(Vol. vii., p. 489.)
Perhaps the following may be of service as a farther illustration of this
subject.
Zacharie Boyd says, in _The Last Battell of the Sovle in Death_, 1629,
reprinted Glasgow, 1831, at p. 469.:
"Now after his Battell ended hee hath surrendered the spirit,
_Clepsydra effluxit_, his _houre-glasse_ is now runne out, and his
soule is come to its wished home, where it is free from the fetters of
flesh."
This divine was minister of the barony parish of Glasgow, the church for
which was then in the crypt of the cathedral. I have no doubt the
hour-glass was there used from which he draws his simile. Your
correspondent refers to sermons an hour long, but, to judge from the
contents of "Mr. Zacharie's" MS. sermons still preserved in the library of
the College of Glasgow, each, at the rate of ordinary speaking, must have
occupied at least an hour and a half in delivery. When he had become infirm
and near his end, and had found it necessary to shorten his sermons, his
"kirk session" was offended, as--
"Feb. 13, 1651. Some are to speak to Mr. Z. Boyd about the soon
skailing (dismissing) of the Baronie Kirk on Sunday afternoon."
Though sermons are now generally restricted from three quarters to an
hour's delivery, the practice of long preaching in the olden times in the
west of Scotland had much prevailed. Within my own recollection I have
heard sermons of nearly two hours' duration; and early among a few classes
of the first Dissenters, on "Sacramental Occasions" as they are yet called,
the services lasted altogether (not unfrequently) continuously from ten
o'clock on Sabbath forenoon, to three and {83} four o'clock the following
morning. A traditional anecdote is current of an old Presbyterian
clergyman, unusually full of matter, who, having preached out his
hour-glass, was accustomed to pause, and addressing the precentor,
"_Another glass and then_," recommenced his sermon.
A pictorial representation of the hour-glass in a country church is to be
seen in front of the precentor's desk, or pulpit, in a very scarce
humorsome print, entitled "Presbyterian Penance," by the famous David
Allan. It also figures in the engraving of the painting by Wilkie, of John
Knox preaching before Mary Queen of Scots. About twenty years ago it was
either in the Cathedral of Stirling or the Armory of the Castle (the
ancient chapel), that I saw the hour-glass (about twelve inches high) which
had been connected with one or other of the pulpits, from both of which
John Knox is said to have preached. It is likely the hour-glass is there
"even unto this day" (unless abstracted by some relic hunter); and if it
could be depended on as an original appendage to the pulpits, would prove
that its use was coeval with the times of the Scottish Reformation. I think
its high antiquity as certain as the oaken pulpits themselves.
At an early period the general poverty of the country, and the scarcity of
clocks and watches, must have given rise to the adoption of the hour
sand-glass, a simple instrument, but yet elegant and impressive, for the
measurement of a brief portion of our fleeting span.