re trying to bring them back. What it means is that if
holiness be lost from the Sabbath, rest will never stay behind. Play
for the few means work for the many. And let play get its head in, and
work will soon follow.

If you want to walk the road of happiness, and to arrive at the home of
heaven, you must follow after God, for any other guide will lead in the
opposite direction. The people who tell you that religion is a gloomy
thing are always the people who have not any themselves. And things are
very different, according to whether you look at them from inside or
outside. How can you tell what there may be inside a house, so long as
all you know of it is walking past a shut door?

Ever since Adam hid himself from the presence of the Lord God among the
trees of the garden, men and women have been prone to fancy that God
likes best to see them unhappy. The old heathen always used to suppose
that their gods were jealous of them, and they were afraid to be too
happy, lest the gods should be vexed! But the real God "takes pleasure
in the prosperity of His people," and "godliness hath the promise of the
life that now is, as well as of that which is to come."

What language are our three friends talking? It sounds very odd. It is
English, and yet it is not. Yes, it is what learned men call "Middle
English"--because it stands midway between the very oldest English, or
Anglo-saxon, and the modern English which we speak now. It is about as
much like our English as broad Scotch is. A few words and expressions
through the story will give an idea how different it is; but if I were
to write exactly as they would have spoken, nobody would understand it
now.

And how do they live inside this tiny house? Well, in some respects, in
a poorer and meaner way than the very poorest would live now. Look up,
and you will see that there is no chimney, but the smoke finds its way
out through a hole above the fire, and when it is wet the rain comes in
and puts the fire out. They know nothing about candles, but burn long
shafts of pine-wood instead. There are such things as wax candles,
indeed, but they are only used in church; nobody dreams of burning them
in houses. And there are lamps, but they are made of gold and silver,
and are never seen except in the big castles. There is no crockery; and
metal plates, as I said, are only for the grand people. The middle
classes use wooden trenchers--our friends have two--hollowed