The Assembly appointed Mr Moody Stuart to be Convener of the Committee in room of Dr Keith; and the Assembly adjourned at five o'clock, till the evening.

EVENING SEDERUNT.

The Assembly met in the evening at half-past seven.

APPLICATIONS FOR NEW CHARGES.

Mr R. JOHNSTON, W.S., Convener of the Committee on the Sanctioning of New Charges, reported that the Committee had merely to give in the names of applications which had been made to them on this subject; and he would propose that the Assembly should appoint a Committee to consider the applications, which was agreed to; and a Committtee was accordingly named.

The Committee on revising Commissions gave in a Report. All the Commissions were sustained, and bona fide certificates produced on the part of all the elders except five.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH.

The Assembly took up the Overtures on the Testimony of the Church, and the following from the Synod of Aberdeen was then read :

Whereas, while it is the duty of the Church of Christ to contend for and bear testimony to the whole of the faith as once delivered to the saints, yet, if the course of events, whether in the history of churches or of nations, shall happen to invest any particular doctrine with peculiar interest and importance, it becomes a special duty of the Church of Christ to seize the opportunity thus afforded of giving due prominence and explicitness to that present truth:

"Whereas, farther, the present aspect of the times, in the condition of the world, more particularly of Christendom, both social and ecclesiastical, is such as to make it apparent that the scriptural doctrine of Christ's Headship over the nations, and still more especially over His own Church, is a principle much requiring to be testified, and, if scripturally testified, likely to prove of the highest practical value and importance for the general welfare and advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom:

"Whereas, besides the historical fact that to Scotland, perhaps more than to any other country, has been committed, in the past providence of God, the duty of testifying for this great principle, seems to point to our beloved land as a spot singled out and prepared by the events of centuries, on which in these times a conspicuous standard may be advantageously erected for the continued display of this present truth: "Whereas, moreover, the Free Church of Scotland having been called upon so lately to contend and suffer for the maintenance of the crown-rights of the Redeemer, even to the extent of relinquishing the benefits of her national establishment,—many of her ministers and faithful people being subjected to sacrifices and sufferings for conscience sake, it may be presumed that this places her in a vantage position, which cannot fail to impart to her testimony peculiar interest and weight in the eyes of the Churches, if not also of the nations of Christendom:

"Whereas, too, it may be hoped that the keeping prominently before the minds of the people the truly doctrinal aspect and bearings of the questions for which the Free Church has had to contend, will, by the Divine blessing, prove a means of preserving, and even of increasing among her members an enlightened acquaintance with, and a sound attachment to, the great scriptural principles which her peculiar testimony involves :

"And whereas, lastly, by the same Divine blessing, the banner which is thus displayed for truth may serve at the same time as a guiding mark to our Church herself in her marchings through the wilderness, after her late Exodus, by following which she may strike into new tracks of usefulness, and be led to discover other and more glorious practical applications of the essential principles of the Word of God, in struggling for which the Lord has brought her thus far safely on her way:

It is humbly overtured by the Reverend the Free Synod of Aberdeen to the Venerable the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, to take this whole subject into immediate and serious consideration, and to devise such means as in their

wisdom may seem most meet to perform the incumbent duties, and also to secure the manifest privileges, which are to be found embodied in the premises of this overture." It was then intimated that overtures on the same subject had been received from the Synod of Moray, Synod of Stirling, Presbytery of Edinburgh, Presbytery of Glasgow, and Presbytery of Stirling.

