74.1
IBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
1
EPISCOPACY IN SCOTLAND
BY
CHRISTOPHER N. JOHNSTON, M.A.
o
EDINBURGH.
" There may be flaws in the chain of apostolical succession, but the Church in which
Chalmers worked out his noble romance of Christian legislation, and took the poor out of
the hands of the State, and bore their burdens triumphantly for years ; and in which
Macleod gathered these unwashed multitudes about him, and did not envy Wellington
both happening within the limits of a single generation has its proofs of Divine lineage
more near its hand than in any dusty roll of Bishops, however authentic and stoutly
orthodox." Mrs. OLIPHANT.
115140
< b i n b it r h :
WILLIAM PATERSON, 67 PRINCES STREET.
1879.
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
L
EPISCOPACY IN SCOTLAND.
IN a Protest, which was recently issued by the Bishops
of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, against the
Establishment of a Papal Hierarchy in this country, these
prelates, with questionable taste, described themselves
as holding, by divine permission, the ancient sees of the
Scottish Church. If, by this description of themselves,
the bishops meant that they claim titles similar to those
of the hierarchy of the Pre- Reformation Church, the ex-
pression is accurate enough ; but all who understand
Scotch Episcopacy must be aware that a deeper mean-
ing lies under the surface. We have here, in fact, a
claim to that lineal descent, that unbroken succession, so
dear to the High Church party. Unfortunately, how-
ever, the claim will not for a moment bear the light of
historical criticism. A gulf of nearly half a century-
separates the downfall of the Romish Church in Scotland
from the rise of Scotch Episcopacy. During this period
there were undoubtedly a few stragglers, who adhered
to the Protestant Episcopal communion, but their
numerical and political insignificance may be gathered
from the fact, that for seven years, from 1603 to 1610,
there was not even a nominal bishop in Scotland. A
lineal descendant of the Roman Church, however, the
Scotch Episcopal Church certainly is, but that only
through the Church of England, for Scotch Episcopacy
came from across the Tweed. Nothing is more charac-
teristic of the Church of England than its distinctively
national character. Its very name imports this ; and,
wherever it has been planted, it has retained traces of
its national origin, and notably so in Scotland. By the
vast majority of the community of this country, the
Episcopal Church is known simply as the " English
Church;" and it is universally regarded, not as a national
institution, but as an organization of foreign extraction.
The popular judgment is here fully borne out by history.
It was the predominance of English influence during the
reign of James VI. of Scotland which first brought
Episcopacy into this country ; and, throughout the whole
course of her history, the Scotch Episcopal Church has
been, directly or indirectly, supported by her more
powerful sister.
The infancy of the church was prosperous. Vigor-
ously supported by James and by his unhappy son, she
became for a time, in name at least, the national church.
Her progress, indeed, received a severe check during the
civil war and the Cromwellian usurpation ; but the
Restoration saw her again reinstated in power, and
upheld by the ruthless zeal of the Stuarts. The Revolu-
tion brought once more a change of fortune. Scotland
got the Presbyterian Church she desired, and to which
she has ever since remained faithful. Numbers of the
Episcopal curates were cruelly " rabbled " out of their
5
manses. Others, again, who were willing to conform,
were received into the bosom of the Kirk much to the
disgust of the sterner Covenanters and the once all-
powerful Episcopal Church sank into obscurity. The
history of Scotch ecclesiastical politics about this time
is somewhat involved and obscure, and advantage of
this fact has been taken by both parties to construct
very one-sided versions of the story. Presbyterians, on
their part, have maintained that the severity with which
the Episcopalians were treated was fully justified by the
previous persecutions of the Covenanters. Episcopalians,
on the other hand, have ventured to affirm that the
Covenanters were persecuted, not because they were
Presbyterians, but because they were in rebellion against
their sovereign. The one statement is worth as much as
the other. The former is morally vicious, the latter
historically false. The truth seems to be, that each party
was equally ready to persecute the other, but that the
Episcopalians did not suffer so severely as the Coven-
anters, for no better reason than that the excesses of the
Presbyterians, in the day of their power, were discouraged
by the central authority in London ; whilst, in the halcyon
days of Episcopacy, all the weight of the kingly power
and authority had been lent to crush the Presby-
terians.
