shows that

the influence of the

ficial.

to 1838.

CHAP. VII. adherent,-who could confidently reckon upon a living in 1834 Dr. Chalmers the church, might, on the impulse of this worldly consideration alone, have entered on the studies of the profeslaw had been sion, whether by a course of partial or regular attendance, highly beneand could at length realize the preferment which his heart was set upon. This will not now be done so easily, with the fear of the veto before their eyes. And, accordingly, we doubt not there are many who, rather than encounter the hazard of being vetoed at the termination of their academical career, have, very wisely, taken the matter into their own hands, and put the veto on themselves at the commencement of it. * *Altogether, the effect will be, or rather the effect is, a generation of licentiates of more devoted principle and of loftier talent than heretofore: and we again appeal to the observation of all Scotland if, both in regard to the work of the pulpit on Sabbath, and the work of the parish throughout the week, this effect has not begun to be palpably realized. The fact which cannot be denied or explained away is, that both students and licentiates are now of a higher grade than formerly, and that whether in respect of personal Christianity or of both sacred and The position general literature." No man either was or could be in a position so favourable as that which Dr. Chalmers occupied divinity, for speaking with accuracy and authority upon this point. The divinity hall in the university of Edinburgh, over which he presided, was the great school of the prophets, out of this subject. which the pulpits and parishes of the church of Scotland were then chiefly supplied with their ministers. And the testimony which he bore upon the subject no one acquainted with the facts of the case has ever ventured to dispute.

of Dr. Chal

mers, as Professor of

enabled him

to speak with accuracy and authority on

It is well known indeed, that even those who at the outset were most vehemently opposed to the veto-law, including Dr. Cook himself, had begun some years afterwards to speak of it in a very altered tone. After an ineffectual

1834 attempt to procure its repeal in the assembly of 1835, an CHAP. VII.

to

1838.

opposition Opposition to

the Veto-law

The same

and the Chapel act ceased in the

Church

courts soon after they

were passed

church

Dr. M'Leod,

chosen to be

moderator

of the

General

Assembly.

attempt which was defeated by a majority of 52,
to it entirely ceased in the courts of the church.
thing occurred in regard to the act for removing the dis-
abilities of chapel churches and ministers. The same party
who resisted it in 1834, made a motion to have it rescinded
in the assembly of 1835, a motion which was thrown out
upon a division by 176 to 108 votes. From that day
forward, not only did all opposition to the chapel act cease,
but on the express recommendation of the moderate party
themselves, a chapel minister, and one who was a zealous A Chapel
member of their own party, the Rev. Dr. M'Leod of Glasgow, minister,
was shortly afterwards placed in the chair of the general
assembly. In a word it may be unhesitatingly affirmed,
that never in modern times did the general assembly, or
the ecclesiastical courts throughout the church, present a
more pleasing spectacle than at the period now under review.
The violence of party spirit had, in a great measure, dis-
appeared. Although the leading characteristics by which
the two parties in the church had all along been distinguished,
might still be easily enough discerned, there was no unseemly
collision between them. If the evangelical majority were
learning something in the details of ecclesiastical manage-
ment, from those who had preceded them in the direction
of church affairs, it may be safely and without offence
affirmed, on the other hand, that the moderate minority
were benefiting in their turn under the influence of that
warmer piety, and purer discipline, and increased activity
and zeal, which now pervaded the whole atmosphere of the
church.

Among the practical improvements introduced during this Reform of the
Eldership.
healthful and promising period of the church's history, was
the measure which provided that no elder should be eligible
as a commissioner to the general assembly, who was not

Injury the Church had sustained from the

the Assem

who had

their office bnt the

name.