Dr CANDLISH said, it is with peculiar propriety, as it seems to me, that the subject should form the very first ordinary business to be taken up in this General Assembly. Assuredly the time is now come when this Church should seriously consider what is her duty as having just emerged from her severe contest for great principles, and as being charged with the commission of transmitting these principles to coming generations. It is well that we allowed a few years to elapse after the memorable event of the Disruption; but now I think the Presbyteries of the Church have very seasonably called our attention to the position which we must now occupy, as being called, as it were, to gather up the amount of testimony which we are called to bear for the truth of God, and to take measures for transmitting it to generations yet to come. (Hear.) The reason, I believe, why this subject has been put down for this early diet, is one that must approve itself to the minds of all the brethren in the Assembly, that we cannot be well prepared for a right deliverance upon these overtures, without the previous appointment of a large Committee to take them into consideration, and to recommend to the General Assembly what may seem to be the right judgment upon them. It is on this account that the overtures have been brought forward at this early stage,-namely, that a large Committee, selected from all parts of the country, might be appointed to consider the overtures, and to determine what might be the best procedure for the Assembly to adopt in regard to the overtures, and also what might be the best method of carrying into effect the recommendation or suggestion contained in them for keeping alive the testimony of the Church from age to age. I do not think it would be reasonable to enter at large into the subject at present. I hold in my hand a list of a Committee prepared upon the principle to which I have already referred; and I shall satisfy myself at present with moving the appointment of this Committee, to take into consideration the overtures which have been sent up in regard to the testimony of the Church, and to report at an early diet of the Assembly what they would recommend as the course of procedure in the Assembly, and as the judgment to be pronounced by the Assembly on the subject of these overtures. It seems to me to be more and more important every day that we should, as a Church, anchor ourselves by the chain of connection which history affords between us and former generations. (Hear, hear.) We see enough in the signs of the times to indicate a tendency in an opposite direction; and it seems to me to be clear that this Church is more and more called upon every day to take up her position in connection with the testimony of former ages, and to guard against any tendency that there may be, either in our own position, or in the spirit of the times, to drift us away from the safe and secure moorings which the history of former ages affords for the Church of Scotland. (Hear.) And on this ground I think that the overtures on this subject are peculiarly seasonable. Dr Candlish here read the names of the Committee which he begged to propose, consisting of ministers and elders selected from the different Synods of the Church. He then said,—I move the appointment of this Committee, under the firm conviction that the overtures on the table ought to lead to a much more full deliberation on the whole subject than can be given to it this night; and also to such a decision upon the subject referred to in the overtures, as may be of paramount influence as regards both the Church and people of Scotland. (Hear.)

Mr ROBERT PAUL said, that he had great pleasure in seconding the appointment of the Committee.

The motion was unanimously agreed to.

The Assembly called for the Report of the Committee on

QUOAD SACRA CHURCHES.

Mr BEGG rose and said-Moderator, in giving in the Report of the Committee on Quoad Sacra Churches, perhaps it is right that I should explain very shortly the present position of the question. The Committee was appointed at the last Assembly, for the purpose of endeavouring to secure an equitable adjustment of this whole mat

ter, confirmed, if possible, by a legislative enactment. And I beg to mention, that for the purpose of accomplishing this object, the Committee, soon after the rising of last Assembly, sent a schedule of queries to the ministers of all the quoad sacra churches, or to other persons whom we considered likely to be well acquainted with their affairs. In answer to this circular, a very large amount of information was sent to the Committee; although not all the information which we desired, still, a sufficient amount to enable us to make a pretty full memorial to her Majesty's Government, setting forth the facts in regard to these churches, and such additional facts and considerations as we thought important. This memorial has been printed and published in various forms; and I beg to lay a copy of it on the table of the Assembly. It is not necessary that I should read it to the Assembly; but it is, perhaps, right that I should very shortly call the attention of the Assembly to the facts connected with it, before making the proposal which I have to submit to the Assembly in reference to it. (Hear.) 1 beg to mention—and I presume that many of the members of Assembly are well awaree-that this question may be said to have passed through three or four different stages. I myself am old enough to remember something of all of them. The first stage was that in which it was impossible, or very nearly impossible, to obtain a chapel of ease at all in connection with the Established Church, the consent of three-fourths of the heritors, according to their valued rental, being essential to the division of a parish; and, although the meaning of consent was not understood in our question to imply the power of an absolute veto resting in the communicants, it was well understood by the heritors of Scotland, who had an interest in putting a veto on the building of new places of worship. (Hear, and laughter.) It was so thoroughly understood, that it was impossible, or nearly impossible, to obtain from them a new chapel of ease; and a similar difficulty existed in the Courts of the Established Church. The very first time I ever was in the old Assembly, meeting in St Giles's, I witnessed one of the last of the cases of disputed quoad sacra churches. I remember very well forcing myself into that small, dark, cramped place, and seeing an old minister, who admitted that there was a population of 6000 in his parish, resisting most vigorously an attempt by the people to have a chapel of ease erected in the parish. The matter struck me the more, that it was the very same chapel of ease, the first one of which I became the minister. This, then, was the first stage of the matter, that, namely, in which it was nearly impossible to obtain, either from the heritors or the Church Courts, a new place of worship. When they were ob tained, the people cared comparatively little about such churches, because of the dis abilities under which they were erected. At the same time, sixty-three of such churches were erected in connection with the Establishment; and these were a great blessing to many parts of Scotland. Some of them were erected by good people; and chapels of ease that enjoyed the labours of such excellent men as Dr Love of Glasgow, Dr Jones of Edinburgh, Dr Colquhoun of Leith, Dr Kid of Aberdeen, and other men, the savour of whose names is precious in our land. (Hear.) You remember that the matter reached a very different stage when the Established Church was reformed according to the principles of its constitution in 1834; and then not only was there no difficulty in obtaining chapels of ease, or quoad sacra churches, but we did all in our power, by urging the people to secure the erection of such places of worship. We raised the ministers of such churches to the parity of status which all ministers according to the Word of God are entitled to possess; and we gave them Kirk-Sessions, insomuch that, as you are aware, one of these ministers was actually made Moderator of the General Assembly during that period, I mean Dr M'Leod of Glasgow, who was content afterwards to descend from that lofty position of parity to which we raised him. (Laughter, and Hear, hear.) I may mention in general, that during that period, embracing six years, the sum of £287,000, or rather £305,747 11:21, was raised for the building of these churches; and in all, one hundred and seventy-three were completed. (Hear.) It is quite certain that a large proportion of this money was subscribed by persons who are now connected with the Free Church. It cannot be said that the whole was raised by persons who are now connected with the Free Church; neither can it be said that the ministers now be longing to the Free Church were alone zealous in promoting this cause; for there undoubtedly zealous ministers who do not now belong to the Free Church; and money was subscribed, and churches were built, by persons who are still con