It is unnecessary here to enter into a detailed account of
the various repressive statutes passed, and for a consider-
able time stringently enforced, against the Episcopalians ;
for, though the church undoubtedly endured severe trials,
Scotch Episcopacy has always been in greater danger of
falling, through its own numerical weakness, than by the
fury of its persecutors.
The mere fact that the church continued to exist,
during the century which followed the Revolution, with
a membership of only some one per cent, of the popula-
tion, and these scattered over the country, is sufficiently
remarkable. Other denominations, equally weak, it is
true, have struggled as long and as bravely, but amongst
these the creed has been handed down from father to
son, cherished, as it were, by a pecidiar people. Not so
the Episcopal tradition. There are only, I believe, some
dozen families in Scotland, who can make the proud
boast, that they never lapsed into Presbytery. Nor has
the Church been upheld by the conspicuous ability of
the priesthood, for she has, in truth, had little share in
the intellectual life of the nation. How, then, it may be
asked, has the sacred fire been kept alive ? by whom has
the tradition been preserved ? High Churchmen, of
course, ascribe all to the special protection of the
Almighty, extended to their (and, as they believe, His
only) church in Scotland ; the writer, who regards
Presbytery and Episcopacy as both admirable in circum-
stances suited for them, and both equally human, sees
here rather the strength of English influence in Scot-
land.
Few peoples, for three centuries in political and social
union with a much more powerful neighbouring nation
of the same race and language, would have preserved so
much of their national individuality as have the Scotch.
In many of the most important of our institutions we
still find no traces of English influence. This fact has,
perhaps, led some students of Scotch history to ignore
that influence altogether. This, however, is a mistake.
English influence has been, more or less, felt in Scotland
during the last three centuries ; and it could not have
been otherwise. It is amongst the upper classes in so-
ciety that this influence has been most powerfully felt ;
and accordingly we find that it is in these classes that
the strength of the Episcopal Church almost exclusively
lies. A large society must undoubtedly " set the fashion"
to a smaller one. Glasgow is, no doubt, a " muckle toon,"
and Edinburgh an "auld ane;" but Edinburgh and
Glasgow must alike follow London. The rage of the
day in Princes Street and Buchanan Street is a thing of
yesterday upon the Strand. The Londoners have grown
tired of the " latest American novelty," be it roller-skat-
ing, telephone, electric light, or Edgar Pay son Weston,
ere it is introduced to the Edinburgh and Glasgow pub-
lic. But this is not all. Vast numbers of Scotchmen
have, during the last two centuries, been drawn to
London, Liverpool, and other large English towns in
search of fortunes, which some of them have not been
slow to find. Now, many of these return to Scotland,
bringing with them certain English tastes and habits.
They leave, perhaps, at fourteen, and return at sixty; and
it could not, therefore, well be otherwise. It is reason-
able to believe that, amongst these likings and affections,
a taste for the Episcopal service may not unfrequently
have been found.
Again, till within the last ten years, there was no high
class public boarding-school in Scotland, and conse-
quently it has always been the custom of the nobility
and wealthier landowners to send their sons to English
public schools. From the English school they naturally
pass to the English university ; in a word, they receive a
thoroughly English education, and of course they return
to Scotland warmly attached to the Episcopal com-
munion.
I might pursue this subject further, but enough has,
perhaps, been said to show that it is reasonable to as-
cribe the survival of Episcopacy in Scotland, in great
measure, to the support and encouragement, direct and
indirect, which the church has received from England.
During the earlier half of the eighteenth century there
doubtless existed a cohesive force of a very different
character. The Scotch Episcopalians were warmly at-
tached to the exiled house of Stuart. Their chivalrous
loyalty to the earlier branch of their ancient royal family
was the ostensible ground of the repressive statutes, in
so far as these were sanctioned by the Imperial Parlia-
ment. The aim of the legislators, as indicated by the
provisions of the different statutes passed from time to
time during the eighteenth century, was to gratify their
religious sympathy for their brethren in the north by
according them religious toleration, whilst they took
measures to prevent this liberty becoming a cloak of
offence by being made a disguise for treasonable plots.
The provisions of the statutes were meant to ensure that
the worship of the Episcopal Church should be con-
ducted in a most open and public manner, and that a
prayer for the royal family should always be embodied
in the service.
On the whole, it does not appear that, during the
eighteenth century, there was anything in Scotland
which can be characterised as religious persecution as
distinguished from political prosecution, although ad-
herence to the Episcopal communion was always re-
garded as a certain presumption of Jacobite sympathies.
But although there was no persecution of individuals as
Episcopalians, the church was essentially kept down for
a century. About the beginning of the present century
she began to get into smooth water again. The penal
statutes had either been repealed, or had fallen into
desuetude ; and the clergy were now at liberty to address
as many as would listen to them, where and when they
pleased a privilege denied to their less favoured brethren
of the eighteenth century. About this time, too, there
began a certain gravitation amongst the upper classes
towards the Episcopal Church. This movement has, in
great measure, died away, but its effects are still sen-
sibly felt ; and as an acquaintance with its character is
absolutely essential to a true understanding of the char-
acter, and the present position and strength of the
Episcopal Church in Scotland, I will endeavour briefly
to explain the nature of the movement.
This explanation naturally resolves itself into an
answer to the question " How came it that, some
twenty to sixty years ago, so large a proportion of the
upper and monied classes in Scotland forsook the
church of their fathers, and passed over to the Epis-
10
copal communion?" Three distinct answers may, I
think, be found ; or, more correctly, the converts, if I
may so term them, may be divided into three classes.
The first section consists of those who have gone over
to the Episcopal Church because they honestly preferred
her ritual to that of the Presbyterian Churches. It is im-
possible not to sympathise with such. No service could
have been more unattractive than the Scotch Presby-
terian service of twenty years ago. Outside, the church,
built generally during the cold eighteenth century, was,
as it has been strongly put, " ugly as sin " ; inside, it
was filthy with cobwebs and dust. The pews were narrow
and uncomfortable, there were no carpets, no footstools,
and often very imperfect heating arrangements. The
women took their seats as they arrived, the men loitered
at the door till the bells ceased ringing. Then there was
a general rush ; they slouched in, talking as they came,
with their hands in their pockets and their hats upon their
heads, and with great noise, tramping, and slamming of
doors. There was no instrumental music, and the singing
was generally execrable the rude bawlings of unmusical
old men. The prayers were lengthy, and entirely
extempore ; so that it was impossible to follow them,
even in spirit. The sermon too, though generally far
superior to the average sermon heard south of the
Border, was always far too long. It was followed by
another series of "exercises;" but the moment the bene-
diction was pronounced, the congregation men, women,
and children sprang to their feet en masse, and hustled
and jostled out of the church, as though, in place of
II
invoking a blessing upon them, the clergyman had
shouted out that the building was on fire. Fortunately
things are greatly changed for the better now, though
there is still much room for improvement, especially in
the rural districts. The change, however, came too late
to save many of their children to the Scotch Presby-
terian Churches. It need be matter of no surprise that
men of refined taste and liberal culture preferred to join
themselves to a communion in whose churches what-
ever the ability or the spirit of the pastor they could
always be sure of order and harmony in the service, and
beauty in the House of God. Their choice was natural,
but it was certainly not heroic. Nay, it was cowardly
to desert their church rather than to endeavour to im-
prove her service. Surely it would have been a more
manly and courageous course to have striven to make
their church what it ought to be, to have given it an
opportunity of reforming itself, before going over to a
rival denomination.
