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Statement Explanatory and Defensive

Position Assumed

By Certain Ministers and Elders of the Free Church of Scotland

In Consequence of
The Decision of Last General Assembly in Regard to the Present Scheme of Union.

"Buy the truth, and sell it not."—Prov. xxiii. 23.

"Peace is always desirable in itself, and the peace of the Church ought to be earnestly pursued. But the cry of peace is often employed by those who are engaged in courses of defection, in order to drown all opposition to their measures; and not unfrequently those are loudest in proclaiming the evils of division and schism who are themselves chargeable with them."—Dr M'Crie's Statement. Edinburgh: 1807. P 201.

"I see no prospect of any efficient stand being made for the public cause, unless by a firm and compact .... body of those who are cordially attached to that cause, being collected and combined."—Letter of Dr M'Ceib, Life, p. 253.

Edinburgh: James Nichol. Glasgow: T. Murray & Son. 1867.