People said that Mr. Thornton was very peculiar. He puzzled the world in which he moved in more ways than one. It was incomprehensible to them why a man with thousands to bestow in charity, did not sit in his easy chair, and with a few flourishes of his pen make munificent gifts to public institutions, which would trumpet his praises far and near, instead of giving it out in driblets as he did, and half of the time nobody ever heard of it, except by chance; giving himself such extra trouble, too, hunting out objects of charity that nobody else would ever think of. Ah! That was just what he did accomplish; things that most people would not think of doing; little helps given here and there, tiding a discouraged man over it rough spot, saving the home to a widow, giving a month's rest to a poor sewing woman, a barrel of flour or load of coal to a family suddenly driven to straits who would starve rather than beg. And money was not all he gave; no one but God and themselves ever knew how he followed young men in and out, bringing them back from the very door of the pit to respectability and to Christ. Among the poorest classes he was a most successful worker, because, like his Master, he brought not only the bread of life, but also the material, homely loaf for fainting bodies. Whatever could possess one of intellectual tastes, with wealth and leisure and the wide world before him to spend time in such a strange way? People who could see no farther than the outside said that he wanted to be a sort of patron saint to the unfortunate; others explained it by that convenient word "eccentric." That which really was the true motive power of this life they could not understand or appreciate. Every person finds his greatest pleasure in some particular way. It was natural for Mr. Thornton to find his in making others happy. As a boy, he often gave a bit of silver to a beggar or a rose to a forlorn woman, because he so loved to see the face change from dullness to glad surprise. Of late years, though, there had come into his life something stronger and purer as a controlling power. He had been taken into near companionship with the Lord Jesus. He consulted with him in every small affair of his life, and received special guidance, consequently he had no worries and anxieties; he was under orders, not as servant only,— it was more as one might carry out the least wish of a dear absent friend. The beneficence that flowed from his purse was simply dispensing another's bounty. Every flower or kind word bestowed, were the cups of cold water given in the Friend's name, for none of which he claimed merit.