ayers was being
sung, and the chapel was getting a little dark, he was beginning to
feel that he had been really worshipping. And then came that great
event in his, as in every Rugby boy's life of that day,--the first
sermon from the Doctor.

THE SERMON.

More worthy pens than mine have described that scene--the oak pulpit
standing out by itself above the School seats; the tall, gallant form,
the kindling eye, the voice, now soft as the low notes of a flute, now
clear and stirring as the call of the light infantry bugle, of him who
stood there Sunday after Sunday, witnessing and pleading for his Lord,
the King of righteousness and love and glory, with whose spirit he was
filled, and in whose power he spoke; the long lines of young faces,
rising tier above tier down the whole length of the chapel, from the
little boy's who had just left his mother to the young man's who was
going out next week into the great world rejoicing in his strength. It
was a great and solemn sight, and never more so than at this time of
the year, when the only lights in the chapel were in the pulpit and at
the seats of the praepostors of the week, and the soft twilight stole
over the rest of the chapel, deepening into darkness in the high
gallery behind the organ.

But what was it, after all, which seized and held these three hundred
boys, dragging them out of themselves, willing or unwilling, for
twenty minutes, on Sunday afternoons? True, there always were boys
scattered up and down the School, who in heart and head were worthy to
hear and able to carry away the deepest and wisest words spoken. But
these were a minority always, generally a very small one, often so
small a one as to be countable on the fingers of your hand. What was
it that moved and held us, the rest of the three hundred reckless,
childish boys, who feared the Doctor with our hearts, and very little
besides in heaven or earth: who thought more of our sets[9] in the
School than of the Church of Christ, and put the traditions of Rugby
and the public opinion of boys in our daily life above the laws of
God? We couldn't enter into half that we heard; we hadn't the
knowledge of our own hearts or the knowledge of one another; and
little enough of the faith, hope, and love needed to that end. But we
listened, as all boys in their better moods will listen (ay, and men,
too, for the matter of that), to a man whom we felt to be, with all
his heart and soul and strength, striving aga