to CHAP. IV. the subdivision of parishes. When the clergyman of some 1688 enormous city parish is allowed to be a professor also, with 1833. what face can we lift any remonstrance about the magnitude of his charge, or expect that the public shall be at the expense of a new functionary to relieve that man, who, in fact, has deprived them of the services of an old one-by holding himself forth as competent to double duties, or at chiefly turns all events by engrossing the double emoluments? This monopoly of offices by churchmen is utterly at antipodes with that high object of patriotism, the multiplication of churches in our land. The appeal of this His argument against pluralities on the ob stacle they put in the way of Church extension. venerable house for more of churches and parishes in the over-crowded cities of our land, had been lifted with tenfold force, were it not for the policy by which you have neutralized it. Your voice has been like that of a trumpet which soundeth uncertainly: and so long as you countenance pluralities, your testimony in behalf of a greater number of parishes will neither be respected nor relied on." It was on this broad and palpable ground of the damage done to the cause of learning on the one hand, and to pastoral efficiency on the other, that Dr. Chalmers took his stand Thoroughly against pluralities; and it will be found, as we proceed, to character of have been on grounds of the same practical kind that he took his stand in support of non-intrusion, and against highquestions of handed patronage, in that memorable controversy, to the threshold of which we have now advanced. practical all Dr. views on Church policy In bringing this long chapter to a close, and especially in concluding this rapid sketch of the influences and the individuals that chiefly contributed to the revival of evangelical truth and reformation principles in the church of Scotland, during the first thirty years of the present century, it is impossible to overlook the venerated name of M'Crie. His Lives of Knox and Melville, effected for those great men, as well as for the cause and the principles with which 1833. CHAP. IV. In Writings of the Rev. Dr M'Crie: they did for the Scottish what Carlyle Cromwell. Reformers has done for neglect into which the movements and 17th religious of the 16th centuries had previ ously fallen. 1688 they are identified, a service resembling that which, more to recently, has been rendered to Cromwell by Carlyle. the writings of M'Crie, the Scottish reformers and the Scottish reformation received a vindication so complete and decisive as to have dispelled, at once and for ever, the clouds which prejudice and calumny had combined, in an infidel and irreligious age, to gather around them, and to have kindled in their behalf the old national enthusiasm once more. Himself deeply imbued with the pure theology, the profound learning, the stern principle, the christian patriotism of the founders of the Scottish church, he could thoroughly understand and estimate both the men and the work he had undertaken to describe. The comparative neglect into The state of which the study of the religious movements of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had previously fallen, gave to the whole subject, when thus brought up again before the public mind, not a little of the freshness and the charm of a discovery. Multitudes whom ignorance and misrepresentation had succeeded in making almost ashamed of their ecclesiastical ancestry, now learned to glory in the reformers as the best benefactors of their country. Nor was it among religious men alone that such feelings were awakened or confirmed. The interest inherent in the record of great events and stirring times, secured numerous and attentive readers among all classes of society; and that interest, especially for the higher order of minds, was powerfully enhanced by The charm the historian's manly vigour of thought, profound political sagacity, and intense sympathy with the cause of truth and right. The influence thus exerted by the writings in question was obviously and altogether on the side of the evangelical and reforming party in the church: it commanded greater respect and consideration, both for them and their principles, and hastened the arrival of that period when these principles at length obtained the ascendency in the councils of the church. which parted to M'Crie imthese longthemes, and thus exerted mation of forgotten the influence on the refor the Church. The charge that the measures adopted by in 1834 were made to CHAP. V. THE BALANCE OF PARTIES. CHAP. V. IT has been sometimes alleged, that the measures which 1833. were adopted by the general assembly, in 1834, and which gave occasion to the ten years' conflict, were uncalled for the Church and unnecessary. This has been affirmed even by some of uncalled for. those who wish to be understood as not altogether approving of the policy of moderatism. Things, it has been usual for such persons to say, were going on well enough,-patrons were showing more deference to the wishes and welfare of congregations, the church was increasing in efficiency, and gaining upon the affections and confidence of the