A unusually large number attended the vesper service yesterday afternoon. The choir opened the service with Calkin's anthem, "Rejoice in the Lord." Rev. G. A. Gordon conducted the responsive service, after which the anthem, "The sun shall be no more they light by day," by Woodward, was sung.

Rev. T. C, Williams was the preacher of the afternoon. He read a part of the seventeenth chapter of John, and selected the verse, "Howbeit this kind goeth not out except by prayer and fasting," as the text of his remarks. He said that God demands the spirit of prayer and fasting in every man who desires true success in any work. There are some men of brilliant genius to whom the favors of life come unsought who appear to be independent of this law; but the spontaneous success of their undisciplined genius are never permanent or satisfying. To possess the spirit of renunciation is the first essential of true success. When Christ spoke of fasting we may be sure he meant something broad: to fast in the true sense of renunciation does not mean merely the giving up of the evils and unnecessary pleasures of life, but even the good things. There must be a capability to sacrifice the good for the better. With renunciation must come aspiration, the longing after stronger influences for good,- that is prayer. Christ is the perfect example of the blending of these two elements of success.

At the close of the sermon the choir sang Shelley's anthem "The King of Love."