commissioners of the Church wrote to the heritors of destitute districts generally, stirring them up to contribute. They were often successful, and had the pleasing duty afterwards of conveying to them the public thanks of the Church for their services. In 1708, we read of various new erections in Shetland-no doubt the fruit of the commissions which were repeatedly sent to that inaccessible and inhospitable country. Soon after, the Presbyteries of the Church are called upon to collect money for building and repairing manses in Shetland. In the course of the same year, it is ordered that every minister of the Church contribute to a fund, called the centesima fund, to send a mission to the north against Popery. Four hundred merks were shortly raised in this way, two hundred of which were applied to the support of a probationer in Glenlivat. Lord Strathaven applies for a probationer for the north, and his request is complied with. This appears to have been as chaplain to a regiment. The parishioners of a southern parish (Morham) pray the Assembly to allow Mr. Kirk, a probationer, to be settled as their minister; but such is the Church's desire that the north be supplied, that he is required first to go and itinerate in Ross and Sutherland, on condition that, if not called by the people of any parish in these counties in six months, he may return to Morham.

And while such exertions were used in sending and maintaining ministers and preachers, who spoke English, to destitute districts of Scotland, the Church did not fail to make special efforts to provide instructers in the Gaelic language. In 1694, the Assembly enjoins that all the laws relating to bursars, which had been long in operation, and some of which affected Gaelic students, should continue, and that no minister having the Gaelic language should be settled in a Lowland parish. Various efforts are made to raise up Gaelic preachers. Ministers and probationers, who do not possess a facility in speaking the language, are to use means to acquire it. In 1701, Synods are strongly recommended to educate bursars having the Gaelic language, and to maintain them as students of divinity, in addition to the bursars who were supported by Presbyteries. It is proposed that these Synod Gaelic bursars shall be eight in number, shall receive £10 a-year, and be maintained for four years. Four years after, it would seem that the Lowlands were so well supplied with ministers, that it is arranged one-half of the bur

saries of Lowland Presbyteries shall henceforward be devoted to students of divinity speaking Gaelic. In 1708, the Assembly ordains that no Gaelic preacher shall accept of a situation in the south, unless he has itinerated for a year in the Highlands, and had no call from the people. Should he afterwards receive a call, he is required to return. Probationers seem in some cases to have been averse to labour in the Highlands, and, in excuse, to have alleged, that they had lost their knowledge of the language. Where this is pleaded, Presbyteries are to examine into the case, and see that they regain it. If any having Gaelic are inadvertently settled in the Lowlands, the settlement is to be broken up, and they are to be translated to the north. The better to encourage the Gaelic bursars the money is to be punctually paid them. At the same time, while the Church is so anxious for young men, she is not indifferent to suitable qualifications. In 1714, acts are passed to discourage unworthy bursars, and to see that strict attention is paid, in the appointments, to piety, and literature, and probable usefulness. It may be noticed, that a few years before a Gaelic minister was appointed to take charge of the Gaelic population in Edinburgh, an important step, which led, I believe, to the Gaelic church in that city. So great was the zeal of the Assembly for the spiritual welfare of the Highland population, that she followed them even when they left their own native districts.

Adverting to the subject of education, the diligence of the Church in this cause was scarcely inferior to her zeal in the department of church extension. Doubtless it was through her influence that an act passed the Scottish Parliament in 1690, devoting the vacant stipends of the Synod of Argyle to educational purposes, to the training of young men at school and college, who might afterwards be schoolmasters. This resource proving inadequate, a few years after King William made over the rents of the bishoprick of the county to the object. At the same time, he appointed £150 of the bishoprick of Dumblane to be applied to the building of schools and schoolmasters' houses, and the better support of the schoolmasters in the Highland parts of Perth, Stirling, and Dumbarton. At the end of the century, the General Assembly strongly recommends to Presbyteries to use their endeavours to have parochial schools in the Lowlands, wherever they have not yet been planted. Next year, rules are passed indicating great care for the character and quali

