|
DURING Mr. McHardy's
incumbency the Disruption of The Church of Scotland took place, but in
the great "ten years conflict" by which it was preceded, I understand he
took no active part. Perhaps he had no anxiety to explore too thoroughly
the merits of a question, which if pondered and properly understood
might lead to a decision involving consequences far-reaching and
unpleasant. However, it is not for me to judge. Rev. Dr. Norman McLeod
stuck to the old Kirk as in duty bound after giving his solemn protest
against the encroachment of the state upon the purely spiritual realm of
Church polity and discipline. His justification of his action was his
belief that it was the duty of the State to support the Church and
therefore it was his duty to stay by the Church, but protesting still,
until the liberties of the Church, so wantonly curtailed, should be
restored. He even went so far as to say that it required more heroism,
from his stand-point to stay behind than to leave the church along with
those with whom he had formerly been associated in defence of the
Church's liberties.
Needless to say, his
non-intrusion brethren ascribed to him motives less altruistic and less
honourable. An echo of their attitude was heard through the press, years
afterwards, on the occasion of the Doctor's famous speech on the
Sabbath, in a poetic effusion known as "Norman's Blast," a verse of
which ran as follows,
"Ye juket Candlish and his
squad
"Wi' supple quirk
"Protested weel but kept your haud
"O' State and Kirk
Though Mr. McHardy
refrained from participation in the conflict by supporting the one side
or the other he seems to have done his best to restrain from excess of
zeal such of his parishioners as seemed disposed to interfere improperly
with those who favoured the dissenting party. Mr. Beattie, the parish
school-master, I have heard had purchased a number of tooting horns to
put in the hands of some of his pupils for the purpose of disturbing
meetings being held in barns to expound the principles of the
non-intrusion party, and was deterred from this purpose only by the
influence and veto of his minister. Equally to his credit is the report
of an elderly woman of his flock who told me that she had heard him say
in the words of Gamaliel, "Let them alone for if this counsel or this
work be of men, it will come to nought."
"The Disruption" was a
serious and testing time in many homes. The whole community was
intensely loyal to the Church of their fathers which they had ever known
as The Church of Scotland, whose were the fathers, the heroes of the
Reformation and the Covenant and on whose banners were inscribed the
names of the martyrs who had sealed their testimony with their blood.
They could not think but with sadness of cutting themselves off from
association with a Church so venerable, and with a history so noble.
They forgot that into the purest institutions of earth can come seeds of
impurity and decay. The Old Testament Church, founded as it had been, by
the Divine Hand, became at last so blind and dead that it failed to
recognize, and ultimately crucified its true Kin,-, when he appeared.
The visible Church of Christ, established as it had been on the
foundation of apostles and prophets, soon became so corrupt as to be
scarcely recognizable as a representation of the church of the New
Testament. They were indeed the children of Reformers and Covenanters
but forgot the warning of our Lord that the building of the sepulchres
of the prophets, and the garnishing of the tombs of the righteous,
without emulation of their character and accomplishments, will prove
monumental only to the infidelity of the builders.
In Coldstone as elsewhere
in Scotland the storm that rent the Church no doubt caused amongst the
more intelligent of the population great searchings of heart, but the
number that finally cast in their lot with the Free Church might be said
to have been insignificant. They were indeed but a handful of common
people, none of them able to boast of wealth or social standing. For
that reason, notwithstanding that to say the least they were not
inferior in personal character and intelligence, to those who stayed
behind, they became for some time objects of the scorn of the ignorant
and less reputable, of their neighbours many of whom knew nothing of,
and cared as little for, the great questions that rocked the church to
its foundations. Homeless and helpless as the little band had now
become, meetings for worship were held for a time in a hospitable barn.
When "skailing" from this temporary place of worship they were sometimes
met with taunts from neighbours emerging from under the belfry of a well
appointed church, the comfortable pews of which either their different
views or their easy acquiescence had made it possible for them still to
enjoy. The situation, however, had its compensations for those who came
out, the greatest of which was the consciousness of having done their
duty, and assurance of Divine help in the days that were to come.
It had its humorous side
also, A "kirk" titan greeted a nun from the place of worship in the barn
with the remark, "So you have been threshing to-day have you?" To which
the other immediately replied, "Na, we were winnowing, an' yons the kaff
(chaff) ga in' up the hill yonder pointing to the retiring kirk people).
The Free Church was three
years oh! when I was born, but I sucked in its principles with my
mother's milk, and under the instruction and enthusiasm of my father,
grew and strengthened as the sears went on in conviction of the
righteousness of its cause and the grandeur of its sacrifice and
history. To this day I am satisfied that the dissenting section of the
church, with its four or five hundred ministers who left behind them all
that meant comfort and happiness in the world, did only what it was
their duty to do, and that, as always, duty-doing became a blessing to
themselves, to their country, and to the world. This was realized by
Lord Aberdeen who, long after the disruption had taken place, stated
that when he first realized the consequence of the action of his
Ministry which had precipitated the disruption, his feeling was one of
the deepest regret, but he had lived to realize that what he had Iong
regarded as the greatest error of his administration had, in Gods
providence turned out to be the greatest blessing to the country.
A TIME OF TESTING
As I have said. the
Disruption period was a time of testing. Families were divided in
opinion, in this small way repeating the variance in families described
by our Lord in connection with the original introduction of His Gospel.
