There were some, however, who
cared less for such modes, and, themselves given to a daily fight with
antichrist in their own hearts, sought--for they too read the
prophecies--to fix their reference on certain sins, and certain persons
classed according to these their sins. With a burning desire for the
safety of their neighbours, they took upon them the strongest words of
rebuke and condemnation, so that one might have thought they were
revelling in the idea of the vengeance at hand, instead of striving for
the rescue of their neighbours from the wrath to come. Among these were
Thomas Crann and his minister, Mr Turnbull. To them Glamerton was the
centre of creation, providence, and revelation. Every warning finger in
The Book pointed to it; every burst of indignation from the labouring
bosom of holy prophet was addressed to its sinners. And what the
ministers spoke to classes from the pulpit, Thomas, whose mode of
teaching was in so far Socratic that he singled out his man, applied to
the individual--in language occasionally too much to the point to admit
of repetition in the delicate ears of the readers of the nineteenth
century, some of whom are on such friendly terms with the vices
themselves, that they are shocked at the vulgarity and rudeness of the
_names_ given them by their forefathers.
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