tions, in which Principal Tulloch also was interested, with a view to the union of the Church of Scotland with the Scottish Episcopal Church. The negotiations came to nothing, from 'dogmatism,' perhaps, on both sides; certainly because, as Dr. Story puts it,

'The Church of England and her representatives in Scotland cannot return to the wise and comprehensive policy of earlier times, recognising the validity of Scottish orders, and treating the question of Church government as a subject of reasonable argument, and not of inflexible dogma.' '

Dr. Tulloch, in less trenchant terms, expressed himself as equally convinced that the 'difficulties in the way of any project of union were serious, if not insuperable,' so long as its Episcopalian advocates approach us ' with the idea of Episcopacy as of Divine prescription, as a dogma claiming our acceptance'; at the same time he had much sympathy with the faith of Bishop Wordsworth, and rejoiced in his incessant proclamations of the obligation of unity and the weakness of causeless schism.'2 Oh, that Dr. Lee, Dr. Tulloch, and Dr. Story had lived to see this day, and the admission by the entire Anglican Episcopate that the precedents of 1610 may supply a possible basis for approaches to reunion! In 1866 Principal Campbell of Aberdeen, in his standard work on The Theory of the Ruling Eldership, praised 'the admirable constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, which combines the advantages of Presbytery and Episcopacy,' and said, 'surely the visible Church is not always to remain in its present divided condition.'

From this period an ebb-tide seemed to have set in. Under such leaders as Principal Pirie, a Utilitarian in philosophy, who is reported to have said that he cared not a farthing for ordination,' and Dr. Charteris, a man of real spiritual power but one whose theory of the holy ministry is not easily distinguishable from that of Plymouthism,

1

Life of Dr. Robert Lee, vol. ii. pp. 123-135.

"Life of Principal Tulloch, third edition, p. 212.

"He makes some protest against it in his remarkable Baird Lectures, The Church of Christ. (Macmillan, 1905.)

the one object set before the Church of Scotland was a purely Presbyterian reunion on lines that gave little prospect of anything further or better. Happily-providentially -it could not be carried out. The Free Church leaders were indignant at the manner in which the Established Church had obtained the abolition of patronage; the United Presbyterians had practically made voluntaryism an article of faith; and neither would have anything to say to the proffered olive-branch. At this time, naturally, Church principles suffered an eclipse among us; and though the Church Service Society, instituted in 1867, strove (amid obloquy) to restore some order and beauty to our services, saved us from divers ill-considered innovations, and incidentally bore witness to much sound doctrine, yet it was not till the winter of 1879-1880 that any influential voice in the Church of Scotland again was heard pleading for a really comprehensive union. In that winter Dr. Milligan (whom the writer must ever revere as his dear friend and teacher) delivered his Croall Lectures on the Resurrection of our Lord; and a passage in one of them, as reported in the Scottish newspapers, caught the everwatchful eye of the Bishop of St. Andrews. It was this:

'To speak of making the world believe in a risen Lord by mere Bible circulation or missionary exertion was to waste time and strength, unless it were attended by the spectacle of Unity.'1

At once the Bishop wrote to Dr. Milligan, thanking him, concurring in his view that there had been too much speaking about unity and too little action,' and as a first step enclosing a printed slip containing some prayers for unity which, he suggested, might be circulated. Dr. Milligan took up the idea, circulated the prayers (which are in use in some places to the present hour), and never ceased so long as he lived to urge the cause. A great opportunity came to him in 1882, when he was Moderator of the General Assembly; and he devoted a large part of his closing Address, one of the finest ever given, to the claims of the

Cited in The Episcopate of Charles Wordsworth, p. 226. The thought is expressed less tersely but with fuller illustration in the published work, The Resurrection of our Lord, Lect. VỊ.

Scottish Episcopal Church to be included in any proposals for reunion. On what ground,' he asked, 'can you exclude them?' On what ground, either of expediency, of political justice, or, above all, of Christian principle? The only possible answer for Christian men, who believe in our Saviour's prayer for visible unity, was the assumption, 'the Scottish Episcopalians will exclude themselves, for they will concede nothing'; and this assumption, too sweeping even then, has in point of fact been trotted out. ever since. It has been, happily, refuted now, not only by the action of the Lambeth Conference, but by the generous and explicit article in the last number of this Review.' For the next few years the Church of Scotland lived under the threat of disestablishment, and in the necessity of Church defence the subject of reunion was thrust into the background. The conflict, however, supplied a new demonstration of the scandal of our divisions, and as soon as it was over the question of how to heal these re-emerged. The solution offered took the form of renewed and (as some of us thought) almost traitorous proposals for a union merely Presbyterian; but Dr. Milligan's pleading, however overborne, was not forgotten. It was emphasized in 1892 by the formation of the Scottish Church Society, with Dr. Milligan as its first President, while among its office-bearers were the late Dr. Hutchison, Dr. A. K. H. Boyd, and Dr. Leishman (all of whom had been or became Moderators of the General Assembly), the late Dr. John Macleod, and one who is still with us, the learned and venerable Dr.

