hopes Sir R. Peel will not take away all hope of a sentiments of Sir James Graham's letter on the CHAP. XV. church's claim to independent spiritual jurisdiction; and it was certainly, therefore, very vain, however well intended, after this, to say, as he did at the close of his speech, "I trust that nothing that may fall Lord John from the first lord of the treasury (who had not then t spoken) will prevent this house, or a great part of this settlement. house, from still entertaining a hope that the calamities we fear may be averted, and that a church which has been so eminent, which has performed its duties so well towards the people of Scotland,-duties of the due performance of which the talents and the morality of the people of Scotland are the best and most enduring proof,-will be preserved, as it has heretofore been preserved, to be still of use, and to be still an example in times to come." Sir Robert Peel, as has already appeared, was deaf to this call; and with the views which, in common with Lord John Russell, he entertained on the question of jurisdiction, he did well to be deaf to it. Having first sanctioned the doctrine of the civil supremacy in matters spiritual, it would have been vain, on that footing, to proceed to legislate for the ancient church of Scotland. He did better to reserve his legislation till a somewhat later period, when an institution, taking to itself the name of the church of Scotland, was found willing to be dealt with on these degrading terms. No settle footing of be accepted church. ment on the Lord John's views could by the motion lost. The motion of Mr. Maule was rejected, upon a Mr Maule's division, by a majority of 135: the numbers being 76 for, and 211 against it. It is not undeserving of notice, that of the 37 Scotch members who were present at the division, 25 voted with Mr. Maule. It Two to one CHAP. XV. was not simply, therefore, the voice of Scotland's of the Scotch church, but the voice of her national representatives, that was that night overborne in the British parliament. The fact is one which an impartial posterity members vote with Mr. Maule. will mark and remember. In this decisive vote of the house of commons, taken in connection with the previous official communication from the executive government, the church had now at length received a full and explicit answer to her claim of rights. That claim, adopted by the general assembly of 1842, by a majority of two to one, declared distinctly what those terms were, on which alone the church, consistently with her own constitution and laws, and with her allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, her only King and Head, could or would continue in union with the state. The state had now unequivocally rejected these terms, and had intimated final answer most unmistakeably to the church that she could The Church had now received her from the State. continue to enjoy the temporal immunities and emoluments of her civil establishment, only on the footing of submission to that right of control, even in matters spiritual, which the civil tribunals had assumed and exercised, and against which she had solemnly protested, as a grievous wrong and an intolerable oppression. There was, therefore, no room now for any middle course. To abandon her claim of rights, or to abandon her establishment, these were the only alternatives that remained. In the convocation it had been unanimously agreed, that if the legislature alternatives should even be simply silent upon the question, after the claim of rights should have been formally brought The only that now remained. before it, and if, at the same time, no steps should be taken to redress the grievances of which that claim CHAP. XV. of rights complained, this of itself ought to be held as a practical rejection of the church's claims, amply sufficient to warrant and require her to renounce her establishment. It was the opinion, indeed, of a few of the members of the convocation, that in the event of the legislature being found to pursue that purely negative course, some latitude must be allowed, in determining the precise point of time, at which that negative course should be held to have acquired, the meaning and force of a positive utterance upon the question at issue. It pleased God, however, in His The path of great mercy, that no darkness of this kind should be allowed to bewilder any one,-that there should be no twilight even, when the day for action came,—but that the light should arise upon the path of His servants unclouded and at once, and so as that the wayfaring man, though a fool, should not err therein. The response which the state gave was not veiled under a hesitating and dubious reserve. The demands of the church had been met with a clear, emphatic, and unqualified No. the Church was made plain. tions for the The two months which intervened between that memorable vote of the house of commons and the meeting of the general assembly, were spent in busy Busy prepara. preparation for the event which had now become disruption. inevitable. A committee, embracing many of the ablest men in the church, sat from day to day, and laboured with untiring zeal and energy in making all things ready. A series of "communications" were addressed to the members of the church, to keep them fully informed of the great movement that was now in forming everywhere to receive funds. CHAP. XV. progress, and of the reasons which had rendered it a matter of imperative necessity and duty. Means were adopted to organize every where, into a distinct and well compacted body, the adherents of those great Associations principles which were now at stake. Associations were formed in almost every parish for raising funds to build new places of worship, and to support the ministry when the deed of the church's disestablishment should have been completed. Over the whole business of this financial department Dr. Chalmers presided, and brought to bear upon it all his commanding energy and consummate wisdom. At a much earlier period, indeed, he had striven hard, with his characteristic foresight and practical sagacity, to get all this done. In the convocation he expounded his views upon this subject at great length, and showed how, by a united effort, the offerings of the people might be made to replace the alienated endowments of the state. He was then listened to, as he afterwards complained, with an incredulous ear. When Dr. Chalmers the ship was going to wreck he had painted up, and brought alongside a life-boat, as one of the members of the convocation said at the time, that looked almost as good as the ship itself. But the speaker who gave this account of the embryo "Sustentation Fund," like the members of the convocation generally, were evidently inclined to look upon the scheme as little better than a devout imagination. They had made up their minds to forsake all, that they might follow Christ, and were not careful to inquire what their after condition, as to temporal support, might be. At that moment they were too much occupied with and the Sustentation Fund. ness of the ministers to engage in a connected own support. movement with their the fact itself, involved in the resolution to which they CHAP. XV. had come, to be in a favourable condition for consi- Unwillingdering what was to follow. There was, in truth, a feeling extensively prevalent among the ministers, and one which generous minds will both understand and appreciate, that it did not become them, at that movement, to be busying themselves, or taking the lead, in arranging for their future provision. It seemed to them every way more suitable, that whatever plans might be necessary for that purpose, should take their rise among the elders and private members of the church. The feeling was as natural as it was certainly strong and universal,—and hence the little success which Dr. Chalmers had in his efforts to enlist the convocation in support of his noble scheme. Not more, however, in the devising of that scheme than in thus setting himself at once to the task of teaching it to his brethren, and of stirring them up to embrace and act upon it, did he exhibit the superiority both of his genius and of his faith. The event that was now object that the mind of Dr. meal mers. approaching was not in his eye,-never was even for a single moment,-a question of personal, but a question of public interest. The thought of what the dis- The grand establishing of the church might cost hundreds of was before faithful ministers and their families, touching and solemn as it was, was lost in great measure to him, in the grander and diviner thought of what it might cost to God's cause and truth, and to the imperishable souls of men. Not to maintain a clergy, but to maintain the gospel of Christ in purity and power throughout the parishes of Scotland,-not in great towns and populous districts alone, where the necessary temporal resources might be abundant, but even in the remotest |