For four years from the night of his wedding, Haley had been a common drunkard, with no power over himself.  On the brink of the grave, he was rescued, signed a pledge of total abstinence, and set himself eagerly to work to elevate his condition.  One year had sufficed to efface many sad tokens of his degradation, but time could not restore the freshness to his cheek, nor the light to his eye.  Then he returned and sought his bride, who still mourned him with an inconsolable grief.  A few months produced a happy change in both.  But they cannot look back.  Over the past they throw a veil,—­the future is theirs, and it is growing brighter and brighter.  May its clear sky never be darkened!

THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT.

“Is there a good fire in the little spare room Jane?” said Mr. Wade, a plain country farmer, coming into the kitchen where his good wife was busy preparing for supper.

“Oh, yes, I’ve made the room as comfortable as can be,” replied Mrs. Wade; “but I wish you would take up a good armful of wood now, so that we wont have to disturb Mr. N—­, by going into the room after he gets here.”

“If he should come this evening,” remarked the husband.  “But it is getting late, and I am afraid he won’t be here Before the morning.”

“Oh, I guess he will be along soon.  I have felt all day as if he were coming.”

“They say he is a good man, and preaches most powerfully.  Mr. Jones heard him preach in New York at the last conference, and tells me he never heard such a sermon as he gave them.  It cut right and left, and his words went home to every heart like arrows of conviction.”

“I hope he will be here this evening,” remarked the wife as she put some cakes in the oven.

“And so do I.” remarked Mr. Wade, as he turned away, and went out to the wood pile for an armfull of wood for the expected minister’s room.

It was Saturday afternoon, and nearly sundown.  Mr. N—­, who was expected to arrive, and for whose comfort every preparation in their power to make, had been completed by the family at whose house he was to stay, was the new Presiding Elder of B—­District, in the New Jersey Conference.  Quarterly meeting was to be held on the next day, which was Sunday, when Mr. N—­was to preach, and administer the ordinances of the church.  Being his first visit to that part of the District, the preacher was known to but few, if any, of the members, and they all looked forward to his arrival with interest, and were prepared to welcome him with respect and affection.