He reached his dressing-room, and looked at the glass. The few gray hairs were not unbecoming, and he was a well set up man--not bad looking too, he thought, and then--he blushed like a girl at his own folly, and proceeded to dress. Service was at eleven. It was now only eight, so that Galbraith had three hours at his disposal. There was, of course, a Sunday-school class, but this was under the special care of Elder Bullin. It was on such mornings that the elder was in his element. He insisted on a verbatim repetition by heart of a chapter of the Bible by every member of his small class, and in case of failure--three mistakes only were allowed--he painted in glowing colours the horrors of eternal torment that awaited the culprit, when his earthly life closed. He would go so far as to definitely state that the shadowy wings of Death were at that moment hovering over the class, and it often happened that a small member was so overcome with terror that he had to retire bellowing lustily. Fortnightly the elder gave the class an extempore lecture of vast length, and on the following day his two daughters were required to write this out from memory, a labour watered with their tears. Galbraith completed his toilet, and went into his study to touch up his sermon. The text he had chosen was, "And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power." They were strong, healthful words, but the pastor was not quite certain that he realized their meaning. He was of those who judge of great things by comparing them with little things. He had found that small vices were extremely hard, sometimes impossible, to get rid of, notwithstanding the most assiduous application to the Deity. He almost despaired at times of one of the primal doctrines of his sect--the direct intervention of Providence in the affairs of this world. He was by turns full of certainty and full of doubt. He was willing to concede that the all-seeing eye marked the sparrow falling, but for the life of him he could not help asking himself why the sparrow was allowed to come to disaster. His profession and education taught him that such a question was almost a deadly sin, and then would come a long fight between the man's religion and his reasoning powers.