be? Yes, they would tell you that they have felt and do feel all this; and that while they live they shall have to maintain the difficult and trying conflict. This warfare indeed forms the grand and wide distinction between characters; and the question we should be incessantly putting to our own consciences is-are we fighting, or are we yielding?

YOUNG LADY. But do not good people sometimes yield to temptation, while those who are not real Christians sometimes resist it.

Mrs. W. Occasionally both these things may happen, but not generally. Those who are the sincere followers of Christ do prevailingly follow him and keep his commandments; whilst others, who through the remonstrances of conscience and the restraints of education may resist some sins, yet habitually do not practise self-denial.

YOUNG LADY. Ah, I know they do not!- it seems impossible!

MRS. W. They fancy it impossible, because they feel it to be difficult; and because they don't like the trouble. Depend upon it, my dear girl, the real cause of such despondency concerning one's own character is a secret unwillingness to undergo a change; and thus the fatal delusion is willingly indulged, that the attainments which some make in holiness and usefulness are not to be expected in our own case.

YOUNG LADY. Well, but do you really think it

possible that I, for instance, should ever become so active and useful and excellent as those young people?

MRS. W. If you really wish it, my dear, you will ask it fervently, and endeavor perseveringly, and then you will obtain the same grace and strength as they. But if you wish it faintly, you will ask languidly and endeavor lazily, and then you will not obtain.

YOUNG LADY. Ah, that is the very thing!-how am I to feel those sincere and earnest desires?

MRS. W. You must begin at the beginning; that is, with a determination to save your own soul; to take no rest or satisfaction in other things till you have hope in Christ; yes, the charity must begin at home; and when once it has been said to you, "Thy sins which were many are forgiven," then the language of your grateful heart will be, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” and a course of active duty and obedience, with all its difficulties, will be pleasant, and comparatively easy.

YOUNG LADY. I am sure I wish that were my happy state.

MRS. W. You wish it perhaps, just as the young ruler did. He desired to obtain eternal life; he could not bear the idea (and who can bear it?) of everlasting destruction. But he wanted so very much to enjoy this world first, that he went away sorrowful, in the miserable bondage

of an earthly mind and an evil conscience, rather than make the sacrifice and become free indeed.

YOUNG LADY. And what could he do if he had not strength of mind enough?

MRS. W. "They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength." Had he never read that promise? could not he then have asked for it? Yes, but the thing was, he was afraid of the consequences; he did not like to give up the love of the world.

YOUNG LADY. Well, I often fear that will be my case.

MRS. W. Beware, my dear friend, how you suffer your mind to consent to such a possibility! Do you know what you mean? do you consider what it implies? can you think for one moment of eternity, and say so? No, the delusion is this, you indulge an indistinct hope that you shall be saved, somehow, at last; that though you cannot expect a high seat in heaven, yet that you shall just be admitted that God will never suffer anything so tremendous to befall you as eternal ruin. Because you cannot bear to think of it, you imagine He will not execute his own threatenings. You think he is too merciful.

YOUNG LADY. And is He not merciful?

MRS. W. Yes; and so does He abound in mercy that He suffers these tremendous threatenings to be ever thundering around us, to warn us of our danger; at the same time that He is inviting

and beseeching us to become reconciled to himself; but it must be on his own conditions; and if we will not submit to them, we must abide the miserable, the intolerable consequences!

YOUNG LADY. I wish I could submit to them. MRS. W. Those desponding, fretful wishes, believe it my dear, will never do-they leave you just where they found you, unholy and unhappy. Say rather, "I must, I will, lay hold on eternal life!" It is not presumption, nor will God be displeased with such resolute language; because this is the very good he offers you, and your greatest sin is unwillingness to accept it. But do not be discouraged by difficulties, these you must meet with, otherwise the kingdom of heaven need not "suffer violence, nor require to be taken by force." Remember, "they that overcome, and they only, shall inherit all things." There is no promise to the inactive; if we are not fighting we shall never conquer; and remember, in this conflict it is conquer or die!

XXXIX.

THOUGHTS IN A CROWD.

LONG on the merry promenade
The ladies walked, the music played,
And streamers fluttered gay:
While ocean watched the sun retire,
Till every ripple, tipped with fire,
Reflects his parting ray.

'Twas there, amid the motley throng,
A musing stranger passed along,
Unnoticed in the crowd;

And we by some strange arts have guessed The thoughts he doubtless had expressed If he had thought aloud.

"Amid this mass of joy and wo,

One heart," thought he, "alone I know,

Its burden and its cares;

And yet, though strangers all to me,
The bond of Christian charity

Unites my heart to theirs.

"Yes, and by sympathy I trace

The story told in many a face,

Nor other record need,

They who have sinned and suffered know

The common tale of human wo,

And how all hearts to read.