moned the congregation to the place of prayer.
It was a congregation of all classes, for in Scotland the Reformed
doctrine made its way among the great and the lowly alike. Writing in
1641, a refutation of the charge made in England against the Scotch
that they "had no certain rule or direction for their public worship,
but that every man, following his extemporary fancy, did preach or pray
what seemed good in his own eyes," Alexander Henderson thus describes
in his reply the congregation in a Scotch Church: "When so many of all
sorts, men and women, masters and servants, young and old, as shall
meet together, are assembled, the public worship beginneth." In the
early days of Presbyterianism the rich and the poor met together,
realizing that the Lord was the Maker of them both.

The congregation assembled in a Church building that was plain in its
interior, the plainness being emphasized, and at times rendered
unsightly, by reason of the removal of the statues and pictures which
in pre-Reformation times had decorated the walls and pillars. The
building was, however, as required by the Book of Discipline, rendered
comfortable and suitable for purposes of worship. It was ordered,
"lest that the Word of God and ministration of the Sacraments by
unseemliness of the place come into contempt," there should be made
"such preparation within as appertaineth as well to the majesty of the
Word of God as unto the ease and commodity of the people." Such wise
words indicate on the part of our Scottish ancestors an appreciation in
their day of what is all too often even in these happier and more
enlightened times, forgotten--the importance of having a Church
building in keeping with the greatness of the cause to which it has
been dedicated, and at the same time suitable and convenient for the
purposes of public worship. The narrowness which would forbid beauty
and artistic decoration and the pride which would sacrifice comfort and
convenience for the sake of appearance, were both avoided. At one end
of the building stood a pulpit, beside it, or within it, a basin or
font for use in the administration of the Sacrament of Baptism, and in
the part where formerly the altar had stood, tables were placed for use
in the observance of the Lord's Supper; at the end of the Church
opposite to the pulpit was placed a stool of repentance, an article
frequently in use in an age when Church discipline was vigorously
administered. Pews were a