ll the worth of it; if it was
evil, he saw to the bottom of it, and discovered, if such were there,
the filthy reptile in the mud beneath, which was setting the whole ugly
pool in commotion. By this deliberateness he also gave the greater
weight to what answer he saw fit to give at last--sometimes with the
result of considerable confusion of face to the narrator. In the present
instance, he contented himself with the strongest assurance that the
whole story was a mistake so far as it applied to Mr. Faber, who had, in
fact, dismissed his assistant for the very crime of which they accused
himself. The next afternoon, he walked the whole length of Pine street
with the doctor, conversing all the way.

Nor did he fail to turn the thing to advantage. He had for some time
been awaiting a fit opportunity for instructing his people upon a point
which he thought greatly neglected: here was the opportunity, and he
made haste to avail himself of it.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE GROANS OF THE INARTICULATE.

The rest of the week was rainy, but Sunday rose a day of perfect summer.
As the curate went up the pulpit-stair, he felt as if the pulse of all
creation were beating in unison with his own; for to-day he was the
speaker for the speechless, the interpreter of groans to the creation of
God.

He read, _Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them
shall not fall on the ground without your Father_, and said:

"My friends, doth God care for sparrows? Or saith He it altogether for
our sakes, and not at all for the sparrows? No, truly; for indeed it
would be nothing to us if it were not every thing to the sparrows. The
word can not reach our door except through the sparrow's nest. For see!
what comfort would it be to us to be told we were of more value than
ever so many sparrows, if their value was nothing--if God only knew and
did not care for them? The saying would but import that we were of more
value than just nothing. Oh, how skillful is unbelief to take all the
color and all the sweetness and all the power out of the words of The
Word Himself! How many Christians are there not who take the passage to
mean that not a sparrow can fall to the ground without the _knowledge_
of its Creator! A mighty thing that for the sparrow! If such a Christian
seemed to the sparrow the lawful interpreter of the sparrow's Creator,
he would make an infidel of the sparrow. What Christ-like heart, what
heart of loving man, could be co