The Pestilence that Walketh in Darkness. Lathwell held 'on, tottering over what seemed to him an inevitable abyss. Ephraim Pardoe had passed out of his apprenticeship, and his indenture had been crossed with those lines like lattice-work from which the term cancelling is derived. He was now in the business with his master, who had been at first suspected, then tried, and finally ousted from his place in the Corporation, but was steadily adhering to a stout Nonconformist belief, in which even the rite of baptism had not been overlooked by bis associate. All things assumed new aspects, but to one sober thoughtful man in prison, and to one solitary smileful woman, waiting wistfully at its outer gate with her daily store, often bringing with her a son or a daughter to gladden the heart of its father. And yet there was one man in London, who knew a simple fact that was soon to shake society from its centre to its circumference. There was a pen in his hand, and a piece of loose paper and a book before him. He was no other than the parish-clerk of Long-acre, and he was making an entry in his death-list, something like this December 5, 1664. Two persons (Frenchmen), in Drury Lane, of the Plague. Yes, the dread Invisible was come and could not be concealed. It had been watched from afar, but now it had leaped the Channel. It was come into the city. It had smitten down its victims. It was here. This is not the place to write its history, or I might tell of its stealthy, insidious increase, its terrors, its comedies, its tragedies; how streets were forsaken, depopulated, grass-grown; how an unusual smell would empty a church or scatter an assembly as by magic; how boats were moored on the river and families fled there for dear life; how the rich ran into the country, and the poor fell dumb in their homes; and how trade was stopped, laws were made, regulations enforced, specifics invented, and quackeries common. Whether 333 it was natural or supernatural, I need not also enquire, as I have not room to discuss. It was here, is all I need say, and proceed to our little episode in the great epic of sadness, suffering, and desolation. Weary months had passed, and still the Invisible, call it for convenience what we may, was unsleeping, insatiate. And still the fair woman smote the outer prison door at early morn, and went her lonely way home to her children. Lathwell, who lived only a few doors off, would frequently come in and give her what help he could, although he was no favourite with the children, who always slunk away as he entered, awed and silent. As she knew him better, however, Maggie loved him more, and communicated somewhat of her own warmth to his frost-bound rigid nature, touching his solemn decorous face into many a humourous dimple and many a quiet playful smile. He liked her winning ways, her homely habits, and came almost daily to enquire after Giles, scarcely ever uttering a word that could hurt her feelings or mar her hopes. He worked bravely, even heroically. All along these same four years had he given her her husband's portion, and his failure with the Bond had neither stopped his supplies nor his enquires. Once or twice he had even pleaded to go to the prison himself, when fatigue or unusual alarm at the swift strokes of the mighty scourge made it somewhat hazardous for Maggie to go herself, but he had pleaded in vain. There was room in the dark city for all love, charity, and Christly compassion. Pulpits were empty, and congregations dispersed. Most of the clergy, and some few of the Nonconformists, had forsaken the poor, the sinful, and the dying, and fled into the country. Upon many a church-door, a passer-by might read the words a plain-speaking people had written, 'Here is a Pulpit to be Let,' or, 'Here is a Pulpit to be Sold.' It was now that the brave Dissenters who had been ousted, maltreated, and despised, showed their deep love for humanity and their sublime trust in God. They occupied the vacant pulpits, filled the desolate churches, visited the stricken people, comforted the bereaved, and gave sweet counsels to the dying. Even Lathwell loosened tongue and spake the Word of Life; and as for Ephraim, he went about praying, preaching, persuading, even baptizing, fearing no man, no danger, no disease, hopeful in all extremities, patient in all perplexities, his impulsive wayward nature toning down into regulated sobriety as he moved and rubbed against these stern realities. She will be here directly,' said Giles Newbury one morning as he bustled about and trimmed his solitary apartment, and then sat down to watch the play of the cloudshadows and listen for the sound of well-known feet. He sunk into a reverie, and there flashed over his mind a scene of boyhood in his Carlton home, and Keturah played beside him in the green fields, and the shepherd-dog barked and ran, and inarticulate nature strove to render back to him the unanalyzed emotion of his own heart. For a few minutes he brushed among the flowers, and rambled in the bosky nooks. It was only for a few minutes. The bar of light that measured for him the hours of the morning had passed its accustomed mark, and he suddenly thought that it was past Maggie's usual time. And yet it could not be many moments past. She would come: why was he so fearful? Why did his heart beat so loudly? She had not looked well yesterday, but it was not a little thing that would keep her at home. He would wait in patience, and read a psalm. He did so, and yet she came not. He arose, knocked at the door, and no one answered him, cried aloud, and only the long corridor gave back his words. What was he to do? For a moment his reason seemed as if it would leave him, and the stone walls seemed coming down upon him