CHAPTER IV.

"The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made:
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become,

As they draw near to their eternal home.
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view,
That stand upon the threshold of the new."

EDMUND WALLER.

HAVING satisfied the cravings of nature, Mr. Maclandreth, impatient to learn more of his new friend's history, proposed that their former conversation should be resumed. Mr. Acehambur, evidently pleased with the deference paid him by his young companion, said, that, for his part, he liked to say as much as could be said on a subject before new topics were introduced. Assuming an air of conscious superiority-an advantage which age seldom forgets -he dwelt much on the leading events of his life.

"When I was young," said he, "I was one

of the most thoughtless beings that ever lived. In every scene of pleasure and dissipation, I was the first and out the last. I ate wickedness like bread and drank iniquity like water, and my feet moved swiftly along the path that leads to the gates of hell. Yes, yes I went almost so far as to deny the Lord who bought

me.

"But thanks be praised! thanks be praised!" he said, as the big tear rolled down his furrowed cheek, "He did not leave me to the hardness of my own evil and wicked heart. Oh! He is a kind parent, Mr. Maclandreth, and allow me to recommend Him to you, young friend, as the Guide of your youth."

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Mr. Maclandreth said, with great emotion, that his constant prayer was, My Father, be Thou the Guide of my youth."

"Yes, yes, dear youth," said Mr. Acehambur, "He is more ready to give than we are to receive more ready to hear than we are to request. When I was quite spent in the service of the wicked one, having devoted my best years to the enemy of my soul, and seized with that lassitude attendant upon a long course of

dissipation, so that I was but a useless being in the enemy's ranks,' He worked in me both to will and to do of His own good pleasure.""

Here Miss Alison interrupted the conversation by telling her papa that Mr. Maclandreth would, perhaps, like to hear of the way in which he was led to become a professed disciple of Christ.

Young Ambrose's countenance brightened as he caught the suggestion of Miss Alison, saying, that nothing could give him greater delight than to hear of those blessed means that led his wayward feet to take that step which appropriates the kingdom of heaven.

Miss Alison's eyes glistened with delight as she saw the promptitude with which Mr. Maclandreth attended to her every wish.

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Thoughtless child," said Mr. Acehambur, smiling as he was uttering the words, guessing what was in her mind.

She blushed at this gentle reproof, fearing she had betrayed a feeling with which she thought none but herself acquainted.

To put an end to this slight confusion, Mr. Acehambur proceeded to the looked-for narrative :-

"When I was about twenty-two years of age," continued he, "I was introduced into the society of a young clergyman of the name of Percy. He was a lovely character. He was the first to speak to me about religion. He seemed indeed to answer the end of his creation. To bring poor miserable sinners to Christ formed his chief ambition, the soul of his ministry. He was never happy but when employed for God. He spoke to me of the evil of sin till I was induced to abandon it—of holiness till I was constrained to seek after itof God till I was made to love Him above all things of Christ till I felt myself bound, a willing captive, by the cords of His love, and I trust that the same heaven that received him will, also, unworthy as I am, receive me."

Here his voice became faltered—a slight convulsion seized him; but, on a sudden, his countenance, though suffused with tears, became irradiated with smiles of ineffable benignity, and his eyes fixed, as if nothing intervened between them and the blessed abode of his departed friend.

Mr. Maclandreth, though greatly moved,

observed that to lose religious friends is a great trial; but that it is a great comfort to think of the Friend that loveth at all times-the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother, who ever liveth, making intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

"That is all my comfort," added Mr. Acehambur, with fervour-evidently showing that he could value real sympathy. "My obligations to Mr. Percy are innumerable. It was he that introduced me, first, to his sister, who afterwards became my wife, and then to all his connexions, in whose society I have been doubly blessed, both as it regards the life that now is, and that which is to come."

The conversation had now become a little brighter, and he fully entered into a detail of all the trifling incidents that contributed to strengthen the mutual attachment formed between him and Miss Percy, together with a full account of their marriage and their devotedness to each other.

The delight with which Mr. Maclandreth and Miss Alison exchanged looks during this narration might have been mistaken for a long