The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-20 00:00:00

OXFORD RACES.-WEDNESDAY.

The Cup, value 100 sovs., to be paid i n specie, given by the
Noblemen and Gentlemen of the County, by a subscription
of 10 sovs. each, and added to a Sweepstakes of 5 says each ;
three yrs old, Est 101 b ; four, Bst 21b ; five, 3st 121 b ; six
and aged, 9st ; mares allowed 31b. Two miles and a quarter.
Mr. Collins's Isaac, aged
Mr. Rawlinson's Chilson, 4 yrs
Mr. I. Day's Caravan, 6 yrs
Mr. Corbet's Jenny Jones, 4 yrs 4
The City Members' Plate of 56 sees., for three yrs old, 6st
; four, Bst 21b ' • five, Sot 101 b ; six and aged, 9st ; mares
and geldings allowed 31b.
Mr. I. Day's br c Alulciher
Mr. Samwell's b g The Knight, 4 yrs
Mr, Bryan's b m Dewdrop, aged ......

3 dr

Two well-contested heats, and won by a head.
Conolly is reported to-day to be a little better, but he is still
insensible, and not out of danger.

THE STEAM-SHIP ORIENTAL.—This superb
new vessel of 1,673 tons and 450 horse power, the:first of
the new line established by Government for the convey-
ance of the East India mails via Gibraltar, will come
round from Liverpool to Southampton this week. The
Directors of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Corn-
pany, we understand, intend to throw her open to the in-
spection of the public for a few days for the benefit of the
Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners Benevolent Society.
Visitors to it will be admitted on their contributing a trifling
sum each to the fund of that most excellent institution.
By the new arrangements for transmitting the
!mails to India, the first mail via Falmouth will be made up
in London on the 31st instant.
There is some talk or starting Mr. Roebuck
for Manchester.

The struggle which is going on in Scotland be-
tween the advocates of ecclesiastical domination,
fighting under the mask of popular rights, and the
supporters of the sober and the moderate system of
government which has been established by law, and
has hitherto prevailed in the Kirk, naturally directs
attention to the constitution of the Scottish Esta-
blishment. To the satisfaction of our southern
readers who may be desirous of information on this
subject, derived from a source of unquestionable
authority, we subjoin a brief and accurate outline
of that constitution, for which we are indebted to
a pamphlet lately published by Dr. Morison,
minister of Banchory Devenick, in Aberdeenshire.
To the careful reader we think it will appear that if
unqualified persons gain admission into the Kirk,
the blame must rest solely with the clergy, to whom
the State has allowed powers, ample enough in all
conscience, for their exclusion. Honest and sober-
minded Christians of all denominations will, we
think, unite with one voice in saying, let these
diligently and faithfully, and
beexenrocised
need of new laws to prevent intru-
sionpt oewr ee:Lsiblle

TN CLERGY.
The State, while it made provision for our Church,
in a pecuniary point of view, so as to render them inde-
pendent of those over whom they were placed, left it
to the Church to frame and to enforce such a system
of education• for her Clergy, such evidence of their
purity of life and conversation, and such tests of their
orthodoxy, as she might deem necessary to their use-
fulness and respectability : and, accordingly, the curri-
culum of clerical education has been, from time to time,

extended, so as to keep pace with the advancement of
general knowledge in the community. And whilst pa-
tronage is a part of thi system, the choice of the patron
is strictly limited to those whom the Church has pro-
nounced qualified to perform the duties of a parish
minister, but making it imperative upon both the
patron and the presentee to swear allegiance before a
Magistrate, to the civil authorities of the realm, and to
furnish the Presbytery with evidence that they have
done so.