But, secondly, there is a small, though not unimpor-
tant, section of Scotch Episcopalians, who have been
led to join the Episcopal Church from a conscientious
conviction of the apostolic and authoritative character
of her government and constitution. The Episcopal
Church in Scotland is a High Church. This, in fact, is
her sole raison d'etre. Only as a High Church can she
logically justify her existence. Her doctrinal confession
is too similar to that of the sister Presbyterian Churches
to afford any ground of separation which can commend
itself to an educated and unprejudiced mind. The
B
12
tradition of the church is accordingly high. Further,
the episcopal clergyman feels that he is in an ambiguous
position. The parish minister takes precedence of him
on all State or semi-State occasions ; he must follow
with the common herd of Free Kirk and United Pres-
byterian pastors. He cannot escape the fact that he is
a dissenter ', and to the man who (like most of the Scotch
Episcopal clergy) has been brought up in England, and
taught to regard dissent as a moral disease, whose sinful-
ness is equalled only by its vulgarity, there is a very bitter
sting in this. The only course open to him, then, is to
assume a high hand, to ignore the Presbyterian ministers
altogether, to deny that they are clergy, and to insist that
the Episcopal Church is not only the Cliurch of Scotland,
but the only Church in Scotland. The majority of the
clergy therefore attach themselves to the High Church
party, but not so the mass of the laity. Brought up
amidst Presbyterian surroundings, they do not readily
drink in the lesson that the building in which they first
heard the Word of God preached was not a church, that
the good old man who baptised them was not a clergy-
man, and that the Presbyterian mother who first taught
them to raise their infant hearts in prayer to God was
an outcast, as far from Christ's kingdom as the Brahmin
or the Buddhist "having no hope, and without God in
the world." Of course there are exceptions. There is a
small but very active and definite body of High Church
laity in the Scotch Episcopal Church. The majority of
these were converted to Episcopacy by being first made
High Churchmen, or rather High Churchwomen, for
13
most of them are females. This is a favourite, and not
altogether unsuccessful, form of proselytising. It is the
glory of a ritualistic curate thus to get round a senti-
mental maiden lady or weak-kneed divinity student. It
is to its indirect character that the attack owes its
measure of success. Organs, postures, liturgies all
that is sensuous is left out of sight, and the mind is
fed with the dim vision of a purely spiritual ideal.
I have used the word " proselytising." This is a hard
word, but I feel that it fitly characterises the work of
some of the Episcopal clergy in Scotland. You meet a
pair, generally a youth and a veteran, in a steamer on the
west coast, sailing perhaps to Stornoway tall men, with
earnest grey eyes, prominent noses, and close-shaven
cheeks. You are struck with their appearance, and turn
to ask the captain if they are Roman Catholic priests.
" Priests ! hoots, naw !" is his reply ; " them's only some
o' thae 'piscopal bodies." Next week you may meet the
same pair in St. Andrews or Aberdeen. They are men full
of earnestness and energy, men who might do good work
for the church in Africa or in India, but shame to our
ecclesiastical differences and narrowness ! we find them
here " compassing sea and land to make one proselyte."
Finally, there is a section of Scotch Episcopalians
the most numerous, perhaps, of all who, in joining the
Episcopal Church, have been influenced by certain con-
siderations, which it is difficult to describe without
offence. I have already incidentally touched upon the
matter in tracing the effects of English ecclesiastical
influence in Scotland. Many, as was then pointed out,
have been led by the influence, direct or indirect, of a
more numerous neighbouring society to forsake the
church of their fathers. In the cases which were there
referred to, there was nothing remarkable in the change ;
it was just what was, in the circumstances, to be ex-
pected. There are numbers, however, who have been
led over to the Episcopal communion, not so much by
the influence of a more powerful society beyond Scot-
land, as by that of a higher society within Scotland.
Many in the aristocratic sphere, as was pointed out,
educated in England, and spending part of every year
there, have become attached to the Episcopal Church.
Now, each planet in this sphere has its satellites, which,
though they never draw nearer to their primary, are yet
borne along with it in its orbit. The lackey spirit that
evil, perhaps, inseparable from the rise of a wealthy
middle class amidst an old aristocracy is strong in
Scotland. The snob, though he cannot sit down at the
ducal table, may sit behind his Grace in church ; and he
is not slow to avail himself of the privilege. Following
his betters to the House of God, he imagines that he
thereby raises himself to a higher position in society ;
and the Episcopal Church itself has not been slow to
foster this delusion. I may just trace, in parable, the
progress of one such conversion ; but, lest any one may
be tempted to imagine that some personal allusion is
intended, I may preface my narrative with the assurance
that it is the story of a purely imaginary though none
the less typical example.
