-which, according to him, must pass on each man for
himself, before true safety or happiness, either in this world or the
next, could be assured--the change which can be wrought by the Power of
God alone?

Converted! The word had long been a scoff on the lips of some in
Nethermuir, but even the scoffers had to confess that, to some of the
missioners at least, something had happened.

There was Peter Gilchrist. If an entire change of heart, and mind, and
manner of life meant conversion, then Peter was converted. And that not
through the slow process of reading the Bible on the Sabbath-day, or by
learning the catechism, or by a decent attendance upon appointed
ordinances--not even "under the rod"--the chastising hand of Him who
smites the sinner for his good--which would have been reasonable enough.
It had happened to others.

But Peter had been converted by one sermon, it was said, a sermon
preached at the house-end of Langbarns in the next parish. No great
sermon, either. At least many a one had heard it without heeding it.
But it had "done" for Peter.

The very last thing that Peter had been thinking about was listening to
the sermon. He, with some of his chosen friends, had gone to the
meeting--held out of doors, because there was no other place in which to
hold it--for the help and encouragement of the constable, who, it was
said, had a warrant to seize and carry before a magistrate "the
missioner minister" for a breach of the law, in holding a preaching
meeting at Langbarns without the consent of the parish minister. The
presumption was that the sight of the constable, and the announcement of
his errand, would be enough to silence the minister and disperse the
meeting. But that did not follow. If he were to be meddled with, "it
should not be for nothing," the minister declared to a rather timid
friend and adviser. And his courage stood him in good stead. He gave
the folk assembled such a sermon as probably few of them had ever heard
before. The constable had not, he acknowledged, nor Peter; and the
worst of it--or the best of it--for Peter was, that having heard it, he
could not forget it.

When the meeting was over, Mr Hume went silently and swiftly away with
the departing crowd, and he never would have been quite sure that
anything serious had been intended if he had not afterward had Peter's
word for it.

Returning home from a similar meeting, held in another direction, a week
or two afterward