ch, and, though no member of the Establishment
himself, declaims warmly in its behalf. Certain it is, that from the
Establishment, as now constituted, he can have nothing to fear, and
the people nothing to hope.

After what manner may his Grace the Duke of Sutherland be most
effectually met in this matter, so that the cause of toleration and
freedom of conscience may be maintained in the extensive district
which God, in His providence, has consigned to his stewardship? We
shall in our next chapter attempt giving the question an answer.
Meanwhile, we trust the people of Sutherland will continue, as
hitherto, to stand firm. The strong repugnance which they feel against
being driven into churches which all their better ministers have left,
is not ill founded. No Church of God ever employs such means of
conversion as those employed by his Grace: they are means which have
been often resorted to for the purpose of making men worse, never yet
for the purpose of making them better. We know that, with their
long-formed church-going habits, the people must feel their now silent
Sabbaths pass heavily; but they would perhaps do well to remember,
amid the tedium and the gloom, that there were good men who not only
anticipated such a time of trial for this country, but who also made
provision for it. Thomas Scott, when engaged in writing his
Commentary, used to solace himself with the belief that it might be of
use at a period when the public worship of God would be no longer
tolerated in the land. To the great bulk of the people of Sutherland
that time seems to have already come. They know, however, the value of
the old divines, and have not a few of their more practical treatises
translated into their own expressive tongue: Alleine's _Alarm_,
Boston's _Fourfold State_, Doddridge's _Rise and Progress_, Baxter's
_Call_, Guthrie's _Saving Interest_. Let these, and such as these, be
their preachers, when they can procure no other. The more they learn
to relish them, the less will they relish the bald and miserable
services of the Residuary Church. Let them hold their fellowship and
prayer meetings; let them keep up the worship of God in their
families; the cause of religious freedom in the district is involved
in the stand which they make. Above all, let them possess their souls
in patience. We are not unacquainted with the Celtic character, as
developed in the Highlands of Scotland. Highlanders, up to a certain
point, are the most do