Salted with Fire

“My frien’s, I hae little richt to stan’ up afore ye and say onything; for, as some o’ ye ken, if no afore, at least noo, frae what my frien’ the soutar has jist been tellin ye, I was ance a minister o’ the kirk, but upon a time I behavet mysel that ill, that, whan I cam to my senses, I saw it my duty to withdraw, and mak room for anither to tak up my disgracet bishopric, as was said o’ Judas the traitor. But noo I seem to hae gotten some mair licht, and to ken some things I didna ken afore; sae, turnin my back upo’ my past sin, and believin God has forgien me, and is willin I sud set my han’ to his pleuch ance mair, I hae thoucht to mak a new beginnin here in a quaiet heumble fashion, tellin ye something o’ what I hae begoud, i’ the mercy o’ God, to un’erstan’ a wee for mysel. Sae noo, gien yell turn, them o’ ye that has broucht yer buiks wi’ ye, to the saeventh chapter o’ John’s gospel, and the saeventeenth verse, ye’ll read wi me what the Lord says there to the fowk o Jerus’lem: Gien ony man be wullin to dee His wull, he’ll ken whether what I tell him comes frae God, or whether I say ‘t only oot o’ my ain heid. Luik at it for yersels, for that’s what it says i’ the Greek, the whilk is plainer than the English to them that un’erstan’ the auld Greek tongue: Gien onybody be wullin to dee the wull o’ God, he’ll ken whether my teachin comes frae God, or I say ‘t o’ mysel.”

From that he went on to tell them that, if they kept trusting in God, and doing what Jesus told them, any mistake they made would but help them the better to understand what God and his son would have them do. The Lord gave them no promise, he said, of knowing what this or that man ought to do; but only of knowing what the man himself ought to do. And he illustrated this by the rebuke the Lord gave Peter when, leaving inquiry into the will of God that he might do it, he made inquiry into the decree of God concerning his friend that he might know it; seeking wherewithal, not to prophesy, but to foretell. Then he showed them the difference between the meaning of the Greek word, and that of the modern English word prophesy.

The little congregation seemed to hang upon his words, and as they were going away, thanked him heartily for thus talking to them.

That same night as James and the soutar were going home together, they were overtaken by an early snowstorm, and losing their way, were in the danger, not a small one, of having to pass the night on the moor. But happily, the farmer’s wife, in whose house was their customary assembly, had, as they were taking their leave, made the soutar a present of some onion bulbs, of a sort for which her garden was famous: exhausted in conflict with the freezing blast, they had lain down, apparently to die before the morning, when the soutar bethought himself of the onions; and obeying their nearer necessity, they ate instead of keeping them to plant; with the result that they were so refreshed, and so heartened for battle with the wind and snow, that at last, in the small hours of the morning, they reached home, weary and nigh frozen.

All through the winter, James accompanied the soutar to his Sunday-school, sometimes on his father’s old gig-horse, but oftener on foot. His father would occasionally go also; and then the men of Stonecross began to go, with the cottar and his wife; so that the little company of them gradually increased to about thirty men and women, and about half as many children. In general, the soutar gave a short opening address; but he always made “the minister” speak; and thus James Blatherwick, while encountering many hidden experiences, went through his apprenticeship to extempore preaching; and, hardly knowing how, grew capable at length of following out a train of thought in his own mind even while he spoke, and that all the surer from the fact that, as it rose, it found immediate utterance; and at the same time it was rendered the more living and potent by the sight of the eager faces of his humble friends fixed upon him, as they drank in, sometimes even anticipated, the things he was saying. He seemed to himself at times almost to see their thoughts taking reality and form to accompany him whither he led them; while the stream of his thought, as it disappeared from his consciousness and memory, seemed to settle in the minds of those who heard him, like seed cast on open soil—some of it, at least, to grow up in resolves, and bring forth fruit. And all the road as the friends returned, now in moonlight, now in darkness and rain, sometimes in wind and snow, they had such things to think of and talk about, that the way never seemed long. Thus dwindled by degrees Blatherwick’s self-reflection and self-seeking, and, growing divinely conscious, he grew at the same time divinely self-oblivious. Once, upon such a home-coming, as his wife was helping him off with his wet boots, he looked up in her face and said—

“To think, Isy, that here am I, a dull, selfish creature, so long desiring only for myself knowledge and influence, now at last grown able to feel in my heart all the way home, that I took every step, one after the other, only by the strength of God in me, caring for me as my own making father!—Ken ye what I’m trying to say, Isy, my dear?”

“I canna be a’thegither certain I un’erstan’,” answered his wife; “but I’ll keep thinkin aboot it, and maybe I’ll come til’t!”

“I can desire no more,” answered James, “for until the Lord lat ye see a thing, hoo can you or I or onybody see the thing that he maun see first! And what is there for us to desire, but to see things as God sees them, and would hae us see them? I used to think the soutar a puir fule body whan he was sayin the vera things I’m tryin to say noo! I saw nae mair what he was efter than that puir collie there at my feet—maybe no half sae muckle, for wha can tell what he mayna be thinkin, wi’ that far awa luik o’ his!”

“Div ye think, Jeames, that ever we’ll be able to see inside thae doggies, and ken what they’re thinkin?”

