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with the methods of Christian educa- | the alternative of its existence or tion, leave these to the church. In non-existence, there would hang a both cases it will multiply and extend most fearful odds to the Christiover the land the amount of instruc- anity of Scotland. Let us admit tion, yet the kind of instruction it it as true that the apparatus may might leave to other authorities, to be made greatly more effective, still other boards of management than its it is true that a deadly effect would own; and this is the way to secure follow, and be felt to her remotest the best scholarship, and the best parishes, were the apparatus taken Christianity. For the sake of an down; it were tantamount to a moral abundant gospel dispensation we are blight over the length and breadth upheld in things temporal by the of our land. And though we have state; for the sake of a pure gospel not time to demonstrate what now dispensation we are left in things spi- we have only time to affirm, yet with ritual to ourselves; and on ourselves all the certainty of experimental it depends alone, whether the church demonstration we say it, that the now might not be the same saintly and ministrations of our church once done unsullied church that it was in the away, would never be replaced to days of martyrdom,-as spiritual in within a tenth of the efficacy, in all its creed, as purely apostolical in its the zeal and energy, and talent of spirit, as holy in all its services. private adventure.

Addressing ourselves to Presbyterians, and speaking of our own church, we will not allege its infallibility, for this were Popery in the dress of Protestantism. We will not contend for the wisdom and the rectitude of all its doings, for we hold that there is neither individual nor corporate perfection on the earth. Let the distinction be made between the acts of an establishment and the powers of an establishment, and we know not if through the whole of Christendom there be one more happily devised in any other country for the religious good of its population. The fitness of the machine is one thing, the working of it is another. We feel that it is no more than a warrantable confidence, when we stand up for the former, though we should feel it most tremendous presumption did we in every instance, and upon all occasions, stand up for the latter.

In regard to the fitness of the mechanism it may be the best possible; in regard to the actual working of the mechanism, one would need to side with all the majorities which, in the popular constitution of our church, have occurred for two centuries, and under all the changes of ecclesiastical polity, ere we could conscientiously affirm that the working at all times has been the best possible. Still, amid all the imputations and the errors which its greatest enemies have laid to its door, we hold that, upon

In my desire to carry your conviction along with me on this subject, it is impossible that I can enter on the use of ecclesiastical statistics without detaining you more than I should be warranted in doing therefore, I shall just give one numerical and perfectly true statement, with regard to the highlands of Scotland, those who speak the Gaelic language.

It is about one hundred years ago since the great dissent from the church of Scotland commenced; and in this land of toleration they have been at perfect liberty to traverse the whole length and breadth of that land. In a population of about half a million, the whole amount of the product arising from their exertions, the whole of what has been called "the voluntary principle" has certainly not exceeded six churches, wherein the stated Gaelic service is performed. The establishment has contributed one hundred and sixty churches to that people. Within these few years-and it is a proof that there is no want of materials, for the success of private adventurers,— within these few years, by a single fiat of the legislature acting on the principle of an establishment, there were decreed no less than forty government churches; and these, I am happy to say, followed up in general by a pure and conscientious exercise of the patronage, are now filled with as many flourishing congregations

people who would never have had any thing like a regular steady supply of Christian ordinances without the extension of the principle of an establishment to them also.

You may take two extreme cases, -one a thinly populated country, and the other a locality as densely peopled as possible. Go to the closest population of any city, and compute the amount of accommodation that there is within the localities where that population is situated: I am perfectly sure that I am within the limits of certainty when I say that four fifths of the population go no where; or, in other words, in that field which is laid open to the zeal and talent of private adventure in this land of toleration for a century, this is the amount, the partial amount to which they have overtaken them; and I see no other mode of reaching them but by the extension of a dangerous principle of an establishment even to them, that is, by a greater number of ministers and churches; when, by a pure and righteous exercise of the patronage, were these filled (which must always be presupposed in any argument) with zealous and well-principled men, I should predict such a moral organization of our cities as no other device, and no other expedient, could possibly afford

us.

