"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXXV.

Robert Rainy's long and eventful life was drawing to a close in that small room in Australia, far from Scotland and his beloved New College.
"I wonder at the love of God to me, as He has shown it all my life," Rainy said to a brother minister. To another he said, "I believe that, notwithstanding all my shortcomings, I am not shut out, but - shut in." On 22nd December, shortly before nine in the morning, Principal Robert Rainy of the New College, Edinburgh, left this world, his face bearing "a lofty calm that was not less than majesty". Looking down on his were his two predecessors, present in image. His body was taken back to Scotland for burial, and he was interred in the Dean Cemetery on 7th March 1907. Rainy was acknowledged as the United Free Church's greatest leader yet, an due to his leadership it seemed that the United Free Church was headed for great things.

In 1929 the majority of the United Free Church of Scotland united with the Church of Scotland, laving a minority who still clung to the old Disestablishment rhetoric. Both the majority and the minority appealed to Rainy's memory. Today Robert Rainy's medallion still looks down on a new generation of New College students as they meet in the Rainy Hall. For good or for ill, his legacy continues.

Most of the information in these articles was obtained from Patrick Carnegie Simpson's Principal Rainy (2 volumes, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1909). Other books consulted include James Lachlan Macleod, The Second Disruption (East Linton, 2000), Alexander MacPherson (editor), The History of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland (Glasgow, 1970), One Hundred Years of Witness (Glasgow, 1993) and James Barr (not that one, the Labour MP), The United Free Church of Scotland (London, 1934).

Robert Rainy Select Bibliography:
Three Lectures on the Church of Scotland (Edinburgh, John Maclaren, 1872)
The Delivery and Development Of Christian Doctrine (Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1874)
The Bible and Criticism (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1878)
'The Apostle Paul' in The Evangelical Succession (Edinburgh, Macniven and Wallace, 1882)
The Epistle to the Philippians (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1893)
Robert Rainy, James Orr, Marcus Dods, The Supernatural in Christianity (Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1894)
The Ancient Catholic Church (Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1902)
Sojourning with God and Other Sermons (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1903)

(These are the books by Rainy that you stand half a chance of actually being able to get hold of)

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXXIV.

Rainy had guided the United Free Church of Scotland through the crisis on 1904-1905, but now he had a crisis of a far more personal nature to deal with.
Mrs. Rainy had fallen ill in 1905, and it swiftly became plain that she was not going to recover. She died on 30th September 1905, and it seemed that nearly all of Scotland wanted to comfort Rainy in his loss. The funeral was made a public event, so many wanted to join Rainy in his mourning.
"I must always feel the empty place, and yet I should be most ungrateful if I did not consider that eight-and-forty years of happy life together are not given to many married couples. Also there was much of Divine gentleness in the circumstances of her last illness. It remains that I should seek to learn the lessons set for me, and I am still a very slow scholar." Rainy wrote to a friend. Writing to his son George, he said:
"It is more than a month now since your beloved mother died. Nothing can deprive me of the memory - nor the fact - of forty-eight years filled and gladdened by a great affection on both sides. Then - the love and loyalty of our children. All that has left its deep deposit in my life and has made me very rich. If now I am enabled to be alike rich towards God, how good it will be."

Rainy continued in his work for the United Free Church, working to uphold the Church as it waited for the final settlement with the Free Church property. The work went on slowly, and it was not until late in 1906 that a final list was produced. It did not fully satisfy either side - which probably meant it was more or less fair. When the United Free Assembly prepared to meet, the Commissioners in charge of the distribution of the property declared that the United Free Assembly ought to meet in the Assembly Hall. The Free assembly were to be housed in the old Free High Church. For the last time, Rainy was able to meet with his brethren in the old Assembly Hall that he knew so well. There he made his last Assembly speeches. Unknown to him, his life-work was finished then and there. Less than a month later he was taken ill, and he was forced to spend the summer in retirement.
In early October he presided over the opening lecture of the New College session. The meeting was held in the Free High Church, for New College had not yet been restored, but Rainy was upbeat. He called on the students to make this "not merely an average but a memorable session."
The news that the Citadel would be returned on the 1st January 1907 was greeted with jokes that it would make a good 81st birthday present to the Principal - but it was not to be.
Rainy sailed for Australia in early November. The voyage was good, and at first Rainy seemed to be recovering. But, in the second half of the voyage, he became steadily worse. By the time he reached Australia, he was dying.

And so, God willing, next time we shall complete this series.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXXIII.

At the 1905 United Free Church Assembly, held in the old United Presbyterian Synod Hall, the United Free Church, presided over for the last time by the imposing figure of Principal Rainy, had declared its spiritual independence and its power to alter or amend its creed. Rainy emphasised that the freedom was not a licence to do whatever they wanted. They were not radicals, discarding the doctrines of the Church:
"They were children of the Reformation; they were the children of the Scottish Reformation. They were Presbyterians. They were believers in a great evangelical system of faith. They believed in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. They believed in the great redemption of Christ. They believed in the office and work of the Holy Spirit. They believed emphatically that salvation was of the Lord always, and in every case it was His wonderful work of saving the sinner. And so it was from no desire to change - he would not say the foundation of the creed - it was from no desire to cease to be Scottish evangelical Presbyterians that they made that assertion. They did it because they must make clear to the world the meaning of the Reformation, and the meaning of the independence of the Church of Christ, which was not concieved by their fathers as something that existed then, and never was to exist any more." Rainy told the Assembly.
The Assembly closed on a high note. They closed awaiting the decision of the Government Commission on the property of the Free Church. While the Citadel was a major issue, the greatest concern was the actual funds of the Free Church. This had been an issue that had been overlooked where congregational property was at stake, and when suggestions had been made that the United Free Church should have given Churches and manses to the congregations of the Free Church minority, but it was of vital importance. Buildings were of little use without the funds to maintain them, and the machinery of a Presbyterian Church cannot be run free of cost. Rainy wrote to the Prime minister on the matter, suggesting that, where there were both Free and United Free Churches, and it was possible, the United Free Church property be divided equitably. If there were two United Free Churches in a locality, they could be united in the larger building, and the Free Church could be given the smaller. If there was a Church Hall separate from the main Church, it should be treated as a separate piece of property and given to the smaller congregation.
At last the day came. To his delight Rainy learned that the Citadel had been returned to the United Free Church, and the Free Church offices next door had been given to the Free Church (this is the present-day Free Church College) for offices and a College. The United Free Church was less pleased by the amount of money that was given to the Free Church - who were in turn not too impressed by the apparent favour that had been shown to the United Free Church in some places - but on the whole the more sober people on both sides were satisfied with what they had recieved.

