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THE SCOTTISH SANCTUARY 
 
 AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 
 
“Those who are for no changes, and those who befriend all changes 
 are equally unreasonable and anti-scriptural in their conduct.”— 
 
 David King, LL.D 
 
 S C5 * 1151 ^ 
 
THE 
 
 SCOTTISH SANCTUARY 
 
 AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS 
 
 RECENT CHANGES IN THE PUBLIC WORSHIP 
 OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES 
 IN SCOTLAND 
 
 i:y the 
 
 REV. ANDREW DUNCAN 
 
 SENIOR MINISTER OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION, 
 MIDCALDEK 
 
 k ... 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 ANDREW ELLIOT, 17 PRINCES STREET 
 
“ Qu6d si tarn Grsecis novitas invisa fuisset, 
 
 Quam nobis, quid nunc esset vetus?”— 
 
 Horat., Ep. lib. ii. i. 
 
 “ Reperiuntur ingenia alia in admirationem antiquitatis, alia in amorem et am- 
 plexum novitatis eflfusa: pauca v’erb ejus temperamenti sunt ut modum tenere 
 possunt, quin ut qua recte posita .sunt ab antiquis convellant, aut ea contemnant 
 qu® recte aliferuntur a novis.”^— Bacon, Nov. Org. lib. i. 56. 
 
 I 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 J N the following pages an account is given of some of 
 the changes that have taken place, more or less 
 recently, in the mode of conducting the services of 
 Public Worship in the Presbyterian Churches, especially 
 in one of the Dissenting Presbyterian Churches, of Scot¬ 
 land, Use has been made to some extent of a volume 
 published a few years ago, which contained historical 
 notices of the United Presbyterian Congregation of 
 which the Author is the senior minister. Some of those 
 who have read that book may also peruse this; but the 
 Author does not apprehend any complaint on their part, 
 as it will be found that, where the same topics are 
 adverted to, the illustration has been varied, and very 
 considerably enlarged, and the greater part of this work 
 is new. 
 
 “ Public worship,” says Vinet, “ comprehends, accord¬ 
 ing to the usual mode of regarding it, all that occupies 
 the time during which a congregation is assembled in the 
 name of God,” thus including instruction as well as devo¬ 
 tion. It is in this wide sense that the phrase is used in 
 the title. 
 
VI 
 
 FI? J? FACE. 
 
 In an Appendix I have noticed a practice, now fallen 
 into desuetude, which in past times was considered an 
 indispensable part of pastoral work; and have adverted 
 to some particulars in which improvement is happily 
 exhibited in the important matter of behaviour in the 
 house of God. 
 
E R K A T A. 
 
 Page vii. 1. 14,/or “Preparing,” read “ Prefacing.” 
 
 Pageviii. ]. 7 from foot,/or “Constitution,” read “Contribution.” 
 Page 188, 2nd Col., 1. 9, for “ History," read “Victory.” 
 
 Page 188, 2nd Col., 1. 10, fw “vigorous,” read “rigorous.” 
 
 Page 191, 1st Col. 1. 8,/or “ tune,” read “time.” 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Praise, or The Service of Song, 
 
 Materials of Praise, .... 
 'J'he Psalms, . .... 
 
 The Paraphrases, .... 
 Plymn Books, ..... 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 Praise, or The Service of Song— continued — 
 Precentor and Choir, .... 
 Psalm Tunes, ..... 
 The Reading of the Line, 
 
 Attitude in Praise, .... 
 Preparing the Psalm, .... 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Praise, or The Service of Song— continued — 
 Instrumental Music, .... 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Reading of the Word, 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Prayer, .... 
 Forms of Prayer, 
 
 Length of Prayers, 
 
 Prayer of Invocation, . 
 
 Attitude in Prayer, 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Preaching, 
 
 The Lecture, 
 
 Texts of Sermons, 
 
 Methods of Sermons, . 
 
 Quotation of Scripture, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 viil 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 r REAC I NG—contimied— 
 
 Length of Discourses, . . . . . S3 
 
 Preaching of Old Sermons, .... 90 
 
 The Reading of Sermons, .... 94 
 
 CHAPTER VHI. 
 
 Preaching— continued — 
 
 Cantillation, . . . . . .101 
 
 Preaching to the Young, . . . .102 
 
 Students’ Preaching, . . . . .104 
 
 Clerical Costume, . . . . .106 
 
 Note on Sabbath Schools, . . . 108 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Dispensation of the Sacraments, 
 
 Baptism, . . . . . .110 
 
 The Lord’s Supper, . . . . .115 
 
 Note on Communion for the Sick, . . 136 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Covenanting, . . . • . .130 
 
 I ./, CHAPTER XL 
 
 Pecuniary Constitution, .... 14S 
 
 CHAPTER XH. 
 
 Discipline, ...... 156 
 
 CONCLUSION,. .163 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 1 . Pastoral Visitation and Examinations, . 167 
 
 II. Behaviour in Church, . . . .175 
 
CHAPTER L 
 
 PRAISE, OR THE SERVICE OE SONG. 
 
 pRAISE, as an act or exercise of religious worship, pos¬ 
 sesses the character both of adoration and thanks¬ 
 giving. It consists in “ extolling ” and “ blessing ” God. 
 It is the devout celebration of His perfections, works, 
 and ways, and the grateful acknowledgment of His 
 mercies. Singing, or the utterance of musical sounds, 
 combined with measured composition in the form of 
 hymns, has been in all ages the principal mode of per¬ 
 forming this exercise, and of thus expressing the senti¬ 
 ments and emotions of genuine piety. The service of 
 song was an important part of the worship of the people 
 of God in ancient times; and it was observed by the 
 early Christians in their public assemblies. During the 
 long period termed “ the dark ages,” the people were 
 debarred from joining in the psalmody, the hymns that 
 were sung being composed in a language unknown to 
 them; but the Reformation in the seventeenth century 
 restored to the people the enjoyment of their right to 
 participate in this primitive and edifying part of public 
 
 A 
 
2 
 
 PRAISE. 
 
 worship.^ It has all along formed a prominent part of 
 the service in the Presbyterian Church of our land. The 
 early Scottish Reformers, while they excluded instru¬ 
 mental music from the churches, paid great attention to 
 the singing. In Knox’s Psalter, arranged for use in the 
 public assembly, the metrical psalms were set to music 
 in harmony of four parts. In subsequent times, how¬ 
 ever, congregational singing came to be of a very inferior 
 character. An indignant writer described the psalmody 
 of Scotland as “ a howling wilderness.” But that of 
 England seems to have been little better. Thomas Mace, 
 in his book on Psalmody, says, “ I shall not blazon 
 it abroad in print how miserably the Prophet David’s 
 Psalms are (as I may say) tortured and tormented, and 
 the service of God dishonoured, made coarse, or ridicu¬ 
 lous thereby. It is sad to hear what whining, tooting, 
 yelling, and screeching there is in many congregations.” ^ 
 In some places of worship still, instead of harmonious 
 music, or “ grave sweet melody,” sounds are heard that 
 are little calculated to excite and promote devotional 
 
 ^ Eadie’s “ Eccl. Cyc.,” Art. Psalmody, “Singing,” as Vinet 
 remarks, “is the art which visibly unites the whole congregation, 
 which assigns to believers an active share in public worship, and in 
 which their liberty is more entire.”—“Pastoral Theology,” Part iii. 
 Sect. I. 
 
 ^ Stanford’s “ Philip Doddridge,” p. 128. In the latter part of 
 last century, John Ryland, on one occasion, having been discoursing 
 on the presence of angels in Christian assemblies, said to the people, 
 when they had sung after sermon, “ I wonder the angels of God do 
 not wrench your necks off,”—a saying certainly very exceptionable, 
 but strongly indicating how bad the singing must have been.—^Jay’s 
 “ Autobiography,” p. 293. 
 
A/A TERIALS OF PRAISE. 
 
 3 
 
 feeling. Much more attention, however, has of late been 
 paid to sacred music; and there is corresponding im¬ 
 provement exhibited in the service of song in the various 
 churches. 
 
 Materials of Praise. 
 
 For the performance of this part of Divine worship, we 
 are furnished with ample materials in the Scriptures. 
 “ The hymns of praise are among the most numerous, 
 sublime, and impressive parts of the sacred devotional 
 writings, supplying materials and models for this most 
 becoming and reasonable service.”’- The Psalms of 
 David, especially, were composed for the use of the 
 Church in public praise under the ancient dispensation 
 of religion ; and they are equally adapted for the use of 
 the Christian Church, since the greater part of them is 
 occupied with the exercises of moral and spiritual 
 worship, which are essentially the same in all ages. It is 
 true that the views and experiences of the saints in Old 
 Testament times were more limited than those of Chris¬ 
 tians are, in consequence of the comparative obscurity, 
 and other disadvantages, that characterised the old 
 economy; but little, if aught, of this difference is dis¬ 
 cernible in the Psalms. The inspired writers of these 
 sacred songs seem to rise above the ancient state of 
 things, and to anticipate the privileges and joys of ‘‘ the 
 age to come 3 ” and it would be well if Christians did not 
 fall short of the high and blessed attainments which they 
 discover. It is obvious, indeed, that many of the Psalms 
 
 1 Pye Smith’s “First Lines,” p. 642. 
 
4 
 
 THE PSALMS. 
 
 were designed especially for the New Testament age; 
 those, for example, that relate to the good things of the 
 promise,—the coming and kingdom of the Messiah, and 
 the blessings that should, as the result of His propitia¬ 
 tory sacrifice, be enjoyed by men of all nations,—which 
 prophetic songs, the predictions having received their 
 fulfilment, can now be sung by the people of God, with 
 the understanding as well as with the heart, in all their 
 plenitude of meaning. The apostle Paul exhorts Chris¬ 
 tians to “ sing to the Lord in psalms, and hymns, and 
 spiritual songs; ” and the reference of these words seems 
 to be to the inspired Psalter, for the second and third of 
 the terms employed, as well as the first, correspond to 
 the titles of the dilferent classes of compositions in the 
 one Book of Psalms. At the same time, it might be pre¬ 
 sumed that if, in primitive times, there were in use other 
 sacred songs, they would be designated by the names 
 applied to those in the ancient Psalter; and, while there 
 is no precept in the New Testament restricting us to the 
 use of the Psalms, there are some passages—such as 
 those in the Book of the Revelation, that recite the 
 praises of the Christian Church—which may evidently 
 seem to lead to a more extended practice, or to authorise 
 the use of sacred songs of human composition that are 
 based on the language of Scripture, or suggested by it, 
 and imbued with sound evangelical sentiment. 
 
 The Psalms. 
 
 The oldest version of the Psalms in English metre is 
 that of Sternhold and Hopkins, the former of whom. 
 
THE PSALMS. 
 
 S 
 
 groom of the robes to Henry VIII. and Edward VI., 
 versified fifty-one of the Psalms, and the latter, a minister 
 in Suffolk, with the assistance of several other pens, com¬ 
 pleted what Sternhold had begun.^ This version gradu¬ 
 ally got into use throughout the Church of England, and 
 continued to be used until displaced by the present re¬ 
 vised version in the beginning of the eighteenth cen¬ 
 tury. “ It has been said,” says M‘Crie, “ that there was 
 a Scottish version of the Psalms at a very early period. 
 It is more certain that before the year 1546, a number of 
 the Psalms were translated in metre ; for George Wishart 
 sang one of them in the house of Ormiston, on the 
 night on which he was apprehended. (Knox’s History, 
 p. 49.) The two lines quoted by Knox answer to the 
 beginning of the second stanza of the 51st Psalm, in¬ 
 serted in Scottish Poems of the sixteenth century. They 
 were commonly sung in the Assemblies of the Protestants 
 in the year 1556.” ‘‘This version was not completed; 
 
 and at the establishment of the Reformation, it was sup¬ 
 planted in the churches by the version begun by Stern- 
 hold and Hopkins, and finished by the English exiles at 
 Geneva. While, however, the great body of the work 
 
 ^ In an able article in the British and Foreign Evangelical Review, 
 Oct. 1870, it is shown that “ to Calvin belongs the honour of being 
 the first man at whose instance the whole Book of Psalms was ever 
 rendered into the metre of any living language, for the use of the 
 people in their song of praise.” In a letter to Farel, dated 1539, 
 Calvin says that he had begun to versify the Psalms, and adds that 
 the 46th and 25th were his earliest efforts. At Calvin’s request, 
 Clement Marot devoted himself to this good work ; and after the 
 death of Marot, Calvin applied to Beza to complete the metrical 
 version of the Psalms. 
 
 ^ “Life of John Knox,” vol. i. Note K. 
 
6 
 
 THE PSALMS. 
 
 was the same as that adopted by the Church of Eng¬ 
 land, many alterations were made, and, in several in¬ 
 stances, new translations of particular Psalms were sub¬ 
 stituted for those in the English Psalter. This version 
 continued in use for about a hundred years. In 1631 a 
 version of the Psalms written by Sir William Alexander, 
 afterwards Earl of Stirling, a poet of no mean reputation 
 in his own country, was published with the title, “ The 
 Psalms of David, translated by King James;’’but this 
 nominally royal version found no great favour in the 
 eyes of the Scottish Church, and “ little more,” it has 
 been remarked, “can be said in praise of it, than that 
 the best of it is not bad.” In 1643 there appeared 
 a version of the Psalms by Erancis Rous, Member of 
 Parliament for Truro, in Cornwall, and a younger son of 
 Sir Anthony Rous, knight of that county. This version, 
 after repeated revisals, was approved of by the Westminster 
 Assembly; and, having undergone further careful revision 
 by members of the General Assembly of the Church of 
 Scotland, it was adopted and sanctioned in 1649, and, 
 on the 15th day of May in the following year, was for 
 the first time used publicly in Glasgow. It claims to 
 be “ more plain, smooth, and agreeable to the text, 
 than any ” versions “ heretofore; ” and though many 
 attempts have been made to supersede it, yet none have 
 been successful, the firmness with which it has held its 
 place being, undoubtedly, owing to its real excellence, its 
 intrinsic merits, as well as to the endearing associations 
 with which it has come to be surrounded. ^ 
 
 ^ Letter in a local newspaper by the late Rev. James M'Kenzie, 
 Dunfermline. British and Foreign Evangelical Review, Jan. 1879. 
 
THE PARAPHRASES. 
 
 7 
 
 The Paraphrases. 
 
 The Church of Scotland from the beginning contem¬ 
 plated an addition to the Psalms ; but it was not till the 
 year 1648 that the matter was actually taken up. The 
 General Assembly in that year employed Mr David 
 Leitch on a paraphrase of “ the songs of the Old and 
 New Testament.” The proposal was interrupted by the 
 persecution, but was renewed as soon as the Church ob¬ 
 tained peace at the Revolution; and “its stoppage 
 then,” says the younger M‘Crie, “ may be traced to the 
 decline of public and personal piety in Scotland.” ^ In 
 his “ Story of the Scottish Church,” the same writer says ; 
 —“In 1742, owing in some degree to the Cambuslang 
 revival, a desire was shown to add some metrical pieces 
 to the Psalms to be used in public worship ; and a com¬ 
 mittee was appointed to prepare a few passages from 
 Scripture for that purpose. The report of this committee 
 was given in the year 1745 ; but the unsettled state of 
 the country at that time prevented any progress till 1749, 
 w'hen the Assembly agreed to transmit the collection, 
 amounting to forty-five, to presbyteries, and leave the use 
 of them to the option of Sessions. The collection thus 
 made was, upon the whole, creditable to the parties em¬ 
 ployed on it, both in point of composition and design. 
 It breathed throughout an evangelical tone of senti¬ 
 ment, and conveyed, though in simple rhymes, the 
 spirit of the sacred text.” The following verses from 
 
 ^ Letter in Arnot’s “Life of Hamilton,” p. 540. 
 
8 
 
 THE PARAPHRASES, 
 
 the paraphrase on Rom. viii. 31-39, may be given as a 
 specimen ;— 
 
 “ What shall we say to all these things ? 
 
 If God be on our side, 
 
 Who ever shall against us be, 
 
 What ill can us betide ? 
 
 He who, not sparing His own Son, 
 
 Up for us all Him gave. 
 
 Will He not with Him freely give 
 All things that we should have ? 
 
 “ Who shall charge them with anything 
 That God’s elected are ? 
 
 He that doth justify is God : 
 
 Condemn them then who dare ? 
 
 Christ—He hath died ; yea, rather is 
 Arisen for our sake ; 
 
 Who even at God’s right hand for us 
 Doth intercession make.” 
 
 “But forty years, during which this collection served to 
 guide the devotions of the people, had wrought their 
 changes in the tastes and sentiments of the Church. A 
 little before 1781, the leading clergy, who had gradually 
 shifted away from the simple faith of their fathers, began 
 to feel dissatisfied with the old translations and para¬ 
 phrases ; and a new committee, containing the names of 
 John Logan, Hugh Blair, and Cameron, were appointed 
 to revise them.” Revised and enlarged so as to embrace 
 sixty-seven pieces, this collection of sacred poems was, 
 on the ist June 1781, retransmitted for the consideration 
 of presbyteries; and, “ in the meantime,” the Assembly 
 “allowed it to be used in public worship in congre¬ 
 gations where the minister should find it for edification.” 
 
THE PARAPHRASES. 
 
 9 
 
 “ This caution,’’ says the late Dr Jamieson of Glasgow, 
 “was necessary, for the people at large, and many even 
 of the clergy of the period could not be reconciled to its 
 introduction, on the ground of strong conscientious 
 scruples to employ in the praise of God any composition 
 that flowed from an uninspired source.” ^ These feelings 
 soon died away in the Established Church, but continued 
 to prevail in one section at least of the Secession. “ The 
 people,” says Dr M‘Crie, speaking of the period succeed¬ 
 ing the Revolution, “ acquired for our Psalter that 
 veneration with which they regarded all that had been 
 practised by our persecuted ancestors ; and the Seceders 
 in particular regarded adherence to it as a part of ‘ the 
 covenanted uniformity.’” ^ In 1748, however, about 
 fourteen years after the rise of the Secession, and imme¬ 
 diately after its division into two branches, the Synod of 
 the Burgher Church “ recommended to Mr Ralph 
 Erskine the work of turning Scripture passages into 
 metre” for congregational use; and, this work having been 
 accomplished by him, a Committee was appointed to 
 examine his productions, and report concerning them; 
 but “ before the Committee had time to fulfil their ap¬ 
 pointment, Mr Erskine died, and the Synod did not think 
 it proper to take any further steps in the matter.” ^ In 
 1812, the Burgher Synod allowed the Church of Scot¬ 
 land’s collection to be used in their own congregations; 
 
 1 “ The Religions of the World,” p. 126. 
 
 ^ Letter in “ Life of Hamilton.” 
 
 3 M'Kerrow’s “ Hist, of the Secession Church,” vol. ii. p. 215. 
 The Scripture songs were afterwards published as part of Mr 
 Erskine’s works. 
 
lO 
 
 HYMN BOOKS. 
 
 but it never came into use among the Anti-burghers. In 
 1798, a declaration was issued by the Anti-burgher or 
 General Associate Synod in reference to Sabbath-schools, 
 warning parents against “ sending their children to such 
 schools, if hymns of human composure were sung in 
 them.” In the Testimony emitted in 1804, they “ con¬ 
 demn and testify against the doctrine of those who, 
 maintaining that ‘ many of the Psalms of David are in¬ 
 consistent with the spirit of the Gospel,’ have laid them 
 aside as unfit to be sung in Christian assemblies, and 
 have in various instances introduced in their room hymns 
 of human composition containing erroneous doctrine.” 
 There is here no express mention of the Paraphrases; but, 
 probably, the statement was to be understood as referring, 
 though not exclusively, to them ; for some of them were 
 regarded as having an Arminian taint, and as being charge¬ 
 able with other grave blunders of a theological character.^ 
 In the United Secession Church, the Paraphrases soon 
 came to be sung probably in most of the congregations; 
 but some of them for a considerable time still adhered 
 exclusively to the use of the Psalms. 
 
 Hymn Books. 
 
 In 1794, a Hymn Book was sanctioned by the Synod 
 of the Relief Church, “ with the view of allowing greater 
 variety to the expressions of devotional feeling in the 
 
 ^ Undoubtedly, as Mr Landreth remarks, “ many pieces in the 
 collection are purely descriptive or sentimental, and lack the 
 elements of Christian adoration and thanksgiving.”—“ Life of Dr 
 A. Thomson, of Coldstream,” p. 371. 
 
HYMN BOOKS. 
 
 II 
 
 Christian songs of praise.” ^ Immediately after the union 
 of the United Secession and Relief Churches, which took 
 place in 1847, the attention of the Synod having been 
 called to the Psalmody of the United Presbyterian 
 Church, a Committee was appointed to take the subject 
 into consideration ; and this Committee having reported 
 in recommendation of the enlargement of the Psalmody 
 in the form of a volume of Hymns and Paraphrases, it 
 was entrusted with the preparation of such a volume. In 
 the prosecution of this work the Committee were engaged 
 till 1851, when, as the result of their labours, a Hymn 
 Book, which contained above four hundred and sixty 
 compositions, including a selection from the Paraphrases, 
 was published by authority of the Synod, and in the 
 course of a few years this Hymn Book was in almost 
 universal use in the United Presbyterian Church. The 
 congregation with which the writer is connected belonged 
 originally to what was considered “ the most straitest 
 sect of our religion; ” yet no obstacle was encountered in 
 introducing a Hymn Book that was sanctioned by the 
 supreme Court of the Church. There was only one 
 individual who positively refused to accept it, but he did 
 not on this account think it necessary for him to leave 
 the Church ; and, being asked what he did when a hymn 
 was given out to be sung, he said that “he just took 
 some psalm instead, though he sometimes found it some¬ 
 what difficult to accommodate the psalm to the tune.” 
 In 1876, a new Hymn Book, sanctioned by the Synod, 
 was issued, bearing the title, “ The Presbyterian Hymnal, 
 ^ “The Religions of the World,” p. 208. 
 
12 
 
 HYMN BOOKS. 
 
 compiled by a Committee of the United Presbyterian 
 Church ; ” and this, I believe, is now used universally in 
 the urban, and very generally in the rural congregations. 
 Each of the two other large Presbyterian Churches, the 
 Established and the Free, has now a Hymn Book of 
 its own. 
 
 Probably, in most of our congregations, the Psalm 
 Book still retains the primary place that is due to it : 
 but is there no danger of its being degraded, or even 
 superseded ? If this should occur it would be a great 
 and sad calamity. “ When we have sought all around,” 
 says Calvin, “ searching here and there, we shall find no 
 songs better and more suitable than the Psalms of David, 
 which the Holy Spirit dictated and gave to him. And 
 therefore, when we sing them, we are as certain that God 
 has put words into our mouths as if He Himself sung 
 within us to exalt His glory.” Undoubtedly, the songs 
 that were composed “in old time” by “holy men of 
 God, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit,” will ever 
 remain the best, and most fit to be used in the service of 
 praise 3 and it has been justly remarked by an able 
 expositor, that “ the more the Christian knows of God, 
 and of himself, and of the Book of Psalms, the more will 
 he delight in these wonderful compositions, and feel their 
 transcendent poetic beauty, and wealth of religious ex¬ 
 perience.”^ “ I am more inclined than I once was,” said 
 the late Dr John Duncan, “to admit the utility of our 
 having a few hymns for expressing the clearer objective 
 revelation of the great facts of Christ’s history and work. 
 
 ^ Professor Johnstone’s “ Lect. on the Ep. of James,” p. 398. 
 
HYMN BOOKS. 
 
 13 
 
 But no hymn book I have seen gives every phase of sub¬ 
 jective religion with the fulness, distinctness, and ap¬ 
 propriateness of the Psalms.” “ Every emotion of the 
 renewed heart Godwards finds adequate expression in the 
 Book of Psalms.” 1 But even considered in the former 
 aspect, the Psalter is still transcendently excellent. What 
 hymn books give so elevated and expansive views as the 
 Psalms do, of the works and ways of God, of the mystery 
 of redemption, or of the reign of the Messiah, and its 
 blessed and glorious results ? 
 
 I have heard of an old minister, who, when a young 
 and inexperienced brother said that often he could not 
 find a psalm suited to his sermon, and was glad to avail 
 himself of a hymn, replied, “ That may be ; but if so, the 
 fault must be ascribed to yourself or your sermon, and 
 not to the Psalms.” This remark was doubtless intended 
 rather as a vindication of the Psalms than as a reproof of 
 the person to whom it was addressed; and though in the 
 one view it was perhaps too severe, yet in the other it 
 was as just as it was strong. 
 
 ^ “ Life of Dr Duncan,” by Dr Brown, p. 539. 
 
CHAPTER 11 . 
 
 PRAISE, OR THE SERVICE OE SONG—conthmed. 
 
 Precentor and Choir. 
 
 WRITER in the “ Homiletic Quarterly ” (vol. i. p. 
 
 312), remarks, “If a minister has skill in music, 
 and if his voice and strength would permit, no more 
 proper person could be selected as leader (in the service 
 of song) than the pastor himself. In a few cases this 
 has been done; but it makes the services of the sanc¬ 
 tuary very severe on the pastor.” The usual plan is to 
 choose some other person fit for the service; and this 
 official is called “ the precentor,” a term literally signify¬ 
 ing “one who sings before.” “The precentor,” says 
 Eadie, “ belonged to the old religious houses, and still 
 holds office in cathedrals. The choir service is under 
 his charge, and in dignity he is next the dean. The 
 duties of the precentor in Scotland have been greatly 
 curtailed. He seems to have succeeded to the reader of 
 earlier times. It was the habit of the precentor to repair 
 to church about half-an-hour before the minister came, 
 and read to the people several passages of Scripture. 
 
PRECENTOR AND CHOIR. 
 
 15 
 
 When the minister entered, the precentor gave out a 
 psalm and led the singing. After the beginning of last 
 century, he ceased by degrees either to read the Scrip¬ 
 tures or prescribe the psalm. But his desk is still, from 
 its original use, called by the old people the ‘ lectern ’ 
 (pronounced ‘ lettern ’), that is, the reading-desk.” The 
 precentor is now very commonly aided by a choir, or 
 select band of singers, who in some cases are placed 
 immediately before or around him, and in others, at the 
 opposite end of the church, and in the gallery, where 
 there is one. 
 
 The writer already quoted says, “ Singing in church 
 is a very difficult matter to manage aright. It has long 
 been so. Job Orton, in a letter to a young curate, says, 
 
 ‘ I am sorry for the trouble and vexation you have had, 
 and are likely to have, with your eccentric singers. They 
 are in general conceited, troublesome fellows, and have 
 no more religion than an organ or a fiddle. And I wish 
 the Doctor, when he comes to you, may be able to bring 
 them to order. But steadiness, and not yielding to them, 
 is the only way to humble them. I would propose, in 
 the meantime, that you talk calmly and seriously to them 
 separately, and endeavour to give them better notions 
 than they have of the nature and design of psalmody; 
 and, particularly, urge upon their consciences a reverence 
 for the presence of God, and how affronting it must be 
 to Him to have the church turned into a theatre, and 
 divine worship into a farce.’ This is but a specimen of 
 the complaints that are even now made in many places 
 on the subject.” I do not suppose that there is the same 
 
i6 PRECENTOR AND CHOIR. 
 
 occasion for such complaints in any of the Scottish Pres¬ 
 byterian Churches; but here, too, as well as in England, 
 “ great prudence and vigilance are necessary to avoid 
 serious evils proceeding from choirs j ” and the sugges¬ 
 tions made by this writer are such as will, if followed, 
 effectually prevent the worst of these evils. “First, let 
 not the proper authorities give up the matter to others. 
 They may not be musical, but they may yet know that 
 certain things are unedifying. They are charged with 
 maintaining the gravity and decency of God’s worship ; ” 
 and they cannot divest themselves of this responsibility. 
 “ Secondly, if possible, secure for a leader a man of 
 serious and earnest piety. This will of itself set aside 
 half the difficulties of the case. His example and in¬ 
 fluence will do much good.” In both these ways evil is 
 guarded against in the United Presbyterian Church, and 
 I suppose in the other Presbyterian Churches in Scotland, 
 by such a rule as the following:—“ The election of a 
 precentor is a matter of ecclesiastical business. No step 
 can be taken towards choosing those who shall appear 
 before the congregation as candidates, until the Session 
 is satisfied as to their moral and religious charac¬ 
 ter. In the mode of conducting the psalmody, as Avell 
 as in other matters connected with his office, the pre¬ 
 centor is subject to the control, and bound to obey 
 the orders of the Session.” The precentor is required 
 to be a member of the congregation; and, though 
 the choir is frequently composed in considerable part 
 of young persons not yet in full communion, yet, com¬ 
 monly, they are in attendance on the minister’s class, 
 
PSALM TUNES. 
 
 17 
 
 and are often such as specially afford hope of their 
 becoming useful and ornamental members of the church. 
 A third suggestion is, that it be often stated that the 
 great object of any arrangements respecting a leader or a 
 choir is to bring the congregation as far as possible to 
 unite in this delightful service.” Happily, in our public 
 assemblies still, as in former days, the great body of the 
 people, following the precentor after he has uttered the 
 first notes, take a personal share in singing the praises of 
 God \ but they are not yet generally impressed, as they 
 should be, with the obligation resting on them to qualify 
 themselves for performing this service in a becoming 
 manner. That great divine, Jonathan Edwards, observes, 
 that, “ as it is the command of God that all should sing, 
 so all should make conscience of learning to sing, as it is 
 a thing that cannot decently be performed at all without 
 learning. Those, therefore, where there is no natural 
 inability, who neglect to learn to sing, live in sin, as they 
 neglect what is necessary in order to their attending one 
 of the ordinances of God’s worship.” How greatly, then, 
 do they sin who can sing, but do not join in this service, 
 who, from pride, or indifference, or any other cause, are 
 wilfully dumb in the house of God ! 
 
 Psalm Tunes. 
 
 Calvin, who was the first in the Reformed Church to 
 provide the whole book of Psalms in the metre of any 
 living language for the use of the people in the praises of 
 the sanctuary, was also the first who supplied a true and 
 distinctive music to which they should be sung in con- 
 
 B 
 
i8 
 
 PSALM TUNES. 
 
 gregational worship. They were at first sung to all sorts 
 of tunes, including those of profane and licentious songs. 
 Calvin’s soul revolted against this practice; and he set to 
 work to remedy so great an evil. He applied to the first 
 musicians in Europe to furnish him with tunes worthy of 
 the words of the Psalms; and of those obtained by him, 
 many remain unsurpassed for simplicity, beauty, and 
 grandeur.^ 
 
 For circulating the Reformed opinions in Scotland, 
 “the most singular measure adopted,” says M'Crie, “was 
 the composition of ‘ Gude and Godly Ballates, changed 
 out of prophaine songs.’ The title sufficiently indicates 
 their nature and design. The air, the measure, the 
 initial line, or the chorus of the ballads sung by the people 
 at that time, were transferred to hymns of devotion.”^ 
 They were intended “ for the use of young persons, and 
 such as are nocht exercisit in the Scripture, quha will 
 sooner conceive the true word nor quhen they hear it 
 sung in Latin, the quilk they know nocht what is. But 
 when they hear it, or sayes it themselves in their vulgar 
 longue, with sweet melodie, then shall they love God, 
 and put away unclean sangs.” On referring to these 
 Ballates, says the writer of an article on Scottish Psalmody 
 in the Evangelical Review^ “We can trace a number 
 of the tunes to which they were sung, some of which are 
 still familiarly known to us, such as, ‘ Wha’s at the 
 Window, Wha, Wha?’ ‘ Up in the mornin’s no for me,’ 
 ‘ The hunt is up, the hunt is up,’ ‘ Hey trix, tryme go 
 
 ^ Br. and For. Ev. Review, Jan. 1879. 
 
 - “Life of John Knox,” vol. i., Note K. ® Jan. 1879. 
 
PHALM TUNES. 
 
 19 
 
 trix, under the grene wode tree.’ ” The following speci¬ 
 mens will give some idea of these compositions :— 
 
 “Up in the morning early,”— 
 
 “ The wind blaws cauld, furious, and bauld, 
 
 This long and mony a day ; 
 
 But Christ’s mercie ye maun all dree, 
 
 And keep the cauld wind away.” 
 
 “ The hunt is up,”— 
 
 “ The hunt is up, the hunt is up. 
 
 It is now perfect day; 
 
 Jesus, our King, is gone a hunting : 
 
 Wha likes to speed they may.” 
 
 To “ Tuttie Taittie ” was sung, — 
 
 “ Hey now the day dallies, 
 
 Now Christ on us calles, 
 
 And welth on our wallis 
 Appears anon; 
 
 Now the Word of God rings, 
 
 Ouhilk is King of all kings ; 
 
 Now Christ’s flock sings. 
 
 The nicht is near gone.” ^ 
 
 When the metrical psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins 
 were adopted in the congregation of English exiles at 
 Geneva, of which John Knox was minister, it was found that 
 many of the tunes of the Genevan-French Psalter could 
 not be made available, in consequence of the peculiar 
 rhythms used in it. Other melodies of the same 
 character were then or subsequently introduced; and 
 these early Psalters thus contained a large quantity of 
 music, consisting chiefly of what are called “proper 
 
 ^ Mitchison’s “ Hand-Book of the Songs of Scotland.’’ 
 
20 
 
 PSALM TUNES. 
 
 tunes,” or a special tune for each psalm. In addition to 
 these, there appeared, in the Scottish Psalter of 1635, a 
 collection of thirty-one common tunes,^ 
 
 “The loss of these majestic and thrilling harmonies, 
 without the substitution of any others,” it has been re¬ 
 marked, “ commenced that course of deepening neglect 
 and decrepitude in this delightful part of the worship of 
 God, which the spiritual apathy of the eighteenth century 
 only accelerated and confirmed, and from which we are 
 only now slowly recovering,” ^ So great was the declen¬ 
 sion in the psalmody of the Scottish churches, that at one 
 time, it is said, there were only eight tunes that were 
 allowed to be used, or that were commonly used, in pub¬ 
 lic worship. An old Seceder, many years ago, having 
 told me this, I asked him the names of the tunes. 
 He mentioned the most of them, but could not remem¬ 
 ber them all. Perhaps, I said, St Paul’s was one of 
 them, “ St Paul’s ! ” he exclaimed ; “ do ye think they 
 would have sung a saunt’s tune in those days ? ” I then 
 mentioned Coleshill, “ No, no,” he said; “ Coles- 
 hill is just a licht way of singing Dundee.” ® The 
 tunes were French, Dundee, Stilt or York, Newton, 
 Elgin, London, Martyrs, Abbey. I do not know 
 how long it is since these tunes ceased to enjoy exclu¬ 
 sively the honour of being sung in the sanctuary. But at 
 a time not far remote, the introduction of a new tune 
 
 ^ Br. a 7 td For. Ev. Review, Oct, 1870. 
 
 ^ Ibid, July 1857. 
 
 ^ See a note to Article on “ Church Song ” in Br. and For. Ev. 
 1870, p. 797. 
 
PSALM TUNES. 
 
 21 
 
 was apt to give offence to the older people; and I 
 remember being told that, on one occasion, the precen¬ 
 tor in the congregation with which I am connected, 
 having in the forenoon sung a tune then recently com¬ 
 posed, the elders were so highly displeased that they de¬ 
 termined he should be kept out of the desk in the after¬ 
 noon, and one of themselves should take his place. The 
 gravest of these seniors, accordingly, went into the desk ; 
 and with the view, perhaps, of counteracting as much as 
 possible the evil that had been done, or of exhibiting a 
 most emphatic testimony against it, he chose a very old 
 and venerable tune to begin with; but, being one that 
 had been out of use for a generation or more, it was 
 known to few or none of the people; and not only so, 
 but he seemed to have forgotten it himself, and, after 
 some painful and unsuccessful attempts to proceed, 
 would have stuck altogether, had not the displaced and 
 disgraced precentor generously come to his aid. I 
 remember an old farmer lamenting, evidently with a 
 feeling of very tender regard for them, that “ many of the 
 auld tunes were now sair driven aside.” Some of these 
 have retained or have been of late restored to their for¬ 
 mer honourable place in the psalmody; but I do not re¬ 
 member to have ever heard sung in church either of the 
 two tunes which Burns has signalised in the well-known 
 lines,— 
 
 “ Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name, 
 
 Or Elgin beets the heavenward flame,— 
 
 The sweetest far of Scotia’s holy lays 
 
 and Coleshill, too, the tune that was always sung on 
 sacramental Sabbaths, while the table-seats were being 
 
22 
 
 PSALM TUNES. 
 
 filled, seems to have gone with the occasion to which it 
 was appropriated. It is well that “ repeating tunes ” 
 have been banished; especially such as were in vogue 
 for a time, in country churches at least,—“rants,” in 
 which half lines, and sometimes two or even three of the 
 lines in a verse, were sung twice or thrice over,—no re¬ 
 gard being paid to the fitness of things, and clauses and 
 words being sometimes divided in a manner exceedingly 
 ludicrous. Often, however, it was not from distaste of 
 such tunes either on sesthetic or religious grounds, but 
 simply from aversion to all innovation, that, when any 
 one of them was sung, many of the older people closed 
 their books, and some even rose and walked out. 
 
 The practice of chanting the psalms has recently been 
 adopted in a number of our churches. In some of them, 
 this is confined to the metrical version ; but in others, 
 the prose psalms are used, and it would be well if 
 ability to chant them were to become common in all our 
 Scottish churches, and the entire congregation brought 
 to join in this mode of performing the service of praise. 
 
