tell you a little of what this religion has done for one man: it won't take long in telling.

"Years ago," continued the speaker, "in a wretched cellar in this town, might have been found a most wretched family, huddled together around a poor flickering fire. No table was there; no chairs; no more firing, and it was the depth of winter; and no food for the poor half-clad woman and her three helpless babes. Sickness was there also-pining sickness-for, on a heap of straw, covered with scanty, filthy rags, lay the father of those children and the husband of that wife.

"The man was an infidel: he boasted in his unbelief; and in his health and strength he had abused his powers in rioting and drunkenness, in self-indulgence, and in cruelty to those who looked to him for bread. He had hated the name of Christianity, and poured contempt on the Bible, even as contempt has this night, in this place, been poured upon it.

"And as he lay there, sick and starving, one whom that wretched man had hated and reviled, and ill-treated above all others, because he was a Christian, entered and stood by his bed-side. That Christian man was poor and sickly, and out of work; and you know, my friends, what that is; how it hardens the heart, and sours the temper to feel that there is naught to be done that man should do, to keep together body and soul."

"Ay, ay," said one aloud; "we know something of that. Go on with thy story, lad."

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'Well, friends and neighbours," the speaker went on, "the visitor was poor and sickly; but of his poverty did he pour out relief to him who had been aforetime his enemy-ay, and had injured him in word and deed. And that night was there bread for the starving ones, and medicine for the sick, and fuel for the fire, and hope-hope, friends, where before was only despair.

"Then said that sick man, 'I'll say no more against the Bible and Christianity till I have read the one and examined the other.' And this he did by and by; and he's here to-night just to say to you all, ‘Read the Bible before you burn it, and examine Christianity before you turn away from it.' And if you'll come with me, I'll show you that man with a happy home, not in a cellar now, friends, if it's not so grand as a drawing-room; with well-fed children, and peace in his heart instead of hatred and strife; and he'll tell you that the religion of the Bible has made the change."

“The man's right there," said one by my new owner's side; "I knew him when he was just a devil, and I know him now; for he is one of the best and steadiest hands in our mill. He's gay right about the change."

"The gentleman wants to know what Christianity has done," continued the speaker: "I'll tell you, friends, another thing it has done. Wives and sisters for wives and sisters are here-here, in this 'down-trodden, priest-ridden' country, as it was

called just now-it has made you what you arewomen, and not toys and puppets; man's friends and companions, and not his slaves, like what this new moral world system would drive you back into." A great tumult arose when the man uttered these words; and it was some time ere his voice could again be heard. Then he again spoke :

"We have heard this night of nature's laws. What are they? Where are they? Will the gentleman tell us that? And will he tell us where nature is, and who gave nature power to make laws? Is nature God? Then there is a God. Is nature not God? Then what gives nature power over us ? But these laws-can any one tell us where they are to be found? I know that the gentleman said that they were 'in us and round us;' but that means anything, or nothing-it tells us nothing.

"Friends and neighbours, there is a law that there can be no mistake about—a law that just tells us this—Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself;' and I don't know yet why we should give up the book and the religion that teaches that law. Let us wait a bit, at least, till wiser and more learned heads than ours have agreed among themselves to let us know, plain and straightforward, what nature's laws are." Hereupon, many voices among the people replied "That is right and fair enough."

"I won't keep you much longer, friends," the man went on; "and I thank you all heartily for

X

giving me a patient hearing; but there is one thing more. We have been told this night that this new religion—if it is a religion—knows nothing certain about what comes after death. Mayhap we shall live again, and mayhap we shall not. Well, this sort of religion won't do for me; for I have got to die; and I don't know how soon. I tell you, friends, that the teaching that stops short there, and does not answer the question, ' If a man die, shall he live again?' is poor teaching. The gentleman tells us that he can promise there shall be no judgment after death. Ah, but how does he know that? and if he should chance to be wrong after all, what's to come of it then? Friends and neighbours, one more last word and I have done: that religion is the religion for me that brings life and immortality to light, and which gives me hope and power to say: I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.'

my

With these words the speaker sat down; and, amidst much noise and confusion, my new possessor pushed his way out of the place of assembly, while yet the people lingered to see if the first speaker would reply to the second; and after a few minutes he was walking quietly and thoughtfully, through the stillness of night, towards his home.

*Job xix. 25-27.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE WORKING MAN'S HOME.

THE home to which my new possessor introduced me was not inviting. It was a small dwelling in a narrow, crowded yard; and the aspect within betokened heedless neglect, rather than poverty.

"You are late to-night, lad:" the voice was that of a woman, who sat by a small table on which stood a lighted lamp; on the woman's knee was an infant, smiling in its sleep, which, methought, was the pleasantest sight within that apartment. “And what is that you have there?" she asked, as her husband laid me on the table.

"Naught of much account, Mary," said my "But you have let the fire out, and the night air is cold."

owner.

"You are over late; and I, and the fire, and the babe even went to sleep together, I think," said the woman, yet not angrily. "May be you can rouse it again as you have roused me, if you will."

The means of re-kindling the fire were at hand; and ere long a cheerful blaze lighted the small room, and brightened the countenances of the young workman and his wife.

"But you have not told me what you have heard," said she, after they had sat some time in silence.