l churches of the British soil.

Such was the varying condition, when sketched in outline, of the Scottish
and English churches. Two centuries ago, and for half a century beyond
that, we find both churches in a state of trial, of turbulent agitation,
and of sacrifices for conscience which involved every fifth or sixth
beneficiary. Then came a century of languor and the carelessness which
belongs to settled prosperity. And finally, for both has arisen a half
century of new light--new zeal--and, spiritually speaking, of new
prosperity. This deduction it was necessary to bring down, in order to
explain the new power which arose to the Scottish church during the last
generation of suppose thirty years.

When two powerful establishments, each separately fitted to the genius and
needs of its several people, are pulling together powerfully towards one
great spiritual object, vast must be the results. Our ancestors would have
stood aghast as at some fabulous legend or some mighty miracle, could they
have heard of the scale on which our modern contributions proceed for the
purposes of missions to barbarous nations, of circulating the Scriptures,
(whether through the Bible Society, that is the National Society, or
Provincial Societies,) of translating the Scriptures into languages
scarcely known by name to scholars, of converting Jews, of organizing and
propagating education. Towards these great objects the Scottish clergy had
worked with energy and with little disturbance to their unanimity.
Confidence was universally felt in their piety and in their discretion.
This confidence even reached the supreme rulers of the state. Very much
through ecclesiastical influence, new plans for extending the religious
power of the Scottish church, and indirectly of extending their secular
power, were countenanced by the Government. Jealousy had been disarmed by
the upright conduct of the Scottish clergy, and their remarkable freedom
hitherto from all taint of ambition. It was felt, besides, that the temper
of the Scottish nation was radically indisposed to all intriguing or modes
of temporal ascendency in ecclesiastical bodies. The nation, therefore,
was in some degree held as a guarantee for the discretion of their clergy.
And hence it arose, that much less caution was applied to the first
encroachment of the Non-intrusionists, than would have been applied under
circumstances of more apparent doubt. Hence it arose, that a confidence
from the