The account of him contained in the publication to which we owe our knowledge of him reveals a character so impressive and admirable, and suggests so many lessons of the utmost value and importance in our day-lessons to working people and to people above working people too-that it is well worthy of being made use of for the purpose of illustrating and enforcing those lessons.

DWELLING AMONG HIS PEOPLE.

"Though he was manager of the mill in which he perished, he lived and died a working-man." "If he showed pride at all, it was in being a man, and a working-man that lived by his labour, and owed no man anything but love and sympathy and such help as he could give." For a few years he was a city missionary in Glasgow, and sub-editor of a newspaper in the North of Ireland; but he returned to his original occupation, and continued in it to the end. Fitted to rise out of it and adorn any society, he chose to remain in the position of a working man; he chose "to dwell among his own people:" and the noble life he lived among them renders him pre-eminently an example to others, and shows what may be made of life in that estate in which he lived.

He possessed gifts of nature such as few in any class are endowed with; but none the less was he an example to men of his own class, and did every man use his gifts and opportunities as William Allan did, the world would be incomparably better than it is. His life then is fitted more than most even of those who have won a good report by serving their day and generation in their own original walk of life to teach us what a working-man may make of life-heroic, beautiful, blessed, fruitful, prayerful.

A WORKING-MAN MAY LIVE AN HEROIC LIFE.

William Allan's example proves this. When we speak and think of heroes and heroism, we do not generally think of the toil-stained sons of labour; we think rather of great soldiers and sailors, of adventurers and explorers, of persons who have displayed great and conspicuous daring. But this is a shallow and limited view of the subject. What are the things that go to constitute heroism and make a hero? Are they not supreme devotion to duty, fearlessness of danger in the path of duty, and a spirit of self-sacrifice; and may we not add, a manful endurance of suffering encountered in the path of duty? He who exhibits these qualities in any calling is a hero, and really greater than some of those whom the world calls heroes, but whose deeds have been wrought in the spirit of vainglory, and not from devotion to duty. These qualities may be exhibited, and are needed by every man who would live a life of the highest type in the pursuits of industry, as well as in the "tented field," and on "the stormy deep." Such a life William Allan lived.

"He worked for wages as most men do in one form or other, but he did not measure his work by his wages. No money could buy the conscience and the heart he laid out on his work. Early and late he wrought as if, and more than if, the mills were his own.'

This is the spirit of a true workman, the spirit of a true man, the spirit of a real hero; and he is none

of these things who does not, in some measure at least, possess this spirit. It is a spirit much wanted in our day, and if it prevailed widely among the sons of toil would go very far towards effecting a practical solution of some of the problems that disturb the peaceful relations of classes who are necessary to each other, and whose disputes agitate society and imperil national prosperity. The prevalence of such a spirit would do more than anything to sweeten the atmosphere, and tend to make those who were thus served willing and anxious to consider and promote to the uttermost of their power the social, moral, and intellectual well-being of those who served them.

Supreme devotion to duty, then, is one heroic quality which a working-man should cultivate.

Fearlessness of danger is another. The pursuits of industry have their dangers, as well as the pursuits of adventure and war. There are dangers which encompass the path of the artisan and the labourer, as well as of the soldier and sailor. Unflinching courage in facing these dangers in the path of duty is an heroic quality. This quality William Allan possessed almost to excess. Five months before he

was actually killed at his work an explosion took place, whereby several of his men were killed. He had been reluctantly detained in the office by his masters, and afterwards he seemed almost to apologize and take blame to himself for not having been with his men. He seemed often to be insensible to the presence of danger. This quality may have been natural to some extent; but his Christian character-for his piety was deep and genuine-would strengthen it. He was always ready, and therefore had no cause to fear sudden death. Many may have something of his courage, and yet have none of the grace which he possessed. The grace is as necessary as natural courage to the kind and degree of fearlessness which he possessed, and which it were well for all of us to possess.

