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"Is it nothing to be so weak, disheartened, and debased that you lie prostrate in the mire of your own evil nature, as it were, and with no power to rise?" he asked bitterly

"That is sad indeed"

"Well, that's just ht a gleam of hope Mrs Arnot," he continued passionately, "I don't kno to be different; I don't feel capable ofany persistent and successful effort I feel that I have lost all et up again"

"Perhaps you cannot, Egbert," said Mrs Arnot very gravely; "it would seem that soroaned

"You have, indeed, a difficult proble at it from your point of view, I do not wonder that it seeive bert; I cannot It is not in ood man You know that I would do so if I could"

"Would to God I had never lived, then," he exclaimed, desperately

"Can you offer God no better prayer than that? Will you try to be calm, and listen patiently to ive you hope--I could not est convictions But I have not said, Egbert, that there is no hope, no chance, for you On the contrary, there is abundant hope--yes, absolute certainty--of your achieving a noble character, if you will set about it in the right way But as one of the first and indispensable conditions of success, I wish you to realize that the task is too great for you alone; too great with reat if the world that seems so hostile should unite to help you; and yet neither I nor all the world could prevent your success if you went to the right and true source of help Why have you forgotten God in your e solely to yourself and to another weak fellow-creature like yourself?"

"You are in no respect like est the thought"

"I have the saainst my peculiar weaknesses and te, 'Coether It is my will you should do all you can yourself, and what you cannot do I will do for you' Since that tile hard, but never vainly There have been seasons when rew so heavy that I was ready to faint; but after appealing to ht cry for help, the crushing weight would pass away, and I becao on my way relieved and hopeful"