the uproar of sectarian battle; of how the east
wind has carried out the sound of our shrill disputations into the
desolate Atlantic, and the west wind has borne it over the German Ocean,
as though it would make all Europe privy to how well we Scottish
brethren abide together in unity. It is not a bright page in the annals
of a small country: it is not a pleasant commentary on the Christianity
that we profess; there is something in it pitiful, as I have said, for
the pitiful man, but bitterly humorous for others. How much time we have
lost, how much of the precious energy and patience of good men we have
exhausted, on these trivial quarrels, it would be nauseous to consider;
we know too much already when we know the facts in block; we know enough
to make us hide our heads for shame, and grasp gladly at any present
humiliation, if it would ensure a little more quiet, a little more
charity, a little more brotherly love in the distant future.

And it is with this before your eyes that, as I feel certain, you are
now addressing yourselves to the consideration of this important crisis.
It is with a sense of the blackness of this discredit upon the national
character and national Christianity that not you alone but many of other
Churches are now setting themselves to square their future course with
the exigencies of the new position of sects; and it is with you that the
responsibility remains. The obligation lies ever on the victor; and just
so surely as you have succeeded in the face of captious opposition in
carrying forth the substance of a reform of which others had despaired,
just as surely does it lie upon you as a duty to take such steps as
shall make that reform available, not to you only, but to all your
brethren who will consent to profit by it; not only to all the clergy,
but to the cause of decency and peace, throughout your native land. It
is earnestly hoped that you may show yourselves worthy of a great
opportunity, and do more for the public minds by the example of one act
of generosity and humility than you could do by an infinite series of
sermons.

Without doubt, it is your intention, on the earliest public opportunity,
to make some advance. Without doubt, it is your purpose to improve the
advantage you have gained, and to press upon those who quitted your
communion some thirty years ago your great desire to be once more united
to them. This, at least, will find a place in the most unfriendly
programme you