faithful people; do I value this privilege, and am I more gentle, more loving, as its result?

"I have communicated with a crucified Saviour; do I crucify sin?

“These and such other questions as your particular circumstances and temptations suggest are as necessary after, as their counterparts are before Communion. And now, with reference to the other cause, I would advise you not to see Miss Hilton without solemn prayer to God that you may not be led by any earthly joy to forget Him and His holy works and ways.

"And I would also suggest to you that you should make some sacrifice to punish yourself and remind yourself of your fall. Do you not think you

ought?"

"Yes, indeed, Sir; I will try."

more.

"Well, think it over; and whatever you resolve, mind you keep your resolution. There is one point If you had a vivid sense of God's presence, you would neither have been weak enough at first to promise to go, nor afterwards to remain hearing and seeing things which your conscience disapproved. It is most important to you to try and gain this incalculable security and consolation. It would be almost impossible for a Christian to commit any conscious sin, or to despair in difficulty, pain, and sorrow, if he could realise his Saviour as close to him, seeing, hearing, reading him through and through. You cannot easily realise the presence of God the

Father, who has no form by which we may picture Him to ourselves; but God the Son took upon Him our nature, partly, I believe, that we might have a lively image of a personal God, whose eye and ear are ever ours. This, however, may be otherwise to you; but at any rate, seek after a sense of the presence of God, a consciousness that you are entirely present to Him, before Him, with Him; and if you cannot gain this sense except by very frequent meditations, then make a rule that every time you rise, or every time you sit down, or every time you enter a house, you will bring this thought before your mind. Only do not charge yourself with a sin if you forget. Memory is innocently frail, and the conversation of others will often prevent your doing what you wish. Keep your conscience clear on this head; but try the rule if you find it desirable. It is very singular, William, how nearly fallen we are when we think ourselves safe. Often after a high privilege, and a much nobler state of mind than is usual to us, we are nearest our ruin. St. Peter, confessing Christ on His way from Mount Tabor, deserved and received the rebuke, 'Get thee behind me, Satan;' and again, after his profession of fidelity and that of the other disciples, he denied, and all forsook their Master. Let these things warn us. You felt as if you had taken a new stand. New ideas of usefulness opened at once before you; ideas fresh to you and strange to your equals. You had been in my society, and so perhaps had religious subjects

brought before you until you imagined they were more connected with you than they are: and you had received the inestimable honour and blessing of the Lord's Supper; and then came all that has passed.

"Let me urge you, then, to keep yourself down; to feel that you have only just begun to wish to do right; that but for God's grace you would never have wished it; that you are no better than others; that you have still a great deal to learn and a great deal to do before you can become that which you might have been years ago; and whilst I bring before you your high privileges and duties as a Churchman, whilst I tell you how honourable and useful a position you occupy as an English farmer; whilst I make a friend of you and see much of you; do not let all this wean you from your plain duties, or unsettle you, or make you think yourself anything; but take especial pains to apply your principles to every detail, every most trivial part of your duties. Be more than ever obedient, submissive, gentle, and affectionate to your parents; more than ever attentive to your business; and let your religion make you good in your calling, not taking you out of it; but sanctifying it to you and you in it every day more and more. And now 'Let us pray.'

Mr. Lee read some prayers out of "Kettlewell's Penitent ;" and William left sad and humbled, but wiser, and better, and safer than he was. The sacrifice which he made was to give up shooting for that

year.

He bestowed the cost of his license in charity, and denied himself his favourite amusement. When questioned as to his motive, he assigned none, but simply answered that he had private reasons, and that he hoped to shoot the following year. His querists were rather troublesome, but he bore it as part of his self-punishment; and a real punishment it was, for he was truly fond of the sport; and as he walked through the stiff, bright stubble and flushed a covey, or raised the fresh scent of the turnips as he crossed them in his evening walks, he often longed to see his pointer dashing across, and not unfrequently raised his stick as a partridge whizzed across his path. A true sportsman will know what William felt, and he will, therefore, see that he was in earnest when he renounced this pleasure.

CHAPTER IX.

The Return.

"A month's sharp conflict only served to prove
The power, as well as truth of Walter's love."

BLOOMFIELD: WALTER AND JANE.

How is it possible to describe the first meeting of William and Ellen? With a confession of inability it shall be passed by; and the reader must picture to himself, if he wishes it, the words, looks, and feelings with which, perhaps, experience can supply him. Be this as it may, Ellen's stay at the Moat House must be the recommencement of the narrative; and there we do not hesitate to say how delightful was the filbert hedge under which the poor pointer was destroyed, and how romantic seemed the old moat when they glided along its surface in William's punt, and plucked the bulrush, and watched the moor-hens, with their downy brood, glide in and out under the old roots. But there was one portion of the moat particularly pleasing; that, namely, under an old postern door, now grown over, and completely shielded from observation. Why they liked this place so much, it is hard for a grave author to imagine-but so it was.