The Rev. Mr. Snow was there, as became the pastor of a flock in which the wolf had made its ravages, and the meeting was opened with prayer, according to the usual custom.  Considering the mood and temper of the people, a prayer for the spirit of forgiveness and fortitude would not have been out of place, but it is to be feared that it was wholly a matter of form.  It is noticeable that at political conventions, on the eve of conflicts in which personal ambition and party chicanery play prominent parts; on the inauguration of great business enterprises in which local interests meet in the determined strifes of selfishness, and at a thousand gatherings whose objects leave God forgotten and right and justice out of consideration, the blessing of the Almighty is invoked, while men who are about to rend each other’s reputations, and strive, without conscience, for personal and party masteries, bow reverent heads and mumble impatient “Amens.”

But the people of Sevenoaks wanted their money back, and that, certainly, was worth praying for.  They wanted, also, to find some way to wreak their indignation upon Robert Belcher; and the very men who bowed in prayer after reaching the hall walked under an effigy of that person on their way thither, hung by the neck and dangling from a tree, and had rare laughter and gratification in the repulsive vision.  They were angry, they were indignant, they were exasperated, and the more so because they were more than half convinced of their impotence, while wholly conscious that they had been decoyed to their destruction, befooled and overreached by one who knew how to appeal to a greed which his own ill-won successes and prosperities had engendered in them.

After the prayer, the discussion began.  Men rose, trying their best to achieve self-control, and to speak judiciously and judicially, but they were hurled, one after another, into the vortex of indignation, and cheer upon cheer shook the hall as they gave vent to the real feeling that was uppermost in their hearts.

After the feeling of the meeting had somewhat expended itself, Mr. Snow rose to speak.  In the absence of the great shadow under which he had walked during all his pastorate, and under the blighting influence of which his manhood had shriveled, he was once more independent.  The sorrows and misfortunes of his people had greatly moved him.  A sense of his long humiliation shamed him.  He was poor, but he was once more his own; and he owed a duty to the mad multitude around him which he was bound to discharge.  “My friends,” said he, “I am with you, for better or for worse.  You kindly permit me to share in your prosperity, and now, in the day of your trial and adversity, I will stand by you.  There has gone out from among us an incarnate evil influence, a fact which calls for our profound gratitude.  I confess with shame that I have not only felt it, but have shaped myself, though unconsciously, to it.  It has vitiated our charities, corrupted our morals,