“I never look at the marginal references,” said Kate, “though mine is a large Bible and has them.”

“I find them such a help in comparing Scripture with Scripture,” observed Lilian.

Kate was silent for several seconds.  She had been careful to read daily a large portion from the Bible; but to “mark, learn, and inwardly digest it,” she had never even thought of trying to do.  In a more humble tone she now asked her cousin, “What is the word which is put in the margin of the Bible instead of ‘another’ in that difficult text?”

“A stranger” replied Lilian; and then, clasping her hands, she repeated the whole passage on which her soul had been feeding with silent delight: 

“’Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not a stranger.’

[Illustration:  “Whom I shall see for myself.”]

“O Kate,” continued the dying girl, while unbidden tears rose to her eyes, “if you only knew what sweetness I have found in that verse all this morning while I have been in great bodily pain!  I am in the Valley of the Shadow—­I shall soon cross the dark river; I know it:  but He will be with me, and ‘not a stranger.’  He is the Good Shepherd, and I know His voice; a stranger would I not follow.

“Oh,” continued Lilian, “in the glad resurrection morn, it is the Lord Jesus whom I shall behold—­my own Saviour, my own tried friend, and ’not a stranger;’ I shall at last see Him whom, not having seen, I have loved.”

Lilian closed her eyes again, and the large drops, overflowing, fell down her pallid cheeks; she had spoken too long for her strength, but her words had not been spoken in vain.

“Lilian has drawn more comfort and profit from one verse—­nay, from three words in the Bible, than I have drawn from the whole book,” reflected Kate.  “I have but read the Scriptures,—­she has searched them.  I have been like one floating carelessly over the surface of waters under which lie pearls; Lilian has dived deep and made the treasure her own.”

[Illustration]

COURTESY TO STRANGERS

“Who was that quiet appearing girl that came into church quite late, last Sabbath?” I asked a friend of mine who was an active member in the church which I had recently joined.

“Did she wear a striped shawl and a dark dress?” inquired my friend.  “If so, it was Annie Linton, a girl who is a seamstress in Mr. Brown’s shop.”

“I did not notice her clothes in particular,” I answered, “but her face attracted me; I should know it among a thousand faces.  How could you pass by a stranger so indifferently, Mrs. Greyson?  I expected that you would ask her to remain at Sabbath school, and go into your Bible class, but you did not once look at her.”

“I did not once think of it, and if I had, probably she would not have accepted the invitation, as she is a stranger in town, and undoubtedly will not remain here long,” my friend replied quickly, by way of defense.