lanes, in one of these churches, on a week-day evening, when he could hardly get to the church door for the crowd that was gathered round it. "That Wynd district, that was the opprobrium of the city, to which strangers, curious in such sights, were taken that they might see to what depths it was possible for human beings to sink-that very district had become within a few years literally a centre of moral and religious influence in the great city of Glasgow."

While all this was going on, other congregations were not idle. Within a very few years twenty additional Free Church congregations were formed in the Presbytery of Glasgow. The whole narrative of work connected with the Wynd Church is one to which it would be difficult to find a parallel in the history of Christian effort. But what gives it tenfold interest is the earnest spirituality which pervaded the whole operations. It was the winning of souls that was the one grand object in view. If adherents were gained for the Free Church, and churches were built and congregations formed, these were secondary results. Here was a degraded population perishing in wretchedness and vice, and the one grand question was how to reclaim those backsliders, and to rescue those of our own flesh and blood who were ready to perish.

It is impossible for us here to attempt any sketch of what was done in Dundee, Aberdeen, and other towns, but these two examples of the West Port in Edinburgh, and the Wynd Church in Glasgow-will enable the reader to understand how such territorial work was carried on. Though the results were not in all cases equally striking, yet over the whole field there were tokens of blessing for which men might well thank God. The Church, Dr. Roxburgh declared, "was not sufficiently aware how much of that measure of Christian usefulness to which she had attained was due to these territorial operations. He could name twenty-six of these stations, which within the last very few years had risen into congregations, some of them most vigorous and flourishing-some of them shining as centres of light in the midst of the darkest and neediest districts."+ It was a noble thing to listen to him when, * Blue Book, 1861, p. 107. † Blue Book, 1859, p. 203.

as Convener of Home Mission Committee, year after year he laid before the Assembly a review of this work, thrilling them with his appeals and making men feel how truly this was the proper work of the Christian Church. All too soon his failing strength forced him to retire from his post, yet not less did the work continue to prosper, and Dr. Wilson, his successor, was able to say: "We are adding year after year to the number of such missions, and year by year God is showing how wide and effectual is the door open to us for obtaining access to the masses of the population crowding the lanes and closes of our large cities. And if I may venture to say it, nowhere in the field of missions at home or abroad in connection with the agency of the Free Church has such an abundant blessing been poured out as in connection with these territorial missions."*

* Blue Book, 1865, p. 79.

LXI. RESULTS OF THE DISRUPTION.-SPIRITUAL FRUIT.

IT was the great hope of the Free Church that the Disruption, with all its trials, would yet prove a blessing by awakening men to a sense of the reality and power of vital religion. Such an event could not fail to have a powerful effect for good or evil. All Scotland had been shaken-every circle of society had been agitated; and now, when we look back, it may well be asked, How far did the cause of religion gain or lose? Various statements bearing on this occur in the Disruption Records.

The remark of a working man-"a pious weaver, a student of his Bible"-is mentioned by Dr. Burns of Kilsyth. For some time he had been expecting what took place. "The Church," he said, "including the different denominations,” had become "very dormant," and much in need of being stirred up. The Lord behoved to touch the mainspring. He had begun at the house of God-the ministers.

Cases have occurred, says Mr. Innes of Deskford, Banffshire, in which individuals have traced their first serious impressions to the Disruption, with its accompaniments-but especially where individuals, well disposed before that event, have had their ideas of the reality and importance of vital religion greatly enlarged and strengthened.*

Such instances confirm the remark of Dr. Burns, that the Disruption, as "a practical demonstration of the power of the truth," was "better than a new treatise on the evidences of Christianity."

At Larbert, when Dr. John Bonar, as all men expected, proved true to his colours, and took part in the Disruption, the effect on the parish and throughout the district generally was to

* Disr. Mss. XV.

beget and spread abroad a conviction as to the power of conscience and the practical force of truth which itself was, as the present writer knows, and has good reason to say, a powerful means of grace. They had had in that parish some experience of forced settlements and of the coldness of a Moderate ministry, and they questioned whether the ministry could be anything but Moderate and time-serving. Many of them did so; yet all, with beautiful and most natural inconsistency, thought better of their own minister, and it came to them like a pleasing proof of the correctness of their judgment, whilst it was an evidence also that religion is real and has power, that he and many more were valiant and true in the hour of trial. We happen to know that a thought and course of reasoning of this kind had very strong and blessed influence in Larbert; and we believe also that in many other parts of the land as well, Disruption bravery and consistency were in this way made a blessing. Men saw therein the power of religious truth and the living reality of evangelical piety, and the sight availed for bringing them "under the powers of the world to come."*

Still more were these impressions confirmed by the course of Christian usefulness to which the Church devoted herself. In December, 1862, nearly twenty years after the Disruption, a member of Parliament, representing one of the largest counties in Scotland, wrote to a minister of the Free Church: "At one time I thought that you and the able men with whom you acted were wrong. But no impartial observer can look round and see the number of new churches and new schools which have been built, and the increased number of ministers and teachers, without frankly admitting that the formation of the Free Church has been a great blessing to Scotland."+

How the Disruption roused the Church in her own proper sphere was obvious even to strangers from a distance. D'Aubigné, for example, is struck by the life and earnestness apparent in the very aspect of the General Assembly:-"The hall at Canonmills is low, but under its bare rafters and rude beams there was assembled an enthusiastic auditory, *Disr. Mss. lxiv. + Blue Book, lxiii. p. 7.

filling the vast area. A Scottish assembly is no gathering of cold, impassive listeners, as those in Switzerland and the Continent too often are; it is a living body of extreme sensibility, ready to respond to every touch. These multitudes feel an interest in the discussions affecting the cause of God, and the religious interests of mankind, more keen than the world does in political debates. Neither in the Houses of Parliament in London, nor in the Palais Bourbon in Paris, is to be seen anything like what is witnessed in the Canonmills at Edinburgh." The world "sneers at the Church; but it is right to show that she can feel more enthusiasm for the cause of Christ than the world does for political and material interests."

In country districts even the most remote much of the same earnestness was manifest-conspicuously in the Highlands, as we have seen; but in many a Lowland parish also men were thirsting for the Word. Thus, in the Synod of Merse and Teviotdale, with its seventy parishes, only seventeen ministers came out. Mr. Wood, of Elie-then of Westruther-was one of the number, and much of the burden of giving supply was laid on him. The work was heavy, but full of encouragement. "There was at the time a very great willingness to hear the Gospel. I had but to send a message to a farm-steading in the forenoon of a week-day, and I had a good congregation assembled in the evening to hear the Word." In this way the supply of ordinances was kept up till better arrangements could be made.

To meet this state of mind, ministers everywhere were putting forth all their powers. Before the Disruption, when they were prohibited by the Court of Session from preaching in Strathbogie, the sainted Robert M'Cheyne, one of the interdicted, gave this reply: "I can say with Paul that I have preached the Gospel from Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum, and no power on earth shall keep me from preaching it in the dead parishes of Scotland." And if the ministers were thus resolute, the audiences were equally sympathetic. A survivor *Free Church Mag. v. p. 25.

+ Disr. Mss. 1. p. 35.

Life of Duchess of Gordon, p. 230.