r at the side, it streamed forth at the top. I had presence of
mind; near me was a rock; I stood upon it. The fiery torrent was
vomited out and streamed on either side of me. And through that long and
terrible night I stood there alone upon that rock, the glowing,
fiery lava on every hand--a monument of the long-suffering and tender
providence of the Lord, who spared me that I might this day testify in
your ears of Him.

"Now, my dear friends, let us deduce the lessons that are to be learnt
from this narrative.

"Firstly: let us never commit suicide. The man is a fool, my friends,
that man is insane, my friends, who would leave this earth, my friends.
Here are joys innumerable, such as it hath not entered into the heart
of man to understand, my friends. Here are clothes, my friends; here
are beds, my friends; here is delicious food, my friends. Our precious
bodies were given us to love, to cherish. Oh, let us do so! Oh, let us
never hurt them; but care for and love them, my friends!"

Every one was impressed, and Bonaparte proceeded:

"Thirdly; let us not love too much. If that young man had not loved that
young woman, he would not have jumped into Mount Etna. The good men of
old never did so. Was Jeremiah ever in love, or Ezekiel, or Hosea, or
even any of the minor prophets? No. Then why should we be? Thousands
are rolling in that lake at this moment who would say, 'It was love that
brought us here.' Oh, let us think always of our own souls first.

"'A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify;
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.'

"Oh, beloved friends, remember the little boy and the meiboss; remember
the young girl and the young man; remember the lake, the fire, and the
brimstone; remember the suicide's skeleton on the pitchy billows of
Mount Etna; remember the voice of warning that has this day sounded in
your ears; and what I say to you I say to all--watch! May the Lord add
his blessings!"

Here the Bible closed with a tremendous thud. Tant Sannie loosened the
white handkerchief about her neck and wiped her eyes, and the coloured
girl, seeing her do so, sniffled. The did not understand the discourse,
which made it the more affecting.

There hung over it that inscrutable charm which hovers forever for the
human intellect over the incomprehensible and shadowy. When the last
hymn was sung the German conducted the officiator to Tant Sannie, who
graciously extended