THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE. NEW SERIES.-VOL. XXI. EDINBURGH: WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND CO. MDCCCLXXVII. PREFACE. D URING the past year two questions have occupied a prominent place in ecclesiastical courts and elsewhere-viz. that of the Confession of Faith and of Disestablishment. It will be found that these, in various aspects, have exercised an important influence on the history of our Church. Centenary celebrations by our congregations are now of frequent occurrence. Occasionally accounts of these celebrations appear in our pages. In accounting for their existence, we find such congregations almost always assigning two causes,-doctrinal errors prevalent in the Established Church, and injuries inflicted by an abuse of the law of Patronage. A hundred years ago, as we learn from such sources as the Biography of CARLYLE of Inveresk, what are called 'the doctrines of grace' were contemptuously suppressed in many pulpits, and a cold and bare morality set forth in their stead. The people asked for bread, and their teachers gave them a stone. And many, resenting this, separated themselves from the Church as by law established, and formed themselves into self-supporting congregations, from whose pulpits they could hear the joyful sound of the gospel of the grace of God. We find also that patrons, by forcing upon congregations unacceptable presentees, compelled not a few to retire from the Church of their fathers, in order that they might secure and enjoy the services of the man of their choice. The causes in which the United Presbyterian Church originated are worthy of the most careful study in these days. History teaches by example, and teaches impressively; and we are taught by the history of our Church that the preaching of the gospel, and the upholding of the rights and privileges of the Christian people, have been its strength. And they are its strength still. If we cease to preach the glorious gospel of the blessed God, or forget to seek entire freedom from all Erastian control, we shall fall from duty and lose our power. Of this, however, there need be no apprehensions. The Lord, who has |