Fortunately, perhaps,
for her enjoyment of the service, she did not look round.
Dr Drummond was more observing, but his was a position
of advantage. In the accustomed sea of faces two, heavy
shadowed and obstinately facing fate, swam together before
Dr Drummond, and after he had lifted his hands and closed
his eyes for the long prayer he saw them still. So that
these words occurred, near the end, in the long prayer--
"O Thou Searcher of hearts, who hast known man from the
beginning, to whom his highest desires and his loftiest
intentions are but as the desires and intentions of a
little child, look with Thine own compassion, we beseech
Thee, upon souls before Thee in any peculiar difficulty.
Our mortal life is full of sin, it is also full of the
misconception of virtue. Do Thou clear the understanding,
O Lord, of such as would interpret Thy will to their own
undoing; do Thou teach them that as happiness may reside
in chastening, so chastening may reside in happiness.
And though such stand fast to their hurt, do Thou grant
to them in Thine own way, which may not be our way, a
safe issue out of the dangers that beset them."
Dr Drummond had his own method of reconciling foreordination
and free will. To Advena his supplication came with that
mysterious double emphasis of chance words that fit.
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