Smith is a very successful Edinburgh tradesman. His
15
summer is spent between his handsome villa at St.
Andrews and his shooting-box in Inverness-shire, whilst
his stately carriage rolls daily in Princes Street during
the winter months. He keeps an accomplished French
governess for his daughters, and his sons are at the best
English public schools. He maintains a large family estab-
lishment, and his house and his daily life are all that wealth
and luxury can make them. Nevertheless, Smith finds
that, somehow or other, all this does not make him, even
in a vulgar sense, a gentleman. The exclusive advocates
and the patrician writers to the Signet give him the cold
shoulder, and even the retired Indians, who are starving
on ^"300 a-year at the New Club, look at him as though
they would like to scrape their boots upon him. Poor
Smith finds himself thus, in a manner, banished from
society. He has outgrown all his own compeers. Na-
turally enough, he no longer cares to associate with men
who live up common stairs at the east end, and dine
early when they can ; and they accordingly think him
proud, and have themselves sufficient pride to take care
not to intrude themselves upon him.
A certain class, however, still cling to Smith. These
are his kirk friends. Smith is a Free Churchman, and
this was once his highest boast. As a youth, he
witnessed the " magnificent moral spectacle" of 1843
the procession from St. Andrew's Church to Canonmills;
and there was once a time, when it had seemed to Smith
that God made the universe for that great consummation,
and that all previous history was but a preparation for
it. In these days his Freekirkism had been to Smith,
i6
the humble shopman, a passport to many a comfortable
table. But all this has passed away. Not a vulgar
old woman or grocer's apprentice but claims acquaint-
ance with Smith, because they happen to belong to the
same church ! The position of the dissenting churches
in Scotland has created amongst their members a species
of ecclesiastical communism. Common churchism is
with many a bond infinitely stronger than common
Christianity. The man who belongs to your sect, if he
be only respectable, has a peculiar claim upon you, no
matter what be his position or real character. It may
well be doubted whether the esprit de corps, created by
this clannish feeling, fully compensates for the narrow-
ness of sympathy and bigotry of opinion, which it is too
apt to engender. It is what he conceives to be the
vulgarity, however, rather than the narrowness of the
fraternal relation, which exercises the mind of Smith.
Those, whose claims to gentility are the most doubtful,
and who are most coldly treated by the upper circle of
society, are always the most touchy as to their own
dignity. Smith is oppressed with a morbid conscious-
ness that everybody is noticing him everybody looking
at him. But what can he do ? How shall he at once
shake himself free from his kirk friends, and raise him-
self to a place in a higher circle ? One course alone is
open, and this Smith at last adopts ; not, however, with-
out some reluctance and qualms of conscience, for even
Smith has a conscience, and, stranger still, a soul.
To the delight of his wife and daughters, and the con-
sternation of all good Free Churchmen, and especially
of the Sustentation Fund Committee, Smith becomes an
Episcopalian. The experiment proves entirely success-
ful successful beyond all the dreams of Smith's ambi-
tion. The Episcopalians, who are always needy, are re-
joiced to have caught so rich a prize. The curate, of
course, calls upon the Smiths, and is followed by the
dean ; and the Smiths, in returning the latter's call, meet
the bishop, and have the honour of being introduced to
his Lordship. An intimacy springs up between the Miss
Smiths and their clergyman's daughters, and afternoon
teas, lawn tennis parties, and dances follow one another
in rapid succession. Acquaintance begets acquaintance.
The Smiths are now fairly into society. Smith has be-
come a gentleman.
