happened to remark what a comfort it must be to him to think of all the good he had done by his gift of eloquence. The eyes of the old man filled with tears, and he said, 'You little know! You little know! If I ever turned one heart from the ways of disobedience to the wisdom of the just, God has withheld the assurance from me. I have been admired, and flattered, and run after; but how gladly I would forget all that, to be told of a single soul I have been instrumental in saving!' The eminent preacher entered into his rest. There was a great funeral. Many pressed around the grave who had oftentimes hung entranced upon his lips. My friend was there, and by his side was a stranger, who was so deeply moved, that when all was over, my friend said to him, 'You knew him, I suppose?' 'Knew him,' was the reply. 'No; I never spoke to him, but I owe to him my soul !'

COLLOQUY THE SECOND.

THE LAWYER, THE DOCTOR, AND THE
MERCHANT.

SCENE: Outside a London Church, the congregation retiring.

L. O dear!

D. What is the matter?

L. That sermon !

D. I did not hear it. In view of the possibility of being called out, I always sit towards the end of the church. The enunciation of our good vicar is so indistinct, that where we are it is practically impossible to follow him. The strain of trying to do so is positively painful, and I have long ago given

it

up. He is sufficiently loud, but his words run into one another and cannot be disentangled.

L. There you are! These parsons do not observe the ordinary laws of elocution. What right has the bishop to present a man to a big London church who cannot be heard in it? But you had no loss. The sermon was the dullest of the dull; yet it lasted half an hour by my watch.

D. Why don't they let us have the prayers without a sermon ?

L. Not one in ten would go to church. There's the odd thing. Nobody likes sermons; but very few listen to them. The inefficiency of our preachers has unfortunately made them a standing target for ridicule. Yet it is considered right that sermons should be preached, and that people should be present. It is a sort of Sunday penance. We endure it how we can, and then we feel that we have done our duty.

D. But ought a sermon to be a penance? Is not that the fault of our spiritual pastors and masters ? I have sometimes heard preachers to whom it is a pleasure to listen.

L. They are few and far between in the Church of England. It is wonderful to me that ordinary congregations are as large as they are, considering the intellectual pabulum with which they are fed. Generally speaking, it is mere child's pap, and even when it is somewhat richer food, it is nearly always spoilt in the delivery.

D. Yet what a vantage ground a preacher has, if he only knew how to avail himself of it! A secured audience, a conventional silence, the greatest of all subjects, the impossibility of anyone replying.

L. Yes, yet our reverend blockheads are content to go on, year after year, mumbling compositions scarcely up to the mental level of an average schoolboy. I am no advocate for disestablishment and disendowment, but is it for this that our glorious fabrics are built, and our funds provided?

D. Recent church progress has not af fected preaching as one might have thought it would. Services have been brightened, hymn

ology has been materially developed, all the other accessories of public worship have been marvellously improved. Yet sermons scarcely seem to have made a corresponding advance.

L. On the contrary, they have positively gone back. With some knowledge of facts and opinions, I can confidently affirm that the London pulpit has considerably deteriorated during the last quarter of a century.

D. But surely there is more extempore preaching than formerly?

L. Extempore preaching is not of necessity improved preaching. No doubt a good extempore sermon is delightful. But what can be more jejune than the utterances of many young fellows who get up into the pulpit, and fancy that because they have left. their notes behind them they must needs be popular preachers?

D. Why is not more trouble taken to train our clergy to be speakers? If they knew a little less Latin and Greek, a little less mathematics, or even a little less

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