me for somebody else," was the reply; "leastways if you know any other of my name, for I never set eyes upon you before."

Alfred refrained from calling up the scene which had first brought them together, and merely assured the man that he was well aware that he was speaking to Mr. Bailey, of Crow Lane. He saw that the latter was perfectly sober this morning, and so this opportunity must not be wasted.

"I wanted to ask you," said he, "if you had a mind to come to our evening classes ?"

"Your evening classes? what, in St. Michael's schoolroom?" cried Bailey, in a tone of disdain. "Yes, if you've never been, I've an invitation for you to come. I don't think you'll find anywhere a pleasanter way of passing an evening."

"Thank you, sir, all the same, but I don't want no teaching. I ain't much of a scholar, to be sure, but quite enough to keep me going."

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"But if you're not a good scholar," said Mr. Nares, surely it would be to your advantage to gain more knowledge. Besides, as I said, apart from the learning, we spend such pleasant evenings there-some fifty or sixty of us together. I dare say you often hardly know how to pass the time as it is."

"Ay! sure enough, it's dull work at home, with never a cheerful word nor a sunbeam on any face," murmured Bailey, as if unconscious that he was talking to anyone but himself. "We poor working men look for a welcome somewhere after the day's toil is over; we don't want to go into a dirty, comfortless room and hear nothing but grunts."

"Just so; but I promise you a hearty welcome in our schoolroom. No grunts and no dirt, but a great deal of comfort and good-will."

Why it was that Bailey persisted in refusing so kind an invitation Alfred could not tell. Probably it was owing to a fear of ridicule from his companions. Anyhow the dogged determination

which settled on the man's countenance showed that further pressure would be useless.

"Well, I won't urge you," said Alfred, "but if once you passed an evening with us, I don't mind saying you'd long for a second. Nay, more; if only you peeped into our bright, warm room, you'd have no mind to turn your back upon it."

"Ah!" sighed the poor man, "you won't catch me peeping into any place that I don't wish to frequent. I've had enough of that already. I once did such a thing, it was years ago, and I was never free any more to follow my own will. That was a house with its bright lights, too, and countless enticements; but, ah! it was a den of iniquity." And the speaker shuddered at the thought of all the vices that he had both witnessed and shared in at the tavern. Upon this Alfred led him on to speak of his frequent visits to "The Crow," and to give the history of his first allurement thither, offering at the same time to give him a helping hand to draw him out of his imprisoned state.

"You're very good, sir, I don't doubt; but I'd advise you not to meddle with such as us. Our fellows are not fit company for one of your sort. Whatever they may be when sober, they are very demons when in liquor."

"I dare say," replied Alfred, "but why associate yourself with them? Don't call them 'our fellows.' If you feel the misery of having such companions, be bold and shake them off."

At this moment Alfred saw a strange light glimmer in Bailey's eye, as the words passed his lips,

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Hush! I've said too much already. I shall suffer for it by and by. Good day."

The conversation was thus brought to an abrupt termination. Bailey had not quite reached his cottage, when a rough hand was laid on his shoulder, and a voice bawled in his ear, "You mean coward. We'll pay you out for this trick by and by."

HIS is pre-eminently the age of competition. As civilisation advances men's wants, or fancied wants, increase; and as population grows, the struggle becomes a harder one to secure the best places. We have an interesting picture of all this in the Gospel story of the Pool of Bethesda, where a multitude of needy creatures waited and wished and endeavoured, where the first to step in was the happy man and the rest were left suffering, where the unsuccessful competitor described his case in the very terms that would apply to any such case to day, "While I am coming, another steppeth down before me," and where a beautiful and instructive lesson is given on the Divine compensations to the unsuccessful, in the miraculous healing of the impotent man. conditions of the social and spiritual problem are found in our modern life; let us seek for their inner meaning and significance. There is the crowd of seekers and applicants whose cry is, Who will show us any good? There is the sharp condition, that only the first to thrust in are served. There are the many unhappy people who somehow are never first, though waiting and endeavouring in their own way, for many years; and, finally, there is the contrasted Divine freeness over against the human competition, the blessing that comes without competing for it, according to felt necessity, rather than according to importunity. The defeated competitor cries, "While I am coming, another steppeth in before me," the Divine Helper and Healer, says to him, "Rise, take up thy bed and walk!"