many of her families, as the weekly recurrence of the parish bell,-would necessarily disappear; in a moral sense, they would become the waste and the howling wilderness of Scotland. We feel quite assured that under this withering deprivement, a rude and outlandish aspect would gather on the face of our people. The cities might be somewhat served as heretofore, but the innumerable hamlets would be forsaken and neglected, just as they were anterior to an establishment at all; our peasants would again become pagans, and the plain ritual of Christianity would sink into the blindness of idolatry, and the rude inorganization of paganism.

Well, then, suppose that the establishment were overthrown, we are warranted by these two facts to affirm that on the event of its being overthrown there would arise no compensation for the present regular supply, -there would arise no compensation for its fulness. Instead of the frequent parish church (that most beautiful of all spectacles to a truly Scottish character, because to him the richest in moral association-and to whom, therefore, its belfry, peeping forth from among the thick verdure of the trees which embosom it, is the sweetest and fairest object in the landscape) -instead of this we should behold the rare and the thinly-scattered meeting houses; for large and convenient churches, we should have nothing but precarious and transient itineracies; the old established habits of Sabbath attendance, now as constant, with

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But, without enlarging on this consideration-on which head lies much of the strength of our case--you are aware that some economists have advocated the principle of free trade in Christianity on the same principle as they would advocate it for trade, as if the supply always suited itself to the demand; but, in point of fact, it is just because the supply would not suit itself to the demand, that it would be so certainly followed up by the adoption of an establishment. There is no such demand for Christianity as for the articles of merchandize, therefore the principle does not apply: the cases are utterly distinct and dissimilar one from another. Now in point of fact, it is just because the supply would only suit itself by the adoption of an establishment, not that the people would fall away from such a demand. But I cannot enlarge on this consideration, in which there lies much to strengthen the case. And without doing this, let us briefly recur to the leading argument of the day, which is, to prove that there is nothing essentially corrupt in the establishment.

It is not true that corruption must adhere, in virtue of its very nature, and as of necessity, to an establishment. There will be corruption, in fact; but, rightly to estimate the quarter it comes from, distinction should be made between the nature of the institution, and the nature of man. In virtue of the former, there may be no contamination, while in virtue of the latter there may be a

can tell the numerous ills that would fester on every hand, and fall in innumerable forms on society, were the rights and restraints of parental authority therefore put an end to? And there may be corruption in the ecclesiastical government of our own church; this may be true; and yet it may be just as true, that if, either by the

great deal. An establishment may in this case be the occasional, but not the efficient, cause of mischief. The machine may be faultless; but, exposed as it must be, when the mechanist is removed, to the innovation of hands which, in a certain degree, will despoil and vitiate all they come in contact with,-the remedy is not to demolish the machine, but to trans-policy of infatuated rulers, or by the fer the hands that wrought it to other management and other modes of operation there will still be corruption notwithstanding. It will prove a vain attempt to escape if you think to make a good by transferring human nature from the economy of an establishment to the economy of any of our sectaries. The human nature which you thus transfer, will carry its own virulence along with it; and while that nature remains there will be corruption, and which is strictly chargeable neither on the one economy nor on the other. It follows not, therefore, because of this one or that other abuse, that the frame-work of an establishment should be destroyed. To make head against an abuse we should direct our efforts to the place where the abuse originated, not to the machinery, therefore, in the present instance, but to the men who work the machinery. It is not to a constitutional or political change in any of our establishments, that we shall look for the coming regeneration of our land; it is to a moral and a spiritual change in those who administer them. It is there, and not in the frame-work, where the change and the correction must be made. This is the way to get rid of corruption, and not by putting forth upon our national institutions the innovating hand of a destroyer. There are corruptions in the civil government of our empire; yet that is no reason why it should be brought to dissolution. There are corruptions in the municipal governments of our towns; yet what fearful anarchy would ensue, should that be made the pretext for another overthrow, and every populous community in our land were left without a presiding magistracy to check and to control them! There is corruption, we will say it, in every family government throughout the nation; yet, who

