After breakfast they had prayers. The basket had once been marked They had need to pray, for they on the handle, but the name had felt a great shadow over their home. been scraped off. Then Jean Matthieu went forth to Who had left it there? The the miller's, but the miller refused children said, perhaps it was God's to speak to him. He begged and sweet angels. Even Jean Matthieu pleaded with the miller, and offered was certain that the good God had a large price for meal, but the sent it, and tears of gratitude fell miller went about his work, paying upon the basket as he removed its no more attention than if Jean contents. Matthieu had been a buzzing sum-/ Whoever had left them had run a mer-fly- no, nor as much.

great risk. The holy Church may, Heavy-hearted, Jean Matthieu at its infallible discretion, pluck went back to his home. There was one's soul from heaven for succourenough in the house for another ing one of God's children whom it meal, and only that. Would God has cursed. It says it can, at desert him then ? And his poor least. It has even gone so far, wife so ill ! Was it worth suffering sometimes, as to condemn a man so much for the truth's sake ? to hell for hearing a heretic preach. This thought came into Jean Mat. The food was very welcome, and thieu's heart, but he resisted the they knew it came from the loving temptation it contained. He found hand of the Lord Christ, and ate it on returning home that a notice with reverence and love. When had been served on him to quit the Madame Matthieu ate it she said, house. He had one week to look “ It is true-He will never leave us about for another home-but where nor forsake us." She did not know should he look ? He could not that Jean Matthieu had eaten take his wife on a journey to a nothing, and that the children had place so far away that he should had but a poor meal, and were not be known. Besides, he knew hungry still. No word of complaint that in Brittany, when the Church escaped the husband's lips, and the cursed a man, she took care that children were hopeful, as children the curse should follow him whither- always are, and thought maybe soever he went.

God would send His good angels On Tuesday there began to be with a loaf for them at nightfall, He hunger in Jean Matthieu's house was so good to mamma. hold. They went down to the bay But night came, and there was and caught a few fish, which made no supper except a basin of broth their whole meal. Jean Matthieu for mamma, which had been saved did not eat. He was least hungry from the gift that had come so of them all. Trouble and appetite opportunely. They went to bed are fierce enemies, until starvation very hungry, and hid their faces in forces a reconciliation. Father and the pillows and wept themselves to children were most troubled about sleep, and gaunt hunger stood by finding something for the sick one their bedside all night, and haunted to eat. They had nothing fit for their dreams. Once in the night her, and they were in despair. Marthe thought she heard papa's Jean Matthieu was just leaving the voice just by her pillow, and heard house to plead once more with him say, "Oh, dear Saviour, pity some old neighbours in her behalf, my poor lambs!” and she put out when he saw on the doorstep á her hand, and sure enough it rested little basket, in which was placed a on papa's head; and she felt his bottle of broth and a bit of bread, face, and it was wet too as if tears had fallen on it, but papa stroked | thieu, who had been watching by her curls and said, “Go to sleep, her bedside, fell asleep, and when little one. Papa loves you very he wakened and touched her hand much, and is so sorry you had no it was cold. He brought the candle, supper ;” and Marthe answered, and held it close to her face. The “Never mind, papa. I'm not so radiant calm of death was there. very-well, yes, I'm pretty hungry, She smiled the quiet smile of the but I shall forget all about it when blessed dead, and no line of wrinkles I go to sleep; and we don't mind was on her face; she had indeed it, papa, because we know you entered into rest. can't help it.”

Jean Matthieu knelt down by Oh, the little womanly comforter! her bedside, and reverently thanked How strong with God's grace tliese God, bearing the burden of his children are ! Surely they are great grief with joy at her deliververy like angels !

ance. The next day was a harder day. The children ate the mother's for them all; they went again to portion that day, and Jean Matthe bay, but did not succeed in tak- thieu ate only the bitter bread of ing any fish. They had a hungry grief. day, and the children cried a good The next day the civil authorities deal because they felt something took possession of the house and gnawing at the life within them. buried the woman, as they were reThe father, too, was growing weak quired by law to do. They did not for went of food; he had had lay her consecrated form in consenothing but the third of a handful crated ground, but buried her by of grain which he had found spilled the roadside, in a shady spot, where by some careless carter in the road. tall fuchsias nodded their ruby bells He had gathered up every kernel, in the sunshine, and in a spot beand browring it, had divided it loved of the birds and bees. She equally into three parts-one-third had died unsbriven by the priest; for himself, and one-third for each it was known that she had repeatof the two children. There was edly refused to see the cure, and this comfort to sustain him, they had frequently expressed the same found food once more on the door- "heretical opinions held by her husstep for the sick mother, and for band. Jean Matthieu had reverthis they thanked God fervently. ently laid his wife into the plain