All the

Our life at present is much such a scene as that Bethesda. Every pool that can give, or is supposed to give blessing, is surrounded by an eager multitude. If a place, even a poorly-paid place, is advertised in the newspapers, there are fifty applications by next post. Many young men are waiting for the first vacancy in bank, warehouse, or Government office. Multitudes of young women compete for the crust of the governess. What a scramble for a post of honour or emolument! and however highly qualified and testimonialed, many candidates would seem to be, the prize is believed to go to the most pushing, and therefore push they do. The advertising literature of our newspapers shows what an eagerness there is to press to the front,

and secure the attention which is so vital to success. He who blows his own trumpet long enough and loud enough, in this Vanity Fair, is sure to bring the people to his booth. Selfseeking, self-assertion, are alone trusted to make way, and the weakest goes to the wall. The English Government have in late years opened to competition the appointments in the Civil Service, formerly made on other methods, and with the same mixed results of good and evil, as are seen in natural social struggles.

One reason of this state of things in human society is the limited supply of the thing sought after-only one can have it; the limited efficacy of the pool only one at a time can be cured. All run in a race, but one gains the prize. It is the nature of the human social game, that the winner takes all. It is not, as in the department of science invention, where any number of ingenious persons may succeed. But it is like the Presidentship of the United States, which is open to every citizen, but only one can, at one time, obtain it. No doubt in a simpler state of society there would be less struggle." When Adam delved and Eve span," there was not the modern difficulty in getting on. Also in a healthier state of society there would not be so great competition: just as in a healthier state of things, the Bethesda porches would not be crowded by "blind, halt, withered." But such is the modern life of man, and every year the struggle for existence is growing more intense and hard; the severe law of nature and of animals -the survival of the fiercest and strongest, is becoming the law for human beings also.

This strife, this competition, is often long continued. Thirty-eight years the impotent man waited at the pool. What a long struggle had Dr. Johnson in London, before he won recognition and remuneration! And as he saw others stepping in before him, he began sadly to surmise he had not the popular qualities for success. "What hope is here he said, with a kind of growl-for surly virtue like mine?" Very pathetic, too, is the long waiting and working of Thomas Carlyle, ere he obtained success, compelled to see meanwhile many places he aspired to fill up, another stepping before him. The poor man of business, waiting in some of our large towns, finds every door locked against him, and opened only to golden keys, precisely what he cannot command. The unknown, un

friended artist is in the same case, and many another. For most, even the ultimately successful, it is a long struggle in this world of ours. It is a trial of patience, can we wait? It is a trial of faith, can we still trust and hope, though against hope? It is a trial of integrity, and the morally weak often use dishonourable near cuts, -resort to unjustifiable shifts for anticipating fortune.

And often this long and anxious competition is absolutely resultless and unsuccessful. One of the saddest words in human speech is this, "While I am coming another steppeth down before me." His very impotence, which makes him a candidate by the pool, makes him an unsuccessful candidate. The ingenious inventor, after years spent in perfecting his machine, finds himself forestalled, the thing is already patented by some one else. The writer is informed his projected work has already been published by an earlier hand; some Jacob has got our blessing before our venison was ready. The situation is filled up by some one, not more deserving, but more pushing, prompt, and self-asserting. The unsuccessful in life's eager competition fall out of the ranks, perish by the road side; the successful march on, and as they go, bestow on the others a compassionate look, perhaps a compassionate alms also, and then forget them.

The vista of this modern Bethesda opens out, and we see not only a crowd seeking wealth and competence, but as eager a throng craving and competing for happiness. What a rush is made when the Angel of Opportunity comes, and troubles the waters of political and social life! What a struggle for the front seats! the rich striving for admission into the charmed circle of "good society;" those in good position seeking a title of rank; the titled and ennobled competing for the vacant ribbon or garter. And in all such cases as in the other vulgar strifes, the same disappointments, jealous rivalries, heartbarnings, and possibly heart-breakings.

