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from the union of oak and beech. We often see a wonderful effect from this combination; and yet, accommodating as its leaf is in landscape, on handling it feels as if it were fabricated with metallic vigour' (Gilp. For. Scen. vol. i. p. 50)."

SABBATH MEDITATIONS.

No. V.

AUGUST 4.-NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

Morning Lessons: 1 Kings xviii.; Acts ii.
Evening Lessons: 1 Kings xix.; Heb. vii.

MORNING.

"How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him."-1 KINGS Xviii.

of Melchisedek, thy priest and king, bless us, we beseech thee, in him who arose after his similitude as a surety unto all the families of the earth of a better covenant; bless us even in Christ Jesus, the everlasting Melchisedek, the King of righteousness, and Prince of peace. Give us ever to draw near unto thee with a true heart, in full assurance of faith that he who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, hath by his own blood entered once into the holy place, and obtained eternal redemption for us. Give unto us, that we may with our hearts believe unto righteousness, and with our mouths make confession unto salvation. And do thou, eternal Son of the eternal Father, who art consecrated for evermore unto an eternal and grace, the faith and hope of thine elect; that priesthood, vouchsafe unto us, of thy free love faith which is "the substance of things hoped for," and that hope which thou hast set before us as an anchor of the soul, sure and stedfast. Hear our cry, O thou who hast offered one sacrifice for our sins: hear the cry of thy penitent ones, who come unto thee for pardon and salvation, even unto thee that art able to save them to the uttermost who come to the Father of mercy by thee. Hear us, thou Son of the Highest; for we fly for refuge to thee: draw us, and we will run after thee; yea, we will wrestle with thee until thou bless us and subdue us wholly unto thyself.

Poetry.

S. K. C.

Meditation.-"Let us take heed and be wise, O ye beloved of the Lord, and let us have no strange gods, but one only God, who made us when we were nothing, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who redeemed us when we were lost, and with his Holy Spirit, who doth sanctify us. For this is life everlasting, to know him to be the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent" (Hom. ii. tome ii.). Prayer.-O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, who, in the days of thy rebellious servant Ahab, didst punish thy people with extremity of famine, cast not the fury of thy wrath upon us, neither deliver up our souls to a spiritual famine; but save them alive and nourish them with the true bread which thou alone canst give. Tarry not, O Lord, before whom we stand, lest the enemy of our souls devour us; but mercifully show thyself unto us this day, by him that is more than a prophet; for, "behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation:" "we know not what shall be on the morrow." 0, remember not against us our former iniquities; but let thy tender mercies, in Christ Jesus, speedily prevent us, so that the land be not troubled, in that we forsake thy commandments and follow after the idols of our own hearts. O, strengthen us with might, by thy Spirit in the inner man, and let us not halt between two opinions; for we would serve and follow thee only, our Lord and our God. Hear us, Lord, hear us; and turn thou our hearts back again: gird thou our loins by the arm of thy strength, and let thy hand be upon us: so shall we, thy servants, keep thy word in an honest and good heart, and But now life's sands are ebbing fast; in weariness bring forth fruit, with patience, unto life everlasting.

EVENING.

"He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him."-HEB. vii.

Meditation." Yes: to the uttermost extent of guilt, to the uttermost stage of sanctification, and to the uttermost period of time. He hath the keys of hell and of death.' Who, then, can plunge you into the abyss of torment, when the keys of that accursed prison-house are in the possession of thy Saviour?.. Go, then, to Christ: cast yourself at his feet; and say, "If I perish, I will perish here." There you are at the very fount and well-spring of salvation. And Christ casts none away that go unto him, but counsels all the ends of the earth to look unto him and be saved. With him there is not only redemption, but 'plenteous redemption;' not only a sufficiency, but a redundancy of grace" (Hull).

Prayer. O Father, who, in thy tender love to faithful Abram, didst bless him by the mouth

THE SABBATH MATIN-BELL.

FOUNDED ON A REAL INCIDENT.
(For the Church of England Magazine.)
BY MRS. ABDY.

IT is the early sabbath-bell: it floats upon the air,
Announcing to the villagers the day of peace and

prayer.

Their pastor once rejoiced to hear that dear familiar strain,

Which called him to his duties in his Master's hal

lowed fane.

he lies:

The dark and gathering shades of death fall heavy on his eyes.

