THE ERSKINES AS PREACHERS.

. THE two brothers, Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, were both preachers, and remarkable men. Ebenezer was born in 1680, and Ralph in 1685. Some one said of Ebenezer that to hear him was “to listen to the Gospel presented in its majesty;” and he excelled in strength and leading power. But Ralph had more of the orator, and of that subtlety of thought and fervour of emotion which met so remarkably in Samuel Rutherford. In general literature, too, he was far in advance of most of the ministers of his time, and there was, according to tradition, a humanism in his recreations that stumbled the more rigid, but attracted to him the mass of the people. The story of his practice on the “wee sinful fiddle,” is so well known, that we do not repeat it; but there is another, showing the warmth of attachment to Ralph and his preaching. At West Linton, which was one of the early head-quarters of the Secession south of the Forth, there was a gathering of thousands to a sacrament, and the two brothers were present. The communion took place in the open air, on a beautiful green, beside the little river Lyne. After the services, the ministers, in order to reach the manse, had to cross the stream on stepping-stones. A countryman from the far north had been so delighted and edified by Ralph’s preaching that, to have a few words with him, he marched through the Lyne, step for step, beside him, with the water nearly up to his knees. Pulling out a large Highland snuff-horn, he put it in his hand, with the words, “O sir, take a pinch, it will do you meikle good.” Ralph readily complied, and on his returning the horn, the worthy man, not knowing how to show his feeling, refused it, saying, “O sir, keep it, it will do me meikle good.” On telling the story, and showing the gift at the manse dinner, his brother said, “Ralph, Ralph, ye hae blawn best, ye’ve brought away the horn,” with a reference to the legend of the knight in the old tale of chivalry. It is a simple story, but it brings the two brothers near us, and lets us see how the time imprinted the little incidents on the memories of the people. "Religious Anecdotes Of Scotland"