title: The Gown of Glory
text: # The Gown of Glory
  
  The Gown of Glory is a 1952 novel by the American writer Agnes Sligh Turnbull (1888–1982). It is set in a fictional rural village of Ladykirk, which is much like the author's birthplace of New Alexandria, Pennsylvania, about thirty miles east of Pittsburgh.
  
  ## Plot
  
  The story begins in 1881 when the Reverend David Lyall brings his new wife from the city to his rural manse expecting to stay only a year. Twenty-five years and three grown children later, David is still the spiritual leader of the Calvinist congregation. The plot explores the small joys and quiet griefs of a minister's life as well as what happens when a wealthy young man falls in love with the minister's daughter.
  
  