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CONVERSATIONS

ON

CHURCH ESTABLISHMENTS.

BY THE

REV. JOHN GUTHRIE, M. A.,

GLASGOW.

Second Edition.

LONDON:

SOCIETY FOR THE LIBERATION OF RELIGION
FROM STATE PATRONAGE AND CONTROL,
2, SERJEANTS' INN, FLEET STREET.

ARTHUR MIALL, 18, BOUVERIE STREET,
FLEET STREET, E.C.

110. j. 204.

YATES AND ALEXANDER,

PRINTERS,

CHURCH PASSAGE, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

IT is just twelve months since this manual was published, and it has been half-a-year out of print. The sale of two thousand copies in six months is a welcome indication of the growing interest that is felt in its vastly important theme. The rapid ripening of sentiment on the subject, and the auspicious current of events that has set in all around it during the past year, encourage the hope that the new and improved edition may also find its mission and its welcome.

The Author gratefully acknowledges the kind terms in which his little book has been noticed by the press. He has noted, with due deference, the various comments that have been made on the colloquial mould in which the argument has been cast. As the general rule, the English notices disapprove of it, the Scottish notices commend it. It will be remembered that nothing like dramatic effect was ever contemplated, but merely to relieve the strain of discussion, and give it a form such as the author hopes it may often take in actual life among Nonconformist ministers and the young people of their charge.

The whole argument has been carefully revised, and in certain portions, particularly in the Old Testament department, considerably enlarged. On pending ecclesiastical questions, and especially on the Irish Church, and on the statistics of Voluntaryism at home and abroad, the information, so far as attainable, has been brought down to the present time.

20, BUCKINGHAM TERRACE, GLASGOW, January, 1868.

TO THE READER.

INGENUOUS youth! The following argument, for the liberation of the Church from mis-alliance with the State, is affectionately addressed to you.

I have not assumed any very juvenile style; knowing that youth of the manlier stamp kindle with interest at whatever tends to draw their minds onward and upward. "I have spoken unto you, young men, because you are strong."

It is no sign of health of mind, any more than of body, when a youth cannot enjoy a plain dish, but can only pick at extremely delicate or highlyflavoured fare. It is a benign sentence that binds us to work in the sweat of our brow, and learn in the sweat of our brain. We are not only to cull the flowers of knowledge in the sunny glade, but to descend manfully into the dark mine, and dig laboriously there for the hidden treasures of truth, whose "merchandise is better than silver, and its gain than fine gold."

The title to your interest which I am most ambitious to secure is that of plainly and comprehensively presenting to you the truth. If I were

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