I had heard of these persons, and knew that my uncle and Agnes had always assisted them; but, as they were sunk very low in point of property and habits, I had made up my mind not to take any manner of notice of them. However, they came at a propitious moment, and found me in high good-humour; and, as my aunt pretty well understood the art of bending to a haughty spirit, she somehow or other induced me to invite her into the house, where she and her daughter made themselves so useful, and submitted themselves so entirely to all my caprices, that their visit was protracted from day to day, till at length I found I could not do without them, and consented to their remaining under my roof, on condition that they worked as upper-servants, received no wages, and were admitted into the parlour only when we were alone.

"A long continuance of what the world calls prosperity followed the day of my boy's christening, during which period my heart became more and more hardened, and all my feelings of affection centered in myself and my son. As to my husband, my regard for him had never been strong, and having found that he was making to himself a private purse out of my property, I let him know my suspicions, and from that time, though we lived in the same house, we treated each other with a polite and distant coldness. In the mean time, our son grew up, and, notwithstanding the very improper indulgence with which he was treated, and the gross flatteries lavished upon him by his aunt and cousin, he was an amiable young man, and dutiful to both his parents, and I was actually looking out for some young lady for his wife, when he was seized with a disease which, notwithstanding every exertion of human art, at length brought him to the grave in the very bloom of life!

"My son had had a tutor who was a pious man; and although this tutor had been sent away in disgrace through my caprice, yet the lessons of piety which he had given the youth had sunk so deeply into his heart, that I doubt not they more or less affected every part of his conduct while in health, and, undoubtedly, afforded him much and true comfort in his last hours.

66 My beloved son was very near death before I could be induced to believe it probable that I was to lose this darling child. In my calculations on the events of life, it had

never entered my head to suppose such an event possible; and when the assurance, that it was not only possible but very probable, burst upon me, I was like one distracted.

66

My aunt and cousin came to me to comfort me; but as these persons were the next heirs to the estate, it suddenly occurred to me that they were perhaps secretly rejoicing in an event which was the death-blow of all my hopes. I thought I saw a kind of concealed joy in their sharp faces. I judged of them by what I had experienced in myself; and the horror I felt when they spoke to me, or came near me, is beyond description.

"And now the similarity of circumstances brought to my mind those events of my life which had taken place nearly twenty years before, when I had rejoiced in the death of the only child of my cousin—a cousin with whom I had been reared, and who had always treated me with the utmost tenderness. I remember one night in particular, I had sat on my son's bed, till, overcome with fatigue, I fell asleep, and, in a dream, I thought I was standing by the cradle of little George, and hearkening to his hard and laboured breathing; that his mother, pale as a corpse, and clothed in widow's weeds, stood by, and looked at me with an expression which pierced me to the heart, and was uttering at the same time the most dreadful groans. I awoke in agony, and, raising myself up, found that it was the slow and laboured breathing of my son, the sound of which reaching me in my sleep, had excited the dreadful vision I have just described.

"Every mother who has lost an infant must know, that such grief is difficult to bear; but when remorse of conscience, or the remembrance of having injured that child, or the child of another, either in thought, word, or deed, mixes itself with the natural grief of the occasion, Oh! it is more than human nature can endure.

"And did I wish the death of Agnes' child?' I said to myself; was not such a wish murder? And what could tempt me to so horrible a thought? The estate! the estate!' and I groaned to think how contemptible I felt the estate to be at that moment, and how utterly incapable all my large possessions were of giving me one moment's comfort.

"While I still gazed on the emaciated form of my sleeping son, meditating at the same time on these dreadful re

collections, and wondering what new light was breaking in upon me, my aunt, in her night-dress, put her sharp face in at the door, and said, in a whispering tone, addressing the nurse, And how is he now ?'

"I did not hear the nurse's reply, but the low accents of my aunt in return again met my ear. 'Asleep, you say; well, I am glad: but this heaviness is no good sign, I fear. Nature is wearing out, to be sure.'

"Nature may be refreshed by it,' said the nurse; 'but you had best be going:' and I saw the nurse giving her a signal to be gone. But the signal was not taken, and she stepped further into the room.

"Heaven help the poor soul!' was her next exclamation. How hard he fetches his breath! how he labours! The Lord deliver him from his troubles !'

