6X7555 
 .E55F3 
 
A HISTORY OF THE 
 
 EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
THE EVANGELICAL UNION 
 
 From its Origin to the Present Time. 
 
 BY 
 
 FERGUS FERGUSON, D. D. 
 
 GLASGOW: THOMAS D. 
 
 1876. 
 
 MORI SON. 
 
GLASGOW : 
 PRINTED BY HAY NISBET, 
 219 GEORGE STREET. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 We do not need to offer any apology for giving to the world 
 . a history of the Evangelical Union. Many of our fellow- 
 countrymen do not know the particulars of our history as a 
 denomination ; and we are certain that whatever its defects 
 may be, this work will supply a desideratum that has often 
 been felt and complained of in the history of the Protestant 
 denominations of Great Britain. 
 
 There are those who cry out querulously against the 
 numerous sections into which the Church of Christ is 
 divided in this country. But, even as it was found in 
 the Allied army during the Crimean campaign, that the 
 healthful rivalry between the British, the French, and the 
 Sardinian troops, tended to increase the energy and effec- 
 tiveness of the host as a whole ; in like manner, if Christians, 
 while making much of their denominational peculiarities, 
 would make far more of their unity under Christ the head, 
 their earnest emulation of one another would secure the 
 highest amount of success in the subjugation of the world to 
 Jesus. It was on this ground that the Duke of Argyle 
 declared on a public occasion, that he preferred the healthy 
 rivalries of the different Protestant Communions to the 
 dead uniformity of the Church of Rome; and we are in- 
 clined heartily to agree with liis Grace in this expression of 
 his opinion. ^ 
 
 The reader ^vil\ find in the body of the work that we have 
 not assumed the name " Evangelical Union " in any arro- 
 gant or exclusive sense, but simply to show that, while some 
 other denominations are characterised by a peculiarity of 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 belief as to a form of Church Government or the observance 
 of a religious ordinance, our union is based upon the view 
 which we hold, and have been called upon providentially to 
 contend for, as to the world-wide Evangel or Gospel of the 
 Grace of God. 
 
 We have, of course, drawn largely in the following 
 volume, upon our own acquaintance with the early history 
 of our movement ; but we have been greatly helped in 
 writing it by the numerous pamphlets which were issued 
 thirty years ago at the period of high controversial excite- 
 ment, and which have been carefully preserved in the 
 library of the Evangelical Union Academy, as well as in the 
 private libraries of friends of the denomination. We have 
 also to express our gratitude to several of our ministerial 
 brethren for the kind way in which they have furnished us 
 with statements as to the history of ■ themselves or their 
 churches. In particular, we would return our thanks to 
 the Rev. Dr. Morison and the Rev. Dr. Guthrie, of Glasgow, 
 as well as to the Rev. Professor Kirk, of Edinburgh, for the 
 accounts with which they have favoured us in private con- 
 versation as to their early contendings for the tmth, and 
 even as to the inner workings of their own deeply exercised 
 minds. 
 
 It is possible that at certain points of the narrative, the 
 reader may be inclined to think that the author has been 
 tempted to indulge in a severity of style not in harmony 
 with the spirit of brotherly love for which he has already 
 pled. In self-defence, he would say that it is very difficult 
 to write the history of a theological controversy in which 
 one has been personally concerned without sometimes mani- 
 festing warmth of feeling ; but certainly, if in any instance 
 that warmth has degenerated into acerbity, it was not 
 intended by the author, and he begs that it will be over- 
 looked. 
 
 With reference to the proposal made by the large-hearted 
 Dr. William Pulsford of Glasgow, at the annual meetings of 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 the Scottish Congregational Union in this city in April of 
 this year, to the effect that an attempt should be made to 
 unite the Congregational and Evangelical Unions on the 
 principle of comprehension and not of compromise," we have 
 no hesitation in saying for oui-selves that we ^vould rejoice 
 in snch a confederate amalgamation — if its accomplishment 
 should "be found possible ; and it would pain us to learn that 
 any words which had dropped from oui- pen in this volume 
 should be thought hostile to such a scheme. 
 
 We commend the work to the gracious blessing of Him 
 whose cause and glory on the earth it is humbly designed 
 to promote and advance. F. F. 
 
 Glasgow, June^ 1S7G. 
 
 \ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 AGE 
 
 Introduction— Rev. James Morison, D.D. — His Career as a Student— His 
 Religious Experience in the North of Scotland— His Usefulness as a Proba- 
 tioner at Cabrach, Knockando, Nairn, and Lerwick, 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ilr. Morison Preaches at Bathgate, Dunfermline, and Glasgow— Is Called to 
 Clerk's Lane Church, Kilmarnock— Publishes the Pamphlet entitled, "What 
 must I do to be Saved?"— An Epitome of its Contents— Exception taken to 
 it on his Ordination day, 1.') 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Rev. James Morison's Ministry at Kilmarnock — His Crowded Congregations- 
 Preaches on Not far from the Kingdom of God "—Publishes his Discourse — 
 Abstract of it— Publishes also on the Natui-e of the Atonement — Abstract of 
 the Pamphlet — Mutterings of Presb}i;erial Displeasure —Conference with the 
 Presbytery at Irvine— Libel is prepared against him, 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mr. Morison's Trial before the Presbytery in Kilmarnock on the 2nd of March, 
 1841— The Scene in the Chapel described— The Chief Ministers who took part 
 against him -Memorial by the Congregation— Memorial by the Minority- 
 Report of the Committee— Mr. Morison's Defence— Remarks on his Defence, 51 
 
 CHAPTER V, 
 
 Evening Sederunt of the Presbj-tery on the day of Mr. Morison's Trial- 
 Speeches of the Rev. Messrs. Meikle, Ronald, and Thomas— Scene at the Close 
 —Decision of the Presbji;ery— Mr. Morison Appeals to the Synod— Speech of 
 Mr. Thomas Adam, 78 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Mr. Morison's Kilmarnock Pastorate between the Meetings of the Presbj-tery 
 and the Synod in Glasgow— His Marriage— Publishes " On the Extent of the 
 Atonement"— Abstract of the Work— His Trial before the Secession Synod— 
 His Reasons of Protest and Appeal— Those Lodged by the Clerk's Lane 
 Church— The Presbytery's Reply to the same— Mr. Morison's Defence on the 
 first Count of the first Charge, 93 
 
X 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Continuation of Mr. Morison's Defence at the Bar of the Synod on Faith and 
 Assurance— Replies of Messrs. Meilcle and Thomas— Speeches of Rev. Messrs. 
 Fraser, of Alloa, and Marshall, of Kirkintilloch— Description of the Personal 
 Appearance of the latter as well as of Dr. Heugh, of Glasgow— Speech and 
 Motion made by him— Remarkable Speech made by Dr. Brown, of Edinburgh 
 —Its effect upon the Synod, 1?.0 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Final Sederunt in Mr. Morison's Trial before the Synod— Speeches of Drs. Hay, 
 King, and M'Kerrow, and of Messrs, Scott and Baird— Motion carried for Mr. 
 Morison's Suspension— Rev. Robert Morison and Rev. John Guthrie Protest 
 —Reasons of Protest by the former— Dr. John Brown also Protests, but his 
 Reasons clandestinely destro3 ed — Mr. Morison deeply affected by the Decision 
 —Meets with the Committee appointed to confer with him— Preaches on the 
 Sabbath-day, notwithstanding the Synod's Prohibition— Receives 183 New 
 Communicants at the Lord's Table — Declines to meet subsequently with the 
 Committee— Is declared no longer a Minister of the Church, 141 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Case of the Rev. Robert Walker, of Comrie, first in the Presbytery, and after- 
 wards in the Synod— Its peaceful Settlement — Mr. Morison's career at Kil- 
 marnock after his separation from the Secession Church— Several remarkable 
 Conversions— Exhortation Meeting on Sabbath evening— Increase of Elders— 
 His large Bible Classes — Preaches much in the neighbourhood of Kilmarnock, 
 and itinerates throughout Scotland— His Pamphlet entitled " Saving Faith," 1.56 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Birth and Youthful Days of the Rev. Robert Morison— His Student Career and 
 Settlement at Bathgate— His Early Ministry There— His Daughter's Testi- 
 mony to his Faithfulness— Comes to the full Knowledge of the Truth— The 
 Question Proposed and Answered, Had he been Unconverted Before ?— Writes 
 his First Pamphlet, entitled, "Difficulties Connected with a Limited Atone- 
 ment "—Extracts, ^ 171 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Narrative of Rev. Robert Morison's Case Continued— His Reply to the Synod's 
 Statement of Principles — His own Account of his Treatment at the Synod of 
 ■ 1842— Blameworthy Precipitancy of that Court— The Questions proposed to 
 Mr. Morison by the Committee, with Answers— His Explanatory Remarks 
 Refused- One Defect in his Replies — His final Letter to the Convener of the 
 Synod's Committee— Mr. Morison's Labours in the Evening of his Life— His 
 last Illness, and Speculations about Heaven— His Death, 185 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Rev. A. C. Rutherford— His Settlement in Falkirk— Enters into controversy 
 as to the extent of the Atonement with Rev. William Fraser, of Alloa— Dis- 
 sents from doctrinal finding of the Synod of 1842 — Is suspended and deposed 
 by the Presbytery of Stirling— Publishes " New Views not New, but Old and 
 
Contexts. 
 
 XI 
 
 Sound"— Is deposed by the Synod of 1843— New Chapel built for him in the 
 town— Settles subsequently in Greenock and Dundee— Eventually rettirns to 
 theU.P. Chiu-ch, 204 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Rev. John Guthrie— His early days at Milnathort- Becomes James Morisou's 
 fellow Student at Edinbm-gh University— Licensed by the Dunfermline Pres- 
 bytery hi 1S38— Settled in Kendal in 1839— The "Scotch Church" there- 
 Becomes interested in Mr. Morisou's ease— Protests ag-ainst his excision — His 
 reasons of Dissent given in too late -Indignant at the prohibition of minis- 
 terial intercourse with Mr. Morison— Presents a Memorial to the Synod of 
 1S42, praying for its repeal, 
 
 CHAPTER XTV. 
 
 Mr. Guthrie Dissents from the SjTiodical Deliverance entitled " Doctrinal 
 Errors Condemned "—His Weak Health— Preaches at ^larj-port with Mr. 
 Morison— Is Complained against on that Account by the Presbytery of Annan 
 and Carlisle— Troubles in his own Church— Encouragements there also— Pub- 
 lishes "New Views, True Views," and " New Views : How Met" — Communi- 
 cation from Dr. Guthrie, in which he describes his Defence and Examination 
 at the Synod— Sense of Loneliness when Ejected— Narrow Issue on which 
 Separated — Progresses towards a more Consistent View of Election— Obtains 
 it— Visits Mr. Morison at Kilmarnock— Preaches on " O Earth, Earth, Earth, 
 hear the word of the Lord," 235 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Formation of the Evangelical" Union — The Original Statement of Principles — 
 Its Liberality as to the Work of the Spirit — Names of the Founders— Public 
 fleeting in Kilmaniock— Ordination of Rev. David Drummond at Galston 
 — First Session of Theological Academy at Kilmarnock— Brief Notices of 
 Professor Hunter and the other first Students — Alexander Forsyth — Mr. 
 Morison, sole Professor, 261 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Progress of Congregationalism in Scotland — The Rev. John Kirk — His youth at 
 Bannockburn — Joins the Cougregationalists — Preaches at Alexandria — Is 
 ordained at Hamilton— Indebted to James Morison for Clearer Views as to 
 the Ground of a Sinner's Peace with God — Is the First to take Advanced 
 Ground as t*' the Extent of the Holy Spirit's Work— Publishes the " Wa}' oi 
 Life "—Specimen Extracts -His Views objected to— Defence of thenv— " Light 
 out of Darkness" — Action by the Congregatioualists, 273 
 
 CHAFfER XVII. 
 
 Examination of the Students of the Congregational Theological Academy — 
 First Tested by their Sermons— Next, Three Searching Questions proposed to 
 them— Ml-. Alex. Duncanson's Reply— Mr. Ebenezer Kennedy's— Mr. William 
 Bathgate's — Mr James Samson's — Mr. James Robertson's — Mr. Fergus 
 Ferguson's— Ten of the Students Examined before the Committee— Nine of 
 them Expelled from t'ue Institution— Excitement caused by this Ecclesiastical 
 
xii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Action taken by the Congregationalists in Glasgow with Five 
 Churches in the West of Scotland as to their Views on the Work of the Holy 
 -Spirit — The Hamilton Church— Correspondence between Dr. Wardlaw and 
 Professor Kirk— The Hamilton Church refuses to part with its Minister— The 
 Bellshill Church— Sketch of the Life and Labours of its Pastor, the Rev. 
 Fergus Ferguson, Sen.— Reply of the Bellshill Chiu-ch— Powerful Reference 
 to Christ's Lament over Chorazin and Bethsaida— Bridgeton Church— They 
 Reply by merely quoting Texts of Scripture, 313 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Letter to the Church in Cambuslang — The Rev. Mr. M' Robert's simiile but effec- 
 tive replies— Letter to the Ardrossan Church— Sketch of the Life of its Pastor, 
 Rev. Peter Mather — His powerful and most triumphant replies— Correspon- 
 dence with two Churches in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen— The Case of 
 the Rev. Alexander Duff, of Fraserburgh— Also of the Rev. Nisbet Galloway, 
 of Forres, 329 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Formation of a church in Glasgow, in 1844, in sympathy with the Evangelical 
 Union— Formation of a similar church in Edinburgh — Case of the Rev. 
 William Scott, of Free St. Mark's, Glasgow— Formation of an E. U. church in 
 the city of Aberdeen, 349 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Formation of the E. U. Churches in Greenock, Dundee. Paisley, and Barrhead— 
 Also in the South-Eastern District of Scotland, Perth, Carlisle, Manchester, 
 and Belfast— Removal of Dr. Morison to Glasgow— The Theological Academy — 
 Dr. Morison's Writings- Dr. Guthrie's— Professor Kirk's— Question of Chvirch 
 Government— The Churches from the Relief Body— The Annual Conference, 
 how Constituted — Important Resolution of the Conference of 1858 — Contro- 
 versy on Predestination in 1853 and subsequent years— The Revival of 1859-60 : 
 Chm-ch in Ej^emouth — Church in Shapinshay — List of Churches — Curriculmn 
 of Study— Questions put to Licentiates— The Cumberland Presbyterians- 
 Attitude of the Evangelical Union towards other Denominations, 3G0 
 
A HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 Introduction — Kev. James Morison, D.D. — His Career as a Student 
 —His Religious Experience in the North of Scotland — His Use- 
 fulness as a Probationer at Cabrach, Knockando, Nairn, and 
 Lerwick. 
 
 The thought has been forcibly impressed upon our minds for 
 some time that a history of the rise and formation of the 
 Evangelical Union might be not only interesting, but 
 eminently profitable, to many of our fellow-countrymen. 
 Fully thirty years have passed away since that river rose 
 which has swelled into the goodly dimensions of our religious 
 denomination ; and there are not a few who know veiy little 
 of the early stniggles of the fathers and founders of our 
 cause. Such an account as we propose may be calculated, 
 by God's blessing, to benefit the soul, as well as to inform 
 the mind. ' And while we do not lay claim either to all the 
 information, or all the mental qualities, which the full 
 historian of such a movement should possess, yet any con- 
 tribution towards such a history must be important, consider- 
 ing that the doctrines necessarily brought under review are 
 vital in importance, and that the Evangelical Union may 
 have much to do, as years roll on, in the way of leavening 
 other sections of the Chui'ch of Chi'ist with its truly liberal, 
 and yet wholesomely conservative, theological views. 
 
 Let us not be thought guilty of a semi-idolatrous hero- 
 worship, or of preferring one brother unduly above another, 
 if we commence by ascribing the origin of our movement, 
 under God, to the honoured divine whose name, in the 
 ordinary parlance of the country, it is made to bear. Tliese 
 soubriquets often show where the chief merit lies — the vox 
 populi only giving expression to the shrewd conclusions of 
 
HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 the mens pojndi. And while we admit that other honoured 
 brethren played most important parts in the way of witness- 
 bearing and foundation-laying, and rendered services which 
 we shall not be slow to recognise in the sequel, we are 
 certain that these fellow-labourers themselves will not be 
 displeased with us for giving prominence, first of all, to the 
 Luther-like pastor of Clerk's Lane Church, Kilmarnock, of 
 thirty-five years ago. 
 
 It is a common saying, and one which we believe to be as 
 true as common, that y)hen God has a ivork to do, He always 
 provides the man to do it. Indeed, this fact stands out so 
 clearly on the page of history, as we take our retrospect of 
 human affairs, that it has become a favourite proof with 
 many, that a Divine Providence is constantly at work among 
 the sons of men. Now, it seems to us, in looking back upon 
 the state of Christianity in Scotland forty years ago, that a 
 man was needed with both something of the Iconoclast and 
 something of the Reformer about him. John Knox had, 
 without doubt, freed the land from Papal and priestly 
 tyranny. Ebenezer Erskine had given the Church patronage 
 of the lairds its first mortal wound. Thomas Chalmers had 
 blown his Evangelical trumpet, and had startled the drones 
 of moderatism from the lethargy of the eighteenth century, 
 into which they had fallen. The Haldanes had cried aloud. 
 
 Ye must be born again." Still there was a want. The 
 theology even of men who loved the Gospel limped sadly. 
 Earnest and pious souls groaned in darkness, because they 
 could not be assured that the Lord loved them. The 
 doctrine of unconditional election brooded like a terrifying 
 nightmare over the Church of the most religious people in 
 the world. How important that the spell should be dis- 
 sipated and driven away ! A man was needed ; and, in the 
 providence of God, a man arose. 
 
 We do not care to inquire after the exact age of our 
 friends who may be yet living, and therefore content our- 
 selves with saying that J ames Morison was born upwards of 
 fifty years ago in the town of Bathgate, in Linlithgow. His 
 father had been ordained the minister of the Anti-Burgher 
 Church there while the men of a former generation were not 
 as yet delivered from the anxieties and hardships entailed 
 upon them by the wars of the First Napoleon. Mr. Robert 
 Morison was generally acknowledged to be a man of con- 
 siderable intellectual power, and wielded no small influence, 
 
MR. MORISON AT THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 3 
 
 not only in tlie district where his lot was cast, but also in 
 the Presbytery of Ediabiirgh and in the annual Synods of 
 his Church. 
 
 In these days the town of Bathgate was the scene of con- 
 stant stir, because one of the lines of coaches passed through 
 it that ran regularly between Edinburgh and Glasgow. 
 There had also been quite recently erected — by the legacy 
 of a gentleman interested in the place — a handsome Academy, 
 at which superior educational advantages were to be enjoyed. 
 At this seminary the founder of our denomination received 
 the rudiments of his literary acquii-ements. We had the 
 pleasure of holding in our hands, the other day, the first 
 Greek Testament he ever possessed, and which he had 
 received as a prize at the annual examination of the school. 
 Little did the donor think, at the time, that the gift was so 
 appropriate, and, in a manner, so prophetic of the studies 
 and labours of the young prizeman. 
 
 But if our esteemed friend had been a diligent student at 
 the academy, his zeal altogether ''consumed him" when he 
 became a competitor in the higher arena of Edinbui-gh 
 University. Here the vital energy of his body, as well as 
 the midnight oil, began to be largely drawn upon. Pro- 
 fessor Pillans, seeing the promise of his student, wished him 
 to enter the Established Church, offering to use his influence 
 to get him a parish; but the son of the Seceder minister 
 remained true to his training and the convictions of his youth. 
 Professor Wilson (" Christopher Korth ") gave him his 
 second prize, regretting that he could not give him his fii-st, 
 on account of a certain ambitiousness of style which, while 
 it gave large hopes of the futiu-e, made his compositions at 
 the time somewhat defective. But the brilliant jDoet and 
 philosopher testified on our student's certificate that "he 
 had manifested as much intellectual power as had ever been 
 displayed in his class." 
 
 In his eagerness, however, to find out the laws of mind, 
 young Morison had neglected the laws of health; for he was 
 compelled to intermit his studies for a time and go home, as 
 some thought, to die. For months the issue trembled in the 
 balance; and all the town doctors but one, afterwards the 
 great Sii* James Simpson, of Ediubiu-gh, declared his heai-t 
 to be organically ajffected. The solitary prophet of good 
 tm*ned out to be coiTect; and slowly, but surely, the wheels 
 of life began to play healthfully again. 
 
4 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 As in tlie case of Thomas Chalmers, and many of less 
 note, the illness bore good fruit; for although Mr. Morison 
 had always been thoughtful and earnest, his devoutness in- 
 creased after that he had been brought into such close con- 
 tact with death. As a student in the Divinity Hall of the 
 Secession Church, then under the professorial care of Drs. 
 Brown, Balmer, Duncan, and Mitchell, he applied himself to 
 his theological exercises with as much diligence as hehad 
 manifested at the University, but with augmented piety. 
 A characteristic rencontre took place between him and one 
 of his professors during his Hall-curriculum, and one which 
 gave good proof that the minister of Bathgate's son was not 
 to be held within the leading-strings of stereotyped creeds 
 and confessions. The professor had been lecturing on the 
 eternal sonship of Christ ; but Mr. Morison ventured in his 
 jDrescribed essay to differ from his teacher, and elaborately, 
 yet respectfully, refute his position. He took up the ground 
 that, while Christ was eternally the Second Person of the 
 Godhead, He did not actually become God's Son till He was 
 born of a woman, and made under the law " — that the 
 name, in fact, denoted an economical office, and not an 
 essential distinction. The professor, in his criticism, hinted 
 that " Mr. Morison had better put himself right with his 
 Presbytery." But although the young student had un- 
 deniably opposed the standards as well as his teacher, no 
 decided action was taken in the case. That was reserved 
 for future years, and yet more vital doctrines. While, how- 
 ever, the young essayist's work was condemned by his own 
 preceptor, he was determined not to go unapproved. So he 
 inclosed his treatise to the late eminent Dr. Wardlaw, and 
 begged his opinion of the performance. He still retains in 
 his possession a letter from the champion of Congregation- 
 alism, in which the latter warmly commends the learning 
 and talent of his young correspondent. 
 
 Mr. Morison, from his earliest days, had been a gxeat 
 book-collector. Even when a student, his library gave 
 ])romise of becoming what it is now, one of the first private 
 collections of theological and general literature. His attack 
 of heart-disease was brought to a head by a long walk which 
 he took to Linlithgow from Bathgate, for a book which a 
 minister had promised him. He felt the tome to be very 
 ponderous as he carried it home ; and that day the weakness 
 began which it took months to master. 
 
LICENSED TO PREACH. 
 
 5 
 
 Even when only a stripling, our friend took part in the 
 Voluntaiy controversy which raged over Scotland in 1836, 
 find in which his fatlier was a redoubtable champion. A 
 tradition still lingers in Leith of a young divinity student 
 electrifying a public meeting there, unexpectedly, and taking 
 the breath from Mr. Leckie, the hired peripatetic of the 
 Establishment. This was no other than the author of 
 Romans IX.," and of the " Commentaries on Matthew and 
 Mark." He used to follow the plausible apostle of endow- 
 ments, when he was within walking distance of the Bathgate 
 manse. At Bonkle, Whitburn, and Falkirk, gi-eat debates 
 came off. The lecturer was seen to shudder when the door 
 would open, and the growing boy would walk in with 
 a bundle of books below his arm. One night our hero gave 
 promise of his future eminence as an exegete, by an extem- 
 poraneous exposition of the second Psalm, to which Mr. 
 Leckie had referred in the course of debate. 
 
 Mr. Morison owed much of his love for books, and for the 
 expository interpretation of the Scriptures to the late Dr. 
 John Bro^vn, of Broughton Place, Edinburgh, who was also 
 Professor of Exegesis to the United Secession Church.* He 
 was, during the period of his cuiTiculum, Dr. Brown's 
 favourite student. On the day on which he was licensed, 
 that learned and amiable man did not hesitate to say that he 
 Avas " the hope of their church." Although, in one view of 
 the case, that hope was disappointed, in the next world if not 
 in this, all his contemporaries will be ready to admit that, 
 in another sense, it has been amply and abundantly fulfilled. 
 
 Mr. Morison being licensed to preach the gospel in the 
 spring of 1839, he fulfilled a few isolated preaching engage- 
 ments with friends in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the 
 neighbourhood of these cities. We have heard his first 
 pulpit appearances described as being highly creditable to 
 liis scholarship, and as also indicating elaborate preparation 
 and care. The impression was left upon the minds of the 
 hearers that the preacher was very talented and promising ; 
 but little of the deep spiritual effect was produced which 
 characterised his subsequent ministrations — a change that 
 was now, happily, near at hand. 
 
 * We need hardly add that this denomination, sometimes also called 
 the United Associate Church (because composed of the Burghers and 
 Anti -Burghers, who coalesced in 1822), after its union with the ReUef 
 body in 1846, was designated the United Presbyterian Church. 
 
6 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 The first preaching appointment which he received from 
 the Synod's committee was a very peculiar one. He was not 
 sent to any of the important vacancies in the Lowlands, but 
 to the " hill-country " in the far north, to minister to the 
 rude agricultural population in the border-lands, where the 
 counties of Aberdeen, Banfi", and Elgin join. R-ead in the 
 light of the j^reacher's subsequent experience, the allocation 
 was quite providential. Nothing could have been more 
 directly calculated to bring to maturity the conclusion which 
 had already been growing up in his own mind that he had 
 been seeking in the discourses he had preached too much of 
 his own glory, and too little of God's ; and, indeed, that they 
 were not at all what sermons ought to be. And besides — 
 a yet more important consummation — by this very appoint- 
 ment, not, at first sight, complimentary to " flesh and 
 blood," he was led to discover that, with all his studies and 
 accomplishments, he had not yet found the " one thing need- 
 ful " for both preacher and hearer — namely, the soul- 
 enlightening " knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus." 
 
 How many young men there are who pass from the 
 Natural Philosophy class to the Divinity hall with even less 
 concern than from Latin to Logic, or from Logic to Ethics ! 
 Too often, with unclean hands, they adventure to touch the 
 holy ark of God. They hear no voice of warning on the 
 threshold of their theological career sounding in their ears, 
 " Ye must be born again." Mr. Morison was beginning to 
 fear that there was this serious defect in his experience. He 
 has been so kind and frank as to inform us lately that, 
 strangely enough, while he had been deeply studying theo- 
 logy as a science, he had never thought it necessary to bring 
 these studies to bear upon his own heart, or the state of his 
 soul before God. The two things had been going on simul- 
 taneously in parallel and non-approximating lines — the 
 laborious investigation of divinity in all kinds of books, 
 ancient and modern, and the religious exercises of the spirit, 
 chiefly in the way of prayer, and serious engagements gene- 
 rally ; but he had never once thought that the science he 
 was searching out was the only means by which his mind 
 was to be brought to religious rest. This is a most important 
 j)oint. We invite the earnest attention of our readers to it. 
 We are now to see how these hitherto separated lines ap- 
 jn-oaclied one another at the Cross, and how " the earnest 
 student" found in simple Scriptural theology that which 
 
HIS JOURNEY TO CABRACH. 
 
 bathed his soul in bliss. It was the beginning of the 
 Evangelical Union. The rill that has become a river of 
 salvation, sprung out of a solitary moor in the far North. 
 
 Perhaps Mr. Morison's religious seriousness may have 
 been, to some extent, deepened by the fact that " the Kil- 
 syth revival " was causing no small stir at this very time in 
 the land. The salutary infection of religious concern had 
 come across the Atlantic from the United States, as it sub- 
 sequently did in 1859 and 1873. Messrs. Wight, Pullar, 
 Machray, and Cornwall, among the Independents, had 
 already begun to hold " protracted meetings " in various 
 cities and towns in Scotland. The writings also of Mi-. 
 .Fimiey and his coadjutors in the Oberlin Institute, had 
 been re-published and widely circulated in this country. 
 Dr. Morison, however, does not recollect that these events 
 had much to do directly with his religious earnestness. It 
 is more probable that the Spirit of God was touching dif- 
 ferent hearts, here and there, at the same time ; yet, 
 unconsciously to himself, he may have been influenced by 
 the general state of the land. And it cannot be denied that, 
 after his return from the North, with the full light 
 and baptism of the Spirit, he foimd society prepared, 
 to a large extent, for the evangelistic career on which he 
 entered. ^ 
 
 The mid-summer of 1839 had now arrived, and we behold 
 our preacher leaving Edinburgh, and setting sail at Granton 
 Pier in the Aberdeen packet. He is reading Finney's 
 " Lectures on Revivals" by the way; and while the steamer 
 ploughs the billows of the German Sea, the conviction is 
 deepening in his mind that he has hitherto been preaching 
 with a wrong aim and in a wrong way ; and he wonders 
 much how he will be able to recite the elaborate sermons, 
 abounding in Johnsonian terms and climaxes, which he 
 carries in his valise with him, to the rustics in the outlandish 
 region whither he is going. 
 
 When Mr. Morison reached Aberdeen, as railways were 
 then unkno-wTi in Scotland, he took coach to Huntly, and 
 found a conveyance waiting there to carry him to Cabrach, 
 a parish on the borders of Banffshire. This was the station 
 to which he had been appointed. There was not even a fully 
 organised church in the little chapel. It was only a kind of 
 mission congregation, and was supplied partly by the Secession 
 Church and partly by the Scottish Congregationalists. 
 
8 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UXIOX. 
 
 Tlie house in which the preacher lodged was several miles 
 distant from the chapel, and stood all alone in a bleak 
 pastoral district. The Deveron meandered dov/n the strath - 
 on its way to its entrance into the sea at Banff, through a 
 region as sparsely inhabited as the uplands of Dumfriesshii-e 
 and Lanarkshire. The little dwelling consisted of "a but 
 and a ben." The best apartment, of course, was allotted to 
 the minister; but it was superlative only in the comparative 
 degree, for the floor was earthen and very uneven besides. 
 The honest landlord and landlady v/ere nervously apprehen- 
 sive lest they should not be able to accommodate their guest 
 satisfactorily, and must have heaved a sigh of relief when 
 they found that he was a vegetarian, — for butcher-meat was 
 scarce ; and that he took no tea, — for they could give him 
 splendid cream ! But little did they know what was passing 
 in his studious and pious mind. They wondered at his 
 abstemiousness, and saw him poring over weighty folios 
 and careful manuscripts ; but they did not dream that God 
 was to meet with him in their lowly shieling, and cause him 
 to see a great light, in whose brightness multitudes yet un- 
 born would triumph and rejoice. 
 
 As the Sabbath-day drew near, Mr. Morison grew yet 
 more anxious about the sermons he had brought with him. 
 He already shrewdly suspected that they were as far above 
 the capacity of the congi-egation he would be called upon to 
 address, as homilies in the Greek or Latin language would 
 be. This impression was confirmed when, on his way to 
 church on the Sabbath morning, across the moor, he ob- 
 served that, among the intending worshippers who were 
 converging towards the plain conventicle, all the men wore 
 bonnets, and all the women snow-Avhite caps ; and when he 
 looked upon the assembly from the pulpit, and saw their 
 uniform rusticity in point of intelligence, as well as of dress, 
 he determined to lay his prepared discourses aside, and try 
 the method of simple extemporaneous address. He had been 
 studying the Book of Ecclesiastes critically. He thought 
 he could not do better than give an unpremeditated running 
 comment on the first chapter of that book. He succeeded 
 beyond his own expectation. We can easily understand 
 how, with the fervid and natural eloquence of his youth, he 
 would rivet and enchain the astonished agi'iculturists, as he 
 expatiated on Solomon's sad conclusions, — " Vanity of vani- 
 ties, saitli the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. 
 
HIS RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 
 
 9 
 
 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh 
 under the sun 1 One generation passeth away, and another 
 generation cometh; but the earth abideth for ever. All the 
 livers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full : unto the place 
 from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. Is 
 there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new 'i it 
 hath been already of old time, which was before us." "We 
 doubt not that while he would solemnise the minds of his 
 hearers by declaiming on the transitoriness of all sublunary 
 things, he would tell them that there was something under 
 the sun which w^as old, and yet ever new, namely, the 
 " glorious gospel of the blessed God." 
 
 But this was the very thing which he felt that he had not 
 got a right hold of. When he returned in the evening to his 
 rude lodging, although he was satisfied with liis first attempt 
 at dii-ect extemporary address, he still found himself in a 
 comparative mist on the all-important point of his own 
 reconciliation and acceptance with God. He could not see 
 clearly how he was to obtain peace with the Maker whom he 
 had ofiended. The Confession of Faith represented Christ as 
 the " Redeemer of God's elect only," and he could not under- 
 stand how he was to know that he was one of the elect. If 
 in a comfortable state of mind one day, he might be uncom- 
 fortable the next, so that his own frames and feelings never 
 could be a valid or steadfast ground of dependence and hope ; 
 and it seemed wrong Avithal and anti-evangelical to mix up 
 his own subjective experiences ^vith the objective work of 
 the ever-blessed Mediator. So he read and read, and i^oii- 
 dered and pondered over the Word of God. He ate of the 
 good housewife's simple fare, and drank of her rich and 
 nourishing milk ; but still " he hungered and thirsted after 
 righteousness, that he might be filled." The breeze of the 
 summer evening sighed around his lonely room ; but his 
 spirit sighed yet more mournfully after God, even the living 
 God. At length one day, in the midst of his earnest rumi- 
 nations, there arose upon his soul a light, clearer and deai-er 
 than that w hich shone on Moray and its resplendent frith, — 
 namely, that caused by the precious truth, that CHRIST, 
 GOD'S SON, HAD DIED FOR ALL, AND THERE- 
 FORE FOR HIM. He wondered that he had never seen 
 it before. Was it not wi-itten that Jesus was " a propitia- 
 tion for the sins of the whole world"? Was it not written, 
 again, that "he gave himself a ransom for all"? And yet 
 
10 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 again, that "lie tasted death for every man" And as to 
 the Father's love, the Son himself did not say, " God so 
 loved the elect world," but " God so loved the world." He 
 was as free, then, as any, to this great salvation. He might 
 break forth into singing, and say with Paul, " He loved me, 
 and gave himself for me." That comfortable conclusion was 
 not to be arrived at by a lengthened experience, but simply 
 by " believing the record God gave concerning his Son." It 
 was a thing of testimony, not a thing of frames and feelings. 
 Now he saw how the lines converged and met which had 
 been kept so distinct before — theology and religion. They 
 met in the conversion of the soul. It was the knowledge of 
 God as a /Saviour that made men good. Let a man believe 
 that Jesus died for him, and he would rejoice in Jesus, — he 
 would love him in return, and serve him too. The work of 
 the Spirit was simply to take this transforming truth and 
 show it to the soul. 
 
 He "rejoiced," like the wise men of the east, when they saw 
 the star, "with exceeding great joy;" and his gladness was 
 greater for others than for himself. Now he could go to 
 every man he met, and say, "Jesus died for you; believe and 
 live: it is eternal life to know him." Now he understood 
 what to say in the pulpit. Formerly, he had thought it to 
 be his chief duty, as a minister, to expound the Word of 
 God, seriatim, from Genesis to Revelation ; but now he saw 
 that there was OTie truth more excellent than all the others, 
 to the elucidation of which all the other revelations of the 
 Bible were expected to contribute, and to which they did 
 obeisance, as the sheaves of Joseph's brethren did, to his 
 sheaf. 
 
 The extemporaneous sermon on Ecclesiastes had made a 
 great talk among the farms and cottages of the Cabrach. 
 Consequently, on next Sabbath the preacher was confronted 
 with an increased congi-egation, who, in turn, received an 
 increased blessing. On the previous Sunday, Solomon's 
 lamentations had awed them; but now, "a greater than 
 Solomon was there." The young preacher overflowed with 
 the love of Christ. He assured them that Christ had died 
 for all, and therefore for them. He did not hesitate to point 
 to different parts of the house, and say, "Yes; for you, and 
 you, and you." He assured them that faith was simply the 
 knowledge of that fact, and that no stipulated amount of 
 sorrow was required previous to the belief of the triith. 
 
MR. MORISON AT KXOCKANDO. 
 
 11 
 
 They might be saved where they were sitting, and they 
 would be conscious of the change, too j for " blessed is the 
 people that know the joyful sound." The mighty result of 
 regeneration was effected by the might of the truth which 
 they were called upon to believe. 
 
 This simple and searching preaching produced a deep 
 impression in the rustic neighbourhood ; and the chapel, 
 which had formerly been but thinly attended, and in which 
 there had been few signs of spiritual life, soon became 
 crowded to the door, and that, too, with deeply awakened 
 and convicted hearers. There were no dwellings near the 
 unadorned meeting-house ; but the earnest evangelist was 
 kept busy all week, wending his way from cottage to cottage, 
 conversing with " sin-sick " souls, and applying to the con- 
 sciences he had been the means of troubling, the soothing 
 and satisfying balm of Gilead. 
 
 Their only regi'et was that he had so soon to leave them ; 
 for his appointment was a double one. Knockando, in 
 Morayshire, was conjoined with Cabrach in the plan of 
 supply. This was another station of the Associate Home 
 Mission which was unable to support a minister, and was 
 therefore glad to get occasional preaching. Our senior 
 readers, who were familiar with the names of the ministei-s 
 of the Scottish Congi-egational Union a quarter of a century 
 ago, will recollect that the father of the much-esteemed Dr. 
 Mimro, of Forres, was long the Independent minister of 
 Knockando. Probably the fame of the young Secession 
 Evangelist had travelled over the moors before him. At 
 any rate, an excitement was produced there similar to that 
 which he had left behind him at Cabrach. The little chapel 
 became crowded in Knockando also; and sensible soids fii'st 
 wept for giief over their sins, and then for joy over theii- 
 salvation. Being himself baptised with the Spiiit, the 
 preacher found that the Spirit blessed his labours wherever 
 hie went. 
 
 The Synod's Committee prolonged Mr. Morison's stay in 
 the North, that, when he was there at any rate, he might 
 supply churches which were vacant, or whose ministers were 
 sick or anxious for rest. On this footing he \isited, success- 
 ively, Elgin, Forres, Nairn, Tain, and Lerwick, in the Shet- 
 land Isles; and found that God abundantly blessed his 
 labours " in eveiy place." The chapels became crowded to 
 overflowing; aiid, like his Master before him, the young 
 
12 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 disciple, in answering all, the calls that were made upon liim 
 for conversation and domiciliary visits, ''could not so much 
 as eat bread." Never did young, unordaiiied licentiate* 
 perform so wonderful an itinerancy, — except, perhaps, Mr. 
 William Burns, of Kilsyth, who, at that very time, was 
 perambulating Scotland, " preaching the Gospel of the King- 
 dom," and who, faithful to the end, and with undiminished 
 zeal, has recently closed his apostolic career in the heai-t of 
 China. The Dissenting Evangelist was more scholarly, 
 however, than his cotemporary of the Established Church, 
 and, in our opinion, had clearer views than he of the way of 
 salvation. 
 
 At Forres, indeed, Mr. Morison was somewhat under 
 restraint, owing to the presence of the eminent minister of 
 the Church, the Rev. Mr. Stark, then somewhat advanced 
 in years. The latter, however, allowed the young licentiate 
 to tak^ his own way and made no remark, although, doubt- 
 less, his mode of address and " inquiry meetings " must have 
 appeared to him somewhat novel and strange. 
 
 But at Nairn our Evangelist was unfettered and free; for 
 the minister (Rev. Mr. Mein), was absent on sick leave. 
 We are glad to be able to furnish our readers with an 
 account of Mr. Morison's labours in that town from a tract 
 dated Uth April, 1840, and entitled "A brief account of 
 the recent revival of religion in Nairn, especially in the 
 United Associate Congregation there, by one of themselves." 
 This tract is fraught with this especial interest, that it is the 
 first publication which Mr. Morison's labours called forth. 
 Its author was Isaac Ketcher, Esq. His brother, Colonel 
 Ketcher, and he, had bot]i been employed in Indian service 
 —the one in the Bombay, and the other in the Madras Pre- 
 sidency : and after their return home they had taken a deep 
 interest in the religious welfare of their native town. After 
 an introduction, in which he notices certain events which 
 had helped to stir up a little spiritual interest in Nairn (and 
 chiefly a joint-prayer meeting called forth by the religious 
 persecutions in Madagascar), Mr. Ketcher continues : — 
 
 "Such was the state of Nairn in October last, when by the good- 
 ness of the All-Wise Head of the Church, Mr. Morison, jun., of Bath- 
 gate, came here to officiate for one of the pastors of the town, who, in 
 tlie wise and merciful dispensation of that same God and iath«- ot 
 His people, was laid aside from his official duties by affliction. Ihis 
 was an epoch in the religious history of Nairn vastly interesting, when 
 the youth ol" the town, or the major part of them, were, as it might 
 
MR. MORISON AT NAIRN. 
 
 13 
 
 be said, ready to rise ai masse to enlist themselves under the banners 
 of the Cross, and * give themselves up to the Lord.' 
 
 "The first four days of Mr. Morison's ministerial labours here will 
 ever, I am persuaded, be kept in religious remembrance by many a 
 precious soul. He preached on Sabbath, the 6th October ; he attended 
 the monthly meeting for missionary purposes on Monday evening, the 
 7th; on Tuesday he conducted the usual weekly evening prayer meet- 
 ing; and on Wednesday he preached in the evening. On all these 
 four successive days the people were attentive, and the influence of 
 the Spirit from on high was seemingly amongst them. The season, I 
 repeat it, will never be forgotten by many awakened minds then 
 specially brought to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ ; and 
 r have good authority for saying, that several of the young people, 
 who have lately joined the churches here, date their 'new world 
 begun ' from this time. Six weeks or two months after Mr. Morison's 
 first visit to Nairn, on his return to the south from Tain, where he 
 had been located in the meantime, he passed through Nairn, and gave 
 a Wednesday evening sermon to an overflowing audience in the Seces- 
 sion Church. On this occasion he delivered a very rousing discourse ; 
 and his manner, so novel and captivating to the greater part of his 
 audience, made powerful, and, I believe, permanent impressions on 
 numbers of his hearers. His loud calls to repentance, and forcible 
 warnings in view of eternity, might have startled some nominal self- 
 secure hearers of the Word ; but he might challenge any experienced 
 Christian to the test, whether one word of his speech or doctrine con- 
 travened the truth as it is contained in the revealed Word of God. 
 The consequence appears to be some proof of the watering of the Spirit 
 on his then very limited, but touching, labours here. It pleased God 
 still to prevent the minister referred to from resuming his active 
 duties ; and his people, pressed to it by the youthful ' inquirers ' in 
 the town, without reference to denomination, agreed to invite Mr. 
 Morison to return to minister among us, even for a few weeks. The 
 object was, after some difficulty, accomplished by the rev. gentleman's 
 consenting to giv^e Nairn two weeks of his time and labours on his 
 route to Lerwick, Avhither his appointments as a ' probationer ' led him 
 in the months of June and July last. He came here accordingly on 
 Monday, the 21st of May, and preached to a crowded audience on that 
 evening. After the public service, he waited till a late hour to con- 
 verse individually with such as were anxious about the concerns of the 
 soul. He preached three times on Sabbath, the 24th of May, to a 
 congregation collected from ' east to west.' The church he preached 
 in is planned to hold nearly 600 sitters, but it was computed that up- 
 wards of 1000 were crammed into it, or about the doors ; many of 
 whom, eager to keep possession of their seats, remained without mov- 
 ing from an hour before the morning service until the close of the 
 third service in the evening. I hold it a very incautious thing to 
 conclude hastily as to probable good derived at such seasons from the 
 evidence of mere feeling, however strongly marked : because frames of 
 mind are very doubtful evidences of vital touching of heart. But 1 
 am firmly persuaded that the Power from on High effectually manifested 
 itself to the conviction of many valuable souls, as the consequence of 
 the preaching of the Word in these three sermons. In the evening, 
 after the public services, Mr. Morison remained to a late hour in the 
 
14 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Church to help inquirers to the consolations they required. The next 
 Sabbath, 31st May, the same number of services were attended by an 
 overflowing audience, and similar evidences of edification and convic- 
 tion were remarkable as before; and an increased number of inquirers 
 remained at the close of the day for experimental conversation and 
 advice. On Thursday, 4th June, Mr. Morison left Nairn for Lerwick, 
 carrying Avith him the regrets of the people, and their prayers for his 
 success as an Evangelist. And no wonder. The Lord made his 
 sojourn with us 'a time of refreshing from His own presence.' Mr. 
 Morison, during the fourteen daj's of his last stay here, was indefa- 
 tigable — 'in season and out of season,' serving his Lord and Master. 
 Besides the Sabbath's arduous engagements, there was hardly an hour 
 of the other days of the week that he had not to attend a prayer meet- 
 ing, or engage with some family or individual, in affording instruction 
 regarding the important considerations in view of eternal life. Some 
 idea may be formed of the extent of his engagements when it is known 
 that, in the above brief period of fourteen days, he conversed separatel}' 
 with one hundred and. thirty individuals (and with most of them four 
 or five times) regarding their souls. With several of them, I under- 
 stand, he maintains a correspondence, and his answers give new and 
 reviving energy to the young professors." 
 
 This quotation will serve to give our readers a tolerably 
 good idea of the way in which the juvenile Evangelist 
 preached and laboured at this time wherever he went, and 
 of the sacred spell which he threw over all who heard him, 
 whether rich or poor, young or old. We should have men- 
 tioned before, that, during his first progi-ess noi-th, Mr. 
 Morison received a call to be the pastor of the United 
 Associate Church at Moyness, a village about six miles 
 beyond Forres. 
 
 Our young hero found that the Gospel was "the power of 
 God unto salvation" in Shetland, as well as on the main- 
 land. The metropolitans of Ler^vick crowded to hear him ; 
 and, like Whitfield at Edinburgh a hundred years before, 
 he might have written : "I hold a levee from morning to 
 night of weeping sinners, whose hearts God hast touched." 
 One lady came to him to ask his advice on a nice point of Chris- 
 tian practice — " Might she go to a hall ? The parish minister's 
 daughters were going ; and might she go too V She secretly 
 desired to go; but she wished to know what the preacher 
 who had affected her so much, would say. His answer was, 
 that " she might go if she thought that tJie Lord Jesus would 
 he tliere too, icith His blessing and aj^proval." Many years 
 afterwards he received a letter from this lady, in which she 
 informed him that she was much displeased at the time 
 with what she thought his Puritanic rigour; but that she 
 
MR. MORISON AT BATHGATE. 
 
 15 
 
 subsequently thanked him in her heart for his faithfuhiess, 
 as well as for the pitJi and point of his saying ; for it had 
 led her to serious reflection, and to a complete change of 
 mind and of life. 
 
 We leave our young preacher, for the present, in this 
 "ultima Thule" of the British Isles. The free and un- 
 fettered breezes of the wide Atlantic are sweeping around 
 him; and he is also folded in "the everlasting arms." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Mr. Morison Preaches at Bathgate, Dunfermline, and Glasgow — Is 
 Called to Clerk's Lane Church, Kilmarnock — Publishes the 
 Pamphlet entitled, " What must I do to be Saved i" — An 
 Epitome of its Contents — Exception taken to it on his Ordina- 
 tion day. 
 
 Unwilling to interrupt the continuity of our narrative in 
 our first chapter, we have given a complete and unbroken 
 account of Mr. Morison's visit to the North of Scotland, 
 while he was a probationer of the Secession Church. We 
 will now, however, be so particular as to observe that he 
 came south from Tain in December, 1839, and did not return 
 to fulfil his engagements at Nairn and Lermck till the end 
 of May, 1840. 
 
 During the period that elapsed between the two dates just 
 mentioned, the same burning zeal characterised the young 
 evangelist ; and wherever his preaching appointments led 
 him, not content with supplying the pulpit on the Lord's 
 day, he held protracted meetings for the conversion of souls 
 on every night of the week. The town of Bathgate, where 
 his father had laboured so long, came in for a good share of 
 these fervent ministrations. The people who had known 
 him as a raw school-boy and assiduous student, were hardly 
 prepared for the new character in which he appeared before 
 them, namely, that of an enthusiastic revivalist. While 
 we can hardly say that the proverb was verified, " A 
 prophet hath no honour in his own country," perhaps this 
 familiarity with him as fellow-townsfolk prevented them 
 from receiving as abundant a blessing as had fallen upon the 
 inhabitants of Ross-shire and Morayshire. Even the quiet 
 
16 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 ar'lhe''i!:'r''^\'^*'f ^^^^^^ °^ yo^S P^'^'^^"' wondered 
 at the change that had passed upon his devoted son who 
 
 cfurtranllaJ fT'^";".*"^^ """""'^ of the Secesst: 
 v^nurcn, and had fashioned his ministry more after thp 
 
 CofSSl"'™^''' -^ ^"^'-^ 
 
 to mushX^T "r"^- ^O™""''./?'-^^ />»W.-C«^.-0», both 
 
 to dlustiate the burning zeal which consumed him at this 
 date, as well as to show the way in which he conducted 
 these revival services. It was a yellow fly-Ieafl printed on 
 
 M.relf '^f r"f--oulatio^ inX townof 
 Bathgate about the time of which we are treating. It runs 
 
 "A THOUSAND YEAES AFTER THIS i" 
 ever earnestly snppKcateJ, will iot fail on an^Tof.ir ChfhteTt" 
 
 weary „ being always" and for evf/devout ? S y«, S^^^^ 
 heart,' the new nature-«7« L/of holiness rii not X , aL i f„T 
 
 yoS/dwIS^tKrS^^^^^^^^ 
 
 week, commencing on Sabbath, the 10th day of May for he vLv n ,r 
 posyf bringing you to Christ. ' Come, .nl hear, (hat your Siay 
 
 "OnSabhath evening the services bec^in at sir nVln^v 
 ^SrS^r-'- ^ P?a;erLetingtt; 
 
 The town of Dunfermline was likewise favoured lar<^lv 
 with the visits of the youthful Boanerges. The Rev Mr 
 Ciithbertson of ijhe Secession Church felt'it to be a prMle^e 
 o have him in his pulpit ; while an earnest and intelli4St 
 layman, Mr David Reid, father of the lately deceased and 
 much lamented Member for the Kirkcaldy Burghs, and who 
 afterwards became a valuable friend, was proud to enterlau" 
 
MR. MORISON PREACHES IN GLASGOW. 
 
 17 
 
 him as a g-uest in his house. At Dunfermline and elsewhere 
 he was accompanied on these preaching tours by the Kev. 
 James Robertson, afterwards of Musselburgh, and now of 
 Newington, Edinburgh. A Christian lady, long ago entered 
 into rest, and whose name we have pleasure in printing in 
 these memoirs on account of her deep love to the cause of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ — Miss Anne Muirhead, of Falkirk — has 
 often informed us that, at these meetings, young Morison 
 always preached first, and young Kobertson second. The 
 first thundered forth with awakening power the terror of 
 the law and of the Lord, while the second followed wit!) 
 the soothing and satisfying comforts of gTace. Those who 
 listened thought they saw before them a personified repre- 
 sentation of the text, " The law came by Moses ; but grace 
 and truth came by Jesus Christ." 
 
 Since our settlement in the city of Glasgow, we have heard 
 old people tell of discourses preached by Mr. Morison during- 
 this spring of 1840, both in Nicholson Street Church, 
 Hutchesonto^\Ti (afterwards the scene of the labours of Dr. 
 John M'Farlane, now of Clapham, London), and also in the 
 pulpit of the eminent Dr. Heugh, in Blackfriars Street. He 
 insisted chiefly, in both places, on the w^ords " Except a man 
 be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." ' His dis- 
 courses were intended mainly to probe the consciences of 
 worldly professors. He preached for two consecutive Sab- 
 baths in one of these churches on this startling text. Many 
 unenlightened Nicodemuses were shaken. About a dozen 
 tests of the new birth were laid down, by which he told his 
 hearers that they might prove and examine themselves as to 
 whether or not they were " in the faith." The common con- 
 viction of the impressed audiences, as they retired, seemed 
 to be " We never heard it before on this fashion." 
 
 But we must now refer to an event that happened before 
 the earnest evangelist returned to the Shetland Isles, — one 
 which had a most important bearing on his future career, 
 and which also deeply afifected the religious and ecclesiastical 
 history of many besides himself: we mean Mr. Morison's 
 call to the pastoral oversight of the Clerk's Lane church, 
 Kilmarnock. This was one of the best country vacancies in 
 the Secession Church at the time ; and to it, in the provi- 
 dence of God, our honoured brother was sent. 
 
 Before Mr. Morison's settlement. Clerk's Lane pulpit had 
 been occupied by two remarkable men, whose fame had 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 travelled far beyond the bounds of Ap'shii-e and of their 
 own denomination. We refer to the Rev. James Robertson - 
 
 a man of great eccentricity, but a genius and a scholar 
 
 —and Dr. John Ritchie, afterwards of Edinburgh, and 
 widely known as the apostle of "The Voluntary Contro- 
 versy." The Rev. David Wilson had been pastor of the 
 church for some years after Dr. Ritchie's removal to Edin- 
 burgh; but his ministry had not been successful, and he had 
 been persuaded to retire, on a small pension, in the year 
 1839. The congregation had become much reduced dunng 
 the latter part of Mr. Wilson's ministry ; while theii- differ- 
 ences of opinion about his retirement had reacted unfavour- 
 ably likewise upon their spiritual prosperity. 
 
 It is worthy of being remarked, however, that " a spirit 
 of grace and of supplications" had been poured out upon a 
 portion of the chui^ch. They had been meeting, for some 
 time before the youthful licentiate appeared, in the upper 
 session-house, to beseech the Lord to send them a man of 
 spiritual power, who would make them forget the sorrows of 
 their protracted dissensions, in a blessed revival of religion. 
 We were in conversation lately with a venerable brother, 
 who informed us that, at one of these meetings, although not 
 in office, and but recently transferred from another, congre- 
 gation in town, he had taken the liberty of remarking that, 
 "the preacher we need is not one who will soothe and satisfy 
 God's people, but one who will awaken and, instrumentally, 
 convert the unconverted." The most influential gentleman 
 in the church rose up when this plain brother sat down, 
 and said, " I cordially second that." When Mr. Morison 
 delivered his first sermons in Clerk's Lane, with all the 
 unction and power of the Holy Ghost, the people who had 
 been at that meeting came round the humble spokesman at 
 the dismissal of the congregation, saying, "Ah! Robert, you 
 got a hold o' the young man last night, and persuaded him 
 to give us discourses to your mind !" "I did not," was the 
 
 reply; "Can you not see an answer to our prayers?" 
 
 Another worthy old man, the senior elder of the church, 
 William Fleming by name, when asked afterwards how it 
 was that he could be led away by Mr. Morison's plausibili- 
 ties, although he had been a strict Calvinist all his days, 
 replied, " I knew the voice o' my Father whenever I heard 
 it." 
 
 The impression produced by Mr. Morison's first discourses 
 
IS CALLED TO KILMARNOCK. 
 
 19 
 
 ill Clerk's Lane Chapel was indeed great. He certainly had 
 no lack of matter. A man who, being too late for the 
 service, and unwilling to disturb the congi-egation, had taken 
 his seat upon the gallery stairs, went away home at the close 
 of the ninning comment which the preacher had given on 
 the chapter he read, with the understanding that he had 
 heard the discourse for the occasion. He was both surprised 
 and disappointed to learn afterwards that he had missed the 
 principal portion of the feast. The candidate's seriousness 
 of manner, and deep sincerity, also affected the people much. 
 ■ When the vote was taken, it was not unanimous in his 
 favour. A considerable minority preferred his more quiet 
 and more moderate friend, James Robertson. They seemed 
 to be anxious to have a second minister of that name in 
 Clerk's Lane pulpit. Besides, the alarming appeals of the 
 minister of Bathgate's son troubled them not a little. They 
 thought that they would have more polished and staid 
 decorum, if less power, with the one, than with the other. 
 But what gained the day for Mr. Morison with the mass and 
 the majority was, not merely this very burning earnestness, 
 but his remarkable expository powers. The old people still 
 remembered worthy Mr. Robertson's gift in this dii-ection, 
 and they thought that they could see traces of the same 
 learning and exegetical skill in the youthful candidate. His 
 future career has certainly not been unworthy of this their 
 shrewd opinion. Mr. Morison and his friendly rival were 
 on an evangelistic tour together when the result of the elec- 
 tion was handed up to the former, as they were both seated 
 on a coach-top, at an inn-door. He did not tell his brother 
 the news till they had reached their destination, and were 
 about to retire for the night. 
 
 Thus was the lot of our young licentiate fixed in the town 
 which, celebrated towards the close of the last century by 
 the publication of the first edition of Burns's poems,' was to 
 gain some additional celebrity in this century by the publi- 
 cation of his healthier works, — works of genius too, although 
 not exactly of the same order and tone. 
 
 And here we are led to notice that this summer was sig- 
 nalised not only by Mr. Morison's call to Clerk's Lane 
 Church, but also by the publication of his first religious 
 treatise in the shape of an eighteen page tract, entitled 
 ■'The Question 'What must I do to be Saved?' Answered. 
 By Philanthropos. Edinburgh : M. Paterson, 7 Union 
 
20 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Place, 1840." Around this little pamphlet much interest 
 gathers. It was the small sling and stone that did great 
 service. But for it there had been no Presbytery case, and 
 no Synodical deliverance. But for it there had been no 
 Evangelical Union. Let us, therefore, linger a little around 
 the circumstances of its composition. 
 
 We saw in last article, from the statement of Mr. Ketcher, 
 of Nairn, that Mr. Morison kept up a correspondence vdth. 
 his young converts, in different places, for the sake of dispel- 
 ling their lingering doubts, and of establishing, them in the 
 faith. His ubiquitous labours had now rendered this corre- 
 spondence enormous; and he rightly judged that if he should 
 compose a tract, embodying in a clear mamier, and within a 
 brief compass, the cream both of his discourses and hortatory 
 conversations, his epistolary labours would be lightened, and 
 his usefulness also increased. All earnest men have a high 
 idea of the power of the press. The printed words go where 
 their voices have never been heard. The printed words 
 will remain when their voices will be hushed in death. 
 
 The post-script to the first edition of the little book clearly 
 e-Aough accounts for its publication. It runs thus: " I have 
 written this tract at the urgent request of many individuals, 
 in many parts of the country, who have expressed an 
 anxious desire to have beside them, in a permanent form, 
 the views which have been instmmental in ' turning them 
 from the error of their ways.' I earnestly implore the 
 prayers of the believing reader, that I may be made • wise 
 in winning souls.' " 
 
 The structure of the tract is very simple. After quoting 
 the gaoler's question, "What must I do to be saved 
 from Acts xvi. 30, the witer thus begins, " 0 Reader ! is 
 this the question which, above all others, you ^vish to be 
 answered ^ " He then asks his reader from what he desires 
 to be saved, and replies, for him, " It is, your conscience 
 answers, from the punishment justly due to your mpiads of 
 sins." Then, probing the conscience, lest his reader should 
 not be sufficiently awakened, he proceeds to show that the 
 great commandment of the law, " Thou shalt love the Lord 
 thy God with all thy heai-t," is violated by every uncon- 
 verted man every moment of his life, so that such a person's 
 whole existence is an unbroken course of sin, whatever may 
 be his outward proprieties and amiabilities of conduct. 
 Having shown that sin must be punished, but that God has 
 
MAINTAINS THAT CHRIST DIED FOR ALL. 
 
 21 
 
 provided a substitute in the person of Jesus, he next pro- 
 ceeds to tread on ground which he afterwards found to be 
 dangerous, but of whose slipperiness he had no idea when 
 he penned liis tract. We have ah'eady shown that at 
 Cabrach, in Banffshire, he had found that Christ Imcl died 
 for cdl, and, therefore, for him. This doctrine he had not 
 liesitated to preach everywhere, and now he did not hesitate 
 to print it. But our readers will obsei-ve that he did not dis- 
 cuss the subject for controversy's sake, but from a holy desire 
 to save souls, by removing stumbling-blocks out of their way. 
 
 ***Ah!' perhaps you say, *I would indeed feel that I am safe, 
 could I see that all this is true to im ; but how do I know that Christ 
 died for me ' ? You admit then, that if I can prove that Christ did die 
 for yoic, you need no more to secure your safety. You admit that, if 
 Christ died for you he did completely satisfy the law by bearing the 
 punishment due to your sins, so that nothing more is required from 
 the lawgiver from you to make atonement for your sins; — you admit 
 all this, do you ? * 0 yes! ' you reply, * prove to me that another has 
 satisfied the lawgiver for me by bearing the punishment which I 
 deserved to suffer, and I am satisfied, — I feel I must be safe.' Well, 
 beloved, listen to God's own word. ' If any man sin, we have an 
 advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the 
 propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the 
 SINS OF THE WHOLE WORLD* (1 John ii. 1, 2). Are you a part of 'the 
 whole world ?' Then Jesus is here asserted to be * the propitiation' for 
 your sins. ' I recollect of once quoting this passage to a middle-aged 
 woman, who had been for years in very deep distress about the state of 
 her soul; and, after quoting it, I said to her, 'Now, are you not 
 satisfied that Christ- has atoned for your sins' ^ 'No, Sir,' said she, 
 • I believe he has atoned fer the sins of the elect, but I cannot tell that 
 I am among the elect.' I replied, ' Turn up your Bible: how does the 
 passage run in your edition? for it does not say in mine, "and not for 
 ours only, but also for the sins of the whole elect,'' but it says, "for the 
 sins of the whole world," — does not that com^jrehend you ? ' After 
 some farther explanations, she saw the truth, and said, * 0 now I see 
 the rock on which I was almost wrecked for ever. 0, I see it now. 
 Yes, he has died for Tne. That is what I wanted, and what I need; — 
 glory be to God ! ' " 
 
 In the same strain he goes on to show from Heb. ii. 9 ; 
 1 Tim. ii. 6 ; Isaiah xlv. 22, and many other passages, that 
 the Son of God literally shed his blood for the sins of the 
 whole world, fortifying his position by the following foot- 
 note, — " See on this text a very valuable sermon developing 
 the universal extent of the atonement, by the most able 
 biblical expositor in Scotland, Dr. John Brown, of Edin- 
 burgh. The sermon is to be found in the United Secessioii 
 Magazine, vol. iii., p. 296." 
 
22 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 In like manner he meets such difficulties of the anxious 
 inquirer as that he " has not the right kind of faith ; " "I 
 fear I have not repented yet;" " Must I not pray for grace 
 to help me to believe 1 " &c. All these cobwebs of mistakes 
 he easily sweeps away with the great gospel truth, " Behold 
 now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of 
 salvation." 
 
 But when he comes to the difficulty of election, we find 
 that, notwithstanding all the light he had got, Mr. Morison 
 was a limitarian still. The passage is a remarkable one. It 
 shows how " good Homer may nod." It is completely out 
 of harmony with the rest of the tract. As we read it, we 
 say to ourselves, " This last patch of snow must soon melt 
 away, too, before the fervent sun that has melted all the 
 rest." 
 
 ** * But 0 ! Sir, if I be not one of the elected, then I cannot be 
 saved.' If you be not 'chosen before the foundation of the world,' 
 then assuredly you will not be saved, that is, you will be quite 
 unwilling to be saved, you will be quite careless, as hundreds around 
 you are. If, however, you be willinsj to believe and be saved, you 
 shall be saved; for the only reason why any are not saved, is this, 
 ' They will not come unto Christ, that they may have life: ' ' they will 
 not be gathered by Christ, when he would gather them, as a hen 
 gathereth her chickens under her wings.' Election, in the order of 
 nature, comes after the atonement; and when it is properly understood, 
 it is one of the most delightful doctrines of Scripture. It is so, 
 because it secures 'a seed' to Jesus. The harmony of doctrines, I 
 apprehend to be the following: God foresaw that all men would 
 become hell-deserving sinners; he resolved, in consequence of his 
 ineffable love and pity, to provide an atonement sufficient [or the 
 salvation of all; he resolved to offer this atonement to all, so that ^ ail 
 should be able and all should be welcome to come and accept it as ' all 
 their salvation.' He foresaw, however, that not one out of the whole 
 human family would be willing to be saved in this way,— and then he 
 elected. That all might not be lost, that Jesus might 'see of the 
 travail of his soul, and be satisfied,' he resolved to bestow on some, 
 such influences of his Spirit as would infallibly dispose them to accept 
 what all others are able and welcome to take. Thus it is clear that 
 election does injustice to none, throws obstacles in the way of none. 
 It only secures the salvation of some, and leaves the rest quite able 
 and welcome to come and avail themselves of the freely-ofiered gift. 
 If then you be disposed to believe, the probability is that you are 
 amongst the elect; nay, if you be * willing'^ (Psalm ex. 3), it is certain 
 that you are. 0 ' believe, then, and live.' " 
 
 As will be seen in the sequel, this was the very doctrine 
 at which several brethren in connection with the Congre- 
 gational body stumbled. The eminent Dr. Wardlaw had 
 
THE DOCTIUNS OF UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION. 23 
 
 brought them to the very point for which Mr. Morisoii was 
 here contending — namely, that the Lord Jesus Cluist had 
 shed his blood for eveiy human being; but the invincible 
 operations of the Holy Spirit, according to that divine, had 
 been provided to remove the unwillingness and indifference 
 of only some hearers of the gospel. Plainly the latter tenet 
 did not square with the former. Why should not the second 
 toll-bar be flung wide open on the King's highway, as well as 
 the first? Besides, was not the Holy Ghost resisted by the 
 impenitent and unbelieving, as well as the Son of God? 
 The reason why one man is saved and another remains 
 unsaved, is not that God has from all eternity uncondition- 
 ally decreed to give grace to one man and withhold it from 
 another, but that one man yields to the mighty solicitations 
 of di\dne grace, while another rejects them and suffers for 
 liis rejection. Thus the elect are they who come to God; 
 and it is the duty of every man, and especially of ever}' 
 hearer of the gospel, to become one of God's elect. This was 
 the glorious truth which Wesley, and Fletcher of Madely, 
 saw in the last century, and which was hidden from the 
 eyes of theii* no less pious and zealous contemporaries, 
 Whitfield and Toplady. James Morison came to see the 
 consistent view afterwards; but as yet he occupied only 
 Whitfield and Toplady's ground. 
 
 From recent communications with Mr. Morison's old ad- 
 herents in Kilmarnock, we have learned that this passage 
 gave many earnest souls sincere concern. They saw and 
 felt its inconsistency with the rest of their honoured pastor's 
 teachings. And they were truly delighted and relieved 
 when about the year 1843 he broke through this last fetter 
 of limitation, and declared that as Jesus had died for every 
 man, so did the Holy Spirit strive with every man, accord- 
 ing to the measure of light which each might enjoy, honestly 
 and earnestly seeking His salvation. Without doubt, a seed~^ 
 is secured to Chi'ist by the work of the Holy Spirit, accord- 
 ing to the fore-knowledge of God ; but this foreseen result 
 is brought about by the two concurrent Avills--the will of 
 God who draws, and the will of man who yields. 
 
 Yet let us not be hard on om* youthful hero, because he 
 did not see his way to a consistent theological creed all at 
 once. Let us not laugh at Earl Grey's ten-pound franchise 
 in these days of household suffrage. Let us not sneer at 
 Lord J ohn Russell's sliding scale, because Cobden gave us 
 
24 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNIOX. 
 
 free-trade. In progressive theology as well as in progressive 
 legislation, the large instalment by the way leads on to the 
 complete and ultimate measure of reform. 
 
 Still it is worthy of notice that this halting, disappointing 
 paragraph remains un-expunged in the 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, and 
 6th editions of the tract \ and it is only when we come to 
 that issued in 1844 that we find it happily left out. There- 
 fore James Morison was a moderate Calvinist when the 
 Secession Church tlirew him overboard in 1841. To be 
 consistent they should also, to-day, condemn the writings of 
 Ralph Wardlaw, and William Anderson, and Albert Barnes. 
 But it cannot be denied that the great majority of the 
 ministers of that denomination have come up to the very 
 theological standpoint which the Luther of Kilmarnock 
 occupied when they visited him with their ecclesiastical ban. 
 We anticipate, however. The " dead fly in the ointment " 
 has caused us to digress. 
 
 We need not quote any additional extracts from tliis im- 
 portant publication, because, after having lain long in com- 
 parative obscurity, eclipsed by publications of a later date, it 
 has suddenly experienced the fortunate resurrection of re- 
 publication in London. A gentleman there having casually, 
 or rather providentially, met with it, communicated witli 
 Dr. Morison ; and the consequence is, that it has been issued 
 with a few verbal corrections made by the author, by Part- 
 ridge & Co., of London, under the title " Safe for Eternity." 
 We are delighted to observe that this new edition has 
 already reached a circulation of nine thousand. We cor- 
 dially recommend it to our readers. We know the intelligent 
 teacher of a large Bible class, who lately held up the little 
 pamphlet before the fifty young men at his feet, saying, 
 " Look here, lads. But for this there had been no Evange- 
 lical Union. But for this I had not been here teaching you, 
 and you had not been .there listening to me." He then went 
 on to remark that it was a very small matter that kept 
 Cromwell and Hampden from sailing away to America., 
 which, had they done, our liberties would not have been 
 secured ; and, in like manner, if this little penny publica- 
 tion had not been issued, the free and world-wide gospel in 
 all its full-orbed consistency would not have been secured for 
 our native land. But we must now continue our narrative 
 and show how this was so. 
 
 Mr. Morison did not return from the Shetland Isles till 
 
MR. MORISON's ordination. -0 
 
 the month of July; and as it had been jfixed that his 
 ordination should take place in Kilmarnock in the month 
 of September, he spent the interval in the unwearied 
 evangelisation to which he had been "addicted" for some 
 time past. 
 
 He was under the necessity, indeed, of papng one visit to 
 the Ayrshii-e town during that period, to preach what were 
 called his trial discourses." The service was held in the 
 chapel on a week day. He translated Latin, Greek, and 
 Hebrew to the complete satisfaction, and even admiration of 
 the Presbytery ; read an exposition on Phil. ii. 6 — " Who 
 being in the form of God," etc.; and delivered a sermon on 
 1 Tim. i. 5 — " Now the end of the commandment is charity, 
 out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith 
 unfeigned." Of course these subjects had been previously 
 l)rescribed by the court. While he w^as reading his elaborate 
 paper on the divinity of Christ, some one observed that 
 "they had heard enough;" but the venerable minister of 
 Tarbolton exclaimed, " Let the young man go on — I am 
 greatly edified." When Mr. Morisonwas charged afterwai'ds 
 with having concealed his peculiar views on the occasion, he 
 of coui'se was able to reply that he required to keep by the 
 topics assigned him ; but he was glad to be able to add 
 that in his trial sermon he had distinctly brought out the 
 simplicity of the nature of faith, and had insisted on the 
 doctrine that God does not command men to perform im- 
 possibilities — their responsibility invariably keeping pace 
 with their powers and privileges. 
 
 As his ordination made considerable stir in the town and 
 country, and foreshadowed the ecclesiastical opposition that 
 he was to meet with in his zealous career, we take occa- 
 sion here to remark that it was not the first ordination that 
 had made a commotion in Kilmarnock. Burns has cele- 
 brated the settlement of the Rev. Dr. M'Kinlay in the Low- 
 Church, in 1785, in his well-known and characteristic poem, 
 entitled, " The Ordination." And twenty-one years previous 
 quite a riot had taken place at the forced " placin' " of the 
 Rev. J ames Lindsay over the game congregation. The Earl 
 of Glencaim had issued the presentation in favour of this 
 gentleman (the minister of Cumbrae) without his having 
 been heard by the people at all ; and there seems to have 
 been enough of " non-intrusion " feeling in the town even at 
 that date to cause a truly uproarious scene to be enacted, the 
 
26 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 particulars of which any one may find out for himself who 
 will be at the trouble of turning up the file of the Cale- 
 donian Mercury of July 21, 1764. 
 
 But the obstacles in the way of Mr. Morison's settlement 
 were very different from those which had caused disturbance 
 in the town eighty years before. His election had been free 
 and fail*, and great expectations were entertained by his 
 friends of his future usefulness. Yet it will not seem sur- 
 prising to our readers that sundry ministers in a rural Pres- 
 bytery like that of Kilmarnock, where things had all along 
 been managed in an easy and stereotyped way, should object 
 to that truly Pentecostal zeal which led the ycung preacher 
 continually to press the question on every hearer and neigh- 
 bour, " Hast thou been born again T Such a mode of 
 address fitted better the Haldanes and the Methodists than 
 a staid son of the Secession. Then the rumour had gone 
 forth that the pamphlet which he had just published 
 contained statements which would not square with the 
 Calvinistic standards of the Church. It is true that this 
 tract had not as yet been veiy widely circulated ; but one or 
 two of the members of Presbytery had seen a copy of it, and 
 had secretly deteimined to make its contents the subject of 
 preliminaiy investigations. 
 
 Hence on the forenoon of the ordination-day some questions 
 were proposed to the young pastor-elect in the session house 
 or vestry, as to his doctrinal views. The congregation had 
 already assembled in the adjoining chapel, so that the delay 
 was very awkward; but, notwithstanding, a long conversation 
 ensued. No member of court had a copy of the tract with 
 him ; but Mr. Morison pulled out one from his pocket, and 
 expressed his readiness to read any paragraph to which excep- 
 tions had been taken. Several sentences were anxiously 
 considered, and some little misconception was removed. For 
 example, his questioners had supposed him to teach the 
 doctrine that all men were already pardoned ; but on this 
 point he was able satisfactorily to explain that there was 
 a gi-eat and manifest difierence between the proposition that 
 Christ had died for all men, so that they might be pardoned, 
 and the proposition that all were already pardoned. Mr. 
 Morison, while assuring the Presbytery that he never could, 
 and never would, preach any other doctrine than that con- 
 tained in the tract, promised in the future, to be more 
 careful in the expressions he would employ, especially with 
 
DELAY AT THE ORDINATION. 
 
 27 
 
 reference to the misapprehensions which had been made 
 apparent. He also agreed to suppress the pamphlet, since 
 the Presbytery seemed to be displeased with the way in 
 which it had been worded. He was anxious to be ordained, 
 and yielded to the unexpected pressure which was put 
 upon him. 
 
 Meanwhile, a whole hour had elapsed, and the large con- 
 gregation had grown impatient. A whisper ran through the 
 building that something unpleasant had occurred ; and when 
 at length the reverend membei^ of the court appeared, traces 
 of the recent "heckling" were visible on the agitated coun- 
 tenances of all. Yet, although the succeeding ser\dces were 
 constrained and comfortless, the young minister entered into 
 the deed of self-dedication with pious fervour; for it was 
 observed that both he and his deeply sympathising father 
 shed many tears dui'ing the solemn imposition of the hands 
 of the Presbytery. 
 
 At the close of the ordination it was made pubKcly mani- 
 fest that a true, brotherly cordiaKty of sentiment did not 
 subsist between the Presbytery and the new member of their 
 court. It had always been customary for the ordaining 
 ministers to dine, when the ceremony was over, with the 
 principal people of the congregation and theii' recently 
 acquii-ed pastor. On this occasion, however, all the ministers 
 absented themselves save one — the Rev. Mr. flonald, of 
 Saltcoats, who desei-ves honom^able mention as the solitary 
 exceptioii to the discourtesy, which was the of procedure 
 that day. It should perhaps be mentioned that the reason 
 of non-attendance lay, possibly, quite as much in the fact 
 that the church had agreed to have no intoxicating bever- 
 ages at the dinner, as in the unpopularity of Mr. Morison. 
 But this excuse does not tell much in the Presbytery's 
 favour. Had the young man's influence with his people 
 ah-eady been so powerful, that they felt that strong drink, 
 the curse of the land, would have been an impertinence and 
 impropriety at the feast 1 Then verily his co-presbyters 
 should have seen in this very fact that God was on his side, 
 and that, whatever might be the doctrinal difierences on 
 which they had just been splitting haii^s, he was a man " full 
 of the Holy Ghost." 
 
28 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 Rev. James Morison's Ministry at Kilmarnock— His Crowded Con- 
 gregations—Preaches on "Not far from the Kingdom of God"— 
 Publishes his Discourse— Abstract of it— Publishes also on the 
 Nature of the Atonement— Abstract of the Pamphlet— Mutterings 
 of Presbyterial Displeasure— Conference with the Presbytery at 
 Irvine — Libel is prepared against him. 
 
 The storm that had gathered over Mr. Morison's head, at 
 the time of his ordination in Kilmarnock, was not the pre- 
 ciirsor of immediate sunshine and peace, but grew into a 
 hurricane of portentous and prodigious power, which soon 
 burst with unrestrg-ined fury upon the young and zealous 
 minister of the gospel. But let us not be discouraged as we 
 look back upon these days of trial and difficulty. The 
 suspicious-looking clouds were " big with mercy," and really 
 " broke in blessing," not only on his head, but on the heads 
 and heai-ts of thousands besides. 
 
 On the Sabbath after the ordination, the Rev. Robert 
 Morison, of Bathgate, preached in the forenoQn, in Clerk's 
 Lane Church, and introduced his son with much fatherly 
 affection and earnestness of manner to his new congregation. 
 The young minister preached with great power and "demon- 
 stration of the Spirit" in the afternoon on the text, " God 
 forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." He had prorftised to the Presbytery during the 
 week, thaF'Iir%6ul^ keep within due bounds, and avoid 
 modes of expression which had seemed to some of them to be 
 extravagant and inaccurate ; but on the Lord's day, in the 
 Lord's house, and facing the people to whom the Lord had 
 sent him, as well as the immense audience which had 
 crowded to hear him, he seemed to be saying within his own 
 heart, like the apostle Peter, " I will obey God, rather than 
 man." Precise coui-tiers, indeed, may bind down a queen and 
 get her to promise that she will not transgress the rules of 
 etiquette by too marked a demonstration of affection, when 
 she receives her son at the pier or the palace, on his return 
 from distant and dangerous wanderings; but who would 
 blame her if, forgetting all her engagements, she should rush 
 forward, at the first sight of the prince-errant, and falling on 
 
clerk's laxe church becomes crowded. 29 
 
 his neck, smother him with warm maternal kisses'? 1\oy 
 need it he a matter of astonishment that, in this his first 
 sermon as minister of Clerk's Lane congi'cgation, this Scot- 
 tish Samson burst the withes with which the Delilah of 
 Divinity had bound him, and proclaimed the atonement of 
 Calvary's bleeding Lamb to "every sinner, without distinction 
 and without excaption." 
 
 Perhaps, indeed, w^e do Mr. Morison injustice when we 
 take for granted, that either in his first or subsequent dis- 
 courses, he violated the pledge which he had given to the 
 Presbytery on the day of his ordination. It will be remem- 
 bered that he had then simply come under a promise to be 
 careful about his manner of expressing himself, and chiefly 
 ^vith respect to the errors of universal pardon which some of 
 his interrogators had erroneously thought him to teach. At 
 the very same time, he had distinctly declared that " he could 
 preach, and w^ould preach, no other doctrines than those which 
 were taught in the tract," since he believed them to be the 
 very truth of God. Therefore, in preaching as he did, he 
 doubtless felt that he was acting in perfect good faith with 
 his co-presbyters ; and in fact, in his subsequent trial, he 
 distinctly informed his judges that he had sacredly kept this 
 promise. It is probable, however, that they hoped that he 
 would calm down and d^^ ell on the less evangelical portions 
 of the Word of God ; but how could a man be expected to do 
 so, whose whole soul was on fii-e wdth the recently-dis- 
 covered good news of salvation, and w^ho was saying to him- 
 self every hour with the apostle " Woe is unto me, if I 
 preach not the gospel ! " 
 
 It will not be matter of sui-prise to those who know the 
 pulpit power of the founder of our denomination, and who 
 also consider the momentous importance of the Scripture 
 doctrines which he thus brought publicly under discussion, 
 that from this very first Sabbath of his ministerial laboui's. 
 Clerk's Lane Church became literally crowded to the door, 
 and remained so to the close of his pastoral labours in Kil- 
 marnock, and indeed till the large congregation which he 
 had drawn together removed to a new and better situated 
 place of meeting. As we have already stated, the congi-e- 
 gation had been sadly reduced under Mr. Wilson's un- 
 successful ministry; and even although it had been 
 unexpectedly reinforced shortly before the period of w^liich 
 we speak, by the accession of a considerable body of mal- 
 
30 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 contents from a sister clmrcli in the town,* the building 
 could not be called more than half-filled at the tune of Mr. 
 Morison's ordination. But after that event took place, a 
 crreat and immediate change was manifest. The excitement 
 caused by the rumour of his difficult ordination and for- 
 saken ordination dinner, his tract, his views on the atone- 
 ment, and strange way of putting thmgs, as well as ot his 
 powerful manner of speaking, brought a great crowd ot 
 hearers at once both from the populous town m which his lot 
 had been cast, and the surrounding district. Fifty years 
 before, the graphic and sarcastic pen of Robert Burns had 
 made the world familiar with the fondness of A}Tshire 
 artizans and rustics for theological discussions m connection 
 with the case of M'Gill, of Ayr ; but a fresh, and, m some 
 respects, a healthier proof of the same liking was given m 
 the case of our hero in Kilmarnock. Besides, on reviewing 
 the political history of the place for several years ]3revious 
 it would appear as if the public mind had been shai^^ened 
 for theological discussion, and prepared for a world-^vlde 
 c/ospel First of all the agitations about the Reform Bill 
 had ^iven occasion for frequent debates. Then the Volun- 
 tary Controversy had whetted both the temper and the 
 ton-ue of many a local Hampden. And, lastly, the Chartist 
 movement, revealing as it did popular dissatisfaction with 
 lecrislative inconsistencies, had pre-disposed multitudes of the 
 working classes to see similar inequalities m the national 
 creed and to welcome as a friendly innovator and Liberator 
 anv divine who would reform religion, and sweep away the 
 appearance of partiality and the " respect of persons from 
 the decrees of God. - , • j 
 
 Clerk's Lane, or, as it used to be called m these days, 
 " Clerk's Close," was quite a narrow lane which ran ott the 
 square at the cross. It was so named, because, long before, 
 
 * An unusual event had happened in this " Gallows-knowe meeting- 
 house." Several scores of people, finding themselves m a minority as 
 to the election of a minister, and not being satisfied ^^^h ^hn new man 
 after they had given him a trial, suddenly and simultaneously de- 
 manded lines of disjunction. The minister, seeing the secession 
 Se^ftable. determined good naturedly to bear it . with equammi ^^ 
 "What will I do, sir," said the session-clerk, "with all these eldei. 
 and — nicanls that are leaving you ?" - 0, just write out certi i- 
 cates for them one by one." "But, then. 1 want awa mysel . 
 Wha'll write mine ?" I'll do that, Robert, myself, when you ve got 
 through the lot," was the self-possessed reply. 
 
HEARERS DRAWN FROM A DISTANCE. 
 
 31 
 
 the Town Clerk had lived there ; but more recently the 
 Anti-Burgher meeting-house and manse had been built at its 
 farther end. The authorities of the town have now turned 
 the lane into a respectably wide street, so that any one 
 standing at Sir James Shaw's monument, can get a good 
 view of the famous church that used to be quite hidden by 
 the houses before. The worthy magistrates, by this piece of 
 town improvement, have, perhaps unwittingly, practically 
 illustrated the religious or theological history of the day ; 
 for their act has seemed to say that, " Whereas the narrow 
 lane was good enough for the days of limited grace, now that 
 the proceedings which immortalised that very locality have 
 ended in the proclamation of a free gospel over the length 
 and breadth of the land, it would not do to keep the close so 
 strait, and therefore it should be widened, so as to corre- 
 spond with that widened and more generous theology." 
 
 Well, it was quite an entertainment to see the stream of 
 people that poured into Clerk's Lane when the bells began 
 to ring at a quarter to 11 a.m., or a quarter to 2 p.m., on 
 the Lord's day, after James Morison began his ministry in 
 Kilmarnock. If any of our readers had gone to visit friends 
 who lived in the narrow passage, they would, if unacquainted 
 with the events of the day, have concluded that the crowd 
 was a congregation dispersing, rather than collecting. Up 
 that entry the multitude advanced steadily and unceasingly 
 for a whole quarter of an hour, till about a thousand hearers 
 were crammed into the square, old-fashioned building. 
 Kilmarnock, the agricultural capital of Ayrshire, contained, 
 even in these days, a population of 20,000 inhabitants ; and 
 not only did its thoughtful and curious artizans help to 
 swell the numbers of this eager assembly, but all the 
 villages and towns around contributed their respective 
 quotas of worshippers. Stewarton, Kilmaurs, Dundonald, 
 Galston, Newnnilns, and Darvel, with many other places 
 more remote, were every Sabbath represented there. As the 
 winter advanced and the affections of the people began to be 
 fairly centred around the young preacher, carts and waggons 
 were brought into requisition, and it was no uncommon 
 thing to see as many as fifty people coming into the town 
 from Galston, and a score or more from " Loudon's bonnie 
 woods and braes," higher up the valley. Farmers even came 
 as far as from Loudon hill itself, and the scene of the battle 
 of Drumclog, with as much earnestness and determination 
 
32 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 stamped upon their countenances as if tliey were about to 
 follow the blue banner once more which theii- forefathers had 
 unfurled on these very uplands of Ayrshire —only that the 
 nineteenth-century inscription was to be, " For Christ's free 
 gospel and salvation —the blood-bought birthright of every 
 man." 
 
 Such weekly gatherings from far and near could not come 
 together without attracting the attention of the whole dis- 
 trict. The people on the road-side and in the streets used 
 to look curiously at the troops of church-goers as they passed. 
 Their devout aspect was itself a sermon, and induced many 
 to join the growing band; for they wisely judged that 
 
 surely a blessing was to be got at that kirk, let folk speak 
 as they pleased, or so many decent and earnest people would 
 not take the trouble to go so far Sabbath after Saljbath." 
 But " every one to his trade." A man in the outskirts of 
 Kilmarnock, who had dipped a little into phrenology, and 
 thought himself no mean disciple of Gall and Spurzheim, 
 was not so much impressed with the gravity of the people's 
 faces as ^vith the height of their brows. " They were nae 
 weak-minded or senseless folk that were followin' after that 
 man. Veneration was high, and Causality was weel- 
 developed in the most of them ; and for his part, he would 
 just go down and hear for himself." 
 
 ' All who went to hear were at once arrested and im- 
 pressed ; while many of them were carried captive, not only 
 bv the eloquence of the speaker, but the saving grace of his 
 Divine Master. Mr. Morison, in these days, as we have 
 already remarked, had a clear, ringing voice, and, as he 
 preached without notes, and generally without having 
 Avritten his discourses (although his tram of thought was 
 always conscientiously prepared), every now and then he 
 rose to the height of genuine eloquence,— the extempo- 
 raneous inspiration of the circumstances in which he found 
 himself to be placed, and of the momentous thoughts with 
 which his own soul was constantly on fire. No one could 
 hear him without feeling in his heart, more or less, " the 
 power of the world to come." Many years after the time of 
 which we are writing, Mr. Thomas Brown, now editor of the 
 Birmmgham Morning News, remarked to us at the close of 
 one of Mr. J. B. Cough's most entrancing addresses in the 
 Citv Hall of Glasgow^ " But of all the orators I ever heard, 
 reli^'ious, philanthropic, or political, there never was one 
 
MR; MORISON S ELOCUTION. 
 
 33 
 
 who could thrill my soul with deep spiritual awe like James 
 Morison, in his fii'st days at Kilmarnock," Another hearer 
 (Bailie Lamberton of Glasgow), who received his first 
 religious impressions at the same time, has described to us 
 the subdued murmur that ran over the audience when, on 
 a certain occasion, the rapt speaker closed one of his extem- 
 poraneous bursts by saying, If I could not find out in the 
 Word of God that Jesus made an atonement for all, and 
 therefore for me, I would burn my Bible and die in despair!" 
 
 The chapel became so crowded that it was with great dif- 
 ficulty that the preacher could make his way on a Sabbath 
 morning through the dense mass that thronged the doorway 
 and the stairs that led up to the pulpit. As he had to walk 
 in the open air from the session-house to the church, he 
 always appeared with his hat in his hand advancing slowly 
 through the crowd that opened to let him ascend. Deposit- 
 ing Ills hat below his seat in the sacred rostrum, he was in 
 the habit of engaging for a little in secret prayer. By the 
 time that he rises to give out the psalm, our phrenological 
 friend, possibly perched in the " cock-loft " in the gallery, 
 has had time to conclude that, " There's something in that 
 head any way. Veneration is high, and Causality is deve- 
 loped with a vengeance. There's just enough of the Love o' 
 Approbation to keep him up ; and he has as much Comba- 
 tiveness as will help him to fight the Presbytery if they 
 oppose him. There's no wonder that a man has made such 
 a stir with a head like that. Whatever he may prove about 
 ^Aeology, he proves that Phrenology s right — -and no mis- 
 take." 
 
 Mr. Morison used to read the psalm or paraphrase with 
 great efiect in these days ; and they who hear him give out 
 the hymn yet when his throat infirmity is not at its worst, 
 can easily understand how emphatic the elocution of his 
 youth must have been. We read lately a notice of him in 
 a Dunfermline newspaper, issued about the time we are 
 referring to, the \vriter of which remarked that it could be 
 seen that he was a man of power from the way in which he 
 gave out the 41st Paraphrase, beginning, " As when the 
 Hebrew Prophet raised." Well, let us suppose that he has 
 given out that rich evangelical composition (which, candidly 
 speaking, fully justifies the doctrines with which his name 
 has been associated, for it cannot be sung consistently on the 
 hypothesis of any other theology), and hark ! how full and 
 
 D 
 
34 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 hearty the burst of praise that immediately succeeds ! Who 
 can sing like those who have newly found the pearl of gi^eat 
 price ] How tame are all Italian trills " compared with 
 the jubilee chants of the " blessed people, the joyful sound 
 that know !" While we do not despise the adjuncts of good 
 music and full choral harmony, these are mightily enriched 
 by "the melody of joy and health" that is made by truly 
 regenerated souls, and the presence of which is certified by 
 the shining countenance, the closed eye, or, it may be, the 
 silently trickling tear. 
 
 But while the people are singing let us take a look at 
 them. See how densely they are packed together ! Tho 
 passages both above and below are invisible ; for the elderr< 
 of the church, to meet the extraordinary demand for sitting-;, 
 have provided boards that are dexterously placed across tiie 
 aisles as soon as the pews are filled, so that every inch of 
 room within the building is thus occupied. If you are 
 acquainted with the families, you will see that in the throng 
 husbands and wives have been separated from one another 
 and their children ; but they put up with the temporary 
 divorce patiently for the greater love which they bear to tha 
 Heavenly Bridegroom. What would come of that mother 
 with the baby in her arms if it should begin to cry 1 ' How 
 could she get out with it, tightly wedged in as she is by the 
 crowd and she has already begun to notice, to her dismay, 
 that the seats are all down in the passages, rendering egress 
 apparently impossible. Be not afraid, good woman, for the 
 very crowd which so excites the people and the preacher 
 causes all the babies to sleep ; and even although your child 
 should 'make a noise, so much of the love of Christ has been 
 shed abroad in the hearts of the congregation that they will 
 all sympathise with you: and the young minister _ himself 
 will neither look nor speak angrily, for even the crying chil- 
 dren seem only to remind him of the babe of Bethlehem, and 
 he will speak on apparently well-pleased and content through 
 quite a Babel of infantine interruption. 
 
 But now Mr. Morison has risen to pray. In these days 
 there was as much power and unction in his prayers as in 
 his sermons. They revealed an intimacy of communion be- 
 tween God and the speaker's soul. Then the way in which 
 he addressed the Divine Being was novel and striking. 
 People had been accustomed to hear the Deity invoked as 
 the most High and the most Holy— as the Omnipresent, the 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE REV. A. M. WILSON. 
 
 35 
 
 Omniscient, and the Omnipotent — and without doubt such 
 representations of his glorious perfections were calculated to 
 evoke the reverential adorations of the worshippers. But 
 Mr. Morison preferred to address God rather as the Father 
 of men and of the Lord Jesus Christ. " 0 Father !" " O 
 Heavenly Father !" and " O dear Heavenly Father !" were 
 the most common modes of invocation which he employed 
 both in the exordium and throughout the separate petitions 
 of prayer. And, besides, it impressed people much who had 
 not been accustomed to such forms of expression, to hear a 
 minister thank God for those present w^ho had passed from 
 death to life, and pray that " disquieted souls might this 
 very day enter into rest and have peace with God through 
 the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 Some of the discourses which Mr. Morison preached 
 during this first half-year of his pastorate are still cUstinctly 
 remembered for theu' power and usefulness. He seems 
 sometimes to have preached in the evening ; for a lady once 
 told us that, not being able to gain admission for the throng, 
 she stood outside and heard him preach one night soon after 
 his settlement on the text, " If any man love not the Lord 
 Jesus Chi'ist, Anathema Maranatha." It w^as a very 
 awakening sermon, and was eminently calculated to make 
 sinners tremble that were at ease in Zion. The crowd filled 
 the coui't in front of the chapel back to the gates ; and so 
 distinct were the intonations of the speaker's voice that those 
 without could hear as well as those within, and seemed to 
 be over-awed in the gathering darkness of the autumnal 
 evening. Mr. Morison seems to have thought it proper to 
 preach such arousmg sermons frequently at that time for the 
 purpose of " breaking up the falloAv-gTound " and preparing 
 it for the seed of the gospel. Another favourite sermon 
 with him about the same period was one on the text, " Thou 
 art not far from the kingdom of God." (31ark xii. 34.) 
 
 The Rev. A. M. Wilson, of Bathgate, when editor of the 
 Christian Times, described in an interesting paper on his 
 own religious experience how, when disquieted in liis mind 
 about his acceptance with Gocl, he had been invited by a 
 friend to go and hear Mr. Morison shortly after his ordina- 
 tion in Kilmarnock. He had been discouraged by a deep 
 sense of his unwoi-thiness to sit at the table of the Lord, and 
 had been perplexed by a message which the kind clergyman 
 had sent him, whose ministrations he attended regularly, to 
 
36 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 the effect that "that veiy sense of unworthiness was^a sign 
 of <n'ace, and should cheer him rather than otherwise." His 
 friend informed Mr. Wilson that the new minister was 
 blamed for saying that " we had only to believe." " That s 
 the very thing for me," said our anxious inquirer to hun- 
 self ; " for I have been long trying works and have failed. 
 TlieVery next Sabbath found him seated in Clerk's Lane 
 meetincr-house— the first time he had ever condescended to 
 worship in a Dissenting Church. The text was that just 
 mentioned, " Thou art not far from the kingdom of God ; 
 and the tendency of the discoui'se was only to confirm to 
 absolute certainty the hearer's previous conviction that he 
 never had been a Christian at all. With his characteristic 
 decision of character, Mr. Wilson went straight to the 
 ]>reacher at the close of the service and revealed to him his 
 troubled state of mind. Thereupon a most interesting con- 
 versation followed: " You think that you would be all right 
 if you had a certain amount of emotion and experience? 
 " Yes " " And you are looking into your own heart to see 
 if there is a sufficient amount there r' "Yes." "Well, 
 you are all wrong. You should not look in upon your sin- 
 ful self, but out upon the Cmcified One ; and the con- 
 templation of His love without will put you right witjiin. 
 Believe really that ' He loved you and gave Himself for 
 you ' and never mind your heart. It will burn, and bask, 
 and brighten under the sunshine of that love without your 
 anxious endeavours if you only accept as true the gospel 
 declaration, and continue in the contemplation of it. buch 
 was the chief line of expostulation and illustration used. 
 The effect upon the inquirer was instantaneous. Like the 
 bitten Israelites he looked and lived. He went home, as he 
 says " not knowing whether his head or feet were upper- 
 most " so filled was he to overflowing with the joy of salvation ; 
 and ever since that time he has not only remained steadfast 
 in the faith and love of Christ, but has proved ultimately one 
 of the most useful ministers of the Evangelical Union. 
 
 This discourse, " Not far from the kingdom of God, was 
 deemed so valuable, and so eminently calculated to be use- 
 ful, that its publication was forthwith eagerly demanded. 
 It was published in Kilmarnock under the title of " Not 
 quite a Christian;" and, next to the important pamphlet 
 referred to in last chapter, on " What shall I do to be savecU 
 had a larcrer circulation than all the tractates issued by Mr. 
 
ANALYSIS OF "NOT QUITE A CHRISTIAN." 
 
 37 
 
 Morisoii during his Kilmarnock ministry. Indeed, we are 
 not certain that its sale did not exceed that of its perhaps 
 more storied predecessor. We have lying before us, while 
 we write, eight editions of this little book (embracing twenty- 
 seven thousand copies), four of Avhich were issued in 1841, 
 three in Kilmarnock and one in Edinburgh. We will here 
 give an abstract of its contents, for thus only will those who 
 are following our narrative be able to enter into the spirit 
 of these times : — 
 
 After quoting his text, Mr. Morison asks his reader if he 
 is "safe in the New Testament kingdom of God." Suppos- 
 ing that he receives the reply, "I do not know, and it is 
 impossible to tell," he strikingly asks: 
 
 Is it difl&cult for you to know whether you are an Englishman or 
 a Frenchman, the subject of King Philip or of Queen Victoria ? Is it 
 puzzling and perplexing to you to decide, at twelve o'clock noon, 
 whether it he indeed mid-day or mid-night? No more difficulty 
 should there he, 0 dear Reader, in determining whether you be in 
 'marvellous light,' or in 'gross darkness;' on the way to heaven, or 
 the road to hell; a member of the ' household of faith,' or a member of 
 the family of Satan; within the kingdom of God, or without it. O 
 tlien, what think you of yourself? Are you on the right or the wrong 
 .side of salvation ? What say you to youv own case?" 
 
 He then proceeds to notice six several points of experience 
 which a man may have, and yet not be a Christian: (1) 
 " You may have much knowledge about the gospel, aiid yet fall 
 short of being a Christian^ (2) " You may possibly have 
 good gifts in conducting spiritu/xl exercises, and yet fall short 
 of being a Christian^ (3) "I would go further and remark 
 that you may possibly have great j^leasitre in religious duties, 
 and yet after all fall slwrt of being a Christian^ (4) " I 
 would remark again, O dear Reader, that you may Imve deep 
 convictions of sin, and yet fall short of being a Christian.'' 
 (5) "I would go on to say more ; you may be decidedly and 
 habitually serious, and known to be such, and yet fall short of 
 being a Christian" " And (6) once more, O dear Header, 
 let me say to you, — you may even feel great peace, and joy, 
 and love to God, and yet after all turnout to be no Christian.' 
 Perhaps some of our readers may not see the sense in which 
 the author used this last proposition. The following quota- 
 tion will both make this plain and serve as an instance of the 
 anecdotal style in which he indulged in these early days : — 
 
 "Religious affections are a great part of 'the new creature but 
 * the new creature ' may possibly be awanting, when, there are rehgious 
 
38 HISTOllY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 allrctions. Do you doubt this ? I will tell you of instances. Once, 
 upon a morning, a person came into my room in great distress of mind. 
 I had never seen her before; she had come from a distance of about 
 twenty miles. On entering into conversation with her, 1 lound tnat 
 about five months before, she had undergone a great change, and lelt 
 unspeakable peace and joy. ' 1 also felt that I hated sin, said she 
 ' and 1 loved God more than tongue can tell. I could have given him 
 a hundred hearts had I had them. I could have done anything to 
 promote his glory ; I could have died without a grudge. But 0 bir 
 ibout a month ago this all left me. I am all m darkness. 1 have no 
 peace now ; no joy now ; and though I could not indulge in sm I can 
 feel no love to God, I am dreadfully afraid of him.' She was indeed 
 in despair. I asked her what it was that gave her peace originally. 
 She replied that she had heard a sermon on the pardon of sin, and it 
 was strongly borne in upon her mind, that her sins were all forgiven; 
 but now she thought otherwise. 1 inquired if she at that time had 
 any good ground for supposing that her sins had been all forgiven-- 
 * did you think so, because of any statement in the Bible ? IS o sir, 
 she replied, 'it was just strongly home in upon my mmd that it was 
 the case, and I believed it.' ^ Ah ! then,' I rejoined, 'you l^ave been 
 believing a mere impression of your mind, and not the record which 
 God hath given of his Son ; your ground of hope was your oy.^xv ympres- 
 sion, and not God's truth; and, consequently, with a change m your 
 impressions, you feel a total change in your prospects and state ot heart. 
 I went on to explain to her that no person is entitled to have peace 
 and hope, who cannot derive it directly from the ^yord of God 1 
 turned her eye out to Jesus--SiB revealed m the Bible ; instead of 
 allowing it to pore in on her own heart-where God has made no 
 revrelation of mercy ; and she again got peace, joy and love in believing 
 and said, ' Ah ! now, sir, I see my error. I must always look out and 
 never in ; and as the truth without is the ground of my hope, my hope 
 never can change as long as 1 keep the truth in view, for ^^ is unchange- 
 able.' 'True,' said 1, 'if you now feel peace, and joy, and love, because 
 you see something in the Bible calculated to produce these teelmgs 
 keep conternplatiifg that something in the Bible, and the same feelings 
 will he as lasting as the Bible itself.'" 
 
 Under tlie second head, and while showing how there may 
 b3 gifts without graces, he spoke out very planily about 
 unconverted ministers : 
 
 "I know of a minister who draws every Sabbath-day many hundreds 
 of admiring hearers to hang upon his lips, but vvho, as long as I knew- 
 him, was the first member of a card-playing club which met regularly 
 in a public hotel. . . . I know a minister of unblemished moml char- 
 acter, who, not long ago, told his people, that for more than twenty- 
 seven years he had preached to them in unbehef You perceive then 
 that it is possible to have a good gift ot preaching, and yet after all 
 lall short of being a Christian." 
 
 There was another sermon which was preached in Novem- 
 bei-, 1840, "and published about the begimiing of 1841, to 
 which ref-ronce must be made here, if we would be methodical 
 
ANALYSIS OF " THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT." 39 
 
 in our narrative ; for it was more than once referred to in 
 the protracted debates that arose on Mr. Morison's case in 
 the Presbyteiy and Synod, during the spring and summer of 
 the latter year. He gave out 1 John ii. 2, one afternoon as 
 his text, " And he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not 
 for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." His 
 hearers expected him to go on to the extent of the atonement, 
 their favourite theme ; but he lingered all that day and 
 during successive Sabbaths o?^ the nature of the atonement, — 
 in truth, the more important topic of the two ; for our views 
 •of the extent of the reference of Christ's sacrifice must be 
 -determined by our antecedent views of its nature. He 
 showed, deliberately, ichat the atonement was not, before pro- 
 ceeding to show loJmt it was — the simple but striking plan 
 which he usually adopted in these early days, and which 
 certainly tended to quicken the attention of his hearers and 
 concentrate it on the positive side of the question, when, at 
 length, after long delay, it was presented to the mind. The. 
 substance of these successive discourses was immediately 
 committed to the press, and was published as a pamphlet of 
 fifty pages ; and as this is still considered to have been one 
 of the most original and philosophical of Mr. Morison's early 
 treatises, and one which more than any other helped to 
 recommend his system of theology to multitudes of pious and 
 thoughtful people, we will here give an abstract of it also : — 
 He shows I. That the Atonement is not Pardon, and that 
 for six reasons : ''(1) Because pardon comes after confes- 
 sion of sin, whereas the atonement was made eighteen 
 hundred years ago ; (2) Because we pray foii i:>ardon, but 
 never for atonement ; (3) Because God pardons often, whereas 
 the atonement was but once made ; (4) Because God bestows 
 ])ardon, whereas he receives the atonement ; (5) Because it 
 is Christ alone that atones, whereas it is properly God the 
 i^'ather that pardons ; and (6) Because pardon has reference 
 to God's character as a Father, whereas the atonement has 
 reference to his character as a Moral Governor. (Of course 
 these are the mere headings of the argument, the amplification 
 and illustration of which extend over several pages.) II. TJi^ 
 atonement is not Justification; (1) Because the atonement 
 is something made by Christ, whereas justification is some- 
 thing done by God the Father ; (2) Because the atonement 
 was finished eighteen centuries ago, whereas justification comes 
 after efiectual calling ; (3) The atonement is pre-supposed in 
 
40 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 faith, whereas justification pre-supposes faith ; (4) The atone- 
 ment is a general something, out of which all believers draw 
 their personal salvation; whereas justification is a separate 
 blessing, which cannot serve more than one indiyidual ; (&) 
 The atonement is spoken of in scripture as a thing that is 
 past whereas justification is sometimes spoken of as a future 
 blessing ; as for example, ' God shall justify the circumcision 
 by faith.' (We may remark in passing, that this second 
 negative head was rendered necessary by the representations 
 of those who boldly maintained that the atonement of Christ 
 per se had delivered the elect and the elect alone from all 
 condemnation.) III. The Atonement is not Redemption. 
 This allegation the author supported by a numerous induction 
 of passages of scripture, all showing that redemption meant 
 actual deliverance either from the penalty or the power of 
 sin, and was of course experienced only by believers. The 
 following are a sample of the texts quoted :—' In whom we 
 have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. 
 < Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us, wisdom, and 
 righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. iV 
 The Atonement is not Reconciliation. He here shows that 
 the atonement could be reconciliation only m one or other 
 of three senses. (1) That God and man had been by 
 Christ mutually reconciled; but this would involve univer- 
 sal salvation. Or (2) That the atoneme:it did actually re^ 
 concile man to God; whereas it is only the means of such 
 reconciliation. Or (3) That the atonement actually recon- 
 ciled God to man ; but God never needed to be reconciled to 
 man-he was never at enmity with him-he was always his 
 friend. It is man that needs to be reconciled to God. V. 
 Whatever the atonement may be, it is not the payment of a 
 debt For (1) Debts when paid, cease to be debts ; but sin, 
 though atoned for, is a debt still. (2) Debts which are paid 
 cannot be forgiven ; but though sin is atoned for, it requires 
 also to be forgiven. (3) Debts may be forgiven without any 
 payment; but sin could not be forgiven without an atone- 
 ment. (4) Debts are transferable, sins are not. (o) ihe 
 satisfactory payment of a debt does not depend on the dig- 
 nity of the person who pays it ; but the whole value of the 
 atonement depends upon the high and glorious rank and 
 character of the sufferer." 
 
 Having with much unction, power, and simplicity, illus- 
 trated all these negative points, the author advances next to 
 
EXPERIENCE OF THE REV. PROFESSOR TAYLOR. 
 
 41 
 
 the positive side of the momentous subject, which he thus 
 introduces : 
 
 ** I proceed now to wind up this address, by teUing you what I con- 
 ceive the atonement to be. I have already proved to you, that it is 
 not Pardon, but a something on the ground of which all sins and sin- 
 ners may be pardone.d. It is not Deliverance from the condemna- 
 tion OF the law, but a something on the ground of which all who 
 are under wrath may be accepted and treated by God a.s if they were as 
 righteous as Jesus himself. It is not Redemption, but a something 
 on the ground of which every miserable captive of Satan way for ever 
 be emancipated from his accursed slavery. It is not Reconciliation, 
 "but a something calculated to slay the bitterest enmity of the wickedest 
 heart out of hell. It is not the Payment of a Debt, but a something 
 iu consideration of which God may now consistently remit unpaid ever}' 
 debt of every sinner. What then is this talismanic something ? 
 In other words, what is the Atonement ? My answer is the following: 
 — It is an expedient introduced into the divine moral government, con- 
 sisting of tlic obedience unto death of Jesus Christ, which has coniplctely 
 removed all the obstacles standing between mxin and salvation, except tlic 
 obstacles within him." 
 
 This extract is worthy of notice, because the Presbj^Lery 
 afterwards pounced upon the expression " a talismanic some- 
 thing," and libelled it as irreverent, and semi-blasphemous ; 
 but our readers, we think, will agree with us, that in the 
 connection in which it occurs it is extremely forcible, and 
 could have appeared reprehensible only to those who were 
 anxious to find fault. 
 
 It is manifest also that such discourses when preached, 
 and such a treatise when published, must have contained a 
 rich feast for those to whom the truths in question came 
 with all the surprise of newly discovered realities. The Rev. 
 William Taylor, of Kendal, informed us recently that he was 
 standing at the door the first Sabbath afternoon that Mr. 
 Morison preached on the nature of the atonement. He could 
 not get admittance to the chapel on account of the great 
 crowd ; but as he listened outside, the wind of the regenerat- 
 ing Holy Spirit blew around him as well as the wind of the 
 winter day, and he entered into rest by believing on the Son 
 of God. He was saved and came unto the knowledge of 
 the truth." At first he had been opposed to the young 
 preacher, although other members of his family befriended 
 him. The powerful and practical home-thrusts iiTitated and 
 annoyed the future professor, as yet unsubdued in heart. As 
 the winter advanced, however, he became intellectually con- 
 vinced that this David with his sling and stone had the best 
 
42 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 of it, and was more than a match, single-handed, for the 
 Goliath-like Presbytery, and the hosts of their ecclesiastical 
 abettors that stretched out formidably beyond. But on this 
 day the " Talismanic Something," exerted its magic influence 
 upon his soul ; and with tears in his eyes, and transport in 
 his soul, he found that the Propitiation of Calvary was " ali- 
 bis salvation and all his desire." This is already the second 
 minister for his future denomination that James Morison 
 has picked up in the first few months of his truly wonderful 
 pastorate. But since " the wind bloweth where it listeth, 
 and men hear the sound thereof, but can not tell whence it 
 Cometh and whither it goeth," neither the preacher nor any 
 one else in that crowded building knew that, ere the excit- 
 ing service closed, an embryo-seed of truth had been de- 
 posited in the mind of that tall, athletic young man in the 
 door- way, which would swell and germinate, and bear fruit, 
 till, at length, successive generations of students of theology 
 would gladly sit at his feet, and admiringly take on the 
 impress and the mould of his philosophic mind. 
 
 We have recently conversed with those who had been 
 •thought, and had even thought themselves to be, advanced 
 Christians at the time when these discourses on the nature 
 of the atonement were delivered, but who have confessed to 
 us that the benefit which they received from them was incal- 
 culable, and something which could not be paid for by money. 
 Their views of divine truth were i-ectified and enlarged ; 
 doctrines that had all been in a jumhle, now took their 
 jDroper and orderly places; and whereas they had only 
 " seen men as trees walking" before, they now, "in God's 
 light saw light clearly." 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that this tractate, like all Mr. 
 Morison's other publications indeed, is at once simple and 
 scholarly ; suits the learned as well as the unlearned ; and 
 shows in every page that its author had both been taught of 
 man and taught of God. His great logical power is con- 
 stantly apparent ; and yet the anxious sinner is ever dealt 
 with beseechingly and tenderly. Then the quotations which 
 he makes as foot-notes and appendices are most imposing 
 and influential. He could support any position he took up 
 by the authority of the schools, as well as of the Scriptures. 
 He had all the divines, ancient and modern, British, Ameri- 
 can, and Continental, at his finger-ends. His theological 
 erudition, considering his youth, was something wonderful ; 
 
PREFACE TO " THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT." 43 
 
 and while, on the one hand, it imparted to his statements 
 great weight, it must have made even the elder ministers 
 tremble, who adventured to enter with him into the contro- 
 versial lists. 
 
 He was often in the habit in these early days of taking 
 up books of reference with him into the pulpit. If he re- 
 quired only one or two, he would carry them himself ; but 
 if he wished to quote from several ponderous tomes, he 
 would send them before him with the beadle. Often wiien 
 proving a point, he would fortify his position suddenly, by 
 turning up some corroborative passage in Jonathan Ed- 
 wards, the Marrov/-men, or the Erskines of the early Seces- 
 sion Church. He did not do so for the sake of pedantic 
 display, but that, since his views had been called in question, 
 they might be confirmed in the estimation of his hearers, by 
 the statements of influential authors of acknowledged ortho- 
 doxy. He honestly believed, at the time, that his doctrines 
 did not conflict with the Confession of Eaith, if charitably 
 construed, and if only a liberal margin were allowed him ; 
 and he was anxious to show that o-reat and orood men in all 
 lands and times had spoken on free grace and assurance as 
 comfortably as he wished to do. And being what would be 
 called a moderate or Baxterian Calvinist (although giving 
 special prominence to the world-wide aspects of his creed), 
 it is not difficult to see that the course which he adopted of 
 appealing to the writings of learned men, as well as to the 
 Bible, was perfectly honest and honourable, as well as 
 prudent and politic for one in his circumstances — ^beginning 
 to feel, as he did, that he was standing at bay for the defence 
 of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 It may be of use to insert here the brief preface to this 
 treatise on the Nature of the Atonement. It w^ill help to 
 give our readers a clear idea of "the situation" at the time : — 
 
 *' To the people ivho statedly assemble in Clerk's Lane Chapel, Kil- 
 marnock, to hear the gospel. 
 
 "My dear hearers, — Accept from me the First of a Series of 
 Addresses on some of the important 'things which belong to our 
 peace.' I beg of you to take it in the one hand, and the Bible in the 
 other, and inquire regarding every matter as you go along, 'what 
 saith the Lord?' My only object in preaching and in writing to you 
 is, as far as I know my own heart, God's glory and your kternal 
 WELFARE. My constant prayer is, 0 that every man, woman, and 
 child were turned to the Lord ! Those of you who are already in the 
 enjoyment of peace, I would implore to 'follow on to know the Lord," 
 
44 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 and make Him known. Those of you who are seeking peace, I would 
 implore to come immediately to the atonement - the ark of the 5^"*^^! 
 Noah, and there you will find ' rest to the sole of your foot. Those ot^ 
 you who have apathy instead of peace, and who are 'at ease in Zion 
 1 would implore to remember that 'there is no peace, saith my Ixod 
 to the wicked.' 0 may the Divine Spirit be the schoolmaster of you 
 all; and may he 'take of the things of Jesus, and show them unto you 
 This is and will be the constant 'cry' ot one who wishes to be your 
 faithful, as he is your affectionate pastor, "James Moki^on. 
 
 ^'Kilmarnock, Jan. 1, 1841. 
 
 S —Most of you have seen some of the replies which have been 
 made to the small treatise on 'What must I do to be saved ? I am 
 much disinclined to enter into any personal controversies; and 1 shall 
 therefore take up every point, which requires to be discussed, in the 
 course of the addresses, of which this is the farst. 
 
 But besides these powerful and important afternoon dis- 
 courses which he had begun to preach, Mr. Morison made 
 his ministry yet more attractive by commencing, soon alter 
 his ordination, the exposition of the epistle to the Romans. 
 At an early stage in his theological career he had been 
 attracted towards this epistle as the chief repertory ot 
 inspired apostolic theology, and had already begun to collect 
 that complete store of books on its literature which have 
 rendered his two separate volumes on the third and ninth 
 chapters so valuable, or rather invaluable, to the biblical 
 student. As the physiologist can construct the whole 
 animal in his mind from a single bone, or the eminence ot 
 a painter can be appreciated by a connoisseur from his Urst 
 efforts with the brush, so did the introductory discourse on 
 the epistle reveal to the knowing ones in the congregation 
 what the coming course was to be. The first planks that 
 were laid predicted the proportions of the future ship. A 
 ^.reater expositor even than old Mr. Robertson was among 
 them Thus the crowds that came at first were retained by 
 the learning and research, as well as by the zeal and 
 earnestness, of the young pastor of Clerks Lane. Rarely 
 is there to be found in any ministry such a union as was 
 here of apostolic fervour, logical acumen, and linguistic lore. 
 
 Another circumstance that tended to fan the Aame ot 
 excitement was the marvellous size to which the Monday 
 nicrht prayer meeting grew. Previous to Mr. Morison s 
 ordination it had been held in the adjoining session-house ; 
 but immediately afterwards it was found necessary to 
 transfer it to the chapel. Then, as both the preacher s tame 
 and notoriety increased, the desire on the part of the town s 
 
MR. MORISON's MONDAY NIGHT PRAYER-MEETING. 45 
 
 people to see as well as to hear the object of all this interest 
 became so great, that the Monday evening congregation 
 grew as large and crowded as that on the Sabbath day. Yet 
 there were some significant points of contrast between the 
 two assemblies. First, there were the staid church-goers, 
 who would not leave their own place of worship on the 
 Sunday, but who were Avilling to creep to the conventicle 
 there was so much talk about on the Monday. Then there 
 were the sceptics who would not honour a church by conde- 
 scending to enter it on its own peculiar holiday, but who 
 ' would go vdth Athenian curiosity on an ordinary day, as 
 they would repair to a news-room, seeking after " some new 
 thing." And there were the poor also who had no Sunday 
 clothes, but were not ashamed to press in amongst a multi- 
 tude w^ho all wore Monday clothes. Ah ! these Monday 
 night meetings were very dangerous, or very salutary, as 
 tlie case might be ^dewed. For there many IS'icodemuses 
 were so blessed that they returned on Sunday, as well as 
 on Monday, and eventually bade their own churches 
 good-bye. There many sceptics lost their scepticism; for 
 Christianity as rej^resented by this new divine, had been 
 stripped of sundry inconsistencies and contradictions which 
 had been wont to repel them. And the poor to whom " the 
 gospel was preached" became, as they listened, "poor in 
 spirit," "rich in faith, and heii^s of the kingdom;" and ulti- 
 mately foimd that while gi-ace had given them garments for 
 their Father's house on high, godliness gave them garments 
 for their Father's house below. 
 
 Another point of difference in the Monday night meeting 
 was, that Mr. Morison occupied the precentor's desk, and 
 would not ascend to the pulpit. He was imjDortuned by the 
 elders to do so, but with that practical sagacity which has 
 always characterised him, he persistently declined doing so, 
 even although told that some of the people in the gallery, 
 while they could hear his voice, could with difficulty see his 
 face. The reason he alleged was this, that he expected the 
 crowd to abate, and he would rather not have the humilia- 
 tion of descending to the humbler platform from the more 
 elevated and more honourable rostrum. 
 
 Yet for years the crowd kept up. Mr. Morison had begun 
 to lecture on the Gospel according to John, on the Monday 
 night, at the very time when he began to lectiu-e on the 
 Epistle to the Romans, on the Sabbath forenoon. He brought 
 
46 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 the same luminousness of tliouglit, and tlie same wealth of 
 learning to bear on the one exposition as on the other. ^ He 
 had wonderful facility in drawing, by way of practical infer- 
 ence, evangelical lessons from verses and paragraphs in which 
 others would not have dreamt of finding them. 
 
