We have buried the
remains of one that served this Glen with a devotion that has known no
reserve, and a kindliness that never failed, for more than forty years.
I have seen many brave men in my day, but no man in the trenches of
Sebastopol carried himself more knightly than William MacLure. You will
never have heard from his lips what I may tell you to-day, that my
father secured for him a valuable post in his younger days, and he
preferred to work among his own people; and I wished to do many things
for him when he was old, but he would have nothing for himself. He will
never be forgotten while one of us lives, and I pray that all doctors
everywhere may share his spirit. If it be your pleasure, I shall erect
a cross above his grave, and shall ask my old friend and companion Dr.
Davidson, your minister, to choose the text to be inscribed."

"We thank you, Lord Kilspindie," said the doctor, "for your presence
with us in our sorrow and your tribute to the memory of William MacLure,
and I choose this for his text:

"'Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.'"

Milton was, at that time, held in the bonds of a very bitter theology,
and his indignation was stirred by this unqualified eulogium.

"No doubt Dr. MacLure hed mony natural virtues, an' he did his wark
weel, but it wes a peety he didna mak mair profession o' releegion."

"When William MacLure appears before the Judge, Milton," said Lachlan
Campbell, who that day spoke his last words in public, and they were in
defence of charity, "He will not be asking him about his professions,
for the doctor's judgment hass been ready long ago; and it iss a good
judgment, and you and I will be happy men if we get the like of it.

"It is written in the Gospel, but it iss William MacLure that will not
be expecting it."

"What is't Lachlan?" asked Jamie Soutar eagerly.

The old man, now very feeble, stood in the middle of the road, and his
face, once so hard, was softened into a winsome tenderness.

"'Come, ye blessed of My Father
... I was sick and ye visited Me.'"

[Illustration: GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS, THAT A MAN LAY DOWN
HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS.]

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Doctor of the Old School, Complete
by Ian Maclaren

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DOCTOR OF THE OLD SCHOOL, ***

***** This file should be named 9320.txt or 93