Chapter IV (5)

“I honoured them when they went out,” replied the doctor, finding speech again, “and I love them coming back to their old Kirk.” It was agreed between Carmichael and the doctor that half an hour from that time the bells of the two kirks should be rung, and though neither bell dominated more than the distance of three fields, Dr. Davidson declared that the Free Church bell was distinctly audible in the kirkyard; while a group of Free Kirk men gathered round their door remarked to one another that they had never noticed before how sweet was the sound of the Old Kirk bell. And they were speaking true, for the bells were ringing in their hearts. While Parliament had been deliberating on the bill, the two Kirks had been making their arrangements in faith for the uniting of congregations, and it had already been determined that Dr. Davidson and Carmichael should be joint ministers of the parish of Drumtochty, and that the congregations should worship in the Parish Kirk. When there was a will in Drumtochty there was always a way, and arrangements were quickly made that the parish should gather again on the following Sabbath into the kirk where their fathers had worshipped, and round which the dust of generations lay. At eleven o'clock the Free Church congregation met for the last time as a separate flock, in the building which they had erected with great sacrifice, and which was sanctified by many sacred memories; and then, after Carmichael had conducted a short service, and Donald Menzies, one of the elders, had offered up a prayer of thanksgiving wherein he carried the congregation with him to the Mercy Seat, and moved even the stiffest, they sang the second Paraphrase, “O God of Bethel! by whose hand,” and Carmichael pronounced the benediction, with more than one pause between the words. Then they went out through the door by which, more than a generation ago, the congregation had entered, obeying their conscience, and testifying for the freedom of Christ's Kirk. Without any marshalling or vain ceremony they fell into a procession, and this was the order in which they went. First came Carmichael in his gown and bands, his M.A. hood and college cap, carrying in his hand his mother's Bible, and beside him Bumbrae, Donald Menzies, Lauchlan Campbell, and the other elders, all dressed as for the Sacrament. Behind them followed the choir, and then the people as they pleased, family by family, parents and children together. Thrice on the road they broke into singing, and these were the Psalms they sang--the xcviii.--

“O sing a new song to the Lord,
For wonders He hath done:
His right hand and His holy arm
Him victory hath won”;

and the lxxxiv.--

“How lovely is Thy dwelling-place,
O Lord of hosts, to me!
The tabernacles of Thy grace
How pleasant, Lord, they be!”

and the cxxxiii.--

“Behold, how good a thing it is,
And how becoming well,
Together such as brethren are
In unity to dwell!”

They began to sing this Psalm as they were ascending the height on which the Parish Kirk stood, and when they reached the top of the hill the sound of the Psalm was still in the air. Then Carmichael and the elders beheld a heartening spectacle. Dr. Davidson and, his people had also met for worship in their kirk, and, being told by a swift messenger that their brethren were at hand, they had come out through the kirkyard and ranged themselves in two rows along the roadside; while in the centre of the high road, and in front of his people, stood the parish minister, with his ruling elder, Drum-sheugh, by his side. The two ministers faced one another, and the people stood perfectly still; the glorious sunshine poured down upon their heads, and on either side the fields were golden unto the harvest. Clear but tender was Dr. Davidson's voice. “Reverend and dearly-beloved brother, I greet you, your elders, and your congregation in the name of the Lord, and, as senior minister of this parish, I bid you welcome to the Kirk of Drumtochty.”

And then Carmichael--“Reverend and honoured father in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, my people and I thank God that there is now one congregation in Drumtochty, and that you are our minister.”

Drumsheugh grasped Bumbrae's hand, but what passed between those two worthy men no one heard, and then Dr. Davidson and Carmichael headed the united procession, with the elders behind them; and as they moved down the sideway between the hedges, the Old Kirk folk fell in with the Free Kirk, so that they passed through the kirkyard one united company, and as they went they sang the Psalm cxxii.--

“I joy'd when to the house of God,
Go up, they said to me.
Jerusalem, within thy gates
Our feet shall standing be.”

And by a happy coincidence they were singing the last words as the ministers and elders went in through the door--

“Now, for my friends' and brethren's sakes,
Peace be in thee, I'll say.
And for the house of God our Lord,
I'll seek thy good alway.”

