thought their old and long neglected occupation of wicker-work would most probably interest her. She immediately proposed it by turning to her, and saying, she should like to begin their basket-making again, and asked her mother if she would go with her on the morrow after the next, to cut some of the autumnal shoots of the osier.

The day following was the sabbath, it was also the tenth of the month Tisri, the great day of atonement, the day on which the high priest, throwing aside his golden robes, sent away the scape-goat into the wilderness laden with all the sins of the children of Israel the day on which he afterwards resumed his priestly vestments, and was admitted within the veil into the holiest of holies.

Sephora felt that this was a day much to be observed to the Lord; she kept it by fasting, in silence, solitude, and devotion. She communed with her own heart in her chamber, and was still. She sought out her spirit, and compared it with the holy law of God. Where is the heart that does not in

stinctively shrink from such a scrutiny? Where is the heart that will stand before the shining of the candle of the Lord, and discover no pollution there? No crossed pride, no cankering care, no painted vanity, no gilded pomp, no tainted vice, no slanderous breath, no black ingratitude to God or man, no withering envy, no unhallowed love, no niche in which some earthly idol is enshrined, that claims the secret homage of the soul, to which the willing thoughts resort, towards which they press, and throng, and prostrate themselves, and there remaining, cleave to the sordid or the sensual lust.Where is the heart that can say, I am wholly free from all these things?

Wherever it might be, Sephora felt too surely it was not with her. She compared herself with the most careless and the most sinful of her fellow-creatures, and could not tell but they might be acting more up to their ideas of what was right than she was to hers, and if so, which was the most guilty? She found no satisfaction on reflecting on her own worth, or in comparing

herself with that of others, her only comfort was to sit low at the Almighty's feet, and trust to his swift winged and overshadowing mercy, for bearing away all her sins into the → land of forgetfulness, and throwing over her trembling soul the veil of his own righteousness and glory.

CHAPTER VII.

PYTHONISSA had agreed to go on the morrow to the osier groves, but when the morning came it was rainy, and they employed themselves in their household concerns till noon, when the sun dispelling the clouds, and shining with animating lustre on the refreshed earth, they, as soon as their dinner was over, set out towards the place where the willows grew, turning to the right along the verge of the shaggy banks of the river. They had not gone far before they heard the sound of music borne along by the stream. Sephora guessed that it was the hymeneal minstrelsy of one of her young friends, whose marriage she had been invited to attend, but which she had refused to do, because she did not like to leave her mother. They soon saw the procession coming towards them, and another advancing in a contrary direction on the opposite bank of the river. Both of

these bands were alike, excepting that the one carried lamps in their hands, and the other instruments of music. They each consisted of ten girls, habited in white, with *flowing hair, and chaplets of flowers on their head, and their wrists and ancles encircled with chains of gold, and hung round with bells. The one advancing towards them was playing on various instruments of music, and moving in graceful dance, to which their tinkling ornaments sounded harmonious time. e They preceded the betrothed bride, who, covered with a veil that almost met the ground, walked slowly between her father I and mother. The two first and two last of the virgin minstrels played on the timbrels, and the three other pair on the pipe, the sistrum, and the dulcimer. Sometimes they performed altogether, sometimes in succession; then the instruments paused, and their voices raised the hymeneal hymn, which was a sort of prayer for the happiness of the married. The parents' voice did not >join in this, but doubtless their hearts were