the Presbyterians were prepared to resist in the name of
"The Crown Rights of Jesus Christ."6 Furthermore, there was the
constant insistence that while the state had the obligation to support
and defend the true Reformed religion, Christ ruled his church by his
Word and Spirit speaking through the faithful people in the church. This
concept produced a number of divisions as resistance to government
interference and aristocratic patronage arose, ultimately leading some
Scottish Presbyterians to deny the validity of the whole principle of
establishment and to insist on voluntarism. This opposition to
government control of the church was and still is part of the Scottish
tradition in Canada, as was revealed in the continuing Presbyterians'
denial of the validity of the Church Union Act of 1924.7
The stress upon the "Kingship of Christ" was not
limited to matters primarily ecclesiastical. There was a constant stress
upon the idea that since Christ was Lord over all of life his will and
law must be obeyed in every sphere of activity. This applied to both
corporate and individual activities. Andrew Melville's calling James
VI of Scotland "one of God's sillie subjects"
in his Kingdom was a constant theme in much later Scottish Protestant
thinking. For this reason the Scottish churches have always believed
that it is their responsibility to speak to contemporary society
concerning the divine requirements for a society which should manifest
the Lordship of Christ. Similarly, the churches have also sought to
train the individual from his or her youth to recognize the solemn
responsibility of each Christian to manifest God's will in the
activities of everyday life. The Christian's chief end is "to glorify
God and enjoy him forever," in all he does.8
Although not all Scottish Protestants were trained up
in the Calvinistic-Presbyterian tradition, this point of view seems to
have entered the very bloodstream of Scottish culture. As both Robert
Louis Stevenson and more recently Professor Wallace Notestein have
pointed out, the Scottish Calvinistic-Presbyterian outlook on life has
formed one of the basic drives in the Scottish character. It has meant
an emphasis upon personal responsibility which manifests itself in what
has often been labeled "the Protestant work ethic." This has meant,
however, not only a sense of divine calling to work, but a God-given
responsibility to show initiative, foresight and risk-taking. Yet,
contrary to many people's thinking, it has not resulted merely in a
desire to accumulate worldly goods. A concept of "stewardship" has gone
along with it. The individual is responsible to use his gifts, talents
and the wealth which they may bring for the benefit of others. The
outcome of such an outlook on life has often been the formation of an
individual who is hard-working, frugal sometimes to penuri-ousness, but
also capable of acts of considerable generosity when the occasion
requires. And all of this bred a race of people who were inclined to be
independent, sometimes irascible, argumentative and often very sure of
their own correctness of vision and action. Thus the Protestant Scot,
although by no means always a 'lovable' character, has very often been a
person possessing the necessary drive and self-assurance to make a good
colonist.
These are but a few of the characteristics of the
Scottish Protestant tradition which were brought to Canada by the influx
of British immigrants since 1763. At the same time, we must also
recognize that, as in Scotland, the tradition has been very much diluted
over the past century. In Scotland the rise of scepticism, materialism
and the acceptance of a Higher Critical approach to the Bible have all
had their effect upon the church, with the result that the Scottish
Protestant churches of nearly every hue have experienced a decline in
membership, in giving and in influence. This has been partially
responsible for various church union movements, as for instance the
union of the majority of the Free Kirk of Scotland and the United
Presbyterians as the United Free Church in 1900, the reunion of the UFC
with the Church of Scotland in 1929, and the subsequent discussions of
the union of the Church of Scotland with the Episcopal Church of
Scotland and the Church of England in the 1950s and '60s.9 There have always been, however, minorities who
have refused to accept any watering-down either of doctrine or of the
presbyterial form of church government, and have continued to maintain
their original stance. The same trends have shown themselves in Canada,
for although the Presbyterian Church in Canada has been completely
independent of the Scottish churches since 1875, Scottish influences in
the church have been very strong through the coming of ministers from
Scotland, the publication of books and periodicals which have received a
wide acceptance in Scottish Canadian Protestant circles, the study by
Presbyterian theological students in Scotland, and the general, perhaps
indefinable, sense of attachment and filial relationship to the Scottish
Presbyterian churches.10 Depending upon one's point of view, this
influence has been good or bad, but that it has had a major impact no
one can deny.
SCOTTISH CHURCHES AND CHURCHMEN IN CANADA
The Protestant Scots who came to what is now Canada
in the early part of the eighteenth century usually settled in Nova
Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. They were, however,
neither numerous nor wealthy enough to call a minister until the middle
of the century. Eventually they obtained the services of the Rev. James
Lyon, a graduate of Princeton Seminary, and also of Rev. James Murdoch,
an Irish missionary Scottish-trained, and sent out by the Irish
Associate Synod. The first permanent presbytery was established by the
Associate (Burgher) Synod at Truro in 1786, to be followed in 1795 by
the Presbytery of Pictou in connection with the General Associate or
Anti-burgher Church. Of those involved in the formation of these
Presbyterian churches two men stand out most prominently. One was the
Rev. James McGregor who arrived in 1785 and devoted some forty
sacrificial years to ministering to the needs of Scottish settlers
throughout the area now known as the Atlantic provinces (with the
exception of Newfoundland.) The other was the Rev. Thomas McCulloch who
in 1803 settled in Pictou where, despite the opposition
of members of the Church of England, he established both an academy and
a theological college which prepared the sons of the immigrants for
service in church and commonwealth. He later became the first Principal
of Dalhousie University.11
Since many of the Scots who came to the "eastern
provinces" were members of the Church of Scotland, with the settlement
of the disbanded Scottish regiments and United Empire Loyalists after
the American Revolution, increasing demands were made for ministers of
the Established Church. Its response was, however, rather slow, much
slower than that of the secession churches, but by 1787 ministers from
the Kirk were beginning to consider the possibility of coming to British
North America. Consequently when in 1817 the two secession presbyteries
decided to unite and form a Synod of Nova Scotia, there were three
Church of Scotland ministers who joined, bringing the number of Scots in
the Synod to seventeen. As two English independent ministers also came
into the union, the Synod began operations with nineteen ministers on
its constituent roll.12
In the meantime Scots had been moving into the
recently acquired territories along the St. Lawrence River which fell to
British arms in 1760-1763. Among those who took part in the conquest
were the Fraser Highlanders, many of whom were Presbyterians. As they
were soon afterwards disbanded it may well have been that it was their
chaplain, the Rev. George Henry, a minister of the Church of Scotland,
who about 1765 took charge of the small Presbyterian congregation in
Quebec City. In 1795 Henry was succeeded by another Scot, Rev. Alexander
Sparks, under whose aegis the present St. Andrews Church was erected in
1810.13 By this time there seem
to have been about 150 members in the church, most of them Scots holding
important government or commercial positions within the community.
While Quebec was the administrative centre of the
region, Montreal soon became the commercial capital, for that was the
jumping-off point for the fur traders who were pushing out to the West.
Since many of these were Scots it is not surprising that a Church of
Scotland congregation was organized there also soon after the American
Revolution. The first minister was the Rev. John Bethune, who had served
with the loyalist forces in North Carolina and later as chaplain of the
84th Regiment. So far, however, no one has been able to trace a record
of his ordination. He was, nevertheless, always regarded as a bona
fide minister of the Church of Scotland in whose name he established
St. Gabriel Street Church, to which most of the Scots in Montreal
belonged. Later he moved to Wil-liamstown, Upper Canada, where he
received a large grant of land, but continued to carry on his activities
as a minister among the Scottish settlers of that area until his death.14
Before the end of the century troubles had begun to
arise over the question of the right of non-Anglican churches within the
Province of Canada to be recognized as bodies with a legal civil status.
Efforts were made to deny to all Protestant communions but the Church of
England the authority to perform civil acts such as marriages, on the
ground that the Church of England was the established church of the
country. To this the representatives of the Church of Scotland took very
strong exception, claiming that they were part of an established church
in Britain by the Union of 1707, and since the conquest had taken place
after that date, they had an equal right to civil status and financial
assistance in the form of subsidies and participation in the Clergy
Reserves set aside for the support of clergy and churches within each
parish. The battle continued for many years, even after the division of
Canada into Lower and Upper Canada, the opposition to the Church of
Scotland's claims in the latter province being led by Bishop John
Strachan, a former licentiate of the Kirk. But in 1854 the matter was
finally settled by the abolition of all ecclesiastical establishment and
the granting to the Church of England the largest share of the
endowment, a somewhat smaller amount to the Church of Scotland and
smaller sums to some of the other denominations. The stubborn opposition
of the Scots led by such men as the Hon. William Morris, George Brown of
the Globe and William Lyon MacKenzie was one of the principal
factors that guaranteed that there would be no state church in Canada.15
Meanwhile Scots had continued to migrate to the
Canadas, some settling in the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada and
others, not infrequently disbanded soldiers, in the Glengarry district
of eastern Ontario and others to the west and northwest of York
(Toronto) as far as Goderich on Lake Huron and Windsor across from
Detroit. Although many of the churches, particularly along the St.
Lawrence and the lakes, were frequently ministered to by clergy from the
United States, the bulk of the congregations were made up of Scots,
farmers, artisans and businessmen who sought to call men from Scotland
when they had the opportunity. It was, however, the seceders who again
took the first step in organizing as a denomination, for in 1818 the
Presbytery of the Canadas was brought into existence by the
authorization of the Associate Synod of Scotland. Although the Canadian
ministers, who were led by Rev. Alexander Smart of Brockville and Rev.
William Bell of Perth, sent out invitations to all Presbyterian
ministers throughout the Canadas inviting them to join the presbytery,
the Church of Scotland clergy did not even bother to reply. They were
apparently content to remain attached somewhat loosely to the Kirk in
Scotland.16 Furthermore, as Rev.
William Proudfoot, the founder of the Associate Church in London pointed
out, the Church of Scotland men did not seem to have very much zeal for
pioneer work and consequently they probably felt that eventually they
would return to Scotland to take up charges there.17
A change in outlook in Scotland was now beginning to
take place. The United Associate Synod of the Secession Church began to
display increased interest in sending out men to minister to the needs
of the Scottish settlers. To fulfill this plan in 1832 they commissioned
three men to act as pioneers. More important, however,
was the action of the evangelical wing of the Church of Scotland. Deeply
conscious of the responsibility of the Church of Scotland for the
spiritual welfare of the Scottish emigrants to British North America,
they recognized that the Established Church had not done its part in
meeting the settlers' spiritual needs. Therefore, under the patronage of
the Earl of Dalhousie, the Governor-General of British North America,
they organized in 1825 "The Society (in connection with the Established
Church of Scotland) for promoting the religious interests of the
Scottish settlers in British North America," often known as the "Glasgow
Colonial Society." Led by the Rev. Dr. Robert Burns of Paisley, one of
the secretaries, the Society immediately sought to send men to both the
eastern provinces and the Canadas. The results, however, were not always
happy, for the representatives of the society set up a synod in
connection with the Church of Scotland separate from the one established
earlier in the Atlantic region. The work of the society, on the other
hand, did lead to a considerable expansion of the Kirk's activity
throughout the area.18
Simultaneously, Church of Scotland ministers were coming in larger
numbers to Lower and Upper Canada with the result that in 1831 they
formed a synod in connection with the home church and shortly afterwards
told the members of the United Synod of the Canadas, formerly the
Presbytery of the Canadas, that they would receive them if individually
they submitted their credentials. The Synod of the Canadas, however,
refused to join unless they were received as a body and unless the link
with the Church of Scotland and the government were broken. As the
Church of Scotland synod would not agree to this, the two bodies
remained separate despite the government's wish that they would form one
church.19
But more division was ahead. The Scots in Canada were
watching with keen interest the conflict going on in the Established
Church in Scotland over the subject of patronage. Soon after the outcome
had become clear in 1843, emissaries of the Free Church arrived in
British North America led by the redoubtable Dr. Robert Burns, who set
forth the issues at stake. Although the problem of patronage did not
exist in America, underlying this official reason for conflict was the
basic theological disagreement between the evangelicals and the
moderates. Dr. Burns, because of his evangelical zeal and his connection
with the "Glasgow Society," suc-ceeded in persuading most of the
ministers sent out by the society to follow him out of the Church of
Scotland to form a "free" church. In this he had the support of a large
number of influential laymen such as Peter Redpath, the sugar magnate of
Montreal, William Lyon MacKenzie, the "old rebel," and various others.
While this may seem to have been a disaster, in another way it helped
the Presbyterian cause, for the new church was missionary-minded and
side-by-side with the "Missionary Presbytery " of the United Synod of
the Canadas began to expand into the newly opened areas of Upper Canada
such as the Huron Tract, and thence to the west of the Great Lakes. By
1851 there were some 238,000 Presbyterians in what was now Canada East
and Canada West, making that denomination the second largest Protestant
body, by far the largest part of which were first or second generation
Scottish immigrants. In the Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince
Edward Island somewhat the same growth had taken place, with
Presbyterian numbers rising to 93,000.20
From 1812 on Scots had been moving west on to the
prairies, the first colony being that set up on the Red River by the
Earl of Selkirk for the ousted crofters of Kildonan, Sutherlandshire.
Other Scots had already arrived as officials of the Hudson's Bay and
North West Companies, but only after Selkirk had successfully
established a Scottish settlement at Eldon in Prince Edward Island and
had failed to do the same in the southwest of Upper Canada, did he turn
his attention to the lands beyond the Great Lakes. The sufferings of the
settlers both from the weather and the opposition of the North West
Company are mentioned elsewhere in this volume, but they also suffered
from lack of spiritual leadership. Although they had been promised a
Presbyterian minister on their arrival, owing to Selkirk's early death
the promise was not kept and they had to depend upon the services of an
elder, James Sutherland, specially commissioned to baptize and marry,
but he left in 1818. The only ministrations from that time until 1851,
when the first Scottish minister arrived on the scene, were those
provided by the Church of England. Although the Rev. John West, the
Anglican clergyman, adapted his services to the Presbyterian form, the
settlers were still not willing to become Anglicans. Consequently, when
the Rev. John Black, sent by the Presbyterian Church of Canada (Free
Church), arrived in Kildonan in 1851, three hundred of the colonists
immediately became members of his congregation. They then proceeded at
considerable sacrifice to erect a stone building which is still in use
as a Presbyterian church at Kildonan on the outskirts of Winnipeg.21
From this church went out many settlers to
points farther west, as well as missionaries to the Scottish and Indian
settlements in what are now Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Thus as
the Canadian West as far as the Pacific coast began to come under
settlement, the ministers from the Presbyterian Church of Canada, the
Missionary Presbytery of the United Synod and, to a lesser extent, from
the Church of Scotland, carried Presbyterianism to the Scottish and any
other settlers or native peoples who wished their ministry.
While expansion had been taking place in the work of
the various churches, moves had also been made to bring them all
together to form one Canadian Presbyterian Church. The United
Presbyterian Synod in the Canadas, made up of the Associate Secession
and Relief Churches, had from the very beginning declared their
independence of all Scottish churches. And while the Free Church body,
which had come out of the Church of Scotland in 1844 as the Presbyterian
Church of Canada, had some connection with its Scottish mother church,
it was also virtually independent. These two bodies, therefore, joined
together to form the Canada Presbyterian Church in 1861. Similar moves
took place in the Atlantic region. Thus when confederation of the
Canadas and the eastern provinces was effected in 1867, to be followed
later by the addition of Prince Edward Island and some of the western
territories, it seemed only reasonable that the Presbyterians across the
land should all come together. The result was that after some
considerable discussion, in 1875 at a large gathering in Montreal the
Presbyterian Church in Canada came into existence, with Rev. Dr. John
Cook, minister of St. Andrew's Church, Quebec, the first moderator of
the General Assembly. Of course, Scottish-like there were minorities who
refused to enter the union for various reasons, but in general most
Presbyterians came in, the doctrinal, organizational and liturgical
bases being those of the Westminster Standards adopted by the Church of
Scotland in the seventeenth century and held by all the uniting bodies.
