and wiser heads are prone to the same kind of reverie, and could not
have given a better account of "papa's sermon" than he was usually
able to do! Fred, the quiet student, listened with kindling eye and
deep enthusiasm to his father's earnest exposition of the divine truth
which had already penetrated his own mind and heart; and Alick heard
it with a reverent admiration for the beautiful gospel which could
prompt such noble sentiments, and with a vague determination that
"some time" he would think about it in earnest.

Stella alone, of all the young group, carried away nothing of the
precious truth which had been sounding in her ears. She had gone to
church merely as a matter of form, without any expectation of
receiving a blessing there; and during the service her wandering eyes
had been employed in taking a mental inventory of the various odd and
old-fashioned costumes that she saw around her, to serve for her
sister's amusement when she should return home. It is thus that the
evil one often takes away the good seed before it has sunk into our
hearts. Stella would have been surprised had it been suggested to her
that the words of the last hymn, which rose sweetly through the church
in the soft summer twilight, could possibly apply to her that evening:

"If some poor wandering child of thine
Have spurned to-day the voice divine,
Now, Lord, the gracious work begin;
Let him no more lie down in sin!"




III.