I have sketched this illustration somewhat minutely,
for, with slight variations in detail, it is the history of
many an apostasy ; and the question which it naturally
suggests is, How much such a change is worth ? Its
value, perhaps, cannot be better estimated than in the
words of one of the most distinguished of living Presby-
terian divines, who has said of those who have left the
church of their fathers because it was the fashion
" They are not worth keeping, let them go." Presbytery
loses no real strength by such a defection, and Episco-
pacy gains as little by such an acquisition, for the heart
of Scotland is still with those who recognise that a
change of church should be based upon some higher
ground than the flippant sneer, that " Episcopacy is the
only religion for a gentleman."
I have thus endeavoured, in a general way, to indi-
i8
cate what appear to be the most satisfactory answers to
the vexed question, Why the vast majority of the upper
classes in Scotland adhere to the Episcopal Church a
church so unpopular with the mass of the people through-
out the country ? A generalisation may now be looked
for, but this I cannot give. It is quite impossible to re-
duce these answers to one general category, for they
refer to a number of quite independent circumstances,
all of which it is necessary to take into consideration.
Whatever be the causes, however, the fact is un-
doubted, that the Episcopal Church in Scotland has, dur-
ing the present century, obtained a largely increased
following amongst the upper classes. But, though the
church seems prosperous, when its present position is
compared with that of eighty years ago, its strength lies
neither in numbers nor in pecuniary resources. Its
membership is numerically insignificant, not more than
two to three per cent, of the population, and these are
drawn almost entirely from the upper classes. So much
is this the case, that in many congregations there is not a
single peasant or artizan member, and great difficulty is
sometimes found in obtaining the services of an Episco-
palian as verger.
The funds of the church, too, have always been at a
low ebb. This, as the ablest defenders of the church
confess, is the disgrace of Scotch Episcopacy. Neither
the stations nor the clergy are numerous, whilst the
members are many of them exceedingly wealthy, and
yet the churches have always been badly supported and
the clergy ill paid. Whilst the Presbyterian bodies have
19
been pushing forward territorial work, founding and
endowing churches in every corner of the land, planting
their feet wherever they could find congregations, rich or
poor, organizing and equipping powerful missions to
India, China, and Africa, and assisting to support
Scotch churches, wherever there are Scotchmen, on the
continent or in the colonies, the clergy of the Scotch
Episcopal Church, which boasts that it numbers amongst
its adherents all the rank and influence of Scotland, and
which is not embarrassed by indigent or pauper members,
have often had a hard struggle to keep body and soul
together, and have sometimes been forced even to close
their churches and abandon their posts from sheer lack
of their daily bread. The middle classes the burghers
and yeomen of old are far more liberal in support of
their churches than are the aristocracy. The United
Presbyterian Church, for example, whose most influen-
tial supporters belong to that class, and which numbers
amongst its members no nobleman or large landed pro-
prietor, raises annually a much larger sum than the
Episcopal Church. Doubtless the cause of this is in
part the fact, that the Episcopalians are not borne along
by that fervour and enthusiasm which always arises
when a large body of men of all classes are united for a
common end. No class church, I take it, can be truly
great and useful. The prosperity of the Episcopal
Church is a hollow prosperity, because that church has
failed to gain the sympathies of tJie humbler classes.
Nor are matters likely to improve, at least in the direc-
tion that zealous Episcopalians anticipate.
20
The further progress of the Episcopal Church in
Scotland means political confusion and ecclesiastical
ruin. Although, I believe, that Episcopalians might
learn much from Presbyterians, I at present assume
that, in what I take to be the most radical, best under-
stood, and most universally recognised difference between
the moderate parties in both bodies the nature and
conduct of the service the Episcopalians are in the
right. In this view, I maintain that nothing would
tend more to further the assimilation of the Presbyterian
to the Episcopal ritual than the decline of the Episcopal
Church in Scotland. This proposition may appear
somewhat startling, but I think that in a few sentences
I shall be able to make it good.
I take it to be a pretty well-established fact, that the
poor cling more tenaciously to their opinions and pre-
judices than do the rich; and all the more so if they see
the rich arrayed against them. Now this would be
precisely the position of matters in Scotland were the
remainder of the aristocracy and the bulk of the middle
classes to go over to the Episcopal Church. As we
have already seen, there is not, and there has never been,
any movement amongst the lower classes in Scotland
towards the Episcopal Church. Charles and James
found the boot and the thumbscrew quite ineffectual
as means of forcing Episcopacy upon an unwilling
people ; and the meaner, if milder, moral forces which
in modern times have been called into play have proved
equally vain.
