nd charity, one for another, and
his peace, which passeth all understanding.

Out rang the sweet voice,--

"Haste thee on, from grace to glory,
Armed by faith, and winged by prayer!
Heaven's eternal day's before thee,
God's own hand shall guide thee there."

Mabel was now silently crying, and big tears were blinding my eyes,
when a grand old man rose from his seat. Bent and feeble now, I could
see that he had once been tall and stately, looking as the Puritan
fathers must have looked when they first stepped upon "the stern and
rock-bound coast" at Plymouth. Fine, clean-cut features, and eyes
still blue and piercing remained, but his voice trembled painfully as
he said,--

"I am ninety-four years old, and most of those I love have gone to the
graveyard before me; I have lived all these years in Bethlehem, and,
boy and man, have tried to serve the Lord: and I owe my blessed hope
in my Saviour to the teaching and example of my good and pious
mother." Then, with aged, trembling hands uplifted, he prayed that all
the children present might be brought up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord.

Near us was a handsome, well-dressed man, past middle age, who had
listened with absorbed attention to all that had been said, and who
now seemed strangely agitated. In a moment he arose, and then he
spoke.

"I presume that no one here remembers a poor boy who nearly fifty
years ago left this place to seek his fortune. Fatherless, motherless,
with no claim upon any one here, I wandered away with a heavy heart to
earn my bread. Many a time have I been exhausted, discouraged, almost
hopeless; but my mother had taught me to pray--her dying gift to me
was her own Bible. It has gone round the world with me, and God has
never forsaken me. I have long been a rich man, and I have come once
more to these grand hills--my childhood's home--to testify my
gratitude to my Maker for all his goodness. I never intended to speak
as I am now doing; but after what I have heard and witnessed, I should
be most ungrateful if I did not give my testimony and belief in the
abounding love and mercy of God. O friends! take me back! Let me be
one with you in this most sweet and touching service, and when I leave
you, pray that I may never be ungrateful for the earthly blessings he
has heaped upon me, and for the far more priceless gift of his Son,
Jesus Christ."

Every one had listened to the stranger in deep silence. Every heart