`Dear me,' says one of my mates, `what a smell of
gas!' `Yes,' says Dick; `ain't them beautiful gas-fittings? I got 'em
second-hand for an old song, but I'm afraid they leak a bit.'--We should
have been pretty comfortable at tea, only the window wouldn't shut
properly, and there came in such a draught as set us all sneezing. `I'm
sorry,' says Dick, `as you're inconvenienced by that draught; it's the
builder's fault. Of course I took the lowest estimate for these houses,
and the rascal's been and put me in green wood; but the carpenter shall
set it all right to-morrow.'--But the worst of all was, the gas escaped
so fast it had to be turned off at the meter. `Ah!' says he, `that
won't matter for to-night, for I've bought a famous lamp, a new patent.
I got it very reasonable, because the man who wanted to part with it
were giving up housekeeping and going abroad.' So we had the lamp in,
and a splendid looking thing it were; but I thought I saw a crack in the
middle, only I didn't like to say so. Well, all of a sudden, just in
the middle of the supper, the lamp falls right in two among the dishes,
and the oil all pours out over my neighbour's clothes. Such a scene
there was! I tried to keep from laughing, but I couldn't stop, though I
almost choked myself.--Dick, you may be sure, weren't best pleased. It
were a bad job altogether; so we bade good-night as soon as it were
civil to do so. But I shall never forget Dick Trundle's house-warming,
nor the lesson it taught me.

"What we want, dear friends, is, not what's new, cheap, and showy, but
what's solid, and substantial, and thoroughly well made. Will it _wear_
well? That's the question after all. Dick's fine things was just got
up for show; they'd no wear in 'em--they was cheap and worthless. Now
there's a deal of religion going in our day as is like Dick Trundle's
house and purchases; it's quite new, it makes a great show, it looks
very fine, till you come to search a little closer into it. But it
ain't according to the old Bible make: it don't get beyond the head; it
can't satisfy the heart. What we want is a religion that's real--just
the religion of the gospel, as puts Jesus Christ and his work first and
foremost. If you haven't got that, you've got nothing as you can depend
on it'll fail you when you most want it. It may be called very wide,
and very intelligent, and very enlightened, but it won't act in the day
of trouble, and when the conscience ge