The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1893-06-06
THE BAPTISM.

Aiming the old Covenanters il 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. 1t was now the Sab
bath day, and a small congregation Of
about a hundred souls had met for di-
vine service in a place of worship more
magnificent than any temple that hui
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 q 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 its way
through q mighty chasm of cliffs several
hundred feet high, of which the one side
presented enormous masses and the 9TH
er corresponding recesses, as If the great
stone girdle had been rent by a 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
i'm 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 to 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 precipices were
p~erpetually flying rocks and wood pi-
geons and now and then a hawk, filling
the profound abyss with their wild cav
ing, deep murmur or shril1 shrek.
Sometimes a heron would stand erect
ond S@f11 np coy,a 1;%fla S+a,,a srlarI NV
rise up like q 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 prosecuted 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 its transparent beauty, in which
they could see themselves sitting in re-
hected groups, with their Bibles in their
hands.
Here upon a semicircular ledge of
rocks, over a narrow chasm, through
which the tiny stream played in a muir.
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 well be called a small,
natural pulpit of living stone. Up to il
there led a short flight of steps, and owe,
it waved the canopy of a tall, graceful
birch tree This pulpit stood on the
middle of the channel directly facinp
that congregation. and separated from
them by the clear, deep sparkling poo
into which the scarce heard water poured
over the blackened rock.
The water as it left the pool s~eparatet
into two streams and flowed On eacl
side OF that altar, thus placing it in al
island, whose large. messy stones wer,
richly empowered under the golden bios
SONS and green tresses Of the broom
Divine service was closed. and a row o
maidens, all clothed in purest white
came gliding off from the congregation
and crossing the stream on some step
ping stones arranged themselves at tn
foot of the pulpit. with the infants abou
70 be baptized.
. The fathers OF the infants, Just az j
they had been in their own kirk, ha,
been sitting there during worship, an
now stood up before the minister. Tn
baptismal water, taken from that pc
lucid pool, was lying consecrated in
small hollow OF m of the upright stone
that formed mi side or pillar Of the pul
pit, and the holy rite proceeded. Som
OF the younger ones in that semicircl
kept gazing down into the pool, i'm whic
the whole scene was reflected. and no,
and then, in spite of the grave looks g
admonishing whispers of their elders
letting q pebble fall into the water tina
they might judge of its depth from til
length OF time that elapsed before til
clear air bells lay sparkling ON the ag
tated surface.
The rite was over, aud the religion
service Of the day closed by a psalr,
The mighty rocks hemmed in the hol
sound and sent 1t in a more compacte
volume, clear, sweet and strong. up