The Voice at Midnight - Page 2

left for the Preachings, and I thought no more of him, good
or bad.

"On the first of September I was in Oban. I had walked far and was very
tired, but I went to John MacNab's cottage, and, after I had eat my
kippered herring and drank my tea, I felt better. Then I talked with
John about the resurrection of the body, for he was in a tribulation of
thoughts and doubts as to whether our Lord had a permanent humanity or
not.

"And I said to him, John, Christ redeemed our whole nature, and it is
this way: the body being ransomed, as well as the spirit, by no less a
price than the body of Christ, shall be equally cleansed and glorified.
Now, then, after I had gone to my room, I was sitting thinking of these
things, and of no other things whatever. There was not a sound but that
of the waves breaking among the rocks, and drawing the tinkling pebbles
down the beach after them. Then the ears of my spiritual body were
opened, and I heard these words, _'I will go with thee to Glasgow!'_
Instead of saying to the heavenly message, 'I am ready!' I began to
argue with myself thus: 'Whatever for should I go to Glasgow? I know not
anyone there. No one knows me. I have duties at Portsee not to be left.
I have no money for such a journey--'

"I fell asleep to such thoughts. Then I dreamed of--or I saw--a woman
fair as the daughters of God, and she said, _'I will go with thee to
Glasgow!'_ With a strange feeling of being hurried and pressed I
awoke--wide awake, and without any conscious will of my own, I answered,
'I am ready. I am ready now.'

"As I left the cottage it was striking twelve, and I wondered what means
of reaching Glasgow I should find at midnight. But I walked straight to
the pier, and there was a small steamer with her steam up. She was
blowing her whistle impatiently, and when the skipper saw me coming, he
called to me, in a passion, 'Well, then, is it all night I shall wait
for thee?'

"I soon perceived that there was a mistake, and that it was not John
Balmuto he had been instructed to wait for. But I heeded not that; I was
under orders I durst not disobey. She was a trading steamer, with a
perishable cargo of game and lobsters, and so she touched at no place
whatever till we reached Glasgow. One of her passengers was David
MacPherson of Harris, a very good man, who had known me in my
visitations. He was going to Glasgow as a witness in a case to be tried
between the Harris fishers and their commission house in Glasgow.

"As we walked together from the steamer, he said to me, 'Let us go round
by the court house, John, and I'll find out when I'll be required.' That
was to my mind; I did not feel as if I could go astray, whatever road
was taken,