Rainy had guided his Church through yet another crisis, and now he looked forward to "a little rest." We shall see next time, God willing, how he bagan that 'rest'.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXXII.

Perhaps because of his leadership during the Free Church crisis of 1904, Rainy was now the best known Churchman in all of Scotland, and the supreme leader of the Free Church - much to his own annoyance. The way things were going, he complained, people would think that the United Free Church was "a one-horse affair." He was the principal of a theological college, not archbishop!
Though Rainy led well, he was now in his eightieth year, and he knew that he might not live to see the conclusion of the crisis. He saw two things as needful during his third moderatorship; the first was to re-affirm the fundemental tenets of the Free Church of Scotland, the second to secure as much of the Free Church property as possible for United Free Church congregations.
The great danger of the crisis, in Rainy's view, was that the United Free Church would put too much trust in the state. There were many in the state who were sympathetic with the United Free Church's more 'open' attitude on matters of doctrine, and who would do all they could to secure an advantageous settlement for the United Free Church which, in mistaken gratitude, might bind herself too closely to the state and act as if the recovered Free Church property was a sort of state endowment. This would be directly contrary to every Free Church principle (and to every United Free Church Principal, if the pun may be allowed). Whatever form the final settlement took, it could not be in such a shape that the United Free Church could be seen as being 'endowed' by the state.
When the Commission began its sittings, the Free Church of Scotland, as was expected, put in a large claim. They claimed three hundred Church buildings, a similar number of manses, and of course the Edinburgh 'Citadel'. Schemes for joint occupation of buildings they dismissed as 'impractical', an assessment that was quite right, since there was a level of animosity on both sides.
The Free Church probably never expected to get everything that they asked for; they started with a high bid so that they stood a chance of getting all that they wanted. The leaders on both sides knew that they would have to compromise. Free and United Free minorities both held tenaciously to their right to buildings hallowed by the association of years, but the Commission did its best to divide the property according to the ability of the two parties to use it.
on the occasion of his first Moderatorship, Rainy had sat in the great Moderator's Chair of the Free Assembly Hall. Although he sat as Moderator three times, he never sat in that chair again; his second Moderatorship had been of the Union Assembly, held not in the Free Assembly Hall, but in Waverly Market; and this, his third Moderatorship, occurred when the post-union Free Church of Scotland had possession of the Free Assembly Hall, so that Rainy sat in the Moderator's chair of the old United Presbyterian Synod Hall. He addressed the Assembly as a man who knew that he had not many more years left to him, and he knew that it was entirely possible that he would never again be allowed into the New College buildings. Still, he spoke as a fighter, a leader of a great body under Christ.
Under Rainy's moderatorship the United Free Church pledged itself again to the Spiritual independence that has always been the pride of the Scottish Presbyterians. But now there were some in the Assembly who were far more radical, who wanted to tear down the Church of Scotland, divide its property, and set up the United Free Church on the ruins. Needless to say Rainy was not among them - he was far too sober-minded.

The United Free Church had declared its liberty. What Rainy waited for now was the restitution of justice.
And that, God willing, shall be our subject next time.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXXI.

The House of Lords had decided that the whole property of the pre-union Free Church of Scotland belonged to the minority who had not gone into the Union of 1900, and not to the United Free Church. Rainy found himself called to uphold his Church once more, to bear the troubles of the United Free Church.
Meanwhile the government began to realise that they could not just leave the matter to be sorted out by the two Churches, neither of which was in any mood to compromise. The idea began to be voiced of setting up a commission to divide the property of the Free Church between the Free Church as now constituted and the United Free Church. The Free Church minority had what they wanted, the name of the Free Church of Scotland. Now they were concerned that the commission should not treat them unfairly. While there were many church buildings where there was no controversy over who ought to have it, there was a significant minority where there was a debate, where a portion of the congregation adhered to each side. Then there was theNew College complex, comprising the College, the Free High Church and the Assembly Hall (known as the Citadel). Both sides wanted it, and only one could have it. When the Commission was set up in November 1904, they knew that the Citadel would be the most difficult part of the Church property to decide on.
Rainy was extremely pleased by the conduct of the United Free Church during the crisis; the Church had stuck together rather than falling apart. Rainy having kept up his pressure on the government, he saw the setting up of the commission as a new challenge for him.
His challenge was made official by his being called to the Moderatorship of the United Free Church for the second time. Rainy was not at all sure that it was a wise move, indeed, he was rather annoyed by it, but the representatives of the Church pressed it on him. No-one else was fitted to lead the Church in the present crisis, they told him. At last Rainy capitulated and agreed to "get into moderators' breeks again" (Traditionally the moderators of Scottish Presbyterian Churches wear 18th Century style court costume, including knee breeches).

The year of Rainy's moderatorship promised to be a very interesting one, as we shall, God willing, see next time.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXX.

