98 “DIGGING A GRAVE

| it away altogether, as they would poison ;
there can be no half measures with drunk-
enness —no,— and what’s more, they ‘must
pray earnestly to Almighty God. for strength,
for without the Lord’s help our best strength
is feebleness. The pledge is the safeguard:
- it was our Almighty Father that put that into
the heart of a good man. The blessed pledge ;
ik is a promise, a holy promise. |
“Bat, Peery,” Anterrupted Mary, & Mrs.
Layton has pledged and promised, and see
how she breakes ig
_ “She does, God help her, she does; but
look ye, Mary, she has never asked OUR
Faruer’s help; she trusts to her own ‘strength,
and her inclination floors that: She manages,
somehow, to get the poison brought her. Mr.
Layton’s expected home to-night. ' She som
to me to be striving against it, poor thing
and knowing | he was coming, I staid as ies

as I could, for she never touches it forenint