"I praise God that I was born in such a time as in the light of the gospel, and in such a place as to be king in such a Kirk, the sincerest Kirk in all the world. The Kirk of Geneva keepeth Pasch and Yule, and what have they for them?-they have no institutions. As for our neighbour Kirk in England, their service is an ill-said mass in English. They want nothing of the mass but the liftings. I charge you, my good people-ministers, doctors, elders, nobles, gentlemen and barons-to stand to your purity; and I, forsooth, so long as I brook my life and crown, shall maintain the same against all deadly."

The Assembly were in transports, and for a quarter of an hour nothing was heard but praising God and praying for the king. It was honeymoon with the king and honeymoon with the Kirk; but, alas! the poor Kirk afterward found occasion to sigh with the afflicted husband: "For six months after my marriage I thought I should have devoured my darling wife, and ever since I have been very sorry that I did not."

For the present, however, all was bright. Zion had shaken herself from the clutches of her foes, and her face was radiant with peace and hope. And now old "Bishop" Adamson, the able and

virulent enemy of his Church, deprived of support by the transfer of the revenues of his bishopric to the Crown, reduced to poverty and neglected by the king, of whose worst measures he had always been a warm advocate, tortured by remorse and wasted by immoralities, recanted his episcopal sentiments, confessed sorrow for his sins, and drew out the rest of his miserable life in dependence upon the charities of Andrew Melville, whom he had often and bitterly persecuted.

"GOD'S SILLY VASSAL”

When the Church becomes entangled in unholy alliance with the State-unless, as in England, it sinks to passive vassalage-its history is sure to be chequered by harrassing conflicts of jurisdiction which mislead her judgment, embitter her temper, waste her time and impair her energies.

Graham, of Hallyards, was accused of certain fraudulent transactions which exposed him to censure as a minister of the gospel and to trial and punishment as a citizen. Under the former phase of the case, the Assembly arraigned him, as it was their right and duty to do. Under the latter, the State arraigned him, as was its right and duty. It would seem as if there were here no room for col

lision; but each asserted priority of jurisdiction in the case-the Church, that as a minister Graham must first come before them; and the Court that, as a subject he must first appear at their tribunal. In this, undoubtedly, both were in the wrong. Both Church and State had the right to act at their own convenience; nor need the judgment of the one, whatever it might be or whenever given, prevent the other from either passing the accused through an impartial trial or from inflicting a penalty according to the verdict. The Assembly, however, maintained its own claims and passed upon the matter, and then the Court of Sessions tried the cause in their own way.

A

During the absence of the king the Church and nation had peace; on his return the latter was rent with civil broils, giving reason for a wish that James might have frequent occasion to go abroad, and that his return might not be hastened. fierce quarrel arose between the wicked Huntly and “the bonnie earl of Murray," the handsomest man of his age and son of the "Good Regent." Blood flowed freely, and the silly king, instead of quelling the disorder, spent his time in the discovery, arrest and examination of witches, and burning them. One of the witches accused Both

well, and the king had him arrested. Bothwell escaped, and, raising a party, attacked the palace,

but was driven off.

Huntly told James that

Murray was among the with a troop to arrest Murray, killed him. The next morning James set out a-hunting as if nothing had happened, but such was the general indignation that he sent for some of the ministers and protested to them his innocence in the matter. They replied that he might clear himself by promptly punishing the real offenders. But his indolence in the matter only increased the general indignation. And now in his perils the cowardly king threw himself into the arms of the Church, which saw that the time had come to insist on reformation and formal release from some of their burdens. The Assembly accordingly drew up articles embodying their requests, and presented them to the king, at the same time begging him to enter upon a path of righteous dealing, that thus he might avert the wrath of God.

assailants, and, setting off

When the Parliament met it ratified the General Assemblies, synods, presbyteries and sessions of the Church, declaring them, with the jurisdiction and discipline belonging to them, to be thenceforth just, good and godly-all statutes, acts and laws,

canon, civil or municipal, to the contrary notwithstanding. It ratified and embodied also some of the leading propositions of the Second Book of Discipline. It ordained that General Assemblies be held once a year, or oftener as occasion might call; the time and place of meeting to be named by the king or his commissioner, or, in case of their absence, by the Assembly itself. It gave into the hands of the Church all matters of doctrine and discipline according to the Word of God. It declared the act of Parliament, granting commissions to men as bishops, and other judges in ecclesiastical causes, appointed by the king, to be null and void; and ordained that patrons should present their candidates to presbyteries, who were not to reject those they deemed fitted for the office and should the presbytery refuse to induct a qualified minister the presentee, might retain the income of the benefice in his own hands. And this act Hetherington pronounces the great charter of the Church of Scotland.

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We, in our land and day, while taking into account the peculiarly difficult position of our venerable fathers of the Scottish Church, yet cannot look without impatience and vexation on the scene where the Church accepts with thankfulness, at the