vinced that the State was fulfilling a duty commanded by God in the Scriptures when it made provision for the maintenance of the ordinances of religion in all the parishes of Scotland. Every lawful means were therefore used to enable them to retain their position as ministers of an endowed Church; and it was in the face of an undoubting belief of the scriptural rightness of their position, and a strong conviction of the importance and desirableness of retaining it, that they found themselves compelled to abandon it' (Dr J. J. Wood).

'Suppose that the House of Commons were to ask the mind of the Church-as a House of Commons, as good as any that ever sat, have done before now-the moderator's address would be pretty much this :-" You are over this kingdom, but Jesus Christ is over you. You are not set in your high place to advance the temporal interests only of the people you govern. You are set there for a far more exalted end, even to advance the interests of Christ's kingdom, and to serve the cause of truth and righteousness. On the throne, as well as off the throne, officially as well as unofficially, your chief end is to glorify God. Foster, encourage, and support the true religion. Promote it at home, and you will exalt the nation. Promote it in your dependencies. Have you learned no lesson from your Indian rebellion? Protect God's holy Sabbath; it is the poor man's greatest blessing. Give to the youth of the land a godly education; it is the true foundation of national greatness." This is the doctrine that Christ is King of nations, with its application. The lawfulness of pecuniary support given by the State to the Church is a part, but the smallest part, of this great and important truth. The State may grant, and the Church may accept, an endowment, provided she is not required to sell for it any of the rights of Christ, or any of the privileges of His people. That were sin and shame. But the question of endowments is light compared to the incalculable practical importance of the question, whether or no governors and government are to be regulated by the law of Christ? All through her history the Church of Scotland has stood up for this branch of Christ's crown rights. "Think not, madam," said Knox, in his first interview with Queen Mary, "that wrong is done to you when

you are willed to be subject to God; for it is He that subjecteth people under princes. Yea, God craveth that kings be fosterfathers, and queens nurses to His people. And this subjection to God, and service to His Church, is the greatest dignity flesh and blood can get upon earth." So spake the Reformer, and to this day the Church which he founded swerves not from the truth he then uttered' ('Our Banner and its Battles ').

The Free Church contended that their alliance with the State was not destructive of her privileges, but rather an additional benefit, both to herself and to the nation. These had been secured to her by most solemn treaties, and therefore that as an Established Church she possessed a security for all her spiritual privileges which no dissenting Church could have. By means of patronage she had been brought under bondage to the civil power. But now that she had cast off that yoke, she had not cast aside any of her principles, or renounced her interest as 'The Church of Scotland,' in the civil benefits which reluctantly for the present she was compelled to forego. Dr Chalmers, from the moderator's chair of the first Free Assembly, proclaimed, We quit a vitiated Establishment, but would rejoice in returning to a pure one.' 'We are not Voluntaries.' In these views the entire Free Church was implicated, for all office-bearers, on admission to office, must subscribe a formula, binding them to the Claim of Right, and the Protest' (Dr Goold, Encl. Brit., p. 495).

6

The Free Church speedily took rank amongst the first of Christian Churches in the grace of liberality. Although all has not been accomplished that is desirable, the story of her success will form one of the marvels of the age. This has been a mighty

stimulus to other Churches, and it is to be hoped that she will not rest content with this as the only result.

The total contributions of the Church for the year ending March 31, 1871, were as follows:

Since 1843, upwards of 920 churches, 719 manses, and 597 schools have been built by the Free Church. The total amount raised and expended for church, manse, and school building during twenty-six years is as follows:

In addition to the above edifices connected with her equipment, the Free Church has also erected three theological colleges for the training of her candidates for the ministry, viz., one college at Edinburgh, another at Glasgow, and the third at Aberdeen. For the building of these colleges she has raised and expended about £55,000.

In connection with these colleges there are thirteen professors, and the number of students of theology in attendance at these colleges last year was 241. All of these students, as required by the law of the Church, had previously attended a complete undergraduate course of four years' study at one or other of the national universities; and their course of theological study also extends to four years. One of these theological colleges is endowed, having a fund for that purpose of £35,000, obtained from subscriptions, donations, and legacies. The other two are partially endowed by funds, which amount at present to £35,330. For their support otherwise, these colleges depend chiefly upon an annual collection, made by all the congregations of the Church, and which has amounted, on the average, to nearly £3000 a year.

There are five great mission schemes, for the carrying on of which the following sums have been contributed :—

470 ministers who drew a whole dividend at the Assembly of 1844 was £100; the equal dividend which that fund was able to provide for each of 740 ministers who drew a whole dividend at the Assembly of 1869 was £150. In the case of those ministers who have colleagues, this dividend is equally divided between the colleague and the senior minister.'

The whole funds raised by the Free Church for all purposes connected with her work during the twenty-six years from the Disruption to 1868-69 inclusive, the aggregate of all the funds collected during that period, and devoted to the purposes of religion and education by the Free Church, is £8,487,773, 14s. Ožd.

Leaving aside the amount collected on the first of those years, which was in many ways exceptional, and dividing the remaining years into periods of five years each, the progressive character of the funds raised will at once appear.

The totals so arranged are as follows:

Five years, from 1844 to 1848 inclusive,

£1,495,264 15 7

Or, to put the case another way, if the average of the whole twentysix years be taken, including the first and thoroughly exceptional year, the result is £326,452, 16s. 1d., whereas the sum collected during the last of the twenty-six years is £421,796, 4s. 92d. Thus showing that the revenue of last year exceeds the average of the whole period by the sum of £95,343, 8s. 8d. (' Finance of the Free Church,' Dr R. Buchanan).

EXTENT OF THE FREE CHURCH, 1871.

16 synods, 71 presbyteries, 885 congregations, 46 principal stations, 948 ministers, 36 European and native ordained missionaries, 14 divinity professors, at the three new colleges of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen; 6500 elders, 6500 deacons, 268,000 communicants; 13,206 Sabbath-school teachers, and 147,832 scholars, including senior classes; 589 day-schools, 626 teachers, 64,023 scholars, including the two normal schools.

§ 6. THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH

justified continued connection with the State on three grounds—(1.) That the constitution was regulated by the law of patronage;