We thankfully turn now to see the Divine free gift, the blessing so richly bestowed, and beRowed on the unexpectant. Jesus said to the potent man, Rise and walk!

This suggests at once the thought—that much of human striving after good is resultless and ansuccessful because we seek happiness where it cannot be found. That man discovered the truest health was not in the power of medical brings to give. All wisest teachers of men have sought to turn our eager search and expectation 3way from unreal, to the real and true sources of blessing. Epictetus, one of the noblest of these, writes: "You must teach men that happiness is not there where, in their blindness and misery, they seek it. It is not in strength, for Milo and Ofellius were not happy; not in wealth, for Croesus was not happy; not in power, for the

Consuls are not happy; not in all these together, for Nero, and Sardanapalus, and Agamemnon, sighed and wept and tore their hair, and were the slaves of circumstances and the dupes of semblances. It lies in yourselves, in true freedom, in the absence and conquest of every ignoble fear; in perfect self-government, in the power of contentment and peace: only by God's aid can you attain to this." Thus while the eager crowd cry, "Who will show us any good?" the wise-hearted and the Heaven-taught say, "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased."

We come to see that the best gifts are free and divinely bestowed. Wealth may come by competition, but not so the health which can enjoy the riches. Learning may come by competition, not so the genius which can use learning. Abundance of possession may arrive through successful striving, but "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things he possesseth." It was not by successful competition that "Hamlet" was produced, nor even the Mechanique Celeste," nor Handel's "Messiah." We may enter the Civil Service of England so; not so we enter the kingdom of God. Divinest things are divinely given. Heart quietness, and home happiness, heaven at last, all by the grace of God, free.

Genius and joy, goodness and final glory, all are the gift of God, not the wages earned by man. Who can doubt that the health bestowed that day on the impotent man, was a far better thing than they obtained, who had so often forestalled him, and stepped down before him? He got a spiritual blessing besides, not alone. health for his withered body, but life for his sinful soul. And in all Divine blessings, if we receive them aright, there is this "over-payment of delight," God gives "exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or think." Solomon would have been content with wisdom only; he received wisdom, and, besides it, the riches and prosperity he did not ask. The penitent on the cross was content to be remembered at the last day; he received that very day an unexpected Paradise.

This interesting incident shows us a department in which self-assertion and push, and competition, are not the way to success. "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." "I am found," saith the Lord,

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of them that sought Me not." When the Gospel came with salvation to the world, this was the song that accompanied it: "He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree; He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away." This man's case shows, there are last that become first in the kingdom of God. Not he that advertiseth himself and

asserteth himself, but "he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." The thoughtful poet, Wordsworth, is constrained to teach his generation this very lesson :

"Think you, mid all this mighty sum
of things for ever speaking,
That nothing of itself will come,

But we must still be seeking?
Nor less I deem that there are powers,

Which of themselves our minds impress;
And we can feed this heart of ours,
In a wise passiveness."

Again he says, "Impulses of deeper birth have come to him in solitude." The man in the Gospel found himself a failure in the keen competition for the pool, but, lo, he got a better benefit and a heavenlier. Felt necessity, conscious incompleteness, penitence, humility, longing and yearning for betterness-these are the conditions of receiving the richest blessings. He who takes the lowest place, even in Bethesda, hears the happy word of the Master, "Friend, go up higher.

The paltry prizes of earth may go to the most selfish competitor, but not the Divine good that Heaven bestows. The soul that owns to itself its sin and misery is already a candidate for mercy; the heart that trustingly hopes in God finds Him very near; the hand that helplessly opens towards the eternal life, finds the precious thing laid in it as the free "gift of God." Sir Henry Wotton, who in the most stirring times in England had filled great offices, recorded how there came to him in later life in privacy, a happiness he had never attained or achieved by all his efforts before. He proved the wisdom of the Scripture, "Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not." Montaign, the famous essayist, says, "I might have as much to wish for as another, and allow my desires as much liberty and indiscretion; but I love myself too well (to strive for worldly honours); I would rather be second or third "Let the at Perigord than the first in Paris." potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth." The craving for notice and recognition, the competition for place and pay and applause, is rewarded suitably with notoriety and money. But man cannot live by bread alone," and the deeper, truer satisfactions of the soul are got in another way altogether.

