fa-m. 
 
 THE FINANCE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND : 
 
 (bright, Jjpktjrobs, attfr desalts. 
 
 A PAPER READ BEFORE 
 
 THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 On the 15th March, 1870. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN’S LANE, 
 printers iit (Drbhtarg to jjgjer JJlajjestjr. 
 
 1870 . 
 
from the Journal of the Statistical Society of London. 
 
 March, 1870. 
 
 Finance of the Free Church of Scotland. By the Rev. Dr. Robert 
 
 Buchanan, of Glasgow. 
 
 [Read before the Statistical Society, 15th March, 1870.] 
 
 In handling the important subject of this paper, I shall endeavour 
 to keep constantly in view the rule which the Society I have the 
 honour to address has laid down for its guidance, “ to exclude 
 “ carefully all opinions from its transactions and publications,” and 
 “ to confine itself rigorously to facts.” 
 
 It will not, however, I presume, be regarded as involving any 
 violation of that standing rule if, by way of introduction, and in 
 order to bring out the true significance and value of the facts to be 
 presented, I venture to offer some explanation of the circumstances 
 in Avhich the financial system of the Free Church took its rise, and 
 of the objects it was intended to secure. The principle of self- 
 support on which that church entirely depends, and whose working 
 and results I am about to describe, was adopted not of choice or 
 preference, but simply of necessity—a moral necessity, it is true 
 —but not the less a necessity, although created not by external 
 force, or legal compulsion, but solely by a conscientious sense of 
 duty. The necessity to which this reference is made arose in 1843, 
 and grew out of a controversy which fills a large place in the history 
 of Scotland—a controversy which more than once in the course of 
 the last three centuries assumed such dimensions and acquired such 
 intensity as to convulse the whole framework of society in that part 
 of the United Kingdom. The controversy to which I allude had 
 respect to the autonomy of the Scottisli Presbyterian Church—to 
 her right of self-government, as regards all matters belonging to 
 the spiritual province—and especially as regards admission to, and 
 exclusion from, office and membership in the case of all persons 
 belonging to her communion. This right, which Knox, and the 
 other leaders of the Scottish Reformation, claimed for the church 
 from the date of her separation from the Papacy in 1560, and from 
 that of her national establishment and endowment in 1567, was set 
 forth in her two books of policy and discipline—less formally, 
 though plainly by implication, in the first book prepared by Knox 
 and certain other eminent reformers in 1560—but fully and most 
 explicitly in the second book, drawn up by the learned Andrew 
 Melville, and agreed upon by the general assembly of the church 
 in 1578. To this claim of independent jurisdiction in matters 
 
Rev. Dr. Buchanan —Free Church of Scotland , 1843-69. 75 
 
 spiritual, strong opposition was made on the part of the civil power, 
 and serious collisions arose. It was not, in consequence, till 1592 
 that a satisfactory adjustment of the relations on this point between 
 Church and State was reached. Speaking of the famous statute 
 of that year, and of what it acknowledged as rightfully belonging 
 to the church, the distinguished historian, McCrie, says: “ What 
 “ she now obtained was a legal recognition of those powers which 
 “ she had long claimed as belonging to her by scriptural institution 
 “ and the gift of her Divine Head. She had now a right in foro 
 “ 'poll et soli, by human as well as by divine law, to hold her assem- 
 “ blies for worship and discipline, and to transact all the business 
 “ competent to her as an ecclesiastical society, without being liable 
 “ to any challenge for this, and without being exposed to any 
 “ external interruption or hindrance whatever, either from indi- 
 “ viduals or from the executive government.” * 
 
 Although the rights and liberties of the church, thus solemnly 
 recognised and ratified by the State, were not long afterwards 
 encroached upon in various ways by the action of the Crown, during 
 the reigns of both James VI and Charles I; it was not till after the 
 restoration of Charles II that they were formally disallowed and 
 entirely overthrown. By the first act of the second session of his 
 Scottish parliament in 1661, he succeeded in expressly annulling 
 “ all acts of parliament by which the sole and only power and 
 “ jurisdiction within this church doth stand in the church,” and 
 also all acts by which it would seem that the office-bearers of the 
 church had any “ church-power, jurisdiction, or government other 
 “ than that which acknowledgeth a dependence upon and subordi- 
 “ nation to the sovereign power of the king as supreme.” The 
 same act, by restoring prelacy, subverted the Presbyterian form of 
 church government in Scotland; while a subsequent act, the first 
 of his second parliament in 1669, asserted directly and positively 
 “ His Majesty’s supreme authority and supremacy over all persons, 
 “ and in all causes ecclesiastical within his kingdom.” By the 
 enforcement of these acts, and of others founded on them, such as 
 the Test Act and the Oath of Abjuration, by which approval of the 
 doctrine of the royal supremacy in causes ecclesiastical was impe¬ 
 ratively required, the Crown and the Government of those days 
 placed themselves in direct collision with the religious convictions 
 of the great majority of the Scottish people. As the result of this 
 state of things, hundreds of the Presbyterian ministers were driven 
 from their pulpits and parishes, and were forbidden, under the 
 penalties of confiscation, imprisonment, torture, and death, from 
 preaching to their attached flocks, or administering to them the 
 sacraments of the Christian church; while their flocks, on the 
 
 * “Life of Andrew Melville,” vol. i, p. 322. 
 
76 Rev. Dr. Buchanan— Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 other hand, were visited with the same penalties for daring to 
 accept such services at their hands. It has been computed, on good 
 and reliable evidence, that the number of persons in Scotland who 
 suffered death under these intolerable persecutions, during the twenty- 
 eight years which elapsed between the restoration and the revolution, 
 was not fewer than 18 , 000 . It is in reference to the victims of 
 these frightful cruelties, and to the spirit of determined resistance 
 to the tyranny under which they groaned, that Lord Macaulay is 
 speaking when he says: “Hunted down like wild beasts, tortured 
 “ till their bones were beaten flat, imprisoned by hundreds, hanged by 
 “ scores, exposed at one time to the licence of soldiers from England, 
 “ abandoned at another time to the mercy of troops of marauders from 
 “ the Highlands, they still stood at bay in a mood so savage that the 
 “ boldest and mightiest oppressor could not but dread the audacity 
 “ of their despair.”* 
 
 With the fall of the Stuarts, and the accession of William of 
 Orange, this whole deplorable state of things came to an end. The 
 first statute of the first parliament of Scotland under the new 
 regime expressly rescinded the Act 1669 of Charles II, which had 
 asserted “ his Majesty’s supremacy over all persons and in all 
 u causes ecclesiastical.” The second restored the ministers who had 
 been extruded “ for not conforming to prelacy and not complying 
 “ with the courses of the time,” while the fifth statute of the same 
 parliament adopted and incorporated that article of the Claim of 
 Right of the Estates of Scotland in which it is declared “that 
 “ nrelacy and the superiority of any office in the church above 
 “ presbyters is and hath been a great and insupportable grievance 
 “ and trouble to this nation, and contrary to the inclination of 
 “ the generality of the people ever since the reformation, they 
 “ having reformed from popery by presbyters, and therefore 
 “ ought to be abolished.” And further the statute in question 
 ratified and established, in room of the abolished prelacy, the Pres¬ 
 byterian church government, and also the Westminster Confession 
 of Eaith, which the Presbyterian Church of Scotland had adopted 
 as its confession in 1649. In this confession the doctrine of that 
 inherent jurisdiction in matters spiritual, to which reference has 
 been already made, as asserted and contended for at the refor¬ 
 mation, is laid down in these explicit terms : “ The Lord Jesus, as 
 “ king and head of His Church, hath therein appointed a govern- 
 “ ment in the hands of church officers distinct from the civil 
 “ magistrate” (chap. xxx). And again, “the civil magistrate may 
 “ not assume to himself the administration of the word and sacra- 
 “ ments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of Heaven ” 
 
 * “ History of England,” vol. i, p. 187. 
 
1870.] Free Church of Scotland , 1843-G9. 77 
 
 (cliap. xxiii), the power, in other words, of exercising or con¬ 
 trolling the discipline and spiritual government of the church. 
 
 To bring out the bearing of all this on the more recent contro¬ 
 versy which produced the disruption of 1843, and brought the Free 
 Church of Scotland into the position she now occupies as a self- 
 supporting institution, it is necessary to mention that both in earlier 
 and in later times it was chiefly through the introduction of lav- 
 patronage in the appointment of ministers of the church that the 
 courts of the State came into collision with those of the church. 
 In the first book of discipline, already alluded to as drawn up 
 by Knox and his coadjutors in 1560, the doctrine was explicitly 
 laid down that “ it appertained to the people and to every several 
 “ congregation to elect their minister.” Before the church had 
 framed and adopted her second and more elaborate book of dis¬ 
 cipline in 1578, lay-patronage had been sanctioned by the civil 
 power, and had come, more or less, into use, and accordingly in this 
 second book it is strongly reclaimed against and set down as one 
 of the “special heads of reformation” which the church craved. 
 It was not till 1649 that this grievance was redressed, and that an 
 act of the Scottish parliament was passed, discharging “ for ever 
 “ hereafter all patronages and presentations of kirks, whether 
 “ belonging to the king or any lay patron, presbyteries, or others 
 “ within the kingdom.” This act, however, was swept away by 
 the general act. rescissory of Charles II, soon after the restoration, 
 and it was not till after the revolution that the claim of the church 
 on this subject was once more conceded, and patronage again 
 abolished in 1690. It was under this condition of things, as re¬ 
 gards the relation of Church and State, with patronage abolished, 
 the royal supremacy in causes ecclesiastical set aside, and the 
 church’s confession of faith, in which her right of self-government 
 is broadly asserted, formally embodied in an act of parliament, 
 that the union of Scotland with England took place in 1707. By 
 the treaty on the footing of which that union was agreed upon 
 and consummated, those rights and privileges of the Scottish Pres¬ 
 byterian Church were declared to be beyond the cognizance of the 
 British parliament, and unalterable for ever. All this, however, 
 hindered not that within five years thereafter the anti-patronage 
 act of 1690 was overturned, and patronage restored. Bishop 
 Burnet says, and many other authorities affirm the same thing, 
 that this was done “ to weaken and undermine the (Presbyterian) 
 “ establishment,” while a much more recent writer, Lord Macaulay, 
 speaking of this proceeding of the parliament of Queen Anne, and 
 of the consequences which have resulted from it, makes the follow¬ 
 ing important statement: “ The British legislature violated the 
 “ articles of union, and made a change in the constitution of the 
 
78 Rev. Dr. Buchanan —Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 “ Church, of Scotland. From that change has flowed almost all the 
 “ dissent now existing in Scotland. * * * Year after year the 
 
 “ General Assembly protested against the violation, but in vain ; 
 “ and from the Act of 1712 undoubtedly flowed every secession and 
 “ schism that has taken place in the Church of Scotland.” * 
 
 The only other point to which it is needful to allude in order to 
 bring out the cause of the disruption, and to explain the deep 
 interest in that event 'which has been manifested by the Scottish 
 people, is this, that even under the law of patronage a certain im¬ 
 portant right was always held to belong to the church courts on 
 the one hand, and to the congregations on the other, in the case of 
 every settlement of a minister. The principle on which every such 
 settlement proceeded previous to 1843 was this, that the right of 
 the patron respected the possession of the benefice, while the right 
 of the congregation and of the church courts, respected admission 
 to the cure of souls. Accordingly when the patron’s presentee 
 appeared before the presbytery within whose jurisdiction the vacant 
 charge lay, not only was he subject to the trial by the presbytery of 
 his life, literature, and doctrine, with a view to ordination, but 
 before the presbytery took him on such trial at all, they sent him to 
 preach in the vacant church, that the members of the congregation 
 might have an opportunity of judging as to his gifts for their 
 spiritual edification. After he had so preached, and at a subsequent 
 meeting of the congregation, a document was placed in their hands 
 for signature, known by the technical name of the call. This call 
 expressed satisfaction with the presentee’s character and qualifi¬ 
 cations, and declared their willingness to accept him as their 
 minister. Without this call no settlement could take place accord¬ 
 ing to the immemorial usage of the church. In the absence of 
 such a call, signed by a reasonable number of the people, and still 
 more in the event of their formally protesting against the settle¬ 
 ment, it was held to be the right and duty of the church courts 
 to set the presentee aside, and to call on the patron to nominate 
 another. For a considerable time after the passing of the patron¬ 
 age act of Queen Anne, this view of the state of the law was 
 frequently acted on by the courts of the church, and recognised as 
 competent by the civil tribunals. Gradually, however, the party in 
 the church courts favourable to a more rigid enforcement of the 
 patronage act grew into a majority ; and under their guidance the 
 call, though still, in every point and particular of its forms, retained, 
 was in practice reduced to a nullity. The patron’s presentee, even 
 when the call was signed by only one or two persons and opposed 
 by the overwhelming mass of the congregation, was intruded into 
 
 ■* “ Speeches/’ ii, 180. 
 