 ^ileanwhile, the whole town and country side were filled 
 with controversy and excitement. Hardly a week passed 
 without some reference being made to the Clerk's Lane 
 pulpit in the local j^ress. Pamphlet after pamphlet was 
 published by those who " were zealous for the law," which, 
 if the object of attack could not find time or inclination to 
 answer himself, some of his chivalrous adherents were not 
 slow to demolish. The printers in Kilmarnock began to 
 have a fine time of it. In the appendix to " the Nature of 
 the Atonement," we find Mr. Morison replying to the Rev. 
 Mr. Graham, a local minister, who had published against 
 him, making up in acrimony what he lacked in argument. 
 He calmly shows his ultroneous assailant that he had com- 
 pletely confounded infinitude of degree with infinitude of 
 duration in his reasoning about the substitutionary sufier- 
 ings of Christ ; but he evidently restrains the lifted lash, 
 and ends his brief critique with a Christ-like prayer for his 
 antagonist's spiritual welfare. 
 
 But while even already there was war without, there were 
 peace and joy within. If man frowned, J esus smiled. If 
 good but narrow ministers reviled him, his unsectarian 
 Saviour blessed him, and owned his labours from day to day. 
 His vestry at the close of a sermon, or on an appointed night 
 for conference, used to be crowded mth anxious inquirers. 
 We conversed with one who is now a minister, lately, who 
 told us that, having gone to speak with him on religious 
 things, he found quite a congregation assembled of the spu'it- 
 ually distressed. Mr. Morison had been detained by some 
 other engagement, and, coming suddenly into the room, gave 
 instructions that "the inquirers from the country should 
 come first into his inner apartment, that they might get 
 earlier home." He resembled a popular physician to whom 
 many patients resorted, with this two-fold difference, that he 
 had himself, as God's instrument, first wounded them that 
 then he might make them alive, and that he possessed the 
 infallible balm of Gilead for them all, so that it was then- 
 own fiiult Af they were not made whole. Moreover, the only 
 fee he asked was, that they would trust in God. We lately 
 
MR. JIORISON QUESTIONED AT THE PRESBYTERY. 47 
 
 heard a friend describing the house at mid-day of a popular 
 Edinburgh physician not long deceased. Not only were 
 all the public rooms filled with anxious patients, but the 
 bed-rooms also. Such was the appearance presented by the 
 manse in Clerk's Lane in these early days, and especially on 
 a Sabbath evening. The public rooms, the bed-rooms, and 
 even the kitchen would be filled by awakened souls. Was 
 ifc not like " Touching the Ark of God," to lay any arrest 
 on such a gracious work? Could the doctrines be dele- 
 terious which produced such results 1 
 
 But already the mutterings of Presbyterial • Avrath began 
 to be heard ; for man proposed to put his ban on what the 
 Lord had blessed. 
 
 We have already noticed that a considerable minority had 
 preferred a rival candidate to Mr Morison, at the time of his 
 election to Clerk's Lane Church. Ever since his ordination 
 these dissentients had been critical, or rather hypercritical, 
 listeners ; and the more prominent members of the Presby- 
 tery had no lack of informants as to all that was said and 
 done within the walls of the old chapel. The malcontents 
 were the richer portion of the congregation ; and the rich are 
 less likely than the poor to embrace anything new and un- 
 fashionable. They could not bear the doctrine that respect- 
 able persons like themselves were unsafe, because perhaps 
 unregenerated, notwithstanding all their church-going and 
 sacrament-observing. Therefore the pencil was often sharp- 
 ened as the young preacher went on with his discourse, 
 because the temper had been sharpened first ; and you might 
 be sure that the startling statement that was noted down on 
 the blank leaf of the Bible, or the back of a letter, or the 
 opened pocket book, would be duly reported on some early 
 day to some one of the preacher's co-presbyters in town or 
 country. 
 
 Thus it rarely happened that there was a Presbytery 
 meeting in Kilmarnock after Mr. Morison's settlement, at 
 which he was not questioned, ay, and cross questioned too, 
 as to what he had been saying in his pulpit. And what 
 must have made these sederunts more disagreeable to him 
 was, that, in accordance with the previous custom of the 
 couii;, they were held in his own vestry. One day he had 
 been from home fulfilling some preaching engagement in the 
 country, and was late in making his appearance. It had been 
 broadly insinuated by some not very charitable speaker that 
 
48 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 he had absented himself because he was afraid to meet his 
 co-presbyters ; but one look of his radiant countenance 
 when he entered, showed that the surmise was baseless. The 
 annoying interrogations ran, on that occasion, on Rom. i. 7, 
 which he had just been expounding a Sabbath or two before 
 to his flock: "To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, 
 called to be saints." "What's this you have been saying, 
 Mr. Morison," began some abrupt questioner, " about 
 ' beloved of God "? " That day, however, according to the 
 account of one who was present, he had fairly the best 
 of it. He explained to his inquisitors, evidently in a 
 style that was quite new to them, the difference between 
 the love of benevolence and the love of complacency — 
 that it was the love of benevolence and compassion 
 that extended to all men ; while the love of complacential 
 delight terminated only on the saints, who were in 
 Christ. Old Mr. Elles, of Saltcoats, who afterwards spoke 
 so strongly against him at his two successive trials, was so 
 much pleased with his answers at this time, that he gene- 
 rously exclaimed with his peculiar hur, that " he would 
 henceforth defend the name of James Morison against all 
 imputations of heresy ; and that for his part he perfectly 
 sympathised with him in his desire to have a free offer of the 
 gospel proclaimed to all mankind." But by the time that 
 another monthly meeting came round, they had heard some- 
 thing else, and forthwith the work of jealous inquiry and 
 catechetical examination went on again. 
 
 Another thing at which the Presbytery professed to be 
 very indignant was this, that whereas Mr. Morison had pro- 
 mised on the day of his ordination to suppress his pamphlet 
 on the question " What must I do to be saved that pam- 
 phlet had not been suppressed, but had been pretty exten- 
 sively circulated in Kilmarnock and in different parts of the 
 country. Now the fact was that Mr. Morison had not cii-- 
 culated the prohibited publication himself ; but other people 
 had done it for him. His promise on his ordination-day had 
 been wrung from him suddenly and unexpectedly. He had 
 then no idea that any other person would propose to publish 
 the tract ; and when, first, Mr. Muir, of Kilmarnock, a pub- 
 lisher in his own congregation, then Mr. David Reid, of Dun- 
 fermline, and thirdly, the Rev. Thomas Aveling, of Kings- 
 land Chapel, London, informed him that they greatly desired, 
 and indeed intended to publish it, he did not consider him- 
 
MR. MORISON AT IRVINE. 
 
 49 
 
 self to be bound by his promise to the Presbyteiy to hinder 
 them from doing so, by visiting them %vith pains and penalties, 
 although he would not have republished the little work 
 himself. But only think of it, Kilmarnock Presbytery ! 
 Here is an English Independent minister of full standing, 
 associated with Angell James, Jay of Bath, and Thomas 
 Binney, at that very time. Well, what you condemn, he 
 approves. What you try to bury, he hastens to raise from 
 the dead. On the package which you have labelled " Poison," 
 he inscribes " The Bread of Life." 
 
 And, in truth, we have never been able to see what fault 
 they had to find with this pamphlet. It was exactly like 
 " James's Anxious Inquii'er " epitomised, only with rather 
 more genius and learning in it than that amiable and 
 eloquent pastor of Birmingham could lay claim to. But 
 surely a hea\y responsibility rests upon those who so 
 hounded and persecuted a servant of Christ about a publica- 
 ' tion which God then so signally honoured, and still honours, 
 as the means of enlightening and saving souls. 
 
 At length the dissatisfaction of the Presbytery grew so 
 gi'eat that they appointed a committee to confer in private 
 with Mr. Morison concerning his alleged errors in doctrine, 
 with the view, if possible, of bringing about a harmonious 
 settlement. The committee met with him twice in Irvine, 
 on the 20th of January and 16th of February, 1841. Un- 
 fortunately they could not agree. We spoke lately to a 
 lady who had seen Mr. Morison when on his w^ay to one of 
 these interviews. He was in high spiiits ; for he fully 
 expected that he would be able to satisfy the scruples of his 
 ministerial bretln-en. Railway communication was not so 
 complete then as it is now ; and the young pastor was walking 
 at a rapid pace along the highway to the solemn conclave — 
 a patient pedestrian — the wide blue cloak which he wore in 
 those days flapping in the wind of winter behind him. As 
 he passed the little octagonal parish church at Dreghorn, he 
 might perhaps remember that the Bev. Mr. M'Leod, 
 although he had received the presentation to it from the 
 Earl of Eglinton in 1830, had not been allowed to enter 
 upon his pastoral duties by the General Assembly, on 
 account of his alleged sympathy with the Bowite Heresy — 
 said Bowite heresy being just Paul's doctrine, that Christ 
 had " given Himself a ransom for all and John's doctrine, 
 " We know that we have passed from death to Kfe." O 
 
 E 
 
50 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 hair-splitting Scotland ! how ridiculous does thy narrowness 
 appear to liberal-minded men ! When he came in sight of 
 Irvine he might remember the learned and pious David 
 Dickson, who had been minister there two hundred years 
 before, and who afterwards became Principal of the Uni- 
 versity of Edinburgh — the author or amender of the beauti- 
 ful hymn, " J erusalem, my happy home," &c. In his days, 
 and under his ministry, a deep revival of religion broke out, 
 which, spreading to Stewarton, was called by the scoffers of 
 the time, " The Stewarton Sickness," and the awakened, 
 " The daft folks of Stewarton." Our young divine might 
 pray as he walked along that the Lord would enable him to 
 guide prudently and successfully the religious excitement 
 which he had been honoured to originate, notwithstanding 
 the opposition of his own professed -servants. Yet he came 
 home at night more disconsolate than when he departed ; 
 for, on his return, he remarked to his pious and like-minded 
 sister, who then kept his house, " I see nothing before me 
 but to go to America !" But the Lord happily saw before 
 him that he was not to go to America, but to remain in 
 Scotland, and be a blessing to us all. The chief reason of 
 his despondency was that his interrogators seemed to be 
 more anxious to stab his character than to sift his creed. 
 They were evidently afraid of him in theological debate, and 
 therefore had resolved apparently to try to undermine his 
 moral influence. The "little mouse " of the tract's republi- 
 cation and distribution by others they had determined to 
 magnify into a mountain of grievous culpability. 
 
 Yet we cannot tell exactly what kind of meetings these 
 were which took place in the quiet old town of Irvine ; for 
 the proceedings being private no notes of ^em were pub- 
 lished. Little did the tranquil burghers know that con- 
 ferences were being held in their midst on these two 
 unchronicled days, which would affect generations yet 
 unborn. It was at these meetings that the libel was j^re- 
 pared against James Morison, in reply .to which he pled, 
 first, before the Presbytery of Kilmarnock, and then before 
 the Synod of Glasgow ; and we must now endeavour to give 
 our readers some account of these excited ecclesiastical 
 assemblies. 
 
MEETING OF PRESBYTERY AT KILMARNOCK. 
 
 51 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 Mr. Morison's Trial before the Presbytery in Kilmarnock on the 2nd 
 of March, 1841— The Scene in the Chapcd described— The Chief 
 Ministers who took part against him — Memorial by the Congre- 
 gation — Memorial by the Minority — Report of the Committee — 
 Mr. ^lorison's Defence — Remarks on his Defence. 
 
 The special meeting of the Presbytery on Mr. Morison's 
 case, which had been fixed for the 2nd of March, 1841, was 
 looked forward to in the town and neighbourhood with 
 much anxious expectation. Rumours had been afloat for 
 months as to the dissatisfaction of his co-presbyters with the 
 teachings of the young minister; and the great bulk of the 
 inhabitants were desirous' to learn from the libel which, it 
 was understood, was to be served upon him, what might be 
 ' tlie amount of the alleged disagi-eement. Within the church 
 and congregation again, the mass of the people were eager 
 to hear what the clergymen of the district had to say against 
 the doctrines which they themselves had so heartily em- 
 braced, and which had brought, under God, so much peace 
 to. their own hearts and consciences, as well as purity to 
 theii' lives. They also wondered how the young David of 
 their affections would comport himself, single-handed, with 
 the sling and stone of the Word against the ecclesiastical 
 liost which would oppose him. They inwardly hoped and 
 prayed that he might not fail or be discouraged ; nor were 
 they disappointed. The small minority, again, who had 
 been opposed to Mr. Morison's settlement at the first, and 
 resolutely clung to the hardest tenets of the Calvinistic 
 creed, were glad because their side of the subject would be 
 argued by competent and influential debaters, who might 
 possibly be able to crush and silence altogether the enthusi- 
 astic champion of what they deemed to be new and startling 
 doctrines. 
 
 Fortunately, or unfortunately, as the case might be viewed, 
 the Presbytery had always been in the habit of meeting in 
 Clerk's Lane Chapel, or in the adjoining premises, so that 
 the very walls which had rung for months witli the fervid 
 proclamation of a Universal Atonement and affiliated doc- 
 trines, were to re-echo the disheartening contradictions of 
 the same. If the pews had been able to spe.ik as the debate 
 
52 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 went on, tliey could have borne witness that divers of theii- 
 occupants had entered into spiritual rest through the teacher 
 and the teachings that were challenged and condemned ; 
 while down many an eye sympathetic tears did trickle, that 
 seemed to say, "if you only knew how oui- souls were blessed 
 here, you would not argue as you do." , 
 
 The church and congi-egation had held a meeting on the 
 Thursday previous, "at which a motion was agreed upon to 
 the Presbytery, expressive of warm attachment to their 
 young pastor, and of their intention to adhere to him, not- 
 withstanding any procedure that might be adopted towards 
 liim by the Presbytery." Such are the words used in the 
 
 Kilmarnock Journal" of that date. 
 
 At length the eventful Tuesday, the 2nd of March, 
 dawned. The day of Mr. Morison's ordination, in the pre- 
 ceding September, had been wet and uncomfortable; but 
 the day of his trial was clear and beautiful. Therefore, the 
 state of the weather offered no hindrance to the hundreds of 
 people who began, in the early part of the forenoon, to stream 
 towards the chapel from town and countiy; so that, week- 
 day as it was, according to the newspaper just named, 
 "before eleven o'clock, the hour of meeting, the church was 
 crowded." This single sentence, however, can give no ade- 
 quate idea of the scene. The church was not only crowded, but 
 crammed and packed in a most remarkable manner. Not 
 only were all the passages filled, but the seats were doubly 
 occupied. Our readers will not be able to understand our 
 meaning till we explain the de^dce that was adopted on the 
 occasion; namely, that besides the row that sat on the seats, 
 another row sat behind them on the book-board of the next 
 pew ! This arrangement, doubtless, as far as having a good 
 view was concerned, favoured one party more than another; 
 but, in fact, the views of divine truth were deemed more 
 important than the view of the divines themselves; and if 
 only the hearing with the ear was satisfied, the seeing with 
 the eye was quite a secondary consideration. One person 
 present, from the neighbourhood of Loudon Hill, has 
 informed us that, "on looking around him it seemed as if 
 all the shoemakers of Darvel had struck work for the day," 
 and had come down to enjoy the theological gladiatorship, 
 and hear about the "shoes of the preparation of the gospel 
 of peace" that were for "every creature." We may even 
 say, with the local poet of the time, whose somewhat 
 
APPEARANCE OF CLERK's LANE CHURCH. 53 
 
 sarcastic miise Mr. Morison's great popularity in Clerk's 
 Lane excited: — 
 
 "Frae Sar'coats and Beith, Da'ry and Kilwinnin', 
 The Burghers in hirsels cam' pechiu' an' rinin' ; 
 Newmills tae and Ga'stoun hue turned oot their scores, 
 And dizens cam' drovin' doun frae Mr. Orr's ; 
 The flock o' the apocalyptic Kilmaurs 
 Wad naether be irichted wi' hrackses nor scaurs ; 
 And women and men frae the Holm and Towuen', 
 Cam' rining' and loupiu' up tae the Clerk's pen." 
 
 But however excited the multitude might be, there was one 
 person who felt calm and tranquil, and that was Mr. Morison 
 himself. He told a favourite young member of his Bible 
 class, the night befor.-, that " his pulse would not beat one 
 stroke the quicker for the whole proceedings." He was per 
 fectly persuaded that he had truth on his side, and that in 
 the stand he had made for that truth he had only done his 
 duty according to the best of his judgment, — and therefore 
 was he prepared to leave the issue with the God of Provi- 
 dence and Grace — of whose grace, indeed, he gloried to declai*e 
 that it " had appeared unto all men." 
 
 TSvo front seats had been left vacant for the Members of 
 Coui-t in the lower area of the church, near the door, and 
 immediately before the pulpit. Indeed, the foremost of these 
 seats was only a folding board that had been put into the 
 passage to economise room, since the chui'ch had become so 
 densely crowded on the Sabbath days. Mr. Morison sat at 
 the head of this seat or form, in immediate proximity to his 
 hostile co-presbyters, who, on taking their places, were at 
 once tightly wedged in by an eager and almost struggling 
 crowd. If it had been a case of physical, rather than argu- 
 mentative, encoimter, the lamb would soon have been rescued 
 from the paws of the lions by his enthusiastic admirei-s. But 
 as the conclave was an ecclesiastical one, such a rescue was 
 out of the question ; and there they were, panel, presbytery, 
 and public, all closely packed together. 
 
 Perhaps this is the proper place for giving our readei*s some 
 idea of the calibre and chai-acter of the men with whom the 
 origLuator of our movement found himself to be thus suddenly 
 involved, when on the threshold of his ministry, in theological 
 warfare. There was but one Doctor of Divinity among them, 
 namely, Dr Schaw, of Ayr. He, however, was a very old 
 man at the time of Mr. Morison's trial, and did not take a 
 
54 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UXIOX. 
 
 leading part in the debate. He died a year or two after- 
 wards. Mr. Campbell, of Irvine, had also nearly run his 
 course. We have always heard hin^ spoken of as a man of 
 considerable literary finish and polish, although not of any 
 extensive learning. His speeches on the occasion were well 
 prepared and scholarly, but had not very gi-eat weight or 
 power. 
 
 The greatest character, undoubtedly, among the senior 
 ministers of the Presbytery, was Mr. Kobertson of Kilmaurs. 
 He enjoyed some little local and denominational fame, from 
 the fact that he had published three expository volumes on 
 the book of Revelation. If he had not in this work dis- 
 played much exegetical acumen, he had, nevertheless, mani- 
 fested considerable historical research ; for he had found no 
 difficulty in showing that seals had been opened, trumpets 
 blown, and vials poured out by the daring deeds of Charle- 
 magne, Barbarossa, and Napoleon the First. It was expected 
 that, being somewhat conversant with letters, Mr. Robertson 
 would have spoken at considerable length on Mr. Morison's 
 case ; but this he did not do. Only one utterance of his is 
 vividly remembered. The worthy man seems to have been 
 impressed with the conviction that Mr. Morison had departed 
 from his ordination vows, in opposing to any extent the 
 doctrines of the Confession of Faith. Therefore did he 
 exclaim, in the course of his brief speech, in the broad Scotch 
 accent which old ministers had not quite abandoned thirty 
 years ago, " I hear that the young man's going to be married 
 soon. Moderator, if he has broken his ordination voo, what 
 guarantee have we that he'll no' break his marriage voo ?" 
 This sally of course provoked only the mirth of the audience, 
 and was not noticed in Mr. Morison's reply. 
 
 Passing by the aged minister of Tarbolton, and Mr. 
 Blackwood of Galston, who have both likew^ise gone to their 
 rest, (as well as Mr. On* of Fenwick, who still lives, much 
 respected,) we would close these preliminary remarks, by 
 observing that the five coryjyhcei of debate in the Presbytery 
 of Kilmarnock were Messrs. Ronald and Elles of Saltcoats ; 
 Mr., afterwards Dr., Meikle of Beith; Mr., afterwards Dr., 
 Bruce of Newmilns; and Mr., afterwards Dr., Thomas of 
 Mauchline. We have named Messrs. Ronald and Elles 
 together, not merely because they were ministers in the 
 same town on the coast, but because they were associated 
 for many years as joint secretaries of the Committee of Sup- 
 
THE LEADING MEMBERS OF PRESBYTERY. 
 
 55 
 
 plj of the Secession Cliiircli. Tliey made out all the plans 
 for licensed preachers, and constituted a potent duumvirate, 
 l^efore which, for many a year, the students of the divinity 
 hall did tremble. We have already mentioned that Mr. 
 Konald, owing to his great admiration for Dr. Brown of 
 Edinburgh, sympathised considerably with the young ac- 
 cused minister. Mr. Elles, on the other hand, was decidedly 
 Calvinistic, and therefore decidedly opposed him, even 
 although, in one Presbytery meeting, as already recorded, 
 a single gleam of sunshine had for a passing moment relieved 
 "the gloom. His opposition was sometimes forcible; but 
 then his force was coarse. Mr. Meikle of Beith has since 
 proved by his published works (especially " The Edenic Dis- 
 pensation"), that he did not lack aptitude for theological 
 investigation; but we rather think that he would himself 
 have confessed that his mind was stimulated to inquiry by 
 this very ecclesiastical discussion into which he was drawn. 
 Mr. Bruce of Newmilns has the credit, from all who ever 
 knew him, of having been, throughout life, if not remarkably 
 original and profound, yet truly pious and sincere. When 
 he spoke, it was always as a Christian man, and apparently 
 as if he recognised his responsibility to God for all that he 
 uttered. We are sorry that we cannot say as much for Mr. 
 Thomas of Mauchline. Perhaps because he was the most 
 willing to engage in the work, the task seemed to have been 
 devolved on him of showing up what appeared to the Pres- 
 bytery to be the accused minister's disingenuousness of con- 
 duct in the matter of the circulation of the tract; and at it 
 he went con amove, and with all the zeal of an unsparing 
 special pleader. He did not lack ability; but he seemed to 
 be unscrupulous in his mode of dealing with an opponent. 
 That our readers may yet more clearly understand the 
 idiosyncrasies of Mr. Morison's chief opponents in the Pres- 
 bytery, we would concisely characterise them as — the half- 
 friendly Mr. Ronald, the bullying Mr. Elles, the thoughtful 
 Mr. Meikle, the godly Mr. Bruce, and the lawyer-like Mr. 
 Thomas. Yet the young co-presbyter at their bar was 
 more than a match for them all in logical power, in learn- 
 ing, and in consuming zeal for the glory of God. 
 
 Such, then, were the men with whom Mr. Morison was 
 sitting in close juxtaposition in that crowded chapel on that 
 March forenoon. We have forgotten, however, the Moder- 
 ator, Mr. Young of Catrine, on whom the duties of President 
 
56 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 had by rotation devolved on the exciting occasion. He took 
 his seat below the pulpit, and in the desk usually occupied 
 by the precentor. He was a junior member of Presbytery, 
 but was in delicate health, and did not survive long. In 
 his heart he secretly favoured the noble champion of the 
 truth, although he was not himself noble enough to take his 
 place by his side. After the excitement of the trial was 
 over, he remarked to a friend, who is now one of our minis- 
 ters, " I never heard a man get such a drubbing as James 
 Morison gave Thomas of Mauchline in his reply." 
 
 But, in our desire to enable our readers fully to appre- 
 ciate the scene, we fear that we almost anticipate. When 
 the Court had been constituted by prayer, and the minutes 
 of the previous meeting read, the Moderator called for the 
 production of any documents that might be forthcoming 
 anent the case. Whereupon the Memorial of the church 
 and congregation was immediately handed in, and was read 
 by the Rev. Mr. E-onald of Saltcoats, the clerk to the Pres- 
 bytery. It was as follows : — 
 
 Unto the Reverend the Moderator and other memhers of the Pres- 
 bytery of Kilmarnock, to meet at Kilmarnock on Tuesday, 
 the 2nd of March, the representation of the Congregation of 
 Clerk's Lane, Kilmarnock, — 
 Eespectfully sheweth, — That it has been matter of sincere regret 
 with your memorialists that they have so frequently been brought 
 into collision with the Presbytery and its measures of late years past; 
 and though they had hoped matters would be placed on a more amica- 
 ble footing, after the settlement among them of their young minister, 
 they are sorry to find themselves again disappointed. In the present 
 proceedings of the Presb)'tery against Mr. Morison, they still find it 
 incumbent on them to express their decided disapprobation, both of 
 the spirit by which these proceedings have been characterised, and of 
 the principles on which they have been conducted. They consider 
 that it was required by the law of Christ, from the several members of 
 Presbytery who thought Mr. Morison in error, that they should have 
 conferred with him personally, and in the spirit of Christian aflfection, 
 on the points in which they conceived him to be erroneous; whereas 
 they have proceeded, in the very first place, to institute public judicial 
 proceedings against him ; and these, too, on the foundation principally 
 of vague rumours, without a complaint being laid from any quarter — 
 the Presbj tery thereby constituting themselves at once Mr. Morison's 
 accusers, inquisitors, and judges. They also think the Presbytery 
 greatly in fault in regard to the principle on which they are proceed- 
 ing. In reference to the points wherein the)'^ allege him to be in error, 
 they bring Mr. .Morison's views and manner of stating divine truth to 
 human compositions, as the standard of orthodoxy, contrary, as your 
 memorialists believe, both to the spirit and the letter of the principles of 
 
MEMORIAL OF THE COKGREGATIOX. 57 
 
 ample of Christ and his apostles require us to refer the determination of 
 all matters of faith and practice entirely to the Bible," — that " explana- 
 tory exhibitions of divine truth, being the productions of men who know 
 but in part, cannot lay claim to perfection ; that they may admit, as 
 articles of the Christian faith, principles which the Scriptures do not 
 sanction ; or they may not give to each the place due to its intrinsic im- 
 portance ; or they may employ an ambiguous phraseology, which renders 
 such exhibitions nugatory," — "that successive generations are bound 
 to judge for themselves in matters of faith and practice, by consulting 
 the Scriptures with humilit)'' and prayer ;" and they condemn the past 
 practice of the Church in allowing "aversion to the labour of investi- 
 gation and reverence for human authority, to lead them to resist all 
 .change, as if no improvement could be made, and to acquiesce in what 
 has been eflfected, as if it comprised all the views of divine truth which 
 the Church should display." Nor have these principles, embodied in 
 the testimony of the Secession Church, and the mode of procedure 
 there recommended, been altogether a dead letter in the church ; on 
 the contrar}', thny have been from time to time practically acted upon. 
 Your memorialists would particularly refer to the line of conduct 
 pursued in reference to the doctrine of the nature of the Church of 
 Christ, viewed as independent of State support and interference, on 
 which occasion the statements of the subordinate standards, as they 
 are called, were at once set aside, and a direct appeal made to the 
 word of God; and because your practice has been so strikingly opposite 
 in the present case, your memorialists would consider themselves fully 
 warranted at once to withdraw themselves from your jurisdiction ; but, 
 as the)^ are averse to anything tending to division in the church, they 
 would rather indulge the hope that you may yet adopt a more scriptural 
 and justifiable course of procedure in regard to their beloved pastor; 
 but, should they in this be disappointed, they, without any hesitation, 
 intimate that it is their fixed determination to abide by the pastor of 
 their choice, with the scripturalness of whose views of divine truth they 
 hereb)' declare themsels es to be quite satisfied, and that no deed of 
 Presbytery, affecting his relation to his brethren, shall have any effect 
 on the congregation, so as to interrupt or suspend their connection 
 with him,1till the whole case be brought before the Supreme Court, 
 and a decision given thereon. Yet they assure the Presbytery that, 
 in whatever position, in relation to the church, they should ultimately 
 be placed, it shall be their endeavour, as a seceding congregation, to 
 exhibit to the world both a doctrinal and a practical testimony for the 
 simplicity of scriptural truth and the purity of divine ordinances. 
 ^Meantime, your memorialists assure you of their earnest prayers, and 
 their confident expectation that your conduct in this matter will be 
 overruled b}' tliie Great Head of the Church, for the advancement of 
 His own cause, and the diffusion of the blessed Gospel of our Lord and 
 Saviour. — They appoint Messrs. Thomas Adam, James Guthrie, Andrew 
 Aitken, Robert Thomson, John Stewart, David Gilchrist, William 
 Busby, William Morton, Samuel Bryden, John Stevenson, Andrew 
 Stewart, John Peden, James Thomson, James Boyd, and James Aird, 
 their Commissioners to the Presbytery, to speak and act for the 
 Congregation as they shall see cause.— Signed in name, and in behalf 
 . of the Congregation. 
 
 William Fleming, Freses. 
 
58 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Our readers, we doubt not, will be ready to admit that 
 this document was skilfully composed. It reflects no small 
 credit on its framer. Especially is that home-thrust perti- 
 nent about the alterations which the Seceders had made 
 themselves on the Confession of Faith in the matter of the 
 civil magistrate. The 23rd chapter of that formulary decrees, 
 concerning the ruler in the realm or province : " yet he hath 
 authority, and it is his duty, to take order, that unity and 
 peace be preserved in the church, that the truth of God be 
 kept pure and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be 
 suppressed, all corruptions and abuses in worship and disci- 
 jDline prevented or reformed, and all the ordinances of God 
 duly sealed, administered, and observed. For the better 
 effecting whereof, he hath power to call synods, to be pre- 
 sent at them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted 
 in them be according to the mind of God." Now the Pres- 
 bytery of Kilmarnock must have felt the force of the argu- 
 ment as used by the Memorialists, that, if their fathers had 
 seen fit to amend, or rather expunge, the paragraphs about 
 this civil magistrate, and to declare that he should have 
 nothing whatever to do with the management of church 
 afiairs, by virtue of his office, much more was it competent 
 for an earnest student of the Bible to remain a true friend 
 to that Seceding church, and yet seek more scriptural teach- 
 ing in its standards on the still more vital doctrine of the 
 atonement of the Saviour. 
 
 Another memorial was then read from the minority of 41 
 members and 9 adherents, who professed to be dissatisfied 
 with Mr. Morison's doctrines. This paper briefly stated that 
 " the memorialists were perplexed by the strange doctrines 
 that were preached by their pastor, Mr. Morison ; that they 
 had not received edification from them ; besought the Pres- 
 bytery to give them relief from their present position; and, 
 in conclusion, hoped that the Lord would guide the deli- 
 berations of the Presbytery in the matter." As we have 
 already stated, these dissentients had preferred another 
 candidate when Mr. Morison was called to the church, so 
 that it is not improbable that they may have been contem- 
 plating his doctrines all along through the jaundiced eye of 
 prejudice. 
 
 The report of the committee, who had met with Mr. 
 Morison at Irvine, on the 20th January and 16th February, 
 was then read. It contained the questions put to Mr. 
 
THE author's hesitation. 
 
 59 
 
 Morison, and liis answers, which had been afterwards com- 
 pressed into a report. 
 
 Mr. Ronald then read this report of the sub-committee 
 appointed to draw up a distinct statement of the particular 
 charoes, to answer which Mr. Morison was called before the 
 Presbytery. We have hesitated a good deal, at this stage 
 of our narrative, as to how we should now proceed. On the 
 one hand, although it makes our own work easier, we feel to 
 seem to burden our pages with such large extracts ; but on 
 the other hand these quotations are intensely interesting, and 
 form moreover the only records of the early proceedings 
 which led to the formation of the Evangelical Union now 
 extant, imperfect as they are. Besides, several friends, whoso 
 judgment we respect and who had come to know on what work 
 we were engaged, have preferred to us the request that the 
 speeches delivered on these exciting occasions should be laid 
 before the new generation that has sprung up since they were 
 delivered, and especially th^ speeches of those who were op- 
 posed to the doctrine of a imiversal atonement ; for there is 
 a desire to know what they had to say on the other side. 
 
 There is another point on which we have been exercised 
 in mind a good deal, namely, as to whether or not we should 
 make any reference to the charge of disingenuous conduct 
 which was brought against our honoured friend as to the 
 circulation of his tract. We hold that it was a disgrace to 
 the Presbytery, in the first place, to seek the suppression of 
 a publication which was full to the brim of real gospel truth, 
 and whose few extravagances and errors, as viewed from 
 their own limitarian standpoint, should have been more than 
 condoned on account of its burning earnestness. Yet more 
 was it their disgrace to make so much of the fact that Mr. 
 Morison's friends in difierent parts of the country ( and not 
 Idmself) republished the tract, a promise to suppress which 
 had been wrung from him on his ordination day. Still, we 
 think it to be our duty, as professed historians of the time, 
 when printing this libel, to print the whole of it, although 
 protesting especially against the latter part, and almost 
 begging Dr. Morison's pardon for our decision to drag it into 
 light. One thing we are sure of, and that is, that if any of 
 his friends should be pained by seeing " disingenuousness " 
 charged against him whom they love and revere so much, 
 that pain will quickly be supplanted by the satisfaction 
 caused by the artlessness and sincerity of his explanation, 
 
60 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 which indeed we could not leave out, not only for this 
 reason, but also because he lays bare his whole heart in 
 it, and beautifully explains to us afresh how it was that 
 he was led from darkness to light — from limitarianism to 
 liberality of theological belief. 
 
 It will also be seen, from, the outburst of timidity before 
 the debate commenced, that the members of court really were 
 afraid of the onset. They would rather not have grappled 
 with their young but formidable antagonist. 
 
 That our readers may yet more fully understand how the 
 debate went on, we would add one other explanatory obser- 
 vation. It will be observed that, before Mr. Morison made 
 his reply, Mr. Ronald is represented as having read over the 
 eight charges again seriatim. This simple statement does 
 not give the reader a correct idea of what occurred. The fact 
 is that — owing surely to some informality or negligence, the 
 like of which we never heard of before in civil or ecclesiastical 
 procedure — Mr, Morison did not know what the several counts 
 of his indictment were till the Clerk of the Presbytery read 
 them out in his hearing ! His indictment never had been 
 served upon him ! No doubt he might have a guess from the 
 cross-questionings to which he had been subjected at Irvine, 
 as to the direction which the accusations would take ; but it 
 is a fact, almost incredible though it may appear, that he 
 heard these eight separate heads of alleged errors for the 
 first time, in the order in which they occur, from the lips of 
 the Clerk of the Presbytery, — so that his reply was quite ex- 
 temporaneous. But both head and heart were so full of the 
 truth that it was comparatively easy for him to pour forth 
 replies out of his abundant stores. This is the reason why 
 he always asked Mr. Ronald, when he had finished his 
 answer to one charge, to read over the next. Thus they 
 were read a second time, not all at once, but seriatim, that 
 is one hy one. Our excellent friend. Professor Taylor of 
 Kendal has informed us that, being present on the occasion, 
 and but a mere youth, this was the first time he ever heard 
 the word seriatim. But he " took a note on't," and never 
 forgot it afterwards. 
 
 'We will now transfer to our pages, without any interrup- 
 tion, the account of the whole remaining proceedings of the 
 forenoon diet, as culled from the " Kilmarnock Journal" and 
 the " United Secession Magazine " — thus making the fullest 
 report extant of the memorable meeting. 
 
THE PKESBYTERY's REPORT. 
 
 61 
 
 Mr. Eoxald's report began with stating that these charges came 
 under two general heads, — that of error taught and still luaintnined hy 
 him, and that of disingenuous conduct as to error taught and still 
 maintained. — First, That the object of saving faith to any person is the 
 statement that Christ made atonement for the sins of that person, as he 
 made atonement for the sins of the woijlJ ; and that the seeing of this 
 statement to be true is saving faith, and gives the assurance of 
 salvation. 
 
 This proposition was objected to, because it was inconsistent with 
 the Secession standards, which described the object of saving faith as 
 including the offer of Christ in the gospel, and saving faith as including 
 the receiving and resting on Christ for salvation. It represented the 
 assurance of salvation as necessaiily arising from seeing the meaning 
 of a text, or the truth of a historical fact, and as what, therefore, could 
 not be lost or shaken in any other way than by a change of opinion 
 respecting the truth o^ that fact ; whereas, the Secession standards 
 asserted that *' infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of 
 faith, but that a true believer may wait long before he partake of it." 
 Because it represented the atonement of Christ, not merely as sufficient 
 for all men, and as a channel through which salvation was offered to 
 every hearer of the gospel, so that if he enjoyed it not he should be 
 condemned for rejecting it, but because it represented the atonement 
 as if it had been fitted to secure the salvation of men irrespective of the 
 electing grace of God. Because, in order to lay a foundation for 
 immediate and permanent assurance to the believer, it taught a doctrine 
 which involved a security for the salvation of all men : — viz., that there 
 is a fact in Scripture which has only to be barely seen to be true, in 
 order to give to any man the assurance of salvation. It was true that 
 Mr. Morison did not say that this proposition involved that doctrine, 
 but this could not alter the nature of the proposition, nor warrant the 
 Presbytery to tolerate its being taught. 
 
 Second, That all men were able of themselves to believe the gospel 
 unto salvation, or, in other words, to put away unbelief, the only 
 obstacle to salvation which the atonement had not removed. This was 
 inconsistent with many parts of the standards, — man not being able by 
 his own strength to convert himself, or prepare himself thereunto. 
 The latter clause of the proposition was objected to on account of its 
 making no allowance for " different degrees of faith," weak and strong, 
 as taught in the Westminster Confession ; and because it tended to 
 keep many who had real faith in God as the hearer of prayer from 
 availing themselves of the privilege of prayer — that their hearts might 
 be brought to a full and cordial belief of the gospel. 
 
 Third, That no person ought to be directed to pray for grace to 
 help him to believe, even though he be an "anxious sinner;" and 
 that no person's prayers could be of any avail till he believed unto 
 salvation ; which believing, according to Mr. orison's views of the 
 atonement, and of the nature of faith, must immediately give tbe 
 knowledge that the person was saved. This was objected to on Ihe 
 same ground as the latter clause of the last proposition. 
 
 Fourth, That repentance in Scripture meant only a change of mind, 
 and was not godly sorrow for sin. (Several references were here made 
 to Scripture.) Though this might appear at first view to be merely a 
 question respecting the meaning of a Greek or Hebrew word — the 
 
62 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 substance of what the standards describe under the name of repentance 
 being allowed to be a necessary point of Christian experience — yet it 
 must be seriously objected to on the following grounds, viz. : — It is 
 not consistent with the use of the word in Scripture ; and while it is 
 very questionable if a single cnse occurs in which the word, as applied 
 to the conduct of man, should not be viewed as including grief of 
 heart, there are many cases in which it cannot be possibly explained 
 otherwise. Again, it tends needl^^ssly and injuriously to bring the 
 language of the subordinate standards into disrespect, and to bring 
 into disrespect also the language of our best theological writers and 
 ministers, and to unsettle and distract the minds of gospel hearers. 
 And further, it is evidently introduced as part of a system that would 
 teach men that they may make great progress in religion, and in solid 
 peac^ and joy, without a single right feeling or exercise of the heart. 
 
 Fifth, That justification is not pardon, but that it is implied in 
 pardon ; that God pardons only in his character of Father, and 
 justifies only in his character of Judge ; that justification is the expres- 
 sion of the fatherly favour of Qod. 
 
 It was true that Mr. Morison, when referred to the Shorter Cate- 
 chism, said he could assent to the expression, that in justification God 
 pardoneth our sins — that God does so substantially. But this does not 
 appear to be enough in opposition to the above language, which is 
 conceived to be open to the two following objections : — First, it seems 
 to imply that justification comes from the justice of God, and not, like 
 pardon, freely by our Heavenly Father's grace; and, secondly, because, 
 for the sake evidently of defending the system of full assurance of sal- 
 vation from the first act of believing the gospel, it is implied that the 
 people of God, under a sense of their need of pardon, even for their 
 greatest sins, cannot be afraid of condemnation, and do not need to 
 pray for being justified; but that, in seeking pardon of their greatest 
 sins, they pray merely for the removal of some kind of Fatherly dis- 
 pleasure, which might be borne without the least fear of their not being 
 safe. This is contrary to the Westminster Confession of Faith, xviii, 4. 
 
 Along with this the. Committee took notice of the assertion in one of 
 Mr. Morison's publications, that sins unconfessed are unpardoned, and 
 that confession is a pre-requisite to pardon ; and when Mr. Moris )n 
 was asked if he did not mean by this to imply that there was no pardon 
 in justification, or, if he meant that confession of sin must go before 
 justilication too, he said, " I presume so ; ' which seerns to imply one 
 or other of these two things — either that sins are confessed before they 
 are committed, or that justification removes only the condemnation 
 due for the sins then past. 
 
 Sixth, That election comes in the order of nature after the atone- 
 ment (explained by Mr. Morison as meaning only that it comes alter 
 the purpose of atonement), and other expressions which militate 
 against the harmony of doctrine respecting the purposes of God, set 
 forth in the standards under the notion of a covenant of grace. For 
 example: "God's })urpose in the atonement was merelr to briuLC it 
 within the power of all to be saved ;" and, "notwithstanding election, 
 it is in the power of those who are not elected to be saved." 
 
 This is objected to, in the firftt place, because, without any attempt 
 to show that it is required by the Scripture, and without any con- 
 ceivable tendency to remove a single difficulty on the subject of elec- 
 
presbytery's report coxtixued. 
 
 63 
 
 tion, it ai-gues a wanton disrespect to the language of our standards; 
 and, h}' representing this harmony as making it clear that election 
 does injustice to none and throws obstacles in the way of none, 
 insinuates that these views of our standards throw such obstacles in 
 the way of believing. SecoJidhj, because it implies that our Saviour, 
 in undertaking to make atonement, was not the representative or 
 substitute of his own people, so as to secure their salvation, and have 
 promised to him a seed to serve him for joy and reward. Thirdly, 
 because it is inconsistent with the idea that the salvation of his chosen 
 l>eople was the grand design of God in purposing the atonement at all. 
 And, Fourthly, his going so far along with those who deny uncondi- 
 tional election, without any other apparent reason, is in danger of 
 being viewed, though contrary to Mr. M orison's intention, as a step 
 towards getting rid of the doctrine of election altogether. 
 
 Seventh, There are in iEr. Morison's publications many expressions 
 unscriptural, unwarrantable, and calculated to depreciate the atone- 
 ment — for example, that it is a "talismanic something ;" "that Jesus 
 could not so suffer the consequences of sin as to liberate us from 
 deserving punishment ;"' and "that the atonement of Christ has not 
 secured the removal of the obstacles to salvation that are within sinnei-s 
 elected unto eternal life." 
 
 Eighth. In consequence of its having been reported that Mr. !Nrorison 
 had spoken in the pulpit in a way whijh led some to believe that he 
 denied the impuration of the guilt of Ailain's first sin to his posterity, 
 he was asked by the committee what were his views on this subject, 
 and it was found that he was not prepared to say that all men by 
 nature are deserving of the punishment of death, temporal, spiritual, 
 and eternal, on account of Adam's first sin; and could not give a 
 definite answer to the question, whether we were guilty in consequence 
 of Adam's first sin, or deserved on its account to suffer punishment, 
 except the words guilt and desert should lie explained. 
 
 Under the second head of the charge — that of disingenuous conduct 
 — the following instances were adduced : — 
 
 First. That, by the advice of friends, he prevented the sale of his 
 pamphlet until his ordination, and limire<l its circulation so as to put 
 it out of the power of members of Presbytery, who applied for it, to 
 procure a copy — no motive being conceivable for the advice by which 
 he had acted, except the idea that, if the pamphlet had been fully 
 ixajiiined by members of Presbytery, it might have prevented his 
 ordinati-n — two rae!ubers only having had a short and accidental 
 ]>erusal of it before his ordination. Se-o tdly, That he had acted 
 inconsistently with the pledge given by him to the Presbytery on the 
 morning of his ordination day, to suppress as far as possible, the 
 circulation of the pamphlet; seeing that, when he learned an edition 
 of the pamphlet was publishing in Dunfermline, and editions of it in 
 Kilmarnock, he expressed no displeasure, nor took any means to sup- 
 press these. When asked for permissi >n to publish an edition in 
 London, he replied that, though he cm Id give no permission, he 
 would not visit any person publishing it with pains and penalties. 
 He lent the pamphlet several times t<» eauilidates for admission to 
 communion, and in various ways showvd that he was by no means 
 opposed to its circulation. Thirdly, Thit on the morning of Mr. 
 Morison's ordination, when the Presbytery had met in the session- 
 
64 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 house, and the congregation were assembling for public worship, the 
 attention of the Presbytery was called to the anonymous pamphlet, of 
 which Mr. Morison was the reputed author; and he acknowledged the 
 fact, and produced a copy of the work; and when' some parts of this 
 production were pointed out as teaching unsound doctrines, Mr. 
 Morison gave such explanations of his sentiments on the subjects 
 referred to, as led the Presbytery to believe that his views, on the 
 whole, were consistent with the Secession standards; and, along with 
 his promise to suppress the farther circulation of the pamphlet, pro- 
 mised also to study modes of expressing his views less liable to be 
 misunderstood — a promise thus softly expressed in the minutes of 
 Presbytery out of regard to Mr. Morison's feelings ; and whereas the 
 Presbytery were thus led to believe that he would not in future teach 
 what had been pointed out in the tract as, in the opinion of the Pres- 
 bytery, inconsistent with his explanations, yet he had not restrained 
 himself from teaching and publishing the very doctrines which had 
 been so pointed out. 
 
 The report was approved of, and ordered to be engrossed on the 
 minutes. 
 
 Mr. Robertson of Kilmaurs considered the first step to be followed 
 now was to ask Mr. Morison his opinion of the report, and ascertain 
 whether he had anything to retract. 
 
 Mr. Morison said he was ready to explain and defend his views. 
 
 Mr. Meikle of Beith — It was not for them to enter into a delibera- 
 tion with Mr. Morison on the matter. If his views were different 
 from theirs, he could memorialise the Synod, who, if they thought 
 proper, might take the subject into consideration ; but the Presbytery 
 could not enter into a debate upon principles which were already 
 settled in terms of their bond of confederation as a Church. . 
 
 Mr. Elles of Saltcoats cordially acquiesced in what had just been 
 said. He was sorry to hear, in the memorial, certain doctrines avowed, 
 which it was inconsistent for any Seceder to advance. Mr. Morison 
 had no right to publish his views as he had done until they obtained 
 the sanction of the Supreme Court. Whether they were or were not 
 scriptural, that was another matter. It was not for them to decide 
 upon that question. Many viewed the same texts of Scripture in a 
 different light, and errors had in all times prevailed. The peculiar 
 opinions of Mr. Morison struck at the fundamental principles of their 
 Church. 
 
 Mr. Ronald — The opinions in question certainly went contrary to 
 the standards of their Church. 
 
 Dr. ScHAW of Ayr — Mr. Morison, it appeared, did not retract any 
 of his doctrines, but was prepared to defend them. The Presbytery 
 did not come there to dispute upon points of doctrine, but to ascertain 
 whether those doctrines were in accordance with the standards of the 
 Secession Church. Any one dissatisfied with the standards could over- 
 ture, in a constitutional mode, by going to the Supreme Court. 
 
 Mr. Campbell of Irvine, and Mr. Blackwood of Galston, spoke to 
 the same effect. 
 
 Mr. Ronald then read over, seriatim, the different charges contained 
 in the report of the sub-committee, to which Mr. Morison replied. 
 
 Mr. Morison said that he preached no doctrines contradictory to the 
 main scope of the subordinate standards of the Secession Church. lie 
 
MR. MORISON's defence. 
 
 65 
 
 had a high veneration for those standards, and he conceived them to 
 erubod}' the grand peculiar Protestant doctrines of grace. With those 
 grand doctrines he (Mr. Morison) had never preached or printed any- 
 thing at variance. In subscribing to the subordinate standards, he 
 conceived himstdf to be solemnly bound to adhere to those grand and 
 cardinal doctrines of all Protestant chui'ches. His subscription secured 
 that he would not teach anything like Pelagianism, or Socinianism, or 
 lioman Catholicism ; but it did not bind him, he conceived, to adhere to 
 ever}' minute tittle and iota within those subordinate standards. On 
 the morning of his ordination, he had explicitly told the Presbytery 
 that he could not and would not preach any other doctrines than those 
 contained in the printed tract, with which such fault had been found. 
 He did pledge himself, indeed, to abstain from the use of certain 
 modes of expression which members of Presbytery had obviously mis- 
 understood; or at least, he had engaged to explain those expressions 
 in a manner that would be less liable to be misapprehended. This 
 pledge he had faithfully fulfilled both from the pulpit and the press. 
 He had been supposed to teach in the tract such doctrines as that of 
 universal pardon, and he presumed that there is now no member of 
 the court that will charge him with such heresies. But whilst he 
 engaged to explain certain modes of expression occurring in the tract, 
 he had by no means pledged himself to retract anj' of the doctrines. 
 On the contrary, he had expressly stated that he could not and would 
 not preach any other doctrines. If, then, any doctrine in that tract 
 be at variance with the subordinate standards of the Secession Church, 
 the Presbytery permitted him to preach it; for they ordained him 
 although he most explicitly told them that he could not and would 
 not preach any other doctrines. He conceived, moreover, that there 
 were not many ministers of the Secession Church who considered 
 themselves bound to hold and preach every minute doctrine, and 
 aspect of doctrine, contained in the subordinate standards. He himself 
 had been taught by his own professor things expressly at variance 
 with those standards. He alluded to the often declared sentiments of 
 at least one of the professors on the doctrine of the eternal generation 
 of the Son of God. The eternal generation of the Son of God is 
 explicitly taught in the Confession of Faith, but he heard it as 
 explicitly contradicted by his venerated instructor. It would appear, 
 then, that that professor did not consider himself to be bound to 
 adhere to every minute doctrine held in the subordinate standards. 
 But if one minister of the Secession Church was to be permitted to 
 hold, and preach, and teach, one doctrine at variance with the 
 standards, would he (Mr. Morison) not be allowed to deviate in other 
 doctrines ? He took no license with the standards which other 
 ministers did not take. He knew of many ministers of the Secession 
 Church who repudiated the doctrine of the eternal generation of the 
 Son of God, and the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit. Such 
 ministers, however, had not thought it necessary to make any public 
 exception in reference to those doctrines when they subscribed the 
 subordinate standards. They obviously did not consider their sub- 
 scriptions as binding them up to every detail in the standards. He 
 (Mr. IMorison) entertained this view of the nature of his adherence 
 to their standards. He conceived himself pledged to maintain the 
 grand Protestant doctrines of grace, and to adhere to the main scope 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 of the standards ; but he could not permit himself to be so positively 
 imprisoned by their haman formularies as not to take his own views 
 of certain doctrines, and his own modes of presenting all of them to 
 the minds of his hearers. As to the first charge — which had respect 
 to the object of saving faith — he conceived that he was teaching thf 
 obvious doctrine of Scripture, when he said that it was the gospel. It 
 is the gospel, and the gospel alone which is the object of saving faith. 
 What then is the gospel ? He would refer them to the Apostle's own 
 definition of it in the beginning of the loth chapter of the first epistle 
 to the Corinthians, " Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the 
 gospel, which also ye have received, and by which also ye are saved." 
 Here then, we may expect to find what the gospel, or the object of 
 saving faith, really is. Accordinglj^ the Apostle proceeds to explain 
 it in the third verse, for I delivered," says he, " unto you first of all 
 that -which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according 
 to the Scriptures," &c. What then is the Apostle's own professed ex- 
 planation of the object of saving faith ? It is this, " Christ died for our 
 sins according to the Scriptures," &c. This is " the gospel " which the 
 Apostle preached "first of all," when he went into the heathen Corinth, 
 and stood up in the midst of heathen Corinthians. This was "the gospel" 
 which he preached unto them before they became believers, for it was 
 the belief of it that constituted them believers, and it was " by it that 
 they were saved." The Apostle, then, told the unbelieving Corinthians 
 " first of all," after he went into their citj', that the thing which they 
 were to believe was " the gospel," or, in other words, that " Christ 
 died for our sins according to the Scriptures." Now, let it it be par- 
 ticularly marked that this was what he preached to them before they 
 believed ; for it is expressly said that it was this gospel " which they 
 received, and by which they were saved." The word "our," in the 
 passage referred to, cannot be confined, then, to believers ; it must 
 refer to those Corinthians who heard the Apostle when he "first of 
 all " came into their city and preached to them. It would never have 
 been " the gospel " which the Apostle preached, had he stood up in 
 the midst of the Corinthians and proclaimed, " Christ died for your 
 sins, 0 believing Corinthians!" The gospel is good news to "every 
 creature." But such a supposed gospel would be good news only to 
 believers. He (Mr. Morison) could not be considered to be preaching 
 " the gospel" were he to stand up in the midst of his people and say, 
 " Christ died for your sins, 0 believers ! " No. The Apostle, then, 
 preached to the unbelieving Corinthians, and " first of all," too, 
 this gospel — " Christ died for our sins (that is, for your sins, (3 
 unbelieving Corinthians, and for mine), according to the Scriptures." 
 Here, then, we have the Apostle's own definition of "the gospel," or 
 the object of saving faith. It is this, " Christ died for my sins according 
 to the Scriptures." He (Mr. IMorison) could find no other gospel to 
 bring peace to his own soul. In anomer place, the Apostle, defining 
 the object of saving faith, says — " It is a faithful saying, and worthy 
 of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save 
 sinners, even the chief," It is not said that Jesus Christ came into the 
 world to save some sinners. No. Wherever a sinner was found, there 
 we found a man to save whom Jesus Christ came into the world ; the 
 faithful saying," then, or the object of saving faith, which every man 
 is to believe,* is this, ** Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, 
 
MR. MORISON ON FAITH. 
 
 67 
 
 and therefore me." Again, the Apostle most accurately describes the 
 ohject of saWng faith in the close of the 5th chajiter of the second 
 epistle to the Corinthians. He there, as an •* ambassador for Christ," 
 beseeches sinners thus, "be yc reconciled unto God;" and the argu- 
 ment which he uses with these unreconciled sinners is this, " for God 
 hath made him to be sin for i« who knew no sin, that ice might be matle 
 the righteousness of God in him." — When the Apostle says that he 
 " prayed men in Christ's stead, be yc reconciled unto God," he cannot 
 be understood to mean the believing Corinthians. They were already 
 reconciled unto God, and did not require to be besought to he recon- 
 ciled. It is unbelieving, unreconciled, impenitent men whom he thus 
 beseeches, and it is with them that he uses the argument of the next 
 verse, and it is to them that he says * ' God made Christ to be sin for 
 us (that is, for you, unreconciled sinners, and for me,) who knew no 
 sin, that we (that is, you unreconciled sinners, and I,) may be made 
 the righteousness of God in him." The saving truth, then, to be be- 
 lieved by unreconciled sinners is this, "God made Christ to be sin for 
 us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." This is 
 the object of siiving faith — this, and nothing but this, is *' the gospel." 
 He (Mr. Morison) might have proceeded to adduce numerous other 
 passages, in which the object of saving faith is described by the in- 
 spired writers. All of these passages united lend their evidence to the 
 truth of the opinion, that the thing which every sinner is to believe is 
 this, " Jesus Christ is a propitiation for my sins, seeing he is a propi- 
 tiation for the sins of the whole world." If it thus be so evident that 
 this is the object of saving faith, surely this reverend court would not 
 admit that their standards are at variance with the apostolic " truth as 
 it is in Jestis." 
 
 Here Mr. Thomas objected to the manner in which Mr. Morison 
 argued, which interference called disapprobation from the audience. 
 
 Mr. MoRisox resumed and said, in reference to the second charge 
 [this means the second part of the first charge], that John the Baptist 
 had given a most valuable definition of saving faith, — It is a "setting 
 to one's seal that God is true," This is faith; and nothing else but 
 this is faith; and there cannot be any other kind of faith. Faith has 
 always, when accurately employed, a reference to some testimony. 
 Faith is the reception, or crediting, of a testimony; it is " setting to 
 one's seal that the testimony is true." Saving faith is the assent of 
 the mind to the gospel-testimony, or "record which God has given 
 concerning his Son." This record or testimony, as we are explicitly 
 told in the 5th chapter of the first epistle of * John, is this, — " God 
 hath given us (that is, us mankind sinners) eternal life, and this life 
 is in his Son."' He that believes this to be true is abeliever, and is pos- 
 sessed of saving faith; he that does not believe it to be true "makes 
 God a liar." If unbelief be "making God a liar," faith must simply 
 be admitting that what God says in reference to his Son is true. What 
 God says in reference to his Son is this, "he has made a gift to each 
 mankiud-sinner of eternal life in him." The simple belief of this as 
 true (because the God of truth says it) is saving faith. It is abundantly 
 clear that all the virtue of faith lies in its object, and not in its act. 
 The Scriptures never mention a variety of faiths, as if there was a pos- 
 sibility of believing the right thing in'several wrong ways. The writers 
 of the Scriptures invariably take for granted that all men know well 
 
68 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVAXGELICAL UNION. 
 
 enough how to believe, just as well as men know well enough how to 
 see or how to hear; and they are careful to make evident only what is 
 to be believed, — "the saving truth as it is in Jesiis." They seein 
 never to have dreamed that men would find a difficulty in performing 
 the act of believing in the right manner. As the Scriptures are silent 
 in reference to any variety of faith, so also are the subordinate stand- 
 ards. He (Mr. Morison) knew of no passage in their standards where 
 it is intimated that the real gospel can be believed in a number of dif- 
 ferent ways. He assented most unqualifiedly to the definition of saving 
 faith which is given in the Shorter Catechism. There is another and 
 a still clearer definition of saving faith to which he assented, and 
 which had long been assented to by the United Associate Presbytery. 
 He referred to the definition of it that is given in the "Marrow of 
 Modem Divinity," and which was elaborately defended by the Asso- 
 ciate Presbytery in a special act issued in 1742. That definition is the 
 following : — " As Paul and Silas said to the jailor, so say I unto you, 
 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved ; that is, be 
 verily persuaded in your heart that Jesus Christ is yours ; and that 
 you shall have life and salvation by him ; and that whatsoever he did 
 for the redemption of mankind he did it for you." Here we have it 
 explicitly explained what it is to " believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 It is to be " verily persuaded that Christ is ours ; and that we shall 
 have life and salvation by him ; and that whatsoever he did for the 
 redemption of mankind he did it for us." In reference to the second 
 charge, Mr. Morison stated that he could not maintain man's responsi- 
 bility if he did not firmly believe that he is able to do all that God 
 commands him to do. The sinner's natural and perfect ability to believe 
 on the Lord -Jesus Christ must be admitted by all who maintain that 
 the sinner is blameable for his unbelief. He (Mr. Morison) conceived 
 that man's ability to do his whole duty is explicitly asserted in the 
 Holy Scriptures. God tells us that we are to "love him with all our 
 heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength.'' 
 None are required to love God in the smallest degree above their 
 "strength" or power. If, then, it is easier to believe that God tells 
 no lie about Christ, than it is to "love Gnd with all our heart," and if 
 we have sufiicient "strength" to love God to this degree, it must 
 certainly be admitted that we have abundant " strength " or power 
 to believe. If any man can say at the last day, as a plea for his 
 unbelief, " I could not help it — I did all I possibly could," that 
 man's conscience would ac(juit him, and it would not be in anv 
 being's power to make him feel remorse. This doctrine of man s 
 perfect ability to believe is not peculiar to him (Mr. Morison), 
 and was the doctrine taught by Jonathan Edwards and John 
 Howe. He (Mr. Morison) had explicitly defended this doctrine in au 
 <-ssay he read to the Presbytery on the day of his trials for ordination. 
 He then said, "man still maintains, and must, to render him account- 
 able, for ever possess power or natural ability to do his duty — this 
 natural ability consisting in those mental and moral faculties which 
 render him a moral agent and a responsible being; whilst, on the other 
 hand, all his moral inability consists in want of will, or inveterate 
 disinclination." Moral inability is accordingly explained in this man- 
 ner by Jonathan Edwards and John Howe, and by Truman in his work 
 on ** Natural and Moral Impotency." Moral inability is but a learned 
 
MR. MORISON ON PRAYER. 
 
 69 
 
 and technical phrase for a very simple thing — determined indisposition 
 ot heart. It means this, an^d can mean nothing more. Were any to 
 allege that it is expressly asserted in Scripture, that **no man can 
 come unto the Son except the Father draw him," he (Mr. Morison) 
 would reply that the word " can " is used in two senses. It describes 
 sometimes a want of power, and sometimes a mere want of will, when 
 perfect power is possessed. It is used in this latter acceptation in such 
 passages as these — "Joseph's brethren could not speak peaceably to 
 him;" " how caw I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" 
 
 having eyes full of adultery, they cannot cease from sin;" *' how can 
 two walk together except they be agreed?" ** trouble me not, the door 
 is shut, and my children are with me in bed, I cannot rise and give 
 thee." When it is said, therefore, "no man can come unto the Son 
 except the Father draw him," we are to understand the word "can" 
 as explained in the light of another saying of our Lord, "ye will not 
 come unto me that ye may have life." He (Mr. Morison) admitted 
 that it was to the Holy Spirit that the conversion of every believer was 
 to be ascribed. He held most tenaciously that * ' faith is the gift of 
 God," and that neither faith nor any other grace ever existed in any 
 man except as the fruit of the Spirit's operation; but still he never 
 could hold that the Spirit imparted power to believe. The Spirit does 
 not enable, he "opens the heart" of the sinner — or disposes him to 
 " attend to the truth as it is in Jesus; " and as soon as the meaning of 
 that truth thus attended to is apprehended and its evidence appreciated, 
 the sinner becomes a believer. — In reference to the third charge, Mr. 
 ]\Iorison held that unbelieving prayers could never be acceptable to God. 
 He could rest the whole proof of this opinion upon that maxim of the 
 Apostle, " without faith it is impossible to please God." Until, then, 
 a man has faith, or, in other words, be a believer, he cannot please 
 God by his prayers, or by any other thing he does. The first duty of 
 a sinner is to believe the saving "truth as it is in Jesus." This 
 doctrine was by no means opposed to the subordinate standards. 
 Prayer is defined in the Shorter Catechism to be the ' ' offering up of 
 our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will, in the name of 
 Christ." Prayer, to be of any avail, must be offered up "in the name 
 of Christ" — that is, by a person "believing in the name of Christ." 
 The Apostle, in the 10th chapter of the epistle to the Romans, 
 explicitly says, "how shall they call upon him in whom they have 
 not believed ?" It must not be right, then, to direct a sinner, truly 
 anxious, to pray. He should be directed to " Believe on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ," for until he be a believer, his prayers must be "an 
 abomination unto God." "The prayer of the wicked is an abomina- 
 tion unto God ;" and until a man become a believer he is a high-handed 
 rebel — a wicked — a "desperately wicked," man. If the anxious 
 sinner be directed not to believe immediately, but to pray for grace 
 to help him to believe — this direction takes for gi-anted that he 
 is not bound to believe immediately, because he has not power. 
 The sinner, however, has power, and is bound to believe, for 
 present unbelief is present sin, and present faith is present duty, — 
 As to the fourth charge, Mr, Morison said, repentance, when viewed 
 in reference to sin, brings after it, as a necessary consequence, change 
 of feeling and change of conduct, which constitute repentance itself. 
 When John the Baptist called upon his hearers to repent, he meant 
 
70 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 that they should "change their minds in reference to the expected 
 Messiah, and the nature of his kingdom. They had wrong views of 
 these matters — they were all wrong in their ideas — and the Baptist 
 calls on them to change their minds. — In reference to the fifth charge, 
 Mr. Morison stated that justification must evidently be substantially 
 the same thing with pardon ; whilst it must as evidently be the same 
 thing viewed in a different aspect ; that justification and pardon are 
 not precisely synonymous terms is obvious from the fact that a sinner 
 can be justified only once, whereas his sins are often pardoned. — In 
 reference to the sixth charge, Mr. Morison stated that he maintained 
 eternal, personal, unconditional election. The only point of difference 
 between him and the Presbytery was the position which, according to 
 the order of nature, election should hold in the purposes of God. He 
 did, indeed, maintain that the purpose of election comes after the 
 purpose of atonement in the order of nature. This is no novel opinion 
 of his, as has been asserted. It must surely be known to his learned 
 fathers and brethren in the Presbytery, that the position of election 
 in the divine purposes has been a question agitated by divines for many 
 hundreds of years. Many most eminent divines accord Avith him (Mr. 
 Morison) on this subject. — In reference to the seventh charge, Mr. 
 Morison said that it appeared impossible that any sinner could ever be 
 liberated from deserving punishment. He admitted that all believing 
 sinners would be freed from the endurance of punishment, but he 
 held that none could ever cease to deserve it. The late liowland Hill 
 said that he thought he would enter heaven uttering the publican's 
 prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner." He, though a very 
 good man, felt that he was a sinner still, and that he never would 
 or could deserve anything but wrath. There are surely few saints 
 who do not daily pray, "deal not with us according to our de- 
 servings." He (Mr. Morison) felt truly astonished that it should be 
 objected to him that he taught that Christ could not so suffer for any 
 man as that that man should not deserve to be punished everlastingly 
 himself. 
 
 In reference to the charge of disingenuous conduct, Mr. Morison 
 spoke as follows : — He was anxious to give to the Presbytery a plain 
 unvarnished account of his whole procedure in reference to the publica- 
 tion and circulation of the tract. For many years he had laboured 
 under total darkness as to the way of salvation. By patient research 
 and study he at last found out a truth in the Bible, which had the 
 effect of introducing him all at once into a new world. It changed all 
 his views, all his feelings, all his desires, all his conduct. This gracious 
 and glorious truth which he had discovered in the Bible was nothing 
 else than 'the love of God to him in particular, in giving his own dear 
 Son to die for him. This Bible truth he saw clearly stated in many 
 portions of Scripture, and having seen it, and wondering that he had 
 never seen it before, he burned with intense desire to make it known 
 to others, that they also might receive the same unspeakable peace and 
 joy which it had imparted to his own soul. Animated by this desire, 
 he began to preach it everywhere, and he had no sooner begun to 
 preach it than he saw sinners finding peace in believing it, andderi»?ing 
 from it a motive to live entirely to' God. He continued to teach it in 
 private, and to preach it in public, wherever he went, and he spared no 
 pains to make it known, and to press it upon all to whom he had access. 
 
THE CHARGE OF DISINGEXUOUSNESS. 
 
 71 
 
 He continued meanwhile to prosecute his own researches into its evid- 
 ence, and he found new passages in suppoi't of it, and he saw many 
 other doctrines casting a side light upon it. He began also to discover 
 that it was a doctrine which had been found out by many godly men 
 in all ages. He examined ecclesiastical history, and the writings of 
 the Greek and Latin fathers, and he discovered that the theory of 
 limited atonement, viz., that Christ died for none but the elect, was 
 almost never, if ever, heard of for the first five centuries of the Chris- 
 tian era. This, and many other circumstances, all went to confirm his 
 con"victions that it must be the saving truth of the gospel which he had 
 at length found out, and which had t)rought so much joy, and peace, 
 and love, into his own heart. In going from place to place as a pro- 
 bationer, he found few, very few, who had the same views of the gospel ; 
 and as many persons gladly received his doctrine, he was induced, by 
 repeated solicitations to write out his views in the shape of a tract, which 
 they might have permanently beside them. These were the circum- 
 stances in which the writing of the tract originated. After it was 
 written and printed, it was suggested to him by his friends, that the 
 shape which he had given to his views of the gospel might excite tlie 
 ]Tejudice3 of his brethren in the Presbytery of Kilmarnock, provided 
 they saw the tract before they became personally acquainted with him. 
 He was advised to keep it out of the booksellers' shops, at least till 
 after his ordination. He yielded to this advice, although it was quite 
 opposed to his own inclination. He fondly hoped that, when his fathers 
 and brethren knew him personall)', and saw that he was sincere, — he 
 fondly hoped that they would give a candid and favourable perusal to 
 i lis treatise. The views were so clear to himself, and so delightful, 
 that he imagined, in his simplicity, that he would easily persuade all 
 others to embrace them. In this he was greatly disappointed. Before 
 the day of his ordination, two members of Presbytery had seen the tract, 
 and on the morning of that day they objected to it. and seemed dis- 
 posed even to sist procedure until the obnoxious tenets maintained 
 were retracted. He then stated expressly that he had no other views 
 of divine truth on which to rest his own soul, and that he could not, 
 and would not preach any other doctrines. They seemed then per- 
 suaded from the explanations given of the doctrines of the tract, that it 
 must be the phraseology that was principally at fault. When the 
 Presbytery insisted on its suppression, he yielded, never dreaming that 
 any person would think it of so much consequence as to desire its 
 republication. He soon found, however, that there were several 
 individuals purposing to republish it. When he heard of this purpose, 
 liis mind was thrown into great perplexity. He did not see clearly 
 whether or not it was his duty to take measures to prevent others 
 using this liberty with his publication. It occurred to him on the 
 one hand, that if he did not use measures to this efi'ect, his non-inter- 
 ference might be construed into a tacit consent. It occurred on the 
 other hand, that, when he took his pledge, he never contemplated the 
 tract's republication by others, and that therefore he had, strictly speak- 
 ing, only bound himself not to take any active measures to get it into 
 circulation. He reflected, moreover, that he had told the Presbytery 
 that he could not, and would not, preach any other doctrines. He 
 could not but rejoice at the propagation of the views, and yet he was 
 afraid that, if he did not interfere, he would be regarded as violating his 
 
72 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 pledge. He at last came to the conclusion that he was keeping the 
 strict letter of his pledge, although he did not hinder others from cir- 
 culating his tract. When he came to this conclusion, he told his 
 respected brother in London that he would not prosecute an 5' publisher 
 of this tract by civil pains and penalties. Whilst he did all this 
 conscientiously, he had now to say that he regretted that he did not 
 take decided measures to put a stop to its circulation. He admitted 
 that he lent copies to several candidates for communion, but he only 
 lent them ; and in every case he told them to return them to him. 
 He told them this, to secure that the copies lent might not get into 
 circulation through his agency. He did not feel his conscience 
 aggrieved by doing this, as the doctrines of the tract were the doctrines 
 he was preaching every day from the pulpit, in accordance with what 
 he had expressly told the Presbytery, that he could not, and would not, 
 preach any other views. 
 
 Our readers will observe that the report of Mr. Morison's 
 address is very incomplete, especially towards the close of 
 his doctrinal remarks. He must have spoken for several 
 houi'S, as the diet of the Presb}i;ery began at 11 a.m., and 
 closed at 5 p.m., when an interval occurred between the 
 forenoon and the evening sederunt. And as his address had 
 occupied the gi-eater part of the time, it is plain that only a 
 very meagre outline of it has been preserved. In these cir- 
 cumstances, we cannot continue our narrative till we have 
 interpolated a few words of defence and explanation of his 
 several positions, rendered necessary by this very apparent 
 deficiency. 
 
 Let it be borne in mind that the great desire of this 
 ardent evangelist, at the time referred to, was to present 
 every human being he met with a waiting Saviour and im- 
 mediate salvation. And what reader of the New Testament, 
 who candidly contemplates the Lord Jesus Christ weeping 
 over devoted Jerusalem, can deny that, in this zeal which 
 consumed him, the founder of our denomination occupied 
 scriptural ground, and had only caught a flame of earnest- 
 ness from the burning heart of God ? Now, let all these 
 eight charges of doctrinal error, which the Kilmarnock Pres- 
 bytery brought against him, be only viewed in the light of 
 this one assumption — that it is both the 2^vilege and duty 
 of every sinner to he immediately saved hy Christ, and the 
 glory of heaven's own truth will shine u2:>on them, and gild 
 them with a divine radiance, changing that which may have 
 seemed to have been heresy into the clearest orthodoxy, and 
 illuminating that on which some men frown with the smile 
 and the approbation of God. 
 
THE PRESBYTERY IX DIFFICULTY. 
 
 73 
 
 On the first two charges, namely, those touching the 
 Atonement and human Ability, we do not need to make a 
 single apologetic remark, because Mr. Morison's own defence 
 even as given in an abridged newspaper report, is .truly clear 
 and convincing, in its scriptural simplicity. We have, 
 indeed, called the first charge the Atonement charge ; and 
 yet it will be observed that the word " Faith " occupies in 
 it the principal place. And hereby hangs a tale. The fact 
 of the matter is (as appeared afterwards in the Synod debate), 
 that the committee who drew up the libel hesitated to charge 
 Mr. Morison openly, and in so many words, with error on 
 the extent of the atonement, because they could not agi'ee 
 among themselves upon the matter ; and also because they 
 knew, besides, that a diversity of opinion was springing up 
 among the leading men of the denomination on the subject, 
 — some, with Dr. John Brown of Edinbm-gh, declaring for 
 a universal reference of the atonement ; while others, like 
 Dr. Hay of Kinross, preferred to confine the reference of the 
 death of Christ wholly to the elect. All these pulses of 
 influence had ah-eady been felt beating, by means of private 
 correspondence ; and it was the young Luther of Kilmarnock 
 who had aroused the whole agitation, and given all this 
 impulse to thought. Now, Mr. Ronald of Saltcoats, and one 
 or two others, approved of Dr. Brown's liberal view ; but 
 the majority of the Presbytery were decidedly and wholly 
 limitarian. But, by a wily resort worthy of lawyers, they 
 tried to preserve both the appearance and reality of peace 
 among themselves, by leaving out all reference to the atone- 
 ment qvA atonement, and by bringing it in, by a kind of 
 side wind, as the object of faith ! For they felt pretty sure 
 that, even although the " extent of the atonement " was the 
 head and front, of the young preacher's ofiending, he had yet 
 committed himself to so much error, as they conceived, on 
 affiliated and subordinate points, that they would succeed in 
 proving him heterodox on these without breaking ground at 
 all, or at any rate not very deep ground, on the dangerous 
 dogma. This ruse, however, was completely exposed by the 
 honesty of Dr. Marshall of Kirkintilloch, when the case 
 reached the Synod, in June following, as shall afterwards 
 appear. But this is the reason why, if the reader looks back 
 to the libel, he \vill see that, in the first and principal charge, 
 no prominent mention is made of the atonement, while, in 
 reality, three things are compressed into one sentence 
 
74 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 — the object, the nature, and the consequence of saving- 
 faith. 
 
 Yet, when Mr. Morison rose to make his earnest extem- 
 poraneous defence, he took no notice of this little piece of 
 ecclesiastical subtiltj, but immediately proceeded to prove 
 from the blessed Word of God itself, that the object of faith 
 to every man was this — that J esus died for him in particular 
 upon the tree. And did he not prove it convincingly 1 we 
 ask, confident of an affirmative reply. Had Christ not 
 " tasted death for every man " 1 Was He not " a pro- 
 pitiation for the sins of the whole world "1 Was not the 
 pastor of Clerk's Lane Church, in his earnest ministry, as 
 fully warranted to say to all the people who might crowd 
 around him in the streets of Kilmarnock, Ayr, or Irvine, 
 " Clii'ist died for our sins," as Paul had been warranted to 
 use such words in the streets of Corinth ? 
 
 On the nature of faith, too, his arguments were equally 
 convincing. To believe in God, was to take him at his word 
 — " to receive his witness." We are aware that divines have 
 differed in opinion on this point, — some maintaining that in 
 saving faith there is the consent of the heart, as well as the 
 assent of the understanding ; while others, like Mr. Morison, 
 would make the trust of the heart rather the effect of faith 
 than its essential element. Dr. Candlish stated in the Free 
 Assembly, before his death, that Dr. Chalmers and he dif- 
 fered on this very point, and yet they never thought of 
 separating upon it. Evidently, if the same spirit of liber- 
 ality had prevailed in the Kilmarnock Secession Presbytery, 
 in March, 1841, the second head of the first charge would 
 not have been inserted in this libel. 
 
 As to the second charge, Mr Morison and his followers 
 have always maintained that it is impossible for any human 
 being to believe either God or man literally and in toto of 
 himself He must be supplied with testimony, and that, too, 
 fully substantiated, or he cannot believe. Still more, on 
 account of the repugnance of the heart of man to divine 
 things, there must be the inscrutable suasive influence of the 
 Holy Spirit, — which, however, they have gloried to declare, 
 at least ever since the Evangelical Union was fully launched, 
 to be world-wide in its extent and resistible in its nature. 
 But on the question of man's natural ability to do all that 
 God has commanded him to do, it will be observed that Mr. 
 Morison very properly took a high and fearless position. 
 
REMARKS ON MR. MORISON's DEFENCE. 75 
 
 He boldly assei-tecl that God would not be God — that is, 
 would not be all-perfect, because unjust — if the bounds of 
 human responsibility exceeded the bounds of human ability. 
 We were interested to notice, the other day, in consulting 
 the reply given by Dr. Reid, of Glasgow University, to 
 David Hume, on the Freedom of the Will, in the close of 
 last century, that the professor of Moral Philosophy takes 
 the same ground as the young Ayrshire theologian. Reid 
 broadly assei-ts that, even although a man should cut off his 
 own fingei^, or put out his own eyes, he might and would be 
 blameworthy for the act of self-mutilation ; but that no man, 
 and not even the Deity, could hold him responsible for using 
 his eyes when he had none, or using his fingers when he had 
 none. How completely does such an illustrative argument 
 (coming home, as it does, with irresistible demonstration, to 
 the conscience and the heart) sweep away, as with a besom 
 of annihilation, the miserable sophistries which sundry 
 divines have endeavoured to palm upon a credulous church 
 about man's being culpable for his inability to obey and 
 believe God, although he lost the power by no fault of his 
 own, but by an act of Adam six thousand years ago ! 
 
 Possibly a few truly jdIous and godly people may imagine 
 that they detect something dangerous and heterodox in the 
 third charge, namely, that the anxious sinner should not be 
 directed to pray for gi-ace to help him to believe the Gospel ; 
 but here we would remind them of Mr. Morison's grand 
 central position, that it was the duty and privilege of every 
 man, in this day of grace, to be saved immediately. Let 
 them consider all his statements on this point in the light of 
 that truth. He knew very well that scores of ministers 
 were in the habit of saying to their hearers, " You cannot 
 believe the Gospel ; but go home and pray to God for grace 
 to help you to believe." Now, Mr. Morison held that this 
 was a misdirection, and a grand practical mistake. To give 
 such an advice was not to point men to the cross, but to send 
 them away from the cross. God was beseeching them to be 
 reconciled, — why should they beseech God % God was wait- 
 ing on them, — why should they wait on him'? God was 
 knocking at the door of their hearts, — why should they 
 keep knocking at his door, as if he were unwilling to help 
 them % Let them believe fii^st, and then their prayers would 
 be those of the accepted child. While they tarried the 
 Bi-idegroom might come, and they would be "too late." If 
 
76 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Mr. Morison erred on this point, he erred in good company. 
 We have heard the late Dr. Wardlaw come to the same con- 
 clusion at the close of a cautiously- worded discourse. And 
 James of Birmino:ham has words to much the- same effect in 
 his Anxious Inquirer. 
 
 Let the fourth charge, on Repentance, be studied in the 
 light of the same consuming earnestness. Mr. Morison knew 
 that many seeking souls were kept in darkness and distress 
 from the fear that their sorrow for sin was not deep enough. 
 Fully persuaded that if such inquirers would only " Behold 
 the Lamb," they " would mourn and be in bitterness," — 
 their tears of contrition, however, intermingled with the 
 smiles of grace, — he called attention to the fact that the 
 Greek word rendered " repentance," in the New Testament 
 meant chaiuje of mind; whereas that which. meant sorrow 
 for sin, as in the case of Judas, was quite a different word. 
 And, without doubt, Mr. Morison was right and the Kil- 
 marnock Presbytery were wrong. Let any reader only con- 
 sult the best critics on the text of the New Testament, and 
 he will find the truth stated on this point in much the same 
 way as the founder of our denomination stated it. And it 
 is quite undeniable that, w^hile Arminian and. Wesleyan 
 theologians have generally taken the ground of the Kilmar- 
 nock Presbytery, a great host of respectable, orthodox, Cal- 
 vinistic divines are on Mr. Morison's side. But surely the 
 Presbytery were making a man literally " an offender for a 
 word," when they sought to convict him of being a heretic 
 on so minute and subordinate a point as this. 
 
 The fifth charge seems to be still more insignificant, and 
 therefore we pass it by in silence. As to the sixth topic — 
 namely. Election — we have already indicated that Mr. 
 Morison, at the time of his trial, was not wholly emanci- 
 pated from the Calvinistic fetters. Still, some of his expres- 
 sions did not satisfy the Presbytery. And what is the 
 sample of the objectionable utterances which the libel con- 
 tains % Tell it not in Glasgow ; publish it not in the streets 
 of Edinburgh, lest the hosts of infidels should triumph — 
 "That, notwithstanding election, it is in the power of the non- 
 elect to be saved ! " Did these ministers really put that down 
 as an error to be condemned 1 They actually did. How, 
 then, on their principles, can there be a judgment-seat, and 
 a left hand of the judge 1 How can the non-elect be con- 
 demned for rejecting salvation if it ivas not in their power to 
 
THE IMPUTATION OF ADAMS SIN. 
 
 77 
 
 he saved ? Once more it is plain that the truth of God was 
 on the side of the accused, and not on that of his accusei^s. 
 
 "We have ah-eady shown that when the expression " a 
 talismanic something," as applied to the work of Clu'ist, is 
 read in the connection in which it occurs in Mr. Morison's 
 " Nature of the Atonement," instead of appearing irreverent, 
 it is very forcible and powerful indeed. — As to the imputa- 
 tion of Adam's sin to his posterity (for the Presbytery ended 
 at the origin of evil, where they should have begun), we feel 
 pereuaded that any candid and reasonable man will side once 
 more with the stripling rather than with his seniors. Only 
 listen. It was seriously charged against Mr. Morison that 
 he was not prepared to say that all men by nature are 
 deseiwing of death, temporal, spii'itual, and eternal, on 
 account of Adam's first sin, or that they are guilty of Adam's 
 sin, and therefore deserving of punishment, till the terms 
 guilt and desert are explained." And who would be pre- 
 pared, in this year of grace, to swallow wholesale such a 
 creed % Is it because the world is taking strides of progress 
 in theology, as rapid as those which she is taking in science 
 and political advancement, that this gi'otesque ultimatum of 
 1841 scents so much of the sepulchre and decay ] ^Tiy, it 
 looks as if it had been dug up with a mummy after an inter- 
 ment of millenniums. We can hardly believe that gi-ave 
 ecclesiastics tried to cram that choking fossil down a young- 
 man's throat when Victoria was Queen, and Sir Kobert 
 Peel her Prime Minister. All honour to him who shud- 
 dered at its monstrosity and would have none of it ! Send 
 a child to hell for Adam's sin ! Bring in a man personally 
 guilty for what he never did, and for vrhat was done 
 thousands of years before Jbe was born ! Could a charge 
 like that be proved at the Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, or the 
 Ayr Cii'cuit Court, or the Edinbrn-gh Court of J usticiary ? 
 Would it not be refused a hearing, and be sent out of court 
 with shouts of derisive laughter ? And how can it ever be 
 entei-tained at the judgment-seat of Christ ? " Not till the 
 ■words guilt and desert were explained ? " We should think 
 not, brave "young swain," who didst thus dare, single- 
 handed, to defend Christ's truth against well-meaning but 
 belated ecclesiastics. The difficulty of our valorous friend 
 was something like that of the little girl in Roxburghsliii^e 
 we heard of many years ago, who told her mother that she 
 had tried hard to repent of eating the apple in the garden of 
 
78 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Eden, and had not been able ! No doubt it must be matter 
 of grief and shame to us that our progenitor transgressed the 
 command of God. Temporal death, moreover, and tempta- 
 tions, and tendencies towards evil, have resulted to us from 
 his fall ; but whatever harm has accrued froili it, has 
 been more than met and mastered in the redemption of 
 Christ. But for a conclave of clergymen to maintain that 
 death eternal resulted to any human being through that first 
 sin, apart from his own iniquities, and to insert it in the 
 text of an ecclesiastical libel, that the accused presbyter 
 wished to know what kind of " guilt " and " desert " was 
 meant, savours so much of owl-like superstition that we 
 fancy we hear the click of the thumb-screw or the foot-rack 
 in the days of the Inquisition, or see the smoke curling round 
 " auld Kilmarnock " from a fii-e which has just been kindled 
 to burn a wizard or a witch. 
 
 We could not permit these original eight charges to go out 
 to the world again, %vithout adding a few words of explana- 
 tion and defence to the report of Mr. Morison's reply, which, 
 although the fullest we could get, is still meagre and in- 
 complete. 
 
 CHAPTER y. 
 
 Evening Sederunt of the Presbytery on the day of Mr. Morison's 
 Trial— Speeches of the Rev. Messrs. Meikle, Ronald, and Thomas 
 — Scene at the Close — Decision of the Presbj'tery — Mr. Morison 
 Appeals to the Synod — Speech of Mr. Thomas Adam. 
 
 When the Presbytery, after a brief interval, met again for 
 their evening sederunt, the crowd assembled in Clerk's Lane 
 Chapel was, if possible, even more dense and excited than 
 it had been during the day ; because, of course, the slioj)- 
 keepers and workmen who were released from labour were 
 eager to see and to hear, and everybody knew that some 
 kind of decision or other would be reached before the sitting 
 was closed. Professor Taylor (to whom we are indebted for 
 sundry particulars), who had been seated in the lower part 
 of the chapel in the forenoon, had found his way to the front 
 of the gallery in the evening, from which elevated position 
 he was able to survey the scene and hear all that was to be 
 heard. 
 
MR. MEIKLE's reply. 
 
 79 
 
 As Mr. Morison had spoken at length during the previous 
 diet, it now remained for the members of the Presbytery 
 to express their judgment on his views. This they seem 
 to have done in the order of seniority. No report has 
 been preserved, in any of the journals on which we have 
 been able to lay our hands, of the speeches of Dr. Schaw of 
 Ayr, who introduced the discussion, Mr. Campbell of Irvine, 
 or Mr. Robertson of Kilmaurs. Only a brief summary of 
 Mr. Elles's remarks is given in the Kilmarnock newspaper, 
 from which we have already quoted more than once ; but it 
 contains no observations of any importance. We are arrested, 
 however, by the long and elaborate address of Mr. Meikle 
 of Beith, to whom it would appear that the post of honour 
 had been assigned of preparing a detailed reply to Mr. 
 Morison's averments on all the theological points at issue. 
 
 And inasmuch as the latter had ever given great promi- 
 nence in all his sermons and pamphlets, as well as in the 
 speech delivered that day, to Paul's definition of the Gospel 
 in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, as justifying 
 that pointed, personal, and individualising preaching, which 
 lie practised, and on which he insisted as the true apostolic 
 mode, Mr. Meikle began by referring to that notable passage 
 in the Word of God. In the course of his remarks he said : 
 
 " Mr. Morison overlooks the fact that this epistle is not addressed to 
 the heathen at Corinth, which in his reasoning he took for granted, 
 but to the church there, even to them that are sanctified in Christ 
 Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the 
 name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours — chap. i. 2." 
 
 But here Mr. Meikle "overlooks the fact" that this was 
 the message which, according to Mr. Morison, Paul had 
 delivered "first of all" in the streets of Corinth to the yet 
 voluptuous and idolatrous inhabitants, "0 ye men and 
 vromen of Corinth, Christ died for our sins." No doubt Mr. 
 Meikle elsewhere remarks that the expression " first of all" 
 refers not to the priority of announcement, but to the prime 
 importance of the truths enunciated concerning the death, 
 burial, and resuiTection of the Lord Jesus. We do not 
 think that this criticism will commend itself to any unpre- 
 judiced reader of the Word. Or if these doctrines stand out 
 on the apostle's page as first and foremost in importance, it 
 is because we are told that they fell first and foremost from 
 his lips as a herald of the cross. 
 
 When he approached the question of the nature and extent 
 
80 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 of tlie atonement, Mr. Meikle made a statement which should 
 have caused him to pause and review the real scope and 
 tendency of his own theology. He said, "the atonement is 
 in itself a fit means of, and sufficient for, the salvation of all 
 men; and nothing more would have been required though 
 the whole human race were to have been saved." If this 
 were the case, how arbitrary and unkind of the Divine 
 Father to limit its efficacy and application to only some 
 members of the human family ! Yet Mr. Meikle thought 
 there were certain passages of Scripture which taught such 
 a view of restricted grace. He called special attention to 
 the opening words of our Lord's intercessory prayer : " As 
 thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give 
 eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." But why 
 should words with so comprehensive a reference be shut up 
 in a strait Genevan gorge ? Why should Christ get power 
 over all flesh if his heart, from the first, had gone out in 
 love only to some 1 He did not need power over all to save 
 only some. Do not the remarkable words clearly bear out 
 the very interpretation which Mr. Morison put upon them, 
 and upon the whole Bible too 1 — an interpretation the dis- 
 covery of which had at once made his Saviour's love clear to 
 his own soul, and had thrown a flood of light upon the entire 
 Scriptvires of truth — namely, that the mediator between God 
 and man had literally, as Paul elsewhere says, given himself 
 as a ransom for all flesh, and that the individuals out of that 
 mighty whole who would comply with his overtures and 
 solicitations of grace, would be given to him by his Father 
 as his own elect people, or had already been given to him, 
 according to the divine foreknowledge of their repentance, 
 faith, and holiness. Thus the two successive clauses of the 
 verse are rendered harmonious, which otherwise would con- 
 flict hopelessly with one another; and thus, too, are all the 
 other passages of Scripture which speak of God's general 
 love for mankind reconciled with those in which we read of 
 a special love for the church — the Lamb's wife. The limita- 
 tion springs not from a deficiency in the love of God, but 
 from the unbelieving non-compliance of some rebellious men. 
 If all would repent and believe, all would be given by the 
 Father to the Son. 
 
 Passing on to the subject of saving faith, Mr. Meikle 
 boldly attacked the view that faith was an intellectual act, 
 although he must have known that both Dr. Chalmers and 
 
THE NATURE OF FAITH. 
 
 81 
 
 Dr. Joliii Brown of Edinburgh had maintained that view, not 
 to speak of Dr. Gordon of the same city, and Dr. Russell of 
 Dundee. He seems to refer to these respectable authorities in 
 his remark — " It may appear to some that it accords better 
 with the philosophy of mind to describe faith as consisting 
 merely in the intellectual perception of the truth of the divine 
 testimony, and to regard the change produced on the heart, in 
 all its affections, and in the life, as the results of this belief" 
 Most certainly that is both the philosophical and the scrip- 
 tural view; and the passages wliicli Mr. Meikle quotes in 
 support of his opinion, that faith proper includes the love of 
 the heart and the obedience of the life, are quite beside the 
 mark. Consider, for example, the exhortation in Heb. x. — 
 
 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the 
 holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true 
 heart in full assurance of faith," &c. Now we have in these 
 Avords plainly not a definition of faith but a description of 
 the way in which it acts in the souls of believers. The same 
 criticism may be made on Heb. xi. 1 3, also quoted by Mr. 
 Meikle. Surely it was the result of the faith of the 
 patriarchs, rather than of its essence, that "they confessed 
 that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." 
 
 The only other . extract which we will give from Mr. 
 Meikle's address is the following near the close, on the 
 (question of human ability : — 
 
 ** Besides, the doctrine of Mr. Morison that all men are able of 
 themselves to believe the Gospel, and to put away unbelief, the only 
 obstacle which the atonement has not removed, is obviously a scheme 
 , of doctrine that makes the salvation of sinners to depend, not on the 
 divine purpose of mercy through the mediation of Christ, but on the 
 right use of that moral power which he asserts they possess. And 
 does it not, therefore, I ask, in so far convert the covenant of grace 
 into a covenant of works? If the only obstacle in the way of our 
 salvation is unbelief, and if, as sinners, we are able of ourselves to put 
 this obstacle away, then of consequence our enjoyment of salvation 
 depends on the contingency of our using our moral ability aright. 
 Was not the enjoyment of eternal life under the law of works suspended 
 on the right use of the moral power with which our iirst parents were 
 endowed, — on the perfect obedience which they were able to give to the 
 commandment of God respecting the tree of knowledge ? Now, accord- 
 ing to Mr. Morison's scheme, is not the enjoyment of eternal life under 
 the constitution of mercy, still dependent on the right use of the moral 
 power of man, though that power is now to be put forth in a different 
 form, according to his altered circumstances, namely, in renouncing 
 the sin of unbelief which he asserts we are able of ourselves to put 
 away? According to this scheme of doctrine, eternal life is still to 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNIOX. 
 
 be obtained partly by works, and not as the apostle decdares, entirely 
 of grace." 
 
 We must, of course, again protest against the insinuation 
 here repeatedly thrown out, that Mr. Morison and his 
 followers could dispense with a Saviour altogether, and 
 "save themselves" by theii- own power, ^t seems to be 
 almost impossible for controversialists to state the views of 
 their opponents fairly. Any one who knew how devoted 
 Mr. Morison was to his Saviour would understand at once 
 that the charge of advocating salvation by works was most 
 unfounded. Besides, what power have we that we can call 
 absolutely our own*? Has not God given us our faculties of 
 believing, and loving, and willing, with all the sister-powers 
 that philosophers have particularised and named] And 
 does he not as much maintain these in their respective orbits 
 of exercise as he keeps the planets wheeling in their courses'? 
 True, we have the awful power of self-determination, without 
 which we could not be morally responsible at all; but even 
 that faculty has a God ward as well as a man ward side, which 
 should never be forgotten — not to speak of the indisposition of 
 the sinner for the things of salvation, which renders necessary 
 the suasive influence of the Holy Spirit. Independent in 
 church government, we have never claimed to be independent 
 of God. The testimony given by the founders of the Evan- 
 gelical Union has all along been the very opposite of that mad 
 position, which indeed is the one which only the irregenerate, 
 the unholy, and the profane are bold enough to occupy. 
 
 With this explanation we would, if present, have been 
 disposed respectfully to say to Mr. Meikle, " Is there not a 
 most important sense in which ' our enjoyment of salvation 
 depends on the contingency of our using our moral ability 
 aright' ? What does Mr. Meikle himself mean when at any 
 time he waxes warm with his subject of discourse, and be- 
 seeches his hearers to give their hearts to God immediately 
 and be saved?- If he should speak some day with solemn 
 earnestness from the text, • I call heaven and earth to record 
 this day against you, that I have set before you life and 
 death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both 
 thou and thy seed may live,' how could he do so except on 
 tlie principle that ' our enjoyment of salvation depends on 
 the contingency of our using our moral ability aright,' and 
 that, in an important sense, that blessing is, under the con- 
 stitution of mercy, still dependent on the right use of the 
 
MR. MEIKLE OX MAN's ABILITY. 
 
 83 
 
 moral power of man, though that power is now to be put 
 forth in a different form, according to his ' altered circum- 
 stances ' 1 " Indeed, we accept this statement, made so long 
 ago by our opponent, as really an admirable way of putting 
 what we believe to be the very truth of God, and what he 
 Idinself must admit to he the truth of God, and irmcticcdlij 
 jwoceeds upon, moreover, every time he presses a hearer to 
 do anything in the matter of his salvation, whether he call 
 upon him to repent, or believe, or pray, or like a cautious old 
 Scotch minister, to " mak^ a mint at an attempt at an assay e 
 to pray to God ! " If a sinner be left like a stone, to be 
 lifted by lever power, in that case no moral agency is exer- 
 cised, and in that case let ministers preach before joeople, but 
 never at them or to them. Let no active verbs be used in 
 the discourse, but only passive ones ; for the poor creatures 
 are purel}^ passive in God's hands ! But if men are to be 
 commanded, right and left, to be up and doing in the matter 
 of their own salvation — yea, if the smallest and most initial 
 onus of responsibility be laid at their door, the use of moral 
 power is most undoubtedly taken for granted, and should not 
 be denied. Blessed be God we are "in altered circum- 
 stances 1 " We do not need to go about to "' establish our 
 own righteousness." We have only to lay hold of the 
 righteousness which another has wrought out and brought 
 in. Still, in order to the due exercise of faith, a certain 
 amount of moral power must be brought into play. We 
 must pause. We must ponder. We must attend. We 
 must determine. We must be candid. We must act up to 
 our convictions. To all this the Spirit seeks to draw us. 
 For this good fruit he waits. And " he that believes shall 
 not perish." Without doubt the mediatorial dispensation is 
 for us a most easy and favourable branch or manifestation of 
 moral government; yet still it is a branch of moral govern- 
 ment, in which the free decision of man is not ignored, 
 but is brought into play — the term or condition being 
 made simple and gracious, because the Lamb had been 
 made sin for us. How very wrong, then, in Mr. Meikle to 
 say 'that it is " partly of works " and not " entirely of 
 grace," when "it is of faith that it might be by grace." If 
 it be replied that, according to us, faith is a work, we 
 luiswer. It is not a work of law. If it may be called, in a 
 certain sense, a work of activity, a^ opposed to the indolence 
 of unbelief, it must be borne in mind that it is a work 
 
84 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 which has a meek mouth that disclaims all merit, and cries 
 out None but Christ," " None but Christ." 
 
 Mr. Ronald, of Saltcoats, spoke, as usual, more kindly and 
 apologetically with respect to Mr. Morison than any of the 
 other members of Court. We make the following brief 
 extract from his address : — 
 
 '* He thought he saw how Mr. Morison had been led into the error. 
 A number of persons at one time came round to his (Mr. E. 's) locality 
 and preached the same doctrine ; and he did not wonder they should 
 have made an impression. These persons said, * Jesus died for the 
 whole world; and don't you belong to the world ? Believe this and be 
 saved.' It was a fascinating doctrine, and it had been thought a grand 
 thing by many who had embraced it, but who, unlike Mr. Morison, 
 had not the enthusiasm to carry them through with it." 
 
 Mr. Ronald might call this view, somewhat slightingly, a 
 fascinating doctrine ; but the fascination is only the charm 
 of the " good tidings of great joy " which God has sent to 
 " all people." It was thus that Paul reasoned when he said 
 " Christ Jesus came to save sinners, of whom I am chief ;" 
 and it was thus that Dr. Calamy's half-witted hearer 
 reasoned when he said, " Christ came to save sinners, and 
 why not poor J oseph 1" The tract, we suppose, which was 
 written to improve that saying, was circulated in thousands 
 by the Secession Church to which Mr. Ronald belonged ; and 
 we venture to assert that it could not be circulated con- 
 sistently on the basis of any other theological views than 
 those which the young accused minister was defending that 
 idght at the Presbytery's bar. 
 
 Mr. Bruce of Newmilns, in the course of his address, 
 made the courteous admission that Mr. Morison had de- 
 livered an able defence. His words were, — "Though an 
 able defence it did not meet the case." "We learn from this 
 gentleman's speech, what we otherwise would not have 
 known, that action had been taken, even before Mr. Mori- 
 son's trial came on, in the Kilmarnock Sabbath School 
 Society against a considerable portion of the teachers who 
 had embraced Mr. Morison's views. Mr. Bruce quoted the 
 following passage from the Sabbath School Report : — 
 
 * ' Do not put us off with the vague assertion that you mean to 
 teach what you find in the Scriptures ; for even those sects who are 
 confessedly the most erroneous in sentiment — the Arians, the Soci- 
 nians, the Unitarians, and the Papists — make the very same profession ; 
 and yet they propagate opinions most derogatory to the character of 
 our blessed Lord, and most injurious to the interests of immortal 
 souls." 
 
MR. THOMAS OF MAUCHLINE. 
 
 85 
 
 We think that it was very bigoted and narrow-minded of 
 the Sabbath School Society indeed to put the views of Mr. 
 Morison's adherents on a par with those of Papists and Uni- 
 tarians. Surely they will be ashamed of themselves when 
 they look at that passage to-day in the light of Mr. Mori- 
 son's subsequent career, as well as of the present position 
 held by the churches in Kilmarnock which are identified 
 ^vith his doctrines. The Rev. A. M. Wilson, of Bathgate, 
 was one of the teachers who were thus ruddly ejected from 
 the Sabbath School Union ; but the Lord has since that time 
 so' abundantly owned his teachings, both in public and in 
 private, as to cover with disgrace the board of well-meaning, 
 it may be, but illiberal men who sought to silence him. 
 
 No report was preserved of the speeches of Mr. Brown of 
 Cumnock and Mr. Cairns of Stewarton, who followed Mr. 
 Bruce in the debate ; but a large space is devoted, both in 
 the Kilmarnock Journal and the United Secession Magazine, 
 to the closing address — namely, that given by the Bev. Mr. 
 Thomas, of Mauchline. Indeed, his speech is given in full 
 in both of these publications, having been evidently printed 
 from the orator's manuscript, as the numerous italicized pas- 
 sages bear witness. These italics, moreover, abundantly 
 demonstrate Mr. Thomas's animus against Mr. Morison ; for, 
 as the chief burden of the proof of heresy had been devolved 
 on Mr. Meikle, of Beith, that of alleged moral obliquity had 
 been assigned, by common consent, to the minister of 
 Mauchline. And with much zeal and apparent relish did he 
 discharge the duty. We would have thought tliat the in- 
 genuous statement made by the young minister in the fore- 
 noon of that day, which we quoted in last chapter, would 
 have disarmed the speaker's prejudices, and made him fling- 
 away his poisoned arrows, even if they had already been 
 feathered and concealed in liis quiver. Had the accused at 
 the bar not explained that the tract so much complained 
 about had resulted both from the work of God in his own 
 heart and in the localities to which he had been sent to 
 labour % Was it not a fact that, while promising on his 
 ordination day to alter certain expressions which had been 
 misunderstood, he had nevertheless asserted that he would 
 not, and could not, preach any other doctrines than those 
 which were contained in the tract 1 And should not the 
 frank admission of regret that he had not prevented, by 
 legal measures, the publication of the pamphlet by others 
 
86 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 (although his friends regretted his expression of regret) have 
 sufficed to aUay the wrath of the appointed mouthpiece ol 
 the Presbytery? But no. It was observed that Mr. 
 Thomas left the evening sederunt shortly after its com- 
 mencement, and did not return till it was nearly time for 
 him to speak. He had evidently been preparing and con- 
 ning his address. And certainly the caimon, benig fully 
 changed and primed, went off with a great explosion. The 
 soldier, not of the Cross, but of the Confession, tried to drive 
 his sword of vituperation up to the very heft into the body, 
 or rather the spirit, of his young adversary.^ A great 
 attempt was made to damage the work in Clerk's Lane by 
 damaging the character of him whom God had so signally 
 used there to do undeniable good. But the " iron did not 
 enter his soul," nor the souls of the people. They knew tliat 
 they had got a man after the Lord's own heart, whose whole 
 aim it was to spend and be spent for their good and His glory. 
 
 When he had put himself out of breath with his attack on 
 ]Mr. Morison's character, Mr. Thomas tried a few closing 
 flings at his doctrines ; but, as might have been expected, 
 these, beinrj the efforts of an exhausted gladiator, were not 
 eminently ^successful. He attempted an original line of 
 argumentation which is always dangerous, unless one is 
 pretty sure of his ground. He tried to show that Mr. 
 Morison's doctrines were not self-consistent. On one point, 
 as we have already admitted, full consistency had not been 
 reached— the system of the young tl^eologian not havuig 
 been fully developed in his own mind ; but on all the other 
 l>oints alluded to, we join issue with the speaker. Thus he 
 tried to show that while ^vith one breath Mr. Morison 
 maintained that the atonement had done something impor- 
 tant for every man, with the other he held that it had done 
 nothing— since no man would be saved unless he repented 
 and believed. But can notliing important be done for a 
 man by his Saviour unless his salvation be absolutely 
 secured 1 Is not the provision of salvation, as a gift to be 
 accepted by the sinner, a most momentous matter'? And 
 this was what, according to Mr. Morison, Christ had done 
 for every man. Again, Mr. Thomas thought he had dis- 
 covered a great inconsistency in the matter of faith ; tor 
 whereas Mr. Morison had again and again asserted that 
 there was only one kind of faith, he had that day, when 
 quotin^r the verse, " now have they both seen and hated both 
 
THE INQUIRER AND PRAYER. 
 
 87 
 
 me and my Father" (John xv. 24), admitted that these Jews 
 " saw " and yet " saw not " in a saving sense. But surely 
 there is some difference between seeing and believing not, 
 and believing and believing not ! Evidently although these 
 Jews saw Christ's miracles with their bodily eyes they did 
 not see them with their minds at all — that is, they did not 
 believe. Finally, Mr. Thomas thus pointed out a supposed 
 inconsistency on the subject of prayer : — 
 
 " Mr. Morison taught, and taught very particularly, the doctrine 
 that no person ought to pray who was not sure that he was in a saving 
 state — in other words, that he was a believer. Doubting sinners were 
 not to pray ; sinners that were anxious about their salvation were not 
 to pray for grace ; no man was to pray who did not entertain the per- 
 suasion that he was a saint of the h'ving God. Well, were Mr. Mori- 
 son asked if he really held such doctrine as this, what would be his 
 answer? He would state that he held a doctrine just the very opposite, 
 and would refer to a passage in one of his tracts, in which he stated 
 that the 'anxious sinner' may come to God by prayer, even though he 
 were not converted. 'If. you will come by prayer,' was his language, 
 'fix your eye believingly on Jesus, and, with the publican's confiding 
 heart and confessing mouth, exclaim, God be merciful to me a sinner.'*' 
 
 "VVe are certain that Mr. Morison's friends, and the friends 
 of truth in general, will tliank us for this quotation, for it 
 serves to make j)lain, and that on the showing of an oppo- 
 nent, what the accused minister's views on prayer really 
 were. The only prayer to which Mr. Morison was really 
 opposed was the prayer of the wicked, which was '^an 
 abomination to the Lord." And, as already explained, he 
 conceived the too common pulpit advice, given by ministers 
 to inquiring sinners, to go home and pray for faith, a danger- 
 ous misdii'ection, as being one which leads them away from' 
 the cross to their own hearts. But no one could more ^^^I1- 
 ingly recognise the fact than he did, that new-born faith 
 was often expressed to God in such a prayer as the publi- 
 can's — that being not an unsaved sinner's supplication 
 for faith, but the believing cry of a penitent, returning 
 soul. 
 
 Several hours had passed away dm*iiig the delivery of 
 these addresses, and as the close of the proceedings ap- 
 proached, the multitude, both within and without the chapel, 
 became intensely excited. Generally, the Moderator of a 
 Presbytery informs the audience, if they make any signs of 
 approbation or disapprobation during the delivery of ad- 
 dresses on an important case, that they are only present by 
 courtesy, and that therefore the place of met^ting must be 
 
88 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 cleared if any such demonstration be repeated. In this case, 
 however, after sundry attempts at restraint, it was seen to 
 be vain to renew such appeals, and the crowded hearers 
 were at length permitted to cheer or groan as if they had 
 been members of the court of judicature. One gentleman 
 has informed us that when anything adverse to Mr. Morison 
 was uttered, we can have no idea of the strength of the Idss 
 that wae evoked from the people, — especially during those 
 portions of Mr. Thomas's address in which an attempt was 
 made to reflect on their beloved minister's character. Its 
 sibilant power was so cutting that it seemed as if it might 
 pierce through the body of the speaker who had called it 
 forth, as well as his spii-it. One reason, possibly, why these 
 manifestations of feeling were permitted was that the Pres- 
 bytery, to a large extent, were in the hands of the multitude, 
 so tightly were they wedged in by them. This became ver}'- 
 apparent as, one by one, the members of the Court retired 
 for refreshment during the course of the evening. Those of 
 them who had made themselves unpopular by their speeches 
 and mode of acting, had a little difficulty in getting in again, 
 for the word was passed among some of the more waggish 
 spirits around the door to " keep them out." For a time 
 the stern call, " Make way for Members of the Court there," 
 " Make way for Members of the Court," produced no effect, 
 and when, at length, a narrow passage was cleared, the 
 revei-end wrestlers arrived at their seats again, panting not a 
 little after their struggle in the doorway. 
 
 A deep impression was produced when the evening debate 
 was pretty far advanced, as it was observed that the lie v. 
 Robert Morison of Bathgate entered, and took his seat beside 
 his son. Mr. Morison had travelled all day, first by the 
 coach from Bathgate to Glasgow, and then from Glasgow to 
 Kilmarnock. His resolution to be present had been formed 
 somewhat suddenly, — as it was only after rising in the 
 morning that it had appeared to him to be his duty to go. 
 He was much respected in the Secession Church (as we 
 remarked in our first chapter), of which he had been a minister 
 for twenty-seven years, and had always held a high place as 
 a man of mind in the estimation of his brethren. His very 
 presence on the occasion must have been a moral support to 
 his son. But all day long the latter had been sustained by 
 the felt nearness and the aid of his Heavenly Father, and of 
 that Elder Brother, for the liberality of whose atoning love 
 
THE EXCITEMENT AT MR, MORISON's TRIAL. 
 
 89 
 
 he was contending, even unto the loss of earthly status and 
 worldly goods. 
 
 But the excitement was as great outside in the town 
 among Mr. Morison's friends and the public generally, as it 
 was among those who had been so fortunate as to gain ad- 
 mission to the chapel, or whose health could stand the pres- 
 sure. An elderly lady informed us lately that about ten 
 o'clock on that eventful night a friend called for her and 
 
 said, " 0 Mrs. A , I wonder you can sit in the house. 
 
 Do you not know that that poor young lad has been on his 
 feet all day contending with these ministers ; and they say 
 they are at it yet ! Put on your bonnet and come away 
 down the town with me, and we'll hear at any rate what is 
 likely to be done." So the two ladies sallied forth at that 
 late hour, and, proceeding along King Street, passed through 
 the square at the Cross, and di-ew near to the place of meeting. 
 The elder son in the parable heard affar off " the sound of 
 music and dancing;" but they heard at a considerable dis- 
 tance the uproar that re-echoed from the crowded building. 
 When they reached Clerk's Lane they found that it was 
 almost impassable with the multitude who were waiting to 
 hear the result of the proceedings, and who were eagerly 
 discussing the merits of the case, both doctrinal and practi- 
 cal, besides relating to one another the latest particulars of 
 the trial, — as people report the state of the poll at a con- 
 tested election, or the newest aspect of a great criminal case. 
 Without pushing theii* way through the crowd towards the 
 chapel, they went forward to the manse to call for Mr. 
 Morison's sister, who then kept his house. They found her 
 sitting all alone in his study, and calmly waiting the result. 
 She was surprised to learn from them that her father had 
 arrived; for he had gone straight from the coach to the 
 chapel. 
 
 Meanwhile, the case had reached its climax there, and the 
 excitement too. About eleven o'clock at night, the stormy 
 pleadings having at length come to an end, Mr, Elles moved, 
 as the Kilmarnock Journal informs us, that " Mr, 'Morison, 
 having in various instances concealed his real sentiments 
 before his ordination, and having given the Presbytery reason 
 to believe that he adhered to the standards of the Secession 
 Church : having also, on the morning of his ordination, 
 promised to suppress the tract, which he had not done — and 
 his conduct subsequently lia^-ing been inconsistent with his 
 
90 • HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 pledges : be adnionislied, and suspended from the exercise of 
 liis ministerial functions, aye, and until he retract his errors 
 and express his sorrow to the Presbytery for propagating 
 such errors." Mr. Campbell of Irvine seconded the motion. 
 Before we announce the result we must call attention to the 
 wording of this Resolution. It did not provide for an honest 
 finding on the case. The points in dispute were far more 
 truly doctrinal than practical — the long libel itself being 
 witness, which we quoted in last chapter ; and yet the Pres- 
 bytery here tries to ride ofi* triumphantly under a paltry 
 attempt to blacken a character which remains spotless to this 
 day.- What although the young man, in an agony of un- 
 certainty, and not knowing very well vv^hat to do, had been 
 comparatively reticent before his ordination, being naturally 
 anxious to remain in the church of his fathers ] There was 
 no reservation now. The colours, as we have already said, 
 were nailed to the mast nov^. Manifestly their duty was to 
 leave all that obsolete charge of disingenuousness behind, 
 and now that the ingenuousness of their youngest co-presby- 
 ter was so transparent, address themselves to the charge of 
 doctrinal error alone. " Mr. Duncan of Girvan then pro- 
 posed an amendment to the effect ' that the Presbytery 
 adjourn until to-morrow, that a free and friendly conference 
 might be held with Mr. Morison.' This milder motion was 
 seconded by Mr. Bruce of Kewmilns. Mr. Fleming, elder of 
 the congi-egation, moved that the matter should be carried to 
 the Synod; but this was not seconded. The roll was then 
 called, when there voted for Mr. Elles's motion, 20 ; for Mr. 
 Duncan's amendment, 5; majority, 15. The'Bev. Mr. Thomson 
 declined to vote. The Moderator then intimated to Mr. Morison 
 the finding of the Presbytery ; upon which Mr. Morison dis- 
 sented from their decision, and appealed to the Synod." 
 
 These few sentences gave a very inadequate idea of the 
 scene which occurred when this decision was reached. 
 According to an old custom, Mr. Morison required to table 
 a sJiilliny when he appealed to the Synod, which he did 
 amid breathless silence, remarking at the same time that he 
 was " deeply pained by the decision to which his fathers and 
 brethren had come." Whenever he made this aimounce- 
 ment it looked as if a riot would take place. The people 
 could hardly keep their hands ofi" the men who had con- 
 demned the teaching and aspersed the character of their 
 beloved minister. At the same time a whole range of pews 
 
SPEECH BY MR. THOMAS ADAM. 
 
 91 
 
 near the western door of the chapel gave \y^y under the 
 pressure of the crowd, and some screams following the noise, 
 a little alarm began to be felt. Mr. M^Kay in his History 
 of Kilmarnpck makes this reference to the scene: " At length, 
 in March, 1841, the matter Avas brought before the Presby- 
 tery in Clerk's Lane Chapel. Considerable excitement pre- 
 Tailed during the trial. Mr. Morison advocated his cause 
 in an earnest and eloquent manner, and carried along with 
 him the feelings and sympathies of a considerable portion of 
 the auditory. The meeting took place at an early hour of 
 the day, and the deepest interest seemed to be taken by all 
 parties in the proceedings of the court, which continued its 
 sittings till midnight. An hour or two before the business 
 was closed, the pressure and agitation so much increased, 
 tjiat some of the pews were fairly broken down, the w^indow 
 panes were smashed, and even life itself appeared to be in 
 danger. The court wound up the alFaii' by passing a deed 
 of suspension against Mr. Morison ; who, in his turn, lodged 
 a protest, and appealed to the meeting of Synod." (p. 146.) 
 Doubtless there had been some danger to life and limb for 
 an hour or two before the proceedings terminated, and 
 especially when the threat was made by some excited per- 
 sons to impede the exit of the Presbytery. But just at this 
 critical junctui-e a powerful and well-kno^vii voice was heard, 
 which had the effect, like the town-clerk's at Ephesus, of 
 appeasing the people." Tliis was the voice of Mr. Thomas 
 Adam, a member of the Clerk's Lane Church, and also a 
 much respected and influential tomisman. Mr. Adam, 
 besides being one of the middle-class tradespeople of the 
 place, had, for many years, taken a leading part in the 
 politics of Kilmarnock — no mean honour, when it is remem- 
 bered that every man there claims to be a politician. He 
 was, moreover, a fluent, forcible, and accurate speaker ; and 
 when he was seen standing up on a pew, with liis hat in 
 his hand, and beginning to address the meeting, the din and 
 the tumult ceased in a moment. He spoke to the following 
 efiect : — " Moderator, Mr. Morison has protested in his own 
 name against the decision which has just been reached ; but 
 I protest in the name of the Commissioners, and of the con- 
 gregation. It will be left, howev er, to the congregation to 
 say whether they will appeal to the Synod or not. But, 
 friends, I counsel you to let the Presbytery depart' in peace. 
 As a people we have been much tried with them in past 
 
92 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 days, and they have often met here ; but this is the last 
 time they will ever meet in Clerk's Lane Church.'"' The 
 Kilmarnock Journal says, "This address was received with 
 vociferous cheering from several quarters of the house." It 
 had the happy effect of removing the influence of the adverse 
 vote from the minds of the people, and of making them 
 remember that, instead of being vanquished, they were in 
 reality the victors, inasmuch as, being numerically the great 
 majority, they would have the power to keep the property, 
 in terms of the title-deeds. Indeed, such was the impression 
 produced by this unexpected, short address, that many an 
 old persoix who was present, and who may have forgotten 
 all the other pai-ticulars of the case, does not fail to exclaim, 
 when questioned about the exciting occasion, " Yes, I was 
 there; and I mind of hearing Thonuis A.dam. I remember 
 seeing him standing up on the seat and begging the folk not 
 to meddle the Presbytery, for it would be the last time they 
 would ever be in the kirk. And I remember the cheering 
 and clapping of hands when Thomas Adam sat doAvn." 
 That respected spokesman has now gone to his rest ; but he 
 remained an attached adherent of Mr. Morison, as long as 
 the latter remained in Kilmarnock, and afterwards, of his 
 esteemed successor, the Rev. William Bathgate — being a 
 member of the eldership, as well as of the congregation, at 
 the time of his death. There is no doubt that he, on that 
 eventful night, and not the Moderator, "dismissed the 
 assembly." 
 
 Possibly some sensitive and pious minds may be pained 
 by such a detailed narrative of controversy as that which 
 we have just set before them. They may be disposed to 
 say, " Here are good men, on both sides, going home after 
 such a scene, and prajdng to the same God to bless them 
 and to guide them into the truth. Could the same God 
 hear and bless them' all?" We have no hesitation in 
 answering in the affirmative. At the time of the American 
 war the Northern and Southern armies alike sang hymns 
 and prayed to the God of Sabaoth. Stonewall Jackson, 
 mistaken in politics, but meek in piety, stole out beyond 
 his lines, Cromwell-like, to. hold secret communion with his 
 God ; while many a fervent supplication rose up, at the very 
 same hour, from the gallant army of the Potomac. Could 
 the Lord hear both parties, and bless both % He could. He 
 answered the pi-ayers of those who were on the right side 
 
MR. MORISOX'S PASTORATE. 
 
 93 
 
 by giving thein ultimate victory after many discouragements; 
 aiul lie answered those who were on the wrong side by 
 " terrible things in righteousness," all ending in final dis- 
 comfiture. The good who were among the latter he saved 
 as by fii-e/' and brought them through a bloody baptism to 
 a wealthy place. Now we would solve the practical diffi- 
 culty of theological controversy in the same way. The 
 Lord knows the weakness and frailties of our minds, and 
 pities the errors of belligerent ministers, as well as of belli- 
 gerent soldiers. That night He could hear the prayers of 
 James Morison as he knelt with tear-bedimmed eyes to 
 commit imto liim his future way ; and he could also hear 
 the prayer of his bitterest antagonist, — while sorrowful for 
 whatever alloy of self and intolerance might be there, and 
 determining, at the same time, to rid both parties by the 
 illumination, alike of Time and Eternity, of the misconcep- 
 tions which might yet cleave to their minds. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 Mr. Morison's Kilmarnock Pastorate between the Meetings of the Pres- 
 bytery and the Synod in Glasgow — His Marriage— -Publishes "On 
 the Extent of the Atonement" — Abstract of the Work — His Trial 
 before the Secession Synod — His Reasons of Protest and Appeal — 
 Those Lodged by the Clerk's Lane Church — The Presbytery's 
 Reply to the same — Mr. Morison's Defence on the first Count of 
 the first Charge. 
 
