before thy divine majesty that we are miserable sinners, conceived and born in sin and iniquity, so that in us there is no goodness. For the flesh evermore rebelleth against the spirit, whereby we continually transgress thy holy precepts and commandments, and so purchase to ourselves, through thy just judgment, death and damnation. "Notwithstanding, O heavenly Father, forasmuch as we are displeased with ourselves for the sins that we have committed against thee, and do unfeignedly repent us of the same, we most humbly beseech thee, for Jesus Christ's sake, to shew thy mercy upon us, to forgive us all our sins, and to increase thy Holy Spirit in us. That we, acknowledging from the bottom of our hearts our own unrighteousness, may from henceforth not only mortify our sinful lusts and affections, but also bring forth such fruits as may be agreeable to thy most blessed will, not for the worthiness thereof, but for the merits of thy dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, whom thou hast already given an oblation and offering for our sins, and for whose sake we are certainly persuaded that thou wilt deny us nothing that we shall ask in his name, according to thy will. For thy Spirit doth assure our consciences that thou art our merciful Father, and so lovest as thy children through him, that nothing is able to remove thy heavenly grace and favour from us. To thee, therefore, O Father, with the Son and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. So be it." This prayer concluded, the people sing a PSALM, all together, in a plain tune. It is well known what a favourite part of public worship this was among the Reformed Churches of the continent. Popery had for many centuries defrauded the congregation of its rights in this, as in everything else. Pope Gregory, at the end of the sixth century, in carrying out what he regarded as a reformation of the service of song in Christ's house, condemned the people to sit in silence, and assigned the duty of singing God's praises to a choir. The Reformation restored the more ancient and more scriptural custom of congregational singing. It was some time before all the psalms could be put into English or Scottish metre, but within the lifetime of John Knox the work was accomplished; and as the psalms in their new guise were eagerly caught up by the people, the congregational singing formed, from the first, a prominent and exhilarating part of public worship. Some of our best tunes, also, date from that epoch. Several of these-Old Hundred, for example-were imported from the continent. The Psalm as it stands in our long metre version, and the fine tune which bears its name, were both of them as familiar to the people of England and Scotland in Queen Elizabeth's reign, as they are at the present time. Doubtless, it would be one of these which James Melville sang in his boyhood at Montrose. It is believed thats ome tunes, which continue favourites still, were of Scottish authorship. James Melville tells us that John Erskine of Dun, among his other services to the cause of Christ, " of his charity entertained a blind man who had a singular good voice. Him he caused the doctor (teacher) of our school teach the Psalms in metre, with the tunes thereof, and sing them in the kirk; by hearing of whom I was so delighted, that I learned many of the psalms and tunes thereof in metre, quhilk I have thought ever syn syne a great blessing and comfort." The reader will perhaps take the trouble to sing for himself the following verses, which we extract from the Old Psalm Book.* Let them be sung to one of the tunes known to have been in use at the Reformation: say to the tune of Montrose, the name of which would seem to intimate that the good town where we now are was its birth-place. Who knows but our blind friend, whom the Laird of Dun has taken under his wing, may have composed it ?— THE CL. PSALMS OF DAVID IN SCOTS METER. After the form that they are used to be sung in the Kirke of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1622-We are glad to see that a sumptuous edition of this Scotch Psalm Book-" John Knox's Psalter"-with the musical accompaniment, printed in fac simile of the original edition, is announced for publication under the able editorship of the Kev. Mr Livingstone of Stair. "How pleasant is thy dwelling place, O Lord of hosts, to me! The tabernacles of thy grace, "My soul doth long full sore to go Mine heart doth joy, mine heart also, "As they go through the vale of tears, They dig up fountains still; That as a spring it all appears, And thou their pits dost fill." The psalm being ended, a second prayer is offered up. For this, no form is provided. "The minister,"-so runs the rubrical note in the Book of Common Order-"the minister prayeth for the assistance of God's Holy Spirit, as the same shall move his heart, and so proceedeth to the sermon." We are sorry that we cannot set down the substance of the SERMON. If we may judge from the loving notice James Melville has given of the first minister of the Reformed Kirk of Montrose, he was not a preacher of much force of mind or eloquence of address. But doubtless he followed the general method of preaching in which the more eminent ministers led the way. What that was may be learned, with sufficient accuracy, from the notes which have been preserved of the sermons of Knox, of Principal Rollock, or of Robert Bruce. Probably the discourses of the two last named afford the most faithful image of the pulpit of their time. Their printed discourses are in the broadest Scotch, whereas Knox, both in his ordinary speech and his writings, was very much of an Englishman in style. It is not to be supposed that, because the ministers of that time spoke the national dialect, there was aught about them of that vulgarity which is now associated with its use, at least in prose. Let any one who has an impression to that effect, take up Robert Bruce's printed sermons, and if he have any true appreciation of powerful speaking, he will acknowledge that the famous minister of the West Kirk of Edinburgh was a man who, though he used the dialect now banished from polite society, could not fail to command the reverent attention of any audience, the rudest or the most refined. It is of more importance to remark that the preaching common at the early reformation was eminently Scriptural. It was also exceedingly simple and inartificial. The method which was introduced by the Puritans, and which is hardly yet extinct, was unknown. The reformers did not deal in formal statements of doctrine, and labyrinthine divisions. Sometimes, indeed, they might preach a sermon from a single sentence of Scripture; but that was not their ordinary custom. Their text generally consisted of three or four verses, if not of a lengthened passage. This they opened up in a plain, familiar way, enlarging upon the practical bearings of the truths which presented themselves. And though not universal, it was the common custom in Scotland for the ministers to preach, not on texts picked out, now from one book of Scripture, and again from another book, but on the successive parts of the same bookpreaching through a book when it was once commenced. "This skipping and divagation from place to place of the Scripture (said Knox), be it in reading or be it in preaching, we judge not so profitable to edify the Church, as the continual following of one text." After the conclusion of the sermon came the principal prayer. For this a form was provided, which the minister might use if he pleased. A PRAYER FOR THE WHOLE ESTATE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. "Almighty God, and most merciful Father, we humbly submit ourselves, and fall down before thy majesty, beseeching thee, from the bottom of our hearts, that this seed of the word now sown amongst us may take such deep root, that neither the burning heat of persecution cause it to wither, neither the thorny cares of this life do choke it, but that as good seed sown in good ground, it may bring forth thirty, sixty, or an hundred fold, as thy heavenly wisdom hath appointed. And because we have need continually to crave many things at thy hands, we humbly beseech thee, O heavenly Father, to grant us thy Holy Spirit to direct our petitions, that they may proceed from such a fervent mind as may be agreeable to thy most blessed will. And seeing that our infirmity is able to do nothing without thy help, and that thou art not ignorant with how many and great temptations we poor wretches are on every side enclosed and encompassed, let thy strength, O Lord, sustain our weakness, that we being defended with the force of thy grace, may be safely preserved against all assaults of Satan, who goeth about continually like a roaring lion seeking to devour us. Increase our faith, O merciful Father, that we do not swerve at any time from thy heavenly word; but augment in us hope and love, with a careful keeping of thy commandments, that no hardness of heart, no hypocrisy, no concupiscence of the eyes, nor enticements of the world do draw us away from thy obedience. And seeing we live now in these most perilous times, let thy fatherly providence defend us against the violence of all our enemies, which do everywhere pursue us; but chiefly against the wicked rage and furious uproars of that Romish idol, enemy to thy Christ. Furthermore, forasmuch as by thy holy apostle we be taught to make our prayers and supplications for all men, we pray not only for ourselves here present, but beseech thee also to reduce all such as be yet ignorant, from the miserable captivity of blindness and error, to the pure understanding and knowledge of thy heavenly truth, that we all, with one consent and unity of minds, may worship thee, our only God and Saviour. And that all pastors, shepherds, and ministers, to whom thou hast committed the dispensation of thy holy word, and charge of thy chosen people, may both in their life and doctrine be found faithful, setting only before their eyes thy glory; and that by them all poor sheep which wander and go astray, may be gathered and brought home to thy fold. Moreover, because the hearts of rulers are in thy hands, we beseech thee to direct and govern the hearts of all kings, princes, and magistrates, to whom thou hast committed the sword; especially, O Lord, according to our bounden duty we beseech thee to maintain and increase the whole estate of the Queen's Majesty, and her honourable Council, with all the estates, and whole body of the Commonwealth. Let thy fatherly favour so preserve her, and thine Holy Spirit so govern her heart, that she may in such sort execute her office that thy religion may be purely maintained, manners reformed, and sin punished according to the precise rule of thy holy word. And for that we be all members of the mystical body of Christ Jesus, we make our requests unto thee, O heavenly Father, for all such as are afflicted with any kind of cross or tribulation, as war, plague, famine, sickness, poverty, imprisonment, persecution, banishment, or any other kind of thy rods, whether it be grief of body or unquietness of mind, that it would please thee to give them patience and constancy, till thou send them full deliverance of all their troubles. So that at length the kingdom of thy dear Son Jesus Christ may increase and shine through all the world: in whose name we make our humble petitions unto thee as he hath taught us.—Our Father, which art in heaven, &c. &c. Almighty and ever living God, vouchsafe, we beseech thee, to grant us perfect continuance in thy lively faith, augmenting the same in us daily, till we grow to the full measure of our perfections in Christ, whereof we make our confession, saying, I believe in God the Father," &c. &c. The prayer being ended, the people again sing A PSALM. Let us suppose it is Psalm cxxiv. If that the Lord Had not our cause maintained; Had not our right sustained; Against us furiously Made their uproars, And said we should all die." "Now long ago They had devoured us all." This done, the people are dismissed with THE BENEDICTION—either the apostolical benediction or the Levitical, for both are in common use-and thus the forenoon service is concluded. THIE ANTI-SLAVERY CAUSE IN AMERICA AND ITS MARTYRS. EVERYTHING associated with America at the present time must necessarily be of interest to our readers. And when we look into the cause of the fearful civil commotion that now distracts that country, and recognise that the maintenance of slavery is the origin of the strife, the matter assumes a still deeper interest; and whatever may be the present motives of the North in repelling this outburst of the South--whether pride of power, determination