et us remark, further, that if some of our friends deem the
scheme proposed for Scotland too little religious, it is as certain
that the assertors of the scheme now proposed for England, and
advocated in Parliament by Mr. Fox, very decidedly object to it on
the opposite score. Like the grace said by the Rev. Reuben Butler,
which was censured by the Captain of Knockdunder as too long, and
by douce Davie Deans as too short, it is condemned for faults so
decidedly antagonistic in their character, that they cannot co-exist
together. One class of persons look exclusively at that lack of a
statutory recognition of religion which the scheme involves, and
denounce it as _infidel_; another, at the religious character of the
people of Scotland, and at the consequent certainty, also involved
in the scheme, that they will render their schools transcripts of
themselves, and so they condemn it as _orthodox_. And hence the
opposite views entertained by Mr. Combe of Edinburgh on the one
hand, and Mr. Gibson of Glasgow on the other.{15}

-----

{14} It is not uninstructive to remark how invariably in this
matter an important point has been taken for granted which has
not yet been proven; and how the most serious charges have been
preferred against men's principles, on the assumption that there
exists in the question a certain divine truth, which may be
neither divine nor yet a truth at all. Wisdom and goodness may be
exhibited in both the negative and positive form--both by
avoiding what is wicked and foolish, and by doing what is good
and wise. And while no Christian doubts that the adorable Head of
the Church manifested His character, when on earth, in both ways,
at least no Presbyterian doubts that He manifested it not only by
instituting certain orders in His Church, but also by omitting to
institute in it certain other orders. He instituted, for
instance, an order of preachers of the gospel; He did not
institute an order of popes and cardinals. Neither, however, did
He institute an order of 'religion-teaching' schoolmasters; and
the question not yet settled, and of which, without compromising
a single article in our standards, either side may be espoused,
is, whether our Saviour manifested His wisdom in _not_ making use
of the schoolmaster, or whether, without indicating His mind on
the subject, He left the schoolmaster to be legit