My father, I believe, at first hesitated. I can understand how great a
trial it must have been for him to differ from Mr. Beattie who had been
his much respected teacher, and from his brother-in-law Donald Farquhar
on at Ballater, whose name I bear. The more he read and studied the
question, however, the more convinced did he become that it was his
privilege not less than his duty, to cast in his lot with the dissenting
party. His decision was made easier, no doubt, by the action of my
mother who, along with her sister Jane, leaving behind father and mother
and all her kindred, eagerly embraced the principles and boldly declared
herself an ardent adherent of the evangelical party. My father who had
theretofore for some years held the position of precentor its the parish
church, as now installed in the same position in the new Free Church at
the Braes of Cromar. There along with David Stewart of Newkirk. and
other honoured men, he was to due time appointed to the eldership in the
Congregation. ln that capacity he afterwards attended a meeting of the
General Assembly of the Free Church in Edinburgh and was profoundly
impressed by the character and ability of the leaders and was specially
charmed with the eloquence of Dr. Guthrie.
THE KIRK O' THE BRAES AND
ITS MINISTER.
The supporters of the new
church were few in number and weak in resources, but, with liberal aid
from the Church Building Fund of the new denomination, a church and a
comfortable manse were soon built. Rev. Donald Stewart, formerly of
GlenGairn, was the first minister. He was brother of the late Rev.
Murdoch Stewart of Cape Breton, and uncle of a very brilliant Canadian
family among whom were, the late Rev. Thos. Stewart, D.D., well known as
Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, Dr.
John Stewart of Halifax, a pupil and friend of Lister, who stands as
high as any man has ever stood in the esteem of his profession in
Canada, and the late D. A. Stewart the engineer who built the Pembina
Branch of the C.P.R., which traverses Southern Manitoba. Mr. Stewart's
native tongue was Gaelic, and he could not be described as an eloquent
speaker, at least in English, but he was a faithful minister and
proclaimed a full and true gospel message. In his good work he was ably
sustained and aided by his faithful wife, who immediately commenced a
Sunday School, in which she acted as superintendent and teacher most
efficiently until the retirement of her husband, which occurred after a
ministry in the congregation of about thirty years.
It is interesting to
note, that while from Reformation times had come down the ideal, and
generally the practice, of building and maintaining a school in every
parish, as well as a Church, the same ideal in modified form was
destined to be carried into the Free Church. It is true that the
new-born church paid no attention to parish boundaries, but immediately
set about building churches and manses in localities suitable to the
needs, present and prospective, of their own supporters. It must be
remembered that for some years previous to the Disruption the majority
of the national Church, as represented in the General Assembly, had been
strongly "evangelical" and opposed to State interference in matters
ecclesiastical. Now the secession of the Free Church party had the
immediate effect of reducing the evangelical remnant to a hopeless
minority, thereby giving the "moderate" party full control, subject only
to state-imposed limitations, not only of the national church, but also
of the parochial schools. Under such conditions it would not he
surprising if the leaders of the Free Church, should have suspected that
under the control of the now hostile national church, the national
schools might be used to bring hack the children of The Free to the
Established Church fold, To no such suspicions, however, but to
considerations entirely unanticipated, as I understand, was due at last
the policy of establishing separate denominational elementary Schools.
Chief of these considerations was the necessity of providing employment
for parochial school teachers who, at a sacrifice not only of their
former positions but of the possibility of future employment as teachers
in any parochial school, had cast in their lot with the Free Church.
Thus originated a duplicate system of elementary schools as well as of
churches, parallelling largely those of the national church. These
schools were maintained efficiently until the passing of the new
Education Act of 1872, by which denominational disabilities were
modified or entirely removed, when most of them scent to have been
voluntarily given over to the national school-boards. Upon the shoulders
of the youthful church thus, meantime, was laid the three-fold burden of
erecting churches, manses and schools, and the success of their efforts
is one of the marvels of Scottish history.
From time to time, the
minister at the Braes was successful in securing as assistants on
Communion and other occasions, the services of other preachers of more
than local celebrity. Among these may be named, Mr. Cobban of Braemar,
Mr. Reid of Banchory, Mr. Fullerton of Strath-Don, and Mr. Nicol of
Auchindor, the father of Sir Robertson Nicol, late Editor of The British
Weekly.
Illustrative of the
prejudice against the Free Church, which persisted for years, it may be
mentioned that in the village of Ballater, and in several other places,
no proprietor would sell to the Free Church a site for any church
purpose, while one large proprietor on Donside, forbade his tenants to
furnish or give the local minister board or lodgings. As disobedience to
this unreasonable and autocratic command was likely to bring trouble to
his people, the minister quietly took up residence in a local hotel
where, for six weeks at a time, he could legally claim board and lodging
at the ordinary rates. Such petty persecutions, however, soon ceased,
and relations more harmonious became gradually established, not only
among :neighbours as such but also between the Free and Established
Churches.
The union of almost all
the various Scottish Presbyterian churches which had been cleft from the
parent stem of the national Church by the introduction of Erastianism,
was completed by the union of the Free Church of Scotland and the United
Presbyterian Church in the United Free Church its 1900. This was
followed in October of 1929 by the union of that Church with the
Established Church of Scotland. the re-united church to be henceforth
known as "The Church of Scotland." Such a union, healing as it does the
breaches made at the Disruption in 1843 and the many previous divisions,
may well be the occasion of joy and thankfulness. May peace be within
her walls and prosperity within her palaces. Personally, I wish to
express the hope that the retention of the state emoluments and the
attenuated form of establishment may neither lower her spirituality nor
prove the occasion of future discord. |
