formally denied to the Church by the Legislature; this liberty no Established Church enjoys. The theory accepted by the heads of both political parties is, that if the State endows the Church, the State also rules it. The spiritual sentences of ecclesiastical tribunals are liable to be reviewed, and if need be reversed, by the civil courts, precisely as the sentences of inferior civil courts are subject to review by the superior.

Two sets of resolutions were after full deliberation unanimously adopted by the Convocation. The first series defined exactly, not the measure of freedom which the Church deemed the best, but the minimum — the smallest measure consistent with truth and honour. The second pledged all the members to abandon the Establishment at the date of the next General Assembly in May, if the previously defined relief should not by that time have been granted by the Legislature. These resolutions were duly made known to the Government and the Houses of Parliament, and then the ministers awaited the result. The result is well known. Statesmen refused to believe that the ministers would renounce their benefices until they were convinced by the fact, and then it was too late to amend the blunder.

Dr. Hamilton’s sketch of the character and constituents of the Assembly is a valuable record, now that most of the leading actors have been removed from the stage.

“Nearly 500 came together; and it was very plain that no ordinary call could have brought from the remotest headlands of our rugged land such a company in the dead season of the year.

“After a prayer-meeting in St. George’s Church, and a sermon by Dr. Chalmers, — ‘Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness, — the ministers adjourned to Eoxburgh Church. Dr. Chalmers took the chair. It was agreed that during each sederunt three of the brethren should engage in prayer, and in this way confession and supplication assumed a prominent place in the business of each meeting. None but ministers were present. In order to encourage each member freely to speak his mind this privacy was requisite, and it tended greatly to impart a confiding and conversational tone to their proceedings. For our own part it made us feel that the innermost side of good men is the best side; and whilst listening to the brotherly tone of their communings, so unlike the defiance and disdain of Christian heroism and self-renunciation which were ever and anon expressed, we wished that the world were present; and during the devotional exercises and at intervals throughout the deliberations, when sudden light or consolation broke in, in a way which brought tears to many eyes, we would have liked that all the

Christians in the kingdom could be present, for we felt assured that the Lord Himself was there. And then, when we looked at the materials of the meeting, and saw before us, with few exceptions, all the talent, and, with still fewer exceptions, all the piety of the Church of Scotland, we wished that those were present in whose power it lies to preserve to the Scottish Establishment all this learning and this worth. There was the chairman, who might so easily have been the Adam Smith, the Leibnitz, or the Bossuet of the day, but who, having obtained a better part, has laid economics and philosophy and eloquence on the altar which sanctified himself There was Dr. Gordon, lofty in simplicity, whose vast conceptions and majestic emotions plough deeper the old channels of customary words, and make common phrases appear solemn and sublime after he has used them. There were Dr. Keith, whose labours in the prophecies have sent his fame through Europe, and are yearly bringing converts into the Church of Christ; and Mr. James Buchanan, whose deep-drawn sympathy and rich Bible-lore, and Christian refinement, have made him a son of consolation to so many of the sons of sorrow. There were Dr. Welsh, the biographer and bosom friend of Thomas Brown; Dr. Forbes, among the most inventive of modern mathematicians; and Dr. Paterson, whose Manse Garden is read for the sake of its poetry and wisdom and Christian kindness where there are no gardens, and will be read for the sake of other days when there are no manses. And there was Dr. Patrick M’Farlan, whose calm judgment is a sanction to any measure, and who, holding the richest benefice in Scotland, most appropriately moved the resolution, that rather than sacrifice their principles they should surrender their possessions; and not to mention ’ names the poet must not speak, there were in that Assembly the men who are dearest of all to the godly throughout the land, the men whom the Lord delighted to honour, — all the ministers in whose parishes have been great revivals, from the apostle of the North, good old Mr. Macdonald, whose happy countenance is a signal for expectation and gladness in every congregation he visits; and Mr. Burns of Kilsyth, whose affectionate counsels and prayers made the Convocation feel towards him as a father, — down to those younger ministers of whom, but for our mutual friendship, I could speak more freely. When we looked at the whole, knowing something of all, we felt, first, such an Assembly never met in Scotland before; secondly, it will depend on them, under God, whether Scotland can ever furnish such an Assembly again; and, thirdly, what a blot on any reign, and what a guilt on any Government, which casts forth such a company! And then, after some sadder musings, came in this thought, Yet what a blessing to the world if they were scattered abroad, everywhere preaching the word!”

