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£ibrar^ of 1:he theological ^tmimvy 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 BX 9074 .D14 R67 1877 
 Ross, William, 
 Glimpses of pastoral work 
 the Covenanting times 
 

 
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 i^i' 
 
GLIMPSES OF PASTOEAL WORK 
 
 IN 
 
 THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
EDINBUKGH : 
 
 PRINTED BY LORIMEK AND GILLIES, 
 
 CLYDE STREET. 
 
GLIMPSES OF PASTORAL WORK 
 
 
 >V-, 
 
 THE COYENANTING TIMES. 
 
 OP 
 
 ANDKEW DONALDSON, A.M., 
 
 MINISTER AT DALGETY, FIFESHIRE, 
 
 1644-1662. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROSS, LL.D., 
 
 BRTDGE-OF-ALLAN, 
 AUTHOR OF "BITEGH LIFE IN DI7NFKEMLINE IN THE OLDEN TIME.' 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES NISBET & CO., BERNERS STREET. 
 
 EDINBUKGH: ANDREW ELLIOT. 
 
 MDCCCLXXVII. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introductory^ vii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Church and Parish, 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Parochial Machinery — Moral and Material, . . 16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Efforts in the Cause of Education, .... 36 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Management of the Poor, 52 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Minister's Labours in the Preaching of the 
 Word and Catechising, 76 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Minister's Labours in connection with Com- 
 munion Seasons, 118 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Elders' Work in their Districts, . . .142 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Work of the Kirk-Session— Its Domain and Per- 
 vading Spirit, 1^^ 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Work op the Kirk-Session, in Ordinary Oases of 
 Discipline, 1^^ 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Work of the Kirk-Session, in Oases involving 
 Superstition, 1^2 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Work of the Kirk-Session, in Cases springing out 
 OF THE Troubles of the Time, .... 207 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Conclusion— Andrew Donaldson's Sufferings, Subse- 
 quent Labours, and Death, 222 
 
 Appendix, 236 
 
INTEODUCTOEY. 
 
 T has often been a matter of regret to us 
 that, notwithstanding the many and valu- 
 able histories of the Scottish Church 
 which have been written, no attempt has yet 
 been made to produce anything like a full 
 account of the pastoral methods and work that 
 have characterised her various epochs, and more 
 especially the period known as the "Times of 
 the Covenant." A great deal has been written 
 about "The Glorious Four Hundred" who, at the 
 bidding of conscience, gave up their earthly all in 
 1662. Much has been heard of their splendid 
 sacrifices and heroic sufferings. And of themes 
 like these it is not likely that the friends of civil 
 and religious liberty will soon weary. But to many 
 it has been a source of regret that so little has been 
 told of their ministerial labours in their own parishes 
 
viii INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 and in the midst of their own people. No doubt 
 there is an impression, in the minds of those who 
 are in a general way acquainted with the lives of 
 these men, that they were, as a class, faithful to 
 their Master in their pulpits and among their 
 people, as well as at the bar of their judges and 
 amidst scenes of suffering. But their ministerial 
 labours are, we believe, greatly underrated, even by 
 those who look with a friendly eye on other depart- 
 ments of the testimony they have left behind them. 
 Among many causes which have conspired to bring 
 about this state of matters, not the least powerful 
 is the oft-repeated assertion of those who are un- 
 friendly to the Covenanters that, although dogged 
 in the maintenance of principle, and unflinching in 
 the midst of suffering, they were, after all, a set of 
 fanatical men, clamouring for a liberty which they 
 knew not how to use, and thrusting themselves 
 into scenes of danger when they should have been 
 occupied with the instruction of their people. 
 Allegations of this kind are easily made, and the 
 materials by means of which they can be satisfac- 
 torily disposed of are unfortunately not always at 
 
INTEODUCTORY. IX 
 
 hand. For while readers have easy access to 
 authentic narratives of the sufferings of the Cove- 
 nanting ministers, the records of their labours are 
 few and almost inaccessible. And in addition to this, 
 it not infrequently happens that when the authentic 
 records of their pastoral work have been examined, 
 and the results published, narratives of minutely 
 described cases of discipline are given, in which 
 immorality and superstition are flaunted before 
 the eyes of the reader ; while the evidence of 
 business-like organisation, enlightened effort, and 
 calm and sustained devotion to the highest ends of 
 the Christian ministry are either unnoticed or but 
 sparingly referred to. Another cause of the obscurity 
 that hangs over the pastoral efforts of these men no 
 doubt is, that in perhaps the greater number of 
 instances the records of their labours have perished. 
 In many instances, however, these records still exist. 
 And surely it is not too much to expect that they 
 should be drawn forth from their dusty shelves, 
 examined with care and intelligence, and the 
 results in some shape or other, given to the world. 
 It is, of course, only by the labours of many in 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 this field of research that materials can be collected 
 for a full and impartial history of the pastoral work 
 of those distant times, and it is greatly to be desired 
 that efforts on a worthy scale should speedily be 
 put forth in this direction, for moth and mildew are 
 steadily doing their work among the old records. 
 But, on the other hand, it is to be feared it will only 
 be by individual effort put forth at different points 
 that this great and patriotic work will ever be done, 
 so much apathy prevails regarding the old Presbyte- 
 rian records of Scotland — sessional, presbyterial, and 
 synodical. For the encouragement of labourers in 
 this neglected field, it should, however, be borne in 
 mind that, although they can do no more than 
 delineate the pastoral work of a single parish, or 
 that work even during the course of a few years, 
 something not unimportant will have been accom- 
 plished. Even such a history must have more than 
 a local interest and bearing. It must to a large 
 extent be representative of similar labours carried 
 on in other parishes; and thus the interest con- 
 nected with it will prove more general than at first 
 sight might be supposed, and the good done not 
 
INTRODUCTORY. XI 
 
 entirely out of keeping with the labour expended. 
 For it may be taken for granted that the idea 
 of what constitutes true history is now so much 
 revolutionised, that the domestic annals of a people 
 cannot be dispensed with in any enlightened view 
 of the condition of either Church or State. 
 
 In making a small contribution to the history 
 of the pastoral methods and work of the Cove- 
 nanting times, we have been led to select the 
 parish of Dalgety, in Fifeshire, chiefly because 
 its kirk-session record is very full of the details 
 of such work. Indeed, so full is it, that the 
 Extracts which form the staple of this little work 
 might very confidently be left to speak for them- 
 selves. But it has been thought well to string 
 them together by such a narrative as will not only 
 bind what would otherwise be disjointed fragments 
 into a connected history, but also throw light on 
 persons, places, incidents, and usages referred to, so 
 as to invest them with interest. The labourers 
 whose pastoral work thus falls to be recorded were 
 Mr. Andrew Donaldson, minister of the above-named 
 parish, and his coadjutors. The period of their 
 
Xll INTRODUCTORY 
 
 labours, with which we deal, is from 1644 to 
 1662 ; and the record ranges over the whole field 
 of pastoral work. 
 
 Regarding the personal history of Mr. Andrew 
 Donaldson, we shall have much to say at a later 
 stage ; but a few remarks regarding the leading 
 incidents of his life, and the outstanding features of 
 his work in the parish of Dalgety, will not be out 
 of place here. He was more remarkable for his 
 devotion to pastoral work than for his active efforts 
 in connection with the ecclesiastical struggles of his 
 time. The biographer of Robert Blair tells us that 
 in his old age " he did now begin to have some 
 scruples that ministers did meddle too much with 
 estate [State] affairs, and did spend too much time 
 in waiting on civil judicatories and courts, which 
 might be better spent at home waiting on their 
 charges, in preaching, catechising, and visiting 
 families." ^ This conviction of Blair's was one 
 which Andrew Donaldson not only cherished, but 
 acted on during the whole course of his ministry. 
 He was, nevertheless, a great sufferer for conscience' 
 
 Life of Eobert Blair, p. 233. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. Xlll 
 
 sake. He was driven from his charge when Epis- 
 copacy was set up as the national form of Church 
 government under Charles II. He was a frequent 
 preacher at conventicles during his exile from his 
 charge. He was shut up in prison for more than 
 a year for the offence of preaching the Word in his 
 own hired house. For long he lay under the ban 
 of intercommuning, which is equivalent to saying 
 that his privations and sufferings were unspeakably 
 great. He survived the persecuting times, however, 
 and was permitted to return to his charge and end 
 his days in peace. The stirring incidents of such 
 a life only increase our desire to know the nature 
 and amount of the ministerial work that character- 
 ised its more peaceful years. Fortunately this 
 desire can be gratified, and a careful examination 
 of the recorded labours of these years brings to 
 light an amount of parochial organisation and a 
 degree of enlightened and painstaking effort on the 
 part of this excellent man and his session, to pro- 
 mote the social, moral, and religious wellbeing of 
 the people over whom they were placed, that will 
 bear comparison with the boasted pastoral efforts of 
 
xiv INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 the present time. What, for instance, could be 
 more unexpected, on the part of those who have 
 not made themselves minutely acquainted with the 
 annals of those early times, than to find between 
 1644 and 1662 a country parish in Scotland 
 divided into districts, these districts being under 
 the careful supervision of elders, some of whom are 
 men of rank and position, who regularly visit the 
 families assigned to their care, and assist the minister 
 in catechising and instructing them ; the diets of 
 worship being two services on Sabbath, a lecture 
 every Friday, and a meeting for catechising every 
 Monday; while before communion seasons such 
 meetings are held almost daily. How unexpected 
 to find, in addition to all this, the ministers and 
 elders meeting in weekly conference to deliberate 
 on the measures best fitted to secure the advance- 
 ment of the highest interests of the people — how 
 education may be extended, how immorality may be 
 repressed, how piety may be fostered, and how the 
 wants and sufferings of the poor may be alleviated. 
 And yet, as will speedily appear, this is far from 
 being a one-sided general view of the pastoral 
 
INTRODUCTOEY. xv 
 
 supervision of the parish of Dalgety during the 
 ministry of Andrew Donaldson. We do not, of 
 course, wish it to be supposed that marked blem- 
 ishes do not appear in these old records — some of 
 them peculiar to the time, and others due to the 
 imperfection of the men. These blemishes we shall 
 honestly exhibit as they are met with, but we 
 believe our readers will admit that they do not 
 affect the general estimate which we have just 
 given. And we shall be surprised if they who read 
 these pages do not further admit that ministers and 
 elders of the present day may learn some useful 
 lessons from those hardy workers of more than two 
 centuries ago, whose labours we are now to narrate. 
 The author has only further to say, in a pre- 
 liminary way, that these sketches were originally 
 delivered as Lectures, to his former congregation 
 at Aberdour, in the winter of 1862-63 — a fact 
 which will account for the somewhat colloquial 
 style in which they are written; that they ap- 
 peared, about two years • ago, in the pages of the 
 London Weekly Review; and that the more per- 
 manent shape in which they now appear, after a 
 
xvi INTRODUCTOHY. 
 
 careful revision, is due to the solicitation of many 
 correspondents. He could wish that the work 
 were more worthy of this new form; but if to 
 any extent it calls attention to a neglected depart- 
 ment of Church history — the history of the pastoral 
 methods which have characterised different branches 
 of the Church and different eras ; if it shows what 
 interesting materials lie buried in our Scottish 
 kirk-session and other ecclesiastical records; and 
 if it proves, in however humble a way, instrumental 
 in leading to worthy efforts to bring such materials 
 to light, the many hours spent upon it shall not 
 have been entirely thrown away. 
 
 Bridge-of- Allan, May, 1877. 
 
ft 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ^ht €hxxxch mx)y IQarhb, 
 
 U vj U CE> ^ 
 
 ]HE parish of Dalgety, Id Fife, lies on the 
 northern shore of the Firth of Forth, 
 having the parish of Aberdour on the 
 east and the parish of Inverkeithing on the west. 
 Its greatest length is about five miles, and its 
 greatest breadth about a mile and three quarters. 
 Its population in 1755 was rated at 761, in 1795 
 at 869, and in 1836 at 1300. It is probable that 
 the first of these numbers gives a fair approximation 
 to what the population was in 1644. 
 
 The natural features of the parish are singularly 
 beautiful. Its shore line, running from Inverkeith- 
 mg Bay to Porthaven, gracefully recedes at various 
 points, and forms a number of charming bays, such 
 as Dalgety Bay, Braefoot Bay, and Barnhill Bay ; 
 and in other places it runs out into endless tongue- 
 like promontories. Its surface shoots up here and 
 there into picturesque eminences, such as Letham 
 
 B 
 
2 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 Hill and Pinel Hill; the former keeping watch 
 over the ever-changing Firth, the latter resting in 
 fond guardianship over the less varying moods 
 and softer beauties of Otterston Loch. And the 
 picture is completed by undulating fields of almost 
 undying green, which alternate with rich planta- 
 tions, until, at the northern extremity of the parish, 
 the soil degenerates into cold and unpicturesque 
 moorland. 
 
 Some early notices of the church and parish are 
 necessary as an introduction to our account of 
 Andrew Donaldson's labours there; for not otherwise 
 can we know the nature of the influences which 
 were at work on the people ere his ministry began, 
 or the change that his labours effected. 
 
 The earliest notices of the church lead us back to 
 the twelfth century, when Pope Alexander III. con- 
 firmed to the monastery of Inchcolme the church of 
 Dalgathin with its pertinents (ecclesiam de Dal- 
 gathin cum pertinentiis suis)} The Augustinian 
 canons who formed the convent of Inchcolme are 
 the first ministers of the church of Dalgety of whom 
 we have any authentic information ; but it is highly 
 probable that it was a settlement of the Culdees 
 before the twelfth century. Although the Augus- 
 tinian canons were greatly superior to all the other 
 monastic orders in point of usefulness, they of course 
 shared in the darkness and superstition of Popish 
 1 MS. Chartulary of Inchcolme. 
 
A MIRACLE OF ST. COLUMBA. 
 
 times ; and the instruction they gave the people 
 of Dalgety, on Sabbaths, when they rowed across 
 from their island home to the mainland, was pro- 
 bably not of a very high order, either in point 
 of intelligence or orthodoxy. The lively and 
 gossiping Walter Bower, who was abbot of Inch- 
 colme in the fifteenth century, has given us, in his 
 continuation of Fordun's chronicle, an occasional 
 glimpse of the kind of ministerial services the 
 people of Dalgety were favoured with in pre- 
 Reformation times. 
 
 He tells us that, in the year 1421, the abbot 
 of Inchcolme, with the whole convent, passed the 
 summer and autumn on the mainland, for fear of 
 the English rovers. But when the harvest was 
 secured and winter was approaching — when they 
 had less to fear from their southern foes — the abbot 
 and canons resolved on returning to Inchcolme. 
 To the island accordingly they went, on Saturday, 
 the 8 th day of November, taking with them their 
 servants and baggage. On the following day — the 
 Lord's day, to wit — the abbot sent the cellarer, with 
 one or two servants, to bring from the mainland 
 some barrels of beer that were lying in Barnhill 
 brewery. About three o'clock in the afternoon the 
 sailors put off from the shore ; and partly, no doubt, 
 from the exhilarating influence of the beer (alacres 
 et potosi), they deftly plied their oars, and skimmed 
 the quiet waters with conscious ease. But, not 
 
PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 content with the rate of progress they were making, 
 they declared they must hoist the sail ; and in spite 
 of all the remonstrances of the canons, they carried 
 their point. No sooner, however, was the canvas 
 raised than the boat was assailed by angry gusts of 
 wind and shaken by stormy waves. The sail was 
 riven by the strength of the blast, and the steers- 
 man having let slip the rudder, the boat filled with 
 water and went down. " What need is there of 
 many words to tell the issue?" the chronicler 
 pathetically asks. Out of six persons who were in 
 the boat three were drowned ; to wit, Alexander 
 Made, the cellarer, and the two sailors. But the 
 other three — Sir Peter, the canon, William Bullok, 
 the chaplain, and a mason — were miraculously 
 snatched from the jaws of death. Sir Peter was 
 supported for a whole hour and a-half by a rope 
 conveniently handed him by St. Columba, whose 
 aid he had implored : his saintship appearing in 
 bodily form, as the canon himself afterwards stoutly 
 affirmed. The other two clung to a wisp of straw 
 — confessing their sins all the while — till some men 
 from Aberdour put off in a boat from Portevin, and 
 came to their rescue. The fact, however, which the 
 chronicler wishes chiefly to be noticed, in connection 
 with this miracle, is that they who were thus 
 rescued from a watery grave had all of them 
 that day been engaged in the celebration of the 
 most holy mass, the chaplain having taken part 
 
THE FECHTIN BISHOP. 
 
 in the celebration in the i^arish church of 
 Dalgety. 
 
 We have every reason to believe that Thomas 
 Forret, afterwards known as vicar of Dollar, took 
 his turn in serving the church of Dalgety, when he 
 was a canon of the monastery of Inchcolme. And 
 on such occasions some words of heavenly truth, the 
 bold declaration of which at a later stage drew 
 him to a martyr's stake on the Castle Hill of 
 Edinburgh, may have rung in the ears of the 
 people of Dalgety. 
 
 But the country was blessed with bishops as well 
 as canons in those olden times, and all will admit 
 that it would be an interesting thing could we get 
 a glance at the services rendered by one or two of 
 these dignitaries to the parish of Dalgety. Such a 
 glance we are j)ermitted to indulge in. We must, 
 however, look a long way back ere our eyes rest on 
 the two to whom we are now to introduce our 
 readers. The complexion of a man's times has 
 often a good deal to do with the moulding of his 
 character ; and our friend of the Church militant, 
 William Sinclair, bishop of Dunkeld, has this to 
 urge in extenuation of his eccentricities, that he was 
 cast on the troublous times of Wallace and Bruce. 
 The bishops of Dunkeld had at that time a palace 
 or baronial residence in the parish of Auchtertool, 
 called Halyards, which, under the modern name of 
 Camilla, is crumbling to dust. William Sinclair 
 
6 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 happened to be living there in the year 1315, when 
 a band of Englishmen, sent to invade Scotland by 
 sea, appeared in the Firth of Forth, and landed at 
 Donibristle, in the j)arish of Dalgety. The sheriff 
 of the county, aided by Duncan, Earl of Fife, and a 
 band of 500 men, attempted to drive the English 
 back ; but, intimidated by superior numbers, the 
 sheriff and his party had to beat a hasty retreat. 
 When William Sinclair heard what was going on, 
 he instantly set off to the aid of his baffled country- 
 men. Meeting the sheriff and his band, who were 
 fleeing in great confusion, the bishop asked him why 
 he was retreating in such a cowardly way. The 
 sheriff took shelter under the statement that the 
 English were far more numerous than they. " It 
 would serve you right," cried the bishop, " if the 
 king were to order the gilt spurs to be hacked off 
 your heels ! " Then, throwing his bishop's robe 
 away, he snatched a spear, and putting spurs to his 
 horse, dashed on, crying, " Follow me ! — who loves 
 Scotland, follow me 1" His countrymen rallied 
 round him, and, pressing on in the direction of 
 Donibristle, gained an easy victory over the enemy, 
 " of whom," says an old chronicler, " there fell more 
 than five hundred men, besides a great number who 
 rushed into a boat, and, overloading it, sank along 
 with it."^ When Robert the Bruce heard of William 
 Sinclair's exploit he exclaimed, " He shall be my 
 ^ Extracta e variis Chronicis Scocip. 
 
THE CORSAKIE. 
 
 bishop ; '"' and under the double appellation of " The 
 King's Bishop " and " The Fechtin' Bishop/' Sinclair 
 was long remembered by his countrymen. Few 
 will regard him as a model bishop, but no one will 
 deny him the distinction of a patriot ! 
 
 And now for a hasty look at a bishop of a milder 
 t3rpe. It is the year 1349, the month of March, 
 and the day before Palm Sunday. Duncan, bishop 
 of Dunkeld, is engaged in a visitation of his churches, 
 and on the day in question he is in the parish 
 church of Dalgety, which belonged to his diocese. 
 It is not impossible that he may have spent a few 
 minutes on the spiritual affairs of the parish ; but 
 the only labours of his of which any record has 
 come down relate to matters of a totally different 
 kind. There is a piece of ground in the parish 
 which at the time went by the name of " the Cor- 
 sakir." It had been gifted to the abbot and con- 
 vent of Inchcolme by one of the De Lambertons. 
 After many years had passed away, William de 
 Lamberton, a descendant of the original donor, had 
 got the permission of the convent to farm this piece 
 of ground ; and in conformity with the proverb, 
 " Give an inch and an ell will be taken," he by-and- 
 by claimed the land as his own. But the abbot 
 and canons of Inchcolme were not disposed to sur- 
 render their just claims; and so the case was 
 submitted to the judgment of the bishop on his 
 visitation of the church of Dalgety. The bishop's 
 
8 PASTOEAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 influence proved to be most salutary. William 
 renounced all claim to '' the Corsakir," and appended 
 his seal to a document which made the fact patent 
 to all whom it concerned ; and because his seal 
 was less known than that of the bishop of Dun- 
 keld, it too was tagged on, to make assurance 
 doubly sure.^ 
 
 It would, of course, be unfair to judge of a whole 
 class of men by such incidents as these; but with 
 every disposition to present what is true and fair, 
 this is about all we have been able to discover of 
 the influence of the bishops of the diocese on the 
 parish of Dalgety, in those early days. 
 
 When the Reformation came round, it might 
 have been expected that a parish like that of Dal- 
 gety should have had its wants carefully attended 
 to. They, on whom the lands and revenues of the 
 monastery of Inchcolme had been bestowed, might, 
 at the very least, have provided the means necessary 
 for the support of a minister of the Reformed faith. 
 No doubt, Protestant ministers were at first scarce, 
 and an obscure country parish like Dalgety could 
 hardly have preferred its claims in opposition to 
 those of populous towns or extensive landward 
 parishes. But there was grave neglect on the part 
 of many landed proprietors at that time, and also, 
 it is to be feared, on the part of some of the Church 
 Courts. For it may be said that for a period of 
 ^ MS. Chartulary of Inchcohue, 
 
EARLY REFORMED WORKERS. 9 
 
 eighty-four years after the Reformation Dalget}^ was 
 a neglected parish. Soon after the Reformation we 
 find Mr. Peter Blaikwood in charge of it, but he has 
 also to minister to the kirks of Aberdour, Auchter- 
 tool, Carnock, and Saline ; and in 1586 he is 
 translated to Aberdeen. Not much could be ex- 
 pected from such a ministry as that, and, although 
 we have a glimpse of a minister more closely 
 identified with the parish than Mr. Blaikwood, in 
 the year 1575, it does not appear that the labours 
 of Mr. Alexander Stephen, '' the vicar," as he is 
 called, were either of long continuance, or of much 
 importance. And as for Mr. William Patoun, who 
 was nominally the minister of Dalgety, Aberdour, 
 and Beath, from 1598 till somewhere about the 
 year 1614, the less we say of him the better will it 
 be for his memory. This, at least, we must say, 
 that he was only nominally the minister of the 
 parish of Dalgety. By this we do not mean merely 
 that he had other parishes to attend to, but that 
 he was unfit to attend to the highest interests of 
 any parish. His behaviour in connection with the 
 Assembly of 1610 clearly proves this. Presby- 
 terianism had been established in Scotland, and the 
 King had solemnly sworn to maintain it ; yet every 
 artifice that kingcraft could devise was being used 
 to deprive the Church of her liberty. Unlawful 
 Acts were passed in Parliament, and by means of 
 bribery suicidal resolutions were agreed to in the 
 
10 PASTORAL WORK IN THf: COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 General Assembly. Perhaps no General Assembly 
 has such infamy connected with its enactments as 
 that of 1610. Instructions, or rather we should 
 say orders, had been given to each Presbytery what 
 members were to be sent to the Assembly, and, 
 when it was convened, the Earl of Dunbar distri- 
 buted so much money, in coins which went by the 
 name of " angels," that it long went by the ironical 
 name of " The Angelical Assembly." 
 
 Of all men, John Row, the author of a History 
 of the Church of Scotland, was most likely to know 
 what part Mr. William Patoun took in this assembly; 
 for the future historian was at the time tutor to 
 William, Earl of Morton, and also acting as school- 
 master of Aberdour, one of the parishes under Mr. 
 Patoun's charge ; and John Row broadly asserts 
 that Mr. William Patoun got fift}^ weighty argu- 
 ments from the Earl of Dunbar, in the shape of fifty 
 marks, which conviuced him that it was his duty to 
 vote away the liberty of the Church. The historian 
 tells us, moreover, that Mr. Patoun did not derive 
 much benefit from the bargain ; for his elders 
 missed fifty marks, or thereby, out of the kirk box, 
 which stood in the minister's house, and when they 
 urged him to try to discover the offender, he refused 
 to do so. Whereupon they complained to the 
 bishop, and after a visitation of the kirk, Mr. 
 Patoun was ordered to replace the money, seeing it 
 was taken out of the box while it stood in his 
 
A CHARGE DECLINED. 1 1 
 
 house. ^ The influence of such a man must have 
 been anything but beneficial. 
 
 The arrangement of uniting several parishes 
 under one minister had only one advantage to 
 recommend it — it saved the pockets of the heritors. 
 It must have been one of the worst possible kind so 
 far as the souls of the people were concerned. A 
 man of Christian principle would hardly have under- 
 taken the charge of three parishes. Indeed, while 
 we do not know of a single man of this stamp who 
 accepted the charge of parishes combined in this 
 way, we do know of one man who positively refused 
 it. When John Kow, of whom we have just been 
 speaking, had been for twenty-four years minister 
 of the parish of Carnock, he was urgently asked to 
 become minister of Aberdour, and an Act of the 
 Provincial Assembly was obtained for his transla- 
 tion. '' But," s£ijs his biographer, " when he saw 
 the act appointing him to be minister of Aberdour, 
 Dalgety, and Beath, he could not be induced by all 
 their persuasions and arguments to take on the 
 burden of three kirks, alleging that one small charge 
 was too weighty for him."- 
 
 Mr. William Patoun, to be sure, contrived to 
 make the burden of these three kirks far from 
 weighty, by acting on the principle of neglecting 
 two of them and paying indifferent attention to the 
 
 1 Row's " Historie of the Kirk of Scotlacd," p. 288. 
 2 Ibid. p. 473. 
 
1 2 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 third. But this mode of procedure, although it 
 may have been slightly modified for the better 
 by Mr. Walter Stewart and Mr. Robert Bruce, 
 his successors, did not produce very satisfactory 
 results. 
 
 We hardly know whether it is a matter to be 
 rejoiced at or regretted, that a detailed account of 
 the state of morals in the three parishes at that 
 time has not come down to us. Certainly, a general 
 statement that has been preserved is sufficiently 
 appalling. Among other matters which came be- 
 fore the notice of the Synod of Fife at their meeting 
 in April, 1641, they considered, as their minutes 
 tell us, '' The deplorable estate of a great multitude 
 of people living in the mids of such a reformed 
 shyre as verie paganes, because of the want of the 
 benefit of the Word, there being thrie kirkis far dis- 
 tant under the care of ane minister — to wit, Aber- 
 dour, Dagetie, and Baith : the remeid whereof the 
 Synod humblie and earnestlie recommendis to the 
 Parliament." We gather some idea of the pagan- 
 ism of Beath at that time from a simple and touch- 
 ing narrative prefixed to the session record of that 
 parish; and we avail ourselves of a portion of this 
 narrative for the sake of the light it throws on a 
 parish similarly situated. 
 
 After stating that Beath was one of the most 
 ancient parishes in Scotland, and noticing the fact 
 that the first meeting of the Protestant lords before 
 
A NEGLECTED PAEISH. 13 
 
 the Reformation was held in its church, the narra- 
 tive proceeds : — 
 
 " This kirk in some sort myght be compared to 
 Gideon's fleece, which was dry when all the earth was 
 watered. When all the congregations of Fife were 
 planted, this poor kirk was neglected and overlooked, and 
 lay desolate then fourteene years — after the Reformation, 
 eighty years — the poore parochiners being always like 
 wandering sheep, without a sheephard. And, whereas 
 they should have conveened to hear a pastoure preiche, 
 the principall cause of the people's meetings wes to hear 
 a pyper play upon the Lord's daye, which was the daye of 
 their profane mirth, not being in the works of thair call- 
 ing ; which was the cause that Sathan had a most fair 
 name amongst them, stiiTing many of them up to dancing, 
 playing at football, and excessive drinking, falling out and 
 wounding one another, which was the exercise of the 
 younger sort j and the older sort played at gems [games] 
 and the workes of thair calling without any distinction of 
 the weeke-day from the day of the Lord. And thus they 
 continued, as said is, the space of eighty jears ; the poor 
 kirk being always neglected, became a sheephous in the 
 night." 
 
 Such is a specimen of the state of religion and 
 morals brought about, in the first instance, by Popish 
 ignorance and error ; then by the want of Pro- 
 testant ministers ; and last of all, when that want 
 could no longer be honestly pleaded, by the policy 
 of worldlj^-minded heritors, which was connived at 
 
14 PASTORAL WOEK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 by some of the bishops, of uniting several churches 
 into one charge and pocketing the stipends belong- 
 ing to the annexed parishes. And it will be con- 
 ceded that if Dalgety was only half as great a 
 sufferer from this policy as Beath, her people must 
 have been in a miserable plight in 1641. 
 
 But a better day was coming to Dalgety. The 
 Synod of Fife had, in 1641, recommended the three 
 parishes, of which we have just been speaking, to 
 the attention of Parliaraent ; and the latter body 
 had appointed a committee to make the necessary 
 inquiries and disjoin the parishes if they saw fit. 
 We have a glimpse of the proceedings of this com- 
 mittee in the minute of the kirk-session of Carnock, 
 of date January 29, 1643, embodying the statement 
 of the excellent minister, Mr. John Bow, of whom 
 we have lately spoken : — 
 
 "The quhilk day, the Session being convenit, I de- 
 clared to thera how that I had beine so lang absent, be- 
 caus the Presbitrye had ordenit me, seeing I was to go to 
 Edinburgh to attend the committey of the Parliament ap- 
 pointed to disjoine Kirkis quhilk suld be disjoined, to see 
 that the Kirkes of Aberdour, Dalgety, and Baitlie myght 
 be disjoined, that every Kirk myght get a minister of 
 their awin. Quhairupon I attendit many dayis and dyetts, 
 and, in end, the Lords of the Committey disjoined them, 
 and a decreit wes gifine thereupon ; quhilk decreit wes 
 extractit be Mr. Alexander Colvill for the Kirk of Baithe, 
 quhilk he had laitlie bigget fra the cold ground, and the 
 
DAY-SPEING. 1 5 
 
 Lairds of Fordell and Luchat, qnha were bissey to get 
 this turn done, extractit the decreit also for their interest, 
 quhilk they broght in to the Presbitrye, the 1st day of 
 February, that it myght be insert in the Presbitrye book 
 adfuhtram rei memoriaim" 
 
 Thus, at length, there is the prospect that the 
 long neglect of the parish of Dalgety shall give way 
 to a better state of things. 
 
16 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 laxmljbl P^itrljincrg— gtnral mxta Material. 
 
 T the close of last chapter we saw Dalget}", 
 after a long and dismal period of neglect, 
 once more recognised as a separate parish, 
 and entitled to the services of a minister of its own. 
 The next step was to get a minister appointed ; and 
 almost everything, humanly speaking, depended on 
 the kind of man the people might get. This step 
 was speedily taken so far as the Presbytery was con- 
 cerned ; for our old friend, John Row, tells us, under 
 date February 19, 1643 : — 
 
 " I tauld the elderis [the elders of his own kirk-session] 
 the cause of my absence on Sonday wes eight days wes 
 because the Presbitrye appointed me to preache in Dal- 
 gatie Kirk, qulieir there had been no preaching man}^ 
 yeiris befor. I also taught on Wedinsday thanefter at 
 the visitation of that kirk of Dalgatie, qulien, with my 
 Lord of Murray is consent, their wer six persones leited 
 [put on the list] to be sent to the King, that he myght 
 chuse ane of them for that kirk." 
 
 The settlement, however, was not so speedily 
 effected as these measures would lead as to expect. 
 
THE ORDINATION. 17 
 
 Either the King was dilatory in making his choice, 
 or some hitch arose in another quarter, for it was 
 not till the 28th of August, 1644, that a minister 
 was admitted to the parish of Dalgety, the choice 
 having fallen on Mr. Andrew Donaldson, of whom 
 we shall have so much to say during the course of 
 these sketches. 
 
 The coast-line that embraces Dalgety Bay runs 
 with all the regularity of a bow between Braefoot 
 Point on the east, and Donibristle on the west ; and 
 just in the middle of the bow lies the old church of 
 Dalgety. It is now roofless and bare, and its floor 
 is matted over with weeds ; and, yet, little more than 
 forty-five years have passed away since the sounds 
 of public worship were heard in it. The old in- 
 habitants of the parish, when spoken to on the sub- 
 ject, invariably recall a sermon preached in it by 
 Edward Irving; and sacred and tender associations 
 cluster around it in the case of those whose, departed 
 relatives sleep in the sequestered churchyard, in the 
 midst of which its ruins stand. But to us the most 
 sacred of all associations connected with it are those 
 which are linked with the name of Andrew Donald- 
 son. It was the scene of his admission as minister 
 of the parish ; and that scene, even as it can be 
 pictured after the lapse of more than two centuries, 
 is an interesting one. The congregation, we may be 
 sure, have mustered in great force ; for an ordination 
 has always had great attractions in the eyes of our 
 
 C 
 
18 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 Scottish people ; and when our readers are a little 
 better acquainted with the parish, they will know we 
 are not without reason for believing that in addition 
 to cottars from the various farm towns, and colliers 
 from Fordell, and well-to-do farmers, there were 
 several lairds, and even one or two noblemen at 
 that ordination service. The Presbytery of Dun- 
 fermline have convened in the church ; and, if there 
 was a full attendance, there would be seen Mr. John 
 E,ow, of Carnock, the patriarch of the Presbytery, 
 now in the seventy-sixth year of his age, and the 
 fifty-fourth of his ministry; Mr. Robert Bruce, of 
 Kincavil, minister of Aberdour; Mr. James Car- 
 michael, of Cleish ; Mr. John Duncan, of Culross ; 
 Mr. Patrick Geddie, of Orwell ; Mr. Walter Bruce, of 
 Inverkeithing ; Mr. William Marshall, of Saline ; and 
 Mr. James Sibbald, of Torryburn. The moderator of 
 the Presbytery (Mr. George Cowden, of Kinross) 
 enters the pulpit, and after prayer, praise, and the 
 reading of the Word, gives out as his text Matthew 
 V. 1 3 — " Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the 
 salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? 
 it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, 
 and to be trodden under foot of men." A very 
 significant text for such an occasion ! And we may 
 well suppose that it was made the theme of a dis- 
 course at once solid and long, exhibiting, accord- 
 ing to the custom of the time, under many heads, 
 and in almost endless particulars, the doctrines and 
 
THE ELDERS. 19 
 
 corresponding duties involved in the text. And 
 then, the preaching of the Word being over, amidst 
 the eager looks of all and the secret prayers of some, 
 Andrew Donaldson is set apart to his sacred work 
 by the laying-on of the hands of the Presbytery ; 
 and at the close of the service, when the solemn 
 words of admonition, addressed alike to pastor and 
 flock, were still ringing in their ears, he no doubt 
 received the congratulations and good wishes of his 
 elders and people. 
 
 Having incidentally spoken of Andrew Donald- 
 son's ELDERS, it may be well, at this stage, to take 
 a closer look at these men who are to share the 
 labours and anxieties of their minister. Amono- 
 those who had been elected to the office a little 
 while before Mr. Donaldson's ordination were some 
 men of note, as we shall presently see. All these 
 men would likely be present at the ordination ; in- 
 deed, nothing but the direst necessity would keep 
 any of them away on such an occasion. And first 
 among them was the Earl of Murray. He was the 
 grandson of the " Bonny Earl," so well known in 
 the history and ballads of Scotland, and the great- 
 grandson, on his mother's side, of a still more 
 famous man — the '' Good Regent." The Earl of 
 Murray, who was a member of Mr. Donaldson's 
 kirk-session, does not seem to have concerned him- 
 self much about the public movements of the time, 
 but lived quietly with his countess and family at 
 
20 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 Donibristle. The next on the list was John Hen- 
 derson, of Fordell, who at a later period had the 
 honour of knighthood conferred on him. Descended 
 from Mr. James Henderson, King's Advocate in the 
 reign of James IV., the laird of Fordell was the 
 representative of a family who had been in posses- 
 sion of extensive estates in the parish for at least a 
 hundred and fifty years. There was a dash of 
 romance in the early history of the laird. Devoting 
 himself to a military life, he had been called to 
 serve his country in a post of considerable danger 
 on the coast of Africa, where he had the misfortune 
 to be taken prisoner by the natives. When he was 
 on the point of being put to death, he was ransomed 
 by a lady ; and till this day a picture is to be seen 
 in Fordell House commemorating the incident, the 
 lady being represented with a coronet on her head. 
 It would be a grave omission not to notice in passing 
 that the laird's wife, Margaret Monteith, of the 
 house of Randifurd, is referred to in Livingstone's 
 " Characteristics " as one of a band of his acquaint- 
 ances who were " eminent for grace and gifts." 
 Another elder was Alexander Spittal, of Leuchat, 
 a cousin of the laird of Fordell. The estate of 
 Leuchat had been in the hands of the Spittals for a 
 considerable time previous to the Reformation. The 
 family were staunch friends of the Reformed Church, 
 and Alexander Spittal, as we shall afterwards see, 
 was a heavy sufferer when persecuting times came 
 
FAMILY NOTICES. 21 
 
 round. Along with these were other nine elders, 
 who were not the less honourable and efficient 
 holders of the office because they were farmers or 
 ordinary tradesmen. Their names were Robert 
 Anderson, in Donibristle ; William Cunningham, 
 in Little Fordell ; James Murray, in Fordell Moor ; 
 Alexander Baxter, in Clinkhill ; John Stenhouse, in 
 Otterston ; William Logan, in Cockairnie ; James 
 Dewar, in Barnhill ; William Anderson, there ; and 
 David Currie, in Dalgety. 
 
 Such were the men who, as elders, welcomed Mr. 
 Donaldson to the church and parish of Dalgety; 
 and a few months afterwards there were added to 
 the number Sir John Erskine, of Otterston ; John 
 Henderson, younger of Fordell, who afterwards was 
 made a baronet by Charles II. ; John Moubray, por- 
 tioner of Cockairnie, the representative of a younger 
 branch of the Moubra}'s of Barnbougle, whose pro- 
 genitors had owned Cockairnie from the twelfth 
 century downwards; and lastly, John Henderson, 
 in Fordell Green, who acted as factor to his name- 
 sake, and to whom he was in all likelihood related. 
 It cannot but strike us as a remarkable and pleasing 
 feature of the pastoral work of the olden time that, 
 in connection with such a parish as Dalgety, there 
 should have been so great an array of elders, in 
 which all ranks were represented. And this will 
 appear the more wonderful when we see the kind of 
 work which was expected from elders in those days, 
 
22 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 and was actually done by most of them. The only 
 noblemen connected with the parish whose names 
 do not appear on its roll of elders were the Earl of 
 Callender and the Earl of Dunfermline, the former 
 being the second husband of the lady of the first 
 Earl of Dunfermline, and the latter her son by her 
 first husband. Both of these noblemen resided 
 during a portion of the year at Dalgety House ; 
 but the early lists of the members of the Commis- 
 sion of General Assembly clearly show that they 
 were elders of the Church in connection with another 
 parish. 
 
 In looking back on such a state of matters, and 
 thinking on the contrast which the present time 
 exhibits, one cannot help exclaiming — When shall 
 the time come round when the noblemen and landed 
 proprietors of Scotland will again, in anything like 
 this proportion, be found counting it an honour to 
 hold office in the Presbyterian Church, and render 
 efficient aid in the promotion of the highest interests 
 of their countrymen ? Men of rank and position 
 among us are still, to a very considerable extent, 
 the leaders of their countrymen in scenes of war 
 and in the more peaceful domain of legislation. 
 Would it not be a greater honour still to lead them 
 in the nobler walks of religious service, moral pro- 
 gress, and missionary enterprise ? The influences 
 that have been so powerfully at Avork since the 
 union of the two countries in detaching the nobility 
 
THE DEACONS. 23 
 
 and gentry of Scotland from the Presbyterian 
 Church, and attracting them to the Episcopalian, 
 are not, it is to be feared, of a very elevated 
 kind. The form of worship and Church govern- 
 ment which has the sunshine of court favour and 
 fashion resting on it has many charms for a par- 
 ticular class of minds. We may be thankful that 
 our forefathers of Reformation and Covenanting 
 times did not yield to the spell. Of one thing the 
 nobility and gentry of Scotland may be well assured 
 — that the great mass of their countrymen will not 
 follow them into the ranks of Episcopacy. For to 
 do so would be to forget the past achievements of 
 Presbyterianism in Scotland, which have made her 
 name famous throughout the world ; to unlearn the 
 blood-bought lessons of the period with which these 
 sketches deal, and to set aside the solemn warnings 
 bound up in the present attitude and tendencies of 
 Episcopacy in England. 
 
 In every well -organised congregation of those 
 early times there were deacons as well as elders. 
 The duties of the deacons were to take special 
 notice of the poor, to receive whatever sums were 
 given for their benefit, to deliver this money to the 
 kirk- session, to see that it was not misapplied, to 
 keep the minister and elders advised of the sick 
 within their districts, and, in addition to this, they 
 were sometimes allowed to carry the elements and 
 serve the communicants at the Lord's table. 
 
24 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 Keeping in mind the neglect which had charac- 
 terised the parish of Dalgety before Mr. Andrew 
 Donaldson became its minister, it will not surprise 
 us to learn that there were no deacons to help him 
 in these departments of pastoral work when he 
 entered on his new sphere of labour. But we shall 
 by-and-by see this want supplied, and find a stricter 
 rule carried out in reference to their work than is 
 generally observed at the present day. 
 
 Our sketch of the parochial machinery and 
 workers of those early days would, however, be 
 defective did we not notice a temporary class of 
 labourers that the exigencies of the time had called 
 forth — we mean the READERS and EXHORTERS. 
 
 Few things more clearly show the baneful effects 
 of Popery than the ignorance in which her votaries 
 are brought up. Of this truth Italy is not a more 
 striking proof, to-day, than Scotland was three cen- 
 turies ago. Few of the people could then read, or 
 had ever heard the Word of God read in their own 
 tongue. To meet this great defect, and also to 
 make up for the want of ministers of the Reformed 
 faith, our Scottish Reformers appointed a temporary 
 kind of office-bearers, called readers, to read the 
 Common Prayers and the Scriptures in the churches, 
 until advancing education had made the class un- 
 necessary. Readers who had. made such proficiency 
 in the knowledge of Scripture as to be able to 
 exhort the people, were known by the name of 
 
READERS AND EXHORTERS. 25 
 
 EXHORTERS. No one could be appointed to the 
 office of reader till lie had reached the age of 
 twenty- one years. It was necessary, too, that he 
 should be " endued with gravity and discretion," 
 lest by his lightness the prayers or Scriptures read 
 should be ''of lesse price or estimation." And if, 
 after holding the office for two years, the reader 
 had not advanced to exhort and explain the Scrip- 
 tures, he was removed from his office, on the ground 
 that they who were not in a reasonable time " able 
 to edify the Kirk " should not be " perpetually 
 susteined upon the charge of the Kirk." The 
 object of these arrangements was that readers 
 should be gradually advanced to the position of 
 EXHORTERS ; and that exhorters should be ad- 
 vanced to the platform of ministers, who preached 
 the Word and administered the Sacraments. 
 
 Both readers and exhorters had been at work 
 in the parish of Dalgety from the period of the 
 Reformation. Thus in 1567 we find that while 
 Mr. Peter Blaikwood has charge of the five churches 
 of Carnock, Saline, Aberdour, Auchtertool, and Dal- 
 gety as minister, he is assisted by '' John Paterson, 
 reidare at Dalgetie and Aberdour, and Mr. John 
 Fairfull and Mr. Walter Balcanquell, exhorters." 
 Seven years later, John Brounhill and John Tyrie, 
 younger, hold the office of reader ; and Patrick 
 Anderson, reader, is referred to in a minute of 
 March 9, 1645, as still at work in the parish. 
 
26 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 Such, then, were the labourers who were seen 
 girdiuo" themselves to the task of *' doincr God's 
 work in the parish," as the minutes finely term it, 
 when Mr. Andrew Donaldson had been ordained 
 minister of Dalgety in the year 1644. 
 
 One is struck with the number of churches and 
 chapels that existed, even in country parishes in 
 Scotland, about the time of the Reformation. Small 
 and sparsely peopled as Dalgety was, it could boast 
 not merely of its parish church, which, we believe, 
 was dedicated to St. Brigid, but also of the chapel 
 of St. Theriot at Fordell, that in all probability 
 stood on the site of the present family chapel, which 
 was built about the year 1633. The right of pre- 
 sentation to the old chapel belonged to Mr. James 
 Henderson, of Fordell, in 1511 ; and we have 
 traces of two of its chaplains, in the persons of Sir 
 William Blackburn and Sir John Blyth. But it 
 ceased to be regularly used for public worship be- 
 fore the time with which these sketches deal. The 
 name of the patron saint is about all that popular 
 tradition retains, and that is more associated with 
 St. Theriot's well than with the chapel. The well 
 is known, to some of the old people at least, as a 
 ** wishing " one, having the extraordinary property 
 of securing that what one wishes, while drinking of its 
 water, shall be obtained. And, with a certain limi- 
 tation, we must bear witness in its favour. Many 
 a time, while walking througli the beautiful glen 
 
THE WISHING WELL. 
 
 of Fordell in summer time, we have stopped at the 
 little cave-like well, with its roof gracefully festooned 
 by the maiden-hair fern, and in drinking of its crystal 
 water have got precisely what we wished for at the 
 time. But then we took care that our wishes should 
 be modestly confined to the refreshment that such 
 water was sure to give, or should take the direction 
 indicated by the old saying, ''Happy is he who ex- 
 pecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed." 
 
 When Andrew Donaldson became minister at 
 Dalgety, he found the old parish church ready to 
 his hand, although it was in a very indifferent state 
 of repair; but there was no manse, and neither 
 school nor schoolmaster's house. These wants he 
 at once set himself to supply. 
 
 The fabric of the church had evidently shared in 
 the general neglect that characterised Mr. William 
 Patoun's incumbency. The floor was earthen, and 
 there was a want of comfort everywhere. Within 
 a few weeks of Andrew Donaldson's ordination, 
 however, we hear the clink of masons' tools echoed 
 from the minutes, and the noise is kept up for nine 
 weeks continuously, while pavement is being squared 
 and laid down on the floor of the church. The 
 footsteps of James Thomson, the " beddal" (church 
 officer), are heard, too, as he goes bustling about 
 helping the masons. Considerable sums of money 
 are taken out of the kirk-box for '' pathment- 
 stones," for the wages of the masons who are laying 
 
28 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 them, and for James's remuneration, which was at 
 the rate of six shillings, Scots, a-day. And some- 
 what later we find laudable efforts made to throw 
 more light into the church, and to improve it in 
 various respects. 
 
 The other wants, however, were not so easily 
 supplied ; and even at this early stage, we regret 
 to say, some aspersions must be cast on the leading 
 personages in the parish. With so many heritors, 
 who were at the same time elders of the church, it 
 should not have been a matter of much difficulty to 
 provide such a manse as would have met the modest 
 wishes of the minister, and that without entailing 
 any expense either on him or his successor. But, 
 even at that time, it would appear the Scottish 
 lairds as a class held their money with a firm grip, 
 when it was sought for educational or religious pur- 
 poses ; and Mr. Donaldson had no little difficulty in 
 getting his parish equipped with such necessary 
 parts of parochial machinery as manse, school, and 
 schoolmaster's house. 
 
 We should, to be sure, wonder the less at this 
 want of liberality when we take into account the 
 shameful neglect in which the parish had so long 
 lain. For it is only Avhen the Gospel is faithfully 
 proclaimed, and hearts are opened to the reception 
 of the priceless blessings it brings, that men begin 
 to feel, and act on the conviction, that the silver 
 and the gold are the Lord's. 
 
THE MANSE BUILT. 29 
 
 The heritors, as bound by law, did contribute to 
 the building of the manse ; but, after they had 
 done so, Mr. Donaldson found himself sadly out of 
 pocket in the transaction, as the following extract 
 from the kirk- session record shows : — 
 
 January 30, 1647. — "This day the minister did repre- 
 sent to the Sessione and present heritours his charges 
 about the manse, by and attoure [over and above] quhat 
 the parish had contributed, and instructed to them that 
 he wes far out oif purse. They ordaine him to draw up 
 ane reference to the Presbitrye, and the heritors to sub- 
 scrive it, that ane Act pas there for payment from the 
 intrant of fyve hundreth merks, accordmg to the practick 
 and order." 
 
 The arrangement, by which those entering on the 
 office of the ministry had to pay large sums, ex- 
 pended by their predecessors in office in the build- 
 ing of manses, was one under which the Church 
 groaned at that time. Overtures' went up to the 
 General Assembly on the subject, craving that both 
 manses and stipends might be made free to those 
 entering on the office of the ministry; and the 
 Assembly referred the matter to the Commissioners 
 for Public Affairs, that redress from Parliament 
 might be sought. But it v/as a transition time ; 
 and there was much suffering on the part of the 
 ministry of which we hear little complaint. Men 
 like Andrew Donaldson were girding themselves 
 for the performance of a great task, in which the 
 
30 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 good of their fellow-countrymen and the glory of 
 God were alike concerned ; and they were not to 
 whimper and complain because the buckles of their 
 armour fretted their fingers. 
 
 The manse being built (a little to the west of the 
 church, and commanding a view of every ebb and 
 flow of Dalgety Bay), the minister's next effort was 
 to get a school erected. By an Act of Parliament 
 in 1633 it was made binding on the heritors of 
 every parish to provide a school, and the Church 
 Courts, as a rule, made praiseworthy efforts to get 
 this provision carried into effect ; but a considerable 
 time elapsed ere Mr. Donaldson succeeded in getting 
 one erected in his parish. In all likelihood the 
 troubled state of the country — for civil war was 
 raging over the land with great fury — and the 
 minister's absence from home while discharging the 
 duties of chaplain to Lord Dunfermline's regiment 
 in England, stood in the way. At length, how- 
 ever, progress is reported, as the kirk-session record 
 shows : — 
 
 January 30, 1647. — " This day the minister did speak to 
 the Sessione and heritors present off an Act off Parliament 
 concerning the plantatione of schooles, and that the Pres- 
 hytrie was upone ane good way for the executing of it. 
 The minister is desyred to acquaint the absent heritors 
 with it." 
 
 Not only are steps being taken to provide the 
 necessary funds for the building and maintenance 
 
schoolmaster's salary secured. 31 
 
 of a school, but the session are keeping their eyes 
 on a personage who may yet be promoted to the 
 important position of schoohiiaster, as the following 
 entry testifies : — 
 
 March 15, 1647. — " Taken out off the boxe and given 
 to Mr. William Gillies, quhom the Sessione minds to 
 keepe a whyle, and try iff he be fitt to teache ane schoole 
 and serve in the parish — 5 lib. 8s." 
 
 At this rate, the likelihood is, that the session 
 will have the schoolmaster ready before the school 
 is erected, or the means required for his maintenance 
 are provided ; and so a little more gentle pressure 
 must be brought to bear on the heritors, in this 
 fashion : — 
 
 March 29, 1647. — " This day the minister did declare 
 to the present heritors the ordinance off the Presbytrie 
 anent the settling off schooles within their bounds, accord- 
 ing to the Act off Parliament, and desyres that they will 
 meet and do somewhat therein, with certification that iff 
 they doe not the Presbytrie will go on to establish ane 
 schoole heir, according to the said Act." 
 
 This action of the minister has some effect. The 
 heritors do meet ; and they propose that the school- 
 master shall have a yearly salary of a hundred 
 marks. This is represented to the Presbytery ; but 
 that court evidently consider the proposed sum too 
 small for such a parish as Dalgety, and so they 
 
32 PASTOEAL WORK IN THE COVENANTIJJG TIMES. 
 
 refuse the offer. The resolution of the Presbytery 
 
 is reported to a meeting of session, at which 
 
 all the heritors, with the exception of Lord Cal- 
 
 lender, are present. They add ten marks to the 
 
 hundred already offered ; and this sum is evidently 
 
 accepted by the Presbytery, as we hear nothing 
 
 further about the matter. It appears to have been 
 
 the law even at that early time that the parish 
 
 schoolmaster should receive a salary of not less than 
 
 a hundred marks, and not more than two hundred. 
 
 The difference between these two sums thus became 
 
 a sort of debatable ground, on which a good deal of 
 
 skirmishing went .on; the Presbyteries, as in the 
 
 present case, contending stoutly with the heritors 
 
 for the schoolmaster's interests, and the heritors 
 
 fighting valorously for what they supposed to be their 
 
 own. But although the schoolmaster's salary is 
 
 thus, at length, made sure, neither the school nor 
 
 the schoolmaster's house has yet been built. The 
 
 children are evidently assembling in some temporary 
 
 meeting-place, and the session have been paying 
 
 rent for the house in which the schoolmaster is 
 
 residing. Three years have yet to elapse ere these 
 
 wants are supplied ; and the delay is not very 
 
 creditable to the heritors. But the session at 
 
 length bring matters to a point, as the following 
 
 extract testifies : — - 
 
 March 3, 1G50. — "The Sessione, considering that the 
 want of a scooll and house for the scool-master is ane 
 
SCHOOL BUILDINGS PROVIDED. 33 
 
 great lett [hindrance] to the instruction of childring, and 
 that it will be longsome to get ground and ane place to 
 build it on off the heritours, and that it will stand como- 
 diouslie besyd the minister's manse, doe ordaine ane house 
 to be built there with all diligence, and that the reddiest 
 mony [money] be taken for the putting forward off the 
 work, especially that mony in the hands off the Laird off 
 Blair, left by his umquhile ladie, ad j^ios usus, till the 
 heritours be put to contribut for the same, and withal 
 apoynts the minister, David Currie, and Eo : Hendersone, 
 to oversie the work." 
 
 Few, we think, will fail to appreciate the fine 
 spirit displayed by Mr. Donaldson in this arrange- 
 ment. There is, evidently, some contention among 
 the heritors in regard to the allotment of a piece of 
 ground for the school buildings. The cause of 
 education in the parish is, however, in the mean- 
 time suffering. And as there is a piece of ground 
 adjoining the manse — probably a part of the glebe, 
 belonging to the minister — he is willing to give it 
 up for the purpose, consoling himself with the 
 thought that the school will stand commodiously 
 there. And there, accordingly, it is built, a monu- 
 ment to the large-heartedness of Andrew Donaldson. 
 
 In this way we see how, in the midst of difficul- 
 ties, the parish of Dalgety has at length attained its 
 full equipment of workers, and the buildings re- 
 quired for giving them shelter in the midst of their 
 labours. 
 
 D 
 
34 PASTOKAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 It will, we doubt not, interest our readers, 
 especially those of the fair sex, and prove to all how 
 broad and enlightened Andrew Donaldson's views of 
 parochial organisation were, when we tell them that, 
 after getting his manse built, he proceeded to add 
 to his staff of coadjutors one second in importance to 
 iione — a wife. The curtain that conceals the early 
 personal history of the hero of our narrative is hard 
 to draw, but we have succeeded in recovering some 
 facts refrardinoj his wife. She was Helen Hamilton, 
 daughter of James Hamilton, laird of Mekill 
 Parklie, in West Lothian, and his wife, Issobella 
 Mauld, the daughter of William Mauld, merchant 
 and burgess in Edinburgh. It was on the 7th day 
 of June, 1648, that Mr. Donaldson took home his 
 bride to the manse of Dalgety. And, beautiful as 
 the parish at all times looks, we may well suppose 
 that on such an occasion it had a more golden 
 sunshine resting on it for his eyes. Nor can we 
 doubt that it was a day of rejoicing in the parish. 
 For they show great ignorance of those early times 
 who suppose that something like funereal gloom 
 rested on such occasions as naturally call forth 
 gladness and merriment. The very reverse was the 
 case, as we shall at a later stage have occasion to 
 show. 
 
 The lady of Parklie, now Mr. Donaldson s mother- 
 in-law, was one of a large family of sisters. Of 
 these sisters, Mariota became the wife of Mr. 
 
THE PARKLIE FAMILY. 35 
 
 Alexander Seatoun, of Gargunnock ; Helenora was 
 married to Mr. Alexander Moriesoun, advocate ; 
 Margareta became the spouse of Sir Alexander 
 Murray, of Darnhall; and Bethia was wedded to 
 James Murray, merctiant burgess of Edinburgh. 
 
 Up till this time we have seen merely the 
 machinery, material and moral, by which the edu- 
 cational, religious, and social interests of the parish 
 are to be advanced. In subsequent chapters we 
 shall inquire, and hear what the Old Session Record 
 has to tell, as to the way in which this machinery 
 wrought, and with what results. 
 
36 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ©fforts in Ibc €nxx%t ai ffiiriicatbn. 
 
 MAN of far less intelligence than Andrew 
 Donaldson set down to labour in a parish 
 so long neglected as Dalgety had been, 
 and among a people the great bulk of whom were 
 of necessity uneducated, Avould at once have seen 
 the need of securing the co-operation of the pious 
 and educated men of his cono^re oration who had time 
 at their disposal. The Presbyterian system had 
 given the minister of Dalgety just such a class of 
 men in his elders, and had invested them with 
 authority, in order to make their efforts the more 
 telling. And Mr. Donaldson has evidently no idea 
 of retaining the elders on his list as mere ornaments. 
 He expects them to work, and that not merely by 
 appearing at weekly meetings of kirk-session, but 
 by devoting a portion of their time to visitation of 
 the people, with the view of repressing vice and 
 encouraging piety. There can be no mistake re- 
 garding Mr. Donaldson's views on these points, for 
 although he had twelve elders when he began his 
 ministry in August, 1G44, liardly four months 
 
''THE WORK OF GOD IN THE PAROCH." 37 
 
 elapse ere we find a new election resolved on — 
 " the sessione considering the few number of elders 
 for assisting the minister, and going about the work 
 of God in the paroch." It is, of course, hardly to 
 be expected that this kind of pastoral work will go 
 on for any considerable time without testing the 
 character and constancy of the elders, and finding 
 some of them awanting. "We are, therefore, not 
 greatly surprised to find that in the course of a few 
 years a number of the more ornamental names 
 gradually disappear from the list of working elders. 
 Even then, however, a goodly number of men of 
 high social standing are still seen at work ; and 
 Alexander Spittal, of Leuchat, John Henderson, 
 younger of Fordell, and John Moubray, of 
 Cockairnie, are conspicuous for earnest and un- 
 Avearied service in " the work of God in the parish." 
 And the private character of these men must have 
 stood high in the estimation of the parishioners, for 
 when the kirk-sessions throughout the Presbytery 
 were reconstructed in 1649, the persons we have 
 just named were re-elected — the qualification for 
 the office being that, " efter due tryall they have 
 been found of ane honest report and conversation, 
 and has God's worship in their families." 
 
 In looking more particularly at the labours of 
 Mr. Donaldson and his elders, we shall notice, first, 
 their efforts in the cause of Education ; for it will 
 be admitted by all that this is a matter of prime 
 
88 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 importance in the process of elevating a sunken 
 population ; and, indeed, that it lies at the root of 
 success in every department of pastoral work. 
 
 The enlightened and patriotic attitude in reference 
 to education taken up by the Reformers of the 
 Scottish Kirk, is something for which every succeed- 
 ing generation of Scotchmen has had reason to thank 
 God. Indeed, three centuries after the publication 
 of their ideal of an educated state, it has to be con- 
 fessed that we still lag far behind it. The sentences 
 of the First Book of Discipline, in which their 
 scheme is propounded, deserve to be written in 
 letters of gold — " Of necessitie therefore we judge 
 it, that every several kirk have one schoolmaister 
 appointed, such a one at least as is able to teach 
 grammar and the Latine tongue, if the town be of 
 any reputation : If it be upaland [in a country 
 district] where the people convene to the doctrine 
 but once in the week, then must either the reader 
 or the minister there appointed take care of the 
 children and youth of the parish, to instruct them 
 in the first rudiments, especially in the Catechisme 
 [Calvin's Catechism], as we have it now translated 
 in the Booke of the Common Order, called the 
 Order of Geneva. And, furder, we think it ex- 
 pedient that in every notable town, and specially in 
 the town of the superintendent, there be erected a 
 colledge, in which the arts, at least logick and 
 rhetorick together with the tongues, be read by 
 
A CANDIDATE DISAPPOINTED. 39 
 
 sufficient masters, for whom honest stipends must 
 be appointed. As also provision for those that be 
 poore, and not able by themselves nor by their 
 friends to be sustained at letters, and in speciall 
 these that come from landward." How far the 
 spirit of this passage, and Acts of Assembly that 
 sought to reflect it, was caught and carried into 
 action by Andrew Donaldson and his office-bearers, 
 we shall now inquire. 
 
 Their first recorded efforts are in connection with 
 the appointment of a schoolmaster. Not any one 
 who chooses to apply for the situation is to have 
 the honour of being appointed schoolmaster of the 
 parish of Dalgety. Mr. William Gillies is, first of 
 all, seen on trial ; but when weighed in the balance 
 he seems to have been found wanting. Then 
 William Campbell tries his hand ; but it looks as if 
 he did not come quite up to the mark either. 
 Here is another applicant : — 
 
 October 7, 1649. — "Mr. William Thrift comes in and 
 offers himself to be schoolmaster. The Sessione delays 
 ane answer to him, till they thinke upone it." 
 
 And this is how it stands with Mr. William, after 
 the session have thought upon it : — 
 
 October 14, 1649. — "The Sessione, hecaus off some ill 
 reports off Mr. William Thrift, doe refuise that he sail be 
 schoolm.aster, and appoynts ane letter to be written to 
 
40 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 him, showing him that they doe not inclyne to satisfie his 
 desyre in that particular." 
 
 The honour that Mr. William Thrift vainly aspired 
 to is at length bestowed on Mr. George Watson, and 
 it is evidently the desire and intention of minister 
 and elders alike that the parish shall reap the full 
 advantage of the schoolmaster's labours. With a 
 view to this, they take upon themselves a very 
 active supervision of the school. 
 
 The First Book of Discipline had declared that 
 '' the rich and potent may not be permitted to suffer 
 their children to spend their youth in vaine idle- 
 nesse, as heretofore they have done. But they must 
 be exhorted, and by the censure of the Kirk com- 
 pelled to dedicate their sonnes, by good exercises, 
 to the profite of the Kirk and Commonwealth, and 
 that they must doe of their own expences, because 
 they are able. The children of the poore must be 
 sustained on the charge of the Kirk, tryall being 
 taken whether the spirit of docility be in them 
 found or not. If they be found apt to learning and 
 letters, then may they not (we meane neither the 
 sons of the rich, nor yet of the poore) be permitted 
 to reject learning, but must be charged to continue 
 their studio, so that the Commonwealth may have 
 some comfort by them : And for this purpose must 
 discreet, grave, and learned men be appointed to 
 visit schoolcs for the tryall of their exercises, profit, 
 
SCHOOL VISITORS APPOINTED. 41 
 
 and continuance : to wit, the minister and elders, 
 with the best learned men in every town, shall in 
 every quarter make examination how the youth 
 have profited." These wise and statesmanlike views, 
 after lying in abeyance so long, are again finding 
 acceptance with educationists, as far at least as com- 
 pulsory attendance at school is concerned. And 
 we believe they are destined to receive further ac- 
 ceptance yet. For the principle on which com- 
 pulsory education rests — the natural claims of the 
 commonwealth on each individual member of it — 
 has a much wider sweep of application than merely 
 to secure that each member of the State shall be 
 able to read the laws of the State. Our Reformers 
 held, and surely they were entitled to hold, that the 
 commonwealth has a right to expect, and by the 
 employment of wise measures to secure, that it shall 
 not merely be defended against injury at the hands 
 of the individual members of it, but " may have 
 some comfort by them." 
 
 Andrew Donaldson and his elders were most dili- 
 gent in visiting their school. Such entries as the 
 following are quite common : — '' The minister, John 
 Moubray, Robert Andersone appoynted to visite the 
 schoole." Then the week following there is the re- 
 port — '' These that were appoynted to visite the 
 schoole make their report, that the bairnes are in a 
 good way of proficiencie ; " or such other terms are 
 employed as the case requires. 
 
42 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 But it becomes evident that, although the school 
 is well attended, there are several poor people in the 
 parish who are unable to pay for the education of 
 their children, and the question comes to be. Are 
 these poor children to be allowed to grow up in 
 ignorance ? Here is the session's answer : — 
 
 January 16, 1648. — "The Sessione this day taking to 
 their consideration the estait and caise off some poor ones 
 within the parishe, whose parents are not able to mainteine 
 them at the schooll, ordeines that they be mainteined by 
 the Kirk boxe both for their schoolinge fyes [fees], and also 
 ordeanes everie one off them to get twentie shillings to 
 buy them buiks and other necessars presently, and William 
 Cuninghame in Litle Fordell is ordeaned to give the 
 schoolmaster 50 shillings for fyve poor schollers quhilk 
 he hes in the schoole, and the said twentie shillings to 
 each one off them to be given to their parents to buy them 
 necessars with." 
 
 There are various notices in the minutes of the 
 great care displayed by the session in the case of 
 other young persons whose education was likely to 
 be neglected. Here is an Act in reference to a class, 
 not over-well cared for even in our own day — those 
 employed in herding cattle. And it is significant 
 of the business-like way in which such things were 
 looked after by the session, that it is near the be- 
 ginning of the herding season that attention is called 
 to the matter, and not at the close of it, when legis- 
 
CARE OF HEEDS. 43 
 
 lation for that year would have been of no practical 
 avail : — 
 
 June 17, 1649. — "The Sessione considering that hirds, 
 and such as are tyed to keip cattle in the sommer season, 
 grow up in much ignorance, by reasone of their not fre- 
 quenting the Kirk on the LordVday and the dyets of 
 weiklie examinatione, doe therefore appoynt and ordeane 
 that, in all tyme coming, the maister off the familie, 
 where such are, sail cans relieve them everie 2nd or 3rd 
 Sabbath, that they may come to the church, and that they 
 be releaved also to come sometymes to catechising ; and 
 because some off such are taken from the school to wait 
 on goods befoir they be instructed in reiding perfectlie, 
 and others are not put to schoole, therefore recomencls to 
 the master off the familie that panes be taken on such 
 to learne them to reid, and this Act to be intimat the next 
 Lord's-day, and elders in visiting to sie to the observing 
 off it." 
 
 The above Act shows how watchful the session 
 were over the interests of the young of the parish, 
 and how wisely they acted in order to prevent them 
 from falling into ignorance and neglect of ordinances. 
 And there are other notices which show how clear a 
 view the minister and elders had of the high value 
 of education, in any systematic effort to elevate the 
 people, and how important they felt it to be to get 
 the whole contestation interested in such an enter- 
 prise. In this light we cannot but regard the fol- 
 lowing Act as a very important one : — 
 
44 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 Novemher 14, 1G51. — "The Sessione, considering the 
 grosse ignorance of God in the paroch, and that the not 
 training up off people at schooles in their youth hes beine 
 one cause off it, thinkes it necessarie, in tyme coming, that 
 all young ones be trained up at the schoole till they be able 
 at least to read the Scriptures : and becaus many are not 
 able to keip their bairnes at schoole, the Sessione thinks 
 fitt that poore people be helped, and that therefor ane 
 charitable collection be called for, once in the quarter, 
 from the paroch for that end ; and also, since there is 
 almost daily catechising, that young ones be still present, 
 and be bred up in the knowledge off the grounds off 
 religione." 
 
 It thus appears that no mere smattering of either 
 secular or religious instruction acquired by the poor 
 will satisfy Mr. Donaldson and his elders. Children, 
 before leaving school, must be able '' at least to read 
 the Scriptures ; " and they are to be " hred wp in 
 the knowledge of the grounds of religion." The 
 glimpse we have in this minute of the labours of 
 the minister and elders in the midst of their almost 
 daily catechisings is also very interesting and signi- 
 ficant. One would like to have some idea of the 
 amount raised by these quarterly collections in aid 
 of the education of the poor belonging to the parish. 
 The first collection was made just a week afterwards, 
 and the result is thus told : — 
 
 Novemher 1\,\^\i\. — "Acollectione gathered for the help 
 of poore people's bairnes — to wit 1 G lib : It's recomended 
 
EDUCATION OF POOR CHILDREN. 45 
 
 to elders, in their severall quarters, to caus such young 
 ones fitt for the schoole, and appoynted to be sent at the 
 diets of catechising, to come forth. Given the school- 
 master for pay*- off pure scholars, this quarter, 10 lib : 
 given to the said poore ones among them for their help 
 otherwise, 15 lib." 
 
 A hundred pounds Scots or thereby spent in the 
 year in connection with the education of the poor of 
 the parish shows how thoroughly the session are 
 exerting themselves in that cause, and bow liberally 
 the parishioners are responding to their call. There 
 were probably not fewer than twenty poor children 
 receiving the benefit of gratuitous instruction at this 
 time ; and some notices of the efforts of the session 
 to secure the regular attendance of these children at 
 school prove, by the very minuteness of their details, 
 how painstaking both ministers and elders were. 
 At one time '' some catechise [catechisms] for pure 
 scholars " are to be paid for out of the box ; at 
 another time the elders are recommended to visit 
 their quarters " to cause send againe to the schoole 
 any that by seikness hes beine absent and now are 
 recovered." And the way in which the exceptional 
 case of a poor boy is dealt with speaks volumes for 
 the kindness as well as the care of these men. 
 
 December 5, 1651. — "John Hendersone, ane pure boy 
 at the schoole, desirous to tarie and learne to reid, and 
 altogether destitute off maintenance, the Sessione aj)- 
 poynts for him the Fryday's collection for a tyme." 
 
46 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 There was, as we shall afterwards have occasion 
 to notice more fully, a service in the church on one 
 of the week-days as well as on Sabbath ; and the 
 sum collected at that week-day service is to be 
 given for a time to this poor boy, in order to main- 
 tain him while at school. At another time there is 
 a notice of " thrie pounds appoyntit for cloaths to a 
 pure scholar." In short, the education of the whole 
 youth of the parish is a constant care to minister 
 and elders. 
 
 Although it is chiefly in connection with the 
 poor of the parish that details regarding education 
 are given in the old kirk-session record, we need 
 be at no loss to discover the amount of instruction 
 imparted ; for the poorest were not allowed to suffer 
 in that respect. By an Act of Assembly in 1642 
 it was appointed that in every school, even in rural 
 districts, the children should be instructed in read- 
 ing, writing, and the knowledge of the principles of 
 religion. This points out the minimum amount 
 of education to be given to the children of the 
 poorest. As for the children of all classes above 
 the poorest, Prussia has not to-day a more liberal 
 course of instruction enjoined on her people than 
 our Scottish Eeformers recommended to the Great 
 Council of Scotland, and the General Assembly ap- 
 proved in 1560. "A certaine time," say they, 
 "must be appointed to reading and learning of the 
 Catechisme, and a certain time to the grammar and 
 
AN OLD IDEAL NOT YET REALISED. 47 
 
 to the Latine tongue, and a certain time to the arts 
 of philosophie and the other tongues, and a certain 
 time to that studie in which they intend chiefly to 
 travel for the profite of the Commonwealth : which 
 time being expired, we meane in every course, the 
 children should either proceed to farther knowledge, 
 or else they must be set to some handicraft, or to 
 some other profitable exercise." 
 
 It was, of course, by means of grammar schools 
 thickly planted over the land, and colleges erected 
 in all the principal towns, that the Reformers ex- 
 pected these ends to be secured. But their spirit 
 animated such men as Andrew Donaldson, as in 
 their parishes they quietly and persistently laboured 
 to help on the cause of education ; and at the 
 thought of such a scheme, what Scotchman does not 
 feel his spirit stirred within him still ? What an 
 incomparable class of artisans such a course of edu- 
 cation would give to any country, provided that in- 
 crease in secular knowledge went hand in hand with 
 " farther knowledge of Christian religion," as our 
 Reformers intended ! The School Boards of Scot- 
 land have some work before them ere this old ideal 
 of an educated nation is realised; and yet, looked 
 at amidst the benign light which Christian philan- 
 thropy sheds on all schemes of true progress, who 
 will venture to say it is Utopian ? 
 
 Among the most interesting notices in the Old 
 Record are those that tell how copies of the Scrip- 
 
48 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 tures were put into the bands of those who could 
 read them, and were carried into the homes of 
 the poorest poor. The following Act shows how 
 earnestly the minds of minister and elders were 
 turned to this subject : — 
 
 January 'il^ 1G54. — ''The Sessione appoyiits that all 
 who has learned to reid, in the severall quarters, buy bibles, 
 and that, at catechising and visiting off families, people 
 be exhorted to reid and learne the Scripture, and that pure 
 bodies who are not able to buy bibles, their caise to be 
 presented to the Sessione, that they may be helped ; and 
 also that others who cannot reid, and are not disabled 
 through [age] or infirmitie, be sei'iouslie dealt with to take 
 paines to learne, and that no young ones grow up without 
 learning to reid." 
 
 We shall group together a few of the instances in 
 which Bibles are put into the hands of those who 
 are so poor as to be unable to give anything for 
 them. 
 
 February 5, 1654. — "Given out of the boxe, this day 
 — 18 lib : for nine bibles to poore bodies." 
 
 February 17, 1654. — "Given out, this day, for two 
 bibles to poore folk in the parish — 4 lib :" 
 
 October 27, 1654. — "For two bibles to two poore ones 
 in the parish — 4 lib : " 
 
 January 12, 1655. — " Given 40/- for a bible to Janet 
 Trumbcll." 
 
 April 16, 1655. — " For ane bible to Thomas Small his 
 daughter, 40/-" 
 
AN EARLY BIBLE SOCIETY. 49 
 
 Jxme 12, 1655. — " Given out, this day, for bibles to 
 pure ones, 12 lib :" 
 
 February 1, 1656. — " Given out off the boxe for bibles 
 to some pure, 12 lib :" 
 
 There are many similar notices at later times 
 from which it appears that the price of a copy of 
 the Scriptures had by 1659 fallen to thirty-six 
 shillings. The session evidently encouraged the 
 poor to give something for a copy of the Scriptures 
 when they could not pay the full price. The 
 following extract has evident reference to such 
 cases : — 
 
 February 17, 1656. — " For paying the remaines of some 
 bibles to poore ones, 27/-" 
 
 But even this does not exhaust the narrative of 
 the labours of Mr. Donaldson and his session in the 
 cause of education. There were some ignorant and 
 refractory parents in the parish who neglected to 
 take advantage of the facilities provided for the 
 instruction of their children. These parents were 
 summoned before the session and dealt with in 
 reference to their remissness ; the result generally 
 being that the children were sent to school. The 
 foUowino- is the first notice of the kind that comes to 
 hand : — 
 
 Oc^o6e7- 3, 1652. — "John Lillie to be cited for taking 
 away his daughter from the schoole, without acquainting 
 the Session." 
 
 E 
 
50 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 October 19, 1652. — " John Lillie compearing promises to 
 send liis child to the schoole again, and to keip her at it 
 till she be able to read the bible." 
 
 Our account of the eiforts put forth in the cause 
 of education in the parish of Dalgety, in those early 
 days, would be incomplete did we not allude to the 
 sum yearly contributed to aid in forming a bursary 
 for the support of a student attending the Divinity 
 Hall. It had been enacted by the General Assembly, 
 in 1641, that every Presbytery consisting of twelve 
 ministers should maintain a bursar ; and that, when 
 the number of ministers was less than twelve, the 
 Presbytery should be joined to another in supporting 
 a bursar. The yearly sum paid to every bursar was 
 to be a hundred pounds Scots at least ; and regularly 
 as the term for the payment comes round the pro- 
 portion of the bursary due by the congregation is 
 sent to the clerk of the Presbytery. 
 
 Thus things go on in the parish of Dalgety during 
 the whole period of Mr. Donaldson's ministry. The 
 neglect of two generations, in the matter of educa- 
 tion, is gradually being wiped away, and a solid 
 foundation is being laid on which to build the hope 
 of a still brighter future. Well would it be for the 
 country if, in every parish in this nineteenth century, 
 there were as ample and kindly provision made for 
 the education of the young, and as efficient a guaran- 
 tee against the neglect of it, as there was in the 
 
REPROACH TURNED INTO EXAMPLE. 51 
 
 parish of Dalgety in the seventeenth century. In 
 these days we flatter ourselves that we have shot 
 a long way ahead of the men of that old-world time 
 — and no doubt in many things we have ; but we 
 are bold enough to think that Scotland — and, for 
 that matter, England too — has a few lessons to 
 learn from the working of the parochial system 
 durincr the much-malis^ned and little-understood 
 Covenanting times. 
 
52 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 mTagemcnf 0f tijc ^001-. 
 
 |T may be well to lay before our readers at 
 this stage a series of extracts from the old 
 session record of Dalgety, showing how 
 the poor were cared for by Mr. Andrew Donaldson 
 and his office-bearers. Any view of pastoral work 
 in the seventeenth century would manifestly be iu- 
 complete if it did not embrace this department of 
 parochial duty ; and it will come in for considera- 
 tion more appropriately here than when we advance 
 to those labours of a higher kind, in which a minister 
 of the Gospel finds his more peculiar sphere of effort. 
 It is the bounden duty as well as the privilege of 
 every true branch of the Church of Christ " to re- 
 member the poor." and that Church has simk very 
 low, indeed, which not merely neglects them, but 
 encourages their oppression. Yet if there is one 
 fact more clearly proved than another in regard 
 to the times immediately preceding the Reforma- 
 tion in Scotland, it is that the poor were not only 
 shamefully neglected, but oppressed and trampled 
 on. The Reformers, speaking in the First Book of 
 
THE POOR IN POPISH TIMES. 53 
 
 Discipline, use the language of righteous indignation 
 in reference to this terrible abuse — language, the 
 strength of which shows how deeply they felt the 
 injustice done to their poor brethren, and how con- 
 scious they were that the accusations they made 
 could not be denied. Addressing the Great Council 
 of the Nation, they say : " We must crave of your 
 honours, in the name of the Eternal God and of his 
 Son Christ Jesus, that ye have respect to your poor 
 brethren, the labourers and manurers of the ground, 
 who by thir cruell beastes, the Papists, have before 
 been opprest, that their life to them hath been 
 dolorous and bitter : If ye will have God author and 
 approver of this reformation, ye must not follow 
 their foote-steps, but ye must have compassion of 
 your brethren, appointing them to pay reasonable 
 tiends, that they may finde some benefite of Christ 
 Jesus, now preached unto them." 
 
 In this oppression it would be hard to say whether 
 the ecclesiastics or the nobles and lairds were the 
 most exacting; for while the former, like vultures, 
 were ever on the w^atch for befitting occasions to 
 spoil the poor wdth their demands for exorbitant 
 fees in connection with baptisms and marriages, the 
 uppermost cloth and corpse-present at funerals, and 
 clerk-mails, pasch-offerings, tiend-ale, &c. &c., the 
 owners of the land oppressed them by exorbitant 
 rents and other exactions. Against all such modes 
 of oppression the Reformers set their faces like a 
 
54 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 flint. We have just heard the manly words and 
 humane tones in which they spoke of the tyranny 
 of the Churchmen. This is the way in which they 
 speak of the tyranny of the nobility and gentry : — 
 *' We dare not flatter your honours, neither yet is it 
 profitable for you that we so do. For neither shall 
 we, if we permit cruelty to be used, neither shall ye 
 who by your authority ought to gainestand such 
 oppressions, nor yet they that use the same, escape 
 God's heavie and fearfull judgements." 
 
