Rabbi Saunderson | Page 2

not averse to a journey that seemed to illustrate the
double meaning of charity. Jeremiah was handed over to his anxious
hosts at a quarter to one in the morning, covered with mud, somewhat
fatigued, but in great peace of soul, having settled the place of election
in the prophecy of Habakkuk as he came down with his silent
companion through Tochty woods.
[Illustration: HE PUT JAMIE'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY INTO
A STATE OF THOROUGH REPAIR]
Nor was that all he had done. When they came out from the shadow
and struck into the parish of Kilbogie--whose fields, now yellow unto
harvest, shone in the moonlight--his guide broke silence and enlarged
on a plague of field-mice which had quite suddenly appeared, and had
sadly devastated the grain of Kilbogie. Saunderson awoke from study
and became exceedingly curious, first of all demanding a particular
account of the coming of the mice, their multitude, their habits, and
their determination. Then he asked many questions about the moral
conduct and godliness of the inhabitants of Kilbogie, which his
companion, as a native of Drumtochty, painted in gloomy colours,
although indicating as became a lover that even in Kilbogie there was a
remnant. Next morning the minister rose at daybreak, and was found
wandering through the fields in such a state of excitement that he could
hardly be induced to look at breakfast. When the "books" were placed
before him, he turned promptly to the ten plagues of Egypt, which he
expounded in order as preliminary to a full treatment of the visitations
of Providence.
"He cowes (beats) a' ye ever saw or heard," the farmer of Mains
explained to the elders at the gate. "He gaed tae his room at half twa
and wes oot in the fields by four, an' a'm dootin' he never saw his bed.
He's lifted abune the body a'thegither, an' can hardly keep himsel awa
frae the Hebrew at his breakfast. Ye'll get a sermon the day, or ma
name is no Peter Pitillo." Mains also declared his conviction that the
invasion of mice would be dealt with after a scriptural and satisfying

fashion. The people went in full of expectation, and to this day old
people recall Jeremiah Saunderson's trial sermon with lively admiration.
Experienced critics were suspicious of candidates who read lengthy
chapters from both Testaments and prayed at length for the Houses of
Parliament, for it was justly held that no man would take refuge in such
obvious devices for filling up the time unless he was short of sermon
material. One unfortunate, indeed, ruined his chances at once by a long
petition for those in danger on the sea--availing himself with some
eloquence of the sympathetic imagery of the one hundred and seventh
Psalm--for this effort was regarded as not only the most barefaced
padding, but also as evidence of an almost incredible blindness to
circumstances. "Did he think Kilbogie wes a fishing-village?" Mains
inquired of the elders afterwards, with pointed sarcasm. Kilbogie was
not indifferent to a well-ordered prayer--although its palate was coarser
in the appreciation of felicitous terms and allusions than that of
Drumtochty--and would have been scandalised if the Queen had been
omitted; but it was by the sermon the young man must stand or fall, and
Kilbogie despised a man who postponed the ordeal.
Saunderson gave double pledges of capacity and fulness before he
opened his mouth in the sermon, for he read no Scripture at all that day,
and had only one prayer, which was mainly a statement of the Divine
Decrees and a careful confession of the sins of Kilbogie; and then,
having given out his text from the prophecy of Joel, he reverently
closed the Bible and placed it on the seat behind him. His own reason
for this proceeding was a desire for absolute security in enforcing his
subject, and a painful remembrance of the disturbance in a south
country church when he landed a Bible--with clasps--on the head of the
precentor in the heat of a discourse defending the rejection of Esau. Our
best and simplest actions--and Jeremiah was as simple as a babe--can
be misconstrued, and the only dissentient from Saunderson's election
insisted that the Bible had been deposited on the floor, and asserted that
the object of this profanity was to give the preacher a higher standing in
the pulpit. This malignant reading of circumstances might have
wrought mischief--for Saunderson's gaunt figure did seem to grow in
the pulpit--had it not been for the bold line of defence taken up by
Mains.

"Gin he wanted tae stand high, wes it no tae preach the word? an' gin
he wanted a soond foundation for his feet, what better could he get than
the twa Testaments? Answer me that."
It was seen at once that no one could