successful. If you compare a system to a row of pearls, his predecessors of the Papacy had got upon their string a great many counterfeits, which when tested turned out to be no pearls whatever, but what is called "Pope's composition," a glistening imitation made up at the Vatican, a magma from the Fathers and Schoolmen poured into little transparent bubbles, called bulls or decretals. And Calvin's great rivals in a subsequent age, the Arminians, could not get all the beads to go on one string anyhow, and therefore those with a large aperture they put on their big and favourite string, and the rest on a reserved or conditional string; and some others which still remained over, they declared had no opening at all, and could never have been meant for stringing. Or, if you compare the scattered fragments of revealed truth to the gems which make up one mosaic, some clever men in our own day have made up pretty little designs or detached figures from a few favourite texts pieced together, but they hardly profess to reconcile them with the rest of Scripture; and in the old medieval time they constructed a prodigious pattern which they called the Faith holy and apostolic, and which doubtless did contain a few precious stones, but with vast spaces between-nothing more nor less than Roman cement. For his design Calvin claimed unity. From the angles, and contour, and joinings of the several pieces he affirmed that there was no other way in which you could put them together, so as to leave no chasms, and so as to leave nothing over; and to John Knox, John Winram, John Erskine, John Willock, the system of John Calvin approved itself, and the Geneva Confession became the basis of Scottish theology.

3. That Reformation was furthermore Presbyterian. The church had a government. Each congregation was looked after by its own pastor and elders, all of them popularly chosen; but if any difficulty should arise, if any grievance should be inflicted by an arbitrary or erroneous local judicatory, there was an appeal to a calmer and more comprehensive tribunal elsewhere; or if any factious resistance or local rebellion should arise, the rulers of the congregation could take refuge in the wisdom and authority of the church provincially or nationally assembled. Still there was a government. Each congregation was a great family, for the order and welldoing of which its office-bearers felt answerable. The unruly were warned, the feeble-minded were comforted; various classes were reproved, rebuked, and exhorted; the fallen were restored in the spirit of meekness; widows and the fatherless were visited in their affliction.

4. Finally, in one respect the first and foremost of all the Reformation churches was the Church of Scotland. It sought from the beginning the education of all the people. Its object was to have a common school in every parish, and in every county a high school, or gymnasium, or people's college; and thus, by a universal indoctrination of the entire community in useful knowledge and godly learning, it hoped to make the return of the times of ignorance for evermore impossible. With a view to this the Reformers petitioned Parliament that the church estates might be divided betwixt these three objects :--the maintenance of the ministry, a provision for the poor, and the education of the people. Nearly eighty years passed on, however, before this last design was fully carried out, and it was not till the "Second Reformation " that a school was planted in every parish.

Such was the character of the Reformation. What was the result?

1. Religiously and morally. It has been frequently remarked as a curious ethical fact, that countries the most Calvinistic are also the most moral, for example, New England, Holland, Scotland, the North of Ireland; and all witnesses concur in ascribing to the land of Knox and Melville

a strictness and decorum which had only its equivalent in English Puritanism. Says Daniel Defoe, who visited the country in the reign of Queen Anne, "You may pass through twenty towns without seeing a broil or hearing an oath sworn in the streets ;" and speaking of a period still earlier, the time of the Protectorate, says Kirkton, who lived in the midst of it, "Ministers were painful, people were diligent. . . I verily believe there were more souls converted to Christ in that short period of time than in any season since the Reformation, though of triple the duration." the bands of the Scottish Church were strong, so her beauty was bright. No error was so much as named, and the only complaint of profane people was, that the government was so strict they had not liberty enough to sin."

"As

True, the Church of Scotland has yielded few of those master-minds who, like Hooker and Horsley, Butler and Paley, Owen and Howe, have added a new tower to the defences, or a new mansion to the palaces, of Zion. For such services a Presbyterian pastorate of the good old style left no leisure; but it did still better; for through the successive generations it added unknown thousands to the Church of the saved: if it did not materially strengthen or adorn the bulwarks of Zion, it constrained many to come in, and added immensely to the citizens. And when we read of John Welch's live-long nights spent in prayer-the conscience-stricken crowds that fell before the sharp arrows of Robert Bruce-the five hundred converted by one sermon of John Livingstone-we can hardly grudge that they flamed all away in burning words, and that next to nothing has come down in printed books. And yet, when we peruse the works of others-Binning, with his elevation so serene and sunny; Rutherford, with his seraphic glow and selfconsuming fervour; the Erskines, with their evangelic opulence and overbrimming unction; Boston, as from a bull's-eye lantern flashing in a single sentence a flood of light upon a text, or with a touch of pathos or solemnity making it memorable for ever-we are glad to claim for Scotch theology a literature sufficiently flavoured to be distinctive; but which, whilst bearing the impress of generations which have passed away, still conveys, in vivid and attractive forms, truths which can never pass away.

