o review of Presbyterian Worship would be complete which failed to
consider the spirit which has characterized those large sections of the
Church which exist in Scotland outside of the Establishment, and those
also which have been planted and fostered in the New World.

In 1733 the first Secession Church was formed, when Ebenezer Erskine,
William Wilson, Alexander Moncrieff, and James Fisher, protesting
against what they regarded as the unjust treatment accorded them by the
prevailing party in the Church, were declared to be no longer members
of the Church of Scotland. This Secession Church enjoyed a rapid
growth, and soon came to form a very influential section in the
Presbyterianism of the land. Its principles and practices with regard
to worship show that same suspicion of a ritual and partiality for a
free form of worship which has always characterized the Presbyterian
Church in the days of her greatest vigor. In 1736 this Church
published its judicial testimony, in which it declared its loyalty to
the Directory of Worship as the same was approved by the Assembly of
1645. Some years later one section of this Church, known as the
Antiburgher, published a condemnation of the corruptions of worship as
witnessed in England and Wales, and at a subsequent period a further
manifesto, in which the reading by ministers of their sermons in the
public ministry of the Word was condemned, as was also "the conduct of
those adult persons who, in ordinary circumstances, either in public,
in private, or in secret, restrict themselves to set forms of prayer,
whether these be read or repeated." The same manifesto, in a part
treating of Psalmody, claimed for the Psalms Divine authority, as
suitable for the service of praise, in the Christian as well as in the
Old Testament dispensation, but acknowledged that, in addition to
these, "others contained in the New Testament itself may be sung in the
ordinance of Praise."

Similar to this position was that of the United Associate Synod, which,
formed in 1820, published, seven years later, its views on the subject
of worship. It condemned "the conduct of adult persons who restricted
themselves to set forms of prayer, whether read or whether repeated;"
it acknowledged also that other parts of Scripture besides the Psalms
were suitable for praise, and, with regard to the use of the Lord's
Prayer in public worship, a matter which had caused much discussion
within the Church in earlier tim