"

_Parson._--"The Sacred Book tells us even that; for after establishing
the truth that, for the multitude, knowledge is not essential to
happiness and good, it accords still to knowledge its sublime part in
the revelation prepared and announced. When an instrument of more than
ordinary intelligence was required for a purpose divine--when the
Gospel, recorded by the simple, was to be explained by the acute,
enforced by the energetic, carried home to the doubts of the
Gentile--the Supreme Will joined to the zeal of the earlier apostles the
learning and genius of St. Paul--not holier than the others--calling
himself the least, yet laboring more abundantly than them all--making
himself all things unto all men, so that some might be saved. The
ignorant may be saved no less surely than the wise; but here comes the
wise man who helps to save! And how the fulness and animation of this
grand Presence, of this indomitable Energy, seem to vivify the toil, and
to speed the work! 'In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils
of robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen,
in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the
sea, in perils amongst false brethren.' Behold, my son! does not Heaven
here seem to reveal the true type of knowledge--a sleepless activity, a
pervading agency, a dauntless heroism, an all-supporting faith? A
power--a power indeed--a power apart from the aggrandizement of self--a
power that brings to him who owns and transmits it but 'weariness and
painfulness; in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings
often, in cold and nakedness'--but a power distinct from the mere
circumstance of the man, rushing from him as rays from a sun--borne
through the air, and clothing it with light--piercing under earth, and
calling forth the harvest! Worship not knowledge--worship not the sun, O
my child! Let the sun but proclaim the Creator; let the knowledge but
illumine the worship!"

The good man, overcome by his own earnestness, paused; his head drooped
on the young student's breast, and all three were long silent.

CHAPTER XXI.

Whatever ridicule may be thrown upon Mr. Dale's dissertations by the wit
of the enlightened, they had a considerable, and I think a beneficial,
effect upon Leonard Fairfield--an effect which may perhaps create less
surprise, when the reader remembers that Leonard was unaccustomed to
argument, and still retained many of the prejudices n