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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18063-8.txt b/18063-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..efd3311 --- /dev/null +++ b/18063-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2923 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Rabbi Saunderson, by Ian Maclaren, +Illustrated by A. S. Boyd + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Rabbi Saunderson + + +Author: Ian Maclaren + + + +Release Date: March 28, 2006 [eBook #18063] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RABBI SAUNDERSON*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 18063-h.htm or 18063-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/6/18063/18063-h/18063-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/6/18063/18063-h.zip) + + + + + +RABBI SAUNDERSON + +by + +IAN MACLAREN + +With Twelve Illustrations by A. S. Boyd + + + + + + + +London: Hodder and Stoughton +27 Paternoster Row +1898 + + + + + +To + +Mrs. Williamson + + +OF GLENOGIL + +WHO HAS INHERITED + +THE GIFT OF WITTY SPEECH + +AND HAS LAID IT OUT AT USURY + +TO THE JOY OF HER FRIENDS + +AND THE + +GLADDENING OF LIFE + + + + +Contents + + + A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN + KILBOGIE MANSE + THE RABBI AS CONFESSOR + THE FEAR OF GOD + THE WOUNDS OF A FRIEND + LIGHT AT EVENTIDE + + + + +Illustrations + + +He put Jamie's ecclesiastical history into a state + of thorough repair + +The farmers carted the new minister's furniture + from the nearest railway station + +Searching for a lost note + +The suddenness of his fall + +"Some suitable sum for our brother here who is + passing through adversity" + +"We shall not meet again in this world" + +When Carmichael gave him the cup in the sacrament + +"Shall . . . not . . . the . . . Judge . . . of all the + earth . . . do . . . right?" + +"You have spoken to me like a father: surely that is enough" + +Then arose a self-made man + +He watched the dispersion of his potatoes with dismay + +He signed for her hand, which he kept to the end + + + + +A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN + +Jeremiah Saunderson had remained in the low estate of a "probationer" for +twelve years after he left the Divinity Hall, where he was reported so +great a scholar that the Professor of Apologetics spoke to him +deprecatingly, and the Professor of Dogmatics openly consulted him on +obscure writers. He had wooed twenty-three congregations in vain, from +churches in the black country, where the colliers rose in squares of +twenty, and went out without ceremony, to suburban places of worship, +where the beadle, after due consideration of the sermon, would take up +the afternoon notices and ask that they be read at once for purposes of +utility, which that unflinching functionary stated to the minister with +accuracy and much faithfulness. Vacant congregations desiring a list of +candidates, made one exception, and prayed that Jeremiah should not be +let loose upon them, till at last it came home to the unfortunate scholar +himself that he was an offence and a by-word. He began to dread the +ordeal of giving his name, and, as is still told, declared to a +household, living in the fat wheatlands and without any imagination, that +he was called Magor Missabib. When a stranger makes a statement of this +kind to his host with a sad seriousness, no one judges it expedient to +offer any remark; but it was skilfully arranged that Missabib's door +should be locked from the outside, and one member of the household sat up +all night. The sermon next day did not tend to confidence--having seven +quotations in unknown tongues--and the attitude of the congregation was +one of alert vigilance; but no one gave any outward sign of uneasiness, +and six able-bodied men, collected in a pew below the pulpit, knew their +duty in an emergency. + +Saunderson's election to the Free Church of Kilbogie was therefore an +event in the ecclesiastical world, and a consistent tradition in the +parish explained its inwardness on certain grounds, complimentary both to +the judgment of Kilbogie and the gifts of Mr. Saunderson. On Saturday +evening he was removed from the train by the merest accident, and left +the railway station in such a maze of meditation that he ignored the road +to Kilbogie altogether, although its sign-post was staring him in the +face, and continued his way to Drumtochty. It was half-past nine when +Jamie Soutar met him on the high road through our glen, still travelling +steadily west, and being arrested by his appearance, beguiled him into +conversation, till he elicited that Saunderson was minded to reach +Kilbogie. For an hour did the wanderer rest in Jamie's kitchen, during +which he put Jamie's ecclesiastical history into a state of thorough +repair--making seven distinct parallels between the errors that had +afflicted the Scottish Church and the early heretical sects,--and then +Jamie gave him in charge of a ploughman who was courting in Kilbogie, and +was not averse to a journey that seemed to illustrate the double meaning +of charity. Jeremiah was handed over to his anxious hosts at a quarter +to one in the morning, covered with mud, somewhat fatigued, but in great +peace of soul, having settled the place of election in the prophecy of +Habakkuk as he came down with his silent companion through Tochty woods. + +[Illustration: HE PUT JAMIE'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY INTO A STATE OF +THOROUGH REPAIR] + +Nor was that all he had done. When they came out from the shadow and +struck into the parish of Kilbogie--whose fields, now yellow unto +harvest, shone in the moonlight--his guide broke silence and enlarged on +a plague of field-mice which had quite suddenly appeared, and had sadly +devastated the grain of Kilbogie. Saunderson awoke from study and became +exceedingly curious, first of all demanding a particular account of the +coming of the mice, their multitude, their habits, and their +determination. Then he asked many questions about the moral conduct and +godliness of the inhabitants of Kilbogie, which his companion, as a +native of Drumtochty, painted in gloomy colours, although indicating as +became a lover that even in Kilbogie there was a remnant. Next morning +the minister rose at daybreak, and was found wandering through the fields +in such a state of excitement that he could hardly be induced to look at +breakfast. When the "books" were placed before him, he turned promptly +to the ten plagues of Egypt, which he expounded in order as preliminary +to a full treatment of the visitations of Providence. + +"He cowes (beats) a' ye ever saw or heard," the farmer of Mains explained +to the elders at the gate. "He gaed tae his room at half twa and wes oot +in the fields by four, an' a'm dootin' he never saw his bed. He's lifted +abune the body a'thegither, an' can hardly keep himsel awa frae the +Hebrew at his breakfast. Ye'll get a sermon the day, or ma name is no +Peter Pitillo." Mains also declared his conviction that the invasion of +mice would be dealt with after a scriptural and satisfying fashion. The +people went in full of expectation, and to this day old people recall +Jeremiah Saunderson's trial sermon with lively admiration. Experienced +critics were suspicious of candidates who read lengthy chapters from both +Testaments and prayed at length for the Houses of Parliament, for it was +justly held that no man would take refuge in such obvious devices for +filling up the time unless he was short of sermon material. One +unfortunate, indeed, ruined his chances at once by a long petition for +those in danger on the sea--availing himself with some eloquence of the +sympathetic imagery of the one hundred and seventh Psalm--for this effort +was regarded as not only the most barefaced padding, but also as evidence +of an almost incredible blindness to circumstances. "Did he think +Kilbogie wes a fishing-village?" Mains inquired of the elders afterwards, +with pointed sarcasm. Kilbogie was not indifferent to a well-ordered +prayer--although its palate was coarser in the appreciation of felicitous +terms and allusions than that of Drumtochty--and would have been +scandalised if the Queen had been omitted; but it was by the sermon the +young man must stand or fall, and Kilbogie despised a man who postponed +the ordeal. + +Saunderson gave double pledges of capacity and fulness before he opened +his mouth in the sermon, for he read no Scripture at all that day, and +had only one prayer, which was mainly a statement of the Divine Decrees +and a careful confession of the sins of Kilbogie; and then, having given +out his text from the prophecy of Joel, he reverently closed the Bible +and placed it on the seat behind him. His own reason for this proceeding +was a desire for absolute security in enforcing his subject, and a +painful remembrance of the disturbance in a south country church when he +landed a Bible--with clasps--on the head of the precentor in the heat of +a discourse defending the rejection of Esau. Our best and simplest +actions--and Jeremiah was as simple as a babe--can be misconstrued, and +the only dissentient from Saunderson's election insisted that the Bible +had been deposited on the floor, and asserted that the object of this +profanity was to give the preacher a higher standing in the pulpit. This +malignant reading of circumstances might have wrought mischief--for +Saunderson's gaunt figure did seem to grow in the pulpit--had it not been +for the bold line of defence taken up by Mains. + +"Gin he wanted tae stand high, wes it no tae preach the word? an' gin he +wanted a soond foundation for his feet, what better could he get than the +twa Testaments? Answer me that." + +It was seen at once that no one could answer that, and the captious +objector never quite recovered his position in the parish; while it is +not the least of Kilbogie's boasting, in which the Auld Kirk will even +join against Drumtochty, that they have a minister who not only does not +read his sermons and does not need to quote his texts, but carries the +whole Bible in at least three languages in his head, and once, as a proof +thereof, preached with it below his feet. + +Much was to be looked for from such a man; but even Mains, whetted by +intercourse with Saunderson, was astonished at the sermon. It was a +happy beginning to draw a parallel between the locusts of Joel and the +mice of Kilbogie, and gave the preacher an opportunity of describing the +appearance, habits, and destruction of the locusts, which he did solely +from Holy Scripture, translating various passages afresh, and combining +lights with marvellous ingenuity. This brief preface of half an hour, +which was merely a stimulant for the Kilbogie appetite, led up to a +thorough examination of physical judgments, during which both Bible and +Church history were laid under liberal contribution. At this point the +minister halted, and complimented the congregation on the attention they +had given to the facts of the case, which were his first head, and +suggested that before approaching the doctrine of visitations they might +refresh themselves with a Psalm. The congregation were visibly +impressed, and many made up their minds while singing + + "That man hath perfect blessedness"; + +and while others thought it due to themselves to suspend judgment till +they had tasted the doctrine, they afterwards confessed their full +confidence. It goes without saying that he was immediately beyond the +reach of the ordinary people on the second head, and even veterans in +theology panted after him in vain, so that one of the elders, nodding +assent to an exposure of the Manichaean heresy, suddenly blushed as one +who had played the hypocrite. Some professed to have noticed a doctrine +that had not been touched upon, but they never could give it a name, and +it excited just admiration that a preacher, starting from a plague of +mice, should have made a way by strictly scientific methods into the +secret places of theology. Saunderson allowed his hearers a brief rest +after the second head, and cheered them with the assurance that what was +still before them would be easy to follow. It was the application of all +that had gone before to the life of Kilbogie, and the preacher proceeded +to convict the parish under each of the ten commandments--with the plague +of mice ever in reserve to silence excuses--till the delighted +congregation could have risen in a body and taken Saunderson by the hand +for his fearlessness and faithfulness. Perhaps the extent and +thoroughness of this monumental sermon can be best estimated by the fact +that Claypots, father of the present tenant, who always timed his rest to +fifty minutes exactly, thus overseeing both the introduction and +application of the sermon, had a double portion, and even a series of +supplementary dozes, till at last he sat upright through sheer satiety. +It may also be offered as evidence that the reserve of peppermint held by +mothers for their bairns was pooled, doles being furtively passed across +pews to conspicuously needy families, and yet the last had gone before +Saunderson finished. + +Mains reported to the congregational meeting that the minister had been +quiet for the rest of the day, but had offered to say something about +Habakkuk to any evening gathering, and had cleared up at family worship +some obscure points in the morning discourse. He also informed the +neighbours that he had driven his guest all the way to Muirtown, and put +him in an Edinburgh carriage with his own hands, since it had emerged +that Saunderson, through absence of mind, had made his down journey by +the triangular route of Dundee. It was quite impossible for Kilbogie to +conceal their pride in electing such a miracle of learning, and their +bearing in Muirtown was distinctly changed; but indeed they did not boast +vainly about Jeremiah Saunderson, for his career was throughout on the +level of that monumental sermon. When the Presbytery in the gaiety of +their heart examined Saunderson to ascertain whether he was fully +equipped for the work of the ministry, he professed the whole Old +Testament in Hebrew, and MacWheep of Pitscowrie, who always asked the +candidate to read the twenty-third Psalm, was beguiled by Jeremiah into +the Book of Job, and reduced to the necessity of asking questions by +indicating verbs with his finger. His Greek examination led to an +argument between Jeremiah and Dr. Dowbiggin on the use of the aorist, +from which the minister-elect of Kilbogie came out an easy first; and his +sermons were heard to within measurable distance of the second head by an +exact quorum of the exhausted court, who were kept by the clerk sitting +at the door, and preventing MacWheep escaping. His position in the court +was assured from the beginning, and fulfilled the function of an +Encyclopaedia, with occasional amazing results, as when information was +asked about some Eastern sect for whose necessities the Presbytery were +asked to collect, and to whose warm piety affecting allusion was made, +and Jeremiah showed clearly, with the reporters present, that the +Cappadocians were guilty of a heresy beside which Morisonianism was an +unsullied whiteness. His work as examiner-in-general for the court was a +merciful failure, and encouraged the students of the district to return +to their district court, who, on the mere rumour of him, had transferred +themselves in a body to a Highland Presbytery, where the standard +question in Philosophy used to be, "How many horns has a dilemma, and +distinguish the one from the other." No man knew what the minister of +Kilbogie might not ask--the student was only perfectly certain that it +would be beyond his knowledge; but as Saunderson always gave the answer +himself in the end, and imputed it to the student, anxiety was reduced to +a minimum. Saunderson, indeed, was in the custom of passing all +candidates and reporting them as marvels of erudition, whose only fault +was a becoming modesty--which, however, had not concealed from his keen +eye hidden treasures of learning. Beyond this sphere the good man's +services were not used by a body of shrewd ecclesiastics, as the +inordinate length of an ordination sermon had ruined a dinner prepared +for the court by "one of our intelligent and large-hearted laymen," and +it is still pleasantly told how Saunderson was invited to a +congregational soirée--an ancient meeting, where the people ate oranges, +and the speaker rallied the minister on being still unmarried--and +discoursed, as a carefully chosen subject, on the Jewish feasts,--with +illustrations from the Talmud,--till some one burst a paper-bag and +allowed the feelings of the people to escape. When this history was +passed round Muirtown Market, Kilbogie thought still more highly of their +minister, and indicated their opinion of the other parish in severely +theological language. + +Standing at his full height he might have been six feet, but, with much +poring over books and meditation, he had descended some two inches. His +hair was long, not because he made any conscious claim to genius, but +because he forgot to get it cut, and, with his flowing, untrimmed beard, +was now quite grey. Within his clothes he was the merest skeleton, being +so thin that his shoulder-blades stood out in sharp outline, and his +hands were almost transparent. The redeeming feature in Saunderson was +his eyes, which were large and eloquent, of a trustful, wistful hazel, +the beautiful eyes of a dumb animal. Whether he was expounding doctrines +charged with despair of humanity, or exalting, in rare moments, the +riches of a Divine love in which he did not expect to share, or humbly +beseeching his brethren to give him information on some point in +scholarship no one knew anything about except himself, or stroking the +hair of some little child sitting upon his knee, those eyes were ever +simple, honest, and most pathetic. Young ministers coming to the +Presbytery full of self-conceit and new views were arrested by their +light shining through the glasses, and came in a year or two to have a +profound regard for Saunderson, curiously compounded of amusement at his +ways, which for strangeness were quite beyond imagination, admiration for +his knowledge, which was amazing for its accuracy and comprehensiveness, +respect for his honesty, which feared no conclusion, however repellent to +flesh and blood, but chiefly of love for the unaffected and shining +goodness of a man in whose virgin soul neither self nor this world had +any part. For years the youngsters of the Presbytery knew not how to +address the minister of Kilbogie, since any one who had dared to call him +Saunderson, as they said "Carmichael," and even "MacWheep," though he was +elderly, would have been deposed, without delay, from the ministry--so +much reverence at least was in the lads--and "Mister" attached to this +personality would be like a silk hat on the head of an Eastern sage. +Jenkins of Pitrodie always considered that he was inspired when he one +day called Saunderson "Rabbi," and unto the day of his death Kilbogie was +so called. He made protest against the title as being forbidden in the +Gospels, but the lads insisted that it must be understood in the sense of +scholar, whereupon Saunderson disowned it on the ground of his slender +attainments. The lads saw the force of this objection, and admitted that +the honourable word belonged by rights to MacWheep, who was a "gude +body," but it was their fancy to assign it to Saunderson--whereat +Saunderson yielded, only exacting a pledge that he should never be so +called in public, lest all concerned be condemned for foolishness. When +it was announced that the University of Edinburgh had resolved to confer +the degree of D.D. on him for his distinguished learning and great +services to theological scholarship, Saunderson, who was delighted when +Dowbiggin of Muirtown got the honour for being an ecclesiastic, would +have refused it for himself had not his boys gone out in a body and +compelled him to accept. They also purchased a Doctor's gown and hood, +and invested him with them in the name of Kilbogie two days before the +capping. One of them saw that he was duly brought to the Tolbooth Kirk, +where the capping ceremonial in those days took place. Another sent a +list of Saunderson's articles to British and foreign theological and +philological reviews, which filled half a column of the _Caledonian_, and +drew forth a complimentary article from that exceedingly able and caustic +paper, whose editor lost all his hair through sympathetic emotion the +morning of the Disruption, and ever afterwards pointed out the faults of +the Free Kirk with much frankness. The fame of Rabbi Saunderson was so +spread abroad that a great cheer went up as he came in with the other +Doctors elect, in which he cordially joined, considering it to be +intended for his neighbour, a successful West-End clergyman, the author +of a Life of Dorcas and other pleasing booklets. For some time after his +boys said "Doctor" in every third sentence, and then grew weary of a too +common title, and fell back on "Rabbi," by which he was known until the +day of his death, and which is now engraved on his tombstone. + +Saunderson's reputation for unfathomable learning and saintly simplicity +was built up out of many incidents, and grew with the lapse of years to a +solitary height in the big strath, so that no man would have dared to +smile had the Free Kirk minister of Kilbogie appeared in Muirtown in his +shirt-sleeves, and Kilbogie would only have been a trifle more conceited. +Truly he was an amazing man, and, now that he is dead and gone, the last +of his race, I wish some man of his profession had written his life, for +the doctrine he taught and the way he lived will not be believed by the +new generation. The arrival of his goods was more than many sermons to +Kilbogie, and I had it from Mains' own lips. It was the kindly fashion +of those days that the farmers carted the new minister's furniture from +the nearest railway station, and as the railway to Kildrummie was not yet +open, they had to go to Stormont Station on the north line; and a +pleasant procession they made passing through Pitscowrie, ten carts in +their best array, and drivers with a semi-festive air. Mr. Saunderson +was at the station, having reached it, by some miracle, without mistake, +and was in a condition of abject nervousness about the handling and +conveyance of his belongings. + +[Illustration: THE FARMERS CARTED THE NEW MINISTER'S FURNITURE FROM THE +NEAREST RAILWAY STATION] + +"You will be careful--exceeding careful," he implored; "if one of the +boxes were allowed to descend hurriedly to the ground, the result to what +is within would be disastrous. I am much afraid that the weight is +considerable, but I am ready to assist"; and he got ready. + +"Dinna pit yirsel intae a feery-farry (commotion)"--but Mains was +distinctly pleased to see a little touch of worldliness, just enough to +keep the new minister in touch with humanity. "It'll be queer stuff oor +lads canna lift, an' a'll gie ye a warranty that the'll no be a cup o' +the cheeny broken"; and then Saunderson conducted his congregation to the +siding. + +"Dod, man," remarked Mains to the station-master, examining a truck with +eight boxes; "the manse 'ill no want for dishes at ony rate. But let's +start on the furniture; whar hae ye got the rest o' the plenishing? + +"Naething mair? havers, man, ye dinna mean tae say they pack beds an' +tables in boxes; a' doot there's a truck missin'." Then Mains went over +where the minister was fidgeting beside his possessions. + +"No, no," said Saunderson, when the situation was put before him, "it's +all here. I counted the boxes, and I packed every box myself. That top +one contains the fathers--deal gently with it; and the Reformation +divines are just below it. Books are easily injured, and they feel it. +I do believe there is a certain life in them, and . . . and . . . they +don't like being ill-used"; and Jeremiah looked wistfully at the +ploughmen. + +"Div ye mean tae say," as soon as Mains had recovered, "that ye've brocht +naethin' for the manse but bukes, naither bed nor bedding? Keep's a'," +as the situation grew upon him, "whar are ye tae sleep, and what are ye +tae sit on? An' div ye never eat? This croons a';" and Mains gazed at +his new minister as one who supposed that he had taken Jeremiah's measure +and had failed utterly. + +"_Mea culpa_--it's . . . my blame," and Saunderson was evidently humbled +at this public exposure of his incapacity; "some slight furnishing will +be expedient, even necessary, and I have a plan for book-shelves in my +head; it is ingenious and convenient, and if there is a worker in +wood . . ." + +"Come awa' tae the dog-cart, sir," said Mains, realizing that even +Kilbogie did not know what a singular gift they had obtained, and that +discussion on such sublunary matters as pots and pans was useless, not to +say profane. So eight carts got a box each; one, Jeremiah's ancient kist +of moderate dimensions; and the tenth--that none might be left +unrecognised--a hand-bag that had been on the twelve years' probation +with its master. The story grew as it passed westwards, and when it +reached us we were given to understand that the Free Kirk minister of +Kilbogie had come to his parish with his clothing in a paper parcel and +twenty-four packing-cases filled with books, in as many languages--half +of them dating from the introduction of printing, and fastened by silver +clasps--and that if Drumtochty seriously desired to hear an intellectual +sermon at a time, we must take our way through Tochty woods. + +Mrs. Pitillo took the minister into her hands, and compelled him to +accompany her to Muirtown, where she had him at her will for some time, +so that she equipped the kitchen (fully), a dining-room (fairly), a spare +bedroom (amply), Mr. Saunderson's own bedroom (miserably), and secured a +table and two chairs for the study. This success turned her head. Full +of motherly forethought, and having a keen remembrance that probationers +always retired in the afternoon at Mains to think over the evening's +address, and left an impress of the human form on the bed when they came +down to tea, Mrs. Pitillo suggested that a sofa would be an admirable +addition to the study. As soon as this piece of furniture, of a size +suitable for his six feet, was pointed out to the minister, he took +fright, and became quite unmanageable. He would not have such an article +in his study on any account, partly because it would only feed a tendency +to sloth--which, he explained, was one of his besetting sins--and partly +because it would curtail the space available for books, which, he +indicated, were the proper furniture of any room, but chiefly of a study. +So great was his alarm, that he repented of too early concessions about +the other rooms, and explained to Mrs. Pitillo that every inch of space +must be rigidly kept for the overflow from the study, which he +expected--if he were spared--would reach the garrets. Several times on +their way back to Kilbogie, Saunderson looked wistfully at Mrs. Pitillo, +and once opened his mouth as if to speak, from which she gathered that he +was grateful for her kindness, but dared not yield any further to the +luxuries of the flesh. + +What this worthy woman endured in securing a succession of reliable +house-keepers for Mr. Saunderson and over-seeing the interior of that +remarkable home she was never able to explain to her own satisfaction, +though she made many honest efforts, and one of her last intelligible +utterances was a lamentable prophecy of the final estate of the Free +Church manse of Kilbogie. Mr. Saunderson himself seemed at times to have +some vague idea of her painful services, and once mentioned her name to +Carmichael of Drumtochty in feeling terms. There had been some delay in +providing for the bodily wants of the visitor after his eight miles' walk +from the glen, and it seemed likely that he would be obliged to take his +meal standing for want of a chair. + +"While Mrs. Pitillo lived, I have a strong impression, almost amounting +to certainty, that the domestic arrangements of the manse were better +ordered; she had the episcopal faculty in quite a conspicuous degree, and +was, I have often thought, a woman of sound judgment. + +"We were not able at all times to see eye to eye, as she had an +unfortunate tendency to meddle with my books and papers, and to arrange +them after an artificial fashion. This she called tidying, and, in its +most extreme form, cleaning. + +"With all her excellences, there was also in her what I have noticed in +most women, a certain flavour of guile, and on one occasion, when I was +making a brief journey through Holland and France in search of comely +editions of the fathers, she had the books carried out to the garden and +dusted. It was the space of two years before I regained mastery of my +library again, and unto this day I cannot lay my hands on the +service-book of King Henry VIII., which I had in the second edition, to +say nothing of an original edition of Rutherford's _Lex Rex_. + +"It does not become me, however, to reflect on the efforts of that worthy +matron, for she was by nature a good woman, and if any one could be saved +by good works, her place is assured. I was with her before she died, and +her last words to me were, 'Tell Jean tae dust yir bukes aince in the sax +months, and for ony sake keep ae chair for sittin' on.' It was not +perhaps quite the testimony one would have desired in the circumstances, +but yet, Mr. Carmichael, I have often thought that there was a spirit +of . . . of unselfishness, in fact, that showed the working of grace." +Later in the same evening Mr. Saunderson's mind returned to his friend's +spiritual state, for he entered into a long argument to show that while +Mary was more spiritual, Martha must also have been within the Divine +Election. + + + + +KILBOGIE MANSE + +Ministers there were in the great strath so orderly that they kept +their sealing-wax in one drawer and their string in another, while +their sermons were arranged under the books of the Bible, and tied with +green silk. Dr. Dowbiggin, though a dull man and of a heavy carriage, +could find in an instant the original draft of a motion on instrumental +music he made in the Presbytery of Muirtown in the year '59, and could +also give the exact page in the blue-books for every word he had +uttered in the famous case when he showed that the use of an harmonium +to train MacWheep's choir was a return to the bondage of Old Testament +worship. His collection of pamphlets was supposed to be unique, and +was a terror to controversialists, no man knowing when a rash utterance +on the bottomless mystery of "spiritual independence" might not be +produced from the Doctor's coat-tail pocket. He retired to rest at +10.15, and rose at six, settling the subject of his next sermon on +Sabbath evening, and finishing the first head before breakfast on +Monday morning. He had three hats--one for funerals, one for +marriages, one for ordinary occasions--and has returned from the +Presbytery door to brush his coat. Morning prayers in Dr. Dowbiggin's +house were at 8.5, and the wrath of the Doctor was so dangerous that +one probationer staying at the manse, and not quite independent of +influence, did not venture to undress, but snatched a fearful doze +sitting upright on a cane-bottomed chair, lest he should not be in at +the psalm. Young ministers of untidy habits regarded Dr. Dowbiggin's +study with despair, and did not recover their spirits till they were +out of Muirtown. Once only did this eminent man visit the manse of +Kilbogie, and in favourable moments after dinner he would give his +choicer experiences. + +"It is my invariable custom to examine the bed to see that everything +is in order, and any one sleeping in Kilbogie Manse will find the good +of such a precaution. I trust that I am not a luxurious person--it +would ill become one who came out in '43--but I have certainly become +accustomed to the use of sheets. When I saw there were none on the +bed, I declined to sleep without them, and I indicated my mind very +distinctly on the condition of the manse. + +"Would you believe it?" the Doctor used to go on. "Saunderson +explained, as if it were a usual occurrence, that he had given away all +the spare linen in his house to a girl that had to marry in . . . +urgent circumstances, and had forgotten to get more. And what do you +think did he offer as a substitute for sheets?" No one could even +imagine what might not occur to the mind of Saunderson. + +"Towels, as I am an honourable man; a collection of towels, as he put +it, 'skilfully attached together, might make a pleasant covering.' +That is the first and last time I ever slept in the Free Church Manse +of Kilbogie. As regards Saunderson's study, I will guarantee that the +like of it cannot be found within Scotland;" and at the very thought of +it that exact and methodical ecclesiastic realized the limitations of +language. + +His boys boasted of the Rabbi's study as something that touched genius +in its magnificent disorderliness, and Carmichael was so proud of it +that he took me to see it as to a shrine. One whiff of its atmosphere +as you entered the door gave an appetite and raised the highest +expectations. For any bookman can estimate a library by scent--if an +expert he could even write out a catalogue of the books and sketch the +appearance of the owner. Heavy odour of polished mahogany, Brussels +carpets, damask curtains, and tablecloths; then the books are kept +within glass, consist of sets of standard works in half calf, and the +owner will give you their cost wholesale to a farthing. Faint +fragrance of delicate flowers, and Russia leather, with a hint of +cigarettes; prepare yourself for a marvellous wall-paper, etchings, +bits of oak, limited editions, and a man in a velvet coat. Smell of +paste and cloth binding and general newness means yesterday's books and +a reviewer racing through novels with a paper-knife. Those are only +book-rooms by courtesy, and never can satisfy any one who has breathed +the sacred air. It is a rich and strong spirit, not only filling the +room, but pouring out from the door and possessing the hall, redeeming +an opposite dining-room from grossness, and a more distant drawing-room +from frivolity, and even lending a goodly flavour to bedrooms on upper +floors. It is distilled from curious old duodecimos packed on high +shelves out of sight, and blows over folios, with large clasps, that +once stood in monastery libraries, and gathers a subtle sweetness from +parchments that were illuminated in ancient scriptoriums that are now +grass-grown, and it is fortified with good old musty calf. The wind +was from the right quarter on the first day I visited Kilbogie Manse, +and as we went up the garden walk the Rabbi's library already bade us +welcome, and assured us of our reward for a ten-miles' walk. + +Saunderson was perfectly helpless in all manner of mechanics--he could +not drive a tack through anything except his own fingers, and had given +up shaving at the suggestion of his elders--and yet he boasted, with +truth, that he had got three times as many books into the study as his +predecessor possessed in all his house. For Saunderson had shelved the +walls from the floor to the ceiling, into every corner, and over the +doors and above the windows, as well as below them. The wright had +wished to leave the space clear above the mantelpiece. + +"Ye'll be hanging Dr. Chalmers there, or maybe John Knox, and a bit +clock'll be handy for letting ye ken the 'oors on Sabbath." + +The Rabbi admitted that he had a Knox, but was full of a scheme for +hanging him over his own history, which he considered both appropriate +and convenient. As regards time, it was the last thing of which that +worthy man desired to be reminded--going to bed when he could no longer +see for weariness, and rising as soon as he awoke, taking his food when +it was brought to him, and being conducted to church by the beadle +after the last straggler was safely seated. He even cast covetous eyes +upon the two windows, which were absurdly large, as he considered, but +compromised matters by removing the shutters and filling up the vacant +space with slender works of devotion. It was one of his conceits that +the rising sun smote first on an À'Kempis, for this he had often +noticed as he worked of a morning. + +Book-shelves had long ago failed to accommodate Rabbi's treasures, and +the floor had been bravely utilised. Islands of books, rugged and +perpendicular, rose on every side; long promontories reached out from +the shore, varied by bold headlands; and so broken and varied was that +floor that the Rabbi was pleased to call it the Aegean Sea, where he +had his Lesbos and his Samos. It is absolutely incredible, but it is +all the same a simple fact, that he knew every book and its location, +having a sense of the feel as well as the shape of his favourites. +This was not because he had the faintest approach to orderliness, for +he would take down twenty volumes and never restore them to the same +place by any chance. It was a sort of motherly instinct by which he +watched over them all, and even loved prodigals who wandered over all +the study and then set off on adventurous journeys into distant rooms. +The restoration of an emigrant to his lawful home was celebrated by a +feast, in which, by a confusion of circumstances, the book played the +part of the fatted calf, being read afresh from beginning to end. +During his earlier and more agile years the Rabbi used to reach the +higher levels of his study by wonderful gymnastic feats, but after two +falls--one with three Ante-Nicene fathers in close pursuit--he +determined to call in assistance. This he did after an impressive +fashion. When he attended the roup at Pitfoodles--a day of historical +prices--and purchased in open competition, at three times its value, a +small stack ladder, Kilbogie was convulsed, and Mains had to offer +explanations. + +"He's cuttit aff seevin feet, and rins up it tae get his tapmaist +bukes, but that's no' a'," and then Mains gave it to be understood that +the rest of the things the minister had done with that ladder were +beyond words. For in order that the rough wood might not scar the +sensitive backs of the fathers, the Rabbi had covered the upper end +with cloth, and for that purpose had utilised a pair of trousers. It +was not within his ability in any way to reduce or adapt his material, +so that those interesting garments remained in their original shape, +and, as often as the ladder stood reversed, presented a very impressive +and diverting spectacle. It was the inspiration of one of Carmichael's +most successful stories--how he had done his best to console a woman on +the death of her husband, and had not altogether failed, till she +caught sight of the deceased's nether garments waving disconsolately on +a rope in the garden, when she refused to be comforted. "Toom (empty) +breeks tae me noo," and she wept profusely, "toom breeks tae me." + +One of the great efforts of the Rabbi's life was to seat his visitors, +since, beyond the one chair, accommodation had to be provided on the +table, wheresoever there happened to be no papers, and on the ledges of +the bookcases. It was pretty to see the host suggesting from a long +experience those coigns of vantage he counted easiest and safest, +giving warnings also of unsuspected danger in the shape of restless +books that might either yield beneath one's feet or descend on one's +head. Carmichael, however, needed no such guidance, for he knew his +way about in the marvellous place, and at once made for what the boys +called the throne of the fathers. This was a lordly seat, laid as to +its foundation in mediaeval divines of ponderous content, but +excellently finished with the Benedictine edition of St. Augustine, +softened by two cushions, one for a seat and another for a back. Here +Carmichael used to sit in great content, smoking and listening while +the Rabbi hunted an idea through Scripture with many authorities, or +defended the wildest Calvinism with strange, learned arguments; from +this place he would watch the Rabbi searching for a lost note on some +passage of Holy Writ amid a pile of papers two feet deep, through which +he burrowed on all-fours, or climbing for a book on the sky-line, to +forget his errand and to expound some point of doctrine from the top of +the ladder. + +[Illustration: SEARCHING FOR A LOST NOTE] + +"You're comfortable, John, and you do not want to put off your boots +after all that travelling to and fro? Then I will search for Barbara, +and secure some refreshment for our bodies"; and Carmichael watched the +Rabbi depart with pity, for he was going on a troublous errand. + +Housekeepers are, after beadles, the most wonderful functionaries in +the ecclesiastical life of Scotland, and every species could be found +within a day's journey of Drumtochty. Jenkins, indeed, suggested that +a series of papers on Church institutions read at the clerical club +should include one on housekeepers, and offered to supply the want, +which was the reason why Dr. Dowbiggin refused to certify him to a +vacancy, speaking of him as "frivolous and irresponsible." The class +ranged from Sarah of Drumtochty, who could cook and knew nothing about +ecclesiastical affairs, to that austere damsel, Margaret Meiklewham of +Pitscowrie, who had never prepared an appetising meal in her life, but +might have sat as an elder in the Presbytery. + +Among all her class, Barbara MacCluckie stood an easy worst, being the +most incapable, unsightly, evil-tempered, vexatious woman into whose +hands an unmarried man had ever been delivered. MacWheep had his own +trials, but his ruler saw that he had sufficient food and some comfort, +but Barbara laid herself out to make the Rabbi's life a misery. He +only obtained his meals as a favour, and an extra blanket had to be won +by a week's abject humiliation. Fire was only allowed him at times, +and he secured oil for his lamp by stratagem. Latterly he was glad to +send strange ministers to Mains, and his boys alone forced lodgment in +the manse. The settlement of Barbara was the great calamity of the +Rabbi's life, and was the doing of his own good-nature. He first met +her when she came to the manse one evening to discuss the unlawfulness +of infant baptism and the duty of holding Sunday on Saturday, being the +Jewish Sabbath. His interest deepened on learning that she had been +driven from twenty-nine situations through the persecution of the +ungodly; and on her assuring him that she had heard a voice in a dream +bidding her take charge of Kilbogie Manse, the Rabbi, who had suffered +many things at the hands of young girls given to lovers, installed +Barbara, and began to repent that very day. A tall, bony, forbidding +woman, with a squint, and a nose turning red as she stated from chronic +indigestion, let it be said for her that she did not fall into the sins +of her predecessors. It was indeed a pleasant jest in Kilbogie for +four Sabbaths that she allowed a local Romeo, who knew not that his +Juliet was gone, to make his adventurous way to her bedroom window, and +then showed such an amazing visage that he was laid up for a week +through the suddenness of his fall. What the Rabbi endured no one +knew, but his boys understood that the only relief he had from +Barbara's tyranny was on Sabbath evening when she stated her objections +to his sermons, and threatened henceforward to walk into Muirtown in +order to escape from unsound doctrine. On such occasions the Rabbi +laid himself out for her instruction with much zest, and he knew when +he had produced an impression, for then he went supperless to bed. +Between this militant spirit and the boys there was an undying feud, +and Carmichael was not at all hurt to hear her frank references to +himself. + +[Illustration: THE SUDDENNESS OF HIS FALL] + +"What need he come stravagin' doon frae Drumtochty for? it wud set him +better tae wait on his ain fouk. A licht-headed fellow, they say as +kens; an' as for his doctrine--weel, maybe it'll dae for Drumtochty. + +"Tea? Did ye expect me tae hae biling water at this 'oor o' the nicht? +My word, the money wud flee in this hoose gin a' wesna here. Milk'll +dae fine for yon birkie: he micht be gled tae get onything, sorning on +a respectable manse every ither week." + +"You will pardon our humble provision"--this is how the Rabbi prepared +Carmichael; "we have taken my worthy Abigail unawares, and she cannot +do for us what in other circumstances would be her desire. She has a +thorn in the flesh which troubles her, and makes her do what she would +not, but I am convinced that her heart is right." + +That uncompromising woman took no notice of Drumtochty, but busied +herself in a search for the Rabbi's bag, which he insisted had been +brought home from Muirtown that morning, and which was at last found +covered with books. + +"Do not open it at present, Barbara; you can identify the contents +later if it be necessary, but I am sure they are all right"; and the +Rabbi watched Barbara's investigations with evident anxiety. + +"Maybe ye hae brocht back what ye started wi', but gin ye hev, it's the +first time a' can mind. Laist sacrament at Edinburgh ye pickit up twal +books, ae clothes-brush, an' a crochet cover for a chair, an' left +a'thing that belonged tae ye." + +"It was an inadvertence; but I obtained a drawer for my own use this +time, and I was careful to pack its contents into the bag, leaving +nothing." But the Rabbi did not seem over-confident. + +"There's nae question that ye hev filled the pack," said Barbara, with +much deliberation and an ominous calmness; "but whether wi' yir ain +gear or some ither body's, a'll leave ye tae judge yirsel. A'll juist +empty the bag on the bukes"; and Barbara selected a bank of Puritans +for the display of her master's spoil. + +"Ae slipbody (bodice), weel hemmed and gude stuff--ye didna tak' that +wi' ye, at ony rate; twa pillow-slips--they'll come in handy, oor ain +are wearin' thin; ae pair o' sheets--'ll just dae for the next trimmie +that ye want tae set up in her hoose; this'll be a bolster-slip, a'm +judgin'----" + +"It must be the work of Satan," cried the poor Rabbi, who constantly +saw the hand of the great enemy in the disorder of his study. "I +cannot believe that my hands packed such garments in place of my own." + +"Ye'll be satisfied when ye read the name; it's plain eneuch; ye needna +gang dodderin' aboot here and there lookin' for yir glasses; there's +twa pair on your head already"; for it was an hour of triumph to +Barbara's genial soul. + +"It's beyond understanding," murmured the Rabbi. "I must have mistaken +one drawer for another in the midst of meditation"; and then, when +Barbara had swept out of the room with the varied linen on her arm, +"This is very humiliating, John, and hard to bear." + +"Nonsense, Rabbi; it's one of the finest things you have ever done. +Half a dozen journeys of that kind would refurnish the manse; it's just +a pity you can't annex a chair"; but he saw that the good man was +sorely vexed. + +"You are a good lad, John, and it is truly marvellous what charity I +have received at the hands of young men who might have scorned and +mocked me. God knows how my heart has been filled with gratitude, and +I . . . have mentioned your names in my unworthy prayers, that God may +do to you all according to the kindness ye have shown unto me." + +It was plain that this lonely, silent man was much moved, and +Carmichael did not speak. + +"People consider that I am ignorant of my failings and weaknesses, and +I can bear witness with a clear conscience that I am not angry when +they smile and nod the head; why should I be? But, John, it is known +to myself only, and Him before whom all hearts are open, how great is +my suffering in being among my neighbours as a sparrow upon the +house-top. + +"May you never know, John, what it is to live alone and friendless till +you lose the ways of other men and retire within yourself, looking out +on the multitude passing on the road as a hermit from his cell, and +knowing that some day you will die alone, with none to . . . give you a +draught of water!" + +"Rabbi, Rabbi,"--for Carmichael was greatly distressed at the woe in +the face opposite him, and his heart was tender that night,--"why +should you have lived like that? Do not be angry, but . . . did God +intend . . . it cannot be wrong . . . I mean . . . God did give Eve to +Adam." + +"Laddie, why do ye speak with fear and a faltering voice? Did I say +aught against that gracious gift or the holy mystery of love, which is +surely the sign of the union betwixt God and the soul, as is set forth +after a mystical shape in the Song of Songs? But it was not for +me--no, not for me. I complain not, neither have I vexed my soul. He +doeth all things well." + +"But, dear Rabbi"--and Carmichael hesitated, not knowing where he stood. + +"Ye ask me why"--the Rabbi anticipated the question--"and I will tell +you plainly, for my heart has ever gone forth to you. For long years I +found no favour in the eyes of the Church, and it seemed likely I would +be rejected from the ministry as a man useless and unprofitable. How +could I attempt to win the love of any maiden, since it did not appear +to be the will of God that I should ever have a place of habitation? +It consisted not with honour, for I do hold firmly that no man hath any +right to seek unto himself a wife till he have a home." + +"But . . ." + +"Afterwards, you would say. Ah, John! then had I become old and +unsightly, not such a one as women could care for. It would have been +cruel to tie a maid for life to one who might only be forty years in +age, but was as seventy in his pilgrimage, and had fallen into unlovely +habits." + +Then the Rabbi turned on Carmichael his gentle eyes, that were shining +with tears. + +"It will be otherwise with you, and so let it be. May I live to see +you rejoicing with the wife of your youth!" + +So it came to pass that it was to this unlikely man Carmichael told his +love for Kate Carnegie and what like Kate was, and he was amazed at the +understanding of the Rabbi, as well as his sympathy and toleration. + +"A maid of spirit--and that is an excellent thing; and any excess will +be tamed by life. Only see to it that ye agree in that which lieth +beneath all churches and maketh souls one in God. May He prosper you +in your wooing as He did the patriarch Jacob, and far more abundantly!" + +Very early in the morning Carmichael awoke, and being tempted by the +sunrise, arose and went downstairs. As he came near the study door he +heard a voice in prayer, and knew that the Rabbi had been all night in +intercession. + +"Thou hast denied me wife and child; deny me not Thyself. . . . A +stranger Thou hast made me among men; refuse me not a place in the +City. . . . Deal graciously with this lad who has been to me as a son +in the Gospel. . . . He has not despised an old man; put not his heart +to confusion. . . ." + +Carmichael crept upstairs again, but not to sleep, and at breakfast he +pledged the Rabbi to come up some day and see Kate Carnegie. + + + + +THE RABBI AS CONFESSOR + +One day Carmichael, who had quarrelled with Kate over Mary Queen of +Scots and had lost hope, came to a good resolution suddenly, and went +down to see Rabbi Saunderson--the very thought of whose gentle, +patient, selfless life was a rebuke and a tonic. + +When two tramps held conference on the road, and one indicated to the +other visibly that any gentleman in temporary distress would be treated +after a Christian fashion at a neighbouring house, Carmichael, who had +been walking in a dream since he passed the Lodge, knew instantly that +he must be near the Free Kirk manse of Kilbogie. The means of +communication between the members of the nomadic profession is almost +perfect in its frequency and accuracy, and Saunderson's manse was a +hedge-side word. Not only did all the regular travellers by the north +road call on their going up in spring and their coming down in autumn, +but habitués of the east coast route were attracted and made a circuit +to embrace so hospitable a home, and even country vagrants made their +way from Dunleith and down through Glen Urtach to pay their respects to +the Rabbi. They had particular directions to avoid Barbara--expressed +in cypher on five different posts in the vicinity, and enforced in +picturesque language, of an evening--and they were therefore careful to +waylay the Rabbi on the road, or enter his study boldly from the front. +The humbler members of the profession contented themselves with +explaining that they had once been prosperous tradesmen, and were now +walking to Muirtown in search of work--receiving their alms in silence, +with diffidence and shame; but those in a higher walk came to consult +the Rabbi on Bible difficulties, which were threatening to shake their +faith, and departed much relieved--with a new view of Lot's wife, as +well as a suit of clothes the Rabbi had only worn three times. + +"You have done kindly by me in calling"--the vagabond had finished his +story and was standing, a very abject figure, among the books--"and in +giving me the message from your friend. I am truly thankful that he is +now labouring--in iron, did you say?