Tuesday came, and at length the hour of half-past eight, the appointed time for the Bible Class, but nobody had arrived! In a few minutes, however, the old man made his appearance, with two others, one of whom had belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, but had been a backslider for seven years. This man, we may just remark, in passing, was greatly revived at these little gatherings, which he has regularly attended from that day to this, and afterwards became a rejoicing Christian, having publicly expressed his gratitude to God for having directed the Scripture Reader to call upon him. With these three the Reader commenced his Bible Class; but the little meetings soon expanded. On the following Tuesday there were four, then twelve, and then the numbers rapidly increased to thirty, and upwards. In order to make them interesting to all, they were made to partake of a conversational character, commencing and ending with a hymn and prayer.

At these meetings, and at the Reader's visits to him at his home, the old man became deeply interested in the Word of God, and impressed with its solemn truths. He became a regular attendant at church, and communicant at the table of the Lord. He asked the Reader, some time since, to purchase for him a good Bible and Hymn-book, which he did at a cost of 5s. 11d. which he readily paid. He has since then, to the Reader's knowledge, bought three more Bibles, at 38. 9d. each, and presented them to different members of his family. He seems almost overwhelmed, at times, with a sense of his own sinfulness, and with the wonderful condescension and love of God to him. He most bitterly laments that he has spent the whole of his long life in sin, and the service of Satan. He has publicly acknowledged at the Bible Class, and other meetings, that he had not been to a place of worship for forty years, until induced to come to the Bible Class by the Scripture Reader. Now, not only does he regularly attend church, but he and two other men, living in the same house, often meet in one of their rooms for prayer. And when lately questioned as to his faith and hope, the tears rolled down his furrowed cheeks, as he assured the Reader that all his desire was to know more of JESUS; that he had no wish now to read anything but the Bible, that the newspapers and other publications were worthless, and that his great grief was that he had spent so much of his precious time on them.

We may just mention, in conclusion, that he has happily prevailed on his son, and his son's wife, to attend the meetings, and that the son seems much humbled, and astonished at the marvellous change in his father.

SCRIPTURE READERS

„JOURNAL

APRIL, 1868.

THE BOOT AND SHOE CLOSER; OR, "IS THAT IN MY BIBLE?"

"He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already."-JOHN iii. 18.

N one of the northern districts of London is a little square, many of the inhabitants of which are of such vicious habits, and all are sunk so low in the moral scale, that no lady district visitor durst enter it. One, indeed, did so some time ago, in the exercise of her selfdenying charity, but the insult she met with there was such that she was constrained to give up the district, and no lady has yet been found to take her place. The houses in this square, fourteen in number, contain four rooms each, besides a back kitchen, or wash-house. Each room, including the wash-house, is occupied by a separate family, and it is not at all uncommon to see the father, mother, and four or five children, of various ages and both sexes, huddled together in a single room, the rent of which is 2s. 9d. a week.

In one of these close little rooms the Reader of the district found a boot and shoe closer, and his family, to whom he read the thirty-seventh Psalm, pointing out to them the all-important difference between the end of the upright and the end of the wicked: "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed

together the end of the wicked shall be cut off." But the Word had no charm for them. They turned a deaf ear to its promises, as well as to its warnings. It sounded in their ears but as an idle tale. At the Reader's next visit he brought before them again the same great truth. He read to them the third chapter of St. John, and insisted on the necessity, and dwelt on the nature, of the new birth: 66 Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." On coming to the eighteenth verse he pressed upon their consideration the contrast between the condition before God of believers and unbelievers, showing them that the unbeliever was in the position of a condemned criminal awaiting the execution of the sentence, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." He showed them, moreover, from God's own word, what that condemnation involved. "The wicked shall be turned into hell." "The unbelieving, &c.

shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death." All this is involved in the question of our believing or not believing "in the Name of the only begotten Son of God." "He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already." The man started from his seat, and asked, in accents of astonishment, "Is that in my Bible, sir?" He thereupon turned to the cupboard, and produced a copy of the New Testament; or, to speak more correctly, a mutilated portion of the New Testament, for many a leaf had been torn out, with which, not improbably, to light his pipe. "Turn to the third chapter of St. John," said our Reader, "and at the eighteenth verse you will find the solemn truth." But, alas, he knew nothing of St. John, or the position his Gospel occupied in reference to other portions of the Word, or even that one copy of the Bible was the same in the text as another. It was accordingly found for him, and he seemed deeply impressed and concerned about his soul-so much so, indeed, that he then and there promised to attend the Reader's Bible-class on Sunday and Friday evenings.

