the essential whole. It would be well to read other books if they
could be had--Clarke and Wesley were, of course, spoken of--but
they could be done without. The word of God was in the one volume,
and it needed no help from commentators to win its way and suffice
the hungering and thirsting soul.

"If you could lay hands upon the book of sermons written by Brother
Peter Cummins, which his wife had printed, I'm thinking it would
serve, next to God's own blessed word, to put you in the right way.
It's been a great helping to me, Alfred Stevens, that same book of
sermons; and, I reckon it's because it's so good a book that it's
not printed now. I don't see it much about. But I'll get you one
if I can, and bring or send it to you, soon enough to help you to
the wisdom that you're a seeking after. If it only wakes the spirit
in you as it did in me--if it only stirs you up with the spirit of
divine love--you'll find it easy enough to understand the teachings
of the holy volume. All things become clear in that blessed light.
By its help you read, and by its working you inwardly digest all
the needful learning. The Lord be with you, Alfred Stevens, and
bring to perfect ripening your present undertaking."

"Amen!" was the solemn response of the hypocrite, but we need not
say what an irreverent and unholy thought lay at the bottom of his
mind in making this ejaculation.

Before the departure of John Cross, the latter had made terms with
Squire Hinkley for the board and lodging of Brother Stevens and
his horse. Hinkley would have preferred taking nothing, considering
the praiseworthy purpose of the supposed theological student; but
Stevens shrunk from receiving such an obligation with a feeling