, a vivid
recollection of the events of Monday, almost deprived Mr. Adkin, for
a moment or two, of utterance. He faltered, caught his breath, and
went on again with the reading. On raising his eyes at the
conclusion of the second verse, Mr. Adkin saw his corn customer
slowly moving down the aisle toward the door of entrance. How keenly
he felt the rebuke! How sadly conscious was he of being out of place
in the pulpit!

After the singing of the hymn, the preacher made a prayer; but it
was cold and disjointed. He had no freedom of utterance. A chapter
was read, an anthem sung, and then Mr. Adkin arose in the pulpit,
took his text, and, ere giving utterance to the first words of his
discourse, let his eyes wander over the congregation. A little to
the right sat Mr. Giles, wearing a very sober aspect of countenance,
and looking at him with knit brows and compressed lips. The sight
caused the words "brother going to law with brother" to pass almost
electrically through his mind. As his glance rebounded from Mr.
Giles quickly, it next rested upon Mrs. Smith, who, with perked head
and a most malicious curling of the lip, said, as plain as manner
could say it--"You're a nice man for a preacher, a'n't you?"

How Mr. Adkin beat about the bushes and wrought in obscurity,
darkening counsel by words without knowledge, during the half hour
that followed the enunciation of his text, need not here be told.
None was more fully conscious than himself of his utter failure to
give spiritual instruction to the waiting congregation. The climax,
so far as he was concerned, was yet to come. As he descended the
pulpit stairs, at the close of the service, some one slipped a piece
of paper into his hand. Glancing at the pencilled writing thereon,
he read the rebuking words:

"The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed."

How could he feed them? Are holy and divine things of such easy
comprehension, that a man may devote the whole energies of his mind
to worldly business during six days, and then become a lucid
expounder of heavenly, mysteries on the Sabbath? The influx of
intelligence into the mind of a speaker, is in exact ratio with the
knowledge he has acquired. He may have, without this previous
preparation, "free utterance," as it is called; but this utterance
brings no rational convictions; it sways only by the power of
contagious enthusiasm. Moreover, as in the case of Mr. Adkin, every
lay preacher takes with him into the pulpit a tai