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bands, at an advance;' and everybody is pious or piously inclined. We are all going to the Celestial City at some time, — the next season, perhaps, but, at all events, at 'some more convenient season.' Although a great abhorrence is entertained here to all new ways of going to the Celestial City, yet I can tell you most of all these people will be expressed' to paradise. They never will budge an inch from their tables of money-changing till they are upset by one whom they dare not resist."

"Pray what are the prevailing opinions here?" asked Annie. "Orthodoxy, mainly - though we have a sprinkling of other doxies; but, then, they don't rule the market,' as our gentlemen say, speaking of stocks."

“And are we to talk such a jargon as this?" asked Gertrude.

how soon

O, no, no! only, dear ladies, I wanted to show you I have caught the tone of society here. To reply to your inquiry: Nothing, my dear ladies, can be more delightful than the style of the pulpit in this city. In our Confessions of Faith,' we, with few exceptions, hold the form of sound words as contained in the Westminster Catechism;' but, then, this does n't in any degree clip the wings of fancy in our divines. Now, then, I will tell you of my early and happy experiences; and, though these are to be understood as specimens of rare beauty, yet where else but in the City of Sterling could you hear such preaching?"

"Your ministers are every way exemplary in their private life, I hope," said Gertrude, interrupting Mrs. Thompson. ·

"Most exemplary!" replied Mrs. Thompson. "It was not of

CHARACTER OF THE PREACHING.

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morals or manners I was about to tell you, but of their public ministrations. To go on the great matter of the pulpit orator is to preach sermons which, while they please everybody, shall offend no one. He is the most popular preacher who is the most ingenious and skilful in his method. To give you an example: Doctor Busshel preached us a sermon from the text, And Jesus was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow.' He told us all about the pleasure of sleeping; and, with Sancho Panza, we were all so inspired with the subject, that with him it was on every lip to exclaim, Praise be to him who invented sleep!' The reverend doctor delighted us with an entirely new test of Christian character, to be derived from the hue of our dreams. Now, only think of it, my friends! What could be more consoling and comforting to a young girl of seventeen, than to read her title clear to mansions in the skies' from the roseate colors of her morning dreams! Again; the Rev. Dr. Wilmer, from the text, Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound,' etc., as his exegesis, told us this meant the light, cheerful tones of the bell calling us to church. Another eminent minister, from the text, Behold the Lamb of God,' explained to us the mechanism of vision, and the pleasure to be derived from sight-seeing, a familiar topic to most of his hearers, who never before heard this treated of in so spiritual a manner. Another old gentleman, whose fondness of good living led his friends to make a great feast for him whenever they asked him to dine with them, reproved this excess by preaching a sermon from the text, One thing' a roast pig, or turkey, or a saddle of mutton 'One thing is needful.' The pathos with which he treated this subject was a matter of mirth in all the insurance offices and

club-houses of the city. And, to make an end of this, the last sermon of this sort I had the pleasure to hear was from the Rev. Mr. Soapemwell, from the text, And Judas went out, and it was night.' Now, then, guess how he treated this subject!"

66

My dear lady," said Annie, "after what you have told us,

it is hopeless for us to guess."

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Any incident connected with the last hours of our dying Saviour would seem to suggest only thoughts of love and tenderness," said Gertrude.

Ah, well!" continued Mrs. Thompson, "the minister made a beautiful sermon on the splendor of night, and the uses of sleep. He quoted Shakspeare and Milton; and I assure you there was not one word in it about Jesus Christ as a Saviour, nor of our characters as lost sinners."

"And this is the sort of preaching we are to have as the pabulum of our spiritual nourishment!" said Annie, lifting up her hands in her astonishment.

“You may, if you please, listen to Dr. Commonplace contending earnestly for the faith; but I will tell you of one thing you won't hear even whispered in our circles, and it is this: the duty of making a pilgrimage to the Celestial City. No- no one ever leaves this city who is not compelled to do so."

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Compelled! pray how is this?" asked Gertrude.

"O, it is when their idols, like Dagon of old, are broken; when their riches take wings and fly away, then, with sad, desponding hearts, like Lot's wife, and steps

'Remote, unfriended, melancholy slow,'

they set out for the Celestial City; but all others rely on the 'Express line,' which is at everybody's service."

OF SOCIAL LIFE IN STERLING.

215

"Having done brown' the ministry, what of the ladies?" asked Annie, with a good-natured laugh.

"O, yes!" replied Mrs. Thompson, laughing; "I have a word or two to say concerning them. Then, you must know, the women in this city are like women everywhere; the insignificancy of their pursuits is the same here as in Vanity Fair. Diamonds are just now the rage. An unknown lady coming into a room is ranked by the diamonds she wears. She is regarded as pure if her diamonds are. By and by, mien, manners, wit, learning, and piety, find their bearings, and have an acknowledged value; but, as I said, for a first impression, nothing is so successful as a splendid set of diamonds, - excepting, always, that master-stroke of policy in that dare-devil coachman of yours, driving his pole into the back of Mr. Alderman Moreland's carriage. That, my dear friends, issnatching a grace beyond the reach of art.' There is not a lady or gentleman, in any sort of society here, who does not know your carriage as far as it can be seen; and all are alike ambitious of the honor of your acquaintance. Therefore, my friends, to return to the shoulder of mutton, don't think of returning those calls, not one in twenty, if you don't want to be wearied to death by stupid people you can't get rid of."

"You must forgive us, Mrs. Thompson," said Gertrude, "if we follow our own plan. We shall then be able to select the best of the best at least, such as we like best."

"What a mistake! You must obey the behests of society. Not to do so, is to be forever out of place yourself, or to bring innocent persons into false relations. Don't make the effort, my dear friends. You can't mend matters. Let everything turn up as it happens, and make the best of it; that's my phi

losophy. I pray you follow my example. I am no errant knight, fighting the world to make it either wiser or better; and, of all things else, to put a lance in rest to run a tilt with such windmills as the polite circles of Sterling City!"

"The laws of courtesy are ever the same," replied Annie; "and why not act upon your principles? It is our only hope of leaving the world the better for our having been in it."

"Nonsense, dear Mrs. Trueman! You are Don Quixote in petticoats! So good-day!" So good-day!" And the ladies parted, promising

to see each other daily.

CHAPTER XLI.

OF THE LADIES' BENEFICENT SOCIETY IN STERLING.

NOTWITHSTANDING all the objections urged by Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Outright and Mrs. Trueman commenced their return calls; and, in the course of a month, they had gone through with their basket of cards. Usually they were received with distinguished courtesy. The golden key which they possessed opened doors" on golden hinges turning."

The impression made upon our ladies by these visits was decidedly favorable. Sterling was not Babylon the Less, nor was at Vanity Fair, nor the Villa di Roma; and of all the best, for in its circles there was a high range of literary taste, and a most orthodox piety, in truth, it was, as Mrs. Thompson had said, a very pious city. Orthodoxy was the distinguishing style,