In March 1843 he was first greatly grieved, and subsequently much quickened in spirit, by the stroke that was tenderly felt by the whole Christian brotherhood that use in common the English tongue — the sudden removal of his friend and fellow-labourer, Robert M. M’Cheyne of Dundee. News had reached him in the end of the week of his beloved brother’s dangerous illness. As no letters are delivered in London on Sabbath, he was on the watch with peculiar earnestness on Monday morning for the postman’s call. His mother, himself, and his friend and neighbour, Isir. James Watson, were sitting together at breakfast in his house, when the double knock, much longed for and yet secretly dreaded, rang through the room. He bounded to his feet, and made towards the lobby with a spring, saying, “We shall hear how dear Robert is!” Returning with some letters in his hand, and opening one of them by the way, he obtained a glance of the first line as he entered the dining-room, and learned the final fact. His hand fell down by his side as if it had been stricken with paralysis. Uttering a gentle exclamation, “Robert is gone!” he stood still and pale like a statue for about a minute, and then said, “Let us pray.” All knelt in silence; then, himself and Mr. Watson alternately giving their desires expression, they poured out to God hearts that were too full for converse with each other. It was a great love, for it was a love in the Spirit. The fountains of a great deep were broken up in the survivor when his brother in the Lord was removed from his sight.

TO KEV. ANDREW BONAR, COLLAGE.

“7 Lansdowne Place, April 1, 1843.

“My dear, dear Brother, — This has been a solemn

and affecting week, and this the most affecting day of all.

When the post brought two letters this afternoon from

Dundee, giving an account of the funeral, and I felt that the grave had really closed upon him, I cannot tell the feelings of desolation that came over my mind. I had hoped by the end of this month to see him once more, and it looks so very short since last November when he was here. But I have yielded too much to these feelings, and unless God strengthen my weak body and mind, I will be very unfit for to-morrow. Nor could I write now unless it were to you, or some one who has felt like you.

“It has been a mournful relief to find how many here are moved by the tidings. It shows not only that his last visit has made a deep impression — which I knew — but it leads me to hope that the striking dispensation may be blessed to this people.

“But I have been trying to bring my cold, stubborn, unbelieving heart to ponder God’s message to myself When I compare myseK with him I see what sinful trifling much of my ministry has been; and when I think how beautiful was his holiness, and how impressive the consistency of his character, and think of my incurable levity and readiness to fall in with other people’s ways, I would despair were it not for the exhaustless resources of the cleansing blood and sanctifying Spirit. Oh, to follow the Lord fully like him, — to be the Christ-like man he was! You, my kind, dear friend, know my infirmities — some of them at least; and for the sake of my not dishonouring Christ, for the sake of my usefulness, tell me freely of them. The Lord is speaking in this providence, and is calling to ministers to arise and begin anew. I wish to hear His voice, and have been praying these days past for a double portion of EHjah’s spirit. Oh that the

Lord would grant that double portion to many Elishas in Scotland also!

“He was with you this time last year. I have a letter dated from ‘Collace, March 25th, 1842.’ I mean to read it to the people to-morrow. But I have only two letters besides preserved. I shall send them to you, though not so remarkable as many you will have, for I rejoice to hear that you mean to write down with pen and ink some of the more memorable things which God had written on this living epistle. Seldom has there been one so distinct and full.

“There are many good people in Regent Square, and things outwardly are rather prosperous; but we have much need to pray that the Lord would stir up His strength and might, and come and save us, for the careless people are much as they were. The church is very large, and the people look far away, — not within arm’s-length, as in Abernyte or Collace. But I do hope that, in rich and sovereign grace, God may send us, notwithstanding our carnality and worldliness, a season of refreshing.