--and I hope he may be a cunning +artificer. + +"You will not set it down to carelessness that I cannot quite recall +the face of your friend, for, indeed, it is my privilege to see many +travellers, and there are times when I may have been a minister to them +on their journeys, as I would be to you also if there be anything in +which I can serve you. It grieves me to say that I have no clothing +that I might offer you; it happens that a very worthy man passed here a +few days ago most insufficiently clad and . . . but I should not have +alluded to that; my other garments, save what I wear, are . . . kept in +a place of . . . safety by my excellent housekeeper, and she makes +their custody a point of conscience; you might put the matter before +her. . . . Assuredly it would be difficult, and I crave your pardon +for putting you in an . . . embarrassing position; it is my misfortune +to have to-day neither silver nor gold,"--catching sight of Carmichael +in the passage, "This is a Providence. May I borrow from you, John, +some suitable sum for our brother here who is passing through +adversity?" + +[Illustration: "SOME SUITABLE SUM FOR OUR BROTHER HERE WHO IS PASSING +THROUGH ADVERSITY"] + +"Do not be angry with me, John"--after the tramp had departed, with +five shillings in hand and much triumph over Carmichael on his +face--"nor speak bitterly of our fellow-men. Verily theirs is a hard +lot who have no place to lay their head, and who journey in weariness +from city to city. John, I was once a stranger and a wayfarer, +wandering over the length and breadth of the land. Nor had I a friend +on earth till my feet were led to the Mains, where my heart was greatly +refreshed, and now God has surrounded me with young men of whose +kindness I am not worthy; wherefore it becometh me to show mercy unto +others"; and the Rabbi looked at Carmichael with such sweetness that +the lad's sullenness began to yield, although he made no sign. + +"Moreover," and the Rabbi's voice took a lower tone, "as often as I +look on one of those men of the highways, there cometh to me a vision +of Him who was an outcast of the people, and albeit some may be as +Judas, peradventure one might beg alms of me, a poor sinful man, some +day, and lo it might be . . . the Lord himself in a saint"; and the +Rabbi bowed his head and stood awhile much moved. + +"Rabbi," after a pause, during which Carmichael's face had changed, +"you are incorrigible. For years we have been trying to make you a +really good and wise man, both by example and precept, and you are +distinctly worse than when we began--more lazy, miserly, and +uncharitable. It is very disheartening. + +"Can you receive another tramp and give him a bed? for I am in low +spirits, and so, like every other person in trouble, I come to you, you +dear old saint, and already I feel a better man." + +"Receive you, John? It is doubtless selfish, but it is not given to +you to know how I weary to see your faces, and we shall have much +converse together--there are some points I would like your opinion +on--but first of all, after a slight refreshment, we must go to Mains: +behold the aid to memory I have designed"--and the Rabbi pointed to a +large square of paper hung above Chrysostom, with "Farewell, George +Pitillo, 3 o'clock." "He is the son's son of my benefactor, and he +leaves his father's house this day to go into a strange land across the +sea: I had a service last night at Mains, and expounded the departure +of Abraham, but only slightly, being somewhat affected through the +weakness of the flesh. There was a covenant made between the young man +and myself, that I should meet him at the crossing of the roads to-day, +and it is in my mind to leave a parable with him against the power of +this present world." + +Then the Rabbi fell into a meditation till the dog-cart came up, Mains +and his wife in the front and George alone in the back, making a brave +show of indifference. + +"George," said the Rabbi, looking across the field and speaking as to +himself, "we shall not meet again in this world, and in a short space +they will bury me in Kilbogie kirkyard, but it will not be in me to lie +still for thinking of the people I have loved. So it will come to pass +that I may rise--you have ears to understand, George--and I will +inquire of him that taketh charge of the dead about many and how it +fares with them." + +[Illustration: "WE SHALL NOT MEET AGAIN IN THIS WORLD."] + +"And George Pitillo, what of him, Andrew? + +"'Oh, it's a peety you didna live langer, Mr. Saunderson, for George +hes risen in the warld and made a great fortune.' + +"How does it go with his soul, Andrew? + +"'Well, you see, Mister Saunderson, George hes hed many things to think +about, and he maybe hasna hed time for releegion yet, but nae doot +he'll be turnin' his mind that wy soon.' + +"Poor George, that I baptized and admitted to the Sacrament and . . . +loved: exchanged his soul for the world." + +The sun was setting fast, and the landscape--bare stubble-fields, +leafless trees, still water, long, empty road--was of a blood-red +colour fearsome to behold, so that no one spake, and the horse chafing +his bit made the only sound. + +Then the Rabbi began again. + +"And George Pitillo--tell me, Andrew? + +"'Weel, ye see, Mister Saunderson, ye wud be sorry for him, for you and +he were aye chief; he's keepit a gude name an' workit hard, but hesna +made muckle o' this warld.' + +"And his soul, Andrew? + +"'Oo, that's a' richt; gin we a' hed as gude a chance for the next +warld as George Pitillo we micht be satisfied.' + +"That is enough for his old friend; hap me over again, Andrew, and I'll +rest in peace till the trumpet sound." + +Carmichael turned aside, but he heard something desperately like a sob +from the back of the dog-cart, and the Rabbi saying, "God be with you, +George, and as your father's father received me in the day of my sore +discouragement, so may the Lord God of Israel open a door for you in +every land whithersoever you go, and bring you in at last through the +gates into the city." The Rabbi watched George till the dog-cart faded +away into the dusk of the winter's day, and they had settled for the +night in their places among the books before the Rabbi spoke. + +It was with a wistful tenderness that he turned to Carmichael and +touched him slightly with his hand, as was a fashion with the Rabbi. + +"You will not think me indifferent to your welfare because I have not +inquired about your affairs, for indeed this could not be, but the +going forth of this lad has tried my heart. Is there aught, John, that +it becometh you to tell me, and wherein my years can be of any avail?" + +"It is not about doctrine I wished to speak to you, Rabbi, although I +am troubled thus also, but about . . . you remember our talk." + +"About the maid--surely; I cannot forget her, and indeed often think of +her since the day you brought me to her house and made me known unto +her, which was much courtesy to one who is fitter for a book-room than +a woman's company. + +"She is fair of face and hath a pleasant manner, and surely beauty and +a winsome way are from God; there seemed also a certain contempt of +baseness and a strength of will which are excellent. Perhaps my +judgment is not even because Miss Carnegie was gracious to me, and you +know, John, it is not in me to resist kindness, but this is how she +seems to me. Has there been trouble between you?" + +"Do not misunderstand me, Rabbi; I have not spoken one word of love to +. . . Miss Carnegie, nor she to me; but I love her, and I thought that +perhaps she saw that I loved her. But now it looks as if . . . what I +hoped is never to be"; and Carmichael told how Kate had risen and left +the Church in hot wrath because he had compared Queen Mary to Jezebel. + +"Is it not marvellous," mused the Rabbi, looking into the fire, "how +one woman, who was indeed at the time little more than a girl, did +carry men, many of them wise and clever, away as with a flood, and +still divideth scholars and even . . . friends? + +"It was not fitting that Miss Carnegie should have left God's house in +heat of temper, and it seemeth to us that she hath a wrong reading of +history, but it is surely good that she hath her convictions, and +holdeth them fast like a brave maid. + +"Is it not so, John, that friends, and doubtless also . . . lovers, +have been divided by conscience, and have been on opposite sides in the +great conflict, and doth not this show how much of conscience there is +among men? + +"It may be this dispute will not divide you--being now, as it were, +more an argument of the schools than a matter of principle--but if it +should appear that you are far apart on the greater matters of faith, +then . . . you will have a heavy cross to carry. But it is my mind +that the heart of the maiden is right, and that I may some day see her +. . . in your home, whereat my eyes would be glad." + +The Rabbi was so taken up with the matter that he barely showed +Carmichael a fine copy of John of Damascus he had secured from London, +and went out of his course at worship to read, as well as to expound +with much feeling, the story of Ruth the Moabitess, showing +conclusively that she had in her a high spirit, and that she was +designed of God to be a strength to the house of David. He was also +very cheerful in the morning, and bade Carmichael good-bye at Tochty +woods with encouraging words. He also agreed to assist his boy at the +Drumtochty sacrament. + +It was evident that the Rabbi's mind was much set on this visit, but +Carmichael did not for one moment depend upon his remembering the day, +and so Burnbrae started early on the Saturday with his dog-cart to +bring Saunderson up and deposit him without fail in the Free Kirk manse +of Drumtochty. Six times that day did the minister leave his "action" +sermon and take his way to the guest-room, carrying such works as might +not be quite unsuitable for the old scholar's perusal, and arranging a +lamp of easy management, that the night hours might not be lost. It +was late in the afternoon before the Rabbi was delivered at the manse, +and Burnbrae gave explanations next day at the sacramental dinner. + +"It wes just ten when a' got tae the manse o' Kilbogie, an' his +hoosekeeper didna ken whar her maister wes; he micht be in Kildrummie +by that time, she said, or half-wy tae Muirtown. So a' set oot an' +ransackit the parish till a' got him, an' gin he wesna sittin' in a +bothie takin' brose wi' the plowmen, an' expoundin' Scripture a' the +time. + +"He startit on the ancient martyrs afore we were half a mile on the +road, and he gied ae testimony aifter anither, an' he wesna within +sicht o' the Reformation when we cam' tae the hooses; a'll no deny that +a' let the mare walk bits o' the road, for a' cud hae heard him a' +nicht; ma bluid's warmer yet, freends." + +The Rabbi arrived in great spirits, and refused to taste meat till he +had stated the burden of his sermon for the morrow. + +"If the Lord hath opened our ears the servant must declare what has +been given him, but I prayed that the message sent through me to your +flock, John, might be love. It hath pleased the Great Shepherd that I +should lead the sheep by strange paths, but I desired that it be +otherwise when I came for the first time to Drumtochty. + +"Two days did I spend in the woods, for the stillness of winter among +the trees leaveth the mind disengaged for the Divine word, and the +first day my soul was heavy as I returned, for this only was laid upon +me, 'vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction.' And, John, albeit God +would doubtless have given me strength according to His will, yet I was +loath to bear this awful truth to the people of your charge. + +"Next day the sun was shining pleasantly in the wood, and it came to me +that clouds had gone from the face of God, and as I wandered among the +trees a squirrel sat on a branch within reach of my hand and did not +flee. Then I heard a voice, 'I have loved thee with an everlasting +love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.' + +"It was, in an instant, my hope that this might be God's word by me, +but I knew not it was so till the Evangel opened up on all sides, and I +was led into the outgoings of the eternal love after so moving a +fashion that I dared to think that grace might be effectual even with +me . . . with me. + +"God opened my mouth on Sabbath on this text unto my own flock, and the +word was not void. It is little that can be said on sovereign love in +two hours and it may be a few minutes; yet even this may be more than +your people are minded to bear. So I shall pretermit certain notes on +doctrine; for you will doubtless have given much instruction on the +purposes of God, and very likely may be touching on that mystery in +your action sermon." + +During the evening the Rabbi was very genial--tasting Sarah's viands +with relish, and comparing her to Rebekah, who made savoury meat, +urging Carmichael to smoke without scruple, and allowing himself to +snuff three times, examining the bookshelves with keen appreciation, +and finally departing with three volumes of modern divinity under his +arm, to reinforce the selection in his room, "lest his eyes should be +held waking in the night watches." He was much overcome by the care +that had been taken for his comfort, and at the door of his room blest +his boy: "May the Lord give you the sleep of His beloved, and +strengthen you to declare all His truth on the morrow." Carmichael sat +by his study fire for a while and went to bed much cheered, nor did he +dream that there was to be a second catastrophe in the Free Kirk of +Drumtochty which would be far sadder than the offending of Miss +Carnegie about Mary Queen of Scots, and would leave in one heart +lifelong regret. + + + + +THE FEAR OF GOD + +It was the way of the Free Kirk that the assisting minister at the +Sacrament should sit behind the Communion Table during the sermon, and +the congregation, without giving the faintest sign of observation, +could estimate its effect on his face. When Dr. Dowbiggin composed +himself to listen as became a Church leader of substantial build--his +hands folded before him and his eyes fixed on the far window--and was +so arrested by the opening passage of Cunningham's sermon on +Justification by Faith that he visibly started, and afterwards sat +sideways with his ears cocked, Drumtochty, while doubtful whether any +Muirtown man could appreciate the subtlety of their minister, had a +higher idea of the Doctor; and when the Free Kirk minister of +Kildrummie--a stout man and given to agricultural pursuits--went fast +asleep under a masterly discussion of the priesthood of Melchizedek, +Drumtochty's opinion of the intellectual condition of Kildrummie was +confirmed beyond argument. + +During his ministry of more than twenty years the Rabbi had never +preached at Drumtochty--being fearful that he might injure the minister +who invited him, or that he might be so restricted in time as to lead +astray by ill-balanced statements--and as the keenest curiosity would +never have induced any man to go from the Glen to worship in another +parish, the Free Kirk minister of Kilbogie was still unjudged in +Drumtochty. They were not sorry to have the opportunity at last, for +they had suffered not a little at the hands of Kilbogie in past years, +and the coming event disturbed the flow of business at Muirtown market. + +"Ye're tae hae the Doctor at laist," Mains said to Netherton--letting +the luck-penny on a transaction in seed-corn stand over--"an' a'm +jidgin' the time's no been lost. He's plainer an' easier tae follow +then he wes at the affgo. Ma word"--contemplating the exercise before +the Glen--"but ye'll aye get eneuch here and there tae cairry hame." +Which shows what a man the Rabbi was, that on the strength of his +possession a parish like Kilbogie could speak after this fashion to +Drumtochty. + +"He'll hae a fair trial, Mains"--Netherton's tone was distinctly +severe--"an' mony a trial he's hed in his day, they say: wes't +three-an'-twenty kirks he preached in afore ye took him? But mind ye, +length's nae standard in Drumtochty; na, na, it's no hoo muckle wind a +man hes, but what like is the stuff that comes. It's bushels doon bye, +but it's wecht up bye." + +Any prejudice against the Rabbi, created by the boasting of a foolish +parish not worthy of him, was reduced by his venerable appearance +before the pulpit, and quite dispelled by his unfeigned delight in +Carmichael's conduct of the "preliminaries." Twice he nodded approval +to the reading of the hundredth Psalm, and although he stood with +covered face during the prayer, he emerged full of sympathy. As his +boy read the fifty-third of Isaiah the old man was moved well-nigh to +tears, and on the giving out of the text, from the parable of the +Prodigal Son, the Rabbi closed his eyes with great expectation, as one +about to be fed with the finest of the wheat. + +Carmichael has kept the sermon unto this day, and as often as he finds +himself growing hard or supercilious, reads it from beginning to end. +It is his hair-shirt, to be worn from time to time next his soul for +the wrongness in it and the mischief it did. He cannot understand how +he could have said such things on a Sacrament morning and in the +presence of the Rabbi, but indeed they were inevitable. When two tides +meet there is ever a cruel commotion, and ships are apt to be dashed on +the rocks, and Carmichael's mind was in a "jabble" that day. The new +culture, with its wider views of God and man, was fighting with the +robust Calvinism in which every Scot is saturated, and the result was +neither peace nor charity. Personally the lad was kindly and +good-natured; intellectually he had become arrogant, intolerant, acrid, +flinging out at old-fashioned views, giving quite unnecessary +challenges, arguing with imaginary antagonists. It has ever seemed to +me, although I suppose that history is against me, that if it be laid +on any one to advocate a new view that will startle people, he ought of +all men to be conciliatory and persuasive; but Carmichael was, at least +in this time of fermentation, very exasperating and pugnacious, and so +he drove the Rabbi to the only hard action of his life, wherein the old +man suffered most, and which may be said to have led to his death. +Carmichael, like the Rabbi, had intended to preach that morning on the +love of God, and thought he was doing so with some power. What he did +was to take the Fatherhood of God and use it as a stick to beat +Pharisees with, and under Pharisees it appeared as if he included every +person who still believed in the inflexible action of the moral laws +and the austere majesty of God. Many good things he no doubt said, but +each had an edge, and it cut deeply into people of the old school. Had +he seen the Rabbi, it would not have been possible for him to continue; +but he only was conscious of Lachlan Campbell, with whom he had then a +feud, and who, he imagined, had come to criticise him. So he went on +his rasping way that Sacrament morning, as when one harrows the spring +earth with iron teeth, exciting himself with every sentence to fresh +crudities of thought and extravagances of opposition. But it only +flashed on him that he had spoken foolishly when he came down from the +pulpit, and found the Rabbi a shrunken figure in his chair before the +Holy Table. + +Discerning people, like Elspeth Macfadyen, saw the whole tragedy from +beginning to end, and felt the pity of it keenly, For a while the Rabbi +waited with fond confidence--for was not he to hear the best-loved of +his boys?--and he caught eagerly at a gracious expression, as if it had +fallen from one of the fathers. Anything in the line of faith would +have pleased the Rabbi that day, who was as a little child, and full of +charity, in spite of his fierce doctrines. By-and-by the light died +away from his eyes as when a cloud comes over the face of the sun and +the Glen grows cold and dreary. He opened his eyes and was amazed, +looking at the people and questioning them what had happened to their +minister. Suddenly he flushed as a person struck by a friend, and +then, as one blow followed another, he covered his face with both +hands, sinking lower and lower in his chair, till even that decorous +people were almost shaken in their attention. + +When Carmichael gave him the cup in the Sacrament the Rabbi's hand +shook and he spilled some drops of the wine upon his beard, which all +that day showed like blood on the silvery whiteness. Afterwards he +spake in his turn to the communicants, and distinguished the true +people of God from the multitude--to whom he held out no hope--by so +many and stringent marks that Donald Menzies refused the Sacrament with +a lamentable groan. And when the Sacrament was over, and the time came +for Carmichael to shake hands with the assisting minister in the +vestry, the Rabbi had vanished, and he had no speech with him till they +went through the garden together--very bleak it seemed in the winter +dusk--unto the sermon that closed the services of the day. + +[Illustration: WHEN CARMICHAEL GAVE HIM THE CUP IN THE SACRAMENT.] + +"God's hand is heavy in anger on us both this day, John," and +Carmichael was arrested by the awe and sorrow in the Rabbi's voice, +"else . . . you had not spoken as you did this forenoon, nor would +necessity be laid on me to speak . . . as I must this night. + +"His ways are all goodness and truth, but they are oftentimes +encompassed with darkness, and the burden He has laid on me is . . . +almost more than I can bear; it will be heavy for you also. + +"You will drink the wine of astonishment this night, and it will be +strange if you do not . . . turn from the hand that pours it out, but +you will not refuse the truth or . . . hate the preacher"; and at the +vestry door the Rabbi looked wistfully at Carmichael. + +During the interval the lad had been ill at ease, suspecting from the +Rabbi's manner at the Table, and the solemnity of his address, that he +disapproved of the action sermon, but he did not for a moment imagine +that the situation was serious. It is one of the disabilities of +good-natured and emotional people, without much deepness of earth, to +belittle the convictions and resolutions of strong natures, and to +suppose that they can be talked away by a few pleasant, coaxing words. + +The Rabbi had often yielded to Carmichael and his other boys in the +ordinary affairs of life--in meat and drink and clothing, even unto the +continuance of his snuffing. He had been most manageable and +pliable--as a child in their hands--and so Carmichael was quite +confident that he could make matters right with the old man about a +question of doctrine as easily as about the duty of a midday meal. +Certain bright and superficial people will only learn by some solitary +experience that faith is reserved in friendship, and that the most +heroic souls are those which count all things loss--even the smile of +those they love--for the eternal. For a moment Carmichael was shaken +as if a new Rabbi were before him; then he remembered the study of +Kilbogie, and all things that had happened therein, and his spirits +rose. + +"How dare you suggest such wickedness, Rabbi, that any of us should +ever criticise or complain of anything you say? Whatever you give us +will be right, and do us good, and in the evening you will tell me all +I said wrong." + +Saunderson looked at Carmichael for ten seconds as one who has not been +understood, and sighed. Then he went down the kirk after the beadle, +and the people marked how he walked like a man who was afraid he might +fall, and, turning a corner, he supported himself on the end of a pew. +As he crept up the pulpit stairs Elspeth gave her husband a look, and, +although well accustomed to the slowness of his understanding, was +amazed that he did not catch the point. Even a man might have seen +that this was not the same minister that came in to the Sacrament with +hope in his very step. + +"A'm no here tae say 'that a' kent what wes comin''"--Elspeth, like all +experts, was strictly truthful--"for the like o' that wes never heard +in Drumtochty, and noo that Doctor Saunderson is awa', will never be +heard again in Scotland. A' jaloused that vials wud be opened an' a' +wesna wrang, but ma certes"--and that remarkable woman left you to +understand that no words in human speech could even hint at the +contents of the vials. + +When the Rabbi gave out his text, "Vessels of wrath," in a low, +awestruck voice, Carmichael began to be afraid, but after a little he +chid himself for foolishness. During half an hour the Rabbi traced the +doctrine of the Divine Sovereignty through Holy Scripture with a +characteristic wealth of allusion to Fathers ancient and reforming, and +once or twice he paused, as if he would have taken up certain matters +at greater length, but restrained himself, simply asserting the Pauline +character of St. Augustine's thinking, and exposing the looseness of +Clement of Alexandria with a wave of the hand, as one hurrying on to +his destination. + +"Dear old Rabbi"--Carmichael congratulated himself in his pew--"what +need he have made so many apologies for his subject? He is going to +enjoy himself, and he is sure to say something beautiful before he is +done." But he was distinctly conscious all the same of a wish that the +Rabbi were done and all . . . well, uncertainty over. For there was a +note of anxiety, almost of horror, in the Rabbi's voice, and he had not +let the Fathers go so lightly unless under severe constraint. What was +it? Surely he would not attack their minister in face of his +people. . . . The Rabbi do that, who was in all his ways a gentleman? +Yet . . . and then the Rabbi abruptly quitted historical exposition and +announced that he would speak on four heads. Carmichael, from his +corner behind the curtains, saw the old man twice open his mouth as if +to speak, and when at last he began he was quivering visibly, and he +had grasped the outer corners of the desk with such intensity that the +tassels which hung therefrom--one of the minor glories of the Free +Kirk--were held in the palm of his hand, the long red tags escaping +from between his white wasted fingers. A pulpit lamp came between +Carmichael and the Rabbi's face, but he could see the straining hand, +which did not relax till it was lifted in the last awful appeal, and +the white and red had a gruesome fascination. It seemed as if one had +clutched a cluster of full, rich, tender grapes and was pressing them +in an agony till their life ran out in streams of blood, and dripped +upon the heads of the choir sitting beneath, in their fresh, hopeful +youth. And it also came to Carmichael with pathetic conviction even +then that every one was about to suffer, but the Rabbi more than them +all together. While the preacher was strengthening his heart for the +work before him, Carmichael's eye was attracted by the landscape that +he could see through the opposite window. The ground sloped upwards +from the kirk to a pine-wood that fringed the great moor, and it was +covered with snow, on which the moon was beginning to shed her faint, +weird light. Within, the light from the upright lamps was falling on +the ruddy, contented faces of men and women and little children, but +without it was one cold, merciless whiteness, like unto the justice of +God, with black shadows of judgment. + +"This is the message which I have to deliver unto you in the name of +the Lord, and even as Jonah was sent to Nineveh after a strange +discipline with a word of mercy, so am I constrained against my will to +carry a word of searching and trembling. + +"First"--and between the heads the Rabbi paused as one whose breath had +failed him--"every man belongs absolutely to God by his creation. + +"Second. The purpose of God about each man precedes his creation. + +"Third. Some are destined to Salvation, and some to Damnation. + +"Fourth"--here the hard breathing became a sob--"each man's lot is unto +the glory of God." + +It was not only skilled theologians like Lachlan Campbell and Burnbrae, +but even mere amateurs who understood that they were that night to be +conducted to the farthest limit of Calvinism, and that, whoever fell +behind through the hardness of the way, their guide would not flinch. +As the Rabbi gave the people a brief space wherein to grasp his heads +in their significance, Carmichael remembered a vivid incident in the +Presbytery of Muirtown, when an English evangelist had addressed that +reverend and austere court with exhilarating confidence--explaining the +extreme simplicity of the Christian faith, and showing how a minister +ought to preach. Various good men were delighted, and asked many +questions of the evangelist--who had kept a baby-linen shop for twenty +years, and was unspoiled by the slightest trace of theology--but the +Rabbi arose and demolished his "teaching," convicting him of heresy at +every turn, till there was not left one stone upon another. + +"But surely fear belongs to the Old Testament dispensation and is now +done away with," said the unabashed little man to the Rabbi afterwards. +"'Rejoice,' you know, my friend, 'and again I say, Rejoice'--that is +the New Testament note." + +"If it be the will of God that such a man as I should ever stand on the +sea of glass mingled with fire, then this tongue will be lifted with +the best, but so long as my feet are still in the fearful pit it +becometh me to bow my head." + +"Then you don't believe in assurance?" But already the evangelist was +quailing before the Rabbi. + +"Verily there is no man that hath not heard of that precious gift, and +none who does not covet it greatly, but there be two degrees of +assurance"--here the Rabbi looked sternly at the happy, rotund little +figure--"and it is with the first you must begin, and what you need to +get is assurance of your damnation." + +One of the boys read an account of this incident--thinly veiled--in a +reported address of the evangelist, in which the Rabbi--being, as it +was inferred, beaten in Scriptural argument--was very penitent and +begged his teacher's pardon with streaming tears. What really happened +was different, and so absolutely conclusive that Doctor Dowbiggin gave +it as his opinion "that a valuable lesson had been read to unauthorized +teachers of religion." + +Carmichael recognised the same note in the sermon and saw another man +than he knew, as the Rabbi, in a low voice, without heat or +declamation, with frequent pauses and laboured breathing, as of one +toiling up a hill, argued the absolute supremacy of God and the utter +helplessness of man. One hand ever pressed the grapes, but with the +other the old man wiped the perspiration that rolled in beads down his +face. A painful stillness fell on the people as they felt themselves +caught in the meshes of this inexorable net and dragged ever nearer to +the abyss. Carmichael, who had been leaning forward in his place, tore +himself away from the preacher with an effort, and moved where he could +see the congregation. Campbell was drinking in every word as one for +the first time in his life perfectly satisfied. Menzies was huddled +into a heap in the top of his pew a man justly blasted by the anger of +the Eternal. Men were white beneath the tan, and it was evident that +some of the women would soon fall a-weeping. Children had crept close +to their mothers under a vague sense of danger, and a girl in the choir +watched the preacher with dilated eyeballs, like an animal fascinated +by terror. + +"It is as a sword piercing the heart to receive this truth, but it is a +truth and must be believed. There are hundreds of thousands in the +past who were born and lived and died and were damned for the glory of +God. There are hundreds of thousands in this day who have been born +and are living and shall die and be damned for the glory of God. There +are hundreds of thousands in the future who shall be born and shall +live and shall die and shall be damned for the glory of God. All +according to the will of God, and none dare say nay nor change the +purpose of the Eternal." For some time the oil in the lamps had been +failing--since the Rabbi had been speaking for nigh two hours--and as +he came to an end of this passage the light began to flicker and die. +First a lamp at the end of Burnbrae's pew went out, and then another in +the front. The preacher made as though he would have spoken, but was +silent, and the congregation watched four lamps sink into darkness at +intervals of half a minute. There only remained the two pulpit lamps, +and in their light the people saw the Rabbi lift his right hand for the +first time. + +"Shall . . . not . . . the . . . Judge . . . of all the earth . . . +do . . . right?" The two lamps went out together and a great sigh rose +from the people. At the back of the kirk a child wailed, and somewhere +in the front a woman's voice--it was never proved to be Elspeth +Macfadyen--said audibly, "God have mercy upon us." The Rabbi had sunk +back into the seat and buried his face in his hands, and through the +window over his head the moonlight was pouring into the church like +unto the far-off radiance from the White Throne. + +[Illustration: "SHALL . . . NOT . . . THE . . . JUDGE . . . OF ALL THE +EARTH . . . DO . . . RIGHT?"] + +When Carmichael led the Rabbi into the manse he could feel the old man +trembling from head to foot, and he would touch neither meat nor drink, +nor would he speak for a space. + +"Are you there, John?"--and he put out his hand to Carmichael, who had +placed him in the big study chair, and was sitting beside him in +silence. + +"I dare not withdraw nor change any word that I spake in the name of +the Lord this day, but . . . it is my infirmity . . . I wish I had +never been born." + +"It was awful," said Carmichael, and the Rabbi's head again fell on his +breast. + +"John,"--and Saunderson looked up,--"I would give ten thousand worlds +to stand in the shoes of that good man who conveyed me from Kilbogie +yesterday, and with whom I had very pleasant fellowship concerning the +patience of the saints. + +"It becometh not any human being to judge his neighbour, but it seemed +to me from many signs that he was within the election of God, and even +as we spoke of Polycarp and the martyrs who have overcome by the blood +of the Lamb, it came unto me with much power, 'Lo, here is one beside +you whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and who shall +enter through the gates into the city'; and grace was given me to +rejoice in his joy, but I . . . "--and Carmichael could have wept for +the despair in the Rabbi's voice. + +"Dear Rabbi!"--for once the confidence of youth was smitten at the +sight of a spiritual conflict beyond its depth--"you are surely . . . +depreciating yourself. . . . Burnbrae is a good man, but compared with +you . . . is not this like to the depression of Elijah?" Carmichael +knew, however, he was not fit for such work as the comforting of Rabbi +Saunderson, and had better have held his peace. + +"It may be that I understand the letter of Holy Scripture better than +some of God's children, although I be but a babe even in this poor +knowledge, but such gifts are only as the small dust of the balance. +He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. + +"John," said the Rabbi suddenly, and with strong feeling, "was it your +thought this night as I declared the sovereignty of God that I judged +myself of the elect, and was speaking as one himself hidden for ever in +the secret place of God?" + +"I . . . did not know," stammered Carmichael, whose utter horror at the +unrelenting sermon had only been tempered by his love for the preacher. + +"You did me wrong, John, for then had I not dared to speak at all after +that fashion; it is not for a vessel of mercy filled unto overflowing +with the love of God to exalt himself above the vessels . . . for whom +there is no mercy. But he may plead with them who are in like case +with himself to . . . acknowledge the Divine Justice." + +Then the pathos of the situation overcame Carmichael, and he went over +to the bookcase and leant his head against certain volumes, because +they were weighty and would not yield. Next day he noticed that one of +them was a Latin _Calvin_ that had travelled over Europe in learned +company, and the other a battered copy of Jonathan Edwards that had +come from the house of an Ayrshire farmer. + +"Forgive me that I have troubled you with the concerns of my soul, +John"--the Rabbi could only stand with an effort--"they ought to be +between a man and his God. There is another work laid to my hand for +which there is no power in me now. During the night I shall ask +whether the cup may not pass from me, but if not, the will of God be +done." + +Carmichael slept but little, and every time he woke the thought was +heavy upon him that on the other side of a narrow wall the holiest man +he knew was wrestling in darkness of soul, and that he had added to the +bitterness of the agony. + + + + +THE WOUNDS OF A FRIEND + +Winter has certain mornings which redeem weeks of misconduct, when the +hoar frost during the night has resilvered every branch and braced the +snow upon the ground, and the sun rises in ruddy strength and drives +out of sight every cloud and mist, and moves all day through an expanse +of unbroken blue, and is reflected from the dazzling whiteness of the +earth as from a mirror. Such a sight calls a man from sleep with +authority, and makes his blood tingle, and puts new heart in him, and +banishes the troubles of the night. Other mornings Winter joins in the +conspiracy of principalities and powers to daunt and crush the human +soul. No sun is to be seen, and the grey atmosphere casts down the +heart, the wind moans and whistles in fitful gusts, the black clouds +hang low in threatening masses, now and again a flake of snow drifts in +the wind. A storm is near at hand, not the thunder-shower of summer, +with its warm rain and the kindly sun ever in ambush, but dark and +blinding snow, through which even a game-keeper cannot see six yards, +and in which weary travellers lie down to rest and die. + +The melancholy of this kind of day had fallen on Saunderson, whose face +was ashen, and who held Carmichael's hand with such anxious affection +that it was impossible to inquire how he had slept, and it would have +been a banalité to remark upon the weather. After the Rabbi had been +compelled to swallow a cup of milk by way of breakfast, it was evident +that he was ready for speech. + +"What is it, Rabbi?" as soon as they were again settled in the study. +"If you did not . . . like my sermon, tell me at once. You know that I +am one of your boys, and you ought to . . . help me." Perhaps it was +inseparable from his youth, with its buoyancy and self-satisfaction, +and his training in a college whose members only knew by rumour of the +existence of other places of theological learning, that Carmichael had +at that moment a pleasing sense of humility and charity. Had it been a +matter of scholastic lore, of course neither he nor more than six men +in Scotland could have met the Rabbi in the gate. With regard to +modern thought, Carmichael knew that the good Rabbi had not read _Ecce +Homo_, and was hardly, well . . . up to date. He would not for the +world hint such a thing to the dear old man, nor even argue with him; +but it was flattering to remember that the attack could be merely one +of blunderbusses, in which the modern thinker would at last intervene +and save the ancient scholar from humiliation. + +"Well, Rabbi?" and Carmichael tried to make it easy. + +"Before I say what is on my heart, John, you will grant an old man who +loves you one favour. So far as in you lies you will bear with me if +that which I have to say, and still more that which my conscience will +compel me to do, is hard to flesh and blood." + +"Didn't we settle that last night in the vestry?" and Carmichael was +impatient; "is it that you do not agree with the doctrine of the Divine +Fatherhood? We younger men are resolved to base Christian doctrine on +the actual Scriptures, and to ignore mere tradition." + +"An excellent rule, my dear friend," cried the Rabbi, wonderfully +quickened by the challenge, "and with your permission and for our +mutual edification we shall briefly review all passages bearing on the +subject in hand--using the original, as will doubtless be your wish, +and you correcting my poor recollection." + +About an hour afterwards, and when the Rabbi was only entering into the +heart of the matter, Carmichael made the bitter discovery--without the +Rabbi having even hinted at such a thing--that his pet sermon was a +mass of boyish crudities, and this reverse of circumstances was some +excuse for his pettishness. + +"It does not seem to me that it is worth our time to haggle about the +usage of Greek words or to count texts: I ground my position on the +general meaning of the Gospels and the sense of things"; and Carmichael +stood on the hearthrug in a very superior attitude. + +"Let that pass then, John, and forgive me if I appeared to battle about +words, as certain scholars of the olden time were fain to do, for in +truth it is rather about the hard duty before me than any imperfection +in your teaching I would speak"; and the Rabbi glanced nervously at the +young minister. + +"We are both Presbyters of Christ's Church, ordained after the order of +primitive times, and there are laid on us certain heavy charges and +responsibilities from which we may not shrink, as we shall answer to +the Lord at the great day." + +Carmichael's humiliation was lost in perplexity, and he sat down, +wondering what the Rabbi intended. + +"If any Presbyter should see his brother fall into one of those faults +of private life that do beset us all in our present weakness, then he +doth well and kindly to point it out unto his brother; and if his +brother should depart from the faith as they talk together by the way, +then it is a Presbyter's part to convince him of his error and restore +him." + +The Rabbi cast an imploring glance, but Carmichael had still no +understanding. + +"But if one Presbyter should teach heresy to his flock in the hearing +of another . . . even though it break the other's heart, is not the +path of duty fenced up on either side, verily a straight, narrow way, +and hard for the feet to tread?" + +"You have spoken to me, Rabbi, and . . . cleared yourself"--Carmichael +was still somewhat sore--"and I'll promise not to offend you again in +an action sermon." + +"Albeit you intend it not so, yet are you making it harder for me to +speak. . . . See you not . . . that I . . . that necessity is laid on +me to declare this matter to my brother Presbyters in court +assembled . . . but not in hearing of the people?" Then there was a +stillness in the room, and the Rabbi, although he had closed his eyes, +was conscious of the amazement on the young man's face. + +"Do you mean to say," speaking very slowly, as one taken utterly aback, +"that our Rabbi would come to my . . . to the Sacrament and hear me +preach, and . . . report me for heresy to the Presbytery? Rabbi, I +know we don't agree about some things, and perhaps I was a little . . . +annoyed a few minutes ago because you . . . know far more than I do, +but that is nothing. For you to prosecute one of your boys and be the +witness yourself. . . . Rabbi, you can't mean it . . . say it's a +mistake." + +The old man only gave a deep sigh. + +"If it were Dowbiggin or . . . any man except you, I wouldn't care one +straw, rather enjoy the debate, but you whom we have loved and looked +up to and boasted about, why, it's like . . . a father turning against +his sons." + +The Rabbi made no sign. + +"You live too much alone, Rabbi," and Carmichael began again as the +sense of the tragedy grew on him, "and nurse your conscience till it +gets over tender; no other man would dream of . . . prosecuting a . . . +fellow-minister in such circumstances. You have spoken to me like a +father, surely that is enough"; and in his honest heat the young fellow +knelt down by the Rabbi's chair and took his hand. + +[Illustration: "YOU HAVE SPOKEN TO ME LIKE A FATHER: SURELY THAT IS +ENOUGH."] + +A tear rolled down the Rabbi's cheek, and he looked fondly at the lad. + +"Your words pierce me as sharp swords, John; spare me, for I can do +none otherwise; all night I wrestled for release, but in vain." + +Carmichael had a sudden revulsion of feeling, such as befalls emotional +and ill-disciplined natures when they are disappointed and mortified. + +"Very good, Doctor Saunderson"--Carmichael rose awkwardly and stood on +the hearthrug again, an elbow on the mantelpiece--"you must do as you +please and as you think right. I am sorry that I . . . pressed you so +far, but it was on grounds of our . . . friendship. + +"Perhaps you will tell me as soon as you can what you propose to do, +and when you will bring . . . this matter before the Presbytery. My +sermon was fully written and . . . is at your disposal." + +While this cold rain beat on the Rabbi's head he moved not, but at its +close he looked at Carmichael with the appeal of a dumb animal in his +eyes. + +"The first meeting of Presbytery is on Monday, but you would no doubt +consider that too soon; is there anything about dates in the order of +procedure for heresy?" and Carmichael made as though he would go over +to the shelves for a law book. + +"John," cried the Rabbi--his voice full of tears--rising and following +the foolish lad, "is this all you have in your heart to say unto me? +Surely, as I stand before you, it is not my desire to do such a thing, +for I would rather cut off my right hand. + +"God hath not been pleased to give me many friends, and He only knows +how you and the others have comforted my heart. I lie not, John, but +speak the truth, that there is nothing unto life itself I would not +give for your good, who have been as the apple of my eye unto me." + +Carmichael hardened himself, torn between a savage sense of +satisfaction that the Rabbi was suffering for his foolishness and the +inclination of his better self to respond to the old man's love. + +"If there be a breach between us, it will not be for you as it must be +for me. You have many friends, and may God add unto them good men and +faithful, but I shall lose my one earthly joy and consolation when your +feet are no longer heard on my threshold and your face no longer brings +light to my room. And, John, even this thing which I am constrained to +do is yet of love, as . . . you shall confess one day." + +Carmichael's pride alone resisted, and it was melting fast. Had he +even looked at the dear face he must have given way, but he kept his +shoulder to the Rabbi, and at that moment the sound of wheels passing +the corner of the manse gave him an ungracious way of escape. + +"That is Burnbrae's dogcart . . . Dr. Saunderson, and I think he will +not wish to keep his horse standing in the snow, so unless you will +stay all night, as it's going to drift. . . . Then perhaps it would be +better. . . . Can I assist you in packing?" How formal it all +sounded; and he allowed the Rabbi to go upstairs alone, with the result +that various things of the old man's are in Carmichael's house unto +this day. + +Another chance was given the lad when the Rabbi would have bidden him +good-bye at the door, beseeching that he should not come out into the +drift, and still another when Burnbrae, being concerned about his +passenger's appearance, who seemed ill-fitted to face a storm, wrapt +him in a plaid; and he had one more when the old man leant out of the +dogcart and took Carmichael's hand in both of his, but only said, "God +bless you for all you've been to me, and forgive me for all wherein I +have failed you." And they did not meet again till that +never-to-be-forgotten sederunt of the Free Kirk Presbytery of Muirtown, +when the minister of Kilbogie accused the minister of Drumtochty of +teaching the Linlathen heresy of the Fatherhood of God in a sermon +before the Sacrament. + +Among all the institutions of the North a Presbytery is the most +characteristic, and affords a standing illustration of the +contradictions of a supremely logical people. It is so anti-clerical a +court that for every clergyman there must be a layman--country +ministers promising to bring in their elder for great occasions, and +instructing him audibly how to vote--and so fiercely clerical that if +the most pious and intelligent elder dared to administer a sacrament he +would be at once tried and censured for sacrilege. So careful is a +Presbytery to prevent the beginnings of Papacy that it insists upon +each of its members occupying the chair in turn, and dismisses him +again into private life as soon as he has mastered his duties, but so +imbued is it with the idea of authority that whatever decision may be +given by some lad of twenty-five in the chair--duly instructed, +however, by the clerk below--will be rigidly obeyed. When a Presbytery +has nothing else to do, it dearly loves to pass a general condemnation +on sacerdotalism, in which the tyranny of prelates and the foolishness +of vestments will be fully exposed; but a Presbytery wields a power at +which a bishop's hair would stand on end, and Doctor Dowbiggin once +made Carmichael leave the Communion Table and go into the vestry to put +on his bands. + +When a Presbytery is in its lighter moods, it gives itself to points of +order with a skill and relish beyond the Southern imagination. It did +not matter how harmless, even infantile, might be the proposal placed +before the court by such a man as MacWheep of Pitscowrie; he has hardly +got past an apology for his presumption in venturing to speak at all +before a member of Presbytery--who had reduced his congregation to an +irreducible minimum by the woodenness of his preaching--inquires +whether the speech of "our esteemed brother is not _ultra vires_," or +something else as awful. MacWheep at once sits down with the air of +one taken red-handed in arson, and the court debates the point till +every authority has taken his fill, when the clerk submits to the +moderator, with a fine blend of deference and infallibility, that Mr. +MacWheep is perfectly within his rights; and then, as that estimable +person has by this time lost any thread he ever possessed, the +Presbytery passes to the next business--with the high spirit of men +returning from a holiday. Carmichael used, indeed, to relate how, in a +great stress of business, some one moved that the Presbytery should +adjourn for dinner, and the court argued for thirty minutes, with many +precedents, whether such a motion--touching as it did the standing +orders--could even be discussed, and, with an unnecessary prodigality +of testimony, he used to give perorations which improved with every +telling. + +The love of law diffused through the Presbytery became incarnate in the +clerk, who was one of the most finished specimens of his class in the +Scottish Kirk. His sedate appearance, bald, polished head, fringed +with pure white hair, shrewd face, with neatly cut side whiskers, his +suggestion of unerring accuracy and inexhaustible memory, his attitude +for exposition--holding his glasses in his left hand and enforcing his +decision with the little finger of the right hand--carried conviction +even to the most disorderly. Ecclesiastical radicals, boiling over +with new schemes, and boasting to admiring circles of MacWheeps that +they would not be brow-beaten by red-tape officials, became +ungrammatical before that firm gaze, and ended in abject surrender. +Self-contained and self-sufficing, the clerk took no part in debate, +save at critical moments to lay down the law, but wrote his minutes +unmoved through torrents of speech on every subject, from the +Sustentation Fund to the Union between England and Scotland, and even +under the picturesque eloquence of foreign deputies, whose names he +invariably requested should be handed to him, written legibly on a +sheet of paper. On two occasions only he ceased from writing: when Dr. +Dowbiggin discussed a method of procedure--then he watched him over his +spectacles in hope of a nice point; or when some enthusiastic brother +would urge the Presbytery to issue an injunction on the sin of Sabbath +walking--then the clerk would abandon his pen in visible despair, and +sitting sideways on his chair and supporting his head by that same +little finger, would face the Presbytery with an expression of reverent +curiosity on his face why the Almighty was pleased to create such a +man. His preaching was distinguished for orderliness, and was much +sought after for Fast days. It turned largely on the use of +prepositions and the scope of conjunctions, so that the clerk could +prove the doctrine of Vicarious Sacrifice from "for," and Retribution +from "as" in the Lord's Prayer, emphasizing and confirming everything +by that wonderful finger, which seemed to be designed by Providence for +delicate distinctions, just as another man's fist served for popular +declamation. His pulpit masterpiece was a lecture on the Council of +Jerusalem, in which its whole deliberations were reviewed by the rules +of the Free Kirk Book of Procedure, and a searching and edifying +discourse concluded with two lessons. First: That no ecclesiastical +body can conduct its proceedings without officials. Second: That such +men ought to be accepted as a special gift of Providence. + +The general opinion among good people was that the clerk's preaching +was rather for upbuilding than arousing, but it is still remembered by +the survivors of the old Presbytery that when MacWheep organized a +conference on "The state of religion in our congregations," and it was +meandering in strange directions, the clerk, who utilised such seasons +for the writing of letters, rose amid a keen revival of interest--it +was supposed that he had detected an irregularity in the +proceedings--and offered his contribution. It did not become him to +boast, he said, but he had seen marvellous things in his day: under his +unworthy ministry three beadles had been converted to Christianity, and +this experience was so final that the conference immediately closed. + +Times there were, however, when the Presbytery rose to its height and +was invested with an undeniable spiritual dignity. Its members, taken +one by one, consisted of farmers, shepherds, tradesmen, and one or two +professional men, with some twenty ministers, only two or three of whom +were known beyond their parishes. Yet those men had no doubt that as +soon as they were constituted in the name of Christ they held their +authority from the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, and they +bore themselves in spiritual matters as His servants. No kindly +feeling of neighbourliness or any fear of man could hinder them from +inquiring into the religious condition of a parish or dealing +faithfully with an erring minister. They had power to ordain, and laid +hands on the bent head of some young probationer with much solemnity; +they had also power to take away the orders they had given, and he had +been hardened indeed beyond hope who could be present and not tremble +when the Moderator, standing in his place, with the Presbytery around, +and speaking in the name of the Head of the Church, deposed an unworthy +brother from the holy ministry. MacWheep was a "cratur," and much +given to twaddle, but when it was his duty once to rebuke a +fellow-minister for quarrelling with his people, he was delivered from +himself, and spake with such grave wisdom as he has never shown before +or since. + +When the Presbytery assembled to receive a statement from Doctor +Saunderson "re error in doctrine by a brother Presbyter," even a +stranger might have noticed that its members were weighted with a sense +of responsibility, and although a discussion arose on the attempt of a +desultory member to introduce a deputy charged with the subject of the +lost Ten Tribes, yet it was promptly squelched by the clerk, who +intimated, with much gravity, that the court had met _in hunc +effectum_, viz. to hear Doctor Saunderson, and that the court could +not, in consistence with law, take up any other business, not +even--here Carmichael professed to detect a flicker of the clerkly +eyelids--the disappearance of the Ten Tribes. + +It was the last time that the Rabbi ever spoke in public, and it is now +agreed that the deliverance was a fit memorial of the most learned +scholar that has been ever known in those parts. He began by showing +that Christian doctrine has taken various shapes, some more and some +less in accordance with the deposit of truth given by Christ and the +holy Apostles, and especially that the doctrine of Grace had been +differently conceived by two eminent theologians, Calvin and Arminius, +and his exposition was so lucid that the clerk gave it as his opinion +afterwards that the two systems were understood by certain members of +the court for the first time that day. Afterwards the Rabbi vindicated +and glorified Calvinism from the Scriptures of the Old and New +Testament, from the Fathers, from the Reformation Divines, from the +later creeds, till the brain of the Presbytery reeled through the +wealth of allusion and quotation, all in the tongues of the learned. +Then he dealt with the theology of Mr. Erskine of Linlathen, and showed +how it was undermining the very foundations of Calvinism; yet the Rabbi +spake so tenderly of our Scottish Maurice that the Presbytery knew not +whether it ought to condemn Erskine as a heretic or love him as a +saint. Having thus brought the court face to face with the issues +involved, the Rabbi gave a sketch of a certain sermon he had heard +while assisting "a learned and much-beloved brother at the Sacrament," +and Carmichael was amazed at the transfiguration of this very youthful +performance, which now figured as a profound and edifying discourse, +for whose excellent qualities the speaker had not adequate words. This +fine discourse was, however, to a certain degree marred, the Rabbi +suggested, by an unfortunate, although no doubt temporary, leaning to +the teaching of Mr. Erskine, whose beautiful piety had exercised its +just fascination upon his spiritually-minded brother. Finally the +Rabbi left the matter in the hands of the Presbytery, declaring that he +had cleared his conscience, and that the minister in question was +one--here he was painfully overcome--dear to him as a son, and one to +whose many labours and singular graces he could bear full testimony, +the Rev. John Carmichael, of Drumtochty. The Presbytery was slow and +pedantic, but was not insensible to a spiritual situation, and there +was a murmur of sympathy when the Rabbi sat down--much exhausted, and +never having allowed himself to look once at Carmichael. + +Then arose a self-made man, who considered orthodoxy and capital to be +bound up together, and especially identified any departure from +sovereignty with that pestilent form of Socialism which demanded equal +chances for every man. He was only a plain layman, he said, and +perhaps he ought not to speak in the presence of so many reverend +gentlemen, but he was very grateful to Doctor Saunderson for his +honourable and straight-forward conduct. It would be better for the +Church if there were more like him, and he would just like to ask Mr. +Carmichael three questions. Did he sign the Confession of Faith?