with
now and then a hymn. When John "Aleck," a handsome, broad-shouldered,
six-footer, stood up and bit his tuning-fork to catch the pitch, the
people straightened up in their seats and prepared to follow his lead.
And after his great resonant voice had rolled out the first few notes
of the tune, they caught him up with a vigor and enthusiasm that carried
him along, and inspired him to his mightiest efforts. Wonderful singing
it was, full toned, rhythmical and well balanced.

With characteristic courage, the minister's wife had chosen Paul's
Epistle to the Romans for the subject of study, and to-night the
lesson was the redoubtable ninth chapter, that arsenal for Calvinistic
champions. First the verses were repeated by the class in concert, and
the members vied with each other in making this a perfect exercise, then
the teaching of the chapter was set forth in simple, lucid speech. The
last half hour was devoted to the discussion of questions, raised either
by the teacher or by any member of the class. To-night the class was
slow in asking questions. They were face to face with the tremendous
Pauline Doctrine of Sovereignty. It was significant that by Macdonald
Dubh, his brother, and the other older and more experienced members of
the class, the doctrine was regarded as absolutely inevitable and
was accepted without question, while by Yankee and Ranald and all the
younger members of the class, it was rejected with fierce resentment.
The older men had been taught by the experience of long and bitter
years, that above all their strength, however mighty, a power,
resistless and often inscrutable, determined their lives. The younger
men, their hearts beating with conscious power and freedom, resented
this control, or accepting it, refused to assume the responsibility for
the outcome of their lives. It was the old, old strife, the insoluble
mystery; and the minister's wife, far from making light of it, allowed
its full weight to press in upon the members of her class, and wisely
left the question as the apostle leaves it, with a statement of the
two great truths of Sovereignty and Free Will without attempting the
impossible task of harmonizing these into a perfect system. After a
half-hour of discussion, she brought the lesson to a close with a very
short and very simple presentation of the practical bearing of the great
doctrine. And while the mystery remained unsolved, the limpid clearness
of her thought, the humble attitu