WORDS ON THE THRESHOLD. 237 12th.-On her way to execution, her husband's headless body was borne past her. "O Guildford ! Guildford!" she exclaimed, the antipast is not so bitter that thou hast tasted, and which I shall soon taste, as to make my flesh tremble; it is nothing compared to the feast of which we shall partake this day in heaven!" After a handkerchief had been given her to bind her eyes, the executioner requested her to stand on the straw, which she did, saying, “I pray you despatch me quickly." Then she tied the handkerchief about her eyes, and feeling for the block, she said, "Where is it? where is it?" One of the standers-by guided her thereunto, and she laid her head down, and stretched forth her body, and said, "Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit!" and so died at the age of seventeen. "Think not, O mortal! vainly gay, That thou from human woes art free; To-morrow may be drunk by thee. Lady Jane Grey. EMANUEL KANT (1724-1804). 12th. He died in the eightieth year of his age, retaining his powers almost to the last. "I do not fear death," he said, "for I know how to die. I assure you, that if I knew this night was to be my last, I would raise my hands, and say, 'God be praised!' The case would be far different if I had caused the misery of any of His creatures." After partaking of a little wine, he said, faintly, "It is enough!" These were his last words. "Death, as seen by men in dreams, Takes the hand, and names the name, SCHLEIERMACHER, PHILOSOPHER (1768–1834). 12th.-His death beautifully sealed his life. Without any sentimental raptures, it was still a veritable euthanasia. The speculations which had absorbed his life in things immediately around him-in humanity, philosophy, and religion-were stretching onward illimitably above him as he gently lapsed into eternal life, as the beautiful river in Novalis, wherein Heinrich's Matilda floated in smiles, flowed softly over them when re-united in the spirit-land. "I am, in fact," said he to his wife, "in a state between consciousness and unconsciousness; but inwardly I enjoy heavenly moments. I feel constrained to think the profoundest speculative thoughts, and they are to me identical with the deepest religious feelings!" "The light of reason cannot give Life to my soul; Jesus alone can make me truly live, One glance of His can make my spirit whole. O Jesus, on this longing heart of mine!"-Richter. MICHEL ANGELO (1474-1563). 17th. He died at the ripe age of eighty-eight, and his last words were, "I resign my soul to God, my body to the earth, and my wealth to the next of kin." Then turning to those around him, he said, "In your passage through life, remember the sufferings of Jesus Christ." "Do Thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my mind MARTIN LUTHER (1484-1546). 18th. Two doctors and the count and his wife arrived. Luther said to them, "I am dying! I shall remain at Eisleben." And Dr. Jonas, expressing a hope that the perspiration would perhaps relieve him, "No, dear Jonas," he replied, "it is a cold and dry sweat, and the pain is worse." He then applied himself to prayer, and said, "O my God! Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Thou the God of all consolation, I thank Thee for having revealed to me Thy well-beloved Son, in whom I believe; whom I have preached and acknowledged; whom I have loved and honoured; and whom the Pope and the ungodly persecute. I commend my soul to Thee, O my Saviour, Jesus Christ! I shall leave this terrestrial body; I shall be taken from this life; but I know that I shall rest eternally with Thee!" He repeated three times following, "In manus tuas commendo spiritum; redemisti me, Domine veritatis." Dr. Jonas said to him, "Reverend father, do you die in constant reliance on the faith you have taught?" He replied, distinctly, "Yes!" and fell asleep. Soon after he became alarmingly pale, then cold, and drawing one deep breath, he expired. "Wherefore my hope is in the Lord, My works I count but dust, I build not there, but on His word, And in His goodness trust. Up to His care myself I yield, He is my tower, my rock, my shield."-Luther. J. FALK, POET AND PHILANTHROPIST (1768–1826). 20th. His friend and former pupil, Rheinthaler, came from Erfurt to see him; but when he arrived Falk's eye was filmy, and his utterance indistinct. But as he stood by the bedside, he heard the sufferer's last broken words, "God—popular faith— short-Christ-end!" Soon after his lips were sealed, and the eyelids closed in death. He was carried to the grave by the children of his reformatory, who sang hymns upon the way. Over his grave is inscribed his own quaint epitaph : : "Underneath this linden-tree In the grave is only clay."-J. Falk. REV. ROBERT HALL (1764-1831). 21st.-Mrs. Hall becoming alarmed by the sudden impression that he was dying, exclaimed, “This can't be dying!" When he replied, "It is death-it is death-death! oh, the sufferings of this body!" but immediately added, "I am very comfortable, very comfortable. Come, Lord Jesus, come!" To a friend who sat by the bed administering stimulants, he addressed his last coherent words, "I am dying; death is come at last; all will now be useless!" "What means my beating heart, To be afraid of death? Though I resign my breath. I shall arise and with these eyes EARL ESSEX (1567-1601). 