ociated from the religious certificate, as against State
_endowments_ given for the same purpose, when dissociated from
statutory religious requirement. It is the religious certificate--most
anomalously demanded of denominations diametrically opposed to each
other in their beliefs, and subversive of each other in their
teachings--that constitutes in the affair of educational grants the
recognition of religion on the part of the State. Educational grants
dissociated from the religious certificate are educational grants
dissociated from the State recognition of religion. The fact that the
certificates demanded should be of so anomalous a character, is simply
a reflection of the all-important fact that the British people are
broken up into antagonistic Churches and hostile denominations, and
that the British Government is representative. And that men such as
those members and office-bearers of our Church who hold the middle
position between that occupied by Mr. Gibson of Glasgow on the one
hand, and Dr. Begg of Edinburgh on the other, should see no other way
of availing themselves of the educational grants, with a good
conscience, than by getting rid of the religious recognition, only
serves to show that they are quite as sensible as their opponents in
the liberal section of the enormous difficulty of the case, and can
bethink themselves of no better mode of unlocking it. For it will not
be contended, that if in the matter of grants there is to be no
recognition of religion on the part of the State, the want of it could
be more adequately supplied by sects, as such, denominationally
divided, than by the people of Scotland, as such, territorially
divided; seeing that sects, as such, include Papists, Puseyites,
Socinians, and Seceders,--Muggletonians, Juggletonians, New
Jerusalemites, and United Presbyterians,--Free-thinking Christians,
Free-Willers, and Free Churchmen. Nor can we see either the wisdom or
the advantage of any scheme of Government inquiry into the educational
destitution of a locality, that, instead of supplying the want which
it found, would merely placard the place by a sort of feuing
ticket--destined, we are afraid, in many instances to be sadly
weather-bleached--which would intimate to the sects in general, that
were any one of them to come forward and enact the part of
school-builder and pedagogue, the State would undertake for a portion
of the expenses. We suppose the advertisement on the ticket would ru