HY, James, man, I wonder that you fash yourself so over that old Bible; you're no scholar, and you'll make nothing out, with all your studying. For my part, I think there's a deal more satisfaction in a newspaper." And Hannah Simpson left her work at the other end of the kitchen, and, wiping her hands on her apron, came and stood looking over her husband's shoulder as he sat at a table near the fire, with an old Bible open before him.

James took no heed either of his wife's words or her presence. His brows were still knitted over the difficulty of his task, and his horny finger continued in its slow progress over the paper to trace out the letters of the words: W-h-o," he spelled, 66 S-o-e-v-e-r ay, but that's a long And he breathed a heavy sigh of excitement and

66

word.'

discouragement. James had no idea of dividing his words into syllables, and so cutting for himself steps in the steep hillside of pronunciation, and he looked again and again at the "long word," utterly failing to take in its meaning.

"I can make out that it's about something good," he exclaimed again, after he had slowly and laboriously spelled his way through the remainder of the verse. "Let him take of the water of life freely;' that's just what the preacher said, and he told us that 'water of life' meant salvation; but who is to take it ?—that beats me." Then, glancing round in his perplexity, he was for the first time conscious that his wife was near. "Ay, Hannah, I wish thee could tell me what that long word is!"

Hannah, who scarcely knew one letter from another, bent down and looked closely at the "long word," and then she shook her head. "Nay, James, I can't help thee; it's all Greek to me ! If our little Tim had lived we'd have made him a scholar, for a bit o' larning's real useful sometimes; but don't take on about it, man, may be it don't mean anything particular after all." And Hannah returned to her work, casting occasionally sympathising glances at her husband as he still bent over the book, and wishing, with an increased soreness of her mother-heart, that their little Tim had not been taken, the house had been so awful lonesome ever since, and that was it, surely, that had set James on studying and saying such strange things about being a sinner. A sinner, indeed! if there was an honest, kind man in the world it was her James, and trouble must have turned his head before he could call himself so.

And whilst Hannah's thoughts were thus busy, her husband sat still and pondered. For some weeks past he had been bearing on his heart a load that was becoming wellnigh insupportable. He scarcely knew how it first came there; it was strangely mixed up in his thoughts with the death of his child, and a hymn which had been sung at little

66

Tim's grave by the Sunday scholars of the school he used to attend. James had always been a steady man, but he had lived with scarcely a thought of God, and his Sabbaths had been spent in careless, weary lounging, instead of being used for the worship of God and care for the precious soul God had given him. But when the winsome and dearly-loved child had suddenly stepped from his father's side into a solemn eternity, speaking to the last of "good Jesus," and smiling joyfully in the face of the Good Shepherd, as He took the little lamb in His arms, on the brink of the river of death," James realised what a life of terrible trifling his had been, and, ever since, in a dim, aimless way, he had been groping for the truth as it is in Jesus. Only the Sabbath before, the words of a street-preacher had fallen on his ear-words that told of the water of life, and of the love of Jesus in obtaining it for poor perishing sinners; and James had got a glimpse of the truth that made him long painfully for more. He knew now that this burden on his heart was unforgiven sin, and the preacher had said that Jesus would forgive sin. Then James, in his slow way, had reasoned out that to take of the water of life and to get sin pardoned was perhaps the same thing; but we all know how long it sometimes is, even with the fullest and most careful teaching, before a sinner, conscious of his guilt, can simply grasp the remedy; and let none of us wonder that poor James Simpson, with all his past neglect and ignorance, felt himself in a state of great bewilderment.

But there were two things about which he was quite clear. He needed salvation, and he would not rest until he found out how to get it; and he thought if he could but discover who it was that was so freely invited to take of the water of life in the passage he had been reading, it would throw great light on the subject. Again and again he repeated to himself the letters of "the long word," until they were thoroughly fixed in his memory, and then, with a sudden gleam of hope lighting up his face, he started from his seat, closed. the Bible, after turning down the leaf, put it under his arm,

and taking his hat from the peg, he nodded pleasantly to his wife, saying, "I'm going to take a bit of a turn, Hannah ; I'll not be long."

Once outside the door, he walked forward with a brisk, determined step, until he came to a large house standing back from the road, and surrounded by extensive grounds. James was in the habit of passing this house every day on his way to and from work, and knew it to be a boardingschool for boys; and out of his wife's mention of making their little Tim a scholar, if he had lived, had sprung the sudden thought that one of these scholars might perhaps help him in his present difficulty. It required some determination for the reserved, grave man, rendered graver than usual by the pressure of a great anxiety, to face a troop of merry, rollicking boys, who might, perhaps, turn his inquiries into mockery. But a man thoroughly in earnest does not let the lion in the heavenward path frighten or deter him; and such a man, as he speeds past the enemy, always finds it chained by order of the King. Merry voices of boys, just out for their evening games, filled the air as James drew near the gate, and he had scarcely taken his station outside, when one of them rushed past it to pick up a ball. It was Harvey Reynolds, a bright-faced boy, on whose character good home training had left its unmistakable traces, making him kind-hearted and courteous to rich and poor alike; and as the words reached his ear, "I say, young master, can I have a word with you?" he slackened his flying pace, and came up to the gate, pressing his flushed face against the bars, and looking through them with a pleasant smile and with boyish curiosity at the man outside. "You can have two or three words, if you like, if you will speak very quick," he said; "but the fellows want me back to the game in a minute."

66

"I thought you'd, may be, tell me what these letters make up when they're put together," said James, and, after opening the Book, with the air of a great schoolboy repeating his lesson, he slowly spelled out the long word that had

so perplexed him.

into the boy's hand.

Then he put the Bible through the bars

"That's whosoever," said Harvey, secretly wishing that he could go through every examination as easily.

"And will you be pleased to tell me what 'whosoever ' means," asked James, anxiously.

"Oh, it means," and Harvey paused a moment to put his explanation into the simplest possible shape-“Oh, it means you, or me, or anybody."

"Thank you kindly, young sir; you've done me a great favour good evening, sir," said he, reclaiming the Book.

Harvey, as he hastened back to his companions, wondered at the sudden brightness that lighted up his questioner's face as he turned away, but it was a joy with which no stranger intermeddleth that James Simpson was feeling then. Salvation was for him! He, or anybody, might take it! at least so the young gentleman said; and coming out of a big school like that, he was sure to know.

It would be impossible within the limits of this paper to tell fully the further stages of James's spiritual history. The Holy Spirit has various ways of working, but it is a blessed truth that "where'er we seek Him, He is found,” and that when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall guide into all truth. In James Simpson's consciousness of sin, and ignorance, and hoping for guidance, He came to him, and enabling him to understand, and with the hand of faith to grasp that precious word " whosoever," He went on to "testify of Jesus" as a willing and ready Saviour, and One who is able to save unto the utmost all who come unto God by Him.

Under this Divine Teacher James so "learned Christ" that he became a happy, consistent, and useful Christian; and though he never got farther in his scholarship than to be able to read the Bible to his own and his wife's satisfaction by spelling a few of the very long words, yet he never again needed to spell the word "whosoever;" and his face would light up with joy whenever he came to it, regarding