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To THE Members of the Synod of the Presbyterian
Church of Canada in Connection with the Church
of Scotland, and especially to the Members and
Adherents of St. Andrew's Church, (Church of
Scotland,) Montreal.

The following Circular is in vindication of the under-
signed, against a slur on his character, made by his Minister,
on the floor of Synod, on the fourth of November last past, at
Toronto.

The undersigned, a member of St. Andrew's Church,
Montreal, it will be remembered, was ordained an Elder of
that Church, together with other members thereof, amongst
whom was James Johnston, Esquire, merchant, of this city,
sometime during the month of January, eighteen hundred
and seventy-one.

Matters moved along quietly and smoothly, in connec-
tion with the prosecution of Church affairs, until the month
of April following, or thereabouts, when certain changes were
asked for by some members of Session, who represented that
a number of the congregation desired an alteration in the mode
of worship, viz. : — From sitting to standing at singing, and
from standing to kneeling at prayer. This idea was the cause
of the first disturbance of the peace in St. Andrew's Church
(Kirk Session) from the time Mr. Lang became Minister of
the Church. Mr. Johnston being an out-and-out Kirk man,
sorely resisted the resolution for such changes, and continued
to do so until he resigned in May, eighteen hundred and
seventy-three.

The undersigned freely admits, that in a great many
instances, during the discussion of Session matters, Mr. John-
ston's conduct was not what one could term courteous, or

-iL.

wsimm

otherwise evincing a Christian spirit ; but, on the other hand,
he oftentimes had severe provocation ; and having a desire to
maintain the old maxims of the Mother Church, it was tanta-
lizing to him to see men evidently doing their utmost to do
away with the old principles and forms of the Church that he
had so much regard and affection for.

Under these circumstances, a great amount of leniency
must be extended to our old friend, who, after all, is by no
means the man that some members of the Session term
him.

I admit that I have condemned him, and have often been
sorely vexed in my heart at his actions ; and it is, doubtless,
generally known that I seconded the resolution f )r his six
months' suspension from the office of the Elderahip; — I
have to remark that I entered the Session an inexperienced
man in Church matters — but I felt that I would early
grapple with the work, having co-workers enrolled, some of
whom were men of a great amount of experience. But, before
I was long there, I soon found that I, with older — yea,
much older men than myself — was misled by parties, who,
either from want of knowing better, or otherwise purposely,
did, as, for instance, in the case of the suspension, what I
was informed was quite legal ; and no one caring about moving
the resolution, Mr. Eeekie moved, and I seconded it. We
did so, seeing that the others were evidently dubious about
it — even those very men who said it was all perfectly correct.
Anyhow, the seconding of the said resolution was the first
false step I made in Sessional matters, which was so widely
and sorely condemned by members of our own and other
congregations, both in this city and elsewhere.

However, to get at the purport of this Circular, I need
not dilate any further in regard to what took place at sub-
sequent meetings of Session — > suffice it to say, that at a
meeting of Presbytery, held in St. Paul's Church, in the
month of May, 1873, Mr. Johnston, at the instance of mem-
bers of the Session, and at the request made him by several
of his friends in the Presbytery, resigned, upon condition that
the minutes relating to the controversy between himself and

ler

the Session should be forthwith deleted. He was assured
that such would be the case by certain members of the Church
Court, amongst whom was the ruling Elder of St. Andrew's
Eirk Session, who stated, as I learn, that, although he had no
authority to make such a promise, yet he had every reason to
believe the Session would ratify anything he did. Mr. John-
ston thereupon signed the resignation, with the distinct
understanding that the minutes would be deleted forthwith
without fail.

At a subsequent meeting of the Eirk session, the
representative Elder reported what had taken place, which
was ratified hit not minuted. The resignation was read and
accepted, Mr. Lang, the moderator, requesting that he be
allowed to name myself with two others, whom, if I remem-
ber right, were Messrs. Hunter and Morris, for the purpose of
carrying out such deletion.

This Committee, for some reason evidently, was not
entered on the Minute Book. I must not neglect to mention
that Mr. Johnston had entered an action against a member of
the congregation some months previously for certain griev-
ances done himself and family, and it was mentioned at the
meeting of Kirk session lastly referred to, by a member of
the session, that as Mr. Johnston had been let off so easily,
we had better call on him to desist in the prosecution of
his action against the member referred to. My reply was
that we might as well take forcible possession of Mr. John-
ston's house and order him out as to dictate to him what he
should do in regard to said action.

The matter here dropped, and nothing more was said
concerning it.