“Pray much for it, and for one who would feel it a privilege to be your brother in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, and is your affectionate friend,

“James Hamilton.”

“7 Lansdowne Place, April 6, 1843. “Last week was a heavy one — some solemn and quickening thoughts mingling with many sad ones. Robert M’Cheyne was not a year older than myself, but what a work he had finished before he was called away! Though with an incomparably colder heart, I believe I love the same Saviour to whom he had dedicated himself, and it is my desire to extend His glory in the world. How shall I do it? I am so frivolous, so unequal, so carnal, that I often feel it would be better for the cause of Christ that I was not identified with it. But here I am planted in a most important position — minister of one of the few Scotch churches here — with a people so immersed in business that ordinary impressions fast fade from their minds, — so intelligent and observing that any inconsistency in their minister is sure to be noticed, and many of them so fastidious, or so slightly bound to myself, that a very little thing would drive them away. Here have I been for nineteen months and more, and except a large increase to the congregation, and some marks of outward prosperity, little has been done. The Spirit has been restrained. Few deep impressions have been made, and I scarcely know of any sound conversions. Lord, let me not despond. Make me consistent. Make me a living epistle. Give me wisdom from above. Make me spiritually-minded.”

Thus the early departure of M’Cheyne affected those of kindred spirit who had been intimately associated with him in his brief, and, on its upper side, brilliant ministry. It humbled, reproved, quickened, and stimulated them. But the effects of that divine dispensation were not limited to the comparatively narrow circle of M’Cheyno’s personal friends. Through the memorials and remains of the young minister, prepared by the tender hand and congenial spirit of Andrew Bonar, his death exerted perhaps a greater power in advancing Christ’s kingdom than his life could have put forth.

The next letter written by Mr. Hamilton — the next as iar as they have come under our observation — affords simple and interesting evidence of the sharpening which his spirit hud obtained in the furnace of his great sorrow:

♦•LoNDOK, April 14, 1843.

“My dear Mrs. Vetch, — It gave me great pleasure to hear from you; and it would give me much if this at all answered the end for which you so kindly asked me to write. It makes me happy when I find a friend who really desires to hear or speak about Christ. In heaven He mingles with every thought, is the spring of every service, and the burden of every song. But few in heaven have such reason to love Him as sinners here on earth. It is in our world that Bethlehem, and Nazareth, and Calvary are to be found; and if we ever go to heaven it is the blood shed at Jerusalem which must take us there. But it is the depravity of our hearts that we cannot love this Saviour, that we cannot even bend our minds to think of Him, and meditate upon Him, until the fire burn! You complain that your heart is cold towards the Friend of sinners. There is One who can make it glow. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus; and He can show Christ in such a light that the heart cannot help being warmed and melted. The Holy Spirit does this through His own chosen instrumentality, of which the chief is the Word read and heard. The last I believe to be chiefly blessed. I do not well know how you are situated with regard to ministers in your part of the country; but the earnest advice of your old friend would be to search out the liveliest and most faithful preacher of Christ in all the country-side, and frequent his ministry, however far away. I know that you and the Major are members of the Episcopal Church, but that will not hinder you from getting good by a gospel ministry wherever you find it. And it is of such surpassing moment to hear the truth as it is in Jesus affectionately declared, that it were worth a long pilgrimage to go and hear it. It is little that I know of Christ, but that little is my truest joy. It is more than I once did, and though I have more labours and anxieties now than I once had, I believe that I am happier than I once was. I am sorry that this note must be so short, but I shall be glad to write again. I thank you for the tender and beautiful verses, and thank Major Vetch for introducing me to such a man as Mr. Money. I have not yet been able to go with the letter, but I hope to do so soon.

“May your peace be like a river. — Yours most truly,

“James Hamilton.”