Still, still the deep-toned bell proclaims its summons o'er and o'er,

Though never shall he seek the courts of earthly worship more.

Alas! and must this well-known sound be destined to divide

The fond and grateful people from their kind and faithful guide?

Once it drew him to their presence on this calm and hallowed day,

And now it seems to bear him from his weeping flock away.

He goes to praise his Maker, in a tearless land above, Where nought shall mar the sinless strains of pure and perfect love;

was the wife of a day-tale* man, and they had more small bairns than they could well provide for; and in

And where the dear Redeemer, whom he long has served and known,

Shall place him with the pardoned band who throng harvest she used to go out a-shearing. One year,

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THE UPBRAIDINGS OF CONSCIENCE.-About

eighty years ago, according to popular report, a pedlar, who had the character of being possessed of a large sum of money, which he always carried about with him, entered a farm-house above Rothbury, at which, in his regular visits to that part of the country, he

had been accustomed to call. From that hour he was never more seen, and tradition ascribes his murder to the farmer's wife. She was the only person at home when the pedlar called; and, as she and her husband had before spoken of killing him for the sake of his money, she resolved to avail herself of the present opportunity of executing the foul deed. As he was sitting in the kitchen, with his back to the door, eating some food she had set out, she came suddenly behind him, and felled him to the ground with a blow from a churn-staff; and, after taking the purse out of his pocket, threw him into a deep well in the yard. On her husband's return from the field, she informed him of what she had done; and the next day, when the servants were absent, they drew the body from the well and buried it. Though their neighbours noticed that their worldly circumstances were much improved, and that they had much more money at com

about the harvest-time, she had a young bairn at the breast, which she thought was one too many; and that she might not be hindered of the shearing by staying at home with it, and that she might get rid of it altogether, she smothered it in the cradle. There was no public inquiry made, nor inquest held, but all her neighbours, especially the women-folk, believed that the bairn was wilfully made away with, for she

had the character of being a cold-hearted mother. She never did well, though she lived for nearly forty years afterwards. She fell into a low way, and was at times almost clean past herself. She was always at the worst about the time of the harvest moon; and would then often walk about the house, and sometimes go out and wander about the common, all night, moaning and greeting in a fearful way. I have many a time seen her holding her head atween her hands, rocking herself backwards and forwards on a low chair, groaning and sighing, and every now and then giving an awful sort of shriek, which folks who knew her best said was her way, when she fancied that she heard the bairn cry out in the same way that it did when she was smooring it. About the harvest time, she often used to see the spirit of the innocent that she had put to death; and her neighbours often heard her talking to it, bidding it to be gone, and not to torment her longer with its cries. She is now dead and in her grave, and has been many years; and whatever may be her punishment in the next world for taking away the life of a harmless bairn of her own flesh and blood, she certainly dreed a heavy penance in this."-Rambles in Northumberland.

REAL EDUCATION.-If we look to the nature of the human mind itself, if we consider its longings, how comprehensive is its range, how great its capabilities, how little its best and highest faculties are satisfied with the objects that are placed before us upon earth, how many marks this dispensation bears of being a temporary, and, as it were, an initiatory dis

mand than formerly, yet they were never suspected of having murdered the pedlar. Their ill-got gain, how-pensation, is it not monstrous to pretend that we are

ever, brought them not happiness. The husband, a few years afterwards, fell from his horse and broke his neck; and at times the widow was seized with fits of terror, which appeared to deprive her of reason. She survived her husband several years; and on her death-bed communicated to a person who attended her the circumstances of the pedlar's murder, and the cause of her terrors. Frequently, when she entered the kitchen where the deed was done, she fancied that she saw the pedlar sitting at the table; and after she had removed to another house, he used sometimes to seat himself opposite to her, with his hair wet and hanging down over his face, as he appeared when she and her husband drew him from the well. In passing a cottage, in which I remembered that an old woman had dwelt who was suspected of having caused the death of one of her children, I inquired of a person, a native of the village, who was with me, if he knew anything of the circumstance, and received from him the following account. "I knew the woman, who is now where the Lord pleases, very well. She

giving to the human being such a cultivation as befits his nature and his destiny, when we put out of sight all the higher and more permanent purposes for which he lives, and confine our provision to matters which, however valuable (and valuable they are in their own place) yet of themselves bear only upon earthly ends? Is it not a fraud upon ourselves and our fellowcreatures; is it not playing and paltering with words; is it not giving stones to those who ask for bread, if, when man, so endowed as he is, and with such high necessities, demands of his fellow-men that he may be rightly trained, we impart to him, under the name of an adequate education, that which has no reference to his most essential capacities and wants, and which limits the immortal creature to objects that perish in the use.-W. E. Gladstone, esq.

