(An Extract.)
IT is therefore unmistakably clear that all throughout the Church, minority and majority, are under obligation to acknowledge the Act as a law and constitution in the Church. This fact received abundant proof immediately after the Act was passed in 1892. The Presbytery of Dingwall, in order to satisfy their consciences, recorded a protest against the Act. When the books of the Presbytery appeared before the Synod of Ross the Synod objected to the protest, and the members of the Dingwall Presbytery present agreed to delete the word “protest” in order to save their declaration from being deleted altogether. This shows that a protest is legally impossible, and had no standing ground in the Free Church. In this case it was admitted by minority and majority that the Act was a law and constitution in the Free Church. We also ask this question. If duty and conscience compelled the Presbytery of Dingwall to record a protest that had no standing ground in the Free Church how can their consciences now be satisfied without a protest? Duty and conscience ought to have led them into a position suitable to their protest, that is, outside the Free Church. But it would appear that duty lowered its standard, and conscience relaxed its demands to suit the circumstances in which they were placed. It is quite evident that the Act interfered with the discharge of their duty, and proved that all are bound to acknowledge its authority. There were also cases at Dores and Dornoch which prove that the Declaratory Act prevents the discharge of vows. At Dores the pastor-elect was not allowed to record a statement, to satisfy his conscience, that he signed the Confession without any regard to the Act. Again at Dornoch a statement of this kind was recorded, but the Assembly of 1893 declared it null and void. The same Assembly declared all such protests in the books of Presbyteries null and void, and this took effect in one or two cases. It is quite evident that such attempts on the part of ministers and Presbyteries to discharge their vows by protest utterly failed. We therefore conclude that the Declaratory Act as a law in the Free Church must be acknowledged by all as such, and that it is impossible for any one faithfully to discharge his vows in this Church.
*We print above an extract from an article in the Declaratory Act written by the Rev. J. S. Sinclair and published in the June issue of the Free Presbyterian Magazine of 1896. The whole article is being reprinted in the Young People’s Magazine. This informative extract will no doubt be of interest to many of our readers at the present time.