paid you a call before preaching, you insisted that I
needed to be stimulated for my work, and pressed me to accept the best
wine your cellars could supply. If I dropped in on my way home, I was
sure to be looking white and exhausted, and must therefore take 'just
one glass' to restore my energies. Heat and cold, rain and sunshine, joy
and sorrow, all afforded you an excuse for compelling me to partake of
the fatal cup. Your wines found their way to my table in abundance. Many
a time I sought to refuse your false kindness; but you know how deeply I
should have grieved you if I had not accepted your hospitality. From the
day I first entered upon my pastorate as a moderate drinker, I felt that
it was considered a personal slight if I visited any house and refused
the proffered wine. Can you wonder that I grew to feel it a necessity?
that presently I stumbled and fell, and for a time was 'out of the way
through strong drink'? Oh, my brother, let me beg, that, if you cannot
banish intoxicants from your home, you will at least refrain from
pressing them upon others, lest you cause a weaker brother to offend."

Deeply agitated, the deacon wrung his pastor's hand, abruptly leaving
him with the broken words: "Forgive me--I--didn't mean--didn't
know--you've won me over at last."

"What is the matter, my dear?" asked Mrs. Green in alarmed tones, as a
few minutes later her husband entered the room where she was working,
and throwing himself into a chair, buried his face in his hands. The
deacon only groaned. "Surely there is nothing wrong with our minister
again," said his wife, knowing that her husband had recently been in the
company of Mr. Harris.

"No, no, and if so, I, and such as I, would have been to blame, as we
were years ago, God forgive us!" Mrs. Green looked at her husband,
half-believing that under some sudden strain his mind had lost its
balance.

"What do you mean? It was Mr. Harris's own fault that he gave way to
drink, and you should remember that you and his other deacons were
faithful in your constant warnings and long-suffering with him beyond
what might have been expected."

"We, and only we, caused his downfall, and then reproached him for the
disgrace he had brought upon our church," gloomily responded the deacon.

"You are speaking in enigmas; do explain yourself, Herbert," impatiently
urged his wife.

In answer, Mr. Green repeated the words of his pastor, which had made so
deep an impression upon h