upon him, from infancy, the cross which thy stronger children
are called upon to take up; and now that he is fainting under it, be
Thou his stay, and do Thou succor him that is tempted! Let his manifold
infirmities come between him and Thy judgment; in wrath remember mercy!
If his eyes are not opened to all Thy truth, let Thy compassion lighten
the darkness that rests upon him, even as it came through the word of
thy Son to blind Bartimeus, who sat by the wayside, begging!

Many more petitions he uttered, but all in the same subdued tone
of tenderness. In the presence of helpless suffering, and in the
fast-darkening shadow of the Destroyer, he forgot all but his Christian
humanity, and cared more about consoling his fellow-man than making a
proselyte of him.

This was the last prayer to which the Little Gentleman ever listened.
Some change was rapidly coming over him during this last hour of which
I have been speaking. The excitement of pleading his cause before his
self-elected spiritual adviser,--the emotion which overcame him, when
the young girl obeyed the sudden impulse of her feelings and pressed
her lips to his cheek,--the thoughts that mastered him while the
divinity-student poured out his soul for him in prayer, might well hurry
on the inevitable moment. When the divinity-student had uttered his last
petition, commending him to the Father through his Son's intercession,
he turned to look upon him before leaving his chamber. His face was
changed.--There is a language of the human countenance which we all
understand without an interpreter, though the lineaments belong to the
rudest savage that ever stammered in an unknown barbaric dialect. By the
stillness of the sharpened features, by the blankness of the tearless
eyes, by the fixedness of the smileless mouth, by the deadening tints,
by the contracted brow, by the dilating nostril, we know that the soul
is soon to leave its mortal tenement, and is already closing up its
windows and putting out its fires.--Such was the aspect of the face
upon which the divinity-student looked, after the brief silence which
followed his prayer. The change had been rapid, though not that abrupt
one which is liable to happen at any moment in these cases.--The sick
man looked towards him.--Farewell,--he said,--I thank you. Leave me
alone with her.

When the divinity-student had gone, and the Little Gentleman found
himself alone with Iris, he lifted his hand to his neck, and took fr