it agree with one of these rubicund old
sinners? Such is the overpowering effect of impudent assurance on the
ordinary man.

The difference between the typical public clock and a watch out of order
is obvious. Every prudent man knows the peculiarities of his own watch,
just as he knows the peculiarities of his own wife and children; and he
is consequently prepared to make allowances. But the clock on the street
corner persists in thrusting false information upon you. The man who
consults his watch does so with a purpose, and is naturally on the
alert. But the cheating clock confronts him in moments of unsuspecting
security, and throws him into a condition of the wildest alarm. It is
peculiarly active on bright spring days, when people rise early and look
forward to being at their desks half an hour before their usual time. On
such occasions they invariably come upon a clock which points to a
quarter of ten, and sends them scurrying breathless up four flights of
stairs, to find the janitor engaged in cleaning out the baskets.

Church clocks are not so bad as jewellers' clocks; but they are bad
enough, and, in the nature of things, we have a right to expect more
from a church clock than from any other kind. For the same reason the
weathercock on a church steeple is to be judged by a higher standard
than the one over a carpenter's shop or the ordinary dwelling. I cannot,
for instance, imagine a more dangerous moral _ensemble_ than a church
with a clergyman preaching bad doctrine in the pulpit, a clock
indicating the wrong time on the tower, and, over all, a clogged weather
vane pointing to the south when the wind blows from the east.

With reference to denominations I have observed that Presbyterian clocks
are apt to be more reliable than any other kind, although the truest
clock I have ever come across is on a little Dutch Reformed Church in
Orange County. One of the most unprincipled clocks I can think of is
just outside my window. I use unprincipled with intention, for this
clock is not vicious, but giddy. If it were consistently late or
consistently early, one might get used to it. But to look out of the
window at 9:30 and find this clock pointing to eleven, and to look out
ten minutes later and find it pointing to 9:35, is extremely
disconcerting. One is inclined to expect something more restrained in a
clock connected with the most prosperous parish of one of our most
conservative denominations.

What I have sai