United States or Madagascar ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The travelling pulpit consisted of two compartments, the one for the minister and the other for Lang Tammas, but no Auld Licht thought that it looked like a Punch and Judy puppet show. This service on the common was known as the "tent preaching," owing to a tent's being frequently used instead of the box. Mr. Watts was conducting the service on the commonty.
"In that case," he replied, "it seems to me the offender wad hae to cast aboot him for ane fit to be trustit, and to him reveal the haill affair, that he may get his help to see and do what's richt: it maks an unco differ to luik at a thing throuw anither man's een, i' the supposed licht o' anither man's conscience!
And thus it flowed: The stars are steady abune; I' the water they flichter an' flee; But steady aye luikin' doon, They ken themsel's i' the sea. A' licht, an' clear, an' free, God, thou shinest abune; Yet luik, an' see thysel' in me, God, whan thou luikest doon. A silence followed, but a silence that seemed about to be broken.
Noo a teetle ye maun hae, that's as clear as the licht, and there's ane come just now into my head that will answer ye to a T; when ye're a lord, freend, Robby, ye'll be Lord Preserve Us?" "You are very impertinent Mr. C k," replied the nettled judge expectant; "I am sure you may find a waur."
But Tibbie resumed: "Ye maunna think, hooever, 'cause sic longin' thouchts come ower me, that I gang aboot the hoose girnin' and compleenin' that I canna open the door and win oot. Na, na. I could jist despise the licht, whiles, that ye mak' sic a wark aboot, and sing and shout, as the Psalmist says; for I'm jist that glaid, that I dinna ken hoo to haud it in.
There are few Auld Licht communities in Scotland nowadays perhaps because people are now so well off, for the most devout Auld Lichts were always poor, and their last years were generally a grim struggle with the workhouse. Many a heavy-eyed, back-bent weaver has won his Waterloo in Thrums fighting on his stumps.
Is that a licht?" "It'll be in Nanny Webster's," Hendry said, after they had all regarded the light. "I never heard that Nanny needed a candle to licht her to her bed," the precentor muttered. "She was awa to meet Sanders the day as he came out o' the Tilliedrum gaol," Spens remembered, "and I daresay the licht means they're hame again."
There had even been an indulgence in hot words, and the Reverend Alexander Kewans, a "stickit minister," but not of the Auld Licht persuasion, had withdrawn in dudgeon on hearing Tammas asked to conduct the ceremony instead of himself.
And noo she's back til her father, bricht and licht and bonny as the lown starry nicht! Eh, but it maks me happy to think o' 't! 'Sae it maks me! responded Kirsty, feeling, as she regarded him, like a glorified mother beholding her child walking in the truth.
'Many a time in my young days, she says, 'I played about the Auld Licht manse, but I little thought I should live to be the mistress of it! 'But Margaret is not you. 'N-no, oh no. She had a very different life from mine. I never let on to a soul that she is me! 'She was not meant to be you when I began. Mother, what a way you have of coming creeping in!
Word Of The Day