In 1904 the House of Lords had found that the Free Church majority had acted incompetently in entering into the 1900 Union with the United Presbyterian Church. Both the name and the property of the Free Church of Scotland (for the two were linked inseperably) belonged to the minority of mostly Highland ministers who had refused to enter the union. It had for three years seemed that those ministers were going to lose manses and Churches, but in an astounding reverse it had been the United Free Church that had lost its property. The idea of giving the property of a huge nationwide Church to about twenty-seven minsters and about a hundred congregations seemed absurd, but in his speech Lord Robertson, the Lord Chancellor, declared that, "Since the days of Cyrus it has been held that justice is done by giving people not what fits them, but what belongs to them." The whole property of the Free Church was given to the minority.
Rainy returned to Edinburgh to find a Church that was in danger of adopting a bunker mentality. The United Presbyterian members of the UF Church did all they could to help the former Free Church members. Fortunately the old United Presbyterian Synod Hall, which had been put up for sale, had not yet been sold, and that could be used. While the Free Church (the minority will henceforth be called by that title) had 'occupied' the New College complex, the United Free Church Colleges in Glasgow and Aberdeen were left alone (despite James Denney's fears).
The Principal kept up fighting talk. He called for the setting up of an emergency fund to help the United Free Church through the crisis, and the members of the Church gave enthusiastically. Out in the country there were ugly scenes as United Free Church zealots and Free Church zealots clashed over Church buildings in incidents that were deplored by both sides.
Rainy wrote letters to leaders in Church and State in all of Britain, canvassing support. The Archbishop of Canterbury, himself a Scot, offered to mediate between the two Churches, but Rainy declined his offer, pointing out that the Free Church was unlikely to accept such a mediator, but thanking the Archbishop cordially. Writing to a politician, Rainy revealed: "The Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking to me before judgement was delivered but when its character was foreseen, said to me, 'But what will you do?' I told him we would take joyfully the spoiling of our goods."
Rainy foresaw that many who had wavered in 1900 might very well go back to the Free Church following the House of Lords Judgement. He instantly organised a United Free Church aggression in the Highlands to counter such a tendency. He himself addressed as many meetings as he could, rallying the United Free Church support.
There were no mass defections from the United Free Church among the ministers, and most of the members in the Free Church section of the United Free Church stayed put. Some congregations were split, most notably in the Highlands.
Rainy had to leave New College, unsure if he would ever go back. It seemed that the United Free Church was in an impossible situation. How she got out of that situation we shall, God willing, see next time.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXIX.

Robert Rainy seemed to have come into a quiet, sunlit old age, which would be marked by literary activity rather than ecclesiastical politics. But it was not to be. The Free Church law case had been rumbling on in the courts, ignored by all and sundry, who assumed that the United Free Church would, as a matter of course, win.
The minority case was that the Free Church of Scotland, as "a voluntary association of Christians associated together under a definite contract involving the maintenance of definite principles." The "Contract" was the Claim of Right of 1842 and the Protest and Act of Separation of 1843. The majority had, it was claimed, departed from those principles, and threfore they had forfeited their claim to be the Free Church of Scotland.
The majority replied that the Church of Scotland had always held its Confessions and constitution as open to revision; what was more, the Declaratory Act of 1892 had modified that constitution.
In 1901 the Court of Session had found in favour of the majority. The minority appealed to the Inner House of the Court of Session, and in 1902 that court also found in favour of the United Free Church. A further appeal was mounted, all the way to the House of Lords, as the highest court in the land. Whoever won that case would be the final victor. There were six judges, and they sat from 24th November to 7th December 1903. Unfortunately one of the judges died before the judgement could be given, and so a new hearing was ordered with two judges in the place of the dead judge. It was to take place after the Assemblies of 1904, and at the Free Church Assembly an offer of an out-of-court settlement. The Minority were not interested so long as the name of the Free Church of Scotland was not a part of that settlement.
The House of Lords heard the case in June of 1904. Rainy was a constant attender on the case. He knew that a victory for the United Free Church was not certain. The minority had good counsel. As time went on, he realised that the minority were in fact on course to win the case. Indeed, on 1st August 1904, judgement was given. Five judges gave judgement in the favour of the minority, two in favour of the United Free Church. The Union of 1900 was legally to be regarded, not as a union, but as the majority of the Free Church of Scotland defecting en masse to the United Presbyterians. The minority were legally the Free Church of Scotland. But, with the name, came the whole of the property of the Free Church - including New College.
Rainy at once began to plan the recovery of the United Free Church, before both the United Free Church and the United Free Church destroyed each other.

Next time, God willing, we shall see what Rainy did in the Free Church crisis.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXVIII.

Robert Rainy, still Principal of New College, Edinburgh, though no longer the Professor of Church History there, was enjoying a time of peace in his life. He had three new books in print, books that represented him as historian, preacher and Bible expositor. He was still acting as a pastor to those who needed his care and love. As his old friends began to die around him, Rainy wrote:
"Bereavements come with strange force, and they leave us crushed and lonely. And yet we are sure that our Heavenly Father turns all these sorrows, which seem to come upon us like fate, into means of grace, and is near us to be sought and found. He does it for our profit that we may be partakers of His holiness. Only this does not come to pass as a matter of course, and we have to ask for help and to find our way to the Father's mind and to trust. 'Though He cause grief, yet He will have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.'
"I think, as we advance in life, we may do well to think more of the great hope of the Gospel. The fashion of this world passes away, but we have great hopes before us. Yet surely, they are not so welcome, not so dear, do not come home to us with soothing and cheering power, as they ought to do. Do we not find ourselves in moods in which these hopes are strange, not entering harmoniously into the life of our souls? I believe it is because we need to have revealed to us more fully the love of God. In that great revelation, everything takes on a new light and warmth, and the hopes I speak of become dear and real. Well, we must ask for great things, for the greatest; our Father is a great God."
In one of his serons he had said:
"The prospect of departing in God's good time, to us unknown, should be a great and bright hope before us - the refuge of our hearts in trouble, the retreat into which we go when we would soothe and cheer our souls, a great element of the cheerfulness and patience of our lives - while we assure ourselves that the best of all we find here is by and by to give place to that which is better."

But Rainy had one more battle to fight, one more crisis. God willing, that is what we shall consider next time.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXVII.

