Free
Church Presbyterianism, by Rev. James Begg, D.D.
Closing
Address: SPECIAL
DUTIES AND DANGERS OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.
Part
13: (Dangers)
SOCIAL STATE OF SCOTLAND.
YOUR
time will not now allow me to touch, except in the most cursory way,
upon a matter which I regard as of the utmost importance, viz. the
anxiety which, as ministers of the gospel, we should feel in regard to
the social state of Scotland. Patriotism is one of the noblest fruits
of Christianity, whilst the social state of our own country is one of
the surest tests of the results of our Christian work. It is our moral
thermometer, as it were, by which to ascertain the spiritual
temperature.
God commanded the Jews of old to manifest an interest in
the country in which they were only strangers and captives; and far
more are we bound to feel a special interest in the land of our
fathers' sepulchres. Jesus himself wept especially over Jerusalem; and
Paul had a peculiar sorrow and heaviness when he thought of his
brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh. So it was with the
large-hearted founders of our Presbyterian Church. They repudiated the
selfishness of the idle monk, who cared for no country, and denounced
the whole theory that the clergy should be a caste by themselves,
standing aloof from the ordinary sympathies of the world. Knox was our
great statesman, as well as Reformer. Henderson was more influential
than any of the nobles in Scotland, even in temporal things. Rutherford
wrote, not only his beautiful spiritual treatises and letters, but a
noble discourse on civil liberty, his famous "Lex Rex." Carstairs was a
main instrument in effecting the revolution; whilst Dr. Duncan of
Ruthwell, in our own days, with his saving banks, Dr. M'Gill and Dr.
Chalmers, with their treatises on social questions, all indicate what
the true spirit of the Presbyterian ministers of the best type has ever
been and should be.
The Disruption has unfortunately, but by no means
necessarily, tended to break up this connection between the temporal
and the spiritual in Scotland; but there never was a time when the
powerful influence of the Church and of Christian men w as more
necessary in stemming the tide of social degeneracy, and in
proclaiming, to rich and poor, in the words of our poet Laureate, —
"Howe'er it be, it seems to me
'Tis only noble to be good
Kind hearts
are more than coronets
And simple faith than Norman blood.
Clara, Clara
Vere de Vere,
If time be heavy on your hands,
Are there no beggars at
your gate,
Nor any poor about your lands?
Go teach the orphan boy to
read,
Or teach the orphan girl to sew." [Applause.]
The present
degeneracy of Scotland is partly the fruit of past neglect, and partly
the result of the mistaken policy of our own day. The government of
Scotland has passed through several distinct transformations. First,
she was under the dominion of Rome, and was degraded as all Romish
countries are. Next, she was ruled mainly by the aristocracy, made
immensely powerful by the spoils of the Church. Their power was no
doubt partly checked and restrained, but not always for good, by the
influence of the Protestant ministers.
Of late the main power of our
government has centred chiefly in Edinburgh, the influence of the
Protestant Church being nearly withdrawn, but, as I think, foolishly
and mischievously so. Coupled with this, we have a great influx of the
bad element of Irish Romanism into Scotland; whilst our railway system,
our press, and electric telegraph, are bringing us more under the
influence of England, and, unfortunately, whilst what is evil in the
state of things in England is copied in certain quarters, what is good
and noble is carefully excluded. The anti-Sabbatarian and other Church
views of England begin to spread to some extent, and have a pernicious
influence; but her system of coroners' inquests, her liberal
franchises, and her high ideas of public rights, social comfort, and
civil liberty, are not transferred.
Meantime the social state of
Scotland, whatever be the cause of it, is evidently far from
satisfactory, and in some respects, and in certain quarters, we fear,
getting worse. Great expense is no doubt being lavished, a vast
machinery of law and police, commissioners and boards, are multiplied,
and the wiser views of other days are decried; and yet matters do not
improve. The real reason is, that the moral element is ignored.
