‘In Scotland’s altar service
All churches must unite.’
“That’s ane o’ Bishop Coxe’s ‘Christian Ballads,’ and it’s gaun to come true yet.”
“Is he no an American bishop, Uncle William?”
“Aye, thae words o’ his express the loving gratitude of the great American church to the poor disestablished Scottish church for her gift of an apostolic ministry and an apostolic form of worship. The Scottish Episcopal church has a noble history, and although so long as there was a Stuart left many of her members were true to the old family, they are now most loyal subjects of the Hanover dynasty. They are doing a grand work for God and the church, and if they will only ‘bide their time in patience’ God will bring unity and order out of the trials and disorders of the past.”
We sat long by the ingle nook, and the old man glowed with enthusiasm as he gave me just the information I craved.
I was gradually gaining an insight into the cause of religious division in Scotland, and the more I heard about the “Gentle Persuasion” the more was I drawn to admire their constancy and devotion.
IV. The Parting of the Ways
I AM sitting on a seat by the roadside at Bendochy in Manitoba, enjoying to the full a glorious August day. Over head the sky is a great vault of blue, without the speck of a cloud in it; in front of me the Assiniboine is making its way round the beautiful wooded bend, which seems from my seat as it were an island in one of our Scottish lakes; the woods around me are alive with the chirp of grasshoppers and the song of birds; a pert little squirrel is eyeing me very suspiciously from a hole in an old tree. The peacefulness is most comforting. It is a veritable paradise.