 As the Synod, to which Mr. Morison had appealed against 
 the deed of separation passed by the Presbytery on the 3rd 
 of March, was appointed to meet in Glasgow, on the 7th of 
 June, 1841, only three clear months require to be accounted 
 for in the ministerial career of our theological hero between 
 these two important dates. Neither his pastoral standing 
 nor his evangelistic labours were in any way afiected by the 
 adverse vote, with the account of which oiu' last article 
 closed. An ecclesiastical appeal from a lower court to a 
 higher as entirely sists procedure, and screens the menaced 
 individual from the execution of a sentence, as does an 
 appeal in any of our law courts. Therefore had Mr. Mori- 
 son the right, duiing the interval to which we have refeiTed, 
 to occupy his own pulpit, dispense the ordinances of the 
 cliurch, and even attend the ordinary meetings of the Pres- 
 
94 HISTOllY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 bytery, if he so pleased, as being still a fully accredited 
 minister of the United Secession Church. 
 
 This liberty was indeed of tlie utmost importance to him ; 
 for the revival of religion which had been produced m Kil- 
 marnock by God's blessing on his earnest ministrations, 
 instead of bein- slackened, was even stimulated by all these 
 iudicial proceedings. It may seem strange, and almost 
 impossible, at first sight, that acrimonious controversy and 
 ceimine souHsaving could goon at one and the same time; 
 but the explanation of the apparent anomaly is to be found 
 in the spiritual experience of him who was the human 
 centre around which all this excitement revolved. He die. 
 not allow his heart to be embittered by anything that was 
 said or done against him. He could hardly spare the time 
 to attend these exciting debates on account of his engrossmg 
 engagements with sin-sick souls; and whenever the ecclesi- 
 astical field-day would be over he quickly defined all the 
 formidable armour with which he had been compelled to 
 equip himself and ran back eagerly, like a spiritua Cmcm- 
 nitus, once more to bend over his beloved gospel-plough. 
 If some ii^ate antagonists sent any bai;bed arrows after him, 
 he only lifted the missiles of malignity meekly out of the 
 furrows where they fell, praying as he did so. Father, for- 
 o-ive them ; for they know not what they do. 
 
 Dr. Morison has recently been kind enough to show us 
 the carefully preserved, church-book in which the names of 
 all the members admitted into Clerk's Lane Church were 
 enrolled at this time. It appears from that ^.J^^^^ ^^^^^^ 
 fewer than 403 individuals were received into fellowship 
 durincr 1841, and 183 of these during the quarter that 
 eti'ed between March and June. And let it be noted 
 that these arithmetical numbers imply an immense amount 
 of anxious and painstaking labour.^ ^^7 -""K'tt 7^ 
 seen again and again;-the object aimed at m all the con- 
 versatfons being peace with God on anevangM^^^ 
 This scripturaf phrase, <^ Peace with God," appears thus 
 prominently for the first time, as far as we know, as a teim 
 ^ communion, in connection with the abours of Mr. Mori^ 
 L ami his fkends. W« sleyans speak of ''the witness of 
 the»Spirit;" Independents generally of evidence of ^^^^^^^' 
 ation while Presbyterians are common^ satisfied with a 
 Oible profession" of Christianity. The leaders of the 
 EvanUlical Union, however, asked all their applicants for 
 
"peace with god" A TERM OF COMMUNION. 
 
 95 
 
 cliiircli fellowship if they had " peace with God." Doubt- 
 less, the now characteristic expression can be traced to Mr. 
 Morison of Kilmarnock; and more particularly to his fond- 
 ness for the epistle to the Romans ; and yet more particularly 
 to the first verse of the fifth chapter of that epistle: " There- 
 fore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." The passage does indeed appear 
 to be a locus classicus — a remarkable place — worthy of being 
 printed in capitals, and intended to be a reference text for 
 the student of Scripture — even as in a fortified country 
 towers of special strength rise every here and there, or as in 
 tlie course of a brawling stream, deep and quiet joools will 
 every now and then sweetly intervene. The sacred witer 
 having elaborately and argumentatively set forth the doc- 
 trine of justification by faith in the previous chapters, there 
 entei'S upon the consequences of believing. All at once his 
 train of thought loses the murmur of argument, and settles 
 down into the deep calm of tranquil deduction — BehiJ^ jus- 
 tified by faith, ice have j)eace with God tJ trough oiw Lord Jesus 
 Christ." Mr. Morison's eminently practical mind seized 
 upon this sentence as being one of intense and special import- 
 ance, and with all the vehemence of his early oratory he 
 used to cry — "Look here: the inspired apostle of the Gen- 
 tiles concludes that whenever a man believes and is justified, 
 he enters upon the possession and enjoyment of peace with 
 God. He is not afraid of God. Because he sees that J esus 
 has made a complete atonement for all his sins, his guilty 
 terror has all fled away." This initial blessing of " peace 
 with God" he distinguished from Assurance. It might be 
 almost identical with what other evangelical winters had 
 meant b}" "the Assurance of Faith;" but he reserved that 
 term (Heb. x. 22) rather for the subsequent confidence that 
 springs from the joint testimony of Faith and the Graces 
 which are her spiritual daughters. 
 
 Napoleon's " hundred days " were the days of fighting that 
 elapsed between the departure from Elba and the final 
 struggle at Waterloo. James Morison's Ninety days, between 
 the fight in the Presbytery and the fight in the Synod, were 
 very different. They were days of holy calm and usefulness, 
 extending between an enforced truce and the subsequent 
 outbreak of hostilities. One or two days in the week 
 were set apart for conversation with the " anxious " in the 
 minister's own house. On these occasions, as we have already 
 
96 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 described, the manse would be full of jDeople eager to converse 
 v/itli liim from morning to night. He patiently strove to 
 remove the difficulties of each inquirer — hurrying over no 
 case superficially, as far as time would allow, because feeling, 
 to some extent, the value of each immortal soul. " My sins 
 are too great." " But does not the blood of Christ cleanse 
 from all sinV — '.'I have a very bad heart." "But Jesus 
 died for your bad heart." — "I have a very hard heart." 
 " But Jesus died for your hard heart ; believe in his love 
 and it will be softened." Thus did the subdued strain of 
 comforting expostulation go on, from hour to hour, during 
 the Ninety days. It generally happened that not all who 
 waited upon him at the time set apart for conference would 
 be satisfied, or brought to evangelical rest. A note was 
 taken of the case, and a subsequent interview appointed. In 
 this way would Mr. Morison's time be largely occupied for 
 several days every week. Indeed, he had little time left for 
 study, much as his heart was set upon it. Even his sermons 
 were hurriedly prepared; but his mind was so full of the 
 truth which he had lately found out for his own soul, and 
 which he had been called upon to defend, that he literally 
 overflowed with the love of Christ when he entered his pulpit 
 on the Sabbath day. 
 
 One very interesting episode falls to be recorded here, 
 namely, Mr. Morison's marriage to the lady who shared, till 
 the autumn of 1875, and shared so nobly and so meekly, both 
 his honours and dishonours, his sorrows and his joys. Amid 
 so much talk of cutting off and separation, this domestic 
 union comes in with a fine comforting and counterbalancing 
 effect. The young bridegroom had to go to London for his 
 bride ; but he took only one Sabbath's rest for holiday and 
 honeymoon, and even on a part of that day preached foi- 
 the E-ev. Thomas Aveling, of Kingsland, the same Congre- 
 gational minister who had issued, on his own responsibility, 
 an edition of the tract, "What must I do to be saved?" 
 The people used to come running to their doors and look 
 after Mrs. Morison when she was first brought to Kilmai- 
 nock. They wondered that she would have come into the 
 midst of so much commotion and strife. But they seemed 
 to forget that charity or love " enduretli all things," and that 
 when we walk in the path of duty there may be the deepest 
 peace in the midst of surrounding trouble. 
 
 Luther had so much delight in his commentary on the 
 
THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 97 
 
 epistle to the Galatians that he used to call it " his wife " — 
 " his Catharine cle Bore," — of whom again he was accustomed 
 to say that " he would not exchange her for the kingdom of 
 France, nor all the riches of the Venetians." Immediately 
 after his return from his brief marriage jaunt, Mr. Morison 
 was very busy with the preparation of a work for the press, 
 which must have imposed a heavy tax on his already over- 
 taxed energies, and yet must have been so agreeable to him 
 as almost to rival his new domestic affection. We refer to his 
 wQi'k on " The Extent of the Atonement ; or, the Question, 
 For whom did Christ die? answered." In a former chapter 
 we gave an epitome of the pamphlet entitled the Nature of 
 the Atonement," which had been issued in the beginning 
 of the year. That on the extent of the Saviour's work 
 was intended to be its sequel. The preface to the first 
 edition is dated "1st June, 1841." So that the book 
 must have appeared the week before the meeting of the 
 'Synod. As we have hitherto endeavoured to observe chro- 
 nological order in our narrative, we must notice briefly this 
 important publication before we give an account of the ex- 
 citing debate in the Supreme Court of the Church. For as 
 we have already remarked, the new generation that has 
 sprung up since cannot form a correct idea of the state of 
 things in these early days, unless they are made acquainted 
 with the literature of the movement, as well as with the 
 ecclesiastical proceedings. Thousands of these pamphlets 
 were circulated over the country, and did more to shape 
 public opinion, and bless the souls of men, in many quarters, 
 than sermons, lectures, or discussions. 
 
 The Extent of the Atonement" was the largest of the 
 Kilmarnock series of Gospel publications. It had only 
 paper covers, and sold at a shilling. It contained more than 
 a hundred of those long, closely printed pages, that seem to 
 have been preferred in the early editions from that local 
 press. Although not so philosophical in its structure as 
 "the Nature of the Atonement" (and the subject did not 
 admit of so much original research) it was even more 
 important, in one view of the matter; and more popular, 
 because all its arguments and illustrations centred round 
 that point, which was the most prominent one in the whole 
 controversy—" Did Christ, or did he not, die for all men?" 
 If we should succeed in giving our readers a clearly con- 
 densed summary of this work, we will at once let them 
 
 H 
 
98 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 understand what was the sum and substance of Mr Mori- 
 son's preaching at this time, and prepare them tor the dis- 
 cussions of the Synod, which all hinged on this momentous 
 
 "^Thrtreatise is divided into four parts. The first is entitled 
 Direct Scripture Evidence in support of the Universality 
 of the Atonement." (In later editions Mr. Morison substi- 
 tuted the word "Propitiation" for " ^t™^*' 
 oive it as it stood in this first edition.) In this first chaptei 
 the author elaborately expounds and arrays on the side ot 
 his darling doctrine the following passages of Scripture— 
 1 Tim ii. 1-6: 1 Cor. xv. 1-4; 2 Cor. v. 14, 15; 2 Cor v. 
 19:27 1 John ii. 1, 2; John iii. 16, 17; 1 Tim. i. 15; 
 1 John V. 10, 11; Luke ii. 10, 11; 2 Pet. 11. 1, besides 
 other apposite, although minor, texts It was ^^f^J^Y 
 supposed that it was to this kind of argument that Dr. 
 Candlish referred in his work on the ^^^^^^^'f^.'^'Z 
 lished some years afterwards, when he ridiculed the 
 procedure of "those writers who strung so many texts 
 together and called it theological argument, much after 
 the fashion of children who heap stones together^ on the 
 sea-shore, and call their tottering fabric a l^^^^^^" J^^^^ 
 how can a really scriptural theology be formed except by 
 the Eduction of Scriptu- texts? What if the children 
 be the children of God, over whom their father approv- 
 indysmiles^ What if the stones be "livmg stones, dug 
 from the quarry of inspiration? What if nwisible cement 
 be supplied by the invisible Spirit? What if the house be 
 the house Beautiful?— also 
 
 " A Refuge from the stormy blast 
 And our eternal home?" 
 
 What if the sea-shore be the shore of the sea of Everlasting 
 Truth? And what if its ever-rolling billows sound in their 
 unceasing anthem an applauding AmenJ ■ . -p^ 
 
 The sicond chapter is entitled «' Indirect Scripture Evi- 
 dence in support of the Universality of the Atonement 
 ^e serarate'heads are as follow :_(1.) "I -"^f -f^ 
 UniveLlity of the Atonement from the fact that God 
 sincerely invites, urges, implores, and commands all to 
 come and take salvation, as freely given unto ai m Christ 
 Jesus" (2.) "Another side-light is cast upon the blessed 
 Sne by he doctrine of Faith. Faith is the credit which 
 
REASONS WHY JESUS DIED FOR ALL. 
 
 99 
 
 we give to a testimony Faith can bring no 
 
 more out of a testimony than is really in it. If the testi- 
 mony, then, do not tell the sinner that Christ came into the 
 world to save him, the sinner is not entitled to believe that 
 he did; and if he do believe it, his belief of it, instead of 
 being faith, must be presumption." (3.) " I would again 
 argue the unlimited extent of the Atonement from the fact 
 that 'The Gospel is good news to every creature.'" (4.) 
 " Because peace of conscience immediately follows the belief 
 of the Gospel." (5.) " Because nothing but unbelief is now 
 standing between any sinner on earth and salvation." (6.) 
 '' Because the non-elect have a greater interest in Christ, 
 and relation to him, and reason of hope from him, than 
 de\TJ[s have." (7.) " Because the inspired writers speak of 
 the extent of the Atonement in language very different from 
 what they employ when they speak of election, justification, 
 sanctification, or glorification." (8.) "Because it is the 
 duty of every sinner to look upon himself as hsiving by his 
 sins 'pierced the Saviour;' and as therefore bound to 'mourn 
 and be in bitterness.'" (9.) " From the universality of the 
 resurrection of the dead." (10.) " From the nature of the 
 institution of the Lord's Supper." (11.) " From the immense 
 difficulty of getting into Christ on any other princij)le." 
 (12.) "From many other Scriptui'e truths." The author 
 here refers successively to the cities of refuge as types of 
 Christ, for "every one to flee to;" to the manna which fell 
 for all the camp in the wilderness ; and to the brazen serpent 
 which was lifted up for all the bitten Israelites. 
 
 In the thii'd chapter he "answers the objections that are 
 usually alleged against the Universality of the Atonement." 
 (1.) "If Christ died for more than those who shall ulti- 
 mately be saved, has he not died in vain for many?" 
 Answer — God's glory is secured by the Atonement, whether 
 men accept it or reject it, and it becomes the ground of the 
 condemnation of the impenitent. (2.) " If Christ died for 
 the ultimately unsaved, is it just in God to make them pay 
 the penalty of theii* sins over again?" Answ^er — He did 
 not so die for them that they can demand theii' freedom. 
 (3.) " Would it not be ridiculous to suppose that Christ 
 died for those who were in hell long before his death?" 
 Answer — Would it not be ridiculous to suppose that Chi-ist 
 died for those who were in heaven long before his death? 
 (4.) " Can we conceive that God would send his own Son to 
 
100 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 die for the ultimately unsaved, when he had determined to 
 create them only to be damned?" Answer — God never 
 created any number or class of men only to be damned. 
 (Here follow some objections of the same sort, drawn from 
 the positions of high Calvinists, which we need not reca- 
 pitulate.) (9.) " Are there not passages of Scripture which 
 intimate that the Atonement is limited to the ultimately 
 saved?" We will insert an extract from this paragraph, 
 for the satisfaction of our readers, and as an example of our 
 author's style. 
 
 "Is John X. 15, quoted ? It is this, — * I lay down my life for the 
 SHEEP. ' But mark, it is not said, * I lay down my life for the sheep 
 only.' It is true that he laid down his life for 'the sheep,' but how 
 that can prove that he laid it down for none others, I am at a loss to 
 comprehend. Paul says, 'Christ loved me and gave himself for me; ' 
 and whilst such a saying is undoubtedly a proof of the love of Christ 
 to him, it would surely be wrong to infer from it that there are none 
 others, besides Paul, whom he loved, and for whom he gave himself a 
 ransom. Christ, in the passage quoted, is not contrasting his treat- 
 ment of the sheep and his treatment of the wolves; he is contrasting 
 himself with the thief and the hireling; and whilst he says of the thief, 
 *he Cometh for to steal, and to kill, and destroy; ' and of the hireling, 
 *he seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth;' he says 
 of himself, *I am the good Shepherd, I lay down my life for the 
 sheep.' He is making no reference at all to the extent of his expiatory 
 death. Had I occasion to speak of a certain poor family, and of what 
 I had done for it; and were I to say that I had taken a deep interest 
 in it, and bad again and again made sacrifices for its comfort; would 
 any man be warranted to conclude that I took no interest in other poor 
 families, or that I had made no sacrifices for them ? No more war- 
 ranted is any one to conclude that because Jesus — having occasion to 
 speak of his sheep — mentions his sacrifice for them, he therefore made 
 no sacrifice for others besides them." 
 
 In like manner he shows that when Christ said to his ' 
 Father in his intercessory prayer, " I pray for them ; I pray 
 not for the world," he really prayed for the unity of his little 
 flock, that the whole world might be ultimately blessed 
 through their instrumentality — as also, by collating Matt, 
 xxvi. 28 and Rom. v. 15 — that "many" does not mean 
 *' some," but " all." 
 
 In the fourth and last chapter he adduces the opinion 
 of good and learned men in all ages in favour of the doctrine 
 of universal atonement, beginning with the Fathers, and 
 going down through the German Reformers to the British. 
 
 Hear the following from " Fruitful Sermons, preached by 
 the right reverend father, and constant martyr of Jesus 
 
THE MARROW OF MODERN DIVINITY. 
 
 101 
 
 Christ, Master Hugh Latimer, 4<o ed., London, 1653, leaf 
 208:"— 
 
 * ' The eminently devoted and fearless bishop and martyr, Hugh 
 Latimer, held and proclaimed the same glorious truth. In one of his 
 sermons, preached in 1552, on Philip, iii. he has the following passage: 
 ' For what other cause did Christ come, but only to take away our sins 
 by his passion, and so deliver us from the power of the devil ? But 
 these merit-mongers [the papists] have so many good works, that they 
 be able to sell them for money, and so to bring other men to heaven 
 by buying of their good works; which, no doubt, is the greatest con- 
 tempt of the passion of Christ that can be devised. For Christ only, 
 and no man else, merited remission, justification, and eternal felicity 
 for as many as will believe the same; they that will not believe it, 
 shall not have it, for it is no more but believe and have. For Christ 
 shed as much blood for Judas as he did for Peter; Peter believed 
 it, and therefore he was saved; Judas would not believe, and 
 therefore he was condemned — the fault being in him only, and in 
 nobody else.' " 
 
 After divers other extracts from Usher, "Williams, 
 Dwight, &c., Mr. Morison gives some remarkable quota- 
 tions from the writings of Boston of Ettrick, and the two 
 Erskines, who founded the Secession Church in the early- 
 part of last century. It appears that these earnest men felt 
 hampered and confined by the strict doctrines of the Con- 
 fession of Faith, in which they had been brought up; 
 and therefore they earnestly sought some outlet for that 
 zeal which burned in their souls. We Avill again let Mr. 
 Morison speak : — 
 
 " In this extremity, the Marrow of Modern Divinity was found and 
 republished. The grand peculiarity of that book is a doctrine, not in 
 the Westminster Confession of Faith, — this, viz., that 'Christ is God'- 
 gift to all mankind-sinners as such.' It main talus that he died only 
 for the elect: it asserts, however, that he and all his benefits, such as 
 his righteousness and eternal life iu him, are ' freely gifted to all mans 
 kind-sinners as such.' The Bostons and the Erskines were trained in 
 this school; they denied the universal death but they maintained the 
 universal gift, and they insisted on every man, woman, and child, 
 believing that Christ was * theirs,' and 'that all that he did on Cal- 
 vary he did for them.' It was on this doctrine of the- universal gift 
 that they risked their own souls; it was by this doctrine that they 
 'won ' the souls that were their ' hire; ' and yet it is not a doctrine 
 taught in their ' Confession of Faith.' This universal gift was the only 
 door by which they could get themselves into Christ, or let otlier sin- 
 ners enter into him. It was, therefore, their favourite, and darling, 
 and everlastingly reiterated theme. Take it out of the sermons of those 
 true Scottish worthies, and their sermons are idle, frivolous essays; or 
 lifeless, spiritless, soulless, most marrowless skeletons. That you may 
 certify yourselves that I am not misrepresenting, take a passage from 
 
102 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANOELICAL UNION. 
 
 Boston as a specimen. It occurs in his sermon entitled ' Christ gifted 
 to sinners.' He says, ' The third thing is, the party to whom Christ is 
 (riven. To whom, then, is he given ? He that heUeves the Son ot 
 God to be given to sinners, and lays the matter to heart, will be ready 
 to say, " 0, but whom is he given to ? I fear he is not given to me; 
 and what am I better then ? " But t • ^ ^ 4.1, 
 
 ' Christ is given to mankind-sinners indefinitely. It is not to tne 
 elect only, but to sinners indefinitely, elect or not elect; sinners of the 
 race of Adam without exception, whatever they have been, whatever 
 they are; whatever qualifications they have, whatever they want. The 
 Father, in making of this gift to us, had no eye to any qualification in 
 us, but our misery and extreme need; and in the view of that, he made 
 this gift for their remedy. 
 
 '"1. This gift and grant is conceived m the most ample terms, 
 without any restriction to any particular set of men. John iii. 16, 
 God so loved the world, that he gave his only -begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting 
 life." You see here it goes as wide as " the world," the world of men, 
 to exclude fallen angels, but none of the family of fallen Adam. There- 
 fore says the prophet, " To W5 a Son is given." They will get no ap- 
 probation of Christ nor his Father, who curtail and hem in this grant, 
 as they consult not his nor his Father's honour therein. 
 
 " ' 2. Christ is given to mankind-sinners as the manna was given to 
 the Israelites. Now, the manna was given to the Israelites indefinitely; 
 to them who loathed it as well as to them that loved it. John vi. 
 31-33 "Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He 
 gave them bread from heaven to eat: verily, verily, I say unto you 
 Moses gave you not the true bread from heaven; but my Father giveth 
 you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which 
 cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. And 
 therefore Christ is given to sinners indefinitely, without exception ot 
 any; therefore says Christ to the unbelieving J ev^s, verse 32, My 
 Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.' " 
 
 How these excellent men could consistently hold that 
 Chiist had died only for the elect, and that yet he was a gift 
 unto all, is a puzzle to us as it was to Mr. Morison. He 
 occupied the only sure ground, both logically and scripturally 
 viewed, namely. That the Saviour hid died for all, and 
 therefore was a gift to all; but it was much to the point in 
 him to adduce this "marrow" testimony, when endeavour- 
 ing to persuade his fathers and brethren in the Secession 
 Church to see no harm in the view of Universal Atonement, 
 for which he contended. We think it highly probable that 
 this Bostonian belief of a limited death, but umversal gift, 
 was the origin of that double reference scheme which Drs. 
 Brown, Heugh, and others excogitated during the progress of 
 these controversies in their Church. 
 
 Such then was the tractate which Mr. Morison published 
 just the week before the meeting of Synod, and which must 
 
ADDRESS OX THE EVE OF THE SYNOD. 103 
 
 Lave been in the hands of the clergymen who assembled in 
 Glasgow to adjudicate on his case. Like the companion 
 pamphlet which had been published a few months before, it 
 was a singular Tinion of learning and zeal. It bristled all 
 over with quotations from Chrysostom, Theophylact, and 
 Davenant, but also with oft interjected appeals to anxious 
 souls. In one page there was Greek, in another Latin, and 
 in a third the striking characters of the Syriac language 
 which Jesus spoke ; but, side by side with these ancient 
 dialects, were also to be found the homeliest exhortations in 
 the mother tongue. It was plain that, young though he 
 was, the appellant was more competent to discuss points in 
 theology than many senior ministei-s, and even than many 
 professors of divinity. 
 
 On the Monday night, before proceeding to the Synod, 
 Mr. Morison made a touching address, at the close of the 
 weekly prayer-meeting, to his congregation, which crowded 
 eveiy part of the building. He said that " he was going 
 into Glasgow next day, in the strength of the Lord. He 
 had not sought his present position : but he would not 
 resile from the stand which he had been led to take. He 
 asked their prayers that he might be enabled to state 
 the truth clearly and scripturally. He had no fear but that 
 the issue of the commotion that had been raised would be 
 glorifying to God. And whatever might be that issue, he 
 hoped that none of them would cling to him out of sympathy 
 and friendship, if they were not fully persuaded that the 
 doctrines for which he had contended were the doctrines of 
 the Word of God. It was indeed that he might be able to 
 present to every one of them a personal Saviour that he had 
 been striving and contending." There were many wet eyes 
 in the assembly, as these artless words were uttered. Those 
 who had read the fascinating pages of D'Aubigne, v/hich 
 were just beginning to be issued in this country, by Oliver 
 it Boyd, thought of the undaunted Luther, proceeding all 
 alone to the Diet of Worms, — 
 
 Defying devils and their wiles. 
 Although as numerous as the tiles 
 That lay upon the German roofs — 
 Then, boldly rang his horse's hoofs. 
 
 It may be proper for us here to inform those of oui- 
 readers, who are not fully conversant with all the stages of 
 Presbyterian church courts, that, in a fully developed deno- 
 
104 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 mination of that ecclesiastical order, an appeal may be made 
 by an aggrieved party from the decision of the Kirk-Session, 
 that is, the elders of a single church, first, to the Presbytery, 
 or court of ministers and elders in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood, then to the Synod, or rejjresentatives of a widfe dis- 
 trict of country, and lastly, to the General Assembly, or 
 representatives of the entire church. The Secession Church, 
 now the United Presbyterian, never were ambitious and 
 aspiring enough to have a General Assembly, although the 
 Free Church, the last-born daughter of Scottish dissent, has 
 closely imitated the Established and endowed communion in 
 all her forms. The Synod, then, which met alternately in 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, thirty years ago, was the highest 
 judicial court in the United Secession Church of Scotland. 
 
 Our young theologian must undoubtedly have felt that his 
 case had been transferred to a more important arena of 
 debate when he entered, on Tuesday, the 8th of June, 1841, 
 the scene of Synodic deliberation. What the Court of Ses- 
 sion in Edinburgh is, compared with a Sheriff's chambers in 
 a burgh town ; what the House of Commons is, compared 
 with a Town Council Board ; what Glasgow was as a city, 
 compared with rustic Kilmarnock — somewhat similar were 
 the relative proportions of the metropolitan Synod and the 
 provincial Presbytery, at whose bar he had formerly pled. 
 Now he would meet men fully worthy of his steel. There 
 "was the holy Dr. Mitchell, of Glasgow, who ever seemed to 
 be in communion with his God. There was the able and 
 politic Dr. Heugh, of whom Gilfillan has truly said, that 
 " his tact bordered on genius." There was the polished 
 David King, ready to deliver one of his ornate speeches mth 
 figures and flowers, like " ajoples of gold in pictures of 
 silver." There was his friend and former Professor, Dr. 
 Brown, of Edinburgh, to whom he owed much of his love 
 for books, as well as that clear and liberal shaj^e which his 
 theology had assumed. And last, but not least, there was 
 the fearless, and also the learned, Marshall of Kirkintilloch, 
 able to trip him up if he made a mistake in scholarship, and 
 willing to trip him up, too, because he believed he had made 
 mistakes in scriptural interpretation. 
 
 The general audience, moreover, which crowded the 
 spacious chapel in which the meetings of Synod were, held, 
 was both more numerous, and, as a whole, perhaps, more 
 intellectual than that which had hung upon Mr. Morison's 
 
THE AUDIENCE IN GORDON STREET CHAPEL. 105 
 
 lips in Kilmarnock. Gordon Street Cliapel (Dr. Beattie's) 
 — to-day displaced by unhallowed warehouses — was one of 
 those edifices of a now almost obsolete style of architecture, 
 which were reared more for comfort than for show. Plain 
 but substantial, it could contain easily 1600 hearers. A 
 friend has described to us the scene that presented itself to 
 his view, when he stole a brief respite from business and ran 
 in to hear the juvenile ecclesiastic who had created such a 
 schism in Israel. Here was a sceptic who had cast ofi* all 
 regard for God and the Bible, because he could not reconcile 
 its supposed contradictions ; but he stood in the aisle, not 
 feeling the fatigue of his position, being spell-bound under 
 the oratory of the young divine who " cleared the character 
 of God," and represented him to be a God of love to all. In 
 another passage he could notice, to his surprise, a member of 
 the Established Church, whose pious mind had often been 
 much exercised, doubtless, on the more abstruse points of 
 Calvinism, and who " would give all he had in the world, if 
 he could only say what that young man was saying, that he, 
 ' like all the Roman believers, had peace with God through 
 the Lord J esus Christ ! ' " Indeed, the more thoughtful 
 people from all denominations of Chi'istians were there; 
 because the newspaper reports of the case in Kilmarnock 
 had already thoroughly aroused the interest of the public — 
 not to speak of the wide circulation of tracts and pamphlets. 
 And there is no doubt, whatever the antagonists of the doc- 
 tiine may say, that a universal atonement is popular with 
 the masses. Untaxed bread for all ; liberty for all ; a suff- 
 rage for all — these have been popular political cries. Not 
 less is a Sa^dour for all — if men were only set free from 
 theological leading-strings. And for this very reason we 
 have always felt that the doctrines of the EvangeKcal 
 Union were a protest against religious conseiwatism, and 
 in harmony with -the liberal and liberalising spii'it of 
 the age. 
 
 We may also notice that besides many other clergymen, 
 the Hev. Messrs. Bussell and Pullar of Glasgow attended 
 during both the days of debate. As Independent ministers, 
 they must have felt interest in seeing not only how Presby- 
 terianism worked, but also in the doctrinal discussions them- 
 selves. For the young appellant occupied at that time 
 exactly the same standpoint in evangelical belief which their 
 own denomination did, and frequently quoted, in the course 
 
106 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 of the debate from the writings of Dr. Wardlaw, in suppoi-t 
 of his own views. 
 
 The meetings of the Synod had been opened on the Mon- 
 day night, when " an able and appropriate sermon on Ephes. 
 i. 22 ('And hath put all things under his feet,' &c.), had 
 been preached by the retiring Moderator, Kev. J ames Harpei- 
 of Leith." Thereafter the E-ev. Archibald Baird of Paisley 
 had been chosen Moderator. On Tuesday forenoon, after 
 devotional exercises, and the disposal of some routine busi- 
 ness, Mr. Morison's appeal was taken up. The minutes of 
 Presbytery connected with his case were read, followed by 
 Mr. Morison's Reasons of Protest against their decision. 
 We give these in full. Our readers will observe that they 
 are as brief and simple as they could well have been made. 
 
 Reasons of Protest by the Rev. James Morison against the Decisioti of 
 the Presbytery of Kilmarnock, in his Case. 
 
 " James Morison protested against the said decision of the Presby- 
 tery of Kilmarnock, on the following grounds: — 
 
 "I. — In reference to the first 'head' of charges, he conceives that 
 he has by no means deviated from the main scope of the subordinate 
 standards ; and he does not understand that ministers of the United 
 Secession Church in general consider themselves bound to adhere to 
 every minute aspect of doctrine set forth in these standards. That he 
 has not deviated from the main scope of the subordinate standards, 
 and that the tenets charged against him as errors are in truth scrip- 
 tural doctrines, he conceives to be evident in reference to the 
 
 *' 1st doctrine adduced. The object of saving faith is the Gospel: 
 and the Gospel is this — * Christ died for our sins according to the 
 Scriptures.' The nature of saving faith is a ' setting to one's seal that 
 God is true' in the record he has given concerning his Son. Whoso- 
 ever believes a truth is conscious of believing it; whosoever, therefore, 
 believes the saving truth must be conscious of believing it ; and who- 
 soever is conscious of believing it must know that unbelief, the only 
 obstacle on the sinner's part, standing between him and salvation, is 
 removed. 
 
 ** 2nd doctrine adduced. Men are not required to do more than they 
 have ' strength' to do ; and if they were, they could not be responsible 
 for not doing it. 
 
 " 3rd doctrine adduced, * "Without faith it is impossible to please 
 God' in prayer. Prayer to be acceptable must be offered up 'in the 
 name of Christ.' 
 
 "4th doctrine adduced. Msrava/a means, and always means, *a 
 change of mind; ' which change of mind, in reference to sin, neces- 
 sarily involves as a consequence, change of feeling and change of 
 conduct. 
 
 " 5th doctrine adduced. Justification is not pardon, for a person 
 can be only once justified, but he may be often pardoned. As to the 
 obtaining of pardon it is said, ' If we confess our sins, God is faithful 
 and just to forgive us our sins.' Justification and pardon refer to the 
 
REASONS OF PROTEST AND APPEAL. 
 
 107 
 
 same blessing substantially considered, but they refer to it as viewed 
 in quite different aspects. 
 
 6th doctrine adduced. Eternal, personal, and unconditional election 
 is maintained ; but as the elect are said to be ' chosen in Christ,' Christ 
 or his atonement is obviously presupposed. 
 
 " 7th allegation. It is not wrong for a saint to pray, * deal not with 
 me according to my deserving.' It is election and not the atonement 
 that secures the removal of unbelief. 
 
 8th allegation. AJl men are guilty of Adam's sin, if by guilt be 
 meant mere obligation to punishment ; and it is certain that no man 
 will suffer eternal death merely on account of Adam's first sin. 
 
 "II. — In reference to the second head of charges, James Morison 
 never used any active measures to circulate the tract; but he decidedly 
 regrets that he did not employ active measures to hinder others from 
 circulating it. Considering that he said to the Presbytery, on the day 
 of his ordination, that he could not, and would not preach any other 
 doctrines than those contained in the tract, and considering that the 
 tenets charged against him as errors are scriptural truths, and truths 
 not inconsistent with the main scope of the subordinate standards, 
 James Morison protests against the sentence of the Presbytery, and 
 hereby appeals to the supreme court. 
 
 " James Morison. 
 
 "Kilmarnock, March 9th, 1841." 
 
 The Reasons of Protest and Appeal by the Clerk's Lane 
 Church and Congregation were also read at the same time. 
 They were as follows: — 
 
 The Congregation of Clerk's Lane, Kilmarnock, appeals to tbe 
 Sj-nod against the decision of the United Associate Presbytery of 
 Kilmarnock, on the 2nd March, 1841, on the following grounds: — 
 
 " 1st, Because the Presbyterj' in their proceeding against Mr. Mori- 
 son have not acted in accordance with the law of Christ. Instead of 
 conversing with him in a private manner, they at once instituted 
 public judicial proceedings against him on the foundation of vague 
 reports, — thereby doing what they could to injure his usefulness, and 
 excite prejudice in the congregation against him. 
 
 " 2nd, Because the Presbytery agreed to suspend Mr. Morison from 
 the discharge of his ministerial duties for holding doctrines which we 
 conceive to be quite sound and scriptural, and did make the composi- 
 tions of men the test of orthodoxy, in place of the Holy Scriptures, in 
 their proceedings against him. 
 
 " 3rd, Because Mr. Morison's adherence to the main scope of the 
 standards of the Secession Church is, in our opinion, all that was re- 
 quired of him by assenting to them; that it never was the intention of 
 the Church in enacting them to bind her ministers to every form of 
 expression, or even to every sentiment contained in them, either in 
 stating or explaining the leading doctrines of the Gospel, when such 
 expressions or sentiments may be at variance with the clearly revealed 
 will of God in the Holy Scriptures — the only supreme standard of faith 
 and practice. 
 
 " 4th, Because, by this mode of procedure the Gospel of the grace of 
 God is obscured both in its simplicity and freeness, and an attempt 
 made to perpetuate in the Church that mystified, incoherent, lifeless, 
 
108 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 pointless style of preacliing — the sad effects of which are seen in the 
 low state of religion amongst us, and consequent decline of the Seces- 
 sion Church. 
 
 " 5th, Because Mr. Morison had told the Presbytery on the day of 
 his ordination that he neither could nor would preach any other doc- 
 trines than those contained in his tract, and while the Presbytery 
 could not den}' this, yet they groundlessl}"- charged him with disin- 
 genuous conduct in concealing his sentiments from them. 
 
 ** 6th, Because the Presbytery had evideutl)' prejudged Mr. Mori- 
 son's case, before hearing his defence, by their bringing written 
 speeches with them, ready made, in their pockets, and reading them, 
 consequentl}'^ they never attempted to contradict the statements he 
 made, nor met the many irresistible arguments he used, to prove the 
 soundness of his views before they came to such a decision. 
 
 " For these and other reasons to be proposed in discussing this 
 appeal, the Commissioners humbly hope that the Synod will sustain 
 the appeal and reverse the decision of the Presbytery. 
 
 " Signed, in name and by appointment of the Congregation, 
 
 "James Guthrie. 
 Robert Thomson. 
 William Bushbee. 
 Samuel Bryden. 
 James Thomson. 
 
 John Peden. 
 David Gilchrist. 
 William Morton. 
 James Boyd. 
 James Aird. 
 
 Andrew Aitken. 
 Thomas Adam. 
 John Stewart. 
 Andrew Stewart. 
 
 "KiLMAKNocK, Wth March ^ 1841." 
 
 The Presbytery's reply to these Reasons of Protest next 
 fell to be read. This is doubtless a very long and elaborate 
 document; but it would be quite impossible for us to enter 
 into any examination of its arguments. Suffice it to say, 
 that the changes are rung over again, on all the eight points 
 of the Kilmarnock Controversy. The only new statement 
 that struck us as being worthy of notice, after wading 
 through this paper, was the following: — "It did not enter 
 the mind of any member of the Presbytery that Mr. Morison 
 would maintain that the mere seeing of what rendered salva- 
 tion possible, was itself all the believing necessary to render 
 it certain, and give full assurance and joy." Now this argu- 
 ment, although plausible, is most unsound. Does not the 
 New Testament cry everywhere to the sinner, "Believe on 
 the 'Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved'"? What 
 does that conditional promise plainly imply? Why just this 
 — that salvation is possible before a man believes; but is made 
 certain by his believing. And how could the atonement of 
 Calvary be better explained, in consistency with this con- 
 ditionality, than as that sacrifice which made salvation pos- 
 sible to all? For the Lord's gracious decree is this, that 
 whenever we believe in his benevolence as expressed in the 
 
MR. MORISON NOT UNPREPARED., 
 
 109 
 
 cross, a deed of amfiesty is passed for all our sins, so that, 
 like the courtier of Queen Candace, we may go on our desert- 
 way rejoicing. 
 
 As soon as the Presbytery's answer to his Reasons of Pro- 
 test were read, Mr. Morison stood forth to deliver his defence. 
 We 'can readily believe that whenever the grave divines and 
 eager auditors would see the mere youth rise to support 
 such an appeal in such a cause, the thought would pass 
 through their minds, " Surely this daring David must have 
 been helped by the Lord, or he would not have flung down 
 this Gospel gauntlet so fearlessly" — a persuasion which 
 doubtless would be deepened as the speaker proceeded with 
 his address of six hours' duration. And here we must make 
 a word of explanation for our honoui-ed friend. Dr. Morison 
 has lately explained to us that he had been kept so busy 
 with the evangelistic work already referred to, as well as 
 with the preparation of his volume, that he had no time to 
 study the defence which he made at the Synod. Therefore, 
 he has often thought that he did himself injustice, in so far 
 as his own reputation was concerned, before that erudite 
 assembly. There was another appellant on the Atonement 
 Controversy, whose case came ofi* immediately after Mr. 
 Morison's, the Rev. R. T. Walker, of Comrie, in the Pres- 
 bytery of Perth, and who was thought by some to make a 
 more finished defence than Mr. Morison. He had his reply 
 carefully written out, and read it with deliberation. His 
 appeal does not awaken much interest now, for the same 
 reason that when we see at the end of a long trial for 
 murder, that the man got ofi", we do not care to read all the 
 details of the proceedings, — whereas, if the man is to be 
 hung, we devour them with avidity ! IVIr. Walker satisfied 
 the Synod, and returned to all the comforts and honours of 
 his Comrie charge; but James Morison was fii'st suspended 
 and then cut down, only however to rise up in Kilmarnock 
 again as if he had been touched with a more vivifying spear 
 than Ithuriel's, and with the strange power of quickening 
 others besides. Walker's case is almost forgotten now; but 
 Morison's is an immortal memory; because a goodly and 
 flourishing ecclesiastical tree was planted by his struggle 
 and his sufferings. And, fiu'ther, we will not allow him to 
 say that his defence was in any way spoiled by being- 
 unwritten. We verily believe that it was thereby improved. 
 Fresh and buoyant as he then was, the oratio directa was 
 
110 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 better than the oratio lecta. We know that it produced an 
 immense effect as spoken. The following statement, recently 
 made to a member of one of our churches, was communicated 
 to us the other day: — " Your denomination was not formed 
 so much by James Morison's words, as by his way of uttering 
 them. • My mother heard him before the Synod in Glasgow ; 
 and she said it was the manner not the rtmtter that won the 
 people's hearts. When all the ministers were maligning 
 and condemning him, he answered with such meekness as 
 showed that he truly had the Spirit of Christ." We will 
 not accept the worthy woman's explanation altogether; but 
 we will admit that the matter and raamwr combined pro- 
 duced the mighty effect on the audience that was produced. 
 And since the style of extemporary address was more 
 favourable for the setting off of that loving manner, we are 
 glad that the young disputant adopted it. Moreover, we 
 cannot admit that he was unprepared. His studies for 
 years had prepared him. The book he had been labouring 
 at had prepared him. The opposition he had met with had 
 prepared him. The weeping Marys and Thomases he had 
 conversed ^vith had prepared him. The Holy Ghost had 
 prepared him. 
 
 Although Mr. Morison had no pile of manuscript with 
 him, he had brought a great pile of theological books, from 
 which he quoted every now and then, with a readiness which 
 showed how familiar he w^as with their contents. We pro- 
 pose now to lay before our readers a portion of the defence 
 of Christ's truth which he made before the Synod of the 
 Secession Church. We have directed the printer, on account 
 of its great importance, to insert it in larger type than has 
 been given to our other quotations. Let us suppose then 
 that we are in the old Gordon Street Chapel, and that wo 
 actually listen to the sacred orator as, in the clear ringing 
 and powerful tones of other days, he speaks as follows : — 
 
 " Mr. MoRisoN then addressed the coui-t in support of his 
 protest and appeal. He began by stating that he felt com- 
 pelled to appear before them that day by the demands of his 
 own conscience. He felt compelled, by the obligations under 
 which he conceived himself bound, to advocate the truth of 
 God, — that truth which he considered to be intimately con- 
 nected with the welfare of immortal souls, and the glory 
 of Christ's kingdom, — to dissent most decidedly from the 
 decision of the Presbytery of Kilmarnock in reference to his 
 
MR. MOKISONS DEFENCE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 case. He cUd so not from any disrespect towards his fathei-s 
 and brethren in that Presbytery, but because he was per- 
 suaded that he had truth on his side, because he was 
 persuaded that, in their proceedings against him, they had 
 been instrumental in checking the progi*ess of the truth, and 
 because, unless the supreme court should reverse their deed, 
 the triumph of the Gospel would be greatly marred, not 
 only in the district in which he laboured, but throughout 
 the country generally, and in particular throughout the 
 Secession Church. He was persuaded that they had gi-eatly 
 degenerated in these times from the reformation Gospel, and 
 from the Gospel of the apostolic ages. After having in all 
 sincerity and simplicity searched out for something on which 
 he himself could venture his soul for eternity; and after 
 having found a truth on which he could rest it, he could not 
 help telling it to his poor fellow-men. When he had found 
 out this 'truth as it is in Jesus,' he never fancied that it 
 could be opposed to the subordinate standards of the Church, 
 which standards he had from his infancy been accustomed 
 to look upon as almost the Bible in epitome. He had not 
 studied these standards so minutely as he had studied the 
 supreme guide to all truth — the word of God; and for long 
 after he came to the knowledge of the truth he had no con- 
 ception that there was any man, who had any claim to be 
 considered a Christian at all, in the whole world, that could 
 have any difficulty in subscribing these standards. In perfect 
 ingenuousness, therefore, did he conceive the views he had 
 dj-awn from the Bible to be those of the Confession of Faith. 
 He would now state to them what those -sdews were, in 
 humble reliance on the aid of the Spirit of God. Before, 
 however, entering on this statement, he had to say that he 
 could not have recognised his own system of divine truth in 
 the representation of it given by the members of Presbytery ; 
 and were it not that he was assured that it was against him 
 that the charges were prefeiTed, he would not have thought 
 that he had anything to do with the matter — so much was 
 his system misrepresented and caricatured (fai- be it from 
 him to say intentionally), and so fai- was it from anything 
 like what he had ever preached or published. He would 
 now proceed to take up the charges se^riatim ; and, as he had 
 already said, that he was better acquainted with the Hoi)' 
 Scriptures than vdth. the subordinate standards of the church, 
 he hoped that if he were able to prove his views to be in 
 
112 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 accordance with that holy word, that his fathers and 
 brethren would admit that they were not in discordance 
 with the Confession of Faith and the other symbolical books. 
 He would not, however, shrink from collating his views 
 with the Confession of Faith, holding as he did that his 
 sentiments were by no means opposed to these subordinate 
 standards of the church. The fii'st charge was, that he held 
 that 'the object of saving faith to any person was the state- 
 ment, that Christ made atonement for the sins of that 
 person, as he made atonement for the sins of the whole 
 world, and that the seeing this statement to be true was 
 saving faith, and gave the assurance of salvation.' There 
 were three grand doctrines embodied in this charge, viz., 
 the object, the nature, and the immediate consequence of. 
 saving faith. Now, as to the object of saving faith, he was 
 prepared to say that it was this — ' Jesus Christ loved me, 
 and gave himself for me, just as he loved every one and gave 
 himself for every one.' It was because this view of the 
 Gospel was not everywhere promulgated that he considered 
 the might and the mastery of that Gospel to be maimed. 
 Before adducing arguments from Scripture to show that the 
 object of faith was presented in the words — ' Jesus loved me, 
 and gave himself for me, just as he gave himself for all,^ he 
 would refer to four sermons of the venerable Ralph Erskine 
 on that text, ' He loved me, and gave himself for me.' The 
 design of these sermons was to show that the text quoted 
 was ' the language of faith,' and that he was no belie ver who 
 did not say 'that Jesus loved him, and gave himself for /wm.' 
 The venerable author's design was to prove that every sinner 
 was not only warranted but bound to say, ' Christ loved 
 me, and gave himself for ??ie.' Now, he (Mr. M.) was in 
 the habit of proclaiming no other doctrine than this. His 
 language in the pulpit continually was, ' 0 ye sinners, to 
 every one of you all, without exception or distinction, is the 
 soul-saving, heart-sanctifying truth of the Gospel sent; you 
 are to believe that Jesus Christ loved you, and gave himself 
 for you, just in the sense that he loved and gave himself for 
 every other person.' That this was the true object of saving 
 faith, he was prepared to prove from Scripture. Ralph 
 Erskine said that every sinner was warranted and bound to 
 believe this, whilst, at the same time, he held that Christ 
 did not give himself for every sinner. A sinner, however, 
 cannot be bound to believe what is not previously true; 
 
THE GOSPEL WHICH PAUL PREACHED. 
 
 113 
 
 neither can faith h'ing out of a testimony more than God has 
 jmt into it. Faith cannot make a Bible to itself ; it only 
 takes out of the Bible what God has put in it. If this be 
 true, and if it be at the same time admitted, that every 
 Gospel hearer is warranted and bound to believe * that Jesus 
 loved him, and gave himself for him,' it must also be con- 
 ceded to be true that God, in the testimony, really says to 
 every sinner, 'Jesus loved you, and gave himself for you.' 
 Was it, then, a fact, that God really does say in the Bible 
 what is equivalent to this? He (Mr. Morison) held that it 
 was. In proof of this, he would adduce a passage from the 15 th 
 chapter of the fii'st epistle to the Corinthians. It ran thus : * 
 — ' Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which 
 I preached unto you'; — and observe that it was the Gospel 
 which he preached unto them before they were believers ; for 
 he immediately adds, 'which also ye have received, and 
 wherein ye stand ; by which also ye are saved,' &c. Observe 
 that it was the belief of this Gospel that ' saved ' them. 
 What, then, was this Gospel which he preached unto them, 
 before they ' received ' it, and were ' saved ' by it 1 The 
 apostle tells us in what follows ; — ' for I delivered unto you, 
 first of all,' — the first thing that he preached unto them, 
 after he arrived in their heathen city — 'that w^hich I also 
 received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the 
 Scriptures.' The very first thing that the apostle told 
 the heathen and unbelieving Corinthians, after he went 
 amongst them, was this ; — ' Christ died for your sins, and 
 my sins, according to the Scriptures.' Tliis was 'the 
 Gospel' — the object of saving faith ; — and it is therefore the 
 thing which every sinner is called upon to believe, and to 
 ' believe first of all.' He (Mr. Morison) did not mean to 
 say that they were not also to believe that Clmst was 
 ' buried and rose again ;' they were, on the contrary, not to 
 dissociate the death from the resurrection ; but what he 
 meant to say was this, every sinner was waiTanted and 
 bound to beheve that ' all that Christ did on Calvary, he did 
 for him.' Another passage to which he would refer, was the 
 close of the 5th chap, of the second epistle to the Corinthians. 
 There the apostle says to unreconciled sinners, ' be ye recon- 
 
 * Although, iu the next two pages, Mr. Morison repeats what he had 
 said in his aildress before the Presbytery, we have inserted the para- 
 graphs on account of their importance, and because, in the Synod 
 speech, the truth was more fully expressed. 
 
 I 
 
114 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 ciled unto God ; for God hath made him to be sin for uSj 
 who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness 
 of God in him.' The argument that the apostle there 
 employs to persuade impenitent sinners to become reconciled 
 to God, is one that shows that the object of ^saving faith is 
 the atonement which Christ has made for each sinner in 
 particular. This is obvious from the fact that the apostle 
 tells the unreconciled sinners that Jesus was made sin for 
 them, that they — the unreconciled sinners — might be treated 
 by God as if they had ' righteousness ' of their own, and 
 were really 'righteous.' All unreconciled sinners are to be 
 told, then, that Christ ' became sin for them^ and if they be 
 not told this, they are robbed of the Gospel. He would next 
 refer to the second chapter of the first epistle to Timothy, 
 where the Ephesian Christians, are enjoined to pray ' for all 
 men,' which duty of praying for no fewer than ' all men,' is 
 grounded on the fact that '■ God wills all men to be saved, 
 and to come to the knowledge of the truth.' The evidence 
 of tliis universal 'will' of benevolence on God's part is to 
 be found in the historical fact that ' Christ gave himself a 
 ransom for all.'' This historical fact is the great truth of 
 the Gospel which is to be proclaimed to every sinner, and 
 which is thus constituted into the object of saving faith. 
 The apostle says of it, it is ' to be testified in due time,' it is 
 the Gospel ' testimony' which, in 'due time,' shall be every- 
 where made known. The apostle, in this passage, has a 
 special reference to Nero, and to other ungodly rulers then 
 at the helm of the Roman government ; hence, after en- 
 joining prayers ' for all men,' he adds, ' for khigs, and for all 
 that are in authority.' Nero was the 'king' or emperor 
 then ' in authority ;' and the Ephesian Christians were to 
 pray for Nero, because ' God willed Nero to be saved, and 
 to come to the knowledge of the truth,' and the evidence of 
 this ' will ' is to be found in the fact that ' Christ gave him- 
 self a ransom for Nero.' If this were true, then it must be 
 evident that Christ gave himself a ransom for all without 
 exception. That this is true the apostle there asserts ; and 
 that it is the object of saving faith is evident from the fact 
 that it constitutes the Gospel testimony — the thing that is 
 to be 'testified' to all in due season. Another passage that 
 he would refer to was 1 John vi. 11 — ' This is the record 
 that God hath given to us' — us, mankind sinners, as such — 
 'eternal life, and this life is in His Son.' From this 
 
THE OBJECT OF SAVING FAITH. 
 
 115 
 
 passage it is evident that every sinner is to believe that God 
 ^ hath given him eternal life.' If he do not believe this, he 
 ' makes God a liar.' He contradicts God. God says to him, 
 ' I have given unto thee eternal life.' He says to God, ' No, 
 O God, I do not believe it ; thou mayest have given it to 
 believers, and to the elect, but I cannot believe that thou 
 hast given it to me.' God, however, here assei-ts it ; and it 
 is the refusal to believe it that constitutes a man an unbe- 
 liever. If it be true, however, that there are some Gospel 
 hearers for whom Christ has not died, then it cannot be true 
 that eternal life is 'given' unto all; for how could a good 
 and just God give to all, that which is a nonentity to most 1 
 If the thing, then, that every sinner is to believe be, that 
 • God has given to him eternal life,' it must be true that the 
 object of saving faith to every such sinner is that which 
 Christ has done for him. "What Christ did was dyimj for 
 slnmrs ; every sinner, therefore, is to believe that ' Christ 
 did love him, and give himself for him.' 
 
 " He (Mr. Morison) did by no means stand alone in his 
 views of the object of saving faith. He had shown that 
 Ralph Erskine held the same opinion, though he coupled 
 with it a doctrine utterly inconsistent. He had now to state 
 that the same view was maintained by the author of The 
 Marrow of Modern Divinity, and by the Associate Presbytery 
 in their Act of 1742. He was not here refeiTing to theii- 
 views regarding the object of saving faith. The passage in 
 the ]MaiTOw to which he referred was that one where Evan- 
 gelista says to Xeoph^^tus, 'believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
 and thou shalt be saved ; that is, be verily persuaded in your 
 lieart that Jesus Chi*ist is j^ours, and that you shall have life 
 and salvation by him; tJw.t whatsoever he did for the redemp- 
 tion of mankind, lie did it for you.' The Marrow-men could, 
 and did, insist on every Gospel-hearer believing all tliis ; 
 while, at the same time, they held that there were many 
 Gospel hearers for whom Christ did nothing at all. They 
 were right in what they held up as the object of the sinner's 
 faith ; — they were wrong in maintaining, alongside of it, 
 another doctrine, which, if rightly understood, took all truth 
 out of the object of faith, as far as it regarded most of those 
 who were called upon notwithstanding to believe it. He 
 (Mr. Morison) agreed entirely with the Marrow-men in their 
 opinion regarding the object of faith. Their opinion was 
 also that of the old Associate Presbytery; and surely it 
 
116 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 would not be condemned by the present United Secession 
 Synod Theii- oinnion on this matter had all along— since 
 he knew the Gospel— been his opinion ; it was what he always 
 preached, and never would he preach any other Gospel. 
 
 " Not only did he thus agi^ee with the Associate Fresby- 
 terv, and The Marrow of Modern Divinity, as to what was 
 the real object of saving faith, he found his views to be - 
 a£?reeable to the views of the most eminent diynes ot all 
 aSes, and the most illustrious reformers. Here Mr. Morisoii 
 proceeded to read large extracts from several of the most 
 eminent divines. He quoted passages from Luther, m 
 which he says, ' whatsoever sins I, thou, and we ail have 
 done, or shall do hereafter, they are Christ's own sms, as 
 verily as if he himself had done them.' ' Not only my sms 
 and thine, but also the sins of the whole world, either past, 
 present, or to come, take hold upon Christ, go about to con- 
 demn him, and do indeed condemn him.' He quoted from 
 Calvin such passages as, ' Christ suffered for the sms of the 
 whole world— of the whole human race ; and by the kind- 
 ness of God is offered indiscriminately to all, though all do 
 not embrace Hm.' ' Now, we shall have a perfect definition 
 of faith, if we say that it is a steadfast and assured know- 
 ledge of God's kindness toiuards us: He quoted irom 
 Latimer, the British reformer, a passage to the following 
 effect I sav that every one of us must have a special 
 iaith : / musihelieve for myself that Christ's blood icas shed 
 for me. I must believe that when Christ saith, " Come unto 
 ^ne all ve that labour and are heavy laden, and I will ease 
 you " here I must believe that Christ calleth me unto him, 
 that I should come and receive everlasting life at his hand^ ; 
 with such special faith do I apply his passion unto me He 
 quoted frdm Bradford, ' He that believeth, that is, he who 
 certainly is persuaded God's love to be so much toimrds him 
 that whereas through sin he was lost, and made a firej^rand 
 of hell ; yet the eternal Father of mercy (who is all-suacient 
 God, and needeth nothing of us, or of anything that we can 
 do), to deliver us out of hell, and to bring us into heaven, 
 sent even his own most dear Son out of his bosom, out of 
 heaven into hell, as a man would say, to brmg us, as I said, 
 from thence into his own bosom and mercy we being his 
 enemies. He, I say, that is thus persuaded oi Gods love 
 toward him, and of the i^ice of his redemption by the dear 
 l>lood of the Lamb immaculate, Jesus Christ, the sanxe man 
 
EMINENT THEOLOGIANS ON MR. MORISON's SIDE. 117 
 
 cannot but love God again, and out of love do that which, 
 might please God, and heartily desire to do still better.' 
 From Hooper the martyr he quoted : — ' I call justifying faith 
 a cei'tain assurance and earnest persuasion of the good will, 
 love, and grace, bounteousness, and mercy of God toward us, 
 whereby we are assured and verily persuaded in our hearts 
 of the mercy, favour, and good will of God the Father, that 
 he is on our side, and ybr us, against all that are against us.' 
 He made various other similar quotations from others of the 
 reformers, and referred also to the fact that similar senti- 
 ments were entertained by most eminent theologians of more 
 modern date. He referred to Usher, and Davenant, and 
 Scott, and Bellamy, and Dwight, and Hall, and Angell 
 James, and others ; and he asked if his fathers and brethreii 
 would be prepared to excommunicate such men from their 
 communion as Jieretics? He preached what they preached; 
 they preached what he had shown to be the Gospel which 
 the apostles preached; and shall that Gospel be condemned 
 by the United Secession Church, and be thus banished from 
 its pulpits 1 He could scarcely persuade himself that this 
 would or could be the case. He then went on to prove that 
 the doctrine of the universal atonement was in reality the 
 basis of all the charges brought against him ; that it was 
 * the head and front of his offending.' The Presbytery might 
 attempt to contradict or deny this, but it was all in vain. 
 The publications issued from the press against him, the 
 presbyterial examinations to which he was subjected, the 
 universal agitation on this one topic in particular throughout 
 the whole surrounding neighbourhood of Kilmarnock, was 
 evidence decisive that it was his grand original sin. He 
 wondered, however, that it should be so, for it was a doc- 
 trine which seemed to him to be identified with the whole 
 power and glory of the Gospel. It was the doctrine by 
 which Luther resuscitated Europe, and it was, moreover, 
 the doctrine of the first three centuries of the Christian 
 era. This might appear to some to be a startling statement, 
 but it was not more startling than true. In proof of its 
 truth, he needed only to refer to Bishop Davenant's Disser- 
 tatio de Morte Christi. In this dissertation, that illustrious 
 divine, so eminently versed in the wi-itings of the eai-ly 
 fathers, gives an account of the history of the controversy 
 respecting the extent of the atonement, and he shows most 
 clearly that, till the fifth century, the dogma of an atone- 
 
118 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 3iient for the elect alone was never heard of. ' The Fathers/ 
 says he, ' when speaking of the death of Christ, describe it 
 to us as undertaken and endured for the redemj^tion of the 
 human race ; and not a word (that I know of) occurs among 
 them of the exclusion of any persons by the decree of God. 
 They agree that it is actually beneficial to those only who 
 believe, yet they everywhere confess that Christ died for all 
 mankind. Thus, Clemens Alexandrinus says, that 'Christ 
 freely brings and bestows salvation on the whole human 
 race.' And of the same opinion is Origen — ' Jesus is de- 
 clared to have come into the world for the sake of all who 
 ever were sinners, that they might leave their sins, and give 
 themselves up to God.' With him agrees Primasius, who, 
 on 1 Tim. ii. 6, says, ' For all men, indeed, the blood of 
 Christ has been shed, but it is beneficial only to those who 
 believe.' Primasius was a disciple of Augustine; and so we 
 may conjecture from him what was the doctrine of Augus- 
 tine himself. The learned Bisho]^ then proceeds to prove 
 that even Augustine — strenuous advocate, as he was, for the 
 doctrine of predestination — never held the novel dogma, 
 that Christ died for the predestinate alone. If, then, the 
 whole primitive church, in its purest and holiest days, held 
 and propagated the doctrine for which he (Mr. Morison) was 
 called in question, surely considerate men would pause be- 
 fore pronouncing condemnation. Was the United Secession 
 Synod prepared to excommunicate the entii-e churches of the 
 first three centuries of the Christian era 1 During the reign 
 of the Papacy itself, this doctrine was a matter of forbear- 
 ance; and there were whole synods who maintained that, 
 ' as no man is, was, or will be, whose nature Christ did not 
 assume, so no man is, was, or will be, for whom Christ did 
 not die.' Towards the breaking of the Keformation day, it 
 was universally admitted by the schoolmen, that Christ died 
 for all men, at least in some sense. In the Catechism of the 
 Council of Trent, there is a section entitled, ' Christ hath 
 made satisfaction for the sins of the lohole world ^ in which it 
 is asserted, that ' the vices and sins which men, from the 
 beginning of the world even to this day, have committed, 
 and which, from henceforth even to the end of the age, they 
 .shall commit,' were laid upon Christ, and he ' blotted out 
 the sins of all ages, and fully and cumulatively satisfied the 
 Father for them.' Now, the reforming churches came out 
 as irrotesthiy churches, as churches -protesting against the 
 
THE DOCTiilNE OF THE CONFESSIONS. 
 
 119 
 
 errors of the Popish Church. If this blessed doctrine of the 
 universality of the atonement be so great, and so dangerous, 
 and so Arminian a heresy as it is alleged, how is it to be 
 accounted for,, that there is no ^^ro^es^ against it in any of 
 the reformed confessions ? It is an historical fact, that there 
 is no such j^'otest entered in the confessions of any of the 
 jyrotestiii'j churches. So far from this being the case, almost 
 all of these confessions most explicitly homologate and 
 acknowledge the doctrine as tlieii- own tenet. Thus, it is 
 said in the Geneva Confession, ' Christ offered up himself as 
 the only sacrifice, to purge the shines of all the world.'' The 
 following question is put in the Palatine Catechism — 'What 
 belie vest thou, when thou sayest, Christ suffered ? ' The answer 
 is memorable — * That, in the whole time of his life, which he 
 continued here upon earth, but especially in the end thereof, 
 he sustained, both in body and soul, the wrath of God against 
 the sin of all mankind,' itc. In the English Confession, composed 
 by Bishop Jewel, it is said, ' Christ, by the same only sacrifice, 
 which he once offered upon the cross, hath brought to effect 
 and fulfilled all things ; and for that cause he said, when he 
 gave up the ghost, ''It is finished," as though he would 
 signify that the price and ransom was now fully paid for the 
 sin of mankind.' In the later confession of Helvetia it is 
 said, ' Chi'ist took on himself, and bare the sins of the world, 
 and did satisfy the justice of God.' This later confession of 
 Helvetia, the Geneva Confession, and the Palatine Catechism, 
 were all received formerly by the Kirk of Scotland, and 
 sanctioned by it as expressive of the sense in which it under- 
 stood the Scriptures. Now the Westminster Confession of 
 Faith was sanctioned by the General Assembly of that kii'k, 
 ' as in nothing contrary to its received doctrine ;' and thus 
 we cannot suppose that the universal atonement, as stated 
 in those ancient books embodying the kirk's ' received doc- 
 trine,' can be condemned in the confession which contains 
 ' nothing contrary to its received doctrine.' Moreover, the 
 Westminster divines, according to the Act of Parliament by 
 which they were assembled, were constituted into an as- 
 sembly, ' for the vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of 
 the Church of England from all false calumnies and asper- 
 sions ;' and we cannot, therefore, suppose that they would 
 expressly run counter to their commission, and contradict 
 that doctrine. What, then, was the doctrine of the Church 
 (f England on the extent of the atonement In the 31st 
 
120 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 ' article,' it is said, ' the offering of Christ once made, is the 
 perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the 
 sins of the whole world, both original and actual.' With 
 this agreed also the doctrine of its catechism, and its book 
 of homilies. Seeing, then, this doctrine was to be cleared 
 and defended, not contradicted and opiwsed by the West- 
 minster divines, many of whom had signed the ' Articles of 
 the Church of England,' it is not credible that I can be con- 
 trary to the present Confession of Faith. On this gi'ound 
 he (Mr. Morison) contended that his doctrine was not at 
 variance with the symbolical books of the Secession Church. 
 He hoped that he had satisfactorily shown it to be the doc- 
 trine of the gi-eat reformed churches, the doctrine of the 
 great and illustrious reformers and martyrs, the doctrine of 
 the three first centuiies of the Christian era, and the doc- 
 trine of the Holy Scriptures. Surely the Synod would not 
 be prepared to unchurch so large a portion of the Christian 
 community, and brand, as heretics, such men as Luther, and 
 Calvin, and Latimer, and Hooper." 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Continuation of Mr. Morison's Defence at the Bar of tW Synod on 
 Faith and Assurance— Replies of Messrs. Meikle and Thomas- 
 Speeches of Kev. Messrs. Fraser of Alloa and Marshall of Kirkin- 
 tilloch— Description of the Personal Appearance of the latter as 
 well as of Dr. Heugh of Glasgow- Speech and Motion made by 
 him— Remarkable Speech made by Dr. Brown of Edinburgh— Its 
 effect upon the Synod. 
 
 Two divisions of the first charge yet remained to be discussed, 
 namelv, the nature of Faith and Assurance. ■ On these 
 points" Mr. Morison's statements were substantially the same 
 as those which he had made when pleading at the bar of the 
 Presbytery, except that his quotations from the divines who 
 favoured his own way of thinking were more numerous, and 
 the references to his o^m change from darkness to light 
 more touching, as if he felt he had possibly a more apprecia- 
 tive and more sympathetic audience of clerical brethreii. 
 He thus referred to the views of his "venerable professor, 
 Dr. Brown, on the subject of faith, who, it must be remem- 
 bered, was present on the occasion : — 
 
THE QUESTION OF ASSURANCE. 
 
 121 
 
 ** The Doctor describes faith as * the persuasion of the truth of the 
 notices about God.' Again, the Doctor defines one who is 'strong in 
 faith,' as one 'who has clear and accurate apprehensions of the mean- 
 ing and evidence of the revelation of mercy.' These were precisely the 
 views of faith which he (Mr. Morison) entertained, and these views 
 exact]}' harmonised with his own experience. Wlien he passed ' out 
 of darkness into marvellous light,' he was entirely occupit^d with the 
 glorious truth which he had discovered in the Bible, that ' Jesns loved 
 him and gave himself for him.' It was the meaning of this truth and 
 its evidence that alone absorbed his mind, and he was conscious that he 
 did not believe it in a manner different from the way in which he be- 
 lieved any other truth. All the effects which followed in his history 
 flowed froni the peculiarity of the thing which he believed, and not at 
 all from any peculiarity in his Avay of believing it. The moment he 
 saw the truth, that same moment he got peace of conscience. He 
 repudiated, from the bottom of his heart, that theory of faith which put 
 into it as much of the moral law, and as many good feelings, as possible. " 
 
 In this last sentence he referred to the statement made 
 by Mr. Meikle, of Beith, before the Kilmarnock Presbytery, 
 to the effect that " faith includes, besides the assent of the 
 understanding to the Gospel testimony, the consent of the 
 heart, and even comj^rehends works of holiness in the life." 
 "Was not this dangerous heresy?" exclaimed Mr. Morison, 
 after making the quotation. " Would not the members of 
 Synod, in a spirit of even-handed justice, take notice of 
 this!" 
 
 On the question of Assurance he again quoted from Dr. 
 Brown — 
 
 "Dr. Brown, in his treatise on the Lord's Sup^yer, says that 'per- 
 sonal reliance on the Saviour's sufferings and death, as the expiation of 
 our guilt and the price of our salvation, is the necessary and immediate 
 result of the belief of the testimony in its true extent, and is so closely 
 connected with it, that it is not much to be wondered at, if it has 
 sometimes been identified with it.' In his Ojnnions, also, he says, 'Is 
 the hope of eternal life necessarily connected with the faith of the 
 Gospel ? and does every believer, from the Gospel, at all times, enjoy 
 the unclouded hope, the ' undoubting expectation of eternal life ? To 
 the first of these questions we reply unhesitatingly in the affirmative.' " 
 
 With these sentiments Mr. Morison expressed his entii-e 
 concurrence, but added his own explanation about the 
 " doubts " of believers, fortifying liis remarks again by a 
 reference to his own experience — 
 
 "He by no means held that a believer never was in doubt. He 
 admitted that most believers were at times under clouds. Their doubts, 
 however, arose from the temporary absence from their minds o,f the 
 object of faith. He had no conception of persons actually engaged in 
 believing the divine testimony, and at same time actually in. doubt as 
 to their interest in Christ. If, moreover, Satan or the world seduced 
 
122 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL ITNION. 
 
 their attention away from the saving truth of the Gospel and led them 
 inlo sin, they would fall into temporary unbelief and consequent dark- 
 ness and doubt. It had been supposed that this doctrine of instan- 
 taneous assurance did not admit of faith growing in degree. This, 
 however, was a great mistake. Faith grows stronger as the views 
 become clearer. One passage of God s Word fairly understood was 
 sufficient as a basis on which to rest faith and build peace. When, 
 however, other passages were found to contain the same truth, and to 
 present it perhaps in a plainer or a more striking asi)ect, faith could 
 not but be confirmed. This was the history of his (Mr. Morison's) 
 own experience. When he first found out that ' Christ loved him and 
 had given himself for 7a??i,' he found it in a single passage ; he believed 
 it, and got peace from it. When he discovered, however, that so 
 many whom he was accustomed to respect, did not believe for them- 
 selves the same all-glorious truth, he could not but be a little stag- 
 gered in his confidence. As he continued to examine, however, he 
 found out new passages declaring the same truth, he saw admitted 
 doctrines and facts throwing light upon it, and discovered that it was 
 the darling Gospel of sainted reformers and martyrs,— and all this 
 additional evidence gave additional strength to his faith, so that now 
 he never heard or read anything to make him waver for a moment 
 even to the slightest degree. He might add, that this doctrine of the 
 necessity of assurance was one of the main points for which the 
 Reformed churches contended in opposition to the doctrines of the 
 Papacy. The 'general and doubtsonie faith' of the papists is 
 * detested and refused ' in the * National Covenant ; ' and it is expressly 
 ' protested ' against in almost all the reformed confessions. Here JMr. 
 Morison read various extracts from the books referred to." 
 
 We need not continue our resume of the rest of Mr. 
 Morison's defence. Suffice it to say that for six hours he 
 held the audience spell-bound under his irresistible demon- 
 strations of truth — his hearers feeling that their hearts were 
 blessed, as well as their intellectual curiosity gratified; while 
 not a few of the clergymen seemed to be afraid that the 
 crowded Glasgow assembly were drinking in what they 
 deemed to be heresy with too much avidity. We should 
 perhaps explain that the youthful appellant did not get the 
 whole of his defence delivered at one diet. So much time 
 had been consumed by the preliminary readings and the 
 mere statement of the case, that it was not till the evening 
 sederunt on Tuesday was considerably advanced that Mr. 
 Morison stood forth to address the court. He had only 
 finished the consideration of the first two charges, namely, 
 those on Faith and Man's Ability, when the hour for 
 adjournment had arrived. On Wednesday forenoon, how- 
 (iver, he resumed his address, and discussed the subjects of 
 Prayer,. Repentance, Justification, Election, and Original 
 Sin, — ending as before with another artless and ingenuous 
 
MR. MORISON's peroration. 
 
 123 
 
 reply to the charge of disingenuousness as to the circulation 
 of his tract. His powerful peroration ran as follows: — 
 
 He would now close his remarks, and conclude hy saying that it 
 signified little what was done in relation to himself, but it signified 
 much what was done in relation to the doctrines which he taught. 
 His own character was of small moment; his importance as a man or a 
 minister was nothing, compared with the interests of eternal truth. 
 He could conceive that he, as an individual, might be sacrificed, his 
 character might be stabbed and massacred — he could conceive all this 
 to be done, and yet the sacred doctrines he taught be left untouched; 
 and he hoped that, if anything icas done in the way of imputation on 
 his character, nothing would be done to injure the blessed truths he 
 had endeavoured to proclaim. He trusted that the S})irit of wisdom 
 would direct them to a right understanding in this matter; and he 
 would repeat that he was willing that his own character should be 
 dealt with according as they mi^ht think it deserved — he was willing 
 to be dealt with even harshly by his fathers and brethren, though, at 
 the same time, he could not think that there would be one of them 
 disposed to deal harshly with him, or who would be desirous, through 
 him, to wound the doctrines he held; he would ask no mercy fur him- 
 self, but he would and did ask a candid and patient consideration of 
 the doctrines; he would and did ask them to pause and ponder before 
 they condemned. It would surely be a dangerous thing to denounce 
 as heresy opinions held as the apple of the eye by the best and holiest 
 men both in ancient and in modern times; and he could not think for 
 amoment of theSynod beingguilty of such acourse. He would nowleave 
 the casein their hands, trusting that, under the Divine Spirit, they would 
 judge righteous judgment; and he felt confident that, whatever might be 
 the upshot to himself, all would tend to the furtherance of the Gospel 
 in the land, and to the promotion of the glory of the Gospel's God." 
 
 A very clever pamphlet entitled The Synod's Judgment 
 Reviewed, by a writer who hides himself under the name of 
 " Nicodemus," thus describes the scene which took place at 
 the close of Mr. Morison's address : — 
 
 *' The defence was bold and decided, and indicated a strong convic- 
 tion of the truth of his own views. The course he pursued was 
 evidently quite unexpected by the great proportion of his judges. By 
 his statements they seemed \o be both perplexed and alarmed. The 
 auditors present were under the influence of very different feelings. 
 No one could fail to perceive that he had fairly enlisted their sympa- " 
 thies, however little impression he might have made on his judges. 
 This fact was sutficieutly demonstrated by the full-toned response 
 which burst from them at the conclusion of his address. The applause 
 of the audience brought up an indignant scowl on the countenance of 
 the Moderator, and threw a dark shade over the fnces of a great num- 
 ber of the members of court. To satisfy the people at a distance who 
 might read the reports, it was stated that the cheering in the galleries 
 was supposed to proceed from a few of the congregation of Kilmarnock 
 who were present. To produce such a cheer would have required 
 nearly the whole congregation. A few could not have made such a 
 sound, nor would they have produced such a sensation in the court." 
 
124 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNIOX. 
 
 We do not wonder that such an address called forth such 
 a cheer. And when we remember that not only were the 
 positions of the young appellant most reasonable and scrip- 
 tural, and supported hy a truly amazing amount of philoso- 
 phical and theological learning, but that he stood there alone 
 and unaided (save by his God), and sacrificing everything 
 for the sake of truth, conscience, and Christ, we wond-er that 
 the Moderator did not condoiie the outburst of applause, on 
 the ground that it might indicate chivalrous sympathy, as 
 much as doctrinal agreement. The judge of many a civil 
 and criminal court, in similar circumstances, would have 
 taken no notice of such a formal breach of order. 
 
 It now fell to the lot of the members of the Kilmarnock 
 Presbytery to defend, at the bar of the Synod, the judgment 
 against which Mr. Morison had appealed. It was undoubtedly 
 a rare oppoi-tunity which they thus enjoyed (and one for 
 which they were indebted to the youngest member of their 
 court) of appearing before a city audience, and a supreme 
 ecclesiastical assembly. Nor do they a])pear to have been 
 unwilling to take advantage of the opportunity; for the long 
 and elaborate speeches of Messrs. Campbell, Elles, Meikle, 
 Ronald, and Thomas, showed that they assayed to do their 
 very best. Yet we can quote comparatively little from these 
 addresses; for we find in them only a recapitulation, with 
 enlargements and variations here and there, of pleadings 
 which have been already before us. On reading over Mr. . 
 Meikle's speech, we find him unanswerable only when he 
 hits Mr. Morison on his weak point, that is, on the doctrine 
 of unconditional election, to which he then still clung, although 
 he has since given it up. The minister of Beith is reported 
 to have spoken thus: — 
 
 " Mr. Morison also said that he could not offer salvation to all the 
 hearers of the Gospel, except on the p-inciple that atonement was 
 made for all men. He holds the doctrine of eternal, personal, and 
 unconditional election, in reference to the appli^.ation of redemption ; 
 and, when he asks us, How can you consistently offer salvation to all, 
 if Christ has not made atonement for all ?— We ask him. How can 
 he consistently offer salvation to all, if God has decreed uncondition- 
 ally to bestow it only on some ? This difficulty is as great, on the 
 theory of the particular application of redemption, as on that of 
 definite atonement ; and, when Mr. Morison shall reconcile the uni- 
 versal call of the Gospel with the former, which he admits, then we 
 shall be prepared to reconcile it with the latter, which he denies. Mr. 
 Morison stated that atonement for the .elect alone was never heard of 
 — never dreamed of, during the three first centuries of the Christian 
 
THE SYNOD STARTLED BY MR. RONALD. 
 
 125 
 
 era. Now, sir, in contradiction to this, I beg to read an extract from 
 the epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians. He was Bishop of Eome, 
 and that Clement mentioned by the Apostle Paul in Phil. iv. 3, whose 
 name was in the Book of Life. I have not the original, but quote from 
 the translation of that epistle. by William, Lord Bishop of Lincoln, 
 published 1710, 2d edition, section 49, — 'By charity were all the elect 
 of God made perfect ; without it, nothing is pleasing and acceptable in 
 the sight of God. Through charity did the Lord join us unto himself, 
 whilst, for the love towards us, our Lord Jesus Christ gave his own 
 blood for us ; by the will of God ; his flesh for our flesh ; his soul for 
 our soul.' Elect is the antecedent to all these affirmative propositions ; 
 and, consequently, Clement here declares that Jesus Christ gave his 
 blood for the elect. In proof that the doctrine of a definite atonement 
 was held by the fathers, in the age which immediately followed the 
 apostolical, I shall quote a sentence from the 17th section of the epistle 
 of the church of Smyrna, to the church at Philadelphia, concerning 
 the martyrdom of Polycarp, the disciple of the Apostle John (trans- 
 lated by the same), — 'Neither is it possible for us ever to forsake 
 Christ, who suiftred for the salvation of all such as shall be saved 
 throughout the world — the righteous for the ungodly — nor worship any 
 other besides him.'" 
 
 We shall see in the sequel how Mr. Morison disposed of Mr. 
 Meikle's second-hand quotation ; .but meanwhile we note, in 
 passing, that the contradiction between the unconditional elec- 
 tion of some to special grace, and an earnest call to all sinners 
 is, in our opinion, complete, and such as should lead all 
 thoughtful and conscientious men over to the Arminian side. 
 
 Mr. Ronald, of Saltcoats, startled the Synod by informing 
 them that the Presbytery had not charged Mr. Morison with 
 heresy on the Extent of the Atonement, and that his errors 
 lay rather in the direction of Faith and Assurance. We have 
 already explained the reasons why the Presbytery, mainly 
 through Mr. Ronald's influence, had adopted this strange 
 course at the eleventh hour, although the general impression 
 throughout the country was that Mr. Morison's teaching on 
 the Atonement was "the head and front of his ofFendino;." 
 These, as will be remembered, were mainly two — namely, 
 that Mr. Ronald himself was in reality more liberal than the 
 rest of his co-presbyters, and wished to hold that Christ had, 
 in a certain sense, died for all, inasmuch as he "had opened 
 a door of mercy for all;" and also, because they were afraid 
 lest Professors Brown and Balmer, with an influential fol- 
 lowing, would sympathise with young Morison as to the 
 Extent of the Atonement, were it bluntly charged against 
 him, and thus make a great secession from the Secession 
 Church. Therefore did Mr. Ronald labour most energetically 
 to show, to the great astonishment of the Synod, that the 
 
126 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Kilmarnock Presbytery had not been displeased with their 
 young brother so much for maintaining that Christ had died 
 for ail men, as for insisting upon it that whosoever simply 
 saw it to be true that Christ had died for all, and therefore 
 for him, was immediately assured of his personal salvation. 
 Mr. Thomas ended with a still more elaborate attempt to 
 bring home the charge of disingenuousness against Mr. 
 Morison, or as the latter styled it in his reply, " an attemj)t 
 to massacre his character." 
 
 We must here explain wdiy it was that Mr. Morison had 
 a right to reply at the bar of the Synod, while he had none 
 at the bar of the Presbytery. The reason was that the 
 Presbytery themselves had served a libel upon him. Had 
 his case come before them as an appeal against the judgment 
 of the session, the appellant w^ould have had a right of reply 
 in Clerk's Lane Chapel, Kilmarnock, as well as in Gordon 
 Street Chapel, Glasgow; but since his own session were 
 unanimously with him, and the Presbytery had ultroneously 
 summoned him to their bar, he had no right to speak a 
 second time. Such is the somewhat curious order of Pres- 
 byterian Church Courts. We propose to give a quotation 
 from Mr. Morison's extemporaneous reply at the bar of the 
 Synod. It was believed to be, if possible, even more forcible 
 than his opening speech, We ^vill see how he first laid good 
 Mr. Meikle on his back in the matter of the quotation, and 
 then how he exposed the w^eakness of Mr. Ronald's several 
 positions : — 
 
 " Mr. Morison, after the meeting had been constituted, resumed. 
 He went over the speeches of the members of Kilmarnock jPresbytery 
 who spoke, and remarked on many of their arguments. He stated 
 that he heard nothing from any of them, by way of reply, which could 
 induce him to modify any of his sentiments. In remarking on Mr. 
 Meikle's speech, he took particular notice of two passages Avhich Mr. 
 Meikle had quoted — the one from the * apostolic ' Clemens, and the 
 other from the church of Smyrna to the church of Philomelium — to 
 prove that an atonement for the elect alone was held as a doctrine in 
 that early period of the church. He (Mr. Morison) was astonished 
 that Mr. Meikle should have produced such passages, as they only 
 proved what was admitted on all sides, that the early fathers believed 
 that Christ died for all believers, while they did not contain one word 
 to the effect that he died for none else. He (Mr. Morison) had read 
 both of the epistles he referred to, not only in that translation from 
 which Mr. Meikle had quoted, but also in the original Greek, and he 
 had read them for the very purpose of ascertaining the views of the 
 early fathers on the extent of the- atonement, and he could assure Mr. 
 Meikle that there was literally nothing in these writers that could be 
 
MR. MORISON's reply TO MR. ROXALD. 
 
 127 
 
 made to accord with his limitarian views. In this judgment he was 
 confirmed by the leawied Bishop Davenant, whose knowledge of the 
 fathers could not be questioned, and whose authority even Mr, Meikle 
 might have respected. Here Mr. Morison read a quotation from 
 Milner, the ecclesiastical historian, in which he says that ' the notion 
 of particular redemption was unknown to the ancients, and he wished 
 that it had remained equally unknown to the moderns.' Surely Mr. 
 Meikle would not set up his own opinion as to an historical matter of 
 fact, in opposition to two such authorities as Davenant and Milner. 
 • "In reference to a remark which Mr. Eonald made on the drift of 
 the first charge — viz., that the Presbytery did not bring forward, as a 
 charge against him, the tenet of the universality of the atonement, he 
 (Mr. Morison) said, why, then, was it made the principal topic of 
 presbyterial inquiry ? Why was it universally understood that this 
 was the grand peculiarity that was preached in Kilmarnock ? He 
 never for a moment dreamed, till the last meeting of Presbytery, after 
 the answers to his reasons of protest had been drawn up, and after Mr. 
 Eonald had stated that he (Mr. Morison) need not take up the doctrine 
 of universal atonement— he never dreamed till then, that, in the mind 
 of any of his accusers, this was not the ' head and front ' of his offence. 
 He could understand why Mr. Ronald did not wish to bring this for- 
 ward as a charge against him. Mr. Eonald differed from the rest of 
 his brethren on this point, and entered his dissent in committee, 
 although that dissent was dropped when the minutes was read over. 
 If this doctrine be not involved in the charge against him, which ran 
 in these terms — 'that the object of saving faith to any person, is the 
 statement that Christ made atonement for the sins of that person, as 
 he made atonement for the sins of the world, and that the seeing cf 
 this to be true, is saving faith, and gives the assurance of salvation,* 
 — he could not understand what was involved in the charge. He did 
 hold that the doctrine of universal atonement was the object of saving 
 faith. This doctrine was the Gospel, and the Gospel alone was the 
 object of saving faith. Mr. Eonald had stated that there were two 
 meanings of the word atonement. This, however, was not a question 
 about what meaning might be attached to the word atonement. He 
 cared not though the word were discarded from every human language; 
 but there" was something that Christ had done, call it by what" name 
 they might, and that something was what every sinner was to believe 
 — and it was the belief of that something that was to bring salvation, 
 and the consciousness of salvation, into the soul of the believer. God 
 required no more than that man should give him credit for the truth 
 of what he says about this something, in order that he may be saved. 
 It might be said that the mere giving God credit as to the matter of 
 fact which happened on Calvary was too simple to be justifying, saving 
 faith ; but it was this simplicity which deprived man of all ground of 
 glorying in his salvation. Mr. Eonald had stated that the atonement 
 was a mere channel of mercy. It was more ; it was an act of mercy, 
 it was in itself mercy to the unbeliever- -kindness — love. It had coiii- 
 pletely satisfied Gori, completely propitiated him for the sins of us all, 
 so that if we give God credit for it we shall be saved. Mr, Eonald 
 thought it a paradox to say that a sinner could derive assurance from 
 the doctrine that he (Mr, Morison) held. He represented the sinner 
 as saying, ' my sins are not so atoned for, but that I may be punished ; 
 
128 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 how can I, from perceiving such an atonement as this, ever learn that 
 my salvation is certain, when the truth I believe only tells me that 
 my salvation is possible ? ' It was true that the atonement only made 
 the sinner's salvation possible, but the sinner's belief of what God says 
 about the atonement, renders it certain and secure. Faith is the 
 hinge of the sinner's destinies. Mr. Ronald had spoken of prayer— he 
 had said faith was just prayer. This was most strange jumbling of 
 distinct doctrines. Faith was giving God credit for telling the truth 
 —prayer was asking him to confer a blessing. Then as to repentance; 
 Mr. Ronald held that it Avas godly sorrow for sin, but if this be ad- 
 mitted, it must also be maintained, that godly sorrow for sin goes 
 before faith in Christ. It was, however, impossible for a man to feel 
 godly sorrow before he be in a believing state. Some might think 
 that it was a small matter whether one held that repentance came 
 before faith, or faith before repentance. It had been made a questio 
 vexata in theological systems, but let it not be supposed that it was a 
 trivial matter. It was trivial so far as a system of theology is con- 
 cerned, but it was no trivial matter to a sinner who was crying out, 
 * What shall I do to be saved ?' He (Mr. Morison) referred to passages 
 of Scripture, and to several authorities, in support of the opinion that 
 the sinner must be a believer before he can feel godly sorrow for sin." 
 
 After administering a well-merited castigation to Mr. 
 Thomas for the savageness of the attack which the latter 
 had made on his character, Mr. Morison concluded this liis 
 second speech, as follows : — 
 
 *' As to his doctrines he asked no favour ; he asked a righteous 
 judgment, and he trusted that these doctrines would not be injured in 
 the eyes of the public by any decision of this court. These were the 
 doctrines which he must preach so long as he did preach the everlast- 
 ing Gospel. He now committed his case to the hands of his fathers and 
 brethren, and he looked up to God, hoping that the doctrines would be 
 left untouched, and that his protest and appeal would be sustained." 
 
 It was by this time late on Thursday evening, and the 
 reverend court had already spent three days on the case. 
 The appellant and his adversaries had now been fully heard, 
 and it only remained for the Synod to debate and deliver 
 judgment on the appeal. Before parties were removed from 
 * the bar, a good impression was i)roduced by the brief 
 speeches of two lay gentlemen from Kilmarnock, who 
 appeared as commissioners from Clerk's Lane Church, and 
 who both declared that the congregation would adhere to 
 Mr. Morison, whatever might be the decision of the Synod, 
 and also testified to the value of his labours in the town and 
 neighbourhood. Independently altogether of what man might 
 think, it was evident that the Lord thought highly of him. 
 Dr. Heugh then acted as the mouthpiece of those whom Mr. 
 Ronald's statement had taken by surprise, and asked 
 
EXCITEMENT IN GLASGOW. 
 
 129 
 
 Whether the holding of the doctrine of universal atone- 
 ment was distinctly charged against Mr. Morison as an error ?" 
 The Presbytery answered " that it was not. Many of them 
 held it to be an error by itself ; but they had agi'eed not to 
 make it a distinct charge. They considered that there was 
 a sufficient gi'ound for charging Mr, Morison with departure 
 from the standards independently of it." Parties were then 
 removed ; but as the night was now far advanced, the Synod 
 agreed to hear members of Court and deliver judgment at 
 next sederunt — namely, on Friday forenoon. 
 
 Meanwhile the greatest excitement prevailed, in connec- 
 tion with the case, throughout Glasgow and Scotlanci 
 generally. The "daily press" was not in existence then; 
 but such papers as the Herald, the Courier, the Aligns, and 
 Morning Chronicle, being published on different days of the 
 week, kept the public well informed as to the progress of 
 the debate. The Argus of Thursday, June 10th, after 
 giving several columns of Mr. Morison's address, and an- 
 nouncing the adjournment of discussion till the following 
 day, contains the following foot-note in a parenthesis : — 
 
 ** The above case is excitiug the deepest interest in the public mind ; 
 and, dming the period it has been before the Court, the church has 
 been filled by respectable audiences, listening with eagerness to the 
 proceedings. We have never, in the whole course of our experience, 
 seen so numerous a meeting of Synod ; while the attendance of the 
 members is more numerous and regular than we ever before witnessed 
 —so anxious are they to hear every part of the interesting case in which 
 they are the judges. In so far as the interests of the Secession Church 
 and of religion generally are concerned, a more important cause was 
 never before tried in Scotland." 
 
 The debates were not confined to Gordon Street Church, 
 but were transferred to thousands of tea-tables, and were even 
 briskly conducted on the public streets. Excited gi-oups of 
 civilians and ecclesiastics were seen arguing theological 
 points on the pavements; while fists were clenched and 
 sticks flourished with unevangelical vehemence. One re- 
 verend interlocutor was heard saying to a band of his 
 brethren, in the neighbourhood of Gordon Street Chapel, 
 " We must keep him to the standards ; for, if we don't, 
 he'll do us altogether ! " 
 
 When the Court met next day, Mr. Fraser, of Alloa, 
 delivered the first address. This gentlemen made a kind of 
 apology for appearing before his brethren at so early a stage, 
 adducing as a reason the fact that Mr. Morison had done 
 
 E 
 
130 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 him the honour to mention his name twice, and animad- 
 vert upon the statements which he had published in reply to 
 a member of his own Presbytery, who sympathised with Mr. 
 Morison. Nothing in his address calls for special remark, 
 save that he had not proceeded far till he was called to 
 order by Mr. Pringle, of Auchterarder, for introducing the 
 question of universal atonement, which, the latter main- 
 tained, was not in the record. But the Moderator ruled 
 that, as Mr. Morison had been heard for two hours on that 
 point, it was but fair that members of Court should be heard 
 on the other side. It was already becoming plain that there 
 were two parties in the Synod — the strict limitarians, and 
 the general-reference-men. Fraser belonged to the former 
 class, and Pringle to the latter. Mr. Eraser concluded with 
 the following motion : — " That the protest and appeal of 
 Mr. Morison be dismissed as ill-founded ; that the sentence 
 of the Presbytery of Kilmarnock be affirmed, and Mr. 
 Morison's suspension from the exercise of his ministry be 
 continued ; and that a committee be appointed to deal 
 ftiithfully and tenderly with him, in reference to his 
 erroneous tenets, with a view, through the blessing of God, 
 to bring him to repentance, and to the acknowledgment of 
 tJie truth as it is in Jesus:' How strangely the last sen- 
 tence falls upon our ears ! To how many had James 
 Morison shown the truth as it was in J esus ! A cloud had 
 always hung around the truth, to their minds, till he, by his 
 words and his writings, under God, had dispelled it. 0 Mr. 
 Eraser ! Mr. Eraser ! perhaps Heaven's recording angel 
 thought, that day, as he took down your words, that young 
 Morison knew more about the truth as it was in J esus than 
 you ! The Synod seemed to feel that Mr. Eraser's motion 
 was not the thing; for, as we shall afterwards see, that 
 made by Dr. Heugh carried the day. 
 
 But who is this who has already come forward to second 
 the unfortunately worded motion 1 Let us take a good look 
 at him 5 for he is a remarkable man. We have time to 
 consider him well ; for we should perhaps have mentioned 
 sooner that while brethren, who had only a few words to 
 say on a point of order, were allowed to speak from the part^ 
 of the chapel where they were sitting, the members of 
 Court who had anything like set speeches to deliver were 
 expected to take their stand within the railing that was on 
 a level with the precentor's desk, in which the Moderator 
 
DR. MARSHALL OF KIRKINTILLOCH. 
 
 131 
 
 was sitting. Indeed the earliest orators had been culled 
 thither hy acclamation, at the commencement of the pro- 
 ceedings. There ^Ii'. Morison had deKvered his long 
 defences ; and there the members of the Kilmarnock Pres- 
 bytery had spoken on behalf of theii* own judgment. Who 
 then is the minister who advances to second ^Lr. Fraser's 
 motion 1 It is Andrew Marshall, of Kirkintilloch. He is 
 already well known as a man of learning and of power ; for 
 it was a sermon which he delivered, some years before, in 
 Greyfriai-s' Chapel, Glasgow, that had provoked the entii-e 
 " Voluntary Controversy," and thus led ultimately to the 
 secession of the non-intrusion party from the Chm-ch of 
 Scotland, and the formation of the Free Chuixh. Ah I he does 
 not know, as he mounts that stau*, and takes his place on that 
 elevated rostrum, that this "Atonement Controversy," in 
 which he is about to make his debut, is to affect his future 
 career far more powerfully, both personally and socially, 
 than the Voluntary Controversy " had done ; for tMs 
 speech he is on the point of delivering made him all at once 
 the chieftain of the limitarian party in the Secession Church, 
 and led, yeai*s after Mi\ Morison's case was settled, to his 
 being the libeller of Professors Brown and Balmer, as the 
 abettors of too free a Gospel. These eminent men, however, 
 were too influential to be overihrown even by his fearless 
 assault ; and when the great majority of the Secession , 
 Church espoused their liberal, rather than his stricth' 
 limitarian, though perhaps more consistent views, disgusted 
 and bix)ken-heaii;ed, he left the Chiu'ch altogether, and 
 ended his days in gloomy and fretful isolation from all his 
 brethi-en. Alas 1 the yoimg man whom he rose to condemn 
 was to have more effect upon his life than he dreamed. In 
 view of such subsequent events, it is almost affecting to 
 read the first words which Dr. Mai^hall uttered : * 
 
 *'The Rev. Mr. Marshall, of Kirkintilloch, said, they would give 
 him credit when he said that he took part in this discussion with no 
 ordinary pain. He had particular reasons for feeling pain on the 
 occasion. Though Mr. Morison was a young man, ^s-ith whom he had 
 no acquaintance, whom he never saw till Thui-sday last, he was yet a 
 person of great interest to him. He was not only the son of an old 
 friend ami brother minister, but of late he had become connected with 
 hiiu by family ties, and so connected as to give him a deep interest in 
 all his concerns. He gave this as his excuse for not entering, ais he 
 might otherwise have don-^, into the discussion of the defences. In 
 
 * The degree of D.D. was conferred upon Mr. Marshall in 184:2. 
 
132 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 these defences lie had shown no small ability, much self-possession, 
 but still they were injudicious in the extreme, and calculated, in his 
 opinion, to do anything rather than to serve his cause." 
 
 Reference '"was made in this exordium to the fact that Mr. 
 Marshall was related to the joxmg wife of the appellant at 
 the bar. Although he had passed middle life he could not 
 be called old. He was above the medium height, and had a 
 powerful body as well as a powerful mind. " Nicodemus," 
 who seems to have been a phrenologist, is wicked enough to 
 say that " time had thinned his locks, and had revealed two 
 most commanding bumps, Veneration and Destructiveness." 
 Veneration made him worship the Confession ; while De- 
 structiveness made him glad to get a fling at his young 
 "relation," whom constrictor-like, he had buttered before 
 trying to devour. Of course " Nicodemus " says that Mr. 
 Marshall should have kept the animal part of his nature 
 under more complete control. 
 
 Like Mr. Eraser, Mr. Marshall was interrupted when he 
 broke ground on "the extent of the atonement;" but he 
 fearlessly said that he would sit down if he were not allowed 
 to discuss that point. He declared that any one of common 
 intelligence would see that the whole argument was summed 
 up in that point. Grant to Mr. Morison that Christ died 
 for every man, and all his positions woiild follow as a matter 
 of course. Overturn that position, and all was overturned. 
 For his part he intended to speak on nothing else. 
 
 His address produced a considerable effect upon the assem- 
 bly. He became very excited as he warmed with his subject. 
 He had no table before him on which to lean or thump, if at 
 any time he wished to give effect to his words ; but every 
 now and then he slapped his right thigh with his right hand, 
 or his left thigh with his left hand — an elocutionary resort 
 which although rare, and not according to rule, was never- 
 theless neither undignified nor without effect. 
 
 Yet to one who knows the world-wide graciousness of 
 " the truth as it is in Jesus," it is easy to silence and capture 
 all the forts of limitarianism from which he aimed his heaviest 
 guns. The anonymous writer already referred to, who was 
 present on the occasion, says, that the passage in his speech 
 which made the greatest impression was the following : — 
 
 Mr. Morison said the atonement removed all obstacles to salvation 
 except those existing within ourselves. Now he asked if the atonement 
 did not remove obstacles within ourselves. If it did not, it was not 
 
DE. Marshall's acerbity. 
 
 133 
 
 the atonement he had trusted to, or to which the people of God had 
 always trusted. Christ had given himself for the Church to redeem it 
 from all iniquity. Did not iniquity exist within ourselves ? He died 
 to take away an evil heart of unbelief — a heart at enmity with God — 
 and were not these ohstructions within ourselves ? He had no doubt 
 that every one who heard him would answer in the affirmative." 
 
 Now if Dr. Marshall had only been humble enough to 
 read and ponder the tract on "The Nature of the Atonement," 
 which his young relative had published about half a year 
 before, he would have foimd an easy and satisfactory answer 
 to this objection of which he made so much. In that tract, 
 as our digest has ah-eady made plain, Mr. Morison distin- 
 guished between Atonement and the consequences of Atone- 
 ment. Reconciliation, Justification, and Redemption were 
 consequences of the Atonement. The Atonement was made 
 equally for all men ; but those are redeemed — that is, de- 
 livered from the power of sin — who believe the Gospel and 
 yield their hearts to God; and, of course, the Saviour had this 
 blessed result before his mind when he died upon the tree. 
 
 It is pitiful, moreover, to hear the eminent Dr. Marshall 
 confessing, like the humbler lights of the Kilmarnock Pres- 
 bytery, the litter impossibility of reconciling the free Gospel 
 calls that are addressed to all men, with the doctrine of 
 election. Strange if there indeed be points in our Father's 
 scheme of gi^ace that are irreconcilable. Though above 
 reason in some particulars, surely none of the deep things of 
 God are contrary to reason. We are sure that Marshall's 
 departed spirit, if it could communicate with us to-day, 
 would say, " My young friend was right and I was wrong. 
 The key of reconciliation lies in Atonement for all, and 
 Redemption for those who believe." We feel sure, also, 
 that he would express regret for another passage in his 
 speech, which, as to both matter and mamier, is thus noticed 
 by " Nicodemus :" 
 
 " It has been said before, that in order to be able fully to estimate 
 the character of the speeches, it was necessary to have been present to 
 hear them delivered. In no case is this remark more strictly true 
 than in that of Mr. Marshall. There is an acerbity in his writings at 
 all times, which no one acquainted with them can have failed to 
 remark ; but when that acerbity is coupled with the living voice, — a 
 voice, in his case, by no means pleasant in its tone, — these together 
 give a severity to the language which it does not retain in its written 
 form. During this speech, Mr. Marshall made good use of these 
 qualities or defects, or whatever else they may be considered, to make 
 his words tell on the hearers ; and when he came to that part of it in 
 
134 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 ■which he says, respecting Mr. Morison and those who hold his views, 
 * I trust many of them will get to heaven notwithstanding their absur- 
 dities ; I trust many of them will he the foremost to join in singing 
 the song of the redeemed ; hut one thing is certain, they must first 
 change their principles, ' — when he uttered these words, his voice and 
 features were strained to the uttermost. The most sarcastic sneer, of 
 which even he- is capable, accompanied them ; and no one who heard 
 him will soon forget the bitterness of temper in which they appeared 
 to be uttered. The sound must still reverberate in their ears. If 
 they had only seen his face and heard his voice, without knowing that 
 he was using the language of hope, they must have supposed him to be 
 denouncing curses both loud and deep. " 
 
 We suppose that Mr. Marshall meant to say, that Mr. 
 Morison and his friends could not sing the new song " Worthy 
 is the Lamb." He showed himself by such a statement to 
 be both undiscerning and inconsistent — undiscerning, because 
 Mr. Morison still clung to the substitutionary view of Christ's 
 death; and inconsistent, because he and his brethren had 
 always been accustomed to extend the right hand of fellow- 
 ship to the Wesleyans, who plead for universal but resistible 
 grace. Does the captain deserve no praise who nobly swims 
 out to save a drowning mariner, because the latter has 
 eagerly clutched the rope that was extended to save"? 
 
 The respectable speech of Dr. Stark of Dennyloanhead, 
 who followed Mr. Marshall, contains nothing calling for 
 special remark; but we are arrested both by the individual 
 who next presented himself to the Synod (the Rev. Dr. 
 Heugh, of Glasgow), and by the address which he delivered. 
 This divine exercised no small influence in his day and gen- 
 eration. Of fluent speech, graceful carriage, and winning 
 countenance, he was eminently gifted with the power to 
 persuade. He was then fifty-eight years of age, and, as yet, 
 showed no signs of that collapse of health which removed 
 him, five years afterwards, to a better world. He published 
 a pamphlet on the Atonement controversy, in one of its 
 later stages, which he entitled Irenicum — that is, a plea for 
 peace; and both title and pleadings were characteristic of the 
 man. As a friend of our own somewhat facetiously remarked, 
 " the pamphlet proceeded exactly like a pendulum, giving 
 now a stroke on the one side, and anon one on the other." 
 In the opening of his address, Dr. Heugh gathered up all the 
 points on which all parties were agreed, such as the Sinful- 
 ]iess of man, the Divinity of Christ, the reality of the Atone- 
 ment, &c. He expressed a hope that, as the result of the 
 Synod's deliberations, Mr. Morison " would be among them 
 
DR. HEUGH's speech AXD MOTION. 
 
 135 
 
 as before, and even more abundantly than before." He com- 
 plimented the young appellant in the following terms : — 
 
 "In regard to his mental qualifications, it must he gratifying to 
 them all to see a person so young exhibiting so much talent, so much 
 learning and reading, beyond his years; and his ever ready elocution 
 — why, it appeared to him he had too much of it. It was a great mis- 
 fortune to many young men to have the power to speak without limits; 
 the tongue is apt to damage the intellect; and it was perhaps to this 
 cause that so many of his sentiments had in them the character of 
 crudity. He believed him to be a person of great piety and zeal, and 
 he bitterly lamented, for the sake of Mr. Morison and the Church, 
 that the talents of such a man should be lost by what he would call 
 the sins of his youth." 
 
 The " sins of his youth," which Da^dd confessed, were very 
 different indeed from the imaginary transgressions to which 
 Dr. Heugh referred. We do not believe that when Dr. 
 Morison looks back to these exciting years, 1840 and 1841, 
 he sees much sin to confess, in the public acts of his life. 
 Strange, indeed, if that defence of truth should be sinful, 
 which led so many to see their sin put away by Christ." 
 
 When Dr. Heugh approached the debated points, the pen- 
 dulum swung beautifully. Amid loud cries of " Hear, hear," 
 he advanced a view which " he believed would satisfy the 
 minds of ninety-nine out of every hundred ministers of the 
 Secession Chuix-h — namely, the general reference of the 
 atonement to all men, and its special reference to the elect," 
 or, as he expressed it, " that the gift of God was to all men 
 in exhibition through the Atonement,, but to the elect in 
 2)OSsession." Now, rightly understood, that was an admii^able 
 exposition of the Arminian view. We hold exactly this, 
 that the elect — that is, believers — possess the gift of eternal 
 life — a gift which is exhibited to all men for their acceptance 
 by faith. But we are afraid that by the word "possession" 
 Dr. Heugh meant that possession which is the result of 
 eternal, arbitrary, and unconditional appointment. 
 
 We need not follow the Doctor through the various counts 
 of the indictment, but content ourselves ^vitll remarking 
 that, at the close of his speech, being not satisfied with the 
 wording of Mr. Eraser's motion, he proposed the following 
 in its stead: — "That the Synod, without sanctioning every- 
 thing in the papers and pleadings, approve of the diligence 
 and fidelity of the Presbytery of Kilmarnock, dismiss the 
 appeal on account of the erroneous and inconsistent opinions 
 set forth by Mi'. Morison, and his blameable conduct in 
 
136 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 regard to the suppression of his tract — continue his suspension 
 — and appoint a committee to deal with him, with power to 
 restore him to the exercise of his office if they are satisfied." 
 When Dr. Heugh read this motion, Mr, Marshall started 
 up, and said that he begged leave to withdraw his support 
 from Mr. Fraser's, and second Dr. Heugh's in its stead, as 
 he liked it better. 
 
 It was now two o'clock, and the hour for mid-day adjourn- 
 ment had nearly arrived; but another address was yet to be 
 delivered by which the excitement of the assembly would 
 be wound up to a higher pitch than it had yet attained. 
 See, there is Professor John Brown of Edinburgh mounting 
 the rostrum, and about to give forth his deliverance on the 
 great subject of debate. Now, it must be premised that this 
 very deliverance had been looked forward to with no little 
 interest, not to say uneasy apprehension. It was well known 
 that Dr. Brown had published theological opinions scarcely 
 distinguishable at all in scope and bearing from Mr. Mori- 
 son's. The latter, as we have already seen, had again and 
 again quoted from his professor's books in defence of his own 
 positions. The remark was quite current already among the 
 ministers, that " the evil had begun in the Divinity Hall." 
 No wonder, then, that the question had often been asked, 
 Would Dr. Brown speak? and if so, What would he say"? 
 For the reverend Doctor, it must be remembered, was a host 
 in himself. Perhaps no one stood higher in Scotland, at 
 that day, as an exegetical theologian; and if he should cast 
 the weight of his great influence into the scale, on the side 
 of his favourite pupil, that single vote, it was thought, would 
 be worth hundreds of votes from ordinary men. It need not 
 be matter of surprise to our readers, therefore, that when 
 Dr. Brown rose to speak, a murmur of expectation ran 
 through the crowded assembly. 
 
 Although barely sixty years of age. Dr. Brown had already 
 begun to present a venerable appearance. He had not been 
 in robust health for some time; and he begged leave to read 
 the observations he was about to make. We will give his 
 entire speech because it was brief and concise and had an 
 important bearing on the case :— 
 
 "The Rev. Dr. Brown of Edinburgh next addressed the Synod. He 
 8:dd he had given the subject all the attention in his power, and his 
 conscientious conviction was, that the most of the doctrines charged 
 against Mr. Morison had not been, and could not be, proved to be 
 
DR. brown's speech. 
 
 137 
 
 contradictory either to the Holy Scriptures or to their symboli- 
 cal books; and that any impropriety which he might have 
 committed in reference to the concealment of his views, and not 
 using all his influence in suppressing the tract objected to by the 
 Presbytery, though it might have called, and in his apprehension did 
 call, tor brotherly correction, and even presbyterial caution and 
 admonition, by no means warranted the proceeding, so soon, to the 
 inflicting so high a censure as suspension. He would briefly state the 
 grounds on which he came to this conclusion, and would go over the 
 charges preferred against Mr. Morison. The doctrine in the first 
 charge seemed to him to be substantially as follows: — The object of 
 saving faith is the statement that ' God was in Christ reconciling the 
 world to himself, ' — that Christ ' died for our sins according to .the 
 Scriptures,' — that 'he is the propitiation for the sins of the whole 
 world,' a statement implying that the sins of the individual believing 
 have been atoned for. This is the Gospel; to believe this, in its true 
 meaning, is the faith of the Gospel; and the holy, benignant character 
 of God, as * a just God and the Saviour,' revealed in this truth, in the 
 measure in which it is discovered, gives peace to the conscience, 
 purity to the heart, confidence towards God, and the good hope of 
 final salvation. If Mr. Morison meant anything diflerent from this, 
 he had nothing to say in defence of his doctrine; but this appeared 
 to him the meaning of his statements, and if he was sure in his own 
 mind of anything, he was sure that that was the doctrine contained 
 in the Bible; and he was not aware that it was inconsistent with the 
 symbolical books of their church. The second statement with which 
 Mr. Morison was charged was equivalent to this: — That the man to 
 whom the Gospel is preached labours under no physical inability to 
 believe it, and that, now that the atonement has been made, no 
 obstacle in the way of salvation remains, but his wilful rejection of 
 the divine testimony, and his obstinate indisposition to receive the 
 holy salvation which it reveals and conveys. There is surely no 
 heresy here. The third statement imputed to Mr. Morison, as he 
 understood it, was equivalent to this: — That awakened sinners ought 
 to be warned of the sin and danger of putting off, on any considera- 
 tion, their immediate duty to believe the plain accredited testimony of 
 God regarding his Son, — cautioned against supposing that anything 
 can serve the purpose of faith, or can be any good reason for not imme- 
 diately setting to their seal that God is true — assured that solid peace 
 and good hope can never be obtained in any other way; and that, 
 though they should be commanded to pray, they should be told that 
 to pray in unbelief, or substitute the mere saying of prayers — the ask- 
 ing what they neither desire nor expect — to substitute this in the 
 room of immediate faith, is but to insult God, and increase their own 
 condemnation. It appeared to him that the language of Mr. Morison 
 on this subject was exceedingly liable to misapprehension; yet, at the 
 same time, he was fully persuaded that the evil Mr. Morison intended 
 to guard against was a real and important one, and that the point to 
 which the convinced sinner had come when this particular statement 
 of doctrine was intended for him was a critical point, where he was in 
 danger of making shipwreck; while at the same time he thought that, 
 practically, the language was not likely to do much harm; for, when 
 the sinner became alive to his real position, as an object of the con- 
 
138 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 demning sentence of the holy God, trembling on the hrink of a miser- 
 able eternity, if the unhappy creature obtained but a glimpse of the 
 tme character of God, the eloquence of Mr. Morison, though it were 
 ten thousand times greater than it was, would not prevent that man 
 from praying; his mind and heart would rise to God in — "God be 
 merciful to me a sinner," and this would be acce]>table prayer; but still 
 it was prayer in the faith of the truth, though the man had got but a 
 glimpse of that truth. The next statement imputed to Mr. Morison, 
 so far as he could understand it, was equivalent to the following pro- 
 position: — That the repentance enjoined in the New Testament is a 
 change of mind chiefly in reference to God, and that it is through means 
 of this change of mind that men are led to a true sorrow for, and 
 thorough forsaking of, sin. He could see nothing erroneous in this. 
 As to the fifth charge, the distinction referred to did not appear to 
 him a happy one; but he could scarcely bring himself to think that a 
 man was to be set down as a heretic for holding by it; it was nearly 
 the same thing they met with in the works of some orthodox divines, 
 the distinction between judicial and fatherly forgiveness. As to the 
 order of the decrees, Mr. Morison had better let that alone, and they 
 had better all let that alone. They would sadly lose themselves if 
 they made their conceived order the basis of argument. Mr. Morison 
 had quoted a sentence from Bishop Davenant on the subject; he wished 
 he had gone farther, and taken the Bishop's advice. — [Here Dr. Brown 
 quoted a passage from Davenant, deprecating needless discussions on 
 this mysterious subject] With respect to the '* ■ma?i?/ unscriptural, 
 unwarranted expressions, calculated to depreciate the atonement," that 
 Mr. Morison was charged with — only three were given. The first was 
 far from being a happy expression — that where he described it as a 
 * talismanic something,' It seemed, however, to be just an out-of-the- 
 way mode of stating its exclusive and perfect fitness for its purpose, 
 and its mysterious modus operandi. He did not think Mr. Morison 
 was wise in using expressions of that kind; it was not ' speaking the 
 words that became sound doctrine.' The second ex])ression specified 
 appeared to be a very sober statement of a most indubitable fact, that 
 to all eternity a saved sinner must continue deserving of hell, and could 
 deserve nothing else; and though he might hope for and obtain 'eter- 
 nal life,' that would be entirely ' the gift of God through Jesus Christ 
 his Lord,' which, however secured to him, could never be deserved by 
 him. As to his doctrine that the atonement did not secure heaven for 
 the elect, or the removal of internal obstacles to the obtaining of a per- 
 sonal interest in the blessings of salvation, that was the most objec- 
 tionable thing he was represented as having said. He endeavoured to 
 explain it away, but, in his apprehension, he had much better at once 
 have admitted that the expressions were inaccurate. He said the atone- 
 ment did not secure the removal of the obstacles; and he got over this 
 by saying, that the atonement, per se, did not remove them. Who 
 ever thought so ? The blessings of salvation were the result of the 
 sovereign love of God, and obtained through believing; but the love of 
 God had opened a channel through the atonement for that divine influ- 
 ence, by means of which that faith was produced that put the sinner 
 in possession of these blessings. He had read Mr. Morison's produc- 
 tions with a good deal of interest; and, though there were in them 
 many expressions which, for various reasons, he would not choose to 
 
DR. BROWN S SPEECH CONTINUED. 
 
 139 
 
 employ — could not employ, yet he could not say lie had found many 
 unscriptural and unwarrantable statements, and not one which, taken 
 in its connection, and according to its obvious object, could be truly 
 considered as calculated, as he was sure none of them were intended, 
 to * depreciate the atonement.' AVith regard to original sin, though 
 he did not sanction all that Mr. Morison said on that head, neither 
 Scripture nor their standards affirmed, that all men were ' deserving of 
 death, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, entirely on account of Adam's 
 sin.' Not one of the statements on this head was contradicted, either 
 in the Bible, or their symbolical books. The charge of disingenuous- 
 •ness (continued Dr. Brown), referred to the concealment of the tract 
 previous to ordination — to his avoiding all objectionable modes of 
 phraseology on his presbytery trials, and the alleged breach of his 
 pledge afterwards. He could not account satisfactorily to his own 
 mind for Mr. Morison's conduct in some of these instances; but still, 
 as he expressed regret for some of them, they could scarcely lay the 
 foundation for such a sentence as that which had been pronounced on 
 him. Such were his convictions w'ith regard to the whole subject. 
 He did regret that the matter should have been brought before that 
 Court in its present form. He sincerely regretted that more means 
 had not been used for the purpose of bringing the Presbytery 
 of Kilmarnock and Mr. Morison to a mutual understanding with 
 regard to these points, and he could not but think that the 
 highest censure but one that a court could inflict for the grossest 
 heresy, or immorality, should not have been resorted to till every 
 other means had been tried in vain. His conviction, in looking 
 to the whole matter was, that it was, in a great measure, a war of 
 words. Good would, however, come out of it, for it would lead, not 
 merely to an explanation of words, but to an elucidation of doctrine, 
 and the ultimate result would be in a high degree advantageous to the 
 Secession Church. He was persuaded that the present breeze, though 
 it had almost mounted to a gale, would be found a healthful one; and 
 he was conscious of a feeling which, he trusted, was something better 
 than pride, though he could scarcely get any other name for it, when 
 he looked on that assembly, gravely though earnestly discussing 'the 
 deep things of God,' and contrasted it in his imagination with another 
 assembly, recently held elsewhere, debating fiercely with regard to 
 their ' beggarly elements. ' He should be happy to see some method 
 adopted by which the good that might be brought out of this might 
 be realised with the least possible measure of attendant evil ; he had no 
 talents himself for public business, and was not prepared to point out 
 any course, but he trusted some other member of Synod would. He 
 fondly hoped that, on the present occasion, they would no't have the 
 Synod desecrating the high censure of suspension, by inflicting it upon 
 what, so far as he could see, was a misapplication of phrases, rather 
 than a perversion of doctrine, and that Mr. Morison would have more 
 good sense than to become the martyr of words — mere w'ords. " 
 
 It can easily be understood how the reading of this paper 
 produced a profound impression on the Court. For, in the 
 first place, as the old woman said of Dr. Chalmers's pulpit 
 performances, it was fell reading." The speaker forgot his 
 
140 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 recent illness and became thorouglily warmed up as he pro- 
 ceeded, making the large chapel re-echo the tones of his 
 noble voice, while his noble countenance beamed with holy 
 enthusiasm, and his flowing white hair rose and fell, owing 
 to the vehemence of his elocutionary excitement. Besides, 
 it was quite apparent that the professor virtuall}' threw his 
 shield over the pupil. He took up all the points one by one, 
 and summarily dis})osed of them. A gentleman who was 
 present informs us that we can have no idea of the impression 
 which was produced when, at the close of his decisive com- 
 ments on each count, the Doctor exclaimed, " Surely there is 
 no heresy here !" 
 
 We would respectfully draw the attention of our theo- 
 logical opponents in Scotland to this remarkable speech. 
 They are constantly telling us that " Morisonianism " is very 
 deadly error indeed. We say to them, Look here, gentlemen. 
 You admit that Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh was a very 
 learned and godly man and a very accomplished theologian. 
 You have his Expository Discourses on First Peter and his 
 Discourses mid Sayings of our Lord on the shelves of your 
 libraries. Well, that man of penetrating intellect and angelic 
 piety rose up in the Synod of his church, when this system 
 of truth was on its trial, and declared that he saw no heresy 
 in it, but that, as far as he could discover, excepting a few 
 questionable expressions, it embraced the true Gospel of the 
 grace of God ! What think ye 'of that 1 Ponder the fact 
 well. 
 
 One paragraph of the address brought down the applause 
 of the whole house. The General Assembly of the Church 
 of Scotland had concluded its annual meetings in Edinburgh 
 on the preceding week. Heaving with the excitement that 
 issued in the Disruption of the Free Church, that anxious 
 conclave had been almost exclusively occupied with the 
 battle of its state-paid endowments. When Dr. Brown con- 
 trasted the theological discussions of his own Synod with 
 these grovelling contentions about v/hat he scornfully called 
 beggarly elements," the belligerent divines before him for- 
 got the asperities of theologic strife and broke out into a 
 unanimous cheer. They had no endowments other than 
 the intellectual ; and the young appellant had no " living " 
 to fall back iipon. Yet the smile and the sunshine were 
 short-lived ; for, as the address closed, and they who heard 
 it realised that the respected speaker virtually endorsed the 
 
MR. SCOTT OF LESLIE. 
 
