When we had finished our church toilettes, and came into the drawing-room, on the first Sunday morning, I remember that we found Francesca at the window.
“There is a battle, murder, or sudden death going on in the square below,” she said. “I am going to ask Susanna to ask Mrs. M’Collop what it means. Never have I seen such a crowd moving peacefully, with no excitement or confusion, in one direction. Where can the people be going? Do you suppose it is a fire? Why, I believe... it cannot be possible... yes, they certainly are disappearing in that big church on the corner; and millions, simply millions and trillions, are coming in the other direction,—toward St. Knox’s.”
Impressive as was this morning church-going, a still greater surprise awaited us at seven o’clock in the evening, when the crowd blocked the streets on two sides of a church near Breadalbane Terrace; and though it was quite ten minutes before service when we entered, Salemina and I only secured the last two seats in the aisle4, and Francesca was obliged to sit on the steps of the pulpit or seek a sermon elsewhere.
It amused me greatly to see Francesca sitting on pulpit steps, her Paris gown and smart toque in close juxtaposition5 to the rusty6 bonnet7 and bombazine dress of a respectable elderly tradeswoman. The church officer entered first, bearing the great Bible and hymn8-book, which he reverently9 placed on the pulpit cushions; and close behind him, to our entire astonishment10, came the Reverend Ronald Macdonald, evidently exchanging with the regular minister of the parish, whom we had come especially to hear. I pitied Francesca’s confusion and embarrassment11, but I was too far from her to offer an exchange of seats, and through the long service she sat there at the feet of her foe12, so near that she could have touched the hem13 of his gown as he knelt devoutly14 for his first silent prayer.
Perhaps she was thinking of her last interview with him, when she descanted at length on that superfluity of naughtiness and Biblical pedantry15 which, she asserted, made Scottish ministers preach from out-of-the-way texts.
“I have never been able to find my place in the Bible since I arrived,” she complained to Salemina, when she was quite sure that Mr. Macdonald was listening to her; and this he generally was, in my opinion, no matter who chanced to be talking. “What with their skipping and hopping16 about from Haggai to Philemon, Habakkuk to Jude, and Micah to Titus, in their readings, and then settling on seventh Nahum, sixth Zephaniah, or second Calathumpians for the sermon, I do nothing but search the Scriptures17 in the Edinburgh churches,—search, search, search, until some Christian18 by my side or in the pew behind me notices my hapless plight19, and hands me a Bible opened at the text. Last Sunday it was Obadiah first, fifteenth, ‘For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen.’ It chanced to be a returned missionary20 who was preaching on that occasion; but the Bible is full of heathen, and why need he have chosen a text from Obadiah, poor little Obadiah one page long, slipped in between Amos and Jonah, where nobody but an elder could find him?” If Francesca had not seen with wicked delight the Reverend Ronald’s expression of anxiety, she would never have spoken of second Calathumpians; but of course he has no means of knowing how unlike herself she is when in his company.
To go back to our first Sunday worship in Edinburgh. The church officer closed the door of the pulpit on the Reverend Ronald, and I thought I heard the clicking of a lock; at all events, he returned at the close of the services to liberate22 him and escort him back to the vestry; for the entrances and exits of this beadle, or ‘minister’s man,’ as the church officer is called in the country districts, form an impressive part of the ceremonies. If he did lock the minister into the pulpit, it is probably only another national custom, like the occasional locking in of the passengers in a railway train, and may be positively23 necessary in the case of such magnetic and popular preachers as Mr. Macdonald, or the Friar.
I have never seen such attention, such concentration, as in these great congregations of the Edinburgh churches. As nearly as I can judge, it is intellectual rather than emotional; but it is not a tribute paid to eloquence24 alone, it is habitual25 and universal, and is yielded loyally to insufferable dulness when occasion demands.
When the text is announced, there is an indescribable rhythmic26 movement forward, followed by a concerted rustle27 of Bible leaves; not the rustle of a few Bibles in a few pious28 pews, but the rustle of all of them in all the pews,—and there are more Bibles in an Edinburgh Presbyterian church than one ever sees anywhere else, unless it be in the warehouses29 of the Bible Societies.
The text is read twice clearly, and another rhythmic movement follows when the books are replaced on the shelves. Then there is a delightful30 settling back of the entire congregation, a snuggling comfortably into corners and a fitting of shoulders to the pews.—not to sleep, however; an older generation may have done that under the strain of a two-hour ‘wearifu’ dreich’ sermon, but these church-goers are not to be caught napping. They wear, on the contrary, a keen, expectant, critical look, which must be inexpressibly encouraging to the minister, if he has anything to say. If he has not (and this is a possibility in Edinburgh, as it is everywhere else), then I am sure it is wisdom for the beadle to lock him in, lest he flee when he meets those searching eyes.
