But when a man gets up and goes out
and discharges an obligation, he is an individual; to him God has
spoken, and he has opened his ears to hear: God and that man are
henceforth in communion."
These doings, however, gave--how should they fail to give?--a
strong handle to the grasp of those who cared for nothing in religion
but its respectability--who went to church Sunday after Sunday,
"for the sake of example" as they said--the most arrogant of
Pharisaical reasons! Many a screeching, dancing fisher lass in the
Seaton was far nearer the kingdom of heaven than the most respectable
of such respectable people! I would unspeakably rather dance with
the wildest of fanatics rejoicing over a change in their own spirits,
than sit in the seat of the dull of heart, to whom the old story
is an outworn tale.
CHAPTER XLIX: MOUNT PISGAH
The intercourse between Florimel and Malcolm grew gradually more
familiar, until at length it was often hardly to be distinguished
from such as takes place between equals, and Florimel was by degrees
forgetting the present condition in the possible future of the
young man. But Malcolm, on the other hand, as often as the thought
of that possible future arose in her presence, flung it from him
in horror, lest the wild dream of winning her should make him for
a moment desire its realization.
The claim that hung over him haunted his very life, turning the
currents of his thought into channels of speculation unknown before.
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