ed before; the congregation meant something to her
now; she was no longer alone with her Lord individually, but understood
that she was part of a body with various functions, and that the care of
her soul was not merely a personal matter for herself, but involved her
minister and the officers of the Church as well. It astonished her to
think that this process was carried out on every individual who lived in
the town in preparation for the sacrament on the following Sunday.

Isabel, and indeed the whole household, spent the Friday and Saturday in
rigid and severe preparation. No flesh food was eaten on either of the
days; and all the members of the family were supposed to spend several
hours in their own rooms in prayer and meditation. She did not find this
difficult, as she was well practised in solitude and prayer, and she
scarcely left her room all Saturday except for meals.

"O Lord," Isabel repeated each morning and evening at her bedside during
this week, "the blind dulness of our corrupt nature will not suffer us
sufficiently to weigh these thy most ample benefits, yet, nevertheless,
at the commandment of Jesus Christ our Lord, we present ourselves to this
His table, which He hath left to be used in remembrance of His death
until His coming again, to declare and witness before the world, that by
Him alone we have received liberty and life; that by Him alone dost thou
acknowledge us to be thy children and heirs; that by Him alone we have
entrance to the throne of thy grace; that by Him alone we are possessed
in our spiritual kingdom, to eat and drink at His table, with whom we
have our conversation presently in heaven, and by whom our bodies shall
be raised up again from the dust, and shall be placed with Him in that
endless joy, which Thou, O Father of mercy, hast prepared for thine
elect, before the foundation of the world was laid."

And so she prepared herself for that tryst with her Beloved in a foreign
land where all was strange and unfamiliar about her: yet He was hourly
drawing nearer, and she cried to Him day by day in these words so
redolent to her with associations of past communions, and of moments of
great spiritual elevation. The very use of the prayer this week was like
a breeze of flowers to one in a wilderness.

On the Saturday night she ceremoniously washed her feet as her father had
taught her; and lay down happier than she had been for days past, for
to-morrow would bring the Lover of her soul