Before she could speak, if she had been weeping or signifying her desire to have anything she saw or wanted, in case she either observed or was told they were to go about worship in the family where she happened to be present, this silenced her immediately. And whatever edge had been upon her spirit before, and though the body had been somewhat uneasy, yet she was perfectly quiet, and waited with patience until the worship came to be ended. This was so native to her, I may say, as to the new nature, and because so usual and constant, that in case she happened to be
out of humour (which was not very frequent with her), the servants of the house would have put themselves into a posture of worship, by discovering1 their heads, or otherwise; whereupon she became instantly silent and quiet, and thus did these little disorders go off. So much of high estimation and profound reverence she discovered for the worship of God, even before she arrived at the second year of her age.
So soon as she could aim at speaking, she began to ask questions concerning God and the Creation, with other matters of religion. For instance, when she observed the sun shining, she inquired, “Whether that sun had shined on her grandfather and grandmother, and made them to see as well as us.” When it was answered, “That the same sun gave light to the whole world,” she replied, “Ought we not then to love that God who made all these things and gave them to us?” Many hundreds of such questions she proposed, and gave likewise such answers unto questions moved to her, which are forgotten and lost through inadvertency. Her wisdom and gravity were such, even in her infant years, that every one admired her, and they especially who saw her more rarely—for these qualities were less observed by them who were more ordinarily with her (though afterwards they remembered them, with regret for the want of her), in regard things of that nature and value became so common to those who were ordinarily in her company, that they took little notice of them.2
Some persons having overheard her craving a blessing before meat, and finding that she had expressions more weighty and significant than could well have been expected from one of her age, asked her hereupon who had taught her to crave a blessing to her meat after that manner. She answered, “That she had learned now and then a word from several persons, and that the Lord had set these words together, whereupon she had made a grace of them.” This happened before the third year of her age.
Much about the same time, having suspected that one of the servants of the house, being the maid who attended her, had cleaned a room on the Lord’s Day, she reproved her sharply in her childish manner, and said, “Away, begone, you sin against the Holy Spirit. You sweep the house on the Sabbath and profane the Lord’s Day. Neither could she be reconciled with her maid, until it was found to be a mistake, and thereupon she was satisfied, the matter of fact having been found otherwise.
About the same time a servant, who was newly come to the house, used the devil’s name in a way of cursing in presence of his other fellow-servants. She, being at that time with her nurse, reproved him sharply, and said, “Henry, if you do this again, I’ll tell God on you.” He, being a wanton youth, answered her
1 Discovering—i.e., uncovering. See this old use of the word in our common translation of Isaiah xxii. 8.
2 “Hence it was,” says the compiler, “that the small fragments we have were mostly taken notice of by strangers.”
scoffingly, “Go then and do so.” Hereupon she went to the next room, and one followed her at a distance, without her knowledge, to observe her behaviour. She fell upon her knees, and continued in that posture for awhile. Afterwards she returned to the company, but spoke nothing until the same young man mockingly inquired, “Have you now told God?” She answered gravely, “Yea, I have; and the Lord says if you continue to do so He will give you away to the devil, and cast you into hell. Whereupon the youth was astonished, and did carry more circumspectly for some years wherein he served in that family. Nay, after he had been seven years out of the family, and was put in memory of that reproof by one who had heard him swear, the consideration thereof made him to fall a weeping, and to beg pardon, saying he ought never to have forgotten such a reproof.
Being in company with a woman who was struggling with dreadful temptations, and who thereupon became afraid to be in a room alone, the child offered to go out of the room, and the woman endeavoured to detain her, saying, “You must by no means go away.” Yet the babe went forward till she was near the door, and then she looked back and said, with a strong and sharper voice than ordinary, “God is with you, and will keep you from all evil!” The tempted woman, having heard the child speak so pertinently, did presently say in her heart, “This is not the voice of the child, but of the Lord!” And the dispensation was so blessed to her that the temptations vanished gradually from that time forward, and did never recur.
