let it be an incentive to godly
action."

Ephraim received the gold piece, and his features relaxed into
something like a smile.

"Truly," said he, "did David, the man after God's heart, speak by
inspiration when he declared--'Never saw I the righteous forsaken, or
his seed begging bread.'"

Spikeman made no reply, and the man having attained his object, and
observing the other's desire to be rid of him, withdrew.

The countenance of the Assistant expressed chagrin and displeasure as
he looked after the retiring form of the serving-man; but presently he
buried his face in his hands, leaning his elbows on the tall
writing-table that stood before him. In this attitude he remained some
little time, and when he removed them, the expression of his face was
changed, and his mind evidently filled with other thoughts. The look
of vexation had been succeeded by one it is difficult to describe--a
kind of smile played around his lips, his eyes sparkled, his color was
heightened, and a slight moisture exuded from the corners of his
mouth--he was uglier and more repulsive than before. He bent over, and
on a piece of paper which lay before him, wrote with a hand that
trembled a little--"How fair and how pleasant, art thou O love, for
delights." This sentence he scrawled several times, and then taking up
the piece of paper, he tore it into small fragments, and scattered
them on the floor, after which, composing his face into an austere
seeming, he placed his high steeple-crowned hat on his head, and,
leaving the building, proceeded in the direction of his
dwelling-house. As he advanced leisurely along, he soon heard the
sound of a drum beaten through the streets, to summon the people to
one of those weekly lectures, in which spiritual instruction was not
unfrequently leavened with worldly wisdom and directions for political
conduct.

Meetings for religious lecture, on week days, were exceedingly common,
and held in high favor; indeed, so attractive were they, that in the
language of an old historian, an actor on the spot--"Many poor persons
would usually resort to two or three in the week, to the great neglect
of their affairs and the damage of the public." To these, the people
were summoned by beat of drum, the martial roll of which instrument
called them also to muster for defence, upon a hostile alarm, a
different tattoo being adopted for the latter purpose. An attempt was
at one time made by the magistrates to diminish the