 We shall quote only a sentence or two more, 
 although many might be adduced, both from the 
 First and Second Books of Discipline, to show how 
 heavily the care of the poor pressed on the hearts 
 of the Scottish Reformers : — " Every several kirk 
 must provide for the poore within itself: for fearful 
 and horrible it is, that the poore, whom not onely 
 God the Father in his law, but Christ Jesus in his 
 Evangel, and the Holy Spirit speaking by St. Paul, 
 hath so earnestly commended to our care, are uni- 
 versally so contemned and despised. We are not 
 patrons for stubborne and idle beggars, who, running 
 from place to place, make a craft of their begging, 
 whom the civill magistrate ought to compel to work, 
 or then punish : But, for the widow and fatherlesse, 
 the aged, impotent or lamed, who neither can nor 
 may travel [labour] for their sustentation, we say 
 that God commands his people to be careful : and 
 therefore for such, as also for persons of honestie 
 
THE ''BROD" and the KIRK-BOX. 55 
 
 fallen into decay and poverty, ought such provision 
 to be made, that of our aboundance their indio^ence 
 may be relieved." Utterances like these fell into 
 the soil of Scottish hearts and took root there ; and 
 never again has there appeared in Scotland anything 
 like the neglect or oppression of the poor that char- 
 acterised the times before the Reformation. 
 
 It is a very common mistake to suppose that rates 
 for the support of the poor were altogether unknown 
 in Scotland in olden times. As early as the year 
 1574 an Act was passed in the Scottish Parliament 
 making it compulsory, in certain circumstances, to 
 assess for the support of the poor. And this Act, 
 we may mention in passing, gives a most graphic 
 sketch of the state of the country at that time as 
 regards its various classes of needy persons. Down 
 till the middle of last century, however, it was found 
 that the weekly collections made at the doors of the 
 parish churches were sufficient for the support of 
 the poor, except in years of peculiar want, when 
 temporary assessments were had recourse to. The 
 exception, however, erelong became almost the rule; 
 and in 1838, before the passing of the ''Poor Law 
 Amendment Act," there were no fewer than 362 
 parishes in Scotland in which assessments for the 
 poor were regularly levied. 
 
 In the parish of Dalgety, in Mr. Donaldson's 
 time, church-door collections still formed the chief 
 source of income for the support of the poor. But 
 
56 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 fines and forfeited marriage pledges, as we shall 
 afterwards see in another connection, also flowed into 
 that important institution, the kirk-box, which was 
 the great reservoir from which the wants of the poor 
 were supplied. There, at the door of the church, 
 stood the inevitable " brod," for receiving the offer- 
 ings of the people, its sanctities carefully guarded by 
 attendant deacons. A respectable-looking " brod" 
 it was, too, made by " Richard Potter, ane wrycht," 
 as the minutes tell us, " to gather the offering." 
 Into the "brod" drop the offerings of the people as 
 they enter the church, and out of it, dry as it looks, 
 runs a stream of old-fashioned coins, as we would 
 now regard them, into that mare magnum, the 
 kirk-box. It helps us to gauge this stream to 
 notice the sums collected at the " brod" for a few 
 Sabbaths immediately after Mr. Donaldson's ordina- 
 tion, as these are chronicled in the record. On 
 September 1, 1644, there was collected 51s. 4d.; 
 Sept. 8, 39s. 8d.; Sept. 15, 33s.; Sept. 22, 24s.; 
 Sept. 29, 89s. 6d.; Oct. 6, 33s.; Oct. 13, 45s. lOd.; 
 Oct. 20, 57s. lOd.; Oct. 22 (a fast-day), 32s.; Oct. 
 24 (a fast-day), 26s. 6d.; Oct. 27, 40s.; Oct. 30 
 (a fast-day), 23s. 4d. Thus in two months £22, 6s. 
 Scots was contributed in the form of free-will offer- 
 ings at the door of the church of Dalgety. We do 
 not, therefore, wonder much when we read that in 
 January, 1648, there was lying unused in the kirk- 
 box no less a sum than £196, 16s. 
 
THE ORDINARY POOR. 57 
 
 We have spoken of the " brod" as having its 
 sanctities guarded by attendant deacons. The 
 deacons, too, were the custodiers of the kirk-box. 
 Up till 1649 the elders may have taken their share 
 in these departments of work ; but in that year a 
 stricter rule is laid down. Six deacons are then 
 elected, their names being William Lithell, in Dal- 
 gety ; Eobert Henderson, Seaside ; John Jameson, 
 in Leuchat ; John Cuninghame, in Letham ; Robert 
 Stenhouse, at Parkhall ; and John Colline, in Clink- 
 hill. The session having, after due trial, found 
 them to be " off ane honest report and conversa- 
 tione," and maintaining God's worship in their 
 families, their duties are laid down as follows : — 
 
 June 3, 1649. — " Its appoynted that deacones onlie, 
 and not elders, sail collect at the dores the people's 
 charitie and take the cair and charge off the hoxe, tyme 
 about. The key off the boxe given at &st to Ro* Hen- 
 dersone, and that two deacones sail collect ane whole 
 moneth, and the first Sabbath off the following moneth 
 give account to the Sessione, and then to be releived by 
 other two, and this order to be keeped in all tyme 
 coming." 
 
 Having learned from what sources the kirk-box 
 was replenished, we must now look at the vari- 
 ous directions in which its bountiful store flowed 
 out to the needy. And, first of all, we must see 
 the wants of the ordinary poor supplied. 
 
58 PASTOEAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 When Andrew Donaldson became minister of 
 Dalgety there were only three persons on the roll 
 of paupers ; and each of them received on the first 
 Sabbath of the month, " according to the custom 
 in tymes bye gone," the sum of twelve shillings. 
 This was the ordinary monthly allowance. 
 
 In examining the old record with a view to 
 discover the condition of the poor, it is pleasing to 
 notice the kindly way in which they are spoken of; 
 and there can be no doubt that, while it is to some 
 extent the reflection of Andrew Donaldson's kind 
 heart we catch, in the very wording of such minutes, 
 feelings of kindness towards the poor pervaded the 
 session. Here is a notice of application for relief: — 
 
 October 6, 1644. — "This day Win. Wilsone, ane pure 
 old man, in the parish, supplicated the Sessione that he 
 may be receaved as an ordinarie poore, in regard of his 
 age and infirm itie, and have allowance, once in the 
 moneth, out of the boxe, as the rest hes : his supplication 
 is granted." 
 
 Here, again, is the way in which one of the 
 ordinary poor is dealt with when sick : — 
 
 Janum-y 5, 1 645. — " This day, being the first Lord's day 
 of the month, the ordinarie poor receaved y"^ allowance — 
 12s. for every one of them, being four in number — and 
 becaus one of them is sick and old, and cannot doe any 
 thing for the help off herself, the Sessione gives her six 
 shillings more, and this to be continued afterwards." 
 
THE CASUAL POOR. 59 
 
 Another case is referred to as follows : — 
 
 April 20, 1645. — "This day the Sessione being in- 
 formed of the great miserie of Christian Purson, one of 
 the ordinarie poor, quho is lying sick, ready to die, and 
 hes nothing but that which she gets out off the boxe, once 
 in the moneth, ordains that 12s. be sent her every Lord's 
 day, so long as it sail pleas God that she live lieir ; and, 
 if she die shortly, that John Stennous cans get ane kist 
 [coffin] and such other things that sail be needful for her 
 buriall, quhilk the Sessione sail caus pay." 
 
 Sometimes the whole collection made at the 
 church door is given to a poor person whose need 
 is great. 
 
 February 16,1 645. — "Collected to the poore 29s. , quhilk 
 the Sessione gave to ane poore woman, Margaret Scliort, 
 in the Cottertoiui of Lethem, who was lying sick and in 
 great misere." 
 
 A few instances of the way in which the casual 
 l^oor were treated may be interesting to our readers ; 
 and the case of James Thomson, the " beddell," or 
 church-officer, is that which first catches our eye. 
 
 October 15, 1644. — " This day the bedd ell, James Thom- 
 sone, having gotten ane hurt in his hand, disabling him 
 for any work, did show his caise to the Sessione, and that 
 he culd hardly get his pure children mainteaned, in such 
 a tyme, quhilk the Sessione taking to their consideratione 
 thought it fitt to give him out off the collection, 40s. for 
 his present help." 
 
60 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 We have traces of James's case during the sub- 
 sequent winter and spring. In the month of March 
 he is still sick, and the whole collection, amounting 
 to 36s. 4d., is given to him. Poor James never 
 recovers ! The " hurt in his hand " has been a 
 severe one, or, through the want of proper treat- 
 ment it affects his constitution, and he sinks under 
 the effects of it. He has evidently died in the 
 prime of life, for his children are all young, and it 
 becomes a serious question what is to become of 
 them and Elspeth Muirhead, their mother. We 
 shall let the minutes tell in their own graphic way 
 how Andrew Donaldson and his elders act in such 
 a case. 
 
 April 27, 1645. — " This day the Sessione having re- 
 ceaved ane petition from Elspeth Muirhead, relict of 
 unquhile James Thomsone, bellman, desymig that her 
 sone might succeed to his unquhile father, in regard she 
 was left poore with many children, and that this wold be 
 a mean to help both her and them. The Sessione grants 
 her petition, on thir termes, that the young man sail be 
 received to serve for a while, and that, thereafter, if he be 
 found qualified, he sail be continued and have the benefite 
 that his father had befoir him ; if not they sail remove him 
 and make choyce of a fitter." 
 
 The young man thus taken on trial, in order 
 that it may be seen whether he has the requisite 
 qualifications for the office or not, is " Saunders 
 Thomson," Avhom we shall afterwards meet on a 
 
THE SICK POOR. 61 
 
 valorous expedition to recover the parish hand-bell, 
 which had been sacrilegiously appropriated by 
 English soldiers ! The session minutes of those 
 days take a wide sweep, and enter very minutely 
 into details, but as our readers will already have 
 noticed, it is this very characteristic that makes 
 them so valuable in any attempt to reproduce the 
 domestic life of the seventeenth century. 
 
 Some of the entries which refer to special cases of 
 sickness are quaint and odd. Thus : — 
 
 January 12, 1645. — "Given out off the boxe for the 
 use off a poor diseased lasse, Francia Lamb, 42s." 
 
 Farther light is thrown on the case of this " poor 
 diseased lasse " in a later minute, which suggests 
 inquiry into the state of medical knowledge in the 
 parish at that early time. 
 
 July 13, 1645. — " This day ane pure man in Little 
 Fordell, George Lamb, gives in ane bill to the Sessione, 
 showinsf that he hes ane cliild that hes takine ane out- 
 breakmg in tlie held, and humblie desyres that the 
 Sessione will grant something out off the boxe for the 
 curing off it. The Sessione finds this most reasonable, 
 and appoynts that he sail call for some that hes skill and 
 can cure it, and the Sessione sail at least make some help 
 for the paying off it." 
 
 Where George Lamb went in search of skill, and 
 with what success, and what the doctor's bill was, 
 are matters left for us to conjecture. But it would 
 
G2 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 appear that medical fees even at that time had 
 something indefinite about them ; for the session 
 are very careful not to commit themselves to the 
 payment of the entire bill that may be run up for 
 Francia's cure, but only engage that they shall at 
 least render some help in the paying of it. 
 
 Seasons of scarcity and dearth were not un- 
 frequent in those early days ; and most kindly and 
 energetically did Andrew Donaldson and his elders 
 and deacons exert themselves to lighten the burdens 
 that such hard times imposed. The year 1650 
 witnessed such a season of want ; for the approach 
 of Cromwell to the Scottish border demanded an 
 amount of sacrifice which already added the pressure 
 of war to that of scarcity. The sacrifices made by 
 the counties of Fife and Kinross at this juncture 
 were so great, that if they were not well authenti- 
 cated we could hardly have credited the amount. 
 But we have it on good authority that the sum 
 contributed by these shires amounted to 2,395,857 
 marks Scots — equal to about £137,309 sterling. 
 During a time of such pressure it does not surprise 
 us to find that there was much distress in the parish 
 of Dalgety. The wives and families of the men 
 who had been drafted into the army had to be sup- 
 ported, and we have some interesting notices of the 
 way in which this work was gone about. 
 
 May 10, 1650. — "The Sessione taking into considera- 
 tione the mony poor, indigent bodies in the parish, forby 
 
THE POOR IN TIME OF WAR. 63 
 
 [in addition to] the ordinar poore, and the present neces- 
 sitie that they are into, appoynts some present supplie for 
 them, viz. : To Johne Williamsone in Fordel Milne, 8 
 merks. Item to Marjorie Cupar and Marjorie Patersone, 
 there, everie one off them 40s. Item to Thomas Lillie's 
 bairnes, 4 lib : Item to Agnes Fairlie's bairnes, 55s. 
 Item to Grissell Brown and hir bairnes, 4 lib : To 
 Elspeth Muirhead's bairnes, 55s. To Henrie Hendersone's 
 bairnes, 4 merks. To Effie Crafoord's bairnes, 3 lib." 
 
 If the casual poor were as well cared for in other 
 parishes in Fife as in Dalgety, at this time, much, 
 distress must have been alleviated by the parochial 
 authorities. As Cromwell drew nearer, the pressure 
 on the means of the poor became still heavier ; but 
 the greater the distress that prevailed the more 
 assiduously did Andrew Donaldson and his elders 
 labour to lighten it. There are two notices that 
 occur a little before the battle of Inverkeithing 
 which clearly show this. 
 
 March 16, 1651. — " The elders this day are desyred to 
 bring in ane list off all the poor misterfull [necessitous] 
 bodies, in their quarters, that they may be helped." 
 
 And then, nearly two months afterwards : — 
 
 May 4, 1651. — "The rest of names off necessitous 
 bodies in the parish, not ordinarie, this day bro* in, and 
 the Sessione, considering the hardness off the tyme, doe 
 ajDpoynt the sowme off <£50, Scots., to be taken out off 
 
64 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 the box and distribute among them, and [this] is recom- 
 mended to two deacones with the minister." 
 
 The resources of the kirk-box were, however, 
 sometimes heavily taxed by pestilence, as well as 
 dearth and civil war, as we have now occasion to 
 show. Scotland was, indeed, in a miserable plight 
 in 1645. The harvest of the preceding year had 
 been deficient ; a large Scottish army was being 
 maintained in England ; Montrose was pillaging and 
 butchering his countrymen at home ; and, as a sad 
 addition to all this suffering, pestilence appeared. 
 In Edinburgh its ravages were very great, a multi- 
 tude of infected persons being quartered in huts in 
 the King's park. The town of Burntisland was 
 o-uarded on all sides for fear of infection, and no 
 vessels were allowed to enter the harbour. The 
 inhabitants of North Queensferry betook themselves 
 to the Ferry Hills to escape it, and the parish of 
 Dalgety was the scene of a good deal of suffering, as 
 the old record does not fail to tell. 
 
 On the third day of August, 1645, Mr. Donald- 
 son bade his people farewell for a time, as he was 
 on the point of starting for England, having been 
 appointed by the committee of the Provincial 
 Assembly to accompany Lord Dunfermline's regi- 
 ment for a period of three months. In taking 
 leave of his congregation he exhorted them " to 
 seik the Lord in his absence, and to learne more 
 
THE MINISTER AT THE SEAT OF WAK. 65 
 
 and more to be gracious, by a cairfull walking 
 under the meanes ; promising them, in name of the 
 presbytrie, that every Lord's day they suld be sup- 
 plied, during his absence in England, which the 
 presbytrie had bound themselves to do. And the 
 Sessione being met, John Henderson, ruling elder, is 
 appointed to wait weiklie on the presbytrie, that 
 the congregatione be not frustrat : And the minister 
 chairged the elders to be diligent and cairful in 
 everything, during his absence as they will be 
 answerable to Christ their Master, and so he takes 
 leave of the Sessione and calls upon God." 
 
 We shall not, at this stage, follow Mr. Donaldson 
 into England ; we shall only notice, in connection 
 with his performance of the duties of chaplain, that 
 a period of five months elapses ere he returns to his 
 charge at Dalgety. And on the first Sabbath after 
 his return the following very significant minute of 
 session appears : — 
 
 January 4, 1646. — "Collection, 16s. Sermon beinir 
 m the fields because of the pestilence. No preaching 
 all the time the minister hes been in England. 1. Be- 
 caus immediately after his removall the enemie came to 
 the bounds, and for ane moneth after that lamentable 
 fight at Kilsyth, ministers durst not hazard almost to 
 keip a presbitrie, or come abroad; and (2) quhen it 
 pleased the Lord to deliver the land by the Scottish 
 forces that came from England, at Philiphaugh (a day to 
 be held in remembrance by God's people m this land), it 
 
 F 
 
GG PASTORAL AVORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 pleased tlie Lord to visit this congregation with pesti- 
 lence, so that the presbitrie could not safelie come heir 
 to preach." 
 
 A question that naturally occurs, in connection 
 with this minute, is, Why the sermon should have 
 been in the fields instead of the church on such an 
 occasion. And the answer brings to light some 
 singular incidents connected with that time of 
 suffering. It was universally believed that the 
 pestilence was infectious ; and a great many of the 
 parishioners of Dalgety left their infected homes 
 and lived in booths, or " lodges," as they are called 
 in the minutes. A number of these lodges were 
 erected near the church; and at that season of the 
 year — it being mid- winter — they must have been 
 comfortless dwellings. One day, when the door of 
 the church had been left open, some of the poor 
 afflicted creatures left their lodges and crept into 
 the church to pray. It would not, we think, be 
 difficult to divine the cause of this mode of action. 
 They probably thought that He, " who loveth the 
 gates of Zion more than all the dw^ellings of Jacob," 
 would listen to the wail of distress that was raised 
 to Him from His own house. The poor sufferers, 
 we may well believe, could not have anticipated an 
 effect of this visit which immediately appeared. 
 When it became known that infected persons had 
 been in the church, the healthy portion of the 
 parishioners took fright, and w^ould not go within its 
 
THE POOR IN TIME OF PESTILENCE. 67 
 
 walls. It was on this account that sermon was in 
 the fields in the depth of winter ; impending danger 
 of another kind lessening the fear of inclement 
 skies. And fires had to be kept blazing in the 
 church for a number of days, and it had to undergo 
 a thorough cleansing, ere the people would venture 
 back into it. 
 
 On the following Sabbath the congregation meet 
 in the church, but immediately after service the 
 ministers and elders are informed that some cases 
 of the dreaded pestilence have appeared near the 
 church, and they immediately repair to the spot, 
 and take steps to have the afflicted persons cared 
 for. 
 
 It is interesting to notice that on the following 
 Sabbath the collection, which amounted to eleven 
 shillings — only about a fourth of what it was wont 
 to be, and thus indicating how small the attendance 
 was — was given to a poor widow, who was shut up 
 under suspicion of the pestilence. In short, every- 
 thing that man could do to alleviate the sufferings 
 of the parishioners during this time of heavy afflic- 
 tion was done by the minister and elders. And it 
 will please the advocates of the '' stamping-out 
 system " of dealing with infectious diseases to know, 
 that so enlightened were the kirk-session of Dalgety 
 about this time, that they gave three pounds Scots 
 to help to repair a house which they had " ap- 
 pointed to be burnt, becaus off infection." But, to 
 
G8 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 be sure, bouses are not quite so cbeaply repaired 
 uowadays after being burnt. 
 
 We must, bowever, in fairness say tbat all tbe 
 parisbes in tbe Presbytery of Dunfermline were not 
 so carefully attended to, during tbis visitation of 
 ])estilence, as Dalgety was. For in tbe minutes of 
 tbe Synod of Fife we find tbe following entry : — 
 
 October 7, 1645. — " The Presbetrie of Dunfermline re- 
 moved, censured, approven. Some of the brethreene thair 
 exhorted not to remove thair owne persons from thair 
 chardge in the tyme of the distress thair flocks are under, 
 because of the plague of pestilence." 
 
 Wbo these runaway ministers were does not 
 appear, but tbat public attention is in tbis way 
 called to tbem clearly proves bow exceptional 
 tbeir conduct was, and bow unworthy it was 
 deemed. 
 
 Thus far we have seen bow the ordinary and 
 casual poor belonging to tbe parish were cared for 
 by tbe minister of Dalgety and bis elders. But tbe 
 old record shows tbat there Avere other persons wbo 
 lived beyond tbe bounds of tbe parish, and yet came 
 in for a share of the attention and bounty of tbe 
 kirk-session. It gives us a singular picture of tbe 
 usages of tbe time, to notice bow many poor people 
 liang on at tbe church door, in hope of getting some 
 friendly relief. Such entries as tbe following are of 
 frequent occurrence : — 
 
THE rOOR SERVED AT CHURCH DOOR. 69 
 
 " Given to two pure bodies at the door, 4s." " Given 
 to a pure body at tlie door, 12d." " Given to ane pure 
 distressed man at the doore, 3s. 4d." " To two or thrie 
 pure bodies at the dores, 6s." 
 
 There are notices, too, of persons who had once 
 seen better days, but had been reduced to such straits 
 as made them fain to resort to the kirk door for aid, 
 alongside of the poorest of the poor. What a sad 
 history is involved in the single sentence of such an 
 entry as the following : — 
 
 March 15, 1646. — " Given to ane pure gentlewoman, 
 that had been spoiled with the enemie, 24s. 6d." 
 
 The reference here is evidently to Montrose and 
 his soldiers, and the simple incident has an effect 
 on us that pages of laboured description would fail 
 to produce. 
 
 Soldiers themselves were not infrequent hangers- 
 on at the door of Dalgety Church. Witness the 
 following, among many instances : — 
 
 April 20, 1645. — " Given to a lame souldier, 4s." 
 
 Imagination supplies what is lacking in the his- 
 tory of such a wanderer as this. As our eye rests 
 on the simple entry, we think of his setting out 
 amidst the tears of wife and children to join the 
 army ; his marchings and counter-marchings ; the 
 part he took in the bloody fray ; his wound either 
 from sword or bullet ; his sufferings ere he reached 
 
70 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 his home, a confirmed cripple ; and his wanderings 
 to and fro afterwards in search of a livelihood, up 
 till that spring Sabbath-day Avhen he got four 
 shillings at the door of Dalgety Church ! This 
 appearance of the nameless soldier is probably the 
 only part of his career that has ever been recorded ; 
 and yet two hundred years afterwards the solitary 
 line of his history inscribed in the old record stirs 
 the feelings of our hearts, and we picture him 
 thankfully receiving the four shillings, dropping 
 them into his pocket, and swinging away on his 
 crutch in the direction of home, with the lark sing- 
 ing high over him. Ordinary cripples, as we shall 
 see in a little, were thought kindly treated when 
 they were sent away with three shillings in their 
 hand, but this cripple had been a soldier, and he got 
 four. 
 
 There were two classes that were always sure to 
 meet with special kindness at the door of Dalgety 
 Church — cripples and poor people who had once 
 belonged to the parish. Such a notice as the 
 following has a peculiar charm about it : — - 
 
 October 20, 1644. — "Given to a poor cripple, Kobert 
 Hendersone, once a parochiner 12/- to otlier two cripples, 
 
 6/-" 
 
 It was something considerable for each of the 
 other cripples to receive three shillings ; but Robert 
 Henderson had this additional claim on the symj^athy 
 
CARE FOK POOR OF OTHER PARISHES. 71 
 
 of the session, that he had once been a parishioner 
 of Dalgety, and so he gets four times as much as any 
 of the rest. One likes to notice these delicate traces 
 of kindly feeling, and all the more so, because the 
 ministers and elders of the Covenanting period have 
 been set down by those who have been at little 
 pains to inquire into the facts of the case, as men 
 who were stern in demeanour and devoid of geniality 
 of spirit. 
 
 Next in order to the cripples in their own parish, 
 those belonging to neighbouring parishes came in for 
 kindly consideration at the hands of the session at 
 Dalgety. Take the following instance : — 
 
 Septemher 3, 1654. — "The Sessione considering the. 
 necessitous caise of Allane Mitchell, in the Ferrie 
 [Queensferry], ane pious man y* has laitlie fallen and 
 broken his leg, appoynts him to get 10 merks for his 
 present need," 
 
 It is pleasing to notice in this case how the piety 
 of the poor and suffering acts as an incentive to 
 deeds of charity. And that this is no indication of 
 narrowness of spirit all will admit who call to mind 
 the words of the Apostle — '' As we have tlierefore 
 opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially 
 unto them who are of the household of faith." Here 
 is another instance of it : — 
 
 May 13, 1655. — " The Sessione being informed off the 
 necessitous caise off ane poore godlie woman in the 
 
72 PASTOEAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 Queinsferrie, called Jeane Jamfrey, appoynts for her 3 
 lib." 
 
 A great number of distressed Irish people, who 
 had fled from their country on the occasion of the 
 massacre of the Protestants by the Roman Catholics, 
 were at this time wandering over Scotland, and not 
 a few of them found their way into the parish of 
 Dalgety, seeking aid, and not seeking it in vain. 
 At one time we find twelve shillings given to '' ane 
 pure distressed man that came from Ireland, lying 
 sick in the bellman's house." At another time " a 
 distressed man from Ireland " gets six shillings — 
 apparently at the church door. And at another 
 time, still, eighteen shillings are given to " ane pure 
 woman from Ireland, who bro* ane testimoniall, 
 showing how she was robed and her husband 
 killed." In short, as late as the year 1648, a great 
 many men and women are found in this case, some 
 bringing the General's pass, and others armed with 
 testimonials emanating from other sources — vouch- 
 ing for their good character and necessitous circum- 
 stances. 
 
 That some such certificate was necessary in order 
 to guard against imposition all will admit, but in 
 fleeing from massacre or persecution, it is not every- 
 one who has the forethought or the opportunity to 
 provide himself with such a document. 
 
 There were, however, not only many needy 
 
POOR RECOMMENDED BY CHURCH COURTS. 73 
 
 persons at that time wlio had such certificates as 
 these, but some who were recommended by ses- 
 sions, Presbyteries, and even General Assemblies. 
 Thus, on September 8, 1644, twenty-four shillings 
 were given to " one David Tullas, sone to umquhile 
 [John] Tullas, minr. at the Weymes, who had ane 
 testimoniall from the Sessione off the Kirk off the 
 Weymes." 
 
 The following relates to a parish bordering on 
 that of Dalgety : — 
 
 December 28, 1656. — "The Sessione receaving ane 
 letter from the Kirk-sessione off Aberdour, desiring some 
 help to James Tailzor, who laitlie haid all his horses 
 smoored [suffocated] by the fall off his hous, recomends to 
 the deacons to collect something for him." 
 
 On the 27th day of October, 1644, six shillings 
 were given to " a distressed woman, recommended 
 by the Presbytery of Edinburgh." And on the 
 very first Sabbath on which Andrew Donaldson 
 preached as minister of Dalgety, we have the fol- 
 lowing notice : — 
 
 September 1, 16-14. — "This day collected throw the 
 Kirk [in addition to 51s. 4d. raised the same day for the 
 ordinary poor] after sermon, for some poor people recom- 
 mended to the Presbytries and congregationes of Pyfe, by 
 the General Assemblie, the soume of 23 lib. 8s." 
 
 Such an entry as the following would sound very 
 strange nowadays : — 
 
74 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 July 27, 1655. — " Given to one Levtenant John Mure, 
 having testimonialls from Glasgow and Paisley, bearing 
 his godlie and sober carriage and his present want, 6 lib. 
 The said John is also recom ended to the charitie off 
 honest people in the congregatione." 
 
 In all these ways the people of Dalgety were 
 trained to " remember the poor ; " and, when any of 
 them seemed to neglect their duty in this respect, 
 they were put in mind of it by the session in a 
 manner that would now be considered more plain 
 than pleasant, as the following minute testifies : — 
 
 January 14, 1653. — "The Sessione, considering the 
 meanness off the present collections, and that there be 
 many who are able that give either little or nothing, 
 appoynts the minister to reprove nncharitables the next 
 Lord's day, and to sturre up people to their duetie heir." 
 
 The minister and elders must themselves have 
 been trying to do their duty in this respect, else 
 they would hardly have ventured on this step. 
 One can imagine the sour looks of some of the 
 " uncharitables " as they listened to the minister's 
 reproof on the following Sabbath ! 
 
 Were it necessary to linger over this theme, we 
 might refer to collections made for the Scottish 
 ])risoners taken at the battle of Inverkeithing, many 
 of whom, alas ! were destined to toil as slaves on 
 the Guinea coast ; to collections made for captives 
 among the Turks, as on May 17, 1C46, when £28 
 
POOR REMEMBERED AT COMMUNION SEASONS. / 5 
 
 were raised ; and to collections made for places 
 which had suffered from fire, as when £30 were 
 raised for Glasgow in October, 1652, and John 
 Moubray was appointed to deliver it into the hands 
 of the clerk of Presbytery. But on these topics 
 we cannot further dwell. 
 
 We must, however, add that communion seasons 
 of old were noted for this, among many other good 
 things, that the poor were not forgotten ; and there 
 is abundant evidence that the members of the 
 church at Dalgety were not behind their neighbours 
 in '' considering the poor " at such a time. To 
 take the first case that comes to hand — at the 
 communion season in June, 1646, there was col- 
 lected for the poor 46 lib. 2. 6. : the ordinary poor 
 got a double allowance; two beggars at the door 
 received 6s. 8d, ; and an old man, " once a par- 
 ochiner," was made rich, for the time being, with 
 80s. 
 
 May we not conclude that, in connection with 
 the ordinance of the Supper, that day observed, 
 many hearts were touched with thoughts of the 
 grace of One, who, though He was rich, yet for 
 their sakes became poor, that they through His 
 poverty might be rich ? 
 
70 PASTORAL WORK IN THP: COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 jof tijc fflortr anir Calttbismg. 
 
 N attempting to produce a faithful picture 
 of pastoral work during the Covenanting 
 times, we consider ourselves not more 
 fortunate in the circumstance, that the scene of 
 these labours lies in the parish of Dalgety, than in 
 the fact that Andrew Donaldson is the chief worker 
 around whom our narrative winds itself. The 
 parish of Dalgety, as we have already seen, is re- 
 markable for its natural beauty ; and it is so rich 
 in antiquarian and historical associations that our 
 difficulty is to subordinate these elements to the 
 main design of our sketches. But the self-denying, 
 philanthropic and truJy Christian labours of such a 
 man would invest almost any place with interest, 
 however unattractive it might in other respects be. 
 
 In turning now to the higher departments of 
 pastoral work in which Andrew Donaldson is found 
 labouring, it may be well, at this stage, to notice 
 the few facts connected with his early history which 
 we have been able to recover. He seems to have 
 
ST. Mary's college, st. Andrews. 77 
 
 been a native of Perth, and, in all probability, his 
 elementary education was received in the grammar 
 school of that city. His higher studies were pro- 
 secuted in the University of St. Andrews, his degree 
 of Master of Arts having been taken there on the 
 5 th day of June, 1638. Two years afterwards we 
 lind him presenting himself before the Presbytery of 
 Perth, armed witli a testimonial from the New 
 College of St. Andrews — the college of St. Mary — 
 professing a desire " to enter on the exercise," or, 
 as we would now term it, to be taken on his trials 
 for license. From this it is evident that he studied 
 theology in St. Mary's College under Principal 
 Howie and the other professors of the time — a 
 college which, before Dr. Howie's time, had for its 
 Principal the celebrated Andrew Melville, and a few 
 years after Andrew Donaldson had completed his 
 studies, could boast of being presided over by 
 Samuel Rutherford, in whom natural ability, pro- 
 found scholarshijD, and devoted piety were combined 
 to a remarkable deoTee. 
 
 For the sake of our ministerial readers we must 
 not withhold a glimpse which the old Presbytery 
 record of Perth gives us of the kind of dealing that 
 was taken with students at that stage of their 
 course, in those days. The great reforming 
 Assembly of 1638 had enacted as follows: — " Anent 
 the tryall of expectants before their entrie to the 
 ministrie, it being notour that they have subscribed 
 
78 PASTORAL AVORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 the Confession of Faith now declared in this 
 Assembly, and that they have exercised [delivered 
 discourses] often privatly and publicklie with ap- 
 probation of the Presbytrie, they shall first adde 
 and make the exercises publicklie, and make a dis- 
 course of some common head in Latine, and give 
 propositions thereupon for dispute, and thereafter 
 be questioned by the Presbyterie upon questions of 
 controversie and chronologie, anent particular texts 
 of Scripture, how they may be interpreted according 
 to the analogie of faith, and reconciled ; and that 
 they be examined upon their skill of the Greek and 
 Hebrew, and that they bring a testificat of their 
 life and conversation from either Colledge or Pres- 
 byterie where they reside." 
 
 Mr. Andrew Donaldson having, in accordance 
 with the last clause of this Act, brought a '' testi- 
 ficat " from the new college of St. Andrews, which 
 must have been satisfactory as to his life and con- 
 versation there, the Presbytery appointed him, as 
 the subject of his first discourse to be delivered in 
 private, 1 Thess. v. 8, " But let us who are of the 
 day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith 
 and love : and for an helmet the hope of salvation." 
 A month afterwards — July 15, 1640 — this dis- 
 course was delivered with approbation, and Mr. 
 Donaldson was appointed to handle, in Latin, the 
 text, Titus ii. 11, "For the grace of God that 
 bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." Not 
 
" MAKING " AND " ADDING." 79 
 
 only is this discourse to be handled in Latin, but 
 the reason of this course is assigned : '' For the 
 brethren made ane ordinance that all who enter on 
 their trialls, heirafter, sail have ane triall in Latin, 
 and they begin with this young man." It is evi- 
 dent, however, that the young man had nothing to 
 fear from the new ordinance which the brethren 
 had made, for in the minute of August 12, 1640, 
 we read : — " Mr. Andro Donaldson had his privatt 
 triall in Latin, on Tit: ii. 11. He was approved, 
 and appointed to add, the next day." As the 
 terms making and adding occur in several minutes 
 now to be adduced, we may say that making con- 
 sisted in raising and meeting textual and critical 
 questions connected with the passage which formed 
 the subject of discourse; and adding consisted in 
 dealing with its doctrines and applying them to 
 practical uses. It was the latter mode of handling 
 his text that was enjoined on the young aspirant to 
 the ministry, on the occasion of next meeting of 
 Presbytery. Whether there had been anything of 
 a self-confident air in the demeanour of the young 
 man on the occasion of delivering his Latin dis- 
 course we know not ; but the record tells us that 
 the brethren had a few words to say to him at the 
 close of the exercise on a matter which had given 
 rise to some talk among them. " He was posed 
 before the Presbytrie, whether it was lawfull to read 
 prayers : because there went a report of him that he 
 
so PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 disdained reading of prayers, altogether. He de- 
 clared he was never of that mynd, bot thought 
 them lawfull ; tho' to conceave was better." In all 
 probability this was a case of " the strong man 
 glorying in his strength ; " but, in fairness, it must 
 be conceded that the well-known abuses connected 
 with read prayers may have had a good deal to do 
 with the words which gave rise to the report. 
 
 After this little episode we find him proceeding 
 from private to public trials before the Presbytery, 
 as the following extracts show : — 
 
 September 2, 1640. — "Mr. And: Plaifair appointed to 
 mak, Mr. And: Donaldson to add." 
 
 September 9, 1640. — " Mr. And: Plaifair exercised, and 
 Mr. Andre Donaldson added : both approved. Mr. Andre 
 Donaldson appointed to mak, Mr. Alex'"- Petre to add." 
 
 September 23, 1640. — " Mr. Andre Donaldson made the 
 exercise, Mr. Alex''- Petre added — both approved." 
 
 December 22, 1640. — "Mr. John Row appointed to 
 mak, Mr Andre Donaldson to add." 
 
 January 6, 1641. — "Mr. Jo: Row exercised, Mr. Andre 
 Donaldson added — both approved. Mr. Andre appointed 
 to mak, Mr. Keb: Moray to add." 
 
 January 12, 1641. — " Mr. Andre Donaldson exercised, 
 Mr. Rob: Moray added — both approved."^ 
 
 From these extracts it is abundantly evident that 
 
 ^ For these extracts the author is indebted to the courtesy and 
 kindness of the Eev. T. D. Kirkwood, clerk to the Presbytery of 
 Perth. 
 
LICENSED TO PREACH THE GOSPEL. 81 
 
 the Presbytery of Perth discharged their duty in 
 a most faithful way to candidates for the ministr}'', 
 the public and private trials of Andrew Donaldson 
 extending over a period of not less than seven 
 months. And, as it does not appear to have been 
 the practice of the Presbytery at that time to record 
 the fact of any student being licensed, we may con- 
 clude that, soon after the date of the last minute 
 we have given, Mr. Andrew Donaldson was licensed 
 to preach the Gospel. 
 
 With such a literary equipment as these facts 
 prove him to have had, we wonder the less at 
 Andrew Donaldson's enlightened efforts in the cause 
 of education, which we have lately seen. But, with- 
 out the evidence of still higher qualifications, we 
 should form a very erroneous conception of the 
 secret of his great power as he went in and out 
 among his people, and ministered to them in the 
 highest department of pastoral work. The scene 
 we have lately witnessed, when, on the eve of his 
 departure for England, he exhorted his congregation 
 *' to seek the Lord in his absence, and to learn more 
 and more to be gracious by a careful walking under 
 the means;" and when he charged his elders "to 
 be diligent and careful in everything during his 
 absence as they should be answerable to Christ, 
 their Master ;" this undoubtedly gives us much in- 
 sight into his own views of Divine things, and the 
 motives which guided him in his daily walk and conT 
 
 Q 
 
82 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 versation. Moreover, the spirit that pervades the 
 whole record of his labours, as the sequel of these 
 sketches will show, proves him to have been imbued 
 with thoroughly evangelical views of Divine truth. 
 But there is evidence of another kind that can be 
 brought to bear in an interesting wa}^ on the subject. 
 In the short notice of Andrew Donaldson which 
 appears in the " History of the Sufferings of the 
 Church of Scotland," the painstaking and accurate 
 Wodrow tells us that at the time he wrote many 
 were yet alive who had "a most savoury remem- 
 brance of this most worthy person." And then he 
 proceeds to give a digest, in a few lines, of what had 
 been communicated to him regarding Mr. Donaldson 
 by a minister living in the neighbourhood of Dalgety, 
 '' who had the happiness of his acquaintance for some 
 years before his death." A search which we have 
 made among the Wodrow MSS. in the Advocates' 
 Library, in Edinburgh, has brought to light this 
 letter, and one or two other documents that have an 
 important bearing on the subject of these sketches. 
 What chiefly concerns us to notice, at present, is 
 that the writer of the letter in question was the 
 Rev. Samuel Charters, of Inverkeithing, the grand- 
 father of the celebrated Dr. Charters, of Wilton. 
 Writing on the 14th of March, 1720, Mr. Charters 
 says: — *'I was acquaint with Mr. Andrew Donaldson 
 two or three years before his death, but he was 
 paralytick, and his judgment and memory, as well 
 
A MAN OF ARDENT LOVE TO CHRIST. 88 
 
 as bodily health, were much abated ; however, his 
 heavenly and spiritual temper of soul remained. I 
 never heard him perform any religious exercise 
 except that of asking a blessing or giving thanks at 
 meat, wherein a holy tenderness of spirit and ardent 
 love to Christ were always evident. Many godly 
 persons have died in these bounds since the Revolu- 
 tion who avowed that his ministry was the means of 
 their conversion and edification." And he adds : 
 '' He was not only an eminently holy and faithful 
 minister of the Gospell, but also (as I was informed 
 by Mr. David Blair, one of the late ministers of 
 Edinburgh), a man of a very solid judgment and of 
 great wisdom and prudence." 
 
