Memories of Scottish Scenes and Sabbaths More Than Eighty Years Ago; Or, Sketches of Religious Life Among the Peasantry of Ayrshire

by Alexander Kennedy

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1902 ... IV. THE MINISTER'S BIBLE CLASSES; SABBATH EVENING IN THE HOME. It is not yet forty years since Sabbath Schools and Bible Classes for the young were anything like common in the West of Scotland. At that date they were very rare in the district in which I resided, and I believe, with the exception perhaps of the cities and large towns, not many localities in the land were favoured with these excellent and much blessed nurseries of sacred knowledge and piety. As far as I am aware our worthy minister, Mr Wilson, was the first in that quarter of the country to institute classes specially for the religious instruction of the young. At what time he commenced this most important department of pastoral duty I know not; it was before my memory began to register matters of any moment; indeed, I am disposed to think it was at a date anterior to my day. He had two classes, one for those under twelve years of age, which met fortnightly during the winter months and on a week day. I can well remember, some forty-five or forty-six years ago, trudging, not unwillingly, through mud and mire, or snow-drift, as the case might be, on every second Wednesday to the Meeting House at Cumnock, a distance of five miles, to attend this juvenile class. The exercises consisted in answering a certain number of prescribed questions in " Brown's Catechism," reciting (not reading) a portion of Scripture, and a Psalm in metre. Of course the exercises were commenced and closed with prayer, and many affectionate counsels were tendered in the interim by the old and saintly man. The selections from Scripture were varied, but chiefly from the writings of David, and Solomon, and Isaiah, and John, and Paul. At the end of the winter, when the class broke up, each scholar, and the number was large, go...

82 pages, Hardcover

First published August 11, 2015

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