By and by the Book was brought, and Mr Fleming, as head and priest of the household, solemnly asked God’s blessing on the Word they were to read, before he gave it to the minister to conduct the evening worship. It chanced that the chapter read was the one from which Mr Maxwell’s Sunday text had been taken; and in the pause that followed the unwilling, but unresisting departure of the little ones to bed, Clifton said so. Then he added that he wished Mrs Fleming had been there to hear the sermon, as he would have liked to hear her opinion as to some of the sentiments given in it by the minister. It was said with the hope of drawing the old lady into one of the discussions of which they had heard, Elizabeth knew, but it did not succeed.
“I heard the sermon, and had no fault to find with it; had you?” said Mrs Fleming.
“Fault! No. One would hardly like to find fault with it before the minister,” said Clifton, laughing. “I am not very well up in theology myself, but it struck me that the sermon was not just in the style of old Mr Hollister’s.”
“I doubt you werena in the way of taking much heed of Mr Hollister’s sermons, and you can ask Mr Maxwell the meaning of his words if you are not satisfied. What was lacking in the sermon the years will supply to those that are to follow it. It was written at the bidding of the doctors o’ divinity at the college, was it not?”
“Yes,” said Mr Maxwell with some hesitation, “it was written for them.”
“Oh! they would surely be pleased with it. It was sound and sensible and conclusive; that is, you said in it what you set out to say, and that doesna ay happen in sermons. You’ll put more heart in your ministrations when you have been a while among us, I hope.”
There was a few minutes’ silence.
“There is a grave charge implied in your words, Mrs Fleming, and I fear a true one,” said the minister.
“I meant none,” said Mrs Fleming earnestly. “As for your sermon, what could you expect? It was all the work of your head, your heart had little part in it. It was the doctors of divinity, and the lads, your fellow-students—ilka ane o’ them waiting to get a hit at you—that you had in your mind when you were writing it, and no’ the like of us poor folk, who are needing to be guided and warned and fed. But it is a grand thing to have a clear head, and to be able to put things in the right way, and, according to the established rules: yon was a fine discourse; though you seemed to take little pleasure in it yourself, sir, I thought, as you went on.”
Mr Maxwell smiled rather ruefully. “I took little pleasure in it indeed.”