in your power to cultivate a contrary tone of mind. Pray for more faith-for a cheerful, hopeful spirit-a spirit which honours God, by always trusting in him—a spirit which goes on its way 'rejoicing;' proving to others that 'His commandments are not grievous,' but that His ways are indeed 'ways of pleasantness and peace.""

"Oh! mama," said Mary, kneeling by her mother's couch and burying her face in her hands, "do you talk to me now of 'rejoicing,' when you speak of dying and leaving us all ?"

"I do not mean 'rejoicing' in the sense the world usually attaches to the term. I would not speak of thoughtless or lighthearted gaiety; I do not mean, my beloved child, that you should not sorrow with all that tenderness of heart which love and gratitude would teach you; such grief as those feel who sorrow not as those who have no hope,' is permitted us; but I mean 'rejoicing,' in the same sense in which the apostle does, when he says, 'as sorrowful,

yet always rejoicing;' or, as expressed in another passage, rejoicing in the Lord;' knowing that what befals us is ordered by Him, and trusting in His promise that He will give us strengh to do all His will. Yes, my child, 'rejoicing in tribulation' is possible; indeed, we are told it is the very means by which we are led to hope. Tribulation worketh, first, patience; patience, experience; and experience, hope; and it is in moments of trial and anxiety that the blessing of that Christian temper of cheerful hope, which I am thus urging you to acquire, is most valuable, both to others and to yourselves. Try it now, dearest onee-I bid you hope. It may please God to prolong my days; I may be enabled to aid you in watching against infirmity, perhaps a constitutional one, against which I have warned you."

"If it is constitutional, mama, do you think it can be conquered?"

"Certainly, my dear child, if it is a sinful temper. Would you excuse anger, selfishness, revenge? Yet a constitutional predisposition

to any of these offences might be pleaded. It is against the sin, which 'most easily besets us,' that we must be most watchful; and this temper, beginning in doubt and fear, may lead to murmuring and discontent, to fretful anxiety and gloom, or even to despair. It is against the beginnings of evil we must strive. It would be a good plan, I think, and one in which you would take a deep interest, to search out all the texts in which we are told to 'fear not,' in which we are commanded to 'rejoice,' and in which the duty of 'hope' is enjoined. But now, my dear child, I will ask you to call papa, and I will bid you good night. God bless you. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.'"

CHAPTER III.

"If some poor wandering child of thine
Have spurned to-day, the voice divine,
Now, Lord, the gracious work begin―
Let him no more lie down in sin."

-CHRISTIAN Year.

Mary Greville was little more than fourteen years of age, but circumstances had combined to make her older in character than in years. Her mother had, for some time past, been in delicate health, and Mary had been her assistant in every domestic duty, especially in conducting the education of the younger ones of the family, and in frequently visiting the sick, and superintending the schools in her father's parish. Her temper was naturally sweet and gentle, her mind thoughtful, and the "good seed," sown with many prayers,

by her excellent parents, had been abundantly blessed by her heavenly Father, so that "all that is lovely and of good report" was manifested in her daily life and conduct. She had, from early childhood, been taught by her mother to search and examine her own heart, and now, in the quiet solitude of her room, she recalled all that her mother had been saying to her, and, upon a review of her feelings during the past day only, became conscious that she required the warning voice. She had not, indeed, neglected any of her duties, but she had allowed herself to perform them in a murmuring and discontented spirit; she had been thinking it “hard,” that, while she might have been improving her own mind, by reading and meditating upon subjects congenial to her own taste and feelings, she had been obliged to attend the village schools, and hear repeated the same. dull tasks, fitted only for the comprehension of and that in the evenlittle children; very ing, when she had been anxious to read a

beautifully-written and very interesting work,