It is amongst the lower classes, moreover, that the
21
party of progress, or, as by some they are termed, the
innovators in the Presbyterian Churches, meet with the
sternest opposition. The battle in the Established
Church is nearly won, but within the dissenting bodies
it is only just beginning. The result, however, cannot
for a moment be doubted. There is enough liberality
of thought and refinement of taste in all the churches
to carry the day if they are only left to themselves.
But it is just here that the danger lies. Will the two
parties be permitted to fight it out by themselves? Is
not the Episcopal Church here eager to draw off the
restless and the faint-hearted all who have not courage
and patience to struggle on, and wait confidently for the
result. The Episcopal Church is thus a standing ob-
stacle to progress in the Presbyterian Churches. If she
draw off from them the more zealous and liberal
reformers, she will leave all the prejudice and nar-
rowness embittered and intensified by the defection;
and it will be vain thereafter to look for ecclesiastical
union or harmony in Scotland. We will have not, as in
England, a high church and a low church party within
the church, but what is infinitely worse a high and a
low church the church of the gentry, and the church
of the poor.
This danger is undoubtedly serious, but there are
fortunately some favourable signs in the air. Symptoms
of a revolution in the attitude of the upper classes them-
selves towards the national church are not awanting.
This is, no doubt, in part due to the change which is
gradually taking place in the ritual of the Established
22
Church ; but another, and yet more powerful force, has
come into operation.
Churchmen have begun to lose faith in a merely
political support. They demand that the maintenance
of their church shall be something more than a mere bit
of a party creed. Again and again, at each contested
election in Scotland, the stern query wells up in some
form or another : " You promise the church your poli-
tical support at Westminster, will you also extend to it
your personal support in shire ? " But, whatever
be the causes, there can be no dispute as to the fact,
that amongst the upper classes, especially in the country
districts, a reconciliation with the national church is
being gradually effected.
The issue of this movement is undoubtedly important ;
indeed, upon it, in great measure, depends the future of
the higher life in Scotland. The present is an age of
change. Old beliefs call them old prejudices if you
will are being rooted up ; our conceptions of nature, of
science, and even of religion, are being rapidly revolu-
tionised ; the ship has drifted from its old moorings,
and no man knows whither it may be cast by the rest-
less wave. Even in Scotland, the influence of the move-
ment has been powerfully felt. Scotland has risen from
her slumbers ; she has cast off, and cast off for ever, the
robe of a narrow Calvinism, which, though it was right
serviceable in its day, had long since become threadbare
and thoroughly worn out. None can guess the future
course of the present intellectual revolution. The energy
of its leaders is abundant; but, like that of horse and
23
hound, it is an energy which, if it is to be truly use-
ful, needs direction, and occasional restraint. Such a
restraint is to be found in a catholic, liberal, and
thoroughly popular national church a church which,
whilst it recognises the legitimate claims of modern
science, and fully sympathises with them, shall never
suffer the nation to forget that the physical, and even
the intellectual, must ever be subordinate to the moral
and the spiritual that there are grander and deeper
truths in God's universe than the laws of motion or the
principles of association.
I have already endeavoured to indicate the grounds
why, as it appears to me, it is vain to seek in the present
Scotch Episcopal communion for the germs of such a
church. We need a popular church, but no church is
more unpopular with the mass of the people. We need
a national church, a church which can rest upon a great
historic past ; but the Episcopal Church is unconnected,
or connected only in a manner which is painful, with the
deepest traditions of the Scottish people. Finally, we
need a broad and liberal church a church in full sym-
pathy with all the more healthful movements of modern
thought ; but, unlike her southern sister, the Scotch
Episcopal Church is a narrow church a church which
has never manifested any sympathy with the intellectual
life of the nation. Theoretically, most of these difficulties
may be overcome. The church may become broad and
popular, and the friend rather than the opponent of
Scottish thought. But can we reasonably expect this ?
and, even if we can, is it necessary to wait for this ? Is
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
24
there no organization which is prepared even now to
take up the work ? I think there is. I believe that the
Established Church of Scotland is, of all the Scotch
churches, the one most fully abreast with the times.