79 
 
 1870.] Free Church of Scotland , 1843-69. 
 
 the charge, and sometimes by the aid of a military force. It was 
 in this way that from 1736, when this policy was first introduced, 
 those numerous secessions from the church establishment, spoken 
 of by Lord Macaulay as resulting from the law of patronage, began 
 to take place. In no case did those who seceded dissent from the 
 doctrine, worship, or government of the church. They simply 
 withdrew from what they regarded as a corrupt administration of 
 the church’s affairs. They took the church’s standards along with 
 them, and remained Presbyterians and Calvinists as before. And 
 this state of things went on, secession constantly on the increase, 
 and the Establishment losing ground, till the earlier part of the 
 present century. Meanwhile a great change in the state of parties 
 within the Establishment had been gradually going on. The evan¬ 
 gelical party, otherwise called the popular or reforming party, had 
 largely increased in strength. In proportion as its position in the 
 general assembly became more influential, greater efforts were 
 made to vindicate and enforce those views of the church s consti¬ 
 tution, and of the rights of the church’s members, in the calling and 
 settlement of their ministers, for which this party had always con¬ 
 tended. And accordingly, when at length in 1834 this party came 
 to constitute the majority of the supreme court, and in consequence 
 to have the direction of church affairs, the call of congregations in 
 the settlement of their ministers was turned from a deceptive form 
 into an honest fact. 
 
 It is not necessary for the purposes of this brief historical 
 sketch, nor indeed would it be suitable in a paper of this kind, to 
 enter at all into the question either of the competency of the church 
 courts to make such a regulation as the one now alluded to, or of 
 the merits of the regulation itself. On both these points there was 
 much argument and much difference of opinion. Suffice it to say 
 that, under the guidance of Sir James Moncreiff, the distinguished 
 lawyer, and an eminent member of the general assembly of those 
 days, afterwards so well known on the Scottish bench, and that of 
 Dr. Chalmers, the clerical chief of the reforming party in the 
 church, the regulation known by the name of the Veto Law was 
 adopted in 1834. Under this law the settlement of ministers went 
 on for some time without challenge. At length, however, a patron, 
 whose presentee was set aside under it, brought the validity of the 
 church’s decision before the courts of law. The judgment of the 
 Court of Session, pronounced in 1838, by a majority of eight 
 judges to five, was adverse to the church, and this adverse judgment 
 was confirmed on appeal by the House of Lords in 18o9. This 
 judgment brought matters to a crisis. The gravity of this crisis 
 was aggravated by the fact that the grounds on which the majority 
 of the judges based their decision appeared to the assembly to 
 
80 Rev. Dr. Buchanan —Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 strike at the very foundation of the church's right of self-govern¬ 
 ment, even in matters the most purely spiritual. Negotiations with 
 the successive Governments of the day took place, on the part of the 
 church, with a view to obtain some legislative enactment by which 
 a way out of these complications might be made, and by which the 
 dangers which now threatened the peace and integrity of the 
 church might still be averted. These fruitless negotiations extended 
 over a period of nearly four years, during all which time the 
 matters in dispute between the church and the courts of law, and 
 which were getting more and more entangled by conflicting deci¬ 
 sions, were incessantly discussed, not only in every court of the 
 church itself, from the lowest to the highest, but in public meet¬ 
 ings of the people, in almost every town and parish of Scotland. 
 As the result of all this ever-extending and deepening agitation of 
 the public mind, the old spirit of the church and of the country, 
 with which past history had made the minds of all classes familiar, 
 was powerfully evoked. At length, in the month of March, 1843, 
 a motion made in the House of Commons for a committee of inquiry 
 into this painful state of things, and in favour of which the Scotch 
 members voted in the proportion of two to one, was thrown out by ’ 
 an overwhelming majority of the English and Irish members. The 
 Government had previously and deliberately rejected the church’s 
 petition and claim of right adopted by the assembly of 1842. 
 Discussion and controversy had come to an end, and for those who 
 meant to adhere to that view of the church’s constitution and of 
 their own duty, on which the majority in the church courts in 
 this great struggle had proceeded, the moment for action had come. 
 The assembly of 1843 met at Edinburgh with the usual solemni¬ 
 ties. All the arrangements for the grave and momentous step, then 
 and there to be taken, had been previously and elaborately made. 
 Immediately after the assembly had been constituted, the moderator, 
 in presence of the royal commissioner, read and laid upon the table 
 a protest in which the whole case for the majority of the assembly 
 was embodied. It was signed by 203 of the members. Having 
 done so, he at once withdrew, followed by all who had subscribed 
 the document, and immediately thereafter, in a spacious hall, in 
 which not fewer than 3,000 people were crowded together, consti¬ 
 tuted the first general assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. 
 
 Such were the circumstances which called into existence the 
 financial system of which I am about to speak. The church which 
 had thus, by its own voluntary act, separated itself from the State, 
 had, as matter of course, left all its State endowments and emolu¬ 
 ments behind. Every one of the 474 ministers, who then and there 
 adhered to it, signed a deed of demission, by which he renounced 
 all right and interest in the church, manse, glebe, and stipend, 
 
1870.] 
 
 81 
 
 Free Church of Scotland , 1843-69. 
 
 which, had belonged to him as a minister of the Established Chnrch. 
 The legal conditions of the church’s establishment, had, in the 
 recent conflict, as these men judged, been interpreted by the civil 
 tribunals in a sense fatal to her spiritual independence. They 
 believed that interpretation to be erroneous ; but supported and 
 sanctioned as it had virtually been by parliament and by the crown, 
 they knew that it must thenceforth be accepted as authoritative 
 and conclusive. As honest men and loyal subjects they accordingly 
 felt that, for them, there was but one course open; that, namely, of 
 surrendering, as they had now done, a position which they could 
 no longer with a good conscience retain. But they had no thought 
 of abandoning either their office or their work. The church had 
 existed before it received any State establishment, and they ventured 
 to believe that it could and would exist after its State establishment 
 had ceased. For three centuries the primitive church made its 
 way in the world, in so far as its means of temporal support was 
 concerned, without any help whatever from State countenance or 
 aid; and during these centuries it not merely stood its ground, 
 but made conquests upon a scale with which it would perhaps be 
 difficult to find anything in its subsequent history that could 
 advantageously compare. Tertullian, the most ancient of the Latin 
 fathers, who was born less than a century after the fall of Jerusalem, 
 found himself in a position, in his famous “Apologia,” to meet 
 the opponents of Christianity with the triumphant statement that 
 although only of yesterday it had already all but overspread the 
 vast empire of Rome. “ Hesterni sumus, et vestras omnes inrple- 
 “ vimus urbes, insulas, castella, municipia, conciliabula, castra 
 “ipsa, tribus, decurias, palatium, senatum, forum” (“Apologia,” 
 c. xxxvii). Unfortunately, however, there is so little recorded 
 of the precise plan or method, according to which, what Scripture 
 calls the “ outward business ” of the house of God was carried on 
 in those early times, that the Free Church could obtain little 
 guidance from that source of information in dealing with the 
 financial problems it was called upon, all at once, to solve. The 
 general belief, among those who have most closely examined the 
 question, appears to be that the system of supporting the clergy of 
 the Christian church by tithes, did not come into use till the fourth 
 century. Previous to that period the voluntary oblations of the 
 Christian people were chiefly relied on for the supply of the 
 church’s temporal wants. These oblations, according to the autho¬ 
 rities quoted by Bingham, were of two sorts—the weekly oblations 
 that were made by those who came to partake of the eucharist, 
 and the monthly oblations that were cast into the treasury of the 
 church. To these were added, as the converts to the Christian 
 faith multiplied, gifts of lands or houses, which, indeed, became in 
 
 VOL. XXXIII. PART I. G 
 
82 
 
 Rev. Dr. Buchanan— Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 tlie course of time so considerable as not only to have tended to 
 secularise the clergy, by involving them in the care and management 
 of this ever-accumulating property, but also to dry up the weekly 
 and monthly offerings, these being supposed by the people to be less 
 urgently required. Referring to this tendency of the one source of 
 support seriously to injure the other, Bingham takes occasion to 
 make the following significant statement: “If any one is desirous 
 “ to know what part of the church revenues was anciently most 
 “ serviceable and beneficial to the church, he may be informed from 
 “ St. Chrysostom and St. Austin, who give the greatest commen- 
 “ dations to the offerings and oblations of the people, and seem to say 
 “ that the church was never better provided than when her main- 
 “ tenance was raised chiefly from them. Bor then, men’s zeal 
 “ prompted them to be very liberal in their daily offerings, but as 
 “ lands and possessions were settled upon the church this zeal 
 “ sensibly abated; and so the church came to be worse provided 
 “ for under the notion of growing richer, which is the thing 
 “ that St. Chrysostom complains of in his own times, when 
 “ the ancient revenue arising from oblations was in a great 
 “ measure sunk, and the church, with all her lands, left in a 
 “ worse condition than she was before.”* Tbat experience of the 
 primitive church would seem not indistinctly to indicate that the 
 Free Church of Scotland was well advised in founding, as she 
 did, her financial system, not on two sources of revenue, but only 
 on one. In point of fact, the circumstances in which she found 
 herself placed, left her scarcely any choice but that of casting 
 herself for the means of support, at once and entirely, on the 
 system of free-will offerings,—as these might be supplied by her 
 people from month to month and from year to year. She could 
 not afford to wait till the sum, which it would have required to 
 provide a permanent endowment for the support of her ministry 
 should be raised; and any attempt to combine the two systems, of 
 endowments and free-will offerings, together would inevitably have 
 proved unworkable, by their fatally paralysing one another. The 
 grand characteristic peculiarity connected with the position of the 
 Free Church when she constituted her first general assembly in 
 1843 was this, that everything requisite for her outward equipment 
 and maintenance had to be provided at once. So far as the living 
 materiel of the church and its whole constitution in doctrine, 
 worship, and government were concerned, all was already complete. 
 She had not only a body of nearly 500 ministers, with elders in due 
 proportion, and many hundreds of thousands of people who had all, 
 in one day, so to speak, left the Establishment; but this body of 
 ministers, elders, and people had come out “harnessed,’ as the 
 
 # Works, vol. ii, pp. 174, 175. 
 
1870.] 
 