The one change made was that the concept of an established church was
rejected, a move which caused some of the Church of Scotland ministers
to refuse to join. The new body, however, by 1881 had some 650,000
members and adherents east of the Great Lakes, being the largest
Protestant denomination in Canada until 1925.22
With Confederation, the opening up of the West, the
laying down of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the government policy of
granting land to homesteaders, settlers, not only from the British
Isles, but also from Eastern Canada, the United States and all parts of
Europe began to flood into the country. The response of the Presbyterian
Church was a vigorous effort to meet the spiritual needs of all comers.
In this connection one name stands out as pre-eminent, that of Dr. James
M. Robertson, who from 1881 to 1902 acted as Superintendent of Western
Missions, establishing congregations from the Red River to the foothills
of the Rockies. Coupled with the name of Robertson were other Scottish
ecclesiastical pioneers - W.G. Brown of Red Deer, D.G. MacQueen of
Edmonton, E.D. MacLaren of Vancouver and almost equally well-known as
Robertson, Andrew S. Grant, who followed the "trail of '98" in the Gold
Rush to the Yukon where as a medical doctor as well as a minister he
established in Dawson City both the Good Samaritan Hospital and St.
Andrew's Presbyterian Church.23 It is
impossible to refer to all those who took part in the pioneer work in
the West. Perhaps one example of what was being done is the present
writer's father, W.D. Reid, who was Superintendent of Missions for the
Province of Alberta, 1910-1912, during which period the number of
Presbyterian preaching stations increased from around 100 to 160. But
the fact that many of those ministered to were Ukrainians, Americans,
Germans, and Poles as well as Scots shows that the Presbyterian Church
in Canada was losing its strongly Scottish character, although even
today that has by no means entirely disappeared.
It was at this point that new developments in the
church's life began to appear on the horizon. While the Westminster
Standards with their strongly biblically-oriented theology had been
adopted as the basis of the union in 1875, biblical criticism, Darwinism
and rationalism began to have their influence, particularly in the
theological colleges. Queen's Theological College, Kingston, which had
been founded by Church of Scotland adherents in 1842, was the spearhead
of this movement, particularly under the leadership of Principal George
M. Grant at the end of the century. Although Principal Sir William
Dawson of McGill University, a New Brunswick Scot, and Principal Donald
H. MacVicar of the Presbyterian College, Montreal, founded in 1868, and
Principals Willis and Caven of Knox College, Toronto, opposed this
tendency, it continued to spread with the result that the Presbyterian
doctrinal distinctiveness of a Reformed church was being gradually
eroded.24 Added to this, there was the
practical problem of attempting to minister to a widely spread
Presbyterian population with limited resources in both men and money.
Many were, therefore, beginning to feel that only a larger church
organization, perhaps a federation of denominations or even an organic
union, along the line of some of the big corporations such as the CPR
might be the answer to the problem.
The matter of church union was brought to a head in
1903 when the General Council of the Methodist Church sent a formal
invitation to the Presbyterian and Congregationalist Churches to enter
into conversations concerning organic or corporate union. Almost
immediately there was division within the Presbyterian ranks. Scots and
those of Scottish origin took positions on both sides, and, as in most
cases of Scottish conflict, feelings ran high and antagonism became
bitter, dividing not only friends but families. Two successive votes
taken on the matter by the Presbyterians showed a diminishing majority
in favour of the union, but at the General Assembly of 1923 held in Port
Arthur the final decision was made to take the plunge.25 One commissioner to the 1923 assembly pled for
time, but Dr. Charles Gordon ("Ralph Connor") declared that an act of
Parliament would force "you rebels" in whether they wanted to go or not.
To this the reply quickly came that Dr. Gordon had obviously forgotten
the tradition of John Knox and the failure of the Stewarts to force the
Covenanters to conform in the seventeenth century, and, the speaker
added, "Scottish Presbyterians have not changed overmuch since then."
On June 10, 1925, the union took place between the
Methodist, the Congregationalist and about 65% of the Presbyterian
membership. Those Presbyterians who refused to enter the new church
constituted themselves as the continuing Presbyterian Church in Canada,
and under the leadership of its moderator, Rev. Dr. Ephraim Scott of
Montreal, reaffirmed its adherence to the Westminster Standards and
promised to carry on as the Presbyterian Church in Canada.26 As one glances over rolls of presbyteries and of
congregations since that date, one can see that the Scottish element is
still very strong within both the ministry and the membership: Dickie,
MacInnis, MacGregor, Lennox, MacBeth, Reid, Campbell, along with
MacDonalds, MacLeods and MacLeans galore, as well as many others
indicate clearly that the Scottish Protestant and Presbyterian tradition
has continued within this body. In
the 1931 census of 870,728 reporting as Presbyterians, 245,000 said they
were either Scots or of Scottish origin.
