text:  not whether the points at issue were weighty enough to justify schism and hostile separation but whether those points could even be safe as mere speculative _credenda_ which through so long a period of trial and by so memorable a harvest of national services had been shown to be unnecessary? Very sure we are that no eminent servant of the Scottish church could abandon without anguish of mind the multitude of means and channels that great machinery for dispensing living truths which the power and piety of the Scottish nation have matured through three centuries of pure Christianity militant