 The ancient mode of singing among the Hebrews is 
 indicated by the song of the seraphim in Isaiah’s vision. 
 “ One cried to another, and said. Holy, holy, holy is the 
 Lord of hosts : the whole earth is full of His glory.” 
 They sang responsively. Miriam and the daughters of 
 Israel responded to the song of Moses ; at the rebuilding 
 of the temple, the priests and Levites “sang together by 
 course, in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord ; ” 
 and many of the psalms obviously consist of recitative 
 and chorus, or are distributed into parts, to be sung by 
 
THE READING OF THE LINE. 
 
 23 
 
 the ministers of religion and the people separately; and 
 some of them are adapted to three orders, the priests, the 
 Levites, and the people. The people, by joining in the 
 chorus, were considered as adopting the whole psalm. 
 The imitation of the Jewish mode seems to have been 
 common in the primitive Christian Church; and it may 
 be referred to by the apostle when he exhorts Christians 
 to “ speak to one another in psalms, and hymns, and 
 spiritual songs, singing and making melody in their hearts 
 unto the Lord.” It was by this practice that the Jews 
 and the Christians in early times were able, without 
 fatigue, and with great pleasure, to go through whole 
 psalms in the same act of praise; and the revival 
 of it might be considered a greater improvement in our 
 public praise than the introduction of instrumental 
 music. 
 
 The Reading of the Line. 
 
 In one of his poems, Allan Ramsay speaks of “ the 
 letter-gae of holy rhyme.” The phrase “letter-gae” is 
 thus explained in Jamieson’s Dictionary:—“ The pre¬ 
 centor or clerk in a church ; he also raises the tune, and, 
 according to the old custom in the country, reads every 
 line before it be sung.” Some still living can remember 
 this custom. “ It was of course necessary, in order to 
 keep himself in tune, that the precentor should read in 
 the key of the tune he had chosen ; and thus the ser¬ 
 vice of praise was often a curious compound of chanting 
 and singing.” 1 This was not a part of the original mode 
 ^ Brown’s “ Life of a Scottish Probationer,” p. 113. 
 
24 
 
 THE READING OF THE LINE. 
 
 of performing the service of song in the Scottish Church, 
 but was authorised by the Westminster Assembly in 
 those cases in which there might be “ many in a congre¬ 
 gation who could not read,” or who were “ disabled by 
 age or otherwise.” This act of toleration was yielded 
 with much reluctance by the Commissioners from the 
 Scottish Church, the people in Scotland, unlike those in 
 England, being so well instructed that they could sing 
 the sacred songs even “without buik.” ‘‘Then,” says 
 Lightfoot, in his Journal of the Assembly, “was our 
 directory read over to the Scots Commissioners, who were 
 absent at the passing of it; and Mr Henderson disliked 
 our permission of any to read the psalm line by line ; and 
 this business held us in some debate.”^ Mr Landreth, 
 in his Life of Dr Thomson of Coldstream, remarks that 
 the practice was introduced out of consideration, not 
 only for persons unable to read, but for those who were 
 “ without large-printed books which age-weakened eyes 
 could read, for many decent folks had a strange dislike 
 against taking spectacles to church.” 
 
 The practice was not peculiar to the Presbyterian 
 Churches. Mr Stanford, in his “ Philip Doddridge,” states 
 that in that distinguished minister’s church, “ the hymn 
 sung after the sermon was generally one composed by 
 him for the occasion, and the precentor used to give it 
 out, and read it line by line.” There was a necessity for 
 this being done in such a case as that which is here men¬ 
 tioned ; but the writer adds, “ This was not merely a 
 non-conformist practice. We find, for instance, from the 
 1 M'Crie’s “ Stoiy of the Scottish Church,” p. 167. 
 
THE READING OF THE LINE. 
 
 25 
 
 note made by a visitor, that it was the custom in the 
 neighbouring Collingtree Parish Church. Bishop Gibson 
 specially instructed the clerk to do this, first in his Charge 
 of 1721, and again in 1744.” 
 
 Mr Landreth states that “ in the Burgher Secession, 
 the precentor read two lines at a time, but in the Anti- 
 Burgher only a single line.” This, however, of course, 
 w'as not one of the essential points of difference between 
 the two denominations, it being, certainly, not of much 
 greater importance than that which I remember hearing 
 the late Dr Fairbairn of New haven say was the only dif¬ 
 ference that he, when a boy, could discover between the 
 Burghers and the Anti-Burghers in his native town, 
 namely, that the meeting-house of the one body had a 
 thatched, and the other a tiled roof. 
 
 This practice established itself so firmly that it con¬ 
 tinued to be observed long after the principal reason for 
 its introduction had ceased to exist; and when at length 
 the discontinuance of it was urged, the proposal called 
 forth a resistance almost as vehement as it might have 
 been expected to be, had the contemplated change involved 
 the abolition of singing itself. Even individuals who 
 were distinguished for Christian intelligence as well as 
 for piety, were wont to stigmatise the practice of con¬ 
 tinuous singing, or run-line., as it was popularly called, as 
 an innovation which it would be highly criminal to 
 tolerate, and sometimes, when an instance of it occurred, 
 testified their displeasure by closing their books with as 
 much demonstration, visible and audible, as they could 
 make, or even by hurrying out of the church, as if it had 
 
26 
 
 THE READING OF THE LINE. 
 
 been utterly profaned. The introduction of run-line was 
 often the occasion of individuals leaving the Established 
 and joining the Secession Church. Many congregations 
 were in this way considerably increased; and in two in¬ 
 stances, the persons seceding were so numerous as to form 
 a congregation at once.^ A relative of mine, a worthy old 
 lady, having asked one of my brothers how the service of 
 praise was conducted in his father’s church, and being in¬ 
 formed that the line was read in the forenoon and afternoon, 
 but not, when there was a third diet of worship, in the even¬ 
 ing, said to him, “ Well, my man, let me tell you, ye have 
 the praise of God through the day, but man’s praise at 
 night.” Another relative I find spoken of in an old letter 
 as “ having a capital head ” for agricultural affairs, “ how¬ 
 ever much beclouded on such points as run-line, witches, 
 and the Unionand I have been told that this individual, 
 who was a really estimable man, left the Secession 
 congregation, with which he had been connected from 
 his childhood, on account of the introduction of run-line, 
 repeating tunes, and the use of the Paraphrases, and that, 
 when a friend remarked to him that he would find all 
 these evils existing in a greater degree in the Established 
 Church, to which he had gone, he replied, “ True ; but 
 we cannot expect so much good there.” His deser¬ 
 tion, however, was but temporary. In the “ Life of a 
 Scottish Probationer,” the author, having stated that 
 “ Scripture was ransacked to find texts in support of the 
 ancient custom,” mentions one remarkable instance of 
 this; “To a deputation from the Glasgow Presbytery, 
 1 M‘Kelvie’s “Annals of the United Presbyterian Church.” 
 
THE READING OF THE LINE. 
 
 27 
 
 which had been sent to visit a congregation where dis¬ 
 sension prevailed on the grave question, the words of 
 the 19th Psalm, ‘Their line is gone out through all 
 the earth,’ were quoted as undoubted Scripture authority 
 for the reading of the line.” It is difficult to believe that 
 the opponents of the innovation were serious in the 
 appeal thus made to the language of Scripture; and yet 
 it cannot be supposed that they were following the 
 example of an eminent divine of the Secession Church, 
 of whom it is told that, when an unintelligent but con¬ 
 ceited individual w^as strongly objecting, for very non¬ 
 sensical reasons, to the practice of publishing modera¬ 
 tions, calls, and other ecclesiastical transactions, in the 
 secular newspapers, he reminded him of the apostolic 
 injunction, “ Let your moderation be known unto all 
 men.” 
 
 It is strange to find among the English Baptists a 
 strikingly analogous, yet very different, example of re¬ 
 sistance to supposed innovations in public worship. In 
 Mr Spurgeon’s “History of the Metropolitan Taber¬ 
 nacle,” the author says, “ Because from fear of dis¬ 
 covery by the magistrate, the assemblies of believers 
 had been unable to sing, the habit of songless worship 
 had been acquired in many congregations j and when 
 happier days gave opportunity for praising the Lord with 
 the voice, the older folks looked upon it as an innova¬ 
 tion, and would have none of it.” Mr Keach, one of 
 Mr Spurgeon’s predecessors (the author of two well 
 known folios, “ Key to open Scripture Metaphors,” and 
 an “ Exposition of the Parables ”), obtained his people’s 
 
28 
 
 A TTITUDE IN PRAISE. 
 
 consent to the practice of singing, first, at the conclusion 
 of the Lord’s Supper; next, about six years after, in 
 public thanksgivings,—in which limitation they continued 
 about fourteen years; and at length, “ by a regular act 
 of the Church, it was agreed to sing the praise of God 
 every Lord’s-day: ” but still there were some that dis¬ 
 sented, and “ they withdrew, and founded another 
 church, upon the same principles, singing only excepted!' ^ 
 
 In some congregations, the practice of reading the 
 line, before being abolished altogether, w'as continued 
 for some time in the opening service of praise. This, I 
 suppose, was done for the sake of those who, coming in 
 late, lost the opportunity of hearing the announcement 
 of the psalm. But these individuals, with perhaps a few 
 exceptions, deserved no such consideration, and should 
 have been admonished to make it a part of their religion, 
 as a good woman said she made it of hers, not to disturb 
 other people in theirs; an admonition this, however, 
 which the discontinuance of the old custom has by no 
 means rendered unnecessary. 
 
 Attitude in Praise. 
 
 The primitive Christians, in their religious assemblies, 
 “ stood as they sang, for this was regarded as the only 
 proper and becoming attitude.”^ In the congregations of 
 the Secession Church, as in those of other Presbyterian 
 Churches in Scotland, the people were accustomed to sit 
 
 ^ See an article, by Dr James Hamilton, in the Br. and For. 
 Ev, Review, April 1865. 
 
 ^ Eadie’s “ Eccl. Cycl.,” Art, Psalmody. 
 
A TTITUDE IN PRAISE. 
 
 29 
 
 at psalms. I was surprised to find, from an article on 
 “Singing Praise,” in the “Christian Magazine for 1819, 
 that there had before that time been some exceptions, 
 there being in that article the following inquiry, “ What 
 is the reason why some of our congregations should 
 stand, and others sit, during this part of Divine wor¬ 
 ship ? ” The writer afterwards remarks, “ The attitude of 
 standing when offering praise to the Most High is cer¬ 
 tainly a very agreeable posture, more becoming such 
 an exercise, and also appears to be countenanced by 
 Scripture.” Happening lately to look into one of the 
 earliest volumes of that Magazine, I found an account of 
 a mission to the North in 1800, in which it is stated that 
 the brethren composing the deputation preached at Kirk¬ 
 wall in Orkney, where the people heard with great atten¬ 
 tion ; and, says the writer, “ their manner of praise is 
 strikingly solemn, yet calculated to raise the affections, 
 and diffuse ardour and activity through the assembly. 
 It is the manner of the Church in the days of Nehemiah, 
 chap. ix. 5. They all rise when they praise, and sing also 
 without reading the line.” Standing during the service of 
 song was the custom in the church which I attended when 
 a student in Edinburgh—the Potterrow, then under the 
 ministry of the Rev. Dr John Ritchie; but I do not 
 remember to have seen it practised anywhere else. It has 
 now been introduced into many of the congregations of 
 the United Presbyterian Church, in the country, as well 
 as in the towns; and in all probability, it will ere long 
 be found to have commended itself to universal adop¬ 
 tion, as a real and important improvement. 
 
30 
 
 PREFACING THE PSALM. 
 
 Prefacing the Psalm. 
 
 This was the expression usually employed to designate 
 the practice of making expository remarks on the psalm, 
 or portion of a psalm, to be sung at the commencement 
 of public worship, these remarks being accompanied with 
 appropriate devotional reflections. This practice has now 
 become very rare, if not quite obsolete. When rightly 
 performed, it was well fitted to delight and edify pious 
 and intelligent worshippers, and to make “ the service of 
 song in the house of the Lord ” a service at once of the 
 understanding and the heart. In Mr Cairns’s interesting 
 “Memoir of the late Rev. Dr Smith of Biggar,” it is stated 
 that “ in this way the whole of the Psalms were regularly 
 gone over by ” that excellent minister; “ and the 
 gathered fruit of these ‘ prefaces ’ is to be found in 
 ‘ The Devotional Psalter,’ one of Dr Smith’s earlier 
 publications.” This part of the service, however, was not, 
 I suspect, always so edifying as the readers of Dr Smith’s 
 book may be apt to suppose it to have been. Some¬ 
 times, perhaps often, little or no preparation for it was 
 made ) and it was performed in such a manner as ,to be 
 almost in no degree calculated to answer its purpose. I 
 have heard of a minister who on one occasion happened 
 to turn over two leaves of his psalm book together, and 
 felt, he afterwards said, no small difficulty in making out 
 the connection, but thought he had succeeded in doing 
 so, till, on the psalm being sung, he of course discovered 
 
PREFACING THE PSALM. 
 
 31 
 
 his mistake. This, however, was no doubt an instance 
 altogether unique, and not to be regarded as a speci¬ 
 men.’ 
 
 1 An instance of blundering, scarcely less strange, I remember to 
 have occurred at family worship in a minister’s house, where the 
 “big ha’ Bible ” was a folio containing the Apocrypha. A preacher 
 conducting the service read a chapter of Ecclesiasticus, which he 
 supposed to be one of Ecclesiastes. The same volume—an old 
 pulpit Bible—was being used at the Tent on one occasion when the 
 late Dr John Ritchie preached ; and, in consequence of an emphatic 
 stroke of his hand, the book-board gave way, and the Bible fell to 
 the ground. Being afterwards asked why he knocked it down, he 
 replied, “I saw the Apociq^pha was in it.” 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 PRAISE, OR THE SERVICE OF SONG-contmued. 
 
 Instrumental Music. 
 
 JNSTRUMENTAL music, though not quite coeval 
 with man, as we may conceive vocal music to have 
 been, yet claims a high antiquity. The first mention of 
 it in the Scriptures occurs in the account of the family of 
 Lamech, the sixth from Adam in the line of Cain. 
 Lamech, we are told, had a son named Jubal, who was 
 “ the father of all such as handle the harp and the 
 organ,” that is, the inventor of musical instruments. 
 The Scriptures do not inform us at what time instrumental 
 music began to be connected with religious worship. We 
 are told that when, on the overthrow of Pharaoh and his 
 host at the Red Sea, Moses and the children of Israel 
 sang a song of thanksgiving and triumph, “ Miriam, the 
 prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her 
 hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels 
 and with dances,” and joined in celebrating the signal 
 display of Divine power in their behalf; and from this it 
 may be presumed that musical instruments had previously 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 33 
 
 been used in religious worship. Moses was commanded 
 to make two silver trumpets for the purpose of directing 
 the march of the tribes in the wilderness; and at the 
 same time it was intimated that, after their settlement in 
 the promised land, these instruments were to be employed 
 on several important occasions connected with the observ¬ 
 ance of their sacred rites. David, “ the sweet psalmist 
 of Israel,” was a great musician. The prophet Amos, in 
 denouncing “woe to them that are at ease in Zion,” 
 speaks of them as “chanting to the sound of the viol, 
 and inventing to themselves instruments of music, like 
 David.” There is here no censure of David: the com¬ 
 parison is manifestly ironical, and is to be understood as 
 implying a contrast between the royal psalmist and the 
 grandees of Israel in the days of the prophet: they were 
 selfish and abandoned to sensual pleasure, consulting 
 only their own gratification, and that of those who joined 
 their giddy circle j but David devoted his musical talent 
 to the glory of God.^ In the first book of Chronicles, we 
 
 ^ Henderson. No doubt, the example of David would be abused, 
 or profanely appealed to by such men; and there may have been 
 some in his own time who were disposed to censure him for his 
 devotedness to music. Such was the experience of the author of 
 the “Gospel Sonnets,” at one time so popular in Scotland. In 
 illustration of Ralph Erskine’s character, M‘Crie gives the following 
 traditional anecdote a place in his notice of him. “ He was fond, it 
 seems, of music ; and some of his more strait-laced hearers, feeling 
 scandalised by a report that he played on the violin, a deputation 
 of grave elders was appointed to wait upon him. Ralph produced 
 the violoncello, and treated the elders to a solemn psalm tune, with 
 which they were highly gratified, and assured the people that ‘ the 
 minister did not play on the wee sinfu’ fiddle they had imagined.’ 
 
 “ Story of the Scottish Church,” p. 472. 
 
 C 
 
34 
 
 INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 are told that, having given charge respecting the building 
 of the temple, he settled the method of the temple-ser¬ 
 vice, appointing four thousand Levites to praise the Lord 
 with instruments which he had made; and, again, it is 
 stated that he “ separated to the service of the sons of 
 Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should 
 prophesy,” or praise, “ with harps, and psalteries, and with 
 cymbals.” In his psalms, these instruments are often 
 mentioned as accompaniments of song in public worship; 
 and in the hundred and fiftieth psalm, there is a full 
 enumeration of the instruments employed, as consisting 
 of three kinds,—wind, stringed, and pulsatile. “ Praise 
 the Lord with the sound of the trumpet; praise Him 
 with the psaltery and harp; praise Him with the timbrel 
 and pipe; praise Him with stringed instruments and 
 organs ; praise Him upon the loud cymbals ; praise Him 
 upon the high-sounding cymbals.” In the account of the 
 works of reformation effected by Hezekiah, we are told 
 that he “ set the Levites in the house of the Lord with 
 cymbals, and psalteries, and harps, according to the 
 commandment of David ; ” “ and the Levites stood with 
 the instruments of David, and the priests with the 
 trumpets.” And this part of public worship was revived, 
 we find, on the return of the Jews from the Babylonish 
 exile: at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the 
 people “ sought the Levites out of all their places, to 
 bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with glad¬ 
 ness, both with thanksgivings and with singing, with 
 cymbals, psalteries, and with harps;” and these are 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 35 
 
 described as “the musical instruments of David, the man 
 of God.” 
 
 The use of instrumental music as a part of religious 
 worship must be regarded as one of those ceremonies 
 which were abolished by the introduction of the gospel 
 dispensation; and there is no revival of this institution 
 in the New Testament, mention being made in it of no 
 other service of praise than that of song. “ Be filled with 
 the spirit,” says Paul, in his epistle to the Ephesians, 
 “speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and 
 spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart 
 to the Lord.” The word rendered, “ making melody,” 
 literally signifies “ playing on a stringed instrumentand 
 this passage has been adduced as furnishing an argument 
 for the use of such music in the public worship of the 
 Christian Church. It does not seem to be a satisfactory 
 reply to this argument, to say that the term is used 
 figuratively, the apostle enjoining Christians to make 
 melody or play on a harp “in their heartfor they are 
 also directed here, as in the parallel passage in the 
 epistle to the Colossians, to “ sing in their hearts,” which 
 no one understands as implying that they are not to sing 
 with the voice. There can be no doubt, however, that 
 the language is figurative, indicating what was to be 
 the prime accompaniment of the singing, namely, the 
 symphony of the soul. In the vision of John, recorded 
 in the fifth chapter of the book of the Revelation, the 
 four living creatures and the four and twenty elders, the 
 representatives of the ministers and members of the 
 Christian Church, are said to “ have had every one of 
 
36 
 
 INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 them harps.” ^ But v;e are not to regard their possession 
 of harps as indicating that such instruments are to be 
 employed in the service of God under the Christian dis¬ 
 pensation, any more than we are to suppose that the 
 burning of incense is still to form part of our worship, 
 because the rej^resentatives of the Church are described 
 as “ having golden vials full of odours.” These vials are 
 said to be “ the prayers of saints and, in like manner, 
 the harps with which they are furnished denote their 
 fitness or disposition for the service of praise, and the 
 joyful emotions with which they perform it. 
 
 It is important to observe that, in ancient times, the 
 religious use of instrumental music was peculiar to the 
 temple service, and was not adopted in the worship of 
 the synagogue; and that, while it is only in a figurative 
 sense that the Christian Church is called “ the temple of 
 the living God,” the several congregations of the Chris¬ 
 tian Church exactly correspond to the synagogues of the 
 Jews; the features of agreement in primitive times being 
 “ so marked and decided, that the Gentiles were often 
 slow to recognise any difference between them, and re¬ 
 probated the Christian Churches as being Jewish syna¬ 
 gogues in disguise.” ^ 
 
 In the Christian Church, accordingly, instrumental 
 music was unknown during at least the first six centuries. 
 The ancient fathers were so far from practising or approv- 
 
 ^ The phrase ^‘golden harps” has become common, and is often 
 found in hymns ; but golden harps would not sound well, and the 
 sacred writers are ignorant of them. 
 
 ^ King on “The Ruling Eldership,” p. 215. Miller’s “ Office of 
 the Ruling Elder,” chap. ii. 
 
lASTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 37 
 
 ing of it in Christian worship, that some of them would 
 scarcely admit that it was used in the Jewish, but put 
 allegorical interpretations on the texts in which it was 
 mentioned. Even in the thirteenth century, we find 
 Thomas Aquinas saying, “ Our Church does not use 
 musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise 
 God withal, that she may not seem to judaize. Nor 
 ought a pipe, nor any other artificial instruments, such as 
 an organ or harp, to be brought into use in the Christian 
 Church, but only those things that shall make the hearers 
 better men. Under the Old Testament, such instruments 
 were used, partly because the people were harder and 
 more carnal, on which account they were to be stirred up 
 by those instruments, as likewise by earthly promises, and 
 partly because these bodily instruments were typical of 
 something.” “This statement,” says Dr Eadie, “may 
 not refer to the entire Latin Church, but probably to 
 some portion of it. In the Latin Church, organs were at 
 length extensively used; and after the Reformation, the 
 Lutheran and the Anglican Churches retained them.” ^ 
 But in the Lutheran Church, instrumental music was re¬ 
 tained in opposition to the opinion of Luther himself, 
 who reckoned organs among the ensigns of Baal; and in 
 one of the Homilies of the Church of England, a person 
 having been represented as saying, “ Alas! what shall 
 we now do at church, since all the saints are taken away, 
 since all the goodly sights we were wont to have are gone, 
 since we cannot hear the like piping, singing, chanting, and 
 playing upon the organs?” the answer is, “But, dearly 
 ^ “ Eccl. Cycl.,” Art. Organ. 
 
38 
 
 INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 beloved, we ought greatly to rejoice, and give God thanks, 
 that our churches are delivered out of all those things 
 which displeased God so sore, and filthily defiled His 
 holy house and place of prayer.” 
 
 The Presbyterian Churches in this country had, till 
 recently, made strong and continued resistance against 
 the use of instrumental music.^ In the Church of Scot¬ 
 land the matter was discussed in connection with the use 
 of an organ in the congregation of St Andrew’s, Glasgow. 
 The case was brought before the Presbytery of Glasgow 
 in 1807 ; and the following motion was carried, no 
 appeal being made, “ That the Presbytery are of opinion, 
 that the use of the organ in the public worship of God is 
 contrary to the law of the land, and to the law and consti¬ 
 tution of our Established Church, and therefore prohibit 
 it in all the churches and chapels within its bounds.” In 
 1829, the question was brought up in the Relief Synod, 
 as an organ had been introduced into Roxburgh 
 Place Church, Edinburgh. The Synod declared this to 
 be “ an innovation unauthorised by the law of the New 
 Testament, contrary to the universal practice of the 
 Church of Scotland, and contrary to the consuetudinary 
 laws of the Synod of Relief, and highly inexpedient.” 
 An organ having been erected in the new Claremont 
 Church, Glasgow, the same question came up in 1856 
 
 ^ “ The organ was a great mark of distinction between Episcopa¬ 
 lian and Presbyterian places of worship. I have heard of an old 
 lady describing an Episcopalian clergyman, without any idea of dis¬ 
 respect, in these terms, ‘ Oh, he is a whistle-kirk minister.’ ”—Dean 
 Ramsay’s “Reminiscences,” chap. ii. 
 
LVS TR UMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 39 
 
 before the United Presbyterian Synod ; and the Synod 
 “ refused the petition of the memorialists, inasmuch as 
 the use of instrumental music is contrary to the uniform 
 practice of this Church, and of the other Presbyterian 
 Churches in this country, and would seriously disturb 
 the peace of the churches under the inspection of this 
 vSynod,” The matter came before the Synod again in 
 1872, when the Court “declined to pronounce a judg¬ 
 ment upon the use of instrumental music in public wor¬ 
 ship yet declared that “ uniformity of practice in this 
 matter shall no longer be made a rule of the Church.” 
 Toleration being thus granted, instrumental music has 
 been introduced into many of the places of worship of 
 the United Presbyterian Church, the harmonium being 
 used when the expense of an organ prevents the higher 
 attainment. In the Established Church, the same 
 liberty has lately been conceded, and the result has been 
 similar; and one or more of the Presbyteries of the 
 Free Church have agreed to transmit overtures to the 
 General Assembly, proposing that “ the subject of the 
 employment of instrumental aid be taken into considera¬ 
 tion, and liberty granted to congregations to employ it 
 in the ordinary service of the sanctuary, where it can be 
 done without endangering the peace of congregations, 
 and the edification of the Church.” 
 
 Many years before the subject was taken up by the 
 United Presbyterian Synod, the Professor of Pastoral 
 Theology to the United Secession Church,^ in a lecture 
 to his students on Psalmody, when showing them how to 
 ^ The Rev. Dr Duncan. 
 
40 
 
 INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 answer the objection to the permanent use of the Psalms 
 founded on the frequent reference to musical instru¬ 
 ments, said, “ Let it, first of all, be cautiously remarked, 
 that is, so as not to be misunderstood or justly give 
 offence, that, while the very basis of the new economy is 
 wholly incompatible with the offering of animal sacrifices, 
 there is nothing in its principles, or in the prescription 
 of its forms, opposed to the decorous use of instrumental 
 music in praise, either for guidance or as an accompani¬ 
 ment;” but afterwards he proceeds to show that the 
 phraseology of the Psalms, even as sung by the Jews, 
 did not necessarily imply the use of instrumental music, 
 and is susceptible of an interpretation similar to that 
 wLich, when the Psalms are sung by us, is to be given of 
 the expressions respecting animal sacrifices and the rites 
 connected with oblation. These sacrifices were typical 
 of the death of Christ, which, as actually accomplished, 
 is now the grand subject of celebration in the Church ; 
 and they were also acts of worship, expressive of 
 the sentiments and feelings of the worshippers; while, 
 further, with the expiatory sacrifices there were connected 
 eucharistic oblations, or sacrifices of thanksgiving; and 
 both the typical nature of the legal system, and the 
 analogy or correspondence between the worship of the 
 Old and that of the New Testament state, warrant the 
 continued use of those psalms which refer to the religi¬ 
 ous institutions of the ancient economy, and indicate 
 the sense in which they are to be understood by us in 
 singing them. The same or a similar principle of inter¬ 
 pretation is applicable to the psalms in which instru- 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 41 
 
 ments of music are mentioned. These instruments, it is 
 true, with the exception of the trumpets which Moses 
 was commanded to make, had no typical meaning; but 
 the use of them in the service of praise was spiritually 
 significant; and the language of the psalms, when 
 applied to the worship of the gospel age, is to be under¬ 
 stood as importing that we are to praise God in the best 
 manner of which we are capable, exulting in spirit before 
 Him, summoning to His service all the faculties and 
 powers, natural and gracious, of which we are possessed, 
 and employing all appropriate means for stirring us up 
 to engage in it with fervour and delight. With perfect 
 propriety, therefore, may we, without instrumental 
 music, make use, in the service of praise, of the psalms 
 in which musical instruments are mentioned, as, indeed, 
 did the Jews themselves ; for the songs of Zion, as some 
 of them plainly indicate,—the ninety-second, for example, 
 —were provided for domestic and personal, as well as 
 for public use; and we cannot suppose that all the Jews 
 were furnished with the variety of expensive instruments 
 referred to in the psalms. 
 
 The only legitimate ground on which the use of in¬ 
 strumental music in the worship of the Christian Church 
 can be pleaded for is that indicated above, and more 
 fully stated by a recent writer, who says, “ The employ¬ 
 ment of an organ to guide the music is properly not 
 ritualistic at all. The leader has his pitch-pipe, and the 
 hundred pipes of the organ only serve to guide and 
 sustain the voice of the people. Nobody wishes to praise 
 God by the mere sound of the organ; its music only helps 
 
42 
 
 INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 and supports the melody and worship of the church.” ^ 
 To substitute instrumental music for the voice would be 
 a heinous offence. To use it in our assemblies as it was 
 used under the ancient dispensation, when, in and through 
 the music performed, the people offered homage to God, 
 would be to violate the simplicity and spirituality by 
 which the Christian dispensation is characterised. But 
 there seems to be no impropriety in using it to aid the 
 voice in psalmody, or to render this part of the service 
 more impressive, and promote truly devotional feeling. 
 Yet even in this view, it is confessedly not essential to 
 the exercise of praise. As has already been stated, it was 
 not enjoined or exemplified by the apostles; nor had it 
 a place by voluntary adoption in the primitive churches. 
 We have no notice of it in ecclesiastical history till that 
 age of avowed reversion to Judaism for the purpose of 
 worldly aggrandisement, which introduced the hierarchy, 
 and other forms of assimilation to the ancient ritual; and 
 where it is in use, there must always be a danger of 
 substituting, if not the symbolical for the real, yet the 
 external for the spiritual, and even the instrumental for 
 the vocal, which would require to be guarded against 
 with peculiar vigilance.^ “ O God,” says the Psalmist, 
 “ my heart is fixed : I will sing and give praise, even with 
 my glory. Awake, psaltery and harp : I myself will awake 
 
 ^ Eadie’s “Eccl. Cycl.,” Art. Organ. 
 
 “ “ Hie observandum: ut Ecclesia musicam non permittat fractam 
 aut confragosam, quae verba percipere non sinit, et ad aurium 
 titillationem facit, non ad veram devotionem et gaudium spirituale, 
 quicquam confert; quo etiam vergit usus Organovum pneumati- 
 corum.”—Mastricht’s “ Theol. Ascet.,” lib. ii. cap 7. 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 43 
 
 early.” On this a well-known commentator remarks : 
 —“ We ourselves must first be stirred up to make right 
 use of the means, before the means can be fit to stir us 
 up. As a man first tunes his instrument, and then plays 
 on it, so should the holy servant of God first labour to 
 bring his spirit, heart, and affections into a serious and 
 fervent frame for worship, and then go to work.” It is thus 
 only that, if an instrument be employed, it can aid in 
 expressing, and tend to promote, devotional thoughts and 
 feelings ; and it is thus only that the service of song can 
 be acceptable to God and beneficial to ourselves. True 
 piety, if it have its due influence, will undoubtedly prompt 
 to the cultivation of a high degree of excellence in the 
 outward performance of the service of praise; and 
 the attainment of this will tend to strengthen and elevate 
 the devotional feelings of genuine worshippers. But 
 mere music, whether vocal or instrumental, is but an 
 empty sound.^ ‘‘ The most graceful execution and 
 thrilling notes are a vain offering in themselves.” “ God 
 is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him 
 in spirit and in truth.” They that celebrate His praise 
 must “sing and make melody in their heart to the 
 Lord.” 2 
 
 1 “ Non vox, sed votum, non chordula musica, sed cor, 
 
 Non cantus, sed amor, cantat in aure Dei.” 
 
 Versicle, quoted by Mollerus in Com. on the Psalms. 
 
 “ The most extraordinary argument I have met with for the use of 
 instrumental music is one that is noticed by Macaulay in his History. 
 Henry Dodwell, Camdensian Professor of Ancient History in the 
 University of Oxford, towards the end of the seventeenth century, 
 “defended the use of instrumental music in public worship on the 
 ground that the notes of the organ had a power to counteract the 
 
44 
 
 INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 influence of devils on the spinal marrow of human beings. In his 
 treatise on this subject, he remarked that there was high authority 
 for the opinion that the spinal marrow, when decomposed, became 
 a serpent. Whether this opinion were or were not correct, he 
 thought it unnecessary to decide. Perhaps, he said, the eminent 
 men in whose works it was found meant only to express figura¬ 
 tively the great truth, that the old serpent operates on us chiefly 
 through the spinal maiTow.”—Macaulay’s “ History of England,” 
 vol. V. pp. 87, 88. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 READING OF THE WORD. 
 
 “ 13 EADING of the Word in the congregation,” says 
 the Westminster Directory, “being part of 
 the public worship of God (wherein we acknowledge 
 our dependence upon Him, and subjection to Him), and 
 one means sanctified by Him for the edifying of His 
 people, is to be performed by the pastors and teachers.” 
 At the Reformation, the ancient office of “readers,” in a 
 modified form, was continued in the Church of Scotland. 
 There were persons employed to read the Scriptures to 
 the people before the minister began the proper services 
 of the Sabbath, and in some places, in the morning and 
 evening of every week-day. They were also appointed 
 to read the common prayers, but were not allowed to 
 preach or administer the sacraments. “The readers 
 were tempted now and then to overstep these limits, 
 and were as often forbidden by the General Assembly, 
 till, in 1581, the office was formally abolished.” ^ The 
 Westminster Directory, accordingly, assigns this duty 
 to the pastors and teachers. “ How large a portion 
 shall be read at once shall be left to the wisdom of the 
 
 1 Eadie’s “Eccl. Cycl.” 
 
46 
 
 READING OF THE WORD. 
 
 minister; but it is convenient that ordinarily one chapter 
 of each Testament be read at every meeting, and some¬ 
 times more when the chapters be short, or the coherence 
 of matter requireth.” In the church to which I belong, 
 fifty or sixty years ago this prescription was not uniformly 
 observed by all its ministers, and by many it was entirely 
 neglected. An eminent minister of that church, when com¬ 
 mencing this practice in 1821, deemed it necessary to make 
 the following somewhat apologetic statement:—“ Before 
 prayer, I mean to read to you a portion of the Word of 
 God. In adopting this practice, I am not taken by any 
 sudden impulse, for it has been long a subject of de¬ 
 liberation, and is now resolved upon on grounds which I 
 will state to you as the result of my own reflections; 
 neither am I moved by any propensity to innovation, for 
 the practice, it is well known, is not new; neither do I 
 plead what may be considered as peculiar reasons for its 
 existing in former times, as in the Jewish synagogue, or 
 in the apostolic age,” &c. “ But, as the secret reading 
 
 of the Word ought not to supersede its being read 
 privately in the exercises of family worship, so neither 
 ought this to set aside its being read in public; for the 
 public reading of the Word of God seems to me an 
 honour due to it, showing the respect in which we hold 
 it, the high place we give to it in all acts of worship, and 
 our deference to its authority independent of all exposi¬ 
 tion.” “ We thus, too, make sure that such portions of 
 the Word as an overseer, acquainted with the state of the 
 people, and disposed to consult their welfare, deems 
 most necessary and suitable, are not overlooked,” &c. 
 
READING OF THE WORD. 
 
 47 
 
 And further, due account is to be made of the office of 
 a gospel minister, by whom the Scriptures are thus read. 
 It is an ordinance of Christ; and when, in the exercise of 
 this office, your attention is turned to any portion of the 
 Word of God, though but by reading it, then there is not 
 only the authority of the Word, which you must have 
 respected even in private, not only the deference due to 
 a special call in Providence to attend to the portion of 
 the Word laid before you, but there is all the weight of 
 the instituted office by which God at the time lays this 
 portion of His Word before you, and requires your atten¬ 
 tion to it,” (See. 
 
 This practice is now, I believe, universal in the public 
 assemblies of all the Presbyterian Churches; but a con¬ 
 siderable diversity obtains in the mode of performing it. 
 In some cases the recommendation of the Directory 
 is exactly complied with; in others only one chapter is 
 read. In some congregations the reading of the Word 
 precedes, and in others it follows the first prayer. In 
 some the chapter is simply read, in others the reading is 
 accompanied with explanatory remarks. I remember an 
 excellent and venerable old minister, who, in his prayer 
 at the close of the services on a Fast-day, when a com¬ 
 paratively young brother had occupied his pulpit, gave 
 thanks for the hymns that had been sung, but added, 
 “ We like the Psalms better, and will often go back to 
 them, and we are glad they have been so largely drawn 
 upon to-day; ” and then went on to give thanks particu¬ 
 larly for “the penitential psalm that was sung at the 
 commencement, and for the other penitential psalm that 
 
48 
 
 READING OF THE WORD. 
 
 was read, though without note or co?nment,^^ a clause this, 
 which may have been subjoined simply as descriptive of 
 the fact, but which might be supposed to have been in¬ 
 tended to serve as a salutary reproof or admonition 
 to the preacher. The Directory says, “ When the 
 minister who readeth shall judge it necessary to ex¬ 
 pound any part of what is read, let it not be done until 
 the whole chapter be ended,” an instruction which is 
 probably to be regarded as based on the consideration 
 of the honour and deference due to the inspired Word 
 being thus more evidently indicated. The usefulness of 
 this part of the service, when it consists simply in the 
 reading of the Word, must of course depend very much 
 on the manner in which the portion of Scripture is read. 
 “ Like other acts of worship, this may be performed in 
 an unedifying manner. Some readers do terribly drawl 
 out the words of Scripture. Others read in a hurried 
 and confused way. Some sadly mouth all they read. 
 Others read with great carelessness. The effect of such 
 reading is pain to pious people, and contempt in the 
 ungodly. Good reading makes an impression corre¬ 
 sponding to the matter read.” ‘‘ The first requisite is, to 
 be distinctly heard; the second is, to give the right 
 emphasis, so as to give the true meaning ; and the third 
 
 is, to impress the truth thus taught on the minds of 
 those who hear.” ^ The late Dr John Brown’s reading 
 was singularly impressive, and admirably adapted to the 
 use of copying; the remark was often made respecting 
 
 it, that it was itself an exposition. 
 
