The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1868-03-25

eUOTIS. one pIOCt6utu VIZ" VI 80
and perseverance, concealing her real OBJ
ject from the people, and protesting only
to desire a reform in some subordinate
matters. She succeeded in persuading
the people to make some changes. No
effort was made to introduce Prelacy, un-
til after her death, A. D. 1893, when her
sons determined to establish it. In doing
this, it is a suggestive fact mentioned by
McLauchlan jip. 49, that "with the
exception of one or two of the earlier
and less prominent bishops of somewhat
doubtful identity, we do not fad one ma
tive Scot accepting, or being received
into, the newly constituted offices. Bish-
ops and monks are almost al importa-
tons from abroad some from England,
and others FROM France. The whole
Romish system was 10 bemtra5aced into
Scotland, and the men who had to organ
ize it, had to be introduced with it. "
The suddenness Of the establishment OF
the Scottish hierarchy shows that it was
done by force and not by persuasion.
Every diocese in Scotland but one, was
founded between A. D. 100 and A. D.
1853; the splendid abbeys whose ruins
are all over Scotland were built at that
time, hordes of foreign monks were in
troduced and planted all over the land.
and the strong arm of royal power was
welded to crush the Culdees. What
could these poor Culdee presbyters do
against such an army of monks and pre-
lates, backed by the army of the King
and the powerful influence of England
They were at last driven out of their
Colleges, the last one being the Culdee
institute of St. Andrews, which was sup
pressed A. d. 1897, for resisting the
claims of the prelate of that see. From
this date, the old Culdee Church, as a
visible organization, disappears after one
of the noblest and bravest struggles in
all history, a struggle running through
from FIVE to seven centuries, in which
every inch of ground was disputed with
the tenacity of Thermopyle, and given
up at last because they were overpower-
ed, pot conquered.
Now We put it to any one who knows
the working of human nature, whether it
is likely that this old, unconquered faith
that had bsttled for a thousand years,
first against Paganism and then against
Popery, was likely to become extinct be-
fore a foreign religion, imposed upon a
reluctant people by the sword? That
foreign falth was not only 10 them an un-
scriptural one, but the faith of their ene-
mics; the religion of Rome, to whose
yoke their brave forefathers had never
bowed when Rome was mightiest; the re-
hgion of England, that had never ceased
to endeavor to bring Scotland into sub
lection, and never ceased to meet stern
defiance that chose death to subjugatiOn.
Was it likely that they would ever all
submit to this foreign religion? Was it
likely that the national spirit which
shrined Wallace and Bruce in its heart
of hearts, and famed out so grandly on
such bloody fields as that of Bannock-
burn, would ever cordially receive reli-
giOn forced on them by English rulers
and English prelates? Surely it requires
but small knowledge of the ineradica
BILE laws of human nature to infer, that
religious conquest of that kind never
could wholly supplant the old religion in
the hearts of the people, except by ex-
terminating them, as was not done, in the
case of the Scottish people. No religion
ever has been destroyed by persecution,
if the people protesting it were not de-
stroyed. Suppose in our own country,
the government were to force a religion
upon us by the bayonet, would it ever
take deep root? We might submit to
it, because we could not resist it, but
would We love it? Would we adopt it in
our hearts? Would We not continue to
cherish the old and prosecuted faith of
our fathers in our very inmost heart, with
a fidelity all the more undying because of
this persecution? Would not that pro-
scribed religion retire to the inaccessible
fastnesses of the mountains, and there look
and long for its day of deliverance?
Would not its kindling memories Of he
roic endeavor and cruel persecution be
whispered from sire to son, until its very
suferings would become hallOwed, and
the blood of its martyrs would be the
seed of its Church? Then why should
it not have been so with this old, invinci
bic religion of the Culdees? Why should
the Scottish people be less tenacious of
their ancestral faith than we would be of
ours? Have they from the very earliest
times been a tickle people, given to
change, and capable of being moulded in
the way thus described?
Hence were there not a particle of
evidence as TO the continued existence of
the ancient Culdee faith in the rural and
districts of Scotland during
the occupation of POpery, We would in
fer the fact from these Interchangeable