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CHAPTER V.

CHAIR OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM.-CHURCH COURTS.

PRIVATE LIFE.

"We live in the midst of religious machinery. Many mechanics at piety, often only apprentices and slow to learn, are turning the various ecclesiastical mills, and the creak of the motion is thought 'the voice of God."". THEODORE PARKER, Ten Sermons, No. VIII.

THE Royal Commissioners, appointed in 1827 to inquire into the state of the Scottish universities, had recommended, among other beneficial measures, the institution of a chair of Biblical Criticism in the University of Edinburgh. The government of Lord Melbourne had, in 1841, resolved to carry out this recommendation, and to appoint the Rev. R. S. Candlish, minister of S. George's, Edinburgh, to the chair, which was to be endowed with a part of the revenues of the Chapel Royal. These revenues had hitherto been divided into three portions; and with the title of "Dean of the Chapel Royal of Holyrood," been bestowed on clergymen of eminence. The rapacious spoliations to which the ecclesiastical property of Scotland was exposed at and after the Reformation, had robbed the Church of every other distinction and emolument with which merit might be rewarded or energy stimulated. So niggardly, however, was the Liberal government, and so apprehensive of the jealous opposition of the dissenters, that it dared not venture to endow the new chair, except by

appropriating to it some of the funds connected with the deaneries. The appointment of Mr. Candlish would have taken place in 1841, had not Lord Aberdeen induced the government to postpone it, in consequence of the large share which that reverend gentleman had taken in the ecclesiastical troubles of the time. He had, in particular, broken one of the interdicts of the Court of Session by preaching in the parish of Huntly; -no offence in itself, but a violation of the law of the land, in the circumstances unhappily existing. Lord Aberdeen forcibly pointed out the impropriety of nominating so keen a controversialist and partisan to be the first professor of Biblical Criticism. "This reverend gentleman," said his Lordship in his place in the House of Lords, "this professor of Biblical Criticism, if dealt with by the Court in the same way as any other person, would be immediately sent to prison, where he would have leisure to compose his first syllabus of Lectures.”* No other appointment had been suggested at the time; and Dr. Bennie had, as dean of the Chapel Royal, drawn the revenue destined to endow the chair, until his death in 1846. Now, however, the government of Lord John Russell resolved to carry out the postponed intention of the government of Lord Melbourne. Dr. Lee's friends

"Ten Years' Conflict," chap. xiii.; "Hanna's Life of Chalmers," vol. iv. chap. xiii. It must be explained that the majority of the Presbytery of Strathbogie (within whose bounds Huntly lay) had proceeded with the settlement of Mr. Edwards as minister of Marnoch-he having been "vetoed" by the parishioners, and the Assembly having confirmed this (be it remembered, illegal) "veto." The Presbytery acted in accordance with the law; the Assembly in defiance of it. For this offence the Assembly first suspended, and then deposed, the seven ministers who formed the majority; and sanctioned Mr. Candlish and other members of the revolutionary party proceeding to Strathbogie and preaching in the parishes there, as if they were legally vacant. Against this invasion of their parishes the seven ministers had tried to protect themselves by obtaining from the Court of Session an "interdict" prohibiting these irregularities.

at once busied themselves in securing the appointment for him. There is no doubt that there was no clergyman of any mark in the Church better fitted for the office than he. His scholarship, though not profound, was exact; he had studied theology with thoughtful care; and his theological reading had been judicious and comprehensive. His mind, moreover, was inquisitively critical in its tone; and all his sympathies went out towards liberty of thought and rational progress in science. Higher qualifications than these were not to be found in the Church. The poverty of the Scottish Church; the lax and variable entrance examinations; and the absence of any sinecures or wealthy prizes among her offices, have operated disadvantageously against the learning of the clergy.* With the exception of Principal Campbell, (whose treatise on Miracles was translated into three continental languages)—and should we add, Dr. Macknight?—the Scottish Church had, since the revolution, produced few theologians notable either for great learning or original genius. The literary activity of the "moderate" era did not seek its outlet in theological research or dissertation; and the "evangelical" revival was not favourable to learning and culture. standard of qualification for a theological chair was, thus, not a high one at the time of Dr. Lee's appointment. He did more than come up to it; and that it has since