The Edinburgh sermon, though doubtless softened32 in outline in these later years, is still a more carefully built discourse33 than one ordinarily hears out of Scotland, being constructed on conventional lines of doctrine34, exposition, logical inference, and practical application. Though modern preachers do not announce the division of their subject into heads and sub-heads, firstlies and secondlies and finallies, my brethren, there seems to be the old framework underneath35 the sermon, and every one recognises it as moving silently below the surface; at least, I always fancy that as the minister finishes one point and attacks another the younger folk fix their eagle eyes on him afresh, and the whole congregation sits up straighter and listens more intently, as if making mental notes. They do not listen so much as if they were enthralled36, though they often are, and have good reason to be, but as if they were to pass an examination on the subject afterwards; and I have no doubt that this is the fact.
The prayers are many, and are divided, apparently37, like those of the liturgies38, into petitions, confessions39, and aspirations41; not forgetting the all-embracing one with which we are perfectly42 familiar in our native land, in which the preacher commends to the Fatherly care every animate43 and inanimate thing not mentioned specifically in the foregoing supplications. It was in the middle of this compendious44 petition, ‘the lang prayer,’ that rheumatic old Scottish dames45 used to make a practice of ‘cheengin’ the fit,’ as they stood devoutly through it. “When the meenister comes to the ‘ingetherin’ o’ the Gentiles,’ I ken21 weel it’s time to cheenge legs, for then the prayer is jist half dune,” said a good sermon-taster of Fife.
The organ is finding its way rapidly into the Scottish kirks (how can the shade of John Knox endure a ‘kist o’ whistles’ in good St. Giles’?), but it is not used yet in some of those we attend most frequently. There is a certain quaint46 solemnity, a beautiful austerity, in the unaccompanied singing of hymns47 that touches me profoundly. I am often carried very high on the waves of splendid church music, when the organ’s thunder rolls ‘through vaulted48 aisles’ and the angelic voices of a trained choir49 chant the aspirations of my soul for me; and when an Edinburgh congregation stands, and the precentor leads in that noble paraphrase50,
‘God of our fathers, be the God
Of their succeeding race,’
there is a certain ascetic51 fervour in it that seems to me the perfection of worship. It may be that my Puritan ancestors are mainly responsible for this feeling, or perhaps my recently adopted Jenny Geddes is a factor in it; of course, if she were in the habit of flinging fauldstules at Deans, she was probably the friend of truth and the foe of beauty, so far as it was in her power to separate them.
There is no music during the offertory in these churches, and this, too, pleases my sense of the fitness of things. It cannot soften31 the woe52 of the people who are disinclined to the giving away of money, and the cheerful givers need no encouragement. For my part, I like to sit, quite undistracted by soprano solos, and listen to the refined tinkle53 of the sixpences and shillings, and the vulgar chink of the pennies and ha’pennies, in the contribution-boxes. Country ministers, I am told, develop such an acute sense of hearing that they can estimate the amount of the collection before it is counted. There is often a huge pewter plate just within the church door, in which the offerings are placed as the worshippers enter or leave; and one always notes the preponderance of silver at the morning, and of copper54 at the evening services. It is perhaps needless to say that before Francesca had been in Edinburgh a fortnight she asked Mr. Macdonald if it were true that the Scots continued coining the farthing for years and years, merely to have a piece of money serviceable for church offerings!
As to social differences in the congregations we are somewhat at sea. We tried to arrive at a conclusion by the hats and bonnets55, than which there is usually no more infallible test. On our first Sunday we attended the Free Kirk in the morning, and the Established in the evening. The bonnets of the Free Kirk were so much the more elegant that we said to one another, “This is evidently the church of society, though the adjective ‘Free’ should by rights attract the masses.” On the second Sunday we reversed the order of things, and found the Established bonnets much finer than the Free bonnets, which was a source of mystification to us, until we discovered that it was a question of morning or evening service, not of the form of Presbyterianism. We think, on the whole, that, taking town and country congregations together, millinery has not flourished under Presbyterianism,—it seems to thrive better in the Romish atmosphere of France; but the Disruption at least, has had nothing to answer for in the matter, as it appears simply to have parted the bonnets of Scotland in twain, as Moses divided the Red Sea, and left good and evil on both sides.