The spirit of self-sacrifice is another element of the heroism which a working-man may have. William Allan said shortly before his end to Mr. Maccoll, while expatiating on Ruskin's Seven Lamps of Architecture, "the first light for us is, and should always be, the lamp of self-sacrifice." It was clearly his first light. His life was all self-sacrifice together. His whole work bore the impress of it. On first coming to Glasgow he joined the late Dr. Buchanan's church, the Free Tron, and "for eight or nine years," says Dr. Buchanan, "continued to be one of the most useful, the most genial, the most valued members of my congregation, foremost in every work of faith and labour of love." Dr. Buchanan's was, I believe, a wealthy and influential congregation; but when the Wynd Church was opened in 1854, he connected himself with it, and devoted himself passionately to the work there, because the work there was the gospel to the poor.

He chose his sphere of Christian work where it was least likely to attract attention, and where there was, I may add, the most and the hardest work to be done. Of him truly it may be said, "He sought not his own." Both in his earthly and his heavenly calling self-sacrifice was his first light. This is a light much needed in every pathway in this dark and selfish world of ours, where the prevailing thought of so many seems to be, How much ease and

self-indulgence, and how much credit can I get for myself? not, How can I best spend myself, and be spent for others?

The last feature of heroic character to which I have referred as what a working-man may have, he possessed in an eminent degree, viz.: manful endurance of suffering encountered in the discharge of duty. Soon after he came to Glasgow his arm was torn from his body by the wheels of some machinery which was out of order, and which he was rectifying.

'I saw him next day in the infirmary," said Dr. Buchanan, "where the mangled and shattered stump had just been removed from the shoulder, and I remember to this hour (after twenty-seven years), as if it had been a scene of yesterday, the smile of calm contentment which sat upon his face, and the simple words of uncomplaining submissiveness to the will of God in which he spoke of what had occurred."

Mr. Maccoll also tells us that when he was being conveyed to the infirmary on that occasion, and the bearers stood a moment discussing which was the shortest way, the strong man, believed to be unconscious, heard every word, and could have given them directions, as if another rather than himself were concerned. This was more than manful endurance of suffering; it was Christian endurance.

A working-man, then, may, as William Allan's history proves, make an heroic thing of life. There is no essential attribute of heroism which may not be required and displayed, any and every day, in the humblest of the multifarious pursuits of industry. Let every working-man form a worthy conception of the highest type of manhood, and in dependence on Divine grace address himself to the honest and earnest effort to attain to it, and exemplify it in his present position and calling.

(To be continued.)

From our Watch-Tower.

WATCHWORDS FOR APRIL.

First Week. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.-Col. iii. 1.

Second Week.-These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.-1 John ii. 1.

Third Week. We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.-1 John iii. 2, 3.

Fourth Week.-Willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him.— 2 Cor. v. 8, 9.

A JEW'S REASONS FOR BELIEVING
IN CHRIST.

ON Sabbath, 16th February, Herr Gerstenkraut, lately a rabbi in the synagogue at Strasburg, was baptized in Free St. Luke's Church, Edinburgh, in the presence of an assemblage which crowded the church to the doors. Dr. Moody Stuart occupied the pulpit; and after service, Herr Gerstenkraut made a con

fession of his faith in Christianity, and thereafter was baptized in the usual manner, taking the name of Paul Gottfried. He then addressed the congregation in German, a translation in English being given by the Rev. Mr. Cunningham as the address pro ceeded. Herr Gerstenkraut, who is a young man of about twenty-six years of age, spoke in an eloquent and cultivated manner, proving himself to be possessed of considerable elocutionary powers. He said:

"Beloved Christian Friends,—In addressing you briefly on this the happiest day of my life I desire only to lay before this congregation, and before my kinsmen according to the flesh who are

present, a personal narrative of the grace shown to me by the Lord of Glory. In giving this testimony I humbly follow the example of him who was in his earlier years the persecuting Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, and I shall endeavour to be mindful of the admonition quoted by him from the Prophet Jeremiah-'He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.' And I beseech you, in hearing these few statements concerning my history, to give the praise only to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, whose gospel will never cease to be the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,' whether Jew or Gentile.

"My outward life has been hitherto comparatively quiet and uneventful, for the goodness of God has shielded me from great calamities or misfortunes; but my inner life has been, on the contrary, one of much agitation and excitement, as I have lived in a constant struggle with perplexities in the region of spiritual things. I have been continually searching eagerly into the great mysteries of divine truth, and never knew what it was to find rest until I came to Jesus Christ, our Messiah and Redeemer, the centre of the history of mankind.

"I was born at Warsaw, of strictly orthodox Jewish parents, who watched over my religious education with the utmost solici tude. They intended that I should eventually become a rabbi, and my early years were spent accordingly in the study of the sacred writings of the Old Testament and the wide range of rabbinical literature. But being from childhood impelled to earnest investigation into the questions concerning the mutual relations of God and man, I turned in succession to each of the great sections of modern Judaism, in the hope of finding in them the satisfaction of my soul's earnest desire. But in the orthodox, the reformed, and the conservative sections alike I was dis appointed by finding a lifeless and mechanical form of religion. As I regarded the calling of a rabbi to be one involving great responsibility both to God and men, my inward disquietude increased as my views became more fully developed. I was now convinced of the great want of clearness in the religion of my fathers, and sought earnestly for the hidden fountain of its strength. At the same time I did not turn aside from the intention to be a rabbi, and I zealously defended the Judaism of the Talmud, as I remained in the firm persuasion that only in Israel was religious truth to be found, because to that people alone had God revealed Himself, and I consoled myself with the hope that deeper, earnest inquiry would bring more light. With the Psalmist I prayed continually, Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law;' and I now give thanks to our blessed Lord that He gave an answer to my earnest prayer by sending to me one of His ablest servants, under whose guidance the light of heaven arose upon my darkness.

"About fifteen months ago, in the middle of November, 1877, I was requested by the President of the Synagogue of Strasburg, in which city I studied for two years in preparation for the office of rabbi, to undertake a discussion regarding the claims of Christianity with Dr. Fürst, who is stationed there as the Jewish missionary of the Free Church. Although I did not apprehend the slightest difficulty in refuting Christian doctrine, I did not accept with any pleasure the task assigned to me; as I had been all my life so prejudiced against Christianity that I never considered it worth while to read the New Testament, or to spend time in conversation on the subject with a Jewish missionary. In common with thousands of my countrymen I regarded Christianity as a mere variety of heathenisin with which the Jew has nothing to do. Out of respect, however, for the desire expressed by the President of the Synagogue, I consented to enter upon a disputation with Dr. Fürst, and in several interviews with him I contended on behalf of Judaism with Pharisaic vehemence and bitterness. I used weapons borrowed from the vast armoury of unbelief, and from various antagonists of Christianity, such as Abarbanel, Isaac Troki, Geiger, Grätz, Strauss, and Renan. My experience, however, illustrated the word of the apostle, 'we can do nothing against the truth.' With the utmost tenderness and kindness Dr. Fürst persuaded me to lay aside the

objections which I had without examination borrowed from the adversaries of Christianity, and most strenuously urged me to study the New Testament thoroughly, in order to be in a position to form an independent judgment in regard to its teaching. I followed his advice, and the blessing of God was not withheld. Even the first reading of this divine Book produced a most salutary impression on my spirit, because by it the prejudices which I had cherished from infancy against Christianity were removed. I was soon convinced that in Christianity we have a doctrine which is truly from Israel, and which is in perfect harmony with the truth revealed in the Old Testament. The Sun of righteous

ness, however, had not yet risen fully upon my soul; for I was still very far from looking upon the question as one relating to the heart, and was content to regard it rather as a theme for ingenious and subtle discussion.

"A memorable change, however, came on the tenth day of the month Tebeth-(which is the tenth month in the Jewish calendar, and corresponds to January) - a day on which the synagogue commemorates with special religious service Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem. I was sitting that morning in the synagogue wrapped in my prayer mantle, and devoutly chanting the liturgy for the day; when a question which had often occupied me for some years came to my mind with irresistible force-the question, namely, for what reason the second temple was destroyed, and a state of exile and misery, continuing now for eighteen centuries, brought upon Israel? What,' said I to myself, 'can have been the great sin which at that time was committed by Israel, and which brought such terrible judgments on our nation from the righteous God?' Presently there came to my remembrance a passage from the book 'Zohar,' in which one of our rabbis speaks as follow:-'Israel was not banished from her land until the nation rejected Jehovah and David her king.' This rabbi, thought I, has here unconsciously uttered a great truth which perfectly agrees with the prophecy of Hosea (chap. iii. 4, 5): The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king.' As it is here said that the children of Israel should turn to seek Jehovah their God, it is evident that so long as the calamitous condition described by Hosea continues, they are living without Jehovah; for we cannot return to one from whom we have not departed. The King David also whom Israel is to seek can only be the mystic David. and he is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. Him has Israel rejected, and with Him at the same time they rejected Jehovah; for Jesus is Jehovah.

