eenth chapter of John's gospel,
commenting quietly as he went along, while his comrade listened with
intense earnestness. At the first verse Jim paused and said, "This
wasn't written to holy and sinless men. `Let not your heart be
troubled,' was said to the disciples, one o' them bein' Peter, the man
who was to deny Jesus three times with oaths and curses, and then
forsake Him. The Lord came to save _sinners_. It would be a poor
look-out for you, Stumps, if you thought yourself a good man."

"But I don't--oh! I don't, and you _know_ I don't!" exclaimed the sick
man vehemently.

"Then the Lord says, `Let not your heart be troubled,' and tells you to
believe in God and Himself."

At the second verse Slagg remarked that it would be a sad, sad thing if
the mansion prepared, among the many mansions, for his friend were to be
left empty.

"But how am I to get to it, Jim; how am I ever to find the way?"

"Just what the disciple named Thomas asked--an' he _was_ a very doubting
follower of Jesus, like too many of us. The Master said to him what He
says to you and me, `_I_ am the way and the truth and the life; no one
cometh unto the Father but by _me_.'"

At the ninth verse the sailor-missionary said, "Jesus is God, you see,
so we're safe to trust Him," and, at the thirteenth verse, "Whatsoever
ye shall ask in my name that will I do," he said. "Now, we have asked
Jesus to save you, and He will do it, by His Holy Spirit, as He has
saved me--has saved millions in time past, and will save millions more
in time to come. Why, you see, in the sixteenth verse He tells you He
will pray the Father to send you a Comforter, who will stay with you for
ever. Has He not reason then for beginnin' with `let not your heart be
troubled'? And that same Comforter, the Holy Spirit, is to `teach us
all things,' so, you see, every difficulty is taken out of our way.
`Arise, let us go hence.' Now, my old messmate, I have arisen. Will
you not arise and go with me, both of us looking unto Jesus?"

"I _will_--God helping me!" cried the sick man, literally arising from
his couch and raising both arms to heaven.

"There, now--thank the Lord; but you must lie down again and keep
quiet," said Jim, gently and kindly forcing his friend backward.

Stumps did not resist. He closed his eyes, and the restful feeling that
had suddenly arisen in his heart when he said the momentous words, "_I
will_," coupled with exhaustion, resulted almost ins