Part 39 (1/2)
”Will it pe a fire? She feels something warm on her head,” he said, rolling his sightless...o...b.., upon which the splendour broke waveless, casting a grim shadow of him on the jagged rock behind.
”No,” answered Mr Graham; ”it is the sun you feel. He's just out of his grave.”
The old man gave a grunt.
”I often think,” said the schoolmaster to Malcolm, ”that possibly the reason why we are told so little about the world we are going to, is, that no description of it would enter our minds any more than a description of that sunrise would carry a notion of its reality into the mind of your grandfather.”
”She's obleeched to you, Mr Craham!” said the piper with offence.
”You take her fery stupid. You're so proud of your eyes, you think a plind man cannot see at aall! Chm!”
But the folk began to a.s.semble. By twos and threes, now from the one side, now from the other, they came dropping in as if out of the rush of the blinding suns.h.i.+ne, till the seats were nearly filled, while a goodly company gathered about the mouth of the cave, there to await the arrival of those who had called the meeting. Presently MacLeod, a small thin man, with iron gray hair, keen, shrewd features, large head, and brown complexion, appeared, and made his way to the further end of the cave, followed by three or four of the men of Scaurnose, amongst whom walked a pale faced, consumptive lad, with bowed shoulders and eyes on the ground: he it was who, feebly clambering on a ledge of rock, proceeded to conduct the wors.h.i.+p of the a.s.sembly. His parents were fisher people of Scaurnose, who to make a minister of him had been half starving the rest of their family; but he had broken down at length under the hards.h.i.+ps of endless work and wretched food. From the close of the session in March, he had been teaching in Aberdeen until a few days before, when he came home, aware that he was dying, and full of a fervour betraying anxiety concerning himself rather than indicating the possession of good news for others. The sun had now so far changed his position, that, although he still shone into the cave, the preacher stood in the shadow, out of which gleamed his wasted countenance, pallid and sombre and solemn, as first he poured forth an abject prayer for mercy, conceived in the spirit of a slave supplicating the indulgence of a hard master, and couched in words and tones that bore not a trace of the filial; then read the chapter containing the curses of Mount Ebal, and gave the congregation one of Duncan's favourite psalms to sing; and at length began a sermon on what he called the divine justice. Not one word was there in it, however, concerning G.o.d's love of fair dealing, either as betwixt himself and man, or as betwixt man and his fellow; the preacher's whole notion of justice was the punishment of sin; and that punishment was h.e.l.l, and h.e.l.l only; so that the whole sermon was about h.e.l.l from beginning to end--h.e.l.l appalling, lurid, hopeless. And the eyes of all were fixed upon him with that glow from within which manifests the listening spirit. Some of the women were as pale as himself from sympathetic horror, doubtless also from a vague stirring of the conscience, which, without accusing them of crime, yet told them that all was not right between them and their G.o.d; while the working of the faces of some of the men betrayed a mind not at all at ease concerning their prospects. It was an eloquent and powerful utterance, and might doubtless claim its place in the economy of human education; but it was at best a pagan embodiment of truths such as a righteous pagan might have discovered, and breathed nothing of the spirit of Christianity, being as unjust towards G.o.d as it represented him to be towards men: the G.o.d of the preacher was utterly unlike the father of Jesus. Urging his hearers to flee from the wrath to come, he drew such a picture of an angry Deity as in nothing resembled the revelation in the Son.
”Fellow sinners,” he said in conclusion, ”haste ye and flee from the wrath to come. Now is G.o.d waiting to be gracious--but only so long as his Son holds back the indignation ready to burst forth and devour you. He sprinkles its flames with the scarlet wool and the hyssop of atonement; he stands between you and justice, and pleads with his incensed Father for his rebellious creatures. Well for you that he so stands and so pleads! Yet even he could not prevail for ever against such righteous anger; and it is but for a season he will thus entreat; the day will come when he will stand aside and let the fiery furnace break forth and slay you. Then, with howling and anguish, with weeping and wailing and gnas.h.i.+ng of teeth, ye shall know that G.o.d is a G.o.d of justice, that his wrath is one with his omnipotence, and his hate everlasting as the fires of h.e.l.l. But do as ye will, ye cannot thwart his decrees, for to whom he will he showeth mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.”
Scarcely had he ceased, when a loud cry, clear and keen, rang through every corner of the cave. Well might the preacher start and gaze around him! for the cry was articulate, sharply modelled into the three words--”Father o' lichts!” Some of the men gave a scared groan, and some of the women shrieked. None could tell whence the cry had come, and Malcolm alone could guess who must have uttered it.
