"With some pleasing qualities; for she was patient and obliging to those who were kind to her; she appeared to be absolutely destitute of all moral principle-to be utterly unacquainted with the commonest principles of right and wrong; and all that seemed to distinguish her from a mere animal, was a sort of cunning by which she was led to try to accommodate herself to the ways of the persons about her.

"She had acquired at school some little knowledge of the names and facts recorded in scripture; but if she had not put any of these together in her mind, there was one excuse to be pleaded for her; that, although she could talk English with fluency, she had probably hardly heard it spoken during the first five years of her short life and as to any spiritual views, of course these were out of the question.

"She was so pressed down by infirmities during the first few days that she was with us, and so carefully watched, that it was impossible for her to fall into any obvious delinquencies, excepting those of the tongue; and as to Maria, she was so convinced that not a word she said could be relied upon, that she, as my wife overheard, when the little girls were conversing in her presence, used frequently to call her to account, by asking her if she was quite sure it was as she said; or, if she happened to know the subject she was speaking of, by saying, 'No, Selina, it was not in that way, do think again; it was so and so.—'

Once, indeed, my wife heard her say, 'Don't you know, Selina, how wicked it is to tell untruths? for though we do not expect to go to heaven by any good thing we can do for ourselves, (or else you and I, I am sure, would be very badly off,) yet it proves that we cannot love God, and his Holy Spirit cannot be in our hearts, when we go on, from day to day, doing what he has forbidden; and he has forbidden lying. Dear Selina, do pray to be made to love God our Saviour, who has done so much for you; and then, when you love him, all the rest will follow in good time,'

"The frost ceasing for a few days, Selina lost her rheumatic pains and her difficulty of breathing, and was like a little gazelle let loose from close captivity; though she soon made it manifest that she had not the harmlessness of the young deer. She was in high prosperity; and her total want of moral principle evidenced itself in every way in which it could do so in a well

regulated and religious family; for she tried her powers of deception with every servant in the house, and every person out of it to whom she had access. Nor can I think without pain, how thoroughly this little creature deceived me, for she had learned to talk on religious subjects glibly, that I almost supposed her to be a new creature, though many about me knew better. Weeks went on; the holidays were concluding, and the child seemed to gain health and strength, when a circumstance happened which proved of great importance to her.

"There was the funeral of an infant one evening, and Maria and Selina asked to go with me when I was called upon to commit the dust to dust in sure and certain hope of a joyful resurrection. We ought not to have allowed Selina, suffering as she had done from the cold of our climate, to go and stand in the open air for so long a time; but we had had no experience of Indian constitutions, neither had her governess; and we all thought it good for her to take daily exercise when, in reality, she should have been shut up as a hot-house plant. That same night she was seized with a fearful attack of inflammation of the chest, in which she must have died, had we not procured immediate medical aid. She was much better by the middle of the next day, though looking very ill; but she called for me, and cried so bitterly when I did not come at the instant, that every one present was alarmed.

“Oh sir,' she said, when she saw me, 'I do so want to tell you how wicked I have been all my life; and if I should die, what would become of me!'

"Who told you you had been wicked?' I asked; for I remembered her usual want of truth, and feared, even now, that she was affecting what she did not feel.

"The grave, sir,' she answered rather wildly, and the rattling earth, and the dark night, and the dreadful pain!—they brought it all before me-all so plain." She then began rapidly to enumerate her many, many offences; and, for so young a creature, it was so long and fearful a catalogue, that I was glad. Maria was not in the room when she confessed a systematic perseverance in art, carried on ever since she could remember! "By these wicked deceptions she had ever endeavored to obtain her own little selfish ends; it mattered not at whose expense,

and, without the smallest reference at any time of her life to the pleasure of God or the fear of his judgments; the objects which she sought to gain were indeed trifling, and most of her manœuvres childish, but the nature of her principles and actions was precisely the same as that of the oldest and most hardened sinner.

"After having heard her awhile with no small astonishment, I said, Selina, it is neither the grave, nor the rattling earth, nor the dark night, nor the dreadful pain, which have brought your sins before you, for all these things you have seen and felt before; but it is the Divine Spirit, who, for the love he has for you, because Christ died for you, has caused you to know and hate your wickedness, as the first step towards his saving you from it, and raising you to a state of glory.'