25th. The unfortunate earl, inclining himself, said, "In humility and obedience to Thy commandment, in obedience to Thy ordinance, to Thy good pleasure, O God, I prostrate myself to Thy deserved punishment! Lord, be merciful to Thy prostrate servant!" He then laid himself at length upon the boards, and placing his head upon the block, with these last words, "Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit!" received his death stroke. "Pray for me! I must now forsake ye; the last hour Of my long weary life is come upon me. Farewell! And when you would say something that is sad, L century. THE TWO BROTHERS. CHAPTER III. OWFIELD is a large manufacturing town in the "Black Country," one of those huge centres of industry and life which have been forced into existence by the requirements of this nineteenth They are not pleasant places to look at these workshops of England; and James Hudson, the country-bred boy, whose experience of a town was confined to the clean quiet streets through which he and Tom had walked that morning, looked with a feeling akin to horror at the dense clouds of smoke which hung over and indicated the place that he was now, on this summer evening, rapidly nearing. The train dashed past the coke-ovens, whose fires were becoming every minute more fierce-looking as the daylight failed; and through the outskirts of the town, where rows of unfinished houses, and boards announcing "Building sites to let," showed that the growth of the place had not yet ceased; and then the tall chimneys and the countless roofs became more closely mased together, and with a piercing whistle the train slackened speed on the top of a high embankment, and entered Lowfield Station. James stepped on to the platform, feeling per fectly dazed; but he was presently touched on the shoulder by a small care-worn looking man, in shabby dark clothes, who said, "Are you James Hudson?" and on being answered in the affirmative, continued, "I am John Fisher; and as you are to lodge at my house, I came to meet you, thinking you'd be strange to the place, and might lose your way." James was very glad to resign his luggage and himself into Mr. Fisher's guardianship, and they were soon rattling along the streets in a cab; through the windows of which he absently looked at the brilliantly-lighted shops, and the hurrying crowds on the broad pavements; whilst from time to time John Fisher glanced curiously at the lad's pale handsome face. Presently the cab stopped before the door of a small grocer's shop, and James was introduced to his new home. When the foreman of the engine-works of Messis. Sims and Co. was commissioned by his chiefs to find a lodging for James Hudson, he said to himself, "I'll | fields of Ashford, gradually disappeared in the unsee if the Fishers can take the boy in; she is a motherly kind of body, and will look after him well, and make him comfortable." The Fisher family was large, but the grocery business and its profits were very small, and the foreman's offer was tempting; so, after a few minutes' consideration, Mrs. Fisher said to her husband, "I see how I can manage. I'll move the press-bed down into the kitchen, and let Hubert and Willie sleep there, and Johnnie can have the little cupboard at the end of the passage; and then there will be plenty of room." So the kind bustling little woman set to work; and James's room was soon ready for him. Hubert and Willie watched the erection of the press-bed in the kitchen with great interest; and looked forward to many nocturnal and unlawful blackbeetle hunts; but Johnnie did not take so cheerful a view of the change of quarters. The little cupboard at the end of the passage had always been thought of by the children as a place rather to be avoided even in daylight; and the thought of being its sole occupant during the dark hours of night, when mice do hold their revels, had many terrors for poor Johnnie. He would not for the world have confessed to any misgivings, but perhaps it would have been better if he had, for he sulked instead, which was no relief to himself, and very unpleasant to the household generally. However, the blackbeetles and the dreaded cupboard were alike forgotten on the evening of James's arrival; and, from the moment he entered the house until bedtime, several pairs of eyes were fixed on him, with the unabashed stare which only children can accomplish, sundry frowns from the eldest girl, Annie, being quite ineffectual to stop the scrutiny. Annie had many ideas of her own about "manners," though her somewhat scanty education at a day-school had not included the extra which is popularly valued at twopence a quarter. She had now, at fifteen, left school, and was the hardest-working and perhaps the least-considered member of the family. In Messrs. Sims and Co.'s business there was no royal road to promotion. Every one who entered it, whether he was rich or poor, the son of a gentleman or the son of an artisan, had to learn his work practically, not merely theoretically. Mr. Sims' eldest son, as well as the heirs to the indefinite title of "Co.," had to take his place amongst the workmen who trooped into the engine-sheds at six o'clock every morning; and he showed, much to his father's relief, that the high degree he had taken at Oxford had not unfitted him for his future career, and that brainwork does not necessarily paralyse the hands. James Hudson's life, accordingly, for the next two years was one of hard and incessant manual labour; and though at first so unnatural to him as to be almost unbearable, it was just the discipline that he most needed. The "mooniness" which he could indulge in without let or hindrance amongst the quiet lanes and green congenial atmosphere of the busy engine-rooms, where, physically and mentally, each worker had to be on the alert. And the influence of these hours of labour was by no means counteracted during his hours of rest. The same lesson, though in a somewhat gentler form, was to be learnt in the Fishers' dingy little house as in the crowded works. The quiet country lad soon occupied a