1821. Traditional Literature. of a band of daily brawlers and paid but he will be sweeter than the ho- not with the array of horsemen and Another old man with a bonnet and plaid, and bearing a staff to reinforce his lack of argument, answered the enemy of patronage, "Who wishes for the choice of the foolish many, in preference to the election of the one-wise? The choice of our pastor will be as foolishness for our hearts and a stumbling-block to our feet. When did ignorance lift up its voice as a judge, and the sick heart become its own physician? We are as men who know nothing-each expounding scripture as seemeth wise in vain eyes; and yet shall we go to say this man, and no other, hath the wisdom to teach and instruct us?" "Well spoken and wisely, laird of a plowman Birkenloan," shouted from the summit of the old abbey; "more by token, our nearest neighbours, in their love for the lad who could preach a sappy spiritual sermon, elected to the ministry a sworn and ordained bender of the bicker, whose pulpit, instead of the odour of sanctity, sends forth the odour of smuggled gin."-A loud burst of laughter from the multitude acknowledged the truth of the plowman's sarcasm; while Jock Gillock, one of the most noted smugglers of the coast of Solway, shook his hand in defiance at the rustic advocate of patronage, and said, "If I don't make ye the best thrashed Robson ever stept in black leather shoon, may I be foundered in half a fathom of fresh water." "And if ye fail to know the smell of a plowman's hand from this day forthwith, compared to that of all meaner men's," cried the undaunted agriculturist, "I shall give ye leave to chop me into ballast for your smuggling cutter:" and he descended to the ground with the agility of a cat, while the mariner hastened to encounter him; and all the impetuous and intractable spirits on both sides followed to witness the battle. "So now," said an old peasant, "doth not the wicked slacken their array? Doth not the demon of secession, who hath so long laid waste our kirk, draw off his forces of his own free will? Let us fight the fight of righteousness, while the workers of wickedness fight their own battles. Let us open the kirk portals, blocked up and barricadoed by the Shimeis of the land." Several times the young preacher attempted to address the crowd, who had conceived a sudden affection for him since the salutary dismissal of the dragoons-but his flock were far too clamorous, impatient, and elated, to heed what he had to say. They were unaccustomed to be addressed, save from the pulpit; and the wisest speech from a minister without the imposing accompaniments of pulpit and pews, and ranks of douce unbonnetted listeners, is sure to fail in making a forcible impression. It was wise, perhaps, in the minister to follow the counsel of grave John Halberson, and let the multitude work their own way. They lifted him from the ground; and, borne along by a crowd of old and young, he approached the kirk the obstacles which impeded the way vanished before the activity of a thousand willing hands. The kirk-door, fastened with iron spikes by a band of smugglers on the preceding evening, was next assailed, and burst against the wall with a clang that made the old ruin ring again, and in rushed a multitude of heads, filling every seat, as water fills a vessel, from one end of the building to the other. The preacher was borne aloft by this living tide to the door of the pulpit; while the divine, to whom was deputed the honour of ordaining and placing him in his ministry, was welcomed by a free passage, though he had to listen to many admonitions as he passed. "O admonish him to preach in the ancient spirit of the reformed kirk-in a spirit that was wonderful to hear and awful to understand," said one old man, shaking a head of grey hair as he spoke. "And O," said another peasant as the divine turned his head, unwilling thus to be schooled in his calling "targe him tightly anent chambering and wantonness, the glory of youth and the pride of life: for the follies of the land multiply exceedingly." From him the divine turned away in displeasure; but received in the other ear the cross-fire of an old woman, whose nose and chin could have held a hazel nut, and almost cracked it between their extremities; and whose upper lip was garnished with a beard, matching in length and strength the whiskers of a cat. "And O, Sir, he's in a state of singleinnocence and sore temptation even now--warn him, I beseech thee; warn him of the pit into which that singular and pious man fell in the hour of evil-even him whom the scoffers call sleepy Samuel. Bid him beware of painted flesh and languishing eyes -of which there be enough in this wicked parish. Tell him to beware of one whose love-locks and whose lures will soon pluck him down from his high calling, even the fair daughter of the old dour trunk of the tree of papistry, bonnie Bess Glendinning.” Here her words were drowned in the more audible counsel of another of the burning and shining lights of the parish, from whose lips escaped, in a tone resembling a voice from a cavern, the alarming words, "Socinians, Arminians, Dioclesians, Erastians, Arians, and Episcopalians.”