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before the close of the century-if not at its very beginning— the service was almost uniformly begun by a psalm. We are able satisfactorily to trace the source of this apparent inconsistency between the law and practice of the Church. For long, both in Presbyterian and Episcopal times, it had been customary for the precentor, who was the lineal representative of the "reader," to repair to church half an hour before the minister, and read to the people who had assembled two or three chapters from the Old and New Testaments. When the minister appeared, the precentor started a psalm; and when it was concluded, the minister commenced his duties by offering up a prayer, thus closely adhering to the Directory for Worship. Early in the eighteenth century, however, the functions of the precentor were curtailed. It was no longer his function to read the Word; it was no longer his privilege to prescribe a psalm. The service was not begun till the minister entered the pulpit, who gave out the psalm himself, leaving the precentor to lead the music. Unfortunately, when the Presbyterian ministers took it upon themselves to prescribe the psalms, they did not also take it upon themselves to read the Scriptures. At that period these were seldom read from Scottish pulpits.

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Toward the close of the century, a small but valuable addition was made to the books previously used in the Church Service. Hitherto the Psalms of David, done into metre by Rouse,2 were the only expression of praise which the Scottish

1 See a Short Account of Scotland, with a Description of the Nature of that Kingdom, and what the Constitution of it in Church and State; written by the late Rev. Mr Morer, minister of St Ann's, Aldergate, when he was chaplain to a Scotch regiment. London, 1715. This interesting tract has been republished in the Miscellany of the Spalding Club. The author speaks of the unreasonableness of the disputes between the Presbyterians and Episcopalians in Scotland, as there was very little difference between them. He says they had private courts sometimes called consistorial, sometimes kirk-sessions; and, besides these, presbyteries and provincial synods. The ministers, he informs us, wore gowns and cassocks, they had no casual perquisites or fees, and were accustomed to crave a blessing over every. thing, even a glass of wine. The rural "churches," he says, 66 were poor and mean, and no better than their ordinary cottages;" but in the towns they were much more commodious. They had few bells, but frequently a steeple with a hand-dial to show the age of the moon. The writer then proceeds to mention the order of worship as we have given it in the text. The precentors, in fact, were the lineal descendants of the readers; and when the liturgy was laid aside, they still continued to read the Scriptures. It is from this circumstance the precentor's desk is still called the lectern, or vulgarly, the litter. See also Records of the Diocesan Synod of Dunblane. 2 Francis Rouse was born in 1579, and was several times elected a mem

worshipper possessed. It had long been felt that there were many passages of Scripture, both in the Old and the New Testament, besides the Psalms, which gave fine utterance to the religious emotions, and which, if versified, might very appropriately be sung in the sanctuary. So far back as 1742, the General Assembly appointed a committee to collect and prepare metrical translations and paraphrases of portions of sacred writ; but their labours proceeded very slowly; and, though the subject was before a succession of Assemblies, nothing was done. By 1751, however, a collection of forty-five metrical paraphrases had been made, and was now laid before the Assembly for its approval. Of these, nineteen were by Dr Watts; three by Blair, the author of "The Grave; " three by William Robertson, minister of Greyfriars, and father of the historian; two by Dr Doddridge; and one by Mr Randal of Stirling. The Assembly ordered these to be sent down to the presbyteries for their approval, and in the meantime recommended that they should be used by families in their private devotions.2 This was an important step. The paraphrases, as they were called, gradually found their way into pious households, though, with a few exceptions, nothing but the psalms were yet sung in the churches.

So matters remained for twenty-four years; but in 1775 the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr overtured the General Assembly that leave should be given, to such ministers as chose, to use in public worship the Paraphrases which had received the partial sanction of the Church. In consequence of this, a committee was appointed to revise and enlarge the collection of 1751. It was not till 1781 that they brought their labours to a close; but in that year they reported that they "had now prepared such a collection of sacred poems as they thought might be submitted to the judgment of the Church."

This new collection contained the forty-five Paraphrases of

ber of parliament during the reign of Charles I. He was also one of the lay commissioners to the Westminster Assembly. At once a Republican and a Puritan, he was zealous for the establishment of a Commonwealth, modelled after the Hebrew Republic. He gave all his influence to Cromwell, whom he likened to Moses, and was rewarded for his devotion by being made Provost of Eaton, and Speaker of the Commons. He died in 1659. For farther information regarding his translation of the Psalms, see this History, A.D. 1647-48.

1 Morren's Annals of the Assembly, vol. i. pp. 34, 35. See also the Acts of the Assembly (1745) p. 681, and (1746) p. 690.

2 Acts of Assembly, p. 706.

the former edition, but considerably altered, and twenty-two additional ones. Of these, seven were believed to be the composition of Logan, minister of South Leith; four of Morrison, minister of Canisbay; two of Cameron, minister of Kirknewton. The alterations upon the old Paraphrases were almost all made with a judicious and tasteful hand; and for these we are indebted chiefly to Cameron and Logan. The Assembly gave a temporary sanction to the use of this collection, and, to insure correctness, conferred an exclusive privilege of printing it upon one person for five years; but it also ordered it to be sent down to the presbyteries for their approval, that the provisions of the Barrier Act might be fulfilled.'

