Reconstruction of the Scottish Church.

Evening Star, Issue 6895, 6 May 1886, Page 3

Reconstruction of the Scottish Church.

The reconstruction of the Scottish Church on a broad basis was the subject of sermons by the Rev. James Cooper, of the East Parish Church, Aberdeen, and in the evening the Bishop of St. Andrews, lecturing to the students of the University in Marischal College, proceeded generally upon similar lines. Mr Cooper advocated a return to the usages of the primitive Church of the first four centuries. He believed if we would search out faithfully these old paths to walk therein, we would find much of what we cherished in our own Church, and much that it would be well for Episcopalians to go back to. We might be able to defend some of our Scottish inventions in matters ecclesi-

astical. But it was none the less true that as a Church we had suffered much as well as gained something by our peculiarities; and that for any really profitable reconstruction we must be prepared to have those carefully examined in the light of the original institution of the Church. Bishop Wordsworth, deploring the present divisions in the Christian Church, pointed out that we had a basis of doctrinal unity in the Apostles’ Creed, and that disunion had only been caused by the introduction of such prolix and elaborate confessions as had come into use at and since the Reformation. In like manner the attainment to the perfect man was hindered by the multiplication of human devices, and among these he mentioned Freemasonry, Good Templar, White Cross, and other societies without the pale of the Church. The good results of these societies he did not deny, but the special work which each undertook was embraced in the work of the Christian Church, and should be undertaken by her. He suggested that Aberdeen University might send forth a society for the promotion of doctrinal unity, and remarked that what was passing in the south, through a movement which had its origin in Cam-

bridge, seemed to give encouragement to such an undertaking, and seemed, through the movements it had suggested for the Church of England in a Presbyterianising direction, to offer to meet them halfway. The Rev. James Stewart, preaching in the Established Church at Peterhead, said he believed it would not be impracticable so to arrange the scattered divisions of our Scottish Christianity as that we should have a large and broad freedom in matters of dogmatic belief, while there should be one grand organisation to light the great work of Christ. At present, he said, there were heart-burnings amongst the clergy particularly; and what a shame that it should bo so. At the presentmoraent prominent and extreme men amongst the different churches could not help exhibiting very little of the spirit of Christ, and a very great deal of the spirit of the adversary. They talked of each other in terms that ought to bo denounced. Each praised his own denomination on the most wretched of grounds. A church here magnified its praises because it contrived to raise so much more money than its neighbor in a certain line; a church on the other side glorified itself because it had all the rich people of the locality attending it, and because so many carriages drove to the church door on a Sunday forenoon; again one speaks jealously of another because two or three have left the one to go to the other ; then

there is a process of sheep-stealing between church and church. There was another thing to be considered. In consequence of the Presbyterian division, there were nearly 1,000 churches too many in the land. By uniting they would bo able to dispense with these and save the cost, amounting to from LI 60,000 to L 200,000. How much more beneficently could this money be devoted to the propagation of the Gospel. This money was at present thrown away owing to the miserable little sectarian differences that existed. Things moved rapidly now-a-days; men’s minds were more acute and their actions more dexterous than formerly, and he hoped to sec within a reasonable period the fulfilment of his hopes for the unity of the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland,