“Why James? The Domine’s name was Magnus.”
“He would not have his Christian name changed. 369 He said he would rather lose ten fortunes, than touch a letter of his name. James had been solemnly given him in the kirk, and so written down in the Kirk Book, and he hoped in God’s Book also, and he believed it would be against his calling and salvation to alter it. Folks thought it was very grand in him, but his Aunt Christine was no doubt at the bottom o’ his stubbornness. For that matter he minds her yet, as obedient as if he was her bairn.”
“Then he got the Domine’s money?”
“The lion’s share. The village and school of Culraine got a good slice of it, and King’s College, Aberdeen, another slice, but Jamie Ruleson got the lion’s share. He married the daughter of the Greek Professor in King’s, and their first child was a laddie, who was called Magnus. Some are saying that his preaching isna quite orthodox, but rich and poor crowd any church he speaks in, and if you are going to Glasgow, you will hardly be let awa’ without hearing him.”
“How is that?”
“This one and that one will be asking you, ‘Have you heard Doctor Trenabie preach? You’ll never think o’ going awa’ without hearing the man?’”
A little later I heard him. Sarah Lochrigg had not said too much. I saw and heard a preacher by Grace of God—no cold, logical word-sifter, but a prophet inspired by his own evangel. He was full of a divine passion for heavenly things, and his eager, faithful words were illuminated by mystic 370 flashes, just as a dark night is sometimes made wonderful by flashes of electricity. The subject of his sermon was “Our Immortality” and his first proposition startled me.
“Before asking if a man has a future life, let us ask, ‘is he living now?’ The narrow gateway to the cities not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, is Conscience! If there is no Conscience, is there any soul?” From this opening he reasoned of life, death and eternity, with that passionate stress of spirit which we owe entirely to Christianity. The building seemed on fire, and it was difficult even for the reticent Scot to restrain the vehement, impetuous cry of the jailer at old Philippi—“What shall I do to be saved?”
Physically, his appearance was one well-fitting a Man of God. He looked worthy of the name. He was tall, and slenderly built, and when some divinely gracious promise fell from his lips, his face broke up as if there were music in it. He had the massive chin, firm mouth and large, thoughtful gray eyes of his grandfather Ruleson, and the classical air of a thoroughbred ecclesiastic that had distinguished Doctor Trenabie. Surely the two men who so loved him on earth hear the angels speak of him in heaven, and are satisfied.
It was a coincidence that on the following morning, I found, in a Scotch magazine, three verses by his Aunt Christine. In the present stressful time of war and death, they cannot be inappropriate, and at 371 any rate, they must have been among the last dominant thoughts of my heroine. We may easily imagine her, sitting at the open door of the large room which gave her such a wide outlook over the sea, and such a neighborly presence of the village, watching the ghost-like ships in the moonlight, and setting the simple lines either to the everlasting beat of noisy waves, or the still small voice of mighty tides circling majestically around the world: