been their rounds on the Sunday evening when old Zebedee preached his last sermon; and our chapel was comfortably filled. There were not many services that could be called dull and lifeless in our

Methodist chapel in those days. God's people could say at most of the services, 'It is good for us to be here.'

The old man began: 'I am afraid I shall not be able to go through this service. I am weaker than I thought I was; but if you will give me the benefit of your prayers, and I am assisted by my heavenly Father, I will talk to you for a short time from the twenty-eighth verse of the eleventh chapter of Matthew's Gospel: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."'

Few and simple were the old man's words; but they were attended with the rich unction of the Holy One.

'Some of us are old,' he said, 'and we are weary, very weary. We are weary with the infirmities of the flesh; and maybe we are weary, and in a measure sad, because our expectations have been cut off respecting the conversion of our children and loved ones. How many of our friends are gone home, who were weary of waiting and longing to see their friends saved! What a load they carried about with them! how they laboured! And what is there they would not have done to bring their children, their parents, and partners to seek the Saviour? Well, they are resting now "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest."

We, too, my friends, that labour and are burdened with the cares and infirmities of the flesh, shall soon reach the land of light and glory.

Our Lord and Master is saying, "Come," and our reply is, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. But did the blessed Jesus mean what we have been saying? Yes, and a great deal more. He meant especially that poor, burdened, heavy-laden sinners should come to Him. Is there any load heavier than the load of sin? What a load of sin to be weighted down with is twenty years' sin! At thirty it is heavier; at forty how it has increased! at fifty it seems too much to be borne: but unforgiven sin keeps on increasing and getting heavier.

Brother Jimmy Templer, you are glad you went to the Saviour many years since with your load of. sin, are you not?'

'I be, blezz 'Im vor tekin' me loo-ad,' said Jimmy. 'But there are some here with sixty years' load of sin; there are some here with more than seventy years' load. They have nearly reached the grave! What years of weary labours they have had! how crushing the load has been! It must sink them lower than the grave. Our blessed Jesus forbid!

'Do you hear what He is saying, my friends? He is saying, "Come: " "Come unto Me""not to one of My chief servants; not even to My great minister Gabriel; come straight to Me. I know all about you, where you live, what you want. I know how long you have carried the burden. It is I that have been making you feel it heavier and heavier; I am doing it now. I have called many times before to some here, I have called for fifty and even sixty years; surely you will come to Me to-night?"

'You will come, will you not?' he said, looking down at old Kitty, who was sobbing loud enough to be heard by the old man.

'Do 'e mean I?' she said.

'Yes,' said the old man.

'Then o zhan't ax me agen,' she said.

My mother knelt by her side at the communion rail; the preaching service was turned into a prayermeeting. Others came forward wounded by the Spirit, and sought the Saviour; and old Zebedee had the great joy of hearing old Kitty and four others testify to the willingness and power of the Lord Jesus to save.

"Tiz al' right now,' Kitty said; 'thar iz nothin' ov tho burden levt; I'm cle-an. Me ol' man uz'd to za' in 'iz pra'ers, "Tho blood ov Jazus Chrizt 'Iz Zon cleanzeth vrom al' zin." An' I do veel it in me zoul.'

Kitty was not allowed to remain very long in this world after the compassionate and most merciful Saviour took from her the heavy load of sin and guilt. During the few weeks she lived she would often say, 'I don't kere how zoon 'tiz; I do praiz' 'Im we' al' me might, but I can't do it very well we' tho ol' fream. Tho body iz a clog to me zoul, I veel it. It 'ool be a gret deal better vor booth ov uz wen I'm gone. 'E can't get much out ov me down 'ere, I'm not able to gin'n much, but ol' Kitty 'ool gin'n everlaztin' zongs ov praiz' up thar, an' me ol' man 'ool 'elp me.'

Five weeks from the time when, with tears of penitence, she sought and found Christ, our old neighbour went up to join the white-robed multitude in the presence of God. As I followed her remains to the grave, I thought of the strange dealings of God in my conversion, and the important part poor old Kitty had played in it.

TH

CHAPTER XVII.

NABAL CHURL.

HE most unsympathetic, fault-finding, selfimportant brother I have ever known was Nabal Churl. I question if the Pope of Rome. ever had a higher opinion of himself than Nabal had; he must have thought himself incapable of doing or thinking wrongly. Many a time I have said, while thinking of him, 'Ishmael is living still; his "hand is against every man, and every man's against him." He krew more than any other person, and he was always right.

When the Rev. Pearson Strong held a meeting to consider the advisability of organizing a Mission Band, Nabal's was the only voice raised against the proposition. But what he did on that occasion he did always, unless he happened to be the originator. Nabal voted against everybody but himself. He cared very little for the means of grace, unless he happened to be the leader of the meeting.

But there was one thing in which he was very exemplary; and in this he might be copied with advantage by many of his brethren on the Plan, if

we leave out of the question the motive by which he was actuated. He never missed an appointment; summer or winter, sunshine or rain, you might be sure that the pulpit would be occupied when Nabal Churl was planned. And if a brother failed to put in an appearance on a Sunday at the place where Nabal Churl resided, and he was at home for the day, without waiting to be asked he would walk into the pulpit, and commence the service.

'Then he must have selected the same text again and again.' Nothing of the kind. You always had a new text from him; and, as a rule, for the first five minutes or so, you heard from him something worth listening to. Nabal could quote the most popular commentators, and tell you what such a divine had said, and what such a scholar had written on the passage. But then he might have saved himself the trouble of looking at Dr. A., Dr. B., and Dr. C., for he found they were of the same opinion as himself. After Nabal had finished with the doctors, there was not much worth listening to; but if he did nothing else, he taught you to appreciate a humble, earnest, Christian speaker, and to value good stuff when you got it. A batch of good sweet bread is all the more palatable if you have had batch of inferior the week before.

a

I have often wondered how Nabal managed to get on through thick and thin. But then he was not one of your thin-skinned men ; sensitiveness was foreign to his nature, except at one point, and on that one point Nabal Churl was as sensitive as was good for him.

The superintendent of the Circuit had been requested by the stewards of the Methodist Society at Hathercott not to plan Brother Churl at their place.