midnight
In the days of his childhood and youth , Mr. Carson had been accustomed to poverty ; but it was honest , decent poverty ; not the grinding squalid misery he had remarked in every part of John Barton 's house , and which contrasted strangely with the pompous sumptuousness of the room in which he now sat . Unaccustomed wonder filled his mind at the reflection of the different lots of the brethren of mankind . Then he roused himself from his reverie , and turned to the object of his search -- the Gospel , where he half expected to find the tender pleading : `` They know not what they do . '' It was murk midnight by this time , and the house was still and quiet . There was nothing to interrupt the old man in his unwonted study . Years ago , the Gospel had been his task-book in learning to read . So many years ago , that he had become familiar with the events before he could comprehend the Spirit that made the Life .