name of a
Christian had he not felt more for the spiritual than for the temporal
woes of his fellow creatures, yet the latter were not forgotten by him;
and it sometimes grieved him that he could not more largely minister to
the temporal wants of the poor, the fatherless, the orphans, and the
widows, whom he visited.

[Sidenote: HIS SELF-DENIAL.]

And perhaps one of the most painful trials a visitor of the sick endures
is, to go moneyless to a chamber that has been crossed by want, and
whose inmate is utterly unable to supply his own necessities; but when
the visitor can relieve the physical as well as the spiritual
necessities of the sufferer, with what a buoyant step and cheerful heart
he enters the abode of poverty and suffering! And his words, instead of
falling like icicles on the sufferer's soul, fall on it as refreshing as
a summer rain, warm as the tempered ray, and welcome as a mother's love.
Such a visitor has often chased despair from the abode of wretchedness,
and filled it with the atmosphere of hope.

[Sidenote: GIVES UP TOBACCO.]

Hence, that he might participate in this joy, and have wherewith to
relieve the needy, Mr. Ellerthorpe abstained from the use of tobacco, of
which, at one period of his life, he was an immoderate consumer. One
Sabbath morning, while he and Mr. Harrison were visiting the sick, they
met two wretched-looking boys, fearfully marked with small pox (from an
attack of which complaint they were beginning to recover), and crying
for a drink of milk. Their father, who was far advanced in life, could
not supply their wants. John's heart was touched, and he thought, 'Here
am I, possessed of health, food, and raiment, while these poor children
are festering with disease, but scantily clothed, and not half fed. A
sixpence, a basin of milk, or a loaf of bread, would be a boon to them.
Can I help them?' He gave the old man sixpence, while he and Mr.
Harrison told the milkman to leave a quantity of milk at the man's house
daily, for which they would pay. It was with a radiant face, and a
tremble of glad emotion in his voice, that our friend, in relating this
circumstance to us one day, said:--'I felt a throb of pleasure when I
did that little act of kindness, such as I had never felt before,' when,
quick as lightning, the thought crossed his mind, 'Why I smoke six
pennyworth of tobacco every week!' and there and then he resolved to
give up the practice. On the next Friday, when Mrs. Ellerth