The children are classed according to their moral wants, not according to age or mental capacity; when a new member is introduced into the institution, he is placed under the immediate charge of the Rev. Mr Wichern, the governor, who, after having made himself acquainted with the character and disposition of the youth, establishes him in the family best qualified to supply his moral and spiritual wants, and to counteract any outbreaking of his depraved nature. This arrangement has been of the greatest benefit in the reformation of the youths, and by it many a child has become the instrument of reforming those who had withstood the admonitions of parents and masters. The youths are trained to manual labour, which has its advantages also in an economical point of view; yet the primary object is a moral one. The youth is never to lose sight of the position which he holds in society; it is one of the principles of the establishment, that the child is to be made aware that it belongs to the class of the poor, and that while poverty is no evil in itself, all depends on the disposition wherewith the poor bear their poverty. The child who is taught to pray for his daily bread, must also learn to earn his livelihood by his honest occupation, and must remember that he is to eat his bread in the sweat of his brow. cation, which prepares them for the situation of village | them the confidence of their overseer, are sent to town schoolmaster, or superintendent of an institution, such to dispose of the produce of the farm, such as milk, as the one of which we are treating. eggs, &c. The girls do all the in-door work, as the daughters or maid-servants on a farm establishment. We may here mention that, originally, it was the intention to limit the institution to the reception of boys only; but considering that the happiness, comfort, and respectability of domestic life is more endangered where the mother is devoid of moral and religious principle, than where the father is so, girls have been likewise admitted; and it is satisfactory to be able to say, that no circumstances have ever occurred in the establishment to make the managers regret this arrangement. A short account of the building of one of the cottages, which is given in the Rev. Mr Wichern's report of 1835, will best show the spirit in which the labours of the youths are carried on:-"The sun rose in unwonted splendour on the 11th of March, when we laid the foundation-stone of another cottage, offering up prayers and praises to the Lord of heaven and earth, who alone can prosper the work of our hands. After this preparatory ceremony, the work was begun. All the boys were employed in carrying bricks, clearing the ground, and other similar employments; and the interest of the labourers in the work increased as they witnessed its progress; nothing but the cottage was spoken of among them; they were astonished at their own performances, for their skill had never before been tried in building,-it had only been exercised to destroy. On the evening of the 16th of April the frame-work of the cottage was finished; the gleesome children had assembled, carrying a large crown, composed of a variety of spring flowers, whose bright and variegated hues were an emblem of the delight of the little company. The crown had been placed on the gable of the cottage, and after the master-builder had, according to an old German fashion, delivered a speech, which is called the 'giebel rede,' (gable speech) all voices were raised in a hymn, in which the universal Father was thanked and adored by his children for his bounty, and in which supplication was made for light and energy to fulfil his will, and to accomplish the high end for which the beings here assembled had been called into existence. The young labourers proceeded with the finishing of the cottage, and on the 20th July the garden had again to give forth its tribute for the festive decoration of a completed dwelling. Garlands and flowers covered the cottage, both inside and out, and several hundred persons, friendly to the establishment, came to witness the ceremony, when we dedicated the work of our hands to the good Shepherd, through whose mercy twenty-seven children had again been provided with a home." Days like these are particularly marked in the annals of the institution. As the young people received into the institution are generally imbued with that spirit of selfishness which limits all their views to the means of self-gratification, it has been made a rule in the educational system to counteract this spirit by means of their daily employments. They are made to exert themselves for the comfort of others, and are thus taught that the general good, and not their own profit, should be the stimulant of their activity. To some, the principle to work for any other object than money is so new, that they think themselves wronged, and, in consequence, agree among themselves to take what they can lay their hands upon, and set off. It is doubtful whether mere teaching could offer a sufficient remedy in cases like these; but a practical application of just principle has proved efficient in most cases; the individual finds himself placed in a situation in which he can subsist only by the assistance of his fellow-creatures, and by a unity of purpose. A moral object is always kept in view in the division of labour, as well as in the work itself. It is not left to chance, convenience, or inclination, whether the individual is to be employed with the plane, the hammer, or in mending shoes; nor is it a matter of accident, that one is found working in solitude, while in another part four or six are seen engaged together. A judicious arrangement and division of work has generally the effect