 ^ “Homiletic Quarterly,” vol. i. pp. 310, 311. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 P/^A Y£A\ 
 
 pRAYER was a principal part of religious worship 
 under the Old Testament dispensation ; and it has 
 been a principal part of the service in the assemblies of 
 Christians from the beginning. “ It is an acknowledgment 
 of God by those who are present; an acknowledgment 
 of their dependence upon Him, of their expectations 
 from Him, of their desire for His grace, by which 
 only the institutions of religion will be rendered effec¬ 
 tual. On such occasions one necessarily speaks in 
 the name of the rest; ” and it appears most con¬ 
 venient, suitable, and edifying, that ordinarily the pastor 
 and teacher of a Christian congregation should lead its 
 devotions; but all are understood to join in the prayers. 
 “ It is not the minister alone who prays, it is the congre¬ 
 gation which addresses God by his mouth; and every 
 man should make the petitions his own by serious atten¬ 
 tion to them, and by stirring up the sentiments and affec¬ 
 tions of which they are expressive.” ^ In the public 
 worship of the Jewish Church, the closing “Amen ” seems 
 
 ^ Dick’s “ Lect. on Theology,” xciv. 
 
 D 
 
5 ° 
 
 FJiA YER. 
 
 to have been uttered by the assembly at larged In the 
 book of Nehemiah we are told that when the people 
 gathered themselves together to hear the book of the 
 law of Moses read and expounded, “ Ezra blessed the 
 Lord, the great God; and all the people answered Amen, 
 Amen, with lifting up of their hands ; ” and this custom 
 appears to have been adopted by the primitive Christian 
 Church, for the apostle, when reasoning with the Corin¬ 
 thians concerning the manner in which the gift of tongues 
 was abused by some of them, says, “ Else,” that is, in 
 case you do not speak intelligibly, “when thou shalt bless 
 with the spirit; how shall he that occupieth the place of 
 the unlearned say Amen,” or, as the expression is, “ Say 
 the Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he under- 
 standeth not what thou sayest.” “ This practice was 
 continued for several centuries. Jerome relates that in 
 his time the united Amen of the people in some of the 
 larger churches sounded like the fall of water, or the 
 noise of thunder. In many cases this response might be 
 an unmeaning form. Its revival, however, might have 
 the effect of making those who come to public worship 
 more attentive to the prayers presented in their name 
 for if they had any serious impressions at all, they would 
 fear thus voluntarily to express their assent to petitions 
 of which they knew little or nothing. They could not 
 
 ^ “ The Talmudists taxed the people’s negligence in prayer, say¬ 
 ing that they used three sorts of Amen, and all faulty ; A faint Amen, 
 when they prayed without fervency ; a hasty Amen, when they said 
 Amen before the prayer was done ; a lazy Amen, when they pro¬ 
 nounced it at length, as if they were asleep, dividing the word 
 Amen.'” —Godwyn’s “Moses and Aaron,” B. i. c. 2. 
 
FORMS OF FRA YER. 
 
 51 
 
 say Amen to prayers to which they had not listened, and 
 in which they had not joined, any more than the Corin¬ 
 thians could say it to those which had been spoken in an 
 unknown tongue. But though this practice does not 
 prevail in our churches, it is not less the imperative duty 
 of every worshipper so to attend to the public prayers 
 offered in the name of all who are present, as to be able, 
 with knowledge and with faith, mentally to say. Amen, 
 so let it be, and so it will be.”^ 
 
 Forms of Prayer. 
 
 Prescribed forms appear to have been unknown in the 
 early Christian Church. Justin Martyr, who lived in the 
 second century, says, “ The president,” or officiating 
 minister, “ pours out prayers according to his ability; ” 
 and Tertullian, in the third, says, “ We look up to 
 heaven with our hands stretched forth ; ” and again, “ We 
 pray without a monitor, because we pray from the heart.”^ 
 Presbyterians in general have rejected prescribed liturgies. 
 “ We do not indeed,” says Dr Miller, “consider the use 
 of forms of prayer as in all cases unlawful. We do not 
 doubt that they have been often useful, and that to 
 many this mode of conducting public devotions is highly 
 edifying. If any minister of our Church,” the American 
 Presbyterian Church, “ should think proper to compose 
 a form of prayer, or a variety of forms, for his own use, 
 or to borrow those which have been prepared by others, 
 he ought to be considered as at perfect liberty to do so. 
 
 1 Duncan’s “Pattern of Prayer,” note xii. 
 
 2 Bennet’s “Theology,” &c., Lect. IV. 
 
52 
 
 FOJ?A/S OF PR A YER. 
 
 But we object to being confined to forms of prayer. We 
 contend that it is of great importance to the edification 
 of the Church that every minister be left at liberty to 
 conduct the devotions of the sanctuary as his circum¬ 
 stances and the dispensations of Providence may de¬ 
 mand.” 1 
 
 “ At a meeting of the nobles and barons attached to 
 the Reformation, held at Edinburgh in December 1557, 
 it was agreed that they should rest satisfied for the 
 present with requiring that prayers, and the lessons of 
 the Old and New Testament, should be read in English, 
 according to the ‘buik of comon prayeris.’” In 1562, 
 the Book of Common Order, first used by the congrega- 
 tion of English exiles at Geneva, was partially introduced; 
 and by an act of the General Assembly in December 
 1564, it was appointed to be read by the curates, or, if 
 they should refuse, by “the best qualified in the parochin.” 
 This, which has been called “ Knox’s Liturgy,” having 
 been composed by Knox on the basis of Calvin’s, con¬ 
 tains forms of prayer for the different parts of public 
 worship; and “ this,” says M‘Crie, “ is the only re¬ 
 semblance which it bears to the English Liturgy. But 
 there is this important difference between the two: in 
 the English, the minister is restricted to the repetition of 
 the very words of the prayers; in the Scottish, he is left 
 at liberty to vary from them, and to substitute prayers of 
 his own in their room. At the end of the account of the 
 ])ublic service of the Sabbath, this instruction is subjoined; 
 
 ‘ It shall not be necessarie for the minister daylie to 
 ' “ Presbyterianism,” pp. 67, 68. 
 
FORMS OF FRA YER. 
 
 53 
 
 repeat all these things before mentioned, but, beginning 
 with some manner of confession, to proceed to the 
 sermon, which ended, he either useth the prayer for 
 all estates before mentioned, or else prayeth as the 
 Spirit of God shall move his heart, framing the same 
 according to the time and matter which he hath entreated 
 of.’ The Scottish prayers, therefore, were intended as a 
 help to the ignorant, not as a restraint upon those who 
 could pray without a set form. The readers and ex- 
 horters commonly used them; but even they were en¬ 
 couraged to perform the service in a different manner.” ^ 
 This formulary, which was thus from the first simply the 
 common basis, or the model, rather than the actual 
 substance, of the public service of the Scottish Church, 
 appears to have gradually fallen into disuse; and it was 
 at length entirely superseded by the Westminster Direc¬ 
 tory, adopted by the General Assembly in 1645, which 
 is simply a general code of regulations or instructions 
 respecting the different parts of public worship, indicat¬ 
 ing, in regard to prayer, only the various appropriate 
 subjects of confession, petition, and thanksgiving. 
 
 In the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland, therefore, 
 the public prayers are “without the shackles of pre¬ 
 scribed forms. The custom of praying extempore is one 
 of the religious practices of their ancestors, of which the 
 Scottish people have always been peculiarly tenacious, 
 and there is nothing which they are universally less 
 willing to endure, or more prone to ridicule, than re- 
 
 ^ M'Crie’s “ Life of John Knox,” 5th edition, vol. i.. Note DD. 
 
54 
 
 FORMS OF FRA YER. 
 
 peated prayers.”^ Thus wrote Dr Jamieson twelve 
 years ago; but in the Church of which he was a dis¬ 
 tinguished minister, the practice of reading prayers is 
 now not altogether unknown. In 1859, Dr Lee, minister 
 of Old Greyfriars’ Church, Edinburgh, who had for some 
 time been using a book, either in manuscript or printed, 
 entitled “ Prayers for Public Worship,” was enjoined by 
 the Assembly “to discontinue the use of the book in 
 question in the service of his church, and to conform, in 
 offering up prayer, to the present ordinary practices of 
 the Church.” But, in a letter which appeared in the 
 Daily Review of September 14, 1881, it is stated that 
 “ in the cathedrals of Edinburgh and Glasgow, in Old 
 Greyfriars’, and in many other churches where a high 
 ritual is followed out, the prayers are read, and read out 
 of a printed book.” This book, I suppose, is that en¬ 
 titled, “A Book of Common Order, being Forms of 
 Worship issued by the Church Service Society,” of which 
 a third edition, revised and enlarged, was published in 
 1874. 
 
 At the meeting of the United Presbyterian Synod in 
 May 1881, an overture was presented from the Presbytery 
 of Dundee, asking the Synod “ to consider what steps 
 might be taken to improve the devotional services of 
 the Church, and, in particular, whether the Synod should 
 not prepare a Directory of Public Worship.” There is 
 here no express mention made of a Liturgy; but it 
 seemed to be understood that the introduction of one, if 
 not immediately, yet at no very remote time, was con- 
 ^ “ Religions of the World,” p. 127. 
 
FORMS OF PR A VER. 
 
 55 
 
 templated by some of the authors or supporters of the 
 overture.^ The deliverance of the Supreme Court was, 
 “ That, having heard the overturists, the Synod declines 
 to take any steps in the preparation of a Directory, but, 
 recognising the great importance of the edifying conduct 
 of the devotional exercises of the Church, recommends 
 the subject to the prayerful consideration of ministers, 
 and of Presbyteries in private conference.” A prayer 
 read, whether from a manuscript or a printed book, is 
 still a thing unknown in the Dissenting Presbyterian 
 Churches of Scotland. Doubtless, however, many of 
 their ministers are in the habit of premeditating their 
 public prayers, and thus of endeavouring to attain variety 
 in the opening, as well as in the concluding part of the 
 devotional services—a result to which the practice of 
 reading the Scriptures before engaging in prayer is 
 eminently conducive; and perhaps it would in many 
 cases contribute to the “ edifying conduct ” of these 
 services, that the prayers were privately pre-composed. 
 
 In the section of the Westminster Directory which 
 
 ^ “ It is said of the late President Dwight, of Yale College, that 
 when a brother clergyman inquired why they could not have a 
 Liturgy as well as the Church people (of which they greatly stood 
 in need to restrain the irregularities of worship), he simply answered 
 him by the inquiiy, ‘Who shall prepare it?’ And this is the 
 difficulty which every person who has written on the subject has, 
 tacitly at least, acknowledged. It is conceded on all sides that no 
 Doctors in Divinity, no General Assemblies, nor Associations, in 
 our day, are able to compose a Liturgy; but it is maintained that a 
 Liturgy may be compiled out of pre-existing forms .”—The Church 
 Review, art. on the “Liturgical Movement ” inserted in Br. and For. 
 Ev. Revinu, April 1857. 
 
56 
 
 FORMS OF PR A YER. 
 
 relates to public prayer after sermon, it is said, “And 
 because the prayer which Christ taught His disciples is 
 not only a pattern of prayer, but itself a most compre¬ 
 hensive prayer, we recommend it also to be used in 
 the prayers of His Church.” Augustine expresses the 
 opinion, “ that Christ intended this prayer as a model, 
 rather than a form,—that He did not mean to teach His 
 disciples what words they should use in prayer, but what 
 things they should pray for.” No one can suppose that 
 our Lord intended to confine His disciples to the use of 
 this prayer, or to enjoin the constant and unvarying 
 employment of it in all their devotions; and it seems 
 evidently to have been designed chiefly to be a pattern 
 or a guide,—a purpose which it is admirably adapted to 
 answer. But that it was also intended to be a form, is 
 apparently indicated by the language of our Lord in the 
 Gospel of Luke, “ When ye pray, say. Our Father,” &c.; 
 and even the phrase employed in Matthew’s Gospel, 
 which in our version is rendered, “ after this manner,” 
 but may be rendered more simply, “thus,” is used in 
 Scripture in reference to the identical words that were 
 spoken. It may be remarked, too, that, though our 
 Lord had not expressly directed His disciples to employ 
 the very words of this prayer, it would have been natural 
 to consider them as the most proper that could be found 
 to express the desires of their hearts. It was when dis¬ 
 coursing on secret devotion that our Lord took occasion 
 to deliver this prayer to His disciples; and from the 
 fourth petition it may seem to have been intended 
 
FORMS OF PR A YER. 
 
 57 
 
 mainly for the domestic circle; ^ but even in this, and 
 plainly in all the other parts, it is suitable for the sanc¬ 
 tuary as well as for the closet and the family. “ We are 
 sure that the ancients either used it alone, or prefixed it 
 to their prayers when they used it. Thus Tertullian, 
 after a large commendation of it, adds, ‘We may add 
 thereunto : ’ ‘ having premised the lawful and ordinary 
 prayer as a foundation, there is place for accidental re¬ 
 quests.’“There is no doubt that in some churches, 
 and particularly in the Church of England, the Lord’s 
 Prayer is improperly used, being introduced into the 
 service unseasonably, and repeated over and over, as if 
 there were supposed to be some magical virtue in the 
 words.” ^ But the abuse of it by superstition, or by 
 formality, is no reason why we should entirely lay it 
 aside, or “ treat it as Hezekiah did the brazen serpent, 
 which he broke in pieces, because it had been made the 
 object of idolatrous regard.”^ Of the two opposite ex¬ 
 tremes, of apparently superstitious veneration or vain 
 repetition and unbecoming exclusion or neglect, the 
 latter was in past times much more extensively prevalent 
 in Dissenting Presbyterian Churches than the former; 
 but now this prayer is very generally used once at least 
 on every Sabbath in their public worship, either alone, or 
 as the conclusion and summing up of their petitions.^ 
 
 * Dwight’s “Theology,” Ser. 141. 
 
 “ Anderson’s “Defence of the Presbyterian Worship,” p. 246. 
 
 ^ This is felt by the pious and intelligent in the Church of England 
 themselves. See The Churchman for January 1882. 
 
 ^ Dick’s “ Lectures on Theology,” xcv. 
 
 ® An old minister, telling a newly licensed probationer, who was 
 
58 
 
 LENGTH OF PR A YERS. 
 
 Length of Prayers. 
 
 An eminent Presbyterian divine, speaking of the 
 Liturgy of the Church of England, says, “ A serious 
 objection is the shortness of the prayers. The longest 
 is ended almost before you have time to bring your 
 mind into a proper frame for joining in it; and some of 
 them, consisting only of a single sentence, are finished 
 almost as soon as they are begun.” ^ If the prescribed 
 forms in the English Liturgy are too short, the extempora¬ 
 neous prayers in the Scottish Presbyterian Churches have 
 generally been too long. This was the case, too, among 
 the English Puritans. On a public fast-day, John Howe, 
 Calamy tells us, “ began with a prayer for about a quarter 
 of an hour, in which he begged a blessing on the work of 
 the day; after expounding a chapter, he prayed for an 
 hour ) preached for another hour, and prayed for half-an- 
 hour;” after a short interval, “he prayed for another 
 hour, preached, and then concluded the service of the 
 day with about half-an-hour in prayer.” This, however, 
 was an extraordinary or special occasion, and, probably, 
 the length of his prayers then is not to be regarded as an 
 indication of his usual practice. Dr Jamieson says, 
 “ These,” the opening and concluding prayers in the 
 ordinary service of the Church of Scotland, “ usually last 
 
 to preach for him one day, how the services were usually conducted 
 in his church, stated that between sermons he was accustomed to 
 offer up the Lord’s Prayer. But, asked the young man, may I not 
 give something else? O yes, the minister replied, you may,—• 
 especially if you can give anything better. 
 
 ^ Dick’s “ Lectures on Theology,” xciv. 
 
LENGTH OF PR A YERS. 
 
 59 
 
 for a quarter of an nour,—perhaps too great an effort 
 for the generality of minds to engage with sustained 
 attention in a pure act of devotion ; ” yet “ that space is 
 not too long for overtaking all the topics which our 
 public prayer ought to embrace.” Forty or fifty years 
 ago, a somewhat longer space was usually occupied by 
 the first prayer; and special occasions were sometimes 
 distinguished by its inordinate length. An eminent 
 Secession minister in Glasgow whom I knew would, on 
 the Sabbath after the Communion, pray for about forty 
 minutes, his prayer being a kind of recapitulation of all 
 the discourses which had been preached in connection 
 with the dispensation of the Lord’s Supper.^ It is now 
 the practice of some ministers, who begin public worship 
 with praise, to have two prayers preceding the sermon, 
 one of which is offered up before or after a chapter of the 
 Old, and the other before or after a chapter of the New 
 Testament has been read; and each of these prayers 
 occupies only a few minutes. In the Book of Common 
 Order issued by the Church Service Society, there is an 
 approximation in form to the Liturgy of the Church of 
 England ; but the prayers in the former, though brief, are 
 still for the most part considerably longer than those in 
 the latter. 
 
 1 I remember at a congregational prayer meeting in a city church, 
 about forty years ago, after a short discourse had been preached, an 
 elder, who was called on to pray, engaging in this exercise for about 
 half-an-hour, during which time he performed one complete rotation, 
 and had gone through about a third part of another, when he came to 
 a close, and seemed, on opening his eyes, to be not a little amazed at 
 the change w’hich had taken place in his relative position. 
 
6o 
 
 FRA YER OF INVOCATION. 
 
 Prayer of Invocation. 
 
 “ The congregation being assembled,” says the West¬ 
 minster Directory, “ the minister, after solemn calling 
 upon them to the worshipping of God, is to begin with 
 prayer.” This direction, so far as I know, was not till 
 recently observed in any of the congregations of the 
 Church to which I belong. Public worship was always 
 begun with service of song, from regard, probably, to the 
 supposed import of the exhortation in the hundredth 
 Psalm, “ Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into 
 His courts with praise; ” and this exercise still takes pre¬ 
 cedence of all the rest in the congregations generally of 
 the Established and Free Churches. The practice, 
 however, has now been introduced in some of the United 
 Presbyterian congregations of commencing with a short 
 prayer, an invocation of the Divine presence and bless¬ 
 ing. In the early ages, we are told, before the preacher 
 began his discourse, he always invoked the Divine aid 
 in a short prayer, which he was also accustomed to 
 present in the course of his sermon when any point of 
 unusual difficulty or great importance occurred; and this 
 practice might with great propriety be revived. 
 
 Attitude in Prayer. 
 
 “ Before the Revolution, and about the time of the 
 Revolution in England,” said Dr Rainy, in a speech in 
 the General Assembly, “ the Episcopalians generally 
 stood at prayer, and the common imputation against the 
 
A TTITUDE IN PR A YER. 
 
 6i 
 
 Presbyterians was that they sat.” But gradually, the 
 practice of standing at prayer came in among the Presby¬ 
 terians ; and this ere long prevailed universally, while the 
 posture of sitting was substituted for that of standing at 
 praise. The latter has now once more been introduced ; 
 and this has rendered necessary a change of attitude in 
 prayer, as it would be fatiguing to many or most wor¬ 
 shippers to remain standing during both parts of the 
 service. The pews in our churches are not so formed as 
 to admit of kneeling; and when standing at praise is 
 practised, the worshippers sit during prayer, but bend 
 forward in an attitude expressive of reverence and 
 humility; and this change, too, has been found an im¬ 
 provement, there being much less of that wandering of 
 the eye, that looking around, during prayer, by which 
 this part of Divine service has often been profaned by 
 thoughtless and undevout individuals, while the truly 
 pious worshippers have felt that they could more easily 
 maintain throughout an earnest and undisturbed atten¬ 
 tion. An old writer says, “ Standing is a posture not 
 unfit for this worship, especially in places where we have 
 not conveniency for the humbler gestures; but sitting, 
 or other postures of rest and laziness, ought not to be 
 indulged, unless persons are aged or infirm, or the work 
 of prayer be drawn out so long as to make it troublesome 
 to human nature to maintain itself always in one posture.” 
 But sitting at prayer is not necessarily a posture of in¬ 
 dolent repose any more than in hearing the Word, or 
 observing the Lord’s Supper; nor can it be justly objected 
 to as inconsistent with becoming reverence by any who 
 
62 
 
 A TTITUDE IN FRA YER. 
 
 do not think it irreverent to sit during praise ; for in 
 praise, as well as in prayer, we approach to God ; and it 
 is essential to all acceptable worship, that we “ serve Him 
 with reverence and godly fear.” 
 
 It has been urged as an objection to the use of this 
 attitude, that there is no Scriptural warrant for it, such as 
 there is for standing, as well as for kneeling. But, not 
 to mention that the posture is not precisely that of sitting, 
 it may be replied that there are instances recorded in 
 Scripture in which we find this attitude exemplified. In 
 the twentieth chapter of the book of Judges, we read 
 that “ the children of Israel came into the house of God, 
 and wept, and sat there before the Lord,” &c.; and in 
 the seventh chapter of the second book of Samuel it is 
 said, “Then went king David in, and ‘sat’ before the 
 Lord; and he said. Who am I, O Lord God? and what is 
 my house,” &c. These texts, however, are by no means 
 decisive.But in the New Testament, we are told that 
 in both the two instances in which our Lord miraculously 
 fed the multitude. He commanded them to sit down on 
 the ground, and then took the loaves and the fishes, and 
 prayed giving thanks. It is still more important to 
 notice that “ the prayers at the institution of the Lord’s 
 Supper were offered while the first communicants were 
 sitting. No intimation is given by the Evangelists of a 
 change of posture when the prayers began; and the 
 general posture occupied during the sacred feast, in 
 absence of all other proof, must be understood as deter¬ 
 mining the attitude of prayer.” - To pray standing was 
 
 1 See Poole and Henry, and Kitto’s “Illustrations.” 
 
 - United Presbyterian Magazine, July 1864. 
 
A TTITUDE IN PEA YER. 
 
 63 
 
 the manner of the Jews (Neh. ix. 4, 5 ; Mark xi. 25 
 Luke xviii. ii, 13,—“ whence,” says Godwyn, “byway 
 of proverb, they say, ‘ Were it not for standing, the world 
 would not stand’ ” ; and in moments of more than 
 
 ordinary humiliation or emotion of heart, this attitude 
 was sometimes changed to one of kneeling or prostration 
 (2 Chron. vi. 12, 13). The latter seems to be of all 
 postures the most proper and becoming. But where 
 neither standing nor kneeling can be conveniently prac¬ 
 tised, it cannot be regarded as unlawful to choose the 
 attitude which has of late been extensively adopted in our 
 worshipping assemblies. Without the inward feelings of 
 reverence and humility, no outward attitude can be truly 
 devout; and wherever a devout and reverential frame of 
 mind exists, it will give solemnity to any outward form 
 that is consistent with it. 
 
 1 “Moses and Aaron,” B. ii. c. 2. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PREACHING. 
 
 HIS is a Divine ordinance which, though not 
 
 peculiar to the Christian dispensation, has under 
 it been assigned a place of special importance. It is 
 mentioned first in the sacred historian’s account of the 
 stated observances of the Church at Jerusalem. The 
 converts of Pentecost “continued stedfastly in the apostles’ 
 doctrine ” or teaching, that is, in attending on their in¬ 
 structions, “ and in the fellowship,” the communication of 
 property, “and in the breaking of bread,” the celebration 
 of the Lord’s Supper, “ and in the prayers,” or devotional 
 services. It w'as the glory of the Reformation that it re¬ 
 stored public preaching to the Church; and in the w'or- 
 ship of the Scottish Protestant Churches, this has ever 
 held a prominent place. “So much,” says Jamieson, 
 “ are the people accustomed to regard it as of pre-eminent 
 importance, that this habit of thought has moulded their 
 common conversation ; and, while an inhabitant of Eng¬ 
 land speaks of going to chapel, or attending service, a 
 native of Scotland comprehends all the purposes of churcli 
 
PREACHING. 65 
 
 attendance in the phrase of going to hear a particular 
 minister.” 
 
 There are two forms of preaching, of exhibiting Divine 
 truth, or statedly conducting the ministry of the Word, 
 which have long been known by the names of Lecture 
 and Ser??ion; and both these have all along been 
 usually exemplified in the Presbyterian Churches of 
 Scotland. 
 
 By some of the early acts of the General Assembly, 
 Presbyteries were enjoined to visit parishes, and put 
 questions to all concerned. The Presbytery were, first of 
 all, to ask the Session about the minister; and, among 
 other questions,^ there was this, “ Doth he lecture and 
 preach in the forenoon, and preach again in the after¬ 
 noon, and that, both summer and winter ? ” It thus 
 appears that a minister’s pulpit labours were to consist of 
 a lecture and two sermons, delivered at two diets of 
 worship on every Sabbath. This is still exemplified in 
 the services appointed to be conducted in connection 
 with the annual meeting of the General Assemblies of the 
 Established and Free Churches, on the two Sabbaths that 
 occur during the time when these meetings are held ; and 
 it may be the usual practice still, in some parts of the 
 country, to fulfil the old requirement. But, in general, 
 when the two diets of worship continue to be observed, 
 
 1 Such as these, “Doth he keep family worship? Is he a 
 haunter of ale-houses and taverns ? Is he a dancer, carder, or 
 dicer? Saw ye him ever drink healths? Keeps he much at home 
 in his ministerial work ? Is Saturday only his book-day ? or is he 
 constantly at his calling ? Doth he preach sound doctrine, so far as 
 ye can understand?” 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 PREACHING. 
 
 as in the town churches, the preaching in the forenoon, 
 like that in the afternoon, is restricted to a single dis¬ 
 course,—the discourse in the one case being commonly a 
 lecture, and in the other, a sermon. In many or most of 
 the country churches, there is now only one meeting 
 each Sabbath in summer as well as in winter; and 
 whereas formerly, when this was the case, it was custom¬ 
 ary for the minister to give both a lecture and a sermon, 
 it is now more frequently the practice to preach only one 
 discourse. Robert Hall is reported to have said that a 
 man of mediocre intellectual power may write two 
 sermons in a week, but a really talented man will find 
 himself able to compose only one. If this be a true 
 dictum, it may seem to be a just inference that country 
 ministers in general are men of superior ability.^ How¬ 
 ever this may be, it might be supposed that the smaller 
 amount of productiveness required from them would 
 secure greater excellence of the product. But, in many 
 cases, they are engaged in the evening of the Lord’s 
 day, or on week-day evenings, in preaching in school¬ 
 rooms, or dwelling-houses, or barns, or, during summer, 
 in the open air; and for these services, those who wish 
 them to be spiritually profitable will by no means neglect 
 careful preparation. 
 
 ^ A member of a rural congregation who had removed to the 
 town, and had been for some time resident there, when his old 
 minister, meeting him one day,’said to him, “You will have grand 
 preaching now,” replied, “ Ay, when the country ministers come 
 in to the town at the Sacrament time.” 
 
THE LECTURE. 
 
 67 
 
 The Lecture. 
 
 In lecturing, “ the usual practice is to select a book, 
 say one of the gospels or epistles, and to proceed from 
 beginning to end regularly through its successive chapters, 
 expounding a considerable portion, longer or shorter, as 
 its connection with the context may indicate, on every 
 Sabbath. This is a most useful species of instruction, 
 which is almost peculiar to Scotland, and is attended with 
 many advantages, especially as it enables a minister, by 
 bringing all his natural and acquired resources to bear on 
 the illustration of a passage, to exhibit to his hearers a 
 full and connected view of Divine truth, and affords him, 
 at the same time, as diversified topics are brought up in 
 the course of review before him, an opportunity of ad¬ 
 monishing his people on many faults in their life and 
 practice, without incurring the charge of an invidious 
 reference.” ^ It is eminently adapted to gain the great 
 ends for which Divine revelation has been given, and 
 especially to promote one chief object of the Christian 
 ministry—the progress of believers in knowledge and 
 faith and holiness ; and it has been justly remarked that 
 in this species of pulpit ministrations, for which Scotland 
 has long been eminently distinguished, lies the origin, in 
 a great measure, of the acknowledged superiority of its 
 people in religious intelligence and discernment. About 
 forty years ago, a newly licensed probationer of the 
 United Secession Church, having been sent to preach in 
 1 Jamieson, “Religions of the World,” p. 128. 
 
68 
 
 THE LECTURE. 
 
 a vacant congregation, was asked, on the Saturday even¬ 
 ing, by one of its leading members, if he had brought a 
 lecture with him, and on replying that he had not, was 
 told that he had no chance of obtaining a call. I doubt 
 whether the lecture is so highly prized now as it was then 
 by the people in general, and whether it forms now so 
 regular a part of the ministrations of the pulpit; but 
 still, I believe, the more intelligent of the people, and the 
 more experienced of the ministers, will agree with Mr 
 Jay, who, after his visit to Scotland, “ recorded it as his 
 settled judgment that nothing could be more profitable 
 to the hearer and useful to the preacher.” ^ 
 
 Of the two forms into which all the modes of lecturing 
 or conducting exposition may be resolved, the method of 
 Descant and that of Analysis, the latter, undoubtedly, 
 possesses the greater advantages ; but, probably, the 
 former, being attended with less difficulty, has been the 
 more frequently practised. I have heard of a minister, 
 —a deservedly popular preacher, and a man greatly loved 
 by his people and all that knew him,—who said he was 
 accustomed to take a long passage as the subject of his 
 lecture, that, if he were persecuted in one verse, he might 
 flee to another; and I suspect that the neglect of due 
 preparation in this department of pulpit-work which the 
 sentiment thus somewhat profanely expressed seems to 
 indicate, was far from being uncommon. It cannot, 
 however, be supposed that lecturing would have been so 
 acceptable and so useful as it unquestionably was, had not 
 careful study been the rule with most right-minded minis- 
 ^ “Autobiography,” p. 140. 
 
THE LECTURE. 
 
 69 
 
 ters; and, doubtless, the sentiments and feelings of many 
 were such as those expressed by that most accomplished 
 exegete, Dr John Brown, when he says, “ I never enter on 
 the exposition of a portion of inspired Scripture without 
 a conviction that, in doing so, I am performing one of the 
 most important and responsible duties of my office as a 
 public Christian teacher. I feel as if the ground on 
 which I stood were peculiarly holy.” ^ In his excellent 
 memoir of his father. Dr William Peddie states that, “ at 
 the beginning of his ministry, it was his custom to separate 
 to a considerable extent between the explanatory matter 
 and the doctrinal and practical inferences, which were 
 afterwards gathered up and stated in formal propositions,” 
 and that he did this in conformity with the fashion then 
 prevailing in the Secession.” This fashion, which was 
 not peculiar to the Secession, continued to prevail in 
 more recent times. But now the better method is more 
 common of connecting immediately with each of the 
 different parts of the passage expounded its own appro¬ 
 priate lessons or application, and perhaps closing the dis¬ 
 course with a general brief conclusion, which furnishes 
 the practical improvement of the whole. Dr Peddie’s 
 biographer mentions that he abandoned his original 
 method, and “ wove in with great skill’ what was 
 didactic and hortatory with the course of the explana¬ 
 tion, without breaking the continuity of the performance, 
 and so as to make it more lively, rich, and instructive; ” 
 and Dr Peddie’s fame as a lecturer has not yet quite died 
 away. 
 
 1 “The Law of Christ respecting Civil Obedience.” Note xxvi. 
 
70 
 
 TEXTS OF SERMONS. 
 
 Texts of Sermons. 
 
 The late Rev. Dr Robson of Glasgow, in his sermon 
 preached on occasion of the death of his colleague, the 
 Rev. Dr Mitchell (Professor of Biblical Literature and 
 Criticism to the United Secession Church), speaking of 
 the useful talent which that “ model pastor,” as he has 
 been justly called, “ early attained, of seizing the frag¬ 
 ments of time, and permitting nothing to be lost, of 
 habituating himself to pursue trains of thought, even 
 when going from house to house, and being ever engaged 
 in preparing materials for his public and social ministra¬ 
 tions,” adds, “To this invaluable habit is to be ascribed 
 the fact that he never, during his whole life, lost an hour 
 in fixing on the subject and the text on which to 
 preach.” The late Dr Andrew Somerville (Foreign 
 Mission Secretary to the United Presbyterian Church, 
 formerly minister at Dumbarton) has made a similar 
 statement respecting himself in his interesting autobio¬ 
 graphy : “ I never spent an hour, except once, in seeking 
 for a text, as I had generally a number of subjects going 
 on together in the workshop of the brain. I had the 
 faculty of studying a topic for a time, then laying it upon 
 the shelf in the mind, taking it down a week or a month 
 afterwards, and working at it again for a little; and thus 
 it came to pass that I had always more subjects on my 
 anvil than I required. I could also utilise the fragments 
 of time,—what Cicero calls the subseciva tempora ,—being 
 able to pursue trains of thought on the highway, in 
 
TEXTS OF SERMONS. 
 
 71 
 
 company, or in any corner. I found many of my texts, 
 and the divisions of my sermons, beside the beds of the 
 sick.” There are, I suppose, comparatively few whose 
 experience exactly resembles that recorded in these two 
 instances. Most ministers, probably, have sometimes 
 felt more or less difficulty in choosing a text.^ I do not 
 suppose that a wish to save trouble in this respect had 
 any influence in producing and continuing the custom 
 that formerly prevailed, of preaching a series of sermons 
 on the same text. Dr Porter, in his “ Homiletical 
 Lectures,” gives a number of instances, of which the most 
 marvellous, certainly, is that of a minister who preached 
 “ a train of eleven discourses on the interjection ‘ O.’ ” 
 Two of the best specimens with which I am acquainted 
 are Traill’s “ Thirteen Sermons on the Throne of Grace, 
 from Heb. iv. 16,” first printed in 1696, and his “ Sixteen 
 Sermons on the Lord’s Prayer, in John xvii. 24,” first 
 printed in 1705. The like of this is not known now : it 
 would be deemed intolerably tedious. But it is still not 
 unusual for ministers to preach courses of sermons on 
 connected topics, or on a series of texts standing together 
 in the Scriptures. “ I found it was good for myself,” 
 says Dr Somerville, “and also, I believe, for the hearers, 
 to preach what may be called a series or course of 
 
 1 There is an anecdote told of a minister’s wife, who seemed to 
 think the choice of the text a more difficult thing than the composi¬ 
 tion of the sermon. Give me a text, she said on one occasion, and 
 I will soon write a sermon on it. A text was suggested, which, 
 however, led her at once to ask indignantly. Do you mean me ? 
 when she was told in reply that she would not make a good sermon- 
 writer, as she “ was far too soon at the application.” 
 
72 
 
 METHODS OF SERMONS. 
 
 sermons—that is, connected sermons. Thus I had 
 sixteen sermons on i Peter i. 3-12, a number on 
 Hebrews viii. 8-13, and xii. 22-29, twenty-one 
 
 sermons on the Work of the Holy Spirit. The advan¬ 
 tage of this mode is that nothing is lost; the thoughts 
 that are suggested in studying the topic of to-day, which 
 you do not require, will find a place in the next dis¬ 
 course.” Another advantage may be remarked in its 
 tendency to excite and promote preparation for hearing 
 the Word on the part of pious and intelligent wor¬ 
 shippers. 
 
 Methods of Sermons. 
 
 The custom in bygone times was to have numerous 
 divisions, or, first, to explain the text; secondly, to state 
 the doctrines contained in it, or found one doctrine 
 upon it; next, to lay out the doctrine proposed or 
 selected in several branches, and then, to illustrate each 
 by a number of particulars or observations, which were 
 frequently divided and sub-divided, till the hearer lost 
 himself in the labyrinth. Of this plan it has been said, 
 “ It was apt to give a metaphysical cast to the sermon, 
 foreign to the great objects of impressing, warning, and 
 elevating the souls of the hearers. It often furnished 
 temptations to travel out of the subject, and even when 
 the goal was contemplated, and by-paths were avoided, 
 the progress to it became fatiguing and oppressive.” 
 Mr Robinson, in the notes to his translation of Claude’s 
 “ Essay on the Composition of a Sermon,” published in 
 1777, says, “A hundred years ago, most sermons had 
 
METHODS OF SERMONS. 
 
 73 
 
 thirty, forty, or even sixty particulars. There is a ser¬ 
 mon of Mr Lyes on i Cor, vi. 17, the terms of which, he 
 says, I shall endeavour to explain. This he does in 
 thirty particulars for fixing it on a right basis ; and then, 
 he adds fifty-six more to explain the subject—in all, 
 eighty-six. If Mr Lyes was so prolific, what shall we say to 
 Mr Drake, whose sermon at the same Morning Exercise, 
 has above a hundred and seventy parts, besides queries 
 and solutions •, and yet the good man says he passed 
 sundry useful points, pitching only on that which com¬ 
 prehended the marrow and substance.” A hundred 
 years later, and during the greater part of last century, 
 the sermons of the Secession ministers in general still 
 exhibited a tedious multiplication of particulars under 
 every head of discourse. In Ebenezer Erskine’s sermon 
 on “ The New Testament Ark,” from Heb. xi. 7, for 
 example, there are five general heads; and under the 
 first, there are six particulars, under the second, six, 
 under the third, seven, under the fourth, seven; and in 
 the last part, there are two uses, with eight and seven 
 particulars respectively. The application or improve¬ 
 ment of the whole subject was generally given in the 
 form of a number of “ uses,”—use of information, of 
 examination or trial, of reproof, of exhortation, of conso¬ 
 lation. A young minister, about sixty years ago, was 
 told by an aged member of his congregation that he 
 liked his preaching very well, “ but,” he added, “ I miss 
 the ooses.” Another example may be taken from the 
 published sermons of the Rev. Robert Shirra of Kirk¬ 
 caldy. The first of these, the text of which is John i. 16, 
 
74 
 
 METHODS OF SERMONS. 
 
 has three divisions. In the first, there are three topics, 
 in the illustration of the first of which four remarks are 
 made, in the illustration of the second, three, with four 
 subordinate particulars, and in the illustration of the 
 third, five questions are answered. Under the second 
 head, there are four particulars ; and the discourse con¬ 
 cludes with six inferences, and a general exhortation. 
 The following is an outline of a sermon preached in 
 1767, and contained in a manuscript volume which I 
 possess of discourses by the Rev. James Morison of 
 Norham, who commenced a Sabbath-school in that town 
 about a quarter of a century before Mr Raikes’ time, 
 and who died in 1824, in the sixty-eighth year of his 
 ministry. The text is Matt. ix. 12, “But when Jesus 
 heard that. He said unto them. They that be whole need 
 not a physician, but they that are sick.” 
 
