[8] Puzzles.
CORN AND CHAFF.
The services in the “Meetin’-house,” the local name of the Secession Church, occupied without interval fully three hours, and included a lecture and a sermon of at least an hour each. In order to suit the Free Church, these were begun at ten o’clock, and ours at one. This put Mr. Morrison to the serious difficulty of condensing his services. For the first two Sabbaths he did not manage this. As he had proposed that the Free Church should meet at one o’clock, he was remonstrated with very plainly by some of his people. Robert Gunn, a forward “body,” had suggested the means: “Just dicht [sift] yer corn better, and leave less chaff in’t.”
On the third Sabbath he got through in about two hours and a half, and kept thereafter rather within that limit, although not without having often to say, “Did time permit, I would have proceeded,” etc., or, “The brief space of time at my disposal prevents me from entering on the full illustration of my next head, but I may say in a word—.” That was an ominous expression, and the result often proved it an inconsistent one, as the “word,” or “one word more,” seldom occupied less than fifteen minutes. “Lastly, and very briefly,” was another term contradicted by the sequel.
The shorter service was a comfortable change for those whose uneasy task it was to keep their children “behaving themselves” in the church. James Spence, whose regular remark to his neighbours on their road home had been, “He said a great deal, really he said a very great deal,” gave as his opinion that “he really thocht that there was less skailt noo that the kirk skailed sooner,[9] for even yet there was a great deal said that we couldna carry home, and mair that we didna carry oot; and wi’ the bairns no’ bein’ sae fashious through no’ bein’ sae lang in, we could attend better.”
[9] “There was less spilt now that the church was dismissed sooner.”
The Free Church services in the Meeting-house were well attended. Many of the Seceders joined in them, and confessed with shame that their sectarian bitterness towards the principle of a church establishment had extended to its ministers, on whom they had looked uncharitably as “Samaritans,” with whom they could have no dealings, and they were surprised to find Mr. Barrie so excellent. Maggie Gunn told her father “that yon minister preached as well as Mr. Morrison, only far better.” Mr. Barrie became a favourite with them; although, to the honour of all parties be it told, that no one left the Secession to join the Free Church on that account. Between Mr. Morrison and himself, as well as between the office-bearers and congregations, there existed the most cordial relationships, and the interchange of pleasant communion and fellowship. I look back with so much delight to the sympathy and help we got in the beginning of our way from our Secession friends, that I fear I have been, to use Robert Gunn’s phrase, “a wee tedious.”
THE NEW PARISH MINISTER.
Mr. Walker of Middlemoor was Mr. Barrie’s successor in the parish church of Blinkbonny. In making application to Sir John McLelland for the living, he was very honest in telling his motives, viz. that the stipend was larger, and the manse and glebe were better; and his family were growing up, and he would like to get settled in a place where he could get openings for the older ones, schooling for the younger ones, and where they could all come home at night; and he would be very much obliged to Sir John if he would present him to Blinkbonny. And he was presented and inducted in due form and time.
He was a kind-hearted, stout, canny man, of moderate abilities as a scholar and preacher. His parish of Middlemoor was a small one, in a pastoral and moorland district, thinly peopled. It had a large glebe of indifferent land, which he cultivated diligently to eke out his small stipend. He was quite as good at farming as preaching, and had, on Mr. Barrie’s suggestion, been Bell’s adviser in the purchase or sale of cows, sheep, or pigs. Even on the subject of poultry he was at home, as he made his son keep a “hen journal,” partly as a lesson in book-keeping, and partly as a practical application of the inspired proverb, which was often in his mouth, “Be diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.”