"Set your own house in order and then your own church" was a wordless working precept in Elgin.

Threadbare carpet in the aisles was almost as personal a reproach as a hole under the dining-room table; and self-respect was barely possible to a congregation that sat in faded pews.

The minister's gown even was the subject of scrutiny as the years went on.

It was an expensive thing to buy, but an oyster supper would do it and leave something over for the organ.

Which brings us to the very core and centre of these activities, their pivot, their focus and, in a human sense, their inspiration--the minister himself.
The minister was curiously special among a people so general; he was in a manner raised in life on weekdays as he was in the pulpit on Sundays.
He had what one might call prestige; some form of authority still survived in his person, to which the spiritual democracy he presided over gave a humorous, voluntary assent.