fications of schoolmasters. Those who have been at college are to be preferred to those who have not. A few years after (1704), a collection is appointed for establishing parochial schools in all the destitute districts of the Highlands; and in the existing schools, the children of poor parents who give promise of being afterwards useful, are not only to be taught the usual branches of knowledge, but the Latin language in addition. On the application of some private gentlemen in Edinburgh, who seem to have associated together for prayer and the reformation of public manners, the General Assembly took steps to ascertain the educational wants of the Highlands and Islands, and to excite interest and spread information on the subject. This resulted, in 1709, in the establishment of the "Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge," a society which still exists in a flourishing condition. Some efforts had been made by the friends of religion to plant schools a few years before, but unsuccessfully. Now, however, that the cause is taken up by the Church, above £1000 are speedily collected-no small sum in Scotland at that day: a royal proclamation is issued by Queen Anne in favour of the scheme, and the association is incorporated by charter, embracing many of the most influential names in Scotland in its membership-leading nobles, country gentlemen, judges, merchants, &c. The constitution and rules of the society were exceedingly enlightened and wise: religious instruction was made supreme. At the same time provision was made for a superior class of teachers, and a superior style of intellectual instruction. It was part of the plan to have catechists and missionaries, as well as schoolmasters, in remote and destitute districts, so that the school frequently became a mission station. In this way, church extension and school extension were blended together. It may be interesting to record, that the first of the Society's schools was planted in 1711, in the desolate Island of St. Kilda; and a salary was appointed of three hundred merks, or £16 13s. 4d. By this time the capital amounted to £3700. Eleven itinerating schools were set up in the most Popish districts of the Highlands at the same time, and all the materials provided for a full scriptural education. In 1715, the schools had risen to twenty-five, and the capital had increased to £6177. It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader, that at the same period the claims of education were carefully attended to in the Lowlands. We read in the ecclesiastical records of the parish of Govan, that in 1714, a

collection was made for the schoolmaster from door to door, and next year it appears that not less than three schools were maintained by the same parish.

I might refer to various other proofs of the Christian spirit and power of the Church of Scotland, during the period which we are surveying-such as her zeal against Poperyher kindness to distressed individuals, both at home and abroad-her sympathy with suffering Protestant Churches, her attention to the wants of the poor-her encouragement of literature and learning; but I would be merely repeating what we found to be characteristic of her history at earlier periods. Indeed, it is one of the beautiful indications of the Church of Scotland, as a spiritual Church, that she is no sooner freed from external oppression, but all the symptoms of true religion, the love of truth, a quickened conscience, an improved intellect, and renovated social affections, become apparent in a thousand forms. I may merely mention, before proceeding to the practical results of the operation of the Church, that her love for the higher species of knowledge embraced at universities, is proclaimed in the interesting facts which, by a careful investigation, I have made out from the recent Parliamentary Report on the Scottish Universities, viz.,—that in the twenty-eight years of Episcopal persecution, there was an addition of but four chairs in the University of Edinburgh; whereas, in the twenty-eight years of the Presbyterian period following the Revolution, there was an addition of not less than twelve new professorships in the same University. It appears also, that during the same periods, there were but ten bursaries founded in the University of Glasgow the first era-seven of them by the same person; while in the corresponding Presbyterian period, there were not less than twenty-four, and these chiefly by separate individuals. Surely these facts indicate a superior taste for knowledge, and anxious endeavours to diffuse it. With regard, again, to the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts, it was in 1690 and 1700 that the Church of Scotland sent forth six ordained ministers, and three probationers, to the Caledonian Colony at Darien, with the view not only of instructing the Scotch colonists, but of carrying the Word of Life to the heathen. And though the colony in a short time proved a complete failure, yet the spirit of the Church was not on that account less admirable or worthy of praise. The letters which were written, the prayers which were offered, the fast-day which was appoint

ed in connection with the disasters of the colony, all proclaim the piety and zeal with which the Church entered into the undertaking. And it need scarcely be added, that the disposition to communicate to others is, in general, a just index of the estimation in which what is given is held by ourselves. To send the Gospel to the heathen, is a good proof that it is understood and valued at home.

And now let us turn to the practical fruit of that operation of Christian means which we have been describing. How did the Presbyterian Church affect the country in its religious, and moral, and social interests? It wrought in the most beneficial manner. Many testimonies to this effect can be appealed to. I do not refer to the outward improvements which appeared in the building of bridges, and the enlargement of harbours, and the constructing of roads. The country was indebted for not a few of these to the Church. There was, in these days, no public fund save her collections, and so she might be said to be, in this respect, the great civilizer of the nation. But I refer to higher and better things? The Church greatly improved the character, and through it the condition, of the people. Previous to 1700 there were but three parishes under a legal assessment for the support of the poor; and in forty years after, there were but eight parishes in that predicament. When it is considered how great was the poverty and wretchedness described by Fletcher of Salton in 1698, and how glad the Government would have been to find a refuge for the suffering in a poor's-rate, the small number of parishes is almost incredible, and shows how the mind of the people generally must have been raised, in the meantime, by the power of Christian principle, so as to render poor-laws unnecessary. How marvellous, too, that this should happen in so poor a country as Scotland. But the fact rather leads one to infer how high must have been the moral standard of the people, than actually to describe it. We can turn, however, to eyewitnesses of their character for an account of its leading features. Matthew Henry, speaking of his friend Dr. Benyon, who sojourned in Glasgow in 1703, says, "He observed, to his great satisfaction, that all the while he was in Glasgow, though he lay in a public town, he never saw any. drunk, nor heard any swear-nay, he observed, that in all the inns of the road to that part of Scotland where he laythough some of them mean-they had family worship performed morning and evening; from which, and other re