Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
atwihed penalties not in that act. Finally, an act
■was passed in 1864 to remove disabilities affecting the
bishops and clergy of the ' Protestant Episcopal Church
in Scotland.' See Russell's Church of Scotland (1838)
and Miss Kinloch's History of Scotland (1888).
Statistics as at Juse, 1895.
Bishops, . . . . . . . . 7
Working clergy, ........ 303
Incumbencies, missions, etc., . 314
^ommr-icants, . •"';'.',; • ■ 39,831
Church population, 105,027
Schools, 80
The Baptists have existed as a denomination in
Scotland since 1750, or, according to another authority,
only since 1765, when a noted Baptist preacher, Archi-
bald Maclean, was labouring in Edinburgh. The two
brothers, Robert and James Haldane, who began to act
as lay preachers in 1796, adopted the Baptist creed in
the latter part of their career, and did much by their
enthusiasm and energy to strengthen the sect. In
connection with it there is a Baptist Home Missionary
Society for Scotland, instituted in 1816, and the Bap-
tist Union of Scotland, to which all the churches belong.
They form one of the largest of the smaller sects, and
are zealous and enthusiastic workers.
Congregationalists is the proper name of the sect
otherwise called Independents. The latter name was
assumed in the apology published in England in 1644,
but finding that it was also adopted by others with
whose tenets they had no sympathy, they discarded it
for the name of Congregational Brethren. Their
principles were first brought to Scotland by Cromwell's
soldiers, but made little headway till the time of Glass,
who, in his work published in 1729, advocated the
principles of the English Congregationalists, and the
old Scots Independents were founded by Dale. The
next impetus to Congregationalism was given by the
revival, under James Haldane and John Aikman, be-
gun in 1797. Before 1807, by the zeal of various
itinerant preachers, eighty-five congregations had been
formed and pastors ordained.
Evangelical Union. — This denomination had no
existence till 1841. In that year Rev. James Morison,
minister of the United Secession Church at Kilmarnock,
was deposed for heresy, chiefly for teaching the univer-
sality of the atonement and the ability of man to
believe the Gospel. His father, Robert Morison (Bath-
gate) was deposed in 1842, and A. C. Rutherford
(Falkirk) and John Guthrie (Kendal) in 1843 — all for
holding similar opinions. These men and a number
of laymen then met at Kilmarnock and formed the
Evangelical Union.
The Congregationalists and the Evangelical Union
became one body on 1st Jan. 1897 under the title of
The Congregational Union of Scotland. They
have 186 congregations.
The Glassites are a sect who derive their name
from John Glass, a minister of the Established Church
at Tealing in Forfarshire, who, for teaching doctrine
differing from that of the Church regarding the king-
dom of Christ, was deposed in 1730. They spread to
England and America, where they received the name
1742
of Sandemanians, from Robert Sandeman, Glass's son-
in-law. They hold the Voluntary principle and the
independence of each congregation. The number of
congregations and members is now extremely small
The Methodists are a sect that took its rise from a
club of Oxford students formed in 1729, with John
and Charles Wesley as its most prominent members
George Whitefield joining it some years after. They
accepted the name given to them in derision as cor-
rectly indicating that they lived according to the method
of the Bible, but it was not till 1739 that they did
anything to separate them from the Church of England
— a separation which was not complete till 1784.
The organization consisted of 'societies,' which were
divided into 'classes,' each with a class leader; and
were combined into 'circuits' occupied by itinerant
and local preachers, one of whom acted as superin-
tendent. Whitefield visited Scotland in 1741, and
John Wesley in 1751; and in 1767 there were 468
members in the country. Since then their numbers
have greatly increased, and they have numerous
churches and missions, regular ministers, and very
many lay preachers.
The Primitive Methodist Connexion was formed
in 1810, when those who wanted to hold camp meet-
ings were excluded by the conference. Their principal
difference from the Wesleyans is that they admit two
laymen to one minister as delegates to the conference.
This is a small well-organised body, having a number
of ministers, lay preachers, and class leaders.
The Catholic Apostolic Church, popularly known
as ' the Irvingites,' from Edward Irving, who was
charged with heresy, and expelled from the Church of
Scotland in 1833, and who played a prominent part
among those who laid the foundation of the present
work. Repudiating the name of ' Irvingites,' as if the
idea of their church had originated with one man, the
members of 'the Catholic Apostolic Church' do not
regard that name as peculiar to themselves, but as the
true designation of all the baptised, of the one Body of
Christ. The believers in the reality of the spiritual
manifestations that occurred on the Clyde and else-
where about 1830, became convinced that, in the
purpose of God, the original constitution of the Church
was unchangeable, and that she should always possess
the ministries once given for the perfecting of the
saints (Eph. iv. 11-13). In 1835 the full number of
twelve apostles was completed. To them were added
the other ministries of the Four; and thus the present
doctrine, organisation, and worship were gradually
developed, as the antitype of the Mosaic worship and
Tabernacle. The chief characteristics of the Church
are its highly ritualistic and symbolic worship, and its
elaborate hierarchical constitution — of apostles, pro-
phets, evangelists, and pastors for the universal
Church; and an angel (or bishop), with priests and
deacons, for every complete congregation. Another
special tenet is the nearness of the second advent of
Christ, and that the realisation of it should be the one
hope of all Christians. There are three fully organized
churches in Scotland — in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and
Dundee — besides many smaller congregations in various
parts of the country.