1banbbooks for :JBible \tlasses anb ll)rt"a te Stubents EDITED BY PRINCIPAL MARCUS DODS, D.D. AND REV. ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D. MAKERS OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH BY REV, W, BEVERIDGE, M.A. MAKERS OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH BY REV. W. BEVERIDGE, M.A. NEW DEER AUTHOR OF -u A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMDLV" EDINBURGH T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET Printed by MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED~ FOR T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL• HAMILTON, KENT• AND CO, LIMITED. NEW VORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. TO ALEX. DINGWALL FORDYCE, EsQ, OF BRUCKLAY IN SINCERE FRIENDSHIP PREFACE "THE history of the world," it has been said, "is the biography of great men." It is true, also, to say that the history of the Church of Christ is the biography of the Christian heroes and heroines who have adorned the Church by their lives and advanced its work by their sacrifices. Progress everywhere depends on personality; and the great man is God's best gift to his generation and to the Church of Christ. Nowhere has this been more true than in the Scottish Church, and nowhere is there to be found a nobler roll of great men. It is with this conviction that the Author has written the present work. Further, he feels that there is no more illuminating study than the story of the Scottish Church ; and if that story is to be fully appreciated, there is no more profitable method of studying it than through the lives of the men and women who have done so much to make the Church in Scotland what it is to-day. The Author desires to acknowledge gratefully the counsel and help of many friends. CONTENTS --+- CHAP. PAGE I. THE PIONEERS OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH II II. COLUMBA III. THE CUI.DEES IV, QUEEN MARGARET V. THE MONKS OF DEER VI. PATRICK HAMILTON VII. JOHN KNOX VIII. ANDREW MELVILLE IOI IX, ALEXANDER HENDERSON 114 X, SAMUEL RUTHERFURD • 129 XI. RICHARD CAMERON 144 XII. WILLIAM CARSTARES 157 XIII. THE ERSKINES . 169 XIV. THOMAS CHALMERS 183 XV, ROBERT RAINY . 196 CHAPTER I. THE. PIONEERS OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. A. Before we can appreciate or understand the movements that have made the Church of Christ in Scotland what it is, there are certain preliminary questions which must be answered. One question is : When did the Church of Christ begin in Scotland? That question compels us to ask another : What religion or religious worship was there in Scotland before the advent of Christianity? Along with this second question go others, as to the condition of the country and the stage of civilisation which· it had reached about the beginning of the Christian era. These are the questions which must be looked at and answered before we can appreciate the efforts or the consecrated labours of the Makers of the Scottish Church. We may consider these questions in the following order:­ First of all, we may consider the condition of the country and the nature of its religious cult at the time Christianity came to Scotland. Afterwards, we may consider the coming of Chris­ tianity and the labours of its first missionaries, those pioneers of the Church who opened up the country to the influences of Jesus Christ. r. We do not possess much information about the condition of Scotland, about the races that inhabited it, or the nature of their religion and worship, before the first century of the Christian era. The sources of information are scanty, and the conclusions to be II 12 MAKERS OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH drawn from them are more or less speculative. It is difficult always to see behind the mists of the past, especially of that past which stretches beyond historic times. Some information about prehistoric Scotland may be gleaned from its stone implements, its axes and arrow-heads and stone-balls, or from its cave and underground dwellings. Information, also, may be gleaned from burial customs, or from monuments still remaining, such as cromlechs or stone-circles. From such meagre data in­ vestigators have striven to build up the story of Scotland. They have enabled us to read, through the haze of bygone ages, the story of a palaolithic Scottish man, who probably lived before the great ice-age swept over Scotland, and the story of a neolithic man, who reached down to five thousand years ago and was within the age of history. As to the appearance of the country, and the tribes which inhabited it about the time of the coming of Christianity, we have some reliable information. The Romans came over from Gaul to conquer Britain, and they have left an account of what they did and saw. They were able to secure part of Scotland, but in the mountains and beyond the Grampians the tribes were able to hold their own. About the year 410 after Christ the Romans left the shores of Britain for good. It was no small advantage for the tribes of Britain to come in touch with a nation such as the Romans. It meant coming in contact with a great military power, a civilised power, law-makers, and road­ builders. It meant coming in contact with a people who believed in order, in law, and in cleanliness. There was a further advantage which the tribes themselves could not have been conscious of. Rome found Scotland a heterogeneous collection of clans and tribes without the pretence of unity. In a sense, therefore, Rome made the nation ; for, in opposition to a common enemy, the ranks began to close up, and the idea of a nation with common aims and hopes began unconsciously to grow. In addition, it must not be forgotten that it was in the wake of the Roman legions that there followed the religion THE PIONEERS OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH I 3 of Jesus Christ, without which Scotland would have lacked a priceless benefit. Julius Cresar arrived on the shores of Britain in the year 55 B.C. He found certain tribes in Scotland and in other parts, to which he and subsequent writers, such as Tacitus and Suetonius, gave a number of names. The two leading names are Picts and Scots. There have been many opinions about these tribes. It is agreed, however, that the Scots came over from Ireland, and that they were on the whole a softer and more pacific race than the Picts. It is difficult, on the other hand, to reach any satisfactory conclusion about the Picts. Questions have arisen, and have occasioned keen debate, as to the name and origin of these tribes. The Romans thought that the name (Picts) had been given to these tribes because they were painted or tattooed. Modern investigators, on the other hand, hold that the name is an original Celtic word. There is much diversity of view on the origin of the Picts. Many authorities are of opinion that the Picts were a non­ Aryan race, and that they were allied to the Iberians or Basques. Professor Rhys regards the race as pre-Celtic and akin to the Iberians. Others are of opinion that the Picts belonged to the Celtic family. It may be regarded as probable that the Picts were not the original inhabitants of Scotland, and that they belonged to a wave of immigration from Gaul. By the time of Julius Ca:sar the Picts had been incorporated among Gaelic-speaking Celts, and the name had become, as Skene has said, "a collective name for the barbaric tribes of Northern Britain." 1 The appearance of the country may be conjectured. The rivers in many places must have been simply vast marshes. The forests were dense, tangled growths of oak, alder, birch, and hazel. Clearings were rare, and only to be found on hilly slopes near streams. On such slopes at the present day are found 1 Skene, Celtic Scotland, i. pp. I94-2r2. Cp. Lang, History of Scotland, i, pp, II ff, 14 MAKERS OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH flint-axes and arrow-heads. The. plough now and then unearths urns and stone-cists. Sometimes the place of the tribal burying­ place is still marked by a stone-circle. Such indications point to the fact that on the hilly slope there had been a clearing, the home of some native tribe. Beyond the slope lay forests, and in the valley was a vast stretch of bog and marsh. Mr. Andrew Lang has described the appearance of the country in the following terms: "We must put the cultivated lands and trim fenced woods of Scotland out of our minds. The rivers must in those days have been of greater volume than now, flowing through swampy, undrained country, over-grown with 'bush,' thickets of birch, alder, and hazel, scarce penetrable hiding­ places of the foe. Cultivation, where not wholly neglected, would be found chiefly in the Straths. Deer, wolves, and the wild-cat abounded. A land of forest, hill, and quagmire." 1 2. The question which next arises for consideration is of the deepest interest. It is the question of the religion of the Picts and Scots. What was the religion which Christianity found in Scotland? Religion among the Picts and Scots was undoubtedly in a fairly .advanced form. Tacitus is our authority that the Caledonians before going into battle offered sacrifices. That is proof that the native tribes had long passed through those early stages which every primitive people appears to traverse in its religious beliefs. They had passed through the stage of animism. Animism was primitive man's theory of the known universe. "All the movements and changes whi.ch are taking place in the world of things were explained by primitive man on the theory that every object which had activity enough to affect him in any way was animated by a life and will like his own­ in a word (Dr.