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,

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

wrote to the Scotsman, and drafted an overture urging the Assembly

'to invite the various communions of the Reformed Church in Scotland to join in establishing a Joint Committee to confer, with the view of finding, if possible, an adjustment of the differences which at present separate us, and of ascertaining what modifications would require to be obtained of the settlement arrived at between Church and State in the year 1690 in order that all might again be united in one National Reformed Church."

There ensued in the Scotsman a long and lively correspondence, which shewed a considerable body of opinion favourable to the proposal; and the overture, accepted unanimously by the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, was by them transmitted to the Assembly. In the Assembly a motion framed on its lines found a somewhat exiguous support, only about thirty voting for it. But this by no means implied the absence of desire for such a reunion. It was due in part to the suddenness with which the proposal was brought forward, in part to the weight of influence naturally possessed by the leader of the House," in great measure to the belief (expressed by Professor Paterson, who cited the re-ordination, prior to their consecration, of Archbishop Sharp and Bishop Leighton in 1661) that the precedents of 1610 had been overturned, and that no sort of recognition would be given by the Episcopal Church to our Scottish orders. Another consideration which weighed with many was that 'one step was enough at a time'; nor could it be denied that some eminent Episcopalians favourable to reunion, on both sides of the Border, urged that a Presbyterian reunion should come first, and that only after it had been attained should approaches be made to the Episcopal Church. From this latter point of view the question was one of procedure rather than of principle; and when Dr. Scott's motion, with the addition of a clause bidding the Committee on Co-operation and

1

Assembly Papers, 1907. (Edinburgh: Blackwood.)

2 Professor Paterson asked also whether the Church of Scotland would be willing to merge its individuality in the Scottish Episcopal Church?' As to this see infra. Cf. Layman's Book of the General Assembly, 1907, p. 90.

Reunion' appointed under it 'confine their attention in the meantime to the Presbyterian Churches,' was carried by a large majority, the writer (though still of opinion that the wider union would really prove the easier, and convinced that no revision of the Settlement of 1690 is possible, or would be just, without a full consideration of the claims of the Scottish Episcopalians), feeling that it was something that the larger hope was not, as hitherto, excluded, regarded himself as free to accept a place on this Committee and to work for the 'nearer union '-which, of course, he never dreamt could be dispensed with, and which he rejoices to think has been rendered more hopeful by the Assembly of the United Free Church of 1908 appointing a committee to reply to proposals from the Church of Scotland-in the hope that the intercalated 'meantime' might be brief.

It is going to be brief. Great things have happened since May 24, 1907. On April 24, 1908, the Archbishop of Melbourne preached at Ayr, and told of the steps taken in Australia towards a union of the Church of England in that Commonwealth and the Presbyterian Church in Australia. A correspondence ensued between his Grace and Dr. Theodore Marshall, Moderator-Designate of the Assembly of 1908; and the facts then elicited, together with the knowledge that questions of reunion would be discussed at the Lambeth Conference, contributed, no doubt, to bid Dr. Marshall devote a large and interesting portion of his Moderatorial Address to the subject of our Reunion with Episcopacy. After pointing out 'certain questions which will require solution if ever organic unity is to be promoted in some other way than by mere proselytism and absorption,' and shewing how impossible it would be for the Church (of Scotland) to contemplate a union on the basis of either all its ministers, or at any rate those called to rule in the United Church, being compelled practically to disown their ordination and accept the ordination of a prelate,' Dr. Marshall proceeded :

'I put on one side all questions of the ordering of public worship, as I imagine that these could be adjusted with com