to the Rev. Professor Duff in St Columba's Church. Dr Hislop's attainments as a preacher brought him into prominence in the Church, and led, on the retirement of the Rev. Dr John Kerr, to his being invited to give a course of lectures in the Divinity Hall, Edinburgh, on pastoral theology. This was followed in 1892 by his appointment as Professor of Practical Training. Two years later he was honoured by his Alma Mater with the degree of Doctor of Divinity. On the union of the United Presbyterian and Free Churches in 1900 the staffs of

passed but he was preaching in some place or other. This continuous strain cannot but have told on a constitution that was never very robust, but Dr Hislop was intensely in earnest and willing to be spent in the service of his Master. Apart from his lectures and sermons and occasional contributions to theological magazines, Dr Hislop did not do much in the way of literary writing. Of a kindly and obliging spirit, of an unobtrusive and unostentatious disposition, and withal of a social temperament and taking a deep interest in all social

the College were re-arranged, and Dr Hislop and Dr Orr were removed to Glasgow to strengthen the staff there, which had become depleted by the recent loss of Professor James Candlish and Professor Alexander Bruce. In Glasgow, Dr Hislop took the Chair of Pastoral Theology and Christian Ethics, and continued to discharge the duties of the post till his death with great acceptance to the students and with advantage to the Church at large. Devoted to the work of the Church, Dr Hislop not only gave of his best to the students under his care, but he also throughout all his professional career willingly placed his services at the disposal of his clerical brethren, and seldom a Sunday

questions and problems, Dr Hislop was held in very high esteem by large circles of friends both in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Whilst resident in Edinburgh he was an elder in Rosehall Church, the Rev. Dr William Morison's, and in Glasgow he was connected with Claremont Church, of which the Rev. Adam C. Welch (who belongs to Galashiels), who was his successor in Helensburgh, is now the pastor. He was married in 1877, and is survived by his wife and three sons and five daughters. One of his sons is preparing for the ministry of the United Free Church, and two are medical students.

W. D. S.

The Restoration of Yarrow Kirk.

M

ANY of our readers will be aware that the Rev. Robert Borland, F.S.A. (Scot.), minister of Yarrow, and popular lecturer and author, has set himself the task of restoring his church in such manner that the building will be beautified and rendered more commodious than it is at present. All who know Yarrow and its genial pastor will wish him Godspeed in his praiseworthy enterprise, and we trust that loval Borderers all over the world will give him such tangible support that his task will be brought to a speedy and successful issue. That the subject of Yarrow and its kirk is a more important one than is generally supposed, can be seen from the following quotation from a sermon delivered by Mr Borland on 17th December, 1905, in Titwood Par ish Church, Glasgow. Taking for his text, "Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion : For the time to favour her, yea, the set time is For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof " (Psalm ci., 13, 14), the preacher drew a picture of the condition of the Jews during the captivity in Babylon, and after proving that religion lies at the root of all true national life, he said:

come.

The aspect of Yarrow which has been most prominently before the public mind has been its poetical one. Yarrow is the centre of a great body of ballad literature—a literature not unworthy to be compared with the Homeric legends. We know not who the writers of these ballads were. Probably they were produced not by any individual, but by the community as a whole. Be this as it may, there can be no question as to their great merit. But the religious history of Yarrow, like that of almost every other parish in Scotland, is full of significance.

To begin with, it is worthy of note that Yarrow in pre-Christian times had evidently been an important centre of the Druidical worship. We have numerous standing stones in the parish, three of them in the immediate neighbourhood of the church, a Druid circle on the heights of Blackhouse, and other remains of the ancient heathen worship. According to Cæsar, Druidism attained its most perfect development in North Britain, and it would almost seem as if in the heart of the Old Ettrick Forest its fanes were more numerous than in any other part of the surrounding country. We are naturally prone to think lightly of every form of heathen religion, and rightly so,

perhaps, when we compare any of these forms with Christianity-they are as starlight unto sunlight, or as water unto wine-but they are very important and full of significance notwithstanding. .. Druidism had its purpose and place and function in the divine economy, and was a preparation for the higher spiritual thought and life by which it was superseded. It is interesting also to remember that the Druid circles were the first places of Christian worship in this country. Evangelists like St Ninian and your own St Kentigern, the founder of your city, the inspirer of its civic life, consecrated these circles, and gathered around them and within them those who had been converted to Christ, that they might there offer their sacrifices of prayer and thanksgiving. Indeed, it is almost certain that the phrase, Al Kirk' is derived from the Druids. It is not Old Kirk or Auld Kirk,' but Al Kirk,' as the common people still pronounce it, and which meant stone kirk or circle. The fact is, down to the present day you find in some parts of the country Druid circles which are still called "A1 Kirks.':