 141 
 
 alleged errors of Mr. Morison of Kilmarnock, they felt that 
 a serious crisis had arrived for their church, and that clever 
 helmsmen would be needed to steer her clear of the rocks of 
 difficulty into the midst of which she had been drifted. 
 
 When Dr. Brown's speech was concluded three o'clock had 
 arrived, and the Synod adjourned. The loud buzz of excited 
 conversation showed that it almost broke up in confusion. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Final Sederunt in Mr. Morison's Trial before the Synod — Speeches of 
 Drs. Hay, King, and M'Kerrow, and of Messrs. Scott and Baird 
 — Motion carried for Mr. Morison's Suspension — Eev. Robert 
 Morison and Rev. John Guthrie Protest — Reasons of Protest by the 
 former — Dr. John Brown also Protests, but his Reasons clandes- 
 tinely destroyed — Mr. Morison deeply affected by the Decision — 
 Meets with the Committee appointed to confer with him — Preaches 
 on the Sabbath-day, notwithstanding the Synod's Prohil)ition — 
 Receives 183 New Communicants at the Lord's Table — Declines to 
 meet subsequently with the Committee — Is declared no longer a 
 Minister of the Church. 
 
 When the Synod assembled in the evening for their final 
 sederunt on Mr. Morison's case, the first words uttered by 
 the minister who re-opened the debate (Rev. Mr. Scott of 
 Leslie, in Fife,) showed how profound the impression had 
 been which Dr. Brown's speech had produced in the after- 
 noon, as well as the estimate which the best friends of the 
 Secession Church formed of the gra\dty of the crisis in her 
 history which she had at length reached. Mr. Scott thus 
 commenced his speech : " The cause before us is of immense 
 magnitude. This is a crisis in our Secession, unparalleled 
 during all its bygone history." 
 
 Mr. Scott was rather a remarkable man in his way. 
 Although possessed of some property and generally well 
 enough attired, there was something coarse and vulgar in 
 his appearance and manner of speaking, while at the same 
 time he had a force and power of his own. His peculiarity 
 of address was increased by the fact that in his pronuncia- 
 tion he always gave to the letter " s " the sound of " sh." 
 Even although he had been an Ephrairaite, he would have 
 saved his life at the fords of the Jordan (Judges chap, xii.), 
 for he could not have said " Sibboleth," but only " Shibbo- 
 
142 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 leth." He spoke on the ultra-limitarian side, and therefore 
 was dead against the appellant, Mr. Morison. One of his 
 characteristic utterances was the following : " Those who 
 hold this new doctrine concerning faith should be prepared 
 to affirm that the mental agency of the angels in heaven is 
 the same in kind with that of the hosts of hell." Of course 
 it is. Who can doubt or deny if? When the angels fell and 
 lost theii' first estate, what was the cause of their fall 1 A 
 difierence in mental powers between them and the jDure 
 angels'? No; a difference of heart. And the same contrast 
 remains still, save in so far as the prolonged commission of 
 sin may produce the deterioration of the mental powers. 
 Since it was announced that we intended to collect 
 * materials for this history, we have received many kind com- 
 munications from people in all parts of the country, and even 
 in distant lands, who were, thirty-five years ago, spectators of 
 these Stirling scenes, and auditors of these stiiTing speeches. 
 One correspondent — a warm friend of our cause in New 
 Zealand — thus writes : " When you come to give an account 
 of the speech of Mr. Scott of Leslie, in the Synod, do not fail 
 to notice what I heard him say in Gordon Street Church 
 with my own ears — ' That rather than preach jMi\ Morison's 
 doctrines he would turn beggar outright, and travel the 
 country with a meal-pock and a string ! ' " We can see clearly 
 enough the place in the reverend orator's speech at which this 
 strange expression was used ; but the editor of the United 
 Secession Magazine evidently thought the remark too undig- 
 nified to be reported. We feel disposed to exclaim across 
 the intervening chasm of tliirty years, " Indeed, Mr. Scott ; 
 we had thought that the risk of privation and self-sacrifice 
 was all on the other side. You were pretty safe on the side 
 of so-called orthodoxy and the Confession of Faith. But 
 suppose you had taken to ' the string and the meal-pock,' to 
 quote your own elegant phrase, for the sake of unconditional 
 election and a limited atonement, and that, some summer 
 evening, you had been entertaining a few less fortunate 
 mendicant brethren on the banks of a rivulet in Fife, out of 
 the contents of your half-filled bag. Loosening the string, 
 suppose that, at the same time, you had thus unloosed your 
 tongue : ' Hungry and hapless comrades ! there really is 
 not provision for you all here; but, nevertheless, I make 
 a free, wide, and unlimited offer to every one of you. If 
 any of you remain unsatisfied, it is not my fault ; for I take 
 
DR. MITCHELL OF GLASGOW. 
 
 U3 
 
 the vocal grove and purling brook to \\'itness that I have 
 made a free offer to you all.' If some of the starving fra- 
 ternity had replied, ' But how can you make an offer to us 
 all if you have not provision for us all 1 can our eating create 
 the food if it be not there already the force of the analogy, 
 when applied in a theological direction, would surely have 
 been sufficient to drive you from your mendicancy to your 
 ministry again." 
 
 Both Mr. Scott and Bev. Dr. Fraser of Kennoway, who 
 followed him in the debate, called special attention to Mr. 
 Morison's reasoning on Gal. ii. 20 — " The life which I now 
 live in the flesh I Kve by the faith of the Son of God, who 
 loved me, and gave himself for me." They held that the 
 young appellant had no right to encourage any sinner to use 
 these words, ^' he loved me, and gave himself for me," simply 
 because he was a member of the family of man, since Paul 
 did not use them in his epistle till he had been seventeen 
 years experimentally acquainted with the life of God. But 
 the appellant was wiser than his critics. Paul's experi- 
 mental life sprang from his faith. It was the faith of the 
 truth that Christ had " loved him and given himself for him" 
 that made Paul so holy, bold, and self-sacrificing. Let men 
 doubt that fact, and the divine life in them will be weak, or 
 a nullity altogether. Let them receive that fact intelli- 
 gently and realisingly, and the life of God will be vigorous 
 in their souls. No faith, no holiness ; no truth, no faith. 
 No Christ for me, no Gospel for me ; and, therefore, no 
 purifying power at work in the secret chambei^ of the heart. 
 
 Passing by the speech of Dr. M'Kerrow of the Bridge 
 of Teith, we gladly linger for a little over the kind and truly 
 Christian address of Dr. Mitchell of Glasgow. This vener- 
 able man survived the meeting of Synod only two years ; 
 and it was a common saying, at the time of his death, that 
 " not a whisper ever could be raised against the name and 
 fame of John Mitchell." So pacific was he in his spirit 
 that he would take no part in " the Voluntary Controversy," 
 fearing lest he should lose the friendship of the ministers of 
 the Establishment, -^^-ith some of whom he enjoyed sweet 
 Christian intercourse. He acted as one of the Professors in 
 the Secession Church, and thus referred in the exordium of 
 his speech to Mr. Morison's behaviour in his class : — 
 
 " I know my young brother well. As a student, he was talented, 
 exemplarily assiduous, and by no means unpersuadable. If, therefore, 
 
144 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 he has erred, which I fear he will be found to have done in sbme re- 
 spects — I hope he will be open to conviction, and ready to retract what 
 he shall see to have been wrong in doctrine or in expression. In ex- 
 pression, I say ; for much of the evil lies, I apprehend, in an unhappy 
 phraseology ; and, from whatever cause it may have proceeded, he has 
 adopted language, in several cases, which is sure to be mistaken, and, 
 if his sentiments were sound, Sure to mislead." 
 
 In the main body of his address Dr. Mitchell contended 
 that he had always felt free to preach the Gospel to every 
 creature, and expressed his hope that the whole warfare of 
 words might yet be amicably tenninated. 
 
 A very different orator next mounted the rostmm — Rev. 
 Dr. Hay of Kinross. This gentleman afterwards became, 
 along with Dr. Marshall of Kirkintilloch, a leader of the 
 limitarian party in the Secession Church. As might have 
 been expected, he spoke with asperity of Mr. Morison, — of 
 whom, indeed, and of his doctrines, he had not one good 
 word to say. Yet we glean information from his speech on 
 an important point. We did not know, till the report of 
 his address made us aware of the fact, that this was not the 
 first time that Presbyterial and even Synodical action had 
 been taken in the Secession Church on the question of the 
 Atonement : 
 
 " This special reference of the death of Christ for the redemption of 
 the elect only has been maintained by the Secession Church from its 
 very commencement. For opposing this doctrine Mr. Mair of Orwel 
 was deposed by the General Associate Synod in 1757; and, within 
 these few years, in 1830, the Eev. Mr. Forrester of Kinkell brought a 
 charge of libel against the Rev. William Pringle of Auchterarder, for 
 teaching the doctrine of universal redemption. Mr. Forrester was 
 heard in defence of the libel, and Mr. Pringle in his own defence. 
 Parties being removed, the Synod proceeded to give judgment, and 
 found that the libel was groundless; it appeared evident that Mr. 
 Pringle had taught no doctrine inconsistent with the standards of our 
 church. But the Synod, at the same time, declared that, as, from a 
 misconception of the phraseology of Scripture, a false liberality or 
 affectation of accuracy in language, and of simplicity in their views of 
 divine truth — as if the mysterious scheme of salvation could be disen- 
 cumbered of all difficulties — many assert and maintain that Christ 
 made atonement for the sins of all men, and thus infringe the sove- 
 reignty of divine grace, and encourage the presumption of the sinner, 
 the Synod enjoin all ministers and preachers to be on their guard 
 against introducing discussions in their ministrations, or employing 
 language which may seem to oppose the doctrine of particular re- 
 demption, or that Christ, in making atonement for sin, was substituted 
 in the room of the elect only. " 
 
 It seems to us that the Synods of 1830 and 1841 would 
 
DR. DAVID KING OF GLASGOW. 
 
 145 
 
 have counselled Paul, John, and even the blessed Saviour 
 himself, to guard against the use of invitations too liberal, 
 loving, and world-wide in their extent. 
 
 Even as when in a gi-eat debate in the House of Commons, 
 a friend of the Government and a member of the Opposition 
 alternately adch'ess the deliberative assembly, so, on this 
 occasion, did a comparatively liberal speaker always succeed 
 one of the more strait-laced side of the house. When Dr. 
 Hay sat down, a man of genuine genius and eloquence rose 
 — Dr. David King of Glasgow. He seemed to sympathise 
 with Mr. Morison as one man of intellect might be expected 
 to sympathise with another. He had no pleasure in seeing 
 him hounded to death as some of the smaller men evidently 
 had. His first words on rising were — " I feel induced to 
 make a few remarks, chiefly because several of the later 
 speakei*s have used stronger language in characterising the 
 debated points than I am prepared to adopt." Like Dr. 
 Brown, he seemed to think that the differences were rather 
 verbal than real ; and confessed that it was mth " painful 
 reluctance " that he would vote for Dr. Heugh's motion, 
 evidently hoping that the committee to be appointed would 
 reconcile Mr. ]Morison and his co-presbyters, both as to 
 mattei-s of doctrine and practice. We quote Dr. King's 
 peroration, both because it will give our readers a specimen 
 of those finely strung sentences which used to delight Glas- 
 gow audiences thii-ty years ago, and because it shows the 
 eloquent speaker's good-will towards the appellant at the 
 bar : — 
 
 **If such averments as these are to be thrown on our Christian 
 societies, then farewell to their tranquil prosperity. Contention will 
 take the place of devotion; we shall have reciprocal injuries, instead of 
 acjgression on common enemies; the God of peace will quit the arena of 
 strife; and a long age may not see the conclusion of consequent disasters. 
 Let us stop in time. Let ^Ir. Morison give up with diction which he 
 may see to be so misguiding; let his admissions be received with a kind 
 and generous interpretation; and let us close these deliberations, so 
 dreaded in prospect, by mutually acknowledging, in joyouy and grate- 
 ful strains, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell 
 together in unity !" 
 
 It was now eleven o'clock at night, and it looked as if 
 eveiy member of Court had six)ken who wished to give a 
 prepared address. One other influential minister, however, 
 desired to be heard — the occupant of the Moderator's chair. 
 Mr. Baird asked leave of the Synod to vacate his seat, and 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 express his mind on the grave cause which had rendered 
 those deliberations necessary over which he had presided for 
 several days. Leave having been granted, a substitute took* 
 his place, and the Moderator delivered an earnest and even 
 excited harangue. It was felt by Mr. Morison's friends to 
 be hardly fair in hirn, with all the influence of a presiding 
 judge, to sum up with so much acrimony against the young- 
 appellant at the bar. His speech was not remarkable for 
 argument but for animus; and being the last that was 
 delivered, its effect was all the more considerable. Dr. 
 Heugh's motion, as it originally stood, referred the whole 
 matter to a committee, to which power was to be given to 
 restore Mr. Morison to his charge, if they saw fit, without 
 reporting publicly to the Synod. The Moderator declaimed 
 vehemently against this proposal. He declared it to be 
 unprecedented, that a case involving points so vital should 
 be huddled up in secret, and ended with the threat, " If this 
 idea does not fall in with the judgment of the Court, I shall 
 feel it to be my duty to take my sttind under a solemn and 
 deliberate protest." 
 
 After some conversation all the motions were withdrawn, 
 with the exception of Dr. Heugh's, which was carried with- 
 out a vote, as amended by the Moderator. It ran as 
 follows: — "The Synod, without sanctioning everything in 
 the papers and pleadings, approve of the diligence and 
 fidelity of the Presbytery of Kilmarnock — dismiss the appeal 
 on account of the erroneous and inconsistent opinions set 
 forth by. Mr. Morison, and his blameable conduct in regard 
 to the suppression of his tract — continue his suspension, 
 and appoint a committee to deal with Mr. Morison, and to 
 report to the Synod on Thursday morning first at furthest." 
 
 It may possibly seem strange to our readers that, while 
 we have all along represented one portion of the Synod as 
 leaning more favourably to Mr. Morison than the other, this 
 adverse vote should have been given on his case without a 
 division. But it must be recollected that very few indeed of 
 the members of Court wholly sympathised with his doctrinal 
 positions. Besides, those who were friendly fully expected, 
 as already hinted, that the private dealing of the committee 
 would have a more powerful effect on Mr. Morison's mind 
 than exciting and irritating public debate. But what of 
 Dr. Brown? Why did he not propose a counter-motion to 
 that of Dr. Heugh in defence of his favourite pupil? The 
 
MR. morison's protest. 147 
 
 • 
 
 fact was that potent i^rivate influence was brought to hear on 
 Dr. Brown immediately after the delivery of his surp.rising 
 speech. It is no gossipping small talk we utter, but simply 
 the truth, in a matter of great public moment, when we say 
 tliat Dr. Heugh and other influential men were seen to 
 attach themselves very tenaciousl}'- to the influential pro- 
 fessor. The two doctors spent the interval together between 
 the afternoon and evening sederunt; and it must be admitted 
 that if the Glasgow doctor had admirable powers of per- 
 suasion, the Edinburgh doctor, owing to his amiability of 
 disposition, was very susceptible of being persuaded. 
 
 When the decision of the Synod was announced, Mr. 
 Morison ^\%s much moved. He did not wish to leave the 
 church of his fathers. He only desired liberty to preach a 
 free Gospel within her pale. Amid deep stillness .he rose 
 up and said, that "he felt astonished and gi'ieved at the 
 result to which his fathers and brethren had come. He felt 
 persuaded in his own mind that it was God's truth for which 
 he had been libelled and suspended; and, seeing that he was 
 persuaded of this, and seeing, moreover, that the congrega- 
 tion over which he presided were in peculiar circumstances, 
 having in immediate prospect the observance of the Lord's 
 Supper, he felt that his duty to his owti conscience, his 
 people, his Master, and his Master's truth, compelled him to 
 enter his solemn protest against the decision." He then 
 read the following protest: — " Seeing the supreme Court has 
 passed sentence against me, even to a suspension from the 
 exercise of my ministry, and that on most unjust grounds, 
 as I conceive, I protest against the decision; and I will hold 
 myself at liberty to maintain and preach the same doctrines, 
 as if no such sentence had been come to." 
 
 But this was not the only protest that was made against 
 these extreme proceedings. His much respected father, Rev. 
 Robert Morison of Bathgate, now approaching sixty years 
 of age, handed in the following " Reasons of Dissent:" — 
 
 " The undei signed dissents from the decision of Synod, continuing 
 the suspension of the Rev. James Morison, of Kilmarnock, for the 
 following reasons: — 
 
 "1. Because the process against him was commenced and prosecuted 
 by the Preslytery without a single attempt being made to deal with 
 him privately and personally, in order either to ascertain piecisely 
 what were his views, and what their grounds and bearings, or to induce 
 him by j)ateinal counsel to alter or modify them; nothing being re- 
 sorted to but instant judicial procedure, upon the ground of vague and 
 
148 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 unproven reports, as if it had been more the object of desire to find 
 him wrong than to find him right, or ever to make him right, unless 
 by dint- of direct presbyterial authority. 
 
 *' 2. Because the subscriber holds and ever has held, that it is an 
 unrighteous measure, — sinfully disparaging to * the lively oracles ' of 
 God, and at once unscriptural and unprotestant in principle, to judge 
 of the soundness of doctrine, or try alleged error, by any other stan- 
 dard than the Holy Scriptures, and acquit or condemn on the footing 
 of any other authority than the Word of God alone. He submits that 
 while judging in the name and authority of Christ, it is warrantable 
 to the Court to employ the statements of the subordinate standards 
 of the church, not as the ground of the sentence to be passed, but 
 only as an important item of attendant mitigation or aggravation 
 as the nature of the case may be; but that it is highly derogatory 
 to the Scriptures, and dishonouring to God, to go further, and make 
 human formularies the rule of judgment in the matter M God's own 
 revealed truth. 
 
 "3. Because he is convinced that the tenets censured, if not 
 directly condemned, by this Court, as unsound and inconsistent, are 
 both sound and consistent, at once agreeable to the Scriptures, and un- 
 opposed to the standards of the church. 
 
 *' 4. Because in that decision there is not a sufficiently certain sound 
 given in an explicit and direct judgment of the doctrines in question, 
 but a seeming indication that these might be allowed provided certain 
 forms of expression were corrected ; whereas the subscriber holds and 
 ever has held, that though mere language is very important, and may 
 well be the subject of advice or caution or warning, it never can justly 
 be the ground of censure, or the subject of judicial decision. 
 
 '* 5. Because he is convinced, from minute personal knowledge, that 
 the allegations of disingenuousness hurled against the appellant (except 
 that one point on which confession was made by him) are a mere tissue 
 of groundless and overstrained mis-statement; and moreover, as they 
 rest merely on the assertion of one party at the bar, and are denied by 
 the other party at the bar, the Court was bound in common equity (in 
 the absence of all proof on either side) judicially to disbelieve them, as 
 unproved and consequently judicially untrue, and not to add their 
 sanction to that which, so far as they knew, may be a mere disingenu- 
 ous device to discredit the appellant's doctrines through the destruc- 
 tion of his character. 
 
 ** 6. Because the appellant, while he has adopted no new or strange 
 theology different from that professed and preached by ministers of 
 this cliurch, has, as he himself avows, been led, by the grace of God 
 bringing him to peace in Christ, to understand a little more clearly 
 and precisely than he formerly was able to do, how to distribute and 
 apply the practical bearings of God's saving truth to the consciences of 
 sinners; and as it is principally, or wholly, on account of the precise 
 and minute methods of the practical application of truth, which the 
 personal experience of the grace of the Gospel has suggested from the 
 word of God, that he has been censured by this Court, this sentence, 
 however far from being so intended, appears to the subscriber to be iu 
 itself materially, and in effect, a judicial censure of the work and teach- 
 ing of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 * ' Robert Morison. " 
 
DR. brown's protest DESTROYED. ^ 149 
 
 Not only is this document most aflfecting, as containing a 
 fond father's defence of a most useful and deser^TJig son ; but 
 it is interesting as being the firet specimen vre have yet met 
 in these historical notices of the style and spii-it of Mr. 
 Moiison, senior. In subsequent chapters we shall find the 
 promise of logical power and felicitous diction on the part 
 of the worthy -wiiter amply borne out, when we come to 
 sketch his career and the part he played in this honourable 
 campaign. 
 
 The tninut^s of the Synod's proceedings mention that 
 " another minister " also entered his dissent. That un- 
 named protester was Rev. John Guthrie, of Kendal, who 
 had been, both at college and at the divinity hall, the young 
 appellant's bosom friend, and who did not desert him in the 
 hour of trial, but took his place honourably and faithfully at 
 his side — a post which he stiQ bravely keeps to this day. 
 The reason why his name was not given in the synodical 
 documents was that Mr. Guthrie, from his ignorance at the 
 time of ecclesiastical law, had not given in his reasons of 
 dissent when the minutes were read next day. He had them 
 in his hand and ofi"ered to record them at the close of the 
 meeting, but it was then too late. 
 
 But there was another protester, whose name is not men- 
 tioned as such in the United Secession Magazine, nor in any 
 other authorised report of the proceedings. And thereby 
 hangs a tale. The Rev. Dr. Brown of Edinburgh, although 
 he made no counter-motion in ^Ir. Morison's behalf, pro- 
 tested, and actually gave in reasons of dissent, as vrell as Mr. 
 Morison, senior. Where are they then? Echo answers 
 "where?" The fact is that they were destroyed in some 
 clandestine manner, and never given to the public as they 
 should have been. In truth. Dr. Brown was pri-cately dealt 
 vnih; and we suppose that our readers will all have a toler- 
 ably con-ect idea of what is meant by such an expression. 
 It seems to have been rej^resented to him that it would never 
 do for a man of his eminence in the ecclesiastical world to 
 have his great name mixed up or identified with what so 
 many regarded as a heterodox movement. And simply 
 because he did not insist upon the publication of his reasons 
 of dissent, they seem to have been suiTeptitiously removed. 
 But \\dthout doubt the deed was dishonourable, no matter 
 on whose head the blame should fall ; for such documents, 
 when publicly given in, most assuredly belong to the public. 
 
150 ^ISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 We must now lift the veil from private life, and give our 
 readers a glimpse of a scene that was witnessed by but few. 
 Mr. Morison and his young wife had been the guests, during 
 this anxious week, of a Christian lady in Glasgow, belonging 
 to the Congregational body, who felt it at all times to be a 
 pleasure to entertain the servants of Christ, and who certainly 
 thought none the less of Mr. Morison for all the outcry that 
 had been raised against him. Indeed, the Scottish Congre- 
 gationalists as a class rather welcomed him all the more on 
 account of his peculiarities, because he seemed, for that very 
 reason, to approximate more closely to the early itinerant 
 zeal of the Haldanes and Greville Ewing — a zeal which had, 
 just a year or two before, been revived in the apostolic 
 labours of Henry Wight of Edinburgh. 
 
 The ladies had not gone to the evening meeting with Mr. 
 Morison, but were waiting anxiously for his" return when 
 the hour of midnight had passed. On his arrival, near one 
 o'clock in the morning, his hostess met him at the door, with 
 the eager inquiry, ''Well, how have things gone^" His 
 only reply was, "All is well." On reaching the apartment 
 in which the family and friends were assembled, he said, 
 feelingly, '' Let us pray!" It is still remembered that the 
 first words he uttered were, " Father, forgive them, for they 
 know not wdiat they do." From the earnest and touching 
 supplication which followed, those present gathered that the. 
 deed of the Presbytery had been confirmed by the Synod — 
 that he who knelt beside them had been disowned by man 
 — that he felt his position deeply — but that, strong both in 
 faith and love, he could return good for evil, and expect 
 that '' the things which happened unto him would fall out 
 unto the fui-therance of the Gospel." 
 
 One other trial yet remained for Mr. Morison before he 
 was finally and for ever cut loose from the church of his 
 fathers, — and one which was, in some respects, the sorest 
 of all. He was under the necessity of repairing next 
 morning, once more, to the Gordon Street Session-liOuse, 
 that he might confer there with the Committee which had 
 been appointed to converse with him in private. The 
 interview is thus notified in the minutes of the Synod's 
 proceedings : — 
 
 "The Committee appointed to converse with Mr. Morison met. 
 Present — Dr. Mitcliell, Dr. Hay, Dr. Fraser, Dr. Heugh, Dr. Bealtie, 
 Dr. King, Mr. William Fraser, Mr. Marshall, Mr. GeQrge Lawson, 
 
MR. MORISON's meeting WITH THE COMMITTEE. 151 
 
 A[r. BairJ, Mr. W. Prinde, and Mr. "VV. Johnston. The meeting was 
 ■ 'pened wiili prayer by Dr. Mitchell. Mr. Johnston was chosen clerk. 
 Mr. Moribon was present, and expressed Ids willingness to enter into 
 Inendly conversation with the Counnittee. 
 
 "Mr. Morison having been asked whether he was bound by any 
 engagement or understanding to a])ide by the congregation to which 
 he was at present ministering, whatever might be the decision come to 
 in his case, stated that he was not. Mr. Morison declared that no 
 change had been produced in his sentiments by the discussions in the 
 Synod ; and the Committee, after a protracted and friendly conversa- 
 tion of nearly three hours, did not succeed in effecting any. 
 
 "Serious and alfectionate counsels and advices were addressed to 
 him, OH the importance of acting with vrisdom and discretion in his 
 present circumstances. 
 
 "i^djourned to meet on Monday, at half-past five o'clock, p.m. — 
 Closed with prayer." 
 
 The numbers here were twelve to one, — -six doctors of 
 divinity and six ministers of experience, dealing for three 
 hours with the youngest pastor in the denomination. But 
 the Lord was Avith him ; and thus the scales were turned in 
 his favour. Dr. Marshall, of Kirkintilloch, took the chdef 
 lead in the conversation, which assumed the form of exhor- 
 tation, persuasion, and even entreaty, rather than of argu- 
 ment and debate. Dr. Morison bears witness that he found 
 it far more difficiilt to withstand the kind words, compli- 
 ments, and flatteries of the Committee, than the sharp 
 retorts and unsparing criticisms of the Presbytery and 
 Synod. But the artful coaxing w^hich won over John 
 Brown and Robert Walker produced no change on the 
 resolute purpose and devoted heart of the self-denying 
 James Morison. He burst the wordy withes with which 
 these Delilahs of divinity tried to bind him, and went out 
 . to Ayi'shire that evening with all the strength of the 
 unshorn Samson in his soul. If he had yielded, he would 
 have " become weak as other men." 
 
 As it was, he left for Kilmtirnock in the afternoon, with 
 his conscience " void of oftence," and his moral influence as 
 a religious reformer unimpaired. The railway had now been 
 opened bet\veen Glasgow and Ayr, so that he had the advan- 
 tage of its rapid conveyance as far as Irvine. When the 
 Irvine onmibus stopped in the streets of Kilmarnock, he 
 was met by a few of his elders, who welcomed him and his 
 yoimg wife warmly back after the trials and fatigue of the 
 Aveek. Mrs. Morison had attended the meetings of the Synod 
 in Glasgow^ every day. The beadle of the church came to 
 
152 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 know her aft€r a sederunt or two, and always tried to get 
 • her a good seat. It must have been most exciting for her 
 to hear bitter harangues delivered against the Imsband of 
 her youth hour after hour, and day after day. Now that 
 she has reached the heavenly rest, she will not regret that 
 she had to bear her share in these valorous contendings for 
 the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. 
 
 But if the quiet Satui'day evening in their manse must 
 have been an agreeable change after the turmoil and fever 
 of the week, yet more gi-ateful must have been the da^ii of 
 the hallowed day of rest. The God of the Sabbath seemed 
 to smile upon them and say, " Peace be unto you !" 
 
 For that day was " an high day " in Clerk's Lane 
 Church, for more reasons than one. In the first place, the 
 young minister had returned from his five days' temptation 
 in the Glasgow wilderness, and had not fallen ! Eveiy 
 countenance in the crowded chapel seemed to glow ^dth 
 welcome, sympathy, and love. He would find warm heai'ts 
 at home. They would make up for all the unkindness with 
 which he had been treated, by their own cordiality and the 
 special sincerity of their Chiistian friendship. Such was 
 the unexpressed but easily understood language of the sea 
 of faces on which Mr. Morison looked. 
 
 In the next place, it was a crucial day. If he dared 
 to preach, his suspension became excommunication. He 
 had been entreated and warned by reverend divines not to 
 occupy that pulj^it, but to resile gradually from the position 
 A^'hich he had taken up. But the voice of imperious duty 
 had more weight with him than the voice of cozening flattery 
 and worldly-minded pmdence. There he was in Clerk's 
 Lane Church conducting the woi-ship as if no ecclesiastical 
 menace hung over him ! But, lo ! the dove-like spirit shone 
 through the cloud of threatening ; and the whisper could be 
 heard by sympathetic listeners, Men may frown on him ; 
 but I, his God, am well pleased." 
 
 Then, in the third place, it so happened that the quarterly 
 Sacrament was to be dispensed that day, and the 183 indi- 
 viduals who, as alreadystated, had been added to the church 
 during the past quarter, as the result of the re^-ival of 
 religion which had been produced by God's blessing on Mr. 
 Morison's labours, were to be publicly recognised as mem- 
 bers. They were all seated near the pulpit ; and before the 
 sacred feast began in the afternoon, according to the plan 
 
QUESTIONS TO COMMUXICANTS. 
 
 153 
 
 which Mr. Morison had followed during his brief ministry, 
 they all stood up and answered to their names, one by one. 
 Then they all nodded simultaneous assent to a series of 
 printed questions which their pastor held in his hand, and 
 which, of course, was his oa^tl composition. We add a 
 s]iecimen of these questions that our readers may be better 
 able to appreciate the scene. 
 
 " Do you feel assured that it is your duty to * love &od with all 
 your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all 
 your mind,* and that you ought, in every thought and word and deed, 
 to have regard to his will and glory? 
 
 " Do you admit that, while in a state of unbelief, you never for a 
 moment thus loved God, and never, for a single day, with undivided 
 heart, thus served and glorified him ? 
 
 " When you thus view your own base ingratitude toward so loving 
 and so lovely a God, and your constant violation of his holy law, can 
 you honestly say with the patriarch Job, ' Behold I am vile, what 
 shall I answer thee ? I will lay my hand upon my mouth ' ? 
 
 *' While you admit most freely that it would be just and glorious in 
 God to visit your sins on yourself with his wrath and curse to the 
 uttermost, do you at the same time believe it to be trae that he so 
 loved you as to send his Son to become a curse for you, and in your 
 room and as your substitute to bear the punishment of your sins, that 
 you might not he punished yourself, hut go free t 
 
 "Do you believe God's Son, Jt^sus Christ, to be at once true man. 
 and tme God ; true man that he might suffer ; true God that his 
 sufferings might have an infinite value ? 
 
 "Are you now conscious that this same Jesus is to you *the chiefest 
 among ten thousand,' and 'altogether lovely' ? 
 
 "Is it now your deliberate resolution to follow this same Jesus 
 through good report and bad, whatever men may say, or think, or do ? 
 and are you resolved to make it your study to manifest, by a godly 
 walk and conversation, that ' while in the world, you are not of the 
 world' ? 
 
 " Is it your deliberate resolution to follow all holiness, and curefully 
 to avoid all sin / not that you may get your soul brought into such a 
 state that you may venture to die, but because you love God, who has 
 already brought you into that state, by the work of Jesus Christ, and 
 by the Holy Spirit leading you to rest on that work ? 
 
 " Can you sincerely say that you are conscious within yourself that 
 the work of holy transformation into the image of Christ and of God 
 has already begun in you, and do you thus derive evidence of your 
 adoption into God's family by faith in Christ Jesus ? 
 
 " While you are conscious that sin is still dwelling in you, like a 
 traitor within the camp, can you, at the same time, conscientiously say 
 that this sin is your burden, and your grief; and do you realh' hate and 
 detest it, and long and strive and cry to be altogether free from it? 
 
 " Does pure — unadorned — Jesus-like— God-like holiness appear to 
 you to be the loveliest of all things; is it with it that you wish to be 
 •beautified;' and is it it that makes heaven a place where you earnestly 
 desire to be ? 
 
154 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UXIOX. 
 
 " Do 3'ou see clearl}^ that Jesus has taken out the sting of death for 
 you, so that you would not be afraid, to venture your soul into the 
 eternal world ? 
 
 "Do you feel desirous to do good to the souls of others, and do you 
 promise to try to win souls ? 
 
 "In partaking of the Lord's Supper, canyon 'discern the Lord's 
 body,' that is, can you see b}^ faith, that his body was broken for you^ 
 and that his blood was shed for you ? 
 
 "Do you promise, while you continue in connection with this 
 church, to be subject to those who have the oversight of you in the 
 Lord, — in such, a manner as to receive their admonitions, their warn- 
 ings, and, if need be, their reproofs ?" 
 
 A fastidious critic might perhaps be disposed to iiiid fault 
 \vith one or two of these queries as somewhat repetitious ; 
 but it evidently was the aim of him who drew them up to 
 make the truth plain by reiterating it under diverse aspects. 
 And whereas he had been blamed for encouraging men to 
 cherish assurance of salvation apart from holiness of life, it 
 is manifest that the grand object sought after in these 
 sacramental obligations was sanctification of heart and life, 
 based upon faith in the cross. 
 
 Let us contemplate, then, these 183 converts, in the 
 23resence of a crowded congregation, and also in the presence 
 of an unseen " cloud of witnesses," bowing assent to these 
 momentous queries ; and let us at the same time bear in 
 mind that he who was presiding at the solemn ceremony ^ 
 was by the very act cutting himself off from the church of 
 his fathers ! Strange anomaly, and one calculated to make 
 the friends of the Synod pause and ponder ! An earnest 
 and successful preacher and pastor uniting nearly two hun- 
 dred new and ardent communicants to the church over 
 which he had been placed about nine months before, and by 
 that very act drawing down upon himself the severest 
 punishment which his ecclesiastial superiors could inflict ! 
 Hailed at the eucharist as a spiritual father, and therefore 
 ejected by the Synod as a dangerous heresiarch ! Verily, 
 verily, the rejoicing angels of heaven and the indignant 
 doctors of divinity were on opposite sides ! 
 
 When the ordinance of the Lord's Supper had been dis- 
 pensed, Mr. Morison came down from the platform below 
 the pulpit to which he had already descended, and gave all 
 the young communicants the right hand of fellowship, in 
 name of the elders and of the church. It was with ditflculty 
 that he could make his way through the crowd. And thus 
 " the great day of the feast " ended at Kilmarnock, on which 
 
CLOSE OF MR. MORISOX's CASE. 
 
 155 
 
 the Synod's deed of suspension became the Synod's deed of 
 excom munication. 
 
 Let us now turn to the last record of Mr. Morison's case 
 in the minutes of the Synod's proceedings : — 
 
 Monday, 12tk June, 1841. — The Committee met at the hour ap- 
 pointed. Were present — Dr. Mitchell, Dr. Fraser, Dr. Heugh, Dr. 
 Beattie, Dr. King, and Mr. Wm. Johnstone. The meeting was 
 opened with prayer by Dr. Fraser. 
 
 "The Committee waited an hour for Mr. Morison, but he did not 
 make his appearance, nor was there any communication from him — 
 Closed with prayer." 
 
 lith June. — "The Committee met. Present — Dr. Mitchell, Dr. 
 Hay, Dr. Fraser, Dr. Heugh, with Messrs. Clapperton, Marshall, 
 Mure, Pringle, and Wm. Johnstone. 
 
 *' The Convener of the Committee reported that he had addressed a 
 letter to Mr. Morison, requesting to know whether he intended to 
 meet with the Committee again, and whether he had preached on Sab- 
 bath last. A letter from Mr. Morison having been received, was now 
 laid before the Committee. 
 
 "The Committee having considered the letter, and the whole sub- 
 ject, agreed to recommend to the Synod, that as Mr. Morison has 
 disregarded the sentence of the Synod, suspending him from the 
 functions of the ministry; as he knew that he had given no satisfaction 
 to the Committee regarding his opinions, and was not prepared, as his 
 letter intimates, to change them in any degree, and had been warned 
 of the effect which his preaching in such circumstances would produce, 
 — agreed to recommend to the Synod, that it should be declared that 
 he is no longer connected with the United Secession Church. 
 
 " The Synod approved of the conduct of the Committee, and adopted 
 the recommendation which it contained, adding, that all ministers 
 and preachers in this church must consider themselves prohibited from 
 preaching for Mr. Morison, or employing him in any of their public 
 ministrations." » 
 
 It will thus appear that Mr. Morison was finally and fully 
 separated from the Secession Church of Scotland, not for 
 error in doctrine exactly, but for preaching the Gospel on 
 the Lord's Day, and dispensing the Lord's Supper to happy 
 converts when the Synod of his church desired him not to 
 do so. Probably this will be a new view of the matter to 
 many of his friends throughout the country, aiid one which 
 certainly will not lower him in their esteem. In one word, 
 he was declared no longer a minister of the United Associate 
 Church because he dared to say with Peter, " We ought to 
 obey God rather than men." 
 
 That sad interdict still remains in force — " All ministers 
 and preachers in this church must consider themselves pro- 
 hibited from j^reaching for Mr. Morison, or employing him 
 in any of their public ministrations." We know for a fact 
 
156 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 that certain of the ministers have a great desii'e to break 
 through the prohibition; and we verily believe that even 
 although they did so, no ecclesiastical action would be taken 
 against them. Quite recently the U.P. Magazine advised 
 all the ministers of the body to procure the Doctor's Com- 
 mentary on Matthew, and weigh well its utterances; and 
 there does not seem to be a great difference between letting 
 a man teach in print and preach in canonicals. But in truth 
 there is many a strange contradiction and unreformed abuse 
 in this wonderful old world of ours. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Case of the Eev. Robert Walker, of Comrie, first in the Presbytery, 
 and afterwards in the Synod— Its peaceful Settlement — Mr. 
 Morison's career at Kilmarnock after his separation from the 
 Secession Church — Several remarkable Conversions— Exhortation 
 Meeting on Sabbath evening — Increase of Elders — His large Bible 
 Classes — Preaches much in the neighbourhood of Kilmarnock, 
 and itinerates throughout Scotland — His Pamphlet entitled 
 ** Saving Faith-" 
 
 We have already mentioned, in the course of these historical 
 notices, that another case of alleged heresy on the Doctrine 
 of the Atonement was tried and settled at the same Synod 
 of 1841 which disposed of the case of Mr. Morison, of 
 Kilmarnock, in the way in which we have already de- 
 scribed. And inasmuch as th5 minutes of the Synod's 
 proceedings in connection with it occupy as large a space in 
 the Magazines of the time as the account of Mr. Morison's 
 trial, we would fail in our duty as theological chroniclers if 
 we passed it over altogether in silence, even although the 
 discussion had little direct effect on the progress of the 
 Evangelical Union, since the gentleman referred to eventu- 
 ally satisfied the Synod, and remained in the fellowship of 
 the United Secession Church. 
 
 The Rev. Robert Walker, of Comrie, in Perthshire, was 
 the name of the appellant in this second case, which detained 
 the reverend court at Gordon Street for several days after 
 the Kilmarnock appeal was settled. Comrie is a little 
 village which nestles among the Perthshire hills, a few miles 
 distant from the town of Crieff. It was the birth-place of 
 Mr. Gilfillan of Dundee, whose father (a highly respectable 
 
REV. ROBERT WALKER OF COMRIE. 
 
 157 
 
 and able clergyman) preceded Mr. Walker in the rural 
 pastorate. The readers of the Dundee divine's numerous 
 works will remember many descriptive references to the 
 scenes of his boyish memories and earliest literary aspira- 
 tions. For one thing, Comrie was celebrated for its earth- 
 quakes ; and if ever a more than ordinary disturbance of 
 subterranean calm took place in Scotland, one might be 
 certain that the dread trepidation had been felt at the 
 romantic village on the Erne. Perhaps it was quite in 
 keeping with the due fitness of things " that there should 
 be a small theological earthquake there too, as if to keep 
 the terrestrial tremors in countenance. Unfortunately, 
 however, the shock, when it came, did not yield so much 
 eVangelical lava, precious to souls and destructive only to 
 sin, as the simultaneously agitated crater at Kilmarnock. 
 
 It would appear that for several months a fama had been 
 in circulation throughout the district concerning the alleged 
 heterodoxy of young Mr. Walker. One Sabbath evening, 
 however, he had preached to a large congregation in the 
 chui'ch of Dr. Young of Perth, on the text, " Ye will not 
 come unto uie that ye might have life," when his discourse 
 had been so sound, while yet liberal, as to allay all the 
 alarms of that venerable and eminent minister, who was 
 facile p'inceps of the Presbytery for theological power. 
 Still the rumours again gathered and grew j and when it 
 was at leno^th affirmed that Mr. Walker was reading 
 extracts in his pulpit, with approbation, from " The Way 
 of Salvation," and the " Nature of the Atonement," by 
 James Morison of Kilmarnock, it was thought, in Perth, 
 that it was high time to call the Comrie pastor to task for 
 his extravagances. 
 
 The young man was quite unprepared for the unexpected 
 attack which was made upon him in the North Session 
 House, March 2nd, 1841 ; but he seems to have stood his 
 ground very well. They must have had a strange old- 
 fashioned way of managing things at Perth at that time, as 
 we may judge from the use of such antiquated phrases as 
 " Which day and place," " Like as," &c., and also from the 
 peculiar style in which the examination of the suspected 
 presbyter was carried on. At three successive meetings 
 there were actually eighty-one questions proposed to Mr. 
 Walker on abstruse theological points, ranging from Adam's 
 fall, down through the work of redemption, to final and 
 
158 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 everlasting reprobation. On tlie first day tliey got over only 
 nine queries; but on the second day they must have had a 
 lono- and determined sederunt, for, .beginning at "No. 10, 
 ■ they did not halt till they had reached " No. 69. Of a 
 truth they deserved a good rest after such a long days 
 work. Next diet, however, opens with " question 70,^ and 
 ends with " 81." If at any time the poor badgered victim, 
 " beino- asked, declines to answer," or " desires time to 
 consider," his tormentors just framed the interrogation m a 
 new shape, and presented it to him again. One of his chiet 
 antao-onists and catechists seems to have been the Rev. Mr 
 Milne of Edenshead, a gentleman of some literary abihty and 
 theological attainment. If the village at which he laboured 
 was at; all well named, he must have been eminently quali- 
 fied to question the agitated panel on Adam's fall and all it 
 led to : but one shrewdly suspects that Mr. Milne knew as 
 little about that subject as any of his co-presbyters. Mr. 
 ' Walker, indeed, seems to have been able to mstruct them 
 all on Edenic matters ; for we find him resolutely main- 
 taining " the salvation of all infants dying m infancy, --an 
 admission which the rigid Confessionists of the Fair City 
 seem hardly to have been disposed to make. ^ 
 
 The blessings of the New Testament are nine m number; 
 and we used to learn long ago in the multiplication table 
 that 9 X 9 = 81. If the Presbytery of Perth meant to 
 square the Beatitudes for their young, friend it was cer- 
 tainly very kind of them to do so; although the way they 
 took to do it was rather round about, and g«^ve him a good 
 perspiration ere he reached the final blessing. Yet the final 
 l3lessin- he doubtless would rejoice in, as he sought his 
 village manse at the end of the strife: " Blessed are ye when 
 men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner 
 of evil against you falsely for my name's sake. 
 
 The result of the prolonged deliberations was that the Pres- 
 bytery, in a series of eleven findings, declared Mr. Walker 
 unsound on the doctrines of election, atonement human de- 
 pravity, repentance, prayer— in a word, the whole catalogue 
 of Mr. Morison's off'ences. They did not, however, suspend 
 him from the office of the ministry. They only declal-ed 
 him "highly culpable and worthy of censure, and "referred 
 the final decision of the matter to the meeting of Synod 
 which was near at hand." Mr. Walker's case thus came up 
 to the highest court wearing a much more favourable aspect 
 
MR. walker's LIXE OF DEFENCE. 
 
 159 
 
 than Mr. Morison's had done. Besides, two highly esteemed 
 ministers in the Presbytery, Mr. Pringle of Aiichterarder 
 and Mr. ISewlands of Perth, protested against the decision 
 of the Presbytery, as being harsh and severe, inasmuch as 
 Mr. Walker's doctrine did not, in their opinion, involve any 
 •very serious departure from the standards of the church. 
 Severariciy elders belonging to Perth congregations adhered 
 to their protest. 
 
 When the case came up for consideration in the Synod, 
 Mr. Walker was first of all heard in his own defence. In a 
 long and elaborate paper he tried to show that his doctrines 
 were not out of harmony with the Confession of Faith. In 
 Oi'der to do this he took rather a novel course. He main- 
 tained that when the redemption of Christ was spoken of in 
 that venerable document its compilers were not thinking of 
 the atonement, but of the consequences of the atonement, as 
 experienced by the elect of God. He admitted that redemp- 
 tion so viewed was confined only to the elect; but he tried 
 to show that the compilers of the Confession believed, like 
 him, that Christ in his atonement proper had died for the 
 sins of the whole world. This he endeavoured to pro ve by 
 a learned array of quotations from the works of writers of 
 the Reformation-period. As to the doctrines of election, of 
 human ability, and of the work of the Holy Spirit, he advo- 
 cated exactly the views of the late Dr. Wardlaw, — to whose 
 works he made frequent reference, — with whom he was 
 personally very intimate, and to whom, as was mmoured at 
 the time, the manuscript of his speech had been submitted 
 for revisal before it was delivered. We have already noticed 
 that the views of Mr. Morison on the atonement of Christ 
 and the grace of God, which he defended at the bar of the 
 Synod, and for defending which he had been ejected, were 
 exactly those of that highly respectable theologian. 
 
 Mr. Pringle of Aucliterarder w^as heard in support of his 
 protest, when Mr. Walker had ended his defence. We have 
 already noticed that this clergyman (who lived to be a 
 venerable octo':^enarian divine) had got his fingers burnt in 
 a little Ato iement controversy of his own as early as the 
 year 1831. He had then been cautioned to be very careful 
 as to the use of liberal and universal phrases when he spoke 
 gf Christ's d 'ath; but it would appear that a decade of years 
 had not at ad abated his love for a free Gospel. He entered 
 at yet great r length than Mr. Walker had done into the 
 
160 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 proof of the fact that the early fathers of the Secession 
 Church had believed that, in a certain sense, Christ died for 
 all men — quoting from documents issued in 1742, as well as 
 from a Testimony given forth at a much later period. 
 
 When it came to the turn of the members of the Perth 
 Presbytery to defend their own decision, Mr. Marshall of 
 Coupar-Angus delivered a very caustic and characteristic 
 reply to Mr. Pringle. He apparently proved, by quotations 
 from the very documents which that gentleman had used, 
 that the fathers of their church did not hold an atonement 
 for all men — sentences, however, which Mr. Pringle, either 
 intentionally or unintentionally, had failed to notice. " But," 
 said the speaker, every now and then, amid the laughter of 
 the house, " Of course, Mr. Pringle knows the opinions of 
 the fathers of our Church better than they knew theii^ own." 
 For ourselves, in looking back from this distance of time at 
 the ground taken by Mr. Pringle, Mr. Walker, and even 
 Mr. Morison himself, we think that Mr. Marshall was right, 
 and that they were wrong. The Confession of Faith does 
 not contain a free Gospel. The men who compiled it did 
 not believe that Christ died for all. The fathers of the 
 Secession Church did not hold that doctrine, however liberal 
 they might be in their invitations to sinners. And, more- 
 over, when the Larger Catechism and the Confession of Faith 
 speak of "offering Christ to sinners," and "freely offering 
 him," the context seems to confine the offer to the elect 
 sinners for whom he died. If men, therefore, wish to be 
 thoroughly consistent, and have the glorious privilege of 
 proclaiming the Gospel to every creature, their duty is either 
 to agitate for the alteration of existing formularies, or leave 
 denominations that are trammelled by such standards, and 
 swell the ranks of those who have lifted up a world-wide 
 banner because of the truth. We may also mention that 
 the late Dr. Newlands of Perth made a speech on Mr. 
 Walker's case, which did him great credit. He had pro- 
 tested, he said, against the decision of the Perth Presbytery, 
 not because he thought Mr. Walker right in all his doctrines, 
 or that he deemed him altogether square with the Confession, 
 but because he considered that differences on such minor 
 and abstruse points should come within the scope of Christian 
 forbearance. ^ 
 When Professor Balmer rose to address the Synod he 
 highly eulogised the spirit and tone of Mr. Newlands's 
 
SETTLEMENT OF MR. WALKEll's CASE. 
 
 161 
 
 address. This eminent and godly man did not enter at any 
 great length into the doctrines in dispute. It was well 
 known that he fully agreed with Dr. Brown in his liberal 
 sentiments, and that, like him, he had been much concerned 
 about Mr. Morison's ejection. His whole speech was an 
 impassioned appeal to the Synod not to treat Mr. Walker in 
 -the same way. These viewvS, he urged, had been the views 
 of the late Robert Hall of Bristol; and would the Synod 
 not be afraid to pass condemnation on such a man, and many 
 more like minded 1 
 
 The appeal was not without its effect; for a motion, 
 proposed by Dr. Beattie of Glasgow, was carried — which, 
 "while it regretted that many of Mr. Walker's expressions 
 had the appearance of opposition to the standards of the 
 Church, yet commended the explanations he had made, and 
 the spirit he had displayed, appointed a Committee to deal 
 with him, and report to tjie Synod." Mr. AValker's Com- 
 mittee Avere much more successful with him than Mr. 
 Morison's had been. They found him quite pliable in 
 their hands. Whereas, at the bar, both of Presbytery and 
 Synod, he had maintained that Christ's atonement had been 
 made equally for all men, and that the limitation or 
 specialty was to be found only in its application to the elect, 
 the committee got him to admit that the atonement, qiid 
 atonement, ''hag a special reference to Christ's own people, 
 who have been given to him by the Father." This was all 
 that was needed. Tlie Comrie earthquake was at an end. 
 The mountain had laboured, and only a little mouse came 
 out. The Synod rejoiced over the Committee's success, and 
 broke up amid loud congratulations on " the comfortable 
 tr'rmination of this case." 
 
 We must now return to Mr. Morison, whom we left in 
 our last article newly restored to his flock after the trying 
 week of Synodical deliberation. He speedily forgot all the 
 acrimony of ecclesiastical strife in the midst of the blessed 
 revival of religion which was still making progress in Kil- 
 marnock and its neighbourhood. 
 
 One incident, indeed, which happened exactly a fortnight 
 after the memorable Sabbath described in last chapter, 
 i^minded him of the church of his fiithers, and his enforced 
 separation from it. On the 29th of June the Bev. Mr. Baird 
 (late Dr. Baird of Paisley), who had been the Synod's Mod- 
 
 M 
 
162 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UXION. 
 
 erator, appeared at Clerk's Lane Church to "preach it vacant," 
 according to the antiquated phraseology of church courts. 
 If Mr. Baird had literally been able to do so, some people 
 would have thanked him very much who wished to get 
 sittings in the crowded chapel, but could not. The plain 
 truth was that the Moderator had been sent to read a formal 
 document, to the effect that, owing to the ejection of its min- 
 ister, the church was altogether without a pastor, in the eyes 
 of presbj^terial law. But, inasmuch as the worthy people, 
 by an immense majority, had clung to their minister, and 
 were, moreover, the proprietors of the chapel in terms of the 
 title-deeds, they were determined not to allow Mr. Baird to 
 gain admission to the building on the Sabbath morning for 
 the purpose aforesaid. The elders and managers had sent 
 the reverend gentleman a letter on the Saturday night 
 announcing this their decided determination, that he might 
 know what he had to expect. The hour fixed for the per- 
 formance of this solemn comedy was ten a.m., and by that 
 time an immense crowd had assembled in the lane leading up 
 to the church. The multitude made way for the Moderator 
 to pass when he appeared ; but when he reached the gates 
 leading into the quadrangle before the chapel, he found that 
 a dense mass of people blocked up the entrances, and rendered 
 all further progress impossible. This elders and managers 
 vv^ere drawn up in front like faithful warriors, or rather like 
 faithful shepherds, guarding not only the sheep, but the 
 sheepfold that was beliind them. ISTothing remained for 
 Mr. Baird but to read the document which he held in his 
 hand, and to go away. It can be readily conceived that 
 when the hour of eleven a.m. had arrived, the multitude 
 within the building would be, if possible, denser and more 
 excited than ever. Of a truth the " preaching vacant" had 
 been a very vacant and ineffectual preaching ; for there was 
 the church, not vacant, but crammed ; and there was the 
 minister, not vacant, but full of spiritual wisdom, and over- 
 flowing with the truth of God. In an extract before us, 
 from a letter which Mr. Morison wrote to a friend with an 
 account of the day's proceedings, we find that he says, "We 
 had a stirring forenoon and a melfin// afternoon. In the 
 afternoon I expounded the })arable of the prodigal son. It 
 is one of the sweetest morsels of Zion's provision. I nev(% 
 made all day in prayer, or in preaching, the slightest allu- 
 sion to what had taken place in the morning." Wonderful 
 
A CASE OF CONVERSION. 
 
 163 
 
 reticence and self-restraint ! Doubtless the people all ex- 
 pected him to say that " though he was cast off by man, he 
 had not been cast off by God." But in truth he forgot all 
 about himself, so anxious he was to persuade off-cast and 
 out-cast prodigal children to return to the embrace of their 
 Father. This little presbyterial pebble made only a very 
 tiny ring of undulating excitement. The parted waters soon 
 closed again in peace; and the displeasure of man was quickly 
 forgotten in the all-absorbing claims of the work of God. 
 
 That was indeed a very remarkable work. We have 
 heard of revivals at Kilsyth, Perth, and Dundee, which 
 lasted for weeks and months; but this at Kilmarnock lasted 
 for years. Not a week passed in which souls did not profess 
 to be born of God. And the change for the better was so 
 great, as to public walk and conversation, in some remark- 
 able instances, that the opinion began to grow throughout 
 the town, not^vithstanding the blinding influence of preju- 
 dice, " that the doctrines could not be very far wrong by 
 which such reformations were wrought." 
 
 For example, several of the vagrant men who used to 
 hang about the public square called the " Cross," either 
 besotted with drink or ready for all kinds of mischief, were 
 reached by the power of the Spirit and the truth of God. 
 One of these, well known by the souhriqiiet of Drouthy Tarn, 
 Avas quite a character in his way. He could say clever and 
 memorable things, and was just the kind of man whom 
 Burns or Scott would have introduced with happy effect into 
 some of their humorous descriptions. Well, one of this poor 
 man's neighbours was anxious that he should come to hear 
 Mr. Morison preach, at one of his Monday night lectures. 
 But there seemed at first to be an insuperable difiiculty in 
 the matter of clothes ; for Tarn was literally in rags, and 
 was unfit to be seen in any decent assembly, even on a week 
 night. But true love overcomes every difiiculty, whether it 
 be love for souls, or love of a less ethereal kind. The neigh- 
 bour had a friend, who again had a second-rate suit of 
 clothes that would fit Tam. But said friend, being of the 
 canny Scotch type, would not grant the loan of the clothes, 
 except on the condition that the neighbour would watch 
 Tam all the way to and from the gliapel, lest the garments 
 sfiould find their way to the pawnbroker's, and their artful 
 wearer thereby should find his Avay to the publican's. TIk^ 
 bargain being struck, Tam left for the meeting duly ciad and 
 
164 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 July guarded. But, on the way back he was doubly clad 
 and doubly guarded ! The Holy Ghost had clothed him, 
 and the Holy Ghost began to guard him ! The ppor man 
 had felt, under the preaching of the word, the first stirrings 
 of a new and heavenly life. He became "a new creature 
 in Christ Jesus — old things passed away, and, behold, all 
 things became new." All the town could soon see that the 
 waif of the market-place was "clothed and in his right 
 mind." He became a marked man in Clerk's Lane Church 
 by his devotional demeanour and his radiant countenance 
 under the preaching of the Word. At one of the first open- 
 air meetings which we ever addressed in the middle ward 
 of Lanarkshire, we had Tam for one of our hearers. He 
 was then on a visit to relations of his own in the neigh- 
 bourhood. Being introduced to ns at the close of our dis- 
 course, he broke out with the following exclamation — "How 
 happy would I be if I had you with me in Ayrshire ! I 
 Avould take yon with me fo Kilmarnock, and Galston, and 
 I^ewmilns ; and how delighted would I be if my friends 
 there might only hear the Word of God at your lips ! " 
 Thus spake " Drouthy Tam," now " hungering and thirsting 
 after righteousness," no longer " filled vdih wine, Avherein is 
 excess, but filled with the Spirit." Nor was he the only in- 
 stance of the reformation of a notorious character by Mr. 
 Morison's ministry. He was only one of a little company 
 whose spiritual renewal made a gi^eat talk at the time. It 
 is not wonderful, then, that a gentleman remarked to Mr. 
 Morison of Bathgate, in the public reading-room in Kilmar- 
 nock, " No one can deny, sir, that your son has been a great 
 blessing to the town; for many are altogether new men since 
 they heard him preach." 
 
 The revival at Kilmarnock was accompanied, like other 
 great awakenings, by some of those evils and afflictions which 
 cause sceptics to scofi", and the enemies of all religious ex- 
 citement together to put out the finger of scorn and indig- 
 nant condemnation. In one or two instances reason reeled 
 under the pressure of deep conviction of sin, and of desii-e 
 for salvation. Mr. Morison was not to be blamed for this, 
 nor the doctrines which he taught. On the other hand, he 
 had s\ifiered ecclesiastical censure rather than hold by a con- 
 tradictory theology which had often driven men into a 
 lunatic asylum. If a commercial crisis or some worldly dis- 
 api)ointmont beclouds god-like reason for a time, need we 
 
A CASE OF RELIGIOUS INSANITY. 
 
 165 
 
 wonder that the shadow of insanity should sometimes darken 
 the spirit of one who has been aroused to feel himself a lost 
 sinner, but " will not come unto Christ that he might have 
 life The blame, in such a case, is to be laid at the door 
 of sin, not at the door of the Saviour. •> 
 One of these cases of mental hallucination made a great 
 talk throughout Ayi'shire, on account of the i)eculiarity of 
 its manifestations. A young man belonging to the village 
 of Kilmaurs, about two miles from Kilmarnock, became one 
 evening unsettled in mind, as he brooded over the great pro- 
 blems of eternity and salvation. About eleven o'clock at 
 night, the idea flashed upon his unsettled and excited brain, 
 that heaven was in Kilmarnock, and that if he could only 
 get to Mr. Morison's manse, all would be well. No sooner 
 thought than done. He started off at once for the abode of 
 bliss. On the way, however, it seems to have occurred to 
 his jaundiced judgment that he should fling off his old-world 
 garments, if he wished to " enter into life." Regarding them 
 then as at once a body of sin, of self-righteousness, and of 
 corru23tion, he deliberately undressed himself, flung the most 
 of his clothes proudly down on the highway and marched 
 expectantly on. When he reached Portland Street he was 
 arrested by the light in the George Hotel, and clapping his 
 hands exclaimed jubilantly to himself, " This must be the 
 Heavenly Palace; I will ring and ask to be taken in." 
 Great was the astonishment of the waiter who answered the 
 loud . midnight summons, at the sight of an almost naked 
 man ; but his surprise became terror Avhen the question was 
 wildly put to him, " Is this heaven Can you let me in 1" 
 Surprised in his turn when the door Avas unceremoniously 
 slammed in his face, the poor man only sighed and said, 
 ^' Ah ! this cannot be heaven — I must seek it elsewhere." 
 Then he remembered the manse, and made direct for it, 
 wondering how he could have forgotten where heaven was 
 to be found. We may imagine the consternation of the in- 
 mates of the manse, when they were aroused by the repeated 
 attacks which the supernaturally excited man made upon 
 the bolted gate. Indeed, it was found in the morning, that 
 by sheer bodily force he had wrenched a strong stone pillar 
 from its place. Help having been obtained, by a back way, 
 from the police office, the poor sufferer was laid hold of, 
 decently clothed, and brought into the house. Whenever he 
 saw Jlr. Morison he became quiet as a lamb; for he thought 
 
166 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 that he had at length, after much difficulty and labour, 
 reached the rest of heaven. In a few days he recovered his 
 reason, and found also the peace of which he had been in 
 quest. But when the rumour ran through Ayrshire of the 
 awful midnight visit, with many exaggerations, people shook 
 their heads and wondered whereunto these things would 
 grow. 
 
 After the settlement of his case, Mr. Morison addressed 
 himself more earnestly than ever to the consolidation of his 
 large ai^d flourishing church. At this period he was a 
 model visitor ; for he called upon a specified number of hi,s 
 flock every week, remaining only twenty minutes in each 
 house. A good many district prayer meetings had been 
 established by the elders of the church, throughout the 
 town, on the Sabbath evening ; but after his return from the 
 Synoc\, these were all collected into one assembly, which 
 met in Clerk's Lane Church at seven p.m., when the Sabbath- 
 school closed. It was announced for years from the pulpit 
 as "A meeting of the church to provoke one another to love 
 and good works." Mr. Morison always occupied the chair 
 as "■ Presiding Pastor." Any male member of the church 
 might rise and give " a word of exhortation." Frequently 
 the hearers were much refreshed by the remarks of the elder 
 and more experienced brethren. If at any time some of the 
 younger men were too flowery or tedious in their observa- 
 tions, the interest of the meeting was always brought up at 
 the end by Mr. Morison's closing observations. Many timid 
 orators first tried their " 'prentice hand " at these meetings, 
 who are now powerful preachers of the Gospel at home and 
 abroad. 
 
 A large addition was made, about this time, to the elder- 
 ship, by the votes of the church ; for Mr. Morison proposed 
 that while henceforth the Society should be independent, so 
 far as the control of any superior court was concerned, its 
 internal afiairs should continue to be managed by a session 
 or bench of elders in name of the church, — a form of inde- 
 pendency which even the great Puritan, Dr. Owen, recom- 
 mended. Only three remained of the " ancient men," who 
 had been elders when Mr. Morison was called to Clerk's 
 Lane, William Fleming, James Aird, and John Peden — a 
 trio of spiritually minded saints long since gathered to their 
 rest, whose excellence of character was alone sufficient to im- 
 part the stamp of religious worth to any congregation. It is- 
 
MK. MOIUSON IX HIS BIBLE CLASS. 
 
 IGT 
 
 not too much to say that the large body of trustworthy men 
 who were appointed, at this election, to be their associates, 
 were in every Avay worthy of the holy nucleus whose co- 
 assessors they were henceforth to be — that they tended much 
 to strengthen Mr. Morison's hands, and build up a church 
 of Christ which was henceforth to be regarded, in many re- 
 spects, as the mother church of a rising denomination. 
 
 At this time Mr. Morison had great interest in his Bible 
 Classes. These met on week-nights — that for young women, 
 numbering upwards of a hundred, and that for young men, 
 about half as large. All Dr. Morison's friends know that he 
 has ever been singularly w^ell qualified to teach a Bible Class. 
 Indeed, he shines more there than anyAvhere else. And in 
 these early days, he followed the very plan he follows still — 
 namely, that of allowing any question to be put to liim which 
 siny person present desired to be answered. Thus the minds 
 of his young pupils were whetted, as well as his own. And 
 Mr. Morison himself admitted that sundry of the intellectual 
 sisters used to puzzle him even more than the brethren ! 
 One especially of these " elect ladies " has proved a credit to 
 her acute preceptor ; for, first as a student at Oberlin Insti- 
 tute in the United States, and then as a missionary's wife on 
 the fever-haunted coast of Sierra Leone, she has fought a 
 good and valiant fight. Though shattered in health, and 
 called upon to bury her husband in that foreign land, she 
 has again and again returned with the bravery of a heroine 
 to the post which Providence had assigned her. That lion- 
 like fortitude she seemed to imbibe, thirty years ago, from 
 the lion-like Luther of Kilmarnock. 
 
 Mr. Morison began also, during this summer, to take preach- 
 ing excursions into the surrounding districts of Ayrshire. So 
 long as he was connected with the Secession Church he did 
 not think it prudent to preach in the adjoining towns, Avith- 
 out consulting his co-presbyters who were stationed there ; 
 but after being entirely loosed from that denomination, he 
 was no longer deterred by any such scruples. Very often, 
 then, he would commit the care of the prayer-meeting to one 
 of the elders, and after having preached twice in his own 
 church during the day, would start for Galston, Catrine, or 
 Irvine, in the evening. Great multitudes assembled to hear 
 him on these occasions, when he generally preached in the 
 open ail', and with so much power that the audiences carried 
 away with them impressions and instructions which they 
 
168 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNIOX. 
 
 "never either lost or forgot. The churches of the Evangelical 
 Union, which to-day exist in several of the chief centres of 
 population in Ayrshire, owe their existence, to no small ex- 
 tent, to these extra Sabbath evening services. One of our 
 divinity students, nov/ no more, w^ho felt himself honoured 
 in being allowed to accompany the preacher in his convey- 
 ance, told us that he never heard Mr. Morison speak so 
 powerfully as in a barn or plain school-room at Kilmaurs, on 
 the words, " Come unto me all ye that labour, and are heavy 
 laden, and I will give you rest." The discourse was quite 
 extempoi'aneous, the outline of it having been pencilled in 
 the gig, on the way to the meeting. On another Sabbath 
 evening he stood up on the staii^s of the town hall of Irvine, 
 and addressed an immense concourse of people from the 
 ' jailer's question, " What must I do to be saved ^" Mr. Fer- 
 guson, the millionaire, who has since become so well knowr 
 to Scottish churches as the founder of the " Ferguson Be - 
 quest Fund," was among the listeners, and invited Mi . 
 Morison to be his guest for the night, at the close of the sei - 
 vice. Perhaps the owner of a million and a half of money 
 felt in the presence of such a man that he was poor indeed ! 
 At any rate he had evidently no fear of " the heresy." What 
 a pity that he had not the forethought to state clearly in his 
 will that among the " Independent " churches to be benefited 
 by his munificent Bequest he included the Independent 
 Churches of the Evangelical Union ! 
 
 Mr. Morison also began this summer to preach in various 
 parts of Scotland, chiefly in churches of the Independent or 
 Congregational body, whose ministers were willing to have 
 him in their pulpits. He preached with much acceptance 
 in Dumfries ; and we hear of him also labouring in Melrose, 
 Kelso, Jedburgh, and Hawick, where the sermons of Mr. 
 Wight and others had prepared the way for his earnest 
 ministrations. On one occasion he exchanged with the 
 Congregational minister of Airdrie. People flocked to hear 
 the notorious heresiarch from distances including a radius 
 of twelve miles round. Many hostile critics were present. 
 They covild find no fault with the beautiful sermon on the 
 " Cities of Kefvige," but only with the prayer. They in- 
 sisted that Mr. Morison prayed to the angels ! They were 
 sure that heresy lurked in that application. He would turn 
 a Catholic outright, and pray to the saints directly ! Now, 
 the fact was, that in the excitement of the hour, the same 
 
MR. MORISON AT HAMILTON. 
 
 169 
 
 tliouglit had flashed into Mr. Morison's mind, of which 
 Whitefiekl had once made §uch happy use — only the latter 
 had employed it at the clpse of his sermon. Before ending 
 his opening prayer, Mr. Morison had said, — " And oh, ye 
 angels of heaven, leave not this house till some souls have 
 decided to be the Lord's !" The utterance really produced a 
 most salutary impression on all present, except on those who 
 were hearing everything with a prejudiced ear. 
 
 The first time we ever saw Mr. Morison was on the occa- 
 sion of his visit to Hamilton, to preach in the Congregational 
 Church there (the Rev. John Kirk's), about this very period. 
 We were as much benefited by his private intercourse as by 
 his public ministrations. He preached to crowded houses 
 in the morning from Kom. v. 1 ; and in the evening from 
 John ix. 35, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" — 
 *the Savix)ur's question to the man who had been blind. The 
 much respected Rev. Thomas Struthers of Hamilton, who 
 two years afterwards was Moderator of the Associate Synod, 
 was present, and heard the discourse. As he had been a 
 member of the Synod which ejected Mr. Morison, he must 
 have felt peculiarly the force of the remarks which the latter 
 made on the clause, ^' And they cast him out." During his 
 sermon the preacher said concerning the nature of faith, 
 " that the word ' believe' had the same meaning in the Bible 
 that it had in a dictionary, and any person with the nine- 
 teenth part of an eye might see that." A student of theo- 
 logy with whom we were acquainted, now a minister of the 
 Free Church, was sitting in the pew before us. On asking 
 him at the close of the service how he had liked the dis- 
 course, his reply was, " I am one of those who have only got 
 the nineteenth part of an eye." We hope that the excellent 
 man's organ of vision, like his in the miracle, is now made 
 whole, and by the self-same Healer too. 
 
 Notwithstanding his numerous engagements, Mr. Morison 
 about this period also found time to deliver two lectures in 
 Falkirk on the question, " Is the Bible the book of Godl" 
 The reputation of his debate with Leckie on the " Yolun- 
 tary Controversy " still lingered in that town. The interest 
 • excited by the lectures was increased by the fact that Mr. 
 Lloyd Jones, who then jenjoyed no small celebrity as a fol- 
 lower of Robert Owen, attended, and proposed to discuss 
 with Mr. Morison at the close of each lecture. The latter 
 offered to answer any question which was naturally suggested 
 
170 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 by the lecture, or to debate any point on which he had 
 touched, but declined to be led by his challenger into the 
 wide field which the programme of Socialism opened up. 
 Finding that the lecturer had laid down his premises very 
 impreguably, the captious caviller had but little to say in 
 reply. 
 
 We may also notice here that in February, 1842, about 
 eight months after his ejection by the Synod, Mr. Morison 
 published the first edition of his tractate,' entitled, Saving 
 Faith. It was a pamphlet of fifty pages, and was well cal- 
 culated to be a most useful sequel to his treatises on the 
 Nature and Extent of the Atonement. In it the author 
 shows, in a simple yet most convincing manner, that faith 
 and belief have the same meaning in the Bible as they have 
 in ordinary life — that indeed to believe the truth, is just, in 
 one view of the matter, to know the truth — that a man cannot 
 know the truth and not know that he knows it — that it 
 is impossible really to believe the truth in a wrong way — 
 and that the great matter wdth which the sinner should 
 occupy his mind is not the act but the object of faith. We 
 need not give further details of the work, or add specimens 
 of the author's style; for a new and improved edition has 
 recently been published, which the reader may procure for 
 himself. Doubtless the pamphlet was well fitted, under 
 God, to dispel the mists which had gathered around the act 
 of faith, and had hidden the Sun of righteousness from be- 
 nighted souls, and also to swell the tide of spiritual life 
 which had begun to flow over Scotland, largely through the 
 learned author's honoured instrumentality. 
 
 It was thus that Mr. Morison, upwards of thirty years 
 ago, laid the foundations of the Evangelical Union. There 
 were other most important labourers, to whom we shall 
 endeavour to give their due meed of praise and acknowledg- 
 ment in their proper place ; but no one can be jealous be- 
 cause we have assigned to him the name and position of the 
 father and founder of the movement. We must now leave 
 him for a little, and show how these other fathers and 
 brethren came forward, from time to time, to hold a corner 
 of the standard which he had lifted up. 
 
HISTORY OF THE REV. ROBERT MORISOX. 
 
 171 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Birth and Youthful Days of the Rev. Robert Mojison — His Student 
 Career and Settlement at Bathgate — His Early Ministry There — 
 His Daughter's Testimony to his Faithfulness — Comes to the full 
 Knowledge of the Truth — The Question Proposed and Answered, 
 Had he been Unconverted Before ? — Writes his First Pamphlet, 
 entitled, "Difficulties Connected with a Limited Atonement" — 
 Extracts. 
 
 It not unfrequently happens that there is a remarkable con- 
 trast between a talented and celebrated father and a ver}^ 
 ordinary, if not weak and pusillanimous, son. The disparity 
 between the great Oliver Cromwell, and the commonplace 
 Richard of the same name, has been so often repeated in 
 military, political, and ecclesiastical walks, that those emi- 
 nent men have sometimes been considered fortunate who had 
 'no sons to follow them, and almost tarnish the paternal 
 honours by their inglorious careers. Now and then, how- 
 ever, there have been remarkable exceptions to this general 
 rule. The two Argylls, who nobly resisted the tyramiy of the 
 house of Stuart, and bled alike upon the scaffold ; the two 
 Pitts, who shone as splendid stars in the reign of George the 
 Third; the two Yenns in the last century, and the two Bicker- 
 steths in this, — not to mention others that might easily be 
 named, — present us with notable instances of a father and a 
 son both so distinguished that it is difficult to say which one 
 . of the pail' outshone the other. 
 
 In continuing, however, these historical notes, it is our 
 privilege now to bring before the religious public a yet rarer 
 and more exceptional phenomenon, — namely that of a father 
 and son who became both distinguished in connection with a 
 religious movement, but in whose case the natural order 
 Avas reversed, — inasmuch as the father followed the son, both 
 in the way of espousing the cause which the latter had ori- 
 ginated, and in the way of Avillingiy and gladly accepting a 
 second place. Mr. Morison, Sen., had been for nearly thirty 
 years a miaister of the Secession Church of Scotland, when 
 his son raised the banner of a free and world-wide Gospel in 
 that communion. Embracing his son's views, and protesting 
 against his exi)ulsion, his case came up in the Church Courts 
 the year after the great proceedings which we have already 
 narrated, and, therefore, in due order, falls to be considered 
 now. 
 
172 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 We have already, when introducing the son to our 
 readers, said a little about the father; but we must, in this 
 chapter, be a little more particular as to his history. The 
 Rev. Robert Morison was born near Dunning, in Perthshire, 
 in 1782. His father being a farmer in that district, he was 
 brought up originally to agricultural pursuits. He who even- 
 tually grasped the Gospel plough and did not " look back," 
 and who drove the sharp share of conviction into many a 
 sinner's heart, might have been seen in his youth holding 
 the plough of the husbandman, and following it with tail 
 and robust form, along the furrowed field. He was brought 
 up in the Anti-burgher section of the church, and was up- 
 wards of twenty years of age before he began to " desire the 
 good work " of the Clmstian ministry. He must, howevei*, 
 have used most diligently the limited educational advantages 
 which that rural neighbourhood afforded him ; for, when he 
 went, a few years afterwards, to study at the University of 
 Edinburgh, he was an excellent classical scholar, having 
 made attainments in both Latin and Greek which he never 
 subsequently lost, and with which he was able to embellish, 
 yet without pedantry, the theological publications that 
 flowed from his pen. The first year of his attendance at the 
 Greek class was also the first year in which the chair was 
 occupied by the late Professor Dunbar. The Professor had 
 not then the eminent scholarship to which his admirable 
 Lexicon now bears witness ; and when any perplexing diffi- 
 culty turned up in the class, he would appeal either for light 
 or corroboration to the rustic student from Dunning. The 
 latter was also able to supplement his income by writing out 
 their theses, in the Latin tongue, for those young sons of 
 Esculaj^itis who were better acquainted with the bones and 
 muscles of a robust man than with the inflections of the 
 language of the robust Romans. 
 
 We can easily conceive, however, that Robert Morison's 
 strong ratiocinative faculties would be fully awakened when 
 he would come the length of the Logic, and especially of the 
 Moral Philosophy class, then taught by the renowned 
 Dugald Stewart. He was not what is generally known as a 
 prize-taker. Perhaps he had too much love for the science 
 of mind in general, and too little personal ambition, to gain 
 numerous University distinctions ; for he had more pleasure 
 in reading on the subjects of lecture than in preparing ela- 
 borate class exercises. But his great eminence as a thinker 
 
MK. ROBERT MORISOX AS A LICENTIATE. * 173 
 
 and debater in after life amply proved that he had been no 
 dull student of metaphysics, and caused " his profiting" to 
 appear unto all men. He used often to tell in his old age, 
 Low a young hopeful, of the same religious connection as 
 himself, sat near him in all the philosophy classes, wlio paid 
 no attention to the lectures of the professors, but was con- 
 stantly reading, during the hours of enforced attendance, 
 Milton's " Paradise Lost," and similar books, which he slyly 
 hid below the book-board. Yet when the curriculum of 
 study was finished, and they were all sent out as candidates 
 for the vacant churches, Mr. Morison was wont to remark, 
 with a humorous twinkle of the eye, "the scholars and philo- 
 sophers were nowhere, and the admirer of the " Paradise 
 Lost" got all the calls." 
 
 This lively reminiscence may appropriately pave the way 
 for the remark that, when Mr. Morison himself had duly 
 studied at the Anti-burghers' Theological Hall, and had 
 been fully licensed to preach the Gospel, he did not turn out 
 to be what is commonly called ''a popular preacher." He 
 was a man of a heav;f build, and of a lymphatic tempera-- 
 ment. When he was fairly roused by some very important 
 event, or by some opponent in debate, he could always rise 
 to the occasion, and come forth either as a master of address, 
 or a perfect lion in crushing argumentative reply. But it 
 took a good deal to rouse him, so that, in ordinary circum- 
 stances, he was quiet and slow in delivery, shining more by 
 the weight and clearness of his logic, than by the arts or 
 excellencies of oratory. As a licentiate, he travelled for a 
 year or two within the bounds of the different Presbyteries 
 of the church. When, in the evening of his life, he went 
 north to Aberdeen, to assist at the ordination of the minister 
 of the first Evangelical Union Church there, he remarked, 
 as he walked up Belmont Street, " When I came here, as a 
 young man, to preach in Belmont Street Anti-burgher 
 Church, I had not the advantage of either steam or coach 
 conveyance, but had to ride my horse with my saddle-bags, 
 after the fashion of our forefathers." 
 
 Eventually, in the year 1812, he settled at Bathgate, in 
 Linlithgowshire. The Anti-burgher Church there was 
 small ; and the town was by no means so rich or so populous 
 as it has since become, through the discovery of its important 
 mineral treasures. Moreover, the cause was yet further 
 weakened by a rival Burgher interest, for which, at the 
 
174 * HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNIOX. 
 
 time, there was no need, but which was, nevertheless, kept 
 up by the acrimonious party spirit of the day. To this 
 quiet place, soon after his ordination, Mr. Morison brought, 
 as already recorded, his young wife from Dundee; and in 
 the manse, which the zeal of his congregation had reared, his 
 son and his two daughters were born. But a cloud was 
 early cast over his domestic happiness, and, indeed, over his 
 whole life, by the death of his young wife. He never 
 maiTied again. He told the writer of this history, one 
 afternoon, in the course of frank and friendly conversation, 
 in his own house, that "so great a shock was given to his 
 constitution by that bereavement, that he might be said to 
 have subsequently drooped and declined every day." Al- 
 though he lived, indeed, between thirty and forty years after 
 that sad event, he never was the same man in spirit and 
 vigour of body. 
 
 Yet he toiled on perseveringly in the zealous and conscien- 
 tious discharge of his pastoral and congregational duties. It 
 generally happened, moreover, that l^e was called upon on 
 public occasions to represent the town, for the simple reason 
 that no other minister was able to give anything like an 
 extemporaneous and unpremeditated address. He took a 
 decided stand in the temperance cause; and many years 
 before the first temperance societies existed, he, of his own 
 accord, and from witnessing the direful effects of strong 
 drink in the town and neighbourhood, resolved tliat he would 
 not touch or taste the intoxicating cup. He took an active 
 part in the various steps which led to the amalgamation of 
 the Burghers with the Anti-burghers, in 1820, — a connection 
 afterwards called, as already mentioned, the United Secession 
 or Associate Church. He was, all along, very intimate with 
 the late Dr. Muter of Glasgow, whom he frequently assisted 
 on Sacramental occasions. In the United Secession Presby- 
 tery of Edinburgh he became a very prominent member, and, 
 on account of his excellent attainments, was often employed in 
 examining students, particularly in logic and metaphysics. 
 He took a prominent share in the Voluntary or Endowment 
 Controversy, which rose in Scotland about the year 1836, 
 and which eventually led to important results, especially in 
 connection with the Established Church. We first saw and 
 heard Mr. Robert Morison at a Voluntary meeting in the 
 town of Hamilton about that very time. The ministers on 
 the platform evidently regarded him with respect, on account 
 
MR. ROBERT MORISON's SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT. 175 
 
 of his reasoning powers, and looked up to him as a leader in 
 the cause. 
 
 But we must now come to the most momentous event of 
 Mr. Morison's life, namely, his cordial sympathy with his 
 son's doctrines and evangelistic course. We have already 
 seen that Mr. James Morison held revival meetings at 
 Bathgate, in his father's church, soon after the period of his 
 own spiritual enlightenment. Many pious people in the 
 to"wn experienced a great increase of religious comfort; and 
 the worthy parent of the youthful preacher received a 
 blessing too. Up to this time he had preached Christ as a 
 Saviour, and an all-sufficient Saviour, too; but now he was 
 able to claim him and proclaim him as his own Saviour. 
 He informed us, on the occasion of our first visit to his 
 manse, in 1848, that one morning, after a night of sleepless 
 an^ety, he entered upon the enjoyment of Gospel peace, 
 while dressing himself, and when meditating on these 
 words : " And this is the record, that God hath given to us 
 eternal life, and this life is in his Son" (1 John v. 11). lie 
 gazed into two mirrors at once — the brittle glass made by 
 man, and the Gospel glass made by God. He saw two faces 
 at once — his own "natural face," which, indeed, he- hardly 
 perceived at all, on account of his rapt pre-occupation of 
 mind, and the face which, was "marred more than any 
 man's," and on whi(;h he seemed to read in crimson lines, 
 " A GIFT OF LIFE FOR THEE." He saw at a glance 
 that salvation was not wages to be wrought for, but a gift 
 to be accepted; that this gift, to re-quote the fine old phrase 
 of the Erskines, was "made over to mankind-sinners as 
 such;" that the great fact of propitiation for all was true, 
 whether he believed it or not; and, seeing it to be true, he 
 entered into rest. 
 
 An interesting and important question here comes up: 
 Was Mr. Morison, prior to this time of spiritual enlighten- 
 ment, a converted or unconverted man*? He did not himself 
 hesitate to say in public that he had been unconverted, and 
 that for twenty-eight years he had been an ordained minister 
 without knowing savingly the Gospel of Christ. No doubt 
 this statement was very startling; but if, on the one hand, 
 it was calculated to do good by awakening slumbering souls, 
 perhaps, on the other, it may have sometimes raised prejudice 
 unnecessarily against his o^vn cause, — especially when the 
 impression was left, that the majority of his co-presbyters 
 
176 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 might still have remained, notwithstanding their ministerial 
 position, unsaved and unsanctilied. Bofore discussing this 
 subject further, we will take the liberty of inserting here a 
 letter from Mr. Morison's daughter, Mrs. Andrew Stewart 
 of Kilmarnock (written in reply to certain questions which 
 we had put), both because it throws important light on the 
 entire life and career of this deceased father of our denomi- 
 nation, and also because it will materially aid us in solving 
 this particular difficulty on which we have stumbled: — 
 
 ^'Jidy mh, 1871. 
 "I am sure that my father had long believed on Jesus as a Saviour, 
 although he had not seen his own rignt to appropriate him as his, till 
 he clearly perceived that he was a Saviour for all. In all my inter- 
 course with my father, I thought him very thorough and persevering 
 in what he considered to be duty. His ministerial duties were never 
 negh.'cted or slighted in the smallest degree, and if he thought a tl^ng 
 was right he would go through with it at all hazards. It was formerly 
 the custom for ministers to visit all their members, at least twice a 
 year, and to hold public examinations in various districts of their 
 churches. These labours my father never neglected. Tlw members 
 were not only regularly visited, but the examinations were regularly 
 held too. At such meetings the children were first catechized, and 
 then the adults, — the Confession of Faith being the groundwork; but, 
 instead of asking puzzling questions, he asked something easy and 
 simple, which gave occasion for a profitable address. He was Very 
 hapi)y in these oft-hand addresses, and I believe they were useful iu 
 teaching the fear of God, if not the knowledge of Jesus. He was most 
 regular in his attention to his Sabbath school, and classes for young 
 men and women. Even though few came, he did not pay the less 
 notice to those who did come. He had a monthly prayer meeting 
 in the large kitchen of the manse, at which he general l}' read missionary 
 information, which was both interesting and instructive to those who 
 attended. He was much appreciated as a visitor of the sick in all the 
 different denominations in the town; and he had a comforting way of 
 l)ringing out the promises of God to the elect, which he seemed desirous 
 that all should appropriate, though, from his having limited views of 
 the atonement, it was perhaps not very consistent of him to do so. 
 At communion times he was always very deeply exercised. Rising 
 early, he was always heard pacing his room; and if any one entered, 
 he seemed absorbed in holy meditation. I had left the house before 
 the change took place in his views, which he thought proper to call 
 conversion ; but in all that I saw of him afterwards, he Was not any 
 holier, to outward appearance, than before, though I believe he had a 
 rest within which he had not formerly enjoyed. He was a very 
 unselfish man, and seemed truly to believe the Scripture, that ' it was 
 more blessed to give than to receive,' He was never so happy as when 
 making others happy. His benevolence to the poor was also well 
 known. He took into his house two poor orphan children, who had 
 no claim upon him by relationship, and provided for them. My grand- 
 mother by and bye relieved him of one, and the other remained in the 
 
INSTANCES OF GRADUAL SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENilEXT. 177 
 
 family till her marriage. Although his income was small, he was 
 always willing to share what he had with relatives who required 
 assistance, or with those who desired to give themselves to the service 
 of God. He helped a student, who is now a minister in the U.P. 
 Church; and some in the E.U. Church remember, with gratitude, his 
 kindness to them. He was one who remarked providences, and he had 
 some remarkable ones to observe; but such 1 would not care to make 
 public." 
 
 Dr. Chalmers did not hesitate to say that for several years 
 he had oflS.ciated as parish minister in Kilmany, without God 
 and without hope in the world. We would be inclined, 
 however, with his excellent daughter, to place Mr. Morison 
 of Bathgate under a different category ; and we compare the 
 two, not because we wish to put our departed friend on the 
 same intellectual platform with the mighty founder of the 
 Free Church, but that the spiritual history of the one may 
 illustrate, by contrast, the spiritual history of the other. 
 E'vidently, previous to the year 1840, his life had not been 
 selfish and ungodly, like that of him who could teach mathe- 
 matics five days of the week in St. Andrews, and come home 
 to his cheerless and prayerless manse on the Saturday, for 
 the sake of shuffling over the work of the Sabbath-day, 
 hardly with bare decency, and certainly, as he afterwards 
 confessed himself, with heartless indifference. Mr. Morison 
 evidently trusted in Christ up to the light that he had ; and 
 whenever his light was increased, his confidence was corres- 
 pondingly increased. Instead of saying that he passed, at 
 the time to which we are referring, from the darkness of 
 ii-regeneracy to the light of salvation, we would rather say 
 that, like Simeon, he emerged from the gloom of a dimmer, 
 to the rays of a clearer dispensation; or that, like Peter on 
 the house-top, he had learned by his mirror-vision "not to 
 call that common or unclean which God had cleansed." 
 Berridge of Everton, the friend and contemporary of Whit- 
 field and the Wesleys, use to date his conversion from the 
 day when he thought he heard a voice whispering into his 
 ear in his own study, " Cease from thine own works, Only 
 believe." Without doubt his views of evangelical truth were 
 greatly simplified by the light which was cast, by means of 
 that simple reflection, athwart his thoughtful and formerly 
 perplexed spirit ; but his friends, who remembered the re- 
 markable zeal which for years had characterised him in 
 warning sinners to flee from the wrath to come, were dis- 
 posed to date his new life from the hour at which that spirit 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 of self-sacrificing zeal had commenced at Cambridge, and 
 when he had ceased to be a semi-sceptical place-hunter, and 
 had begun to be an earnest and devoted soul-seeker. As to 
 John Wesley himself, we would be inclined to say that God 
 smiled upon him complacently from the day when he first 
 began to walk holily before him in Oxford, to meet " in 
 class" with his pious associates, and visit the poor prisoners 
 in the castle; but, without doubt, he received most im- 
 portant enlargement of soul after his first visit to America, 
 through the instrumentality of Count Zinzendorf and the 
 Moravians. In like manner, we would be disposed to place 
 Mr. Morison's conversion at an earlier stage of his minis- 
 terial career than he was accustomed to place it himself. We 
 would be inclined to say that the love of Christ had dwelt in 
 his heart from the time when, as a young man in Perthshire, 
 he had desired the work of the ministry, and had given 
 himself to the Lord. 
 
 We have the authority of Dr. Morison also for saying 
 that his father was pre-eminently . a man of prayer. The 
 walls and flooring of the rural manse at Bathgate were not 
 well deafened, and he could be easily heard kneeling down . 
 to pray by those who occupied the room below his study. 
 They could thus observe that his supplications were frequent 
 and protracted. One day, as he walked through the town, 
 he found a well known neighbour do^vn on his knees, re- 
 pairing the pavement of one of the principal streets. In his 
 own kind and clever way, Mr. Morison remarked as he 
 passed, " I have been trying to mend tJie ways of Bathgate 
 for a great many years ; but your progress is far more rapid 
 than mine." Fully his match at repartee, the road-mender 
 replied, " Try my plan, sir. Go down on your knees to your 
 yjork ;"— an exhortation, in truth, which many a prayerless 
 minister needs, but which was not required by the subject 
 of this sketch, as the facts we have adduced clearly^ prove. 
 We repeat that we cannot regard Mr. Robert Morison's state 
 before the year 1840 as that of an altogether unconverted 
 man. So much earnest devotion to the cause and will of 
 God appears to us to be incompatible with that supposition. 
 We would rather say that, as in the case of the pious Cor- 
 nelius (to use another scriptural illustration) " his prayers 
 and alms came up as a memorial befoj-e God," and the great 
 increase of enlightenment which he received was rather to 
 be regarded as God's answer, through the instrumentality of 
 
AX INSTANCE OF MR. R. MORISOx's FIDELITY. 179 
 
 his liouoiired son, to the many fervent supplications which 
 he had himself put up in his resounding manse. And we 
 desire here to record our conviction that there are multi- 
 tudes of godly people in the Calvinistic communions of the 
 land who are really in Chi'ist, although they do liot believe 
 as we believe. Yet we are pei*suaded that they will hold 
 our views of free grace in heaven ; and we would like them 
 to agree vdth. us on earth. If they did so, they would, 
 in our opinion, be far happier Christians, and far more 
 useful too. 
 
 For let it not be thought that, while led to adopt this line 
 of argument in facing a practical difficulty, we undervalue 
 or under-ratc that spiiitual change which the subject of our 
 sketch experienced, when he came to what he was pleased to 
 consider and call " the full knowledge of the truth." Day- 
 light is better than twilight ; and a hope sure and steadfast, 
 better than that which is faint and feeble. To Mr. Morison 
 old things seemed to have passed away, and " all things to 
 have become new." He had never talked with one anxious 
 inquirer before this crisis in his life, unless we might give 
 .that name to trembling, dying persons. But now many of his 
 ordinary hearers were awakened to cry, What must we 
 do"?" and appeared to find salvation both under his discourses 
 and by means of his convereations. * Formerly he had only 
 preached hi/ heart, when he wrote out a sermon and com- 
 mitted it to memory ; but now he always preached bi/ heart, 
 in the sense of laying before his hearers the rich experience 
 of his own happy, believing soul. 
 
 On one occasion, shortly after the important appropriation 
 of the gift of eternal life, of which we have spoken, he had 
 gone to assist at a sacrament in the village of Muckart, which 
 lies near the foot of the Ochils, and near the border land be- 
 tween Clackmannansliii'e and Perthshii-e. His relis^ious chanoje 
 had not been much noised abroad, and certainly no ecclesi- 
 astical proceedings had as yet been taken taken against him. 
 One of the elders of the church, j^roud to recognise in the 
 able preacher of the day an old Dunning schoolfellow, in- 
 vited Mr. Morison to dinner at the close of the afternoon 
 service. When the friendly repast was ended, Mr. Morison, 
 alixious to "communicate of liis spiritual things" in return 
 for "the temporal things" of which he had partaken, looked 
 his old schoolfellow earnestly in the face, and said, " John 
 M , have you peace with Gk>d]" " Xo, Mr. Morison," 
 
180 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 was the reply : "I have been an elder in this church for 
 many years, but I cannot say that I have assurance, or peace 
 with God." " Now, J ohn," rejoined the faithful guest, " will 
 you grant me a favour in consideration of the school days 
 we spent together long ago 1" " If it be at all in my power, 
 Sir, I will grant your request." " Well, it is just this, that 
 you will read, three times a day, the sixteenth verse of the 
 third chapter of John's Gospel, namely, when you are at 
 breakfast, at dinner, and at supper ; and that you will read 
 
 it m this way : ' God so loved John M that he gave his 
 
 only begotten Son, that on John M believing, John 
 
 M might not perish but have everlasting life.' And at 
 
 the same times of the day I wish you to turn up 1 John v. 
 1 1 , and read it thus : ' And this is the record, that God hath 
 
 ojiven to John M eternal life, and this life is in his 
 
 Son.'" The bargain was struck, and the earnest servant of 
 God went his way. But the result showed that he was 
 " wise to win souls for at the third reading of the pre- 
 scribed passages, John M accepted the gift and "re- 
 joiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 
 
 In these early days a favourite text with Mr. Kobert 
 .Morison was, " How shall a man be just with God ?" He 
 was in the habit of showing first, negatively, that a man is 
 not made just by prayer, or penance, or feelings, or sorrow 
 for sin, or good works, or church membership ; but, posi- 
 tively, by the work of Jesus, simply perceived by faith to be 
 his hiding place. ISTo one was more skilful than he in his 
 own quiet argumentative way in shutting up the sinner unto 
 the faith. 
 
 We may also insert here a letter with which we have been 
 favoured from the Rev. Professor Hunter of Leith. Being 
 aware that Mr. Hunter had lived with Mr. Morison for 
 some months at the period referred to, and had assisted him 
 in his ministerial work, we wrote him for corroboration of 
 the account which we have given of the venerable man's 
 spiritual change, and have received the following brief, but 
 interesting, reply : — 
 
 ** I do not think that Mr. Morison ever mentioned to me the particu- 
 lars connected with his great religious experience. He often referred 
 with joy to the text, 1 John v, 10, 11; and, curiously enough, I came 
 to find peace from the same text, before ever I saw Mr. Morison. This 
 gave a zest to his conversation on that portion of Scripture which 
 might be wanting to those who had not got such benefit from it. 
 
 He was an acute observer of human nature, and used often to 
 
MR. R. MORISON's PUBLIC DEFENCE OF THE TRUTH. 181 
 
 remark that when people began to grow cold, they soon learned to 
 avoid the company of the earnest. Of a contented disposition, he 
 sometimes quaintly reminded his hearers, * That it was easier to bring 
 their minds to their lots, than to get their lots to their minds.' As 
 you know, he was long a widower, his wife having died when his 
 children were yet young. A neighbouring minister once asked him 
 why he did not marry again. All unwont as he was to show his 
 feelings, they at once revealed the depth of his love for his long buried 
 wife, in the declaration that ' he had never seen another woman who 
 could be to him as she had been.' I forget almost every particular of our 
 •intercourse ; but can never forget his kindliness, his patience, and 
 resolution. Take him all in all, he had few equals in the held of 
 Christian manliness. To know him was to love him, and the memor}-- 
 of him will ever remain a sweet spot in the hearts of his friends." 
 
 We must now pass on to consider the public stand which 
 Mr. Morison took for his son's doctrines, both by his pub- 
 lished writings, and at the bar of the Synod. We have 
 already seen that he attended, as a deeply interested spec- 
 tator and auditor, the meetings of both Presbytery and 
 Synod in 1841, at the latter of which he gave in reasons of 
 dissent and protest against Mr. James Morison's suspen- 
 sion. Of course his own case now fell to be taken up, fii'st 
 by the Presbytery of Edinburgh to which he belonged, and 
 afterwards by the Synod, which was to meet in that city in 
 1842 ; but it need not be matter of surprise that so able a 
 man could not wait till these reverend bodies would take 
 action against him, but that he should burn to put himself 
 immediately into communication with the public by means of 
 his pen, which he could vdeld so well in times of controversy 
 ajid strife. Moreover, his heart was full, brimful, of love to 
 the Gospel of Christ, whose fulness and freeness he had 
 newly come to appreciate ; the interests of a beloved and 
 admired son were involved in the great questions in dispute ; 
 and, besides, the public were thirsting for the truth, and 
 clamorous to be satisfied. All the pamplilets which were 
 issued in connection with the Atonement Controversy were 
 bought up in these days with amazing rapidity ; and the 
 character of the Scotch, as lovers of theological literature, 
 was fully maintained. If anyone should have hinted to 
 Mr. Morison, that by publishing on the disputed points, he 
 was only making himself the more certain of suspension or 
 expulsion when the Synod would meet in the following 
 year, he would have replied that he did not care for himself, 
 if only Christ's truth were defended ; and further, if he had 
 divulged the secret thoughts and preferences of his heart, he 
 
182 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 "would have added, that he did not wish to remain in a con- 
 nection which had cast off his son. He would rather spend 
 the evening of his days in struggling with the little forlorn 
 hope" which had gathered around the latter; and all the 
 more readily that now " at evening time it was light." 
 
 Look in, then, at the window of the quiet Bathgate manse, 
 in that summer of 1841. Mr. Robert Morison has come 
 home from the meeting of Synod which has ejected his son. 
 He is " cast down, but not destroyed." He is not moving 
 much abroad ; for his mind is filled with important 
 thoughts. He is Avriting his first publication on the Atone- 
 ment Controversy. Sheet after sheet is being rapidly 
 thrown off; for his heart is in his subject, and he writes cou 
 amore. When his manuscript is completed, the title which 
 he puts upon the first page is, ^^Difficulties connected with 
 the Doctrine of a Limited Atonement. By Robert Morison, 
 minister of the Gospel, Bathgate." Although only a pam- 
 phlet of 37 pages, it did most important service at the time. 
 It was widely circulated, and was quoted with approbation 
 both by Dr. Wardlaw of Glasgow, and Dr. Payne of Exeter, 
 in the controversial treatises which they issued soon after, 
 on the same doctrine and affiliated topics. 
 
 This work was eminently characteristic of Mr. Morisoli's 
 mind. He had not his son's learning, nor his originality of 
 conception and gi-asp of thought ; but he was fully his equal 
 in the calm judicial consideration of any difficult subject 
 wjiich might be brought before him. If he possessed rather 
 the qualifications of the eminent judge or law-expounder, 
 "than those of the eminent statesman or law-maker, it will at 
 least be admitted that the former are by no means unimpor- 
 tant, and are even indispensable in their way. It will be 
 found, we are persuaded, by those who read this pamphlet, 
 that a fresh mind is at work on these great themes, and one 
 which is able to reflect some of its own clearness of percep- 
 tion upon those blessed truths, which to know is " life 
 eternal." 
 
 Thus, on the second page, we are aiTested by the follow- 
 ing luminous statement: — 
 
 " It does, therefore, become an awfully momentous question, and 
 one in which all party strife and angry cavils should be devoutly 
 hushed to rest, whether the atonement of Christ is limited to the elect, 
 or is universal, and extending to the whole race. In thinking on this 
 awfully important question, we perceive at once that no difference in 
 principle exists in extending it to the whole race, or to only a single 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF A LIMITED ATONEMENT. 
 
 183 
 
 individual beyond the elected number. Were it admitted that there 
 was an atonement for the 'discreetly' answering scribe, who was 'not 
 far from the kingdom of God,' then it must also be conceded that there 
 was an atonement for all. Either Christ's blood was not shed for one 
 beyond the elect number, or it was shed for all. Without at all enter- 
 ing on the proof of that which I firmly believe — the universality of the 
 atonement — 1 propose to suggest a few things only that I have felt as 
 difficulties connected with the limitation scheme, and which 1 have 
 never been able to get over, since I have thought seriously ou the 
 subject." 
 
 After considering seriatim the passages of Scripture which 
 were generally adduced in favour of a limited atonement, 
 the author proceeds to demolish the doctrine of a limited 
 atonement in a fashion that must have made his adversaries 
 feel that truly a Daniel had come to judgment:" 
 
 "While all the passages usually founded on thus melt away before 
 inquiry, a fresh diliiculty arises out of this — namely, that if limitation 
 be not clearly and irresistibly proven, truth and justice require that it 
 he disbelieved. The proof must be direct and complete, and the onus 
 prohaiidi, or burthen of proof, lies incontestably on the side of the 
 limitarians. It is quite certain, if this principle be the correct one, 
 and it be true that a propitiation was made by the death of Christ only 
 for the elect, that the atonement, and election, and justification, are 
 all exactly of the same extent. Let us see the aspect in which this 
 brings the cause to the bar of judgment. When we read of the atone- 
 ment under the most unlimited universal terms— 'behold the Lamb of 
 God, that taketh away the sin of the world,' — 'he is the propitiation 
 for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the 
 whole world,' — 'who gave himself a ransom for all,' — 'one died for 
 all,' — • that he might taste death for every man,' — ' God so loved the 
 world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
 in him should not perish, but have everlasting life;' — where God's 
 love, and the gift of his Son, extend to an indefinite number beyond 
 the 'whosoever shall believe;' — if, after all, it be true that by such 
 expressions as these, ' the world,' ' the whole world,' ' all men,' 'every 
 man'- — God means only the elect, how comes it to pass that equally 
 universal terms are not employed in speaking of election and justifica- 
 tion ? If these two and the atonement be really co-extensive, how do 
 we never read that God elected ' the world, ' and ' the whole world, * 
 and 'all men.' and ' every man,' and justified ' the world,' and 'the 
 whole world,* and 'all men,' and 'every man'? Limitarians allow 
 that the one might be said as well as the other; and how comes it to 
 pass, then, that it is never said ? Not only must this be accounted 
 for, but on the face of the case there appears so plain and palpable a 
 difterence between the extent of the atonement and the extent of elec- 
 tion and justification, and the sudden identification of these is so 
 preposterous, that unless a solid and decisive demonstration be given of 
 their co-extensiveness, the system of limitation falls to the ground by 
 its own inherent rottenness, and the universal atonement comes to be 
 received as a matter of course. There is so vast a difference between the 
 language that describes atonement, and that which describes election 
 
184 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION, 
 
 and justification, in point of extent; and the generally easy, unrestrained 
 meaning of Sci ipture teaches so plainly the unlimited propitiation by 
 Christ's blood, that it can never be displaced except by a solid and 
 irrefragable proof of direct limitation. It is of no avail to detect 
 flaws, and expose defects, in the argument of those who advocate 
 universal atonement. It is wholly a different kind of work to which 
 the honest limitarian must gird up his loins. His work is to build 
 up, not to cast down. His work is to raise the fabric of truth on his 
 own side, not to assail the fabric of his opponents. If he does not 
 do this satisfactorily, his system must be wrong, be right what may. 
 As I have never seen this done, of course I reject the doctrine of a 
 limited atonement." 
 
 But perhaps the most powerful passage in the tractate is 
 that in which lie unanswerably exposes the imtenable posi- 
 tion of those who fancy that the death of Christ can be 
 sufficient for all, although it was not really offered for all. 
 
 But besides this lowering and distorting of Christ's representative 
 character, the doctrine of limitation really nullifies the all-sufficiency 
 of the atonement. It is very common for its advocates to declare that 
 the atonement of Christ is sufficient for all, but not efficient for all. 
 But let us pause and understand what this means; and let the mind 
 come out from the haze of mere general words, into the clear light of 
 precise thinking, and see what it is dealing with. This is far from 
 unnecessary: and I just ask what is meant by this sufficiency for all 
 men ? Is it merely meant that there is so much abstract loorth in the 
 work of Christ, that it would suffice for all men, had it been so 
 designed ? If this be all that is meant, the next question is. Was it in 
 no way designed for all men ? And if it was designed in some way for all 
 men, then what is that way ? If it was designed for all men, but was 
 designed to be less than a propitiation for their sins, what was it 
 designed to be to them ? If, on the other hand, it is affirmed, it was 
 not designed for all men, but is in its nature a thing sufficient for all 
 men, then I ask, can it, in any available sense, be sufficient for that 
 for which it was never designed ? Either it was designed for all men, 
 as an expiation of their sins, or it Can no more become available to 
 those for whom it was not designed, than it can be available to fallen 
 angels. If the atonement of Christ was only a work that might have 
 sufficed, had it been so intended, that does not imply that it actually 
 does suffice, or is sufficient, but merely that on certain supposab'e con- 
 ditions it would have been so. Its intrinsic value is not the thing 
 here. The intention is everything. This sufficiency must, in fact, be 
 determined by its efficiency. In one view, the efficiency of the atone- 
 ment (that is, its actual fruits) is measured by its application, or the 
 purpose of application, and in this vague sense of efficiency it is of a 
 restricted nature. But another and still more important view of its 
 efficiency is its propitiatory character, as legally 'putting away sin.' 
 This character it does possess antecedent to application, and it is in 
 this that its proper efficiency consists. It is just sufficient accordingly 
 for the removal of all the sins, and all the sins of all the sinners, for 
 which it was efficient as a propitiation. It is sufficient for all this, but 
 for no more. As a bona fide transaction in behalf of sinners, its suffi,- 
 ciency is bounded by its efficiency, -and springs out of it; or, in other 
 
ANOTHER PAMPHLET FROM 3IR. R. MORISOX's PEN. 185 
 
 words, it does not actually suffice for any except those for whose sins it 
 was a propitiation. If it was an ejfl:ient propitiation for the sins of the 
 whole world, then it suffices or is sufficient for the salvation of the 
 whole world; but if it was not an efficient propitiation for the sins of 
 the whole world, then it suffices not or is not sufficient, for the salvation 
 of the whole world — and is not sufficient, just because it was not 
 efficient. It is, therefore, a serious difficulty connected with the 
 doctrine of a limited atonement, that by denying the unlimited 
 efficiency of Christ's blood as a- propitiation, it nullifies its universal 
 sufficiency for the salvation of mankind sinners without exception. 
 All men seem to hold in a loose, vague way that it is sufficient for all; 
 but this is clearly either a meaningless or inconsistent use of words, 
 unless it was designed to have a propitiatory efficiency for the sin 
 of all." 
 
 In the same thorough manner Mr. Morison proceeds to 
 show that, on the theory of a limited atonement, the Divine 
 Being is represented to be insincere when he protests that 
 he wills not the death of a sinner ; while also no valid basis 
 is provided for the condemnation of those who reject the 
 saciifice of the cross and perish. 
 
 These extracts are sufficient to prove that the Kev. Robert 
 Morison was both an able and conscientious man, and one 
 who " rightly di^dded the word of God." 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Narrative of Eev. Eobert Morison's Case Continued — His Eeply to the 
 Synod's Statement of Principles —His own Account of his Treat- 
 ment at the Synod of 1842 — Blameworthy Precipitancy of that 
 Court — The Questions proposed to Mr. Morison by the Committee, 
 with his Answers— His Explanatory Remarks Refused — One Defect 
 in his Replies — His final Letter to the Convener of the Synod's 
 Committee— Mr. Morison's Labours in the Evening of his Life — 
 His last Illness, and Speculations about Heaven — His Death. 
 
 The pamphlet entitled, " Difficulties connected with a 
 Limited Atonement," was not the only publication that 
 issued from the pen of Rev. Robert Morison, of Bathgate, 
 during the interval that elapsed between the meeting of the 
 Synod of the Secession Church in 1841 and that of 1842, at 
 which his own case came up for consideration. It would 
 appear that the Synod of 1841 considered it to be theii- 
 duty, before breaking up, to appoint an influential committee 
 to prepare a " Statement of Principles lq reference to certain 
 Doctrines discussed at its recent meeting." This document, 
 doubtless, was intended to meet the crisis to which mattei*s 
 
186 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 had come, and allay the tumult that was agitating the 
 country, both within and without the bounds of their own 
 communion. Like all other similar deliverances, it failed 
 to give satisfaction to both parties, — those against whom it 
 was aimed stoutly maintaining that it contained a gross 
 misrepresentation and caricature of their opinions. 
 
 Mr. Robert Morison especially felt called upon to take up 
 his pen in reply, both because his son's views had been 
 avowedly assailed with all the influence of Synodical autho- 
 rity, and also because he still possessed the status of a 
 minister of the Associate Church. The Synod's Committee 
 seem to have issued their " Statement" in the autumn of 
 1841; but the " Review of the Statement of Principles," by 
 Mr. Morison, sen., did not appear till the beginning of the 
 year folloAving. It is dated, "Bathgate, 26th January, 
 1842." The author in his preface says, "The following 
 strictures were written about three months ago — almost 
 immediately after I read the ' Statement;' but circumstances 
 which need not be specified, have occasioned the delay of this 
 publication." We have, marked tv/o brief passages for quo- 
 tation, both for the sake of showing the author's style and 
 powers of mind, and also of bringing before our readers 
 imjDOi-tant views of soul-saving truth. 
 
 At page 17 of his closely printed pamphlet, Mr. Morison 
 turns aside the ridicule which the Synod's Committee had 
 thrown upon the position that simple faith in the doctrine 
 that " Jesus died for all, and therefore for me," brings 
 assurance of salvation to the soul. He says : — 
 
 Formerly, the man was like an Israelite whom we may suppose to 
 have strayed from the camp, at the time when the brazen serpent was 
 set up, and the proclamation made, that every stung Israelite should 
 look to it and he would live; and who, on his way back, had got some 
 general notions on the subject. When, in his half-informed state of 
 mind, he surveyed the brazen serpent from some adjoining eminence, 
 he would naturally thus philosophise: — ' It is intended for all, thej' 
 say, yet of itself it secures the healing of none, — it has ^'general 
 relations'' but it ^'sustains no special relation,'' — there must be some- 
 thing "illusory" here! — none can be saved by it, if it does not of itself 
 secure the healing of those who are bitten.' This is a fair exponent of 
 the meagre approach to the truth of the case, that the Committee have 
 made. But let the supervising Israelite only come into the camp, and 
 there feel that he is bitten of a serpent, and is in imminent danger, and 
 then he comes to learn another lesson. He discovers that the message 
 of God conveyed in the general proclamation was intended for himself, 
 is addressed precisely to him, and that the serpent of brass was erected 
 for him. In other words he appropriates the message as designed by 
 
THE ''DEFENCE OF CHRIST's TRUTH." 
 
 187 
 
 God to tell him, 'here is a salvation for you,' — and he looks and is 
 healed. This latter and practical part of the matter the Committee 
 most unaccountably overlook, and therefore they have failed to under- 
 stand that the v^ry sight of faith or belief in Jesus, against which they 
 so anxiously struggle, is just the discerning that, 'as Moses lifted up 
 the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted 
 up; that whosoever belie veth in him' (believe th that Christ was lifted 
 for himself) 'might not perish, but have everlasting life.'" 
 
 Another paragraph is so important that we are tempted 
 to give it also: — 
 
 " AVe may thank the limitarian scheme for so locking up the gift of 
 Christ from the anxious inquirer, as to impede conversions till the 
 agony of the soul becomes so strong that the individual bursts through 
 his system at the broad side, and on his knees grasps desperately at a 
 Gospel text, which, in his cool moments, his system persuaded him he 
 had no right to. Not only is this the case, but his limitarian pastors 
 would tell him, that though they see he has a right to the text now, 
 — ' he was made sin for me,' — yet they could not have said before that 
 he had a right to it, making the man's right to believe that Christ is 
 his to depend on the state of his mind, and not on the testimony of 
 God! ! Yes! when we closely inspect the subject, it becomes certain, 
 there never was a believer whom the rigid limitarian scheme accurately 
 applied would not divorce from the identical Gospel text in which his 
 soul had discovered the blessed fact, 'the Saviour is my own.'" 
 
 The fearless publication of such unanswerable onslaughts 
 could not but embitter his ministerial brethren against Mr. 
 Morison, sen. Perhaps, therefore, we need not be surprised 
 that, as the meeting of the Synod in. Edinburgh drew near, 
 a very general impression began to prevail that he would be 
 flung overboard after his son, in a very speedy and summary 
 manner. Yet that ejection was so very speedy and sum- 
 mary, that we wonder much, in the retrospect, that it could 
 have been accomplished in a Court laying any claim to be 
 governed by the principles of civil, not to speak of ecclesias- 
 tical, justice. 
 
 Mr. Morison's ot\ti account of the treatment which he 
 received is given in his pamphlet entitled " Defence of 
 Christ's Truth ; or, the case of the Rev. Robert Morison, of 
 Bathgate, before the United Associate Synod, May, 1842," 
 pp. 63. At page 4 he writes as follows : — 
 
 "The circumstances in which my cause came to be taken up by the 
 Synod in May, 1842, are the following: — When the Synod passed what 
 appeared to me an unfounded and iniquitous sentence against the Kev. 
 James Morison, of Kilmarnock, in June, 1841, I dissented from the 
 decision, and gave in reasons of diss^^nt. Previously, I had declared in 
 the Court an entire agi;eement with him in sentiments, and now in my 
 reasons of dissent I declared his opinions to be, in my judgment, ' both 
 
188 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 sound and consistent, at once agreeable to Scripture, and unopposed to 
 the Standards of the Church.' When these reasons ot dissent were re- 
 mitted to the Presbytery of Edinburgh, that I might be dealt with by 
 them, they prepared brief answers to all the reasons except such as 
 touched on doctrine, and, in reference to these, ' they respectfully de- 
 clined farther travail in this case.' The Synod, in 1841, when these 
 reasons were given in, never came to any finding against me, — never 
 uttered a whisper to that effect, — and the Presbytery of Edinburgh 
 came to no finding against me; and conse juently I still stood as free of 
 any judicial charge in any form, in life, or doctrine, as any man could 
 do. There were abundance of floating out-door opinions, "but no court 
 had ever found one thing against me. This was my clear position 
 when the Synod convened on the 2nd of May last. 1 went up to that 
 meeting in the full belief that, however dissatisfied certain men might 
 be individually with me, it would be impossible for the Court, in the 
 observance of decent forms, to put me on my trial at that meeting. I 
 did expect them to do something, and thought that most likely they would 
 refer my case back to the Presbytery, but never supposed it possible 
 that they could leap at once into a premature and irregular trial. How- 
 ever, on the forenoon of Wednesday the 4tb, they did, without one 
 thing judicially known, or found, or alleged against me in all my life 
 and doctrine, appoint a Committee, not only to take my reasons of 
 dissent into consideration, but also to proceed forthwith to examine 
 myself, and extract my views from me. I met the Committee that 
 same evening, and had seventeen questions on the most grave and in- 
 tricate and profound doctrines of the Gospel put to me, all of which I 
 answered, and the whole was taken down in writing. On the forenoon 
 of Thursday the oth, these were reported and read to the Synod. On 
 the evening of the same day, another Committee was appointed to 
 frame propositions out of the answers given by me the evening before, 
 embodying my supjtosed errors, and to report to the Synod next day. 
 On the forenoon of Friday the 6th, the Committee produced six pro- 
 positions, which they said contained my views on the doctrine of the 
 atonement; one proposition which they said contained my views on 
 faith; and one which they said contained my views on original sin. 
 The doctrines contained in all these propositions were of a nature both 
 p)rofound and intricate, but it was not so much reach of thought, as 
 cool discriminating precision, that was called for in dealing with them, 
 and to treat them fairly in this way did certainly require the most 
 grave and deliberate consideration. But as the case must be got dis- 
 posed of somehDW that night (and this was the obvious feeling and 
 intention, as well as result), the Court, that it might remedy as far 
 as possible the want of time to deliberate, agreed to print the questions 
 and answers and propositions deduced from them, in the interval of 
 sederunts, and proceed to the decision of the case in the evening. 
 The evening came, and the cause was taken up. It was resolved, first, 
 to settle the question, do the propositions brought in by the Commit- 
 tee fairly represent Mr. Morison's views as contained in his answers ? 
 Taking up first the six propositions on the doctrine of atonement, they 
 voted these to be a fair representation of my views; but from this 
 finding Dr. Brown dissented, on the ground that the propositions did 
 not fairly represent my views, and about twenty other ministers ad- 
 hered to his dissent. The proposition on faith was voted as contain- 
 
THE synod's summary PROCEDURE. 
 
 189 
 
 ing my views; then the proposition on original sin was so amended, as 
 to embody the substance of my three answers to the questions on that 
 subject, and it also was voted as containing my views on that doc- 
 trine. This being done, the Synod began to execute their previously 
 avowed resolution to come to a solemn deliverance as to what they 
 judged to be erroneous in these same propositions; but as the midnight 
 hour was near approaching, and the settling of the question whether 
 the propositions were erroneous or not, and how far they were so, 
 would have required time, and threatened to elicit very conflicting 
 judgments in the house, they suddenly stopped short and dropped that 
 matter altogether, and never came to a judgment on any one point, 
 whether my opinions were erroneous or not, but agreed to suspend me, 
 without passing any sentence on ctny one doctrine of mine now before 
 them. In truth, I am yet as clear of any charge of evrov judicially 
 found by the United Associate Synod, as any one member of that court 
 is. They never passed one judgment on one doctrine, but merely said, 
 in the final decision against me— and that too in the most lame and 
 insignificant style of judicial finding — that my views are ^apparently 
 opposed to Scripture and the Standards,' but gave me no means of 
 knowing where this * appearance of opposition ' is to be found. 
 A'gainst this decision I of course protested, and claimed my right to 
 be held as acting not only not a blameable, but not even an irregular 
 part, in contravening such a sentence. This most irregular and ini- 
 quitous decision was, with the exception of a vast number of dissents 
 entered by members against it. the last deed of the United Associate 
 Synod while 1 remained a member of the body. "What they may have 
 done since, can in no way affect the merits of the case in regard to me 
 and my cause." 
 
 It is quite plain that the majority of the members of the 
 Synod of 1842 took up the position that Mr. Morison, sen., 
 having fully homologated his son's Adews, — it was unnecessary 
 to give him the benefit of all the processes of ecclesiastical 
 law. He thus protests himself: — 
 
 *' 1 will venture to say, the like has almost never been done in the 
 annals of Protestant churches to any of their own members. To be sure, 
 the time was when persecuting Prelatists thought it enough to put the 
 question to their victims — ' Do you approve of the Sanquhar declara- 
 tion ?' — or, 'do you account the slaying of Archbishop Sharp to have 
 been murder ? ' — and to execute at once according to the answer given. 
 Now, every candid rnind will see that to take me up and to hurry on 
 my ejection on account of homologating my son's opinions, were 
 just exactly the revival of that princij'le of judgment; and that if it 
 was not on this Claveihouse principle they were proceeding, to take 
 me unwarned, and try me instanter without the usual forms, was a 
 measure wholly irregular and cruelly unjust." 
 
 One who was present has described the scenes that took 
 place in connection with Mr. Robert Morison's trial as posi- 
 tively painful. Again and again the old man attempted to 
 speak ; but an agreement seemed to have been entered into 
 beforehand to prevent his being heard. Indeed, he may be 
 
190 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 said to have been howled down repeatedly by the members 
 of the Court. He was so much agitated and perturbed by 
 iike treatment which he had received that, when seated at 
 breakfast, on the morning after his suspension, in the hotel 
 at which he was staying with some friends, he remarked, as 
 he surveyed his own ponderous frame, " I can hardly realise 
 that I am a piece of animated matter at all." And yet, as 
 we savs^ in our last chapter he had rendered good service in 
 his day to the church in various ways. But, in truth, the 
 leading spirits of the Synod had come the length of allowing 
 a sort of hatred of James Morison to be formed in their 
 hearts on account of the ferment he had raised in the land 
 and the trouble he had caused them ; and by that peculiar 
 inversion of the natural order of things, to which we have 
 already referred, the sins of tlie son were visited upon the 
 father. Mr. Morison, sen., himself says as much at page 16 
 of his " Defence," adding beside some pertinent and unan- 
 pwerable questions : — 
 
 "From the whole spirit of the proceedings, the breathings in many 
 speakers, and the not unfrequent direct statements, I was led irresis- 
 tibly to the conclusion that the prosecution against me originated far 
 more in something of a personal hatred of James Morison, of Kil- 
 marnock, on account of his present position, than in a conscientious 
 dislike of his general doctrines. If not, why dissatisfy so many re- 
 spectable members by making strides of approach beyond the standards 
 to the doctrines which he holds, if they have a real disaf)probation of 
 them ? So remarkable a feature of matters was this to a discerning eye 
 and ear in the Synod, that I feel quite confident that were any man 
 who approves of our views, just to truckle a little, and say he in some 
 particulars disapproved of James Morison's views, and disguise his 
 phraseology on a few marked points, he would not only be cordially 
 tolerated, but hailed with welcome to preach substantially the same 
 doctrines in the pulpits of ,my most strenuous opposers. I feel as 
 certain of this as of any conclusion from moral evidence which a think- 
 ing mind can glean up as a just inference from a multitude of com- 
 bined circumstances. Of course, very many of those who were unjust 
 to me will deny this ; but let any man make the experiment (though I 
 do not suppose a good man will ever make it), and it will be found to 
 be true. If not, why tolerate Dr. Brown in the Synod after his speech 
 of June, 1841 ? That speech throughout, in general, expressed most 
 accurately the doctrinal views held by me and my son, and has been 
 often acknowledged by us to do so, and was, indeed, felt by the whole 
 Synod to do so. Not only is this true, but Dr. Brown himself knows 
 that in the numerous friendly conversations I have enjoyed with him 
 for a long time past, he has never expressed disagreement with any one 
 of my doctrinal views ; and that so coincident were mine with his that 
 I said to him on 1st of March last, I had never yet been able to detect 
 the least discrepance between his views and my own. Why then is7ic 
 tolerated in the body ?" 
 
THE QUESTIONS PROPOSED TO MR. R. MORISOX. 191 
 
 Our readers, we are certain, will now be tappy to liear 
 the answers which were given by Mr. Morison to the eighteen 
 questions which were proposed to him by the afore-men- 
 tioned committee. Let it be remembered that he was led to 
 the hall below Broughton Place Church, Edinburgh, at an 
 evening sederunt, and that his extemporaneous answers to 
 these successive questions, of the character of which he had 
 received no j^i'evious information, were taken down in writ- 
 ing, — let this be borne in mind, and we are persuaded that 
 any candid critic will be surprised at the felicity, as well as 
 the fluency, of the respondent's diction. 
 
 He was asked, 1st, \Vhetlier Christ, in dying, had no other rela- 
 tion to the elect than to the non-elect ? 
 
 "He replied that, in the mere article of propitiation^ Christ had no 
 other relation to the elect than to the non-elect. 
 
 2nd. Does Mr. Morison hold that the atonement of Christ procures 
 no saving blessings; hut merely removes obstacles to the salvation of 
 all men ? 
 
 " ^715. — The love of God, operating through the atonement of Jesus 
 Christ, secures saving blessings to his own people ; but the atonement, 
 ■while it has removed obstructions to their salvation, and is a work of 
 love thus far for them, is not that which of itself secnres saving blessings. 
 
 "3rd. Did the securing the personal salvation of the elect through 
 the atonement enter into the original purpose of God in appointing the 
 atonement ? 
 
 "^725. — That while I do not conceive anything like separation in 
 the purpose of God, yet, viewing it in its several parts, 1 hold that 
 the original purpose was to glorify God by the satisfaction of his own 
 Son for sin, and that the purpose of the application of the blessings of 
 salvation to the elect proceeds upon the contemplation of this perfect 
 work. . . 
 
 " 4th. Did Christ Jesus, in dying, love all men equally ? 
 
 " Ans. — So far as his dying for them is concerned, he did. 
 
 "5th. Did the atonement of Christ exhibit any greater manifesta- 
 tion of the love of God towards those who are saved, than it did to 
 those who perish ? 
 
 " Ans. — Only in so far as the purposes of application are concerned. 
 
 "6th. Does Mr. Morison mean that the atonement itself exhibited 
 no higher manifestation of the love of God to the elect than to others ? 
 Ans. — YES. 
 
 " 7th. Is the object of saving faith to any person the statement that 
 Christ made atonement for that person's sins, as he made atonement 
 fi)r the sins of the whole world, and that the seeing of this statement to 
 be true is saving faith, and gives the assurance of salvation ? 
 
 Ans. — The object of saving faith is Christ, as revealed to have 
 died for me, as he died for all other men, and that the seeing of this 
 to be true is saving faith, and from its nature gives the assurance of 
 salvation. 
 
 "8th. Are all men naturally in a state of condemnation in conse- 
 quence of Adam's first sin ? 
 
192 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 **Ans. — That though all men are by nature in a fallen and depraved 
 state, as the consequence of Adam's first sin, yet no man is condemned 
 merely on account of Adam's first sin. 
 
 9th. Do men, prior to conversion, sustain the relation to God of 
 condemned creatures ? 
 
 " Ans. — Yes ; all who are come the length of being moral agents. 
 
 " 10th. Does the sin of Adam enter at all into the legal grounds of 
 the condemnation of any man ? 
 
 " Ans. — Though I do not presume to understand everything in the 
 administrations of God in reference to this matter, so far as I under- 
 stand the Word of God, I do not apprehend that it has any appreciable 
 influence as a ground of the condemnation of the sinner. 
 
 " 11th. Does Mr. Morison consider the views which he has stated in 
 answer to the above questions as necessary to the formation of correct 
 views of what he conceives to be the truth of God ? 
 
 **A7is. — He does. 
 
 *'12th. Does Mr. Morison consider these views as accordant with 
 the formularies of this Church ? 
 
 ' '* Ans. — He considers them as not contradictory to the formularies 
 of this Church. 
 
 " 13th. Are these the views of divine truth and of our subordinate 
 standards which Mr. Morison entertained when he undertook his ordi- 
 nation vows ? 
 
 " Ans. — On some points, — such as the extent of the atonement and 
 the position of election, Mr. Morison's mind has undergone an enlarge- 
 ment of view; and his opinion of the import of the standards in some 
 articles has undergone a modification. 
 
 " 14th. Does Mr. Morison consider that view of the death of Christ 
 which represents him as sustaining a special relation to his people, a 
 view of the truth which can never give well-grounded peace to the soul 
 of any sinner ? 
 
 *' Ans. — He considers the view of this special relation as presenting 
 a barrier to the soul entering into peace, though he does not suppose 
 that, if the soul were possessed of the knowledge that it was in Christ, 
 this would prevent a well founded peace. 
 
 *' 15th. Does Mr. Morison consider this view of the truth that Christ 
 sustains a special relation to his people, as consistent with a pure exhi- 
 bition of the Gospel of Christ ? 
 
 *'Ans. — He considers that the proper exhibition of the Gospel of 
 Christ is the presentation of him in the relation in which he stands to 
 sinners without exception, and that this is the only relation in which 
 the sinner can venture to lay hold of him, and that the exhibition of 
 the special relation, in this stage of the person's progress, is only fitted 
 to embarrass him with a secret into which, as it regards himself, be 
 cannot yet enter. 
 
 *' 16th. Does Mr. Morison, knowing that the view referred to is 
 held avowedly by our Church, believe that the Gospel is preached 
 purely in the Secession Church, or that it is preached at all ? 
 
 **Ans. — That when he obtained his present views of divine truth, 
 he was not convinced that they were opposed to the principles of the 
 body, or would be unacceptable in the eyes of his brethren, and that he 
 has gone on honestly endeavouring to fulfil that vow which binds him 
 not to shun to declare the whole counsel of God, and that he holds his 
 
MR. R. MORISON AND "ANOTHER GOSPEL." 193 
 
 ■brethren as having nothing to Jo with what his secret opinion may be 
 of other modes of preaching. 
 
 "17th. Does Jlr. Morison believe that those who do not hold the 
 doctrine of universal atonement could be said to be possessed of true 
 faiih ? 
 
 *' Jns. — He doubts not but that many who never held the doctrine 
 of universal atonement tJiejretically, have been possessed of true faith; 
 tliough at the same time he believes that in the aet of first receiving 
 Christ, their soul proceeded practically on the principle of an unlimited, 
 atonement. 
 
 "18th. Has Mr. Morison ever publicly said that his brethren 
 preached another Gospel ? 
 
 Ans. — I have really no answer.*' 
 
 Mr. Morison felt very keenly the injustice that was done 
 him as to the 18th question being inserted in the record. 
 He mentions in his " Defence " that the brother who put it 
 in committee, distinctly stated that he did not wish it to be 
 written down. The respondent declared that he would not 
 answer such a query, because they had no right to put it. 
 Judge then of his surprise, next day, when, on borrowing- 
 the printed paper from the Synod Clerk to take a copy, he 
 found that it had been " smuggled in." This was certainly 
 very dishonourable conduct. Since Mr. Morison declined to 
 reply, we cannot tell whether he had ever made use of the 
 objectionable statement or not. It was evidently the part 
 of his prosecutors to prove that he had done so, and not to 
 adopt the flagrantly un-British course of trying to make an 
 accused party inculpate and criminate himself. We stated 
 in our last chapter that it was possible that Mr. Morison, sen., 
 in the ardour of fresh evangelical joy, and in the overflow 
 <3f his sympathy with a persecuted son, may have used 
 expressions concerning his former brethren that were calcu- 
 lated to do harm rather than good. In all probability, we 
 may all have erred in that dii-ection. But we are certain 
 that the rumoui-s were much exaggerated which had reacht-d 
 the ears of members of the Synod's committee ; and that 
 any charges which he may have made were more by way of 
 implication than in so many words. Thus we can suppose 
 that in preaching from such a text as Gal. i. 8, " But though 
 we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto- 
 you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be 
 accursed," — he may have said that if ministers did not preacJi 
 that " Christ tasted death for every man," they })reached 
 " another Gospel." That, in all likelihood, would be the 
 head, and front, and sum of his oftending. 
 
 o / 
 
194 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 We would call special attention to the answers given to 
 the 7th, 10th, and 17th questions, as being, in our opinion, 
 singularly well expressed. Of course, when the respondent 
 held that faith in the Gospel " gives immediate assurance," 
 he did not leave out of sight that Assurance of sense or hope 
 which springs corroboratively, in the course of years, from 
 the renewing work of the Holy Ghost in the heart of the 
 believer. What Mr. Morison meant, in his reply to the 
 10th question, is yet more fully expressed in the explanatory 
 remarks which he offered to the Synod on the evening of 
 Friday, the 6th of May: 
 
 ** 111 our conversation, I referred them to Dr. Dann's letter, quoted 
 with approbation by Dr. Pye Smith, showing that eminent divines of 
 the Church of Scotland have held the same principles, and told them 
 that I did not hold that the culpa, or blameivorthiness of Adam's first 
 sin was imputed to his posterity, but that I held the reatus or "■an- 
 swerability " (as Dr. Pye Smith calls it), or exposednf^ss to suffering 
 consequences, was imputed to them, or descended on them. Some 
 members sai(i, that was just what they all held ; but I added, I sus- 
 pected we would differ a little on the extent to which this aiiswer- 
 ahility " or exposedness to suffering consequences, did go. I shall now 
 exyjlain what 1 meant, as the Committee seemed not to wish it. I 
 believe that the penalty — death — threatened to our first parents, was 
 just mortality, cr the dissolution of soul and body. I believe 
 that this same sin of Adam, which brought death upon him, being 
 committed by him as our representing head, was imputed to all his 
 posterity, and brought mortality and death upon the whole. . . 
 
 " Through it they were exposed to the dissolution of death, and, of 
 course, to that sickness and disease which are the incipient symptoms 
 of death, and also to trouble, from the wickedness of men, and to the 
 moral contamination of that depravity which it has introduced so 
 largely. Still, notwithstanding this, I hold, that though all these 
 evils come upon every man, and encompass him from his birth to his 
 death, in consequence of the fall, yet it is not on account of that sin 
 which has brought all these evils upon him — the first sin of Adam — 
 that the unbelieving sinner is eternally damned, but on account of his 
 own personal transgressions. This is what I hold, and what the Scrip- 
 tures require me to hold, by teaching that every one shall be rewarded 
 acv^-ording to his works." 
 
 In the answer to the 17th question we think that Mr. 
 Morison has stated, in a most memorable manner, what is the 
 real truth of the case concerning the experience of many pious 
 limitarians. Although they may restrict the death of Christ 
 to the elect in theory, they extend it to all men practically 
 when they come to Christ themselves ; for they argue " He 
 died for sinners ; we are sinners ; therefore he died for us." 
 But, of course, the much debated little word all lurks in the 
 first premiss, though it be not expressed ; for unless all sin- 
 
ONE DEFECT IN MR. R. MORISOX's REPLIES. 195 
 
 ners be meant, liow could the individual, so reasoning, know 
 himself or herself to be included in the crowd? If the 
 answer should be, hy my evidences^ or, hy my experience^ is 
 this not a shifting, insecure, and anti-evangelical foundation 
 on which to build the soul's hopes for eternity ? 
 
 We have referred to the fact that Mr. Morison offered to 
 the Synod explanatory remarks on the ajiswers which he had 
 ^iven to the committee. We used the word " offered " ad- 
 visedly ; for although the explanations were presented to the 
 Court, they would not accept them. The fact was, that Mr. 
 Morison, after his important interview with the Committee, 
 conceived that on certain points his aiiswers required to be 
 guarded against misrepresentation on the part of those who 
 might be inclined to misrepresent them, and misapprehension 
 on the part of those who, from having thought sparingly on 
 these subjects, might be likely to misapprehend them. Ac- 
 cordingly, borrowing some hours fr6m the vigilant observance 
 of his own case in the Court, as well as from sleep, he wrote 
 out a carefully-worded explanatory paper which first himself, 
 then Professor Balmer at his request, and afterwards several 
 other members of Court of their own accord, begged the 
 S}Tiod next day to receive and read. But it was all to no pur- 
 pose. His paper was summarily rejected ; and even Dr. 
 Balmer drew down upon himself the rebuke of several mem- 
 bers for venturing to support such a proposal. Xo wonder 
 that Mr. Morison transcribed the Latin quotation at the end 
 of his " Defence," " Pudet, hsec dici possint et non possunt 
 refelli," — that is, " It is shameful that these things can be 
 said, and that they cannot be refuted." 
 
 We must, however, be allowed to remark that these 
 answers, and especially the explanatory papers with which 
 they are followed in the " Defence," are marred by one great 
 defect — ^namely, the doctrine of the restricted purpose of ap- 
 plication of the benefits of Christ's death to the eternally and 
 unconditionally elect. This was exactly what we have already 
 called Baxterianism or moderate Calvinism, and really w^'is 
 not worth contending for so earnestly and self-sacrificingly, 
 — unless, indeed, it was to be regarded as a stepping-stone 
 to a more liberal and consistent creed. If Dr. Morison and 
 his father had remained at the theological milestone which 
 they had reached in 18.1:2, we cannot see wherein their view 
 of the sa^'ing gi-ace of God was much to be preferred to that 
 of such a man as Dr. Heugh, who led the liberal side of the 
 
196 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UXIOX. 
 
 house against them. Any advantage which they had in a 
 consistent basis for a world-wide call, was more than nullified 
 by the disheartening limitation 'of the Holy Spirit's work of 
 application, — a limitation that was rendered all the more dis- 
 heartening and disappointing by the high hope of impartial 
 uiirestrictedness which the previously expressed doctrines of 
 the system had excited in the critic's mind. We have Dr. 
 Morison's authority, however, for stating, that his father was 
 one of the first to see that, like " the legs of the lame," these 
 conflicting parts of their system were "not equal;" and that 
 very soon after their respective causes were settled in the 
 church courts, letters began to pass from Bathgate to Kil- 
 marnock, calling attention to the fact, and containing the first 
 etchings of that more harmonious theory, according to which 
 the limitation is placed, not in the niche of God's sovereign 
 withholding of grace, but in that of man's blameworthy refusal 
 and resistance of grace bestowed. And it becomes not us, as 
 we have already remarked, who enjoy the meridian blaze of 
 Evangelical Union theology, to criticise too harshly the im- 
 j)ei'fect strugglings of its nascent dawn. 
 
 The Synod pronounced, in the first place, the same sen- 
 tence on Mr. Morison as had been pronounced on his son the 
 year before — namely, suspension from the ministry, with, of 
 course, a prohibition appended against preaching on the fol- 
 lowing Sabbath day. This interdict they knew veiy well he 
 would not regard ; and they fully expected (what really hap- 
 pened) that thus suspension would very easily become com- 
 plete separation. Mr. Morison's letter to the Convener of 
 the Committee, announcing that he had disregarded their 
 deed of suspension, is so characteristic of the man, and so in- 
 teresting besides, that we venture to give it entire. 
 
 Bathgate, m May, 1842. 
 
 *' My i»£AR Sir, — I received your official liOte this morning. In the 
 trying and solemn circumstances in which I am placed, you will excuse 
 me for one word personal to myself. You know well that I never was 
 a man of what is commonly called craft or policy, but was so much 
 known to my brethren to be destitute of this, as to be reckoned by 
 some of you to be deficient in practical wisdom. I state this merely to 
 call up before your mind the fact of the case,— that I have no scheme 
 by the end, but am following in the simplest manner possible what I 
 "believe to be the dictates of truth, and the demands of duty. All other 
 things I cheerfully leave in the hand of Him who will perform all 
 things most perfectly. 
 
 "I have then to inform you that, under my protest, I proache<l 
 yesterday as usual. The suspension of the Synod appeared to me a 
 
MR. R. MORISON's FAREWELL LETTER TO THE SYNOD. 197 
 
 <Ieed that I could not, and durst not obey. The Sj'nod never put a 
 charge in any serise of the word into my hands, — never found one single 
 charge against me. There is not in the minutes of any Court to which 
 I am subject, one single finding against me, as to error of doctrine, or 
 immorality of conduct. To the jjresent hour this is true. And for the 
 ♦Synod to suspend me without finding and recorfiling one single item of 
 libel charge, or call it what you will, against me, is such a hurry and 
 amount of injustice, that no honest man could submit to it. You will 
 easily see, and no candid mind can help seeing, that unless I had been 
 Secretly convinced that I was in error, though the Synod had never said 
 iso, and had been prepared to retract what I had advanced on the doc- 
 trines, I must have been destitute of conscience in the matter if I had 
 submitted. It could not have been "submitting in the Lord." I 
 feel certain that if brethren would only divest their minds of the mere 
 technicalities of rigid form, and of the strong feelings arising from a 
 supposed urgency of expediency, and calm themselves down into the 
 sober dictates of deliberate judgment, they will entirely excuse, if not 
 approve, what I have done yesterday. If they do so, and waive for 
 tne time the merits of the practical contumacy that they find in me, I 
 shall most cheerfully come in and confer with the Committee, and 
 explain to the utmost of my power what may be supposed doubtful. 
 
 "You will allow me to add that, for some time past, I have been 
 convinced that there have been false positions taken by the Courts in 
 these trials. If you except the doctrine of the extent of the atonement, 
 the position of election, original sin, and it may be some aspects of a 
 point or two more, I fear it would require more consideratitm than has 
 yet been given to it, to hold that the points in question are proper 
 subjects of judicial decision. The reason of entertaining this doubt is, 
 they are all practical points, involving the matters of individual faith 
 and personal salvation. There is no doubt doctrine in them, but it is 
 the doctrine of the soul's exercise in personal conversion. I doubt 
 much whether Synods should discuss that. Faith is just the act of 
 the soul in closing with Christ, and no man can knoio it really till he 
 is led to experience it. The repentance that goes before faith is just 
 that view of truth and sin, and the feelings arising from that view, or 
 more properly the change of mind that results from it, which induces 
 liim to close with Christ ; and no man can accurately understand it 
 without the experience of it. The perverse use of ability, and not the 
 want of ability to believe the truth and obey the law, though more 
 open to the apprehension of miftds in all moral conditions, yet is never 
 ju>tly seen in its true light, nor the criminality of the enmity of the 
 heart to Gotl, till the love of God in Christ is apprehended by faith. 
 Till then, the value of this truth as an instrument of conviction is not 
 known. The real profaneness and selfish pride of praj^er without sav- 
 ing faith, and its posi'ive tendency to prevent Bible repentance and 
 faith, are matters which, till a man enters into the faith and peace of 
 the Gospel, he cannot understand. Even among the most experienced 
 saints, there will be different shades of opinion on those sacred and 
 vital points, while they agree in the main, and feel that these are vital 
 to personal faith and hope, and usefulness to souls ; and I humbly 
 conceive that every good man should be left, in these matters, to his 
 own judgment, and the private conference of Christian brethren ; and 
 that the vital elements of the believing state and the life of faith 
 
198 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 ought not to Tbe thrown in as a subject of discussion in Synodical meet- 
 ings. Though a Synod were all of my mind on these points, yet I 
 would shrink from sitting in authoritative judgment on a devout 
 brother, otherwise sound in the faith, on account of his Christian 
 experience and study causing him to arrange the aspects of the same 
 truths in a somewhat different form. 1 think the Courts have taken a 
 false position m judicially cognoscing the matters that are experienced 
 between a soul and its God (for in fairness it just comes to this) in the 
 hour of conversion and in the life of faith. From judging in these 
 matters of practical religion, they should abstain. It is on soundness 
 in the systematic principles, and not on the methods of practical 
 application, that they are warranted to judge. 
 
 "I have little hope that these things will have weight with the 
 Synod, but shall regret it, if they have not. Even from me, they 
 might take a word of warning, not given in anger but in sorrow, alter 
 they have rent me off" from the friends of former years. I warn them 
 that it is the false position alluded to above (and which I have spoken 
 of, and written of to a number of brethren long before this) that is 
 the cause of the whole evil in which thny are now involved. I would 
 warn them also to consider the solemnity of that which is the true 
 origin of my now altered position. I was nearly twenty-eight years an 
 ordained minister, and a member of the Courts, before I came to know 
 Christ and find peace to my soul in his blood. I was as honest and 
 conscientious a man then {that will be generally allowed) as the usual 
 average of my brethren. I lived in peace and friendship then, and no 
 quarrel was ever found with me. But almost as soon as I had come 
 'to see the Lord,' and to tell my fellow-sinners in the light of the 
 Bible, now a little better understood from experience, how they m.ight 
 ' find the Lord ' too, I became suspected and decried by brethren, and 
 fell into troubles and persecutions before the Courts, and for this fault 
 have at last been tried, in a way, and actually suspended, — while yet 
 unheard and uncharged. Let the Synod take this warning in good 
 part, for I conscientiously believe that in all this they have been verily 
 fighting against God (though not intentionally) still more than against 
 me. In a letter to yourself about a year and a half ago, you will see 
 that I very nearly predicted what has come to pass, and I have no 
 doubt that the other anticipations expressed in it will, from the natural 
 course of events, be by and bye realised. But I shall cease; saying, 
 'the will of the Lord be done.' I ha-\^ lived long in peace and quiet 
 with the body of my late co- presbyters, and have loved them, and do 
 love them still most sincerely. Yet I cannot but feel sorrow, that 
 Avhen God became more gracious to me, my brethren according to the 
 flesh should have become less gracious to me, and that His acceptance 
 should have been the prelude to their rejection ! They have at last 
 agreed to suspend me from the office of 'praying men in Christ's stead 
 to be reconciled unto God,' on account of what has resulted from God 
 having 'reconciled me to Himself by Jesus Christ.' Still, with every 
 brotherly feeling, and Christian desire and prayer for you, and the 
 other members of Committee, and of Court, I remain, sincerely yours, 
 
 " ROBT. MOKISON. 
 
 "P.S. — If they agree to waive the practical contumacy, write me 
 immediately, and I shall gladly come in and allow the matter ta 
 proceed." 
 
MR. R. MORISON AT REVIVAL SERVICES. 199 
 
 It is certainly by no means to the credit of the Convener 
 of the Committee that he did not answer this letter till the 
 proceedings of the Synod had wholly terminated ; nor is it to 
 the credit of the Synod itself that it permitted a grave charge 
 against Mr. Morison to go into the public prints, because he 
 did not come into town and allow the case to proceed. In his 
 absence, however, they declared him to be no longer a min- 
 ister of the Secession Church. 
 
 As to the letter just given, it speaks for itself We seem 
 to hear in every line the beatings of a heart that could not 
 but do the will of God, The writer was not really contuma- 
 cious when he preached in opposition to the Synod's wish ; 
 he was only saying with Peter, "I ought. to obey God rather 
 than men." He also raises a fresh and nice point, and one 
 which ecclesiastical courts would do well to consider, when 
 he asks. Should matters of soul-concern be made topics of 
 judicial investigation? Should they not rather be left to the 
 disposal of the Great Searcher of hearts'? And as to the appeal 
 concerning the trouble which came upon the writer after God 
 had enlarged his soul, it must be confessed that it is touching 
 ill the extreme. How often in the history of the Church, 
 has the sincere reformer been cast out as a heretic, while the 
 cold formalist has lived and died among the honours and the 
 uselessness of respectability ! One additional instance of the 
 suggestive contrast is to be found in yonder rural manse in 
 Bathgate, Linlithgowshire, in the month of May, a.d., 1842. 
 
 After the final settlement of his case in the Church Courts, 
 Mr. Morison, like his son, withdrew largely from controver- 
 sial contentions, and devoted himself to the work of preaching 
 the Gospel, first in the town of Bathgate, and throughout 
 Scotland generally. Revival or ^'protracted meetings " as they 
 were called, were very common in the country thirty years 
 ago ; for the special services which the American Evangelists 
 have recently rendered popular, are nothing new to us and 
 our people. Our young denomination "was cradled in them. 
 Mr. Morison was in great demand for these services; both 
 on account of his intellectual ability, and the notoriety 
 which he had acquired through his own unflinching stand in 
 the church courts, as well as because he was the father of his 
 celebrated son. He had a singularly happy way of meeting 
 the difficulties and perplexities of anxious enquirers, who, on 
 account of some exaggerated sense of their own un worthiness, 
 had a difficulty in finding rest in the peace-speaking blood of 
 
200 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 the Lamb. He would state the difficulty, produce his snuff- 
 box, hold it in his hand while he demolished the refuge of 
 lies, take his pinch of snuff (for he had acquired that habit 
 in his youth, which he found it difficult to give up), and 
 then survey the assembly with an expression of countenance, 
 in which argumentative triumph and benevolent goodwill 
 were happily interblended. 
 
 That our readers may be able to see' how felicitous Mr. 
 Morison, sen., could be in dealing with a sinner v.ho was 
 seeking the Saviour, we will insert a quotation from a 
 practical pamphlet which he issued in 1843, — the year after 
 his separation from the United Secession Church. It is en- 
 titled " Gospel-peace necessary to Christian Righteousness." 
 In it the polemic divine is unheard, and only the affectionate 
 ])astor speaks. All theological restrictions are now removed. 
 We hear nothing of a partial application of grace to some, but 
 only of a merciful father waiting on every erring child. We 
 have always thought the following passage very beautiful 
 and important, in which a comparison is drawn between 
 Joseph's brethren, as being afraid of him because they knew 
 him not; and depraved man, as being afraid of God on ac- 
 count of "the ignorance that is in him." We are certain 
 that the illustration may suggest a profitable discourse to 
 some of our ministerial brethren : — 
 
 "The case may be illustrated by the experience of Joseph's brethren. 
 When they went down to Egypt to buy corn, and Joseph spake roughly 
 to them, and yjronounced them spies, and seemed very austere, they 
 saw that he was a very powerful man; they supposed him to be a hos- 
 tile man ; and they dreaded greatly the mind that was in him. His very 
 presence made them tremble. But when the true character of Joseph 
 was revealed to them afterwards, they came to know his heart of love, 
 and then they had peace with Joseph. In this case you will see, so far 
 as its paralltiiism to the spiritual case is concerned, after the disclosure 
 of their brother's true character to them, there was no change in Joseph; 
 but there was a vast change in their knowledge of him. This change 
 in their knowledge too produced a complete revolution in their feeling 
 toward him. When they knew Joseph's true character, they had im- 
 mediate peace with him, they knew they had peace, and all the revol- 
 ution in their feelings was the consequence of this sure peace with 
 Joseph. His favour and love to them, when known, begat their peace 
 and love to him. So it is, I apprehend, with every one who comes to 
 understand the Gospel-message. It is only the truth — the truth that is 
 embodied in this Gospel-message — that can giv^e 'peace with God.' It is 
 the truth of God's hearty love, and the Holy Spirit's hearty love to the 
 sinner, as centring and manifested in the death of the cross, that really 
 constitutes the Gospel-message to him; and the knowledge of this alone 
 can bring him peace, and the knowledge of this cannot fail to bring 
 
MR. R. MORISON ON EVIL THOUGHTS." 201 
 
 him peace. Dear reader, I hope you are convinced of this. Well, take 
 a Icbson from it. You know that everj'^ man, from the very constitu- 
 tion of our nature, believes certainly all truths of all kinds that he 
 knows to be true. A foolish man may sometimes believe more, but no 
 man can possibly believe less. Now, as all men are certainly and 
 hrmly believing all the truth that they know to be true, concerning the 
 love of God and the work of Christ, and yet many of them hav^e no 
 'peace with God, ' nor good grounds for -it, it is very plain that the 
 reason of the want of 'peace' is that they are not knowing adequately 
 the Gospel-message sent by God to them, to reveal him to their own 
 souls. They are not knowing this as God meant it should be known. 
 And the lesson you learn from this fact is, that it is not a better 
 method of believing what you know that is needed, but a knowing 
 more of what God has revealed to be believed. 
 
 One other passage in this tractate, we remember, helped 
 us to understand, long ago, how faith is "the gift of God," 
 or, at any rate, confirmed us in the view to which we had 
 already groped our way : — 
 
 "In that believing, and in all other acts of believing within the 
 whole range of human experience, it is the truth alone that elicits 
 the faith to itself, and not the faith that educes the truth to the mind. 
 It is the previously existing truth that (on discover}') produces the act 
 of faith, and not the act of faith that brings out the truth. Faith 
 never has and never can have a separate or distinct or antecedent exist- 
 ence, but is just the acquiescing response of the soul to the truth per- 
 ceived by it. In all cases too a man believes all that he knows to be 
 true, and knows that he believes it, W'heuever his attention is turned 
 to it." 
 
 The Spirit of God gives man faith in the way of causing 
 the truth to stand out boldly in its faith-educing power. 
 We think that expression quite remarkable and memorable, 
 — the Gospel testimony educes faith. 
 
 We have heard the following account given by one who 
 was present on the occasion, of the way in which Mr. 
 Morison repelled a temptation of the adversary at a series 
 of revival meetings which were held at Shotts Iron Works 
 — a place about twelve miles distant from Bathgate. " I 
 hear," said the fatherly man, "that many of you are 
 troubled about your evil thoughts. Indeed, when convers- 
 ing with the anxious night after night, I find that this is 
 the great fear that haunts them — they think that they 
 cannot be truly converted because they are tempted with 
 evil thoughts. Suppose that a band of strolling actors were 
 to come into your village, and were to begin to play their 
 parts in the principal street. If you crowded round them, 
 and looked on with eager interest, they would be encouraged 
 
202 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 to continue ; but if you paid no attention to them, they 
 would soon give up. Treat your evil thoughts in the same 
 way. Pay no attention to them, and they will soon make 
 off. Temptation is not sin till man yields to it." Thus 
 was the Father of our denomination wise to win and solace 
 souls. 
 
 About this period (1842-1848), when the results of the 
 wide spread doctrinal agitations were being crystallised and 
 shaped in the formation of churches in important centres, Mr. 
 Morison did good service in preaching, both on Sal)bath-days 
 and week-days, on these special occasions. His labours in 
 Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen, and many other places, 
 will not soon be forgotten. 
 
 He was a great favourite with the students, licentiates, 
 and young preachers of the connection. They would gather 
 round his chair and' listen to his instructions with filial 
 reverence. He would often say to them, " Don't be in a 
 hurry, when you become ministers, to leave the place you 
 have been settled in. You may think that the new sphere 
 you are tempted to seek will have no difficulties and per- 
 plexities, and that everything will be pleasant and sweet. 
 You will soon find out your mistake. The trials may not 
 be the same ; but you will find troubles everywhere. In 
 ordinary circumstances, do not leave the church to which 
 Providence has first led you, unless you are absolutely driven 
 from it." 
 
 As he grew old and infirm, and consequently unable to 
 leave home much, he often took up his pen, and, from the 
 quietude of his retreat, wrote a word of encouragement to 
 the younger brethren as to their difficulties, or of eulogistic 
 congratulation, if he observed that any of them had done or 
 published something worthy of commendation. The author of 
 this volume has frequently received from him such hortatory 
 or laudatory epistles. In one of these he said: " You will 
 often be in want of a text, and hesitating which one of two 
 or three to take, when looking forward to your Sabbatli 
 ministrations. In these circumstances, falling down upon 
 your knees, ask direction of God, and he will always make 
 your way plain before you." 
 
 He was sinking in health for several years before he died. 
 As far back as the year 1850, he said to us, " I do not think 
 that I will get through the next winter." The .last public 
 duty he was able to discharge, of marked importance, was in 
 
MR. R. MORISOX ON HEAVEN. 
 
 203 
 
 February, 1853, in connection with the opening services of 
 the large and elegant chapel which had been built for his 
 son, Eev. Dr. Morison, North Dundas Street, Glasgow, soon 
 after the removal of the latter from Kilmarnock. On that 
 memorable occasion the father preached in the forenoon, and 
 the son in the afternoon and the ev^ening. 
 
 Mr. Morison died at his manse in Bathgate, in the month 
 of July, 1855, in the seventy-third year of liis age. He had 
 not the advantage of sympathetic communion with his son 
 during the last months of his illness, inasmuch as Dr. Mori- 
 son had been compelled to seek, in oriental travel, at that 
 very time, the restoration of his own health, which had be- 
 come much impaired soon after his removal to Glasgow. His 
 daughter, however, Mrs. Stewart, of Kilmarnock, whose 
 important communication enriched our last chapter, waited 
 upon him with exemplary filial devotion. 
 
 As his end di-ew near. Mr. Morison manifested great 
 patience, as well as thankfulness both to God and man for 
 all that was done for him. He delighted also to talk of the 
 glories of immortality ; and as he became encompassed with 
 infii-mity, he longed to " depart and be with Christ." Yet 
 ofttimes, in the midst of much suffering, he would say with 
 Job, " All the days of my appointed time will I wait until 
 my change come." For some days pre^us to his death, he 
 was unable to speak, owing to paralysis of the throat and 
 tongue ; but he delighted to hear of that Saviour whom he 
 had so frequently exhibited to others. His latter end was 
 literally peace ; for he died without a struggle, and with a 
 smile upon his face. 
 
 We recollect that we spent a Sabbath with him in the 
 summer of 1850. His chapel had undergone some repaii^s, 
 and we were preaching on the occasion of its being re-opened. 
 We were sitting vdih him in his study, between the after- 
 noon and evening service. As he reclined in his easy chair, 
 he entered into a beautiful meditation and descant on heaven. 
 He remarked that he frequently wondered what it would be 
 like. " I often sit in this chair," he continued, " in a kind 
 of a half-waking di-eam about the celestial country. I fancy 
 that I see it. Astronomy seems to intimate that our sun, — 
 yea, our whole solar system, — is tending towards some great 
 centre. What if that centre be an immense orb that keeps 
 in balance all these orbs of our system 1 And what if that 
 central orb be heaven, where the glory of God is specially 
 
20i 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 manifested, and where the Lamb is reigning and waiting till 
 all things are put under his feetV 
 
 He has now entered within the veil, where he sees 
 " face to face." We are hapj^y to think that his painful 
 death-bed was cheered with the conviction that he had not 
 lived in vain, inasmuch as he had left behind him a son 
 whose name and influence shall endure for many generations, 
 and because he had himself taken part in planting the goodly 
 tree of the Evangelical Union of Scotland. May we who 
 survive him so live and labour that we shall not be ashamed 
 of our doings when we meet him in that heavenly world on 
 whose characteristics he sometimes speculated, and report to 
 him all that had been accomplished since he was called from 
 the field of battle to the splendid palace-hall. And there 
 may our curiosity, as well as his, be thoroughly satisfied, as 
 the Lamb leads us, from age to age, to ever new and ever- 
 renewing fountains of waters. 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 Rev. A. C. Rutherford — His Settlement in Falkirk — Enters into con- 
 troversy as to the extent of the Atonement with Rev. William 
 Fraser, of Alloa — Dissents from doctrinal finding of the Synod of 
 1842 — Is suspended and deposed by the Presbytery of Stirling — 
 Publishes New Views not New, hut Old and Sonnd — Is deposed by 
 the Synod of 1843 — New Chapel built for him in the town — 
 Settles subsequently in Greenock and Dundee — Eventually returns 
 to the U. P. Church. 
 
 On looking narrowly into the ecclesiastical documents and 
 records of the period, we find that we must give " the case 
 of the Rev. A. C. Rutherford, of Falkirk," the precedence of 
 " the case of the Rev. John Guthrie, of Kendal." Both of 
 these gentlemen were suspended from the oj0S.ce of the minis- 
 try by the Synod of the United Secession Church, which met 
 at Edinburgh in May, 1843, on account of their opinions 
 concerning the extent of the atonement of the Lord J esus 
 Christ ; but, besides the fact that Mr. Rutherford's suspen- 
 sion took place a week before Mr. Guthrie's, it appears that 
 Mr. Guthrie's case grew out of Mr. Rutherford's, since it 
 was his protest against the excision of his Falkii'k brother 
 that brought the Kendal presbyter into collision with that 
 supreme church court. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that, by his publications, as well as 
 
MR. Rutherford's settlement at falkiuk. 205 
 
 by his pulpit and evangelistic labours, this third minister of 
 the origirfal quaternion did valiant, yeoman work at the 
 time when the Evangelical Union was fonned, and for many 
 years afterwards. 
 
 The Rev. A. C. Rutherford was born and brought up in 
 Edinburgh, in which city his father lived and died an hon- 
 oured and respected merchant. Alexander was intended at 
 first for the legal ])rofession ; and for some time, indeed, was 
 employed in a lawyer's office. But, eventually preferring the 
 ministerial profession, he completed his full arts curriculum 
 at the University of Edinburgh, carrying oflf honours in some 
 of the classes. He is a few years older than our esteemed 
 fathers. Dr. Morison and Dr. Guthrie, and consequently left 
 the Divinity Hall of the Secession Church some time before 
 their coui'se was concluded. We think we have heard it 
 stated that his last year was their first, under the theological 
 tuition of the eminent Drs. Brown and Balmer. 
 
 Mr. Rutherford proved to be a very popular preacher, and 
 succeeded in obtaining, against a list of formidable competi- 
 tors, what was considered to be the very best provincial or 
 rural vacancy in the denomination at the time — namely, the 
 pastorate of the first United Associate church of Ealkii'k, in 
 the Presbytery of Stirling. The salary was comparatively 
 large ; the chapel was spacious and commodious ; while there 
 were upwards of a thousand members in actual fellowship, 
 including some of the most influential people in the town. 
 The church, moreover, stood high in the estimation of the 
 general community and the whole people of the Secession, 
 because distinguished men had preceded Mr. Rutherford in 
 its pulpit. A hundred years before, the Rev. Henry Erskine, 
 son of the good and great Ralph Erskine, of Dumfermline, 
 had been its minister ; and the gap which the young preacher 
 was called to fill had been made by the death of the Rev. 
 Henry Belfrage, D.D. This distinguished man had just con- 
 cluded an unbroken ministry of forty-one yeai-s in Ealkirk. 
 His chastened eloquence made him an acceptable preacher 
 wherever he was called upon to officiate ; while his Practical 
 Catechism, his volume of published Discourses, and other 
 works, carried his reputation as a highly respectable divine 
 far beyond the bounds of his own denomination. 
 
 Not long after Mr. Rutherford's settlement, James Mori- 
 son came round to Falkirk, in the first flush of his yoimg 
 evangelistic zeal, and before any decided cry of heresy had 
 
206 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 been raised against him. Mr. Rutherford attended his 
 meetings, and was deeply impressed with the 'preacher's 
 spirituality of mind, as well as with his simple and direct 
 style of address. The evangelist seemed to have something 
 which the pastor did not possess. The latter was not ashamed 
 to say to the former, although his junior, " What must I do 
 to be saved 1" Thus was Mr. Kutherford prepared, by 
 his own consciousness of personal benefit received, to sym- 
 pathize with Mr. Morison's doctrinal position, when it 
 became ultimately defined amid the storms of ecclesiastic 
 warfare. . 
 
 The storm, indeed, had not begun long to rage in the west 
 when it was suddenly transferred to the east by a clerical 
 neighbour of Mr. Rutherford — so that he felt in honour bound 
 to enter the lists in defence of the doctrines which had 
 already commended themselves to his judgment as scriptural 
 and sound. Falkirk, as the majority of our readers know, 
 lies about three miles from the southern shore of the Frith 
 of Forth, — just where the winding river has unmistakeably 
 begun to expand into an ample estuary. On a clear day, 
 Alloa can be seen in the distance, on the other side of the 
 Forth, with its prominent church spire, and the shipping in 
 its little harbour. It was the minister of the second 
 Associate church in Alloa who suddenly transferred the 
 Kilmarnock controversy to the eastern part, of the island, 
 and first tempted Mr. Rutherford to publish on the atone- 
 ment question. 
 
 The Rev. William Fraser was himself a descendant of the 
 Erskines, and like his brother. Dr. Fraser of Kennoway, was 
 esteemed both a respectable scholar and preacher of the 
 Gospel. He was perhaps the first minister in the Secession 
 Church, beyond the bounds of the Kilmarnock Presbytery, 
 whom the stir raised by Mr. Morison induced to lift his pen 
 for the defence of the limitarian theory. He says, indeed, 
 in the appendix to his TJoree Discourses on the Extent of the 
 Atonement, that, just as he was going to press, he had heard 
 that Dr. Marshall of Kirkintilloch was buckling on his 
 armour, and that if he had known that that great champion 
 of the truth had been making ready for the conflict he would 
 have put a curb upon his own impetuosity. But the Glasgoio 
 Chronicle, when reviewing Mr. Fraser's work, remarked that 
 it could not have been wanted, because it gave a satisfactory 
 view of the question, within little compass, to those who had 
 
MR. FRASER's doctrinal POSITION. 
 
 207 
 
 neither the time nor the inclination to peruse the more 
 voluminous publications. 
 
 Mr. Fraser's sermons had been preached in his own church 
 in Alloa on three successive Sunday evenings in April, 1841. 
 In their printed form they fill a goodly pamphlet of seventy- 
 eight pages. Their author took his stand as a decided 
 limitarian. The following was the position within which he 
 deliberately intrenched himself : — 
 
 . "Ihegin with proving, by a few arguments, That Christ, by his 
 death made atonement, not for the sins of all mankind, without excep- 
 tion ; but, for all of those, and those alone, who shall ultimately obtain 
 salvation." (p. 16.) 
 
 And again — 
 
 "All mankind, however, are not actually saved; vast multitudes 
 perish eternally ; and therefore, these cannot be included among the 
 persons for whom Jesus died, and for whom Jehovah sent his Son that 
 th^v might obtain eternal life." (p. 19.) 
 
 These assertions were supported by the adduction of the 
 principal texts and modes of reasoning which we have already 
 passed under review. But assuredly when Mr. Fraser 
 penned the last sentence which we have quoted, he had for- 
 gotten the fact which we have already had occasion to point 
 out, that the death of Christ will be for a condemnation to 
 those who reject it, as ^ell as for the justification of those 
 who build their hopes upon it ; and it never could have been 
 for the condemnation of the former class if it had not been 
 endured in their behalf. 
 
 And yet, with all his undiluted limitarianism, Mr Fraser 
 could thus preach and publish concerning the world-wide call 
 of the Gospel : 
 
 *' There is no guilt for which his sacrifice cannot atone, for it 
 possesses infinite value, — no stain which his Spirit cannot remove, for 
 he can illumine the darkest understanding, subdue the most stubborn 
 will, and purify the most unholy affections, — no enemy whom his 
 power cannot vanquish, for he is omnipotent,- — no evil from which 
 he" cannot deliver you, and no blessing of which he cannot put 
 you in possession. And oh I rejoice, because he is as willing as he is 
 able to save, — zs gracious as he is mighty. He invites the weary and 
 heavy laden to come to him ; he complains because men will not come 
 to him, that they may have life ; he assures you that such as come to 
 liini,he \\ ill in no- wise cast out. You require not then, my fellow-sinners 
 in perplexity to ask, Who shall ascend unto heaven ? (that is, to bring 
 Christ down from above) ; or, Who shall descend into the deep ? (that 
 is, to bring up Christ again from the d^^ad.) For what saith the 
 Scripture ? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." 
 
 It is not wonderfid that this glaring contradiction moved 
 
208 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Mr. Rutherford, without regard to consequences, to rus]!i 
 into yjrint and challenge the assertions of his decidedly self- 
 confident co-presbyter. Accordingly we find that his reply 
 is dated "Falkirk, 27th May, 1841," and is thus entitled: 
 " Universal Atonement jyoved from the nature of the Gospel 
 Offer, in four letters to Rev. William J^raser, Alloa. By 
 Alexander C. Rutherford, Minister of the Gospel, Falkirk." 
 A few sentences from the commencement of the four letters 
 (which had been preceded by a pretty voluminous preface) 
 will afford a specimen of our author's style, spirit, and 
 doctrinal position : — 
 
 **PtEV. DEAR Sir, — The prefatory remarks, to which I respectfully 
 solicit your attention, render it unnecessary to make further apology 
 for thus addressing you. Did the step I now take appear at all incon- 
 sistent with the respect and affection which I have always entertained 
 for you, and which, I trust, I shall never cease to cherish, I should, 
 at the very least, hesitate before advancing. It is pleasant, however,, 
 to think that a difference of opinion may exist without any diminution 
 of that affection and friendship which constitute the sweetest solace 
 of Hfe. 
 
 ** You have taken up a position which, I am convinced, is not only 
 untenable, but which, when carried out to its legitimate consequences, 
 is directly fitted to frustrate the grace of God in the offer of the Gospel. 
 The doctrine contained in your second sermon is the following : — 
 ' Christ by his death did not make atonem«nt for the sins of all man- 
 kind without exception ; but for the sins of all those, and those alone, 
 who shall ultimately obtain salvation.' It is a sad truth, that many 
 who hear the Gospel from Sabbath to Sabbath shall not obtain salvation. 
 This we know, not from any information possessed by us respecting the 
 secret designs of the Almighty, but from the fact that they have con- 
 fessedly lived and died without having obtained salvation. Every one 
 who will have salvation hereafter, must have it here. Now, it is a 
 mournful fact, that many live and die under the sound of the Gospel 
 who love sin, and live under the dominion of sin, and go into eternity 
 the willing captives of sin. The question to be discussed, then, is- 
 simply this, Has no atonement been made for such ? 
 
 "You advocate a system which tells all such individuals that no- 
 atonement has been pravided for them. In opposition to this, I am 
 about to as§ign my reasons for maintaining that /or every hearer of the 
 Gospel an ample atonement has been made. I shrink not back from the 
 conclusion that must inevitably follow. If the atonement extends to 
 one of those who do not obtain salvation, then it extends to the 
 whole human race. This is the necessary conclusion. I am prepared 
 to give up this conclusion only when you have disproved the position 
 from which it inevitably flows." 
 
 After the publication of his four letters to Mr. Fraser, 
 Mr. Rutherford, according to his own statement, was a 
 marked man. Yet no ecclesiastical action was taken against 
 him till May, 1842 — exactly a year after the date of his first 
 
MR. Rutherford's reasons of dissent. 
 
 209 
 
 publication. He had voted with the liberal party both at 
 the trial of James Morison in 1841, and of Robert Morison 
 in 1842. But so many members of court gave similar votes, 
 especially in the latter case, on mere points of order, that 
 his ministerial standing would not have been, simply by 
 that fact, seriously endangered. On the very day, however, 
 after the case of Mr. Morison, sen., was settled — namely, 11th 
 May, 1842, — he took a bold step, which materially afi'ected 
 his future career. A Committee had been appointed to draw 
 up a statement of the precise doctrinal errors which the 
 Synod condemned, — errors to which the attention of the 
 church had been turned in connection with the recent discus- 
 sions. The propositions on which the Committee had agreed 
 were read over one by one, and a separate vote was taken 
 on each. The first proposition ran thus : — " The Synod 
 cojidemn the assertion, ' That although all men are, by 
 nature, in a fallen and depraved condition, yet no man is, by 
 nature, in a state of condemnation, merely in consequence of 
 Adam's sin.' " To this no exception was taken. But when 
 the second proposition (afterwards noted as the third) was 
 read over — " The Synod condemns the assertion, ' That 
 though the atonement of Christ has a general reference, 
 and opens a door of mercy to all, yet it secures salvation to 
 iVone' " — the records bear witness that "Mr. A. C. Rutherford 
 entered his dissent, for reasons to be given in." The follow- 
 ing extract from the minutes of the Synod shows what the 
 reasons of dissent were which Mr. Rutherford gave in next 
 day (May, 12th, 1842):— 
 
 " 'The subscriber dissents against this declaration, for the following 
 iTasons : — 
 
 " ' 1. Because he docs not hold it to he an error to declare that the 
 atonement of Christ secures salvation to none. The subscriber firmly 
 believes that every saving blessing is infallibly secured to believers by 
 the special love of God operating through the channel of the atonement ; 
 and, in consistency with this truth, he would deem it erroneous to 
 declare that the atonement of Christ, viewed in coniiection luith the 
 sovereign purpose of api)lication, secures salvation to none. In this 
 view, the subscriber is of opinion that it would involve no ambiguity 
 to say that all saving blessings are infallibly secured by the sovereign 
 purpose of God, in reference to the application of the atonement ;. 
 while it is humbly conceived that, unless it be specially expressed that 
 it is distinctly viewed in relation to the divine purpose of application, 
 the statement that the atonement necessarily secures saving blessings 
 is fitted to mislead. 
 
 '* ' 2. Because the subscriber conscientiously maintains the doctrine 
 that Christ, by his death, made atonement for the sius of all men, 
 
 P 
 
210 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 without exception ; and it appears to him that, in consistency with 
 this doctrine, it cannot be granted that the atonement is necessarily, 
 and in the case of every ojie for whom it was made, infallibly connected 
 with salvation, without involving the dangerous error, that all men, 
 without exception, shall be saved. To assert it as an error that the 
 atonement secures salvation to none, seems to imply the admission 
 that the atonement secures the salvation of all for whom it was made ; 
 and if it involve the salvation of all for whom it was made, then Christ 
 cannot be said, in an unqualified sense, to be 'the propitiation for the 
 sins of the whole world. ' *** Alexander C. Rutherford.' 
 
 "In consequence of the above reasons of dissent, the Synod decided 
 as follows : — ' That the Synod remit i^Ir. Rutherford's reasons of dissent 
 to the Presbytery of Stirlivg avd FalkirJc, that they may examine 
 them, and deal with Mr. Rutherford respecting his sentiments expressed 
 in them, according to the rules of the church.' " 
 
 Mr. Rutherford was now fully launched on the troubled 
 sea of church-court agitation. Nor were his co-presbyters 
 loath to do the work which he had demitted to thfem. On 
 the other hand, they seem to have been waiting eagerly for 
 the opportunity of letting him feel the smarting of their rod 
 of discipline. At the first meeting of Presbytery at Stirling, 
 after the deliberations of the Synod at Edinburgh — namely, 
 that held on the 7th day of June, 1842, — a Committee was 
 appointed to converse with Mr. Rutherford, with the view of 
 getting a full and frank statement of his views — Rev, John 
 Edmond of Dennyloanhead (now Dr. Edmond of London) con- 
 vener. That Committee met, and through them Mr, Ruther- 
 ford transmitted the following document to the Presbytery, as 
 containing a deliberate and mature statement of his views : — 
 
 *' 1st, The purposes of God respecting the great and complex plan of 
 salvation, as formed and contemplated by his infinite mind, are all 
 equally eternal, and must ever have been present to his view. As con- 
 templated by our finite understandings, however, these purposes em- 
 brace a prior and general reference to mankind -sinners as such, — and a 
 posterior and special reference to certain of these sinners, *as chosen 
 of God in Christ before the foundation of the world ;' 'through sancti- 
 fication of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of 
 Jesus Christ.' 
 
 **2nrl, The purposes of God which have a prior and general reference 
 to mankind-sinners as such, — gave birth to the atonement, on the 
 ground of which life and salvation have been brought near to all men, 
 to be received by faith. 
 
 *' This atonement, considered barely and simply by itself, apart from 
 its application, secures nothing more, and was intended to secure nothing 
 more, than such providing for and bringing near to all ra^^n life and 
 salvation, to be received by faith ; and it is the atonement thus con- 
 sidered, barely and simply by itself, that is presented in the Gospel 
 testimony as the object and ground of faith. 
 
THE presbytery's SUMMARY PROCEDURE. 211 
 
 ** 3rd, The purposes of God which have a posterior and special refer- 
 ence pre-supjiose the atonement as already made and presented to the 
 sinner in the Gospel testimony, and thus spcure those influences of 
 the Holy Spirit hy which some sinners of mankind are so inclined and 
 dispo-^ed as to accept of that which, as formerly stated, has been 
 provided equally for the acceptance of all. 
 
 ** In a loose and general sense, I can see no objection to the state- 
 ment that the atonement secures salvation to some, seeing that had 
 there been no atonement made, we could not conceive of these some 
 being saved. In an accurate and systematic statement of truth, however, 
 r conceive that it is alone right to say, that it is the divine pur|)Ose, in 
 its posterior and special reference, which secures salvation for such 
 persons, through the medium of the atonement already presupposed." 
 
 Will it be believed that at their next meeting, on the 5th 
 of July, without any trial, and without ha\ing served any 
 libel on him, the Presbytery proceeded summarily to suspend 
 Mr. Rutherford from the office of the holy ministry, after 
 hearing the above document read, as his latest and ripest 
 deliverance? The following is the wording of their judg- 
 ment : — 
 
 " The Presbytery find that Mr. Rutherford still adheres to the error 
 that the atonement of Christ secured salvation to none; judge that he 
 cannot be permitted to teach this error in connection with our church, 
 and that he be therefore suspended from the exercise of the holy 
 ministry; appoint a Committee to deal with him: and, as there are 
 some complaints relating to other points against Mr. Eutherford, con- 
 tained in papt-rs before the Court, from some members of the first 
 congregation of Falkirk, agree that the Presbytery proceed to consider 
 the best method of investigating these complaints." 
 
 We venture to assert that no candid or liberal member of 
 the United Presbyterian Church can read now-a-days that 
 account of what was so coolly done in 1842, without blush- 
 ing for the narrow-mindedness of the Presbytery of Stirling, 
 and of the whole Synod of the Church, which afterwards 
 indorsed their action. Why, that Court, if consistent, would 
 have silenced, without trial, Ralph Wardlaw, John Angell 
 James, Gilbert, Hinton, and many others of the first theolo- 
 gians of the day, if they had been unfortunate enough to 
 have been subjected to their presbyterial rule; for the 
 doctrinal belief of the accused brother at their bar was 
 exactly that of these divines. Nay, more, he did all that 
 was in his power to make that particular modification of 
 Calvinism on which they insisted his own ; for he admitted 
 that the salvation of the elect was secured, in a certain sense, 
 by the atonement, inasmuch as the Spirit's influences, which 
 made it sure, resulted from the work of Christ. But his 
 
212 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 anxious attempt to make his views approximate towards 
 those held by his judges was of no avail. And such a finding 
 actually stands yet in the ecclesiastical books of the body 
 unchallenged and uncondemned. 
 
 As was to be expected, Mr. Kutherfoi'd protested and 
 appealed to the Synod of 1843; but his case had become 
 otherwise so entangled and involved that, even although he 
 was suspended, the Presbytery felt themselves called upon 
 still to deal with him. Tlie necessity for this anomalous 
 procedure resulted from the fact that Mr. Rutherford, 
 shortly after the meeting of the Synod, had a grave quaiTel 
 with the majority of the elders of his church — a quarrel, 
 however, which seems to have originated solely in the doc- 
 trinal dispute. While the great mass of the large congi^ega- 
 tion approved of their minister's earnest preaching and 
 theological positions, unhaj^pily the majority of the elders 
 were against him ; for, out of a session of nine elders, seven 
 sympathised with the Presbytery, and only two with Mr. 
 Kutherford. These seven disaffected brethren, apparently 
 afraid lest — as had been the issue of the strife at Kilmarnock 
 — the valuable property in which the church met would be 
 alienated from the denomination, got up a petition or 
 memorial to the Presbytery, signed by themselves and one 
 hundred and eight members of the church and congregation, 
 begging counsel and aid as to that matter. Mr. Kutherford 
 lost temper with the malcontents ; accused the majority of 
 the session of haA^ing acted unconstitutionally; declared 
 himself and his two friends the real session, and expelled 
 the seven hostile opponents. They, of course, appealed to 
 the Presbytery, who, as might have been expected, took 
 their part. The result was that, after intricate wranglings, 
 Avhich we need not minutely rehearse, Mr. Rutherford, who 
 had been suspended for doctrinal error on the 5tli of July, 
 was deposed from the office of the ministry at Stirling, for 
 practical contumacy, on the 22nd day of November. Of 
 course, he protested and appealed to the Synod, and there- 
 fore still had the power to occupy the pulpit and act ?.s 
 pastor of the chvirch. 
 
 Besides issuing two characteristic pamphlets — the one on 
 his Suspension, and the other on his Deposition — Mr. 
 Rutherford found time, during that same stormy summer of 
 1842, to publish a bulky tractate suited to the times, 
 entitled, " The New Views not New, but Old an'l Sound," 
 
A GEM FROM EBENEZER ERSKINE. 
 
 213 
 
 a second edition of which was immediately called for, a month 
 01" two after its issue. This work also was characteristically 
 personal and polemical ; but every here and there it contained 
 rich statements of evangelical truth which not only were 
 calculated to bless, but did bless weary souls. 
 
 We give the following extract to show our author's strong 
 and powerful style, and also for the sake of the gem quoted 
 by him from Ebenezer Erskine : — 
 
 *' If it be A LIE that the Son of God loved me and gave himself for 
 ME — what though I know that he is a suitable and all-sufficient Saviour, 
 saving to the uttermost those that come unto God by hifti? — what 
 though he be raised from the dead in token of the acceptance of his 
 propitiatory sacritice, if I have no warrant to believe that he is the 
 propitiation for my sins? — what though he be exalted a Prince and a 
 Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins, if by his 
 death he has not rendered ample satisfaction for my numerous and 
 aggravated transgressions ? — what though there be salvation only in 
 hiui, and in him the amplest salvation, since the man who tells me 
 this, at the same time assures me that I am believing A lie, when I 
 believe that this salvation has been wrought out for me? I am told 
 that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life, 
 but I am assured that the men are 'LIA.RS,' who say that this life is 
 for ME. The very truth which alone can yield relief to my weary and 
 heavy-laden spirit is pronounced a falsehood, and nothing that can 
 satisfy my conscience is substituted in its stead. ' They have taken 
 My Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.' 
 
 *' ' Faith answers and corresponds unto the word of faith, as the 
 seal and the wax answer unto one another. Zech. xiii. 9 — "I will 
 say it is my peo])le, and they shall say the Lord is my God.'' Faith 
 will not quit its my's, though all the world should say against it. The 
 marrow of the Gospel (as Luther observes) is in these pronouns, Meum 
 Nostrum — My and Our. He bids us read these with great emphasis. 
 Tollc meum, et tolle dcum, says another — "Take away appropriation, 
 and take away God, take away Christ." It is the common dialect of 
 faith in Scripture to vent itself in words of appropriation. It has a 
 peculiar pleasure and satisfaction in these words, my and our, and 
 rolls them in its mouth like a sweet morsel. See how sweetly David 
 harps upon this string, Ps. xviii. 1, 2. No less than eight times in a 
 breath does he repeat his appropriating my — " My strength — My 
 rock — My deliverer — My God — My strength — My buckler — the horn 
 of My salvation — and My high tower." Yea, so tenacious is faith in 
 this matter, that it will maintain its My's in the face of a hiding and 
 frowning God. Ps. xxii. 1— "My God, ray God, why hast thou 
 forsaken me?" My is a word of faith," says Flavel on the text. — 
 (Beauties of Ebenezer Erskine, p. 27.)' " 
 
 Meanwhile great congregations continued to assemble on 
 the Sabbath-day, and the powerful preacher, although he 
 may sometimes (unlike the Morisons) have wandered out of 
 his course to attack the rebel elders or the Presbyter}'-, 
 
214 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 generally dealt about him such weighty blows with the 
 hammer of the Word that many hearts were wounded and 
 afterwards made whole. The entire populous district was 
 moved. If the Can-on Iron Works nightly threw their 
 fiery glare athwart the darkened sky, the spiritual horizon 
 was also reddened by the glow of theological controversy, as 
 well of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost. Sometimes Mr. 
 Kutherford would take the works of Ralph or Ebenezer 
 Erskine into the pulpit with him, in which he greatly 
 delighted, and prove from them that the founders of the 
 Secession Church insisted on the love of God to the indi- 
 vidual sinner, as well as on the assurance of the believer, as 
 earnestly as he did himself. 
 
 When the Synod met on the 1st of May, 1843, Mr. 
 Rutherford was accompanied to Edinburgh by several of his 
 friends who were warmly interested in his defence. His 
 case was called on the 3rd of May; and it seemed at first 
 as if it would be decided on a point of alleged practical 
 contumacy, apart from the doctrinal merits altogether. We 
 here quote from the minutes of Synod : — 
 
 **Mr. A. G. Rutherford. — The Committee of Bills stated that the next 
 case in order was a protest and appeal by Mr. Alexander C. Kutherford 
 against a deed of the Presbytery of Stirling and Falkiik. Before 
 entering on this case, the Synod was informed that Mr. Kutherford 
 had, in March last, on a Sabbath day, preached for Mr. Morisun, and 
 taken part with him in the ordination of elders; and had admitted to 
 his own pulpit that day a licentiate of Mr. Morison's. It was moved 
 and seconded, * That the Synod, before entering upon the case of Mr. 
 Rutherford, ascertain whether he is to be considered a member of this 
 Court, and in subordination to its authority.' It was also moved and 
 seconded, ' That the papers in j\[r. Kutherford's case be forthwith read 
 in whole, and parties heard.' A show of hands having been taken for 
 each of these motions, the former was preferred by a decided majority, 
 and the Synod proceeded to ascertain accordingly. Mr. Rutherford 
 was heard. He fully admitted the truth of the facts as alleged. The 
 Synod then proceeded to consider what effect this admission would 
 have. 
 
 *' At the hour of adjournment the Synod agreed to resume this case 
 at next sederunt; but to proceed to the business of missions at 6 
 o'clock. 
 
 "Adjourned, to meet at half-past 4 p.m. Concluded with prayer. 
 
 "Same Place, "Wednesda3% 3rd May, 5 o'clock p.m. 
 
 "The Synod met, according to adjournment, and was constituted 
 by the moderator, and the minutes of the last sederunt read. 
 
 " Mr. Rutherford's case resumed. — Resumed the case interrupted by 
 the adjournment. 
 
 "After further reasoning, the Synod agreed, that as Mr. Rutherford 
 
MR. RUTHERFORD REBUKED. 
 
 215 
 
 fully admits that he had held ministerial intercourse with Afr. Morison 
 in the manner alleged, and as he has done this in wilful contravention 
 of the enactment of this Synod in 1841, and of the decided refusal of 
 Synod in 1842 to rescind this enactment, he has been guilty of gross 
 contempt of the authority of Synod, aggravated by the circumstances 
 in which he stood as an appellant against the sentence of deposition 
 pronounced upon him by the Presbytery of Stirling and Falkirk; and 
 therefore that, unless Mr. Eutherford shall now, or at the commence- 
 ment of next sederunt, acknowledge the irregularity of his conduct, 
 and express his sorrow, and submit to a solemn rebuke for said ofience, 
 the Synod cannot proceed to consider any question in which he is a 
 party, or acknowledge him as a minister or member of this church. 
 
 " Immediately alter this decision, Mr. Rutherford made the follow- 
 ing acknowledgment: — ' I bow to the authority of this Synod in the 
 Lord; and while retaining my private opinion as to the nature of 
 the regulation which I violated, I admit that, in violating it, I did 
 act irregularly; and I deeply regret the irregularity, more especially 
 because it appears to many that thereby 1 intentionally contemned 
 the^authority of this Synod — an idea which I entirely disclaim — and I 
 do regret the trouble which this act of irregularity has occasioned to 
 my venerated fathers and brethren of the Synod.' 
 
 " Mr. Rutherlord was then solemnly rebuked by the moderator, and 
 suitable admonitions addressed to him." 
 
 A gentleman who was present has informed us that when 
 Mr. Rutherford rose up to be rebuked in the Synod a 
 peculiar but good old custom was observed — all the mem- 
 bers of Court rose up along with him! Many years had 
 elapsed since a thing of the kind had been done : and only 
 some of the older ministers knew the use and wont in such 
 cases. But the rule had evidently gro^vn out of Christian 
 love. It was the strong shielding the weak; the many 
 sympathising with the one; one member suffering and all 
 the members suffering with him! But only think of it! 
 A minister rebuked because he preached for James Morison ! 
 What did heaven think of the rebuke 1 Did not the rebuke 
 itself deserve to be rebuked 1 
 
 Some idea of the network of perplexity in which Mr. 
 R-utherford's whole case had become involved may be gathered 
 from the number of papers which required to be read over 
 when the appeal was really taken up on the 5th of May : — 
 
 ' ' Proceeded to the next question in the case of Mr. Alexander C. 
 Rutherford. 
 
 "Riad the minutes of the Presbytery of Stirling and Falkirk, 
 relating to the remit of Mr. Rutherford's case to them hy the Synod. 
 The deed of remit was read; also a petition of 485 members and 122 
 adhereuts of the first congregation, Falkirk, approving of Mr. Ruther- 
 ford's dissent from third article of the Synod's ' Condemnation of 
 Errors;' a letter of Mr. Rutherford, published in the Stirling Observer 
 
216 HISTORY OF THE EVAXGELICAL UNION. 
 
 newspaper, June 16th; a memorial from seven elders of said congrega- 
 tion, complaining of certain proceedings of a majority of the congrega- 
 tion; a petition from the moderator and two members of the first 
 congregation, Falkirk, refemng to the preceding paper, and contro- 
 verting it; a memorial from 108 members of the congregation, 
 complaining of the doctrines taught by Mr. Eutherford; minutes of 
 Presbytery suspending Mr Eutherford, with Mr. Eutherford's protest 
 and appeal; reasons of protest by Mr. Eutherford; answers by the 
 Presbytery to said reasons; a memorial by eighteen members of the 
 first congregation, Alloa." 
 
 We are soriy that we have not been able to lay our 
 hands on any newspaper reports of the trial. We are com- 
 pelled to fall back on the somewhat meagre, although, of 
 course, accurate minutes of the Synod's proceedings. It is 
 plain that the Synod did not spend much time on the case. 
 
 -They seem to have regarded it as having been virtually 
 
 ' settled by the decision of previous years : 
 
 ** Mr. Rutherford's case continued. — Proceeded in hearing parties in 
 the case interruiited by adjournment. The Presbytery of Stirling and 
 Falkirk were fully heard. Mr. Eutherford was heard in re])ly. 
 Parties having been fully heard and removed, the Synod proceeded to 
 give judgment. After reasoning, it was moved and seconded, ' That 
 the Synod dismiss the protest and appeal of Mr. Eutherford as ill- 
 founded, and affirm the deed of the Presbytery of Stirling and Falkirk, 
 suspending him from the exercise of the office of the ministry.' 
 
 **It was also moved and secou'led, 'That, without giving any 
 deliverance respecting the grounds of the Presbytery's decision, or of 
 Mr. Eutherford's reasons for protesting, the Synod shall appoint a 
 Committee to deal with Mr. Eutherford on the subject of the remit; 
 which Committee shall report at the present meeting.' 
 
 '* A third motion was made and seconded, ' That the Synod confirm 
 the sentence of suspension, as warranted by the evidence before the 
 Presbytery; but considering the better spirit which Mr. Eutherford 
 has displayed, and the more favourable explanation he has given of his 
 views, before the Synod, appoint a Committee to deal with him in order 
 to obtain a more full explanation of his views, and report at this 
 meeting of Synod.' 
 
 Decision. — A vote was taken, prefer the first, second, or third of 
 these motions ? 
 
 "The roll having been called and votes marked, it was found that 
 for the first motion there was a majority of all the voters. The Synod, 
 therefore, adopted the first motion; dismissed Mr. Eutherford's appeal 
 as ill-founded, and confirmed the deed of the Presbytery of Stirling 
 and Falkirk suspending him from the exercise of the office of the 
 ministry, — and Mr. Eutherford's suspension is hereby coafiLrmed 
 accordingly. 
 
 •'Messrs. Pollock, Guthrie, and "Walker craved that their dissent be 
 marked against this decision, for reasons to be given in if they see fit. 
 Mr. John M'Nab, elder, also dissenied. 
 
 "Mr. Eutherford craved that the following be marked in the 
 minutes: — 
 
ME. Rutherford's deposition by the synod. 217 
 
 ** ' I hereby enter my protest against the sentence of this Synod, by 
 which they have suspended me, on grounds the most unjust (as I con- 
 ceive) froni the office of the holy ministry, for holding what I believe 
 to be the truth of God; and I shall hold myself at liberty to continue 
 to exercise the office of the holy ministry, notwithstanding the decision 
 of the Court. ' 
 
 "(Signed) 'Alex. C. Rutherford.' 
 
 " In consequence of the protest by Mr. Rutherford, declining the 
 authority of the Synod, the Synod declared. That the said Mr. Alex. 
 C. Rutherford is no longer a minister or member of this church, and 
 that ministerial communion with him is prohibited. 
 
 " Appointed Mr. Ronald to preach to the first congregation of 
 Falkirk, on Sabbath first; to intimate this decision of Synod, and 
 declare that church vacant. 
 
 "Adjourned, to meet on Monday evening, at 6 o'clock, in Nicolson 
 Street Church, Edinburgh. Concluded with prayer. 
 
 "Nicolson Street Church, Monday, 8th jMay, 6 o'clock p.m. 
 " The Synod met, and was constituted by the Moderator, and the 
 minutes of the last sederunt read. 
 
 "■^ Mr. Ronald's Bejmrt respecting first congregation, Falkirk. — Mr. 
 Ronald reported that he had gone to Falkirk, as appointed by the 
 Synod, and that when he went to the gate of the church of the first 
 congregation of Falkirk, yesterday, during the ringing of the bells, a 
 few minutes before the usual hour of public worship, forenoon, he was 
 met at the gate by a number of the managers ; that he learned from 
 one of them — the others assenting— that knowing the object for which 
 he (Mr. Ronald) came, they refused him admission ; on which he read 
 an extract minute of the decision of the Synod, affirming the sentence 
 of the Presbytery of Stirling and Falkirk suspending Mr. Rutherford 
 from the exercise of the office of the ministry ; and of the minute of 
 Synod declaring Mr. A. C. Rutherford, in consequence of his declining 
 the authority of the Synod, no longer a minister or member of this 
 church, and appointing him (Mr. R. ) to declare the church vacant : 
 after which he retired." 
 
 At a subsequent sederunt the Spied took up the various 
 other appeals from elders and members, to which Mr. Ruther- 
 ford's case had led, but resolved to pass summarily from 
 them all on account of his separation from the Church. 
 
 Thus was the third minister disjoined from the com- 
 munion of one of the large denominations of dissenting Pres- 
 bjrterians in Scotland. It was found after the settlement of 
 the appeal that, in terms of the title deeds, the chapel 
 belonged to " the majority of the members who at any time 
 adhered to the majority of the Synod," and that, therefore, 
 the 108 friends of the Synod could claim the property. It 
 has already appeared from the figures given in connection 
 with the petitions laid on the table of the Synod, that the 
 great majority of the large congregation adiiered to Mr. 
 
218 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Rutherford. It must have put them to considerable incon- 
 venience to be compelled to leave the house in which so 
 many of them had been dedicated to God, and had wor- 
 shipped since their childhood. But their hearts were on 
 fire with love to the Saviour, the world-wide extent of whose 
 ever-blessed atonement they counted it an honour to have 
 been called upon to defend, in concert with their minister. 
 For the same remarkable cliarac eristic attached to the 
 theological struggles of this large congregation in Falkirk, 
 which we have already noticed in the case of Mr. Morison's 
 church in Kilmarnock — namely, that even although the very 
 atmosphere seemed to be surcharged with the elements of 
 acrimonious controversy, a most blessed revival of religion 
 was going on at the same time — a revival so powerful 
 that it could not be arrested by even the undeniable impru- 
 dences into which the chief actors on the ecclesiastical arena 
 had been led, through the violent collision of conflicting 
 interests. Not a Sabbath passed without some " anxious 
 inquirer" coming to " the knowledge of the truth." On the 
 Monday the news would spread that this one or that one 
 had believed the Gospel yesterday, and had entered into 
 the rest and peace of the children of God. What did these 
 people care although Mr. Ronald of Saltcoats, the Synod's 
 clerk, might advance to the church door " during the ringing 
 of the bells," to read his paper; which declared the church 
 vacant 1 They heard other bells ringing in the upper temple. 
 They heard the chiming of the bells of heaven. They heard 
 the angels rejoicing over those who had been " dead, but 
 were alive again ; who had been lost, but were found." 
 Cheerfully they followed their minister out of the place 
 " where prayer was wont to be made," being assured that the 
 Lord would be on their side, although the church of their 
 fathers had cast them out. 
 
 Steps were immediately taken for the erection of a 
 house capable of holding about a thousand hearers. It was 
 of a peculiar construction. The year of Mr. Rutherford's 
 separation from the United Secession Church was the 
 very year of the Disruption in the Church of Scotland; 
 so that there was quite a rage all over the country for 
 erections at once commodious and cheap. The idea was 
 to build them, as we would say concerning houses, " of a 
 single storey," — not very high in the roof, and without a 
 "gallery." Such was the plan adopted by the Falkii-k 
 
MISS ANNE MUIRHEAt) OF FALKIRK. 
 
 219 
 
 architect. The chapel cost only £1,800 ; but it was spacious 
 and comfortable. It was seated for about eight hundred 
 hearers ; although one thousand could be easily packed into it. 
 And, the whole audience being on one floor — which rose up, 
 moreover, after the amphitheatric fashion of the ancient 
 ayorct — the effect on the spectator, and especially on the 
 preacher, was very impressive. From the da}'^ on which it 
 was opened, the building was crowded. The Rev. J. C. 
 Bateman, Independent minister at Edinburgh, now of Jersey, 
 preached, on that occasion, in the morning and evening. 
 This gentleman is known all over the world as the compiler 
 of one of the first hymn-books ever issued for the use of 
 children, and set to appropriate tunes. By his public act, 
 that day, he made it plain once more that the Scottish Con- 
 gregationalists (or, at any rate, a section of them) were more 
 liberal than the Presbyterians, and that they did not see any 
 serious error in the theological lyrogramme which had then 
 been agreed upon by Mr. Morison and his followers. For 
 several years Mr, Rutherford continued to minister in this 
 chapel to a large congregation. Among those who were led 
 through the instrumentality of his labours, to study for tjie 
 Christian ministry at this time, we may mention the Rev. 
 Robert Anderson, who has long carried on an earnest 
 pastorate in Glasgow ; and the Rev. Henry Melville, for 
 several years attached to the Canadian branch of the Evan- 
 gelical Union, and now pastor of the Cumberland Presby- 
 terian Church, Union Town, Western Pennsylvania. 
 
 It must doubtless have been a trial to Mr. Rutherford to 
 see some of the wealthier and more influential members of 
 his congregation leave his ministry, during the progress of 
 his discussions with the Presbytery, and also at their close ; 
 but if some " of the better sort" went, the Lord sent others 
 to supply their place. Thus we read in a pamphlet entitled, 
 *' The Question of Deposition," such a paragraph as the 
 following : — " The Session agreed to invite Mr. Bryce, for- 
 merly a member of Session in Mr. Steele's congregation, 
 and now a member of this congregation, to officiate with 
 them at the winter sacrament. Closed with prayer." An 
 excellent Christian lady. Miss Anne Muirhead, also felt it 
 to be her duty to leave the same congregation and join Mr. 
 Rutherford's, because she sympathised with him in his doc- 
 trinal positions, and felt her heai-t blessed under his fervent 
 ministrations. She was herself an authoress, having pub- 
 
220 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 lished, during the heat of the voluntary controversy, " The 
 Church in the Ephah," or an application of the book of 
 Zechariah to the view of congi-egational support advocated 
 by Nonconformists. She also read the Old Testament 
 fluently in the original Hebrew, and had in her desk 
 respectful replies from Professor Robinson of America to 
 skilful speculations of her own as to sacred ^vlit in connec- 
 tion with Palestinian topography. An impressive likeness 
 hung in her elegant dining-room of Claudius Buchanan, the 
 renowned missionary in India, and also her relative. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Rutherford were accustomed frequently to remark 
 in these early days that it was both consolation and com- • 
 pensation to them, for the loss of those who could not bear 
 the frowns of the influential of the earth, "to see Miss 
 Muirhead slip into the church in her own quiet way." Her 
 adherence to any cause was a sufficient certificate to the 
 general public of Falkirk that there could not be anything 
 far wrong with it. She was of great use to Mr. Rutherford 
 in these troublous times. She managed not a little of his 
 abundant correspondence. She received preachers and 
 students into her hospitable house. She gave liberally of 
 her substance to the cause of God. By her beautiful letters 
 she cheered and instructed the leading ministers of the 
 Evangelical Union — to whom, moreover, she often suggested 
 appropriate sermons and publications. She has long since 
 been taken to the church above where divisions and 
 diflerences shall be unknown : b\it she undoubtedly deserves 
 a place in these memoirs of the early trials and triumphs of 
 the cause. 
 
 When the Messrs. Morison saw their way, in 1843, to 
 maintain the kindred articles of the Holy Spirit's world-wide, 
 resistible work, and conditional election, Mr. Rutherford 
 was nothing loath to follow ; for he also had begun to feel 
 that the doctrine of universal atonement required the doc- 
 trine of universal grace as its counterpart and complement. 
 In 1845, he published a pamphlet on "The Work of the 
 Holy Spirit in Conversion," in which he laid down, with his 
 customary force and clearness, this advanced position of 
 himself and his brethren. 
 
 We may say of Mr. Rutherford what we said of Mr. Robert 
 Morison, in our last article, that he did good service in the 
 way of preaching and lecturing, when churches were formed 
 in connection Avith the growing New View movement, in 
 
MR. Rutherford's subsequent career. 
 
 221 
 
 the cliief centres of population in Scotland, such as Glasgow, 
 Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Greenock, &c. 
 
 Indeed, Mr. Rutherford's desire to see the doctrines of the 
 Evangelical Union introduced into the principal cities of 
 Scotland ultimately militated against the prosperity of his 
 ovm flourishing church at Falkii'k. His ministry had been 
 much appreciated in the large town of Greenock ; and the 
 thouofht struck him that he mio;lit be able to take both 
 Greenock and Falkirk under his wing. The E-ev. Alexander 
 Duncanson, Independent minister of Alloa, and belonging 
 to the New View party, had commended himself favourably 
 to the notice of some of the congi^egation at Falkirk ; and it 
 was thought that a collegiate charge and double ministry for 
 the two towns might be advantageously entered upon. But, 
 unhappily, the ministers did not agree ; the Falkirk church 
 was rent in twain ; and Mr. Rutherford ultimately settled 
 iti Greenock as sole pastor of the church there.* 
 
 For several years he ministered acceptably in Greenock, 
 and, without doubt, laid the foundation of the Evangelical 
 Union Church, which still flourishes under the able ministry 
 of the Rev. Alexander Davidson. During his Greenock 
 pastorate he delivered, by request, a course of lectures in 
 Glasgow, on the doctrine of election, which were afterwards 
 published in a neat volume, and were much admii'ed for 
 their clearness and force. He delivered two or three of the 
 same course in Belfast, in one of the principal Wesleyan 
 churches of the town, and received a valuable present of 
 volumes, at the termination of his visit, from a committee of 
 gentlemen connected with the Methodist denomination. 
 
 Removing to Dundee in the year 1851, he revived con- 
 siderably the Evangelical Union Church, which had been 
 founded there about three years previously. It was during 
 his pastorate that the property was acquired in Reform 
 Street, Dundee, which the first E.U. Church still occupies. 
 
 It was only to be expected that the ministers of a com- 
 paratively small and struggling cause like the Evangelical 
 Union would have many difficulties and trials with which 
 to contend. As years rolled on, Mr. Rutherford began to 
 
 * AVe are happy to mention that of late, the E. L^. interest in Falkirk 
 has been resuscitated, and prospers under the pastoral superinten- 
 dence of the Rev. George Bell, M.A. The chapel, which was huilt 
 for Mr. Eutherford, has, for many years, been in" the hands of the 
 Congregationalists. 
 
222 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 feel this ; and instead of fighting patiently against them, he 
 at length expressed a desire to be received back again into 
 the church of his fathers. This step wonld not have been 
 very surprising if Mr. Rutherford had not latterly adva,nced 
 beyond his original position; for the United Presbyterian 
 Church have, to all intents and purposes, come up to the 
 very doctrinal views for which the Morisons and Mr. 
 E-utherford were ejected in these stirring times. 
 
 We wish him much happiness while spending, in compara- 
 tive quiet and retirement, the evening of his life among his 
 former brethren. Perhaps we shovild make an apology to 
 him for dragging these old matters to light, and for refreshing 
 the memory of his fellow-countrymen as to his theological 
 antecedents. But the acts of public men become the pro- 
 perty of the public ; and we found that we could not write 
 the continuous history of the formation of the Evangelical 
 Union without giving his proceedings the place which they 
 undeniably hold in the history of the movement. The chain 
 would not hang together without the link which the case of 
 the Rev. A. C. Rutherford supplies. 
 
 Our readers would observe that " Messrs. Pollock, Guthrie, 
 and Walker," protested against the suspension of Mr. Ruther- 
 ford on the 5tli of May, 1843. The reasons of dissent after- 
 wards given in by the two other gentlemen turned out to be 
 comparatively harmless, being taken on mere points of order ; 
 but those of Mr. Guthrie were on the merits of the case, and 
 drew down upon him, on the very next week, the um^e- 
 strained vehemence of Synodical anathema. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Rev. John Guthrie— His early days at Milnathort— Becomes James 
 Morison's fellow Student at Edinburgh University — Licensed by 
 the Dunfermline Presbytery in 1838— Settled in Kendal in 1839— 
 The "Scotch Church "there — Becomes interested in .Mr. Morison's 
 case — Protests against his excision — His reasons of Dissent given 
 in too late — Indignant at the prohibition of ministerial intercourse 
 with Mr. Morison — Presents a Memorial to the Synod of 1842, 
 . praying for its repeal. 
 
 Whether we compare the merits of political, scientific, 
 military, or theological heroes, we are constantly reminded 
 of the familiar words of sacred writ, " One star differeth from 
 
THE SCENE OF JOHN GUTHRIE's NATIVITY. 223 
 
 another star in glory." As we read the records tliat are 
 extant concerning Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah and Daniel, Peter 
 and John, Chrysostom and Augustine, Luther and Melanc- 
 thon, Wesley and Whitefield, we cannot but compare the 
 men with one another, reckon up their peculiar character- 
 istics, and conclude as to which was the greater of the twain. 
 
 Nor can such comparisons be avoided on the less elevated 
 platform of our Scottish denominations. The Rev. George 
 Gilfillan, of Dundee, remarked in a literary critique that, 
 " if James Morison was the Luther, John Guthrie was the 
 Melancthon of the Evangelical Union." Now, with all 
 deference to that eminent estimator of his fellow-men, we 
 would submit that the parallel, while legitimate within cer- 
 tain limits, is not complete. Melancthon was confessedly 
 more learned than Luther, although lacking in that energy 
 and decision which made the miner's son the leader of the 
 Reformers ; but Mr. Guthrie will not claim to erudition 
 superior, or even equal, to that of the friend of his youth, 
 although it is generally admitted that his style of composi- 
 tion is more tasteful, and more classically complete. Yet, 
 in so far as great amiability and great learning and mental 
 power are concerned, he is well worthy of being styled a 
 Scottish Melancthon. 
 
 We do not care about being flattered ourselves, and we 
 shrink from flattering others unduly ; yet, for the sake of 
 those of our readers who may live far away from our sphere 
 of action, and may not be personally acquainted with our 
 principal ministers, we wish here to put it on record, that 
 the Evangelical Union is indebted to Mr. Guthrie's personal 
 character, and acknowledged abilities, as much as to any 
 other single individual's, for that increasing measure of res- 
 pect and good-will which is beginning to be extended towards 
 us throughout the land. Others of our leaders may awe by 
 their earnestness, and force a place for themselves, among 
 eminent contemporaries, by their perseverance and their 
 power ; but the honoured brother, of whom we now write, 
 woos and wins by his love and his catholicity of spirit. Too 
 large-hearted for any sect, he has a greater number of clerical 
 friends out of our communion than in it ; while his fame, as 
 a writer on church government and Nonconformity, and also 
 as a Christian poet, has been widely spread abroad. 
 
 John Guthrie was born in the village of Milnathort, in 
 Kinross-shire. Like so many other Scottish villages, Milna- 
 
224 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 thort consists mainly, but by no means exclusively, of a single 
 street, and stands on the highway between Kinross and 
 Perth, Indeed it is only about two miles from the former 
 ancient town, and, as its name imports, was situated athort, 
 that is, beyond, the mill. Small though it be, it has produced 
 celebrated and useful ministers of the gospel, among whom 
 may be mentioned, besides the subject of this sketch, his 
 brother-in-law, the Rev. Mr. Gardiner, of Stockbridge U.P. 
 Church, Edinburgh. The waters of Loch Leven, and the 
 island on which Queen Mary was imprisoned, can be seen 
 from the village ; and it was a great pleasure to young J ohn 
 Guthrie, when he began as a student to be busy with his 
 books, to look out from his window upon the classic and 
 storied scene. Much annoyed he was when a new house, 
 ojL the opposite side of the street, enviously blotted out the 
 soul-enlivening view. 
 
 Mr. Guthrie's father was a highly respected mercantile 
 agent in Milnathort, and was one of those men of sterling 
 piety of whom, according to our national bard, Caledonia 
 has reason to be proud. The family sat in the Anti-burgher 
 church, of which the Rev. Mr. Leslie was minister ; and 
 although the old building has been converted into a public 
 hall, the people of the place still point with pleasure to the 
 angle at which the pew was situated, in the front of the 
 gallery, where the future author of The Bedeemer's Tears 
 used to sit when he was a boy. 
 
 It would appear that Mr. Guthrie's first religious impres- 
 sions were due, under God, to the illness and death of a 
 much-loved elder brother. This young man was at the 
 head of all his companions for literary power and promise ; 
 but, alas ! as not seldom happens, the tender sapling was 
 transplanted, to be matured in paradise. How frequently 
 is this concatenation of events noticeable in the spiritual 
 world — that the death of one leads to the eternal life of 
 another. Not long ago, when conversing with an applicant 
 for fellowship with our church, we asked him how he had 
 been brought to the Lord. His eyes filled with tears, and. 
 rising from his seat, he took from a drawer an eight-page 
 tract, and placed it in our hands. " That was the^ produc- 
 tion," he remarked, "of a beloved brother, who aspired to 
 the work of the Christian ministry, and died at the early 
 age of twenty-two. His blameless life, ardent piety, and 
 patient resignation to the will of God, made an impression 
 
MR. GUTHRIE AT COLLEGE AND THE DIVINITY HALL. 225 
 
 on my mind wliicli could never be efiaced." John Guthrie 
 could say the same concerning his brother James. He still 
 treasm-es his literary productions and earliest exercises in 
 connection with the Sabbath school. Thus, the lamp, which 
 was long ago extinguished, lives to-day in the torch which 
 it unconsciously kindled ; for we might never have heard 
 of John, who lives and labours so w^ell, had it not been for 
 the influence of James, who was early called away. 
 
 John Guthrie entered the University of Edinburgh in 
 November, 1831. He had been introduced to James Mori- 
 son during the preceding year at Milnathort, on the occasion 
 of a visit paid by the latter to his cousin, Mr. J ames Ire- 
 land, also a native of that village. Mr. Ireland has long 
 been the much respected U.P. minister of Ellon, Aberdeen- 
 shire. 
 
 The two boys — James Morison and J ohn Guthrie — took 
 to one another at fii'st sight, and saw one another every day 
 dui'ing their curriculum at Edinburgh University. Mr. 
 Guthrie must have been well gi'ounded at the iNIilnathort 
 Grammar School; for he gained se\ eral honours at the Uni- 
 versity, chiefly in the Greek class taught by Professor 
 Dunbar, and the Moral Philosophy Class of Professor Wil- 
 son. He has kindly informed us that he was singularly 
 unfoi-tunate as to prize-taking at college. If he had concen- 
 trated all his attention on one or two things, he might have 
 succeeded better ; but he attempted to overtake too much, 
 and was therefore sometimes defeated by those who attempted 
 less. In several instances his essays came second, losing 
 the much-coveted honour as if by a haii"'s-breadth — the 
 Professor expressing the regret that he could not award him 
 an honour too. But his contemporaries at the University 
 looked up to him as a distinguished student, who gave great 
 promise of future excellence. He took his degree of Master 
 of Arts in the spring of 1835. 
 
 He had joined the Divinity Hall of the United Secession 
 Church in August, 1834 ; for students were then permitted 
 to begin theii- theological course when they had been three 
 years at the University. Although Mr. Morison had gone 
 to College a year before Mr. Guthrie, they entered the 
 Divinity Hall together. That year was an high year ; for. 
 Dr. Dick of Glasgow having recently died, the Theological 
 Faculty had been reconstructed, and, instead of receiving 
 instruction from only two Professors, the students sat at the 
 
 <3 
 
226 HISTORY OF the evangelical union. 
 
 feet of four, viz., Drs. Mitchell, Brown, Duncan, and Balmer. 
 Dr. J0I141 Brown delivered the inaugural lecture in 1834 ; 
 and a remark which he made in the course of it produced a 
 profound impression on the, mind of his Milnathort pupil. 
 The large church in Broughton Place was crowded with an 
 appreciative audience ; and the expressive eye of the speaker 
 flashed fire, as, rising to the full height of his oratorical 
 energy, he denounced the practice of " first making creeds 
 and confessions ostensibly in defence of Bible truths and 
 then of committing the shameless idolatry of falling down 
 and worshipping them, to the disparagement of the Word of 
 God." 
 
 In several other instances was Mr. Guthrie conscious, 
 during his theological course, of receiving an impetus in the 
 direction of unfettered liberality of sentiment, especially 
 when listening to Dr. Brown's prelections on Faith, and when 
 reading Dr. Balmer's Reminiscences of Robert Hall, as pub- 
 lished in the memoirs of that distinguished nonconformist 
 orator, whose views on the extent of Christ's atonement had 
 been clear and unclouded. 
 
 The students, moreover, used frequently to debate at their 
 own meetings on knotty and difficult points, one of which 
 was, " How can a imiversal Gospel call be reconciled with 
 a limited Atonement T' These discussions, as well as the 
 ]-)erusal of Theological Lectures by Dr. Payne of Exeter, 
 towards the close of his curriculum at the Hall, inclined Mr. 
 Guthrie towards the liberal side of the house, when the 
 Atonement controversy arose, as well as his warm and 
 almost romantic attachment to Mr. Morison, the pilot, 
 who both gathered and weathered that storm. 
 
 Mr. Guthrie was licensed by the Dunfermline Presbytery 
 in the spring of 1838 ; and having been appointed to preach 
 as a probationer within the bounds of the Presbytery of 
 Lancashire, he was called to be the minister of the Secession 
 Church in Kendal, Westmoreland, which was then vacant. 
 In some respects, this sphere, although distant from the 
 headquarters of his church, suited pur young preacher well. 
 He had time for study, as he was not frequently called 
 away on denominational duty, — the churches of the connec- 
 tion being but rare in these border regions. Then the 
 situation of the town suited well Mr. Guthrie's poetical 
 temperament. Its valley led the way to the far-famed 
 scenery of the North of England ; while the historical asso- 
 
THE SCOTCH CHURCiS OF KEXDAL. 
 
 227 
 
 ciations of the place were irfspiring. Agi-icola liacl given 
 tlie toAvn its name ; and Henry the Eighth had got one of 
 his queens, Katherine Parr, from Kendal Castle, whose grej 
 ruins still look down on the meanderings of the Kent, and 
 the dwellings of the honest burghers of the Dale. More- 
 over, the leading people in this bustling town were intelli- 
 gent as well as Christian. The Philosophical Society of 
 Kendal found that the young minister of the " Scotch 
 Church " could read as good an essay as any of them at their 
 periodical literary meetings ; and when they called upon 
 him at his o^vn house, they found that his library was 
 already large enough to provoke theii' wonder. The scien- 
 tific coterie of the place were much interested at the time in 
 the study of astronomy ; and Mr. Guthrie was ready to join 
 them in theii* midnight star-gazing with genuine enthusiasm; 
 but as months wore on another star began to absorb his 
 attention so exclusively — and especially the anxious question 
 — did it shine for all 1 — that his presence at their gatherings 
 became less frequent than at fii'st it had been. Need we 
 add that this was " the star — the star of Bethlehem" ? 
 
 The " Scotch church" of Kendal had been an institution 
 in the town even before the days of the Pretender, who in 
 1745 rested there both on his way to his disastrous rout at 
 Derby, and on his return from it. Towards the close of the 
 last century, however, the chiu'ch had declined; but about 
 the beginning of this one it had been resuscitated, and had 
 enjoyed the ministry of two rather remarkable men who had 
 been Mr. Guthrie's j^redecessors — the Rev. Mr. Wilson, after- 
 wards Dr. Wilson of Greenock, and the Rev. Henry Calder- 
 wood, a man of dignified presence and considerable powers 
 of mind, who closed his days as the honoured Governor of 
 the Victorian Province in Cafii'aria. Thus a favourable 
 impression had been produced in Kendal of the abilities 
 of the Scotch preachei*s, — an estimate which the subject 
 of this sketch was destined not to belie. The church was 
 not very large, consisting as it did of only about 100 mem- 
 bers ; but these were generally of sterling piety, and in some 
 instances of a respectable position in society. The majority 
 of the male commimicants were originally Scotchmen who 
 had settled in Kendal and had married Eno^lish wives ; but 
 theii' families had gi'own up cherishing warm attachment 
 to the Scotch communion, of whose ecclesiastical heroes 
 their fathers were accustomed to speak with so much enthu- 
 
228 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 siasm. The chapel occupied by these worthy Seceders stood 
 in what was called Wool-pack Yard. Kendal owed its 
 prosperity to the fact, that it was the central market for the 
 sale of wool grown in the immense pastoral regions of West- 
 moreland. The motto on the town arms is Pannus mild 
 panis — " Wool is my bread." But here was a preacher who 
 began to burn with a holy desire to be the means of leading 
 every one of his fellow-townsmen to say Panis vitae mihi 
 panis — " The bread of life is my bread." 
 
 Mr. Guthrie was ordained in Kendal on the 25th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1839, just about the time, as we have seen, when 
 James Morison was licensed ; for sickness had caused the 
 latter to be a year behind his fast college friend in buckling on 
 his ecclesiastical armour. When the excitement of his settle- 
 ment was past, the young minister, as might be expected 
 from his antecedents, not content with studying directly for 
 his pulpit in the way of preparing discourses, caiTied on the 
 theological investigations which he had commenced in his 
 student days. He was so deeply interested in the able work 
 of Dr. Jenkyn on the Atonement that he wrote out an ab- 
 stract of it ; while the masterly and philosophical treatise of 
 the Rev. Joseph Gilbert of Nottingham on the same subject 
 so completely satisfied his mind, that he ever afterwards 
 confessed himself to be a debtor to that original as well as 
 orthodox thinker. 
 
 Meanwliile Mr. Morison was ranging the North of Scot- 
 land, and had already passed through that remarkable reli- 
 gious experience which we have, already detailed. It could 
 not be supposed that, since their two souls were knit together 
 like David's and Jonathan's, the one could keep secret from 
 the other so all- important an experience as an enlargement of 
 the soul's apprehension of Christ. Therefore, we need not 
 wonder that frequent letters passed between Tain, Naii-n, Ler- 
 wick, and eventually Kilmarnock, and the little commercial 
 capital of Westmoreland. Mr. Guthrie, as we may readily 
 suppose, was an eager recipient of all the exciting news that 
 began to come week after week from Kilmarnock, as well as an 
 eager reader of all the publications that bore upon his friend 
 J ames Morison's case, whether these were to be found in the 
 columns of the newspaper or the pages of the pamphlet. He 
 has been kind enough to inform us that he personally received 
 much benefit from the pemsal, about this time, of Dr. Bonar's 
 tract, entitled, " Believe and Live," but yet more from Dr. 
 
MR. Guthrie's reasons of dissent. 
 
 229 
 
 Morisoii's " What must I do to be saved — followed up as it 
 was by the important treatises on the Nature and Extent of 
 the Atonement, to which we have already referred. 
 
 Thus matters stood when Mr. Morison's trial came on in 
 June, 1841. That Synod, as the young appellant touchingly 
 said in the beginning of his defence, was ^' his first Synod, 
 and yet he stood accused at its bar." Our readers will easily 
 understand how warmly his loving friend sympathised with 
 him as he listened to the able, manly, and spiritually power- 
 ful addi-ess — of the power of which none of our readers can 
 have any idea from the meagre reports of it that have been 
 preserved. Mr. Guthrie felt keenly as that trial went on in 
 Glasgow, that none of the friends who had gathered round 
 Mr. Morison at fii-st seemed willing to stand by him at the 
 last. As we have already seen, only Mr. Robert Morison 
 and Mr. Guthrie protested against the suspension of the 
 appellant; and his Kendal friend deeply regretted that, 
 owing to his ignorance of the forms of ecclesiastical proce- 
 dure, his reasons of dissent were not given in in time — that 
 is, as we have already seen, immediately after the minutes of 
 the previous meeting were read, so that they might have been 
 printed in the Notes of the Synod's proceedings, even 
 although this would have rendered his own ecclesiastical 
 case a necessary appendage of Mr. Morison's. As Mr. Guthrie 
 has found these Reasons of Dissent among his papers, after 
 an entombment of upwards of thirty years, we have much 
 pleasure in bringing them to the light of day, and of giving 
 them a place in our history : — 
 
 " Reason I. Because, in reference to the first head of charges, tlie 
 subscriber, without pledging himself to Mr. Morison's modes of expres- 
 sion, is convinced that the opinions charged against him as erroneous 
 and inconsistent, are agreeable to the Word of God, and not inconsist- 
 ent with the main scope of the Standards of the Secession Church ; 
 that his explanations of Faith, Repentance, and Prayer, instead of 
 tending as has been alleged, ' to unsettle and distract the minds of 
 Gospel hearers,' are Scriptural distinctions most important to be known, 
 and have a direct and most forcible bearing on the conversion of unbe- 
 lievers; that how unimportant soever such distinctions might be in 
 the adjustment of a theological system, they are of the utmost conse- 
 quence in the work of converting sinners, and of 'rightly dividing the 
 word of truth;' and that, moreover, the stamp of the divine approba- 
 tion has been already affixed to the very views referred to, in the many 
 cheering and signal and unquestioned instances of conversion of which 
 Mr. Morison, in his recent labours, has been the honoured instrument. 
 
 "Reason II. Because, in reference to the second head of charges, 
 
230 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 the subscriber, without questioning the blameworthiness of some of 
 Mr. Morison's procedure in the suppression, and subsequent circula- 
 tion, of the tract, is convinced that this element in the charge has 
 been greatly exaggerated ; that the circumstances adduced in corrobor- 
 ation by members of the Kilmarnock Presbytery have, in several 
 instances at least, been confuted by Mr. Morison, or satisfactorily 
 explained; that, as this circumstance indicates, the hue of the case 
 must have been greatly darkened by mutual misapprehension; and, 
 finally, that, as Mr. Morison expressed his regret before the Presby- 
 tery (for which expression, apparently, little allowance was made,) 
 and has repeated the acknowledgment before the Supreme Court, the 
 subscriber is of opinion that the sentence of suspension, sanctioned, as 
 it was, and confirmed by the Synod, was a penalty too severe to be 
 war) anted by all that was substantiated against the appellant. 
 
 Glasgow, 12th June, 1841." **John Guthrie. 
 
 But although Mr. Guthrie had been accidentally prevented 
 from linking his own case publicly on to Mr. Morison's at 
 the Synod of 1841, he was determined to let the Church 
 know, and the world besides, that he was not content to 
 remain a silent spectator of his friend's wrongs and suffer- 
 ings. Besides suspending Mr. Morison from the office of 
 the holy ministry, the Synod of 1841 adopted (by no means 
 unanimously, to their credit be it said) a separate, though 
 immediately subsequent motion, proposed by the Bev. Mr. 
 M'Kerrow, " that all ministers and preachers of this church 
 must consider themselves prohibited from preaching for Mr. ^ 
 Morison, or employing him in any of their pulpit ministra- 
 tions." Mr. Guthrie felt his whole soul rise up in righteous 
 indignation against this interdict, which he thought, and 
 still thinks, to be worthy of the meridian of Bome. Whenever 
 he got home from the Synod, he drew up a memorial, to be 
 presented to the Synod of 1842, calling attention to this 
 unjust and tyrannical prohibition, and praying for its repeal. 
 The Session of the Wool Pack Yard Church cordially joined 
 their minister in this memorial, and it was sent up to the 
 Synod, through the Presbytery, in the usual way. We 
 gladly subjoin the memorial as a fine specimen of a protest 
 against a spirit of exclusiveness which has not yet wholly 
 dcjjarted from the land : — 
 
 " That your petitioners -regard this prohibition as uncalled for and 
 unjust, and therefore crave that it be rescinded, and full liberty allowed 
 to any minister of this Church to hold such intercourse with Mr. 
 Morison as is wont to be interclianged between the ministers of this 
 and other evangelical denominations. 
 
 " In support of this prayer your petitioners humbly submit the fol- 
 lowing considerations: — 
 
MEMORIAL AGAINST THE SYNOD's PROHIBITION. 231 
 
 "1. A restriction so exclusive — involving, as it does, on the part of 
 the whole religious community whom this Synod represents, .the 
 repudiation of the individual from Avhose fellowship it debars — can be 
 justified only by reasons the most grave and clearly established, relat- 
 iug either to immorality or doctrinal error. 
 
 *'2. In reference to moral character, Mr. Morison stands unim- 
 peached; not a few of the members of last Synod, who resisted his 
 appeal, having borne cheerful testimony to his piety and holy ardour, 
 as well as to his talents and learning. 
 
 ** 3. In reference to doctrinal error, your petitioners see nothing in 
 the charges preferred against Mr. Morison to waiTant any such repro- 
 bation as is implied in the prohibition of which they complain — no- 
 thing but what will be found to be in substance maintained by the most 
 distinguished writers in our own and other evangelical denominations. 
 
 " 4. The Synod passed no distinct judgment on the several charges 
 against Mr. Morison, Mr. Morison having A'oluntarily withdrawn from 
 the Secession Church before the case was ripened to a final decision;* 
 and, in these circumstances, to prohibit all ministerial intercourse with 
 Mr. Morison was, in the opinion of your petitioners, unnecessary as 
 regards the interests of this Church, and as regards Mr. Morison, a 
 publicly inflicted wrong. 
 
 " Your petitioners refer with deep feeling to the unquestioned and 
 impressive lact that Mr. Morison, who is at present under the ban of 
 the whole Secession Church, has been own«d and honoured by our 
 Divine Head in the conversion of many souls. As a preacher in the 
 Secession Church he was laborious, faithful, and successful to a degree 
 almost unexampled; and in his present sphere of labour, both while in 
 connection with us and since, he has been equally devoted and equally 
 blest. Your petitioners can easily conceive of cases in which ministers 
 may cease to labour in the same section of the Church, and yet recog- 
 nise each other as ministers still. But can it ever accord with Christian 
 allegiance and Christian love to affix positively the brand of public dis- 
 ownment on a fellow-labourer beyond our pale whom Christ has owned ? 
 
 "5. In addition to, and in corroboration of, the above reasons set 
 forth to prove that nothing on the score either of immorality or doc- 
 trinal error can be alleged as furnishing any good ground for prohibiting 
 all ministerial intercourse with Mr. Morison, your petitioners confi- 
 dently appeal to the fact that since Mr. Morison withdrew from the 
 Secession Church he has enjoyed free and abundant intercourse with 
 ministers of other denominations equally zealous Avith ourselves for the 
 purity of the faith, and equally zealous in the extension of the glorious 
 Gospel — men some of whose names will be found identified with signal 
 revivals of religion in cur land. 
 
 " Your petitioners therefore pray that the judgment of last Synod, 
 prohibiting all ministers and preachers in this Church from preaching 
 for Mr. Morison, or employing him in any of their public ministrations, 
 be rescinded ; and in this and all other matters that may come before you, 
 may the great Head of the Church guide to such decisions as shall tend 
 most to the furtherance of the divine glory in the salvation of souls." 
 
 * This is not correctly put. Mr. Morison did not withdraw from the Secession ; 
 he only disregarded the act of suspension, and declined meeting more than once 
 Avith the synodical committee that was ai)poiuted to deal with him. Tlie Synod 
 then deposed hini. 
 
232 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Before proceeding to give our readers some -idea of the 
 way in which Mr. Guthrie supported this petition in the 
 Supreme Court of his Church, let us pass for a little from 
 the polemical to the personal, and take a look into the sanc- 
 tuary of the heart, yet more sacred even than the sanctuary 
 of the home. Mr. Guthrie has been kind enough to inform 
 us that the last cloud of darkness or doubt concerning the 
 Gospel and his own acceptance through faith therein was 
 swept away as the summer of 1841 passed into the golden 
 harvest time. He had come round by Kilmarnock at the 
 close of the Synod, and had received a great spiritupJ bless- 
 ing in communication with the excommunicated heresiarch. 
 They had talked much of the phrase, the " righteousness 
 of God," in which Mr. Morison had begun to be deeply 
 interested in connection with his lectures on the Epistle to 
 the Romans. After his return to Kendal, besides keeping 
 up correspondence with the Kilmarnock pastor on the 
 point, Mr. Guthrie read with much avidity in the life and 
 writings of Luther; and, one day, he came to see distinctly 
 the objective character of that justifying righteousness which 
 is declared by Paul to be unto all, and upon all them that 
 believe. Ever since his soul has been preserved in peace ; 
 and he has delighted to make that pregnant expression, or 
 rather the doctrine which it presents to the soul of man, the 
 darling theme of his truly evangelical ministry. 
 
 At the Synod of 1842, as we have already had occasion to 
 narrate, the E>ev. Robert Morison of Bathgate was, during 
 the first week of its session, first suspended, and then 
 deposed from the office of the holy ministry. On the second 
 week, but when there was still a full attendance of minis- 
 ters, Mr. Guthrie's memorial anent the ministerial interdict 
 came on for consideration. It required no little courage for 
 a man to deliver a long address before a hostile and irre- 
 sponsive house ; but our Melancthon was equal to the occa- 
 sion. He was listened to with more patience than he had 
 expected. The manuscript which he has preserved shows 
 that the address was a very elaborate one ; and although he 
 felt constrained to condense it during the time of its 
 delivery, he must have been upwards of an hour on his feet 
 speaking in behalf of his absent friend. 
 
 The main points to which Mr. Guthrie addressed himself 
 in this lengthened speech were these : — That only on account 
 of immorality or unsound doctrine was any brother to be 
 
MR. Guthrie's speech at the synod of 1842. 233 
 
 disowned. As to the question of immorality in coinnection 
 with the paltry matter of the cii'culation of the tract, he 
 would not condescend to reply to any man who would dare 
 to apply to Mr. Morison's conduct such a term. Then, as 
 to doctrine, even admitting all the charges (on which, indeed, 
 the S^^lod itself had given no deliverance sei-iatim J, as Dr. 
 Heugh had said when discussing Mr. Morison's case, and 
 especially Dr. Balmer when discussing Mr. Walker's, of 
 Comrie, the abettor of such ^-iews assuredly had not 
 wandered outside the orbit of Christian orthodoxy. We are 
 tempted to give an extract from Mr. Guthrie's reference to 
 the speech of the amiable and liberal Dr. Balmer of Berwick, 
 with his own subsequent remarks : — 
 
 " I regard Mr. Morison's opinions on the main points as substantially 
 what are held by the most distinguished of modern Calvinists. On the 
 great leading charge of univei-sal atonement, he is but one of a phalanx. 
 Professor Balmer, at the same Synod, said: 'Compute the number of 
 evangelical ministers and missionaries in Britain, America, and the rest 
 of the world— inquire into their sentiments, and you will iind that the 
 obnoxious tenet is held by the larger proportion of them, probably by 
 not less than four or hve thousand, by at least four- fifths of the whole.' 
 (Report of Cases, p. 13S.) Mr. Morison's tenets will be found very 
 nearly to accord with those of Gilbert, Payne, Jeukyn, and other lead- 
 ing English Independents, and of the evangelical party in the Church 
 of England, associated with the venerated name of Thomas Scott, the 
 commentator, who, throughout his remarks on Tomline's Refutation, 
 wears the name of Calvinist, and yet hesitates not to avow that we can 
 call on every sinner to come to Christ on the same principle on which 
 we rouse the sleeping man to his labour after the sun is risen, — namely, 
 that the atonement is a ' general provision from which no one of the 
 human race will be excluded, except through unbelief.' This is sub- 
 stantially the trath which so many of the Synod have avowed; and 
 woe, woe to the church, let that day of its history be darkness, which 
 shall see that doctrine suppressed." 
 
 Mr. Guthrie drew attention to the fact that the pulpits of 
 the Congregationalists were thrown open to Dr. Morison, and 
 that the respectable ministers in that connection preached for 
 him without hesitation, although all the ministers of the 
 Secession Church w^ere commanded, at their peril, to shun 
 him. He thus chivalrously referred to his absent friend :— 
 
 •* Sir, who shall prescribe to any man forms of expression ? Who shall 
 dictate to me how I am to speak, if I take care that it is only God's 
 truth that I speak ? Who shall presume to regulate my language any 
 more than to shape my gesture or looks when dealing with sinners on 
 the awful realities of heaven or of hell ? Who shall dam up the outlets 
 of the soul, because they take a direction in one man which they do 
 not take in another; thus applying a forced process to what nature 
 declares free, and making no allowance for pecuharities of mind and 
 
234 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UKIOX. 
 
 temperament ? Sir, if I make these self-evident remarks, it is because 
 I have often heard Mr. Morison's expressions condemned, where I 
 looked, and looked in vain, for some generous admission, some miti- 
 gating word, as to the burning earnestness which leaves the impi-ess of 
 his glowing soul on every page he writes, on every word he speaks. 
 
 "Thus, on a careful consideration of Mr. Morison's alleged errors, we 
 see nothing in them on which to ground the interdict of which we 
 complain. If that interdict says or implies that Mr. Morison is a 
 heretic (and what else is its language ?), then, as an individual member 
 of this court, I am bound in conscience to contradict it. I must 
 declare, and will declare, that, speak for whom it may, in branding 
 Mr. Morison as a heretic, it does not speak for me. It locks up Mr. 
 Morison's pulpit against me, and mine against him. It stands be- 
 tween us. It keeps Mr. Morison at bay, and it brandishes over our 
 head the bolt of ecclesiastical censure; but it cannot prevent me from 
 feeling, nor shall it from avowing, that Mr. Morison is not the less a 
 brother beloved; a herald of salvation, highly honoured and owned of 
 God; a most uncompromising asserter, and able expounder, and fearless 
 defender of the foundation-doctrine of the Gospel — the fulcrum of that 
 lever which shook the pa]>al throne, the charm, the spring, that moved 
 every giant energy of Luther's soul, the article, as he affirmed, of a 
 standing or a falling church — the doctrine that man is justified by 
 faith without the works of the law. The unsearchable riches of Christ, 
 the glory of divine grace, the freeness of the Gospel call — these are the 
 themes that run like a golden thread throughout the whole texture of 
 Mr. Morison's publications." 
 
 But the friendly effort was of no avail. A fair amount of 
 discussion followed before the petition was negatived, in 
 which it could be discerned pretty plainly that some of the 
 more tender consciences were uneasy in the really illogical 
 and unchristian position in which the Synod's interdict had 
 placed them. Yet Mr. Guthrie was compelled to return to 
 Kendal, conscious, indeed, that he had done his duty, but 
 gi'ieved to think that he dared not ask his dearest and most 
 valued Christian friend to preach to his congregation, and 
 that, although he visited at Kilmarnock, and bowed the 
 knee at the family altar with the pastor of Clerk's Lane 
 Church, he dared not enter his pulpit and preach to his 
 crowded and appreciative congi-egation, without rendering 
 himself liable to ecclesiastical discipline, and probable depo- 
 sition from the work of the ministry. Evidently this was 
 a state of matters which could not continue. 
 
 Before passing on to another chapter in our nan^ative, we 
 pause to observe that the obnoxious interdict still remains 
 in force. But there have of late been some hopeful signs 
 that, like some of our national laws, this ecclesiastical law 
 will soon become obsolete, and be killed by time-honoured 
 
MR. Guthrie's weak health. 
 
 235 
 
 use and wont." It was well known in Glasgow that Dr. 
 William Anderson, before lie died, preached both for Pr. 
 Morison and Dr. Guthrie, as well as for the author 
 of this volume, at the canonical hours of worship. That 
 gi-and-souled old man seemed to wish for an opportunity, 
 ere going up higher, of trampling under his own formidable 
 foot the bigotry which had put, and which kept, such an 
 interdict on a Church's statute-book. We doubt not that 
 others, pleading his unchallenged example, or sheltered 
 behind the broad regis of his posthumous influence, will do 
 the like. Or, better still, we hope that, ere many years 
 have revolved, a motion will be made and passed in the 
 United Presbyterian Synod by which the ministers of that 
 influential Church will be left free to exchange pulpits with 
 these ejected ministers, as well as with the ministers of the 
 other evangelical churches in the Jand. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Mr. Guthrie Dissents from the Synodical Deliverance entitled " Doc- 
 trinal Errors Condemned " — His "Weak Health — Preaches at Mary- 
 port with Mr. Morison — Is Complained against on that Account 
 by the Presbytery of Annan and Carlisle — Troubles in his own 
 Church — Encouragements there also — Publishes "New Views, 
 True Views," and "New Views: How Met" — Communication 
 from Dr. Guthrie, in which he describes his Defence and Exami- 
 nation at the Synod — Sense of Loneliness when Ejected — Narrow 
 Issue on which Separated — Progresses towards a more Consistent 
 View of Election — Obtains it — Visits Mr. Morison at Kilmarnock 
 — Preaches on " 0 Earth, Earth, Earth, hear the word of the 
 Lord."' 
 
 When Mr. Guthrie returned to Kendal at the close of the 
 Synod of 1842, he was mider the necessity of reading- a 
 document to his congregation on an early Sabbath day, which 
 it must have cost him an efibrt to read. This was an ofiicial 
 paper entitled, " Doctrinal Errors Condemned by the United 
 Associate Synod of 1842." We have akeady referred to 
 this deliverance in Avhich, under eight heads, Morison's 
 views were very imperfectly stated (as generally happens 
 in an opponent's representation), and very emphatically 
 denounced. Not content with demonstrating to his own 
 congregation what he conceived to be the crudities of this 
 composition, Mr. Guthrie transmitted to " his esteemed 
 brethren of the Lancasliii-e Presbytery," to be read at their 
 
236 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 meeting at Hallfold, near Rochdale, the reasons why he 
 could not assent to the declaration, although he felt bound 
 to read it from his pulpit in obedience to the Synod's orders. 
 He sent these reasons for dissent in wi-iting, because he was 
 unable to be present on account of ill health. 
 
 The young minister had, in fact, been seized with grave 
 pectoral symptoms, doubtless induced, in part, by his eccle- 
 siastical troubles; and for about three years after this summer 
 of 1842, his nearest friends feared that he was marked out 
 for the grave — another of consumption's victims. Yet he 
 clung bravely to his post till the Synod of 1843 was over, at 
 which he defended himself for hours, feeling at the same 
 time as if he were under the sentence of death. A residence 
 for two months, however, at a hydropathic establishment 
 which had recently been opened near Windermere in the 
 summer of 1843, did him so much good that his own fears 
 and those of his friends, began gradually to be dissipated. 
 
 But to return to our controversial narrative. His reply 
 to " Doctrinal Errors Condemned " was not the only official 
 intimation which the Clerk of the Lancashire Presbytery 
 received between the meetings of the Synods of 1842 and 
 1843, to the effect that the Kendal pastor deeply sympathised 
 with the Rev. James Morison, The second notification 
 came in a way that must have been very annoying to Mr. 
 Guthrie, especially considering the weak state of his health 
 at the time. 
 
