lasting honour of his
countrymen than the part he took in securing for Scotland the
ecclesiastical system which has been the most powerful factor in her
history, it may be held as certain that where this service which filled
his life is disesteemed, his biography, if read at all, will be read
with only a languid interest. It will be our first endeavour, therefore,
to show that such a prejudice in regard to our subject is mistaken and
misleading.

Melville, and all from first to last who joined in the Scottish
resistance to Episcopacy, were persuaded that the controversy in which
they were engaged was one not academic merely but vital, and that, as it
was settled one way or the other, so would the people be left in a
position in which they would be able to develop their religious life
with freedom and effect, or in one which would incalculably cripple it.
That is a contention which history has amply vindicated.

The best justification of the struggle carried on during the period
from Melville to the Revolution (1574-1688) to preserve the Presbyterian
system in the Church is to be found in the benefits which that system
has conferred upon the country. It has penetrated the whole Christian
people with a sense of their individual responsibility in connection
with the principles and government of the Church; it has saved the
Church from being dwarfed into a mere clerical corporation; it has laid
for it a broad and strong basis by winning to it the attachment of its
common members, and by exercising their intelligence, sympathy, and
interest in regard to all its institutions and enterprises. It may be
truly said of the Scottish people that their highest patriotism has been
elicited and exercised over the religious problems of the nation; that
they have shown more sensitiveness concerning their religious rights,
liberties, and duties than concerning any other interest of their life;
and that they have been more readily and deeply touched when the honour
and efficiency of their Church was at stake than by any other cause
whatever. How should an ecclesiastical system better vindicate its
claim? Nothing so ennobles a people as the care of matters of high
concern--such a care as Presbyterianism has laid on the Scottish people.

But it was not only the conviction of the excellence of their own
economy that led the Presbyterians to maintain it at all hazards--it was
also their fear of many tendencies in the rival system. They drea