THE NATIONAL ENTHUSIASM. 239 



and maintain, is liberty to do his duty towards God. The 

 ancient standards of the Church of Scotland ' embodied/ 

 he said, ' in all their breadth the Redeemer's rights of 

 prerogative as sole Head and King of His Church, and, 

 with these, all those duties and privileges of the Church's 

 members which His rights necessarily involve and ori- 

 ginate.' The Church, therefore, owed it to Christ that 

 she should not surrender either her spiritual independ- 

 ence or the rights of congregations. 



The lofty and ideal conception of the cause he 

 championed, which animated Hugh Miller, was enter- 

 tained also by the people of Scotland. A thrill of spirit- 

 ual enthusiam passed through the heart of the nation more 

 ardent and elevating than has been experienced in the 

 United Kingdom since the seventeenth century. I con- 

 sider it one of the greatest advantages of my life to 

 have witnessed the excitement of the time. So stead- 

 ily do the forces at work in modern society tend to 

 make the possession of money the all-absorbing ambition 

 of life, so pallid and ineffectual, in contest with this tre- 

 mendous power, are the aesthetic and political influences 

 which act upon cultivated men, that it is a strengthen- 

 ing and priceless consciousness to have lived in a society 

 which in very deed esteemed principle more highly than 

 gold. More highly than gold ; yes, and more highly 

 than what to finely-toned minds is of greater value than 

 gold, to wit, the distinction belonging to an Established 

 Church, the deference, the social consideration, yielded 

 to the representatives of a legally recognized and honour- 

 ed institution. 



Within the present century no day has dawned on 

 Scotland when the heart of the nation was so profoundly 

 agitated as on that on which the majority in the General 

 Assembly of 1843 left St Andrew's Church and pro- 



