X.

SOMETIMES the captain was at his wit's end to know how to meet the increasing needs of the mission and contend with the surging waves of want and misery that flung themselves against his door. His heart was too large to turn any empty away; but the secret of the "loaves and fishes" had not yet been imparted to him, and the multitude had to remain unfed.

Among the captain's most efficient helpers, was an old Scotch sail-maker, one Sandy McGregor, who acted as janitor and general-utility man. One morning when the captain was lamenting the almost hopeless condition of the district, both morally and socially, and endeavoring to devise some way of remedying these evils, Sandy said, in his broad Highland dialect,

"It's of no use, captain. You can do nothing for them. If you give them money, they'd spend it in drink; or clothes, they'd pawn them for drink; or whatever you do, would go the same way. You can neither feed them nor clothe them, nor anything else under the sun. It's like trying to fill a sieve with water. You cannot do it, captain. There's only one way I see out of it myself, and that is to hire a lot of old hulks, and to fill them with these miserable creatures, and tow them out to the middle of the ocean, and sink them out of sight. It would be more merciful in the long run than

letting them suffer, day in and day out, from sickness and nakedness and hunger, but more especially thirst. They'd have enough to drink for once in their lives at all events, though it might not be the kind of liquor they'd prefer."

And Sandy uttered this without the gleam of a smile on his lean visage, although, of course, he meant it as a grim sort of joke. But the captain, who was in no mood for jesting and not much of a humorist anyway, exclaimed, "O Sandy, that's horrible! But, of course, you don't mean it. No, we must try if we can't find some better way than that, my good brother."

"Well, captain, they've been trying to find it ever since the world began, and they've no hit upon it yet, I'm thinking." And it must be confessed that the canny Scot was not so far out of the way after all.

But the Water-street Mission had one friend who stood by it from the beginning, Isaac Buckminster. Few people were aware how much Mr. Buckminster did to benefit the community of which he was an honored member. Calm, methodical, reticent, judicious, Mr. Buckminster's benefactions were not so much the result of sudden impulse as of careful consideration. Once assured that a cause, or even an individual, needed his assistance, Mr. Buckminster acted in the spirit of that proverb which says, "He gives twice who gives soonest."

As employers, Messrs. Buckminster, Beals, and Company were good people to work for. Not that they paid exorbitant salaries or were disposed to overlook remissness and in

efficiency on the part of their employees. On the contrary, they were considered unusually strict and not over liberal; but they were fair to all, and treated every person, from highest to lowest, with due consideration and respect. To be honorably discharged from their employ, was a goodenough recommendation for any man; and hence this house was an excellent one to graduate from. George Antle had long been in their service; first, as mate, afterwards as captain, and not another of their men, in spite of his well-known and deplorable infirmities of temper, commanded greater respect or was more trusted than he. And this for very good he was an able seaman in every sense of the word; honest, conscientious, and careful, never having lost a vessel, seldom a man, and rarely the profits of the voyage. Of course, the firm was naturally sorry to lose his services; but after he had given up the sea for the mission, seldom a week passed that he was not in conference with his old employers even when the captain's name had become a household-word.

reasons

It is scarcely possible that Mr. Buckminster, or anyone else for that matter, could have foreseen what the Waterstreet Mission would eventually become. He may have surmised that, after a time, the captain would recover from his "craze," and return to his old avocation, a sadder and a wiser man - return with all his efficiency as a master-mariner, but without that infirmity of temper which made him such a terror to all and such a thorn in the side of the firm. One day, when the captain paid his customary visit to his

friend and patron, Mr. Buckminster took occasion to state that, after mature reflection on the affairs of the mission, and after having consulted with several prominent individuals who had at heart the success of the work and also due consideration for Captain Antle's physical ability to sustain such a burthen without assistance, he, (Mr. Buckminster) had arrived at the conclusion that the mission should cease to be conducted on an independent basis, and be brought under the control of the Church.

The reasons for this decision, Mr. Buckminster stated in terms so concise, so clear, so forcible, and yet so considerate, that a far less obtuse understanding than Captain Antle's could not have failed to comprehend and appreciate them.

It was a thunder-bolt out of a clear sky, the effect of which was that, for the first time in years, the captain's spirit was cast down within him, his sunshine obscured, and when he left the office, it was with a sad and troubled heart. It meant much to him. It meant infinitely more than a shock to the financial interests of the mission. It meant a departure from those broad principles on which the mission had been hitherto conducted, and a narrowing of base which would seem to leave him but little room wherein to labor.

As the captain felt and thought, so he spoke and acted. He gave Mr. Buckminster to understand that, while he had the greatest reverence and affection for the Church, as founded and ordained by Christ the Lord- the spiritual, universal Church of Christ- he could not and would not be hampered or controlled by any form of ecclesiasticism whatever.

His parish was the world, and his people all who needed a Saviour. The question of "Church-relationships" had never been raised in the mission. It was enough to know that those who came to them were human beings, with all the needs and frailties of humanity. It was enough to know that they were laboring and heavy-laden with sins and miseries, and that Christ alone could give them rest. Here was a platform on which all creeds, all classes, all nations could stand, and on which, whatever other doctrines they may or may not profess, they may be sure of Salvation, through the cross of Christ.

"No, Mr. Buckminster," said the captain, in conclusion; "I must be free-free in thought, free in creed, free in methods, free in action. I must be untrammelled, or I can do nothing among such people as crowd our room. God has been with us. God has greatly blessed and prospered us, yea, beyond our hopes and expectations. The mission. can stand on its own base, for it is as wide as the world; and, God helping me, it will stand as a witness for Him so long as he gives me life and strength to do the work appointed me.”

Though spoken with even more than the captain's usual buoyancy and earnestness, he very well knew that Mr. Buckminster's mind had been fully made up in reference to the matter, and that a change of some sort was inevitable as regarded the future of the mission.

When next I met Captain Antle, I was alarmed to notice a change in his appearance. His step had lost much of its elasticity, and there was in his face an expression of care,