dination sermon, moreover, which his grandfather had been
persuaded into journeying to hear, was held by many to be a triumph of
pulpit oratory no less than an able yet not unpoetic handling of his
text, which was from John--"The Truth shall make you free."

Truth, he declared, was the crowning glory in the diadem of man's
attributes, and a subject fraught with vital interest to every thinking
man. The essential nature of man being gregarious, how important that
the leader of men should hold Truth to be like a diamond, made only the
brighter by friction. The world is and ever has been illiberal. Witness
the lonely lamp of Erasmus, the cell of Galileo, the dying bed of
Pascal, the scaffold of Sidney--all fighters for truth against the
masses who cannot think for themselves.

Truth was, indeed, a potent factor in civilisation. If only all
truth-lovers could feel bound together by the sacred ties of fraternal
good-will, independent yet acknowledging the sovereignty of Omnipotence,
succeeding ages could but add a new lustre to their present resplendent
glory.

Truth, triumphant out of oppression, is a tear falling on the world's
cold cheek to make it burn forever. Why fear the revelation of truth?
Greece had her Athens and her Corinth, but where is Greece to-day? Rome,
too, Imperial Rome, with all her pomp and polish! They were, but they
are not--for want of Truth. But might not we hope for a land where Truth
would reign--from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the lakes of the
frozen North to the ever-tepid waters of the sunny South?

Truth is the grand motor-power which, like a giant engine, has rolled
the car of civilisation out from the maze of antiquity where it now
waits to be freighted with the precious fruits of living genius.

The young man's final flight was observed by Aunt Bell to impress
visibly even the bishop--a personage whom she had begun to suspect was
the least bit cynical, perhaps from having listened to many first
sermons.

"Standing one day," it began, "near the summit of one of the grand old
Rocky Mountains that in primeval ages was elevated from ocean's depths
and now towers its snow-capped peak heavenward touching the azure blue,
I witnessed a scene which, for beauty of illustration of the thought in
hand, the world cannot surpass. Placing my feet upon a solid rock, I
saw, far down in the valley below, the tempest gathering. Soon the
low-muttered thunder and vivid flashes of lightning gave toke