 These statements, by men of culture and high 
 character, are sufficient to convince us that Andrew 
 Donaldson was thoroughly sound in his creed ; that 
 he was to a remarkable degree constrained by the 
 love of Christ, in his daily life and in his labours as 
 a minister of the Gospel ; and that he was a man of 
 sound judgment, greatly honoured of God in winning- 
 souls to the Saviour and building them up in their 
 most holy faith. How far these characteristics are 
 reflected from the kirk-session minutes which record 
 his labours in preaching, catechising, and visiting his 
 people, we must now put it within the power of our 
 readers to judge. Of course, from the nature of 
 such a record, we are not to expect that it shall 
 contain a statement of the doctrines he preached ; 
 
84 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 but there is something in the tone of a minister's 
 hiboiirs,even as reflected from the minutes of his kirk- 
 session, which is fitted to tell us what spirit he is of. 
 We are to call the attention of our readers, first 
 of all, to Mr. Donaldson's labours as a preacher of 
 the Word. It will readily be granted by sound 
 Presbyterians that although a minister's labours are 
 by no means to be confined to this one department 
 of pastoral work, it is yet the most important of all. 
 At no other time is he likely to have so many 
 auditors as when engaged in this service ; in no 
 other place is his influence likely to be so great as 
 in the pulpit ; and there is no other means that can 
 for a moment be compared, in point of importance, 
 with the divinely appointed means of preaching the 
 Word. Our Scottish Reformers assigned a very 
 high place to this part of public worship ; and in 
 the First Book of Discipline it is laid down with 
 great earnestness how desirable it is that public 
 worship should be kept up both forenoon and after- 
 noon of Sabbath — the Word being preached in 
 the forenoon ; the children being examined in the 
 Catechism, in the audience of the people, in the 
 afternoon ; and that there should be public prayers 
 in the afternoon, when there happens to be neither 
 preaching nor catechising. And the legislation of 
 the Church, at later times, was quite in the same line 
 and animated by the same spirit. The General 
 Assembly of 1G48, for instance, ordained that 
 
PARISHIONERS FLOCKING TO CHURCH. 85 
 
 ministers should "preach every Lord's - day, both 
 before and after noon;" and this ordinance was only 
 a repetition of what former General Assemblies had 
 enacted. It may fall in with the purposes of 
 Ritualistic worship to throw the preaching of the 
 Word into the background, or virtually suppress it ; 
 but this is in glaring contradiction to the example 
 and teaching of our Lord and His Apostles. With 
 Presbyterians, the preaching of the Word is held to 
 lie at the root of intelligent worship and vigorous 
 Christian life. 
 
 Andrew Donaldson knew this well, and, what is 
 better, he acted on the conviction. During the 
 whole period of his ministry, public worship was 
 regularly conducted both forenoon and afternoon, in 
 winter and summer alike. The labours of such a 
 man were sure to be hailed by all the right-thinking 
 people of the parish, especially after the long neglect 
 they had experienced and mourned over. And the 
 spectacle of worshippers going regularly to the house 
 of God, forenoon and afternoon, would have its own 
 effect on those who were themselves indifferent. 
 Above all, the regularity with which the districts 
 were visited once a-month by the elders, must have 
 told powerfully on the population ; and so at length 
 the spectacle is seen — so unwonted in Dalgety — of 
 nearly the whole parishioners flocking to church. 
 
 Want of room in the church was something that 
 did not need to be complained of in Mr. Patoun's 
 
86 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 time, but the minutes testify that two years after 
 Mr. Donaldson's settlement the smallness of the 
 church began to be felt. On the 26 th of September, 
 1646, the record bears that the laird of Fordell got 
 leave " to build ane loft upon the north side of the 
 kirk, from Lauchat's ile [aisle] westward, becaus he 
 had ane great familie, and could not be convenientlie 
 eased [accommodated] upon the floore, without pre- 
 judice to the congregatione, the kirk being so little." 
 The arrangements connected with seats in churches, 
 however, have been a fruitful source of contention 
 from very early times down to the present, and 
 Dalgety was not an exception to the rule. We 
 have no wish to aspire to the honour of being 
 historian of the "Battle of the Seats" in the old 
 church, but we give the hint to any one who has a 
 taste for that work, that he will find traces of the 
 contest not only in the Presbytery Record of Dun- 
 fermline, but in the minutes of the Synod of Fife ; 
 the latter court having composed the quarrel between 
 the Earls of Dunfermline and Callender on the one 
 hand, and the laird of Fordell on the other, in 1648. 
 What we are chiefly concerned with is to show 
 the gradually increasing attendance of the people at 
 church. We have seen the pressure beginning to 
 be felt in September, 1646. In March, 1647, in 
 a minute having reference to the above-mentioned 
 Fordell loft, the words occur : *' The kirk being 
 already so litle [an odd form of expression, which 
 
LENGTH OF SABBATH SERVICES. 87 
 
 evidently means the congregation being already so 
 large] that the floore off it does not conteane the 
 congregatione, but niony going to other kirks for 
 want off room." From another reference to the 
 matter a little afterwards, it appears that those who 
 go to other churches for want of room are chiefly 
 servants; but the session, in May, 1647, wisely 
 resolve on raising four "bunkers" — benches to 
 accommodate sitters — on the west wall. However 
 small the details may be that tell of increased 
 attendance on divine ordinances, no one who regards 
 them as indications of spiritual good thereby in 
 greater measure obtained, and as proofs of the success 
 of pastoral work, will think them trifling. 
 
 We have occasional glimpses of what took place 
 at some of these meetings for public worship on the 
 Lord's-day. The services seem to have been what 
 would now be regarded as very long. Thus, on De- 
 cember 1, 1644, the session did not meet as was 
 usual after public worship, '' because it was late." 
 But the day at that season must have been short. 
 A better indication of the length of the service is to 
 be found in a minute of August 22, 1652, in which 
 the words occur : — " Other matters referred to Fry- 
 day next, becaus it is laite, and the day almost 
 spent in the publick worship of God." Unduly 
 protracted services in church are not advisable ; but 
 to hurry them over in a slovenly way is a worse 
 fault still. The latter part of the year 1652 and 
 
88 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 the beginning of IGoS, as we shall in another con- 
 nection see, were seasons of remarkable spiritual 
 earnestness in the parish of Dalgety ; and these late 
 meetings have their own significance. 
 
 If we may judge from the infrequency with which 
 instances of misbehaviour in the church during the 
 time of public worship occur in the minutes, the 
 demeanour of the people of Dalgety must have been 
 very becoming. Yet exceptions to the rule occasion- 
 ally crop out. 
 
 September 2>, 1654. — "James Peacock in Dalgetie re- 
 buiked for discoursing in time of hearing, and admonished 
 to make more conscience off hearing the word in tyme 
 coming." 
 
 And again, under the same date : — 
 
 " William Ciininghame, ane elder, appoynted to re- 
 l)rove Caterine Thomsone, in Litle Fordell, for sleipmg 
 in the kirk, in tyme of hearing." 
 
 In spite of these exceptions, however, the be- 
 haviour in the church of the human portion of the 
 parishioners of Dalgety was in the main exemplary. 
 Without the least desire to be censorious, we must, 
 however, say that the dogs formed a decided excep- 
 tion. They gave the session a great deal of trouble, 
 from which it may be inferred that there were a 
 good many of them ; and it may be deduced by fair 
 inference from this again, that the parish was to a 
 
BEHAVIOUR IN CHURCH. 89 
 
 great extent pastoral in those days. Be this as it 
 may, the following piece of legislation anent dogs is 
 found in the record : — 
 
 November 22, 1646. — " The Sessione, considering the 
 great abuse of bringing dogs to the kirk, ordains that 
 whoever sail bring dogs, hereafter, sail be marked and 
 besides reproof sail pay, toties quoties, 6s." 
 
 How often have we wished that the love of re- 
 cording minute particulars, to which we owe entries 
 like this, had taken the direction of handing down 
 to us notices of the sacred books over which the 
 minister lectured, and the texts from Avhich he 
 preached. But, to be sure, the session records of 
 our own time, as usually kept, will at a future 
 period be found more barren of materials that the 
 historian would prize than the ordinary run of 
 records during the Covenanting times. 
 
 Besides two meetings for public worship every 
 Sabbath, Andrew Donaldson had a lecture on one 
 of the ordinary days of the week, as was at that 
 time common over almost the whole of Scotland — 
 a service that has its representative in the congre- 
 gational prayer-meeting which is so commonly found 
 among us, wherever a living Christianity lifts its 
 head. It has sometimes been charged against our 
 Presbyterian system that our churches are never 
 open except on Sabbath. We have no saints' days, 
 to be sure ; but in this respect we are no worse off 
 
90 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 than the Christians in apostolic times were. It is 
 true, also, that we make a marked difference between 
 days on which it is merely expedient to meet for 
 public worship, and the Lord's- day, on which we 
 must do so in obedience to a Divine command. 
 But from the time of the Reformation downwards 
 it has neither been the rule nor the practice to 
 keep our Scottish churches shut from Sabbath to 
 Sabbath. Our Reformers laid it down, in the First 
 Book of Discipline, as expedient in great towns 
 " that every day there be either sermon or common 
 prayers, with some exercise of reading of Scriptures." 
 They say, moreover, " In every notable town we re- 
 quire that one day beside the Sunday be appointed 
 to the sermon." And the General Assembly of 
 1648 ordained that ministers should ''catechise one 
 day every week (whereon also they may baptize, 
 and lecture or preach)." In a great many of the 
 parishes of Scotland, however, and in Dalgety among 
 others, there was a week-day lecture in the church, 
 in addition to a weekly meeting for catechising. In 
 the time of King James the Sixth, Tuesday was 
 with devoted Royalists the strictly canonical day for 
 the week-day service, for his Majesty had expressed 
 a wish that it should be so, because of a signal 
 deliverance that had come to him on that day. 
 And in highly royalistic places like Aberdour, 
 where the motto at that time was, " All for the 
 State and a little for the Kirk," Tuesday was 
 
WEEK-DAY LECTURE. 91 
 
 religiously adhered to as long as the week-day 
 service lasted. But many of the ministers and 
 ordinary members of the church were chary of 
 countenancing the setting apart of days for stated 
 religious services, out of deference to royal wishes 
 or even royal commands. For instance, although 
 King James by Act of Parliament appointed the 
 5th day of August to be observed as a day of 
 thanksgiving to God for his preservation on the 
 occasion of the Gowrie conspiracy, and Charles II. 
 by the same authority appointed the 29th day of 
 May to be observed as commemorative of his birth 
 and restoration, and as " a holy day unto the Lord," 
 the Scottish Presbyterians were not so much affected 
 by these outbursts of piety of a particular kind as 
 to fall in with their Majesties' assumption of autho- 
 rity to decree stated religious festivals for the Church 
 and nation. Reverting to the ordinary week-day 
 service, Ave may say that, with the more evangelical 
 ministers, the day was selected which was deemed 
 most convenient for the parishioners. Friday was 
 the day set apart for the week-day service in 
 Dalgety, and the following minute shows the time 
 when the service was begun, and the reason why 
 that day was chosen : — 
 
 February 15, 1G46. — "The rainister acquainted the 
 Sessione this day of his purpose to preach upon ane weik- 
 day, and enquyred what day will be most convenient. It 
 
92 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 is resolved that Fryday sail be the day; and the minister to 
 give warning to the congregatione the next Lord's day." 
 
 And wheD, on the following Sabbath, the minister 
 intimated the first Friday's lecture, the minutes bear 
 that " he dealt with them by earnest exhortation 
 to make conscience of the keeping of it." How 
 suggestive is the statement ! With how many is 
 attendance on ordinances which God has placed 
 within their reach a matter of convenience, and not 
 of conscience at all ! But it is only when con- 
 science is called into play that practical religion 
 truly begins ; and what progress can there be in the 
 high art of holy living without striving '' to have a 
 conscience void of offence toward God and toward 
 men ? " The following extract shows that it was 
 the custom to suspend the Friday's sermon and 
 other week-day services during the time of harvest ; 
 and this, we believe, was also done in seed-time : — 
 
 August24:,l(553. — " Examinatione laid by till the harvest 
 be done, as also the weekly sermon and visitationes." 
 
 What would we not give to have a peep into the 
 little, old-fashioned church as these and other ser- 
 vices are being engaged in — to mark the aspect of 
 the people as they crowd the seats on the floor of 
 the church, or occupy the lofts, or crouch on the 
 " bunkers !" What would we not give to hear the 
 (juaint, old-fashioned version of the Psalms sung by 
 
PICTURE OF THE CONGREGATION. 93 
 
 the congregation, under the leadership of the pre- 
 centor, who is at the same time the schoolmaster ! 
 What would we not give to hear the Word read 
 and preached by Andrew Donaldson, '' a holy 
 tenderness of spirit and ardent love to Christ " 
 making themselves evident in all he says, and to 
 listen to these " conceived " prayers of his, rising 
 warm from the heart ! 
 
 It would not be difficult to reproduce the congre- 
 gation, with the several families seated in groups, 
 after all quarrels about lofts and seats have been 
 composed. Taking up our position between the 
 church and the beach on which the wavelets of the 
 Firth so gently break, we perceive at a glance that 
 there are two doors on the south side- wall, by 
 means of which admission may be gained. As we 
 enter, we see the OTeat bulk of the con o^re station 
 occupying seats ranged along the floor — farmers in 
 hodden gray, with their broad blue bonnets rev- 
 erently doffed ; shepherds with their maud plaids ; 
 colliers with something of a grimy look, in spite of 
 their ablutions ; matrons with their sow-backed 
 mutches, as white as the driven snow ; young 
 women with their hair neatly braided and bound 
 with a snood ; and boys and girls with bright eyes 
 and happy faces. But there are various lofts and 
 seats in which the rustling of silks and satins is 
 heard. That gallery at the east end of the church 
 is the Earl of Murray's; and the seat immediately 
 
94 PA.STORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 under it is where worthy John Moubray, of Cock- 
 airnie, and his family sit. The gallery at the west 
 end is the Earl of Dunfermline's, the entrance to it 
 being by the round stair on the north side. The 
 laird of Fordell's gallery — the erection of which 
 was the cause of so much contention and debate — 
 is on the north wall, between Lord Murray's gallery 
 and the north aisle. The arched vault on the north 
 is the Otterston aisle ; but Sir John Erskine having 
 married Margaret Inglis, the heiress of Otterston, it 
 goes by the name of Sir John's aisle. At a later 
 period, when the estate of Otterston passed into 
 the hands of the Hendersons, of Ford ell, the Fordell 
 colliers sat there. The Leuchat seat is immediately 
 under Lord Murray's gallery, alongside of that 
 belonging to Cockairnie, and the pulpit is on the 
 north wall. Everything connected with the fabric 
 and fitting-up of the church is severely plain, with 
 the exception of a little attempt at ornamentation 
 in Lord Dunfermline's gallery, of which we shall 
 hear more by-and-by.^ 
 
 Having spoken of the severe plainness of the 
 interior of the old church, we must not let the 
 occasion pass without saying that, so far were our 
 Reformers from being indifferent to what was 
 needful for the comfort of worshippers, that they 
 
 1 For the information regarding clmrch-seats, contained in the 
 above paragraph, the author was indebted to the Hon. John 
 Stuart, afterwards Earl of Moray. 
 
A REAL PRESENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD. 9 5 
 
 positively enjoined it. They were afraid, they tell 
 us, lest the Word of God and the ministration of 
 the Sacraments should come into contempt through 
 the unseemliness of the place of worship, and they 
 laid down the principle that there should be such 
 preparation within the church '' as appertain eth as 
 well to the majestie of God [some editions have the 
 majestie of the Word of God] as unto the ease and 
 commodity of the people."^ This principle is surely 
 a wise and scriptural one, and should have a fa,r 
 wider application in our churches than it has yet 
 received. The comfort of worshippers in the house 
 of God should at least keep pace with the increasing 
 comfort of our dwelling-houses. And we don't need 
 unscriptural, sacramentarian theories of the Real 
 Presence to induce us to apply the principle in its 
 bearing on what pertains to the majesty of God. 
 There is a Real Presence in the house of God which 
 Scripture teaches, and all true Christians believe in 
 — that referred to in the words, " Where two or 
 three are gathered together in my name, there am 
 I in the midst of them." And, remembering these 
 words, devout worshippers, while avoiding every- 
 thing ritualistic, which savours of Rome and tends 
 to Rome, will gladly provide for " such preparation 
 within the church as appertaineth to the majestie 
 of God." 
 
 We must not say much regarding the order of 
 
 ^ First Book of Discipline, chap. xv. 
 
9G PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 Avorship observed in those days, for more important 
 matters beckon us on. The order which was in use 
 when Andrew Donaldson was ordained was that 
 laid down in the " Book of Common Order." This 
 was, in substance, the '* Book of Geneva," prepared 
 by Knox, with the assistance of others, for the regu- 
 lation of public worship in the congregation to which 
 he ministered in that city while an exile from his 
 native country. We have already seen traces of 
 this book in quotations made from the First Book 
 of Discipline. Having been more or less in use 
 from the very time of the Reformation in 1560, the 
 General Assembly of 1562 ordained ''that ane 
 uniform e order sail be taken or keeped in minis- 
 tration of the Sacraments and solemnisation of 
 Mariages, and Buriall of the Dead, according to 
 the Kirk of Geneva." And Calderwood, the histo- 
 rian, tells that in 1564 "it was ordeaned that 
 everie minister, exhorter, and reader, sail have one 
 of the Psalmes bookes latelie printed in Edinburgh, 
 and use the order conteaned therein, in prayers, 
 mariage, and ministration of the sacraments." The 
 order thus referred to was the Order of Geneva, with 
 some additions and alterations. Although partaking- 
 somewhat of the nature of a liturgy, it did not tie 
 ministers down to the use of the very words of the 
 prayers contained in it. It made provision for 
 extempore prayer at the beginning of the service in 
 public worship, and allowed considerable latitude in 
 
ORDER OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 97 
 
 the other two prayers. It was thus merely a dis- 
 cretionary liturgy; and, indeed, the Church of 
 Scotland never sanctioned a liturgy of any other 
 kind. The tendency to use " conceived " prayers 
 more, and '' read " prayers less, was very evident 
 between the years 1564 and 1645, whenever 
 strictly Presbyterian principles regulated the Church ; 
 but whenever Episcopacy raised its head the tend- 
 ency was in the opposite direction. 
 
 The following was the order of worship usually 
 observed while the "Book of Common Order" was 
 in use : — The church bell rang for the first time at 
 seven o'clock in the morning as a note of warning 
 that public worship would begin an hour afterwards. 
 At eight the bell rang a second time, and the 
 people convened in the church for the reader's 
 service. This consisted of prayer and the reading 
 of portions of Holy Scripture, both from the Old 
 and New Testament ; after which the whole con- 
 gregation joined in singing a Psalm. This service 
 continued till nine o'clock, when the bell rang a 
 third time, and the minister entered the pulpit. 
 Then followed prayer, the singing of a Psalm, the 
 sermon, praise, prayer, praise again, and the bene- 
 diction. This whole service generally lasted three 
 hours ; and the afternoon service, which, when not 
 catechetical, was much the same as the former, 
 Avith the exception of the reader's portion, lasted 
 about two hours. 
 
 H 
 
98 PASTOKAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 In the year that followed Andrew Donaldson's 
 ordination, the year 1645, the General Assembly 
 ordained the " Directory for the Publick Worship 
 of God " to be observed by all the ministers of the 
 Church. As this Directory is in the hands of all 
 intelligent Presbyterians, we do not need to say 
 more reo-ardin^- it than this : that it was the work 
 of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and 
 was framed with a view to carry out the uniformity 
 of religion contemplated by the Solemn League and 
 Covenant. The following extract from the session 
 record shows that when the Directory should have 
 been read from the pulpit of the church of Dalgety 
 the minister was absent, discharging his duties as 
 military chaplain in England ; but that the order 
 of the General Assembly was obeyed immediately 
 after his return home : — 
 
 February 15, 1G4G. — "This day becaus the directorie 
 wes not read heir qiihen it was read in other churches, 
 becaus of the minister's absence, the minister did read at 
 lest those places that did concern most the congregatione 
 to know." 
 
 To young men like Andrew Donaldson the change 
 from the one form to the other would not entail 
 much inconvenience; but it was otherwise with 
 those who had nearly for a lifetime been accustomed 
 to the old way of conducting public worship, and 
 whom old age had rendered less flexible in taking 
 
A VETERAN DYING IN HARNESS. 99 
 
 up what was new. Our old and much-honoured 
 friend, John Row, of Carnock, tried hard to follow 
 the Directory, but the effort was far from successful. 
 He felt himself to be like an old bottle into which 
 new wine had been poured, and the fermentation 
 caused by it, although it was after all only a new 
 form, was quite overpowering. Here is the old man's 
 brave attempt made on Sabbath, March 29, 1646, as 
 told in his own words : — ''I began this day to practise 
 the ordour sett down in the Directorye for pub\ict 
 worshipe ; for my sone, Mr. Robert Row, had practised 
 it in this Kirk the Sabbath befor, and besoght me 
 to assey it, because many thocht that I had bein 
 against that gud ordour. So I began and opined 
 up the I cap: of Genesis, and mynd to hold on as 
 God sail give me strenthe." And here is the upshot 
 of all the good man's valorous efforts, as told six 
 weeks afterwards : — '' I began, in Godis gudnes, and 
 preached again after noon, being steyit to do so 
 [hindered from doing so] some Sondayis befor, withe 
 great paine ; and intimat to our people that I was 
 myndit to teache as I was wont to doe before we 
 gat the Directorie, to see if that wald do me any 
 gud." The warmest advocate of the Directory 
 would, we are sure, have assented to the trial, and 
 even recommended it, in such circumstances. But 
 the veteran minister, in harness to the very last, 
 was now in the 78th year of his age; and death 
 came about a month afterwards, giving him that 
 
100 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 relief which no return to forms of worship, time- 
 lionoured and gilded with happy memories though 
 they were, had power to btstow! 
 
 Before leaving the topic with which we are now 
 dealing — the order observed in public worship — we 
 have only to notice that when the minister was 
 absent from his pulpit, and his place was unsupplied 
 by another minister, it was customary at Dalgety 
 and other places to have simpl}^ the reading of the 
 Word and prayers, which in all likelihood was con- 
 ducted by the reader, where such a functionary was 
 still to be found, and in his absence by the school- 
 master or elders. 
 
 But we have not yet exhausted the record of 
 the minister's labours in preaching the Word. We 
 have already seen that the period with which these 
 sketches deal was one of much trouble and suffering, 
 arivsins: at one time from civil war, at another from 
 dearth, at another still from pestilence, and sometimes 
 from all three combined. And the men of those times 
 were old-fashioned enough to think that their sins 
 had something to do with their sufferings; cherishing 
 this conviction, they thought it their duty to con- 
 fess their sins and shortcomings to God ; and, like 
 many in Old Testament and New Testament times 
 alike, they joined fasting with their humiliation. 
 Fasting is a natural expression of sorrow, and 
 amidst all the light of the nineteenth century, we 
 confess ourselves unable to discover any good reason 
 
PUBLIC FASTS. 101 
 
 why people, oppressed with a sense of sin, should 
 not show their grief in this or any other natural 
 way. Perhaps this is not sufficiently philosophical; 
 but, if so, we are comforted with the thought that 
 the Lord Jesus Christ anticipated that, in His 
 absence, there would be times when His disciples 
 would be unphilosophical enough to fast. And as 
 it is natural for the servants of God to fast when 
 they are sorrowful at heart, so it is natural for them 
 to give thanks to Him when He makes their hearts 
 glad. This being the case, we are not at all sur- 
 prised to find many notices of times of fasting and 
 thanksgiving in the old kirk-session record of 
 Dalgety, which gave additional opportunities to 
 Andrew Donaldson of preaching the Word ; for 
 exhortation always formed part of the services pecu- 
 liar to these special occasions. The first of the 
 fasts noticed in the minutes has evident reference 
 to the sufferings inflicted on Scotland, and the 
 county of Fife in particular, in keeping up a large 
 auxiliary force in England. The levies necessary 
 for maintaining this force in a state of efficiency told 
 with great severity on many a household. The 
 commander of the army, the Earl of Leven, being 
 a Fifeshire nobleman, naturally drew a great many 
 men of the county around his standard. And even 
 such victories as that of Marston Moor filled 
 many of the homes of the county with desolation 
 and weeping. The minute is as follows : — 
 
102 PASTOKAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 October '2^, 1644. — "This day the minister did intimate 
 a solemn fast, to be keiped by ordinance of tlie provincial 
 Assembly, on Tuysday [Tuesday] next, on Thursday 
 thereafter, on the Lord's day following, on the Wedins- 
 day thereafter — the two latter days to be keiped by order 
 of the commiss^ of General Assembly. This Lord's day 
 also kept as a solemn day, according to the intimation of 
 the last day. The elders are exhorted be the Session to 
 be careful in their quarters that people keip these days, 
 and come frequently to the Lord's house." 
 
 Another fast, having reference to the combined 
 ravages of the Marquis of Montrose and the pesti- 
 lence, is noticed in the following minute: — 
 
 June 29, 1G45. — "This day, according to the ordinance 
 of the commission of the General Assembly, the minister 
 did intimate ane solemne fast to be kei2)ed the Thursday 
 following, and did exhort the people to deal with God for 
 preparation of heart, that all might be enabled to stand 
 befoir God for the turning away of wrath that was kindled 
 in an extraordinary manner against the land, as the 
 bloodie sword and devouring pestilence did more nor 
 abundantlie evidence ; and, for their better informatione 
 and preparatione, a printed paper was read, laying open 
 the reasons wherefor the people of God at this time suld 
 be deeplie humbled and lay in the dust before God." 
 
 The following is a notice of a thanksgiving ser- 
 vice in connection with a matter which will come 
 before us again : — 
 
PUBLIC THANKSGIVINGS. 103 
 
 May 20, 1649. — " Ane thanksgiving intimat, this day, 
 to be keiped the next Fryday, the 25th day of Maii, and 
 ordered by the commission off the Kirk, for the defeat off 
 the engadgment off balvenie, in the north, and the causes 
 read in the papers." 
 
 These extracts are fitted to give us some idea 
 of the amount of Andrew Donaldson's labours in 
 preaching the Word ; and other departments of his 
 work have yet to be dealt with. Ere we leave this 
 subject, we cannot help noticing that, in connection 
 with the appointment of such fasts and thanksgiving 
 services, the soul of Dr. Kobert Chambers was much, 
 exercised, as he tells us in his "Domestic Annals of 
 Scotland." Referring to the state of matters that 
 existed in the country in 1644, he enumerates the 
 many sad accompaniments of the pestilence which 
 that year visited the land, such as dearth, the draft- 
 ing of men into the army, and the harassment 
 caused by hostile and plundering bands; and he 
 gravely tells us that " by the generally depressing 
 effect of incessant preachings, prayings, fastings, 
 and thanksgivings [the italics are his], by which 
 the whole sunshine of life was, as it were, squeezed 
 out of the community, those vital powers which 
 resist and beat off disease must have been reduced 
 to a point much below average."^ Taking this sad 
 state of matters into account, he does not think 
 it " surprising that the plague took deadly hold of 
 1 " Domestic Annals of Scotland," vol. ii. p. 156. 
 
104 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 the country." This is a discovery that must not 
 be forgotten should the plague unhappily appear 
 again. These "preachings, prayings, and fastings," 
 which proved so injurious, must be avoided ; but 
 especially the " thanksgivings,'' which have been 
 put in italics to enable us the better to keep them 
 at arm's-length — like Cain with the mark on his 
 forehead ! And if such religious exercises in the 
 Church are so depressing, how injurious to health 
 must filial piety be in families, especially when it 
 takes the unhappy form of gratitude and thanks- 
 giving ! 
 
 Not only were there two meetings for public 
 worship on the Lord's-day, and a lecture every Fri- 
 day, in the parish church of Dalgety during Andrew 
 Donaldson's incumbency, but for many years there 
 was a meeting in the church every Monday for in- 
 structing the people in the catechisms authorised by 
 the Church. The Reformed Church of Scotland gave 
 her testimony in favour of this mode of instruction by 
 various acts of legislation. In 1638 it was enacted, 
 in connection with the visitation of particular kirks 
 by Presbyteries, that care was to be had, among 
 other things necessary, " that it bee tryed how do- 
 mestic exercises of religion be exercised in particular 
 families, and to see what means there is in various 
 parishes, in landward, for catechising and instruct- 
 ing the youth." In the following year the Assembly 
 gave its sanction to the proposal, " That an uni- 
 
THREE GREAT OBJECTS SOUGHT. 105 
 
 forme Catechisme may be appointed to be used 
 throughout this whole kingdome, in the examinations 
 before the Communion." And in 1649 we find 
 the Assembly ordaining ''every minister, with assist- 
 ance of the elders of their severall Kirk-sessions, 
 to take course that in every house where there is 
 any that can read, there be at least one copie of 
 the Shorter and Larger Catechisme, Confession of 
 Faith and Directorie for Family Worship." This 
 Assembly also renewed the Act of 1639, to which 
 we have referred in a former chapter, appointing a 
 day for weekly catechising to be regularly observed 
 in every congregation; they recommended ministers 
 so to order their instruction in the catechism that 
 the assembled people should have presented to them, 
 at every diet, a short view of the chief heads of 
 saving knowledge; and they appointed that ministers 
 who were negligent in keeping these diets of cate- 
 chising should be admonished to do so, and that if 
 they persisted in their neglect they should be sus- 
 pended from the ministry. The manifest aim of 
 the Church in this legislation was that the whole 
 people in the land, from the highest to the lowest, 
 should have their minds brought to bear closely on 
 Bible doctrine, in its great leading features, and 
 should have something like a systematic view of 
 Divine truth placed before them. And taking into 
 account the amount of exposition of Scripture which 
 Avas given them on the Lord's-day, surely this 
 
106 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 arrangement was a wise one. The leaders, both of 
 the First and Second Reformation in Scotland, seem 
 to have set their hearts on three great objects: that 
 the poor should have their bodily wants supplied, 
 that the children of the poorest should be educated 
 so as to be able to read the Scriptures, and that, 
 from the highest to the lowest in the land, every one 
 should be instructed in the way of salvation. And 
 what these men set their hearts upon they laboured 
 assiduously to secure by methods that seemed well 
 adapted to the time, and the circumstances in which 
 they were placed. They did not attempt to legis- 
 late for all time as to the methods to be employed for 
 securing the great ends they wished to bring about. 
 It is distinctly laid down in the Second Book of 
 Discipline that the assemblies of the Church have 
 power '' to abrogate and abolish all statutes and 
 ordinances concerning ecclesiasticall matters that 
 are found noysome and unprofitable, and agrie not 
 with the time, or are abusit be the people." There 
 are sticklers for old forms and methods in the pre- 
 sent day, who would be considered sad laggards by 
 the very men whom they profess so greatly to 
 revere. The area of the Church's efforts in refer- 
 ence to all the great ends of which we have just 
 been speaking, was in those early days co-extensive 
 with the nation ; and she would have been untrue 
 to herself if she had not taken advantage of the 
 opportunity thus afforded of making lier influence 
 
THE WEEKLY CATECHISING. 1 07 
 
 directly felt on all classes, by methods that agreed 
 with the time — the method of public catechising 
 among the rest. 
 
 The following is the first reference to the weekly 
 meeting for catechising in the parish of Dalgety of 
 which we have made any note ; but evidently it 
 dates further back : 
 
 Decemher 27, 1646. — *'Tlie elders of each quarter are 
 appoynted this day to keip the dyets of weeklie catechizing 
 quhen their quarters are called, and that they he cairfull 
 to bring out the people of their bounds." 
 
 From this we learn that on the days appointed 
 for catechising, the parishioners came according to 
 the districts into which the parish had been divided. 
 Another minute, which follows, shows that the 
 people of one district only came at a time ; and it 
 was expected that the elder of the district, whoever 
 he might be — earl, knight, laird, or tradesman — 
 should not only see that the people committed to 
 his care were present, but be in attendance himself 
 
 March 29, 1647. — "This day its appointed that at the 
 weekHe catechising, quhoever be absent, the elder of the 
 (juarter thats called to catechising sail not be absent, but 
 sail be cairfull to bring forth the people, and come along 
 with them to the church." 
 
 Elders, it thus appears, were not expected to say 
 to the people of their districts "Go," but "Come"; 
 and all ministers know how different the results of 
 
108 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 the two methods are. Another minute shows that, 
 in the opinion of the session, some of their members 
 were not so careful as they might have been in 
 bringing the people out to these meetings, and 
 greater care is enjoined on them, especially in refer- 
 ence to the ignorant and the young. 
 
 October 29, 1648. — "The elders, this day, appoynted to 
 be more cairfull in bringing y^ people off their quarters to 
 catechising, especially ignorants and young ones to be 
 brought out duelie." 
 
 These weekly diets for catechising are referred to 
 at intervals throughout the succeeding years of 
 Andrew Donaldson's ministry. At one time it is 
 lamented that servants do not come to them as 
 they ought, and means are employed to rectify the 
 evil. At another time we find a number of persons 
 summoned before the kirk-session because of a 
 similar neglect. The following minute shows us 
 the hour at which the people convened for the 
 exercise : — 
 
 June 26, 1654. — ''The Sessione appoints the Monday 
 morning for opening up the grounds of the Catechise to 
 tlie people, and that the whole congregatione be exliorted 
 to keip the diet weiklie, at 9 a cloak." 
 
 The above seems to indicate that the whole con- 
 gregation were now attending the weekly catechis- 
 
THE people's desire TO LEAKX. 109 
 
 iiig, instead of the people of a single quarter, as 
 formerly. The hour referred to would now be 
 thought early for a meeting in church ; but the 
 following extract shows that it was sometimes 
 earlier still, and that even in winter :— 
 
 Xovemher 5, 1655. — " The dyett off the Monday morn- 
 ings' exercise to be 8 a cloak, and the people to be warned 
 to keip this dyett." 
 
 Two things cannot fail to strike the unprejudiced 
 reader in view of these extracts from the session record 
 of Dalget3^ The first is the unwearied exertions of 
 the minister ; and the second is the desire for religious 
 instruction on the part of the people. The arrange- 
 ment by which such an exercise as that just referred 
 to followed close on the protracted services of the 
 Sabbath made no provision for a feeling of w^earied- 
 ness, that goes by the modern name of " Monday- 
 ishness." And the readiness of the peo^Dle to come 
 out to such an exercise immediately after the 
 Sabbath was over, cannot satisfactorily be accounted 
 for on the ground of the ampler leisure of those 
 early times. There is much leisure at present 
 which is very differently employed by man3^ Is 
 the true solution not this, that a spirit of great 
 earnestness regarding Divine things pervaded the 
 minds both of ministers and people at that time ? 
 Of one thing we may be quite sure, that the nation 
 is a great loser when people of all ranks and classes 
 
110 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 are from any cause not instructed in what our 
 Reformers called " the knowledge of the grounds of 
 relisrion." The two classes that have drifted 
 farthest away from the influence of the Presbyterian 
 Church, in its various branches in Scotland, are the 
 hisfhest and the lowest in the social scale. And 
 may it not be truly said, without giving unnecessary 
 offence, that these are just the two classes among 
 us who, as a rule, have least knowledge of the 
 grounds of religion, and consequently least know 
 ledofe of the Word of God ? It will not be called 
 in question that this is the case with the lowest 
 class. And is it not a very significant fact, that it 
 is only in the highest ranks in Scotland that per- 
 versions to Rome in any considerable number have 
 been found ? The fact cannot be denied ; and we 
 do not see how it can be satisfactorily accounted 
 for, except on the ground of ignorance of the Word 
 of God, or at least very superficial acquaintanceship 
 with it. The present divided condition of the 
 Presbyterian Church in Scotland has the effect of 
 enfeebling her, and to a large extent wasting the 
 energies she puts forth; but surely the time will 
 soon come when, with Gospel truth characterising 
 her pulpits, and spiritual independence possessed by 
 her Church Courts (and without both she can never 
 be strong for the performance of the functions 
 which Christ has confided to her), she will banish 
 ignorance of Divine things from the land and carry 
 
WHAT THKEE THOUSAND MINISTERS MIGHT DO. Ill 
 
 the blessings of the Gospel far and wide. Two of 
 the great ends which the Reformers gave themselves 
 to secure have been taken out of the Church's 
 hands in these days. The State, by means of 
 Parochial Boards, takes care that the poor shall not 
 starve; and, by a tardy legislation, she now pro- 
 vides, through her School Boards, that children 
 shall not grow up in ignorance. Is it too much to 
 expect from the Church, in this nineteenth century, 
 that she shall secure that from the highest to the 
 lowest in the land no one shall grow up in ignor- 
 ance of the way of salvation ? At the time of the 
 Reformation there were fewer than three hundred 
 ministers in Scotland who had embraced the pure 
 faith ; and yet they resolutely set themselves, in the 
 face of a thousand difficulties, to secure that the 
 poor should be fed, the ignorant instructed, and all 
 taught the way of salvation. Surely, in spite of 
 the great increase of the population which the lapse 
 of three centuries has brought about, the three 
 thousand Presbyterian ministers of Scotland might 
 devise some joint action, by means of which no one 
 in the land shall truly be said to perish for lack of 
 Christian knowledge ! We would regard it as a 
 blot on our social economy if the poor were seen 
 falling down in a starving condition on our streets. 
 What, then, is to be said of the tone of our Chris- 
 tianity, and our inheritance in the principles of 
 our reforming and covenanting forefathers, if we 
 
1 1 2 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVKNANTINO TIMES. 
 
 complacently look on and see the souls of our 
 fellow-countrymen perishing ? What a strength it 
 would inspire into the heart of our common Pres- 
 byterianism, and what an influence for good it 
 would shed all around, if our divided ranks were 
 seen united again, and marching under a banner on 
 which the words are inscribed, '* With God's help, 
 no one in this land shall perish for lack of Christian 
 knowledge ! " That would be home-mission work 
 in earnest ; and it would lead to missionary enter- 
 prise on a scale unheard of as yet. 
 
 In looking back over all the meetings for public 
 worship which we have described as held in the 
 church of Dalgety in those for-otif days, some 
 questions will have arisen in the minds of our 
 readers as to the translation of the Bible that was 
 used, and the metrical version of the Psalms that 
 was sung. We shall therefore bring this chapter to 
 a close by answering these questions. 
 
 The Geneva version of the Bible was in common 
 use in Scotland before the authorised version was 
 published in IGll ; indeed, it retained its hold long 
 after the publication of the latter, and only began 
 to give place to it in any considerable measure 
 about the year 1645. The Westminster Directory 
 did not enjoin the use of any particular translation; 
 for the Assembly of Divines intended to issue a new 
 version that should bear their impHmatur. The 
 Psalms, translated by James Wedderburn, vicar of 
 
wedderburn's psalms. 113 
 
 Dundee, were those first sung in the congregations 
 of the Reformed Church of Scotland. The collec- 
 tion was a small one, consisting of twenty-one 
 Psalms, with paraphrases of the Lord's Prayer, the 
 Creed, and Commandments. The following six 
 verses of the 137th Psalm will serve as a speci- 
 men of this old metrical version : — 
 
 At the rivirs of Babylon, 
 
 Quhair we dwelt in captivitie, 
 
 Quhen we rememberit on Syon, 
 
 We weipit all full sorrowfullie. 
 
 On the sauch tries our harpes we hang, 
 
 They hald us into sic thraldome, 
 
 They bad us sing some psalme or hymne, 
 
 That we in Syon sang sum tyme ; 
 
 To quhome we answerit full sune : 
 
 Nocht may we outher play or sing, 
 
 The psalmis of our Lord sa sweit, 
 
 Intil ane uncouth land or ring. 
 
 My richt hand first sail that forleit, 
 
 Or Jerusalem forgettin be : 
 
 Fast to my chaftis my tung sail be 
 
 Claspit, or that I it forget. 
 
 In my maist gladnes and my game, 
 
 I sail remember Jerusalem, 
 
 And all my hart upon it set. 
 
 The "Book of Geneva" having received the 
 sanction of the Reformers, it was natural that the 
 Psalter bound up with it should find its way into 
 
 1 
 
114 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 common use. The version contained in it is known 
 as that of Sternhold and Hopkins, although 
 Whittinsrham and others had a hand in it. In 
 1564, this Psalter, with new renderings by two 
 Scotchmen, Robert Pont and John Craig, was 
 formally sanctioned by the General Assembly, and 
 continued in use for the greater part of a century. 
 It was still in use, and was sung in the old church 
 of Dalgety, when Andrew Donaldson was ordained. 
 The following verses of the above-quoted Psalm will 
 be acceptable to some of our readers as a specimen 
 of Whittingham's manner : — 
 
 When as we sate in Babylon, 
 
 the riuers round about, 
 And, in remembrance of Sion, 
 
 the tears for griefe brast out. 
 
 We hangd our harpes and instruments 
 
 the willow trees vpon, 
 For in that place men for their vse 
 
 had planted manie one. 
 