distinct place in warm-hearted Mrs. Fisher's affections. "Why, my dear," said her husband to her a few weeks after James's arrival, "you could not make more fuss over young Hudson if he was one of ourselves." "Well, and I am sure I feel just as if he was one of our own," replied his wife. You see," she added, apologetically, I can't help fancying our George would have been just like that young fellow if he had lived to grow up." Now as the general characteristic of the Fisher figure was "stumpiness," and the family nose might by ill-natured people have been called a "snub," and George had shown no signs of proving an exception, to the family rule in these points, Mrs. Fisher's idea might not have had much foundation, but it satisfied her; and James was told to make himself at home, and was treated as a son of the house. And very beneficial to him was this insight into a happy home life, and the lessons of self-forgetfulness it taught him. At first he rather repulsed the children's advances towards friendship, saying to himself, "I have only a few quiet hours in the day, and why shouldn't I spend them by myself and as I please?" But the fits of abstraction which had been endured by his mother, and rather admired by Tom, were not understood by this matter-of-fact family. It was not pleasant to hear a shrill voice proclaiming, "You are very cross and unkind!" outside the door of his room, even though it was only the opinion of an individual whose mouth apparently was just on a level with the keyhole. The adoring affection which a little attention and good-nature soon won from the easilysatisfied children was decidedly preferable to such disparaging remarks; and the self-denial, which at first was a great effort to James's self-engrossed nature, gradually became more spontaneous and natural to him. But, in addition to these circumstances which attended his new life, there was another influence which, above all, developed with its own wondrous power his better nature. Thrown as he was amongst the roughest class of the labouring population of Lowfield, James necessarily came into contact with much brutality and wickedness. His natural refinement would perhaps have been a sufficient safeguard against sights and sounds which disgusted and horrified him; but he was learning to provide himself with that armour which is a surer defence than any æsthetic tastes or constitutional qualities. Degradation and vice, such as he had never imagined could exist, brought out into brighter and fairer contrast the "beauty of holiness," and with the appreciation of it there came the knowledge of how far he himself fell short of the perfect Example, and a sincere desire that his own life might not be amongst the misused talents of which Miss Baird had spoken. So time passed on. And whilst James Hudson was becoming a thorough citizen of Lowfield, Tom was plodding industriously at his work in the quiet little village, where one day was very much like another, but where his steadiness and uprightness were gradually earning for him respect and consideration. Miss Baird had formerly only thought of him as James's brother, but she now began to like him for his own sake; and Tom used frequently to go to the lodge to receive or communicate news of his brother. About two years after James left home Miss Baird paid a visit of a few days to Lowfield, to satisfy herself of his happiness and well-being-a visit which was always referred to by Mrs. Fisher as "that blessed time." The "fairy godmother" left such substantial tokens of her presence behind her that every face in the Fisher family looked as if it had been touched by the wand of happiness. "So, Mary, you want to know how James Hudson is," said Miss Baird, on the morning after her return from Lowfield. Miss Montague had not as yet made any such inquiry, but she was quite content to be used as a mark of interrogation which could be applied to any subject that Miss Baird wished to discuss; and she took up her knitting, happy in the consciousness that she could now give her whole mind to the mental arithmetic which an intricate stocking-heel involved. "Yes, my dear Mary," said Miss Baird, as, with a vigorous wriggle, she ensconced herself in the depths of a large arm-chair, "I am quite delighted with the success of this Lowfield plan." 92. Quote a passage which shows that there was a certain kind of reed used in ancient times as paper for writing upon. 93. Where is there mention made of the sap of trees? 94. Quote a passage to show that the system of cutting down trees or shrubs in order to strengthen them was in use many years ago, even as it is done now. 95. Prove that the same plan of making cheese by curdling the milk was known to the patriarchs as it is to us. 96. Quote a passage which mentions the names of two of Pharaoh's magicians. 97. How many times does St. Paul say he visited the church at Corinth ? ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON PAGE 208. 78. Joshua ii. 15. Compare Acts ix. 25, and 2 Cor. xi. 33. 79. That of Jotham against his brother Abimelech (Judges ix. 7—15). 80. "Because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein" (John xii. 6). 81. See Proverbs xxv. 6, 7. 82. "Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it" (Isaiah xiii, 17). H INTROSPECTION. OW soon we sicken at inhuman wrong, Grows weary, and then faints, beneath the sense Of the perpetual echo from the throng, As in derision of its impotence, Mingled with wails of want, and the weak sighs Of famished faith, starved hope, lost love, and love that dies. And do we swiftly sicken at the same, Through nearer deeds, when the self-scornful mood Drives question fiercely: "What hast thou to blame, |