came out from practice to-day, and began cheering him, he ran off as fast as he could, and Charlie can run, and no mistake."

"He's a brick," replied little Ernest, "and a jolly good one, too. My! Alf! if I'd only his patience over teaching. You know he takes us youngsters for intervals, and I'm sure if he were a minute this morning drilling Faulkner into distinguishing between major and minor thirds, he was a quarter of an hour. I began to get real impatient, at having to listen. If I'd been Charlie and had to teach I should have got into a temper I'm sure, and flung the music-slate at the boy's head, stupid little donkey that he is."

"How much good would that have done, my little son?" enquired his mother. "It would not do you any good to lose your temper, would it?"

"It would do the boy no good, to throw the slate at him; wouldn't, for instance, instil the required knowledge into his brain ?"

"And it wouldn't do the slate any good to use it in that way? Indeed it might possibly break it, and my little Ernest have another to buy?"

66 Yes, Mamma."

"Very well, Ernie, then as no good would result from your method, we will conclude it must be a bad one. Did Charlie finally succeed in making him understand?"

Yes, mamma, he wouldn't leave off until he had; but he was a long time over it."

"Never mind the time, I daresay Ellis did not, when he saw his efforts crowned with success. Did he lose his temper ?"

No mamma, not a bit, he said, 'There Faulkner, I've got that into your brain, at last,-take care it doesn't slip out and fly away."

"Then, Ernie, dear," said she, patting the little soft cheek, let that be your first lesson in patience and perseverance. You will find both very needful, and the sooner you begin to cultivate them the better it will be for you. I am very pleased my little sons are fortunate enough to have Ellis for their senior, he seems to possess some admirable qualities, and to be all that a senior should be, as an example for juniors to follow and imitate."

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE PRECENTOR'S SERMON.

HE next Sunday, at morning service, a sermon was preached in the choir by Canon Edgar Norris,

Precentor of Norstone, and, as usual, multitudes thronged thither to hear the Word of Life, from the lips of their favourite preacher.

Deservedly beloved of all classes for the Christian consistency that led him to practise the precepts he strove to inculcate, Canon Edgar Norris stood forth, welcomed, sought after, and admired by all ranks of Society; and in all Norstone no more zealous imitator of his Divine Lord and Master could have been found. And he was successful in his efforts to tread in that dear Master's footprints, for on the whole man, stamping all his acts, showed the image and superscription, clear and unmistakeable, of Him he loved, and so faithfully served. "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom." How true. Not the wisdom of this vain world, that seeketh her own, that hoardeth up riches; but the pure, holy wisdom of Him who is All-Wise, this is wisdom indeed. Such was the wisdom of Edgar Norris. Mild, but firm and unyielding in the cause of right. Just, but even in

the strictest justice remembering mercy. Dignified with the calm dignity of one whose treasure is garnered; "where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." Pure, and ruling his life by the sterling principles laid down in Holy Scripture, was Edgar Norris.

And there he stands, his tall, finė figure towering far above the heads of his audience, his thrilling voice ringing out clear and full through the sacred aisles the Scriptural admonition : "Owe no man anything; but to love one another."

In the course of his sermon he showed the evils of debt; its great dishonesty, and the frequent suffering it entails upon both debtor and creditor.

"My brethren," he said, raising his hand aloft: "I count debt a disgrace, a shame, a crime, nay, a sin against God; for this passage of Holy Writ is obviously a command not to contract it, hence, in so doing, we transgress God's commands as much as if we were to steal openly. Wilful debt is covert stealing. I can call it by no milder term. It is theft. Oh! my brethren, this should not be so; it is wrong, grievously wrong, thus to violate our Lord's expressed commands: 'Render unto all their dues.' Keep back from no man that which is lawfully his. Believe me, dear friends, in the last great day when all shall render an account of their deeds, the debtor will not go unpunished. Be honest, be upright. Owe nothing but love, and that owe to all. Ever strive to 'love one another, with a pure heart, fervently,' even as Christ loves you, and as His unselfish Divine love led Him to

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sacrifice Himself for your salvation, so let your love lead you to seek each other's good, each other's eternal peace. Perhaps you will say that some are so unlovable it is impossible to love them. Even so. Still, to these show kindness, and goodwill, that at least is possible; and it is not so much the ardent feeling, as the principle of love, we need, to regulate our dealings with others, the principle of constant, unflagging charity, as set forth by St. Paul.

"My brethren, our blessed Redeemer was no debtor. He who owned all, and was Lord of all, condescended to pay tribute to the Romans, so very scrupulous was His sensitive mind on the score of debt. Yet love He owed to all, and love He gave, and still gives to those who will accept it."

Much more said the preacher, and in heart-stirring strains besought his auditors to "provide things honest in the sight of all men, and of God's all-seeing eye." Intently listened the throng to his preaching, and many there were among them who could have testified that he, the speaker, in his own scrupulous exactness, practised the divine precept; for one of the Precentor's strictest rules in his own household was, "Pay unto all their due." He was not rich, nay, it was even whispered among his friends that his eldest son, now at Eton, had been placed there, and was maintained at Dr.Leslie's sole expense. However that might be, no one had any business with it. If the doctor chose to pay for the education of his godson, and namesake, young Percy Norris, what mattered it to anyone?"

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"Above all, dear friends," he continued, we must

S