Although the United Church of Canada is much more of
a mixture of both races and creeds, Scottish influence in its ranks is
also quite strong. Names such as Slater, MacDonald, MacLean, Sinclair
and MacLeod appear repeatedly in its records. The 1931 census shows
about 8% of its members and adherents claiming to be Scots or of
Scottish origin. It, however, has moved away from the basic Calvinism of
the Scottish tradition, which tends to change its Scottish character.
Nevertheless, the same fundamental moral values seem to survive along
with the same tendency towards rebelliousness which has characterized
Scots of Presbyterian background down to the present, for while it has
accommodated itself to many middle class values, it has also been known
as the "praying arm" of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, now
the NDP, of which a number of Scottish minsters such as William Irvine
were founding members.27
Up to this point we have dealt with the Scottish
Presbyterian tradition in Canada, and rightly so, as this has
represented the main Scottish Protestant tradition in Canada as well as
in Scotland. Yet we must recognize that Scots were by no means limited
to the Presbyterian bodies which went to make up the Presbyterian Church
in Canada. It is an interesting point that many of those Scots who are
to be found in the Anglican, Baptist and other churches came to Canada
as Presbyterians, but for one reason or another joined other
denominations. One example is John Strachan who when he failed to
receive a call from a Presbyterian congregation joined the Church of
England, in whose ranks he rose to prominence.28 Others joined the Methodist or Baptist churches simply
because their own church was not providing them with the services that
they needed. A good example of this is to be found in the Eastern
Townships of Quebec, where the Methodist circuit riders were quite
active, while the Presbyterians under the leadership of Dr. Cook of
Quebec City would not send out ministers to the Scottish settlements
unless they had passed all the academic requirements of a Scottish
presbytery. The result was that many Presbyterians, for want of their
own church's ministrations, became Methodists, or where there was an
English church, Anglicans. One other reason for Scots joining other
denominations or groups was that not infrequently, coming from a
background where theology was important and "sermon tasting" strong,
they found the local Church of Scotland minister bland and not
particularly helpful spiritually. Consequently, if there was no other
Presbyterian church available they turned to the Methodists, Baptists or
Plymouth Brethren.
As one looks over the roll of prominent Anglican
churchmen in Canada one cannot but be somewhat surprised at the large
number of Scottish names. It is interesting too that some of the most
vigorous supporters of the Anglican Establishment came from this group.
It is well to note, however, that few if any of the Scottish Anglicans
came from the Scottish
Episcopal Church. Most of them came to Canada as
Presbyterians, usually Church of Scotland, joining the Church of England
shortly thereafter. It is not always easy to explain why this change was
made, but it may have been partially the claims of the Church of England
to be the Established Church which made the appeal. Or it may have been
the influence of the High Church movement of John Henry Newman and E.B.
Pusey which was having a certain amount of impact on some Presbyterian
circles in Scotland.
The first Anglican of Scottish descent to become
important in Canada was Bishop Charles Inglis, the first Bishop of the
Diocese of British North America, a somewhat large area to oversee. He
came of an Ulster family which had migrated from Roxburghshire some
years earlier. Appointed Assistant of Holy Trinity Church, New York in
1765, as a Loyalist he migrated to Nova Scotia at the time of the
Revolution, shortly afterwards being appointed to his episcopate. His
son later became the third Bishop of Nova Scotia.29 Most famous or notorious, depending upon one's point of
view, of all the Scots who entered the Anglican Church was Bishop John
Strachan, to whom we have already referred, a strong defender of the
Anglican claims to establishment, the founder of the University of
Toronto and one of the dominant political figures of his day. As tutor
in his earlier days of the two sons of Rev. John Bethune, founder of St.
Gabriel Presbyterian Church, Montreal, and Scots minister at
Williamstown, he brought both of them into the Church of England,
Alexander Neil becoming the second Bishop of Toronto and his brother,
John, Archdeacon of Montreal and first Principal of McGill University.
One might refer to many others such as Charles James Stewart who became
in 1826 the second Bishop of Quebec. By 1827 the Church of England had
thirty clergymen in the Canadas of whom eleven were Scots, most of them
having been Presbyterian when they came to the New World.30
As we look west beyond the Great Lakes we see much
the same type of development. In 1865 the second bishop of Rupert's Land
took office. He was a Scot, Bishop Robert Machray, who effectively
organized the missionary diocese which had up to this time been no more
than a geographical expression. When he divided the diocese, setting up
the Bishopric of Saskatchewan, he had his friend John MacLean who had
been teaching in St. John's College, Winnipeg, appointed bishop. Machray,
who became archbishop, was succeeded on his death by S.D. Matheson, also
of Scottish extraction, who had been brought up by an aunt, a Miss
Pritchard, who was an Anglican. Although the rest of the family were
strongly Presbyterian he eventually became Anglican primate of Canada.31
One could mention various other Scots who
were active in the Anglican Church in Western Canada, but this should
suffice to indicate that they played a considerable part in the
development of Anglicanism as well as Presbyteriansism in Canada.
As mentioned above, other churches also had their
share of Scots. The evangelical movements of eighteenth
century Britain resulted in the formation of the Methodist Church, the
development of various Baptist groups and the founding of the Christian
Brethren (usually known as Plymouth Brethren) by J.N. Darby soon began
to have their offshoots in North American colonies. Laying much less
stress on academic qualifications than the Presbyterians and Anglicans,
but stressing conversion, commitment and "spiritual gifts" in their
preachers, these bodies began to have a wide influence particularly in
the areas where the more formal churches never seemed to go. The outcome
included camp meetings, revival services and the founding of small
churches and assemblies in many localities. A considerable number of the
Scots became involved in these bodies, playing a large and important
part in their development and extension.
