Bridges' Addresses to Candidates before and after Confirmation; Seeley.

I cannot conclude without reminding my young readers, that no good effect can follow either this or any other means, without the teaching of that "Spirit of wisdom and understanding," whose influences are solemnly invoked in the Confirmation service, and which we must learn at all times to call for by diligent prayer.

VENTNOR,

April 12th, 1845.

CHAPTER I.

THE TEST OF SINCERITY.

"And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, go, return each to her mother's house: the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me."-Ruth i. 8.

THE narrative contained in the Book of Ruth, is one of the most interesting and instructive in the Bible. At first sight, perhaps, we may feel disposed to, wonder why it should be thought worthy of a place in the sacred Scriptures. It has pleased God to make known his will in a volume which is far exceeded in bulk by many a treatise written on some single science; and yet in a book which speaks of the most important of all subjects, a place is given to the history of an obscure family in one of the smallest nations in the world. And why is this?

Because, in the first place, THAT FAMILY

LAY IN THE DIRECT LINE OF THOSE FROM WHOM CHRIST SPRANG.

He is the Alpha

B