onward to Sabbath, the 20th November. This was a week of deliverance, as the other had been one of conviction. One young married woman, who had been at no meetings, and, as she said, sought and found the Lord in her own house, was to appearance savingly converted shortly after midnight on Saturday morning, the 12th. And as her case shows, the report of her having got as it were the start of the burdened sinners around her, brought them in crowds to her house during the Saturday from an early hour, and caused them to feel greatly increased distress, as they gazed on her emancipated state, and contrasted it with their own continued and terrible bondage. She was thus the most powerful of all the sermons they heard. And, indeed, if one instrumentality rather than another is to be condescended on, it seems to me that then, and at all stages of the work, the converse which they held with each other, anent their sorrows and their joys, was among the most easily recognised means by which the Lord carried on His work of grace in the midst of them. The second week having so auspiciously begun by the conversion already mentioned, at every successive hour of it, ministering angels seem to have got fresh messages to carry to the courts above, concerning the repentance of another and another sinner which fills all heaven with gladness. And ere that second week had passed, many a heart that had been bursting with its sorrow, was breaking out in songs of rapturous joy."

While these things were going on in town and country, the ministers of the Free Church felt it to be their duty to throw themselves heart and soul into the work, seeking to guard it from evil, and prayerfully to carry out those great ends for which it had been given. Many a grateful testimony is borne to the happy results which remained after the first fervour had passed away, how family worship was observed, prayer meetings multiplied, church attendance increased, and the whole tone of religious life was elevated.

One of the most gratifying circumstances has been the stability and permanence of the work in many of the congregations. Mr. Bain, of Chapel Garioch, mentions that when the * Blue Book, 1865, p. 18.

revival took place, they had seventy new communicants added to the congregation, and speaking at the distance of five years, he is able to say that there had been very little going back among them. At a recent election of elders, they required seven, and five of those chosen had been the subjects of the revival movement. Subsequently they had an election of deacons, and of the eleven elected seven were subjects of the revival. Others had become Sabbath-school teachers, and some young men were studying for the ministry. A number of persons had been reclaimed from drunkenness. One of the fruits of the revival was that "the young men had undertaken the support of a native catechist in China, and the young women the education of a girl in India." In very many districts it is believed that similar experience has been met with. Among the Sabbath-school teachers and office-bearers in many a congregation, there is a large proportion of the most zealous workers who received their first saving impression of Divine truth at the time of that memorable revival, and who have steadfastly held on their course.

The facts thus far stated will give some indication of the religious state of Scotland at the time, but they must be taken as mere examples of what was taking place in many localities, too numerous to mention. In the Assembly of 1860 a whole day was given up to the consideration of such details, and the more the subject was inquired into, it was found there was the more to tell. Summing up the result, Dr. Buchanan stated from the Moderator's chair: "Time absolutely failed for recounting the Lord's wonderful dealings in almost every part of the land. We had thought, many of us, that the whole extent of the present religious awaking was already generally known. But how striking, and how delightful, was it to find that the half had not been told. In the course of that long and most refreshing day that was occupied with this blessed subject, as one brother after another rose to address the House, the fact became increasingly manifest that in countless districts of which no public mention had ever been previously made, the Spirit from on high had been dropping as the rain and distilling as * Blue Book, lx. pp. 271, 272.

*

the dew, to refresh God's weary heritage and revive His work in the midst of the years. From East Lothian to the Outer Hebrides, from the shores of the Moray Firth to those of the Solway, and all through the great mining and manufacturing districts of the kingdom, we heard of scenes which carried us back to the days of the Lord's wonderful doings at Shotts, Stewarton, and Cambuslang." And very gratefully and joyfully were such tidings welcomed. At a great price the Free Church had sought to be found faithful in bearing her testimony for Christ, and the desire which above all else she cherished was to receive some token of His favour in the revival of her spiritual life. Many prayers had been offered, and when the blessing was actually bestowed, and sinners were turned to the Lord, and congregations were revived and quickened, men might well have their hearts filled with gratitude and their lips with praise. The Lord had done great things for us, whereof we were glad.

LXIV. FINAL.

In closing these Annals, we can now look back on the Disruption at the distance of forty years, and estimate in some measure its abiding influence in the Church and on the world. Our first impulse is to linger over the memories of the great leaders who wielded such influence among their brethren-men gifted with powers of intellect and eloquence which fitted them to guide the Church through her days of trial, when scenes were witnessed and deeds were done which can never be forgotten. There was Dr. Chalmers, standing out before all others a true "king of men;" and Dr. Candlish, with his brilliant intellect and fascinating powers of speech; and Dr. Cunningham, strong in the manly force of his overpowering logic; and Dr. Robert Buchanan, with his sagacious counsels and polished eloquence; and Alexander Dunlop, distinguished for his mastery of constitutional law and high-minded chivalry; and a host of others— a long list of those who stood high in the view of the Church and the country. Sometimes it seems as if it were but yesterday that they were moving and acting in the midst of us with all their commanding influence: "But our fathers, where are they, and the prophets-do they live for ever?" They served their generation according to the will of God, and with few exceptions they have gone to their rest.

The Christian who believes that God is in human history, guiding the course of events, may well see a Divine hand conspicuously manifest in the Disruption. The event was brought about by the agency of those who "meant not so, neither did their heart think so.”

The Evangelical party-afterwards the Free Church-in claiming for the people a voice in the calling of their ministers, wished to do what was right, and at the same time to strengthen

the Establishment; but the end was that they were themselves driven out, and a heavy blow inflicted on the Establishment, which they had wished to strengthen.

The Moderate party-afterwards the Establishment-wished to defend Patronage, and rather than have it limited they preferred the risk of Disruption. But that Disruption which they caused, has compelled them since to ask from Parliament the abolition of that very Patronage which they had striven at such cost to defend.

The Government of Sir Robert Peel were Conservative; but when they refused any concession-refused even a committee of inquiry-they shattered what all men knew was the most conservative institution in the country.

Thus all the different agents were led by a way which they knew not. The Disruption itself, in its providential aspects, as well as the whole train of circumstances that led to it, was evidently "the doing of the Lord." While man proposed, it was God who disposed; and if so, it is obvious that a heavy responsibility has ever since been lying on the Church, to inquire with what design God brought her into this position, and how best she is to carry out His purposes.

It is right to bear in mind that strong efforts were made by the Evangelical party to avoid the catastrophe. In 1841, for example, a movement was made in Parliament to "close the yawning breach, and avert the threatened Disruption." If the Moderate party in the Church had supported the effort of the then Duke of Argyll, it would have been successful. It fell to Dr. Candlish, in the Assembly, to speak for his side, and he bent the whole powers of his eloquence to bring about mutual concessions. If the anti-Patronage men would cease to press for antiPatronage and this they were willing to do,-and if the Patronage men were willing to consent to some modification in favour of the people, all parties might meet on common ground. For eight years the Moderate party had administered the Veto Law without any scruple of conscience; and would they not, he asked, unite in intimating to Parliament that it was a thing they could-for the sake of saving a Disruption-submit to, though they did not approve of it? In appealing to them with this view, Dr. Candlish