The great Reformer Knox, when in exile, preached in French in her churches; Melville taught in her colleges; George Buchanan wrote his Psalms and other poems in the same country. Boyd, who had studied under the eminent civil lawyer, Cajucius, for four years in the same country, became a Professor at Saumur. In 1611, he was joined by his relative, Zachary Boyd, who first was a Regent in the College, then a French Protestant minister; and, when his congregation was dispersed by war, pastor of the Barony Parish, Glasgow. It is well known, that Welch, the son-in-law of Knox, when banished from his charge in Scotland, became a most successful minister of the Church of France: and Cameron, a native of Glasgow, and afterwards Principal of the University, was, in the first instance, Professor of Divinity at Saumur; and was so highly esteemed by the learned men of Europe, that he passed among them by the name of "Cameron le Grand "-speaking Greek extempore with as great ease as the scholars of these days spoke Latin. Many other names could be mentioned; but let these suffice to show, that a very important connection subsisted between Scotland and France in early times; and that, therefore, there is no impropriety, when treating of the Church of the one, in making a parallel reference to the Church of the other.

It is unnecessary to say any thing of the moral and religious condition of Scotland, prior to the Reformation. It was deplorable in the extreme. Ignorance, especially ignorance of God's Word, was paramount; and vice, in a vast variety of forms, was, of course, corresponding. When almost half the property of the nation, and all the power, was in the hands of the Church of Rome, the patron of superstition, and idolatry, and licentiousness, when even in Roman Catholic countries it was necessary to pass the law of mort main, restraining the donations of devotees, on their death-bed, to the Church, lest the whole property of the country should be swallowed up by ecclesiastics, we may well believe that

the degradation of the Scottish nation, which was eminently Popish, in its submission--was complete. I find that there were connected with the Cathedral of Glasgow alone, 18 baronies of land, in 9 counties, and 240 parishes, besides an immense estate in Cumberland; and that there were either 32 or 39 prebendaries, and as many parsonages, connected with the same church. As to the moral character of the people, it may be estimated from what is recorded by Wodrow, in his MS. collections of a life of Gordon, Bishop of Orkney, regarding Shetland, ten years after the Reformation had begun, viz.,—“ that all vice and horrible crimes were there committed, so that 600 persons were convicted of fornication, incest, and adultery." It is true that there were 32 parishes in Shetland, but the population was comparatively small. Hence, the moral picture is appalling; and if this was the state of things in the remote and quieter districts, even after the light of Reformation had begun to shine, what must have been the general condition of the population in the more populous districts, where temptations to sin were stronger, before the restraint of the Reformed doctrine and discipline had begun to be felt. Such was the working of Popery with all her power. Surely the Church of Rome had great reason to be ashamed. But No. She boasted of her excellence, and, as in France, so here, raised up the most determined opposition to the propagation of the Gospel. The Scottish martyrs, down to 1560, were few, compared with those of France at the same period; but they were noble men, and, with God's blessing, wrought out the salvation of their country. So early as 1527, Patrick Hamilton was burnt at St Andrew's; and shortly after, two gentlemen at Glasgow, Jeremiah Russell, a Grey friar, and John Kennedy of Ayrshire, a young man not 18 years of age, shared the same fate. But, as an old writer remarks, "their death was the very death of Popery in Glasgow and the five adjacent shires, in so far, that the people were so greatly enraged, that thereafter, resolving openly to profess the truth, they

bound themselves by promise and oath, which they subscribed, that if any of them should be called in question for matters of religion at any time thereafter, they would take up arms; which the citizens of Glasgow did." * While persecution was powerfully teaching in one way, faithful men were not less zealous and laborious in other ways; so that, before the year of the Reformation (1560), much had been done to enlighten and concentrate the public mind. For instance, Wodrow, in his MS. collections, speaking, in 1558, of Willock, who had been a Franciscan friar, and received ordination in England, whither he had fled for safety from his Popish oppressors, says,-"Such was the greedy appetite now prevailing after the sincere milk of the Word, and the unwearied diligence of Mr Willock, that every day he taught and exhorted great multitudes of nobility, barons, and others, who came to hear him, in his room,-yea, from his bed, when he was unable to rise." It was this previous preparation of years which made the great public change so decided and harmonious when it came. With regard to the actual Reformation of 1560, great was the revival of true religion which it indicated. The Spirit of God was poured down, though not perhaps in so visible a form as in particular places in after times; yet as really and powerfully. The facts descriptive of progress are inexplicable, except upon the supposition of a wonderful descent of the Holy Spirit. At the first General Assembly, which met in Edinburgh in the close of 1560, there were, according to Row's MS., only 12 ministers, and 30 ruling elders. Other persons, 43 in number, were appointed; some to read the word in the mother tongue, the people being unable to read themselves, and some to exhort: the one class were called readers, the other exhorters. The whole official moral force might be rated therefore at 85. Wodrow, in his MS. Life of Spotswood, says, that in the same year there was a meeting of the well-affected noblemen, barons, and burghers, who had hitherto been carrying on the Reformation, for