Rainy had successfully piloted the United Free Church through her first crisis, and all seemed well. Things seemed to be looking up, even in the Highlands. Rainy seemed to be about to settle down to a quiet life as a Church leader. He was able to turn his attention to all the various matters that were concerning the Church and the wider world.
One of the matters that came to his attention was the Boer War. Maybe his thoughts on that war would be of interest today:
"I was against the war as clearly not justifiable, but once it was decided and entered on I regarded further discussion as vain. The thing had to go through; and it must be settled in such a way as to avert the risk of the thing breaking out again."
Rainy's son George, having graduated wth a first from Oxford, went on to take the Indian Civil Service Examination. He came first and so he went out to India, where he was quickly promoted to an under-secretaryship.
Rainy took a keen interest in his son's career, noting that some quarters of the Civil Service seemed to attach high importance to certain qualifications that were less than academic. Rainy commented wryly in a letter to George Rainy:
"Why is there not an exam in dancing along with the others - two or three papers and a demonstration? It seems comforting to refelct that while other posts may be swamped by natives, under-secretaryships will continue to be a British preserve, for what self-respecting native - Mohammedan especially - would dance?"
Principal Rainy was concerned, of course, that the culture of the British Indian Civil Service was not one in which evangelical faith was encouraged. Far from home and from his father, George Rainy would be tempted to enter into the usual round of dances, tiger-hunts and other social affairs.
Even more dangerous was the temptation to keep up Bible reading and prayer in a purely formal manner. Mindful of this Rainy wrote:
"So much alone as you are and pressed with work, it is perhaps difficult to keep sight of the main things. If you had only three minutes for Bible reading, I would give one to reading and three to thinking about it in God's presence. It is the same with prayer: shorter prayers, if it must be so, but let us think a little before we begin."
In 1901 Rainy was able to attend the 450th anniversary of the University of Glasgow. Indeed, in the years immediately following the Union, he seemed to be everywhere. He was also able to do some of the literary work that he had not been able to engage in. While it was too late for him to write his biography of Augustine, he was able to turn some of his lectures on Church History into a book giving an historical survey of the life and thought of the early centuries of the Church from the accession of Trajan to the Fourth General Council. Of the book Alexander Whyte said, "I know of nothing else like it." There is nothing else like it. Although the information in the book is rather old now, I still know of nothing else like it. It goes by the name of The Ancient Catholic Church, and there are usually a few dozen copies available on ABE books. Rainy sums up men and movements in a few pithy sentences. Tertullian, for example, he says, "combined in himself the Puritan and High Churchman, with even a touch of the Fifth Monarchy man thrown in."

The other books Rainy published at this time were an expository commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians and a volume of sermons entitled Sojourning with God. Both represented his pulpit ministry. Rainy was before the public as an author as ever before.

Rainy was enjoying a brief period of peace - a peace that would prove to precede a great storm.
But next time, God willing, we shall continue for a while in that peace.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXVI.

Rainy was beginning to settle down after the union of 1900. As the acknowledged leader of the United Free Church, he knew that his responsibilities would be great. He would have to try to hold together the new Church as he had tried to hold together the old. While the most troublesome Constitutionalists had adhered to the minority, there were still some who had gone into the union, and they were unlikely to have been tamed by it.

Almost immediately after the union the United Free Church met its first crisis. The outspoken Higher Critic Dr. George Adam Smith, Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Criticism at the United Free Church College, Glasgow, had published his Yale Lectures on preaching. Dr. Smith had chosen as his subject Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the Old Testament. Dr. Smith was not a man to shy away from controversy, and he had certainly not done so in his lectures. He had declared that the early chapters of Genesis were "formed from the raw material of Babylonian myth and legend;" that "The god of early Israel was a tribal god;" that the Israelites "did not deny the reality of other gods;" and that, the Higher Criticism "having won its war" with the older views of Scripture, "it only remained to fix the amount of the indemnity." Quite understandably the conservatives in the United Free Church were horrified. They sent up a memorial to the College Committee in 1901, calling their attention to the book. The Committee, for its part, immediately set up a meeting with Smith, where he gave them a lengthy written explanation of certain passages in the book. They decided not to proceed against Dr. Smith, saying that what was needed was discussion, not another heresy trial.
Still, the matter was discussed at the United Free Assembly in 1902. It was Rainy's responsibility to move the motion declining to institute heresy proceedings against Dr. Smith. Rainy made it very clear that this did not mean he had shifted his position since the publication of The Bible and Criticism. He thought that much of Dr. Smith's book was wrong, but what was called for was reasoned debate. James Orr seconded the motion, and the motion was carried.
Writing to a friend after the event, Rainy said: "The critics overrate the certainty of their conclusions."
The United Free Church accepted the motion. Shortly afterwards Dr. Smith went to be the Principal of Aberdeen University, and so his statements on the Old Testament were treated as no longer the United Free Church's problem.

The United Free Church's problem was in fact something else. But before we come to deal with that, we shall say something about Rainy's life and work in the period just after the Union. That, God willing, will be next time.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXV.