Poor Madame Matthieu, she box furnished by the authorities, needed food, for she was very weak! had brought the children to kiss She was plainly failing, she could their mother, had knelt by her side hardly speak at nightfall, and Jean and offered up a prayer, and he and Matthieu, when he knelt with the the children had followed the cart children by her bedside to say the that bore her to her grave, the evening prayer, knew that she children weeping bitterly, but Jean would not be long with them. Matthieu pale and erect, in spite of

The trouble brooding over the his great bodily weakness, walking household rested heavily on her firmly and shedding no tear. He soul. She was weary, very weary turned his head only once to cast a with it all, and when she prayed look of angry reproach upon a for rest, rest was nearer than she woman who stood by the roadside, knew. Before the morning dawned, and who said as the mournful proshe had fallen asleep in God, and cession passed80 they found her when the sun. " There goes Madame Matthieu rose. Towards morning, Jean Mat- to the bad place. What a pity, and

she a fine-looking woman, and the Matthieu and his children had not mother of a family!".

so good a place as they. The darkThe woman who said this lived ness folded them like a pall. They a disreputable life, but was a good were hungry and cold, and the Catholic, and never neglected mass, night and the storm was cruel to or was refused the communion. them. The poor father made such

After the funeral, Jean Matthieu a shelter as he could with blankets and the children returned to the and furniture, and lay down, with desolate home, and as they ap- one little head on each arm, and so proached the door a little bird, thinking of mamma in heaven the hidden among some clustering children sobbed themselves to sleep, vines, broke forth in a torrent of but the father only lay and stared song. In after years Jean Matthieu into the darkness, and wondered spoke of that bird-song, saying he what next. had never before known how much Nights are long to the sick and sadness there may be in notes of to the grief-stricken, but morning joy.

comes at last. When it came to In sorrow and mourning, and in Jean Matthieu and his children, it bitter hunger, the trio finished the brought only suffering. The chilweek, living on such fish as they dren woke crying with hunger, and could take from the bay, and such aching in every joint from their berries as they could gather by the hard beds and the dampness to wayside. Sunday came, and they which they had been exposed. heard the church bells, and had a Their cries went to the depth of little service of their own. Then Jean Matthieu's heart. He must, Monday, and their notice to quit he would, find them food. He rose, having expired, the same officers but was so weak that he could of the law who had buried the hardly stand. He was sick and mother came and put the few dizzy ; he seemed walking in a household effects into the road. dream. He had to make a great Having done so, they locked the effort to understand where he was, door of the cottage, and left Jean and to know when he walked where Matthieu homeless, in a world that he was going. Supporting himself was forbidden to succour him. on a stick, and now and then stoopPerhaps he could get some one to ing beside the hedge bank to rest, move his few goods to Quimper, he made bis way to the baker's. and find there some help from the He had a few silver franc pieces in few Protestants that could hardly his pocket. The price of a loaf was find life for themselves in that eight sous. He laid down five quaint old city. He tried to do francs on the counter, and pointed this, but no one would lend their to the high-piled baskets of bread. teams for love or money to a man “No!” shouted the baker, “not who had been cursed by “their if it was five hundred francs.” holy mother the Church."

“For God's sake-to keep my Night came on, and with it a children from starving—you have blinding mist from the sea -- a children of your own, neighbour, chilling mist, that sends a shiver and will pity me and mine." to the marrow of one's bones. The "Monsieur Matthieu, if you were birds went to their nests, the fowls a Christian, I would give you all hid themselves in the dense foliage the bread you need, but I shall not of the gardens, the cattle sought risk my salvation, and my children's their sheds and stood close that salvation, to save the children of a they might be warm, and Jean heretic-no, not for five thousand

francs. Now go. You disturb my you see how hungry we are ? wê appetite for breakfast. I don't like can't wait. Give us our break. to have my emotions touched before fast !” cried Jeanne. I've eaten."

