CHAP. IV. religion was the only effectual safeguard of social order, the holders of church patronage found it expedient not altogether to despise the claims of evangelical The tide, in candidates for the ministry. The tide, in a word, began to turn. Slowly at first, and almost insensibly, but evangelical yet steadily and increasingly, the evangelical party in

high places,

begins to turn in fa

vour of the

party.

the church gained strength. And while the causes already noticed contributed largely to this result, it is impossible to overlook the share in producing it which undoubtedly belonged to a few distinguished men. During even the palmiest days of moderate ascendency, when to be evangelical was to be accounted and treated almost literally "as the filth of the earth, and as the offscouring of all things," the name of Dr. Erskine was still a rallying point for the evangelical cause. Character of His learning so varied, his piety so deep, his preaching so impressive, his labours so incessant, his life so unblemished, his whole character so instinct with honour and integrity, made it impossible even for dominant moderatism to treat with mere contempt the cause with which Dr. Erskine was identified. Among those who succeeded him, as leaders on the same side, three men stand conspicuous-Moncrieff, Thomson, and Chalmers, each in himself a host. Under their the evangeli- auspices, the party which long and systematic disgrew strong, Couragement on the part of patrons and men in power

Dr. Erskine and his great influence.

The chiefs under whom

cal party

gradually

had reduced fifty years ago to a small minority, waxed, like the house of David, "stronger and stronger;" while moderatism was every year becoming "weaker and weaker," like the house of Saul.

The Rev. Sir Henry Moncrieff, the friend and biographer of Erskine, was not unworthy to succeed even

crieff: his

character

and his influence in

the arch.

such a man in representing and defending the ancient CHAP. IV. constitutional principles and the old scriptural theology The Rev. Sir of the church of Scotland. Combining, as Sir Henry did, a clear and vigorous understanding, uncommon sagacity, and a resolute will, with that manly bearing and that inflexible integrity, which even at first sight command respect, and which never fail to ensure lasting confidence, few men were ever better fitted than he to uphold a good cause in difficult and depressing times. Weakened and dispirited as they were, the evangelical minority under a less masculine leadership might have been in some danger of being crushed altogether. The contest had, in fact, become all but hopeless and useless in the general assembly. For this reason chiefly, no doubt, it was that Sir Henry Moncrieff directed so much of his attention and his influence towards those who had the disposal of church patronage in their hands. His high character and great prudence led to his being often consulted; and enabled him not unfrequently to bring about, by private advice, the appointment of pious and useful ministers. In this way he largely promoted the real revival and reformation of the church, at a time when it was impossible, through the more public medium of the church courts, to effect anything at all. Some expressions which, in the course of this period, he employed, in the appendix to his Life of Dr. Erskine, were afterwards greedily seized upon, as if they proved him to have been unfriendly, or at least indifferent, to some of the great principles which the recent controversy involved. This attempt to deprive a good cause of the benefit of his venerable name, neither required

which have been made

to misrepre

sent his

views.

Sir Henry's

views of Church policy, given

Dr. Andrew

CHAP. IV. nor deserved any serious reply. It has, however, been most calmly and conclusively exposed, by his respected grandson, the Rev. Henry Moncrieff, a minister of the Account of Free church of Scotland.* "It was in early life," said one who knew him long and well, "that he began by the Rev. to take an active part in the government of our national Thomson. church. church. The principles of ecclesiastical polity which he adopted as soon as he entered on his public career, he adopted from full and firm conviction; and he maintained and cherished and avowed them to the very last. They were the very same principles for which our forefathers had contended so nobly, which they at length succeeded in establishing, and which they bequeathed, as a sacred and blood-bought legacy, to their descendants. But though that circumstance gave them a deep and solemn interest in his regard, he was attached to them on more rational and enlightened grounds. He viewed them as founded on the word of God-as essential to the rights and liberties of the christian people-as identified with the prosperity of genuine religion, and with the real welfare and efficiency of the establishment."

The Rev. Dr.

Andrew

He who drew this picture and pronounced this eulogy, Thomson. had been already, for several years previous to Sir Henry's death, the acknowledged leader of the reforming party in the church. Dr. Andrew Thomson not merely inherited the principles of Knox, and Melville, and Henderson-he was himself another

* Vide his Letter to Lord Melbourne, &c. Edinburgh, J. Johnstone,

1841.

Sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Andrew Thomson on the occasion of Sir Henry's death.

Fearless as Knox, profoundly CHAP. IV.

with Knox, Melville, and

which his

character

mind re

theirs.

of these giant men. skilled, like Melville, in ecclesiastical affairs, and Compared gifted, like Henderson, with that ready and com- Henderson. manding eloquence so indispensable to the leader of a popular assembly; he belonged to the same high order of minds as that illustrious triumvirate. He was, moreover, instinct with their spirit; in him the very genius of these great reformers of the church lived again; their intense love of liberty, their unsparing and uncompromising enmity against all corruptions and abuses, their inextinguishable hatred of tyranny and arbitrary power; and, above all, their zeal in Points in promoting the religious culture and intellectual and cast of improvement of the people, and their resolute and sembled unflinching maintenance of the spiritual independence of the church and the rights of the christian people, formed the grand distinguishing characteristics of Thomson's character and life. And most remarkable was the progress made during the brief but busy years of his public career, in bringing back the church towards the old paths, so well defined in her constitution and so brightly traced in her history. It had been the fashion, in the days of dominant moderatism, to identify evangelical preaching with intellectual imbecility. To be reputed an esprit fort, it was According to essential to be at least on friendly terms with scepticism, and to be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. The protest against this mingled impiety and insolence of an irreligious age, which, even in the worst times, had been offered in the person of such men as Erskine and Moncrieff, received from Thomson an immense accession of force. Occupying the pulpit of St. George's,

the sceptical spirit of the

preceding he evangeliimbecile.

century, to

cal was to be

Influence which the

preaching of

exerted in

putting down this

insolent reproach.

Dr. Thomson's sudden death.

CHAP. IV. in the very centre of the most influential classes of the northern metropolis, the prodigious energy of his Thomson character speedily gathered around him, and brought under the impulse of his ministry, many of the most vigorous and cultivated minds in the city. While his preaching was thus rapidly regaining for evangelism a firmer footing in those ranks of society from which it had been long almost excluded, his advocacy of reformation principles-on the platform, through the press, and in the courts of the church-was telling not less powerfully on men's views of ecclesiastical affairs. Young and generous minds among the candidates for the ministry caught fire from this master in Israel, and took from him many of the best lessons and impulses of their after life. His sun went down at noon, while yet shining in its meridian strength; and although, at the sudden and stunning announcement of his death, men felt as if the church's firmament had become dark, time has proved how many burning and shining lights his own-as a great instrument in God's hand-had kindled and left behind, to guide her affairs when his own light had disappeared. "His was the olden theology of Scotland; a thoroughly devoted son of our church, he was through life the firm, the unflinching advocate His funeral of its articles, and its formularies, and its rights, Dr. Chali and the whole polity of its constitution and discipline. His creed he derived by inheritance from the fathers of the Scottish reformation; not, however, as based on human authority, but as based and upholden on the authority of scripture alone. * * * The whole system originated in deepest piety: and has resulted in the formation of the most moral and intelligent

sermon by

ers.