The Methodists were one of the bodies which counted a
considerable number of Scots in their membership. For years the official
paper, the Christian Guardian, was edited by two Ulster Scots:
W.B. Creighton, father of Professor Donald Creighton, the well-known
historian, and William McMullen. Moreover, many of the ministers of the
Methodist Church came of Scottish backgrounds: Alexander Sutherland,
Lachlan Taylor, James Roy are but three names which stand out in Eastern
Canadian Methodism. In the West Rev. George McDougall, of Scottish
parentage but born in Grey County, Ont., was one of the first
missionaries to the Cree Indians. Rev. John MacLeod was another Scot who
held a number of pastorates in the West. Rev. Ebenezer Robson, born of
Scottish Presbyterian parentage in County Lanark, Ont., opened the first
Methodist church in Victoria, B.C. When in 1925 the Methodist Church
went into union with the majority of the Presbyterians and the
Congregationlists, Scots Methodists were quite prepared to welcome Scots
from the other denominations.32
Not many Scots seem to have been active in the
Congregational Church, although there were a few. The most outstanding
was Rev. Alexander MacGregor of Yarmouth, N.S., who was active in Upper
Canada. He later went to the largest Congregational church in the
Atlantic region where he also acted as one of the editors of the
church's paper, the Christian Standard.33
Among the Baptists, Scots have always been a very
strong element. Many of the members of the Church of Scotland were
influenced by the revivalism of Robert Haldane. Some of his adherents
came to British North America early in the nineteenth century and
established congregations in a number of places. Having rejected infant
baptism, they linked up with the existing Baptist groups, but in many
cases remained strongly Scottish in orientation, so that in some places
such as Dalesville, Que., until rather recent times there were
Gaelic-speaking Baptist congregations. This tendency to attract Scots to
the Baptist fold, particularly when the Presbyterian ministers were of the
dry-as-dust variety, has continued to the present time. One might cite
the influence of Dr. J.A. Johnson, originally of Stirling, Scotland, of
Westmount Baptist Church, Montreal, in this regard. Scottish Baptists
were active, however, beyond the pastorate, for when what is now
McMaster University was founded its first principal was Rev. J.H. Fyfe,
another Scot.34
An indication of what happened in the cases of some
Scots of Presbyterian background is the story of the Elliotts and the
McAllisters who settled around Molesworth in southwestern Ontario in the
mid-nineteenth century. The nearest Presbyterian church which was at
some distance did not seem to meet their spiritual needs. Thus when
travelling evangelists representing the Plymouth Brethren came through
the district holding services, members of the family were converted
through their ministry, and have been leaders among the Plymouth
Brethren in Canada for many years.35
As we have looked at the Scots in the various
Protestant denominations and the important parts they have played in
these bodies we have talked more in terms of organization than in terms
of lifestyle and general outlook. The question then is what part in the
development of Canada has the Scottish Protestant tradition played. The
Protestants, like their Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen, if they
settled on farms usually congregated in family and kinship groups. But
the many artisans, businessmen or professional men tended to put down
their roots in the burgeoning cities and towns. Moreover, not
infrequently after two or three generations on the land, the Scottish
Protestants began to move into the urban areas, breaking with their
rural and agricultural background. This meant that the Protestant
tradition, while often losing much of its specifically Scottish
character, e.g. services in Gaelic, has exercised a wider influence than
has the Scottish Roman Catholic tradition which tended to keep the
people on the land.
At the beginning we can say that there was little or
no class distinction in the influence which the Scottish Protestant
tradition exerted. Whether the Scots came as farmers, fishermen,
labourers, merchants or professional men they all seem to have had very
much the same point of view. Furthermore, the Protestant tradition seems
to have fostered considerable social mobility. "The lad o' pairts,"
whatever his background, social and economic origins, felt that he had
the right and duty to make the best of himself and to rise in the world.
One can think of farming families which have produced ministers,
doctors, lawyers, nurses, and school teachers. This was simply carrying
on a Scottish Protestant tradition which, as has been shown in another
chapter, was not generally as true of the Roman Catholic Scots, although
some did follow this pattern. The important thing to be noted here is
that Scottish Protestants did not accept any rigid class structure, but
stressed the importance of every man developing his God-given gifts to
the best of his ability in this life. Class divisions, therefore, were
to be ignored.
This meant of course that the Protestant tradition
had its influence on every part of the Scottish social spectrum. We can
think, for instance, of a man such as Peter Redpath, the Montreal sugar
magnate, who founded the Cote Street Church in support of the Free
Church of Scotland after the Disruption in 1844. His principles and
outlook were very much the same as those of the humbler, working class
members of the same congregation. The Marquess of Lome, the
Governor-General, in his metrical version of Psalm 121, expressed the
same point of view as that set forth by Burns' "Cottar's Saturday Night"
a scene which was re-enacted over and over again across the country from
Cape North in Cape Breton to Prince Rupert on Vancouver Island. In the
nineteenth century the Scottish Calvinist tradition was all-pervasive
among those Protestants who had come from Scotland.