frenzy of an infatuated people, this church was put away, it would inflict the most disastrous blow on the character of Scotland and on the Christianity of Scotland's families. It is not by the violence of public hostility against our church that the nation is to be reformed; it is rather by the control of the public opinion of her ministers, and, most of all, by the answer from heaven to the people's prayers, that their "priests may be clothed with salvation." Were the establishment, and that, too, under the pretext of its corruption, destroyed,—this would do nothing, and worse than nothing. Were the establishment, either in the whole, or in certain parts of its constitution reformed, this of itself would do little, and so little as to stamp insignificance on many a contest of ecclesiastical policy. Were the establishment to have the Spirit of God poured forth upon its clergy in their work, and the multiplication of its churches and parishes made more commensurate with the wants of our increasing population,-this, and this alone, would do every thing. A conscientious minister, even within the esta→ blishment, precise as it is, has within the borders the liberty and the privilege of unbounded usefulness. He has scope and an outlet for the largest desires of Christian philanthropy; he has a parish within which he may multiply his assiduities at pleasure, and with no other control but that of the word of GOD over his doctrines, and his services, and his prayers. Should he quarrel with the reigning policy of our church, he has at least liberty to offer his testimony against all that which he may esteem to be its defects and its errors. He can give his eloquence and his vote to the strength of its minorities; he can, by the contribution of his own name,

and of his own proclaimed or recorded opinion, add to that moral force which always tells in the opposition of principle, and which numbers cannot overbear. All this he may do, and without forfeiting the respect, nay, even the kindness of his adver

saries.

and importance of its services. These will form our best security, infinitely better than any which statesmen can devise. There were certain recent alarms (connected with Catholic emancipation, and certain other measures) in which I could not participate, because I felt that any apprehended danger from without might be greatly more than countervailed by the moral defence from within. This is the reaction by which we have hitherto stood our ground against infidelity on the one hand, and sectarianism on the other; and with such an effort, and with such an effect,that is, with enough of energy, and conscientiousness, and enlightened zeal on the part of our ministers,that all the menace and agitation by which we are surrounded will only rivet the church of Scotland more firmly on her basis, and bring in and rally more closely around her all the

But, to go back from the courts of our establishment to its parishes, where, after all, he is on his best vantage ground for the service of Christian patriotism, he can there expatiate without restraint, in all the deeds and the devices of highest usefulness. It is in this precious homewalk of piety and peace that he can acquit himself of his noblest ministra tions for the interests of our immortal nature, and the good of human society. It is there where he sheds the purest influence around him, whether by the holiness of his pulpit, or the kindness of his household, ministrations. I cannot imagine a stronger, yet hap-wise and the good of our nation. pier ascendant, than that which belongs to a parish minister, who throned in the cordialities of his people, finds unbounded welcome at every cottage door, and, by his unwearied attention at sicknesses, and at deaths, and funerals, has implicated the very sound of his name, and the idea of his person, with the dearest interests of families. We positively know not any where else than under this mild patriarchal economy, that a scene of such moral loveliness can be found, or one where the hopes of heaven, and the best and kindest affections of the heart are so beautifully blended. To uphold the system which covers all the land with so blessed and benignant an economy as this may well be termed, the chief defence of the nation to up-root is the gothic imagination of certain unfeeling calculators, whose sole principle in their dealings with society is to follow the leadings of a heartless arithmetic, but who, in the very outset of their plodding computations, overlook what that is which constitutes the chief element of a nation's prosperity and a nation's greatness.

