ds--"_Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify Me_"--and her heart acquiesced in the
conclusion: Surely this is the Word of God!'

In the case of Mary Avenel, the resultant deliverance was as dramatic as
in the case of Robinson Crusoe. I turn a few pages of _The Monastery_,
and I come upon this:

'The joyful news that Halbert Glendinning--Mary's lover--still lived was
quickly communicated through the sorrowing family. His mother wept and
thanked heaven alternately. On Mary Avenel the impression was
inconceivably deeper. She had newly learned to pray, and it seemed to
her that her prayers had been instantly answered. She felt that the
compassion of heaven, which she had learned to implore in the very words
of Scripture--"_Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify Me_"--had descended upon her after a manner
almost miraculous, and recalled the dead from the grave at the sound of
her lamentations.'

I lay _this_, written by Sir Walter Scott, in 1819, beside _that_,
written by Daniel Defoe in 1719. In the mouths of two such witnesses
shall every word be established.

III

What was it that led both Daniel Defoe and Sir Walter Scott to give the
text such prominence? What was it in the text that appealed so
irresistibly to Robinson Crusoe and to Mary Avenel? The answer is
fourfold.

1. It was the _Charm of Companionship_. Robinson Crusoe fancied that he
was alone upon his island. Mary Avenel fancied that she was left
friendless and forsaken. They were both mistaken; and it was the text
that showed them their mistake. '_Call upon Me in the day of trouble,
and I will deliver thee._' If such a Deliverer is at hand--so near as to
be within sound of their voices--how can Robinson Crusoe be solitary or
Mary Avenel forsaken?

Speak to Him, thou, for He hears; spirit with spirit can meet--
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet!

If there be a shadow of truth in Robinson Crusoe's text, there is no
such thing as loneliness for any of us!

2. It was the _Ring of Certainty_. There is a strange and holy dogmatism
about the great evangelical promises. '_Call and I will deliver._' Other
physicians say: 'I will come and do my best.' The Great Physician says:
'I will come and heal him.' _The Son of Man is come to seek and to save
that which is lost._ He did not embark upon a magnificent effort; He
came to do it.

3. It