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LONG one of the beautiful glens of beautiful Scotland might be seen walking every Sabbath morning in the direction of the nearest kirk a singular pair of worshippers. A middle-aged female of tall and stately bearing, with a grave, sweet countenance, closely followed by a magnificent dog, who for years had been in

the habit of walking to the house of God in company with his mistress, following her into her pew and lying at her feet there during the whole of the service. Two of her daughters were lying in the quiet graveyard of the kirk to which she went; others were married, and all her sons and daughters were now away from the old home and their mother; but still she need not have been reduced to the sole companionship of Bruce, for her husband was living and in good health, and each Sabbath, as his wife, in her loneliness, traversed the road to the kirk, might be seen in his own little den at home busily engaged with his weekly accounts, or walking through his fields with a keen look-out over the state of his crops and flocks.

It had not always been so. For years after his marriage John Duncan was never willingly absent from his place in the family pew on the Sabbath, and it was a goodly sight to see the group of tall handsome sons and daughters surrounding their fine-looking parents, and all engaging reverently in the service of God's house. But when death entered the home and took away, one after another, its fairest daughters, Lily and Marian, the effect was widely different on the two parents. Esther Duncan took her sore heart to Jesus, that its vacant places might be filled with His consolations; and so trial wrought in her character its appointed ministry of blessing. John Duncan, on the contrary, would not "hear the rod;" he turned impatiently from the teaching of sorrow, questioning God's right to take away "what He had first given," and closing his heart against the true riches, he opened it to the love of earthly gain, and very soon it was hardened by the trampling feet of worldly cares.

It was like the bitterness of death to Esther to see the best part of her husband's nature thus defaced; and only God knew how she wrestled in prayer for him. But the answer tarried, and under the burden of her sorrow the "earthly house" grew more and more infirm, even though the immortal tenant was renewed day by day, God being

the strength of her heart when all earthly sources of comfort and strength failed.

At length there came a Sabbath when Esther's tottering steps could scarcely carry her to the house of God, and she would have been quite unable to reach home again but for the friendly help of a neighbour's arm. Bruce looked pityingly into her face, and wagged his tail in mute sympathy; and when, soon afterwards, she kept her room, and then her bed altogether, he established himself there as chief attendant, and never quitted his post until the meek, patient sufferer heard the glad summons, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord," and laid down the weary burden of life she had borne so bravely.

John Duncan's heart was greatly softened by his wife's death. As he looked on the quiet face in its last peaceful sleep, thoughts of the sorrow he had caused her by his forgetfulness of God filled him with remorse, and with the vain longing shared by so many in the presence of deaththat he could undo the past. He seemed to hear again her last words: "Dear John, I am going to heaven, and I shall watch for you; you will let me see you coming, won't you? Don't mind so much about riches, dear! nothing seems to me of any importance now but the 'unsearchable riches of Christ.'

And the gracious Spirit powerfully wrought on his heart through their means, and influenced him to give to his wife's dying request a respect that he had not usually granted to her wishes during her life.

But the habits of years were strong upon him, and by the time that the funeral was over and the Sabbath came again, he had almost forgotten his better purposes, and when the sound of the bell from the distant kirk reached his ears he was preparing for his customary walk round his farm. Just then he saw Bruce set off at a quiet, sedate pace from the front door to the garden gate, and turn down the road in the direction of the church.

How often, with an uneasy twinge of conscience, he had watched the faithful creature follow his mistress along the same path; where could he be going now? With a sudden impulse he followed, caught sight of him at the turning of the road proceeding with the same measured movement, and kept him in view until he reached the kirk.

By this time John Duncan was close behind, and as Bruce, without a moment's pause, passed through the open door and walked up the aisle to the family pew, the thought came into his master's mind, "Poor Bruce! he shall not be in the pew all by himself this morning; if he takes his place. I will take mine."

In that quiet country place everybody knew everyone else, and there was a general feeling of interest and curiosity amongst friends and neighbours in the congregation at John Duncan's appearance there. But he took no heed of anything around him, but as he sat down in the pew, where for so many years his wife had sat alone, an overwhelming sense of his neglect and unkindness broke over his heart, and bowing his head on the front of the seat he wept as he had never done since he was a boy, as he had never thought to weep again. His wife had gone beyond the reach of his bitter penitence; no words of his could ever tell her how he had “sinned against heaven," and her. But God was near him still; he realised in that solemn moment how in the past years he had dishonoured Him by his backsliding and rebellion, and the heartfelt cry went up to heaven, "God be merciful to me a sinner."

Ah, that is the cry that causes the gate of Divine mercy to be flung wide open. No one can truly utter it but by the gracious enlightenment of the Holy Spirit; and when He convinces of sin He will surely go on in His work, and testify to the poor conscience-stricken sinner of an allpowerful and all-loving Saviour.

John Duncan's future life proved this. He returned to his solitary home that day with a new purpose in life: to seek first the kingdom of God. And though his softened

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