That such psalmody, of a peculiar Scottish class and character, _has_ existed, no one can doubt who has knowledge or recollection of past days.

In glens and retired passes, where those who fled from persecution met together--on the moors and heaths, where men suffering for their faith took refuge--in the humble worship of the cottar's fireside--were airs of sacred Scottish melody, which were well calculated to fan the heavenward flame which was kindled in lays of the "sweet Psalmist of Israel." These psalm-tunes are in their way as peculiar as the song-tunes we have referred to.

Nothing can be more touching than the description by Burns of the domestic psalmody of his father's cottage.

Mr.E.Chambers, in his _Life of Burns_, informs us that the poet, during his father's infirmity and after his death, had himself sometimes conducted family worship.

Happy days, ere he had encountered the temptations of a world in which he had too often fallen before the solicitations of guilty passion! and then, beautifully does he describe the characteristic features of this portion of the cottars worship.