* Hugh Ross, Kilmuir, was one of the most famous of the Ross-shire “Men.” It was under the preaching of Mr. Porteous, Kilmuir, that he was awakened to a sense of his lost state; while under deep concern it was his habit to stand outside the building listening to God’s messenger. The remarkable incident referred to in the poem is mentioned by Dr. Kennedy, in his Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire, p. 99, 1897 Edition.—EDITOR.
‘TWAS in the days when Scotland held
God’s truth with grip of steel,
When saints were very reverent,
And even sinners real;
When one could talk of inwrought grace
Without profession’s smear,
And men were not ashamed to drop
The penitential tear.
That, Sabbath after Sabbath, came
A youth in pensive mood,
Who by the threshold of God’s house
In anxious tremor stood;
For the sharp arrow of the King
Had pierced his hostile soul;
Nor could he, in his anguish, see
How he could be made whole.
He listened, listened with his heart,
But peace was long in coming;
And all the time he waited there
Eternity was looming;
Yet, fierce might be the northern blast,
Or mountain torrents swelling,
Neither could tempt that lonely lad
To step within God’s dwelling.
Still, in God’s time, a piteous friend
Who gauged his secret sore,
With sudden movement pushed him in,
And closed and locked the door;
Then, through the shadows of the kirk,
God’s light came streaming clear,
And there he saw the Saviour’s face,
And then he lost his fear.
Soon after, he was called to teach
God’s grace to all around,
And straight among his audience
Three godless youths were found.
Sons of the friend who pushed him in,
And there they both did prove
The power of their father’s God,
And, presently, His love.
Oh, never slight the lingerer,
For God still works by means;
Though ‘twixt the act and the reward,
A life oft intervenes;
Force where you dare, speak where you may,
Lure if you have the skill,
And leave the Lord of circumstance
To follow as He will. —M. A. CHAPLIN.