 Then they to whom we prisoners were 
 
 said to vs tauntmgly, 
 Now let vs heare your Hebrew songs, 
 
 and pleasant melodic. 
 
 Alace, said we, who can once frame 
 
 liis sorrowfull heart to sing, 
 The praises of our louing God 
 
 thus under a strange king ? 
 
THE THREE KINGS. 115 
 
 But if that I lenisalem, 
 
 out of mine heart let slide, 
 Then let my fingers quite forget 
 
 the warbling harpe to guide. 
 
 And let my tongue within my mouth, 
 
 be tyed for euer fast, 
 If that I ioy before I see 
 
 thy full deliuerance past. 
 
 King James, who had been the means of giving 
 the inhabitants of our island a common version of 
 the Scriptures, was ambitious to secure greater 
 uniformity still by adding a Common Prayer Book 
 and Psalter. We all knoAV that nothing came of 
 the former; but we must say a little more regarding 
 the latter. King James was self-complacent enough 
 to think that he had powers which fitted him to 
 become not only the Solomon of the State, but the 
 David of the Church. And so, Avith the help of 
 Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, he prepared 
 a metrical version of the Psalms. This version was 
 published by King Charles I., with a title which 
 would have flattered the vanity of his royal father 
 had he been alive — " The Psalmes of King David 
 translated by King James." But although King 
 Charles allowed King James's translation of the 
 Psalms of King David to be sung in all the churches 
 of his dominions, the boon was not so highly appre- 
 
116 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 ciated as he expected it should be by the ministers 
 and people of Scotland. The Archbishop of St. 
 Andrews, to be sure, did what he could to promote 
 his Majesty's wishes in the matter ; for Episcopacy 
 had for the last time lifted up its head in the 
 Scottish Church ; and whereas only two of the 
 King's — King David and King James — had been 
 associated by name in the project up till this 
 time, the Archbishop, with great courtliness and 
 dexterity, got all the three brought into juxta- 
 position, as the following minute of the Synod of 
 Fife shows : — 
 
 Octoher 2, 1632.— "The quliilk day, the Psalmes of 
 King David, translated in meeter be King James of 
 blissed memorie, being recommendit be King Charls, our 
 present dread Soveraine, to be accepted and sung in al his 
 Maiestie's dominions, wer by my Lord Archbischop re- 
 membred and recommendifc to the Synod, and sum of 
 them dely vered to certain brethren of the several Presby- 
 teries to be perused be them, and they ordamd to report 
 their iudgment theiranent against the next Synod." 
 
 But even with this help from '' my Lord Arch- 
 bishop," the scheme did not prosper, although King 
 Charles gave orders that no other version should 
 either be printed or imported. And after various 
 attempts to improve the old version, or supplant it 
 by another of Scottish workmanship, the West- 
 minster version, from the hands of Rouse, was, after 
 
HYMNS AND DOXOLOGY. 117 
 
 frequent revision, and the addition of some favourite 
 metres from the old Psalter, ordered to be intro- 
 duced by the Commission of Assembly in 1650, 
 and has down to the present time retained its place. 
 It only remains to be said that, although the Scot- 
 tish Psalter as at first printed had only the Psalms, 
 later editions had a number of hymns, some of 
 which were borrowed from the English Psalter, 
 while others were peculiar to Scotland ; and the 
 doxology was sung at the conclusion of almost all 
 the Psalms. 
 
118 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 (f0miuiim0n; S^as0ns. 
 
 N investigating the pastoral methods that 
 characterised the early history of the 
 Reformed Church of Scotland, one is 
 struck, not merely by the width of area over whicli 
 her labours extended — embracing as they did all 
 ranks and classes — but also by the close, personal 
 nature of her supervision of the people, and the 
 early age at which it began. As far back as the 
 year 1570 it was enacted by the General Assembly 
 that trial should be made of young children, in 
 order that it might be seen how they were brought 
 up by their parents in the true religion of Jesus 
 Christ ; and that this trial might be gone about in 
 a systematic and thorough way, it was ordained 
 " that ministers and elders of kirks shall univer- 
 sallie, within this realme, take tryall and examine 
 all young children within their parochines that are 
 come to nyne years, and that for the first tyme ; 
 thereafter, when they are come to twelve years, for 
 
SURVEILLANCE OF THE YOUNG. 119 
 
 the second tyme ; the third tyme, to be examined 
 when they are of fourteen years, wherethrough it 
 may be knawne what they have profited in the 
 school of Christ from tyme to tyme." Such a sur- 
 veillance of the young as this must have had a 
 salutary effect on parental instruction, and the 
 consciousness that the eyes of the minister and 
 elders were restinof on them was fitted to tell in a 
 beneficial way on the children themselves. The 
 names of children as well as adults were entered on 
 the roll of the parish ; and the Assembly of 1646 
 appointed that this roll should be used, not only 
 for the purpose of insuring that all should be exam- 
 ined, but that ministers should become acquainted 
 with the various conditions and dispositions of their 
 people, that they might be dealt with accordingly, and 
 be "particularly prayed for by the ministers in secret." 
 This, it will be admitted, points not merely to a close 
 personal acquaintanceship with the people, but a 
 high spiritual tone on the part of the ministers. 
 
 The examinations which are most frequently 
 referred to in the old session record of Dalgety are 
 those that were conducted by the minister, with the 
 aid of the elders, previous to communion seasons. 
 The Reformers, surrounded as they were with the 
 evidences of the lamentable ignorance which Popery 
 had bequeathed to them, laid it down as a rule 
 that all should be examined before partaking of the 
 Supper, in order to insure that they had a Scrip- 
 
120 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 tural view of the nature of the ordinance. " All 
 ministers," say they, '^ must be admonished to be 
 more carefull to instruct the ignorant then [than] 
 readie to serve their appetite, and to use sharp 
 examination rather then indulgence in admitting to 
 thir great mysteries such as be ignorant of the use 
 and vertue of the same: And therefore we think 
 that the administration of the table ought never to 
 be without examination passing before, and specially 
 of them whose knowledge is suspect ; we think that 
 none are to be admitted to this mysterie who cannot 
 formally say the Lord's prayer, the articles of the 
 belief, nor declare the sum of the law, and under- 
 standeth not the use and vertue of this holy 
 sacrament."^ And, to come down to the time with 
 which these sketches deal, the Assembly of 1645 
 had ordained that " in the administration of the 
 Lord's Supper, congregations be still tried and 
 examined before the communion, according to the 
 byegone practice of this Kirk." It was to a great 
 extent owing to this practice of examining all ranks 
 and classes of communicants that communion seasons 
 of old became the great centres around which the 
 pastoral work both of ministers and elders turned. 
 It will therefore give us a good deal of insight into 
 their labours if we let the old record tell what took 
 place in the way of examination at one of these 
 communion seasons ; and as the minutes are fuller 
 ^ First Book of Discipline, chap. xi. 
 
COUNSEL SOUGHT PROM GOD. 121 
 
 ill reference to the communion season of July, 
 1653, than any other, we shall concentrate our 
 attention on it. 
 
 The troubled state of the country in connection 
 with Cromwell's invasion, and more particularly the 
 battle of Inverkeithing, which was fought almost on 
 the border-line of the parish, had so interfered with 
 pastoral arrangements in Dalgety that the com- 
 munion had not been enjoyed for several years. 
 This, no doubt, to some extent accounts for the 
 fuller information we have of the first communion 
 season after these troubles had passed away; but it 
 is also partly owing to a spirit of gi^eat earnestness 
 which at the time pervaded the parish. In Decem- 
 ber, 1652, seven months before the communion 
 season referred to, we have the following notice in 
 the minutes: — 
 
 December 24, 1652. — "The Sessione this day consider- 
 ing how long the Lord's people heir hes beine deprived off 
 the benefite off the communione, by reason off the troubles, 
 thinke fitte that people be tryed and examined in order to 
 it; and withall considering the weight of that matter, 
 resolves to seik counsell and directione from God, how to 
 goe about it, till the next day." 
 
 The next day, here referred to, was the next 
 Lord's-day. While these sentences are being penned, 
 a " week of prayer " is witnessing the spectacle of 
 professing Christians of all branches of the Church, 
 
122 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 and all lands " seeking counsel and direction from 
 God " how His cause may best be advanced in the 
 world. It is interesting to find on a small scale, in 
 the parish of Dalgety, in those early days, what has 
 taken form and shape on a larger scale in the pre- 
 sent day, the object in view being in essence the 
 same. When men set about a solemn work in this 
 spirit it is seldom that they have to complain of want 
 of guidance ; and we think that few, if any, who care- 
 fully consider the important Act which we are about 
 to submit to them will be at a loss to know from 
 what quarter the direction came that led to it, and 
 in what relation it stands to the '' week of prayer " 
 observed by the kirk-session of Dalgety. It is, 
 indeed, a remarkable Act, and, perhaps as much as 
 anything in the record, shows us the kind of spirit 
 that animated Andrew Donaldson and his elders. 
 It is as follows : — 
 
 December 31, 1G52. — "The Sessione this day, taking to 
 consideratione the tryall and examinatione off people in 
 order to the communione, doe think fitte : 1. That people 
 off all ranks within the congregatione be examined ; and 
 that none be admitted to come to that ordinance that re- 
 fuisse to submitt themselves to tryall : 2. That some off 
 the most judicious off the elders be appoynted, from tyme 
 to tyme, to be concurring with the minister in this work, 
 that such as sail in any measure be found qualified, may 
 be admitted, and others laid by for the present till further 
 paines be taken upon them : 3. That people be tryed (1) 
 
A REMARKABLE ACT. 123 
 
 in thair knowledge off the grounds of religione, whether 
 they be such as in some measure are able to discerne the 
 Lord's bodie ; (2) in the point of prayer, whether they be 
 aiming in any measure at the seiking off God, and, if they 
 be heads off families, whether they have prayer and God's 
 worship in their families, yea what care they have to 
 bring up their children in the knowledge off the Lord, 
 according to their solemne engadgment at baptisme, and 
 how they carie themselves towards their servants in things 
 that relate to godliness ; (3) that such as can reid be tryed 
 what paines they take to reid the Scriptures for the 
 knowledge off the things of God ; (4) whether people 
 sanctifies the Lord's day from morning to night, how they 
 waite upon the public ordinances, and what use they make 
 off the word efter hearing ; (5) how they walk in their 
 stationes, whether they follow the dueties off their calling, 
 whether they live without scandall and offence, especially 
 if they be free off drunkeness, of swearing and prophaning 
 the name off God, off mocking and contemning the exercise 
 off godliness &c., and if in some measure their conver- 
 satione and walking be suteable to the Gospell ; yea, iff 
 their endeavour and desyre tend that way ; and the 
 sessione, however they resolve to use tenderness toward 
 such as are now come to years, and have beine bred up 
 in ignorance, iff so be they be in any measure concerned, 
 have any good affection to the way of God, are labouring 
 for more knowledge and live soberlie, yet they think 
 that such as are young and have had the meanes off 
 a better educatione ought to be exactly tryed and 
 no admitted to the comunione till they be in some 
 measure qualified, least [lest] by the sudden and rash 
 
124 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 admitting off tliem they be hardened in sin and 
 ignorance." 
 
 We know not how the perusal of this old Act 
 has affected our readers. We doubt not that all 
 will at least agree with us in thinking it a very 
 remarkable one ; but to us it is suggestive of a 
 great deal more than appears on the surface of it. 
 It must, we think, be considered as an echo of 
 Andrew Donaldson's teaching from the pulpit re- 
 garding the daily walk and conversation of profess- 
 ing Christians. It must further be regarded as 
 pointing out what the minister and elders were 
 daily exemplifying in their own life, otherwise they 
 would have made themselves the laughing-stock of 
 the parish. It describes the marks of practical 
 Christianity in a singularly clear and Scriptural 
 manner. It is the existence of these marks, " in 
 some measure," as the Act repeatedly tells us, that 
 the kirk-session are desirous to see in the members 
 of the congregation; and when these marks are not 
 evident in any measure, they Avill not exclude from 
 the communion table those whose "endeavour and 
 desire tend that way." With what care and ten- 
 derness, too, do the session distinguish between 
 those who have not had the benefit of a good 
 education and those who have been more highly 
 favoured in that respect. In spite of all this, 
 however, the thought will be uppermost in the 
 
PEOPLE OF ALL RANKS EXAMINED. 125 
 
 minds of many, that what is most to be desired in 
 the case of intending communicants is that each one 
 should, according to the Scripture rule, " examine 
 himself," and so " eat of that bread and drink of 
 that cup." But there is no ground for the suppo- 
 sition that the session wished their examination to 
 supersede that which was of a private and personal 
 kind, or to be anything else than a help to it. And 
 in cases of gross ignorance and manifest immorality, 
 it was clearly the duty of the session to bring these 
 disqualifications home to the conscience, if there was 
 to be any exercise of Christian discipline at all. 
 Besides, it must not be forgotten how different the 
 general enlightenment of the present time is from 
 that which was found in a long-neglected parish 
 like Dalgety in those early days. And on the very 
 ground on which it is held that a different mode 
 of procedure is now demanded because of altered 
 circumstance, it may safely be affirmed that the 
 methods of the present time would not have been 
 adapted to the circumstances which existed in the 
 parish of Dalgety two centuries ago. Moreover, 
 when we find the session which comprised almost 
 every man of position in the parish enacting that 
 '' people of all ranks " should thus be examined, 
 we cannot fail to see that in what they thus 
 did they contemplated the general good; and all 
 ground was taken away for saying that rich and 
 poor were dealt with in different w^ays. In addition 
 
126 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 to this we know that as minute and personal 
 an inquest was made by the Presbytery into the 
 character and behaviour of ministers and elders as 
 the session instituted in the case of ordinary 
 parishioners. And if, after all this, it is held by 
 any that the methods pursued by the kirk-session 
 of Dalgety, at the time with which we are dealing, 
 savoured more of the Inquisition and the Confes- 
 sional than the order prescribed in Scripture, we 
 can only express our astonishment that means and 
 ends so diametrically opposed should be regarded 
 as having anything in common. For ourselves, we 
 have often, while poring over the old record which 
 furnishes us with these extracts, wished that there 
 were in our day some such thorough Christian 
 supervision of the whole population of the parishes 
 of Scotland and England as there was in Dalgety in 
 those days. We should then have less ignorance, 
 vice, and unhappiness in our borders ; and our 
 communion-rolls would be purer than they now are. 
 If the pastoral methods of the Covenanting times 
 have become effete, the Church of our day must be 
 careful that an older method still is not lost sight 
 of — " Warning every man, and teaching every 
 
 MAN IN ALL WISDOM, THAT WE MAY PRESENT EVERY 
 MAN PERFECT IN ChRIST JeSUS." 
 
 But we must look carefully for traces of the way 
 in which Andrew Donaldson and his elders carried 
 out this remarkable Act. On the very day that 
 
A BREAK-DOWN. 127 
 
 saw it passed and recorded, it was resolved that 
 " the families of the quarter of Daigetie " — that is, 
 Dalgety proper — were "to wait on for examinatione 
 the next week"; and that the Laird of Blair, Mr. 
 William Thomsone, who seems to have been acting 
 as tutor in Lord Murray's family at the time, and 
 John Moubray, elders, were to concur with the 
 minister for the trial and examination of the people; 
 and from week to week the record bears that dis- 
 trict after district is visited, and people of all ranks 
 examined, in accordance with the resolution of the 
 kirk-session. At length, after the lapse of nearly 
 three months we have the following minute : — 
 
 March 13, 1653. — "The whole congregatione once 
 gone throw in examinatione. Re-examinatione delayed 
 for the present, becaiis off the minister's present sicknes 
 and weaknes." 
 
 This illness was, in all likelihood, a "break- 
 down," owing to over-exertion ; and nearly two 
 months elapse ere the minister's labours are re> 
 sumed. On the 9th of May he begins the work of 
 re-examination, and for two months it goes steadily 
 on from week to week. At length we have the 
 following minute : — 
 
 Jidy 3, 1653. — "The Sessione considering that now 
 the people have beine thryse gone throw, and examined 
 in order to the communione, and that there be mony 
 desirous and longing for that blessed ordinance, doe 
 
128 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 appoynt the first dyett off it to be on the Lord's day, 2-ith 
 off this instant, and leave things relating to it to be con- 
 sidered npone the next day : onlie its recomended to 
 the minister to intimate the dyett the next day, that such 
 as are admitted, or sail be, may be preparing for it." 
 
 It gives us a most interesting glimpse of the state 
 of religion in the parish of Dalgety at that time, to 
 be told that there were many " desirous and longing 
 for" the ordinance of the Supper. It was not the 
 custom at that period to observe the Thursday be- 
 fore the Communion as a fast-day, but the Saturday 
 previous was kept as a day of preparation. And 
 there is something very striking in the way in which 
 that day's services are referred to. 
 
 July 11, 1653. — " The Sessione this day having looked 
 throw the communione roll, and taken notice off those in 
 the several quarters ofi" the paroch, that upone tryall and 
 examinatione have been found in some qualificatione for 
 the communione, appoynts tokens to be given them, and 
 all others be laid by for the present. As also ordaines 
 that none presume to come to the table, off whatever rank 
 or degrie, whether within the congregatione or strangers, 
 without ane warrand, and token from the Kirk-sessione, 
 and that none off other congregationes receaves tokens 
 but such as are either knowne to be gracious or bring 
 sufficient testimonialls from their ministers bearing their 
 qualificatione. And becaus the work is great, the Ses- 
 sione thinks fitte that the whole Setterday before be spent 
 in seiking ofi" God, and in the work off preparatione — that 
 
A DAY SET APART FOR SEEKING GOD. 129 
 
 sermon begin that day at 8 o'clock in the morning, and 
 this to be intimate." 
 
 From this minute it will be seen how similar 
 many of the subordinate arrangements connected 
 with communion seasons in those early days were 
 to what they still are in Scotland. Would that it 
 might be said of those who meet on the preparation 
 Saturday, now, that their aim is as definite and 
 blessed as that which is spoken of in this minute — 
 " the seeking of God ;" and that the desire of their 
 heart after Him is so strong that they would not 
 think it too much to spend an entire day in waiting 
 for Him ! 
 
 The old kirk-session record of Dalgety is fuller 
 of information regarding the labours of a pastoral 
 kind that preceded communion seasons than in 
 reference to the special services of the communion 
 Sabbath itself. There are, however, various state- 
 ments of an interesting kind scattered over the 
 minutes, which enable us to realise all the better 
 what took place on these occasions ; and these state- 
 ments we shall interweave with a narrative of what the 
 law and usage of the Church regarding the ministra- 
 tion of the Lord's Supper were, in those early days. 
 
 There is an idea in many minds that the in- 
 frequent observance of the ordinance of the Supper 
 is somehow bound up with the legislation of the 
 Scottish Church ; and that the blame attaches to 
 
 K 
 
130 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 her of countenancing what Calvin declared to be 
 " an invention of Satan," the administration of this 
 sacrament not oftener than once a-year. Let us 
 see how this charge looks in the light of undoubted 
 facts. Our Scottish Reformers did not venture to 
 do what Scripture itself has not done, and lay down 
 an authoritative rule as to the frequency of the 
 observance of the ordinance or the precise dates at 
 which it must be administered. They do, however, 
 state in an unhesitating way what they think 
 expedient regarding these matters. In the First 
 Book of Discipline they say — " Foure times in the 
 yeare we think sufficient to the administration of 
 the Lord's table, which we desire to be distincted, 
 that the superstitions of times may be avoided so 
 farre as may be. For your honours are not igno- 
 rant how superstitiously the people runne to that 
 action at Pasche, even as if the time gave vertue to 
 the sacrament ; and how the rest of the whole year 
 they are carelesse and negligent, as if it appertained 
 not unto them but at that time onely. We thinke 
 therefore most expedient that the first Sonday of 
 March be appointed for one time to that service ; 
 the first Sonday of June for another ; the first 
 Sonday of September for the third ; the first 
 Sonday of December for the fourth. We do not 
 deny that any severall kirk, for reasonable causes, 
 may change the time, and may minister oftner, but 
 we studie to suppresse superstition." 
 
FREQUENT MINISTRATIONS OF THE SUPPER. 131 
 
 It thus appears that the movement which for 
 some time has been going on in Scotland, to have 
 the quarterly ministration of the ordinance, is only 
 a going back to what our Reformers three centuries 
 ago thought expedient; and should the monthly 
 ministration of the Supper by-and-by become the 
 rule, it will only be what they anticipated as 
 likely to happen, when reasonable causes, the 
 revived spiritual life of the Church among others, 
 appeared. 
 
 In the Book of Common Order the Lord's Supper 
 is said to be '■' commonly used once a month, or so 
 oft as the congregation shall think expedient." But 
 the General Assembly which sanctioned that direc- 
 tory ordained " that the Comunione be administered 
 foure times in the yeare within the Burrowis, and 
 twyse in the yeere, toward landwart." Taken in 
 connection with statements contained in the First 
 Book of Discipline, this must, we think, be held to 
 fix the Tniniraum number of observances only. For 
 a length of time this seems to have been the usage 
 of the Church. But during the period of Episcopal 
 ascendancy, prior to 1638, the custom of the yearly 
 observance of the Supper crept in, the people falling 
 into their old way of " superstitiously running to 
 that action at Pasch," as the Reformers complained 
 they had done in Popish times. The Assembly of 
 1638 renewed the Act of 1562, which we have 
 just quoted, and in order that no selfish motive 
 
132 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 on the part of the ministers might interfere with 
 the more frequent ministration of the ordinance, 
 they declared that the charges for furnishing the 
 elements " be rather payed out of that dayes col- 
 lection, then that the congregation want the more 
 frequent use of the Sacrament." 
 
 To complete our statement as to the views enter- 
 tained on this subject by the Scottish Church in 
 those early days, we have only further to notice that 
 in the Directory for Public Worship, which received 
 the sanction of the Church in 1645, the words 
 occur — '' The Communion or Supper of the Lord is 
 frequently to be celebrated ; but how often, may be 
 considered and determined by the ministers, and 
 other church governors of each congregation, as they 
 shall find most convenient for the comfort and edi- 
 fication of the people committed to their charge." 
 The troubles that for well-nigh fifty years after this 
 time disturbed the Church interfered much with 
 the frequent ministration of the Lord's Supper ; and 
 after the Revolution Settlement Moderatism exer- 
 cised an influence similar to what Episcopacy had 
 wielded before that time, in the direction of making 
 the observance of the ordinance more infrequent. 
 Only the return of sound evangelical doctrine has 
 had the effect of bringing the great bulk of our 
 Scottish congregations back to something approach- 
 ing the usage of early reforming times. 
 
 The rule in the parish of Dalgety, at the time 
 
RECEPTION OF YOUNG COMMUNICANTS. 133 
 
 with which we are dealing, was to have the com- 
 munion ministered twice in the year. 
 
 We have seen the kind of examination that all 
 members of the Church were subjected to previous 
 to the communion Sabbath. The following minutes 
 give us a glimpse of the kind of dealing that was 
 taken with young communicants : — 
 
 June 2, 1G54. — " Some yong men and yong women not 
 entered yet to the comunione, in severall quarters, and 
 marked in the roll as in some measure qualified, appoynted 
 to be present the next day and seriouslie exhorted to 
 studie the knowledge of God and follow the exercise off 
 pietie, and so to receive tokens." 
 
 Jime 9, 1654. — " Some yong men and women, to enter 
 to the Lord's table at this ensuing dyett, seriouslie ex- 
 horted to studie the Scriptures and the knowledge off God, 
 and to walke in some suteableness to the Gospell, and so 
 receaves tokens." 
 
 It is interesting to notice, in connection with the 
 above minutes, that, as the communion Sabbath in 
 question fell on the 19 th of June, this band of young 
 communicants appeared before the session ten days 
 previous to the communion, and got their tokens 
 after a serious exhortation ; which, we must suppose, 
 was delivered by the minister. And we doubt not 
 this was done with mingled feelings, as is the case 
 on similar occasions still — the bright anticipations 
 of hope being shaded by the remembrance of sad 
 
134 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 falls, on the part of some, from whom very different 
 things were expected. 
 
 From the following minute it appears that the 
 communion-roll was revised at a meeting of kirk- 
 session on the Sabbath previous to that on which 
 the Lord's Supper was ministered ; but whether this 
 was in presence of the congregation or not does not 
 very clearly appear. 
 
 June 12, 1654. — "The comimione-roll read, and such 
 as have beine marked in some measure off qualificatione, 
 at the dyetts off examinatione in the severall quarters, 
 admitted ; others marked for ignorance and scandalls, in 
 the roll, debarred. Ordered that none without testi- 
 monialls in other congregationes get tokens, to come to 
 the table ; and that none presume to come within the 
 congregation that hes not beine allowed by the Kirk- 
 sessione." 
 
 The system of tokens, or '' tickets," as they are 
 sometimes called, which seems to be the necessary 
 adjunct of a communion-roll, is traceable to within 
 a few years of the Eeformation. 
 
 The following minute shows that it was the 
 custom to have a preparation service on the Satur- 
 day immediately before the communion : — 
 
 April 5, 1645. — " This day the minister did intimate, 
 from the pulpit, that, the Lord's day following, the com- 
 munion of the bodie and blood of Christ wes to be cele- 
 brate ; and exhorted the people to be cairfull in prepara- 
 
THE PREPARATION SERVICE. 135 
 
 tione this week befoire, as also to be present the Setterday 
 next about two hours [two o'clock] in the afternoon, at 
 the sermon of preparatione, and all that wants [are with- 
 out] tokens were forbidden to approach the table. William 
 Logane and Robert Andersone, two elders, are appointed 
 to sie [look out] for good wyne and bread, and to be cair- 
 full ofl' it the day of the communion. Others of the elders 
 were appoynted for collecting for the pure, for gathering 
 the tokens at the end of the table, for serving, tfec." 
 
 The reference in this extract to the preparation 
 service on the Saturday previous to the communion 
 suggests inquiry as to the whole question of week- 
 day meetings prior to the ministration of the Lord's 
 Supper. For a period of about sixty years after the 
 Reformation, it was customary to have a meeting on 
 the Tuesday before the communion Sabbath, for the 
 reconciliation of those who ha,d been living at vari- 
 ance, and for hearing any complaints which the 
 members of the congregation had to make against 
 the office-bearers, including the minister and reader. 
 It is to such a meeting, held at Edinburgh, that the 
 historian, Caldervvood, refers in the following passage: 
 — " Upon Tuisday, the 23rd of Marche [1619], there 
 was a meeting of the honest citizens of Edinburgh, 
 in the Litle Kirk, according to the use and custome 
 they have had since the Reformation. The custome 
 was, to conveene with their pastors upon the Tues- 
 day before the first communion-day. If anie thing 
 was amisse in the lifes, doctrine, or anie part of the 
 
186 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 office of their pastors, everie man had libertie to 
 show wherein they were offendit : and if anie thing 
 was found aniisse, the pastors promised to amend it. 
 If they had anie thing to object against the congre- 
 gation, it was likewise heard, and amendment was 
 promised. If there was anie variance amongst 
 neighbours, paines were taken to make reconciliation, 
 that so both pastors and people might communicate 
 in love, at the banket of love," &c.^ Excellent as 
 the object of this meeting was, it fell into abeyance; 
 and in place (^f it came the preparation service, held 
 on some day near the close of the week, but generally 
 on Saturday — the work of reconciling those who were 
 living at variance being taken up by the kirk-session. 
 This preparation service, and that of thanksgiving, 
 held after communion on Sabbath, are the only two 
 that are enjoined on congregations by the statutory 
 enactment of the Church. The words of the Act of 
 Assembly, 1G45, which is still the law on these 
 matters, are as follows : — " That there be one sermon 
 of preparation, delivered in the ordinary place of 
 publick worship, upon the day immediately preced- 
 ing. That before the serving of the tables there be 
 only one sermon delivered to those who are to com- 
 municate, and that in the kirk where the service is 
 to be performed. And that in the same kirk there 
 be one service of thanksgiving, after the communion 
 is ended." 
 
 ' History, vol. vii., p. 355. 
 
COMMUNION FAST-DAYS. 137 
 
 The practice of having a fast-day before the 
 ministration of the Lord's Supper, appears to have 
 begun about the middle of the seventeenth century. 
 The day was generally Thursday. The following 
 is the first notice of it that appears in the session 
 record of Dalgety : — 
 
 June 9, 1654. — " The Thursday befou' the comunione 
 to be keiped in a solemne fast for the sins and judgments 
 off the land, and for the sin and ignorance off God in the 
 congregation e. And the Lord to be dealt with and soucht 
 efter for his presence to tlie ensueing comunione." 
 
 It is a remarkable thing that a usage which 
 became so common, and is still so marked a charac- 
 teristic of our Scottish communion seasons, should 
 never have received the legislative sanction of the 
 Church. To our mind the fact indicates great 
 wisdom on the part of the Church. The multipli- 
 cation of week-day services in connection with the 
 communion has the undoubted effect of making the 
 observance of the ordinance less frequent. And 
 although the fast-day services of Scotland have been 
 the means of edification and comfort to countless 
 thousands of our Scottish people, and are so to 
 thousands still, in regard to these as well as other 
 observances which we have adverted to, the present 
 tendency is to go back to the old ways. It does 
 not require the gift of prophecy to foretell that, 
 when the reconstruction of the Scottish Church 
 
138 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 takes place the fast-days will disappear; as incom- 
 patible with the frequency of communion which is 
 so desirable, and as an observance which, time- 
 honoured though it be, is " abused by the people." 
 The Monday's service after the communion, as 
 traditionary story tells, is traceable to the famous 
 sermon preached at Kirk of Shotts, in 1630, by John 
 Livingston. 
 
 The following extracts, connected with the com- 
 munion Sabbath, furnish some interesting items 
 of information regardino^ the sacred observance 
 itself : — 
 
 Ajyril 12, 1645. — "The minister from the pulpit did 
 show the people that there wold he two sermones in the 
 forenoone, and accordinglie two services, and therefore 
 desyred that families wold divide themselves according 
 to the two dyets, and appoynted these that were to come 
 in the morning to be present at half sex [half-past five], 
 at which time sermon wald begin." 
 
 This points to two separate ministrations of the 
 ordinance on the same day ; and the little knots of 
 people that were seen wending their way to the 
 church of Dalgety in the dawn of an April morning 
 would make a fine subject for a painter. The next 
 extract gives .as a glimpse of Andrew Donaldson's 
 assistants on a communion occasion : — 
 
 June 7, 1G4G. — "This day the comiinione off" the 
 the bodie and blood off Christ is celebrate. Mr. Ro*^ 
 
THE COMMUNION SABBATH. 139 
 
 Key, minister at Dunfermline, preached the doctrine of 
 preparatione the day befoir. Mr. Patrick Gillespie, 
 minister at Kirkaldie, preached in the morning and 
 efternoone, and the mid dyet served by our owin 
 minister. Collected to the pure 46 lib: 2. 6. Given 
 to the beddell 31b. To ane woman that keepit the 
 comunione cloath, 12s. Item for dressing the table 
 and formes, 8s. Item to two beggars 6s. 8d. Item to 
 the ordinarie pure, double allowance. Item to ane pure 
 old man, John Hendersone, 30s." 
 
 The above minute points to three separate minis- 
 trations of the ordinance on the same day, each 
 preceded by a sermon, and each embracing one 
 table. The items of information regarding details — 
 to some of which we have alluded before — are very 
 interesting. 
 
 As early as the year 1647 there is evidence that 
 many people from other congregations were in the 
 habit of resorting to Dalgety on communion occa- 
 sions. And the minutes of the kirk-session of 
 Aberdour, the immediately adjacent parish on the 
 east, furnish us with a curious glimpse of the way 
 in which these passers-by were treated by a people 
 who at that time were not so favourably situated as 
 regards an evangelical ministry, as the parishioners 
 of Dalgety . were. On January 10, 1654, it was 
 stated at a meeting of the kirk-session of Aberdour 
 that there ran a report that those who passed 
 through the town to the communion at Dalgety 
 
140 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 had hard speeches addressed to them by the inha- 
 bitants of Aberdour, and the elders were instructed 
 to make inquiry into the matter and report. Two 
 months afterwards it was reported that Mr. Andrew 
 Donaldson had said at a meeting of Presbytery that 
 when Mr. George Nairne, minister of Burntisland, 
 was riding through Aberdour, on his way to or 
 from Dalgety, and his horse had stumbled, some of 
 the inhabitants, with an imprecation, expressed the 
 not very polite wish that he " had broken his 
 neck." The additional charge was made, that 
 when the Lady of Hallhill was riding through the 
 town some of the people had been so rude as to 
 cast stones at her. And Mr. Donaldson's impeach- 
 ment ended with the charge that when he himself 
 was riding through Aberdour " he heard some in 
 the towne say, whose names he gave up, 'There is 
 one of the whitemouths of Dalgatie.' " 
 
 Mr. Robert Bruce, the minister of Aberdour, who 
 was a sort of "Vicar of Bray," having begun his 
 career as an Episcopalian in 1687, conformed to 
 Presbyterianism in 1638, and found it not too 
 great an effort to conform to Episcopacy again in 
 1662, was at the same time a man of gentlemanly 
 feelings ; and he took this accusation laid against 
 his people sorely to heart. On the very day after 
 the meeting of Presbytery he went through the 
 town and examined those whose names *' Mr. 
 Andro " had given up ; but all he could find was 
 
" THE WHITEMOUTHS OF DALGATIE." 141 
 
 that some children had said, " There is one of the 
 whitemouths of Dalgatie." Further search is re- 
 solved on, however, and the minister himself is to 
 write '' both to the minister of Bruntisland and the 
 Lady Hallhill, to know if they were abused efter 
 such a manner." The upshot of all is, that the 
 minutes resound with the echoes of certain " scourg- 
 ings " that parents administer to their children for 
 crying after "the Whitemouths of Dalgety." We 
 are not without suspicion, however, that the wrong 
 persons were punished, and that the young had 
 only behaved after the fashion set them by the old. 
 Be this as it may, the following piece of legislation 
 is to be found in the kirk-session register of 
 Aberdour : — 
 
 June 16, 1654. — "The session resolve that whosoever 
 in this parish shall calumniate those who go to the Com" 
 of Dalgatie, or any other service of the Lord, shall he 
 punished exemplarily, and shall he made to pay according 
 to their ability." 
 
142 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 HERE are whole departments of Andrew 
 Donaldson's work in the parish of Dalgety 
 which, from the very nature of a kirk- 
 session record, are either entirely unnoticed, or but 
 distantly referred to, in the old yellow volume from 
 which our materials are drawn. We refer especially 
 to his visitation of the sick, and the services he 
 was called upon to render in connection with bap- 
 tisms, marriages, and burials. " These departments 
 of work we therefore pass over with a very few 
 remarks before entering on the subject indicated at 
 the head of this chapter. 
 
 There is much wisdom shown in the way in 
 which the visitation of the sick is referred to in the 
 Book of Common Order. The manner of it is left 
 very much to the discretion of the minister, who is 
 to ply the sick person with the sweet promises of 
 God's mercy, or the declarations of His justice, as 
 he sees needful: "Evermore, like a skilful physician, 
 framing his medicine according as the disease re- 
 
THE CARE OF THE SICK. 143 
 
 quireth." And, knowing that the want of the 
 necessaries of life is a great hindrance to the 
 ministering of comfort of a spiritual kind, the 
 injunction is given that the minister, when he 
 perceives the sick person to be in want, is not only 
 to relieve him according to his own ability, but to 
 secure the aid of others. It is, moreover, laid down, 
 as something that is to be distinctly understood, 
 that the sick person may at all times send for the 
 minister when his comfort requires it. The West- 
 minster Directory, while holding it to be the duty 
 of the people ''often to confer with their minister 
 about the estate of their souls," declares that times 
 of sickness and affliction are special opportunities 
 for ministering a word in season to weary souls, 
 which ministers, when sent for, are to take advan- 
 tage of. The proviso about sending for the 
 minister is, of course, not to be understood as 
 having a reference to cases of sickness which are 
 known to him. The reference is to cases of which 
 he is ignorant, and needs to be informed. It is 
 thus the echo of the scriptural injunction — " Is any 
 sick among you, let him call for the elders of the 
 Church," &c. Notwithstanding this, however, the 
 doctor is many a time sent for when the minister is 
 allowed to find out cases of sickness. From the 
 general tenor of Andrew Donaldson's labour, we 
 cannot but believe that the sick of his parish were 
 carefully tended ; and extracts already given show 
 
144 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 that wliile their spiritual wants were attended to, 
 their bodily wants were ministered to with consi- 
 derate kindness. 
 
 There is little in the minutes of general interest 
 connected with baptisms. The following shows how 
 a grossly ignorant parent, seeking baptism for his 
 child, was dealt with : — 
 
 July 6, 1655. — "David Greig, having ane child to be 
 baptized and grosselie ignorant and having beine keeped 
 back from that benefite for a tyme becaiis off his ignorance, 
 and now bro* to some sense off it, is appoynted to acknow- 
 ledge befoir the congregatione liis sinne off ignorance, 
 promises to take paines to learne, and his child is to be 
 baptized." 
 
 Nor is there much in the old record to detain us 
 long in connection with marriages. How oddly it 
 sounds in our ears when the Keformers, in the First 
 Book of Discipline, tell us "the Sonday before noon 
 we think most expedient for mariage, and that it 
 ought to be used no day else without the consent of 
 the whole ministerie." This, at first sight, might be 
 thought to savour somewhat of the Popish view of 
 marriage being a sacrament ; but we believe it was 
 an arrangement mainly intended to secure publicity. 
 And they who take into account the scandalous 
 position in which Popery left the law of marriage in 
 Scotland, will admit that it was a most imj)ortant 
 thing to give as much publicity as possible to mar- 
 
SUNDAY MARRIAGES. 145 
 
 riages. But in trying to avoid one evil, by this 
 arrangement, the door was opened for another; and 
 the merry-makings, so naturally associated with 
 occasions of this kind, became a scandal to all who 
 respected the sanctity of the Lord's-day. Did space 
 permit, it might be shown that much of what has 
 been said about the austerity of the ministers and 
 kirk-sessions of early times, in connection with such 
 festive occasions, rests on the mistake of not distin- 
 guishing between censures that were directed against 
 merry-makings held on the Lord's-da}^, or other- 
 wise connected with manifest abuses, and censures 
 levelled ag^ainst such meetinsfs in themselves. From 
 1579 and onwards, marriages came to be more fre- 
 quently celebrated on week-days ; and at length, 
 by the Westminster Directory, it was advised that 
 they should not be celebrated on the Lord's-day or 
 any day of public humiliation. The Director}^ 
 wisely steers clear of anything that can justly be 
 said to favour either of the two extreme and un- 
 scriptural views of marriage — that, on the one 
 hand, which would exalt it into the rank of a sacra- 
 ment ; and that, on the other, which would degrade 
 it into the position of a mere civil contract, which, 
 if constituted by the mere consent of parties, may, 
 by parity of reasoning, be also dissolved by mutual 
 consent. 
 
 The following notice of proclamation of banns 
 has an historical interest connected with it, referring, 
 
 L 
 
146 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 as it does, to the marriage of the celebrated 
 Archibald Campbell, ninth earl of Argyle : — 
 
 April 5, 1650. — *'A letter this day is sent to the 
 Sessione from my Lord Lome and Lady Marie Stewart, 
 daughter to the Earle of Murray, desyring them to be 
 proclaimed thrie severall Lord's dayes, in our church, in 
 ordour to manage, which the Sessione ap^ioynts to be 
 done." 
 
 Lament, in his diary, gives us the following 
 glimpse of the marriage itself, from which the mind 
 of the reader will naturally glance forward to the 
 sad termination of the Earl's career on the scaffold 
 at the Grassmarket : — 
 
 May 13, 1650. — " The Lord Lome (the Marquesse of 
 Argylle his eldest sonne) maried the Earle of Murray's 
 eldest daughter. The mariage feast stood att Eden- 
 broughe, in the Cannegeatte." 
 
 There is nothing in the old record that makes it 
 necessary for us to linger over the usages of the 
 time in connection with burials. 
 
