Page:Sketches of the History of the Church of Scotland.djvu/41

 his mental ailment; which being reported to the Laird of Gask, he remarked to one of the conforming Clergy, in the broad Doric which all classes of society then used, "Ye see what ye ha' dune to the honest man! he never has had a weel day sin' ye tuick him by the han'!" The unswerving Jacobitism of Gask being reported to George the Third, the member for Perthshire received this message from the monarch to the sturdy upholder of the dethroned House;—" Give my compliments,—not the compliments of the King of England, but those of the Elector of Hanover,—to Mr. Oliphant; and tell him how much I respect him for the steadiness of his principles." He was a specimen of many a Jacobite gentleman of the period, "the brave old Scottish Cavalier, all of the olden time," true to his king and to his God.

Jacobitism was a deep-seated principle, which a people of democratical tendencies scarcely understand; and, as we have said, it died hard. That there was a small but resolute phalanx of its adherents in Edinburgh, after the defection of its Bishop, all the Clergy, and the great body of Churchmen there, is proved by the records of the Scotch Episcopal Friendly Society, where it appears they tried by force of law to prevent certain funds of which they claimed the management from being handed over to that institution, which consisted of the conforming Clergy. They were non-suited, we need hardly say, with certain contemptuous obiter dicta from the bench. They continued to meet as a congregation,—the remnant of a remnant,—for several years after the surrender, declining to acknowledge Dr. Abernethy Drummond, the renegade Bishop of that see; and persisted in praying devoutly for "Henry, our most gracious King and governor." But a few years more saw the last of the Jacobites. They had, indeed, in the words of old Counsellor Pleydell, become "the shadow of a shade."

The Church of Scotland's mission is, of course, an undying one, unless she is to settle down, as was at one time, and not so very long ago, but too likely, into a few fashionable Chapels for the accommodation of the rich; where the poor were not expected, and were not made welcome. The goodly tree has again and again been cut down, even to the ground; but, blessed be God, it is now taking root downward, and bearing fruit upward;—slowly, no doubt, but on that account, let us hope and believe, all the more surely. The great mistake of her last Establishment was her unliturgical condition. The people saw little or no outward difference in the worship when Presbyterianism took her place, and so the gradual transference of the masses was the more easily accomplished.

From the low estate of seventy Clergy, with, in most cases, their scanty flocks, in 1828 when I began my ministerial life, I thank God that I have lived to see a clerical roll of about two hundred and sixty.