When we come to Christian times we find in the history of Yarrow not a few notable phenomena. In a field not far from Yarrow Kirk there stands one of the earliest Christian monuments in this country. It dates back to the close of the sixth century. It was discovered 102 years ago, and its appearance created much interest at the time. Sir Walte. Scott, Mungo Park, Dr John Leyden, and others tried to decipher the inscription on it. which is cut in rude Roman characters on a somewhat rough and unequal surface, but with indifferent success. It has taken nearly a hundred years to make it out, but the significance of the inscription has well repaid the trouble and effort involved in the decipherment. It runs thus-"To the memory of the most illustrious Prince Dudus, of the Dumnogeni. Here in the tomb lie the two sons of Liberalis." The information thus conveyed seems meagre indeed, but there is more in it than appears at first sight. Let me put the facts before you as briefly as possible. First of all, in the neighbourhood of this inscribed stone, which is generally called the "Liberalis Stone," there is a ditch known as the Catrail, which runs from Peel Fell (on the Cheviots) to Galashiels, a distance of forty-five miles, and is regarded by antiquaries as the old boundary line between the Britons of Strathclyde and the Angles of Bernicia. In the second place, towards the close of the sixth

century a great battle was fought here between the Angles and the Britons, in which the Britons gained a decisive victory. In the third place, the King of the Britons at that time was Roderick Hael, who, in "The Four Books of Wales," is called Nud, and who was known as the generous or liberal. Now, this Roderick Hael was the friend and protector of St. Mungo, and rendered an important service to Christianity in Scotland by recalling him from Wales, to which country he had been driven by the hostility of a former king. He not only asked him to return to take up the work he

traversed the greater part of the South of Scotland in prosecuting his great evangelisticmission. Many years afterwards St. Cuthbert, the prior of Melrose, ministered in spiritual things to the inhabitants of our district, and it is just possible that not until his time were the people fully brought under the influence of the Gospel of Christ. But it is only when we come down to the beginning of the thirteenth century that we come upon authentic history, so far as the Church in Yarrow is concerned. St. Mary's Church, standing on the shore of the lake to which it

has given its name, was in the diocese of Glasgow, and was for many generations a centre of spiritual light and moral influence. There were at least a covey of six chapels scattered over а wide district in connection with the Mother Church, and in this way an effort was made to bring religious ordinances within easy reach of the whole body of the parishioners. It was in one of these chapels where, tradition says, Sir William Wallace was made Governor of Scotland. He had begun his great work in the West, and he came down to have a conference with the Border chiefs, who, after hearing

his statements and discussing the situation in all its bearings, recognised him as the Warden of the country, and sent him away with their blessing. It is an interesting circumstance that the bell of Yarrow Kirk was taken from the chapel of Deuchar, which disappeared shortly after the Reformation, and it still calls the people to worship Sunday after Sunday.

were

It was at Philiphaugh, on the banks of the Yarrow, where the troops of the gallant Montrose scattered to the winds by the redoubtable David Leslie in the autumn of 1645. Montrose at one time had been an ardent Covenanter, and what induced him to desert the cause of the Covenant and go over to the Royalists is still a matter of uncertainty. But the fact remains, and but for the signal disaster which befell his arms at Philiphaugh the subsequent history of Scotland and of the United Kingdom might have been very different from what it is.

of an earlier time disappeared; prayers ceased to be read in the Scottish Church, as was the custom for nearly a hundred years after the Reformation, and the service generally became bald and uninteresting. And the prevailing spirit of the Church was reflected in the buildings which were erected for the worship of God. These were for the most part barn-like structures, devoid alike of the graces of But art and the elements of comfort.

a change has come over the spirit of our dream, and there may be a tendency, as is the case in all reactions, to go too far in an opposite direction. We can only hope and pray that the native reticence and sobriety of the Scottish people may prevent their rushing to extremes.

men

was

no doubt marred by many regrettable incidents; but what great movement has ever been free from such defects? When the are roused things are passions of said and done that cannot very well be justified when the storm has blown past. But we think the Covenanters were altogether right in their main contention. Laud's Prayerbook may be all that its admirers claim for it, and I confess that I have not found much in it with which I seriously disagree, but that the king should have ordered this book to be used in the Scottish Church, on pain of horning, was an outrage on religion and common sense. We were a free people, not a nation of serfs, and we had bought our liberty with a great price, and if our forefathers had meekly yielded to the imperious and unrighteous demands of Charles I. none of our liberties would have been safe, cr, indeed, worth possessing. And the result has more than justified the deed. It is to the Covenanters in very large measure that we owe the civil and religious liberties which are the glory of our country, and of the Anglo-Saxon race. One may say all this and yet be keenly alive to the evils which were more or less associated with the movement. The brighter the light, the deeper the shadow. The effect of this struggle upon our Church life is felt even to the present day. The seemly ritual

In the year 1640, four years before the battle of Philiphaugh, the present church in Yarrow was erected. It was brought down from St. Mary's, eight miles further up the parish, in order to be more in the centre of the district. The building remains practically On the end of the south wall there is a dial plate with the appropriate motto inscribed on it, "Watch and pray. Time is short." And at the side of the dial are the initials "M. J. F. M.,” The church Magister John Fisher, Minister. has an interesting history. Shortly after the Revolution, when Presbyterianism had at last come to its own, the Rev. Dr John Rutherford was ordained minister of the parish. He was a man of many gifts and graces, and for a considerable period played a large part in the life of the valley, and throughout the Border country. His son, Professor Rutherford, one of the first to bring the medical school of Edinburgh into European fame, composed the inscription on the mural tablet in the north wall of the church which was erected to his father's memory. It is written in Latin, and may thus be translated-"To the memory of the Rev. Dr John Rutherford, minister of Yarrow, most upright and most vigilant.

was

"And to Robert, his son, in his fourth Christiana Shaw, his mourning wife, year. Died careful to erect this monument. May 8, 1710, in the 19th year of his ministry and 69th of his age." Then follows this beautiful apostrophe

"Thou wast a faithful pastor, a beloved brother, a sure friend, a gentle master, a genial husband and father. Having laid aside the office of an upright and pure life, thou hast yielded to the Father. Thy years passed happily, O thrice blessed! Thy fame is above