are brought to love him; surely your complaints would be changed into songs of praise, and your tears be turned into smiles." Sometimes, when she would argue thus with me, I was brute enough to answer roughly, and again I would be sullen, and take up my hat and walk out at the door; nevertheless, her words were not lost upon me, no, they sank deep into my heart; neither did they fail of their purpose, according to the beautiful words of the prophet, Isaiah lv. 10, 11: "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth it shall not return unto me void; but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." But perhaps you will wonder, my friends, how an humble basket-maker's wife could find words to express herself so truly and so beautifully on such deep matters as my Aly did, and especially could you but know what a plain, unpresuming, simple person she was; but He that was her teacher is a divine one, and who can set a limit to the power of such a teacher? However, although my Aly thus continually encouraged me to look upward with hope, nay, with assurance, that all would be well with us and with our children in the end, yet the weight of our debt hung upon my spirits, and we were put to many shifts, and had to endure many privations. At these I used oftentimes to grumble, but I do not know that I ever recollect one word of complaint ever proceeding from the mouth of my dear wife; and she would often say to me, after we had dined on potatoes and a little slice of butter, “See, Joseph, how well our little ones look," for we had two by that time; "and think how many poor creatures, better than ourselves, have their whole living on worse food than this." But I was unbelieving still. At length, I remember, we had had a hard winter, and on Easter-eve we were exceedingly short of money, yet I was very urgent with my wife to buy plums for a pudding the next day. "We can do without a pudding, Joseph," she_answered; 66 we shall have a bit of meat to mark the day let us wait for the pudding till another year." "And what for?" I asked; "have not I waited year after year for better times, and are we not just where we were?" She got up as I spoke, taking up the babe who lay in her arms, and reaching the Bible from the shelf, pointed out these words to me, Psalm xxxvii. 7, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” "It's what I can't do," I answered. She burst into tears on this, and her face dropped upon that of the babe, and she was quite agitated and convulsed, as it were, by her sobs. Aly was not a woman who gave way to tears on all occasions; I was therefore the more moved at this, and said, "Why, what have I done or said to trouble you so? Come, cheer up-I did not mean to say any thing unkind." "Nor did you," she answered, "as far as related to me, for you are as good a husband as woman ever had; but it seemed to me, when you said you could not wait upon God, that there was a death-blow to all my hopes. What prosperity, Joseph, I ask," she added, raising her head, and fixing her gentle yet sorrowful eyes fully upon me, "what prosperity can be looked for in that house where the master acknowledges that he cannot trust his God? Oh! Joseph, dear Joseph, I would rather have reason to believe that your heart was converted to your God than receive the forty pounds down on my hand, to pay the debts which hang so heavy on my heart." I looked at her as if she had uttered some words in an unknown tongue: and in very deed her language was an unknown one to me; for although each word was intelligible, I could no more participate in or comprehend the sentiment she meant to convey, than a babe of a 'year old; however, I made no answer, but went out of the kitchen to shut up the shop, and then taking up my hat walked out of the house, taking my way towards the fields. The moon was then quite young, and the air was soft and balmy; there were stars innumerable in the heavens; it was a glorious night: but there was a thorn in my breast, I felt more than commonly sad, and yet I could not describe what sort of sorrow it was wherewith I was exercised. Was it worldly sorrow, and the dread of the effects of my debts? or was it that Aly had at length prevailed (by the Divine blessing) to make me see that I was an ungrateful, unbelieving being, one who received the good things of this life without thankfulness, and was ready to quarrel with Providence when things did not turn out just to my wishes? At any rate, there was that evening a change working in my mind, my thoughts tumbling and tossing within me like a boiling ocean; I was angry with my God, angry with my wife, and more angry with myself, and from time to time I broke out in audible murmurs against the decrees and arrangements of Providence; for I could not understand God's dealings with man, and wickedly and arrogantly thought that if I were in the place of the Supreme Being, and possessed of his power, I would order things very differently-fool that I was, that I could not understand even that which may be known of him by his works and word; for, as I was afterward assisted to see, he ever is taking those measures with the human race which will in the end produce the most mighty sum of human felicity; and although he sometimes seems to cause grief, yet it is upon the same principle on which a father allows his rebellious boy to dip his fingers into a burning candle, in order that