A day-tale man is a labourer not engaged by a master for a certain time, but working for any person who will employ him by the day or by the week.

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SCOTTISH EPISCOPACY.

No. II.

ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S CHAPEL, EDIN

BURGH.

THE position of the episcopal church of Scotland, at the present moment, is peculiarly momentous. The late schism which has arisen within the pale of the established church" will afford it (the episcopal) a great opportunity to extend its influence." Its proceedings are scrutinized with a watchful eye, and its rapidly-increasing numbers are admitted by those who can certainly have no interest in over-appreciating that influence or bringing others to join its ranks. The deepSee Lit. Gazette, May 25, 1944, p. 336.

VOL. XVII.

rooted prejudice entertained against it is in many quarters vanishing.

In attestation of the truth of this statement may be adduced the sentiments of one of the most eminent ministers of the Scottish establishof Glasgow, as set forth in his speech on univerment, Dr. M'Farlan, principal of the university sity tests, on May 24th, at the general assembly of the national church. The principal object was to show that the tests should be retained. "Let the assembly consider the reasons which had been which he had read, or anywhere else, for the given in the resolutions of the secession church, great change demanded. It was said that the privilege was granted as a precaution against episcopacy alone, which at the time was dreaded; and that, as the influence of that body was gone,

H

the protection was now unnecessary. Was it, indeed, gone by? That was not so certain. Much to the praise of the Scottish episcopal body, they had taken no direct steps to alter in any degree the church as established. But were there no other dangers to be apprehended? Yes, there were other predominating influences which might exercise themselves upon the mind of the country, and prejudice the church. In fact, history showed that it was not so much against episcopacy as an instrument of arbitrary power, not so much against bishops and curates generally, as against the Scottish bishops and curates, who were ardently devoted to the house of Stuart, that they were excluded from benefices in Scotland, and the privileges in question secured to the presbyterian church. The same obligation and necessity still remained for the church of Scotland; for all felt that, under the blessing of God, the privilege which the church of Scotland enjoyed was the happy instruction of combining two elements; namely, devoted loyalty to the sovereign, and a zealous regard for the civil and religious liberties of the people."

king James to Scotland, and particularly to his native city of Edinburgh. Due preparations were ordered for the king's reception. It was found necessary to repair Holyrood house and its chapel royal, in which bishop Cowper officiated as dean. It was intended to ornament the interior of that venerable edifice by some gilt and carved work in wood, consisting of statues of the apostles; and an organ was intended to be placed in the gallery above the west or grand entrance. Some of the citizens, incited by the presbyterian party, actually thought that such ornaments were so many intimations of the introduction of the Roman mass, and even bishop Cowper was infected by the unnecessary alarm. Archbishop Spottiswoode and several of the bishops signed a letter of remonstrance, prepared by bishop Cowper, to the king on the subject, and the ornamental decorations were omitted, though the primate regarded the clamours of the people as altogether groundless. The king censured their contracted views, and intimated to them that some English doctors in his train would enlighten them on these matters" (Lawson's History).

There is much good sense and much truth in this "Dr. Aiton mentions with approval 'the able remark, a remark which ought to have the more administration of archbishop Spottiswoode ;' and weight as proceeding from one who is justly es- thinks that, if Charles had continued to follow teemed by all unprejudiced members of the Scot- the primate's policy, the Scots, instead of being tish establishment as ranking amongst its most his first and fiercest foes, would have continued sound and able and well-informed members, and his last and best friends.' Dr. Aiton further aswho was unanimously selected to fill the modera-serts-If Spottiswoode's mild measures had been tor's chair (the second time) under circumstances of peculiar difficulty and delicacy.

