eclaimed by the efforts and self-sacrifice
of her former mistress.

[Illustration]

WHY THE ANGELS REJOICED.

"GOOD-NIGHT, Mrs. Seymour. Must you leave so quickly?" asked a lady of
an elderly woman, who was hurrying past her pew with the stream of
worshippers that were leaving the chapel after the Sabbath-evening
service was ended, without waiting for the short prayer-meeting which
usually followed.

"Yes, ma'am, I can't wait a minute longer, for my husband's promised to
go to the Mission Hall, and the angels are going to rejoice to-night,"
answered Margaret Seymour with a radiant light of expectancy upon her
pale face.

"God grant that you may not be disappointed," returned the lady, with a
cordial pressure of the hand, and, as Margaret hastened out, her friend
inwardly marvelled at the strong faith which, during a lifetime of
neglect and cruelty, had sustained her poorer sister through terrible
seasons of hardship and toil.

Margaret Seymour had early left a Christian home to become the wife of a
man, who, destitute of any real religion himself, soon commenced to mock
and persecute the woman who had been induced to take a false step,
hoping to win her husband to seek for himself the joys which were hers.
But, hitherto, the hope had proved vain. Richard Seymour had sunk lower
and lower, until, enfeebled in health by his drunkenness and follies,
his family mainly depended upon the exertions of the wife and mother for
daily bread. Still, Margaret's faith did not fail. If she worked
incessantly all day long, and often far into the night, her prayers went
up without intermission to the Throne of Grace. There had been a time
when she had trusted the answer was at hand, for her husband had been
induced to attend a small Mission Hall near by, and whilst there had
been powerfully moved, and for a few weeks had given up some of his
sinful pursuits; but just when Margaret and the friends from the Hall
were beginning to rejoice over Richard as a "brand plucked from the
burning," he fell back into his former habits.

Margaret was sorely disappointed; but, casting herself again upon the
faithful word of her God, she took up the cross apportioned to her, and
went on her way in confident assurance of coming blessing. But for some
weeks past her desire for her husband's salvation had intensified, and
she had felt moved to pray with an earnestness that surprised even
herself. Her cry became that of the patriarch: