and communicate their experience. Another gentleman and I proposed to join them. This our aged father positively forbade, for fear of disturbing them. We, however, walked along the road. The dusky evening was warm and serene; the river murmured along the plain; the shades of the stupendous mountains all around us were becoming more serious. The last tinge of the setting sun was leaving the settled and magnificent clouds. All was still, but the murmurs of the mountain-stream swelling to our ears, when we heard over our heads the waving sounds of sacred song. This was pleasing. We stood and listened, and hoped that the people so engaged at such a time, it was the day before dispensing the sacrament of our Lord's Supper, would cease from their extravagancies, and receive the reward of their sincerity, when, in a twinkling we heard a shriek as if from a thousand throats. The rocks re-echoed; we thought somebody had fallen over the precipice. We shuddered. It was as if a house were falling on its tenants' heads, when the shriek of death is heard. All was suddenly still. We fixed our eyes on the rocks. We saw men, women, and children, running and roaring for life, tumbling heels over head, to the great risk of their necks. We ran and asked the cause. An old man, with great solemnity, told us they had seen HIMSELF and was attacked by HIM.Do you mean the devil? I said. Yes. What like was he? Like a black bull with white horns, but amazingly large. How large? As large as a turf stack, if you put horns upon it-that is, about forty feet long, and from seven to ten broad, and about nine feet high-The upshot is this: Two neighbouring proprietors had each a large black bull, with whitish horns, who used to challenge one another to fight behind the rocks. The one to the west having heard the swelling notes of the music, mistook it for the wonted challenge, forced the intervening den, and, led by the sound, put his head over the top of the shelving rock, ready for action, and emitted that fearful and soul appalling yell or bellow, which indicates his fury for the onset. Finding himself disappointed by the sudden commotion of his supposed antagonist, he growled and fled with precipitation, no less alarmed than those whose lives he endangered. His fright, indeed, had a salutary effect. He never afterwards sallied out in quest of adventures after sunset. height of the rock, the dimness of the light, and the instantaneous alarm, magnified his size into that of the turf stack. When we The related the dangerous adventure, the worthy father observed-The bull is better than a dozen of preachings." "Whatever might be done from love was no sin. Accordingly, a young woman complained to my session, that a certain married man in a neighbouring parish, with whom she was serving, had convinced her of this; that she was with child by him; that he denied it, and told her it could not be, for that he could do no sin. How this case was determined I know not, as I soon after left the parish. I believe it may be unfinished yet. The woman applied to me, I remember since, about eleven years ago, and I gave her an advice how to do; only I heard that the man gave up preaching. The creed is, that every one who knows, or thinks he knows, the gospel, may be a gospel preacher. So thought this man. Any man may err. Another preacher from the same country lodged with a poor widow in my present parish, and seduced her, and go her with child. He owned it, however, and confessed his sins, and gave up his preachings. I mention these facts principally to shew the danger of the doctrine, that any one who thinks so may take upon him the office of a public teacher-a thing condemned, and often punished, in every stage of revelation. "But my object is historical. Another man applied to me for leave to marry his niece, his wife's sister's daughter. I would not stain my paper with the various instances of fornication, adultery, and, I might say, incest, that came to my knowledge, as re sulting from the unguarded or erroneous tenets of the sect " It is not possible to read such statements as these without the most melancholy reflections. One is almost tempted to say, better that men should not trouble themselves about religion at all, than thus to become a prey to miserable folly or imposture. We trust that the picture drawn by Dr Irvine may be somewhat overcharged-but that ignorant, vile, lowminded, sordid, and even licentious men have, in great numbers, overrun various parts of the Highlands in the character of missionaries and preachers of various sects, or of none, is an evil beyond doubt and beyond calculation. What pity it is, that the quiet, peaceful, sedate, and affectionate Highlanders should thus be converted into feverish and frantic fanatics—and that the silence of so many mountain solitudes should resound to the shrieks, and cries, and groans of a superstition at once ludicrous and terrible. Except by the erection of new parishes, and other plans of improvement connected with the national Established Church, we cannot see how such evils can be remedied. In July 1st 1818, John Brown, minister of the gospel, Whitburn, made a tour through part of the Highlands of Perthshire, and in a short account of it, which he published, ho declares his belief that Dr Irvine must be either malicious or ill informed. We understand Mr Brown to be a worthy old man, but cannot say that he gives us much, or indeed any information respecting the state of religion in the districts through which, in a twelve days' tour, he journeyed. There is much simplicity in the opening of the good old Whitburn minister's letter to his friend. "MY DEAR FRIEND,-You are sufficiently aware, that for a long course of years the religious and moral state of our Highland countrymen has been with me a subject of deep and painful interest. Living, as I do, in the vicinity of the principal road by which the live-stock produced in the north of Scotiand is conveyed to the English markets, I had many opportunities of conversing with the Highlanders employed in driving the cattle; and from my peculiar habits, my inquiries were chiefly directed to the discovery of the degree in which they possessed the means of religious improvement. The melancholy result of this kind of investigation was, a