m. Vacation after
vacation passed, and he returned more and more an altered being; and he
who once shrunk from the eye of the deacon, and was ready to sink if he
met the minister, now moved about among the dignitaries of the place
with all the composure of a superior being.

It was only to be regretted that, while the mind improved, the physical
energies declined, and that every visit to his home found him paler,
thinner, and less prepared in body for the sacred profession to which he
had devoted himself. But now he was returned, a minister--a real
minister, with a right to stand in the pulpit and preach; and what a joy
and glory to Aunt Sally--and to Uncle Lot, if he were not ashamed to own
it!

The first Sunday after he came, it was known far and near that George
Griswold was to preach; and never was a more ready and expectant
audience.

As the time for reading the first psalm approached, you might see the
white-headed men turning their faces attentively towards the pulpit; the
anxious and expectant old women, with their little black bonnets, bent
forward to see him rise. There were the children looking, because every
body else looked; there was Uncle Lot in the front pew, his face
considerately adjusted; there was Aunt Sally, seeming as pleased as a
mother could seem; and Miss Grace, lifting her sweet face to her
brother, like a flower to the sun; there was our friend James in the
front gallery, his joyous countenance a little touched with sobriety and
expectation; in short, a more embarrassingly attentive audience never
greeted the first effort of a young minister. Under these circumstances
there was something touching in the fervent self-forgetfulness which
characterized the first exercises of the morning--something which moved
every one in the house.

The devout poetry of his prayer, rich with the Orientalism of Scripture,
and eloquent with the expression of strong yet chastened emotion,
breathed over his audience like music, hushing every one to silence, and
beguiling every one to feeling. In the sermon, there was the strong
intellectual nerve, the constant occurrence of argument and statement,
which distinguishes a New England discourse; but it was touched with
life by the intense, yet half-subdued, feeling with which he seemed to
utter it. Like the rays of the sun, it enlightened and melted at the
same moment.

The strong peculiarities of New England doctrine, involving, as they do,
all the hidden machin