2. Grant, I. F., The Economic History of Scotland (London, 1934), p. 215Google Scholar. Between 1801 and 1881 the population of Lanark, Renfrew, Dumbarton, Fife and Stirling quadrupled. The parochial system encompassed more than the church and its sabbath services. The Church maintained control of the morals of the community via an often rigorous sytem of discipline. However, by 1850 this system of discipline was becoming weak and ineffective. Scottish Record Office, Session Records of the Barony Church (Glasgow, 29 03 1848)Google Scholar. The Reports on the Schemes of the Church of Scotland, “Commission on the Religious Conditions of the People,” (Edinburgh: New College Library, 1896), p. 817.Google Scholar

3. Campbell, Duncan, Reminiscences and Reflections of an Octogenarian Highlander (Inverness, 1910), p. 593.Google Scholar

4. Professor James Robertson of the Old Kirk reminded his final year students that they were going to the “wide wastes of moral heathenism where manufacturing or mining centers are built round with homes of Christless men.” Charteris, A. H., Life of James Robertson (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. 311, 361Google Scholar. The British and Foreign Evangelical Review used the phrase “an age of sensual allurements and worldly excitements” to describe the times (4[1855]:569).

5. Chalmers, Thomas, The Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns, 2 vols. (Glasgow, 1823), 2:16.Google Scholar

6. The Church of Scotland, Acts of the General Assembly (New College Library, 1835), pp. 43–47.Google Scholar

7. The Free Church of Scotland, Acts of the General Assembly (New College Library, 1846), pp. 91, 93.Google Scholar

8. The Free Church of Scotland, Assembly Papers (New College Library, 1851), p. 6.Google Scholar

9. The North British Review (1863):440.Google Scholar

10. Reports on the Schemes of the Church of Scotland, “Special Report by the Committee on Christian Life and Work,” (New College Library, 1887), p. 444Google Scholar. This report on the “Lapsed Classes” included three recommendations: 1. The Church should cooperate with sanitary officials in improving “the physical condition of the lapsed.” 2. For the improvement of the moral and spiritual conditions “temperance cafes, reading-rooms and lectureships bearing on everyday experience” should be supported. 3. “In regard to spiritual elevation the services of worship in the church might be rearranged as to make them far more available than now for bringing in those who are unconcerned.”

11. Ibid., “Report of the Commission on the Religious Condition of the People,” (1896), pp. 799–944. Note emphasis on pp. 822–823 that non-church attendance is prevalent among the “upper and professional classes … not limited to the working classes.”

12. Grant, I. F., Everyday Life in Old Scotland, 3 vols. (London, 1932) 3:406Google Scholar. Chalmers, , Civic Economy, 1:141–168Google Scholar. Webb, R. R., “Literacy Among the Working Classes in Nineteenth Century Scotland,” Scottish Historical Review 33 (1954):100Google Scholar. Guthrie, Thomas, A Plan for Ragged Schools (Edinburgh, 1847), p. 44.Google Scholar

13. Ferguson, Thomas, The Dawn of Scottish Social Welfare (London, 1848), p. 27Google Scholar. The Free Church of Scotland, Proceedings (New College Library, 1846) p. 114Google Scholar. It is said that here “in the Canongate alone there are seventy-four licensed spirit shops. 57,720 gallons of whisky are annually consumed in that locality.” The Church of Scotland, Assembly Papers, 1848Google Scholar. In a petition by John Hope a member of St. Andrew's Church it is claimted that 60,000 Scotsmen die annually from the effects of “liquors” with “65,000,000 spent annually on the sale of liquors.” “Is Scotland's Morals Improving?” The United Presbyterian Magazine 4 (1887):352, 398, 444.Google Scholar

14. The Church of Scotland, Acts of the General Assembly (1850), p. 45Google Scholar. Here it is said that between 1830 and 1850 the annual rate of “serious crime” rose from 1,880 incidents to nearly 5,000; “the increase of crime being to that of the population during the same period in the ratio of seven to one.” Tait, William, Magdalenism (Edinburgh, 1840), pp. 2–4, 10Google Scholar. Tait says that there were about 800 prostitutes grossing £200,000 yearly in Edinburgh. Tait Continues: “It is painful to reflect on the indubitable fact that the hours of the Sabbath which are set aside for divine service, are those generally selected for these immoral appointments … It is a notorious fact that servants under the pretence of going to church, obtain leave for several hours in the evening of the Sabbath with no other intention than to spend it in the haunts of wickedness.” Also see Logan, William, Moral Statistics of Glasgow (Glasgow, 1849), p. 46.Google Scholar

15. Ferguson, , Dawn of Scottish Social Welfare, pp. 40–63Google Scholar. Buchanan, Robert in The Destitution of the Masses in Glasgow (Glasgow, 1851), p. 3Google Scholar, says that the average life span in Glasgow was thirty-three years.

