was desirous that his three young sons should be influenced only by their conscientious convictions. Two years before he joined himself in membership with the Friends he had, in compliance with his wife's dying request, gone to Paris to bring home his son Robert, who was then about the age of sixteen. So proficient was he in his studies that he had won the marked approbation of the masters of the colleges, and of his uncle, who had become so much attached to him as to be altogether unwilling to hear of parting with him. He offered to make Robert the heir of his considerable property, and also to purchase and immediately bestow upon him an estate larger than his paternal one, on condition that he would remain with him. But Colonel Barclay preferred removing his son. from Roman, Catholic influence; and, whatever the wishes of the latter might be, he answered his uncle's entreaties with the words: " He is my father, and must be obeyed."

After leaving France, Robert visited several relatives of both his father and mother, and thus had intercourse with Roman Catholics, Episcopalians and Presbyterians. In early childhood he had been influenced by high Calvinists, and in his boyhood became for a time the proselyte of the Roman Catholics amongst whom his lot was cast. "In both these sects," he writes in his treatise on "Universal Love,” “I had abundant occasion to receive impressions contrary to this principle of love; seeing the straightness of several of their doctrines, as well as their practice of persecution, do abundantly declare how opposite they are to universal love." He forsook the Roman Catholic Church, and, for a time, attended various places of worship. During David Barclay's imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle the governor forbade any intercourse between the father and son for several months. But his father's example, and that of others who held

similar views, impressed Robert Barclay's mind; and he was especially helped by intercourse with Lord Swintoune and another Friend.

It would seem that it was in the meetings of Friends, which he now began to attend, that the Saviour revealed Himself to his seeking soul. In allusion to himself he says, in "The Apology":-" Who, not by strength of argument, or by a particular disquisition of each doctrine, and convincement of my understanding thereby, came to receive and bear witness to the truth; but by being secretly reached by this life. For when I came into the silent assemblies of God's people, I felt a secret power amongst them that touched my heart.” It was when in his nineteenth year that Robert Barclay joined himself to Friends. He was soon afterwards sent by his father to reside on the estate of Ury, in company with their faithful agent David Falconer, a Friend, who had frequently endured imprisonment for conscience' sake. A Friends' meeting for public worship was now opened at Ury, where David Barclay, ere long, settled with his family. This meeting, which was regularly held in a building close to the mansion, was continued for more than a hundred years.

We have no record of Robert Barclay's inner life during this marked crisis in it. Yet one cannot question that he had fully surrendered his heart to the Saviour who had redeemed him to God by His blood. For we are perhaps hardly able to estimate the sacrifices involved by the course he had taken; sweetened though they must have been by Him for whose sake they were made. To the refined and sensitive mind outward persecution must have sometimes been a lighter trial than was the surprise and dismay manifested by former acquaintance. And great must have been the disdainful astonishment awakened in inany minds, when first the gallant Colonel and then

his highly-gifted intellectual son-Barclays "whose coat armorial was overshadowed still by the shining mitre of Aberbrothwick "-fell into "the scandalous errours of Quaquarism"! for thus the tenets of Friends were designated by the Presbytery of Brechin in the diocese of David Barclay's brother-in-law, Bishop Strachan.

Young Barclay now eagerly pursued his studies, with the object of perfecting his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, and of thoroughly acquainting himself with the history and writings of the early fathers of the Church; for the desire had sprung up in his heart of composing a work on behalf of the sorely slandered Society of Friends, which should be adapted by its logical arguments to meet, on their own ground, those schoolmen who attacked the views which had become so dear to him. Already he was a minister, and now, at the age of twenty-two, his preliminary work"Truth cleared of Calumnies "was published, the following short extract, from which is sufficient to show how full was his belief in the completeness of Christ's salvation :-" What is the end of true religion but to lead out of sin? Do the vitals of religion consist in sinning or in not sinning? If it consist in sinning, then they who sin most are most religious. But if it consists in not sinning, and keeping the commandments of God without sin, then to plead for such a thing as attainable hurteth not the vitals of religion. What! cannot the saints live better without sin than with it? Yea, surely they can live well without that which is as a burden, and as death unto their life. They whose life is in sin cannot live but in sin; but the saint's life is not in sin, but in righteousness. When in his twenty-eighth year, Robert Barclay published in Latin the famous Apology for the True Christian Divinity," some portions of which were evidently written for the express purpose of

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opposing the Calvinistic teaching of the Scotch "Shorter Catechism."

"It is his country's loss," remarks a writer in the Theological Review, "that his splendid Apologia should be left in the hands of a sect. Here, indeed, is a genuine outcome of the inner depth of the nation's worship; something characteristic and her own; a gift to her religious life akin to her profoundest requirements; and, if she did but know it, far worthier the thankful acceptance of her people than any religious aid which she has ever welcomed from the other side of the Border. One great original theologian, and only one, has Scotland ever produced. No man ever gave Calvinism such mighty shakes as Barclay did. And he shook it from within. He understood it. As the religion of his country he had entered into it, and made himself master of it. He had no half-measures of parleying with it. His controversy with Calvinism was on fundamental principles; and while Calvin's axioms and postulates are of the waning past, Barclay's are of the widening future."

Besides the Latin and English editions the "Apology" has been printed in the French, German, Dutch and Danish languages. It is perfectly true that this work does not suit every kind of mind. Some of us may be quite unable to draw spiritual aid or refreshment from its logical pages. Yet, notwithstanding this, and although there are certain portions which, when taken separately, seem to be unguarded, whilst the young author's views on some points are perhaps extreme, we may well hope that it is a book that has not completed its work; and that "scepticism, dogmatism, and ritualism," as well as Calvinism, may yet find in its scholarly propositions, "an antidote for each."*

* Are not Dr. Ralph Cudworth's words, written two centuries ago, applicable to the present age? "The sonnes of Adam are now as busie as ever himself was, about the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, shaking the boughs of it and scrambling for the fruit; whilest I fear many are too unmindful of the Tree of Life."

A clergyman of the Church of England, Mr. Norris, refers to Barclay as being "so great a man that I profess freely, I had rather engage against a hundred Bellarmins, Hardings and Stapletons, than with one Barclay." Another remark about the "Apology," which seems worth quoting is from "Cato's Letters; or, Essays, Civil and Religious" (1720)." It solves the numerous difficulties raised by other sects, and by turns thrown at one another, and shows all parts of Scripture to be uniform and consistent."

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It has been said that the primary reason for the publication of this work was to obtain, by a direct appeal to the sovereign, the justice so sorely needed by its author's misrepresented and suffering fellowbelievers. And we can hardly doubt that this end was in measure attained, and that there was some ground for Voltaire's exaggerated statement that it was surprising how this apology, written only by a private gentleman, should have such an effect as to procure a general release of the whole sect from the sufferings they then underwent." Some idea of the extent of the persecution may be formed from the fact that about the year 1662 there were in England and Wales, at the very lowest computation, 4,200 Friends in confinement at one time. So closely were they crowded together in certain prisons that they had to take it by turns to stand up that there might be sufficient space for others to sit or lie down. Many died in consequence of the loathsome state of their prison; and others from the severe beatings they had received when their meetings were broken up.

The introduction to the "Apology" is addressed to Charles II. "There are tones in this preface," it has been said, "whose majesty of expostulation and calmness of admonition-with yet a thrilling earnestness which makes every syllable vibrate like a living thing -had never been equalled since Nathan took up his