If the principal's statement be borne in mind, it will throw much light on many of the dark and on other grounds incomprehensible events of a most interesting portion of ecclesiastical history; it will serve to unravel many a tangled web.

Devoted as were the episcopalians generally to the Stuart cause, it is certain it was not a cause likely to promote their interests in a religious point of view. The fact has been correctly stated, "that the reigns of Charles II. and James II. were distinguished by measures extremely unfavourable to the interests of episcopacy in North Britain. They showed undue severity and undue indulgence, irritating the disaffected subjects without suppressing them, and yielding to their wishes only far enough to encourage new demands. During the twenty-eight years, accordingly, that these monarchs swayed the English sceptre, the church of Scotland derived very little support from the countenance of government."

persevered in till all the old heroes of presbyterianism, who had, previous to the Perth assembly, preached against conformity, died out, and till the young were either mollified by kindness or altogether disregarded, prelacy might have been fairly rooted in our soil, and even come to as full a growth in Scotland as it has done in England.' These are mere matters of opinion; but it is ludicrous to find the biographer of Alexander Henderson writing about the growth of what he calls prelacy' in England. When was prelacy,' or the episcopal succession, ever out of England since the time of the early British or Anglo-Saxon church?

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The condition of the people was much the same as during the reign of James. The country was wretchedly cultivated, the roads miserable, and the ignorance of the people greatly fostered by the religious dissensions and clamours of the presbyterian preachers. Nevertheless, there was no general dissatisfaction towards the episcopal church. We find even principal Baillie, of GlasBut to advert to an earlier period: On the ac-gow, in a letter to one of his friends in 1637, decession of Charles I., in 1626, the episcopal church was in a state not calculated to have long rendered it unpopular. In appointing the bishops, James had taken the most effectual method of securing a succession of the most eminent and pious men. It was his custom, when a bishopric fell void, to appoint the archbishop of St. Andrew's to convene the others, and name three or four well qualified, so that there could not be an error in the choice; and then, out of the list, the king selected one whom he preferred" (Stephens).

Archbishop Spottiswoode was by no means a violent, hot-headed man: quite the reverse. He seems to have been quite willing to have acceded to the popular wish, and by no means to have been anxious to run adverse to popular opinion.

"The year 1617 was memorable for the visit of

claring Bishops I love; but pride, greed, luxury, oppression, immersion in secular affairs, were the bane of the Romish prelates, and cannot have good success in the reformed.' The several presbyteries and kirk-sessions continued to occupy themselves with cases of scandal, immorality, quarrellings, strolling on Sundays, wilful neglect of public worship, deserting the parish churches, and, though last not the least in that age, prosecutions for witchcraft. In that matter it cannot be denied that the episcopal clergy were fully as zealous as their presbyterian opponents" (see Lawson's "History of the Episcopal Church of Scotland").

It is to be borne in mind, in taking a fair view of the circumstances which led to the opposition made by many to Charles's measures for the firm

esablishment of the episcopal church, that he wished to restore the ancient patrimony which belonged to the church; and that such a measure would have called upon the nobility and other influential persons to restore those lands which had fallen into their hands. The natural consequence of this might easily be divined.

"When the earl of Nithsdale came down, in 1628, to offer merely the king's favour to those who surrendered the church lands, and to wrest them from those who refused, open resistance was in an instant determined upon; and the old cry of 'popery' was raised, to serve the purpose of those interested in these grants. At a secret meeting, it was settled that, if no other argument should induce Nithsdale to desist, the barons should at once knock out his brains, after the good old Scottish manner. When the parties came to a conference in Edinburgh, the dark scowl of the nobles, patiently waiting for vengeance, terrified the court party so much, that they did not even disclose their instructions, but sent back Nithsdale to London to declare that the service was desperate. From this time the nobles suspected the king, and began to play underhand the game against his government. With a view to coalesce with a powerful opposition party, they became avowed champions of presbytery; and, from pecuniary motives, in their opposition to the bishops, artfully laid the blame of every misfortune on episcopacy. By thus making religion a mere stalking-horse to their own interests, they verified the general remark that, at the bottom of the purest boilings of patriotism, there often lies a thick sediment of gross selfishness*.

