Transactions. 4<7 



sight was dim, to join in tlie celebration of praise with the 

 mouth and the understanding also. When the Scriptures 

 with the psalms, paraphrases, and hymns, attained greater 

 circulation, and every worshipper was understood or supposed 

 to possess a copy, the reading of the line began to be discon- 

 tinued as no longer necessary, an innovation which was 

 greatly resented by the majority of the people, some of whom 

 refused to join in the psalmody thereafter, and some left the 

 church and united with others where the practice was un- 

 changed. The reading of the line was performed Avith a 

 peculiar intonation, the last syllable being protracted beyond 

 any of the rest ; and as the pronunciation was not always 

 the most correct strange blunders were sometimes commit- 

 ted. Thus the 2d line of the 42d psalm was always read, 

 " In thurst doth iKiint and hreiy." The 16th line of the 

 Soth psalm was read, " They ganshed their teeth at me." 

 The word soul was pronounced sowle — incessant was called 

 innocent, and similar other mistakes were made. Even 

 when no such mistake occurred, the very separation of the 

 lines sometimes created awkwardness and confusion. Thus 

 " Be silent, but speak out " — and the line too, " I'm like a 

 broken pot," sometimes tickled the fancy of the hearers from 

 its striking appropriateness to the precentor himself on the 

 occasion. From his position in the desk he obtained a full 

 view of the audience, and from his long tenure in office he 

 assumed a freedom and a familiarity which does not seem to 

 have been taken amiss, and he would occasionally interpo- 

 late the singing with reference to the conduct or the duties of 

 those before him. In a church in the West of Scotland the 

 family of a noble house was one day walking up the aisle to 

 the communion tables, when the precentor, seeing a person 

 obstructing the passage, called out in the middle of the sing- 

 ing, " Stan' l)ack, Jock, and let tlie noble family of Eglantine 

 in " — and then in the same key and without stopping, he 

 read out the line, " nor stand in sinners' way ! " This custom 

 of reading the line was suited to the times in which it was 

 practised, but these times have now passed aAvay. 



