lical party in the Established Church. The fellowship-meetings were held in the evenings, and generally in a private house, the exercises consisting of praise, prayer, reading the Word, and Christian conversation. We have no account under what minister of the Church of Scotland Mr. Dale placed himself while at Paisley, Cambuslang, and Hamilton; but we may readily suppose that his residence in the two last-named places, if not selected for that purpose, would at least give him an opportunity of attending on the many evangelical ministers who flocked to that quarter for many years after the revivals of religion which had occurred at Cambuslang shortly before. It was about 1763 when Mr. Dale took up his residence in Glasgow, being then in his twenty-fourth year. He attached himself at one time to the College Church congregation, under the ministry of Dr. Gillies, son-in-law to the well-known Maclaurin, author of the inimitable sermons on "Glorying in the Cross of Christ."
The causes which led Mr. Dale and a few others to secede from the national Church, and unite, as a separate community, under the Congregational order, will now be traced from an old manuscript, and from a pamphlet printed in 1814, entitled, "A Short Account of the Rise and Establishment of the Churches commonly called the Old Scotch Independents." This secession, like every other which has happened during the last 120 years, arose out of the question of church patronage. In general, the contending parties have been the members of the church against the crown or an individual lay-patron; but in this instance the contention lay betwixt the general session of Glasgow and the magistrates and town council of the city. The general session, composed of the ministers and elders of the eight parishes into which the city was then divided, had, prior to 1764–66, held and exercised the right of patronage to all the town churches as vacancies occurred. At this date, however, the right of the general session was challenged by the magistrates and council, and decided by the civil courts in favour of the latter, who have consequently been patrons of all the city churches ever since. The authorities being then, as for many years after, of the moderate party, filled up the first vacancy which occurred—that of the Wynd church—with a minister most obnoxious to the orthodox party. The appointment gave great offence, not only to the parishioners, but to the citizens generally, who valued their religious privileges. Great dissatisfaction was evinced by the orthodox party in the Wynd congregation, which resulted in their erecting a new place of worship in North Albion Street, which was first called "The Chapel of the Scotch Presbyterian Society," but afterwards "The Chapel of Ease." To the erection of this building Mr. Dale was an original subscriber, and voted for Mr. Cruden, the minister who first occupied its pulpit. The building continued to be used as a place of worship in connection with the Church of Scotland, the minister being chosen by the people, till about 1850, when it was sold, and is now occupied as a leather warehouse. In the year 1768, Mr. John Barclay (afterwards known as the leader of a sect which took the name of Bereans), a licentiate of the Church of Scotland, and assistant minister of the parish of Fettercairn, being impressed with the evils of patronage, and lamenting the unscriptural doctrines then taught in many of the pulpits of the parish churches, heard with sympathy of the movement in Glasgow, and visited that city for the purpose of being introduced to Mr. Dale, with whom he had many interviews. His visits were repeated, when Mr. Archibald Paterson, Mr. Matthew Alexander, and others who afterwards became associated with Mr. Dale in the Congregational Church, were present. They were satisfied with the doctrines taught by Mr.