The

* The sagacious eye of Dr. Chalmers saw this evil. In his evidence before the House of Commons' Committee on Sites, he says:-"It struck me that there was a vulgarizing process going on, by the alienation of cathedral property; and I endeavoured to point out what I thought a better direction for this property, and this was turning each cathedral institute into a theological seminary or college. I am very friendly to what may be called ecclesiastical sinecures, not that I mean that they should be sinecures, but that there should be a certain number of persons of learning maintained at leisure, and endowed for the purpose of contributing to theological literature."-HANNA's Life, vol. iv., Appendix K.

that date been raised higher, is in no small degree owing to his own labours in the cause of theological education.

He writes in his diary: "Nov. 8, Sunday evening. I feel this an evening of peculiar solemnity. To-morrow, if spared, I am to have an interview with the Lord Advocate, when I shall know the result of all that has been said and done regarding the professorship. In the hand of God all things are safe, and they are truly blessed that trust in Him;" and then follows an earnest prayer for the divine guidance and "the Spirit of Love." He was duly appointed to the professorship and conjoined deanery, and to the office of Her Majesty's chaplain, which also Dr. Bennie had held.* "I have no doubt," wrote Mr. Macaulay, who had used his strong influence in Dr. Lee's favour, "your important duties will be well performed, and that I shall always remember with satisfaction the share, small as it was, which I had in your appointment." In acknowledging the letter in which the Lord Advocate announces his appointment, Dr. Lee says (and the reference reveals his apprehension, as a professor, of that clerical interference with his liberties, of which he was to experience the full activity, as a minister): "I take it for granted that no provision will be introduced into the constitution of the new professorship, which will expose the holder of it to any disqualifications, except those to which all other professors holding parishes may be made subject by the laws of the Church; or which will recognise that jurisdiction of the Church courts over the

* There are six royal chaplains in Scotland. Formerly, when the Sovereign never required their services, they had a modest salary of 50l. a-year; now, when the Queen resides annually in Scotland, the honour of the office seems to be considered sufficient remuneration.

universities, which all who advocate a repeal of the present test-law are so much concerned to deny."

He anticipated annoyance from a party in the Church opposed to pluralities. It had been forbidden by the General Assembly to hold a professorship and a parochial charge, unless the two were in the same city. And there were many who were anxious to cancel even that exception, and to prohibit absolutely any union of offices. His anticipations were realized. On various occasions the general question of pluralities was bandied about in the Church courts; and his tenure of his church and chair was covertly or openly attacked. In 1847 it was discussed both in the Edinburgh Presbytery and the Assembly. He writes to Mr. Paisley in reference to the former: "The debate in some hands, and these much more burdened with plurality than mine are likely ever to be, made it really a personal and most spiteful attack on me. I shall not be sorry to have it discussed in the Assembly, where I predict we shall have the best of the argument, whatever we may have in the voting." In the Assembly there was a long debate, virtually ending in nothing. In 1852 the old subject was revived again; and in the course of a somewhat personal debate, one of Dr.

*Act vi. of Assembly 1817.

"Yet pluralities exist. In the Church one or two remain, the last memorials of palmier times; but in the faculties of law and medicine they are rife. There are professors in our universities who work as hard in the Parliament House as any minister in his parish. There are surgeons and physicians who hold academic seats with distinguished honour, and yet manage an enormous practice. Neither the university nor the city complains; neither the lectureroom nor the sick-room is neglected. If lawyers and doctors can do this, why should not ministers? Is their work necessarily heavier? Are their energies necessarily less? Why, in short, should not the same rule be applied to all the faculties? But the Church of Scotland has ever been a self-denying community. It might have had episcopal revenues, and it refused them. It might have had seats in Parliament, but it declined them. It had professorships and principalities, and it threw them away."-CUNNINGHAM's Church History, vol. ii., p. 615.