and crushing his brain. A cloud hid the sun, and all was dimness, darkness. By and by it flew over, and rays of light again glanced on the floor. He shivered all over for a moment, wrestled within himself as though with a demon, and all was over. He sat down again, calmly and quietly, ready, even for starvation and death, if need be, dumbly to drop down there in his prison-house with a smile of joy upon his countenance. Some hours had passed, and yet nought promised to unclose this seal of mystery for him. Still he felt sure it would be unsealed, and whilst the grim warders were chuckling to themselves far without, saying Our Anabaptister 'll fare hard to-day-we shall see whether the fool will hold on now'—a still small voice was whispering in the prisoner's heart, Some one will come, whether Maggie will be dead or alive.' And yet gloom and silence brooded about him undisturbed. He had read many inspiring lessons, many consoling narratives, especially that about Elijah, which almost al ways opened up of itself when he took his Bible to read; he had done over again his little daily round of curious carefulness, and still-He left the thought dim and unworded, and so let me. Two o'clock came, although he knew not the hour, and it seemed almost nightfall to him, and there were faint far-off sounds that stirred his blood and sent it rushing into his face. Who could it be? They came nearer and nearer still. The door at the end of the corridor was being opened; he heard the click of the key in the lock, and then the sonorous rebound of the bolts. Some one was coming, but then it might not be to him, and a cold chill crept over him at the thought. He listened again as the door was fastened behind. He surely heard a female voice, and yet it could not be Maggie's and still it was like it. There were three people, too, and Alas! poor Maggie! who could the third one be? They could not have been more than twenty or thirty seconds coming down the corridor, and yet it seemed a quarter of an hour. Ah, they were stopping at his door. The door was opened. 'Only ten minutes,' articulates the automatic warder, and then begins his pacings outside. Two persons have entered. One stands aloof, after brief salutation, in respectful silence, and the other is clinging around his neck in tears. 'Mother is so ill, father,' sobbed the poor girl through her tears. 'She couldn't come, and so I have. But don't weep so, father. Mother said I was to tell you not to grieve about her, but to leave all to God, and trust in Him though you might never see her any more." 'Forgive me, forgive me, Maggie!' burst out the stricken man, I must weep for you; I cannot help it. And I in prison, too, and these poor children of ours fatherless, motherless, in a city of woe and agony. O God, help me, save me! O Christ, have pity on me!' And he groaned aloud, until even the automaton without was moved, and felt a strange tugging at his heart, and a soft moisture in his eyes. Forgive me, Ephraim, for my seeming neglect of you,' said Giles after a while addressing himself to the second person. You are very kind to come with my daughter, although your errand is a sorrowful 335 'Warder!' he shouted addressing the man without as soon as Giles had read the document, 'This man goes out with us, and here is your warranty.' The man opened the door, looked at it, doffed his hat, and said 'Yes; it's all right. You can go.' A few more minutes, a short prayer of devout thankfulness to which even the warders said amen, and they issue from the prison, down the corridor, out past the grim janitor into the free atmosphere of God's own creating. Streets are passed, old recollections stirred, and a quick step almost reaches a run, and they are there. Two doors off the dead-cart has stopped and they are bringing out a body. But, look, there is his own; the red-cross is upon the door, and Lord have mercy on us!' is written beneath it. He rushes in, runs upstairs, and there, tossing about in feverish pain, lies his own true wife. She sees him, has expected him, recognizes him, and he hastens to embrace her. O come not near me, come not near me, my husband, my husband! I am stricken, I am stricken! Do not touch me-nay, nay, leave me, and let me die alone! God has freed you and our dear ones can spare me. Live for them, Giles, and let me die in peace!' 'But Maggie, Maggie, my own dear Maggie! may I not touch you, kiss you, speak one brief word to you?' 'Oh no, no, no! You will get it, and then, O God, my children, my children,! Leave me, leave me !I am dying; yes, dying!' 'She is wandering,' said the nurse. And Giles retired to the opposite corner of the room, and covered his face with his hands. MUTUAL EDIFICATION.* EDIFY ONE ANOTHER, AS ALSO YE DO.-1 THESS. v. 11. CHRISTIANS may, moreover, edify | good. By your conversation and example, by exhorting each other and being of one accord and of one mind, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, you may edify one another. This you may also do by putting useful books into each others' hands, by reading the Scriputres together, and praying with and for each other, by visiting each other in seasons of sorrow and affliction, and by suggesting to each other modes of usefulness. But on these topics we need not dwell, for if you act in accordance with the precept before us, you will study how you can most effectually benefit each other, and be found constantly seeking not your own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved. Let us enquire, further, why Christians should edify one another? one another by their mutual love. Love edifieth. It promotes the peace, the purity, and the happiness of the brethren, and no attainments we may possess however splendid, can possibly