persuasion that ignorance and immorality were prevalent in a very great degree in many of the Highland districts; and an anxiety to ascertain, if possible, more exactly the dimensions of an evil obviously great, and to inquire into the most probable means of removing it." Accordingly, Mr John Brown set off on his nag with a friend, and entered the Highlands by Callander, where it would seem that every thing is going on well—he then took a peep at Loch Katrine-being, we are happy to inform our friend, Mr Scott, a great admirer of his poetry; and having left behind him some English and Gaelic tracts, proceeded to Lochearnhead, where, if we understand him rightly, he prayed with the landlord's family. He then went on to Killin, where all is likewise as it should be. Seven miles from Killin is Ardeonaig, where there is an excellent minister, Mr Findlater. No mention is made of Kenmore. At Aberfeldy he preached in the chapel of Mr Kennedy, the independent minister, and left tracts. On Monday he visited Glenlyon, of which he says, "It is now the secure habitation of peace, and in many instances, of holiness. most remarkable revival of religion took place here about two years ago. In consequence of the modesty and prudence of the ministers, who were, under God, the instruments of it, little has been said about it in the periodical religious publications. A But every thing about it wore the impress of divine influence, and its consequences have been of the most satisfactory kind. As one of them, it may be mentioned, that ago would, with difficulty, drawn together a dozen or two, will now collect the inhabitants by hundreds." an intimation of sermon, which a few years Here he preached with great effect. "Gravity and attention sat on every countenance. The affectionate devotion which distinguished the younger part of the assembly, was peculiarly interesting. It put me in mind of a description, by the Rev. Ralph Erskine, of scenes not uncommon, about the commencement of the Secession, which I had been lately reading. All the outward appearances,' says he, of people's being affected among us in time of preaching, may be reduced to two sorts: one is hearing with a close silent attention, with gravity and greediness, discovered by fixed looks, weeping eyes, joyful or sorrowful like countenances, evidencing tenderness in hearing; another sort, where the word is so affecting to the congregation, as to make them lift up their voices and weep aloud; some more depressed, and others more light; and at times the whole multitude in a flood of tears, till their voices be ready to drown out the minister's so as he can scarcely be heard for the weep. ing noise which surrounds him." The first part of this description was exactly realized in the audience I addressed, especially when Mr Kennedy repeated in Gaelic what had been said, with such seriousness and ardour. The second part, I learned, as exactly described what had taken place under the sermons preached by Messrs M'Donald and Kennedy at the commencement of the religious concern.' Next day he preached at Fortingall, and in the evening at Killin; he then returned by Comrie, where "he refreshed himself in the house of the Rev. Mr Gilfillan, author of the Sanctification of the Sabbath," and so his mission ends. For any good or ill that he did, he might just as well have remained at Whitburn-but the weather seems, on the whole, to have been good-his reception every where was most hospitable-the exercise must have been healthful-the mountain air is bracing-so likewise is the mountain dew and sincerely do we hope that ten years may have been added to his life by this little excursion. But why should he, who saw nothing, heard nothing during his preaching tour in the Highlands, but the yawning mouths of a few sleepy Celts, pre We shall give an account soon of this religious concern, not unlike, in some of its features, to the Wark of Cambuslang.--Reviewer. VOL. V. T tend to contradict the statements of Dr Irvine, who has lived almost all his life among the people he describes? His time, during the forenoons, must have been occupied with looking over the notes of his sermon, which in the evening he discharged upon the Highlanders, so that he could not possibly have his wits about him; and we do not doubt that he must have been wholly unobservant even of many particulars passing more immediately under his very nose. In the autumn of the same year, John Brown, Minister of the Associate Congregation, Biggar, made also a preaching excursion into the Highlands, and has published some well written notes of it. We say well written, because the style is easy and even elegant; and we believe Mr Brown to be a man of considerable talents; but somehow or other his notes are far from being satisfactory. All that Mr Brown did, was to perform part of what is called the short tour of the Highlands, and preach; which, it appears, he did twelve times. The people seemed, in general, not unwilling to hear him; and we dare say he gave them very passable sermons. But we cannot help thinking that he attaches rather too much importance to his labours, and speaks in rather too solemn a tone of the difficulties he overcame; which, after all, were limited to a smoky room, a hard bed, and a tumbler of whisky toddy. His mission too, as he calls it, was exceedingly ill-timed, being during the middle of harvest, when the honest Highlanders had something else to do than to sit in hay lofts listening to sermons. Mr Brown travelled, in general, over good roads, and through a cultivated country. But, to have seen the Highland character-to have known what really was the religious knowledge or feelings of the inhabitants, he should have visited their huts, and conversed familiarly with them; this, in our humble opinion, would have been a better way of serving them, than by preaching to a few yawning scores of weary labourers; because, by so doing, he might have found out what were their real wants. As it was, he seems to have returned from the Highlands just as ignorant of the state of religion there, as he was before he set out on his mission; and in all his tour, pleasantly written as it is, there is scarcely one fact worth notice. He thus sums up, it must be owned with sufficient candour, all the absurdities attending his mission. livered twelve discourses, to audiences more "During my Highland excursion, I deor less numerous, and dispersed not less than a thousand tracts and catechisms, in English and Gaelic. In consequence of my mission taking place while the people were busy at their harvest, I could preach only in the evenings on week days; for though the weather was frequently so wet as to prevent from labouring in the fields, it was imposthe people for hours, and nearly whole days, sible to count on this.