"A tremendous Presbyterian" they called him in the town.

To hear him give out a single psalm, and sing it with his people, would convince anybody of that.
There was a choir, of course, but to the front pews, at all events, Dr Drummond's leading was more important than the choir's.

It was a note of dauntless vigour, and it was plain by the regular forward jerk of his surpliced shoulder that his foot was keeping time: Where the assemblies of the just And congregations are.
You could not help admiring, and you could not help respecting; you were compelled by his natural force and his unqualified conviction, his tireless energy and his sterling sort.
It is possible to understand, however, that after sitting for twenty-five years under direction so unfailing and so uncompromising, the congregation of Knox Church might turn with a moderate curiosity to the spiritual indications of the Reverend Hugh Finlay.

He was a passionate romantic, and his body had shot up into a fitting temple for such an inhabitant as his soul.

He was a great long fellow, with a shock of black hair and deep dreams in his eyes; his head was what people called a type, a type I suppose of the simple motive and the noble intention, the detached point of view and the somewhat indifferent attitude to material things, as it may be humanly featured anywhere.