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"And pray what would you in such a case do other than I have done to him?"

"I don't know that you are particularly in fault. I would interpret the Bible to me as a great, helpless sufferer, needing all its grace to sustain me."

"Well, so I do interpret it, I hope!"

"But, Mrs. Siddleton, you and I are, where it suits best our convenience, to say to them in Bible language. You must 'show yourselves men;' 'endure hardness as good soldiers of the cross;' 'man should not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.' 'He that will not work, neither shall he eat.' But there is a Bible class of interpretations that just suits the case of a man in the condition of Hicks."

"Well, perhaps I grant it."

"Yes, 'Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' 'In my Father's house are many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you.' 'Cast all your care upon the Lord, for he careth for you.' 'In my distress I called upon the Lord and he heard me out of his holy hill.'"

"Now, Mrs. Siddleton, I don't say that we had better do any differently from what we have already done. But I tell you the Bible is the poor man's friend when you get the cream of it. It is not merely a teacher and a scourge, but it is also a sovereign balm for all his woes."

Mrs. Siddleton was perfectly overwhelmed at her husband's intimate perception of Bible truth. She felt convicted by his reasonings of much one-sidedness in her own course of interpretation, and thought that perhaps she had some lessons to learn from the Bible herself.

But she also knew that he was laboring under a very highly excited condition of the intellect, and wisely, she concluded, deferred any permanent change in her system of management till the customary level of feeling was again perceptible. She, however, put on the tea-kettle at an early hour, and heard it hissing and steaming with unaccustomed sensations of pleasure, for she had resolved to give the whole of the paupers a tea supper and some buttered toast!

If you can get only a little leaf of the Bible properly into the heart of man, it will astonishingly humanize him, opening it a great way and causing it to throb, throb, THROB almost to bursting. There's a difference in the effect, whether the Bible be got into the heart therefore, or be packed all round it, and especially, whether it lie in the brain or in the heart.

Mrs. Siddleton's Bible was clear, brain-Bible, and it was handsomely folded near, but just outside of her heart, and that, a heart of stone.

When the tea-kettle boiled, and the flavor of the tea rose like sweet incense over her bead, and went frolicking and gamboling up the narrow stairway, and penetrated under the doors and by the side of the doors and through the latchets of the doors; and the savory fragrance of the buttered toast followed it, the Bible had begun to work down into her heart, thawing out its ice, softening its rock and showing her a heart of FLESH!

That's the kind of heart the Gospel is looking after, and when it is found, the world over, mankind will begin their true jubilee.

As for Mr. Siddleton, he retired to his room, took down his books, went over all his accounts again and again, and continued that occupation until dark, mean- time pulling his hair, giving vent to ejaculatory curses, and regarding himself as the most unfortunate man alive on the face of the earth. Unfortunately for Siddleton's plan of employing the paupers in the manufacture of his brick, the work was too hard and too great for them, while the season was cold and difficult to endure. They frequently gave out before doing a half day's work, and at no time after the first three weeks were there in the company more than two or three that were at all reliable. Many were either sick or feignedly so, and he was forced to hire, at great wages, two or three extra hands. Of course Mr. Siddleton resented behavior and disappointment of this sort, and they who would not work, were taught from the Word of God that they should not eat.

Eating and working were the two great points of interest in the case of paupers. It was certain that they must eat more or less, and the practical, interesting inquiry in that connection was, "how much work can be got out of them?" He who could best solve this dubious question, could also best meet the practicalities of the other point.

Siddleton, try as he would, never seemed to succeed in his plans of work. Either the plans were unsound in themselves, or the manner of carrying them out was defective. He was sure to find himself a loser whenever he undertook to accomplish his plans by the help of the paupers. Not being philosophic enough to discover the true cause of his failure, however, he unfailingly charged it on the wilfulness of the men, (or women,) and then regarded himself in the light of a responsible party, who was conscientiously held to the duty of punishment. He established it as a rule, therefore, that if one of the men gave out before dinner, he should have no dinner; if before supper, (as was generally the case,) no supper.