"Our life is a dream!
Our time as a stream
Glides swiftly away,
And the fugitive moment refuses to stay.

"After this he gave them a lecture on the worth of time and the worth
of the soul. They then all knelt down in prayer."




CHAPTER XI.

The Vicar's Sermons.



The Vicar of Madeley led no idle life. He started Friday evening
lectures; on Sunday afternoon he catechised the school-children, spent
many hours of every day in visiting the sick and poor, and hesitated
not at all to sit up whole nights with any who lacked attention. To
the careless landowners and farmers whom he failed to get into his
church he addressed the first of his published sermons, with a preface
which urged them to _read_ his message if they would not listen
to it.

With Fletcher there was no preaching against the absent wrong-doer, no
haranguing evil in the abstract, but there was never lacking a
definite and personal denouncement of present and personal sin. One
tremendous word loomed large before his hearers, nor could any