 We turn now to the work of the elders; and, 
 following the rule we have observed in reference to 
 the minister's work, we shall look at the labours 
 they engaged in individually, ere we take into 
 account the work of a sessional kind, which, in 
 conjunction with the minister, they performed. 
 After the ministers of the Scottish Church, there is 
 
THE ELDERSHIP, A SPIRITUAL FUNCTION. 147 
 
 no class of workers to whom Scotland owes so much 
 as the elders. Without them the efforts of the 
 Reformers, in 1560 and 1638, never could have 
 been crowned with the success which actually 
 attended them ; and in all wise plans yet to be 
 carried out in Scotland, with a view to recover lost 
 ground and carry the religion and morality of the 
 country up to higher forms, the enlightened, hearty, 
 and self-sacrificing labours of the eldership will 
 need to be called in to a degree which only the 
 Covenanting times knew. 
 
 When the first draft of the constitution of the 
 Scottish Church was submitted to the General 
 Assembly and the Great Council of the nation, 
 great importance was attached to the appointment 
 to the office of the eldership of men well versed in 
 the Scriptures and exhibiting a holy life ; but it 
 was not intended that they should retain office 
 during their whole lifetime. The plan at first pro- 
 posed was that they should hold office for a year 
 onl}^ or at least that their continuance in office 
 should be contingent on their yearly re-election ; 
 but in the Second Book of Discipline this plan is 
 departed from, and the important words occur — 
 '' The eldership is a spirituall function, as is the 
 ministrie. Elders anis [once] lawfully callit to the 
 office, and having gifts of God meit to exercise the 
 same, may not leive it again." That elders are 
 ordained to be pastors of the congregation, considered 
 
148 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 as a flock, although not necessarily teachers of it, is 
 an important truth which is often forgotten, althougli 
 the Word of God and the Standards of the Churcli 
 clearly declare it. The statements of the Second 
 Book of Discipline on this point are most distinct : 
 — "Their office is als [as] weill severallie, as con- 
 junctlie, to watch diligently upon the flock committit 
 to their charge, baith publicly and privately, that 
 na corruption of religion or manners enter therein." 
 It is only when this high view of the office and 
 work of the elder is cherished and carried into 
 effect that the Church can derive tlie benefit she is 
 entitled to expect from the institution. It fell to a 
 worldly Moderatism to degrade the occupant of this 
 sacred office into a ''bawbee-elder," as the phrase 
 came to be, who thought he discharged its functions 
 sufficiently by occasionally appearing at the churcli 
 door, and taking care of the offerings put into the 
 plate. We stand up for the old, sacred dignity of 
 the office, and so have no hesitation to speak of the 
 work of the elders of the parish of Dalgety as in the 
 truest sense ^^astoval ivorl:. How noble is that 
 work as laid down in the old book from which we 
 have just been quoting : — " As the Pastors and 
 Doctors sould be diligent in teiching and sawing the 
 seid of the word, so the elders sould be cairfuU in 
 seiking the fruit of the same in the people. It 
 apperteines to them, to assist the pastor in examina- 
 tion of them that cumis to the Lord's table. Item, 
 
DISTKICTS VISITED OXCE A- MONTH. 149 
 
 in visiting the sick. They sould cause the Actes 
 of the Assemblies, als weill particular as generall, 
 to be put in execution cairefullie. They sould be 
 diligent in admonishing all men of their dewtie, 
 according to the rewl of the Evangell. Things 
 that they cannot correct be privat admonitions 
 they sould bring to the assemblie of the elder- 
 schip." 
 
 We have seen, in a previous chapter, that there 
 were no fewer than sixteen elders in the parish of 
 Dalgety, after Andrew Donaldson had mustered his 
 forces with the view of invading the ignorance, 
 impiety, and immorality which characterised the 
 long-neglected parish. Now, if our estimate of the 
 population of the parish be at all correct, there 
 would be only about a dozen families assigned to 
 each of these elders; and granting that the number 
 of elders might sometimes be as small as twelve, 
 there would still be not more than fifteen families 
 under the care of each member of session. This 
 enables us the better to understand how working- 
 men could find time to visit their districts once 
 a-month, and keep up such a close surveillance of 
 the families committed to their charge as the laws 
 of the Church required. For the Assembly of 1648 
 had ordained that every elder should have a district 
 assigned him, which he was to visit once a-month 
 at least, and report to the session what scandals 
 and abuses were found in it. It remains now that 
 
150 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 we see how this work was done by the individual 
 elders. 
 
 The following is a list of the districts into whicli 
 the parish Avas divided: — 1. Dalgety proper; 2. 
 Little Ford ell ; 3. Lethem; 4. Donibristle ; 5. 
 Leuchat ; 6. Clinkhill; 7. Fordell Green and Park- 
 hall; 8. Fordell Miln ; 9. Otterston ; 10. Cock- 
 airnie ; 11. Moor of Fordell; 12. Barnhill and 
 Seaside. 
 
 Minutes like the one we are now to quote show 
 how the injunctions of the Assembly were obeyed. 
 
 Jmie 3, 1649. — " Elders appoynted once in the moneth 
 to visite yr severall quarters, and to take notice of such as 
 want familie worship, as mock prayer and the power off 
 godliness, as are propham and scandalous, that they may 
 be brought to censure ; as also to take especial notice off 
 any that are gracious and seikers off God, that they may 
 be strengthened and encouraged in that way. As also to 
 take notice that none come to the parish without testi- 
 monialls ; to presse upon those of their own families and 
 others in their quarter besyd prayer in the familie secret 
 and particular prayer, and that they labour to go before 
 uthers in a good example in that duetie themselves." 
 
 We have only to think of landed proprietors, 
 like Henderson of Fordell, Moubray of Cock- 
 airnie, and Spittal of Leuchat, regularly visiting 
 the families of their districts with such objects in 
 view as the foregoing minute narrates, to feel 
 
ELDERS WHO NEGLECTED FAMILY WORSHIP. 151 
 
 assured what a beneficial effect it must have had. 
 And the result could scarcely have been less satis- 
 factory, when honest tradesmen, who enjoyed the 
 respect of the whole community, dropped into their 
 neighbours' houses to hold converse with them in a 
 kindly way on themes such as these. 
 
 One element in Andrew Donaldson's dealings 
 with the members of his kirk-session that strikes 
 us forcibly is his straightforwardness. During the 
 long neglect in which the parish of Dalgety had 
 lain, it could hardly be expected that family religion 
 should be found in a healthy state, even in the 
 households of those who came to be ofiSce-bearers, 
 when a minister was at length settled among them. 
 And so we find that it comes to Andrew Donald- 
 son's ears that there are some of his elders in whose 
 homes family worship is not kept up. What is 
 to be done ? He knows right well that if the 
 parishioners have good ground for believing that, in 
 the case either of minister or elders, there is the 
 neglect of what they are inculcating as a duty on 
 others, the effect on the religion of the parish must be 
 most injurious, and so we have the dealing with the 
 elders, which is recorded in the following minute : — 
 
 July 13, 1645. — "The minister exhorts the elders that 
 there be no slackness in visiting their quarters, and regrets 
 the want of familie worship in their own houses as ane 
 hindrance off it in other houses. They promise to do 
 their endeavour to get this heled." 
 
152 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 There is the clearest evidence in the minutes of 
 the diligence of the elders in visiting their districts 
 once in the month, and in addition to this many of 
 them — especially those who have time on their 
 hands — are most serviceable to the minister in the 
 examinations that precede communion seasons. 
 
 The following gives us a glimpse of their occupa- 
 tion in work of the last-named kind : — 
 
 Ajml 9, 1654.— "The laird off Fordell, the laird of 
 Blair [Spittal of Leu chat, who was also laird of Blair- 
 logie], John Moubray, Andro Edesone, elders, to waite 
 upon examinatione with the minister till the nixt day," 
 
 In another minute we find a few of the elders 
 conjoined in efforts of a private kind to bring a 
 weak-minded but wicked man to a sense of his sin 
 and guilt ; and it is noticeable that, although they 
 have long been labouring in vain for his good, and 
 are conscious of having very unpromising materials 
 in their hands, they are resolved not to give him up 
 yet. 
 
 3fay 21, 1G55. — "Those appoynted to take paines on 
 John Kirk, to bring liim to the sense of his dnuikeness, 
 swearing, &c., report that for a long tyme they have beine 
 dealing with him, but can yet get him brought to no 
 sense, and that they find him weake in his naturalls : the 
 Sessione appoynts yet some paines to be taken in 2:>rivate 
 on him." 
 
LESS FORMAL CALLS BY ELDERS. 153 
 
 111 addition to the monthly visit paid by the 
 elders to the families of their respective districts, 
 there are indications in the minutes of a less 
 formal call on the afternoon or evening of Sabbath, 
 with a view to secure the better observance of that 
 day. 
 
 Such are fair specimens of what may be called 
 the individual labours of the elders of the parish of 
 Dalgety in those early days ; and other notices of 
 their work in their respective districts have already 
 been given in our chapters on Education and the 
 Management of the Poor. We leave the state- 
 ments with confidence in the hands of unprejudiced 
 readers, who will be able to estimate aright both 
 the amount of work done and the spirit in which it 
 was gone about. And -we think "sve do not exagge- 
 rate when we say that if every pulpit in the land 
 were filled by a minister of Andrew^ Donaldson's 
 spirit, as efficiently supported by working elders, 
 Scotland would soon be, in the language of M 'Cheyne 
 — " a garden all in flow^er." 
 
154 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 W0rh af tin pi;rIi-S^ssi0ii : its g0maut mxti 
 ^erfaniring Spirit. 
 
 E 23ass now from the pastoral work in which 
 Andrew Donaldson and his elders engaged 
 individually to their conjoint labours as 
 a kirk-session. There is no law of the Scottish 
 Church fixing the days on which the kirk-session 
 is to meet, or determining the frequency of its 
 meetings. And the practice of the Church varies 
 exceedingly — in some congregations such meetings 
 are held monthty, while in others they are only 
 held before the ministration of the Lord's Supper, 
 or when cases of discipline have to be dealt with. 
 But to one who studies the pastoral methods of 
 different periods, it becomes evident that in times 
 of great spiritual activity the meetings of session 
 become more frequent ; and their infrequency is 
 not seldom an indication of declension from a spirit 
 of pastoral watchfulness and diligent effort. In the 
 parish of Dalgety, at the time of which we write, 
 the kirk-session met weekly, and wc strongly believe 
 that, in order to a thorough pastoral supervision of 
 a congregation, there must be a return to something 
 
WEEKLY MEETINGS OF KIRK-SESSION. 155 
 
 like this frequency of meeting. What could be 
 more natural than for minister and elders to hold a 
 weekly conference, for a longer or shorter time, to 
 consider how the cause of God fares in the congre- 
 gation, whether the various agencies employed are 
 working diligently and efficiently, and what measure 
 of success God is orivinof in the work ? And if it 
 were arranged that certain members of the session 
 should report on particular departments of the 
 spiritual work of the congregation, such meetings 
 need not be without materials for important delibera- 
 tion and prayerful consideration as to the way in 
 which the Lord's cause may best be advanced. But 
 the question will be sure to arise — how, amidst the 
 hurry and bustle of the present time, a day is to be 
 found for this weekly concourse of minister and 
 elders ? Now, it may throw some light on the 
 answer to be given to this question to be told that 
 in the parish of Dalgety, in Andrew Donaldson's 
 time, the usual day for the weekly meeting of 
 session was Sabbath. No doubt its meetings were 
 sometimes held after the week-day lecture ; and 
 there are matters that sometimes have to be con- 
 sidered by the session which may be more befittingly 
 discussed or arranged on a week-day. But we fail 
 to see any good reason why there might not be a 
 weekly meeting of session on Sabbath. It will not 
 be charged against the men of the Covenanting 
 time that they held lax views regarding the sanctity 
 
156 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 of the Sabbath. But it has somethnes occurred to 
 us that there is a little of the leaven of Pharisaism 
 unconsciously cherished, when the consideration of 
 the wa}^ in which the work of the Lord goes on in 
 the congregation and the world at large, and how it 
 may best be advanced, is deemed not sacred enough 
 for the Lord's-day. Perhaps in this matter, as in 
 others, we have a lesson to learn from our Covenant- 
 ing forefathers. We shall erelong see what kind 
 of work was transacted at these meetings of session. 
 Meanwhile, we may be indulged in the remark, that 
 it is well for us they met so often, and that so full 
 a record of the business transacted was kept by the 
 session-clerk, for not otherwise would it be possible 
 to reproduce the pastoral work of that distant time 
 so fully as we are doing. 
 
 Before looking at the work of the session, we 
 must take a glance at the persons who were under 
 their pastoral care. Owing to the entire absence 
 of dissent, the whole population belonged to one 
 church. Every family in the parish and every 
 individual was thus under the jurisdiction of the 
 kirk-session, so far as religion and morality were 
 concerned ; and the strictest surveillance was kept 
 over all classes and all persons. There were two 
 ways of becoming a parishioner, and so getting the 
 benefit of the supervision of the kirk-session. The 
 first was by being born in the parish ; and the 
 second was by coming from another parish to reside 
 
THE INEVITABLE "CERTIFICATE. loj 
 
 in it. Testimonials of previous good behaviour 
 could hardly, with a good grace, have been asked 
 from those who became parishioners in the first- 
 mentioned way; otherwise we may be sure the 
 demand would have been made. But from immi- 
 grants into the parish in the other fashion, they 
 were sought with most unflinching pertinacity. If 
 any one expected to be regarded as a hona-jide 
 parishioner, to say nothing about being considered 
 a member of the congregation, it was necessary to 
 produce a certificate from the parish in which 
 he formerly lived. Not that it was necessary or 
 possible, in every case, to produce a certificate of 
 blameless character; but it was thought desirable 
 that a man should, in this way, let his antecedents 
 be known — to use the modern euphonious phrase. 
 If a servant came into the parish, there followed, at 
 no distant date, a call from the elder of the district, 
 with a request for the certificate brought from the 
 parish in which he was previously resident. If a 
 family — high in station or low, it made no differ- 
 ence — came to reside within the bounds, there w^as, 
 as a matter of course, the polite request for '' the 
 certificate." And that document generally told, 
 with refreshing minuteness, the character of the 
 holder; giving him credit for good behaviour when 
 it could be affirmed of him, and mentioning his 
 faults when anything flagrant was laid to his charge. 
 This, of course, will be regarded by many as in- 
 
158 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 quisitorial. But it will be remembered that we are 
 speaking of a time two centuries in the past, when 
 the conditions of society were in many respects 
 different from what they are now. And, after all, 
 the principle involved in the matter of these certi- 
 ficates is that on which societies of various kinds 
 still act, in order to secure themselves against im- 
 position. One marked advantage was connected 
 with this system of certificates or " testimonials," as 
 they were generally called. It show^ed the minister 
 and elders the kind of materials they had to deal 
 with. It pointed out the ignorant, on whom they 
 had to bestow instruction; the backsliding, whom 
 it was their duty to restore ; the vicious, who, for 
 their own sake as well as that of others, needed to 
 be carefully watched ; and the weak, who stood in 
 want of the ministry of tender care. The following 
 extracts will show the different kinds of testimonials 
 which came into the hands of the kirk-session, and 
 the use that was made of the information conveyed 
 by means of them : — 
 
 November 2^^ 1648. — "The sessione considering that 
 servants coming into the congregatione without testi- 
 monialls is ane great hindrance to ordinar catechising, 
 therefoir ordain that servants nor any other be ressaved 
 in the congregatione till first they bring their testi- 
 raonialls from the place they came from." 
 
 May 8, 1653. — "James Buchanan, ane servant to my 
 lady Murray [the Earl was now dead] produced ane testi- 
 
SPECIMENS OF CERTIFICATES. 159 
 
 moniall for him and Lis wife from Traqiiair, subscribed 
 by the minister. The sessione, having considered off it, 
 doe refuise it : (1) becans it specifies not the time quherin 
 they lived there, and when they came from that.: (2) 
 becaus they are informed they are lying nnder grosse 
 scandall in the next congregatione off Aberdour, and 
 therefore appoynts the man and his wife to bring ane 
 testimonial! from Aberdour, and suspend the receiving 
 off them as members heir, till then." 
 
 April 19, 1657. — "Ane testimonial!, from Cleish, off 
 David and Andro Dewars, bearing that they are frie off 
 scandall, but verie ignorant." 
 
 It was the custom for session-clerks to exact a 
 fee for certificates granted, and the session-clerk of 
 Aberdour seems to have been a little too exactinp- 
 in this matter, as the following extract testifies ; — 
 
 August 12, 1649. — "James Dewar is appoynted to go 
 to Aberdour. ... to desyre the minister that people 
 that comes from them to us may have testimonialls, and 
 that poore things be not urged to pay more for them nor 
 [than] what the Synod and presbytrie has allowed." 
 
 It is interesting to notice the different kinds of 
 certificates which the kirk-session of Dalgety give to 
 persons leaving the parish. The following extracts 
 all bear the same date : — 
 
 July 21, 1654. — "James Fleck and his wife to get 
 ane testimonial!, bearing that they were frie of knowne 
 scandall heir, at y'" removal!, and that the woman had 
 
160 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 maid some good proficiencie in knowledge." " James 
 Kinsman to get ane testimonial! that lie is frie off knowne 
 scandall." " Ninian Tliomsone to get ane testimonial! 
 that he lived heir, for any [thing] known to us, soberlie 
 and holilie, as it becomes the gospell." 
 
 If these quotations leave on some minds tlie 
 conviction that the supervision of the minister and 
 elders of Dalgety was very strict, they are also fitted 
 to show how pure the ends were which they sought, 
 and how close and personal their dealings with the 
 parishioners were. With true ministers of Christ, 
 it is not superficial or general impressions made by 
 their labours that can give solid satisfaction : the 
 mind will revert to individual instances in which 
 real good has been done. The case of James 
 Fleck's wife, in the above extract, has thus a 
 peculiar interest attached to it. It was evidently 
 an advantage to this woman that she had been an 
 inhabitant of Dalgety ; for she is seen leaving the 
 parish all the better instructed in divine things 
 because of the labours of Andrew Donaldson and 
 his elders. And it is men like Ninian Thomsone — 
 whatever the station they may occupy — who form 
 the very backbone of a Christian congregation. 
 These extracts are also fitted to suggest the ques- 
 tions, whether there are not many at the present 
 time, in almost every parish in the land, who are 
 living entirely alienated from the means of grace. 
 
ASPERSIONS OF ROYALIST WRITERS. 161 
 
 no man caring for their souls ; and whether, from 
 the want of a right appreciation of Christian dis- 
 cipline on the part of some ministers, there are not 
 many who, while under scandal, flee from one 
 branch of the Church to another, and are received 
 without any question being put. 
 
 We do not need to dilate here on the wide sweep 
 that discipline, in the hands of the kirk-session, took 
 in those early days : copious extracts, which are still 
 to be given, will make this sufficiently evident ; but 
 an important question arises in regard to another 
 matter — the spirit in which this work of the kirk- 
 session was gone about. Perhaps on no subject 
 connected with the Covenanting times has the truth 
 been so much distorted. Knowing that we have a 
 strong case here, our first intention was to give 
 our readers a specimen of the severest things which 
 have been said against these men on this point ; 
 and with a view to this, we had marked for tran- 
 scription one or two passages that have been 
 thought worthy of a place in Chambers's " Domestic 
 Annals of Scotland." But they are so reckless and 
 coarse, that to present the ipsissmia verba would 
 be sure to offend the taste of our readers. The 
 gist of them, however, may be said to be, that every 
 Presbyterian minister of the time was a tyrant; 
 that the elders associated with him in the kirk- 
 session were sour enthusiasts, and that when their 
 edicts were disobeyed the thunderbolt of excom- 
 
 M 
 
162 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 munication was instantly levelled at the offender 
 in a spirit of anger and even relentless malignity. 
 Sweeping charges of this kind are seldom just, 
 whoever the men may be against whom they are 
 hurled. But there are those who are affected by 
 the oyiomentuin of an accusation to such an extent 
 as to forget to inquire into the evidence of its 
 truth ; and the matter is worthy of a few minutes' 
 investigation. 
 
 To act as the Covenanting ministers are thus 
 accused by royalist writers of doing, would, first of 
 all, have been to set aside the Scripture rule — 
 '* Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye 
 which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit 
 of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be 
 tempted." It would also have been to set at nought 
 the injunctions of the subordinate standards of the 
 Church. If there is one thing which has struck us 
 more forcibly than another in our latest reading of 
 the First Book of Discipline, in reference to this 
 matter, it is the fine Christian spirit that breathes 
 through its injunctions as to the dealing of the 
 Church with ordinary offenders. There is, no doubt, 
 a class of crimes of an aggravated nature, regarding 
 which the Reformers held the view that they should 
 be dealt with capitally. In this class were placed 
 such crimes as blasphemy, adultery, murder, and 
 perjury. But the question of capital punishment, 
 and the class of criminals to whom it may justly be 
 
THE SPIRIT ENJOINED BY THE KIRK. 1G3 
 
 extended, is one regarding which the mind of the 
 community has only of late been revolutionised. 
 We are not to blame the Reformers for not havino; 
 at once unlearned the teaching of Rome on this 
 subject, and for not having anticipated by three 
 hundred years the more enlightened views on these 
 questions that characterise the present time. One 
 thing should not be forgotten, that the Reformers 
 excepted from ecclesiastical discipline this aggra- 
 vated class of crimes, deeming them to belong to 
 the civil jurisdiction. And, as we have just said, a 
 fine Christian spirit breathes through all the in- 
 junctions they have laid down as to the dealing of 
 the Church with persons under discipline. 
 
 They ordain that " if the offence be secret or 
 known to few men, and rather stands in suspicion 
 than in manifest probation, the offender ought to 
 be privately admonished to absteine from all appear- 
 ance of evill, which if he promise to doe, and declare 
 himself sober, honest, and one that feares God and 
 feares to offend his brethren, then may the secret 
 admonition suffice for his correction." In the case 
 of public and heinous offences, the offender is to be 
 called before the session and dealt with " so that his 
 conscience may feele how far he hath offended God, 
 and what slander he hath raised in the Kirk." But 
 when signs of penitence appear, and the wrong he 
 has done is openly confessed, then " the Kirk ma}^ 
 and ought to receive him as a penitent, for the Kirk 
 
164 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 ought to be no more severe than God declares Hhn- 
 selfe to be, who witnesses that m whatsoever houre 
 a sinner unfeignedly repents, and turnes from 
 Ids wicked way, that he will not remember one of 
 his iniquities; and therefore ought the Kirk dili- 
 gently to advert that it excommunicate not those 
 whom God absolves." And should it happen that 
 in spite of grave, kind, and long-continued dealing, 
 the offender has to be excommunicated, it is never- 
 theless ordered that, on penitence appearing and 
 being openly professed, he is to be received into the 
 Church after prayer by the minister ; and then the 
 striking words occur — " Which prayer being ended, 
 the minister ought to exhort the Kirk to receive 
 that penitent brother into their favours, as they 
 require God to receive themselves when they offend ; 
 and in signe of their consent, the elders and chiefe 
 men of the Kirk shall take the penitent by the 
 hand, and one or two in the name of the rest shall 
 kiss and embrace him with reverence and gravitie 
 as a member of Christ Jesus." ^ 
 
 But it may be said that, in spite of these wise, 
 humane, and Christian rules, the ministers and 
 elders of the Covenanting times may have cherished 
 the spirit charged against them, and indulged in the 
 fulminations to which such a spirit naturally leads. 
 Now, to this we have to say, first of all, that if they 
 did so, it was in direct opposition to the laws laid 
 1 First Book of Discipline, chap. ix. 
 
THE SPIRIT PERVADING THE OLD RECORD. 165 
 
 down by the Church ; and therefore the Church 
 cannot fairly bear the blame of it. But we have 
 also to say that the question of their acting in the 
 way charged against them is one of evidence ; and 
 men of intelligence and candour will admit it only 
 to the extent of the evidence adduced, and not in 
 proportion to the coarse abuse which has been 
 heaped on the persons accused. This we can 
 honestly say, that there is not the trace of such 
 a spirit in the kirk-session record of Dalgety during 
 Andrew Donaldson's ministry. There are instances 
 of discipline proceeding against offences that would 
 now be considered out of the proper domain of 
 sessional interference, belonging as they do to the 
 department of Church and State politics. There 
 are instances, too, of superstition in some of the 
 cases which we shall have to narrate. But it is 
 very noticeable that, in dealing with questions in 
 which politics are mixed up, the action of the 
 session has its face towards civil and ecclesiastical 
 freedom. The superstition we have referred to was 
 what was shared in by all classes of the community. 
 And the spirit displayed was, as a rule, the very 
 reverse of what the opponents of the Covenanters 
 have charged against them. 
 
166 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER. IX. 
 
 Mark xrf il^t |airIi-Stssiotr, hi ©rirmarg 
 
 NOTE of caution needs to be sounded ere 
 we proceed to deal with the work of the 
 kirk- session of Dalgety in the domain of 
 discipline. From the very nature of this work, it 
 has to do only with defaulters; and we are no 
 more warranted to regard the persons who thus 
 appear before the session as fair specimens of the 
 parishioners, than we should be to consider those 
 whose names appear in the criminal annals of the 
 country as fair specimens of its inhabitants. The 
 most that can, as a rule, be made of such cases as 
 come under this head, is to discover by means of 
 them what offences were common at the time ; 
 what the mode of dealing with delinquents was ; 
 and what measure of success attended the admini- 
 stration of discipline. From the very nature of 
 some departments of this work we must pass over 
 them lightly, so as not to offend delicate feelings ; 
 but this will not hinder us from giving an honest 
 view of the state of morality in the parish. And we 
 
ACTS BEARING OX PREVAILIXG SINS. 167 
 
 may state here, in a general way, that although 
 ahout the beginning of Andrew Donaldson's ministry 
 some offences of an aggravated nature occur often, 
 it is noticeable that after his labours have had time 
 to tell on the. parish, these cases become less 
 frequent. Indeed, had Ave space for the detailed 
 statement w^hich a thorough examination of the 
 record requires, we believe it would appear that the 
 cases of discipline exhibit a steady decrease numeri- 
 cally as well as in point of aggravation. 
 
 Wisely deeming that prevention is better than 
 cure, the session from time to time framed Acts 
 bearing on prevailing sins, and warned the people 
 against them by having these Acts read from the 
 pulpit. Two of these we may now quote — the one 
 having reference to intemperance, and the other to 
 profane swearing. 
 
 March 8, 1646. — "The Sessione this day taking into 
 consideratione the abuse of drunkeness, notwithstanding 
 off" all the paines that are takine to the contrair, do 
 estatute and ordaine, that qidiosoever sail be found guiltie 
 heirefter, for the first fault sail be brought befoir the Ses- 
 sione, there to be rebuiked and gravely admonished, and 
 that thereafter, toties quoties, they sail be bro* to publick 
 repentance m case they sail fall again in that abuse." 
 
 March 22, 1646. — " The Sessione considering the great 
 provocatione off God by ordinarie swearing, cursing and 
 blaspheming, especialhe among the comone [people], 
 ordained that the elders every one shall go throw his 
 
168 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 quainter, and give warning to all that they forbear these 
 abominations, certifying every one that quhosoever sail 
 be found in this miscariage heirafter, they sail be bro^ 
 befoir the pulpit y^^ to satisfie : and the elders them- 
 selves are gravelie exhorted that they keip themselves 
 from these evills, and so be good examples to the Lord's 
 people." 
 
 Passing from the legislative to the executive 
 functions of the kirk-session, there is the clearest 
 evidence in the record of great orderliness in the 
 mode of procedure. When charges are made by 
 one or more of the parishioners against others, the 
 accusation is generally presented in a written form, 
 or " bill," as it is called, to insure definiteness and 
 accuracy; and when proof is needed, witnesses are 
 called, and they are regularly summoned by citation 
 at the hands of the beddell. And as the mode of 
 procedure is orderly, it may also be said that the 
 spirit displayed by the session towards offenders is 
 kind and Christian in tone. There is no trace of 
 attempted oppression, or what would then have been 
 regarded as severity, on the part of the minister and 
 elders. There are, no doubt, as we have already 
 indicated, some faults dealt with sessionally which 
 would not be looked upon nowadays as sufficiently 
 grave to call for that mode of treatment ; but the 
 spirit in which this was done was humane and 
 kindly. In almost every instance, when minor 
 offences are dealt with, the first fault is passed over 
 
PUBLIC DEALING PRECEDED BY PRIVATE. 169 
 
 with a simple admonition. When repeated mis- 
 deeds call for severer treatment, it is most evident 
 that it is with regret that such measures are had 
 recourse to ; and even in very flagrant cases, it is 
 very noticeable that minister and elders deal in the 
 first instance in private with the culprit, to bring 
 him to a right sense of his misconduct, and that 
 they rejoice w^hen their efforts are in any measure 
 rew^arded with success. Instances of such success 
 are by no means rare in the recoj'd ; although un- 
 fortunately, in those days, as w^ell as in more recent 
 times, cases were not awanting in which anything 
 like interference wdth sinful practices was resented 
 and repelled with scorn. It has also to be noticed 
 that, although great unanimity as a rule characterises 
 the action of minister and elders at these meetings 
 of session, there is evidence also of entire independ- 
 ence, on the part of the members, in forming a 
 judgment as to the way in which particular cases 
 are to be dealt with. In one case, for instance, 
 which will erelong come before us, there is a differ- 
 ence of opinion as to the particular way in which 
 church-censure should be carried out. The minister 
 thinks it should be administered publicly ; while 
 the elders are of opinion that it should be privately. 
 The matter is decided in accordance wdth the opinion 
 of the majority, although that opinion is in opposi- 
 tion to the minister's view. Andrew Donaldson, 
 however, thinks a principle is at stake, and he 
 
170 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 appeals to the Presbytery. All this is as it should 
 be. Without independence of judgment on the 
 part of its members, any court would be of little 
 permanent value. But there is no appearance of 
 bad feeling between minister and elders because of 
 this appeal. Indeed, the one solitary instance of 
 bad feeling displayed towards the minister by an 
 office-bearer is to be found in the case of poor, 
 tippling Sir John Erskyne, who had at one time 
 been an elder, but had sunk so low as to be brought 
 before the session for drunkenness and neglect of 
 ordinances. 
 
 In giving some specimetis of the cases which are 
 dealt with by the kirk-session, we shall begin with 
 those that are less grave in their nature, and then 
 pass on to those that are more serious. 
 
 The minute of December 1, 1644, gives us an 
 instance of that very old species of strife, the " strife 
 of tongues." The delinquents are two women — 
 called Janet McKee and Elspeth Drummond — 
 belonging to the hamlet that goes by the name of 
 *' The Chappel;" and they stand before the session 
 convicted of the fault of " scolding and abusing one 
 another." They are " ordained both of them to 
 come before the pulpite, the next Lord's-day, and 
 satisfie." In other words, they are in presence of 
 the congregation to confess their fault and acknow- 
 ledge that they are sorry for it. Scolding seems to 
 have been somewhat common among the women of 
 
THE STRIFE OF TONGUES. 171 
 
 the lower ranks in Dalgety — for the truth has to be 
 told, that it was chiefly they who indulged in this 
 species of declamation ; and, as some of them were 
 not sufficiently deterred by a public appearance in 
 front of the pulpit, the session were constrained to 
 have recourse to severer measures, as the following- 
 Act shows : — 
 
 March 29, 1646. — "The Sessione this day considering 
 that scolding among women wes ane great abuse and 
 scandall in the congregatione, thocht fit that besyd publick 
 repentance each one that sail heirafter he guiltie of the 
 said scandal sail pay toties qiioties 10s. and recomends it 
 to the magistrate." 
 
 The abuse must surely have gone a great length 
 when so severe a measure as this was found requisite. 
 Sometimes, however, in spite of such repressive legis- 
 lation, the tongues would w^ag ; and the women, not 
 content with victories achieved within their own 
 ranks, entered the lists, in tongue-fence, with the 
 lords of the creation. Here, for instance, are two 
 short extracts that no doubt cover a o-reat deal of 
 gladiatorship not entirely confined to the tongue : — 
 
 November 12, 1658. — "David Keid's wiff in Dunibirsell 
 and John Hendersone at y^ seasyd aj^pointed to be cited 
 for flyteing and tulzieing [scolding and quarreling]." 
 
 Then Ave have a glimpse of the combatants in a 
 sedater mood, acknowledging their fault and pro- 
 mising amendment. 
 
172 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 November 19, 1658. — "David Keid's wiff and Jo" Hen- 
 dersone, acknowledging the miscariage, are rebuiked 
 befoir the Sessione." 
 
 Here is another very unbecoming scene ; and no 
 one will think the actors in it too severely dealt 
 with : — 
 
 April 20, 1645. — "Compeared this day before the 
 Session Cristian Lyall and Margaret Wilsone, who were 
 summoned for flyteing and casting off ail npone other, 
 immediatelie after the receiving off the commiinione, in 
 an hous neir by the Kirk, quho confessed their sinne. 
 The Sessione, considering the miscariage to be great, in 
 regard it wes committed on the Loi-d's-day and imme- 
 diatelie after the comiinione, ordanis them first to show 
 their penitencie befoir the Session upone their knees, and 
 the next Lord's-day to goe both to the piTblick place of 
 repentence that the congregatione may be satisfied ; and 
 upone their grief and penitencie they received againe as 
 members thereoff." 
 
 The following extract refers to a severer kind of 
 " tulzieing " than that between " David Reid's witf 
 and John Hendersone;" and all the blame in this 
 case rests with the rou£rher sex. 
 
 o 
 
 February 11, 1650. — ''Alexander Reid comj^ears and 
 gives in a bill on William Steinstone, reporting that he 
 did sclandour him in calling him a trewker lowne, &c. 
 The Sessione delays their answer tb it whill [until] the 
 civill magistrat plays his part, sieing t])ere lies beine blood 
 betwixt them." 
 
PROFANE SWEARING. 173 
 
 It is important to notice here the care with which 
 the session abstain from interference with the civil 
 aspect of the quarrel. They deal with this and other 
 offences as a scandal to the congregation, and as fitted 
 to bring reproach on the cause of Christ. 
 
 But it is time to pass from this type of offences. 
 It is not much to be wondered at that during the 
 long neglect of the parish, and even for some time 
 time after Andrew Donaldson became its minister, 
 profane swearing should have abounded in Dalgety. 
 The session, as we have already seen at the begin- 
 ning of this chapter, had their attention drawn to it 
 in March, 1646, and issued the Act regarding it 
 which we have quoted. Our readers will not fail to 
 notice in the Act the statement that the vice of 
 profane swearing was at the time prevalent chiefly 
 among the common people. This was pretty much 
 the case throughout Scotland between the Reforma- 
 tion and the Restoration ; although James the Sixth 
 is reputed to have been a profane swearer, and thus 
 to have done what he could to leaven the hisher 
 classes with the vice. After the Restoration, how- 
 ever, the upper classes became addicted to this and 
 other low vices, following the example of the most 
 profligate Court that ever disgTaced our country. 
 Profane swearing may again be said to have become 
 a low-class vice ; but, indeed, they should ever be 
 regarded as the lowest class of the people who, 
 whatever their outward station may be, are found 
 
174 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 lowest in intelligence and refinement, in morality 
 and religion. 
 
 The act of the kirk-session against profane 
 swearing seems to have been followed by the best 
 results. Cases of discipline in which the vice was 
 involved are very rarely met with in the record. 
 In one instance (referred to in the minute of March 
 29, 1647), Thomas Small appears, and is sharply 
 rebuked for cursing. It is noticed that this is the 
 first fault with which he has been charged by the 
 session, and as he " promised by God's grace to 
 behave himself more christianly in tyme coming," 
 the session contented themselves with admonishing 
 him. In another case (June 24, 1649), the 
 offender is a woman — " Christian Garlicke " by 
 name, and that name somewhat suggestive of 
 unsavoury breathings. And, as she has been pre- 
 viously admonished, the session order her to be 
 *' publicklie rebuiked, and recomends to the magis- 
 trate to take up the penaltie of the Act of 
 Parliament, and make account thereof to the 
 Sessione." This last clause requires a word of 
 explanation. By the 8th Act of the Scottish Par- 
 liament, holden at Perth in 1645, it was enacted 
 that swearing, drunkenness, and mocking of piety 
 should be dealt with as civil offences ; and by the 
 9th Act of the same Parliament it was provided 
 that magistrates and justices should be appointed in 
 every congregation for the purpose of carrying the 
 
THE STRENGTH OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLINE. 17-5 
 
 Act into effect. This explains the allusion in this 
 and former minutes of session to the civil magis- 
 trate playing his part in certain cases. The 
 General Assembly of 1648 recommended congrega- 
 tions to make use of these Acts, and no doubt there 
 were magistrates and justices appointed to look 
 after these matters in the parish of Dalgety. We 
 are not defending the principle involved in this 
 procedure, we are merely explaining the meaning 
 of the allusion. The streng-th of Christian discipline 
 lies in tender yet faithful dealing with the con- 
 science of the offender, and it is always to be 
 regretted when a court of Christ's Church seems to 
 attach importance to anything inflicted in the way 
 of punishment, as this is ready to take the place of 
 true penitence and its fruits. In an ill-regulated 
 family a hasty word or an angry blow sometimes 
 takes the place of serious rational dealing with an 
 offending child, but this short and easy method 
 is not followed by satisfactory results. And there 
 is an evident analogy between parental discipline 
 and that administered by a Church court. To do 
 Andrew Donaldson justice, however, it must be 
 said that the register of his dealings with offenders 
 shows that his first object was to appeal to con- 
 science, and bring the defaulter to a sense of the 
 wrong he had done, although in this and other 
 instances the arm of the civil magistrate was also 
 appealed to. 
 
176 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 The vice of profane swearing, of which we have 
 been speaking, is the close companion of drunken- 
 ness; and, indeed, the latter vice is the fruitful 
 parent of many more. In dealing with the social 
 and moral condition of the people of Dalgety, this 
 connection did not escape the notice and serious 
 consideration of the kirk-session. For the vice of 
 drunkenness was evidently that which had been pre- 
 valent in the parish during the long night of 
 neglect that had brooded over it. People of all 
 classes seem to have drunk ale in those days. And 
 it is evident from the minutes that so long as those 
 who could afford it did so in strict moderation, 
 Andrew^ Donaldson and his elders had nothing to 
 say against the custom. But it was different when 
 the line that bounds the domain of temperance was 
 transgressed. Then they held that a crime was 
 perpetrated against society, a scandal created in the 
 Church, and a sin committed against God. The 
 extent to which the drinking customs of the time 
 prevailed may be learned from two facts found in 
 the session record. When the Church was cleansed 
 on a particular occasion, among the items of expen- 
 diture was the following : — " Given this day for ail, 
 that they got that cleansed the kirk, 16s." And 
 when worthy Andrew Donaldson got a new pulpit, 
 in 1646, the minutes bear that there was "given 
 to Ritchard Potter his two sones, for drink- money 
 for the pulpite, 80s." Moreover, scenes not of the 
 
AN EARLY TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 177 
 
 most decorous kind had from time to time been 
 witnessed in the house of John Craig, " an aill- 
 seller in Dinnibirsell," which had the effect of 
 calling the attention of the Earl of Murray to them. 
 The earl, it is evident, lived '' in the presence of 
 his people ; " and he did not think it beneath him 
 to be warmly interested in what so intimately 
 concerned their welfare, as the repression of drunk- 
 enness. Being, moreover, an elder of the kirk, we 
 find him calling the attention of the session to the 
 matter in the following way: — 
 
 JuTie 29, 1645. — "This day, the Sessione being met, the 
 Earl off Murray, one off the elders, regrated much the 
 abuse of drunkenness, especiallie in that part off the 
 parish where he lives himself, and desyres that some cair 
 be had for the curbing off it : and withall shew [showed] 
 what he hes done himself, in his own bounds, concerning 
 aill-houses : to wit, that all under him that sell aill are 
 discharged under ane penaltie to sell aill to any till they 
 exceed moderation. The Sessione approves weill of this ; 
 and till they think upone some course for the restraining 
 of this great evill, have appoynted everie heritor and 
 elder in his quarter to do the lyke." 
 