16. Chalmers, , Civic Economy, 1:9, 93.Google Scholar

17. Chalmers, Thomas, Institute of Theology, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1849) 1:368, 369.Google Scholar

18. Wells, James, “The Wynd Mission,” The Free Church of Scotland Monthly (2 01 1899):4.Google Scholar

19. “The Christian Church and Social Improvement,” The British and Foreign Evangelical Review 10 (1861):695–696Google Scholar. Norman MacLeod was more insistent in his conviction that the Church was to be socially active, but the social witness of the Church was still to be largely through individual witness. See MacLeod, Norman, “Parish Papers,” (1862), pp. 228, 229, 239.Google Scholar

20. Mechie, Stewart, The Church and Scottish Social Development (London, 1960), pp. 165–167Google Scholar. DrDibelius, Otto, Das Kirchliche Leben Schottlands (Glessen, 1911), p. 25Google Scholar, writes: “The substantial gain of the Disruption is that Scotland is the only country in Protestant Europe in which the Industrial Revolution was not the essence of an accompanying decay of religion.”

21. Ibid., pp. 165–167.

22. Chalmers, , The Civic Economy, 1:93.Google Scholar

23. The Free Church of Scotland, Proceedings (05 1843): 112.Google Scholar

24. The British and Foreign Evangelical Review 10 (1861):527.Google Scholar

25. The Free Church of Scotland, Proceedings (10, 1843), p. 176.Google Scholar

26. Chalmers, Thomas, Posthumous Works, vol. 6, Sermons, p. 392.Google Scholar

27. Mechie, , The Church and Scottish Social Development, p. 106Google Scholar. Malcolm, Robert, Clerical Sketches, (Glasgow, 1842), p. 177ffGoogle Scholar. Smith, Donald C., The Failure and Recovery of Social Criticism in the Scottish Church 1830–1950 (Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Edinburgh, 1965), pp. 218–228.Google Scholar

28. Woodside, David, The Soul of a Scottish Church (Edinburgh, 1917), pp. 208–209.Google Scholar

29. Chalmers, , Civic Economy, 1:121, 123.Google Scholar

30. “The Story of Fountainbridge,” The Free Church of Scotland Monthly, (12 1900):26.Google Scholar

31. Norman MacLeod has left the most complete series of sermons preached to a working class audience. These sermons are found in his periodical Good Words throughout 1864. The title of these sermons published monthly were: 1. “Not Saved” 2. “Publicans and Sinners Hearing Jesus” 3. “The Love of Jesus Christ for Sinners” 4. “The Prodigal Son” 5. “The Prodigal Son Con't” 6. “The Gadarene Demoniac” 7. “The Home Mission Work of Christians” 8. “Prayers” 9. “Prayer” 10. “Principles of Christian Tolerance” 11. “The End of the Year.” The first five sermons deal with the way of salvation. Sermon #6 is a transition sermon in which it is shown that salvation issues in a new way of life with various responsibilities. Sermons 7 to 11 deal with practical themes of the Christian life and personal responsibility. In this particular series of sermons there is a lack of specific references to social facts although Donald MacLeod says that his brother spoke of “such practical matters as sanitary conditions … healthy food, and the treatment of children.”