In May of this year the memorable Disruption of the Church of Scotland took place. The resolutions of the Convocation, signed by 400 ministers, had been laid before the Parliament and the Government; bat the statesmen of the day offered no redress for wrongs inflicted, no relaxation of bonds imposed upon the Church. The majority, liberal, advancing, and devoted, held to the last by the hope that the relief which scriptural truth demanded, and imperial policy manifestly suggested, would “farewell to EGYPT.” 219

bo granted. They were loath to believe that the historic Church of Scotland would be held bound to take their orders, in spiritual matters as well as temporal, from the Court of Session. The law ofi&cers of the Crown advised that the liberty which they demanded was their own by the constitution of the realm; and five of the thirteen Judges in the Scottish Supreme Court pronounced their opinions to the same effect. But the opposite view prevailed. It was finally determined that the position and emoluments of the Establishment should belong exclusively to those who, in such matters as the ordination or deposition of a minister, should simply obey the decision of the Civil Court.

The crisis had come. The liberty of the Presbyterian Church must be crushed, as that of the Episcopal has long been, under a merely Erastian supremacy, or the Church must go out from the Establishment, carrying her freedom along with her, and leaving her emoluments behind. Towards Edinburgh, on the days immediately preceding the 18th of May, the more energetic spirits gravitated from every corner of the land, prepared to act worthily one great turning-point of our national history. James Hamilton was there, soul and body, prepared to take his part. In a tract published immediately afterwards, under the title Farewell to Egypt, the scene, while yet fresh in his memory, was pictured by his own pen.

“Edinburgh is one of those cities which seem designed as the arena of mighty incidents. Commanding that wide prospect of fertile fields, and of the far-stretching ocean, which is itself enlarging to the soul; overhung by tall piles of ancient masonry, and hoary battlements wliicli only speak of other years; looking up to everlasting mountains wliicli carry the thoughts aloft, or far into the future; and with the solemn shadows of the ancient capital diffusing a sedateness over the elegance of the modern town: Edinburgh is essentially an historic city — a city familiar with great events, and a proper place for their transaction. On the morning of the 1 8th May it had the look as if such an event were coming. People were early astir. When the hours of business came men either forbore their usual occupations or plied them in a way which showed they had as lief forbear. Holyrood was one point of attraction, for the yearly gleam of royalty was flickering about its grim turrets and through its gaunt open gateway. The scarlet yeomen with their glancing halberts, and the horsemen curvetting in the court of the resounding ‘Sanctuary,’ announced that the representative of majesty was within; and a stream of very various equipages was conveying down the Canongate professors from the College and red-gowned magistrates from the Council Chamber, lawyers from the Parliament House, and lairds from all the Lothians, besides a long pedestrian procession of doctors and ministers and burgh elders, all resorting to the Palace to pay their homage to His Grace the Queen’s Commissioner. From Holyrood they marched to the High Church. This venerable fabric seemed also to renew the days of old. Beneath that canopy where James, of pedantic memory, used to sit, and sometimes dispute with John Durie and Patrick Simpson, sate the representative of royalty, and, all around, the gallery was garnished with the parti-coloured pomp of civic functionaries, whilst the area was filled with that grave and learned auditory which no other occasion could supply. The discourse, ‘Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind,’ was a production which, for wise and weighty casuistry, for keen analysis of motive and fine discrimination of truth, and for fehcity of historic illustration, would have been a treat to such a congregation at a less eventful season. With the solemn consciousness that in the ‘full persuasion’ of their own minds they had decided in another hour to take a step in which character and worldly comfort and ministerial usefulness were all involved, each sentence came with a sanction which such sermons seldom carry. When the service was closing the audience began to disperse with a precipitation which contrasted strangely with the fixed earnestness of their previous attention; for the place appointed for the meeting of Assembly lay at some distance, and the members were anxious to secure their seats, and onlookers were anxious to get near the spot. In the Assembly Hall many of the gallery spectators had sate nine weary hours; when at last the rapid entrance of members by either door aimounced that the service in St. Giles’s was over, and languid countenances were again lighted up with expectation. It did not look like the opening of a General Assembly. There was not the usual vivacity of recognition, and that hustling to and fro and ferment of joyous voices which on such occasions keep the floor all astir and the audience all alive. Either side was serious. The one party had that awe upon their spirits which men feel when doing a great work. Of the other party some had that cloud upon their consciences which men feel when they are doing a wrong “svork, — when they see others doing what but for want of faith themselves should have been doing; and

