James Morison, the Scottish Finney. X

James Morison had confessed to most of the charges brought against him by the Presbytery, and now he waited for the verdict of the court.
The majority of the Presbytery voted, on the strength of what they had heard, so suspend Mr. Morison from the ministry. Morison protested against the action of the court. He appealed to the Synod, the highest court of the Secession Church. The Presbytery acted first. At their next meeting they removed Mr. Morison's name from their list of members, and they recognised the few members who had seceded from Morison's Church when he refused to accept the sentence of the court as the 'Clerk's Lane Congregation'. Their action was illegal, strictly speaking, and so Morison appealed against it. The Presbytery ought to have waited for the meeting of Synod and not pre-judged the issue.
Morison waited for the meeting of Synod. He continued to preach and to care for his congregation, who now wholly supported him. During this time Morison married.
He published on 1st June 1841 a small work on the extent of the atonement. It did nothing to endear him to the ortodox Secession ministers. Christ, Morison declared in a paragraph addressed to the reader of his work, "did as much for you on Calvary as he did for any other, say for Paul, or for Silas, for Calvin, or for Luther." [or, logically, for Judas - H.H.]

The synod meeting loomed large. Next time, God willing, we shall see what took place there, and how Morison's appeal was dealt with.