 From these words, we observe the following doctrines: 
 I. Sin is a spiritual disease; 2. Jesus Christ is the Physi¬ 
 cian appointed by God for the cure and healing of this 
 disease ; 3. All sin-sick souls have need of this Physi¬ 
 cian. 
 
 I. Sin is a spiritual disease. 
 
 1. Why sin is compared to sickness. It is fitly com¬ 
 pared to sickness in regard of the effects of it. Sin doth 
 produce all those effects on the soul which sickness doth 
 upon the body. 
 
 (i) Sickness unfits the body for action ; (2) it causes 
 torment and anguish; (3) it takes away the appetite; (4) 
 it doth bring unconsciousness ; (5) it brings death. 
 
 2. What sort of sickness and disease sin is. 
 
METHODS OF SERMONS. 
 
 75 
 
 (i) It is a sickness and disease which seizes upon the 
 most noble part of man ; (2) which man himself is the 
 author of; (3) which separates between God and men; 
 (4) which is the cause of all our sickness ; (5) which 
 cannot be cured by any natural medicine in the world ; 
 (6) it is a loathsome and infectious disease ; (7) it is a 
 very spreading disease; (8) it is a natural and hereditary 
 disease. 
 
 II. Jesus is the Physician appointed by God for the 
 cure and healing of the sickness and disease of sin. 
 
 1. How Christ heals this disease. 
 
 2. The excellency of Christ above all other physi¬ 
 cians. 
 
 (i) He heals the soul •, (2) He is a Physician for this 
 disease in all its forms and degrees; (3) He can give no 
 hurtful medicine ; (4) He heals speedily ; (5) He can 
 bless His physic ; (6) He heals the poor, as well as the 
 sick; (7) He heals all freely; (8) He offers Himself; 
 (9) He doth not depart, though He be reviled and ill- 
 used; (10) He is Himself the sick man’s medicine; (ii) 
 He is a chirurgeon, as well as a physician. 
 
 III. All sin-sick souls have need of this Physician. 
 This doctrine is treated of in a similar manner. 
 
 Each of these doctrines is practically improved in a 
 number of inferences. The following are those in the 
 second part:—i. Hence see that Christ will kindly 
 accept all endeavours of men for the healing of the spi¬ 
 ritual distempers of their fellowmen. 2. That, as we 
 ought to apply to Christ for healing, so none have 
 ground or reason to despair of healing. 3. Christ’s 
 
76 
 
 METHODS OF SET MOHS. 
 
 suitableness to us. 4. Ground of comfort to the people 
 of God. 5. Ground of reproof to such as rob Christ of 
 the honour of a Physician. 
 
 This mode of discoursing has long since been aban¬ 
 doned ; or, at least, it is now seldom exactly followed. 
 I remember only one instance of its being reverted to; 
 that of a sermon preached by a student in the Divinity 
 Hall of the United Secession Church,^ in which there 
 were three general heads, and under each about a score 
 of particulars. The illustration of each particular was 
 very brief, sometimes consisting only of a single sentence, 
 as, for instance, when it was remarked that the saint is 
 an object of wicked men’s malignant or envious observa¬ 
 tion, and this remark was illustrated thus : “ First 
 Samuel eighteenth and ninth, ‘ And Saul eyed David 
 from that day and forward.’ ” Perhaps there is now a 
 tendency to go to the opposite extreme, and to make a 
 sermon assume very much the form of an essay or 
 harangue. In England, even in the beginning of last 
 century. Lord Shaftesbury tells us the old plan of sub¬ 
 dividing into firsts and seconds had gone out of fashion, 
 and the “elegant Court divine exhorts in miscellany, 
 and is ashamed to bring his twos and threes before a 
 fashionable assembly.” But method should ever be con¬ 
 sidered as essential. “ Order,” says Vinet, “ is the 
 characteristic of a true discourse; it is only a discourse 
 in virtue of it: without it, we know not what name to 
 
 ^ The same who was the subject of the extraordinary act of ab¬ 
 duction related by Mr Landreth in his “History of the United 
 Presbyterian Hall,” p. 219. 
 
QUOTATION OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 77 
 
 give it.” And, in general, the hearers must find it ad¬ 
 vantageous for them that the method should not be con¬ 
 cealed, but be plainly disclosed. “ Concealed method,” 
 says Mr Jay, “ is much the same as none. And why 
 should it ever be concealed ? The lower orders pecu¬ 
 liarly need it; it relieves and quickens their attention; it 
 aids their apprehension and understanding. It also enables 
 them the better to retain and carry away what they hear.”^ 
 It has been alleged, however, that, “ in easing the 
 memory, we connive at the indolence of the mind ; ” and 
 asked, “Would it not be much better to put the division 
 at the end of the discourse, by way of recapitulation 
 
 Quotation of Scripture. 
 
 In his Autobiography Mr Jay says, “Some have com¬ 
 plained of my sermons being filled with too much Scrip¬ 
 ture. If this be an error, it is surely on the right side ; 
 and as Dr Geddes (Gillies ?) says, ‘ I love to give God’s 
 children plenty of their own bread.’ I am sure of this, 
 that I never used quotations from the Scripture merely to 
 fill up or lengthen out a discourse; and I trust I have 
 never introduced any fancifully, or regardlessly of the 
 mind of the Spirit. Yet I own there is occasionally 
 some excess; and it has probably resulted from my 
 familiarity with the language of the Bible, having, before 
 many books came in my way, read it much, and com¬ 
 mitted much to memory.” A hundred years ago the 
 
 ^ “Autobiography,” p. 141. “ Recte habita in causa partitio 
 
 illustrem et perspicuam totam efficit orationem. Ex qua conficitur, 
 ut certas animo res teneat auditor.”— Cicero. 
 
 ~ Vinet’s “ Homiletics,” part ii. chap. 3. 
 
78 
 
 QUOTATION OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 sermons of evangelical Scottish ministers generally were 
 more replete with Scripture than Mr Jay’s are; and it was 
 customary with some of them, when they quoted a pas¬ 
 sage of Scripture, to mention chapter and verse. Mr 
 Shirra’s printed sermons furnish a specimen ; and, looking 
 into a manuscript volume of sermons which I have of an 
 ancestor of mine, I find in many pages a text appended 
 to every second or third sentence. This worthy minister 
 had long observed the practice mentioned above, but, I 
 have been told, was led to abandon it by the circumstance 
 that, on one occasion when he was preaching from home, 
 a woman in the audience, who was somewhat weak in 
 mind, but had acquired an extraordinary knowledge of 
 the contents of the Bible, interrupted him by an emphatic 
 assertion of the inaccuracy of one of his references, 
 telling him that the chapter from which his quotation was 
 made had not the number of verses which he had 
 ascribed to it. Perhaps in the present day there may be 
 remarked a tendency to err by defect rather than by ex¬ 
 cess of quotation from Scripture; and the former error 
 is worse than the latter. Of the greatest English preacher 
 of this century, Foster says, “His submission to the 
 authority of the Scriptures became absolute and per¬ 
 petual. And in this spirit he maintained through life so 
 assiduous a practice of studying the Bible, that he had 
 acquired a remarkable facility for citing from every part 
 of it, in the course of his preaching, the passages most 
 pertinent for evidence or enforcement of whatever he was 
 advancing.”^ Blair justly remarks, “ Direct quotations, 
 ^ Gregory’s “ Memoir of Hall,” p. 318. 
 
MISQVOTA TIONS. 
 
 79 
 
 brought from Scripture in order to support what the preacher 
 indicates, both give authority to his doctrine, and render 
 his discourse more solemn and venerable. Allusions to 
 remarkable passages or expressions of Scripture, when 
 introduced with propriety, have generally a pleasing 
 effect. They afford the preacher a fund of metaphorical 
 expression which no other composition enjoys, and by 
 means of which he can vary and enliven his style.” ^ 
 They give to discourses a peculiar beauty and richness. 
 
 These ends, however, it may be remarked, can be 
 served only when quotations from Scripture are correct 
 and appropriate. “ I have often,” says a writer in 
 the United Secession Magazine^ “ been surprised and 
 grieved by the misquotations of Scripture, which are 
 frequently heard both in the discourses and the prayers 
 of ministers of the Gospel. These must be a source of 
 pain to every person who entertains due reverence for 
 the language of inspiration. I do not think it either 
 unlawful or improper, when quoting an obscure passage 
 from the Word of God, to add a brief explanation of it, 
 or to alter our translation when it is in any respect 
 faulty. I refer to variations and additions, which, though 
 intended by their authors to pass for improvements, will 
 be found, on a little consideration, to possess a very 
 different character.” The writer then proceeds to give 
 some instances of misquotation, as a specimen of those 
 which most frequently occur. All the additions made to 
 the words of Scripture destroy the point and forcibleness 
 of its statements ; and many of them look as if they 
 ^ “ Lecture on Rhetoric,” xxix. 
 
So 
 
 MISQ UO TA TIONS. 
 
 were used merely for the purpose of lengthening out the 
 sermon or the prayer in which they occur, e.g., “None 
 can stay His hand frojn 7 vorking, or say unto Him with 
 a prevailhig voice. What doest Thou ? ” “ Thou art of 
 
 purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon 
 iniquity without abhorj-enceP Not unfrequently do we 
 hear additions made to the expressions of Scripture, 
 which convey no new idea whatever, but produce only a 
 clumsy tautology, eg., Enable us to maintain “a walk 
 and conversation becoming the Gospel; ” “ Lift Thou up 
 the light of Thy reconciled countenance upon us.” Many 
 of the alterations frequently introduced, not only 
 enervate the language of Scripture, but positively turn 
 it into nonsense, e.g., “ How much more abominable 
 and filthy is man, who drinketh iniquity, as the ox 
 drinketh up water I’ The same effect is sometimes pro¬ 
 duced by bringing together into one sentence a number 
 of expressions to be found in Scripture, but in separate 
 connections, e.g., “ We will lay our hands on our mouth, 
 and our mouth in the dust, and cry out. Unclean, un¬ 
 clean.” Another class of alterations are objectionable, 
 chiefly because they limit or narrow the meaning of the 
 declarations of Scripture, e.g., “ In Him we live, and 
 move, and from Him we have our being; ” “ God out of 
 Christ is a consuming fire,” or, “ God is a consuming 
 fire to the workers of iniquity." There are additions 
 which give to declarations of Scripture a meaning at 
 variance with truth, e.g., “It is appointed unto all men 
 once to die.” Lastly, there are certain phrases which 
 have obtained currency, and are frequently quoted as 
 
MIS QUOTA TION. 
 
 8 i 
 
 scriptural, though it would be fruitless labour to search 
 for them in the writings of prophets or apostles, such as, 
 “Deny us not Thy grace” (Ps. cxxxii. lo, metrical 
 version); “ VVe roll iniquity as a sweet morsel under our 
 tongue ; ” “ Wise above that which is written.” ^ Many 
 other instances might be given, such as, “ There am I 
 in the midst of you, to bless you, and to do you good; ” 
 “With Him is plenteous redemption, that He 7 nay be 
 sought unto ; ” “ God is in Heaven, and we upon earth ; 
 therefore ought our words to be few, and ivell ordered; ” 
 “ A merciful man is merciful to his beast” (Prov. xii, lo); 
 “ As the tree falls, so shall it lie; ” “ God tempers the 
 wind to the shorn lamb ” (a saying of Sterne—compare 
 Isa. xxvii. 8) “ All iniquity shall, as ashamed, hide its 
 
 head” (Ps. cvii. 42). An Edinburgh minister once wrote 
 a sermon on the words, “ In the midst of life we are in 
 death; ” and on the Sabbath morning was amazed when 
 he could not, even with the aid of his Concordance, find 
 them anywhere in Scripture. They occur in the Church 
 of England Burial Service. 
 
 Such misquotations are by no means peculiar to the 
 past; probably, they are quite as frequent now as ever they 
 were, and the saying is still worthy of attention, which 
 Mr Brown of Haddington was accustomed to address to 
 those who used so unwarrantable freedom with Scripture: 
 He never could see that, with all their alterations, they 
 made it any better.^ A minister, of course, may, with 
 
 1 United Secession Magazine, Jan. 1838. Diodati’s rendering of 
 I Cor, iv. 6 is, “di non esser savi sopra cio ch’ e scritto.” 
 
 - United Secession Magazine, Nov. 1838. 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 M/SQUOTA TION. 
 
 perfect propriety, occasionally alter in quotation the 
 words of our English version, which, though one of the 
 best translations in existence, is but human, and there¬ 
 fore imperfect, sometimes, for instance, suggesting an 
 incorrect view of the meaning of a passage (i Cor. v. 14), 
 sometimes conveying no intelligible idea to the mind 
 (i Cor. iv. 4), at other times being ambigubus, and apt 
 to lead to misconception (John xvi. 23); while there are 
 mistakes in it arising from imperfect acquaintance with 
 the manners and customs, the natural history, and the 
 literature of eastern countries, and a few improper 
 renderings, attributable to dogmatic prejudices, not to 
 mention obsolete terms not generally understood, or not 
 used in the same acceptation now as when the transla¬ 
 tion was made. But while for these reasons it may be 
 proper occasionally to alter the translation in quoting 
 Scripture, this should be done very sparingly. The 
 pedantry, it has justly been remarked, which seeks to 
 get credit for learning by perpetual attempts to mend it, 
 must do, not good, but much harm ; and the practice is 
 very unnecessary, for the instances of incorrect or de¬ 
 fective rendering are few and far between.^ 
 
 ^ This remark was made by a very competent judge some years 
 ago ; and, after a careful examination of the new version, in so far 
 as it is a revision of the old, I am not disposed to differ from him 
 in the opinion thus expressed. Misapplication is worse than mis¬ 
 quotation ; and how often do we hear passages misapplied through 
 inattention, or want of examination, on the part of those who cite 
 them! See two articles by the late Dr Eadie in the United Seces¬ 
 sion JMagazineiox March and April, 1840. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 F 7 x’£A C RING—continued. 
 
 Length of Discourses. 
 
 T X THEN Paul preached at Troas, in the evening of 
 the first day of the week, in connection with the 
 dispensation of the Lord's Supper, he “ continued his 
 speech till midnight, ready to depart on the morrow.” 
 “We know some,” says Mr Henry, “who would have 
 reproached him for this, as a long-winded preacher that 
 tired his hearers; but they were willing to hear.” As 
 we are not told at what hour the apostle began his 
 sermon, we do not know exactly how long he preached. 
 It is only indicated that the sermon was one of con¬ 
 siderable length; but there can be no doubt that, being 
 preached on a special occasion, it was longer than the 
 apostle’s discourses usually were. An hour, measured 
 by the glass, seems to have been the legitimate length of 
 a discourse in the great preaching days of the Reforma¬ 
 tion. “ It is commonly supposed,” says M‘Crie, “ that 
 the public discourses of the Presbyterians at this time,” 
 in the days of Melville, “ were protracted to a tedious 
 
84 
 
 LENGTH OF DISCOURSES. 
 
 length. The facts which have come to my knowledge 
 lead to an opposite conclusion, and I have no doubt 
 that the practice referred to was introduced at a later 
 period.” “ Burnet says that Bishop Forbes of Edin¬ 
 burgh had a strange faculty of preaching five or six 
 hours at a time. But the following extract will show 
 that Forbes’s tediousness, even when not carried to this 
 extreme, gave offence to his brethren at an early period. 
 ‘Nov. I, 1605. The said daye, Mr William Forbes 
 regent exercisit, quha was commended, but censurit be¬ 
 cause he techit two hours.’ Record of the Presbytery of 
 Aberdeen.” ^ Of Bishop Burnet, Macaulay says, “ He 
 was often interrupted by the deep hum of his audience ; 
 and when, after preaching out the hour-glass, which in 
 those days was part of the furniture of the pulpit, he 
 held it up in his hands, the congregation clamorously 
 encouraged him to go on till the sand ran off once 
 more.”^ This reminds me of Chrysostom and his audi¬ 
 tors. They, we are told, “ clapped their hands, and waved 
 their handkerchiefs in applause of the orator’s appeals ; ” 
 and “ by this means, after the manner of a modern en¬ 
 core, the admirers of the bishop sought to prolong the 
 entertainment.” ^ Bishop Alcock preached “ a good and 
 
 ^ “ Life of Melville,” chap. xii. St Patrick, it is storied, went 
 through the four gospels in one discourse, which lasted three days 
 and three nights; and yet his hearers were so delighted that they 
 thought that but one day had passed, and only one of them took 
 a nap. 
 
 ^ “Hist, of England,” vol. ii. p. 433. 
 
 Stoughton’s “Ages of Christendom before the Reformation.” 
 Anything of this kind I have witnessed only on one occasion, 
 namely, at the celebration in Edinburgh of the Tricentenary of the 
 
LENGTH OF DISCOURSES. 
 
 85 
 
 pleasant sermon ” at St Mary’s, Cambridge, which lasted 
 from one o’clock till half-past three. Of Dr Isaac 
 Barrow’s sermons we are told that seldom less than an 
 hour and a half was occupied in the delivery. It is re¬ 
 lated that, having occasion to preach a charity sermon 
 before the I..ord Mayor and Aldermen of London, he 
 spoke for three hours and a half; and that, when asked, 
 on coming down from the pulpit, whether he was not 
 tired, he replied, “Yes, indeed, I began to be weary 
 with standing so long.”^ John Howe, Dr Calamy tells 
 us, on public fast-days, which occurred “ pretty fre¬ 
 quently,” used to occupy seven hours, with but one brief 
 interval of fifteen minutes, in praying, expounding, and 
 preaching. 
 
 There is nothing like these performances to be wit¬ 
 nessed in the present day. I remember, however, hear¬ 
 ing the late Dr John Ritchie of Edinburgh, on the 
 evening of a Communion Sabbath in a country church, 
 preach a sermon which extended to an hour and fifty 
 
 Scottish Reformation, August 15, 1560, when Dr Guthrie preached, 
 and “ over and over again throughout the sermon, as the preacher 
 closed some high-wrought passage, the feelings of his auditors 
 found vent in an irrepressible murmur of applause, which, despite 
 of all efforts to hush down the demonstration, broke out once or 
 twice into a distinct cheer .”—Newspaper Report. 
 
 ^ Chambers’ “ Cycl. of English Lit.,” vol. i. p. 429. Dean 
 Ramsay tells of a Scottish minister, who was far from being a popu¬ 
 lar preacher, and yet could not reduce his discourses below the 
 hour and a half, that, on being asked, as a gentle hint of their pos 
 sibly needless length, if he did not feel tired after preaching, he 
 replied, “ Na, na, I’m no tired;” adding, however, with much 
 naivete, “ But hoo tired the fowk whiles are ! ”—“ Reminiscences,” 
 p. 213. 
 
S6 
 
 LENGTH OF D7SC0U7\N£S. 
 
 minutes, and administer a severe rebuke to a large 
 number of his hearers, who had been present from tlic 
 commencement of the services in the forenoon, and, as 
 soon as his discourse was ended, were hastening out of 
 the church to go to their distant homes. On a previous 
 occasion, in the same place, he preached for an hour and 
 a half; and his discourses in In's own pulpit frequently 
 approached this length. I remember, too, a late excel¬ 
 lent minister in East Lothian, after he had preached an 
 action-sermon about an hour and twenty minutes long, 
 expressing his deep regret at having forgotten some 
 topics of great importance, on which he had intended 
 to dwell at considerable length. Some of the early 
 Secession ministers, however, were accustomed to preach 
 short sermons. In Adam Gib’s note-book of lectures 
 and sermons for forty-eight Sabbaths in 1752-3, the 
 number of discourses preached by him is stated to have 
 been 144, and the time occupied in deliveiy 112 hours 
 and 26 minutes—the average being thus 46 minutes and 
 50 seconds. This was somewhat less than the usual 
 length of sermons at the time when I commenced my 
 ministry (about forty years ago); and even then, and for 
 a number of years subsequently, it was often consider¬ 
 ably exceeded. But now there are probably few minis¬ 
 ters who preach sermons so long that they might give 
 occasion to such a remark as was made by an Englislr 
 Judge several years ago, respecting the Assize Sennon 
 which the Chaplain to a High Sheriff had preached. 
 
 “ How, my lord,” the Sheriff asked, “ did you like the 
 Chaplain’s sermon?” The Judge replied, “Why, to 
 
LENGTH OF DISCOURSES. 
 
 87 
 
 tell you the truth, I heard in that sermon what I never 
 heard before, and what I hope I shall never hear again.” 
 He was afterwards asked what it was that he had heard. 
 ^Vith a smile he replied, “ I heard the clock strike 
 twice.’’ ^ 
 
 “There is nothing,” says Mr Jay, “against which a 
 preacher should be more guarded than length;” and, 
 having mentioned that Luther, in his enumeration of 
 nine qualities of a good preacher, gives as the sixth, 
 “ That he should know when to make an end,” and that 
 Boyle has an essay on “Patience under long Preaching,” 
 Mr Jay states that, in the earlier period of his ministry, 
 he never offended in this way, preaching only three- 
 quarters of an hour at most.^ But now, a sermon 
 occupying this space of time would not be thought to 
 possess the excellence of brevity. 
 
 Mr Landreth, in his “ Life of Dr Thomson of Cold¬ 
 stream,” having mentioned that this excellent minister, 
 early in his pastorate, and for a long succession of years, 
 preached a third sermon every Sabbath evening in his 
 own pulpit, says, “ Robert Hall describes third sermons 
 as ‘ a device of Satan for killing ministers,’ though, 
 perhaps, the devil has more to do in tempting ministers 
 to be indolent than in tempting them to be over-zealous;” 
 and, having noticed, as one of the mischiefs which the 
 practice has been said to cause to hearers, that the third 
 sermon is more than they can profit by,—that “ itself is 
 disregarded, or it expels from memory and reflection one 
 of the other two, or perhaps it mars the good effect of all 
 
 ^ The Church 77 ian, Oct. 1881. "“ Autobiography,” p. 146. 
 
88 
 
 LENGTH OF DISCOURSES. 
 
 the three,” Mr Landreth remarks that “this allegation 
 assumes that the capacity of hearers is childishly small.” 
 This remark is still more applicable to such an allegation 
 when made, as it sometimes is, with reference to a second 
 sermon, even though it should immediately follow the 
 first. “ Such compassion,” Mr Landreth adds, “ is now 
 felt for that slender capacity in hearers, that the cry is to 
 make sermons far shorter, as well as fewer.” This com¬ 
 passion for the hearers is combined, perhaps, with some 
 degree of merciful consideration for the preachers them¬ 
 selves. To a young minister it was, undoubtedly, very 
 hard work to have to prepare two discourses every week, 
 each fifty-five ininutes or an hour in length; and this 
 severe labour was often considerably augmented by the 
 circumstance of young men usually speaking with much 
 greater rapidity than older and more experienced preachers 
 do. I remember, when a student in the Secession Divinity 
 Hall had delivered a discourse with an extraordinary 
 degree of velocity, though with no indistinctness of utter¬ 
 ance, the professor. Dr Brown, remarked that he was not 
 disposed to find fault with him for his speed, as he was 
 quite sure that, were he spared to become a minister, 
 having regularly two discourses to prepare for the Sabbath, 
 he would soon learn to speak slowly enough, by finding 
 it necessary to practise economy in respect of the quantity 
 of matter. Several years, however, passed after his ordin¬ 
 ation ere he began in that respect to profit by experience; 
 and an action-sermon of his might contain above eight 
 thousand words. 
 
LENGTH OF DISCOURSES. 
 
 89 
 
 Sermons now-a-days must be only twenty minutes long, 
 or, at any rate, not extend beyond half-an-hour; and in 
 many cases they will not be greatly found fault with, 
 even by the avowed and known critics, if, whatever other 
 excellence may be wanting, they possess the indispensable 
 and superlative merit of brevity. Some would have the 
 preaching abbreviated, in order that the devotional ser¬ 
 vices may be enlarged. But the ministry of the Word is, 
 undoubtedly, to be regarded as the principal and most 
 important part of the services of the sanctuary; and the 
 Christian people ought not to desire the time allotted to 
 it to be unduly shortened for the purpose of affording 
 larger space for the devotional exercises, which are not 
 peculiar to the public assembly, and which are there 
 connected with the ordinance of preaching as subservient 
 to the accomplishment of its appropriate ends in the 
 conversion of sinners, and “ the fitting of saints for work 
 of service, in order to the edifying of the body of Christ.” 
 “ There must be,” says the Helvetian Confession, “ a 
 mean and measure, as in every other thing, so also in 
 public prayers, that they be not over long and tedious : 
 let therefore the most time be given to the teaching of 
 the Gospel in such holy assemblies; and let there be 
 diligent heed taken, that the people in these assemblies 
 be not wearied with over long prayers, so as when the 
 preaching of the Gospel should be heard, they through 
 wearisomeness either desire to go forth themselves, or to 
 have the assembly wholly dismissed. For unto such 
 the sermons seem to be over long, which otherwise are 
 brief enough. Yea, and the preachers ought to keep a 
 
90 
 
 PREACHING OF OLD SERMONS. 
 
 mean. Likewise, the singing in sacred assemblies ought 
 to be moderated, when it is in use.” ^ 
 
 Preaching of Old Sermons. 
 
 In the Directory for Presbyterial Visitation, one of the 
 questions respecting the minister is, “Spends he too much 
 time in his sermon in repetition of what he said before?” 
 that is, in recapitulating a previous sermon on the same 
 text. It might have been expected that this would be 
 followed by another question of a similar kind : “ Doth 
 he preach old sermons ? ” Had this question been put, 
 the answer, in many instances, undoubtedly must have 
 been, “ Yes ; he often does so.” Many of the “ moderate ” 
 ministers had each but one set of sermons which they 
 repeated regularly as the period over which they extended 
 went round ; and not unfrequently the time of revolution 
 was very brief Dean Ramsay gives an anecdote of a 
 minister who, as he and the beadle were one day pro¬ 
 ceeding from church, observed the beadle laughing as if 
 he had triumphed over some of the parishioners with whom 
 he had been in conversation. On asking the cause of 
 this, he received for answer, “ They were saying ye had 
 preached an auld sermon to-day; but I taikled them, for 
 I tauld them it was no an auld sermon, for the minister 
 had preached it no sax months syne.” Dean Ramsay 
 also gives the following statement from Dr Cook of 
 Haddington : “ An old elder of mine, whose recollection 
 
 ' “The Latter Confession of Helvetia,” of 1566, chap. 23, in 
 “An Harmony of the Confessions of the Faith of the Reformed 
 Churches.” English Translation, 1643. 
 
PREACHING OF OLD SERMONS. 
 
 91 
 
 might reach back from sixty to seventy years, said to me 
 one day, ‘ No\v-a-days, people make a work if a minister 
 preach the same sermon over again in the course of two 
 or three years. When I was a boy, we would have 
 
 wondered if old Mr W-had preached anything else 
 
 than what we heard the Sunday before.’ ” In an account 
 which Dr John Jamieson has left of the state of matters 
 in the parish of Kingarth, in the island of Bute, when he 
 visited it as a probationer, that is, a little more than a 
 hundred years ago, he says of the parish minister, who 
 frequently came to see him, and showed hifn much kind¬ 
 ness, “ He often found me writing, and when I told him 
 I was studying a sermon or a lecture, he laughed at my 
 diligence, asking me if I had no old discourses, and 
 assuring me they would do perfectly well in Bute. ‘ I 
 have been many years in this parish,’ said he,—I forget 
 how many he specified,—‘ and I never had more than four 
 sermons. I go through them every month. All that I 
 do is to change the texts; and I do not believe that any 
 of my hearers, except blind David, observe that they are 
 still the same.’ Much more recently, a congregation 
 to whom the minister of a neighbouring parish was 
 always employed to preach on the evening of their 
 annual Communion Sabbath, was, I have been told, 
 uniformly treated by him to the same sermon. An old 
 minister, who had a set that he went through once in a 
 year, when his congregation ventured to hint that they 
 
 ^ M'Kelvie’s “Annals,” &c., p. 573. In “ Blind Pits,” one of the 
 characters is a Mr Pettigrew, a probationer, who had “ lived fifteen 
 years on ten sermons, and saved money.” 
 
92 
 
 PREACHING OF OLD SERMONS. 
 
 would like some variety, said, “ My friends, my sermons 
 are intended to do you good, not to entertain you ; when 
 I see that you practise what I have been preaching for so 
 many -years, then I will treat you to something fresh. 
 This, however, was but a poor apology for so lazy a 
 practice •, nor will any conscientious minister or intelli¬ 
 gent member of the church regard it as receiving any 
 countenance from the words of Paul in one of his 
 epistles, “ To write the same things to you, to me indeed 
 is not grievous, but for you it is safe.” 
 
 Such a practice, I presume, was unknown among the 
 evangelical ministers of the Church of Scotland, and 
 among the ministers of the Dissenting Churches. By 
 some of the latter, the avoidance of it was carried to an 
 extreme. Of Dr Young, minister of the Anti-Burgher 
 Congregation at Hawick, towards the end of the last 
 and at the beginning of the present century, the well 
 known author of “ Essays on Government ” (“ a man,” 
 says Sir Walter Scott’s biographer, “of great worth and 
 talents,” a memoir of whom would have been given to 
 the world by Scott, had not the illness of the latter, which 
 resulted in his death, prevented him from executing his 
 design”), of this distinguished Secession minister I have 
 been told, that he never preached a sermon over again, 
 but, even in giving a series of discourses on a particular 
 text or subject, continued it when preaching from home, 
 and, on returning to his own pulpit, proceeded from the 
 point so reached. I do not know, however, whether this 
 strict abstinence from repetition was common among 
 > Leisure Hour, May 1877. ^ M'Kelvie’s “ Annals,” p. 519. 
 
PREACHING OF OLD SERMONS. 
 
 93 
 
 Secession ministers. In a journal which I possess of one 
 who died about forty years ago, there is a “ Review of 
 Official Employment” in the year 1814, in which he 
 notes, ‘‘ Seem to have composed sixty-five sermons, of 
 which fourteen were not delivered at home.” But in the 
 same record, giving an account of eleven several occasions 
 in which he assisted at the dispensation of the Lord’s 
 Supper, he states, that of twenty-four sermons preached, 
 five were sermons repeated. It is probable that the main 
 reason why the Secession ministers did not commonly 
 make use of old sermons when assisting brethren on 
 sacramental occasions, is to be found in the circum¬ 
 stances that many of their own people attended these 
 preachings, even when they had to travel very consider¬ 
 able distances. Some, however, may have been influenced 
 by a conviction that, if they should give discourses 
 already preached, they would be violating the principle 
 indicated by King David when he said to Araunah the 
 Jebusite, “Neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto the 
 Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing.”^ 
 
 ^ This principle seems to have been much more seriously violated 
 by what may be called a system of exchange. I remember an 
 eminent minister of the church to which I belong telling me that 
 the minister of the Established Church in the place where he lived 
 said to him at the time of the union of the two large sections of the 
 Secession, that he supposed one advantage of the union to him 
 would be, that he and the minister of the neighbouring Secession 
 congregation might exchange manuscripts, so as to be each under 
 the necessity of preparing a sermon for the pulpit only once in the 
 fortnight. There was, doubtless, an intended degree of face¬ 
 tiousness in the remark ; but it was nevertheless understood by the 
 minister to whom it was made as indicating a practice that existed 
 among the “ moderates ” in the Established Church. I have heard 
 
94 
 
 THE READING OF SERMONS. 
 
 The Reading of Sermons. 
 
 “ Early in the middle of last century/’ says Dr Jamie¬ 
 son, speaking with reference to the Church of Scotland, 
 “ an attempt was made to depart from the ancient 
 practice of delivering sermons, and, in imitation of the 
 preachers in the English Church, to read them from 
 beginning to end. This innovation was introduced by a 
 lew of the moderate clergy; ” and, “ though for a long 
 time the practice was confined to the boldest and most 
 
 the following anecdote of two ministers of the same name who re¬ 
 sided in the same town, the one belonging to the Established, and 
 the other to a Dissenting Church. A parcel intended for the latter 
 having been brought to the house of the former, it was sent to its 
 proper destination with a note addressed to the Dissenting minister 
 in some such terms as these : “ Sir,—If you had not assumed an 
 office to which you have no right, this mistake would not have oc¬ 
 curred.” Soon afterwards a parcel was handed in at the Dissenting 
 minister’s house, which, on being opened, was found to contain a 
 number of sermons in manuscript. The parcel was tied up again, 
 and sent to the minister for whom it was seen to be intended, with 
 this note accompanying it: “Sir,—If you did not occupy a posi¬ 
 tion for which you are not qualified, this mistake would not have 
 occurred.” Here, however, as the writer of this note supposed, the 
 transaction was not one of exchange of similar commodities, but of 
 pecuniary purchase, and was thus very much akin to a certain gross 
 violation of the principle,—involving, as some think, a very heinous 
 transgression of the eighth commandment,—which may be indicated 
 by an anecdote of a Secession minister, author of a “ Histoiy of the 
 Waldenses,” a work of great learning and research. This minister 
 was returning home from Edinburgh after the meeting of the 
 supreme court of another chufch than that to which he belonged, 
 and was seated on the outside of the stage-coach among a number 
 of clergymen, who talked to each other quite freely about the books 
 of sermons they were accustomed to make use of in their pulpit 
 ministrations. Being supposed to be a minister of their own com¬ 
 munion, he was asked whose sermons he was in the habit of preach- 
 
THE READING OF SERMONS. 
 
 95 
 
 careless of that class,” yet at length it was adopted to a 
 large extent by its adherents, and “ finally became for 
 nearly half a century a mark or criterion of the party in 
 the Church to which a preacher belonged. Many of the 
 principal men among the moderate party, however, con¬ 
 tinued to oppose it as a dangerous innovation, and Blair, 
 to the end of his life, directed against it the weight of 
 his unmitigated censure, as destructive of all pulpit 
 eloquence. In process of time, numbers of the Evangeli¬ 
 cal clergy had recourse to it, on the ground of age 
 
 ing, and replied, “Blair’s.” “Blair’s!”they exclaimed, “They are 
 too well known, are they not ? Do your people never find fault 
 with you?” “On the contrary,” he replied, “they would be very 
 much displeased were I to preach those ofany one else.” They seemed 
 to think that he had special reason to felicitate himself on account 
 of the kind of people whose minister he was ; and never suspected 
 their blunder till, on descending from the coach, and taking his 
 leave, he begged to inform them that he was the Rev. Adam Blair, 
 Secession minister. Ferry-Port-on-Craig. It would, however, be 
 unfair to let it be supposed that unlawful appropriation or unac¬ 
 knowledged indebtedness of this kind was to be found only among 
 a certain party in one communion. Posthumous volumes of ser¬ 
 mons preached by ministers of other denominations might be 
 referred to, which prove that by some of them, perhaps only a very 
 few, it was practised in a greater or less degree, sometimes even 
 to the extent of a whole sermon; and a minister of one of these 
 churches, who died about forty years ago, after a lengthened pastor¬ 
 ate of eminent ability and usefulness, is said to have complimented 
 another doctor of divinity who lived and laboured to the north of 
 the P’orth, on the singular strictness with which he observed the 
 Sabbath in “not speaking his own words.” A late professor of 
 divinity, criticising the discourse of a student who had borrowed 
 largely from Blair’s celebrated sermon on the text, “The hour is 
 come,” gently, yet severely, reproved him by saying, with reference 
 to one sentiment which he had altered, “ I am sure you did not find 
 that in Blair.” There are some veiy fit remarks on this subject in 
 Dr Wardlaw’s “ Systematic Theology,” vol. iii. chap, xxviii. 
 
96 
 
 THE READING OF SERMONS. 
 
 and bodily or mental infirmities. More recently, the 
 examples of Sir Henry Moncreiff and Dr Andrew Thom¬ 
 son in Edinburgh, and of Dr Chalmers in Glasgow, had 
 a most powerful effect in changing the popular views on 
 this point; and now the practice of reading their sermons 
 is quite general amongst the ministers of all parties in 
 the large towns and cities.”^ Dr Chalmers, in particular, 
 bore down all opposition to his use of “ the paper ” by 
 his manner of reading. One day, an anecdote having 
 been told in his hearing of a country woman, who, in 
 spite of her great general abhorrence of the practice, was 
 much attached to the preaching of “ a paper minister,” 
 and who, on this strange inconsistency being remarked 
 upon, replied in her own defence, “ Ay, very true; but 
 then he has a pith with his paper,” Dr Chalmers said, 
 “ That reminds me of an old anecdote of myself. A 
 friend of mine expressing his surprise to a country 
 woman in Fife, that she, who so hated reading, should 
 yet be so fond of Mr Chalmers, she replied, with a 
 serious shake of her head, “ Nae doubt; but it’s fell 
 readiti thon.” ^ 
 
 Till about fifty years ago, this practice was unknown in 
 the pulpits of the Secession Church. In the Testimony 
 enacted by the General Associate Synod in 1804, and 
 reprinted in 1817, one of the two evils condemned in 
 regard to preaching, is “ the practice of those ministers 
 who, instead of preaching, read discourses to the people 
 in public. This practice,” it is declared, “ besides its 
 
 * “ Religions of the World.’’ 
 