The United Free Church of Scotland had been formed in October 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian church and the majority of the Free Church of Scotland. Both uniting Churches had taken their name and property into the United Free Church. For the United Presbyterians this was no problem, but a few Free Church ministers - twenty-seven in all - had refused to enter the union, and they were now faced with two options; either meekly surrender the name of the Free Church of Scotland, together with their meeting-houses, or claim, in court, to be the Free Church of Scotland. The minority chose the latter, putting in a claim to the Cpurt of Session declaring that they and those adhering to them represented the Free Church of Scotland and, as such, they claimed the whole land, property and funds belonging to the Free Church.
Some have criticised the minority for this. Could they not have been content with their buildings? Why did they have to claim everything when they were manifestly incapable of actually using the whole property of the Free Church? But such an objection misses the point. Just as the contest at the Disruption had not merely been about Patronage, but about the rights of the Christian people to choose their own ministers, the contest in 1900 was not really about physical property, but about something far more intangible - it was about a name. It just happened that the only way the minority could make good their claim to that name was to lay claim, in the courts, to all the property held in that name.
This was why the minority felt they could not accept the offers that had been hinted at at the last minute by the United Free Church, and the result was painful. In a counter-claim the United Free Church, unwilling to give the name of the Free Church of Scotland to the minority, claimed the Church buildings that remained in the hands of the minority of the Church. There would be no quarter until the courts had given the name of the Free Church of Scotland to one or the other. Then, and only then, could the question of who ought to have which church buildings be dealt with.
Rainy and the United Free Church felt secure. They had the second-biggest Church in the whole country, almost as big as the Church of Scotland (many U.F. Churchmen claimed that the U.F. Church was larger than the Church of Scotland). How could twenty-seven ministers possibly have their claim for a small majority of that Church's property?
So it seemed that Rainy had triumphantly reached the climax of his long career, and could look forward to spending the rest of his ministry in quiet, maybe even writing the biography of Augustine that he had been intnding to write for so long.
In 1901 he celebrated the jubilee of his ordination, and he resigned, with regret, the New College chair of Church History, which he passed on to Professor A.R. MacEwan. MacEwan had been Professor of Church History at the United Presbyterian college in Edinburgh, which had been closed and its professors distributed among the old Free Church Colleges. Rainy retained his principalship of course, and therefore his place in the councils of the United Free Church.
ainy recieved gifts and accolades from the New College, the Assembly, and the United Free High Church, where he had been a minister. Rainy was overwhelmed by so many tokens of esteem. But after the joy was to come more trouble; the United Church was not to remain at peace.
Next time, God willing, we shall see what it was that first disturbed the peace of the Union.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXIV.

The 31st of October 1900 saw the union of the majority of the Free Church of Scotland and the whole of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, forming the United Free Church of Scotland, a huge national dissenting Presbyterian communion. As the Union Assembly began the assembled throng sang the 133rd Psalm:

Behold, how good a thing it is,

And how becoming well,

Together such as brethren are

In unity to dwell.

The oldest members of the two uniting Churches then moved and seconded the Uniting Act, and agreed on by the whole Assembly. Dr. Ross Taylor, the retiring Free Church moderator, said solemnly:
"In the presence of our Divine King and Head of the Church, and with the concurrance of me brother Moderator, I declare the Act of Union finally adopted - that the Free Church of Scotland and the United Presbyterian Church are now one in Christ Jesus, under the designation of the United Free Church of Scotland."
The assembly and the spectators joined together in the 72nd Psalm.
After a formal greeting between the two Moderators, the Uniting Act was signed, and a huge cheer went up. This done, the first Moderator of the United Free Church of Scotland was called to the chair. Only one man had ever been thought of for the role, one who "had so wisely fought and so earnestly laboured and so devoutly prayed the bring about the result we to-day witness," as Dr. Ross Taylor put it.
As Principal Rainy stepped from the room in which he had been waiting, another great cheer went up from the assembled multitude. No other man could have taken the chair, and no other man would have walked so steadily among the cheers of his brethren. Rainy's snow-white head, lifted up above the Assembly, had a patriarchal appearance. The cheering did not go to his head, but he was pleased with what he saw. The union that he had seen thwarted in 1873 had finally been brought to fruition after over a quarter of a century.
He spoke in measured tones, expressing first his thanks to the Assembly for electing him, then going on to speak of the importance of the events of that Day in the ecclesiastical history of Scotland. Two branches of the divided Scottish Church had united; he expressed his hope that there would some day arise in Scotland a still greater Church, 'United, national and free,' as his biographer put it.

The day after the Uniting Assembly was the Jubilee of the fine buildings of the New College, now the principal seminary of the United Free Church of Scotland. To commemorate the occasion a new hall had been added to the New College complex. It had been named the Rainy Hall, in honour of the longest serving principal of New College. The event, although intended to honour the College, naturally became an occasion to honour Rainy. Rainy seemed the hero of the hour. But his life was not to remain untroubled for long. There was a ghost at the banquet - the ghost of the Free Church of Scotland. In 'exile', as it were, the few men who had stayed out of the Union were planning their own future. The United Church had taken their name, their meeting-houses, everything they had. Or it had tried to. There remained still an appeal to Caesar - to the law courts.

The effects of this we shall, God willing, discuss next time.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXIII.

The arrangements for the union between the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland had been finalised. The date had been set for the Union Assembly, the hall booked, processions arranged. Invitations had been issued to prominent men from English Dissenting denominations; Alexander Maclaren of Manchester representing the Baptist Union, Principal Fairbairn of Oxford and Joseph Parker of London representing the Congregational Union (Both Maclaren and Fairbain were Scotsmen). But there was one problem. Rev. Murdo Mackenzie of the Free North Church, Inverness. Mr. Mackenzie was the minister of one of the most important congregations in the Highlands, and he was undecided. Only the Day would show which way Mackenzie - and the Highlands - would go.
The day of the Union came, a cold, wet October day. On the previous day the two churches had met in their own halls to adopt the Uniting Act. The vote in the United Presbyterian Synod Hall was unanimous, without even a whisper of dissent. Rainy knew that such unanimity was extremely unlikely in the Free Assembly Hall, and he was right. An attempt was made to further delay the Union, or even to prevent it at the eleventh hour, by bring forward a petition that would have required a vote to be taken on the matter in every Free Church congregation. Rainy saw this as a wrecking motion, and he resolutely opposed it. The petition was rejected, and Rainy rose to propose the formal adoption of the Uniting Act by the Assembly. He tried to say nothing controversial, nothing to sour what he saw as a deeply important moment in Scottish Church history.
Mackenzie of Inverness rose. All eyes were fixed on him. Rainy and others hoped that Mackenzie would second the Union motion, but it was not to be. Mackenzie declared that he could not accept the union. Rainy felt keen disappointment. If only Mackenzie had gone into the Union, then he would only have to deal with a few disorganised members of the 'awkward squad'. But Mackenzie had one of the largest congregations in the Highlands, and he was a man who would fight to the end to maintain the Constitutionalist claim to be the Free Church of Scotland.
There was no further debate. Neither side had anything left to say; the Assembly dispersed, never again to meet as the undivided General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. The small party of the Constitutionalists adjourned to a small room in the New College complex where they proceeded to elect a Moderator and declare themselves the Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.