It had been arranged between them, who were indeed as father and son, that Dr. Davidson should take the service and Carmichael should preach the sermon, and when the people were all seated, neither Established nor Free now, but all Scots Kirk men with one heart, one faith, one love, Dr. Davidson gave out another of the glorious Psalms, whose ancient traditions and wealth of spiritual emotion had served the people so well that day.

“Let us worship God this day, and sing unto the praise of His glorious name Psalm cxxvi.”

“When Sion's bondage God turn'd back,
As men that dream'd were we.”

But he was not able to read further, and the congregation, who understood, and whose own hearts were full, broke into the singing; and at the noise thereof Carmichael awoke, for it was only a dream.

“What might have been,” he said to himself, with wistful regret, as he descended the hill, and then his heart lifted, “and, please God, what is going to be before my day is done.”

XXII.--THE VISION OF THE SOUL

THERE were many modest homes in the Glen, but the humblest of them all was that of Bell Robb, where she lived with Jean, her sister, and blind Marjorie. It had only one room, and that had only one window. A tall man could stand upright only in the centre, and the hearth was so near the top of the chimney that it was a fight in the winter time between the fire and the snow, and the snow used to win the battle before morning. There was a box bed at the back of the room where Bell and Jean slept, and the lowliest of little beds just below the window had been Marjorie's home night and day for many a long year, because she had not only been blind from her birth, but since middle age had also been paralyzed. There was a table and two chairs, and a dresser on which the humble stock of crockery was carefully displayed. From above the fireplace the humblest of oil lamps, called a cruizie, projected, but the cottage had two brass candlesticks which were never used, but were polished like unto fine gold and were the glory of the home.

If providence had been unkind to any person in the Glen it was to Marjorie, for her birth had been a tragedy, and the helpless child, blind and feeble, had been flung upon the world. She had never known father or mother, she had never seen the primroses in the Tochty woods when spring made her first visit, nor the purple of the heather in autumn time, nor the golden com in the field before her door, nor the sunshine upon the Burn down below. She had no kinsfolk to take charge of her, she had no claim upon any one except the poor law authorities, and had she been bom into a parish like Kilbogie the workhouse had been her only asylum. But it was a kindly little world into which this poor waif and stray had come--a world which had not many words nor much money, whose ways were curious and whose manner was austere, but whose heart was big and warm. Drumtochty had its laws of public policy which Government itself was never able to over-ride, which every man and woman in the Glen set themselves to enforce. And one was that no native of the Glen should ever be sent to the coldness and bondage of a workhouse; that however poor he might be and however long he lived, he must be kept in the shelter of our pine woods where he could see the Tochty run. As a matter of fact, this was not so great a burden on the neighbours, for Drumtochty folk had a rooted objection, which not even the modern spirit creeping up into the Glen could overcome, against being paupers or depending on any person save on themselves and God. Drumtochty had no pity for wastrels and very little sympathy with shiftless people, but Marjorie, poor Marjorie, she had the spirit to work--we judged she had about the highest spirit in the Glen--but what could she do without sight and with her trembling hands? So the Glen adopted Marjorie, and declared in wayside talk and many a kirkyard conference that she had given them more than they had ever given to her.

Bell Robb and Jean, her sister, earned their living by hoeing turnips, lifting potatoes, binding at harvest and gathering the stones off the field--which were ever coming up to the surface in our poor thin soil--and they made between them on an average from January to December nearly twelve shillings a week. They declared that being two solitary women providence had intended they should have Marjorie, and now for thirty years she had been with them, and they spent upon her twice as much as they received in grants from the parish inspector, and declared with brazen effrontery that they were making a little fortune out of her. They also gave sixpence a month to the sustentation fund of the Free Kirk, and a shilling at a great collection, and if there was any little presentation in the Glen they had a shilling for that also. How they did those things was only known to God. Their faces were lined by labour and burned brown by the sun, but they looked well in the light of the Sacrament, for they were partakers of the Lord's Cross; their hands were rough and hard with field labour, but very gentle and kindly when they waited upon Marjorie. And when Marjorie began to relate the catalogue of her blessings, she always put next to her Saviour Bell and her sister Jean. The two sisters have had their humble funeral years ago, and their tired bodies with Marjorie's body of humiliation were laid to rest in the old kirkyard, and theirs was then the reward of Him who said, “I was a stranger and ye took me in.” Drumsheugh, returning from Muirtown market one afternoon by road, dropped in to pass the time o' day with Marjorie--leaving half a pound of tea upon the dresser--and was arrested by the humility of her bed. He was overheard saying “Sall” to himself as he returned to the main road with the tone of a man who had come to a resolution, and next Friday he drove up from Muirtown with a small iron bedstead, arranged in parts over his dogcart, while he sat with dignity upon the mattress. The installation of Marjorie into her new couch was the event of her life, and for weeks the Glen dropped in, partly to see Drumsheugh's amazing gift, but chiefly to hear Marjorie on his unparalleled kindness and its unparalleled splendour. She had felt it over inch by inch, and knew the pattern to a turn, but she was chiefly concerned that her visitors should observe and rightly appreciate the brass knobs at the four corners.

