"Up rose the morn, and touched the crowns Of all these arctic kings With lustre of a thousand rays That the rich diamond flings: And flashing from their vitreous shields Reflected colors streamed, While towers and minarets of pearl During the voyage, my thoughts often recurred to the pleasant sights I had seen, and the kind friends I had met in my native land—a land celebrated beyond all others in the history of the past, and equaled by none of its size in the present-a land, the active energy, the sterling honesty, farsighted intelligence, and enterprise of whose sons has rendered her celebrated to the ends of the earth. For For go where you will, you find a Scotchman there before you. He may be found indulging in all the ease and luxury of a tropical climate in Australia, or piercing the frozen regions of Nova Zembla in quest of adventure-teaching the Hottentot and Caffre the truths of Christianity and the arts of civilized life, like the illustrious Moffat; or waging war on Chinese idolatry and the doctrines of Confucius, like the heavenlyminded Burns; "planting the standard of the cross in the jungles of Bengal, or on the frozen heights of Labrador." Though she cannot boast of the wealth and commerce of her sister kingdom, or the mighty republic of the Western world, yet from her shores have issued a living stream of intellect, which is refreshing and fertilizing the empire of mind, as it flows over the old world and the new. She can boast of a Ferguson, to whom we are indebted for much of our knowledge of the heavenly bodies; of a Watt, who first rendered the steam engine of practical utility; of a Reid, whose common-sense philosophy is the glory of the age; of a Scott, the mighty wizard, whose enchanting spells has held so many in bondage; of a Pollok, whose Christian epic, the "Course of Time," is read wherever the English language is spoken; of a Chalmers, the mere mention of whose name suggests to our mind the strongest representative of the great and good; a man who, with the simplicity of his Divine Master, taught the humble, the ignorant, and the poor, and yet the magnitude of whose genius was more than a match for the subtleties of a Hume. But their names are legion-her Jeffrey, Robertson, Wilson, Mackintosh, Brewster, and many others, whose 1 productions are the world's property, and whose fame needs no trumpeter. "How prolific this sterile land In great deeds and illustrious men! I marvel not thou art But Scotland has been, and is, pre-eminently a religious country—a land of Bibles. To this, more than to any other cause, she owes her superiority. The Bible, and the Bible alone, can make a nation free. She affords, too, a living and prominent witness to the advantages of Presbyterianism, as a system of pure church government. Since she became Protestant, she has been Presbyterian; and what other system can point to such blessed results? Contrast her with Popish Ireland, Prelatical England, or Infidel France, and how strị, kingly is she superior. In which of the four coun, tries are the masses most intelligent, free, prosperous, and peaceful? A man who has learned the Assembly's Catechism (which I am happy to say is still taught by almost every Christian parent in Scotland) knows more divinity than some who have read their folios. An illustrious line of martyrs have testified with their blood to those principles which Scotchmen hold so dear. May generations yet unborn, fair Scotia, reverence the memory of their sires!-may thy covenanting banner, which has been so long and so justly thy glory, long wave over a sin-hating, God-fearing, Sabbath-keeping land! for "righteousness exalteth a nation, and sin is a reproach to any people." "O, Scotia! my dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to heaven is sent! Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content! From luxury's contagion, weak and vile! Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, A virtuous populace may rise the while, And stand a wall of fire around their much-lov'd isle! THE END. |