cribed the next
world in language which seemed a strange jumble of Virgil's Aeneid, the
Koran, the dreams of those rabbis who crucified our Lord, and of those
mediaeval inquisitors who tried to convert sinners (and on their own
ground, neither illogically nor over-harshly) by making this world for a
few hours as like as possible to what, so they held, God was going to
make the world to come for ever.

At last he stopped suddenly, when he saw that the animal excitement was
at the very highest; and called on all who felt "convinced" to come
forward and confess their sins.

In another minute there would have been (as there have been ere now)
four or five young girls raving and tossing upon the floor, in mad
terror and excitement; or, possibly, half the congregation might have
rushed out (as a congregation has rushed out ere now) headed by the
preacher himself, and ran headlong down to the quay-pool, with shrieks
and shouts, declaring that they had cast the devil out of Betsey
Pennington, and were hunting him into the sea: but Campbell saw that the
madness must be stopped at once; and rising, he thundered, in a voice
which brought all to their senses in a moment--

"Stop! I, too, have a sermon to preach to you; I trust I am a Christian
man, and that not of last year's making, or the year before. Follow me
outside, if you be rational beings, and let me tell you the truth--God's
truth! Men!" he said, with an emphasis on the word, "you at least, will
give me a fair hearing, and you too, modest married women! Leave that
fellow with the shameless hussies who like to go into fits at his feet."

The appeal was not in vain. The soberer majority followed him out; the
insane minority soon followed, in the mere hope of fresh excitement;
while the preacher was fain to come also, to guard his flock from the
wolf. Campbell sprang upon a large block of stone, and taking off his
cap, opened his mouth, and spake unto them.

* * * * *

Readers will doubtless desire to hear what Major Campbell said: but they
will be disappointed; and perhaps it is better for them that they should
be. Let each of them, if they think it worth while, write for themselves
a discourse fitting for a Christian man, who loved and honoured his
Bible too much to find in a few scattered texts, all misinterpreted, and
some mistranslated, excuses for denying fact, reason, common justice,
the voice of God in his own moral sense, and the