" she said to herself,
"since the Lord is here and taking note of everything."

The thought of His presence was very sweet; not at all the vision of
terror which it had seemed to her a week ago. She found the fear of
Him not incompatible with the purest confidence and love.

The choir rendered their accustomed service, and a new soprano, on
trial, exploited her skill in solo parts. She sang without Winifred's
refinement of artistic sense, but sang fashionably. She sang
dramatically, and cast languishing glances at the unresponsive backs of
the congregation, blinking over her notes as though invisible
footlights dazzled her eyes. It was not easy to find the sentiment
sung in the midst of the quavering notes, so the poor worshipers below
could scarcely offer "amens" in their hearts; but they might perhaps
consider thankfully that some sort of noise, "joyful" or otherwise, had
been made unto the Lord by their paid proxy.

Doctor Schoolman's sermon was a typical one. Finished and elegant, his
polished sentences reached his congregation gently; not like swift
arrows from a tense bow, but rather like harmless darts taken from the
preacher's quiver and laid without violence against the hearts of his
listeners. Very good arrows they often were from the philosophic
standpoint, but seldom fashioned from the rugged essential truths of
the doctrine of Christ.

He had a text from Scripture certainly. But no slavish adherence to
its evident meaning, as seen by its setting, hampered the orator in his
thought. Indeed, was it not a kindness to the old Book that still
somewhat from its pages was thought worthy to act as a peg upon which
to hang the ripe and cultivated ideas of the twentieth century?

Hubert did not find his soul much fed by the discourse, but, keen and
discriminating as his mind might be, he was not yet a Bible student and
able to disentangle the original thoughts of the preacher from the
teachings of revelation. He found much to assent to ethically, but,
compared with the revelation in his laboratory when the pure light of
heaven shone upon the pages of John's Gospel, the rhetorical utterances
of Doctor Schoolman were as water unto wine. They were not so
commanding but that he at last found time to glance at his neighbors to
see how they were taking the sermon. Winifred was too near him to be
looked at, likewise his father; but he could see his mother. Very
elegant, very composed, very approving she loo