t
Kirk, one of the few that has fairly rid itself of sacerdotalism and
ritualism, and you have no cause to be ashamed of it"--he goes on to
say: "The advice is not unneeded in the present day by others than he to
whom it was originally tendered, and I give it this publicity for the
benefit of all whom it may concern. The Reformed Church of Scotland from
the first rid herself of these medieval corruptions, and the attempt to
bring her again under the yoke issued in dire disaster to those who made
it. This surely is no time for the Presbyterian Churches to swerve from
the testimony they have so long and resolutely borne against all such
errors. When we think of the mischief they are now causing in the Church
of England, and the grief they are occasioning to many of her most loyal
sons, rather does it become us to bear more decided testimony to the
truths, that under the New Testament there is but one Priest, who ever
liveth to make intercession for us, and one sacrifice once offered,
which perfects for ever them that are sanctified; that He has not
communicated His priestly office to His ministers either by succession
or delegation, nor authorised them to repeat or continue that sacrifice
which is the propitiation for sin; and that He has neither Himself
imposed, nor warranted others to impose, a load of 'fondly' invented
ceremonies in His worship."

If the Professor thus strenuously opposed sacerdotalism on the one hand,
he had as little sympathy with Broad Churchism on the other. The
non-natural sense in which the narratives of the New Testament miracles
are understood and interpreted by some of the modern critics he rejected
as subversive of Christian truth, a common saying of his being, "If the
Gospel is not true historically, it is not true at all: 'If Christ be
not raised, your faith is vain'"; and while he mellowed with advancing
years, he never wavered in his deep religious convictions, nor for a
moment relaxed the tenacious grasp which he had of the doctrines of
Christianity as set forth in the standards of the Reformed Churches. One
of his latest sayings was, "I die in the faith which I have always
professed."

From his _Alma Mater_ the Professor had received the degree of D.D. in
1862, and in 1892 the University of Glasgow conferred upon him the
degree of LL.D. in recognition of his eminence as a teacher and an
author. A young minister of the Church, himself one of his most
distinguished students, has drawn a