their treachery is proone in particular, had bmitting to be handled y an expounder of sciena. There was a proa fierce hissing sound, ya quick stroke of her d a bloody scratch apck of Elisha's left hand, hich instantly escaped -room with rattling ceed at his wounded mement, in rueful astonishthe full extent of his on him, and his loud at Mr. Trowbridge from 1 his aunt from her e scene of his discom

aving been attended to, ge said, calmly, Elisha, is a very dangernder any circumstances, lly, as I have often told ve to be made galvanic I don't wonder she

vations did not appear sufferer much.

s discoverd that Aunt gh really one of the live, had a gift for maksuch exceeding wisdom ss as was truly exaspershe could draw a timely e most trifling circumperson chanced to meet ap, her pertinent words ul as a mustard plaster skin. "Similia similiseemed to be her prinwhenever we youngsters lty.

Mr. Trowbridge came in , and conducted family as very tired, and during asleep, but was brought s again by Elisha's prickin. He was detected by afterwards, in private, nded. She did not al-. Trowbridge's presence. 's correctives were truly

small doses, with great frequencythe more so, probably, because they were so weak. It must be confessed, however, respecting her remedies for moral delinquency, that if they never did much good, they as certainly effected little harm. In general, they had no discernible effect whatever, beyond producing a slight temporary irritation.

Elisha's deportment during the exercise was certainly not devout. He tried a great variety of postures, from lying flat on his back to standing on his head-a feat which he performed with the skill of a trained acrobat. I recollect that on another occasion, similar to the one in question, he astonished and almost horrified me, by creeping out at the open door during the prayer, running completely around the house, and kneeling at his chair again without discovery; indeed, he seemed to know to a second when the amen would be said; and that word always found him in a proper attitude.

After prayers, Aunt Cynthia went with us to the little chamber overhead, and heard us repeat our own brief formulas before going to bed. Elisha rendered his petition in a loud voice, his eyes wide open. I had been accustomed to go through the exercise in a different manner, and my voice was scarcely audible. He maintained perfect silence until I had finished, when he remarked with an air of conviction:

"I know God didn't hear it, 'cause I couldn't more'n half hear from where I was."

"It isn't always those who pray the loudest that He hears the easiest, Elisha," replied Aunt Cynthia.

Aunt Cynthia was right.

When we were alone, my new brother told me he was sorry he had made faces at me, and pricked me, and that if I liked, we would sleep together. There were two beds in the room, but we both nestled into his, and he assured me of his desire to share with me everything he had.

"What made you lame?" he asked,

"Who's Fred. Williston?" I asked. But Elisha was asleep.

A few minutes later the door was gently opened, and a tall form came and stood at our bedside. I was not afraid, for I knew instinctively that it was Mr. Trowbridge. He stooped and kissed his boy, at the same time laying his hand tenderly on my own head. The moonlight flashed through a rift in the clouds, and came streaming in through the window, illuminating all the room. There was a look of unutterable love and yearning on his face, and his caress was like that of my mother, the day she died, for gentle

ness.

He uttered something-I think it must have been a prayer; but I caught only these two words: " immortal souls."

The next morning he was grave and cold, and I was afraid of him again. I thought of his tenderness the night before, and was almost persuaded that I had dreamed a beautiful dream. It was not until many years afterwards that I knew for a certainty whether the vision was real.

But through all that long and terriblo night, though the moon shone on thousands and thousands of pale, dead faces, it shone on none that were paler than was the living face of him who sat in that same chamber, by that same bed, and in anguish of soul, spoke the words of the grief-stricken king of Israel: () my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"

CHAPTER II.

FATHER AND SON.

av Eliiah Trowbridge was of

He bestowed on his first born son the name of the prophet whose history he never tired of reading; and he prayed that the spiritual development of his boy might be such that the Lord would take him in his especial service.