"I saw the nurse, as I looked through the curtain, motion to her again to leave the room; but the signal was not observed, and she came still forwarder.

6

"I must just look at him,' she said, 'the poor dear boy. I wish I could hear him breathe more easy; but I thought him changed yesterday-did not you, nurse?'

"He is sleeping very easy now,' replied the nurse, ' and you will be sure to disturb him. Pray go back to your bed.'

"But I hope you watch him,' replied my aunt. 'I have seen many die; and death sometimes comes on when'

"She was proceeding, when I burst out upon her from behind the curtain, and, putting the worst interpretation on my aunt's predictions, believing that she spoke but what she hoped, and remembering but too well at that moment, that it was her interest my child should die, ‘Aunt,' I said, 'you may forbear your horrid forebodings. Remember, if my son dies, I may still outlive your daughter; so spare yourself the guilt of wishing my son's death."

"The old lady was terrified at my sudden appearance and dreadful expressions, and hastened back to her own apartment.

"My son had heard what I said to his aunt, and he thence took occasion to entreat me to seek a superiority over the petty strivings and animosities of this world. He pointed out to me that a better inheritance, eternal in the hea

vens, was prepared for those who were willing to leave all and follow Christ, and he urged me to take thought for the everlasting welfare of my soul, and to have less concern for the perishable things of this world. His last request to his parents was, that a considerable church-living, in the gift of our family, might be presented to his beloved tutor, in the instance of its becoming vacant.

"My grief for my poor boy was long and violent, and shewed itself in a thousand extraordinary ways. For a while I confined myself entirely to my own apartments, and spent my time, not truly in religious duties, but in a variety of gloomy forms, which I called religious, having a confused notion that the Almighty Ruler of all things was offended with me;-but I had so little understood what my beloved son had said to me upon his death-bed, that I had gathered no correct idea from him of the Saviour. I therefore strove to work out my own salvation by the deeds of the law, in a laborious and fatiguing course of duties, and by a cheerless and austere manner-by which I rendered myself and my religion hateful to every one.

“While I was in this state of mind, the incumbent of the parish died, and I then thought of the promise I had made my beloved son. We sent for his venerable tutor, and presented the living to him.

"This excellent man was soon aware of my state, and of the mistake into which I had fallen, of endeavouring to procure justification by the works of the law; and he took great pains to convince me of the spiritual and extensive import of the commandments, and to shew me that no mere man had ever kept the law of God, or ever could be saved by it. He declared to me the nature of the ten commandments, explaining them one by one, and pointing out their purity and spirituality, and proved to me that they extended, not only to the outward actions, but to the very thoughts and intents of the heart.

"When we came to the consideration of the sixth precept, I found myself condemned, absolutely condemned before God, as a murderer-an idea which had before arrested my mind, but in a manner so slight, that I had contrived to free myself entirely from the conviction. But soon the persuasion of my guilt occupied my heart with renewed force, accompanied with a sense of that anger

which drank up my spirits, and I cried out in agony'What shall I do to be saved?'

"This was the state of mind which my faithful pastor had been endeavouring to produce in me, and he was ready with an answer to my sincere enquiry-the answer which St. Paul gave to the gaoler-Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts xvi. 31.)

"I was no sooner brought to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, by the persevering and affectionate labours of my minister, through the power of the Holy Spirit, than I saw the depravity of my character, not only in my breach of the sixth commandment, wherein I had been especially guilty, but in innumerable other instances. Nay, I perceived that I had been, from my earliest infancy, living as without God in the world, and that the description in the Epistle to the Romans was in many points applicable to me. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans i. 29—32.)

"Thus was I convinced deeply of sin, while many and painful were the convictions and struggles which I had to pass through, before I could exercise such faith in the Saviour as brought me peace; and when at length I was enabled to do this, my pastor taught me that it was necessary I should shew the evidences of faith, in all good works. He urged me to seek a hearty reconciliation with my hus-' band, and aunt, and cousins, the latter of whom I had chased from my house in disgust after the death of my son. He was the means of bringing me, also, to a regard for the spiritual and temporal welfare, not only of my relations, but of my servants, and of all those who in any way depended on me, and were influenced by me.

66

Twenty years are now passed since my beloved son entered into glory, and more than forty since I followed Agnes and her little George to their graves. My worthy pastor and father in Christ, has also, since that time, been removed