around me. But I don't feel so when you talk to me. It makes me so debased in my own eyes to hear you speak of goodness and of God; and then I sometimes think I never can be accepted. O, what would I give to be as you are, Mrs. Humphreys! Can I ever be?"

"And what am I? Nothing more than the same poor

sinner you are yourself nothing better than the very worst of all sinners. I must go where the basest must go, if I hope to obtain pardon and peace - at the foot of the cross. I must humble myself continually, and bruise my heart, and break my pride. Nothing can avail me but complete and unconditional submission. If I come short of that, Christ will not own me as his. He will have only the whole of our hearts. He seeks not a corner, where he may hide himself from the world's opposition. He demands the whole, where he may crush all worldly opposition, and reign. Now, can you not give him the whole of your heart, dear Ellen? Is there any thing this earth can offer you worth a moment's comparison with his boundless and exhaustless love? Is there any safety so perfect as that which he offers you freely in his arms? Ellen, why will you not give all up to him? See how patiently het waits on you. See how lovingly he intercedes for you, that you may at last be wholly acceptable. Can you point any where to love so priceless, so undying, as this?"

Ellen laid her face against the bed, near which she had drawn her low chair, and wept sobbingly. Her heart, gen

tle and docile as it seemed to others, was yet flinty. The purifying waters had never yet gushed out of it. It had never been smitten with the real power of truth, that the stream might find its way to the surface. But now the sealed fountain seemed opened. Those hot tears, gushing so profusely from her eyes, they betrayed sufficiently the disturbed spirit within, that would never find rest again save in the arms of its Savior.

Carrie suffered her to remain in the position she had taken without disturbing her. And thus she continued for quite half an hour. Presently she asked the weeping girl if she did not now feel that she could make the offering that was demanded of her without a murmur of complaint.

No answer yet. And silence was in the chamber again, save when broken by the irregular sobs of the sorrowing girl.

Mr. Humphreys came quietly into the room while this was going on, and stopped short for an explanation of it all. Carrie at once narrated to him what had passed, and begged him to try and comfort her stricken heart by directing it where comfort could only be obtained.

Immediately he took her gently by the hand, and led her unresistingly to the foot of the bed. There he knelt down beside her, her face buried in her hands, and offered a prayer. It was such a prayer as could come only from a true believer's heart and lips. It carried all the poor

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child's wants to the feet of Jesus, and there besought aid in this moment of urgent need. O, how cooling did it seem to the feverish heart of Ellen! How grate fully refreshing did its words fall on the parched soil of her feelings, as the seasonable rains drop on the dried bosom of the earth! What a new light seemed dawning on her soul, as if the morning of her true life had just risen! What gratitude, what wonder, what praise, what deep and unutterable joy successively rose from her heart, as from an altar breathing incense and sweetest perfumes!

He afterwards talked with her, gently yet earnestly. All the mercies of her Savior, all his voluntary gifts and sacrifices, all his free offers and invitations were severally rehearsed to her; and then came up the single inquiry, it could not be delayed, it must have an answer, "Can you give up all all to Christ? He will take nothing except unconditionally and freely. He will possess no part unless he can have the whole.”

Yes

was given

yes- yes. The answer was made. The heart

O, how freely and entirely!

That night there was greater cause for happiness than ever in the dear little parsonage. A soul had been won to God. Heaven had opened to let in another spirit into the fold.

As Ellen laid her head on her that morning saw wet with tears,

pillow, the pillow

she felt that she

would live. live to do the work she now saw it was hers to do; live to work with her example, under God, wherever its little light might be set.

What a different frame was that in which her mind now viewed every object connected with life! What a field opened now before her eyes, where hitherto she had seen nothing for her feeble hands to do!

CHAPTER XVII.

A COUNTRY WEDDING.

¦ SHALL make no special effort, in the course of these annals, to observe very nicely the rules of synchronism, well aware that their general interest can in this way be nowise impaired. I am endeavoring, kind reader, to sketch for you such salient points, in the experience of the new minister in our parish, as will give some sufficient idea of the lives of all of us together, and of the endeared relation that for so many years subsisted between our pastor and our people. A narrative of natural sequence would hardly have answered this end as effectively as the picking out single events, scattered here and there over our mutual experiences, and binding them together in the little sheaf I have herewith presented.

The twins got on finely. As the winter came and went, and the new spring opened, all their little infantile traits budded and expanded in the genial atmosphere of home. The parents lived, it seemed, double lives in their very existence.