d gladness and love--his out and out, beyond all
that tongue can say, mind think, or heart desire. Then only is our
creation finished--then only are we what we were made to be. This is
that for the sake of which we are troubled on all sides."

He ceased. Miss Carmichael was intellectually cowed, but her heart was
nowise touched. She had never had that longing after closest relation
with God which sends us feeling after the father. But now, taking
courage under the overshadowing wing of the divine, Arctura spoke.

"I do hope what you say is true, Mr. Grant!" she said with a longing
sigh.

"Oh yes, hope! we all hope! But it is the word we have to do with!"
said Miss Carmichael.

"I have given you the truth of this word!" said Donal.

But as if she heard neither of them, Arctura went on,

"If it were but true!" she moaned. "It would set right everything on
the face of the earth!"

"You mean far more than that, my lady!" said Donal. "You mean
everything in the human heart, which will to all eternity keep moaning
and crying out for the Father of it, until it is one with its one
relation!"

He lifted his bonnet, and would have passed on.

"One word, Mr. Grant," said Miss Carmichael. "--No man holding such
doctrines could with honesty become a clergyman of the church of
Scotland."

"Very likely," replied Donal, "Good afternoon."

"Thank you, Mr. Grant!" said Arctura. "I hope you are right."

When he was gone, the ladies resumed their walk in silence. At length
Miss Carmichael spoke.

"Well, I must say, of all the conceited young men I have had the
misfortune to meet, your Mr. Grant bears the palm! Such self-assurance!
such presumption! such forwardness!"

"Are you certain, Sophia," rejoined Arctura, "that it is
self-assurance, and not conviction that gives him his courage?"

"He is a teacher of lies! He goes dead against all that good men say
and believe! The thing is as clear as daylight: he is altogether wrong!"

"What if God be sending fresh light into the minds of his people?"

"The old light is good enough for me!"

"But it may not be good enough for God! What if Mr. Grant should be his
messenger to you and me!"

"A likely thing! A raw student from the hills of Daurside!"

"I cherish a profound hope that he may be in the right. Much good, you
know, did come out of Galilee! Every place and every person is despised
by somebody!"

"Arctura! He has infected you with his frightful irreverence!"

"I