men of the quaintness that characterises the one hundred and two pages of his "Memoirs of Darien :" "Among others of our countrymen that died here in Jamaica, the Reverend Mr Alexander Shields was one. He departed this life at Port Royal, in Jamaica, on June 14, of a violent and malignant fever, much lamented of all who knew his worth and parts, and had the occasion of his acquaintance. He had been heart weary and broken with this company of men, among whom he had laboured and conversed so long with so little success, and therefore left them and went up to Port Royal, designing, it seems, to take passage thence homeward by the way of London. But men propose, and God disposeth; for he had now done his work, and it pleased his Master here to call for him, and to put an end to his weary and troublesome pilgrimage in this spot of our Lord's earth; and now he rests from his labours, and his works follow him. His worth was little known or prized by the most of these he had sojourned and laboured among in the work of the Gospel, of whom they were not worthy. This stroke was an awful frown of Providence upon that poor company which he was taken from, and had so often and affectionately exhorted, reproved, and admonished; for the righteous are taken away from the evil to come. was decently buried by some kind and discreet English inhabitants in Port Royal, in the burial-place near Kingston, in Jamaica, a kind countrywoman, Isabel Murray, paying the expenses of his funeral. He had only preached one Sabbath at Port Royal, upon that text, Hosea xiv. 9, 'The ways of the Lord are right;' which proved his last sermon in this world. When he was in Caledonia, he preached * D He mostly on that text, Acts xvii. 26, 27, 'God hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds. of our habitation.' He had a strong impression for some years before (as I have heard from some who were intimate with him) that he should die about the middle of June, and so it came to pass." Thomas Lining of Lesmahagow, one of Shields' associates when received into the Established Church, published, in 1706, "An Enquiry into Church Communion; or, a Treatise against Separation from the Revolution Settlement of this National Church, as it was settled anno 1689 and 1690;" which he says he "published from" Shields' "own manuscripts without any material alteration." It is more tersely written than the "Hind Let Loose," and with some skill, and his wonted earnestness, seeks to combat the objections his old friends had to entering the Established Church. He denies the charge of Erastianism brought against "the Church as now established." But the events that brought about the Disruption of 1843 have shown that the Societies had cause for their objections. A highly competent authority, Mr Taylor Innes, in his "Law of Creeds," p. 245, has said that the "long contest" which "the Reformed Presbyterian Church, or Cameronians, who would not enter the Established Church on account of the alleged defects in its reconstitution," had "with the party which most resembled them in the Establishment as to the legal import of the Revolution Settlement, has now, after one hundred and fifty years, been decided in favour of the malcontents by the courts of law themselves." lent penman. Alexander Shields' brother, Michael, was an excelHis manuscript is one that would delight the eyes of a printer. He seems to have been a man of some education. He acted as clerk to the Societies from 1681 to 1691, and he has left a record of their meetings in the "Faithful Contendings Displayed." M'Millan's "Collection" contains fifteen of his letters. He went out with his brother in the expedition to the Isthmus of Darien, where, with so many of his countrymen, he seems to have died. St Mary's College is nearly opposite the Town Church, and outside and in has a venerable academic air about it. It contains much that is full of interest to the student. But we must hurry on to the buryingground, in which the Cathedral stands. The Cathedral is majestic even in its ruins, and must have been a magnificent building in the days of its glory. Its very size-356 feet in length within the walls-must, after the Reformation, have been its ruin. Like most cathedrals, it would not be well adapted for the purposes of Protestant worship. The seizure of the Church lands by the nobles took away the means of keeping the building in repair, and when once it began to need repair, and no one to repair it, ruin would speedily set in. St Regulus' Tower, that also rises up in the churchyard, is a noble-looking object. Without a break or intercepting ornament, it rises sheer up from the ground 108 feet. It obviously is of great antiquity. The runes recently discovered to be on its sides would carry it back to the tenth or eleventh century. One of these runic inscriptions is said to be a couplet of some beauty, in which a little girl laments the early death of her brother. The churchyard is full of monuments, many of them over the remains of men whose memories their countrymen will not willingly let die. Among the oldest of these monuments we noticed one over an Ann Bryde. It plays upon her name. It is: THOUGH IN THIS DO ROTTING LY YET READ MY NAME FOR CHRIST ANE BRYDE AM 1.1665. Another of like nature, upon a flat stone that must have covered the remains of a Henry Sword, is: HERE. LYES. THE. CORPSE. OF. HENRY SWORD. ANE.OF. THE. BAILLIES OF. THIS. CITY. WHO. DEPARTED. THIS HIS.NAME.A.SWORD. WAS. SEEN HIS. OFFICE. IS. THE. LYKE EVEN. JUSTICE. SWORD.I. MEAN A third, of the same century, is: HIER. LAYIS. INTERE CONE.IN. KINGASK. WHOS. LYF.VAS. BETER. THEN.HIS.DAYS.VAS. AND.OF.HIS.AGE. 59 HIS. SOVL.IS. NOT. HIER. BVT. DOTH. STIL. REST. SHAL. APPIER. IN. THIS. GRAWE. ANE. PIOWS. WERTEOVS. HONEST. ONA SWOHL NVW |