[Illustration: While He Slept His Enemy Came and Sowed Tares Among the
Wheat.]

"Do not seek to console me," said Helen, "for such tears are salutary,
my dear brother. I have virtually said that the joys of religion are
fading and unsatisfactory; I must sometimes seek for others. I have
quieted more than one uneasy conscience, by throwing the influence of
a professing Christian into the scale of the world. I have wandered
from my Father's side to the society of his rebel subjects. And yet I
have cause to mourn less for this one transgression, than for the
alienation of heart, which led the way to it. Had I not fallen far,
very far, from the strength and purity of my earlier love, even your
pleadings could not have moved me."

"But the Bible says nothing about such amusements, Helen."

"Not in words, perhaps, but in effect. Put the case to your own heart,
Edward. Would you have me choose for my companions those who treat you
with neglect? Would you wish me to frequent places, whence I should
return, careless and cold in my manner toward you? Ah, brother! I
loved God once. I saw his hand in everything around me. I felt his
presence perpetually, and trusted, childlike, to his protecting arm.
But now I regard him less, pray less, read less, and give less." And
then she revealed to her brother her beautiful experience--beautiful
till she grew negligent and formal--with a truth, an earnestness, a
loving simplicity, that for the first time gave him some insight into
the nature of true piety.

"And now, dear Edward," she said, "read to me Christ's prayer to the