ly believe that these good people felt
that by going to hear him they were killing two birds with one
stone--getting into the very best society, and at the same time
worshipping the God of heaven and of earth.

But this is not Baptist Noel's only claim. His position has done much
for him; but his real merits have done much more. It is something to
find a man who is brought up to the Church, honestly devoting himself to
his sacred calling; scorning the pomps and allurements of the world; in
season and out of season a faithful minister of Christ. With his high
rank, with his family influence and the family livings--for to suppose
that the family has not such, is to deny that it is a respectable family
at all--though a younger son, Baptist Noel might have led a haughty and
luxurious life--a life of sensual indulgence or lettered ease. For such
a course he could have quoted precedents enough. But religious truth had
sunk deeply into his heart. His creed was no scholastic dogma, but a
living faith. With his inner eye he had seen the vanities of this world,
and the awful realities of the next; that all men were guilty before God;
and that it was only by faith in the atonement that the guilt could be
wiped away. Hence his perseverance, his single-mindedness, his zeal, He
preached, not to please men's fancies, but to save men's souls--not to
lull them into a deceitful peace, but to induce them to fly for mercy
from the wrath to come. True to this unvaried theme, Baptist Noel leaves
to others gorgeously to declaim, or learnedly to define, or coldly to
moralize. Evidently with him, for such matters, life is too short and
eternity too long.

Hence he is one of the plainest preachers of the metropolis. He aims at
your heart, not at your head. He touches your affections, if he cannot
master your understanding. He may win you over by his gentleness, though
he fail to convince you by his power.

Such, as a preacher, is Baptist Noel. Immediately he rises in the pulpit
you feel that you have that undefinable mystery, a gentleman, before you.
Few, indeed, are the gentlemen who surpass him in elegance of appearance,
or urbanity of manner. He is about fifty-five years of age, tall, and of
a fine figure; his hair is of a light brown colour, his complexion is
fair and pale, his face long, and his features handsome. He has a high
forehead, deep-set blue eyes, a long and rather aquiline nose, and an
expressive mouth. His voi