Death "beautiful ?" Faugh! it was the one thing of all others that he dreaded; it was an unpleasant necessity, concerning which he thought as little as possible.

Though he preached frequently on the peace of the grave and the joys of heaven,--he was far from believing in either,--he was nervously terrified of illness, and fled like a frightened hare from the very rumor of any infectious disorder, and he had never been known to attend a death-bed.

And now, in answer to Thelma, he nodded piously and rubbed his hands, and said-- "Yes, yes; no doubt, no doubt! All very proper on your part, I am sure! But concerning this same image of which I came to speak,--it is most imperative that you should be brought to recognize it as a purely carnal object, unfitting a maiden's eyes to rest upon.

The true followers of the Gospel are those who strive to forget the sufferings of our dear Lord as much as possible,--or to think of them only in spirit.

The minds of sinners, alas! are easily influenced,--and it is both unseemly and dangerous to gaze freely upon the carven semblance of the Lord's limbs! Yea, truly, it hath oft been considered as damnatory to the soul,--more especially in the cases of women immured as nuns, who encourage themselves in an undue familiarity with our Lord, by gazing long and earnestly upon his body nailed to the accursed tree." Here Mr.Dyceworthy paused for breath.