Nor is the Church satisfied with attestations from the

several professors whose classes they have attended, in
favour of candidates for the holy ministry. They are
subjected to searching examinations of proficiency in
their studies, and the articles of their belief ; and are
required, before being licensed, to prepare discourses
from texts prescribed, in order to ascertain their critical
knowledge of the Scriptures, their controversial abilities
for defending the doctrines of the Church, and their
popular talents for explaining the Sacred Volume, and
enforcing on their hearers the pure morality of the Gos-
pel. And so cautious is the Church in regard to the
character and conduct of those who apply for a license
to preach the Gospel, that every sueh applicant must be
proposed by a member of Presbytery, and the proposal
laid on the table till the subsequent ordinary meeting of
that body, that the members may have time for becom-
ing personally acquainted with him, and for every ne-
cessary inquiry, respecting his prudence and good con-
duct : that the Court are then, being alone, to judge
ehetro tthakeye hwimillonaptprliayls, which it is
to the Pro-
incompetent for the Presbytery to do without the per.
fore wl
eh ae vt
mission of the superior Court. And be it observed, the
va
innde
adl est eyrnmo
di n
Presbytery's application to the Synod must be by cir-
cular letters to every Presbytery within its bounds,
dated at least two months before the meeting of Synod,
and accompanied with the necessary certificates ; all
which documents must be read by the clerk, in open
Court, at the first diet, and no deliverance given forth
till the last diet of the Synod.
It is impossible to conceive what greater security a
patron can have, that, in presenting a licentiate of the
Church to a vacant living, he presents a man every way
qualified to perform the duties of a parish Minister.
Nor is this all ; after every other preliminary step has
been taken, the presentee must, previously to his ordina-
tion and collation, undergo, with approbation, a second
course of trial, similar to that already described ;
affording the best security that his literary pursuits, and
clerical studies,have not been neglected since he obtained
a license to preach the Gospel, and that his religious
opinions and moral character remain untainted.

NO GROUND FOR THE CHARGE OP INTRUSION.

2. But, in the second place, we find, in the " Form
of Church Government," sanctioned by the Act of
Assembly, 164.5, that " No man is to be ordained a
Minister for a congregation, if they of that congregation
can show just cause of exception against him." This
enactment was adopted as a security against that kind of
intrusion, to which patronage, as exercised at that early
period, gave rise, namely, vesting with the clerical cha-
racter, and placing in parishes, men whose ignorance
and immorality formed an insurmountable bar to their
usefulness. Such intrusion as this could not now
be practised by the exercise of patronage in its
least guarded form. Previously to 1884, our
Church dealt with the people, not as persons weak
and silly, who might " entertain valid objections
which they were unable to express in intelligible lan-
guage
et
h at the
e once manner
give
way
re-
cognised
tn e s s
of b
a y
t
but
"l
!" nor yet as possessing qualities for judging of the
fitness hitherto
clergyman, etrgC"hluarnCh, m
t o w 7
as rational well-informed Christians, acquainted 1
the doctrines of the Church of which they were mem-
bers, hers, and resolved to maintain them. It provided for
them a well-educated and moral clergy,---their ortho-
doxy tested by their subscribing the Confession of Faith
and Formula, prescribed by Act of Assembly, 1711 ;
and it afforded to all an opportunity of stating any ob-
jection they, or any of them, might entertain to the
doctrine, life, or conversation of the presentee to the
vacant parish. All such objections were to be judged
of by the Presbytery, and, if found just and reasonable,
stopt procedure.
If the presentee was not an ordained clergyman, he
was appointed by the Presbytery to preach, at
least once, in the vacant church, that the peo-
ple might hear him. An edict was then served,
intimating the day of the call, with an interval
of ten days, at least, when all had an opportunity
of inviting the presentee to become their pastor,
and thus encouraging his heart and strengthen-
his hands. Thereafter, the call having been
returned to the Presbytery and sustained, and the pre-
sentee having gone through his second trials with ap-
probation, an edict was again served, with the same in-
ducinii, of ten days, appointing a day for the settlement.
On this occasion, when the Presbytery had been con-
stituted by prayer, intimation was three times made, at
the most patent door of the church, that if there is any
valid objection to the presentee's being inducted into
the sacred office of Pastor of the parish, it may be
im-
mediately brought forward and substantiated by suffi-
Fleet proof : and, be it observed here, that whilst ob-
jections to a presentee are competent at any time, if
brought forward by libel, ten free days were afforded by
intimation from the pulpit, to all the parishioners, to
frame their objections, if any they had, to the life, doc-
trine, or moral conduct of the presentee, and to produce
the evidence by which such objections might be sub-
stantiated, on the day appointed for his collation. Such
was undeniably the law and practice of the Church
prior to 1834, and such continues to be her law and
far
practice, (excepting in so as these have
been violated by the veto enactment) ; clearly
showing, that every means consistent with rea-
son and common sense, has been employed to pre-
vent the intrusion of unfit and unqualified pastors into
the parishes of Scotland. And if it has sometimes hap-
pened that a minister has been_ *nducted into a parish,
in regard to whom an unfavourable impression had been
made on the minds of the people, it has, in almost
every case, been effaced by
a zealous and diligent atten-
tion to the spiritual interests, welfare, and accommoda-
tion of his parishioners.'
onK SESSION.
THE
The constituent members of the Kirk Session are an
indefinite number of lay elders, along with the minister
of the parish, who is moderator, and in whose absence
no business can be transacted. He is strictly bound to
residence in his parish--
a suitable manse and glebe
beinv provided for him,
and maintained at the public
sharg, c ; that, like the father of a large family, he
may L‘e ever at hand, not only to dispense to them
the ordinances of the Gospel, but to give them
sound counsel and advice, both in public and in
private, in regard to those things that concern their
tempora,l comfort, and their eternal welfare. In support
of his authority, the keys of the parish church are com-
mitted to h im ; and no other clergyman, connect ad with
the Establit hment,
can preach or dispense the sacra-
ments within his parish, without his permission, under
the pain of ecclesiastical censure.-1-
In the forma
tion of this Court, great regard is had to
the temporal as w i
ell as spiritual interests of the people.
The elders are chosen' from among the parishioners,
had to the respectability of their
strict regard being
character, both in a moral and religious point of view ;
an d previously to ordination, by prayer and giving the
rii ;ht hand of fellowsl.'iP, an opportunity is afforded to
th e people, by edictal citation from the pulpit, to state
c they have, to their orna-
' any objections, if any
gi.iti on. The Elders are a2hso req
(Aeration that they uired to subscribe rat de-
to the standards of our
1 Church, and to the Presbyterian form of Church go-