 83 
 
 Free Clmrcli of Scotland , 1843-G9. 
 
 children of Israel went up out of tlie land of Egypt. They had 
 come out, in other words, in ecclesiastical array ; not as a rabble, 
 bnt regimented as congregations, for the most part duly officered, 
 and as courts, duly organised. But so far, on the other hand, as the 
 means of sustaining these ministers, and of having the ordinances of 
 the gospel statedly dispensed to these congregations, were concerned, 
 everything had yet to be done. The church had not a shilling to give 
 to any one of these ministers in the way of a living, nor a house in 
 which they and their families might reside, nor a place of worship in 
 which they might assemble with their people for prayer and for the 
 preaching of the word of God. Those to whom reference has been 
 made, as having been driven at an earlier time into secession from 
 the Established Church,—by the oppressive way in which the law 
 of church-patronage was administered, and by other practical 
 grievances,—had come out in limited numbers, and had grown to 
 what they have since become, only by slow degrees. Their origin 
 was a genesis; that of the Free Church was an exodus , as has been 
 already explained. Beginning in these widely different circum¬ 
 stances, it was quite natural that their financial arrangements 
 should have exhibited differences of a corresponding kind. They 
 had no call, like the Free Church, to grapple with the religious 
 wants of the country at large, on anything approaching to a 
 national scale. They had to look only, and especially in the first 
 instance, to the comparatively narrow circle of their own immediate 
 adherents. And as their congregations were thus not only few in 
 number, but located for the most part in populous districts, and 
 composed of persons possessed of some worldly means, each con¬ 
 gregation was for the most part in a position to support its own 
 minister, and to provide whatever was needed for carrying on 
 its work. And what was true of those older nonconformists in 
 Scotland, was true to a large extent of almost all the nonconforming 
 churches in England and elsewhere. Even the expulsion which 
 took place of 2,000 ministers and of multitudes of their people 
 from the Established Church of England by the rigid enforcement 
 of the Act of Uniformity in 1662, hardly forms an exception to the 
 state of things I have described. For, though their numbers were 
 great, they had no liberty to combine or to act in concert. Broken 
 up and dispersed and harrassed by the harsh edicts with which they 
 were everywhere pursued, they had far more than enough to do to 
 keep alive the principles for which they endured all these privations 
 and sufferings, in their own hearts, without attempting to diffuse 
 and perpetuate them over the country at large. Perhaps, indeed, 
 it would be difficult to find in tbe whole range of church history 
 a case at all parallel to that of the Free Church of Scotland. 
 Possessing adherents, more or fewer, not only in every county, but 
 
 G 2 
 
84 Re v. De. Buchanan —Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 in every parish of the northern kingdom, and formally claiming to 
 represent the national church, necessity was laid upon it to set np 
 and sustain the whole equipment of a church all over the length 
 and breadth of the land. Till then it had been accepted almost as 
 an axiom that, without the public resources supplied by a national 
 church establishment, provision could not be made for the support 
 of religious ordinances on a national scale. In thickly-peopled and 
 wealthy districts it was, of course, seen and admitted that a self- 
 supporting church might contrive to keep its ground; but, in such 
 regions as the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, any such achieve¬ 
 ment was commonly regarded as simply impossible. In point of 
 fact, down to the year of the disruption, there was scarcely a non¬ 
 conformist minister or place of worship between the Grampians 
 and the Pentland Frith. It was, therefore, a state of things such 
 as no other church, unconnected with the State, had ever before 
 been called to face, which confronted the Free Church of Scotland 
 in 1843. Not only did immense multitudes in all the cities and 
 towns, and in nearly all the rural parishes of the Lowlands at once 
 give in their adherence to her principles and to her communion, but 
 the population of the Highlands and Islands took her side en masse. 
 It needs only to mention these things in order to make it abundantly 
 manifest that any financial system that was really to meet the 
 necessities of such a case must be one which would combine the 
 resources of the whole body, so as that the strong might thus help 
 the weak, and that, as in the case of the manna on which the 
 Iraelities fed in the wilderness, the richer congregations which 
 gathered much should have nothing over, while those which, owing 
 to their poverty, could gather little of their own, should, never¬ 
 theless, through means of the overplus of others, have no lack. 
 
 It was under the influence of such considerations as these that the 
 Free Church at once and unanimously adopted, as the backbone of her 
 financial system, the plan of a common fund, to the support of which 
 all her congregations should contribute, and in the benefits of which 
 all her ministers should share. With whom the central idea of this 
 scheme originated it is impossible to say. The very nature of the 
 case was such as almost inevitably to suggest it, to any one who was 
 seriously and intelligently considering the subject. Of one thing, 
 however, there can be no possible doubt or question, that the author¬ 
 ship of the system of finance, into which the idea now spoken of was 
 gradually developed, belonged to Thomas Chalmers. It had taken 
 shape in his mind, and in at least seme of its leading features had 
 been put in writing by his pen, in the summer of 1841. It is true 
 that in the autumn of the same year, and without any knowledge of 
 the views or plans of Dr. Chalmers, the principle of a common fund, 
 to be distributed in equal shares, was given out by Dr. Candlish at 
 
1870.] 
 
 Free Church of Scotland ,, 1843-69. 
 
 85 
 
 a great public meeting, beld at Edinburgh, in anticipation of the 
 event which, even then, had begun to loom out, not indistinctly, 
 through the storm and tempest of the time. It was not, however, 
 till the month of November, 1842, that it took the form of a fully- 
 planned scheme for the future support of the church, drawn out in 
 detail and supported by elaborate argument. This form it assumed 
 in a speech of great power and eloquence, which is still preserved, 
 and which was delivered by Dr. Chalmers at a very memorable meet¬ 
 ing. The meeting to which I refer was called “ the convocation,” 
 —a name familiar enough in England, though descriptive, there, of 
 a quite different assembly. The Scotch convocation was not a 
 court, but simply a private, unofficial conference of ministers inte¬ 
 rested in the common cause of the, then, impending disruption. 
 They met alone, because they desired to look their position, pro¬ 
 spects, and responsibilities calmly and prayerfully in the face, 
 without being liable, under the influence of public feeling, to be either 
 turned back, or to be carried further or faster forward in the direction 
 in which events were moving, otherwise than as their own deliberate 
 judgment and sense of duty might seem to them to sanction and 
 require. 
 
 In laying his financial scheme before this meeting Dr. Chalmers 
 began by saying, “ I do not want to hasten your decision beyond 
 “ what, on its own proper grounds, you might deem to be right and 
 “ necessary. But, on the other hand, I should like to see removed 
 u out of the way aught which might hinder, or even cause a hurtful 
 “ delay, in our adoption of what ought to be the final decision of 
 “ the church on the matters which are now pending, or, in one 
 “ brief sentence, I should like to demonstrate the grounds on which, 
 “ should the worst come to the worst, I look for the stability of our 
 “ present Church of Scotland in these lands, even should the 
 “ fostering care of the State be withdrawn from her, and should 
 “ she be severed from all her present endowments and civil immu- 
 “ nities by the hand of violence.” 
 
 “ The arithmetic,” he went on to say, “ on which, under God, I 
 “ found the confidence I feel, is soon told. It is not because I 
 “ count on a multitude of great things. These may be either more 
 “ frequent or more numerous than I shall attempt to specify. But 
 “I do count on a multitude of little things. It is not on the 
 “ strength of large sums that I proceed, it is on the strength 
 “ and accumulation of littles. I am not looking for much that is 
 “ remarkable in the way either of noble efforts or of noble sacrifices; 
 “ nor yet is it on the impulse of strong but momentary feeling that 
 “ I at all reckon. It is on the assiduities of habit and principle, 
 “ such as a very common and every day exertion in each district of 
 “ our land might secure if begun, and such as the general influence 
 
86 Rev. Dr. Buchanan— Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 “ of custom alone might suffice to perpetuate. Such is the character 
 “ —the plain, unimaginative character—of the premises with which 
 “ I am now dealing; and the conclusion I draw from them, what I 
 “ call my minimum result, because the very least to which I aspire 
 “ is a hundred thousand pounds in the year.” 
 
 After a lengthened exposition of the grounds on which he based 
 an expectation which most of his hearers regarded with great 
 incredulity, he summed up his statement as follows : 
 
 “ Firstly , then, the money raised in any given locality ought not 
 “ to be reserved for the expenses of that locality. All the means 
 “ raised throughout all the localities should be remitted to a large 
 “ central fund, whence a distribution of it should be made of the 
 “ requisite sums or salaries for the ministers of all our parishes. 
 “ The benefits of such an arrangement are manifold and inestimable. 
 “ It becomes an operation of infinitely greater delicacy and good 
 u taste when the offerings called for, in any given neighbourhood, 
 “ are not for the direct and personal behoof of their own clergyman. 
 “ He could do nothing to extend or stimulate such a process. But his 
 “ deacons and even himself might, without the violation of decorum, 
 u bestow upon it their full countenance and activity when seen in 
 “ its true character, as part of a general scheme for the high patri- 
 “ otic object of supporting a ministry of the gospel throughout the 
 “ whole of Scotland.” 
 
 “ Secondly , And what gives a still more disinterested character 
 “ to the scheme is the noble resolution announced at the memorable 
 “ meeting held in the West Kirk (of Edinburgh), in the month of 
 u August, 1841, wherein the town ministers—the ministers of the 
 u most opulent parishes, and whence the largest contributions will 
 “ be made to the general fund—agree to share and share alike with 
 “ the ministers of the poorest parishes in Scotland. This law of 
 “ equal division among the clergy will give rise to the operation of 
 “ pure and high principle both in the rich and in the poorer parishes. 
 “ The liberality of the former will be stimulated, not by the near 
 “ and narrow consideration of a support for their own minister, but 
 “ by the great and soul-expanding consideration that they are help- 
 “ ing out a provision for the gospel in the most destitute localities 
 “ of the land. And the efforts and sacrifices of the latter will be 
 “ stimulated by the honourable ambition of raising their contri- 
 “ buttons as near to the dividend as possible.” * * * 
 
 “ But, thirdly , you will observe that on this system of the equal 
 u division, right and beautiful as it is, yet did our financial opera- 
 “ tions stop here, and proceed no farther, then the clergy in different 
 “ parts of our establishment, with nominally the same means, might 
 “ yet fare very unequally.” After explaining how this inequality 
 would necessarily arise under such an arrangement, owing to the 
 
87 
 
 1870.] Free Church of Scotland , 1848-69. 
 
 great differences in tlie cost of living, lionse rent, &c., in towns, 
 as compared witli the same charges in remote and rural parishes, 
 he went on to say, “It is for this reason that our financial system 
 “ ought not to stop at the lowest point to which I have yet carried 
 “ up my explanation of it. There is one step more * * * After 
 
 “ that the organisation had been set up in each parish for behoof of 
 “ the general fund, or, in other words, after that an association has 
 “ been formed and put into regular working order for the raising and 
 “ the remitting of its quarterly or yearly proceeds to what may be 
 “ called the great central treasury of the church, there can be no 
 “ objection, nay, it were most desirable, that a distinct supple- 
 “ mentary effort should be made in each parish for the express 
 “ purpose of eking out and extending the allowance of its own 
 “ minister.” 
 
 Under a fourth and last head Dr. Chalmers laid it down as an 
 essential feature of his scheme that means should be provided, in 
 connection with it, for the extension of the church, tor not only 
 sustaining the existing ministry, but for increasing their numbers, 
 as occasion might require. Having completed the sketch of his 
 financial scheme, he concluded thus • 
 
 “ It is not to speed, and far less to overbear, your determination 
 “ that we have endeavoured to set this argument before you; but 
 “ to remove, if possible, disturbing forces in the way either of 
 “ clearly perceiving or of righteously judging where it is that the 
 “ path of duty and of rectitude lies.” * * * * “ The thing 
 
 “ for present decision is not whether now the church shall cut 
 “ connexion with the State, but what now shall be our language to 
 “ them who have the power and authority of the State in their 
 “ hands. And I confidently ask, on the premises which I have 
 “ tried, however imperfectly to lay down, whether this ought to be 
 “ a language of irresolution and timidity, of men in perplexity, 
 “ because their hearts are failing them for fear, and ready in the 
 “ least to recede or to compromise because of the approaching ruin 
 “ that is now, in the scared imaginations, perhaps, of a few, opening 
 “ to engulf and swallow up the majority of ministers in Scotland. 
 “ My prayer is for an unfaltering progression in a steady rectilineal 
 “ course, and that you may never be tempted to subordinate the 
 “ kingdom which is not of this world to the government of this 
 “ world’s powers.” 
 
 Such was the earliest sketch in outline, that had then been 
 anywhere presented, of the future financial system of the Free 
 Church of Scotland. In the course of the six following months 
 which intervened between the convocation and the disruption, a 
 committee was formed which, under the energetic presidency of 
 Dr. Chalmers, laboured incessantly in diffusing information through- 
 
88 
 
 Rev. Dr. Buchanan —Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 out the church as to the leading features and objects of the 
 proposed scheme, and in framing and setting in motion the 
 machinery by which it was to be carried into effect. An important 
 beginning had in this way been made by the time the disruption 
 took place, so that when the great event of the church’s separation 
 from the State arrived, steps were already everywhere in progress 
 for securing its maintenance in its disestablished condition. When 
 the first meeting of its assembly was held, Dr. Chalmers was able 
 to announce that no fewer than 687 congregational associations 
 had been formed for the raising of the necessary funds. Of these 
 associations, 239 were by this time in complete working order, and 
 had sent up to the central fund for the sustentation of the ministry 
 17 , 000 /. Besides this, very nearly 105 , 000 /. had been contributed 
 for the erection of churches. Encouraged by these cheering first- 
 fruits of the people’s sympathy, the assembly addressed itself at 
 once to the great task which lay before it, of giving formal sanction 
 and authority to the financial system which had been improvised in 
 the manner now described, modifying and adjusting it at the same 
 time in its details as experience and further consideration seemed to 
 require. 
 
