its sorrow and contrition on the slightest deviation from the right way-a heart sanctified by himself, and which continually acknowledges its connexion with him, and dependence upon him, which sighs to be delivered from the bondage of sin, and looks only for perfect bliss in the enjoyment of his presence through an endless state of being.

"Such a spirit as I have described," said the lady of the manor, "is ever rising upward, as the sweet incense which burnt on the golden altar in the court of the tabernacle, and being presented on that altar which Christ by his merit has provided, becomes a sweet and acceptable offering before the throne of the Almighty.

"But while this more latent prayer and thanksgiving should be continual," said the lady of the manor, "still the outward forms of prayer should by no means be neglected; and because the cares of this world are ever pressing upon us in this state of being, and the mind may be injured and depressed by them, it is necessary that every child of God should prescribe to himself certain seasons for private devotion, and for family prayer, and that he should also conform to the rules of his own peculiar Church in public worship; and he ought to consider it as one of the greatest privileges afforded him, that he is permitted to approach his God, without fear, through the merits of a dying Saviour.

"If I adopt a poor child, and grant permission of access to me at any and every moment with its little complaints, I am justly offended if that child, when under trouble, pines in secret, and refuses to open its heart to me; and yet, my dear young people, how little do we feel the privilege of being admitted into the presence of God, what a burden do we think it to be obliged to devote even the shortest period to this duty, and how ready are we to be diverted from it by the most unimportant avocation! Ah, Lord God, how infinitely sinful are we in this particularly! surely if one part of our conduct and feelings is more hateful than another, I should say that it is this perpetual disinclination to prayer."

The lady of the manor here paused a moment, and the young people looked down, every one feeling herself self-condemned in this particular, as, no doubt, every one will do who

may hereafter honour this little volume with his attention. The lady, however, did not enlarge upon this part of her subject, but proceeded to observe, that prayer was not a mere uttering of so many words by the lips, but a spiritual intercourse with the Lord Jehovah, graciously permitted by Him in love to his sinful creatures, through the merits of Christ our Saviour; while the subjects of this spiritual intercourse are as numerous as the wants of human nature, and as various as its hopes and fears, its joys and sorrows.

The lady of the manor then proceeded to point out some of those texts of Scripture which enforce the duty of prayer:-Ask, and it shall be given you. (Matt. vii. 7.) And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint. (Luke xviii. 1.) I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands. (1 Tim. ii. 8.) And having so done, she went on to make some comments on the model of prayer left us by our blessed Saviour. "Not only by this prayer," she added, "are we taught what we must desire, but we receive an assurance that all we ask therein shall be granted to us; for even a wise and good earthly parent would never put a petition into the mouth of a child, which he did not mean to answer; hence, whole volumes on this beautiful prayer could not, in my opinion, unfold its meaning so clearly and so touchingly, as by justly supposing the answer to each petition given by the Almighty himself, in the very words of the prayer."

"And how could this be done, Madam?" said the young ladies.

"Nearly to this effect, my dear children," replied the lady of the manor. "My children, who dwell on earth, my name shall be hallowed, my kingdom shall come, my I will shall be done on earth as in heaven. I will give you day by day your spiritual nourishment.

As you, through Christ, have forgiven all those who have offended you, so will I forgive you. I will free you from every temptation. I will deliver you from all evil. For mine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen."

When the lady of the manor ceased to speak, the young people, with one accord, expressed their delight at the very

powerful impression which this mode of explaining the Lord's Prayer made upon their minds. "This prayer," said Miss Emmeline, now appears to me to be an assemblage of the sweetest promises and assurances. I fancied," she added, "while you were speaking, Ma'am, that all the glories of the latter times were unfolded to me, that I was already in the visible presence of my Saviour, and that he was calling me his child, and shewing me all he had prepared for my happiness. O that these delightful feelings might return whenever I hear this prayer! but, alas, I fear that it will not be so, my heart is so hard, and my mind at times so dull and worldly." Some other remarks were made to the same, purpose, after which, the lady of the manor made the following observation:-"I have always avoided," my dear young people, " dwelling too long on that kind of discussion which might weary you, and for this forbearance, I have lately been repaid by the attention you have always given to those parts of my discourse, or of the stories which I have related or read, that have been more serious than others. At the same time, my acquaintance with the nature of the youthful mind urges me to avail myself gladly of the pattern of Scripture, wherein precept is united continually with example, and where parables and allegories are frequently used, as the means of conveying the most sacred and solemn truths to the mind of man.

