With his
arrival, however, other preoccupations fell into their
proper places.
Finlay, indeed, it may be confessed at once, he and not
his message was her engrossment from the beginning. The
message she took with reverent gentleness; but her
passionate interest was for the nature upon which it
travelled, and never for the briefest instant did she
confuse these emotions. Those who write, we are told
transcribe themselves in spite of themselves; it is more
true of those who preach, for they are also candid by
profession, and when they are not there is the eye and
the voice to help to betray them. Hugh Finlay, in the
pulpit, made himself manifest in all the things that
matter to Advena Murchison in the pew; and from the pew
to the pulpit her love went back with certainty, clear
in its authority and worshipping the ground of its
justification. When she bowed her head it was he whom
she heard in the language of his invocations; his doctrine
rode, for her, on a spirit of wide and sweet philosophy;
in his contemplation of the Deity she saw the man. He
had those lips at once mobile, governed and patient, upon
which genius chooses oftenest to rest. As to this, Advena's
convictions were so private as to be hidden from herself;
she never admitted that she thought Finlay had it, and
in the supreme difficulty of proving anything else we
may wisely accept her view.
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