ANGLING FOR A SPIRITUAL TROUT.

HE lowly people at Middleton were in

a maze of thankfulness that such a good pastor as Mr. Hetherington had been sent them by the paternal Conference; and Seth was in ecstasies at Mr. Hetherington's discourses. As the appointment at Ripplethorpe belonged, for that Sunday, to the junior pastor, and he had not the special charm of novelty, Seth Micklethwaite besought farmer Brighouse to let him be Mr. Hetherington's guide. So Seth had the ineffable pleasure of pouring out his whole soul to the superintendent on the way to Middleton. The night sermon, which was from the text of which Martin Luther used to sayif it had not been in the Bible, it would have been worth a man's creeping to Jerusalem on his hands and knees to fetch it-created such a desire in Seth's soul for Dr. Blandford's salvation, that he could not resist the inclination to communicate the fervour of his desire to the minister.

The fact was, that Seth had pondered a great deal on his partial defeat and mortification, and too, his partial triumph, in that dialogue with the doctor about the devils and the swine; and his heart swelled with the thought of what a triumph of grace it would be, if he the humble Seth Micklethwaite could by any means contrive to get the "high-larnt, clever, tip-top doctor," as he phrased it in his own mind, caught fast in the Gospel-net, and saved as the biggest fish in the haul the minister would have to make at Ripplethorpe, on the following Sunday. So, after a few warm words descriptive of what he felt, he

broke out, loudly, that the minister might hear his voice above the clatter of their horses' heels:

"Eh! ah wish ye could catch him," Seth shouted; "but, ye see, the cramp o't question isHow is sich a fish to be browt to snatch at t' bait."

"Nay, rather," said the minister, "how is he to be brought to swim where I am to angle-or, more in agreement with your old idea of the haul-how is he to be enticed to swim near the net when it is let down?"

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Eh, bless ye!" said Seth, "ah wish ah hed sich a heeadpiece as ye hev, mester. Bud, ah's sae thick-skulled, ye see, that ah's allus confahndin' things. Ah was thinking more abawt t' doctor's anglin', just then, than t' Gospel-net."

"And how he got you on his hook, and played with you as being a heavy sort of trout?"

"Lord, forgive meh. Ah'd nearly said dash it !-bud ah dooan't meean swearin', mester-ah was sairly woe-begone, ah do assewer ye, that ah could feynd no answer to him abawt t' water."

"Well, well, my good friend," said Hetherington, tickled inexpressibly with the mixture of honest earnestness and oddity in his guide, "don't cherish any mortification about it. You gave him one good broadside for a reply."

"Ay, but then, ye knaw, ah ran awaay, when ah'd feyred it off, leyke a coward, as ah wasan' ah should leyke to mak' some sort on-a amends to my awn conscience for mah fault."

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Yes, it is the making amends to our own consciences that we all so much need," observed the minister, "for whenever conscience reproves us, it is what a good and great man called it, 'the voice of God's Vicegerent '-and we are sure to be wrong if we turn a deaf ear to it."

"Ah, it is that!" said Seth, shaking his head, "bud can ye help me now, in contrivin' ha to git t' doctor to swim eawr waay. Ah hoap ye'll forgive me if ah blunder, bud could ye ax Dr. Blandford in a poleyte waay, to cum an' hear your sarmon t' next Sunday neyght? Ye'd feynd him varry easily, for he's all t' daay, raain or fain, by t' Ripple-seyde, anglin'."

"I could not do it in a polite way, my friend, for I never spoke to Dr. Blandford in my life, though I have often passed him in Highchester. You know he would not regard me as of the cloth, neither would the most boyish curate Below - hill that waited as acolyte on the ecclesiastical dignitary Up-hill."

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There was another thought in his mind which he dared not confide to Mr. Hetherington; so they completed their return journey in silence, Seth meditating all the way how he should bait his fish, and imagining the satisfaction with which he should see him landed.

The next day he used the first few moments he could get for leisure in taking the nearest point to the bend of the brook, where under the alders the doctor preferred to fish, and found him on the spot.

Blandford smiled significantly as he saw Seth approaching.

"Good morning, Seth!

he said; "you don't move so fast as you did the other day. I began to think you must be under the same influence as the swine you had been telling me of."

