is own mind. When he had finished he looked up
to find that his wife's tears were dropping upon the work which had
fallen from her hands.

"Oh, how guilty we have been, Herbert! Well do I remember how persistent
I always was in my offers of stimulant to our minister in years gone
by, and when he declined I pretended to be hurt, and said he must not
refuse anything a lady offered, for she would be sure to know what was
good for her guest; and then when I conquered, and he reluctantly took
the glass from my hands, I felt so exultant, and all the while I was
luring him on to the ruin, which might have been eternal."

Mrs. Green broke down utterly, and there was a suspicious huskiness in
her husband's voice as he spoke: "Yes, we are indeed guilty, and we may
have been no less so in many other instances. Verily, the blood of souls
is on our garments. Mary, what shall we do?"

"Can you ask, Herbert? I don't mind how inhospitable it may appear; but
I am resolved never again to offer stimulants to our guests, lest I make
the same fatal mistake."

"That is well said, my dear; but--but--shall we agree to refrain from
offering intoxicants to callers, and the visitors who occasionally sit
at our table, lest we place temptation in their way, while every day
those dearer than our life sit and partake with us of the cup which I
now believe to possess such fatal allurements? If we have decided no
longer to tempt our guests, shall we continue to tempt our innocent
children, to whom we stand in their early years as their sole medium of
light and knowledge? Think, Mary, if a few years hence one of our boys
could truthfully say to us what our pastor has just said."

"Don't say any more; I can't bear it, Herbert."

For a few moments there was silence. Then Mrs. Green spoke again: "There
is only one step to be taken; from this day all intoxicants must be
banished from our home. Neither our children nor our friends must ever
have further opportunity of stumbling over our well-meaning but cruel
kindness. God, who knows how blindly and ignorantly we have sinned in
the past, will surely grant His forgiving mercy to us, and help us in
the future to wage successful battle against this subtle foe who has
had, till now, his acknowledged place in our house."

"Thank God for that decision; my heart already feels lighter. From this
time I will take my stand beside Mr. Harris in his noble Temperance
work, and so far as I can, help to repair the w