At another time, when she was observed to be very attentive unto the word read and heard, and to be much in secret prayer, as also diligent in pressing others to that duty, an old experienced Christian, R. W., met her in return from her chamber, and said to her, “Have you been at your prayers?” She answered, “Yes;” and added, “When I was a child my mother taught me to pray, but now the Lord teaches me.” The honest man inquired hereupon, “How know you the Lord’s teaching by that of your mother?” She answered, “The Lord makes me both to rejoice and to weep; he makes my heart glad, and gives me new words.”
Some godly people having met together for prayer and conference, her mother took her along, and still1 her inclinations carried her to be in such societies. After they had met, the meeting having consisted of some old experienced Christians and others who were but beginning to point2 that way, a debate arose which of them should pray first. Some were for the elder, and others for the younger set. The child not being four years of age, and sitting at her mother’s feet, none of the company took notice of her because of her nonage. Hearing the dispute she said, “I’m the youngest of all; I’ll begin.” Upon which the whole company was silent excepting the mother, who reproved her child for inso-
1 Always.
2 Turn their thoughts to.
lence in troubling the meeting with her fond1 offer, in regard she had never prayed in such company before, nor had been ever invited, because of her childhood. There was at that time in the company an old experienced matron upon whom the society had laid it to begin their meeting with prayer; she said, “My child, you shall have my consent to begin,” and did prevail so far with her mother and the company that it was allowed. This is the only instance wherein she expressed any forwardness: for such was her modesty and bashfulness afterward that she would never adventure upon that duty in societies without much entreating and a clear call. Yet the passage is set down, because a young gentlewoman who had but newly set out, and had been present at very few, if any, such meetings before, was so moved with several expressions the child had in prayer, that she held on in the Lord’s way ever afterward,2 and acknowledged that the Lord blessed the child’s praying at that time, and that she really got good by it. A renewed confirmation that “out of the mouth of babes and sucklings the Lord ordaineth strength.”
She was observed to weep much alone, but was utterly unwilling that it should be known; and because of this aversion she was very careful to wash her face quietly, and to put herself into such a posture as might best conceal her having wept. And in case she heard any person speaking to her advantage, and repeating any of her sayings or practices, she would have gone off and hid herself, or else would have wept.
A godly minister inadvertently said to her, “I would not give a halfpenny for a child’s religion;” the words made such a deep impression upon her spirit that she went on her way with much heaviness for a long time, and took the occasion for moving the question to any judicious and godly persons she had opportunity to meet with, whether they knew any good and religious children who continued such when they were old?3
One day, when her mother had reproved her for not giving a good enough account of her lesson, she was afterwards found weeping. Being asked, “Why weep you?—you were not beaten?” she answered, “I had rather been beaten than that I had angered my mother; the thoughts of my mother’s being angry make me to weep.”
Being sore tossed in wrestling with temptations, she went to a godly woman with whom she frequently conversed about her
1 Foolish.
2 In spite of the persecutions that arose, in which many sealed the truth with their blood.
3 Should not this remind us of our Lord’s solemn warning—”Whoso shall offend (i.e., cause to stumble) one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. xviii. 6-10). Angels, the very highest and most honoured angels, do not disdain to minister for these little ones, for the Lord does not disdain to send them to take care of such (Heb. i. 14).
spiritual cases. She, finding her at this time sore troubled, did ask the cause. She answered, “Alas! the devil takes the good word out of the very bottom of my heart; and often he says to me, ‘What needs all this noise with your religion?’ These and the like temptations,” said she, “I am vexed with.” Being inquired what course she took with them she replied, “That she knew no other way but to carry them in before the Lord by prayer; and I desire,” said she, “that you would pray, and bid godly people pray for me, for my prayers have no strength, nor theirs either, without Christ.”
Being on a certain day in a good dress, with her linens white, and adorned with red ribbons, a godly man, R. W., said to her thereupon, “No doubt you think yourself to be very trim and clean.” She replied, “I shall never think that until I get on the fair and clean robe of Christ’s imputed righteousness, and then I shall be truly fine and clean.”
Some while afterward she fell sick, and her bed being made she was laid in it, whereupon one of the company said, “This is well, she will now get rest.” She, overhearing, answered, “I am rejoicing at another thing, and that is, that there is a rest prepared for the people of God (Heb. iv. 9), among whom I hope to be found; there I shall sing for evermore.” Then she called for her father, who came and asked what she would1 say. She answered, “Pray. Let us pray together here, and we will sing the more sweetly when we come to our rest.”
