have found some occupation in the new meetinghouse. It was little, however, that Henry had to do with it, for, in the first place, the fact of his supposing education to be necessary to make a minister operated against his favourable reception with the committee; and, in the next, it must be confessed he was not slow to express his contempt of their proceedings, and this sufficed to exclude him from their friendship in some degree.

CHAPTER XVII.

"PREACHING."

HENRY had not been long at college ere it was discovered that he had talents that would help to make him a useful minister. So that he was soon in great request among such congregations as, being in want of ministerial help, thought proper to deal at the Bunyan Institute.

Nearly every Sunday now found him temporarily supplying the place of a regular minister in one or other of the Baptist chapels having connexion with the college. He was truly in his element; the question of pay never influenced him in his acceptance of an invitation, much to the disgust of his fellow-students, who declared he would "injure the business if he cut down the prices." His aim really was to win souls to God, to make inroads on Sin and Hell's work in the world. Of course his companions laughed at him for his Quixotic fancies, and assured him his zeal would soon burn itself out, and find him a regular "professional" like themselves in the end.

Many a time was he the object of a hearty laugh and caustic joke, as he entered the building in the morning for early class with his books from the distant suburb where he dwelt, and found his class-mates at nine in the morning but just risen from their slumbers, almost too drowsy to eat the plain breakfast they reproached the meanness of the council for providing them with, and grumbling at the hard fate which compelled them to lay aside the morning paper to attend the class, the bell for which was ever too prompt in sounding.

If the Bunyan apostles had one pet failing, it was an over affection for sleep. Dr. Smith was an early man, but he never could get his theological family to imitate him in this respect. And though there was the "boots" to knock at their doors, and apprise them that the bell for prayers was ringing its eight o'clock summons, it was a very small congregation that responded to it.

The breakfast-bell certainly commanded more respect, for few absented themselves from meals, though it was often threatened-"no prayers, no breakfast!" The threat was never carried out, and things went on as usual. At one time the doctor resorted to the expedient of posting up the attendance at morning prayers, and the list certainly did not go far to prove mortification or asceticism on the part of the persons concerned. They were, however, a great deal too clever to feel ashamed of themselves, and it was only the freshmen at Bunyan who blushed when reproved for a breach of the college rules. It was considered a mark of excessive verdure to pay any attention to the rules at all. And though every one signed a declaration on entering that, amongst other things, "he would not smoke on the premises,' " "would regularly attend prayers," and "would never be absent after ten

at night," he soon treated the rules as those persons in another quarter treat the Thirty-nine Articles and the rubrics of the Common Prayer, by explaining them away to the satisfaction of any remnant of conscience that it might have been consistent with the dignity of a Bunyan student to possess. All this surprised our hero, and helped to disperse the halo of glory that had first illumined college life in his imagination.

But he got used to surprises in less than twelve. months. He thought that men whose professed object was to do God's work would at least be much in the habit of meeting to pray for His blessing on their labours. So far from devotional meetings being customary, however, he was surprised to find the ordinary morning prayers both neglected and contemned,

He was astonished too when one day he found two of our young apostles deciding which of them should go to preach some missionary sermons at a distant town by "tossing," and more surprised still when he found another of the heavenly ambassadors using the same means to settle a question that was troubling him, as to which of two favourite texts before him he should discourse from next Sunday! "Heads, "Corinthians ;' Tails, Timothy."" He was surprised to find that all smoked in their rooms who could do so without becoming ill, and many often remaining out late at night, getting in at unseasonable hours either by certain gymnastic expedients, at which they were adepts, or by the connivance of the others within.

The pride and affectation of these young men was something extraordinary. Not a few began to style themselves "Rev." before they had been six weeks on the books; and it was frequently the case that a young divine who had formerly earned his bread by manual labour, faring hard the while, when safely

ensconced under the mantle of the Bunyan Alma Mater, turned up his nose at the plain and wholesome every-day fare that he would formerly have been glad of even on a feast-day.

But though Henry saw enough to convince him that few of the men at Bunyan took any other than a purely £. s. d. view of their office, he did not allow his disgust at their conduct to hinder him from throwing himself heart and soul into the noble work before him; for it is a noble aim to try, by means however humble, to make the world better and happier, and he felt there could be no grander task than to instruct the ignorant and toiling men and women whom he met in their duty towards God, their neighbours, and themselves.

And so at the outset to preach simply what he conceived to be the Gospel was his only desire-to preach so that his hearers might understand and be induced to practise it.

But in time the Bunyan teaching began to modify Henry's homiletics. At the college you were taught to make a sermon by rules as precise as those for making a table. Now these rules were very valuable, and a good student, by their proper use, was much assisted in composing his discourse; yet with many the art was carried to extremes, and generally the product smelled too strongly of the lamp to leave. any effect on the hearers other than to make them wonder at the preacher's cleverness. Seldom or never were the sermons in any sense practical; generally they were highly poetical and romantic essays; often they were catchpenny, that is they were constructed "to sell," and were composed purely to make the preachers popular, and bring grist to the mill. When a text took a student's fancy, he would medi

tate upon it for some weeks; this they termed "brewing a sermon," or a "homily in the pot;" and when he had sufficiently digested it, he sat down carefully to write it out. When finished and a favourable opportunity for preaching offered, it would be carefully learned off and delivered memoriter. Now there is no doubt this is an excellent way to produce a good sermon, so far as its literary character is considered; but we hold that it is not the sole duty of a Christian man to hear sermons, or of a Christian minister to preach them; if it were, the plan would be excellent; as it is, we maintain that the people are made hypercritical, and the minister a slave of the pen and the memory by the practice. The congregation hire a sermon-grinder at so much per annum, and keep him to tickle their fancy, and excite their admiration from week to week. They go to chapel and think they fulfil their duty to God by putting out their devotional work to be done by deputy, and then listening to an elaborate essay on some subject beyond their comprehension.

This is called congregational worship, probably because the congregation have nothing whatever to do with it. The minister is the one object of attraction; the pulpit is the point round which all is made to revolve. As the parson is responsible only to those who pay him for his work, it is evident all he cares for is to make sermons; and all the people care about is to keep their ears open and see that they get what they pay for.

The students knowing this, their grand aim is to become clever preachers, and as a rule they succeed. There is little doubt that in England and America the best preachers, considered from the literary standpoint, are to be found amongst the more orthodox

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