We have seen already what progress the new Church made in the first few years of its life. Among other things, it had the best theological college in Britain with a galaxy of talent that has rarely if ever been equalled. William Cunningham, John Duncan, George Smeaton, Douglas Bannerman and James Buchanan were on the staff of the New College. These men were not only outstanding lecturers, they were authors of books that are classics in Reformed literature. These were men who put their souls and their brains into their sermons.
Mission work both home and overseas was at a passionate intensity.
Numbers grew and congregations multiplied. But like everything human the Church became flawed and like an early church of the apostles,' it left its first- love. What was at its formation a living, Calvinistic, Evangelical Church became in less then 60 years the home of Liberal Theology and was like a ship without chart, compass, anchor or rudder. The answer to this is complex but we can give the broad outlines. Basically the Church lost its spiritual vision and its priorities became inverted.