compensate for the loss of it. It is the bond of union among the followers of the Lamb, that by which the whole mystical body of Christ is fitly joined together and compacted. Break this bond, and at once all is discord, confusion, and strife, and every evil work. When, however, the disciples of the Saviour love one another for the truth's sake that is in them, and by love serve one another, they come to know experimentally, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Then it is that they are made sensible that the church is the school, and that in it they are trained up to perfection. Would you then edify one another? exercise mutual love. Follow after that charity which suffereth long and is kind; which vaunteth not itself; is not easily provoked; doth not be-recorded in his writings is as truly have itself unseemly; seeketh not her own; is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things; believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Remember you are mutually interested in Christ and partakers of the same divine grace, and be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love. If your hearts be one, then all that concerns any of you will interest the whole of you, and you will be emulous as to which can do the most towards the spiritual improvement of the brethren. That selfishness which looks only on its own things and cares only for them, will be destroyed, and you will so serve one another in love as to promote each others' well being. Such, then, are some of the ways in which you may do each other Allegiance to the King of Zion demands it. What Paul wrote was written under the inspiration of the Divine Spirit, consequently what is expressive of the will of Him who created all things, and who is Head of the body, the church, its only Lord and Lawgiver, as if it had came direct from His lips. Hence the words of the Apostle are to be regarded. He who refuses to attend to the duties he enjoins refuses to hear Him who through him communicated a portion of His will to man, and so far fails to afford evidence of discipleship to Jesus. You remember the words of the Great Redeemer: Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you, My sheep hear my voice. If a man love Me, he will keep My words. Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father * Concluded from page 297. Love to the Church of Christ. which is in heaven, 337 These are im- | active in the Saviour's cause will constrain you to live to Him; and if there is, as there should be between the members of the body of Christ mutual sympathy, when you cause them to rejoice, you will rejoice with them. Besides, an attention to the duty inculcated will constrain you more diligently to read, to hear, and to meditate on God's Word, and to search for arguments to enforce its precepts. It must therefore be beneficial. While you water others your own souls will be watered. Bear this truth in mind. Be assured that the great reason why the religious attainments of numbers are so far beneath what they ought to be is to be found in the fact that they never attempt to edify their brethren. They look on their own things, not on the things of others, They act as if the end of the union and fellowship of Christians in the gospel was anything and everything except their mutual edification. No wonder their souls are more like the heath in the desert than a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the rivers; or that they resemble those whom the Apostle reproves, saying, When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God. He who would enjoy prosperity of soul must care for his brethren, and do all he can to excite them to diligence in the pursuit of those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Your love to each other requires you to edify one another. Love always seeks to promote the best interests of its objects; and if your love to the brethren be sincere, your heart's desire and prayer for them is, that they may increase in every Christian grace, stand fast in the evil day; go from strength to strength, and be faithful unto death. You cannot indeed love the followers of the Lamb without feeling anxious about their welfare, and attempting in every possible way to promote it; but in no way can you more effectually promote it than by obeying the injunction in the text. Then attend to the duty enjoined, attend to it daily, and by your diligent discharge of it prove that you are entitled to adopt the language of John, We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. Remember, love is an active grace, and if yours does not constrain you to seek to excel to the edifying of them who are of the household of faith, you neither bring forth its proper fruits, nor regard the exhortation, Let everyone of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. Love to the church of Christ should also induce you to edify one another. There can be no more knowledge, faith, love, holiness, zeal, and spirituality in the church A regard to your own spiritual than her members individually posbenefit should constrain you to edify sess. Whatever the church is, she is one another. You cannot labour to only what those connected with her advance the welfare of the brethren make her. If they were more holy, without advancing your own. If she would be more holy; if their you increase their knowledge they moral influence was greater, hers will increase yours. The arguments would be more powerful; if their you employ to confirm them in the souls were more prosperous, she faith will tend to promote your own would enjoy greater prosperity. steadfastness. The motives you Her best days were when her adduce to stimulate them to be members acted as the text directs, |