The Reader continued his visits from time to time, and the poor man to attend, and more and more to appreciate, the Bible-class and devotional meetings. Indeed, on the Sunday evenings he often expressed a wish that it lasted an hour or two longer. His ignorance at first, as may be surmised from what has already been said, was very great. "I was totally ignorant," he said on one occasion to the Reader, "of the plan of salvation, through Christ dying in the sinner's stead, until you explained it to me.' "And on another, "Before you spoke to me about religion, and invited me to your Bible-class, I had altogether neglected to read my Bible, but since then I have read it a good deal, and now I begin to

understand a little what I read. But what do you mean, sir, by the Old Testament? Is that anything to do with the Bible?" This was duly explained to him, and he became deeply interested in the discovery that the New Testament was a fulfilment of the Old, and that Christ, the Alpha and Omega of the New, was the Anti-type of all the Old Testament types and figures. The Epistle to the Hebrews was a source of great delight to him, as seen in the light of Old Testament history. The Holy Spirit was evidently taking of the things of Christ and manifesting them to his soul. And the Reader, knowing this to be a critical period in the man's history, urged him to "watch and pray," lest he should enter into temptation, as Satan would be sure to make redoubled efforts to retain his hold upon him, and to spread all sorts of temptations in his way. But the man was firm. When old shopmates or old companions, for instance, pressed him to "have a drop of beer," he resolutely refused to enter a public-house.

66

Amongst the difficulties which he occasionally brought before our Reader for solution, and which proved, moreover, that he was reading and studying his Bible, were, "Where did Cain get his wife from?" and "How could Jesus, if He was God, have a mother?" The explanations of the Reader were perfectly satisfactory. He saw at once that Cain's wife must have been a very near relation; and he was delighted with the explanation as to the way in which, and the reason why, Jesus became "perfect man," as well as perfect God." At another time he asked for an explanation of the first and second verses of the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, and was deeply interested in the assurance that it was an invitation to all who were seeking happiness in anything, or any object, that could not satisfy; that it was an invitation to come to Jesus, to come to HIM, who alone can satisfy and make the soul truly happy in time and for eternity. "Oh, sir!" he exclaimed, "I am ten times happier than I used to be before I came to your meetings." For the last two years he has been a communicant; and we need hardly observe that he regularly attends the house of God, and that he has entirely given up undertaking Sunday work, which he peremptorily refuses whenever offered to him. He has discovered the great truth that "THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NOT MEAT AND DRINK, BUT RIGHTEOUSNESS, PEACE, AND JOY IN THE HOLY GHOST.'

THE PUGILIST; OR, THE LAST FIGHT.

"From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members ?"-JAMES iv. 1. "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life."-1 TIM. vi. 12.

in the street,

Na small row in the east of London, one of our Readers was rather unexpectedly called upon to visit a young man, about twenty-five years of age, who was dying of consumption. He at once recognised the Reader as he entered the room, for two months previously he had casually met him and, seeing him looking so ill, he had spoken solemnly to him about his soul, and about his prospects for eternity. But it was all in vain. "He did not want to hear anything about religion, or of Christ ;" and then he opened upon the Reader with such a torrent of abuse that he was glad to escape from such horrible language. A word of warning, however, he left with him. It was this, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." The fact is, he was a most desperate character. He had been three times in prison, and the last time he had been released eighteen months before his time on account of his illness. "He was, without exception," our Reader says, "the greatest blackguard in the district." All the thieves in the neighbourhood knew "Charley" well. He was a fighting-man, had fought a prize fight and many other battles, and, "on grand occasions," when the noted pugilists used to meet at a certain well-known house, he conducted the sparring. He also acted as "bully" for the publican, by which we mean, that when there was any quarrelling in the tap-room, or in front of the bar, it was his duty to "bundle out" the rioters, which he did without much reference to the weight of his blows. In early life the man had had his choice, and had deliberately thrown it away. He was brought up as a lookingglass frame-maker. A kind-hearted gentleman had taken a fancy to him, and liberally supplied him with money. But the man abused his generosity, threw up his business, joined the worst of company, and entered upon a "gay life," as they call it, which brought on his present illness, and was the cause of the Reader's summons to his bed-side.

After a few kind words of sympathy, the Reader took out his Bible, and read to him the parable of the Prodigal Son, in the fifteenth chapter of St. Luke. No portion of the Word, perhaps, could have been more appropriate. Every word was calculated to strike home. It needed but the application of God the Spirit to do so. The poor