its work in the heart of each who remained. It
smote the husband with a conviction of misspent years, of a united
fellowship in the things that perish so miserably instead of in those
things which remain when all else is shaken. Had he but led his gentle
wife, as was his opportunity, in ways of the Spirit, how different
might have been their record together. And now the end had come for
one, with no "abundant entrance," no glad prospect of long-anticipated
joys,

"Where the eye at last beholdeth
What the heart has loved so long,"

but with the negative testimony of a fear relieved--of wrath averted,
through the grace of a longsuffering God. They had been guilty
together of the capital sin of an earth-centered life; and now the iron
merchant, elder of the church though he was, awoke from his long dream
of money getting and of earthly comfort to the reality of God, and of
his obligation as a redeemed soul to Him. There crept an unfamiliar
note of yearning sincerity into the prayers wherewith he took his
heretofore formal part in the church prayer meeting, and it almost
perceptibly thinned the frozen crust of the "icily regular" service.
The men in his business noticed a new softness in his manner, and
sometimes it emboldened them to speak to him of their own cares and
sorrows, and they found sympathy.

Hubert grieved for his mother with the strength of an intense, reticent
nature. But, as did also his sister, he found solace in God.

Winifred felt very keenly her mother's loss, missing the vanished hand
from every part of the house where she now assumed her place, seeing
everywhere reminders of her dainty touch and quiet taste, and longing
for her voice yet more and more as the days went by. This great
bereavement came so closely on the separation from one whom she never
mentioned now, but who was far from forgotten, that often her heart
seemed torn between the two sorrows. Sometimes waves of disheartenment
came on cloudy days of testing, when the sun was hidden and life looked
cheerless and hard. But anon the face of Jesus Christ broke through
the clouds, and with the vision came always joy.

The three who were left drew more closely to each other, and despite
their sorrow found a sweetness of comfort together never known before.

CHAPTER XV

"SELL THAT YE HAVE"

Three years had passed, and the snows of winter had lain heavily for
weeks upon all the region surrounding New Laodicea. It spread