"On that day I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In the greatest excitement I went home, and, urged by a secret monitor within, began with great zeal to search the Scriptures. Then a new world opened upon mine eyes in the gospel of Jesus Christ: for I discovered in it the key to the hidden treasures of the Old Testament. The Levitical institutions were to me no longer unmeaning. The types presented in the high-priest's office, the sacrifices, the scapegoat, and the day of atonement, were now full of light to me as fulfilled in Christ, viz., in His baptism, His ministry, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His intercession for us with the Father, and the forgiveness of our sins through His expiatory sacrifice. I now perceived my utter ignorance of heavenly things, and felt myself to be a lost sinner. I was thoroughly crushed under these convictions. But, wrestling with God in prayer, I remembered that He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' With contrite spirit and broken heart I began then to pray, as I have done ever since, in the name of Jesus. I am conscious of enjoying access with boldness to the Father through the precious blood of Christ, and I believe that His righteousness was imputed unto me and that my sins were borne by Him upon the cross. By the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit a heavenly joy took possession of my heart, and I felt that in me all things were changed.

"It was only after I had thus got deliverance from the Sightings within, that I began to realize the outward difficulties which encompassed me. I knew that the act of becoming a Christian involved the severance of tender family bonds, and alienation from all my kindred. In contemplating the certainty of forfeiting honour, reputation, and position, and of being despised and rejected by my brethren and nation, feelings were awakened which cost me months of conflict before they were subdued by the gracious help of God. That word of Christ, 'Whoso loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me,' rebuked and condemned my hesitation; until at length I

resolved to take up the cross of Christ, and go forth without the camp to Jesus, bearing His reproach. I found a balm to my soul in the words of the Psalmist, When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up;' and again, I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children; the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.' Yes, these words were sufficient to call forth my unhesitating confidence, and to embolden me for the step of acknowledging Jesus as my Saviour.

"I would especially lay emphasis on this fact, that although I found testimonies for the truth as it is in Jesus in the sacred writings of Moses and the prophets, and was confirmed in my belief in it by the words even of the Talmudistic Pharisees, who are its bitterest enemies, I have always felt that the beneficial influence exerted on me by the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the highest evidence which crowns all these other testimonies, and sets upon them its seal; for the Spirit witnesses with our spirits that He is the truth. When the gospel of Jesus Christ came to me and entered into my heart, there awoke within me a voice, the voice of my conscience, and said, 'Yes, that is the truth which thou seekest.' There awoke also the slumbering thoughts and longings of my heart after peace and reconciliation with God, and said to me, 'Yes, that is what thou art longing for, after which thou wast inquiring when it was hid from thee.' Questions concerning mankind, concerning myself, and concerning my people Israel-their past, present, and future, had always been to me insoluble riddles, and full of inexplicable contradictions. Now, in Jesus Christ I found the answer to these questions, the solution of this enigma, the removal of all contradictions. With the Spirit of Jesus Christ, heavenly joy and blessed peace took possession at once of my broken heart. I stand, therefore, amongst you as a living witness of the healing efficacy of this way of salvation, and find in my own experience the unanswerable proof that it is a reality and a power. I admit, that, in order to be convinced, one must yield himself unreservedly to the truth, and inquire into it with perseverance: and this is the exhortation which I would earnestly address to my Jewish brethren in the words of the Prophet Amos, 'Thus said the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live.' To this I add the Lord's gracious declaration, 'Every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.'

"With reference to these my Jewish brethren, I feel it necessary to make the following explanation. It is common for Jews to speak of the act of baptism, in the case of one of their brethren, as a renunciation of Judaism. If this charge be made to-day against me, I am willing in part to accept it. Certainly, as for the modern Judaism, which has completely broken away from the truths of Old Testament revelation and treats them with contempt, such a Judaism I do here most Sulomnly renounce. But I do in the same moment confess my undivided and unchangeable attachment to the truth which God gave to Israel; truth which began to be revealed in the writings of Moses and the Prophets, and ds its consummation in Messiah, the Prince of whom they spake, Jesus of Nazareth.

