Mr. McTaggart expressed his apologies, and there was a lull in the conversation.
"You have quite a fine church," said the Chief, after a time, addressing the Scottish pastor.
"Yes," he replied, "we are indebted to our host for that church. He built it at his own expense while the masons of the public works were awaiting orders from the War Department in England, to widen the locks."
"Why did you call it after St. Andrew?" said the Chief. "I never could understand why Scotchmen seem to have a monopoly of that saint, and Episcopalians a monopoly of the name of Christ, and Roman Catholics of St. Peter and St. Joseph, in naming their churches. St. Andrew was one of the least known of the honored twelve, and why he should have gained and retained such a grip of Scotland and her scattered children is a mystery to me."
"There, Mr. Cruikshanks," said the Laird, "is a problem for you to solve, for I must admit it is a question beyond my ken."
"The only reason that I can find why St. Andrew is so closely connected with Scotland," replied Mr. Cruikshanks, whose speech was not a little infected with the dialect of southern Scotland, but is here rendered in modern English for the sake of the readers, "is found in most ancient history—it may be legendary. It is this:
"Faithful to the farewell commission of his Master, whom he saw ascend from the brow of Olivet and received into heaven, Andrew spent his missionary life in Scythia and Achaia, and in Patræ, one of its principal cities, he founded a branch of the Church, the success of which brought down upon him the vengeance of the heathen governor, who caused him to be crucified. He was tied to a cross of olive wood in the form of the letter X. He endured the prolonged agonies of hunger and thirst and pain for many days, until at last the strong heart gave its last beat and his spirit fled to the side of the glorified Christ.
"A woman of wealth and rank obtained possession of the body. The congregation with sorrowing hearts buried it in the little church. There it lay in undisturbed repose during the long stretch of three hundred years.
"Wholesale massacres swept myriads of Christians into martyr graves until a Christian emperor came to the throne, who ordered a great and gorgeous temple to be erected in memory of the apostle in Constantinople.
"Constantine commanded the presiding presbyter"——