sir," he said, "--and you will please to
remember, Mr. Drake, that I was always on your side, and it's better to
come to the point; there's a strong party of us in the church, sir,
that would like to have you back, and we was thinking if you would
condescend to help us, now as you're so well able to, sir, toward a new
chapel, now as you have the means, as well as the will, to do God
service, sir, what with the chapel-building society, and every man-jack
of us setting our shoulder to the wheel, and we should all do our very
best, we should get a nice, new, I won't say showy, but
attractive--that's the word, attractive place--not gaudy, you know, I
never would give in to that, but ornamental too--and in a word,
attractive--that's it--a place to which the people would be drawn by the
look of it outside, and kep' by the look of it inside--a place as would
make the people of Glaston say, 'Come, and let us go up to the house of
the Lord,'--if, with your help, sir, we had such a place, then perhaps
you would condescend to take the reins again, sir, and we should then
pay Mr. Rudd as your assistant, leaving the whole management in your
hands--to preach when you pleased, and leave it alone when you
didn't.--There, sir! I think that's much the whole thing in a
nut-shell."

"And now will you tell me what result you would look for under such an
arrangement?"

"We should look for the blessing of a little success; it's a many years
since we was favored with any."

"And by success you mean----?"

"A large attendance of regular hearers in the morning--not a seat to
let!--and the people of Glaston crowding to hear the word in the
evening, and going away because they can't get a foot inside the place!
That's the success _I_ should like to see."

"What! would you have all Glaston such as yourselves!" exclaimed the
pastor indignantly. "Gentlemen, this is the crowning humiliation of my
life! Yet I am glad of it, because I deserve it, and it will help to
make and keep me humble. I see in you the wood and hay and stubble with
which, alas! I have been building all these years! I have been preaching
dissent instead of Christ, and there you are!--dissenters indeed--but
can I--can I call you Christians? Assuredly do I believe the form of
your church that ordained by the apostles, but woe is me for the
material whereof it is built! Were I to aid your plans with a single
penny in the hope of withdrawing one inhabitant of Glaston from the
pre