Since old Mr. Davis’s visit, there had been a great change in our little home.  The great Bible had been taken down from its place and carefully read and studied, and Sunday was no longer spent by us like any other day, but was kept as well as it could be on that lonely island.

My grandfather, I felt sure, was a new man.  Old things had passed away; all things had become new.  He was dearer to me than ever, and I felt very sorrowful when I thought of parting from him.

‘I could never have left you, grandfather,’ I said one day, ’if my father had not been here.’

‘No,’ he said, ’I don’t think I could have spared you, Alick; but your father just came back in right time,—­didn’t you, David?’

At last the day arrived on which Mr. Villiers had appointed to meet me at the town to which the steamer went every Monday morning, when it left the island.  My father and grandfather walked with me down to the pier, and saw me on board.  And the very last thing my grandfather said to me was, ’Alick, my lad, keep on the Rock—­be sure you keep on the Rock!’

And I trust that I have never forgotten my grandfather’s last words to me.

  ‘It was founded upon a rock.’

MATT.  VII. 25

  My hope is built on nothing less
    Than Jesu’s blood and righteousness;
  I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
  But wholly lean on Jesu’s name. 
    On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand,
    All other ground is sinking sand.

  When long appears my toilsome race,
    I rest on His unchanging grace;
  In every high and stormy gale,
  My anchor holds within the veil. 
    On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand,
    All other ground is sinking sand.

  His oath, His covenant, and blood,
    Support me in the whelming flood;
  When every earthly prop gives way,
  He then is all my hope and stay. 
    On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand,
    All other ground is sinking sand.

  When the last trumpet’s voice shall sound,
    Oh, may I then in Him be found;
  Robed in His righteousness alone,
  Faultless to stand before the throne. 
    On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand,
    All other ground is sinking sand.

MOTE.