to

CHAP. VII. bona fide an acting elder in some particular kirk-session and 1834 congregation of the church. Upon the motion of Mr. Dunlop, 1838. this important measure was carried, after a vigorous struggle, in the assembly of 1836. Previous to that time, it had become common for individuals who had neither the inclination nor the fitness to discharge the ordinary duties of the eldership, to get themselves appointed to the office solely for the purpose of obtaining seats in the general assembly. Such persons, strangers in many cases to all the feelings and habits that should distinguish the office-bearers of the presence in church of Christ, were often, as might have been anticipated, bly of elders a source of great injury to the church, obstructing the nothing of exercise of a faithful discipline, and lowering, by their secularity and religious indifference, the whole tone and spirit of the assembly. Their presence was a manifest violation of all those principles that were designed by the law and constitution of the church, to regulate the composition of its supreme court. And the act accordingly which put an end to this abuse, was a much needed and most important step in the direction of practical reform. The whole state, indeed, of the eldership was greatly in want of revision. The eldership constitutes one of the most valuable elements of presbyterianism, and on the purity and integrity in which it is maintained, much of the soundness and efficiency of any presbyterian church must always depend. It was abundantly well known, that in very many parishes it had sunk into a state of utter uselessness. committee, of which Mr. Dunlop was convener, had accordingly been appointed in 1834, the very first year of the Recommen reforming decade, to examine into this whole subject, and the measure above mentioned as having been carried in 1836, had formed one of the recommendations contained in that committee's report. In that report it was justly observed, that "no provisions or checks which may be

dations of

Mr. Dunlop's committee on the eldership.

A

1834 established with reference to the election of representative CHAP. VII. to elders, can prove efficient unless accompanied by regulations

1838.

that may exclude from admission to the office of elder, per-
sons not duly qualified, and who are not able and willing to
perform the proper duties of the office." And after pointing
out how the office had been lowered in the estimation of the
people by the system which had been followed, of excluding
the congregation from all share in the election of those who
were to exercise it, a system which converted the elder
into the mere nominee of the minister, and in many cases
into his creature and tool, the report recommended a return
to the practice of the earlier and purer periods of the church's
history, when the elders were chosen either by the direct
voice, or at least with the express concurrence of the church
members. Although this part of the committee's recom-
mendation was not adopted till some years later, a great
general improvement, in the condition and working of the
eldership, resulted from the labours of the committee, and
from the full and frequent discussions to which their state-
ments gave rise.

Along with these vigorous efforts to elevate the character
and standing of an important class of the rulers of the
church, it was natural to expect that the discipline of the
church should exhibit the fruits of the same searching and
reforming spirit. Neither heresy nor immorality were any
longer winked at, as too often they had been before. To
deprive a minister who was dishonouring his office by
teaching gross error, or by living in sin, was no longer the
strange and marvellous event which it had been wont to be.
Such was the uncompromising faithfulness with which the
laws of the church were now enforced against all such
delinquents, and such the general efficiency which pervaded
the entire management of its affairs, that impartial on-lookers
were struck with honest admiration at the spectacle which

the London

the efficien

cy of the Church of

1835.

to

1838.

CHAP. VII. it exhibited. The London Record, the organ of the evan- 1831 Testimony of gelical party in the church of England, will probably be Record to accepted by most religious men, as a competent witness in reference to the character and doings of a Christian church, Scotland in and it is thus that respectable journal spoke of the general assembly of the church of Scotland, in the summer of 1835: "It were impossible, we should think, for the attached members of the church of England to view the proceedings of the Scottish church, as detailed in our columns, without mournful and uncomfortable reflections: there we see the national church of Scotland concentrated in her supreme, judicial, and legislative assembly, and wielding with a bold, vigorous, and yet consecrated arm, all the power with which, in the good providence of God, she is entrusted. She does not restrict her proceedings within a confined range, nor limit her operations, in this era of danger, to the exercise of the usual discipline over the immediate objects of her care; but considers and adopts various measures more or less intimately connected with the consolidation of her strength, the extension of her spiritual influence, the efficiency of her clergy, the scriptural education of her children, the propagation of christianity by missionary exertions throughout the world, and she also avails herself of the address of the lapsed church of Geneva to bear a clear and uncompromising testimony to those fundamental truths on which she and every other true church of Christ must ever stand. These appearances, we say, while cheerThe Recording and consolatory in the abstract, are fitted to recal unthe united pleasant sensations to the minds of the godly members of

contrasts

and vigorous

Scottish

the dislocation and

action of the the church of England. The godly vigour and concentrated Church with exertions of the sister church, according to her measure and opportunities, cannot but force upon them the remembrance that the vast powers of their own church lie scattered England. over the wide expanse of the country, with no centre or

helplessness

of the Church of