"I close with a few words to you, dear Christian friends. You have before you an example of the omnipotence of Invine grace in the conversion of an Israelite, whom it has pleased the Lord in His infinite mercy to rescue from error and perdition. I sincerely desire that the statements to which you have now listened contribute something to the strengthening of your faith and the reviving of your hope. I beseech you, beloved Christian friends, to remember me from time to time at the throne of grace, praying God to confirm me in this faith, and make me steadfast to the end. But remember not me alone; pray also for my kindred, and for the thousands of my people who are yet walking in darkness, that the Lord may soon show pity upon them, and bring them out of darkness, removing the veil from their hearts, and the blindness from their eyes."

MRS. RANYARD,

THE FOUNDER OF THE BIBLE-WOMAN'S MISSION.

[OUR London correspondent sends us the following very interesting account of this devoted and honoured lady, now removed to a better world.]

The other day there was laid in the grave, in the Norwood Cemetery, all that was mortal of one who was honoured to do great work for the Master; one to whom He had given a rare

combination of gifts, but who may be best described as the Woman of the Book, just as, in China, William Burns was best known as the Man of the Book. Certainly Mrs. Ranyard, or, to use her nom de plume, "L. N. R.," won for herself, if she never received, this honourable distinctive title. For the evangelistic agency which she originated and superintended, with the life-long devotion of an entire self-consecration, is known all the world over as the Bible-woman's Mission, bringing by the hand of woman, THE Book into the houses, and, if possible, into the hearts of the poor. It has been given to few to do so thoroughly such a complete work as that which she was honoured to accomplish. The idea of it seems to have come upon her like an inspiration, and was one, we doubt not, from the Lord himself. And the idea which presented itself to her mind, she had the necessary wisdom and energy and patience to carry out into practice. Further still, she had the literary ability to expound and explain the scheme, and from time to time to tell with graphic pen how it was being wrought out; so that others were speedily interested, and gave her their hearty sympathy and support.

HER CONVERSION.

But the key that opens to us the secret of her life work, and shows us how it shaped itself as it did, is her own conversion to the Lord, and the manner in which it was brought about so far as the outward means were concerned. She had been educated in a Christian home, and under a gospel ministry; but her heart was not won to Christ by the teaching and training she received-at least not directly by these, though they must have secretly operated-but by the reading of the Bible for herself. And what led her to the Book for herself was an incident which strikingly foreshadowed her own special work in after years. While still little more than a school girl, but one of exceptionally bright parts, taken up with literature, and above all, passionately fond of poetry, a visitor came to her father's house who was a devoted Christian, and who, ever seeking to do good, one day asked this bright young girl, Ellen White (for such was her maiden name) if she would accompany her as she went to read the Bible to some poor people. Ellen consented, and was struck with the evident relish which they had for what was read to them. Feeling that she had no such relish, she resolved that she would find out what it was in the Bible which made it such a book to others. So she set herself at once to study the Bible as she had never before done, often though she read it. She began with the first chapter of Genesis. The third verse arrested her attention: And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. She thought, if God can give light to the heavens and the earth, He can give light to me. And then and there she sought for light that she might see. And He who opens the eyes of the blind heard her cry; and from thenceforth she walked in the light, and her desire was to bring others into the light. One of the first things she ever wrote that was printed, was a little tract on the subject of Dible circulation.

THE PLAN OF HER WORK.

In various ways she became an active worker for Christ. But in this bet notice we would hasten on to that which was to be he great work, and for which she was being trained and educated during many years. It was when she was in mid-life that her hands found this work to do. In June, 1857, not twenty-two years ago, it presented itself before her. She had been by this time for a year or two settled in London; when, one day, talking with a friend (a retired medical man) she remarked that she found there were many families of comparatively poor people in the neighbourhood, whom in her visits she found to be without a copy of the Bible. Her friend, who had been in the course of his early practice familiar with St. Giles, replied, "Come with me through the streets around the Seven Dials, and I will show you a state of matters of which you have no conception,-houses in almost all of which the Bible is utterly unknown, and where every room contains a family." That walk through St. Giles so stirred her heart with pity and sympathy for the wretched creatures whom she saw there, in rags and filth and drunkenness, that she resolved to do what she could to give them the Bible, that it might be the means of lifting them up from their sin and misery. The mission must be one to the depths, to reach the most sunken and degraded— those who are down below the decent poor. And she felt instinctively that she must begin with the women, in order to influence the men and save the children. But who can bring the Bible to such women as these, and get them to take it and hear it? And then the thought struck her-If I could but