 ■ Hanna’s “Memoirs,” vol. ii. p. So. 
 
THE READING OF SERMONS. 
 
 97 
 
 being unscriptural, either displays a consciousness of the 
 want of ministerial gifts, or betrays great distrust of that 
 gracious Master who endows all whom He calls with gifts 
 suited to their work; or it proceeds from inexcusable 
 indolence. It also tends to increase this indolence, to 
 make them unapt to teach, and to mar the edification of 
 their hearers.” Ten years later, a similar declaration, 
 with the reasons of disapproval of the practice more fully 
 stated, was included in the draft of a Testimony pre 
 pared by a Committee of the United Secession Synod; 
 but the Synod did not sanction it, and it formed no pail 
 of the published document. In the Relief Church, there 
 were ministers who occasionally or habitually used their 
 manuscripts in the pulpit. After the union of these two 
 denominations, which took place in 1847, the Synod 
 “ declared that the reading of discourses in the ministra¬ 
 tions of the pulpit is contrary to the practice of this 
 Church, and not for edification,” and “ enjoined the 
 Presbyteries to take care that the brethren do not deviate 
 from the ordinary practice of the Church in this matter, 
 except in cases where, for reasons shown, leave is asked 
 and obtained from the Presbytery.” At the same time, it 
 was declared that this decision “ shall not be understood 
 as prohibiting from using their manuscripts in the pulpit 
 such ministers as have been accustomed in time past to 
 employ this mode of address.” The prohibition was thus, 
 in a great measure, nullified ; and so the practice, having 
 found entrance, and, not being absolutely forbidden, 
 gradually spread; and a few years afterwards a moderator 
 of Synod, in the sermon which he preached at the open- 
 
 G 
 
THE READING OF SERMONS. 
 
 9S 
 
 ing of the Court, felt himself called upon to utter an 
 emphatic testimony against it.^ 
 
 Dr Jamieson, writing about twelve years ago, says, “ In 
 the country, the prejudice continues as wide-spread and 
 inveterate as ever. Ministers in the rural parishes, especi¬ 
 ally in the remoter parts of the land, are in the habit for 
 the most part of delivering their sermons memoriter, and 
 voluntarily impose on themselves the task of mandating 
 what they have previously written, as an indispensable 
 means of rendering their instructions acceptable and use¬ 
 ful.” Probably, this statement in the first of these 
 sentences correctly describes the still existing sentiment 
 of the country people on this subject; but I suspect that 
 the practice of reading has become almost as common in 
 rural as in urban churches. It is no longer confined to 
 pulpits whose occupants are somewhat advanced in years, or 
 who have made the attempt to deliver their discourses from 
 memory, and have found this impracticable, or so difficult 
 as to necessitate their having recourse to the use of the 
 manuscript. Dr Wardlaw, says his biographer, “ made 
 the reading of sermons attractive by raising it to the 
 dignity almost of one of the fine arts.” But “ when young 
 preachers pleaded his example for reading their sermons, 
 he was wont to remind them that, if they followed his 
 example, they must follow it as a whole, and after trying 
 a dozen years the other way, then consider whether a 
 change would be desirable.” ^ Of the late Dr Heugh, his 
 biographer says, “ He entertained strong convictions as 
 
 ^ “The Gospel,” by the Rev. George Johnston, pp. 13-16. 
 
 ^ “ Memoir,” by Dr W. L. Alexander, p. 171. 
 
THE READING OF SERMONS. 
 
 99 
 
 to the personal liberty of ministers in this particular, in 
 subordination to their own conscientious regard to useful¬ 
 ness, and admitted the great advantage of reading in 
 particular cases.” ^ But to the close of his ministry. Dr 
 Heugh practically indicated his conviction that in general 
 free delivery is the preferable mode of address. The late 
 Principal Cunningham, when a minister in Greenock, was 
 remarkably popular, but did not succeed as a preacher in 
 Edinburgh; and his failure is thus accounted for by his 
 biographer: “ Sagacious Hugh Miller said, as we left the 
 College Church one day after hearing its minister, ‘ Oh, 
 that Cunningham would preach a speech ! ’ If his ser¬ 
 mons had been like his speeches, the church would have 
 been crammed to the door. There is a generation that 
 is far too wise to believe in so simple a cause for so great 
 an effect; but every man who really knows the Scottish 
 people is perfectly aware that they have in their hearts an 
 intense dislike to sermons read from the manuscript. 
 ‘ And the people,’ as Sir David Brewster once said, ‘ have 
 the philosophy of the matter on their side.’’ Let it be 
 granted that a read discourse can be better ordered and 
 better digested, yet as to the power of rousing and sus¬ 
 taining attention, between the two modes there is simply 
 no comparison. In Greenock, Cunningham did not read 
 his sermons, or, at most, read them very seldom ; and in 
 Greenock he was a popular minister with a crowded 
 church. The sacrifice of pulpit power which he incurred 
 through reading was immense.” ^ A recent writer has 
 
 1 “ Life,” by Dr H. M'Gill, p. 2. 
 
 ^ “ Life,” by Mackenzie, pp. 75, 76. 
 
lOO 
 
 THE READING OF SERMONS. 
 
 justly and wisely remarked that “lectures, being chiefly 
 intended to instruct, might be read more properly and 
 with far less injury than sermons that aim to impress. 
 A plain exposition, designed to communicate sound and 
 clear views, though not refusing at the same time to be 
 impressive, would be far more suitable for reading than 
 a sermon which sought in the first place deeply to stir his 
 hearers, though, of course, it also attempted to enlighten 
 them.” 1 
 
 1 “ Life of Dr Thomson of Coldstream,” p. 184. I have heard 
 of an old lady, a great enemy to read sermons, who, one day in 
 church, w'hispered to another sitting beside her, that she suspected 
 the preacher was reading his discourse, and being told that that 
 could not be the case, for he was blind, said, “ I wish they were 
 all blind ! ” But I knew a preacher who, though blind, might be 
 said to read his sermons. I remember getting a letter from him 
 which consisted of a piece of twine having a series of knots and 
 loops in it, a species of language devised, I suppose, by himself; 
 and a relative of his told me that he composed his discourses in 
 this way, and, having made a clew of the twine, took the clew 
 with him to the pulpit, and with his hand wound it off as he spoke. 
 In many cases when the manuscript is not openly used, preaching 
 is, after all, just (though in a different sense from that which the child 
 intended) what one of Wordsworth’s little grandsons said the poet’s 
 talking was. This “ sometimes resembled a moral declamation ; ” 
 and on one occasion, the boy, looking up in amazement, exclaimed, 
 “ Grandpapa is reading without a book.” In the mental reading I 
 refer to, mistakes sometimes occur, precisely such as may be made 
 by one reading by the eye when the writing is not quite legible. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PREA CHING — continued. 
 
 Cantillation. 
 
 PEAKING of anthems and chanting, Dr John 
 
 Duncan said, “ Some Highland ministers chant 
 their sermons ; and the old Seceders used to sing them. 
 Old Aitken of Kirriemuir sang like a very mavis. He 
 had two tunes,—his quotation tune, which he used as often 
 as he could, and his ordinary one for his own words.” ^ 
 Dr Brown says in a note, “ The thing here meant is the 
 same in both cases, as all know who have heard both. 
 When the soul swells with religious emotion, a species of 
 intoning or chanting instinctively takes (or tends to take) 
 the place of prosaic utterance in those who have any 
 music in them, getting into the minor key in mournful 
 utterances, and into the major in those which are joyous; 
 insomuch that were one’s eyes shut during certain 
 passages in the prayers of our Highland ministers, espe¬ 
 cially at Communion seasons, he might suppose himself 
 transported to Rome, and listening to some of the 
 
 ^ “ Life,” by Dr David Brown. 
 
102 
 
 PREACHING TO THE YOUNG. 
 
 minor chants of the ‘Holy Week.’ No doubt, both have 
 their origin in the same principle,—the tendency to 
 accommodate the tones of the voice to the character of 
 the utterance. But when this gets into stereotyped forms, 
 and becomes mechanical, the charm departs.” I re¬ 
 member hearing a sermon chanted or sung only in one 
 instance, which occurred about fifty years ago, the 
 preacher being the venerable John Brown of Whit¬ 
 burn, who, I believe, always practised cantillation, 
 and greatly excelled in it.^ “ Great Welsh preaching,” 
 says Mr Paxton Hood, in his biography of Christmas 
 Evans, “ is very often a kind of wild, irregular chant, a 
 jubilant refrain, recurring again and again.” “The great 
 Welsh preacher was a kind of sacred bard,” who “ went 
 with his sermon, which was a kind of high song, to chant 
 it over the heads of the multitude.” 
 
 Preaching to the Young. 
 
 The religious training of the young is primarily the duty 
 and business of their parents. Deut. vi. 6,7; Ps. Ixxviii. 5,6. 
 These Divine commands are no less obligatory on Chris¬ 
 tians than they were on the fathers of Israel. The Lord 
 Jesus Christ, by His apostle, expressly enjoins parents to 
 “ bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of 
 
 ’ Of the Rev. Robert Cunningham, Secession minister at East- 
 barns, near Dunbar, commonly called “Laird Cunningham,’’ he 
 being proprietor of Balgonie and two other estates, it is told that, 
 on a sacramental occasion, when on his way to preach at the tent, 
 he heard one individual complainingly say to another, “ There goes 
 the Laird, and he’ll sing awa for ever,” and, turning about, he 
 replied, “ I hope sae, my woman.” 
 
PREACHING TO THE YOUNG. 
 
 103 
 
 the Lord.” No consideration can exempt parents from 
 the obligation to instruct their families in the doctrines 
 and laws of Christ. But the Church also has a duty to 
 perform in this matter. It is the business of the Church, 
 by her rulers, to stimulate, guide, and assist parents in 
 the religious education of their children. The pastors 
 and teachers of the Church ought to show all good 
 fidelity in discharging the duty enjoined upon them, of 
 “feeding the lambs.”^ This duty they attend to by 
 forming and superintending Sabbath - schools for the 
 children,^ and conducting classes for the instruction of 
 the young men and women connected with their congrega¬ 
 tions ; but they should also take heed that the children 
 and youth be not neglected in their pulpit ministrations. 
 In former times, when the practice of examination or 
 catechising was regularly observed, the young were not 
 overlooked in this exercise; and latterly, indeed, it came 
 to be almost restricted to the children and servants of a 
 house, assembled in the presence of their parents or 
 master. But it was seldom that children were distinctly 
 addressed from the pulpit. Now, it is otherwise. It is 
 the practice of some ministers to “ drop ears,” as one has 
 expressed it, “ for the children to gather, in the course 
 
 ^ “ A good pastor carefully catechiseth his people in the elements 
 of religion, except he hath (a rare thing !) a flock without lambs, 
 and all of old sheep.”—Thomas Fuller. One of the Canons of the 
 Church of England enjoins this duty on all parsons, vicars, and 
 curates. In the Icelandic Church, catechising the young “ forms in 
 winter a conspicuous and important part of public duty.”—Hender¬ 
 son’s “ Iceland,” p. 122. 
 
 ^ Note, p. 108. 
 
104 
 
 STUDENTS' PREACHING. 
 
 of every Sabbath service ; ” and besides this, many are 
 accustomed to preach a sermon to children more or less 
 frequently. In not a few churches, a short discourse to 
 the young forms a regular part of the forenoon or after¬ 
 noon service, preceding the stated lecture or sermon. 
 This new practice is one that has proved highly accept¬ 
 able, not only to parents, but to the people in general; 
 and among the members of most or all congregations, 
 there are doubtless individuals to be found, to whom 
 especially it is fitted to be no less useful than to those 
 for whom it is directly intended,—persons who are “ such 
 as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” At the 
 same time, it may be remarked that it is a shame to any 
 of the members of the Church to continue always in the 
 state of babyhood, and to be perpetually crying for 
 milk. 
 
 Students’ Preaching. 
 
 In the Presbyterian Churches government is exercised 
 by “ elders” or “ presbyters,” an order of office-bearers to 
 whom, in the apostolic epistles, the names “ bishops ” or 
 “overseers,” and “pastors” or “shepherds,” are also 
 applied. They are of two classes, the one of which com¬ 
 prises those whose office is limited to government, and 
 the other, those who, besides ruling, teach, or “ labour in 
 the word and doctrine; ” there being of the latter at 
 least one in each congregation. The duty of conducting 
 public worship is committed to the teaching elder, who 
 is universally called “ the minister.” But students of 
 theology, who have passed satisfactorily through the pre- 
 
STUDENTS' PREACHING. 
 
 105 
 
 scribed course of preparatory study, are “ licensed ” by 
 the Presbytery, or authorised to preach the Word, and 
 exercise their gifts as “ probationers ” for the holy 
 ministry. In the Secession Church, till about fifty years 
 ago, students were strictly prohibited from preaching 
 previously to license. The only opportunities allowed 
 them of appearing before a congregation were those that 
 occurred when ministers assisting at a communion were 
 appointed a committee to receive discourses from them 
 in public, at the close of the usual services on the Mon¬ 
 day. In the last two years of my theological course, I 
 preached occasionally on the Sabbath evening, with the 
 sanction of my own minister, the Professor of Pastoral 
 Theology, at two places in the district where I resided ; 
 but, having been engaged to preach in another village, 
 I incurred the displeasure of the venerable pastor of a 
 neighbouring congregation, who sent a letter interdicting 
 me, and conveying such a reprehension as might with 
 great propriety have been administered to one who was 
 proposing to commit some crime of very considerable 
 magnitude. I quite agree with an old writer who says, 
 “ Nor should men turn preachers as the river Nilus 
 breeds frogs (saith Herodotus), when one half moveth 
 before the other is made, and while it is yet but plain 
 mud.” Undoubtedly a very injurious influence both 
 upon the training and the character of theological stu¬ 
 dents must result from their being employed at an early 
 period of their curriculum in the ministrations of the 
 pulpit ; and it cannot be supposed that they, with per¬ 
 haps some rare exceptions, should be in any good degree 
 
io6 CLERICAL COSTUME. 
 
 qualified to teach the people publicly, while they them¬ 
 selves have only begun to be professionally taught. But 
 though, during the whole of their course they should be 
 students, laying up (if I may so employ the apostle’s lan¬ 
 guage) a good foundation for the time to come, assidu¬ 
 ously labouring to acquire those stores of knowledge from 
 which themselves and the Church may afterwards reap 
 advantage, yet it is highly desirable that in the more ad¬ 
 vanced stages they should have opportunities of learning 
 by practice the art of preaching. This is now duly pro¬ 
 vided for in the United Presbyterian Church, though the 
 excellent rules of Synod, it is to be feared, are not 
 always strictly observed, and the rights and interests of 
 probationers are sometimes disregarded,—a species of 
 trespass for which it is an insufficient excuse that those 
 who commit it expect themselves to suffer ere long in a 
 similar way. 
 
 Clerical Costume. 
 
 “In i6io, King James, among other cares for his 
 mother-kirk, sent directions from Court that all ministers 
 should wear black clothes, and when in the pulpit should 
 appear in black gowns. In general, however, the Pres¬ 
 byterian ministers preferred the old Geneva cloak, which 
 had much the appearance of a gown.”^ And still, “ while 
 performing their sacred duties, ministers in the Church 
 of Scotland are attired in the Geneva gown and band, 
 although in remote districts the band only is used, that 
 
 ^ M'Crie’s “Story of the Scottish Church,’’ p. 157. 
 
CLERICAL COSTUME. 
 
 107 
 
 being the external badge of an ordained clergyman.”^ The 
 “ band ” is “ the only relic of the ancient a 7 nice, a linen 
 vestment which was used in the ancient Church to cover 
 the shoulders and neck of the priest.”^ It is said to be 
 in ^Scotland more immediately “a remnant of the old 
 cravat worn universally by the clergy a hundred years 
 ago.” ^ 
 
 “ Harms,” says Vinet, “ gives a singular explanation of 
 costume, which is, he says, designed to conceal either 
 too great bodily advantages, or too great bodily imper¬ 
 fections. The idea of costume, according to us, is to 
 efface or to cover the individual and the man of the pass¬ 
 ing age. In proportion as spirituality increases in a 
 people, a special costume becomes less necessary, is even 
 repugnant. I believe,” he adds, “ that in this respect we 
 must follow the rules of the Church to which we have 
 attached ourselves, and follow them freely and unhesitat¬ 
 ingly.” 4 
 
 About the beginning of this century, the gown and 
 band were unknown in the Secession; and clerical dress 
 in other respects exhibited a greater diversity than is 
 now seen. Even the black coat was not universal; and 
 in regard to the inferior parts of the attire, very consider¬ 
 able license seems to have obtained. It is mentioned, 
 for instance, in the memoir of Dr John Brown, that when 
 a preacher, he appeared in the pulpit at Stow “ dressed in 
 light-coloured corded knee breeches and Hessian boots.” 
 
 ^ “ Religions of the World,” p. 130. 
 
 ^ Chambers’ “ Encyclopaedia.” ® Eadie’s “ Eccl. Cycl.” 
 
 “ Pastoral Theology,” part iii. sect. i. 
 
io8 
 
 SABBAT// SC//OOLS. 
 
 In the Latin Church wigs were worn for a long period 
 by the clergy some time after the tonsure was introduced 
 in the sixth century; and “ in the Protestant Churches, 
 during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they were 
 adopted by the ministers, and continued up to a recent 
 period. They were in common use in Scotland till near 
 the end of the last century,” ^ In the early part of this 
 century, it was the fashion to wear the hair powdered; 
 and “ it was less common for young ministers to have 
 black coats than to have white locks. With brethren 
 who were a little slovenly, it was not unusual to distribute 
 the powder unequally over their heads, leaving patches 
 of black or mere frizzled hair, and scattering heaps of the 
 white dust upon their coats, so that the coats began, like 
 their owners, to put on the appearance of venerable old 
 age.” 2 
 
 ^ Eadie’s “ Eccl. Cycl.” “Archbishop Tillotson is the first 
 prelate represented in a wig. It is, however, of moderate dimen¬ 
 sions, and not much unlike a natural head of hair.”—Planch^’s 
 “ History of British Costume,” p. 395. 
 
 - Landreth’s “Life of Thomson,” p. 157. 
 
 Note, Page 103. 
 
 Mr Robert Raikes, a printer in Gloucester, has justly been con¬ 
 sidered the founder of Sabbath-schools, the existence of which, 
 therefore, as a national institution, is to be dated from 1781. It is 
 worthy of mention, however, that about a quarter of a century 
 earlier a minister in one of the sections of the Secession Church, the 
 Rev. James Morison of Norham, commenced a Sabbath-school. It 
 was intended, chiefly, I suppose, for the children of his own con¬ 
 gregation; but he received all who were willing to attend; and “on 
 Monday evenings he assembled such of his Sabbath scholars as were 
 of more mature age, in order to communicate to them further instruc- 
 
SABBATH SCHOOLS. 
 
 109 
 
 tion.” He also prepared a catechism for them, which was published 
 with the somewhat singular title of “A New Year’s Gift for Chil¬ 
 dren.”^ It is said that a Sabbath-school was conducted by the Rev. 
 W. Crawford, parish minister of Wilton, in the Presbytery of 
 Jedburgh, a quarter of a century before Mr Morison opened his 
 school. “It is recorded on Blair’s monument in the Church of 
 Brechin,” wrote Dr Guthrie, in his “Autobiography” (p. 17), 
 “ that to him belongs the honour of instituting Sabbath-schools, he 
 having commenced one in my native town several years before any 
 were opened in England by Raikes of Gloucester, to whom the 
 honour is generally assigned.” “‘Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona;’ 
 and there were Sunday-schools outside as well as within the limits 
 of the Church of England before Raikes’ time. Cardinal Borromeo 
 founded Sunday-schools in his diocese in the sixteenth century ; 
 Joseph Alleine, the eminent nonconformist minister, made use of 
 them in the seventeenth; and Miss Hannah Ball, a Methodist, 
 started a Sunday-school at High Wycombe in 1769. These, how¬ 
 ever, and others which might be mentioned, were but isolated 
 efforts. The Sunday-school movement dates from the year 1780, 
 and was the work of Raikes.” ^ 
 
 * Memoir of Mr Morison, prefixed to a new edition of this Catechism in 1851. 
 - The Churchman. August 1880. See also the Sunday at Home, 1879. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DISPENSATION OF THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 Baptism. 
 
 “ "D APTISM,” says the Directory, “is not to be un¬ 
 necessarily delayed.” In a historical sketch of 
 one of the oldest Secession congregations in Glasgow, it 
 is remarked that “ during the last century it seems to 
 have been the custom to have the ordinance of baptism 
 administered on the first Sabbath succeeding the birth of 
 the child. In some instances, the child was baptised 
 the very day it was born; and in not a few cases, the 
 child born on Saturday was baptised next day.”^ There 
 can be little doubt that not unfrequently the anxiety 
 shown by parents for so early baptism of their children 
 arose from a superstitious feeling but this practice may 
 have been, it probably was, for the most part, the con¬ 
 sequence of a pious and enlightened regard for the 
 ordinance 3 and, undoubtedly, this will tend to prevent 
 “ unnecessary delay.” In the congregation with which 
 I am connected, during the last century, and the early 
 
 1 United P)-esbyterian Magazine, Jan. 1B49. 
 
 ' See Jamieson’s “ Sermons on the Heart,” vol. i. p. 294. 
 
BAPTISM. 
 
 Ill 
 
 part of this, children were baptised commonly on the 
 second or third Sabbath after their birth. In later times, 
 there has usually been a somewhat longer interval between 
 birth and baptism; and one advantage of this change is, 
 that the mother generally has it in her power to be 
 present along with her husband at the administration of 
 the rite. 
 
 The Directory adds, “ Nor is baptism to be ad¬ 
 ministered in private places, or privately, but in the place 
 of public worship, and in the face of the congregation.” 
 There may be cases in which circumstances warrant or 
 render necessary the dispensation of baptism in the 
 parents’ own home; but in all ordinary cases it ought to 
 be dispensed in the presence of the public assembly. 
 This is obviously proper, because baptism not only is, 
 on the part of God, significant of spiritual purification, 
 of cleansing from the guilt and pollution of sin by the 
 blood and the Spirit of Christ, and imports, on the part 
 of the recipient, devotement to the faith and practice of 
 Christianity, but also expresses, on the Church’s part, 
 acknowledgment of the person baptized as a member of 
 the Church, entitled to its peculiar privileges. “ By the 
 want,” too, “ of the public dispensation of this ordinance, 
 the Church is deprived of one special means of enjoying 
 communion with Christ,” ^ and of receiving impressive 
 instruction or admonition respecting the blessings of His 
 salvation, and the obligations resting upon those who 
 have been made partakers of these blessings. “ Private 
 
 1 “Testimony of General Associate Synod,” xix. 2 , where some 
 other objections are specified. 
 
II2 
 
 BAPTISM. 
 
 baptism ” was one of the “ Five Articles of Perth,” which 
 were renounced by the Assembly at the time of the 
 Second Reformation. About fifty years before, “ the 
 minister of Tranent was suspended for baptizing an 
 infant in a private house; but confessing his offence, he 
 was ordained to make public repentance in the Kirk of 
 Tranent before he be released.” ^ In the religious de¬ 
 nominations by the union of which the United Presby¬ 
 terian Church was formed, and in this Church likewise, 
 baptism in private has always been discouraged. If 
 circumstances render it necessary, intimation is pre¬ 
 viously made from the pulpit of the place and the time; 
 and the dispensation of the ordinance is usually accom¬ 
 panied with ministerial instruction, or “ a word of ser¬ 
 mon,” as the common phrase is. As in many of the 
 rural districts, a number of the families belonging to a 
 congregation reside at considerable distances from the 
 place of worship, it is much more frequently necessary 
 in the country than in the towns to administer the 
 ordinance privately. But this necessity, it might be 
 supposed, would be greater in by-gone times than now, 
 when travelling has been rendered more easy by the 
 improvement of roads and otherwise, and places of 
 worship have been multiplied; yet private baptism has 
 somehow become much more frequent than it formerly 
 was. During the ministry of the first pastor of the con¬ 
 gregation with which I am connected, all the children 
 whose names are in that part of the baptismal register 
 which is in his own handwriting, extending from 1769 to 
 1 Miller’s “Communion for the Sick.” See Note, p. 136. 
 
BAPTISM. 
 
 113 
 
 1780, are stated to have been baptized “at the close of 
 public worship,” except three, who were baptized “ at the 
 close of a diet of public examination.” But taking a 
 period of about the same length in the middle of this 
 century, I find that nearly five-twelfths of the children 
 were baptized in their parents’ houses; and since that 
 time the proportion has still increased. 
 
 The following is the mode of procedure prescribed by 
 the Directory:—“Before baptism, the minister is to 
 use some words of instruction touching the institution, 
 nature, use, and ends of this sacrament; ” “ he is also to 
 admonish all that are present to look back to their 
 baptism,” &c. ; “ he is to exhort the parent to consider 
 the great mercy of God to him and his child, to bring 
 up his child in the knowledge of the grounds of the 
 Christian religion, and in the nurture and admonition of 
 the Lord, and to let him know the danger of God’s 
 wrath to himself and his child if he be negligent, re¬ 
 quiring his solemn promise for the performance of this 
 duty; this being done, prayer is also to be joined with 
 the word of institution,” &c.; “then the minister is to 
 demand the name of the child, which being told him, he 
 is to say, calling the child by his name, ‘ I baptize thee 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost; ’ as he pronounceth these words he is to 
 baptize the child with water, which, for the manner of 
 doing it, is not only lawful, but sufficient and most ex¬ 
 pedient to be, by pouring or sprinkling of the water on 
 the face of the child, without adding any other cere¬ 
 mony; this done, he is to give thanks and pray.” With 
 
 H 
 
BAPTISM. 
 
 114 
 
 the exception of the first and second parts, this order is 
 still generally followed. Some ministers, however, omit 
 the naming of the child; and others, instead of address¬ 
 ing the child by its name, announce this immediately 
 after the act of baptism. The practice was borrowed 
 from the usages of the Jews at the time of circumcision 
 (Luke i. 59-63); and in early times it was confirmed by 
 the custom of giving new names to converted heathens 
 when they were admitted to the fellowship of the Church. 
 It is in itself a harmless practice, and it may be regarded 
 as having a recommendation in the circumstance of its 
 associating the name of a person in perpetual connection 
 with the solemn recognition of him as a member of the 
 Church of Christ. There is reason to fear, however, that 
 it has led many to entertain a very absurd and even 
 impious idea of the ordinance, and this, doubtless, is 
 one reason why some ministers refuse to observe it. 
 
 In a written form in my possession which was used by 
 a Secession minister in the early part of this century, and 
 which may be regarded as a specimen, the parent is 
 required to “ instruct his child in the principles of our 
 holy religion,” not only “as contained at large in the 
 Scriptures,” but “ as exhibited in the Westminster Con¬ 
 fession of Faith, and in the Catechisms, larger and 
 shorter, and the Presbyterial Form of Church Govern¬ 
 ment,” and “ in the manner in which these standards are 
 received among us, in the grounds of our Secession, and 
 the reason of our continuance as a separate body, and 
 the nature of the Testimony in behalf of the Refor¬ 
 mation.” No such extensive promise as this is required 
 
THE L ORE'S SUPPER. 11 5 
 
 now. It is still common, however, in addressing the 
 parent, to use a set form, composed by each minister for 
 himself, or obtained from some father or brother in the 
 ministry. Would it not be an improvement to vary the 
 address, as might in general be easily and naturally 
 done, by making it have reference to the subject of the 
 preceding sermon ? Such an address, corresponding to 
 that given at the communion, would be especially proper 
 where the practice has been adopted of dispensing the 
 ordinance at stated times. This is now done in many 
 or most of the large congregations in the towns, the 
 dispensation being commonly appropriated to one Sab¬ 
 bath in each month. 
 
 The Dispensation of the Lord’s Supper. 
 
 In the second chapter of the Acts, “ the breaking of 
 bread ” seems to be mentioned as forming a part of the 
 ordinary religious services of the Apostolic Church. 
 There is another passage in the same book which has 
 been understood to indicate that it was the custom of the 
 early Christians in every place, when they met together 
 on the first day of the week, to celebrate the sacred feast 
 (Acts XX. 7); and the language of the apostle in i Cor. xi. 
 20 has been regarded as affording additional evidence, 
 that always when the members of a church assembled 
 themselves together, one special object was “to eat the 
 Lord’s Supper.” ^ But the church at Corinth, like other 
 Gentile churches, consisted of several small congrega- 
 
 ^ Dr John Brown’s “Hints on the Lord’s Supper,” chap. iii. 
 sect. 2. Alexander’s “Life of Wardlaw,” chap. iv. 
 
ii6 THE LORD'S SUTLER. 
 
 tions, which met separately in the houses of some of the 
 members (thus we read of the “ church ” or “ assembly 
 which was in the house ” of Aquilla and Priscilla in that 
 city); and the remarkable phrase employed by the 
 apostle, “ ye come together tnfo one place," may refer, not 
 to the ordinary meetings of the several congregations, but 
 to a special stated meeting of them all, or of members 
 belonging to them all, for the purpose of uniting in the 
 celebration of the Lord’s Supper. With reference to the 
 first of these passages, too, it has been remarked that, 
 ‘‘ had the Supper been one of the stated ordinances, the 
 historian would naturally have mentioned only the meet¬ 
 ing on the first day of the week, and the notice of its dis¬ 
 pensation, as a thing of course, would have occurred 
 merely in the account of the exercises which took place.” ' 
 It seems certain, however, that this ordinance was fre¬ 
 quently observed by the primitive Christians; and there 
 is surely nothing in our circumstances that requires, or 
 even warrants, so wide a difference as has in this respect 
 been made between their practice and ours. “The Com¬ 
 munion, or Supper of our Lord,” says the Westminster 
 Directory, “is frequently to be celebrated; but how 
 often may be considered and determined by the minister 
 and other church governors of each congregation, as they 
 shall find most convenient for the comfort and edification 
 of the people committed to their charge.” It appears 
 from the First Book of Discipline that the Scottish 
 Reformers contemplated the ordinary celebration of the 
 
 ^ Duncan’s “Disquisition on the Lord’s Supper,” sect, iv., and 
 Appendix. 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 117 
 
 Lord’s Supper at least once every month. But afterwards, 
 such a multiplicity of services came to be connected with 
 it as necessarily implied its comparatively rare observance; 
 and, indeed, instead of being observed monthly, it was 
 made an annual festival. “ The Sacrament of the Lord’s 
 Supper,” says Dr Jamieson, “ is dispensed less frequently 
 in the Church of Scotland than in most other Protestant 
 churches, being celebrated only once a year in rural 
 parishes, and twice in the towns, although in many of the 
 chapels connected with the Scottish Establishment, the 
 practice has for some years been introduced of having 
 quarterly sacraments.” ^ In the several congregations of 
 the Secession Church, the ordinance was dispensed at 
 least twice every year; and in many cases members of a 
 congregation enjoyed other opportunities of communicat¬ 
 ing, at the dispensation of the sacrament in neighbouring 
 churches, where their minister was accustomed to assist, 
 his own pulpit being left vacant for the time. The 
 author of the Disquisition on the Lord’s Supper referred 
 to above, in an appended review of Mason’s “ Letters on 
 Communion,” says, “ The members of that congregation 
 with which the reviewer is connected, though the ordi¬ 
 nance be dispensed in it only twice, have opportunity of 
 communicating, all of them four, or five, and some of 
 them nine times a year.” This pleasant and profitable 
 circulation of communion, this extended fellowship, in 
 which different congregations visibly proved themselves 
 to be one body, as partakers of one bread, has now almost 
 entirely ceased to be known. 
 
 1 “Religions of the World,” p. 131. 
 
ii 8 
 
 THE LORD’S SUFFER. 
 
 Special services, preparatory for the Communion, were 
 held on two days of the week preceding the Sabbath on 
 which it was to be dispensed. The first of these was the 
 Fast-day, as it was called, being originally distinguished 
 by an entire or a partial abstinence from food. This, 
 though the name remains, does not now generally form a 
 part of the observance, the object contemplated being 
 simply the dedication of the day to the preparatory 
 duties of humiliation or prayer. The public services of 
 the Fast-day were usually commenced by the minister of 
 the congregation himself, who read and briefly expound¬ 
 ed an appropriate chapter or portion of Scripture, and 
 then offered up a prayer which embraced a full and 
 solemn confession of sins. He was followed by the 
 brother or brethren engaged to assist, who preached two 
 discourses suited to the occasion. At the close of public 
 worship, the elders assembled in the open space at the 
 pulpit, and, the Session having been constituted by 
 prayer, tokens were distributed to the members of the 
 congregation, who passed along, one after another, in 
 front of the pulpit. Tokens were small flat pieces of 
 lead, square or oval, on the one side of which was in¬ 
 scribed the name of the congregation, and on the other, 
 frequently, the words, “ This do in remembrance of Me,” 
 or some other appropriate text. They were given to in¬ 
 tending communicants, to be handed by them to the 
 elders in approaching to the Lord’s table. The object 
 was to secure that only members in full communion 
 should partake of the sacrament. After this was done, 
 young persons who had applied for admission to the 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 119 
 
 fellowship of the church, and had been examined by the 
 minister, and approved by the Session, came forward, 
 and having, in answer to a series of questions proposed 
 to them, made an open profession of faith, were admitted 
 by the vote of the Session, and received an appropriate 
 exhortation from the minister. In many congregations, 
 the tokens have been laid aside, and cards have been 
 substituted for them, which are delivered by the elders 
 to the members in their several districts during the week 
 that precedes the Communion Sabbath. This method is 
 recommended by the advantage of securing regular and 
 frequent visitation of the members by their spiritual 
 overseers, which, when rightly performed, is eminently 
 fitted to promote the best interests of a congregation, and 
 of all connected with it. 
 
 In former times, a strict observance of the Fast-day 
 was enforced by the subjection to censure of church 
 members who were found chargeable with not duly 
 keeping it. Of this, the following extract from the 
 minutes of Session of a Secession congregation in 1778 
 
 furnishes an instance :—“ Compeared-, who, by 
 
 his own confession, was guilty of breaking a Fast-day, 
 allowing his men to work. After dealing with him, the 
 Session agreed that he should be rebuked; which was 
 done accordingly.” 
 
 Public worship was also observed on the afternoon of 
 the Saturday before the Communion Sabbath, two dis¬ 
 courses being then preached; and in former times, at 
 summer sacraments in the country, there was a second 
 service in the evening, which was intended chiefly for 
 
120 
 
 THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 members of other congregations who had come to enjoy 
 the privileges of the sacramental season, and who ex¬ 
 perienced the kindness of Christian friends, manifesting 
 itself in cheerful compliance with the apostolic injunc¬ 
 tions, “ Use hospitality one to another without grudg¬ 
 ing : ” “ Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for 
 thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” With 
 joy Christians in those days “ saw,” as one has said, 
 “ their brethren gathering from different quarters, to 
 strengthen their hands in the good way and work of the 
 Lord. Often they may have entertained them as angels 
 of God, and found their hospitality amply repaid by re¬ 
 freshing, elevating, spiritual conversation, and by the 
 mutually endearing intercourse of brotherly love.” ^ 
 
 At the close of the service on Saturday, it was the 
 custom of the minister to pirleken^ that is, to give a 
 short address, in which he went over the leading topics 
 of the discourses preached on that day, and on the Fast- 
 day, and exhorted the people to improve what they had 
 heard for the purpose of self-examination, and prepara¬ 
 tion for the solemn service in which they were to engage 
 on the morrow. The older people were not at all 
 pleased at the discontinuance of this practice. I re¬ 
 member an old lady who had gone from the country to 
 reside in the metropolis, indicating very plainly in regard 
 to the minister of the congregation with which she had 
 connected herself, that her estimate of his abilities was 
 
 1 “Disquisition,” &c., p. 73. 
 
 2 A corruption of the French parler a hi queue, “speaking at 
 the end.” 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER, 
 
 I2I 
 
 considerably lowered when the Saturday service was closed 
 without his appearing in the pulpit to perform the duty 
 which in her experience had never before been omitted. 
 
