the fury of the presbytery broke upon the minister. He was summoned before the presbytery," to hear himself deposed from the ministry at the kirk of Monyabroch, for inability to use discipline in said kirk as becomes." Taking no objection to sentence being passed, he was there and then deposed by the moderator "simpliciter and forever,"

Thus most unhappily terminated the long pastorate of thirty-seven years of Alexander Livingston, the first Presbyterian minister of Kilsyth. Possibly he was not so active in the discharge of his commission as he might have been; but surely to use a minister for the purpose of humiliating his near kinsman was, on the part of the presbytery, most indiscreet. There, however, the matter stands; Livingston, a grave old clergyman, tottering on the brink of the grave, was deposed, and the stigma attaching thereto remains; but the riddle of the right and wrong, who can read it now? His wife was Barbara Livingston of "the house of Kilsyth," by whom he had one son, William. He did not survive his deposition many months. Twenty-four years before him, the man "who neither feared nor flattered mortal flesh," the intrepid Knox, was laid to his rest, and now clear and bright there was shining another star in our ecclesiastical firmament. That star was Andrew Melville.

CHAPTER II.

Prelate versus Presbyter-WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, Voice and Appearance-The King, his Character-Melville, Welsh, and Bruce Bishops Ordain Ministers-Perth Assembly-Jenny Geddes-W. Livingston Presented to Kilsyth-The Enmity of the King-Livingston Confined to his Parish-DeposedPresented to Lanark-Second Deposition-Imprisoned-His Curious Dream-Before the High Commission-Addresses Marquis of Hamilton-Glasgow Assembly-Last AppearanceDeath.

AFTER the meeting of the Scottish Parliament in 1560, the country enjoyed a period of comparative quiet after the storm of the Reformation. This quiet was reflected in the life of Alexander Livingston. With the deposition. of Livingston, however, and the coming in of the 17th century, there began new troubles and there arose new dangers. Then began that struggle between prelate and presbyter which was to last for the next hundred years. The stirring life and career of the Rev. William Livingston, the second minister of Monyabroch, as it begins with the year 1600, takes us to the very beginning of this controversy, and leads us right onward through the first half of it. William was very unlike his father; compromise, was full of energy, of a disposition essentially combative, and may be well credited with having inherited the ardour of his grandsire, who fought and died at Pinkie.

he had no taste for

He had a heart hatred

m2 William lovn persone of mongabre

SEAL AND AUTOGRAPH OF REV. WILLIAM LIVING REFORMED MINISTER AT MONY ABROCH (K11

From original Charter at Colzium House, dated 8th

fathers of the Scottish Church stood like midst of the waves and repelled every assa war none acquitted himself with greater William Livingston. He possessed the voice

and a forbidding countenance; and wherever he is found he is seen laying about him to excellent purpose.

King James was largely responsible for the ecclesiastical troubles of Scotland. He was ill-fitted by nature to act the part of a king. A shattered nervous system rendered him physically a coward. He was fond of his book and his bottle. Striving to be a master in theology he was a novice in practical religion. He was a curious compound of wisdom and folly, of vacillation and obstinacy. Now he was strongly Presbyterian, praising "the God who had made him King in such a Kirk as that of Scotland-the sincerest Kirk in the world." And then, again, with his "No Bishop, no King," he was equally strongly Episcopalian. Whatever form of Church government he really loved eventually, there can be no doubt he became the foe of Presbyterianism. He had rude memories of his Scottish life. George Buchanan had warmed his ears as a boy; Andrew Melville had plucked at his sleeve and called him "God's silly vassal," and then the raid of Ruthven was an undoubtedly bitter recollection. Melville was a fitting successor to Knox. He was a man of fixed purpose and determined spirit, and prepared for any emergency, Holyrood or Blackness, the pulpit or the gallows. James thought if he could get quit of Melville his ends would be gained in Scotland. With this view he invited him to London, and clapped him in the Tower. Melville had, however, by this time done his work. He had consolidated the labours of Knox, written the Second Book of Discipline, and given the Church that practical shape which she still retains. Two of his best known fellow-labourers were Welsh and Bruce. When the wife of the former went to London to beg the King to release him, for he also had been imprisoned, the King said he would release him if he would submit to the bishops. Lifting up

Abyssinian traveller. Because he would not the guilt of Gowrie in the affair of the co King persecuted him with relentless hatred. ing was full of the richest spiritual matter, an always short, are spoken of as being like bol heaven. His death was characteristic. On breakfast he said to his daughter, who was s "Hold, my Master calls me." Asking for Bible, and finding his eyesight gone, he sai up the 8th chapter of the Epistle to the place my finger on these words, 'I am pe neither death nor life shall be able to separ the love of God which is in Christ Jesus Now," he continued to his daughter, "i upon the place?" and being told that it w "Then God be with you, my children; I fasted with you and shall sup with the this night," and so saying the good man cause supported by men like Melville and Welsh and Bruce, was both in excellent nurture.

66

Among the chief events of the time wer tion by English bishops of the three Scotti Spottiswoode, Lamb, and Hamilton; and Assembly held at Perth in 1618, which pa favour of kneeling at Communion, Confirma observation of Good Friday, Easter, and As The Scottish people having found it necessa