ago. I have such an utter want of power to touch the hearts of my class. It appears that I am farther off than ever. When I begin to talk to them of sin, my own unworthiness rises so painfully to my mind that the thought of assuming a false character prevents my speaking to any purpose."

If you were to set before them your own character as the standard of excellence, the assumption would indeed be of a most pernicious kind,—you would be a wilfully blind leader of the blind. But this is not the case; and if you would fix your mind intently on your duty, and be anxious only while you are teaching for the souls of your children, you would lose that self-consciousness, one of the worst foes of the youthful Christian."

"But how to lose self-consciousness? If I examine myself daily, and find how much I have hitherto come short, and how I still continue to fail in duty, I cannot lose these thoughts of myself."

"You can do it by not looking so much inwardly, but upwards to God. You remember the short prayers mentioned in Little Millie,' 'Lord, show me myself;' and 'Lord, show me thyself.' You have prayed the first prayer, and not in vain. You have learned your own deficiencies; you know that you have deeply sinned; that temptations to unfaithfulness beset you, and that you are constantly in need of God's merciful guidance to keep you from evil. Fully conscious of this, and sincerely desirous of redeeming the past, you must not let the remembrance of wrong doing incapacitate you from the performance of present duties. Repentance is more truly shown by action, than by feeling. Now you must pray as Millie did, "Lord, shew me thyself." Can you remember what Paul says on this very subject?"

"This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

"Yes, the Apostle acted so during the whole of the wonderful career after his conversion. He did not lose the sense of sin, yet he never sat with his hands before him, idly bewailing the past, but testified his repentance by working in the service of him whom he had so bitterly opposed. Before he made use of the words you quoted, he had just told the Philippians that he had not attained, neither was he already perfect: but he followed after Jesus." Peter pursued the same course: he was twice unfaithful; but he did not in consequence hesitate to impart religious instruction. On the contrary, it seems to me, that he, as well as Paul, were animated by the remembrance of their early failures to attack sin the more vigorously, knowing by experience, the inevitable misery brought on

the sinner's head. They looked upward; they sought and obtained strength from on high. They never permitted their sense of unworthiness to degenerate into the morbid self-dissatisfaction which is apt, afier a time, to degenerate still farther into a state of mind which harbours ingratitude to God."

"Then you would not encourage meditation and self-examination?” "Certainly I would, the meditation which leads to action; the selfexamination which quickens spiritual life. But they are of no farther value than as their result is valuable. You appear to me to want excitement too much, my dear child; during my illness you were such a faithful tender nurse, that I scarcely felt the need of your admirable mother; but now that the excitement is over, I cannot help perceiving that you become listless, and spend much of your time in reverie, neglecting small but important duties. Am I right?" "Yes," said Jane, blushing deeply, as she remembered one especial duty that had been neglected in the previous week. If one could only be religious with as much ease as one could think about it, and wish for it, it would be a very happy thing."

66

"That cannot be, Jane, said her father; we all wish for salvation, but we do not any of us like to buy it at too dear a price. Not only can we not become Christians by mere meditation; but even the negative virtue which rests content with merely abstaining from outward wrong is not acceptable to God. Nothing worthy was ever yet achieved without great effort, and great effort required in the conquest of self; efforts, indeed, which could never succeed were it not for the abundant grace of God. And you must pray, dearest Jane, that you may obtain the power of abandoning yourself to His will, that you may learn what He desires of you, and faithfully perform it. Without this abandonment you may perform moral actions, but you will never be a holy child of God; and unless you are yourself possessed of religion, you will not be able to impart any portion of it. Your instruction will resemble the dry bones of the prophet's dream, which needed the spirit to animate them.

"And do you

asked Jane.

think that true holiness is to be attained on earth?"

"Not the perfection of holiness: though such as Henry Ware, Mrs. Fletcher, and others whom I could name, were holy characters. We also may become holier each succeeding day, if we consistently strive to be partakers of the divine life, understanding more clearly as we progress, the wisdom, power, and goodness of God. So we may prepare for entrance into that region, where we may be altogether holy in the presence of His glorious perfection."

"Then only such a man, who is continually increasing in divine love until he approaches perfection, would merit salvation."

"Merit salvation! No human being can merit salvation. Put aside the idea of merit altogether. Eternal life is the free gift of God to man. The devotion of a whole life to Him from infancy to age would be richly rewarded by the habitual joy, the peace which passeth understanding, which would be felt in this life. Our gratitude ought indeed to be great towards Him, who has promised to bestow immortal life on such unworthy creatures as the best of us must be."

Jane looked thoughtful. She resumed the work she had laid down, and remained silent for many minutes. Then raising her eyes, she looked smilingly at her father, and said, "Suppose & young member of your congregation came to consult you, a lawyer of divinity, as to what you would recommend her future course to be, what counsel would you give her?"

"I should tell her to strive to perform the minor as well as the greater duties of life worthily; to pray vigorously; to go out of herself and look to Christ, who is only waiting to take up his abode in her heart. I would urge her not to be discouraged, if betrayed into error, or to despair even if she were led into sin; but prayerfully to strive the stronger for the mastery, and while faithfully endeavouring to work for God and with God, to leave all results in His hands."

"But, suppose she told you that she was cold in prayer, feeble in keeping resolutions, dead at heart, though conscious of a craving want which nothing satisfied."

