'You are engaged so in God's work in Kirkcudbright that if you remove out
of that town all will be undone.' What a tribute is that to the
provost's wife! And again, far on in the Letters he writes to Grizel
Fullarton: 'Your dear mother, now blessed and perfected with glory, kept
life in that place, and my desire is that you succeed her in that way.'
What a pride to have such a mother; and what a tradition for a daughter
to take up! So have we all known in country towns and villages one man
or one woman who kept life in the place. Out of the memories of my own
boyhood there rises up, here a minister and there a farmer, here a cloth-
merchant and there a handloom weaver, here a blacksmith's wife and there
a working housekeeper, who kept life in the whole place. It is not
station that does it, nor talent, though both station and talent greatly
help; it is character, it is true and genuine godliness. True and
genuine godliness--especially when it is purged of pride, and harsh
judgment, and too much talk, and is adorned with humility and meekness,
and all the other fruits of holy love--true and pure godliness in a most
obscure man or woman will find its way to a thousand consciences, and
will impress and overawe a whole town, as Marion M'Naught's rare
godliness impressed and overawed all Kirkcudbright. Just as, on the
other hand, the ignorance, the censoriousness, the bitterness, the
intolerance, that too often accompany what would otherwise be true
godliness, work as widespread mischief as true godliness works good. 'One
little deed done for God's sake, and against our natural inclination,
though in itself only of a conceding or passive character, to brook an
insult, to face a danger, or to resign an advantage, has in it a power
outbalancing all the dust and chaff of mere profession--the profession
whether of enlightened benevolence or candour, or, on the other hand, of
high religious faith and fervent zeal;' or, as Rutherford could write to
Marion M'Naught's daughter: 'There is a wide and deep difference between
a name of godliness and the power of godliness.' Even the schoolboys of