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 11, Ludgate Hill. 30 
 
THE BROTHERS! OR. SELF-DENIAL 
 
 Richard Jones was a great admirer of 
 pictures, and he saw one which he ar- 
 
THE BROTHERS. 3 
 
 dently desired to purchase. Its price was 
 only £6. The artist was in haste to raise 
 a certain sum of money, and, in conse- 
 quence, wished to dispose of several of his 
 best pictures at a low price. 
 
 Richard had a brother, James, who was 
 unfortunate in many ways. Everything 
 seemed to go against him. His health 
 was shattered, and his wife, a well-mean- 
 ing and industrious woman, was always 
 ailing. Now this brother, whose family 
 were on the verge of starvation, had 
 requested the loan of £6 from Richard. 
 He and his wife and children were almost 
 in rags : they could not go to church ; 
 they were not fit to be seen anywhere. 
 
 * I will try hard to pay you, Richard," 
 said the poor discouraged man. 
 
 But Richard knew very well that James 
 never could pay. He had tried putting 
 money into that vessel too many times to 
 be deceived now with any notion that there 
 was a bottom to it. 
 
 " I'll see about it,'* he replied ; " wait 
 until to-morrow ;" and rather moodily 
 walked towards his office . The picture- 
 
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 4 THE BROTHERS. 
 
 dealer's was in his way, and there he 
 stopped. 
 
 " I wonder if it is a man's duty to deny 
 himself of the necessities of taste, when 
 he has fairly earned the means of procur- 
 ing them, because other men are poorer 
 than he ? I think it hard that it should 
 be so. I think it cannot be right, and I 
 declare I will have that picture " 
 
 Richard took two steps towards the 
 door, for he had been all this while stand- 
 ing outside at the window where hung the 
 beautiful picture. 
 
 " But your brother !" said something, 
 giving Richard a twinge at the vitals, 
 " what will he do ?" 
 
 " I can't be helping him for ever. He 
 ought to have done as I did, when he was 
 a boy. I studied ; he would not. Now, 
 because he is reaping the fruits of his 
 idleness, must I, too, suffer, when I strove 
 day and night for the knowledge which 
 should fit me for a high stand in life ?" 
 Again Richard advanced towards the 
 gallery door. 
 
 " If a man seeth his brother have need, 
 
THE BROTHERS. 
 
 and shutteth up his bowels of compassion 
 against him, how dwelleth the love of God 
 in him ?" 
 
 Richard had reached the door, but the 
 
 sudden darting in'o his m'nd of that pas- 
 sage sent him ja.t it on his way to the 
 
 office. 
 
6 THE BROTHERS. 
 
 "-It's no use," he said, " Jim must 
 have this money. I must give it up. 
 Yes, and I must work, and work, year in 
 and year out, and all my surplus funds 
 must go to keep his family from starvation 
 and want. I, meantime, who am mingling 
 in society which knows that my means for 
 living are as good as any man's need be, 
 must live in a style which shall appear 
 parsimonious in the extreme; and all 
 because of this sinking fund, of which I 
 must never speak. I declare it's a hard 
 case ! 
 
 Richard was very angry. His partner 
 wondered to see his usually placid mate in 
 such an excited frame of mind. But he 
 wisely refrained from making any remark. 
 
 By-and-by Richard asked, feeling as if 
 he must say something, " What was the 
 subject of yesterday morning's sermon? I 
 was not out till evening." It was now 
 Monday morning. 
 
 " The text was, c Bear one another's 
 burdens,' " said Richard's partner, not 
 observing the sudden colour which flushed 
 the face of his hearer ; " and the minister 
 
THE BROTHERS. 
 
 very clearly explained and enforced the 
 duty of doing good to our fellow- creatures, 
 not only to the good and thankful, but 
 also to the unworthy. He said men often 
 feel that it is very hard that they should 
 be required to deny themselves, and work 
 for and care for those who, if they would 
 wisely and carefully do their own duty, 
 might get along without help. But when 
 a man from sincere love for his brother 
 does, to his own cost and wearing, bear 
 the brother's burdens, and do him all the 
 good he can, he is exhibiting the very 
 spirit of Christ. What we would not do 
 for our brother's sake, because we think 
 he don't deserve it, let us do for Christ's 
 sake, who is ever doing for us what we 
 don't deserve. 
 
 "There, sir, I've given you a pretty 
 good abstract of the morning's discourse, 
 and I hope you'll try and do as much for 
 me when I am detained from church. 
 There must be something the matter with 
 me, surely, for I never was able to re- 
 member or to repeat so much of any 
 other sermon in my life.' 1 
 
8 THE BROTHERS. 
 
 " Yes, something is the matter, sure 
 enough. God has been speaking through 
 your lips, to my selfish and murmuring 
 soul." 
 
 Richard did not say this, but he thought 
 it; and the £6 was soon after placed in 
 the hand of James ; and many another 
 £0 went the same way. The walls of 
 Richard's house never gained many more 
 paintings to ornament them ; by-and-by, 
 when the time came when, in that dim 
 and cheerless office James was to work no 
 more — when he was no longer to know 
 anxiety or hunger — when his discouraged 
 heart, and weary, aching frame, were to 
 find repose, and when Richard was called 
 to look upon the hollow r and wasted face of 
 his brother, as it lay in the coffin, do you 
 think that he regretted that he had not 
 bought pictures, or any other elegant and 
 costly things tor himself, instead of devot- 
 ing the price of them to the service of his 
 over-worked and sad- hearted brother?