new
Christians, who of course were originally heathen, having been at first
subjected to a long course of training, were baptized. They were called
_catechumens_, because they were catechised or questioned, and
_candidates_ because they wore long white robes, _candidus_ being the
Latin word for white, and by degrees the day came to be called
Whitsunday. Furthermore, Miss Etta told all about the Whitsuntide
festivals of old English times in the days of the corrupt church, when
festivities of the most riotous kind took place on the two days
following Sunday; and the girls left the school, if not impressed by the
holy teachings of the lessons, very full of a certain knowledge of that
kind which St. Paul says "puffeth up," and prepared to pass a brilliant
examination on the history and customs of Whitsuntide.

Very different was the pastor's sermon of that morning, which several of
our girls remembered all their lives. Its text was:--

"Ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost."

And the speaker showed first what the temples of old times were; not
places of meeting, as our churches to a great extent are, but
dwelling-places, homes where God, or rather "the gods," were supposed to
_live_. This idea was the one used as an illustration by St. Paul in the
text, which means that _God_ has made all human hearts to be his home
and dwelling-place, and that if we will let him, not barring the doors
with sin and filling up the inside with other things, he will live there
always; or, as our Lord Jesus says: "If any man will open unto me, I
will come in unto him and will sup with him;" and in another place,
"will abide with him." Then he explained so that the youngest of his
audience could understand what are the sins that bar the door against
our blessed Saviour, and how we set up idols upon the altars of God's
temple, by worshiping dress, vanity, pride, revenge, worldliness, and
our own way, and showed how nobody can really worship God and have him
abiding in his holy temple who yields obedience to anything or cares for
anything more than his will. He said it was an awful thing to _defile_
the temple of God by such things as drinking, smoking, and swearing, or
even by evil thoughts and dishonest intentions, by selfish motives and
unkindness in word or deed.

He closed his sermon in these words:--

"My hearers, every one of you is a temple of the Holy Ghost, built and
fashioned with exquisite skill, for his own chosen