It was concerning such a church as this, in its chosen centre and home, that the decree went forth that it should be rent in twain. We shall not examine the excuses, for they are not worthy of the name of arguments, offered for this fearful scattering of moral power, this alienation of the hearts of brethren, this opening wide the door to bickering, and heart-burning, contention and every evil work. This will be done, God willing, by another, and a competent hand, in the pages of this Review. The place which had seen our infancy, our growth, our maturity and manly vigor, now witnessed our suicidal strife. It was in this city that the Declaration of the Independence of America was pronounced, full, entire and perfect freedom under law. The bell which floated out those rapturous sounds to the ear of listening thousands, pealed over the spot where this General Assembly consummated their unhallowed work, and the shadow of the spire which the worshipper of freedom from every land strains his eye to catch as he draws nigh this city of Liberty, might almost have fallen upon it. Yet there the guillotine of revolutionary excision was set to work, and there with ruthless hand our fair heritage was deformed, and our people scattered like sheep upon the mountains. Violence rejoiced over the fancied victory, and pride walked abroad exultant over the prostrate liberties of brethren and of countrymen. Charter and chartered funds, name and rights, character and orthodoxy, every thing we held dear, was attempted to be seized, and we the true successors in name and fact, in spirit and in truth of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, were to be driven forth dispirited, broken, a scattered remnant, never again to lift up our front in the presence of those who had rent our Church, reviled our orthodoxy, poured contempt upon our learning, doubted our piety, sneered at our revivals of religion, and persuaded themselves that it was utterly beyond our power ever again to rally or to make a stand for ourselves, our children or our altars. Verily they have been disappointed. In the chosen city of our faith we live, and are able as we do thus and now, to speak a full and strong voice for the Presbyterianism of our fathers. Here and no where else stand we "in the old paths where is the good way," and from the East and the West, the North and the South, our people rally around us.

If one thing more were needed to place this transaction in its proper light, it were contrast. The Exscinding Church claim special inheritance from, and connection with, the Church of Scotland. With the Residuary Church they certainly have some points of resemblance, but we know not with what semblance of truth they claim any likeness to, or affinity with the Free Church. It contended for a great principle, that the Redeemer is the only King and Head of the Church. The state interfered with their spiritual freedom, and after every remonstrance which self-respect would allow them to make, they determined that it was impossible for them, with a good conscience, to remain connected with it, or with their brethren who were willing to submit to its exactions. And what was their course? Quietly, without violence, they withdrew from the Assembly. They solemnly signed a deed of demission. They gave up their churches, their manses, and their very grave-yards where "reposed in hope the ashes of their pious dead." Interfering with no man's rights, touching not one farthing of the property of the Church of Scotland as by law established, they went forth, and in their exodus they carried with them a moral power that gathered around them immediately all the materiel of a church. And thus are they worthy to belong to the "noble army of martyrs," and their name and praise shall outlast the pillars of the earth.

If the Exscinding Church of 1837 had pursued the same course, all men would have risen up and called them blessed. If they believed that doctrinal truth and scriptural order were perilled; if they believed that the Church and the General Assembly of 1836, following in the footsteps of those of 1832, 1833, and 1834, had become corrupt, their course was clear. If they could not obtain a majority which, by regular constitutional action, would purify the body, it was their duty to leave it. What are houses of worship, theological buildings, graveyards, or funded stocks, in comparison with the pure truth of God? If they had done this; if they had, like the illustrious Church of Scotland, made an exodus from the Presbyterian Church, they would have borne with them, even though mistaken, as we believe they were, in regard to the corruption of the body, a moral power that would have placed them upon

immensely higher ground than they can ever now occupy. Even the heathen Plato has nobly declared that he would far rather receive wrong, than commit it. The Church that suffers for righteousness' sake makes its way, notwithstanding all obscurity, neglect, or opposition, to the heart of man as well as to that of God. But neither to have the manhood to secede, nor to effect an open and avowed Revolution, but under constitutional forms to violate law and constitution, this is the evil and bitter thing we charge upon this Church. And the church that does this, and glories in it, "Oh, my soul, come thou not into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be thou not united!"