The summer of 1873 passed over, and no minutes were
deleted. Mr. Johnston met me about ten days before the
meeting of Presbytery, which took place the first week in
November following, and asked if the minutes were deleted.
I had to plead guilty, for I had never given the matter a particle
of attention, and apologized for my negligence. He was kind
enough to say that, as he intended to call up the minute-
book in Presbytery to ascertain if good faith had been kept

towards him, he would not like me to feel any way out of
place or discomforted, and that if I would see to it at once, it
would show that I had endeavored to do my duty. I imme-
diately left him and went to the office of the Session Clerk,
Mr. Hunter, but he refused me any information, which I
thought was a very strange line of conduct towards a co-
worker in the session, and one who could have demanded the
production of the books. Failing there, I wrote the Presby-
tery clerk to ascertain the exact position of matters ; but he
was evidently tainted with the same disease, and I derived no
more information from him than from the session clerk.
Feeling somewhat discouraged, but determined that I would
not be foiled in the performance of my duty, I repaired to
the residence of a friend to seek his counsel in the matter.
When I related to him the unsuccessful attempts I had made
to ascertain whether or not good faith had been kept towards
Mr. Johnston, and also their replies to my inquiries, he
was simply horrified. Our cohversation, however, ended with
an advice to me to write my minister and call upon him, in
the interests of peace and the welfare of his congregation, to
have the said minutes deleted. Considering the advice most
excellent and kind, I immediately wrote as follows: —

[COPY.]

<( MONTBIAL, 29th Oct., 1874.

('Dbab Mb. Lano,—

" As the usual quarterly meeting of Presbytery is near
" at hand, I wish to remind you of the condition in regard to Mr. Johnston's
" resignation, which was, that all records of the Johnston Controversy
" should be deleted from the Minute Book, and if you remember right, I
" with two others were a Committee appointed to see that it was done ;
(( the other day I was asked if it was done ; my reply was that I could not
"^say, never having attended to seeing that it was done. I was then informed
" that the books would be called up before Presbytery the very first thing ;
<( my next move was to see Mr. Hunter, Session Clerk, and when I asked
" him about it, his reply was, <I will not answer any questions,' which I
" consider was rather a little too much of a saucy answer for one Brother
<> Elder to give to another, and afterwards said that he would not do it,
" that he had received no orders, and he then went on railing about Johnston.
" Now, Mr. Lang, although I think no more of Mr. Johnston than you do,
"still as a sacred promise was made and a coven<int made that such

4< minutes ihould be struck off, let ns have it done and not hare any
'< further reproaches cast upon ug. I have heard that it has been said that
<< there was no Committee appointed to see to it being done. I say there
"was, and it was an addition to a motion of my own made at your
"suggestion that I and two others should be a Committee for such purpose,
'< and if it is not in the minutes, it should be.

« I simply wish to do my duty, and can assure you, my dear Mr. Laug,
" that I will not be foiled in doing so by any one, much less by Mr. Hunter,
« therefore, I beg of you to have it attended to before then. Mr. Hunter
« and you will get along better than he and I, for we are both high strung,
" and he knows he can't bully me as he did Johnston. I would be sorry
«< indeed to have our Session censured on account of failure of duty.

" Yours ever,

(Signed,) "H. BRODIE.
«*Eev. G. Lang."

Mr. Lang afterwards called at my Ofi&ce to see me, but
being unfortunate in not finding me in, he sat down and pen-
ned the following letter at my desk : —

(The letter bears no date, but was written on the thirtieth
or thirty-first of October, 1873.)

[COPT.] "3o'c.

<<Mt Dbab Mb. Brodii,—

" I called to tell you how deeply I feel for you in your worry
" and vexation, knowing as I do what such means. You are perfectly
" right as to the deletion, and I have spoken of it more than once. But
<( the difficulty is, as to how that is to be rightly effected. Mr. Morris says,
" that the law would regard it as sufficient to make a declaration that such
"and such minutes from page so and so to page so and so are u tinted. I
" would like to have seen you to explain, which I can't do fuli;^ i / letter,
" all my feelings and position regarding Session matters. I was staving
" off all meetings of a business kind till after the Communion in the hopes
" that we may have peace then. Meanwhile, Mr. Morris promised me last
« night that he would see Mr. Hunter and get the work of which you
" write forwarded and done.

" Ever yours,

" Very sincerely,

(Signed,) « GAVIN LANG."