Church Quarterly Review, Jan. 1909, Art. 'Presbyterianism and Reunion.'

2 The Constitution of this Society sets forth that its 'general purpose is to defend and advance Catholic doctrine as set forth in the ancient Creeds and embodied in the standards of the Church of Scotland, and generally to assert Scriptural principles in all matters relating to Church order and policy, Christian work and spiritual life throughout Scotland.' Among its 'special objects' appear the deepening of a penitential sense of the sin and peril of schism,' and 'the furtherance of Catholic unity in every way consistent with true loyalty to the Church of Scotland.' At none of the meetings of the Society, in none of its publications, have these special objects been lost sight of.

Sprott. Bishop Wordsworth died on December 5, 1892, and Dr. Milligan on December 11, 1893.

The next important figure is that of Bishop Wordsworth's successor, the late saintly Bishop Wilkinson, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. He had not been so long in Scotland as his venerable predecessor, he never knew it so well, and with the purest intentions he made occasional mistakes. But if he did something to retard the work he had at heart, he did infinitely more to further it. Gathering around him a large number of ministers and leading laymen of his own Church, and of what were then the three great Presbyterian Churches-two of them were speedily to coalesce and form (in 1901) the United Free Church-he was able to organize deputations formed from all these bodies, which waited on the Episcopal Synod and on the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church, were warmly received, and obtained what they asked, the appointment of a Day of Intercession for Unity.

Another and permanent fruit of the Bishop's labours was the formation of the Scottish Christian Unity Association, which embraces many leading men in all the three Churches, holds quarterly meetings for united prayer and conference, and now no longer hesitates to discuss, sometimes in militant' fashion, the most burning questions on the points which divide us. Nor can we omit from this rapid survey such events as the visits of Canon (now Bishop) Gore to the New College, Edinburgh (U.F.), and of the Bishop of Salisbury to Perth and Aberdeen'; the discussion of Church Unity in Scotland at the Church Congress held at Aberdeen, October 1901, by order of the General Assembly 2; and the practical step taken in 1903, on the suggestion of a pamphlet by Canon Rollo,3 for a simple Catechism, acceptable to Presbyterians and Episcopalians alike,

1 See especially the Bishop of Salisbury's Murtle Lecture at Aber. deen, 1902, The Bearing of the Study of Church History on Some Problems of Reunion.

2 Official Report. (Edinburgh: Blackwood. 1903.) An Appeal, &c. (Glasgow: Holmes. 1903.)

which might be used in schools where neither the Church Catechism nor the Shorter Catechism could find entrance. On the initiative of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland a Joint Committee was formed on which Episcopalian and Presbyterian divines (and even Wesleyans and Congregationalists) sat side by side, found themselves in marvellous agreement on points of doctrine, and produced a little book of perhaps no great excellence, but certainly orthodox, and including the Apostles' Creed. It has not received formal sanction from any of the Communions represented, but it is coming into use on its merits. The experience he gained in helping to compile it lay behind (one fancies), as it certainly warranted, Dr. Marshall's statement in his Moderatorial Address to last Assembly, that there would be little difficulty, in the event of a union with the Episcopal Church, in coming to an agreement on the score of doctrine.

Enough has been said to shew that the idea of a reunion for Scotland which shall include alike the separated Presbyterian Churches and the Scottish Episcopal Church, and bring the National Zion of the North once more into full communion with the Church of England, is not by any means a novelty. For half a century it has engaged the sympathy and evoked the prayers of many of the most eminent of the Scottish clergy.

So things were progressing, and the sense of the need of union and the obligation to agree' was growing steadily throughout Scotland, when, in the spring of 1907, it was announced that Dr. Archibald Scott-the 'leader' of the Established Church-had drafted an overture' (or bill) to the General Assembly reviving the old policy of seeking a merely Presbyterian reunion. To the writer such a course had always seemed bad in policy and wrong in principle; and coming now, after both Assemblies had listened to Bishop Wilkinson's appeal and granted his request for a Day of Intercession, he regarded it as most unfair to the Episcopal Church. He felt at once that he was bound to bring forward a proposal he might otherwise have deferred, for a more comprehensive reunion; he