Patrick Forbes of Aberdeen, whom we in the North revere as the second founder of our university, where he gathered round him a school of theologians the most brilliant that the Scottish Church has yet seen; and Dr. William Forbes, afterwards first Bishop of Edinburgh, a theologian of European, and enduring, reputation, and so eloquent and holy in his life that Bishop Burnet's father, who knew him well, never was in his company but he thought himself in heaven; and never heard him speak but he was reminded of those words, "Did not our hearts burn within us while He opened to us the Scriptures ?" ' 1 William Forbes (the most illustrious of my predecessors at S. Nicholas') was selected, says Dr. Grub, to defend in the Perth Assembly 'the Five Articles.'

We scarcely think now that they need defence. They were these: (i.) Kneeling at the reception of the Blessed Sacrament (all memory of Popish superstition in that matter being,' it was said, 'now past'); (ii.) Communion of the sick in private houses-' if any good Christian, visited with long sickness,' wishes it; (iii.) Liberty to baptise children in private houses, 'for great and reasonable cause'; (iv.) Confirmation by the bishops, which was considered to be a security for the efficient catechising of the children by the parish clergy, and so a means of 'staying the increase of Popery'; and (v.) The religious observance of Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Ascension Day, and Whitsunday, in commemoration of the inestimable benefits received from God by the Birth, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the sending down of the Holy Ghost.'

It is difficult now to understand how these things should have been objected to. Three of them we have got, and would not willingly surrender. I was inclined to regret, as I read the accounts of the recent celebration on Tower Hill of the 250th anniversary of the beheading

1 S. Luke xxiv. 32.

-I will say the martyrdom-of Archbishop Laud, that that fearless Englishman had not confined his exertions to his own Church. He'saved the Church of England,' 1 we may admit; but it is no less true that he ruined by his meddling the Church of Scotland. But for the unconstitutional invasion-with the best intentions-of our Church's liberties in 1637 by Laud and his Royal Master-who also was to die a martyr-all the Reformed in Scotland might have been one Church to-day, with a fair service, and reasonable observances, and a form of Church government combining the advantages of Presbytery and Episcopacy.

There was yet another notable event in the troubled annals of our Church that took place within these walls. It was here, at the Synod in October 1732, that Ebenezer Erskine preached the sermon wherein he denounced the General Assembly for unfaithfulness in the matter of the Toleration and Patronage Acts. Erskine was censured for his sermon: he refused to apologise, with the ultimate result that he, along with Mr. William Wilson, the minister of this church, and others were deposed, whereupon they formed the 'Associate Seceding Presbytery,' the nucleus of what is now the United Presbyterian Church. Here again we canand must-admit the loyalty to what they believed the 'crown rights of the Redeemer,' which lay at the root of the seceding ministers' contentions; even though we cannot, on the other hand, acknowledge that their charges against the Church and its courts were founded in sound reason, or were sufficient to justify the schism which ensued. But still, as all along, we see Christ reigning, and His people, in that generation also, constrained by a loyalty to Him which (even if it was ill-informed) was genuine and noble.

You are then, brethren, the successors of fifty generations who here in Perth have known Christ Jesus as their God and King and Saviour, and striven

1 See James Mozley's Essay on Laud.

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in many ways to show alike to Him and to the world the loyal devotion which they bore to Him. Does not the thought justify all that you have done to set this ancient sanctuary in fitting repair and seemliness? Does it not animate you to yet further efforts in the same direction ? Does it not strengthen your faith that the text which has in the past been so wondrously fulfilled will be verified also in the future?-One generation shall praise Thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty acts.

Whose kingdom shall have no end !'

But does there not come, along with this thought, another? You are not simply the successors, you are the heirs, of all those Christian generations. The pioneer labours of the Pictish missionaries, the endowments of good King David, the pillars reared at the behest of Robert Bruce, the open Bible of the Reformation, the constitutional liberties in Church and State which (whatever they may have lost us) the Covenanting Presbyterians of the seventeenth century did much, indirectly, to secure; and now, at last, the popular election of ministers which the Seceders wanted; some, even, of the good things which Episcopacy would have given us, and that worthier architecture in regard to which the Gothic builders are our teachers,-all these are yours: God has given them to you to keep and value. But are they for you only? I doubt not, brethren, that we, in the National Church, are rightful heirs of all these blessings, and of more, which, please God, we shall yet recover. But we are not the sole heirs. There are others in Scotland, at present separated from our Communion, who have claims to be also the children of those who gave us these things. And, therefore, even while we defend with the utmost resolution our possessions, we must defend them, not simply as our own, but as a trust for others too: against that happy day for which we should all be praying, when our unhappy divisions' shall happily be healed, when

Episcopalian and Presbyterian, our mutual envyings and vexings laid aside, shall meet in a great united Church, which shall be at once National and Catholic. I cannot in this connection forbear to commemorate the lifelong labours of one who was for many years a distinguished citizen of Perth, the late Bishop Charles Wordsworth. The great work to which he gave himself is not yet accomplished. It has not even been attempted. But it must be done for it is demanded alike by the dearest needs of Scotland and by the honour of our Lord and Saviour. How shall it be achieved? The answer, I think, is supplied to us when we reflect on what has been the bond of believers throughout all ages. It is not by negations, but by a positive belief in our common Christian Faith, that the successive generations of Christians have been linked together. Even so (if I may borrow the words of a valued friend) will the divisions of the Church be healed, 'not by compromise, but by combination.' It were a fatal step to begin by the surrender of any truth. We need rather the positive contribution of all that is good in all our various systems.1 The whole Body of Jesus Christ, says His Apostle, maketh its increase-how ?-by being fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure, not of one only, but of every part 2 of it. Let us try this plan. Let each bring the truth he knows. Let us speak the truth in love; and so let us grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ,3 from whom alone, as we all acknowledge, we derive our life; and to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, shall be glory in the Church throughout all ages. Amen.

The Lord hasten it in His time Auspice Spiritu Sancto.'

1 I may be permitted to refer the reader to the significant paper, The Future of the Church in Scotland, by the Rev. Cosmo Gordon Lang [now Archbishop of York]. (Edinburgh: J. Gardner Hitt. 1895.) Eph. iv. 16. 3 Eph. iv. 15.

2

THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD'

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whither the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.-HEBREWS vi. 19-20.

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I WAS glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the House of the Lord: our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. It must, indeed, be a joy to you, my brethren, to be permitted once more to assemble within these venerable and sacred walls, to take your stand together on the tried foundation of a Faith which is older, and fresher, than any of its sanctuaries; to worship, side by side, and heart with heart, in the Eternal Spirit, the Eternal Father, through His Eternal Son, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever 3; and, while you adore Him for mercies in the past, and rejoice in a present salvation, to animate and exhort each other with the hope of His second and glorious appearance, when, not one generation only, but all who from the beginning of the world have pleased Him, shall rise to meet Him, and to enter in with Him, through the gates into the City. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall have no precedence over them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall

1 Preached on Sunday, October 7, 1900, in the Parish Church of Longforgan, on the occasion of its re-opening, and the dedication of the Chancel and East Window. 4 Rev. xxii. 14.

2 Psalm cxxii. 1-2.

3 Heb. xiii. 8.