it makes the reference to the presbytery before proceeding to lead probation; and if probation is allowed to be led, the same, when finished, is brought to the presbytery for direction as to the censure to be inflicted. It is usual for presbyteries to remit those who compear before them to their own kirk-sessions to receive orders respecting the disc. pline which they are to undergo.*

Administration of discipline.In general, therefore, it devolves upon kirk-sessions to prescribe the manner of making professions of repentance. The practice here is not uniform. Some kirk-sessions still require public appearances to be made before the congregation, although not with all the circumstances of severity with which our code was wont to be administered. Others, again, adopt a much more lenient mode of proceeding, merely appointing the parties to receive a rebuke in presence of the session. Every where there is an accommodation, more or less, to the change of times, and the change of feel ings in the Christian community. The great objects for which dis. cipline is prescribed, are to se. cure good order in the church, and to promote edification. It is to be presumed that whatever be the course which is followed in administering discipline, the members of sessions keep these objects in view. It cannot be supposed that, in their responsible situation, objects of such im. portance will be overlooked by

Form of Process, ch vi

them; and it would be rash to pronounce that even where public appearances are dispensed with, and the greatest leniency is shown, there is a want of attention either to good order or to edification. The attainment of absolution from scandal being left to the discretion of the session, it may be invested with dif ficulties as to the time when ab. solution will be granted, and the outward good conduct which must be previously observed, and the private examinations which must be previously submitted to. And these difficulties, to the subjects of discipline, may be fully as formidable, and fully as profitable, as ever was a public rebuke. A session which desires the good of those committed to its care, and remembers that its power has been given " for edification, and not for destruction," will not only seek for signs of repentance, but use every means to produce them; and will doubt. less employ that private dealing with the unhappy individuals before them, which the standards of our church in all cases recommend, and which may be expected to be peculiarly successful, when humbling confessions or disclosures have been made.*

Excommunication.-All persons under scandal are excluded from privileges. The lesser excommunication, or suspension from the privileges of the church, is the highest censure which kirk. sessions usually inflict. "When the offender, instead of being re

* Form of Process, ch. iii. 1. First Book of Discipline, ch. ix. Assembly, 1596, Sess. 7. Hill's View of the Constitution, p. 133.

formed by the sentence of the lesser excommunication, presumptuously persists in his for. mer sins, the session proceeds, under the direction of the presbytery, and with the utmost solemnity, to the greater excommunication. Yet even this sentence is not understood to have any ef. fect in dissolving the relations of civil life. It leaves access to various means of reformation; and it is removed by the sentence of absolution, which the church is always ready to pronounce upon satisfying evidence of repentance. *

A person under the sentence of excommunication is not relieved from it upon giving satisfac. tion to the minister or kirk-session of his parish. The presbytery of the bounds must first be satisfied as to his repentance.†

When the censure of the less. er excommunication has been inflicted on a person who lives un. der a different session from that by which he has been convicted of scandal, intimation to that ef. fect is given to the session of the congregation to which he be. longst.

Fugitives from discipline.Those who abscond during the dependence of a process for scandal against them, are summoned from the pulpit of their own pa. rish church, and failing to appear, are reported to the presbytery; ordered by it to be cited to appear before it, from the pulpits of all

Hill's View of the Constitution, pp. 132,

133. The Ordoure of Excommunication and of Public Repentance, Assembly, 1569. Form of Process, ch. iii. 4, 6. ch. viii. ix.

Assembly 1714, Sess. 7. Revisal of Synod Book of Orkney.

Form of Process, ch iv. 18

the churches within the bounds; and not compearing, are declared by the presbytery to be fugitives from church discipline, the same being directed to be intimated in all the kirks within the bounds.* Reference.-Cases of difficulty, and scandals of the grosser kind, it is requisite that a kirk-session should refer to the presbytery of the bounds. From the delicacy which members of session feel in regard to their acquaintances or neighbors, or the doubts which they entertain of the validity of the evidence submitted to them, or their wish to throw the odium of the sentence off themselves, or the weight which they expect it to receive from being suggested or pronounced by the presbytery, even ordinary cases of discipline are often made matters of reference. These last references, however, are extremely ill received; and from the deliverance invariably given on them, "remit to the kirk-session to proceed according to the rules of the church," the members of kirk sessions may learn that they have nothing to gain by following such a course, and that, generally speaking, it is more to their own credit, and more conducive to the public good, to fulfill their duty in every case by exercising their own judgment.† When there is a reference to the presbytery, an extract of the whole of the proceedings of the session upon the case, is made from the minutes, subjoined to which is the resolution to refer. The reference may be either simpliciter, that is, in regard to the whole case, with

*Form of Process, ch. ii. 16.