of union, or a sort of self-defence-we cannot doubt that the cause of the slave will become more and more prominently a point in the struggle, and we earnestly desire that this dark state of things may be overruled for his deliverance. In the meantime, we should rejoice if the case of the poor bondsman could be ever present with our readers, if they would keep him in remembrance as they approach the throne of grace, and crave that now the Almighty may arise for the deliverance of the most oppressed portion of the human race. The slave, and the friends of the slave, who have toiled for his freedom, must ever have the sympathy of the lovers of freedom in Scotland, descendants as they are of those who themselves knew what it was to suffer and die for civil and religious liberty. In this idea we venture to present before them a short sketch of the leading events that have marked the Anti Slavery enterprise in America, an enterprise which has embraced within its ranks some of the noblest and most disinterested men and women that have performed a part in the history of the world; fearlessly they endured calumnies, the loss of reputation and worldly wealth and advantage, persecutions, imprisonments, death, for the sake of the despised and down-trodden slave. It is fitting that their names should be recorded on our pages; and although history may not deem them worthy of a place, they may hereafter be proclaimed in the great day of account with the gracious words, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me." A few months ago we published a little sketch of noble old John Brown, of Harper's Ferry. Although, perhaps, the most prominent, he was not by any means the only or the first martyr to the cause of emancipation in America, who cheerfully sealed with his blood the principles to which his life had been devoted. The first abolition society was formed in Philadelphia, in 1775, by a few benevolent persons of different religious denominations, the majority of whom belonged to the Society of Friends, to which body belonged Anthony Beneyet, the most active anti-slavery worker of the period. He was the friend and correspondent of Granville Sharpe, the Abbé Raynal, George Whitfield, and, in after times, of Thomas Clarkson, and many others. F He was the child of wealthy Hugeonots, who escaped from France when Anthony was an infant, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The boy thus inherited the love of civil and religious liberty, which the man, in his matured philanthropy, sought to extend towards all the nations of the earth. Lay and Sandiford preceded him in the work, but Beneyet was the first effectually to call public attention to the wrongs of the negro, and he was the agent in enlisting the most eminent philanthropists in England and America, in the struggle which eventually overthrew the slave trade, and, as far as England's colonies were concerned, slavery itself. With the co-operation of that faithful, humble follower of his Lord and Master, John Woolman, he was very earnest with his fellow professors in religious fellowship, to awaken them to a just sense of the sin of slaveholding; and, in 1774, all the slaves held by "Friends in Pennsylvania were emancipated. In other states the example was gradually followed, till, in 1787, no Quaker any longer held a slave in bondage. From that point the Society of Friends took its position, and slaveholding has ever since been an offence visited by disownment. Had this course, which was also that of the Scottish Covenanters from their first settlement in America, and of later years that of a very few smaller religious bodies, been faithfully pursued, we should not now have the sad spectacle under the sun of the nineteenth century, of brother going to war against brother for the right to maintain, and extend, and perpetuate the atrocious system of American slavery. If the American Church, we repeat, had been faithful in this matter, as were the Covenanters and the Quakers to the light which was given them, slavery would long ago have vanished under the ban of a church worthy to take the name of Him who came to preach deliverance to the captives. On the American Church, therefore, mainly rests the guilt of fostering slavery, and consequently the burden and responsibility of this war. The anti-slavery movement thus commenced in Pennsylvania spread gradually, till at length slavery was abolished in seven of the thirteen original states of the American Union, and the distinction between the free and the slave states took place. Had the former maintained the ground they had gained, it is probable the system might have gradually died out of the Southern states as well; but cotton began to be very profitable, the value of slaves became proportionally increased, the Southern planters held therefore a tighter hold on their valuable property, and to propitiate them and to promote their own profitable commerce, the Northern merchants became dumb on the sin of slavery, they attempted to gloss over its iniquities, and the ministers and churches lent themselves to this matter; they received slaveholders to their communion, accepted their contributions for missionary and other benevolent objects, and in return, apologised for slavery, and threw the mantle of church fellowship and sanction over the slaveholder and his deeds; thus the progress of emancipation was arrested, and the hold of slavery on the nation grew stronger and stronger. Apathy prevailed in regard to this leprosy, which speedily tainted the whole civil and religious society of America; and prejudice against colour exercised its cruel influence to keep down in degradation those who, by great and heroic effort, had freed themselves, and were respectably striving to procure maintenance and instruction in an honest and honourable way, and whom, shortly afterwards, the Colonisation Society sought to banish from the country. Things were in this state when an influence arose which so disturbed them, that quiet on the question of slavery could never again be known in America. About the year 1828, the soul of William Lloyd Garrison was suddenly touched by the horrors of slavery, and, fired by the determination to give his life to its overthrow, he thenceforth became the pioneer in this fresh crusade against the fearful iniquity. This remarkable man was born |