uttered by the greater number of the teachers of the day; and so when
men like Mr Hume came preaching a free and full salvation through Jesus
Christ, not only from the consequences of sin, but from the power and
the love of it, there were many through all the land who "heard the word
gladly."

There were some in Nethermuir who had heard and heeded, and found the
peace they sought, and who showed by their new lives that a real change
had been wrought in them. These were the men who rejoiced the
minister's heart and strengthened his hands both in the meeting and
elsewhere; and though some of them were slow of speech, and not so ready
with their word as others who spoke to less purpose, yet it was from
them that the tone of the meeting was taken.

It cannot be said that this privilege of speech was often abused. As
for the sisters, they rarely went beyond a question, or a token of
assent or approval, given in one word, when something which recommended
itself to their taste and judgment had been well said. Mr Hume refused
to acknowledge that he did not sufficiently encourage them to do their
part for mutual edification in the semi-privacy of these meetings in the
manse parlour, and he did acknowledge that two or three whom he could
name among them had all the right which a high intelligence, deep
spirituality, and sound common sense could give, to lift their voices
when the right time came, to "reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all
long-suffering and doctrine." But his observation had taught him that
these qualifications did not make a woman more ready or willing, but
rather less, to put in her word at such times.

The teaching of the kirk by law established had been in past years vague
and indefinite enough on several points of importance, it was truly
said. But in the pulpit and out of it, on one point it had been full,
clear, and definite. A man must rule (well) his own household. "The
husband is the head of the wife," who is not suffered "to usurp
authority over the man," but who is to listen in silence, being "the
weaker vessel"--and so on.

All this had been taught by word and deed for many a year and day--not
always, it was to be feared, in the way or in the spirit that Saint Paul
would have approved. But it was still true that the best women and the
wisest had best learned the lesson. So when the "missioners" came with
new light on the matter--no longer insisting upon silence where a few of
the brethren and