Elijah's mother, too, like Hannah of old, piously gave her son to God, with many prayers and tears. It would appear that the prayers of this devoted couple were heard, and their offering accepted. The boy grew up to man's estate, serious and thoughtful; helpful to his parents, and fond of books. But when he proposed to his father to give him a collegiate education, in order that he might be fitted to preach the Gospel, the godly man's heart fairly overflowed with joy and gratitude. Though he rejoiced that his son desired. this high destiny, he knew a liberal education to be expensive. The burden of it, in justice to himself and his large family, he dared not assume. Whether he looked forward to this period in his son's history, the day on which he dedicated him to the ministry, is uncertain. Probably he did not, or if he did, he might have reasoned that if God could send birds of the air to feed His chosen prophet, He could and would provide for the man whom He should choose to be His messenger to a different people and in another age. Perhaps also he expected, or at least hoped, that his circumstances, after a score of years of industry and economy, would admit of his bearing the expense of his son's education. However, this may be, the eventful time came, and Ezekiel Trowbridge was still a poor man. He told Elijah, when he made known his desire, that nothing would so crown his days with thankfulness as to see him in the ministry, but that he could furnish him little pecuniary assistance.

"If," said he, "you are disposed to prosecute this worthy purpose, I will your time and earnings from

give you

my counsel when you want ayers always." pted the situation, and for opped wood, worked in the d taught school, with pay, devoting his spare mobooks. When he formally his course of study, he mány a young man who e B. A. after his name. ated by this fact, but rather o greater exertion, he apto the work before him eristic earnestness. He a of brilliant ability. His as sound; but he acquired effort, rather than by inteness. He was a plodder; ither to the right hand nor ut crept steadily onward pal he had set for himself. nomy and occasional aid sources-1 -there are always e willing to aid a faithful got through his collegiate T courses. As has been was naturally of a serious made still more so by his many respects, arduous an education. He never, eminary, shrank from emJalvanistic doctrine, howig at first sight to a sensiHe was one of those few seem never to doubt. He od, the Bible, Calvin, and This Seminary, implicitly. the first, because the exha Being had been taught y, by his parents, and bebelief was a necessity of in its maturer developly his belief was strengthguments which he found it he believed before he ad had he never learned have believed just the ter life he was a skillful of the established arguild never understand how onsiderations which were to his own mind made so on on the minds of others.

Verily the Lord hath hardened the hearts of the people of this community. They hear, but will not understand. Query: May a man or a community of men wickedly persist in disbelief until God's righteous anger is kindled against them, and He blinds their eyes and stops their ears and hardens their hearts so that they can not understand the truth -in a word, abandons them to hopeless atheism? It is a terrible thought. I pray that such may not be the awful case of this poor people."

Belief was so easy with him that he had little sympathy with such minds as were by nature skeptical. Heresy rolled from his mind like water from a swan's back; and he had no patience with such of his colleagues as suffered themselves to be drawn aside from the truth, even temporarily.

Although he marveled at the slowness of his hearers to understand, and mourned his own incompetency to instruct them, yet it is a fact that his series of discourses, in refutation of widely prevalent infidel notions, were remarkably effective. He delivered them in many places, and always with marked results. It was while thus occupied that he made the above quoted entry in his journal. Under another date, and while, obviously, similarly engaged, he wrote this: "It is largely owing to my own unfitness for the work that so little good is accomplished. I wonder that the Lord deigns to employ so unprofitable a servant. I am unworthy of my high office." The results of his labors in this field were doubtless far below his desires, but they were sufficient to satisfy a man of greater vanity and a less vivid sense of the responsibilities of his calling. His standard of morality also was very high, so much higher than that of men in general, that he was almost daily surprised and grieved at conduct for which less sensitive consciences felt no twinge. The wayward sheep might err without compunction, but the shepherd suffered. He shrank, as from contamination, from words and actions, the

never occurred to many very good people. Having decided this to be right and that wrong, he was anxious to bring all men to adopt the same high standard. He lamented their willingness to remain contented with a lower one. He could tolerate no half-way morality. In his view, right and wrong were like white and black, side by side perhaps, but always in sharp contrast; the one never blending with or shading off into the other by imperceptible degrees, as is the theory of some.

Although Mr. Trowbridge thoroughly believed in the depravity of the human heart, he did not understand it. He was different from the majority of men, and not in sympathy with the ordinary run of poor human