others more honest, consistent Erastians of the old school, had something of a funereal feeling — sadness in parting with opponents whom they respected, and a foreboding impression that when these were gone away it would scarcely be worth while remaining.

“At last the jingle of horse-gear, and the measured prance on the pavement, with the full near swell of the trumpet seemed to say, in the words of the national melody,

‘Now ’s the day and now ’s the hour.’

The martial music ceased, and the Assembly rose, for Her Majesty’s Commissioner had entered. The Moderator engaged in prayer, and as soon as that prayer was ended, and the members had resumed their seats amidst the breathless silence which prevailed, he went on to say, ‘According to the usual form of procedure, this is the time for making up the roll, but in consequence of certain proceedings afifecting our rights and privileges — proceedings which have been sanctioned by Her Majesty’s Government and by the Legislature of the country, and more especially in respect that there has been an infringement on the liberties of our Constitution, so that we could not now constitute this Court without a violation of the terms of the union between Church and State in this land as now authoritatively declared, — I must protest against our proceeding further. The reasons that have led me to this conclusion are fully set forth in the document which I hold in my hand, and which, with permission of the House, I shall now proceed to read.’ He then read the Protest, and having laid it on the table, bowed towards the throne, and withdrew. Man by man, and row by row, all to the left of the chair, arose and followed. An irrepressible shout of gratulation from the multitude in the street announced that the vanguard was fairly ’ without the camp,’ and, orderly and slowly retiring, in a few short minutes all were gone. Looking at the long ranges of vacant forms from which the pride of Scottish genius and the flower of Scottish piety had disappeared, there were few spectators who did not feel, * the glory is departed.’

“It was a striking sight to see the dark line, for half a mile together, moving down the steep declivity which leads to the valley of Leith Water. In the distance stood, bright in its polished freshness, the new Assembly Hall, on which they had turned their backs for ever. On either side was the crowd of lookers-on — thronging windows and balconies, and outside stairs — some cheering, and others hfting their hats in silent reverence — some weeping, many wondering, and a few endeavouring to smile. And in the middle of the street held on the long procession, which included Welsh and Chalmers, Gordon and Buchanan, Keith and MTarlan, Alexander Stewart and John Macdonald, Cunningham and Candlish; everything of which a Scotchman thinks when he thinks of the Church of Scotland. Humble in its original destination, and prepared in haste, but of vast dimensions, and crowded with an eager auditory,

224, THE ASSEMBLY FREE.

their new place of meeting was emblematic of that new dispensation in the history of the Church of Scotland which had now begun. The emblems of royal patronage were absent. There was neither canopy nor throne. No civic pomp was seen. Magistrates had laid aside their robes of office, and none of Scotland’s nobles had come. But the heart of Scotland was there, and it was soon borne in on every mind that a greater than Solomon was there. None who heard them can ever forget the fulness and world-forgetting rapture, the inspiration of the opening prayers; and when that mighty multitude stood up to sing, it seemed as if the swell of vehement melody would lift the roof from off the walls. And when at last the adjournment for the day took place, and in the brightness of a lovely evening the different groups went home, all felt as if returning from a Pentecostal meeting. A common salutation was — ‘We have seen strange things to-day.’ Some, contrasting the harmony and happiness of the Free Assembly with the strife and debate of other days, could not help exclaiming, ‘Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! ‘Many remembered the text of Dr. Chalmers’s sermon six months before in opening the Convocation, — ‘Unto the upright light shall arise in the darkness.’ And at the family worship of those memorable evenings, such psalms as the 124th and 126th were often sung, and were felt to be * new songs.’ It would be pleasant to dwell upon many of the features of the Free Church Assembhes, especially on those deputations and messages of sympathy and congratulation which they received from so many churches, and on those tributes of approbation and encouragement which, coming in from so many quarters, made them recognise the good hand of the Lord upon them. But we have only room to state that Tuesday, the 23d of May, was, after special devotional exercises, employed in subscribing the * Act of Separation and Deed of Demission,’ by which 470 ministers did * separate from, and abandon

