The very sins absolved pressed the most heavily, and he felt and knew they were still unforgiven. At length Herbert found himself praying that he might die. He started at the thought! Could death bring relief? Would the fires of purgatory, the caldrons of boiling oil, the molten lead, into which sinners are supposed to be plunged for purification, afford any diminution of his anguish? No! And Raymond knew not where to turn for shelter. The shadow of the great rock in a weary land (Ethel's hiding-place) was not his. Though within his reach, he still wandered in the arid desert of his own self-righteousness. But the Saviour, whose blood Raymond had rejected, looked on him in pity from on high, and only waited a little longer to have mercy; to pluck him, as it were, a brand from the fire. And this, we may here remark, is the only meaning that can with correctness be attached to the expression, "saved so as by fire." Saved in affliction, humbled and brought to Jesus by sorrow and despair, there to find in Him rest. Let the candid reader judge between the doctrines of Rome and Protestantism! Are the former calculated to bring peace to the troubled conscience? Can they satisfy the yearnings of the heart for God? True, there may be, and we trust there are, many within the Church of Rome, who, looking beyond the outward tinsel and parade of Popery, rest their hopes alone on Christ. Such, without doubt, will be saved; saved in spite of their other errors, through the merits of Him alone. But those people, though they bear another name, are not Romanists. Such is not the way to heaven authorised by Rome. They must employ other mediators, and trust them to pro pitiate the Saviour; otherwise they are not true Romanists, but Protestants in all but the name. * 66 It is utterly impossible that any peace or comfort can be gained by the deeds of the law, or by the pretended forgiveness of sins by man. By the deeds of the law can no flesh living be justified." blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." can forgive sins but God only ?" "The "Who Sin is the leprosy of the soul; and as that loathsome disease cleaves to man, and defies his efforts to cure it, so sin cleaves to his carnal nature, and man cannot provide a remedy. Jesus alone, by the word of his power, can say, "I will, be thou clean ;" and immediately, whether it be the leprosy of the body or the soul, the man is made whole. Oh, that men would at once turn to Him, who is mighty to save, and who came into the world to save sinners, instead of seeking other mediators, on whose intercession they cannot depend! It is time, however, we should leave Raymond, and return once more to Ethel. * Creed of Pius IV.: "VII. Likewise that the saints, reigning together with Christ, are to be honoured and invocated; and that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their relics are to be held in veneration." CHAPTER IV. The gloomiest day had gleams of light, The gloomiest soul is not all gloom, The saddest heart is not all sadness; And sweetly o'er the darkest doom There shines some lingering beam of gladness. Despair is never quite despair, Nor life nor death the future closes; And round the shadowy brow of care Will hope and fancy twine their roses." MRS. HEMANS. As might be expected, a weary life lay before Ethel on her return home; the joyousness of her course was gone. And Ethel, too, had changed!-changed with the blight that had fallen on her young life, but not for the worse. "Godly sorrow worketh repentance." Sanctified affliction, though for the time grievous, yieldeth "the peaceable fruits of righteousness." Ethel was a subdued and chastened woman, old in the experience of life, and wiser for that experience. It was seldom now an angry flush overspread her cheek, or a haughty curl rested on her lip; she was patient and softened. True, her step was slower, her face more tinged with melancholy, though a heavenly calm rested on her fair brow, and a peace was felt within which nothing could disturb. It was seldom a merry ringing laugh was heard, as once was usual-it seemed hardly in accordance with the sorrowful remembrance which ever remained; but there was no moodiness in her gravity, and her gentleness and thought for others was greater than it had ever been before. It was not that Ethel had lost the strong-minded energy and courageous zeal which had characterised her on suitable occasions, but such feelings slumbered for the present, until occasion called them into action; then Ethel could again rise the heroic, ardent-souled woman. But in her home-duties hers was principally to remain, as much as possible, a passive instrument in Mrs. Woodville's hands. Ethel knew some one must submit, and that that one ought to be herself. Her step-mother was the head of the house and her father's wife, and as such her duty was plain, to do all in her power to please her. And nobly Ethel subdued herself; and with admirable patience she yielded up, one by one as desired, every privilege required by her domineering step-mother. A series of gay visits were paid and returned by the Woodvilles, and Ethel was compelled to partake in them as far as Christian principle allowed. Mr. Woodville had now only Ethel to be proud of, and he lost no opportunity of introducing her into society, which, for many reasons, was repugnant to her feelings. But she relinquished her own wishes, and strove by every means in her power to please and gratify her father. People wondered and conjectured on the change that had come over Ethel, as she silently glided among them, kind and gentle, but evidently with her heart sorrowing over some hidden trial. Many readily accounted for the change. Mrs. Woodville's conduct was quite enough to produce a feeling of sadness, notwithstanding the professions of kindness she used to her in public; yet there are ever those, either in the persons of intimate visitors or servants, who know and detail the private life of families, and Ethel's domestic troubles were generally known. Ethel had hoped more leisure might have been hers, as of course all domestic superintendence was taken from her by Mrs. Woodville, but this was not to be; numberless irksome duties were ingeniously contrived by her imperious step-mother, in order to prevent her following the bent of her own inclinations. These Ethel undertook and performed, not with an ill grace, but to the best of her ability. These were not her greatest trials. It was the continual allusions to her own mother which required so much patience, and in the undisguised dislike and ceaseless persecutions Mrs. Woodville displayed towards Minnie. She did not positively speak against Ethel's mother, but insinuated things, and made a point of altering every arrangement which had been hers, never losing the opportunity of sarcastic allusion to the absurdity of the plan. Nothing but the grace of God could have enabled Ethel to endure all this, but she had strength given to subdue the rising feeling, so that the effort soon became easier, and she learnt to bear in silence allusions like this, and constant opposition to her own wishes. She was continually blamed for her care of Minnie, because she shielded her as much as possible from persecution. And to annoy Ethel, Mrs. Woodville increased the mortifications and childish disappointments Minnie had to undergo, and Ethel felt it a difficult task to speak to Minnie of the justice and necessity of submitting to her step-mother; and |