Another hymn was followed by the Lord’s Prayer; after which came the sermon, preached by the Rev. Donald Fraser, M.A., of Marylebone, London, a former minister of the church.  He read the last three verses of the ninth chapter of St. John’s gospel, continued reading down to the sixteenth verse of the tenth chapter, and then selected for his text the fourth, ninth, and tenth verses of that chapter, the first verse of these reading:  “And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”

The sermon had evidently been well thought out and was ably delivered, the subject being very appropriate to a district where sheep abound and where their habits are so well known.  Everybody listened with the greatest attention.  At the close there was a public baptism of a child, whose father and mother stood up before the pulpit with their backs to the congregation.  The minister recited the Apostles’ Creed, which was slightly different in phraseology from that used in the Church of England, and then, descending from the pulpit, proceeded to baptize the child in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  The closing hymn followed, and the people stood while the minister pronounced the benediction, after which the congregation slowly separated.

[Illustration:  INVERNESS CASTLE.]

During the afternoon we visited an isolated hill about a mile from the town named Tomnahurich, or the “Hill of the Fairies.”  Nicely wooded, it rose to an elevation of about 200 feet above the sea, and, the summit being comparatively level and clear from trees, we had a good view of Inverness and its surroundings.  This hill was used as the Cemetery, and many people had been buried, both on the top and along the sides of the serpentine walk leading up to it, their remains resting there peacefully until the resurrection, “when the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.”  We considered it an ideal place for the burial of the dead, and quite a number of people were walking up and down the paths leading under the trees, many of them stopping on their way to view the graves where their friends had been buried.

In the evening we attended service in the cathedral, a large modern structure, with two towers, each of which required a spire forty feet high to complete the original design.  Massive columns of Aberdeen granite had been erected in the interior to support the roof of polished oak, adorned with carved devices, some of which had not yet been completed.  The Communion-table, or altar, made in Italy and presented to the cathedral by a wealthy layman, stood beneath a suspended crucifix, and was further adorned with a cross, two candlesticks, and two vases containing flowers.  The service, of a High-Church character, was fully choral, assisted by a robed choir and a good organ.  The sermon was preached by the Rev. Provost Powell, who took for his text Romans xiv.