ple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" And in the 15th verse: "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot ? God forbid." Thus, as David had lost the Spirit, the sin did not appear to be of great magnitude. As worldly people, who know not God, and live without him, and smooth over their consciences, so David no doubt did. He would say that Uriah was killed in battle; that he did not kill him. But in the sight of God, David was as much the murderer of Uriah as if he had killed him with his own hands. David might also say, that Uriah being dead, Bathsheba was his lawful wife; but had the Holy Spirit been in him, the crime would have appeared of such magnitude, that he would not have committed it. Do you forget, my love, my having compared the grace of God to quicksilver on glass, which shows us our own selves; but when that is taken off, we see the world through the glass, and not ourselves?

Oyes, Mamma, I understand; it is the grace of God in us that shows us the evil of our nature, so that we can no longer feel pride, or see any goodness in ourselves.

Yes, my child, men then appear what they really are, selfish, and desperately wicked, and deceitful above all things.

Then, Mamma, David did not know that he had

lost the Holy Spirit ?

No, my love.

Did he ever know, my dear Mamma?

O yes, my dear child, for God forgave him.
O pray tell me, Mamma, how he knew.

By the Holy Spirit coming into his heart again, my love, after he had repented.

Then, Mamma, if he never knew his guilt, how could he repent?

Why, my love, God sent him repentance.

God sent it, Mamma?

Yes, God sent it by his holy prophet Nathan, who was the servant of God. He came to David, and told him the following account of a cruel rich man in David's kingdom. "There were two men in one city, the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: but the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had brought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children: it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the

poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him." David's anger was greatly kin dled against the man, on hearing this unjust and cruel act. "As the Lord liveth, (he exclaimed,) the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity."-O my love, think of that culprit who by artifice or false evidence thinks he has deceived his judge, when some awful vision wrests confession from his lips; or like him who had committed murder, and when on the point to swear on the holy writ to his innocence, the apparition of a guilty conscience stands before him in the robes of death, to his condemnation. So to David stood the commanding attitude of the prophet of God, as he fixed his stern searching eye on the king of Israel. How does such a scene, my love, display the guilt of human nature! David, doubtless, shrunk under the dread of some awful denunciation; but the solemn suspense was soon broken

"Thou art the man," resounded from the voice of the prophet.

"Thou art the man," must have pierced as a dagger to the soul of David.

What, Mamma, did David commit this cruelty also? No, my love, it was a parable, by which the prophet produced self-conviction in the mind of

David of the enormity of his crime, and of his in gratitude to God.

"Thus saith the Lord God of Israel," resumed theprophet, "I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul: and I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things." O Mamma, did not David tremble?

This is how all men, my child, will be convicted of ingratitude to God, on the judgment-day. He will remind condemned sinners of the services, of the mercies they have received, in being fed, clothed, and preserved, without even acknowledging the Giver, or without the least grateful return. What can those, who have neglected the worship of God and his commandments, then say? Will they not tremble, my child? Death to such men has an awful sting. But observe, my child, how soon David recognized the sin in another, in the rich man who took the poor man's lamb. In his opinion, the rich man deserved to die, because he had no pity; yet he was blind to the enormity of the crime which he had committed, in tearing away from the faithful, affectionate bosom of a brave soldier and a good subject, the solace and comfort of his soul, by ordering

him to be placed in a situation, in which he designed him to be overwhelmed and destroyed by the enemy. It is highly illustrative of the character of a man who has no religion, and who can see the faults of others, but not his own; and condemns others, while he himself deserves greater condemnation. Every man, who has not the grace of God, thinks that he has an excuse for his sins, and is far from evil in his own sight, because he neither examines himself, nor has self-conviction; and thus he lives in darkness, and pursues his journey towards the valley of death, where his own soul too late becomes its own accuser.

O dear, Mamma, how dreadful! I hope God will fill me with his grace, and take not his Holy Spirit from me; for I do now see, my dearest Mamma, all depends upon the Holy Spirit.

I hope and pray so too, my love.-But to return. "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight?" continued Nathan. "Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.