↑ Hill's View of the Constitution, p 98

fewness of the cases in which any dissatisfaction is expressed with their proceedings, and the confidence with which the people in general rely upon their decisions, are the best proofs of the wisdom of that constitution, which makes them mainly courts of conscience. Were law agents, on the other hand, to undertake the cause of parties before a kirk-session, it would be hopeless to expect that any moral or spiritual benefit would result from its proceedings. The agents would necessarily consider only by what means their clients, whether guilty or not, might be rendered success. ful; and the clients, removed from the operation of that influence which their minister and elders may be supposed to have over them, would be only anticipating a triumph from the talents dis. played in their behalf. It is not to be doubted, also, that if law agents were permitted to act in kirk-sessions, it would scarcely be possible, at least in country parishes, to have any kirk-session. The elders are, in general, respectable and well informed men. They have a zeal against sin, but they have also much tenderness for the people. They are not ignorant of their duty. They are at pains to understand it, and they are most praiseworthy in performing it. But if their labors of love were to be rendered intricate and harassing by the subtleties of the law; if, instead of being instruments of good, they should find themselves puzzled, and perplexed, and overborne by men, who have no other object but to extricate a particular individual from the awkward

situation into which he has been brought, who would desire the office of an elder? or who would accept it?

Treatment of parties.-From parties being thus without any one in particular to manage their cause, it is the more incumbent on the members of session to explain to them fully and dis tinctly how they should conduct it in the session, or how, if dis. satisfied with the issue of it there, they should carry it by appeal to the presbytery. Perhaps there never was an instance in which this was overlooked, or in which the utmost consideration was not shown to parties; every possible aid was not given to them, whatever they might be; and the utmost pains were not taken to impress upon their minds, that if they wished their cause to be further considered, the rules of the church must be strictly complied with.

Minutes.-The minutes of kirk-sessions are regularly kept, the members in attendance, and the business transacted at every meeting being faithfully recorded. It is not necessary, at least in the first instance, to enter in the record all the evidence which is taken before a session. Many cases of scandal, notwithstanding the vehement opposition that is made to closing with the charge, terminate in an acknowledgment of the offense; and it is this result only, which, in such cases, it is essential to notice. On this account also, kirk-sessions are slow in putting witnesses upon oath, trying, in general, the effect of a precognition in throwing light upon a case. Whatever

goes by a reference or appeal to a superior court, is necessarily a part of the record. The session record needs to be regularly kept, as the presbytery may issue a peremptory order, to have it produced.* By the assembly, 1639, it was required that the session-books of every parish be presented once a year to the presbyteries to be tried by them. This standing order is perhaps more observed than it was, it being by no means an uncommon practice to submit the paro. chial registers to the committees of presbyteries, by which the schools are annually examined, and to have them attested by these committees.

It is believed not to be usual for the moderators of kirk-sessions, as the moderators of the other church-judicatories do, to sign the minutes of session. A case occurred some years since in the civil court, in which a minute of a kirk-session was produced in evidence. It was ob. jected to as informal, because it had not the signature of the moderator attached to it. But the Lord Ordinary, before deci. ding the question of informality, directed inquiry to be made as to whether it was the practice of that kirk-session to have its minutes signed by the moderator or

not.

Not only must the minutes be correctly written, but care must be taken to have no blottings or

* Hill's view of the Constitution, p. 97.

interlinings. When any thing is deleted, it must be marked on the margin how many pages or lines are so blotted out, and that it was done by authority of a competent court; and this marginal annotation must be signed by the moderator and clerk. If any thing has been omitted, the omission is, in like manner, supplied on the margin, and subscribed by the clerk.* It is incompetent for a kirk-session, or any inferior court, to erase the minute, or minutes, or any part of the minutes of its own proceedings at a former meeting. That can be done only by authority from its immediately superior court.†

Ruling Elders.-Every kirksession is represented both in the presbytery of the bounds, and in the provincial synod by one of its elders. The representative is elected every half year, within two months after the sitting of the synod; and in case of death or demission, a new election is made within one month after these events. The elder carries with him an extract of his elec tion, under the hand of the session clerk; and unless he produces this extract, first to the presbytery, and afterwards to the synod, his name is not admitted on the roll of these judicatories.‡

The session nominates its own clerk, and its own officer.

*Act 9.-Assembly 1706.

† Assembly 1817, Session 7. Campbell, Sy. nod of Merse and Teviotdale.

+ Act 12-Assembly 1776. Steuart of Pardovan's Collections, passim in book i. title vii. 11, and book iv.