"I have been credibly informed," he adds, "by some that have seen stockings sold at 101. a Pair; but these are rare and are not made for the market, but to show their perfection in spinning and knitting."

The Highlanders are, he tells us, "Constant in their Cloathing to Plaids, which are only one Piece of seven or eight Yards long, with which they cover their whole Bodies from Neck to knee, except the Right Arm, which they manage so artificially as to supply the Defect of Drawers and Breeches; they cover their Heads with Thrum Caps, Blue, Grey, or Sad Colour, as the Buyer pleases."

It will interest the devotees of golf to learn that even at the date we are considering this game ranked with football playing as the usual recreation of the Common People, to which, we are told,

"they were so addicted that there were no less than three Acts of Parliament in so many several Reigns to discharge the Use of them, under the Penalty of 50 shillings to the Lord of the Land or to the Sheriff in his neglect which [golf] being of no Advantage to the Publick, the Wisdom of the State enacted, That Weaping, Shawing should succeed in the stead of them and be kept four Times a Year in every Shire, and so likewise in the Boroughs; all men being sufficiently Harnessed and Armed and Buts (or as they call them, Bow-marks) set up for Shooting in every Parish with the Use of Guns and Fire-arms; so that the King's Leiges might be ready and fit for War upon eight days' warning."

Many of the punishments inflicted in Scotland were the same as in England. The punishment for high treason in the case of noblemen was beheading, not with an axe, as in England, or a sword, as in Holland, but with an instrument bearing the strangely inappropriate name of the Maiden-and having resemblance to the afterwards famous guillotine. This is described as being :

"a broad piece of iron about a foot square, very sharp on the lower Part and loaded above with such a Weight of Lead, that is scarce to be lifted. At the time of execution it is pulled up to the top of a narrow wooden frame about 10 foot high, and as broad as the Engine, with Mouldings on each side for the maiden to slide in; about four foot from the ground a Convenience is made for the prisoner to lay his Neck, with a kind of Bar so fastened as to keep him from stirring: upon a sign given, the maiden is let loose and in a moment separates the head from the body. The Scots have a tradition that the first inventor of this machine was the first that suffered by it."

In earlier times confession used to be extorted from suspected criminals by an instrument called the Boot, but this was abolished at the Union, twenty-eight years before Mr. Chamberlayne's volume was published.

In the church life of the period as described, the catechising of church members is an interesting feature. Mr. Chamberlayne states that each

family is visited by the minister once at least before the Communion. Notice having been given the previous Sunday, the minister, accompanied by the ruling elder and the deacon of the district, and not forgetful of the register-book containing a list of "all the examinable persons.” enters the family to be catechised. He first ascertains what addition or diminution has taken

place since his last visit. From a new-comer a testament of life and manners from the last place of his abode is demanded. If his certificate is correct his name is duly registered. If he fails to satisfy the minister he has to procure a certificate.

"Then," proceeds our chronicler, "he marks the children and enters them in his Examination-book, if they are of fit age. He then exhorts every one to a strict Observance of their respective Duties, and particularly to Family Prayer, Reading the Scriptures, and Singing of Psalms. To omit Family Prayer is esteemed very scandalous, and the omission of it is often punished with Excommunication. At parting the minister usually

prays with every family."

in

Happy country where its pastors were pastors indeed, giving to each sheep individual attention! But his work of examination is not at an end. The turn of those whose names are marked in the book now comes. On a given day they appear church and are examined "in order as they stand in the examination book." They are examined out of the Shorter Catechism, and if they answer then they are catechised upon its questions, and are instructed in what is difficult. The minister “marks also at every one's name how they answer." This would seem to be a formidable ordeal, but there was some relief for "adults, who having been often examined, are not catechised, when they ar found to be sufficiently knowing, this exercise being chiefly intended for children and ignorant persons.'

This catechising, which was so important feature in Scotch life in former days, has now disappeared. A minister of great experience in Scotland tells me that the practice of examining families and catechising in church is now unversally abandoned. The only practice that is

kept up is for the minister to teach a young conmunicants' class, which meets for about a month before each communion. Of course those joining from other congregations bring with them certifi cates of Church membership, which are lodged with the minister or chief clerk and laid before the Session.

the

It was stated above that questions upon questions of the Shorter Catechism were asked of those examined. A book of such questions which was greatly used at the time when the practice was in vogue is that compiled by "James Fisher and other ministers of the Gospel," the preface to the First Edition being signed by "Ebenezer Erskine and James Fisher," under date February 1753. Under the famous answer, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever,” are such other questions and answers as "What is meant by man's chief end? That which ought to be man's chief aim and design, and that

which he should seek after as his chief happiness." The answer in reference to prayer which runs thus : Prayer is an offering up of our desires to God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies "-is amplified by many other questions such as: "Why is prayer to be made by all to God alone, and to none other?" "What is ejaculatory prayer?"

The public worship of the Scotch Church is carefully explained by our author. It commences at 10 o'clock with the singing of a psalm, which is read and tuned by the precentor, a prayer follows, and then the minister reads a chapter or two out of the Bible, which he expands for about half an hour; this is called Lecturing; then another psalm is sung followed by a second prayer. The sermon is then preached, after which is another prayer, followed by the singing of another psalm, and finally the minister gives his blessing. The service is usually over by 12.15. The afternoon sermon ought to be about some question in the Shorter Catechism."

66

Beautifully solemn, impressive, and helpful, must have been, and must still be, the Lord's Supper as administered in Scotland. In these days when the Lord's Supper is so often observed, it is, in some respects, made far less of than it used to be, when it was held only two or three times a year. At that time it was duly prepared for in an orderly and deliberate manner. On the preceding Wednesday or Thursday there was a solemn fast; on the Saturday were two preparatory services; on the Sunday, after the ordinary service, the minister forbad the unworthy to approach, and invited the penitent to come and receive the sacrament. In the body of the church one or two tables were covered with white linen cloth, and seats were arranged on both sides. The minister occupied the head of the table where the elements had been placed. After a short discourse he read the Institution and blessed the elements. Then he broke the bread and distributed it, and the wine to those next him, who transmitted them to their neighbours. After another discourse, and after thanksgiving and singing of psalms, the morning service was concluded. Another service was held in the afternoon, and at nine o'clock on Monday there was public worship, and two sermons to close the whole. Happy days when no trains carried off hurrying business men to their work, and when an absence of rush and turmoil left the week free to such solemn and happy use. The idea is beautiful. must be added, however, that in some cases the days were closed in a manner not altogether solemn or edifying.

It

In the times we are describing discipline was carried out with great vigour in the church. Cases of drunkenness, disobedience to parents, Sabbath breaking, swearing, cursing, scolding, fighting, lying, cheating, or stealing were dealt with at first in private. If this was not effectual public censure might have to be resorted to. When a man repented, and the congregation was satisfied of his repentance, "the minister is," we are told, "in a prayer with the congregation, to

desire our Lord Jesus Christ, who has instituted the ordinance of excommunication, i.e., of binding and losing the sins of men upon earth, with a promise of ratifying above the rightful sentence that shall be passed here below, to accept the man's repentance, to forgive his former disobedience, and to assist him with His Spirit, that he may never again relapse into the like offences; and then, prayer being ended, he pronounces the sentence of absolution by which he wholly takes off the former sentence, and receives him into the communion of the church, and the free use of all the ordinances of Christ. Sentence being passed, the minister exhorts him as a brother to perseverance in his godly resolution, the elders embrace him, and the congregation thenceforward communicate with him as a member of their own body."

In these matters, as in so many others, our northern neighbours have altered. This brief glance at the condition of Scotland one hundred and sixty years ago will show us that all the alterations have not been improvements. Greater civilisation ever brings its woes as well as its weals. But amid it all, the sturdy, robust, religious, enterprising, and must we not add. canny, character still remains unchanged.

A Relic of the Slave Trade.

JOHN P. HOBSON, M.A

SHORTLY before Congress adjourned for thesummer recess, the people of the United States had a reminder of how comparatively recent was the importation of slaves from Africa into some of the Southern States. It came in the form of an Act of Congress authorising the payment of a bill due to a United States marshal, an officer of the Supreme Court, who was stationed at Savannah in the State of Georgia in 1859. When the Federal Constitution was adopted in 1787, it was agreed that slavery should continue in the States it which it then existed, but that the importation of negroes from Africa to be sold into slavery should come to an end in 1809. The Southern States agreed to the condition; but their people were never thoroughly loyal to the agreement; and ships freighted with negroes from Africa were smuggled into southern ports and harbours, until the eve of the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion in 1861. In 1859, a brig named the Wanderer, succeeded in landing a company of imported negroes on the coast, in the neighbourhood of Savannah in Georgia. The Africans were all ashore and were on their way into the interior to be sold, when the United States marshal appeared on the scene, and put the slave traders to rout. Thirty-six of the negroes fell into the hands of the marshal, who had to house and board them at his own expense for two weeks, pending instructions from Washington as to how he was to dispose of the unfortunate people. The bill recently passed by Congress was to recoup the marshal for this expense. In the turmoil consequent upon the War, the bill was not presented for payment. Thirty years after the War it at last reached Congress, coming like a ghost from the grave of the dead past to recall to the memory of the American people the fact that the African slave trade was less than forty years ago a form of smuggling on American shores.

