A MEETING of the Free Church Presbytery of Edinburgh was held on the 18th November, at which the new Act anent the admission of ministers was discussed, as an overture from the Assembly. This Act makes provision, among other things, that entrants into the Church shall believe in the inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures, and in purity of worship, to the exclusion of uninspired hymns and instrumental music. Professor Bannatyne moved the approval of the Act, but the motion was opposed by Revs. J. Deas Logie, Fife, James Watson, Leith, and Mr. J. Hay Thorburn. Mr. Logie objected to the overture because the new Act meant the repeal of past legislation that had been made in the Church, evidently referring to the liberty given to congregations in the Free Church before Union to use uninspired hymns and organs in worship, and he held that the present Free Church had no power to make this repeal. He said that there would never be peace or harmony in the Church if this overture was pressed. Mr. Thorburn took up a similar attitude, and declared that this was an attempt “to impose a burden they nor their fathers were able to bear.” When the vote was taken, the overture was approved by sixteen to ten, a very large minority to be in favour of making, at least, hymns and organs (whatever more) open questions in the Free Church. It was also proposed at this Presbytery that an enquiry be made into the report that on a recent occasion the organ was used in an act of worship in the Elder Memorial Church, Leith, and that flowers had been used to decorate the Communion table. It has been distinctly stated in the press that since the Free Church people in Leith got their Church from the Commission, they had repaired the organ, and employed it at a social meeting where vocal and instrumental music was performed, Principal M’Culloch and Mr. Thorburn, among others, being present. The Presbytery, however, refused to make any enquiry into the matters complained of, and those who proposed the enquiry appealed to the Commission about to meet.
The Commission of the Free Church met on Wednesday the 20th November. The earlier part of the time was chiefly taken up with the report of the Sustentation Fund and the report of the Foreign Missions Committee, Professor Macleod and Principal M’Culloch giving addresses on their recent visit to South Africa. The Commission then took up the appeal by Professor Kennedy Cameron and others against a decision of the Edinburgh Presbytery refusing to allow certain questions to be put to Mr. Watson, minister of the Elder Memorial Church, Leith, regarding the use of the organ in worship and flowers on the Communion table. Professor Cameron was heard on his appeal, and gave a detailed account of the circumstances of the case, and maintained that the Presbytery had acted in a tyrannical manner in refusing enquiry. Professor Bannatyne also
supported the appeal. Mr. J. C. Robertson, Rayne, defended the action of the Presbytery. Mr. A. M’Neilage moved that they sustain the appeal, and this was agreed to by a majority. Principal M’Culloch dissented on the ground that the proper form of process had not been adopted by the appellants. They had not written Mr. Watson as a brother to enquire as to the truth of the reports before they had taken them up at the Presbytery. Revs. John Noble, Lairg, and Murdo Macqueen, Kiltearn, spoke to a petition signed by several ministers, stating that it was a matter of common knowledge that in the Church in question there were appointments out of conformity with the law of the Church, and calling for enquiry into the matter. Mr. Macqueen said that he would have expected that true and loyal members of the Church would have employed tradesmen with axes and hammers to throw the organ into the street, and make a bonfire of it. Plague had broken out in the Free Church, and they must stamp it out at once, or it would rend the Church from end to end. After discussion, an amendment by Mr. Rounsfell Brown became the finding of the house, to the effect that a Committee be appointed to visit the congregation and meet with the minister and session, asking the truth or otherwise of the allegations, and urging the minister, office-bearers, and members of the congregation, in the spirit of loyalty to the Church, to remove the causes of complaint, if such be found to exist, and to report.
These proceedings afford abundant room for comment, but a few sentences must meantime suffice. Principal M’Culloch, who was credited by many in the past with strict adherence to all the principles of the Free Church, is now adopting the role of the late Principal Rainy, and endeavouring to maintain peace at the expense of purity. Mr. Brown’s amendment, which was adopted, calls simply for loyalty to the Church, not to the truth—in fact, calls upon the Leith minister and people to make hypocrites of themselves in order to maintain an appearance of unity in the Church, instead of insisting upon the application of the conditions of the new Act for admission of office-bearers, which would send the Rev. James Watson, Mr. Hay Thorburn and others, outside the pale of the Free Church. A feature of these proceedings that strikes us as Free Presbyterians rather strangely, is the apparent complete silence of our former Free Presbyterian brethren in these discussions in Presbytery or Commission. Where were they? Echo answers, Where? They were bold enough, with considerable self-assertion, to tell men of more experience than themselves in the Free Presbyterian Church what they ought to do, but as professed reformers in the Free Church they seem to regard discretion as the better part of valour, and either absent themselves altogether from these meetings or take a comfortable back seat. The Free Church at present is truly an object lesson on the point of a profession of truth without consistent and steadfast adherence to the same.