— "Episcopalians!" ejaculated an old woman in dismay and astonishment, who mistook, perhaps, this curtailed catalogue of schismatics for some tremendous anathema or exorcism"Episcopalians! God protect me, what's that?" I have no wish to attempt to describe the effects which a very happy, pithy, and fervent inauguration sermon had on the multitude. The topics of election, redemption, predestination, and the duties which he called his brother to perform, with a judicious mind, a christian feeling, and an ardent but temperate spirit, were handled, perilous as the topics were, with singular tact, and discrimination, and delicacy. The happy mixture of active morality and spiritual belief, of work-day-world practice, and elegant theory, which this address contained, deserves a lasting remembrance. The summary of the preacher's duties, and the description of the impetuous and mistempered spirits of the parish, and the contradictory creeds which he had to soothe and to solder, form still a traditionary treasure to the parish. To minds young and giddy as mine, these healthy and solacing things were not so attractive as the follies and outrages of a disappointed crowd; and let not an old man, without reflecting that he too was once eighteen, condemn me for forsaking the presence and precepts of the preacher, for the less spiritual and less moral, but no less instructive drama which was acting in the open air. of tongues and opinions in which the district gauger figured, a midnight importation of choice Geneva, the rapid consumption of which was hastened by the burning spark of controversy which raged unquenchably in their throats. Many retired sullenly homeward, lamenting that a concourse of men of hostile opinions could collect, controvert, and quarrel, and then coolly separate without blows and bloodshed, cursing the monotony of human existence now, compared with the stirring times of border forays and covenant-raids. A moiety nearly of the seceding crowd remained in clumps on the village-green. They were men chiefly of that glowing zeal, to whom mere charity and the silent operations of religious feeling seem cold and unfruitful; those pure and fortunate beings who find nothing praise-worthy, or meriting the hope of salvation, in the actions of mere men; who discover new interpretations of scripture, and rend anew the party-coloured and patched garments of sect and schism every time they meet, when the liquor is abundant. Their hope of the complete reform in the discipline of the parish kirk, or the creation of a new meeting-house to enjoy the eloquence of a preacher, the choice of their own wisdom, seemed now nearly blasted; and they uttered their discontent at the result, while they praised the dexterity or cunning with which they opposed the ordination of that protege of patronage, Joel Kirkpatrick. "The kirk session may buy a new bell-rope," said a Cameronian weaver, "for I cut away the tow from their tinkling brass yestreen; more by token, it now tethers my hummel cow on the unmowed side of John Allan's park-he had no business to set himself up a The dragoons were still on their saddles, but had retired to the extremity of the village, where they emptied bottles of ale, and sung English ballads, with a gaiety and a life which obtained the notice of sundry of the young maidens; who are observed to feel a regard for scarlet and lace, which I leave to those who love not their pleasant company to explain. As they began to gather round, not unobserved of the sons of Mars, some of the village matrons proceeded to remonstrate. "Wherefore gaze ye on the men with whiskers, pruned and landered, and with coats of scarlet, and with lace laid on the skirts thereof," said one old woman, pulling at the same time her reluctant niece by the hand, while her eyes, notwithstanding her retrograde motion, were fixed on a brawny trooper. "And, Deborah," said a mother to her daughter, whose white hand and whiter neck, shaded with tresses of glossy auburn, the hands of another trooper had invaded, "what wouldst thou do with him who wears the helmet of brass upon his headhe is an able-bodied man, but a great covenant-breaker, and he putteth trust in the spear and in the sword." The maiden struggled with that earnestness with which a virgin of eighteen strives to escape from the kind-gainst the will of the parish and the ness of a handsome man; and kiss succeeding kiss told what penalty she incurred in delaying to follow her mother. Of the dissenting portion of the multitude, some disposed of themselves in the readiest ale-houses; where the themes of patronage, freewill, and predestination, emptied many barrels; and the clouds of mystery and doubt darkened down with the progress of the tankard. Others, of a more flexible system of morality, went to arrange, far from the tumult word of God." Gilbert Glass, the village glazier, found a topic of worldly consolation amid the spiritual misfortunes of the day: "The kirk windows will cost them a fine penny to repair; some one, whom I'll not name, left not a single pane whole and each pane will cost the heri→ tors a silver sixpence-that's work my way. It is an evil wind, Saunders Bazeley, that blows nobody good; a profitable proverb to you." "All that I know of the proverb," replied Saunders the slater, "is that it will be the sweet licking of a creamy finger to thee-but alake! what will I get out of the pain of riding stride-legs over the clouted roof of the old kirk, patching a few broken slates? I have heard of many a wind blowing for one's good, but I never heard of a wind that uncovered a kirk yet." To all this, answered Micah Meen, a sectarian mason; "Plague on't! I wish there were not a slate on its roof, or one stone of its wall above another. This old kirk, built out of the spare stones of the old abbey, is but a bastard-bairn of the old lady of Rome, and deserves no good to come on't. Look ye to the upshot of my words. Seventeen year have I been kirkmason, and am still as poor as one of its mice. But bide ye, let us lay our heads together, and build a brent new meeting-house. I will build the walls, and no be too hard about the siller, if I have the letting of the seats. And we will have a preacher to our own liking, one who shall not preach a word save sound doctrine, else let me never bed a stone in mortar more." "Eh man, but ye speak soundly," said Charlie Goudge, the village carpenter, "in all, save the article of kirkseats, which being of timber, pertain more to my calling. Whomsomever, I would put a roof of red Norway fir over your heads, and erect ye such seats as no man sits in who lends his ears to a read sermon." "And as for we two," said the slater and the glazier, clubbing their callings together, for the sake of making a more serious impression, "we would counsel ye to cover your kirk with blue Lancashire slate, instead of that spungy