"I shall therefore now select a little narrative, from several which I have by me, illustrative of certain passages in the Lord's Prayer, and wherein the dreadful consequences of a captious and unforgiving temper, are shewn forth in a strong, though, alas! not by any means in an exaggerated point of view; for who can calculate the number of direful evils which have desolated the human race, by the prevalence of that spirit which leads to a resistance of trivial offences, and allows the smallest matters to excite angry and revengeful feelings?

"The purport of this little tale is, to mark the growth of hatred in the heart from its first rise till its consummation, and to shew how much of our happiness and well-being.depend upon our being able, not only to forgive the gross offender and the flagrant trespasser upon our rights, but to repress all those minor feelings of irritability which we are

less guarded against, because we are less aware of their tendency, than of those of a stronger and more dreadful nature."

The lady of the manor then produced a manuscript, and read as follows.

Agnace Roquefort, or the Growth of Hatred.

"It is now many years since I became an alien from society, and ceased to occupy myself with the world and its fluctuating concerns. My reasons for seeking such retirement will hereafter appear: it was in a moment of disgust and horror, in a time of overwhelming grief and disappointment, and at a season when my society was no longer sought by my own family. But I have little doubt that, as time softened my afflicted feelings, the world would have again obtained its influence over my heart, had it not pleased the Ruler of all the earth to compel me, by severe corporeal sufferings, to continue in that state of seclusion which I had first chosen in a spirit, I doubt not, of rebellion against the Divine will.

"These sufferings were protracted, and my spirit rose so impiously against them, that I not unfrequently was tempted to ask, Wherein have I offended so much as to deserve these afflictions? is not God unjust? has he a pleasure in the miseries of his creatures?'

"Though born in France, I am of the Reformed Church, and to me, therefore, the Holy Scriptures were allowed, and it was for me a blessed occasion, when I was led by my domestic chaplain, to seek a reason for my sufferings, and to know the design of God, by some passages in the Lamentations of Jeremiah: For the Lord will not cast off for ever: but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. (Lam. iii. 31—33.)

"It was by these tender and affecting truths that the first dawn of light broke in upon my benighted soul, and I was led to discover that all my afflictions, with the exception only of those lightest of all, the mere infirmities of the body, had sprung from the neglect and breach of this divine petition and injunction contained in the Lord's Prayer,

-'Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.' And now I was convinced, that had I made the Bible my guide, and permitted the words of Christ to sink, as they ought to have done, into my heart, I had avoided those inexpressibly bitter circumstances which might have blasted the whole of my life.

"O that the words of Solomon were written on every heart, that they were graven as on a rock! The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water; therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with.-A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes. (Prov. xvii. 14. xviii. 6.)

"But enough of this. Let me now proceed to the task which I have appointed myself, and if the warnings contained in these disastrous memoirs should prove in any degree advantageous to those into whose hands they may hereafter fall, and more especially to him to whom this manuscript shall be my last bequest, I shall have reason to praise Him, who out of evil knows how to extract the greatest good.

"And let him who questions this power of the Almighty to overrule evil, look to the general history of man, and especially meditate on the mighty work of redeeming love, by which the malice of Satan was made the means of displaying the divine attributes of mercy and truth, in a point of view, in which without it they never could have appeared. But not to enlarge on this subject, which is, without doubt, the most important that can occupy the mind of man, I proceed immediately to my history.

"I was born in a valley of the Pyrenees, not very distant from the ancient city of Bigorre, now called Tarbes. The situation of this city, in a temperate climate, under a pure sky, in the midst of a fertile plain, watered by two rivers, and partially encompassed by a chain of the Pyrenees, is one of the most beautiful in the earth.

"Some of the delightful circumstances of this town, are the streams of pure water, which, pouring through the streets, convey a pleasing freshness, and contribute to

health.

"Not very far from Tarbes, one of the tributary streams of the Garonne descends from the mountains into the champaign country, with a precipitancy and deafening