"A. K. H. B.'S" LATEST REMINISCENCES.*

THE now venerable but indefatigable writer of this work has produced one or two livelier books, but none more interesting

from the personal point of view, and none more calculated to directly affect the reader. "A. K. H. B." has written thirty odd volumes, but he has never been in the habit of wearing his heart—or, for that matter, his creed—upon his sleeve.

But in this book, which is suffused with the spirit of sunt lachrymx rerum, he creeps nearer, so to speak, to a sympathetic audience. His change of attitude appears in the very first page in which he writes :—" The light is failing faster than one would wish. But something must be written

to-night, and written by daylight, before setting one's face to the evening rest, changed utterly, like everything else, to this lonely writer now." In the course of the volume, the reader learns to grasp the full meaning of this allusion, and to under- stand that Dr. Boyd's standpoint is that of a man who not only lost his devoted helpmeet while he himself was stricken down by what threatened to be a fatal illness, but he lost also his most intimate friend—the late Bishop Thorold of Winchester —to whom he went for moral support during his affliction. It would not have been possible for Dr. Boyd to have touched with more of truly Christian stoicism on the greatest miss- fortune of his life :-

" I had carefully planned everything for my own laying to rest ; and for making things smooth to her when I was gone. Should the anxious morning come (and very many have come) it will be something to think, Nothing can vex her now. And how she bore

• The I ast Years of St, Andrews, September, 1890, to September, 1895, By the Author of " Twenty-five Years of St. Andrews." Lond.n : Longman•, Green, and Co. 1996.

things ; keeping them from one who never could learn them as she did. Aye, she lived and died for others, as Christ did himself. Nothing I could write can express what that time was. So it is best to be silent."

He mourns the death of Bishop Thorold also, but as he does so there is a flaah of the old spirit :—

" A big English prelate said to Bishop Thorold, You must make that great friend of yours a good Anglican.' But the Bishop replied without a smile, "I confirmed and married his daughter. I ordained his son Deacon and Priest. He is not far from the Kingdom. He knows the Church of England just as well as you or L He had me beside him when he was Moderator of the Kirk: Never far from Bishop Thorold indeed. Miles untold nearer to him than to some blatant spouters in my own Assembly, now re- moved. And where he is now, though I cannot see or hear him for the present hour, nearer to him than ever."

But although there is of necessity an atmosphere of pathos hanging over this latest volume by the Country Parson—for, in spite of Dr. Jessopp, " A. K. H. B." is still the Country Parson par excellence—it must not be understood that there is any falling off in what have come to be universally recognised as his characteristics. It is as full of spiritual shrewdness, pleasant anecdotes, slightly-veiled sarcasm, and an agree- able egotism which is not vanity as any of its prede- cessors. Dr. Boyd has not, indeed, so many stories to tell, as in previous books, of his brother ministers of the Church of Scotland, and for the good reason that he has already exhausted what he has to say of them. Besides, the period that is embraced in this book is a comparatively limited one, —the five years between 1890 and 1895. But be introduces into it many fresh reminiscences of men whom he came across at various periods of his life. Perhaps the most notable of these is Mr. Fronde, who died in 1894. Dr. Boyd, who had been for many years intimate with him, tells many things out of his own experience which are probably un- familiar. Take, for example, this :— " Seeing. Fronde at considerable intervals of time, I was much impressed by the way in which his views changed, and that in regard to the gravest matters. I could give extremely striking instances ; but I will not. But I may say that the two things which, to such as this writer, are the vital foundation of all belief, are the doctrines of a Personal God and a Future Life. And I may add that as time went on, Froude drew ever nearer to the orthodox faith. At St. Andrews he said that he approved the Scottish way which makes the sermon so outstanding. The sermon was a reality ; it was a human being saying to his fellows. 'Here is something which I have found out and believe; what do you think of it?' And yet he added that as you ask God's blessing before beginning your sermon and hope to get it, a sermon is not quite to be sat in judgment on like a newspaper article or an ordinary speech. As for worship, the frequent statement was that it tended (unless carefully watched) first to Idolatry and next to Sorcery. One sees the grain of truth here."

Here is Fronde in two very different moods, and one of them, to our thinking, his worst :- " It was very like Fronde to conclude the most sorrowful letter I ever got from him, But once more, Thank you. And pardon me for telling,you so sad a story.' Indeed it was as sad as was ever told by man. And it made one think very seriously. Also very like-Fronde to say, The other day I met Newman walking in the Park, attended on by several. Every movement of the man made,you feel you• couldn't believes word he said' So com- pletely were the ep.rly ties ;broken. And so strong was the moral disapproval of one whom he regarded as having done an evil work. in a not quite-honest way. We all know Newman never quite liked Fronde."