"An' ah fear ah was, doctor, for the devil's knawn to be a coward, wi' all his brag. Bud, doctor, haw cam' it that a schollard leyke yersen should daht that there was any water near hand fort' pigs to rin into? Isn't theer water enough i't' Seea o' Galilee?"

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Oh! it was in that neighbourhood, was it? Well, I had forgotten for the moment : " and Seth imagined the doctor's confusion to be something awful.

"But I suspect," he continued, "you've been asking your new parson about it; now tell me, you deep fellow, if you hav'n't?"

The "deep fellow" evaded the question by launching into a rhapsodical eulogy of the new parson's preaching powers.

"Ah was with him as geyde to Middleton an' back yesterday, and he talked more leyke an angel than a man. Ah'm sewer there isn't an angel in heaven that could preeach as he did." "Reserve that judgment, Seth, till you've heard an angel preach."

"Doan't mak' gaam on meh, doctor, for your awn saake, ah beg o' ye e! Ivver syn ye saaved my hand ah've been drawn ti wrastle with God for your salvaation. Ah've tell't Him aw abawt ye many an' many's the teyme."

"I hope you hav'n't represented me then, as worse than I am. That would be serious." Then, touched at the deprecating look on Seth's face, he said, "I'm really obliged to you for your prayers and good wishes, but what is the change you desire to see in me? What must I do?"

"If ah could only get ye into some corner o' eawr luvfeeast on Sundaay, ye'd feynd 'twas a feeast o' fat things."

"Your lovefeast! What's that?"

"It's one o't plaaces where the King is seen

in His beauty on this earth!" cried Seth, his face beaming with rapt enthusiasm; "and where the Lord's host put on their jewels and tell of His glorious triumphs."

Blandford wondered at the strange transformation that religious enthusiasm threw over the lowly man's face; but he only said, "Oh, nonsense! How fond you Methodists are of that kind of talk. Solomon's Song is nothing to you. I wouldn't show my face in one of your ranting shops for a thousand pounds."

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Pity that ye should, doctor, fer that wad make us poor folk shaam-faaced, an' fear o' man wad bring a snare, when we owt to be saayin' leyke Daavid, 'Come unto me, all ye that fear the Lord, and I will tell you what He has done for my soul.' Beseyde, ah could not get ye a ticket fro' t' minister, an' to gooa wi'aht is ageean rule."

"Oh, then, it's one of your secret meetings. I have heard of them, though I don't know what you do."

"Deeah! wha wi tak' up Daavid's traade, as ah've nobbut been tellin' ye. We sing too an' praay, an' hev a little cake an' water for fellowship's saake, an' that's aw."

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'That's all, is it? Well, I must confess that so far from being a feast of fat things, it seems to me a very lean feast; so you may well call it a lovefeast, charity being cold and scarce enough, God knows. I cannot think why you are so bent on getting me behind the scene of your lovefeast.'

"Eh, bud ye wouldn't wonder if ye knew what it is."

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"I don't desire to know what it is," said Blandford, beginning to feel vexed at the man's pertinacity; so don't trouble me any more this morning. I've just had a strong nibble, and I shall lose a fine trout, if you tease me."

And away went poor Seth, baffled again.

Being thoroughly English by nature, Micklethwaite would not relinquish his purpose. In his case gratitude and religious fervour combined to strengthen his resolve, and he cast about for every possible means to carry his purpose. He reflected that he could not carry it without one participant in the secret. participant in the secret. A small cottage had been built at the back of the meeting-house on the hill-top for the chapel-keeper, as he was, growing old, and there was no dwelling house near it. it. Now, old Gregory Yewdale was mightily attached to Micklethwaite, and after he had been shown, in Seth's persuasive way, what a rejoicing among the Lord's folk it would make for miles round, if "such a high-larnt gentleman" could be brought over to the Lord's side by hearing His hidden ones tell their experience-Gregory grew as eager for the scheme to be tried as Micklethwaite himself. Gregory had induced the trustees to indulge him in his desire for a little window in

his bed-chamber that would enable him to look into the chapel, and see in a moment that all was right within it at any hour of the day, or in the early summer mornings. To get the doctor smuggled into the old man's bed-chamber, where he could see nearly all that passed in the chapel, and certainly hear all the lovefeast speeches, by drawing the window-sash a little a-jee, was now all that Seth panted to see accomplished.

"Ye've set yer trap, ye think, for th' bird," said the old chapel-keeper, staggering back into doubt as to the propriety of the plan to which he had, only a few moments ago, assented-"but nah, hah will ye get th' bird to walk into 't."