When first she began to be more sensibly profited by hearing the word preached, and to give clear evidences of her being edified thereby, this instance among others is memorable. A minister having preached upon a Sabbath on these words—”In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines upon the lees,” &c. (Isaiah xxv. 6), she declared she found the word very sweet to her, and that it did her good. Being inquired what good she found in it, and how it did her good, she answered, “It did go through her bones; it went into her heart, and brought tears to this place,” pointing with her finger to her eyelids.
Much about the same time she was desired to pray with some others just after she had risen from her bed. She refused, saying, “How can you bid me pray, seeing my prayers can bring no comfort; but yours may.'” They insisted further; she refused absolutely, and told them “I am but just now got out of my bed, and will pray none in company until first I have prayed alone.”
When at a certain time she was lying in her bed in a morning, and was overheard weeping, a friend came to her and inquired what troubled her. She first declined to tell, but being further urged, her answer was, “I have been meditating on hell, and the darkness of it, and I think I cannot endure it.”
1 Wish’d to say.
Being in a garden on a Sabbath day, and having seen some children playing together, she, rebuking them, said, “It were better for you to be praying.” They answered, “We are but children.” She replied, “Though we be but children, yet we must die,” and thereupon she went from them and hid herself in a corner. Some of the children went about and sought her, and having found her at prayer in a secret corner, they reproached and upbraided her with nicknames. She answered them meekly and gravely, “Know ye not that the Word of God saith ‘Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day?'” The children replied, “The word does not say ‘Emilia Geddie, keep holy the Sabbath day.'” Emily answered, “The Word of God says to you, and you and me and to all, ‘Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.'” They replied to her, “You are a violent young Whig,1 but we will slay you.” She answered, “Well, I will complain to God on you.” They replied, “You may do so.” Then she retired from them to the house; and after some time they sought her out again, and having found her, they said, “Now, Emily, have you told God on us?” “Yes, I have,” said she. They replied scoffingly, “Well, what says God?” She answered, “The Lord saith this, ‘The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all that forget God.'” (Ps. ix. 17.)
When first she began to read the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism she said to her teacher, “I think the Bible is God’s word and the Catechism is the Bible’s word.”
One having read this passage of Scripture, “Rend your hearts and not your garments” (Joel ii. 13) the child said, “I think this reproves the Papists and their ways of penance, for God calls for nothing but the breaking and humbling of the heart.”
Having come at a time from one of her young societies, which she had gathered together for prayer, she was asked by a person, “Who prayed best?” “I cannot tell,” said she, “who prayed best, but I can tell those whose words came best forth,” and named one R. I. Being inquired at another time after she came from her praying society of children, she gave this account—namely, “that one, G. W., has most of his prayers about the rulers, and another, M. G., was much taken up about the churches abroad.”
A captain of the forces, having come into her father’s house, said to her, “Emily, I will marry you.” She answered, “No.” He inquired her reason. She replied, “You have no grace.” “Have you any?” said the captain. She answered, “Whatever I have, you have none: for if you had, you would not do the bishop’s bidding to take the honest ministers and persecute all the godly praying folk.”
1 The name given to those who exposed themselves to persecution because they continued to hear the Word of God from the lips of Presbyterian ministers, when the Prelatic bishops made a law that every one must attend the curate of his own parish.—See Cruickshank’s History, chap. vii.
A company being engaged in converse, and each one proposing to his neighbour which of the saints he would chiefly desire to resemble, she being present, said, “I would fain be like David.” “Would you be a king?” said one. “No,” said she, “but I would gladly be in David’s case. He was a man according to God’s heart; he dwelt near God, and in the light of God’s countenance.
She was most attentive in reading the Scripture and the Catechisms, and did observe carefully what she had read. She came one day to her father, and proposed that question—namely, “Why it was that in the Fourth Commandment, to keep holy the Sabbath, the wife is not particularly mentioned, and yet others of the family are set down, as sons, daughters, and servants? And she observed that in the Tenth Commandment the wife is particularly named amongst other things of our neighbour’s which we may not covet, and the daughter is not mentioned in that command.” Her father asked her, “What she thought was the reason?” She answered, “That the general words ‘of all that is within thy gates’ comprehended every person,” and so the matter ended.
(To be continued.)
Notes and Comments.
The Old Pope and the New.—Dr. Robertson of Venice, writing in the Christian of July 30th, supplies a wholesome corrective to the chorus of commendation that has sounded from the British Press and the British Pulpit respecting the alleged virtues of the late Pope. Archdeacon Sinclair of London has played the fool in an especial manner in this respect. Dr. Robertson notes that the Italian press, with better knowledge of the facts, is comparatively silent on Leo’s character, and such notices as have appeared are tuned to a different strain from the romancing efforts of the British press. “These English notices” he says “do little credit to the judgments and intellects of the writers. Unconsciously they distort history and obscure great moral distinctions; in a word they write pleasing fiction, not solid fact. Dr. Robertson adduces five circumstances of the late Pope’s life which constitute so many counts of the libel which history will have against him. The first is that when the district of Perugia, in 1859, rose against the tyranny of the Papal government, Leo, then Archbishop of the city, was implored to hold in check the mercenary Swiss troops sent by Pope Pius IX to bombard the city. He refused, saying, “Do you wish that I should be an obstacle to the Holy Father getting his own legitimate property?” Political trickery was also another feature of the venerable man’s character, as was instanced by his artful management to secure the papedom when Pio Nono died. When it was suggested to him that he would be the next
Pope, he answered “I am old, I have little strength left, I am not able to accept the smallest burden. I should sink under it in a few days. It is not the tiara you want to give me, but my death.” Yet at this very time Leo was manipulating the press of Europe in his favour by pretending to be a liberal Pope. The promises then made, which secured him the votes of the non-Italian Cardinals, were never kept. He was also close-fisted and greedy to a reproach. During his long pontificate it has never been known that he gave a penny to relieve distress in Italy, whether caused by inundation or fire, earthquake or cholera. On the evening of the day of his election the Swiss Guards mutinied because of his penuriousness in withholding their accustomed donation, and his next policy was to reduce the wages and increase the labours of all the Vatican officials. He was also an abandoned Mariolater, and devoted himself much to the childish practice of praying by the Rosary. Lastly, his irritating, unpatriotic behaviour towards the King of Italy has outraged all sentiments of religion and piety. When King Humbert was assassinated the Pope prohibited funeral services to be held except of a maimed character. He had no word of sympathy for the royal widow. Many of the Italian priests were put in prison because they justified the murderer Bresci in his crime. Of course, all this peevishness comes of the Pope’s incurable offence at the annexation of the States of the Church by the Italian Government. The new Pope, who takes the title of Pius X., was elected after four days’ conclave. It took one hundred and six days to elect Clement XIV. and one hundred and four to elect Pius VI. There is usually such intriguing and manipulating among the parties into which the sixty odd cardinals are divided, that the final result is long delayed. However, the present election has been despatched promptly. The new Pope, Cardinal Sarto, was Patriarch of Venice. Already he is applauded as an example of all the virtues, but the initiated know that his chief recommendation will be his subserviency to the schemes of the Jesuits.
The King’s Visit to Ireland.—During the closing days of July King Edward made a royal progress through Ireland. The motive of the journey was no doubt good and politic. It was intended to counteract by kingly graciousness the chronic discontent and disloyalty of that distressful island. The religious difficulty was unavoidable, but we do not see that the King solved it by the easy, compliant method of visiting Maynooth College, where sedition is taught at the public expense, and by many other acts of subserviency to the hierarchy. It was noticeable that amid the many loyal addresses from public bodies, religious and secular, not one address came from a distinctively Roman Catholic source.
The Terrible Affair in Paris.—On Monday, August 10, Paris was the scene of an accident of unusual gravity. Eighty-four persons were suffocated by a fire in an underground train.
in a tunnel. The fire broke out in an empty train driven by electric power. Sparks generated by the accident known as a short current fired the whole train, and filled the tunnel with heat and smoke. Into this a train well filled with workmen ran, and became stationary. Consequently the unfortunate passengers were shut in to their death. Many of them were workmen returning home in the evening. The grief and horror involved in this black list of 84 victims is terrible to think of, and its effect should be to moderate the rampant frivolity and heathenism of that pleasure-loving city.
The Expelled French Monks.—The St. James’s Gazette published the other day some figures showing the extent of the recent settlement of Roman Catholics in England as a result of their expulsion from France. In 1870 it appears that there were 67 monasteries and 232 nunneries in England, or 299 houses in all. On March 31 last the number had increased to 918, of which 283 were monasteries and 635 houses for women. Since then the numbers have increased, and to-day there are in Protestant England 685 convents and 305 monasteries, compared with 377 convents and 215 monasteries in Roman Catholic Ireland. Scotland possesses apparently only 48 convents and fourteen monasteries. New convent schools to the number of 47 were started last year, and the pupils, numbering in all 3455, are receiving the strictest of education in the Roman Catholic faith. Carisbrooke House, with its extensive grounds, situated within a quarter of a mile of the Castle, has been acquired by a community of French nuns, who will take up their residence as soon as the necessary arrangements are completed. This will make the third community of nuns established in the island during the last two years since the exodus from France began.
Lord Cranbourne, son of the late Prime Minister, must needs advertise his folly on a recent occasion in the House of Commons when replying to a question concerning the expulsion of monks from Douai. He said that such a measure of expulsion could never have been voted in England. M. Clemenceau, a prominent French Senator, has properly taken Lord Cranbourne to task, and fully vindicated the action of France. At the same time he has refreshed Lord Cranbourne’s memory respecting certain noted passages of English history. He says:—”Alas! Mr. Under Secretary of State, if to-day you find yourself so very much at your ease in the enjoyment of your common law right, it is because your ancestors for its conquest had recourse to wholesale acts of violence, in which death and confiscation, as you must know, played a prominent part. I admire and often envy the use you have made of your liberty.” M. Clemenceau concludes:—”In France Catholics are in full enjoyment of the common law right. If we deny them the special privilege of imposing the servitudes of the Middle Ages, it is because they have obliged us to do so by trying to lay hands, in the name of Rome, on all the powers of
the State. Only to mention one instance, what do you think of an army in which, under monastic inspiration, officers called upon to choose between the orders of Rome and the law of France violate discipline, refuse obedience, and show themselves more Roman than French, sometimes with the sanction of their superiors? Is that your conception of government, Mr. Under Secretary of State, and do you believe that such a situation could be prolonged without peril for the very existence of the French nation?”
Literary Notices.
MEMOIR AND REMAINS OF REV. D. MACDONALD, SHIELDAIG.
(Glasgow: John M’Neilage, 65 Great Western Road.)
It is a true saying of Solomon’s, that the memory of the just is blessed, and never did the truth of the saying seem more apparent to some than in the reading of this Memoir and Remains of the saintly minister of Shieldaig. The heavenly-mindedness and deep spirituality of this departed saint embalm his memory with the sweet fragrance of the aloes, myrrh, and cassia of the ivory palaces by which his own heart was so often made glad. To those who did not know Mr. Macdonald such language may appear to savour of sentimental and extravagant panegyric, but accustomed as we were to look up to him as one of the saintliest of the Lord’s people, and one of the most faithful of His ministers, such a tribute comes far short of the expression of our respect for one who, we believe, shall be in everlasting remembrance. The reading of these sermons recalls to mind occasions when the very odour of the Rose of Sharon seemed to be suffused throughout the place of preaching. It is true that they are only fragments, but in some of these many readers will find the necessary helps to direct their memories to the times when they listened to Mr. Macdonald with peculiar delight.
The Memoir prefixed to the Remains is the work of the Rev. D. Macfarlane, Dingwall, the life-long friend of Mr. Macdonald. There is nothing out of the ordinary in the story of his life—it had its ups and downs—its joys and sorrows—but, speaking generally, it was a life lacking in incident and colour—elements so essential to the biographer and so interesting to the reader. But while this is said, it is necessary to add that these words are only used in a relative sense. From one standpoint Mr. Macdonald’s life was a life filled with incidents of the highest importance; it was a life directed and fashioned by the Holy Spirit, and where such a work has been, its history will neither be uninteresting nor unprofitable to other pilgrims who have their faces Zionwards. And in the delineation of Mr. Macdonald’s life-story Mr. Macfarlane has right nobly done his part. There is a thoroughness and withal an ease and literary grace that interests while it satisfies. He begins with Mr. Macdonald’s early youth and conversion, which took place under the Rev. Alexander Macintyre, of Strontian, Argyleshire, one of the most eminent law preachers of his day. Then his student days, his ordination at Shieldaig, his leaving the so-called Free Church in 1893, and finally the last scene of all, are reviewed in four chapters. The concluding chapter of the memoir is a fine pen picture of Mr. Macdonald as a Man, a Christian, and a Preacher. It conveys a most accurate idea to one’s mind of what Mr. Macdonald was in these relations, and withal is seasoned with much sound counsel and reproof. The following should prove salutary, if somewhat caustic, reading to a few shameless detractors of Mr. Macdonald’s fair fame:—”Some who were not acquainted with him,” says his biographer, “thought him a very queer man, and fabricated and circulated ridiculous stories about his alleged eccentricities, which had no foundation in fact. But the promoters of these stories were known to be persons who had no sympathy with true godliness, and, therefore, no respectable—not to say godly—man or woman would give heed to their stories about him.” To which all who knew Mr. Macdonald will say Amen.
The Remains consist of four letters and twenty discourses, which include one Communion Table address and two Question Meeting addresses. Among these, one is glad to find such favourites as the Forgiven Penitent, Joseph’s Brethren, The Rose of Sharon, Black but Comely, and Christ’s Invitation to His Bride, all of which are full of the sweet consolations of the Gospel. Those who heard Mr. Macdonald preach on Joseph’s Brethren, when he was richly anointed by the Holy Ghost, will not soon forget the impression produced as he spoke of the Joseph of the New Testament who sought a place where He might weep with His brethren. But if Mr. Macdonald’s sermons abound in the consolations of the Gospel, they are not lacking in solemn warnings to false professors and the careless. One will find enough in them to make one carefully ponder what road he has chosen for eternity. There is a faithfulness and earnestness about them that tell plainly enough that Mr. Macdonald did not set himself out to please men.
The volume also contains notes of Mr. Macfarlane’s sermon preached at Shieldaig on the 25th August, 1901, the Sabbath after Mr. Macdonald’s decease. And along with this there are two tributes in verse—one in English, the other Gaelic. It may be also mentioned that the book has as a frontispiece a striking portrait of Mr. Macdonald.
The whole get-up of the work shows taste and care, and barring a few misprints in English and Gaelic, the printing is admirable. The book sells at the reasonable price of half a crown, and may be had from Rev. D. Macfarlane, F.P. Manse, Dingwall; or Mr. John M’Neilage, 65 Great Western Road, Glasgow. It is to be hoped that those interested in the cause will purchase copies for distribution among friends and acquaintances. No more appropriate gift could be sent to relatives abroad.
D. B.
PSALM SINGERS’ CONFERENCE. Report of Conference held in Belfast, August, 1902. 328 pp. demy 8vo. 2s.
This General Assembly of Psalm Singers took place in Belfast on the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th August, 1902, and was held on the initiative of the Rev. J. W. S. Lowry, of Clarinda, Iowa, minister of the United Presbyterian Church of America. Professors Petticrew and Dick and Rev. S. R. M’Neilly, of the Irish Presbyterian Church, were the principal organisers on this side of the ocean, and the Conference, devised and carried through by their manifold labours, was a successful one in point of numbers and interest. In all some 80 papers and addresses were delivered, and these, of course, are of various degrees of value and importance. It was inevitable that there should be some repetition and overlapping of subjects on the part of so many speakers; nevertheless, the volume now produced is readable and useful, and contains many facts, allusions, quotations and views which psalm-singers should note. Several speakers quote the aphorism of Fletcher of Saltoun “Allow me to make the ballads of the nation, and I care not who makes the laws.” We think it is time this theory were allowed to drop into oblivion as it is more picturesque than accurate. If, however, some responsible person would launch a new dictum to this effect, “Allow me to make the Church’s hymns, and I care not who makes her theology,” his saying might pass into a psalm-singer’s proverb. For, as was more than once noted at this Conference, there is an old congruity between hymns and heresy. The unsound bishop, Paul of Samosata, in the year 269 was found supplanting the psalms by human hymns in the interests of Arianism. The influence that the semi-popish Hymns Ancient and Modern has had, since 1861, in furthering Ritualism in England and Scotland is emphasised in a paper by Dr. Corkey, published in this volume. Dr. Corkey has also a very good paper on the theme “Why is there no Psalter in the New Testament?” The subject leads him to enter deeply into the divine relation between the two Testaments, and his treatment of the subject is very satisfactory. Professor Dick deals effectively with the theme of the “Imprecatory Psalms.” Rev. Wm. Wishart, Allegheny, has an interesting paper on the “Psalms in the Apostolic and Early Church,” proving that however early the Church was corrupted in other respects, the innovation of human hymns was steadily resisted till about the fourth century. A remarkable paper by Rev. J. W. S. Lowry, the projector of the Conference, occurs near the end of the volume. The theme is “The Psalm-Singing Churches of To-day: their Origin, Characteristics, and Work.” In this sketch the author gives a bird’s-eye view of the Psalm-singing churches of the world. He notes a Psalm-singing remnant in Holland and the Free Presbyterian Churches of Scotland and Australia. He also surveys the Psalm-singing bodies of his own country, chief among which is the denomination to which
he himself belongs—the United Presbyterian Church of America, numbering 1000 congregations. This Church has established missions among the Jews and Moslems of Egypt, and in these efforts no materials of praise are used except the Psalms of David. There were several papers by these Oriental missionaries read at the Conference, and these show that the Psalms, by their Eastern imagery and cast of thought, their venerableness as part of the Old Testament, which is held in reverence by Jews, Moslems, and Copts, give the missionaries who use them an inlet to the minds and hearts of these inhabitants of Bible lands. This suggests the thought that Churches who cling to an inspired Psalmody are moving along the pathway of the divine purpose to redeem a lost Israel, and are likely to be used as His instruments in that work. There is a good paper by Rev. James Martin, Reformed Presbyterian missionary, Antioch; and Dr. Kerr, Glasgow, is forcible and eloquent on “Psalm-Singers in the Struggle for Civil and Religious Liberty.” Professor Morton, of Glasgow, has also a thoughtful exposition of the subject, “Christ in the Psalms.” We commend this volume as a useful tonic and a book of reference for the library of those who love the Songs of Zion.
Church Notes.
Communions.—1st Sabbath of September, Lochcarron; 2nd, Carrbridge, Coigach, and Strathy; 3rd, Applecross; 4th, Laide (Aultbea).
Induction at Lairg.—The Northern Presbytery met in the Church at Lairg, Sutherlandshire, at 2 P.M. on Friday, the 7th August, for the induction of the Rev. Ewen Macqueen, late of Harris, to the pastorate of the combined congregation of Lairg, Dornoch, Rogart, and Creich, Sutherlandshire. The Rev. Donald Macfarlane, Dingwall, presided, and preached from Isaiah liii. 11, very specially from the words “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.” The other members of Presbytery present were the Rev. Donald Beaton, Wick, the Rev. D. S. Cameron, of Halkirk and Helmsdale, and Mr. Andrew Tulloch, Dornoch, elder. After divine worship, a short narrative was given of the steps in the call to Mr. Macqueen, whereupon, after answering the questions and signing the Formula, he was solemnly inducted to the pastoral charge of the congregation. Rev. Mr. Macfarlane then addressed some suitable words of counsel to the newly-inducted pastor, while Rev. Mr. Beaton addressed the congregation as to their special duties. There was a large attendance of people from the various places in the neighbourhood, and the induction of a minister in this part of the vineyard is looked upon with much satisfaction. Mr. Macfarlane preached in English in the evening after the induction, while Mr. Beaton introduced Mr. Macqueen on the Sabbath following. The manse is situated at Bonar Bridge, Creich.