on the mother's side, it was not surprising that he was called to
take charge of the spiritual welfare of fashionable St Blank's Church
on the death of the old pastor; or that, having taken the charge, he
became immensely popular, especially with the ladies of his
congregation. And from the first Sabbath day when they looked up
from their expensive pew into the handsome face of their new rector,
there was but one man in the world for Mabel Cheney and her daughter
Alice, and that was the Reverend Arthur Emerson Stuart.

It has been said by a great and wise teacher, that we may worship the
god in the human being, but never the human being as God. This
distinction is rarely drawn by women, I fear, when their spiritual
teacher is a young and handsome man. The ladies of the Rev. Arthur
Stuart's congregation went home to dream, not of the Creator and
Maker of all things, nor of the divine Man, but of the handsome face,
stalwart form and magnetic voice of the young rector. They feasted
their eyes upon his agreeable person, rather than their souls upon
his words of salvation. Disappointed wives, lonely spinsters and
romantic girls believed they were coming nearer to spiritual truths
in their increased desire to attend service, while in fact they were
merely drawn nearer to a very attractive male personality.

There was not the holy flame in the young clergyman's own heart to
ignite other souls; but his strong magnetism was perceptible to all,
and they did not realise the difference. And meantime the church
grew and prospered amazingly.

It was observed by the congregation of St Blank's Church, shortly
after the advent of the new rector, that a new organist also occupied
the organ loft; and inquiry elicited the fact that the old man who