"I believe there is not a sin you commit now which will not, even in this life, find you out. I knew a boy who told me what his feelings were once, when he thought himself drowning. He was bathing, and the weeds suddenly wrapped round him, and in an instant pulled him under. As he sank, everything he had done in his life flashed across him in a moment of time. He saw deeds, which he had fancied harmless, in their true light, and he told me the instantaneous review was an awful thing. "He did not drown; for the bottom of the pond was close under him, though he did not know it; but it serves as an illustration of what I mean. "Would it not be safer, wiser, dear Frank, to obey God now, that you may reap life everlasting? You know it says, 'Thou shalt cast all my sins behind Thy back.'" "You don't know how difficult it is, Mrs. Arundel," he answered in a smothered voice. "Perhaps not wholly, dear, but I can guess and understand a great deal; our hearts are all the same, Frank, and I know what a hard fight it must be for you. But you will not be sorry in the end. The soldier who is victorious in the hottest battle gains the most laurels. There is always Christ, who will conquer for you, if you commit it to Him. He is the Captain of the Lord's host." Mrs. Arundel said all this with extreme gentleness, but with a firm persuasion of its truth. The boy felt this, even while he still indulged his angry sullenness. He rose at last, and said rather stiffly: "You mean kindly, Mrs. Arundel, and I thank you. I will think it over. Good-night." The next day, the moral atmosphere seemed clearer. Arthur had had a little talk with Tom, and had cheered him on his way. A few words of reminder as to how happy they used to be, and that they must not let Frank's coming disturb them, had set Tom thinking; and when once he began to think, he never stopped till he had set the thoughts in order in his mind. "Mamma," he said, looking up in her face that morning, "I've been unhappy and fretful lately, but I've found out about it now." "Have you, darling?" "Yes; but He restores our souls, doesn't He, mamma?" "Indeed He does, dear; but for that we should wander away." "Yes, and so He's brought me to still water again, mamma." Frank Compton left them soon after this, and sadly the memory of his visit remained. A painful memory to most of them; for, guarded as they had been, the world and the world's doings had been much shut out from them, and Frank had given them a peep into its wickedness. Arthur thought with thankfulness of what might have been, had he once stepped into the deception which Frank had been leading him to, and he shuddered when he remembered how near he had been to it.