stone from Locherbrighill, which besides, coming from a hill of witch and devil-trysting, is fit for nought, save laying above a dead man's dwelling, who never complains of a bad roof; and farther, put none of your dull green glass in the windows, but clear pure glass, through which a half-blind body might see to expound the word." "And I would counsel ye to begin a subscription incontinent," said the keeper of a neighbouring ale-house; "and if ye will come into my home, we can commence the business with moistened throats; and," continued mine host in an under tone, "I can kittle up your spirits with some rare Geneva from the bosom of my sloop the Bonnie Nelly Lawson there, where she lies cozie among Cairnhowrie birks, and the guager never the wiser." A flood of sectarians inundated the parlour of the Thistle and Hand-Hammer, and a noise, rivalling the descent of a Galloway stream down one of its wildest glens, issued ringing far and wide from the change-house. "Subscribe!" said Gilpin Johnstone, a farmer of Annandale descent, "I would not give seven placks, and these are but small coins, for the fairest kirk that ever bore a roof above the walls. There's the goodman of Hoshenfoot, a full farmer, who hopes to be saved in his own way, he may subscribe. No but that I am willing to come and listen if the pewrates be moderate." "Me subscribe," said he of the Hoshenfoot, buttoning his pockets as he spoke, to fortify his resolution," where in the wide world, think ye, have I got gold to build into kirk-walls. Besides, I have been a follower of that ancient poetical mode of worship, preaching on the mountain side; and if ye will give me a day or two's reaping in the throng of harvest, I will fend ye the green hill of Knockhoolie to preach an hour's sound doctrine on any time; save, I should have said, when the peas are in the pod; and then deil have me if I would trust a hungry congregation near them." Similar evasions came from the lips of several more of the wealthy seceders; and one by one, they dissented and dispersed: not without a severe contest with the landlord, whether they were responsible for all the liquor they had consumed, seeing it was for the spiritual welfare of the parish. If the entry of the minister into his ministry was stormy and troubled, ample reparation was made by the mass of the parishioners, who, after the ordination, escorted him home to the Manse, giving frequent testimony of that sedate joy and tranquil satisfaction which the people of Scotland are remarkable for expressing. "Reverend Sir, you have had but a cold and a wintry welcome to your ministry," said an old and substantial dame," and if ye will oblige me by accepting of such a hansel, I shall send ye what will make a gallant house-heating." "And ye mauna have all the joy of giving gifts to yourself, goodwife," said an old man with a broad bonnet, and stooping over a staff," for I shall send our ain Joel Kirkpatrick such a present as no minister o' Bleeding-Heart ever received since Mirk-Monday, and all too little to atone for the din that my old and graceless tongue raised against God's gifted servant this blessed morning." "And talking of atonements," interrupted an old woman, whose hands were yet unwashen from the dust which she had thrown on the minister in the morning, "I have an atoning offering to make for having wickedly testified against a minister of God's kirk this morning. I shall send him a stone weight of ewe-milk cheese to-morrow.' But no one of the multitude seemed more delighted, or stood higher in general favour, than John Halberson, the wise and venerable man who had given the first check to the fiery spirit that blazed so fiercely in the morning. He walked by the minister's side, his head uncovered, and his remaining white hairs glittering in the descending sun. His words were not many; but they were laid up in the heart, and practised in the future life of the excellent person to whom they were addressed. "Young man and reverend, thy lot is cast in a stormy season, and in a stony land. There be days for sowing, and days for reaping, and days for gathering into the garner. Thou hast a mind gifted with natural wisdom, and stored with written knowledge; a tongue fluent and sweet in utterance, and thou hast drunk of the word at the well head. Trust not thy gifts alone for working deliverance among the people. Thou must know each man and woman by face and by name: pass into their abodes, acquaint thyself with their feelings and their failings, and move them, and win them, to the paths of holiness, as a young man woos his bride. Thou must dandle their young ones on thy knees, for thy MASTER loved little children, and it is a seemly thing to be beloved of babes. Should youth go astray, in the way in which youth is prone, take it gently and tenderly to taskseverity maketh the kirk rancorous enemies, and persecution turneth love into deadly hate; humanity and kindness are the leading strings of the human heart. One counsel more, and I have done-take unto thee a wife. Ministers are not too good for such a sweet company as woman's, neither are they too steadfast not to fear a fall. Wed, saith the Scripture, and replenish the earth, and I wish not the good, the brave, and ancient name of Kirkpatrick to pass from among us. Peace be with thee, and many days." By following the wise counsel of his venerable parishioner, Joel Kirkpatrick became one of the most popular pastors of the Presbytery, and one of the chief luminaries of the ancient province of Galloway. His eloquence, his kindliness of heart, and the active charity of his nature, will be proverbial in parish tradition, while eloquence, and kindness, and charity, are reverenced on earth. Lammerlea, Cumberland. SONG, IMITATED FROM THE ITALIAN. YIELD to the spheres that witching strain That from their orbs has roll'd; To eastern climes return again Their fragrance, pearls, and gold. Be to the sun that lustre given, What then shall of the charms remain, Except the anger and disdain, That turn thy slave to stone? |
