This book will elicit the full gamut of emotions as well as provide a welcome array of spiritual and intellectual stimuli. The main character, Hugh Sutherland, is introduced as a congenial young man who wishes no more than to make his way in the world. After the death of his father he is forced by financial constraints to seek employment in order to complete his education. This employment is, of course, as a tutor on a small Scottish estate where he encounters the estate foreman or steward, David Elginbrod and his daughter, Margaret or Maggie.

Sutherland finds the Elginbrod family, although Christian in word and deed, to his liking when compared with the severe and mean manner of his employer. As a result, he finds himself at the Elginbrod cottage whenever time will permit, and begins tutoring both father and daughter. Although Hugh believes himself to be the educator, he will learn as he matures and discovers the various trials and tribulations that lie in his path that it was David, not he, who was, in fact, the real tutor.

MacDonald has excelled in the characters of David and Margaret Elginbrod, while providing a practical application of their teachings in the lives of Hugh Sutherland and those with whom he comes in contact.

Not only an exceptional spiritual work, David Elginbrod weaves a tale of ghosts, mysticism, the supernatural, and love in such a manner as to be both educational, spiritually-uplifting, and spellbinding. My sole regret was when I encountered the final page. I was prepared to begin anew.