test glory--the truest honour must
be in God," said the old man.

"All will admit that," returned Markland.

"Those, then, who are most like him, are most excellent--most
honourable."

"Yes."

"Love," continued Mr. Allison, "is the very essential nature of
God--not love of self, but love of creating and blessing others, out
of himself. Love of self is a monster; but love of others the
essential spirit of true manhood, and therefore its noblest
attribute."

Markland bowed his head, convicted in his own heart of having, all
his life long, been a self-worshipper; of having turned his eyes
away from the true type of all that was noble and excellent, and
striven to create something of his own that was excellent and
beautiful. But, alas! there was no life in the image; and already
its decaying elements were an offence in his nostrils.

"In the human body," said Mr. Allison, "as in the human soul when it
came pure from the hands of God, there is a likeness of the Creator.
Every organ and member, from the largest to the most hidden and
minute, bears this likeness, in its unselfish regard for the good of
the whole body. For, as we have seen, each, in its activity, has no
respect primarily to its own life. And it is because the human soul
has lost this likeness of its loving Creator, that it is so weak,
depraved, and unhappy. There must be the restored image, and
likeness, before there be the restored Eden."

The noblest type of manhood! Never in all his after life was Edward
Markland able to shut out this light of truth from his understanding.
It streamed through the little window, shining very dimly at times;
but always strong enough to show him that unselfish love was man's
highest attribute, and self-love a human monster.

CHAPTER V.

WHILE Mr. Markland was brooding over his own unhappy state, and
seeking to shut out the light shining too strongly in upon his real
quality of mind, Mrs. Markland was living, in some degree, the very
life that seemed so unattractive to him, and receiving her measure
of reward. While he wandered, with an unquiet spirit, over his
fields, or sat in cool retreats by plashing fountains, his thoughts
reaching forward to embrace the coming future, she was active in
works of love. Her chief desire was the good of her beloved ones,
and she devoted herself to this object with an almost entire
forgetfulness of self. Home was therefore the centre of her thoughts
and affections, but not