 "We will have occasion at a subsequent part of our narra- 
 tive to refer to the deep interest taken by the late Sir 
 Wilfrid Lawson, Bart, (father of the distinguished Member of 
 Parliament for Carlisle), in revival work, and the early 
 labours of some of the founders of the Evangelical Union. 
 We will only so far anticipate that statement as to say that 
 having become intimate with the Rev. Henry Wight, of 
 Carlisle (formerly of Edinburgh), Sir Wilfrid had arranged 
 for a series of evangelistic services in the principal towns of 
 Cumberland, which lay in the neighbourhood of his resi- 
 dence, Brayton Hall. Knowing that the labours of the Rev. 
 James Morison, of Kilmarnock, had been much blessed to 
 the salvation of souls, and having read some of his earnest 
 publications, he had asked him to take part in the meetings, 
 as well as the Rev. John Kirk, then of Hamilton, and Mr. 
 Guthrie, of Kendal, and, of course, Mr. Wight himself, who 
 was indeed the clerical conductor of the whole movement. 
 
THE PRESBYTERY OF ANXAX AND CARLISLE. 237 
 
 Si)ocial trains were run between Wigton, Maryporl:, and 
 Workington ; while omnibuses and coaches conveyed the 
 farmers of Aspatria and Blennerhasset to listen to the earnest 
 discourses. The whole country side was moved, and many 
 hearts were turned to the Lord. Little did Sir Wilfrid 
 Lawson think that, by making such arrangements, he was 
 bringing any of his guests into difficulty. Although the 
 Synod had disowned Mr. Morison, God had not disowned 
 Jiim; and therefore the worthy baronet completely disowned 
 the disownment of the Synod, and received Mr. Morison to 
 his house and his heart all the more readily on account of 
 the ecclesiastical martyrdom which he had braved. 
 
 Mr. Guthrie did not suppose that, by consenting to allow 
 his name to be advertised to preach along ^vith Mr. Morison, 
 he v/as contravening the Synod's prohibition of ministerial 
 intercourse, because the meetings were unsectarian ; . nor 
 were they held at "canonical hours" on the Lord's day, but, 
 at least in so far as Mr. Guthrie's services were concerned, 
 on a week-night. Judge, then, of his surprise when, after 
 Ms return home to Kendal, and while the savour of the 
 fellowship with the Christian brethren was yet fresh in his 
 mind, he received the following missive from the Clerk of 
 the Presbytery of Annan and Carlisle : — 
 
 *' To the Rev. Mr. Guthrie, Kendal. 
 
 "Dear Sir, — I am required by the Presbytery of Annan and 
 Carlisle to lay before you the following commnnication. 
 
 "At Chapelknowe, 15th Nov , 1842, four o'clock p.m., the Presby- 
 tery of Annan and Carlisle met accordinj^ to adjournment, and was 
 constituted by the Eev. Hugh Douglas, moderator, &c. A letter 
 from the Rev. Wm. Bookless, Maryport, was laid before the court, 
 containing a complaint by the session there against the Rev. Mr. 
 Guthrie of Kendal, for having preached in Maryport on the evening 
 of the 12th October without the consent of their moderator; for having 
 in so doing ministerially associated with Mr. Morison of Kilmarnock, 
 who was there at that time, and preached on the 16th; who has been 
 declared by the Synod no longer in connection with the United Seces- 
 sion Church, the Synod having also forbidden all ministerial fellowship 
 with him; that Mr. Guthrie by such conduct acted contrary to the 
 consuetudinary law of the church, which is that the consent of the 
 minister of the place shall be obtained before a brother shall preach 
 within his bounds; also, that in doing so he set at nought the authority 
 of the Synod, and did what had a tendency to hinder the usefulness 
 of their minister, and expose the authority of the Synod to contempt 
 in Maryport; also, that Mr. Guthrie, according to report, preached the 
 errors condemned in Mr. Morison. 
 
 "The Presbytery received the complaint, instructed the clerk to 
 
238 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 inform Mr. Guthrie thereof, and to request of hioi satisfaction on the 
 point complained of, in the hope that his reply will render further 
 proceeding unnecessary. — Extracted from the minutes of Presbytery by 
 
 "James Dobbie, Presbytery -Clerk." 
 
 Mr. Dobbie accompanied this formal notice with a private 
 letter, in which he charged Mr Morison and Mr. Rutherford 
 Avith "baseness" in having broken their ordination vows, 
 and hinted that Mr. Guthrie was proceeding in the same 
 direction. Feeling stung Avith the whole communication, 
 Mr. Guthrie repelled with disdain the private charge made 
 directly against his friends, and indirectly against himself; 
 while, as to the public action of the Presbytery, he dis- 
 claimed their jurisdiction, alleging that he was amenable 
 not to them, but to the Presbytery of Lancashire. He 
 considered that he had done all that courtesy demanded 
 when he called for Mr. Bookless when he was in Maryporfc ; 
 and he was glad afterwards, for the amenities of social 
 intercourse, that he found that gentleman not at home. 
 
 Anxious to fortify himself with documentary evidence 
 which would help him in the defence of his conduct if he 
 ever required to answer for it before the Church Courts, he 
 Avrote to the Pev. T. W. Hinds, the Congregational minister 
 of Marjq^ort, and Sir Wilfrid Lawson himself, to ask what, 
 in their opinion, the object of the meetings was, and whether 
 his OAvn preaching had been controversial or practical. Mr. 
 Guthrie has preserved Sir Wilfrid Lawson's reply, and we 
 quote it mainly for this reason, that it may serve to show 
 irate ecclesiastics what a pious layman thought of their 
 narrow jealousies : — 
 
 "Brayton, 25th March, 1843. 
 
 "My dear Sir, — On my return home from Carlisle to-day, I found 
 your letter, and lose no time in replying to the queries contained in it. 
 
 "1. Having been the original promoter of the meetings in Mary- 
 port, I can safely assert that not only had they no other object than 
 the revival of religion, but that much care was taken to divest them, 
 as far as possible, of everjrthing of a sectarian character, and that every 
 endeavour was made to secure the countenance and support of ministers 
 of every denomination. Each minister in Maryport was applied to, 
 and three, I think — the Baptist, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist 
 — consented that the meetings should be held in their respective 
 chapels alternately, along with Mr, Hinds's, and handbills were 
 issued accordingly. This arrangement was afterwards altered, because 
 it was thought by the ministers who were to conduct the meetings that 
 such changes would be a great hindrance to their success. 
 
 **2. Mr. Bookless, I was informed, was applied to; but he expressed 
 himself unfavourable to the meetings. 
 
DISCOURAGEMENTS AND ENCOURAGEMENTS. 
 
 239 
 
 ** 3. I never heard of anything said or done by you or Mr. Morison 
 having in the least degree a. tendency to expose the authority of the 
 Secession Synod to contempt, or impede the usefulness of Mr. Book- 
 less. 
 
 "4. I am most thankful to say that the meetings in each place 
 where they were held were attended with very much success, and in no 
 place, I believe, more so than in Maryport, and the results have been 
 permanent in a remarkable degree. 
 
 " I am grieved and astonished that your having taken part in these 
 meetings should have exposed you to rebuke from any quarter. How 
 lamentable it is that endeavours to promote the spiritual interests of 
 our fellow-men should be met with opposition from any body of pro- 
 fessing Christians. — I am, dear sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 *' Wilfrid Lawson." 
 
 The complaLnt of the Presbytery of Annan and Carlisle 
 was duly sent on to the Clerk of the Presbytery of Lan- 
 cashire ; but all action in the matter was delayed on account 
 of Mr. Guthrie's continued absence from the meetings of 
 Pi'esbytery through indisposition. 
 
 But besides these trials through offended brethren and 
 weak health. Mr. Guthrie was not \sdthout his troubles in 
 his own church at Kendal. He had thought it to be his 
 duty to expound to his stated congiTgation the new views 
 which had caused such commotion in Scotland, not from a 
 love of controversy, but simply because he could not exhibit 
 the Gospel which he had lately found for his own. soul in 
 any other light than this — a Saviour for all, and therefore 
 for thee — a Righteousness for all, and therefore for thee* 
 The result was that, while the great mass of the people 
 sympathised with him as to his doctrines and his Presbyte- 
 rial strivings, a few influential members of the church 
 opposed him, and gave him no little trouble. He debated 
 ^vith them in private, and found some of them to be as rank 
 Antinomians as ever breathed and boasted. They galled 
 liim not a little by their misrepresentations of his doctrines, 
 which they were not backward to publish both in his own 
 diurch and throughout the to^vn. 
 
 Yet even in the congregation in the Wool-pack Yard 
 there were causes of encoiu-agement which more than 
 counterbalanced these internal annoyances. Mr. Guthrie 
 had this advantage in an English tovm which could not 
 generally be enjOyed in Scotland, that when he stood up for 
 a Universal Atonement, the gi'eat mass of the inhabitants 
 were prepared to sympathise with him. The Thirty-nine 
 Articles of the Church of England are much more liberal 
 
240 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 than the Westminster Confession of Faith. Wesleyanism 
 had a good hold in Kendal, and Wesley's creed was even 
 more liberal than Morison's was at this time. Besides, it 
 so fell out that there was dissatisfaction in another Church 
 in Kendal at the time. Some wealthy gentlemen belonging 
 to it, hearing of Mr. Guthrie's troubles, sympathised -with his 
 doctrinal contendings; and being ill at ease where they were, 
 they began to attend at Wool-pack Yard. Their presence 
 served greatly to cheer the young minister then sore at heart, 
 both on account of his bodily condition and ecclesiastical 
 prospects. Ultimately several of these fresh hearers were 
 abl^ to render material aid when a new chapel required to 
 be built. 
 
 We may perhaps also be allowed to state that Mr. 
 Guthrie's own relatives in Kinross-shire, although always 
 kind and sympathising, let him understand plainly enough 
 that they thought it very foolish of him to link his fortunes 
 indissolubly with those of his friend James Morison. But 
 Jesus Christ was more to the Kendal hero than James 
 Morison ; and he determined for His sake and the Gospel's 
 to "know no man after the flesh," not even the nearest and 
 dearest. 
 
 Another source of jDleasure remained for Mr. Guthrie dur- 
 ing this winter and spring — namely, literary composition, and 
 that on the darling theme of the glorious Gospel of the 
 blessed God. We refer to two elaborate pamphlets which 
 were both issued before the meeting of the Synod in May ; 
 the preface to the first being dated " Kendal, 2 5 tli February, 
 1843." The second followed in a few weeks. The author 
 had intended, originally, to issue only one publication ; but, 
 as frequently happens, his work had grown upon his hands 
 in the performance ; and, the cheap pamphlet form being 
 thought the most suitable in these days, when the earnest 
 authors had their eye on the salvation of souls by the press 
 as well as the pulpit, two separate issues were made in close 
 succession upon one another. Hitherto, although Dr. Mori- 
 son's case had been before the public for two years, Mr. 
 Guthrie had kept silence, in so far as authorship was con- 
 cerned. But now God's Word was " as a fire in his bones," 
 and he could refrain no longer. What immediately induced 
 him to lift up his pen was the publication, by the Synod's 
 Committee, of their Declaration as to Errors Condemned. 
 He proposed to himself to take up the whole case Doc- 
 
MR. GUTHRIE S TWO PAMPHLETS. 
 
 241 
 
 trinally, Systematically, and Ecclesiastically. By that three- 
 fold division, he meant that he would first follow the Com- 
 mittee through all the eight articles of their Condemnation, 
 doctrine by doctrine ; secondly, that he would show how 
 their theology conflicted with a consistent system of divinity ; 
 and, thirdly, that he would reply to the chief objections that 
 had been made to the " new views," as they were called, dur- 
 ing the previous ecclesiastical, synodical debates. The first 
 pamphlet, of eighty-four closely printed pages, with notcF;, 
 was entirely devoted to the discussion of the first topic ; 
 Avhile the second pamphlet, of seventy-four pages, was occu- 
 pied with the second and the thii-d. We have already learned 
 from Mr. Guthrie's own account of the matter how im- 
 portant and unex2)ected a part the two publications played 
 in the settlement of his case. 
 
 These rich tractates fanned finely the controversial flame 
 which had now been burning throughout the country for two 
 years, and constituted a valuable addition to the early litera- 
 ture of the Evangelical Union. Here was a fresh and finely 
 cultured mind occupying itself with the very themes which 
 had already been handled by the powerful and practical pens 
 of the Morisons and Mr. Rutherford of Falkirk. Although 
 not quite so deeply learned as James Morison, John Guthrie 
 could nevertheless render his pages formidable with apt 
 quotations from the Fathers and the Reformers ; while lus 
 residence across the border seems to have made Mm familiar 
 Avitli the wprks of the best English Congregational authors. 
 Besides, his style was pdetical, and, here and there, truly 
 eloquent. Moreover, he had newly come to see the ti'uth 
 himself; and every now and then he forgets the Marshalls, 
 and Robertsons, and Erasers, and takes delight in opening 
 up the riches of divine grace to the inquiring or heedless 
 soul. He seems, in these days, to have greatly delighted 
 in the illustration of a rebel army and a pardoning king. 
 "When he comes to the Synod's article on Atonement, he 
 represents the King's son as sufiering for the rebels, even 
 for them all. When he comes to faith, it is the rebel believ- 
 ing that the kind prince had sufiered for him. • And as to 
 the rebel praying before he believed, he asks, Why should 
 he do so, and put ofi" his reconciliation, when the king is 
 praying him to be reconciled through what the prince has 
 suffered ? — Ever and anon the earnest evangelist of Kendal 
 grows oblivious to the Synod and deals with the sinner, — 
 
242 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION, 
 
 thus showing that he was putting himself into antagonism 
 with the Synod for the sinner's sake. We noticed an in- 
 teresting footnote to the discussion on prayer, which puts in 
 a clear light the errors which Mr. Guthrie and his brethren 
 sought to combat in their arguings on this point — 
 
 "Hence, to the question — 'What must I do to be saved?' the 
 Apostles invariably replied, ' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and 
 thou shalt be saved. ' And who in Kendal, you ask, does anything 
 else ? I do not know ; but surely it was not of their own accord that 
 a band of Sabbath-school children, gathered from all parts of the town, 
 persisted for weeks and months in meeting the question, ' What must 
 you do to be saved ? ' — with the erroneous repl}', ' We must pray.' A 
 little boy of great scriptural knowledge, on giving this answer, had 
 the question put to him a second time, when he replied, ' We must 
 get a new heart.' He made yet another attempt, and replied, * We 
 must get the Holy Spirit within us,' and then had to be told, what, 
 amid all his scriptural attainments, seems never to have been taught 
 — ' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.' " 
 
 The pamphlets were somewhat quaintly entitled iV^ew; Views, 
 True Views, and New Views, How Met. Mr. Rutherford, 
 as we have already seen, had taken the lead at Falkirk, the 
 year before, by entitling his pamphlet, New Views not New, 
 hut Old and Sound. In the second one, Mr. Guthrie struck 
 upon a fine original vein of truth, which as yet had been 
 little opened up in connection \vith the controversy. Dr. 
 Marshall of Kirkintilloch had called attention, at the Sy- 
 nod of 1841, to the fact that God had all along restricted 
 . his grace, as he termed it, first to the patriarchs, then to the 
 Hebrews, and latterly to favoured Gentile nations, and 
 among these to a yet more favoured few. In reply, Mr. 
 Guthrie sketched Jehovah's dealings with man, first from 
 Adam to Noah, then from ISToah to Moses, and finally from 
 Moses to Christ, shedding a golden lustre of grace on what 
 the Kii'kintilloch divine had represented to be but gloomy 
 hills of darkness. Especially did he show that Judaism was 
 hedged round with a wall of restriction, not to keep out 
 humanity, but to keep out corruption — a most important 
 difierence — for the stranger was always welcome within the 
 gate of the covenant ; and it was literally true of the Mosaic, 
 as afterwards of the Christian dispensation, that " whoso- 
 ever was willing might come." Even grave and reverend 
 seniors — men advanced in the Christian life — who read the 
 striking exposition, concluded that the Goliath of Kirkin- 
 tilloch had met his match in the stripling of Kendal, and 
 that the stones gathered in the purling brook of the water 
 
DR. Guthrie's account of his own case. 243 
 
 of life were more effective in the tlieologic encounter than 
 the weighty weapons of Westminster and the pretentious 
 and jingling accoutrements of Geneva. 
 
 But now the Synod of 1843 came ominously on; for Mr. 
 Guthrie began to feel that his ecclesiastical destiny for life 
 would be decided there. It was quite true that his inter- 
 course with his own Presbytery of Lancashire had always 
 been of the most agreeable and amicable kind. They had dis- 
 cussed all the knotty points of the atonement controversy 
 at their successive meetings, but in quite a friendly spirit; 
 and so much did his co-Presbyters respect and love Mr. 
 Guthrie that they were literally afraid lest they might be 
 compelled to take judicial action against him. That necessity 
 was, happily for them, obviated by the fact that Mr. 
 Guthrie's case was purely a synodical one, having been dis- 
 posed of simjdiciter during the Synod's meeting. 
 
 Mr. Guthrie knew very well that the miserable little 
 reference from the Annan and Carlisle Presbytery about 
 the Maryport Evangelistic service would have been tossed 
 overboard almost without a hearing by the Lancashire 
 Presbytery at their meeting in J uly ; but he had a shrewd 
 suspicion beforehand that the month of May would see him 
 an excommunicated man. He knew that the case of Mr. 
 Rutherford was to be brought up before the Synod at Edin- 
 burgh, and he had made up his mind to protest against Mr. 
 Rutherford's excision if his appeal was decided on the merits 
 of the atonement controversy. We have already seen that 
 the case was so decided; and we have now to let our readers 
 know how Mr. Guthrie's brave dissent brought about his 
 own expulsion. 
 
 As but meagre notes were published of his trial, and not 
 being ourselves thoroughly acquainted with all the particulars, 
 we have proffered to Dr. Guthrie the request that he would 
 furnish us with an account of the sadly interesting pro- 
 ceedings. We are certain that our readers will congratulate 
 themselves on the fact that we have received the following 
 graphic narrative of his valiant contendings for Christ's 
 truth from Dr. Guthrie's fluent pen : — 
 
 "A few brethren of very liberal sentiments, — one of whom 
 was very prominent in those atonement controversies, another 
 of whom some time after left the body and is now a minister 
 of the Established Church — occupied the same hotel with 
 
244 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UXION. 
 
 myself during the sittings of the Synod in Edinburgh. We 
 had much fraternal talk and consultation together ; and in 
 particular as to what shape to give our reasons.for the dissent 
 we had entered against the decision suspending Mr. Ruther- 
 ford. "We agreed to draw up reasons severally, and then 
 compare notes, that we might see if we could not agree to 
 adopt one set in common. I could not accept any of theirs 
 on the ground, as I strongly represented to them, that they 
 were so innocently vague and pointless as to involve no testi- 
 mony whatever on the point of issue, and would be accepted 
 by the Synod without causing a wrinkle on any brow. I 
 then read my reasons, which in turn, none of them would 
 accept, saying that they saw no reason for precipitating them- 
 selves point blank against the decision of the Synod. I then 
 replied that I would hold by my own reasons, and leave them 
 to take what course they chose. Whether they read theii' 
 reasons or not, I forget ; I think some of them did. But 
 that was the end of it. They remained in the body without 
 further molestation. I presented my own, and was, as I had 
 too well anticipated would be the case, cast out. 
 
 " It was in the second week of Spiod that my case came 
 on. At the very commencement of it, a noteworthy incident 
 occurred. The ilev. Dr. Andrew Marshall, who had with 
 the utmost bitterness opposed Mr. Morison at the Synod of 
 
 1841, and propounded on that occasion the doctrine of 
 Limited Atonement after the hardest type, and who had 
 twice proved himself to be, on these high questions, as vari- 
 ous as the rainbow, took the opportunity at this ^^oint of 
 bringing his oscillations to an end. During the interval after 
 Mr. Morison's case till the next Synod of 1842, Dr. Marshall 
 compiled a treatise on The Death of Christ the Redemption of 
 his People, in which, having reconsidered his hard Limi- 
 tarianism of 1841, he softens it down into the compromise, by 
 this time prevailingly adopted — namely, that of the Double 
 Reference scheme above explained. During that Synod of 
 
 1842, accordingly, Dr Marshall walked a god, a sun amid 
 lesser stars. The great champion of the Voluntary Controversy 
 had now stepped in to reconcile and compose all differences on 
 the Atonement and charm the perturbed Synod into a great 
 calm by the magic of his name. It was not to be. Dr. Marshall 
 had undertaken a task beyond his ability to perform, and he 
 had stooped to methods little characteristic of him — those of 
 compromise. Many of the members of Synod, of all shades 
 
DR. MARSHALL S OSCILLATIONS. 
 
 245 
 
 of opinion, were not a little amused by his contradictory 
 utterances ; it not being in his natiu-e to avoid saying strong 
 things imder the head of both " References," or to avoid 
 running a coach-and-six through every pai-t of his attempted 
 compromise. In the element of compromise it was too clear 
 that he was a fish out of water ; and to his honour, he soon 
 discovered it. Here, accordingly, at the very point when my 
 case began, and with the evident intention of taking part 
 . with clean hands in my approaching ecclesiastical execution, 
 and do still sterner work against Drs. Brown and Balmer at 
 a subsequent Synod, he stood up, and formally, in a carefully 
 prepared speech, retracted his previous volume, declaring 
 that he was not ashamed to do so, — that the gi'eat Augustine 
 had not blushed to publish his Retractiones, and as little 
 woidd he. He thus relapsed into old Limitarianism, and 
 published in the following year a new volume of the same 
 size as the former one, entirely superseding and in gi-eat part 
 contradicting it, and falling foul of Dr. Wardlaw and kindred 
 writers, under the arrogant title of The Catholic Doctrine of 
 Redemption Vindicated. Having recovered himself, he kept 
 to this old position mth grim honesty and tenacity, and 
 fought hard battles for it in the Synod, till events ripened 
 into his own separation from the body a few years later. 
 
 " My case, of course, arose out of the reasons of dissent 
 which I read. It was otherwise a perfectly clean and purely 
 synodical case, unencumbered with presbyterial difficulties, 
 personalities, subteiTanean committees, or other complica- 
 tions, beginning and ending as it did in that second week of 
 Synod. It was very amusing to see the difficulty in which 
 the Synod were placed by ha^Tug to base their proceedings 
 against me on my reasons of dissent. They were uncomfort- 
 ably narrow and sharp-edged, and much too precarious as a 
 basis on which to rear such a superstructure. But, fii^t of all, 
 it is time to cite my reasons of dissent. They were these : — 
 
 * First, Because the alleged error, on the ground of which Mr. 
 Rutherford was suspended by this Synod, is not an error; for if the 
 atonement, as an atoiiement, secures the salvation of one, it must, as 
 an atonement for all, secure the salvation of all. But it does not secure 
 the salvation of all, there being many for whom it was made who 
 finally perish. Therefore the atonement, as an atonement, cannot 
 strictly be said to secure salvation to any. 
 
 ' Seco'iul, Because Mr. Rutherford distinctly admitted, in his reasons 
 of dissent given in at last meeting of Synod, and subsequently in his 
 statement of doctrine laid upon the table of his Presbytery, and further 
 in his XJleadings at the bar of Synod, at its present meeting, that, 
 
246 
 
 HISTORY OF . THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 vieived in connexion with the divine purpose of application, the atone- 
 ment does secure the salvation of all who shall ultimately be saved.' 
 
 " When these reasons were read in the open Synod, the 
 members looked at one another. Then one after another 
 began to speak, in the way of thinking aloud. Most gladly 
 would they have let them pass, and be done with ; for they 
 were tired of cases, and wished from their hearts that the 
 whole controversy were now hushed up. But how, they 
 asked, can we permit these reasons to find record in silence 1 
 They flatly contradict the Synod's decision. They declare 
 point blank that what the Synod had declared an error is not 
 an error. If we let this pass we shall stultify ourselves. And 
 yet these reasons alone constitute a basis uncomfortably 
 sharp-edged and precarious. What, then, shall we do 1 
 
 At this point a happy thought struck one of the senior 
 members of court — the E,ev. Mr. Pringie, of Newcastle. 
 Holding up in his hand my two pamphlets, recently pub- 
 lished, he said that Mr. Guthrie had, it was supposed or 
 presumed, vented in these heretical matter ; and he accord- 
 ingly moved the appointment of a Committee not only to sit 
 on Mr. Guthrie's reasons of dissent, but also to sit on his two 
 pamphlets, and report to the Synod. The basis of procedure 
 having been thus commodiously widened, the Committee sat 
 with comparative comfort, and, after a brief and formal 
 interview with myself, of which I remember nothing worthy 
 of notice, they hatched the cockatrice report which sealed 
 my ecclesiastical fate. 
 
 " I may here state, in a single sentence, that this expedient 
 of tagging on to my reasons of dissent — which were all that 
 the Synod at that stage had any business or concern with — 
 a new ground of procedure, to eke out their scanty materials 
 of indictment — and a ground composed entirely of assumed 
 and supposititious matter, and vamped up at the instance of 
 an individual member of Synod — was as gross an act of 
 ecclesiastical tyranny as any church court could commit. It 
 was worthy of the worst days of the Inquisition. I wish to 
 put this solemnly on record, at the distance of thirty years, 
 when all heat and resentment have long died away, as my 
 deliberate judgment, were death to meet me next moment, 
 of the character of this procedure at the instance of Mr. 
 Pringie. There are those still living, not a few, who were 
 present at that Synod, and I invite them to confute or con- 
 tradict this my declaration, if they can see their way to do so. 
 
THE synod's want OF JUSTICE. 
 
 247 
 
 That they meant anything inquisitorial, I do not affirm : 
 some of them might ; but the bulk of them were much too 
 Kberal and honourable to mean any ^uch thing. I believe 
 that in this thing they knew not what they did. It was at 
 the fag-end of a Synod. They were tired of the whole strife. 
 They probably saw that I had become inflexible and un- 
 manageable, and that only by amputation could I be properly 
 disposed of. This mean supi)lementary expedient was sug- 
 gested to them. It was unconstitutional, inquisitorial, and in 
 the last degi'ee abominable ; but they did not see it to be so, in 
 the intense light in which they saw it to be so timely and 
 handy, and therefore ignominiovisly adopted it. I use these 
 strong terms advisedly, as my final testimony on the subject ; 
 for they are true. Not a soul in that Synod had ever dealt 
 with me in regard to my paiiiphlets. No preliminary action 
 bad ever been takgn ^vith. me about them by my own session, 
 or congTegation, or Presbytery. No libel, or notice of libel, had 
 ever been served upon me. Not the least intimation had ever 
 been given me that any exception would be taken to these 
 pamphlets till I heard it with my own ears in the open 
 Synod. Even then, Mr. Piingle, I distinctly remember, did 
 not specify one single point on which I had printed error ; 
 but contented himself with sapng that the pamphlets were 
 presumed to contain erroneous matter. By whom, he did 
 not say. The whole was uttered on the strength of his own 
 ipse dixit He might have been my bitterest personal enemy, 
 which I am sui^e he was not ; or he might have been narrow 
 and incapable, which I am sure he was. One thing is certain, 
 his was the first and only voice uplifted against my pamph- 
 lets ; and that voice was vagueness itself — a mere presump- 
 tion and insinuation, without one point adduced or reason 
 alleged. And, on the strength of that vague, solitary, 
 unauthoritative voice, the Synod there and then appointed 
 a Committee, not only to deal with my reasons of dissent — 
 which they had a perfect right to do — but to fish up errors 
 out of my pamphlets — which at that stage and in that form 
 they had no right whatever to do. 
 
 " The report of the Committee was duly handed in. I invite 
 the reader, if he has patience, to compare that part of it 
 which deals with my reasons of dissent, with these reasons 
 themselves ; and if he does not see in my reasons (be it, if 
 you will, that ' I speak as a fool ') straightforward simpli- 
 city, clearness and self-consistency ; and in their answers to 
 
248 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNIOX. 
 
 my reasons, perplexity, sophistry, misrepresentation, and 
 confusion worse confounded. I shall be very much surprised. 
 Here is that part of their report which relates to my reasons 
 of dissent ; the rest need not trouble the reader : — 
 
 * The Committee find that Mr. Guthrie, in his first reason of dissent, 
 maintains that what the Synod has declared, in the case of Mr. Ruther- 
 ford, to be an error, is not an error : and has thus placed himself iu 
 direct opposition to the deliberatt and solemn finding of this Court. 
 
 * The Committee find that Mr. Guthrie, in his second reason of dis- 
 sent, admits that, "viewed in connexion with the divine purpose of 
 application, the atonement does secure the salvation of all who shall 
 ultimately be saved;" but the Committee, while looking upon this as a 
 highly important admission, do not regard it as bringing the views of 
 the Dissentient on the subject of atonement, into unison with the 
 Standards of our Church. 
 
 ' The Committee submit that the doctrine of the United Secession 
 Church is, that the atonement of our TiOrd Jesus Christ secures the 
 salvation of a definite number, as certainly as it opens the door of mercy 
 to all, and, consequently, that it is as much an error to affirm that it 
 does not secure the salvation of any, as it would be to afiirm that it 
 does not open the door of mercy to all ; and the Committee further 
 submit that the error involved in the statement *' that the atone- 
 ment, viewed in connection with the divine purjjose of application, 
 does secure the salvation of all who shall ultimately be saved," 
 lies in this, that it represents the atonement as nothing more than 
 a ground or channel on or through which God purposed to bestow, 
 and therefore will certainly l)estov/ in the case of many, the blessings 
 of salvation. The statement involves no recognition of the atonement 
 as being made by the Sou, on the faith of a promise on the part of the 
 Father, to give him a numerous sijiritual seed, in consequence of which 
 the atonement of the Son when made, and not merely the purpose of 
 the Father to apply it, secured infallilily the salvation of all who shall 
 ultimately be bipught to glory. 
 
 ' The Committee submit that the doctrine of our Church on this 
 point is, that the salvation of a fixed number entered into the purposes 
 or designs of God in the appointment of a Redeemer — and further, that 
 the atonement made by the Redeemer being fulfilment of covenant 
 engagements between him and the Father, has infallibly secured, or 
 rendered infallibly certain, the justification, sanctification, and glori- 
 fication of the spiritu&,l seed he was to see on his making his soul a 
 propitiatory sacrifice. ' 
 
 " I was allowed till next day (May 10th), when my case 
 came on at the evening sederunt. Every part of Broughton 
 Place Church, was thronged with spectators. After due 
 preliminaries, I bega.n my defence about five or six p.m. 
 This was followed by several hours of interrogation in the 
 open Synod. The bulk of the questions v/ere on the order 
 of the divine decrees. One member of Synod, in particular, 
 dealt largely in such questions ; to whom, at one point, I 
 
MR. Guthrie's calmness of mind. 249 
 
 said that, as his task was the comparatively easy one of 
 putting such questions -^thout limit, without being ques- 
 tioned in turn, I should be glad to meet him, time and place 
 convenient, and have question about with him, and discuss 
 these high points on equal terms. This drew down the 
 galleries in a heai-ty cheer ; which, in its turn, drew down a 
 solemn and emphatic rebuke on the strangers present, and 
 the threat on rej^etition to clear the house. I here pay the 
 moderator, the Rev. Andrew Elliot, the grateful tribute of 
 putting it on record, that, while the interrogation was going 
 briskly on, he stopped it for a moment to say, that, as I was 
 manifestly evincing the utmost candour in replpng to the 
 questions put to me, he deemed it due to me to state, for 
 my guidance, that though all the members of Court were free' 
 to put to me what questions they chose, I ought, throughout, 
 to -consider myself quite as free to answer or not answer any 
 question, as I might judge meet. One question by the Kev. 
 James Gilj&Uan, of Stirling, came in like a jet of living water 
 in a desert. It was this — ' Would Mr. Guthrie be prepared 
 to say to any individual man he met, Christ died for you?' 
 I replied, that I hailed a question like this amid so many of 
 a dreary and barren character, and rejoiced in the oppor- 
 tunity it afforded me of testifying in this crowded house, 
 that I feel, not only free, but bound to say to any and every 
 sinner, Christ died for you ; and that if I could not tell them 
 this without faltering, I should be keeping back from them 
 the Gospel. This also elicited audible appreciation from the 
 galleries. 
 
 " I may here state that, during the whole of these trying 
 hours of interrogation, which rolled on till past midnight, I 
 never felt more thoroughly at home in my life. I was braced 
 up to the emergency. There was not the least flutter or 
 excitement. I felt perfectly calm ; an entii-e absence of con- 
 fusion ; and no further excitation than merely such as was 
 requii-ed to bring up my mind to intense presence and work- 
 ability. Interrogation, even on tha abstruse metaphj^sics of 
 theology, was no trial. Still less was point-blank opposition. 
 Least of all was abuse. The one trial I felt throughout my 
 case, and throughout all the iim-ecorded contendings at Synods 
 •and elsewhere, during that agonizing period from 1841 to 1843, 
 arose from the kindness of brother ministers, and especially 
 of venerated fathers of the church. One would intercept me 
 at Broughton Place, before entering the Synod door, and, 
 
250 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 putting his arm in mine, say, ' Come, let us have a stroll 
 for five minutes.' He would then,tn conscious and sincerest 
 kindness, remonstrate with me, and ask if I was going to 
 throw up my position and prospects, and all the fair fruits 
 of my long novitiate, and make myself a victim for mere 
 words ; to which I replied, ' No ; I was not leaving the body, 
 or proposing to do so ; but if the Synod were going to deal 
 with me about words, it was they that were about to victimize 
 me, and not myself, and they thereby showed that it was not 
 for mere words, but for substantial things which these words 
 were presumed to express.' Another — a venerated professor 
 — dwelt much on the danger of my being carried away by 
 generous instincts, and poured in fatherly remonstrances 
 which, however wide of the true mark, I could not but re- 
 spect as affectionate and sincere. But I had got too pro- 
 foundly convinced, and too deeply interested in the vital 
 points in dispute, to feel one moment's hesitation in regard 
 to the path of duty. 
 
 " The interrogations ended, motions ^jro and con were made, 
 and speeches delivered. Much personal kindness was ex- 
 pressed in many of these. Professor Harper expressed him- 
 self very much in this vein. So did Dr. Joseph Brown, then 
 of Dalkeith, now of Glasgow ; and also the late Bev. James 
 Young, of Dunfermline, who made a motion in my favour. 
 Most fervid and warm-hearted of all in my defence was my 
 old co-presbyter and highly esteemed friend, the Bev. Dr. 
 Skinner^ of Blackburn. These and other expressions of kind 
 and brotherly interest on that occasion I never had almost 
 any opportunity of acknowledging ; but I profoundly felt 
 them at the time, and will hold them in cherished remem- 
 brance to my dying day. 
 
 " The motion for my suspension, as a predetermined result, 
 was the one that carried. To this I immediately responded 
 by reading a declaration protesting against the decision, and 
 expressing my determination to preach the Gospel as if no 
 such decision had been come to. After tabling this declara- 
 tion, I left the S3mod at one of the short hours of the morn- 
 ing, and had not reached the door till I heard the sentence 
 of final deposition pronounced upon me in consequence, 
 accompanied with the usual interdict of pulpit intercourse 
 . with me. The sense of loneliness and desolation that crept 
 over me as I wended my way home to my lodgings, at that 
 dreary hour of the night, I make no attempt to describe. 
 
THE KENDAL CHURCH ADHERES TO HIM. 
 
 251 
 
 " Next day I wrote to Kenclal, acquainting the church with 
 the issue, and resigning my pastorate into their- hands; but inti- 
 mating my readiness, if they felt so minded, to return to them 
 in these altered circumstances, and labour among them in the 
 Gospel. I did not return to Kendal that week end, but left 
 them time and free scope to take what action they judged fit. 
 
 " In the course of a few days, my heart was cheered beyond 
 measure by gladdening news from Kendal. One of the lead- 
 inoj members of the church — a leadinej member still — thus 
 commences a long and interesting letter : — ',1 cannot tell 
 you the pleasure I feel in being able to send you the enclosed 
 memorials ; quite as much as you can possibly have in 
 receiving them. Your letter was read to a few of us at the 
 prayer meeting on Saturday evening, and it was considered 
 then advisable, that it should be read on the Sunday evening, 
 together with a notice of a church meeting for last night 
 (Monday, 15th May), at eight o'clock.' At that meeting 
 the opposition, who had left the church at difierent times, 
 made a muster. Had we only dealt with each at the right 
 time, or dropped them from the roll by default, there would 
 not have been one to mar the unanimity. As it was, there 
 was hardly more than one, the entire strength of the opj^osi- 
 tion lying in one man. Notwithstanding many plausible 
 things he advanced, he got only one to vote with him, in a 
 meeting where eighty or ninety members were present. A 
 memorial, or new call, was thus all but unanimously adopted. 
 ' You would be gratified,' says my correspondent, - if you 
 saw the feeling that all whom I have conversed with have 
 shown. I feel sure the Lord, who has dii-ected you hitherto, 
 will now be with us, and enable us to do all with a single 
 eye to his glory.' The follo%ving is the memorial, signed, in 
 that brief period, by nearly all the members of the church, 
 which reached me while yet in Kilmarnock, at the very 
 genesis of the Evangelical Union : — 
 
 'Kendal, 15^7z.J/ay, 1843. 
 
 'Beloved Pastor, — We, the undersigned members of the Scotch 
 Secession Church in Kendal, desire to unite with you in acknowledging 
 the gi-ace of our Heavenly Father by which you were enabled to make 
 so noble a stand in defence of the Gospel. 
 
 ' We heard with y)leasure in your letter to us, through Mr. James 
 Low, that you are willing still to continue our pastor; and we now 
 beg to assure you we earnestly desire your returning, that you may 
 continue to break the bread of life amongst us. We therefore invite 
 you to come and continue yQur office of pastor over us. 
 
252 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 * We are aware that this step will virtually sever us from a church 
 with which many of us have been long connected, and which we have 
 been accustomed to esteem and respect ; but as the interests of truth 
 demand the sacrifice, we cheerfully submit to it. We thank God for 
 what he has done by your instrumentality since you laboured among 
 us ; some of those whose names are attached have to look up to you 
 under God as their spiritual father ; others have been reclaimed from 
 a state of lukewarmness and apathy ; and all of God's children amongst 
 us will have reason to praise him throughout eternity for having placed 
 you in the midst of us. 
 
 * In conclusion, then, we beg to assure you, our dear pastor, that 
 our prayers shall ascend to our Heavenly Father for you, that you may 
 be increasingly blessed in your own soul, that yoM may be more and 
 more blessed to the people of your charge, and that multitudes of 
 sinners may be converted by your instrumentality; and for ourselves, 
 that, as a church, we may be more and more united in the bonds of 
 Christian love and unity, more radiant with all those gifts and graces 
 that the Spirit can alone impart, and more entirely devoted to the 
 service of our God and Saviour. 
 
 ' That the glorious expectation may ever animate you and us of 
 spending eternity together in praising that God in whose praise we 
 so imperfectly join here, is the desire, as it shall be the prayer, of 
 your attached friends.' 
 
 This was accompaiiied by a brief memorial, signed by a 
 few of the seat-holders ; and also by the following memorial 
 from a considerable number of the members of another 
 church in Kendal, to whom I have above alluded, who thus 
 threw in their lot amongst us, and proved a valuable infu- 
 sion of fresh blood to the church : — 
 
 'Kendal, 15^AJ(/ay, 1843. 
 
 ' Dear Sir, —We have felt that, in the circumstances in which we 
 are placed, it is not advisable that we should take part in the meeting 
 of your church, to be held this evening; and we have therefore met 
 together to deliberate, in order to fix upon a course of conduct, which 
 we trust may be in unison with the decision to which your people may 
 come this evening. 
 
 ' We beg to tender to you our united approval and esteem, and to 
 state that we consider your conduct throughout your late trying posi- 
 tion to have been such as ought to insure our continued and increased 
 attachment and support. 
 
 * Accept, dear Sir, our united expressions of interest in your tem- 
 poral and spiritual welfare, of the high esteem in which we hold the 
 privileges we have enjoyed under your ministry, and many of us in 
 communion with your church, and of the hope we cherish that nothing 
 may retard your return to Kendal, and establishment here as a faithful, 
 devoted, and successful labourer in the vineyard of our Lord. 
 
 ' We look forward with anticipations of pleasure to your return to 
 Kendal, and to your again labouring in word and doctrine among a 
 flock over which, we feel assured, the Holy Ghost has made you over- 
 seer. And it will afford us much pleasure to form a .part of that flock, 
 
THE OPPOSITION OF THE MINORITY. 
 
 253 
 
 and by our prayers and exertions promote the cause of our beloved 
 Redeemer in our own hearts, and in the world around. 
 
 ' Our own convictions of the proper form and mode of church 
 government, we, of course, preserve; but we are anxious that such 
 arrangements may be made as will secure the greatest unity of thought, 
 feeling, and action. And, for this purpose, we are prepared to concede 
 ■what it may be consistent with principle, on our parts, to give up. 
 
 * We leave our cause in the hands of our Heavenly Father, feel- 
 ing assured that if we commit ourselves unto him, and acknowledge 
 him in all our ways, he will direct our paths. And may the blessing 
 of God rest upon you; may he keep you from evil; may he strengthen 
 and establish you; and may it appear in coming days that you have 
 been a chosen vessel to bear his Gospel, and to proclaim it in its fulness 
 and freeness among us. ' 
 
 " The Sabbath school, with its teachers, came over to us 
 bodily, as the church already had in reality done ; for the 
 few who made theii' stand against us when the crisis came 
 long ceased to have actual connection with the church. Nor 
 is it likely that they would have taken action at all, but for 
 their hope that the whole movement under me would break 
 do\sTi, — especially as my health had so seriously failed that 
 they could, as some of them did, remonstrate not without 
 effect with my friends on the absurdity of commencing a ' 
 new church under Mr. Guthrie, who wordd, in all proba- 
 bility, within a few months be in liis grave. It said much 
 for the strong principle and loyal affection of the Kendal 
 Church that they remained almost to a man proof against 
 these influences. We left the old chapel to the miserable 
 remnant ; and considering that we had, only a few weeks 
 before, put in a heating apparatus at a considerable expense, 
 around which they could have all congregated without re- 
 quiring any space fui-ther, and taking into account many 
 other things beside, the sacrifice was a little trying to the 
 patience. On my return, a comfortable hall was ready for 
 me, where, for the next eighteen months, we worshipped, the 
 place being generally full, and to which we attracted not a few 
 passers-by, who stepped in, became interested, and in due 
 time j oined the church. Among these was one who is still alive, 
 waiting for her release, at the age of well nigh a century. 
 
 " The Lancashire Presbytery met in Kendal on the 24th 
 and 25th May, and sent me extracts from their minutes, 
 which convey a fair and correct idea of the situation ; the 
 only exception I should take being as to the numbers re- 
 spectively — 'about 100 out of the 130 members of the 
 church' — leaving the impression of a much larger minority 
 
254 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 than there really was. The following is worth inserting 
 from the minutes of their second meeting : — 
 
 * The Presbytery, having entered into lengthened consideration of 
 the circumstances of the congregation, found— ^ 
 
 *1 That about 100 out of above 130 members of the church had, 
 within three days after the Synod's decision, drawn up and signed a 
 memorial to Mr. Guthrie, requesting him to continue to be their pastor, 
 and that with this request Mr. Guthrie had complied. 
 
 '2 That these memorialists had peaceably withdrawn from the 
 place of worship, and resolved to assemble in another apartment as a 
 conereffation; justly considering that, according to the provisions of 
 the trust deed "of the chapel, they had no legal right to its possession 
 
 ' 3 That there are still a few persons who are attached to the 
 principles and discipline of the Secession Church, but that, from the 
 smallness of their number and other circumstances, they are unable to 
 sunport ordinances, except through the liberal aid of the Synod. 
 
 * 4 That there is a debt of £440 on the chapel, tne interest and 
 £20 of the principal of which must be paid yearly; and that the 
 maioritv of the trustees, who have gone with the retiring party, offer 
 to take the chapel with all its obligations, and, if the proposal be 
 declined, they request to have their connection with the trusteeship 
 
 ^^^'^That^'in these circumstances, the Presbytery deem it their duty 
 to remit the whole case to the consideration of the Synod's committee 
 on home missions, and to urge an immediate determination of the 
 matter, so that due notice may be promptly given to all concerned. 
 
 " The Presbytery acted honourably ; but the remnants in 
 the old place temporised with our just and honourable pro- 
 posal, either to take the old chapel, and rid them of all its 
 liabilities, or to quit it, and be on our part rid of responsi- 
 bility—their hope evidently being that, by these embarrass- 
 ments, our movement would likely collapse, and the future 
 work in their favour. After some exasperating months, 
 durinf^ which our patience was sorely tried, we at last took 
 a resolute attitude and pressed them to decision; when they 
 chose to retain the old chapel with all its burdens. We 
 then set our face to the new chapel project— the best alter- 
 native that could have fallen to us. To add to these 
 difficulties and perplexities, I had to leave for two months 
 at that critical period on the score of health, and as before 
 that I had preached, so had I to preach long after, m the 
 condition of an enfeebled invalid. After a few months I 
 laid the foundation of our new chapel, toward which by this 
 time we had raised about £700. It was opened amid joyous 
 cratherincrs and scenes, whose memory is to this day fresh in 
 Kendal, on the 16th October, 1844, on which occasion we 
 carried the amount of subscriptions up to about £1000, 
 
MR. Guthrie's subsequent career. 255 
 
 within £250 of the entire cost of the chapel. This sum, it 
 will be borne in mind, went much farther in those days than 
 it would do now. In connection with the opening services, 
 an interesting and most effective series of special religious 
 services was held by Messrs. Morison, father and son, the 
 fruits of which were gatliered in during the following 
 months. 
 
 " Delicate questions now and then occurred, considering 
 the different ecclesiastical antecedents of those who had com- 
 bined in the new movement ; but these were all amicably 
 adjusted in an element of free discussion and mutual con- 
 sideration. Unbroken peace reigned during all the rest of 
 my pastorate in Kendal — unless the natural difficulty at 
 first felt about my accepting a professorship in the theolo- 
 gical academy, considering the distance, and which was soon 
 adjusted, be considered a temporary exception. At length 
 I accepted an invitation to the pastorate of a church in 
 Glasgow not yet formed, and which was shortly after formed 
 with a membership of twenty-two, and has since grown into 
 the North Diindas Street Church, of which Dr. Morison 
 some time after, on my removal to Greenock, became pastor. 
 This was in November, 1848. I left Kendal under emotions 
 which I cannot attempt to describe. My sole reason for 
 leaving it at all was to be nearer the centre, for my academic 
 duties; > and to secure this object, I accepted the new 
 pastorate at one-third less of income. 
 
 " I may only add that, by a rare felicity, the church, shortly 
 after I left it, chose the Kev. William Taylor, under whom 
 it so prospered that first new galleries had to be put in, and 
 next the chapel enlarged to double its size. I had been 
 twice «is long pastor as any of my predecessors in Kendal ; 
 but Professor Taylor has already been more than twice as 
 long as I had been. I may only add that, during all our 
 trials and critical vicissitudes as a church, we never dropped 
 one of our extra missionary and other contributions ; and 
 that these were never larger than at the very time we were 
 going deep into our pockets for the new chapel." 
 
 We have inserted all this truly affecting and interesting 
 naiTative, even although Mr. Guthrie has carried the story 
 of his life a few years beyond the date of which we are treat- 
 ing. Our readers, we are certain, will agree with us that 
 the stand made by our honoured brother was truly heroic. 
 
256 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION 
 
 Although J ohn Guthrie and the Morisons were not lodged 
 in prisons, banished to the Bass Rock, or led out to the 
 gallows at the Grassmarket, they were not the less made 
 martyrs for the truth. They deserve to be honoured as 
 much as the Covenanters who died during the seventeenth 
 century by the pistol of the cavalier, or at the hands of the 
 executioner. With the lapse of two centuries the mode of 
 punishment had changed; but the sufferings of the con- 
 fessors, all things being considered, were just about as great. 
 No one can read Mr. Guthrie's touching reference, in the 
 foregoing communication, to the chilling sense of loneliness 
 that came over him when he reached the door of the church 
 and went out into the darkness, feeling, at that midnight 
 hour, that he had been separated for ever from the church of 
 his fathers, without being filled with sympathy for the con- 
 scientious sufferer, and without admitting that he had 
 manifested the very spirit which had thrown a halo of glory 
 around the moor of Drumclog and the ancient arches of 
 Bothwell Bridge. 
 
 Mr. Guthi'ie has not incorporated any of his Synod speeches 
 into the account which he has given of his case. As we 
 made a selection from the defences of his predecessors in 
 excision, we add one extract from Mr. Guthrie's address at 
 the bar of the Synod, delivered on the night of his separa- 
 tion. We must confess, however,, that the newspaper report 
 from which we quote is a meagre one : — 
 
 *'Mr. Guthrie then came forward, and, after some introductory 
 remarks, proceeded to examine the report of the Committee, which he 
 maintained to be in many instances a most incorrect statement of his 
 views. He expressed his surprise that the Committee had seized upon 
 the title of his pamphlet, The New Vieivs, Trite Views, as implying 
 an admission that some of his views Were new, and opposedifcto the 
 Standards. Pie denied the inference. While he would not love the 
 truth the less that it was new, he yet used the name * New views ' as 
 Paul used the phrase, ' The foolishness of preaching ' — as a name thrust 
 upon him, and not adopted by him — a name, moreover, which many 
 in the Synod, and even in the Committee, had freely applied to these 
 views. The report of the Committee embraced five points of doctrine. 
 On the first, relating to original sin, Mr. Guthrie maintained that the 
 Committee had mis-stated his views in reporting that he (Mr. Guthrie) 
 held that temporal evils and death were the only consequences of 
 Adam's sin, and that deliverance from these temporal consequences is 
 all for which dying infants are indebted to the Saviour. Mr. Guthrie 
 disclaimed both, and quoted from his pamphlet to the effect that dying 
 infants owe all to Christ, being saved on the ground of his atonement, 
 and confirmed in holiness to all eternity. . . . As to the special 
 love of God, Mr. Guthrie said that, if this meant that the atonement 
 
ADDRESS BEFORE THE SYNOD, 
 
 257 
 
 was a display of £jreater love, of deeper compassion, of more kindly 
 feeling towards those who believe and are saved, than towards those 
 who reject it and are lost ; or if it meant that the atonement, as an 
 atonement, was anything more to the elect than it was to the non-elect, 
 then Mr. Guthrie denied all such speciality ; and maintained that, to 
 hold forth this in connection with the atonement, was to becloud God's 
 love to the whole world, and to interpose between the sinner and God's 
 message as to an atonement * finished for him ' — what would act, and 
 did act, as a barrier to the sinner's entering into peace. In proof of 
 this doctrine, Mr. Guthrie quoted largely from his pamphlet, New 
 Views True Vieivs. The third point related to the object of faith, on 
 which Mr. Guthrie disclaimed certain inferences drawn by the Com- 
 mittee from isolated portions of his book. He held the express doctrine 
 of Dr. Brown, which he quoted from the Doctor's speech in Mr. Mori- 
 son's case ; and proved, by an extract from Mr. Paitherford's Kcv} 
 Views not New, that this sentiment was not, as the Committee affirmed, 
 opposed to the Synod's Declaration of Error. Mr. Guthiie stated that 
 eiTors were promulgated in the Secession Magazine on this point, which 
 it now disclaimed, but which he (Mr. Guthrie) was the first to impugn. 
 That error was the denial that the atonement was a proof of God's love 
 to'the world — an error which was held by not a few in the Synod, and 
 which he (Mr. Guthrie) was prepared to prove, time and place con- 
 venient, to be taught in a work to which members of Synod looked as 
 a great authority in this church. LIr. Guthrie held that the object of 
 faith was the atonement clearly seen by the sinner — the atonement as 
 exhibiting the character of God to the sinner. It was no bare abstract 
 proposition, but the truth apprehended in the simple message that 
 brought peace to the soul. The sinner's peace was thus wholly derived 
 from the atonement without him, and not from any graces within him; 
 and up to the moment when the sinner believed, or rather when he had 
 peace with God, his prayers were lifeless, his heart was cold. Up to 
 this stage of the sinner's experience, Mr. Guthrie maintained there was 
 no religion — there might be formality ; but he denied the existence of 
 any religion. So far from the sinner's sense of safety being derived 
 from holiness, holiness sprung from a sense of safety in Christ, 
 grounded on God's Word as to Christ's finished work. That work 
 was finished for the whole world — it was God's message of love 
 to every sinner; and woe to that man who withheld that truth. Mr. 
 Guthrie, on this point, also <)Uoted l-irgely from his New Views. The 
 last point related to human inability, on which Mr. Guthrie contended 
 that beheld by the principles of Calvinism, while many in the Synod 
 held the precise doctrine of the Arminian Methodists, as expounded by 
 Kichard Watson, and refuted by Dr. Payne. After further pleadings, 
 Mr. Guthrie concluded by leaving his case in the hands of the Synod, 
 in the hope that their decision would be so guided or over-ruled as best 
 to promote God's glory in the salvation of souls." 
 
 It was after the delivery of this address, as the newspaper 
 report bears out, that Mr. Guthrie was under cross-examina- 
 tion for upwards of two hours, as he has already described, 
 and the debate on his case continued till half-past one in the 
 morning. 
 
 S 
 
258 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UXIOX. 
 
 Doubtless our readers, like ourselves, have been surprised 
 once more, in perusing this narrative, in observing how 
 narrow was the issue on which Mr. Guthrie, like the 
 Morisons and Mr. Rutherford, had been expelled from the 
 church of his fathers. They held that Christ had died for 
 all, but a seed was secured to him through the effectual 
 application of his sacrifice by the Holy Spirit; and they were 
 expelled because they did not hold that, while Christ died 
 for all in a certain sense, he had secured a seed by d}dng for 
 them in a special sense. It is plain, we again allege, that 
 Dr. John Brown and his friends should never have frater- 
 nised with men like Wardlaw and James of Birmingham, if 
 they wished to be consistent in their prohibition of inter- 
 course with Morison and Guthrie, for these eminent men 
 held the very views for which the youths were ejected. 
 
 But we have already said that the great mass of the 
 ministers, although they must have been convinced that the 
 extruded brethren had much truth on their side, had come 
 to regard them as earnest disturbers of the peace, of whom 
 they wished to be quit. Perhaps they could foresee also 
 what really did take place — that, loving as tliey did the 
 universalities of their system much more than the inconsis- 
 tent shred of limitarianism which they still retained, the 
 young reformers would soon advance to that more consistent 
 Arminian creed which they subsequently espoused. Indeed, 
 it must have, been manifest to My. Guthrie's Synodical 
 interrogators that he had almost got that length already; for, 
 in a foot-note to the second edition of New Vieivs True 
 Views which he issued after his return to Kendal, he thus 
 refers to some of the admissions which he had made when 
 subjected to the running fire of their close cross-questioning: 
 
 Only one point more I must refer to, and then I have done. It 
 was the subject matter of not a little interrogation in the Synod. It is 
 the question whether God equalh' and infinitely desires the salvation 
 of all. I avowed my belief that he did ; admitting, of course, that 
 more was done, and eternally purposed to be done, for one man or 
 nation, than for another man or nation, and that thus far accordingly 
 there was special kindness on the part of God, and special gratitude 
 due for that grace which makes us to differ. But I at the same time 
 maintained, that while God is free as a Sovereign to dispense his 
 favours as he will, yet, as a God of infinite love, he is regulated in 
 dispensing these favours by a regard to the highest good of his moral 
 empire as a whole ; and that, therefore, whatever be the reasons why 
 God has done more for one man or nation than for another man or 
 nation (and we do not enter into these : enough for us to know that 
 
DOES GOD REALLY LOVE ALL MEN ? 
 
 259 
 
 they are infinitely wise and benevolent), it cannot be because God has 
 less love for one than for another — that is, less desire for their happi- 
 ness, less aversion from their ruin. It cannot be ; for ' God is love,' 
 and therefore infinite in love. Hence, when a man perishes, it is not 
 because God loves him with a love less than infinite ; it is not because 
 he has less desire for his happiness than for that of others; but because 
 infinite love — love guided by wisdom and rectitude, otherwise it would 
 not be infinite — love on the largest scale, that takes everything into 
 account, and consults for the highest good of the universe as a whole 
 — it is because such love cannot do more for his salvation than it has 
 .done. 
 
 *' To Drs. Marshall and Ritchie, especially the latter, the above 
 sentiments, if I may judge from their questions in the Synod, seemed 
 peculiarly obnoxious. I would therefore ask them, and those who 
 think with them. Does God love all his creatures ? If he does, seeing 
 he is infinite in all his perfections, can his love, or desire for their 
 happiness, be less than infinite ? If they admit that he has love to all, 
 and that from the necessity of his nature that love must be infinite, 
 and yet insist that there is some superior desire for the salvation of 
 some, then I would respectfully hand over to Dr. ^I. his own question 
 to answer — the question which he somewhat tauntingly put to me in 
 the SjTiod as to ' what name I would give a love that was more than 
 infinite.' If they deny that God is infinite in love towards all, and 
 has an infinite desire for the happiness of all, and maintain, in accord- 
 ance with this, that God has not done all that in the circumstances 
 he might have done to save sinners — then, will they please to explain 
 the words, * As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death 
 of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his waj', and live ? ' Will 
 they explain the Saviour's tears over Jerusalem, and the accompanying 
 words, ' I would : but ye would not ' ? If these words mean less than 
 this, * / v'ould, and therefore did what in the circumstances I could ; 
 but ye loould not,' pray, what do they mean, and how are we to inter- 
 pret our blessed Saviour's tears ? "Will they explain the text, ' God 
 will have all men to he saved, and to come to the knowledge of the 
 truth'? or, should they cavil on the word all, will they explain 
 another which leaves no room for cavil — 'God willeth not that ANY 
 should perish ' ? 
 
 ' ' The Committee say, that I refer salvation to ' God's mere general 
 benevolence ;' I glory in the charge. My Bible tells me (John iii. 16) 
 that it was love to the world, love to all — that very love which thej'- 
 toss aside as 'mere general benevolence' — that gave me Christ as the 
 propitiation for my sins. That love was not the less /or 7;i<f that it 
 was a ' general benevolence.' Yea, it is because it is general, because 
 it is universal, that I, as a vile hell-deserving rebel, can see that it is 
 forme. Welcome then, thrice welcome, ^mere general benevolence,' 
 as expressed in the suff'erings and death of God's own Son, ' giving his 
 flesh for the life of the world ! ' If I cannot adventure my soul on 
 thee, let me be eternally accursed ! The only stay of my soul, 
 thou shalt henceforth be the grand theme of my preaching ! I will 
 teU any and every sinner, God loves thee, for God loves all ; Christ 
 died for thee, for ' he died for all ; ' and the Holy Spirit is now exert- 
 ing all the influence that infinite wisdom and love can bestow, to bring 
 the sinner to * believe and live.' Oh when will men seriously contem- 
 
260 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 ^late a propifAatcd God? Not to know him is perdition*; to 'know 
 him' is 'eternal life.' (John xvii. 3.)" 
 
 Dr. Gutlirie has been kind to inform us that it was about 
 three months after the settlement of his case — namely, in 
 August, 1843 — that the consistent view of election which he 
 has ever since held flashed upon his mind when studying 
 these words; — "But ye are a chosen generation; a royal 
 priesthood ; an holy nation ; a peculiar people : that ye 
 should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out 
 of darkness into hi^ marvellous light" (1 Pet. ii. 9). He 
 then saw that men were chosen in Christ, not out of him 
 — that the Divine Spiiit was drawing all men to God, 
 and notably all gospel-hearers ; that they who jdelded 
 to the drawing were God's chosen ones ; and that thus 
 it was the duty of every man to become one of the elect 
 of God. 
 
 Dr. Guthrie mentions in the foregoing communication 
 that he did not go straight home to Kendal, but tarried for 
 a week in Scotland. We have now to inform our readers 
 that when his harassing Synodical struggle was over, he 
 proceeded to Kilmarnock, and enjoyed much hallowed inter- 
 course with the pastor of Clerk's Lane congregation, who 
 would welcome him doubtless with greater cordiality than 
 ever as a fellow-exile, or rather as a fellow-freeman, whom 
 the trial in Edinburgh as well as the truth of the Gospel 
 had made free. Mr. Guthrie preached with much accep- 
 tance in his friend's pulpit on the succeeding Sabbath ; and 
 one of the discourses which he delivered on the occasion is 
 remembered to this day. He took for his text the words 
 of the prophet, " O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of 
 the Lord" (Jer. xxii, 29). He seemed literally to revel 
 in the liberty which he now enjoyed, to proclaim a 
 world-wide Gospel, in his Heavenly Master's name, to all 
 mankind. Mr. Morison entered the pulpit when the dis- 
 course was ended, and made a few observations, by way of 
 following up the discourse, which were so striking that 
 they also are still remembered. He said, "It is not, O 
 heaven, heaven, heaven, hear the. word of the Lord, for 
 heaven has heard it already. Nor is it, O hell, hell, hell, 
 hear the word of the Lord, for hell's opportunity is past. 
 But the proclamation is addressed to 'the inhabitants of the 
 earth, and they are three times urged with eager earnest- 
 ness, because they stand between heaven and hell, and 
 
THE FORMATION OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 261 
 
 shall dwell in either the one or the other, according as they 
 receive or reject the call." 
 
 But Mr. Guthrie had gone to Kilmarnock to do yet more 
 interesting work than to pay a friendly visit or occupy a 
 brother's pulpit. He was to take part in the formation of 
 the Evangelical Union during the following week. We 
 must, however, reserve our account of these important 
 proceedings to another and separate chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 Formation of the Evangelical Union — The Original Statement of 
 Principles — Iti) Liberality as to the Work of the Spirit — Kames of 
 the Founders — Public Meeting in Kilmarnock — Ordination of Eev. 
 David Drummond at Kihnainock — First Session of Theological 
 Academy at Kilmarnock — Brief Notices of Professor Hunter and 
 the other first Students — Alexander Forsyth— Mr. Morison, Sole 
 Professor. 
 
 We have now come to a very interesting j^oint in our 
 denominational history. Hitherto we have been occupied 
 with the origin of the Evangelical Union.' We must now 
 speak of its formation. 
 
 It had been clearly foreseen that both Mr. Kutherford of 
 Falkirk, and Mr. Guthrie of Kendal, would be ejected by the 
 Synod of 1843 ; and arrangements had been made for the 
 formal organisation of a new religious connection, which 
 would have for its basis the Scriptural principles for which 
 the four ministers had contended, the particulars of whose 
 successive depositions from the ministry ^\■e have, in the 
 foregoing chapters, detailed in theii- order. The numbers of 
 the little band were now complete. No other appeals re- 
 mained to be taken up. The Synod had cast forth all the 
 recalcitrant members. Only a quaternion came forth at 
 that time from that Egypt. 
 
 Let not the founders of the Evangelical Union be thought 
 divisive and schismatic in their adoption of this measure. 
 It was forced upon them. No other resort was left. They 
 wished to remain in the church of their fathers, preaching the 
 truth as God had revealed it to them ; but that privilege was 
 denied them. And, now, what can they do but draw closely 
 together to one another, and form a new association of their, 
 own 1 — ^few, but fervent ; lonely, but loving ; frowned on by 
 
262 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 man, but smiled on by God ; poor, but destined to make 
 many rich. 
 
 It was on Tuesday, the 16th of May, 1843, that these 
 ejected brethren met together in Kilmarnock. The worthy 
 pastor of the Bathgate church, Mr. Morison, sen., brought 
 two of his elders as delegates to the conference ; while Mr. 
 Rutherford brought one of his from Falkirk. Mr. Guthrie, 
 owing to the great distance from his Westmoreland fold, 
 had no representative from his congregation present, — so that 
 all the other members of this first, or rather this embryo 
 Conference, consisted of a selection from the elders of the 
 Clerk's Lane church, with representatives from one or two 
 little branch churches which had been already formed from 
 the parent stem in neighbouring towns in Ayrshire. 
 
 The vestry in which the brethren met was on the ground 
 floor, and communicated with Mr. Morison's manse. It 
 would not contain more than thirty people when crowded. 
 Mr. Andrew Stewart, and Mr. Nichol Cameron, respected 
 laymen in the town of Kilmarnock, yet survive of those who 
 were present as deeply interested sympathisers and friends. 
 
 The little company sat round the room, Mr. Guthrie 
 occupying a seat near the window, and officiating as secre- 
 tary. It is from the minutes which were signed by him that 
 we know what was done on this interesting occasion. Hev. 
 Kobert Morison of Bathgate occupied the chair, as being the 
 senior minister present ; and the meeting having been consti- 
 tuted by devotional exercises, Mr. James Morison produced 
 and read the draft' of a doctrinal basis or statement of principles, 
 which he had prepared in prospect of the meeting. As this 
 summfiry has been superseded by a longer and more elabor- 
 ate instrument, it may interest many of our readers who 
 have never seen it before if we should insert it here : — 
 
 "We, the undersigned Christian Brethren, representatives of Chris- 
 tian Churches, and others, having met together at Kilmarnock, May 
 16th, 17th, and 18th, 1843, for the purpose of praying and conferring 
 together about the best means of being useful in the service of our 
 dear Redeemer, have agreed to form ourselves into an association under 
 the designation of the 'Evangelical Ukion,' 
 
 "The objects of our Union are mutual countenance, counsel, and 
 co-operation in supporting and spreading the glorious, simple, soul- 
 saving and heart-sanctifying ' Gospel of the grace of God.' 
 
 "The nature of our Union is strictly voluntary. 
 
 "The members of our Union comprise all brethren who choose to be 
 associated with us, who have 'peace with God,' and give decided evi- 
 dence of being ' new creatures in Christ Jesus,' and who can concur 
 
FIRST STATEMENT OF PRIXCIPLES. 
 
 263 
 
 with ns in the following great principles, which great principles consti- 
 tute the basis of our Union. 
 
 "[N.B. — AVe wish it to be distinctly understood that the following 
 statement of great principles is not to any degree, or in any sense to be 
 regarded as a permanent or present standard book in the churches 
 with which we are connected ; neither is it to be a test or term of 
 communion in any of these churches. The Bible is the only standard 
 book which we recognise, and to no other standard book whatsoever 
 can we subscribe.] 
 
 " "We hold that the Bible is the Book of God, and that, amongst other 
 important truths, it reveals to us, 
 
 "1st, God's character as our Sovereign Governor. 
 
 "2nd, Our duty as the subjects of his government. 
 
 '* 3rd, Our state and character as rebels against the authority of his 
 government. And, 
 
 " 4th, The way of salvation by which we and all our fellow-rebels 
 may be delivered from the penal and demoralising consequences of our 
 rebellion. 
 
 God's character is made known to us in that definition of 
 Giod — ' God is love ' (1 John iv. 8-16). Love or benevolence then is the 
 moral chai*acter of God ; and as God is necessarily an inlinite being 
 — infinite in all his perfections, his character is accurately expressed 
 in these words, * Infinite Benevolence.' Since this is the moral char- 
 acter of God, it follows that all God's moral attributes are but particular 
 manifestations of infinite benevolence. His grace or favour is his 
 benevolence toward the undeserving. His mercy is his benevolence 
 toward the hell-deserving. His anger is his benevolence wounded. 
 His justice is his benevolence toward his whole empire, displaying 
 itself in the securing of the interests of the great whole, at the expense 
 of the interests of those parties who have made themselves pests in the 
 universe. His wisdom, too, is just his infinite benevolence directing 
 his infinite power, and directed by his infinite knowledge. His holi- 
 ness, also, is summed up, like ours, in one word, Love ; and, conse- 
 quently, when it is said, ' God is light ' (1 John i. 5), or * God is 
 purity, ' or ' God is holiness, ' there is but a different sound for the same 
 sense that is brought out in the proposition, ' God is love. ' 
 
 *' II. Our duty as the subjects of God's government is summed up 
 in that word, j'love' (Rom. xiii, 8-10 ; Gal. v. 14). It consists of 
 that benevolence, which assimilates our character to the character of 
 God, and which is enjoined upon us in the ten commandments (Exod. 
 XX. 1-17), or more summarily still in those two commandments of the 
 Saviour, on which 'hang all the law and the prophets,'— supreme love 
 to God, and love to every one of our neighbours, enemies, and others, 
 such as we bear to ourselves (Matt. xxii. 37-JO). Obedience to this 
 moral law constitutes our holiness (1 John iii, 14), and if that obe- 
 dience were^perfect, it would be a complete fulfilment of our duty. To 
 such complete holiness it is our anxious wish, and it shall be our 
 constant endeavour, to attain ; desiring, as we do, to seek supremely 
 the promotion of God's interests and glory, and, subordinately, the 
 interests of the souls and of the bodies of all our fellow-men. 
 
 "III. As to our state and character as rebels against the authority 
 of God, we and all our fellow-men are totally guilty, and totally 
 depraved. "We are so guilty as to be hell-deserving (Eph. ii. 3). "We 
 
264 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 are so depraved as to be hopelessly so, until brought under the influence 
 of ' the truth as it is in Jesus ' (Kom. iii, 9-20). 
 
 " IV. As to the way of salvation by which we and all our fellow- 
 rebels may be delivered from the penal and demoraliising const quences 
 of our rebellion, we learn irom the Book of God that it originated ia 
 God's infinite benevoh nee. 'God so loved the world,' of course the 
 whole uoHdy 'that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
 believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life ' (John 
 iii. 16). God, then, because of his infinite benevolence toward the 
 whole world ; and no doubt also for the purpose of benefiting the 
 whole universe (Eph. iii. 10), by- displaying the exceeding evil of sin, 
 the immovable stability of his government, and ' the breadth and 
 length, and depth and height of his love,' sent his Son Jesus into our 
 world ' in the likeness of sinlul flesh ' ' to condemn sin ' — all sin — ' in 
 the flesh ' (Eom. viii. 3), and to be a yn opitiation for the sins of the 
 whole world,' without distinction and without exception (1 John ii. 2). 
 This propitiation being effected by 'God manilested in our flesh,' has 
 shown God's infinite detestation of sin, as being in its nature ruinous 
 to the w ell-being of the universe ; his determination to put a stop to 
 it, in order that the holy happiness and happy holiness of the universe 
 niay be secured ; his infinite compas.sioji tor our race ; and his infinite 
 desire for our complete recovery from the tifects of our transgressions. 
 It has, moreover, so comjiletel}'^ exhibited God's mind in reference to 
 the desert of sin and the nec< ssity of holiness, that it has more than 
 counterbalanced the evil which our race, by its rebellion, must have 
 inflicted on the great moral empire of God. This being the case, and 
 the propitiation laeing made (or every sin of every sinner in the world 
 (1 Tim. ii. 1-6 ; John i. 9-29), God is now ready to pardon every 
 sinner, who, by believing his record regarding this propitiation, is 
 brought into a state in which his hai)py holiness and his holy hap])i- 
 ness are secured (Acts xvi. 31; Kom. i. 16). 
 
 "This simple tielief of God's record regarding the propitiation, in 
 the true sense of that record, immediately and in every case produces 
 'peace with God' {i.e., peace in the prospect of meeting God), which 
 peace is invaiiably followed by ' rejoicing in hope of the glory of God ' 
 (Eom. V. 1, 2). This ' peace with God ' arises from the nature of the 
 truth recorded by God and believed by the sinner, and is prior to any 
 reflection upon the act of the mind in believing, or upon the morally 
 tiansforming eflFects of the truths believed. The same truth, however, 
 that thus immediately produces 'peace with God' is of such a nature 
 that it necessarily produces a revolution in the heart of the believer — 
 a change from the love of sin to the love of holiness — a ' a new crea- 
 tion after the image of God,' a transformation into that love to God 
 and that love to man which is our duty, and constitutes our holiness 
 (John xvii. 17; Gal. v. 6). It is because the truth believed neces- 
 sarily has this effect, that God has at once made the belief of it essen- 
 tial to our pardon (for pardon without 2^unty secured would be no 
 blessing), and has also made the simple belief of it the only thing on 
 our part essential to the immediate enjoyment of pardon. 
 
 "In order that all sinners may derive peace and purity from the 
 knowledge of this proidtiation, the Holy Spirit, a third divine sub- 
 sistence in the Godhead, has in infinite love and condescension, given 
 a record of it, and of other truths reflecting light upon it, in that Book 
 
THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE SPIKIT's WOliK. 265 
 
 called the Bible, and which we thus hold to be the Book of God. 
 Through means of this book ; and through means of institutions which 
 he has appointed in it ; and through means of the holy men who, by 
 this book, have been led to throw their iniiuence in the world into the 
 scale of the religion of Jesus ; and also, through means of innumerably 
 diversihed circumstances in creation and providence — all tending to 
 lead the sinner to the knowledge of God propitiated — the Holy Spirit 
 is using all the influence that our circumstances will admit of to bring 
 sinners to believe, and to bring all believers into closer contact with 
 that truth, or rather system ol truths, that sanctities as well as saves.* 
 In using this influence he is no 'respecter of persons and, although 
 circumstances permit much more to be done for one nation than for 
 another, and for one man than for another, yet he equally desires the 
 salvation and sanctilication of all (1 Tim. ii. 4 ; 2 Pet. iii. 9 ; Isa. v. 4 ; 
 Acts vii. 51), and does for each all that in the circumstances he can. 
 Were he doing less good than in the circumstances he could, he would 
 not be infinitely benevolent ; and to suppose this would be to contra- 
 dict the great dehnition of Godhi-ad, *God is love.' 
 
 "It is manifest from all that has been said, that it is entirely in 
 cc^isequence of the Holy Spirit's influences that any sinners do believe, 
 and that all believers do grow into conformity to the image of Jesus. 
 Faith is 'the gift of God,' in every instance (Eph. ii. 8). It is 'by 
 grace ' — pure, free, infinite grace — that ' believers are what they are ' 
 (1 Cor. XV. 10). it is that grace that makes them to difl'er (1 Cor. 
 iv. 7 ; and thus unto God alone we attribute the whole glory of every 
 sinner's conversion, and every believer's sanctitication. 
 
 "As it is obvious, moreover, that whatever God does in time he 
 from eternity purposed to do, it is manifest that the glorious results 
 of the entire influence employed by the Spirit were present to the mind 
 of God from all eternity." 
 
 This document is most interesting and important, since it 
 shows both the philosophy and the theology of the men who 
 subscribed it thirty years ago. Our readers wijl all observe 
 that, for the first time, a distinct and consistent deliverance 
 is here given fortli on the universality of the influences of 
 the Holy Spirit. When the controversy commenced, Mr. 
 Morison §ind his brethren, as we have repeatedly observed 
 in the course of these historical notices, avowed themselves 
 moderate Calvinists — that is, while they maintained that 
 the sacrifice of Calvary had been oflered up for all men, 
 they conceived that every case of conversion was brought 
 
 * The influence which the Holy Spirit employs, both with believers 
 and unbelievers, we conceive to be entirely moral in its nature. It 
 appears to us as incongruous that moral agents should be morally 
 aflected by physical, mechanical, or abstractly direct influence, as that 
 mere material substances should be physically aftecied by moral power 
 — that is, the power of motives. "VVe hold that the Spirit draws only 
 by truth (John vi. 44, 45), and that he is doing all that the circum- 
 stances will admit of to draw all men (John xii. ^2). 
 
266 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 about by a conferment of irresistible or invincible grace, 
 bestowed on the individual thus changed and withheld from 
 the unconverted. ' Now, however, we see that they have 
 advanced to the much more consistent and defensible posi- 
 tion of universal and resistible grace — one, too, which is 
 harmonious with the entire spirit and aim of their three 
 years' struggle with the church courts of the land. 
 
 We need not quote the succeeding pages of the Statement 
 in w^hicli the brethren gave forth their views of Church 
 government. Suffice it to say, that they advocated purity 
 of communion, the appointment in each community of elders 
 and deacons, and the "breaking of bread" as "frequently 
 as possible." We give the closing paragraph, with the 
 signatures attached — 
 
 " Being united together by the bond of the great leading doctrines 
 of the Christian revelation regarding the character of God ; the duty, 
 natural state, and character of man ; and the way of salvation ; as 
 already explained ; and being also entirely of one mind as to the minor 
 and subordinate principles, regarding the organisation of churches, 
 just referred to ; we deem it important to constitute ourselves into a 
 Union for the purpose of countenancing, counselling, and otherwise 
 aiding one another ; and also, for the purpose of training up spiritual 
 and devoted young men to carry on and to carry forward the work and 
 * pleasure of the Lord,' AVe hail as ' true yoke-fellows ' all of every 
 name and denomination who wish that work and pleasure to prosper, 
 and who have 'peace with God,' and evidence their possession of this 
 peace by the purity and spirituality of their lives. That they and we 
 may enjoy for ever, and in all our wa.ys, the counsel and the smile of 
 our heavenly * Abba Father, ' is the heart's desire, and shall be the 
 continual prayer of the following ' Uxi ovists:' 
 
 "(Signed) 
 
 "Egbert Mokisox, Presiding Pastor of the Church in Bathgate, 
 
 "Alex. C. Kutuerford, Presiding Pastor of the Church in Falkirk, 
 
 "John Guthrie, Presiding Pastor of the Church in Kendal. 
 
 " James Morison, Presiding Pastor of the Church in Kilmarnock. 
 
 "Alex. Forsyth, Evangelist. 
 
 " "William Walker, Delegate from Falkirk. 
 
 "Robert Hunter, Delegate from Bathgate. 
 
 *' Andrew Mungal, Delegate from Bathgate. 
 
 "Hugh Peden, Delegate from Galston. 
 
 "William Paton, Delegate from Galston. 
 
 "James Richmond, Delegate from Darvel. 
 
 "Thomas Adam, Elder, Kilmarnock. 
 
 "John Peden, Elder, Kilmarnock, &c., &c., &c." 
 
 The brethren had been employed in the prayerful study 
 of this first statement of principles, sentence by sentence 
 
"WHY CALLED "THE EYAXGELICAL UNION." 267 
 
 and clause by clause, during the whole of their diets on 
 Tuesday and Wednesday; and it was only on Thursday 
 forenoon that the work of conference was ended. In the 
 afternoon they partook of the Lord's Supper in Clerk's Lane 
 Chapel, along with a great company of Christian people 
 belonging to Kilmarnock and its neighbourhood. The Lord 
 himself seemed to be in their midst, and to breathe over 
 them his " Peace be unto you ! " In the evening the chapel 
 was filled to overflowing. Rev. James Morison occupied 
 the chair, and addresses befitting the occasion were delivered 
 by Mr. Morison, sen., Mr. Guthrie, and Mr. Rutherford of 
 Falkirk. The people in the town, as an intelligent corres- 
 pondent infoi-ms us, forget all that the other speakers said, 
 but have a very distinct recollection of the address given by 
 Rev. A. C. Rutherford. His subject was the extent of the 
 Atonement, and he introduced with immense power into 
 his speech the pathetic lamentation of Mary in the garden 
 of the Arimathean — " They have taken away my Lord, and 
 I know not where they have laid him." He argued that, 
 according to the limited system, he could not find his 
 Saviour. His Saviour had been taken away. He had been 
 robbed of his Lord. But, on the principle of a universal 
 atonement, that Saviour drew near to him, named him by 
 his name, and drew forth the adoring response, " Rabboni, 
 which is to say, Master." 
 
 It deserves to be noticed that in adopting the name 
 " Evangelical Union," the founders of our little denomina- 
 tion did not act under the influence of an arrogant or self- 
 important spirit. They did not mean to say that they alone 
 were " evangelical," as that word is conventionally under- 
 stood, and that all others were anti-evangelical. The Greek 
 scholar knows that the word evangel means tJte Gospel ; and 
 all that was intended was this, that the imion formed was a 
 Gospel union, as distinguished from other important associa- 
 tions, the bond of whose fellowship might be some tenet of 
 ecclesiastical polity or some ordinantial distinction. The 
 fact was that the brethren did not like the name " Mori- 
 sonian," which their enemies had fastened on them as a 
 nick-name, and therefore they sought out a prominent and 
 characteristic substitute. We remember distinctly hearing 
 the late Mr. Morison of Bathgate say in private that not 
 only was this the case, but, fearing lest the name " Evan- 
 gelical Unionists " might be too long and inconvenient for 
 
268 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 ordinary usage, they introduced the appellative " Unionist " 
 into the closing sentence of their Declaration ; and in the 
 crowded public meeting in Kilmarnock with which this con- 
 ference closed, again and again they, of design, called them- 
 selves " Unionists," hoping that they might be able to float 
 that euphonious, but, it must be confessed, too little dis- 
 tinctive name into general acceptation. 
 
 Such were the Origin and Formation of the Evangelical 
 Union of Scotland. We may call this lower room of Kil- 
 marnock (" upper " would be incorrect) the cradle in which 
 the ecclesiastic child was first rocked, or the tiny fountain- 
 head whence issued the goodly stream in whose refreshing 
 waters many weary souls do now rejoice. And as travellers 
 ^o to see the house in which a great man like Burns was 
 born, or the spring in the hill-side where a river like the 
 Clyde takes its rise, so the plain and unadorned session- 
 house in Kirmarnock is worthy both of a historian's descrip- 
 tion, and of a devotee's reverent visitation. 
 
 But although we have now described the' bo7ia fide forma- 
 tion of the Evangelical Union, our narrative is not yet 
 complete even of those initial contendings which laid the 
 foundation of the religious body known as the Evangelical 
 Union. Any physical geographer, professing to give a full 
 account of the Mississippi's course, would need to include 
 the Missouri in his description; because, while the latter 
 stream is content to let its name be lost in that of the other, 
 which may either be called its rival or its sister, it really 
 contributes fully one-half of the volume of water to the 
 united flood. In like manner, just about a year after the 
 formation of the Evangelical Union, events transpired 
 among the Scottish Independents which resulted in about as 
 large a tide of influence being poured into the infant river of 
 the Union as it had originally consisted of It will be our 
 •duty now to narrate these incidents in detail, but in that 
 kindly spirit which those amicable relations should engender 
 which have recently sprung up between us and some of the 
 respected gentlemen who took part in these proceedings. 
 
 Before advancing, however, to these events of 1844, it 
 will be necessary to say a little about two interesting cir- 
 cumstances which transpired as the summer of 1843 advanced 
 — namely, the first ordination of a minister in connection 
 with the Evangelical Union, and the first session of the 
 Kilmarnock Theological Academy. 
 
THE REY. DAVID DRUMMOXD. 
 
 269^ 
 
 We have already seen that as many as fifty people would 
 travel, either by waggon or on foot, on a Sabbath day, from 
 the comparatively populous town of Galston, to hear Rev. 
 James Morison preach in Kilmarnock. As months rolled 
 on, the distance of five miles was felt to be burdensome ; and 
 seeing that several scores of the people sympathised witk 
 the new doctrines in the town, it was ultimately agreed to 
 form a separate church there. The edifice in which the little 
 society assembled at first was a very humble one, and much 
 surpassed by the respectable chapel in which they now wor- 
 ship — being, in fact, only two weavers' shops converted into 
 one. The Lord, however, who blessed the company in 
 Pentecost's upper room, blessed the little band, and what 
 Avas more, sent them a teacher after his own heart. 
 
 It might have been thought almost impossible to provide 
 such a 'boon as a minister of the Gospel for a church among 
 a people Avho had just been disowned by one of the large 
 denominations of the land; but the Lord does not always 
 cast ofi' when his people do. It so happened that the Rev. 
 David Drummond was officiating as the minister of th& 
 Wesley an Association Church, meeting in Croft Hall, Kil- 
 marnock, about the time when matters came to a crisis with 
 Mr. Morison in that town. Mr. Drummond had been 
 brought to the knowledge of the ti'uth in his native place, 
 the town of Leith, by the perusal of James Hervey's work, 
 entitled " Theron and Aspasia." He had been led to join 
 this branch of the Wesleyan body through two brothers 
 who were useful and acceptable labourers in its fellowship. 
 When Mr. Drummond went to Kilmarnock to preach his 
 trial sermon in the town, he carried with him a letter of 
 introduction to Mr. Morison from a gentleman in Leith, 
 who had read his works and sympathised with his doctrines. 
 The interview was the beginning of a friendship which, till 
 Mr. Drummond's lamented death, remained unbroken. If 
 Mr. Drummond could not get to hear Mr. Morison on the 
 Sabbath day, he was sure to be present at his lecture on the 
 Monday night. He has often described to us how he used 
 to stand wedged in at the top of the gallery stair among the 
 crowd that was wont to press, like the multitude at Gennes- 
 aret, to hear the Word of God. 
 
 Well, one Communion Sabbath, when many people were 
 standing outside of Clerk's Lane Chapel unable to gain 
 admission, Mr. Morison announced from the pulpit that 
 
270 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Kev. Mr. Drummond preached the very doctrines that he 
 preached in the Wesleyan Association Church in Croft Hall, 
 and that those who were standing without would hear a 
 good sermon if they would cross over to that meeting-place. 
 Several availed themselves of the opportunity, and were 
 much pleased with what they heard. The attention of the 
 Galston people was thus directed towards Mr. Dmmmond; 
 he was called to be their minister; and, seeing it to be his 
 duty to accept the invitation, his ordination thus became an 
 interesting event in the early histoiy of the Evangelical 
 Union, in the summer of 1843. 
 
 The day appointed happened fortunately to be a beautiful 
 summer day : for the little place of meeting could not hold 
 the great multitude which assembled from all parts of the 
 surrounding country. Mr. Drummond may be said to have 
 deserved the name of a field iweacher in a somewhat unusual 
 sense; for his ordination took place in a field at the top of 
 Orchard Street, Galston, where a platform had been erected 
 for the occasion. The Rev. Robei't Morison of Bathgate 
 presided ; and, besides the other ministers of the Evangelical 
 Union, Rev. Mr. Young of the Secession Church, Catrine, 
 and Rev. Mr. Weir of the Independent Church, Kilmarnock, 
 were present to show their sympathy with the proceedings. 
 We are happy to say that the Galston Church still flourishes 
 under the masculine ministry of the Rev. R, T. Gray; but 
 Mr. Drummond was suddenly called to his rest and reward 
 towards the close of the year 1874. He did good service 
 both by lip and pen to our cause; and the readers of our 
 various publications have often been edified and delighted by 
 his articles, distinguished by the signature " D. D." — letters 
 which may either stand for the initials of his name, or for 
 the cabalistic capitals of a theological diploma, which many 
 have worn who were not so fully entitled to wear it as he. 
 
 In the month of August, 1843, the first session of the 
 Evangelical Union Theological Academy was opened — Rev. 
 James Morison acting as sole professor. In deciding to hold 
 a short session for divinity students, of eight weeks, in the 
 season of autumn, Mr. Morison copied the practice of the 
 Secession Church in which he had been reared. The plan 
 had been found convenient in more ways than one. The 
 young men who studied divinity for two months in autumn 
 could also attend the Arts' classes at the University during 
 the \\dnter — thus materially shortening the period of study 
 
THE REV. PROFESSOR HUNTER. 
 
 271 
 
 ■without lessening materially the advantages of the student. 
 Teachers of schools, also, could attend the theological lectures, 
 while theii" classes were enjoying the annual vacation. 
 
 Mr. Morison had only four public students during this, 
 his fii-st session. It was with him, comparatively speaking, 
 the day of small things ; but this he did not despise, being 
 assured that the Lord would cause the tiny streamlet to swell 
 into a river. The names of this interesting quaternion were 
 Robert Hunter, Alexander M. Wilson, Henry Melville, and 
 James M'Millan. Our readers will recognise in the fii-st of 
 the four the much loved pastor of the church in Leitli, who 
 is also at the same time now the useful and accomplished 
 Professor of Hebrew to the Evangelical Union. Mr. Hunter 
 had enjoyed a very thorough course of training at Watson's 
 Hospital, Edinburgh, extending over a period of seven years 
 and a half. He had there acquired quite a scholarly know- 
 ledge of Latin and Greek ; but he had no expectation, till 
 he was made the subject of a remarkable spiritual change, 
 of pursuing any other vocation than the certainly hon- 
 oui-able, if onerous, one of a teacher of youth. He was 
 engaged in the instruction of a prosperous school in the 
 parish of Slamannan, near Bathgate, when he was enlight- 
 ened from. on high. First of all, he showed his strict con- 
 scientiousness by becoming a total abstainer, without having 
 heard any lecture or read any book on the subject, but 
 simply as the result of se'eing the piteous figure which an 
 ao:ed schoolmaster cut when he had made himself, through 
 intemperance, the sport of children. But, while considering 
 himself a Clmstian, he was nevertheless bitterly opposed to 
 what was called " Morisonianism " in his neighbourhood. 
 So much was this the case that he went to remonstrate with 
 a man of whom he heard that he had imbibed the doctrines. 
 Although the plain man was no match for " the master " in 
 argument, he had happened to say when defending himself 
 that "he did not love God before, but he loved him now." 
 This statement started the question in Mr. Hunter's mind 
 on his way home, " Do I love God ]" " Could I say that I 
 love God ?" So great did his distress become on discovering 
 that he did not possess that all-important experience (1 Cor. 
 xvi. 22) that he went the very next night to hear the 
 preachers whom he had been warning others against. There, 
 under an address by the late Rev. Robert Morison of Bath- 
 gate, an 1 John v. 11, he saw that " the gift of eternal life" 
 
272 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 had been made over to mankind-sinners as such, and that he 
 " made God a liar" if he did not believe it. When the meet- 
 ing was over he flew home to consult his Greek Testament, 
 to see if the preacher's representations were confirmed by the 
 original text. He rejoiced that night in the truth, as they do 
 who have found great spoil, and straightway began to desire 
 to spend and be spent for the Saviour whom he had found. 
 
 We have already had occasion to narrate the way by which 
 Mr. Wilson's mind was enlightened during conversation with 
 Mr. Morison in Kilmarnock. Like his fellow-students, Mr. 
 W. preached every Sabbath day while this first session of 
 the Academy lasted, his labours being specially prized in the 
 town of Ayr. Indeed he may be said to have founded the 
 Evangelical Union Church in that town. He also employed 
 the press in these early days as a means of doing good more 
 largely than any of his brethren. His tracts on "The 
 Opening of Lydia's Heart," and " The Elect — who are they*?" 
 would, we are certain, be much appreciated should they be 
 re-published now, after the lapse of thirty years. 
 
 Mr. Henry Melville was a very efiective speaker, and also 
 published a powerful tract entitled, " For what are you wait- 
 ing 1" He removed to Canada several years ago, and is 
 now, we are glad to say, labouring usefully among our 
 brethren of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, as we 
 have already had occasion to notice, in Union Town, Western 
 Pennsylvania. Mr. James McMillan died in the year 1849, 
 and was thus the first of our preachers who was called to his 
 rest and reward. 
 
 Besides these four public students, several earnest and in- 
 telligent laymen made such arrangements that they were 
 able to attend business and also be present at Mr. Morison's 
 prelections and examinations. These gentlemen rendered 
 important service to the cause by supplying pulpits in the 
 neighbourhood of Kilmarnock during the infancy of the 
 Union. We take pleasure in mentioning, as belonging to this 
 list in these early days, Thos. Brown, Esq., now on the staff of 
 the Birmingham Morning News, and J ames M'Whirter, Esq., 
 now in business in Manchester. Bev. Mr. Drummond also 
 attended as a private student. So did Mr. Alexander For- 
 syth, who, it would be observed, signed the first " Statement 
 of Principles" as an "Evangelist." This gentleman had 
 been a theological student in the Divinity Hall of the Seces- 
 sion Church, but had been called in question by the Stran- 
 
FIRST SESSION OF KILMARNOCK ACADEMY. 273 
 
 raer Presbytery on account of his sympathy with Mr. Morison. 
 He published an account of the proceedings in a pamphlet 
 entitled " Secession Oppression : By the Sufferer." Mr. 
 Forsyth Avas engaged by the large congTegation in Clerk's 
 Lane as missionary or evangelist. He sometimes preached 
 for Mr Morison when the latter required aid. He had a 
 singularly clear mode of stating the Gospel ; and also pub- 
 lished a tract, entitled " The ilansom Found," which was 
 made instrumental in bringing light to many dark minds. 
 Mr. Forsyth was likewise the means of largely reinforcing 
 the E. U. Church at Catrine, through a series of very suc- 
 cessful revival meetings which lie held in that village. 
 Falling into delicate health, however, he retired into private 
 life, and doubtless has continued to serve and glorify his God 
 as a Christian merchant. 
 
 Such was the first band of students that sat at Dr. Mori- 
 sOn's feet in the autumn of 1843. It must have been no 
 easy task for him to teach them every day 'of the week, and 
 his large congregation on the Lord's day too ; for he took no 
 help in these early days. But his constitution was vigorous 
 and elastic, and his Heavenly Father " supplied all his need." 
 His students, too, must have sometimes tried his temper; 
 for some of them were but raw hands at Greek and Hebrew. 
 Tupto, I stiike, presented such difficulties that they thought 
 of striking for relief ; and the verb with its suffix, ketalani 
 (he killed me), very nearly represented the truth of the case. 
 Bat at length the session came to a close, and the year wore 
 to its end, amid earnest pastoral and evangelistic work on 
 the part of both teacher and taught. 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 Progress of Congregationalism in Scotland — The Rev, John Kirk — His 
 youth at Bannockburn —Joins tlie Congregationalists —Preaches at 
 Alexandria — Is ordained at Hamilton — Indebted to James Morison 
 for Clearer Views as to the Oround of a Sinner's Peace with God 
 — Is the First to take Advanced Ground as to the Extent of the 
 Holy Spirit's Work — Publishes the "Way of Life" — Specimen 
 Extracts— His Views objected to — Defence of them — Light out of 
 Darkness — Action taken by the Congregationalists. 
 
 Having now fully, and as some may think too minutely, 
 detailed the origin of the Evangelical Union on the Presby- 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UXION. 
 
 terian side of the house, we must now address ourselves to 
 the task of tracing the rise and progress in the Independent 
 or Congregational churches of Scotland of sentiments and 
 sympathies favourable to the Evangelical Union, and which 
 eventually sent over to her little army a considerable contin- 
 gent of ministers, students, and congregations. 
 
 It is well known that Independency in Scotland is of 
 much later growth than Independency in England. The 
 latter began to assert itself as a power in the time of Crom- 
 well, and, owing to the political troubles of the time, assumed 
 a somev/hat national shape, and has always carried with it the 
 sympathies of a large body of the people. In Scotland, how- 
 ever, the Congregational form of church government acquired 
 a footing only towards the close of last century, and arose 
 in the land mainly as a jDrotest against the alleged corruption 
 of the Church of Scotland. Its first preachers and propa- 
 gators, Kev. Greville Ewing and the Messrs. Haldane (two 
 pious laymen whose hearts God had touched), gained for 
 themselves the name of " missionaries," for they perambu- 
 lated the country, as we have already remarked, crying 
 mightily to men everywhere '*'Ye must be born again." 
 This cry was at once the burden of their teaching and the 
 grand distinctive standard which they raised in Scotland. 
 They did not find fault with the theology of the Confession 
 of Faith. On the other hand, they accepted it as Scriptural. 
 Their mission was more religious and experimental than 
 theological and controversial. They found fault with pre- 
 vailing laxity of communion rather than with prevailing 
 errors in doctrine. We repeat it, they simply sought to 
 awaken the country with the call of Whitefield and Rowland 
 Hill, " Ye must be born again," without disturbing its theo- 
 logy ; and they founded churches from the Orkneys to the 
 Tweed, having this as their distinguishing characteristic, 
 that all their members professed to have experienced a spiii- 
 tual change, and to have passed from death to life. 
 
 Still, it could not but be expected that this earnest 
 expostulation with men would produce, at least in many 
 minds, a sympathy with world-wide theology, and send those 
 who burned with love to all the souls around them beyond 
 the fatalistic fetters of Genevan formularies. Especially did 
 this become apparent in the doctrines ultimately held and 
 taught by the eminent Dr. Wardlaw, who became one of 
 the tutors or professors of the Congregational Theological 
 
EARLY LIFE OF REV. PROFESSOR KIRK. 
 
 275 
 
 Academy in the thii'd decade of tlie present century. He 
 went tlie length of ^^reaching and publishing that J esus Chi'ist 
 died for the sins of the whole world. Even when Rev. John 
 M'Leod Campbell was expelled from the Church of Scotland 
 for maintaining Universal Atonement in 1831, Dr. Ward- 
 law boldly published his " Essays on. Assurance and Pardon," 
 in which, although properly disapproving of Mr. Campbell's 
 expression, that " all men were already pardoned through 
 the death of Christ," he virtually accepted his main position 
 that Jesus died for all, and that all who believed had assur- 
 ance of salvation, although he associated the latter blessing 
 with the mtness of the Spirit in the soul, and the good 
 works that accompany faith. In fact. Dr. Wardlaw, as we 
 have already stated, was a moderate Calvinist, just what James 
 Morison was when he was cited to the bar of the Associate 
 Synod ; only he was what would be called much more respect- 
 able in his maintenance of his views, and did not approve of 
 what many deemed the extravagant revivalism' of the Kilmar- 
 nock Presbj'ler. Several of the Congregational ministers 
 of the older school, especially in the north of Scotland, held, 
 that Christ died only for the elect; but we think we are safe 
 in saying that the majority of the ministers in the Lowlands 
 maintained Dr. Wardlaw's view, at the time of Mr. Morison's 
 trial, that Jesus had literally tasted death for every man. 
 
 But we must now turn the attention of our readers to the 
 career of one who rose in the bosom of the Independent 
 Church, and who was honoured to call the attention of his 
 fellow-countrymen to the world-wide work of the Spirit, if 
 not as learnedly, yet as fervently, as James Morison had 
 called their attention to the world-wide work of the Son of 
 God. We refer to the Rev. John Kirk, afterwards Pro- 
 fessor of Pastoral Theology to the Evangelical Union. 
 
 Mr. Kirk was born near the village of Bannockbum, in 
 Stirlingshire, and possibly may have unconsciously acquii-ed 
 a little of that heroic daring which the associations of the 
 place would be likely to implant and foster in a susceptible 
 mind. When he was a young man of nineteen years of age 
 he had been made serious by the deatli of a friend ; and at 
 that very time a movement was set on foot by some earnest 
 people to get a dissenting chapel built in the vUlage of Ban- 
 nockbum, the parish church of St. Ninians being at some dis- 
 tance. It was at the debates which were held in the village, 
 as to whether the new chapel should be in the Presbyteriiui 
 
2J6 HISTOKY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 or Independent interest, that Mr. Kirk first heard about 
 such a body of people as Independents or Congregationalists, 
 as well as of the Scriptural arguments which they adduced 
 in behalf of their peculiar opinions. The result of these de- 
 liberations was that, although the majority of the villagers 
 decided that the new church should be a Presbyterian one, 
 Mr. Kirk became acquainted with some pious Congrega- 
 tionalivsts, and began to accompany them on the Sabbath 
 day to the church of the Rev. Mr. Marshall, Congregational 
 minister in Stirling. Eventually he joined the church, and 
 found its minister to be a true friend. Mr. Kirk's first desire 
 was to become a missionary, and specially in the island of 
 Jamaica, as to which some interest had been excited at the 
 time in connection with the emancipation of the negroes. 
 Mr. Marshall, however, had his eye upon him for home ser- 
 vice, and dissuaded him from his West Indian scheme. 
 
 Having been reared in honest but humble life, Mr. Kirk's 
 educational advantages had not been great. But here a dis- 
 tinguished family struck in with Catholic and unsectarian 
 kindness. We refer to the Robertsons of Plean, who were 
 Mr. Kirk's near neighbours. Although they were Presby- 
 terians, and had voted with the majority as to the denomi- 
 nation of the Bannockburn meeting-house, they did not think 
 the less of their young opponent that he voted with the mino-^ 
 rity, and walked to Stirling to the Congregational church. 
 Indeed, their sympathies at the time were almost as much 
 with the Congregationalists as with the Presbyterians. The 
 parents were eminent Christians, and three of the sons were 
 studying to be ministers in the Secession Church. It is 
 som*jwhat remarkable that we found that the Rev. James 
 Robertson of Newington, Edinburgh, was James Morison's 
 fast friend ; and now, going back a few years and taking up 
 the case of John Kirk, we find that this very J ames Robert- 
 son gave the Bannockburn student gratuitous lessons in the 
 evening, when at home from College. He was not alone, 
 however, in these labours of love ; for his other two brothers 
 shared in them — the Rev. George Robertson of Busby, who 
 met with an early death, and the now highly distinguished 
 Rev. Dr. Robertson of Irvine. Indeed, the latter did more 
 than any other single individual in the matter of Mr. Kirk's 
 tuition ; and it was mainly through his aid that our friend 
 was able to enter the Senior Latin class in Glasgow Univer- 
 sity, without needing to. begin with the Junior. 
 
ZEAL OF THE CONGREGATIONAL STUDENTS. 2 i I 
 
 It could not be expected that Mr. Kirk would shine at 
 the University as a prize-taker in the language classes when 
 we remember that his early advantages had been meagre, 
 and also that his theological course was coincident with his 
 Arts curriculum — including the work of preaching as well 
 as studying. Yet his mental power came out in the philoso- 
 phical classes to his own surprise more than that of his friends. 
 Professor Buchanan of the Logic chair was always in the 
 habit of prescribing the subject of a prize essay to be written 
 during the Christmas holidays. In Mr. Kirk's year the topic 
 given out was " On the Faculty of Imagination." This 
 honour the Bannockburn student carried away from the 
 whole class. 
 
 Mr. Kirk was eminently serious when he commenced the 
 study of theology under Mr. Ewing and Dr. Wardlaw ; but 
 that seriousness deepened into a more thorough devotion dur- 
 iqg the second year of his academical curriculum. Nor was 
 he singular in that increase of consecration to the work ; for 
 the majority of his fellow-students shared in it. Again it 
 was a sudden death that had thrilled them all ; and at a 
 Chi'istmas meeting, in the house of one of their number, the 
 question was put, " Could nothing be done by us as students 
 to bring more of the outlying masses to the Saviour 1 " The 
 idea that seemed most feasible to them that night was, that 
 they should go out to the villages round Glasgow, when their 
 fii-st holiday came, two by two, like the Lord's first evan- 
 gelists. When the holiday arrived, however, the zeal of the 
 rest had somewhat broken down ; but six remained true to 
 their resolution, and these all concentrated their eflbrts on 
 one village, in which there seemed to be a providential open- 
 ing, and to which indeed they had been specially invited. 
 This was the village of .A.lexandria, in Dumbai*tonshire. 
 And to show the spirit in which they went to their work, it 
 may be mentioned that one of the six, as they walked from 
 Dumbarton three miles up the Yale of Leven, thinking that 
 they should not indulge in secular conversation, retired to 
 the other side of the road, praying for a blessing all the way. 
 
 A remarkable blessing was poured out ; and it is worthy 
 of being borne in mind that this awakening in Dumbarton- 
 shire preceded that at Kilsyth, and was quite independent 
 of it. The Lord seemed to be touching divers hearts at the 
 same time, and to be making them pant after usefulness. 
 These young men had heard, however, of the protracted 
 
278 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Hieetings in America, and they kept preaching every night 
 till the Sunday came round. On Sunday night they thought 
 they might be bold enough to ask anxious enquirers to re- 
 main, and when sixteen individuals did remain, they did not 
 know what to say to them ! Their first thought was to try 
 to make their escape from the scene, but the Lord gave them 
 courage, and gave them souls for their hire too ; and with 
 experience greater wisdom came. 
 
 It is not too much to say that Mr. Kirk, both at the be- 
 ginning of the Alexandria meetings, and at the subsequent 
 services which led to the formation of a church there, took 
 the lead, and was the corypheus among the young revival- 
 ists. However, he did not settle at Alexandria, although 
 many wished him to do so, but accepted a call to the Con- 
 gregational Church in Hamilton, where he was settled in 
 December, 1839. 
 
 The same zeal characterised his ministrations at Hamilton 
 as had made them memorable in the Yale of Leven. The 
 little chapel filled, and many inquirers sought the way to 
 Zion. Still, Professor Kirk has not complete satisfaction 
 in reviewing this the earlier portion of his ministerial career. 
 He was groping after a full knowledge of the truth, both for 
 himself as a sinner that he might know what to believe, and 
 for himself as a minister that he might know what to preach. 
 He entered the Theological Academy as a decided Limi- 
 tarian ; and, at the time of his ordination in Hamilton, a 
 Limit arian he still remained. But his own mind was both 
 confused and asjitated. He often felt that there Avas a terri- 
 ble contradiction between his creed and his preaching. When 
 he besought men to be reconciled to God, the perplexing- 
 question would rise up before him, But does God really 
 wish them to be reconciled, and are they really able to come 
 where they are and as they are?" He tried to get out of 
 the difficulty by maintaining this position in debates, more 
 or less formal, with his fellow-students — that whenever God's 
 people were earnest for a blessing, and prepared for it, a 
 blessing — that is, a special blessing — would come. He got 
 some, yet not complete or permanent, relief from this con- 
 sideration ; for it seemed almost to make the salvability of 
 sinners depend entirely upon the holiness and unitedness of 
 the Church of God. 
 
 His first true enlightenment of mind came from Mr. Mori- 
 son's trial before the Presbytery of Kilmarnock and Synod 
 
WHAT IS THE GROUND OF " PEACE WITH GOD" 1 279 
 
 of the Secession Church, or rather from the view of the 
 Atonement which Mr. Morison advocated in his books, 
 speeches, and private conversations. It may seem strange to 
 our readers that this should be the case, since Dr. Wardlaw, 
 at whose feet Mr. Kirk had sat, held the very view of the Atone- 
 ment which Mr Morison advocated at the bar of the Synod. 
 But Mr. Kirk informs us (in the private interview with which 
 he has favoured us, that we might be enabled to write 
 this chapter of our history) that in as far as he was concerned, 
 at any rate, the influence produced upon his mind by the 
 teaching of the two divines was very diverse. Dr. Wardlaw 
 never taught that because J esus died on the cross any sin- 
 ner, seeing the completeness of that propitiation, might have 
 immediate peace in his mind and peace with God. All that 
 he taught was this, that because Jesus died, governmental 
 difficulties were removed, and the Spirit so poured out that 
 a. gracious work might be wrought in the heart of him to 
 whom the Spirit came. Thus Mr. Kirk had been sent into 
 his own evidences for peace to his mind, instead of being sent 
 out to Jesus as an all-perfect sacrifice. It was like a new 
 revelation to him when he learned from Mr. Morison that 
 the Father was so well pleased with Calvary's sacrifice that 
 he, a poor trembling sinner, believing that fact, might imme- 
 diately rejoice. He saw that his preaching in the Yale of 
 Leven, as well as in Hamilton, had been aimless and unsuc- 
 cessful, comparatively speaking, because he had sent sinners 
 in upon their own hearts, and had not sent them out to the 
 heart and the Lamb of God, as the bitten Israelites had been 
 commanded to look out to the brazen serpent. 
 
 Let us pause here for a moment, and ask if the Bible 
 really bears out this position which Mr. Kirk is disposed to 
 take, in reviewing his experience ? He speaks with the 
 highest admiration of the Congregationalists of that day with 
 whom he was accustomed to associate. They were "the 
 excellent of the earth." He never can forget the obligation 
 under which he lies to the body for his education, both 
 at the University and the Divinity Hall. But he is dis- 
 posed to call his own religious experience of that time 
 " dark," as compared with what it afterwards became, and 
 as compared with what it might have been. Moreover, he 
 thinks he is not unchaiitable in concluding that the spiiitual 
 experience of not a few in that religious denomination was 
 much the same as his own. They lived, comparatively 
 
280 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UXION. 
 
 speaking, in darkness, or at any rate in cloudiness of mind. 
 They were sent in upon their own hearts for the evidence of 
 their acceptance. They drew their comfort not from the 
 work of Christ without them, but from the work of the Spirit 
 within them. All these preachers, at that time, being in 
 much the same state of mind, did not bless or enlighten their 
 fellow-men so abundantly as they might have done. 
 
 Is it true that the source of the sinner's peace with God 
 is objective and not subjective, as Mr. Morison taught JVIr. 
 Kirk to believe, according to his own confession 1 We think 
 that the Bible bears out such a representation. The first 
 converts rejoiced whenever they believed the Gospel, and 
 before they had any time to look introspectively into their 
 own hearts. Moreover, the good news of salvation is so 
 transporting that when it is heard it is calculated to fill the 
 believing sinner with joy. A pardon ! A pardon for me ! 
 A pardon through the precious blood of Christ ! " Being 
 justified by faith ; we have peace with God," before we have 
 time to think about the process of sanctification, which, 
 however (so perfect and perfectly dovetailed, part to part, 
 is the scheme of Grace), has already commenced at the happy 
 hour of believing. No doubt there is a corroborative as- 
 surance that springs up from the witness of the Spirit in the 
 heart, and the fruits of faith in the life ; but the steam etigine 
 that moves all the machinery to the last is the cross of Christ, 
 so that we may say that the source of the believer's peace 
 will be eternally without and not loithiJi the soul. 
 
 Having got this " new view," Mr. Kirk set to work with 
 redoubled zeal ; and soon the whole country-side felt the 
 force of his well-aimed blows, as well as the felicity which 
 they impai-ted. Just as Kilmarnock became a centre of 
 revival efibi-t as the result of Mr. Morison's preaching, so 
 did the Word of God sound out from Hamilton to all the 
 region round about. A new chapel was built for the con- 
 gregation, which had already become too large for the old 
 place of worship ; and, besides, new churches were formed 
 in Strathaven, Wishaw, and Carluke, as the direct result of 
 Mr. Kirk's unwearied ministrations on Sabbath day and 
 week day alike. 
 
 Still there was yet one great drawback to his happiness 
 in preaching the Gospel, as well as to his usefulness as a 
 minister of Christ. We refer to the limitation which, as 
 we have already repeatedly seen, the Messrs. Morison, 
 
DIFFICULTY ABOUT THE SPIRIT's WORK. 281 
 
 Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Guthrie, and at first Mr. Kirk also, 
 conceived to exist in the influence of that Holy Spirit who 
 applies the Gospel to the sinner's heart. Christ was for all; 
 but the indispensable and eflfectual Holy Ghost was only for 
 some, namely, the unconditionally elect. That was the great 
 difliculty. 
 
 Mr. Morison felt it too ; but for more than a year, that 
 is, during part of 1842 and 1843, he said nothing about it. 
 He had thought that certain j^assages of the Bible taught* 
 special grace for the unconditionally elect ; but he w^as be- 
 ginning to doubt his old exegesis of these passages, and to 
 subject them afresh and more thoroughly to the searching 
 analysis of his crucible of criticism. And, therefore, till he 
 had his mind fully made up, with his customary caution and 
 reticence, he said nothing about the subject. It was said 
 that this tit of silence had come over him ever after being 
 a-ccosted on the streets of Kilmarnock, one Monday, by a 
 shrewd and thoughtful member of his church, who addressed 
 him after the following fiishion : — " You told us yesterday 
 that God did not spare his Son, but gave him up for us all. 
 It is very strange that he did not spare his Son, and yet 
 spared his Spirit, especially when the apostle says, ' How- 
 shall he not with him also freely give us all things ] ' " 
 
 We have already seen that the Rev. Robert Morison, as 
 early as the summer of 1842, was writing to his son in Kil- 
 marnock, that their theology halted just there ; but although 
 father and son, and Mr. Guthrie too, had that feeling of dis- 
 satisfaction, neither of them had as yet proposed publicly 
 any satisfactory solution of the difficulty. We do not mean 
 to say that Mr. Kirk was the first to solve the problem. 
 In all probability it was as when, in astronomical disco- 
 veries, there is a coincidence of observation on the part of 
 independent astronomers, whose telescopes are nightly 
 sweeping the heavens from observatories far apart. In like 
 manner, the beautiful and consistent truth, that not only did 
 Jesus die for every man, but that God's Spirit strives with 
 every man — that they who yield are the saved, and that they 
 who resist are tlie unsaved — we say, in all probability this 
 blessed truth dawned upon the minds of these Scottish in- 
 vestigators independently, much about the same time. But 
 what we have now to state is, that Mr, Kirk has the honour 
 of having been the first publicly to proclaim this truth to 
 his fellow-countrymen from the pulpit and through the press. 
 
282 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 It is said that he had been lecturing through the epistle 
 to the Komans, in Hamilton on the Sabbath forenoons. 
 Coming to the 11th verse of the 2nd chapter, " For there is 
 no respect of persons with God," he could not preach upon 
 it. The view which he had hitherto held on election and 
 the work of the Spirit in conversion would not square with 
 the text. He made a pause for some weeks in his exposi- 
 tion. Meanwhile, by the diligent comparison of Scripture 
 with 'Scripture, he saw that the election of grace was not to 
 faith but through faith, and that the Divine Spirit knocked 
 for admission at the door of every human heart. Having 
 come to this conclusion, he could now face the text fetirlessly 
 — " There is no respect of persons with God." About this 
 time he used to preach a powerful sermon on the words, 
 " Behold I stand at the door and knock," in which he repre- 
 sented the Spirit of God as knocking outside ; but he added, 
 " The bar is in the inside ; God will not break the door open; 
 you, O sinner, must open it ! " 
 
 Hitherto Mr. Kirk had used the pen sparingly. He had 
 indeed delivered one discourse in Clerk's Lane Church, Kil- 
 marnock, which had been published by request. It was an 
 attempt to reconcile Calvinistic election with the unlimited 
 call of the Gospel and imiversal responsibility. He now 
 confesses that he then only " saw men as trees walking," 
 and admits that the discourse was a failure. 
 
 But whenever he saw the precious truth just enunciated 
 — that with the blessed Spirit, no less than with the Father 
 and the Son, there is no respect of persons — he rushed to 
 the press, and after a very peculiar fashion indeed. He had 
 been reading about that time the account, in D'Aubigne's 
 History of the Reformation^ of Luther nailing the celebrated 
 theses to the church door of Wittemberg, which he was pre- 
 pared to defend against all comers. John Kirk had not 
 a little of Martin Luther's heroism, and therefore, in- 
 tentionally imitating that - " solitary monk," he published 
 immense placards in the streets of Hamilton, in the autumn 
 of 1842, if we remember aright, announcing twelve lectures 
 on twelve topics ; and these topics or theses he was prepared 
 to uphold against all opponents. He, moreover, caused the 
 printer to throw off a good many more copies than were 
 absolutely required for the town of Hamilton, and saw that 
 they were pretty freely circulated over the country, so that 
 they might be read by friend and foe alike. This important 
 
REV. JOHN kirk's " THESES." 
 
 283 
 
 step was taken, it will be observed, the year before the issue 
 of a Statement of Friiiciples by the Evangelical Union in 
 Kilmarnock. By that time Mr. Morison and his brethren 
 were prepared to accept the same doctrinal platform as that 
 which Mr. Kii'k had thus been the fii'st to proclaim. The 
 exhibited propositions were as follows : — 
 
 "The Doctrine that Christ did not die for all men is opposed to the 
 Gospel. 
 
 " The Doctrine that man is unable to believe the Gospel when he 
 hears it, is incorrect, and proves a stumbling-block to the unbeliever. 
 
 " The Doctrine that Saving Faith is something more than knowing 
 God's Testimony concerning his >Son to be true is iitted to prevent the 
 salvation of souls. 
 
 " Tlie Doctrine that man may have peace with God and not know 
 it, is contrary to Scripture, and is fitted to prove a lying refuge. 
 
 " Jesus Christ is, in the same sense, and to the same extent, the 
 propitiation for the sins of the whole of mankind. 
 
 " Hearers of the Gospel, who are finally lost, are condemned for 
 dificrediting that which they need no help to believe. 
 
 *' The belief of-the Gospel necessarily gives a sense of pardon. 
 
 " The Holy Spirit alone overcomes man's enmity to the truth of 
 God, 
 
 ' ' The will of the Holy Spirit is that all men should be saved. 
 To tell a man to pray for the Holy Spirit, or for anything else, 
 before he believes the Gospel, is to lead him away from salvation. 
 
 " ' Do this and live,' expresses the principle of soul-ruining self- 
 righteousness ; ' Believe and live,' the princixjle on which alone man 
 can really be saved. 
 
 " Christians have the same reason to. expect the sanctification of 
 then children that they have to expect their own." 
 
 As the lectures were delivered they were published, one 
 by one, in a very humble form, and sold at a very small 
 charge. There was a great demand for them over the 
 country, as well as for the volume which they composed 
 when completed. It was entitled, The Way of Life Made 
 Plahi. The work has had an immense cii'culation since 
 these days, for the copy from which we have quoted these 
 headings is marked " forty-fii'st thousand." The handbills 
 and the lectures created a gi'eat stii- all over Scotland. 
 Many of Mr. Kii'k's fonner friends, especially in thfe Con- 
 gregational body, were much displeased by these publications; 
 and ultimately ecclesiastical steps were taken in consequence, 
 which it will be our duty now to narrate. 
 
 We pause to observe, however, that we always thought 
 the title of the sixth lecture too strongly expressed: — 
 " Hearers of the Gospel who are finally lost are con- 
 demned for discrediting that which they need no help 
 
284 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 to believe." In the body of the lecture, indeed, the 
 author explains himself. He admits that man is unwilling 
 to believe the Gospel, and that the Holy Spirit, in every 
 case of conversion, removes that unwillingness by his 
 awakening, con\TLncing grace; but he maintains that, in so 
 far as natural ability is concerned, every sane man is physi- 
 cally able to believe the Gospel, and therefore needs no help 
 to believe. That is perfectly true; but inasmuch as help is 
 needed in a certahi sense for the removal of this unwilling- 
 ness, we thought at the time, and still think, that the heading 
 was calculated to raise unnecessary prejudice against the new 
 doctrines, which, in truth, were sufficiently misunderstood 
 and misrepresented at any rate. But no doubt Mr. Kii-k' 
 thought he was right; and we must not call too much 
 attention to what was but a very small fly in an alabaster 
 box of very precious truth. 
 
 It cannot be denied that Mr. Kii-k advanced views in the 
 publication referred to which were somewhat new to the 
 Scottish Congi'egationalists. Even Dr. Wardlaw, as we 
 have repeatedly seen, although proclaiming fearlessly that 
 the Lord Jesus Christ had "tasted death for every man," 
 had invariably qualified that world-wide exhibition of love by 
 adding that the ap23lication of the atonement by irresistible 
 gi'ace was restricted to the unconditionally elect. Yet Mr. Kirk 
 wrote as follows in the introduction to his ninth lecture : — 
 
 *' My dear reader, are you waiting for 'special, effectual influence'? 
 Have you embraced the idea that the Holy Spirit has no wish to save 
 any but those who really are, or shall be, actually saved? Will you 
 look into the Spiiit's own Word, and examine whether you have not 
 embraced an idea that is thoroughly false? Are you idlling to be 
 convinced that it is only when the last possible effort has been put ■ 
 forth and resisted, that the Holy Spirit leaves a man to sink into eternal 
 woe ? " 
 
 He also advanced interpretations of passages of Scripture 
 which were thought rash and daring, es'pecially by the 
 clergymen of the body, but which many perplexed souls 
 hailed with irrepressible delight : — 
 
 " Let us calmly and honestly separate ideas in our minds that essen- 
 tially differ from that which is declared incorrect. 
 
