attended either Presbytery or Synod.

Yet he was much inter

ested in Church affairs, and the interest deepened as there was the prospect of a serious issue. He was unable, through bodily infirmities, to attend the Convocation, but he cheerfully appended his name to both series of resolutions. "I think," he says, writing to a friend at the time, "that the Church should accept of no measure whatever which leaves her at the mercy of the Civil Court, for it is perfectly evident that the Court of Session at present takes a kind of pleasure in opposing and oppressing the Evangelical party in the Church. . . . I have received a copy of the Memorial to Government. The concluding part of it is very solemn and pressing, and our rulers must be perfectly regardless of the real welfare of the nation, and of their own responsibility to God, if they dare to set it at nought."

VI. APPEAL TO THE COUNTRY.

A GREAT step had now been taken. Men stood pledged, if there were no redress, to give up their livings, and abandon the Establishment. It may well be believed that, on returning to their parishes, there was no little anxiety as to what impression all this would make on their people. In many cases they left Edinburgh with the foregone conclusion, not only that their demands would be rejected in Parliament, but that they themselves would have to separate from their congregations, and to leave the country. Mr. Thomson, of Muckhart, says: "My hopes of success in the country districts were but small. The tenantry, by long-continued efforts on the part of the gentry, have, in the great majority of instances, in some districts been brought into a state of complete subserviency to their landlords in political matters; and I fear the pressure has been so long continued, that even in reference to ecclesiastical matters there would be submission too." After referring to other discouragements, he states:-"Under these circumstances, I have been seriously turning over in my mind whether I should fix on Australia or America as the scene of my future labours."

In regard to city congregations, Dr. Lorimer, of Glasgow, had similar misgivings: "It was impossible to hide from one's self (so we judged before the Disruption) that there would not be room in Glasgow for all who were certainly resolved to come out. The next consideration with me was that those who had been longest in Glasgow would naturally be the persons to remain. Consequently that for myself, and various other younger brethren, there was no course but to remove to a distance. Despairing, or at least very doubtful, of finding a

* Dis. Mss. xxviii. p. 6.

sphere of usefulness as a minister of the Gospel at home, I seriously bethought me to what other department I could turn myself. When I thought of the ministry abroad, my mind turned towards Canada. Repeatedly did I speak of Holland as probably a cheap and pleasant residence. Mrs. Lorimer and I had been not a little interested in that country on a brief tour

in 1839." *

It seems strange that even Mr. M'Cheyne, of Dundee, should have thought there would be no sphere for him in Scotland. A copresbyter, Mr. Stewart, of Lochee, who returned with him from the Convocation, mentions that they had been consulting "as to what it might be their duty to do in the event of the Disruption, and where they might be scattered. Mr. Stewart said he could preach Gaelic, and might go to the Highlanders in Canada if it were needful. Mr. M'Cheyne said: "I think of going to the many thousand convicts that are transported beyond the seas, for no man careth for their souls." + In the same spirit Dr. James Hamilton, looking on the Convocation, and saddened by the prospect of their being cast out, takes comfort in the thought of what a blessing it would be to the world if they were "scattered abroad, everywhere preaching the Word.” ‡

It was with such feelings, and in the face of such difficulties, men had to go forward. In some cases, when they returned to their parishes, it might well have seemed that their worst fears were going to be realised. At Dundee, Mr. Lewis found that the intelligence of the resolution he had taken "was received generally in solemn silence, not unfrequently, also, with a look of doubt and hesitation, as if inquiring whether we had done wisely. They were evidently unprepared for so serious an issue. The prudence and caution of the national character now showed itself as decidedly as its love of the logic and discussion of the question had in the preceding ten years. They seemed to hang back and shrink from the practical issue, as if a thing never in their contemplation. The more outspoken would say: 'I hope you have well thought of it.' 'Are you sure there is no other course?' 'Have you not been hasty?' . . . In my then state of mind, it seemed as if the people were about to desert + Memoir, p. 155. Harp on the Willows, p. 15.

* Dis. Mss. i. p. 4.

their ministers, and they were about to be left alone in that sacrifice to principle." "* He was soon to be undeceived.

At Cleish, in Kinross-shire, Mr. Duncan mentions: "I had no reason to expect any sympathy from the greater part of the people of Cleish, . . . so that there appeared to be a moral certainty that a mere handful would leave along with me.” †

At Stevenston, in Ayrshire, Dr. Landsborough's people "did not appear to take much interest in the matter. Even after the Convocation, which I attended, the interest was not greatly increased, so that when meetings were called, to be addressed ... on the state of the Church, it was disheartening to see that few attended. As my own mind was made up to leave the Establishment if matters were not satisfactorily settled, my prospects were far from being bright. I said to some who I knew were friendly: . . . 'I think very few will follow me.' 'They will, perhaps, be more numerous than you expect,' was the reply." +

Even at Kilsyth, after the time of revival, and the numerous meetings called by Dr. Burns, the prospect at first was not encouraging. "When [after the Convocation] names and subscriptions were called for, preparatory to the anticipated Disruption, few seemed ready to take the step, . . . cherishing, no doubt, the hope that the dreaded catastrophe might somehow be averted. One member, a pious weaver in the village, said that 'as it was not till the people saw David going up by the ascent of Olivet, his head covered as he went up barefoot, that all the people that was with him went up weeping, so it would be in this case." §

...

One great difficulty with which the Church had to contend at the time was the general hostility of the newspaper press, and its formidable power in the country. Hugh Miller had, indeed, been for some years in the field, giving powerful aid in the * Pres. of Dundee, Parker Mss.

+ Dis. Mss. xii. p. 1. His father, Dr. Duncan, of Ruthwell, had said (Memoir, p. 286), "I hope none of my children will show the white feather. Indeed, I know they will not." He was right in regard to them all; and not even the above discouragement made the young pastor of Cleish hesitate.

Dis. Mss. xxxviii. p. 1.

§ Dis. Mss. xxix. p. 6.

columns of the Witness. The Scottish Guardian and other prints were doing valuable work, but as a whole, the press was hostile. Of the sixty-three newspapers published in Scotland, only eight were on the side of the Church,* and the holding of the Convocation seemed only to have rendered the opposition of the hostile press more bitter.+ Difference of political sentiment made no difference in this. "By asserting the independent jurisdiction of the Church," said Dr. Cunningham, "we have drawn upon our head the wrath of Tories, Whigs, and Radicals. . . . There is scarcely an organ of public opinion that supports our principles. And if you attend to the public press you will find, perhaps, the attack of a High Church journal on Friday, followed upon Saturday by a Voluntary print; ... but in spite of all this misrepresentation, we are confident in the goodness of our cause."

In view of the momentous interests at stake, it obviously became the duty of the Church, by means of deputations, addresses, and otherwise, to come into direct communication with her people, and make known her principles all over the land; and such appeals, for the most part, met with the most hearty and cordial response. In dealing with the apathy of his people, for example, above referred to, Mr. Lewis, of Dundee, delivered a series of six lectures, in the course of which he remarks: "I never had a more attentive or interested auditory, the same persons making it a point of duty to hear me out. On the sixth and last night, I put the question: Leave the Established Church or remain-when upwards of 400 signed their adherence [to the Convocation resolutions]; and subse

Life of Dr. Cunningham, p. 134.

+ A single illustration may be given to show the spirit in which the warfare was carried on. Mr. Maitland Makgill Crichton was an active supporter of the Church. "With our two editorial auxiliaries, paste and the scissors," says the Witness, "we have been painfully clipping out and fastening together in a single column every vituperative scrap of which Mr. Crichton has been the subject, for the last fortnight, and find, on spreading the roll before us on the carpet, that it already extends to the astounding length of eleven feet, six inches, and three eighth-parts of undiluted abuse in one brief fortnight. Depend upon it, Mr. Makgill Crichton is a very formidable man. His efforts are telling; he strikes so hard that the blow rebounds."-Memoir of Mr. M. Crichton, p. 166.