 In this case, as well as others that have come 
 under our notice, the action of the session was 
 followed by most encouraging results. It would 
 be too much to say that the vice was banished from 
 the parish. From time to time instances occur 
 which show that the best legislative measures act 
 
 N 
 
178 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 merely as checks, and not as complete remedies. 
 But that Gospel, which is '' the power of God unto 
 salvation," was being faithfully proclaimed in tlie 
 pulpit of Dalgety, all the while that these wise 
 measures were being devised and carried into action 
 by the kirk-session ; and a blessing went with both. 
 It is noticeable, in connection with cases of drunk- 
 enness which subsequently came before the session, 
 that the parties seem to have gone to Aberdour in 
 pursuit of ale ; and the Ford ell colliers seem to have 
 been the most " thirsty " of all the parishioners of 
 Dalgety, and the most demonstrative when that 
 thirst was slaked with ale. 
 
 The limits we have assigned to these chapters 
 prevent us from entering with much minute- 
 ness of detail into several departments of the 
 domain of discipline, regarding which full infor- 
 mation is to be found in the old session record 
 of Dalgety. Indeed, our sketches do not claim to 
 have any higher merit than belongs to truthful 
 outlines of pastoral work. But this is the less to be 
 regretted as regards the department of discipline, 
 inasmuch as it is just the part of the pastoral work 
 of the Covenanting times which has been so fully 
 delineated in histories of the time, as to be out of 
 all true perspective with other and more important 
 parts of that work. 
 
 We have spoken of the action taken by the 
 
WORK OF THE KIRK-SESSION. 179 
 
 kirk-session in cases of scolding, swearing, and 
 drunkenness ; reference may now be made to cases 
 of Sabbath-breaking. The prosecution of secular 
 callings on Sabbath was a very common form of the 
 profanation of that sacred day for a long time after 
 the Reformation : and the minutes of Church Courts 
 make frequent reference to the going of mills, salt- 
 pans, and other such works. There were no works 
 of this kind in Dalgety, with the exception of the 
 mill of Fordell ; but a few instances of the prose- 
 cution of ordinary secular callings occur. Here, for 
 instance, is a woman who has been found carrying 
 fowls to market on Sabbath : — 
 
 June 28, 1646. — " Compeirs Barbara Stennous in 
 Banxhill, and acknowledges lier breach oflf the Lord's day, 
 in carieing foules. She is ordained to satisfie the next 
 Lord's day, befoir the pulpite." 
 
 The following points to a species of Sabbath 
 desecration on which many would now look with a 
 lenient eye, although it is unquestionably the means 
 of undoing a great deal of the good which the public 
 means of grace are fitted to effect : — • 
 
 September 6, 1646. — " The Sessione considering that 
 the Lord's day is profained in the efternoone by people 
 coming to the towne loanes [lanes] and sitting or standing 
 there, in idle and unprofitable conferences, ordeanes that 
 every elder go throu his quarter and see this curbed : 
 that all keip their families for repetition of sermones, 
 prayer and other spiritual dueties : and that, efter 
 
180 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 admonition, quLoever sail continue in such fruitless 
 exercises and conferences, sail be delated as proplianers 
 of the Lord's day." 
 
 The following extracts refer to a case which must 
 be^held to be very aggravated, considering that the 
 principal actors were office-bearers in the congre- 
 gation, and that the offence was committed on the 
 Lord's-day. The record of the case is also import- 
 ant, as showing the evenhanded justice which was 
 meted out to the offenders ; the mode of dealing 
 being all the more severe because of these aggra- 
 vating circumstances. In all likelihood the quarrel 
 had for its occasion some heated talk about the 
 all-absorbing political movements of the time : — 
 
 October 28, 1650. — "The Sessione considering a scan - 
 dellous rayiotte [riot] acted by James Dewar, Elder, and 
 John Jaraesone, Deacone, who on the last Lord's day, 
 quhen the congregatione was gathering and coming to 
 divyne service at the poarclie door, did fall out ane with 
 another to foull words, and efterwards did fall a streaking 
 [striking] ane another. The Sessione before they medle 
 with it apoynts the minister and ye rewling elder to 
 represent it to the presbitry, and to seek their advyse in 
 that mater. The Sessione appoynts that all these quho 
 had any hand in that late rayiot be tryed out againe 
 [sought out against] the next day." 
 
 The Presbytery, it will immediately be seen, took 
 as grave a view of the offence as the session had 
 done : — 
 
A QUARREL AT THE CHURCH DOOR. 181 
 
 November 3, 1650.— "The raiiiister reporting tlie 
 Presbytrie's judgment off the principall actors off the late 
 rayiott is, that for the present they sail be removed off 
 the Sessioime till they give evidence off a more sober and 
 gracious way off walking in tyme coming, and that they 
 shall satisfie befor the pulpite on their knees, and these 
 that wer any wayes accessorie to stand up and be rebuiked 
 befor the congregatione. The Sessioune apoynts the 
 pai-ties themselfes, because now not p^*i [present], w* others 
 that wer accessorie to that rayiott, to be cited again the 
 next Sessioune day." 
 
 It thus appears that the judgment of the Pres- 
 bytery is to be carried out with a firm but judicious 
 hand. And the last minute which we shall quote 
 shows that even when such an influential person as 
 the laird of Blair is at fault, the session do not 
 hesitate to record their conviction of the blame 
 attaching to him. The peculiarities of spelling in 
 this and a few other minutes about this time sug- 
 gest the explanation that the ordinary session-clerk 
 was from home or laid aside. 
 
 Novemher 11, 1650. — "James Dewar callit upon com- 
 peirs not, is apoynted to be cited lyro secundo. John 
 Jameson compeirs and confesses his scandillous cariage. 
 John Stinstone is callit upone for his accessioune to y^ 
 rayiott, compeirs, goeing about to denay the same is at 
 last convinced. James Danskeine compeii^s and confesses 
 his accessioune y^ to. The sessioune considering y^ laird 
 of Blair's part in that rayiott, esteims him in som degree 
 to be guiltie." 
 
182 PASTORAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 There are a number of instances in the record of 
 people being cited before the session for neglect of 
 ordinances. Two of these cases may be given as 
 specimens of the whole class. The first refers to a 
 man in humble life, who combines with disregard 
 of ordinances very pronounced views regarding the 
 covenants. 
 
 March 22, 164G. — "This day compeirs Robert Chatto, 
 in the mill off Fordell, and is gravelie rebiiiked for not 
 keiping of the Kirk, which fault he promised to amend. 
 Also he is challenged, 1, for speaking against the Cove- 
 nants, al] cadging that the one is directly contrair to the 
 other, and that he wold instruct it : 2, for reproaching tlie 
 directorie, alleadging that its a new-found religion, which 
 he wold not aggrie to : 3, for railing against ministers 
 that did frame and bring in thir things, alleadging that 
 they were a number of condemned ministers, and that it 
 were no fault to hang them up by fourties." 
 
 This minute shows that Robert had not only 
 strong views on the matters in question, and a 
 pithy way of expressing himself, but also consider- 
 able administrative ability, as evinced by his simple 
 and comprehensive method for getting rid of the 
 ministers whose views did not square with his own. 
 But notwithstanding all this, it came out before the 
 session that he had, according to his own showing, 
 been greatly misunderstood, for he denied all the 
 charges laid against him. Unfortunately for him, 
 
k MAN OF STRONG VIEWS. 183 
 
 too, further investigation only increased his diffi- 
 culties; for, as the following minute proves, the 
 session unanimously found him guilty of these 
 charges, although they differed regarding the manner 
 in which he should be dealt with, in the way of 
 " satisfying the congregation," as the phrase went. 
 
 Ajjril 5, 1646. — "The Sessione finding this matter 
 cleared by the witnesses against Robert Chattow, after 
 some debate about Lis censure, resolvis to voyis [decide 
 by vote] whether he shall satisfie publicklie befoir the 
 congregatione, or only be privately admonished, and the 
 judgment of the most parte being onlie private admoni- 
 tione, the minister protests against it and appeales to the 
 presbytrie." 
 
 What the result of this appeal was we have not 
 ascertained. The other culprit with whom the 
 session attempted to deal was no less a personage 
 than Lady Callender, the proprietress of the estate 
 of Dalgety. But the difficulty of the session in her 
 case was akin to that of the mother who, being 
 lectured on the importance of training her children 
 properly, started the preliminary question, '' How 
 she was to catch them ? " 
 
 June 17, 1649. — "The Sessione, considering how 
 scandalous to the Lord's jieople it is my ladie Callender 
 her tarrieing at liome upone the Lord's-day and not com- 
 ing to the Kirk, appoynts the minister and ane elder to 
 goe to her and admonish her." 
 
184 PASTOKAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 The session had evidently stretched a point in 
 sending two of their number to her ladyship, instead 
 of summoning her before them. But some bird of 
 the air had whispered in her ear the news of the 
 intended admonition, and her ladyship found it 
 convenient to cross the Firth before the minister 
 and elder appeared. 
 
 June 24, 1649. — " The minister reported that he went 
 to admonish the ladie Callender, but could not have her, 
 and that now she is removed to the other syde." 
 
 Her ladyship, however, evidently found it incon- 
 venient to stay permanently on " the other side ; " 
 and, after a lapse of four months, we find her at 
 Dalgety House again. So there is another attempt 
 to catch her. 
 
 October 21, 1649. — "My ladie Callender, now in Dai- 
 getie, to be admonished by the minister and the laird off 
 Blair, for not keiping the church." 
 
 This time the minister and elder are more 
 successful, so far as the merely physical capture 
 is concerned; but the interview with her ladyship 
 does not seem to have been either pleasant or pro- 
 fitable, else we should not have had the following 
 minute : — 
 
 October 28, 1649. — "My ladie Callender, being ad- 
 monished for not keiping the Kirk is referred to the 
 Presbyterie." 
 
THE SESSION AND LADY CALLENDER. 185 
 
 The thoiioht seems now to have entered her 
 ladyship's mind that a change of tactics was desir- 
 able ; for we find her proceeding to ornament her 
 loft in the church in a way that gave great offence 
 to the kirk-session. 
 
 Novemher i, 1649. — "The laird of Blair appoynted to 
 goe to my ladie Callender and desire that no novelties he 
 put upone her loft, till the presbytrie be acquainted with 
 it." 
 
 What these " novelties " were appears in a later 
 minute. 
 
 November 18, 1649. — "Appoynts the minister and 
 ruling elder to represent the mater of my ladie Callender's 
 casements, in the foir part off her loft, the idolatrous and 
 superstitious images in the glasse windows, that they may 
 cans take them doune." 
 
 It may interest our readers to know that the lady 
 who figures in the preceding extracts was a daughter 
 of James, seventh Lord Yester. Her first husband 
 was the celebrated Chancellor Seaton, first Earl of 
 Dunfermline, after whose death she became the wife 
 of the Earl of Callender. Her first husband, the 
 Chancellor, gave evidence of a decided leaning 
 towards Popery; and his treatment of the ministers 
 who were present at the General Assembly, held at 
 Aberdeen in 1605, showed that he was willing to 
 sacrifice the liberty of the Church to please the 
 
186 PASTOEAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 King. He also gave no little trouble to the Synod 
 of Fife by the painted crucifix on his desk in the 
 Abbey Church of Dunfermline ; and that, too, at a 
 time when Episcopacy was in the ascendant. For 
 it stands on record in the minutes of the Synod that, 
 in the judgment of "the Rycht Reverend Father in 
 God, George, Archbishop of St. Androis, and brethren 
 of the ministrie within the boundis," the matter 
 " wes found to have giffen gryt ofFens to the haill 
 countrey, and that the causer, as also the paynter 
 of that idolatrous monument, and the minister foir- 
 said [Mr. Andrew Forrester] have highlie offendit." 
 If this was the way in which the Archbishop of St. 
 Andrews and the brethren of his diocese reg^arded 
 the matter of a painted crucifix on Chancellor 
 Seaton's desk in the Abbey Church of Dunfermline, 
 in the year 1612, no wonder that Andrew Donald- 
 son and the members of his kirk -session were scan- 
 dalised by the '' images in the glasse windows " of 
 Lady Callender's loft in the little old-fashioned 
 church of Dalgety. The Chancellor now sleeps 
 lowly enough in the vault of that old church. 
 There, too, lies Lady Callender; and beside them 
 sleeps their son, Charles, the second Earl of Dun- 
 fermline, who proved such a warm friend to Andrew 
 Donaldson, when days of suffering came round, as 
 we shall erelong see. 
 
 One or two instances may be given of the way 
 in which the kirk-session brouo^ht about the recon- 
 
RECONCILIATIONS IN ABERDOUR. 187 
 
 ciliation of those who had been living in a state of 
 alienation or enmity. Efforts of this kind were 
 generally made previous to the ministration of the 
 Lord's Supper. In the neighbouring parish of 
 Aberdour the minister and elders pursued this laud- 
 able course too ; but they were not very particular 
 as to the means they employed. A good many of 
 the reconciliations effected there took place over a 
 pot of ale ! From time to time two or more elders 
 were appointed to see quarrelsome neighbours "drink 
 and shake hands," as the process was called. To 
 the credit of Dalgety it has to be said that, in the 
 reconciliations brought about by means of the session 
 there, there is notatraceof this most uncanonicalmode 
 of procedure. But, indeed, the whole tone of affairs 
 in Dalgety, during the ministry of Andrew Donald- 
 son, is infinitely higher than we find in any portion 
 of the session records of Aberdour in the olden time. 
 The following is the first instance of reconciliation 
 by means of the kirk-session of which we have 
 made any note : — 
 
 May 31, 1646. — "The Sessione having considered the 
 mater betwixt John Cuninghame and Janet Blyth, and 
 examined witnesses, finds that Janet Blyth has cursed 
 the said John and his wyff in a vile, unchristian, and 
 scandalous manner; therefor appoynts the said Janet 
 publicklie to satisfie the next Setterday, being the day of 
 preparatione before the communione, and John Cuning- 
 hame's wyff is put to private humiliatione befor the 
 
188 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 Sessione, becaiis nothing is cleared [proved] against her 
 but that once or twice, before the minister's adraissione, 
 she caused knock beir [made barley be thrashed] on the 
 Lord's day. And the said parties are ordeined to be 
 reconciled one to another before the comunione." 
 
 It will not have escaped the notice of our readers 
 that, in addition to a case of reconciliation, we have 
 in this minute a glimpse of the way in which the 
 Sabbath was observed by some persons before Andrew 
 Donaldson became minister of Dalgety. The follow- 
 ing is another instance of reconciliation through the 
 instrumentality of the session : — 
 
 January 2'^, 1648. — "The beddel is ordeaned to cite 
 Margaret Dewar, in Ottirstoune, and Christen Brown, in 
 Clinkhill, for Hyting when they were going home from 
 the kirke." 
 
 January 30, 1648. — "This day compeired Margaret 
 Dewar and is gravely rebuiked for her fault, and John 
 Stainhouse and William Loggan desyred to agrie her and 
 the said Christen Browne." 
 
 Sometimes, however, when the olive-wand was 
 held out by one of the belligerent parties it was 
 rejected by the other. The following is a case in 
 point : — 
 
 June 11, 1648. — "John Clerk and Helene Scot ap- 
 poynted to be cited for refuising reconciliatione with their 
 neighbours, before the comunione, and therefor suspending 
 themselves." 
 
RECONCILIATIONS IN DALGETY. 189 
 
 July 2, 1G48. — '' Compeired John Clerk and his wife, 
 Helene Scot, and confesses that when the elder in the 
 quarter came to them and desired them to be reconciled 
 with John Dycks and his wife, they refuised, becaus they 
 had receaved wrong at the hands of the said persons." 
 
 July 9, 1648. — " Witnesses examined concerning the 
 alleadged wrong John Clerk and his wife have suffered by 
 John Dycks and his wife. The Sessione rebuiks John 
 Dycks and his wife, in private, for some exjiressiones that 
 had escaped them, and appoynts the other two to make 
 public repentance for their slighting of the comunione." 
 
 Minute and trifling as some of these details may 
 appear, they are fitted to show us the efforts of the 
 kirk-session to induce the parishioners to live on 
 friendly terms ; and they prove how assiduous the 
 efforts of these good men were to prevent the great 
 scandal held out to the world, when men and 
 women sit down at the Lord's table with evident 
 hatred in their hearts to one another, and yet call 
 the service communion with one another and with 
 Christ ! 
 
 We do not give quotations from the session 
 record in reference to sins of unchastity. Cases of 
 this kind are not uncommon in the early part of the 
 record ; but after Andrew Donaldson's labours have 
 had time to tell, their infrequency would contrast 
 very favourably with the condition of many agricul- 
 tural parishes in our o\vn day. One thing is very 
 noticeable in regard to this class of offences, and 
 
190 PASTOEAL WORK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 others of a kindred nature : that while the session 
 look chiefly to the preaching of the Gospel as a 
 counteractive, they are very diligent in removing 
 temptation from the parishioners' way. We have 
 seen how they acted in reference to ale-houses; and 
 instances might he adduced to show that they who 
 encouraged drinking to excess, as well as those who 
 exceeded the bounds of temperance, were dealt with. 
 So, too, in regard to the particular class of offences 
 to which we now refer, great care is shown in 
 looking after women of doubtful character in the 
 parish. 
 
 With another single remark, we bring this 
 chapter to a close. It is greatly to be regretted 
 that any means but those of a moral kind were 
 ever used by the Church in dealing with delin- 
 quents. No doubt all the modes of punishment 
 referred to in the minutes of these early days — 
 appearance before the pulpit, the juggs, the branks, 
 the stocks, the sack-gown, &c. &c. — came down 
 from Popish times ; and they were as zealously 
 resorted to in the Episcopalian as in the Presby- 
 terian periods of Scottish Church history. But they 
 stood in the way of that faithful yet kind dealing 
 with the conscience in which true Christian dis- 
 cipline consists, and which the Scottish Reformers 
 urged from the very beginning of their great work. 
 These great men, with Knox towering head and 
 shoulders above them all, from the first grasped the 
 
NATURE OF TRUE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLINE. 191 
 
 true idea of discipline as well as most other depart- 
 ments of Church action ; and the more evangelical 
 in tone the ministers at any period were, the 
 nearer they came to that true ideal : to deal with 
 the person under discipline " so that his conscience 
 may feel how far he hath offended God, and what 
 slander [scandal] he hath raised in the Kirk." 
 
192 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 iittolbing Sitprstitbn. 
 
 NY account of the pastoral work of the 
 Covenanting times would be manifestly 
 incomplete did it not take notice of cases 
 involving superstition which were dealt with by the 
 kirk-sessions of the period; and the old kirk-session 
 record of Dalgety supplies us with materials for 
 such a notice. 
 
 A long, interesting, and not unprofitable chapter 
 of Church history might be written on the supersti- 
 tions that from time to time have appeared in the 
 Church, and the manner in which they have been 
 dealt with by her courts ; and while this would 
 bring out the fact that a good deal of credulity 
 existed in the minds of the ecclesiastics of different 
 periods, it would also reveal, what has often been 
 studiously concealed, that this credulity existed in 
 as great a degree, if not a still greater, in the 
 minds of the community at large. Our space will 
 allow us to give only a few notices of the supersti- 
 tions existing in the parish of Dalgety at the time 
 with which these sketches deal. 
 
SUPERSTITIOUS TIMES AND CUSTOMS. 193 
 
 They who have looked into the question of the 
 superstitions which brooded over Europe during the 
 Middle Ages will have no difficulty in tracing them 
 to the gross ignorance of that dreary period. And 
 the superstitions that throw their dark shadows 
 over certain portions of the ecclesiastical records of 
 the Scottish Church during the seventeenth century 
 are, we think, fairly chargeable against the Popish 
 system, which for so many previous centuries kept 
 the inhabitants of our country in such deep ignor- 
 ance. It is often apparently forgotten how short a 
 period elapsed between the Reformation in Scotland 
 and the beginning of the seventeenth century. It 
 was a period of only forty years. In that short 
 time, considering the density of the ignorance that 
 characterised the great mass of the Scottish nation, 
 and taking into account the small number of the 
 ministers of the Reformed faith, not much could 
 be achieved in the way of instructing and elevating 
 the people. The process of degradation is always 
 an easy one ; the work of elevation is tardy and 
 beset with difficulties. We have, however, only to 
 place the most thoroughly Protestant countries of 
 the world side by side with the most slavishly 
 Popish, in order to see that the diffusion of Pro- 
 testant light is the surest antidote to superstition. 
 
 Some idea of the prevailing superstitions of the 
 first half of the seventeenth century may be 
 gathered from the following extracts from the 
 
 o 
 
194 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 minutes of the Synod of Fife. In an Act of the 
 Presbytery of St. Andrews, of date March 14, 
 1641, which was adopted by the Synod and made 
 binding on the whole province of Fife, the words 
 occur : — 
 
 " Likewayes, that all these that superstitiouslie carries 
 the dead about the kirk before buriall, as also the burieing 
 of unbaptized bairnes apart, be taken notice of, and that 
 the practiseris thereof be censured by the Sessioun." 
 
 The following has reference to bonfires kindled 
 on superstitious nights : — 
 
 A2yril 4, 1648. — " Concerning the kindhng of bonfyres 
 upoun superstitious nightis, viz., Midsomer and Alhal- 
 lowmes, the Assemblie ordaines, that the severall Pres- 
 bytries tak exact notice of abuses in that kynd within 
 ther boundis ; and that the severall heretouris, and in 
 ther absence the principall tenentis, with the concurrance 
 of the elderis in cache paroche, cairfullie observe delin- 
 quentis, that they may be censured according to the acts 
 of the Kirk." 
 
 The next extract calls attention to another form 
 of superstition still. We know not whether St. 
 Theriot's Well, at Fordell, was one of those re- 
 ferred to ; but from many notices which exist of 
 the fame that belonged to St. Fillan's Well, at 
 Aberdour, we cannot doubt that it was in the view 
 of the Synod. 
 
WITCHCEAFT. 195 
 
 Aprils, 1649.— "The AssembKe, being informit that 
 some went superstitioiislie to wellis denoininat from 
 Saintis, ordains Presbytries to tak notice tbairof, and to 
 censiu-e these that are guiltie of that fait." 
 
 The only other minute of the Synod which we 
 shall quote has manifest reference to the parish of 
 Dalgety and the burial of one of Andrew Donald- 
 son's elders in the chapel of St. Theriot, at Fordell; 
 but whether the superstition consisted in carrying 
 the dead body round the church in the direction 
 of the sun, from east to west by south, which was 
 an old Pagan custom, we cannot with certainty 
 affirm : — 
 
 A2)ril 3, 1650.—" The Presbitrie of Dunfermline, bein^^ 
 removit for censure, are appro ven. And becaus some 
 informatioun was given to the Synode anent some super- 
 stitious rites in the buriall of the Laird of Fordell, the 
 Presbitrie of Dunfermline are ordinit to inquyre thair- 
 anent." 
 
 But the most remarkable of the superstitions of 
 the seventeenth century was what went by the 
 name of witchcraft. We have, after a careful 
 examination of the whole subject, seen nothing to 
 induce the belief that what went by this name was 
 anything but a compound of wickedness and credu- 
 lity; wickedness on the part of those who professed 
 to have dealings with the Wicked One, and credulity 
 on the part of those who were duped by designing 
 
1 9 6 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 men and women into the belief that they wielded 
 supernatural power. It must be admitted, however, 
 that the wickedness which manifested itself in con- 
 nection with the profession of witchcraft was of no 
 ordinary kind. For any one even to seek to have 
 dealings with the "Wicked One in such a way as to 
 transfer allegiance from the Most High to him is 
 .surely one of the deepest and most daring crimes 
 that can be committed; and that many who suffered 
 for witchcraft in the seventeenth century were guilty 
 of this crime their own confessions amply prove. 
 Indeed, cases are recorded in which the convicted 
 persons were proved to have written with their own 
 blood an agreement by which they resigned them- 
 selves into the hands of Satan. And if those who 
 acted in this and similar ways were guilty of fearful 
 sin, they who consult^ed such persons evidently aided 
 and abetted them in their wickedness. Moreover, 
 as the crime thus committed amounted to idolatry 
 in one of its most horrible forms, we need not 
 wonder that, in an age when it was considered the 
 duty of the civil magistrate to punish idolatry with 
 death, the opinion prevailed that convicted wizards 
 and witches should be capitally punished. We do 
 not, of course, vindicate this opinion, although we 
 believe that the profession of witchcraft is a crime 
 that should be punished in some way or other by 
 the civil magistrate. To take no higher ground, to 
 begin with, the crime in one of its ordinary aspects 
 
A PEESBTTERIAN MATERIALIST. 197 
 
 amounts to fraud, in the form of raising money on 
 false pretences; and it may fairly be questioned 
 whether the laws which treat blasphemy as a crime 
 in the eye of the civil magistrate do not apply to 
 professing witchcraft as well. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the men of the seven- 
 teenth century who proceeded with such rigour 
 against witchcraft were not without somethino- to 
 say for themselves. They erred, we think, in con- 
 sidering that the witchcraft of their time had 
 anything supernatural in it, and they erred in 
 proceeding to such extremes in the mode of punish- 
 ment ; but these were mistakes which were shared 
 in by men of all ranks and all classes at that time. 
 Kings, Lords, and Commons, statesmen and ecclesi- 
 astics, all agreed in thinking that there was some- 
 thing supernatural in the witchcraft that prevailed. 
 King James had written a treatise against the crime, 
 the legislators of the country enacted rigorous laws 
 against it, and ecclesiastics of different schools alike 
 busied themselves in examining offenders; for it 
 cannot be truly said that Episcopalians differed from 
 Presbyterians in their estimate of the crime. The 
 examination and burning of witches went on during 
 the ascendancy of Episcopacy with unabated activity. 
 
 The year 1649 was one of great excitement in 
 the parishes of Aberdour, Dalgety, and Inverkeith- 
 ing, owing to the prevalence of witchcraft. Mr. 
 Robert Bruce, the minister of Aberdour, seems to 
 
198 PASTOEAL WOKK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 have gone very thoroughly into the business of witch- 
 finding ; not merely in the early part of his ministry, 
 when he was a Presbyterian, but also at a later 
 period, when he conformed to Episcopacy. But 
 even his fame in this heroic department of work is 
 eclipsed'by that of Mr. Walter Bruce, the minister 
 of Inverkeithing. His career, as it is described in 
 the ecclesiastical records of the time, does not begin 
 very auspiciously ; for the first glimpse of him that 
 we get reveals him seated in the midst of a com- 
 mittee of Synod, who have met at Dalgety to con- 
 sider a sermon of a very extraordinary nature which 
 he had lately preached, and in which he was reported 
 to have said ''that the spirit of godliness in thir 
 tymes was ane salt humour arising fra the melt 
 [the spleen], trubling the stomack and ascending to 
 the head, whilk maid a cracking of the brain " — a 
 view which we commend to the notice of Dr. Tyndall 
 and the materialists of our time. The Synod found 
 it necessary, likewise, to call the attention of the 
 Presbytery of Dunfermline to ''some sca,ndalous 
 reportis of the said Mr. Walter, as one that uses 
 swearing." But no doubt this, too, was capable of 
 being explained as in some way or other due to a 
 change in the relative position of the atoms com- 
 posing the spleen. The advanced views of Mr. 
 Walter Bruce did not, however, render him imper- 
 vious to the superstition of the period ; indeed, his 
 chief distinction is associated with his efforts as a 
 
A CONFESSING WARLOCK. 199 
 
 successful witch-finder; and the sad tragedy of the 
 lady of Pittadro, a sister of Sir John Henderson, of 
 Fordell, as recorded in Sir Walter Scott's " Tales of 
 a Grandfather/' is associated with his exploits in 
 that line. ^ 
 
 The following is the first notice of witchcraft that 
 occurs in the kirk-session record of Dalgety : — 
 
 April 22, 1649. — "The sessione hearing that one 
 Kobert Maxwell, put from the communione for ignorance, 
 hes beene confessing some things that looks like witch- 
 craft, appoynts him to be examined by the minister and 
 four elders." 
 
 Then, a week later, we have the report of this 
 examination : — 
 
 April 29, 1649.— "The minister reports that, Rob*- 
 Maxwell having confessed witchcraft and paction with 
 the Devill, he hes the last Presbytrie day read the 
 depositions to the Presbytrie, and is appoynted to use 
 means to procure ane comissione off estaits, to some 
 gentlemen, for the further try all and judging off the said 
 Robert." 
 
 Our readers will not fail to notice the ignorance 
 of the accused man, as indicated in the first of 
 these minutes, and the fact that it was his own 
 statements that drew attention to his crime. It is 
 evident, too, that the depositions which Maxwell 
 made in the presence of the minister and elders 
 were carefully written in order to prevent mistakes, 
 ^ Vide Appendix I. 
 
200 PASTOEAL WOKK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 and that the report is made to the Presbytery first, 
 because that court met ere the ordinary meeting of 
 session was held. But the most striking thing of 
 all is the readiness of the culprit to confess his 
 guilt, leaving the impression on the mind that there 
 was a backbone of honesty in him, which but for 
 his deplorable ignorance might have led to a 
 different development of character. The statement 
 that the minister was appointed to take steps to 
 procure a commission for the further trial of this 
 unhappy man also requires a few words of explana- 
 tion. The way in which persons suspected of 
 witchcraft were tried was this. A commission was 
 appointed by the Privy Council to take evidence in 
 the case, and pronounce judgment. This commis- 
 sion was generally composed of gentlemen residing 
 in the neighbourhood. Evidence was carefully led 
 before this judicatory, the judges having, according 
 to the usage of the time, the power of torture, if 
 they saw fit to use it. This torture, in ordinary 
 cases, consisted in the free use of the '' brodder's," 
 needles, for the purpose of discovering " the devil's 
 mark " — a place insensitive to pain. In other 
 instances, however, and more especially when the 
 accused j)ei'sons were of the male sex, instruments 
 of a more trying nature were employed. The 
 " boots " were used for severe pressure on the legs ; 
 the " caspieclaws " for wedging the arms in a 
 painful manner ; and the " pilniewinks," a species 
 
ACCUSATIONS OF WITCHCRAFT. 201 
 
 of thumbscrew, produced the most excruciatmg 
 torture when applied to the fingers. One cannot 
 help feeling indignant at the thought of such 
 barbarities employed, even in the case of those 
 who had laid themselves open to the suspicion of 
 being imiDlicated in the crime of witchcraft. And 
 the last scene, in the case of those who were con- 
 demned to death by the commission, was almost 
 too revolting to bear description. The wretched 
 creatures were first strangled on a gibbet, around 
 the foot of which were piled heather, turf, wood, 
 and sometimes coals and gimpowder ; and then the 
 pile was fired and their bodies burned to ashes. 
 
 It is only incidentally that we learn from the 
 minutes that Robert Maxwell adhered to his con- 
 fession before the commission appointed to try him ; 
 that he gave the names of several persons who had 
 been present with him at meetings at which the 
 Evil One was invoked ; and that, even at the 
 stake, he avowed that what he had thus said was 
 the truth. 
 
 One of the persons accused by Kobert Maxwell 
 with his dying breath of complicity in the practices 
 of witchcraft was Isobel Kelloch, the wife of 
 Archibald Collier, in Dalgety. She had also been 
 similarly accused by the witches who were burned 
 at Aberdour. And along with her we find Isobel 
 Scogian, Margaret Orrock, and Isobel Bennet, occu- 
 pying the attention of the kirk-session : — 
 
202 PASTORAL WOEK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 June ?>, 1649. — '' Compeirs Issobell Scogian and con- 
 fesses that, having had ane sore and vehement paine in 
 her held since Lambes [Lammas] that [when] Issobell 
 Kelloch, spous to Archibald Colzier, did borrow ane 
 courche [a covering for the head] from her, she ofi* late, 
 since the said Issobell Kelloch wes blotted for [accused of 
 being] ane witch, did goe unto her and sought health; 
 W^upone Issobell Kelloch desired her to forgive her, and 
 sate doune iipone her knees and said thryse oure, Lord, 
 send the thy health ; after which she confessed she was 
 much eased. The Sessione resolves to lay by this for a 
 tyme, till the said Issobell Kelloch be tryed, and in the 
 meantime the Presbytrie's advice to be sought concerning 
 the censure off the said Issobell Scogian." 
 
 It is an odd mixture of incidents that we have 
 presented to ns in this minute. Isobel Scogian's 
 headache was doubtless a case of neuralgia, or 
 something of that kind, and had no more to do 
 with witchcraft and the borrowed " courche " than 
 the building of Tenterden steeple had to do with 
 the uprising of the Goodwin Sands. Yet Isobel 
 Kelloch countenances the idea that the pain was 
 caused by her influence, for she asks Scogian to 
 forgive her. These admissions form a singular 
 element in such cases, and can only be accounted 
 for on the supposition that the person accused of 
 witchcraft wished for selfish purposes to be con- 
 sidered in possession of supernatural power. It was 
 at a terrible risk, however, that such pretensions 
 
MOTIVES FOE WITCHCRAFT. 203 
 
 were avowed, as further notices of Isobel Keiloch 
 show : — 
 
 June^, 1649. — "This day the Sessione mett and taking 
 to consideratione that Issobell Keiloch, spons to Archibald 
 Colzier in Daigetie, hes bene this mony years under ane 
 evill report for witchcraft, and that now she hes been 
 delated by Eob* Maxwell, late "Warlock, he avowing in 
 her face and condescending upon tymes and places when 
 he hes sene her at meetings with the devill, and going to 
 death with it; as also consia^5»mg that she is blotted 
 laitlie by other witches that have beine execut in Aber- 
 dour, and that sundrie malisones are lykelie to be proven 
 against her, do recomend it to my ladie Callender, lyfrent- 
 rix off Daigetie, and William Lithell her officer, to cause 
 put her in firmance that she may be tryed and brought to 
 confessione." 
 
 As the result of the examination of a great many 
 cases of reputed witchcraft, we are thoroughly con- 
 vinced that these night-meetings were held for 
 immoral purposes ; and if to this we add the 
 influence that persons accused of witchcraft wielded 
 over ignorant and credulous neighbours, we get a 
 good idea of the nature of the crime. Another 
 minute is all that is needed to tell the termination 
 of Isobel Kelloch's career : — 
 
 June 17, 1649. — "The Sessione appoynts ane com- 
 i^sione to be procured for the further tryall and judging 
 of Issobell Keiloch, confessing witch, since the Presbytrie 
 hes seine her confessions, and have found them such as 
 
204 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 may bring lier to aiie assysse; and becaus she is ane pure 
 bodie the charges to be taken out off the boxe, as the 
 hidie Callender, on whose ground she lives, refuses to 
 bear them.'^ 
 
 The outstanding fact in this minute is that Isobel 
 Kelloch confesses her witchcraft ere the commission 
 to try her is obtained ; and, therefore, her confession 
 cannot be said to have been obtained by means of 
 torture. The last minute of all relating to her 
 has a lurid light resting on it, and there is a grim 
 significance in its details : — 
 
 July 1, 1649. — "Given out off the boxe for Issobell 
 Kelloch's charges, in procuring ane comissione for her 
 tryall, and in things that concerned her burning, 24 lib. 
 4s. 4d." 
 
 Perhaps some of our readers would like to know 
 how a Scottisb case of witchcraft looked in the 
 enlightened eyes of an Englishman of the period. 
 If so, we can gratify their curiosity ; for about 
 this time there was an Englishman residing at 
 Donibristle, as a servant to the Earl of Murray. 
 Richard Pickston, to whom we refer, seems to have 
 been rather of an inquiring turn of mind ; for the 
 first notice we have of him shows that he has 
 managed to find his way into the prison, with the 
 view of ascertaining whether one of the confessing 
 witches would resile from anything she had said 
 
AN INQUIKING ENGLISHMAN. 205 
 
 when admitting her guilt. But Richard does not 
 seem to have made much by this experiment, for 
 we speedily find him before the session, getting a 
 rebuke for entering the prison without permission. 
 From this exploit some may be ready to suppose 
 that Richard was a man in advance of his time, and 
 quite above the vulgar belief in witchcraft. On 
 that point the old record has something to say. 
 For soon after his surreptitious visit to the prison 
 we find him bearing witness in the case of Isabel 
 Glen. And he gravely tells the session that he 
 had, some time before this, bought a cow from 
 Isabel's husband; and that as his wife was milking 
 the said cow, a few days after she was brought 
 home, in an instant the animal fell down dead, 
 without being known to be under the influence of 
 any disease. The inference he wished to be drawn 
 from these premises was, that Isabel Glen had be- 
 witched the cow. And this was made all the more 
 plausible by Richard's wife corroborating the state- 
 ment, and hinting that some of the neighbours had 
 said that Isabel was not well pleased that they 
 should have got the cow. 
 
 Such is a fair sample of the silly stories that 
 were related in evidence against accused witches. 
 Had it not been that the persons accused confessed 
 their guilt in seeking to have dealings wdth the 
 Wicked One, and were at times rather vain at being 
 thought invested with supernatural power, there 
 
206 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 would have been fewer imprisonments and fewer 
 burnings for the crime. And, with all the boasted 
 progress of the present time, perhaps in a century 
 or two others will look back with as great surprise 
 on the table-turnings and spiritualistic professions 
 of this age, as we do on the witchcraft of the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
WORK OF THE KIRK-SESSION. 207 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Work of ilj^ pirk-^^ssion, in €mtB sprirtging 
 Dxxi oi iht S^routrks 0f tlje ^xmL 
 
 }E have already referred to a class of cases 
 brought before the kirk-sessions of the 
 Covenanting times, which we would now 
 consider beyond the domain of sessional interference, 
 involving as they do questions merely of Church 
 and State politics. And yet, were we to pass these 
 cases by in silence, we should not only fail to give a 
 truthful view of the pastoral work of those early 
 days, but we should lose many interesting glimpses 
 of the way in which stirring public events affected 
 domestic life, and brought personal character more 
 fully into display. We shall therefore glean a few 
 such cases from the kirk-session record of Dalgety, 
 giving an occasional glance at the adjoining parish 
 of Aberdour, when that seems necessary, in order 
 to get a clearer view of the way in which public 
 events told on domestic life. And we need hardly 
 say that it can only be by the slenderest thread of 
 narrative that these cases are strung together in a 
 single chapter of such limited dimensions as this. 
 
208 PASTORAL WORK Ix\ THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 It must suffice to say, by way of introduction to 
 these cases, that the state of Scotland at the time 
 when they begin to appear on the pages of the 
 session record was very disturbed indeed. Charles 
 the First had determined to punish Scotland for the 
 burst of patriotism which so nobly signalised 1638 
 — the year of the famous National Covenant. He 
 accordingly crossed the Border, in warlike array, 
 the following year; but, finding his northern sub- 
 jects too w^ll prepared to meet him at Dunse Law, 
 he entered into treaty with them, and turned south- 
 wards again. Still cherishing a hostile purpose, 
 however, he returned the following year ; and the 
 Scottish army, advancing to meet him, gained the 
 victory over his forces at Newburn. Charles's 
 tyranny and wrong-headed policy soon placed him 
 between two fires — the Scottish nation on the one 
 hand, and his own Parliament on the other — and 
 both of these opponents were bent on fighting to 
 the last, rather than surrender the constitutional 
 freedom that had been bequeathed to them. Neither 
 of them trusted the king; and as their interests 
 seemed identical, they entered in 1643 into a 
 Solemn League and Covenant to resist Popery and 
 Prelacy, and secure to themselves civil and religious 
 liberty. Henceforth the two armies were combined, 
 and Scottish as well as English arms won the victory 
 at Marston-Moor. The maintenance of a large army 
 in England was a severe drain on the resources of 
 
STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 209 
 
 Scotland ; and there are some notices in the old 
 record of the money raised, under the name of 
 ''excise," for this purpose. A still more trying- 
 period, however, Avas at hand. Montrose, having 
 deserted the cause of the Covenant, gathered an 
 army around him, determined to do what he could 
 to destroy his country's liberty, and set Charles 
 down on an absolute throne in spite of his subjects. 
 We notice only those movements of Montrose which 
 connect themselves with the minutes of session to 
 which we are t^ refer. On his first appearance 
 at the head of his Highlanders and other rough 
 followers on his way to Perth, he seems to have 
 caused much alarm in the county of Fife. On 
 15th December of that year (1644), there is a 
 notice in the minutes of an expedition to Kinross, 
 on account of which nothing is done in the kirk- 
 session of Dalgety. And it is interesting to find in 
 the kirk-session record of Carnock, under the same 
 date, the following entry : — " We mett not in our 
 Session, for on the Setterday preceiding thair wes 
 suche fear of Montrose in Dunfermlyn that all 
 nisfhbduris wer disturbit." But affairs became still 
 more serious the following year, after the battle of 
 Kilsyth had flushed the Royalists w^ith victory. It 
 was shortly before this event, as we have seen in a 
 previous chapter, that Andrew Donaldson set out 
 for England as chaplain to Lord Dunfermline's 
 regiment, on its way to co-operate with the parlia- 
 
 P 
 
210 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 mentary forces. On leaving his charge he expected 
 that the Presbytery would supply his pulpit in his 
 absence, but on his return, five months afterwards, 
 he found that there had been no preaching in his 
 church during all that time. And one of the 
 reasons assigned for this is, that " immediately after 
 his removall the enemie came to the bounds, and 
 for ane moneth after that lamentable fight at 
 Kilsyth ministers durst not hazard almost to keip a 
 presbitrie or come abroad." A lamentable fight it 
 certainly was, seeing that between four and five 
 thousand were left on the field of battle, many of 
 the Fife soldiers among the rest. 
 