THE present subsisting ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENT

IN Scotland, and renounce all rights or emoluments

PERTAINING TO THEM BY VIRTUE THEREOF.’”

“Though subscribed with the utmost calmness and alacrity, it would not be easy to estimate the sacrifice which that Deed of Demission implied. It is something to renounce the dignity of an Established Church, and the comforts of an endowed one. These ministers did both; and some will best understand the sacrifice, when told that the gift thus laid on the altar is a revenue of more than A HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS A YEAR. But this is a very gross and vulgar way of stating it. For who shall estimate in pounds and pence the home-ties which have since been broken? Who shall put a price upon those hallowed recollections which cluster round every manse and church — all the more tender and manifold in proportion as a man of God was the presiding spirit there — round the manse where infancy was cradled, and childhood made merry, and opening youth first learned to tread with thoughtful and meditative step — the country manse, on whose roof-tree rested the blessing of many a passer-by, and from whose quiet chambers ascended, heard by God alone, the prayer of the pious wayfarer, turned aside to tarry for a

P night, and through whose study windows streamed at winter’s early morn the radiance of his lamp, who, like his Master, had risen up a great while before the dawn to meditate and pray?”

Such was the form which this important act assumed. What followed is matter of general history, and cannot be recorded in the memoir of an individual Sufi&ce it to say, that from its beginning the Free Church has advanced with astonishing rapidity and solidness. Every season a step is gained; and every step that is gained is held; till now, our experience has done much to supply reasons and data for the greatest revolution in imperial policy which this age has witnessed.

Many a “church in the house” assembled within the city of Edinburgh, on the evening of that memorable day, to praise the Lord for His goodness. It was under the roof of the late James Bonar, W.S., brother of the three ministers of that name, that James Hamilton happened to be a worshipper. Called to conduct the devotions of the family, after they had fully conversed together on the great events of the day, he adopted a characteristic and somewhat startling method of signalizing the crisis. Instead of comment suitable to the occasion on a portion of the Scriptures, he quietly interpolated a large addition to the text. Having announced the Eleventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews as the portion chosen, he read, in his usual method, marked more by intelligence and reverence and tenderness than by artistic elocution, from the beginning onward, through the heraldic roll of ancient worthies to its termination at the thirty-second verse, and

without pause or change of tone prolonged the list, introducing in rapid succession the leading and representative names of early confessors, reformers, and missionaries, closing with Thomas Chalmers, the beloved leader of our own accomplished exodus. Without a word more, at the conclusion of the list, he bent the knee, and led the devotions of the company. According to the competent testimony of one who was present, the Rev. Mr. Fordyce of Cardiff, it was a season of joy and enlargement. The hearts of those disciples burned within them, because they felt that the Lord was with them by the way.

Immediately after his return we find him engaged with all his heart in some of the great Christian reunions of the metropolis.

“11 FoKTiss Terrace, June 2, 1843.

“My deae Mb. H. — The Union meeting yesterday was perhaps the most successful religious meeting ever held in London. The crowd was awful. The doors were opened at 8 A.M., and the hall was instantly filled. The lower room was then opened, and then Queen Street Chapel, — but though they were crowded, masses of people could gain admission nowhere. The solemnity and heart-melting of the assembly, the praises and the prayers (much like those of the Free Assembly) betokened the Divine presence, and I trust the good work has got an impulse which will not speedily be forgotten. I lost more than haK of the addi’esses, for soon after giving my own, the heat and exhaustion were such that I had to come away.

