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THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
ROMANISM AND RATIONALISM 
 
 AS OPPOSED TO PURE 
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 JOHN CAIRNS, D.D. 
 
ALEXANDER STRAHAN AND CO. 
 
 London, 32, Ludgate Hill. 
 
 Edinburgh, 35, Hanover Street. 
 
 Glasgow, i, Royal Bank Place. 
 
ROMANISM AND RATIONALISM 
 
 AS OPPOSED TO PURE 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 r 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN(CAIRNS, D.D. 
 
 BERWICK. 
 
 ALEXANDER STRAHAN AND CO. 
 
 LONDON AND EDINBURGH. 
 
 1863. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE following Discourse or Lecture, recently de- 
 livered at the instance of kindred Societies, first in 
 Glasgow and then in Edinburgh, is now published at 
 their joint request. 1 Both Societies are made up of 
 the Sons of Ministers of the United Presbyterian 
 Church, who combine chiefly to render help to 
 widows and fatherless children of their own class ; 
 and both have been already productive of no small 
 amount of good. Their claims may be pleaded 
 on many grounds, and not least from .the services 
 rendered by the ministers of that Church, during 
 its past history, to evangelical religion. Few de- 
 nominations, it is believed, have hitherto been pre- 
 served more free from the extremes of error described 
 in the following Lecture ; and as this result, under 
 God, can only be ascribed to Christian teaching, 
 there arises an obligation to remember, in the per- 
 
 1 See Appendix, p. 53. 
 
 M3674S4 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 sons of their relatives, those faithful men who have 
 generally speaking received no superabundant earthly 
 recompense of their labours. If the origin of this 
 publication serve in any degree to attract denomina- 
 tional attention to a needful object, or if the matter 
 of it confirm any reader in those vital truths which 
 are now so rudely assailed from unexpected quarters, 
 the writer will be abundantly rewarded. 
 
 In conducting the argument of the Lecture itself, 
 it will be seen that no one author has been selected 
 for special animadversion. It has been judged better 
 to deal in general principles, and to leave, the truth 
 to be its own witness. 
 
 December 1862. 
 
' Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and 
 of the Sadducees.' MATT. xvi. 6. 
 
 HE history of the human race, consid- 
 ered as a religious development, is the 
 history of a struggle on the part of Un- 
 belief and Superstition against each 
 other, or against that divine form of religion which is 
 appointed to supplant both. Man is inexplicable, 
 on any system of philosophy which does not afford 
 large room for the working of a religious element 
 in his being ; an element which, never long dor- 
 mant, may at any time awake, and awe into subjec- 
 tion all the other principles of his nature. There 
 cannot be a greater misconception of Christianity 
 than to imagine that for the first time it introduces 
 the religious principle into the history of the race, 
 or the experience of the individual, and invests it 
 with authority. There is a belief in the super- 
 
8 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 natural ; a faith in things unseen and future before 
 either Moses or Christ ; and the design of revela- 
 tion is not to create in man a religious nature, but 
 to rectify and control that religious nature which 
 the Fall has not destroyed, but only perverted and 
 cast loose from its true centre. The religious ten- 
 dencies and workings of fallen humanity may all be 
 comprised under the one name of Superstition, a 
 very unhappy name, as it throws no light upon the 
 thing itself, but which may become significant to us 
 if we regard it by a play upon its Latin etymology, 
 as denoting the wreck of religion which has sur- 
 vived the Fall. Before the Fall, man's religious 
 nature and tendencies rested in their proper object, 
 a God truly known, and loved both for what 
 He was in himself, and in relation to the creature. 
 The introduction of sin, being the introduction of 
 darkness and error into man's views of God, de- 
 stroyed love to Him, as seen in his own proper 
 character ; and as the Fall also necessitated the 
 assumption of a hostile or penal attitude on the part 
 of God, it disturbed the flow of grateful affection 
 which his benefits had before produced. Light and 
 love, the twin principles of primeval religion, thus 
 became darkness and fear, the presiding spirits of 
 man's religion in his fallen state, and the chosen 
 agencies whereby the dominion usurped over him 
 by the Tempter was confirmed. The true God 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 9 
 
 was no longer known, and even if He had been 
 known, He would not have been loved through the 
 hardening influence of transgression, and the irri- 
 tating effect of penalties upon a disobedient nature. 
 But the religious principle in man remained active 
 as ever, and the results of its operation, under the 
 twofold influence of darkness and fear, were the 
 manifold forms of ancient idolatry. Many theories 
 have been framed to account for the origin of idol- 
 atry, such as these : that the gods were deified men ; 
 that they were personifications of the powers of 
 nature ; or that they were the creations of a poetical 
 fancy. These theories are all radically worthless, 
 because they overlook the working of the supersti- 
 tious principle. This makes it inevitable that man 
 should have a religion, and equally inevitable, since 
 he cannot create a religion in the strict sense, that 
 the object of his worship should be the original 
 divine character, hidden indeed by ignorance, de- 
 based to the likeness of man himself, and even of 
 inferior creatures, and withal darkened and overcast 
 by fear, but everywhere preserving fragments of its 
 original unity, vestiges of its deep truth, and shadows 
 of its awful majesty. This view, which I cannot 
 here develop at greater length, will explain the 
 idolatries of Egypt, of India, and the East, of the 
 classic nations of Greece and Rome, and likewise 
 the paganism of the Teutonic races, as so many mis- 
 
io On Romanism arid Rationalism 
 
 readings and distorted reminiscences of the one 
 aboriginal faith of humanity. The institutions of 
 priesthood and sacrifice, and the rites of lustration 
 and purification, which, of course, cannot be re- 
 ferred to man's religion before the Fall, are probably 
 to be traced to the usages of worship appointed by 
 God after the Fall, which were practised by the 
 founders of different nations according to tradition, 
 and then handed down to their descendants to be 
 misunderstood, depraved, and caricatured in the 
 growing darkness. 
 
 The development and reign of superstition is 
 the prevailing feature in the religious history of all 
 nations. But there gradually arises there exists in 
 fact from the beginning an antagonist influence by 
 which superstition is limited and held in check. 
 This is Unbelief. It manifests itself in two very 
 different forms. There is a higher unbelief which 
 attacks what is false in superstition ; and a lower 
 unbelief which attacks what is true. The higher is 
 an effort of the religious principle to purify itself by 
 the employment of reason. It lays open the incon- 
 sistency of the creed, of the rites, and of the cere- 
 monial of superstition with the deeper religious 
 principles on which it is itself based, and attempts 
 a religious reform by abridgment, or simplification, 
 or refinement of the vulgar faith. Such was the un- 
 belief, or, if you will, the rationalism of Socrates and 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 1 1 
 
 his successors, in relation to the Greek paganism, 
 and of other philosophers who flourished still later 
 in the decline of the Roman Empire. The lower 
 unbelief again attacks even what is true in super- 
 stition, its fear, its sense of guilt, its faith in the 
 operation of unseen avenging powers ; and not liking 
 to retain God in its knowledge, even in the dwarfed 
 and degraded representations of superstition, seeks 
 to explode all faith in his living agency and in- 
 fluential connexion with men. Such was the un- 
 belief, or, if you will again, the rationalism, only 
 darker and more ungenial, of Epicurus and his 
 school, of the sceptics, and of many eminent per- 
 sons, such as the elder Pliny, in the later ages of 
 ancient heathenism. 
 
 This struggle between superstition on the one 
 side, and unbelief, in its two forms, on the other, 
 which I have alluded to as waged on the field of 
 Greek and Roman paganism, has been carried on 
 more or less in every false religion under heaven. 
 Sometimes the one side has triumphed, some- 
 times the other. In the classical world, the pre- 
 valence of literature, on the whole, gave the victory 
 to unbelief, and this also has been the case with the 
 modern Chinese ; whereas the Hindoo system of 
 superstition has kept its ground both against the 
 serious and frivolous rationalism of its native im- 
 pugners. In the Mahometan religion, as is well 
 
1 2 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 known, there has been the same opposition of the 
 devotees and the freethinkers, though the latter have 
 always been in the minority. Among the ancient 
 Jews, when superstition, adding to and corrupting 
 a divine but imperfect religion, had overlaid and 
 buried it, the same conflict arose between the dis- 
 ciples of superstition, the Pharisees, and the leaders 
 of unbelief, the Sadducees ; of the latter of whom we 
 cannot but believe that some at least were actuated, 
 by higher than mere sceptical motives, and had the 
 same keen sense of the errors of tradition which is 
 displayed by the modern Karaites in rejecting the 
 Talmud. 
 
