A Goodly Heritage

 An Anecdote of the North of Scotland. A FEW years after the victory of the Duke of Cumberland over Prince Charles Stuart at Culloden, in 1746, a poor but pious peasant dwelt in an out-of-the-way part of Scotland, bordering on the Highlands. He and his Godfearing wife had a numerous family; and there being few inhabitants in the district, work was often scarce, and income scanty. To get the two ends to meet was at times a very hard task; but prayer and pains had hitherto carried them through every difficulty. A season more trying than any, since their married life began, came at length upon them. There was no demand, at the end of autumn, for labour such as the peasant could do. Provisions were very dear, and speedily the little savings of the pious couple were entirely spent. No food remained in the poor cottage where they lived. Dinnerless and supperless the children had to be put to bed, and there they cried themselves to sleep. The parents bowed together before the throne of gr...

. AT one time Archbishop Usher visited Scotland, and hearing much of the piety of the Rev. Samuel Rutherford, resolved on being a witness of it. Disguised as a pauper, on a Saturday evening, he solicited lodging for the night. Mr. Rutherford took him in, and directed him to be seated in the kitchen. Mrs. Rutherford catechised the servants, as a preparation for the Sabbath; and having asked the stranger the number of the Divine commandments, he answered eleven. The good woman hastily concluded him ignorant, and said, “What a shame it is for you, a man with grey hairs, in a Christian country, not to know how many commandments there are! There is not a child six years old, in this parish, but could answer the question properly.” Lamenting his condition, she ordered his supper, and directed a servant to show him a bed in the garret. Mr. Rutherford having heard him at prayer, and finding out who he was, prevailed on the Archbishop to preach for him, which he agreed to do, on condition that ...

 GEORGE WISHART, one of the first Scottish martyrs at the time of the Reformation, being desired to preach on the Lord’s Day in the church of Mauchline, went thither with that design, but the Sheriff of Ayrshire had in the night-time put a garrison of soldiers into the church to keep him out. Hugh Campbell, of Kinzeancleugh, and others in the parish, were exceedingly offended at this impiety, and would have entered the church by force, but Wishart would not suffer it, saying, “Brethren, it is the word of peace which I preach unto you; the blood of no man shall be shed for it this day. Jesus Christ is as mighty in the fields as in the church, and He Himself, while He lived in the flesh, preached oftener in the desert and on the sea-side than in the Temple of Jerusalem.” Upon this the people were appeased, and went with him to the edge of a moor on the south-west of Mauchline, where, having placed himself upon a mound of earth, he preached to a great multitude. He continued speaking ...

. 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 ...

 WALTER MILL, an old decrepit priest, who had been con demned as a heretic in the time of Cardinal Beaton, bu had escaped, was at last discovered by the spies of his successor, Archbishop Hamilton, and brought to St. Andrews for trial. He appeared before the court so worn out with age and hardships, that it was not expected he would be able to answer the questions put to him; but, to the surprise of all, he managed his defence with great spirit. He was condemned to the flames; but such was the horror now felt at this punishment, and such the general conviction of the innocence of the victim, that the clergy could not prevail on a secular judge to ratify the sentence, nor an individual in the town so much as to give or sell a rope to bind the martyr to the stake, so that the Archbishop had to furnish them with a cord from his own pavilion. When commanded by Oliphant, the bishop’s menial, to go to the stake, the old man, with becoming spirit, refused. “No,” said he, “I will not go, e...

. A SCOTCH lady of social distinction, whose name for obvious reasons need not be mentioned, and whose husband had left her a competence, had two profligate sons, who wasted her substance with riotous living. When she saw that her property was being squandered, she determined to make an offering to the Lord. She took twenty pounds and gave it to the London Missionary Society. Her sons were very angry at this, and told her that she might just as well cast her money into the sea. “I will cast it into the sea,” she replied, “and it will be my bread upon the waters.” The sons, having spent all they could get, enlisted in a regiment, and were sent to India. Their positions were far apart, but God so ordered, in his providence, that both were stationed near good missionaries. The elder one was led to repent of his sins and embrace Christ. He shortly afterward died. Meanwhile the widowed mother was praying for her boys. One evening, as she was taking down her family bible to read, the door wa...

THE REV. ROBERT M‘CHEYNE went about his public work with awful reverence. So evident was this that I remember, says his biographer, a countryman in my parish observed to me,—“Before he opened his lips, as he came along the passage, there was something about him that sorely affected me.” In the vestry there never was any idle conversation; all was preparation of the heart in approaching God, and a short prayer preceded his entering the pulpit. After announcing the subject of his discourse, he used, generally, to show the position it occupied in the context, and then proceeded to bring out the doctrines of the text after the manner of our old divines. This done, he divided his subject, and herein he was eminently skilful. “The heads of his sermons,” said a friend, “were not the milestones that tell how near you are to your journey’s end, but they were nails which fixed and fastened all he said. Divisions are often dry, but not so his divisions,—they were so textual and so feeling, and th...