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As endless and as desolate as his desert his future lay stretched out before his mind For the tiht, and he saw only hi his sorroay apart; and there surged over hireat and deadly weakness as of a spirit in despair

In this reat rock about the noon hour, too weary in spirit and exhausted in body to go further without a sleep The faithful Billy dozed and reat eagle soared high and far, adding to the wide desolateness of the scene Here he was alone at last for the first tirief, and for a while it had its way, and he faced it; entering into his Gethse but blackness all about hiuish of his spirit, that he fell asleep

While he slept there ca, well, and walking with a light free step as he reirl he loved How strange, and wonderful, that these two should co hi, they s and waving her hand as if she ht Then One stood by him, somewhere within the shelter of the rock under which he lay, and spoke; and the Voice thrilled his soul as it had never been thrilled in life before: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world"

The Peace of that Invisible Presence descended upon him in full : "The peace which passeth understanding!" and realizing that for the first time he knehat the words meant

Some time he lay quietly like a child who had been co at the burden which had been lifted, glorying in the peace that had co in the Presence that he felt would be with him always, and make it possible for him to bear the loneliness

At last he turned his head to see if Billy were far away, and was startled to see the shadow of the rock, under which he lay, spread out upon the sand before hi uneven ared the shadows before hireat rock in a weary land" The words came to histheether in the twilight before his bedtime A weary land! It was a weary land now, and his soul had been parched with the heat and loneliness He had needed the rock as he had never needed it before, and the Rock, Christ Jesus, had become a rest and a peace to his soul But there it lay spread out upon the sand beside him, and it was the way of the cross; the Christ as always the way of the cross But as the song they sang at that greathe attended in New York? "The way of the cross leads home" Ah, that was it Some day it would lead him home, but noas the way of the cross and he e, and alith that unseen but close Companion who had promised to be with him even to the end of the world