barren eminence, that it might be as conspicuous by its position, as
it was remarkable for its ugliness. One grand aim of the reformers
of the Scottish ecclesiastical modes, appears to have been to keep
the worship pure and the worshippers sincere, by embodying the whole
in the ugliest forms that could be associated with the name of
Christianity. It might be wished, however, that some of their
followers, and amongst them the clergyman of the church in question,
had been content to stop there; and had left the object of worship,
as represented by them, in the possession of some lovable attribute;
so as not to require a man to love that which is unlovable, or
worship that which is not honourable--in a word, to bow down before
that which is not divine. The cause of this degeneracy they share
in common with the followers of all other great men as well as of
Calvin. They take up what their leader, urged by the necessity of
the time, spoke loudest, never heeding what he loved most; and then
work the former out to a logical perdition of everything belonging
to the latter.

Hugh, however, thought it was all right: for he had the same good
reasons, and no other, for receiving it all, that a Mohammedan or a
Buddhist has for holding his opinions; namely, that he had heard
those doctrines, and those alone, from his earliest childhood. He
was therefore a good deal startled when, having, on his way home,
strayed from the laird's party towards David's, he heard the latter
say to Margaret as he came up:

"Dinna ye believe, my bonny doo, 'at there's ony mak' ups or mak'
shifts wi' Him. He's aye bringin' things to the licht, no covenin'
them up and lattin them rot, an' the moth tak' them. He sees us
jist as we are, and ca's us jist what we are. It wad be an ill day