“Drumsheugh micht have got an ordinary bed for half the money, but naething wud sateesfy him but brass knobs. Ye may say that I canna see them, but I can feel them, and I ken that they're there, and the neighbours see them, and to think o't that I'm lying here like a queen on a spring bed with four brass knobs. And me that has no claim on Drumsheugh or ony other body, juist crowned wi' loving kindness. I'll need to ask grace to be kept humble.”

According to Marjorie indeed her whole life had been arranged on the principle of Drumsheugh's giving: instead of iron she had received brass, yea, much fine gold, and all things had worked together for her good. When her minister Carmichael forgot himself one day and pitied her for her afflictions she was amazed, and had to remind herself that he had only come to the Glen. For was it not her helplessness that had won her so much love, so that from high Glen Urtarch down to the borders of Kilbogie every man, woman and child was her friend, dropping in to see her, bringing her all the news, and making her so many little presents that she was “fair ashamed”? And she reminded John Carmichael that if she, Marjorie, had been an able-bodied woman, he would not have paid her so many visits, nor told her so many “bonny stories.”

“Mr. Carmichael, I'll have much to answer for, for I've been greatly blessed. I judge masel' the maist priveeleged woman in Drumtochty.” And then Carmichael, who had his own troubles and discontentments, used to go away a wiser and a better man.

Marjorie saw the hand of an all,-wise and all-loving Providence in the arrangements of her home. For one thing it faced south, and she got the warmth and the shining of the sun through her little window, and there was an advantage in the door opening straight from the garden into the room, for the scent of the flowers came in to her bed, and she knew when the wallflowers had begun to bloom and when the first rosebud above the doorway had opened. She would have liked very well to have gone to the Kirk with a goodly company, but lying alone on her bed through the hours of service she had time for prayer, and I have heard her declare that the time was too short for her petitions. “For, ye see, I have sae mony friends to remember, and my plan is to begin at the top of the Glen and tak' them family by family till I come to the end of the parish. And wud ye believe it, I judge that it takes me four complete days to bring a' the fowk I love before the Throne of Grace.”

As for her darkness of earthly sight, this, she insisted, was the chief good which God had bestowed upon her, and she made out her case with the ingenuity of a faithful and contented heart.

“If I dinna see”--and she spoke as if this was a matter of doubt and she were making a concession for argument's sake--“there's naebody in the Glen can hear like me. There's no a footstep of a Drum-tochty man comes to the door but I ken his name, and there's no a voice oot on the road that I canna tell. The birds sing sweeter to me than to onybody else, and I can hear them cheeping to one another in the bushes before they go to sleep. And the flowers smell sweeter to me--the roses and the carnations and the bonny moss rose--and I judge that the oatcake and milk taste the richer because I dinna see them. Na, na, ye're no to think that I've been ill treated by my God, for if He didna give me ae thing, He gave me mony things instead.

“And mind ye, it's no as if I'd seen once and lost my sight; that micht ha' been a trial, and my faith micht have failed. I've lost naething; my life has been all getting.”

And she said confidentially one day to her elder, Donald Menzies--

“There's a mercy waitin' for me that'll crown a' His goodness, and I'm feared when I think o't, for I'm no worthy.”

“What iss that that you will be meaning, Marjorie,” said the elder.

“He has covered my face with His hand as a father plays with his bairn, but some day sune He will lift His hand, and the first thing that Marjorie sees in a' her life will be His ain face.”

And Donald Menzies declared to Bumbrae on the way home that he would gladly go blind all the days of his life if he were as sure of that sight when the day broke and the shadows fled away.