"Such are the admissions and representations of a presbyterian writer. A well-known anecdote illustrates the dangerous, lawless, and unprincipled character of the Scottish nobility, in reference to this great measure of the revocation of the teinds, at the conference in Edinburgh. Sir Robert Douglas, of Spott, in Haddingtonshire, created lord Belhaven, in 1633, who had received favours both from James I. and Charles, was at that conference; and Burnet narrates the conduct of this personage, who, though blind, was as ferocious as any of the others, on the authority of sir Archibald Primerose, father of the first earl of Rosebery. When the earl of Nithsdale, whose brains the worthies had resolved to knock out after the good old Scottish manner,' appeared with the commission for the resumption of the church lands and tithes, it was agreed that he and his companions should be assassinated. One of them was the first viscount Ayr, created earl of Dumfries in 1633. Lord Belhaven, by which title he is better locally known, desired to sit near one of the earl of Nithsdale's party, of

• The evils resulting from the alienation of that patrimony were manifold. It reduced the number of officiating cle gy to a most ruinous extent. The indifference shown to the religious

instruction of the people is well known, and looked more like

an extinction than a reform of religion; for at that period two or three, or in some cases four parishes were united into one, numberless chapels were destroyed, and tracts of forty or fifty

miles in extent were left without a church or minister of the gospel. The churches of the neighbouring parishes of Fortingall, in Perthshire, and of Lismore, in Argyleshire, are seventy

eight miles distant. The parish of Appin was suppressed and annexed to Lismore, and Kilchonan annexed to Fortingall. Nine chapels in these four parishes were totally suppressed, and thus where thirteen clergymen were established formerly, the economy of the rulers allowed only two. Four parishes were united under one clergyman at Blair Athole (Gen. Stewart's Sketches of Highlanders, App.)

whom, notwithstanding his blindness, he said he would make sure.' He accordingly was placed next to the future earl of Dumfries, whom he firmly grasped by the hand during the meeting. When the other asked him the meaning of this extraordinary conduct, Belhaven replied that, since his blindness, he was always so much in danger of falling that he was obliged to hold fast to any one who happened to be near him. His other hand, however, rested on a dagger, with which he intended to stab his companion if any disorder had occurred" (Lawson's History). "It is not easy," says a writer in the early numbers of the "Theological Review" (No. III. p. 259), "to account for the disaffection and turbulence which prevailed in many parts of Scotland, both before and after the restoration. The distracted state of the country during the grand rebellion, the habits of war and pillage to which many of them were inured, the want of employment, and the secret incitement which, it is suspected, was practised by many in the higher ranks, who dreaded the restoration of the church to the full enjoyment of the wealth and privileges which had formerly belonged to her, might, perhaps, be assigned as the probable causes of that seditious humour which was ever and anon breaking out among the inhabitants of the western counties. At all events, it cannot be denied that a large body of the people had become at once factious and miserable in the extreme. Fletcher of Saltoun, one of the most figuring of Scottish patriots, calculated that, about the time of the revolution, there were no fewer than two hundred thousand sturdy beggars threatening the property and disturbing the peace of the kingdom; and recommended, as every one knows, that this enormous evil should be forthwith remedied by the general adoption of domestic slavery. In such circumstances, it may be presumed that religion was, in many cases, the pretext rather than the cause of those armed tumults, which repeatedly called forth the severity of the government, and thereby so grievously implicated the character of the established episcopal church."

It is proposed in this series of papers to give more especial attention to the means at the present moment afforded to members of the Scottish episcopal communion for worship, education, &c., with illustrations, commencing with the chapel of St. John the Evangelist, Edinburgh.

The late bishop Sandford, having in early life undertaken the charge of a small congregation in Edinburgh, and finding the accommodation too limited, removed with his flock to Charlottestreet chapel, better calculated for service. Here he remained twenty-one years, and in 1816 commenced public worship in the chapel now to be described.

ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL.

This elegant chapel stands at the west end of Prince's-street, in a wide space, and forms a most interesting object, attracting the notice of strangers, more especially when contrasted with some of the buildings in the neighbourhood, or with those hideous square buildings usually occupied by the dissenters of the land, and not unfrequently by the established charch. It was begun in 1816, and finished in 1818, at an expense of 15,000l.; partly raised by the sale of shares in the property. It is in the florid gothic style.

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