ay in our midst."

"What did Macrae say?"

"He said, he supposed the rush chairs were an 'Armenian innovation';
and I answered, 'The pews, sir, they are the innovation.'"

"Did thou have any argument with him? I have often heard Ian say he
plunged into religious argument with every one he met."

"Well, Rahal, I don't know how it happened, but I quickly found myself
in a good atmosphere of contradictions. I do not remember either what
I had been saying, but I heard him distinctly assert, that 'it was the
Armenians who had described the Calvinists, and they had not wasted
their opportunities.' Then I found myself telling him that Armenianism
had ruled the religious world ever since the birth of Christianity;
but that Calvinism was a thing of yesterday, a mere Geneva opinion.
Rahal, the man has a dogma for a soul, and yet through this hard
veil, I could see that he was full of a longing for love; but he has
not found out the way to love, his heart is ice-bound. He made me say
things I did not want to say, he stirred my soul round and round until
it boiled over, and then the words would come. Really, Rahal, I did
not know the words were in my mind, till his aggravating questions
made me say them."

"What words? Art thou troubled about them?"

"A little. He was talking of faith and doubt, especially as it
referred to the Bible, and I listened until I could bear it no longer.
He was asking what proof there was for this, and that, and the other,
and as I said, he got me stirred up beyond myself and I told him I
cared nothing about proofs. I said proofs were for sceptics and not
for good men who _knew_ in whom they had believed."

"Well then, Coll, that was enough, was it not?"

"Not for Macrae. He said immediately, 'Suppose there was no divine
authority for the scheme of morals and divinity laid down in this
Book,' and he laid his hand reverently on the Bible, 'where should we
be?' And I told him, we should be just where we were, because God's
commands were written on every conscience and that these commands
would stand firm even if creeds became dust, and Matthew, Mark, Luke,
John and Paul, all failed and passed away. 'Power of God!' I cried, as
I struck the table with my fist, 'it takes God's tireless, patient,
eternal love to put up with puny men, always doubting Him. I believe
in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth!' I said,
'and I want no proofs about Him in whom I believe.' By this time,
Raha