A Sovereign Remedy

his face hidden in his hands. "Nothing can be done without money, nothing, and it wou

tant hilltop like a visitant from heaven. Even as he looked, his mind all confused and blurred, the novel thought came to him that with such high and holy messengers at H

of the hymn had electrified the little con

ad hap

hose four voices, Gwen's soprano, Alicia Edwards's contralto, Mervyn's tenor, and Hwfa Morgan's bass, blending into every message of penitence or pe

he said slowly. "Why was

in what they had got, and there was music wanted. One had to get a chorus, and the men couldn't sit up all night and work all day. Morgan and I talked it all over, for some one must look after practical things, you know, and I said I would

tung. "No! it was mine," he said. "I am

g over to his brother, laid a

n the chair again and, stretching his arms out over the table, positively sobbed. He was a prey to every emotion, every feeling that in this moment of anxiety and bewilderment swept over him, for he and his brother had come home but ha

ral fund for educational purposes, and which should have been deposited in the Post Office Bank when it had come in a mon

oney, how could the very committees which would work the business properly be called into existence? At the time he had thought of nothing but God's service, and even now he felt little remorse. His sense of conversion w

otently. Great heavens! what was to be done?

t ashamed of that, but he had no shame for other things in the further past. A curious fanatical exultation filled him as he thought how marvellous were God's ways, and how men and women, s

Hwfa Morgan was not there to help with advice. He would not return till mor

re should be no setback to the ov

ful beyond measure, in

elling from one end of the parish to the other. Even the snaring of their neighbours' rabbits for Sunday dinner, ultimate crime of a Welsh quarryman, had ceas

of all, and, looking forward, each personality could see itself surviving death and going on un

roved of such emotional excitement, or who, like the rector, viewed with disfavour all outpourings of grace except through the

fell foul of the whole business, lock and stock and barrel, to Isaac Edwards, whom she found singing hymns while he did up the pound package of sugar, in which the paper, heavy b

t 'e watered 'is bed with 'is tears an' was still, like a decent gentleman. There wasn't none of this not-comin'-home--till--mornin' business, and how folks as 'as to work hard for their livin' does it, beats me. I'll set up agin most, but I'm a pore piece next day, an' wouldn't ask a full wage of anybody, not I! And as for the young folk; you mark my words, Mr. Edwards! Gels is g

had been as chaff before the wind wh

est extravagances as well as the most sober actuality

d

at the star which had by this time dissociated itself en

to his emotions, he had lived in the clouds, never asking or thinking how Alicia and Gwen came to be dressed so becomingly, never inquiring how the expenses of railway tickets, hiring, placarding, advertisements, notices in the papers, all

have taken the mo

What can be done? and in the next few hours.--Oh! it is maddening to think how many would be willing to lend it if we had only time! To think even of the thousands who have

in prayer. "I thank Thee, O my God!" he murmured, "this hast

ad done its work on him also. He was prepared for all things, all

N

cret between me and my God. But the hundred pounds is found! It is found, I tell you! Oh! marvellous,

tuned to miracles, super-sensitised to the direct dealings of Providence with man, leapt to the conclusion that the hundred pou

e gradual unfolding, through this temptation, of the desire for some outpouring of the Spirit. Here were more marvels t

a heavenly joy; "we must not forget that--we must weep and pray over that

Mervyn anxiously; "it must be by to

olemnly, "and then we will give thanks unto the Lord, for He hath done marvellous things.

it was late October, but he was in far too exalted a frame of mind to consider such earthly things as overcoats or comforters. His exaltation, indeed, would have seemed incredible even to the self of six weeks ago; for, despite his enthusiasm, he had been hard-headed and

ament was vouchsafed to him. Those last few weeks had made an ecstatic out of th

s! Most m

bove him the marvel of the Real Presence in the skies and stars. But the stones were to his eager feet b

being. Put into bald English, here was a man going to take money which he wot of, in order to save his broth

which lay like a filmy gossamer quilt over the grassy uplands. The startled sheep left a darker track of dew-despoiled herbage behind their flyi

ough an abstraction of the mind, not through the manifold face of matter. But the sense of finality, of universal Oneness, comes in a thousand way

was the root of all evil, lay so still, so shining, so set, that it also might have b

t of al

There was nothing evil in the Holie

hrilling with high expectation, he knelt before the cleft in t

but unto Thy name,

fingers, feeling the

him. He stood up and stared vacantly at the rece

pt

at beca

very

her, always to be brought up by that barrier of feeling that he had been fooled; or he had fooled himself. Had it not been for his previous exaltation, his exultation, he might by degrees have accepted the situation and cons

pherd calling to his dogs. He looked round, and lo! it was long past dawn. He must go bac

ad passed, and folk were already beginning the day's

for him; waiting so anxiously. But there was a respite. Mervyn was not in. Hwfa Morgan had arrived early,

hing. Meanwhile the warmth of the fire was comforting. He must have been ver

-doze by Mervyn's entrance,

e began, "but I--I mean

king Edwards into our confidence. So we went over to him, and he saw it would be as dangerous to his interests as to ours if there was any fuss, so he consented to take our security--yours, too, of course--that

oucher?" b

tly, his naturally high colour

other deposits for three weeks, so the numbers on the counterfoils

a trifle

"I don't suppose it matters to--to any one. I--I think I'll go to bed,

," expostulated Mervyn; "

ervyn--I--I can't even think." And then, stro