he was sleeping when she had finished, and would have left the room. But one of the nurses whose hand was against the artery in the neck whispered, "You'd better stay. I don't think you'll want him to go out alone."

But he was not sleeping. Just gathering up the powers of his soul in the silence to welcome that stately guest, whose message he had so often escaped amid the dangers of the mines.

"I know it won't be long," he said, catching the meaning of the nurse's whisper without hearing the words. "It's all right! I'm ready at any time now. If you could stay, Mrs. Warne, I wish you would sing some more to me."

Then followed some messages, briefly and tenderly spoken to various friends. "Now sing the rector's

piece to me," he said.

So Helen sang again:

"O Love That will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O Light that followest all my way,

I yield my flickering torch to Thee:
My heart restores its borrowed ray
That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.

O Christ that liftest up my head,

I dare not ask to fly from Thee';

I lay in dust life's glory dead

And from the ground there blossoms red

Life that shall endless be."

The eyes behind the mask flamed for a moment and the clumsy hands were lifted together as if in prayer. Then they sank helplessly to the white coverlet.

INTO CHURCH UNITY

The clashing of creeds and the strife
Of many beliefs that in vain
Perplex men's heart and brain,
Are naught but the rustle of leaves
When the breath of God upheaves
The boughs of the tree of life."

-ANON.

T

XXVI

A PLUNGE INTO CHURCH UNITY

HE turning point in the religious history of Coalton came on the night when Rector Warne made his famous leap. Up to this time he had been able to reach certain men and women by ones and twos, such widely different persons as Breece and McCarty and the Hattons and Mrs. Gooch and Morris and Davis and even Whiz Nichol. Then there had been such helpers as Dr. Creigan, and Kate Hatton and dear old Sunderland Red. But after this leap in the direction of church unity he began to take hold upon the mass of the people as he never had before. Indeed it was the beginning of an awakening in the church of Coalton for which he had longed and prayed.

Until just before the rector's leap there had been no denominational rivalry in the town. Many of the people belonged by birth to some other church, but they had all been contented to worship with the rector's flock when they went to church at all.

But now the town was to be invaded by a new denomination. Brother Smiler, the famous evangelist was about to pitch his tent for a month's revival services in Coalton with the avowed determination of organizing a new church. It will be remembered that