-The badness of the weather made it necessary to assemble within doors, which prevented the audiences from being so large as otherwise they would have been. Being a stranger in the country, I could not fix on the proper places for preaching, till on the spot, and of course the people had but a few hours' warning, so that in many cases, I found that multitudes who would eagerly have been hearers, were not aware of the time and place of worship till too late. "Should another mission be sent into the north, it would be desirable that, according to the primitive and divine plan, there should be a pair of missionaries. The sending out the disciples "two and two," was a wise and merciful arrangement. In a strange country, even slight discouragements are felt depressing, and trivial diffiEvents produce a feeling of despondency, culties perplexing, by a solitary individual. which, had he a companion, would only excite to exertion. The season ought to be considerably earlier, both for the purpose of obtaining more time, with less interruption for missionary labour, and of securing freedom from those little inconveniences which render lodging in the Highland cabins uncomfortable to us effeminate Lowlanders. temporary abode during the summer seaA Highland hut is an agreeable enough son. It is the cold, and the damp, and the smoke, during an autumnal or winter evening, that render it formidable. What is not of less importance, previous arrangements ought to be made, so as that it may be known a week or two beforehand, where the missionaries are to be, that all who wish, may have an opportunity to hear. In culty. If my journey has served no other making these, there would be now no diffi. purpose, it has served this-of facilitating the labours of those who may follow me. I shall be content with the praise of an honest and laborious pioneer, and heartily rejoice in the more splendid exertions of the succeeding host. Why, really, Mr John Brown, Minister of the Associate Congregation, Biggar, you speak as if you had returned from the interior of Africa. This said mission on which you were sent, was a mighty simple concern. You could not have lost many pounds of beef in the course of one fortnight, surely; and we hope that you were accustomed to riding, else the "galled jade" must have "winced." But what have you or your honest old father done towards the christianizing of Albin? We cannot help wondering at the extreme self-complacency of these two missionaries forsooth. They seem confidently to believe that their sermons, every word of which is now forgotten, will produce a new era in the religious history of the Highlanders. The Celts, though as we have seen too liable to superstition, are not quite so impressible. Some of them might doubtless understand a word now and then of what their Lowland friends were twanging in their ears; but the major part of these meetings must in general have been rather spectators than auditors. At all events, it must, with most of them, have been in at one ear, out of another. If the people to whom the Messrs Browns preached were intelligent christians, they could not, perhaps, be greatly the worse of listening to their sermons; but if not, we conceive that poor blind ignorant creatures might be very greatly the worse indeed of having put into their heads dim and vague glim merings of doctrines, which could only perplex and confound all their former belief. We feel no disposition to say any thing severe of conscientious, good-hearted men; but we do not scruple to confess, that neither of these ministers have got the knack of mak ing themselves very intelligible on matters of religion. We should like vastly to see printed, one of the sermons which either of them preached during their mission, and then we could all judge how far it was likely to benefit the world. But we have done. It is all very natural for good people to be enthusiastic in a good cause-and this natural enthusiasm has made both, in this case, only somewhat mistaken in their estimation of their own importance in the eyes of the world. THE COVENANTER'S HEATHER-BED. [This poem was suggested by seeing the picture representing the Temptation of St Antony, by Teniers. It exemplifies the different aspect which the same subject and situation would assume when clothed in the images supplied by Scottish puritanism.] I. A stormy night, and dark, had closed a gloomy day, And couched upon the heath, a Covenanter lay; His feet were tired, and damp with the clays of many a hill, And in his sleeping ear the wind was roaring still; When the powers of darkness thronged, with persevering spite, II. And first a black one came, and said, with scornful eye, III. "You boldly walk by day, while sunshine warms the ground; Who can speak of former deeds, and recall them to your mind." IV. And then, straightway, the fiend for another fiend made room, V. "When with her you would sit, one plaid encircled both, VI. you take, The one who next appeared, a tattered Bible bore, VII. The next who came to taunt, a piece of money shewed, VIII. Tormented thus, and stung by many a bitter word, "The last," he cries, "is false," and starts and grasps his sword, Around on every side, his furious strokes he plies, Among their flitting shapes, among their glaring eyes: THE FIVE OAKS OF DALLWITZ-FROM THE GERMAN OF KÖRNER. "Tis evening-in the silent west The rosy hues of day-light fade, Beneath your venerable shade! The brave hath died-the good hath sunk But ye have stood !--still bold and high, And fresh, and strong, and undecayed; When hath the pilgrim wandered by, Nor rested in your quiet shade? Ye mourn not when the sere leaves fall, Emblems of ancient Saxon faith! Our fathers, in our country's cause, Died for her freedom and her laws! |