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How are they got? They come from the Divine love, and they are granted to human faith. Jesus said to the poor weak man, "Wilt thou be made whole? Then rise and walk." Wouldest thou? Is it thy true mind and will, thy very heart's desire? Have we come to our right mind, which is humility and penitence? Have we discovered our self-delusions? we come to see that wealth and greatness, and luxury and pleasure, for which men are competing all around so eagerly, can never fill and satisfy

Have

the heart, ease it of its burden, heal it of its bitter smart, or dignify the life and crown it with any completeness? And do we see that one word from the Divine lips, one touch of the Divine hand is better than all successful competition since the pool began to be troubled. Health of the soul, true holiness and happiness are not by outstripping others, but by being right ourselves; not by forestalling rival competitors, but by coming in contact with the Saviour of men, direct living contact by personal trust and love.

What comfort is here for the unsuccessful competitor, the defeated candidate, the man who perhaps for many long years has sought and striven in vain! The highest good, the real permanent blessedness, is not for the strongest self-assertion. That race is not to the switt The meek shall inherit the earth, the poor in spirit and the pure in heart shall possess the kingdom and see God.

This Divine blessedness, unlike earthly go things, can be had and enjoyed by all and ty any. It is a race in which all the competitors may be successful; the Christian peace now, a the bliss of heaven hereafter are not exhausted by the first who steps in. by the first who steps in. Spiritual healing indeed to be sought, and that right earnes but the seeker need have no fear that only can succeed and enjoy. Whosoever will take the water of life freely.

"The weakest go to the wall." So runs the world's proverb. But the weakest are not nett sarily the worst. They who are thrust aside by the world's favourites and the successful candidates of time, thrown out, disqualified, despised, te spattered from the victorious chariot wheels of their rivals are taken by the hand by Heaven's infinite pity, and a Voice; tender as love, whisp in their ear, Wouldest thou be made whck! Rise, be happy; I give thee rest; I am th salvation!"

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"It is not in mortals to command success it is enough, says the great poet, if we desert it. Our concern is to be right in heart and t in life, and leave the issue to the Heave Powers that overrules us all. The secret of e

Lord is with them that fear Him, and He wil

show them His covenant.

"Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do good things and not dream them all day long : And so make life, death, and the great For Ever. One vast sweet song!"

If while I am coming, another steppeth in to the coveted benefit, there is One who seeth not as man sees, and thinketh not as man thinks and rewardeth not as the awards of man are given ! It is "not of him that willeth, Lcr of him that runneth, but of God who showeth mercy."

le of Uncle Jimmy Benallack.

s far as this last was concerned, the sun ht have proved a kinder friend had he left cle Jimmy's residence in darkness, for it was

a dirty and dismal place without and excessively frowsy and messy within. The building consisted of two rooms (one above the other) and a little back shed or chamber on the ground floor opening on a small yard. It was fronted by what was once probably a garden, now a mere receptacle for such rubbish as a marine-store dealer would despise, the hodge-podge it contained being defended by a low hedge and a gate the latter off its hinges and leaning lazily against the fence, in faithful imitation of its owner who, night after night, on his return from his usual bout at the "Jolly Sailor Boy," was accustomed to seek the same friendly support for a prolonged period previous to attempting the perilous passage to his front door.

Unimpeded by shutter or curtain, the light stole into the lower chamber of the dwelling and revealed more untidiness-" confusion worse confounded." Dust and grime reigned supreme. The grate was cheerless with the ashes of yesterday's fire. On a little table at the further end of the room lay the remains of the previous evening's meal, the food strewn carelessly about, plate, cup and saucer unwashed. A settle stood near the fire-place; and two or three chairs, mostly minus a leg or a portion of the back, were placed at intervals against the wall. A