 And here, at this stage, it may be proper and needful to 
 explain a little the constitution of the church itself, as otherwise 
 it may be difficult, if not impossible, to make intelligible the 
 arrangements under which the financial system, thus inaugurated, is 
 administered and carried on. For such a work the large infusion 
 of the lay element, which pervades all the courts of the Presbyterian 
 Church, affords important facilities. The Presbyterian Church recog¬ 
 nises three classes of office-bearers: ministers , whose function is to 
 labour in the word and doctrine, and to take part in ruling the 
 church; elders, whose duty, along with the ministers, and under 
 their presidency, is to take the spiritual oversight of the congre¬ 
 gations to which they belong; and deacons , whose business it is to 
 take charge of the poor, of the funds of the church, and of its 
 temporal interests and affairs generally. Previously to the dis¬ 
 ruption the office of deacon had fallen largely into disuse, chiefly, 
 no doubt, from the circumstance that, in a church endowed and 
 upheld in all its external requirements by the State, there was 
 comparatively little for the deacon to do. It was accordingly one of 
 the very first effects of the disruption to revive the deaconship 
 which, in the church’s altered circumstances, had become an imme¬ 
 diate and urgent necessity; and for the purpose of giving to this 
 restored deaconship its proper place and work, a body was created 
 by the assembly in every congregation, called the deacons’ court. 
 Of this body, the minister is the official head, and the elders and 
 deacons are the constituent members. All these office-bearers, the 
 
1870.] 
 
 Free Church of Scotta?id , 1843-69. 
 
 89 
 
 minister included, are chosen by the communicants of the congre¬ 
 gation. In all ordinary cases, accordingly, they have the full 
 confidence of the congregation, and can count on its support in 
 carrying on the work committed to their hands. Such a court is, 
 so to speak, a ready-made instrument in every congregation for the 
 management of that financial system, the origin, nature, objects, 
 and results of which it is the purpose of this paper to explain. In 
 the event of any dispute or difference of judgment arising in this 
 court, which they find themselves unable to settle, it may be carried 
 by reference to the court next in order above it; that is, to 
 the class is or presbytery, which corresponds somewhat to the 
 diocese of a bishop in the episcopal church, and which has the 
 oversight of a certain number of conterminous congregations, and 
 is made up of the ministers of these congregations and of one 
 elder from each of them. This second court, the presbytery, 
 which meets monthly, or oftener, or less often, as occasion may 
 require, in addition to ‘the jurisdiction it possesses in the cases 
 which may be sent up to it for decision, has a general right and 
 duty of seeing to it, that the laws of the church, and the instruc¬ 
 tions of the assembly in all matters, be duly carried out by the 
 courts of the congregations within its bounds. Above the pres¬ 
 bytery there is the provincial synod, which meets half-yearly, and 
 which is a cumulative body, made up of the presbyteries included 
 within its territory; and over all these other courts there is the 
 general assembly—the supreme court of the whole church, which 
 meets once a-year, and which is representative,—consisting of a 
 fixed proportion, one-third , viz., of the members of each presbytery; 
 the ministers and elders so chosen being equal both in point of 
 numbers and in point of authority. 
 
 Keeping this ecclesiastical organisation in view, it will be easily 
 seen what advantages it supplies for both putting, and keeping, in 
 operation such a financial system as the one I am attempting to 
 describe. The general assembly, consisting as it does of repre¬ 
 sentatives from every part of the church from the Solway to the 
 Shetland Isles, and from Aberdeen to the Outer Hebrides, has 
 always the means of the most direct and immediate communication 
 with even the remotest extremities of the church ; and in order 
 that this action and oversight of the supreme court may be practically 
 maintained all through the year,—in the way of constantly guiding 
 and stimulating the whole body of deacons’ courts, and congre¬ 
 gations and presbyteries, in the discharge of their respective duties 
 in relation to the church’s financial system in all its departments,—it 
 has standing committees, whose special business it is to watch over, 
 receive, and administer, under its direction and authority, all the 
 funds of the church. 
 
90 
 
 Rev. Dr. Buchanan —Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 And here let me first speak of what belongs to the chief branch 
 of this financial system—the sustentation fund. This fund, as 
 already stated, has for its one great object the support of the 
 ministry, to the extent and effect of at least securing for each 
 minister a certain minimum stipend. From the first it was the aim 
 of the church to bring up this minimum to 150 1. This minimum, 
 however, was not reached till the year 1868, and this chiefly in con¬ 
 sequence of the large increase that was constantly taking place in 
 the number of ministers among whom the fund fell to be divided. 
 Very soon indeed after the disruption, Dr. Chalmers became doubt¬ 
 ful of the expediency of adhering to the system of the equal dividend, 
 and succeeded, in 1844, in inducing the church to adopt a different 
 system in the case of all charges sanctioned after that date. The 
 system in question was that of granting out of the central fund 50 
 per cent, to be added to the amount which any aid-receiving congre¬ 
 gation itself contributed to the fund. The congregation, in short, 
 got back its own contribution with a half more added to it, up to 
 the point at which the two sums combined made up the minimum 
 of 150 /. If it gave 60 1. it received 30 1. in addition, making 90 /. in 
 all. If it gave 100 Z. it received 50 /. in addition, thereby making up 
 the full sum of 150 l. Upon this system, which was called the half- 
 more scheme, it will be seen that 50 ^ w r as the maximum of aid 
 which any congregation could receive from the common fund. This 
 system was, however, abandoned by the church in 1848. It had 
 been from the first opposed by very many, and the complaints 
 against it became at last so strong that it had to be given up alto¬ 
 gether. Its great recommendation was the sharp stimulus it applied 
 to the poorer class of congregations to do their utmost, in order to 
 make up a living for their minister. The objections which caused it 
 to be given ujd w T ere, first, the painfully dependent position in which 
 it placed so many ministers, and next the inadequacy of the support 
 it afforded them. The equal dividend system, with the exception of 
 a slight and short-lived modification, has accordingly been ever 
 since maintained as regards the great body of the ministers of the 
 church. The only exception to it, indeed, is that of the ministers 
 of what are called church extension charges. These new charges are 
 not put on the platform of the equal dividend fund until after a 
 period of probation, during which they are aided by grants from 
 the home mission fund and other funds. After they have become 
 thoroughly organised and consolidated, and have become habituated 
 to the making of suitable efforts towards their own support, they 
 are gradually, and by a regulated process, placed upon the firmer 
 and more permanent footing of the equal dividend fund. It is the 
 law of the church, and is indeed a principle involved in the very 
 nature and object of this fund itself, that an association should 
 
91 
 
 1870.] Free Church of Scotland , 1843-69. 
 
 exist in every congregation for the express purpose of supporting it. 
 Of the forming and keeping up of this association the deacons’ 
 court have the responsible charge; and of this association it is their 
 duty to endeavour, by kindly and Christian means, to induce all 
 who belong to the congregation, and especially the communicants, 
 to become members. In carrying out this duty it is the business of 
 the deacons’ court to have the congregation subdivided into small 
 and manageable sections, and to assign to each of these sections an 
 elder and deacon, to whom it belongs to visit every individual or 
 family belonging to their section, to explain to them the nature, 
 objects, and importance of the sustentation fund, to press upon 
 them the duty of supporting it, and to note down what each person 
 or family agrees to contribute. In his original sketch of the scheme, 
 Dr. Chalmers spoke of the contributions as quarterly or yearly. 
 From the first setting up of the scheme, however, the rule was laid 
 down that, as far as possible, the contributions should be monthly, 
 thus returning to the menstrua dies of the offerings of the primitive 
 church. It was very early seen that this subdivision of the annual 
 sum into monthly payments was far more productive, because far 
 more suited to the circumstances of the great mass of the people. In 
 order to gather in these monthly offerings, either the deacon per¬ 
 sonally, or a member of the congregation acting as collector under 
 his direction, makes, every month, the round of the families of the 
 district, and receives their contributions, and enters the names 
 and sums in his district book. The deacons’ court, on the other 
 hand, holds a stated monthly meeting, at which these contributions 
 are received and handed over to the congregation’s treasurer for the 
 fund, by whom they are all recorded in a register which he keeps 
 for the purpose, and which contains the names of all who belong to 
 the congregation. This register and all the corresponding district 
 books are regarded as confidential documents by the office bearers 
 of the congregation, and no public use is made of them whatever. 
 At this point, and in this connection, it may be proper to mention 
 that the Free Church neither asks nor allows to be received any fee, 
 or other payment, for any religious ordinance. Nothing, indeed, in 
 the church’s administration is more strictly attended to, than the 
 keeping of money altogether apart from admission to any spiritual 
 privilege. In the towns where pew-rents have existed for gene¬ 
 rations in churches of all denominations, established and unestab¬ 
 lished, they exist in the Free Church too. But in the great mass of 
 the rural parishes, and universally in the Highlands and Islands, the 
 churches are open to all comers, without charge of any kind. There 
 is a collection-plate at the church door, into which the attenders on 
 public worship cast in an offering, or not, as their hearts prompt or 
 them means allow. And as regards contributing to the sustentation 
 
92 
 
 Rev. Dk. Buchanan —Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 fund, not only is no particular sum fixed or even named as the sum 
 to be given by any individual, but no church, privilege is withheld 
 from anyone, even if, though well known to be able to contribute, 
 he should think fit to give nothing at all. And herein lies the 
 peculiarity which d'fferentiates the finance of a State from that of a 
 Christian church. Speaking of the former, in his “Wealth of 
 “ Rations,” Adam Smith says, “ The subjects of any State ought to 
 “ contribute towards the support of the Government as nearly as 
 u possible in proportion to the revenues which they respectively 
 enjoy under the protection of the State. The expense of govern¬ 
 ment to the individuals of a great nation is like the expense of 
 management to the joint tenants of a great estate, who are all 
 “ obliged to contribute according to their respective interests in the 
 “ estate. In the observation or neglect of this maxim,” he adds, 
 consists what is called the equality or inequality of taxation.”* 
 It is the word “ obliged ” in this quotation upon which the 
 difference between payments to the State, and contributions to a 
 self-supporting church, turns. The moral obligation to supply 
 what is needed may, in both cases, be substantially the same; 
 but while the State can lawfully impose upon its subjects its 
 own estimate of what they ought to pay, and can exact it from 
 them, the church can neither impose nor exact its own estimate, nor 
 indeed any estimate whatever, of what they are to give, upon any 
 of its members. The inequality of State taxation may be got rid 
 of by parliament, guided by a wise and skilful Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, but the inequality of church contribution cannot be so 
 done away, by even the most experienced managers of a sustentation 
 fund. The dynamics of church finance lie, not in the physical force 
 which silently backs the tax gatherer’s demand, but in the region of 
 conscience alone. ARhat the church member shall give, or whether 
 he shall give at all, is a question between himself and God; a 
 question in which he may be advised and exhorted, but on which he 
 may not, by any human force, be compelled. He to whom the 
 offering is professedly brought will not have it given grudgingly or 
 of necessity. It has and can have no acceptance with Him save in 
 so far as it is brought, not by constraint, but willingly. And hence 
 the true secret of abiding success for any system of church finance, 
 however wisely planned, will be found chiefly and ultimately to 
 depend on the church’s own practical efficiency, in sustaining and 
 cultivating the moral and spiritual life of its-members. Super¬ 
 stition, indeed, may thrive and grow rich among an ignorant popu¬ 
 lation ; but, in an intelligent community, true religion can obtain 
 adequate support for its ordinances and institutions only in pro- 
 
 * Vol. ii, pp. 255, 256. 
 
93 
 
 1870.] Free Church of Scotland , 1843-09. 
 
 portion as it is accomplishing its high ends in the hearts and minds 
 of men. If this greatest of all the factors ont of which the result 
 comes be not taken into account, no reliable calculation as to the 
 efficiency of any system of church finance can he made. It is for 
 this very reason I have thought it necessary, in the earlier part of 
 this paper, to explain the causes which threw the Free Church on 
 the support of its members, and to bring out the fact that these 
 causes were of a nature to touch powerfully and lastingly some of 
 the deepest religious convictions and sympathies of the Scottish 
 people. 
 