it was

were some

:

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nected with the Established Church. But it is quite certain that the greatest amount of zeal was manifested by persons who are now connected with the Free Church,--Dr Chalmers, our venerable father, taking the lead-(hear, hear,)—and throwing his great strength and influence into that cause; and it is also quite certain that the great bulk of the money was also subscribed by persons now belonging to the Free Church. (Hear, hear.) When the Disruption happened, you know that the third stage was realized, namely, the stage at which these churches were all claimed by the Establishment, and some of them seized under protest by the Establishment. Now, I need not enter into an explanation of the various cases which have arisen. I may merely say, that the question, as it now stands, is of very great importance, inasmuch as a considerable number of these Churches were still in possession of the Free Church. For example, not to go over the cases enumerated in the memorial, there is the case of Kelso, to begin at the Border, where the Church was built chiefly by the zeal and liberality of Mr Nisbet of London-(hear, hear)-at a cost of £3600, all of which has been paid. Out of that sum not £300 was subscribed by persons who are connected with the Established Church; and I am authorised by Mr Nisbet to say, that he is prepared personally to repay that £300 at once to the persons who subscribed it. (Hear, hear.) Then there are the churches at Dunbar, Haddington, and Cockenzie, all connected still with the Free Church. In the case of Cockenzie, nearly the whole population is connected with the Free Church. Then there are St John's and Mariners' churches, Leith; Newhaven ; St Luke's and St Paul's, Edinburgh; nearly the whole of the twenty quoad sacra churches in Glasgow, some in Dundee and Aberdeen, and two in Inverness; all still occupied by people connected with the Free Church. Therefore the question is of very considerable importance, in whatever aspect it is viewed. You are aware that the ground on which the Established Church claims possession of all these places of worship is, in the first place, that there is a clause in the title-deeds by which they were to be connected with the Established Church. It is important, however, to take along with this the undoubted fact, that when these churches were so connected with the Established Church, the Establishment was understood to be, and the people expected that it would continue to be, an institution very different from what it is now; and that these churches would continue to occupy a very different position from that which they now occupy. In other words, it was expressly stipulated by those who subscribed the money, that the ministers of these churches should continue to occupy the stations in the Church Courts which they then possessed,-should continue to have kirk-sessions and parishes. All this is unquestionable; and, in point of fact, in the progress of the litigation in the civil courts, it has been admitted, that in some form or other these conditions must still be implemented by the trustees of these places of worship. (Hear, hear.) It is admitted on all hands that the Establishment is not in a condition to implement this engagement, because the Church Courts of the Establishment have formally abandoned all claims to such power, as we think, most erroneously and unseripturally. Mr Begg then referred to the claim of the Establishment founded upon the legisla tive enactment, providing that, if an endowment is secured for these churches, they may be erected into parishes by the civil Courts; and observed that, apart altogether from the difficulty of raising nearly a million of money for such an endowment, it did not seem fair to apply to a matter which is past legislation which is posterior. If that act had been intended to apply to such cases, surely we were entitled to have been called as parties, so that existing interests might be secured. Another plea was, that these places of worship had obtained assistance from the funds of the Church Extension Committee; but the obvious reply to that plea was, that the great mass of that fund also, as well as the local fund, was subscribed by persons who are now connected with the Free Church. He instanced the case of the church at Stranraer, which had been built chiefly by the zeal of Sir Andrew Agnew and another respected member of this Assembly. The church was claimed on the ground that some of the money was given from the Church Extension Fund. It was therefore thought advisable to make some investigation into the persons who subscribed to that general fund in that district, and these were just found to be the two persons whom it was proposed to thrust out of the church, that is, their own money was to be used in turning them out of their own property. (Hear, hear.) This, then, was the state of the question, as he (Mr Begg) understood it. In interposing in the matter, the General

