The Damnation of Theron Ware

st uncomfortably upon the seats; they stood packed in the aisles and overflowed the galleries; at the back, in the shadows under

plifted faces-some framed in bonnets or juvenile curls, others bearded or crowned with shining baldness-but all alike under t

countenances, was visible in every attitude-nay, see

either the jury's verdict in some peculiarly absorbing criminal trial, or the announcement of the lucky numbers in a great lottery. These two expressions seemed to al

copal Church, and the Bishop was about to read out the list of ministerial appointments for the coming year. This list was evidently written in a hand strange to him, and the slow, near-sighted old gentleman, having at last sufficiently rubbed th

not quite so staid in mien, and indeed with here and there almost a suggestion of frivolity in their postures, were seated on the steps leading down from this platform. A score of their fellows sat facing the audien

o remembered Francis Asbury and even Whitefield. They sat now in front places, leaning forward with trembling and misshapen

o poverty and to the danger and wearing toil of itinerant missions through the rude frontier settlements. These pictures had for their primitive accessories log-huts, rough household implements, coarse clothes, and patched old saddles which told of weary years of journeying; but to even the least sympatheti

farmers attired in their Sunday clothes. As exceptions to this rule, there were scattered stray specimens of a more urban class, worthies with neatly trimmed whiskers, white neckcloths, and even indications of hair-oil-all eloquent o

untenances of the older men. The impress of zeal and moral worth seemed to diminish by regular gradations as one passed to younger faces; and among the very beginners, who had been ordained only within the

ackward over the congregation, it may be that here too their old eyes would

andard of progressive taste in devotional architecture unique in the Methodism of that whole section of the State. They had a right to be proud of themselves, too. They belonged to the substantial order of the community, with perhaps not so many very rich men as the Presbyterians had, but on the other hand with far fewer extremely poor folk than the Baptists were encumbere

Where else, one would like to know, could the Bishop have been domiciled in a Methodist house where he might have a sitting-room all to himself, with his bedroom leading out of it? Every clergyman present had been provided for in a private residence-even down to the Licensed Exhorters, who were not really ministers at all when you came to think of it, and who might

nce-was Tecumseh to be fairly and honorably rewarded for

ith such a modern and go-ahead congregation, it was simply a vital necessity to secure an attractive and fashionable preacher. They had held their own against the Presbyterians these past few years only by the most strenuous efforts, and under the depressing disadvantage of a minister who preached dreary out-of-date sermons, and who lacked even the most rudimentary sens

it was to be explained by the anxiety to pick out a suitable champion for the fierce Presbyterian competition. Big gatherings assembled evening after evening to hear the sermons of those selected to preach, and the church had been almost impossibl

m points of view much more exalted t

ly, and vivacious young woman in the second side pew was his wife-and Tecumseh noted with approbation that she knew how to dress. There were really no two better or worthier people in the building than this young couple, who sat waiting along with the rest to hear their fate. But unhappily they had come to know of the effort being made to bring them to Tecumseh; an

portant and commonplace figure in Methodism, not to be mentioned in the same breath with Simpson and Janes and Kingsley-that he should begin with the backwoods counties, and thrust all these remote and

other, the favoritism by which a third had profited. The Presiding Elders, whose work all this was, stared with gloomy and impersonal abstraction down upon the rows of blackcoated humanity spread before them. The ministers returned this fixed and pe

Tecumseh-Brother

all this outlay, all this lavish hospitality, all this sacrifice of time and patience in

of the church. An echo of it reached the Bishop, and so confused him that he haltingly repeated the obnoxious lin

withdrawn from routine service for a number of years, doing a little insurance canvassing on his own account, and also travelling for the Book Concern. Now that he wished to return to parochial work, the richest prize in the whole list,

umseh gave it entire credit. The throngs about the doors dwindled as by magic, and the aisles cleared. Local interest was dead; and even some of the

eh either noted or cared. They had been deeply interested in him so long as it seemed likely that he was to come to them-before th

e front part of the church. But the clergymen were unusually insistent upon demonstrations of cordiality among themselves-the more, perhaps, because it was evident that the friendliness o

erduced-but let me clasp your hand!

seemed all jowl and mouth and sandy chin-whisker. He smiled b

are, but if anything could wean me to the notion, so to speak, it would be the knowledge that you are to take up my labors in their midst. Perhaps-ah-perhaps they ARE jest a trifle close in money matters, but they come out strong o

ilence; but his wife resented the unctuous beaming of content on

well under this heavy cross, as

on his pompous manner with her, and then deciding to smile again as he moved off. The circumstance that

ere over-hanging trees shaded the infrequent lamps, and they might be comparatively alone. The wife had taken her husba

upon you,

ied her face against his sh

om this mood, and after a few moments she lifted her head a

said, catching her breath between phrases. "O

y upon her as they moved

. "I am a young man yet, remember. We must take our turn, and be

e to be sent here, and I know she told everybody how much I was lotting on it-I wish we could go right off tonight without going to her house-I shall be ashamed

ce the size of Tyre. It's a great Irish place, I've heard. Our own church seems to be a

a silence full of mutual grief. It was not until they had come within sight of

it, my girl! After all, we a

stily. "Don't talk to me about t