I told them that my master was a peeous man, an' a
sensible man; an', for praying, that he could ding auld Macmillan
himsel. 'Sae could the deil,' they said, 'when he liket, either at
preaching or praying, if these war to answer his ain ends.' 'Na,
na,' says I, 'but he's a strick believer in a' the truths o' Christianity,
my master.' They said, sae was Satan, for that he was the firmest
believer in a' the truths of Christianity that was out o' Heaven; an'
that, sin' the Revolution that the Gospel had turned sae rife, he
had been often driven to the shift o' preaching it himsel, for the
purpose o' getting some wrang tenets introduced into it, and
thereby turning it into blasphemy and ridicule."
I confess, to my shame, that I was so overcome by this jumble of
nonsense that a chillness came over me, and, in spite of all my
efforts to shake off the impression it had made, I fell into a faint.
Samuel soon brought me to myself, and, after a deep draught of
wine and water, I was greatly revived, and felt my spirit rise
above the sphere of vulgar conceptions and the restrained views
of unregenerate men. The shrewd but loquacious fellow,
perceiving this, tried to make some amends for the pain he had
occasioned to me by the following story, which I noted down,
and which was brought on by a conversation to the following
purport:
"Now, Penpunt, you may tell me all that passed between you and
the wives of the clachan.
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