ng, with that
patient assiduity for which he was remarkable, all the terrible texts
which that very unceremonious and old-fashioned book rains down so
unsparingly on the sin of oppressing the weak.

First families, whether in Newport or elsewhere, were as invisible to
him as they were to Moses during the forty days that he spent with God
on the mount; he was merely thinking of his message,--thinking only how
he should shape it, so as not to leave one word of it unsaid,--not even
imagining in the least what the result of it was to be. He was but a
voice, but an instrument,--the passive instrument through which an
almighty will was to reveal itself; and the sublime fatalism of his
faith made him as dead to all human considerations as if he had been a
portion of the immutable laws of Nature herself.

So, the next morning, although all his friends trembled for him when he
rose in the pulpit, he never thought of trembling for himself; he had
come in the covered way of silence from the secret place of the Most
High, and felt himself still abiding under the shadow of the Almighty.
It was alike to him, whether the house was full or empty,--whoever were
decreed to hear the message would be there; whether they would hear or
forbear was already settled in the counsels of a mightier will than
his,--he had the simple duty of utterance.

The ruinous old meeting-house was never so radiant with station and
gentility as on that morning. A June sun shone brightly; the sea
sparkled with a thousand little eyes; the birds sang all along the
way; and all the notables turned out to hear the Doctor. Mrs. Scudder
received into her pew, with dignified politeness, Colonel Burr and
Colonel and Madame de Frontignac. General Wilcox and his portly dame,
Major Seaforth, and we know not what of Vernons and De Wolfs, and other
grand old names, were represented there; stiff silks rustled, Chinese
fans fluttered, and the last court fashions stood revealed in bonnets.

Everybody was looking fresh and amiable,--a charming and respectable set
of sinners, come to hear what the Doctor would find to tell them about
their transgressions.

Mrs. Scudder was calculating consequences; and, shutting her eyes on the
too evident world about her, prayed that the Lord would overrule all for
good. The Doctor prayed that he might have grace to speak the truth,
and the whole truth. We have yet on record, in his published works, the
great argument of that day, through w