t turned largely on the use of
prepositions and the scope of conjunctions, so that the clerk could
prove the doctrine of Vicarious Sacrifice from "for," and Retribution
from "as" in the Lord's Prayer, emphasizing and confirming everything
by that wonderful finger, which seemed to be designed by Providence for
delicate distinctions, just as another man's fist served for popular
declamation. His pulpit masterpiece was a lecture on the Council of
Jerusalem, in which its whole deliberations were reviewed by the rules
of the Free Kirk Book of Procedure, and a searching and edifying
discourse concluded with two lessons. First: That no ecclesiastical
body can conduct its proceedings without officials. Second: That such
men ought to be accepted as a special gift of Providence.

The general opinion among good people was that the clerk's preaching
was rather for upbuilding than arousing, but it is still remembered by
the survivors of the old Presbytery that when MacWheep organized a
conference on "The state of religion in our congregations," and it was
meandering in strange directions, the clerk, who utilised such seasons
for the writing of letters, rose amid a keen revival of interest--it
was supposed that he had detected an irregularity in the
proceedings--and offered his contribution. It did not become him to
boast, he said, but he had seen marvellous things in his day: under his
unworthy ministry three beadles had been converted to Christianity, and
this experience was so final that the conference immediately closed.

Times there were, however, when the Presbytery rose to its height and
was invested with an undeniable spiritual dignity. Its members, taken
one by one, consisted of farmers, shepherds, tradesmen, and one or two
professional men, with some twenty ministers, only two or three of whom
were known beyond their parishes. Yet those men had no doubt that as
soon as they were constituted in the name of Christ they held their
authority from the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, and they
bore themselves in spiritual matters as His servants. No kindly
feeling of neighbourliness or any fear of man could hinder them from
inquiring into the religious condition of a parish or dealing
faithfully with an erring minister. They had power to ordain, and laid
hands on the bent head of some young probationer with much solemnity;
they had also power to take away the orders they had given, and he had
been hardened indeed