 One of the most melancholy features in this 
 struggle of superstition and unbelief among the reli- 
 gions of nature, is the total impossibility, by any 
 series of such collisions and reactions, of restoring 
 the true knowledge and worship of God. Before 
 rationalism could effect this among such nations, 
 two things would be necessary : first, . that a super- 
 stitious system should contain at least all the ele- 
 ments of the true religion, and then that reason 
 should be able to separate these unerringly from the 
 corrupt admixtures by which they were overlaid. 
 Each of these conditions is manifestly impossible, 
 and it has even been found that the higher ration- 
 alism-, however justly applied, by shaking the faith 
 of the vulgar in religious notions and practices which 
 
as opposed to Pitre Christianity. 1 3 
 
 rested solely on tradition, has done the work of the 
 lower unbelief, and led the way to absolute irreli- 
 gion. Then again, after a triumph of this kind more 
 or less extended, superstition has revived through 
 the inherent necessity of satisfying in some shape 
 the religious principle ; and by a natural reaction 
 against the previous indifference, it has revived in 
 a form more fantastic, more degrading, or more 
 bloody than before. New conflicts are thus pro- 
 voked, and the result is that superstition, frequently 
 wounded and sometimes slain and buried, puts forth 
 more revolting excrescences in place of its lost mem- 
 bers, or rises from the dead to perform more strange 
 and portentous antics than ever upon its fresh grave. 
 In the midst of this downward progress of the an- 
 cient world, with a frivolous unbelief ever becoming 
 more impious, a generous unbelief ever more melan- 
 choly and despairing, and a superstition sitting over 
 against both, and, like the priests of Baal, invoking 
 its gods with more fanatical cries and barbarous 
 lacerations, the great remedy was introduced, and 
 the religion of Jesus, in the midnight of the world's 
 spiritual history, began its course. The gospel was at | 
 once a perfect republication of the original religion 
 the religion of man as a creature ; and was a final de- 
 velopment of the religion of mediation^ the religion of 
 man as a sinner. Everything that was precious among 
 the relics of superstition was preserved ; while the 
 
1 4 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 yearnings and longings of the human heart for de- 
 liverance from sin and return to God, which supersti- 
 tion could never meet, were gloriously satisfied. The 
 incarnate God at once revealed and reconciled the 
 Father; and became the way, the truth, and the 
 life ; the Light of the nations, the universal guide of 
 the erring into the paths of peace. The moral basis 
 of superstition was thus taken away ; and, at the 
 same time, while everything that was well founded 
 in the earlier unbelief was conceded, yet such was 
 the evidence, both external and internal, of the 
 divinity of the religion of Christ which it brought with 
 it into the world, that scepticism also lost all rational 
 foundation. Happy would it have been for mankind 
 if, when the darkness thus passed away and the true 
 light shone, all had been willing to walk in it and to 
 continue in it, persuaded of the divine origin of Chris- 
 tianity, satisfied with its simple method of reconcilia- 
 tion to God through the incarnation and sacrifice of 
 His own Son ; and while contented with nothing less, 
 aiming at nothing more, than to pay the grateful debt 
 of obedience to the God of redemption, and to walk 
 in the exercise of love, and the performance of spiri- 
 tual rites of worship with all the brotherhood who 
 had been thus enlightened and sanctified. But alas ! 
 the very depravity of human nature for which the 
 gospel was the cure, not only hindered the action of 
 that gospel, but reacted upon it, to deteriorate its 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 1 5 
 
 healing properties ; and the history of the so-called 
 Christian world, is mainly the history of the joint 
 attacks of superstition and unbelief upon Christianity; 
 just as the history of the world before Christ is the 
 history of their attacks on one another. In this con- 
 test we cannot allow that either has any truth on its 
 side, as we were willing, nay, bound to do, before the 
 advent of the gospel. Every true religious want of 
 man is met by Christianity ; and there is no room for 
 superstition to enlarge with its human and incongruous 
 additions. Every part of Christianity is divinely 
 authenticated and symmetrically coherent, meeting 
 some religious want ; and there is no room for unbelief 
 with its negative criticisms and mutilations to take 
 any part away. Hence we shall unhesitatingly regard 
 superstition and unbelief, in relation to Christianity, 
 as both perverted manifestations ; the one being 
 more the perversion of the heart through fear ; the 
 other, the perversion of the understanding through 
 pride ; and without going here into any more refined 
 analysis of their nature and tendency, shall speak of 
 them as while both radically mistaking Christianity, 
 yet mistaking it in opposite directions, the one labour- 
 ing more to corrupt it by false appendages, the other 
 to destroy it by unauthorized curtailments and sim- 
 plifications. And in the remainder of this lecture, 
 the plan which I shall follow is to select the salient 
 aspects of Christianity as a religion, and after show- 
 
1 6 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 ing in general how every one of these aspects meets 
 some essential religious want of our nature, to exhibit 
 the operation of the two hostile influences as equally 
 mistaking the gospel provision for the want in ques- 
 tion, and as abridging it by defect or overlaying it by 
 excess. I shall, in this lecture, forbear to speak of any 
 other superstition or unbelief than wears the Chris- 
 tian badge and name. Hence my illustrations must 
 be drawn chiefly, on the one hand, from the heresies 
 of the Christian Church, these being mostly products 
 of that unbelief which, as arising from the false appli- 
 cation of reason in rejecting what is genuine and vital 
 to Christianity, is commonly called Rationalism; and, 
 on the other hand, from the corruptions of the Church 
 of Rome, which is the finished development of Super- 
 stition. It is not a sketch which I am to attempt 
 of the struggle of pure Christianity with open infi- 
 delity, or with such foreign superstitions as Mahome- 
 tanism or Mormonism ; but of the intestine war with 
 each series of evils within her own pale. 
 
 According to the scheme thus laid down, I shall 
 now proceed to consider the reaction of Rationalism 
 and Superstition upon Christianity, in four points of 
 view ; first, as a system of revelation ; secondly, as a 
 system of mediation ; thirdly, as a system of morality 
 or sanctification ; and, fourthly, as a system of spiri- 
 tual association and fellowship. 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 1 7 
 
 I. Look, then, first, to Christianity as a system of 
 Revelation. If anything can be regarded as proved 
 beyond reasonable dispute by the history of the 
 world's religions, it is the necessity of some revela- 
 tion that should dispel the uncertainties of all honest 
 inquirers respecting God's nature and designs, and 
 man's duty and destiny, and correct those deplorable 
 mistakes into which few will deny that superstitious 
 forms of religion have fallen. There must be some 
 voice of God, some oracle, some heaven-descended 
 truth superseding all other oracles, prophecies, or 
 alleged divine communications, by bearing visibly on 
 its front that evidence of celestial birth which they 
 cannot produce. Now Christianity is such a revela- 
 tion, proved to be divine by its indubitable miracles 
 and prophecies, by its godlike tone and style, and by 
 the superhuman greatness, depth, and wisdom of its 
 contents. Further, it was necessary that this revela- 
 tion should be in a book, and that book complete 
 and entire, otherwise there would have been no defi- 
 nite standard, and no security against change in the 
 transmission of the divine message from age to age. 
 Now the Christian Scriptures form such a book, at- 
 tested by sufficient evidence to be the genuine, un- 
 corrupted, unmutilated depository of such a revela- 
 tion. And once more, it was necessary that this book, 
 while refusing to bend to human reason, should be 
 capable of interpretation by human reason, and that 
 
1 8 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 of every individual man, as a message from God to 
 him, for the understanding and right use of which he 
 alone was responsible ; and such a book the Bible is, 
 asserting its own absolute infallibility, and yet leaving 
 its interpretation to all who ' seek out the law of the 
 Lord and read.' A supernatural communication, a 
 perfect canon, a self-interpreting Bible : these seem 
 to be the three great wants of man in regard to reve- 
 lation, which Christianity, as a system of revelation, 
 fully meets and satisfies. 
 
 Look, now, at the way in which Rationalism and 
 Superstition have in turn dealt with these three 
 foundation-principles of Christianity as a revelation. 
 Rationalism, even within the Church, has advanced 
 so far as to deny that Christianity is a communica- 
 tion from God in any supernatural sense at all. To 
 this startling length the divines of Germany, com- 
 monly called Rationalistic, while professing to believe 
 in Christianity as from God, have, for more than half 
 a century, now gone. It is the first time, so far as I 
 am aware, in the history of Christianity, that such a 
 denial has been connected with the Christian profes- 
 sion ; and that alleged disciples of Jesus and his 
 apostles have maintained that he and they only spoke 
 in God's name as Zoroaster or Mahomet, or any 
 other person of strong natural religious temperament 
 and sensibilities. This denial of all miraculous in- 
 fluence at the birth of Christianity has found favour 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 1 9 
 
 with some of our English Unitarians, as well as with 
 their brethren in America ; and it almost seems as if 
 the disciples of Priestley and Channing, who, whatever 
 their other shortcomings, at least held Jesus for the 
 divinely-inspired prophet of immortality and some- 
 thing more, were about to discard their old teachers, 
 and to regard the Saviour as divested not only of 
 divinity, but of divinely-enlightened humanity, at 
 least humanity divinely enlightened in any other 
 sense than were Socrates and Plato, or the idols of 
 modern hero-worship, whose names I shrink from 
 pronouncing in conjunction with His who comes from 
 heaven, and is above all. 
 
