e out the first
Psalm. For the first few sentences of his sermon he spoke quietly, as
one reserving and restraining himself, and gave a historical
introduction which allowed the General to revive some ancient memories
of India without interruption. But Kate caught the imperial tone of
one who had a message to deliver and was already commanding people to
listen. She was conscious of a certain anxiety, and began to wish that
she were in front and could see his face, instead of only the side of
his head. Then Carmichael threw back his hair with the air of one
taking off his coat, and plunged the congregation into the midst of the
battle, describing Elijah's forgetfulness of self, profound conviction
of righteousness, high purpose for his nation and devotion to the cause
of Jehovah, till Burnbrae and the Free Kirkmen straightened themselves
visibly in their pews, and touching so skilfully on the Tyrian princess
in her beauty, her culture, her bigotry, her wiles, her masterfulness,
that several women--greatly delighting in the exposure of such a
"trimmie"--nodded approval. Kate had never given herself to the study
of Old Testament history, and would have had some difficulty in
identifying Elijah--there was a mare called Jezebel of vicious
temper--but she caught the contagion of enthusiasm. If the supreme
success of a sermon be to stimulate the hearer's mind, then Carmichael
ought to have closed at this point. His people would have been all the
week fighting battles for conscience sake, and resisting smooth,
cunning temptation to the farthest limits of their lives and in
unimaginable ways. Kate herself, although a person quite unaffected by
preaching, had also naturalised the sermon in her life with much
practical and vivid detail. Carmichael was Elijah, the prophet of the
common people, with his simple ways and old-fashioned notions and love
of hardness, only far more gentle and courteous and amusing than that
uncompromising Jew; and she--why, she would be Jezebel just for the
moment, who had come from . . . India into the Glen, and could bring
Elijah to her feet if she chose, and make him do her will, and
then . . . The girls in the choir before the pulpit noticed the look
on Kate's face, and wondered whether the Carnegies would join the Free
Kirk.

Carmichael had an instinct that he ought to fling over the remaining
four pages of his sermon and close the service with a war Psalm, and he
told me when I was stayin