once or twice he had attended the public _homologesis_ of the
Church. Shall we wonder that the poor youth began to be despondent and
impatient under his trial? Shall we not feel for him, though we may be
sorry for him, should it turn out that he was looking restlessly into
every corner of the small world of acquaintance in which his lot lay, for
those with whom he could converse easily, and interchange speculation,
argument, aspiration, and affection?

"No one cares for me," he said, as he sat down on his rustic bench. "I am
nothing to any one; I am a hermit, like Elias or John, without the call to
be one. Yet even Elias felt the burden of being one against many; even
John asked at length in expostulation, 'Art Thou He that shall come?' Am I
for ever to have the knowledge, without the consolation, of the truth? am
I for ever to belong to a great divine society, yet never see the face of
any of its members?"

He paused in his thoughts, as if drinking in the full taste and measure of
his unhappiness. And then his reflections took a turn, and he said,
suddenly, "Why do I not leave Sicca? What binds me to my father's farm? I
am young, and my interest in it will soon expire. What keeps me from
Carthage, Hippo, Cirtha, where Christians are so many?" But here he
stopped as suddenly as he had begun; and a strange feeling, half pang,
half thrill, went through his heart. And he felt unwilling to pursue his
thought, or to answer the question which he had asked; and he settled into
a dull, stagnant condition of mind, in which he seemed hardly to think at
all.

Be of good cheer, solitary one, though thou art not a hero yet! There is
One that cares for thee, and loves thee, more than thou canst feel, love,
or care for thyself. Cast all thy care upon Him. He sees thee, and is
watching thee; He is hanging over thee, and smiles in compassion at thy
troubles. His angel, who is thine, is whispering good thoughts to thee. He
knows thy weakness; He foresees thy errors; but He holds thee by thy right
hand, and thou shalt not, canst not escape Him. By thy faith, which thou
hast so simply, resolutely retained in the midst of idolatry; by thy
purity, which, like some fair flower, thou hast cherished in the midst of
pollution, He will remember thee in thy evil hour, and thine enemy shall
not prevail against thee!

What means that smile upon Agellius's face? It is the response of the
child to the loving parent. He knows not why, but the cloud