 To complete the view now submitted of the oversight and 
 management under which the financial system for the support of the 
 ministry of the Free Church is carried on, it is necessary to advert 
 to the functions of the committee to which the charge of the susten- 
 tation fund is specially entrusted. This committee is appointed 
 annually by the general assembly, and consists of about a hundred 
 ministers and elders, in nearly equal proportion, nominated by the 
 assembly, and of one member, who may be either minister or elder, 
 nominated by each of the fourteen synods of the church. This 
 committee meets once a month at Edinburgh, and is usually attended 
 by about sixty members. Of this committee the author of this paper 
 has had the honour to be convener and chairman ever since the death 
 of Dr. Chalmers, in 1847. It has a paid secretary, with a staff of 
 clerks, who carry on their work in the offices of the Free Church in 
 Edinburgh, a large establishment in which all the standing com¬ 
 mittees of the church have apartments for the conduct of their 
 business, and in which also is the office of the general treasurer of 
 the church. At the monthly meetings of the sustentation fund com¬ 
 mittee the secretary reports the state of the fund, and attention is 
 called by the convener or secretary, or by any of the members of the 
 committee, to anything that may appear to be defective in the state 
 and working of the fund in any particular congregation, and that 
 seems to require attention. If necessary, the committee may, in 
 consequence, send a deputation to visit the deacons’ court of the con¬ 
 gregation concerned, to ask explanations and to suggest suitable 
 remedies. When any charge becomes vacant by the death or trans¬ 
 lation of its minister, the presbytery within which the charge is 
 situated is required by the law of the church to appoint a committee 
 of its own number to meet with the deacons’ court of the vacant 
 charge ; to inquire carefully into its arrangements for supporting the 
 sustentation fund ; to require that a special visitation of all the 
 families of the congregation be made, with a view to ascertain 
 whether any increase to the contribution to the central fund can 
 be made. As the result of this proceeding, the deacons’ court have 
 to fill up, under the oversight of the presbytery’s committee, a printed 
 
94 
 
 Rev. Dr. Buchanan —Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 schedule of queries sent down for this purpose by the sustentation fund 
 committee. The object of this schedule is to ascertain the numbers 
 belonging to the congregation, the number of its communicants, 
 elders, and deacons, the amount of its contributions to the central 
 fund, the number who contribute above or below certain rates, and 
 the total sum which it is expected by the deacons’ court that the 
 congregation will contribute under the new incumbency then about 
 to begin. This schedule must, in every case, be sent up by the 
 presbytery to the sustentation fund committee; and if that com¬ 
 mittee should be of opinion that the proposed contribution is un¬ 
 suitable to the numbers and resources of the congregation, the 
 committee have authority to delay the settlement till a satisfactory 
 adjustment is reached. If the congregation be dissatisfied with the 
 committee’s judgment, the case may be referred to the general 
 assembly. But, in point of fact, no such reference has ever been 
 made. In every instance the committee and the congregation, con¬ 
 trive to come to a friendly settlement of any question that may 
 arise between them. It is also a law of the church that if any 
 congregation that is not self-sustaining shall prove manifestly 
 negligent of its duty as regards the supporting of the sustentation 
 fund, it shall be liable, at the end of the current incumbency, to be 
 reduced from the position of a sanctioned ministerial charge to that 
 of a mere preaching station. There has, however, hardly been a 
 single instance in which this law has needed to be enforced. On 
 the subject of the sustentation fund, the only other thing that needs 
 to be stated is, that under a resolution adopted in 1867, whatever 
 remains over of that fund, after paying to each minister his equal 
 dividend of 150 /., is dealt with as a surplus fund. In this surplus 
 fund only those ministers are entitled to share whose congregations 
 contribute to the fund at a certain average rate. If their average 
 rate be 75 . 6d. per annum for each communicant, the minister of 
 that con 0 re 0 ation receives, in addition to his equal dividend, one 
 share of the surplus. If their average rate be io.s*., their minister 
 receives two shares. In the year ending 1869 this surplus fund 
 amounted to 4 , 023 /. is. 10 d., of which 202 ministers received 5 /. 
 each, and of which 316 ministers received 10 /. each. The object of 
 this surplus fund is to stimulate congregations to rise to higher 
 rates of giving. 
 
 It is now nearly twenty-seven years since this new system of 
 church support, through the medium of a common central fund, 
 began—a period quite long enough to exhaust any mere excitement or 
 enthusiasm connected with the great event in which it originated, 
 and to test the worth and sufficiency of the more permanent forces 
 inherent in the ordinary working of the system itself. What, then, 
 has been the history of this central fund for the sustentation of the 
 
95 
 
 1870.] & 'ee Church of Scotland , 1843-69. 
 
 ministry from 1843 to 1869, and what has it achieved ? Its history 
 has been one of steady growth, as will presently be shown. But 
 before adverting to the table necessary for this purpose, let me first 
 notice the increase that has taken place since 1843 in the number of 
 ministers among whom the fund is shared. 
 
 To show what this sustentation fund has achieved it is necessary 
 to explain that, instead of 474 ministers, as at the date of the dis¬ 
 ruption in 1843, the Free Church at the date of the General Assembly, 
 1869, had 900 ministers.* Of these ministers, 46 were colleagues, 
 associated each with a senior minister more or less incapacitated by 
 age or infirmity for the entire charge of his congregation, and 
 82 were ministers of church-extension charges—charges, that is, 
 recently instituted, and not yet raised to what is called “the 
 platform of the equal dividend.” The number of ministers, col¬ 
 leagues excluded, on that platform, accordingly was 772 ; and all 
 of these, save those of their number who had not been a full year 
 in office, were entitled to a full equal dividend. The equal dividend 
 which the -sustentation fund was able to provide for each of 470 
 ministers who drew a whole dividend at the assembly of 1844 was 
 100 Z.; the equal dividend which that fund was able to provide for 
 each of 740 ministers who drew a whole dividend at the assembly 
 of 1869 was 150 /. In the case of those ministers who have col¬ 
 leagues, this dividend is equally divided between the colleague and 
 the senior minister. Table Ho. I in the Appendix w T ill show both 
 the progress of the fund and the increase of the number of ministers 
 sharing it. 
 
 In order, however, to bring out the entire result of the financial 
 system of the Free Church, in so far as the support of the ministry 
 is concerned, it is necessary to recall attention to the fact that the 
 central fund is not the only source from which that support is 
 derived. As Dr. Chalmers, in his original draft of the scheme, 
 suggested, it not only leaves it open but expressly invites and 
 encourages every congregation to supplement, by its own local 
 efforts, the stipend of its own minister. This supplement is usually 
 derived from pew-rents and from the weekly offerings at the church 
 door. These, which are strictly congregational funds, and left 
 entirely under the management of the congregations themselves, 
 through their deacons’ courts, amount in all to an annual sum very 
 nearly equal to that of the central sustentation fund itself ; and its 
 history, like that of the sustentation fund, has, since 1843, been one 
 of continual progress. In 1843-44 it amounted to 41 , 549 ^. 115 * io 4 ^*’ 
 in 1868-69 it amounted to 126 , 445 /. 135 . iofd. This large and 
 important branch of revenue is applied, at its own discretion, by each 
 
 # The number of charges was 918 , but 18 were vacant at Assembly 1869 by 
 death or removal. 
 
96 Rev. Dr. Buchanan —Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 congregation, acting through its deacon’s court, to meet all ordinary 
 current expenses,—sucli as church, repairs, taxes, salaries of church 
 officers, precentor, &c., and in many cases the salary of its congre¬ 
 gational schoolmaster and local missionary, &c. But also, from this 
 fund, the supplementary stipend of the minister is derived. The 
 amount so applied last year in supplementing the stipends of 
 606 ministers was 46 , 891 /. 35. 6\d. 
 
 In order, however, to exhibit the entire sum contributed by the 
 church for the support of her ministry, it is necessary to include 
 certain other funds of a special kind, and having special objects in 
 view. These are such as the following :—1. The aged and infirm 
 ministers’ fund, the object of which is to provide for such ministers 
 retiring allowances. 2. The pre-disruption ministers’ fund, which 
 is designed to augment the stipends of those ministers of that 
 particular class who have had to make, at the time of the disruption 
 and since, the largest pecuniary sacrifices. 3. The supplementary 
 sustentation fund, which is a small capital fund, the interest of 
 which is employed in adding to the stipends of ministers not on 
 the platform of the equal dividend. 4, and last, grants made 
 annually from the home mission funds of the church to ministers of 
 mission charges. Adding the sums derived from these several 
 sources to the congregational supplements and to the central susten¬ 
 tation dividends, the entire amount paid last year in support of the 
 ministry of the Free Church was 190 , 224 /. is! 5 d. 
 
 In an earlier part of this paper reference was made to the fact 
 that, as the consequence of the disruption, the Free Church had 
 not only to provide means for supporting its ministers but also for 
 building places of worship, manses, or parsonages, and elementary 
 schools. I shall now, therefore, briefly notice the financial arrange¬ 
 ments made for this purpose :— 
 
 The number of churches built by the Free Church is . 920 
 
 „ manses „ . 719 
 
 „ schools „ . 597 
 
 To defray the cost of erecting these numerous and expensive 
 buildings, two separate classes of funds were raised,—the one local, 
 the other general. Each congregation, in other words, requiring 
 church, manse, or school, was called upon to go as far as it was able 
 in the way of raising the funds required for this purpose from 
 among its own members. To stimulate and aid these local efforts a 
 general fund was at the same time raised, by an annual collection 
 made over the whole church, and out of which grants were made 
 according to the necessities of each particular case. Under this 
 arrangement the wealthier congregations contributed* largely to the 
 general fund, but took nothing from it, providing for their own 
 
1870 .] 
 
 97 
 
 Free Church of Scotland, 1843-69. 
 
 buildings by their own local efforts alone. The Table No. II in the 
 Appendix will show the sums obtained for these funds, general and 
 local, in each of the years from the disruption downwards. 
 
 As will be seen by reference to that table, the total amount thus 
 raised and expended for church, manse, and school building during 
 the twenty-six years which have elapsed since May, 1843, is as 
 follows:— 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 General building fund . 355,452 7 5 
 
 Local „ . 1,312,272 ii 6| 
 
 Total of building funds for the above 
 purposes . 
 
 } 
 
 1,667,724 18 
 
 11 
 
 JL 
 
 4 
 
 To this sum at least 100,000?. should be added, as having been 
 expended on buildings by the local parties, the funds to meet which 
 are in course of being raised. 
 
 It thus appears that the average annual sum so raised and 
 expended amounts to 64,413?. 45. 7 d .; and as in even the very last 
 of these twenty-six years the above average is very nearly sustained, 
 it shows that the work of church, manse, and school building con¬ 
 tinues to go steadily on. Of the total sum thus expended in 
 buildings, there has been laid out:— 
 
 On churches . i> 01 5>375 
 
 „ manses. 467 > 35 ° 
 
 „ schools. 185,000 
 
 1,667,724 
 
 In addition to the above edifices connected with her equipment, 
 the Free Church has also erected three theological colleges for the 
 training of her candidates for the ministry, viz. : one college at 
 Fdmburgh, another at Glasgow', and the third at Aberdeen. For the 
 building of these colleges she has raised and expended about 55,000?. 
 
 In connection with these colleges there are thirteen professors, 
 and the number of students of theology in attendance at these 
 colleges last year was 241. All of these students, as required by 
 the law of the church, had previously attended a complete under¬ 
 graduate course of four years’ study at one or other of the national 
 universities ; and their course of theological study also extends to 
 four years. One of these theological colleges is endowed, having 
 a fund for that purpose of 35,000?., obtained from subscriptions, 
 donations, and legacies. The other two are partially endowed by 
 funds which amount at present to 3 5’33^ or their support other¬ 
 wise, these colleges depend chiefly upon an annual collection made 
 by all the congregations of the church, and which has amounted, on 
 the average, to nearly 3,000?. a-year. In addition to these sources 
 
 VOL. XXXIII. part 1. 
 
 H 
 
98 Key. Dr. Buchanan —Finance of the [Mar 
 
 of support there are also the students’ fees, which amounted last 
 year to 950 1. 12 s. 
 