2. We might add, that there is a close connection between the faith of Scotland and its philosophy. Indeed, in every theology there is involved a certain philosophy, and there were circumstances which made our fellowcountrymen think deeply, and reason closely, on the points that were believed amongst them. From this habit of abstract thought, and a certain dialectic turn, added to a sagacity very severe and unromantic, sprang up that psychologic school represented by Hutcheson, and Adam Smith, and Reid, and Stewart, and Sir William Hamilton, and which is known all the world over as the Scottish School, or School of Common Sense.

3. This suggests what the Reformation has done for Scotland, intellectually and economically. For one thing these noble schools gave every boy a chance; and whilst from Caithness to the Tweed all could read the Word of God, those who had aught of the faculty divine-any force or fitness in them-got opportunity to foster it and turn it to account. Hence, chiefly from these simple and unpretending seminaries, started on their several paths the men whom we find it a pride or pleasure to recal: explorers, like Bruce, and Park, and Livingstone; inventors, like Watt and Henry Bell; linguists, like the admirable Crichton, like Leyden, and Alexander Murray; historians, like Watson, Hume, and Robertson; poets, like Home and Logan, Burns and Ramsay, John Wilson and Walter Scott; men of letters, like the "Man of Feeling," and Hugh Miller, and the father of modern criticism, Francis Jeffrey; physicians and physiologists, like the Bells and Hunters,

like Pringle, Baillie, Currie; mathematicians and men of science, like Napier and Simson, the Gregories and McLaurin, James Ferguson and Playfair, Black and Leslie. And what is of far more consequence, from these homely but thorough seminaries went forth, each year, a successive race with their minds made up to work, and furnished with the motives and the means of working, with some fear of God before their eyes, and with some ideas in their heads; most of them content to plough or delve, to weave or hammer, all their days, but making no merit of it nor any moan about it, and doing it in right kingly fashion, with as much of real manhood as Czar Peter in the Saardam Docks, and with a range of thought far more imperial than the poor Chinese emperor ever knew, when, spring after spring, he repeated the old ceremony of putting in the plough.

But it won't do to live on mere memories. We owe much to our Reformers, and we owe everything to Him who gave them their light and zeal-who made some of them constant even unto death, and who melted from before their steps mountains of amazing difficulty. We owe something to that system to which we confess our personal obligations; and we owe something to the land which is now our second home, and in which the Most High has blessed our sojourn. We must not overtax the magnanimity of our friends by denominational arrogance or confident boasting; but as they give us full leave to carry out our preferences and to exemplify to the utmost our principles, let us try to show a good specimen. And as it is possible to be getting whilst we give, let us not disdain to accept and absorb the distinctive virtues of a sister land, and the distinctive graces of its churches. To orthodoxy and exactitude let us add a devotional and beneficent spirit. To zeal for our nation and our church let us add all the personal amenities and domestic charities. To solemn views of truth and its sacredness let us add filial and assuring sentiments towards the everblessed God, and kindly gracious feelings towards our fellow-men. Let us keep the banner, true blue, so untarnished, unsullied, that other battalions shall always be glad to see it in the field; and as we see on that standard the open Bible and the kingly crown, let us never forget that it was from that Bible, opened, that the Scotch Reformation sprang; and that it is for this crown of Christ that our own and the kindred churches witness and contend. "To the law and to the testimony," says that open Bible; and the companion device subjoins

"Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown Him Lord of all."

J. H.

THREE DAYS WITH DR. CHALMERS IN 1833.

Ir was in the first week of July, 1833, soon after the publication of the Bridgewater Treatise, and after the degree of LL.D. had been conferred upon Dr. Chalmers by the University of Cambridge, that I had the pleasure of spending three days with him on a visit to Kent.

According to previous arrangement, he came to breakfast with me at my house in America Square, I think, on a Tuesday morning. He arrived a little after the appointed time, for which he apologised, and said he had been late in the House of Commons the night before, when he had made an

Of course I knew not who it was,

acquaintance that I would hardly guess. but immediately said, "Daniel O'Connell ?" It happened that I was right; the Doctor expressed his surprise, and I added, that "Dr. Chalmers and Daniel O'Connell could not be seen fraternising without attracting attention." He said that he found him a very pleasant man, and that he subscribed to some of his (the Doctor's) opinions rather than to those of his own friends. We proceeded by steamer to Gravesend, whence we got a conveyance to Rochester; we visited the cathedral, and then, partly by coach, and partly by a post-chaise, went on to Canterbury. On arriving there we went out to deliver two letters of introduction, one which I had to the late Rev. Dr. Spry, Rector of Marylebone, and a canon of the cathedral, but having the reputation of being "very high and very dry;" we found that he was out at dinner. The other the Doctor had to a Mr. Braham, a minor canon, an excellent man; he was out attending a meeting of the Bible Society; we left our cards for each of them, and then took a walk round the Donjon (a curious raised walk resembling a fortification, on one side of the town) before returning to supper.

