the chain of Satan was broken; we shall admire the unsolicited and undeserved love which sought us out when aliens, strangers, and enemies, and reconciled us through the death of the Son, and shall fall down, with all the company of heaven, before the Lamb which was slain to redeem us by his blood. frivolities of the world, to take part in the strife of tongues, or to join in the eager contest for wealth and distinction, but shall sit at the feet of Jesus, to learn his will, and go forth to do it, in the world, but not of it, even as he was not of it; ever remembering that, if it be true that unsound doctrines lead to a corrupt practice, it is also no less true that a vain and trifling conversation is utterly inconsistent with growth in grace, or that joy and peace in believing which is the high and happy privilege at which every child of God should be aiming. The Cabinet. SPIRITUAL EDIFICATION*.-The edification of believers, the building them upon their most holy faith, is a work, not of noise, neither of observation: it is a gradual, a quiet, and a secret process. Bold ostentation and noisy display and forward profession are incompatible with true religion; which in secret and in solitude "does many things" seen only of its author, God. Mountains indeed are levelled, but they In this way it is that God's Spirit acts on the hearts of God's redeemed and believing people, producing in them the feelings of reverent adoration, of devout love, of filial obedience, and of undoubting confidence. The Holy Spirit, in the discharge of his blessed part in the covenant of mercy, takes of the things of Christ, and reveals them to the adopted children of God; and they, discovering thereby the length, and breadth, and height, and depth of God's love in Christ Jesus, and perceiving that he hath gotten unto himself the victory, and has promised to bruise Satan under their feet shortly, follow with confidence the Captain of their salvation, and triumph with him. They look with calmness on all the dangers by which their path is surrounded, saying with the psalmist, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." When strength and heart fail, God is the strength of their heart, and their por-prepared, and a highway in the desert must be made tion for ever; and so they meekly resign their spirit to God who gave it, "knowing whom they have believed, and persuaded that he is able to keep that which they have committed unto him against that day" (2 Tim. i. 12). Such is the glorious issue of simple undoubting faith in the finished work and present power of Christ; but the difficulty which we all experience, more or less, at one time or another, is that faith itself, the very hand by which we lay hold of all this power and love, is weak and wavering. Our Lord has often reason to rebuke us as he did the disciples in the storm, saying, "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?" Let it be our wisdom, then, to follow the example of the disciples, and pray, "Lord, increase our faith." If this prayer be sincere, we shall at the same time be diligent in the use of all the means which he, knowing our weakness, hath pointed for the support and confirmation of our faith, the study of his holy word, searching in it for those exceeding great and precious promises which it contains, as for hid treasure, and obediently walking in the way which he has pointed out for us, attending upon the public ordinances of religion, and especially on that blessed sacrament, wherein, as at Emmaus, he makes himself known unto his people in the breaking of bread. shall go forth, also, from such holy and hallowing intercourse, not to mingle in the We ap are the mountains of pride: crooked places are made straight, but they are the crooked places of prejudice: rough ways are made smooth, but they are the rough ways of iniquity. Thus must the way of the Lord be ready for our God. And then must the foundation be laid-"Jesus Christ, and him crucified;" that "stone laid in Zion for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation." The atonement made for all mankind upon the cross by his one sacrifice once offered must be set forth as the only available means whereby the justice of an avenging God may be satisfied, a ruined world reinstated in the favour of Jehovah, and an admission into the kingdom of heaven finally bestowed. The necessity of sanctification must be urged, and thus a sound superstructure of true faith and pure practice must be built on the foundation laid; and to this end the directions of St. Jude must be followed: "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life" (Jude 20, 21). Each and every appointed means of grace must in its turn be used. Prayer, private, social, and public, must be made; the sacraments must be duly received; the ministrations of the sanctuary must be faithfully attended; the preached word must be gladly heard; the written word must be devoutly studied; self-examination must be regularly conducted; that, having been "led into the way of truth, the faith may be held in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life." And to these means, devoutly used and steadily persevered in, God has promised his blessing; and "to God and to the word of his grace" all true Christians are "commended." "To God:" to his • From Sermon preached March 30th, 1845, in the parish church of St. Nicholas, Worcester, on the occasion of his resigning the cure of the parish, by the rev. H. F. Stevenson, M.A., rector. Worcester,: Eaton and Co. providence, his protection, and to his care, that in every strait and in every difficulty they may find a refuge and a support. "To the word of his grace:" the gospel of his Son; the foundation of their hope; the fountain of their joy; their rule of faith; their guide of practice. And the Spirit of grace working