become evident
that he was in consumption. He would like to talk with me. I was
alone, and bade her invite him in. He came immediately. A tall, thin
young man, with a pleasant face and easy manners. I did not speak to
him very directly on religious subjects. I believe that I perceived in
this first interview that his views were not very clear. I encouraged
him gradually to tell me about his circumstances. His confidence was
easily won, and in the course of this and subsequent interviews I
learned that his only home was with an aged father, who was himself out
of work and in straitened circumstances. William's clothing was too
thin for the inclement weather we were then encountering, and it was
plain he could not have the nourishing food his declining appetite
required. The sister who first introduced him to me was anxious about
him, but her tenement was too small to accommodate her own family, and
her husband's wages hardly equal to the wants of his own household.
William's great desire was to procure employment. He would work to the
utmost of his failing strength if only he could get work to do. I
obtained from the Sick Relief Fund a few shillings' worth of groceries
per week for him; but employment, means to help himself, was his one
aspiration. I felt sure he was not able to work, but was anxious,
nevertheless, though in vain, to gratify his wish. One evening I
communicated to him a slight hope of an opening to some employment. The
increased brightness of his eye, the red spot on each cheek, and his
sleeplessness that night, proved that he was not able to bear even the
excitement of a sudden hope. Poor fellow! it was plain he would never
work much more.

I must mention here that William's constitution had received the seeds
of disease while at sea during the war. He ran away from home and
engaged in the revenue service. He also served in the army. He has
never been well since his return. His friends tell me that he has been
wild, not that he was immoral, to use their own expression. He had been
religiously trained in England, did nothing that the world would call
bad; but he was wayward, and the occasion to them of great anxiety and
displeasure also.

As I said before, we did not talk much at first about religion, not
that he avoided the subject. He was very conscious of his own situation
as far as the uncertainty of his life was concerned, but he had
apparently no sense of sinfulness before God. Perhaps the reser