watchman's hand_.'"

"Do you mean, Basil"--

"Yes, I mean all that. You can understand now what was in Paul's mind,
and what a great word it was, when he said to the Ephesian elders, 'I
take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.'
He had done his whole duty in that place!"

"I never felt that old Mr. Hardenburgh warned us against anything,"
Diana remarked.

"Did I?"

"You began to make me uncomfortable almost as soon as you came."

"That's good," said the minister quietly. "Now see these words,
Diana,--'Go ye into all the world, and tell the good news to
everybody.'"

"'Preach the gospel'"--said Diana.

"That is simply, telling the good news."

"Is it?"

"Certainly."

"But, Basil, it never seemed so."

"There was a reason for that. 'As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is
good news from a far country.' You were not thirsty, that is all."

"Basil," said Diana, almost tremulously, "I think I am now."

"Well," said her husband tenderly, "you know who could say, and did
say, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto ME and drink.' 'I am the
bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that
believeth on me shall never thirst.'"

That bringing together of need and supply, while yet Need does not see
how it is to stretch out its hand to take the supply--how sharp and how
pitiful it makes the sense of longing! Diana drooped her head till it
touched Basil's arm; it seemed to her that her heart would fairly break.

"But that doesn't mean"--she said, bringing out her words with
hesitation and difficulty,--"that does not mean hunger of every sort?"

"Yes."

"Of earthly sorts, Basil? how can it? people's desires for so many
things?"

"Is there any limit or qualification to the promise?"

"N-o; not there."

"Is there anywhere else?"

Diana was silent.

"There is none anywhere, except the limit put by the faith of the
applicant. I have known a person starving to death, relieved for the
time even from the pangs of bodily hunger by the food which Christ gave
her. There is no condition of human extremity for which he is not
sufficient."

"But," said Diana, still speaking with difficulty, "that is for some
people."

"For some people--and for everybody else."

"But--he would not like to have anybody go to him just for such a
reason."

"He will never ask _why_ you came, if you come. He was in this world to
relieve misery, and to save from it. 'Him that cometh