 While Rationalism has only lately, and in certain 
 quarters, among which I grieve to have to speak of 
 the Church of England, proceeded to cast off alto- 
 gether the supernatural claims of Christianity, it has 
 long, and in many directions, endeavoured to shake 
 the authority of the received Bible as in all its parts 
 an authentic record and perfect canon. I shall not 
 enter into details on this subject. Generally speak- 
 ing, for it would be uncandid to make the assertion 
 universal, the denial of the canonical authority of cer- 
 tain parts of the Bible has sprung from a reluctance 
 to accept their testimony to doctrines opposed to 
 Rationalism. Thus, as the Sadducees of old rejected 
 the books posterior to those of Moses, because they 
 taught the doctrine of a future life, so the Ebionites of 
 
2O On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 the second century disowned the opening chapters of 
 Matthew and Luke because they taught our Lord's 
 miraculous conception, which these religionists de- 
 nied ; and nothing has been more common than for 
 the so-called Rational divines of Germany, though 
 here there have been honourable exceptions, to set 
 aside books from the canon in the face of all evidence, 
 because destructive of their tenets, just as a juryman 
 is summarily challenged by a counsel because sus- 
 pected of an adverse leaning. Of this practice, un- 
 happily, Luther set an example in rejecting the epistle 
 of James, because he falsely supposed it to be incon- 
 sistent with justification by grace; and this unwarrant- 
 able act of his in this department, like the burning 
 of Servetus by Calvin, has drawn after it a long train 
 of evils, his name being employed to sanction on the 
 Continent such wanton ejection of books and parts 
 of books from the sacred Scriptures, as Luther would 
 have been the last to rank within the bounds of fair 
 inquiry and historical criticism. 
 
 But Rationalism not only denies the inspired autho- 
 rity of the Scriptures in general, or mutilates and 
 abridges them by false processes of criticism : it 
 exalts reason to a place in the interpretation of what 
 remains and is acknowledged to be authentic, incon- 
 sistent with submission to the mind of God. If the 
 starting-point or elementary idea of revelation is 
 denied, it is not easy to allow the Bible to speak its 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 2 1 
 
 own language. What is supernatural and mysterious 
 is in danger of being explained away, and the testi- 
 mony of the Creator adjusted to the preconceived 
 notions of his creatures. Thus how often has it 
 been attempted even by Christian divines to explain 
 the fall of man as an allegory, and the temptation of 
 our Lord as a vision ; to account for the miracles of 
 Moses, at least the passage of the Red Sea, and the 
 descent of the manna in the desert, on natural prin- 
 ciples ; and to resolve such moral miracles as the 
 conversion of Paul into the reaction of the mind from 
 one extreme to the other. It is matter of notoriety 
 that eminent professors of Christian theology in Ger- 
 many, sincere after their kind, have represented our 
 Lord's death on the cross as only a swoon from 
 which he recovered in the grave, and that others, 
 in some respects orthodox, have endeavoured to 
 render his mighty works more credible by sup- 
 posing him to be endowed with an extraordinary 
 gift of animal magnetism. Some prophecies are 
 admitted to deserve the name, but others are re- 
 jected as requiring too great a strain on faith ; and 
 everywhere the mental habit of these divines, like 
 a spring pressed down, tends to throw off the load of 
 revelation externally cast upon it. As an example of 
 how the peculiar doctrines of the Bible are likewise 
 diluted or rejected, it may be mentioned that the 
 eminent writer De Wette, who latterly recoiled from 
 B 
 
22 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 his earlier extremes, maintains that there can be no 
 atonement, because the Prodigal Son is represented 
 as received without any ; though he might quite as 
 well have maintained from that parable, that men re- 
 turn to God without any solicitation from Him at all. 
 So is it with other doctrines : Satan is an oriental 
 metaphor ; the Spirit of God is a personification and 
 not a person ; and sin is a necessary transition from 
 a lower to a higher moral state, which, when it has 
 served its purpose, shall be done away by Christ in 
 all creatures. Thus what we regard as the plainest 
 doctrines of the Bible are overruled and counter- 
 checked by violent interpretation. Rationalism, for 
 the most part, does not dare to say '.That is the Bible 
 doctrine, and it is absurd / for this is the watchword 
 of infidelity, though even here Rationalism and infi- 
 delity have lately shaken hands. It generally says, 
 ' If that were the Bible doctrine it would be absurd ;' 
 and then it proceeds to torture the plain language, to 
 read between the lines, and to look at all the pecu- 
 liarities of Christianity with the diminishing end of 
 the telescope, until mountains become mole-hills ; 
 and the only remaining wonder is, that strains so 
 magniloquent should be employed by sacred writers 
 to adorn such feebleness and commonplace as re- 
 mains when the rugged grandeur of revelation has 
 vanished. On this subject a volume might be written, 
 and it would be a very melancholy one. The most 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 23 
 
 strained and unnatural constructions ever put by spe- 
 cial pleaders upon human laws have, I grieve to say 
 it, been exceeded in these interpretations of what is 
 still called the Word of God ; and the Christian 
 Church still suffers from this refusal to accept the 
 ordinary and literal meaning of Scripture as that 
 which God intended, when he made use of human 
 language, and directed his inspired agents to use all 
 plainness of speech. 
 
 If we now turn from this misuse of the revealed 
 Word, we shall see how widely superstition has erred 
 on the opposite side. If Rationalism leaves only a 
 minimum of inspiration, superstition in the Church 
 of Rome affords a surplus. The fatal error of that 
 Church, so far as Scripture is concerned, consists in 
 claiming for the Church in all ages that inspiration 
 which only belonged to the days of prophets and 
 apostles. Hence, three signal mistakes exactly oppo- 
 site to those of Rationalism. For,^/^/, the inspired 
 Bible is received not on the ground of its own super- 
 natural evidence, but because the Church vouches for 
 it as the Word of God. And secondly ', the Church in 
 the exercise of this usurped power has seriously cor- 
 rupted the Bible which it professes to guard, adding 
 to it the legends of the Apocrypha, and sanctioning 
 all the errors and mistranslations of the Vulgate as 
 of equal value with the original, and further exalting 
 to a co-ordinate rank with the written Word the 
 
24 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 whole mass of tradition as floating in ecclesiastical 
 usage, or as embodied in the canons of councils, so 
 that the Romanist Bible is voluminous, unfixed, and 
 infinite, comparable almost to a Serbonian bog, in 
 which the true Scripture is dragged down and sunk 
 by the leaden and earthy matters to which it is 
 attached. And thirdly, the Church denies to this 
 Bible, thus placed on a wrong foundation, and thus 
 falsely enlarged, all power of self-interpretation, and 
 refuses to her laity and even her inferior clergy all 
 unfettered liberty to read it, and much more to judge 
 of its meaning for themselves, reserving to the infal- 
 lible oracle in the Church, wherever that may be 
 situated, the exclusive power of determining its sense, 
 unbound by any rules or principles of ordinary inter- 
 pretation which they are competent to apply in self- 
 defence. It thus appears that Rationalism and super- 
 stition, starting from diametrically opposite points, 
 tend to almost the same result so far as the strict idea 
 of revelation is concerned. The last word of the one 
 is, " The Bible is not wanted :" the last word of the 
 other is, " The Bible is not sufficient." Both agree 
 in denying its authority, its perfection, and its use. 
 Both invest it with the honours of royalty; and then 
 retract the homage, while they smite it and lacerate 
 it and pierce its most sensitive organs, leaving it, in- 
 deed, the name of a revelation, but denying it the 
 reverence due to a final and conclusive message from 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 2 5 
 
 God. There is no remedy for these evils in the 
 struggle of Rationalism and Superstition with one 
 another. They will never compromise their differ- 
 ences in a just assent to the claims of the Bible as 
 the middle term between them. That just assent 
 in other words, Christian faith can only come from 
 a higher region ; and till the Spirit of God be poured 
 out to enlighten men in their need of a message from 
 heaven, and to open their eyes to the claims of the 
 pure unadulterated Word, so long will Rationalism 
 and Superstition pass the Bible by on opposite sides, 
 or only appeal to it to confirm the dictates of reason, 
 or to strengthen the foregone conclusions of autho- 
 rity. There is this point of accordance in their ap- 
 parent conflicts a common preference of the human 
 to the divine, and it would be to take an unphiloso- 
 phical view of human nature to imagine that these 
 forces will ever neutralize each other, like the height 
 of one wave and the hollow of another, so as to leave 
 a smooth sea whereon the bark of revelation may 
 glide along to convey its heaven-sent treasures. 
 
 II. The second aspect of pure Christianity in which 
 I now proceed to consider the joint effects of Ra- 
 tionalism and Superstition upon it, is as a system of 
 Mediation. The mediatorial scheme is the essence of 
 Christianity. ' No man cometh unto the Father but 
 by me/ To us ' there is one God, and one Mediator 
 
26 Qn Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.' The 
 deep-felt want of mediation in the human breast is 
 written on the history of all false religions, and is the 
 great truth which they all embody. Priests, sacrifices, 
 intercessors, solemn rites of prayer by selected indivi- 
 duals holier than their fellows, are all due to this felt 
 derangement of man's relations to God, and are an 
 imperfect kind of mediation a deep confession of 
 the need of it rising from the inmost heart of human- 
 ity. Perhaps it may be said without presumption, 
 that no revelation would meet man's need, if it did 
 not provide three things : a genuine scheme of media- 
 tion, a scheme visibly complete, and a scheme easily 
 available. These three qualifications are united in 
 the Bible system. There is a genuine mediation by 
 the incarnation of the Son of God as God's delegate 
 and man's representative. There is a visible com- 
 pleteness in his work as Mediator, for his obedience 
 and sufferings stand in relation to God as a full and 
 perfect sacrifice and atonement, the efficacy of which 
 is no mystery, but obviously rests on his dignity as 
 God, imparting to his righteousness an unlimited 
 worth for man's redemption. And there is the most 
 direct availableness of this work of the Mediator for 
 acceptance with God, inasmuch as it is tint faith of 
 the sinner, and not any more difficult requirement 
 which is laid down as the means of justification. An 
 incarnate God, a perfect righteousness, a free justifi- 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 2 7 
 
 cation ; this is the glorious threefold cord of the 
 Bible system of mediation. Observe now how Ra- 
 tionalism loosens the fibres of that cord, and how 
 Superstition, seeking to incorporate and interweave 
 fresh threads with them, in effect equally destroys 
 their texture. And first of Rationalism. 
 
