o internal feelings. Of such changes many
have taken place within my own experience. Scotland has ever borne the
character of a moral and religious country; and the mass of the people
are a more church-going race than the masses of English population. I am
not at all prepared to say that in the middle and lower ranks of life
our countrymen have undergone much change in regard to religious
observances. But there can be no question that amongst the upper
classes there are manifestations connected with religion now, which some
years ago were not thought of. The attendence of _men_ on public worship
is of itself an example of the change we speak of. I am afraid that when
Walter Scott described Monkbarns as being with difficulty "hounded out"
to hear the sermons of good Mr. Blattergowl, he wrote from a knowledge
of the habits of church-going then generally prevalent among Scottish
lairds. The late Bishop Sandford told me that when he first came to
Edinburgh--I suppose fifty years ago--few gentlemen attended
church--very few indeed were seen at the communion--so much so that it
was a matter of conversation when a male communicant, not an aged man,
was observed at the table for the first time. Sydney Smith, when
preaching in Edinburgh some forty years ago, seeing how almost
exclusively congregations were made up of ladies, took for his text the
verse from the Psalms, "Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord!"
and with that touch of the facetious which marked everything he did,
laid the emphasis on the word "men." Looking round the congregation and
saying, "Oh that _men_ would therefore praise the Lord!" implying that
he used the word, not to describe the human species generally, but the
male individuals as distinguished from the female portion. In regard to
attendance by young men, both at church and communion, a marked change
has taken place in my own experience. In fact, there is an attention
excited towards church subjects, which, thirty years ago, would have
been hardly credited. Nor is it only in connection with churches and
church services that these changes have been brought forth, but an
interest has been raised on the subject from Bible societies, missionary
associations at home and abroad, schools and reformatory institutions,
most of which, as regard active operation, have grown up during
fifty years.

Nor should I omit to mention, what I trust may be considered as a change
belonging to religious feeling--viz.,