On the morning of the 31st October two processions made their way towards the Waverly Market, Edinburgh, the only space large enough to contain their combined strength. At the foot of the Mound they two processions met and merged into one. Despite the drizzle crowds lined the Edinburgh streets to watch them.
Rainy arrived late at the Assembly, only just in time to get into the Waverly Market through the crowds. Within was a carnival atmosphere, the huge space hung with banners. Seven thousand persons met together, including representatives of many evangelical denominations. Rainy waited in a side room to be called in as the first Moderator of the United Free Church of Scotland.
Up on the Mound a few forlorn figures stood in the drizzle outside the locked gates of New College, declaring themselves to be the Free Church of Scotland. There was no-one to cheer them. They were destined to prove Rainy's last problem, and his final conflict.

But that, God willing, we shall look at next time.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXII.

The Free and United Presbyterian Churches were headed for union. All that remained to be seen was if the union would be clean or messy. But 1897 gave Rainy and the United Presbyterians a pleasant interlue. It was fifty years since the union of the Relief Church and the United Secession Church had created the United Presbyterian Church, and as a matter of course the United Presbyterians were celebrating. In view of the coming union they invited Free Churchmen to the celebrations as a matter of course. Rainy was a delegate, of course, and he was invited to speak on The Relation and Duty of the Presbyterian Free Churches to Each Other. He dealt directly with the union (a move some unkindly suggested was uncharacteristically straightforward for him). He spoke glowingly of the ties that bound the Free and United Presbyterian Churches together spiritually, noting that they were both branches of "the characteristic Christianity of Scotland." Speaking of the fathers of both Churches he said:

"They had their errors. They were guilty of extravagances that cost them dear. But I think one may reflect with tears almost in one's eyes upon that wonderful battle of the Scottish Church. I know of nothing like it - the courage of it, the wonderful trust in principle. The way in which generation after generation of men spent their bodies and their goods was wonderful. We of the free Presbyterian Churches put in our claim to have a share in this inheritance of heroism, courage and self-sacrifice which belonged to Scottish Presbyterianism. Let us make good that claim."
It was the duty of the Churches that were so closely related, he said, "not to keep apart from each other." He supported union, not for ignoble ends of merely partisan churchmanship, but because he felt it would be for the good of the Church as a whole in Scotland. As the celebration of the Free Church Jubilee in 1893 had been the cause of the inauguration of the union scheme, the United Presbyterian Jubilee in 1897 moved on the motion towards union. Each Church had existed separate for fifty years. For the next fifty years they were to be joined as one - or that was the plan.
The Free Church Assembly met a month later. In it Rainy moved that the Free Church take the next step towards union. The moderate Constitutionalists added an amendment to give members of the united Church liberty to strive for the claim of "the last clause of the protest of 1843" - a restoration of the benefits of establishment. An anti-unionist amendment recieved only 27 votes. It was down on 42, but still enough to worry Rainy. There was still the legal question. If a party of the Free Church decided not to enter the union they would almost ceertainly lay claim to the title of the Free Church of Scotland, and the only way for them to do that would be to claim the property of the Free Church in court. Leading legal minds in the Union party told Rainy not to worry - the Model Trust Deed under which all Free Church property was held would not support such a claim. Others cautioned that the Model Trust Deed was still an unknown quantity. Rainy decided to go forward anyway.
The Assebly of 1899 agreed to the plan of union (although with some dissent) and sent it down to the Presbyteries to be ratified. A majority of Presbyteries agreed to the plan, and in the Assembly of 1900 the vote was 586 for union and only 29 against. The Uniting Act was passed, and arrangements were made for a Union Assembly on 31st October 1900. The world held its breath. The action of a few ministers in October would decide the fate of the Constitutional party, and the name of the Free Church of Scotland.

And we, God willing, shall be holding our breath in expectancy until next time.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XXI.

The United Presbyterians had forced Rainy's hand in 1896. The two Churches were now set on a course that would bring them into union by the last year of the 19th century. While the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland was united and cheerfully looking forward to the union, the Free Church of Scotland contained two parties, a majority who felt as the United Presbyterian did, and a large minority who distrusted the United Presbyterians (as well as the minority) who could very well cause all sorts of trouble.

Rainy came to the Assembly of 1896 full of foreboding. He had to act, and he knew that he had to welcome the United Presbyterian offer. He acted, as ever, with caution. Instead of moving that the Assembly immediately accept the United Presbyterian offer, he moved that the matter be remitted to the union committee to be considered carefully before the next Assembly. The motion was agreed on, and Rainy was relieved that the Assembly had not blow up into a full-blown debate over it. Another year would give him time to convince the Constitutionalists that union with the United Presbyterians was not selling out the principles of the Free Church.
Following the 1896 Assembly, Rainy and the 'Unionist' leaders (dubbed the 'Rainy Party' by the Free Presbyterians, who were now in the position of outsiders looking in to the Free Church) began a concerted effort to convince the Highlands that the United Presbyterians were not Arminians or doctrinaire Voluntaries. Ironically one of the things on their side was the fact that the United Presbyterian theological professors (most notably James Orr) were percieved by many in the Free Church to be more orthodox than many Free Church Professors. James Orr, after all, had defended the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, which Marcus Dods had given up!
Some of the supporters of union in the Highlands took a different view. They thought that if as little as possible was said about union, it could be brought about quietly. They did not want the Free Assembly to recieve a wheelbarrow-load of overtures opposing the union and thought this was the best way to avoid it. Looking back on this strategy later many Unionists felt that it had actually been counterproductive, giving the impression that something was being covered up. Rainy wrote to Murdo Macaskill of Dingwall to warn him:
"I understand and appreciate the motives which lead you to deprecate controversial agitation. It is quite true that stirring of waters in public renders it difficult to refrain from some measure of discussion and perhaps of collision. At the same time it is so extremely natural, after last Assembly's action, to have overtures, that I confess as yet I hardly see a way of avoiding it. But I have a great desire to respect all reasonable susceptibilities. Perhaps we may see a way through the difficulty. But meanwhile I wish to say that you, as well as we, should be considering how to make the best of what is certainly coming.We must in some shape compare ideas while there is yet time, if we are to avoid treading on each other's toes. It will not do to wait till currents form which will carry us away. We must be strong enough to grasp the situation firmly and reasonably."
But the Church as a whole, and particularly the Highlands, were not 'prepared'. Really many Highland Free Churchmen had become alienated from Edinburgh already, and there was little Rainy, or anyone else, could have done to bring them into the union.

