He awoke after midnight, with the word “Margot” on his lips, and Margot slipped her hand into his, and kissed him.
“We are going to have supper with the Lord Christ. Will you join us, Ruleson?”
“Ay, will—I—gladly!”
After the simple rite Ruleson was quite happy. He said a few words privately to the Domine, asked for his grandson, and told him to be a good man, and a minister of God, and promised if it was in God’s will he would watch o’er him, and then blessed and sent him away.
“I might hae another struggle at the last. I dinna want him to see it.”
“The struggle is over, James,” answered the Domine. “Be still, and wait for the salvation of the Lord.”
And for some hours, even until the day broke, and the shadows began to flee away, that dying room was in a strange peace. Margot and Christine sat almost motionless, watching their loved one’s face growing more and more calm and content, and the Domine stood or sat at the foot of the bed, and all was intensely still.
“Great things are passing in the soul now,” he said to the women. “It is contemplating the past. It is judging itself. It is bearing witness to the righteousness and mercy of its Maker. Pray that it may come from this great assize justified through Christ.” Soon after, he added “The tide has 229 turned, he will go out with the tide. Stand near him now, and sing softly with me his last human prayer:
“Jesus, lover of my soul,