 *' 1. It is a truth that God alone draws men to Christ. Jesus hinftelf 
 fiays (John vi. 44^, ' iSo man can come to me, except the Father who 
 hath sent me draw him.' Most cheerfully and most decidedly do I 
 subscribe to this sentiment. It is an absolute impossibility for any 
 man to come to Jesus if God do not draw him. Well, what is meant 
 by this drawing? A njisunderstanding, in regard to the Saviour's 
 
HIS INTERPRETATION OF DIFFICULT TEXTS. 
 
 285 
 
 meaning when lie uses the word ^draiv,' lies at the foundation of a vast 
 deal of error regarding this precious passage of Scripture. Read care- 
 fully from the beginning of the chapter. Endeavour thus clearly to 
 ascertain what was the object of the Great Teacher in the whole of this 
 address. That object is clearly stated in the 27th verse — ' Labour not,* 
 he says, 'for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which en- 
 duretli unto everlasting life, which the Son of Alan shall give unto 
 you.' His desire most clearly was that they should enjoy everlasting 
 life. He had wrought the miracle of feeding five thousand with five 
 loaves and two small fishes; and when the multitude followed him he 
 perceived that it was ' not because they saw the miracle,' — not, that is, 
 because they listened to God teaching by that miracle about Jesus, and 
 thus drawing them to him. They followed him for food only. Jesus 
 therefore urged them to 'labour . . . for that meat which endureth 
 unto everlasting life.' This life, he showed them, they could possess 
 only by believing on him whom God had sent -or by being taught of 
 God : for what is believing on Jesus, but just learning what God 
 teaches about him? This, however, the Jews refused to do. Instead 
 of yielding to the drawing of the Father, or consenting to be given, by 
 learning of the Father, to Jesus, they murmured among themselves. 
 Tkey SQught each other s opinions, and refused the teaching of God. 
 This, Jesus showed them, was a certainly ruinous course, for they could 
 never become his disciples by any other drawing or teaching but that 
 of God. This momentous truth he proved from the Scriptures. ' It 
 is written in the prophets, Am\ they shall be all taught of God. Every 
 man, therefore,' said Jesus, * that hath heard, and hath learned of the 
 Father, cometh unto me.' The drawing and the teaching are seen thus 
 to be one. 
 
 *' Tf it seem to you to be a 'truism' and unworthy of Jesus to show 
 at such length that no man can come to him unless he leave the teach- 
 ing of man, and learn of God, only remember that millions of souls are 
 perishing simply because they are allowing men to teach them, and are 
 refusing to be taught of God. Surely you cannot consider it unworthy 
 of him who came to seek and to save that which was lost, to expose 
 that deadly error by which above all others their salvation is prevented. 
 0 my reader, remember that it is by the neglect of self-evident truths 
 that men perish; and do not throw aside the teaching of Jesus, because 
 something more mysterious may appear to you to be more i)robably his 
 meaning. No man can come to him unless he is taught of God. The 
 best inference you can draw from this is, 'then let us learn what God 
 teaches.' This is the way to be saved. 
 
 "2. It is true that 'Faith is the gift of God.' (Eph. ii. 8)— 'By 
 grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the 
 gift of God. Although there are various views taken of this passnge, 
 let us take that most generally adopted, viz., 'that it shows faith to 
 be the gift of God.'* This cannot mean that God believes instead of 
 
 • " Although this is a common view of this passage, I am now fully 
 persuaded it is not the right one. The passage teaches that Salvation 
 BY Faith (and not Faith itself) is the gift of God. It shows that such 
 a DELIVERANCE has been given us in the atonement of Jesus, as needs 
 only to be believed to be enjoyed (1 John v. 11). I have used the 
 view^ given above, in order to meet the objection founded on it." 
 
286 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNIOX. 
 
 the man who is saved. You must know that in whatever sense God 
 gives faith or belief, after all the believer himself believes. Nor can 
 it mean that God is disposed to believe instead of the sinner who credits 
 his word. What else, then, about believino^ may be said to be a gift ? 
 Several things may be stated in answer to this question. 1st, God has 
 caused the record to be believed to be written for men. 2nd, In the 
 case of every hearer of the Gospel, he has brought that record before 
 the mind as his own "Word. 3rd, He works by means of the various 
 circumstances and agents* that influence the minds of men, so as to 
 arrest their attention, and dispose them to credit his Word. When, 
 thus taught and influenced by God, a man yields to credit his Word, 
 and so is reconciled to him and saved, he may properly be said to have 
 had faith given hira of God. I do most firmly hold that when a man 
 is saved by believing the good news, he has God alone to thank and 
 praise for what has been brought about, as well as for all its conse- 
 quences onward to eternity. 
 
 "3. It is another precious truth that the Lord opens the hearts of those 
 who believe. (Acts xvi, 14) — ' And a certain woman, named Lydia, a 
 seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, heard us, whose heart the 
 Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of 
 Paul.' The Lord, from the first of this interview, was speaking to 
 Lydia and her companions, by the Apostle, Paul was brought there 
 by God. His Spirit spake by the apostle, and regulated all he did and 
 said. He had also complete control over all the other circumstances 
 that aff'ected the mind of Lydia, so as to dispose her to listen to the 
 truth concerning Jesus.t He so wrought all these together, and so 
 spake by Paul, as an instrument, that she not only listened, but 
 believed. This passage of apostolic history may clearly show us that 
 God makes use of both the simple Word, and also of other means 
 fitted to arrest the attention to that Word, and so to induce the un- 
 believer to look at the soul-saving realities made known in the divine 
 testimony. "Not for a moment, however, does it lead us away from 
 the Word of God to seek for something else by which we are saved, 
 
 NOR DOER IT LEAD US WHEN WE ACTUALLY HEAR THAT WORD TO SIT 
 STILL AS IF SOME 'SECRET TOUCH* WERE NECESSARY BEFORE WE 
 BELIEVE IT." 
 
 Possibly some of our readers may be disposed to blame us 
 
 * *' By 'circumstances and agents' are represented all those external 
 means by which God influences the mind of man. Paul 'planted and 
 Apollos watered' — Paul and Apollos were agents by whom God brought 
 the word before the minds of the Corinthians — 'but God gave the 
 increase.' God not only inspired his agents, and guided them in their 
 work, but he also moved and regulated all those events and objects 
 that were fitted to render the work of his agents successful; and thus, 
 without the shadow of a call for our belief in a mysterious special 
 influence, we see that God had all the glory of reconciling the 
 Corinthians to himself (2 Cor. v. 18)." • 
 
 t " The account we have of Lydia cannot be ca.refully read without 
 the reader perceiving that she was a child of God before this, and only 
 needed to have the understanding opened by means of Paul's explan- 
 ations that she might know Jesus to be the expected Messiah. The 
 disciples of Jesus required the same (Luke xxiv. 45)." 
 
THE ARMINIAN INTERPRETATION DEFENDED. 
 
 287 
 
 for occupying our pages with so extended a quotation; but 
 its importance in a historical point of view is our apology. 
 There is no doubt that it was the fearless publication of 
 these very expositions of difficult texts that led to the 
 schism among the Scottish Congregationalists thirty years 
 ago. And as we started with the plan and purpose of 
 jrivins: extracts from Mr. Morison's writinj^s to illustrate 
 and bear out our statements, w^e must do the same thing in 
 the case of Mr. Kirk and his friends, although to a more 
 limited extent, considering the unexpected length to which 
 our narrative has already extended. 
 
 It is quite true that Mr. Kirk's expositions of these and 
 similar passages were thought by many to be crude and im- 
 mature. Dr. Wardlaw remarked in his own polished anti- 
 thetic way, " This is not explaining Scripture, but explaining 
 it away." But we beg leave here to submit that on no other 
 principle of interpretation can such texts be expounded that 
 will justify the ways of God to man. 
 
 We were much struck, many years after the first edition 
 of the " Way of Life" was issued, to find, when reading 
 llichard Watson's "Theological Institutes," that he explained 
 John vi. 44, and the other passages referred to above, almost 
 exactly as Mr. Kirk did. ISTow Dr. John Brown, of Edin- 
 burgh, paid Bichard Watson the compliment of saying that 
 he was at once the most philosophical and systematic divine 
 whom the great Wesleyan body had produced. In fact, if 
 you postulate the grand Arminian, or Free Grace, or Free 
 Will position that God really and honestly desires the salva- 
 tion of all men, it follows as a necessary and blessed corollary 
 that the influence of the Spiiit must be as world-wide as the 
 atonement of the Son — that, therefore, while believers yield 
 to him, unbelievers resist him — that the Father seeks to 
 draw all men to the Son, but many will not submit to the 
 drawing — that he is as willing to bestow the gift of faith on 
 men as the gift of forgiveness, but, alas, many will not have 
 it 1 — that He, who opened the heart of Lydia who sold the 
 purple, wished also to open the heart of Bernice and Drusilla 
 who wore the purple, and would have done so if they had 
 onljj welcomed the initiatory and preliminary strivings of 
 his grace. 
 
 The founders of the Evangelical Union may sometimes in 
 their early publications, which were issued amid the hurry 
 and bustle of overwhelming preaching engagements, have so 
 
288 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 expressed themselves as to leave the impression upon half 
 hostile readers that the spiritual and world-wide influence 
 for which thev pled was merely that of "moral suasion." 
 But such a doctrine they neither held nor taught. A 
 favourite illustration Avith them, about the year 1844, was 
 that of the waiTior and his sword. The Word, they stoutly 
 maintained, is the Spirit's sword; but, like Goliath's or 
 Wallace's, it would be impotent unless wielded by the warrior 
 himself. That ubiquitous Warrior, however, they as fear- 
 lessly declared, was ever present on the battlefield when the 
 truth was being preached, and was ever backing up the 
 preacher's appeals, and urging home the truth, in ways 
 inscrutable to human eye, but alas ! often rendered nugatory 
 by the thick bosses of human pride, indifference, and 
 unbelief. 
 
 The " Way of Life" was published in the winter of 1842, 
 and was followed by a companion treatise in 1843, entitled 
 " Light out of Darkness." In this work the author was, if pos- 
 sible, still more outspoken than in the " Way of Life." He 
 boldly assailed the frowning forts of predestination reared 
 upon the eighth and ninth chapters of the Epistle to the 
 Komans, and endeavoured to show that these portions of the 
 Word of God did not really teach the restricted and partial 
 views of divine grace which they had been supposed to teach. 
 His expositions, of course without any plagiarism on his part, 
 were, with a few modifications and peculiarities, to much the 
 same effect as those of Wesley, Benson, and Adam Clarke. 
 He showed that believers, like Joshua and Caleb, are those 
 on whom God is pleased to have mercy ; while resisting un- 
 believers, like Pharaoh, he is pleased to harden. The for- 
 mer are the vessels to honour, which are prepared on the 
 wheel of the Divine Potter ; while the latter, who would 
 not become vessels for honour, are made up into vessels for 
 dishonour, as the inevitable result of their opposition to 
 God's primary will. Carrying the same principle of inter- 
 pretation to Acts xiii. 48, Mr. Kirk translated the dc(/rk 
 clause thus, " As many as were disposed for eternal life be- 
 lieved ; " thus exonerating God, and making the sinner alone 
 responsible for his own continuance in unbelief. On l*Cor. 
 ii. 14, he observed that " the things of the Spirit of God," 
 which the natural man could not receive, were the advanced 
 truths and lessons of Christianity. But, he added, let him 
 become a spiritual man, by yielding to the Spirit and receiv- 
 
CHOSBX IN CHRIST. 
 
 289 
 
 ing the rudimentaiy truths of the Gospel, and straightway a 
 holy relish for heavenly things will take possession of his 
 renewed and transformed soul. Lastly, " chosen in him 
 before the foundation- of the world " (Eph. i. 4), he thus 
 explained : — 
 
 " In Peter's first epistle, chapter ii., Jesus is represented as a chosen 
 foundation stone, and believers as. coming to him, to be built upon him, 
 who is thus the chosen of God. Here, then, is a striking illustration 
 of the principle brought out in the passage before us. Jesus is chosen 
 as a FOUNDA-TioN, Now let us suppose that I choose a foundation 
 stone and lay it down, with a view to building upon it, so that the 
 whole shall become one beautiful edifice. The foundation is chosen and 
 laid, not that it may remain alone, but that it may prove the founda- 
 tion of a choice building. Well, as stone after stone is laid upon this, 
 and thus becomes part of the building rising from the chosen founda- 
 tion, stone after stone enjoys the honour and all the privileges of the 
 original choice. In order to see how completely the benefits of the 
 choice depend upon connection with the foundation, let us suppose that 
 a stone, after being laid upon it, were for some cause or other removed, 
 it would cease to be a chosen stone, inasmuch as it ceased to be a stone 
 of *the chosen building — it ceased to be connected with the chosen 
 foundation. Jesus is then God's chosen foundation. He was eternally 
 chosen to be the foundation of a glorious building. Every one truly 
 connected with him is a part of this chosen building, and enjoys all 
 the benefits of Jehovah's original choice." 
 
 These books were wi-itten with great simplicity and dii'ect- 
 ness of style, and produced a mighty effect upon the public 
 mind. Professor Kii'k, in these early days, attended even 
 less to the embellishment of his compositions than he has- 
 done latterly, and ••especially since his scientific works have 
 introduced him to a cultivated and refined class of readers. 
 But this very circumstance — that he did not apparently care 
 how his ideas were expressed if he only made them plain 
 and palpable to his reader's apprehension — made them all 
 the more powerful and successful with the working classes, 
 whom he then chiefly addressed. The lectures on these dif- 
 ferent texts, moreover, were first published singly at a 
 cheap rate, and were thus widely cii'culated before being 
 bound up in a book. 
 
 Now it must be confessed, as we have already hinted, that 
 these advanced doctrines had never been promulgated within 
 the bounds of the Scottish Congregational body since its for- 
 mation about the beginning of the century. We therefore 
 sympathise retrospectively with the leaders in the connexion 
 as to the difficult cii'cumstances in which they were placed. 
 But we respectfully submit that a more patient and tolerant 
 
 u 
 
290 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNIOlf. 
 
 course than that which was pursued would have been 
 safer and more consistent with their recognised principles. 
 
 For one of the distinguishing features of Congregational- 
 ism, and one which had been often loudly proclaimed, was 
 this, that it was trammelled by no stereotyped creed, like 
 Presbyterianism. Now here was a man, keeping leal to the 
 Bible, but only wishing to preach a more free and God- 
 glorifying Gospel (as he considered it) than he had been 
 accustomed to do. Evidently the more prudent course would 
 have been to let him go on in his earnest career till the ex- 
 citement on all sides had cooled down somewhat. That is 
 generally admitted now ; but practical wisdom is frequently 
 bought with the heavy price of the suffering and sorrow that 
 result from mistakes. 
 
 Mr. Kirk had already been taken to task by Dr. Ward- 
 law in private, in a kind way, for some extreme statements 
 which that eminent man thought he had made on the ques- 
 tion of total abstinence from strong drink. But he had been 
 found to be immovable on that point ; and he proved to be 
 as impregnable in his new theological position when remon- 
 strated with : for in both cases he believed that he was 
 advocating precious and invaluable truth. 
 
 Congi'egational polity does not offer such advantages for 
 bringing a minister forthwith before his betters as Presby- 
 terianism does, when he deflects from the straight, or, at any 
 rate, the prescribed line ; and, consequently, the leaders of 
 the Independent body hesitated at first to take any direct 
 steps in the way of dealing with Mr. Kirk and the four or 
 five ministers who, as it began to be whispered abroad, fully 
 sympathised with him. But, inasmuch as rumour as firmly 
 alleo^ed that several of the students in the Tlieoloorical Hall 
 had embraced the " New Views" (as they began to be called), 
 the Academy Committee, under whose care and jurisdiction 
 the young men were placed, determined to sift the matter 
 out, and subject the juvenile errorists to serious and solemn 
 examination. 
 
THE NINE^'STUDENTS. 
 
 291 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Examination of the Students of the Congregational Theological Academy 
 — First Tested by their Sermons — Next, Three Searching Questions 
 proposed to them — Mr. Alex. Duncanson's Reply — Mr, Ebenezer 
 Kenne<ly's— Mr. William Bathgate's — Mr. James Samson's — Mr. 
 James Robertson's — Mr. Fergus Ferguson's — Ten of the Students 
 Examined before the Committee — Nine of them Expelled from the 
 Institution — Excitement caused by this Ecclesiastical Action. 
 
 The first note of warning, which apprised the students that 
 mischief was brewing, came from the pen of the Rev. Dr. 
 Alexander, of Eilinburgh. The lamented Morell Mackenzie, 
 Dr. Wardlaw's colleague, had been drowned in the week of 
 the Pegasus, during the summer of 1843, on the coast of 
 Northumberland ; and it had been arranged that, after spend- 
 ing a session of six months at Dr. Wardlaw's feet in Glas- 
 gow, the class should be removed to Edinburgh, and be 
 ta:ught by Dr. Alexander, during the months of May and 
 June, 1844. One of the students had written the learned 
 Doctor, in name of the class, making inquiry as to what 
 books would be required for the summer session. The 
 Doctor gave the information courteously enough, but added 
 a rather irate postscript to the effect that " some scrutiny 
 would need to be made as to who should come to Edinburgh, 
 and who should not ; for, when he agreed to teach the class, 
 he did not know that the Rev. John Kirk, of Hamilton, was 
 to be his rival in forming their theological opinions." What 
 the mode of scrutiny was to be, soon appeared. 
 
 It was a rule of the Academy that each student should 
 read, once a year, a sermon before Dr. Wardlaw, which he 
 criticised on the spot, pointing out whatever defects might 
 appear in it, either in the way of matter or delivery. Now 
 the first step which the Doctor took, acting in concert with 
 the Committee, was to prescribe topics of discourse which 
 would have the effect of bringing out the opinions of the 
 suspected students on the debated points. There was not a 
 little excited feeling in the class while these discourses were 
 being delivered. One incident is memorable. While one of 
 the students was reading his sermon he broke down and 
 wept. He was honestly bringing out all his views. He 
 was describing the difficulty he would have in pressing the 
 sinner to immediate decision if, at the same time, he believed 
 
292 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 that God might be keeping back essential grace from a non- 
 elect soul ; and, knowing that the very utterance of these 
 sentiments might have a serious effect upon his future pros- 
 pects in life, yet feeling that he could not speak otherwise 
 than he spoke, the young man was overcome, and for a time 
 could not proceed. The whole class was much moved, — and 
 so was the renowned doctor of divinity in the chair, who 
 was a kindhearted man, and must have felt himself to be 
 placed in a very painful position. 
 
 Dr. Wardlaw having reported to the Committee of the 
 Academy that he considered the sentiments of several of the 
 students unsatisfactory on the work of the Holy Spirit, it 
 was resolved to put to each student three questions, the 
 written answers to which would effectually bring out the 
 sentiments of the whole hall on the points in dispute. The 
 class was a large one that year. Counting one or two private 
 students, twenty-nine young men in all were in attendance 
 upon the reverend Doctor's prelections. One day he in- 
 formed the Kev. Mr. Shepherd, of Sligo, who visited the 
 hall, that he had never lectured to so many students since he 
 had been installed as tutor or professor to the Scottish Con- 
 gregationalists. But, alas ! when thus at the very climax of 
 its prosperity, the class was to get a sad scattering, from 
 which it did not recover for many a day. 
 
 The three questions which were proposed to each student 
 were as follows : — 
 
 '* I. Are your sentiments on the subject of divine influence the same 
 now as they were when you were examined by the Committee and ad- 
 mitted into this institution ? 
 
 " II. Do you hold, or do you not, the necessity of a. special influ- 
 ence of the Holj'' Spirit, in order to the regeneration of the sinner, or 
 his conversion to God, distinct from the influence of the Word or of 
 providential circumstances, but accompanying these means and render- 
 ing them efiicacious'? 
 
 *' III. Are your sentiments settled on the subject of the preceding 
 query, or are you in a state of indecision, and desirous of time for 
 further consideration and inquiry ? " 
 
 The annual meetings of the Congregational Union were to 
 be held in 1844, during the first week of April, at Dundee ; 
 and the students were requested to transmit their answers to 
 " Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, Edward Baxter's, Esq., Ellangowan 
 House, Dundee." These answers were, read before the 
 general Committee there ; and, ten of them having been 
 pronounced unsatisfactory, a special Committee was ap- 
 
MR. DUNCANSON's LETTER. 
 
 293 
 
 pointed to meet with the young men in Glasgow on the 30th 
 of April, to confer with them, and see if any good could be 
 effected by means of private interrogation and discussion. 
 We think it proper, at this stage of our narrative, to lay 
 before our readers the letters of several of the nine students 
 who were eventually expelled from the institution on account 
 of their doctrinal views, as published by the students them- 
 selves after their separation. Our readers will thus be able 
 to judge for themselves as to whether the general Commit- 
 tee at Dundee had grounds to be dissatisfied with the young 
 men, and appoint a special Committee for the further' con- 
 sideration of the case. 
 
 The letters were published in the order of the seniority of 
 the students. The " notes " appended to the successive 
 replies, it will be observed, were not annexed to the letters 
 when these were sent to Dundee, but were added by the 
 students themselves after their expulsion, that their real 
 sentiments might be more fully explained to the public. 
 
 The first letter ran as follows : — 
 
 **Kenmure Place, Parliamentary Road, 
 *' Glasgow, IZfh April, 1844. 
 
 "Dear Tutor, — The following are the queries proposed, with their 
 several answers appended, according to the present state of my mind. 
 
 " ' I. Are your sentiments now, on the subject of divine influence, 
 the same as they were when you were examined by the Committee and 
 admitted into this institution ? ' 
 
 " Ans. They are slightly modified since that time. 
 
 *' 'II. Do you hold, or do you not, the necessity of a special influ- 
 ence of the Holy Spirit, in order to the regeneration of the sinner, or 
 his conversion to God, distinct from the influence of the Word or of 
 providential circumstances, but accompanying these means and render- 
 ing them efficacious ? ' » 
 
 Ans. I hold, at present, that there is an influence required, above 
 and beyond the Word and Providence, in the conversion of the sinner. 
 
 ** ' III. Are your sentiments settled ou the subject of the preceding 
 query, or are you in a state of indecision, and desirous of time for fur- 
 ther consideration and enquiry ? ' 
 
 ''Ans. My sentiments are by no means settled on this point, it being 
 with me- still sub judice. 
 
 " The above I have given in as short and, at the same time, as com- 
 prehensive a manner as possible ; and remain, dear tutor, yours very 
 respectfully, "ALEX. DU^s^C ANSON. 
 
 "Rev. Dr. Wardlaw." 
 
 "Note. — When I say, in answer to the second query, that I hold 
 an influence above and beyond the Word and Providence in the conver- 
 sion of the sinner, the reader will understand that it is the influence 
 of the Holy Ghost, but that I understand that influence to be general 
 
294 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 and not partial — not patent to some men only, but free to all — sucL an 
 influence as is in its nature moral and not physical, acting on the 
 human mind through the medium of God's truth, and is always present 
 where the Gospel is properly and faithfully preached — such an influence 
 as, from its very nature being moral — can be and is resisted by man, 
 even to his eternal destruction. And, -were it otherwise — were man 
 acted on in the irresistible manner that is supposed by some, not only 
 does he become a mere machine in the hands of Deity — his free 
 agency destroyed— completely nullified — but, in addition to this, there 
 would be a large majority of the human race (namely, all on whom this 
 irresistible influence did not act) shut out Irom the most distant hope 
 of salvation — shut out as completely and as really as if no atonement 
 had been made. Because, First, That which is confined to some, it is 
 plain, cannot act on all ; and, if its action is absolutely required, in 
 order to man's recovery (and this is agreed to on all hands), then it fol- 
 lows that all upon whom it does not act cannot be saved — their salva- 
 tion is impossible, the sine qua non called divine influence being 
 wanting. Thus, by the doctrine of a partial influence, there is placed 
 in the sinner's way as insuperable an obstacle to his salvation as if there 
 existed no atonement. But, Secrtidly, The doctrine of a partial and 
 irresistible influence destroys man's free agency. For what is this 
 doctrine ? It is that man is acted on in such a way by a sujterior 
 power that he cannot resist— that he is irresi&tibly brought to comply 
 with the terms of salvation presented in the Gospel, Xow, were this the 
 case, the power of choice — the capability of complying or resisting — of 
 believing or not believing at his pleasure (aiid this is necessary to make 
 a free agent) is gone. It would be no longer true of him that he 
 * preferred the darkness to the light,' the world to God, time to eternity; 
 in short, between him and the mere insentient thunderbolt, that dashes 
 its way through space, there could exist no possible diflerence, both 
 being impelled by a power which they could not resist, and consequently 
 alike irresponsible. From these consriderations, and others that might 
 be presented, I most humbly deny a partial influence of the Holy Spirit 
 in the sense embodied in the query; and that I interpret that sense 
 properly, I may say that I depend not on the words of the query alone, 
 but also on the definition of ' special influence,' as given by one of the 
 members of Committee, when examined before them. 
 
 " In answer to the third query, the reader will see that it is said, 
 ' My sentiments are by no means settled on this point,' meaning by this 
 point, divine influence. This is a slip of the pen. I did not mean to 
 convey the idea that my sentiments were not settled on divine influence 
 itselt, but rather on collateral topics. This error was explained to the 
 Committee when before them. "A. D." 
 
 This letter, in our opinion, gives a clear and convincing 
 statement of the great point in dispute. Mr. Duncanson was 
 ordained in the autumn of 1844 over the Congregational 
 church in Alloa, Stirlingshire, one of the churches which 
 sympathised with the nine students," and embraced their 
 views. Thereafter he was called to be colleague with the 
 Rev. A. C. Rutherford, Falkirk, as we have already had 
 occasion to explain. Ultimately he emigrated to the United 
 
MR. Kennedy's letter. 
 
 295 
 
 States of America, where, we understand, he has been the 
 pastor of at least two important Congregational cliurchts. 
 The last sphere which we heard of him occupying was in the 
 city of Sandusky, in the State of Ohio, and on the shores of 
 Lake Erie. The second letter was to the following effect : — 
 
 Perth, ApHl 12, 1844. 
 
 " Rev, and highly esteemed Tutor, — With reference to the first 
 question you have proposed — If my sentiments on the siiV.ject of divine 
 influence are now the same as they were when I was first* examined by 
 the Committee and admitted into the Theological Academy, I have 
 to say that, so far as I can recollect, they are substantially the same ; 
 only that my mind is more fully made up regarding them, and that I 
 view them as of far greater importance than I then did. I am not 
 aware, in fact, at this moment, that, in the papers I handed the 
 Secretary of the Academy, I said a single word on the subject ; and I 
 do not recollect that, when before the Committee, a single question 
 was asked me concerning it. 
 
 "With regard to your second query — If I hold, or hold not, the 
 necessity of a special influence of the Holy Spirit, in order to the 
 "regeneration of the sinner or his conversion to God, distinct from the 
 influence of the Word or providential circumstances, but accompany- 
 ing these, and rendering them eflicacious ? — I beg of you to mark most 
 distinctly — as you yourself, I think, as well as others, have misappre- 
 hended my sentiments on this subject — that, in the meantime, / do 
 hold the necessity of a direct influence of the Holy Spirit, in order to 
 the conversion of the sinner, distinct from the influences of the Word 
 or providential circumstances. I do not pretend to explain its mod.us 
 operandi {i.e., how it operates upon the mind, the understanding, or 
 the heart — hovj, in connection with the truth, it efi'ects the conversion 
 of the sinner) ; but the sentiment itself appears to me to be necessary, 
 in order to the satisfactory explanation of many passages of Scripture. 
 I do not, however, believe that this influence always terminates in the 
 conversion of the sinner to God : and this leads me to the only thing I 
 think worth contending for, viz., that the influence of the Spirit is 
 KOT IRRESISTIBLE. On any other supposition I cannot explain the 
 Bible (e. g.. Gen, vi. 3 ; 2 Chron, xxxvi. 14-16 ; Isa. v, 4 ; Ixiii. 10 : 
 Acts vii, 51 ; Eph, iv. 30 ; 1 Thess. v, 19 ; Heb, x. 29)— on any other 
 supposition I cannot throw the whole blame of his non-conversion 
 upon the sinner himself — on any other supposition I have great diffi- 
 culty in maintaining the free agency of man, which I hold to be a first 
 truth — and on any other supposition 1 cannot reconcile the invitations 
 and the threatenings of God with his character as a God of love^ of 
 sincerity, and of holiness. 
 
 "Strictly speaking, I suppose no reply is requisite to your third 
 question ; for I have just stated my present view of the sulject. 
 Though, however my mind is made up so far on the subject I have 
 been referring to, I would not give you to understand that it is also 
 made up on all the collateral subjects — such, for example, as the 
 doctrine of election. That there is such a doctrine as that of an 
 election, in some sense or other, tauo;ht in the Bible, I cannot deny ; 
 though the precise meaning of it, or the principle on which it is to be 
 
296 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 explained, is, with me, at present, among the things hard to be under- 
 stood.* — I am, rev. and Lighly esteemed tutor, most affectionately 
 ours, **EBEN. KENNEDY." 
 
 *' Note. — The question at issue, between our brethren and ourselves, 
 appears to me to be simply this : — Does God withhold or kec}} back 
 from the sinner, to whom the Gospel is sim2)ly, faithfully, boldly, 
 earnestly, and compassionately preached, any influence that is abso- 
 lutely indispensable to that sinner's conversion ? Our brethren say he 
 does. With the character of God, however, as unfolded in his own 
 "Word, as a (Jod of infinite love and of spotless purity, full in view, I 
 cannot hesitate for a moment to answer the question in the negative. 
 To imagine that God calls upon sinners to believe the saving truth — 
 threatens them for not believing it — and consigns them to everlasting 
 destruction for not believing it, whilst, during the whole time, he 
 himself is keeping back from them some influence or other, without 
 which they cannot be saved, conveys to us an idea of God which is 
 repulsive to our best feelings — dishonouring to his character ; repre 
 sents him as tantalising man — presenting the cup of salvation to his 
 lips, but, by this ' withholding,' paralysing his powers so that he 
 cannot take the draught ! Upon the opinion of our brethren I can 
 see no propriety, no point, no truth in the following question of 
 Jehovah — ' What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have 
 not done in it?' If their opinion be the true one, a ready reply would 
 be at hand — 'Yes, thou couldst have done more — thou couldst have 
 given that special, irresistible influence, which thou art now withhold- 
 ing, and then thy vineyard would bud, and blossom, and bring forth 
 fruit in abundance.' This would give quite a different turn to the 
 point in question, and leave the blame of the unfruitfulness of the 
 vineyard, not with the Jews, with whom it was intended to be left, 
 but with God himself. * ' E. K. " 
 
 Our readers will confess that this letter also contains a 
 most impressive and comprehensive statement of the theo- 
 logical tenet under discussion. It will already be very 
 apparent to them that the young men who were thus called 
 before their ecclesiastical superiors were well worthy of 
 seats in a theological hall ; and that, in lopping them off 
 from the tree of Scottish Congregationalism, the Committee 
 did not separate dead, but living, boughs. We are happy 
 to say that the Rev. Ebeiiezer Kennedy still labours usefully 
 in connection with our Scottish movement. His two pub- 
 lished works, " The Doctrine of Assurance," and " He is 
 Mine," reveal not only a pious but a cultured mind, and one 
 which can give expression to rich and refreshing views of 
 divine truth. 
 
 ♦ " In answer to a question proposed by Mr. Alexander, at the 
 (examination in Glasgow, 1 stated that I was inclined to understand 
 the doctrine of election to life as founded on the foreknowledge of God 
 of men believing the truth concerning Jesus.'* 
 
MR. Bathgate's letter. 
 
 297 
 
 The next letter was as follows : — 
 
 "Glasgow, 29 Paterson Street, 
 \2th April, 1844. 
 
 "My esteemed Tutor, — In compliance with your reasonable 
 request, I transmit to you brief and conscientious answers to the 
 following queries : — 
 
 " ' I. Are your sentiments now, on the subject of divine influence, 
 the same as they were when you were examined by the Committee 
 and admitted into this institution ?' 
 
 " Since I was admitted into the Glasgow Theological Academy, my 
 sentiments on the subject of divine influence, or the work of the Holy 
 Spirit, have undergone such a change as to induce me to believe 
 that my present views of the Divine Spirit's work and collateral 
 topics seriously afiect some of the vital parts of current systematic 
 theology. 
 
 " ' 11. Do you hold, or do you not, the necessity of a special influ- 
 ence of the Holy Spirit, in order to the regeneration of the sinner, or 
 his conversion to God, distinct from the influence of the Word or of 
 providential circumstances, but accompanying these means and render- 
 ing them.eflicacious ? ' 
 
 " I do most unwaveringly believe in the necessity and reality of the 
 Holy Spirit's agency, in order to the regeneration or conversion of a 
 sinner. In so far as I have been able to understand the subject, I 
 look upon that gracious Agent as the Omnipresent Superintendent of 
 the economy ot redemption. He is presiding over the events and cir- 
 cumstances of providence. He, by means of numberless agencies, is 
 dispensing his own Word to perishing and depraved men : and, though 
 his desires and efforts be thwarted and frustrated by sinful free agents, 
 still he continues plying the rebellious with motives which, without 
 any direct special emanation from the Divine Spirit himself, are sufli- 
 cient. to convert those before whose minds the motives are exhibited. 
 My esteemed Tutor, when I take info account what you mean by 
 special influence ; when I remember that, in your estimation, uncon- 
 ditional election, special love prior to conversion, and special influence 
 as the exponent ot the previous love, are three doctrines which stand or 
 fall together — then I feel impelled to venture an honest, and, I hope, 
 intelligent denial of the doctrine of special influence. The three 
 doctrines are linked together by consistency, but I do not beHeve in 
 any of them. 
 
 " • III. Are your sentiments settled on the subject of the preceding 
 querj'', or are you in a state of indecision, and desirous of time for 
 further consideration and inquiry ? ' 
 
 "While a sense of my responsibilities to God has constrained me 
 to give as definite an answer to the preceding query as the present 
 convictions of my mind authorise, nevertheless, I do wish time and 
 opportunity for the further consideration and investigation of all the 
 important branches of the subject. The controversy is compassed with 
 difficulties — some of these found in the Bible, others (the mass, I 
 think) in systematic divinity. I have refrained from stating either the 
 grounds or defence of my views. I apprehend that you wish nothing 
 more than a bare statement of these views, 
 
 " My beloved Tutor, — In transmitting this document to you, I will 
 
298 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 not conceal how much my mind is affected when 1 survey the circum- 
 stances under which I write. Be the issue what it may, it gladdens 
 me to be able to say that, during my entire Academical course, I have 
 experienced no difficulty in esteeming highly, and loving warmly, him 
 to whom I now write. I will ever remember, with gratitude to that 
 Holy Spirit, whose testimony I expect to publish till my tongue is 
 silent in death, my connection with that institution in which you hold 
 such a prominent place. My earnest and daily prayer is, that the 
 erring party (whoever may compose that party) may return to truth — 
 to walk in her footsteps. — I remain yours, in much affection, 
 
 ** Ealph Wardlaw, D.D." *• WM. BATHGATE. 
 
 ** The following remarks were read to the Committee of the Academy, 
 as an additional explanation of the statements in the above letter, 
 which bear on the subject of divine influence: — 
 
 *' If the doctrine of special divine influence, relative to the conversion 
 of sinners, be expressed by the following proposition — When any indi- 
 vidual sinner is converted, a certain divine influence is exerted upon 
 that person, which influence is not exerted upon a sinner who remains 
 unconverted amid those identical saving means which, by a special 
 influence, were rendered efficacious to the regeneration of the former 
 sinner— then I do not believe that that doctrine gives a correct ex- 
 position of the work of the Holy Spirit when he regenera^tes a soul. 
 In such a representation of the Spirit's work, divine influence whatever 
 be its nature, is special, or limited \fv its extent: that influence is 
 exerted upon the few who believe, and withheld from the many who 
 remain in unbelief; it is esteemed indispensable towards the conversion 
 of the few; consequently, the unbelief of the many cannot be removed 
 without it. 
 
 ** But if the doctrine of divine influence be that the Holy Spirit, by 
 means of his own inspired testimony — by means of the Book of Provi- 
 dence— exerts upon the mind of the sinner, at conversion, a specific 
 divine influence, which is put forth whenever regenerating truths and 
 agencies are in operation, which is not exerted upon the niind of one 
 Gospel hearer and withheld from another — then do 1 believe in the 
 doctrine of divine influence. 
 
 *' If any one should ask, ' Is this divine influence something distinct 
 from, and in addition to, the mere influence of sacred testimony and 
 providential circumstances?' — I would answer, that owing to the per- 
 sonality and omnipresence of the Holy Spirit, there is a divine though 
 not irresistible influence — a divine though not irresistible power — 
 accompanying the curses, warnings, expostulations, invitations, and 
 promises of the Scriyjtures. This influence may not be capable of 
 definition ; but were it possible for the Divine Spirit to forsake the 
 work of Christ, when the great propitiation is being expounded to a 
 perishing sinner — then a distinct personal converting influence would 
 be suspended. I cannot tell what the work of Jesus could efit ct with- 
 out the work of the Spirit; but, in so far as 1 understand the Scriptures, 
 I look u[)on both as harmoniously co-extensive. 
 
 "From these statements you will conclude, not that the sinner, at 
 conversion, is drawn to Jesus, by a special, irresistible influence, but 
 that, as a free agent, he acts the reasonable, though un meritorious, 
 part of choosing the motives which win to the Saviour. 
 
MR. Bathgate's works. 
 
 299 
 
 " In addition to these remarks, which were read before the Com- 
 mittee, I would observe, that while in my letter to Dr W. I deny 
 unconditional election, I do not deny the doctrine of personal election. 
 God forbid that we should ever wish to expunge either the term ' elec- 
 tion,' or its meaning, from the Bible ! " W. B." 
 
 Our readers will be pleased to observe, in this his first 
 published composition, traces of that thoughtful exhaustive- 
 ness which has ever since characterised the Rev. William 
 Bathgate in his treatment of any theological or literary 
 topic, and w^hich shines forth so conspicuously in the suc- 
 cessive volumes with which he has favoured the British 
 public—" ^ternitas," " The Moral Character of God, " The 
 Characteristics of a Superior Popular Literature," and " Christ 
 and Man." The work wliich he has just published — " The 
 Deep Things of God" — consisting of eight Essays on momen- 
 tous and closely connected religious topics, is distinguished by 
 the same pensive profundity, and will be equally appreciated 
 by a numerous circle of readers, or, rather more so, considering 
 the maturity which advancing' years and unceasing medita- 
 tion impart both to an author and his works. We may say, 
 we trust, without violating confidence, that there is perhaps 
 no man living who more completely understands Thomas 
 Carlyle than William Bathgate. He thoroughly believes in 
 the grand Chiistian aspirations of the Chelsea philosopher ; 
 and is persuaded that the latter holds all that we deem 
 vitally important concerning God, man, and immortality. 
 In a recent communication Mr. Carlyle requested Mr. 
 Bathgate to superintend the publication of a single volume 
 of selected passages from all his works, in terms of Mr. 
 Bathgate's own suggestion; but this honourable duty our 
 friend felt constrained to decline, on account of numerous 
 pre-occupations. 
 
 When it was oui- privilege recently to be in Mr. Bath- 
 gate's company, he gave us a few particulars concerning his 
 religious history, which, in our opinion, will at once be 
 interesting to our readers, considering the important services 
 which he has rendered to the Evangelical Union, and appro- 
 priate in this connection. 
 
 When the late Rev. Henry Wight, in the first flush of his 
 evangelistic zeal, was addressing revival meetings in the 
 town of Hawick in 1838, William Bathgate, then a young 
 man of eighteen years of age, was living there, having been 
 apprenticed as an engineer in one of the local factories. He 
 
300 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVAJJGELICAL UNION. 
 
 attended the meetings, which were held in the Relief Church 
 (Rev. Mr. Ramsay's). He was thoroughly awakened by a 
 sermon which Mr. Wight preached from the text, " Adam, 
 where art thou?" All the more common refuges of lies 
 were mercilessly exposed by that powerful itinerant, whose 
 fine bodily presence often lent a peculiar force to his search- 
 ing appeals. On that occasion he hunted the sinner out of 
 all his favourite hiding places ; and young William Bathgate 
 felt that he stood a self-accused culprit in the presence of 
 Jehovah. His distress was great; nor was it removed by 
 personal conversation with the preacher at the close of the 
 discourse. Meeting Mr. Wight in the street, a day or two 
 after, he informed him that his exercise of mind still con- 
 tinued; when the preacher only remarked, " So I see, you 
 are not going to be satisfied with what Christ did on the 
 tree," and abruptly took his leave. The young inquirer 
 thought his spiritual adviser very harsh and cruel at the 
 time ; but the saying did him good afterwards, for it helped 
 to lead him away from his search for evidences Avithin, out 
 to the grand evidence of divine compassion which Calvary 
 supplied. One afternoon, during the same week, the anxious 
 inquirer felt so unwell, on account of his mental disquietude, 
 that he could not go to his work. But, when ruminating on 
 John iii. 16 (which has proved to be the gate of heaven to 
 so many), the thought darted into his mind, ''if simple 
 believing of the truth has done so much good to others, it 
 ought to suit me too." In a moment all the joy which the 
 knowledge of the truth concerning the love of God is calcu- 
 lated to impart immediately flooded his soul; and "he 
 rejoiced ^vith joy unspeakable and full of glory," But see 
 how speedily the saving truth began to work upon his heart 
 with its transforming power! He had flung himself upon 
 his bed in the greatness of his distress; but, whenever the 
 light of salvation dawned* upon his darkened mind, the 
 practical reflection straightway accompanied it — " My time 
 is not my own. It belongs to the master to whom I have 
 been apprenticed. If my soul is saved, I must show the 
 reality of the change by a more conscientious discharge of 
 duty than I have ever yet exhibited." The fact was, he had 
 found a Divine Master, as well as a Divine Mediator ; and 
 that Divine Master sent him back to his earthly master to 
 serve him better than he had ever served him before. That 
 afternoon the grass looked greener, the birds sang sweeter, 
 
MR. Samson's letter. 
 
 301 
 
 and the Teviot purled more musically than ever, as the young 
 apprentice was at work, because, like Nathaniel, he had 
 found the Messiah. - . , 
 
 When Mr. Bathgate came to Glasgow to he a student of 
 the Theological Academy there, he was a moderate Calvinist, 
 like Dr. Wardlaw. But Mr. Morison's trial before the 
 Secession Synod, and concomitant doctrinal discussions, had 
 widened out his theological creed to the amplitude and 
 liberality indicated in the luminous replies given above. It 
 must be a comfort to Dr. Morison and his friends that one 
 so competent as William Bathgate has been found to succeed 
 him in the superintendence of the great work of God in Kil- 
 marnock, which he was honoured to originate. 
 
 We propose to insert still one or two other letters of the 
 series. The next is from the pen of the Rev. James Samson, 
 who has laboured for many years now as Independent minis 
 ter in Sheemess on the Thames. His letter is the longest ol 
 those which were sent to Dundee ; but our readers, we are 
 persuaded, will confess that it is also one of the most com- 
 plete and satisfactory: — 
 
 "Glasgow, 11th April, 1844. 
 
 "Respected Tutor, — It gives me considerable pain to be com- 
 pelled to express sentiments which I know to be at variance with the 
 opinions entertained by one to whom T have been accustomed to look 
 up with feelings of very considerable deference, and whose approval, 
 next to the approval of God and my own conscience, I esteemed of 
 most value to me. The duty wliich I owe to you, to myself, and what 
 I conceive to be the truth, demands of me, however, to express these 
 sentiments, even at the risk of incurring your displeasure, and expul- 
 sion (which I know has already been threatened in certain quarters) 
 frorn that Institution, where I have (I trust gratefully) enjoyt-d so 
 many advantages. With these remarks I proceed to answer your 
 queries. 
 
 Ans. I. I am not conscious of any very essential change having 
 taken place in my sentiments on this subject since I was examined by 
 the Committee, and admitted int" this Institution. 
 
 ''Ans. II. Thereareseveral words, such as ' special ' and ' influence, ' 
 employed in this query, susceptible «f more meanings than one, and 
 which would consequently require explanation ; without entering, how- 
 ever, into any formal definition of these, I shall proceed with my 
 answer to the questions, hoping you will be in no danger of mistakiiig 
 the meaning which I attach to them. 
 
 "1st. I believe as firmly in the existence and 'personality' of the 
 Holy Ghost, as I do in that either of the Father or- the Son. 
 
 2nd. That his influence is a something distinct from the '"Word' 
 or 'providential circumstances.' 
 
 *'3rd. That his influence is as necessary to the regeneration of the 
 sinner, or his conversion to God, as is the work of Jesus Christ itself. 
 
302 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 They are both necessary and essential parts of the one great scheme : 
 John iii. 5, ' Except a man be born .... of the Sjjirit he cannot 
 enter the kingdom of God.' 
 
 "4th. That the 'Word' and 'providential circumstances* are some 
 of the instruments by which the Holy Spirit brings his influence to 
 bear upon the sinner's mind in conversion. But — 
 
 "5th. That this influence is special and irresistible — that is, is 
 exerted only upon those who are ordained to believe, and exerted with 
 a power which they cannot resist — are statements which, so far as my 
 own experience is concerned, and so far as I have been able to examine 
 and comprehend the language of Scripture, I do not feel warranted to 
 assert ; but, on the contrary, I do think they are statements at 
 variance with the Word of God. I shall only instance three passages 
 in support of this idea, two from the Old and one from the New Testa- 
 ment: Gen. vi. 3, 'And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always 
 strive with man Neh. ix. 30, ' Yet many years didst thou forbear 
 with them, and testified against them by thy Spirit in thy prophets ; 
 yet would they not give ear ; therefore thou gavest them into the hand 
 of the people of the lands ;' Acts vii. 51, 'Ye stiff"-necked and uncir- 
 cumcised in^ heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as 
 your fathers did so do ye.' In these verses we have the following 
 things; — 
 
 " 1. That an influence was exerted upon unconverted men — men of 
 whose after-conversion we have no account ; * they were stiff"-necked 
 and uncircumcised in heart and ears.' 
 
 " That this influence was resistible ; we are told they did resist it, 
 
 "That this influence was the influence of the Holy Ghost. The 
 language of Scripture is the 'Spirit of the Lord' — 'the Holy Ghost.' 
 I cannot help thinking that it is an explaining away of the point and 
 meaninji of these passages, to say, that they merely signified that they 
 resisted God's prophets, or his Word, or the providential circumstances 
 in which they were placed. If no more than this had been really 
 meant — if no influence of the Spirit was really exerted through these 
 media— \ cannot think that such language as 'My Spirit shall not 
 always strive with man,' and 'Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost,' 
 would have been used. Neither am I aware that the words to Hyiov to 
 Uvivf^a [the Holy Spirit] are ever used in Scripture to denote simply, 
 God's prophets, God's word, providential circumstances, or even the 
 influence which these, apart from the influence of the Holy Spirit, may 
 be supposed to exert upon the mind. 
 
 "The foregoing views are supported, I apprehend, by the exhorta- 
 tions conveyed to the saints, such as ' grieve not the Holy Spirit of 
 God ;' ' quench not the Spirit.' Regeneration is the beginning of the 
 new life. Sanctification is the maturing of that life. The same kind 
 of influence which begins it, carries it on— the same kind of influence 
 which carries it on, begins it. If this influence is such that it may be 
 resisted at any of its stages, it seems to me that it may be resisted at 
 the first as well as the last. 
 
 "I do not hold, however, that the bestowment of this influence is 
 necessary to constitute man an accountable being — that man has any 
 claim upon God for its bestowment — or that God was in any way 
 bound by justice to bestow it upon man ; in this respect, the work of 
 the Holy Spirit occupies the same ground as does the work or sacrifice 
 
MR. Robertson's letter. 
 
 303 
 
 of Jesus. The atonement of Christ was not necessary to constitute 
 man an accountable being— man had no claim upon God for the atone- 
 ment — God was n^t in any way bound by justice to send his Son into 
 the world. They both flow from the same source — the sovereign love 
 of God. Neither do I think, that if God had seen meet to limit the 
 atonement, or the he^townient of Divine influence, he would in either 
 case have been acting unjustly toward any of his creatures. But God, 
 in his sovereignty, caused that atonement to be made for all ; and, I 
 believe, in like manner also does he bestow the influence which is 
 necessary to ren<ler that atonenipnt available to all. 
 
 *' Alls. III. I believe that, in so far as it maybe said respecting any 
 of our sentiments, at any particular period, that they are settled — 
 mine are settled on the subject of the preceding query. Not that I do 
 not find diffiitulties on the subject : these I feel to be many and' great; 
 but not so many or so great as those which I find on the other side. I 
 hope T shall ever be found with my mind open to conviction, and the 
 reception of truth, come from whatever quarter it may ; guided, too, 
 in all ray investigations into this, and every other department of divine 
 truth, by the Spirit of truth — and taught by the same Spirit, to hold 
 all my sentiments on this, and every other doctrine, in the s]>irit of for- 
 bearance and love. — Yours respectfully, "James Samson." 
 
 Of a truth this letter also speaks for itself. We believe 
 that there are few students in the divinity halls, either of 
 Scotland or England, who could write so clear and Scriptural 
 a vidimus of truth on the Work of the Holy Spirit. We 
 are certain that if the learned Dr. Alexander, or any of the 
 other brethren who took part in the " Expulsion," should 
 happen to cast their eyes now over this letter, if they would 
 speak out the candid sentiments of their hearts, they would 
 say, " The man who %vrote such an epistle as that should 
 not have been expelled from any theological seat of learning. 
 On so difficult a point as election and irresistible gi-ace, there 
 ought to be forbearance, and room for difference of opinion, 
 if only Christ the Head be held in all his integrity." * 
 
 The next letter which we insert is that of the Rev. 
 James B. Robertson, who has ministered successively at 
 Galashiels, Hamilton, and Bradford. We believe that Mr. 
 Robertson now acts as Secretary to a Congregational Asso- 
 ciation in the West Riding of Yorkshire. We quote his 
 letter, not merely for its own excellence, but because he had 
 great influence among his fellow students at the time. He 
 •was a man of much intellectual power, and had gained, the 
 
 • Perhaps some critics may blame us for giving so many of these 
 theological epistles. They may suppose that one would have been 
 sufficient for our purpose. But it is our desire, even at the risk of 
 overmuch reiteration, to show what the views objected to really were. 
 
304 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 year before, the highest University prize in the Logic Class 
 at Glasgow. Mr. Robertson's letter ran as follows : — 
 
 ** Glasgow, 12th April, 1844. 
 
 "Respected Tutor,— As you desired, I send you answers to the 
 three queries proposed by you to the students. I micrht have answered 
 them much more shortly than I do, but I was afraid you might mis- 
 understand my meaning. Even as it is, I fear that some of the words 
 which I use may be open to a wrong construction ; but I have no others 
 to express my meaning more correctly. 
 
 ** In reply to the first question, I have to say that my sentiments are 
 not now the same, in regard to divine influence, as they were when I 
 was admitted to the privileges of the Academy. I am not sure if the 
 dissimilarity can be said to amount to opposition. 
 
 *' The second question, did I answer it by saying that I do hold a 
 special influence, &c., would be correctly and honestly answered; but 
 you would not know whether I agreed with or differed from you. 
 Accordingly T answer it as follows : — I am not prepared to say (I think 
 there is reason to suppose the contrary) that the influence put forth by 
 the Holy Spirit through the Word and providential circumstances, is 
 the only influence which he puts forth for the regeneration of the sin- 
 ner or his conversion to God. I am, however, prepared to say, that, 
 so far as my examination of the Scriptures has proceeded, I have not 
 found anything to show, either that the Holy Spirit puts forth, or that 
 it is necessary he should put forth, any other influence, except that 
 which he puts forth by means of or through ' moral suasion.' 
 
 " The expression 'moral suasion' involves to my mind — and it is 
 chiefly as it involves this that I use it — resistibility. I think that such 
 expressions as ' ye do always resist the Holy Ghost,' ' grieve not the 
 Holy Spirit cf*God,' ' quench not the Spirit,' point it out as a fact that 
 the Holy Spirit can be resisted. 
 
 '* The third question I answer by stating that my sentiments on this 
 matter are settled, so far as I have stated them — i.e., I am at present 
 under a conviction of then' truth, which leads me to act upon them. 
 
 "J shall always seek that my mind may be kept open to instruction, 
 from every quarter accessible to me, and have no hesitancy in saying 
 that, in regard to the question of ' divine influence,' as well as many 
 other questions, my opinions may be termed crude and ill-digested. 
 
 "I recognise the existence of an immense amount of phenomena, 
 which have not yet come under my particular notice; and the exami- 
 nation of which may present difficulties, at present perhaps hardly felt. 
 I shall cease to ask time for further consideration and inquiry only 
 when I shall be conscious that I understand all the declarations of God 
 upon the subject, which assuredly is not now. 
 
 "Feeling that there are difficulties now, I suspect that errors may 
 exist, though I do not see them. I do not expect that time shall 
 deliver me from all the difficulties, though I believe it shall from all 
 the errors. 
 
 "I am, yours, very respectfully, 
 
 "JAMES KOBERTSON. 
 
 **Rev. Dr. Wardlaw." 
 
 **NoTE. — The only statements, in addition to those in the letter to 
 
TWO BRIEF LETTERS. 
 
 305 
 
 Dr. W. which the Committee had before them, when they judged me 
 as denying * personal election to life,' were I think the following: — 
 
 "That I considered 'influence' as a word employed to conceal our 
 ignorance of the secret workings of the Divine Spirit. 
 
 "That I consider it a very faulty mode of speech to talk of influence 
 being in the Word. 
 
 "That ive7-e it possible for another agent than the Holy Spirit to 
 employ that instrumentality, marked by the phrase 'moral suasion,' 1 
 believed an influence would be wanting which is not, He being the 
 agent. 
 
 ' ' That there ma)'- be persons in the place of torment upon whom 
 influence has been iexerted, in order to conversidn. 
 ' "That I believed in election to blessings ; but that, whilst I was 
 not prepared to say what the blessings were, I did not believe that 
 election was to the enjoyment of an irresistible influence of the Spirit, 
 in order to faith, which influence yas supposed to be necessary to con- 
 version. 
 
 "That I considered the question of irresistibility as the mai;i 
 question in dispute. "J. R.'' 
 
 Passing over the answers sent by the Kev. A. C. Wood, 
 nbw deceased, and Rev. Gilbert M 'Galium, now of Springfield 
 Congregational Churclf, Dewsbury, as containing nothing 
 worthy of notice beyond the fact that they are to much the 
 same effect as the foregoing, we are arrested by the two 
 concluding letters — namely, those sent by the author's elder 
 brother and himself. These brief notes are certainly not 
 worthy of insertion for the sake of their doctrine^ importance. 
 We call attention to them rather on account of their brevity 
 and the hesitation of mind w^hich they express, and which cer- 
 tainly deserved more tender treatment than summary expul- 
 sion. We were mere youths at the time, and had been 
 completely engrossed in the study of Latin and Greek, with 
 a smattering of philosophy. All our theology had been 
 learned in the Sabbath School, and from the pulpits of the 
 Hamilton and Bellshill Congregational Churches, with the 
 few popular works which we had read on the debated 
 points. We thought the "new views" consistent and scrip- 
 tural, but really wished to give the deep and important 
 subjects on which we were questioned more mature con- 
 sideration. Thus Mr. David Ferguson wrote : — 
 
 " I hold, as firmly as I hold the veracity of the Bible, that in every 
 case of conversion the sinner is born of the Spirit ; but before I can 
 say whether the Spirit's operations in conversion be by motive, or by 
 more than motive, general or special, resistible or irresistible, I must 
 have time for further consideration and inquiry. — I remain, yours, very 
 respectfully and aff"ectionately, "David Ferguson. 
 
 "To the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw." 
 
 X 
 
306 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 The following are the replies sent by the author of this 
 volume, then only nineteen years of age, and the youngest 
 student at the time in the Theological Academy : — 
 
 "ROSEBAXK, NEAR HAMILTON, 12.th April, 1844.' b 
 
 ** I. My sentiments on the subject of Divine influence are the same 
 now as they were when I was admitted into the Academy. 
 
 ** II. I hold that without the influence of the Holy Spirit, the 
 influence of the word, or providential circumstances, would never eff'ect 
 the regeneration of the sinner or his conversion to God ; but I hesitate 
 to admit that this influence is special, although I will not confidently 
 assert that it is not. 
 
 "(It has caused me unfeigned sorrow, that I so unequivocally 
 intimated my concurrence with the minute entered in the books of the 
 Committee, on the day of examination, when admitted into the 
 Academy,' in which the influence of the Divine Spirit is designated 
 * special.' However much the peculiar circumstances in which I was 
 placed, and the really undecided state of my mind, may excuse the 
 step, I have, since that time, frequently wished that I had expressed 
 my leaning to the opinion, that whenever the Gospel is faithfully 
 preached, the influence of the Spirit does accompany the word spoken.) 
 
 "III. I have said that I hesitate to call the influence of the Spirit 
 special. I am inclined to think it universal, from a broad view of the 
 revealed character of God, and also from the general tenor of Scripture ; 
 but as there are several objections urged against this opinion, which I 
 am not fully prejiared to meet, and especially as there are some pa.ssages 
 of Scripture which I cannot entirely reconcile with it, I think that I 
 can, consistently with the above answer, ask time for further considera- 
 tion and inquity. — I remain, yours, very respectfully and affectionately, 
 
 "^otheEev" Dr. Wardlaw." "Fergus Ferguson, Jun. 
 
 "Note. — When examined before the Committee, I gave it as my 
 more decided oj>inion that the influence of the Spirit is not special — is 
 not irresistible ; and also intimated my leaning to the opinion that the 
 election of God is not an election to faith, but to hohness and to 
 heaven upon foreknown faith. " F. F." 
 
 The parenthesis inserted in the foregoing letter, after the 
 reply to the second question, reminds us of a never-to-be- 
 forgotten scene which was enacted in October 1843 in the 
 Calton Convening Rooms, Edinburgh. We never pass that 
 low-roofed building in the Scottish metropolis without being 
 reminded of the incidents of that day on which we were ex- 
 amined before the Committee of the Theological Academy of 
 the Scottish Congregationalists with a view of being admitted 
 to that institution, the advantages of which, however, we only 
 enjoyed for six months. We remember how awkward we 
 felt when we rose to address the Kev. Drs. Wardlaw, of 
 Glasgow ; Alexander, of Edinburgh ; Gowan, of Dalkeith ; 
 and Campbell, now of Bradford, with about twenty others, 
 ministers and laymen, from the text, which had been 
 
MR. FERGUS FERGUSON's EXAMINATION. 307 
 
 prescribed to us, " And ye will not come to me, that ye 
 might have life." Of course we were not preaching to 
 them, but before them— a trial sermon in more senses than 
 one ; yet once or twice we felt very uncomfortable when 
 beseeching our " dear hearers " to " flee from the wrath 
 to come " — which, if the reverend divines took it home to 
 themselves, could only mean the ill-will they would get all 
 over the country if they tried to crush the "New Views !" 
 But what we remember most vividly of all was the fire of 
 cross-questioning to which we were subjected for a full hour 
 at the close of this tentative discourse. We bore >vith us a 
 certificate of membership from the Rev. John Kirk, of 
 Hamilton, to whose church we then belonged. The Com- 
 mittee were anxious that we should declare that we had no 
 sympathy with what they thought to be some of his ob- 
 noxious tenets and statements on the work of the Holy 
 Spirit. An aged layman, addressing us in half angry tones, 
 said, " Young man, you must believe that the sinner is as 
 dead and impotent as Lazarus was in his grave." There 
 would not have been so much harm in this demand if our 
 irate exhorter had been willing to admit that in every case 
 in which the call " Come forth " is addressed to the dead 
 soul, the influence qualifying him to come is granted by Him 
 who calls — which, of course, the divines before us were not 
 willing to admit. The regret to which the author gives ex- 
 pression in the parenthesis in his letter, had lingered in his 
 tender conscience for half a year; because he feared that he 
 had not sufficiently indicated his full sympathy with Mr. 
 Kirk's views. His mind really was in a transition state, 
 and was cloudy and confused on some points ; but if he spoke 
 perhaps too guardedly on the day of examination from a 
 natural desire to be admitted into the institution, he threw 
 all reserve away half a year afterwards, when called before 
 the special Committee, after becoming somewhat more decided 
 in his theological belief, and took the bold step of declaring 
 in favour of resistible grace and conditional election — a step 
 from which he has never since resiled, and which he has 
 never since regretted. 
 
 We remember very distinctly the mental struggle through 
 which we passed at this anxious time, when our ecclesiastical 
 destiny for life was being decided. We used to lie awake 
 at night making a strong effort to bring ourselves to accept 
 the tenets which the Committee wished us to accept. But 
 
308 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 the imaginary picture which rose up before our mind, and 
 really turned the scale, was the following: — We fancied our- 
 selves preaching to an impressed audience from, such a text 
 as that which had been prescribed to us for our trial sermon 
 — " Ye vjill not come to me that ye might have life" — that 
 we had waxed warm and earnest, and had pressed every 
 hearer to decide immediately for eternity before leaving the 
 building, — but that some intelligent listener had put the 
 question to us at the foot of the pulpit stair, " Did you not 
 sign a paper which declared election to be partial and uncon- 
 ditional'?" That imaginary scene, we say, decided our 
 wavering resolution. 
 
 When the Committee had considered at Dundee all the 
 letters which had been sent in, we have seen that ten of them 
 were deemed unsatisfactory, and that a smaller Committee 
 was appointed to meet at Glasgow, on the 30th of April, 
 1844. Before this tribunal the suspected students, as already 
 stated, were summoned to appear for final examination. 
 
 This Committee did meet in the vestry of West Nile Street 
 Church on the day appointed, and the students were called 
 in one by one. The object of the Committee seemed to be 
 not to argue the points in dispute with the young men, but 
 simply, besides putting a few doctrinal queries, to find out 
 whether or not the lapse of a few weeks had produced any 
 change upon their sentiments. The nature of the few ques- 
 tions which were put may be gathered from the foot-notes 
 which are appended to several of the letters which have been 
 already quoted. Thus the examination of all the ten ex- 
 tended over only two or three hours, and was concluded at a 
 single sederunt. 
 
 The Committee's catechising was successful in one in- 
 stance. A gentleman, now a minister of the U.P. Church, 
 came up to their standard of orthodoxy, and was allowed to 
 remain in the institution. His letter had been unsatisfac- 
 tory; but his verbal explanations were pronounced up to the 
 mark. We do not give the gentleman's name, lest he should 
 consider that we took an unwarrantable liberty with him^ 
 at this distance of time. Nine of the young men, however, 
 failed to give satisfaction, and they were told to return next 
 day to the same place of meeting early in the forenoon. 
 
 The Committee spent the whole forenoon in debating what 
 was to be done, while the nin6 students waited anxiously in 
 an adjoining part of the building. 
 
THE EXPULSION OF THE NINE STUDENTS. 
 
 309 
 
 There seems to have been a good deal of discussion in the 
 Connnittee as to the way in which the students should be 
 dealt with ; but at length Dr. Wardlaw moved and the Rev. 
 Mr. Machray seconded that they should at once be cut off 
 from the Academy. The Rev. J. H. Bateman, of Edinburgh, 
 moved as an amendment, and the Rev. Mr. Weir, of Kil- 
 marnock, seconded, " that they be not cut off in the mean- 
 time, but that a Committee be appointed to deal with them 
 for two or three months, in order to see if they could come 
 to a right understanding upon the subject." We need hardly 
 inform our readers that the gentleman who proposed this 
 kind and generous amendment is the same Mr. Bateman 
 whose brotherly co-operation at Falkirk we have already 
 had occasion to notice. 
 
 The motion of Dr. Wardlaw was however carried, and the 
 students were called in to hear their sentence read in the 
 shape of a body of resolutions which had been pa^^sed by the 
 C'ommittee. It was a very affecting scene. Dr. Wardlaw 
 never looked the young men in the face, being apparently 
 quite overcome with emotion. The students stood in a row 
 lengthwise, up the room, in the order of seniority — Mr. 
 Duncanson, as the eldest, standing at the fdr end of the line, 
 and the author of this volume, as the youngest, at the end 
 nearest the door. The following resolutions were then read 
 over formally to the young men by the Committee's clerk or 
 secretary : — 
 
 " That this Committee are strongly averse to everj'thing that has in 
 it the reality or even the appearance of laying constraint upon senti- 
 ment, and especially on religious sentiment, which, as it involves the 
 deepest responsibility, ought most of all to be free: 
 
 "That they, at the same time, deeply feel the sacredness of the duty 
 which, in present circumstances, has been imposed upon them, to the 
 churches of the Congregational body in Scotland, with which they 
 stand connected: 
 
 '* That the doctrines of personal election to life, and of the necessity 
 of a special influence of the Holy Spirit to the conversion of sinners, as 
 following up and effecting the sovereign purpose of electing grace, have 
 ever been among the things 'most surely believed' by the members of 
 that body: 
 
 "That, this being the case, it would be an evident dereliction of 
 their trust, on the part of the Committee of Management of the Theo- 
 logical Academy, to receive into that institution as students any 
 brethren holding views at variance with the doctrines just mentioned, 
 or even in a state of doubt and indecision respecting them ; and that 
 there would therefore be the same impropriety and unfaithfulness in 
 retaining as in admitting them: 
 
 " That the following students have avowed their doubts, and several 
 
310 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 of them more than doubts, relative to these important truths:— viz., 
 Messrs. Alexander Dancanson, Ebenezer Kennedy, William Bathgate, 
 James Samson, Alexander 0. Wood, James Robertson, Gilbert 
 M'Oallum, jun., David Ferguson, and Fergus Ferguson, jun.; and 
 that the Committee conceive it imperative that the namt-s of these 
 students be, in the meanwhile, erased from the roll of students con- 
 nected with the institution ; it being understood that they be re-eligible 
 when they come to the conviction and profession of sentiments in 
 accordance with the understood principles of the Congregational body: 
 
 "That in respect of the desire, expressed by some of the students 
 whose names are erased from the roll, in terms of the preceding resolu- 
 tions, for more time to consider the doctrines in question, the Com- 
 mittee — having the utmost anxiety to assist them in the attainment of 
 settled views in accordance with the understood principles of the Con- 
 gregational churches — appoint the following members of committee: — 
 Dr. Wardlaw, Mr. Ingram, Mr. Thomson, and Mr. Russell, Glasgow ; 
 Mr. Knowles, Linlithgow ; Mr. Machray, and Mr. Bateman, Edin- 
 burgh ; and Mr. Sime, Airdrie - Mr. Russell to be convener — whose 
 duty it .shall be to converse with such of them as desire it for maturing 
 and settling their views: 
 
 "And that, at the same time, this sentence be considered not as 
 implying a charge of any such delinquency on the part of these young 
 brethren, as the Committee have any right to reprehend, but sinip'y 
 as an act of consistency and of obvious duty to the churches, for which, 
 and for the multiplication of which, the Theological Academy is 
 designed to provide pastors and preachers." 
 
 When these resolutions had been read over, the Rev. Mr. 
 Machray proceeded to deliver an address to the students. 
 This gentleman enjoyed a considerable reputation at the 
 time as an itinerant evangelist. He had been loosed from 
 his charge in Dumfries, and was supported by the late Mr. 
 Douglas, of Cavers, that he might be wholly devoted to the 
 work of preaching the Gospel from place to place. He 
 remarked in the course of his address to the students that 
 he could preach the Gospel as freely, as earnestly, and unre- 
 servedly as they claimed to be able to do ; but that he 
 possessed an advantage over them in one important parti- 
 cular. When he pressed men to come to Christ he knew 
 that none of them would come, if left to themselves ; but 
 then he fell back confidently upon God's promise that he 
 would make the Word effectual in the case of those on whom 
 his heart was set. He even went the length of rating the 
 students soundly for not reading their Bibles as they should 
 have done, adding that if they had diligently studied the 
 Word of God they would not be occupying their present 
 position. The students were just about to be bowed out of 
 the room after hearing this address ; but one of their number 
 
MR. J. B. Robertson's farewell address. 311 
 
 felt moved by the Spirit, whose work they honoured instead of 
 dishonouring, to utter a few words in self-defence. The unex- 
 pected impromptu reply was uttered by Mr. J. B. Robertson. 
 This gentleman was much respected by his fellow-students for 
 his intellectual qualities as well as his fidelity to truth ; and, 
 as we have already noticed, he stood high in the University 
 as well as in the Divinity Hall. Mr. Robertson said that "he 
 and his fellow-students w^ere doubtless thankful to the Kev. 
 Mr. Machray for his plain and pointed observations, which 
 possibly were well meant. But he could not let the address 
 jpass without repudiating in his o wn name and in that of his 
 fellow-students the charge of inattention to the Word of 
 God. For himself he could say that he never studied God's 
 Word more anxiously or more earnestly than he had done 
 for some months back ; and from what he had heard and 
 even knew, he might say the same for his brethren. And 
 certainly when their entire temporal prospects might be said 
 fo be at stake, it would have been very sur2:>rising if they 
 had not gone to God's Word with eagerness to see if they 
 were not risking their future for an unscriptural dogma. 
 No ; they were not there for want of Bible study, but because 
 they had studied the Bible for themselves. Mr. Machray 
 had said that when he preached the Gospel he fell back with 
 confidence upon God's promise that he would bless his 
 preaching; and he had hinted that the nine young men now 
 before them could not draw comfort from God's promised 
 aid. The very reverse was the case. He and his fellow- 
 students never ascended a pulpit without the comfortable 
 conviction that God was with them, — more earnest than they 
 were, more eager than they were, that all their hearers should 
 get a blessing. While they were preaching they rejoiced to 
 think that the Holy Spirit of God was pressing home the 
 Word preached upon the hearts and consciences of their 
 hearers, backing up their efibrts and knocking loudly at the 
 door of the soul. But if they held Mr. Machray's view, its 
 efiect upon their minds would be chilling in the extreme. 
 For however earnestly they might pretend to cry to men, 
 'Why will ye dieV they would always be conscious of some 
 mental reservation — of keeping back something from the 
 people — since they would be concealing from them the fact 
 that the irresistible grace of God's Spirit was patent only to 
 a few.'^ These words, with which Mr. Robertson closed his 
 address, " patent only to a few," seemed to come down upon 
 
312 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 the Committee with mighty poAv^er, and under covert of them 
 the nine students marched away, feeling that though cast 
 down they were not destroyed." 
 
 As may readily be believed, the expulsion of these nine 
 young men caused great excitement throughout the country. 
 On "the one hand their peculiar views were caricatured and 
 exaggerated into the grossest heresy, and they were even 
 charged with denying the divinity and personality of the 
 Holy Ghost ; but on the other hand many friendly arms of 
 welcome were extended to them, and many kind words 
 addressed to them. Mr. Bateman followed them out of the 
 room to assure them that he still regarded them as fellow- 
 labourers in the Lord's vineyard. The Rev, Mr. Lothian, 
 of St. Andrews, could not sleep in his hotel in Edinburgh, 
 when on his way home, but rose early in the morning to pen 
 to them a sympathetic and fraternal epistle. They received 
 even a long poetical address, printed o& in blank verse, from 
 some unknown friend as far away as Hull, in Yorkshire — 
 himself a votary of the Muses, and who thought that they 
 whom he addressed were under the same inspiration and 
 care ; for he likened them in his poem to the Nine Muses, 
 and fervidly apostrophised them as " Ye noble nine !" But 
 their most substantial help was received from Christian 
 churches themselves ; for in a few months the seven of their 
 number who were prepared to enter at once on the work of 
 the ministry were all settled either in churches that sympa- 
 thised with their views or in new preaching stations where 
 churches were soon afterwards formed. We have already 
 noticed the fact, when quoting their letters, that several of 
 these students eventually settled in England. Three of 
 them are, while we write, labouring in connection with 
 the English Congregational Union ; and it certainly shows 
 that a freer theological atmosphere is breathed south of the 
 Tweed when we are able to add that not one of these 
 gentlemen was asked to retract his views or sign any 
 Calvinistic formulary of faith. 
 
 It would be observed that the Committee appointed a 
 respectable Sub-Committee to whom any of the young men 
 might go for counsel and advice with the view of being 
 restored to the privileges of the Institution. But as the 
 nine students knew very well that that Sub-Committee 
 could do nothing for them unless their views were changed, 
 they did not put them to the trouble of seeking an interview. 
 
THE FIVE CHURCHES. 
 
 313 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Action taken by the Congregational ists in Glasgow with 
 Five Churches in the West of Scotland as to their Views on the 
 Work of the Holy Spirit — The Hamilton Church — Correspondence 
 between Dr. Wardlaw and Professor Kirk — The Hamilton Church 
 refuses to part with its Minister — The Bellsliill Church — Sketch 
 of the Life and Labours of its Pastor, the Rev. Fergus Ferguson, 
 Sen. — Reply of the Bellshill Chur;h — Powerful Reference to 
 Christ's Lament over Cliorazin and Bethsaida — Bridgeton Church 
 — They Reply by m'erely quoting Texts of Scripture. 
 
 We must now pass from the ecclesiastical action which was 
 taken in connection with the students of the Academy, to 
 notice the peculiar way in which those churches were dealt 
 with by the Scottish Congregationalists which were known 
 to favour the doctrines of the universality and resistibility 
 of grace. We have already mentioned that the students 
 were under the immediate jurisdiction of the Academy Com- 
 mittee ; but there was nothing like an ecclesiastical Court, 
 to which the churches were ainenable. For it is of the 
 genius of Independency that all the churches of a district 
 are on a level, and that no one has a right to interfere in 
 the internal affairs of another. In these circumstances the 
 somewhat peculiar course was resorted to of epistolary cor- ' 
 respond ence with a view to find out theological opinions. 
 That is to say, the four Congregational churches in Glasgow 
 determined to institute a brisk and lively intercourse by 
 letter with the five churches in the west of Scotland, which 
 were known to sympathise with the nine students, with this 
 view, that in the event of the correspondence being unsatis- 
 factory, they would withdraw from all fraternal intercourse 
 with them. 
 
 We must now give the names of the five churches to 
 whom the Glasgow letters were thus faithfully addressed. 
 These were — the Congregational Church, Hamilton, under 
 the pastoral care of the Rev. John Kirk ; the Congrega- 
 tional Church, Bellshill, under the pastoral care of the Rev. 
 Fergus Ferguson, Senior; the Congregational Church, 
 Bridgeton, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Robert 
 Simpson ; the Congregational Church, Cambuslang, under 
 the pastoral care of the Rev. John M'Robert ; and the Con- 
 
314 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 gregational Church, Ardrossan, under the pastoral care of 
 the Rev. Peter Mather. 
 
 We say nothing as to the scripturalness or constitutional 
 nature of the proceedings ivhich were thus originated. We 
 are aware that Dr. Wardlaw, who had recently published 
 his work on Independency, thought that he had a fine oppor- 
 tunity of demonstrating to Presbyterians in Scotland how 
 Congregationalists could manage a difficult doctrinal case 
 without Courts of appeal. Perhaps he took the best course 
 possible, looking at the matter from his stand-point; but, in 
 our opinion, it would have been far better if he had let it 
 alone — and this now is the general opinion in the connection. 
 Of one thing we are certain — namely, that neither the 
 apostle Peter nor Paul, nor James nor John, would have 
 adopted any such course. Any man who confessed that 
 Jesus Chi'ist, the Divine Son of God, had come in the flesh, 
 they regarded as orthodox ; and heresy they never scented 
 till men like Hymeneus and Philetus denied the resurrec- 
 tion and " increased unto more ungodliness." Practical im- 
 morality was what these founders of Christianity dreaded ; 
 and Peter would no more have dreamed of cutting ofl' 
 churches in Judea, Ionia, or Africa, because they differed 
 from him in interpreting the ninth chapter of the Epistle to 
 the Homans (in which he confessed that there were some 
 things hard to be understood) than he w^ould have thought of 
 refusing fellowship to them because they met in the lower 
 storey instead of the upper storey of a house, for the worship 
 of the Lord. 
 
 Inasmuch as the " Entire Correspondence " between these 
 Glasgow churches and the five suspected country churches 
 has been published in a goodly volume, and is intimately 
 connected with the history of the origin and progress of the 
 Evangelical Union, we propose to give our readers some 
 little idea of the arguments advanced, pro and con, — prefacing 
 our notice of each case by a brief account of the minister who 
 was thus taken to task. 
 
 We have already given a condensed biography of the Kev. 
 Professor Kirk. Suffice it to say that, from the stage of his 
 labours at which we left him, Mr. Kirk had pursued a career 
 of indefatigable, evangelistic effort. He laboured, not only 
 every week, but generally every night in the week, at what 
 were then called " Revival, or Protracted Meetings," and we 
 believe that the name is still in vogue. He was the means 
 
MR. KIRK AND THE LATE SIR WILFRID LAWSON. 315 
 
 of planting many of the churches of the Evangelical Union^ 
 not merely in the neighbourhood of Hamilton, but in different 
 parts of the country. We heard him once take as his text 
 at the weekly prayer meeting in his own church in that 
 town, in the middle ward of Lanarkshire, w^hen he had come 
 home exhausted from his much loved toil, these words of the 
 similarly employed Apostle, ^' ISTow thanks be unto God, 
 who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh 
 manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. 
 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that 
 are saved, and in them that perish : to the one we are the 
 savour of death unto death ; and to the other the savour of 
 life unto life. And w^ho is sufficient for these things'?" (2 
 Cor. ii. 14-16.) Do not these words fully bear out all that 
 the founders of the Evangelical Union ever contended for — 
 namely, that God's Spirit, through his servants, is striving 
 with all Gospel hearers alike ; and that the diversity of their 
 subsequent spiritual conditions results from their diverse 
 treatment of the word heard ? " The manifestation of the 
 Spirit is given to every man to profit withal," 
 
 One note^vorthy feature of Mr. Kii*k's history, from 1842 
 to 1844, was the close friendship which sprang up between 
 him and the late Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bai-t., of Brayton Hall, 
 near Carlisle. The E-ev. Henry Wight brought Mr. Kirk 
 with him to a series of meetings at Brayton, as we have 
 already seen in connection with the case of the Rev. John 
 Guthrie of Kendal ; and the earnest baronet took quite a 
 fancy to him. Indeed, under a sermon which Mr. Kirk 
 preached in the library of the Hall, from the text, I am 
 the Way," Sir Wilfrid's view of the Gospel was made much 
 clearer, and more satisfactory. He warmly espoused the 
 cause of the nine students and the five churches ; and many 
 things were effected in these days of struggle and battle by 
 his purse and influence which could not have been done 
 without them. It is not too much to say that it is largely 
 to the friendship of the family for Professor Kii*k that Great 
 Britain now owes the brave and thorough prohibitory career 
 of the present Sir Wilfrid Law^son. The latter was a boy at 
 the time when the Hamilton pastor first visited the Cumber- 
 land mansion-house, and thus early imbibed a love for the 
 holy temperance cause. 
 
 It was when he was in the midst of this coui'se of evange- 
 listic effort that Mr. Kirk was called upon to buckle on his 
 
316 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 armour to reply to the letters which were addressed to . his 
 church between the months of June and December, 1844, 
 and which were signed by Ralph Wardlaw, Alex. Thomson, 
 David Russell, and George S. Ingram, in name and by ap- 
 pointment of their several churches in Glasgow. There is 
 this important difference between the letters addressed to the 
 other four churches and those addressed to the Hamilton 
 church, that the others were sent to the pastor as well as the 
 people; whereas all the epistles which came to Hamilton 
 were intended for the church alone. For the reverend in- 
 terrogators held that they knew Mr. Kirk's views sufficiently 
 from his published writings ; and all they wanted to find out 
 was whether or not his people agreed with him. The two 
 questions which were put to the church in the first brief, in- 
 troductory epistle were these : — 
 
 " 1st. Do you hold that the influence which the Holy Spirit exerts 
 in the conversion of sinners is a general, and in no case a special influ- 
 ertce ? — meaning by general that the Spirit's influence is put forth 
 upon all alike who hear the Gospel, and that no more or other divine 
 influence is exerted on those who believe the Gospel than on those who 
 t reject it. 
 
 *' 2nd. Have you ceased to hold the doctrine of personal and uncon- 
 ditional election ? — meaning by that, the sovereign and gracious choice 
 of individuals to eternal life by God." 
 
 Of course, Mr. Kirk required to Avrite the answers to all 
 the letters which came (for no other member of the church 
 considered himself fitted for close theological discussion), ex- 
 cept passages in his own defence, which were written by Mr. 
 John Naismith, the senior deacon. We may also state that 
 the replies to the Hamilton letters were written by Dr. 
 Wardlaw,- so that the chief tug of war in this contro- 
 versy lay between that renowned divine, who had won his 
 first spurs as a controversialist in his debate with Yates, 
 on the Divinity of CJirist, as early as 1814, and the fu- 
 ture professor of Pastoral Theology to the Evangelical Union. 
 
 There were four principal letters in all written, of con- 
 siderable length — two by Mr. Kirk, and two by Dr. 
 Wardlaw. We do not propose to give anything like an 
 analysis of these compositions, which, however, we would 
 recommend to the perusal of students of theology, as being 
 fine specimens of dialectical skill. If the venerable Dr. 
 Wardlaw excelled in clear, orderly reasoning, and in the 
 power of elegant and eloquent expression, the then young 
 Hamilton pastor was more than his match in earnest, zealous 
 
MR. KIRK ANI> DR. WAKDLAW. 
 
 317 
 
 declamation, with here and there powerfully pointed home- 
 thrusts of Scriptural argumentation, besides having, in our 
 opinion, the best side of the controversy. Dr. Wardlaw 
 quoted some of the texts whieli have been already referred 
 to, and which have always been thought strong redoubts on 
 the Calvinistic side. Mr. Kirk endeavoured to parry these 
 thrusts, suggested the Arminian interpretations, and quoted 
 as formidable an array of texts on his side. We think that 
 he succeeded best with Isa. v. 4, " What cou.ld have been 
 done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it: 
 wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, 
 brought it forth wild grapes'?" Dr. Wardlaw tried to show 
 that what God meant was, that he had done all that was 
 needed among the Jews to make them accountable. But 
 Mr. Kirk contended that God had really brought all the 
 influence to bear upon them, which he could bring to bear 
 upon them, in consistency with his all-wise providential 
 arrangements, and the inviolability of that free agency with 
 which he had himself endowed man. 
 
 Again, Mr. Kii'k avowed it as his belief, and the belief of 
 his people, that they not only held the influence of means, 
 but the infl'uence of the Holy Ghost working by means. 
 Dr. Wardlaw retorted, that unless they would admit besides 
 a direct, mysterious invincible energy, or breathing, — in fact, 
 an inexplicable afflatus, accompanying the means, and ren- 
 dering them in some instances effectual, he would conclude 
 that they did not believe in the influence of the Spirit at 
 all, but only in the influence of means. Now, this assump- 
 tion, on the venerable Doctor's part, was, we maintain, 
 wholly gratuitous. In nature, God works by means — yet 
 he works really and powerfully, although sometimes barren 
 ground resists his influence. And the same thing holds 
 true in grace. For ourselves, we have always thought that 
 the late Dr. J enkyn's illustration of the universally diffused 
 energy of nature, taking advantage of, and blessing the 
 farmer's exertions — yet here and there resisted by bad soil 
 — one of the very best types for setting off to advantage 
 what we believe to bfe the real truth concerning the work of 
 the Spirit — a universally diffused energy, which Christians, 
 by prayer and earnest effort, can concentrate on given points 
 in increased abundance — which obdurate men may resist to 
 their own destruction, but which, in multitudes of instances, 
 will result in the conversion of souls. 
 
318 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Dr. Wardlaw was very ill pleased with Mr. Kirk for say- 
 ing that his view of the Spirit represented God as partial. 
 But Mr. Kirk's reply was plain yet convincing. 
 
 '* Suppose that two men throw themselves into a river to commit 
 suicide — you are standing by the river with full power to save both — 
 you exert that power in behalf of only one of the two — he is saved and 
 the oth6r lost. Now, we ask, why is the one saved and the other 
 lost ? We do not see that we would be talking absurdity if we said, 
 * because you saved the one and refused to save the other. ' The one is 
 saved because you pleased to save him — the other is lost because you 
 did not please to save him." 
 
 There is no doubt that the limitation in the Spirit's work 
 for which Dr. Wardlaw pled just came to that; by a touch 
 He might have saved all the non-elect, but He did not please 
 to do it. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of candid people 
 would call such procedure partial dealing. 
 
 Dr. Wardlaw again and again urged the Hamilton Church 
 to say why, on their principles, one sinner was saved and 
 another lost. Thus, for example, he wrote (at p. 69) : — 
 
 "When the truth, then, is presented to many, and of these many 
 it is received bv a few and rejected by all the rest, we must still insist 
 upon it, that in that case the cause of the difference between the 
 former class and the latter lies in themselves; that they * make .them- 
 selves to differ. * 
 
 Now we never felt the force of this argument on which 
 the Doctor repeatedly insisted and which he evidently 
 deemed unanswerable. The judgment day will answer it. 
 Those on the left hand — should they not have been on the 
 right? And might they not have been on the right? If 
 these questions be answered in the affirmative, the Doctor's 
 difficulty vanishes into thin air. The righteous shall be on 
 the right hand because they chose life; while the wicked 
 shall be on the left hand because they would not have it. 
 The righteous then "saved themselves" and "made them- 
 selves to differ?" In a most important and scriptural sense 
 they did. God, through Ezekiel, said to the Jews, " Make 
 you a new heart and a new spirit" (xviii. 31). And no less 
 an authority than the Apostle Peter, and on the very day of 
 Pentecost too, speaking under the influence of the Holy 
 Spirit, by whom he had been newly baptized with fire, said, 
 " Save yourselves from this untoward generation" (Acts ii. 
 40). It will be, to all eternity, true that the saved took the 
 step which the lost would not take; and the fact shall be to 
 the everlasting condemnation of the latter (Heb. xi. 7). 
 
THE HAMILTON CHURCH AND THEIR MINISTER. 319 
 
 Yet ask the shining ranks how they reached the blissful 
 seats — and they will confess that the minute and compara- 
 tively immeritorious act of decision dwindles down into mere 
 insignificance when compared with all that the Divine 
 Saviour by his bleeding, and the Divine Spirit by his plead- 
 ing, had done for them; so that, casting their crowns at 
 Emmanuel's feet, they shall say, " Not unto us, not unto us, 
 but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy 
 truth's sake." 
 
 Our readers may be interested to see how nobly the 
 Hamilton Church stood up for their minister, and refused to 
 part with him. 
 
 " You refer to our adherence to our pastor, as the ground on which 
 you address us. Dear brethren, with regard to our beloved pastor, we 
 know certainly that he has been much misrepresented. We fear he 
 hiis b<'en so to you. He has been charged with preaching universal 
 )>ardoii, and that man can save himself. It has been widely circulated 
 tiiat lie denies the inliuence and work of the Holy Spirit. All this is 
 utterly false. We, dear brethren, have been more delightfully engaged 
 than in paying much attention to the cry of 'heresy' which has been 
 raised. When our dear pastor came amongst us the great majority who 
 710W form the members of the church were living in rebellion against 
 God. 'I"he number of memliers was then comparatively few. Very 
 numy of those who now address you were then living without God and 
 without hoi)e in the world, afraid of Jehovah, and yet not much 
 alarmed for their condition. We were hiding, some under one refuge 
 of lies, and some under another. Some of us, under the doctrine of 
 election as we then understood it, were saying, 'If we are among the 
 elect we will be saved, if not, we cannot help it ;' and so we lived in 
 sin. Some took shelter in the doctrine of a limited atonement, and 
 thought that if Jesus died fur us we were safe, and if not, we could not 
 alter our case. A great many of us took refuge under what we believe 
 is a more ])opular, yet not less fatal error, the doctrine of partiality in 
 the Spirit's use of his influence, and were waiting for that without 
 which we thought we could not believe the gospel. The very men 
 whoni you now suppose to be teaching error were the instruments in 
 the hand of the Spirit of God of undeceiving us. They exposed, and 
 thus destroyed in our minds, the lying refuges under which we were 
 hiding. We were led by their means to flee to Jesus, the only refuge 
 for the guilty soul. Some of us were convinced of sin, and the awful 
 guilt of sligiiting God's message of mercy in the Gospel of his Son, by 
 ru^ans of our dear friends and t)rethren, Messrs. Simpson of Bridgeton, 
 Wight of Carlisle, Ferguson of Bellshill, MacRobert of Cambuslang, 
 Morison of Kilmarnock, Morison of Bathgate, Rutherford of Falkirk, 
 and James Samson, who was with us in our pastor's absence ; but the 
 great majority of us have been brought to the Saviour, and now enjoy 
 peace with God, by the instrumentality of our pastor. We have more 
 still, brethren, to tell you of the labours of our pastor. The church 
 of Bellshill took its rise from ours. The church at Strathaven, con- 
 sisting of about sixty members, now enjoying the labours of our 
 
320 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION 
 
 respected Lrother, 'Mr. Duncanson — that at Wishawtown, about tte 
 same number, favoured with the services of our dear brother Mr. Cross — 
 were both branches from this church; and the majority of the members 
 of these last two churches have been brought to the Redeemer through 
 the labours of our pastor. We might refer you to the conversions to 
 God that have taken j)lace in Cumberland and elsewhere, but we for- 
 bear. "We ascribe all the praise to God, who has thus, by the power 
 of the Holy Spirit, given testimony to the word of his grace — his free 
 and infinite grace — that flows to all through the atonement of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 "Did you really know the doctrine and manner of life of our dear 
 pastor, you would not — you could not — wish us to abandon him. 
 * "We have written to you thus fully, dear brethren, in answer to 
 your queries, that you might be fully able to judge of our case ; and 
 now, with all our hearts we pray— " May the God of Peace, that 
 brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that Great Shep- 
 herd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make 
 you perfect in every good work, to do his will, woiking in you that 
 which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be 
 glory for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 " We are, yours, in the bonds of the love of Jesus, 
 
 *' {Signed and Printed hy the unanimous apijointment of the Churchy 
 2ZrdJune, 1844.) 
 
 " JOHX NAISMITH, Sen. 
 
 " HENEY DEUMMOND. 
 
 " WILLIAM EEID. 
 
 "NEIL LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 " JOHN AIED. 
 
 " ORD ADAM. 
 
 " JOHN THOMSON. 
 
 " CHAELES PILE. 
 
 " JOHN NAI5M1TH, Jnk. 
 
 "THOMAS PUEDIE." 
 
 We have inserted the names of all the deacons who signed 
 this letter, for the sake, indeed, of giving the respected sig- 
 natures complete, but chiefly that we might call attention to 
 the fourth name, " Xeil Livingstone." He was the father of 
 the renowned traveller, Dr. Li\"ingstone. He had fully em- 
 braced Mr. Kirk's views of world-wide grace, and died in the 
 comfort which they imparted. He was a Nathanael, — " an 
 Israelite, indeed, in whom there was no guile." His son had 
 become distinguished before the father died ; but the latter 
 had not seen him for fifteen years, and he longed to embrace 
 him — as Jacob longed to embrace Joseph — before his de- 
 parture. But the privilege was denied him. His frequent 
 exclamation during years of weaiy waiting, while the valor- 
 ous traveller was tracking the Zambesi from its source to the 
 eastern sea, was, " O Dauvit, man, but ye're lang o' comin'." 
 
REV. FERGUS FERGUSON, SEN.'s, CAREER. 
 
 321 
 
 Doubtless the happy spirits of father and son have already 
 met in the better world. 
 
 In the month of December, 1844, the final letter was 
 received by th6 Hamilton brethren from the four Glasgow 
 Churches, towards the close of which they were informed 
 that they must needs separate, and that thenceforth there 
 would be no ecclesiastical fellowship between them. But so 
 signal were the manifestations of the Saviour's presence at 
 the time, that, rejoicing much in his smiles, they did not feel 
 deeply the disownment of men — pious and excellent in many 
 respects although they were. 
 
 The next letter of inquiry as to the work of the Holy 
 Spirit and the doctrine of Election, was addressed by the Four 
 Congregational Churches of GUsgow to the Congregational 
 Church in Bellshill, under the pastoral charge of the E-ev. 
 Fergus Ferguson, senior, now of Aberdeen. Before entering 
 briefly on the consideration of this correspondence, it will be 
 necessary to premise a little about the history of the church, 
 with its pastor, which was thus addressed. 
 
 Mr. Ferguson had been in business in Glasgow, and had 
 retired to live in the neighbourhood of Hamilton. He had 
 been a member and Sunday School teacher in the Church of 
 Dr. Chalmers, when that great man was thundering Sabbath 
 after Sabbath, both from the" Tron pulpit, and, subsequently, 
 from that of St. John's. Thereafter, Mr. Ferguson had 
 joined the church of Dr. Wardlaw, having been attracted 
 both by the gi-eater purity of its communion and by the 
 evangelical ministrations of that able divine. 
 
 When living in retirement at Hamilton, Mr. Ferguson 
 could not be idle. He first threw himself into the political 
 discussions which agitated the country-side about the time 
 when the Reform Bill was passed, and also became President 
 of the Hamilton Voluntary Association, which was origi- 
 nated by the exciting controversy on Church Establishments. 
 He was Dr. Ritchie's chaii-man when that Champion of 
 Dissent visited the town in his memorable ecclesiastical 
 crusade. 
 
 But there was yet another movement which lay still nearer 
 Mr. Ferguson's heart, — and that was the spiritual welfare of 
 his fellow-men. He had not sat in vain at the feet of two 
 such preachers as Chalmers and Wardlaw ; and consequently 
 the religious condition of the surrounding population pressed 
 upon his spirit. He had joined the little Congregational 
 
 T 
 
322 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Churcli in the town of Hamilton, and had been somewhat 
 instrumental in raising it to a condition of comparative 
 prosperity. He taught a Bible-class every Sabbath-day in 
 the little chapel, during the interval of worship ; and it is 
 noteworthy that while he was conducting his young scholars 
 through the Acts of the Apostles, one of them gave himself 
 first to the Lord and then to his people, — and that youth 
 was David Livingstone, whose body, not long ago, was laid, 
 with public honours, in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 But Mr. Ferguson began to venture to preach as well as 
 to teach. Naturally fluent and forcible in speech, he estab- 
 lished first a Sabbath evening service in the village of Quarter, 
 where many of the rural inhabitants professed to give their 
 hearts to the Lord ; and the first public gift which he ever 
 received was a large family Bible, presented to him by the 
 grateful people in recognition of his unwearied labours there 
 during successive winters. Still he had never attempted 
 anything like preaching at canonical hours. It is interesting 
 to hear how this was brought about. 
 
 Mr. Ferguson was a Deacon of the Congregational Church 
 in Hamilton when the Bev. J ohn Kirk was settled over it ; 
 and when his earnest labours began to tell on the surround- 
 ing neighbourhood, as we have already narrated, there were 
 about a dozen simple-hearted men whose hearts God had 
 touched," who joined the Hamilton Church, and walked into 
 the town every Sabbath-day to public worship. Finding the 
 journey of four miles to be somewhat inconvenient, and 
 having heard of Mr. Ferguson's labours, they requested him 
 to visit their village, and preach the Gospel. At first they 
 proposed to have only Sabbath evening services ; but as 
 these increased in interest, the idea of regular ministrations 
 began to dawn upon their minds. Bellsliill was a village 
 situated half-way between Hamilton and Airdrie, and within 
 an easy distance of several large mining centres of population. 
 Mr. Ferguson's first sermons were delivered in a saw-pit by 
 the high-way side; and when a regular preaching station 
 was first thought of, the only available place of meeting 
 was a small school-room, which consisted only of two little 
 dwelling-houses, with the partitions removed which had 
 divided them. 
 
 But deeply interesting audiences of men and women began 
 to be crowded into that small edifice. The country side was 
 moved at the time by what was known as the " Kilsyth 
 
MR. Ferguson's success as a minister. 323 
 
 revival;" and labouring and heavy laden souls pressed to 
 hear the Word of God, and put the question, " What must 
 I do to be saved?" 
 
 Nor were they disappointed when they came; for Mr. 
 Ferguson met them with the consolations of the Gospel, as 
 well as with the terrors of the law. He had, by this time, 
 attended James Morison's trial at Glasgow, and had read the 
 earliest publications of that glo^ving evangelist, so that he 
 was prepared to give his hearers rich and satisfying repasts 
 of the Bread of Life. Careless ones, too, who came out of 
 mere curiosity, were arrested by the Spirit of God. " He 
 looked me full in the face," said a hardy son of the mine, 
 who had served the devil only too diligently, "and cried 
 out, ' Sinner, I mean you;' I hid behind a big woman who 
 was sitting before me, and the next time I ventured to look 
 over her shoulder the preacher looked me full in the face, 
 and cried out again, ' Yes, sinner, I mean you.' I felt that 
 God had a controversy with my soul." Tidings of these 
 powerful ministrations began to be circulated in the neigh- 
 bourhood. That celebrated local preacher, " Saunders 
 Patrick" — whose memoii' has been so admirably written 
 by the Rev. Mr. Drake, Wesleyan minister, — happening 
 to come from Airdrie to conduct a religious service in 
 the village, was, according to his custom, praying for all 
 the ministers of the parish in succession. * When he came 
 to the newest importation, he forgot Mr. Ferguson's name, 
 but exclaimed, " O Lord, I mean the big man in the wee 
 kirk." 
 
 As the school-room could not contain the half of the people 
 who wished to attend, steps were taken to erect a building, 
 which still stands by the way-side, with this inscription. 
 "Congregational Chapel, 1842." It was capable of con- 
 taining about 600 hearers, and cost only between £700 
 and £800, so plain was the structure — although, in truth, 
 twice that sum of mojiey would be needed to erect it now. 
 It was opened by the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, who preached there 
 to a crowded audience on the forenoon of a Sabbath-day in 
 October, 1842. 
 
 Mr. Ferguson had, for some time, applied himself with 
 zeal to theological study, notwithstanding that he had 
 by this time reached middle life; and, as the number of 
 converts had mounted up to about two hundred, they 
 were formed into a church, and he was called to be their 
 
324 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 pastor, in March, 1843. His ordination took place on 
 the afternoon of a Thursday, — in that month, the Kev. Dr. 
 Wardlaw addressing the pastor, and the Rev. Thos. Pullar, 
 who lately died at Hamilton, Canada West, addressing the 
 church. 
 
 We have a very vivid recollection of that service. We 
 were attending Glasgow University at that time, and we 
 came up by the coach to be present at the ordination service. 
 It was the only occasion on which we ever had the pri- 
 vilege of conversing with Dr. Wardlaw, and we noticed the 
 courtliness of his manners, and the charm that ever accom- 
 panied him in social life. We fancy we still see him 
 standing in the pulpit and beseeching the newly-ordained 
 pastor to approve himself in all things as the faithful servant 
 of God. Some of his sentences still linger in our recollection : 
 — " 0 my brother!" he said, "never forget that the greatest 
 triumph which can be accomplished on earth is the conver- 
 sion of a soul; and a minister's labours are never so highly 
 honoured as when men are born of God through his instru- 
 mentality. It may be of importance to polish the jewel 
 after it has been found, but the chief thing is to dig it out 
 of the mine. It may be, and it is, important to dress up the 
 stone for the front of the building, but he does the greatest 
 work who excavates it from the quarry in which it lay 
 imbedded." When speaking of the way in which the Gospel 
 should be preached, the "old man eloquent" exclaimed again, 
 " Oh, tell sinners to believe ! tell them they have only to 
 believe ! tell them to believe now ! " And then there was a 
 sudden pause; the preacher's heart ha.d filled; he had to 
 wait a little till his emotion had subsided. The effect upon 
 the audience was deep. The great majority of those who 
 composed it had but recently passed from death to life them- 
 selves ; and it delighted their hearts to hear a man so eminent 
 in the Christian church speak so glowingly on the Gospel of 
 the grace of God. When the same distinguished divine, 
 however, sought, not long afterwards, to commend to them 
 the creed, that only when special grace came— which had 
 been provided only for some — faith was possible, the simple- 
 hearted villagers were puzzled; they could not reconcile the 
 theology and the tears. They believed the tears to be per- 
 fectly genuine; but they did not see how they themselves 
 could have shed them, if the worthy Doctor's belief had been 
 theirs, unless indeed they had wept over the hopelessness of 
 
THE LETTER TO THE BELLSHILL CHURCH. 325 
 
 being ever able to reconcile points so really divergent and 
 self-contradictory. 
 
 Mr. Ferguson's mode of conducting his ministrations in 
 these days was remarkable. His residence was four miles 
 distant from his church ; and he drove thither in his own 
 conveyance on both Sabbath-day and week-day, crossing the 
 storied Both well Bridge on his way. Besides preaching on 
 the Lord's day, he kept up an almost unbroken series of 
 revival meetin^js in the mininor villaores around Bellshill. 
 HolytowTi, Newarthill, Carnbroe, Chapelhall, and even the 
 distant Shotts Iron Works, shared in his evangelistic 
 labours. He was generally accompanied by his two sons 
 when, they were at home from College in the summer time 
 — the one of whom acted as hostler, seeing the convey- 
 ance put up, and the horse attended to, while the other, 
 the author of this volume, helped in the preaching of the 
 Gospel. The people can;ie to know the grey horse as it 
 passed through the villages ; and they had learned to 
 call the conveyance ''the Gospel chariot." The chapel 
 became crowded, and the membership mounted up to over 
 300. After a series of successful meetings at Shotts Iron 
 Works, as many as fifty individuals walked regularly to 
 Bellshill to hear the preacher who had benefited them — a 
 distance of ten miles ! The people who dwelt in a hamlet 
 through which the " pilgrims " passed could not understand 
 ^vhat it was that took so many persons so far from their 
 homes Sabbath after Sabbath. " Out of the abundance of. 
 the heart the mouth speaketh ; " and some of the curious 
 young men of the place determined to lurk behind the 
 hedges, and hear what the serious groups were talking 
 about, as they passed on then- wiiy back on the Sunday 
 afternoon. And lo I they were nil talking of the gi-eat 
 ■ salvation and of the thino-s of the kinordom of God 1 
 
 Now, it was quite in the midst of this work of grace that 
 the Glasgow questions dropped like thmiderbolts in the sum- 
 mer of 1844, summoning the earnest miners to descend and 
 investigate the mines of fore-knowledge and fore-ordination 
 — ^^deeper far than the coal-filled caverns in which they daily 
 earned their bread. 
 
 The letter sent to the Bellshill Church was undoubtedly 
 more Calvinistic in its type than that^sent to the neighbour- 
 ing church in Hamilton. The hyper-Calvinistic doctrine of 
 Regeneration before Faith was plainly insisted upon in it ; 
 
326 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 and credit for the same was given by rumour to the pastor 
 of the Nile Street Church, now settled in England. It need 
 not be matter of surprise, therefore, that after postulating 
 such a dogma, the writer should turn round upon the mem- 
 bers of the Bellshill Church, and say, " Brethren, we are at 
 a loss to conceive what you have done with the doctrine of 
 Regeneration; for we can see no place for it in your system." 
 The simple-minded people had no difficulty in replying that 
 they had put the doctrine exactly where the Apostle James 
 and the Apostle Peter had put it : for the former had said. 
 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth" 
 (i. 18); and the latter, " Being born again, not of corruptible 
 seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth 
 * and abideth for ever." 
 
 A strong point, however, which the Bellshill Church 
 made, was their reference to the Saviour's ''woe" pronounced 
 over Chorazin and Bethsaida : — 
 
 "Again, our Saviour says (Matt. xi. 21), 'Woe unto thee, Chorazin! 
 woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! for if the mighty works which were done 
 in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented 
 long ago in sackcloth and ashes.' Here it is plainly stated that works 
 were done in Chorazin and Bethsaida, and resisted by them, which 
 would have converted Tyre and Sidon had they been wrought in those 
 places. We do not enter here of course into the grounds on which 
 Tyre and Sidon were condemned. These were doubtless quite sufficient 
 to warrant their condemnation ; but we quote the passage to s)iow 
 what the inhabitants of Chorazin and Bethsaida resisted — they resisted 
 what would have saved others." 
 
 Now, we think that this quotation was most pertinent 
 and powerful. The point in debate was, whether or not the 
 influence which God brings to bear upon men, in order to 
 accomplish their conversion, is always irresistible. Here 
 the church which was called to the bar quotes a lamentation 
 made by the Lord of Glory himself over the cities that 
 resisted him, in which he alleges that, if such influence had 
 been exerted upon Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented. 
 How do the metropolitan interrogators ward ofi" the scrip- 
 tural shaft that was sent back to their battlements by the 
 suburban warriors 1 Somewhat hesitatingly in their reply to 
 Bellshill, but without hesitation in their reply to Ardrossan, 
 — as if the lapse of a month or two had given them greater 
 confidence, — they take up the position that the repentance 
 spoken of was a national and superficial repentance, as in 
 the 'case of the N inevites (Luke ix. 32), and that it should 
 
A FORCIBLE ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 327 
 
 not be placed on a level with repentance unto life. Now 
 we do not think that the context justifies this gloss. It is 
 plain that tlie submission spoken of is that which will affect 
 human destiny at the "day of judgment," and is parallel to 
 the " coming " to J esus, and the reception of his yoke, re- 
 ferred to at the end of the chapter (Matt. xi. 28-30). As to a 
 national repentance apart from an individual one, we do not 
 know very well what is meant by the phrase ; and we have 
 certainly read our Bibles amiss, and must have rejoiced over 
 trophies of the truth without cause, if the men of Xineveh 
 were not genuine converts, and did not, many of them, 
 pass from death unto life." 
 
 The second letter sent by the Bellshill Church was both 
 dignified and decided, and contained a clear summary of 
 the chief scriptural arguments in favour of the doctrine of 
 World-wide and Resistible Grace. We give the following 
 spirited passage as a sample of the reasoning : — 
 
 "Suppose two men equally guilty, and both under the wrath and 
 curse of Gi)d, to hear a sermon, in which the scheme of salvation is 
 clearly exhibited, and the claims of Jes'is powerfully enforced. The 
 special influence of the Spirit is given to the one, and he, of course, 
 believes and ia saved ; the other receives no such blessing, and he 
 resists and is condemned. What brings on him this condemnation ? 
 You will answer, his sins. But he was born Avith a corrupt nature, 
 which leads bim naturally to sin; and special influence is as necessary, 
 according to your theory, in order to his believing, as is the propitia- 
 tion, his own reason, or God's record. His salvation is an utter 
 impossibility without this special iafluence; but he never rect-ives it; 
 and we ask you on what grounds will the man upbraid himself eternally 
 in hell, and justify God ? The misery of the condemned would be 
 modified were their consciences not eternally to do this. O, brethren, 
 see where your views lead the poor helpless sinner, — just to lie still and 
 excuse himself till he get special internal influence to convert him." 
 
 It was this view of the truth that weighed so heavily with 
 all the interrogated churches — namely, that on no other 
 principle of administration than that which was afforded by 
 the doctrines called in question, could the sinner be brought 
 in " speechless" at the last day. As was to be expected 
 from the tone of the correspondence, the four Glasgow 
 churches bade the church in Bellshill "Farewell"; but 
 although they did so, we do not believe that He who said, 
 " I am the vine, ye are the branches," approved of the adieu, 
 or shared in its utterance. The church still prospers, being 
 now in the enjoyment of the vigorous ministrations of the 
 Kev. George Wisely. 
 
328 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVAXGELICAL UNION. 
 
 The third letter of inquiry was sent " To the Congrega- 
 tional Church, Bridgeton, under the pastoral care of the 
 B.ev. K Simpson." 
 
 Bridgeton is a populous suburb of Glasgow, or rather one 
 of its eastern wings, having been for several years included 
 in the extended municipality. Mr. Simpson, who had been 
 at one time a deacon in Dr. Wardlaw's church, had been the 
 means of forming a considerable church in the district. 
 Both he and his people warmly sympathised with the views 
 which Mr. Kirk and others had propounded about that time. 
 Indeed, they knew no other way of either contemplating or 
 setting forth the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. The 
 Bridgeton Church adopted a somewhat novel and even 
 amusing mode of answering the crucial questions — namely, 
 by the quotation of one or two passages of Scripture, without 
 note or comment ! This style of response was considered 
 to be evasive and disrespectful by the four interrogating 
 churches, who forthwith bade their Bridgeton brethren 
 " Good-bye," not merely for the transmission of solely scrip- 
 tural answers, but because their pastor and they kept 
 company with the men whose answers had been explicit and 
 distinct. Thus, if they were not shut out of the ecclesi- 
 astical nest because it had been proved that their feathers 
 were of a heterodox hue, or because they had shown " the 
 white feather," they were forbidden to approach the four- 
 branched tree at Glasgow, on the principle that " birds of a 
 feather flock together." Yet, in their isolation, they rejoiced 
 because the Most High said, " He shall cover thee with his 
 feathers ;" and because they had pressed close to the heart 
 of him -who gathers sinners and saints to himself, " as a hen 
 gathereth her brood under her wings," and weeps over those 
 who resist his grace, and will not come. 
 
 We are happy to be able to state that the Bridgeton 
 Church, under the pastoral care of the Be v. Robert Hood, 
 is, at the present date, one of the most flourishing churches 
 in the Evangelical Union. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE CAMBUSLANG CHURCH. 
 
 329 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Letter to the Church in Camhuslang — The Kev. Mr. M'Eobert's 
 simple but effe<^tive replies — Letter to the Ardrossan Church — 
 Sketch of the Life of its Pastor, Rev. Peter Mather — His powerful 
 and most triumphant replies — Corresy)ondence with two Churches 
 in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen— The Case of the Kev. Alexander 
 Duff of Fraserburgh— Also of the Rev. Nisbet Galloway of Forres. 
 
 The fourth letter, as we leani from the " Entire Correspon- 
 dence," was addressed " To the Congregational Church, Cam- 
 buslang, under the pastoral care of the Rev. J. M'Robert." 
 
 Cambuslang is a village about four miles distant from 
 Glasgow. It was the scene of a remarkable revival about 
 130 years ago under the unique preaching of the renowned 
 George Whitefield. The glen stands unchanged near the 
 parish church, where the great preacher stood in the hollow ; 
 while the people, seated on the grass, were spread out before 
 him and above him in amphitheatric fashion. A Congrega- 
 tional church had been formed in the village about the 
 beginning of the present century ; and although its members 
 were, comparatively speaking, not numerous, there were 
 among them some of the excellent" and the very " salt " of 
 the earth. 
 
 Mr. M'Robert, who was pastor of the church in 1844, had 
 been deeply interested in revival work, and had, without 
 hesitation, adopted Mr. Morison's views as the only con- 
 0 sistent doctrinal basis on which earnest revival preaching 
 could be reared. He and his lady had both been brought 
 up in the fellowship of Dr. AVardlaw's church, and had a 
 great reverence for the character of that eminent man. 
 Consequently it was with great pain that they found them- 
 selves brought into collision with their mother church," 
 and their " father in the Lord." 
 
 We have already explained, with respect to this theological 
 correspondence, that the minister, in each case, wrote the 
 letters, which the church afterwards homologated. The 
 Cambuslang Church, in the exordium of their first reply, 
 touched impressively on a subject, which indeed the other 
 interrogated churches also noticed — namely, that it was 
 quite a new thing in a Scottish Congregational church to 
 make agreement on the Calvinistic doctrine of Election either 
 
330 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 a term of admission to the denomination or of continued 
 fellowship in it. They thus write : — 
 
 *'We must, however, premise, that the nature of divine influence or 
 the views entertained of election were sulgects not inquired into, when 
 we were admitted into the fellowship of the church. This is equally 
 true of four of our number admitted to George Street, and of three 
 admitted to Nile Street Churches, as of those admitted at Cambuslang. 
 The chief thing sought was, that the applicants had obtained peace 
 with God, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. When we had satis- 
 factory evidence, that they had been received by Christ and had a desire 
 to walk with us in the fellcw^hip of the Gospel, we gladly gave them 
 the right hand of fellowship. In this way we may have dune the work 
 of the Lord partially, but though some of us have been for more than 
 thirty years in the church, and were well acquainted with the original 
 menrbers, yet we never knew, nor heard of any other bond of union than 
 love to the Lord Jesus, and a pi efereuce of our church order. Can it be, 
 that for more than forty years we have all been under misajjprehension ? 
 for we did think that' our union with sister churches rested on our 
 affording credible evidence of love to the exalted Saviour and to each 
 other for his sake. We do hope that this is still to be the bond of 
 union among our churches. Moreover, some of us distinctly recollect 
 Dr. Waidlaw declaring from our puli)it, that the Creed of a Congrega- 
 tional church was this, 'Man has sinned ; the wages of sin is death ; 
 but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.' 
 And iurther, the Magazine, whether under the title of Missionary, 
 Herold, or Congregational, aftbrds evidence that some diversity of 
 sentiment has always obtained among some in the churches. 
 
 "We freely own to you, dear brethren, that there are shades of 
 difference among us on the points called in question. But we have 
 found no difficulty in forbearing with one another in love— Ave like 
 better to 'be shod with the preparation of the gospel of ])eace,' than be 
 comi»elled to wear the Chinese slipper of a stiff and rigid uniforn.ity. 
 But it our bond of union with sister churches is now to be our perfect 
 concord in a whole system of doctrines, written and stereotyped, instead 
 of affording evidence of being ' Epistles of Christ, written not with pen 
 and ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God,' we are free to express 
 our fears, that the results among us 'will neither be glory to God- 
 good to his people— nor prosj-erity to his cause. To the details of a 
 theological system, we greatly ])refer, as a bond of union, the apostolic 
 summary, ' In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, 
 nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk accord- 
 ing to this rule, pi^ace be on them and mercy, and on the Israel of God.* 
 Theological systems are important in their own jdace ; but as a basis of 
 union among professors of Christianity, they have hitherto i)roved a 
 signal failure. Indeed, we iraadned that such things, for a bond of 
 union, were decaying, waxiug old, and ready to vanish away." 
 
 We are certain that the Glasgow churches must have felt 
 the force of this touching and truthful remonstrance ; and 
 we would suppose that nine-tenths of all the Congregational 
 churches in the land, w-ere they polled to-day, would vote for 
 
THE CAMBUSLANG CHURCH RECEIVED BACK AGAIN. 331 
 
 this plain and unadorned village confession of faitli, rather 
 than for the complicated one which the city cler^^ymen were 
 seeking to impose upon their neighbours a few miles up the 
 Clyde. 
 
 Some of Mr. M'Robert's paragraphs, although expressed 
 simply, have struck u.s, on re-perusing the documents of the 
 period, as being fresh and original, and fraught with all the 
 power of Biblical truthfulness. Thus he writes in his first 
 letter : — 
 
 **"We do not hold the Spirit and the Word as one more than that 
 Jesus and the Twelve were one ; yet, still, the reception or rejection of 
 •their message, was the reception or rejection of Jesus, and of his Father 
 too. We can distinguish b^itween yourselves and your epistle sent to 
 us. But should we Jail to yield satisfaction on the two points, you 
 will, no doubt, regard us as resisting you — i.e., your friendly counsel. 
 Now, it is simply because it is said in the great Text-book that the 
 Holy Spirit is resisted by unbelievers, and may be grieved or quenched 
 by believers, that we conclude his influence is not invincible: success- 
 ful resistance in that case would be out of the question." 
 
 He also puts the following point very pithily and well : — 
 
 *' There is no need to seek to exclude boasting by election or special 
 influence, when faith does it perfectly and for ever." 
 
 Again, he writes in his second letter : — 
 
 "You say 'To the gift of his Son God has added the gift of his 
 Spirit: lYie. former is, universal, the latter is special. The latter is as 
 indispensable as the former.' We know without the shedding of blood 
 there is no remission'; and we hold that the Spirit's influence is equally 
 necessary to conversion. But, dear brethren, since his influence is thus 
 indispensable, how Ciin salvation be within the reach of any one to 
 whom the Spirit's influence does not come ? In that case there could 
 not be good news to any but to the elect." 
 
 Of course, the final " farewell " was sent out to Cambus- 
 lang as well as to the other three churches already named. 
 But in this case, although final in the s^nse of coming in at 
 the close of the correspondence, it was not final in the sense 
 of lasting for ever ; for in a short time Mr. M 'Robert, who 
 had demitted his charge at Cambusiang, was received back 
 into the Congregational body, and a few years afterwards the 
 church itself was restored to the confidence and fellowship of 
 the Glasgow churches. We do not know whether or not Mr. 
 M'Robert (who has been labouring usefully for many years 
 at Denholm, near Hawick) acknowledged any change of 
 sentiment on the debated points when he was re-admitted by 
 his former brethren. The statements which we have just 
 
332 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 quoted are so convincing and unanswerable that, we should 
 suppose, although his views may have been modified on some 
 minor points, they cannot have been moved away from the 
 great, full-orbed truths thus distinctly enunciated. And as 
 to the church at Cambuslang, we have ourselves been told 
 repeatedly by some of its leading members that, when they 
 were received back to fraternal fellowship by the Glasgow 
 churches, they were not asked to retract the doctrines of 
 Universal and Kesistible Grace, and Conditional Election, 
 for which, as the public correspondence testifies, they had 
 zealously contended. We cannot but record our joy that 
 the Congregational churches of Glasgow have thus practi- 
 cally confessed that they were too precipitate in their action 
 in 1844. 
 
 The fifth and last letter was addressed by the four Glas- 
 gow churches " To the Congregational Church, Ardrossan, 
 under the pastoral care of the Kev. P. Mather." 
 
 Mr. Mather had been minister for many years of the 
 Secession Church, West Kilbride, Ayrshire. All his life he 
 had been respected, like one of whom we spoke in the last 
 chapter, as "a Nathanael — an Israelite, indeed, in whom 
 was no guile." We have heard a story told of him by an 
 aged gentleman, when he came first to preach in that village 
 as a licentiate of the Secession Church, and which we quote, 
 both because it throws light upon the customs of the period 
 and the character of the preacher. It seems to have been 
 usual in West Kilbride, on the Saturday afternoon, to put 
 in the prophet's — that is, the licentiate's— ^chamber a large 
 Bible and a good stiff glass of whisky ; and the landlady, as 
 well as the douce elders \yho heard her gossip about the pro- 
 bationers, used to form their conclusions anent the piety and 
 spirituality of the young men from the heartiness with which 
 tb.ey turned to the spirits or the Scriptures ! Some quaffed 
 the liquor at once and neglected the Word. Others paid 
 partial attention to both. But Peter Mather left the glass 
 untouched, biit pored diligently over the other " Glass," in 
 which was to be seen reflected ^' the glory of the Lord." 
 In all probability this was one of the reasons why he was 
 called to be the minister of the church. 
 