 In connection with these theological colleges there are also 
 bursary and fellowship funds, which are all of the nature of endow¬ 
 ment funds, not annual but permanent, and which have been 
 obtained from donations and legacies. These funds, for Edinburgh 
 College, amount to 27,260/., and yield, in the aggregate, a yearly 
 income of 1,11 61 . Those for Glasgow and Aberdeen amount to 
 30,625/,, yielding an annual revenue of about 1,225. The bursaries 
 and fellowships are all obtained by competitive examination. 
 
 The total sum raised for college purposes since 
 
 the disruption is . 
 
 Add building, bursary, and endowment funds 
 not included therein . ; . 
 
 £ s. d. 
 211,888 17 4 
 
 80,625 - - 
 
 Total 
 
 2 9 2 > 5 X 3 17 4 
 
 Mention has been already made of the amount expended by the 
 Free Church on her school buildings. For the support of these 
 schools, in the form of salaries to their 603 teachers, there has *been 
 contributed, through her central school fund, 245,207/. 10.9. 4 \d. 
 Besides which, there have been local contributions for the support 
 of the schools which do not enter into the public accounts of the 
 church, amounting to about 170,000/., thus raising the total to 
 415,000/. The church has also erected and maintains two large and 
 flourishing normal schools for the training of teachers. These two 
 schools have at present in attendance 1,645 scholars and 252 
 students, of whom 101 are male and 151 female students. These 
 schools are maintained partly by the fees of the scholars and students, 
 partly by salaries from the church’s education fund, and partly by 
 Government grants. Like all the schools of the Free Church, the 
 normal schools are open to all denominations, and are, in point of 
 fact, taken advantage of largely by scholars and students belonging 
 to almost every branch of the Christian church. The fund for the 
 support of the teachers—commonly called the schoolmasters’ fund— 
 is raised in precisely the same way, and by the same agency, as 
 that for the support of the ministers. Its ingathering and admin¬ 
 istration are under the charge of a standing committee of the 
 general assembly, known as the education committee. To this 
 fund all the congregations are recommended to contribute, but com¬ 
 pliance with this recommendation is not regarded nor treated as of 
 the same primary obligation with the sustentation fund, and is not, 
 therefore, enforced by any formal law of the church. The sum thus 
 raised for the schoolmasters’ fund has amounted on the average to 
 nearly 10,000/. a-year, to which there is added locally about 8,000/. 
 more. 
 
1870.] 
 
 99 
 
 Free Church of Scotland , 1843-69. 
 
 To complete this view of tlie finance of the Free Chnrch it only 
 remains to notice her mission funds for the propagation of the 
 gospel at home and abroad. These mission funds are five in number, 
 and the total sums raised since the disruption are as follows :— 
 
 1. Home mission fund, of which there are two branches— £ 
 
 a. Home mission, Lowlands . 148,004 
 
 b. „ Highlands.. 71,710 
 
 2 . Colonial mission fund . 122,876 
 
 3 . Continental „ 39 j^44 
 
 4 . Foreign „ 470,846 
 
 5 . Jewish „ . 1 29,955 
 
 All these funds, with one exception, are raised by annual col¬ 
 lections, on days fixed every year by the appointment of the 
 assembly, and made all over the church. The exception is that of 
 the fund for foreign missions. Because its wants are greater than 
 those of any of the others, the assembly, in its particular case, has 
 sanctioned and recommended the employment of congregational 
 associations, after the manner of the sustentation and education 
 funds. This plan, however, is not universally adopted, and in a 
 good many congregations the contribution is made, as in the case of 
 the other mission funds, by an annual congregational collection at 
 the church door. 
 
 Table No. Ill in the Appendix exhibits the amounts which have 
 been contributed to these funds respectively since the year 1843 . 
 From that table it will be seen that the grand total raised for these 
 missions in the course of the twenty-six years which have elapsed 
 since the disruption amounts to 982,935 1. 55. iof d. 
 
 There is still another table, which is marked No. IY in the 
 Appendix, to which I have to call the attention of the Statistical 
 Society. It presents a general abstract of the whole funds raised 
 by the Free Church for all purposes connected with her work 
 during the twenty-six years from the disruption to 1868-69 inclusive. 
 The aggregate of all the funds collected during that period and 
 devoted to the purposes of religion and education by the Free 
 Chnrch is 8,487,773b 145. -§ d . 
 
 To the above-named aggregate there fall to be added various 
 sums which have not passed through the public accounts of the 
 church. These sums have been separately stated under the various 
 branches of expenditure alluded to in the foregoing statement, viz.:— 
 
 £ 
 
 For local expenditure on church buildings . 100,000 
 
 }) maintenance of schools . 170,000 
 
 For building, endowment, and bursary funds of Aber-1 g 
 
 deen and Glasgow .....J 
 
 Total. 35°> 63 5 
 
100 Key. Dr. Buchanan —Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 which, being added to the aggregate, brings np the total sum raised 
 to 8,838,398/. 
 
 Leaving aside the amonnt collected on the first of those years, 
 which was in many ways exceptional, and dividing the remaining 
 years into periods of five years each, the progressive character of 
 the funds raised will at once appear. 
 
 % 
 
 The totals so arranged are as follows:— 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Five years, from 1844 to 1848 inclusive. 1,495,264 15 7 
 
 „ ’49 „ ’53 „ 1,446,309 6 nf 
 
 „ ’54 „ ’58 „ 1,577,786 13 6| 
 
 „ ’59 „ ’63 „ 1 , 674,954 9 7 l 
 
 „ ’64 „ ’69 „ 1,929,586 n ioi 
 
 Or, to put the case another way, if the average of the whole twenty- 
 six years be taken, including the first and thoronghly exceptional 
 year, the result is 326,452/. 165. 1 fd., whereas the snm collected 
 during the last of the twenty-six years is 421,796/. 4s. 9J d. Thus 
 showing that the revenue of last year exceeds the average of the 
 whole period by the sum of 95,343/. 85. 8 d . 
 
 Before concluding this account of the finance of the Free Church, 
 it may be useful to notice certain matters connected with it which, 
 though they could not well be woven into the narrative, do yet 
 require to have a place assigned them. These are, first, the expense 
 of management; second, the means employed to certify the congre¬ 
 gations that their contributions have been duly received and applied; 
 and lastly, the growth and distribution of the church as regards the 
 urban and rural districts of the country. 
 
 1 . The expenses of management. 
 
 The rule of the Church is, that all its committees which have 
 funds under their charge should each defray its expenses out of its 
 own funds. But as there are committees which have no funds, and 
 which yet have work to do involving expense, and as there is also 
 considerable expense incurred in connection with the meetings and 
 business of the assembly itself, the committees that have funds are 
 charged with a proportional share of these general expenses of the 
 church in addition to the expenses which they have themselves 
 incurred in connection with their own special departments. 
 
 The following is a statement, in this twofold sense, of what it 
 costs the Free Church to raise and administer her revenues, and to 
 conduct the business of her supreme court— 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 General treasurer’s office and assembly expenses. 2,386 5 9 
 
 Management expenses of the separate committees .... 3,412 10 5 
 
 5,798 16 2 
 
1870.] 
 
 Free Church of Scotland , 1843-69. 
 
 101 
 
 Table No. Y in the Appendix will exhibit the details of this 
 subject. From that table it will be seen that the expense charged 
 against the snstentation fund for its ingathering, management, and 
 distribution, even including its share of the general expenses of the 
 assembly, is comparatively small, amounting only to 2,o88Z., or very 
 little more than one and a half per cent, of its ordinary revenue. 
 The lightness of this charge arises from the fact that all the immense 
 service in promoting the interests of the sustentation fund which is 
 rendered by the deacons’ courts, collectors, and treasurers of all the 
 church’s congregations, is rendered gratuitously. And the same 
 remark applies to all the other funds of the church which are raised 
 by the same or similar agencies. 
 
 2 . The means employed to certify the congregations of the 
 church that their contributions have been all duly received and 
 applied. 
 
 For this purpose a publication called the “ Free Church Monthly 
 “ Record” is issued every month, and circulated through the con¬ 
 gregations to the extent of between thirty and forty thousand copies. 
 Of this periodical a special copy is sent to every minister. In this 
 “Record,” in addition to the most recent intelligence regarding the 
 several departments of the church’s affairs, there is contained a 
 complete and carefully tabulated statement of the whole “ contri- 
 “ butions received by the treasurer of the church ” during the 
 immediately preceding month. In this statement, as the congre¬ 
 gations are all arranged in the order of their presbyteries, all 
 can see at a glance, not only that their own contributions are duly 
 acknowledged, but also how their rates of contribution stand in 
 comparison with those of other congregations similar to their own. 
 In this way, not only is the whole church periodically informed 
 of the state of its financial affairs, but the wholesome influence 
 of publicity, and consequently of public opinion, is brought to bear 
 on each individual congregation, to keep it from neglecting its 
 duty. 
 
 Besides these monthly financial reports, a complete statement of 
 all the public accounts of the church is published by the assembly 
 every year. In this statement not only are the whole of the sums 
 collected by each of the congregations for the various funds of the 
 church carefully entered, but also a debtor and creditor account of 
 each of these funds, exactly as it was presented to the assembly by 
 the committee having charge of it. Copies of this statement are 
 sent every year to all the presbyteries, ministers, and deacons’ 
 courts, along with the acts of the assembly. The statement is also 
 published in the number of the ‘ ‘ Monthly Record ’ ’ first issued after 
 each assembly. In these different ways the utmost pains is taken 
 to bring and keep all the money transactions of the church con- 
 
102 Rev. De. Buchanan —Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 tinually under tlie eye of all lier office-bearers and people. It is 
 probably dne mainly to this canse that the most entire and unbroken 
 confidence, in the integrity of the church’s management of her 
 funds, reigns throughont the whole body of her congregations. 
 During the twenty-three years of my presidency of the sustentation 
 fund committee, I have never heard even a suspicion of malversa¬ 
 tion expressed with respect to any one of the almost countless 
 pecuniary remittances that are continually passing to and fro in 
 connection with its affairs. 
 
 3 . The growth and distribution of the church, as regards the 
 urban and rural districts of the country respectively. 
 
 Over the growth of the church it is the special function of the 
 home mission committees to watch, one of these committees being 
 charged with this work in the Highlands and the other in the Low¬ 
 lands. The funds of these committees are employed in stimulating, 
 aiding, and fostering local efforts on behalf of church extension, 
 wherever such efforts appear to be called for. For a number of 
 years all new charges, so soon as they were formally sanctioned by 
 the general assembly, were at once admitted to all the benefits of 
 the central sustentation fund. This method of proceeding, however, 
 was found to be attended with some serious disadvantages. It 
 tended to multiply charges prematurely by the facilities it afforded 
 to the local parties, of getting them set up without taking upon 
 themselves a due share of the responsibility of providing for their 
 permanent support. To check this evil it was at length decided 
 by the Assembly that, thenceforth, all new charges should be 
 required to pass through a certain period of probation before being 
 placed on the platform of the equal dividend. During this pro¬ 
 bationary stage of their career these new charges are not allowed 
 to receive, from the sustentation fund, more than they themselves 
 contribute to it. Although to this sum grants in aid are made from 
 the home mission and certain other subsidiary funds,—the total 
 amount so received, including these grants, is in most cases less 
 than the equal dividend. The congregation of the new charge is, 
 in these circumstances, impelled to do its utmost in the way of 
 increasing its own contributions, so as to make a better provision 
 for its minister. Under this arrangement habits of self-reliance 
 are cultivated, the liberality of the congregation is developed, and 
 a greater security is thus obtained, that, when the congregation 
 is transferred from the church-extension platform to that of the 
 equal dividend, it will not press unduly on the equal dividend 
 fund. 
 
 The number of church-extension charges existing at the date of 
 the general assembly of 1869 , as has been mentioned in a previous 
 part of this paper, amounted to 82. The following table will show 
 
1870.] 
 