It is the part of ministers to vindicate the worth and importance of a church establishment to society; and this is best done by showing the worth

In regard to an establishment, it makes all the difference in the world to a conscientious man, whether it exposes the church to the evil of an overbearing constraint from without, or, in common with every other Christian society, to the evil of a spontaneous corruption from within its own bosom. If not to the former,-that is, if there be no overbearing influence from without, he may carry entire into the establishment all his powers, and his liberty of usefulness; if only to the latter, that is, a spontaneous corruption from within, he may possibly have no share in the corruption; and, politically (if such be the constitution of the church that he is vested with the privilege,) he may resist; and, if overcome, may lift his testimony against it.

In all these respects we know nothing more perfect than the constitution of the church of Scotland. There is in each of its members an independent voice from within; and from without there is no force or authority whatever, in matters ecclesiastic. They who feel a dislike to an establishment, do so, in general, because of the recoil from all contact and communication with the state. We have no other communication with the state, than that of being

maintained by it; after which we are left to regulate the proceedings of our great home-mission with all the purity, and the piety and the independence, of any missionary abroad. We are exposed to nothing from without, which can violate the sanctity of the apostolic character, if ourselves do not violate it; and neither are we exposed to aught which can trench on the authority of the apostolical office, if, of ourselves we make no surrender of it. In things ecclesiastical we decide all: some of these things may be done wrong, but still they are our majorities which do them; they are not, they cannot be, forced upon us from without. We own no head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ: whatever is done ecclesiastical, is done by our ministers acting in his name, and in professed submission to his authority. Implicated as the church and the state are imagined to be, they are not so implicated as that, without the concurrence of ecclesiastical courts, a full and final effect can be given to any proceedings, by which the good of Christianity and the religion of our people may be effected. There is not a clerical appointment which can take place in any of our parishes, till we have sustained it. Even the law of patronage, right or wrong, is in force, not by the power of the state, but by the permission of the church, and, with all its fancied omnipotence, has no other basis than that of our majorities to rest upon. It should never be forgotten that in things ecclesiastical the highest power of our church is amenable to no higher power on earth for its defence. It can exclude, it can deprive, it can depose, at pleasure. External force might make an obnoxious individual the holder of a benefice; but there is no external force in these realms which can make him a minister of the church of Scotland. There is not one thing which the state can do to our independent and indestructible church, but strip her of her temporalities; persecuted and derided, she would remain a church, notwithstanding. Stronger than ever in the bulwarks of her own moral and inherent greatness, and at least, as

strong as ever in the reverence of her country's population, she would be as much a church in the days of her suffering, as in the days of external security and triumph,—when a wandering outcast, with nothing but the mountain breeze to play around her, and nought but the caves of the earth to shelter her, as now, when endowed with the powers of an establishment. The magistrates may withdraw their protection, and she cease to be an establishment any longer; but, in all the high matters of sacred and spiritual jurisdiction, she would be the same as before. With or without an establishment, in these she is the unfettered mistress of her doings. The king, by himself, or by his representative, might be a looker on, but more the king cannot, the king dare not.

But we gladly bring our arguments to a close. It has been well remarked, that in the abstract discussions of men about which there may be collision, it is difficult to avoid a certain tone of harshness-a spirit the most unlike possible to that which should be, and indeed to that which actually is, in real and living exemplification. The vindication of our establishment, as far as we have proceeded in it, necessarily involves the vindication of our order from the charge, that, because supported by the state, we are therefore, as if by necessary consequence, a mean and a mercenary priesthood. In repelling this, we cannot but assert the real independence which belongs to us: but let not the assertion of our independence be interpreted into an assertion of disrespect or defiance. What we say, and say truly, in the abstract, may in the concrete be never realized; and for this best and most desirable of all reasons-that the one party ought never to be put on the hardy and resolute defence of its prerogative, just because the other party may never have the wish or the thought to invade them. There is many an ancient and venerable possession in our land whose writings are never called forth from their depository, or brought into court, just because they are never trampled on: and so of the rights of our

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