About two in the morning
Thus have I seen these Scottish lives , stern and cold and rayless , break into flame at evening , in whose light I caught the glory of the very gates of the City of God . It was the winter of the strike , whose story I have already told , that Elsie M'Phatter heard the Voice which calls but once . Long and gentle had been the slope towards the river , and I held Elsie 's hand every step of the way , myself striving to hold that other Hand which is truly visible only in the darkness ; but the last stage of the journey came swift and suddenly . About two in the morning I was awakened by the loud alarm of my door-bell . The minister knows well that at such an hour his bell is rung only by eternal winds , and the alarm is an almost certain message that the rapids are near and that he is wanted at the helm . On Atlantic liners I have never heard the ominous note that calls the captain from his cabin to the bridge without thinking of my midnight bell , and that deeper darkness , and that more awful channel . It was the doctor 's boy who thus summoned me , bidding me hurry to Elsie 's bedside , for the tide was ebbing fast , he said .