CHAP. XI. THE ASSEMBLY OF 1840; THE REJECTION OF LORD ABERDEEN'S BILL, &c. The comed by the moder ate party. the General IN Scotland the bill was hailed by the moderate party CHAP. XI. with unmingled delight, while it called forth among The bill welthe non-intrusionists universal dissatisfaction. first public discussion it underwent, took place in the provincial synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, on the 13th of May, a week after it had been laid on the table of the house of lords. After an elaborate and able exposition of its real character and design, a motion was carried in that synod by a majority of sixty to twenty, to overture the general assembly "to take steps for opposing the bill, and preventing its being put into a law." In the general assembly the debate Meeting of regarding it came on upon the 27th of May. It was Assembly. opened by Dr. Chalmers in a speech which occupied three hours in the delivery. Speaking in the earlier portion of it upon the cardinal question of the church's spiritual independence, and the necessity of resisting, at whatever cost, any and every legislative measure which left it exposed to the ruinous encroachments of the court of session, he said," The leading Speech of Dr. principle of presbyterianism is that there is a distinct government in the church, and which the state must have approved of ere it conferred on her the temporalities, and we must be as uncontrolled by the state, in the management of our own proper affairs, as if we did not receive a farthing from the treasury. Chalmers. СНАР. XI. * * I take this principle to be the peculiar Her stint glory of the church of Scotland. We contended for it government the glory of of Scotland. the Church during the struggles and persecutions of more than a hundred years, and the principle has cost so much that we are not willing to let it go; and if the state should require us either to give up this principle or to forfeit our endowments-we are willing to try the same experiment and to adopt the same course over again. That principle has not been forgotten though it has remained dormant, though it has faded from the recollection and the feelings of general society. Like some old charter that has slumbered in its repository while its articles were unbroken, but which the rude hand of violence has called from its oblivion, quickened anew into vigour and vitality, and caused to assume all its grandeur in the eyes of the people, so this The conflict grand fundamental principle of the church of Scotland, the principle of the exclusive jurisdiction of the church in matters spiritual,-once familiar, as Bishop Burnet of their fore- tells us, as a household word in the mouths of the familiarizing of Scotland once more with the principles fathers. * * peasantry of our land, has faded in the quiet of but unfold ing the ban ner, and making its legend more legible. and more convincingly the same truth into the under- CHAP. XI. standings of the community. Our ark is in the midst of conflicting billows, but our flag is all the more unfurled by the storm which has been raised; and now The storm is spread abroad and expanded by the gale, it only serves to make the motto of our establishment more patent to all eyes,—the Lord Jesus Christ is the only King and Head of our church. We have nailed that colour to the mast, and we will keep by it in all its fortunes, whether in the tempest or in the sunshine.' Referring, further on, to the bearing of this principle on the question of the lawfulness of church establishments. "The radicals and voluntaries," he exclaimed, "know well, that if we give way by ever so little,if we make the smallest, though it were but a quitrent acknowledgment of the supremacy of the civil court,-if we make but the semblance of submission to the civil power, they know well, they know that the minutest fraction of such an appearance would eat as a cankerworm into the heart of any state religion, the contaminating flaw would putrify and pulverize to the dust every national establishment of christianity within these realms. It is a grievous thing to be thus thrown back by people within the camp,-by professed friends to the cause of religious establishments,-I say, it is grievous to be thus thrown by them upon the original elements of this question; and when we had gained the cause of church establishments on the field of argument with the voluntaries, to have the victory thus wrested out of our hands. I felt it a proud thing that we could go forth and plead the cause of church extension, strong in the sense of our spiritual indepen To yield destroy the would be to Church. CHAP. XI. dence; when we could make it as clear as day, that though the ministers of our establishment take their maintenance from the state, they take all the articles of their creed, as well as all the principles and practices of their ecclesiastical polity, from the bible. Hard that the It is hard, that this argument, the most silencing of best argu ment in fa blishments vour of esta- all others to the enemies of a state religion, should have been taken from us by a new class of adversaries who should be taken away fessed friends of establishments. pro have sprung up from among ourselves,—who have spoiled us of our armour, and have made us say, in the language of scripture-how are the weapons of war perished.' 999 Passing from the spiritual independence principle to that of non-intrusion, and coming into closer quarters with the bill, Dr. Chalmers, after describing it, observed -"I cannot figure a more truly extraordinary result coming out of such an application for relief, from a hardship imposed on the church by a sentence of the court of session. Application for a remedy, you will observe, and that against a grievance which she prays might be removed, even an unexpected obstruction which has been thrown in her way when carrying into The Church effect by a particular method she had herself devised, for a reme--I mean the veto-law, one of her great constituWritsational principles-that no man shall be intruded into a parish contrary to the will of the congregation. of course, is quite understood between the parties, that on a satisfactory substitute being found, the church will rescind her veto-law. Now how has this application been met? Not by a substitute, enabling the church to give effect in another way to a principle which she stands solemnly pledged before God and has applied dy, and this bill wrong. It, the would have the dissent gregation to of the con the country never to abandon, and which would lead CHAP. XI. at once to a rescinding of the veto-law; but to a truly different thing, sir, and which were tantamount to the entire and authoritative reversal of that law; and by overlooking the total diversity of import between these two things, to rescind and to reverse, we are presented with one of the strangest specimens of a sort of interchange,-under the semblance, too, nay, with the honest design, I believe, of conferring a benefit,which ever took place between two corporations residing within the limits of the same territory, and professing the greatest mutual value and deference for each other. For how does the matter stand? We, the church, think so well of a principle, that we The Church raise it above the level of other and ordinary principles, by embodying it into a law; and, under sense of its universal and unexcepted worth, ordain that it shall be carried into effect in all instances. Now, how is this followed up? They, the state, must think so ill of the said principle, that, not satisfied with casting it back on its old platform, along with the other principles on which the church is free, though not bound, to act in the settlement of ministers, they dishonour and degrade it below the level of all the rest, and, under the sense of its exceeding worthlessness, ordain that it shall be carried into effect in no instances. Let it not be said that we may give effect to the dissent of the people on reasons shown. This we could do at all times,-pronounce on reasons: and Lord Aberdeen has truly said that he gives no additional powers to the church by his bill. Yes, and by calling his a declaratory act, and leaving untouched avail in all instances, this bill will avail in allow it to none. |