ter,
dying in the brightest joy and peace, won from carelessness to a solid
faith by the work and witness of earnest dissenting Christians, but glad
and thankful to receive the Communion of the Lord from his dear Vicar,
or his Vicar's son. And then five minutes' walk takes us to a tiny alley
in the denser part of the widespread parish, where a poor life-long
cripple, W.G., lies day and year upon his _little_ bed--little, because
though the head is full-sized, and the brain within it is an adult
brain, the body has never grown since childhood. Here is a case for
steady sympathy, and also for gentle and steady aiming at instruction as
well as comfort. And then, not far off, we will take the privilege of a
quiet visit to an aged Christian woman, J.N. In long past years loving
saints found her pining in extreme poverty, and sunk in a dull,
despairing indifference. Now it is a great spiritual help to sit in her
little attic beside her, and draw her on to speak (she is no loquacious
person by nature, and needs drawing on) about the needs of the soul, and
the glorious fulness of the Son of God. She is no common Christian; not
only in life but in thought this appears. At the time of her conversion,
she could not read a letter. Since then, she has repeatedly read with
great spiritual insight and enjoyment Archbishop Leighton's Commentary
on St Peter. Here is a room in which the visitor learns quite as much as
he teaches. And so he does in a still smaller and much darker room,
three minutes' distant from J.N.'s. There lies blind R.W., in his strong
days the head-servant of an old farmer of our village, and to all
appearance as little capable of spiritual interests as the animals he
fed. But on his sick-bed, the comfortless couch of many declining years,
a loving visitor, a devoted lady-worker, has found him out, and the Lord
has found him out through her. He never knew A from B in his life, and
never will. But do you want proof of the power of grace to quicken mind,
as well as to convert soul? Come with me up the stairs into dear old
R.W.'s darksome room, and in the course of our talk you shall hear his
quavering voice saying things, quite humbly and naturally, about the
glory of his Saviour, and the way of salvation, and the joy and peace of
his heart in God, which are not only loving ascriptions but clear and
sound divinity. It is good to be with him.

I have spoken mainly, though not only, of cases of warm interest and
encoura