NE of the most delightful chapters

in the late Professor Tyndall's "Fragments of Science" is a paper On the Scientific use of the Imagination.' With all that wonderful resource of exquisite and simple illustration which all his writings possess, he shows to what practical results the cultivation of the imagination in a scientific direction may lead. He applies it first to the field of acoustics, and thus brings home the truth of the theory of soundwaves striking through a medium. He passes on to the undulatory theory of light and the existence of a sky medium of tenuity and elasticity for both light and sound. He examines some of its features and shows why the sky overhead is deep blue at noon and crimson or golden at sunset near the horizon. Thus step by step he leads us, obedient to the call of imagination, from point to point in the fairy land of science, through nature's great House Beautiful, showing at each step how reason confirms the conclusion to which a scientific use of the imagination leads.

If science can thus lead imagination captive before her car, why should not religion do the same? What might not the religious use of the imagination yield? For religion, especially Christianity, commands both spheres at once: the sphere of the natural, and the sphere of the spiritual, the world visible and invisible, the appeal to the intellect, and the appeal to the emotions and the heart. And clearly imagination must be, whether we neglect it or not, a supremely important faculty. We cannot despise its influence for good nor neglect its possible effect for evil.

We see

on every hand the harm done to character by its misuse. We know that in child-life especially it is all important. It is, and has been, a most gigantic factor in moulding the history not only of children but of men. Hamilcar, the Carthaginian, made his nine-year-old son, Hannibal, swear at the altar eternal hostility to Rome. That son made even the Mighty Republic totter with his victories. Peter the Hermit preached the great Crusade, and even children in thousands started, like their parents, for the Holy Land, and perished by sea and slavery. Columbus discovers the New World and forthwith the whole policy and thought of the Western European nations is transformed by the power of a new conception. John Bunyan writes in Bedford jail his immortal book, and the realities of spiritual life start forth to millions with a vivid interest unseen ever before. Goethe by that marvellous creation of Mephistopheles, has brought home the Personal Agency which lies behind temptation to multitudes who perhaps are

inclined to deny it at the hands of a Christian teacher.

It is then an all-important question: How can I foster the religious use of the imagination! One first answer to it is: by dismissing the idea that an appeal to the imagination is a dangerous thing and likely to land us in the field of Phantasy. Imagination can be as easily made to subserve the interests of truth as of fiction or fancy. The Bible is a book of actual historic and spiritual fact, and yet it is a book of imagination. An examins tion of its method will at once show that this i true. Literalism destroys its living, personal contact with all human life. Here is a revelation from God Himself to man, prepared through many ages, in the heart of the chosen nation, wrought out by the personal advent of a Divine yet human Saviour, and passed on in all its blessings through Israel to the whole world Throughout the course of this gigantic development it never once fails in its vivid personal interest. That interest is maintained by a succession of appeals to our imagination, and culminates as it draws into closer and closer relation to ourselves.

With

The background is always clear and vivid Whether we crouch among the bulrushes of the Nile with Miriam, or stand before dread Horeb the mount of God with Moses or Elijah, or weep beside the waters of Babylon, or watch the great ships of Tarshish sail forth from Tyre "the ma of nations," or spell out with beating heart th handwriting of doom on Belshazzar's palace wal or follow Jonah as with unwilling feet he slowly marches on through exceeding great Nineveh: even these Gentile scenes start up before our imagination with a clearness which makes them always afterwards dear to the memory. Palestine itself the appeal to imagination is even stronger. For Palestine as a country possesses all that blended beauty and variety of scenery which impresses and captivates the heart. The waters of Israel, the mountains round about Jerusalem, the hill of Zion itself which cannot be removed but standeth fast for ever, the valleys thick with corn, the wide western sea towards the sunsetting, the great and terrible wilderness, the cities set on their hills or themselves encircled with protecting heights, the richly fertile and undulating plains, the villages amidst their vines and pomegranates, rich in olive-oil and honey: such a wonderful grouping of natural features is hardly to be found elsewhere as a background for historic incident. And that incident itself is always marked by the same vivid historic narrative and intense personal