The union was now all but inevitable. God willing, in our next post we shall observe the road to union further.

"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.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XIX.

Robert Rainy's life is impossible to disentangle from the history of the Free Church of Scotland. One of the first Free Church students, by 1893 he had become the supreme leader of his denomination.
In 1894 the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland recieved an overture from the United Presbyterian Church requesting that union between the two Churches be sought. Evidently the Unted Presbyterians were of the opinion that the Free Church declaratory act had cleared away the barriers to union. Rainy, who was on very good terms with the United Presbyterian leaders, moved that the Assembly "welcome" the idea and "commend the subject to the interest and prayers of the people." While other Free Church leaders were much more enthusiastic, Rainy was cautious. The Send Ten Years' Conflict had nearly split the Free Church in two, and he was very conscious that a union could still have serious consequences in the Highlands.
Rainy had already co-operated with Professor James Orr of the United Free Church earlier in the year. In the winter session of 1893-4 the Gifford Lectures in the University of Edinburgh had been given by Professor Otto Pfleiderer, one of the most advanced German modernist theologians. The Gifford foundation is a strange one, for it was established to discuss Theism on the grounds of natural religion, expressly excluding Supernatural Revelation. James Denney viewed the foundation as "a gigantic abuse,' and he had some reason to. Pfleiderer had used the lectureship to mount an all-out attack on the supernatural. Rainy was horrified. Not only could the Gifford foundation not be used to lecture for Christianity, it was being used systematically to argue against it.
Rainy had by this time established connections with the leaders in the other major Presbyterian denominations, and this time the foreign invader would be repulsed by the massed forces of Presbyterian orthodoxy. The plan was for four lectures, Professor Charteris of the Church of Scotland to take one lecture, Professor James Orr of the United Presbyterian Church to take one, and Principal Rainy and Professor Marcus Dods of the Free Church of Scotland to take one each.
In the event Professor Charteris was prevented by illness from giving his lecture, and the defence was lect to the Presbyterian dissenters. Rainy was on top form, laying out in a masterly fashion all the errors that Pfleiderer's position entailed. The German professor denied all miracle - therefore he denied that Jesus was the Son of God. Since God had planned the world on orderly lines, governed by natural law, He would not intervene in a miracle. Rainy retorted:
"Is it beyond belief that it might be in the design of God to make a worthy manifestation of Himself which should be personal?" why should not God intervene in the world? In fact, how could we know the love of God apart from His sending His Son to die for us? The power of Christianity is not only in its conception of God, it is in what God has done in history, sending His Son to die for sinners.
Professor Orr followed Rainy worthily, and to many the thought of the resolutely orthodox Orr teaching Free Church students was most appealing. The road to union had begun to be travelled.
God willing, we shall see something of that road next time.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XVIII.

In 1889 Principal Rainy travelled to Australia to represent the Free Church of Scotland at the jubilee celebration of the Australian Presbyterian Church. He left a Free Church apparently at peace. He returned to find that peace had been shattered.
Rainy knew that there were some men in the Free Church of Scotland who wanted to alter the Free Church's relationship to the Westminster Confession. Some of them, including the famous theologian James Denney, wanted to replace the Confession entirely, preferring some short statement or affirmation of faith. It was pointed out that there was no real reason why the Westmister Confession should not be replaced - after all, the WCF itself had replaced the Old Scots Confession. Had not Rainy himself said in his Delivery and Development of Christian Doctrine that it was, "not the right only, but the duty, of the Church and every branch of it, to hold confessions and subordinate standards subject to correction"? (P. 275)
But Rainy had also said, "it is not a reasonable assumption to start with, that the confession of a Church should need much or frequent alteration." (P. 276) He told those who wanted to change the Confession that they could not count on his support in the Assembly. They could in fact only expect him to organise opposition to them.
Without Rainy's support the revisionists felt weak. With Rainy's threat of opposition they felt helpless. His absence in Australia gave them the perfect opportunity. Rainy was absent from the Assembly for the first time in years. The revisionists sent in a number of 'overtures' on revision of the Confession to the Assembly.
There was a fierce debate, and the Assembly decided to appoint a commission to look into the matter. When Rainy returned he found that the commission had been appointed in his absence - he could do nothing to stop it. He also found that the Constitutionalists, those who believed that the Confession should not be changed, had accused two college Professors of heresy. This was the Dods-Bruce case, when Alexander Balmain Bruce and Marcus Dods were accused of teaching heresy in their books. To Rainy's relief the two men were wiser than Robertson Smith, and it turned out ruce's book The Kingdom of God had been misunderstood - he had been suspected of agreeing with a statement that he had quoted as incorrect (the passage was removed from all subsequent editions of the book anyhow). Dods was willing to apologise and lie low.
Rainy was a statesman. He disliked arguments and, while he himself believed in the inerrancy of Scripture, he was unwilling to brand as a heretic those who disagreed with him. He disliked change, but when circumstances forced his hand, he acted.
In 1891 the commission of Assembly reported back on the question of the Confession. They had identified three possible options: 1. Revise the Confession. This would have split the Free Church in two. 2. Leave the Confession unaltered and relax the formula of subscription to the Confession required of ministers. This was less risky, but it might have the effect of injuring Church discipline. 3. Pass a declaratory Act resering to the Free Church the right to determine which doctrines did or did not enter into the substance of the faith.
The Assembly chose the third option. In consequence two ministers, a number of students, and several thousand members left the Free Church to form the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, protesting that the Confession had really been discarded by the Free Church. Rainy was relieved that more had not gone, but he was concered that so many had.
It was 1893, the fiftieth year of the Free Church of Scotland, and twenty years on from the failed union of 1873. Time was ripe to re-start union talks.
How those talks were re-started we shall see, God willing, next time.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XVII.