with it, "leading into all truth," while edification is promoted, and sanctification produced, final salvation-the inheritance of believers-will in due time be bestowed. In one sense, by the word of God's grace it is given; for "life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel ;" and by the word-as by the ordinary vehicle-the Spirit of grace is given, the seal of the promisc, and the earnest of eternal life. The scriptures are, from first to last, a testimony of God's purposes of mercy to man in Jesus Christ, a record of the dealings he has taken with man for its accomplishment, and, as it were, a covenant or deed of gift, whereby are ratified and confirmed the promises of God through Jesus Christ. The scriptures are to be searched; for in them eternal life is revealed; and "they are they which testify of Jesus-the way, the truth, and the life;" and from them, as from a sacred fountain of truth, does our beloved church draw those "rivers of waters, springing up unto everlasting life" by partaking of which, her members, as they pass through the valley of Baca, are strengthened and refreshed. Knowing that "holy scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ whereby man must be saved," in the round of her offices and in the circle of her ministrations, and in the every service of her Christian year, daily is she testifying of Christ. In her prayer-book, her articles, and her homilies, Jesus and the resurrection are most prominently exhibited. Her desire is to bring all into "the one fold, under the one Shepherd;" to admit all her members into the privileges attendant upon being "heirs of Christ;" to lead them from the cradle to the grave; to bring them "in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Poetry. THE CUCKOO. BY THE AUTHOR OF "SONGS FROM THE PARSON AGE." (For the Church of England Magazine.) While thy first notes charm the vale! How their languid hearts would greet thee, And recall the days gone by, When they longed for once to meet thee, That a fairer lot is mine- Here from scent, and sound, and sight, Somewhat that should chase his sorrow, Though 'twere deep as shades of night? Sin! how terrible thy power, That from out thy dark abyss, One eternal tale of love- In fair nature's liberty. But, sweet bird, my spirit wanders Far from what thy voice should wake, Like some streamlet that meanders Gaily to a darksome lake. Wiser is the course thou takest: Loving ever sun-bright things, All that saddens thou forsakest Equally with heart and wings. Thou dost never spend thy powers In a flight to scenes of gloom; But to where all lovely flowers In the loveliest season bloom. I will learn what thou shouldst teach me, Of an endless vernal day. SELF-CONCEIT. (FROM THE GERMAN). A cuckoo with a starling meeting Is neighbour nightingale admired ?" "An answer I must needs refuse, For I heard no one mention thee." "Well," says the cuckoo, "I reveng'd shall be, For of myself I'll speak eternally." J. W. London Published for the Proprietors, by EDWARDS and HUGHES, 12, Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; J. BURNS, 17, Portman Street; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY JOSEPH ROGERSON 24, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND, LONDON. SCOTTISH EPISCOPACY. No. IV. ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL, YORK PLACE, EDINBURGH. On the 27th of April, 1746, after the attempt of prince Charles Edward, the position of the bishops and clergy was one fraught with danger: many of the laymen had fled to foreign parts; but, though their meeting-houses were burned, their congregations dispersed, as well as they themselves liable to seizure any moment, they remained stedfast to their posts. We are told, there was public worship but in very few of the episcopal nonjurant meetings in Edinburgh, next Sunday in none of them, and they are since shut up by order of the sheriffs of Edinburgh" (Scots' Mag., vol. viii., p. 247, 1746). "Any meeting in Scotland, where five persons or more shall be met together over and above the household, shall be deemed an episcopal meeting." Eight had been allowed by 5th George I. If any episcopal minister offi VOL. XVIII. ciate twice, without having taken and subscribed the oaths in such manner as all officers civil and military in Scotland are by law obliged to do, he shall be imprisoned for the first offence, and for the second be transported to some of his majesty's plantations in America for life; and to be imprisoned for life, should he return" (Scots' Mag.). Amongst others who were imprisoned was the rev. John Skinner, for upwards of sixty-four years minister in Longside, in Aberdeenshire, grandfather to the present "Primus." He was committed to the common gaol of the county, being charged with a breach of the act which deprived the episcopal clergy of the right of officiating to more than four persons besides their own families. Mr. Skinner frankly acknowledged that he had officiated to more than the permitted number, and was, consequently, imprisoned for six months, commencing May 26th, 1753. Mr. George Sempell, at Perth, had been previously seized in the performance of divine service, and committed to D D Messrs. John Petrie, at Drumlithie, John Troup, at Muchalls, and Alexander Greig, at Stonehaven, all lay six months in Stonehaven gaol, for officiating to more than four persons at one time. The following curious account of their imprisonment is from Mr. Stephens's History of the Church of Scotland, chap. lxx., A.D. 1748-9, p. 337:"During the period of their confinement, they received every attention from their followers, who contrived to convey plenty o' a' things to them.' Here they managed to perform the ceremony of baptism; and those who called on them frequently joined in divine service. But this being contrary to the jailor's instructions, it, of