It would appear that a majority of presbyteries did not send up to the Assembly their approval of the Paraphrases. Certain it is there is no Act of Assembly formally sanctioning them. But the Paraphrases recommended to the Assembly of 1781, and which the Assembly of 1781 allowed to be used for a time, and only for a time, till the opinion of the presbyteries should be obtained, are the very Paraphrases which now, after the lapse of a century, are still sung in the churches. These simple and beautiful songs must have been a great boon to the Church then, and indeed are so still, though now supplemented by the hymnal. But many of the clergy for half a century longer refused to sing them, and clung to the Psalter, as having, as they thought, a more direct inspiration. They did not recognise, that though the Hebrew psalmists often express with much beauty the sentiments of natural religion, they could not transcend their own time, and anticipate the feelings of the Christian. The Christian Church demanded a psalmody of its own; and the Scottish Church found such a psalmody by rendering into verse some of the noblest sentiments of the prophets and apostles.

For nearly thirty years after the introduction of the Paraphrases, no farther attention appears to have been given to the subject; but the nineteenth century had not long entered upon its course till an interest in the poetry of the Church

1 I have gathered my information upon this subject chiefly from an interesting series of articles upon Psalmody in the " Edinburgh Christian Magazine," by the Rev. William Robertson of Monzievaird. They have, since their appearance in the "Magazine" (in 1858), been collected and republished, under the title of "Notes on Psalmody;" but, I am sorry to say, only for private circulation.

began to revive. Many felt dissatisfied with the old Puritanic translation of the Psalms. Its roughness, its frequent homeliness, the uncouth rhymes, and the drawn-out syllabification which it sometimes admits, was not, in their minds, compensated by the Saxon strength and simplicity with which it yields the sense of the Hebrew bards. They wished a new translation adapted to the time. A committee of the General Assembly was appointed, and reappointed year after year.1 A correspondence was opened with Sir Walter Scott, Crabbe, and other poets; but Scott discouraged the attempt, declaring that Rouse's version, "though homely, was plain, forcible, and intelligible, and very often possessed a rude sort of majesty, which would be ill exchanged for mere elegance." 2 labours of the committee came to nought; and the Psalms remain to this day just as they were when they came from the hands of Rouse's emendators.

The

It certainly were wrong to lay aside a version of the Psalms, which, besides its intrinsic excellence, is now associated with the piety of the last two hundred and thirty years. But without being discarded, it might be amended. There are many verses which unfortunately offend both rhyme and reason, and give to every person of taste a mean idea of the lyric gifts of the Hebrew bards. These might be remodelled without wounding even the prejudices of those who love what is consecrated by time; and our piety would henceforward catch fresh force from the power of poesy, instead of being shocked, as it frequently is, by inanity and bad taste.

As the nineteenth century dawned, a new race of men began to rise, destined to introduce a new order of things. In 1799 THOMAS CHALMERS was licensed to preach the gospel in his twentieth year, as "a lad of very pregnant parts." 3 Three years afterwards, Andrew Thomson received license. Sir Henry Moncreiff was now recognised as the leader of the Popular party in the Church, and by his great talents and business habits gave new vigour to a sinking cause. Possessed of a masculine mind, which soon mastered every subject with which it grappled, well versed in ecclesiastical law, and peculiarly ready in debate, he was well qualified to be the Leader of a party. But though strongly liberal in his ecclesi

1 The subject was before every Assembly from 1807 till 1822.

2 In Lockhart's Life of Scott, there are some strange and interesting notices of the labours of the Psalmody Committee.

Hanna's Life of Chalmers, vol. i.

astical politics, he cherished no asperity toward those who differed from him in sentiment. He had enjoyed the friendship of Principal Robertson, and could speak of him in the language of panegyric. Though often called to do battle with Principal Hill in the Assembly, he respected the purity of his motives and the dignity of his character, and their public differences did not destroy their mutual private regard. Lord Cockburn gives us a picture of him walking along Queen Street on a Sunday morning from his house to the church, with his bands, his little cocked hat, his tall cane, and his cardinal air." " 1

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The first subject which violently agitated the Church was what has since been known as the Leslie Controversy. In 1805 the chair of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh became vacant by the removal of Professor Playfair to the chair of Natural Philosophy. The town-council were patrons, and two candidates competed for their suffrages. The one was Mr Leslie, afterwards Sir John Leslie; the other was Mr Macknight, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, and son of the eminent commentator.2 Leslie had already distinguished himself by his discoveries regarding the nature and properties of heat; he had received from the Royal Society the Rumford medal; and the highest scientific names in the kingdom recommended him as one who would do honour to the University. Mr Macknight was a man in every way respectable, and the Edinburgh clergy had set their hearts upon seeing their brother robed in the professorial gown. The majority of the scientific men in the kingdom still belonged to the clerical order; and, accordingly, the majority of the University chairs in the Faculty of Arts, as well as of Theology, had been usually occupied by ecclesiastics. It was thought there was no need of letting the chair of Mathematics slip, when there was a minister already in Edinburgh so well qualified as Macknight to fill it.

It soon became known that the great merits of Leslie were likely to carry the day. Unfortunately, polemical rancour came to the aid of disappointed ambition. The old cry, which has ruined many a good man, and spoiled many a good cause, was raised. It was said that Leslie was an infidel.

1 Cockburn's Memorials, p. 42.

It

2 Besides these there were several other candidates, and amongst them Thomas Chalmers; but they either withdrew from the contest, or received very little support.

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