atonement for his error, called upon Mr. Elder, and handed him a check
for twenty-five dollars, to help pay off the minister's debt. So much
for the principle concerned.

On the next Sabbath, to his great surprise, when the text was
announced, it was in the following unexpected words--

"Owe no man any thing."

The sermon was didactive and narrative. In the didactic portion, the
minister was exceedingly close in laying down the principles of honesty
in all transactions between man and man, and showed that for a man to
live beyond his known income, when that was sufficient to supply his
actual wants, was dishonest. Then he gave sundry examples of very
common but dishonest practices in those who withhold from others what
is justly their due, and concluded this portion of his discourse, by
plainly stating the glaring dishonesty of which too many congregations
were guilty, in owing their ministers the difference between their
regular and fixed income, and what they actually needed for their
comfortable support and freedom from care. This, he said, was but a
poor commentary upon their love for the church, and showed too plainly
its sordid and selfish quality.

This was felt by many to be quite too pointed and out of place; and for
a young man, like him, very bold and immodest. One member took out his
box and struck the lid a smart, emphatic rap before taking a pinch of
snuff,--another coughed--and three or four of the older ones gave
several loud "a-h-h-hems!" Throughout the church there was an uneasy
movement. But soon all was still again, for the minister had commenced
the narrative of something which he said had occurred in a parish at no
great distance. For a narrative, introduced in a sermon, all ears are
open.

Very deliberately and very minutely did Mr. Malcolm give the leading
facts which we have already placed before the reader, even down to the
sound lecture he had received from Mr. Larkin, and then closed his
sermon, after a few words of application, with a firm repetition of his
text:

"My brethren, 'Owe no man any thing.'"

Of course, there was a buzzing in the hive after this. One made
inquiries of another, and it was soon pretty well understood
throughout, that seven or eight hundred dollars had actually been
promised to the minister instead of the four, which all were very
content that he should receive, thinking little and caring little
whether he lived well or ill upon it. But who was it that had r