among the happy excepted "few," whose peaceful connubial bowers had not been polluted by the trail of that baleful serpent, which, with such mysterious agency, and tremendous effects, once violated the sanctity of the bowers of Eden.

CHAPTER XV.

THE author now feels that he must avail himself of the privilege, so often exercised by the fraternity to which he belongs, of anticipating a number of years in the winding up of his little history. He feels that his book has now attained to a sufficient length. He is almost inclined to believe, that the reader will thank him for withholding his pen from swelling its pages, beyond what is needful for the purpose of bringing down the memoirs of the various persons introduced, to the period when he is to take his final leave of them. The work, indeed, has grown, in the hands of the author, to an extent which he did not originally contemplate; and were he to pursue the remainder of his story in detail, it would necessarily run into a second volume, which he does not dare to flatter himself would be a gratification to his reader, any more than it would be a convenience to himself.

Craving, therefore, the kind indulgence of those who may honour these pages with a perusal, the author will now take the liberty of passing over twelve years in the lives of the various persons who have been brought to their notice. Nor does he suppose that the interest of his work will be at all diminished, or disappointment created in the minds of those who read it, in consequence of the hiatus thus created; inasmuch as the precise position occupied by each individual, at the time of the conclusion of these memoirs, in this the final

chapter, and as the result of the detailed circumstances with which the reader is acquainted, will be succinctly but clearly stated.

We may commence, then, with Mr. Stately, whose deeply interesting case, as related in the last chapter but one, must have called forth a heart-felt sympathy towards him. Being so fresh in the recollection of my reader, it will be more convenient, as well as more natural, to take up the concluding thread of his narrative, in the first instance, before we proceed to unite the dissevered threads of the remainder.

It will be remembered that the medical attendants of that gentleman, on the favourable turn taking place at the crisis of his disease, two days prior to Mr. Gracelove's return home, had pronounced an opinion, that if their patient improved, as they believed he would, he might be conveyed, in the course of a week, by easy stages, to his own domicile. These hopes having been happily realized, the sick man found himself, at the expiration of that period, to his great comfort and benefit both of body and mind, once more under his own roof. There he continued to progress, although by very slow degrees, as the doctors had intimated, to a state of convalescence and ultimate recovery. The latter, however, was not effected till the lapse of three long months had shown the serious and dangerous nature of the attack which had so nearly proved fatal.

And, now, my reader will anxiously inquire respecting the spiritual health of this once proud and worldly man. He will inquire feelingly, whether the moral progress had kept pace with the corporeal?-Whether "vows made in pain," and under the apprehension of approaching death, had been religiously performed, when the "pain" and the "apprehension" were graciously withdrawn?-Whether sin, that worse leprosy of the soul than the polluting disease of the body, had been subdued in his heart?-Whether, in truth, deep repentance

towards God, and fervent faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, had been matured and fixed in his mind, since the first alarm which called them forth, as a living and divine principle?

This was the important problem to be solved; the favourable result of which awakened all the Christian sympathies, and prayerful hopes of Mr. Gracelove, when he left the sick chamber at Bowness for Derwent Cottage. And what a problem! In the balance were suspended the everlasting destinies of an undying soul. In one scale was the proffered grace of pardon, and salvation, through the all-atoning blood of Christ; and, in the other, the "world, the flesh, and the devil;" with the worm that dieth not,"-the fire that never shall be quenched," and the "blackness of darkness for ever!"

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Happy will my reader be when informed, that grace triumphed,—that sin and Satan were overcome by the "blood of the Lamb;"*-that there was "joy in the presence of the angels of God" over this sinner that had repented.

The gracious truth is-Mr. Stately had become a truly converted man. All the attributes of his mind, as well as all the faculties of his body, were changed, in their character and tendency, from serving mammon to serving God. He now made the Bible the alone standard of his conduct, and the guide of his actions. He now studied it with a prayerful and supplicating spirit. It was not a task, as once was the case; the mere formal reading of a few verses, or a chapter on the Sabbath day, and then leaving the sacred volume unopened, and unregarded, until the following Sabbath. But now he had regular family prayers, in which the whole of his household joined; and while he was thus taught himself, he became the zealous instrument of teaching others. Especially was this duty performed to the various members of his domestic establishment, to whom he felt the obligation was imperatively owing, at the peril of his own personal responsibility.

*Rev. xii. 11.

As the best proof that Mr. Stately was not reading his Bible in vain, with the carelessness and apathy which formerly marked his perusal of it, was the striking fact, that he was not only anxious to show a fair exterior to the world, but, also, that his motives for doing outwardly good actions should be pure in the sight of God. He now also felt, that the thoughts of his heart ought to be as strictly regulated as the deeds of his body. He was now enlightened to perceive, that it was very possible that while all men should be applauding him for the virtuous conduct which they beheld, but beyond the surface of which they could see nothing, God, who looks upon the heart, might, at the self-same moment, be recording His condemnation against him.

The converted man of the world now read, with a spiritual understanding, that searching and awakening declaration of our blessed Saviour which once he derided and scoffed at: Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. The same spirituality he now discovered in that passage of the 7th chapter of St. Mark, commencing with the 14th and terminating with the 23rd verse, which he had formerly regarded with infidelity and indifference. He had learnt, at length, that unless his righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, he should in nowise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

About twelve months after Mr. Stately's recovery from his dangerous illness, Mr. Gracelove received from him the following letter. This document, as proceeding from himself, will better speak his altered sentiments, and attest the truth and fulness of his conversion of heart, than anything emanating from the author.

* Matt. v. 28.