SCOTLAND VIEWED FROM CHINA.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 26, 6 January 1864, Page 3

SCOTLAND VIEWED FROM CHINA.

(From the Supplement to the Overland China Mail.) We have before us a. file of Scotch papers, the intelligence contained in which may Ire thus summarised. Both Assemblies have risen, after having indicated by their proceedings the growth, of the Scottish mind during the last twelvemonth. English readers will understand that by the term ."Assemblies " is meant the great convocations of two of the leading religious bodies- — the Church of Scotland and the Free Protesting Church" of Scotland. There is also a United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, a Reformed do, a Synod of Original Seceders, besides Me:hodists, Baptists, Independents, Glassites, Irvinites, and some more; but the two bodies first named are the most prominent and powerful. We should mention, by the way," that as it is considered in Scotland an act of .filial piety to profess the lenets of the sect in which one was brought up, the different sects receive few recruits from each other's ranks, and it is more difficult to convert a United Presbyterian — (the body lately passed an act forbidding the use of the, letters f* U.P." as applied- 10 them — fact)— to the principles of the Church of Scotland than it is to convert a Chinaman to Christianity. Baptists are as hard of conversion as Mahommedans, so that a converted Raptist is a rara avis. To return — The mental growth of Scotland has beeu indinnted at the meetings of the Assemblies. The people are getting sick of the Sunday question. When churchyards were closed lest the Sundayshould be desecrated by friends visiting the graves of departed frields and paying their respects t<» the monumental tablets on which were inscribed the virtues of the deceased, people began to feel that they were in the hands, not of Christian ministers, but of mem-minded petty tyrants. So it happened thai when one of th« committees on Sabbath desecration gave in its report to the General Assembly, one or two clergymen of respeciability asked why committees should be appointed to watch over the fourth commandment, while the seventh, for example," was hft to t.tk« its course. Why should the oh-er a.-jc* of one commandment be the ohj«<:f of Much special solicitude I The fact i- rlj.it the Sabbath has long been held ever the iea^U of the people of .Scotland in f.errnrcm It has been used for tyrannical purposes, an-' any man was considered 10 hay« a duvet r'ght from Heaven to iel>uke his nei^hbo.for taking a stroll on a Sunday. In short, the S:ibb;ith in Scotland has the force of a terrible 'Chinese' - dragon that must be propitiated by the offering of meats and the burning of false piper mo'iey. The devotee must not whistle on thai day, or read secular books; he must not «alk abroad for pleasure, or in fart do anything for pleasure ; laughter is unseemly in the dragon's presence; the worshipper may drive to church in tig, but he ma-t not go anywhere by railway ; he may walk in his own ga dens, if he is rirh enough to pos sess them, but he roust forbid the opening on Sabbath of public gaidens, in w, ich his poorer brethern may wander. The dragon is supposed to be propitiated by the assumption of a solemn countenance, and the repression of buoyant spirits ; the incessant study of the classics during that day is the more meritorious if it be carried on in spite of the students weariness. One of the clergymen tried to fight the dragon lately, by reviving tin old maxim which the dragon's priests abhor. He said fhat the Sabbath was m«de for man, not man for the Sabbath — a text so plain that nothing short of a sermon can muffle its meaning. It bothers the dragon's priests very much, and ihey have great difficult.; in preaching its meaning atvay. Turning from this bug : ear we come to Popery. The Popery committees of both Assemblies gave in their reports and asked for more money. The members travel about the country first-class, smelJing carefully for signs of Popery. Some of them have fine noses for the man of sin, and fancy they know the mark of his mocassins anywhere. It is delicious. 1 innovations in worship form another enemy to be overcome bya section of the clergy., These innovations consist in stand iug up while singing, and sitting or kneeling at prayer. It appears that such congregations as "please -'adopt the innovation, and v ask the others to stop them if they can. r C»3ar cannot be appealed to, and a policeman vouid fail to intimidate a congregation of innovation. A. maii of the name of Candlish, a Doctor of Divinity, has just discovered that*' a cairn, erected by Her Majesty, on Deeside r tO the menioiy of her husband, has an inscriptionupo.n it from the Apocry pha j-Me says .it is too bad, being an insult to , Bible-loving Scotland. The impudent creature had actually the shamelessriess to say this publicly at a meeting of Assembly. He had dined, we fancy, and thought he would jHo John Knox rebuking Queen Mary. l - "'■"'"■■ It appears that the Free Church and the U.P.s are going to join against the common enemy— the Church of Scotland, which is thriving. It is felt to be a waste Of money havi ng co- many: (burches, aad the people won't pay up. The Free Church can't give their clergy more than Ll3O a ryear, and the consequence is that a low stamp of miriistersis rising up, to whom, even that sum is an attraction. The Disruption of 1843 has been a^fajlure in its main design, though ifc has done good in opening people's eyes' to tha folly; et" i hose . bursts ; of sectarian frenzy 'Which-.', have created 'so many bodies of religionists, -lo : the ; «candal,bf;wligio'n.iise^ ; : - .