hat day if he did not come up to the Tower, as he often did, to
ask for her, and being on his knees she used to repeat to him what she
had been learning during the week.

He was very much pleased, when she first read a chapter in the Bible,
and then it was that he first opened out to her some of his ideas on
religion; which were much clearer and brighter than either Mrs.
Margaret's or her nephew's. How this poor and solitary old man had
obtained these notions does not appear; he could not have told the
process himself, though, as he afterwards told Tamar, all the rest he
knew, had seemed to come to him, through the clearing and manifestation
of one passage of Scripture, and this passage was COL. iii. 11. "But
Christ is all."

"This passage," said the old man, "stuck by me for many days. I was made
to turn it about and about, in my own mind, and to hammer it every way,
till at length, I was made to receive it, in its fulness. Christ I
became persuaded, is not all to one sort of men, and not all to another
sort, nor all at one time of a man's life, and not all at another; nor
all in one circumstance of need, and not all in another; nor all to the
saints and not all to the sinner; nor all in the hour of joy, and not
all in the hour of retribution; being ready and able to supply one want,
and unwilling to supply another. For," as he would add, "does a man want
righteousness? there it is laid for him in Christ; does he want merit?
there is the treasure full and brimming over; does he want rest and
peace? they are also provided for him; does he want faith? there also is
faith prepared for him; but the times and the seasons, these are not
given to him to know; and, if confusion and every evil work now prevail,
Christ being all, he will bring order out of confusion, when the fulness
of the time shall come.

"And so," continued the old man, "when it was given me to see and
accept this one passage first, in its completeness, all other parts of
Scripture seemed to fall at once into their places; and the prophecies;
the beautiful prophecies of future peace and joy to the earth, of the
destruction of death and of hell, all opened out to me, as being hidden
and shut up in Christ,--for Christ is all; and as I desired the
treasure, so I was drawn more and more towards Him who keeps the
treasure, and all this," he would add, "was done for me, through no
deserts or deservings of my own; for till this light was vouchsafed me,
I was as