Scarcely, however, had we reached our hotel, before the Rev. Mr. Carus, a connection of the Rev. Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge, and subsequently his biographer, and the Rev. Mr. Davies, of Broadstairs, came in. They were almost immediately followed by Mr. Braham and the Rev. Mr. Bartlett, the latter the leader of the Evangelical clergy in this part of the country. They had come to Mr. Braham's house from the Bible meeting, and hastened thence to pay their respects to Dr. Chalmers.

The Doctor intimated his desire to visit the cathedral, and to get to the top of the tower as early as possible in the morning, which would thus be long before the hour at which it is opened to the public. Mr. Braham, therefore, went off immediately to get an order from the Dean, and speedily returned with that dignitary's respects, and stating that he would have pleasure in ordering admission at any hour, day or night, that would be most agreeable to Dr. Chalmers.

And now Mr. Bartlett urged the Doctor to pay him a visit at his rectory of Kingston, about seven miles from Canterbury, mentioning as an inducement, that one half of his parish was within that in which the "judicious Hooker" lived, and laboured, and died; promising that he would take us into Hooker's Church, and Hooker's Rectory. The Doctor did not see how this could be managed in consistency with our plans, for he wished to attend the cathedral service the following forenoon, and he appealed to me. I pointed out how we could accomplish it, and Mr. Bartlett took his leave much pleased.

On the following morning by seven o'clock, our young friends, Messrs. Carus and Davies, called according to appointment, and we proceeded with them to the cathedral. I remember that we had some difficulty in getting one of the doors near the top of the tower opened, in consequence of the number of Jackdaws' nests that were on the stair. Arrived at the top the Doctor "expatiated" on the "fine fat view," and commended the worldly wisdom of the monks in the choice of their localities.

After going through the cathedral we visited the church of St. Martin, where it is said St. Augustine first preached in England; and here, as was usual with the Doctor, he walked up into the pulpit; upon this our friends founded a joke. It appeared that the incumbent, a High Churchman, was in the habit of twitting their friend, Mr. Bartlett, for his Low-church associations, and they said they would tell him to retort upon the Rector of St.

Martin's, that he at least had never gone so far as to allow a Presbyterian minister to occupy his pulpit !

After breakfast we attended the service in the cathedral; it was certainly finely conducted, and the Doctor did not fail to express his admiration. We hastened back to our hotel, but found Dr. Spry had preceded us, and he politely offered his services to the Doctor, but, as previously arranged, a post-chaise was ready to convey us to Mr. Bartlett's.

On arriving there we met with a most cordial reception, and shortly afterwards, Mr. Bartlett accompanied us to Hooker's Church, when again the Doctor entered the pulpit, and was greatly pleased to think that he stood where that great and good man once did. If I remember right, there is a monument erected to him opposite the pulpit. We then entered the rectory and went into the room where Hooker died, and where no doubt his gentle spirit was often sadly vexed by his most perverse helpmate, “Joan Churchman."

In walking back, the Doctor said to me, Have you ever read Walton's Lives?" I said I had not. "Then," said he, "there's great pleasure in store for you, get and read them immediately." I did so, and certainly was not disappointed; until then, though a keen fisherman, I had never read "Walton's Angler," but I now procured it also, and I was surprised to find it contained some of the finest things in the English language. Good old Izaak's dissertation upon "Thankfulness," is, I think, unequalled. Years afterwards, I brought this passage under the notice of my friend Dr. Hamilton, which led him to preach a sermon on the duty of thankfulness; this was afterwards published under the title, "Thankfulness,"* and has been circulated by tens of thousands in this country and America; besides, I believe, having been translated, like several of his other works, into some of the languages of Northern Europe. It is curious, as well as pleasing, to trace from what casual incidents important results often follow.

On our return to the rectory we had dinner with Mr. Bartlett's family; his young people were very good looking and interesting; and we soon found, to our great surprise, that Mrs. Bartlett was the nearest living descendant of the celebrated Bishop Butler, some of whose relics, and amongst them his Greek New Testament and snuff box, were placed in Dr. Chalmers' hands, to his delight.

Soon after dinner the Doctor and I retired to the library, each of us wishing to write home, and on re-entering the drawing-room, Mr. Bartlett, with the bishop's Testament in his hand, approached the Doctor, and withdrew with him again into the library. Mr. B. very soon returned, and laying hold of me by the arm, led me into a deep recess in the window of the drawingroom; he then said, "This is one of the happiest days of my life. I first read Dr. Chalmers' Astronomical Discourses, with which I was much pleased, and I have made myself acquainted with most of his subsequent works. As a Christian minister, and the father of a large family, I feel that I owe him a deep debt of gratitude; and though I have often contemplated with pleasure that I should meet him in another world, I hardly ever expected to see him in the flesh, much less to have had the privilege of having him under my roof." Mr. Bartlett was a very tall and remarkably fine-looking man; whilst he spoke, big tears rolled down his cheeks, and I thought it an exhibition of Christian and brotherly feeling beyond anything I had ever before witnessed.

* See "Thankfulness," Appendix, Note A.