community! Under cover of such vague and general statements as these, The attempts attempts have been made to create an impression that the create a course on which the church entered, at the period in quesprejudice against the tion, was altogether gratuitous, and that the commotions and collisions which ensued, were as needless as they were injurious. However, some well-meaning people may have suffered themselves to be led away by representations of this kind, and to be prepossessed, in consequence, against the reforming party in the church, it cannot be difficult to establish, upon this point, a very different conviction in the minds of those who are disposed, in the exercise of common candour and intelligence, to examine the case for themselves. Indeed, justice cannot be done either to the measures in dispute, or to the men who carried them through the courts of the church, without taking into view the whole circumstances in which these measures were introduced. The consideration of these circumstances, instead of proving that nothing needed to have been done at all, will be found to evangelical party. Facts will show that the mea sures of 1834 were urgently required. 1833. furnish the most conclusive argument in favour of the course which the church actually pursued. CHAP. V. and honesty demanded the adoption of these measures. It must be sufficiently apparent from the foregoing narrative, that both honesty and consistency demanded from Consistency the evangelical party, that means should now be taken to put an end to those abuses and oppressions in the administration of ecclesiastical affairs, against which they had so long protested. However sufficient such protestations might have been to guard their own integrity, and to keep them clear of the charge of becoming partakers in other men's sins, so long as their party constituted a mere minority in the supreme court of the church, such a vindication would have been no better than a delusion and a mockery when the actual government of the church had passed into their hands. The principle, in particular, that "no pastor should be intruded on a congregation contrary to their will,” was one in regard to which it was impossible they could be silent. The neglect of it had formed their standing quarrel with moderatism for a hundred years. Riding rough-shod, as moderatism had done for two or three generations, over the neck of that principle, it had disgusted and driven away from the church's communion, tens of thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands, of the best of her people. And although "the forced settlements" of the preceding century, when ministers were often thrust into parishes by the help of a band of soldiers, might now be of comparatively rare occurrence, it did not follow for that reason, that it had ceased to be necessary to secure to congregations the protection which the non-intrusion principle was designed and fitted to give. The improve In so far as forced settlements had disappeared through the greater consideration which some patrons had been showing for the interests and inclinations of the people, the improvement was both limited in extent and most uncertain as regarded its continuance. But in truth, the cessation of the They were by a regard demanded to the inte rests of the Church. ment which' had taken place in the exercise of church pa tronage was limited, and its continu ance uncer tain. CHAP. V. scandal in question was, in very many cases, due to alto- 1833. gether a different cause. "If you dislike the minister offered of opposition ment of ministers was often ference or disgust. to you by the patron, you can become dissenters, the door is you open for to leave the established church." Such was the remedy which, in its reckless zeal for absolute patronage, moderatism had been accustomed to offer to the people; and The absence the people had learned how to use it. The settlement of a at the settle- minister in a parish had ceased, from such causes, to awaken that deep and universal interest among the parishioners due to indif- which, in other and better times, had attended it. They had found it vain and hopeless to enter into a contest with the courts of the church, which had so long and so systematically disregarded their voice. If the minister nominated by the patron, and settled, as a matter of course, by the presbytery, turned out to be an active and useful pastor, they gathered with more or less cordiality around him. If he proved, on the other hand, as still not unfrequently happened, to be a man careless of the responsibilities of his office, or destitute of the capacity and the qualifications necessary to make a useful minister, they either withdrew quietly to seek food for their souls in some dissenting church, or sunk, as was too often the case, into a state of religious indifference, and perhaps neglected divine ordinances altogether. The necessity still existed The mere fact, therefore, either that disputed settlements for a move were not now of frequent occurrence, or that a better and vour of non- more enlightened feeling had, for the time, made its way ment in fa intrusion. among some of the holders of church patronage, in no |