"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XX.

As we saw last time, while many in the Free Church of Scotland greeted the union proposals tabled by the United Free Church with rejoicing, Rainy was cautious. He knew that many who had been reluctant to leave the Free Church with the Free Presbyterian Secession in 1893 over the Declaratory Act would be far more willing to simply remain out of the proposed union. Most of these would be Highlanders, men who formed the backbone of the Free Church, and conservative men who would welcome a good reason to split off from men like Marcus Dods, Gorge Adam Smith, A.B. Bruce and Henry Drummond. To move too quickly towards union could only end in disaster. Rainy himself was firmly convinced that union was in the best interest of the Free Church, he only wanted time to convince those who were more sceptical.
In the 1895 Assembly Rainy proposed a motion recognising the Free Church's obligation in the matter but proposing co-operation between the Churches until the time for a full union came.
Others in the Free Church disagreed with Rainy. They still held to the old views of Church and State, and they knew that many -perhaps a majority- in the United Presbyterian Church were 'voluntaries', believing that it was per se wrong for the state to establish or endow any Church, no matter how pure the Church, and no matter how loose the Church-state relationship. These 'Constitutionalists' suspected that the new united Church would practically insist on Volunaryism. Either way, if the United Presbyterian Church and the Free Church were to unite, the result would be a Church whose official position was Voluntary. They moved that the Assembly: "is constrained by adherence to the distinctive priciples of the Free Church, and in view of the state of feeling in the country, to regard an incorporating union with the United Presbyterian Church as impossible without the sacrifice of these principles."
Battle lines had been drawn. The anti-union motion recieved just 42 votes, but Rainy knew that the forty-two voted actually represented a sizable proportion of the Free Church membership in the Highlands. It represented not only the large congregations who were represented by the forty-two, but large numbers in other congregations whose representatives had voted with Rainy.
Rainy's motion was transmitted to the United Presbyterian Synod. The next move lay with them.
The United Presbyterian Synod of 1896 met before the Free Church Assembly. There were no divisions there. The United Presbyterian Church declared that they were more than willing to co-operate with the Free Church. They wanted union sooner rather than later, and they said so in no uncertain terms.
Rainy, who was in Oxford at the time, was taken completely by surprise. He wrote to Dr. A.R. Macewan of the United Presbyterian Church that he was "quite unprepared for it." The United Presbyterian motion had the effect of forcing Rainy's hand. Rainy was not pleased; the United Presbyterian Church had no idea of the tensions within the Free Church. A move towards union that was mis-handled and too fast might cause her to tear apart along the Highland-Lowland, Conservative-Progressive divide. The Constitutionalists were on the warpath, and while they had not seceded as they had threatened in 1893, a union was a different proposition from merely passing an act inside the Church.

Next time, God willing, we shall see how Rainy tried to bring the Free Church into the union intact.