*M'Ure's History of Glasgow. 1737.

the purpose of fixing the few ministers above spoken of in the burgh towns, as the most important spheres. Eight of them were appointed to the leading towns; the remainder, with the addition of another, making five, were appointed superintendents or commissioners, for the purpose of planting the desolate rural districts as pastors could be procured. In the meantime, they were themselves to visit them, and stir up the nobles and people to make provision for the coming teacher. It would seem, over the whole wide, and peopled, and fertile country of the Lothians, in the vicinity of the metropolis, there were only six churches available for Protestant worship, and they were not all supplied with pastors. Such was the paucity of the ministers, that the General Assembly parcelled them out in different parts of the country for a few months, sometimes for half a-year at a time. No commencement of a National Church could be more humble. And what, under the blessing of the Spirit of God, was the result in seven short years? I learn from the Register of the ministers, exhorters, and readers of 1567, an important document lately printed, like some of the Wodrow MS. collections, by the Maitland Club, though not published, and therefore inaccessible to the general reader,-I learn, that instead of 12 ministers, there were 252; and instead of 48 readers and exhorters, there were 467 readers and 154 exhorters, making in all 873 moral agents labouring for the spiritual good of the people of Scotland, instead of 55. In other words, there was almost a moral agent of one description or another for every parish of the land in seven years. What an amazing religious achievement was this! How strikingly does it show forth the power and grace of the Spirit of God. The written record of His actual operation on the hearts of multitudes, if it ever existed, may have disappeared; but so long as these dry figures remain, they will constitute an irrefragable proof of the greatness of the work of which He must have been the author. It adds much to the force and interest of a statement so precious to every Christian

pass

heart, to notice, that the moral and religious machinery was not limited to the near and populous districts of the country, but reached the thinly peopled, the inaccessible, and the poor. We read of ministers, exhorters, and readers in Galloway, Caithness, Ross-shire, Orkney, Shetland. Thus, to 29 parishes in Ross, we find 3 ministers, 5 exhorters, 13 readers. To 22 parishes in Orkney, 8 ministers, 2 exhorters, 15 readers. In 16 parishes in Shetland, 2 ministers and 9 readers. Of course, the provision is very inadequate, and the least effective is the most ample; but, considering the time in which, and the country to which, it was supplied, the result is wonderful. From Wodrow's account of Carswell, superintendent or commissioner for Argyle, it appears that even so rough and wild a country was not overlooked. In 1564, the commissioner speaks of ing to Kintyre, and then to the Isles, to visit the churches, implying that there were churches to superintend. The reader seems to have been appointed first, then the exhorter, and lastly the minister. The cases are rare, only in large towns, where the whole three offices, or even two, were in operation together. Generally there was at the outset but one of them in one place. The fact, that nine years after, that is, in 1576, there were, in 289 parishes, not less than 116 places where there was both a minister and reader, is an indication of great and continued progress. It proves that faithful men were multiplying. There is, too, a higher proportion of ministers at the same period-another good sign. Seven years after the Reformation, there were 252 ministers in the whole Church. Sixteen years from the same date, there were 151 ministers in 289 parishes, showing, that more than half the parishes were supplied with the highest religious office the parochial minister-supposing the rest of the Church to enjoy the same proportion. authority for these later statements is the "Book of the Assignations of the Ministers' and Readers' Stipend for 1576," which has, like the preceding, been but lately brought to light by the Maitland Club; and, so far as

My