 Rationalism denies and eliminates from the Bible 
 the true and proper basis of mediation the divinity 
 of the Mediator. Hence result all the forms of the 
 Arian heresy, as this prevailed in the fourth and fifth 
 centuries in the ancient churches ; in the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century in England, both in the 
 Church and among Dissenters; and on the Continent, 
 in France, Germany, and Holland, to our own times. 
 Socinianism is but the logical result of the Arian pre- 
 mises, and hardly does more violence to Scripture, 
 while it pays more homage to reason. The modes 
 of belief which corrupt the great doctrine of the In- 
 carnation are innumerable. But they all equally con- 
 flict with mediation in the true and proper sense. If 
 it be not God himself that has laid hold of humanity 
 in the person of Christ, the gulf is not overleaped. 
 There is a show of mediation ; but there is after all 
 nothing but higher creatures exerting themselves for 
 lower, and they do not effectually lay their hand 
 either on the offended God or the offending sinner. 
 
 Further, Rationalism destroys the visible complete- 
 ness of Christ's mediation by mutilating the Scripture 
 
28 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 doctrine of atonement. This has been done in a 
 great variety of ways. Either the atonement is in 
 substance denied, and then Christ is a mere prophet 
 or king, a sufferer but not an atoner, which is the 
 common Socinian doctrine; or the atonement is re- 
 presented as a display simply of love without any 
 vindication of justice, which is the view of the German 
 divine Schleiermacher and his followers, and of Mr. 
 Maurice and others among ourselves; or it is regarded 
 as a suffering for sinners accepted for them by God's 
 mere good will and pleasure, without any visible 
 reason for its employment, the opinion of many 
 English divines of the last century. Now, it is obvious 
 that in all these cases, the essential property of 
 atonement, the bearing of penal displeasure against 
 sin by a substitute qualified to bear it, is left out ; and 
 not less the rendering of honour to the law by the 
 obedience of such a substitute. The doctrine of a 
 moral adaptation in the sufferings and obedience of 
 a divine person, who acts as a substitute for sinners, 
 to lay the foundation of their escape from wrath and 
 admission to glory, is repudiated or slurred over ; and 
 thus there is no visible completeness in the Mediator's 
 work, no point of repose for a guilty conscience, 
 nothing to justify the cry of victory on the cross, ' It 
 is finished !' or to make the way into the holiest of 
 all more manifest. Christ is the herald of recon- 
 ciliation, but not the author of it ; or if the nominal 
 
as opposed to P^lre Christianity. 29 
 
 author, there is no coherence between His work and 
 its results. 
 
 The third essential property of the Bible scheme of 
 mediation, as not only genuine and visibly complete, 
 but likewise easily available, is also compromised by 
 a Rationalistic theology. Instead of immediate and 
 free justification, on the ground of the atonement and 
 righteousness of the Mediator, Rationalism brings in 
 more difficult, and, indeed, impracticable conditions. 
 For grace, it substitutes merit ; for faith, works ; and 
 the less that it gives to the Mediator the more does 
 it ascribe to the sinner; either the performance of the 
 duties of a mitigated law, which Christ has died to 
 lower, or sincere obedience to the 'law as the means 
 of being benefited by the work of Christ, or at least 
 the exertion of faith as a meritorious work, which 
 from its own virtue justifies the soul. Thus the avail- 
 ableness of Christ's mediation as open to all from the 
 beginning, and as requiring only a simple act of re- 
 liance to place every believer under its gracious 
 shadow, is fatally interfered Avith : and the essential 
 freeness of justification, the living pulse of the apos- 
 tolic Christianity, and the vital breath of the revived 
 gospel of the Reformation, is so clogged and pressed 
 down by the dead weight of self-righteousness, that 
 the gospel becomes another gospel, and ceases to be 
 the gospel of Christ. 
 
 So much for the blindness of Rationalism to all that 
 
jo On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 is distinctive and glorious in the gospel scheme of 
 mediation, as regards its basis, its essence, and its 
 mode of being turned to account. Not less injuri- 
 ously does Superstition misconstrue and pervert this 
 grand system. It cannot be said, indeed, that 
 Romanism, which may here be taken as the type of 
 all other superstitions, denies and sets aside in express 
 words, the Mediator, any more than it denies and 
 sets aside the Bible. But with its uniform fatal ten- 
 dency to add and supplement, it obscures and virtually 
 nullifies the essence of Christianity. There is first, a 
 fundamental doubt in the entire Romish system of the 
 genuineness of Christ's mediation, a doubt opposite to 
 that of Rationalism ; for while Rationalism explains 
 away the Saviour's divinity, Romanism mistrusts his 
 humanity, and introduces the Virgin, the saints, and 
 even the angels, as nearer and more familiar mediators 
 than Christ, which would be utterly impossible if the 
 doctrine of his true manhood were held in its fresh 
 simplicity, according to the Bible representations of 
 the incarnation. The deepest principle of supersti- 
 tion thus comes to light distrust of God ; and hence 
 Godhead coming near in Christ arrayed in the living 
 and warm attractions of human love is disbelieved 
 and recoiled from, and the natural heart still seeks to 
 break the awful distance, by throwing in other media- 
 torial agents at successive intervals. On another side 
 -the same doubt of the genuineness of mediation is 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 3 1 
 
 expressed in the place assigned to the priesthood. 
 The felt need of something human between man and 
 God, in addition to the humanity of Jesus, obviously 
 discredits that humanity, and thus militates against 
 the true faith of the incarnation. 
 
 Not less is the visible completeness of the Media- 
 tor's work imperilled and vitally injured by Romish 
 superstition. I need not dwell on a subject so well 
 known as the so-called sacrifice of the Mass. The 
 other mis-shapen features of that tenet I shall not 
 touch on. I only remark that the doctrine of Tran- 
 substantiation, which is so far a counterfeit of the 
 mystery of the Incarnation, visibly imports that that 
 incarnation once for all was not complete ; and that the 
 offering up of this transubstantiated Christ in alleged 
 sacrifice by a self-styled priesthood, as visibly imports 
 that his offering of himself on the cross once for all 
 was no valid and conclusive atonement. The repeti- 
 tion of the sacrifice as under Judaism is a confession 
 of its incompetency ; and the so-called elevation of 
 the Saviour in the host is thus in truth his deepest 
 degradation. His righteousness also, as the ground 
 of justification, is fatally trenched on by the ascription 
 to the Church of a treasury of merit, such as the 
 supererogatory works of saints ; and thus, partly by 
 the sacrificial repetition, or I had almost said travesty 
 of His own work, and partly by the juxtaposition of the 
 works of creatures with his, the glorious complete- 
 
32 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 ness of his divine atonement and obedience, as the 
 essence of mediation and the basis of hope, is 
 almost as entirely hid from view as in the systems of 
 Rationalism. 
 
 Not less mournfully, perhaps even more so, is the 
 availableness of Christ's mediation compromised in 
 the Church of Rome. Something of the nature of a 
 personal atonement is required in order to be in- 
 terested in that of Christ ; penance, fasts, austerities, 
 bead-rolls of prayer here, and purgatorial fires here- 
 after. Further, justification is adjourned to a distant 
 day, until the sinner be advanced in goodness; and 
 in order to afford the possibility of a beginning and 
 continuance of this development he must first come 
 to the Church before he can reach the Saviour ; and 
 he can obtain the seed of grace which will grow up 
 and issue in his justification through her sacramental 
 rites alone. The most superficial observer can dis- 
 cern how utterly destructive this legal and ritual 
 justification is of the free grace of the gospel ; and 
 will notice how extremes meet the Rationalist re- 
 coiling from the cross as needless, and falling back 
 on good works as his hope, the Romanist turning 
 back from it as insufficient, and alighting upon the 
 same makeshift, which is, indeed, the only resource of 
 our blinded nature. Heathenism thus returns into 
 Christianity under two kindred forms. The Rational- 
 ist says, ' Man must obey God for his own salva- 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 33 
 
 tion ;' the Romanist, ' Man must suffer for himself 
 ere he can be saved.' The basis of the one is 
 groundless confidence before God ; the basis of the 
 other is groundless fear before him; but they alike 
 displace God's own scheme of mediation, and substi- 
 tute for it, as a more effectual expedient, the efforts 
 or the sufferings of man himself, thus recalling the 
 weak and beggarly elements of paganism, which the 
 appearance of Christ was designed for ever to super- 
 sede and sweep away. 
 
 III. I now proceed to speak of Christianity in the 
 third place as a system of Morality, and shall endea- 
 vour to be still more brief than under the foregoing 
 heads. What man needs, and what the Bible presents, 
 is a system of morality which shall begin with ade- 
 quate correctives to man's felt depravity, which shall 
 supply irresistible motives to obedience, and which 
 shall present a perfect rule or standard of excellence. 
 The grand agent by whom depravity is corrected is 
 the Holy Spirit. The grand motive to obedience is 
 the love of Christ. The grand rule of perfection is the 
 moral law, enjoining supreme love to God and equal 
 love to man. None of these grand principles of 
 evangelical Christianity but has suffered sore damage 
 at the hands both of Rationalism and Superstition. 
 Here I shall look at their effects simultaneously, and 
 not, as before, in succession. 
 
