in his mind, and Howe, with less definiteness of view, but with equal if not greater catholicity of affection, most ardently and anxiously desired. To attempt an organic union of divers sects is but a Utopian dream. Even to attempt plans of co-operation, correspondence, and mutual harmony before sympathy of feeling, and a close attraction of hearts has been engendered in the Church of Christ, is unwise and useless; but it is not Quixotic to endeavour to establish and increase friendly intercourse and brotherly interchanges of sentiment between those who divide our Protestant Christendom--to draw towards one another in kindly fellowship while mutually conceding the full rights of conscience--and to hope that a day will come when, rising above ancient prejudices and traditional walls of separation, sects and parties who share in the profession of a common faith, may enjoy in this world full intercommunion of instruction and of worship. [Sidenote: _Congregationalism in Scotland._] Following for a moment the fortunes of Independency beyond the bounds of England, we remark that Congregationalism did not take root in Scotland. Robert Browne travelled thither in the year 1584, and dwelt in lodgings by the Canongate. He inveighed against the Reformed Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian ministers of Edinburgh; it is said not without protection and encouragement from the Court. John Penry, too, crossed the Tweed; and King James afterwards complained that such men having "sown their popple," certain brain-sick and heady preachers caught their spirit. Yet up to the period of the civil wars no traces of Independency can be found amongst the Scotch. A person named Orthro Ferrendail, an Irishman, preached in a private house, in the city of Aberdeen, in the year 1642, "at night, within closed doors," what was curiously stigmatized as "nocturnal doctrine or Brownism." Congregational principles were adopted by only a few individuals, yet this created no small stir amongst the Presbyterians. The General Assembly of the year 1647 prohibited the reading of Independent and Baptist books, and the harbouring of people who were infected with their errors; and further they instigated the magistrates of the country to assist ministers in resisting all schismatical innovations. Independent officers and soldiers belonging to the English army could not so easily be dismissed or silenced, and one of the military chaplains wrote a little book on Independency, describing it as "A Little Stone out of the Mountain." To this quaint publication an answer was returned by a theological professor, bearing a title of corresponding quaintness, "A Little Stone pretended to be out of the Mountain, tried and found to be a Counterfeit." The English Commissioners pleaded with the General Assembly on behalf of toleration and of Congregational discipline, but the plea met with an indignant reply. Yet a few ministers, including Patrick Gillespie,[212]