ome to think
of it, he did catechise on the Sunday afternoon. But he is the only man
that ever did so here. There's been no catechising in this church,
except then." We parted good friends after what I felt to be a most
singular interview, far more interesting, I fear, to me than to any who
may read this unadorned tale, and especially the many folks who probably
but for this I should never have catechised.

But I hope the old clerk of Crosthwaite's declaration will not long be
true of any church of the Anglican Communion, "There's been no
catechising here." My success as a preacher, or catechist, or parish
priest has not been great, but this does not greatly surprise me, while
sorrowing that so it has been. But I think it likely that the incident
at Crosthwaite Church was a chief cause of my trying to be a catechist,
and I conclude by saying to any one in holy orders, or preparing to
receive them. Make catechising an important effort in your ministry.

It was a small parish. The vicar was a learned man, and an authority as
an antiquary, and a man of high character. On a certain Sunday morning
I was detailed to perform all the "duties" of Morning Prayer. Doubtless
I was too energetic in my efforts at preaching, for my "action" proved,
almost to an alarming extent, that the huge pulpit cushion had not been
"dusted" for a lengthy period. But it was at the very commencement of
divine service that the clerk demonstrated his originality in the proper
discharge of his duties. "I stands up in yonder corner to ring the
bells, and as soon as you be ready you gives me a kind of nod like, and
then I leaves off ringing and comes to my place as clerk." Nothing could
work better, and the clerk of B----- d and I parted at the close of
divine service on very amicable terms.

Mr. F.S. Gill, aged 86, has many recollections of old clerks and their
ways. In a parish in Nottinghamshire there was an old clerk who was
nearly blind. There were two services on Sunday in summer, and only
morning service in winter. The clerk knew the morning Psalms quite well
by heart, but not so the evening Psalms. On one occasion when his verse
should have been read, he was unable to recollect it. After a pause the
clergyman began to read it, when the clerk, who occupied the box below
that of the vicar, looked up, saying, "Nay, nay, master, I've got
it now."

Another time, when an absent-minded curate omitted the ante-Communion
service and appeared in his bl