 All who are acquainted with the history of the 
 period now under review know something of the 
 famous Engagement that was entered into with 
 King Charles at Carisbrooke in 1647. It was an 
 arrangement by which the King was to be restored 
 to power, without any effectual guarantee that the 
 constitutional rights of Church and State should be 
 respected. The chief leaders in this movement, 
 which entailed on those who entered into it the 
 obligation to support the King with an army 
 against his subjects in England, were the Duke of 
 Hamilton, the Earl of Lanark, his brother, Lord 
 Chancellor Loudoun, and the Earl of Lauderdale. 
 By this movement, and others of a similar kind, the 
 ministers of Aberdour and Dalgety were placed in 
 circumstances peculiarly fitted to try their integrity. 
 
THE '' ENGAGEMENT." 211 
 
 William, Earl of Morton, who lived in Aberdour 
 Castle, was a devoted Royalist, and made great 
 sacrifices for the King. It is computed that, 
 from first to last, he contributed not less than 
 £30,000 to supply the royal exchequer, and he 
 even sold his estate of Dalkeith in order to pro- 
 vide the sinews of war for his royal master. 
 Opposed to the Covenanters as the Earl was, he 
 would no doubt think the Engagers right, in as far 
 as they supported the King, but wrong to the 
 extent that they sought to put any check on his 
 absolute power. The famous Marquis of Argyle, 
 the leading nobleman among the Covenanters, was 
 the son-in-law of William, Earl of Morton, being 
 married to Lady Margaret Douglas, his lordship's 
 daughter. 
 
 The Earl of Murray of the time — James, the 
 fifth Earl — seems to have concerned himself little 
 about public affairs, but his sympathies were more 
 with the Covenanters than any other party. His 
 daughter, as we have seen in another connection, 
 was, at a period a little subsequent to this, married 
 to Archibald, ninth Earl of Argyle. 
 
 Charles, the second Earl of Dunfermline, had 
 entered warmly into the earlier movements of the 
 Covenanters, but gradually veered round to the 
 royalist side. His marriage to Lady Mary Douglas, 
 daughter of William, Earl of Morton, would in all 
 likelihood ally him more closely to the latter party. 
 
212 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 Lord Callender, who had married the widow of 
 the first Earl of Dunfermline, and resided thereafter 
 chiefly at Dalgety, had also sided with the Cove- 
 nanters throughout their earliest struggles ; but, like 
 his stepson, to whom we have just referred, he had 
 come to espouse the interests of the King rather 
 than those of the country. 
 
 These facts show that the ministers of Aberdour 
 and Dalgety were placed in somewhat critical cir- 
 cumstances. And how did they act? Mr. Robert 
 Bruce, of Aberdour, was at first opposed to the 
 Engagement, but, like most of the leading people in 
 the neighbourhood, managed to get gradually round 
 to the royalist side. Andrew Donaldson was from 
 the beginning opposed to the Engagement and the 
 principles it embodied, and he seems never to have 
 wavered from first to last. 
 
 When Seaforth's proclamation was issued, the 
 minister of Dalgety, in accordance with the com- 
 mand of the Commission of General Assembly, read 
 the denunciation of it from the pulpit. Yet Lord 
 Seaforth was closely connected with Lady Callender. 
 
 On June 25, 1648, a paper was read from the 
 pulpit of Dalgety Church, appointing a solemn fast 
 for '' the great backsliding of the land, which now 
 hath come that length as the undertaking of ane 
 wicked and sinful engadgement in warre against 
 the kingdom of England." And yet, at that very 
 time Lord Callender was fighting on the side of the 
 
PRINCIPLE versus POLICY. 213 
 
 Engagement. These facts may to some extent 
 account for Lady Callender's absenting herself from 
 church, and giving the kirk-session a great deal of 
 petty annoyance about seats in the church, and 
 roads leading to it, and other matters of that kind. 
 It must, however, in fairness be said of Lord Gal- 
 lender that he was a brave man : for when Baillie 
 and Hamilton shamefully threw down their arms at 
 the battle of Uttoxeter, the Earl, at the head of a 
 resolute body of men, fought his way through the 
 ranks of the enemy, and he and his followers found 
 their way back to Scotland. 
 
 A few months later we find the Earl of Lanark's 
 followers in the parish, recruiting in favour of the 
 Engagement : — 
 
 October 8, 1648. — "No Sessione keepit thir dayes by- 
 gone [since Sept : 10*^], becaus off the troubles by Lanerick 
 and George Monroe's men, that came along from Stirling. 
 The Sessione appoynts that tryall be maid iff any in the 
 congregatione hes complieed with the malignant enemie 
 latelie among them." 
 
 October 12, 1648. — " The elders report that they know 
 none that hes complyed vnth the lait malignant enemie 
 that came from Stirlinoj." 
 
 It thus appears that the ranks of the malignants 
 were not swelled by recruits from the parish of 
 Dalgety. But this fact becomes more apparent 
 from two minutes a little further on : — • 
 
214 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 November 26, 1648. — "Elders appoynted to try in 
 their severall quarters, iff there be any that hes beine 
 comonn souldiers in the late imlawfull engadgment, and 
 bring in their names that they may be cited to satisfie." 
 
 December 3, 1648. — "Elders report that they know 
 none that have beine comoune souldiers in the laite 
 sinfuU engadgment, becaus the most part did give 
 money es to comanders, for men." 
 
 These extracts clearly show that while, in point 
 of fact, the men of Dalgety contributed money in 
 room of personal service, yet if any of them had 
 been found fighting on the side of the Engagement 
 they would have been called on to '^ satisfie." What 
 kind of satisfaction was rendered we probably dis- 
 cover in connection with the case of John Cuik, the 
 gunner at Aberdour, who was " ordained by the 
 Presbytery to stand at the Kirk door, in sackcloth, 
 between the first and third bells, for four severall 
 Sabbaths — and all this for his being on the late 
 unlawful engagement, and his bloodie carriage to 
 noblemen and ministers." Arrayed in this garb, 
 John would not look particularly warlike ; but 
 it is doubtful whether this enforced public exhi- 
 bition of himself would mollify his temper or 
 convince him of any wrong he had done. We 
 think it probable that he still looked daggers at 
 such noblemen and ministers as came within 
 eyeshot. 
 
 The times looked very threatening to the Cove- 
 
RENEWING THE COVENANT. 215 
 
 nantiug cause, and there was a general renewing 
 of the Solemn League and Covenant in the congre- 
 gations throughout the land, in 1648. We have 
 an account of the way in which this work was gone 
 about in the church of Dalgety : — 
 
 December 17, 1648. — "The covenant this day renewed 
 and sworne by the whole congregatione, according to the 
 order prescribed, y^anent, and subscrived by the minister 
 and Kirk-sessione, some heretors and others, in face of the 
 congregatione. The rest appoynted to meit the nixt 
 Friday, at the lecture, for subscribing off it. Its seriouslie 
 recoroended to the elders, to try if there be any that have 
 absented themselves, or refuise to renew the Solemn league 
 and covenant.'^ 
 
 Among those who were found not to have sub- 
 scribed were Lord Doune and his brother, two sons 
 of the Earl of Murray, and the minister was appointed 
 to inquire into the reason of this. The following is 
 his report : — 
 
 January 14, 1649. — " The minister reports that he lies 
 spoken w^ my Lord Doune and his brother, and with the 
 Earle of Murray and my ladie, and that they did declare 
 that the reasone why they did not suffer their children to 
 take the Covenant, wes their yongness, and that quhen 
 they were more rype they suld most giadlie doe it. The 
 sessione leaves the further consideratione of this for a 
 time, till they be more clear what to doe in such a caise," 
 
210 PASTORAL WOEK IX THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 The reason urged by the Earl and Countess 
 seems to have been a good one ; but evidently many 
 as young as Lord Doune and his brother had sub- 
 scribed the Covenant, else inquiry would not have 
 been made into the matter. It may also be most 
 certainly inferred that the Earl and his lady did 
 subscribe the Covenant. 
 
 Here is a notice of another delinquent : — 
 
 January 21, 1649. — '* Compeirs James Peacocke and 
 declaris that his going to Innerkeithing the day qulien the 
 covenant was renewed, wes not out of contempt or any 
 dissafection to the covenant, but because his wife did live 
 there, he went to sie her, and that he did take the cove- 
 nant there with the rest, and he was ready to subscribe 
 quhen we did call him. Which declaration the elder off 
 the quarter seconds : nevertheless, because many wes 
 offended at his running away that day to another kirk, 
 he's appoynted to renew the foirs^ declaratione befoir the 
 congregatione. " 
 
 There is a peculiar interest connected with the 
 following minute, inasmuch as the first of the two 
 young men referred to — afterwards Sir William 
 Henderson, of Fordell — married Helen Donaldson, 
 the daughter of the minister of Dalgety : — 
 
 A'pril 30, 1640. — "William Hendersone and James, 
 sons to the laird of Fordell, liaving testified befor the 
 congregatione, according to the Act of the Grcnerall 
 Assemblie, their sorow for their going on in that unlaw- 
 
THE BATTLE OF INVERKEITHING. 217 
 
 full infradfrment, and having- tsvvoren the covenant befor the 
 congregatione, does now efter sermon subscrive it." 
 
 The Enixasfement to which these minutes refer 
 not only proved injurious to the interests of the 
 King, but it was the cause of incalculable misery to 
 Scotland. There can be no doubt that many of 
 the sufferers at the battle of Dunbar belonged to 
 the parishes adjoining Dalgety, if few of them resided 
 in it. The close of the year 1650 was a period of 
 intense anxiety throughout the whole neighbourhood. 
 Charles the Second had come to Scotland to be 
 crowned, and Cromwell was speedily reducing the 
 whole country under his power. There are many 
 tempting materials in the session record of Aberdour 
 that might induce us to linger over the period, but 
 we must forbear. We hasten to notice the way in 
 which the battle of Inverkeithing affected the parish 
 of Dalgety. There is a blank in the minutes from 
 4th May, 1651, till 14th September of that year. 
 And our readers will sympathise with us when we 
 tell them that among the booty taken by Cromwell's 
 soldiers wxre the minutes of kirk-session for the 
 space of four months. What the better of them 
 their captors could be one can hardly imagine ! 
 But here is the record of the sad fact, with the 
 notice of losses of a more grossly material kind : — 
 
 Septembe7' 14, 1651. — " The minutes since that last date 
 lost at the break ?X Inverkeithing, and by reasone off the 
 
218 PASTOEAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 insolencie and plunder off the enemie. Its declared by 
 the deacones that kept the box that the englishes did 
 breake up the box and take away the money ; only some 
 licht money that wes not in the box is yet to the fore." 
 
 But the work of plundering was not entirely 
 confined to " the Englishes." James Peacock, in 
 Lethem — whom we lately saw running away to 
 Inverkeithing to see his wife on the day when the 
 Covenant was renewed — espied an opportunity of 
 doing a stroke of business on his own account, when 
 he saw that a great many of the parishioners had 
 fled for fear of the English. He evidently thought 
 that his predatory operations would be set down to 
 the credit of Cromwell's troops. And so he walked 
 deliberately into James Paterson's house and helped 
 himself to a quantity of oatmeal. But, quietly as 
 the meal had been abstracted, James Peacock came 
 to grief by means of it. Somebody had seen the 
 one-sided transaction, and whispered it in the ear 
 of the session ; and the next notice we have of 
 James reveals him in the act of confessing the theft 
 and making ample acknowledgment of his guilt, 
 before the congregation. Nor was the plundering 
 confined to the male portion of the parishioners of 
 Dalgety. Janet Wilson and Isobel Williamson were 
 seized with the love of appropriation ; and they, 
 too, were called to account for their thcftuous pro- 
 pensities. Moreover, Alexander Brown had been 
 seriously suspected of exercising his ingenuity in the 
 
THE PARISH BELL STOLEN. 219 
 
 higher department of sheep-stealing ! Some of the 
 inhabitants of Dalgety, it would thus appear, were 
 not quite up to the mark, even under Andrew 
 Donaldson's care. But the removal, for a time, of 
 prudential restraints would make some strange 
 revelations, even in our own day. 
 
 We must not forget to mention that among other 
 things appropriated by Cromwell's soldiers was the 
 hand-bell of the parish of Dalgety — no doubt that 
 with which Saunders Thomson, the beddell, intimated 
 deaths and invited to funerals. When this import- 
 ant capture was made, we doubt not Saunders 
 thought he would never handle his bell again. But 
 strange things happen in this world. More than 
 half a year afterwards the session heard that their 
 veritable hand-bell was in the hands of certain per- 
 sons in Kirkliston ; thither, accordingly, the beddell 
 was despatched to recover the lost treasure, and he 
 was allowed 24s. for his expenses. Our readers 
 will at once see that the importance of the subject 
 demands a full historical notice ; and they will be 
 relieved to hear that at a subsequent meeting of 
 session the beddell declares " he has brought back 
 the hand-bell, as he wes appointed ; and that he 
 behoved to give for it half ane croune, which is paid 
 back to him out of the box." 
 
 The prisoners taken at the battle of Inverkeith- 
 ing seem to have been carried into England. There 
 are several notices of collections made both in Aber- 
 
220 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 dour and Dalgety for their behoof; and in one 
 instance they are referred to as the "prisoners at 
 Tynemouth Castle." It appears from some inci- 
 dental notices that Cromwell left a garrison at 
 Aberdour ; and the session record of that parish 
 relates that an English soldier having presented 
 himself, desiring marriage with a young woman 
 belonging to Aberdour, the grave question was 
 started whether such a thing was lawful. The 
 minister was instructed to get the advice of the 
 Presbytery on a matter of such importance. And 
 the Presbytery's advice was, that " he marie not 
 the Englishman, by reasone of the unlawfulnesse of 
 their invasione." But, with all respect for the 
 wisdom of the Presbytery, it does seem rather un- 
 reasonable to punish a common soldier for Cromwell's 
 invasion, seeing his opinion regarding that move- 
 ment would never be asked. 
 
 A single incident more and we have done. At 
 the battle of Worcester, in 1651, there were several 
 Aberdour men fighting on the side of royalty. 
 Among others were John Keverence, Robert Cusing, 
 and William Alexander. A sad episode, which reveals 
 the case of many a poor soldier wounded in battle 
 is preserved in the session record regarding these 
 men. In the engagement, Reverence was hit by a 
 musket-ball, which pierced his right shoulder. He 
 had also a wound on his left shoulder and on his 
 back. Cusing was near him when he fell ; and. 
 
THE BATTLE OF WORCESTER. 221 
 
 lifting his comrade tenderly, he carried him some 
 distance and laid him on a heap of hay. Thoughts 
 of home came into the mind of the dying man ; 
 and he told Cusing to go and bring his wife to him, 
 for '' he thought she would never more see him 
 alive." Alexander, too, kept near his wounded 
 companion; but neither he nor Cusing saw him 
 die ; for they were taken prisoners and carried off 
 to a neighbouring church. Cusing and Alexander 
 returned to Aberdour; but poor Reverence was one 
 of "the unreturning brave!" It is a few hundreds 
 or thousands of such cases that are held to make a 
 glorious victory. 
 
222 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 
 TATE interference has, from first to last, 
 been the bane of the Scottish Church. 
 Of this we have had many illustrations 
 in former chapters. But the most signal illustra- 
 tion of the fact remains to be given. 
 
 After Middleton and Sharp had done what they 
 could to pave the way for the introduction of 
 Episcopacy into Scotland, Charles the Second took 
 advantage of the ultra-royalist character of the Parlia- 
 ment of 1661 to adojit violent measures to suppress 
 Puritanism in England and the Covenanting cause 
 in Scotland. 
 
 In the month of September of that year he 
 addressed a letter to the Privy Council in Scotland, 
 giving the royal command that Episcopacy should 
 be established in the room of Prcsbyterianism. On 
 the first day of the following month, by an Act of 
 Council passed at Glasgow, all ministers who had 
 entered their charges subsequent to 1649 were 
 ordered to procure new presentations, and to present 
 
ESTABLISHMENT OF EPISCOPACY. 223 
 
 themselves to the prelates to receive collation and ad- 
 mission to their charges : and obedience to this order 
 was commanded on pain of banishment from their 
 houses, parishes, and Presbyteries. The last Sabbath 
 of October, 16G2, was a sad day in many a parish 
 in Scotland ; for there were about four hundred 
 ministers who felt they could not conscientiously do 
 what this Act demanded of them : and, choosing 
 rather to suffer than to sin, they gave up their 
 earthl}^ all and bade farewell to their flocks on 
 that day. Andrew Donaldson and some others had 
 been ordained prior to 1649; and so, for a time, 
 they escaped. But it was not intended that they 
 should long enjoy this immunit}^ They were com- 
 manded to regulate public worship in accordance 
 with the orders contained in the Act of Council : 
 which it was well known they were not likely to do. 
 And in the following year another Act was issued, 
 ordaining that all ministers who ventured to preach 
 without the sanction of the bishops should be 
 punished as persons guilty of sedition; and that 
 every one who absented himself from public worship 
 should be subjected to pains and penalties. This 
 Act was fitly called The BislioiDs' drag-net. As 
 might have been expected, Andrew Donaldson 
 refused to comply with the provisions of this Act. 
 And Avhat were the consequences ? We find him 
 and various other ministers in the diocese of Dunkeld 
 cited by the Privy Council to appear before them, 
 
224 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 to answer to the charge of continuiDg at their former 
 places of residence, and ministering in their churches, 
 " still labouring to keep the hearts of the people 
 from the present government of Church and State 
 by their pernicious doctrine." At this juncture, the 
 Earl of Dunfermline proved a friend in need. He 
 was warmly attached to Andrew Donaldson, both as 
 his friend and his minister. In the stern fighting 
 times of 1645, the minister of Dalgety had accom- 
 panied him with his regiment into England. More- 
 over, as one of the lords of Privy Council, Lord 
 Dunfermline had a good deal of influence at Court, 
 which he showed himself willing to use in favour of 
 his minister. It happened, however, that in 1664 
 the Earl was called to London; and the bishop of 
 Dunkeld, in whose diocese Dalgety was situated, 
 urged on by Archbishop Sharp, took steps to deprive 
 Andrew Donaldson of his charge. A letter was 
 written to him, charging him to attend the meetings 
 of Presbytery, and thus to acknowledge the new 
 order of things, under pain of suspension from the 
 ministry. This he declined to do; and in the 
 month of October he received an intimation from 
 the bishop, to the effect that he had been, in the 
 name of Christ (!), deposed from the ministry be- 
 cause of his contumacy, and threatening him with 
 the severest punishment if he ventured to perform 
 any of the functions of a minister of the Gospel, 
 either at Dalgety or anywhere else in Scotland. 
 
ANDEEW DONALDSON DEPOSED. 225 
 
 It is curious to notice how the opposition of 
 Prelacy to the influence of the laity in ecclesiastical 
 matters carue out at this time. In 1662 the bishop 
 of Dunkeld wrote to Mr. Eobert Bruce, of Aberdour, 
 who had conformed to Episcopacy, asking him to dis- 
 charge his session, and select five or six godly men to 
 assist him in upholding the fabric of the Church, pro- 
 viding for the poor, and censuring vice and ungodli- 
 ness. But these men, of course, were to have no voice 
 in any Church Court, whether inferior or superior. 
 
 Soon after this. Sharp sent a party of soldiers to 
 eject Andrew Donaldson from his charge. It was 
 on a Sabbath that they made their appearance at 
 Dalgety, and the minister got permission to preach 
 a farewell sermon to his people, only on condition 
 that he should immediately demit his charge. And 
 now a singular game was played, which shows the 
 influence and wily policy of Sharp. The Earl of 
 Dunfermline got notice of what had happened ; and, 
 being in London, he obtained a warrant from the King, 
 reponing Andrew Donaldson in his charge for life. 
 It was, we may well believe, with an air of triumph 
 that the Earl showed this warrant to Archbishop 
 Sharp, and even upbraided him for taking advantage 
 of his absence, to deprive him of a minister whom 
 he valued so highly. ' Sharp professed great regard 
 for the Earl, and admitted that the King's warrant 
 must needs be obeyed ; but he besought his lordship 
 to do nothing in the matter for three weeks, till he 
 
 Q 
 
226 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 got some provision made for Mr. Corsar, the young 
 man who had meanwhile been settled as minister of 
 Dalgety. And ere the three weeks had elapsed he 
 succeeded in getting another warrant under the 
 King's hand, prohibiting any minister who had been 
 expelled from his charge from returning to it again. 
 Thus the statesman was outwitted by the ecclesiastic. 
 We can easily conceive what the Earl's feelings were 
 when he discovered that he was thus checkmated. 
 But there was no help for it. Andrew Donaldson's 
 fate was sealed beyond the power of his generous 
 benefactor to avert it. It behoved him now to be 
 a wanderer, and a sufferer for his principles ; and 
 so, leaving his manse, which, as we have seen, had 
 been built at such cost to himself, and had now 
 been hallowed by the associations of well-nigh twenty 
 years, he went with his family to reside in Inver- 
 keithing. It is recorded of him that for nearly two 
 years after his removal to Inverkeithing he con- 
 tinued to preach with considerable success at the 
 house of a gentleman in the neighbourhood. Whose 
 house was this ? We think we may reply, with 
 considerable confidence, that it was the house of 
 Henderson of Fordell. We have already seen the 
 close official connection that existed between Andrew 
 Donaldson and that family. And it is an interesting 
 fact, to which we have already alluded, that Helen 
 Donaldson, the daughter of the minister of Dalgety, 
 subsequently became the wife of Sir William Hen- 
 
PUT TO THE HORN." 227 
 
 derson. It was her second marriage, her first husband 
 having been Mr. Charles Mackie, chamberlain to 
 Sir Charles Halket, of Pitfirran.^ 
 
 But we must follow Andrew Donaldson into 
 sterner scenes. His efforts to obey the Scripture 
 injunction, to be " instant in season and out of 
 season " in the work of an ambassador for Christ, 
 attracted the attention of his enemies. We have 
 said that with his family he was now residing in 
 Inverkeithing ; and for a considerable time he was 
 actively employed preaching, not merely in private 
 houses, but at conventicles, or field-meetings. For 
 these offences he, along with several others, was 
 summoned before the Lords of Privy Council, in 
 July, 1674. Failing to obey the citation, he was 
 "put to the horn," in other words, denounced as a 
 rebel; and two years later, on August 5, 1676, he 
 was intercommuned. When this sentence was passed 
 on any one, even his nearest relatives were prohibited, 
 under severe penalties, from extending a friendly 
 hand to him, or ministering in any way to his need 
 or comfort. When speaking of the barbarous 
 sentence of intercommuning, Sir Walter Scott, who 
 will not be suspected of undue leanings to the Cove- 
 nanters, declares that it seems as if Satan himself 
 had suggested to the men who were at that time 
 in power such a mode of oppression and cruelty.^ 
 
 ^ MS. Inventory of Writs belonging to the Fordell family. 
 2 Fide Appendix II. 
 
228 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 After the passing of this sentence, it might almost 
 be said that it was at the peril of his life that 
 Andrew Donaldson was seen by his enemies. For 
 matters were speedily approaching the point reached 
 in 1685, when, by the eighth Act of Parliament of 
 that year, it was regarded as a crime worthy of 
 death for the persecuted Presbyterian ministers to 
 preach in private houses. It would be interesting 
 to trace some of the wanderings of the outlawed 
 minister, and to notice some of the conventicles 
 which he attended ; among the rest, one held in his 
 old parish of Dalgety. But on these themes we 
 may not dwell. 
 
 It will not be a cause of wonder to our readers, 
 that a yearning for home sometimes seized the 
 heart of the persecuted minister. Love is a 
 stronger emotion than fear : and he ventured to 
 visit his family ; nay, he so far forgot himself as 
 to be guilty of the great offence of preaching the 
 Gospel to a few friends who had gathered together in 
 his house on a Sabbath evening. For this unpard- 
 onable crime, a party of soldiers was sent to apprehend 
 him ; and he was carried from his bed to Linlithgow 
 prison, where he lay for more than a year. 
 
 We must not pass over in utter silence the 
 sufferings of his parishioners on his account. His 
 love for his flock, from whom he was unwillingly 
 separated, had often drawn him, as by an irresistible 
 charm, to Dalgety ; and there are hints of meetings 
 
ANDREW DONALDSON IN PRISON. 229 
 
 with his much-loved parishioners, and of suti'erings 
 thereby incurred, during these years of wandering 
 and sorrow. It would have been strange, after the 
 long period of Andrew Donaldson's earnest and dis- 
 interested labours, had it not been so. But some- 
 thing more than dim hints are necessary to show 
 that the parishioners of Dalgety had not forgotten 
 their minister's devoted services, and were not 
 unwilling to share his sufferings. Bent on lifting 
 the veil that covered such an interesting part of 
 Andrew Donaldson's history — if that Avere possible 
 — we resolved on making a careful examination of 
 the Decreet Books of the Sheriff Court at Cupar. 
 There, we thought, we should surely find the 
 names of the parishioners of Dalgety who were 
 fellow-sufferers with their minister. But through 
 some unfair means — we cannot think it an accident 
 — the Decreet Books of that black period are no 
 longer to be found. We were about to give up the 
 search in despair, when the thought occurred to us 
 that Wodrow, when writing his history of the Suffer- 
 ings of the Church, might have got an extract from 
 these books containing the names we were so eagerly 
 in quest of. It was a slender thread to hang a hope 
 upon ; but it proved sufficient. Wodrow had been 
 dead for well-nigh 130 years; but tbe MSS. he left 
 were examined, the extract was found, and the names 
 were recovered. 
 
 And what a tale is told by these names, and the 
 
230 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 fines imposed on the parishioners of Dalgety who 
 proved faithful to their persecuted minister ! When 
 Andrew Donaldson was wandering from place to 
 place, homeless and in want, it would have been 
 strange indeed if the sentence of intercommuning 
 pronounced against him — which made it a crime 
 for the nearest relative on earth to minister to his 
 wants, to open a friendly door to him, to give him a 
 crust of bread or a cup of cold water, or point him 
 to a couch where he might lay down his weary head 
 and get one night's unbroken slumber — it would 
 have been strange if that tyrannical sentence had at 
 the same time shut the hearts of his former flock 
 against him, or steeled them so far as to make it 
 possible for them to refuse him entrance to their 
 homes, where his voice had often been heard in 
 seasons of affliction and times of mental distress. 
 The Gospel binds the hearts of minister and people 
 together with a bond that tyrants cannot break. 
 Fines and sufferings were looming in the distance, 
 but their old minister was in want and at their 
 door, and they let him in, committing the con- 
 sequences to God. There were no fewer than 
 twenty- three families in the parish of Dalgety who 
 were heavily fined for the part they thus took in 
 obeying God rather than man. Seven families were 
 fined in £300 each for what were termed disorderly 
 baptisms — the plain English of which is, that they 
 got tlieir children baptised by Andrew Donaldson, 
 
PARISHIONERS OF DALGETY FINED. 231 
 
 or some other minister whom they deemed faithful, 
 and not by the Episcopal ministers who successively 
 filled his place in the charge. The names of the 
 heads of these seven families are : — James Stain- 
 hous and Isobel Mackie, his spouse, in Clinkhill; 
 Robert Russell, in the Dubbs, and Janet Lillie, 
 his spouse ; James Small, in Clinkhill, and Janet 
 Flucker, his spouse ; Edward Caustoune, at Fordell 
 Mill; Adam Peacock, in Clinkhill, and Margaret 
 Mudie, his spouse ; Andrew Fairley, in Clinkhill, 
 and Elspeth Hendersone, his spouse ; John Rox- 
 burgh, Clinkhill, and Janet Williamsone, his 
 spouse. 
 
 Robert Adamson, Clinkhill, and Elspeth Mitchell 
 were fined in £300 for a disorderly marriage — that 
 is, for being married by Andrew Donaldson, or some 
 other ejected minister. 
 
 The same extract bears that the following persons 
 w^ere fined in the sums set over against their names 
 for house-conventicles — that is, for worshipping God 
 in their own houses along with some of their neigh- 
 bours ; or, as we would now say, for holding prayer- 
 meetino's in their own homes, at which Andrew 
 Donaldson or some other ejected minister preached 
 the word of life : — James Henderson, in Drum- 
 henrie, for himself and family, £300 ; John Colline, 
 in Clinkhill, £300 ; David Miller, there, £300 ; 
 Margaret Bruce, relict of Robert Moubray, of Cock- 
 airnie, £600 ; Henry Henderson, in Clinkhill, 
 
232 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 £300; Margaret Mitchell, in Drumhenrie, £300 ; 
 Robert Russell, weaver, in Dubbs, £300 ; Andrew 
 Danskin, tenant in Leucbat, £300 ; Robert Cun- 
 ningham, tenant, in Letham, £600 ; Robert Hen- 
 derson, tenant there, £600 ; Robert Cunningham, 
 tenant, in Little Ford ell, and Anderson, his 
 
 mother, £600 
 Leuchat, £300 
 
 Archibald Mitchell, gardener, in 
 Janet Anderson, in Barnhill, £300 ; 
 Robert Danskein, in Leuchat, £300; William Cun- 
 ningham, for his man Adam Paton, in Otterston, 
 £300.^ Thus there was a sum of £8400 Scots 
 exacted in the shape of fines from twenty-three 
 families in the parish of Dalgety ; and if to this we 
 add the sum of £1200, in which Alexander Spittal, 
 of Leuchat, was fined by Middleton's Parliament, 
 we shall see that no less a sum than £9600 was 
 extracted by tyranny from that one parish. Who 
 can estimate the amount of suffering represented by 
 that sum ! 
 
 It may interest some of our readers to know that 
 Margaret Bruce, referred to in the above list, was 
 the daughter of George Bruce, of Kinnesswood, and 
 the widow of Robert Moubray, of Cockairnie, who 
 was the eldest son of John Moubray, the staunch 
 friend and constant coadjutor of Andrew Donaldson. 
 It is evident from this long list of willing sufferers 
 in the cause of Christ's crown and covenant, that 
 Andrew Donaldson's labours and example had told 
 ^ Vide Appendix IIT. 
 
''THE INDULGENCE." 233 
 
 powerfully on the minds of his people, and that he 
 had won a very high place in their affections. 
 
 After the defeat at Both well Bridge, Andrew 
 Donaldson and other imprisoned ministers were set 
 at liberty. And taking into account all his wander- 
 ings and his long imprisonment, it is not perhaps 
 to be much wondered at that he accepted the in- 
 dulgence which was now being conceded on certain 
 conditions to many ministers to preach in their old 
 parishes. In answer to the petition of the heritors 
 and parishioners of Dalgety, this liberty was granted 
 to him on the 18th of December, 1679, the usual 
 bond being given by the petitioners that he should 
 not officiate beyond the bounds of the parish. Nine 
 years after this, came round, in God's good provi- 
 dence, the Revolution, which set the Prince of 
 Orange on the throne where tyi^ants had so long 
 sat, and placed the country once more under the 
 protection of law. Andrew Donaldson still sur- 
 vived, and was soon afterwards restored to his 
 rightful position as minister of the parish, and his 
 family once more dwelt in the old manse. 
 
 There were, however, many changes in his family 
 since the time when he left the old home. Helen 
 Hamilton, whom we saw led as a bride to the 
 manse in the summer of 1648, was now dead ; and 
 Beatrix Chalmers had become the minister's second 
 wife. All we know of his first wife's family is, 
 that she had a son named Alexander, who was 
 
284 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 baptised in 1649. Beatrix Chalmers was tbe 
 mother of three children — a son, named Andrew; 
 Helen, who became Lady Henderson; and Beatrix, 
 who became the wife of Mr. Alexander Stedman, 
 minister at Beath. 
 
 Andrew Donaldson was an old man when he 
 found himself once more the minister of Dalgety ; 
 and no doubt his health was enfeebled by the many 
 liardships he underwent during the persecuting 
 times. But for nearly seven years after the 
 Revolution he lived in the midst of his old and 
 attached flock, from the midst of whom many "■ old 
 familiar faces " had disappeared. His last years 
 were rendered more feeble still by paralysis ; but, 
 as Mr. Charters, of Inverkeithing, has testified, 
 " his heavenly and spiritual temper of soul re- 
 mained," He had the consolation of knowing that 
 he had fought a good fight, that he had finished his 
 course and kept the faith, and that henceforth 
 there was laid up for him a crown of righteousness, 
 which the Lord, the righteous^ Judge, would give 
 him at that day. That crown he now wears, with 
 the assurance that no persecutor can disturb him 
 in the enjoyment of it. He has left behind him a 
 name as a good man and a faithful pastor, which, 
 after the lapse of two centuries, deserves to be well 
 known, and an example which ministers of the 
 present day might do well to imitate. The parish 
 for whose good he laboured so faithfully and so 
 
THE COURSE FINISHED. 235 
 
 long has (will it be believed ?) forgotten even where 
 his dust rests; for no stone, however humble, marks 
 the spot. But there is One who has not forgotten 
 where His servant's ashes lie. The secret will be 
 revealed on the resurrection morning, if not till 
 then; and from that little churchyard, where so 
 many generations are reposing so soundly, he shall 
 rise, and his spiritual children shall rise with him; 
 and so shall they ever be with the Lord ! 
 
236 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 L Vide p. 199. 
 
 " The first of these instances regards a woman of rank, 
 much superior to those who w^ere usually accused of this 
 imaginary crime. She was sister of Sir John Henderson 
 of Fordel, and wife to the laird of Pittardo [it should be 
 Pittadro], in Fife. Notwithstanding her honourable 
 birth and connexions, this unfortunate matron was, in the 
 year 1649, imprisoned in the common jail of Edinburgh, 
 from the month of July till the middle of the month of 
 December, when she was found dead, with every symptom 
 of poison. Undoubtedly, the infamy of the charge, and 
 the sense that it must destroy her character, and disgrace 
 her family, was the cause which instigated her to commit 
 suicide." — " Tales of a Grandfather," chap, xlvii. 
 
 Although the lady referred to in the above extract 
 was a sister of Sir John Henderson of Fordell, one of 
 Andrew Donaldson's elders, she was not a j^a-rishioner of 
 Dalgety, but of Inverkeithing — Pittadro being situated 
 in the latter parish. The Kirk-Session Record of Inver- 
 keithing, if it goes so far back as 1649, should throw 
 
APPENDIX. ' 237 
 
 some light on the sad story of the lady of Pittadro. 
 Chambers, in his "Domestic Annals" (vol. ii., p. 186), 
 has given ns a few additional facts bearing on the case ; 
 but they only increase our desire to know the whole 
 history of it. 
 
 II. Vide p. 227. 
 
 " As if Satan himself had suggested means of oppres- 
 sion, Lauderdale raked up out of oblivion the old and 
 barbarous laws which had been adopted in the fiercest 
 times, and directed them against the Nonconformists, 
 especially those who attended the field conventicles. One 
 of those laws inflicted the highest penalties upon persons 
 who were intercommuned, as it was called — that is, out- 
 lawed by legal sentence. The nearest relations were 
 prohibited from assisting each other — the wife the husband, 
 the brother the brother, and the parent the son — if the 
 sufferers had been intercommuned. The Government of 
 this cruel time applied these ancient and barbarous 
 statutes to the outlawed Presbyterians of the period, and 
 thus drove them altogether from human society. In 
 danger, want, and necessity, the inhabitants of the wilder- 
 ness, and expelled from civil intercourse, it is no wonder 
 that we find many of these wanderers avowing principles 
 and doctrines hostile to the Government which 023pressed 
 them, and carrying their resistance beyond the bounds of 
 mere self-defence." — "Tales of a Grandfather," chap. 1. 
 
288 PASTORAL WORK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 Sir Walter, who in some of his works first caricatured, 
 and then ridiculed, the principles and actings of the 
 Covenanters, could not help expressing indignation at the 
 persecutions heaped upon them ; and, in connection with 
 the foregoing extract, he quotes the following lines from 
 Grahame, the bard of " The Sabbath," himself an Epis- 
 copal minister : — 
 
 " But years more gloomy followed : and no more 
 The assembled people dared, in face of day. 
 To worship God, or even at the dead 
 Of night, save when the wintry storm raged fierce, 
 And thunder-peals compelled the men of blood 
 To couch within their dens : then dauntlessly 
 The scatter'd few would meet, in some deep dell 
 By rocks o'er-canopied, to hear the voice, 
 Their faithful pastor's voice : he by the gleam 
 Of sheeted lightning oped the sacred book, 
 And words of comfort spake : over their souls 
 His accents soothing came." 
 
 TIL Vide p. 232. 
 
 In addition to the certified extract from which these 
 facts are drawn, there lies among the Wodrow MSS., in 
 the Advocates' Library, the identical letter which the 
 bishop of Dunkeld sent to Andrew Donaldson, intimating 
 his deposition. It is given, as follows, by Wodrow : — 
 
APPENDIX. 239 
 
 *' Sir, — These five Synods past, your brethren of the 
 Synod of Dunkeld have waited upon your presence to 
 have concurred with them in all ministerial duties that 
 relate to discipline, according to the strict Acts of Parlia- 
 ment and Council enjoining the same, and the Acts of 
 your Synod requii'ing your presence, and enjoining your 
 keeping of session, Presbytery, and Synod. Notwith- 
 standing, you have still seditiously contemned the laws 
 of the State, in not keeping your Synod, though you 
 knew the ordinary diets as well as others : and against 
 the law and practice of the Church, and your peaceable 
 brethren, has still schismatically divided yourself from 
 your brethren, in session, Presbytery, and Synod : and 
 well considering their own patience and slowness to pro- 
 ceed against you, having formerly suspended you, and 
 yet unwilling even to intimate that, causing it only come 
 to your ear, hoping that their kindly forbearance should 
 in end gain your submission to an union with them ; yet 
 still meeting with nothing from you but obstinate and 
 ungrate continuance in your seditious and schismatic 
 way, they unanimously, at the last meeting of the Synod, 
 bolden at Dunkeld, the 4th day of October, 1664, did 
 think and vote you worthy of deposition from your min- 
 isterial function. Likeas, I did in the name, and by the 
 authority of Jesus Christ, and in the name, and with the 
 consent of all my brethren, actually at that time depose 
 you : which I now do declare, you Mr. Andrew Donald- 
 son, sometime minister at Dalgety, deposed from all 
 
240 PASTORAL WOEK IN THE COVENANTING TIMES. 
 
 charge, not only there, but from all the parts of ministerial 
 function within any diocese, or the Kirk of Scotland : 
 assuring you, if you shall insist on that charge, either at 
 Dalgety, or elsewhere, after you shall be acquaint with 
 this sentence, that immediately, with the consent of my 
 Synod, we will proceed against you with the highest 
 censures of this Kirk. In verification of all the premises, 
 I have subscribed them, and sent them express to you for 
 your warning, that you may not pretend ignorance, but 
 may yield obedience, and not contravene. Perth, 10th 
 October, 1664. George Dunkeld." 
 
 {History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, 
 vol. i. p. 409.) 
 
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