--that +was one; and had he kept it?--that was two; and the last was, When did +he propose to leave the Church? He knew something about building +contracts, and he had heard of a penalty when a contract was broken. +There was just one thing more he would like to say--if there was less +loose theology in the pulpit there would be more money in the plate. +The shame of the Rabbi during this harangue was pitiable to behold. + +[Illustration: THEN AROSE A SELF-MADE MAN] + +Then a stalwart arose on the other side, and a young gentleman who had +just escaped from a college debating society wished to know what +century we were living in, warned the last speaker that the progress of +theological science would not be hindered by mercenary threats, advised +Doctor Saunderson to read a certain German, called Ritschl--as if he +had been speaking to a babe in arms--and was re-freshing himself with a +Latin quotation, when the Rabbi, in utter absence of mind, corrected a +false quantity aloud. + +"Moderator," the old man apologized in much confusion, "I wot not what +I did, and I pray my reverend brother, whose interesting and +instructive address I have interrupted by this unmannerliness, to grant +me his pardon, for my tongue simply obeyed my ear." Which untoward +incident brought the modern to an end, as by a stroke of ironical fate. +It seemed to the clerk that little good to any one concerned was to +come out of this debate, and he signalled to Doctor Dowbiggin, with +whom he had dined the night before, when they concocted a motion over +their wine. Whereupon that astute man explained to the court that he +did not desire to curtail the valuable discussion, from which he +personally had derived much profit, but he had ventured to draw up a +motion, simply for the guidance of the House--it was said by the +Rabbi's boys that the Doctor's success as an ecclesiastic was largely +due to the skilful use of such phrases--and then he read: "Whereas the +Church is set in all her courts for the defence of the truth, whereas +it is reported that various erroneous doctrines are being promulgated +in books and other public prints, whereas it has been stated that one +of the ministers of this Presbytery has used words that might be +supposed to give sanction to a certain view which appears to conflict +with statements contained in the standards of the Church, the +Presbytery of Muirtown declares, first of all, its unshaken adherence +to the said standards; secondly, deplores the existence in any quarter +of notions contradictory or subversive of said standards; thirdly, +thanks Doctor Saunderson for the vigilance he has shown in the cause of +sound doctrine; fourthly, calls upon all ministers within the bounds to +have a care that they create no offence or misunderstanding by their +teaching, and finally enjoins all parties concerned to cultivate peace +and charity." + +This motion was seconded by the clerk and carried +unanimously--Carmichael being compelled to silence by the two wise men +for his own sake and theirs--and was declared to be a conspicuous +victory both by the self-made man and the modern, which was another +tribute to the ecclesiastical gifts of Doctor Dowbiggin and the clerk +of the Presbytery of Muirtown. + + + + +LIGHT AT EVENTIDE + +The Rabbi had been careful to send an abstract of his speech to +Carmichael, with a letter enough to melt the heart even of a +self-sufficient young clerical, and Carmichael had considered how he +should bear himself at the Presbytery. His intention had been to meet +the Rabbi with public cordiality and escort him to a seat, so that all +men should see that he was too magnanimous to be offended by this +latest eccentricity of their friend. This calculated plan was upset by +the Rabbi coming in late and taking the first seat that offered, and +when he would have gone afterwards to thank him for his generosity the +Rabbi had disappeared. It was evident that the old man's love was as +deep as ever, but that he was much hurt and would not risk another +repulse. Very likely he had walked in from Kilbogie, perhaps without +breakfast, and had now started to return to his cheerless manse. It +was a wetting spring rain, and he remembered that the Rabbi had no +coat. A fit of remorse overtook Carmichael, and he scoured the streets +of Muirtown to find the Rabbi, imagining deeds of attention--how he +would capture him unawares mooning along some side street hopelessly +astray; how he would accuse him of characteristic cunning and deep +plotting; how he would carry him by force to the Kilspindie Arms and +insist upon their dining in state; how the Rabbi would wish to +discharge the account and find twopence in his pockets--having given +all his silver to an ex-Presbyterian minister stranded in Muirtown +through peculiar circumstances; how he would speak gravely to the Rabbi +on the lack of common honesty, and threaten a real prosecution, when +the charge would be "obtaining a dinner on false pretences"; how they +would journey to Kildrummie in high content, and--the engine having +whistled for a dogcart--they would drive to Drumtochty manse, the sun +shining through the rain as they entered the garden; how he would +compass the Rabbi with observances, and the old man would sit again in +the big chair full of joy and peace. Ah, the kindly jests that have +not come off in life, the gracious deeds that never were done, the +reparations that were too late! When Carmichael reached the station +the Rabbi was already half-way to Kilbogie, trudging along wet, and +weary, and very sad, because, although he had obeyed his conscience at +a cost, it seemed to him as if all he had done was simply to alienate +the boy whom God had given him, as a son in his old age, for even the +guileless Rabbi suspected that the ecclesiastics considered his action +foolishness and of no service to the Church of God. Barbara's language +on his arrival was vituperative to a degree; she gave him food +grudgingly, and when, in the early morning, he fell asleep over an open +Father, he was repeating Carmichael's name, and the thick old paper was +soaked with tears. + +His nemesis seized Carmichael so soon as he reached the Dunleith train +in the shape of the Free Kirk minister of Kildrummie, who had purchased +six pounds of prize seed potatoes, and was carrying the treasure home +in a paper bag. This bag had done after its kind, and spilt its +contents, and as the distinguished agriculturist--who had not seen his +feet for years--could only have stooped at the risk of apoplexy, he +watched the dispersion of his potatoes with dismay, and hailed the +arrival of Carmichael with exclamations of thankfulness. It is +wonderful over what an area six pounds of (prize) potatoes can deploy +on a railway platform, and how the feet of passengers will carry them +unto far distances. Some might never have been restored to the bag had +it not been for Kildrummie's comprehensive eye and the physical skill +with which he guided Carmichael, till even prodigals that had strayed +over to the neighbourhood of the Aberdeen express were restored to the +extemporized fold in the minister's top-coat pockets. Carmichael had +knelt on that very platform six months or so before, but then he +laboured in the service of two most agreeable dogs and under the +approving eyes of Miss Carnegie; that was a different experience from +hunting after single potatoes on all fours among the feet of +unsympathetic passengers, and being prodded to duty by the umbrella of +an obese Free Kirk minister. As a reward for this service of the aged, +he was obliged to travel to Kildrummie with his neighbour--in whom for +the native humour that was in him he had often rejoiced, but whose +company was not congenial that day--and Kildrummie laid himself out for +a pleasant talk. After the roots had been secured and their pedigree +stated Kildrummie fell back on the proceedings of Presbytery, +expressing much admiration for the guidance of Doctor Dowbiggin and +denouncing Saunderson as "fair dottle," in proof of which judgment +Kildrummie adduced the fact that the Rabbi had allowed a very happily +situated pig-sty at the Manse of Kilbogie to sink into ruin. +Kildrummie, still in search of agreeable themes to pass the time, also +mentioned a pleasant tale he had gathered at the seed shop. + +[Illustration: HE WATCHED THE DISPERSION OF HIS POTATOES WITH DISMAY] + +"Yir neebur upbye, the General's dochter, is cairryin' on an awfu' rig +the noo at the Castle"--Kildrummie fell into dialect in private life, +often with much richness--"an' the sough (noise) o' her ongaeins hes +come the length o' Muirtown. The castle is foo' o' men--tae say +naethin' o' weemin; but it's little she hes tae dae wi' them or them +wi' her--officers frae Edinburgh an' writin' men frae London, as weel +as half a dozen coonty birkies." + +"Well?" said Carmichael, despising himself for his curiosity. + +"She hes a wy, there's nae doot o' that, an' gin the trimmie hesna +turned the heads o' half the men in the Castle, till they say she hes +the pick of twa lords, five honourables, and a poet. But the lassie +kens what's what; it's Lord Hay she's settin' her cap for, an' as sure +as ye're sittin' there, Drum, she'll hae him. + +"Ma word"--and Kildrummie pursued his way--"it'll be a match, the +dochter o' a puir Hielant laird, wi' naethin' but his half pay and a +few pounds frae a fairm or twa. She's a clever ane; French songs, +dancin', shootin', ridin', actin', there's nae deevilry that's beyond +her. They say upbye that she's been a bonnie handfu' tae her +father--General though he be--an' a' peety her man." + +"They say a lot of . . . lies, and I don't see what call a minister has +to slander . . ."; and then Carmichael saw the folly of quarrelling +with a veteran gossip over a young woman that would have nothing to say +to him. What two Free Kirk ministers or their people thought of her +would never affect Miss Carnegie. + +"Truth's nae slander," and Kildrummie watched Carmichael with relish; +"a' thocht ye wud hae got a taste o' her in the Glen. Didna a' heer +frae Piggie Walker that ye ca'd her Jezebel frae yir ain pulpit, an' +that ma lady whuppit oot o' the kirk in the middle o' the sermon?" + +"I did nothing of the kind, and Walker is a . . ." + +"Piggie's no very particular at a time," admitted Kildrummie; "maybe +it's a makup the story aboot Miss Carnegie an' yirsel'. + +"Accordin' tae the wratch," for Carmichael would deign no reply, "she +wes threatenin' tae mak' a fule o' the Free Kirk minister o' Drumtochty +juist for practice, but a' said, 'Na, na, Piggie, Maister Carmichael is +ower quiet and sensible a lad. He kens as weel as onybody that a +Carnegie wud never dae for a minister's wife. Gin ye said a Bailie's +dochter frae Muirtown 'at hes some money comin' tae her and kens the +principles o' the Free Kirk.' + +"Noo a' can speak frae experience, having been terrible fortunate wi' +a' ma wives. . . . Ye'll come up tae tea; we killed a pig yesterday, +and . . . Weel, weel, a wilfu' man maun hae his wy"; and Carmichael, +as he made his way up the hill, felt that the hand of Providence was +heavy upon him, and that any highmindedness was being severely +chastened. + +Two days Carmichael tramped the moors, returning each evening wet, +weary, hungry, to sleep ten hours without turning, and on the morning +of the third day he came down in such heart that Sarah wondered whether +he could have received a letter by special messenger; and he +congratulated himself, as he walked round his garden, that he had +overcome by sheer will power the first real infatuation of his life. +He was so lifted above all sentiment as to review his temporary folly +from the bare, serene heights of common sense. Miss Carnegie was +certainly not an heiress, and she was a young woman of very decided +character, but her blood was better than the Hays', and she was . . . +attractive--yes, attractive. Most likely she was engaged to Lord Hay, +or if he did not please her--she was . . . whimsical and . . . +self-willed--there was Lord Invermays' son. Fancy Kate . . . Miss +Carnegie in a Free Kirk manse--Kildrummie was a very . . . homely old +man, but he touched the point there--receiving Doctor Dowbiggin with +becoming ceremony and hearing him on the payment of probationers, or +taking tea at Kildrummie Manse--where he had, however, feasted royally +many a time after the Presbytery, but. . . . This daughter of a +Jacobite house, and brought up amid the romance of war, settling down +in the narrowest circle of Scottish life--as soon imagine an eagle +domesticated among barn-door poultry. This image amused Carmichael so +much that he could have laughed aloud, but . . . the village might have +heard him. He only stretched himself like one awaking, and felt so +strong that he resolved to drop in on Janet Macpherson, Kate's old +retainer--to see how it fared with the old woman and . . . to have Miss +Carnegie's engagement confirmed. The Carnegies might return any day +from the South, and it would be well that he should know how to meet +them. + +"You will be hearing," Janet mentioned, "that they hef come back to the +Lodge yesterday morning, and it iss myself that will be glad to see +Miss Kate again; and very pretty iss she looking, with peautiful +dresses and bonnets, for I hef seen them all, maybe twelve or ten. + +"Oh yes, my dear, Donald will be talking about her marriage to Lord +Kilspindie's son, who iss a very handsome young man and good at the +shooting; and he will be blowing that they will live at the Lodge in +great state, with many gillies and a piper and he will be head of them +all. + +"No, it iss not Janet Macpherson, my dear, that will be believing +Donald Cameron, or any Cameron--although I am not saying that the +Camerons are not men of their hands--for Donald will be always making +great stories and telling me wonderful things. He wass a brave man in +the battle, and iss very clever at the doctrine too, and will be strong +against human himes (hymns), but he iss a most awful liar iss Donald +Cameron, and you must not be believing a word that comes out of his +mouth. + +"She will be asking many questions in her room as soon as Donald had +brought up her boxes and the door was shut. Some will be about the +Glen, and some about the garden, and some will be about people--whether +you ever will be visiting me, and whether you asked for her after the +day she left the kirk. But I will say, 'No; Mr. Carmichael does not +speak about anything but the religion when he comes to my cottage.' + +"That iss nothing. I will be saying more, that I am hearing that the +minister iss to be married to a fery rich young lady in Muirtown who +hass been courting him for two years, and that her father will be +giving the minister twenty thousand pounds the day they are married. +And I will say she iss very beautiful, with blue eyes and gold hair, +and that her temper iss so sweet they are calling her the Angel of +Muirtown. + +"Toot, toot, my dear, you are not to be speaking about lies, for that +iss not a pretty word among friends, and you will not be meddling with +me, for you will be better at the preaching and the singing of himes +than dealing with women. It iss not good to be making yourself too +common, and Miss Kate will be thinking the more of you if you be +holding your head high and letting her see that you are not a poor +lowland body, but a Farquharson by your mother's side, and maybe of the +chief's blood, though twenty or fifteen times removed. + +"She will be very pleased to hear such good news of you, and be saying +that it iss a mercy you are getting somebody to dress you properly. +But her temper will not be at all good, and I did not ask her about +Lord Hay, and she said nothing to me, nor about any other lord. It iss +not often I hef seen as great a liar as Donald Cameron. + +"Last evening Miss Kate will come down before dinner and talk about +many things, and then she will say at the door, 'Donald tells me that +Mister Carmichael does not believe in the Bible, and that his friend, +Doctor Saunderson, has cast him off, and that he has been punished by +his Bishop or somebody at Muirtown.' + +"'Donald will be knowing more doctrine and telling more lies every +month,' I said to her. 'Doctor Saunderson--who is a very fine preacher +and can put the fear of God upon the people most wonderful--and our +minister had a little feud, and they will fight it out before some +chiefs at Muirtown like gentlemen, and now they are good friends again.' + +"Miss Kate had gone off for a long walk, and I am not saying but that +she will be calling at Kilbogie Manse before she comes back. She is +very fond of Doctor Saunderson, and maybe he will be telling her of the +feud. It iss more than an hour through the woods to Kilbogie," +concluded Janet, "but you will be having a glass of milk first." + +Kate reviewed her reasons for the expedition to Kilbogie, and settled +they were the pleasures of a walk through Tochty woods when the spring +flowers were in their glory, and a visit to one of the dearest +curiosities she had ever seen. It was within the bounds of possibility +that Doctor Saunderson might refer to his friend, but on her part she +would certainly not refer to the Free Church minister of Drumtochty. +Her reception by that conscientious professor Barbara could not be +called encouraging. + +"Ay, he's in, but ye canna see him, for he's in his bed, and gin he +disna mend faster than he wes daein' the last time a' gied him a cry, +he's no like to be in the pulpit on Sabbath. A' wes juist thinkin' he +wudna be the waur o' a doctor." + +"Do you mean to say that Doctor Saunderson is lying ill and no one +nursing him?" and Kate eyed the housekeeper in a very unappreciative +fashion. + +"Gin he wants a nurse she'll hae tae be brocht frae Muirtown Infirmary, +for a've eneuch to dae withoot ony fyke (delicate work) o' that kind. +For twal year hev a' been hoosekeeper in this manse, an' gin it hedna +been for peety a' wad hae flung up the place. + +"Ye never cud tell when he wud come in, or when he wud gae oot, or what +he wud be wantin' next. A' the waufies (disreputable people) in the +countryside come here, and the best in the hoose is no gude eneuch for +them. He's been an awfu' handfu' tae me, an' noo a' coont him clean +dottle (silly). But we maun juist bear oor burdens," concluded Barbara +piously, and she proposed to close the door. + +"Your master will not want a nurse a minute longer; show me his room at +once"; and Kate was so commanding that Barbara's courage began to fail. + +"Wha may ye be," raising her voice to rally her heart, "'at wud take +chairge o' a strainger in his ain hoose an' no sae muckle as ask leave?" + +"I am Miss Carnegie, of Tochty Lodge; will you stand out of my way?" +and Kate swept past Barbara and went upstairs. + +"Weel, a' declare," as soon as she had recovered, "of a' the impudent +hizzies"; but Barbara did not say this in Kate's hearing. + +Kate had seen various curious hospitals in her day, and had nursed many +sick men--like the brave girl she was--but the Rabbi's room was +something quite new. His favourite books had been gathering there for +years, and now lined two walls and overhung the bed after a very +perilous fashion and had dispossessed the looking-glass--which had +become a nomad and was at present resting insecurely on John Owen--and +stood in banks round the bed. During his few days of illness the Rabbi +had accumulated so many volumes round him that he lay in a kind of +tunnel, arched over, as it were, with literature. He had been reading +Calvin's _Commentary on the Psalms_, in Latin, and it still lay open at +the 88th, the saddest of all songs in the Psalter; but as he grew +weaker the heavy folio had slid forward, and he seemed to be feeling +for it. Although Kate spoke to him by name, he did not know any one +was in the room. "Lord, why castest Thou off my soul? . . . I suffer +Thy terror, I am distracted . . . fierce wrath goeth over me . . . +lover and friend hast Thou put far from me . . . friend far from me." + +His head fell on his breast, his breath was short and rapid, and he +coughed every few seconds. + +"My friend far from me. . . ." + +At the sorrow in his voice and the thing which he said the tears came +to Kate's eyes, and she went forward and spoke to him very gently. "Do +you know me, Dr. Saunderson--Miss Carnegie?" + +"Not Saunderson . . . Magor Missabib." + +"Rabbi, Rabbi"--so much Carmichael had told her; and now Kate stroked +the bent white head. "Your friend, Mister Carmichael--" + +"Yes, yes"--he now looked up and spoke eagerly--"John Carmichael, of +Drumtochty . . . my friend in my old age . . . and others . . . my +boys . . . but John has left me . . . he would not speak to me . . . I +am alone now . . . he did not understand . . . mine acquaintance into +darkness . . . here we see in a glass darkly . . ." (he turned aside to +expound the Greek word for darkly), "but some day . . . face to face." +And twice he said it, with an indescribable sweetness, "face to face." + +Kate hurriedly removed the books from the bed and wrapt round his +shoulders the old gray plaid that had eked out his covering at night, +and then she went downstairs. + +"Bring," she said to Barbara, "hot water, soap, towels, and a sponge to +Dr. Saunderson's bedroom, immediately." + +"And gin a' dinna?" inquired Barbara aggressively. + +"I'll shoot you where you stand." + +Barbara shows to her cronies how Miss Carnegie drew a pistol from her +pocket at this point and held it to her head, and how at every turn the +pistol was again in evidence; sometimes a dagger is thrown in, but that +is only late in the evening when Barbara is under the influence of +tonics. Kate herself admits that if she had had her little revolver +with her she might have been tempted to outline the housekeeper's face +on the wall, and she still thinks her threat an inspiration. + +"Now," said Kate, when Barbara had brought her commands in with +incredible celerity, "bring up some fresh milk and three glasses of +whisky." + +"Whisky!" Barbara could hardly compass the unfamiliar word. "The +Doctor never hed sic a thing in the hoose, although mony a time, puir +man . . ." Discipline was softening even that austere spirit. + +"No, but you have, for you are blowing a full gale just now; bring up +your private bottle, or I'll go down for it." + +"There's enough," holding the bottle to the light, "to do till evening; +go to the next farm and send a man on horseback to tell Mr. Carmichael, +of Drumtochty, that Doctor Saunderson is dying, and another for Doctor +Manley of Muirtown." + +Very tenderly did Kate sponge the Rabbi's face and hands, and then she +dressed his hair, till at length he came to himself. + +"This ministry is . . . grateful to me, Barbara . . . my strength has +gone from me . . . but my eyes fail me. . . . Of a verity you are +not . . ." + +"I am Kate Carnegie, whom you were so kind to at Tochty. Will you let +me be your nurse? I learned in India, and know what to do." It was +only wounded soldiers who knew how gentle her voice could be, and how +soft her hands. + +"It is I that . . . should be serving you . . . the first time you have +come to the manse . . . no woman has ever done me . . . such kindness +before. . . ." He followed her as she tried to bring some order out of +chaos, and knew not that he spoke aloud. "A gracious maid . . . above +rubies." + +His breathing was growing worse, in spite of many wise things she did +for him--Doctor Manley, who paid no compliments, but was a strength +unto every country doctor in Perthshire, praises Kate unto this +day--and the Rabbi did not care to speak. So she sat down by his side +and read to him from the _Pilgrim's Progress_--holding his hand all the +time--and the passage he desired was the story of Mr. Fearing. + +"This I took very great notice of, that the valley of the shadow of +Death was as quiet while he went through it as ever I knew it before or +since. I suppose these enemies here had now a special check from our +Lord and a command not to meddle until Mr. Fearing was passed over +it. . . . Here also I took notice of what was very remarkable: the +water of that river was lower at this time than ever I saw it in all my +life. So he went over at last, not much above wet-shod. When he was +going up to the gate . . ." + +The Rabbi listened for an instant. + +"It is John's step . . . he hath a sound of his own . . . my only +earthly desire is fulfilled." + +"Rabbi," cried Carmichael, and half kneeling, he threw one arm round +the old man, "say that you forgive me. I looked for you everywhere on +Monday, but you could not be found." + +"Did you think, John, that I . . . my will was to do you an injury +or . . . vex your soul? Many trials in my life . . . all God's +will . . . but this hardest . . . when I lost you . . . nothing left +here . . . but you . . .--my breath is bad, a little chill--. . . do +you understand?" + +"I always did, and I never respected you more; it was my foolish pride +that made me call you Doctor Saunderson in the study; but my love was +the same, and now you will let me stay and wait on you." + +The old man smiled sadly, and laid his hand on his boy's head. + +"I cannot let you . . . go, John, my son." + +"Go and leave you, Rabbi!" Carmichael tried to laugh. "Not till you +are ready to appear at the Presbytery again. We'll send Barbara away +for a holiday, and Sarah will take her place--you remember that +cream--and we shall have a royal time, a meal every four hours, Rabbi, +and the Fathers in between"; and Carmichael, springing to his feet and +turning round to hide his tears, came face to face with Miss Carnegie, +who had been unable to escape from the room. + +"I happened to call"--Kate was quite calm--"and found Doctor Saunderson +in bed; so I stayed till some friend should come; you must have met the +messenger I sent for you." + +"Yes, a mile from the manse; I was on my way . . . Janet said . . . but +I . . . did not remember anything when I saw the Rabbi." + +"Will you take a little milk again . . . Rabbi?" and at her bidding and +the name he made a brave effort to swallow, but he was plainly sinking. + +"No more," he whispered; "thank you . . . for service . . . to a lonely +man; may God bless you . . . both. . . ." He signed for her hand, +which he kept to the end. + +[Illustration: HE SIGNED FOR HER HAND, WHICH HE KEPT TO THE END] + +"Satisfied . . . read, John . . . the woman from coasts of--of----" + +"I know, Rabbi," and kneeling on the other side of the bed, he read the +story slowly of a Tyrian woman's faith. + +"It is not meet to take the children's meat and cast it to dogs." + +"Dogs"--they heard the Rabbi appropriate his name--"outside . . . the +covenant." + +"And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall +from their master's table." + +"Lord, I believe . . . help Thou mine . . . unbelief." + +He then fell into an agony of soul, during which Carmichael could hear: +"Though . . . He slay . . . me . . . yet will I trust . . . trust . . . +in Him." He drew two or three long breaths and was still. After a +little he was heard again with a new note--"He that believeth . . . in +Him . . . shall not be confounded," and again, "A bruised reed . . . +shall He not . . ." Then he opened his eyes and raised his head--but +he saw neither Kate nor Carmichael, for the Rabbi had done with earthly +friends and earthly trials--and he, who had walked in darkness and seen +no light, said in a clear voice full of joy, "My Lord, and my God." + +It was Kate who closed his eyes and laid the old scholar's head on the +pillow, and then she left the room, casting one swift glance of pity at +Carmichael, who was weeping bitterly and crying between the sobs, +"Rabbi! Rabbi!" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RABBI SAUNDERSON*** + + +******* This file should be named 18063-8.txt or 18063-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/6/18063 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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S. Boyd</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Rabbi Saunderson</p> +<p>Author: Ian Maclaren</p> +<p>Release Date: March 28, 2006 [eBook #18063]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RABBI SAUNDERSON***</p> +<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Al Haines</h3></center><br><br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +Rabbi Saunderson +</H1> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +By Ian Maclaren +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +With Twelve Illustrations by +<BR><BR> +A. S. Boyd +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON +<BR> +27 PATERNOSTER ROW +<BR><BR> +1898 +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +To +<BR> +Mrs. Williamson +<BR><BR> +OF GLENOGIL +<BR> +WHO HAS INHERITED +<BR> +THE GIFT OF WITTY SPEECH +<BR> +AND HAS LAID IT OUT AT USURY +<BR> +TO THE JOY OF HER FRIENDS +<BR> +AND THE +<BR> +GLADDENING OF LIFE +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Contents +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap01">A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap02">KILBOGIE MANSE</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap03">THE RABBI AS CONFESSOR</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap04">THE FEAR OF GOD</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap05">THE WOUNDS OF A FRIEND</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap06">LIGHT AT EVENTIDE</A> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Illustrations +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-007"> +He put Jamie's ecclesiastical history into a state<BR> +of thorough repair +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-030"> +The farmers carted the new minister's furniture<BR> +from the nearest railway station +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-058"> +Searching for a lost note +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-064"> +The suddenness of his fall +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-084"> +"Some suitable sum for our brother here who is<BR> +passing through adversity" +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-089"> +"We shall not meet again in this world" +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-116"> +When Carmichael gave him the cup in the sacrament +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-133"> +"Shall . . . not . . . the . . . Judge . . . of all the<BR> +earth . . . do . . . right?" +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-152"> +"You have spoken to me like a father: surely that is enough" +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-172"> +Then arose a self-made man +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-186"> +He watched the dispersion of his potatoes with dismay +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-212"> +He signed for her hand, which he kept to the end +</A> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN +</H3> + + +<P> +Jeremiah Saunderson had remained in the low estate of a "probationer" for +twelve years after he left the Divinity Hall, where he was reported so +great a scholar that the Professor of Apologetics spoke to him +deprecatingly, and the Professor of Dogmatics openly consulted him on +obscure writers. He had wooed twenty-three congregations in vain, from +churches in the black country, where the colliers rose in squares of +twenty, and went out without ceremony, to suburban places of worship, +where the beadle, after due consideration of the sermon, would take up +the afternoon notices and ask that they be read at once for purposes of +utility, which that unflinching functionary stated to the minister with +accuracy and much faithfulness. Vacant congregations desiring a list of +candidates, made one exception, and prayed that Jeremiah should not be +let loose upon them, till at last it came home to the unfortunate scholar +himself that he was an offence and a by-word. He began to dread the +ordeal of giving his name, and, as is still told, declared to a +household, living in the fat wheatlands and without any imagination, that +he was called Magor Missabib. When a stranger makes a statement of this +kind to his host with a sad seriousness, no one judges it expedient to +offer any remark; but it was skilfully arranged that Missabib's door +should be locked from the outside, and one member of the household sat up +all night. The sermon next day did not tend to confidence—having seven +quotations in unknown tongues—and the attitude of the congregation was +one of alert vigilance; but no one gave any outward sign of uneasiness, +and six able-bodied men, collected in a pew below the pulpit, knew their +duty in an emergency. +</P> + +<P> +Saunderson's election to the Free Church of Kilbogie was therefore an +event in the ecclesiastical world, and a consistent tradition in the +parish explained its inwardness on certain grounds, complimentary both to +the judgment of Kilbogie and the gifts of Mr. Saunderson. On Saturday +evening he was removed from the train by the merest accident, and left +the railway station in such a maze of meditation that he ignored the road +to Kilbogie altogether, although its sign-post was staring him in the +face, and continued his way to Drumtochty. It was half-past nine when +Jamie Soutar met him on the high road through our glen, still travelling +steadily west, and being arrested by his appearance, beguiled him into +conversation, till he elicited that Saunderson was minded to reach +Kilbogie. For an hour did the wanderer rest in Jamie's kitchen, during +which he put Jamie's ecclesiastical history into a state of thorough +repair—making seven distinct parallels between the errors that had +afflicted the Scottish Church and the early heretical sects,—and then +Jamie gave him in charge of a ploughman who was courting in Kilbogie, and +was not averse to a journey that seemed to illustrate the double meaning +of charity. Jeremiah was handed over to his anxious hosts at a quarter +to one in the morning, covered with mud, somewhat fatigued, but in great +peace of soul, having settled the place of election in the prophecy of +Habakkuk as he came down with his silent companion through Tochty woods. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-007"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-007.JPG" ALT="HE PUT JAMIE'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY INTO A STATE OF THOROUGH REPAIR" BORDER="2" WIDTH="352" HEIGHT="498"> +<H4> +[Illustration: HE PUT JAMIE'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY INTO A <BR> +STATE OF THOROUGH REPAIR] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +Nor was that all he had done. When they came out from the shadow and +struck into the parish of Kilbogie—whose fields, now yellow unto +harvest, shone in the moonlight—his guide broke silence and enlarged on +a plague of field-mice which had quite suddenly appeared, and had sadly +devastated the grain of Kilbogie. Saunderson awoke from study and became +exceedingly curious, first of all demanding a particular account of the +coming of the mice, their multitude, their habits, and their +determination. Then he asked many questions about the moral conduct and +godliness of the inhabitants of Kilbogie, which his companion, as a +native of Drumtochty, painted in gloomy colours, although indicating as +became a lover that even in Kilbogie there was a remnant. Next morning +the minister rose at daybreak, and was found wandering through the fields +in such a state of excitement that he could hardly be induced to look at +breakfast. When the "books" were placed before him, he turned promptly +to the ten plagues of Egypt, which he expounded in order as preliminary +to a full treatment of the visitations of Providence. +</P> + +<P> +"He cowes (beats) a' ye ever saw or heard," the farmer of Mains explained +to the elders at the gate. "He gaed tae his room at half twa and wes oot +in the fields by four, an' a'm dootin' he never saw his bed. He's lifted +abune the body a'thegither, an' can hardly keep himsel awa frae the +Hebrew at his breakfast. Ye'll get a sermon the day, or ma name is no +Peter Pitillo." Mains also declared his conviction that the invasion of +mice would be dealt with after a scriptural and satisfying fashion. The +people went in full of expectation, and to this day old people recall +Jeremiah Saunderson's trial sermon with lively admiration. Experienced +critics were suspicious of candidates who read lengthy chapters from both +Testaments and prayed at length for the Houses of Parliament, for it was +justly held that no man would take refuge in such obvious devices for +filling up the time unless he was short of sermon material. One +unfortunate, indeed, ruined his chances at once by a long petition for +those in danger on the sea—availing himself with some eloquence of the +sympathetic imagery of the one hundred and seventh Psalm—for this effort +was regarded as not only the most barefaced padding, but also as evidence +of an almost incredible blindness to circumstances. "Did he think +Kilbogie wes a fishing-village?" Mains inquired of the elders afterwards, +with pointed sarcasm. Kilbogie was not indifferent to a well-ordered +prayer—although its palate was coarser in the appreciation of felicitous +terms and allusions than that of Drumtochty—and would have been +scandalised if the Queen had been omitted; but it was by the sermon the +young man must stand or fall, and Kilbogie despised a man who postponed +the ordeal. +</P> + +<P> +Saunderson gave double pledges of capacity and fulness before he opened +his mouth in the sermon, for he read no Scripture at all that day, and +had only one prayer, which was mainly a statement of the Divine Decrees +and a careful confession of the sins of Kilbogie; and then, having given +out his text from the prophecy of Joel, he reverently closed the Bible +and placed it on the seat behind him. His own reason for this proceeding +was a desire for absolute security in enforcing his subject, and a +painful remembrance of the disturbance in a south country church when he +landed a Bible—with clasps—on the head of the precentor in the heat of +a discourse defending the rejection of Esau. Our best and simplest +actions—and Jeremiah was as simple as a babe—can be misconstrued, and +the only dissentient from Saunderson's election insisted that the Bible +had been deposited on the floor, and asserted that the object of this +profanity was to give the preacher a higher standing in the pulpit. This +malignant reading of circumstances might have wrought mischief—for +Saunderson's gaunt figure did seem to grow in the pulpit—had it not been +for the bold line of defence taken up by Mains. +</P> + +<P> +"Gin he wanted tae stand high, wes it no tae preach the word? an' gin he +wanted a soond foundation for his feet, what better could he get than the +twa Testaments? Answer me that." +</P> + +<P> +It was seen at once that no one could answer that, and the captious +objector never quite recovered his position in the parish; while it is +not the least of Kilbogie's boasting, in which the Auld Kirk will even +join against Drumtochty, that they have a minister who not only does not +read his sermons and does not need to quote his texts, but carries the +whole Bible in at least three languages in his head, and once, as a proof +thereof, preached with it below his feet. +</P> + +<P> +Much was to be looked for from such a man; but even Mains, whetted by +intercourse with Saunderson, was astonished at the sermon. It was a +happy beginning to draw a parallel between the locusts of Joel and the +mice of Kilbogie, and gave the preacher an opportunity of describing the +appearance, habits, and destruction of the locusts, which he did solely +from Holy Scripture, translating various passages afresh, and combining +lights with marvellous ingenuity. This brief preface of half an hour, +which was merely a stimulant for the Kilbogie appetite, led up to a +thorough examination of physical judgments, during which both Bible and +Church history were laid under liberal contribution. At this point the +minister halted, and complimented the congregation on the attention they +had given to the facts of the case, which were his first head, and +suggested that before approaching the doctrine of visitations they might +refresh themselves with a Psalm. The congregation were visibly +impressed, and many made up their minds while singing +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"That man hath perfect blessedness";<BR> +</P> + +<P> +and while others thought it due to themselves to suspend judgment till +they had tasted the doctrine, they afterwards confessed their full +confidence. It goes without saying that he was immediately beyond the +reach of the ordinary people on the second head, and even veterans in +theology panted after him in vain, so that one of the elders, nodding +assent to an exposure of the Manichaean heresy, suddenly blushed as one +who had played the hypocrite. Some professed to have noticed a doctrine +that had not been touched upon, but they never could give it a name, and +it excited just admiration that a preacher, starting from a plague of +mice, should have made a way by strictly scientific methods into the +secret places of theology. Saunderson allowed his hearers a brief rest +after the second head, and cheered them with the assurance that what was +still before them would be easy to follow. It was the application of all +that had gone before to the life of Kilbogie, and the preacher proceeded +to convict the parish under each of the ten commandments—with the plague +of mice ever in reserve to silence excuses—till the delighted +congregation could have risen in a body and taken Saunderson by the hand +for his fearlessness and faithfulness. Perhaps the extent and +thoroughness of this monumental sermon can be best estimated by the fact +that Claypots, father of the present tenant, who always timed his rest to +fifty minutes exactly, thus overseeing both the introduction and +application of the sermon, had a double portion, and even a series of +supplementary dozes, till at last he sat upright through sheer satiety. +It may also be offered as evidence that the reserve of peppermint held by +mothers for their bairns was pooled, doles being furtively passed across +pews to conspicuously needy families, and yet the last had gone before +Saunderson finished. +</P> + +<P> +Mains reported to the congregational meeting that the minister had been +quiet for the rest of the day, but had offered to say something about +Habakkuk to any evening gathering, and had cleared up at family worship +some obscure points in the morning discourse. He also informed the +neighbours that he had driven his guest all the way to Muirtown, and put +him in an Edinburgh carriage with his own hands, since it had emerged +that Saunderson, through absence of mind, had made his down journey by +the triangular route of Dundee. It was quite impossible for Kilbogie to +conceal their pride in electing such a miracle of learning, and their +bearing in Muirtown was distinctly changed; but indeed they did not boast +vainly about Jeremiah Saunderson, for his career was throughout on the +level of that monumental sermon. When the Presbytery in the gaiety of +their heart examined Saunderson to ascertain whether he was fully +equipped for the work of the ministry, he professed the whole Old +Testament in Hebrew, and MacWheep of Pitscowrie, who always asked the +candidate to read the twenty-third Psalm, was beguiled by Jeremiah into +the Book of Job, and reduced to the necessity of asking questions by +indicating verbs with his finger. His Greek examination led to an +argument between Jeremiah and Dr. Dowbiggin on the use of the aorist, +from which the minister-elect of Kilbogie came out an easy first; and his +sermons were heard to within measurable distance of the second head by an +exact quorum of the exhausted court, who were kept by the clerk sitting +at the door, and preventing MacWheep escaping. His position in the court +was assured from the beginning, and fulfilled the function of an +Encyclopaedia, with occasional amazing results, as when information was +asked about some Eastern sect for whose necessities the Presbytery were +asked to collect, and to whose warm piety affecting allusion was made, +and Jeremiah showed clearly, with the reporters present, that the +Cappadocians were guilty of a heresy beside which Morisonianism was an +unsullied whiteness. His work as examiner-in-general for the court was a +merciful failure, and encouraged the students of the district to return +to their district court, who, on the mere rumour of him, had transferred +themselves in a body to a Highland Presbytery, where the standard +question in Philosophy used to be, "How many horns has a dilemma, and +distinguish the one from the other." No man knew what the minister of +Kilbogie might not ask—the student was only perfectly certain that it +would be beyond his knowledge; but as Saunderson always gave the answer +himself in the end, and imputed it to the student, anxiety was reduced to +a minimum. Saunderson, indeed, was in the custom of passing all +candidates and reporting them as marvels of erudition, whose only fault +was a becoming modesty—which, however, had not concealed from his keen +eye hidden treasures of learning. Beyond this sphere the good man's +services were not used by a body of shrewd ecclesiastics, as the +inordinate length of an ordination sermon had ruined a dinner prepared +for the court by "one of our intelligent and large-hearted laymen," and +it is still pleasantly told how Saunderson was invited to a +congregational soirée—an ancient meeting, where the people ate oranges, +and the speaker rallied the minister on being still unmarried—and +discoursed, as a carefully chosen subject, on the Jewish feasts,—with +illustrations from the Talmud,—till some one burst a paper-bag and +allowed the feelings of the people to escape. When this history was +passed round Muirtown Market, Kilbogie thought still more highly of their +minister, and indicated their opinion of the other parish in severely +theological language. +</P> + +<P> +Standing at his full height he might have been six feet, but, with much +poring over books and meditation, he had descended some two inches. His +hair was long, not because he made any conscious claim to genius, but +because he forgot to get it cut, and, with his flowing, untrimmed beard, +was now quite grey. Within his clothes he was the merest skeleton, being +so thin that his shoulder-blades stood out in sharp outline, and his +hands were almost transparent. The redeeming feature in Saunderson was +his eyes, which were large and eloquent, of a trustful, wistful hazel, +the beautiful eyes of a dumb animal. Whether he was expounding doctrines +charged with despair of humanity, or exalting, in rare moments, the +riches of a Divine love in which he did not expect to share, or humbly +beseeching his brethren to give him information on some point in +scholarship no one knew anything about except himself, or stroking the +hair of some little child sitting upon his knee, those eyes were ever +simple, honest, and most pathetic. Young ministers coming to the +Presbytery full of self-conceit and new views were arrested by their +light shining through the glasses, and came in a year or two to have a +profound regard for Saunderson, curiously compounded of amusement at his +ways, which for strangeness were quite beyond imagination, admiration for +his knowledge, which was amazing for its accuracy and comprehensiveness, +respect for his honesty, which feared no conclusion, however repellent to +flesh and blood, but chiefly of love for the unaffected and shining +goodness of a man in whose virgin soul neither self nor this world had +any part. For years the youngsters of the Presbytery knew not how to +address the minister of Kilbogie, since any one who had dared to call him +Saunderson, as they said "Carmichael," and even "MacWheep," though he was +elderly, would have been deposed, without delay, from the ministry—so +much reverence at least was in the lads—and "Mister" attached to this +personality would be like a silk hat on the head of an Eastern sage. +Jenkins of Pitrodie always considered that he was inspired when he one +day called Saunderson "Rabbi," and unto the day of his death Kilbogie was +so called. He made protest against the title as being forbidden in the +Gospels, but the lads insisted that it must be understood in the sense of +scholar, whereupon Saunderson disowned it on the ground of his slender +attainments. The lads saw the force of this objection, and admitted that +the honourable word belonged by rights to MacWheep, who was a "gude +body," but it was their fancy to assign it to Saunderson—whereat +Saunderson yielded, only exacting a pledge that he should never be so +called in public, lest all concerned be condemned for foolishness. When +it was announced that the University of Edinburgh had resolved to confer +the degree of D.D. on him for his distinguished learning and great +services to theological scholarship, Saunderson, who was delighted when +Dowbiggin of Muirtown got the honour for being an ecclesiastic, would +have refused it for himself had not his boys gone out in a body and +compelled him to accept. They also purchased a Doctor's gown and hood, +and invested him with them in the name of Kilbogie two days before the +capping. One of them saw that he was duly brought to the Tolbooth Kirk, +where the capping ceremonial in those days took place. Another sent a +list of Saunderson's articles to British and foreign theological and +philological reviews, which filled half a column of the <I>Caledonian</I>, and +drew forth a complimentary article from that exceedingly able and caustic +paper, whose editor lost all his hair through sympathetic emotion the +morning of the Disruption, and ever afterwards pointed out the faults of +the Free Kirk with much frankness. The fame of Rabbi Saunderson was so +spread abroad that a great cheer went up as he came in with the other +Doctors elect, in which he cordially joined, considering it to be +intended for his neighbour, a successful West-End clergyman, the author +of a Life of Dorcas and other pleasing booklets. For some time after his +boys said "Doctor" in every third sentence, and then grew weary of a too +common title, and fell back on "Rabbi," by which he was known until the +day of his death, and which is now engraved on his tombstone. +</P> + +<P> +Saunderson's reputation for unfathomable learning and saintly simplicity +was built up out of many incidents, and grew with the lapse of years to a +solitary height in the big strath, so that no man would have dared to +smile had the Free Kirk minister of Kilbogie appeared in Muirtown in his +shirt-sleeves, and Kilbogie would only have been a trifle more conceited. +Truly he was an amazing man, and, now that he is dead and gone, the last +of his race, I wish some man of his profession had written his life, for +the doctrine he taught and the way he lived will not be believed by the +new generation. The arrival of his goods was more than many sermons to +Kilbogie, and I had it from Mains' own lips. It was the kindly fashion +of those days that the farmers carted the new minister's furniture from +the nearest railway station, and as the railway to Kildrummie was not yet +open, they had to go to Stormont Station on the north line; and a +pleasant procession they made passing through Pitscowrie, ten carts in +their best array, and drivers with a semi-festive air. Mr. Saunderson +was at the station, having reached it, by some miracle, without mistake, +and was in a condition of abject nervousness about the handling and +conveyance of his belongings. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-030"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-030.JPG" ALT="THE FARMERS CARTED THE NEW MINISTER'S FURNITURE FROM THE NEAREST RAILWAY STATION" BORDER="2" WIDTH="360" HEIGHT="504"> +<H4> +[Illustration: THE FARMERS CARTED THE NEW MINISTER'S FURNITURE <BR> +FROM THE NEAREST RAILWAY STATION] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"You will be careful—exceeding careful," he implored; "if one of the +boxes were allowed to descend hurriedly to the ground, the result to what +is within would be disastrous. I am much afraid that the weight is +considerable, but I am ready to assist"; and he got ready. +</P> + +<P> +"Dinna pit yirsel intae a feery-farry (commotion)"—but Mains was +distinctly pleased to see a little touch of worldliness, just enough to +keep the new minister in touch with humanity. "It'll be queer stuff oor +lads canna lift, an' a'll gie ye a warranty that the'll no be a cup o' +the cheeny broken"; and then Saunderson conducted his congregation to the +siding. +</P> + +<P> +"Dod, man," remarked Mains to the station-master, examining a truck with +eight boxes; "the manse 'ill no want for dishes at ony rate. But let's +start on the furniture; whar hae ye got the rest o' the plenishing? +</P> + +<P> +"Naething mair? havers, man, ye dinna mean tae say they pack beds an' +tables in boxes; a' doot there's a truck missin'." Then Mains went over +where the minister was fidgeting beside his possessions. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," said Saunderson, when the situation was put before him, "it's +all here. I counted the boxes, and I packed every box myself. That top +one contains the fathers—deal gently with it; and the Reformation +divines are just below it. Books are easily injured, and they feel it. +I do believe there is a certain life in them, and … and … they +don't like being ill-used"; and Jeremiah looked wistfully at the +ploughmen. +</P> + +<P> +"Div ye mean tae say," as soon as Mains had recovered, "that ye've brocht +naethin' for the manse but bukes, naither bed nor bedding? Keep's a'," +as the situation grew upon him, "whar are ye tae sleep, and what are ye +tae sit on? An' div ye never eat? This croons a';" and Mains gazed at +his new minister as one who supposed that he had taken Jeremiah's measure +and had failed utterly. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Mea culpa</I>—it's … my blame," and Saunderson was evidently humbled +at this public exposure of his incapacity; "some slight furnishing will +be expedient, even necessary, and I have a plan for book-shelves in my +head; it is ingenious and convenient, and if there is a worker in +wood …" +</P> + +<P> +"Come awa' tae the dog-cart, sir," said Mains, realizing that even +Kilbogie did not know what a singular gift they had obtained, and that +discussion on such sublunary matters as pots and pans was useless, not to +say profane. So eight carts got a box each; one, Jeremiah's ancient kist +of moderate dimensions; and the tenth—that none might be left +unrecognised—a hand-bag that had been on the twelve years' probation +with its master. The story grew as it passed westwards, and when it +reached us we were given to understand that the Free Kirk minister of +Kilbogie had come to his parish with his clothing in a paper parcel and +twenty-four packing-cases filled with books, in as many languages—half +of them dating from the introduction of printing, and fastened by silver +clasps—and that if Drumtochty seriously desired to hear an intellectual +sermon at a time, we must take our way through Tochty woods. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Pitillo took the minister into her hands, and compelled him to +accompany her to Muirtown, where she had him at her will for some time, +so that she equipped the kitchen (fully), a dining-room (fairly), a spare +bedroom (amply), Mr. Saunderson's own bedroom (miserably), and secured a +table and two chairs for the study. This success turned her head. Full +of motherly forethought, and having a keen remembrance that probationers +always retired in the afternoon at Mains to think over the evening's +address, and left an impress of the human form on the bed when they came +down to tea, Mrs. Pitillo suggested that a sofa would be an admirable +addition to the study. As soon as this piece of furniture, of a size +suitable for his six feet, was pointed out to the minister, he took +fright, and became quite unmanageable. He would not have such an article +in his study on any account, partly because it would only feed a tendency +to sloth—which, he explained, was one of his besetting sins—and partly +because it would curtail the space available for books, which, he +indicated, were the proper furniture of any room, but chiefly of a study. +So great was his alarm, that he repented of too early concessions about +the other rooms, and explained to Mrs. Pitillo that every inch of space +must be rigidly kept for the overflow from the study, which he +expected—if he were spared—would reach the garrets. Several times on +their way back to Kilbogie, Saunderson looked wistfully at Mrs. Pitillo, +and once opened his mouth as if to speak, from which she gathered that he +was grateful for her kindness, but dared not yield any further to the +luxuries of the flesh. +</P> + +<P> +What this worthy woman endured in securing a succession of reliable +house-keepers for Mr. Saunderson and over-seeing the interior of that +remarkable home she was never able to explain to her own satisfaction, +though she made many honest efforts, and one of her last intelligible +utterances was a lamentable prophecy of the final estate of the Free +Church manse of Kilbogie. Mr. Saunderson himself seemed at times to have +some vague idea of her painful services, and once mentioned her name to +Carmichael of Drumtochty in feeling terms. There had been some delay in +providing for the bodily wants of the visitor after his eight miles' walk +from the glen, and it seemed likely that he would be obliged to take his +meal standing for want of a chair. +</P> + +<P> +"While Mrs. Pitillo lived, I have a strong impression, almost amounting +to certainty, that the domestic arrangements of the manse were better +ordered; she had the episcopal faculty in quite a conspicuous degree, and +was, I have often thought, a woman of sound judgment. +</P> + +<P> +"We were not able at all times to see eye to eye, as she had an +unfortunate tendency to meddle with my books and papers, and to arrange +them after an artificial fashion. This she called tidying, and, in its +most extreme form, cleaning. +</P> + +<P> +"With all her excellences, there was also in her what I have noticed in +most women, a certain flavour of guile, and on one occasion, when I was +making a brief journey through Holland and France in search of comely +editions of the fathers, she had the books carried out to the garden and +dusted. It was the space of two years before I regained mastery of my +library again, and unto this day I cannot lay my hands on the +service-book of King Henry VIII., which I had in the second edition, to +say nothing of an original edition of Rutherford's <I>Lex Rex</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"It does not become me, however, to reflect on the efforts of that worthy +matron, for she was by nature a good woman, and if any one could be saved +by good works, her place is assured. I was with her before she died, and +her last words to me were, 'Tell Jean tae dust yir bukes aince in the sax +months, and for ony sake keep ae chair for sittin' on.' It was not +perhaps quite the testimony one would have desired in the circumstances, +but yet, Mr. Carmichael, I have often thought that there was a spirit +of … of unselfishness, in fact, that showed the working of grace." +Later in the same evening Mr. Saunderson's mind returned to his friend's +spiritual state, for he entered into a long argument to show that while +Mary was more spiritual, Martha must also have been within the Divine +Election. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +KILBOGIE MANSE +</H3> + + +<P> +Ministers there were in the great strath so orderly that they kept +their sealing-wax in one drawer and their string in another, while +their sermons were arranged under the books of the Bible, and tied with +green silk. Dr. Dowbiggin, though a dull man and of a heavy carriage, +could find in an instant the original draft of a motion on instrumental +music he made in the Presbytery of Muirtown in the year '59, and could +also give the exact page in the blue-books for every word he had +uttered in the famous case when he showed that the use of an harmonium +to train MacWheep's choir was a return to the bondage of Old Testament +worship. His collection of pamphlets was supposed to be unique, and +was a terror to controversialists, no man knowing when a rash utterance +on the bottomless mystery of "spiritual independence" might not be +produced from the Doctor's coat-tail pocket. He retired to rest at +10.15, and rose at six, settling the subject of his next sermon on +Sabbath evening, and finishing the first head before breakfast on +Monday morning. He had three hats—one for funerals, one for +marriages, one for ordinary occasions—and has returned from the +Presbytery door to brush his coat. Morning prayers in Dr. Dowbiggin's +house were at 8.5, and the wrath of the Doctor was so dangerous that +one probationer staying at the manse, and not quite independent of +influence, did not venture to undress, but snatched a fearful doze +sitting upright on a cane-bottomed chair, lest he should not be in at +the psalm. Young ministers of untidy habits regarded Dr. Dowbiggin's +study with despair, and did not recover their spirits till they were +out of Muirtown. Once only did this eminent man visit the manse of +Kilbogie, and in favourable moments after dinner he would give his +choicer experiences. +</P> + +<P> +"It is my invariable custom to examine the bed to see that everything +is in order, and any one sleeping in Kilbogie Manse will find the good +of such a precaution. I trust that I am not a luxurious person—it +would ill become one who came out in '43—but I have certainly become +accustomed to the use of sheets. When I saw there were none on the +bed, I declined to sleep without them, and I indicated my mind very +distinctly on the condition of the manse. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you believe it?" the Doctor used to go on. "Saunderson +explained, as if it were a usual occurrence, that he had given away all +the spare linen in his house to a girl that had to marry in … +urgent circumstances, and had forgotten to get more. And what do you +think did he offer as a substitute for sheets?" No one could even +imagine what might not occur to the mind of Saunderson. +</P> + +<P> +"Towels, as I am an honourable man; a collection of towels, as he put +it, 'skilfully attached together, might make a pleasant covering.' +That is the first and last time I ever slept in the Free Church Manse +of Kilbogie. As regards Saunderson's study, I will guarantee that the +like of it cannot be found within Scotland;" and at the very thought of +it that exact and methodical ecclesiastic realized the limitations of +language. +</P> + +<P> +His boys boasted of the Rabbi's study as something that touched genius +in its magnificent disorderliness, and Carmichael was so proud of it +that he took me to see it as to a shrine. One whiff of its atmosphere +as you entered the door gave an appetite and raised the highest +expectations. For any bookman can estimate a library by scent—if an +expert he could even write out a catalogue of the books and sketch the +appearance of the owner. Heavy odour of polished mahogany, Brussels +carpets, damask curtains, and tablecloths; then the books are kept +within glass, consist of sets of standard works in half calf, and the +owner will give you their cost wholesale to a farthing. Faint +fragrance of delicate flowers, and Russia leather, with a hint of +cigarettes; prepare yourself for a marvellous wall-paper, etchings, +bits of oak, limited editions, and a man in a velvet coat. Smell of +paste and cloth binding and general newness means yesterday's books and +a reviewer racing through novels with a paper-knife. Those are only +book-rooms by courtesy, and never can satisfy any one who has breathed +the sacred air. It is a rich and strong spirit, not only filling the +room, but pouring out from the door and possessing the hall, redeeming +an opposite dining-room from grossness, and a more distant drawing-room +from frivolity, and even lending a goodly flavour to bedrooms on upper +floors. It is distilled from curious old duodecimos packed on high +shelves out of sight, and blows over folios, with large clasps, that +once stood in monastery libraries, and gathers a subtle sweetness from +parchments that were illuminated in ancient scriptoriums that are now +grass-grown, and it is fortified with good old musty calf. The wind +was from the right quarter on the first day I visited Kilbogie Manse, +and as we went up the garden walk the Rabbi's library already bade us +welcome, and assured us of our reward for a ten-miles' walk. +</P> + +<P> +Saunderson was perfectly helpless in all manner of mechanics—he could +not drive a tack through anything except his own fingers, and had given +up shaving at the suggestion of his elders—and yet he boasted, with +truth, that he had got three times as many books into the study as his +predecessor possessed in all his house. For Saunderson had shelved the +walls from the floor to the ceiling, into every corner, and over the +doors and above the windows, as well as below them. The wright had +wished to leave the space clear above the mantelpiece. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye'll be hanging Dr. Chalmers there, or maybe John Knox, and a bit +clock'll be handy for letting ye ken the 'oors on Sabbath." +</P> + +<P> +The Rabbi admitted that he had a Knox, but was full of a scheme for +hanging him over his own history, which he considered both appropriate +and convenient. As regards time, it was the last thing of which that +worthy man desired to be reminded—going to bed when he could no longer +see for weariness, and rising as soon as he awoke, taking his food when +it was brought to him, and being conducted to church by the beadle +after the last straggler was safely seated. He even cast covetous eyes +upon the two windows, which were absurdly large, as he considered, but +compromised matters by removing the shutters and filling up the vacant +space with slender works of devotion. It was one of his conceits that +the rising sun smote first on an À'Kempis, for this he had often +noticed as he worked of a morning. +</P> + +<P> +Book-shelves had long ago failed to accommodate Rabbi's treasures, and +the floor had been bravely utilised. Islands of books, rugged and +perpendicular, rose on every side; long promontories reached out from +the shore, varied by bold headlands; and so broken and varied was that +floor that the Rabbi was pleased to call it the Aegean Sea, where he +had his Lesbos and his Samos. It is absolutely incredible, but it is +all the same a simple fact, that he knew every book and its location, +having a sense of the feel as well as the shape of his favourites. +This was not because he had the faintest approach to orderliness, for +he would take down twenty volumes and never restore them to the same +place by any chance. It was a sort of motherly instinct by which he +watched over them all, and even loved prodigals who wandered over all +the study and then set off on adventurous journeys into distant rooms. +The restoration of an emigrant to his lawful home was celebrated by a +feast, in which, by a confusion of circumstances, the book played the +part of the fatted calf, being read afresh from beginning to end. +During his earlier and more agile years the Rabbi used to reach the +higher levels of his study by wonderful gymnastic feats, but after two +falls—one with three Ante-Nicene fathers in close pursuit—he +determined to call in assistance. This he did after an impressive +fashion. When he attended the roup at Pitfoodles—a day of historical +prices—and purchased in open competition, at three times its value, a +small stack ladder, Kilbogie was convulsed, and Mains had to offer +explanations. +</P> + +<P> +"He's cuttit aff seevin feet, and rins up it tae get his tapmaist +bukes, but that's no' a'," and then Mains gave it to be understood that +the rest of the things the minister had done with that ladder were +beyond words. For in order that the rough wood might not scar the +sensitive backs of the fathers, the Rabbi had covered the upper end +with cloth, and for that purpose had utilised a pair of trousers. It +was not within his ability in any way to reduce or adapt his material, +so that those interesting garments remained in their original shape, +and, as often as the ladder stood reversed, presented a very impressive +and diverting spectacle. It was the inspiration of one of Carmichael's +most successful stories—how he had done his best to console a woman on +the death of her husband, and had not altogether failed, till she +caught sight of the deceased's nether garments waving disconsolately on +a rope in the garden, when she refused to be comforted. "Toom (empty) +breeks tae me noo," and she wept profusely, "toom breeks tae me." +</P> + +<P> +One of the great efforts of the Rabbi's life was to seat his visitors, +since, beyond the one chair, accommodation had to be provided on the +table, wheresoever there happened to be no papers, and on the ledges of +the bookcases. It was pretty to see the host suggesting from a long +experience those coigns of vantage he counted easiest and safest, +giving warnings also of unsuspected danger in the shape of restless +books that might either yield beneath one's feet or descend on one's +head. Carmichael, however, needed no such guidance, for he knew his +way about in the marvellous place, and at once made for what the boys +called the throne of the fathers. This was a lordly seat, laid as to +its foundation in mediaeval divines of ponderous content, but +excellently finished with the Benedictine edition of St. Augustine, +softened by two cushions, one for a seat and another for a back. Here +Carmichael used to sit in great content, smoking and listening while +the Rabbi hunted an idea through Scripture with many authorities, or +defended the wildest Calvinism with strange, learned arguments; from +this place he would watch the Rabbi searching for a lost note on some +passage of Holy Writ amid a pile of papers two feet deep, through which +he burrowed on all-fours, or climbing for a book on the sky-line, to +forget his errand and to expound some point of doctrine from the top of +the ladder. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-058"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-058.JPG" ALT="SEARCHING FOR A LOST NOTE" BORDER="2" WIDTH="360" HEIGHT="464"> +<H4> +[Illustration: SEARCHING FOR A LOST NOTE] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"You're comfortable, John, and you do not want to put off your boots +after all that travelling to and fro? Then I will search for Barbara, +and secure some refreshment for our bodies"; and Carmichael watched the +Rabbi depart with pity, for he was going on a troublous errand. +</P> + +<P> +Housekeepers are, after beadles, the most wonderful functionaries in +the ecclesiastical life of Scotland, and every species could be found +within a day's journey of Drumtochty. Jenkins, indeed, suggested that +a series of papers on Church institutions read at the clerical club +should include one on housekeepers, and offered to supply the want, +which was the reason why Dr. Dowbiggin refused to certify him to a +vacancy, speaking of him as "frivolous and irresponsible." The class +ranged from Sarah of Drumtochty, who could cook and knew nothing about +ecclesiastical affairs, to that austere damsel, Margaret Meiklewham of +Pitscowrie, who had never prepared an appetising meal in her life, but +might have sat as an elder in the Presbytery. +</P> + +<P> +Among all her class, Barbara MacCluckie stood an easy worst, being the +most incapable, unsightly, evil-tempered, vexatious woman into whose +hands an unmarried man had ever been delivered. MacWheep had his own +trials, but his ruler saw that he had sufficient food and some comfort, +but Barbara laid herself out to make the Rabbi's life a misery. He +only obtained his meals as a favour, and an extra blanket had to be won +by a week's abject humiliation. Fire was only allowed him at times, +and he secured oil for his lamp by stratagem. Latterly he was glad to +send strange ministers to Mains, and his boys alone forced lodgment in +the manse. The settlement of Barbara was the great calamity of the +Rabbi's life, and was the doing of his own good-nature. He first met +her when she came to the manse one evening to discuss the unlawfulness +of infant baptism and the duty of holding Sunday on Saturday, being the +Jewish Sabbath. His interest deepened on learning that she had been +driven from twenty-nine situations through the persecution of the +ungodly; and on her assuring him that she had heard a voice in a dream +bidding her take charge of Kilbogie Manse, the Rabbi, who had suffered +many things at the hands of young girls given to lovers, installed +Barbara, and began to repent that very day. A tall, bony, forbidding +woman, with a squint, and a nose turning red as she stated from chronic +indigestion, let it be said for her that she did not fall into the sins +of her predecessors. It was indeed a pleasant jest in Kilbogie for +four Sabbaths that she allowed a local Romeo, who knew not that his +Juliet was gone, to make his adventurous way to her bedroom window, and +then showed such an amazing visage that he was laid up for a week +through the suddenness of his fall. What the Rabbi endured no one +knew, but his boys understood that the only relief he had from +Barbara's tyranny was on Sabbath evening when she stated her objections +to his sermons, and threatened henceforward to walk into Muirtown in +order to escape from unsound doctrine. On such occasions the Rabbi +laid himself out for her instruction with much zest, and he knew when +he had produced an impression, for then he went supperless to bed. +Between this militant spirit and the boys there was an undying feud, +and Carmichael was not at all hurt to hear her frank references to +himself. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-064"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-064.JPG" ALT="THE SUDDENNESS OF HIS FALL" BORDER="2" WIDTH="301" HEIGHT="464"> +<H4> +[Illustration: THE SUDDENNESS OF HIS FALL] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"What need he come stravagin' doon frae Drumtochty for? it wud set him +better tae wait on his ain fouk. A licht-headed fellow, they say as +kens; an' as for his doctrine—weel, maybe it'll dae for Drumtochty. +</P> + +<P> +"Tea? Did ye expect me tae hae biling water at this 'oor o' the nicht? +My word, the money wud flee in this hoose gin a' wesna here. Milk'll +dae fine for yon birkie: he micht be gled tae get onything, sorning on +a respectable manse every ither week." +</P> + +<P> +"You will pardon our humble provision"—this is how the Rabbi prepared +Carmichael; "we have taken my worthy Abigail unawares, and she cannot +do for us what in other circumstances would be her desire. She has a +thorn in the flesh which troubles her, and makes her do what she would +not, but I am convinced that her heart is right." +</P> + +<P> +That uncompromising woman took no notice of Drumtochty, but busied +herself in a search for the Rabbi's bag, which he insisted had been +brought home from Muirtown that morning, and which was at last found +covered with books. +</P> + +<P> +"Do not open it at present, Barbara; you can identify the contents +later if it be necessary, but I am sure they are all right"; and the +Rabbi watched Barbara's investigations with evident anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe ye hae brocht back what ye started wi', but gin ye hev, it's the +first time a' can mind. Laist sacrament at Edinburgh ye pickit up twal +books, ae clothes-brush, an' a crochet cover for a chair, an' left +a'thing that belonged tae ye." +</P> + +<P> +"It was an inadvertence; but I obtained a drawer for my own use this +time, and I was careful to pack its contents into the bag, leaving +nothing." But the Rabbi did not seem over-confident. +</P> + +<P> +"There's nae question that ye hev filled the pack," said Barbara, with +much deliberation and an ominous calmness; "but whether wi' yir ain +gear or some ither body's, a'll leave ye tae judge yirsel. A'll juist +empty the bag on the bukes"; and Barbara selected a bank of Puritans +for the display of her master's spoil. +</P> + +<P> +"Ae slipbody (bodice), weel hemmed and gude stuff—ye didna tak' that +wi' ye, at ony rate; twa pillow-slips—they'll come in handy, oor ain +are wearin' thin; ae pair o' sheets—'ll just dae for the next trimmie +that ye want tae set up in her hoose; this'll be a bolster-slip, a'm +judgin'——" +</P> + +<P> +"It must be the work of Satan," cried the poor Rabbi, who constantly +saw the hand of the great enemy in the disorder of his study. "I +cannot believe that my hands packed such garments in place of my own." +</P> + +<P> +"Ye'll be satisfied when ye read the name; it's plain eneuch; ye needna +gang dodderin' aboot here and there lookin' for yir glasses; there's +twa pair on your head already"; for it was an hour of triumph to +Barbara's genial soul. +</P> + +<P> +"It's beyond understanding," murmured the Rabbi. "I must have mistaken +one drawer for another in the midst of meditation"; and then, when +Barbara had swept out of the room with the varied linen on her arm, +"This is very humiliating, John, and hard to bear." +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense, Rabbi; it's one of the finest things you have ever done. +Half a dozen journeys of that kind would refurnish the manse; it's just +a pity you can't annex a chair"; but he saw that the good man was +sorely vexed. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a good lad, John, and it is truly marvellous what charity I +have received at the hands of young men who might have scorned and +mocked me. God knows how my heart has been filled with gratitude, and +I … have mentioned your names in my unworthy prayers, that God may +do to you all according to the kindness ye have shown unto me." +</P> + +<P> +It was plain that this lonely, silent man was much moved, and +Carmichael did not speak. +</P> + +<P> +"People consider that I am ignorant of my failings and weaknesses, and +I can bear witness with a clear conscience that I am not angry when +they smile and nod the head; why should I be? But, John, it is known +to myself only, and Him before whom all hearts are open, how great is +my suffering in being among my neighbours as a sparrow upon the +house-top. +</P> + +<P> +"May you never know, John, what it is to live alone and friendless till +you lose the ways of other men and retire within yourself, looking out +on the multitude passing on the road as a hermit from his cell, and +knowing that some day you will die alone, with none to … give you a +draught of water!" +</P> + +<P> +"Rabbi, Rabbi,"—for Carmichael was greatly distressed at the woe in +the face opposite him, and his heart was tender that night,—"why +should you have lived like that? Do not be angry, but … did God +intend … it cannot be wrong … I mean … God did give Eve to +Adam." +</P> + +<P> +"Laddie, why do ye speak with fear and a faltering voice? Did I say +aught against that gracious gift or the holy mystery of love, which is +surely the sign of the union betwixt God and the soul, as is set forth +after a mystical shape in the Song of Songs? But it was not for +me—no, not for me. I complain not, neither have I vexed my soul. He +doeth all things well." +</P> + +<P> +"But, dear Rabbi"—and Carmichael hesitated, not knowing where he stood. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye ask me why"—the Rabbi anticipated the question—"and I will tell +you plainly, for my heart has ever gone forth to you. For long years I +found no favour in the eyes of the Church, and it seemed likely I would +be rejected from the ministry as a man useless and unprofitable. How +could I attempt to win the love of any maiden, since it did not appear +to be the will of God that I should ever have a place of habitation? +It consisted not with honour, for I do hold firmly that no man hath any +right to seek unto himself a wife till he have a home." +</P> + +<P> +"But …" +</P> + +<P> +"Afterwards, you would say. Ah, John! then had I become old and +unsightly, not such a one as women could care for. It would have been +cruel to tie a maid for life to one who might only be forty years in +age, but was as seventy in his pilgrimage, and had fallen into unlovely +habits." +</P> + +<P> +Then the Rabbi turned on Carmichael his gentle eyes, that were shining +with tears. +</P> + +<P> +"It will be otherwise with you, and so let it be. May I live to see +you rejoicing with the wife of your youth!" +</P> + +<P> +So it came to pass that it was to this unlikely man Carmichael told his +love for Kate Carnegie and what like Kate was, and he was amazed at the +understanding of the Rabbi, as well as his sympathy and toleration. +</P> + +<P> +"A maid of spirit—and that is an excellent thing; and any excess will +be tamed by life. Only see to it that ye agree in that which lieth +beneath all churches and maketh souls one in God. May He prosper you +in your wooing as He did the patriarch Jacob, and far more abundantly!" +</P> + +<P> +Very early in the morning Carmichael awoke, and being tempted by the +sunrise, arose and went downstairs. As he came near the study door he +heard a voice in prayer, and knew that the Rabbi had been all night in +intercession. +</P> + +<P> +"Thou hast denied me wife and child; deny me not Thyself.… A +stranger Thou hast made me among men; refuse me not a place in the +City.… Deal graciously with this lad who has been to me as a son +in the Gospel.… He has not despised an old man; put not his heart +to confusion.…" +</P> + +<P> +Carmichael crept upstairs again, but not to sleep, and at breakfast he +pledged the Rabbi to come up some day and see Kate Carnegie. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE RABBI AS CONFESSOR +</H3> + + +<P> +One day Carmichael, who had quarrelled with Kate over Mary Queen of +Scots and had lost hope, came to a good resolution suddenly, and went +down to see Rabbi Saunderson—the very thought of whose gentle, +patient, selfless life was a rebuke and a tonic. +</P> + +<P> +When two tramps held conference on the road, and one indicated to the +other visibly that any gentleman in temporary distress would be treated +after a Christian fashion at a neighbouring house, Carmichael, who had +been walking in a dream since he passed the Lodge, knew instantly that +he must be near the Free Kirk manse of Kilbogie. The means of +communication between the members of the nomadic profession is almost +perfect in its frequency and accuracy, and Saunderson's manse was a +hedge-side word. Not only did all the regular travellers by the north +road call on their going up in spring and their coming down in autumn, +but habitués of the east coast route were attracted and made a circuit +to embrace so hospitable a home, and even country vagrants made their +way from Dunleith and down through Glen Urtach to pay their respects to +the Rabbi. They had particular directions to avoid Barbara—expressed +in cypher on five different posts in the vicinity, and enforced in +picturesque language, of an evening—and they were therefore careful to +waylay the Rabbi on the road, or enter his study boldly from the front. +The humbler members of the profession contented themselves with +explaining that they had once been prosperous tradesmen, and were now +walking to Muirtown in search of work—receiving their alms in silence, +with diffidence and shame; but those in a higher walk came to consult +the Rabbi on Bible difficulties, which were threatening to shake their +faith, and departed much relieved—with a new view of Lot's wife, as +well as a suit of clothes the Rabbi had only worn three times. +</P> + +<P> +"You have done kindly by me in calling"—the vagabond had finished his +story and was standing, a very abject figure, among the books—"and in +giving me the message from your friend. I am truly thankful that he is +now labouring—in iron, did you say?—and I hope he may be a cunning +artificer. +</P> + +<P> +"You will not set it down to carelessness that I cannot quite recall +the face of your friend, for, indeed, it is my privilege to see many +travellers, and there are times when I may have been a minister to them +on their journeys, as I would be to you also if there be anything in +which I can serve you. It grieves me to say that I have no clothing +that I might offer you; it happens that a very worthy man passed here a +few days ago most insufficiently clad and … but I should not have +alluded to that; my other garments, save what I wear, are … kept in +a place of … safety by my excellent housekeeper, and she makes +their custody a point of conscience; you might put the matter before +her.… Assuredly it would be difficult, and I crave your pardon +for putting you in an … embarrassing position; it is my misfortune +to have to-day neither silver nor gold,"—catching sight of Carmichael +in the passage, "This is a Providence. May I borrow from you, John, +some suitable sum for our brother here who is passing through +adversity?" +</P> + +<A NAME="img-084"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-084.JPG" ALT=""SOME SUITABLE SUM FOR OUR BROTHER HERE WHO IS PASSING THROUGH ADVERSITY"" BORDER="2" WIDTH="357" HEIGHT="472"> +<H4> +[Illustration: "SOME SUITABLE SUM FOR OUR BROTHER HERE <BR> +WHO IS PASSING THROUGH ADVERSITY"] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Do not be angry with me, John"—after the tramp had departed, with +five shillings in hand and much triumph over Carmichael on his +face—"nor speak bitterly of our fellow-men. Verily theirs is a hard +lot who have no place to lay their head, and who journey in weariness +from city to city. John, I was once a stranger and a wayfarer, +wandering over the length and breadth of the land. Nor had I a friend +on earth till my feet were led to the Mains, where my heart was greatly +refreshed, and now God has surrounded me with young men of whose +kindness I am not worthy; wherefore it becometh me to show mercy unto +others"; and the Rabbi looked at Carmichael with such sweetness that +the lad's sullenness began to yield, although he made no sign. +</P> + +<P> +"Moreover," and the Rabbi's voice took a lower tone, "as often as I +look on one of those men of the highways, there cometh to me a vision +of Him who was an outcast of the people, and albeit some may be as +Judas, peradventure one might beg alms of me, a poor sinful man, some +day, and lo it might be … the Lord himself in a saint"; and the +Rabbi bowed his head and stood awhile much moved. +</P> + +<P> +"Rabbi," after a pause, during which Carmichael's face had changed, +"you are incorrigible. For years we have been trying to make you a +really good and wise man, both by example and precept, and you are +distinctly worse than when we began—more lazy, miserly, and +uncharitable. It is very disheartening. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you receive another tramp and give him a bed? for I am in low +spirits, and so, like every other person in trouble, I come to you, you +dear old saint, and already I feel a better man." +</P> + +<P> +"Receive you, John? It is doubtless selfish, but it is not given to +you to know how I weary to see your faces, and we shall have much +converse together—there are some points I would like your opinion +on—but first of all, after a slight refreshment, we must go to Mains: +behold the aid to memory I have designed"—and the Rabbi pointed to a +large square of paper hung above Chrysostom, with "Farewell, George +Pitillo, 3 o'clock." "He is the son's son of my benefactor, and he +leaves his father's house this day to go into a strange land across the +sea: I had a service last night at Mains, and expounded the departure +of Abraham, but only slightly, being somewhat affected through the +weakness of the flesh. There was a covenant made between the young man +and myself, that I should meet him at the crossing of the roads to-day, +and it is in my mind to leave a parable with him against the power of +this present world." +</P> + +<P> +Then the Rabbi fell into a meditation till the dog-cart came up, Mains +and his wife in the front and George alone in the back, making a brave +show of indifference. +</P> + +<P> +"George," said the Rabbi, looking across the field and speaking as to +himself, "we shall not meet again in this world, and in a short space +they will bury me in Kilbogie kirkyard, but it will not be in me to lie +still for thinking of the people I have loved. So it will come to pass +that I may rise—you have ears to understand, George—and I will +inquire of him that taketh charge of the dead about many and how it +fares with them." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-089"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-089.JPG" ALT=""WE SHALL NOT MEET AGAIN IN THIS WORLD."" BORDER="2" WIDTH="352" HEIGHT="496"> +<H4> +[Illustration: "WE SHALL NOT MEET AGAIN IN THIS WORLD."] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"And George Pitillo, what of him, Andrew? +</P> + +<P> +"'Oh, it's a peety you didna live langer, Mr. Saunderson, for George +hes risen in the warld and made a great fortune.' +</P> + +<P> +"How does it go with his soul, Andrew? +</P> + +<P> +"'Well, you see, Mister Saunderson, George hes hed many things to think +about, and he maybe hasna hed time for releegion yet, but nae doot +he'll be turnin' his mind that wy soon.' +</P> + +<P> +"Poor George, that I baptized and admitted to the Sacrament and … +loved: exchanged his soul for the world." +</P> + +<P> +The sun was setting fast, and the landscape—bare stubble-fields, +leafless trees, still water, long, empty road—was of a blood-red +colour fearsome to behold, so that no one spake, and the horse chafing +his bit made the only sound. +</P> + +<P> +Then the Rabbi began again. +</P> + +<P> +"And George Pitillo—tell me, Andrew? +</P> + +<P> +"'Weel, ye see, Mister Saunderson, ye wud be sorry for him, for you and +he were aye chief; he's keepit a gude name an' workit hard, but hesna +made muckle o' this warld.' +</P> + +<P> +"And his soul, Andrew? +</P> + +<P> +"'Oo, that's a' richt; gin we a' hed as gude a chance for the next +warld as George Pitillo we micht be satisfied.' +</P> + +<P> +"That is enough for his old friend; hap me over again, Andrew, and I'll +rest in peace till the trumpet sound." +</P> + +<P> +Carmichael turned aside, but he heard something desperately like a sob +from the back of the dog-cart, and the Rabbi saying, "God be with you, +George, and as your father's father received me in the day of my sore +discouragement, so may the Lord God of Israel open a door for you in +every land whithersoever you go, and bring you in at last through the +gates into the city." The Rabbi watched George till the dog-cart faded +away into the dusk of the winter's day, and they had settled for the +night in their places among the books before the Rabbi spoke. +</P> + +<P> +It was with a wistful tenderness that he turned to Carmichael and +touched him slightly with his hand, as was a fashion with the Rabbi. +</P> + +<P> +"You will not think me indifferent to your welfare because I have not +inquired about your affairs, for indeed this could not be, but the +going forth of this lad has tried my heart. Is there aught, John, that +it becometh you to tell me, and wherein my years can be of any avail?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is not about doctrine I wished to speak to you, Rabbi, although I +am troubled thus also, but about … you remember our talk." +</P> + +<P> +"About the maid—surely; I cannot forget her, and indeed often think of +her since the day you brought me to her house and made me known unto +her, which was much courtesy to one who is fitter for a book-room than +a woman's company. +</P> + +<P> +"She is fair of face and hath a pleasant manner, and surely beauty and +a winsome way are from God; there seemed also a certain contempt of +baseness and a strength of will which are excellent. Perhaps my +judgment is not even because Miss Carnegie was gracious to me, and you +know, John, it is not in me to resist kindness, but this is how she +seems to me. Has there been trouble between you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do not misunderstand me, Rabbi; I have not spoken one word of love to +. . . Miss Carnegie, nor she to me; but I love her, and I thought that +perhaps she saw that I loved her. But now it looks as if … what I +hoped is never to be"; and Carmichael told how Kate had risen and left +the Church in hot wrath because he had compared Queen Mary to Jezebel. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it not marvellous," mused the Rabbi, looking into the fire, "how +one woman, who was indeed at the time little more than a girl, did +carry men, many of them wise and clever, away as with a flood, and +still divideth scholars and even … friends? +</P> + +<P> +"It was not fitting that Miss Carnegie should have left God's house in +heat of temper, and it seemeth to us that she hath a wrong reading of +history, but it is surely good that she hath her convictions, and +holdeth them fast like a brave maid. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it not so, John, that friends, and doubtless also … lovers, +have been divided by conscience, and have been on opposite sides in the +great conflict, and doth not this show how much of conscience there is +among men? +</P> + +<P> +"It may be this dispute will not divide you—being now, as it were, +more an argument of the schools than a matter of principle—but if it +should appear that you are far apart on the greater matters of faith, +then … you will have a heavy cross to carry. But it is my mind +that the heart of the maiden is right, and that I may some day see her +. . . in your home, whereat my eyes would be glad." +</P> + +<P> +The Rabbi was so taken up with the matter that he barely showed +Carmichael a fine copy of John of Damascus he had secured from London, +and went out of his course at worship to read, as well as to expound +with much feeling, the story of Ruth the Moabitess, showing +conclusively that she had in her a high spirit, and that she was +designed of God to be a strength to the house of David. He was also +very cheerful in the morning, and bade Carmichael good-bye at Tochty +woods with encouraging words. He also agreed to assist his boy at the +Drumtochty sacrament. +</P> + +<P> +It was evident that the Rabbi's mind was much set on this visit, but +Carmichael did not for one moment depend upon his remembering the day, +and so Burnbrae started early on the Saturday with his dog-cart to +bring Saunderson up and deposit him without fail in the Free Kirk manse +of Drumtochty. Six times that day did the minister leave his "action" +sermon and take his way to the guest-room, carrying such works as might +not be quite unsuitable for the old scholar's perusal, and arranging a +lamp of easy management, that the night hours might not be lost. It +was late in the afternoon before the Rabbi was delivered at the manse, +and Burnbrae gave explanations next day at the sacramental dinner. +</P> + +<P> +"It wes just ten when a' got tae the manse o' Kilbogie, an' his +hoosekeeper didna ken whar her maister wes; he micht be in Kildrummie +by that time, she said, or half-wy tae Muirtown. So a' set oot an' +ransackit the parish till a' got him, an' gin he wesna sittin' in a +bothie takin' brose wi' the plowmen, an' expoundin' Scripture a' the +time. +</P> + +<P> +"He startit on the ancient martyrs afore we were half a mile on the +road, and he gied ae testimony aifter anither, an' he wesna within +sicht o' the Reformation when we cam' tae the hooses; a'll no deny that +a' let the mare walk bits o' the road, for a' cud hae heard him a' +nicht; ma bluid's warmer yet, freends." +</P> + +<P> +The Rabbi arrived in great spirits, and refused to taste meat till he +had stated the burden of his sermon for the morrow. +</P> + +<P> +"If the Lord hath opened our ears the servant must declare what has +been given him, but I prayed that the message sent through me to your +flock, John, might be love. It hath pleased the Great Shepherd that I +should lead the sheep by strange paths, but I desired that it be +otherwise when I came for the first time to Drumtochty. +</P> + +<P> +"Two days did I spend in the woods, for the stillness of winter among +the trees leaveth the mind disengaged for the Divine word, and the +first day my soul was heavy as I returned, for this only was laid upon +me, 'vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction.' And, John, albeit God +would doubtless have given me strength according to His will, yet I was +loath to bear this awful truth to the people of your charge. +</P> + +<P> +"Next day the sun was shining pleasantly in the wood, and it came to me +that clouds had gone from the face of God, and as I wandered among the +trees a squirrel sat on a branch within reach of my hand and did not +flee. Then I heard a voice, 'I have loved thee with an everlasting +love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.' +</P> + +<P> +"It was, in an instant, my hope that this might be God's word by me, +but I knew not it was so till the Evangel opened up on all sides, and I +was led into the outgoings of the eternal love after so moving a +fashion that I dared to think that grace might be effectual even with +me … with me. +</P> + +<P> +"God opened my mouth on Sabbath on this text unto my own flock, and the +word was not void. It is little that can be said on sovereign love in +two hours and it may be a few minutes; yet even this may be more than +your people are minded to bear. So I shall pretermit certain notes on +doctrine; for you will doubtless have given much instruction on the +purposes of God, and very likely may be touching on that mystery in +your action sermon." +</P> + +<P> +During the evening the Rabbi was very genial—tasting Sarah's viands +with relish, and comparing her to Rebekah, who made savoury meat, +urging Carmichael to smoke without scruple, and allowing himself to +snuff three times, examining the bookshelves with keen appreciation, +and finally departing with three volumes of modern divinity under his +arm, to reinforce the selection in his room, "lest his eyes should be +held waking in the night watches." He was much overcome by the care +that had been taken for his comfort, and at the door of his room blest +his boy: "May the Lord give you the sleep of His beloved, and +strengthen you to declare all His truth on the morrow." Carmichael sat +by his study fire for a while and went to bed much cheered, nor did he +dream that there was to be a second catastrophe in the Free Kirk of +Drumtochty which would be far sadder than the offending of Miss +Carnegie about Mary Queen of Scots, and would leave in one heart +lifelong regret. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE FEAR OF GOD +</H3> + + +<P> +It was the way of the Free Kirk that the assisting minister at the +Sacrament should sit behind the Communion Table during the sermon, and +the congregation, without giving the faintest sign of observation, +could estimate its effect on his face. When Dr. Dowbiggin composed +himself to listen as became a Church leader of substantial build—his +hands folded before him and his eyes fixed on the far window—and was +so arrested by the opening passage of Cunningham's sermon on +Justification by Faith that he visibly started, and afterwards sat +sideways with his ears cocked, Drumtochty, while doubtful whether any +Muirtown man could appreciate the subtlety of their minister, had a +higher idea of the Doctor; and when the Free Kirk minister of +Kildrummie—a stout man and given to agricultural pursuits—went fast +asleep under a masterly discussion of the priesthood of Melchizedek, +Drumtochty's opinion of the intellectual condition of Kildrummie was +confirmed beyond argument. +</P> + +<P> +During his ministry of more than twenty years the Rabbi had never +preached at Drumtochty—being fearful that he might injure the minister +who invited him, or that he might be so restricted in time as to lead +astray by ill-balanced statements—and as the keenest curiosity would +never have induced any man to go from the Glen to worship in another +parish, the Free Kirk minister of Kilbogie was still unjudged in +Drumtochty. They were not sorry to have the opportunity at last, for +they had suffered not a little at the hands of Kilbogie in past years, +and the coming event disturbed the flow of business at Muirtown market. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye're tae hae the Doctor at laist," Mains said to Netherton—letting +the luck-penny on a transaction in seed-corn stand over—"an' a'm +jidgin' the time's no been lost. He's plainer an' easier tae follow +then he wes at the affgo. Ma word"—contemplating the exercise before +the Glen—"but ye'll aye get eneuch here and there tae cairry hame." +Which shows what a man the Rabbi was, that on the strength of his +possession a parish like Kilbogie could speak after this fashion to +Drumtochty. +</P> + +<P> +"He'll hae a fair trial, Mains"—Netherton's tone was distinctly +severe—"an' mony a trial he's hed in his day, they say: wes't +three-an'-twenty kirks he preached in afore ye took him? But mind ye, +length's nae standard in Drumtochty; na, na, it's no hoo muckle wind a +man hes, but what like is the stuff that comes. It's bushels doon bye, +but it's wecht up bye." +</P> + +<P> +Any prejudice against the Rabbi, created by the boasting of a foolish +parish not worthy of him, was reduced by his venerable appearance +before the pulpit, and quite dispelled by his unfeigned delight in +Carmichael's conduct of the "preliminaries." Twice he nodded approval +to the reading of the hundredth Psalm, and although he stood with +covered face during the prayer, he emerged full of sympathy. As his +boy read the fifty-third of Isaiah the old man was moved well-nigh to +tears, and on the giving out of the text, from the parable of the +Prodigal Son, the Rabbi closed his eyes with great expectation, as one +about to be fed with the finest of the wheat. +</P> + +<P> +Carmichael has kept the sermon unto this day, and as often as he finds +himself growing hard or supercilious, reads it from beginning to end. +It is his hair-shirt, to be worn from time to time next his soul for +the wrongness in it and the mischief it did. He cannot understand how +he could have said such things on a Sacrament morning and in the +presence of the Rabbi, but indeed they were inevitable. When two tides +meet there is ever a cruel commotion, and ships are apt to be dashed on +the rocks, and Carmichael's mind was in a "jabble" that day. The new +culture, with its wider views of God and man, was fighting with the +robust Calvinism in which every Scot is saturated, and the result was +neither peace nor charity. Personally the lad was kindly and +good-natured; intellectually he had become arrogant, intolerant, acrid, +flinging out at old-fashioned views, giving quite unnecessary +challenges, arguing with imaginary antagonists. It has ever seemed to +me, although I suppose that history is against me, that if it be laid +on any one to advocate a new view that will startle people, he ought of +all men to be conciliatory and persuasive; but Carmichael was, at least +in this time of fermentation, very exasperating and pugnacious, and so +he drove the Rabbi to the only hard action of his life, wherein the old +man suffered most, and which may be said to have led to his death. +Carmichael, like the Rabbi, had intended to preach that morning on the +love of God, and thought he was doing so with some power. What he did +was to take the Fatherhood of God and use it as a stick to beat +Pharisees with, and under Pharisees it appeared as if he included every +person who still believed in the inflexible action of the moral laws +and the austere majesty of God. Many good things he no doubt said, but +each had an edge, and it cut deeply into people of the old school. Had +he seen the Rabbi, it would not have been possible for him to continue; +but he only was conscious of Lachlan Campbell, with whom he had then a +feud, and who, he imagined, had come to criticise him. So he went on +his rasping way that Sacrament morning, as when one harrows the spring +earth with iron teeth, exciting himself with every sentence to fresh +crudities of thought and extravagances of opposition. But it only +flashed on him that he had spoken foolishly when he came down from the +pulpit, and found the Rabbi a shrunken figure in his chair before the +Holy Table. +</P> + +<P> +Discerning people, like Elspeth Macfadyen, saw the whole tragedy from +beginning to end, and felt the pity of it keenly, For a while the Rabbi +waited with fond confidence—for was not he to hear the best-loved of +his boys?—and he caught eagerly at a gracious expression, as if it had +fallen from one of the fathers. Anything in the line of faith would +have pleased the Rabbi that day, who was as a little child, and full of +charity, in spite of his fierce doctrines. By-and-by the light died +away from his eyes as when a cloud comes over the face of the sun and +the Glen grows cold and dreary. He opened his eyes and was amazed, +looking at the people and questioning them what had happened to their +minister. Suddenly he flushed as a person struck by a friend, and +then, as one blow followed another, he covered his face with both +hands, sinking lower and lower in his chair, till even that decorous +people were almost shaken in their attention. +</P> + +<P> +When Carmichael gave him the cup in the Sacrament the Rabbi's hand +shook and he spilled some drops of the wine upon his beard, which all +that day showed like blood on the silvery whiteness. Afterwards he +spake in his turn to the communicants, and distinguished the true +people of God from the multitude—to whom he held out no hope—by so +many and stringent marks that Donald Menzies refused the Sacrament with +a lamentable groan. And when the Sacrament was over, and the time came +for Carmichael to shake hands with the assisting minister in the +vestry, the Rabbi had vanished, and he had no speech with him till they +went through the garden together—very bleak it seemed in the winter +dusk—unto the sermon that closed the services of the day. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-116"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-116.JPG" ALT="WHEN CARMICHAEL GAVE HIM THE CUP IN THE SACRAMENT." BORDER="2" WIDTH="352" HEIGHT="488"> +<H4> +[Illustration: WHEN CARMICHAEL GAVE HIM THE CUP IN THE SACRAMENT.] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"God's hand is heavy in anger on us both this day, John," and +Carmichael was arrested by the awe and sorrow in the Rabbi's voice, +"else … you had not spoken as you did this forenoon, nor would +necessity be laid on me to speak … as I must this night. +</P> + +<P> +"His ways are all goodness and truth, but they are oftentimes +encompassed with darkness, and the burden He has laid on me is … +almost more than I can bear; it will be heavy for you also. +</P> + +<P> +"You will drink the wine of astonishment this night, and it will be +strange if you do not … turn from the hand that pours it out, but +you will not refuse the truth or … hate the preacher"; and at the +vestry door the Rabbi looked wistfully at Carmichael. +</P> + +<P> +During the interval the lad had been ill at ease, suspecting from the +Rabbi's manner at the Table, and the solemnity of his address, that he +disapproved of the action sermon, but he did not for a moment imagine +that the situation was serious. It is one of the disabilities of +good-natured and emotional people, without much deepness of earth, to +belittle the convictions and resolutions of strong natures, and to +suppose that they can be talked away by a few pleasant, coaxing words. +</P> + +<P> +The Rabbi had often yielded to Carmichael and his other boys in the +ordinary affairs of life—in meat and drink and clothing, even unto the +continuance of his snuffing. He had been most manageable and +pliable—as a child in their hands—and so Carmichael was quite +confident that he could make matters right with the old man about a +question of doctrine as easily as about the duty of a midday meal. +Certain bright and superficial people will only learn by some solitary +experience that faith is reserved in friendship, and that the most +heroic souls are those which count all things loss—even the smile of +those they love—for the eternal. For a moment Carmichael was shaken +as if a new Rabbi were before him; then he remembered the study of +Kilbogie, and all things that had happened therein, and his spirits +rose. +</P> + +<P> +"How dare you suggest such wickedness, Rabbi, that any of us should +ever criticise or complain of anything you say? Whatever you give us +will be right, and do us good, and in the evening you will tell me all +I said wrong." +</P> + +<P> +Saunderson looked at Carmichael for ten seconds as one who has not been +understood, and sighed. Then he went down the kirk after the beadle, +and the people marked how he walked like a man who was afraid he might +fall, and, turning a corner, he supported himself on the end of a pew. +As he crept up the pulpit stairs Elspeth gave her husband a look, and, +although well accustomed to the slowness of his understanding, was +amazed that he did not catch the point. Even a man might have seen +that this was not the same minister that came in to the Sacrament with +hope in his very step. +</P> + +<P> +"A'm no here tae say 'that a' kent what wes comin''"—Elspeth, like all +experts, was strictly truthful—"for the like o' that wes never heard +in Drumtochty, and noo that Doctor Saunderson is awa', will never be +heard again in Scotland. A' jaloused that vials wud be opened an' a' +wesna wrang, but ma certes"—and that remarkable woman left you to +understand that no words in human speech could even hint at the +contents of the vials. +</P> + +<P> +When the Rabbi gave out his text, "Vessels of wrath," in a low, +awestruck voice, Carmichael began to be afraid, but after a little he +chid himself for foolishness. During half an hour the Rabbi traced the +doctrine of the Divine Sovereignty through Holy Scripture with a +characteristic wealth of allusion to Fathers ancient and reforming, and +once or twice he paused, as if he would have taken up certain matters +at greater length, but restrained himself, simply asserting the Pauline +character of St. Augustine's thinking, and exposing the looseness of +Clement of Alexandria with a wave of the hand, as one hurrying on to +his destination. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear old Rabbi"—Carmichael congratulated himself in his pew—"what +need he have made so many apologies for his subject? He is going to +enjoy himself, and he is sure to say something beautiful before he is +done." But he was distinctly conscious all the same of a wish that the +Rabbi were done and all … well, uncertainty over. For there was a +note of anxiety, almost of horror, in the Rabbi's voice, and he had not +let the Fathers go so lightly unless under severe constraint. What was +it? Surely he would not attack their minister in face of his +people.… The Rabbi do that, who was in all his ways a gentleman? +Yet … and then the Rabbi abruptly quitted historical exposition and +announced that he would speak on four heads. Carmichael, from his +corner behind the curtains, saw the old man twice open his mouth as if +to speak, and when at last he began he was quivering visibly, and he +had grasped the outer corners of the desk with such intensity that the +tassels which hung therefrom—one of the minor glories of the Free +Kirk—were held in the palm of his hand, the long red tags escaping +from between his white wasted fingers. A pulpit lamp came between +Carmichael and the Rabbi's face, but he could see the straining hand, +which did not relax till it was lifted in the last awful appeal, and +the white and red had a gruesome fascination. It seemed as if one had +clutched a cluster of full, rich, tender grapes and was pressing them +in an agony till their life ran out in streams of blood, and dripped +upon the heads of the choir sitting beneath, in their fresh, hopeful +youth. And it also came to Carmichael with pathetic conviction even +then that every one was about to suffer, but the Rabbi more than them +all together. While the preacher was strengthening his heart for the +work before him, Carmichael's eye was attracted by the landscape that +he could see through the opposite window. The ground sloped upwards +from the kirk to a pine-wood that fringed the great moor, and it was +covered with snow, on which the moon was beginning to shed her faint, +weird light. Within, the light from the upright lamps was falling on +the ruddy, contented faces of men and women and little children, but +without it was one cold, merciless whiteness, like unto the justice of +God, with black shadows of judgment. +</P> + +<P> +"This is the message which I have to deliver unto you in the name of +the Lord, and even as Jonah was sent to Nineveh after a strange +discipline with a word of mercy, so am I constrained against my will to +carry a word of searching and trembling. +</P> + +<P> +"First"—and between the heads the Rabbi paused as one whose breath had +failed him—"every man belongs absolutely to God by his creation. +</P> + +<P> +"Second. The purpose of God about each man precedes his creation. +</P> + +<P> +"Third. Some are destined to Salvation, and some to Damnation. +</P> + +<P> +"Fourth"—here the hard breathing became a sob—"each man's lot is unto +the glory of God." +</P> + +<P> +It was not only skilled theologians like Lachlan Campbell and Burnbrae, +but even mere amateurs who understood that they were that night to be +conducted to the farthest limit of Calvinism, and that, whoever fell +behind through the hardness of the way, their guide would not flinch. +As the Rabbi gave the people a brief space wherein to grasp his heads +in their significance, Carmichael remembered a vivid incident in the +Presbytery of Muirtown, when an English evangelist had addressed that +reverend and austere court with exhilarating confidence—explaining the +extreme simplicity of the Christian faith, and showing how a minister +ought to preach. Various good men were delighted, and asked many +questions of the evangelist—who had kept a baby-linen shop for twenty +years, and was unspoiled by the slightest trace of theology—but the +Rabbi arose and demolished his "teaching," convicting him of heresy at +every turn, till there was not left one stone upon another. +</P> + +<P> +"But surely fear belongs to the Old Testament dispensation and is now +done away with," said the unabashed little man to the Rabbi afterwards. +"'Rejoice,' you know, my friend, 'and again I say, Rejoice'—that is +the New Testament note." +</P> + +<P> +"If it be the will of God that such a man as I should ever stand on the +sea of glass mingled with fire, then this tongue will be lifted with +the best, but so long as my feet are still in the fearful pit it +becometh me to bow my head." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you don't believe in assurance?" But already the evangelist was +quailing before the Rabbi. +</P> + +<P> +"Verily there is no man that hath not heard of that precious gift, and +none who does not covet it greatly, but there be two degrees of +assurance"—here the Rabbi looked sternly at the happy, rotund little +figure—"and it is with the first you must begin, and what you need to +get is assurance of your damnation." +</P> + +<P> +One of the boys read an account of this incident—thinly veiled—in a +reported address of the evangelist, in which the Rabbi—being, as it +was inferred, beaten in Scriptural argument—was very penitent and +begged his teacher's pardon with streaming tears. What really happened +was different, and so absolutely conclusive that Doctor Dowbiggin gave +it as his opinion "that a valuable lesson had been read to unauthorized +teachers of religion." +</P> + +<P> +Carmichael recognised the same note in the sermon and saw another man +than he knew, as the Rabbi, in a low voice, without heat or +declamation, with frequent pauses and laboured breathing, as of one +toiling up a hill, argued the absolute supremacy of God and the utter +helplessness of man. One hand ever pressed the grapes, but with the +other the old man wiped the perspiration that rolled in beads down his +face. A painful stillness fell on the people as they felt themselves +caught in the meshes of this inexorable net and dragged ever nearer to +the abyss. Carmichael, who had been leaning forward in his place, tore +himself away from the preacher with an effort, and moved where he could +see the congregation. Campbell was drinking in every word as one for +the first time in his life perfectly satisfied. Menzies was huddled +into a heap in the top of his pew a man justly blasted by the anger of +the Eternal. Men were white beneath the tan, and it was evident that +some of the women would soon fall a-weeping. Children had crept close +to their mothers under a vague sense of danger, and a girl in the choir +watched the preacher with dilated eyeballs, like an animal fascinated +by terror. +</P> + +<P> +"It is as a sword piercing the heart to receive this truth, but it is a +truth and must be believed. There are hundreds of thousands in the +past who were born and lived and died and were damned for the glory of +God. There are hundreds of thousands in this day who have been born +and are living and shall die and be damned for the glory of God. There +are hundreds of thousands in the future who shall be born and shall +live and shall die and shall be damned for the glory of God. All +according to the will of God, and none dare say nay nor change the +purpose of the Eternal." For some time the oil in the lamps had been +failing—since the Rabbi had been speaking for nigh two hours—and as +he came to an end of this passage the light began to flicker and die. +First a lamp at the end of Burnbrae's pew went out, and then another in +the front. The preacher made as though he would have spoken, but was +silent, and the congregation watched four lamps sink into darkness at +intervals of half a minute. There only remained the two pulpit lamps, +and in their light the people saw the Rabbi lift his right hand for the +first time. +</P> + +<P> +"Shall … not … the … Judge … of all the earth … +do … right?" The two lamps went out together and a great sigh rose +from the people. At the back of the kirk a child wailed, and somewhere +in the front a woman's voice—it was never proved to be Elspeth +Macfadyen—said audibly, "God have mercy upon us." The Rabbi had sunk +back into the seat and buried his face in his hands, and through the +window over his head the moonlight was pouring into the church like +unto the far-off radiance from the White Throne. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-133"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-133.JPG" ALT=""SHALL . . . NOT . . . THE . . . JUDGE . . . OF ALL THE EARTH . . . DO . . . RIGHT?"" BORDER="2" WIDTH="352" HEIGHT="528"> +<H4> +[Illustration: "SHALL . . . NOT . . . THE . . . JUDGE . . . OF ALL <BR> +THE EARTH . . . DO . . . RIGHT?"] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +When Carmichael led the Rabbi into the manse he could feel the old man +trembling from head to foot, and he would touch neither meat nor drink, +nor would he speak for a space. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you there, John?"—and he put out his hand to Carmichael, who had +placed him in the big study chair, and was sitting beside him in +silence. +</P> + +<P> +"I dare not withdraw nor change any word that I spake in the name of +the Lord this day, but … it is my infirmity … I wish I had +never been born." +</P> + +<P> +"It was awful," said Carmichael, and the Rabbi's head again fell on his +breast. +</P> + +<P> +"John,"—and Saunderson looked up,—"I would give ten thousand worlds +to stand in the shoes of that good man who conveyed me from Kilbogie +yesterday, and with whom I had very pleasant fellowship concerning the +patience of the saints. +</P> + +<P> +"It becometh not any human being to judge his neighbour, but it seemed +to me from many signs that he was within the election of God, and even +as we spoke of Polycarp and the martyrs who have overcome by the blood +of the Lamb, it came unto me with much power, 'Lo, here is one beside +you whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and who shall +enter through the gates into the city'; and grace was given me to +rejoice in his joy, but I … "—and Carmichael could have wept for +the despair in the Rabbi's voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Rabbi!"—for once the confidence of youth was smitten at the +sight of a spiritual conflict beyond its depth—"you are surely … +depreciating yourself.… Burnbrae is a good man, but compared with +you … is not this like to the depression of Elijah?" Carmichael +knew, however, he was not fit for such work as the comforting of Rabbi +Saunderson, and had better have held his peace. +</P> + +<P> +"It may be that I understand the letter of Holy Scripture better than +some of God's children, although I be but a babe even in this poor +knowledge, but such gifts are only as the small dust of the balance. +He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. +</P> + +<P> +"John," said the Rabbi suddenly, and with strong feeling, "was it your +thought this night as I declared the sovereignty of God that I judged +myself of the elect, and was speaking as one himself hidden for ever in +the secret place of God?" +</P> + +<P> +"I … did not know," stammered Carmichael, whose utter horror at the +unrelenting sermon had only been tempered by his love for the preacher. +</P> + +<P> +"You did me wrong, John, for then had I not dared to speak at all after +that fashion; it is not for a vessel of mercy filled unto overflowing +with the love of God to exalt himself above the vessels … for whom +there is no mercy. But he may plead with them who are in like case +with himself to … acknowledge the Divine Justice." +</P> + +<P> +Then the pathos of the situation overcame Carmichael, and he went over +to the bookcase and leant his head against certain volumes, because +they were weighty and would not yield. Next day he noticed that one of +them was a Latin <I>Calvin</I> that had travelled over Europe in learned +company, and the other a battered copy of Jonathan Edwards that had +come from the house of an Ayrshire farmer. +</P> + +<P> +"Forgive me that I have troubled you with the concerns of my soul, +John"—the Rabbi could only stand with an effort—"they ought to be +between a man and his God. There is another work laid to my hand for +which there is no power in me now. During the night I shall ask +whether the cup may not pass from me, but if not, the will of God be +done." +</P> + +<P> +Carmichael slept but little, and every time he woke the thought was +heavy upon him that on the other side of a narrow wall the holiest man +he knew was wrestling in darkness of soul, and that he had added to the +bitterness of the agony. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE WOUNDS OF A FRIEND +</H3> + + +<P> +Winter has certain mornings which redeem weeks of misconduct, when the +hoar frost during the night has resilvered every branch and braced the +snow upon the ground, and the sun rises in ruddy strength and drives +out of sight every cloud and mist, and moves all day through an expanse +of unbroken blue, and is reflected from the dazzling whiteness of the +earth as from a mirror. Such a sight calls a man from sleep with +authority, and makes his blood tingle, and puts new heart in him, and +banishes the troubles of the night. Other mornings Winter joins in the +conspiracy of principalities and powers to daunt and crush the human +soul. No sun is to be seen, and the grey atmosphere casts down the +heart, the wind moans and whistles in fitful gusts, the black clouds +hang low in threatening masses, now and again a flake of snow drifts in +the wind. A storm is near at hand, not the thunder-shower of summer, +with its warm rain and the kindly sun ever in ambush, but dark and +blinding snow, through which even a game-keeper cannot see six yards, +and in which weary travellers lie down to rest and die. +</P> + +<P> +The melancholy of this kind of day had fallen on Saunderson, whose face +was ashen, and who held Carmichael's hand with such anxious affection +that it was impossible to inquire how he had slept, and it would have +been a banalité to remark upon the weather. After the Rabbi had been +compelled to swallow a cup of milk by way of breakfast, it was evident +that he was ready for speech. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, Rabbi?" as soon as they were again settled in the study. +"If you did not … like my sermon, tell me at once. You know that I +am one of your boys, and you ought to … help me." Perhaps it was +inseparable from his youth, with its buoyancy and self-satisfaction, +and his training in a college whose members only knew by rumour of the +existence of other places of theological learning, that Carmichael had +at that moment a pleasing sense of humility and charity. Had it been a +matter of scholastic lore, of course neither he nor more than six men +in Scotland could have met the Rabbi in the gate. With regard to +modern thought, Carmichael knew that the good Rabbi had not read <I>Ecce +Homo</I>, and was hardly, well … up to date. He would not for the +world hint such a thing to the dear old man, nor even argue with him; +but it was flattering to remember that the attack could be merely one +of blunderbusses, in which the modern thinker would at last intervene +and save the ancient scholar from humiliation. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Rabbi?" and Carmichael tried to make it easy. +</P> + +<P> +"Before I say what is on my heart, John, you will grant an old man who +loves you one favour. So far as in you lies you will bear with me if +that which I have to say, and still more that which my conscience will +compel me to do, is hard to flesh and blood." +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't we settle that last night in the vestry?" and Carmichael was +impatient; "is it that you do not agree with the doctrine of the Divine +Fatherhood? We younger men are resolved to base Christian doctrine on +the actual Scriptures, and to ignore mere tradition." +</P> + +<P> +"An excellent rule, my dear friend," cried the Rabbi, wonderfully +quickened by the challenge, "and with your permission and for our +mutual edification we shall briefly review all passages bearing on the +subject in hand—using the original, as will doubtless be your wish, +and you correcting my poor recollection." +</P> + +<P> +About an hour afterwards, and when the Rabbi was only entering into the +heart of the matter, Carmichael made the bitter discovery—without the +Rabbi having even hinted at such a thing—that his pet sermon was a +mass of boyish crudities, and this reverse of circumstances was some +excuse for his pettishness. +</P> + +<P> +"It does not seem to me that it is worth our time to haggle about the +usage of Greek words or to count texts: I ground my position on the +general meaning of the Gospels and the sense of things"; and Carmichael +stood on the hearthrug in a very superior attitude. +</P> + +<P> +"Let that pass then, John, and forgive me if I appeared to battle about +words, as certain scholars of the olden time were fain to do, for in +truth it is rather about the hard duty before me than any imperfection +in your teaching I would speak"; and the Rabbi glanced nervously at the +young minister. +</P> + +<P> +"We are both Presbyters of Christ's Church, ordained after the order of +primitive times, and there are laid on us certain heavy charges and +responsibilities from which we may not shrink, as we shall answer to +the Lord at the great day." +</P> + +<P> +Carmichael's humiliation was lost in perplexity, and he sat down, +wondering what the Rabbi intended. +</P> + +<P> +"If any Presbyter should see his brother fall into one of those faults +of private life that do beset us all in our present weakness, then he +doth well and kindly to point it out unto his brother; and if his +brother should depart from the faith as they talk together by the way, +then it is a Presbyter's part to convince him of his error and restore +him." +</P> + +<P> +The Rabbi cast an imploring glance, but Carmichael had still no +understanding. +</P> + +<P> +"But if one Presbyter should teach heresy to his flock in the hearing +of another … even though it break the other's heart, is not the +path of duty fenced up on either side, verily a straight, narrow way, +and hard for the feet to tread?" +</P> + +<P> +"You have spoken to me, Rabbi, and … cleared yourself"—Carmichael +was still somewhat sore—"and I'll promise not to offend you again in +an action sermon." +</P> + +<P> +"Albeit you intend it not so, yet are you making it harder for me to +speak.… See you not … that I … that necessity is laid on +me to declare this matter to my brother Presbyters in court +assembled … but not in hearing of the people?" Then there was a +stillness in the room, and the Rabbi, although he had closed his eyes, +was conscious of the amazement on the young man's face. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean to say," speaking very slowly, as one taken utterly aback, +"that our Rabbi would come to my … to the Sacrament and hear me +preach, and … report me for heresy to the Presbytery? Rabbi, I +know we don't agree about some things, and perhaps I was a little … +annoyed a few minutes ago because you … know far more than I do, +but that is nothing. For you to prosecute one of your boys and be the +witness yourself.… Rabbi, you can't mean it … say it's a +mistake." +</P> + +<P> +The old man only gave a deep sigh. +</P> + +<P> +"If it were Dowbiggin or … any man except you, I wouldn't care one +straw, rather enjoy the debate, but you whom we have loved and looked +up to and boasted about, why, it's like … a father turning against +his sons." +</P> + +<P> +The Rabbi made no sign. +</P> + +<P> +"You live too much alone, Rabbi," and Carmichael began again as the +sense of the tragedy grew on him, "and nurse your conscience till it +gets over tender; no other man would dream of … prosecuting a … +fellow-minister in such circumstances. You have spoken to me like a +father, surely that is enough"; and in his honest heat the young fellow +knelt down by the Rabbi's chair and took his hand. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-152"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-152.JPG" ALT=""YOU HAVE SPOKEN TO ME LIKE A FATHER: SURELY THAT IS ENOUGH."" BORDER="2" WIDTH="362" HEIGHT="528"> +<H4> +[Illustration: "YOU HAVE SPOKEN TO ME LIKE A FATHER: <BR> +SURELY THAT IS ENOUGH."] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +A tear rolled down the Rabbi's cheek, and he looked fondly at the lad. +</P> + +<P> +"Your words pierce me as sharp swords, John; spare me, for I can do +none otherwise; all night I wrestled for release, but in vain." +</P> + +<P> +Carmichael had a sudden revulsion of feeling, such as befalls emotional +and ill-disciplined natures when they are disappointed and mortified. +</P> + +<P> +"Very good, Doctor Saunderson"—Carmichael rose awkwardly and stood on +the hearthrug again, an elbow on the mantelpiece—"you must do as you +please and as you think right. I am sorry that I … pressed you so +far, but it was on grounds of our … friendship. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps you will tell me as soon as you can what you propose to do, +and when you will bring … this matter before the Presbytery. My +sermon was fully written and … is at your disposal." +</P> + +<P> +While this cold rain beat on the Rabbi's head he moved not, but at its +close he looked at Carmichael with the appeal of a dumb animal in his +eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"The first meeting of Presbytery is on Monday, but you would no doubt +consider that too soon; is there anything about dates in the order of +procedure for heresy?" and Carmichael made as though he would go over +to the shelves for a law book. +</P> + +<P> +"John," cried the Rabbi—his voice full of tears—rising and following +the foolish lad, "is this all you have in your heart to say unto me? +Surely, as I stand before you, it is not my desire to do such a thing, +for I would rather cut off my right hand. +</P> + +<P> +"God hath not been pleased to give me many friends, and He only knows +how you and the others have comforted my heart. I lie not, John, but +speak the truth, that there is nothing unto life itself I would not +give for your good, who have been as the apple of my eye unto me." +</P> + +<P> +Carmichael hardened himself, torn between a savage sense of +satisfaction that the Rabbi was suffering for his foolishness and the +inclination of his better self to respond to the old man's love. +</P> + +<P> +"If there be a breach between us, it will not be for you as it must be +for me. You have many friends, and may God add unto them good men and +faithful, but I shall lose my one earthly joy and consolation when your +feet are no longer heard on my threshold and your face no longer brings +light to my room. And, John, even this thing which I am constrained to +do is yet of love, as … you shall confess one day." +</P> + +<P> +Carmichael's pride alone resisted, and it was melting fast. Had he +even looked at the dear face he must have given way, but he kept his +shoulder to the Rabbi, and at that moment the sound of wheels passing +the corner of the manse gave him an ungracious way of escape. +</P> + +<P> +"That is Burnbrae's dogcart … Dr. Saunderson, and I think he will +not wish to keep his horse standing in the snow, so unless you will +stay all night, as it's going to drift.… Then perhaps it would be +better.… Can I assist you in packing?" How formal it all +sounded; and he allowed the Rabbi to go upstairs alone, with the result +that various things of the old man's are in Carmichael's house unto +this day. +</P> + +<P> +Another chance was given the lad when the Rabbi would have bidden him +good-bye at the door, beseeching that he should not come out into the +drift, and still another when Burnbrae, being concerned about his +passenger's appearance, who seemed ill-fitted to face a storm, wrapt +him in a plaid; and he had one more when the old man leant out of the +dogcart and took Carmichael's hand in both of his, but only said, "God +bless you for all you've been to me, and forgive me for all wherein I +have failed you." And they did not meet again till that +never-to-be-forgotten sederunt of the Free Kirk Presbytery of Muirtown, +when the minister of Kilbogie accused the minister of Drumtochty of +teaching the Linlathen heresy of the Fatherhood of God in a sermon +before the Sacrament. +</P> + +<P> +Among all the institutions of the North a Presbytery is the most +characteristic, and affords a standing illustration of the +contradictions of a supremely logical people. It is so anti-clerical a +court that for every clergyman there must be a layman—country +ministers promising to bring in their elder for great occasions, and +instructing him audibly how to vote—and so fiercely clerical that if +the most pious and intelligent elder dared to administer a sacrament he +would be at once tried and censured for sacrilege. So careful is a +Presbytery to prevent the beginnings of Papacy that it insists upon +each of its members occupying the chair in turn, and dismisses him +again into private life as soon as he has mastered his duties, but so +imbued is it with the idea of authority that whatever decision may be +given by some lad of twenty-five in the chair—duly instructed, +however, by the clerk below—will be rigidly obeyed. When a Presbytery +has nothing else to do, it dearly loves to pass a general condemnation +on sacerdotalism, in which the tyranny of prelates and the foolishness +of vestments will be fully exposed; but a Presbytery wields a power at +which a bishop's hair would stand on end, and Doctor Dowbiggin once +made Carmichael leave the Communion Table and go into the vestry to put +on his bands. +</P> + +<P> +When a Presbytery is in its lighter moods, it gives itself to points of +order with a skill and relish beyond the Southern imagination. It did +not matter how harmless, even infantile, might be the proposal placed +before the court by such a man as MacWheep of Pitscowrie; he has hardly +got past an apology for his presumption in venturing to speak at all +before a member of Presbytery—who had reduced his congregation to an +irreducible minimum by the woodenness of his preaching—inquires +whether the speech of "our esteemed brother is not <I>ultra vires</I>," or +something else as awful. MacWheep at once sits down with the air of +one taken red-handed in arson, and the court debates the point till +every authority has taken his fill, when the clerk submits to the +moderator, with a fine blend of deference and infallibility, that Mr. +MacWheep is perfectly within his rights; and then, as that estimable +person has by this time lost any thread he ever possessed, the +Presbytery passes to the next business—with the high spirit of men +returning from a holiday. Carmichael used, indeed, to relate how, in a +great stress of business, some one moved that the Presbytery should +adjourn for dinner, and the court argued for thirty minutes, with many +precedents, whether such a motion—touching as it did the standing +orders—could even be discussed, and, with an unnecessary prodigality +of testimony, he used to give perorations which improved with every +telling. +</P> + +<P> +The love of law diffused through the Presbytery became incarnate in the +clerk, who was one of the most finished specimens of his class in the +Scottish Kirk. His sedate appearance, bald, polished head, fringed +with pure white hair, shrewd face, with neatly cut side whiskers, his +suggestion of unerring accuracy and inexhaustible memory, his attitude +for exposition—holding his glasses in his left hand and enforcing his +decision with the little finger of the right hand—carried conviction +even to the most disorderly. Ecclesiastical radicals, boiling over +with new schemes, and boasting to admiring circles of MacWheeps that +they would not be brow-beaten by red-tape officials, became +ungrammatical before that firm gaze, and ended in abject surrender. +Self-contained and self-sufficing, the clerk took no part in debate, +save at critical moments to lay down the law, but wrote his minutes +unmoved through torrents of speech on every subject, from the +Sustentation Fund to the Union between England and Scotland, and even +under the picturesque eloquence of foreign deputies, whose names he +invariably requested should be handed to him, written legibly on a +sheet of paper. On two occasions only he ceased from writing: when Dr. +Dowbiggin discussed a method of procedure—then he watched him over his +spectacles in hope of a nice point; or when some enthusiastic brother +would urge the Presbytery to issue an injunction on the sin of Sabbath +walking—then the clerk would abandon his pen in visible despair, and +sitting sideways on his chair and supporting his head by that same +little finger, would face the Presbytery with an expression of reverent +curiosity on his face why the Almighty was pleased to create such a +man. His preaching was distinguished for orderliness, and was much +sought after for Fast days. It turned largely on the use of +prepositions and the scope of conjunctions, so that the clerk could +prove the doctrine of Vicarious Sacrifice from "for," and Retribution +from "as" in the Lord's Prayer, emphasizing and confirming everything +by that wonderful finger, which seemed to be designed by Providence for +delicate distinctions, just as another man's fist served for popular +declamation. His pulpit masterpiece was a lecture on the Council of +Jerusalem, in which its whole deliberations were reviewed by the rules +of the Free Kirk Book of Procedure, and a searching and edifying +discourse concluded with two lessons. First: That no ecclesiastical +body can conduct its proceedings without officials. Second: That such +men ought to be accepted as a special gift of Providence. +</P> + +<P> +The general opinion among good people was that the clerk's preaching +was rather for upbuilding than arousing, but it is still remembered by +the survivors of the old Presbytery that when MacWheep organized a +conference on "The state of religion in our congregations," and it was +meandering in strange directions, the clerk, who utilised such seasons +for the writing of letters, rose amid a keen revival of interest—it +was supposed that he had detected an irregularity in the +proceedings—and offered his contribution. It did not become him to +boast, he said, but he had seen marvellous things in his day: under his +unworthy ministry three beadles had been converted to Christianity, and +this experience was so final that the conference immediately closed. +</P> + +<P> +Times there were, however, when the Presbytery rose to its height and +was invested with an undeniable spiritual dignity. Its members, taken +one by one, consisted of farmers, shepherds, tradesmen, and one or two +professional men, with some twenty ministers, only two or three of whom +were known beyond their parishes. Yet those men had no doubt that as +soon as they were constituted in the name of Christ they held their +authority from the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, and they +bore themselves in spiritual matters as His servants. No kindly +feeling of neighbourliness or any fear of man could hinder them from +inquiring into the religious condition of a parish or dealing +faithfully with an erring minister. They had power to ordain, and laid +hands on the bent head of some young probationer with much solemnity; +they had also power to take away the orders they had given, and he had +been hardened indeed beyond hope who could be present and not tremble +when the Moderator, standing in his place, with the Presbytery around, +and speaking in the name of the Head of the Church, deposed an unworthy +brother from the holy ministry. MacWheep was a "cratur," and much +given to twaddle, but when it was his duty once to rebuke a +fellow-minister for quarrelling with his people, he was delivered from +himself, and spake with such grave wisdom as he has never shown before +or since. +</P> + +<P> +When the Presbytery assembled to receive a statement from Doctor +Saunderson "re error in doctrine by a brother Presbyter," even a +stranger might have noticed that its members were weighted with a sense +of responsibility, and although a discussion arose on the attempt of a +desultory member to introduce a deputy charged with the subject of the +lost Ten Tribes, yet it was promptly squelched by the clerk, who +intimated, with much gravity, that the court had met <I>in hunc +effectum</I>, viz. to hear Doctor Saunderson, and that the court could +not, in consistence with law, take up any other business, not +even—here Carmichael professed to detect a flicker of the clerkly +eyelids—the disappearance of the Ten Tribes. +</P> + +<P> +It was the last time that the Rabbi ever spoke in public, and it is now +agreed that the deliverance was a fit memorial of the most learned +scholar that has been ever known in those parts. He began by showing +that Christian doctrine has taken various shapes, some more and some +less in accordance with the deposit of truth given by Christ and the +holy Apostles, and especially that the doctrine of Grace had been +differently conceived by two eminent theologians, Calvin and Arminius, +and his exposition was so lucid that the clerk gave it as his opinion +afterwards that the two systems were understood by certain members of +the court for the first time that day. Afterwards the Rabbi vindicated +and glorified Calvinism from the Scriptures of the Old and New +Testament, from the Fathers, from the Reformation Divines, from the +later creeds, till the brain of the Presbytery reeled through the +wealth of allusion and quotation, all in the tongues of the learned. +Then he dealt with the theology of Mr. Erskine of Linlathen, and showed +how it was undermining the very foundations of Calvinism; yet the Rabbi +spake so tenderly of our Scottish Maurice that the Presbytery knew not +whether it ought to condemn Erskine as a heretic or love him as a +saint. Having thus brought the court face to face with the issues +involved, the Rabbi gave a sketch of a certain sermon he had heard +while assisting "a learned and much-beloved brother at the Sacrament," +and Carmichael was amazed at the transfiguration of this very youthful +performance, which now figured as a profound and edifying discourse, +for whose excellent qualities the speaker had not adequate words. This +fine discourse was, however, to a certain degree marred, the Rabbi +suggested, by an unfortunate, although no doubt temporary, leaning to +the teaching of Mr. Erskine, whose beautiful piety had exercised its +just fascination upon his spiritually-minded brother. Finally the +Rabbi left the matter in the hands of the Presbytery, declaring that he +had cleared his conscience, and that the minister in question was +one—here he was painfully overcome—dear to him as a son, and one to +whose many labours and singular graces he could bear full testimony, +the Rev. John Carmichael, of Drumtochty. The Presbytery was slow and +pedantic, but was not insensible to a spiritual situation, and there +was a murmur of sympathy when the Rabbi sat down—much exhausted, and +never having allowed himself to look once at Carmichael. +</P> + +<P> +Then arose a self-made man, who considered orthodoxy and capital to be +bound up together, and especially identified any departure from +sovereignty with that pestilent form of Socialism which demanded equal +chances for every man. He was only a plain layman, he said, and +perhaps he ought not to speak in the presence of so many reverend +gentlemen, but he was very grateful to Doctor Saunderson for his +honourable and straight-forward conduct. It would be better for the +Church if there were more like him, and he would just like to ask Mr. +Carmichael three questions. Did he sign the Confession of Faith?—that +was one; and had he kept it?—that was two; and the last was, When did +he propose to leave the Church? He knew something about building +contracts, and he had heard of a penalty when a contract was broken. +There was just one thing more he would like to say—if there was less +loose theology in the pulpit there would be more money in the plate. +The shame of the Rabbi during this harangue was pitiable to behold. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-172"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-172.JPG" ALT="THEN AROSE A SELF-MADE MAN" BORDER="2" WIDTH="360" HEIGHT="464"> +<H4> +[Illustration: THEN AROSE A SELF-MADE MAN] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +Then a stalwart arose on the other side, and a young gentleman who had +just escaped from a college debating society wished to know what +century we were living in, warned the last speaker that the progress of +theological science would not be hindered by mercenary threats, advised +Doctor Saunderson to read a certain German, called Ritschl—as if he +had been speaking to a babe in arms—and was re-freshing himself with a +Latin quotation, when the Rabbi, in utter absence of mind, corrected a +false quantity aloud. +</P> + +<P> +"Moderator," the old man apologized in much confusion, "I wot not what +I did, and I pray my reverend brother, whose interesting and +instructive address I have interrupted by this unmannerliness, to grant +me his pardon, for my tongue simply obeyed my ear." Which untoward +incident brought the modern to an end, as by a stroke of ironical fate. +It seemed to the clerk that little good to any one concerned was to +come out of this debate, and he signalled to Doctor Dowbiggin, with +whom he had dined the night before, when they concocted a motion over +their wine. Whereupon that astute man explained to the court that he +did not desire to curtail the valuable discussion, from which he +personally had derived much profit, but he had ventured to draw up a +motion, simply for the guidance of the House—it was said by the +Rabbi's boys that the Doctor's success as an ecclesiastic was largely +due to the skilful use of such phrases—and then he read: "Whereas the +Church is set in all her courts for the defence of the truth, whereas +it is reported that various erroneous doctrines are being promulgated +in books and other public prints, whereas it has been stated that one +of the ministers of this Presbytery has used words that might be +supposed to give sanction to a certain view which appears to conflict +with statements contained in the standards of the Church, the +Presbytery of Muirtown declares, first of all, its unshaken adherence +to the said standards; secondly, deplores the existence in any quarter +of notions contradictory or subversive of said standards; thirdly, +thanks Doctor Saunderson for the vigilance he has shown in the cause of +sound doctrine; fourthly, calls upon all ministers within the bounds to +have a care that they create no offence or misunderstanding by their +teaching, and finally enjoins all parties concerned to cultivate peace +and charity." +</P> + +<P> +This motion was seconded by the clerk and carried +unanimously—Carmichael being compelled to silence by the two wise men +for his own sake and theirs—and was declared to be a conspicuous +victory both by the self-made man and the modern, which was another +tribute to the ecclesiastical gifts of Doctor Dowbiggin and the clerk +of the Presbytery of Muirtown. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LIGHT AT EVENTIDE +</H3> + + +<P> +The Rabbi had been careful to send an abstract of his speech to +Carmichael, with a letter enough to melt the heart even of a +self-sufficient young clerical, and Carmichael had considered how he +should bear himself at the Presbytery. His intention had been to meet +the Rabbi with public cordiality and escort him to a seat, so that all +men should see that he was too magnanimous to be offended by this +latest eccentricity of their friend. This calculated plan was upset by +the Rabbi coming in late and taking the first seat that offered, and +when he would have gone afterwards to thank him for his generosity the +Rabbi had disappeared. It was evident that the old man's love was as +deep as ever, but that he was much hurt and would not risk another +repulse. Very likely he had walked in from Kilbogie, perhaps without +breakfast, and had now started to return to his cheerless manse. It +was a wetting spring rain, and he remembered that the Rabbi had no +coat. A fit of remorse overtook Carmichael, and he scoured the streets +of Muirtown to find the Rabbi, imagining deeds of attention—how he +would capture him unawares mooning along some side street hopelessly +astray; how he would accuse him of characteristic cunning and deep +plotting; how he would carry him by force to the Kilspindie Arms and +insist upon their dining in state; how the Rabbi would wish to +discharge the account and find twopence in his pockets—having given +all his silver to an ex-Presbyterian minister stranded in Muirtown +through peculiar circumstances; how he would speak gravely to the Rabbi +on the lack of common honesty, and threaten a real prosecution, when +the charge would be "obtaining a dinner on false pretences"; how they +would journey to Kildrummie in high content, and—the engine having +whistled for a dogcart—they would drive to Drumtochty manse, the sun +shining through the rain as they entered the garden; how he would +compass the Rabbi with observances, and the old man would sit again in +the big chair full of joy and peace. Ah, the kindly jests that have +not come off in life, the gracious deeds that never were done, the +reparations that were too late! When Carmichael reached the station +the Rabbi was already half-way to Kilbogie, trudging along wet, and +weary, and very sad, because, although he had obeyed his conscience at +a cost, it seemed to him as if all he had done was simply to alienate +the boy whom God had given him, as a son in his old age, for even the +guileless Rabbi suspected that the ecclesiastics considered his action +foolishness and of no service to the Church of God. Barbara's language +on his arrival was vituperative to a degree; she gave him food +grudgingly, and when, in the early morning, he fell asleep over an open +Father, he was repeating Carmichael's name, and the thick old paper was +soaked with tears. +</P> + +<P> +His nemesis seized Carmichael so soon as he reached the Dunleith train +in the shape of the Free Kirk minister of Kildrummie, who had purchased +six pounds of prize seed potatoes, and was carrying the treasure home +in a paper bag. This bag had done after its kind, and spilt its +contents, and as the distinguished agriculturist—who had not seen his +feet for years—could only have stooped at the risk of apoplexy, he +watched the dispersion of his potatoes with dismay, and hailed the +arrival of Carmichael with exclamations of thankfulness. It is +wonderful over what an area six pounds of (prize) potatoes can deploy +on a railway platform, and how the feet of passengers will carry them +unto far distances. Some might never have been restored to the bag had +it not been for Kildrummie's comprehensive eye and the physical skill +with which he guided Carmichael, till even prodigals that had strayed +over to the neighbourhood of the Aberdeen express were restored to the +extemporized fold in the minister's top-coat pockets. Carmichael had +knelt on that very platform six months or so before, but then he +laboured in the service of two most agreeable dogs and under the +approving eyes of Miss Carnegie; that was a different experience from +hunting after single potatoes on all fours among the feet of +unsympathetic passengers, and being prodded to duty by the umbrella of +an obese Free Kirk minister. As a reward for this service of the aged, +he was obliged to travel to Kildrummie with his neighbour—in whom for +the native humour that was in him he had often rejoiced, but whose +company was not congenial that day—and Kildrummie laid himself out for +a pleasant talk. After the roots had been secured and their pedigree +stated Kildrummie fell back on the proceedings of Presbytery, +expressing much admiration for the guidance of Doctor Dowbiggin and +denouncing Saunderson as "fair dottle," in proof of which judgment +Kildrummie adduced the fact that the Rabbi had allowed a very happily +situated pig-sty at the Manse of Kilbogie to sink into ruin. +Kildrummie, still in search of agreeable themes to pass the time, also +mentioned a pleasant tale he had gathered at the seed shop. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-186"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-186.JPG" ALT="HE WATCHED THE DISPERSION OF HIS POTATOES WITH DISMAY" BORDER="2" WIDTH="357" HEIGHT="448"> +<H4> +[Illustration: HE WATCHED THE DISPERSION OF HIS POTATOES WITH DISMAY] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Yir neebur upbye, the General's dochter, is cairryin' on an awfu' rig +the noo at the Castle"—Kildrummie fell into dialect in private life, +often with much richness—"an' the sough (noise) o' her ongaeins hes +come the length o' Muirtown. The castle is foo' o' men—tae say +naethin' o' weemin; but it's little she hes tae dae wi' them or them +wi' her—officers frae Edinburgh an' writin' men frae London, as weel +as half a dozen coonty birkies." +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" said Carmichael, despising himself for his curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +"She hes a wy, there's nae doot o' that, an' gin the trimmie hesna +turned the heads o' half the men in the Castle, till they say she hes +the pick of twa lords, five honourables, and a poet. But the lassie +kens what's what; it's Lord Hay she's settin' her cap for, an' as sure +as ye're sittin' there, Drum, she'll hae him. +</P> + +<P> +"Ma word"—and Kildrummie pursued his way—"it'll be a match, the +dochter o' a puir Hielant laird, wi' naethin' but his half pay and a +few pounds frae a fairm or twa. She's a clever ane; French songs, +dancin', shootin', ridin', actin', there's nae deevilry that's beyond +her. They say upbye that she's been a bonnie handfu' tae her +father—General though he be—an' a' peety her man." +</P> + +<P> +"They say a lot of … lies, and I don't see what call a minister has +to slander …"; and then Carmichael saw the folly of quarrelling +with a veteran gossip over a young woman that would have nothing to say +to him. What two Free Kirk ministers or their people thought of her +would never affect Miss Carnegie. +</P> + +<P> +"Truth's nae slander," and Kildrummie watched Carmichael with relish; +"a' thocht ye wud hae got a taste o' her in the Glen. Didna a' heer +frae Piggie Walker that ye ca'd her Jezebel frae yir ain pulpit, an' +that ma lady whuppit oot o' the kirk in the middle o' the sermon?" +</P> + +<P> +"I did nothing of the kind, and Walker is a …" +</P> + +<P> +"Piggie's no very particular at a time," admitted Kildrummie; "maybe +it's a makup the story aboot Miss Carnegie an' yirsel'. +</P> + +<P> +"Accordin' tae the wratch," for Carmichael would deign no reply, "she +wes threatenin' tae mak' a fule o' the Free Kirk minister o' Drumtochty +juist for practice, but a' said, 'Na, na, Piggie, Maister Carmichael is +ower quiet and sensible a lad. He kens as weel as onybody that a +Carnegie wud never dae for a minister's wife. Gin ye said a Bailie's +dochter frae Muirtown 'at hes some money comin' tae her and kens the +principles o' the Free Kirk.' +</P> + +<P> +"Noo a' can speak frae experience, having been terrible fortunate wi' +a' ma wives.… Ye'll come up tae tea; we killed a pig yesterday, +and … Weel, weel, a wilfu' man maun hae his wy"; and Carmichael, +as he made his way up the hill, felt that the hand of Providence was +heavy upon him, and that any highmindedness was being severely +chastened. +</P> + +<P> +Two days Carmichael tramped the moors, returning each evening wet, +weary, hungry, to sleep ten hours without turning, and on the morning +of the third day he came down in such heart that Sarah wondered whether +he could have received a letter by special messenger; and he +congratulated himself, as he walked round his garden, that he had +overcome by sheer will power the first real infatuation of his life. +He was so lifted above all sentiment as to review his temporary folly +from the bare, serene heights of common sense. Miss Carnegie was +certainly not an heiress, and she was a young woman of very decided +character, but her blood was better than the Hays', and she was … +attractive—yes, attractive. Most likely she was engaged to Lord Hay, +or if he did not please her—she was … whimsical and … +self-willed—there was Lord Invermays' son. Fancy Kate … Miss +Carnegie in a Free Kirk manse—Kildrummie was a very … homely old +man, but he touched the point there—receiving Doctor Dowbiggin with +becoming ceremony and hearing him on the payment of probationers, or +taking tea at Kildrummie Manse—where he had, however, feasted royally +many a time after the Presbytery, but.… This daughter of a +Jacobite house, and brought up amid the romance of war, settling down +in the narrowest circle of Scottish life—as soon imagine an eagle +domesticated among barn-door poultry. This image amused Carmichael so +much that he could have laughed aloud, but … the village might have +heard him. He only stretched himself like one awaking, and felt so +strong that he resolved to drop in on Janet Macpherson, Kate's old +retainer—to see how it fared with the old woman and … to have Miss +Carnegie's engagement confirmed. The Carnegies might return any day +from the South, and it would be well that he should know how to meet +them. +</P> + +<P> +"You will be hearing," Janet mentioned, "that they hef come back to the +Lodge yesterday morning, and it iss myself that will be glad to see +Miss Kate again; and very pretty iss she looking, with peautiful +dresses and bonnets, for I hef seen them all, maybe twelve or ten. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, my dear, Donald will be talking about her marriage to Lord +Kilspindie's son, who iss a very handsome young man and good at the +shooting; and he will be blowing that they will live at the Lodge in +great state, with many gillies and a piper and he will be head of them +all. +</P> + +<P> +"No, it iss not Janet Macpherson, my dear, that will be believing +Donald Cameron, or any Cameron—although I am not saying that the +Camerons are not men of their hands—for Donald will be always making +great stories and telling me wonderful things. He wass a brave man in +the battle, and iss very clever at the doctrine too, and will be strong +against human himes (hymns), but he iss a most awful liar iss Donald +Cameron, and you must not be believing a word that comes out of his +mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"She will be asking many questions in her room as soon as Donald had +brought up her boxes and the door was shut. Some will be about the +Glen, and some about the garden, and some will be about people—whether +you ever will be visiting me, and whether you asked for her after the +day she left the kirk. But I will say, 'No; Mr. Carmichael does not +speak about anything but the religion when he comes to my cottage.' +</P> + +<P> +"That iss nothing. I will be saying more, that I am hearing that the +minister iss to be married to a fery rich young lady in Muirtown who +hass been courting him for two years, and that her father will be +giving the minister twenty thousand pounds the day they are married. +And I will say she iss very beautiful, with blue eyes and gold hair, +and that her temper iss so sweet they are calling her the Angel of +Muirtown. +</P> + +<P> +"Toot, toot, my dear, you are not to be speaking about lies, for that +iss not a pretty word among friends, and you will not be meddling with +me, for you will be better at the preaching and the singing of himes +than dealing with women. It iss not good to be making yourself too +common, and Miss Kate will be thinking the more of you if you be +holding your head high and letting her see that you are not a poor +lowland body, but a Farquharson by your mother's side, and maybe of the +chief's blood, though twenty or fifteen times removed. +</P> + +<P> +"She will be very pleased to hear such good news of you, and be saying +that it iss a mercy you are getting somebody to dress you properly. +But her temper will not be at all good, and I did not ask her about +Lord Hay, and she said nothing to me, nor about any other lord. It iss +not often I hef seen as great a liar as Donald Cameron. +</P> + +<P> +"Last evening Miss Kate will come down before dinner and talk about +many things, and then she will say at the door, 'Donald tells me that +Mister Carmichael does not believe in the Bible, and that his friend, +Doctor Saunderson, has cast him off, and that he has been punished by +his Bishop or somebody at Muirtown.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Donald will be knowing more doctrine and telling more lies every +month,' I said to her. 'Doctor Saunderson—who is a very fine preacher +and can put the fear of God upon the people most wonderful—and our +minister had a little feud, and they will fight it out before some +chiefs at Muirtown like gentlemen, and now they are good friends again.' +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Kate had gone off for a long walk, and I am not saying but that +she will be calling at Kilbogie Manse before she comes back. She is +very fond of Doctor Saunderson, and maybe he will be telling her of the +feud. It iss more than an hour through the woods to Kilbogie," +concluded Janet, "but you will be having a glass of milk first." +</P> + +<P> +Kate reviewed her reasons for the expedition to Kilbogie, and settled +they were the pleasures of a walk through Tochty woods when the spring +flowers were in their glory, and a visit to one of the dearest +curiosities she had ever seen. It was within the bounds of possibility +that Doctor Saunderson might refer to his friend, but on her part she +would certainly not refer to the Free Church minister of Drumtochty. +Her reception by that conscientious professor Barbara could not be +called encouraging. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, he's in, but ye canna see him, for he's in his bed, and gin he +disna mend faster than he wes daein' the last time a' gied him a cry, +he's no like to be in the pulpit on Sabbath. A' wes juist thinkin' he +wudna be the waur o' a doctor." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean to say that Doctor Saunderson is lying ill and no one +nursing him?" and Kate eyed the housekeeper in a very unappreciative +fashion. +</P> + +<P> +"Gin he wants a nurse she'll hae tae be brocht frae Muirtown Infirmary, +for a've eneuch to dae withoot ony fyke (delicate work) o' that kind. +For twal year hev a' been hoosekeeper in this manse, an' gin it hedna +been for peety a' wad hae flung up the place. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye never cud tell when he wud come in, or when he wud gae oot, or what +he wud be wantin' next. A' the waufies (disreputable people) in the +countryside come here, and the best in the hoose is no gude eneuch for +them. He's been an awfu' handfu' tae me, an' noo a' coont him clean +dottle (silly). But we maun juist bear oor burdens," concluded Barbara +piously, and she proposed to close the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Your master will not want a nurse a minute longer; show me his room at +once"; and Kate was so commanding that Barbara's courage began to fail. +</P> + +<P> +"Wha may ye be," raising her voice to rally her heart, "'at wud take +chairge o' a strainger in his ain hoose an' no sae muckle as ask leave?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am Miss Carnegie, of Tochty Lodge; will you stand out of my way?" +and Kate swept past Barbara and went upstairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Weel, a' declare," as soon as she had recovered, "of a' the impudent +hizzies"; but Barbara did not say this in Kate's hearing. +</P> + +<P> +Kate had seen various curious hospitals in her day, and had nursed many +sick men—like the brave girl she was—but the Rabbi's room was +something quite new. His favourite books had been gathering there for +years, and now lined two walls and overhung the bed after a very +perilous fashion and had dispossessed the looking-glass—which had +become a nomad and was at present resting insecurely on John Owen—and +stood in banks round the bed. During his few days of illness the Rabbi +had accumulated so many volumes round him that he lay in a kind of +tunnel, arched over, as it were, with literature. He had been reading +Calvin's <I>Commentary on the Psalms</I>, in Latin, and it still lay open at +the 88th, the saddest of all songs in the Psalter; but as he grew +weaker the heavy folio had slid forward, and he seemed to be feeling +for it. Although Kate spoke to him by name, he did not know any one +was in the room. "Lord, why castest Thou off my soul?… I suffer +Thy terror, I am distracted … fierce wrath goeth over me … +lover and friend hast Thou put far from me … friend far from me." +</P> + +<P> +His head fell on his breast, his breath was short and rapid, and he +coughed every few seconds. +</P> + +<P> +"My friend far from me.…" +</P> + +<P> +At the sorrow in his voice and the thing which he said the tears came +to Kate's eyes, and she went forward and spoke to him very gently. "Do +you know me, Dr. Saunderson—Miss Carnegie?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not Saunderson … Magor Missabib." +</P> + +<P> +"Rabbi, Rabbi"—so much Carmichael had told her; and now Kate stroked +the bent white head. "Your friend, Mister Carmichael—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes"—he now looked up and spoke eagerly—"John Carmichael, of +Drumtochty … my friend in my old age … and others … my +boys … but John has left me … he would not speak to me … I +am alone now … he did not understand … mine acquaintance into +darkness … here we see in a glass darkly …" (he turned aside to +expound the Greek word for darkly), "but some day … face to face." +And twice he said it, with an indescribable sweetness, "face to face." +</P> + +<P> +Kate hurriedly removed the books from the bed and wrapt round his +shoulders the old gray plaid that had eked out his covering at night, +and then she went downstairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Bring," she said to Barbara, "hot water, soap, towels, and a sponge to +Dr. Saunderson's bedroom, immediately." +</P> + +<P> +"And gin a' dinna?" inquired Barbara aggressively. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll shoot you where you stand." +</P> + +<P> +Barbara shows to her cronies how Miss Carnegie drew a pistol from her +pocket at this point and held it to her head, and how at every turn the +pistol was again in evidence; sometimes a dagger is thrown in, but that +is only late in the evening when Barbara is under the influence of +tonics. Kate herself admits that if she had had her little revolver +with her she might have been tempted to outline the housekeeper's face +on the wall, and she still thinks her threat an inspiration. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said Kate, when Barbara had brought her commands in with +incredible celerity, "bring up some fresh milk and three glasses of +whisky." +</P> + +<P> +"Whisky!" Barbara could hardly compass the unfamiliar word. "The +Doctor never hed sic a thing in the hoose, although mony a time, puir +man …" Discipline was softening even that austere spirit. +</P> + +<P> +"No, but you have, for you are blowing a full gale just now; bring up +your private bottle, or I'll go down for it." +</P> + +<P> +"There's enough," holding the bottle to the light, "to do till evening; +go to the next farm and send a man on horseback to tell Mr. Carmichael, +of Drumtochty, that Doctor Saunderson is dying, and another for Doctor +Manley of Muirtown." +</P> + +<P> +Very tenderly did Kate sponge the Rabbi's face and hands, and then she +dressed his hair, till at length he came to himself. +</P> + +<P> +"This ministry is … grateful to me, Barbara … my strength has +gone from me … but my eyes fail me.… Of a verity you are +not …" +</P> + +<P> +"I am Kate Carnegie, whom you were so kind to at Tochty. Will you let +me be your nurse? I learned in India, and know what to do." It was +only wounded soldiers who knew how gentle her voice could be, and how +soft her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"It is I that … should be serving you … the first time you have +come to the manse … no woman has ever done me … such kindness +before.…" He followed her as she tried to bring some order out of +chaos, and knew not that he spoke aloud. "A gracious maid … above +rubies." +</P> + +<P> +His breathing was growing worse, in spite of many wise things she did +for him—Doctor Manley, who paid no compliments, but was a strength +unto every country doctor in Perthshire, praises Kate unto this +day—and the Rabbi did not care to speak. So she sat down by his side +and read to him from the <I>Pilgrim's Progress</I>—holding his hand all the +time—and the passage he desired was the story of Mr. Fearing. +</P> + +<P> +"This I took very great notice of, that the valley of the shadow of +Death was as quiet while he went through it as ever I knew it before or +since. I suppose these enemies here had now a special check from our +Lord and a command not to meddle until Mr. Fearing was passed over +it.… Here also I took notice of what was very remarkable: the +water of that river was lower at this time than ever I saw it in all my +life. So he went over at last, not much above wet-shod. When he was +going up to the gate …" +</P> + +<P> +The Rabbi listened for an instant. +</P> + +<P> +"It is John's step … he hath a sound of his own … my only +earthly desire is fulfilled." +</P> + +<P> +"Rabbi," cried Carmichael, and half kneeling, he threw one arm round +the old man, "say that you forgive me. I looked for you everywhere on +Monday, but you could not be found." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you think, John, that I … my will was to do you an injury +or … vex your soul? Many trials in my life … all God's +will … but this hardest … when I lost you … nothing left +here … but you …—my breath is bad, a little chill—. . . do +you understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"I always did, and I never respected you more; it was my foolish pride +that made me call you Doctor Saunderson in the study; but my love was +the same, and now you will let me stay and wait on you." +</P> + +<P> +The old man smiled sadly, and laid his hand on his boy's head. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot let you … go, John, my son." +</P> + +<P> +"Go and leave you, Rabbi!" Carmichael tried to laugh. "Not till you +are ready to appear at the Presbytery again. We'll send Barbara away +for a holiday, and Sarah will take her place—you remember that +cream—and we shall have a royal time, a meal every four hours, Rabbi, +and the Fathers in between"; and Carmichael, springing to his feet and +turning round to hide his tears, came face to face with Miss Carnegie, +who had been unable to escape from the room. +</P> + +<P> +"I happened to call"—Kate was quite calm—"and found Doctor Saunderson +in bed; so I stayed till some friend should come; you must have met the +messenger I sent for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, a mile from the manse; I was on my way … Janet said … but +I … did not remember anything when I saw the Rabbi." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you take a little milk again … Rabbi?" and at her bidding and +the name he made a brave effort to swallow, but he was plainly sinking. +</P> + +<P> +"No more," he whispered; "thank you … for service … to a lonely +man; may God bless you … both.…" He signed for her hand, +which he kept to the end. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-212"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-212.JPG" ALT="HE SIGNED FOR HER HAND, WHICH HE KEPT TO THE END" BORDER="2" WIDTH="349" HEIGHT="424"> +<H4> +[Illustration: HE SIGNED FOR HER HAND, WHICH HE KEPT TO THE END] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Satisfied … read, John … the woman from coasts of—of——" +</P> + +<P> +"I know, Rabbi," and kneeling on the other side of the bed, he read the +story slowly of a Tyrian woman's faith. +</P> + +<P> +"It is not meet to take the children's meat and cast it to dogs." +</P> + +<P> +"Dogs"—they heard the Rabbi appropriate his name—"outside … the +covenant." +</P> + +<P> +"And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall +from their master's table." +</P> + +<P> +"Lord, I believe … help Thou mine … unbelief." +</P> + +<P> +He then fell into an agony of soul, during which Carmichael could hear: +"Though … He slay … me … yet will I trust … trust … +in Him." He drew two or three long breaths and was still. After a +little he was heard again with a new note—"He that believeth … in +Him … shall not be confounded," and again, "A bruised reed … +shall He not …" Then he opened his eyes and raised his head—but +he saw neither Kate nor Carmichael, for the Rabbi had done with earthly +friends and earthly trials—and he, who had walked in darkness and seen +no light, said in a clear voice full of joy, "My Lord, and my God." +</P> + +<P> +It was Kate who closed his eyes and laid the old scholar's head on the +pillow, and then she left the room, casting one swift glance of pity at +Carmichael, who was weeping bitterly and crying between the sobs, +"Rabbi! Rabbi!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RABBI SAUNDERSON***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 18063-h.txt or 18063-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/6/18063">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/0/6/18063</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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S. Boyd + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Rabbi Saunderson + + +Author: Ian Maclaren + + + +Release Date: March 28, 2006 [eBook #18063] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RABBI SAUNDERSON*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 18063-h.htm or 18063-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/6/18063/18063-h/18063-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/6/18063/18063-h.zip) + + + + + +RABBI SAUNDERSON + +by + +IAN MACLAREN + +With Twelve Illustrations by A. S. Boyd + + + + + + + +London: Hodder and Stoughton +27 Paternoster Row +1898 + + + + + +To + +Mrs. Williamson + + +OF GLENOGIL + +WHO HAS INHERITED + +THE GIFT OF WITTY SPEECH + +AND HAS LAID IT OUT AT USURY + +TO THE JOY OF HER FRIENDS + +AND THE + +GLADDENING OF LIFE + + + + +Contents + + + A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN + KILBOGIE MANSE + THE RABBI AS CONFESSOR + THE FEAR OF GOD + THE WOUNDS OF A FRIEND + LIGHT AT EVENTIDE + + + + +Illustrations + + +He put Jamie's ecclesiastical history into a state + of thorough repair + +The farmers carted the new minister's furniture + from the nearest railway station + +Searching for a lost note + +The suddenness of his fall + +"Some suitable sum for our brother here who is + passing through adversity" + +"We shall not meet again in this world" + +When Carmichael gave him the cup in the sacrament + +"Shall . . . not . . . the . . . Judge . . . of all the + earth . . . do . . . right?" + +"You have spoken to me like a father: surely that is enough" + +Then arose a self-made man + +He watched the dispersion of his potatoes with dismay + +He signed for her hand, which he kept to the end + + + + +A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN + +Jeremiah Saunderson had remained in the low estate of a "probationer" for +twelve years after he left the Divinity Hall, where he was reported so +great a scholar that the Professor of Apologetics spoke to him +deprecatingly, and the Professor of Dogmatics openly consulted him on +obscure writers. He had wooed twenty-three congregations in vain, from +churches in the black country, where the colliers rose in squares of +twenty, and went out without ceremony, to suburban places of worship, +where the beadle, after due consideration of the sermon, would take up +the afternoon notices and ask that they be read at once for purposes of +utility, which that unflinching functionary stated to the minister with +accuracy and much faithfulness. Vacant congregations desiring a list of +candidates, made one exception, and prayed that Jeremiah should not be +let loose upon them, till at last it came home to the unfortunate scholar +himself that he was an offence and a by-word. He began to dread the +ordeal of giving his name, and, as is still told, declared to a +household, living in the fat wheatlands and without any imagination, that +he was called Magor Missabib. When a stranger makes a statement of this +kind to his host with a sad seriousness, no one judges it expedient to +offer any remark; but it was skilfully arranged that Missabib's door +should be locked from the outside, and one member of the household sat up +all night. The sermon next day did not tend to confidence--having seven +quotations in unknown tongues--and the attitude of the congregation was +one of alert vigilance; but no one gave any outward sign of uneasiness, +and six able-bodied men, collected in a pew below the pulpit, knew their +duty in an emergency. + +Saunderson's election to the Free Church of Kilbogie was therefore an +event in the ecclesiastical world, and a consistent tradition in the +parish explained its inwardness on certain grounds, complimentary both to +the judgment of Kilbogie and the gifts of Mr. Saunderson. On Saturday +evening he was removed from the train by the merest accident, and left +the railway station in such a maze of meditation that he ignored the road +to Kilbogie altogether, although its sign-post was staring him in the +face, and continued his way to Drumtochty. It was half-past nine when +Jamie Soutar met him on the high road through our glen, still travelling +steadily west, and being arrested by his appearance, beguiled him into +conversation, till he elicited that Saunderson was minded to reach +Kilbogie. For an hour did the wanderer rest in Jamie's kitchen, during +which he put Jamie's ecclesiastical history into a state of thorough +repair--making seven distinct parallels between the errors that had +afflicted the Scottish Church and the early heretical sects,--and then +Jamie gave him in charge of a ploughman who was courting in Kilbogie, and +was not averse to a journey that seemed to illustrate the double meaning +of charity. Jeremiah was handed over to his anxious hosts at a quarter +to one in the morning, covered with mud, somewhat fatigued, but in great +peace of soul, having settled the place of election in the prophecy of +Habakkuk as he came down with his silent companion through Tochty woods. + +[Illustration: HE PUT JAMIE'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY INTO A STATE OF +THOROUGH REPAIR] + +Nor was that all he had done. When they came out from the shadow and +struck into the parish of Kilbogie--whose fields, now yellow unto +harvest, shone in the moonlight--his guide broke silence and enlarged on +a plague of field-mice which had quite suddenly appeared, and had sadly +devastated the grain of Kilbogie. Saunderson awoke from study and became +exceedingly curious, first of all demanding a particular account of the +coming of the mice, their multitude, their habits, and their +determination. Then he asked many questions about the moral conduct and +godliness of the inhabitants of Kilbogie, which his companion, as a +native of Drumtochty, painted in gloomy colours, although indicating as +became a lover that even in Kilbogie there was a remnant. Next morning +the minister rose at daybreak, and was found wandering through the fields +in such a state of excitement that he could hardly be induced to look at +breakfast. When the "books" were placed before him, he turned promptly +to the ten plagues of Egypt, which he expounded in order as preliminary +to a full treatment of the visitations of Providence. + +"He cowes (beats) a' ye ever saw or heard," the farmer of Mains explained +to the elders at the gate. "He gaed tae his room at half twa and wes oot +in the fields by four, an' a'm dootin' he never saw his bed. He's lifted +abune the body a'thegither, an' can hardly keep himsel awa frae the +Hebrew at his breakfast. Ye'll get a sermon the day, or ma name is no +Peter Pitillo." Mains also declared his conviction that the invasion of +mice would be dealt with after a scriptural and satisfying fashion. The +people went in full of expectation, and to this day old people recall +Jeremiah Saunderson's trial sermon with lively admiration. Experienced +critics were suspicious of candidates who read lengthy chapters from both +Testaments and prayed at length for the Houses of Parliament, for it was +justly held that no man would take refuge in such obvious devices for +filling up the time unless he was short of sermon material. One +unfortunate, indeed, ruined his chances at once by a long petition for +those in danger on the sea--availing himself with some eloquence of the +sympathetic imagery of the one hundred and seventh Psalm--for this effort +was regarded as not only the most barefaced padding, but also as evidence +of an almost incredible blindness to circumstances. "Did he think +Kilbogie wes a fishing-village?" Mains inquired of the elders afterwards, +with pointed sarcasm. Kilbogie was not indifferent to a well-ordered +prayer--although its palate was coarser in the appreciation of felicitous +terms and allusions than that of Drumtochty--and would have been +scandalised if the Queen had been omitted; but it was by the sermon the +young man must stand or fall, and Kilbogie despised a man who postponed +the ordeal. + +Saunderson gave double pledges of capacity and fulness before he opened +his mouth in the sermon, for he read no Scripture at all that day, and +had only one prayer, which was mainly a statement of the Divine Decrees +and a careful confession of the sins of Kilbogie; and then, having given +out his text from the prophecy of Joel, he reverently closed the Bible +and placed it on the seat behind him. His own reason for this proceeding +was a desire for absolute security in enforcing his subject, and a +painful remembrance of the disturbance in a south country church when he +landed a Bible--with clasps--on the head of the precentor in the heat of +a discourse defending the rejection of Esau. Our best and simplest +actions--and Jeremiah was as simple as a babe--can be misconstrued, and +the only dissentient from Saunderson's election insisted that the Bible +had been deposited on the floor, and asserted that the object of this +profanity was to give the preacher a higher standing in the pulpit. This +malignant reading of circumstances might have wrought mischief--for +Saunderson's gaunt figure did seem to grow in the pulpit--had it not been +for the bold line of defence taken up by Mains. + +"Gin he wanted tae stand high, wes it no tae preach the word? an' gin he +wanted a soond foundation for his feet, what better could he get than the +twa Testaments? Answer me that." + +It was seen at once that no one could answer that, and the captious +objector never quite recovered his position in the parish; while it is +not the least of Kilbogie's boasting, in which the Auld Kirk will even +join against Drumtochty, that they have a minister who not only does not +read his sermons and does not need to quote his texts, but carries the +whole Bible in at least three languages in his head, and once, as a proof +thereof, preached with it below his feet. + +Much was to be looked for from such a man; but even Mains, whetted by +intercourse with Saunderson, was astonished at the sermon. It was a +happy beginning to draw a parallel between the locusts of Joel and the +mice of Kilbogie, and gave the preacher an opportunity of describing the +appearance, habits, and destruction of the locusts, which he did solely +from Holy Scripture, translating various passages afresh, and combining +lights with marvellous ingenuity. This brief preface of half an hour, +which was merely a stimulant for the Kilbogie appetite, led up to a +thorough examination of physical judgments, during which both Bible and +Church history were laid under liberal contribution. At this point the +minister halted, and complimented the congregation on the attention they +had given to the facts of the case, which were his first head, and +suggested that before approaching the doctrine of visitations they might +refresh themselves with a Psalm. The congregation were visibly +impressed, and many made up their minds while singing + + "That man hath perfect blessedness"; + +and while others thought it due to themselves to suspend judgment till +they had tasted the doctrine, they afterwards confessed their full +confidence. It goes without saying that he was immediately beyond the +reach of the ordinary people on the second head, and even veterans in +theology panted after him in vain, so that one of the elders, nodding +assent to an exposure of the Manichaean heresy, suddenly blushed as one +who had played the hypocrite. Some professed to have noticed a doctrine +that had not been touched upon, but they never could give it a name, and +it excited just admiration that a preacher, starting from a plague of +mice, should have made a way by strictly scientific methods into the +secret places of theology. Saunderson allowed his hearers a brief rest +after the second head, and cheered them with the assurance that what was +still before them would be easy to follow. It was the application of all +that had gone before to the life of Kilbogie, and the preacher proceeded +to convict the parish under each of the ten commandments--with the plague +of mice ever in reserve to silence excuses--till the delighted +congregation could have risen in a body and taken Saunderson by the hand +for his fearlessness and faithfulness. Perhaps the extent and +thoroughness of this monumental sermon can be best estimated by the fact +that Claypots, father of the present tenant, who always timed his rest to +fifty minutes exactly, thus overseeing both the introduction and +application of the sermon, had a double portion, and even a series of +supplementary dozes, till at last he sat upright through sheer satiety. +It may also be offered as evidence that the reserve of peppermint held by +mothers for their bairns was pooled, doles being furtively passed across +pews to conspicuously needy families, and yet the last had gone before +Saunderson finished. + +Mains reported to the congregational meeting that the minister had been +quiet for the rest of the day, but had offered to say something about +Habakkuk to any evening gathering, and had cleared up at family worship +some obscure points in the morning discourse. He also informed the +neighbours that he had driven his guest all the way to Muirtown, and put +him in an Edinburgh carriage with his own hands, since it had emerged +that Saunderson, through absence of mind, had made his down journey by +the triangular route of Dundee. It was quite impossible for Kilbogie to +conceal their pride in electing such a miracle of learning, and their +bearing in Muirtown was distinctly changed; but indeed they did not boast +vainly about Jeremiah Saunderson, for his career was throughout on the +level of that monumental sermon. When the Presbytery in the gaiety of +their heart examined Saunderson to ascertain whether he was fully +equipped for the work of the ministry, he professed the whole Old +Testament in Hebrew, and MacWheep of Pitscowrie, who always asked the +candidate to read the twenty-third Psalm, was beguiled by Jeremiah into +the Book of Job, and reduced to the necessity of asking questions by +indicating verbs with his finger. His Greek examination led to an +argument between Jeremiah and Dr. Dowbiggin on the use of the aorist, +from which the minister-elect of Kilbogie came out an easy first; and his +sermons were heard to within measurable distance of the second head by an +exact quorum of the exhausted court, who were kept by the clerk sitting +at the door, and preventing MacWheep escaping. His position in the court +was assured from the beginning, and fulfilled the function of an +Encyclopaedia, with occasional amazing results, as when information was +asked about some Eastern sect for whose necessities the Presbytery were +asked to collect, and to whose warm piety affecting allusion was made, +and Jeremiah showed clearly, with the reporters present, that the +Cappadocians were guilty of a heresy beside which Morisonianism was an +unsullied whiteness. His work as examiner-in-general for the court was a +merciful failure, and encouraged the students of the district to return +to their district court, who, on the mere rumour of him, had transferred +themselves in a body to a Highland Presbytery, where the standard +question in Philosophy used to be, "How many horns has a dilemma, and +distinguish the one from the other." No man knew what the minister of +Kilbogie might not ask--the student was only perfectly certain that it +would be beyond his knowledge; but as Saunderson always gave the answer +himself in the end, and imputed it to the student, anxiety was reduced to +a minimum. Saunderson, indeed, was in the custom of passing all +candidates and reporting them as marvels of erudition, whose only fault +was a becoming modesty--which, however, had not concealed from his keen +eye hidden treasures of learning. Beyond this sphere the good man's +services were not used by a body of shrewd ecclesiastics, as the +inordinate length of an ordination sermon had ruined a dinner prepared +for the court by "one of our intelligent and large-hearted laymen," and +it is still pleasantly told how Saunderson was invited to a +congregational soiree--an ancient meeting, where the people ate oranges, +and the speaker rallied the minister on being still unmarried--and +discoursed, as a carefully chosen subject, on the Jewish feasts,--with +illustrations from the Talmud,--till some one burst a paper-bag and +allowed the feelings of the people to escape. When this history was +passed round Muirtown Market, Kilbogie thought still more highly of their +minister, and indicated their opinion of the other parish in severely +theological language. + +Standing at his full height he might have been six feet, but, with much +poring over books and meditation, he had descended some two inches. His +hair was long, not because he made any conscious claim to genius, but +because he forgot to get it cut, and, with his flowing, untrimmed beard, +was now quite grey. Within his clothes he was the merest skeleton, being +so thin that his shoulder-blades stood out in sharp outline, and his +hands were almost transparent. The redeeming feature in Saunderson was +his eyes, which were large and eloquent, of a trustful, wistful hazel, +the beautiful eyes of a dumb animal. Whether he was expounding doctrines +charged with despair of humanity, or exalting, in rare moments, the +riches of a Divine love in which he did not expect to share, or humbly +beseeching his brethren to give him information on some point in +scholarship no one knew anything about except himself, or stroking the +hair of some little child sitting upon his knee, those eyes were ever +simple, honest, and most pathetic. Young ministers coming to the +Presbytery full of self-conceit and new views were arrested by their +light shining through the glasses, and came in a year or two to have a +profound regard for Saunderson, curiously compounded of amusement at his +ways, which for strangeness were quite beyond imagination, admiration for +his knowledge, which was amazing for its accuracy and comprehensiveness, +respect for his honesty, which feared no conclusion, however repellent to +flesh and blood, but chiefly of love for the unaffected and shining +goodness of a man in whose virgin soul neither self nor this world had +any part. For years the youngsters of the Presbytery knew not how to +address the minister of Kilbogie, since any one who had dared to call him +Saunderson, as they said "Carmichael," and even "MacWheep," though he was +elderly, would have been deposed, without delay, from the ministry--so +much reverence at least was in the lads--and "Mister" attached to this +personality would be like a silk hat on the head of an Eastern sage. +Jenkins of Pitrodie always considered that he was inspired when he one +day called Saunderson "Rabbi," and unto the day of his death Kilbogie was +so called. He made protest against the title as being forbidden in the +Gospels, but the lads insisted that it must be understood in the sense of +scholar, whereupon Saunderson disowned it on the ground of his slender +attainments. The lads saw the force of this objection, and admitted that +the honourable word belonged by rights to MacWheep, who was a "gude +body," but it was their fancy to assign it to Saunderson--whereat +Saunderson yielded, only exacting a pledge that he should never be so +called in public, lest all concerned be condemned for foolishness. When +it was announced that the University of Edinburgh had resolved to confer +the degree of D.D. on him for his distinguished learning and great +services to theological scholarship, Saunderson, who was delighted when +Dowbiggin of Muirtown got the honour for being an ecclesiastic, would +have refused it for himself had not his boys gone out in a body and +compelled him to accept. They also purchased a Doctor's gown and hood, +and invested him with them in the name of Kilbogie two days before the +capping. One of them saw that he was duly brought to the Tolbooth Kirk, +where the capping ceremonial in those days took place. Another sent a +list of Saunderson's articles to British and foreign theological and +philological reviews, which filled half a column of the _Caledonian_, and +drew forth a complimentary article from that exceedingly able and caustic +paper, whose editor lost all his hair through sympathetic emotion the +morning of the Disruption, and ever afterwards pointed out the faults of +the Free Kirk with much frankness. The fame of Rabbi Saunderson was so +spread abroad that a great cheer went up as he came in with the other +Doctors elect, in which he cordially joined, considering it to be +intended for his neighbour, a successful West-End clergyman, the author +of a Life of Dorcas and other pleasing booklets. For some time after his +boys said "Doctor" in every third sentence, and then grew weary of a too +common title, and fell back on "Rabbi," by which he was known until the +day of his death, and which is now engraved on his tombstone. + +Saunderson's reputation for unfathomable learning and saintly simplicity +was built up out of many incidents, and grew with the lapse of years to a +solitary height in the big strath, so that no man would have dared to +smile had the Free Kirk minister of Kilbogie appeared in Muirtown in his +shirt-sleeves, and Kilbogie would only have been a trifle more conceited. +Truly he was an amazing man, and, now that he is dead and gone, the last +of his race, I wish some man of his profession had written his life, for +the doctrine he taught and the way he lived will not be believed by the +new generation. The arrival of his goods was more than many sermons to +Kilbogie, and I had it from Mains' own lips. It was the kindly fashion +of those days that the farmers carted the new minister's furniture from +the nearest railway station, and as the railway to Kildrummie was not yet +open, they had to go to Stormont Station on the north line; and a +pleasant procession they made passing through Pitscowrie, ten carts in +their best array, and drivers with a semi-festive air. Mr. Saunderson +was at the station, having reached it, by some miracle, without mistake, +and was in a condition of abject nervousness about the handling and +conveyance of his belongings. + +[Illustration: THE FARMERS CARTED THE NEW MINISTER'S FURNITURE FROM THE +NEAREST RAILWAY STATION] + +"You will be careful--exceeding careful," he implored; "if one of the +boxes were allowed to descend hurriedly to the ground, the result to what +is within would be disastrous. I am much afraid that the weight is +considerable, but I am ready to assist"; and he got ready. + +"Dinna pit yirsel intae a feery-farry (commotion)"--but Mains was +distinctly pleased to see a little touch of worldliness, just enough to +keep the new minister in touch with humanity. "It'll be queer stuff oor +lads canna lift, an' a'll gie ye a warranty that the'll no be a cup o' +the cheeny broken"; and then Saunderson conducted his congregation to the +siding. + +"Dod, man," remarked Mains to the station-master, examining a truck with +eight boxes; "the manse 'ill no want for dishes at ony rate. But let's +start on the furniture; whar hae ye got the rest o' the plenishing? + +"Naething mair? havers, man, ye dinna mean tae say they pack beds an' +tables in boxes; a' doot there's a truck missin'." Then Mains went over +where the minister was fidgeting beside his possessions. + +"No, no," said Saunderson, when the situation was put before him, "it's +all here. I counted the boxes, and I packed every box myself. That top +one contains the fathers--deal gently with it; and the Reformation +divines are just below it. Books are easily injured, and they feel it. +I do believe there is a certain life in them, and . . . and . . . they +don't like being ill-used"; and Jeremiah looked wistfully at the +ploughmen. + +"Div ye mean tae say," as soon as Mains had recovered, "that ye've brocht +naethin' for the manse but bukes, naither bed nor bedding? Keep's a'," +as the situation grew upon him, "whar are ye tae sleep, and what are ye +tae sit on? An' div ye never eat? This croons a';" and Mains gazed at +his new minister as one who supposed that he had taken Jeremiah's measure +and had failed utterly. + +"_Mea culpa_--it's . . . my blame," and Saunderson was evidently humbled +at this public exposure of his incapacity; "some slight furnishing will +be expedient, even necessary, and I have a plan for book-shelves in my +head; it is ingenious and convenient, and if there is a worker in +wood . . ." + +"Come awa' tae the dog-cart, sir," said Mains, realizing that even +Kilbogie did not know what a singular gift they had obtained, and that +discussion on such sublunary matters as pots and pans was useless, not to +say profane. So eight carts got a box each; one, Jeremiah's ancient kist +of moderate dimensions; and the tenth--that none might be left +unrecognised--a hand-bag that had been on the twelve years' probation +with its master. The story grew as it passed westwards, and when it +reached us we were given to understand that the Free Kirk minister of +Kilbogie had come to his parish with his clothing in a paper parcel and +twenty-four packing-cases filled with books, in as many languages--half +of them dating from the introduction of printing, and fastened by silver +clasps--and that if Drumtochty seriously desired to hear an intellectual +sermon at a time, we must take our way through Tochty woods. + +Mrs. Pitillo took the minister into her hands, and compelled him to +accompany her to Muirtown, where she had him at her will for some time, +so that she equipped the kitchen (fully), a dining-room (fairly), a spare +bedroom (amply), Mr. Saunderson's own bedroom (miserably), and secured a +table and two chairs for the study. This success turned her head. Full +of motherly forethought, and having a keen remembrance that probationers +always retired in the afternoon at Mains to think over the evening's +address, and left an impress of the human form on the bed when they came +down to tea, Mrs. Pitillo suggested that a sofa would be an admirable +addition to the study. As soon as this piece of furniture, of a size +suitable for his six feet, was pointed out to the minister, he took +fright, and became quite unmanageable. He would not have such an article +in his study on any account, partly because it would only feed a tendency +to sloth--which, he explained, was one of his besetting sins--and partly +because it would curtail the space available for books, which, he +indicated, were the proper furniture of any room, but chiefly of a study. +So great was his alarm, that he repented of too early concessions about +the other rooms, and explained to Mrs. Pitillo that every inch of space +must be rigidly kept for the overflow from the study, which he +expected--if he were spared--would reach the garrets. Several times on +their way back to Kilbogie, Saunderson looked wistfully at Mrs. Pitillo, +and once opened his mouth as if to speak, from which she gathered that he +was grateful for her kindness, but dared not yield any further to the +luxuries of the flesh. + +What this worthy woman endured in securing a succession of reliable +house-keepers for Mr. Saunderson and over-seeing the interior of that +remarkable home she was never able to explain to her own satisfaction, +though she made many honest efforts, and one of her last intelligible +utterances was a lamentable prophecy of the final estate of the Free +Church manse of Kilbogie. Mr. Saunderson himself seemed at times to have +some vague idea of her painful services, and once mentioned her name to +Carmichael of Drumtochty in feeling terms. There had been some delay in +providing for the bodily wants of the visitor after his eight miles' walk +from the glen, and it seemed likely that he would be obliged to take his +meal standing for want of a chair. + +"While Mrs. Pitillo lived, I have a strong impression, almost amounting +to certainty, that the domestic arrangements of the manse were better +ordered; she had the episcopal faculty in quite a conspicuous degree, and +was, I have often thought, a woman of sound judgment. + +"We were not able at all times to see eye to eye, as she had an +unfortunate tendency to meddle with my books and papers, and to arrange +them after an artificial fashion. This she called tidying, and, in its +most extreme form, cleaning. + +"With all her excellences, there was also in her what I have noticed in +most women, a certain flavour of guile, and on one occasion, when I was +making a brief journey through Holland and France in search of comely +editions of the fathers, she had the books carried out to the garden and +dusted. It was the space of two years before I regained mastery of my +library again, and unto this day I cannot lay my hands on the +service-book of King Henry VIII., which I had in the second edition, to +say nothing of an original edition of Rutherford's _Lex Rex_. + +"It does not become me, however, to reflect on the efforts of that worthy +matron, for she was by nature a good woman, and if any one could be saved +by good works, her place is assured. I was with her before she died, and +her last words to me were, 'Tell Jean tae dust yir bukes aince in the sax +months, and for ony sake keep ae chair for sittin' on.' It was not +perhaps quite the testimony one would have desired in the circumstances, +but yet, Mr. Carmichael, I have often thought that there was a spirit +of . . . of unselfishness, in fact, that showed the working of grace." +Later in the same evening Mr. Saunderson's mind returned to his friend's +spiritual state, for he entered into a long argument to show that while +Mary was more spiritual, Martha must also have been within the Divine +Election. + + + + +KILBOGIE MANSE + +Ministers there were in the great strath so orderly that they kept +their sealing-wax in one drawer and their string in another, while +their sermons were arranged under the books of the Bible, and tied with +green silk. Dr. Dowbiggin, though a dull man and of a heavy carriage, +could find in an instant the original draft of a motion on instrumental +music he made in the Presbytery of Muirtown in the year '59, and could +also give the exact page in the blue-books for every word he had +uttered in the famous case when he showed that the use of an harmonium +to train MacWheep's choir was a return to the bondage of Old Testament +worship. His collection of pamphlets was supposed to be unique, and +was a terror to controversialists, no man knowing when a rash utterance +on the bottomless mystery of "spiritual independence" might not be +produced from the Doctor's coat-tail pocket. He retired to rest at +10.15, and rose at six, settling the subject of his next sermon on +Sabbath evening, and finishing the first head before breakfast on +Monday morning. He had three hats--one for funerals, one for +marriages, one for ordinary occasions--and has returned from the +Presbytery door to brush his coat. Morning prayers in Dr. Dowbiggin's +house were at 8.5, and the wrath of the Doctor was so dangerous that +one probationer staying at the manse, and not quite independent of +influence, did not venture to undress, but snatched a fearful doze +sitting upright on a cane-bottomed chair, lest he should not be in at +the psalm. Young ministers of untidy habits regarded Dr. Dowbiggin's +study with despair, and did not recover their spirits till they were +out of Muirtown. Once only did this eminent man visit the manse of +Kilbogie, and in favourable moments after dinner he would give his +choicer experiences. + +"It is my invariable custom to examine the bed to see that everything +is in order, and any one sleeping in Kilbogie Manse will find the good +of such a precaution. I trust that I am not a luxurious person--it +would ill become one who came out in '43--but I have certainly become +accustomed to the use of sheets. When I saw there were none on the +bed, I declined to sleep without them, and I indicated my mind very +distinctly on the condition of the manse. + +"Would you believe it?" the Doctor used to go on. "Saunderson +explained, as if it were a usual occurrence, that he had given away all +the spare linen in his house to a girl that had to marry in . . . +urgent circumstances, and had forgotten to get more. And what do you +think did he offer as a substitute for sheets?" No one could even +imagine what might not occur to the mind of Saunderson. + +"Towels, as I am an honourable man; a collection of towels, as he put +it, 'skilfully attached together, might make a pleasant covering.' +That is the first and last time I ever slept in the Free Church Manse +of Kilbogie. As regards Saunderson's study, I will guarantee that the +like of it cannot be found within Scotland;" and at the very thought of +it that exact and methodical ecclesiastic realized the limitations of +language. + +His boys boasted of the Rabbi's study as something that touched genius +in its magnificent disorderliness, and Carmichael was so proud of it +that he took me to see it as to a shrine. One whiff of its atmosphere +as you entered the door gave an appetite and raised the highest +expectations. For any bookman can estimate a library by scent--if an +expert he could even write out a catalogue of the books and sketch the +appearance of the owner. Heavy odour of polished mahogany, Brussels +carpets, damask curtains, and tablecloths; then the books are kept +within glass, consist of sets of standard works in half calf, and the +owner will give you their cost wholesale to a farthing. Faint +fragrance of delicate flowers, and Russia leather, with a hint of +cigarettes; prepare yourself for a marvellous wall-paper, etchings, +bits of oak, limited editions, and a man in a velvet coat. Smell of +paste and cloth binding and general newness means yesterday's books and +a reviewer racing through novels with a paper-knife. Those are only +book-rooms by courtesy, and never can satisfy any one who has breathed +the sacred air. It is a rich and strong spirit, not only filling the +room, but pouring out from the door and possessing the hall, redeeming +an opposite dining-room from grossness, and a more distant drawing-room +from frivolity, and even lending a goodly flavour to bedrooms on upper +floors. It is distilled from curious old duodecimos packed on high +shelves out of sight, and blows over folios, with large clasps, that +once stood in monastery libraries, and gathers a subtle sweetness from +parchments that were illuminated in ancient scriptoriums that are now +grass-grown, and it is fortified with good old musty calf. The wind +was from the right quarter on the first day I visited Kilbogie Manse, +and as we went up the garden walk the Rabbi's library already bade us +welcome, and assured us of our reward for a ten-miles' walk. + +Saunderson was perfectly helpless in all manner of mechanics--he could +not drive a tack through anything except his own fingers, and had given +up shaving at the suggestion of his elders--and yet he boasted, with +truth, that he had got three times as many books into the study as his +predecessor possessed in all his house. For Saunderson had shelved the +walls from the floor to the ceiling, into every corner, and over the +doors and above the windows, as well as below them. The wright had +wished to leave the space clear above the mantelpiece. + +"Ye'll be hanging Dr. Chalmers there, or maybe John Knox, and a bit +clock'll be handy for letting ye ken the 'oors on Sabbath." + +The Rabbi admitted that he had a Knox, but was full of a scheme for +hanging him over his own history, which he considered both appropriate +and convenient. As regards time, it was the last thing of which that +worthy man desired to be reminded--going to bed when he could no longer +see for weariness, and rising as soon as he awoke, taking his food when +it was brought to him, and being conducted to church by the beadle +after the last straggler was safely seated. He even cast covetous eyes +upon the two windows, which were absurdly large, as he considered, but +compromised matters by removing the shutters and filling up the vacant +space with slender works of devotion. It was one of his conceits that +the rising sun smote first on an A'Kempis, for this he had often +noticed as he worked of a morning. + +Book-shelves had long ago failed to accommodate Rabbi's treasures, and +the floor had been bravely utilised. Islands of books, rugged and +perpendicular, rose on every side; long promontories reached out from +the shore, varied by bold headlands; and so broken and varied was that +floor that the Rabbi was pleased to call it the Aegean Sea, where he +had his Lesbos and his Samos. It is absolutely incredible, but it is +all the same a simple fact, that he knew every book and its location, +having a sense of the feel as well as the shape of his favourites. +This was not because he had the faintest approach to orderliness, for +he would take down twenty volumes and never restore them to the same +place by any chance. It was a sort of motherly instinct by which he +watched over them all, and even loved prodigals who wandered over all +the study and then set off on adventurous journeys into distant rooms. +The restoration of an emigrant to his lawful home was celebrated by a +feast, in which, by a confusion of circumstances, the book played the +part of the fatted calf, being read afresh from beginning to end. +During his earlier and more agile years the Rabbi used to reach the +higher levels of his study by wonderful gymnastic feats, but after two +falls--one with three Ante-Nicene fathers in close pursuit--he +determined to call in assistance. This he did after an impressive +fashion. When he attended the roup at Pitfoodles--a day of historical +prices--and purchased in open competition, at three times its value, a +small stack ladder, Kilbogie was convulsed, and Mains had to offer +explanations. + +"He's cuttit aff seevin feet, and rins up it tae get his tapmaist +bukes, but that's no' a'," and then Mains gave it to be understood that +the rest of the things the minister had done with that ladder were +beyond words. For in order that the rough wood might not scar the +sensitive backs of the fathers, the Rabbi had covered the upper end +with cloth, and for that purpose had utilised a pair of trousers. It +was not within his ability in any way to reduce or adapt his material, +so that those interesting garments remained in their original shape, +and, as often as the ladder stood reversed, presented a very impressive +and diverting spectacle. It was the inspiration of one of Carmichael's +most successful stories--how he had done his best to console a woman on +the death of her husband, and had not altogether failed, till she +caught sight of the deceased's nether garments waving disconsolately on +a rope in the garden, when she refused to be comforted. "Toom (empty) +breeks tae me noo," and she wept profusely, "toom breeks tae me." + +One of the great efforts of the Rabbi's life was to seat his visitors, +since, beyond the one chair, accommodation had to be provided on the +table, wheresoever there happened to be no papers, and on the ledges of +the bookcases. It was pretty to see the host suggesting from a long +experience those coigns of vantage he counted easiest and safest, +giving warnings also of unsuspected danger in the shape of restless +books that might either yield beneath one's feet or descend on one's +head. Carmichael, however, needed no such guidance, for he knew his +way about in the marvellous place, and at once made for what the boys +called the throne of the fathers. This was a lordly seat, laid as to +its foundation in mediaeval divines of ponderous content, but +excellently finished with the Benedictine edition of St. Augustine, +softened by two cushions, one for a seat and another for a back. Here +Carmichael used to sit in great content, smoking and listening while +the Rabbi hunted an idea through Scripture with many authorities, or +defended the wildest Calvinism with strange, learned arguments; from +this place he would watch the Rabbi searching for a lost note on some +passage of Holy Writ amid a pile of papers two feet deep, through which +he burrowed on all-fours, or climbing for a book on the sky-line, to +forget his errand and to expound some point of doctrine from the top of +the ladder. + +[Illustration: SEARCHING FOR A LOST NOTE] + +"You're comfortable, John, and you do not want to put off your boots +after all that travelling to and fro? Then I will search for Barbara, +and secure some refreshment for our bodies"; and Carmichael watched the +Rabbi depart with pity, for he was going on a troublous errand. + +Housekeepers are, after beadles, the most wonderful functionaries in +the ecclesiastical life of Scotland, and every species could be found +within a day's journey of Drumtochty. Jenkins, indeed, suggested that +a series of papers on Church institutions read at the clerical club +should include one on housekeepers, and offered to supply the want, +which was the reason why Dr. Dowbiggin refused to certify him to a +vacancy, speaking of him as "frivolous and irresponsible." The class +ranged from Sarah of Drumtochty, who could cook and knew nothing about +ecclesiastical affairs, to that austere damsel, Margaret Meiklewham of +Pitscowrie, who had never prepared an appetising meal in her life, but +might have sat as an elder in the Presbytery. + +Among all her class, Barbara MacCluckie stood an easy worst, being the +most incapable, unsightly, evil-tempered, vexatious woman into whose +hands an unmarried man had ever been delivered. MacWheep had his own +trials, but his ruler saw that he had sufficient food and some comfort, +but Barbara laid herself out to make the Rabbi's life a misery. He +only obtained his meals as a favour, and an extra blanket had to be won +by a week's abject humiliation. Fire was only allowed him at times, +and he secured oil for his lamp by stratagem. Latterly he was glad to +send strange ministers to Mains, and his boys alone forced lodgment in +the manse. The settlement of Barbara was the great calamity of the +Rabbi's life, and was the doing of his own good-nature. He first met +her when she came to the manse one evening to discuss the unlawfulness +of infant baptism and the duty of holding Sunday on Saturday, being the +Jewish Sabbath. His interest deepened on learning that she had been +driven from twenty-nine situations through the persecution of the +ungodly; and on her assuring him that she had heard a voice in a dream +bidding her take charge of Kilbogie Manse, the Rabbi, who had suffered +many things at the hands of young girls given to lovers, installed +Barbara, and began to repent that very day. A tall, bony, forbidding +woman, with a squint, and a nose turning red as she stated from chronic +indigestion, let it be said for her that she did not fall into the sins +of her predecessors. It was indeed a pleasant jest in Kilbogie for +four Sabbaths that she allowed a local Romeo, who knew not that his +Juliet was gone, to make his adventurous way to her bedroom window, and +then showed such an amazing visage that he was laid up for a week +through the suddenness of his fall. What the Rabbi endured no one +knew, but his boys understood that the only relief he had from +Barbara's tyranny was on Sabbath evening when she stated her objections +to his sermons, and threatened henceforward to walk into Muirtown in +order to escape from unsound doctrine. On such occasions the Rabbi +laid himself out for her instruction with much zest, and he knew when +he had produced an impression, for then he went supperless to bed. +Between this militant spirit and the boys there was an undying feud, +and Carmichael was not at all hurt to hear her frank references to +himself. + +[Illustration: THE SUDDENNESS OF HIS FALL] + +"What need he come stravagin' doon frae Drumtochty for? it wud set him +better tae wait on his ain fouk. A licht-headed fellow, they say as +kens; an' as for his doctrine--weel, maybe it'll dae for Drumtochty. + +"Tea? Did ye expect me tae hae biling water at this 'oor o' the nicht? +My word, the money wud flee in this hoose gin a' wesna here. Milk'll +dae fine for yon birkie: he micht be gled tae get onything, sorning on +a respectable manse every ither week." + +"You will pardon our humble provision"--this is how the Rabbi prepared +Carmichael; "we have taken my worthy Abigail unawares, and she cannot +do for us what in other circumstances would be her desire. She has a +thorn in the flesh which troubles her, and makes her do what she would +not, but I am convinced that her heart is right." + +That uncompromising woman took no notice of Drumtochty, but busied +herself in a search for the Rabbi's bag, which he insisted had been +brought home from Muirtown that morning, and which was at last found +covered with books. + +"Do not open it at present, Barbara; you can identify the contents +later if it be necessary, but I am sure they are all right"; and the +Rabbi watched Barbara's investigations with evident anxiety. + +"Maybe ye hae brocht back what ye started wi', but gin ye hev, it's the +first time a' can mind. Laist sacrament at Edinburgh ye pickit up twal +books, ae clothes-brush, an' a crochet cover for a chair, an' left +a'thing that belonged tae ye." + +"It was an inadvertence; but I obtained a drawer for my own use this +time, and I was careful to pack its contents into the bag, leaving +nothing." But the Rabbi did not seem over-confident. + +"There's nae question that ye hev filled the pack," said Barbara, with +much deliberation and an ominous calmness; "but whether wi' yir ain +gear or some ither body's, a'll leave ye tae judge yirsel. A'll juist +empty the bag on the bukes"; and Barbara selected a bank of Puritans +for the display of her master's spoil. + +"Ae slipbody (bodice), weel hemmed and gude stuff--ye didna tak' that +wi' ye, at ony rate; twa pillow-slips--they'll come in handy, oor ain +are wearin' thin; ae pair o' sheets--'ll just dae for the next trimmie +that ye want tae set up in her hoose; this'll be a bolster-slip, a'm +judgin'----" + +"It must be the work of Satan," cried the poor Rabbi, who constantly +saw the hand of the great enemy in the disorder of his study. "I +cannot believe that my hands packed such garments in place of my own." + +"Ye'll be satisfied when ye read the name; it's plain eneuch; ye needna +gang dodderin' aboot here and there lookin' for yir glasses; there's +twa pair on your head already"; for it was an hour of triumph to +Barbara's genial soul. + +"It's beyond understanding," murmured the Rabbi. "I must have mistaken +one drawer for another in the midst of meditation"; and then, when +Barbara had swept out of the room with the varied linen on her arm, +"This is very humiliating, John, and hard to bear." + +"Nonsense, Rabbi; it's one of the finest things you have ever done. +Half a dozen journeys of that kind would refurnish the manse; it's just +a pity you can't annex a chair"; but he saw that the good man was +sorely vexed. + +"You are a good lad, John, and it is truly marvellous what charity I +have received at the hands of young men who might have scorned and +mocked me. God knows how my heart has been filled with gratitude, and +I . . . have mentioned your names in my unworthy prayers, that God may +do to you all according to the kindness ye have shown unto me." + +It was plain that this lonely, silent man was much moved, and +Carmichael did not speak. + +"People consider that I am ignorant of my failings and weaknesses, and +I can bear witness with a clear conscience that I am not angry when +they smile and nod the head; why should I be? But, John, it is known +to myself only, and Him before whom all hearts are open, how great is +my suffering in being among my neighbours as a sparrow upon the +house-top. + +"May you never know, John, what it is to live alone and friendless till +you lose the ways of other men and retire within yourself, looking out +on the multitude passing on the road as a hermit from his cell, and +knowing that some day you will die alone, with none to . . . give you a +draught of water!" + +"Rabbi, Rabbi,"--for Carmichael was greatly distressed at the woe in +the face opposite him, and his heart was tender that night,--"why +should you have lived like that? Do not be angry, but . . . did God +intend . . . it cannot be wrong . . . I mean . . . God did give Eve to +Adam." + +"Laddie, why do ye speak with fear and a faltering voice? Did I say +aught against that gracious gift or the holy mystery of love, which is +surely the sign of the union betwixt God and the soul, as is set forth +after a mystical shape in the Song of Songs? But it was not for +me--no, not for me. I complain not, neither have I vexed my soul. He +doeth all things well." + +"But, dear Rabbi"--and Carmichael hesitated, not knowing where he stood. + +"Ye ask me why"--the Rabbi anticipated the question--"and I will tell +you plainly, for my heart has ever gone forth to you. For long years I +found no favour in the eyes of the Church, and it seemed likely I would +be rejected from the ministry as a man useless and unprofitable. How +could I attempt to win the love of any maiden, since it did not appear +to be the will of God that I should ever have a place of habitation? +It consisted not with honour, for I do hold firmly that no man hath any +right to seek unto himself a wife till he have a home." + +"But . . ." + +"Afterwards, you would say. Ah, John! then had I become old and +unsightly, not such a one as women could care for. It would have been +cruel to tie a maid for life to one who might only be forty years in +age, but was as seventy in his pilgrimage, and had fallen into unlovely +habits." + +Then the Rabbi turned on Carmichael his gentle eyes, that were shining +with tears. + +"It will be otherwise with you, and so let it be. May I live to see +you rejoicing with the wife of your youth!" + +So it came to pass that it was to this unlikely man Carmichael told his +love for Kate Carnegie and what like Kate was, and he was amazed at the +understanding of the Rabbi, as well as his sympathy and toleration. + +"A maid of spirit--and that is an excellent thing; and any excess will +be tamed by life. Only see to it that ye agree in that which lieth +beneath all churches and maketh souls one in God. May He prosper you +in your wooing as He did the patriarch Jacob, and far more abundantly!" + +Very early in the morning Carmichael awoke, and being tempted by the +sunrise, arose and went downstairs. As he came near the study door he +heard a voice in prayer, and knew that the Rabbi had been all night in +intercession. + +"Thou hast denied me wife and child; deny me not Thyself. . . . A +stranger Thou hast made me among men; refuse me not a place in the +City. . . . Deal graciously with this lad who has been to me as a son +in the Gospel. . . . He has not despised an old man; put not his heart +to confusion. . . ." + +Carmichael crept upstairs again, but not to sleep, and at breakfast he +pledged the Rabbi to come up some day and see Kate Carnegie. + + + + +THE RABBI AS CONFESSOR + +One day Carmichael, who had quarrelled with Kate over Mary Queen of +Scots and had lost hope, came to a good resolution suddenly, and went +down to see Rabbi Saunderson--the very thought of whose gentle, +patient, selfless life was a rebuke and a tonic. + +When two tramps held conference on the road, and one indicated to the +other visibly that any gentleman in temporary distress would be treated +after a Christian fashion at a neighbouring house, Carmichael, who had +been walking in a dream since he passed the Lodge, knew instantly that +he must be near the Free Kirk manse of Kilbogie. The means of +communication between the members of the nomadic profession is almost +perfect in its frequency and accuracy, and Saunderson's manse was a +hedge-side word. Not only did all the regular travellers by the north +road call on their going up in spring and their coming down in autumn, +but habitues of the east coast route were attracted and made a circuit +to embrace so hospitable a home, and even country vagrants made their +way from Dunleith and down through Glen Urtach to pay their respects to +the Rabbi. They had particular directions to avoid Barbara--expressed +in cypher on five different posts in the vicinity, and enforced in +picturesque language, of an evening--and they were therefore careful to +waylay the Rabbi on the road, or enter his study boldly from the front. +The humbler members of the profession contented themselves with +explaining that they had once been prosperous tradesmen, and were now +walking to Muirtown in search of work--receiving their alms in silence, +with diffidence and shame; but those in a higher walk came to consult +the Rabbi on Bible difficulties, which were threatening to shake their +faith, and departed much relieved--with a new view of Lot's wife, as +well as a suit of clothes the Rabbi had only worn three times. + +"You have done kindly by me in calling"--the vagabond had finished his +story and was standing, a very abject figure, among the books--"and in +giving me the message from your friend. I am truly thankful that he is +now labouring--in iron, did you say?--and I hope he may be a cunning +artificer. + +"You will not set it down to carelessness that I cannot quite recall +the face of your friend, for, indeed, it is my privilege to see many +travellers, and there are times when I may have been a minister to them +on their journeys, as I would be to you also if there be anything in +which I can serve you. It grieves me to say that I have no clothing +that I might offer you; it happens that a very worthy man passed here a +few days ago most insufficiently clad and . . . but I should not have +alluded to that; my other garments, save what I wear, are . . . kept in +a place of . . . safety by my excellent housekeeper, and she makes +their custody a point of conscience; you might put the matter before +her. . . . Assuredly it would be difficult, and I crave your pardon +for putting you in an . . . embarrassing position; it is my misfortune +to have to-day neither silver nor gold,"--catching sight of Carmichael +in the passage, "This is a Providence. May I borrow from you, John, +some suitable sum for our brother here who is passing through +adversity?" + +[Illustration: "SOME SUITABLE SUM FOR OUR BROTHER HERE WHO IS PASSING +THROUGH ADVERSITY"] + +"Do not be angry with me, John"--after the tramp had departed, with +five shillings in hand and much triumph over Carmichael on his +face--"nor speak bitterly of our fellow-men. Verily theirs is a hard +lot who have no place to lay their head, and who journey in weariness +from city to city. John, I was once a stranger and a wayfarer, +wandering over the length and breadth of the land. Nor had I a friend +on earth till my feet were led to the Mains, where my heart was greatly +refreshed, and now God has surrounded me with young men of whose +kindness I am not worthy; wherefore it becometh me to show mercy unto +others"; and the Rabbi looked at Carmichael with such sweetness that +the lad's sullenness began to yield, although he made no sign. + +"Moreover," and the Rabbi's voice took a lower tone, "as often as I +look on one of those men of the highways, there cometh to me a vision +of Him who was an outcast of the people, and albeit some may be as +Judas, peradventure one might beg alms of me, a poor sinful man, some +day, and lo it might be . . . the Lord himself in a saint"; and the +Rabbi bowed his head and stood awhile much moved. + +"Rabbi," after a pause, during which Carmichael's face had changed, +"you are incorrigible. For years we have been trying to make you a +really good and wise man, both by example and precept, and you are +distinctly worse than when we began--more lazy, miserly, and +uncharitable. It is very disheartening. + +"Can you receive another tramp and give him a bed? for I am in low +spirits, and so, like every other person in trouble, I come to you, you +dear old saint, and already I feel a better man." + +"Receive you, John? It is doubtless selfish, but it is not given to +you to know how I weary to see your faces, and we shall have much +converse together--there are some points I would like your opinion +on--but first of all, after a slight refreshment, we must go to Mains: +behold the aid to memory I have designed"--and the Rabbi pointed to a +large square of paper hung above Chrysostom, with "Farewell, George +Pitillo, 3 o'clock." "He is the son's son of my benefactor, and he +leaves his father's house this day to go into a strange land across the +sea: I had a service last night at Mains, and expounded the departure +of Abraham, but only slightly, being somewhat affected through the +weakness of the flesh. There was a covenant made between the young man +and myself, that I should meet him at the crossing of the roads to-day, +and it is in my mind to leave a parable with him against the power of +this present world." + +Then the Rabbi fell into a meditation till the dog-cart came up, Mains +and his wife in the front and George alone in the back, making a brave +show of indifference. + +"George," said the Rabbi, looking across the field and speaking as to +himself, "we shall not meet again in this world, and in a short space +they will bury me in Kilbogie kirkyard, but it will not be in me to lie +still for thinking of the people I have loved. So it will come to pass +that I may rise--you have ears to understand, George--and I will +inquire of him that taketh charge of the dead about many and how it +fares with them." + +[Illustration: "WE SHALL NOT MEET AGAIN IN THIS WORLD."] + +"And George Pitillo, what of him, Andrew? + +"'Oh, it's a peety you didna live langer, Mr. Saunderson, for George +hes risen in the warld and made a great fortune.' + +"How does it go with his soul, Andrew? + +"'Well, you see, Mister Saunderson, George hes hed many things to think +about, and he maybe hasna hed time for releegion yet, but nae doot +he'll be turnin' his mind that wy soon.' + +"Poor George, that I baptized and admitted to the Sacrament and . . . +loved: exchanged his soul for the world." + +The sun was setting fast, and the landscape--bare stubble-fields, +leafless trees, still water, long, empty road--was of a blood-red +colour fearsome to behold, so that no one spake, and the horse chafing +his bit made the only sound. + +Then the Rabbi began again. + +"And George Pitillo--tell me, Andrew? + +"'Weel, ye see, Mister Saunderson, ye wud be sorry for him, for you and +he were aye chief; he's keepit a gude name an' workit hard, but hesna +made muckle o' this warld.' + +"And his soul, Andrew? + +"'Oo, that's a' richt; gin we a' hed as gude a chance for the next +warld as George Pitillo we micht be satisfied.' + +"That is enough for his old friend; hap me over again, Andrew, and I'll +rest in peace till the trumpet sound." + +Carmichael turned aside, but he heard something desperately like a sob +from the back of the dog-cart, and the Rabbi saying, "God be with you, +George, and as your father's father received me in the day of my sore +discouragement, so may the Lord God of Israel open a door for you in +every land whithersoever you go, and bring you in at last through the +gates into the city." The Rabbi watched George till the dog-cart faded +away into the dusk of the winter's day, and they had settled for the +night in their places among the books before the Rabbi spoke. + +It was with a wistful tenderness that he turned to Carmichael and +touched him slightly with his hand, as was a fashion with the Rabbi. + +"You will not think me indifferent to your welfare because I have not +inquired about your affairs, for indeed this could not be, but the +going forth of this lad has tried my heart. Is there aught, John, that +it becometh you to tell me, and wherein my years can be of any avail?" + +"It is not about doctrine I wished to speak to you, Rabbi, although I +am troubled thus also, but about . . . you remember our talk." + +"About the maid--surely; I cannot forget her, and indeed often think of +her since the day you brought me to her house and made me known unto +her, which was much courtesy to one who is fitter for a book-room than +a woman's company. + +"She is fair of face and hath a pleasant manner, and surely beauty and +a winsome way are from God; there seemed also a certain contempt of +baseness and a strength of will which are excellent. Perhaps my +judgment is not even because Miss Carnegie was gracious to me, and you +know, John, it is not in me to resist kindness, but this is how she +seems to me. Has there been trouble between you?" + +"Do not misunderstand me, Rabbi; I have not spoken one word of love to +. . . Miss Carnegie, nor she to me; but I love her, and I thought that +perhaps she saw that I loved her. But now it looks as if . . . what I +hoped is never to be"; and Carmichael told how Kate had risen and left +the Church in hot wrath because he had compared Queen Mary to Jezebel. + +"Is it not marvellous," mused the Rabbi, looking into the fire, "how +one woman, who was indeed at the time little more than a girl, did +carry men, many of them wise and clever, away as with a flood, and +still divideth scholars and even . . . friends? + +"It was not fitting that Miss Carnegie should have left God's house in +heat of temper, and it seemeth to us that she hath a wrong reading of +history, but it is surely good that she hath her convictions, and +holdeth them fast like a brave maid. + +"Is it not so, John, that friends, and doubtless also . . . lovers, +have been divided by conscience, and have been on opposite sides in the +great conflict, and doth not this show how much of conscience there is +among men? + +"It may be this dispute will not divide you--being now, as it were, +more an argument of the schools than a matter of principle--but if it +should appear that you are far apart on the greater matters of faith, +then . . . you will have a heavy cross to carry. But it is my mind +that the heart of the maiden is right, and that I may some day see her +. . . in your home, whereat my eyes would be glad." + +The Rabbi was so taken up with the matter that he barely showed +Carmichael a fine copy of John of Damascus he had secured from London, +and went out of his course at worship to read, as well as to expound +with much feeling, the story of Ruth the Moabitess, showing +conclusively that she had in her a high spirit, and that she was +designed of God to be a strength to the house of David. He was also +very cheerful in the morning, and bade Carmichael good-bye at Tochty +woods with encouraging words. He also agreed to assist his boy at the +Drumtochty sacrament. + +It was evident that the Rabbi's mind was much set on this visit, but +Carmichael did not for one moment depend upon his remembering the day, +and so Burnbrae started early on the Saturday with his dog-cart to +bring Saunderson up and deposit him without fail in the Free Kirk manse +of Drumtochty. Six times that day did the minister leave his "action" +sermon and take his way to the guest-room, carrying such works as might +not be quite unsuitable for the old scholar's perusal, and arranging a +lamp of easy management, that the night hours might not be lost. It +was late in the afternoon before the Rabbi was delivered at the manse, +and Burnbrae gave explanations next day at the sacramental dinner. + +"It wes just ten when a' got tae the manse o' Kilbogie, an' his +hoosekeeper didna ken whar her maister wes; he micht be in Kildrummie +by that time, she said, or half-wy tae Muirtown. So a' set oot an' +ransackit the parish till a' got him, an' gin he wesna sittin' in a +bothie takin' brose wi' the plowmen, an' expoundin' Scripture a' the +time. + +"He startit on the ancient martyrs afore we were half a mile on the +road, and he gied ae testimony aifter anither, an' he wesna within +sicht o' the Reformation when we cam' tae the hooses; a'll no deny that +a' let the mare walk bits o' the road, for a' cud hae heard him a' +nicht; ma bluid's warmer yet, freends." + +The Rabbi arrived in great spirits, and refused to taste meat till he +had stated the burden of his sermon for the morrow. + +"If the Lord hath opened our ears the servant must declare what has +been given him, but I prayed that the message sent through me to your +flock, John, might be love. It hath pleased the Great Shepherd that I +should lead the sheep by strange paths, but I desired that it be +otherwise when I came for the first time to Drumtochty. + +"Two days did I spend in the woods, for the stillness of winter among +the trees leaveth the mind disengaged for the Divine word, and the +first day my soul was heavy as I returned, for this only was laid upon +me, 'vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction.' And, John, albeit God +would doubtless have given me strength according to His will, yet I was +loath to bear this awful truth to the people of your charge. + +"Next day the sun was shining pleasantly in the wood, and it came to me +that clouds had gone from the face of God, and as I wandered among the +trees a squirrel sat on a branch within reach of my hand and did not +flee. Then I heard a voice, 'I have loved thee with an everlasting +love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.' + +"It was, in an instant, my hope that this might be God's word by me, +but I knew not it was so till the Evangel opened up on all sides, and I +was led into the outgoings of the eternal love after so moving a +fashion that I dared to think that grace might be effectual even with +me . . . with me. + +"God opened my mouth on Sabbath on this text unto my own flock, and the +word was not void. It is little that can be said on sovereign love in +two hours and it may be a few minutes; yet even this may be more than +your people are minded to bear. So I shall pretermit certain notes on +doctrine; for you will doubtless have given much instruction on the +purposes of God, and very likely may be touching on that mystery in +your action sermon." + +During the evening the Rabbi was very genial--tasting Sarah's viands +with relish, and comparing her to Rebekah, who made savoury meat, +urging Carmichael to smoke without scruple, and allowing himself to +snuff three times, examining the bookshelves with keen appreciation, +and finally departing with three volumes of modern divinity under his +arm, to reinforce the selection in his room, "lest his eyes should be +held waking in the night watches." He was much overcome by the care +that had been taken for his comfort, and at the door of his room blest +his boy: "May the Lord give you the sleep of His beloved, and +strengthen you to declare all His truth on the morrow." Carmichael sat +by his study fire for a while and went to bed much cheered, nor did he +dream that there was to be a second catastrophe in the Free Kirk of +Drumtochty which would be far sadder than the offending of Miss +Carnegie about Mary Queen of Scots, and would leave in one heart +lifelong regret. + + + + +THE FEAR OF GOD + +It was the way of the Free Kirk that the assisting minister at the +Sacrament should sit behind the Communion Table during the sermon, and +the congregation, without giving the faintest sign of observation, +could estimate its effect on his face. When Dr. Dowbiggin composed +himself to listen as became a Church leader of substantial build--his +hands folded before him and his eyes fixed on the far window--and was +so arrested by the opening passage of Cunningham's sermon on +Justification by Faith that he visibly started, and afterwards sat +sideways with his ears cocked, Drumtochty, while doubtful whether any +Muirtown man could appreciate the subtlety of their minister, had a +higher idea of the Doctor; and when the Free Kirk minister of +Kildrummie--a stout man and given to agricultural pursuits--went fast +asleep under a masterly discussion of the priesthood of Melchizedek, +Drumtochty's opinion of the intellectual condition of Kildrummie was +confirmed beyond argument. + +During his ministry of more than twenty years the Rabbi had never +preached at Drumtochty--being fearful that he might injure the minister +who invited him, or that he might be so restricted in time as to lead +astray by ill-balanced statements--and as the keenest curiosity would +never have induced any man to go from the Glen to worship in another +parish, the Free Kirk minister of Kilbogie was still unjudged in +Drumtochty. They were not sorry to have the opportunity at last, for +they had suffered not a little at the hands of Kilbogie in past years, +and the coming event disturbed the flow of business at Muirtown market. + +"Ye're tae hae the Doctor at laist," Mains said to Netherton--letting +the luck-penny on a transaction in seed-corn stand over--"an' a'm +jidgin' the time's no been lost. He's plainer an' easier tae follow +then he wes at the affgo. Ma word"--contemplating the exercise before +the Glen--"but ye'll aye get eneuch here and there tae cairry hame." +Which shows what a man the Rabbi was, that on the strength of his +possession a parish like Kilbogie could speak after this fashion to +Drumtochty. + +"He'll hae a fair trial, Mains"--Netherton's tone was distinctly +severe--"an' mony a trial he's hed in his day, they say: wes't +three-an'-twenty kirks he preached in afore ye took him? But mind ye, +length's nae standard in Drumtochty; na, na, it's no hoo muckle wind a +man hes, but what like is the stuff that comes. It's bushels doon bye, +but it's wecht up bye." + +Any prejudice against the Rabbi, created by the boasting of a foolish +parish not worthy of him, was reduced by his venerable appearance +before the pulpit, and quite dispelled by his unfeigned delight in +Carmichael's conduct of the "preliminaries." Twice he nodded approval +to the reading of the hundredth Psalm, and although he stood with +covered face during the prayer, he emerged full of sympathy. As his +boy read the fifty-third of Isaiah the old man was moved well-nigh to +tears, and on the giving out of the text, from the parable of the +Prodigal Son, the Rabbi closed his eyes with great expectation, as one +about to be fed with the finest of the wheat. + +Carmichael has kept the sermon unto this day, and as often as he finds +himself growing hard or supercilious, reads it from beginning to end. +It is his hair-shirt, to be worn from time to time next his soul for +the wrongness in it and the mischief it did. He cannot understand how +he could have said such things on a Sacrament morning and in the +presence of the Rabbi, but indeed they were inevitable. When two tides +meet there is ever a cruel commotion, and ships are apt to be dashed on +the rocks, and Carmichael's mind was in a "jabble" that day. The new +culture, with its wider views of God and man, was fighting with the +robust Calvinism in which every Scot is saturated, and the result was +neither peace nor charity. Personally the lad was kindly and +good-natured; intellectually he had become arrogant, intolerant, acrid, +flinging out at old-fashioned views, giving quite unnecessary +challenges, arguing with imaginary antagonists. It has ever seemed to +me, although I suppose that history is against me, that if it be laid +on any one to advocate a new view that will startle people, he ought of +all men to be conciliatory and persuasive; but Carmichael was, at least +in this time of fermentation, very exasperating and pugnacious, and so +he drove the Rabbi to the only hard action of his life, wherein the old +man suffered most, and which may be said to have led to his death. +Carmichael, like the Rabbi, had intended to preach that morning on the +love of God, and thought he was doing so with some power. What he did +was to take the Fatherhood of God and use it as a stick to beat +Pharisees with, and under Pharisees it appeared as if he included every +person who still believed in the inflexible action of the moral laws +and the austere majesty of God. Many good things he no doubt said, but +each had an edge, and it cut deeply into people of the old school. Had +he seen the Rabbi, it would not have been possible for him to continue; +but he only was conscious of Lachlan Campbell, with whom he had then a +feud, and who, he imagined, had come to criticise him. So he went on +his rasping way that Sacrament morning, as when one harrows the spring +earth with iron teeth, exciting himself with every sentence to fresh +crudities of thought and extravagances of opposition. But it only +flashed on him that he had spoken foolishly when he came down from the +pulpit, and found the Rabbi a shrunken figure in his chair before the +Holy Table. + +Discerning people, like Elspeth Macfadyen, saw the whole tragedy from +beginning to end, and felt the pity of it keenly, For a while the Rabbi +waited with fond confidence--for was not he to hear the best-loved of +his boys?--and he caught eagerly at a gracious expression, as if it had +fallen from one of the fathers. Anything in the line of faith would +have pleased the Rabbi that day, who was as a little child, and full of +charity, in spite of his fierce doctrines. By-and-by the light died +away from his eyes as when a cloud comes over the face of the sun and +the Glen grows cold and dreary. He opened his eyes and was amazed, +looking at the people and questioning them what had happened to their +minister. Suddenly he flushed as a person struck by a friend, and +then, as one blow followed another, he covered his face with both +hands, sinking lower and lower in his chair, till even that decorous +people were almost shaken in their attention. + +When Carmichael gave him the cup in the Sacrament the Rabbi's hand +shook and he spilled some drops of the wine upon his beard, which all +that day showed like blood on the silvery whiteness. Afterwards he +spake in his turn to the communicants, and distinguished the true +people of God from the multitude--to whom he held out no hope--by so +many and stringent marks that Donald Menzies refused the Sacrament with +a lamentable groan. And when the Sacrament was over, and the time came +for Carmichael to shake hands with the assisting minister in the +vestry, the Rabbi had vanished, and he had no speech with him till they +went through the garden together--very bleak it seemed in the winter +dusk--unto the sermon that closed the services of the day. + +[Illustration: WHEN CARMICHAEL GAVE HIM THE CUP IN THE SACRAMENT.] + +"God's hand is heavy in anger on us both this day, John," and +Carmichael was arrested by the awe and sorrow in the Rabbi's voice, +"else . . . you had not spoken as you did this forenoon, nor would +necessity be laid on me to speak . . . as I must this night. + +"His ways are all goodness and truth, but they are oftentimes +encompassed with darkness, and the burden He has laid on me is . . . +almost more than I can bear; it will be heavy for you also. + +"You will drink the wine of astonishment this night, and it will be +strange if you do not . . . turn from the hand that pours it out, but +you will not refuse the truth or . . . hate the preacher"; and at the +vestry door the Rabbi looked wistfully at Carmichael. + +During the interval the lad had been ill at ease, suspecting from the +Rabbi's manner at the Table, and the solemnity of his address, that he +disapproved of the action sermon, but he did not for a moment imagine +that the situation was serious. It is one of the disabilities of +good-natured and emotional people, without much deepness of earth, to +belittle the convictions and resolutions of strong natures, and to +suppose that they can be talked away by a few pleasant, coaxing words. + +The Rabbi had often yielded to Carmichael and his other boys in the +ordinary affairs of life--in meat and drink and clothing, even unto the +continuance of his snuffing. He had been most manageable and +pliable--as a child in their hands--and so Carmichael was quite +confident that he could make matters right with the old man about a +question of doctrine as easily as about the duty of a midday meal. +Certain bright and superficial people will only learn by some solitary +experience that faith is reserved in friendship, and that the most +heroic souls are those which count all things loss--even the smile of +those they love--for the eternal. For a moment Carmichael was shaken +as if a new Rabbi were before him; then he remembered the study of +Kilbogie, and all things that had happened therein, and his spirits +rose. + +"How dare you suggest such wickedness, Rabbi, that any of us should +ever criticise or complain of anything you say? Whatever you give us +will be right, and do us good, and in the evening you will tell me all +I said wrong." + +Saunderson looked at Carmichael for ten seconds as one who has not been +understood, and sighed. Then he went down the kirk after the beadle, +and the people marked how he walked like a man who was afraid he might +fall, and, turning a corner, he supported himself on the end of a pew. +As he crept up the pulpit stairs Elspeth gave her husband a look, and, +although well accustomed to the slowness of his understanding, was +amazed that he did not catch the point. Even a man might have seen +that this was not the same minister that came in to the Sacrament with +hope in his very step. + +"A'm no here tae say 'that a' kent what wes comin''"--Elspeth, like all +experts, was strictly truthful--"for the like o' that wes never heard +in Drumtochty, and noo that Doctor Saunderson is awa', will never be +heard again in Scotland. A' jaloused that vials wud be opened an' a' +wesna wrang, but ma certes"--and that remarkable woman left you to +understand that no words in human speech could even hint at the +contents of the vials. + +When the Rabbi gave out his text, "Vessels of wrath," in a low, +awestruck voice, Carmichael began to be afraid, but after a little he +chid himself for foolishness. During half an hour the Rabbi traced the +doctrine of the Divine Sovereignty through Holy Scripture with a +characteristic wealth of allusion to Fathers ancient and reforming, and +once or twice he paused, as if he would have taken up certain matters +at greater length, but restrained himself, simply asserting the Pauline +character of St. Augustine's thinking, and exposing the looseness of +Clement of Alexandria with a wave of the hand, as one hurrying on to +his destination. + +"Dear old Rabbi"--Carmichael congratulated himself in his pew--"what +need he have made so many apologies for his subject? He is going to +enjoy himself, and he is sure to say something beautiful before he is +done." But he was distinctly conscious all the same of a wish that the +Rabbi were done and all . . . well, uncertainty over. For there was a +note of anxiety, almost of horror, in the Rabbi's voice, and he had not +let the Fathers go so lightly unless under severe constraint. What was +it? Surely he would not attack their minister in face of his +people. . . . The Rabbi do that, who was in all his ways a gentleman? +Yet . . . and then the Rabbi abruptly quitted historical exposition and +announced that he would speak on four heads. Carmichael, from his +corner behind the curtains, saw the old man twice open his mouth as if +to speak, and when at last he began he was quivering visibly, and he +had grasped the outer corners of the desk with such intensity that the +tassels which hung therefrom--one of the minor glories of the Free +Kirk--were held in the palm of his hand, the long red tags escaping +from between his white wasted fingers. A pulpit lamp came between +Carmichael and the Rabbi's face, but he could see the straining hand, +which did not relax till it was lifted in the last awful appeal, and +the white and red had a gruesome fascination. It seemed as if one had +clutched a cluster of full, rich, tender grapes and was pressing them +in an agony till their life ran out in streams of blood, and dripped +upon the heads of the choir sitting beneath, in their fresh, hopeful +youth. And it also came to Carmichael with pathetic conviction even +then that every one was about to suffer, but the Rabbi more than them +all together. While the preacher was strengthening his heart for the +work before him, Carmichael's eye was attracted by the landscape that +he could see through the opposite window. The ground sloped upwards +from the kirk to a pine-wood that fringed the great moor, and it was +covered with snow, on which the moon was beginning to shed her faint, +weird light. Within, the light from the upright lamps was falling on +the ruddy, contented faces of men and women and little children, but +without it was one cold, merciless whiteness, like unto the justice of +God, with black shadows of judgment. + +"This is the message which I have to deliver unto you in the name of +the Lord, and even as Jonah was sent to Nineveh after a strange +discipline with a word of mercy, so am I constrained against my will to +carry a word of searching and trembling. + +"First"--and between the heads the Rabbi paused as one whose breath had +failed him--"every man belongs absolutely to God by his creation. + +"Second. The purpose of God about each man precedes his creation. + +"Third. Some are destined to Salvation, and some to Damnation. + +"Fourth"--here the hard breathing became a sob--"each man's lot is unto +the glory of God." + +It was not only skilled theologians like Lachlan Campbell and Burnbrae, +but even mere amateurs who understood that they were that night to be +conducted to the farthest limit of Calvinism, and that, whoever fell +behind through the hardness of the way, their guide would not flinch. +As the Rabbi gave the people a brief space wherein to grasp his heads +in their significance, Carmichael remembered a vivid incident in the +Presbytery of Muirtown, when an English evangelist had addressed that +reverend and austere court with exhilarating confidence--explaining the +extreme simplicity of the Christian faith, and showing how a minister +ought to preach. Various good men were delighted, and asked many +questions of the evangelist--who had kept a baby-linen shop for twenty +years, and was unspoiled by the slightest trace of theology--but the +Rabbi arose and demolished his "teaching," convicting him of heresy at +every turn, till there was not left one stone upon another. + +"But surely fear belongs to the Old Testament dispensation and is now +done away with," said the unabashed little man to the Rabbi afterwards. +"'Rejoice,' you know, my friend, 'and again I say, Rejoice'--that is +the New Testament note." + +"If it be the will of God that such a man as I should ever stand on the +sea of glass mingled with fire, then this tongue will be lifted with +the best, but so long as my feet are still in the fearful pit it +becometh me to bow my head." + +"Then you don't believe in assurance?" But already the evangelist was +quailing before the Rabbi. + +"Verily there is no man that hath not heard of that precious gift, and +none who does not covet it greatly, but there be two degrees of +assurance"--here the Rabbi looked sternly at the happy, rotund little +figure--"and it is with the first you must begin, and what you need to +get is assurance of your damnation." + +One of the boys read an account of this incident--thinly veiled--in a +reported address of the evangelist, in which the Rabbi--being, as it +was inferred, beaten in Scriptural argument--was very penitent and +begged his teacher's pardon with streaming tears. What really happened +was different, and so absolutely conclusive that Doctor Dowbiggin gave +it as his opinion "that a valuable lesson had been read to unauthorized +teachers of religion." + +Carmichael recognised the same note in the sermon and saw another man +than he knew, as the Rabbi, in a low voice, without heat or +declamation, with frequent pauses and laboured breathing, as of one +toiling up a hill, argued the absolute supremacy of God and the utter +helplessness of man. One hand ever pressed the grapes, but with the +other the old man wiped the perspiration that rolled in beads down his +face. A painful stillness fell on the people as they felt themselves +caught in the meshes of this inexorable net and dragged ever nearer to +the abyss. Carmichael, who had been leaning forward in his place, tore +himself away from the preacher with an effort, and moved where he could +see the congregation. Campbell was drinking in every word as one for +the first time in his life perfectly satisfied. Menzies was huddled +into a heap in the top of his pew a man justly blasted by the anger of +the Eternal. Men were white beneath the tan, and it was evident that +some of the women would soon fall a-weeping. Children had crept close +to their mothers under a vague sense of danger, and a girl in the choir +watched the preacher with dilated eyeballs, like an animal fascinated +by terror. + +"It is as a sword piercing the heart to receive this truth, but it is a +truth and must be believed. There are hundreds of thousands in the +past who were born and lived and died and were damned for the glory of +God. There are hundreds of thousands in this day who have been born +and are living and shall die and be damned for the glory of God. There +are hundreds of thousands in the future who shall be born and shall +live and shall die and shall be damned for the glory of God. All +according to the will of God, and none dare say nay nor change the +purpose of the Eternal." For some time the oil in the lamps had been +failing--since the Rabbi had been speaking for nigh two hours--and as +he came to an end of this passage the light began to flicker and die. +First a lamp at the end of Burnbrae's pew went out, and then another in +the front. The preacher made as though he would have spoken, but was +silent, and the congregation watched four lamps sink into darkness at +intervals of half a minute. There only remained the two pulpit lamps, +and in their light the people saw the Rabbi lift his right hand for the +first time. + +"Shall . . . not . . . the . . . Judge . . . of all the earth . . . +do . . . right?" The two lamps went out together and a great sigh rose +from the people. At the back of the kirk a child wailed, and somewhere +in the front a woman's voice--it was never proved to be Elspeth +Macfadyen--said audibly, "God have mercy upon us." The Rabbi had sunk +back into the seat and buried his face in his hands, and through the +window over his head the moonlight was pouring into the church like +unto the far-off radiance from the White Throne. + +[Illustration: "SHALL . . . NOT . . . THE . . . JUDGE . . . OF ALL THE +EARTH . . . DO . . . RIGHT?"] + +When Carmichael led the Rabbi into the manse he could feel the old man +trembling from head to foot, and he would touch neither meat nor drink, +nor would he speak for a space. + +"Are you there, John?"