A Lad of Mettle

When the Bishop of Flaxham came to Redbank, and preached in the chapel, the lads with difficulty restrained themselves from giving him a hearty cheer at the end of his address. The Bishop knew how to talk to boys, and never forgot that at one period of his life he had been bored with wearisome sermons about the world, the flesh, and the devil, which he did not in the least understand. So he took warning, and told the lads to run the race set before them much in the same manner as they would a hundred yards sprint, each striving to win the prize and do the distance in even time. The Bishop believed that well-trained muscles and a healthy body were conducive to an active and moral state of mind. The Redbank lads gloried in the fact that the Bishop of Flaxham had been one of themselves.