ong as it was paid for. Men and women might drink and die; they
might come and go; they might go and not come--others would come if they
didn't,--but _he_ would go on, like the brook, "for ever," supplying the
terrible demand.

As the ginger-beer was being poured out the door opened, and a man with
a pack on his back entered. Setting down the pack, he wiped his heated
brow and looked round. He was a mild, benignant-looking man, with a
thin face.

Opening his box, he said in a loud voice to the assembled company, "Who
will buy a Bible for sixpence?"

There was an immediate hush in the room. After a few seconds a
half-drunk man, with a black eye, said--"We don't want no Bibles 'ere.
We've got plenty of 'em at 'ome. Bibles is only for Sundays."

"Don't people die on Mondays and Saturdays?" said the colporteur, for
such he was. "It would be a bad job if we could only have the Bible on
Sundays. God's Word says, `To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not
your hearts.' `Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for
ever.' `_Now_ is the accepted time, _now_ is the day of salvation.' It
says the same on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and every day of the week."

"That's all right enough, old fellow," said another man, "but a public
is not the right place to bring a Bible into."

Turning to this man the colporteur said quietly, "Does not death come
into public-houses? Don't people die in public-houses? Surely it is
right to take the Word of God into any place where death comes, for
`after death the judgment.' `The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son,
cleanseth us from all sin.'"

"Come, come, that'll do. We don't want none of that here," said the
landlord of the house.

"Very well, sir," said the man respectfully, "but these gentlemen have
not yet declined to hear me."

This was true, and one of the men now came forward to look at the
contents of the box. Another joined him.

"Have you any book that'll teach a man how to get cured of drink?" asked
one, who obviously stood greatly in need of such a book.

"Yes, I have. Here it is--_The Author of the Sinner's Friend_; it is a
memoir of the man who wrote a little book called _The Sinner's Friend_,"
said the colporteur, producing a thin booklet in paper cover, "but I'd
recommend a Bible along with it, because the Bible tells of the sinner's
_best_ friend, Jesus, and remember that without Him you can do
_nothing_. He is God, and it is `God who giveth us th