For many days more I lay there on the brink, waiting for the boatman; but still he came not. I began to think Patience was about to desert me; it seemed to me, I had so nearly lost sight of her, that I could hardly hear her voice; then I cried unto my Father: "Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy spirit from me!" Then came the message: "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him;" this comforting, though short message, cheered me much, for it seemed to bring a sweet sense of rest and security with it; and with the Psalmist I could say: "Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the Heavens, and thy faithfulness reaches into the clouds; thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are as great deeps; Lord, thou preservest man and beast; how excellent is thy loving kindness, O God; therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wing; they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures." I felt filled with that sweet peace that flows as a river, and enters in and fills the soul with glory and with God. As the boatman came not for me yet, I thought I would look around again and see if any new friends had gathered along the brink; and, while I was looking, I saw one coming with slow, reluctant step, as if he would rather stay on this side of Jordan than to cross over; but his guide kept urging him on with the Father's message: "Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Well," said he, "I am weary and heavy laden; I have had a tiresome journey through this howling wilderness, and fain would find rest; but I have become so dirty and bedabbled through the swamps and quagmires, that I have not a garment fit to appear before Him in." The guide answered: "All that _will_ come, may come and partake of the waters of life freely." Then said he: "I will arise and go to my Father." He brightened up and quickened his pace; as soon as the guide saw that he was willing to go, he sent to the servants to bring hither the best robe and put it on him; and, so neatly clad, and in his right mind, I saw him approach the "bank," and seeing he would have to wait some time for the boatman, I entered into conversation, by asking at what time the Father sent for him; he said: "Just about noon, just as I had finished up my morning's work, and thought the hardest of the day was done, and I could in the afternoon finish those little jobs that I had planned in the morning; but in the hour, I thought not, the Son of man came." "But what," I asked, "made you so reluctant to come?" "Oh," said he, "I thought the Father was angry with me; for it is written: 'God is angry with the wicked every day;' but I heard another say: 'He that cometh with a broken and a contrite heart, he will in no wise cast out.' I thought I would go, for I could only perish anyway, and if I tried to stay away, I knew I should perish; another said to me: