He had noted with some degree of pleasure in the soutar, that he used almost none of the set phrases of the good people of the village, who devoutly followed the traditions of the elders; but he knew little as to what the soutar did not believe, and still less of what he did believe with all his heart and soul; for John MacLear could not even utter the name of God without therein making a confession of faith immeasurably beyond anything inhabiting the consciousness of the parson; and on his part soon began to note in James a total absence of enthusiasm in regard to such things of which his very calling implied at least an absolute acceptance: he would allude to any or all of them as merest matters of course! Never did his face light up when he spoke of the Son of God, of his death, or of his resurrection; never did he make mention of the kingdom of heaven as if it were anything more venerable than the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. But the soul of the soutar would venture far into the twilight, searching after the things of God, opening wider its eyes, as the darkness widened around them. On one occasion the parson took upon him to remonstrate with what seemed to him the audacity of his parishioner: “Don’t you think you are just going a little too far there, Mr. MacLear?” he said. “Ye mean ower far intil the dark, Mr. Blatherwick?” “Yes, that is what I mean. You speculate too boldly.” “But dinna ye think, sir, that that direction it’s plain the dark grows a wee thinner, though I grant ye there’s nothing yet to ca’ licht? Licht we may aye ken by its ain fair shinin, and by noucht else!” “But the human soul is just as apt to deceive itself as the human eye! It is always ready to take a flash inside itself for something objective!” said Blatherwick. “Nae doobt! nae doobt! but whan the true licht comes, ye aye ken the differ! A man _may_ tak the dark for licht, but he canna take the licht for darkness!” “And there must always be something for the light to shine upon, else the man sees nothing!” said the parson. “There’s thoucht, and possible insicht intil the man!” said the soutar to himself.—“Maybe, like the Ephesians, ye haena yet fund oot gien there be ony Holy Ghost, sir?” he said to him aloud. “No man dares deny that!” answered the minister. “Still a man mayna _ken’t_, though he daursna deny’t! Nane but them ’at follows whaur he leads, can ken that he verily is.” “We must beware of private interpretation!” suggested James.