an, Gibbie was more open-hearted towards the
merits of the man, with whom he was far too closely associated on
week-days not to feel affection for him; while, on the other hand,
Gibbie made neither head nor tail of his sermons, not having been
instructed in the theological mess that goes with so many for a
theriac of the very essentials of religion; and therefore, for
anything he knew, they might be very wise and good. At first he
took refuge from the sermon in his New Testament; but when, for the
third time, the beautiful hand of the ministerial spouse appeared
between him and the book, and gently withdrew it, he saw that his
reading was an offence in her eyes, and contented himself thereafter
with thinking: listening to the absolutely unintelligible he found
impossible. What a delight it would have been to the boy to hear
Christ preached such as he showed himself, such as in no small
measure he had learned him--instead of such as Mr. Sclater saw him
reflected from the tenth or twentieth distorting mirror! They who
speak against the Son of Man oppose mere distortions and mistakes of
him, having never beheld, neither being now capable of beholding,
him; but those who have transmitted to them these false impressions,
those, namely, who preach him without being themselves devoted to
him, and those who preach him having derived their notions of him
from other scources than himself, have to bear the blame that they
have such excuses for not seeking to know him. He submits to be
mis-preached, as he submitted to be lied against while visibly
walking the world, but his truth will appear at length to all: until
then until he is known as he is, our salvation tarrieth.

Mrs. Sclater showed herself sincere, after her kind, to Donal as
well as to Gibbie. She had by no means ceased to grow, and already
was slowly bettering under the influences of the New Testament in
Gibbie, notwithstanding she had removed the letter of it from her
public table. She told Gibbie that he must talk to Donal about his
dress and his speech. That he was a lad of no common gifts was
plain, she said, but were he ever so "talented" he could do little
in the world, certainly would never raise himself, so long as he
dressed and spoke ridiculously. The wisest and best of men would be
utterly disregarded, she said, if he did not look and speak like
other people. Gibbie thought with himself this could hardly hold,
for there was John the Baptist; he an