--and he put out his hand to Carmichael, who had +placed him in the big study chair, and was sitting beside him in +silence. + +"I dare not withdraw nor change any word that I spake in the name of +the Lord this day, but . . . it is my infirmity . . . I wish I had +never been born." + +"It was awful," said Carmichael, and the Rabbi's head again fell on his +breast. + +"John,"--and Saunderson looked up,--"I would give ten thousand worlds +to stand in the shoes of that good man who conveyed me from Kilbogie +yesterday, and with whom I had very pleasant fellowship concerning the +patience of the saints. + +"It becometh not any human being to judge his neighbour, but it seemed +to me from many signs that he was within the election of God, and even +as we spoke of Polycarp and the martyrs who have overcome by the blood +of the Lamb, it came unto me with much power, 'Lo, here is one beside +you whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and who shall +enter through the gates into the city'; and grace was given me to +rejoice in his joy, but I . . . "--and Carmichael could have wept for +the despair in the Rabbi's voice. + +"Dear Rabbi!"--for once the confidence of youth was smitten at the +sight of a spiritual conflict beyond its depth--"you are surely . . . +depreciating yourself. . . . Burnbrae is a good man, but compared with +you . . . is not this like to the depression of Elijah?" Carmichael +knew, however, he was not fit for such work as the comforting of Rabbi +Saunderson, and had better have held his peace. + +"It may be that I understand the letter of Holy Scripture better than +some of God's children, although I be but a babe even in this poor +knowledge, but such gifts are only as the small dust of the balance. +He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. + +"John," said the Rabbi suddenly, and with strong feeling, "was it your +thought this night as I declared the sovereignty of God that I judged +myself of the elect, and was speaking as one himself hidden for ever in +the secret place of God?" + +"I . . . did not know," stammered Carmichael, whose utter horror at the +unrelenting sermon had only been tempered by his love for the preacher. + +"You did me wrong, John, for then had I not dared to speak at all after +that fashion; it is not for a vessel of mercy filled unto overflowing +with the love of God to exalt himself above the vessels . . . for whom +there is no mercy. But he may plead with them who are in like case +with himself to . . . acknowledge the Divine Justice." + +Then the pathos of the situation overcame Carmichael, and he went over +to the bookcase and leant his head against certain volumes, because +they were weighty and would not yield. Next day he noticed that one of +them was a Latin _Calvin_ that had travelled over Europe in learned +company, and the other a battered copy of Jonathan Edwards that had +come from the house of an Ayrshire farmer. + +"Forgive me that I have troubled you with the concerns of my soul, +John"--the Rabbi could only stand with an effort--"they ought to be +between a man and his God. There is another work laid to my hand for +which there is no power in me now. During the night I shall ask +whether the cup may not pass from me, but if not, the will of God be +done." + +Carmichael slept but little, and every time he woke the thought was +heavy upon him that on the other side of a narrow wall the holiest man +he knew was wrestling in darkness of soul, and that he had added to the +bitterness of the agony. + + + + +THE WOUNDS OF A FRIEND + +Winter has certain mornings which redeem weeks of misconduct, when the +hoar frost during the night has resilvered every branch and braced the +snow upon the ground, and the sun rises in ruddy strength and drives +out of sight every cloud and mist, and moves all day through an expanse +of unbroken blue, and is reflected from the dazzling whiteness of the +earth as from a mirror. Such a sight calls a man from sleep with +authority, and makes his blood tingle, and puts new heart in him, and +banishes the troubles of the night. Other mornings Winter joins in the +conspiracy of principalities and powers to daunt and crush the human +soul. No sun is to be seen, and the grey atmosphere casts down the +heart, the wind moans and whistles in fitful gusts, the black clouds +hang low in threatening masses, now and again a flake of snow drifts in +the wind. A storm is near at hand, not the thunder-shower of summer, +with its warm rain and the kindly sun ever in ambush, but dark and +blinding snow, through which even a game-keeper cannot see six yards, +and in which weary travellers lie down to rest and die. + +The melancholy of this kind of day had fallen on Saunderson, whose face +was ashen, and who held Carmichael's hand with such anxious affection +that it was impossible to inquire how he had slept, and it would have +been a banalite to remark upon the weather. After the Rabbi had been +compelled to swallow a cup of milk by way of breakfast, it was evident +that he was ready for speech. + +"What is it, Rabbi?" as soon as they were again settled in the study. +"If you did not . . . like my sermon, tell me at once. You know that I +am one of your boys, and you ought to . . . help me." Perhaps it was +inseparable from his youth, with its buoyancy and self-satisfaction, +and his training in a college whose members only knew by rumour of the +existence of other places of theological learning, that Carmichael had +at that moment a pleasing sense of humility and charity. Had it been a +matter of scholastic lore, of course neither he nor more than six men +in Scotland could have met the Rabbi in the gate. With regard to +modern thought, Carmichael knew that the good Rabbi had not read _Ecce +Homo_, and was hardly, well . . . up to date. He would not for the +world hint such a thing to the dear old man, nor even argue with him; +but it was flattering to remember that the attack could be merely one +of blunderbusses, in which the modern thinker would at last intervene +and save the ancient scholar from humiliation. + +"Well, Rabbi?" and Carmichael tried to make it easy. + +"Before I say what is on my heart, John, you will grant an old man who +loves you one favour. So far as in you lies you will bear with me if +that which I have to say, and still more that which my conscience will +compel me to do, is hard to flesh and blood." + +"Didn't we settle that last night in the vestry?" and Carmichael was +impatient; "is it that you do not agree with the doctrine of the Divine +Fatherhood? We younger men are resolved to base Christian doctrine on +the actual Scriptures, and to ignore mere tradition." + +"An excellent rule, my dear friend," cried the Rabbi, wonderfully +quickened by the challenge, "and with your permission and for our +mutual edification we shall briefly review all passages bearing on the +subject in hand--using the original, as will doubtless be your wish, +and you correcting my poor recollection." + +About an hour afterwards, and when the Rabbi was only entering into the +heart of the matter, Carmichael made the bitter discovery--without the +Rabbi having even hinted at such a thing--that his pet sermon was a +mass of boyish crudities, and this reverse of circumstances was some +excuse for his pettishness. + +"It does not seem to me that it is worth our time to haggle about the +usage of Greek words or to count texts: I ground my position on the +general meaning of the Gospels and the sense of things"; and Carmichael +stood on the hearthrug in a very superior attitude. + +"Let that pass then, John, and forgive me if I appeared to battle about +words, as certain scholars of the olden time were fain to do, for in +truth it is rather about the hard duty before me than any imperfection +in your teaching I would speak"; and the Rabbi glanced nervously at the +young minister. + +"We are both Presbyters of Christ's Church, ordained after the order of +primitive times, and there are laid on us certain heavy charges and +responsibilities from which we may not shrink, as we shall answer to +the Lord at the great day." + +Carmichael's humiliation was lost in perplexity, and he sat down, +wondering what the Rabbi intended. + +"If any Presbyter should see his brother fall into one of those faults +of private life that do beset us all in our present weakness, then he +doth well and kindly to point it out unto his brother; and if his +brother should depart from the faith as they talk together by the way, +then it is a Presbyter's part to convince him of his error and restore +him." + +The Rabbi cast an imploring glance, but Carmichael had still no +understanding. + +"But if one Presbyter should teach heresy to his flock in the hearing +of another . . . even though it break the other's heart, is not the +path of duty fenced up on either side, verily a straight, narrow way, +and hard for the feet to tread?" + +"You have spoken to me, Rabbi, and . . . cleared yourself"--Carmichael +was still somewhat sore--"and I'll promise not to offend you again in +an action sermon." + +"Albeit you intend it not so, yet are you making it harder for me to +speak. . . . See you not . . . that I . . . that necessity is laid on +me to declare this matter to my brother Presbyters in court +assembled . . . but not in hearing of the people?" Then there was a +stillness in the room, and the Rabbi, although he had closed his eyes, +was conscious of the amazement on the young man's face. + +"Do you mean to say," speaking very slowly, as one taken utterly aback, +"that our Rabbi would come to my . . . to the Sacrament and hear me +preach, and . . . report me for heresy to the Presbytery? Rabbi, I +know we don't agree about some things, and perhaps I was a little . . . +annoyed a few minutes ago because you . . . know far more than I do, +but that is nothing. For you to prosecute one of your boys and be the +witness yourself. . . . Rabbi, you can't mean it . . . say it's a +mistake." + +The old man only gave a deep sigh. + +"If it were Dowbiggin or . . . any man except you, I wouldn't care one +straw, rather enjoy the debate, but you whom we have loved and looked +up to and boasted about, why, it's like . . . a father turning against +his sons." + +The Rabbi made no sign. + +"You live too much alone, Rabbi," and Carmichael began again as the +sense of the tragedy grew on him, "and nurse your conscience till it +gets over tender; no other man would dream of . . . prosecuting a . . . +fellow-minister in such circumstances. You have spoken to me like a +father, surely that is enough"; and in his honest heat the young fellow +knelt down by the Rabbi's chair and took his hand. + +[Illustration: "YOU HAVE SPOKEN TO ME LIKE A FATHER: SURELY THAT IS +ENOUGH."] + +A tear rolled down the Rabbi's cheek, and he looked fondly at the lad. + +"Your words pierce me as sharp swords, John; spare me, for I can do +none otherwise; all night I wrestled for release, but in vain." + +Carmichael had a sudden revulsion of feeling, such as befalls emotional +and ill-disciplined natures when they are disappointed and mortified. + +"Very good, Doctor Saunderson"--Carmichael rose awkwardly and stood on +the hearthrug again, an elbow on the mantelpiece--"you must do as you +please and as you think right. I am sorry that I . . . pressed you so +far, but it was on grounds of our . . . friendship. + +"Perhaps you will tell me as soon as you can what you propose to do, +and when you will bring . . . this matter before the Presbytery. My +sermon was fully written and . . . is at your disposal." + +While this cold rain beat on the Rabbi's head he moved not, but at its +close he looked at Carmichael with the appeal of a dumb animal in his +eyes. + +"The first meeting of Presbytery is on Monday, but you would no doubt +consider that too soon; is there anything about dates in the order of +procedure for heresy?" and Carmichael made as though he would go over +to the shelves for a law book. + +"John," cried the Rabbi--his voice full of tears--rising and following +the foolish lad, "is this all you have in your heart to say unto me? +Surely, as I stand before you, it is not my desire to do such a thing, +for I would rather cut off my right hand. + +"God hath not been pleased to give me many friends, and He only knows +how you and the others have comforted my heart. I lie not, John, but +speak the truth, that there is nothing unto life itself I would not +give for your good, who have been as the apple of my eye unto me." + +Carmichael hardened himself, torn between a savage sense of +satisfaction that the Rabbi was suffering for his foolishness and the +inclination of his better self to respond to the old man's love. + +"If there be a breach between us, it will not be for you as it must be +for me. You have many friends, and may God add unto them good men and +faithful, but I shall lose my one earthly joy and consolation when your +feet are no longer heard on my threshold and your face no longer brings +light to my room. And, John, even this thing which I am constrained to +do is yet of love, as . . . you shall confess one day." + +Carmichael's pride alone resisted, and it was melting fast. Had he +even looked at the dear face he must have given way, but he kept his +shoulder to the Rabbi, and at that moment the sound of wheels passing +the corner of the manse gave him an ungracious way of escape. + +"That is Burnbrae's dogcart . . . Dr. Saunderson, and I think he will +not wish to keep his horse standing in the snow, so unless you will +stay all night, as it's going to drift. . . . Then perhaps it would be +better. . . . Can I assist you in packing?" How formal it all +sounded; and he allowed the Rabbi to go upstairs alone, with the result +that various things of the old man's are in Carmichael's house unto +this day. + +Another chance was given the lad when the Rabbi would have bidden him +good-bye at the door, beseeching that he should not come out into the +drift, and still another when Burnbrae, being concerned about his +passenger's appearance, who seemed ill-fitted to face a storm, wrapt +him in a plaid; and he had one more when the old man leant out of the +dogcart and took Carmichael's hand in both of his, but only said, "God +bless you for all you've been to me, and forgive me for all wherein I +have failed you." And they did not meet again till that +never-to-be-forgotten sederunt of the Free Kirk Presbytery of Muirtown, +when the minister of Kilbogie accused the minister of Drumtochty of +teaching the Linlathen heresy of the Fatherhood of God in a sermon +before the Sacrament. + +Among all the institutions of the North a Presbytery is the most +characteristic, and affords a standing illustration of the +contradictions of a supremely logical people. It is so anti-clerical a +court that for every clergyman there must be a layman--country +ministers promising to bring in their elder for great occasions, and +instructing him audibly how to vote--and so fiercely clerical that if +the most pious and intelligent elder dared to administer a sacrament he +would be at once tried and censured for sacrilege. So careful is a +Presbytery to prevent the beginnings of Papacy that it insists upon +each of its members occupying the chair in turn, and dismisses him +again into private life as soon as he has mastered his duties, but so +imbued is it with the idea of authority that whatever decision may be +given by some lad of twenty-five in the chair--duly instructed, +however, by the clerk below--will be rigidly obeyed. When a Presbytery +has nothing else to do, it dearly loves to pass a general condemnation +on sacerdotalism, in which the tyranny of prelates and the foolishness +of vestments will be fully exposed; but a Presbytery wields a power at +which a bishop's hair would stand on end, and Doctor Dowbiggin once +made Carmichael leave the Communion Table and go into the vestry to put +on his bands. + +When a Presbytery is in its lighter moods, it gives itself to points of +order with a skill and relish beyond the Southern imagination. It did +not matter how harmless, even infantile, might be the proposal placed +before the court by such a man as MacWheep of Pitscowrie; he has hardly +got past an apology for his presumption in venturing to speak at all +before a member of Presbytery--who had reduced his congregation to an +irreducible minimum by the woodenness of his preaching--inquires +whether the speech of "our esteemed brother is not _ultra vires_," or +something else as awful. MacWheep at once sits down with the air of +one taken red-handed in arson, and the court debates the point till +every authority has taken his fill, when the clerk submits to the +moderator, with a fine blend of deference and infallibility, that Mr. +MacWheep is perfectly within his rights; and then, as that estimable +person has by this time lost any thread he ever possessed, the +Presbytery passes to the next business--with the high spirit of men +returning from a holiday. Carmichael used, indeed, to relate how, in a +great stress of business, some one moved that the Presbytery should +adjourn for dinner, and the court argued for thirty minutes, with many +precedents, whether such a motion--touching as it did the standing +orders--could even be discussed, and, with an unnecessary prodigality +of testimony, he used to give perorations which improved with every +telling. + +The love of law diffused through the Presbytery became incarnate in the +clerk, who was one of the most finished specimens of his class in the +Scottish Kirk. His sedate appearance, bald, polished head, fringed +with pure white hair, shrewd face, with neatly cut side whiskers, his +suggestion of unerring accuracy and inexhaustible memory, his attitude +for exposition--holding his glasses in his left hand and enforcing his +decision with the little finger of the right hand--carried conviction +even to the most disorderly. Ecclesiastical radicals, boiling over +with new schemes, and boasting to admiring circles of MacWheeps that +they would not be brow-beaten by red-tape officials, became +ungrammatical before that firm gaze, and ended in abject surrender. +Self-contained and self-sufficing, the clerk took no part in debate, +save at critical moments to lay down the law, but wrote his minutes +unmoved through torrents of speech on every subject, from the +Sustentation Fund to the Union between England and Scotland, and even +under the picturesque eloquence of foreign deputies, whose names he +invariably requested should be handed to him, written legibly on a +sheet of paper. On two occasions only he ceased from writing: when Dr. +Dowbiggin discussed a method of procedure--then he watched him over his +spectacles in hope of a nice point; or when some enthusiastic brother +would urge the Presbytery to issue an injunction on the sin of Sabbath +walking--then the clerk would abandon his pen in visible despair, and +sitting sideways on his chair and supporting his head by that same +little finger, would face the Presbytery with an expression of reverent +curiosity on his face why the Almighty was pleased to create such a +man. His preaching was distinguished for orderliness, and was much +sought after for Fast days. It turned largely on the use of +prepositions and the scope of conjunctions, so that the clerk could +prove the doctrine of Vicarious Sacrifice from "for," and Retribution +from "as" in the Lord's Prayer, emphasizing and confirming everything +by that wonderful finger, which seemed to be designed by Providence for +delicate distinctions, just as another man's fist served for popular +declamation. His pulpit masterpiece was a lecture on the Council of +Jerusalem, in which its whole deliberations were reviewed by the rules +of the Free Kirk Book of Procedure, and a searching and edifying +discourse concluded with two lessons. First: That no ecclesiastical +body can conduct its proceedings without officials. Second: That such +men ought to be accepted as a special gift of Providence. + +The general opinion among good people was that the clerk's preaching +was rather for upbuilding than arousing, but it is still remembered by +the survivors of the old Presbytery that when MacWheep organized a +conference on "The state of religion in our congregations," and it was +meandering in strange directions, the clerk, who utilised such seasons +for the writing of letters, rose amid a keen revival of interest--it +was supposed that he had detected an irregularity in the +proceedings--and offered his contribution. It did not become him to +boast, he said, but he had seen marvellous things in his day: under his +unworthy ministry three beadles had been converted to Christianity, and +this experience was so final that the conference immediately closed. + +Times there were, however, when the Presbytery rose to its height and +was invested with an undeniable spiritual dignity. Its members, taken +one by one, consisted of farmers, shepherds, tradesmen, and one or two +professional men, with some twenty ministers, only two or three of whom +were known beyond their parishes. Yet those men had no doubt that as +soon as they were constituted in the name of Christ they held their +authority from the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, and they +bore themselves in spiritual matters as His servants. No kindly +feeling of neighbourliness or any fear of man could hinder them from +inquiring into the religious condition of a parish or dealing +faithfully with an erring minister. They had power to ordain, and laid +hands on the bent head of some young probationer with much solemnity; +they had also power to take away the orders they had given, and he had +been hardened indeed beyond hope who could be present and not tremble +when the Moderator, standing in his place, with the Presbytery around, +and speaking in the name of the Head of the Church, deposed an unworthy +brother from the holy ministry. MacWheep was a "cratur," and much +given to twaddle, but when it was his duty once to rebuke a +fellow-minister for quarrelling with his people, he was delivered from +himself, and spake with such grave wisdom as he has never shown before +or since. + +When the Presbytery assembled to receive a statement from Doctor +Saunderson "re error in doctrine by a brother Presbyter," even a +stranger might have noticed that its members were weighted with a sense +of responsibility, and although a discussion arose on the attempt of a +desultory member to introduce a deputy charged with the subject of the +lost Ten Tribes, yet it was promptly squelched by the clerk, who +intimated, with much gravity, that the court had met _in hunc +effectum_, viz. to hear Doctor Saunderson, and that the court could +not, in consistence with law, take up any other business, not +even--here Carmichael professed to detect a flicker of the clerkly +eyelids--the disappearance of the Ten Tribes. + +It was the last time that the Rabbi ever spoke in public, and it is now +agreed that the deliverance was a fit memorial of the most learned +scholar that has been ever known in those parts. He began by showing +that Christian doctrine has taken various shapes, some more and some +less in accordance with the deposit of truth given by Christ and the +holy Apostles, and especially that the doctrine of Grace had been +differently conceived by two eminent theologians, Calvin and Arminius, +and his exposition was so lucid that the clerk gave it as his opinion +afterwards that the two systems were understood by certain members of +the court for the first time that day. Afterwards the Rabbi vindicated +and glorified Calvinism from the Scriptures of the Old and New +Testament, from the Fathers, from the Reformation Divines, from the +later creeds, till the brain of the Presbytery reeled through the +wealth of allusion and quotation, all in the tongues of the learned. +Then he dealt with the theology of Mr. Erskine of Linlathen, and showed +how it was undermining the very foundations of Calvinism; yet the Rabbi +spake so tenderly of our Scottish Maurice that the Presbytery knew not +whether it ought to condemn Erskine as a heretic or love him as a +saint. Having thus brought the court face to face with the issues +involved, the Rabbi gave a sketch of a certain sermon he had heard +while assisting "a learned and much-beloved brother at the Sacrament," +and Carmichael was amazed at the transfiguration of this very youthful +performance, which now figured as a profound and edifying discourse, +for whose excellent qualities the speaker had not adequate words. This +fine discourse was, however, to a certain degree marred, the Rabbi +suggested, by an unfortunate, although no doubt temporary, leaning to +the teaching of Mr. Erskine, whose beautiful piety had exercised its +just fascination upon his spiritually-minded brother. Finally the +Rabbi left the matter in the hands of the Presbytery, declaring that he +had cleared his conscience, and that the minister in question was +one--here he was painfully overcome--dear to him as a son, and one to +whose many labours and singular graces he could bear full testimony, +the Rev. John Carmichael, of Drumtochty. The Presbytery was slow and +pedantic, but was not insensible to a spiritual situation, and there +was a murmur of sympathy when the Rabbi sat down--much exhausted, and +never having allowed himself to look once at Carmichael. + +Then arose a self-made man, who considered orthodoxy and capital to be +bound up together, and especially identified any departure from +sovereignty with that pestilent form of Socialism which demanded equal +chances for every man. He was only a plain layman, he said, and +perhaps he ought not to speak in the presence of so many reverend +gentlemen, but he was very grateful to Doctor Saunderson for his +honourable and straight-forward conduct. It would be better for the +Church if there were more like him, and he would just like to ask Mr. +Carmichael three questions. Did he sign the Confession of Faith?--that +was one; and had he kept it?--that was two; and the last was, When did +he propose to leave the Church? He knew something about building +contracts, and he had heard of a penalty when a contract was broken. +There was just one thing more he would like to say--if there was less +loose theology in the pulpit there would be more money in the plate. +The shame of the Rabbi during this harangue was pitiable to behold. + +[Illustration: THEN AROSE A SELF-MADE MAN] + +Then a stalwart arose on the other side, and a young gentleman who had +just escaped from a college debating society wished to know what +century we were living in, warned the last speaker that the progress of +theological science would not be hindered by mercenary threats, advised +Doctor Saunderson to read a certain German, called Ritschl--as if he +had been speaking to a babe in arms--and was re-freshing himself with a +Latin quotation, when the Rabbi, in utter absence of mind, corrected a +false quantity aloud. + +"Moderator," the old man apologized in much confusion, "I wot not what +I did, and I pray my reverend brother, whose interesting and +instructive address I have interrupted by this unmannerliness, to grant +me his pardon, for my tongue simply obeyed my ear." Which untoward +incident brought the modern to an end, as by a stroke of ironical fate. +It seemed to the clerk that little good to any one concerned was to +come out of this debate, and he signalled to Doctor Dowbiggin, with +whom he had dined the night before, when they concocted a motion over +their wine. Whereupon that astute man explained to the court that he +did not desire to curtail the valuable discussion, from which he +personally had derived much profit, but he had ventured to draw up a +motion, simply for the guidance of the House--it was said by the +Rabbi's boys that the Doctor's success as an ecclesiastic was largely +due to the skilful use of such phrases--and then he read: "Whereas the +Church is set in all her courts for the defence of the truth, whereas +it is reported that various erroneous doctrines are being promulgated +in books and other public prints, whereas it has been stated that one +of the ministers of this Presbytery has used words that might be +supposed to give sanction to a certain view which appears to conflict +with statements contained in the standards of the Church, the +Presbytery of Muirtown declares, first of all, its unshaken adherence +to the said standards; secondly, deplores the existence in any quarter +of notions contradictory or subversive of said standards; thirdly, +thanks Doctor Saunderson for the vigilance he has shown in the cause of +sound doctrine; fourthly, calls upon all ministers within the bounds to +have a care that they create no offence or misunderstanding by their +teaching, and finally enjoins all parties concerned to cultivate peace +and charity." + +This motion was seconded by the clerk and carried +unanimously--Carmichael being compelled to silence by the two wise men +for his own sake and theirs--and was declared to be a conspicuous +victory both by the self-made man and the modern, which was another +tribute to the ecclesiastical gifts of Doctor Dowbiggin and the clerk +of the Presbytery of Muirtown. + + + + +LIGHT AT EVENTIDE + +The Rabbi had been careful to send an abstract of his speech to +Carmichael, with a letter enough to melt the heart even of a +self-sufficient young clerical, and Carmichael had considered how he +should bear himself at the Presbytery. His intention had been to meet +the Rabbi with public cordiality and escort him to a seat, so that all +men should see that he was too magnanimous to be offended by this +latest eccentricity of their friend. This calculated plan was upset by +the Rabbi coming in late and taking the first seat that offered, and +when he would have gone afterwards to thank him for his generosity the +Rabbi had disappeared. It was evident that the old man's love was as +deep as ever, but that he was much hurt and would not risk another +repulse. Very likely he had walked in from Kilbogie, perhaps without +breakfast, and had now started to return to his cheerless manse. It +was a wetting spring rain, and he remembered that the Rabbi had no +coat. A fit of remorse overtook Carmichael, and he scoured the streets +of Muirtown to find the Rabbi, imagining deeds of attention--how he +would capture him unawares mooning along some side street hopelessly +astray; how he would accuse him of characteristic cunning and deep +plotting; how he would carry him by force to the Kilspindie Arms and +insist upon their dining in state; how the Rabbi would wish to +discharge the account and find twopence in his pockets--having given +all his silver to an ex-Presbyterian minister stranded in Muirtown +through peculiar circumstances; how he would speak gravely to the Rabbi +on the lack of common honesty, and threaten a real prosecution, when +the charge would be "obtaining a dinner on false pretences"; how they +would journey to Kildrummie in high content, and--the engine having +whistled for a dogcart--they would drive to Drumtochty manse, the sun +shining through the rain as they entered the garden; how he would +compass the Rabbi with observances, and the old man would sit again in +the big chair full of joy and peace. Ah, the kindly jests that have +not come off in life, the gracious deeds that never were done, the +reparations that were too late! When Carmichael reached the station +the Rabbi was already half-way to Kilbogie, trudging along wet, and +weary, and very sad, because, although he had obeyed his conscience at +a cost, it seemed to him as if all he had done was simply to alienate +the boy whom God had given him, as a son in his old age, for even the +guileless Rabbi suspected that the ecclesiastics considered his action +foolishness and of no service to the Church of God. Barbara's language +on his arrival was vituperative to a degree; she gave him food +grudgingly, and when, in the early morning, he fell asleep over an open +Father, he was repeating Carmichael's name, and the thick old paper was +soaked with tears. + +His nemesis seized Carmichael so soon as he reached the Dunleith train +in the shape of the Free Kirk minister of Kildrummie, who had purchased +six pounds of prize seed potatoes, and was carrying the treasure home +in a paper bag. This bag had done after its kind, and spilt its +contents, and as the distinguished agriculturist--who had not seen his +feet for years--could only have stooped at the risk of apoplexy, he +watched the dispersion of his potatoes with dismay, and hailed the +arrival of Carmichael with exclamations of thankfulness. It is +wonderful over what an area six pounds of (prize) potatoes can deploy +on a railway platform, and how the feet of passengers will carry them +unto far distances. Some might never have been restored to the bag had +it not been for Kildrummie's comprehensive eye and the physical skill +with which he guided Carmichael, till even prodigals that had strayed +over to the neighbourhood of the Aberdeen express were restored to the +extemporized fold in the minister's top-coat pockets. Carmichael had +knelt on that very platform six months or so before, but then he +laboured in the service of two most agreeable dogs and under the +approving eyes of Miss Carnegie; that was a different experience from +hunting after single potatoes on all fours among the feet of +unsympathetic passengers, and being prodded to duty by the umbrella of +an obese Free Kirk minister. As a reward for this service of the aged, +he was obliged to travel to Kildrummie with his neighbour--in whom for +the native humour that was in him he had often rejoiced, but whose +company was not congenial that day--and Kildrummie laid himself out for +a pleasant talk. After the roots had been secured and their pedigree +stated Kildrummie fell back on the proceedings of Presbytery, +expressing much admiration for the guidance of Doctor Dowbiggin and +denouncing Saunderson as "fair dottle," in proof of which judgment +Kildrummie adduced the fact that the Rabbi had allowed a very happily +situated pig-sty at the Manse of Kilbogie to sink into ruin. +Kildrummie, still in search of agreeable themes to pass the time, also +mentioned a pleasant tale he had gathered at the seed shop. + +[Illustration: HE WATCHED THE DISPERSION OF HIS POTATOES WITH DISMAY] + +"Yir neebur upbye, the General's dochter, is cairryin' on an awfu' rig +the noo at the Castle"--Kildrummie fell into dialect in private life, +often with much richness--"an' the sough (noise) o' her ongaeins hes +come the length o' Muirtown. The castle is foo' o' men--tae say +naethin' o' weemin; but it's little she hes tae dae wi' them or them +wi' her--officers frae Edinburgh an' writin' men frae London, as weel +as half a dozen coonty birkies." + +"Well?" said Carmichael, despising himself for his curiosity. + +"She hes a wy, there's nae doot o' that, an' gin the trimmie hesna +turned the heads o' half the men in the Castle, till they say she hes +the pick of twa lords, five honourables, and a poet. But the lassie +kens what's what; it's Lord Hay she's settin' her cap for, an' as sure +as ye're sittin' there, Drum, she'll hae him. + +"Ma word"--and Kildrummie pursued his way--"it'll be a match, the +dochter o' a puir Hielant laird, wi' naethin' but his half pay and a +few pounds frae a fairm or twa. She's a clever ane; French songs, +dancin', shootin', ridin', actin', there's nae deevilry that's beyond +her. They say upbye that she's been a bonnie handfu' tae her +father--General though he be--an' a' peety her man." + +"They say a lot of . . . lies, and I don't see what call a minister has +to slander . . ."; and then Carmichael saw the folly of quarrelling +with a veteran gossip over a young woman that would have nothing to say +to him. What two Free Kirk ministers or their people thought of her +would never affect Miss Carnegie. + +"Truth's nae slander," and Kildrummie watched Carmichael with relish; +"a' thocht ye wud hae got a taste o' her in the Glen. Didna a' heer +frae Piggie Walker that ye ca'd her Jezebel frae yir ain pulpit, an' +that ma lady whuppit oot o' the kirk in the middle o' the sermon?" + +"I did nothing of the kind, and Walker is a . . ." + +"Piggie's no very particular at a time," admitted Kildrummie; "maybe +it's a makup the story aboot Miss Carnegie an' yirsel'. + +"Accordin' tae the wratch," for Carmichael would deign no reply, "she +wes threatenin' tae mak' a fule o' the Free Kirk minister o' Drumtochty +juist for practice, but a' said, 'Na, na, Piggie, Maister Carmichael is +ower quiet and sensible a lad. He kens as weel as onybody that a +Carnegie wud never dae for a minister's wife. Gin ye said a Bailie's +dochter frae Muirtown 'at hes some money comin' tae her and kens the +principles o' the Free Kirk.' + +"Noo a' can speak frae experience, having been terrible fortunate wi' +a' ma wives. . . . Ye'll come up tae tea; we killed a pig yesterday, +and . . . Weel, weel, a wilfu' man maun hae his wy"; and Carmichael, +as he made his way up the hill, felt that the hand of Providence was +heavy upon him, and that any highmindedness was being severely +chastened. + +Two days Carmichael tramped the moors, returning each evening wet, +weary, hungry, to sleep ten hours without turning, and on the morning +of the third day he came down in such heart that Sarah wondered whether +he could have received a letter by special messenger; and he +congratulated himself, as he walked round his garden, that he had +overcome by sheer will power the first real infatuation of his life. +He was so lifted above all sentiment as to review his temporary folly +from the bare, serene heights of common sense. Miss Carnegie was +certainly not an heiress, and she was a young woman of very decided +character, but her blood was better than the Hays', and she was . . . +attractive--yes, attractive. Most likely she was engaged to Lord Hay, +or if he did not please her--she was . . . whimsical and . . . +self-willed--there was Lord Invermays' son. Fancy Kate . . . Miss +Carnegie in a Free Kirk manse--Kildrummie was a very . . . homely old +man, but he touched the point there--receiving Doctor Dowbiggin with +becoming ceremony and hearing him on the payment of probationers, or +taking tea at Kildrummie Manse--where he had, however, feasted royally +many a time after the Presbytery, but. . . . This daughter of a +Jacobite house, and brought up amid the romance of war, settling down +in the narrowest circle of Scottish life--as soon imagine an eagle +domesticated among barn-door poultry. This image amused Carmichael so +much that he could have laughed aloud, but . . . the village might have +heard him. He only stretched himself like one awaking, and felt so +strong that he resolved to drop in on Janet Macpherson, Kate's old +retainer--to see how it fared with the old woman and . . . to have Miss +Carnegie's engagement confirmed. The Carnegies might return any day +from the South, and it would be well that he should know how to meet +them. + +"You will be hearing," Janet mentioned, "that they hef come back to the +Lodge yesterday morning, and it iss myself that will be glad to see +Miss Kate again; and very pretty iss she looking, with peautiful +dresses and bonnets, for I hef seen them all, maybe twelve or ten. + +"Oh yes, my dear, Donald will be talking about her marriage to Lord +Kilspindie's son, who iss a very handsome young man and good at the +shooting; and he will be blowing that they will live at the Lodge in +great state, with many gillies and a piper and he will be head of them +all. + +"No, it iss not Janet Macpherson, my dear, that will be believing +Donald Cameron, or any Cameron--although I am not saying that the +Camerons are not men of their hands--for Donald will be always making +great stories and telling me wonderful things. He wass a brave man in +the battle, and iss very clever at the doctrine too, and will be strong +against human himes (hymns), but he iss a most awful liar iss Donald +Cameron, and you must not be believing a word that comes out of his +mouth. + +"She will be asking many questions in her room as soon as Donald had +brought up her boxes and the door was shut. Some will be about the +Glen, and some about the garden, and some will be about people--whether +you ever will be visiting me, and whether you asked for her after the +day she left the kirk. But I will say, 'No; Mr. Carmichael does not +speak about anything but the religion when he comes to my cottage.' + +"That iss nothing. I will be saying more, that I am hearing that the +minister iss to be married to a fery rich young lady in Muirtown who +hass been courting him for two years, and that her father will be +giving the minister twenty thousand pounds the day they are married. +And I will say she iss very beautiful, with blue eyes and gold hair, +and that her temper iss so sweet they are calling her the Angel of +Muirtown. + +"Toot, toot, my dear, you are not to be speaking about lies, for that +iss not a pretty word among friends, and you will not be meddling with +me, for you will be better at the preaching and the singing of himes +than dealing with women. It iss not good to be making yourself too +common, and Miss Kate will be thinking the more of you if you be +holding your head high and letting her see that you are not a poor +lowland body, but a Farquharson by your mother's side, and maybe of the +chief's blood, though twenty or fifteen times removed. + +"She will be very pleased to hear such good news of you, and be saying +that it iss a mercy you are getting somebody to dress you properly. +But her temper will not be at all good, and I did not ask her about +Lord Hay, and she said nothing to me, nor about any other lord. It iss +not often I hef seen as great a liar as Donald Cameron. + +"Last evening Miss Kate will come down before dinner and talk about +many things, and then she will say at the door, 'Donald tells me that +Mister Carmichael does not believe in the Bible, and that his friend, +Doctor Saunderson, has cast him off, and that he has been punished by +his Bishop or somebody at Muirtown.' + +"'Donald will be knowing more doctrine and telling more lies every +month,' I said to her. 'Doctor Saunderson--who is a very fine preacher +and can put the fear of God upon the people most wonderful--and our +minister had a little feud, and they will fight it out before some +chiefs at Muirtown like gentlemen, and now they are good friends again.' + +"Miss Kate had gone off for a long walk, and I am not saying but that +she will be calling at Kilbogie Manse before she comes back. She is +very fond of Doctor Saunderson, and maybe he will be telling her of the +feud. It iss more than an hour through the woods to Kilbogie," +concluded Janet, "but you will be having a glass of milk first." + +Kate reviewed her reasons for the expedition to Kilbogie, and settled +they were the pleasures of a walk through Tochty woods when the spring +flowers were in their glory, and a visit to one of the dearest +curiosities she had ever seen. It was within the bounds of possibility +that Doctor Saunderson might refer to his friend, but on her part she +would certainly not refer to the Free Church minister of Drumtochty. +Her reception by that conscientious professor Barbara could not be +called encouraging. + +"Ay, he's in, but ye canna see him, for he's in his bed, and gin he +disna mend faster than he wes daein' the last time a' gied him a cry, +he's no like to be in the pulpit on Sabbath. A' wes juist thinkin' he +wudna be the waur o' a doctor." + +"Do you mean to say that Doctor Saunderson is lying ill and no one +nursing him?" and Kate eyed the housekeeper in a very unappreciative +fashion. + +"Gin he wants a nurse she'll hae tae be brocht frae Muirtown Infirmary, +for a've eneuch to dae withoot ony fyke (delicate work) o' that kind. +For twal year hev a' been hoosekeeper in this manse, an' gin it hedna +been for peety a' wad hae flung up the place. + +"Ye never cud tell when he wud come in, or when he wud gae oot, or what +he wud be wantin' next. A' the waufies (disreputable people) in the +countryside come here, and the best in the hoose is no gude eneuch for +them. He's been an awfu' handfu' tae me, an' noo a' coont him clean +dottle (silly). But we maun juist bear oor burdens," concluded Barbara +piously, and she proposed to close the door. + +"Your master will not want a nurse a minute longer; show me his room at +once"; and Kate was so commanding that Barbara's courage began to fail. + +"Wha may ye be," raising her voice to rally her heart, "'at wud take +chairge o' a strainger in his ain hoose an' no sae muckle as ask leave?" + +"I am Miss Carnegie, of Tochty Lodge; will you stand out of my way?" +and Kate swept past Barbara and went upstairs. + +"Weel, a' declare," as soon as she had recovered, "of a' the impudent +hizzies"; but Barbara did not say this in Kate's hearing. + +Kate had seen various curious hospitals in her day, and had nursed many +sick men--like the brave girl she was--but the Rabbi's room was +something quite new. His favourite books had been gathering there for +years, and now lined two walls and overhung the bed after a very +perilous fashion and had dispossessed the looking-glass--which had +become a nomad and was at present resting insecurely on John Owen--and +stood in banks round the bed. During his few days of illness the Rabbi +had accumulated so many volumes round him that he lay in a kind of +tunnel, arched over, as it were, with literature. He had been reading +Calvin's _Commentary on the Psalms_, in Latin, and it still lay open at +the 88th, the saddest of all songs in the Psalter; but as he grew +weaker the heavy folio had slid forward, and he seemed to be feeling +for it. Although Kate spoke to him by name, he did not know any one +was in the room. "Lord, why castest Thou off my soul? . . . I suffer +Thy terror, I am distracted . . . fierce wrath goeth over me . . . +lover and friend hast Thou put far from me . . . friend far from me." + +His head fell on his breast, his breath was short and rapid, and he +coughed every few seconds. + +"My friend far from me. . . ." + +At the sorrow in his voice and the thing which he said the tears came +to Kate's eyes, and she went forward and spoke to him very gently. "Do +you know me, Dr. Saunderson--Miss Carnegie?" + +"Not Saunderson . . . Magor Missabib." + +"Rabbi, Rabbi"--so much Carmichael had told her; and now Kate stroked +the bent white head. "Your friend, Mister Carmichael--" + +"Yes, yes"--he now looked up and spoke eagerly--"John Carmichael, of +Drumtochty . . . my friend in my old age . . . and others . . . my +boys . . . but John has left me . . . he would not speak to me . . . I +am alone now . . . he did not understand . . . mine acquaintance into +darkness . . . here we see in a glass darkly . . ." (he turned aside to +expound the Greek word for darkly), "but some day . . . face to face." +And twice he said it, with an indescribable sweetness, "face to face." + +Kate hurriedly removed the books from the bed and wrapt round his +shoulders the old gray plaid that had eked out his covering at night, +and then she went downstairs. + +"Bring," she said to Barbara, "hot water, soap, towels, and a sponge to +Dr. Saunderson's bedroom, immediately." + +"And gin a' dinna?" inquired Barbara aggressively. + +"I'll shoot you where you stand." + +Barbara shows to her cronies how Miss Carnegie drew a pistol from her +pocket at this point and held it to her head, and how at every turn the +pistol was again in evidence; sometimes a dagger is thrown in, but that +is only late in the evening when Barbara is under the influence of +tonics. Kate herself admits that if she had had her little revolver +with her she might have been tempted to outline the housekeeper's face +on the wall, and she still thinks her threat an inspiration. + +"Now," said Kate, when Barbara had brought her commands in with +incredible celerity, "bring up some fresh milk and three glasses of +whisky." + +"Whisky!" Barbara could hardly compass the unfamiliar word. "The +Doctor never hed sic a thing in the hoose, although mony a time, puir +man . . ." Discipline was softening even that austere spirit. + +"No, but you have, for you are blowing a full gale just now; bring up +your private bottle, or I'll go down for it." + +"There's enough," holding the bottle to the light, "to do till evening; +go to the next farm and send a man on horseback to tell Mr. Carmichael, +of Drumtochty, that Doctor Saunderson is dying, and another for Doctor +Manley of Muirtown." + +Very tenderly did Kate sponge the Rabbi's face and hands, and then she +dressed his hair, till at length he came to himself. + +"This ministry is . . . grateful to me, Barbara . . . my strength has +gone from me . . . but my eyes fail me. . . . Of a verity you are +not . . ." + +"I am Kate Carnegie, whom you were so kind to at Tochty. Will you let +me be your nurse? I learned in India, and know what to do." It was +only wounded soldiers who knew how gentle her voice could be, and how +soft her hands. + +"It is I that . . . should be serving you . . . the first time you have +come to the manse . . . no woman has ever done me . . . such kindness +before. . . ." He followed her as she tried to bring some order out of +chaos, and knew not that he spoke aloud. "A gracious maid . . . above +rubies." + +His breathing was growing worse, in spite of many wise things she did +for him--Doctor Manley, who paid no compliments, but was a strength +unto every country doctor in Perthshire, praises Kate unto this +day--and the Rabbi did not care to speak. So she sat down by his side +and read to him from the _Pilgrim's Progress_--holding his hand all the +time--and the passage he desired was the story of Mr. Fearing. + +"This I took very great notice of, that the valley of the shadow of +Death was as quiet while he went through it as ever I knew it before or +since. I suppose these enemies here had now a special check from our +Lord and a command not to meddle until Mr. Fearing was passed over +it. . . . Here also I took notice of what was very remarkable: the +water of that river was lower at this time than ever I saw it in all my +life. So he went over at last, not much above wet-shod. When he was +going up to the gate . . ." + +The Rabbi listened for an instant. + +"It is John's step . . . he hath a sound of his own . . . my only +earthly desire is fulfilled." + +"Rabbi," cried Carmichael, and half kneeling, he threw one arm round +the old man, "say that you forgive me. I looked for you everywhere on +Monday, but you could not be found." + +"Did you think, John, that I . . . my will was to do you an injury +or . . . vex your soul? Many trials in my life . . . all God's +will . . . but this hardest . . . when I lost you . . . nothing left +here . . . but you . . .--my breath is bad, a little chill--. . . do +you understand?" + +"I always did, and I never respected you more; it was my foolish pride +that made me call you Doctor Saunderson in the study; but my love was +the same, and now you will let me stay and wait on you." + +The old man smiled sadly, and laid his hand on his boy's head. + +"I cannot let you . . . go, John, my son." + +"Go and leave you, Rabbi!" Carmichael tried to laugh. "Not till you +are ready to appear at the Presbytery again. We'll send Barbara away +for a holiday, and Sarah will take her place--you remember that +cream--and we shall have a royal time, a meal every four hours, Rabbi, +and the Fathers in between"; and Carmichael, springing to his feet and +turning round to hide his tears, came face to face with Miss Carnegie, +who had been unable to escape from the room. + +"I happened to call"--Kate was quite calm--"and found Doctor Saunderson +in bed; so I stayed till some friend should come; you must have met the +messenger I sent for you." + +"Yes, a mile from the manse; I was on my way . . . Janet said . . . but +I . . . did not remember anything when I saw the Rabbi." + +"Will you take a little milk again . . . Rabbi?" and at her bidding and +the name he made a brave effort to swallow, but he was plainly sinking. + +"No more," he whispered; "thank you . . . for service . . . to a lonely +man; may God bless you . . . both. . . ." He signed for her hand, +which he kept to the end. + +[Illustration: HE SIGNED FOR HER HAND, WHICH HE KEPT TO THE END] + +"Satisfied . . . read, John . . . the woman from coasts of--of----" + +"I know, Rabbi," and kneeling on the other side of the bed, he read the +story slowly of a Tyrian woman's faith. + +"It is not meet to take the children's meat and cast it to dogs." + +"Dogs"--they heard the Rabbi appropriate his name--"outside . . . the +covenant." + +"And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall +from their master's table." + +"Lord, I believe . . . help Thou mine . . . unbelief." + +He then fell into an agony of soul, during which Carmichael could hear: +"Though . . . He slay . . . me . . . yet will I trust . . . trust . . . +in Him." He drew two or three long breaths and was still. After a +little he was heard again with a new note--"He that believeth . . . in +Him . . . shall not be confounded," and again, "A bruised reed . . . +shall He not . . ." Then he opened his eyes and raised his head--but +he saw neither Kate nor Carmichael, for the Rabbi had done with earthly +friends and earthly trials--and he, who had walked in darkness and seen +no light, said in a clear voice full of joy, "My Lord, and my God." + +It was Kate who closed his eyes and laid the old scholar's head on the +pillow, and then she left the room, casting one swift glance of pity at +Carmichael, who was weeping bitterly and crying between the sobs, +"Rabbi! Rabbi!" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RABBI SAUNDERSON*** + + +******* This file should be named 18063.txt or 18063.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/6/18063 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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