asion the King asked the famous Stillingfleet 'how it was
that he always reads his sermons before him, when he was informed that
he always preached without book elsewhere?' Stillingfleet answered
something about the awe of so noble a congregation, the presence of
so great and wise a prince, with which the King himself was very well
contented,--'But, pray,' continued Stillingfleet, 'will your Majesty
give me leave to ask you a question? Why do you read your speeches
when you can have none of the same reasons?' 'Why truly, doctor,'
replied the King, 'your question is a very pertinent one, and so will
be my answer. I have asked the two Houses so often and for so much
money, that I am ashamed to look them in the face.'"

"This 'slothful way of preaching,' for so the King called it, had
arisen during the civil wars; and Monmouth, when Chancellor of the
University of Cambridge, in compliance with the order of the King,
directed a letter to the University that the practice of reading
sermons should be wholly laid aside."

There was much ignorance in the seventeenth century; but 'twas of the
people's own choosing; 'twas not of necessity. Lewdness was preferable
to purity; it was easier had. And when the King led the pace, why not
they of lesser rank and fortunes? But was there ever a thing created
in all the world without its right and wrong sides? It seemed there
was no room in Charles' time for aught but evil. "The ribaldry of
Etherege and Wycherley was, in the presence and under the special
sanction of the head of the church, while the author of the Pilgrim's
Progress languished in a dungeon for the crime of proclaiming the
gospel to the poor."

As time waxed, even the vigilant persecutors became passive, relaxed
themselves into indifference; but before immorality was aware the
still, small voice was heard. The seed that was twelve years in
planting had taken root and Pilgrim's Progress became known and John
Bunyan stood without the prison gates to preach and pray at will, to
keep on extending that influence that lives to-day. And for once the
King did not go to sleep when, through caprice or curiosity, he went
to hear him preach.

"When Bunyan went to preach in London, if there was but one day's
notice, the meeting house was crowded to overflowing. Twelve hundred
people would be found collected before seven o'clock on a dark
winter's morning to hear a lecture from him. In Zoar St. Southwark,
his church was sometimes so