I heard Dr. Guthrie in Edinburgh in 1860. It was a hot day.
My companion was just getting well from a dangerous attack
of bleeding at the lungs. We made our way with difficulty
into the crowded church. The people were, almost all of them,
standing. We were obliged, by my friend's condition, to get
out again before the sermon. I remember, however, the old
man's attitude, and his prayer in the racy, broad Scotch,
the most tender, pathetic and expressive language on earth
for the deeper emotions as well as for humor. I wonder if
my readers have ever seen the version of the Psalms--
"Frae Hebrew Intil Scottis," by P. Hately Waddell, LL.D.,
Minister, Edinburgh, 1891.
If not, and they will get it, a new delight is in store for
them, and they will know something of the diction of Dr.
Guthrie.
He once began a prayer, "O Lord, it is a braw thing to loe
ye. But it is a better (bitter) thing to hate ye."
The beauty of this dialect is that while it is capable alike
of such tenderness, and such lofty eloquence, and such exquisite
and delicate humor, it is, like our Saxon, incapable of falsetto,
or of little pomposities.
Pages:
1331
1332
1333
1334
1335
1336
1337
1338
1339
1340
1341
1342
1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348
1349
1350
1351
1352
1353
1354
1355