32. Chalmers, , Civic Economy, 2:43.Google Scholar

33. Eadie, John, The Divine Love (Edinburgh, 1865), p. 254Google Scholar. In one sermon, Robert Buchanan also argued that the working class man and economically less privileged man were really better ofT than “the more successful” with their wealth, for they did not have the burden and responsibilities of management; see Buchanan, Robert, The Book of Ecclesiastes (London. 1859), pp. 186–187.Google Scholar

34. Bruce, A. B., “The Kingdom of God,” Christianity and Social Life (Edinburgh, 1885), p. 10.Google Scholar

35. Ibid., p. 5.

36. Rainy, Robert, The Ecclesiastical Outlook (Edinburgh, 1894), p. 15.Google Scholar

37. Ibid.

38. In 1874, Johnston, James asked in a pamphlet, The Ecclesiastical and Religious Statistics of Scotland (Glasgow, 1874), p. 3Google Scholar: “Are the churches in Scotland mere conservative institutions existing for themselves and the salvation of individual souls, or do they exist for the salvation of society, and for the sweetening and sanctifying of all relations between man and man, as well as between man and God.” In 1885 D. M. Ross in an address to a Free Church congregation declared: “The mission of Christianity is not merely to save individuals but to regenerate society.” See “Christianity and Socialism,” Christiant and Social Life, New College Library Pamphlet Collection, p. 76. Ross's sentiments were echoed by the British and Foreign Evangelical Review, (1888):91Google Scholar: “God has given His Gospel for the regeneration of society as well as for the salvation of the individual.” James Stalker, The Preacher and His Model, said: “The preacher's vocation includes a message to the community as well as to the individual,” p. 78. Also see p. 82. Drummond, HenryThe Greatest Thing in the World and Other Addresses (London, 1894), pp. 129, 133Google Scholar, retained the concern for the renewal of the cities by means of the Gospel. He said, “Christianity is the religion of cities… to make cities—that is what we are here for. To make good cities—that is for the present hour the main work of Christianity. For the City is strategic.”

39. One tragedy of Victorian Scotland was the failure of the Church to reach the working class. See: MacLaren, Allan A., “Presbyterianism and the Working Class in a Mid-Nineteenth Century City,” The Scottish Historical Review 46 (1967):115ffGoogle Scholar. First Report of the Religious lnstruction Commission (New College Library, 1835), p. 32Google Scholar. Here the Commission notes the “indifference to religion and neglect of worship of the poorer classes.” The Second Report of the Religious Instruction Commission (New College Library, 1835), p. 33Google Scholar, makes the same observation for Glasgow. In 1896 the Old Kirk final report of the “Commission on the Religous Condition of the People” noted the “serious problem of non-Church-going among the masses of cities,” particularly Glasgow and Dundee. See Reports of the Schemes of the Church of Scotland (1896), p. 806Google Scholar. While it is not the purpose of this paper to deal at length with the reasons for this failure, it should be noted that there were at least three factors contributing to this: The first was economic. The people simply could not afford the proper clothes demanded for church attendance. Furthermore the people with lower incomes could not pay the seat rents which in 1835 in Glasgow ranged from 2 to 27 shillings per annum and in Edinburgh were from 2 to 42 shillings per annum. See: First Report of the Religious Instruction Commission, pp. 26, 27, 32. Second Report of the Religious Instruction Commission, pp. 22, 33. Also see: Reports on the Schemes of the Church of Scotland (1888), “Committee on Seat Rents,” pp. 737–751Google Scholar. The Church of Scotland, Acts of the General Assembly (1890), p. 56Google Scholar. Session Minutes of the Charlotte Street United Presbyterian Church (Aberdeen: 18 October 1848; 1 November 1848; 15 January 1849; August 1849). The second was cultural. Socially and educationally the puplit and the preacher were removed from the life and understanding of the masses. Cornelius Smith “The Attitude of The Clergy To the industrial Revolution” writes: “It was from a vantage ground of considerable security and elevation that the ministers made their survey of the social life around them. At £200 per annum they had eight times the day labourer's wages.” In 1896 the General Assembly of the Old Kirk received a report stating that the existing barrier between the poorer masses and the clergy could only be broken by the clergy actually moving into the “denser parts of the city parishes.” Reports and Schemes of the Church of Scotland (1896), p. 809Google Scholar. The third reason was personal and psychological. When the poor person did attend church he was often reminded of his status as a second class citizen. Thomas Guthrie in his Autobiography, 2 vols. (London, 1875), p. 367Google Scholar, notes that his church was not “accessible” because “no man likes to be branded before his fellows as a pauper” and for that reason the poor would not accept free sittings. in the Maxwell Church, Glasgow, the visitor or person holding a seat was greeted by this sign upon entering Church: