forced upon them by soldiers; and of the whole parish not more than two or three went to hear him.' Outwardly the Church was still the same, but inwardly it was in the clutch of disintegrating forces. Ayrshire in particular is regarded by Glasgow ministers as "a dark place of Scotland and its preachers very unsound." In other ways the times were tending to a kindlier form of worship. Solemn elders no longer policed the streets on a Sabbath evening haling unfortunate transgressors before the Session. Families were now allowed to take the air, and thought it no sin. The "Dock at Dumfries, then a long and leafy avenue of trees, was crowded with people after the Sabbath exercises. Slowly the rigid Calvinism of the orthodox was giving way before more tolerant forms and more flexible thoughts. So. In the midst of this Burns, with a prophet's instinct, uttered his striking plea for "the larger heart, the kindlier hand.' The poet is always a prophet, the preacher rarely The preacher inherits too much from the past. Robert Burns was shackled by no chains of tradition. He feared neither the terrors of the Presbytery nor the frowns of the "Unco Guid." He had nothing but scorn for the "yill-caup commentators" that frequented the "Holy Fair." He had little sympathy for those whose life was like a "Weel gaun mill, Supplied wi' store o' water, The heapet happer's ebbing still, And still the clap plays clatter." He saw as no one else did, that a man might drink from "Calvin's well, aye clear," and yet be wanting in charity and kindliness of heart. He pleaded for gentler dealing towards those who " gang a kennin wrang.” His keenest satires were directed against those who forgot that "to step aside is human.” It was when the question of Dr M'Gill's orthodoxy came before the Church Courts that Burns found the 66 opportunity his genius sought. The publication of a Practical essay on the Death of Christ by "Doctor Mac" brought a storm about the ears of this minister. Dalrymple warmly commended the work in the preface. The case was conducted by "Orator Bob" Aitken, a close friend of Burns. Lockhart says "Burns was from the beginning a zealous as in the end he was, perhaps, the most effective-partisan on the side on whi h Aitken staked so much of his reputation.' From his poems we gather that he hailed this "heretic blast " which was 66 blawn in the wast as a proof of the march of thought towards more tolerant opinions. The service that Burns thus rendered must not be forgotten. The truth he championed had been overlooked. He was just the one whose penetrating voice, whose vigorous wit, whose scathing word was needed. His voice, like "Black" Russell's, was heard ower muir and dale"; and his words, more effectively than those of the "herd" of Kilmarnock High Church, were "piercing words like Highland swords" dividing "the joints and marrow." 66 It does not seem too much to say that Burns was largely responsible for the delivering of Scotland from a subtle form of tyranny. There had been too much of the exercise of law and too little of charity-too much of the spirit of Shylock and too little of the mercy of Portia. Sympathy was lost in severity. The satires, doubtless, put the Ayrshire ministers in a pillory, and gave them an unenviable immortality, and doubtless also some injustice was done against men whose chief fault was that their zeal was greater than their charity; still the service the Poet rendered to Scottish religious life was great and lasting. He ventilated a stuffy theology. He pleaded that justice should be tempered with mercy, that men "should gently scan their brother man." No other weapon than the keen satire of the Poet could have pierced the thick hide of Calvinism as Burns found it. Where he suspected insincerity, want of charity, or bigotry no mercy was shown to the offender. We must bear this in mind when we discuss the question whether the ministers were hardly treated by being thus made the subject of ridicule, if not of contempt. Does Burns give us a true estimate? Is not his view one-sided ? In his eagerness to champion the cause of charity does he not overstep the bounds of fair and legitimate criticism? He delineates the harsh and severe aspects of the religion of the time; he shows us how evil flourished in spite of the iron hand of the Kirk, in spite of the stool of repentance, but does he do justice to the good points? For their rigid interpretation of religion these men deserved the sarcasms of the Poet. Their unbending severity required as stern a rebuke. They erred perhaps in enforcing discipline without considering human frailty. Some of them were rash and irascible. Some of them were gloomy and unsympathetic. Yet, on the whole, the members of the Presbytery of Ayr seem to have been faithful men, who reflected in their