Good people as many of those were who
thus admitted him to their communion, in the full belief that none but
conscious Christians should enjoy that privilege, his reputation for
wealth had yet something to do with it. Probably they thought that if
the gospel proved mighty in this new disciple, more of his money might
be accessible by and by for good purposes: amongst the rest, for
sending missionaries to the heathen, teaching them to divorce their
wives and wear trowsers. And now he had been asked to pray, and had
prayed with much propriety and considerable unction. To be sure Tibbie
Dyster did sniff a good deal during the performance; but then that was
a way she had of relieving her feelings, next best to that of speaking
her mind.
When the meeting was over, Robert Bruce, Thomas Crann, and James
Johnstone, who was one of the deacons, walked away together. Very
little conversation took place between them, for no subject but a
religious one was admissible; and the religious feelings of those who
had any were pretty nearly exhausted. Bruce's, however, were not in the
least exhausted. On the contrary, he was so pleased to find that he
could pray as well as any of them, and the excitement of doing so
before judges had been so new and pleasant to him, that he thought he
should like to try it again.
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