"But it needs not, my beloved brethren, that I should enter largely upon what I said to the child: of course, I endeavored to exhibit the Saviour to her, as He is, all lovely, merciful, swift to pardon, hearing before the sinner cries, more tender than the tenderest mother-and to my joy, my unspeakable joy, all that I said to the suffering child, she received with the eagerness with which every new-born babe desires the sincere milk of the Word. Sweet to the child were the lessons taught her from this Holy Word, and most blessed was their effect. Her patience, her gratitude, her love to us, was most touching, whilst her sense of her Heavenly Father's goodness seemed almost too much for her earthly frame. She grew rapidly in grace-most rapidly - whilst, at the same time, the disease which had hung about her all the winter, took a most alarming turn. From the first moment that she was enabled to lay hold on her Saviour, there was no falling back to fears and doubts in the mind of the little girl, though she saw, in dark contrast to the glory now revealed, the enormous sins of which she had been guilty. But she saw them, only to be sensible that the blood of Christ had washed them out for ever.

"She lived some days after her first severe attack; and, in that interval, was so entirely changed in her whole manner, feelings, and principles, that my daughter, who had never seen any thing of the kind before, said, 'Now, indeed, I think I do understand something of the change which the Lord the Spirit works, when

He gives any one a new heart-He makes him a new creature; and makes all old things to pass away.'

"Our little girl fell asleep in the arms of my wife, leaning as a beloved infant upon her bosom; for it was a soft, peaceful sleep, that closed those dark eyes-death had no bitterness for the redeemed one." M. M. S.

(To be continued.)

A MISTAKE CORRECTED.

THE patriarch Job is not the only one who, under the pressure of trial, has been tempted in bitterness of spirit to say, "Let the day perish wherein I was born." And many who would not use language so strong, often think or say, "Would that my life had ended in infancy-before sorrow had cast its shade over my path, or the powers of mind had been developed only to be misemployed!" Many a heart has breathed this wish, either in weariness of life's trials, or in impatience of soul-discipline. With some, it has been the language of ungodly recklessness; with others, it has assumed the appearance of hatred of sin, and of a longing after the rest of holiness; and many a young convert, ere his bark was well launched, has wished for the haven-has talked, while yet the spiritual life was scarcely developed, of the bliss of an early death, persuading himself that his impatience for rest was a proof of spirituality.

As we have so lately commenced another period of, what we are in the habit of calling "precious time," a few remarks upon a mistake which is so prevalent, may not be inappropriate.

I have assumed that this wish arises altogether from a mistaken view of things, and in trying to prove this, I will address myself chiefly to those who really desire to serve God; who have some sense of the value of the soul; who see that unprepared death is indeed awful, and that all the privileges of existence weigh nothing against an eternity of condemnation. You wish that you had died an infant; why? "Oh, then," you say, “I should have known no actual sin, should have been in no danger of perishing eternally; my salvation would have been secure." There is some truth in this, and the mind that pauses now and then amidst the hurry of life, to reflect upon the woes and sins

of fallen man, and especially to shed a tear over childhood oppressed, and mind mismanaged, cannot but rejoice in the thought, that so many are "taken away from the evil to come." Yet this seems to be rather a resource to which we fly for relief, under perplexities and difficulties, which we can neither control nor solve; it is not what the well regulated mind would choose; and when one who has attained maturity of judgment can regret that life has been prolonged, we cannot but suspect that there is a wrong apprehension of the real value of life, or an indolent self-indulgence which would willingly seek repose, while it is yet noon.

You say, my young friend, that then salvation would have been secure. Is then the attainment of a heaven of rest, the only end for which you were born? or, what kind of heaven do you anticipate? Heaven is not only the place of rest, the abode of sinless spirits, but it is also another stage of existence for intelligent creatures, where every intellectual power shall be enlarged and employed. Does not manhood need the preparation of childhood? Is not the matured character the result of a thinking process to which events of all kinds have contributed? And is it therefore, with no reference to our training for eternity, that we are continued here? Do we so exactly know where we are in moral education, and what is the fitness that we need for that world of which we know so little-as to venture to wish for death; to risk, if one may carry the comparison so far, an imperfect education, a mind but half prepared for future work? Should not our ignorance of the nature and degree of the discipline that we individually need, lead us thankfully to rest in the wisdom of Him who knows us altogether; and should it not give a sincerity to our morning acknowledgment of the goodness which continues our earthly existence? Can we honestly thank God for a continuation of that, which in the secret of our hearts we wish ended? Oh, let us rather rest assured, we need all the time, and require all the discipline which we have passed through, for the moral and mental education that is to fit us for our new state of being. Did you ever try to think, what may be connected with "this corruption putting on incorruption, and this mortal putting on immortality?" If you have, you will not venture to determine what the number of your days should be.