“‘God bless you, Adam! and _lift up the light of His countenance upon you_! Put your trust in him: but remember that he is the all-seeing, the omniscient, omnipotent God, _who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity_!’ “Ayliffe wept in silence, and with reverent affection of manner pressed to his lips the still-retained hand of Mr Hylton. “‘Come, Adam! speak! Speak to your pastor—your friend—your minister!’ “‘You seem an angel, sir!’ said Ayliffe, looking at him with a dull, oppressed eye, that was heart-breaking. “‘Why an angel, Adam? I bring you,’ said Mr Hylton, shaking his head, and sighing, ‘no earthly good news whatever; nothing but my unworthy offices to prepare you for hereafter! Prepare! prepare to meet thy God, for he draweth near! And who may abide the day of his coming!’ “‘I was readier for my change when last I saw you, sir, than now,’ said Ayliffe, with a suppressed groan, covering his face with his manacled hands. “‘How is that, poor Adam?’ “‘Ah!—I was, so it seemed, half over Jordan, and have been dragged back. I see not now that other bright shore which made me forget earth! All now is dark!’ “His words smote Mr Hylton to the heart. ‘Why is this? why should it be? Adam!’ said he, very earnestly, ‘have you ever been, can you possibly ever be, out of God’s hands? What happens but from God? And if He hath prolonged this your bitter, bitter trial, what should you, what can you do, but submit to His infinite power and goodness? _He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth! He will not cast off for ever; but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies!_’ “‘Oh, sir! oft do I think his mercy is clean gone for ever! Why—why am I here?’ he continued, with sudden vehemence. ‘He knoweth my innocence—yet will make me die the death of the guilty! That cannot, _cannot_ be just!’ “‘Adam! Adam! Satan is indeed besieging you! Even if, in the awful, inscrutable decrees of Providence, you be ordained to die for what you did not, have you forgotten that sublime and awful truth and fact on which hang all your hopes—the death of Him who died, _the just for the unjust_?’ “Ayliffe’s head sunk down on his knees. “‘Ah, sir!’ said he, tremulously, after a while, during which Mr Hylton interfered not with his meditations, ‘these words do drive me into the dust, and then raise me again higher than I was before!’