At the meeting of Presbytery in November, 1873, a let-
ter from Mr. Johnston was read asking whether the session
had carried out the agreement to which the Presbytery were
a party. It was then denied that the session had made any
promise, and at a very thin diet of the Presbytery, as I learn,

a resolution was carried, moved by Mr, Lang, that the enquiry
asked for be not made. Mr. Campbell being a party to the
arrangement with Mr. Johnston, felt that injustice was done
him, and appealed to the Synod. Things thus remained in
statu quo for some time, until the matter was afterwards
brought up in session by Mr. Morris, who said he thought the
minutes ought to be deleted. Bear in mind, this was at a
meeting in February, 1874, a few days previous to the ordina-
tion of the last six elders who entered the session, and Mr.
Morris' object was to have the business of the old session
done before the ordination of the new elders, hence his anxiety
to have the so much talked of minutes deleted, and I feel
confident if a promise had not been made to that effect, Mr.
Morris would not have bothered his head about the matter ;
however, it was at this meeting of session that the whole cause
of delay in deleting leaked out. Mr. Hunter kicked against
deletion, and said, " if you delete these minutes, the legs of my
evidence are knocked from imder me in my case with John-
ston, which is not yet disposed of. " The minister himself
seemed evidently against deleting, notwithstanding his letter
as above ; another plea of excuse was that Johnston had not
fulfilled his part of the programme, because he was still pro-
secuting a member of session, and also the trustees of the
Church. I say Johnston has fulfilled his part to the letter.
Johnston, as before stated, said, " I wiU resign the eldership ;
you'll delete forthwith." This was the understanding and
nothing more. Johnston, as before stated, has carried out his
part in fuU ; the session have failed to fulfil theirs. However,
the matter dropped, no action was taken, things remained as
they were, and for all I know, the minutes may be still in
force till this day.

At the meeting of Synod held in the city of Ottawa, in
June last, Mr. Campbell took up the case on behalf of John-
ston, and, as I am informed, Mr. Lang denied fully before the
Committee of Errors and Appeals that any promise was made,
and declared that no such Committee existed as one for delet-
ing the minutes, no matter who was Mr. Campbell's informant
to the contrary.

ifap-

Hearing of this gross denial of truth, I made up my mind
that I would attend the Synod in Toronto, which was held in
November following, as I felt somewhat interested in it, and
having armed Mr. Campbell with a copy of Mr. Lang's letter
to me, I started for Toronto a day or two afterwards. Mr.
Campbell brought on his appeal case while I was in the
Church Court, and argued it at full length, referring during
the course of his argument to the information received. Mr.
Lang rose and thundered out a reply, and stated that he knew
who Mr. Campbell's informant was : it was a Mr. Brodie, a
member of his session, who was laboring under a misappre-
hension of facts ; but that, notwithstanding what Mr. Brodie's
information was, he declared most solemnly that no such com-
mittee for deletion ever existed, and that no such promise
was ever made, and challenged Mr. Campbell for proof. Mr.
Campbell then rose to read the copy of Mr. Lang's letter to
me, but Mr. Lang in a violent manner protested and declared
it a breach of etiquette, to introduce any private communica-
tion. Mr. Morris also objected that this letter was not in the
evidence before the court.

Mr. Campbell folded up the letter and put it into his
pocket, thus leaving me in the awkward situation of violating
a private correspondence, and of seeming to furnish false
information regarding the session. What was I to think of
the man who could strive to fix upon an elder who had always
supported him (Mr. Lang) until he thought it proper to depart
from doing what was right in this case, the imputation of
violating private correspondence and misrepresenting the
action of his minister and brother elders, and could say that I
was mistaken or laboring under a misapprehension of facts,
when I had his (Mr. Lang's) letter in my possession?
How could I be expected to sit under his ministry longer ? I
say, and every right minded person who reads that communi-
cation will also say, that it was in no sense a private one, as
it was an official letter written in answer to my question,
which was a public one. Thus I was made the scape-goat.
My feelings at that season of turmoil and excitement may be
more easily imagined than described. Not being a member of

the Church Court, I had to sit and listen to it all, which was
anything but pleasant. After all, perhaps it was just as well
that I had no voice in the Court, for I might have given Mr.
Lang and his friend who spoke so lightly of me somewhat
more of my opinion of them than they would probably have
been willing to have heard.

In conclusion, therefore, I have only to add that my
reasons for thus stating the foregoing facts are strictly in vin-
dication of my own character and in the interest of morality
and religion, to explain a wrong done me by a man calling
himself a servant of God, and who was at that time my min-
ister, and is no other than the Rev. Gavin Lang. I leave you
to judge calmly and deliberately, from the foregoing letter
and facts, whether I am or am not guilty of what the Rev.
Gavin Lang, on the floor of the Sjrnod, attributed to me.

This circular or pamphlet I had intended bringing out
long ere this, but for the reasop of severe illness entering my
family early in November last, extending over a period of
three months, which exclusively occupied my thoughts and
time.

Yours respectfully,

HUGH BRODIE.

Montreal, 1st April, 1875.

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Printed at the *' Gazette" Printing House, Montieal.

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