the 16th and 17th centuries it unwisely threw away
or, less excusably, gave up in the coldness of the 18th. We have still
some beautiful old usages, as well as enviable liberties and powers. And
even in the 18th century we kept the Faith against Arian and Socinian
heresy: even then, our sacramental teaching could be high: even then,
the doctrine and the practice alike of the Established Church and the
Seceders were clear and strong on the derivation of the Ministry from
Christ, and the Apostolical succession of our ministers, and yours,
through presbyters.

For myself, I suggested in 1907, when it was proposed in our General
Assembly to open these negotiations, that we should attempt a larger
duty, and approach all the reformed Churches in Scotland. I was
over-ruled. It was held wiser "in the meantime" (they gave me this much)
to "confine our invitation" to the United Free Church.

The Scottish Episcopal Church appeared to be of this mind also; and
those in her and among us who have long looked wistfully towards our
union with her and with the Church of England are already finding that
our present effort (limited as it is) is proving not an obstacle, as
some of us feared, but a powerful impetus towards the larger effort. The
union seems likely to clear away hindrances to an extent we never
dreamed of. It is opening up the wider prospect among an increasing
number not in the Church of Scotland only, but emphatically also in the
United Free Church. On all hands it is "recognised" in Scotland that the
official "limitation of the Union horizon is only temporary":--I quote
from the _Annual Report_ for this year of the Scottish Church Society:

No one is content to accept the contemplated union, should it be
accomplished, as exhaustive. We all wait for a fuller manifestation
of the Grace of God. At this season of Pentecost we dream our
dreams and see our visions of that great and notable day when all
who name the One Name shall be one.

The witness of the Scottish Church Society may seem to some one-sided:
here is a witness from the other side, of a date more recent than last
May; from a pamphlet just issued by the venerable Dr William Mair, the
first and most persevering of the advocates of our present enterprise.
His words impress me as very touching in their transparent honesty:

It is thirteen years (he writes) since I first spoke out in the
form of a pamphlet. No man stood wi