of friends, leaving home, returning home, etc.;
and it was the custom amongst the old Scottish Episcopalians to give the
blessing in a peculiar form, which had become venerable from its
traditionary application by our bishops. I have myself received it from
my bishop, the late good Bishop Walker, and have heard him pronounce it
on others. But whether the custom of asking the bishop's blessing be
past or not, the form I speak of has become a reminiscence, and I feel
assured is not known even by some of our own bishops. I shall give it to
my readers as I received it from the family of the late Bishop Walker of
Edinburgh:--

"God Almighty bless thee with his Holy Spirit;
Guard thee in thy going out and coming in;
Keep thee ever in his faith and fear;
Free from Sin, and safe from Danger."

I have been much pleased with a remark of my friend, the Rev. W.
Gillespie of the U.P. Church, Edinburgh, upon this subject. He writes to
me as follows:--"I read with particular interest the paragraph on the
subject of the Bishop's Blessing, for certainly there seems to be in
these days a general disbelief in the efficacy of blessings, and a
neglect or disregard of the practice. If the spirit of God is in good
men, as He certainly is, then who can doubt the value and the efficacy
of the blessing which they bestow? I remember being blessed by a very
venerable minister, John Dempster of Denny, while kneeling in his study,
shortly before I left this country to go to China, and his prayer over
me then was surely the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man. Its
effect upon me then and ever since will never be forgotten."

I quite agree with Mr. Gillespie on the point, and think it not a good
sign either of our religious belief or religious feeling that such
blessings should become really a matter of reminiscence; for if we are
taught to pray for one another, and if we are taught that the "prayer of
the righteous availeth much," surely we ought to _bless_ one another,
and surely the blessing of those who are venerable in the church from
their position, their age, and their piety, may be expected to avail as
an aid and incentive to piety in those who in God's name are so blest.
It has struck me that on a subject closely allied with religious
feelings a great change has taken place in Scotland during a period of
less than fifty years--I mean the attention paid to cemeteries as
depositories of the mortal remains of thos