RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Presbyterians
5. Reformed Presbyterian Church: This Church is the legitimate descendant and representative of the Covenanted Church of Scotland in its period of greatest purity, the period of the second Reformation (1638-1649). Holding the continuing obligation of the national Covenants (see Covenanters) it maintains the doctrine of the universal supremacy of Christ and the authority of his Word both in Church and State. In doctrinal belief it adheres to the theology of the Westminster Confession; in worship it uses exclusively the Psalms of Scripture, without instrumental music. It objects to all secret oathbound societies. Its members decline to swear allegiance to any civil constitution that disowns or dishonors Christ: this is its historic position of political dissent both in Britain and America. The Covenanters suffered cruel persecutions under the Stuarts, and welcomed the Revolution of 1688; but as in Scotland under the Revolution Settlement the national Church was substantially a creature of the State, and prelacy in England and Ireland was registered in the national constitution, they never joined the Revolution Church. For sixteen years, as " the United Societies," they were without a minister. In 1706 they were joined by the Rev. John McMillan from the Established Church, and the first presbytery was constituted in 1743. They continued to increase" till 1863, when there were six presbyteries and a synod, with about forty ministers, a theological seminary, a prosperous mission in the New Hebrides, and a Jewish mission in London. In 1863 a disruption took place, the majority resolving to abide no longer by the historic position of the church. That majority joined the Free Church thirteen years after. The minority, adhering to the recognized testimony of the church, constituted themselves the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, and were acknowledged in the civil courts as the legitimate representatives of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. It has now nine ministers, and it conducts, along with the Reformed Presbyterian Synod in Ireland, prosperous missions in Antioch and Alexandretta. It is in ecclesiastical fellowship with the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America (see below, VIII., 7). John McDonald.
6. United Original Secession Church: This church dates from 1733, when four ministers of the National Church, Ebenezer Erskine, William Wilson, Alexander Moncrieff, and James Fisher felt
. in conscience constrained to withdraw . rigm from ^g courts 0f t^t church (see
Divisions. above> *> § 4, 2, § 2). The reasons for their withdrawal were found both in the administrative and the doctrinal sides of the church's life. The exercise of lay patronage, forcing ministers upon churches even with the aid of the military, and the defects in the teaching and preaching of some professors and ministers, lacking, as it did, the Evangelical note which they judged vital to the interest of true religion, seemed to require this action. They sought not only to maintain this Evangelical note in their own teaching, but to lift up a public testimony against the departures from it in the Church. Ebenezer Erskine (q.v.) did this in a sermon preached at a meeting of a synod,
and he and those who openly sympathized with him were suspended from their office as ministers. They formed themselves into a presbytery at Gairney Bridge in Fifeshire (where a monument commemorating the event has been erected), but a presbytery of the Church of Scotland, which, because of untoward circumstances, was in a condition of secession from its courts. Hence, the name Secession. The movement was popular, and other presbyteries were formed, which were linked together by a synod, which met annually. The name " Church " was purposely avoided because the Seceders regarded themselves as a part of the Church of Scotland, though compelled for the sake of conscience to carry on their work in a state of secession. The history of this movement is marked by many divisions. The first cause of division was an oath which was exacted from the burgesses of certain cities in the country, in which they promised support to the religion established in the realm. Some thought that this oath could be taken in consistency with the position which they had taken, the religion to which approval was given being that sanctioned in the constitution of the country. Others thought that the taking of it meant approval of the things that the church had recently tolerated and so involved unfaithfulness to the protest which they had made against these things. The contention resulted in a separation in 1747 into different camps, — the Burgher and the Anti-Burgher. After this, the question between Church and State began to be agitated in both these churches. The result was difference of view, some taking the secular standpoint in relation to the State, and others bitterly opposing it. They who thought that the State should confine its attention to secular affairs and leave the church alone, were called New Lights, and the others received the name Old Lights.
This line of cleavage in the opinion regarding the State formed in the two branches of the church led to . the different parties in them which held
Stat^'t'cs' similar views drawing toward one another, and finally to a union on the New Light Basis, known as the " voluntary basis," in 1820, leaving sections that adhered to the principle of State-churchism, in separate ecclesiastical organizations. In this union is found the beginning of the United Presbyterian Church (see above, 2). The history of the sturdy fragments left outside this union of 1820, is one of gradual amalgamation, with occasional fragments of the fragments finding their way into larger ecclesiastical bodies. There was a union between those who stood on the ground of State-churchism, and later of those who had long maintained different views about the Burgess oath. It is the result of these unions that is found in the United Original Secession Church, the half of which united with the Free Church in 1852, and the other half still maintains a separate organization. Its platform is the position identified with the second Reformation, with the ideal of a nation and a church in covenant with God to promote his cause. It is a small body consisting of twentyfive congregations, grouped in five presbyteries, with a synod as the supreme court meeting annually. It has 19 ministers, one probationer, and
Presbyterians