While Principal Rainy's public life was lived amongst storms, his private life was quite differen. Happily married, Rainy was blessed with loving children whom he adored, and who adored him. One of his daughters, writing to one of her sisters, wrote, "I know you read the thirteenth verse of the 103rd Psalm as I do - 'Like as my Father pitieth his children' - and that means just everything."
While some 'great men' are known in the family more by their absence than their presence, Robert Rainy loved to be among his family, and tried to make as much time to spend with them as he could. When they were little he would not only buy them toys, but he would go with the children. His sons, when they grew older, subscribed to the Boy's Own Paper, and they discovered (to their delight and amusement), that their father read the stories before they did, and then discussed the paper's contents with them. He would also read the young ladies' journals that his daughters bought so that he could talk intelligently with them about their interests.
Rainy loved reading poetry aloud both in and with his family. The boisterous lad, now grown to be a father himself, loved to engage in boisterous games with his children. His interest in the children was not feigned, adopted to please them, but it was deep and genuine. When 'Father' was away, the children would eagerly wait for his letters, knowing that he would write to them daily, telling them all the little pieces of information that they wanted to know (for example, drawing sketch maps of the houses he was staying in, and writing such comments as "a splendid house for hide-and-seek.").
The Principal did not forget his children's souls either. He warned them about the dangers of hypocrisy, writing once:
"Sometimes we try, in an artificial way, to put on what we consider the right moods. But it comes to nothing. We cannot manufacture true religion. It grows and will grow as Christ becomes clear and precious to us - and even a little of it is a very real and living thing."
To one of his daughters he wrote:
"Card-playing, on the whole, is one of those things about which I think it is good to be able to say that one does not know how to do it and does not care to learn. It saves trouble and drawing of lines that are sometimes difficult to draw."
The Rainy household was characterised by love, and all of Rainy's children would say later that they benefited greatly from their father's pastoral heart.
Rainy loved to read and to talk with friends. He also retained from his boyhood an interest in military strategy, and he read widely on the subject. Every account of a battle enthralled him.
He travelled fairly widely - it was the only way he could avoid working during his much-needed vacations. Rome, Australia, France, all recied visits, some in a private, others in a semi-official capacity. His interest in Australia was deepened in 1891 when his second daughter, Barbara, married the Rev. Professor Andrew Harper of Ormonde College, Melbourne.

While Rainy was absent from Scotland in 1889, two very important things happened in the Free Church. What they were we shall, God willing, see next time.

"Rainy wi'oot the Principal". XVI.

The Disestablishment campaign had failed. While others went on with Disestablishment rhetoric into the 20th Century, Rainy realised that it was only a pipe-dream so long as governments needed the Church of Scotland.
Those who were in favour of a national Establishment of religion were not, however, merely triumphalist in their victory. They realised that the Free Church and the Church of Scotlnd could not afford to be bickering endlessly. In 1878 the Church of Scotland had sent to the other Presbyterian Churches a communication on the subject of union, inquiring as to the causes that presently stood in the way of that union. The Church of Scotland declared its willingness to take any steps towards reuinon "consistent with the maintainance and support of an establishment of religion." The Free Church replied, but apparently the Church of Scotland reply was lost in the mail, and what could have proved a profitable correspondencewas abruptly terminated.
Rainy had written to Lord Polwarth, a Church of Scotland elder, explaining that the great difficulty was that of the state's behaviour towards the Church of Scotland. As should have already been made clear, Rainy was a firm believer in the independence of the Church, and he was not going to lead the Free Church of Scotland into any union that would compromise that independence. Disestablishment, he said, was the only answer.
In 1886, the year after the failure of the Disestablishment movement, the Church of Scotland approached the Free Church with a new offer. Although the people of Scotland were in favour of the Establishment of the Church of Scotland, the Church of Scotland was conscious that it had a responsibility to promote unity. The offer was the same as before: Disestablishment was not an option.
Rainy, speaking in the Free Church assembly, thought that this was unfortunate. He was glad that conference was being offered, but saddened that the greatest barrier to reunion was precisely that thing that was not up for discussion. If only those matters were put open to discussion, he saw no reason why the Churches should not enter into conference.
The Church of Scotland did not accept Rainy's offer. They refused to submit, under any circmstances, to Disestablishment. There was no conference. Rainy's mind was turned away from a fruitless discussion with the Church of Scotland to the resumption of the aborted union talks with the United Presbyterian Church. But Rainy was not going to make the first move. He was in the position of one who was willing to respond to an overture from the United Presbyterians, but he was not willing to extend the hand of friendship himself.
Part of this was no doubt due to Rainy's caution. He knew that there were those in the Free Church who thought he was a schemer, and those would be prejudiced against union by the fact that he had suggested it.

In 1887 Principal Rainy was called to the chair of the Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland. For the benefit of those not familiar with the usages of Scottish Presbyterinism, the Moderator is the chairman of the Assembly. Not only this, but he has a peculiar dignity and precedence during his year of office. The Moderator also speaks to the Assembly from the chair. Rainy chose to speak of the changes in the Free Church. We should as Christians always be willing to learn, he told his fellow ministers, but we ought also to reember that there is nothing humble in uncertainty. The Christian religion is one of facts, and those facts had to be held firm.

So far we have spent a lot of time looking at Rainy the public man. Next time, God willing, I intend to say something about the Principal at home.