He
was extremely courteous in his manner, and paid a good deal of attention
to Badcock, of whom he seemed to think highly. Altogether our young
friends were taken aback, and inclined to think smaller beer of
themselves and larger of Badcock than was agreeable to the old Adam who
was still alive within them. A few well-known "Sims" from St John's and
other colleges were present, but not enough to swamp the Ernest set, as
for the sake of brevity, I will call them.
After a preliminary conversation in which there was nothing to offend,
the business of the evening began by Mr Hawke's standing up at one end of
the table, and saying "Let us pray." The Ernest set did not like this,
but they could not help themselves, so they knelt down and repeated the
Lord's Prayer and a few others after Mr Hawke, who delivered them
remarkably well. Then, when all had sat down, Mr Hawke addressed them,
speaking without notes and taking for his text the words, "Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me?" Whether owing to Mr Hawke's manner, which was
impressive, or to his well-known reputation for ability, or whether from
the fact that each one of the Ernest set knew that he had been more or
less a persecutor of the "Sims" and yet felt instinctively that the
"Sims" were after all much more like the early Christians than he was
himself--at any rate the text, familiar though it was, went home to the
consciences of Ernest and his friends as it had never yet done.
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