He was above it. He could proach to it, argue with it, pray for it, ead teel for it; but, alas! not with it. Ho could reason with and convince mon, but he could not persuade them. this sermons were apt to be elaborate guments, in which the plan of salxation was clearly set forth as the only ogical, reasonable, or possible method whereby men might be saved; and he id not hesitate to pronounce sentence on those who should neglect to avail aesolves of this way of escape from

wrath of an offended God. Redemption, as he portrayed it, was, inved through and only through the atticient merits of Christ's blood. at the healing rays of his Sun of teousness were so hidden behind sullen clouds: justice, inflexible eternal; God, omnipresent, omnipeat and angry; man, depraved and ready condemned, and only to be saved from an eternity of irremediable

by a substitution of victim for A that they failed to reach the bags with their kindly warmth, and ken into activity its latent germs He could present the God lored on Mount Sinai in all attributes, and could earnhis hearers to become reconthrough his atoning Son. Christ of the New Testament, the

the tender and sympathizing Friend, Him Mr. Trowbridge failed to make real either to himself or his congregation. As a natural consequence, after listening to a sermon over which he had labored and prayed with an agony of solicitude, the old men went home saying it was a sound, an excellent discourse; and the younger people went their way, wishing the minister wouldn't be so painfully long and dry. He saw that this was so, and mourned over it; but it was long before he knew how to remedy the evil.

As

With all his gravity and apparent coldness, his nature was by no means lacking in capacity for loving. He loved an immortal soul wherever found, and felt that somehow he was personally responsible for its salvation. has been intimated, this sense of responsibility weighed him down and saddened him; and when he saw how little fruit his labors produced among his people, he felt that he was indeed (it is recorded again and again in his journal) "a weak instrument, a most unprofitable servant."

His peculiar character at middle life was, doubtless, largely owing, also, to an experience which was, in brief, as follows:

He married a young lady of a family very different from his own. It had been a wealthy family once; but reverses in business had scattered the rich merchant's property and sent himself into a premature grave. He left two children and their mother to fight the battle of life, with a slender income, and no experience in the art of living on next to nothing a year. They bravely conformed themselves to their altered circumstances, however, and bore their misfortunes with cheerful faces.

Mrs. Prime's two children were a son and daughter. The name of the former was William. He was his sister's senior by three years. He entered a wholesale store at an early age, and ultimately became a successful merchant. His history will be spoken

me was Madge. She was irl, full of life and fun, f her mother's independrally somewhat haughty Sunday, soon after Mr. raduated from the semifore he was settled, he each in the village where fighting her part of the teacher. In that first ng which his eyes rested earnest, silent, grave ter fell in love with a was, apparently, in every opposite. It is probable which she returned him growth. He was not a enly inspire a beautiful rt with affection. He s wooing as he had purdies; earnestly, systempersistently. He had a a commanding form; a yes; a strong, intelligent greeable address. Every d him, and spoke well of vas fortunate, as he had either for or of himself. of few words.

people who aver that girl in the world whom id decently smart young good and regular standarry, if-pardon the exbrethren of the profes3 his cards rightly; and, course, the lady's affecngaged. Without offeron as to the truth of this certain that in due prothe beautiful and highe was prevailed upon by e to lay down her birchassume the management 1 his prospective housead not long left the ra parsonage, when oba change in Mr. Trowace, words, and manner presence, in his life, of ich had hitherto been had found his nature's ent, and was happy.

whole existence. Her buoyant hopefulness gave him courage, and her love soothed, sustained, and strengthened him. His affection for her, on the other hand, appeared not only in his personal relations with her; it permeated his entire daily life and glowed in all his actions and spoke in all he said. There had existed in this man's heart, from childhood, a fountain of love and tenderness; but it had never been unsealed. Madge was the first one who had ever caused its waters to overflow. The ice, which for so long had overlaid and bound them, melted under the warm sunshine of a woman's love, and he was a new creature. How he loved her! He feared that in his affection for her, he was a violator of the first commandment. He prayed that he might not love her too well— so well that God would take her from him. He trembled at his own felicity. He was accustomed to preach that true happiness belonged to those only who had triumphantly passed through the trials and disappointments of this vale of tears and had effected an entrance into heaven. Yet he beheld himself happy here, even here-bound up in an earthly love and satisfied with it. Was it a snare?

Ten years of married life passed quickly away. Then the end came suddenly, and it was bitter. She was gone; gone in a night, and he was alone. Had he made an idol of his wife and bowed down to it? If so, the idol was broken now and taken from him. He did not know; he could not reason about it; he could not think. He could only kneel by the bed on which she lay, so pale and beautiful, and say, over and over again, "Thy will be done," and try to feel it in his heart, and be resigned.

Ah, it is hard to be submissive when your life's dearest treasure is snatched suddenly away! It is hard to be resigned to a Providence which has turned your day to darkness! He did it in love-is full of tenderness; look to Him and see it in his face. Nay,