characters the best as well as the less estimable features of the religious life of that day. There exist certain other sources of information, which give us a very different view of some of these ministers. Auld of Mauchline, Moody of Riccarton, and Russell of Kilmarnock were, no doubt, what Burns showed them to be; but they were also more. The picture of Auld is an example. According to Burns, Auld was worthy of little. respect, a man without much force of character "If ye canna bite, ye can bark." But Dr Edgar, in his Old Church Life in Scotland, gives us another side to Auld's character. "He was a man of far more than common force of character, besides being a minister of exemplary faithfulness. He was one of the most abundant in pastoral labours, that left on the parish the clearest and most enduring mark of himself. A stately courtesy and much kindness of heart lay underneath his austere and rigid manners. No delicacy of feeling, or shyness of disposition, or moral cowardice ever restrained Auld from openly doing what he thought his ministerial duty." Auld certainly could bite, as the Kirk-Session Records of Mauchline show, for there his language is "pipere mordacior-spicier than pepper." The same is true in regard to Moody. The Presbytery records support the Poet's insinuation that Moody was a hasty and indiscreet man. For it stands there that on one occasion he was found guilty "of a want of prudence, generosity, and gratitude, and that he should be censured for his conduct and admonished to be better for the future.” The incident of "The Twa Herds " is undoubtedly a fact, though whether the quarrel between Moody and Russell went to the extremity of blows is doubtful. But there are other records which show Moody in a different light. They prove that he was a hospitable and genial man, that he was most earnest, evangelical, and full of zeal against the evils of his time. In the diary of a Moravian minister, who frequently travelled the road from Ayr to Glasgow through Riccarton, it is mentioned that Moody always gave him a most hearty welcome at the Manse, and by his life and conversation proved himself to be a sincere minister of the gospel. It is interesting to find that this writer places a higher estimate on Moody's character than on that of Mr Dalrymple of the first charge in Ayr. We are familiar with Burns's verdict of this minister. His heart was like a child," and his life "like the new-driven snaw." But Dalrymple could reveal a certain narrowness and bigotry. In the same diary he is represented as announcing that he would preach a sermon against the errors of a certain sect to the satisfaction of all his hearers." But the result was not as he expected, for "it turned out to his hearers' dissatisfaction. I hear that the people are very much displeased with their minister for being so very bitter; he went home from ye pulpit sick, and continues very ill." Evidently the sickness is regarded as a visitation from heaven upon this very worthy minister. 66 66 The portrait of Russell is the most conspicuous of all. It is that of a strong Calvinist who dangled his hearers continually over— "A vast, unbottom'd, boundless pit, And, indeed, "Black Russell seems to have been very much like his portrait. "His countenance was dark and forbidding, his voice like thunder, his frame coarse and massive. Children fled from him, and the sound of his staff on the street was the signal for the closing of doors." With such a man Burns had no sympathy. They were at opposite poles of thought. But a truer estimate would have done justice to the courage, the conviction, and the force of a character which might have found its place in the roll of "Scots Worthies of former generations. Russell was a true descendant of the Covenant. 66 In justice to the Poet we must also say that he could be generous to those who came nearer to his idea of religion. Of M'Gill he writes that he was one of the worthiest, as well as one of the ablest, of the whole priesthood of the Kirk of Scotland." And we have the authority of Burns for the statement that his father was a great admirer of Dalrymple and of his strain of preaching and benevolent conduct, and that he attended Dalrymple's ministry with diligence and profit. Burns's relations with the Church were not of the happiest character. It was impossible for so conscientious a minister as Auld to look lightly upon the irregularities of the Poet. And the severity of the punishment administered by this stern"Apostle" may possibly have aggravated the Poet's dislike for the Church as it was then constituted. We hasten to add, however, that Burns had the utmost reverence for all true religion. He caricatured the form which it assumed in the Church, and not the spirit. And the truth for which he contended lay very near to the |