r senses faded, and she would have fallen from her
seat but for the support of the partition against which she leaned.
Fortunately, the women near her were too much occupied with the
narrative to notice her condition. Many of them wept silently, with
their handkerchiefs pressed over their mouths.

The first shock of death-like faintness passed away, and she clung to
the speaker's voice, as if its sound alone could give her strength to
sit still and listen further.

"Deserted by his friends, unable to stay his feet on the evil path," he
continued, "the young man left his home and went to a city in another
State. But here it was easier to find associates in evil than tender
hearts that might help him back to good. He was tired of life, and the
hope of a speedier death hardened him in his courses. But, my friends,
Death never comes to those who wickedly seek him. The Lord withholds
destruction from the hands that are madly outstretched to grasp it, and
forces His pity and forgiveness on the unwilling soul. Finding that it
was the principle of LIFE which grew stronger within him, the young
man at last meditated an awful crime. The thought of self-destruction
haunted him day and night. He lingered around the wharves, gazing into
the deep waters, and was restrained from the deed only by the memory of
the last loving voice he had heard. One gloomy evening, when even this
memory had faded, and he awaited the approaching darkness to make his
design secure, a hand was laid on his arm. A man in the simple garb of
the Friends stood beside him, and a face which reflected the kindness of
the Divine Father looked upon him. 'My child,' said he, 'I am drawn to
thee by the great trouble of thy mind. Shall I tell thee what it is thee
meditates?' The young man shook his head. 'I will be silent, then, but
I will save thee. I know the human heart, and its trials and weaknesses,
and it may be put into my mouth to give thee strength.' He took the
young man's hand, as if he had been a little child, and led him to his
home. He heard the sad story, from beginning to end; and the young man
wept upon his breast, to hear no word of reproach, but only the largest
and tenderest pity bestowed upon him. They knelt down, side by side,
at midnight; and the Friend's right hand was upon his head while they
prayed.

"The young man was rescued from his evil ways, to acknowledge still
further the boundless mercy of Providence. The dissipation wherein he
had