communicants who sit nearest him on each hand: the elders administer them to the rest. During the services of the succeeding tables, addresses at some length are made by the minister, standing at the head of the communion table.
The Church of Scotland has no public formulary, no creed or ten commandments, no festivals, no instrumental music, no consecration of churches or of burying-grounds, no funeral service or ceremony, no sign of the cross in baptism, and no administration of the sacrament in private houses to the sick or dying. Confirmation is rejected; but Ordination, by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery is now universally practised. Sponsors in baptism are disallowed; and the father, who generally presents to baptism, does not make any promise for the child, but for himself, that nothing shall be wanting on his part to lead the child, at some future period, to undertake the obligations of religion.
The discipline of the Church is chiefly admonitory. There is no officious interference in matters which fall under the cognizance of the civil magistrate, no solicitude to investigate private offences; the public censures of the church are reserved only for scandalous offenders. The sin of uncleanness is punished by the parties being required to present themselves in the church, for three different sabbaths, on a bench, called the Stool of Repentance, when they are openly rebuked by their minister in the face of the congregation; and those who do not choose to submit to it are excommunicated, or deprived of Christian privileges. In some instances, this punishment is changed into a pecuniary fine.