“I wouldna won’er what we mayna come til; for ye ken Paul says, ‘A’ things are yours, and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s!’ Wha can tell but the vera herts o’ the doggies may ae day lie bare and open to oor herts, as to the hert o’ Him wi’ whom they and we hae to do! Eh, but the thouchts o’ a doggie maun be a won’erfu’ sicht! And syne to think o’ the thouchts o’ Christ aboot that doggie! We’ll ken them, I daurna weel doobt, some day! I’m surer aboot that nor aboot kennin the thouchts o’ the doggie himsel!”

Another Sunday night, having come home through a terrible storm of thunder and lightning, he said to Isy—

“I hae been feelin, a’ the w’y hame, as gien, afore lang, I micht hae to gie a wider testimony. The apostles and the first Christians, ye see, had to beir testimony to the fac’ that the man that was hangt and dee’d upo the cross, the same was up again oot o’ the grave, and gangin aboot the warl; noo I canna beir testimony to that, for I wasna at that time awaur o’ onything; but I might weel be called upon to beir testimony to the fac’ that, whaur ance he lay deid and beeried, there he’s come alive at last—that is, i’ the sepulchre o’ my hert! For I hae seen him noo, and ken him noo—the houp o’ glory in my hert and my life! Whatever he said ance, that I believe for ever.”

The talks James Blatherwick and the soutar had together, were now, according to Mr. Robertson, even wonderful. But it was chiefly the soutar that spoke, while James sat and listened in silence. On one occasion, however, James had spoken out freely, and indeed eloquently; and Mr. Robertson, whom the soutar accompanied to his inn that night, had said to him ere they parted—

“Do you see any good and cogent reason, Mr. MacLear, why this man should not resume his pastoral office?”

“One thing at least I am sure of,” answered the soutar, “—that he is far fitter for it than ever he was in his life before.”

Mr. Robertson repeated this to James the next day, adding—

“And I am certain every one who knows you will vote the restoration of your licence!”

“I must speak to Isy about it,” answered James with simplicity.

“That is quite right, of course,” rejoined Mr. Robertson: “you know I tell my wife everything that I am at liberty to tell.”

“Will not some public recognition of my reinstatement be necessary?” suggested James.

“I will have a talk about it with some of the leaders of the synod, and let you know what they say,” answered Mr. Robertson.

“Of course I am ready,” returned Blatherwick, “to make any public confession judged necessary or desirable; but that would involve my wife; and although I know perfectly that she will be ready for anything required of her, it remains not the less my part to do my best to shield her!”

“Of one thing I think you may be sure—that, with our present moderator, your case will be handled with more than delicacy—with tenderness!”

“I must not doubt it; but for myself I would deprecate indulgence. I must have a talk with my wife about it! She is sure to know what will be best!”

“My advice is to leave it all in the hands of the moderator. We have no right to choose, appoint, or apportion our own penalties!”

James went home and laid the whole matter before his wife.

Instead of looking frightened, or even anxious, Isy laid little Peter softly in his crib, threw her arms round James’s neck, and cried—

“Thank God, my husband, that you have come to this! Don’t think to leave me out, I beg of you. I am more than ready to accept my shame. I have always said I was to blame, and not you! It was me that should have known better!”

“You trusted me, and I proved quite unworthy of your confidence!—But had ever man a wife to be so proud of as I of you!”

Mr. Robertson brought the matter carefully before the synod; but neither James nor Isy ever heard anything more of it—except the announcement of the cordial renewal of James’s licence. This was soon followed by the offer of a church in the poorest and most populous parish north of the Tweed.

“See the loving power at the heart of things, Isy!” said James to his wife: “out of evil He has brought good, the best good, and nothing but good!—a good ripened through my sin and selfishness and ambition, bringing upon you as well as me disgrace and suffering! The evil in me had to come out and show itself, before it could be cleared away! Some people nothing but an earthquake will rouse from their dead sleep: I was one of such. God in His mercy brought on the earthquake: it woke me and saved me from death. Ignorant creatures go about asking why God permits evil: we know why! It may be He could with a word cause evil to cease—but would that be to create good? The word might make us good like oxen or harmless sheep, but would that be a goodness worthy of him who was made in the image of God? If a man ceased to be capable of evil, he must cease to be a man! What would the goodness be that could not help being good—that had no choice in the matter, but must be such because it was so made? God chooses to be good, else he would not be God: man must choose to be good, else he cannot be the son of God! Herein we see the grand love of the Father of men—that he gives them a share, and that share as necessary as his own, in the making of themselves! Thus, and thus only, that is, by willing the good, can they become ‘partakers of the divine nature!’ Satan said, ‘Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil!’ God says, ‘Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil, and choosing the good.’ For the sake of this, that we may come to choose the good, all the discipline of the world exists. God is teaching us to know good and evil in some real degree as they are, and not as they seem to the incomplete; so shall we learn to choose the good and refuse the evil. He would make his children see the two things, good and evil, in some measure as they are, and then say whether they will be good children or not. If they fail, and choose the evil, he will take yet harder measures with them. If at last it should prove possible for a created being to see good and evil as they are, and choose the evil, then, and only then, there would, I presume, be nothing left for God but to set his foot upon him and crush him, as we crush a noxious insect. But God is deeper in us than our own life; yea, God’s life is the very centre and creative cause of that life which we call ours; therefore is the Life in us stronger than the Death, in as much as the creating Good is stronger than the created Evil.”

THE END