I Still Jean Matthieu stared into Saying this the baker left the the mist. Then little Marthe began shop, and went to his little parlour to cry, and say through her sobs : in the rear. Jean Matthieu was “ The good God sends us a breakalone with the loaves ; he was fast, and our father won't give it to starving-his children were starv- us-why not, papa? Didn't God ing, the baker had left him alone. send it?” The temptation was very great. This roused Jean Matthieu, and He prayed to resist it. He could he askednot, but reached stealthily across “What did you say, my child ?" the narrow counter and took one “Didn't God send the bread for of the loaves, put it under hisjacket, our breakfast, papa, and why don't and walked out of the shop. you give it to us ? "

In all his trials, till this moment Jean Matthieu, looking lovingly he felt that God had been with down on his children, answeredhim; now he felt that God was God did not send the bread. deserting him. He had been It was Satan sent it, and so I can't miserable before — now he was give it to my little girls to eat. It wretched. He reasoned with his is hard to go hungry, but itis worse conscience that this bread was his ; to do wrong. I must carry the the earth was the Lord's, and the bread back to the baker." fulness thereof--and he was the The children did notwholly underLord's child, and entitled to this stand it, but they believed their portion. Still this reasoning did father, and disappointed though not satisfy hini.

they were they said nothing, but God in the conscience is stronger went away and cried by themselves. than the devil in the reason.

Jean Matthieu started back to He walked down the road with the baker's. He had gone but a the loaf under his arm. Weak as short distance when he was met by he was, it was a heavy burden for a crowd of villagers, headed by a him, but the burden on his heart gens d'armes. At first he hardly was heavier still. Presently he heeded them, but they came to him, reached the children. They were the officer seized him roughly by wild with delight when they saw the shoulder, and in the name of the loaf. They could hardly wait the king arrested him for stealing for it to be broken. Little Marthe a loaf of bread from the shop of cried out

Jaouen, the baker. "Oh, how good God is, He has “And what will become of my sent us a breakfast !”

children?” cried Jean Matthieu, Jean Matthieu heard this. He in agony. was just breaking the loaf, and he “That is not my affair,” said the stopped-he stood with it in his officer. " Perhaps they will take hand, held high up, for the children them into the convent, and save were trying to climb up and bite them from ruin. In time to come pieces out of the bread." He stood they may thank the blessed Virgin like one stricken with a spell, and that she mercifully took you away gazed into the mist of the morning. from them." He was thinking for his soul's life. And so saying the gens d'armes The children were impatient. led Jean Matthieu away to the pri.

“Come, give it to us, papa; don't son.'

207

JESUS CHRIST AS A QUESTIONER.

BY THE REV T. HENSON. That was a deep saying of the ancient sagem"Man has too little sagacity to resolve an infinity of questions which he has sagacity enough to make.” Man's questions usually spring from ignorance, but Christ's questions were the arrows of infinite knowledge. It is easy to ask questions of a certain order ; even a fool can ask that which a wise man cannot answer. But it is not easy to ask a question which is a home-thrust upon the conscience, or a cloud-breaker to such as walk in darkness, or a burden-lifter to the heavy-laden, or a heart-searcher to the self-deceived. To a teacher or a defender of truth the art of questioning is all-important; nothing is more effective against cavillers and sophists than a pertinent question, which often, like Ithuriel's spear, " discovers the squatting toad."

“For no falsehood can endure Touch of celestial temper;”. and it is noteworthy that the wisest of ancient teachers before Jesus Christ was a great questioner. “ Christ's questions were the purelight questions of innocence and truth, which keenly and deeply penetrated into the confused errors of the rabbinical teaching” (Stier). But the art of questioning may, with some, be nothing better than the art of trap-setting, or of spare-laying, just as when the Pharisees and the Herodians came to Jesus with a sparious question about Cæsar's rights, sleekly putting it so as to “entangle" or ensnare Him by His answer. Or the art of questioning may be the power of opening windows, letting in light and air, and flooding the mind with wisdom ; or of breaking soul-fetters, giving liberty to captive spirits; it was thus that Jesus often put His questions. Sometimes an honest man may catch the malicious in their own trap, and fix them in their own toils, by turning the question upon them, as when Jesus demanded of those same Pharisees and Herodians whose image and superscription the penny bore; or as when He asked His interrogators, “ Whence came the baptism of John ?" " Christ's questions were always like spears that pierced the joints of the harness" (Beecher). His questions always pointed to the light.

The power of questioning pointedly and clearly is an indication of superior mental qualities ; but the keenest human questioner sometimes errs, and manifests ignorance before those wiser than himself. " To err is human.” Now, if in the whole history of Christ's questions it is seen that He never erred-never missed His mark, never needed to call back any question to qualify or amend it in order to adapt it better to its end, then we may regard that fact as an illustration-pay, even as evidence that He was more than human, and believe that in Him Deity spoke with human lips. Certainly we