hat special right had they to
believe their children would all be elect? And if there was a shadow
of doubt on this subject, how awful was their responsibility! Nanna's
scruples, he said, were the only possible outcome of a conscientious,
unselfish soul believing the devilish doctrine. And he cried out
with enthusiasm:

"Nanna is to be honored! Oh, for a conscience as tender and void of
offense toward God! I will go to Shetland and kiss the hem of her
garment! She is a woman in ten thousand!"

"Well, then," said David, softly, "I shall take comfort to her."

"To think," said John, who was still moved by a holy anger, "to
think that God should have created this beautiful world as a nursery
for hell! that he should have made such a woman as Nanna to suckle
devils! No, no, David!" he said, suddenly calming himself; "thee
could never believe such things of thy God."

"I was taught them early and late. I can say the Confession of Faith
backward, I am sure."

"Let no man-made creed impose itself on thee, David--enter into thee,
and possess thee, and take the place of thy soul. The voice that
spoke from Sinai and from Bethlehem is still speaking. And man's
own soul is an oracle, if he will only listen to it--the inward,
instant sense of a present God, and of his honorable, true, and only
Son Christ Jesus."

"I will listen, if God will speak."

"Never thee mind catechisms and creeds and confessions. The Word of
God was before them, and the Word will be the Word when catechisms
and confessions are cast into the dusty museums of ancient things,
with all the other shackles of the world in bondage. David, there
is in every good man a spiritual center, answering to a higher
spiritual center in the universe. All controversies come back to
this."

"I wish, John Priestly, that you could see Nanna, and speak comfort
to her heart."

"That must be thy message, David. And be sure that thee knows well
the children's portion in the Scriptures. Thee must show Nanna that
_theirs is the kingdom_. What we win through great tribulation they
inherit through the love of the Father. _Theirs is the kingdom_; and
there is no distinction of elect or non-elect, as I read the title."

"I count the hours now until I am able to travel. I long for the sea
that stretches nor'ard to the ice, and the summer days, when the
sunset brightens the midnight. No need to egg me on. I am all the
time thinking of the old town growing out of the mist, and I