Rabbi Saunderson | Page 7

was also in her what I have noticed in
most women, a certain flavour of guile, and on one occasion, when I
was making a brief journey through Holland and France in search of
comely editions of the fathers, she had the books carried out to the
garden and dusted. It was the space of two years before I regained
mastery of my library again, and unto this day I cannot lay my hands
on the service-book of King Henry VIII., which I had in the second
edition, to say nothing of an original edition of Rutherford's Lex Rex.
"It does not become me, however, to reflect on the efforts of that
worthy matron, for she was by nature a good woman, and if any one
could be saved by good works, her place is assured. I was with her
before she died, and her last words to me were, 'Tell Jean tae dust yir
bukes aince in the sax months, and for ony sake keep ae chair for sittin'
on.' It was not perhaps quite the testimony one would have desired in
the circumstances, but yet, Mr. Carmichael, I have often thought that
there was a spirit of . . . of unselfishness, in fact, that showed the
working of grace." Later in the same evening Mr. Saunderson's mind
returned to his friend's spiritual state, for he entered into a long
argument to show that while Mary was more spiritual, Martha must
also have been within the Divine Election.

KILBOGIE MANSE
Ministers there were in the great strath so orderly that they kept their
sealing-wax in one drawer and their string in another, while their
sermons were arranged under the books of the Bible, and tied with
green silk. Dr. Dowbiggin, though a dull man and of a heavy carriage,
could find in an instant the original draft of a motion on instrumental
music he made in the Presbytery of Muirtown in the year '59, and could
also give the exact page in the blue-books for every word he had
uttered in the famous case when he showed that the use of an

harmonium to train MacWheep's choir was a return to the bondage of
Old Testament worship. His collection of pamphlets was supposed to
be unique, and was a terror to controversialists, no man knowing when
a rash utterance on the bottomless mystery of "spiritual independence"
might not be produced from the Doctor's coat-tail pocket. He retired to
rest at 10.15, and rose at six, settling the subject of his next sermon on
Sabbath evening, and finishing the first head before breakfast on
Monday morning. He had three hats--one for funerals, one for
marriages, one for ordinary occasions--and has returned from the
Presbytery door to brush his coat. Morning prayers in Dr. Dowbiggin's
house were at 8.5, and the wrath of the Doctor was so dangerous that
one probationer staying at the manse, and not quite independent of
influence, did not venture to undress, but snatched a fearful doze sitting
upright on a cane-bottomed chair, lest he should not be in at the psalm.
Young ministers of untidy habits regarded Dr. Dowbiggin's study with
despair, and did not recover their spirits till they were out of Muirtown.
Once only did this eminent man visit the manse of Kilbogie, and in
favourable moments after dinner he would give his choicer
experiences.
"It is my invariable custom to examine the bed to see that everything is
in order, and any one sleeping in Kilbogie Manse will find the good of
such a precaution. I trust that I am not a luxurious person--it would ill
become one who came out in '43--but I have certainly become
accustomed to the use of sheets. When I saw there were none on the
bed, I declined to sleep without them, and I indicated my mind very
distinctly on the condition of the manse.
"Would you believe it?" the Doctor used to go on. "Saunderson
explained, as if it were a usual occurrence, that he had given away all
the spare linen in his house to a girl that had to marry in . . . urgent
circumstances, and had forgotten to get more. And what do you think
did he offer as a substitute for sheets?" No one could even imagine
what might not occur to the mind of Saunderson.
"Towels, as I am an honourable man; a collection of towels, as he put it,
'skilfully attached together, might make a pleasant covering.' That is the

first and last time I ever slept in the Free Church Manse of Kilbogie. As
regards Saunderson's study, I will guarantee that the like of it cannot be
found within Scotland;" and at the very thought of it that exact and
methodical ecclesiastic realized the limitations of language.
His