"Nobbut gie meh teyme?" entreated Seth "there's three days yet; an' ah trust the Lord will help me to carry out this scheeam for His glory, and wadn't it bea a grand thing to git a man like that converted?"

Ill-natured people might have said that in Seth's view the value of a man's soul was in proportion to his rank, but in all fairness Seth knew better; still a practical mind will appreciate the amount of personal influence possessed by a hoped for convert. Gregory sympathised with his ideas on the subject, and they shook hands with a fervour that would have become the Methodists of Wesley's time.

It was Friday afternoon before Seth could again make a descent on the angler on the banks of the Ripple. He felt more awkward than ever in attempting it, but Blandford was in high good humour, if not with himself, with the basket of fish by his side. "It may bea now or never," said Seth to himself, ""T baait ah'm settin' for him is meean, but it can hardly be wrang to try, seein' ah can't hook him ony ither

waay.

"You seem to be in a brown study this morning, Seth?" said Blandford. "Are you still *exercised' because you can't get me to play Paul Pry on your lovefeast. Do you know I'm beginning to think I should like no better fun ?" "Thenk the Lord," ejaculated Seth, inwardly; "ah seea ah shall win him, wi'out mebbe doin' evil at good might cum."

"Do the girls speak their experience, as you call it, Micklethwaite; or do you believe in St. Paul and insist on their keeping silence? How hard St. Paul was on women, to be sure."

"Na, then; hev ye niver read that the five dowters of Agabus did prophesy, an' St. Paul niver seeams to have meddled with them? He wouldn't tell Lydia not to praay in her oan prayer meetin' by t' river sayde, an' we've our Lydias and Marys, even among t' young women. Bless 'em!"

aw the other foaks that the Lord gives utterance to? I've arranged with Gregory, the chapelkeeper, for you to have the chance."

"No, I think not," said the doctor, beginning to take his rod in pieces.

"Are ye gooin'? Let me carry yer basket to t''Royal Oak.'

"That you shall, Micklethwaite, and much obliged to you," said Blandford.

Seth tried hard, on their way to the inn, to win his purpose; but did not succeed.

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Slipped ageean; and there is but one day left!" said the baffled schemer to himself, as he hurried back to the farm-yard. "Ah must see him as soon as ah can to-morrow, and try t' bait ah wur thinkin' on. He wur just i' t''umour to tak' it, if ah'd thrown th' leyne at t' reyght teyme-bud my heart failed meh. An' ah deean't feel queyte square abawt it's bein' reyght, yet. But there's nae ither hook left 'ats leykely to catch him."

By Saturday at noon, Seth was again by the brook-side, and was received with a pleasant look by the angler, who had again been so successful that he had nearly filled his basket. Micklethwaite lost no time to try his new angle. He assumed, as well as he knew how to assume, a look of merriment, and sidling up to the doctor, in a familiar way, began with

"Ah say, doctor, ye're fond o' fun? Ye little knaw what a treat ye'll miss, if ye dooan't hev a peep into t' luvfeeast. Some o' t' speeches 'll awmost mak' ye kill yoursen wi' laughing. We shall hev a lot o' West country chaps, that's cum to live i' these pairts. Ah've knawn 'em for years; chaps frae Saddleworth, and Huddersfield, and Holmfirth and Denby Dale-and one frae Glossop, a first rater! Ye really mustn't miss hearing on 'em, doctor-ye mustn't indeed!"

Blandford laughed at the real drollery there was in Seth's face, though the poor fellow was trying to assume drollery the wrong way.

"Pon my word, Micklethwaite," said he, " you are one of the most persevering fellows I ever met with. I like your pluck, nevertheless; and I'll humour you this once. You are sure I can see without being seen ?"

"As sewer as eggs is eggs," declared Seth.

"Then give me my instructions, and I'll go into it, with all the resolution of a man. Caution will be necessary, of course!"

Micklethwaite minutely instructed the doctor how he was to go-by a footpath over a hill nearly covered with tall gorse, by which the chapel-keeper reached his cottage; and that he must do this about an hour after noon-day.

"For then," said Seth, "the fooak from th' country 'll be chiefly at dinner i't' vestry. Shall I carry something for you from t' inn-for ye'll have to stay two hours, or thereabouts, if you mean to enjoy it all."