of reconciling the youths to their tasks, however reluctantly they may first enter upon it. The boys who are from eight to twenty years of age are employed, under skilful masters, to build the cottages, (cottages are added in proportion as the number of candidates for admission increases ;) they also make the necessary furniture, labour in the field, herd the cattle, shear, spin, weave the cloth, and make coats for their companions; and those whose conduct has procured LINES ON THE REVIVAL, ENLARGEMENT, BY MARIA DENOON YOUNG, We hail the glad tidings, celestial in birth, In sadness we pined mid the gloom of the night, Yet hoped that the day-spring at length would arise. Jehovah, thy grace and thy glory display; With righteousness clothe them, and with glory benign, And guide by the cloud and the pillar divine. Oh, look in thy mercy, enlighten, redeem; Thy sword, O most Mighty, now gird on thy thigh, THE FIRST MARTYRS OF THE COVENANT. BY THE REV. THOMAS M'CRIE, EDINBURGH. AN English merchant, who had occasion to visit Scotland in the way of his business about the year 1650, happened to hear three of the most eminent of the Scottish ministers of that age,— Robert Blair, Samuel Rutherford, and David Dickson. Being asked, on his returning home, what news he had brought from Scotland, the gentleman, who was never known to have any sense of religion before, replied, " Great and good news! I went to St. Andrews, where I heard a sweet majestick looking man (Mr Blair); and he showed me the majesty of God. After him, I heard a little fair man (Mr Rutherford); and he showed me the loveliness of Christ. I then went to Irvine, where I heard a well-favoured proper old man, with a long beard, (Mr Dickson); and that man showed me all my heart." "The whole General Assembly," says Wodrow in the manuscript from which I have the anecdote, "could not have given a better character of the three men." Of Mr Robert Blair we have had occasion to speak before. He was a man of mild and amiable temper, and was exceedingly active in endeavouring to heal the unhappy dissensions between the Resolutioners and Protesters, in which he professed to be neutral. Mr Blair was originally settled at Bangor in Ireland, on which occasion, as he refused to be ordained by one man, the bishop of the diocese agreed to be present with the other ministers only in the character of a presbyter. Driven by a less charitable bishop from Ireland, he took refuge in his native country, where he was first settled at Ayr, and afterwards translated to St. Andrews. Polite and affable in his manners, he was chosen by Charles I., after the death of Henderson, as his chaplain in Scotland, an office which he discharged with the most scrupulous fidelity. He was a shrewd observer of character. When Cromwell came to Edinburgh, he, with Guthrie and Dickson, were deputed to hold a conference with the usurper. Mr Blair, who was best acquainted with him, begged him to answer three questions. What was his opinion of monarchical government? Oliver replied that he was favourable to monarchy. What did he think anent toleration? O, he was altogether against toleration. What was his judgment about the government of the Church? 'Ah, now, Mr Blair," said Cromwell, "you article me too severely; you must pardon me, that I give you not a present answer to that question." On retiring, Mr Dickson said, "I am glad to hear this man speak no worse;" to which Blair replied, "If you knew him as well as I, you would not believe one word he says; for he is an egregious dissembler." Samuel Rutherford is one of those characters whom every one thinks he should know by his writings as familiarly as if he had seen him face to face. Eager, ethereal, and imaginative, ever soaring and ever singing, the high notes of his devotion fall down on the ear with a singular effect, as if the music came from heaven rather than from earth.* Rutherford was the most popular preacher of his day; but it is not so generally known that he was as much distinguished for his metaphysical attainments, as for his eloquence and devotion. He received invitations to the chair of philosophy in more than one of the foreign universities; but such was his love to his native country, that he would not desert her in the midst of her troubles. The following anecdote of his infancy, though it approaches the marvellous, is so characteristic of the future man, that it deserves to be preserved. While amusing himself with some of his companions, Samuel, then a mere child, fell into a deep well; the rest of the children ran off to alarm his parents, who, on reaching the spot, were astonished to find him seated on an adjoining hillock, cold and dripping. On being questioned how he had got there, he replied, that "a bonnie His Letters, with all their faults, which are those of the age. have beauties which must be felt to the end of time. ** Hold off the Bible," said Richard Baxter, "such a book the world never saw the like.". white man came and drew him out of the well." The minutest particulars concerning such a person are interesting; the following are curious:"I have known many great and good ministers in this Church," said an aged contemporary pastor who survived the Revolution, "but for such a piece of clay as Mr Rutherford was, I never knew one in Scotland like him, to whom so many great gifts were given; for he seemed to be altogether taken up with every thing good, and excellent, and useful. He seemed to be always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always catechising, always writing and studying. He had two quick eyes, and when he walked, it was observed that he held aye his face upward. He had a strange utterance in the pulpit, a kind of skreigh that I never heard the like. Many times I thought he would have flown out of the pulpit when he came to speak of Jesus Christ; he was never in his right element but when he was commending him. He would have fallen asleep in bed speaking of Christ." Rutherford was a staunch Protester; but controversy seemed to be alien to his nature. "One day, when preaching in Edinburgh, after dwelling for some time on the differences of the day, he broke out with,- Wo is unto us for these sad divisions, that make us lose the fair scent of the Rose of Sharon!' and then he went on commending Christ, going over all his precious styles and titles about a quarter an hour, upon which the laird of Glanderston said, loud enough to be heard by those about him,Ay! now you are right-hold you there!'"