ence, and to study His holy will in His own revealed word. Misled by her gentleness, I fancied my task would be an easy one, and that by a slight exertion of authority I might induce her to yield, without having recourse to the sophistries I had prepared for her entanglement; but I found I had mistaken her character, and that when I ventured to deprive her of those privi leges, she was ready to defend them with her very life. I then tried my arguments, but here again I was baffled; she listened with that patient candour from which at first I had hoped so much, but I now discovered that it proceeded from a convinced and decided spirit, and that in the clear light of her intelligence lay the secret of that equanimity so impossible to disturb.

6

"I then appealed to her fears; I appealed to her affections. She listened to the first with surprise; to the latter with many tears. 'Oh tempt me not,' she exclaimed, or seek to ensnare me. I know I am weak and erring; but in God is my strength,' and how, added she, fixing her clear expressive eyes upon my countenance, how could I expect His assistance, how could I ask His pardon if I approached Him with a worship I believe to be an abomination in His eyes: how did the first crime this world ever wept for, originate, but in man's not worshipping God in the way He had Himself prescribed. The sacrifice of Cain was rejected when that of Abel was accepted; and since then, anger and jealousy and hatred have devoured the earth; and can I learn in vain, of that early, fearful tragedy? Can I venture to provoke that wrath whose brand was never to be effaced? Above all, can I overlook the wondrous sacrifice prefigured in that of Abel, and place another offering in its stead, as that presumptuous brother did? Oh! far from me be all idols, whether visible or spiritual ;

seek not to deface my Saviour's living image with the vain traditions of men but leave me to worship Him alone to Him alone to confess my sins; and through His sacrifice, His intercession alone, to seek pardon from my God.'

"I was deeply, yet involuntarily affected by this touching appeal, and to my own surprise found genuine sympathy with her intelligent spirit mingling with sorrow for its perversion. Early impressions cling to us with an often unwelcome tenacity, and thus the recollection of the toleration I had been accustomed to witness at home, in youthful days, had created an unconquerable repugnance to the measures I had since seen adopted in those habitations of cruelty. My whole nature shrank from delivering up to their authority one so gentle and true, in whose very errors there was somewhat to esteem, and I determined, if possible, to shield her from that domestic persecution with which she was so vehemently threatened.

"It was a subject requiring grave consideration; the accustomed influence of obedience to my superiors, my own horror at heresy, forbade any connivance, any encouragement of her opinions: yet hers was a character over which direct opposition could gain no power, though kindness and sympathy might do much. I at last decided on a course that reconciled my feelings with my conscience, and emulating her candour, I acknowledged with truth the interest she inspired; gaining her co-operation in my views, though she understood not their aim. It was a well conceived, and alas! a too successful plan. Her generous heart melted at the sight of my unaffected compassion, at the thought of the danger to which it might expose me, the sacrifices it might involve. Could she seem utterly insensible?

could she refuse my sole request? I asked but the temporary surrender of one volume, and ardent and too confident, without stopping to consider that volume was the Book of Life, she withdrew this precious treasure from its concealment, and placed it in my hands. "I had succeeded-my heart bounded with its triumph; but I affected to consider this as an immaterial action; I flattered her self-reliance by speaking of her submission, as altogether voluntary, while I assured her that to obey required greater strength than to resist. Her high spirit assented to the truth of the remark; but when I added the quotation, 'Obedience is better than sacrifice,' a sad smile interrupted my congratulations, and in a tone of melancholy foreboding she replied:

"You have won both from me; and already I feel deserted; all I sought was a life with God, and the true enjoyment of His holy word. I have relinquished the one, oh, may the other still survive, and may He enable me to preserve my inward faith though the outward lamp is extinguished.' She bowed her head in the bitter agony of a self-reproaching spirit, and it required my utmost eloquence and reasoning, to reconcile her in any measure to the step I had persuaded her to take so hastily; but I joined in her regrets, deploring the necessity for causing them; and while I extolled her humility and forbearance, promised that they should one day meet their reward; and she in her guileless heart, putting the happiest interpretation on my words, quieted her conscience and her fears with the hope of soon receiving back her precious Bible again.

"And thus a gradual change ensued, I no longer combated her opinions, but addressed her with indulgence, as one speaks to a beloved, yet mistaken child. She felt

the alteration as I thus strove to lower the tone of her spirit, but her power of resistance had vanished, when she parted with her weapon, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.' I knew it would be so,without knowing why, or how fatally,-never dreaming that, in seeking to check her childish enthusiasm, I was in reality leading her from the path of life. Even now, my better instructed mind acquits me of that deliberate iniquity, and admits that I ignorantly deemed I was securing her soul's salvation, by the means I had adopted to save her from temporal suffering also. And so, without hesitation or compunction, I continued my system, controlling her very thoughts with an influence so imperceptible as never to awaken a struggle, and watching day by day, deprived of its true nourishment, the disappearance of her spiritual strength.

"She had acted in her own strength,-she was now to learn her own weakness; to feel, in the hiding of her heavenly Father's countenance, in the withdrawal of His holy Spirit, that He is indeed a jealous God, and will not be lightly esteemed. As an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water, so did she gradually droop and languish, her early energy forsook her, and coldness and indifference chilled the pulses of that once enthusiastic heart. Thus I let her alone, without constraint, without opposition; while her religious ardour died away, and her aimless existence lingered on: until, dead alike both to devotion and to the world's enjoyments, she reached that state of apathy and listlessness so foreign to her nature, and yet so natural to its extremes. Then, suddenly, I swept the master chords of her heart, and woke up all its latent powers; but oh, with what different melody from the tones I had hushed! they were still pure and true, for

no false ones could dwell there, but the chorus, in which angels might have joined, was now changed for the voice of earth's affections, and the heart, whose home had seemed in heaven, became chained to a creature of clay.

"And yet, my daughter, think not that with one slighting word I could name your beloved father; or for one moment cease to appreciate his noble mind, his high and generous worth-he was one in a thousand,— well deserving her he won; and, in promoting their union, I truly felt I was securing the happiness of two kindred hearts. Her aspirations were ever upwards, no ignoble spirit could have attracted her; and he, as I have said, was worthy of her deep love: but it is not a narrative of passing circumstances, it is one of hidden feelings I seek to lay before you ; and I have now to speak of the added influence I gained, through an affection which, though in itself legitimate and even holy, was yet used by me as the means of completing her alienation from the truth. Not at first, not with that view, did I originally contemplate this connexion, for I had reckoned on more resistance, more constancy to the opinions she had at first so clearly and so warmly defended, and I had hailed this as a providential open. ing for her temporal safety, I knew that, once removed to my own dear country, she need fear no persecution, no control beyond the opinion and the wishes of her own loving husband; and while I relied on his endeavours to lead her gently back to the true fold, I rejoiced that for the present she might escape the wrath of man.

"But, facilis descensus,—I soon learned to adopt more sanguine hopes, and, without changing my course of action, pursued it with a different view. Our true nature is in our thoughts, not in our deeds.

Alas! alas!