Mrs Catanach settled her broad back into its corner, chuckling over her own wisdom and foresight. Her seat was at the pulpit end of the chapel, at right angles to almost all the rest of the pews --chosen because thence, if indeed she could not well see the preacher, she could get a good glimpse of nearly everyone that entered. Keen-sighted both physically and intellectually, she recognized Florimel the moment she saw her. “Twa doos mair to the boody-craw!” she laughed to herself. “Ae man thrashin’, an’ twa birdies pickin’!” she went on, quoting the old nursery nonsense. Then she stooped, and let down her veil. Florimel hated her, and therefore might know her. “It’s the day o’ the Lord wi’ auld Sanny Grame!” she resumed to herself, as she lifted her head. “He’s stickit nae mair, but a chosen trumpet at last! Foul fa’ ’im for a wearifu’ cratur for a’ that! He has nowther balm o’ grace nor pith o’ damnation. Yon laad Flemin’, ’at preached i’ the Baillies’ Barn aboot the dowgs gaein’ roon’ an’ roon’ the wa’s o’ the New Jeroozlem, gien he had but hauden thegither an’ no gane to the worms sae sune, wad hae dung a score o’ ’im. But Sanny angers me to that degree ’at but for rizons--like yon twa--I wad gang oot i’ the mids o’ ane o’ ’s palahvers, an’ never come back, though I ha’e a haill quarter o’ my sittin’ to sit oot yet, an’ it cost me dear, an’ fits the auld back o’ me no that ill.” When Mr Graham rose to read the psalm, great was Clementina’s disappointment: he looked altogether, as she thought, of a sort with the place--mean and dreary--of the chapel very chapelly, and she did not believe it could be the man of whom Malcolm had spoken. By a strange coincidence however, a kind of occurrence as frequent as strange, he read for his text that same passage about the gold ring and the vile raiment, in which we learn how exactly the behaviour of the early Jewish churches corresponded to that of the later English ones, and Clementina soon began to alter her involuntary judgment of him when she found herself listening to an utterance beside which her most voluble indignation would have been but as the babble of a child. Sweeping, incisive, withering, blasting denunciation, logic and poetry combining in one torrent of genuine eloquence, poured confusion and dismay upon head and heart of all who set themselves up for pillars of the church without practising the first principles of the doctrine of Christ--men who, professing to gather their fellows together in the name of Christ, conducted the affairs of the church on the principles of hell--men so blind and dull and slow of heart, that they would never know what the outer darkness meant until it had closed around them--men who paid court to the rich for their money, and to the poor for their numbers--men who sought gain first, safety next, and the will of God not at all --men whose presentation of Christianity was enough to drive the world to a preferable infidelity.