h was that Cold Spring was the only colored church known to its
congregation that boasted anything approaching in gorgeousness its
pulpit furnishings of red cotton velvet, and never a curious sinner
dropped in during any of its services for a peep at its grandeur without
leaving a sufficient quota of his substance to endow him with a
comfortable sense of proprietorship in it all.

The man who has given a brick to the building of the walls of a
sanctuary has always a feeling of interest in the edifice, whether he be
of its fold or not, and if he return to it an old man, it will seem to
yield him a sort of welcoming recognition. The brick he gave is
somewhere doing its part in sustaining the whole, and the uncertainty of
its whereabouts seems to bestow it everywhere.

I was not long in finding my way to Jordan's church. It was in summer
time, and a large part of his congregation was composed of young girls
and their escorts on the afternoon when I slipped into the pew near the
door.

The church was crowded within, while the usual contingent of idlers hung
about the front door and open windows.

I searched Jordan's face for a few moments, in the hope of discovering
whether he recognized me or not, but for the life of me I could not
decide. If his "secret glance" ever discerned me in my shadowed corner,
neither of the other two betrayed it.

I soon discovered that there was to be no sermon on this occasion, for
which I was sorry, as I supposed that his most ambitious effort would
naturally take shape in this form. Of this, however, I now have my
doubts.

After the conventional opening of service with prayer, Scripture
reading, and song, he passed with apparent naturalness to the
collection, the ceremony to which everything seemed to tend.

The opening of this subject was again conventional, the only deviation
from the ordinary manner of procedure being that, instead of the hat's
passing round it was inverted upon the table beside the pulpit, while
contributors, passing up the aisles, deposited their contributions and
returned to their seats.

This in itself, it will be seen, elevated the collection somewhat in the
scale of ceremonial importance.

For some time the house was quite astir with the procession which moved
up one side and down the other, many singing fervently as they went, and
dramatically holding their coins aloft as they swayed in step with the
music, while above all rose the exhortations of the pre