The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-10-12
Letter from Wales.
PENMAENMAwR, Sept. 18th, 8.


Messrs. Eaitors,-The time since l
sent off my last communication has been
passed in the midst of so many engage
ments, that 1 have been unable, until
now, to fulfil my promise of writing to
you again. 10
The summer has now come and gone
with us, and we are entering upon the
shortened days, and falling under the
sombre influences of autumn. Penmaen-
mawr, like most Welsh seaside places,
wakes up to social life, all too short,
about the month of July. The advanced
guard of summer visitors, indeed, begins
to arrive as early as April and May, but
1T is only with the months of July and
August that the place begins to put on
an air of animation. In September and
October these numbers begin to melt
away again, SO that by the end of the
latter month we are left, so far as the
English speaking population is concerned,
to the solitude of the mountains and the
shore of the deep-resounding sea-"
The brightest spots in life here, are
those in which we meet for while with
some Christian friend with whom our
hearts can enter into communion which
reaches in its depths into the realm of
the eternal and unchanging, of which our
hills whisper to us in inarticulate utter
ance. Such last year was the visit of
your eloquent fellow townsman, DIR. Hoge,
whose winged words and loving spirit
won the hearts of all who had the priv.
ilege of hearing him, and whose coming
stored us with fund of sunshine to carry
with US through the chills of winter. One
cannot help feeling that in his brief So
journ he has left impressions that will
not be efaced, and scattered seed which
will be borne far and wide by those that
heard him.
This summer we have been gladdened
by the visit of some devout and useful
Christian ladies from Edinburgh, and of
one or two ministers of Highland descent
One Of these, Mr.. Macgillivray, of Edin-
burgh, has the richest collection of High
land legends and histories, perhaps, of
any living person, and moreover with his
brother (then school-boys together), was
the first to recognise the stamp of mark
in Hugh Miller.
1t has been my privilege, during the
early summer, to make the acquaintance
of the daughter of the late Dr. Chalmers,
during her stay at Beaumaris. The de-
liverance of the Free Church had Just
been given on the Robertson Smith case,
and it was refreshing to hear how thor
oughly she cherished the spirit of her
father on that burning question. One
cannot help feeling how one hour of Chal-
mers would have silenced forever the
Free Church "liberals." Not long ago l
was reading an autograph letter of his, in
which he says Of some critic q forget
whom), 81 intend to dismiss him in two
lines of footnote." Not much greater
honor would he have bestowed upon this
new tendency and its authors.
A kindred movement in the Divinity
Hall of the United Presbyterian Church,
session or two ago, was nipped in the
bud by the terribly whitening exposure
it received at the hands of the usually
kind and amiable DIR. John Ker. He
intimated his determination to resign his
connection with the Divinity Hall il
views such as had been advanced we're to
be tolerated by the committee, and even
Of quitting the ministry and membership
of the United Presbyterian Church, #
they should be found to have the sympa.
thy of that Church at large Since then
the advocates of these revolutionary doc
trines have retired from the communion