he may learn to dread the power of the consuming element on another occasion. Thus are we permitted to suffer evil, and to know our own weakness and depravity by sad and painful experience, in order that we may learn to choose the good and eschew the evil; and when fully convinced, by the Divine blessing, of our own insufficiency, he unites us with himself, and makes our case as sure and fast for ever as his own throne of glory. But all this had hitherto been dark and incomprehensible to me, although my wife had endeavoured to state it to me times without number; nevertheless her labours were not to be lost, through the Divine mercy towards my unworthy self; and, as I said before, I felt that night, as I paced up and down the fields at the back of my house, such a stirring within me, as if all the thoughts, evil or otherwise, which had ever crossed my mind, were rising in opposition against each other. One moment I was for going to the ale-house, and drowning my troubles in liquor; then I was for making a merit to myself with my God on church-going and strictness of life; then I was for giving up my house, selling my furniture, and enlisting as a soldier; then would I go home, and ask my wife to pray for me; any thing, in short, but consenting to throw myself unconditionally and in my own person on Christ, my Lord and brother; and thus my mind worked, till at length a thing happened to me which had not happened for years before, -I burst into a violent flood of tears, and quite sobbed again, and the feeling which followed was the sweetest I ever remember; I can only describe it by saying that I can fancy it was something like that which inspired these words in the prodigal son:-"I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son," accordingly, being inspired by this warm and tender feeling, I hastened home, and letting myself into the shop by the pass-key, I heard my wife's voice as she sat on the rocking-chair by the kitchen-fire lulling our little Aly to sleep; she was singing a hymn; her tones were sad; yet I thought I had never heard sweeter in my life, and the words were "Oh! God, our help in ages past, I stood awhile in the shop, and it being dark where I was, I saw her distinctly as the light flickered from the fire on her gentle face. I then stepped silently into the kitchen, for I felt like one full of shame for former offences, and yet hardly knowing how to express myself, and sitting down opposite to her, I said, "Aly, dear, you are right, we will not have the pudding tomorrow, and I can't say but I am sorry that I said those words which I did," adding, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." Were I the finest of writers, which I am not, being but a moderate scribe, although I received an education much above my pretensions, I should despair of describing the sweet, bright look which my wife gave me as I uttered these last words. It was a look which, however, I shall never forget to my dying day; and yet from that time for some weeks I continued very low, and my appetite failed so entirely that my wife was alarmed, and would have me send for a doctor, but I put her off; it was, however, during that period that I was led really to pray, and to lift up my heart to God while I was at work. Thus things went on till the week before Easter, at which time the good lady on our first floor was taken so ill, and required so much attention, that we were obliged to call in the assistance of the daughter of a neighbour, whom I had always thought to be a very honest and respectable woman; this girl accordingly came backward and forward, sometimes holding the infant, and sometimes waiting on the lady, and she pleased us very well. The lady, however, began to get better on the Thursday, and on the Saturday morning, while I was in the shop, a penny-post letter, dated from the Castle and Falcon, in the city, was put into my hand. It was a rare thing with me to receive a letter, and my hand trembled as I opened it; neither was I less uneasy when I had read it throughout, for it was signed by a name I did not recollect, and requested my presence at the above-mentioned inn some time during the day. Without saying a word of the letter to my wife, I directed her to mind the shop, saying, I was going out for a short time; and having staid only to put on my best coat and hat, hastened to the appointed place; but what was my astonishment when arrived at the Castle and Falcon, to find the business on account of which the gentleman had written to me. It was to pay me down on the hand the sum of thirtysix pounds, which had been left to me by a very distant relation, who had died about four weeks past, and the sum had been intrusted to his especial care, as he had seen me when a stripling, and had had a regard for my father. The gentleman knew me immediately, and brought himself very speedily to my recollection; but he could not so easily make me comprehend the blessing, for I must call it one,-which awaited me; and when he did at length make me understand it, he had something to do to bring me to my sober senses, so overcome was I with joy. At length, however, he counted down the money in two five pound bank-notes, and the rest in hard cash; and having taken my receipt, though my hand trembled so I could scarcely write my name, he gave me a yellow canvass bag to put the money in, and directed me to hide it about my person, |