JAMES BROWN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 July 1924, Page 16

JAMES BROWN.

OUR TRUSTY AND WELLBELOVED. Mr. Hugh Martin, special correspondent of the London “Daily News,” writes a very picturesque story of the installation of Mr. James Brown as Lord High Commissioner of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland —translated from the humble atmosphere of a two-roomed cottage in Ayrshire to the ancient royal palace of Holyroodj, in Edinburgh, with all the pomp and ceremony of a Royal Coronation.

Mr. James Brown, the Lord High Commisfioner of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and Mrs. Brown ought to be pardoned it they feel their heads turned. My own spins at the thought of what they have had to go- through in the great cause of tradition. It must he alarming enough to step straight out of an Ayrshire “but and ben” (two-roomed cottage) into Holyrood Palace and he dressed up in wonderful clothes, while courtiers bow, and crowds cheer, but to have to observe strange and complicated Royal etiquette before a battery of kinerna machines and clicking cameras that record each movement- and expression for the benefit of all humanity, must be a purgatory hitherto unknown, at least, to the Presbyterian Church. They have been spared nothing. - As soon a s Mr. Brown had breakfasted came a levee, which Mrs. Brown was doubtless glad to learn was for men only. In a stiff scarlet coat with his modest cross of the Order of the British Empire pinned to the left breast His Grace had to stand for an hour on the steps of the throne at Holyrood and shake hands with a seemingly endless I ne of more or less notable people. It was a bigger gathering than usual, for curiosity acts as a wonderrul stimulus to love of Church and King. After the levee it was time for Mrs. Brown to appear, which «he did in black satin marocain, touched here and there with pa)e grey, and a smart black hat. With her “guid man” she stood framed in the grand Doric, entrance, the Scottish Roval Arms above, Marv Queen of Scots’ audience chamber to her right, and the State apartments to her left.. Four trumpeters sounded a fanfare, and the band played ‘‘God Save the King,” while the Scottish Borderers presented arms and the colours were sloped to the earth, Mr. Brown took the salute smartly, white-gloved hand at black cocked hat. Pursuivants, heralds, and that most gorgeous personage of all, Lyon King of Arms, in tabards of cloth of gold, incredibly magnificent-, were grouped in the shadow of the grey old walls • )n d the natural battlement of the Salisbury Crags. Then Mr. Brown had to inspect the guard of honour, walking slowly up and down tire l’.nes, and speaking to a man here and there, just as though his royal splendour were a lasting thing, instead of a ten days’ wonder He did it with dienitv. The cameras whirred and clicked. He walked in stately leisure back to Mrs. Brown, while Ills officers inquired, “Wiil Your Grace do this?” “May I 'point out to Your Grace that?” He complimented the officer in command upon the smart apnoarenoe of the guard. 4he cameras went on clicking and whirring.’ 4he procession through the main streets of beautiful and storied Edinburgh was no less stirring to the eve and imagination. One’s sense of the past was .awakened hv the very fact that the chief actors in the pageant were S o completely persons of the present.

Cheering by enormous crowds, among whom tlie poor predominated, continued the whole way. Princes Street was packed as for some new coronation. The two Miss Hainings, gentle grevhaired ladies, whose father was a-shoe-maker at Annbank, went on first in a motor-car with young Mr. James Brown, who i s acting as the Lord High Commissioner’s secretary. I hen came three-pair horse landaus containing the great golden mace and members of the suite. Finally, with a clattering and clanking bodyguard of Hussars, two Roval landaus lent by the King, with coachmen and footmen in scarlet. They held four more membevs of the suite —the Marchioness of Ailsa. the Hon. Victoria Bruce Miss Fleming, -and Mr. Malcolm—and, last of all. the Lord High Commissioner and Mrs. Brown, facing the purse bearer, in the green and gold uniform °r. the Royal Archers, and the chaplain. u ho, though in Court dress with trirorn hat, was none other than the Rev. Mr. Johnson, whom I heard preach, at A nnhnnk And so on to St. Giles’ Cathedral. Here at the doors there was more of the pomp of salutations, and the playing of hand music, from which their Graces escaped to the Royal pew in the chancel. After a simple service thev took the road again, while a. Royal salute of 21 guns boomed from the Roc-k of Edinburgh, and the people shouted greetings from their towerncr tenement houses. i The National Assembly is held in the T'olbooth Church, and consists of about TOGO ministers and elders, amontr whom was to be found inscribed, under the heading “Synod of Glasgow, Presbytery of Ayr,” the names of James Brown. Esq., M.P., 0.8. E., bo Annbank, Ayrshire

Th;s wa s the same, humble delegate who now came driving up to the thum der of the guns and the shouts of the populace

“Lock- the doors.” cried a beadle, as lie entered the throne-like rostrum, bowing. And tlie- doors were locked. Mrs Brown, looking just a trifle flushed and excited, toox a seat near Lady Frances. The badies in scarlet and ermine all bowed low. and the Moderato- cleared his throat, his first duty hein'r to nominate his successor, Dr. Da-fid Cathels, of Hawick.

Tlio Kill's Warrant, appointing “Our trustv r and veil-beloved Tames Broun to >ep resent Our Sacred Person n,l d 80. ul .Authority and snpnlv Our Presence and told Our place'’ was read, and the Assembly commanded to reverence, honour, and obey the sa : d James Brown, After which Mr. Brown read with great spirit and hanpv emphasis the characteristic speech which he had prepared. In language it was rich after the special fashion of the kirk and in tone what might be e.xnected of a life-long social worke>- and new Labour M.P. Alluding first to the usual grant of £'2ooo “to be applied to such ’use s as mav tend most to the propagation of Christian knowledge and the mi>mipp>. s oF rehu-med religion in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.” Mr. Brown sufi-gested. with the Thing’s permission that a portion might be appropriated to aiding and encouraging young men to preach the Gospel' in the language.

Turning to the gonet-al activities of Cm kiik. be o'served that, some might shr : nk f’om takino- part in the rough and tumble of polities, desiring rather

to break the bread of life to the souls committed to their care, hut he urged that there does exist a borderland between the secular and the spiritual in uliic*h the Church is bound to labour. “A good shepherd will give his life for las sheep, will go out and seek them, and will carry the wealc and wayward ones home. Even like- the shepherd King of Israel he will use the secular staff when necessary to beat off the lions and the bear s who would devour the flock.”

V e live, said Mr. Brown, in changes times, hut change and decay need not- he iinked together, for change may mean growth.

There .was a feeling that in many directions greater changes still might be. m store for us, and he prayed that tlie Church of Knox and Melville—a Church whose influence was still a power in the land—would realise its no ole mission, and help to 'bring political and industrial peace to a suffering world.

Briefly alluding to his own appointment as Lord High Commissioner, he said: “Here we have a combination, the Church the Iv’ng, and the people, united in one common purpose in striking illustration of tlie stable foundations on which this great Empire rests.”