I can never forget our first military service at St. Giles’. We left Breadalbane Terrace before nine in the morning and walked along the beautiful curve of street that sweeps around the base of the Castle Rock,—walked on through the poverty and squalor of the High Street, keeping in view the beautiful lantern tower as a guiding-star, till we heard
We joined the throng59 outside the venerable church, and awaited the approach of the soldiers from the Castle parade-ground; for it is from there they march in detachments to the church of their choice. A religion they must have, and if, when called up and questioned about it, they have forgotten to provide themselves, or have no preference as to form of worship, they are assigned to one by the person in authority. When the regiments60 are assembled on the parade-ground of a Sunday morning, the first command is, ‘Church of Scotland, right about face, quick march!’—the bodies of men belonging to other denominations61 standing62 fast until their turn comes to move. It is said that a new officer once gave the command, ‘Church of Scotland, right about face, quick march! Fancy releegions, stay where ye are!’
Just as we were being told this story by an attendant squire63, there was a burst of scarlet64 and a blare of music, and down Castlehill and the Lawnmarket into Parliament Square marched hundreds of redcoats, the Highland65 pipers (otherwise the Olympian gods) swinging in front, leaving the American female heart prostrate66 beneath their victorious67 tread. The strains of music that in the distance sounded so martial68 and triumphant69 we recognised in a moment as ‘Abide with me,’ and never did the fine old tune70 seem more majestic71 than when it marked a measure for the steady tramp, tramp, tramp, of those soldierly feet. As ‘The March of the Cameron Men,’ piped from the green steeps of Castlehill, had aroused in us thoughts of splendid victories on the battlefield, so did this simple hymn awake the spirit of the church militant72; a no less stern but more spiritual soldiership, in which ‘the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.’
As I fell asleep on that first Sunday night in Edinburgh, after the somewhat unusual experience of three church services in a single day, three separate notes of memory floated in and out of the fabric73 of my dreams; the sound of the soldiers’ feet marching into old St. Giles’ to the strains of ‘Abide with me’; the voice of the Reverend Ronald ringing out with manly74 insistence75: ‘It is aspiration40 that counts, not realisation; pursuit, not achievement; quest, not conquest!’—and the closing phrases of the Friar’s prayer; ‘When Christ has forgiven us, help us to forgive ourselves! Help us to forgive ourselves so fully3 that we can even forget ourselves, remembering only Him! And so let His kingdom come; we ask it for the King’s sake, Amen.’
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1
din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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3
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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juxtaposition
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| n.毗邻，并置，并列 | |
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6
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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reverently
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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12
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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hem
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| n.贴边，镶边；vt.缝贴边；(in)包围，限制 | |
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devoutly
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| adv.虔诚地，虔敬地，衷心地 | |
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15
pedantry
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| n.迂腐，卖弄学问 | |
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16
hopping
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| n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式 | |
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scriptures
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| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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19
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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20
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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21
ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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liberate
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| v.解放，使获得自由，释出，放出；vt.解放，使获自由 | |
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23
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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24
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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25
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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rhythmic
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| adj.有节奏的，有韵律的 | |
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rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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28
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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29
warehouses
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| 仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 ) | |
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30
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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31
soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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32
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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36
enthralled
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| 迷住，吸引住( enthrall的过去式和过去分词 )； 使感到非常愉快 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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liturgies
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| n.礼拜仪式( liturgy的名词复数 )；（英国国教的）祈祷书 | |
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confessions
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| n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔 | |
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40
aspiration
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| n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出 | |
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41
aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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42
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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43
animate
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| v.赋于生命，鼓励；adj.有生命的，有生气的 | |
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44
compendious
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| adj.简要的，精简的 | |
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45
dames
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| n.（在英国）夫人（一种封号），夫人（爵士妻子的称号）( dame的名词复数 )；女人 | |
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46
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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47
hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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48
vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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49
choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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50
paraphrase
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| vt.将…释义，改写；n.释义，意义 | |
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51
ascetic
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| adj.禁欲的；严肃的 | |
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52
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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53
tinkle
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| vi.叮当作响；n.叮当声 | |
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54
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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55
bonnets
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| n.童帽( bonnet的名词复数 )；（烟囱等的）覆盖物；（苏格兰男子的）无边呢帽；（女子戴的）任何一种帽子 | |
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56
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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57
jingling
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| 叮当声 | |
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58
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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59
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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denominations
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| n.宗派( denomination的名词复数 )；教派；面额；名称 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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64
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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highland
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| n.(pl.)高地，山地 | |
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66
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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68
martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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69
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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70
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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militant
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| adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士 | |
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73
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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74
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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