"I tell you that there are some laws which I cannot obey," said Lina.

"And do you think that you can safely set them aside, because you find difficulty in keeping them?"

'You have such slavish ideas of duty!" cried Lina; "yet you know, Arthur,-no one knows better than you do, that we are saved by faith, not by obedience." This was an argument which Lina had found more effectual than any other, in stifling any reproach of conscience.

Arthur was silent for a few moments ere he replied, "True, Lina, it is not our obedience that saves us, any more than it was the obedience of the Israelites that brought them out of Egypt, opened a path through the sea, and strewed the desert with manna. Yet was wilful disobedience sufficient to shut out from the Promised Land those who had been redeemed by miracle, and fed with the bread of angels."

A flush mounted to Lina's cheek; she slowly rose from her seat, and looked full into the face of her brother as she said, "I suppose that you, in your Christian love and charity, are taking fears and anxieties concerning my welfare, because I am no hypocrite, but say what I think, and cannot make my conduct square with your strict ideas of right and wrong."

"Not my ideas, Lina, not mine," said her brother earnestly, rising as he spoke; "no human standard

can be a safe one; it is the Bible that holds that Law which God Himself has given-by that Law must we be guided here, for by that Law shall we be judged hereafter. Oh, Lina, we must not deceive ourselves; they only receive Christ as their Saviour, who seek to obey Him as their Lawgiver also."

Often had Arthur proposed thus to open his heart to his sister, as oft had he shrunk from uttering what might give pain, and perhaps offence. Now the words had burst unpremeditated from his lips, and he almost wished that he could recall them, when he saw hot tears gathering in his sister's blue eyes, and heard the bitter tone of her reply.

"I thank you for your sermon, Arthur, you have taught me something to-day; you have taught me that you are a great deal more clear-sighted than I supposed as to the faults and the dangers of others; and if such be your way of showing affection, it is a very different kind of affection from mine!" and with a burst of passionate anger and grief Lina suddenly rushed from the room, evading her brother's attempts to recall her; and burying herself in a part of the castle to which she knew that she would not be followed, the young girl wept alone.

Arthur returned to his seat by the window with an acute sensation of pain. He had hurt and offended the sister whom he loved; he had hazarded alienating from himself that affection which was his dearest possession upon earth. He felt inclined to accuse

himself of unkindness, of injustice towards his favour ite sister. And yet, what had he done? He had but uttered a simple truth obvious to any sincere Christian who believes that He who said, Come unto Me, has also said, Follow Me. Lina was one of thousands who form a standard of duty for themselves, shaped out by inclination, with very little reference to that holy Law which Christ came not to destroy but to fulfil. Her whole views on religion were vague, and she did not attempt or wish to make them more clear. The young girl was intensely mortified to find that the partiality of her darling brother did not render him blind to her faults. She was not to him the saint surrounded with a halo, the idol raised on a throne, she was a weak, imperfect girl, tempted to malice, hatred, and all uncharitableness. Lina, a spoilt child from the cradle, could not recognise affection in the form of reproof, nor believe that human love, like that which is divine, can embrace its object with deepest tenderness when it warns, or even corrects.

"I had intended to give up the lecture this evening," said Arthur to himself, as he gazed sadly forth on the darkening scene before him; "but I think that I shall go after all. I do not wish my next meeting with Lina to be at the dinner-table, and as for the expected telegram, I can run the chance of hearing it a few minutes later than the rest of the family. If it bring painful tidings, there

is more need that I should strengthen myself for them by quiet devotion. Hark is that the rumble of wheels? No; it is but the growl of distant thunder. There will be a storm to-night; but few will meet at the cottage,-I will not be one of the absent. Oh, Lina, mine own sweet sister, you never would doubt me again if you knew how fervently, how fondly you will this evening be remembered in the prayers of your brother!"

CHAPTER XXVII.

LECTURE VIII.--MOSES AS INTERCESSOR.

HERE is a sublime grandeur in the form of
Moses as we behold him holding forth his

rod over the billowy sea, or raising that rod towards heaven; for the stormy tempest and the rolling waters obeyed the Leader who was invested with power by that God who had made the sea, and stretched out the firmament on high! There is more than human majesty in the appearance of Moses when we behold the great Lawgiver descending from Sinai, bearing aloft those holy Commandments, which not a nation alone, but a world should obey, his countenance radiant with such glory as never before had beamed from the face of mortal man!

.

but

But though Moses was mighty as the Leader, illustrious as the Lawgiver, it is with more of interest and admiration that we view him as the Intercessor for Israel! Power excites wonder, holiness, awe; it is love that attracts the soul. It was in his compassionate, long-suffering love that we especially see in the character of this servant of God a faint reflection of His who not only loved, but Himself is Love!

The fearful sin of the Israelites in worshipping the