can reward all, without disappointing any. When Dr Murray spoke of sin, and represented its wide devastations among men, his tone was not that of a superior, who had observed in others what was foreign to his own nature, but it was that of a father lamenting to his children a deep misfortune, in which he, as well as they, were all partakers; while he showed that, for his own pardon as well as theirs, he entertained the profoundest solicitude and the most grateful hope. "The ruin of a soul is so great a catastrophe," he observed, "that all nature trembles at the thought, and Christ himself died to avert it. Who could know so well as He did the 'infinite and inconceivable importance of eternity, for His own nature was eternal, while we cannot so much as imagine its endless duration; yet surely our minds might be impressed with a holy awe to think what our future misery would inevitably have been, if the Son of God saw so much to pity, that He left the glories of heaven to avert it. Shall we then dare to brave such a fate, and to reject our last hope of deliverance and of pardon while yet it may be found? That was an awful moment when Christ shed tears over the lost sinners of Jerusalem; for it seemed as if he would say to them and may the language never be applicable to any one here- My blood ye have rejected-my tears ye shall have-that would have saved you-these can only mourn over your hopeless desolation.""

Anxiously and intently as Matilda listened, on her own account, to all that was said, she nevertheless became aware of a gradual change which took place on the countenances of those around. Many had entered with a look of careless curiosity, several with an ex-. pression of stubborn indifference, and some with an aspect of ignorant stupidity. Nanny tripped into

the room with all her newly acquired airs of conscious beauty, and old Mrs Gordon seemed to have no object in coming but to watch her with looks of angry contempt. Yet when Dr Murray began his address, with some kind and conciliatory remarks on the relation in which his professional duty placed him towards each individual present-on the deep responsibility with which he must one day answer to his and to their eternal God for the care he exercised over their consciences, and declared the interest with which, at every future period, he would be ready to hear of their sorrows, to advise them in difficulty, or to attend them in hours of sickness and extremity, the most callous heart was touched, every wandering eye became fixed, and all were ready, with heartfelt seriousness, to join in a solemn act of devotion; while Dr Murray at length concluded his visit with a prayer, which proceeded from his divinely instructed mind with all the eloquence of fervent hope and reverential awe. Tears started into Matilda's eyes when she heard the warmth of language, and the profound emotion with which he prayed for absent members of the family, and especially for the head of that house; while new confidence and hope seemed now to arise in her mind respecting Eleanor, when she joined her prayers to his, and thought of that promise, so unspeakably precious to the heart of all who mourn for the souls of others- The prayer of the righteous man availeth much."

H

CHAPTER VII.

Where'er a tear is dried, a wounded heart
Bound up; a bruised spirit with the dew
Of sympathy anointed, or a pang
Of honest suffering soothed, or injury
Repeated oft, as oft by love forgiven:
Where'er an evil passion is subdued,
Or virtue's feeble embers found; where'er
A sin is heartily abjured and left-
There is a high and holy place, a spot

Of sacred light, a most religious fane,
Where happiness descending, sits and smiles.

POLLOK.

FROM this period a new era commenced in the life of Matilda Howard. Dr Murray's discriminating eye had marked the animated interest with which she listened to all he said, and in the few words which she spoke he traced her deep but unobtrusive knowledge of divine truth. Before taking leave, therefore, he expressed a hope that she would occasionally visit his sister, Miss Murray, and co-operate with her, as far as it might be convenient, in some plans of usefulness among the children in his parish which had but lately been formed.

Matilda's welcome, on her first visit to Gaelfield, was so extremely cordial, that she did not long delay returning thither; and it soon became her almost daily walk to hasten through a shady green lane which led that way, where, under sanction of Dr Murray, she visited with his sister the village schools, and the lowly habitations of the rural hamlet. In every house Matilda discovered traces of his active benevolence.

There the desponding had been encouraged, the doubting were confirmed, the sick received the comfort of his conversation, the poor enjoyed the benefit of his purse, and the dying found the support of his prayers. Dr Murray frequently inculcated a favourite opinion on all over whom he had any influence, that every earthly blessing is to be preserved only by active and vigorous exertion. Health, knowledge, usefulness, reputation, power, and wealth, must generally be earned throughout an incessant course of unswerving self-denial, or they can seldom be permanently enjoyed; and his own mind seemed in a continual state of energetic exercise. He possessed invincible courage, resolution, and perseverance, which were never allowed to be dormant, for indolence was, in his estimation, next to actual sin, the greatest of all enemies to human happiness. Whether in reading, in conversing, or in solitary meditation, Dr Murray held it a sacred duty to redeem the time, by keeping his intellect at the full stretch of its powers; and even his sleep was not the slumber of indolence, but the deep repose of a mind and frame exhausted by active labour and intense application. On all occasions he remembered the words of Scripture," If any man refuse to labour neither shall he eat," and the example of Christ, who toiled in the vocation of Joseph, taught to others the duty of working according to our own station and ability. His personal exertions, however, were limited to Gaelfield parish, for Dr Murray never itinerated throughout the country at the expense of charitable institutions for which a subscription was to be collected. He feared lest the language of Scripture should ever become applicable to himself,-" Mine own vineyard have I not kept!" and knowing that his utmost efforts could not adequately fulfil the sphere of

professional duty, while every hour passed elsewhere must leave it neglected, he confined his eloquence entirely to the platform of his own pulpit.

Dr Murray did not keep a diary " for the benefit of his family," or for any other pretext on which those secret things which belong only to the Lord are laid open to public view. He considered that it was introducing a snare into his own most private hours of devotion if a loop-hole were thus to be opened, through which the whole world might hereafter witness, as it were, the trials, the sorrows, and the joys of his Christian course. These were abundantly obvious in the deep experience with which he represented to his own people the struggles, the fears, and the hopes which are peculiar to every man who would estrange his affections from a present world, and fix them unreser- · vedly on Him for whom we must be ready to sacrifice every earthly tie. Dr Murray registered no wondering exclamation at the crowds who attended his preaching; the multitude of converts who were made by one so unworthy as himself; the extraordinary usefulness of books which he had written without a hope of their ever being read; the meekness with which he had borne the "malignity, baseness, and outrageous violence" of clergymen whose opinions differed from his own; and the surprising respect and veneration with which he was occasionally treated.

Others might speak of his virtues or his faults, but on these subjects Dr Murray's own pen was silent. There are hours between man and his Creator which the dearest friend must not witness, for they are " hid with Christ in God." There are secret recesses in every heart which none but an omniscient God can know, for, like the visions revealed to the Apostle, they are not for earthly utterance.