Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/164

 tory Act, which distinguished in the Confession of Faith between 'substance' and points open to 'diversity of opinion,' and disclaimed 'any principles inconsistent with liberty of conscience and the right of private judgment.' Union with the United Presbyterian Church was effected on 31 Oct. 1900, and Rainy was elected the first moderator of the united body. Within six weeks from the date of the union a court of session summons was served upon all the general trustees of the former Free Church and all the members of the union assembly, the pursuers contending that they alone represented the Free Church, and were entitled to all its property. While litigation was going on, a charge of heresy was brought against George Adam Smith, D.D., on the ground of his Old Testament criticism; Rainy carried a motion declining to institute any process, maintaining that it was 'a question about the respect due to facts,' and could not be 'settled ecclesiastically' (, ii. 272-3). Judgments in the courts of session were given (9 Aug. 1901; 4 July, 1902) in favour of the United Free Church. An appeal to the House of Lords was heard from 24 Nov. to 4 Dec. 1903, and reheard from 9 to 23 June 1904. Judgment was given on 1 Aug., when five peers (Halsbury, Davey, James, Robertson, and Alverstone) found there had been a breach of the Free Church constitution; two (Macnaghten and Lindley) held there had not; one (Halsbury) found definite doctrinal change on predestination; two (Davey and Robertson) held that the position of the confession had been illegally modified; two (Macnaghten and Lindley) held the contrary. The entire church property was handed over to the so-called 'Wee Frees,' the United Free Church raising an emergency fund of 150,000l.; its assembly in 1905 passed a declaration of spiritual independence. After a royal commission which reported that 'the Free Church are unable to carry out all the trusts of the property,' the Churches (Scotland) Act (11 Aug. 1905) appointed an executive commission for the allocation of the property between the two bodies. The 'Wee Frees' got a sufficient equipment; the United Free Church raised a further sum of 150,000l. to supplement the property recovered. Rainy did not live to re-enter the recovered college building. He had been operated upon for an internal disorder, and left Edinburgh on 24 Oct. 1906 for a recuperative voyage to Australia. His last sermon was at sea ou 11 Nov, He reached Melbourne on 8 Dec, and died there of lymphadenoma on 22 Dec. 1906; on 7 March 1907 he was buried in the Dean cemetery, Edinburgh. He married on 2 Dec. 1857 Susan (b. 1835; d. 30 Sept. 1905), daughter of Adam Rolland of Gask, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. In 1894 his portrait by Sir George Reid was presented to the New College, and a replica to his wife.

His eldest son, Adam Rollaud Rainy (1862-1911), M.A., M,B., and C.M.Edin., studied at Berhn and Vienna, and practised (1887-1900) as a surgeon ocuKst in London. He travelled in Austraha and New Zealand (1891), in the West Indies (1896), in Spain and Algiers (1899 and 1903). Entering on political work, he contested Ealmarnock Burghs in 1900 as a radical, gained the seat in 1906, and held it till his sudden death at North Berwick on 26 Aug. 1911. He married in 18§7 Annabella, second daughter of Hugh Matheson, D.L. of Ross-shire, who survived him with a son and two daughters.

Robert Rainy was a man of fascinating personality and infinite tact, amounting to skilled diplomacy, being 'a rare manager of men,' regarded by his students with 'peculiar veneration and affection,' and, in spite of a certain aloofness, winning by his earnestness and goodwill the warm attachment of men in all parties. In general politics he took little part, but he followed Gladstone on the home rule question. His writings were not numerous but weighty. He published : 1. 'Three Lectures on the Church of Scotland,' Edinburgh 1872 (in reply to Dean Stanley). 2. 'The Delivery and Development of Christian Doctrine,' 1874 (Cunningham Lecture, delivered 1873). 3. 'The Bible and Criticism,' 1878 (four lectures to students of the Presbyterian Church of England). 4. 'The Epistle to the Philippians,' 1893 (in the 'Expositor's Bible'). 5. 'Presbyterianism as a Form of Church Life and Work,' Cambridge, 1894. 6. 'The Ancient Catholic Church from. . . Trajan to the Fourth. . . Council,' 1902. 7. 'Sojourning with God, and other Sermons,' 1902.

He edited 'The Presbyterian' (1868-71), and made contributions to many composite collections of theological literature, including W. Wilson's 'Memorials of R. S. Candlish' (1880), F. Hastings' ' The Atonement, a Clerical Symposium' (1883), and 'The Supernatural in Christianity' (1894).

The Times, 24 Dec. 1906; Highland Witness, February 1907 (memorial number; eight