34 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 The influence of the Holy Spirit as the only source 
 of regenerate character, the only adequate corrective 
 of man's fallen tendencies, has been almost universally 
 denied or overlooked by a Rationalistic Christianity. 
 It was so in the Pelagianism of the fourth century; and 
 in that period of English Church history which preceded 
 Methodism, and of Scottish Church history known by 
 the name of Moderate, the same deplorable omission 
 very generally prevailed. The Christian virtues were 
 expected to grow upon the stock of nature ; and any 
 change corresponding to the Bible ideas of conver- 
 sion, such as a new birth, a new creation, a resurrec- 
 tion from the dead, was decried as in the last degree 
 mystical, enthusiastic, and fanatical. Now this Bible 
 mystery which Rationalism then sought to cut away, 
 Romanism has unnaturally overlaid and exaggerated. 
 The need of such a change is not denied in that 
 Church ; on the contrary it is insisted on ; but then 
 unhappily it is bound and tied down to the outward 
 forms of the Church, more especially to baptism ; 
 and the dogma of baptismal regeneration is the result. 
 It is not saying too much to affirm that this doctrine 
 in all its parts, which arrogates for an apostolically 
 descended priesthood the power infallibly to transmit 
 the Holy Ghost by external channels, is as injurious 
 a claim with regard to that blessed agent as the pro- 
 fession to transubstantiate bread and wine into the 
 body and blood, soul and divinity of the Saviour is 
 
as opposed to Piire Christianity. 3 5 
 
 with regard to Christ. And the result here is the same 
 as there, for superstition grasping at too much secures 
 nothing ; and as the bloodless sacrifice of the mass 
 has no power to take away sins, as its own repetition 
 shows, so the regeneration of water has no power to 
 change the heart, as the absence of external fruits, 
 and even the apostasy of persons thus regenerated 
 notoriously testifies ; and thus the likeliest effect of the 
 opus operatum, the legerdemain of the spiritual magi- 
 cian, is to seal up its subjects in unregenerate security. 
 It is hard to say whether a regeneration disclaimed 
 by Rationalism, or a regeneration materialized by 
 Superstition, is the most injurious misreading of pure 
 Christianity. The same remarks apply to all the 
 other sacraments of the Church of Rome, in which 
 the grace of the Holy Spirit, admitted in words, is 
 ignored in practice, and a meaningless external cere- 
 mony called a sacrament, which renews nothing, cor- 
 rects nothing, is dignified with the name of a channel 
 of sanctification. 
 
 The influences of the Spirit, in their genuine sense, 
 being thus abstracted from Christianity, its motives to 
 holiness fare no better. The grand and stupendous 
 motive of gratitude which runs through the whole 
 Bible, and is expressed in the words, ' We love him, 
 because he first loved us,' has almost no place, either 
 in Rationalism or Romanism. Rationalistic Chris- 
 tianity can only expatiate on the dignity of virtue, the 
 
36 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 prospect of reward, the certainty of punishment, and 
 other weak and inefficient commonplaces of pagan 
 ethics, or at best borrow some gleams of light and 
 warmth from the example and human sympathy of the 
 Saviour, which shed over the wintry scene nothing 
 better than the glow of a Decernber sun, and cannot 
 break up its frost-bound rigours. While, on the other 
 hand, Romanism, though admitting the Saviour's work 
 on the cross, and even in its hymns celebrating his 
 love, places its votaries at such a distance from its 
 warm breath, behind the freezing barrier of Church 
 rites and works of righteousness, that the impression 
 of gratitude is too faint to melt the heart, and is 
 speedily overcome by the severities of penance, the 
 terrors of purgatory, and the gloom of judgment, 
 which speak a pardon not yet bestowed, a heaven 
 not yet opened up by the shedding of Christ's blood. 
 The fatal postponement of justification in the Romish 
 system is destructive of grateful and childlike obedi- 
 ence. We all know what Luther and others made of 
 the keeping of the law, when under this regime of 
 bondage ; and it must be affirmed that the Rational- 
 ist's legal hope, and the Romanist's legal terror, are 
 equally destructive of the loving, confiding impulses 
 of true Christian morality. The confession and ab- 
 solution, too, of the Romish Church turn away the 
 gratitude and confidence of her members from Christ 
 to the priesthood ; and as there is no direct contact 
 
as opposed to Piire Christianity. 37 
 
 with a holy God in these exercises, their effect, so far 
 from being sanctifying, as all experience testifies, is 
 demoralizing, and relaxes even the hold of the other 
 motives which Romanism still retains. 
 
 Look now here once more at the influence of the 
 two false principles on the moral standard of Chris- 
 tianity. The tendency of rationalized Christianity 
 has always been to bend the rigidity of the law into 
 accommodation to human weakness, It is no para- 
 dox that those divines who have most exalted morality 
 as the alpha and omega of Christianity, have taught a 
 lower morality than the fanatics and enthusiasts who 
 drew their inspiration from the cross. The duties of 
 man to man have been exalted, while the duties of 
 man to God have been forgotten ; and these moral 
 systems have decided many questions of casuistry 
 with a dangerous laxness, which would have been 
 impossible under the light of that awful revelation 
 j which comes from Calvary, and under the prompting 
 of that finer moral instinct which is formed in the soul 
 by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Romanism 
 presents, at first sight, a totally opposite spectacle. 
 There is in this religion an apparent renunciation of 
 all terms with the flesh, and an absolute victory over 
 it, as we see in the whole monastic system of mortifi- 
 cation and seclusion from the world, together with the 
 vows of celibacy, poverty, and obedience ; and the 
 entire doctrine of saintly perfection and works of 
 c 
 
38 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 supererogation looks at first blush like the very 
 chivalry of virtue the moral law carried forward to 
 its heroic and golden age. But alas ! we find here, 
 as everywhere else in the history of superstition, that 
 excess in one quarter implies defect in another. The 
 laity the vulgar, for whom no such sublime standard 
 is erected are permitted to rely on the vicarious 
 morality of the saints and the perfected, or more than 
 perfected, ones ; and thus the unity of the moral law, 
 which demands perfect obedience from all, is de- 
 stroyed ; and further, human nature, unable to sustain 
 itself at the sublime height to which it is carried, falls 
 back into the abyss, and, as the abuses of the monas- 
 tic system and of enforced celibacy too well attest, the 
 apparent victory over nature ends in a more humilia- 
 ting defeat. After all, the higher stages of virtue in 
 the Church of Rome are purely imaginary. Works of 
 supererogation cannot exist. It is impossible to pay 
 to God or to man more love than the law demands ; 
 and the very idea that God can be satisfied with less 
 than perfection introduces a fatal laxity into the whole 
 moral system, so that here, as at so many other points 
 the exaggerations of Superstition and the extenuations 
 of Rationalism conspire to one result. I will not, in- 
 deed, charge on the superstition alone of the Church 
 of Rome the melancholy perversions of morality, 
 which we find in the policy of that Church, such as 
 that the end sanctions the means, that no faith is to 
 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 39 
 
 be kept with heretics, and that the interests of the 
 Church are paramount to all other laws and obliga- 
 tions. These are the results of worldliness rather 
 than of superstition. Only it cannot be denied that 
 superstition, turning away attention from simple duties 
 to self-imposed forms, making virtues which God 
 never made, setting up one rule for the laity and 
 another for the priesthood, and teaching that the per- 
 fections of one class in some sense cover the short- 
 comings of another, does thereby confound all right 
 moral distinctions, and opens a door to excesses and 
 atrocities under the mask of religion, which paganism 
 never equalled, and which make the annals of Rome's 
 supremacy, and still more of her contests for pre- 
 eminence, one of the darkest pages in the moral his- 
 tory of the world. 
 
 IV. In a . few words, I shall complete this sketch 
 by turning your attention to the action of Rationalism 
 and Superstition upon Christianity considered as a sys- 
 tem of association or fellowship. Christianity is not a 
 religion of isolated units, but of masses. Man's nature 
 demands a social religion : and Christianity is the 
 most social of all religions, because it has the noblest 
 centre of attraction, and the most glorious power of 
 gathering all around that centre. The Bible settles 
 three great vital questions in regard to the Christian 
 society : Who shall belong to it, which is the ques- 
 
40 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 tion of discipline ; What shall be the relation of its 
 members to one another, which is the question of 
 office or government ; and What their union shall con- 
 sist in, which is the question of worship. A single 
 glance will show how seriously here, as everywhere, 
 the fundamental arrangements of Christianity have 
 been encroached on or subverted. 
 
 Take first the question of discipline. Christianity 
 requires all saved persons to make a visible profession 
 of their Christianity by joining the Christian society, 
 and ordains that none who appear to be saved shall 
 be excluded. This is the unity of the visible Church, 
 resting on, and pre-supposing the deeper unity of the 
 invisible. Now Rationalism attacks in many cases 
 this position of the need of a visible Church. It is 
 satisfied with silent conviction, and recoils from con- 
 nexion with any external society, despising forms and 
 positive ordinances, and exalting the invisible at the 
 expense of the visible. This has been, in all ages, 
 the danger of philosophizing Christians. In this 
 spirit the Unitarians, and to some extent the Friends, 
 otherwise remote enough from them, unite ; and of 
 late the Plymouth Brethren have arisen to make this 
 their watchword, and to preach the demolition of the 
 visible Church, as everywhere in a state of apostasy. 
 On the other hand, the Church of Rome, with the 
 uniform tendency of superstition to materialize every- 
 thing, and to incorporate and intertwine the external 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 41 
 
 and internal, identifies the visible Church with the 
 invisible, and denies in effect that there are Christians 
 before there is a visible Church. Hence men do not 
 enter the visible Church because they are Christians, 
 but enter it to become so ; and, as a necessary con 
 sequence, there is no salvation out of the pale of the 
 Romish Church, and certain salvation to all who 
 remain in her communion, and do not obstruct the 
 efficacy of her rites by mortal sin. The tremendous 
 responsibility thus resting upon the visible Church, 
 which has falsely claimed to be the only birthplace 
 of souls, instead of the nurse of souls already born from 
 above, acting upon the fears of superstition, has led the 
 visible Church to claim such prerogatives as would 
 guarantee salvation, viz., infallibility, sacramental effi- 
 cacy, and exclusive catholicity. Otherwise there 
 might be saints beyond the pale of the visible Church, 
 or unsaved persons left within it, both of which 
 alternatives were excluded by the supposition. This 
 superstitious exaltation of the visible Church as that 
 to which all true Christians must belong, soon changed 
 to the formula as that by which all true Christians 
 must be made, is the first fatal error of Romanism, as 
 a Church, an error generated before Romanism was 
 formed into a system, an error as old as Cyprian in 
 the end of the third century, but which soon de- 
 veloped itself into full-grown Popery, with its exclu- 
 siveness, its false uniformity, its assumption of the 
 
42 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 divine prerogative to bind and to loose, to shut and 
 to open, not the door of communion on earth only, 
 but what on this theory comes to the same thing, the 
 gate of the kingdom of heaven. Thus while Ration- 
 alism slights the visible Church, Superstition all but 
 .deifies it ; and both miss its grand ends, to rally 
 Christians together round a common standard, to 
 display their union to the world, and to enable them 
 to watch over each other's souls, and to walk in love 
 in so far as they are agreed. 
 
 Take now the nearly allied question of office, or the 
 relation of the members of the Church to one another. 
 According to pure Christianity office rests on spiritual 
 gifts, and is simply the exercise of these, with the 
 consent of the Christian society, for mutual edification. 
 Order and liberty are harmonized in willing subjec- 
 tion to the appointment of Christ, the only head and 
 ruler of His Church. It is the tendency of Ration- 
 alism to set aside the appointments of Christ in these 
 matters, to adjust or create offices according to a 
 fancied expediency, or even to hand them over to the 
 control of a worldly power, in return for certain 
 apparent advantages, to the detriment or destruction 
 of the free self-agency of the Christian body, accord- 
 ing to the laws of Christ. The extreme of this is 
 Erastianism, and I use the word in no party sense, 
 believing that enlightened Christians everywhere de- 
 sire to repudiate the thing, though they differ as to 
 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 43 
 
 what should be called by the name. Here, again, 
 Romanism exalts, and, by exalting, corrupts, what is 
 essential in Church-office. It is led to this extreme 
 by the doctrine of the visible Church, just developed. 
 The visible Church indeed might wield all its tremen- 
 dous prerogatives without having any special office- 
 bearers, or at least any permanent ones, like a 
 Committee of Public Safety, which changed its mem- 
 bers from time to time. But superstition eagerly lays 
 hold of what is tangible and palpable ; and, as the 
 Christian Church began with the apostles, succeeding 
 office-bearers were exalted to their rank ; the decent 
 form of ordination was transmuted into a magical rite 
 believed to transmit supernatural virtue, and a priest- 
 hood thus arose qualified, as the representatives of 
 God, to dispense the salvation which could alone be 
 found in connexion with the visible Church. The 
 superstition of the multitude was wrought upon by 
 representing connexion with the Church as connexion 
 with these office-bearers ; and as the unity ascribed to 
 the Church required a centre in the eyes of supersti- 
 tion to which it might cling as with a death-grasp, 
 the Bishop of Rome, partly from the misunderstood 
 words of our Lord to Peter, and partly from the 
 influence of the hietropolis of the world, in which he 
 had his seat, became the vicar of Christ on earth, and 
 that spiritual despotism was consolidated, which made 
 him and his successors the uppermost links in a 
 
44 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 grand electric chain of spiritual despotism which sent 
 its vibrations through the heart of every slave of 
 superstition to the extremities of the earth, and was 
 believed to extend also to heaven and hell and the 
 imaginary region that lay between. Thus while 
 Rationalism has slighted Church office, and left it to 
 be tampered with by foreign powers, Romanism has 
 despotically magnified it, so as to transform it from a 
 ministry into a saving priesthood ; at once subverting 
 the prerogatives of Christ, and lording it over his 
 heritage. 
 
 Look, finally, to the worship of the Church, as 
 exhibiting another field for the agency of these cor- 
 rupting influences. Christian, worship is the expres- 
 sion of devotional feelings to God, and the exhibition 
 of his truth to the world in certain forms appointed 
 by himself, so as to secure the strengthening of right 
 principles in Christians, and the extension of them to 
 others. Rationalism, little alive to the value of such 
 worship, has tended to discourage it by the coldness 
 of its tone, has frowned upon its frequency and fer- 
 vour, and in some cases mutilated its parts ; as, for 
 example, by denying the permanent obligation of 
 baptism and the Lord's supper, or of the day on 
 which Christian worship is commonly conducted. 
 The Church of Rome, again as before, exalts w r orship 
 so as to transform and destroy its character. It is 
 not only a means of grace, but, certain extreme con- 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 45 
 
 tingencies guarded against, the certain channel of 
 grace. To take part in the sacrifice of the mass, 
 the beginning and middle and end of Romish wor- 
 ship, is to perform a saving act. And hence super- 
 stition employs in this service all that is imposing and 
 gorgeous to work upon its own feelings, and make 
 itself believe its own illusion. The religious shadow 
 of temples, with the dim light of tapers, the slow and 
 measured movements of priests, the waving of censers, 
 the tinkling of bells, the chanting of solemn music, 
 with the pealing depth of the organ, the awe-struck 
 prostration of every knee, while the symbol of a pre- 
 sent deity is raised on high, all this, in minds pre- 
 possessed from their infancy in favour of these rites? 
 must make a strong impression on the sense and 
 imagination, and the natural religious sensibilities, 
 which is almost certain to be mistaken for pure de- 
 votion, the more especially that it may contain some 
 better elements. Though the prayers are in an un- 
 known tongue, it too is looked on as sacred and the 
 tongue of the whole Catholic Church ; and, muttered 
 as they are and inaudible to the ear of the worshipper, 
 they are the utterances of mighty and awful beings 
 who have power with God, whose incantations can 
 liberate the dead from penal fires, and whose words 
 of benediction can blot out the darkest sins of the 
 living, not only from the records of conscience, but 
 from the judgment-books of God. Alas ! this splen- 
 
46 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 did shadow ! to a superstitious temperament, how 
 fascinating ! what is it but the fabric of a vision, or 
 rather a phantasmagoria, only too grateful to those 
 fallen beings whose interest it is to intercept the per- 
 sonal, intelligent, saving communion of the souls of 
 men with Him who will save men only by light and 
 knowledge, and who, as a Spirit, must be worshipped 
 in spirit and in truth ! Thus, again, Romanism, like 
 Rationalism, misses its aim in worship. The one 
 expects little, and is not disappointed ; the other 
 expects much, unspeakably too much, for, seeking it 
 at the altar, and not at the Bible and the Throne ot 
 grace, it stumbles on amid the gloom and shadows of 
 a worse than Levitical economy, and never attains 
 the deep and hallowed joy of those who draw nigh 
 to God ' with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, 
 having their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, 
 and their bodies washed with pure water.' 
 
 I have thus endeavoured, in a very cursory, and, 
 I am afraid, a too general manner, to survey some- 
 what of the vast field embraced in my subject. I 
 could add many general reflections of a practical 
 nature, of which the topic before me is very sug- 
 gestive. I shall content myself with two. 
 