"I should tell her that the desire for something better, the longings for a diviner life-that craving which nothing but entire devotion to God will satisfy,-were proofs that she was sincerely desirous to obtain the one thing needful;' and I would urge her still to pray, because God has promised help to those who seek, and though he will not fulfil them until his own good time, His promises were never known to fail."

The minister paused for a moment. His emotion overpowered him. Then laying his hand on the book, which was his inseparable companion, he continued: "And in all circumstances, but especially in times of trial and temptation, I would intreat her to go to this hospital for sick souls,' and sitting at the foot of the Master, humbly strive to tread in his steps. If she does this faithfully, the frailties of humanity will be overlooked by her merciful Judge, and the righteousness which she has endeavoured to attain will be imputed to her, on that great day, which is the dread of the sinful,the joyful anticipation of the pure in heart."

S. L.

Faith is a humble self-denying grace: it makes the Christian nothing in himself, and all in God.-Leighton.

NURSE MACGUIRE.

To those who have mingled much with the Irish peasantry, many instances are known of that faithful and devoted affection to the families with whom they are connected, or to the children entrusted to their care, which are almost fabulous in the opinion of those who have had experience only of the self-indulgent or sordid hireling or of that class superior to these, who are conscientious in fulfilling the letter of their bond, but think themselves fully acquitted from anything farther. In one of my visits to Ireland, I met with a remarkable instance of devotedness in a nurse, who had once been in the service of my friend, and whose story was told me in consequence of her coming whilst I was there, to see her children, as she called the youngest members of the family, now 19 and 20 years of age! When the offices of Nurse Macguire were no longer wanted by these children, she entered the service of a Mr. Vincent, a barrister in Dublin, to take charge of a sickly child of sixteen months, then the only one; and a careful experienced woman was wanted to restore, if possible, this little Robert to health. Nurse was successful, and remained in the family during the time that five more children were born. When her first charge was some twelve years old, Mr. Vincent was not only penniless, but was found guilty of dishonesty; and with difficulty his friends arranged for him to be allowed to leave Dublin: his wife and children were to remain behind with her friends. On this occasion Mrs. Vincent told nurse, that she must part with her, however grieved to do so; but that she could no longer afford to pay her wages, a wet nurse for the baby being indispensable, as Mrs. V. was in bad health! "Och, my lady," said Nurse, "do you think I'm going to leave you in your poverty, when I have lived with you and shared your riches in your prosperity? No, no! I'll stay with you and the dear children: you'll want me all the more now poverty

is come!"

A few days after this, it was determined that Mrs. Vincent and the six children should go with Mr. V. to New York, in the hope that their presence might stimulate him to exertion to provide for them: a wet nurse was found in a woman who wished to join her husband in America, and who was paid by her passage. Again Mrs. Vincent told nurse that they must separate; for her to cross the Atlantic with them was out of the question. "Indeed no,"

replied the good woman, "what would become of the mistress, sick as she was, and the dear children on board ship, without me:" she could cross with them at any rate, even if she came back the next day! and so they all embarked in a sailing vessel, with few comforts

or preparations. Midway, poor Mrs. Vincent became worse, and died: then indeed nurse was thankful to be with the poor children; she received from her dying mistress the little supply of money, which her friends had privately given her before their departure from Dublin, in case she should be in any straits on her arrival; and promised her never to desert her children to the care of strangers! she carefully stored away Mrs. Vincent's few treasures and clothes for her children, and shortly after landed with them at New York. Here the cruel nurse, who had proved very unworthy, left them, and Nurse and the six children were taken by Mr. Vincent to a boardinghouse!

He talked big of what he meant to do,—was idle and dissipated,— and Nurse soon saw that it was necessary to adopt very different measures; she took a very humble lodging for herself and the children—too humble for any danger of Mr. Vincent's sharing it with them, but she calculated, according to her little secret resources, and her position so far from Ireland. Mr. Vincent remonstrated and promised largely,—as such characters generally do- self-deceived but nurse knew him better, and took her own measures. She had no acquaintance in the city but some fellow-servants, who had previously settled in it--but were poor people. The eldest boy, Robert, then twelve or thirteen, had got a situation at a store, for which he received a dollar a week; from time to time his father removed him from one store to another on the plea of higher wages thus preventing the boy rising by good conduct, in the first respectable one in which he had been placed. For Mr. Vincent put in his appearance at intervals at the lodging, generally to make promises, or to announce that he shortly expected a lucrative situation; always also to beg or borrow some trifle from Nurse, for his immediate wants, till at length she was obliged to refuse him entirely, after which she saw nothing of him. The mother of Mrs. Vincent in Ireland, already impoverished by helping her daughter, was unwilling to have the children back,-not only that she could ill afford it, but hoping that their presence would stimulate their father to exertion and good conduct, on their account. They sent nurse either once or twice £10, and for two years she struggled on with these children in this way. The baby died shortly after they landed; Robert, the eldest, three little girls, and John, then seven or eight years old, composed the little family! Her graphic and touching account of the trials and exertions of those two years be heard from her own mouth to be fully appreciated! How she faithfully kept up in the children the memory of their mother, the hymns and prayers she had taught them, and the "lady-habits" in which they had been trained so far! Though a catholic herself, she

should