THE SEXTON AND THE PRAYER-MEETING.
The minister took especial pains to be on the best terms with the sexton, who is a means of grace—or disgrace—to the church. Well, they two worked together, talking over the many little items that go to make the church pleasant or otherwise,—such as heat, light, and air, cleanliness and order, paths, and a thousand other little things, which, if carefully attended to, build the church up, though the preaching be very commonplace. People do care for such things as much as for great sermons, and they will go where they can find them. One Thursday morning the sexton called at the study. It was snowing and blowing. The anxious pastor looked out upon the drifting snow, saying,— “Now, Bro. Nicols, you’ll see to it early, will you not? Have the sidewalks shoveled off, and make a broad path all the way to the chapel door. Mrs. Thomas says she cannot attend our meetings; she cannot walk through the snow this winter, as she did last. The sexton did not clear away the walks, and she took cold several times. I’ve promised better things this time, if she will only come. Will you not keep my promise?” “And I will, if I spend all the afternoon digging.” “And then please be particular always to ring the bell, and ring it at just the time, and so loud that every one will know it is prayer-meeting night. Mrs. Smith says she didn’t come last week, because the bell didn’t ring; she supposed the meeting was postponed for some good reason.” “You need have no fear about the bell. If Mrs. Smith isn’t chopping mince-meat, or letting her noisy children raise Cain in the kitchen, she will hear the meeting hour.” “And you will surely make a rousing fire in the furnace, right after dinner, and have the atmosphere of the chapel as agreeable as that in our homes. Deacon Day complains of the cold; he says it isn’t safe for his wife and daughters to come. Then please sweep and dust, and put the hymn-books and everything in the best order. The Worthingtons find fault with the untidiness of the chapel, and stay away on that account, they say. Please also clean the globes of the chandelier, and make clear as crystal.” “I’ll see to it all, as you wish, and more.” And the good sexton went his way. The Thursday evening came, and seven o’clock. Just then the bell pealed long and loud above the din of Mrs. Smith’s household hubbub, and she was soon on her way, hymn-book in hand, and her dear boy Arthur by her side. Mrs. Thomas was surprised to find a broad path all the way to the chapel door. And when Deacon Day and wife and three daughters took their long-neglected chairs near the minister that evening, they didn’t have to draw their shawls tightly around them, and grind their feet upon the floor to keep them warm, and look at the clock for the meeting to close. Good old faithful Father Jeremiah declared that he was certainly getting his second sight, the print of the hymns seemed so plain, or the light of the chapel was improving. When the Worthingtons went home from the meeting that night, Miss Laura began to put the sitting-room to rights; “for somehow things here seem all topsy-turvy since coming from that chapel,” she said. And she wondered why she had always supposed the prayer-meeting must needs be uninviting. The pastor and his wife sat up till midnight, talking about the meeting. “Did you notice how hard it was for me to close the exercises?—so many wanted to speak. As for Deacon Lee, I didn’t know when he would get through his gratitude to the Lord. How he did praise him for this ‘goodly temple!’ Well, I was just going to pronounce the benediction when Sister Simms called for ‘How Charming is the Place.’ And did you notice, wife, when we got to ‘My willing soul would stay
In such a frame as this,’—
she sung at the top of her voice, ‘Such a place as this?’ And the Worthingtons came to me after the meeting, and said, ‘It was so short; it seemed as if the clock went on the gallop the moment we came in. Why did you close so soon? What if it was after the time? Can’t you have another meeting this week?’” “I wonder,” put in the wife, “how much our faithful Bro. Nicols had to do with the good meeting. If the people come out next week this way, and seem to enjoy it all so, we ought to set it down that good broad clean paths, and the other things, are a means of grace.” * They came.—Church and Home.