 108 
 
 Free Church of Scotland , 1843-69. 
 
 what the ministers of these charges received for their support from 
 all the sources above indicated :— 
 
 Ministers who received less than ioo l. a-year . io 
 
 „ above ioo l. and less than 150?. 31 
 
 „ ,, 150 1. „ 200 1 . 18 
 
 » „ 200 1. „ 300 1 . 11 
 
 » „ 300 1. „ 500 1 . 11 
 
 )> £ool . 1 
 
 82 
 
 Of the ten ministers referred to in the above table as receiving 
 less than 100Z., six received 94 1. each and upwards, two received 
 from 80/. to 90., and the remaining two received from 70 1 . to Sol. 
 In reference to the ministers of church-extension charges it may be 
 necessary to make this further explanation, that no contribution is 
 made, from the home mission or other subsidiary aid fund, to any of 
 these ministers whose congregations contribute to the sustentation 
 fund 150/. or more per annum. The ministers of all such church- 
 extension charges are placed at once on the platform of the equal 
 dividend. Of those charges, on the other hand, which, owing to 
 their greater poverty, continue to be aid-receiving, six are annually 
 advanced to the platform of the equal dividend—and, generally, 
 according to their seniority. 
 
 As regards the actual growth of the church as a whole, Table 
 No. I of the Ajopendix shows that, at the end of the first year after 
 the disruption of 1843 , the number of ministers who participated 
 in the fund during that year was 583 ; and that at the end of the 
 twenty-sixth year, that is, at the date of the General Assembly of 
 1869 , the number of ministers participating in the course of that 
 year was 942 A The increase in the number of congregations has 
 not been quite in the same proportion; and for this reason, that 
 the number of congregations who left the Establishment in 1843 
 was very considerably greater than the number of ministers who 
 did so. In many parishes, while the ministers adhered to the 
 Establishment, the congregations withdrew from it. On this account 
 a great part of the home mission work of the church, in its 
 earlier years, consisted in organizing such congregations, and in 
 providing them with ministers. At the date of the assembly of 
 1849 the number of congregations which had been sanctioned by 
 the church as regular charges was 750; although, at the period 
 above named, 64 of these charges were still unsupplied with 
 
 # These numbers include those who, from death or induction in the course of 
 the year, drew only a portion of the year’s income. 
 
104 Rev. Dr. Buchanan —Finance of the [Mar. 
 
 ministers. During the twenty years that have since elapsed the 
 number of sanctioned charges has risen to 876,* and every one of 
 these charges has now a minister placed over it. 
 
 With respect to the distribution of the church over town and 
 country, the following brief statement will explain how this matter 
 stands. The largest and most populous towns of Scotland are— 
 
 Ministers. 
 
 Edinburgh (including Leith), in which the Free Church has.... 45 
 
 Glasgow, in which it has. 57 
 
 Aberdeen ,, .i... 19 
 
 Dundee ,, . 16 
 
 Total . 137 
 
 The remaining ministers, amounting in number to nearly 800, 
 are placed in the smaller towns, villages, and rural districts. To 
 show that the charges of this great body of the ministry of the 
 Free Church are spread pretty equally over the whole country, the 
 following facts may suffice. 
 
 The church is divided into 71 presbyteries, and these presbyteries 
 are combined into 14 provincial synods. Five of those synods 
 stretch over very nearly the whole of the Highlands, extending 
 as they do from the Mull of Kantyre, at the southern extremity 
 of Argyllshire, to the shore of the Pentland Frith. It is well 
 known that this large section of the country is but thinly peopled. 
 The five synods within which it is all but entirely embraced are 
 those of— 
 
 Ministers. 
 
 Argyll, in which the Free Church has. 45 
 
 Moray . 55 
 
 Ross. 25 
 
 Sutherland and Caithness. 34 
 
 Glenelg.,. 36 
 
 Total . 195 
 
 If to the synods now named there be added those parts of two 
 other synods—those, viz., of Perth and Stirling and of Aberdeen— 
 which belong to the Highlands, the number of ministers of the 
 Free Church whose charges are situated to the north of the Gram¬ 
 pians may be safely stated as amounting to about 240. And besides, 
 the Free Church has 15 ministers in the Orkney and 10 in the 
 Shetland Isles. 
 
 * Excepting from 15 to 20 charges which may be at present vacant by death of 
 the ministers or removal. 
 
1870.] 
 
 105 
 
 Free Church of Scotland , 1843-69. 
 
 The Lowland synods, and the number of their ministers respec¬ 
 
 tively, are as follows :— 
 
 Ministers. 
 
 Lothian and Tweedale . 104 
 
 Merse and Teviotdale . 38 
 
 Dumfries. 34 
 
 Galloway. 24 
 
 Glasgow and Ayr . 190 
 
 Fhe . 55 
 
 Angus and Mearns.. 81 
 
 Perth and Stirling. 7 
 
 Aberdeen. 99 
 
 Total . 700 
 
 If from this total there be subtracted those ministers belonging 
 to the synod of Aberdeen, and of that of Perth and Stirling whose 
 charges lie north of the Grampians, it will be seen that the number 
 of ministers of the Free Church whose charges belong to the Low¬ 
 lands,—that is to say, to the district of country extending from the 
 Grampians to the English border,-—is about 655. 
 
 Such are the leading facts connected with the origin, objects, 
 methods, and results of the financial system of the Free Church of 
 Scotland. It has enabled her not only to provide the whole material 
 equipment of a Christian church, such as colleges and schools, 
 residences for her clergy and places of worship for her people, but 
 to maintain all over the country a stated and educated ministry, in 
 some measure of comfort, and in a position, as regards their means 
 of support, not too immediately or entirely dependent on those 
 among whom they are called to discharge their sacred duties. It 
 has enabled her to do these things in a country and among a 
 section of its population possessing but a moderate amount of 
 wealth, and for a length of time which has been at least sufficiently 
 prolonged to prove that her financial system has a capability of 
 endurance which has amply justified its adoption, and vindicated 
 the sagacity of its distinguished founder. 
 
106 
 
 Rev. Dr. Buchanan— Finance of the 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 [Mar. 
 
 Table I.— Showing Annual Income of Sustentation Fund, Amount of Equal 
 Dividend, and the Number of Ministers who Received a Full Equal 
 Dividend each Year from 1843 till 1869 . 
 
 Year. 
 
 Income 
 
 of Sustentation 
 Eund. 
 
 Ministers 
 Receiving a 1'ull 
 Equal Dividend. 
 
 Total of 
 Ministers on 
 Eund.* 
 
 Equal 
 
 Dividend. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 1843-44. 
 
 61,513 
 
 470 
 
 583 
 
 10 5 
 
 ’44-45. 
 
 76,180 
 
 557 
 
 627 
 
 122 
 
 ’45-46. 
 
 80,290 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 VQ 
 
 657 
 
 122 
 
 ’46-47. 
 
 82,166 
 
 590 
 
 673 
 
 120 
 
 ’47-48. 
 
 84,051 
 
 59 6 
 
 684 
 
 128 
 
 ’48-49. 
 
 87,519 
 
 623 
 
 694 
 
 122 
 
 ’49-50. 
 
 89,649 
 
 647 
 
 706 
 
 123 
 
 1850-51. 
 
 92,074 
 
 668 
 
 728 
 
 123 
 
 ’51-52. 
 
 91,469 
 
 675 
 
 724 
 
 122 
 
 ’52-53. 
 
 90,661 
 
 691 
 
 726 
 
 121 
 
 ’53-54. 
 
 97,352 
 
 696 
 
 747 
 
 119 
 
 ’54-55. 
 
 100,408 
 
 700 
 
 771 
 
 132 
 
 ’55-56. 
 
 107,714 
 
 712 
 
 779 
 
 I 40 
 
 ’56-57. 
 
 110,006 
 
 700 
 
 791 
 
 138 
 
 ’57-58. 
 
 110,254 
 
 703 
 
 803 
 
 T38 
 
 ’58-59. 
 
 110,435 
 
 7i3 
 
 812 
 
 138 
 
 ’59-60. 
 
 109,173 
 
 723 
 
 831 
 
 135 
 
 1860-61. 
 
 113,463 
 
 730 
 
 844 
 
 138 
 
 ’61-62. 
 
 112,887 
 
 724 
 
 872 
 
 137 
 
 ’62-63. 
 
 114,739 
 
 yzz 
 
 885 
 
 T 37 
 
 ’63-64. 
 
 117,590 
 
 7 i 5 
 
 894 
 
 !38 
 
 ’64-65. 
 
 118,452 
 
 710 
 
 903 
 
 144 
 
 ’65-66. 
 
 122,592 
 
 74 1 
 
 902 
 
 H 3 
 
 ’66-67. 
 
 124,317 
 
 73 i 
 
 917 
 
 x 44 
 
 ’67-68. 
 
 133,050 
 
 728 
 
 928 
 
 150 
 
 ’68-69. 
 
 137,216 
 
 740 
 
 942 
 
 150 
 
 * This column includes all ministers who liaye received stipends for any por¬ 
 tion of tlie year, and therefore shows a little excess in the total of ministers each 
 year, as it includes both ministers who have died, and successors who have been 
 inducted during the same year. 
 
 To save space, the amounts in this and the subsequent tables have been 
 given to the nearest £. 
 
1870.] Free Church of Scotland , 1843-69. 107 
 
 Table II.— Building Funds. 
 
 Year. 
 
 General. 
 
 Local. 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1843-44 . 
 
 85,238 
 
 142,599 
 
 227,837 
 
 ’44-45. 
 
 34,206 
 
 97,532 
 
 13^738 
 
 ’45-46 . 
 
 23,774 
 
 66,066 
 
 89,840 
 
 ’46-47 . 
 
 38,920 
 
 46,447 
 
 85,367 
 
 ’47-48. 
 
 23,269 
 
 34,566 
 
 57,835 
 
 ’48-49. 
 
 22,011 
 
 43,981 
 
 65,992 
 
 ’49-50. 
 
 24,708 
 
 52,609 
 
 77,3 1 7 
 
 1850-51 . 
 
 18,003 
 
 51,948 
 
 69,950 
 
 ’51-52 . 
 
 5,000 
 
 37,510 
 
 42,510 
 
 ’52-53 . 
 
 5,215 
 
 37,100 
 
 42,3 1 5 
 
 ’53-54. 
 
 3,402 
 
 37,375 
 
 40,777 
 
 ’54-55 . 
 
 2,986 
 
 33,689 
 
 36,675 
 
 ’55-56 . 
 
 5,391 
 
 30,200 
 
 35,59 1 
 
 ’56-57. 
 
 6,786 
 
 43,433 
 
 50,219 
 
 ’57-58. 
 
 15,961 
 
 46,897 
 
 62,858 
 
 ’58-59 . 
 
 9,341 
 
 41,179 
 
 5°, 520 
 
 ’59-60 . 
 
 6,716 
 
 35,855 
 
 42,572 
 
 1860-61 . 
 
 6,011 
 
 36,539 
 
 42,55 J • 
 
 ’61-62 . 
 
 3,829 
 
 38,518 
 
 42,347 
 
 ’62-63 . 
 
 4,098 
 
 48,893 
 
 52,991 
 
 ’63-64. 
 
 982 
 
 49,314 
 
 50,296 
 
 ’64-65 . 
 
 2,247 
 
 41,822 
 
 44,069 
 
 ’65-66 . 
 
 150 
 
 55,038 
 
 55 ,188 
 
 ’66-67 . 
 
 1,771 
 
 46,964 
 
 48,735 
 
 ’67-68 . 
 
 3,037 
 
 56,279 
 
 59 , 3 i 6 
 
 ’68-69 . 
 
 2,400 
 
 % 
 
 59,919 
 
 62,319 
 
 Totals . 
 
 355,452 
 
 1,312,272 
 
 1,667,725 
 
108 
 
 Rev. Dr. Buchanan —Finance of the 
 
 [Mar. 
 
 Table III. — General Abstract of Missionary Schemes, showing the Whole 
 Sums Raised Yearly during the Twenty-Six Years from the Disruption 
 to 1868-69 inclusive, for Missions at Home and Abroad. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Home. 
 
 Colonies. 
 
 Continent 
 
 of 
 
 Europe. 
 
 Foreign. 
 
 Jews. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Lowlands. 
 
 Highlands. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1843-44 .... 
 
 2,987 
 
 2,260 
 
 3,169 
 
 — 
 
 13,433 
 
 4,549 
 
 26,848 
 
 1844-45 .... 
 
 4,693 
 
 55 
 
 8,391 
 
 1,842 
 
 19,011 
 
 6,312 
 
 40,303 
 
 ’45-46 .... 
 
 5,288 
 
 — 
 
 8,938 
 
 3,918 
 
 12,852 
 
 6,511 
 
 37,508 
 
 ’46-47 .... 
 