”Yes,” said the preacher, recovering himself, and replying to the voice, ”he is the Father of lights, but only to them that are in Christ Jesus;--he is no father, but an avenging deity, to them over whom the robe of his imputed righteousness is not cast. Jesus Christ himself will not be gracious for ever. Kiss ye the Son, lest even he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.”
”Father o' lichts!” rang the cry again, and louder than before.
To Malcolm it seemed close behind him, but he had the self possession not to turn his head. The preacher took no farther notice. MacLeod stood up, and having, in a few simple remarks, attempted to smooth some of the asperities of the youth's address, announced another meeting in the evening, and dismissed the a.s.sembly with a prayer.
Malcolm went home with his grandfather. He was certain it was the laird's voice he had heard, but he would attempt no search after his refuge that day, for dread of leading to its discovery by others.
That evening most of the boats of the Seaton set out for the fis.h.i.+ng ground as usual, but not many went from Scaurnose. Blue Peter would go no more of a Sunday, hence Malcolm was free for the night, and again with his grandfather walked along the sands in the evening towards the cave.
The sun was going down on the other side of the promontory before them, and the sky was gorgeous in rose and blue, in peach and violet, in purple and green, barred and fretted, heaped and broken, scattered and ma.s.sed--every colour edged and tinged and harmonized with a glory as of gold, molten with heat, and glowing with fire.
The thought that his grandfather could not see, and had never seen such splendour, made Malcolm sad, and very little was spoken between them as they went.
When they arrived, the service had already commenced, but room was made for them to pa.s.s, and a seat was found for Duncan where he could hear. Just as they entered, Malcolm spied, amongst those who preferred the open air at the mouth of the cavern, a face which he was all but certain was that of one of the three men from whom he had rescued the laird.
MacLeod was to address them. He took for his text the words of the Saviour, ”Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” and founded upon them a simple, gracious, and all but eloquent discourse, very different in tone and influence from that of the young student. It must be confessed that the Christ he presented was very far off, and wrapped in a hazy nimbus of abstraction; that the toil of his revelation was forgotten, the life he lived being only alluded to, and that not for the sake of showing what he was, and hence what G.o.d is, but to ill.u.s.trate the conclusions of men concerning him; and yet there was that heart of reality in the whole thing which no moral vulgarity of theory, no injustice towards G.o.d, no tyranny of stupid logic over childlike intuitions, could so obscure as to render it inoperative. From the form of the Son of Man, thus beheld from afar, came a warmth like the warmth from the first approach of the far off sun in spring, sufficing to rouse the earth from the sleep of winter--in which all the time the same sun has been its warmth and has kept it from sleeping unto death.
MacLeod was a thinker--aware of the movements of his own heart, and able to reflect on others the movements of their hearts; hence, although in the main he treated the weariness and oppression from which Jesus offered to set them free, as arising from a sense of guilt and the fear of coming misery, he could not help alluding to more ordinary troubles, and depicting other phases of the heart's restlessness with such truth and sympathy that many listened with a vague feeling of exposure to a supernatural insight. The sermon soon began to show its influence; for a sense of the need of help is so present to every simple mind, that, of all messages, the offer of help is of easiest reception; some of the women were sobbing, and the silent tears were flowing down the faces of others; while of the men many were looking grave and thoughtful, and kept their eyes fixed on the speaker. At length, towards the close, MacLeod judged it needful to give a word of warning.
”But, my friends,” he said, and his voice grew low and solemn, ”I dare not make an end without reminding you that, if you stop your ears against the gracious call, a day will come when not even the merits of the Son of G.o.d will avail you, but the wrath of the--”
”Father o' Lichts!” once more burst ringing out, like the sudden cry of a trumpet in the night.
MacLeod took no notice of it, but brought his sermon at once to a close, and specified the night of the following Sat.u.r.day for next meeting. They sung a psalm, and after a slow, solemn, thoughtful prayer, the congregation dispersed.
But Malcolm, who, anxious because of the face he had seen as he entered, had been laying his plans, after begging his grandfather in a whisper to go home without him for a reason he would afterwards explain, withdrew into a recess whence he could watch the cave, without being readily discovered.
Scarcely had the last voices of the retreating congregation died away, when the same ill favoured face peeped round the corner of the entrance, gave a quick glance about, and the man came in. Like a snuffing terrier, he went peering in the dimness into every hollow, and behind every projection, until he suddenly caught sight of Malcolm, probably by a glimmering of his eyes.
”Hillo, Humpy!” he cried in a tone of exultation, and sprang up the rough ascent of a step or two to where he sat.
Malcolm half rose, and met him with a well delivered blow between the eyes. He fell, and lay for a moment stunned. Malcolm sat down again and watched him. When he came to himself, he crept out, muttering imprecations. He knew it was not Humpy who dealt that blow.
As soon as he was gone, Malcolm in his turn began searching.