One thing which stands out very clearly in the
Protestant tradition is the desire for intellectual and technical
training. The home was the basis for the children's education and it
began with the Westminster Shorter Catechism. As R.L. Stevenson points
out, the Scot was always surrounded with an air of metaphysical divinity
from his cradle by this means, and the tradition continued even when
transported to Canada. The writer can remember his father telling him
that as a boy on the farm in the Eastern Townships every Sunday night
the family would gather to recite the Catechism, one-half one evening
and the other half the next. But the Church also played an important
role in this, particularly in the country districts. Various methods
were taken to train the young. In one country congregation a minister,
the Rev. James M 'Conachie, set an essay topic which was: "In Old
Testament times when men's thoughts and sentiments were rough and crude,
their religion had to be of the same character. In the light of this,
discuss the significance of animal sacrifice." Over a dozen essays were
submitted by the young people, the prize production winning the
astounding sum of one dollar. With such church training went the stress
upon the school where the teachers were not always good or even kind,
but where youngsters knew that they had to have the elements of
education if they were to accomplish anything in life. While Ralph
Connor draws a somewhat romanticized picture, his Glengarry
Schooldays comes close to reality in many ways. When the budding
scholar had gone as far as he could in the one-roomed schoolhouse, he
could then take off for Quebec to Morrin College, for Montreal to
McGill, for Kingston to Queen's or for Toronto to the University of
Toronto, all of which had a large proportion of Scots both in faculty
and student body, to obtain training which would make him a lawyer, a
doctor, a minister or even a professor. Others might head for some
merchant's counting house, a bank or some other business concern where
they often rose to places of importance and responsibility.
Yet the Scottish Protestant did not think only of the
importance of "making it" in this world. There was a strong sense of
divine calling which arose out of his Calvinistic background. From the
days of John Knox great stress had been laid in Scottish Protestantism
on the importance of one taking his proper place in society where he
could work for the benefit and advantage of the commonwealth, wherever
his lot might be cast. As Knox and many of those who came after him
constantly stressed, he was to seek to do all for the glory of God. His
own personal development, therefore, had not merely a worldly stimulus,
for he was actually working for eternity. This was impressed upon him
from an early age when he learned the first question and answer of the
Shorter Catechism: "What is man's chief end? Man's chief end is to
glorify God and enjoy him forever." This gave the Scot a sense of
objectivity and of purpose which transcended monetary or social
advantage.
Along with his feeling of calling and responsibility
went the evangelical emphasis upon conversion. The stress upon man's own
weakness and sinfulness, forcing him to turn to God, seeking his grace,
mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ, was basic to much Scottish
thinking. True, there might be theological differences among them, but
the evangelical influence was extremely strong as can be seen at the
Disruption of 1844 which was partially caused by frustration at the lack
of truly evangelical preaching in the Church of Scotland. The fact that
a considerable number also left the Church of Scotland for the more
evangelical denominations, Methodist, Baptist or Plymouth Brethren,
points in this direction. Even when such people turned away from the
church of their fathers, they carried with them the stress on sovereign
grace and the necessity of loving obedience to God's call.
While it is true that all Scots were not
Presbyterians and so would not necessarily study the Westminster Shorter
Catechism, yet the large majority were, and their attitudes and outlook
certainly influenced the whole Scottish culture, with the result that
Scottish Protestants generally developed much the same point of view.
Furthermore, when we realize that many of the Scots who became active in
non-Presbyterian denominations in Canada were originally trained as
Presbyterians it is not difficult to understand how Scottish
Protestantism helped to develop a very definite type of individual in
Canada.
This in turn seems to have resulted in other
characteristics. Probably one of the most noticeable was Scottish hard
work and thrift even among those who may have rejected the 'faith of
their fathers.' Furthermore, the Scots were prepared to take chances in
order to advance their fortunes and their work. It is no accident that
the North West Company was made up largely of Scots, and that so many of
Canada's other large industrial and commercial ventures were fathered by
Scots. Donald Smith, Lord Strath-cona of the Hudson's Bay Company,
Robert Simpson of the Robert Simpson Company and Colonel Robert
MacLaughlin of the Mac-Laughlin Carriage Works, later General Motors of
Canada, are but a few of the names one could mention. This all involved
independence of thought and heart, which one sees only too plainly if he
attends, even today, a Presbyterian church court. Yet along with this
went also a strong sense of responsibility in the use of one's wealth,
time and talents. It is no accident, for instance, that so many of the
universities, hospitals and similar institutions particularly in Eastern
Canada, were established through the generosity of wealthy Scots or
Canadians of Scottish origin. This again was part of the Protestant
emphasis upon the fact that wealth was given by God for the benefit of
all, not just for the enjoyment of the few, a point that is constantly
made from the other end of the social spectrum by such Scots as the
Honorable "Tommy" Douglas, first leader of the national New Democratic
Party. To the Scot his religious beliefs have always been something
which must lead to action and application in everyday life.
Although today much has changed with growing
secularism and materialism, and declining membership in all the
Protestant churches, the Scottish Protestant tradition still exercises
its influence. In many cases the religious foundation may have been
eroded with the result that the individual rejects, or at least
neglects, the specifically religious presuppositions of the Scottish
Protestant tradition.
The ethical and moral principles, however, have been
so imbedded in the individual's personality that they are still
operating automatically. Some may feel that it would be well to rid
oneself of these characteristics, while others may seek to keep them
even though they do not agree with their source and origin. Since the
Scottish Protestant tradition in the past has made men strong to do
great things, perhaps it is time that Scots began to look back to the
rock whence they have been hewn to renew their strength and the
spiritual vitality upon which their forefathers drew with such effect.
NOTES
1. R.L. Stevenson, "The Foreigner at Home,"
Memories and Portraits (London: Collins, n.d.); W. Notestein, The
Scot in History (London, 1947).
2. Ibid., pp. 119f; P. Janton, John Knox,
L'homme et L'oeuvre (Paris: Didier, 1967), pp. 174ff; W.S. Reid,
Trumpeter of God (New York: Scribner's, 1974), pp. 150ff.
3. "The Confession of Faith," (1560) in John
Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland, W.C. Dickinson, ed.
(Edinburgh: Nelson, 1949), II, 266; cf. D.
MacLean, Aspects of Scottish Church History (Edinburgh: T.&T.
Clark, 1927), passim, G.D. Henderson, Church and Ministry
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1951),passim.
4. J.H. Burleigh, A Church History of Scotland
(London: Oxford, 1960), pp. 420ff.
5. W.R. Foster, Bishop and Presbytery, The Church
of Scotland 1661-1688 (London: SPCK, 1958), pp. 155ff.
6. Ibid., pp. 12ff; Burleigh, pp. 261ff; D.G.
Henderson, Presbyterianism
(Aberdeen: University Press, 1954), pp. 53rT; J.G.
Vos, The Scottish Covenanters (Shanghai, 1940), pp. 137ff. For a
more detailed account of the Covenanters cf. J.K. Hewison, The
Covenanters (Glasgow: Smith & Son, 1908).
7. Burleigh, pp. 263ff; E. Scott, Church Union and
the Presbyterian Church in Canada (Montreal: Lovell, 1928), pp.
73ff.
8. MacLean, pp. 37ff; Burleigh, pp. 261ff; R.
Buchanan, The Ten Years' Conflict (Glasgow: Blackie, 1854), i,
123ff, 151ff.
9. MacLean, pp. 134ff; Henderson, Presbyterianism,
pp. 1ff, 175ff; W.S. Reid, "The Scottish Disruption and Reunion,
1843-1929," Christendom (1943), pp. 318ff, 326ff.; Burleigh, pp.
395ff.
10. For an indication of this trend see J.S. Moir,
Enduring Witness (Toronto: Presbyterian Publications, 1974).
11. Wm. Gregg, History of the Presbyterian Church
in the Dominion of Canada.
12. Ibid., p. 135.
13. Ibid., pp. 143ff; W.W. Campbell, The
Scotsman in Canada, (Toronto: Musson, n.d.), p. 308.
14. Ibid., pp. 309ff; Gregg, pp. 155ff; J.
MacKenzie, "John Bethune, Founder of Presbyterianism in Upper Canada,"
Called to Witness, W.S. Reid, ed. (Toronto: Presbyterian
Publications, 1975). 15. W.S. Reid, The Church of Scotland in Lower
Canada: Its Struggle for Establishment (Toronto: Presbyterian
Publications, 1936); Gregg, pp. 406f.
16. Gregg, pp. 204ff,359ff.
17. Reid, Church of Scotland, p. 65ff.
18. Gregg, pp. 278ff.
19. Ibid, pp. 446ff.
20. Ibid.., pp. 587.
21. Ibid., pp. 213ff.
22. Ibid., pp. 600ff; W. Gregg, A Short History of
the Presbyterian Church in Canada (Toronto: Robinson, 1892), pp.
188ff; W.S. Reid, "John Cook and the Kirk in Canada," Enkindled by
the Word, N.G. Smith, ed. (Toronto: Presbyterian Publications,
1966), pp. 28ff. Dominion of Canada Census, 1881 & 1921. Those
claiming to be Presbyterians increased from 663,000 to 1,409,000, while
Anglicans increased from 575,000 to 1,408,000.
23. N.G. Smith, "James Robertson and the Churches in
the Prairie Provinces," ibid., pp. 43ff; David A. Smith, "British
Columbia and the Yukon," ibid., pp. 53ff; G. Bryce, The
Scotsman in Canada (Toronto: Musson, n.d.), II,
pp. 255ff.
24. W.J. Rattray, The Scot in North America.
(Toronto: MacLear, 1882), III, 82 1ff.
25. Scott, pp. 59f; A.L. Farris, "The Fathers of
1925," Enkindled, pp. 59ff.
26. Acts and Proceedings of the 51st General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (Toronto, 1925).
27. Cf. J.E.Hart, "William Irvine and Radical
Politics in Canada,' Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Guelph,
1972.
28. R. Campbell, History of St. Gabriel Street
Church, Montreal (Montreal: Lovell, 1887), pp. 183ff.
29. Ibid., p. 326.
30. Ibid., p. 327.
31. Bryce, pp. 278ff.
32. Campbell, pp. 331; Bryce, pp. 282.
33. Rattray, iii, 902.
34. Campbell, pp. 291ff, 332f.
35. This information was given to the author by Mrs.
R.W. Farnworth of Guelph, Ont., who is a descendant of the original
MacAllister settlers.