Dr. Boyd, as has already been said, does not give so many humorous anecdotes, even of Scotch ministers in this volume, as he has given in some of its predecessors. Yet it is by no means devoid of such. Thus :-

"Long ago, when Dr. Blair was minister of the High Kirk of Edinbugh, he had quite the most cultivated congregation in Scotland. It is the fashion now to run Blair down. But he had his day, And even. Samuel Johnson, bitter against Presbytery, declared that Blair's sermon on Cornelius, a Devout Man,' was the best he ever read. Once, an extremely homely old Highland minister came to Edinburgh, and Dr. Blair somehow had to ask him to preach. The congregation never forget his sermon. Neither did Dr. Blair. There was a crowd of all the refinement of the Scottish metropolis ; and there was the elegant Dr. Blair himself. The sermon was upon the duty of Humeeliahtion. And now, ma' freens in the Thairteenth place, I sail proceed to set before you a Thairteenth reason for Humeeliahtion. And it sail be a reason taken from the Sheeance o' Anawtomy. We are informed, by them as is skeeled in the Sheeance o' Anawtomy, that we have got aw the Paddns of a Soo but een. Now I ask you aw, if we have got aw the Paddns of a Soo but een, if that is no a Thairteenth reason for Humeeliahtion, and a reason taken from the Sheeance o' Anawtomy.'"

An allusion to the late Master' of Balliol is also worth repro- clueing, not so much for what is said of Dr. Jowett, as for the admirable illustration it gives of "A. K. H. B.'s" style :-

" As I write the name, I look towards the fire-place, and I see the smooth, rosy, cherubic face of that groat man as he stands on the rug, and talks more than he sometimes did. The last time he was in this room, his parting words were, " I can't preach on Sunday. I must go to-morrow. Even if I could stay, I have not a sermon with me. But I will preach next time I come.' It was not to be. But he preached more than once in the pariah church of Elie, on the other coast of Fife. And Bishop Claughton of St. Albans was much scandalised by his treatment of his text. Fur- ther, instead of preaching as we do even when we read our sermons, with the manuscript spread out before us, and looking at the congregation just as much as if preaching extempore, the great Jewett not merely held his sermon in his hand, but occa- sionally turned it over on its side that he might read something whichhe had interpolated in the margin. The effect of spon- taneous oratory was not there at all. And certain homely souls deelared to the minister, afterwards, that they couldna thole the paper;' he was a slavish reader thou!' And nae great preacher ! ' Homely souls here tend to speak their mind when it is far from acceptable. One has known objections taken to a gentleman of high position reading the lessons in a parish kirk. We couldna understaun him ! He read wi that Ingliah awkcont I The parish clergyman replied that he would give due attention to the objection. And he did. But the words wore spoken in one sense and understood in another. Even as when Bishop Whately said to the dull author who unwisely asked the prelate how he liked his book : `Ah, Good is not the word to apply to such a book as that!' The author departed, thinking the Archbishop meant that the word was Magnificent, Incomparable, or the like. The astute reader discerns that the Archbishop meant that the word was Bad."

Several of the many volumes which have proceeded from the pen of "A. K. H. B." have indicated more fully than his latest

the serious side of a nature of which perhaps spiritual shrewd- ness is the most notable feature,—such as his Occasional and Immemorial Days, which was noticed some time ago in these' columns. But none has indicated more clearly his ecclesias- tical position or his determination to adhere to it. He styles

himself " an Evangelical, High, Broad Churchman," and no doubt the description is quite correct, in spite of its apparent oddity. His theological creed appears simple enough ; his " fundamentals " are evidently those of Evangelicalism, rather, however, of the old Scotch than of the modern English school.

At the same time he is a Broad Churchman in virtue of his dislike of fanaticism, and a High Churchman in virtue of hie anxiety to add to the decorum and grace of the services of the Church of Scotland. Dr. Boyd's strongest views are, however, those he holds less as a theologian than as an ecclesiastic. Hie

words on this point are as strong as they well can be ; hence

their significance :—" Never was ranker nonsense than the talk of reuniting the utterly discordant elements of bitterly

divided Scottish Presbyterianism. Those men among us who talk claptrap about that have already ceased to belong o the same Church with me." Again, and even more solemnly :—" My time is nearly over ; and I am thankful it is so. Bat, like almost all my brethren with whom I am in sympathy, I should in.-the case of Disestablishment seek refuge in the Church of England. . . . . . The tie I recognise is that of a national profession of Christianity, and a national Church. Not an Anti-State Church Presbyterian, but a good Anglican Churchman, is the man with whom we feel brother- hood." It is not likely, as politics and parties stand at present, that Disestablishment will become, for many years to come, even a possibility. But it is interesting to learn, on undoubted authority, that should it ever be enacted it will

lead to one of the most remarkable secessions, and quite the most remarkable rapprochement that even the history of Scotch

sects can show.