"Rainy wi'oot the Principal" VII.

In 1872 Dean Stanley of Westminster Abbey came to Scotland to lecture before the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh on 'The History of the Church of Scotland'. He used the opportunity to give the Scots his reading of their religious past and his view of what their religious future should be.

In his first lecture Stanley dealt with the Celtic, medieval, and post-Reformation Episcopal Church in Scotland. While very able, he was guilty of a few factual errors - not surprisingly, since his main source of information was the novels of Sir Walter Scott. As an Anglican it was natural for the Dean to point out that the quarrel between Presbyterianism and Dioscean Episcopacy (Prelacy) in Scotland was not so deep as was thought, although his statement that the orgin of the terms 'black Prelacy' and 'true-blue Presbyterianism' was the colour gowns the different groups wore in preaching was regarded as ridiculous.

Stanley's second lecture was when he entered on his true mission. His aim was to point out that, while the Covenanters, Seceders and Free Church fathers were brave and noble people, they were all too often mistaken, fighting for points of miniscule importance. The best tradition in the Scottish Church was the Moderates, who sought a quiet life and a gentle, moral preaching that did not enter too deeply into theology. The Established Church represented that stream, and so Stanley was bound to criticise the Free Church.
The Church of Scotland, the Broad-Church dean contended, should be tied to no particular dogmas, but should be "Prepared to be whatever Scottish Christianity is prepared to become." The Westminster Confession should, in other words, be abandoned. In its place the church of Scotland ought to "Profess in its most general aspect the form of Christianity most suitable to the age or country."
This was just what anyone would have expected from a Broad Churchman, being the essence of the Broad Church position. To prove his point Dean Stanley surveyed the history of the Covenanters and the Disruption of 1843. While he paid tribute to their bravery, he lamented that the consciences of the Covenanters and the Free Churchmen of the Disruption should have been so tender as to be wounded by such intricate and unimportant matters. The true example, he told his audience, was in the tolerance and literary graces of the 'moderate' party.
The Dean further compounded his offence by referring to the "truly Christian character" of the sceptic Hume, and the "evangelical" fragments in the poetry of Burns. The Dean's conclusion was that the Scottish people should rally around a national church that would be, in the words of Rainy's biographer, "'moderate' im manners and indeterminate in ogma, and, of course, erastian in policy."
Scotland was not happy. The national press remained silent, the Episcopal Church of Scotland was most annoyed that the Dean had chosen to lay his plaudits on the Church of Scotland, not on them. The Established Church profoundly disliked being lectured by an English dean who presumed to tell them what they should do, be and think.

And of course the Free Church of Scotland was deeply offended at being told that they had suffered in contending for a mere trifle. Dr. Buchanan wrote to Rainy wishing that "Some vigorous Scottish Presbyterian would take stanley by the throat and squeeze the conceit out of the lectures." His suggestion for the job was Dr. Cains of the United Presbyterian Church. But Alexander Whyte, at the time assistant minister at Free St. George's, Edinburgh, meeting Rainy one day, said to the professor: "Do you know what they're saying, Dr. Rainy? They're saying that if Cunningham had been alive, Stanley would not wait long for his answer."
It was a not so subtle hint to Rainy, Cunningham's successor, and a few days later Rainy intimated to his class that he was going to give a few lectures to them correcting Dean Stanley's misrepresentations and errors of fact. Word soon got around, and Rainy was asked to make the lectures more public. Rainy agreed, and the Music Hall - the largest public hall in Edinburgh - was immediately engaged for the earliest possible evenings. Dean Stanley's last lecture had been on 12th January; Dr. Rainy was to lecture on the 24th, 26th and 30th of the same month.
Edinburgh eagerly awaited the Free Church professor's reply to the English dean and, on 24th January 1872, the Music Hall was packed with expectant members of the public hours before the lecture was due to start - even though the weather was dreadful.

And we shall also be left with them, expectant, until next time, when, God willing, we shall see what Rainy had to say in defence of Scottish Presbyterianism.