course, could only be done, as it were, by stealth. These three clergymen were confined in one cell, and were decided Jacobites. Mr. Greig's congregation assembled on the street, beneath the window of their common cell, to whom their pastor read the liturgy over the window; not only on Sundays, but on other days of the week. After divine service on week-day, Mr. Troup entertained the audience on the bagpipes, with the spirit-stirring Jacobite tunes, that more than othercause kept up the national feeling in favour of the just? hereditary line of our national sovereigns." "We have not heard," says Mr. Anderson, "of more than two persons having been baptized by Mr. Greig, and none by Mr. Petrie; but Mr. Troup is supposed to have baptized a considerable number" during their imprisonment; "for the fishermen's wives from Skaterow, were often to be seen trudging along the sea-beach, with their creels (baskets) on their backs, in which were carefully concealed the unconscious bantlings that were to be secretly presented to the baptismal font. After wading, at the water yett' (gate), the conjoined streams of the Carron and Cowie, which could only be done by the reflux of the sea, they had to clamber a considerable distance, among rugged rocks, before reaching the back stair of the Tolbooth, where they had to watch a favourable opportunity of approaching the cell of their pastor. After the child was baptized, the mother, again carefully depositing it in her creel, returned by the same route." It is hardly possible to conceive that this took place within the last century, and that the prisoners were enabled to act in this manner. Are the covenanters alone to bear the palm of persecution? It must be borne in mind that the political position of the nonjurors, as they were termed, was one which many sincere episcopalians were little willing to occupy; who, being loyal and devoted subjects of the reigning family, were totally averse to their principles. Hence arose a somewhat anomalous communion, of persons professing episcopacy without a bishop; worshipping strictly in accordance with the liturgy of the united church of England and Ireland, and having no connexion whatever with the discipline of the episcopal church. So far back, indeed, as 1722, the chapel of St. Paul, in Aberdeen, was erected. In stating that their worship was strictly in accordance with the English liturgy, it may be well to observe, that this was by no means invariably the case with the Scottish episcopalians. Neither was the service for the communion the same. The Scottish was from Laud's servicebook, and has since undergone alterations, to render it more conformable to the views of the majority in the episcopal church. "It is well known," says Mr. Skinner, of Forfar, in his "Annals of Scottish Episcopacy," "that the introduction of the English book of common prayer into Scotland took place at no earlier period than the reign of queen Anne, and that its introduction was acquiesced in from the facility with which the book was procured by the people, whereas the Scottish prayer-book, from the ravages committed on it, and from its having been suppressed by legal authority in 1637, had, in a manner, become extinct." It might have been hoped that the adoption of the liturgy would have satisfied all scruples as to the full tolerance to be granted to the episcopalian body. But still there was this difficulty, which was, in fact, one chief cause of the disabilities under which, as a body, the episcopalians remained. "From the period of its introduction," according to Mr. Skinner," most of the bishops and clergy in Scotland had been in the use of not unfrequent verbal alterations in reading the English service; and for the continuation of such alterations no man could have been a more zealous stickler than was bishop (John) Skinner; he having had not only the example and sanction of his own venerable father in framing his opinion as well as practice, but the examples of the bishops Alexander and Gerard, men for whom he ever entertained the greatest filial reverence." cannot be doubted that a most dangerous licence was here given. It opened the door to the inculcation of heresy, and, what the government was justly afraid of, rebellion. The Anglican liturgy might be used, indeed, wholly; but it was not used solely something was added by the offciating minister, in unison, doubtless, with his own views. And this was one circumstance which caused the episcopalians to be regarded with jealousy; for it was not only the permission, but the recommendation from one invested with authority, which constituted one ground of the pains and penalties to which the Scottish episcopalians were made liable. And as to the extent to which this system was carried on, even so late as A.D. 1810, bishop Gleig, of Brechin, afterwards primus, expressed his strongest and most decided conviction, that nothing had done the church so much injury as the useless alterations made by the clergy in the daily service. He states that one clergyman, called to officiate for another, would be at loss how to act, and that even in the communion service long prayers were introduced unworthy of a place in that solemn service. It Sedition and rebellion may be prayed as well as preached; and, under the present circumstances of our church, it is scarcely possible to conceive the worse than confusion which must necessarily arise, were every man to interpolate the liturgy as he chose. When there is such a discrepancy of I. e. generally. It has been stated in the third paper, that it was used in some instances. opinion as to the externals of our liturgical services, which has led to the most painful results, what would be the case were each officiating minister, not only permitted, but recommended to make alteration? Verily there would be great