ate. An old minister,
of the quiet jocose turn of mind we speak of, finding himself thus kept
at a little distance, stretched out his walking staff and put it on the
young man's head, with the quiet remark, "That will do! Timmer to
timmer"--timber to timber.

Their style of preaching, too was, no doubt often plain and homely. They
had not the graces of elocution or elegance of diction. But many were
faithful in their office, and preached Christ as the poor man's friend
and the Saviour of the lowly and the suffering. I have known Scottish
ministers of the old school get into a careless indifferent state of
ministration; I have also known the hoary head of many a Scottish
minister go down to the grave a crown of glory, in his day and
generation more honoured than many which had been adorned by a mitre.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] Lying Gilbert.

[15] This anecdote has been illustrated, as taken from these pages, by a
very clever sketch of the Highlander and his admirer, in a curious
publication at Liverpool called _The Tobacco Plant_, and devoted to the
interests of smoking and snuffing.

[16] The truth is, in old English usage "bug" signifies a spectre or
anything that is frightful. Thus in Henry VI., 3d Part, act v. sc.
ii.--"For Warwick was a _bug_ that feared us all."

[17] Adds fuel to fire.

[18] As far as I am aware the only place in which it is practised at
present (July 1872), is in the Free Church, Brodick, Arran.

CHAPTER THE SECOND.

SCOTTISH RELIGIOUS FEELINGS AND OBSERVANCES.

Passing from these remarks on the Scottish Clergy of a past day, I would
treat the more extensive subject of RELIGIOUS FEELINGS and RELIGIOUS
OBSERVANCES generally with the caution and deference due to such a
question, and I would distinctly premise that there is in my mind no
intention of entering, in this volume, upon those great questions which
are connected with certain church movements amongst us, or with national
peculiarities of faith and discipline. It is impossible, however, to
overlook entirely the fact of a gradual relaxation, which has gone on
for some years, of the sterner features of the Calvinistic school of
theology--at any rate, of keeping its theoretic peculiarities more in
the background. What we have to notice in these pages are changes in the
feelings with regard to religion and religious observances, which have
appeared upon the _exterior_ of society--the changes which belong to
outward habits rather than t