find a Christian woman who has been one of these, or lived among them, as poor as any of them, who knows them thoroughly, and will not be afraid of them, and of whom they will not be afraid, I would engage her to go and sell the Bible to them, and read it to them. And then and there arose the germ of what has been so long known as the "London Bible and Domestic Female Mission." Mrs. Ranyard had such strong faith in the Word of God itself, without the word of man, that she would not have the Bible woman carry with her any tract, or periodical, or book-nothing but the Word of God. And the people must be got to buy the Bible for themselves, if they are to value it, though at a cheap rate, and in such weekly instalments as they can afford to give. The Bible-woman must be a paid agent, receiving what would suffice for her own wants and no more; and she must devote so many hours a day to the work of selling Bibles, going into every room in her district. Over her must be a lady-superintendent, to whom she should give stated and frequent reports, and bring every case which imperatively needed special looking into, in order to temporal help. The woman herself, however, must be nothing but the Bible-woman; though the friend, who, when her work for the day was done, could go and give help in nursing the sick, or tidying and putting to rights, in any of the families to which she got access.

All this (which is so familiar now through the multiplying of this Bible-woman's mission in every part of the country, and of the world almost) was then something quite new. It is interesting to notice how the whole idea of the mission seemed to present itself to the fertile mind of Mrs. Ranyard from the Not very first, showing us what an able woman she was. that she had nothing to learn from experience in the carrying out of her idea. Far from it. Indeed nothing is more beautiful than the way in which, with watchful eye, she observed every indication of providence, and learned from failures as well as successes how best to do the work which was given her to do. The mission grew, but it never lost its original features and distinctive characteristics. Mrs. Ranyard had indeed often to reiterate the grand idea with which she started, that it was a Bible Mission, and insist that everything should be made subordinate to this. This has never been modified, though much has been done to enlarge the sphere of the mission as a domestic one. Perhaps the most important enlargement has been the addition of the Bible-woman nurses.

MARIAN-THE FIRST BIBLE WOMAN.

In the history of this mission, there is perhaps nothing more interesting and noteworthy than the way in which a suitable worker as a Bible-woman had been prepared by the Lord. In the district itself, and at the very time that Mrs. Ranyard was on the outlook for such an agent, this woman was on the outlook for some such work to do. About the time when Miss Ellen White, through the reading of the Bible, was brought into the marvellous light of the Lord, a young orphan girl about the same age came into the Seven Dials district, who had no settled home, who earned the barest living by cutting fire papers and moulding wax-flowers, and slept where she could find shelter, sometimes on the steps of the stair. In those days an old man, an atheist, was kind to her, and taught her to write: she had learned to read in earlier and better days. But her old friend warned her against the Bible, if she ever came across one, and advised her never to read it. She married, while still a girl, one as poor as herself: for as they stood up to be married, the bridegroom had no coat on, and the bride had neither stockings nor shoes. But the man was no drunkard as her father had been; and she had now a room she could call her own, scantily fur nished though it was, if it could be said to be furnished at all.

For a quarter of a century she followed her old friend's counsel, and never sought to read or hear read the Bible. But one rainy night, four years before that June in which Mrs. Ranyard sought for a Bible-woman familiar to St. Giles, this woman turned in for shelter to a mission room, where she heard some words repeated by the speaker which struck her much, very and which she knew must be from the Bible. What interested her most, however, was an announcement that books would be lent to read next evening to any who would come there for them. To tell the rest in Mrs. Ranyard's own words: "Going early at the appointed time, she was the first claimant of the promise. She had intended to borrow Uncle Tom's Cabin. But a strong impulse came over her which she could not resist-it was as if she had heard it whispered to her: 'Do not borrow Uncle Tom, borrow a Bible.' So she asked for a Bible. A Bible,