 On the Sabbath, the services were commenced in the 
 usual way,—with praise and prayer; after which the 
 minister of the congregation preached what was called 
 the “ action-sermon.” Eadie says, “ It was so named, 
 in all probability, from the action or ceremonial for 
 which it was the accustomed preparation.” The “ac¬ 
 tion” is the name given to the Lord’s Supper in the 
 Westminster Directory. But why was the ordinance so 
 termed? The true explanation, undoubtedly, is that 
 given by Dr Candlish in his treatise on the “ Christian 
 Sacraments.” This name, he says, “ is taken from the 
 phrase ‘actio gratiarum,’ ‘the giving of thanks.’” It is 
 thus precisely of the same import as the name by which 
 the ordinance is still often called, the Eucharist.^ The 
 action-sermon was followed by a prayer and the singing 
 of a psalm; and then the peculiar services of the day 
 were begun by the minister proceeding to what was 
 called the fencing of the tables, which consisted of an 
 address relating to the nature and design of the ordi¬ 
 nance, and the character of those who have a right to 
 engage in it. In this way, a fence, as it were, was placed 
 around the Lord’s table, to guard it against the intrusion 
 of any who did not possess the requisite qualification. 
 This address, accordingly, was also called the Debarrings, 
 
 1 In the English translation, by F. S., 1672, of Daille’s “Ser¬ 
 mons on the Epistle to the Colossians,” the word “ action” is fre¬ 
 quently used to denote the discourse, or the service in general. 
 
122 
 
 THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 because the minister solemnly, and often in a very 
 formal manner, debarred, or prohibited from approach¬ 
 ing the Lord’s table, “all such as were ignorant, 
 scandalous, profane, or that lived in any sin or offence 
 against their knowledge or conscience.” In Knox’s 
 Liturgy, this was done in the following terms :—“ In the 
 name and authority of the Eternal God, and of His Son 
 Jesus Christ, I excommunicate from this table all blas¬ 
 phemers of God, all idolaters, all murderers, all adul¬ 
 terers, all that be in malice or envy; all disobedient 
 persons to father or mother, princes or magistrates, 
 pastors or preachers ; all thieves and deceivers of their 
 neighbours; and, finally, all such as live a life directly 
 fighting against the will of God; charging them, as they 
 will answer in the presence of Him who is the righteous 
 Judge, that they presume not to profane this most holy 
 table. And yet this I pronounce not to seclude any 
 penitent person, how grievous soever his sins before 
 have been, so that he feel in his heart unfeigned repent¬ 
 ance for the same; but only such as continue in sin 
 without repentance. Neither yet is this pronounced 
 against such as aspire to a greater perfection than they 
 can in this present life attain unto,” Slc. 
 
 At the first dispensation of the Lord’s Supper, none 
 but communicants were present. This furnished no 
 warrant for the practice which afterwards crept in of 
 excluding all but members of the Church when the 
 ordinance was observed. It might with equal reason 
 have been argued that none but official men should 
 partake, as the only persons present at the institution 
 
THE LORD'S SUFFER. 
 
 123 
 
 were apostles.^ It was the idea of awful mystery which 
 began to be attached to the ordinance that led to this 
 practice. First, the unconverted hearers were dismissed, 
 and then the catechumens, or those who were still 
 undergoing instruction in the principles of Christianity, 
 the baptized faithful only remaining for the Communion 
 service. The first two classes were sent away by the 
 words, “ Ite, missa est,” “ Go; the congregation is dis¬ 
 missed 3 ” and this phrase is commonly supposed to be 
 the origin of the term “ mass,” employed to denote the 
 celebration of the Eucharist in the early and the Roman 
 Catholic Church. John Brown of Haddington says, 
 “ About the eighth year of my age, I happened, in a crowd, 
 to push into the church of Abernethy on a Sacrament 
 Sabbath. Before I was excluded (for at that time it was 
 usual to admit into the church few or none in the time of 
 communicating, but those who intended to join in eating 
 the Lord’s Supper, the rest being supplied with service 
 in another assembly), I heard one or two tables served 
 by a minister who spoke much in commendation of 
 Christ; this in a sweet and delightful manner captivated 
 my young affections, and has since made me think that 
 children should never be kept out of church on such 
 occasions.” But the reason of their exclusion in former 
 times is not to be found in any such ideas being enter¬ 
 tained respecting the ordinance by the early Seceders 
 or other Scottish Presbyterians as those that anciently 
 prevailed in the Church, but simply, I suppose, in the 
 circumstance that often the places of worship were in- 
 
 ^ “Disquisition,” &c., p. 64. 
 
124 
 
 THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 sufficient to accommodate more than the intending com¬ 
 municants. Anderson, in his reply to Rhind’s “ Apology ” 
 (1714), says, “’Tis true that there are many others 
 present ofttimes besides those that communicate. But 
 where is the harm of this ? Does it hinder the devotion 
 of the communicants that others are looking on them ? 
 Is it not rather an engagement upon them to carry them¬ 
 selves with the more solemn gravity ? ” The reference 
 here, however, seems to be to church members of other 
 congregations being present, who did not communicate 
 at the time. But the very nature and design of the 
 ordinance indicates that it should be public, and that its 
 publicity should not be limited to church members 
 themselves. The service, on the part of communicants, 
 consists in “ showing the Lord’s death,”—in announcing 
 or proclaiming it (as the term used by the apostle 
 properly means),—exhibiting it not only to one another, 
 or to their brethren in the Lord, but to men in general; 
 and often have the effects on spectators, especially on 
 young persons who witnessed it, been beneficial to their 
 souls, and redounded to the honour of the Saviour, and 
 the advancement of His kingdom. 
 
 The introductory address was followed by the singing 
 of an appropriate psalm, during which the sacramental 
 elements were brought forward by the elders, and placed 
 on the communion-table. The minister then de¬ 
 scended from the pulpit to the head of the table, read 
 the account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper in the 
 eleventh chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, 
 and offered up a thanksgiving for the benefits of re- 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 125 
 
 demption procured by the Redeemer’s death, with prayer 
 for the Divine blessing on the dispensation of the 
 ordinance, as the appointed memorial of that great eventd 
 Many ministers were accustomed to lift a portion of 
 the bread and the cup before offering up prayer; and by 
 some this was considered as an essential part of the 
 
 ^ This was commonly called the “consecration prayer.” Dr 
 Brown having in one of his sacramental discourses employed the 
 phrase, “the consecrated elements,” says in a note, “In using 
 such language, the author wishes it to be distinctly understood that 
 he considers the elements in the Lord’s Supper as consecrated or set 
 apart, not by what is usually termed ‘ the consecration prayer,’ 
 but by the original institution of Jesus Christ. He thinks it, to say 
 the least, very incautious language which is often used by ministers 
 on such occasions, ‘ We hereby set apart from a common to a sacred 
 usd, so much,’ etc. All that a Christian minister can do, and all he 
 ought to attempt to do, is to give thanks for the great blessing of 
 redemption through the death of C’nrist, and for this divinely ap¬ 
 pointed representation of it, and to supplicate the Divine blessing 
 on the ordinance.”^ But though we have no right to consecrate 
 the elements in the sense in which they were consecrated by our 
 Lord, that is, to appoint authoritatively these particular elements 
 to be symbols of His body and blood, yet, just as we set apart 
 such persons as Scripture has marked out to sacred office in the 
 Church, and invoke the Divine blessing to accompany their labours, 
 so we may be said to sanctify or set apart by prayer the bread and 
 the part of the wine employed in the ordinance of the Supper, to the 
 sacred purpose intended, invoking the Divine blessing on the reception 
 of these by the communicants ; and this, doubtless, is all that the 
 term ‘ ‘ consecration ” when applied to the prayer that precedes the 
 act of communicating, is usually conceived to import. Even the 
 articles of ordinary food are said to be “ sanctified ” “by prayer, ” 
 as well as “by the word of God,” or the Divine appointment. It 
 may be better, however, simply to “give thanks,” or “bless,” the 
 latter term, in this connection, being evidently of the same import 
 as the former. 
 
 1 Part i., Dis. iii. 
 
126 
 
 THE LORD'S SUFFER. 
 
 ordinance. In 1782, Mr Smyton, an Anti-Burgher minis¬ 
 ter at Kilmaurs, in Ayrshire, who practised this mode, 
 insisted in the Church Courts that a perfect uniformity 
 should be observed, and that those of his brethren whose 
 practice differed from his own, should be enjoined to 
 adopt the method which he pursued; but the Synod de¬ 
 cided that the matter should be one of mutual forbear¬ 
 ance. Mr Smyton left the fellowship of the Synod ; and 
 several people in Paisley and Greenock and some other 
 places sympathised with him, and were popularly called 
 “ lifters.” A minister of Falkirk also joined him ; but the 
 whole controversy speedily sunk into oblivion.^ Some 
 of those who practised the taking of the elements before 
 prayer, regarded this as a significant action, intended to 
 represent our Lord’s assumption of human nature to die 
 in it. Others observed the practice because they con¬ 
 sidered it as “belonging to the standing order of the 
 sacramental Supper, in the proper, complete, decent, and 
 solemn manner of its administration, conformable to 
 our Lord’s example.” It is undoubtedly an error to 
 regard it as a sign of the incarnation of Christ, for His 
 death is declared to be the sole subject of celebration in 
 the sacred Supper ; and if this ordinance does remind us 
 of His incarnation, it is simply because His death pre 
 supposes His possession of a human nature. The taking 
 of the bread and the cup before the giving of thanks was 
 simply a Jewish custom, which was followed by our Lord 
 at ordinary meals, as we know from the narrative of the 
 
 ^ M'Kerrovv’s “ Hist.,” vol. i. pp. 422-9. Eadie’s “ Eccl. Cycl.,’’ 
 Art. Lifters. 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 127 
 
 miraculous feeding of the multitude. There was, indeed, 
 a special propriety in the observance of this custom by 
 our Lord in the present instance, because it was thus 
 shown that he was about to institute a new ordinance, 
 distinct from that which he had just been celebrating 
 with His disciples. This reason does not apply to our 
 observance of the ordinance; and it should not be for¬ 
 gotten that our Lord did not twice take the bread and the 
 cup, first before and again after the prayer, but held them 
 in His hand, according to the Jewish custom, while He 
 was giving thanks. His example in this respect should 
 be followed by those who imitate Him in taking the 
 elements before giving thanks, because it would prevent 
 the supposition that it is a distinct significant action, to 
 which some meaning not implied in the other parts of the 
 ordinance should be attached. 
 
 After giving thanks, the minister proceeded to what 
 was called the serving of the table. A short appropriate 
 address was delivered to those seated at the table; after 
 which, the elements were put into their hands, the 
 minister at the same time repeating the words of institu¬ 
 tion; and when the act of communicating was finished, a 
 few words of exhortation were added; and the communi¬ 
 cants were then dismissed from the table with a benedic¬ 
 tion. The seats set apart for the communicants were two 
 or more long double pews immediately before the pulpit, 
 having each a narrow table extending from the one end 
 to the other, which was covered with a white linen cloth. 
 As in most cases, these table-seats were incapable of 
 accommodating all the intending communicants at one 
 
128 
 
 THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 time, there was commonly a number of services, the 
 intervals being filled up with singing, during which those 
 who had partaken slowly retired, and their places were 
 immediately occupied by others. This part of the work, 
 with the exception of the first table service, was usually 
 performed by the brethren who were assisting the minis¬ 
 ter of the congregation; and much benefit was frequently 
 reaped, both by communicants and others, from the 
 varied addresses for which a succession of services 
 afforded opportunity. The psalm commonly sung during 
 the several times when the table-seats were being filled 
 was the hundred and third, which is that specified in 
 Knox’s liturgy, and the tune almost always used was 
 Coleshill, the precentor reading the line. When the 
 service of communicating had been finished, a hymn or 
 song of praise was sung, in imitation of the example of 
 our Lord at the institution of the ordinance; ^ after 
 which an additional address, called the exhortation, and 
 intended for all who had been partaking of the Supper, 
 was given from the pulpit, sometimes by the pastor him¬ 
 self, but usually by one of his assistants. The peculiar 
 services of the day were then followed by a concluding 
 sermon, which at the summer sacrament in country 
 places was preached in the open air. 
 
 At the dispensation of the sacrament in the congrega¬ 
 tion with which I am connected, there were sometimes no 
 fewer than seven or eight table services; and public wor- 
 
 1 It is likely that the hymn sung by our Lord and His disciples 
 was a part of the great Hallel, some portions of which are eminently 
 suited to the ordinance, such as Psalm cxvi. 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 129 
 
 ship, commencing at eleven o’clock forenoon, or it might 
 be half-an-hour earlier, was often not concluded till about 
 eight in the evening. In the town churches, the mode 
 of observance was the same, and the work was equally 
 prolonged. I have an account of a communion Sabbath 
 in a Secession Church in Glasgow, in November 1814, in 
 which it is stated that “ nine services, which might 
 number twelve hundred communicants, protracted the 
 work till nine in the evening.” 
 
 So great, usually, was the concourse of people on 
 summer sacramental occasions in the country, that it was 
 found necessary to have a succession of sermons preached 
 without doors, while the peculiar services were going on 
 within. This may be said to have been a continuation 
 of the field-preaching practised in the times of the Cove¬ 
 nant, though it dates from an earlier period, and, indeed, 
 may be said to be an imitation of the example of our 
 Lord Himself and His apostles, who proclaimed the 
 Gospel of the kingdom on the sea-shore, on the moun¬ 
 tain’s side, and on the grassy plain. The following interest¬ 
 ing description of a sacramental scene two centuries ago 
 is given by Blackader, an eye-witness and minister on the 
 occasion: “ Meantime, the communion elements had 
 been prepared, and the people in Teviotdale advertised. 
 Mr Welsh and Mr Riddell had reached the place on 
 Saturday. When Mr Blackader arrived, he found a great 
 assembly, and still gathering from all airts.” “The place 
 where we convened was every way commodious, and 
 seemed to have been formed on purpose. It was a 
 green and pleasant haugh, fast by the water side. On 
 
 I 
 
THE LORD'S SUFFER. 
 
 130 
 
 either hand there was a spacious brae, in form of a half- 
 round, covered with delightful pasture, and rising with a 
 gentle slope to a goodly height. Above us was the clear 
 blue sky, for it was a sweet and calm Sabbath morning, 
 promising to be indeed one of the days of the Son of 
 Man. There was a solemnity in the place befitting the 
 occasion, and elevating the whole soul to a pure and 
 holy frame. The communion tables were spread on the 
 green by the water, and around them the people had 
 arranged themselves in decent order. But the far greater 
 multitude sat on the brae face, which was crowded from 
 top to bottom—full as pleasant a sight as ever was seen 
 of that sort.'’ “All the regular forms were gone through. 
 The communicants entered at one end, and retired at the 
 other, a way being kept clear to take their seats again on 
 the hill-side. There were two long tables, and one short, 
 across the head. About a hundred sat at every side. 
 There were sixteen tables in all, so that about three 
 thousand two hundred communicated that day. The 
 communion was peaceably concluded, all the people 
 heartily offering up their gratitude, and singing with a 
 joyful voice to the Rock of their salvation. It was 
 pleasant, as the night fell, to hear their melody swelling 
 in full unison along the hill, the whole congregation join¬ 
 ing with one accord, and praising God with the voice of 
 psalms.” In the early days of the Secession Church, 
 great crowds often assembled on occasion of the dis¬ 
 pensation of the Supper. “ I was present,” says Ralph 
 Erskine, “ at the sacrament at Orwell, where a vast 
 multitude was gathered, and upwards of five thousand 
 
THE LORHS SUFFER. 
 
 131 
 
 did communicate.” This field-preaching at sacramental 
 seasons was commonly called tent-preaching, because the 
 minister addressed the people from a tent, usually a 
 wooden fabric, kept in readiness for the occasion, and 
 erected a day or two before the Communion Sab¬ 
 bath. 
 
 In consequence of the more frequent dispensation of 
 the Lord’s Supper, and from the operation of various 
 other causes, the numbers assembling on sacramental 
 occasions gradually diminished in most places, and the 
 open-air services were found to be no longer necessary. 
 In the southern parts of Scotland, tent-preaching is now 
 known only as a matter of history. But “the spectacle,” 
 says Jamieson, writing twelve years ago, “is still exhibited, 
 with all its ancient accompaniments, in those parishes 
 which lie in the e 7 nbouchure of the Highlands, and which 
 are inhabited by a mixed population, speaking partly the 
 English and partly the Gaelic language.” 
 
 “ That abuses were occasionally committed,” says Dr 
 John Brown, “ cannot be doubted; yet still it is scarcely 
 possible not to look back with regret to the impressive 
 spectacle, which, twenty years ago, was not uncommon 
 in Scotland, of an assembly of some thousands, on a fine 
 Sabbath evening, on a mountain-side, listening with deep 
 attention and apparent devotion to the good tidings of 
 great joy delivered with solemn interest and tender affec¬ 
 tion. Multitudes have been obliged to say, on such 
 occasions, and the recollection has been sweet to their 
 dying hour, ‘Surely, the Lord is in this place. How 
 dreadful is this place ! This is none other than the 
 
132 
 
 THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 house of God, and this is the gate of heaven Mr 
 Gilfillan remarks that “ the abuse was almost entirely 
 confined to the neighbourhood of great cities. At all 
 events,” he says, “ amid the peaceful solitudes of Perth¬ 
 shire, we never witnessed aught but what was reverent, 
 interesting, and even imposing.” ^ The writer of these 
 pages can bear similar testimony. At his native place 
 the tent was erected at the foot of a hrae, in a plantation 
 at a little distance from the church; and the audience 
 sat on the grassy slope, screened from the rays of the sun 
 by the canopy of leaves, while the pleasant murmur of a 
 stream, gently flowing over a mill-dam that was near, did 
 not at all disturb their worship. The scene was lovely 
 and delightful in no ordinary degree; nor do I ever 
 remember seeing its amenity marred by unbecoming 
 behaviour on the part of any individuals in the assembly, 
 which was frequently large, and, from the commencement 
 of the service till the evening, was, to a considerable 
 extent, composed of young persons belonging to several 
 congregations. 
 
 On the Monday, the congregation assembled once 
 more [to engage in religious exercises, especially in 
 thanksgiving; and two sermons were preached, which 
 were generally of a practical and hortatory kind. The 
 introduction of this practice is noticed by Dr M‘Crie in 
 ‘‘ The Story of the Scottish Church.” Giving an account 
 of the revival at the Kirk of Shotts, on occasion of the 
 dispensation of the Lord’s Supper there on the 20th of 
 
 ^ “Discourses suited to the Administration, &c.,” p. 223. 1823. 
 
 - “The Martyrs, &c., of the Scottish Covenant,” p. 125. 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 133 
 
 June 1630, when an immense concourse of people had 
 gathered from all parts, he says, “ It had not been usual 
 before this time to have service on the Monday; but 
 God had vouchsafed so much of His gracious presence 
 on the preceding days of this solemnity, that they knew 
 not how to part on this Monday without thanksgiving 
 and praise.” John Livingstone preached; and to his 
 sermon, “ under the blessing of God, no less than five 
 hundred people ascribed their conversion. And in 
 gratitude for such a remarkable token of the Divine 
 countenance on this day, the Church of Scotland has 
 ever since devoted a part of the Monday after a Com¬ 
 munion Sabbath to the duty of public thanksgiving.” 
 
 The Monday service, and the service on Saturday too, 
 have now, to a large extent, been discontinued, especi¬ 
 ally in the older of the two large dissenting Presbyterian 
 Churches. In many country congregations, the Fast- 
 day, also, has been abolished; and though it is still 
 maintained in almost all the congregations of the Presby¬ 
 terian Churches in the cities and large towns, yet as great 
 numbers now take advantage of it for excursions by the 
 railway or steamboat, and not a few make it a day, not of 
 amusement only, but of dissipation and revelry, it is 
 doubted by many who themselves still conform to its 
 religious observance, whether it is right to keep up the 
 annual or half-yearly Fast-day in circumstances so dif¬ 
 ferent from those that formerly existed, and in which it 
 is so sadly perverted and abused. For many ages of the 
 Christian Church, the Lord’s Supper was observed with¬ 
 out any regular attention to public preparatory service; 
 
134 
 
 THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 and the more frequent celebration of the ordinance which 
 has now happily become common in the Presbyterian 
 Churches of Scotland, will in all probability lead ere long 
 to the entire cessation of the practice of observing certain 
 days in connection with it. 
 
 The long-continued practice, too, of having a succes¬ 
 sion of table-services has now given place in many con 
 gregations to simultaneous communion. This innovation 
 was first made, it is believed, in the United Secession 
 congregation of Broughton Place, Edinburgh. Dr Brown’s 
 distinguished biographer having remarked, with reference 
 to his ministry there, that “his discourses preached 
 before the administration of the Lord’s Supper were 
 invariably of an elevated and inspiring character,” and 
 that “these occurred every two months,—the greatest 
 approach made by him to what he held in theory,—the 
 weekly celebration of the Communion,” says further, 
 “ The effect of these sermons was heightened by the 
 presence of the communicants in one compact body in 
 the lower part of the church, and by their simultaneously 
 partaking of the ordinance,—a deviation from the old 
 Scottish custom since widely followed, though the act of 
 communion does not often so immediately succeed the 
 sermon as it did in Broughton Place.” The Westminster 
 Directory says, “ The table being before decently 
 covered, and so conveniently placed that the communi¬ 
 cants may orderly sit about or at it, the minister is to 
 begin the action,” etc. In his “ Journal ” laghtfoot says, 
 “Then fell we upon the sitting about the table at the 
 receiving of the Sacrament; and the Scots Commis- 
 
THE LORD’S SUPPER. 
 
 135 
 
 sioners professed they could not take it in any sense but 
 sitting to the table, and that they are so engaged from 
 Scotland to take it so ; and therefore they either desired 
 a recommitment of this passage, or that their sense might 
 be expressed in the margin, which cost a long and large 
 debate. At last, it was concluded thus to have it in the 
 text, ‘ About the table, or at it, as in the Church of Scot¬ 
 land ; ’ and so it was the law of the Assembly, that we 
 might, at liberty, either cause the communicants to sit at 
 the table, or at some distance from it.” ^ 
 
 Formerly, when there was a succession of table ser¬ 
 vices, there was only one act of thanksgiving. Now, 
 when there is simultaneous communion, it is usual to 
 give thanks twice, that is, before the giving of the cup, 
 as well as before the giving of the bread. This is done 
 in imitation of our Lord, who, it is expressly stated by 
 two of the evangelists, “ took bread and blessed,” and 
 afterwards “ took the cup and gave thanks.” But the 
 repetition of thanksgiving was a Jewish custom, and 
 with the Jews was the mode of connecting the different 
 parts of a feast, when the materials of it were successively 
 presented. With us, on the contrary, this may rather 
 seem to break the ordinance into two parts, which have a 
 different spiritual meaning. “ When the bread and the 
 wine,” says Dr King, “ were not together on the table, a 
 repetition of thanksgiving was calculated to associate 
 them in the mind, and to suggest their connection. But 
 when they are simultaneously in view, to offer separate 
 thanksgivings, without any apparent reason, rather in- 
 ^ Eadie’s “ Eccl. Cycl.,” Art. Eucharist. 
 
136 
 
 THE LORD’S SUPPER. 
 
 duces an impression of severance and dissimilarity.”^ 
 It is generally, however, thought good that ministers, in 
 dispensing the ordinance, should copy in this particular 
 the example of Christ. 
 
 ^ “The Lord’s Supper,” p. 45. 
 
 Note, Page 112. Communion for the Sick. 
 
 Private baptism was not less strongly condemned by Acts of the 
 Assembly of the Church of Scotland than private communion. 
 Yet, while the former, notwithstanding these Acts, has become a 
 common practice, the latter is still unknown in the Scottish Presby¬ 
 terian Churches. The early Scottish Reformers, however, like 
 Luther, Calvin, and others on the Continent, “ did not consider the 
 celebration of the Lord’s Supper so inseparably tied to the public 
 congregation that they would not administer it elsewhere.” John 
 Knox ‘ ‘ dispensed it again and again in the houses of noblemen and 
 others,” in Calder House, for instance, the residence of Sir James 
 Sandilands, afterwards Baron Torphichen. This, however, is obvi¬ 
 ously different from the private communion sanctioned by the 
 Articles of Perth, which was the administration of the rite to the 
 sick. But even the latter was approved of by some of the Refor¬ 
 mers. Calvin, for example, ‘ ‘ was strongly in favour of communion 
 to the sick on scriptural conditions.” In one of his letters he says, 
 
 ‘ ‘ Many and powerful reasons induce me not to refuse the Lord's 
 Supper to the sick. A little meeting of relatives and neighbours 
 should be called, that the sacrament be administered according to 
 our Lord’s command. The mystery should be clearly explained, 
 and everything done as in a church.”^ The Westminster Confes¬ 
 sion having stated that the minister, in dispensing the ordinance, is 
 to give both the bread and cup to the communicants, adds, “but to 
 none who are not then present in the congregation,” and condemns 
 “private masses, or receiving the sacrament by the priest, or a 7 iy 
 other, alone.” Dr A. A. Hodge, in his Commentary on the Confes¬ 
 sion, says, “ In particular cases it (the Lord’s Supper) may be ad¬ 
 ministered in private houses, for the benefit of Christians long con¬ 
 fined by sickness, provided that the officers and a sufficient number 
 
 • “ Communion for the Sick,” by the Rev. John Miller, M.A., Dunse. 
 
THE LORDS SUPPER. 
 
 137 
 
 of the members of the church be present to preserve the true cha¬ 
 racter of the ordinance as a communion.” A similar statement had 
 previously been made by another Princeton divine, Dr Samuel 
 jMiller, in his able treatise on Presbyterianism. “ It has sometimes 
 happened,” he says, “that a devout and exemplary communicant 
 of our Church, after long enjoying the privileges of the sanctuary, 
 has been confined for several, perhaps for many years, to a bed of 
 sickness, and been, of course, wholly unable to enjoy a communion 
 season in the ordinary form. In such cases, Presbyterian ministers 
 have sometimes taken the elders of the church with them, and also 
 invited half-a-dozen friends of the Isick person,—thus making, in 
 reality, ‘ a church,’ meeting by its representatives,—and administered 
 the communion in the sick chamber. To this no valid objection is 
 perceived.” In an Outline of the Doctrine, Worship, Polity, and 
 History of the Presbyterian Church of England, prepared by the 
 Rev. Donald Fraser, D.D., at the request of the Synod’s Publica¬ 
 tions Committee, it is said, “ The Holy Communion is not carried 
 about to the sick as a viaticum ; but there is no objection to its 
 observance in a private chamber in cases of long-continued afflic¬ 
 tion, provided that the privilege be not given to one person, but 
 shared by a Christian company, in accordance with the spirit of the 
 ordinance.” I am not aware that this has yet been done by any 
 Presbyterian ministers in Scotland. But the introduction of the 
 practice has recently been earnestly pleaded for by a minister of the 
 Free Church, from whose treatise some extracts have already been 
 made, namely, the Rev. John Miller of Dunse ; and in his Preface, 
 Mr Miller says, “So far as he (the author) is aware, the subject 
 has not been discussed with a view to its adoption among us ; but 
 if the almost unanimous agreement of opinion which the author has 
 been pleased to find among the many he has spoken to—lay and 
 clerical—in different denominations, may be taken as an indication 
 of the mind of Christian people in general on the subject, the time 
 would seem to have come when the practice of administering the 
 communion to the sick ought to be adopted.” Some of Mr Miller’s 
 arguments from the testimony of Scripture, and from the spiritual 
 utility of the ordinance, it would not, I think, be difficult to answer; 
 but he seems to be quite successful in showing that communion for 
 the sick, on the conditions specified by him, is no more contrary to 
 the enactments of the Scottish Church than the private administra¬ 
 tion of baptism, as it is now commonly practised. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 COVENANTING. 
 
 ONFEDERATION is a measure dictated by reason, 
 
 which the members of any community may adopt 
 for mutual defence or support in the prosecution of a 
 great cause. Leagues and covenants, accordingly, have 
 been formed by secular communities for civil, commer¬ 
 cial, and political purposes. But the members of the 
 Church have not only rights common to them with other 
 men, but peculiar privileges, far more valuable than those 
 of any secular society •, these, when assailed, they are re¬ 
 quired to defend and maintain; and, according to the 
 calls of Providence, the whole or a part of the Church 
 may warrantably enter into solemn engagements to stand 
 fast, striving together for the faith of the Gospel, and the 
 liberty with which Christ has made His people free; and 
 their engagements will appropriately assume the form of 
 vows expressly made to God, and may even be fitly 
 accompanied with the sanction of an oath.^ Such cove¬ 
 nanting was observed under inspired authority by the 
 Church during the ancient dispensation of religion; and 
 ^ ‘’Testimony of United Secession Church,’’ chap. xi. 
 
CO VENANTING. 
 
 139 
 
 the practice may be traced in the history of the Christian 
 Church in the primitive times. Pliny, the governor of 
 Bithynia, in his letter to Trajan, the Roman Emperor, 
 stating the account which the Christians gave of them¬ 
 selves and their worship in a time of severe persecution, 
 says “ that they were accustomed on a stated day to meet 
 before daylight, and to bind themselves by an oath with 
 an obligation of not committing any wickedness.” “ Com¬ 
 pelled to meet secretly, or as they could get opportunity, 
 they were wont to engage in some vow to abide faithful, 
 and avoid the pollutions of the world, pledging themselves 
 to one another to stand firm as an host valiant for the 
 truth, and confirming the engagement with an oath,” ^ 
 which Pliny calls by the name applied to the military 
 oath of the Romans (sacrainentiivi). In the first ages of 
 the Reformation, the practice was adopted by the Pro¬ 
 testant princes of Germany, and the Protestant Church 
 of France. In Scotland, before the establishment of 
 the Reformation, “ several bonds or covenants had been 
 entered into by the Protestant nobility, gentry, and 
 others, in which they pledged themselves to defend and 
 support the true religion against its enemies; and to the 
 confederation thus solemnly cemented may be traced 
 much of the success which attended their struggles.” 
 When the Protestant had become the established religion, 
 “ this solemnity assumed the peculiar form of a national 
 deed; and our ancestors were naturally led, by similarity 
 of circumstances, to imitate the covenants of ancient 
 Israel, when king, priests, and people swore mutual 
 ^ “ Disquisition on the Lord’s Supper,” p. 107. 
 
140 
 
 CO VENANTING. 
 
 allegiance to God.” ^ That which is commonly called 
 “ The National Covenant ” was occasioned by a dread of 
 the re-introduction of Popery in 1581, and contained an 
 implicit abjuration of the leading errors and corruptions 
 of Popery, with a solemn engagement, confirmed by an 
 oath, to support the Protestant religion as established in 
 Scotland.- This was renewed at different times during 
 the reign of James; and afterwards, in consequence of 
 the strenuous attempts of his son and successor to effect 
 the complete establishment of Episcopacy in Scotland, it 
 was revived with great solemnity in the year 1638, a 
 bond being appended to it, suited to the then existing 
 circumstances, in which the subscribers engaged “ to 
 adhere to and defend the true religion, and to forbear the 
 practice of all innovations already introduced into the 
 worship of God, and to labour by all means lawful to re¬ 
 cover the purity and liberty of the Gospel, as it was” 
 previously “ professed and established.” In England, 
 many were anxious to procure a more perfect reformation 
 than had yet been attained, especially in the worship, 
 discipline, and government of the Church; and, as a 
 bond of union between the friends of reformation in 
 England and those in Scotland, the ‘‘ Solemn League and 
 Covenant” was framed in the year 1643, ^.nd was sworn 
 and subscribed by many of all ranks in both nations, who 
 thus solemnly abjured both popery and prelacy, and com¬ 
 bined for their mutual defence against the imposition of 
 these systems. After the Restoration, the Covenant was 
 
 ^ M‘Crie, “Story, &c.,” p. 70. 
 
 ^ Robertson’s “ Hist, of Scotland,” book vii. 
 
COVENANTING. 
 
 141 
 
 condemned by Parliament, and ordered to be burned by 
 the hands of the common executioner; and it was finally 
 set aside at the Revolution. 
 
 These covenants, it has been justly remarked, “ viewed 
 as leagues of mutual defence against ‘the popish and 
 prelatical factions ’ with which ” our reforming ancestors 
 “had so frequently to struggle, demand our approba¬ 
 tion; and if the framers and subscribers had limited 
 themselves to this object, their conduct would have been 
 unexceptionable. But, like all the parties who rose and 
 fell during that eventful period, they made aggressions on 
 the religious liberties of others; they made use of the 
 covenant as an instrument for enforcing a uniformity in 
 the matter of religion by means of civil penalties ; they 
 violated the rights of conscience, when they made the 
 subscribing of the bond the test of a person’s holding any 
 office, civil, military, or ecclesiastical. In this respect, 
 their conduct deserves not praise but blame.” ^ It may 
 be added that these compulsory measures were plainly 
 incompatible with the very nature of covenanting, which 
 is essentially a voluntary deed,^ as well as contrary to the 
 grand principle of the Reformation, Liberty of Conscience. 
 The trying circumstances in which our reforming ances¬ 
 tors were placed, from the spirit and efforts of the 
 enemies of their religion and liberties, may furnish an 
 
 ^ M'Kerrow’s “Hist, of the Sec. Church,” vol. i. p. 251. 
 
 ^ It should be noticed, however, that as all the previous bonds 
 were voluntary, so were the first formation and subscriptions of the 
 National Covenant. Robertson’s “Hist.,”b. vii. “Speech in the 
 General Associate Synod on Covenanting,” by the Rev. Alex. Dun¬ 
 can, Midcalder, 1819. 
 
142 
 
 COVENANTING. 
 
 apology for them, but not a vindication of their mea¬ 
 sures \ for, whatever may be the system of error or 
 corruption with which Christians have to contend, it is 
 only by spiritual weapons that they are allowed to sustain 
 the cause of revealed religion, and confederation in its 
 behalf, if it assume a political aspect, is not conducted 
 on the true principles of the kingdom of Christ, as a 
 kingdom which is “ not of this world.” At the same time, 
 it should be remembered that liberty of conscience, which 
 secures the free exercise of our religion, is a natural right, 
 and that as, when this is invaded, church members, as 
 members of the civil community, may enter into public 
 leagues and covenants in defence of it, so, in preventing 
 the design of such engagement, they may, on the common 
 principle of self-preservation, warrantably adopt such 
 measures, and use such means as are competent to be 
 used in defence of other natural rights.^ But it is ob¬ 
 viously proper to avoid, if possible, combining the 
 defence of the natural right with that of - spiritual privi¬ 
 leges in one federal bond; and in no circumstances can 
 it be lawful to use external force or civil penalties for the 
 support or advancement of Christianity; while nothing 
 can be more inconsistent and unreasonable than for those 
 who are contending for the right to themselves of wor¬ 
 shipping God according to their consciences, to refuse that 
 right to any others, and to punish as criminals all who 
 avow religious principles or obscure modes of worship 
 different from their own,^ 
 
 1 “Testimony of United Secession Church,” chap. xi. 
 
 2 Our ancestors maintained that “ though it be the sinful practice 
 of the Church ol Rome to force men and women to be of their 
 
COVENANTING. 
 
 143 
 
 “It was the opinion of the fathers of the Secession that 
 the Church of Scotland had to some extent thown away 
 an opportunity of prosecuting the great principles of the 
 Reformation at the time of the Revolution settlement. 
 The first Seceders on this account naturally sought to 
 link themselves and their Church history as directly as 
 
 religion, which is superstitious and idolatrous, yet it is not so to 
 others who have the true religion among them.” Dr Dickson’s 
 “Truth’s Victory,” quoted in Panton’s “Inquiiy into the Obligation 
 of Religious Covenants upon Posterity,” p. 96. “ This,” says Dr 
 
 Panton, “ he gives on the very sense of those passages in the Con¬ 
 fession of Faith which treat of the magistrates’ power in matters of 
 religion.” But it was not peculiar to the Covenanters to hold these 
 intolerant principles, and to act upon them. In this respect, they 
 differed no wise from other Protestant Churches at that time. 
 “Even the Independents themselves, the great advocates of un¬ 
 bounded liberty, were as great enemies to the rights of conscience, 
 and guilty of as unjustifiable severities as any class of men. The 
 leaders of that sect, in the Assembly of Westminster, held the 
 opinion that the excommunicated, if they continued impenitent, 
 were to be delivered into the hands of the civil magistrate, to be 
 punished according to their desert. This was not a speculative 
 opinion, but a principle upon which they acted. At the very time 
 when they were pleading for unbounded liberty at home, they were 
 treating the Presbyterians in New England with the utmost rigour. 
 Not a single Dissenter was permitted to live there. Whoever pre¬ 
 sumed to worship God in separate congregations, let their life and 
 doctrine be ever so pure, were delivered up to the civil magistrate 
 to be punished with banishment, perpetual slavery, or death itself.” 
 Panton’s “Inquiry,” p. 97. It is ever to be deeply lamented that 
 the Puritans and Covenanters should have acted to such an extent 
 on the veiy principles on which their enemies and persecutors acted. 
 See a Review of Symington’s “Character and Claims of the Scottish 
 Martyrs,” in the Edinburgh Theological Magazine for April 1832. 
 The radical error of our Covenanting ancestors may be said to have 
 been the overlooking of the distinction between the Church and the 
 nation, and seeking, not only to ally, but to incorporate or identify 
 the one with the other. 
 