* Rutherford died in 1661, shortly after his book called Lex Rex was burnt by the hangman at Edinburgh and at the gates of the New College of St. Andrews, where he was regent and professor of divinity, and just in time to avoid an ignominious death, for though every body knew he was dying, Charles' council had the inhumanity to summon him to appear before them at Edinburgh on a charge of high treason. When the summons came, he said, "Tell them I have got a summons already before a superior Judge and judicatory, and I behove to answer my first summons; and ere your day arrive, I will be where few kings and great folks come." When they returned and told that he was dying, the Parliament, with a few dissenting voices, voted that he should not be allowed to die in the college! Upon this Lord Burleigh said, "Ye have voted that honest man out of his college, but ye cannot vote him out of heaven." Some of them profanely remarked "he would never win there; hell was too good for him." "I wish I were as sure of heaven as he is," replied Burleigh; "I would think myself happy to get a grip of his sleeve to haul me in." Among his brethren who came to pray with him on his death-bed, were Mr Wood, a Resolutioner, but an excellent man, and Mr Honeyman, who afterwards was made a bishop, and distinguished himself for his opposition to the cause of God. It Wodrow's Analecta, MS. iv. † Walker's Remains, p. 171. was observed that, when Mr Wood prayed, he was not in the least affected, but when Honeyman was engaged, he wept all the time of the prayer. Being afterwards asked his reason for this, he replied, "Mr Wood and I will meet again, though we be now to part; but alas for poor Honeyman, he and I will never meet again in another world, and this made me weep." When dying, he frequently repeated, "O for arms to embrace Him! O for a well-tuned harp! I hear him saying to me, Come up hither!" And thus, says honest Howie, "the renowned eagle took its flight into the mountains of spices.” Mr Dickson was a very different character, yet almost equally eminent. His contemporaries have preserved a great many anecdotes concerning him, and remarkable sayings, which show him to have been a man of great shrewdness and sagacity, mixed with a peculiar vein of humour. He was singularly successful in dissecting the human heart, and winning souls to the Redeemer. But perhaps one of the noblest characters of the period, though less known, was Mr Robert Douglas, minister of Edinburgh. He had formerly been a chaplain in the army of Gustavus Adolphus, and when leaving his service, that celebrated prince and warrior pronounced the following eulogium on his character: "There goes a man who, for wisdom and prudence, might be a counsellor to any king in Europe; who, for gravity, might be a moderator to any assembly in the world; and who, for his skill in military affairs, might be the general of any army." Like many of the ministers at this period, he was connected by birth with some of the best families in the land. Majestic in his appearance, and princely in his bearing, there was something so authoritative about him, that one has said he never could look at him without a sensation of awe. Though a Resolutioner, he took an active part in endea vouring to secure the liberties of the Church of Scotland after the restoration, and carried on a correspondence with Sharpe, when in London, in which the designs of that arch-traitor and apostate were artfully covered over with high professions of regard to the Presbyterian interest. Mr Douglas, though deceived for a time by Sharpe's professions, soon came to discover his real character. Kirkton tells us that when Sharpe returned to Scotland, he himself affecting no ambition for the prelacy, pressed the acceptance of the see of St. Andrews upon Mr Douglas. He told him he clearly perceived that the king was determined on introducing Episcopacy, and that he knew none fitter for the office of primate than Mr Douglas, who had better accept, lest a worse should be appointed. The honest Presbyterian saw into the secret soul of the hypocrite, and when he had given his own decided refusal, demanded of his former friend what he would do himself were the offer made to him. Sharpe hesitated, and rose to take his leave. Douglas accompanied him to the door: "James, I perceive," said he, "you are clear,—I see you will engage, you will be Bishop of St. Andrews; take it then," (he added, laying his hand on Sharpe's shoulder)" and the curse of God with it!"