' vernment, as by law established. Of this Court three
is a quorum, and the business committed to it is various
and important. It nominates a treasurer, commonly one
of their own number, who acts without fee or reward, and
a clerk, generally the parochial schoolmaster, with a
small salary. To the Elders, as individuals, the super-
intendence of the several districts of the parish, most conti-
guous to their places of residence, is intrusted ; and if,
in their several districts, any breach of the Sabbath
Day, any riotous behaviour, or any gross immorality
takes place, or contempt is shown to any salutary regu-
lation, given forth by the Session, they report the same
to that Court, at its first meeting, that it may determine
whether any, or what, steps it may deem it for edifica-
tion to take in the matter.
The Session fixes the hour of meeting for public wor-
ship, the time for dispensing the Lord's Supper, and ap-
points days for fasting, on account of adverse dispensa-
tions of Providence, and of thanksgiving for signal ma-
nifestations of the Divine favour. It takes cognizance
of all cases of scandal, notorious drunkenness, or other
gross immorality ; and suspends from, or restores to,
Church privileges, including admission to the Sacrament
of the Lord's Supper, as shall appear most likely to
promote the best interests of individuals and of the
community. To the Kirk Session belongs the power
of granting certificates of moral and religious character
to all persons who, having resided in, are about to leave
the parish ; or, upon good grounds, withholding or mo-
difying such certificates.
On the Kirk Session, too, devolves the whole ma-
nagement of the Poors' Funds, and their appropriation
for the suppoit of the claimants, the heritors seldom
exercising their right to interfere—a work this of no
small labour and responsibility ; and although legal
counsel is not admissible before a Kirk Session, yet an
appeal May be taken to the Presbytery, and, in some
cases of character, even to the Civil Courts.
The vast importance of this Court, then, to the moral
and religious health of the community, as well as to the
care of the poor, requires no demonstration, end should
be regarded with feelings of gratitude to the Elders who
give their trouble and attention without any remunera-
tion. Nor is it less obvious that this Court could only
exercise its functions with effect, under the parochial
system. It must be evident that a sort of filial regard
to the parish in which they were born, or in which they
have long resided, and veneration for the Church in
which their fathers worshipped, and for the church-yard
where their mortal remains are deposited, contribute not
a little to the influence of the Kirk Session on the con-
duct of the parishioners.