ordinary profession of religion. Books of family prayer no doubt abound, fitted for families in full possession of all the ordinances and inhabiting Great Britain; but for persons living in the far bush, who never hear a church bell, the omissions that ought to be made and the passages that ought to be supplied, would have required a quicker eye and a more ready tongue than Mr. Lindsay's.
So he contented himself with seeing that no unnecessary work was done on Sundays, and with reading a sermon in a somewhat broad accent to his household in the evenings. He occasionally bought a new volume, but his favourite book was a collection of sermons which had been given to him by his brother on leaving, which had been written by a minister whom he had heard often preach on sacramental occasions; for he belonged to the same presbytery as Hugh Lindsay's own minister, and was considered the most able man of them all. Fifty-two sermons a year had been read for many a year in that household, and this particular book was so familiar to Jessie and Allan that they knew the turn of every sentence in it. The sermon to Scottish minds is the most important part of the religious service at church, so that it is natural that it should be offered as a
