60 Communion Tokens. 



token struck in the year 1735 as illustrated. In 1737 he 

 joined the Associate, Presbytery, his reason for doing so being the 

 reading of the Porteous Act which had just then come into force. 

 Five years later the question of renewing the Covenants came up 

 among the Seceders at the instigation of the Old Conservative 

 party, whose headquarters were in Edinburgh. In the course of 

 discussion things were said derogatory to the Old Dissenters or 

 Cameronians with whose views not only Thomas Nairn, but also 

 Thomas Mair of Orwell and Alexander Moncrieff of Abemethy, 

 were not greatly out of sympathy. However, at the critical 

 moment Nairn found himself alone, so in 1743 he joined M'Millan 

 and thus enabled the Cameronians to form the first Presbytery of 

 the Reformed Presbyterian Church, at Braehead in the parish of 

 Dalserf. Doubtless Nairn carried over his tokens with him for 

 use in each of the congregations and denominations he served. 

 Hence one of his Cameronian Communicants sojourning in the 

 Quarrelwood (parish of Kirkmahoe) district would obtain Sacra- 

 ment there by handing in the Abbotshall Token. To its having 

 thus migrated, and become mixed with the Quarrelwood R.P. 

 tokens, which were never melted for re-issue, this token, no 

 doubt, owes its survival, and we believe many a similar story 

 historically or biographically interesting might be told if owners 

 would pursue inquiries and make their discoveries known. 

 Another prize to the collector is the little oblong of NEW LUCE. 

 This piece has inscription NEW : / LWCE •, and was presumably 

 the token in use during the mini.stry of Alexander Peden, the Seer 

 of the Covenant. Better ground is there for believing that the 

 token of SIMPRIN dated 1705 was that of Thomas Boston, 

 author of "The Fourfold Estate." Quite equal in interest are 

 the tokens of those men who created new chapters in the history 

 of the Scottish Church. Now that the faintest and farthest away 

 echoes of our ancient ecclesiastical wars are being hushed, and the 

 spirit of amity and union has taken the air, Scottish Christianity is 

 perceptibly rising to a more generous and truer appreciation of the 

 testimony of men like Hepburn of Urr, M'Millan of Balmaghie, 

 Gilchrist of Dunscore, Ebenezer Erskine of Stirling, his brother 

 Ralph of Dunfermline, Fisher of Kinclaven, Wilson of Perth, 

 Moncrieff of Abemethy, Nairn of Abbotshall, Mair of Orwell, and 

 Gillespie of Carnock. Of increasing interest, therefore, must 