“In the evening I gave the first of a short course of lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland. Though it had only been announced from the pulpit, and not advertised, the body of the church was nearly full.

“I wish you would consult Mr. Dunlop regarding Regent Square. He has a copy of the trust-deed. As our Synod to all intents forms a separate Church (like the Ulster Assembly), I did not feel called upon to sign any adherence in Edinburgh, hoping that our Synod will give its sanction to the Free Church ecclesiastically. But still I am to all intents identified with the protesting party, and rather than give an equivocal adherence, would run any risks, and make any sacrifice; and having been ordained in Scotland, it is perhaps expected that I should do what other ordained ministers have done, formally adhere. What would become of the building in that event? But even without a formal adherence, I should not wonder though the Moderate brethren should secede from us and declare themselves the Presbytery of London, in connexion with the Church of Scotland. From sundry hints and rumours, I think that Brown and Cumming contemplate a separation; and at the meeting of Presbytery on Tuesday se’nnight I expect some resolution. Should no change be effected in the interval, it is plain that the building will eventually be forfeited to the Erastian Church, probably on the first vacancy; and I believe it would be easier to erect or buy a new place of worship during an incumbency than during a vacancy, and easier to raise £5000 to build a new church and school than the same sum to pay off the debt on the present one. On the other side, the temptation is strong to cling to the last to a fabric matchless in its kind, and which has been reared at such sacrifices. But then they have done the same in Scotland — witness St. George’s, the Assembly Hall, the new churches. These are some of the cogitations which are often passing through my mind at present, and will prove at least that I am considerably in the dark,”...” 7 Lansdowne Place, June 14, 1843.

“Iv dear Mr. Hamilton, — Yesterday the Presbytery met. Blair in the chair. After sundry matters of business had been harmoniously settled, the call from Commercial Road came on. The Moderator (who had evidently received his instructions) said, — ‘Mr. Ferguson, in the name of the Presbytery of London, in connexion with the Established Church of Scotland, I ask you if you accept this call? ‘Mr. Ferguson said, — ‘I accept the call to be minister of that church.* Whereupon Mr. Burns, seconded by Dr. Brown, moved that the Presbytery proceed with the settlement on Thursday, the 29 th. This was agreed to, and Mr. Lorimer was appointed to preside at the induction. Mr. Lorimer said, — ‘I have a question to ask, Do the words “Established order,” etc., in the questions and formula recognise the Church of Scotland as by law established? for if they do, I cannot conscientiously preside on this occasion.’ The Moderates answered, — ‘Of course. You are to induct Mr. Ferguson into the Established Church of Scotland. You cannot admit him into this Presbytery without admitting him into the Church of Scotland as by law estabhshed.’ I held — (1.) that the formula did not recognise the Church presently established, and (2.) that admission into this Presbytery did not recognise that Church, for most of us were only waiting, in the altered circumstances of that

Establishment, till our ecclesiastical superior, the Synod, should erase from its title any recognition of that Church. However, as it was very plain that they meant to make a sinistrous use of the present designation of the Presbytery, it might simplify matters to alter it at once, which we were quite competent to do, the Presbytery having existed as a Presbytery before it entered into connexion with the Church of Scotland. It was accordingly moved, — ‘That the words “in connexion with the Established Church of Scotland” be henceforth omitted in the designation of the Presbytery.’ The Moderator refused to put the motion, as being revolutionary and imcompetent; whereupon it was moved that the Moderator having refused to discharge his duty, has lost the confidence of the Presbytery, and that Mr. Lorimer be appointed Moderator in his stead; which motion was put by the Clerk, and carried, the Moderator not voting. This disconcerted the enemy a little, and, in a sort of panic, Blair declared the Presbytery adjourned, and amidst much outcry of the audience against its profanity, pronounced the blessing, on which the four ministers, with Stewart and Nicolson, elders, marched out, and Kay and the Woolwich elder, Rutherford, retired from the table. Their departure elicited a burst of hissing and derisive cheers from the audience, which was considerable. When they were gone, and our own Moderator in the chair, after prayer, the business again proceeded. The motion to erase the words ‘in connexion,’ etc., was harmoniously agreed to, and after some further business the Presbytery adjourned. We had thirty-four at the Presbytery dinner, and far the happiest evening we have spent there.