 First, Let us beware of supposing that Rationalism 
 and Superstition are confined to any school of divines, 
 whether in Germany or England on the one hand, or 
 to Papal countries on the other. Every one of us is 
 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 47 
 
 naturally a Rationalist or a Romanist, or a com- 
 pound of both ; and though we may fancy ourselves 
 perfectly free from it, there is too much of the old 
 leaven still cleaving to us all. I cannot enter into 
 the high denunciatory strain in which Rationalism 
 and Popery have sometimes been attacked, as if they 
 were not so much the sins and errors of men as the 
 works of incarnate demons, which can only be traced 
 to deliberate irreverence, lying, or priestcraft on the 
 part of their abettors. This shows great ignorance 
 of ourselves ; great want of fairness and charity to- 
 wards our erring brethren ! There may be, and I 
 fear is, much perversity in Rationalism, much priest- 
 craft and conscious tyranny in Romanism. Where 
 these are apparent, let us not shrink from condemning 
 them in appropriate terms, after the example of Him 
 who spared neither Sadducee nor Pharisee. But let 
 us also think of the pride and unbelief of our own 
 minds, and of our own difficulties in embracing some 
 of the doctrines of Christianity ; and let us charitably 
 believe that the Rationalism of not a few may be the 
 ascendency of similar difficulties not yet in their 
 minds overcome. Let us think of the formalism of 
 our own spirits of our readiness to trust in external 
 things, in rites, in sacraments, in church privileges 
 of our remaining distrust of God's love and free grace 
 in Christ ; and let us charitably think that the Ro- 
 manism of not a few may be the lingering effect of 
 
48 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 similar tendencies, in them more powerful, or from 
 which the Spirit of God has not yet set them free. 
 Let us testify against both evils, loudly and earnestly 
 as we will ; but let us speak the truth in love, 
 and in the spirit of Him whose word's should never 
 be forgotten ' They know not what they do.' Let 
 the melting tones of compassion and prayer be 
 mingled with the stern controversies of the times in 
 which we live ; and then the witness we bear will 
 not be less acceptable to God, nor less effectual 
 in reclaiming those who are ignorant and out of 
 the way. 
 
 Secondly ', It is only by the establishment of God's 
 truth that Rationalism and Superstition can be finally 
 overthrown. As I have already remarked, though 
 mutually repellent, these antagonist powers are not 
 mutually destructive. Errors never totally obliterate 
 each other. That is the prerogative only of truth. 
 It was confidently stated in the end of last century 
 that infidelity had conclusively abolished Popery ; 
 but many have lived to see the formidable reaction 
 which belies all such expectations ; and if any ima- 
 gine that Popery has now materially diminished the 
 infidelity of the Continent by way of reprisals, they 
 will be equally mistaken. In our own country, as on 
 the Continent, no conclusive victory is to be gained 
 by fighting the battle against Popery with the weapons 
 of mere negation and protest, with such sarcasms of 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 49 
 
 journalists, and scoffs and mockeries of our lighter 
 literature, as were current during the Papal aggression, 
 and are revived in the present contest with Ultramon- 
 tanism. These may do valuable political service, 
 may even expel religious error for a time ; but they 
 will not generate Christian faith ; they will not keep 
 the door shut against the return of superstition. 
 Nothing will cure the inevitable tendency of super- 
 stitious minds to relapse into error but the pre-occu- 
 pation and satisfaction of their hearts with the truth ; 
 and if a wide and prayerful diffusion of gospel truth 
 is not attempted in the present struggle against 
 Popery, the tactics of its political antagonists may be 
 triumphant, and we may even seem to overrun the 
 enemy's country and level his strongholds ; but we 
 shall make no stable conquests. Those who expect 
 the downfall of Popery from political combinations 
 and unbelieving reactions against it, without relying 
 on the Bible and the missionary, will once more be 
 disappointed ; and if we wish at last to succeed, we 
 must strive to convert the political recoil of France 
 and Italy into a vital, earnest, and insuppressible 
 religious reformation. Let us cherish interest also in 
 that reaction against Rationalistic Protestantism which 
 has been for years extending itself both in France 
 and Germany. Let us pray for the spread, in the 
 National Churches of these lands, of the revived 
 evangelism which is returning after many aberrations, 
 
50 On Romanism and Rationalism 
 
 not only to the Incarnate Word, but what is more to 
 the written Word ; and seek that the difficulties 
 which the revival is encountering in the land of 
 Luther from a revived sacramental ism and supersti- 
 tion, may also be overcome. Let the Churches of 
 Britain be also prepared for those contests with un- 
 belief at home which have come so unexpectedly upon 
 themselves, and which are so bravely waged by a 
 multitude of loyal defenders of the faith in that 
 Anglican Church where they have begun ; and let 
 them not only strive to conquer in the field of ar- 
 gument, which is comparatively easy, since the 
 champions of Rationalism can only build up their 
 counterfeit temple like Julian out of its own repeat- 
 edly blasted ruins, but let them aspire to the more 
 difficult success of reproducing the moral signs and 
 wonders of the Bible before men's eyes, in works of 
 faith and labours of love, which shall prove that the pre- 
 sence of Israel's God is in the midst of us, a pillar of 
 heaven-descended glory, and not an emanation of the 
 desert in which it moves. Thus shall we be equipped 
 in the armour of righteousness on the right hand anc 
 the left, and shall not only guard our own lines, bui 
 bear the standard of salvation into new territories ; 
 and whatever be the future struggles and reactions 
 of Rationalism and Superstition, and of that kingdom 
 of darkness and error which is wide enough and 
 catholic enough to comprehend them both, we shall 
 
as opposed to Pure Christianity. 5 1 
 
 at least do something to accelerate their downfall, 
 and to introduce a happier age, when these shadows 
 shall not as now be cast far and wide over the field 
 of living experience, but shall be reflected only from 
 the dim and fading page of Church history, as the 
 
 mists and vapours of morning, which the gathering 
 
 f 
 
 light and heat of pure Christianity has at length dis- 
 persed and chased away. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 STATEMENT for the SOCIETIES referred to in the 
 Preface. 
 
 SOCIETY OF SONS OF UNITED PRESBYTERIAN 
 MINISTERS. 
 
 (Instituted September 20, 1854.) 
 
 OFFICE-BEARERS. 
 
 President. 
 
 Rev. JAMES HARPER, D.D., Professor of Theology to the U.P. Church. 
 Vice- Presidents. 
 
 Rev. JOHN 
 Rev. JOHN 
 
 SMART, D.D., Leith. 
 
 MACFARLANE, LL.D., Clapham, London. 
 
 Honorary Directors. 
 
 Rev. WILLIAM ANDERSON, LL.D., Glasgow. 
 
 JOHN SCOTT RUSSELL, Esq., F.R.S., London. 
 
 JAMES WATSON, Esq. of Rivalsgreen, Linlithgow. 
 
 Rev. GEORGE GILFILLAN, Dundee. 
 
 ANDREW MUTER, Esq. of Milton, Glasgow. 
 
 Rev. R. J. BRYCE, LL.D., Belfast. 
 
 H. E. CRUM EWING, Esq. of Strathleven, M.P., Glasgow. 
 
 JAMES PEDDIE, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. 
 
 JOHN LOGAN, Esq., Merchant, Glasgow. 
 
 Ordinary Directors. 
 
 Rev. WM. BRUCE, Edinburgh. 
 
 Rev. DAVID M'EwAN, Edinburgh. 
 
 WILLIAM LECKIE, Esq., Cashier, Commercial Bank, Edinburgh. 
 
 WILLIAM FRASER, Esq., Town-Clerk, Inverkeithing. 
 
 JOHN ANDERSON, Esq., Writer, Paisley. 
 
 ANDREW ELLIOT, Esq., Publisher, Edinburgh. 
 
 ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF, Esq., Advocate, Edinburgh. 
 
 JOHN BLACK, Esq., Advocate, Edinburgh. 
 
 W. H. M'FARLANE, Esq., Lithographer, Edinburgh. 
 
 MUNGO LAUDER, Esq., Merchant, Glasgow. 
 
54 Appendix. 
 
 CHARLES AULD, Esq., M.D., Greenock. 
 
 A. H. BRYCE, Esq., B.A., High School, Edinburgh. 
 
 JOHN GORRIE, Esq., Advocate, 89, Chancery Lane, London. 
 
 Rev. R. S. DRUMMOND, A.M., Glasgow. 
 
 Rev. GEORGE WALLACE, Hull. 
 
 E. ERSKINE HARPER, Esq., Merchant, Leith. 
 
 PETER M'LEOD, Esq., Writer, Glasgow. 
 
 JAMES LOGAN MUIR, Esq., Merchant, Islington, London. 
 
 7. DICK PEDDIE, Esq., Architect, Edinburgh. 
 
 RICHD. G. Ross, Esq., Engineer, Glasgow. 
 
 JOHN SOMMERVILLE, Esq., Merchant, Leith. 
 
 THOMAS JEFFREY, Esq., Merchant, Edinburgh. 
 
 JAMES THOMSON, Esq., Accountant, Glasgow. 
 
 Secrei 
 GEORGE M'EwAN, Esq., Advocate, 34, Dundas Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 Treasurer. 
 J. KNOX CRAWFORD, Esq., S.S.C., 9, North St. David Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 The Society was instituted at a public meeting 
 called for the purpose, of the Sons of Ministers, held 
 in Edinburgh on 2oth September 1854. The c6n- 
 siderations in which it originated may be very briefly 
 stated. 
 
 The history of the United Presbyterian Church 
 has been one of progress. Throughout many years 
 of political agitation and religious controversy, it has 
 continued to maintain those distinctive principles 
 that incited the small band who gave it its origin. 
 Amidst its growing strength, however, there are re- 
 lationships which are apt to be broken up and for- 
 gotten. Its sons are to be found in every station 
 and in every clime ; but although they have been 
 scattered over the world, or separated from the de- 
 nomination by differences, they must ever feel a 
 pleasure in their early attachment to it. At least 
 such a feeling must remain strong in the hearts of 
 ministers' sons in reference to the Church, and it is 
 well and laudable for those who have so sprung from 
 it, to testify their gratitude by linking themselves in 
 a bond of brotherhood, animated by the common 
 principles of sympathy and benevolence, so that 
 
Appendix. 55 
 
 wherever they may be placed in life, though seas 
 may intervene or schisms separate them, this one 
 connecting tie to their common parent may still 
 subsist. Hence the origin of this Society. 
 
 As regards its benevolent object that of affording 
 pecuniary assistance to the families of ministers de- 
 ceased or infirm placed in necessitous circumstances 
 little need be said. Dissenting ministers are far 
 from being a wealthy class. With most it takes 
 frugal care and management to meet the bare com- 
 forts and necessities of life ; and therefore it was not 
 matter of surprise that now and again cases of hard- 
 ship arise, of their children being left to the mercies 
 of the world, with nothing for their support and edu- 
 cation. As it was a difficult matter to meet these 
 when they did occur, the provision for them instituted 
 by this Society was at once opportune and commend- 
 able. It interfered with none of the schemes of the 
 United Presbyterian Church in operation, and yet 
 the most cursory investigation might convince every- 
 body that it was a desideratum. 
 
 The objects of the Society are thus set forth in its 
 constitution. 
 
 1. To afford pecuniary assistance to the families 
 of United Presbyterian Ministers, who, by the death 
 or infirmity of the head of the family, may be placed 
 in necessitous circumstances. 
 
 2. To promote friendly intercourse among the 
 Members of the Society. 
 
 3. To aid, by correspondence and counsel, the 
 younger branches of United Presbyterian Ministers' 
 families in prosecuting their views in life. And, in 
 the event of any General Meeting of the Society 
 deeming the funds sufficient, 
 
 4. To institute one or more Scholarships for 
 students who are sons of United Presbyterian 
 Ministers. 
 
56 Appendix. 
 
 Terms of Membership. 
 
 The following are admitted as ordinary members 
 of the Society on payment of a minimum annual sub- 
 scription of 58., or a payment of not less than ^5, 
 which constitutes life membership, viz. : 
 
 1. Sons of Ministers of the United Presbyterian 
 
 Church. 
 
 2. Grandsons of do. 
 
 3. Sons-in-Law of do. 
 
 Strangers are admitted as extraordinary members, 
 on payment of not less than ^5 ; but the office- 
 bearers are chosen from the ordinary members. 
 
 Operations of the Society. 
 
 Since its formation, the Society has steadily in- 
 creased its membership, and there are now on the 
 roll 245 members. 
 
 The permanent capital fund now amounts to about 
 ^1500, ^"1300 of which is invested in heritable 
 security. 
 
 The annual income from subscriptions and interest 
 on capital exceeds .100 ; but, in terms of the con- 
 stitution, a large portion of the income must be ap- 
 plied in increasing the capital until it amount to the 
 sum of ^5000. Although the annual distribution 
 for benevolent purposes is thus limited in the mean- 
 time, the Directors have for several years disbursed 
 the sum of ^"30 annually. 
 
 By means of social meetings, conversaziones, etc., 
 the Society is instrumental in promoting friendly in- 
 tercourse among the members. 
 
Appendix. 5 7 
 
 GLASGOW SOCIETY OF SONS OF MINISTERS OF THE 
 UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 OFFICE-BEARERS, 
 
 1862-63. 
 
 Preses. 
 JAMES MITCHELL, Writer, Glasgow. 
 
 Vice- Preses. 
 FORREST FREW, Manufacturer, Glasgow. 
 
 Secretary. 
 JAMES BURNS KIDSTON, Writer, 50, West Regent Street, Glasgow. 
 
 Treasurer. 
 
 HUGH HEUGH, Merchant, 41, St. Vincent Place, Glasgow. 
 
 Ordinary Directors. 
 ANDREW MUTER of Milton. 
 JOHN MEIKLEHAM, Clyde Iron Works. 
 ROBERT JEFFRAY WALKER, Merchant, Glasgow. 
 GEORGE M'FARLANE, Accountant, Glasgow. 
 JOHN KIDSTON, Writer, Glasgow. 
 GEORGE ROBSON, Accountant, Glasgow. 
 WM. M'EwEN, Merchant, Glasgow. 
 GEORGE COVENTRY DICK, Commission Agent, Glasgow. 
 ALEX. HENDERSON M'LEAN, Tea Merchant, Glasgow. 
 HUGH MONCRIEFF, Writer, Glasgow. 
 
 The objects intended to be served by this Society, 
 and the sentiments in which it originated, will be 
 learned from the following extracts from an address 
 issued in pursuance of the resolutions of a meeting 
 of Sons of Ministers, held on loth April 1854, when 
 it was agreed that a Society should be formed in 
 Glasgow : 
 
 ' Our Church contains three Bodies, long separate 
 but now united. We have cause to rejoice that in all 
 their divisions they ever maintained the one great 
 Head of the Church, and the liberty of its members, 
 His body. Many of us can recollect the time when 
 each of the three Bodies composing the United Pres- 
 
58 Appendix. 
 
 byterian Church was a separate Body. In these small 
 communions every minister was the intimate friend of 
 nearly every other, and ministers' families were here- 
 ditary friends. 
 
 ' These days are gone, and have left behind them 
 feelings which can now be thoroughly appreciated by 
 but a few. Let us only hope, as we truly believe, that 
 what we have lost in the almost family intercourse 
 which subsisted among the Ministers of our separate 
 churches, is more than compensated by our union. 
 The feelings of those among us who are more ad- 
 vanced in life are indeed changed, but only changed 
 to be enlarged so as to embrace a greater number 
 of those who hold the same faith and entertain the 
 same hope. 
 
 1 The Sons of Ministers of the United Presbyterian 
 Church in Glasgow are now numerous, and we think 
 the time has come when they should, by the forma- 
 tion of an Association of their own, follow the example 
 set to them by the Sons of Ministers of the Church 
 of Scotland. 
 
 6 It is hardly necessary to plead, when speaking of 
 Scotland, that Glasgow ought to be the seat of such 
 a Society. Whether there should be kindred associa- 
 tions in other towns, it is for the Sons of Ministers 
 resident in such towns to decide. But, obviously, the 
 industrial capital of Scotland must continue to be the 
 resort of young men having their way to make in life. 
 Our Ministers have ever, out of their scanty means, 
 striven to give their sons a good education. With 
 such education, and personally maintaining in its 
 purity, the religion taught in their fathers' homes, they 
 may well be expected to succeed in such a city. But 
 they are often subjected to difficulties in finding em- 
 ployment, and must feel the want of that counsel and 
 kindness which, we trust, will now be supplied by 
 those who have trod the path before them.' 
 
Appendix. 59 
 
 Constitution. 
 
 Some time after the issuing of this address, the 
 Society was constituted. Its object and purpose, as 
 declared by the constitution, is to contribute to the 
 benefit of the families (children and widows), and to 
 the advancement in life of children of ministers of the 
 United Presbyterian Church, or of any of the churches 
 comprised in that body, and that by friendly sym- 
 pathy, counsel, and moral influence, as well as by 
 pecuniary aid, in circumstances in which it is required, 
 so far as the funds of the Society will admit. 
 
 While the support of the Society is open to all, 
 and all are invited to contribute to its funds, its mem- 
 bership is confined to Sons of Ministers. Life mem- 
 bership is constituted by the contribution of five 
 guineas to the funds, and from the life members the 
 Board of Directors is selected. With the view of in- 
 teresting in the Society Sons of Ministers who may 
 not for the time be in a condition to become mem- 
 bers, it was some time ago agreed to admit, as asso- 
 ciates, such Sons of Ministers as might contribute five 
 shillings annually to the funds. These associates 
 have the privilege of being present at general meet- 
 ings of the Society, and thus have the opportunity of 
 becoming acquainted with its members. 
 
 Operations of the Society. 
 
 The permanent capital amounts to ^2300, and 
 there is a balance of cash on hand. 
 
 Besides the important object of making the Sons of 
 Ministers known to and helpful of each other in the 
 intercourse and business of life, the Society has, 
 though to a less extent than the Directors desired, 
 afforded pecuniary aid, either stated or incidental, in 
 various cases where it was much needed and highly 
 
60 Appendix. 
 
 appreciated. Their disbursements in this way were 
 30 in the first year, ^44 in the second, ^55 in the 
 third, ^75 in the fourth, 60 in the fifth, and they 
 have already been ^118 in the sixth year, which is 
 now current. 
 
 Conclusion to the Statements for both Societies. 
 
 While there is an obvious delicacy and propriety in 
 the Sons of Ministers administering the affairs of such 
 associations as the above, the duty of supporting them 
 is not more incumbent on them than on other mem- 
 bers of the Church. To not a few of these, both 
 associations owe a debt of gratitude, and the Direc- 
 tors feel assured that in aiding the Societies whose 
 claims are above set forth, the members of our Church 
 generally would acceptably and beneficially show 
 their appreciation of and sympathy with our excellent 
 ministry. 
 
 The Directors of both Societies request the mini- 
 sters of our Church each to accept the accompanying 
 copy of Dr. Cairns' Discourse, with this Appendix, 
 intended to make known the existence, extend the 
 operations, and enlarge the resources of these So- 
 cieties. They cannot close these remarks without 
 stating how deeply they feel indebted to Dr. Cairns 
 for his admirable discourse, the publication of which, 
 they are persuaded, will be beneficial not only to the 
 Societies at whose request it is published, and to the 
 United Presbyterian Church, but to the Church of 
 Christ at large. 
 
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