Judge, by Whom he should be judged, to examine his estate both towards GoD and man; so that accusing and condemning himself for his own faults, he might find mercy at his Heavenly FATHER's hand for CHRIST's sake, and not be accused and condemned in that fearful judgment. And when the sick man, in whose world-hardened heart some good seed early sown there, still struggled to make its way through the thorns which had sprung up with it and choked it, said, in a voice of awful meaning, "It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven," he received for answer, "The things that are impossible with men are possible with GOD." Yet, though the oil of comfort was thus poured into his soul's wounds, the wine of reproof was largely administered, and so searching was its effect, that for the first time for many a year, perhaps since his childhood, ere Baptismal grace had slept its deathlike sleep within him, a tear of contrition moistened his eye. Lucy noted it, for he had manifested so much uneasiness when she proposed leaving him alone with Mr. Huntingford, that she had remained with her hand in his, and heartily did she thank GOD for the sight! A few days after, Lucy, who had some misgivings as to the skill of the only surgeon who could be procured in that obscure neighbourhood, and well knowing how readily Dr. Clifford would serve her in any way, wrote him as clear a statement as she could of her uncle's condition, and requested his opinion as to whether the remedies employed were the right ones. The doctor answered her by appearing in person at Neaply as soon as possible after the receipt of her letter. He arrived when Sir Edward was asleep, and surprised her sitting alone with Mr. Huntingford in a little room adjoining the sick chamber. A peculiar smile lightened his face, as she whisperingly introduced him to her companion, and pointed to the door, to show she was afraid of waking the invalid. Sotto voce was the conversation carried on till a moan from the next room told her she was required there, and the unknown benefactor, and the as yet unsuspecting recipient of his bounty were left alone for two minutes, at the expiration of which time she returned and beckoned the doctor to follow her. One glance sufficed to show him that no skill of man could avail to protract the sufferer's life beyond a few days. He asked him if there were anything he wished to do, or any affairs to settle, and unhesitatingly assured him, if such were the case, he had better lose no time. Sir Edward groaned and looked towards his niece. "Remember your promise," he said, “anything to do? I have everything to do! In threescore years and ten I have done nothing! Nothing but heap up riches: who shall gather them? I have bartered my soul for them, and now I must leave them for other!" Lucy had observed that her uncle's way of speaking of his affairs was strangely inconsistent. One hour he would say he had lost everything, and was a beggar on the face of the earth,-another he spoke of leaving much behind him. The truth was, he had speculated and gambled away the accumulations of interest which for years he had been amassing, and to him, what was left appeared as nothing in comparison of the thousands he had gloated over and lost while endeavouring to increase them. The estates, with ample to support their dignity, were entailed with the title upon the eldest son,-poor boy! a few painted straws would have been a greater treasure to him! The wife, of course, had nothing of her own, and the younger children were unprovided for. There was a will in existence, but of its contents no one knew. Three days before his death he destroyed it and made another, wherein after expressing his sorrow for his sins past, and foremost among them, his unkindness to his wife and cruel neglect of his helpless children, he desired, as he said, to prove the sincerity of his repentance by doing them all the justice now in his power. With the exception of two legacies, he left all he had to leave to his wife, than whom, he continued, he could not appoint a better guardian over their two little daughters, both, it may be remembered, deaf and dumb. In this he said truly, for no mother of the most gifted race ever more adoringly loved her children than did poor Lady Montague those three helpless beings! The legacies were ten thousand pounds to Leslie, and five hundred per annum to Lucy. Neither she nor Basil had the most remote idea of the contents of this will while Sir Edward lived. It was drawn up by the nearest attorney, and witnessed by Dr. Clifford, who consented to act as executor. Three days after, the testator's soul was required of him, and though since Basil Huntingford's ministrations to him, there was much on which the survivors could look back with comfort, his departure from this world was that of one who had laid up treasure to himself, and was not rich towards GOD. His wandering intellects to the last turned towards the fifthy lucre, for which he had perilled his soul's health, and the groans which pierced every heart around him were apparently extorted less by bodily pain than mental discomfiture. Lucy was with him, nor once relaxed her hold of his hand, though she trembled till the ground on which she knelt shook under her. The actual death struggle was frightfully protracted; at length it appeared to be closing; Mr. Huntingford was reading the commendatory prayer, when the dying man fixed his eyes earnestly, gave Lucy's hand a convulsive grasp, and with the last breath he was to draw, cried, "Look! look! your father and mother!" She turned her head in the direction he indicated, gave a faint shriek and then, lost to all consciousness, fell heavily and was carried by Mr. Huntingford from the room. So painful was the tension of her overwrought nervous system weakened as she was by want of rest, (for many nights had been passed in a chair by her uncle's bedside,) that, as she afterwards declared, she really imagined she saw the shadowy forms of those whose presence he proclaimed. HYACINTHS. "The written sorrow on heart and flower is traced by the Hand Divine."-Written Sorrow, Vol. 10, Churchman's Companion, page 343. "A broken Altar, LORD, Thy servant rears, THE rich perfume of the lovely flowers, When I counted quiet star-lit hours, Sweet Hyacinths in childhood shone, I gazed and linger'd and ponder'd long, Yet in the hours when stars withdrew, Sweet Hyacinths, life's dream beguiles The guardian angels' gracious power, No blotting tears foul sin can hide Nor silent grief allay— The Blood alone of Him Who died- Herbert. THE PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH. "The Mother of us all."-Galatians iv. 26. THE subject on which I am going to write is the duty of Obedience. It is a duty that has its root and obligation in the very necessities of our being, which without it cannot attain to its condition of normal excellence: but it derives its highest sanction from the gospel, and is seen in its most comely proportions when contemplated among the Counsels of Christian Perfection. It is in itself the very union of Faith, Hope, and Love, reduced into energetic action-of faith teaching us the existence of a Power, Will, and Wisdom, superior to our own, Who desires to reward and bless us throughout eternity-of love which bids us admire, adore, and strive to please that all-Perfect Being, and listen to all the faintest utterances of His Revealed Mind-of hope, by which we learn not simply to long for, much less count upon attaining to the exceeding great reward of heaven, but to understand that there is needed the discipline of patient expectation, the fear of falling short of it, and the energy of active toil. When these conditions are fulfilled, then is Obedience perfected. And now let us briefly trace the history of this Law under which we find ourselves. And first, we may note, it is the earliest of all the Laws given by GOD to man. "The LORD GOD took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD GOD commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." In truth it appears to have been the sole law under which Adam was placed in Paradise. Further, the commandment was arbitrary, inasmuch as it assigned no reason for its enactment beyond the will and pleasure of its Author; neither did it possess any moral basis, so far as it could be seen, either of right or expediency. The order to abstain from the one Tree be |