t his shoulder-blades stood out in sharp outline, and his
hands were almost transparent. The redeeming feature in Saunderson was
his eyes, which were large and eloquent, of a trustful, wistful hazel,
the beautiful eyes of a dumb animal. Whether he was expounding doctrines
charged with despair of humanity, or exalting, in rare moments, the
riches of a Divine love in which he did not expect to share, or humbly
beseeching his brethren to give him information on some point in
scholarship no one knew anything about except himself, or stroking the
hair of some little child sitting upon his knee, those eyes were ever
simple, honest, and most pathetic. Young ministers coming to the
Presbytery full of self-conceit and new views were arrested by their
light shining through the glasses, and came in a year or two to have a
profound regard for Saunderson, curiously compounded of amusement at his
ways, which for strangeness were quite beyond imagination, admiration for
his knowledge, which was amazing for its accuracy and comprehensiveness,
respect for his honesty, which feared no conclusion, however repellent to
flesh and blood, but chiefly of love for the unaffected and shining
goodness of a man in whose virgin soul neither self nor this world had
any part. For years the youngsters of the Presbytery knew not how to
address the minister of Kilbogie, since any one who had dared to call him
Saunderson, as they said "Carmichael," and even "MacWheep," though he was
elderly, would have been deposed, without delay, from the ministry--so
much reverence at least was in the lads--and "Mister" attached to this
personality would be like a silk hat on the head of an Eastern sage.
Jenkins of Pitrodie always considered that he was inspired when he one
day called Saunderson "Rabbi," and unto the day of his death Kilbogie was
so called. He made protest against the title as being forbidden in the
Gospels, but the lads insisted that it must be understood in the sense of
scholar, whereupon Saunderson disowned it on the ground of his slender
attainments. The lads saw the force of this objection, and admitted that
the honourable word belonged by rights to MacWheep, who was a "gude
body," but it was their fancy to assign it to Saunderson--whereat
Saunderson yielded, only exacting a pledge that he should never be so
called in public, lest all concerned be condemned for foolishness. When
it was announced that the University of Edinburgh had resolved to