There
are some infallible tests by which to judge of the social state of a
country. One of these tests is the state of the family system, and the
diffusion of social comfort, as indicated, for example, by the state of
the houses of the people, or, in other words, the state of their
domestic relations. The family system and the Sabbath are the remains
of paradise, and form an index to the social state of any country.
When
we know that one third of the people of Scotland live in houses, or
rather hovels, of only one apartment, and that the social state of some
of our towns, and even rural districts, is positively awful, we may
easily judge what mischiefs prevail; and yet to this main indication
and source of evil our statesmen do not seem to advert. Coupled with
this, we have the growth of other forms of social degradation.
The
Eighth Report of the Commissioners of her Majesty's Inland Revenue,
lately published, indicates that in 1862-3 the number of gallons of
spirits entered for consumption in Scotland was 4,511,193; whilst in
1863-4 the number had increased to 4,769,150, being an increase of
257,957 gallons in one year; the cost of the whole being about
£3,000,000, and of the increase about £189,569. The
miserable houses of the people partly account for this, coupled with a
low moral tone; for nothing will sooner drive a man to the public-house
than a total want of all domestic comfort. This again resulting in
disease and death, springing from the same causes, is a fruitful source
of pauperism; and hence, whilst so late as 1836 the cost of pauperism
in Scotland was only £171,042, last year it had increased to
£770,029. 14s. 9d, and the amount is steadily advancing year by
year. The notorious social immorality of some parts of Scotland,
connected also with the same causes, is sufficiently lamentable.
Now,
if the Church is to stand aloof, how are these evils ever to be dealt
with? The theories of our politicians, lawyers, and mere
sentimentalists are manifestly at fault. The idea, moreover, of dealing
with men by mere coercion, or dealing merely with the lapsed classes,
while nothing is done to prevent men from lapsing, is plainly abortive — [applause] — or, rather; it is a plan by which, as in the case of the
lean Kine of Egypt, the fat are eaten up, whilst those who eat them are
never a bit fatter themselves. [Laughter.] To this issue Scotland in
some districts seems rapidly tending, and Christian men and ministers
are loudly called to come to the rescue.
The utter want of bringing
Scriptural and moral principles to bear upon our social problems is
more and more apparent and lamentable to intelligent men every day. The
absence of any distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor,
for example, — the deliberate multiplication of public-houses in our
cities by our public authorities — [applause] — thus promoting crime
and social evil with the one hand, whilst they profess to be pulling it
down with the other — the maudlin sympathy with criminals which
prevails in our legislative arrangements, making them far more
comfortable than honest working men — [applause] — the
short-sightedness or hypocrisy that will allow whole hecatombs of
decent people to go to their graves uncared for and unpitied, from
defective social and sanitary arrangements, and will yet utter a sigh
over the just punishment of individual murderers, thus "straining at a
gnat and swallowing a camel" — the re-introduction by public support
of the whole Romish system, that enemy of all social progress — the
toleration of two of the greatest public curses to any land, viz., the
system of lotteries and of privileged mendicancy — these are only a
few of the many things in our social arrangements which loudly call for
exposure on the part of our ministers, and which never will be
resisted, we may rest assured, except by Christian men. [Loud
applause.]
We might also refer to the general torpor and long delays in
regard to a national plan of education, as indicating the same spirit. [Loud applause.] It is painful to think that, whilst we are only
talking on the subject, no fewer than 1987 schools were planted in
Italy in 1862-3. [Loud applause.]
In a word, all the most true and just
views of social science are only to be found in the Bible; and it is
one of the highest duties of the Church, and of all her ministers, to
enforce the views therein contained, as intended for the guidance of
rulers, to prove their value as illustrated by our past history, and to
say to those who would attempt to rule men apart from moral elements,
or, in a word the nation, on any other principles, "they have rejected
the Word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them?" [Applause.]
But I
must bring my remarks to a close. Our Church, if it is to continue and
become stronger, ought to seek still more and more to be, in the hand
and by the blessing of God, an instrument for good, — the highest good,
in time and eternity, — to our country and the world.