144 
 
 COVENANTING. 
 
 possible with the Covenanting period. Their minds were 
 strongly directed to the federal transactions of the 
 Church; they perceived, as they thought, a sanction for 
 such transactions in the Word of God; ” ^ and they, 
 therefore, revived the practice; but, at the same time, 
 freed it in a great measure from the objectionable cha¬ 
 racter which it formerly possessed. ‘‘ The bond,” says 
 M‘Kerrow, “which the Associate Presbytery prepared and 
 subscribed, and in which they required all the congrega¬ 
 tions under their charge to join, breathes much less of the 
 spirit of intolerance than either the National Covenant 
 or the Solemn League and Covenant. There is indeed 
 little or nothing in it to which any member of a Presby¬ 
 terian Church may not cordially assent. It was drawn up 
 by the Presbytery ‘ in a suitableness to their present 
 circumstances ; ’ and they carefully avoid any allusion to 
 civil pains and penalties being employed to enforce an 
 agreement with their Covenant.”^ 
 
 The following is the account given in Gib’s “ Display 
 of the Secession Testimony,” of the manner in which the 
 work of covenanting was usually performed. When any 
 congregation was about to engage in it, public intimation 
 was made several weeks _ beforehand, and frequent 
 meetings of session were held to converse with and 
 receive such as offered themselves to join. On the day 
 appointed, which was usually the fast before the com¬ 
 munion Sabbath, the minister of the place was commonly 
 assisted by two or more of his brethren, and the work 
 
 1 Mr Gill’s “Life of Heugh,” chap. vii. 
 
 - “Hist, of the Sec. Church,” vol. i. pp. 252-3. 
 
COVENANTING. 
 
 145 
 
 proceeded in the following manner:—First, a sermon 
 was preached, accompanied by the usual devotional 
 exercises, after which the minister took notice of the 
 solemn work in which they were about to engage, and 
 having prayed, he read out the names of those who were 
 to join, all of them being properly seated together. 
 Then the National Covena?it and the Solemn League 
 and Covenarit were read, commonly by the minister of 
 the place. The assisting ministers then read the 
 Acknowledgment of Sins and the Engagenmit to Duties., 
 and that in several divisions, by turns, each usually 
 beginning with a short prayer. Next, the presiding 
 minister offered up a prayer of solemn confession 
 and supplication, which was followed with praise. 
 The oath of the Bond was then administered, all the 
 people who joined standing up, and holding up their 
 right hands; and an exhortation having been addressed 
 to the covenanters, this part of the work was followed 
 with prayer and praise. The bond was then subscribed 
 by those who had sworn, and the whole work of 
 the day was concluded with a sermon. Mr Gib notes : 
 —“ Women, as well as men, are admitted to swear and 
 subscribe the bond, and this is conformable to Scripture 
 example, in the tenth chapter of Nehemiah.” 
 
 In the Narrative prefixed to the Testimony of the 
 General Associate (or Anti-Burgher) Synod, emitted in 
 1804, the following statement is made respecting their 
 “ separating brethren, commonly known by the designa¬ 
 tion of Burghers'^ “It is remarkable that, from the 
 time of the breach, they desisted from covenanting 
 
 K 
 
146 
 
 COVENANTING. 
 
 work, and never to this day has it been practised among 
 them.” Covenanting work was practised in all the 
 congregations of the Anti-Burgher Secession, and it was 
 expected that all students of divinity before receiving 
 license, or preachers before being ordained, should join 
 in the covenant. In the Basis of Union agreed upon by 
 the United Associate Synod of the Secession Church in 
 1820, the Synod “expresses an unfeigned veneration for 
 our Reforming ancestors, and a deep sense of the in¬ 
 estimable value of the benefits which accrue to us from 
 their noble and successful efforts in the cause of civil 
 and religious freedom, approves of the method adopted 
 by them for mutual encitement and encouragement, by 
 solemn confederation and vows to God,” and “ acknow¬ 
 ledges that we are under high obligations to maintain 
 and prosecute the work of Reformation begun and to a 
 great extent carried on by them; ” but there is no 
 recognition of descending federal obligation, and while 
 it is asserted that “public religious vowing or cove¬ 
 nanting is a moral duty, to be practised when the 
 circumstances of Providence require it,” it is at the same 
 time declared that, “as the duty, from its nature, is 
 occasional, not stated, and as there may be a diversity of 
 sentiment respecting the reasonableness of it,” so, “ while 
 no obstruction shall be thrown in the way, but every 
 scriptural facility shall be afforded to those who have 
 clearness to proceed in it, yet its observance shall not be 
 required of any in order to Church communion.” A 
 Bond framed by the Anti-Burgher Synod was handed over 
 to the Synod of the United Church, and was “received 
 
COVENANTING. 
 
 147 
 
 and entered ujDon its records, as the bond to be used by 
 all who should see it to be their duty to proceed in that 
 work.” But it is stated by the writer of the Life of Dr 
 Heugh, that, except in a single instance, this bond was 
 never used in the service for which it was designed. 
 
 A few of the Anti-Burgher ministers were opposed to 
 the deed of Synod, adopting the Basis of Union, and 
 solemnly protested against it, for this, among other 
 reasons, because, according to the Basis, the relation of 
 the Seceders to the Covenanting Church of Scotland was 
 not duly recognised, and because it “ laid an insuperable 
 bar in the way of proceeding in the duty of public religi¬ 
 ous covenanting,” as performed in time past. These 
 formed themselves into a separate body, which was after¬ 
 wards united with what was called the “ Constitutional 
 Presbytery,” the latter having been formed, in 1806, by 
 some ministers (including Professor Bruce and Dr MUrie) 
 who had left the Anti-Burgher Synod because their views 
 respecting the power of the civil magistrate in matters of 
 religion differed from those sanctioned by the Synod. 
 The united body adopted the designation, “The Associate 
 Synod of Original Seceders;” and, holding the permanent 
 obligation of the National Covenant and Solemn League 
 and Covenant, they continued the practice of renewing 
 these Covenants in a Bond suited to the times.^ 
 
 ^ In the Wesleyan Methodist Chapels a “ Covenant service ” is 
 held in the beginning of each year. “ Religions of the World,” 
 p. 239. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 PECUNIAR V CONTRIBUTION. 
 
 A DOCTOR of Divinity, lately deceased, once re¬ 
 marked that the mode of expression usually 
 employed by ministers when proceeding to give out 
 the first psalm from the pulpit, namely, “ Let us begin 
 the public worship of God,” was not correct, for the 
 public worship of God commenced at the door or in the 
 lobby of the church. In saying so, he referred to the 
 depositing by the people of their weekly offerings in the 
 plates or basins placed for receiving them at the entrance 
 of the sanctuary ; and the remark is founded on a right 
 view of pecuniary contribution, which, however, it is to be 
 feared, is not always or often realised as it ought to be 
 by the members of the church. To the Israelites it was 
 said, with reference to their great convocations for Divine 
 worship, “None shall appear before the Lord empty: 
 every man shall give as he is able; ” and this law was 
 to continue in force under the Christian dispensation. 
 In one of the Psalms, which evidently refers to the times 
 of the Gospel, it is said, “ Give unto the Lord, O ye 
 kindreds of the people, the glory due unto His name ; 
 bring an offering, and come into His courts; ” and, 
 
PECUNIAR y CONTRIBUTION. 
 
 149 
 
 accordingly, as contribution of worldly substance for the 
 support and extension of the Gospel, and the supply of 
 the temporal wants of brethren, is one of the sacrifices or 
 oblations expressly required from Christians, so it is 
 mentioned, by the name of ‘‘ the fellowship,” as a stated 
 part of the ordinary worship of the church at Jerusalem ; 
 and the same view of it is given in the apostolic order 
 to some of the churches of the Gentiles “ concerning the 
 collection for the saints ” in Judea (i Cor. xvi. 2), “ the 
 first day of the week ” being specified as the proper time 
 for making the collection, because it was the season of 
 their regular assembling of themselves together for the 
 worship of God. Christians are thus taught to regard 
 their contributions as acts of religious service. But the 
 members of our churches are apt to forget this when 
 observing the usual mode in which their contributions 
 are given. This may be said to have come down to us 
 from the Old Testament times (2 Kings xii.; Luke xxi. 
 1-4). It is not, however, universally practised. In some 
 Presbyterian congregations in Scotland, the mode ob¬ 
 served in the English Church is followed. The collec¬ 
 tion is taken after the sermon, or immediately before the 
 benediction, by means of ladles, or small wooden basins 
 or boxes, which, having long handles attached to them, 
 are thereby passed along before the worshippers in their 
 several pews. This mode, while it possesses the advan¬ 
 tage of direct application being made to each individual,^ 
 
 ^ This, however, may be thought liable to an objection, which is 
 stated by Vinet, in his “Pastoral Theology,” part iii. sect. i. 
 “ It will be well for the pastor,” he says, “not to allow the plate to 
 circulate. The sound is uncongenial, and it may force people to give. 
 It would be better to place some receptacle at each door.” 
 
150 PECUNIARY CONTRIBUTION. 
 
 is also more in conformity with the principle of con¬ 
 tribution being, as truly as praise or prayer, a religious 
 observance. 
 
 In the Liturgy of the Church of England, it is directed 
 that, when the offertory is taken, “ The deacons, church¬ 
 wardens, or other fit persons appointed for that purpose, 
 shall receive the alms for the poor, and other devotions 
 of the people, in a decent basin, provided for that pur¬ 
 pose, and reverently bring it to the priest, who shall 
 humbly present and place it upon the holy table ; ” and 
 in the prayer which follows, the worshippers say, “ We 
 humbly beseech Thee most mercifully to accept our alms 
 and oblations.” “ No Church in Christendom,” says 
 Dean Howson, “ declares more emphatically than ours 
 that the offering of our substance is properly a part of 
 Divine worship; for not only is the act of giving made 
 customary during our most sacred service, but it is 
 associated with the most expressive liturgical language. 
 We are admonished in this way that our gifts are to be 
 received, not merely as a result of human charity, but as 
 a sacrifice to Almighty God.” ^ 
 
 Milton says that “ presbyter is priest writ large : ” 
 it is more correct to say that ‘‘ priest ” is “ presbyter ” 
 writ small; but the one name is apt to suggest ideas 
 which the other does not; and the act of presenting the 
 alms and oblations on the holy table (which by many is 
 called the altar), has too much the semblance of sacer¬ 
 dotal function to be likely to commend itself to adoption 
 in Presbyterian communions. But it is exceedingly 
 ^ The Churchman, Jan. 1882. 
 
PECUNIARY CONTRIBUTION. 
 
 151 
 
 desirable that the view in which pecuniary contribution 
 is thus presented should be more deeply impressed on 
 the minds of the members of our churches. Let them 
 learn to look on this as the performance of a religious 
 service. Let every contribution be a “ spiritual sacri¬ 
 fice,” offered up to God through Jesus Christ, an act of 
 homage to the Divine authority, an act of obedience to 
 the law of Christ, an expression of gratitude to Him 
 who loved us, and gave Himself for us. Were the mem¬ 
 bers of our churches universally influenced by those 
 sentiments and motives, they would all give regularly and 
 proportionately, as well as cheerfully; their own spiritual 
 welfare would be promoted by the offerings they should 
 make, and their liberality would be greatly increased ; and 
 thus impressive proof would be given of the excellence 
 and sufficiency of the plan which the Lord has ordained 
 for sustaining and diffusing Christianity in the world.^ 
 
 ^ Of late, there has been a very considerable increase of liberality 
 in contributions, both for the support and the extension of the 
 Gospel. Goldsmith begins his inimitable description of a “Village 
 Preacher " with these lines :— 
 
 ‘ A man he was to all the country dear, 
 
 And passing rich with forty pounds a year.” 
 
 But in the last century the stipend of many Dissenting ministers 
 was less than this. “ For many years,” said Christmas Evans, “ I 
 received but seventeen pounds per annum for all my services.” In 
 his first charge, which was at Kibworth, in 1723, Doddridge’s in¬ 
 come amounted to thirty-five pounds a year ; “ but,” he said, “ as 
 provisions are cheap, I might manage to live upon ten.” (Stam¬ 
 ford’s “Philip Doddridge, pp. 25, 58.) In the “ Baptist Register,” 
 edited by Dr Kippon, minister of Carter Lane Chapel, Southwark, 
 “a friend writes of Mr William Hogue, the minister of Scarborough, 
 ‘ Our beloved pastor is advancing in years, and almost blind. He 
 
PECUNIARY CONTRIBUTION. 
 
 152 
 
 is a zealous, faithful labourer in this corner of Christ’s vineyard. 
 He has a wife and three children at home. His last year’s salary 
 amounted to thirty pounds, which is the mostwe ever raised for him.’ ” 
 (Quoted in Spurgeon’s “ Metropolitan Tabernacle History,” p. 50.) 
 Remuneration of ministerial labour seems to have been but little 
 better on the other side of the Atlantic. In Dr Lyman Beecher’s 
 Autobiography, it is stated, respecting his first charge, that for 
 “nearly a century the terms of the provision for the pastor of East 
 Hampton, Long Island, had been forty-five pounds annually, with 
 the privilege of having grain first ground at the mill on Monday 
 morning, and one-fourth of the whales stranded on the beach.” 
 {B. F. E. Review, July 1864.) William Brown, first minister of 
 Craigdam Secession Church, was settled in 1752 with a stipend of 
 fifteen pounds. (M'Kelvie’s “ Annals,” etc.) Forty pounds a year 
 was the stipend of the first pastor of the congregation with which I 
 am connected at the commencement of his ministry in 1766, and 
 it remained without augmentation for a number of years. When, 
 after his death, the congregation resolved to apply for a moderation, 
 Nov. 1799, they “agreed to give fifty-five pounds stipend, with the 
 land and labouring, dwelling-house, and office-houses, with the 
 carriage of what coals the minister shall need for his house.” After¬ 
 wards, the stipend was raised to seventy pounds, then to eighty, 
 and at length it reached one hundred pounds, which sum, with an 
 allowance of a few pounds for sacramental expenses, it never 
 exceeded. At that time few country congregations gave their 
 minister a larger stipend than this; and such being the case, 
 there would undoubtedly be many a minister who—amidst in¬ 
 creasing demands of the family for support and education, and 
 notwithstanding the most economical management on the part of 
 a spouse who eminently realised the character of “the virtuous 
 woman ” as described by King Lemuel’s mother—would have occa¬ 
 sion, at one time or another, to make such a record as this, which 
 occurs in the Journal of one of those ministers, “ Great straits as to 
 worldly circumstances.” (See also Dr Thomson’s “Life of Prin¬ 
 cipal Harper,” p. 75.) Of late, however, there has, as I have 
 already remarked, been a great enlargement of Christian liberality. 
 Many of the members of our churches have come to understand 
 better the principles and rules, and to feel more deeply the motives 
 and obligations, of religious pecuniary contribution, with reference 
 to the support of their pastors and teachers, as well as to the exten¬ 
 sion of the Gospel throughout the world; and not a few small 
 
PECUNIARY CONTRIBUTION. 
 
 153 
 
 country congregations are abounding and excelling in this grace. 
 Probably there is no office-bearer, nor even any member, of any of 
 our churches, exactly resembling an elder in the south country in 
 the early part of this century, who, when he died, left some 
 thousands to be squandered by his relatives. This man, I have 
 been told, when there was a special collection, was wont to double 
 his gift; but his extraordinary liberality, on such an occasion, did 
 not exhibit an instance of substitution of gold, or even silver, for 
 brass, for his usual contribution was no more than twice as much 
 as the poor widow cast into the treasury. 
 
CHAPTER XI 1 . 
 
 DISCIPLINE. 
 
 J^ISCIPLINE, in the wide sense of the term, com¬ 
 prehends all the actual exercise of Church-govern¬ 
 ment by the appointed office-bearers ; and the term is 
 frequently used in this sense. What are called the First 
 and Second Books of Discipline, connected with the Re¬ 
 formation in our own country, were a somewhat rude 
 but highly laudable attempt at a digest of forms of pro¬ 
 cedure in all cases of ecclesiastical order. In its more 
 usual and restricted sense, the term denotes the means 
 of securing the purity of the Church in doctrine and 
 worship, in profession and practice, and, particularly, the 
 mode of dealing with offenders. It implies a power 
 of censure, and is often used to denote the infliction 
 of it. 
 
 The censures are admonition, rebuke, suspension, and 
 excommunication. These are purely spiritual or ecclesi¬ 
 astical acts; but in some periods of the Church, censures 
 were accompanied or followed by temporal or civil 
 penalties—by persecution on the part of Christians, as 
 when many in the early ages were denied all social 
 
DISCIPLINE. 
 
 155 
 
 intercourse, and were obliged to banish themselves to 
 heathen lands, or perish for want, or as when, in 
 subsequent times, otfenders, on being cast out of the 
 Church, were regarded as delivered up to the secular 
 power for such punishment as it is wont to inflict,—im¬ 
 prisonment, confiscation of goods, or death. In the 
 Romish Church, penitential discipline consists in punish¬ 
 ment of different kinds, such as alms, fasting, self-flagel¬ 
 lation, wearing of hair-shirts, repetition of a certain 
 number of prayers, enjoined or authoritatively imposed, 
 for the faults which a person has committed. But even 
 in the Protestant Churches a rigorous penance was 
 prescribed at the period of the Reformation, and long 
 maintained its ground. Shame, which was originally 
 connected with censure only as a proof of humiliation 
 before God, and a powerful motive to deter both the 
 offender in future, and others, from courses or deeds to 
 which it must necessarily attach, was afterwards con¬ 
 sidered as a penalty, the infliction of which formed part 
 of the sentence pronounced on the offender, to be 
 effected by repeated or long-continued exposure, in 
 ignominious circumstances, either at the door of the 
 church, or in a conspicuous place in the interior allotted 
 for the purpose. In the records of the General Assem¬ 
 bly of the Church of Scotland, 1576, we find this enact¬ 
 ment—The Kirk ordains that offenders who have been 
 excommunicated “ shall make public repentance, at 
 their own kirks, bareheaded and barefooted, three,” or 
 in some cases six, “ several days of preaching, standing 
 at the kirk door betwixt the assemblies, secluded from 
 
DISCIPLINE. 
 
 156 
 
 prayers before sermon, and then entering, and sitting in 
 the public place, all the time of the sermon, and departing 
 before the latter prayerand that other offenders not 
 excommunicated “ shall be placed in the public place, 
 where they shall be known from the rest of the people,” 
 etc. In Scottish churches, two hundred years ago, there 
 was a prominent seat, called “ the cutty stool,” on which 
 offenders of a particular class sat during service, to be 
 afterwards called up and formally rebuked ; and there 
 was also a collar of iron, called “ the jougs ” or “ juggs ” 
 (probably from the Latin word jugum, a yoke), which, 
 being attached by a chain to a post at the porch or door 
 of the church, was elapsed round the necks of certain 
 transgressors, who were obliged to stand in this ecclesi¬ 
 astical pillory, exposed to public gaze.’^ Mulcts or fines, 
 too, were connected with censure, the payment of which 
 ensured absolution, and was sometimes accepted instead 
 of submission to the censure. So recently as in the 
 early part of the present century, the General Associate 
 Synod, in a public document, “ testified against the 
 practice which very generally prevailed in the National 
 Church, of accepting money as a penalty for offences, 
 instead of inflicting the censures instituted by Christ,” 
 condemning this as “ a remnant of Popery, and nearly- 
 allied to that antichristian system of penance, according 
 to which almost every transgression of the moral law has 
 its price.” 
 
 The offences which subject to discipline may all be 
 ranked under the conduct of individuals who propagate 
 ^ Eadie’s “ Eccl. Cycl.” 
 
DISCIPLINE. 
 
 157 
 
 opinions, prosecute courses, or commit deeds at variance 
 with the known principles of the society with which they 
 have connected themselves, or with the fundamental 
 doctrines and explicit laws of Christianity. The alleged 
 total want or grievous relaxation of discipline in the 
 Established Church was one of the original grounds of 
 the Secession; and the founders of this denomination 
 regarded it as an object of primary importance to intro¬ 
 duce a more spiritual and efficient system. But in the 
 early period of its history, there w^as frequently displayed 
 a tendency to excessive strictness in the administration 
 of discipline. In zeal for the interests of truth and holi¬ 
 ness, too little regard was manifested to the dictates of 
 brotherly kindness and charity. Actions that were in¬ 
 different in themselves, or, if reprehensible, were so in 
 but a slight degree, were regarded as very serious offences, 
 and those chargeable with them were subjected to cen¬ 
 sure. 
 
 Among these offences, occasional hearing, or joining in 
 the acts of worship with other churches, was one that 
 proved a fruitful source of business to Sessions. In a 
 sketch of the history of one of the oldest Secession con¬ 
 gregations in Glasgow, which appeared in the United 
 Presbyterian Magazine of 1849, following statements 
 are made : “ Again and again persons were summoned 
 before the Session, and rebuked for hearing ministers of 
 the Establishment, Mr M‘Millan (Cameronian), and 
 especially Mr Fisher (Burgher). But the most remark¬ 
 able case is recorded in a minute of November 1755. ^ 
 
 man and his wife, having been at a marriage where Mr 
 
DISCIPLINE. 
 
 158 
 
 Fisher officiated, and having dined with him afterwards, 
 were called before the Session, and rebuked. Another 
 person happening to meet Mr Fisher in a friend’s house, 
 and hear him ask a blessing, was dealt with in like 
 manner. In the year 1750, another member was re¬ 
 buked before the Session for his sin and scandal in being 
 married by a minister of the Established Church, and 
 was admonished to behave more stedfastly for the future.” 
 I have not found in the minutes of Session of the con¬ 
 gregation with which I am connected any record of 
 dealing with individuals in such cases as these; but 
 occasional hearing is frequently mentioned as a ground 
 of censure: for example,—“May 8, 1774, J. F., after 
 dealing, confessed that he was overtaken with drink, 
 and had attended the Established Church one Sabbath : 
 and professing sorrow for the same, the Session appointed 
 him to be rebuked, which was accordingly done.” “Sept. 
 24, compeared A. G., who confessed that he had been 
 hearing a minister of the present Establishment, also a 
 minister of the Burgher denomination; after a consider¬ 
 able dealing with him, the Session agreed that he should 
 be admonished, which was done accordingly.” 
 
 In the Testimony of 1804, the General Associate 
 Synod testifies against “all occasional communion, in 
 public ordinances, with churches which are in such a 
 state of apostasy from, or opposition to, the truth, as to 
 render constant communion with them unlawful.” 
 
 In the Established Church, censure of occasional 
 hearing was unknown. But in 1799, a law was passed 
 which prohibited ministers of that Church from employ- 
 
DISCIPLINE. 
 
 159 
 
 iiig any minister of another denomination to preach in 
 their pulpits. In 1843 the restriction was abolished; 
 the pulpits of the Establishment were opened to Evan¬ 
 gelical Dissenters, in the hope that “ this would tend, 
 indirectly, yet speedily and certainly, to a much more 
 thorough and complete amalgamation of the various 
 Presbyterian bodies in Scotland.” But immediately after 
 the Disruption, this liberal act was rescinded. 
 
 Promiscuous dancing., especially when occurring at 
 penny weddings or balls, was considered a scandal de¬ 
 manding the infliction of censure. “ Penny Wedding,” or 
 “ Pennie Brydal,” was “ a wedding at which the guests 
 contributed money for their entertainment. It is pro¬ 
 bably a relic of the ancient custom of friends conferring 
 gifts on a married pair on the morning after marriage. 
 Some, by the savings of such a wedding, avowedly gain 
 as much as to form a small stock.” ^ The following Act 
 was passed by the General Assembly of the Church of 
 Scotland in February 1645:—“The General Assembly, 
 considering the great profanity and several abuses which 
 usually fall forth at pennie-brydals, proving fruitful semi¬ 
 naries of lasciviousness and debauchery, as well by the 
 excessive number of people convened thereto, as by the 
 extortion of them therein, and licentiousness thereat, 
 ordain every Presbytery in this kingdom to take such 
 special care for restraining these abuses as they shall think 
 fit in their several bounds respective^' The following 
 instances of sessional dealing with offenders in this 
 particular may be given as a specimen :—“ 27 th August 
 ^ Jamieson’s “ Scottish Dictionary.” 
 
i6o 
 
 DISCIPLINE. 
 
 1770. Appeared J. M., who, according to information 
 given to the Session, was guilty of swearing, going to 
 penny-weddings, and joining in promiscuous dancing, 
 and unstedfastness in his profession ; w'hich, being urged 
 upon him, was confessed by him. The Session then 
 dealt at considerable length with him about his offence, 
 and finding that he had no impression of it, and acknow¬ 
 ledged that he had not been exercised about it, they 
 dismissed him, and recommended him to set some time 
 
 apart for that end,” “ June 1817. Compeared-and 
 
 -; they confessed their attendance at the ball 
 
 and dancing at-, and being dealt with, professed 
 
 their sorrow for their conduct; and the Session agreed 
 that they should be admonished, which was done 
 accordingly.” 
 
 The minister of the congregation from the minutes of 
 the Session of which these extracts have been made, 
 having indicated his wish that cases of mere dancing 
 should no longer be taken up by the Session, the elders 
 were all disposed to agree to this proposal, except one, 
 who appealed to the passage in the book of Job where it 
 is said of the wicked, “ Their children dance.” The 
 minister said that if he examined the passage he would 
 see that this was mentioned as a sign of their prosperity, 
 not of their wickedness, and would find some other 
 things specified which could by no means be regarded as 
 indications of character. (Job xxi.) 
 
 It would be well if the discipline of the Church were 
 still faithfully administered in such cases as the follow¬ 
 ing ;—“Jan. t 8, 1763. D. P. was charged with a 
 
DISCIPLINE. 
 
 i6i 
 
 habitual neglect of family worship. Being present, was 
 called upon, but denied the charge as laid, but acknow¬ 
 ledged some omissions. Was admonished to more 
 circumspection in his family.” “Jan. 3, 1779. Com¬ 
 peared J. B., who confessed that he had given ground of 
 offence by unnecessary travelling, and visiting, and 
 unguarded language on the Sabbath-day.” 
 
 In former times, rebuke for certain offences, and for 
 others when aggravated, was administered in the public 
 assembly on the Lord’s day. This practice has been dis¬ 
 continued. The following statement in the “ Rules and 
 Forms of Procedure of one Presbyterian Church,” indicates 
 the general observance in the others too : “ Circumstances 
 may render it necessary, owing to the aggravations or 
 publicity of the offence, that rebuke should be adminis¬ 
 tered publicly before the congregation; but in many 
 cases, rebuke in the Session or Presbytery is sufficient.” 
 
 In general, the discipline of the Church is not exer¬ 
 cised now with the same degree of strictness as it was in 
 former times. In some departments, it must be ad¬ 
 mitted, the administration of discipline in the days of our 
 fathers displayed an illiberality and a rigour from which 
 it is now happily freed. But there is a tendency gener¬ 
 ally manifested in these days to go too far in the opposite 
 direction. “For many years,” said the late Dr Balmer, 
 who was characterised in an eminent degree by the 
 spirit both of love and of a sound mind, “ I have been 
 painfully impressed with the apprehension that a relaxed 
 discipline is the most formidable danger which menaces 
 our own denomination, and almost every denomination 
 
 I. 
 
DISCIPLINE. 
 
 162 
 
 in this part of the empire. Perhaps I ought rather to 
 say, that there is reason to apprehend that it is an evil 
 which actually exists to an alarming extent; and that it 
 is one of the chief obstacles to a more plentiful effusion 
 of Divine influence, and of course to a religious revival.” 
 
 Dr Johnson, in his tour in the Hebrides, as Boswell 
 tells us, had a debate with a minister there (grand-uncle 
 of the late Lord Macaulay) on creeds and confessions, 
 which ended in Johnson saying to him, “Sir, you are a 
 bigot to laxness.” While we rejoice in “the breaking 
 down of the isolation and jealousy of Christian bodies in 
 which this century began,” and in “ the unwonted growth 
 of evangelic liberality and Christian union by which it has 
 been distinguished,” let us at the same time sedulously 
 guard against the danger of substituting latitudinarianism 
 for exclusiveness, and of becoming bigots and slaves to 
 a laxness, in opinion and practice, in communion and 
 discipline, which, if universally prevalent, might ap¬ 
 parently exhibit a remarkable fulfilment of the ancient 
 prediction of “ the wolf dwelling with the lamb, and the 
 leopard lying down with the kid, and none hurting or 
 destroying in all God’s holy mountains,” but would in 
 reality convert the Church into a scene that might more 
 justly be considered as realising the apocalyptic descrip¬ 
 tion of Babylon the Great, which represents it as having 
 become “ the habitation of demons, and the hold of every 
 foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful 
 bird.” 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 There can be no question that some of the changes 
 in the conduct of the services of the Church that have 
 been adverted to, are changes to the better. But it 
 may be doubted whether improvement in this respect 
 has been accompanied with progress in all those things 
 that pertain or are more intimately related to the essence 
 of Christian worship. Our pious forefathers were dis¬ 
 tinguished by many excellencies, which we should do 
 well to imitate. One of these was an ardent love to the 
 sanctuary and its services, evinced by the regularity and 
 constancy of their attendance upon it; and in this they 
 were followers of the most illustrious of the saints in 
 ancient times, and of the Christians of the primitive age. 
 May all the congregations of the Scottish Presbyterian 
 Churches be blessed by the combined exhibition in the 
 character and conduct of their members of those excel¬ 
 lencies which, in by-gone times, the Christians of our 
 land eminently exemplified, and of those in respect of 
 which the religious aspect of the present day may be justly 
 regarded as superior to that of the days that are past. 
 May all, under the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit, 
 be partakers of that true religion which consists in the 
 knowledge and faith and fear and love of God, as He is 
 
164 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 revealed in the person and doctrine and work of Jesus 
 Christ, His Son, whom He sent into the world to de¬ 
 clare His character and counsels and will to mankind, 
 and to be the propitiation for their sins ! Amen. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 I. 
 
 PASTORAL VISITA TION AND EX AMINA TION 
 
 “ JT is the duty of the minister,” says the Westminster 
 Directory, “not only to teach the people com¬ 
 mitted to his charge in public, but privately, and particu¬ 
 larly to admonish, reprove, and comfort them upon all 
 seasonable occasions, so far as his time, and strength, 
 and personal safety will permit.” This duty has in 
 general been faithfully performed by the ministers of the 
 Scottish Presbyterian Churches. Besides attending with 
 special care to the afflicted, they have regularly pro¬ 
 secuted the work of domestic visitation, the ministers of 
 country places going through the entire congregation 
 once every year, and those of large congregations in 
 the towns, in the course of two or three years. The 
 mode of conducting such visitation is described by Dr 
 Jamieson, thus:—“ Having previously announced the 
 time and place, the minister enters into each house in 
 succession, the inmates being generally prepared to 
 
i68 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 welcome him with a respectful reception, and after 
 spending some little time in the interchange of friendly 
 conversation, inquiring with paternal interest into the 
 welfare of the household, the progress of education 
 among the children, or the prospects of those who are 
 setting out in life, he engages in a short religious service, 
 either with the members of that family alone, or with a 
 few of the contiguous families, congregated in some 
 neighbouring house capable of affording the requisite 
 accommodation.” This practice is still generally main¬ 
 tained, but perhaps not in the same methodical manner 
 as in by-gone times, when it was usual for the minister 
 not only to engage in prayer in each house, but to give 
 an address nearly as long as some now think a pulpit 
 discourse should be. It was customary, too, for the 
 elder of each district to accompany the minister in his 
 visitation of the families in it. This of course was 
 necessary or expedient on his first visitation, to intro¬ 
 duce him to his people, and, in some instances, it might 
 afterwards be dispensed with. I am not aware that it is 
 now the practice anywhere, and perhaps it is better, on 
 the whole, that minister and elder should each visit 
 apart. The attendance of an elder considerably in¬ 
 creased the mental labour of the minister, as it was 
 considered necessary to vary the address in the several 
 houses visited; and thus it was also a disadvantage in 
 other respects, for the effort to advance something new 
 in every house might often defeat the best purposes of 
 visitation, sometimes by precluding general advices 
 which the state of his flock might seem to require, and 
 
EX AMINA TION. 
 
 169 
 
 more frequently by constraining the speaker to resort to 
 subjects inapplicable to the circumstances of the family. 
 I have heard my father and predecessor, however, relate 
 one instance in which the reverse of the second of the 
 results now mentioned was unintentionally realized. In 
 the first year of his ministry, he was one day, when 
 accompanied by the elder of the district, at a loss for a 
 topic in the last house that was to be visited : the only 
 topic he could think of was the duty incumbent on 
 husbands and wives of dwelling together in unity and 
 love. When they had left the house, the elder remarked 
 that the man and his wife would be sure to blame him 
 for having told the minister about them, the admonition 
 that had been given being one that they very much 
 needed. 
 
 Besides such visitation there was in past times an 
 exercise that formed part of the system of private pastoral 
 employment, which has now fallen into desuetude. This 
 was the exercise of Examination, “ a valuable usage,” 
 says Dr Cairns, “ assembling both young and old, district 
 by district, to be catechised by their minister. This 
 sometimes degenerated into routine, or took the more 
 questionable shape of a theological fencing-match be¬ 
 tween the minister and some of the more disputatious of 
 his hearers. But, when rightly conducted, it tended to 
 keep alive religious knowledge, and gave scope for easy 
 and familiar instruction.” ^ It is, unquestionably, of great 
 advantage for a minister to be well acquainted with the 
 state of his congregation in regard to religious know- 
 ^ “Life of Dr Brown,” p. 70. 
 
170 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ledge, since this may serve to regulate both the themes 
 and the manner of his public ministrations, and enable 
 him to judge what progress his hearers are making, and 
 there can be no doubt that catechising is an excellent 
 means of ascertaining the measure of religious knowledge 
 already possessed, and not only so, but of imparting 
 needed instruction, and inciting to further improvement. 
 It is to be regretted, therefore, that this usage has be¬ 
 come obsolete ; and though “ it must be allowed that, to 
 a considerable extent, a valuable substitute for it has 
 sprung up in the far greater frequency of Bible-classes, 
 and the multiplication of Sabbath-schools, yet the con¬ 
 sideration of its value in the hands of good men of 
 former ages, and experience of the very indigested and 
 crude religious knowledge of too many adults in our 
 congregations, and members even on our communion- 
 rolls, suggest that it would, at least, be worth considera¬ 
 tion whether, in some form or other, it might be desirable 
 to revive—so that all might have the benefit of it—the 
 practice of catechetical instruction.” ^ 
 
 It may be interesting to some readers to be informed of 
 the manner in which this exercise was conducted; and as I 
 cannot furnish an account from personal knowledge, hav¬ 
 ing been present when a youth only on one such occasion, 
 of which I do not retain any very distinct recollection, I 
 shall borrow the graphic description given by Dr Edmond, 
 in his memoir of Dr Stark, of one of that eminent 
 minister’s diets of examination, to which, probably, in 
 almost all its particulars, those of other ministers were ex- 
 ^ Edmond’s “ Memoir of Dr Stark of Dennyloanhead.” 
 
EX AMINA TION. 
 
 171 
 
 actly similar :—“ The district is an entirely rural one ; 
 and one of the farmers has prepared his bam for the 
 accommodation of the assembly. As the hour draws 
 near, individuals, and groups of parents and children, 
 may be observed advancing along various lines of road, 
 and converging to the place of meeting. For a little 
 space as they arrive, they may be noticed clustering 
 ai'ound the house, exchanging friendly greetings, till the 
 pastor’s approach warns them to enter. The minister 
 arrives, and takes his place. Devotional exercises suc¬ 
 ceed, and voices of psalm ascend amid the bare and 
 rugged roof beams, and solemn prayer invokes a blessing 
 on the services of the day. The names of the examinable 
 persons in the district are then read over, and each in 
 turn repeats the answer to some question in the Shorter 
 Catechism,^ the grey-haired no more exempted than the 
 young, the absentees being at the same time ascertained 
 and noted. The examinator returns to the head of the 
 list, and calling again on the first examinee present, takes 
 up some special subject in the wide range of theology, 
 
 1 Failure to answer correctly a question of the Shorter Catechism 
 was severely reproved ; but sometimes the minister himself got into 
 difficulty. On one occasion a venerable Secession minister having 
 asked, “What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell? ” the 
 individual examined began his reply—as the answers in the Cate¬ 
 chism usually begin—with an echo of the question, “ The misery of 
 that estate whereinto man fell,’’—and then he stuck. The minister 
 said to him, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself; a child at 
 school could answer that question. ‘ The misery of that estate 
 whereinto man fell, ’ ’’—and here, too, he found he could go no 
 farther. He tried a second time, but in vain, till some one sitting 
 near him whispered the commencing words of the answer: “All 
 mankind by their fall, ” 
 
172 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 doctrinal or practical, and proposes a series of questions 
 tending to evoke, with impressive fulness, the teaching of 
 Scripture regarding it. The questions are interspersed 
 with copious, easy, conversational exposition. The 
 auditor may note besides, that these questions are not 
 proposed for the purpose of putting the examined to the 
 test, of eliciting the amount of their knowledge, or dis¬ 
 covering their lack, but much more for the purpose of 
 affording opportunity for familiar and pointed application. 
 And yet the intelligent listener will observe that the 
 queries are not all on the same level of facility, and the 
 examination has not proceeded far before he discovers 
 that the minister has in some way formed his estimate 
 of the theological attainments of his people, and knows 
 well when he may safely lead the answerer into deeper 
 waters, and leave the exposition of some point in the 
 system more to himself.” “ In this way more than an 
 hour has passed, and the list is but half exhausted, when 
 there is a pause, and the children present are invited to 
 approach the minister, and ranging themselves in a circle 
 around him, he proceeds in turn to feed the lambs.” 
 When the children have been catechised, “ the examina¬ 
 tion of the adults is resumed. At length, the last name 
 on the list has been called; and so have the questions 
 been proportioned and allotted, that the subject of the 
 day, or some branch of it, has been fully discussed, and 
 a complete view given of its various parts.” Besides the 
 persons examined, there has been “ an outer circle of 
 auditors who have been drinking in those full and familiar 
 instructions ; and some especially are there who are 
 
VISITATION. 
 
