with a sudden start, called for the priest: several members of the family came in answer to her demand, to say that various messages had been sent both to the priest's house and also to the convent, but no priest could be immediately procured. And it was remarkable, that in a proverbially Popish neighbourhood, with a convent almost opposite the house, which many priests were daily in the practice of visiting, that none in this emergency could be procured. I always looked on this circumstance, whether justly or not cannot be told in this life, as a ground of hope that the Lord had purposes of mercy for that poor creature's soul; and let those who would be startled by the supposition that a failure in obtaining the attendance of a minister of religion could furnish such a ground of hope, consider that the purpose of that attendance would be to receive the confession of sin, which, while it lay heavily on the sinner's heart, would only be breathed to one she believed authorised by God to procure and to pronounce remission of sins; to him she might have looked instead of to the Saviour; and the last sacrament administered by him would either have tranquilized her soul into the deceitful calm of those who have no bonds in their death," or prevented her from looking for information or comfort to those who would, according to the way which they called heresy, point her only to the Saviour, who taketh away the sins of the world. Is was, therefore, with trembling anxiety that we watched every approaching step, and knowing that the visit of the priest would preclude any further attempts on our part, we were more diligent in bringing the gospel before the dying sinner, in the hope that first she

might receive the truth in the love of it; at the same, time desiring not to act in a spirit of religious intolerance, we used every reasonable exertion to obtain the attendance of the priest, and the Roman Catholic servant, who was employed in seeking for him, was not, it may be supposed, less zealous; but we prayed earnestly that the Lord would intervene his mighty power, and save the sufferer from being upraised from her low estate, by any of the props of human superstition.

The mere reading, or repeating rather of the word of God, had had a powerful effect: the apparently invulnerable walls of prejudice had fallen at its simple sound, and now we trusted that poor trembling soul was athirst for the water of life, though it had neither faith nor strength to draw near, and take of it freely. The poor woman listened, and gratefully listened to the gospel, whether read to her in its own sacred words, or expressed by her fellowcreatures, who in turn came to minister to her according to their ability. She generally lay with closed eyes; their wild wandering expression was gone; but she would open and turn them on the speaker or reader who preached unto her Jesus, with a sort of trembling, though wordless, inquiry as if she would ask-Could such grace be extended to her. At this period, I believe, mortification had taken place, and the cessation of bodily pain left the mind freer. Her words were few, and consisted chiefly of broken prayers and ejaculations for pardoning mercy, which, while they moved our feelings, excited us to hope for the returning sinner, for Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever-and the cry that was heard on the stormy waters of Galilee

is still heard around the throne which the praises of Cherubim and Seraphim incessantly encircle. The exact words of these expressions I have forgotten; and in bringing forward the case of this woman as a remarkable testimony to the power of the divine work, I am careful not to put into the lips of the departed, a single expression which might not have fallen from them.

The day was wearing away, and the shades of death were more rapidly drawing over the countenance we watched: alternately we had been beside her bed, and now I was there alone: anxiously had I prayed that time and space for repentance might be granted to the sufferer, and with this prayer would mingle one, which, I trust, did not flow from the narrow spirit of bigotry; it was that the arrival of the minister of a religion which, I believed, had very far departed from the simplicity of gospel faith, might be retarded, at least till evidence was given that the soul of the dying creature had looked to Jesus, and been lightened of the sins man could not forgive, was clinging to his cross, and could not be removed therefrom by any of the delusive hopes of human invention.

Death was very rapidly advancing, but I did not know how rapidly, the shades of evening were drawing on, and no priest had yet appeared; the poor woman lay composed and quiet; she had never expressed any wish to see him since the time I watched; and after that time I had spoken to her more freely of the danger and folly of depending on man instead of God, and urged her to look from the broken cisterns of human help to that fountain of living waters set before her in Christ Jesus. She

made no opposition; she listened to and appeared to believe what was said, but now she had sunk into a state of languor, and seemed scarcely able to speak. She had lain some minutes in this state, when I was suddenly informed that the priest was come. I was alone in the chamber of death, for the person who brought the tidings instantly withdrew. I shall not forget my feelings at that moment; the sound of the priest's heavy footsteps was already on the stairs; I bent over the dying woman, " A-,' I said, the priest has come; now will you trust to anything that man can do for you, or will you trust to your Saviour only?'

She opened her dimmed eyes, raised up, far above her head, the arms from which, in a few hours' space, the flesh had fallen, and exerting her voice, cried out aloud, and with energy, To none but my blessed Saviour! to none but my blessed Saviour!' The wasted arms dropped down, the eyes and the lips closed, and never opened again; the priest heard no confession, pronounced no absolution ; these were the last words she ever uttered, and these as being the most satisfactory, dwelt the clearest on my memory. We believed her spirit passed away as the priest's foot was on the threshold, but the exact moment could not be told; he thought her dead when he went in, but he asked for lights and anointed the poor body, and went through the ceremony of extreme unction over the senseless form; and after a visit that seemed to disgust him much, of about two or three minutes, he took his departure, and all was over.

S. B.

CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN A MOTHER AND HER CHILDREN.

[Continued from page 437.]

CONVERSATION III.

ON THE HUMAN FRAME.

Frank. You promised, Mamma, to tell us more about the bones, and you said that they were hollow and not solid; are there any reasons, besides those which you gave us, for their being so made?

Mamma. Yes; had the earthy matter, or lime, of which they are composed, been all formed into one solid slender bone, instead of being enlarged into a hollow tube, they would have been much more liable to break than they are now, and would not have been so capable of resisting pressure or violence.

Frank. Yes, I see that it would be so.

Emily. But are the parts of the bone which are like the walls of it, quite solid?

Mamma. No, they are porous, as are almost all substances.

Jane. What do you mean by porous, mamma? Mamma. Pores are small holes, which are found on the surface of bodies. Even stones, though they seem to be so hard, have pores in them.