Mr. Gear.: 

—­Well, all I have got to say, is that when any of those candidates come to preach I hope you’ll notify me, and I’ll stay away.

Mr. Hardcap.: 

—­I have no patience with these new fangled notions of these young up-start preachers.  I reckon the ways our fathers got their preachers are good enough for us.

Mr. Gear.: 

—­And what do you say as to that point he makes about Paul’s preaching as a candidate, Mr. Hardcap?

Mr. Hardcap.: 

—­Oh! that’s different, altogether-very different.  The apostle was inspired, Mr. Gear.

I notice that this is a very popular style of argument with Mr. Hardcap.  Whenever he is posed in argument his never failing rejoinder is “Oh! that’s different, altogether different.”  And I think I have observed that the Hardcap logic is not confined to Mr. Hardcap, but is in high regard in other quarters, where I should least look for it.

Mr. Gear.: 

—­Well I don’t think much of apostolic authority myself.  But I supposed the rest of you thought you were bound by any precedents Paul had set.

Mr. Hardcap.: 

—­It’s mighty high seems to me for a young man to be making of himself out as good as the apostle Paul.

Mr. Wheaton.: 

—­I like that young Mapleson, and I like his letter.  I wish we could get him.  Is there any chance of persuading him to come, Mr. Laicus? not as a candidate you know, but just to preach, in good faith like any other man.

Mr. Gear shrugs his shoulders.

Laicus,:  [(decidedly).]

—­No! and I should not want to be the one to try.

Mr. Wheaton.: 

—­Well then who stands next on our list?

Mr. Gear.: 

—­Excuse me gentlemen, but if he can’t come to us why shouldn’t we go to him.  Why not try him as we would try any other man.

Deacon Goodsole.: 

—­How do you mean Mr. Gear?

Mr. Gear.: 

—­If I want a workman at my factory I don’t invite one to come from my neighbor and try his hand for a day while I stand over and watch him.  We try our apprentices that way, but never a good workman.  I go to his shop, inquire as to his character, and examine the work that he has done.  If he has done good work in another man’s shop he will do it well in mine.  At least that’s the way we reason in our factory.

Mr. Hardcap.: 

—­That’s a very different case Mr. Gear, altogether different.

Mr. Gear.: 

—­Suppose this Mr. Whats-his-name comes, what more will you know about him than you know now?

Deacon Goodsole.: 

—­We shall hear him preach and can judge for ourselves.

Mr. Gear.: 

—­One good sermon does not make a good preacher.

Mr. Wheaton.: 

—­No!  But you don’t need to drive a horse more than five miles to know what are his paces.