d, are
inclined to be flexible. The church that enters Edinburgh with a marquis
and a marchioness representing the Crown, the church that opens its
Assembly with splendid processions and dignified pageants, the church
that dispenses generous hospitality from Holyrood Palace,--above all,
the church that escorts its Lord High Commissioner from place to place
with bands and pipers,--that is the church to which she pledges her
constant presence and enthusiastic support.

As for me, I believe I am a born protestant, or 'come-outer,' as they
used to call dissenters in the early days of New England. I have not yet
had time to study the question, but as I lack all knowledge of the other
two branches of Presbyterianism, I am enabled to say unhesitatingly that
I belong to the Free Kirk. To begin with, the very word 'free' has
a fascination for the citizen of a republic; and then my theological
training was begun this morning by a gifted young minister of Edinburgh
whom we call the Friar, because the first time we saw him in his gown
and bands (the little spot of sheer whiteness beneath the chin, that
lends such added spirituality to a spiritual face) we fancied that
he looked like some pale brother of the Church in the olden time. His
pallor, in a land of rosy redness and milky whiteness; his smooth, fair
hair, which in the light from the stained-glass window above the pulpit
looked reddish gold; the Southern heat of passionate conviction that
coloured his slow Northern speech; the remoteness of his personality;
the weariness of his deep-set eyes, that bespoke such fastings and
vigils as he probably never practised,--all this led to our choice of
the name.

As we walked toward St. Andrew's Church and Tanfield Hall, where he
insisted on taking me to get the 'proper historical background,' he told
me about the great Disruption movement. He was extremely eloquent,--so
eloquent that the image of Willie Beresford tottered continually on its
throne, and I found not the slightest difficulty in giving an unswerving
allegiance to the principles presented by such an orator.

We went first to St. Andrew's, where the General Assembly met in
1843, and where the famous exodus of the Free Protesting Church took
place,--one of the most important events in the modern history of the
United Kingdom.

The movement was promoted by the great Dr. Chalmers and his party,
mainly to abolish the patronage of livings, then in the hands of certain
herit