He addressed a person, who happened to be the contractor for the chapels, and asked, "What was the difference between these two places of worship which were springing up so close to each other ?"--meaning, of course, the difference of the theological tenets of the two congregations.

The contractor, who thought only of architectural differences, innocently replied, "There may be a difference of sax feet in length, but there's no aboon a few inches in the breadth." Would that all our religious differences could be brought within so narrow a compass! The variety of churches in a certain county of Scotland once called forth a sly remark upon our national tendencies to religious division and theological disputation.

An English gentleman sitting on the box, and observing the great number of places of worship in the aforesaid borough, remarked to the coachman that there must be a great deal of religious feeling in a town which produced so many houses of God.
"Na," said the man quietly, "it's no religion, it's _curstness," i.e._ crabbedness, insinuating that acerbity of temper, as well as zeal, was occasionally the cause of congregations being multiplied.
It might be a curious question to consider how far motives founded on mere taste or sentiment may have operated in creating an interest towards religion, and in making it a more prominent and popular question than it was in the early portion of the present century.

There are in this country two causes which have combined in producing these effects:--1st.

The great disruption which took place in the Church of Scotland no doubt called forth an attention to the subject which stirred up the public, and made religion at any rate a topic of deep interest for discussion and partizanship.