igh hath made this world for
many, but the world to come for few. I will tell thee a similitude,
Esdras; As when thou askest the earth, it shall say unto thee that it
giveth much mould whereof earthern vessels are made, but little dust
that gold cometh of, even so is the course of this present world!"

Weary of arguing with himself, Helmsley tried to reflect back on certain
incidents of his youth, which now in his age came out like prominent
pictures in the gallery of his brain. He remembered the pure and simple
piety which distinguished his mother, who lived her life out as sweetly
as a flower blooms,--thanking God every morning and night for His
goodness to her, even at times when she was most sorrowful,--he thought
of his little sister, dead in the springtime of her girlhood, who never
had a doubt of the unfailing goodness and beneficence of her Creator,
and who, when dying, smiled radiantly, and whispered with her last
breath, "I wish you would not cry for me, Davie dear!--the next world is
so beautiful!" Was this "next world" in her imagination, or was it a
fact? Materialists would, of course, say it was imagination. But, in the
light of present-day science and discovery, who can pin one's faith on
Materialism?

"I have missed the talisman that would have made all the darkness of
life clear to me," he said at last, half aloud; "and missing it, I have
missed everything of real value. Pain, loss, old age, and death would
have been nothing to me, if I had only won that magic glory of the
world--Love!"

His eyes again wandered to the sky, and he noticed that the
grey-and-white clouds in the west were rising still higher in fleecy
pyramids, and were spreading with a wool-like thickness gradually over
the whole heavens. The wind, too, had grown stronger, and its sighing
sound had changed to a more strenuous moaning. The little dog, Charlie,
tired of its master's gloomy absorption, jumped on his knee, and
intimated by eloquent looks and wagging tail a readiness to be again
nestled into some cosy corner. The shed was warm and comfortable, and
after some brief consideration, he decided to try and sleep for an hour
or so before again starting on his way. With this object in view, he
arranged the packages of straw which filled one side of the shed into
the form of an extemporary couch, which proved comfortable enough when
he lay down with Charlie curled up beside him. He could not help
thinking of the previous night, when