 173 
 
 seldom absent from these scenes of edification. They 
 were at the last diet; and they contemplate attending the 
 next, though the place may be widely distant; they wish 
 to hear the discussion of the next subject in the order of 
 the general plan which the minister is pursuing; and they 
 are in this way going through a systematic course of 
 tuition in divinity.” “ Devotional exercises close; and 
 with lingering salutations, and friendly inquiries between 
 pastor and flock, the people betake themselves to their 
 respective homes.” 
 
 Visitation was often in the country attended with a 
 considerable amount of fatiguing exertion, in consequence 
 of the families that belonged to a congregation being 
 scattered over an extensive district, and the roads in 
 many places being bad. “ In former times,” says the 
 writer of the “ Life of a Scottish Probationer,” “the first 
 equipment for his work which the probationer had to 
 provide was a horse, on which he rode from church to 
 church, with his sermons and changes of raiment in his 
 saddle-bags.” Thus the young preacher became, as the 
 late Dr Harper “ was accustomed laughingly to say, with 
 allusion to the Church militant, ‘one of the Church’s 
 mounted cavalry.’ ” ^ It was usual for country ministers 
 to furnish themselves with the same means for perform¬ 
 ing their journeys in the visitation of their flocks, and the 
 discharge of other ecclesiastical duties. Sometimes, there 
 was but little work for the minister’s horse ; and the loan 
 of it was often asked, and easily obtained,—in which case, 
 not unfrequently, the animal was made to know that there 
 ^ Life, by Dr Thomson, p. 20. 
 
174 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 are different kinds of riders; for, whether good equestrians 
 or not, the ministers in general failed not to exemplify 
 the character of “ a righteous man ” in ‘‘ regarding the life 
 of their beasts.” Excellent horsemen some of them were. 
 Mr Moncrieff of Abernethy was intense and ardent in 
 his riding, as in everything else he did. John Brown, 
 M.D., in his inimitable letter to Dr Cairns, speaking of 
 his father, says, “ The exercise and the excitement he 
 most delighted in was riding. With the exception of that 
 great genius in more than horsemanship, Andrew Du- 
 crow, I never saw a man sit a horse as he did. He seemed 
 inspired, gay, erect, full of the joy of life, fearless, and 
 secure.” One of Dr Brown’s colleagues in the Divinity 
 Hall of the Secession Church, a minister in the country, 
 usually rode with a very moderate degree of celerity; but 
 in his younger days, he would sometimes indulge in a 
 gallop. On one occasion, when he visited a brother 
 minister in the north, the latter, who had a horse of his 
 own, got the loan of another for his friend, and they rode 
 out together on the highway, and, after a while, “ tried a 
 race.” As they were galloping along an individual 
 whom they passed cried out to them, ‘‘ A merciful man 
 is merciful to his beast.” The rider on the borrowed 
 horse replied, “This is not my beast.” “Ah ! but,” said 
 his friend, “it is /«k.” 
 
B£//A VIOUR IN CHURCH. 
 
 175 
 
 II. 
 
 BEHAVIOUR IN CHURCH. 
 
 When Paul preached at Troas, “ there sat in the 
 window a young man named Eutychus, being fallen into 
 a deep sleep.” “ This,” says Barnes, “ is an instance of 
 sleeping in public worship that has some apology. The 
 late hour of the night, and the length of the service, were 
 the excuse. But, though the thing is often done now, 
 yet how seldom is a sleeper in church furnished with an 
 excuse for it. No practice is more shameful, disrespect¬ 
 ful, and abominable than that so common of sleeping in 
 the house of God.” “If,” says Hall, “ the apostle so 
 indignantly inquires of the Corinthians whether they have 
 not houses to eat and drink in, may we not, with equal 
 propriety, ask those who indulge in this practice, whether 
 they have not beds to sleep in, that they convert the 
 house of God into a dormitory ? ” 
 
 So far as I know, this practice has never been made a 
 subject of formal discipline. But very often censure has 
 been administered by the preacher; and such rebuke 
 has not unfrequently had a degree of humour in it, 
 which, however, only rendered it more severe and effec¬ 
 tive, though it may sometimes have been not quite 
 becoming. “ The minister,” it is stated in the Memoir 
 of Mrs Somerville, “would sometimes startle the con¬ 
 gregation by calling out to some culprit, “ Sit up there; 
 how daur ye sleep i’ the kirk ? ” Sometimes the mode of 
 address was, “ Sit up, or I’ll name ye oot.” ^ Mr Shirra 
 ^ Dean Ramsay’s “ Reminiscences,” p. 185. 
 
175 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 of Kirkcaldy, seeing a young man asleep in the gallery 
 one Sabbath afternoon, called to the people who were 
 sitting near the sleeper to awaken him; “ for,” said he, 
 “ if he fall down dead, as the young man did in Paul’s 
 days, he may lie dead for me; I am not able, like Paul, 
 to raise him to life again.” ^ I remember a minister 
 telling me of the following reproof, which he adminis¬ 
 tered one afternoon. The weather was very warm, and 
 he said he did not wonder much that some of his hearers 
 should feel drowsy,— those, especially, who had been 
 working hard in the fields during the week. “ But,” he 
 added, “ I was surprised to see some sound asleep, just 
 now, who, I observed, had a good nap in the forenoon.” 
 This minister was found fault with by one of his hearers, 
 who was a notorious sleeper in church, for not con¬ 
 cluding his discourse with separate applications of the 
 subject to the two cases of saints and sinners. “Well,” 
 he said, “ I shall do that next Sabbath, when I trust you 
 will be present.” So, next Sabbath, in concluding his 
 sermon, he said he would address each of the two great 
 classes into which his hearers might be divided. “ I 
 shall begin,” he said, “ by addressing sinners; and, first, 
 I shall speak to persons who sleep in the house of God.” 
 I have heard of another minister who, having in his 
 sermon used the word “ hyperbole,” said, “ Perhaps 
 some of you may not know what this word means; I 
 
 1 “ Memoir,” by Dr J. B. Johnston, p. 46. Something similar 
 was said by Dean Swift, if I remember right, on one occasion. 
 Some striking instances of reproof of sleepers are given in the 
 Sword and Trowel, in a paper, “Odds and Ends about Preach¬ 
 ing and Hearing.” 
 
BEHAVIOUR IN CHURCH. 
 
 177 
 
 will explain it to you; it is a figure of speech which ex¬ 
 presses more than is really intended. For instance, 
 were I to say that the whole of you were asleep just 
 now, that would be a hyperbole ; for probably not more 
 than the half were so.” 
 
 In times long past, it seems to have been part of the 
 duty of the beadle or church-officer to awaken sleepers. 
 Speaking of the Scottish Church in the early part of the 
 seventeenth century, M‘Crie says, “ As to the people 
 generally, they seem to have conducted themselves 
 during divine service with suitable decorum; though 
 the following extract from the Minutes of the Kirk- 
 Session of Perth would indicate that clergymen were 
 occasionally exposed to annoyances similar to those of 
 which they have had to complain in more modern times : 
 ‘John Tenender, Session-officer, is ordained to have his 
 red staff in the kirk on the Sabbath-days, therewith to 
 wauken sleepers, and to remove greeting bairns furth of 
 the kirk.’ ” ^ In more recent times, gentler methods were 
 sometimes adopted. I have heard of an old minister 
 who, when he observed drowsiness overcoming many in 
 his audience, would kindly say,—pointing to a particular 
 part of the church,—“ Send round the mulls there.” 
 Quite lately, the snuff-box was used for this purpose, and 
 perhaps the practice still exists, in some of the churches 
 in the north. Mr Spurgeon, having preached at a High- 
 
 ^ “ Story,” &c., p. 168. Robert Chambers, in his “ Illustra¬ 
 tions of the Author of Waverley,” gives an amusing account of the 
 usefulness in this way of a rustic “ natural,” the counterpart of 
 “ Davi e Gellatley. 
 
 M 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 17S 
 
 land village, where a great multitude assembled to hear 
 him, afterwards confessed that “though he tried all 
 means to move them, the cold blood of the men far 
 north was undisturbed by his appeals, and the only 
 movement seen in the congregation was a free use of the 
 snuff-box, the men using a small spoon to shovel the 
 snuff from the box to the nose.” ^ Sometimes individuals 
 were requested to “ dunch ” their slumbering neigh¬ 
 bours ; and not unfrequently the performance of this 
 act of kindness was, as the minister intended it to be, 
 scarcely less beneficial to the agents themselves than to 
 the subjects of their operation. 
 
 I remember that in by-gone days, it wns not unusual for 
 individuals to resist the languor stealing over them by 
 changing their posture, and standing up. “ They did so, 
 Mr Landreth says, “ occasionally to the dismay of an 
 Edinburgh clergyman, who misinterpreted this device 
 against the treacherous invasion of sleep, and imagined 
 that the four or five persons who almost simultaneously 
 had sprung to their feet in different parts of the church 
 were about to protest or argue against his doctrine. 
 Yet,” he adds, “ even those perpendicular hearers vvho 
 hoped to strengthen their resistance ,by firmly placing 
 their back against the pillars that supported the gallery, 
 were occasionally overcome, and they stood wavering and 
 swaying like the tower of Pisa—their deflections all the 
 more apparent from the perfect steadiness of those 
 associated pillars.” ^ Those, however, who had recourse 
 
 ^ B. and F. E. Review, Jan. 1866. 
 
 “ “ Life of Dr Thomson,” p. 32. 
 
BEHAVIOUR IN CHURCH. 
 
 179 
 
 to this expedient for driving away drowsiness, were de¬ 
 serving of some degree of commendation, or, though 
 sometimes tryingjt unsuccessfully, or so as only to make 
 the impropriety more visible, were less to be blamed than 
 others who made no efforts of resistance ; and especially 
 than the worst class of all the sleepers, those who, 
 almost as soon as the text had been given out, de¬ 
 liberately composed themselves to sleep, by placing head 
 and arms on the book-board, or by settling themselves 
 down in a comfortable reclining posture. I remember an 
 individual of this class, who, one Sabbath, having as 
 usual fallen asleep during the sermon, slept on through¬ 
 out the closing devotional services, and awoke just when 
 his fellow-worshippers had all left the church. I have, 
 for a considerable number of years now, observed none 
 of this description of worshippers in the public assembly, 
 no individuals who habitually indulge in the practice of 
 sleeping, but only some occasionally showing symptoms 
 of drowsiness, induced by the infirmities of age, or the 
 lassitude resulting from a long journey to church. An 
 instructive anecdote is told of a member of the Secession 
 congregation of West Linton, John Murray, grandfather 
 of Dr Murray, Lecturer on Chemistry in Edinburgh. 
 His residence was nearly ten miles distant from the place 
 of worship, and he was apt to be drowsy during the time 
 of Divine service. To prevent this, he was wont to 
 arrive an hour before the service began, and, laying him¬ 
 self down on the seat, he slept soundly till the entrance 
 of his fellow-worshippers awoke him.^ There has, un- 
 ^ United Secession Magazine, 1840, p. 507. 
 
i8o 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 doubtedly, been a great improvement in this respect, 
 which, however, may to some extent be owing simply to 
 the shortening of the sermon and other parts of the 
 services. 
 
 There is another practice, very annoying to ministers, 
 which, though not wholly avoidable, might be subjected 
 to such restraint as would make it in a great measure 
 cease to be a disturbance. A late minister in Glasgow, 
 in a letter to me, said, “The universal and incessant 
 coughing has been a greater annoyance to me than any 
 one but a minister would believe. I am beginning to 
 make up my mind to it in some degree; but even 
 yesterday I was almost on the point of saying, ‘ Well, if 
 you are to go on in that way, I may just as well hold my 
 tongue.’ Ministers all around have been scolding their 
 people this winter for non-attendance, which, however, I 
 have not done, and don’t mean to do ; for what is the 
 use of coming to church to do nothing but cough?” 
 Hugh Miller, speaking of Dr M‘Crie, says, that one 
 Sabbath when he was hearing him, “ his voice, which is 
 not naturally strong, was nearly drowned by loud and 
 continuous coughing, which arose from every corner 
 of the church. For some time he went on without 
 any seeming embarrassment; but, just when in the 
 middle of an important argument, made a full stop. 
 In a moment, every eye was fixed on the doctor, 
 and such was the silence caused by this attention, 
 that, for the space of a minute you might have heard 
 a pin fall. ‘ I see, my brethren, you can all be quiet 
 enough when I am quiet,’ was his mild and some- 
 
VIOUR IN CHUR OIL 
 
 i8i 
 
 what humorous reproof; and such was the effect that for 
 the remainder of the day he received very little interrup¬ 
 tion.” The same thing was done by Rowland Hill once 
 when he saw some sleeping. Pausing, he said, “ I have 
 heard that the miller can sleep while the mill is going; 
 but if it stops, it awakens him. I’ll try this method; ” 
 and so he sat down, and soon saw an aroused audience.^ 
 A writer in the Christian Instructor, about sixty years 
 ago, giving an account of “ A Sabbath in Paris,” men¬ 
 tions, as a peculiarity that struck him in the church 
 service which he attended, “ the long pauses made after 
 each head of discourse, during which the clergyman sits 
 down, and the people look about them, and cough.” ^ 
 
 In a paper in the Leisure Hour for August i86i, the 
 writer, describing the service on the Sabbath in the church 
 at Haarlem, in Holland, says, ‘‘ We were much surprised 
 to find, on entering, that a large proportion of the males 
 were covered. All took off their hats in singing, and then 
 the minister prayed, but many retained them during the 
 reading of the Word and the sermon.” Fifty or sixty 
 years ago, it was not unusual in our churches for in¬ 
 dividuals to put on their hats when the sermon had been 
 commenced. Not only was this done by old and infirm 
 men, who might be excused for doing it in cold weather, 
 but some young men too might be seen with their heads 
 covered during the preaching of the sermon—it being 
 sometimes alleged, perhaps not uncharitably, that they 
 wished to attract observation, especially when they had 
 
 ^ Charlesworth’s “Life,”p. 163. 
 
 - Chr, Mag., 1816, p. 244. 
 
i82 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 become possessors of a new and fashionable fabric of 
 felt. 
 
 It is told of Rowland Hill that, “being very much grieved 
 by the conduct of some of his congregation, who were 
 frequently unpunctual, he once offered the following 
 prayer; “O Lord, bless those who are in their places; have 
 mercy on those who are on the road; and save those who 
 are getting ready to come.” ^ Late arrival is not an impro¬ 
 priety peculiar to the past. There are still in every con¬ 
 gregation, probably, some who are careless about reaching 
 the place of worship in due time, who are detained by the 
 most trifling circumstances, and sometimes by nothing but 
 thoughtlessness, and who can thus miss, apparently with¬ 
 out regret, the first song of praise, or the reading of the 
 Scriptures, or the opening prayer, and not only subject 
 themselves to loss, but disturb the Avorship and distract 
 the attention of others. “ The decency and solemnity 
 becoming the sanctuary of God require that all the 
 Avorshippers should be in their places, and all settled and 
 still, at the commencement of the service, that they may 
 begin and end together.” ^ 
 
 “ Think Avhen the bells do chime, 
 
 ’Tis angels’ music ; therefore come not late. 
 
 God then deals blessings ; if a king did so. 
 
 Who would not haste, nay give to see the shoAv ? ” ^ 
 
 Origen complains that in his time, “ several came to 
 church, not for instruction, but for diversion ; some Avent 
 out as soon as they had heard the lecture ; others stayed 
 ^ “ Life,” by Charlesworth. 
 
 - Wardlaw’s “ Lect. on Ecclesiastes.” ^ Herbert. 
 
B£BA VIOUR IN CHURCH. 
 
 183 
 
 not till the lecture was ended; while some paid no atten¬ 
 tion to the discourse, but entertained themselves in a 
 corner of the church.” ^ Among us premature departure 
 is an impropriety more rarely seen than in former times. 
 I remember individuals who uniformly left the church at 
 the close of the sermon or during the singing of the last 
 psalm ; and in most instances, probably, this was just a 
 habit they had acquired, for which they could have 
 assigned no reason. It was a highly reprehensible 
 practice ; for they thus violated, though inconsiderately, 
 the sanctity of the house of God and its services, and de¬ 
 prived themselves of an important part of the benefit 
 connected with the dispensation of Divine ordinances. 
 Ministers, it has been justly remarked, cannot by any 
 power or authority of their own, impart a blessing; but 
 they may act as the appointed vehicles of blessings which 
 God is pleased to bestow. The ancient priestly bene¬ 
 diction brought down blessings on those on whom it was 
 l)ronounced; and we cannot suppose that the Most High 
 will put less honour upon His ordinances under the 
 Gospel. Instead of being slighted, as though it were 
 merely a signal for the breaking up of the assembly, the 
 benediction should be highly esteemed as the expression 
 of the Lord’s good will to each of His faithful worshippers; 
 and every one of the worshippers should remain to 
 receive it, and none be required to exclude themselves 
 from the high privilege of being blessed in the name of 
 the Lord by the ministers of the Christian sanctuary.^ 
 
 1 Quoted in Sime’s “ Church History,” vol. i. p. 98. 
 
 - The benediction is an act of worship in which the minister is to 
 be regarded as officiating, not in name of the people, or as leader of 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 184 
 
 The last unbecoming practice I shall notice, is that of 
 opening the pew-doors, seizing hats, and making other 
 preparations for departure, when the minister is about to 
 pronounce, or is in the very act of pronouncing, the 
 blessing, and then hurrying out of the church, “ as if it 
 were in flames, or the plague had entered it.” This evil 
 has to a great extent been removed by the practice now 
 very commonly adopted, of making the intimations after 
 the blessing has been pronounced. In some congrega¬ 
 tions a custom has recently begun to be observed, which 
 is said to be universal in Protestant places of worship of 
 every denomination out of Scotland, namely, the offering 
 up by each worshipper of a silent prayer just before 
 leaving, as well as on entering the house of God.^ Un¬ 
 doubtedly, silent prayer offered by the worshippers at 
 these two moments is most appropriate, and is fitted 
 to have a very beneficial influence on their minds ; but 
 it may be thought that this act should be invisible as 
 well as inaudible, in order that it may be in no degree 
 inconsistent with our Lord’s precepts prohibiting to His 
 disciples imitation of the ostentatious modes of perform¬ 
 ing personal devotions that were practised by the Phari- 
 
 tlieir devotions, but in God’s name, proclaiming and awarding the 
 blessing to His people by a peculiar ordinance, appointed to be the 
 medium of realising the blessing to those for whom it is designed, 
 God’s faithful worshippers. It should always be pronounced exactly 
 in the form in which it is given in the apostolic epistles, and no 
 attempt be made to improve it by altering arrangement of parts, 
 or by any pleonastic or supplementary expressions, which, to say 
 the least, indicate a want of good taste. It should also be appro¬ 
 priated to assemblies of the faithful. 
 
 ^ Dr A. Thomson’s Address on “Behaviour in the House of God.” 
 
BEHAVIOUR IN CHURCH. 185 
 
 sees. However this may be, the following instruction 
 given in the Directory should be observed :—“ If any, 
 through necessity, be hindered from being present at the 
 beginning, they ought not, when they come into the con¬ 
 gregation, to betake themselves to their private devotions, 
 but reverently to compose themselves to join with the 
 assembly in that ordinance of God which is then in 
 hand.” 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Action-Sermox, the, 121. 
 
 Alcock, Bishop, referred to, 84. 
 
 Amen, the closing, audible utter¬ 
 ance of by the people, 50; three 
 sorts of mentioned by the Tal¬ 
 mudists, all faulty, 50. 
 
 Anderson’s Defence of Presby¬ 
 terian Worship, quoted from, 
 57, 124. 
 
 Anecdote of a minister’s wife, 71 ; 
 of a young minister, 13 ; of a 
 newly licensed preacher, 59 ; of 
 an English Judge and the Chap¬ 
 lain to a High Sheriff, 86; of 
 a minister and a borrowed 
 horse, 174. 
 
 Applause in church, 84. 
 
 Aquinas, Thomas, quotation from, 
 on instrumental music, 37. 
 
 Arnot’s Life of Hamilton, quoted 
 from, 7, 9. 
 
 Augustine, his opinion respecting 
 the Lord’s prayer, 56. 
 
 Ballates, Gude and Godly, 18 ; 
 specimens of, 19. 
 
 Baptism, not to be unnecessarily 
 delayed, no; not to be ad¬ 
 ministered privately, 111; mode 
 of procedure in administering, 
 
 113- 
 
 Barrow, Dr Isaac, “weary with 
 standing so long ” while preach¬ 
 ing, 85. 
 
 Behaviour in church, 175. 
 
 Benediction, the, 184. 
 
 Bennet’s Theology, referred to, 
 
 51 - 
 
 Bigot to laxness, a, 162. 
 
 Blackader’s description of a sacra¬ 
 mental scene, 131. 
 
 Blair’s Sermons, preaching of, 
 94 ; Lectures on Rhetoric, 
 quoted from, 79- 
 
 “ Blind Pits,” i-eferred to, 91. 
 
 Blind Preacher, a, who read his 
 sermons, 99. 
 
 Brewster, Sir David, his opinion 
 on reading of sermons, 99. 
 
 British and Foreign Evangelical 
 Review, quoted from, or re¬ 
 ferred to, 6, 18, 20, 28, 55, 
 152. 
 
 Brown, Dr David, remarks on 
 cantillation, loi. 
 
 Brown, Dr James, Life of a Scot¬ 
 tish Probationer, quoted from, 
 
 173- 
 
 Brown, John, of Haddington, 
 saying of, 81 ; impressed, when 
 a boy, by witnessing the com¬ 
 munion, 123. 
 
 Brown, John, of Whitburn, his 
 chanting of his sermons, 102. 
 
 Brown, John, D.D., his impres¬ 
 sive reading of the Word, 48 ; 
 his statement respecting exposi¬ 
 tion, 69 ; his dress in the pulpit 
 at Stow, 107; his horseman¬ 
 ship, 174; quoted from, 133. 
 
 Brown, John, M.D., quoted from, 
 174. 
 
 Borromeo, Cardinal, his Sabbath- 
 schools, 109. 
 
 Burnet, Bishop, and his auditors, 
 84. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 188 
 
 Cairns, Principal, quoted from, 
 169. 
 
 Calder House, the Lord’s Supper 
 dispensed in, by Knox, 126. 
 
 Calvin, his services to Psalmody, 
 5, 17 ; estimate of the Psalms, 
 12. 
 
 Cantillation, loi. 
 
 Catechizing of the young publicly 
 in the Icelandic church, 103. 
 
 Cavalry, the Church’s mounted, 
 
 173- 
 
 Chalmers, Dr, his “fell readin’,” 
 96. 
 
 Chambers’ Cycl. of Eng. Lit., 
 quoted from, 85. 
 
 Chambers’ EncycL, quoted from, 
 107. 
 
 Chanting of the Psalms, 22. 
 
 Choir, congregational, how to 
 manage, 15. 
 
 Chrysostom, and his applauding 
 auditors, 84. 
 
 Churchman, the, quoted from, 
 86, 109. 
 
 Coleshill, 130. 
 
 Common Order, Book of, in Eng¬ 
 lish church at Geneva, 52. 
 
 Communion cards, 119. 
 
 Communion for the sick, 136. 
 
 Communion in the open fields, in 
 the times of the Covenant, 131. 
 
 Communion, simultaneous, 135. 
 
 Consecration Prayer, the, 125. 
 
 Cook, Dr, of Haddington, 90. 
 
 Costume, clerical, 106 ; design of, 
 107. 
 
 Coughing in church, 180; Dr 
 M‘Crie’s reproof of, 180. 
 
 Covenants, Scottish, before estab¬ 
 lishment of Reformation, 139 ; 
 afterwards, 140; in what respects 
 objectionable, 141. 
 
 Covenanting work, 138 ; mode of 
 procedure in, 144 ; practised in 
 the Antiburgher Secession, 146; 
 by the Original Seceders, 147. 
 
 Cunningham, Laird, anecdote of, 
 102. 
 
 Cunningham, Dr W., his loss of 
 pulpit power through reading 
 his sermons, 99. 
 
 “Debarrings, the,” 121. 
 
 Devotional Psalter, the, by Dr 
 Smith of Biggar, referred to, 30. 
 
 Dick, Rev, Dr John, quoted from, 
 
 49, 57- 
 
 Dickson’s “Truths History,” 145. 
 
 Discipline, 154; vigorous, 161 ; 
 lax, 161. 
 
 Doddridge, Dr, his stipend, 151. 
 
 Dodwell’s argument for use of 
 instrumental music in praise, 
 43- 
 
 Drake’s sermon at the morning 
 exercise, consisting of 170 parts, 
 
 55- 
 
 Duncan, Rev. Dr Alexander, on 
 use of instrumental music in 
 praise, 40 ; his Disquisition on 
 the Lord’s Supper, quoted from, 
 or referred to, 116, 120, 123, 
 139; speech on covenanting, 
 141. 
 
 Duncan, Rev. David, his “Pattern 
 of Prayer ” quoted from, 50. 
 
 Duncan, Rev. Dr John, his opinion 
 of hymns, 12. 
 
 Dwight’s Theology referred to, 
 57 ; his difficulty as to a liturgy, 
 
 55- 
 
 Eadie, Rev. Dr John, quoted 
 from, 37, 41, 107, 121, 128. 
 
 Ecclesiasticus mistaken for Eccle¬ 
 siastes, 31. 
 
 Edinburgh Theological Magazine, 
 the, referred to, 143. 
 
 Erskine, Ralph, employed by 
 Burgher Synod to versify Scrip¬ 
 ture passages for use in public 
 praise, 9 ; anecdote of, and his 
 elders, 33. 
 
 Examination, exercise of, 169; 
 description of a diet of, 170. 
 
 Exhortation, the, after the Com¬ 
 munion, 130. 
 
INDEX . 189 
 
 Fast-day, the Sacramental, 118 ; 
 strict observance of enforced, 
 119. 
 
 “Fellowship, the,” one of the 
 ordinances of the primitive 
 Church, 149. 
 
 Fencing of the table, 121. 
 
 Field-preaching, 131. 
 
 Forbes, Mr William, censured for 
 long preaching, 84. 
 
 Forms of prayer, unknown in the 
 early Christian Church ; use of, 
 not considered by Presbyterians 
 in all cases unlawful, 51. 
 
 Fuller, Thomas, quoted from, 103. 
 
 Gik, Adam, his sermons short, 
 86 ; his account of covenanting 
 work, 144. 
 
 (iilfillan, George, quoted from, 
 
 , * 33 -. 
 
 Godwin’s “Moses and Aaron,” 
 quoted from, 63. 
 
 Guthrie, the Rev. Dr Thomas, 
 sermon at Tri-centenary of Re¬ 
 formation, effect of on audience, 
 
 85. 
 
 Hall, Robert, referred to, 78 ; 
 his saying respecting third ser¬ 
 mons, 87 ; quoted from, 175. 
 
 Harps apocalyptic, import of, 35. 
 
 Hats, putting on of, in Church, 
 in time of sermon, 181. 
 
 Helvetian Confession, quotation 
 from, 89. 
 
 Henderson on the Minor Pro¬ 
 phets, referred to, 35. 
 
 Heugh, Rev. Dr Hugh, his opinion 
 as to reading of sermons, 98. 
 
 Highland Ministers, their chant¬ 
 ing, lOI. 
 
 Hill, Rev. Rowland, his reproof 
 of sleepers in church, 181 ; his 
 prayer for late comers, 182. 
 
 Homiletic Quarterly, the, quoted 
 from, 15, 48. 
 
 Homilies of Church of England, 
 quoted from, 37. 
 
 Howe, John, his long services on 
 public fast-days, 85. 
 
 Hymn Books, of Relief Church, 
 10; of United Presbyterian 
 Church, first, ii, second, 12. 
 
 Instrumental Music in praise, 
 32-44 ; first mention of in the 
 Scriptures, 32; use of, estab¬ 
 lished by David, 33; I'evived 
 after the exile, 34 ; not adopted 
 in the worship of the synagogue, 
 36; no mention of, in New 
 Testament, 35 ; unknown in the 
 Christian Chur.ch during first six 
 ■ centuries, 36; used in the Latin 
 Church, 37; retained in the 
 Lutheran and Anglican Chur¬ 
 ches, 37 ; unsuccessful attempts 
 to introduce, in Presbyterian 
 Churches, 38, 39; allowed by 
 United Presbyterian Synod, and 
 by General Assembly of Estab¬ 
 lished Church, 39; legitimate 
 use of, 42. 
 
 Invocation, prayer of, 60. 
 
 Jamieson, Rev. Dr John, and the 
 minister of Kingarth, 91 ; re¬ 
 ferred to, no. 
 
 Jamieson, Rev. Dr Robert, quoted 
 from, 54,67, 94, 107, 117, 133. 
 
 Jay, Rev. W., his remarks on 
 quotation of Scripture, 77 ; on 
 method, 77; on longsermons,87. 
 
 Johnstone, Rev. Dr R., quoted 
 from, 12. 
 
 “Jougs, the,” 156. 
 
 King, Rev. Dr D., on the Ruling 
 Eldership, quoted from, 36 ; on 
 the Lord’s Supper, 137. 
 
 Knox’s Psalter, 2, 5 ; his Liturgy, 
 intended as a help, not a re¬ 
 straint, 52 ; quoted from, 122. 
 
 Ladles, 149. 
 
 Landreth, Rev. P., quoted from, 
 25, 87, 100, 108, 178. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 I go 
 
 Late arrival at church, 182, 
 
 Lecture, the, importance of, 67; 
 two forms of, 68. 
 
 “ Letter-gae of haly rhyme,” 23. 
 
 Lifters, 66. 
 
 Lord’s Prayer, the, a form and a 
 pattern, 56, 57. 
 
 Lord’s Supper, dispensation of 
 the, 115; to be frequent, 116; 
 formerly, only twice a year, 
 
 117. 
 
 Luther, his opinion of organs, 66. 
 
 ■Macaulay, quoted from, 43, 84. 
 
 M'Crie, Rev. Dr T., sen., quoted 
 from, 15, 18, 53, 83 ; anecdote 
 of, 180. 
 
 M'Crie, Rev. Dr T., jun., quoted 
 from, 24, 33, 106. 
 
 M‘Kelvie’s Annals, quoted from, 
 26, 91. 
 
 M'Kerrow’s Hist, of the Secession 
 Lhurch, quoted from, 9, 128, 
 141, 144. 
 
 Mace, Thomas, on psalmody, 2. 
 
 “Man’s praise,” 26. 
 
 Mass, the, 123. 
 
 Mastricht, quoted from, 42. 
 
 Methods of sermons, 72. 
 
 Mitchison’s Hand-book of Scottish 
 Songs, quoted from, 19. 
 
 Miller, Hugh, his wish about 
 Cunningham, 99. 
 
 Miller, Rev. John, on communion 
 for the sick, 00. 
 
 Miller, Rev. Dr S., quoted from, 
 
 52- 
 
 Minister, a, who “sang like a 
 very mavis,” loi. 
 
 Misquotations of scripture, 79. 
 
 Mitchell, Rev. Dr John, of Glas¬ 
 gow, 70. 
 
 iMollerus on the Psalms, quoted 
 from, 45. 
 
 Monday services on sacramental 
 occasions, origin of, 134. 
 
 Morison, Rev. James, Norham, 
 outline of sermon by, 74; his 
 Sabbath-school, 109. 
 
 National Covenant, the, 140. 
 
 “O,” the interjection, eleven dis¬ 
 courses on, 71. 
 
 Occasional hearing, censure of, 
 
 ^57- 
 
 Old Secession ministers, their 
 chanting of their sermons, loi. 
 Old sermons, preaching of, 90. 
 Origen, his complaint of church 
 goers, 182. 
 
 Orkney, manner of praise in some 
 of the churches of, eighty years 
 ago, 29. 
 
 Orton, Job, quotation from, on 
 congregational choirs, 15. 
 Outline of sermon preached in 
 1767, 74. 
 
 Paraphrases, the, 7 ; first col¬ 
 lection of, 7 ; present collection, 
 8; use of, allowed by General 
 Assembly, 8; by Burgher Synod, 
 
 9. 
 
 Paxton, Rev. Dr, on obligation of 
 religious covenants, 143. 
 Pecuniary contribution, 148. 
 Peddie, Rev. Dr James, his lectur¬ 
 ing, 69. 
 
 Penny Weddings, 159. 
 Perpendicular liearers, 178. 
 Pirlekening, 120. 
 
 Pliny’s letter to Trajan, 139. 
 Porter’s Homiletics, quoted from, 
 71- 
 
 Praise, materials of, 3; attitude 
 in, 28. 
 
 Prayer, forms of, 51 ; length of 
 prayers, 58; attitude in prayer, 61. 
 Preacher’s mistake, a, corrected 
 by a hearer, 78. 
 
 Preaching to the young, 102. 
 Precentor, 14. 
 
 Premature departure from church, 
 
 183. 
 
 Private baptism, 112. 
 
 Psalms in which musical instra- 
 ments are mentioned, interi^re- 
 tation of, 40. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 191 
 
 Psalms, metrical versions of,— 
 that of Sternhold and Hopkins, 
 
 5 ; that of Rous, 6. 
 
 Psalm tunes, 17-23; “ Saunts’ 
 tunes ” disallowed, 20; proper 
 and common tunes in early 
 Scottish Psalter, 19, 20; for 
 some tune only eight allowed, 
 20; resistance to introduction 
 of new tunes, 21 ; precentor 
 displaced for singing one, 21 ; 
 repeating tunes testified against. 
 
 Public worship commences in the 
 lobby of the church, 148. 
 
 Pulpit gown and band, 00. 
 
 Questions put to Sessions re¬ 
 specting ministers, 65. 
 
 Quotation of scripture, 77. 
 
 Rainy, Rev. Dr, quoted from, 60. 
 
 “Readers,” the, in early Scottish 
 church, 45, 
 
 Reading of the line, the, authorised 
 by Westminster Assembly in 
 certain cases, 24; permission 
 of, disliked by Scottish com¬ 
 missioners, 24; not peculiar to 
 the Presbyterian churches, 24; 
 abolition of, strongly resisted, 
 26; alleged scripture authority 
 for, 27. 
 
 Reading of the Word, 45. 
 
 Reading of sermons, begun by the 
 moderate clergy, 95; became 
 general, 96; long unknown in 
 SecessionChurch,96; prohibited, 
 97 ; testified against by moder¬ 
 ator of synod, 97; now com¬ 
 mon, 98. 
 
 Rebuke, public, 161. 
 
 Responsive singing or chanting 
 the ancient manner of praise, 22. 
 
 Ritchie, Rev, Dr John, anecdotes 
 
 of, 3D 85. 
 
 Run-line, 25. 
 
 Ryland, Rev. John, his reproof of 
 bad singing, 2. 
 
 Sabbatii-schools, 103, 108. 
 
 Saturday sacramental services, 
 120. 
 
 Sermons, texts of, 70; methods of, 
 72 ; courses of, 71 ; length of, 
 83 ; preaching of old, 90 ; i-ead- 
 ing of, 94. 
 
 Sei'ving of the table, 129. 
 
 Shirra, Rev. Robert, of Kirk¬ 
 caldy, sermons of, 73, 78; his 
 reproof of sleepers in church, 
 176. 
 
 Simultaneous communion, 136. 
 
 Singing, congregational, restored 
 by the Reformation, i. 
 
 Sitting at prayer, 60; scriptural 
 warrant of, 62. 
 
 Sleeping in church, 175 ; reproof 
 of, 175, 176 ; means of prevent¬ 
 ing, 177 , 178. 
 
 Smith, Rev. Dr J. Pye, quoted 
 from, 3. 
 
 Snuff-taking in church, 177. 
 
 Somerville, Rev. Dr A., Auto¬ 
 biography, 70. 
 
 Songless worship, 22, 28. 
 
 Spectacles, strange dislike against 
 use of in church, 24. 
 
 Standing at praise, 29. 
 
 Stipends, ministers’, 152. 
 
 Stoughton’s Ages of Christendom, 
 quoted from, 84. 
 
 Students’ preaching, 104. 
 
 Student’s sermon, a, in the old 
 style, 76. 
 
 Tent-preaching, 132. 
 
 Texts of sermons, choice of, 70. 
 Testimony of General Associate 
 Synod, quotations from, iii, 
 145; of United Secession 
 Church, referred to, 138, 142. 
 Thanksgiving at communion, 128, 
 
 137- 
 
 Thomson’s Life of Principal 
 Harper, referred to, 152, 173. 
 Tokens, 118. 
 
 1 Traill’s Sermons, 71. 
 
192 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Unukcominc; practices in church, 
 184. 
 
 United Presbyterian Magazine, 
 quoted from, 62, IIO. 
 
 United Secession Magazine, quoted 
 from, 79. 
 
 ViNET, quoted from, 2 , 77, 107, 
 
 148. 
 
 Visitation, pastoral, 16S. 
 
 Wardeaw, Rev. Dr, his reading 
 of sermons, 98. 
 
 Welsh preachers, 102. 
 
 : Westminster Directory, quoted 
 from, or referred to, 45, 48, 53, 
 56, 60, no. III, 116, 136, 138. 
 
 Whales, stranded, part of a min¬ 
 ister’s stipend, 152. 
 
 “Whistle-kirk minister,” a, 38. 
 
 Wicked, children of the, dance, 
 160. 
 
 Wigs, ministers’, 108. 
 
 “Wilderness, a howling,” 2. 
 
 I Wordsworth, his way of talking, 
 100. 
 
 I 
 
 i Young, Rev. Dr, Hawick, 92. 
 
 TURNBULL ANU SPEARS, PRINTERS. 
 
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