CHAPTER XIV 

 CHURCH AND STATE 



The Disruption in the Church of Scotland took place 

 about the time when I was born, and I never worshipped 

 in the old Parish Church of Gairloch, as our family- 

 entered the Free Church. No wonder the people 

 rebelled when worthless men were appointed to big 

 parishes by lay patrons, quite regardless of their being 

 suitable or unsuitable. This was the case at Gairloch 

 when an old tutor, who had hardly a word of Gaelic, 

 tried to make up for his want of the language by the 

 roaring and bawling he kept up in the pulpit while 

 attempting to read a Gaelic sermon translated from 

 English by some schoolmaster ! On one occasion when 

 my grandfather and his party were in church, our 

 Mackenzie cousin, who was tenant of Shieldaig, and his 

 family were among the congregation, and were, as usual, 

 invited up to the Tigh Dige to luncheon. Among the 

 Shieldaig party was a small boy of four or five summers 

 who had been brought to church for the first time in 

 his life. My grandfather, wishing to say something 

 to the little chap, asked him what he saw in church, and 

 his reply was much to the point: " I saa a man baaling, 

 baaling in a box, and no a man would let him oot." 

 I think I must give my uncle's description of the 



Communion gathering in his time. Those gatherings 



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