voice.

"This is one of the incidents," he at last became aware that the Father
was saying to close, "which strikingly illustrate the need of implicit
obedience. If the church were a simple organization of man, if it were
for the accomplishment of worldly ends, if its object were the
aggrandizement of individuals, nothing could be more dangerous than the
establishment in it of what seems like arbitrary power. As it is
directed from above; as its aim is nothing less than the spiritual
uplifting of the race; as, indeed, upon it rests the salvation, under
God, of mankind, the case is different. It is necessary that no energy
be lost; that all the power of the church be used to the best
advantage; that the hand assist the head and the head have complete
control of the hand. Obedience is of all the lessons which you have to
learn perhaps the hardest. It is no less one of the most essential. In
an age which is lacking not only in obedience but even in that
reverence upon which obedience must rest, it is for the true priest to
be an example of reverence and obedience alike. Revere and obey, and
you have done noble service."

The deacons buzzed together as they left the lecture-room. They were
but boys after all, and some of them light-hearted enough. Maurice
heard one or two of them commenting upon the lecture or upon
indifferent things. A curly-haired young deacon, a Southerner with the
face of a cherub, was laughing lightly to himself. He was the youngest
of them all, and Maurice had for him that liking which one might have
for a pretty kitten.

"I say, Wynne," he remarked, looking up into the face of the other with
a twinkling eye, "the Dominie gave us a good preachment to-day in