In speaking of this transaction, we have kept silence concerning individuals. With the disposition that drags names before the world, we have no sympathy. Great public acts are public property, and the principles involved in them it is within our province to discuss. But we desire to invade no sanctuary of home to bring the name of any actor in these scenes before the Church, or the people. For us, let them rest in such peace as they are able. We would not, if we could, injure the slightest hair of the head of the humblest amongst them; and for all that is excellent in any one, in his private relations, we desire to honor him. We have no vindictive feeling in any remarks we make, though, we take back not one iota of the severity of our statement, as to the public acts upon which we are commenting. It is a proverb, that corporations have no souls; and it is certainly true, that companies of men will sometimes perpetrate acts from which every separate individual would have shrunk. If we be asked, then, whether there have not been good men who were concerned in the exscinding acts, or have since justified them, we reply, without hesitation, in the affirmative. And we then add, that the worst possible case for the world, for the Church, for principle, and for truth, is when corporated iniquity can plead the sanction of good men, and the authority of names excellent in other relations. If public journalists are ever called upon to be inflexible, it is when public sympathy is thus in danger of being misled to sanction public wrong. At such times, let the face of the reviewer be set like a flint; let him refuse to listen to the pleadings of his

own heart; let him forget venerable gray hairs; let him lose sight of the man of God, leading his useful and quiet life, after setting his seal to iniquity, and let him resolutely and unswervingly hold up as a beacon to all ages, the great public wrong, which nothing but retraction can expiate.

For we call upon our separated brethren, in solemn tones, to rescind these acts. We solemnly declare that we are guiltless of the sin of schism. We declare that nothing could induce us to place ourselves in their position, so as to be the wrongdoers instead of the injured men. But there can be no union with these acts unrepealed. The attempts made to absorb our ministers and churches have signally failed; and the alternative must be distinctly met, that these two great branches of the Presbyterian church remain separate, or else the entire church come together on the platform of the Constitution, these exscinding acts being utterly and totally repealed.

For fifteen years these words have been smouldering in our breasts. They are now uttered. These acts are set on high. The world can look at them. They were not done in a corner. When our exscinding brethren, vexed and wearied, ask, Why dwell on what is past? why revive old strifes? we reply, Wrong cannot rest. We have taken the great responsibility of being a church separate from them, and the world and the Church Universal demands some good reason for this position. If we have received but slight wrong, if these acts involve any common criminality, then are we wretchedly mistaken in being a separate church. Unless they are enormous, we ought to be one with our brethren.

With sad hearts do we bring this review to a close. We would that this melancholy duty did not devolve upon us. Infinitely rather would we speak the praise of a Church of Christ than its blame. But here we dare not. Unfalteringly must we pronounce the sentence, which we mean that the world shall not forget. But before we do, so, we will give explanations of it, such that even stolidity cannot misunderstand it, or ingenuity pervert it.

We believe then and mean to be so understood, that every one of our brethren of the Excision would repudiate the doctrine of ecclesiastical intolerance. We believe they would

utterly disclaim the right, or the disposition, to persecute any one on account of his religious opinions. We believe that they hold the principle that every one has a right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. We believe that they are utterly opposed to any union between church and state. We believe that they would shrink with unutterable horror from the idea of shedding blood for the sake of religion, and that therefore they would denounce as fearful wickedness, the ensanguined deeds of past persecution. But men are full of inconsistencies. Under the blind impulse of passion and prejudice they do not see the principles involved in their acts, or their consequences. The spirit of the age and nation modified the form of this action, and determined its effects. But it becomes us, calmly beholding the spectacle, to examine it in its principles, and not in the intention or the character of the perpetrators. The mild and philosophic Antoninus, and the statesmanlike Trajan were persecutors, and Pliny carried out execrable decrees. The noble-hearted Isabella established the Spanish Inquisition. And our calm sentence is, that considering well all their aggravations, the Excinding Acts of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1837, must stand, in the estimation of the Church in all time, beside the Act of Uniformity, the Acts establishing Episcopacy in Scotland, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the Massacre of St. Bartholemew.