if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no
meat while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend;" and
he resolved not only to abstain from wine hereafter in mixed companies,
but to use his influence to discourage a social custom fraught, as he
was now beginning to see, with the most disastrous consequences.

The deep concern felt for Mr. Ridley by Mr. Elliott and Mrs. Birtwell
drew them oftener together now, and took them frequently to the Home
for inebriates, in which both took a deep interest. For over three
weeks Mr. Ridley remained at the institution, its religious influences
growing deeper and deeper every day. He met there several men who had
fallen from as high an estate as himself--men of cultured intellect,
force of character and large ability--and a feeling of brotherhood grew
up between them. They helped and strengthened each other, entering into
a league offensive and defensive, and pledging themselves to an undying
antagonism toward every form of intemperance.

When Mr. Ridley returned to his home, he found it replete with many
comforts not there when love and despair sent him forth to die, for
aught he knew, amid nameless horrors. An office had been rented for
him, and Mr. Birtwell had a case of considerable importance to place in
his hands. It was a memorable occasion in the Court of Common Pleas
when, with the old clear light in his eyes and bearing of conscious
power, he stood among his former associates, and in the firm, ringing
voice which had echoed there so many times before, made an argument for
his client that held both court and jury almost spellbound for an hour.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE seed and the harvest are alike in quality. Between cause and effect
there is an unchanging and eternal relation. Men never find grapes on
thorns nor figs on thistles.

As an aggregate man, society has no escape from this law. It must reap
as it sows. If its customs be safe and good, its members, so far as
they are influenced by these customs, will be temperate, orderly and
virtuous; but if its tone be depraved and its customs evil or
dangerous, moral and physical ruin must; in too many sad cases be the
inevitable result.

It is needless to press this view, for it is self-evident and no one
calls it in question. Its truth has daily and sorrowful confirmation in
the wan faces and dreary eyes and wrecks of a once noble and promising
manhood one meets at every turn.

The thorn and the thi