... The Moderates, before adjourning, forgot to fix a day and place for their next meeting, so that they are presbyterially defunct. Though my own wish was to stave this disruption off for a time, now that it is over, every one feels relieved and lightened. Our way was ’ fenced with thorns, so that we had no alternative. J. H.”

Thus the great central convulsion which took place at Edinburgh in May produced successive waves at later dates, in England and throughout the Colonies, wherever the Church of Scotland had put forth her efforts and planted her roots. Thus the Disruption repeated itself in miniature in the Presbytery of London. The greatest danger to be apprehended in that quarter was lest the adherents of the Establishment should succeed in wrenching the National Scotch Church in Regent Square from those who had reared it at great cost, and were attached to it by many solemn memories. The attention of the minister and session was immediately directed to the threatened point. In the first instance they evaded the danger, and ultimately escaped it altogether. In this case a debt of £5000 adhering to the fabric turned out a blessing in disguise. Although the structure, which had cost in all £21,000, was at that period worth much more in the market than the amount of the debt; yet that amount was sufficient in the first instance to paralyse the arm of those who might possibly have made good the claim to the property in a court of law.

In reference to the incidental benefit which the burden conferred. Dr. Hamilton, at a later date, when a question was raised regarding debt on clmrclies generally, whether Its effect is salutary or adverse, made a happy discrimination, which deserves to be recorded. It is good, he said, to have a debt attached to the building as long as the weight is needed to prevent the Establishment from snatching the property. It is like laying a great stone upon a man dming a gale to prevent him from being blown away; but when the gale is over, it will conduce to the man’s comfort to remove the stone. He will breathe more freely; he will even be able to rise and walk about.

Besides the mainstay of the debt, there were certain other anchors which helped the owners to make good their hold. In the constitution of the trust, the main or only link that bound the property to the Established Church of Scotland consisted of a condition that the minister must be ordained to his office by one of the Presbyteries of the Scottish Church. This condition had been fulfilled; and it was doubtful whether the subsequent adherence of the minister to the principles of the Free Church could be held as a positive infringement during his incumbency. It is believed that, if Mr. Hamilton had been removed at that time, it might have been successfully maintained that no successor could be appointed unless ordained in Scotland by the legally acknowledged courts.

It has further been thought — but this being only private conjecture, and not established fact, must be taken for no more than it is worth — that, as an able and influential minister adhering to the Scottish Establishment in London, not having been ordained by the Presbytery of Edinburgh, could never have legally become himself the incumbent of

Regent Square, he may not have been zealous in asserting the claims of the Establishment to the property, and so placing another in this important and conspicuous position. It is not impossible, and not discreditable, that such views should have been entertained.

Through these and other causes the owners were left in undisturbed possession of their property, till, as we shall find at a subsequent stage of our narrative, an opportunity occurred of placing it on a permanent and sure foundation.

The advisers of the Church of Scotland, as by law established, have from that day till now thought it their duty to seize every church and school which could be legally claimed by that corporation as now constituted, whatever might be the aspect of the case in equity. Of late some examples have occurred which inflict such hardship on the one side and bring so much scandal on the other, that the judges, while obliged to decide in favour of the pursuers according to the technicalities of law, could not refrain from expressing publicly their regret that ever such decision was demanded at their hands.-^ Probably the next generation of Churchmen will be wiser than the last. A certain teacher, who is said to ground his scholars well, but to charge a high fee, will undertake their education. They will discover that old parchments will not avail to maintain an Establishment that has drifted away from the principles of a nobler past. When law and justice are rent asunder, the national will and the Imperial Parliament may perhaps bring the divorced pair together again.

1 Case of St. John’s, Leith.