ife, no angry tones or discordant murmurs, no rude,
rough voices to disturb the peace. And all this for ever and ever, no
dread of it coming to an end, no gloomy fears for the future, no
partings there, no good-byes. Once there, safe for ever. At home, at
rest, with God.

"Would you like to go there?" asked the clergyman's voice.

And a quiet murmur passed through the room, a sigh of longing, an
expression of assent. And little Christie whispered softly to himself,
"Like to go there! ay, that I would, me and old Treffy and all."

"'There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,'" said
the clergyman's voice. "'Closed are its gates to sin.' My friends, if
there is _one_ sin on your soul, heaven's gates will be closed against
you. 'Nought that defileth, nought that defileth, can ever enter in.' If
all my life I had never sinned; if all my life I had never done a wicked
deed, or spoken a wicked word, or thought a wicked thought; if all my
life I had done every thing I ought to have done, and had been perfectly
sinless and holy, and yet to-night I was to commit _one_ sin, that sin,
however small a sin in man's eyes,--_that_ sin would be quite enough to
shut me out of heaven. The gates would be shut against me for that one
sin. No soul on which there is a speck of sin can go into that bright
city.

"Is there one in this room," asked the clergyman, "who can say that he
has only sinned once? Is there one here who can say that there is only
_one_ sin on his soul?"

And again there was a faint murmur round the room, and again a
deep-drawn sigh; but this time it was the suppressed sigh of accusing
consciences.

"No," said the clergyman, "there is not one of us who can say that.
Every one of us has sinned again and again and again. And each sin is
like a dark blot, a deep ink-stain on the soul."

"Oh!" said little Christie, in his heart, as he listened to these words,
"whatever will me and Master Treffy do?"

And Christie's thoughts wandered to the lonely attic and to old Treffy's
sad, worn-out face. "So it was all true," he said to himself. "Miss
Mabel's words, and Master Treffy's dream; all too true, all too true."

If Christie had been listening, he would have heard the clergyman tell
of the way in which sin could be taken away; but his little mind was
full of the one idea of the sermon, and when he next heard the
clergyman's words he was telling his congregation that he hoped they
would all be present o