* We are now approaching the period of the Restoration, when the Church of Scotland was thrown into the furnace of persecution; and you must permit me to pass over the circumstances that paved the way for this change of affairs, and to place Charles the Second on the throne of his ancestors; to which he was restored, without any conditions, amidst the acclamations of his subjects, on the 29th of May, 1660. Never did a more rapid, more complete, or more melancholy, change pass over the character of a nation, than that which Scotland underwent on this occasion. "With the restoration of the king," says Bishop Burnet, "a spirit of extravagant joy spread over the nation, that brought on with it the throwing off the very profession of virtue and piety; all ended in entertainments and drunkenness, which overrun the three kingdoms to such a degree, that it very much corrupted all their morals. Under the colour of drinking the king's health, there were great disorders and much riot every where. Those who had been concerned in the former transactions, thought they could not redeem themselves from the censures and jealousies that these brought on them, by any method that was more sure and more easy than by going into the stream, and laughing at all religion,-telling, or making, stories to expose both themselves and their party, as impious and ridiculous."t malice of these enemies of truth and liberty, that the work of reformation should be buried under this Act; it was deemed necessary that its grave should be moistened with the blood of the noblest and best of its supporters. The first victim selected was the Marquis of Argyle. The marquis had protested against the execution of Charles the First; he was among the first who invited Charles the Second to Scotland, and placed the crown upon his head; but all this could not atone for the active share he had taken, during the civil wars, in guiding the affairs of the nation, and opposing the measures of the Court. Charles entertained a mortal aversion to him, for the liberty which he had taken in privately warning him against Malignants; and for heading the Presbyterians in imposing on him the Covenant as the condition of their submission. On going up to London, to congratulate the king on his restoration, Argyle was thrown into the Tower, from whence he was transported by sea to Edinburgh, to stand his trial for high treason. No less than fourteen charges were brought against him; all of which he so satisfactorily disproved, that his judges were on the point of sending a deputation to the king, stating the difficulty which they had in finding any plausible ground for his condemnation, when they were relieved from their embarrassment by an act of the basest description recorded in history. A rude knocking was heard at the Parliament door; and a packet was handed in containing a number of confidential letters which had passed between Argyle and General Monk, and which the latter Charles was not long seated on the throne when person had sent to be produced on the trial. This he proceeded, or rather, abandoning himself to act of cold-blooded treachery sealed the doom of pleasure and debauchery, he allowed his ministers the marquis. Monk, who had been the active to proceed to overturn the whole work of refor-agent of Cromwell, was made Duke of Albemarle ; mation. Episcopacy was re-established in Eng- and Argyle, who had only yielded to the usurper land; and in Scotland, his councillors, tired of after resistance was vain, was sentenced to be beannulling acts passed during the reforming period, headed! at last anuulled the Parliaments themselves in a slump, by the well-known Act Rescissory. By this act, all the proceedings in Parliament from 1633 to 1660 were declared irregular and unconstitutional; the National Covenant and Solemn League were condemned as unlawful oaths; the Glasgow Assembly of 1638 denounced as an unlawful and seditious meeting; and the ordering of the government of the Church was declared to be an inherent right of the Crown. In short, all that had been done for the reformation of the Church, during the second reforming period, was by this act completely annulled. "It was a maddening time," says Burnet, "when the men of affairs were perpetually drunk." Middleton himself seldom came sober to the House; and it is well known that this infamous act, which still stands unrepealed in our Statute-Book, and which no modern reformer has ever proposed to repeal, was proposed by the junto at a debauch, and carried at the board in the midst of drunken acclamations. The marquis received his sentence with great composure, and, on its being pronounced, said: "I had the honour to set the crown upon the king's head, and now he hastens me to a better crown than his own!" On arriving at the Tolbooth, he found his excellent lady waiting for him. "They have given me till Monday to be with you, my dear," said he, "therefore let us make for it." The afflicted wife, throwing herself into his arms, could not refrain from expressing her indignation at the unjust sentence. "The Lord will require it!" she cried, "the Lord will require it!" "Forbear, forbear," said the marquis, seeing his friends dissolved in tears around him; "truly I pity them; they know not what they are doing. They may shut me in where they please, but they cannot shut out God from me. I am as content to be here as I was in the Tower; was as content there as I was when at liberty; and hope to be as content on the scaffold as any of them all." The marquis was constitutionally timorous; It was not enough, however, to satisfy the and in prison, referring to this, he desired those about him to observe that the Lord had heard his Kirkton, 134. Burnet's History of his Own Times, i. 130. prayers, and delivered him from all his fears; and indeed, the efforts of his friends were chiefly needed to repress his ardent longing for dissolution. The night before his execution, being engaged in settling some of his worldly affairs, his heart became so overpowered with a sense of the love of God that he could not conceal his emotions. "I thought," said he, "to have concealed the Lord's goodness-but it will not do. I am now ordering my worldly affairs, and God is sealing my charter to a better inheritance, and just now saying to me, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee." On repeating these words he burst into tears, and retired to the window to weep there; he then drew near the fire, and made as if he would stir it a little, to conceal his emotions but all would not do; so that, coming up to Mr Hutchison, his chaplain, he said, I think His kindness overcomes me; but God is good to me, that he lets not out too much of it here, for he knows I could not bear it."