diversity in saying and singing in churches within this realm; "some following Salisbury use, some Hereford use, some the use of Bangor, some of York, some of Lincoln." We have unbounded cause to be thankful, that now "from henceforth all the whole realm shall have but one use." rev. Archibald Alison and rev. Robert Morehead, removed to the elegant chapel of St. Paul, in York-place. In 1794 the neat, small. gothic chapel of St. George, York-place, was opened; built from a design by Mr. Adam. St. Peter's chapel, in the old town, consists of the two under flats, or floors, of a large house-a family living above. St. Paul's, Carrubbers-close, also in the old town, is a small building, erected in a miserable and depraved locality. St. James's, Broughton-place-a large and very commodious chapel-consists of two houses thrown into one. These three last mentioned are totally devoid of any architectural ornament. Trinity chapel, Dean Bridge-opened for service in 1838-is a remarkably elegant gothic building: being in a fine situation, from which may be viewed a wide range of scenery, it forms a most conspicuous object of attraction. This paved the way to a junction of the two episcopal bodies. Most of the ministers with English or Irish orders, who stood aloof from the Scottish bishops, now willingly with their congregations submitted to their authority, and ultimately bound themselves by the Scottish canons. It would be wrong to affirm that in every the most minute particular there is exact conformity between the united church and the Scottish episcopal; for the Scottish canons especially recognize the Scottish communion office as pre-emi- St. Paul's chapel, York-place (see engraving), nently the office of the church, though individual was built from a design of Archibald Elliot, esq. presbyters may use the English office if they pre- It is in the gothic style, which prevailed in the fer it, and, in the dioceses of Edinburgh and Glas- reign of Henry VI. It consists of a nave, about now, they almost invariably do. It should be 106 feet long by 26 broad and 43 high, with four borne in mind that there is a much wider distinc-octagon towers at the angles, and two side aisles. tion between these two offices, on vitally momentous doctrines, than persons generally are aware of. There is no desire on the part of the writer to enter into controversy upon the subject. The eastern window over the communion table is Clergymen with Scottish orders used not only to be incapable of holding preferment, but even of officiating, in England. This has now undergone some modification with respect to the bishops and THE LAST OF THE SCOTTISH NON-JURING clergy of both the Scottish episcopal and the American church; but still no Scottish ordained clergyman can officiate in England without the express permission of the bishop of the diocese, and that only for two Sundays. CLERGY. IN the foregoing paper on Scottish Episcopacy, reference is made to the trials and persecutions of those of the episcopal clergy in Scotland, who did not qualify, as it was termed, but who, from conscientious motives, could not take the required oaths to the existing government. Of these, the last was the subject of the present memoir. Not daring to officiate in public-not unfrequently administering the sacrament of baptism by some stream in a sequestered glen, and the sacrament of the Lord's supper in some wretched hovel or stable-loft-episcopal chapel-building Donald Mackintosh was descended from the must indeed have been at a low ebb; as may be ancient thanes of Glentilt, and was born at Orgathered from the appeals, so frequently in circu- chilmore, a farm rented by his father, James, lation, for money to erect new places of worship. about three miles from Blair-in-Athole, in 1743. "In 1776," says Mr. John Skinner, in his me- Being weak in his childhood, and incapable of moir of the late primate, bishop John Skinner, severe bodily labour, he was sent to the parochial "even the idea of erecting an ostensible, church-school, where he assiduously learned all that was like place of worship dared not to be cherished by there taught. His time was now almost entirely Scottish episcopalians. Hence was Mr. Skinner occupied in instructing his brothers and sisters, obliged to look out for some retired situation, and other children gratuitously. He at length down a close, or little alley, and there, at his own resolved to try his fortune as a teacher in Edinindividual expense, to erect a large dwelling-burgh. "In what year he went thither I know house; the two upper floors of which, being fitted not," says the author of a short biography, atup as a chapel, were devoted to the accommoda- tached to a small volume of Gaelic proverbs, coltion of his daily increasing flock, and the two lected by him; "but I myself remember him under floors to the residence of his family" (an-(either in 1774 or 1775) as one of Peter Williamnexed to Annals of Scott. Episcopacy, pp. 16, son's penny postmen, with his bell in his hand, 17). Even those qualified were poor places for and uniform cap on his head, on which were divine worship. The three qualified in Edin-painted, in gilt letters, Williamson's Penny burgh being found very inconvenient, the founda- Post,' alternately collecting and delivering letters tion-stone of the Cowgate chapel was laid in 1771, in his useful though humble vocation. But, as and the chapel opened for service in 1774. It is he wrote a pretty legible hand, he got employa commodious building, capable of containing ment occasionally to keep books and transcribe 1,000 persons, now belonging to presbyterian papers, which caused him to lay aside his cap and dissenters, having been purchased when the con- bell, and take up the more honourable calling of a gregation, with their now deceased ministers, the quill-driver." |