eculiar."

"In what way?"

"I don't know, ma'am;--it excited the people very much. They could not
keep still."

"Do you like preaching better that does not excite people?"

Eleanor hesitated. "No, ma'am; but I do not like them to make a noise."

"What sort of a noise?"

Eleanor paused again, and to her astonishment found her own lip
quivering and her eyes watering as she answered,--"It was a noise of
weeping and of shouting--not loud shouting; but that is what it was."

"I have often known such effects under faithful presenting of the
truth," said Mrs. Caxton composedly. "When people's feelings are much
moved, it is very natural to give them expression."

"For uncultivated people, particularly."

"I don't know about the cultivation," said Mrs. Caxton. "Robert Hall's
sermons used to leave two thirds of his hearers on their feet. I have
seen a man in middle life, a judge in the courts, one of the heads of
the community in which he lived, so excited that he could not undo the
fastenings of his pew door; and he put his foot on the seat and sprang
over into the aisle."

"Do you like such things, aunt Caxton?"

"I prefer another mode of getting out of church, my dear."

"But shouting, or crying out, is what people of refinement would not
do, even if they could not open their pew doors."

Eleanor was a little sorry the moment she had uttered this speech; her
spirits were in a whirl of disorder and uncomfortableness, and she had
spoken hastily. Mrs. Caxton answered with great composure.

"What do you call those words that you are accustomed to hear, the
'Gloria in Excelsis'?--'Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace,
good will towards men. We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee,
we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord
God, heavenly King.'"

"What do you call it, aunt Caxton?"

"If it is not a shout of joy, I can make nothing of it. Or the one
hundred and fiftieth psalm--'O praise God in his holiness; praise him
in the firmament of his power. Praise him in his noble acts; praise him
according to his excellent greatness. Praise him in the sound of the
trumpet; praise him upon the lute and harp. Praise him in the cymbals
and dances; praise him upon the strings and pipe. Praise him upon the
well tuned cymbals; praise him upon the loud cymbals. Let everything
that hath breath praise the Lord.'--What is that but a shout of praise?"

"It never sounded like a shout," said Ele