The Scottish Reformation | Page 6

1896, along
with the writer of this sketch, two volumes of 'The Records of the
Commissions of the General Assembly,' covering the period 1646-1650,
from the original manuscript in the Assembly library, with an
introduction, notes, and appendices by himself. To these must be added
the present volume of the Baird Lecture, 'The Scottish Reformation.'
The Baird Lecture on the Westminster Assembly was received with
great favour in America as well as in this country, and a new edition of
it was published at Philadelphia in 1897, in a notice of which in the
'Presbyterian and Reformed Review' the following statement occurs:
"The book at once took its rank as the most trustworthy and
sympathetic account of the Westminster Standards in existence, and
rapidly ran out of print. The public is to be congratulated that Dr
Mitchell has permitted himself to be persuaded by the [Presbyterian]
Board to revise the text and allow a new edition to be issued to meet
the present demand. The revision does not much alter the text. A phrase
is more felicitously turned here or rendered a shade more exact or
emphatic there; a few additional references are added in the notes; and
a few additional citations and remarks incorporated in them: that is
about all. But so good a book needed only these little touches of
betterment."
The Professor also contributed to various journals and encyclopædias
many important articles, chiefly on historical topics relating to Scotland,
which, if collected, would form a volume of miscellaneous papers of

great interest and value. The most important of these are included in the
subjoined list: In the 'British and Foreign Evangelical Review,' January
1872, "Our Scottish Reformation: Its Distinctive Characteristics and
Present-Day Lessons," pp. 87-128; October 1875, "Dr Merle
D'Aubigné on the Reformation in Scotland," pp. 736-760; October
1876, "Killen's Ecclesiastical History of Ireland," pp. 713-741: in the
'Catholic Presbyterian,' March 1879, "Calvin and the Psalmody of the
Reformed Churches": in the 'Scottish Church,' November 1886, "St
Andrews in Covenanting Times": in the 'Year-Book of the Church of
Scotland,' 1886, "Brief Sketch of the History of the Reformed Church
of Scotland": in 'St Giles' Lectures,' First Series, 1880-81,
"Pre-Reformation Scotland"; and in Fourth Series, 1883-84, "The
Primitive or Apostolic and Sub-Apostolic Church," being the first of
the lectures entitled, "The Churches of Christendom." To Dr Schaff's
Encyclopædia he contributed separate articles on "St Columba," "The
Culdees," "Patrick Hamilton," "Iona," and "The Keltic Church"; and to
the 'Presbyterian and Reformed Review,' published at Philadelphia, he
contributed a review of Dr Hume Brown's 'John Knox.' Besides many
Reports on various matters presented to the General Assembly, he
issued for special purposes a "Statement regarding the Eldership," and a
"List of Acts of the Scottish Parliament, and of Acts, Overtures, and
Resolutions of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland,
adopted at various times for the Acknowledgment of the True
Reformed Protestant Religion, the Maintenance of Sound Doctrine, and
the Subscription of the Confessions of Faith of 1560 and 1647." When
at Geneva, on one of his visits to the Continent, he prepared for private
circulation, from the original, which is still preserved among the
historical treasures in the Hotel de Ville, "Livre Des Anglois, or
Register of the English Church at Geneva under the pastoral care of
Knox and Goodman, 1555-1559," with a Prefatory Notice and a
Facsimile of pp. 49, 50. To this list of his minor works may be added a
sermon on "The Unsearchable Riches of Christ," published in 1879.
The Professor accorded a generous and helpful sympathy to those who
were workers in the field in which he laboured himself with so great
assiduity and success; and he was not only a member both of the
Scottish History Society and of the Scottish Text Society, but took an

active interest in their affairs. He was also one of the representatives of
the Church of Scotland in the General Presbyterian Alliance from the
date of its formation, and took part in the business of all its General
Councils, at the first of which, held at Edinburgh in 1877, he laid on the
table a paper which he had drawn up on "The Harmony between the
Bibliology of the Westminster Confession and that of the earlier
Reformed Confessions, exhibited in parallel columns." He was
appointed Convener of the Committee on the Desiderata of the History
of the Presbyterian Churches; and at the following General Council,
held at Philadelphia in 1880, it fell to him, in consequence of the death
of Principal Lorimer, who was Convener of the British section of the
Committee on Creeds and Formulas of Subscription, to give in the
report containing "Answers to Queries regarding Creeds and
Confessions." The Answers as regards the Church of Scotland, which
had been prepared by himself, are to be