V

Assembly did not intend to make a stand on the legal question. They left the litigants to urge their own case in the civil courts; but they took up the matter on higher grounds, and they said, that in the estimation of all fair and impartial men, whatever claim the Establishment might have in law, and that claim they did not admit, they had no claim in equity to take and keep the whole of these churches; and they held, moreover, that in every sense of the word it was most unrighteous to turn these congregations out of their churches. That being the case, the question was, what should be done? Now, the Committee recommended one or two points for the consideration of the Assembly. In the first place, it was most desirable to receive more perfect information, and for this purpose they proposed issuing schedules to the Presbyteries of the Church; and if these were properly filled up, all the information required would be obtained. Then again, it was the opinion of the Committee that they were bound to go to Parliament, to ask for its interference to put an end to the litigation, and to do them simple justice. He held that Parliament was bound to interfere to terminate the harassing litigation which at present existed, and to bring the matter to an equitable conclusion. But before going to Parliament, they considered that they ought to take up the question as a mere pecuniary, and not as an ecclesiastical matter. It was a dispute about buildings and temporalities; and in such a dispute they should act in the same way as they would act as private individuals; they ought not to relinquish their claims until they had exhausted every means of establishing them. And just as they held that private individuals, in matters of worldly interest, were bound to approach the individuals with whom they were at issue, and to say,- "We wish you to concede to us what are our rights, and no more,❞—in like manner the Committee held, that it was the duty of that Assembly to approach the Assembly of the Established Church, and to say to them,-" Gentlemen (a laugh)-here is a case in which we have already sustained injury,-in which you threaten to inflict on us more injury: our proposal is, that the matter shall be fairly and equitably adjusted-adjusted by the arbitration of persons mutually chosen; and being so adjusted, it shall be confirmed by act of Parliament, and that act shall be a final settlement of the whole question." He left therefore this proposal with the Assembly, and asked them seriously to consider it. (Hear, hear.) Dr CANDLISH said—I am prepared to move a series of resolutions in accordance with the suggestion of the Committee on Quoad Sacra Churches. These resolutions will suspend the consideration of the whole subject till some day towards the close of next week. In accordance with the suggestion of the Committee, I am prepared to move that we should now, as an Assembly, approach the Assembly of the Establishment on the subject of an equitable and amicable adjustment of the question between the two bodies. It is true that the litigations to which reference has been made, have been carried on by private parties. Neither the Established Church nor the Free Church has, as a church, been responsible for the conduct of these litigations. At the same time, no one can for a moment imagine that these litigations are carried on otherwise than virtually, and to all intents and purposes, as litigations between the two Churches. That is plain to demonstration. There is this difference, however, between the claims that have been advanced on the opposite side. I do not say to what extent either Church has made itself responsible for the litigation; but there is this difference on the one side,—on the side of the Establishment, the claim that has been put forth in the courts of law is for the entire possession of these churches. I do not complain of this, in so far as a litigation before the courts of law is concerned, for I suppose they could not plead their cause on any other ground; but we, on the contrary, have pleaded on our side, that we desire, not the entire possession of these churches for the Free Church of Scotland, but an equitable arrangement between the two bodies. (Hear, hear.) For example, the litigants who are on the side of the Free Church, private parties, but still litigating in the interests of the Free Church, if I may so speak,-they put in as their claim before the courts of law, not that they were entitled to the possession of the churches litigated, but that since the conditions connected with the erection of these churches cannot be fulfilled, and the trust cannot be extricated in the ordinary way by an adjustment between the parties, the Court ought to order the sale of the properties. On the other hand, the claim put forth and litigated on the other side was a demand for the possession of the churches out and out in connection with the Establishment. Now, Mr Begg has sufficiently stated on