The first is from a St. Andrews professor, who is stated to be a great authority in such narratives.

In one of our northern counties, a rural district had its harvest operations affected by continuous rains.  The crops being much laid, wind was desired in order to restore them to a condition fit for the sickle.  A minister, in his Sabbath services, expressed their want in prayer as follows:—­“O Lord, we pray thee to send us wind; no a rantin’ tantin’ tearin’ wind, but a noohin’ (noughin?) soughin’ winnin’ wind.”  More expressive words than these could not be found in any language.

The other story relates to a portion of the Presbyterian service on sacramental occasions, called “fencing the tables,” i.e. prohibiting the approach of those who were unworthy to receive.

This fencing of the tables was performed in the following effective manner by an old divine, whose flock transgressed the third commandment, not in a gross and loose manner, but in its minor details:—­“I debar all those who use such minced oaths as faith! troth! losh! gosh! and lovanendie!”

These men often showed a quiet vein of humour in their prayers, as in the case of the old minister of the Canongate, who always prayed, previous to the meeting of the General Assembly, that the Assembly might be so guided as “no to do ony harm."

A circumstance connected with Scottish church discipline has undergone a great change in my time—­I mean the public censure from the pulpit, in the time of divine service, of offenders previously convicted before the minister and his kirk-session.  This was performed by the guilty person standing up before the congregation on a raised platform, called the cutty stool, and receiving a rebuke.  I never saw it done, but have heard in my part of the country of the discipline being enforced occasionally.  Indeed, I recollect an instance where the rebuke was thus administered and received under circumstances of a touching character, and which made it partake of the moral sublime.  The daughter of the minister had herself committed an offence against moral purity, such as usually called forth this church censure.  The minister peremptorily refused to make her an exception to his ordinary practice.  His child stood up in the congregation, and received, from her agonised father, a rebuke similar to that administered to other members of his congregation for a like offence.  The spirit of the age became unfavourable to the practice.  The rebuke on the cutty stool, like the penance in a white sheet in England, went out of use, and the circumstance is now a matter of “reminiscence.”  I have received some communications on the subject, which bear upon this point; and I subjoin the following remarks from a kind correspondent, a clergyman, to whom I am largely indebted, as indicating the great change which has taken place in this matter.