ming with the subject.

"No, my friend," answered the stranger; "your sons are the finest young
fellows in the place, and the best brought up, as I hear from all sides,
while your cottage is the neatest and most comfortable."

"That it is; that's what I say to my brother fishermen," exclaimed John
Hadden, warmly. "Now, sir, I will tell you more than this. Instead of
being a poorer man for not fishing on a Sunday I know that I am a richer
one, and I can prove it. God knows what is best for us; so in His love
He gave us the Sabbath, that we might rest, and that our souls might
turn to Him and be glad. While others have been toiling all the year
round, day after day, wearing out their bodies, and dulling and
saddening, so to speak, their souls, I have rested one day out of seven,
and on that day my strength and my spirits have been renewed. I have
not grown old so fast as they have. Then again, if I had been toiling
and working for the bread which perisheth, and made my sons toil and
work with me, how could I have fed my soul and their souls with that
bread which will make us live for ever? Instead of being steady,
honest, hard-working, God-fearing young men, a credit to me, and
respected by all who know them, they would have been careless, idle, and
vicious. Neighbours often say to me, `How is it, John Hadden, that your
sons are good steady young men, and do as you tell them?'--then I say,
`It is just this, because I bring them up in the fear and admonition of
the Lord. The Bible tells me how to bring up my children, and I do it.
If you brought up your children as the Bible tells you to do, your
children would make you as happy as mine do me.'

"But, sir, I was speaking about fishing on a Sunday. Now look here,
sir; there is another reason why I have an advantage over those who fish
every day in the week: my nets will last longer than theirs, and at the
end of a couple of years are worth one-third more. While their nets
have always been wet,--for they have not had time to mend them
properly,--I have had mine brought on shore on Saturday morning, spread
out all day in the sun, mended in the evening, and left to dry all the
next day. The wear and tear of the boats and the boats' gear also have
been saved. So you see that those who break God's commandments for the
sake of gain do not find it all profit. There is an old saying, sir,
that `The devil's wages slip through the fingers.' Whose wages are
those gain