Hugh, however, thought it was all right:  for he had the same good reasons, and no other, for receiving it all, that a Mohammedan or a Buddhist has for holding his opinions; namely, that he had heard those doctrines, and those alone, from his earliest childhood.  He was therefore a good deal startled when, having, on his way home, strayed from the laird’s party towards David’s, he heard the latter say to Margaret as he came up: 

“Dinna ye believe, my bonny doo, ‘at there’s ony mak’ ups or mak’ shifts wi’ Him.  He’s aye bringin’ things to the licht, no covenin’ them up and lattin them rot, an’ the moth tak’ them.  He sees us jist as we are, and ca’s us jist what we are.  It wad be an ill day for a’ o’s, Maggy, my doo, gin he war to close his een to oor sins, an’ ca’ us just in his sicht, whan we cudna possibly be just in oor ain or in ony ither body’s, no to say his.”

“The Lord preserve’s, Dawvid Elginbrod!  Dinna ye believe i’ the doctrine o’ Justification by Faith, an’ you a’maist made an elder o’?”

Janet was the respondent, of course, Margaret listening in silence.

“Ou ay, I believe in’t, nae doot; but, troth! the minister, honest man, near-han’ gart me disbelieve in’t a’thegither wi’ his gran’ sermon this mornin’, about imputit richteousness, an’ a clean robe hidin’ a foul skin or a crookit back.  Na, na.  May Him ’at woosh the feet o’ his friens, wash us a’thegither, and straucht oor crookit banes, till we’re clean and weel-faured like his ain bonny sel’.”

“Weel, Dawvid—­but that’s sanctificaition, ye ken.”

“Ca’t ony name ’at you or the minister likes, Janet, my woman.  I daursay there’s neither o’ ye far wrang after a’; only this is jist my opingan aboot it in sma’—­that that man, and that man only, is justifeed, wha pits himsel’ into the Lord’s han’s to sanctifee him.  Noo!  An’ that’ll no be dune by pittin’ a robe o’ richteousness upo’ him, afore he’s gotten a clean skin aneath’t.  As gin a father cudna bide to see the puir scabbit skin o’ his ain wee bit bairnie, ay, or o’ his prodigal son either, but bude to hap it a’ up afore he cud lat it come near him!  Ahva!”

Here Hugh ventured to interpose a remark.

“But you don’t think, Mr. Elginbrod, that the minister intended to say that justification left a man at liberty to sin, or that the robe of Christ’s righteousness would hide him from the work of the Spirit?”

“Na; but there is a notion in’t o’ hidin’ frae God himsel’.  I’ll tell ye what it is Mr. Sutherlan’:  the minister’s a’ richt in himsel’, an’ sae’s my Janet here, an’ mony mair; an’ aiblins there’s a kin’ o’ trowth in a’ ‘at they say; but this is my quarrel wi’ a’ thae words an’ words an’ airguments, an’ seemilies as they ca’ them, an’ doctrines, an’ a’ that—­they jist haud a puir body at airm’s lenth oot ower frae God himsel’.  An’ they raise a mist an’ a stour a’ aboot him, ‘at the puir bairn canna see the Father himsel’, stan’in’ wi’ his airms streekit oot as wide’s the heavens, to tak’ the worn crater,—­and the mair sinner, the mair welcome,—­hame to his verra hert.  Gin a body wad lea’ a’ that, and jist get fowk persuadit to speyk a word or twa to God him lane, the loss, in my opingan, wad be unco sma’, and the gain verra great.”