Connecticut western news., 1893-11-16
THE BAPTISM.

Among the old Covenanters it was the custom that infants about to be baptized should be carried to the font by young maidens. After the ceremony the in- fants were delivered into the arms of their fathers.
 The rite of baptism had not been per formed for several months in the kirk of Lanark. It was the hottest time of persecution, and the inhabitants of that parish found other places in which to worship God and celebrate the ordi- nances of religion. It was now the Sab bath day, and small congregation of about hundred souls had met for di- vine service in place of worship more magnificent than any temple that hu- man hands had ever built to deity. Here, too, were three children about to be baptized. The congregation had not assembled to the toll of the bell, but each heart knew the hour and observed it, for there are hundred sundials among the hills, woods, moors and fields, and the shepherd and the peasant see the hours passing by them in sunshine and shadow.
 The church in which they were assem- bled was hewn by Gods hand out of the eternal rocks. A river rolled it's way through mighty chasm of cliffs several hundred feet high, of which the one side presented enormous masses and the oth- CT corresponding recesses, as if the great stone girdle had been rent by convul- sion. The channel was overspread with prodigious fragments of rock or large loose stones, some of them smooth and bare, others containing soil and verdure in their rents and Assures and here and there crowned with shrubs and trees. The eye could at once command a long stretching vista seemingly closed and shut up at both extremities by the CO., alescing cliffs.
 This majestic reach of river contained pools, streams. rushing shelves and waterfalls innumerable, and when the water was low, which it now was in the common drought, it was easy t9 walk up this scene with the calm, blue sky overhead, an utter and sublime solitude On looking up the soul was bowed down by the feeling of that prodigious height of unscalable and often overhanging cliff. Between the channel and the sum- init of the far extended precithes were perpetually flying rocks and wood pi- geons and now and then hawk, filling the profound abyss with their wild caw- ing, deep murmur or shrill shriek.
 Sometimes a heron would stand erect and still on some little stone island or rise up like white cloud along the black walls of the chasm and disappear. Winged creatures alone could inhabit this region. The fox and wildcat chose more accessible haunts. Yet here came; the persecuted Christians and worshiped God, whose hand hung over their heads those magnificent pillars and arches, scooped out those galleries from the solid rock and laid at their feet the calm water in it's transparent beauty, in which they could see themselves sitting in re- fected groups, with their Bibles in their hands.
 Here upon semicircular ledge of rocks, over a narrow chasm, through which the tiny stream played in mur- muring waterfall and divided the con- gregation into equal parts, sat about a hundred persons all devoutly listening to their minister, who stood before them on what might we'll be called small, natural pulpit of living stone. Up to it there led 8 short flight of steps, and over 1t waved the canopy of tall, graceful birch tree. This pulpit stood on the middle of the channel directly facing that congregation. and separated from them by the clear, deep sparkling pool into which the scarce heard water poured over the blackened rock.
 The water as it left the pool separated into two streams and flowed on each side of that altar, thus placing it in an island, whose large, messy stones were | richly ernbowered under the golden blos- sons and green tresses of the broom Divine service was closed, and a row of maidens, all clothed in purest white, came gliding off from the congregation, and crossing the stream on some step ping stones arranged themselves at the foot of the pulpit, with the infants about to be baptized.
 The fathers of the infants, just as if they had been in their own kirk, had been sitting there during worship, and now stood up before the minister. The baptismal water, taken from that pei lucid pool, was lying consecrated in a small hollow of one of the upright stones that formed one side or pillar of the pull | pit, and the holy rite proceeded. Some of the younger ones in that semicircle kept gazing down into the pool, in which the whole scene was reflected, and now and then, in spite of the grave looks or admonishing whispers of their elders, letting pebble fall into the water that they might judge of it's depth from the length of time that elapsed before the clear air bells lay sparkling on the agi- tated surface.
 | The rite was over, and the religious service of the day closed by psalm. | The mighty rocks hemmed in the holy sound and sent it in more competed volume. clear, sweet and strong, up to heaven. When the psalm ceased, an echo like spirits voice was heard dying away high up among the magnificent
 architecture of the cliffs, and once more
 might be noticed in the silence the re.
 viving voice of the waterfall.
 Just then a large stone fell from the
 top of the cliff into the pool, loud
 voice was heard, and plaid hung over
 on the point of shepherds staff. Their
 watchfu1 sentinel had deserted danger
 and this was warning. Forthwith tht
 congregation rose. There were path.
 dangerous to unpracticed feet along tht ] ledges of the rocks leading up to severa