Her constitution, no less than the spirit of her courts
and of her clergy, is broad and liberal, and she is becom-
ing daily more popular. Alike historically and practi-
cally, she is, as she has been, the national church. Not
content merely to tolerate the progress of thought, she
herself leads the van ; for amongst her clergy are to be
found the leaders of the higher intellectual life in Scot-
land. The Church of Tulloch, of Caird, and of Flint,
can exercise no influence but for good over the scientific
and intellectual movements of our times. In ritual, too,
as in doctrine, a manly tolerance has been shown by the
courts of the church. No squeamish dread of the " No
Popery" cry has hindered them from sanctioning the
improvements in the service, which modern taste and
Anglican influence and example have suggested. They
have refused to listen to the argument that the organ
should be silent because John Knox is said to have
termed that noble instrument " a kist o' whistles." In
the main, the determination of the precise form of
worship has been left with the people, and these are
gradually exchanging the simple but bare service of the
past, for one more nearly resembling the ornate but none
the less devout and spiritual ritual of the Anglican Church.
The constitution of the church, too, may be modified in
time. I am far from expressing any opinion as to the com-
parative advantages of the Presbyterian and Episcopalian
25
plan of church government ; but, in the light of passing
events, I see no reason why the Scottish people may
not, if they think fit, choose the latter as the form of
government of their national church, without causing
any break in the historical development of that church.
Our children may yet listen to a bishop in St. Giles'
cathedral.
But what practical conclusion shall we draw from
these reflections ? That it were a nobler, a greater, and
a more hopeful task, to try to make the National Church
of Scotland what, as we think, it ought to be to raise
the Scottish people with the Scottish Church than to
endeavour to draw the people up to a new and non-
national church. No doubt my argument may seem to
some to be based upon the vicious principle, that it is
right to do wrong that good may come. " Are we justi-
fied," Episcopalians may ask, " in giving our personal
countenance and support to a Presbyterian Church, even
with the highest motives? Dare we openly surrender
our principles, in order that we may secretly advance
them ?" This objection proceeds upon the assumption,
that Episcopacy is inherently right, Presbytery inherently
wrong ; and, with the assumption, the objection falls.
My argument is idle, and worse than idle, if directed
towards those who believe that Presbytery is " in itself
sinful." But in Scotland, alike amongst Presbyterians and
Episcopalians, there are numbers to whom Presbytery
and Episcopacy are nothing more than ecclesiastical
systems, each with peculiar advantages and imperfections
of its own. Some of these may perhaps recognise that
26
I am here pleading not for a surrender of principle, but
for a surrender of self.
This too self-sacrifice is just what is needed to
remove another great stumblingblock in the way of
ecclesiastical union in Scotland I mean the unfortunate
difference between the Free Church and the Established
Church. Here also we find the claims of principle con-
founded with the claims of self. When a Free Church-
man maintains that the principles contended for at the
Disruption have not yet been fully recognised, his
position, if his premises be sound, is quite unassailable :
but when he goes further, and asserts that no concession
will satisfy him, unless redress be done to himself and
his co-churchmen, for the wrongs of 1843, he has ceased
to rest upon principle ; he is making the claims (just or
unjust, it matters not) of self an obstacle to a noble
end.
Surely it is not too late to hope that Episcopalians
and Free Churchmen alike may be willing to sacrifice all
personal feeling for the sake of the great principle of a
National Church. A little self-sacrifice, a little patience,
and, above all, a little charity, might give to the Christian
Church in Scotland that union in which alone true
strength is to be found. Is this request too exacting ?
Is the end unworthy of the sacrifice entailed ?
Printed by FRANK MURRAY, // Young Street, Edinburgh.
274-1
J642
JOHNSTON, CHRISTOPHER
115140