"That will give me all the better appetite for dinner; and, you know, an angler has always his pocket-pistol to resort to

"Ay, ay, ah knaw what ye meean. Ah shall be looking abawt quietly fer ye mysen, and owd Gregory 'll be at th' door o' th' cottage, and show ye upstairs. If ye turn t' key i' t' door, as ye go up, naebody can disturb ye. Gregory lives by hissen, and he'll tak' care to leave th' bottom door unlocked, sae that ye can get out when ye want to gooa."

The agreement was made, and was fulfilled; -for, by an hour after noon-day of Sunday, Blandford turned the key upon himself, mounted the little stair, and, seating himself in Gregory's arm-chair close to the little curtained window, which was slightly slid back, perceived that it gave him a view of every part of the chapel, while it also completely concealed his presence.

CHAPTER V.

A RUSTIC AGAPE.

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THE Wesleyans claim for their lovefeasts the sanction of Apostolic usage and authority. It has not the sanctity and solemn obligation of the Lord's Supper; but the lovefeast, according to them, is the agape, or feast of charity,' mentioned in the General Epistle of St. Jude, and was a sign of membership in the ancient Church. It may be traced, it is said, in the history of the Waldensian and Moravian Churches.

If a stranger could gain admission to one of the quarterly lovefeasts held in one of the large chapels in London, or any other large town, he would probably see only a comparative handful of people scattered over a large space, with the minister in the lectern. In a modern Wesleyan lovefeast, held in a large fashionably-built chapel, all the surroundings are calculated to overawe the timid; and there is nothing to encourage the warm-hearted who depend on responsiveness, when they tell their spiritual experience.

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But the Methodists at Ripplethorpe were of the old-fashioned kind liable to be terribly in earnest, upright and downright, and almost as simple as the peasant charge over which Pastor Oberlin presided, in the Waldbach, and so the lovefeast was one of the events of their lives. was a spiritual fête, to which they looked forward with glad expectancy and a determination to make everything give way before it. For this particular Sunday, the lovefeast was also part of a double lure. Curiosity to hear the new minister must draw numbers of people from "over the hills and far away," while the lovefeast would add greatly to the attraction, and keep the con

gregation together for the evening service. So the prayers were many and earnest for a general awakening of sinners under the preaching, and a "high day" and a special "time of refreshing" for saints.

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"My dear," said Mrs. Hetherington to her vis-à-vis at the dinner-table, on the Friday preceding this most auspicious Sunday— " my dear, do you know what an affair they make of the lovefeast here?

"I have always heard that they have good lovefeasts,' lovefeasts," said Mr. Hetherington, "and, already, I have heard a great many allusions to next Sunday. I hope, my dear, you will be able to go."

Little Leila Hetherington was all attention in a moment. She had not been to a lovefeast since she was a very little girl, and had sat beside nurse, and eaten both her own and nurse's share of the cake. She had grown too old for that now; and did not expect to be admitted to another lovefeast till she had "become serious," or was a member ; though how that devout youngster was to becomes serious was a problem. "We must all go that can," said Mrs. Hetherington-"it is expected that we will. But, my dear, I don't like what Sarah (the servant) tells me we shall all be expected to do that is, to take refreshments in the vestry or the schoolroom, instead of coming home to dine, as usual. says the country friends will all stay while the Ripplethorpe folk go to their homes, and it may give offence, or grieve some of their minds, if we refuse to do what the ministers and their families always have done."

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She

Then, of course, we must all stay," said Mr. Hetherington.

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'But, papa, we are not members," interjected Leila, with great solemnity and an air of doubt. "No," said her mother, "you are invited guests.

Leila still looked doubtful.

"Bless you, child!" exclaimed her father, laughing, for he read the language of those wistful eyes- "do you think they will take my lambs for kids of the goats? But you shall have a note of admission, Leila, then you'll be quite in form."

"You make that child so old-fashioned," said the mother, in a tone of remonstrance.

"Not I! Dame Nature has been before me." "Children are not lambs because they belong to good people, are they, papa?" asked Leila; “a great many of them grow up into goats, and their papas and their mammas cannot help it."

Mr. Hetherington drew his hand very slowly over his face.

"Yes, that is quite true, my little girl," he replied, "but the Good Shepherd calls His little flock into the green pastures, and if they love His voice and are obedient to it, they need not