 About the year 1834 Mr. Mather changed his views of 
 church government. He had been led to prefer the Congre- 
 gational system of ecclesiastical polity as more scriptural and 
 primitive than the Presbyterian. Being a thoroughly con- 
 
THE REV. PETER MATHER. 
 
 333 
 
 scientious and honest man, he sought an interview with Dr. 
 Wardlaw ; and having been encouraged to assume the pas- 
 torate of a small Congregational church, which then met in 
 Brown Street, in the west end of Glasgow, he removed to 
 that city. But although his mind was colossal, like his 
 person, there was a monotony in his utterance that unfitted 
 him, to a great extent, for a city charge ; and, consequently, 
 after having given the commercial metropolis a trial for a 
 year or two, he returned to Western Ayrshire, " by way of 
 the sea," where some scores of people, who had learned to 
 • respect his high moral worth when he was minister of Kil- 
 bride, gathered around him, and gladly sat at his feet. A 
 humble chapel was built for him in Glasgow Street, Ardros- 
 san ; and for six or eight years before he was called upon to 
 take part in the theological discussions of which we are treat- 
 ing, his tall and commanding form might be seen from day to 
 day moving along the sandy and sea-washed shore between 
 Ardrossan and Saltcoats, as he went to preach the Word in 
 church or school-room, or at the bed-side of the sick and dying. 
 
 When Mr. Morison's case began to make a noise in the 
 country, he warmly sympathised with him in all his efforts 
 and as to all his trials. He was among the first of the 
 Ayrshire niinisters who appeared as a friend and brother in 
 Clerk's Lane pulpit, when other faces were beginning to be 
 turned away ; and when the kindred controversy arose in 
 the Congregational body on the work of the Holy Spirit, it 
 will be seen from the sequel with what zeal and enthusiasm 
 Mr. Mather embraced the views of the nine students who 
 had been ejected from the theological hall. We do not 
 hesitate to say that, while all the letters written by the 
 other churches were clear and convincing, and did credit to 
 the writers, those written by Mr. Mather for his church in 
 Ardrossan carry off the palm for logical power and eloquence, 
 and what we may call the withering satire of a holy indig- 
 nation. The soul of the meek and harmless man was stirred 
 by the terrible deficiency which he saw in that lame and 
 unequal Gospel which represented a provision in Christ for 
 all, but irresistible grace for only some, and also at the 
 attempt which was made to impose so deficient a system on 
 the churches as the sine qua non of orthodoxy and the 
 touchstone of retention in fellowship. If he was angry, he 
 felt that he "did well to be angry." He "was angry, and 
 sinned not." He was jealous, with a holy jealousy, for the 
 
334 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 cause and the character of God. For himself he was wholly- 
 unselfish. "Silver and gold had he none;" and he cast 
 himself on the providence of God, glad because he had 
 enjoyed the opportunity of testifying to the truth and the 
 benevolence of his heavenly Father. 
 
 As Jonathan Edwards required to write some of his most 
 difficult theological treatises in the midst of unhappy church 
 disturbances and unkind treatment at Northampton, New 
 England, Mr. Mather sat down to pen these treatises on the 
 Work of the Holy Spirit with a heavy heart ; for he thus 
 opens his first letter of reply to the Glasgow brethren : — 
 
 *' Ardrossan, 2nd October, 1844. 
 
 "Beloved Brethren, — The Congregational Church in Ardrossan 
 received a letter from you, dated the 8th of Jime Jast, containing two 
 questions, to which you requested them to send specific answers — in 
 relation to which they wrote you a letter, dated the 24th of the same 
 month, containing six queries for explanation before they proceeded to 
 give a direct reply — and to these they rec<-ived specific answers, in a 
 letter from yon dated the 5th of August. At the time the church 
 received this letter, they were engaged, and had been engaged for some 
 time, in a weighty case of discipline, that involved the character of 
 four of their members, during the pending of which, such a spirit had 
 been excited in some, that at the close of it, on the 18th of August, 
 our pastor conceived it to be his duty to resign his office: this led to 
 the complete breaking up of the fellowship. But after various pre- 
 linjinary steps li id been taken, a large majority of the former members 
 re-united in fellowship, and recognised Mr. Mather as their pastor; 
 and though onr number has been diminishe d, we constitute the Con- 
 gregational Church in Ardrossan, assembling in the accustomed place 
 of worship, holding fellowship with the churches of the Congrega- 
 tional Union of Scotland. And now that we have some leisure to 
 consider the important subject, with your leave, we homologate the 
 above-mentioned correspondence, and proceed to answer your letter 
 of the 8th June, finding our way to do this made much easier by 
 the very explicit answers sent to the six queries, for which we give 
 you hearty thanks." . 
 
 Alas ! the veil is here lifted, revealing a state of things 
 with which many a poor minister is but too familiar. A 
 church rent in twain and needing to be re-constituted ! 
 How many sleepless nights does such a state of things imply, 
 and days during which the minister, on whose shoulders the 
 chief burden comes, would be sick at heart and sorrowful. 
 And yet, as if the local troubles were not sufficient, a 
 solemn missive must needs come down from Glasgow, threat- 
 ening excision by rich and respectable brethren for alleged 
 theological errors. In truth, the best reply that could have 
 
MR. MATHEll ON SPECIAL INFLUENCE. 
 
 335 
 
 been sent to so touching a disclosure would have been the 
 following, by return of post : — " Glasgow, in the year of 
 grace, 1844. Dear Brethren, we sist all ecclesiastical pro- 
 ceedings, and sympathise with you to the extent of XI 00. 
 Yours sincerely, Ralph Wardlaw, &c." 
 
 But j\Ir. Mather was not the man to put on a poor mouth 
 and cry for mercy. No. Having simply stated his church 
 troubles as a reason for delay, he proceeds at once to discuss 
 the theological questions which had been sent to him, with 
 " the manly independence and even with the holy indignation 
 to which we have referred ; for, on the very next page, we 
 find him writing : — 
 
 •'Keeping, therefore, the second particular of our answer in view, 
 we shall not determine whether Hn any case,' 'more or other divine 
 influence is exerted on ' 'some of those who believe the Gospel, than 
 on those who reject it:' but we affirm that, if not now, at least here- 
 after, every saint will conclude that those condemned for not believing 
 the Gospel had divine influence, in kind and degree, brought to bear 
 upon their minds amply sutficient to have a(!Complished their conver- 
 sion — influences, such as had been exerted on themselves, and which 
 had subdued them to Christ — and further, we affirm that every sinner 
 condemned for rejecting the Gospel will then feel convinced in his own 
 mind, not through any deception, but from the clearest evidence, that 
 he rejected the Gospel under the very kind of influences to which many 
 yielded and were saved. This, in our estimation, is that which will give 
 intensity to the unquenchable flame, and energy to the undying worm ! 
 
 " Your second question respects personal and unconditional election: 
 to this question we submit the following answer: — That God chose any 
 number of persons to whom the Gospel comes, with a view to confer 
 upon them a special influence, by which they might be brought into a 
 state of salvation, and that he determined to withhold that influence 
 from others, and yet condemn them for rejecting the Gospel, are senti- 
 ments wliich we not only do not hold, but which we strongly con- 
 demn; being satisfied that they are unscriptural, and, stripped of the 
 dress in which they often appear, that tliey have but a feeble hold 
 of the minds of any number of Christians in the Congregational 
 Churches of Scotland." 
 
 Again, after another letter has come down from Glasgow, 
 he thus writes : — 
 
 "We find that we did not misrepresent your views, and the views of 
 many, of the Sjiirit's work in conversion, when we characterised it 'as 
 a secret, unseen, indescribable influence, exerted within the minds and 
 hearts only of sinners who are saved,' — this we said, 'we do not hold.' 
 These words you quote, and respecting them and a previous quotation 
 from our letter, you say, 'What you thus strongly condemn, and are 
 satisfied is unscriptural, we firmly believe to be the truth ot God.' 
 Now, we regret exceedingly that you should homologate our descrip- 
 tion of your views, and yet entertain the idea of breaking the fellowship 
 
336 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 of our churches, because different views are held of a dogma which you 
 cannot logically define. You don't thus act respecting other doctrines; 
 you can tell us what you mean by the doctrine of ' trinity in unity ': 
 for though the mode of the divine subsistence is inexplicable, we can 
 tell one another in plain terms what we understand by the doctrine — 
 we can do the same by the doctrine of the hypostatical union in the 
 person of the Mediator — we can do the same by the doctrine of conver- 
 sion — by the doctrine of justification by faith, &c. But here it appears, 
 we must be at one with you in a doctrine that respects an influence, 
 which, by your own admission, is 'secret, unseen, indescribable.' How 
 dare you demand adhesion to a dogma that you cannot set before us 
 in an intelligible form of words ? We ask not how the Spirit works. 
 We ask what he does. This you do not declare. You say indeed 
 (page 2nd), ' His special work was by accompanying the truth to secure 
 conversion;' and (page 9th), ' We hold that the Spirit accompanies the 
 truth, and exerts a direct power within the mind and heart of the sin- 
 ner.' Well, is it the pressure of a hand — the glance of an eye — a smile 
 — a frown ? You give us no information : yet you demand accordance 
 with your views, or separate us from your fellowship ! Brethren, we 
 hold that 'there is divine influence put forth in conversion:' and 
 notwithstanding your declaration to the contrary, we reiterate and 
 maintain the position, that 'the question between you and us is not, 
 Is there divine influence put forth in conversion? but, What is the 
 influence ?' " 
 
 In reply to the remark of the four churches that " there 
 is nothing in your views that can be regarded as a recogni- 
 tion of the Spirit's influence at all," he makes the following 
 forcible and glowing statement of his views : — 
 
 "By the Spirit's influence then exerted upon sinners with a view to 
 their conversion, we understand the influence of doctrine, promise, pre- 
 cept, threatening, narrative : the influence of the glory and terror of 
 the future: the influence of revealed eternal mercy and overpowering 
 love: the influence of Christian conversation and Christian example : 
 the influence of the private and public ministry of the word: the 
 influence of the dispensations of providence by which the Gospel and 
 sinners are brought into contact, and by which many are from time to 
 time awakened to attend to the truth as it is in Jesus. All these and 
 such like we regard as under the direction of the Holy Spirit, according 
 to John xiv. 16, 17; xvi. 7-11 ; to which passages we crave your atten- 
 tion, comparing them with 2 Cor. iii, 8, ' How shall not the ministra- 
 tion of the Spirit be rather glorious ? ' The influences adverted to are 
 sometimes in greater and sometimes in less abundance, according to His 
 own infinite wisdom, as to what is and what is not suitable, in this and 
 the other case. But we wish to state with equal plainness, that we 
 regard these, and such like influences, as personally employed by the 
 Spirit, as truly as we regard the frown or the smile which you put on, 
 the authority which you display, the commands which you issue, and 
 the promises which you make, as influences put forth by you : without 
 you they are not ; and whatever is efi"ected by them is effected by you. 
 Nay, much more — inconceivably more : your promises, commands, &c., 
 may be found on record when you have left the world, and when you 
 
THE CONDEMNATION OF THE UNSAVED. 
 
 337 
 
 can no longer, by any power of yours, employ them or accom])lisli any- 
 thing by th^'ra. But the Holy Spirit ever lives: everything in divine 
 truth, in divine love, adverted to is his: providential dispensations for 
 furthering the interest of the kingdom of Christ are ever directed by 
 him: the Gospel and all it contains is as truly his breath, his voice, 
 his fire, at this moment as when first uttered by him; and without him 
 the Word and other things specified accomplish nothing for the salva- 
 tion of sinners. By these and such like does lie testify of Christ, 'and 
 knock at the door ' for Christ: but that his influence is often resisted 
 to men's eternal undoing, we must believe, according to many declara- 
 tions in the Word of God, and from tlie very ground of the Gospd- 
 despiser's condemnation. Any other view, however ingeniously put 
 forth, tends, in our estimation, to impeach the truth, and sincerity, 
 and justice of our Heavenly Father: ' But let God be time and every 
 man a liar,* " 
 
 And yet, again, — 
 
 "God will not save your system ; but he will save and glorify his- 
 own justice : and notwithstanding your opposition to the sentiments 
 expressed in our last letter on this subject, both saints and sinners will 
 see and acknowledge the equity of the divine procedure, in the very 
 fact that all that the former received was in cdl respects within the reach 
 of the latter. But, then, as a proof of the correetuess of your views 
 you say that the inward influence is in every case 'ultimately efficacious 
 and must be so.' We make free to ask. Did any of you, for any time, 
 resist that influence ? If you answer ' No, it was never exerted till the 
 last moment — w^e yielded just when it was put forth,' Then you will 
 be incapable of repenting because of long continued opposition to thf' 
 Gospel. Do you demur to this ? Then you oppose your own views of 
 tiuth : f -r without the special influence you could not submit : and 
 therefore, if you repent, and your repentance accord with truth, as you 
 view it, it must be mere regret that the Spirit of God was so late in 
 working, and not regret that you were so late in yielding. But if this 
 be unwelcome to you, then you must admit that the Spirit is resisted, 
 even by those who ultimately believe, and that just up to the very 
 moment of their believing: and hence, that by nil preceding operations 
 of this efficacious influence, nothing is intended — to give tilings their 
 right names, it is mere play : or if every preceding operation of the 
 influence is designed to produce substantial results, we are left in doubt 
 as to whether the ultimate efficacy arises from its own intrinsic power, 
 or froni the cxhaustioji of the sinner through long continued opposi- 
 tion." 
 
 The follovsring illustrations are pertinent and power- 
 ful in refutation of the assertion that no influence was worthy 
 of the name, but that which was irresistible : — 
 
 " Were the testimony of man to be so viewed, as you appear to view 
 the testimony of God, there would be universal scepticism in the 
 world. For the testimony of danger will have no influence unless the 
 testifier, at the same time inflict on you a heavy blow ! The testimony 
 that your prison doors are opened will have no influence on you unless- 
 the testifier seize your person, rush through the lobby, and hurl yoiv 
 over the stairs ! " 
 
 z 
 
338 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 There is something truly awful for the Christian mind to 
 contemplate in the picture presented in the following appeal, 
 a little farther down : — 
 
 " If, however, there be in the divine testimony that which is adequate 
 to secure the faith and obedience of sinners, then it is easy to see how 
 they are ' responsible for rejecting the Gospel'; and that they must 'be 
 speechless at the judgment day.' If not, it ^.s easy to conceive, as they 
 have heard your instructions, and perused your literature, which pro- 
 fesses to give the only correct view of divine influence, they must say, 
 just as others are represented as saying on a kindred point (Matthew 
 XXV. 44), 'Lord, when didst thou impart to us the special influence, 
 under the power of which those at thy right hand believed and were 
 saved ? Condemn us for our sins, thou blessed Lamb cf God, and not 
 for rejecting thee, seeing theie was nothing in the testimony sent to us 
 to command our faith, as — witness, all ye saints !' But you say right; 
 they will be speechless; and therefore, our views of divine influence are 
 correct." 
 
 In reply to the rejoinder of the Glasgow churches, that on 
 his theory the saved sinner has ground for boasting, Mr. 
 Mather has the following paragraph, in which some apt 
 illustrations are so triumphantly satisfactory, a^s almost to 
 amount to sarcasm : — 
 
 "Brethren, if it be not as we have affirmed, then no saint of God 
 can acquiesce in the condemnation of unbelievers unlil the ideas of 
 eternal justice which he has derived from the Word of God be per- 
 verted. If you have been startled from your prof)riety, it is by a 
 spectre of your own raising; for we can no more conct ive than you of 
 a saint having any ground of boasting either here or 'in the place 
 where angels vail their faces.' But two beggars are perishing with 
 hunger: the one absolutely refuses the provision that you urge him to 
 take, and dies; the other, after much persuasion, takes it and recovers 
 strength: he then glories in himself, and thanks himself because he 
 allowed him.-elf to be fed ! Two men are struggling in the river; one 
 of your number springs in to save them: the one orders you to bear 
 off, he refuses to be saved, and plunges into the pool and di^^s: you 
 stretch out your hand, lay hold of the other and bring him safely to 
 shore, and the moment he has time to look round him, and to look 
 upon yon, his whole soul is fired with admijation of hirnself, and all 
 his thanks are given to himself because he suffered you to save him. 
 Admirable philosopher! It does seem very remarkable to us that a 
 saved sinner cannot trace all his salvation in every part of it to the 
 grace of God, because others have resisted grace an<l refused to be 
 saved. And, if possible, it seems still more ren)arkable that before he 
 can come to the proper ytitch of gratitude and praise, he must be well 
 assured that not one on the left hand of the Judge had one particle of 
 that grace within his reach, under the power of which he believed and 
 was saved — all wust he special; otherwise the saint is dumb or only 
 self -qralul ant! Brethren, we would take a favour from you: you might 
 build us a 'synagogue': but if you do — and we discover that the same 
 favour, in similar circumstances, has been offered to another church, 
 
'•WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE 5I0RE?" 339 
 
 and that they successfully refused it — then you must expect no grati- 
 tude from us: we will trace all our chapel comfort to our being more 
 easily pcrsxiaded to receive the favour, than the other church that 
 refused it; and our next step in all probability will be to engrave a 
 tablet to our own merit!" 
 
 Perhaps our readei*s may think that we are giving too 
 many extracts from Mr. Mather's letters; but we make 
 voluminous quotations for two reasons: (1) Because the 
 respected wi-iter has never, in our opinion, had full justice 
 done him as a writer of eloquence and power, even in our 
 own denomination; and (2), Because we believe that his 
 arguments are mighty and unanswerable. It is quite plain 
 from the reply of the four churches that they could not 
 meet the cmshing appeals made by the inoffensive but really 
 majestic soul with w^liom they were combating. They had 
 "roused a Tartar"; and they thought it best to be very brief 
 in theii' answer. Indeed, Mr. Mather's whole pei-formance 
 bristles over vdih. these gems of unanswerable exposition 
 and appeal. Take the following additional specimens : — 
 
 ** Because many sinners are not saved, and we aflSrm that they have 
 all that the saved get for conversion, you conclude that all rmght dis- 
 believe; and that there is nothing according to our views to secure the 
 faith of any. Your reasoning amounts to this — a teacher came to 
 instruct my children: John and James abode in tbeir ignorance; there 
 is therefore nothing in his system of instruction to effect the enlighten- 
 ment of any mind. "We hold that there is in the means and influences 
 put forth, wielded and applied by the Holy Spirit, that which is 
 adequate to secure the conversion of every sinner; and on this account 
 we joyfully accord with eternal justice in the condemnation of them 
 that refuse the Gospel." 
 
 "We have another short but poweifully sarcastic simile at 
 page 170: — 
 
 *' You present the most suitable provision to a man dying of hunger; 
 hut the moment he looks upon it he is affected with dreadful nausea: 
 you have a remedy that soothes the stomach the moment it is applied; 
 hut you withhold it, and claim credit for generosity by saying, TVhcU 
 could have been dmie morel It is true, 'God is under no obligation to 
 furnish sinners with privileges, and far less with the grace of the Spirit 
 to make them effectual,' unless he mean to 'reap' and 'gather'; but if 
 he do, he hath laid himself under obligation to furnish both." 
 
 And a little farther on, in the same page, we have one 
 of the writer's truly withering passages, being a rejoinder to 
 the allegation of the Glasgow churches, that, in Isaiah vi. 4, 
 " God was speaking after the manner of men": — 
 
 ** God docs not here speak 'after the manner of men'; for only 
 dishonest men would so speak, pretending to have done all that is 
 
340 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 needful, while the thing that is most needful has not been done at all. 
 God speaks to the 'inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah'; 
 and if they had learned to separate between the truth of the Spirit and 
 the influence of the Spirit, for conversion, in the way you do, they 
 might have replied, *Yes, Lord, thou couldst have done more: thou 
 couldst have given what thou didst to Abraham and Moses, and 
 Miriam and Hannah, and Samuel, and to this thy messenger, Isaiah !' 
 But the Word of God hi]it3 at no such reply: and we may safely con- 
 clude, that those to whom the appeal M'as made knew nothing about 
 the distinctions which you make. With all their wickedness, con- 
 science sealed their uncircumcised lips, and re-echoed the voice, of God, 
 ' What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not 
 done in it?' And why speak, according to your iheory, of 'God's 
 being under no obligation to furnish them even with privileges' ? Are 
 men the better or the worse for privileges, 'without the giace of his 
 Spirit to make them effectual?' Never to have been born is incon- 
 ceivably preferable to the possession of such privileges— to have had a 
 millstone bound about the neck in the earliest days, and to have been 
 cast into the sea, is inconceivably preferable! — privileges that lay men 
 under a tenfold greater condemnation than will be the portion of those 
 who never possess them; while yet without ike infiupncp, \\\\\q}\, accord- 
 ing to you, 'Jesus bestows on each of the promised seed, and does not 
 impart to others' (page 1st). All abuse, all will abuse, what you call 
 privileges; it has ever been so, it alwaj^s will be so: it is uniform, and 
 must be so, as the succession of daj and night, accoiding to your 
 theor)^ Better far, therefore, be Hamites, dwelling in degraded and 
 oppressed Africa, than the children of Abraham, according to the 
 flesh, dwelling in the 'valley of vision,' the land of milk and honey. 
 With the light of the Gospel 'to guide you, why do you thus in.^ult 
 truth, and the God of truth, under such a mistaken notion of dtiin'g 
 him honour? Our heavenl)'^ Father neither condescends to t.hivl: nor 
 speak, in this passage, after your wanner. He gives privilege?, but 
 he gives with them all that is needful to make them efficacious: and 
 when he condemns those whom he has thus favoured, he condemns 
 them for despiising what was really designed and calculated to bring 
 them to penitence, purity, and love." 
 
 Let Tis not be misunderstood, as we linger over this con- 
 troversy, and endeavour to give point again to these sharp 
 arrows which v/ere shot thirty years since by a strong arm 
 from a powerful bow. We have no wish to revive any of 
 the acrimony that gathered around these old discussions. But 
 it is due to the present, and perhaps , to succeeding, genera- 
 tions, that they should know the reasons why the separa- 
 tion was made in the Congregational, as well as in the 
 Presbyterian body, and why the Evangelical Union stands 
 by itself in the laild. We did not act in a schismatic manner. 
 We did not go out rashly and viltroneously. We were thrust 
 out. And we think that we have shown, in these successive 
 chapters, that if the " view" of truth we had got a hold of was 
 
THE SPEECHLESSNESS OF THE UNSAVED. 341 
 
 somewhat " new" in the connection, it was justified by Scrip- 
 ture, and should have been made a gi'ound of forbearance, 
 especially by Congi-egationalists, \vho recognised no authori- 
 tative confession of faith in symbolical standards. It was 
 all very well and very easy for the four Glasgow churches to 
 insist upon an inward and invincible work of the Spirit, and 
 to maintain that they who denied that denied the work of 
 that Divine Agent altogether; and this is the point on which 
 they ring the changes continually throughout their share of 
 the Entire Correspondence. But the subject has another 
 side, especially when we take into account the fact that this 
 irresistible influence is regarded as being conferred upon 
 the unconditionally elect alone. There may not be so much 
 difficulty, in connection with it, in accounting for the salva- 
 tion of the righteous on the right hand at the last day ; but 
 it presents a terrible stumbling-block to the candid mind 
 when one thinks, we repeat, of the speechlessness jqf the wicked 
 on the left hand. And it is because the letters of the five 
 churches, and particularly those written by Mr. Mather, 
 bring out this most important view in a most imanswerable 
 light, that we have lingered over, them in this and previous 
 chapters, and given copious extracts. Indeed, in our opin- 
 ion, no other view of divine influence will cover cdl the groivnd., 
 and meet satisfactorily the claims both of God as Sovereign, 
 and of man as a responsible sinner, than that which admits, 
 on the one hand, the indispensableness and reality of the 
 work of the Holy Ghost ; but, on the other, asserts it to be 
 world-wide in its e2>tent, and resistible in its nature. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of the Entire Correspondence, 
 Ave must do ourselves the pleasure of remarking that, apart 
 from the coui-se of authoritative investigation and ultimate 
 Atithdrawal which they adopted, the four churches, with 
 their pastors, were strictly honourable and gentlemanly in 
 their dealings with their opponents. They took no undue 
 advantage of them ; and in the matter of allowing them a 
 fjiir hearing, and afterwards of publishing in full all they 
 had thought proper to write, they did them eveiy justice. 
 Nor need this be matter of surprise when it is remembered 
 that the courteous Dr. Wardlaw, and others that might be 
 named, took the lead in the proceedings. It really grieved 
 them to do what they thought it to be their duty to do. 
 
 Plainly, however, the point should have been made one 
 of forbearance among brethren who agreed on the grand 
 
342 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 cardinal doctrines of the Inspiration of the Scriptures, the 
 Dej^ravity of Man, and the Deity of the Son of God. And 
 we doubt not that a more cordial feeling will soon sj^ring up 
 ])etween all the parties in the churches thus rudely separated, 
 Loth in the Presbyterian and Congi'egational churches ; and 
 to this increase of harmony two factors, in our opinion, will 
 mainly contribute — recent revivals of religion, drawing all 
 true friends of the Gospel nearer to one another in love ; 
 and recent assaults of scepticism, rallying them in a united 
 phalanx against a common foe. 
 
 Mr. Mather continued to minister to the Congregational 
 church in Ardrossan for a short time after the four Glasgow 
 churches bade him and his people farewell. But The Chris- 
 tian NeiDs having been projected in 1846, in Glasgow, he 
 settled in that city as editor of that weekly journal. He 
 filled the editor's chair with gi^eat dignity and success for 
 many years, and was at the same time generally employed 
 in the pleasant work of preaching on the Lord's-day the 
 glorious Gospel of the blessed God. His Christian worth 
 and urbanity of manners made him highly acceptable where- 
 ever he went in town and country ; nor did he desist from 
 his much-loved labours till a slight stroke of paralysis warned 
 him that the shades of evening were gathering around. In 
 the close of his life he enjoyed a pension, which the late Sir 
 Wilfrid Lawson kindly settled upon him. 
 
 We are happy to be able to add that the church in Ardros- 
 san continues to flourish at the present day ; and no wonder, 
 — for it has enjoyed, ever since Mr. Ma^ther demitted his 
 charge, the valuable and much appreciated laboiu'S of the 
 Rev. Alexander Cross. 
 
 Besides the five Congregational ministers and churches in 
 the south already referred to, two or three others in the north 
 of Scotland were suspected of being unsound as to theii^ 
 views of the nature and extent of the work of the Holy Spirit, 
 and were dealt with accordingly, in the year 1844, by the 
 sister churches in their immediate neighbourhood. We may 
 here remark that this mode of neighbourly remonstrance 
 of church with church was the plan of ecclesiastical action 
 recommended by Dr. Wardlaw, of Glasgow. Dr. Alexander, 
 of Edinbiirgh, however, was all along opposed to such a mode 
 of procedure ; for he took up the ground that the pastors 
 should be dealt with, not the churches ; inasmuch as, he 
 maintained, churches would adopt, as a general rule, any 
 
THE CHURCHES AT BLACKHILLS AND WOODSIDE. 
 
 343 
 
 view or set of views which their pastors might please to 
 advance, so that if the pastors could be got over, the churches 
 would follow. This programme of action was certainly more 
 complimentary to the clergymen than to the churches ; but 
 as there were no ministerial heretics in Dr. Alexander's im- 
 mediate neighbourhood, he had no opportunity of acting out 
 his minister-isolating scheme. 
 
 The two suspected churches in the north were at Westhills, 
 then called Blackhills, and Cotton, or Woodside, both in the 
 immediate neighbourhood of Aberdeen ; and the Aberdeen 
 churches resolved to adopt Dr. Wardlaw's plan of catechetical 
 correspondence with them. The pastors of these churches, 
 whom rumour declared to be unsound, were the Rev. Alex. 
 Monro, now Dr. Monro, of Forres — a gentleman who has 
 since proved to be a benefactor to his native land, by his 
 lectures and publications on the hydropathic treatment of 
 disease, as well as by the establishment of hydropathic insti- 
 tutions in difierent parts of the country ; and the Rev. James 
 Byres Laing, M.A., now Dr. Laing, of Hamilton, province 
 of Ontario. The questions which were sent to these miaisters, 
 as the representatives of their churches, and which were 
 intended to be laid before the latter, bore chiefly on the doc- 
 trine of election and the work of the Holy Spirit, and were 
 much to the same effect as those already quoted, which had 
 been sent from the Glasgow pastors to their brethren in the 
 neighbourhood of that city, although they were differently 
 classified, being all ranged under the three heads, Regenera- 
 tion, Sanctification, and Election. The Abei'deen missives 
 were signed by Alexander Thomson, John Kennedy, David 
 Wallace, and David Arthur, in name of, and as representing 
 the three Congregational churches in George Street, Black- 
 friars Street, and Frederick street, of that city, — one of 
 which, however, was a collegiate charge. Our readers will 
 recognise in this list the names of the eminent Dr. Kennedy, 
 of Stepney, London, recently the chairman of the Congrega- 
 tional Union of England and Wales, as well as of the Rev. 
 Mr. Arthur, whose ministry in Aberdeen for upwards of 
 thirty years has been so eminently successful, and whose 
 friendship and kindly co-operation have been so highly prized 
 for some time back by the Evangelical Union churches in that 
 city. 
 
 The Blackhills Church, in their reply, took up peculiar and 
 impregnable ground ; or, if the latter word be thought too 
 
344 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 strong, it was certainly ground which it must have been felt 
 very difficnlt to storm. Mr. Monro's predecessor had been 
 the accomplished Kev. Anthony Gowan, afterwards Rev. Dr. 
 Gowan, of Dalkeith, and one of the Professors of the Con- 
 gregational Divinity Hall. He had found the meetings of the 
 church strictly limitarians as to the atonement of Christ — be- 
 lieving that the Saviour had really shed his blood only for the 
 elect. Mr. Gowan had left them believers in the doctrine of the 
 universal atonement ; for he had taught them Dr. Wardlaw's 
 view, and they had, to a man, aye, and to a woman, received 
 it. Now this enlargement of view, on the part of the Black- 
 hills Church, was very well known in the north, and accord- 
 ingly the interrogated brethren made a dexterous use of the 
 fact in their rejoinder. They refused to answer the questions 
 which were put to them by the Aberdeen churches; (1) be- 
 cause these were not asked for the sake of eliciting informa- 
 tion, but simply, in their opinion, with a view to provide an 
 ostensible ground for a pre-determined condemnation ; and 
 (2) because it was most unreasonable that the Aberdeen 
 churches should find fault with their enlarged view of the 
 Holy Spirit's work when they had found no fault with their 
 enlarged view of the work of Christ, and all the more when 
 the second enlargement was only the logical and legitimate 
 outcome of the other. Our readers will now understand 
 what we meant when we said that this Blackhills position 
 was hard to take at the point of the ecclesiastical bayonet. 
 The little church seemed to be strongly and securely en- 
 trenched on its black and frowning eminence. A recon- 
 noitring theological general, if candid, would have confessed 
 that it had rather an ugly look, and that it would need to 
 be cautiously circumvented and surprised ! 
 
 Mr. Laing and his church as we learn from the published 
 correspondence, also replied to the three questions proposed 
 by calling in question the right of their sister churches to 
 make agreement on these difficult points which had per- 
 plexed theologians of all lands and ages, the basis and condi- 
 tion of continued fellowship. They say, "Were we to propose 
 these questions to each individual member, it is very likely 
 that some among us might answer them in one way, and 
 some in another, whil'e others, and perhaps the majority, 
 would be very much at a loss to comprehend your queries 
 so as to give any definite answer to them at all." Of 
 course such replies were not deemed satisfactory, and final 
 
THE REV. ARCHIBALD DUFF. 
 
 345 
 
 letters were sent to the two suburban societies announc- 
 insj the withdrawal of the city churches from fellowship 
 and co-operation with them. We may mention that the 
 Blackhills or Westhills Church is still supplied from the 
 Evangelical Union and is in connection with it; but the 
 Woodside Church, ten or twelve years ago, when Dr. Laing 
 removed to Canada, was taken back again into the fellow- 
 ship of the Congregational Union, and that too, without 
 having professed its faith in the Calvinistic doctrine of the 
 unconditional election of some men to eternal life. It is 
 freely asserted that Dr. Kennedy, of London, with the 
 enlarged charity of heart which thii-ty yeai-s of public life 
 have produced, and having himself also kept pace with the 
 deveJopm^t of religious thought in the southern part of 
 the kingdom, does not now hesitate to say that the ecclesi- 
 astical action of 1844 was a mistake. We have ah-eady 
 mentioned the name of him who is to-day the leading and 
 the senior Congregational minister of Aberdeen as having, 
 by his conciliatory conduct, indicated a similar change of 
 opinion. We hope that the fi'iendly interchange of denomi- 
 national irreetinors between the C. U, and the E. U. annual 
 conventions (if not the comprehensive confederation of the 
 two connections), which has been recently proposed, may yet 
 take place, and may have the effect of repairing the rent 
 that was made yet more effectively, and of wiping out aU 
 that was disagreeable in the past. 
 
 A third minister in the North of Scotland, the Rev. 
 Archil)ald Duff, of Fraserburgh, also suffered in this same 
 yeai' of 18i4 for the maintenance of the Xew Views." 
 This gentleman, as well as Messi*s. Monro and Laing, had 
 been a fellow-student of Mr. Kirk at the Conorregational 
 Academy, and had warmly sympatliised with the doctrines 
 of free grace which Mr. Morison and he had taught. At 
 first the leading membei-s of the chiuxih in Fraserbiu-gh fully 
 appiwed of Mr. DuU's teaching, and took pait with him in 
 the circulation of the tracts that came from the south. But 
 eventually it was supposed that some pei-sonal misunder- 
 standings led tliese gentlemen to aiTay tliemselves against 
 Mr. Duff's doctrines as well as against himself, fortifying 
 their theological position in various stormy chui'ch meetings 
 by letters from neighbouring ministei-s in Aberdeen, Banff, 
 and Stuartfield. As the result of these disputes, Mr. Duff 
 withdrew from the chiu'ch, along with fifty-nine members, 
 
346 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 three of whom were deacons, and formed a new Congrega- 
 tional church, which has ever since received ministers and 
 licentiates from the Evangelical Union. Mr. Duff" preached 
 his last sermon in the Mid Street Congi-egational Church, 
 on the last Sabbath of 1844, and his first to the nucleus of 
 the new cause on the first Sabbath of 1845, in the Town 
 Hall of Fraserburgh, the use of which was kindly gi^anted 
 to him by the chief magistrate, the late Lewis Chalmers, 
 Esq., till his new chapel would be ready. This building 
 was rapidly proceeded with ; and it may be mentioned that 
 the late Sir Wilfrid Lawson, a warm friend of the " New 
 Views," as they were called in the town, contributed hand- 
 somely towards its erection. Mr. Duff afterwards removed 
 to Liverpool, where he preached for some time to the friends 
 of the Scottish movement in that important centre; and 
 subsequently he rendered very important service by filling 
 the pastorate of the Independent Church in Hawick for 
 several years, which has since joined the Evangelical Union. 
 Ultimately he was induced to retui^n to Canada, whence he 
 had come to Scotland to prepare for the ministry ; and there 
 he at present ministers to a large Congregational church, in 
 Sherbrooke, province of Quebec. 
 
 About the same time the Congi-egational church in Forres 
 was shunted, by the ecclesiastical proceedings which were 
 common at the period, into the siding of the Evangelical 
 Union, from which body it has ever since received its supply 
 of preaching and its ministers. Mr. Nisbet Galloway had 
 finished his theological training at the Glasgow Academy 
 just a year before the expulsion of the nine students took 
 place. But, although he had narrowly escaped the crucial test 
 of May, 1844, he was not to be let off altogether ; for when 
 he had received and accepted a call to the Congregational 
 Church in Forres, it began to be rumoured throughout the 
 north of Scotland that he too had been infected with the 
 heretical taint of believing that there was " no respect of 
 persons " with God's Holy Spiiit. Accordingly, a committee 
 of inquiry must needs come down on him too. The Rev. 
 Messrs. Monro, of Knockando (father of Dr. Mom^o), and 
 M'Neil, of Elgin, met with Mr. Galloway, and, after a 
 lengthened interview, declared his views on the work of the 
 Spirit to be unsatisfactory,, and refused to ordain him. Dr. 
 Monro, of Forres, writes us : " Mr. Galloway then applied 
 to Dr. Laing and myself to ordain him. Compliance on my 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE SPIRIT's WORK. 347 
 
 jiai't was the unpardonable offence that cut me off from 
 fellowship and intercourse with all the churches I had been 
 familiar with from my youth." It is sad to obsei'\'e to what 
 suffering a man of Dr. Moirro's affectionate disposition must 
 have been subjected, in being thus denied ecclesiastical 
 intercourse with his dearest friends, and, among them, his 
 own father, for maintaining that the Divine Spirit knocked 
 honestly and earnestly at the heart of every man to whom 
 the Gospel message came. Mr. Monro, sen., was a good 
 man ; but he took high ground as to this Calvinistic posi- 
 tion. Doubtless, it must have pained the veteran minister 
 to be separated ecclesiastically from so excellent a son ; and 
 on the other hand, He who said, " He that loveth father or 
 mother more than me is not worthy of me," would take note 
 of the sacrifice w^hich the son mado in venturing to differ 
 from and displease his venerable sii-e. What a comfort to 
 i-eflect that all such differences shall be forgotten and obliter- 
 ated in that blessed land of light to which we are all hasten- 
 ing, and where we shall see face to face, and know even as 
 we are known ! 
 
 The Kev. Nisbet Galloway, w^ho recently fell asleep in 
 Christ as pastor of the church in Newburgh, Fife, subse- 
 quently laboured for tliirty-two years in connection with the 
 EA'angelical Union. We have no hesitation in saying, that 
 the reason why the E. U. Church in Muslin Street, Bridgeton, 
 became so thoroughly and intelligently consolidated, was 
 that it enjoyed for ten or twelve years the advantage of Ms. 
 thoughtful and edifying ministry. 
 
 In bringing to a close our history of the doctrinal con- 
 tendings of thii'ty years ago as to the nature and extent of 
 the work of the Holy Spii^it, we are impressed with the con- 
 viction that perhaps the earnest and able writers in their 
 zeal to make plain the resistibility and univei'sality of that 
 Divine Agent's operations, did not sufficiently dwell upon 
 their inscrutability, and that therefore they could not be 
 fully explained by, or to, the human mind. For oui-selves 
 individually, we always maintained, as the share which we 
 took in these early controversies, that as the Saviour had 
 likened the Spirit's movements to those of the invisible 
 wind, we would count it irreverent to pretend that we knew 
 all about the mode and the secrets of His dealings with the 
 soul of man. And the longer we live we are more and more 
 deeply persuaded that the Creator of man's mind may have 
 
348 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 means of access to that awful, regal tenant of the body, which 
 we cannot fully analyse or describe. But of course the 
 result of his operation must, in every case, be the awakening 
 of ;iiioral reflection and resolve ; since only in that way can 
 a moral being be influenced, or moral government be main- 
 tained. But in so far as the resistibility and universality 
 of the Divine Spiiit's work is concerned, we think that tlie 
 demonstrations which we have submitted to our readers are 
 impregnable in their logical and Scriptural strength ; and it 
 is certainly a matter of surprise that, at so early a date, the 
 minds of the Avriters had reached findings and expositions so 
 fully matured. 
 
 We are aware that it is frequently objected to this doc- 
 trine that if the Holy Spirit strive with all flesh, where is 
 there any necessity for praying for his gracious aid? To 
 this we might be content to reply (1) that God himself tells 
 us that his Spirit strives with all flesh ; and (2) that we 
 pray for daily bread and other temporal blessings, even 
 although we believe that God is willing to bestow them on 
 us, and has even already made provision in the laws of 
 nature for our supply. But we do not hesitate to go further 
 and maintain (3) that a reserve of grace is in the Lord's 
 hands, and is poured out in answer to believing prayer. 
 This fact the founders of the Evangelical Union were from 
 the first ready to admit ; and several references to the tenet 
 are found scattered throughout those early publications, our 
 review of which has now been concluded. Their opinion seems 
 to have been this (and indeed they indorse the sentiment to 
 this day) that when a church is roused to earnest and 
 united prayer, God can do more through its members and in 
 connection with their zeal than he could do in a difierent 
 state of things, even as in certain temperatures and condi- 
 tions of the material atmosphere specially abundant and 
 fertilising showers do fall. Thus it will be observed that 
 this doctrine of a reserve of grace is not inconsistent with 
 the Divine complaint so often insisted on during these con- 
 troversies, " What could have been done more to my vine- 
 yard that I have not done in itf Nor is the all-important 
 point of resistibility thereby sacrificed ; for the conversion of 
 sinners is not necessitated by that increased degree of 
 influence, but only rendered more probable. Under the 
 less degree a sinner may be saved ; while under the greater 
 degree he may still harden his neck and be lost. 
 
EARLY SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 349 
 
 Yet whatever our readers may think of our doctrines (and 
 we are pei-suaded that their simple exposition must have 
 carried conviction to many a candid mind) we are of opinion 
 that the great majority of the readers who have perused our 
 naiTative will by this time have concluded that it is wrong 
 to make so difficult a doctrine as that of the unconditional 
 election of some men to life a test of orthodoxy, and to 
 extrude from Christian societies earnest, devoted, and useful 
 men who think that they have seen cause in their Bibles to 
 question it. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Formation of a church in Glasgow, in 1844, in sympathy . with the 
 Evangelical Union — Formation of a similar church in Edinburgh 
 — Case of the Kev. AVilliam Scott, of Free St. Mark's, Glasgow — 
 Formation of an E.U. church in the city of Aberdeen. 
 
 We have now, in this detailed history, narrated all the 
 ecclesiastical proceedings which took place in connection 
 with those ministers and churches that may be regarded as 
 the founders and parents of the Evangelical Union, along 
 with the students of the Congregational Theological Academy, 
 against whom also distinct action was taken. These were — 
 Kilmarnock, Bathgate, Falkirk, and Kendal, in the Seces- 
 sion Church ; and Hamilton, Bellshill, Cambuslang, Bridge- 
 ton, Ai'drossan, Westhills, Woodside, Fraserburgh, and 
 Forres in the Congregational body. There were so many 
 \411age stations, however, principally in the neighbourhood 
 of Kilmarnock and Hamilton, which desired preachers, and 
 eventually pastors, in full sympathy with the expelled mini- 
 sters, that the number of the churches co-operating with the 
 new denomination soon mounted up to twice the original 
 thirteen. For these young charges the nine ejected students, 
 as well as Mr. Morison's fii^st quaternion at Kilmarnock, 
 were found to be quite providentially prepared. Thus, Mr. 
 William Bathgate, in 1844, was settled at Shotts Iron 
 Works; Mr. A. C. Wood at Strathaven ; and Mr. J. B.- 
 Robertson at Galashiels — the latter being the fii'st, but 
 happily not the last, outpost in the south-eastern part of 
 Scotland, at which the banner of the Three Great Univer- 
 salities was unfurled. 
 
 But as yet no voice was lifted up on behalf of this world- 
 wide Gospel in any of the gi-eat centres of population such 
 
350 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 as Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is true that the Muslin 
 Street Church, in the suburb of Bridgeton, had already been 
 opened ; but many who had heard Dr. Morison plead at his 
 trial in Glasgow, and who also warmly sympathised with 
 the nine Congregational students, were very anxious that 
 the condemned tenets should be publicly expounded and 
 defended in the heart of that great city. Accordingly, as 
 early as the month of June, 1844, arrangements were made 
 to hold a series of protracted meetings in the Trades' Hall, 
 Glassford Street. The late Mr. John Little, author of "The 
 Death-bed Experience of Mrs. Little" (a tract which reached 
 an immense circulation, having been highly recommended 
 by Dr. Campbell in the columns of the Banner newspaper), 
 and Mr. James Clark, well known in political and religious 
 circles in the city of Glasgow, were prominent among the 
 Christian laymen who formed the nucleus around which the 
 new cause gathered. The meetings from the first were a de- 
 cided success. Large numbers attended on week nights; and 
 on the Sabbath day, especially at the evening service, the hall 
 could not contain the crowds that assembled to hear tlie 
 words of eternal life. The Rev. Messrs. Morison, of Bath- 
 gate and Kilmarnock ; Kirk, of Hamilton ; Ferguson, of 
 Bellshill ; M'Robert, of Cambuslang ; and Mather, of 
 Ardrossan, assisted by some of the nine students, took part 
 in the meetings, which were held for several weeks. The 
 ministers themselves were surprised at the gi'eat number of 
 people who remained for religious conversation. The lead- 
 ing doctrine which they advocated — immediate peace to the 
 soul of man through the simple belief of the great fact of the 
 atonement effected eighteen hundred years ago, brought 
 relief to many sin-burdened consciences, and also dispelled, 
 by God's blessing, the clouds that himg over the minds of 
 many good people who had been mixing up their own sub- 
 jective frames and feelings with the great objective work 
 which alone reveals the heart of God, and alone constitutes 
 the ground of reconciliation. Before the meetings were 
 concluded, as many as seventy or eighty individuals had 
 put down their names in token of their willingness to be 
 formed into a church, on the basis of the unlimited love of 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to the whole world. These 
 friends were formed into a Church by the Rev. James 
 Morison, of Kilmarnock, towards the end of July, who 
 dispensed the ordinance of the Lord's Supper to them in the 
 
AN E. U. CHURCH IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 351 
 
 presence of as great a multitude as the hall and the adjacent 
 rooms and lobbies could contain. 
 
 The brethren of the new church were very anxious that 
 Mr. Morison should have removed, at that time, from Kil- 
 marnock to Glasgow, to take the pastoral oversight of them ; 
 for his fame and popularity were such that an immense mul- 
 titude was always eager to hear him, when at any time he 
 was advertised to preach in the city. But Mr. Morison 
 could not see it to be his duty at that time to leave the 
 church in Kilmarnock, which had clung to him so devotedly 
 ■ during his ecclesiastical trials. Ultimately, the attention of 
 the church was called to Mr. Fergus Ferguson, jun., the 
 youngest of the nine students who accepted the call which 
 had been tendered to him, in the month of December, 
 1844. For a few months Mr. Ferguson acted as mis- 
 sionary to the church — visiting the sick during the week, 
 and either preaching himself on the Sabbath day, or sup- 
 plying for those who occupied the platform in the Trades' 
 Hall. In the month of April, 1845 (on the Glasgow Fast 
 Day), he was ordained, before a large congregation, in the 
 City Hall of Glasgow, and removed in the month of June, 
 in the same year, with the Trades' Hall Chiu'ch, into the 
 chapel in Blackfriai-s Street, where he ministered till the 
 month of February, 1876. At that date, he was compelled 
 to remove to a new church in Montrose Street — one of the 
 railways having acquired the Blackfriars Street Chapel by 
 virtue of an Act of Parliament. He and his accomplished 
 colleague, the Rev. Robert Craig, M.A., preach there to a 
 large congregation. 
 
 A successful effort was also made, towards the close of the 
 year 1844, to draw together a church on the basis of the 
 "New Views" in Edinburgh. Mr. J. H. Stott, one of 
 the magistrates of the city, took the lead in the matter, 
 and secured the Waterloo Rooms for a series of week-day 
 meetings and Sunday services similar to those which had 
 been so successful in Glasgow. The ministers already 
 referred to all aided in the effort ; and immense crowds 
 came together in Edinburgh also to hear of God's great 
 salvation. The fact is, that not only had the ecclesiastical 
 proceedings against them made these preachers notorious 
 (and notoriety is next door to populai'ity) ; but large masses 
 of the Scottish public, by reading the proceedings in the 
 church courts, and the pamphlets which had been published 
 
352 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNIOX. 
 
 from time to time, had come to the conclusion that this was 
 a consistent Gospel for which these men had suffered — ' 
 indeed, the only honest basis on which an earnest call can 
 be addressed to men indiscriminately. And this belief is 
 entertained still by thousands who have not been resolute 
 enough to leave their own time-honoured churches, but who, 
 nevertheless, respect the men that were willing to brave 
 excision for Christ's sake and the Gospel's. 
 
 A^e have a very distinct recollection ourselves of the 
 eager multitude that used to fill the Waterloo Rooms, in 
 Edinburgh, when the new cause was started. Not only 
 would the large hall itself be densely crowded, but a gallery 
 at the far end of it, and the platform behind the speaker. 
 The scene was most inspiring ; and generally the preacher 
 was unexpectedly carried " out of himself," and led to 
 enlarge on the topics which he proposed to discuss far beyond 
 his original intention. We remember how appreciatively a 
 dense audience, of evidently mof^t intelligent people, listened 
 one Sunday evening to a discourse from our lips on the words, 
 How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation^" In 
 these days there was always an inquiry meeting at the close of 
 first service, at which a shorter address was delivered, and the 
 the difficulties of the anxious met. At Edinburgh, as at 
 Glasgow, there were always perplexed inquirers waiting to 
 be conversed with. Indeed, the founders of the Evangelical 
 Union were called to do, in their narrower sphere, just what 
 Messrs. Moody and Sankey have of late been doing in their 
 wider one ; for although our movement was a controversial 
 one, the controversy always was made to turn on God's con- 
 troversy with man. 
 
 The affections of the nucleus in Edinburgh began to be 
 concentrated on the Rev. John Kirk, of Hamilton. Mr. 
 Kirk's name had been widely used in connection with the 
 recent discussions, — so that he always drew large audiences, 
 who did not fail to be satisfied with his lucid and powerful 
 exhibitions of the love of God. Mr. Kirk, for the sake of 
 the extension of the truth, reluctantly tore himself away 
 from his church at Hamilton, and was ordained in the 
 Waterloo Rooms, on the Fast-Day, in O tober, 1845. Shortly 
 afterwards the church removed to the large chapel in 
 Brighton Street, where Mr. Kirk continued to minister till 
 the present year (1876), when his increasing infirmities com- 
 pelled him reluctantly to tesign his charge. We may add 
 
THE REV. WILLIAM SCOTT. 
 
 353 
 
 that there are now three congregations in Edinburgh in con- 
 nection with the Evangelical Union. 
 
 Before we leave the year 1845 we must make some refer- 
 ence to the case of the Rev. William Scott, of Free St. 
 Mark's, Glasgow, which was decided in the month of Mav 
 in that year, by the General Assembly of the Free Church. 
 It is quite true that Mr. Scott never actually joined the 
 Evangelical Union ; but during the years which immediately 
 succeeded its formation, he rendered very important services 
 by his zealous co-operation with its ministers. He preached 
 in connection with them in all the important towns through- 
 out Scotland, and w^as a most acceptable and influential 
 speaker at all the principal soirees and public meetings of 
 the denomination. Moreover, his case in the church courts 
 had so close a relation to our own doctrinal discussions, and 
 so materially aided our struggle, that we could not wi'ite the 
 history of the Evangelical Union and leave it out. 
 
 Mr. Scott had been much blessed in soul by revival services 
 which had been held in Roxburghshire, and in which some 
 of his relatives had taken an active part. . The truth of the 
 Gospel had been comfortingly applied to his own mind 
 throuorh the readinor of an MS. of a zealous minister's dis- 
 course, entitled, " Believe and live." As was natural, he 
 began to present to his own congregation in Glasgow the 
 doctrines which had become so precious to himself; but he 
 was surprised to find that sundry critics among them con- 
 ceived that he was making statements which did not square 
 with the Confession of Faith. The fact is, that the contro- 
 versy in both the Secession and Congregational bodies had 
 put men on the theological qui vive; and accordingly a pro- 
 portion of keen heresy hunters were to be found in every 
 congi-egation, ready to scent afar off any deviation from the 
 beaten track of orthodoxy. The statements which Mr. Scott 
 made in his own pulpit were no more out of the beaten track 
 than those made by the distinguished American Revivalists 
 who have lately visited this country : but some advance has 
 been made even in the Free Church in the course of thirty 
 years ; and the assertions which then startled the sticklers 
 for orthodoxy in St. Mark's Church, would now be allowed 
 to pass unimpeached. 
 
 Mr. Scott kept continually saying, "It is not * Live and 
 believe,' but the Bible representation is ' Believe and live.' 
 You do not need, O sinner, to wait till life be put into you 
 
 2 A 
 
354 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 before you believe ; but believe to-day, and to-day you shall 
 live." 
 
 Angry and stormy meetings of the session, to which some 
 of the complainants belonged, led to angry and stormy discus- 
 sions in the Presbytery; and when these were reported in the 
 newspapers of the day all eyes began to be turned towards 
 St. Mark's Free Church and the occupant of its pulpit. Mr. 
 Scott's opponents at first thought that he could be terrified 
 or coaxed into submission ; but they began to discover that 
 he was one of those men whom opposition makes more con- 
 fident in their own opinion, after it has been fairly formed, 
 and who are quite willing to sacrifice all earthly friendships 
 and honours for what they believe to be the truth of God. 
 
 Dr. Candlish wrotq to a minister, "There's your friend, 
 Mr. Scott, going to set the whole Free Kirk in a blaze. 
 Send him in to me that I .may see what he is stumbling at." 
 But neither the interview which Mr. Scott had with Dr. 
 Candlish nor with Dr. Duncan, the eminent metaphysical 
 theologian, whose biography has lately produced so much 
 sensation, had any effect in moving him from the position 
 which he had taken up — namely, that real spiritual life 
 does not precede the faith of the Gospel, but enters the 
 soul of sinful man along with faith, or by means of it. 
 
 Mr. Scott has favoured us with a letter, in which he has 
 tersely stated, and in few words, the theological point in 
 dispute between him and his brethren, and which ultimately 
 led to his separation from the Free Church. 
 
 "Yon are right, so far, in stating the qnestion between the Glasgow 
 Free Presbytery and me. It was expressly this: Is Regeneration hpfore 
 faith or by faith? the Presbytery maintaining the former; I the latter, 
 and defining Regt-neration, in scholastic language, as the completed 
 act — Regeneratio regenerata, not Regeneratio regenerans, the process— in 
 which I admitted, of course, the agency of the Spirit to be prior to 
 man's acting in the matter. Many things in the history of the case 
 were very curious; but now, perhaps, they are not worth recording." 
 
 Dr. Buchanan and Dr. M'Gilvray led what might be 
 called the prosecution against Mr. Scott, both in the Free 
 Presbytery in Glasgow, and in the General Assembly at 
 Edinburgh. They laid stress upon the doctrine of man's 
 total depravity, and insisted that his powers were so sadly 
 deteriorated by the fall, that he could not believe the Gospel. 
 They quoted again and again such passages as the following: 
 " Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, 
 because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him" (John xiv. 
 
BELIEVE AND LIVE. 
 
 355 
 
 17), and "The natural man receiveth not the things of the 
 Spirit of God; for they are foolishness imto him; neither 
 ■can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned " 
 (1 Cor. ii. 14). They therefore maintained that there must 
 be life in the soul before the Gospel can be believed. Mr. 
 Scott urged, in reply, that if there could be genuine spiritual 
 life in man's soul before the faith of the Gospel was consum- 
 mated, there would be no need of Christ at all ; for the soul 
 that had spiritual life in it would undoubtedly be raised to 
 the kingdom of heaven. He quoted with gi-eat power and 
 emphasis the Saviour's own unqualified declaration ; "Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
 man, and drink his blood, ye have NO LIFE in you " (John 
 vi. 53); and again, "The words that I speak unto you, they 
 are spu-it and they are life " (ver. 63). He also appealed to 
 Isa. Iv. 3, " Hear and your soul shall live ;" exclaiming, 
 " See ! it is not live and hear ; but, O ye dead ones', hear 
 and your souls shall live. For ' Faith cometh by hearing, 
 and bearing by the word of God.' " As to the passages 
 quoted by his opponents from Jolm and Corinthians, with 
 similar texts, he maintained that while worldly and natural 
 men could not receive and appreciate the advanced truths of 
 Christianity, they could believe the initial or rudimentary 
 truths, through the reception of which theii' taste would be 
 awakened for the strong meat of the kingdom. He main- 
 tained that through the influence of the convincing Holy 
 Ghost, who knocked at the door of the simier's heart, there 
 was an awakening of the soul, more or less, before faith ; but 
 he refused to assign to this preparatory excitement the name 
 and character of true spiiitual life. 
 
 When we look back upon the deed, it appears assuredly 
 to have been a sinfully schismatic act to have deposed an 
 earnest man on so narrow an issue as that which we have 
 described ; yet true it is and of verity that the Rev. 
 William Scott was cut off in May, 1845, by the vote of the 
 General Assembly of the Free Church, for maintaining that 
 the Gospel call was not Live and believe, but Believe and 
 live. We suppose that the great majority of Evangelical 
 Christians will say to-day that he was in the right, and that 
 only a few rare hyper-Calvinistic antiquated Confessionists 
 will be got here and there to. take the side of the Edinburgh 
 General Assembly. Suppose that Mr. Moody had stood up in 
 the Free College Church in Glasgow two years ago, and h:.<l 
 
356 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 solemnly made this statement, None here can believe the 
 Gospel unless they first get spiritual life, and that is given 
 only to those who have been unconditionally chosen from all 
 eternity," would not such a statement have murdered the 
 revival 1 And suppose that Mr. Sankey, acting under high 
 ecclesiastical advice, had said one day, "That well-known 
 hymn, ' There is life in a look at the Crucifiied One,' is all 
 wrong, and we must sing it thus : — 
 
 * No life in a look at the Crucified One, 
 Till the heart has been changed into flesh that was stone,"' 
 
 we trow that no Orphean effects would have been produced 
 by the sweet singing of that evangelical Apollo that day. 
 
 Mr. Scott has often remarked that a sense of loneliness 
 came over him as he took his seat at the bar of the General 
 Assembly in Edinburgh, before rising to plead his cause. 
 But the woi-ds of Paul flashed into his mind, " At my first 
 answers no man stood with me ; but all men forsook me. 
 
 Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and 
 strengthened me." And the remembrance of the words and 
 the promised aid did strengthen him, so that Satan did not 
 dismay him with the temptation, but " he was delivered 
 out of the mouth of the lion " By a stroke of dexterous 
 generalship a meeting had been got up to hear D'Aubigne 
 elsewhere, at the very hour of Mr. Scott's trial, so that few 
 of the general public were present to listen to the libelled 
 minister's defence. But he let the public hear of it after- 
 wards, by the publication of a large and spiiited pamphlet, 
 entitled " Free Church Heresy," containing a detail of the 
 history, and chiefly of the theological merits of the case^ 
 which had an immense circulation over the length and 
 breadth of the land. 
 
 The great majority of Mr. Scott's congregation clung to 
 him after his deposition, and entered the Trades' Hall as 
 tenants a few Sabbaths after Mr. Ferguson's congregation 
 had vacated it. It may easily be conceived that the forma- 
 tion of this second large congregation, committed to the 
 public maintenance of almost, or rather of identically the 
 same views as the founders of the Evangelical Union had 
 propagated, must have produced no small stir in Glasgow, 
 and throughout the west of Scotland generally. 
 
 We may add that Mr. Scott's congregation met for three 
 years in the Trades* Hall ; and that in the month of 
 
AX E. U. CHURCH IN ABERDEEN. 357 
 
 October, 1848, the commodious chapel in Pitt Street, which 
 they have ever since occupied, was opened for them by their 
 pastor and the Rev. James Morison, of Kilmarnock. 
 
 We have thus narrated the chief events of 1844 and 
 1845 ; but we must now briefly notice the introduction of 
 Evangelical Union principles into the important city of 
 Aberdeen in the spring of 1846 ; for, although the progress 
 of the cause had been surprising in Glasgow and Edinburgh, 
 it was yet more remarkable in the Granite City, whose 
 inhabitants had always been deemed as unsusceptible of 
 change in theological opinion as the stone that gives the 
 place its descriptive name. 
 
 Several pious and thoughtful people, both in connection 
 with Presbyterian and Independent churches in Aberdeen^ 
 had been convinced that the views held by Messrs. Monro 
 and Laing, and which the Congregationalists of that city had 
 impeached, were in reality the very truth of God. Reports 
 of the trials, too, of Messrs. Morison, Rutherford, and Guthrie, 
 had been wafted as far north as that remote region, so seldom 
 visited then by southern travellers ; for the good Queen 
 Victoria had not yet fallen in love with Balmoral and the 
 Dee. Lord Byron called the late Earl of that ilk " That 
 travelled Thane, Athenian Aberdeen," on account of his 
 classical polish and deep interest in the treasures of art which 
 the ruined capital of Greece still contains. We may apply 
 the epithet to the city itself — not thinking, however, of 
 Socrates and Plato, but of Paul the Apostle, and Luke his 
 historian, who said of the Grecian metropolitans of his day, 
 ^' They spend their time in nothing else, but either to tell 
 or to hear some new thing." Yes, the Aberdonians were 
 Athenian in their curiosity ; for when " the New Lights " 
 came north, like fresh streamers in the sky, the rumour ran 
 through the town that " the men who have turned the world 
 upside down have come hither also " — and so the worthy 
 citizens went forth to see and hear for themselves. 
 
 Their appetite had been whetted indeed by a series of 
 meetings which had been held at Woodside, in the Rev. Mr. 
 Laing's Church, in June, 1845, by Rev. Fergus Ferguson, 
 then of Bellsliill. The village was just the distance of 
 Bethany from Jemsalem; and, as many of the Jews went 
 out to see and hear Jesus long ago, not a few of the Aber- 
 donians went out to hear the preacher from the south, and 
 obtained " soul-refreshing views of Jesus and his Word." An 
 
358 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 intelligent lady, who was at that time a member of John 
 Street Baptist Church there, has often told us since that this 
 expression was quite a new one to her — A satisfied God." 
 Mr. Ferguson em|)loyed it as quite a common and current 
 one with himself ; but it struck her forcibly, and was the 
 vehicle of a great spiritual blessing. She had always been 
 looking in for at least the concurrent ground of her accept- 
 ;mce ; but she was led to look out to God as well pleased in 
 Jesus, for the sole source of her joy. Many sinners by these 
 meetings were brought into the fold ; and many saints were 
 cheered and edified. Still, although the suburbs had been 
 blessed, there was as yet no thought of beginning a cause in 
 the city itself 
 
 It was the late Mr. " George Cornwall witli Mr. J. F. 
 Kelles and Mr. George Shearer, still respected citizens, who 
 were the means, under God, of hoisting th-e E. U. standard 
 in Aberdeen. We remember seeing these gentleman taking 
 tKeir seats on the platform on the occasion of the soiree that 
 was held in the Waterloo Kooms, Edinburgh, on the 
 evening of Mr. Kirk's ordination, in October, 1845. The 
 steamer had been detained by adverse winds (for there was 
 no railway then), and they were late of arriving. They 
 had come with the Macedonian cry, " Come over and help 
 us." They had come to ask the ministers who were present 
 if they would make an effort to supply Aberdeen for a 
 month or two, if a place of meeting could be secured. 
 
 A large chapel in St. Andrew Street, capable of contain- 
 ing 900 hearers, happened to be vacant at the time, and 
 was leased by these energetic laymen for the proclamation 
 of the everlasting and unstinted Gospel. Strange as it may 
 appear, it was filled from the first day it was opened in 
 March, 1846. They who went for curiosity's sake the first 
 day, returned for Christ's sake the next. The leading 
 ministers of the young denomination took their turn in 
 supplying the pulpit ; generally staying two Sabbaths at a 
 time. We remember distinctly to this day the impression 
 which was produced upon our mind, when, on a Saturday 
 night, the welcome lights of the city appeared, after we had 
 been on the top of the coach from 6 a.m. till 10 p.m. — how 
 peculiar and beautiful Union Street looked as we drove 
 down its rattling streets to the sound of the guard's sonorous 
 bugle — how we admired all the next week the Dee and the 
 Don, the two Universities, and " the melancholy main " : 
 
A SECOND CHURCH IN ABERDEEN. 
 
 369 
 
 but most of all, how we delighted in the eager congregations 
 who seemed as if they could not tire to hear of " Naaman 
 the leper," or "What think ye of Christ or "Acquaint 
 now thyself with him, and he at i)eace ; for thereby good 
 shall come unto thee." Especially do we remember, not 
 merely the dense crowd of the Sabbath evening, but the 
 hungering hundreds who attended on the Monday following, 
 because we had announced that we would paraphrase the 
 ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans ; and how they 
 seemed to heave a great sigh of relief when we condensed 
 for them the expositions of John Goodwin, Adam Clarke, 
 Eletcher, of Madeley, and John Robertson, of St. Ninians, 
 and showed them that believers were the vessels of mercy, 
 and unbelievers the vessels of wrath, and that it was a 
 man's own fault if he was fitted unto destruction. 
 
 The cause became so prosperous that the newly formed 
 church were encouraged to call the Rev. Eergus Ferguson, 
 of Bellshill, to be their pastor, whose visit during the previous 
 summer had produced so much effect in the immediate 
 neighbourhood. Mr. Eerguson thought it to be his duty to 
 leave his attached- flock at Bellshill — much to their regret — 
 for the sake of the larger held to which Providence seemed 
 to point. He was ordained in St. Andrew Street in 
 August, 1846, and has lived in Aberdeen ever since. In 
 November, 1848, the handsome new Chapel in St. Paul 
 Street was opened by the Rev. William Scott, of Glasgow, 
 the pastor of the church, and the writer, his son. Eor 
 twenty-five years the congregation of seven or eight hundred 
 hearers was steadily maintained ; and Mr. Eerguson has 
 lately, in his old age, been privileged to hand over a vigorous 
 and flourishing church to a distinguished successor, the 
 Rev. A. M. Eairbaii'n, one of the most scholarly and accom- 
 plished men of the day, and, while we write, a highly-recom- 
 mended candidate for the Chair of Moral Philosophy in the 
 University of St. Andrews. A second E. U. Church in 
 Aberdeen is also large and flourishing, under the pastoral 
 charge of the Rev. Alex. Stewart, likewise a minister of 
 great scientific acquirements. 
 
360 " HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Formation of E. U. Churches in Greenock, Dundee, Paisley, and 
 Barrhead — Also in the South-Eastern District of Scotland, Perth, 
 Carlisle, Manchester, Belfast — Removal of Dr, Morison to Glasgow 
 — The Theological Academy — Dr. Morison's Writings — Dr. 
 Guthrie's — Professor Kirk's — Question of Church Government — 
 The Churches from the Relief Body — The Annual Conference, 
 how Constituted — Important Resolution of the Conference of 1858 
 — Controversy on Predestination in 1853 and subseq^uent years — 
 The Revival of 1859-60: Church in Eyemouth— Church in Shap- 
 inshay — List of Ministers — Curriculum of Study — List of Students 
 — Questions put to Licentiates — Mutual Aid — The Cumberland 
 Presbyterians — Attitude of the Evangelical Union towards other 
 Denominations. - 
 
 Having now described at length the steps which led to the 
 separation from their former communions of what might be 
 called the thirteen original churches which went to form the 
 Evangelical Union, and having also described how it was 
 that the banner of the three great Universalities was hoisted 
 in the cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen, and new 
 churches formed there in connection with the young religious 
 movement, it is not our intention to prosecute the narrative 
 further with that minuteness of detail hitherto observed. 
 We have shown how the ball was set a-rolling. Our readers 
 may themselves imagine how it continued to roll, and con- 
 tinued to grow. All Scotland had now heard of the kindred 
 theological contentions in the Secession and Congregational 
 churches ; and societies, about thirty in number, as we have 
 seen, extending from Forres in the north to Galashiels in 
 the south, had already declared in favour of the new 
 views." The outline of the new denomination had been 
 fairly sketched. All subsequent progress has simply been 
 the filling up of that initial programme, or, in other words, 
 the results that might have been expected to flow^ from 
 the doctrinal upheaval which we have endeavoured to 
 describe. All that remains for us to do is simply to tell 
 succinctly how the Evangelical Union came to take root in 
 a few other important localities, to give some notes as to the 
 progress of the body since the period of its formation, and 
 define the attitude which it maintains towards the other 
 denominations of Christians in the land. 
 
 We have already seen how an Evangelical Union church 
 
THE E. U. CAUSE IN DUXDEE AND PAISLEY. 361 
 
 was formed in the town of Greenock, through the hxbours of 
 the Rev. A. C. Rutherford. The brethren there met for 
 several years in the old Independent Church, Sir Micliael 
 Street, which they purchased and repaii-ed. Iji 1865 they 
 erected a fine modern edifice in the west end of the town. 
 The church has prospered for several years exceedingly 
 under the ministry of the Rev. Alexander Davidson, one of 
 Dr. Morison's earliest students, who came in, after the 
 events of 1844:, from the Congregational side of the house. 
 Mr. Davidson has proved one of the most useful and popular 
 ministers of the Evangelical Union. 
 
 The E. U. flag was not unfurled in Dundee till Januar}'-, 
 1848. The gentleman who was chiefly instrumental in 
 opening up an entrance for the new denomination into that 
 important town was John Baxter, Esq., a member of Ward 
 Street Chapel (late Rev. Dr. Russell's). He warmly sym- 
 pathised with the statement of the nine students, arid felt 
 called upon to do what in him lay to let his fellow-toAvnsnien 
 know about the doctrines which had been condemned, but 
 which he believed in his heart to be the very truth of God. 
 The body has been enabled to sustain an interest ever since 
 in Dundee with varying fortunes. At present there are 
 two E. U. churches there — the first in Reform Street, under 
 the pastoral care of the Rev. William Hamilton, M.A., and 
 the second in Lindsay Street, under the Rev. Peter M'Nish. 
 
 Dr. Morison preached in Paisley at a comparatively early 
 date. The chief friends of the movement purchased the old 
 Low Church, which was at that time unoccupied. They 
 have worshipped in it ever since. The substantial building 
 has recently been made very comfortable by extensive and 
 expensive improvements. We are happy to be able to report 
 that the church, at the period at which we write, is in a 
 very prosperous condition. Their first minister was the 
 Rev. A. M. Wilson, who was settled among them in the 
 autumn of 1845. Their present minister is the Rev. 
 Alexander Wilson, who was inducted in 1870. A thriving 
 church has also existed in the adjoining town of Barrhead 
 since the early days of our ecclesiastical straggle. Some of 
 the most intelligent abettors of the new views formed a 
 church in the village of Neilston in 1844, and secured the 
 services of the Rev. Gilbert M'Callum, one of the nine 
 students. They prudently built their chapel, however, in 
 the adjoining town of Barrhead. Their present minister, 
 
362 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 the Kev. Alexander M'Nair, M.A., is a scholarly and accom- 
 j^lished man. 
 
 The Congregational Churches which were located in the 
 south-eastern districts of Scotland embraced, almost without 
 an exception, the world-wide views of the grace of God which 
 had been advocated by the leaders of the Evangelical Union. 
 The earnest labours of the Rev. J. H. Rutherford, of Kelso 
 (now Dr. Rutherford, of Newcastle), doubtless contributed 
 to this result. The churches in Kelso, Hawick,. Melrose, 
 Jedburgh, and Selkirk, besides that in Galashiels already 
 referred to, may all be classed in this list. The pastor of 
 the church at Melrose (Rev. William Crombie) has filled 
 his present charge for twenty-two years. The church at 
 Hawick has lately shown its own vigour, as well as its love 
 to its pastor, the Rev. David Hislop, B.A., by building him 
 a fine manse — an example which other churches in the 
 denomination would do well to follow. The Rev. Alexander 
 Brown has been settled. in Galashiels for fifteen years, where 
 he has laboured with decided success. In 1873 a handsome 
 new chapel was erected for his increasing congregation. 
 
 The church in Perth was not formed till the year 1856. 
 By that time the Evangelical Union Home Mission had 
 begun its work ; and through its agency several important 
 fields have been opened up, in which good fruit has been 
 reaped. The movement in Perth was one of the first which 
 the Home Mission inaugurated. This important society has 
 owed much, for many years, to the enthusiasm and energy 
 of the Rev. Hugh Riddell, a gentleman who has helped 
 largely in this way to extend the Evangelical Union cause 
 in Scotland. The church in Perth was carefully and dili- 
 gently nursed by its first pastor. Rev. William Adamson, 
 now of Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, a man of much intel- 
 lectual power, and to whom the Union is indebted in many 
 ways. Its present minister, the Rev. Robert Finlay, is also 
 greatly encouraged in his work. 
 
 Time would fail us to particularise the origin and pro- 
 gress of all the churches now in connection with the Evan- 
 gelical Union. Suffice it to say, that the original thirteen 
 have been increased to eighty-two at the date at which we 
 write. These are studded all over the country, from Wick, 
 Caithness-shire, in the north, to Dalbeattie, in Dumfries- 
 shire, in the south of Scotland ; and from Arbroath, in the 
 east of Scotland, to Ayr in the west. 
 
THE E. U. CAUSE IN BELFAST. 
 
 363 
 
 Our movement being essentially a Scottish one, lias not 
 made mnch headway in England, — as, indeed, it could not be 
 expected to do. Besides Kendal, already referred to, a church 
 was formed, at a very early date, in Carlisle, which owed much 
 to the zeal and liberality of the late Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bart., 
 but yet more to the indefatigable exertions of its first pastor, 
 the Rev. John Whitson, now of Beith. It was during his 
 ministry that the handsome building was erected which 
 the church still occupies. More recently — in 1868 — a third 
 English Church was received into the Union, located in 
 Harpurhey, a suburb of Manchester, which prospers exceed- 
 ingly under the ministry of the Rev. Robert Mitchell. This 
 Christian community is not only in full ecclesiastical con- 
 nection with us, but is in hearty sympathy with our doctrines 
 and aims. We owe it indirectly to the piety and zeal of the 
 late Rev. E. Weeks, of Harpurhey, a warm friend of our cause. 
 
 In the year 1853 an Evangelical Union Church was 
 formed in Belfast, chiefly through the ardour of some Scot- 
 tish friends of the movement, who had removed their resi- 
 dences to the sister isle. J. B. Ferguson, Esq., of that town, 
 cordially espoused the doctrines of the new denomination ; 
 and it was largely through the influence of his purse and 
 social position that the connection found a local habitation 
 and a name there. At present two vigorous churches repre- 
 sent the Union in the metropolis of Ulster, occupying 
 handsome edifices of their own, and respectively under the 
 pastorates of the Revs. George Cron and Robert Paterson. 
 
 As to the general progress of the connection since its 
 origin and formation, besides the increase of churches 
 already detailed, we would name, among the causes of con- 
 gratulation, the removal of Dr. Morison from Kilmarnock 
 to Glasgow, in October, 1851. Although unwilling to leave 
 his beloved church in that Ayrshire town, when solicited to 
 come to Glasgow in 1844, the Doctor had gradually been 
 brought to see that it would be for 'the interests of the 
 denomination, in more ways than one, that he should be 
 settled in that city, which is really the metropolis of Scot- 
 land, in so far as population and commercial importance are 
 concerned. The result has proved that the step, although 
 not taken without hesitation and anxiety, was in reality 
 wise and well ordered. Not only is the North Dundas 
 Street Church, over which he was called to preside, prosper- 
 ous and influential; but there are, while we write, eight 
 
364 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 cliurches of the Evangelical Union in Glasgow, witli ten 
 pastors, since two of them are collegiate charges. Glasgow, 
 moreover, is felt to be a more convenient centre for the 
 Theological Academy which meets there in the autumn of 
 every year, and in the instruction of which Dr. Morison has, 
 for several years, been assisted by three earnest and beloved 
 brethren. ISTor has Kilmarnock meanwhile suffered; for the 
 large church which the youthful warrior, as we have seen, 
 carried with him through his harassing ecclesiastical 
 troubles, has now grown into two influential churches, which 
 both prosper under the powerful ministries of the Revs. 
 William Bathgate and Robert Hislop. 
 
 Mr. Morison had made his mark, as an accomplished theo- 
 logian, in Glasgow, as e^jrly as the year 1847, by the delivery, 
 in Blackfriars Street Cnurch, of a series of week evening 
 lectures on the Ninth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. 
 These were subsequently published in a large volume, with 
 a learned preface on the history of the literature of the 
 chapter, and were favourably reviewed by the leading theolo- 
 gical journals of the day. More recently, Dr. Morison has 
 published his " Exposition of the Third Chapter of the 
 Epistle to the Romans," and his " Commentaries" on the 
 Gospels of Matthew and Mark, which have given him a high 
 place among the theologians and critics of the country, and 
 have done much to remove the prejudice which had existed, 
 in many minds, against himself and the denomination which 
 he had done so much to found. 
 
 Dr. John Guthrie, now pastor of West Campbell Street 
 E. U. Church, Glasgow, brought out in 1854 his elegant 
 translation from the Latin, of Brandt's Life of Arminius, 
 which will always be popular among our people. He also 
 published in 1869 his poetical work, entitled, "Sacred Lyrics; 
 or. Hymns Original and Translated from the German, with 
 Versions of Psalms." The first piece, "The Redeemer's Tears," 
 is alone sufiicient to give the work immortality. It has been 
 re-published in various compilations and hymn-books, both 
 in this country and in America. About the same time. Dr. 
 Guthrie carried off from many competitors a prize of fifty 
 guineas, which had been offered by the Liberation Society in 
 London for the best essay on Church Establishments in the 
 conversational form — that is, in the form of question and 
 answer. The work was intended to make the young members 
 in dissenting families acquainted with the chief arguments 
 
PROFESSOR kirk's WRITINGS. 
 
 365 
 
 urged in favour of non-couformity. The volume has had a 
 large circulation in all parts of the country, and, aS we 
 undei-stand, is used as a text-book in some of the Dissenting 
 colleges in England. 
 
 About ten years ago, the Rev. John Kirk, of Edinburgh, 
 was appointed Professor of Practical Theology to the Evan-^ 
 gelical Union. This chair was founded at the instance, and 
 maintained for some years through the liberality, of John 
 Somervell, Esq., of Kendal, who was anxious that the 
 students of our Academy should have the advantage, in a 
 course of practical prelections, from year to year, of Mr. 
 Kii'k's wide experience in preaching the Gospel and dealing 
 with troubled and perplexed souls. During these latter 
 yeai-s, also, Professor Kirk has not been idle with his pen; 
 for his collected writings fill two large volumes, — while his 
 contributions to serial literatui'e have been unwearied. Of 
 late, likewise, he has been more ambitious both in the style 
 and the subjects of his compositions; for whereas he was 
 content, in the earlier days of his authoi-ship, to produce 
 only earnest, practical expositions of Gospel truth, he 
 was led by finding, about the year 1866, that many inquii- 
 ing minds w^ere puzzled through the speculations of members 
 of the British Association, to investigate their theories and 
 attempt their refutation. Accordingly, he issued in the 
 year mentioned his "Age of Man" — a work in which he 
 does not hesitate to break a lance with Sir Charles Lyell., 
 Indeed, the late Sir David Brewster was of opinion that 
 Professor Kirk had exposed the weakness of some of Sii* 
 Charles's positions, as the reader may find out for himself in 
 the life of the Edinburgh Principal by his daughter. Since 
 that time the Professor has read important scientific papei*s 
 on such subjects as "Force" and "Prayer" in Relation to 
 Providence, at the successive meetings of the Victoria 
 Institute in London, which have been duly published in the 
 records of the Society. We regi'et to have to state, that in 
 September, 1875, at the close of the session of the E. U. 
 Academy, Professor Kirk's health seriously and suddenly 
 broke down through a long latent heart-afiection, so that he 
 has been compelled to resign both his pastoral charge and 
 his theological chair. We hope that his valuable life may be 
 spared for some years yet, and that in the retirement which 
 he has justly earned he may be able to help the cause with 
 his pen which he long furthered by the living voice. Only 
 
366 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION, 
 
 three professors are left in our Academy as we write, or 
 rather two — Professor Taylor in the Chair of Systematic 
 Theology, and Professor Hunter in that of Hebrew ; for Dr. 
 Morison also has been compelled by failing health to retire 
 from the Chair of New Testament Exegesis. It is proposed, 
 however, to retain his all-important services as Principal, 
 and reconstruct the Divinity Hall by the appointment of 
 new Professors and other important changes, which, we regret 
 to say, are incomplete as we go to press, so that they cannot 
 be detailed in this volume. 
 
 For some years after 1844 there was a little jealousy of 
 the Evangelical Union on the part, not so much of the 
 ministers, as of the laity, of the Congregational churches 
 who had been separated from the Congregational Union 
 on account of theii' liberal views. Inasmuch as Dr. Mori- 
 son and his brethren still adhered so far to Presbyterian 
 polity as to manage their church business by a session or 
 bench of elders appointed for the purpose (although 
 thoroughly independent ah extra), it was thought by some 
 zealous Congregationalists that their principles would be 
 compromised, if they joined the Evangelical Union. ^ But, as 
 years rolled on, it was found that such fears were groundless, 
 and that the Evangelical Union churches were as truly 
 independent as those of the Congregational Union, either of 
 Scotland or of England and Wales. Eventually all the 
 ministers, and the great majority of the churches, joined the 
 Evangelical Union, so that not the slightest jarring on the 
 point of church government now remains. And even in the 
 one or two instances in which the churches have not been 
 formally incorporated with the denomination, they are affil- 
 iated with it through pecuniary contributions, and hearty 
 sympathy and co-operation. 
 
 In two instances, churches belonging to what was called 
 " The Kelief " connection, have joined the Evangelical Union. 
 This body had seceded from the Church of Scotland during 
 the last century, under the leadership of Mr. Gillespie, on 
 the vexed question of Patronage, at a later date than the 
 Erskines, the founders of the Secession Church. The two 
 bodies had not coalesced ; but, in 1846, a union was effected 
 between them, and the denomination has since been known 
 as the United Presbyterian. In some instances, however, 
 there was an unwillingness on the part of the Relief Churches 
 to amalgamate with the Seceders ; and two of these churches, 
 
THE E. U. CONFERENCE. 
 
 3G7 
 
 tliat, namely, in Coupar- Angus, and that in Newburgh, Fife, 
 approving of the doctrines of the Evangelical Union, have 
 joined our body, and are at present supplied by our ministers. 
 The Rev. Robert Wallace, after having laboured for twenty 
 years in Coupar- Angus, and been highly respected in all the 
 adjacent counties, has recently removed to Glasgow that he 
 might take charge of a new church in the south-eastern 
 district of that city, which has been formed there with a 
 fiiir prospect of success. 
 
 The annual meetings of ijhe denomination are held in 
 Glasgow in the last week of September, at the close of the 
 session of the Theological Academy. Besides the pastors of 
 churches, who are members of this Conference ex officio, two 
 lay delegates from each church, sent up by annual vote, 
 have a right to take part in the deliberations of the assembly. 
 Tlie meetings last for four days ; and at least one large public 
 gathering indicates, to some extent, the comparative strength 
 of the denomination in the city, as well as throughout the 
 country. The business brought before the Conference is 
 simply that which alfects the connection generally, and not 
 the affiiirs of individual churches. A clerical brother is 
 elected President at the first meeting of the pastors and 
 delegates, who fills the chair of honour for one year. A 
 committee of brethren, called a Commission, are also annually 
 appointed at the close of the meetings of Conference to w^atcli 
 over the interests of the body throughout the year. The 
 President is chairman of this committee, and its meetings 
 are quarterly, or more frequent, as necessity may demand. 
 Like the Conference, Commission does not interfere with 
 the internal aflairs of any church, unless these, in the case 
 of a dispute, for example, may be freely and voluntarily 
 referred to it by both parties. It reserves to itself the right, 
 however, should any scandal arise, whether through mini- 
 sterial delinquency or the errors of a church, and no action 
 be taken by neighbouring churches, to point out the path of 
 duty, and ask that it be pursued. 
 
 An important measure was adopted by the Conference 
 which met in September, 1858. On the one hand it had 
 been said that the Statement of Principles which had been 
 issued at Kilmarnock in 1843, and which we have already 
 epitomised, was a binding creed ; while, on the other hand, 
 it had been felt by many that, as a statement of principles, 
 it was not sufficiently complete. Consequently, it was 
 
368 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UXION. 
 
 resolved to issue a new Doctrinal Declaration, both to show 
 that we could alter or enlarge our creed if we pleased, and 
 also to set before the world more fully our theological belief. 
 Sixteen topics in all are treated briefly but satisfactorily in 
 this comprehensive document — " Free Will, Divine Sover- 
 eignty, Divine Foreknowledge and Foreordination, Original 
 Sin, IJnity of the Godhead in the Remedial Plan, the Nature 
 and Extent of the Love of God the Father, the Nature and 
 Extent of the Atonement of the Son, the Nature and Extent 
 of the Work of the Holy Spirit, Concurrence of the Divine 
 and Human Agencies in the matter of Salvation, Human 
 Ability and Inability, Repentance and Faith, Justification 
 by Faith, Peace with God, Regeneration, Election and Re- 
 probation." It will be plain, at a glance, that quite a little 
 body of divinity is contained in this pamphlet of twenty- 
 eight pages. We recommend the Doctrinal Declaration to 
 any who wish a comprehensive and yet conveniently portable 
 exhibition of our views. 
 
 We think it proper in this our concluding chapter to 
 make a few brief extracts from this deliverance, both to 
 show that the men of 1858 held by the main principles con- 
 tended for by the men of 1843, and also to bring before the 
 notice of our readers some fresh points as to which we have 
 not been thoroughly understood. 
 
 Thus, the Conference says, at page 5, on Free Will : — 
 
 " Free Will is in man a lineament of the divine image that will 
 eternally remain, misuse it as much as he may. It is essential to 
 his accountability. Under this character he is dealt with in all the 
 arrangements of mercy. His free wlQ is respected throughout ; and 
 this illumines difficulties otherwise inexplicable. And thus, in oppo- 
 sition to the scheme of a necessitated will as held, not by Calvinists 
 only, but (as would appear) by all classes of infidels, the E. U. 
 Conference holds tenaciously the doctrine of free will as lying at the 
 foundation of all religion, natural and revealed. In holding this, 
 they do not hold the heathen doctrine of Chance, or that any event 
 happens without a cause ; but they hold that the will-endowed mind, 
 though acting in view of motives, is the free and self- determining 
 cause of its own choices. The proof of the perfect freedom of the 
 human will is to be found in universal consciousness, universal con- 
 science, universal language, and in universal law." 
 
 On the subject of Original Sin, the following statement is 
 made : — 
 
 "On this topic it may sufiice to state, in order to prevent or cor- 
 rect misconception, that we hold as strongly as any the doctrine of 
 the dep^a^^ty of man and his utter helplessness and hopelessness in 
 the matter of salvation till he comes under the gracious provisions of 
 
THE NATURE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT'S WORK. 
 
 369 
 
 the plan of mercy. We believe the divine constitution with Adani 
 to have been federal in its character, and that his sin in consequence 
 is, to the extent of the primeval curse, imputed to his posterity. 
 We believe that the imputation of Adam's sin extends to the whole 
 race, and thus embraces infants ; but, as infants were in no respect 
 morally implicated in that transgression, we reject with abhorrence 
 the dogma that any who die in infancy are subject, on the ground 
 of Adam's first sin, ' to the pains of hell for ever. ' " 
 
 As it is often persistently alleged that we deny the work 
 of the Holy Spirit by those who either are not fully informed 
 on the subject, or are inclined to misrepresent us, we add the 
 . Deliverance that was given by Conference on that important 
 doctrine. 
 
 ' ' The Nature and Extent of the Work of the Holy Spirit. As respects 
 the nature of the Holy Spirit's work, we believe, in harmony with 
 the views above set forth on the perfect freedom of the human will, 
 that the influence which that Divine Agent exerts on the human soul 
 is moral and resistible. In thus rejecting the dogma of irresistible, 
 will-suspending, and faith-necessitating grace, we do not limit the 
 Holy Spirit, nor do we deny the necessity of his work, in order to 
 salvation. We trace faith in every instance, with all its antecedents 
 and consequents, to his free, sovereign, anticipating grace ; and we 
 coidd admit as many inscrutable modes and media in his operation as 
 may reasonably be imagined, provided none of them imply any 
 antagonism to the responsibility of man, or any infringement of the 
 inviolable freedom of the human will. This moral and resistible 
 feature imparts a grandeur and sublimity, and a transparent con- 
 sistency, to the work of the Spirit, which the doctrine of irresistibihty 
 completely destroys. It is in harmony alike with every principle 
 of the moral Government of God, and with every dictate of the moral 
 nature and conscious experience of man. Its proofs are inwoven 
 into the entire texture of revelation — the Bible throughout being one 
 sublime and majestic Persuasive. Every warning, entreaty, remon- 
 strance, promise, and threatening of the Book of God, and every 
 instance in which a believer makes shipwreck of his faith, is a proof 
 of the moral and resistible nature of the Holy Spirit's influences — 
 not to mention such direct proofs as those in which inspired men 
 speak, on the one hand, of the Spirit 'striving with man,' and on 
 the other, of sinners 'vexing,' 'grieving,' 'quenching the Spirit,' 
 and 'always resisting the Holy Ghost,' We reject, then, the dis- 
 tinction between the special and the common influences of the Spirit 
 usually propounded ; and hold, on the contrary, that, notwithstand- 
 ing all the varieties, compHcations, and inscrutable mysteries con- 
 nected with his work, its essential character is in every instance one 
 and the same, namely, to do all that infinite Love, guided by infinite 
 Wisdom, morally can, to arrest the sinner in his hellward career, and 
 hedge him up to attend to and believe the glorious gospel of the 
 grace of God; and to promote the sanctifi cation and comfort of the 
 believer. 
 
 ' ' As respects the Extent of the Spirit's work, we beUeve that, com- 
 ' patibly with all the varieties and speciaUties it implies, its aspect and 
 
 2b 
 
370 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 bearing are as impartially beniguant, and strictly universal, as the 
 love of the Father, and the atonement of the Son. This is demon- 
 strated by the nature of the case ; for, besides the harmony of counsel 
 and aim that ever pervades the Godhead, the Spirit is sent on his 
 evangelical mission by the Father and the Son ; and if he truly lays 
 bare the heart of the Father, who ' will have all men to be saved, ' 
 and truly unfolds the work of the Son, ' who gave himself a ransom 
 for all, ' he will exert an influence co-extensive with the fallen family 
 of mankind. As there must be infinite harmony of heart and aim 
 among the co-eternal Three, to limit the work of the Spirit is, in 
 efifect, correspondingly to limit the love of the Father and the atone- 
 ment of the Son. No inconsistency, then, can be greater than that 
 of maintaining that the Son died for all, and that his atonement 
 expressed the Father's love for all, while at the same time, it is con- 
 tended that the needed influence of the Spirit stops short of all, and 
 embraces those only who are included in the circle of the uncondi- 
 tionally elect. Either the limitation belies the universality, or the 
 universality belies the limitation. We, for our parts, have chosen 
 the alternative of universality ; and we do so, not merely because 
 (though this were proof sufiicient) the love of the Father and the 
 work of the Son are demonstrably universal, but also because the 
 language of Scripture is not less explicit in proof of the universality 
 of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is said to ' strive with 
 raan'' — a generic term inclusive of the whole human race. He 'con- 
 vinces the world'' — a term identical and co-extensive with that world 
 which the Father loved, and for which the Saviour died. He, 
 equally with 'the Bride,' says, 'Come — Whosoever will, let him 
 take of the water of life freely;' which it were unwarrantable to 
 affirm, if, along with this invitation, an influence which it was his to 
 bestow and which was indispensably necessary to enable men to 
 come, he gave only to some, and withheld from all the rest." 
 
 The brief article on the Concurrence of the Divine and 
 Human agencies in the matter of Salvation covers the whole 
 ground of dispute between ourselves and our theological 
 opponents, and we are certain that it will commend itself as 
 a just and scriptural representation of divine truth to e very- 
 candid and unprejudiced reader : — 
 
 "By comparing what has been just advanced on the nature and 
 extent of the Spirit's work, with what is above set forth in Articles 
 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, relating to the free will of man, and the 
 sovereignty, foreknowledge, and foreordination of God, it will be 
 seen that we beheve in a synergism or concurrence of the Divine 
 agency and the human in the matter of salvation. Instead of run- 
 ning away with the Divine element, as Cahanism does, to the virtual 
 exclusion of the human, and to the stultification of the innumerable 
 statements of Scripture that teach us our responsibility and urge us 
 to action ; and instead of running away with the hiunan element, as 
 Pelagianism does, to the virtual ignorement of the Divine, and the 
 contradiction of every text that sets forth the free grace and 
 'sovereignty of God : we believe in the indispensable necessity and 
 harmonious concurrence of both, and are thus enabled to reconcile all 
 
DISCUSSION OX PREDESTINATION. 
 
 371 
 
 the varieties of Scripture phraseology-, otherwise irreeoucilable, on 
 the agencies and instrumentalities connected with salvation. Saving 
 results in the soul of man stand connected in Scripture, sometimes 
 vnih the agency of the Divine Spirit, sometimes vdth. the agency of 
 the sinner himself. Sometimes they are ascribed to ' the truth, ' aud 
 sometimes to the sinner's faith in that truth. Thus variously in 
 Scripture are conversion, regeneration, sanctilication, salvation, 
 accounted for. This, on our principles, is precisely what was to be 
 expected, and on the same principles we at once discern the con- 
 gruity of all those passages that urge us to prayer, and consequent 
 dependence on the Divine agency, with those others that urge us to 
 the emplojTnent of our own. Both agencies being necessary to salva- 
 tion, both are recognisetl. This concurrence of the Di^•iue and human 
 in our salvation can have no true place in any theology based on 
 absolute and universal foreordination and necessitation ; but in our 
 theology it has. The inviolable freedom of the himian will being 
 recognised as a pervading principle in the Divine administration, the 
 sovereign agency of God shapes itself to it, and thus we are enabled 
 to explain — what, on other principles, are not only utterly inex- 
 plicable, but also ominously becloud the character of that God to 
 whose foreordination and necessitation they must all in that cat e be 
 traced — the perplexing anomalies and failures, to wit, that mark the 
 course of the dispensations, and the suasive character throughout of 
 the entire structure of revelation.'' 
 
 We are strongly tempted to add additional extracts ; but 
 space forbids. We may observe that the connection owes 
 the fii'st di-aft of this adniii'able digest of its doctiines to the 
 masterly pen of the Eev. John Guthrie, D.D., of Glasgow. 
 
 Towards the close of the year' 1853 considerable excite- 
 ment was created thi-oughout the country by the fact that 
 the Glasgow Protestant Laymen's Association, when fighting 
 valiantly against Popeiy, deemed it dutiful to proclaim the 
 doctrine of universal Predestination as one of the tenets on 
 which all true Protestants were agi'eed. One of the E. TJ. 
 ministers in Glasgow ha^dng deemed it to be his duty to 
 explain the doctrine of Limited Predestination and Condi- 
 tional Election as held by Melancthon, in contrast with the 
 harsh dogmas which Cahdn maintained, a challenge was 
 tssued to him by Mr. Alexander Jamieson, the salaried 
 agent of the Protestant Laymen's Association. The minister 
 in question held one debate with that stern champion of 
 Genevan fatality; and afterwards doctrinal discussion, for 
 a year or two, became quite common in all parts of the 
 country. Mr. Jamieson visited many pai-ts of Scotland, 
 and the North of Ireland likewise, challenging on all hands 
 the ministei-s of the Evangelical Union to debate with him 
 on the most knotty points of the Calvinistic creed. He was 
 
372 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION 
 
 closely followed on his controversial tours by Mr. William 
 Aclamson, Mr. Thomas Forsyth, and others ; and several of 
 our fainisters thought it their duty to enter the lists of debate 
 with him that the misrepresentations advanced in his lectures 
 might be cleared away. We admit that platform discussion 
 is apt to do harm, inasmuch as few have the calmness of 
 temperament which is necessary for extemporaneous debate ; 
 and angry feelings are apt to be engendered, and angry words 
 let drop, over which good people subsequently mourn. But 
 there are circumstances in which such discussion is justified: 
 and when the theological belief of a religious connection is 
 publicly attacked, the blessing of God may be expected to 
 accompany its public defence. The fact was, at the time 
 referred to, that if some little harm was done, a preponder- 
 ance of good was really efiected, inasmuch as the consistent 
 and God-glorifying views held by the Evangelical Union 
 were brought under the notice of many who had before been 
 ignorant of them ; perplexed souls were relieved ; and many 
 of our churches throughout the land wer^ confirmed in the 
 faith and reinforced in numbers. 
 
 The wave of revival which swept over the whole country 
 about the time of Mr. Hammond of America's first visit to 
 Scotland, in 1859-60, tended not a little to revive the 
 spiritual tone of several of our churches, and plant new ones 
 in localities where we had not previously a local habitation 
 and a name. Among other places we may mention the 
 fishing-town of Eyemouth, in Berwickshire, on the shore of 
 the German sea. As early as the year 1844, indeed, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Thomson of Haymount, near Kelso, had been 
 accustomed to visit Eyemouth as their sea-bathing quarters, 
 and had brought with them several of the earliest publica- 
 tions of Messrs. Morison, Kirk, and others. They had been 
 the means of enlightening the mind of a young native of 
 the town, Mr. William Landels, now the eminent Dr. 
 Landels, of London. Mr. Landels attended the Kilmarnock 
 Theological Academy for two sessions (1844-5), before he 
 became a Baptist, and has never been slow to acknowledge 
 that he owes much of his subsequent theological acquisitions 
 to the impetus which he received from the prelections of Dr. 
 Morison. It was not, however, till the time of revival just 
 mentioned, that the Rev. Thomas Salmon was brought to 
 Kyenaouth to preach in the "Mason's Hall," ostensibly under 
 the banner of the Evangelical Union. The cause became so 
 
CHURCHES IN EYEMOUTH AND SHAPINSHAY. 
 
 373 
 
 prosperous that a fine chapel was built, — the hardy fishermen 
 bringing stones themselves in theii' boats from distant parts 
 of the rocky shore, and labouring night after night with their 
 o^vn hands at the work of rearing and plastering the same. 
 The piety of fishermen is eminently simple-hearted and 
 sincere ; and we have repeatedly been reminded of Simon 
 Peter and Andi'ew, and the sons of Zebedee, as we have seen 
 the boats returning from the fishing-stations, ofi" Eyemouth, 
 and afterwards listened to the hardy sons of the deep 
 engaging in prayer at the meeting of the church. Between 
 the earnest ministries of the Rev. Robert Finlay, the fii'st, 
 and the Rev. W. Wylie, M.A., the present pastor, the 
 Church in Eyemouth cannot forget the pious and successful 
 labours of Mi\ Matthew Dick, one of the students of the 
 E. U. Academy, and now a Congregational minister in 
 Australia, whose health broke down in the midst of a]i 
 extensive revival of religion in that to%vn. 
 
 " We spoke, a few pages back, of Wick as being the most 
 northerly station in Scotland at which the Evangelical 
 Union had planted an outpost. We must so far correct- 
 ourselves as to say that siace the year 1850 an E. U. churcli 
 has existed in the island of Shapinshay in the Orkney group. 
 A pious and consistent stone-mason who was helping to 
 build Balfour Castle, one of the finest mansions in the 
 Orkneys, had brought some of the pamphlets on the Atone- 
 ment Controversy with him from the south, and had cir- 
 culated them in the island. Such a hungering and thii\sting 
 after the word was excited that the Rev. William Crombie. 
 (now of Melrose), and the Rev, Robert Wallace (now of 
 Glasgow-), then students of the E. U. Academy, were induced 
 to visit Shapinshay and preach night after night. When a 
 church had been formed, and ground was needed for tlie 
 erection of a chapel, the proprietor of the island, J. Balfour, 
 Esq., readily granted two acres for the building, with manse 
 and glebe attached. This excellent and enteii:)rising gentle- 
 man and his amiable lady have continued to be on cordial 
 terms with the three ministers of the Union who have suc- 
 cessively laboured in Shapinshay, Rev. Messrs. Salmon, 
 Hutchison, and Craig. 
 
 That readers at a distance from the centre of our operatioiis 
 may be able to form some idea of our strength in the country, 
 we insert here the list of our churches, which appears in tlie 
 Evangelical Union Annual for 1876. 
 
374 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 EVANGELICAL UNION CHURCHES, AND CHURCHES AFFILIATED 
 WITH THE UNION. 
 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 Aberdeen— St. Paul Street, 
 
 ,, John Street, 
 
 Airdrie, 
 
 Anstruther, 
 
 Arbroath, 
 
 Ardrossan 
 
 Auchterarder, .'. 
 
 Avonbridge, 
 
 Ayr, 
 
 Barrhead, 
 
 Bathgate, 
 
 Beith 
 
 Belfast— Wellington Place, 
 
 ,, Spa Mount, 
 
 Bellshill, 
 
 Brechin, 
 
 Carlisle, , 
 
 Carluke, 
 
 Catrine, 
 
 Coatbridge, 
 
 Coupar-A ngus, 
 
 Dalbeattie, 
 
 Dalkeith, 
 
 Dalmellington, , 
 
 Dreghorn, 
 
 Dumfries 
 
 Dundee— Reform Street, 
 
 ,, Lindsay Street, 
 
 Dunfermline, 
 
 Edinburgh— Brighton Street, 
 
 „ Buccleuch Church, 
 
 „ Grindlay Street, 
 
 Eyemouth, 
 
 Falkirk, 
 
 Forres, 
 
 Fraserburgh, 
 
 Friockheim, 
 
 Galashiels, , 
 
 Galston, 
 
 Greenock, 
 
 Glasgow— Muslin Street, Bridgeton, 
 
 , , Montrose Street, 
 
 „ North Dundas Street, 
 
 „ Nelsgn Street, Tradeston 
 
 „ West Streelf, Calton, 
 
 Govan, 
 
 „ West Campbell Street, . . 
 
 Hamilton, 
 
 Hawick, , 
 
 Jedburgh, 
 
 Kelso, 
 
 Kendal, 
 
 Kilmarnock— Clerk's Lane 
 
 „ Winton Place, 
 
 Kilwinning, 
 
 Kirkcaldy, 
 
 Lanark, 
 
 Langholm, 
 
 Larkhall, 
 
 Formed. 
 
 Joined 
 Union. 
 
 1846 
 
 1856 
 
 1863 
 1845 
 
 1863 
 1846 
 
 
 1861 
 
 1864 
 
 1866 
 
 1837 
 
 
 1854 
 
 1855 
 
 1844 
 
 1844 
 
 1844 
 
 1845 
 
 1844 , 
 
 1857 
 
 1843 
 
 1843 
 
 1861 
 
 1862 
 
 1854 
 
 1856 
 
 1869 
 1841 
 
 1869 
 1854 
 
 1867 
 
 1869 
 
 1849 
 
 1855 
 
 1846 
 
 1858 
 
 1844 
 
 1844 
 
 1860 
 
 1860 
 
 1789 
 
 
 1866 
 
 1872 
 
 1847 
 
 1855 
 
 1844 
 
 1850 
 
 1864 
 
 1865 
 
 1862 
 
 1862 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1864 
 
 1864 
 
 1851 
 
 1855 
 
 1845 
 
 1862 
 
 1859 
 
 1861 
 
 1866 
 
 1866 
 
 1861 
 
 1873 
 
 1872 
 
 1875 
 
 1803 
 
 
 1845 
 
 1865 
 
 1843 
 
 1861 
 
 1844 
 
 1864 
 
 1843 
 
 1844 
 
 1845 
 
 1840 
 
 1843 
 
 1861 
 
 1844 
 
 1863 
 
 1848 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1855 
 
 1858 
 
 1862 
 
 1865 
 
 1869 
 
 1866 
 
 1867 
 
 1854 
 
 1854 
 
 1848 
 
 1859 
 
 
 1875 
 
 1841 
 
 1871 
 
 1843 
 
 
 
 1843 
 
 
 1843 
 
 1844 
 
 1845 
 
 1867 
 
 1871 
 
 1847 
 
 1862 
 
 1864 
 
 1872 
 
 1875 
 
 1875 
 
EVANGELICAL UNION CHUliCHES. 
 
 375 
 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 Leith, 
 
 Manchester— Queen's Park, 
 
 Melrose 
 
 Montrose » 
 
 Motherwell, 
 
 Muirkirk, 
 
 Newburgh, 
 
 Newcastleton, , . 
 
 Paisley, 
 
 Perth, 
 
 Saltcoats, 
 
 Sanquhar, 
 
 Selkirk, 
 
 Shapinshay, Orkney, 
 
 Shotts 
 
 Stewarton, 
 
 Stonehouse, 
 
 Strathmiglo, 
 
 Thornhill (South), 
 
 Tillicoultry 
 
 Westhill, Skene, 
 
 Wick, 
 
 Wishaw, 
 
 X' %Jx UXCvi* 
 
 'Joined 
 Union. 
 
 
 
 1844 
 
 1853 
 
 1868 
 
 1868 
 
 1842 
 
 r"" 
 
 1847 
 
 1859 
 
 1872 
 
 1874 
 
 1854 
 
 
 1849 
 
 ~~ 
 1870 
 
 1845 
 
 1846 
 
 1856 
 
 1857 
 
 1859, 
 
 1863 
 
 1864 
 
 1865 
 
 1842 
 
 1871 
 
 1852 
 
 1855 
 
 1844 
 
 
 
 
 1871 
 
 1872 
 
 1851 
 
 1856 
 
 1850 
 
 1862 
 
 1804 
 
 1862 
 
 1846 
 
 1871 
 
 1862 
 
 1874 
 
 It may interest the ministers and members of other deno- 
 minations to learn the programme of study which is laid out 
 for our theological students, in so far as that may be made 
 plain by the entrance examinations which they require to 
 pass from year to year. 
 
 ACADEMY RULES. 
 
 1. The Leu fjth of the Curriculum. — The Curriculum shall consist of 
 Five Sessions at the Academy, and, if possible, Four at the Univer- 
 sity. If any student desire to finish his course of study at the close 
 of his fourth Academic Session, he shall stand an Examination in 
 Systematic Theology, Exegesis, Hebrew, Philosophy, and some pre- 
 scribed Theological Treatise ; and in the event of the Examination 
 being judged satisfactory, the four Sessions shall be held as a suffi- 
 cient Curriculum. Any Student wishing to pass such Examing,tion 
 must send in his apphcation not later than the 1st of August in any 
 year ; the subjects of Examination for the year to be announced at 
 the close of the Session of the Academy preceding. 
 
 2. Qualification for Admission. — All Applicants for Admission to 
 the Academy must have attended at least one Session in Classics at 
 a University, or be able to stand the Entrance Examination, and 
 shall write an Essay on some prescribed Theological subject. 
 
 Entrance Examinations: First Session. — Latin — De Bello Gallico, 
 lib. iv. cc. 28-36. 
 
 Greek — Gospel according to Luke, chap, xv., xvi., with an analysis 
 of chap. XV., 1-10. 
 
 Biblical Knowledge — The Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 Second Session. — Latin — Cicero, De Officiis, lib. i., cc. iii. v. 
 
 Greek — Galatians, chaps, ii. 11-21 ; iii. 1-14. 
 
376 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 Hebrev — Isaiah, chap. i. 10-20, and regular verb. 
 Theology — Moses Stuart's Letters ou the Divinity of C^st, 
 
 lldnl Session. — Latin — Calvin's Institutes, lib. ii., c. i., §§ 5-9. 
 
 Greek — Ex)mans, chap. v. 
 
 Hebrew — Psalm ii., and Syntax of Pronoun. 
 
 Theology — Gilbert on the Atonement, lect. v. 
 
 Fourth Session. — Latin — Calvin's Institutes, lib. iii., c. xi., §§ 1-9. 
 Greek — Romans, chaps, ix., x. 
 
 Hebrew — Exodus, chap. iii. , and regular verb with suffixes. 
 Theology — Gilbert on the Atonement, Lectures vi., vii. 
 Biblical Knowledge— The Book of Exodus. 
 
 Fifth Session. — Latin — Anselm's Cur Deus Homo, lib. i. §§ 1-15. 
 Greek — Romans i., iii. 
 
 Hebrew — Psalms Ixxxiv.-v., and Syntax of verb, §§ 125-130. 
 Theology — The Nature and Extent of the Holy Spirit's Work. 
 Church History— Arian Controversy; Neander's Ch. His., vol. iv., 
 pp. 1-73 (Bohn's Edition). 
 
 Practical Religion — Beecher's Lectures on Preaching (First Series). 
 
 Closinrj Examination. — Examination of Students wishing to finish 
 at the close of fourth Session : — 
 
 Latin — Anselm's Cur Deus Homo. 
 
 Greek — Ephesians. 
 
 Hebrew — Daniel, chaps, xi., xii. 
 
 Biblical Knowledge — Alexander's Connection of the Old and New 
 Testaments, Lecture viii. 
 
 Theology — Liddon's Bampton Lectures, i.-iii., with notes. 
 
 Church History— The Theology of the Schoolmen, Neander's Ch. 
 ILis. (Bohn's Edition), vol. viii., pp. 121-239. 
 
 Hermeneutics — Doede's Manual. 
 
 Practical Religion — H. W. Beecher's Lectures on Preaching (First 
 Series). 
 
 Note. — Certificates of having passed the Classical Examination for 
 M. A. degree will entitle to exemption from the Examination in Latin 
 and Greek. 
 
 Re- Application. — Students must apply for re-admission each Ses- 
 sion of their course ; such application being understood as an expres- 
 sion of continued sympathy with the views and aims of the Union. 
 
 Intermittinrj a Session. — No Student will be allowed to intermit a 
 Session without special reasons satisfactory to the Committee. 
 
 Preachinfj. — Students applying for preaching appointments for the 
 first time require to preach before a Sub-Committee appointed for the 
 I)urpose. Preachers are not at liberty to niake alterations in their 
 appointments except through the Secretary of Supply Committee. 
 Disengaged Students are not at liberty to make engagements for 
 vacant Sabbaths before com-municating with the Secretary of Supply 
 Committee. It is imperative on all Students receiving preaching 
 appointments not to read their sermons. 
 
 When a student has finished his cuniculum of study, and 
 is about to be licensed as a qualified preacher of the gospel, 
 
QUESTIONS PROPOSED TO LICENTIATES. 377 
 
 the following questions are put to him in presence of the 
 assembled Conference : — 
 
 "Do you hereby signify, in presence of the brethren of the Con- 
 ference, your ardent desire to be engaged as a Preacher of the Gospel, 
 in the work of the Lord ? 
 
 ' ' Can you, in the presence of the brethren of the Conference, avow 
 it to be your solemn conviction that, by the grace of God, you are 
 experimentally acquainted with that Gospel in which you ardently 
 aspire to live and labour ? 
 
 "Is it your solemn conviction that, in desiring to give yourself up 
 to the labours of a Preacher of the Gospel, you are actuated by ut) 
 sinister or selfish motives, but by a sincere desire to promote the 
 glory of God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — in the salvation of 
 sinners, and edification and sanctification of saints ? 
 
 * ' Are you determined, should God be pleased to make use of you 
 in his work, to cultivate, by the help of the Divine Spirit, and with 
 earnest assiduity, whatever things you know to be of indispensable, 
 or even subordinate importance, for insuring your success in youi- 
 evangelical labours ? 
 
 ' ' Are you determined to be a man of prayer ? 
 
 * ' Are you determined to be a man of study ? 
 
 ' ' Are you determined to be a man of labour ? 
 
 ' ' Are you determined to be a man of self-denial, keeping under 
 your body, and bringing it under subjection, lest, by any means, 
 after preaching the Gospel to others, you yourself should be cast 
 away ? 
 
 ' ' Are you determined to be a man of courtesy, characterised by a 
 uniform decorum of manners ? 
 
 ' ' Are you determined to have your conversation always with grace, 
 seasoned with salt ? 
 
 "Is it your sincere and fixed purpose to do what in you lies to 
 preserve the harmony and promote the prosperity of the Union ? 
 
 ' And now, my brother, is it your sincere resolution to make it 
 your constant study to be blameless as a steward of God, not self- 
 ■wdlled, not soon angry, not given to wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, 
 but a lover of hospitahty, a lover of good men, sober, just, temperate, 
 holding fast the faithful word as you have been taught, that yox; 
 may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convince the 
 gainsay ers ?" 
 
 This quotation, from the printed form for the ordination 
 of licentiates, will show that we are anxious to secure and 
 maintain, by God's blessing, a prayerful and spiritually- 
 minded ministry. 
 
 One other recent event of our ecclesiastical history it may 
 be proper to refer to before laying down our pen. Hitherto 
 we have had nothing sent us like denominational greetings 
 from other bodies of Christians, except in 1857, when the 
 Rev. Mr. Lyle crossed the Atlantic as the delegate of 
 branch of the Wesleyan Church in America to om- Confer- 
 
378 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 ence. But we w6re surprised and delighted in the summer 
 of 1871, by receiving Christian salutations from a large 
 body of Christians in the United States, called the Cumber- 
 land Presbyterians, whose views of divine truth turned out 
 to be remarkably like oui' own. 
 
 This denomination was formed in 1810, on the banks of 
 the Cumberland, a tributary of the Ohio, (whence their 
 name), by an earnest band of Christian people, who differed 
 from the great Presbyterian connection on two points : — 
 (1.) The propriety of ordaining to the ministry (during the 
 exigency of a religious revival) men who had acknowledged 
 gifts, even although they might not have a full college cur- 
 riculum ; and (2.) That licentiates, when ordained to the 
 ministry, should be allowed to express their adherence to 
 the Confession of Faith, barring fatality, that is, excepting 
 the doctrines of universal predestination and unconditional 
 election. What the exact doctrinal position is which Cum- 
 berland Presbyterians occupy, may be learned from the 
 following succinct statement in , a work published by one of 
 their leading ministers. 
 
 ' ' First. That there are no eternal reprobates. 
 ''Second. That Christ died not for 2i part of the world only, but 
 for all mankind. 
 
 " Third. That all infants dying in infancy are saved through 
 Christ and sanctification of the Spirit. 
 
 ''Fourth. That the Spirit of God operates on the world, or as 
 extensively as Christ has made the atonement, in such a manner 
 as to leave all men inexcusable." 
 
 The following are, at present, the statistics of this com- 
 paratively influential denomination, whose churches are 
 located chiefly in the Western and Southern States of the 
 Transatlantic Republic : — It comprehends 24 Synods, 103 
 Presbyteries, and above 1,100 Ministers, besides over 200 
 Licentiates, and 200 Candidates. It has also three Uni- 
 versities, with several colleges. Its lay membership amounts 
 to about 150,000. Besides other important periodicals, at 
 least two weekly newspapers seem to be published in con- 
 nection with the body, each with a circulation of several 
 thousands. 
 
 Well, it happened in the Providence of God that in the 
 year 1870, the General Assembly of the Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian Church was made aware of the existence of the 
 Evangelical Union of Scotland, and of the remarkable 
 similarity that obtained both in the history and doctriniv^ 
 
THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 
 
 379 
 
 belief of the two denominations. It was tlirougli the loyalty 
 to their home church, of two young gentlemen, the sons of 
 J. B. Ferguson, Esq., of Belfast, then resident in Winona, 
 Wisconsin, that this important fact was communicated to 
 the Assembly. The Messrs. Ferguson had . shown Dr. 
 Woods, the pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church 
 in Winona, a few of our denominational publications; and 
 he brought the matter before the Supreme Court of his 
 church. Dr. Milton Bird, the stated Clerk of the General 
 Assembly, was instructed to commence a correspondence 
 with the Scottish brethren w^hich was continued for several 
 years by " pen and ink," but has more recently been con- 
 summated in the interchange of living delegates. In the 
 summer of 1874 the Bev. Dr. Morison of Glasgow, and the 
 author of this volume \isited the General Assembly of the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church, at Springfield, Missouri, 
 where they were warmly welcomed, and had the privilege 
 of meeting and addressinf( brethren beloved. In 1875 and 
 1876, the Bev. George Gladstone of Govan, having been 
 deputed to attend Temperance Conventions in the United 
 States, found time to visit also the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 General Assemblies at Jefferson, Texas, and Bowling Green, 
 Kentucky. On the other hand the Bev. Dr. MiUar, Pre- 
 sident of Waynesbui'g College, Western Pennsylvania, was 
 deputed to attend the Conference of the Evangelical Union 
 at Glasgow in September 1875, on which occasion he made 
 a most favourable impression, by his truly Christian spirit 
 and eloquent addresses. Thus the Evangelical Union has 
 been strengthened by the sympathy and suppoi-t of her older 
 and more fully developed American sister. 
 
 As to the attitude, finally, which the Evangelical Union 
 holds towards other denominations of Christians, we can, with- 
 out hesitation, characterise it as one of friendship and brotherly 
 love. We have all along been ready to recognise that the 
 points as to which we agreed with our fellow Protestants 
 were more numerous than those as to which we differed 
 from them. Even when we have been unkindly treated by 
 those who did not understand us, we have tried to breathe 
 the prayer, " Father, forgive them ; for they know not what 
 they do." We have lived to see our distinctive doctrines 
 preached from all the pulpits in the land, or, at least, prac- 
 tical advantage taken of them. The tenets of unconditional 
 election and partial grace are rarely ever referred to by 
 
380 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION. 
 
 ministers of the Gospel, and are rarely published in books, 
 save in new editions of the old Confession of Faith. Surely 
 justice will be done us some day, as the men who have 
 suffered for a free Gospel, and who have the best right to 
 cry aloud at meetings for religious revival, "Whosoever 
 will, let him come." Meanwhile, whether we get brotherly 
 recognition from our fellow-Christians or not, we hope, by 
 God's help, to continue the twofold work to which we seem 
 to have been providentially called in this country, namely, 
 that of influencing and educating other denominations, and 
 of preaching and defending, Avithin our own spheres, the 
 world-wide Gospel of the grace of God. 
 
 There is one reason indeed, which we have sometimes 
 heard urged against us, as justifying our exclusion from the 
 fraternal intercourse and regard of other communions, 
 namely, that we are controversial in our spirit, and give too 
 great prominence in our books, and at our public gatherings 
 to our distinctive principles. But if Free-churchmen, Bap- 
 tists, Congregationalists, and others, advocate their peculiar 
 Shibboleths on platforms, and in pamphlets, and yet are 
 considered good Christian brethi-en by those from whom 
 they differ, may we not do the same and be regarded in a 
 similar light? Is it not possible to "speak the truth in 
 love"? Is it not possible, for example, to write and publish 
 such a book as tliis,- and yet wish well to the entire house- 
 hold of faith ? 
 
 In now drawing this history to a close, we can honestly 
 say that we have spared no pains to make the narrative 
 correct and complete. We have endeavoured to strike the 
 golden mean between too great diffuseness on the one hand, 
 and too great condensation on the other. And, if we have 
 succeeded in giving our readers a better understanding than 
 they had before of the early struggles and sufferings of 
 the founders of a body which, as we believe, is destined to 
 affect the theology of the churches of the future more largely 
 than might at first be imagined from its numerical strength, 
 we shall feel ourselves to be amply rewarded. 
 
 THE END. 
 
BX7555 .E53F3 
 
 A history of the Evangelical union, from 
 
 Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00020 8589