 5,184 
 
 15^69 
 
 9,340 
 
 2,484 
 
 13,817 
 
 6,598 
 
 53, i9 2 
 
 ’47-48 .... 
 
 6,176 
 
 90 
 
 4,146 
 
 2,656 
 
 21,955 
 
 5,080 
 
 40,103 
 
 ’48-49 .... 
 
 % 
 
 5,243 
 
 74 
 
 4,078 
 
 3,353 
 
 12,767 
 
 1,275 
 
 26,790 
 
 1849-50 .... 
 
 406 
 
 5, i8 9 
 
 3,790 
 
 373 
 
 14,130 
 
 4,505 
 
 28,293 
 
 ’50-51.... 
 
 4,970 
 
 1,124 
 
 4,901 
 
 320 
 
 17,264 
 
 5,672 
 
 34, 2 5o 
 
 ’51-52.... 
 
 4,493 
 
 3) 8 33 
 
 4,124 
 
 24 
 
 14,194 
 
 4,436 
 
 31,105 
 
 ’52-53 .... 
 
 7,507 
 
 33i 
 
 8,103 
 
 14 
 
 17,710 
 
 4,932 
 
 3 8 ,59 6 
 
 ’53-54.... 
 
 4,001 
 
 4,067 
 
 4,348 
 
 2,195 
 
 12,010 
 
 8,597 
 
 35,219 
 
 1854-55 .... 
 
 6,535 
 
 218 
 
 \ 
 
 5,942 
 
 336 
 
 25,440 
 
 4,855 
 
 43,327 
 
 ’55-56 .... 
 
 2,050 
 
 3,618 
 
 4,150 
 
 1,919 
 
 19,821 
 
 4,461 
 
 36,018 
 
 ’56-57 .... 
 
 7,234 
 
 667 
 
 4,104 
 
 425 
 
 15,916 
 
 4,598 
 
 32,945 
 
 ’57-58 .... 
 
 6,408 
 
 4,555 
 
 5,137 
 
 1,611 
 
 18,980 
 
 2,546 
 
 39,33 6 
 
 ’58-59 .... 
 
 2,540 
 
 1,314 
 
 4,488 
 
 / 
 
 2,457 
 
 19,210 
 
 7,674 
 
 37,682 
 
 1859-60 .... 
 
 8,018 
 
 4, 2 57 
 
 4,421 
 
 225 
 
 16,509 
 
 4,203 
 
 37,632 
 
 ’60-61.... 
 
 6,845 
 
 768 
 
 3,913 
 
 3,060 
 
 20,218 
 
 4,581 
 
 39,3 8 5 
 
 ’61-62 — 
 
 8,251 
 
 4,069 
 
 4,327 
 
 508 
 
 18,868 
 
 4,644 
 
 40,667 
 
 ’62-63 — 
 
 5,702 
 
 622 
 
 3,668 
 
 2,494 
 
 14,034 
 
 3,962 
 
 30,482 
 
 ’63-64.... 
 
 7,796 
 
 4,094 
 
 3,227 
 
 311 
 
 18,107 
 
 4,232 
 
 37,769 
 
 1864-65 .... 
 
 6,917 
 
 3,i9 6 
 
 2,938 
 
 2,442 
 
 27,318 
 
 4,809 
 
 47,620 
 
 ’65-66 .... 
 
 7,939 
 
 4,499 
 
 • 
 
 3,449 
 
 205 
 
 19,871 
 
 4,519 
 
 40,482 
 
 ’66-67.... 
 
 6,019 
 
 1,400 
 
 3,145 
 
 2,879 
 
 18,976 
 
 4,397 
 
 36,816 
 
 ’67-68 .... 
 
 8,517 
 
 4, i8 7 
 
 3,172 
 
 427 
 
 19,941 
 
 5,184 
 
 41,426 
 
 ’68-69 .... 
 
 6,285 
 
 i,455 
 
 3,017 
 
 3,066 
 
 28,494 
 
 6,823 
 
 49,141 
 
 Totals . 
 
 148,004 
 
 71,711 
 
 122,876 
 
 39,544 
 
 470,846 
 
 129,955 
 
 9 8 2,935 
 
1870.] 
 
 Free Church of Scotland , 1843-09. 
 
 109 
 
 Table I Y.—General Abstract , showing the Aggregate Amount of Funds Raised for all 
 Purposes during the Twenty-Six Years from the Disruption to 1868-69 inclusive. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Building Funds. 
 
 Sustentation, 
 
 | Sup¬ 
 
 plementary 
 for Aged and 
 Infirm 
 , Ministers. 
 
 Con¬ 
 
 gregational. 
 
 Educa¬ 
 
 tion. 
 
 Colleges. 
 
 Missions. 
 
 General 
 
 Trustees 
 
 and 
 
 Miscella¬ 
 
 neous. 
 
 Total. 
 
 General. 
 
 Local. 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1843-44 
 
 85,238 
 
 142,598 
 
 61,513 
 
 41,540 
 
 3,722 
 
 1,221 
 
 26,848 
 
 1,190 
 
 363,872 
 
 1844-45 
 
 34,206 
 
 97,532 
 
 76,180 
 
 69,986 
 
 4,003 
 
 9,221 
 
 40,303 
 
 2,173 
 
 333,604 
 
 ’45-46 
 
 23,774 
 
 66,066 
 
 80,291 
 
 70,675 
 
 9,655 
 
 7,201 
 
 37,508 
 
 1,090 
 
 296,259 
 
 ’46-47 
 
 38,920 
 
 46,446 
 
 82,166 
 
 78,227 
 
 10,142 
 
 8,472 
 
 53,192 
 
 27 
 
 317,593 
 
 ’47-48 
 
 23,269 
 
 34,566 
 
 89,051 
 
 71,850 
 
 10,317 
 
 6,154 
 
 40,103 
 
 35 
 
 275,348 
 
 ’48-49 
 
 22,011 
 
 43,981 
 
 88,328 
 
 ♦ 
 
 71,379 
 
 11,020 
 
 8,950 
 
 26,790 
 
 1 
 
 272,461 
 
 1849-50 
 
 24,708 
 
 52,609 
 
 90,973 
 
 77,590 
 
 11,197 
 
 5,608 
 
 28,293 
 
 15,362 
 
 306,340 
 
 ’50-51 
 
 18,003 
 
 51,948 
 
 96,847 
 
 74,472 
 
 13,007 
 
 15,000 
 
 34,250 
 
 55 
 
 OJ 
 
 O 
 
 Oo 
 
 Lrt 
 
 OO 
 >—< 
 
 ’51-52 
 
 5,000 
 
 3 7?5 10 
 
 93,426 
 
 80,334 
 
 15,016 
 
 6,078 
 
 31,105 
 
 712 
 
 269,182 
 
 ’52-53 
 
 5,215 
 
 37 5 ioo 
 
 93,066 
 
 79,716 
 
 13,136 
 
 10,389 
 
 38,596 
 
 318 
 
 277,536 
 
 ’53-54 
 
 3,402 
 
 37,375 
 
 109,253 
 
 83,505 
 
 12,672 
 
 6,823 
 
 35,219 
 
 1,422 
 
 289,670 
 
 1854-55 
 
 2,986 
 
 33,689 
 
 107,347 
 
 85,871 
 
 13,888 
 
 9,607 
 
 43,327 
 
 9,761 
 
 306,476 
 
 ’55-56 
 
 5,391 
 
 30,200 
 
 111,319 
 
 86,750 
 
 13,111 
 
 5,671 
 
 36,018 
 
 110 
 
 288,569 
 
 ’56-57 
 
 6,786 
 
 43,433 
 
 115,708 
 
 87,871 
 
 14,133 
 
 7,084 
 
 32,945 
 
 265 
 
 308,225 
 
 ’57-58 
 
 15,961 
 
 46,897 
 
 114,412 
 
 92,557 
 
 16,674 
 
 5,852 
 
 39,336 
 
 105 
 
 331,794 
 
 ’58-59 
 
 9,341 
 
 41,180 
 
 126,283 
 
 94,482 
 
 17,765 
 
 . 9,000 
 
 37,682 
 
 6,992 
 
 392,724 
 
 1859-60 
 
 6,716 
 
 35,856 
 
 111,682 
 
 97,363 
 
 16,557 
 
 6,303 
 
 37,632 
 
 7,709 
 
 319,818 
 
 ’60-61 
 
 6,011 
 
 36,539 
 
 118,692 
 
 100,134 
 
 16,723 
 
 7,232 
 
 39,385 
 
 6,274 
 
 330,992 
 
 ’61-62 
 
 3,829 
 
 38,518 
 
 115,816 
 
 105,342 
 
 15,431 
 
 13,685 
 
 40,667 
 
 4,149 
 
 337,437 
 
 ’62-63 
 
 4,098 
 
 48,893 
 
 118,207 
 
 111,764 
 
 16,275 
 
 7,209 
 
 30,482 
 
 6,153 
 
 343,o8i 
 
 ’63-64 
 
 982 
 
 49 , 3 H 
 
 121,760 
 
 107,397 
 
 15,801 
 
 6,933 
 
 37,769 
 
 3,671 
 
 343,626 
 
 1864-65 
 
 2,247 
 
 41,822 
 
 123,052 
 
 113,364 
 
 19,309 
 
 6,094 
 
 47,620 
 
 5,502 
 
 359 ,oio 
 
 ’65-66 
 
 150 
 
 55,038 
 
 135,427 
 
 118,792 
 
 19,665 
 
 10,661 
 
 40,482 
 
 3,674 
 
 383,890 
 
 ’66-67 
 
 1,771 
 
 46,964 
 
 129,468 
 
 122,260 
 
 20,359 
 
 7,672 
 
 36,816 
 
 3,804 
 
 369,114 
 
 ’67-68 
 
 3,037 
 
 56,279 
 
 139,237 
 
 126,428 
 
 19,123 
 
 6,499 
 
 41,426 
 
 3,747 
 
 395,776 
 
 ’68-69 
 
 2,400 
 
 59 , 9 1 9 
 
 143,083 
 
 126,446 
 
 19,245 
 
 17,269 
 
 49,141 
 
 4,294 
 
 421,796 
 
 Totals .... 
 
 355,452 
 
 1,312,272 
 
 2,792,587 
 
 2,376,095 
 
 367,946 
 
 211,888 
 
 982,935 
 
 88,595 
 
 8 , 487,774 
 
110 Rev. De. Buchanan —Free Church of Scotland, 1843-69. 
 
 Table V. — Showing the General and Special Expenses incurred in Conduct¬ 
 ing the Business of the Free Church during the J ear from 15 th March, 
 1868 , to 15 th March, 1869 . 
 
 
 
 Assembly 
 
 Committees’ 
 
 
 
 
 and General 
 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 
 Expenses. 
 
 Expenses. 
 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1. 
 
 Sustentation fund. 
 
 852 
 
 1,236 
 
 2,088 
 
 2. 
 
 Aged and infirm ministers’ fund 
 
 133 
 
 — 
 
 133 
 
 3 . 
 
 Home mission . 
 
 174 
 
 234 
 
 409 
 
 4 . 
 
 Highlands. 
 
 116 
 
 149 
 
 265 
 
 5 . 
 
 Education . 
 
 234 
 
 508 
 
 742 
 
 6. 
 
 Colleges. 
 
 106 
 
 30 
 
 135 
 
 7 . 
 
 Foreign missions . 
 
 269 
 
 746 
 
 !>Ol 5 
 
 8. 
 
 Colonial „ . 
 
 116 
 
 192 
 
 308 
 
 9 . 
 
 Jews’ conversion . 
 
 . 138 
 
 78 
 
 217 
 
 
 ' Church building . 
 
 52 
 
 55 
 
 107 
 
 10. i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ Manse „ . 
 
 52 
 
 35 
 
 87 . 
 
 11. 
 
 Continent . 
 
 47 
 
 , 112 
 
 159 
 
 13 . 
 
 Pre-disruption ministers’ fund.... 
 
 63 
 
 37 
 
 IOO 
 
 14 . 
 
 Sundries. 
 
 34 
 
 — 
 
 34 
 
 
 Totals . 
 
 2,386 
 
 3,412 
 
 6.799 
 
 HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, ST. MARTIN’S LANE.