* ever any was, he might be said to be a true Scotsman." James Guthrie, minister of Stirling, was the next victim. He was a son of the Laird of Guthrie, an ancient and honourable family. His great crime, in the eyes of the Governinent, was in reality the same as that for which Argyle had suffered, his eminent zeal in the cause of the covenanted reformation. He had been a leading and active promoter of the measures taken by the Protesters; but what sealed his doom, was his having been the person selected in 1650 to pronounce the sentence of excommunication against the Earl of Middleton, who was now the king's commissioner. A story is told, though with some variations, of a message having been sent to Mr Guthrie by the king, (some say by a nobleman,) to delay pronouncing this sentence. The messenger arrived on Sabbath morning, as he was putting on his gown to go to church; and the last bell having been rung, Mr Guthrie was perOn taking leave of his friends to go to the plexed, not knowing how to act on such a short scaffold, the noble martyr said, "I could die like notice. My heart," said his wife, "what the a Roman, but choose rather to die as a Christian. Lord gives you light and clearness to do, that do, Come away, gentlemen, he that goes first goes without giving any positive answer to the mescleanliest." On his way out of prison he re-senger." He went, and to the messenger's astoquested an interview with Mr Guthrie, and embraced him in the most affectionate manner. "My lord," said Guthrie, "God hath been with you, he is with you, and will be with you; and such is my respect for your lordship, that, if I were not under sentence of death myself, I could cheerfully die for your lordship!" When on the scaffold he showed the same composure, and spoke at some length with great pertinency. On approaching the Maiden, (the instrument of execution,) Mr Hutchison said, "My lord, now hold your grip sicker;" meaning him to hold fast his confidence in Christ. Argyle answered, "Mr Hutchison, you know what I said, I am not afraid to be surprised by fear." At this awful moment his physician, who happened to touch his pulse, found it beating at its usual rate calm and strong. He kneeled down cheerfully, and giving the signal, which was by lifting up his hand, the loaded knife of the Maiden fell, and struck off his head, which was affixed to the west end of the Tolbooth. This martyrdom took place, May 27, 1661. Thus fell the Marquis of Argyle, whose name and memory still bear the obloquy of the cause in which he suffered. Fain would we stay our narrative, to wipe off the foul slanders that have been heaped on him. We have only room to say, and we do it on the best authority, though in the words of honest Howie of Lochgoin, That he had piety for a Christian, sense for a counsellor, carriage for a martyr, and a soul for a king! If 66 Wodrow states, in his private Diary, that the Rev. Mr Simson having been requested, among others, by Argyle, while in prison, to pray for him, devoted the Sabbath afternoon preceding the execution to that purpose; and while engaged in this duty, in a distant part of the country, he was led to repeat that petition in his behalf with peculiar carnestness eight or nine times, "Lord, say unto him, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee." He could not understand at the time why this petition should have been so impressed on his mind, till he heard the nacident above related, which be regarded as an answer to his prayer. nishment, pronounced the sentence of excomunication. Though the Commission of the Church relaxed Middleton from the sentence shortly after, yet it is believed that he never forgave nor forgot what Mr Guthrie did that day, and that this worthy man fell a sacrifice to his personal revenge. His indictment charged him with various offences, amounting, in the eyes of his adversaries, to the charge of high treason; and, among the rest, his being the author of a piece entitled, "The Causes of the Lord's Wrath ;" and his declining the king's authority as a competent judge of ministe rial doctrine in the first instance. Mr Guthrie's speech in his own defence is one of the most eloquent and triumphant vindications that was ever perhaps made before a court of justice; but neither the acknowledged piety of the man, the innocence of his character, nor the eloquence of his address, had any weight on the minds of judges who were determined that he should suffer, with the view of striking terror into the rest, and paving the way for the innovations which they contemplated. He was condemned "to be hanged at the Cross of Edinburgh as a traitor, on the 1st of June 1661, and thereafter his head to be struck off and affixed on the Netherbow; his estate to be confiscated, and his coat-of-arms torn and reversed; and his children declared incapable, in all time coming, to enjoy any office, dignities, possessions, lands, or goods, moveable or immoveable, or any thing within this kingdom." This dreadful sentence he received with the utmost composure, saying, "My lords, let never this sentence affect you more than it does me; and let never my blood be required of the king's family." This good man seems to have laid his account |