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the communion which followed, if he considers the scenes of trial through which I had just passed, the associations connected with that little chapel, transformed from a ball-room into the sanctuary of God, and the contrast between our employment and that of thousands around us, who were wasting their Sabbath in thoughtless gaiety, sweeping through the Champs Elysees past our quiet retreat, utterly regardless of that Redeemer on whom our hearts were fixed in sweet and holy communion. It was to me indeed "the gate of heaven;" and much as I have enjoyed the worship of the sanctuary in various parts of the world, I have never known a season which took so deep a hold on my feelings, as my first Sabbath in Paris, in the chapel of Lewis Way.

SIN VISITED WITH SCOURGES.

By slow and silent, but resistless sap,
In his pale progress gently gaining ground,
Death urged his deadly siege :-Young.

It was, I think, about four years ago, I first met A. W. She was a mantua-maker. The first time I employed her, I remember giving her a tract which she seemed very willing to take. In compliance with the wishes of the parish clergyman, I went sometimes to see her, and read a little of the Bible, while she worked at her needle. I always thought she seemed very sad, and very sorrowful. I thought there must have been some dreadful weight on her heart, though she never uttered a word to make me think but from others, I could rely on, I heard her sad story. She was in her childhood sent by her mother to the Sabbath-school, and had many advantages in the parish; but with her the teacher laboured apparently in vain, for she was a forgetful hearer, and consequently walked in the way of her own heart. She associated with a family who knew not the Lord, forgetting that the "companion

so;

of fools shall be destroyed." She knew they never had the privileges she was favoured with; they were a family educated in a system that will not honestly and simply tell the poor sinner that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only, and the all-sufficient Saviour. A system which leads them away to seek for help for their souls from created beings, and an endless variety of works and ceremonies, which can neither satisfy the Lord who says, "He will not give his glory to another," nor our own poor guilty souls, since it is only in Jesus our rest and our peace can be found.

A. W. was better taught, and she knew, but did not consider as she should have done, that this family were, as respects the true knowledge of the blessed Jesus, in midnight darkness. She saw that they did not read the only book able to make a sinner wise unto salvation, yet she went with them. Doubtless she supposed she would procure much temporal happiness by choosing her own way, and in that way she went regardless of her parents' wishes, or the command of her Heavenly Father, who by his precious precepts would, as it were raise a fence about his people to shield them from sin and from sorrow. His command is "enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away."

Happy, indeed, would it have been for A. W. if this command was obeyed by her, for " there is no counsel, wisdom, or device against the Lord;" and though it is written, He does not take his loving-kindness from his people, it is also written, "If they forsake his law, and walk not in his judgments, he will visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes ;" and so it was with this young person. She departed from known duty; and bitter, very bitter, was the fruit she had to eat. Many of the words of Scripture were in her memory, but they had no place in her heart, where we

are commanded to "lay them up." She often heard that we must be born again, but she did not cry to the Lord to work that mighty change within her; she was a slave to Satan and the world; and these, her enemies, after extorting all her utmost energies, left her wretched and desolate at the last.

She married one of this family, in whose company she so delighted. He was a baker. She had saved about thirty pounds, and they seemed to bid fair for worldly prosperity. But she was not happy. Her money was soon gone, and her health, too. Many a time was I grieved to see her trying to work for her support when her strength was failing fast. Consumption had set in, but so gradually that no one, I think, knew it, till her case was hopeless; and the man for whom she left her happy home, was utterly regardless of her comfort; he cared not to provide even necessaries for her.

Poor thing, I saw the rod of the Lord resting upon her; stripe after stripe was repeated. Between much bodily suffering and very heavy domestic afflictions, without one single relative of her own beside her, (though her mother was afterwards much with her) I saw her sinking every day. But "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth ;" and in the midst of her sore afflictions, the adorable Redeemer caused her to hear his voice; she knew he was the only one for the weary and heavy -laden to turn to. I saw every day she was more and more anxious to hear of him, and earnestly and fervently did she pray for a new heart; even in the night she would rise to pour out her heart before the Lord, and, for ever blessed be his name, he looked upon her affliction, and granted the request of her lips. All her anxiety was about her soul; she never spoke of her temporal trials, or uttered a word of complaint; she bore the indignation of the Lord as the correction of a loving father. I am even now astonished when I think of her meekness and patience.

I said her mother sent her to the Sabbath-school. One day she seemed very much exhausted: she mentioned this to me, and she also said, "what I learned at the Sabbathschool is a great comfort to me now, because I'm not able to hold the book to read, but I can think of what I learned then."

This remark of A. W's. has cheered me many times. When I saw some of my Sabbath-school children inattentive and careless, my heart still hoped that the Lord would, it may be when my head lies low in the dust, cause the seed I was privileged to sow, to spring up to the praise and glory of his own most holy name. I am taught never to be discouraged in doing the work of the Lord.

A. W. delighted very much in the 23rd Psalm, in connexion with the 10th of John, where our blessed Lord speaks of himself, as the good Shepherd who gave his life for the sheep; to think of these two portions of Scripture, was indeed to her a lying down in green pastures. Weighed down as she was with sorrow, she felt true peace because she simply trusted to Him who is the peace, the righteousness, and the strength of his people— to Him who restores, leads, and preserves them for ever. May the Lord grant that the writer and the reader of these lines, may hearken continually to his gracious voice, for then our peace shall be as a river, and our righteousness as the waves of the sea;" and may we ever remember that "whoso sinneth against Him wrongeth his own soul." "And be sure your sin will find you out."

66

ABRAHAM'S INTERCESSION FOR THE RIGHTEOUS IN SODOM.

In the eighteenth chapter of the book of Genesis we read of three glorious beings, in the form and appearance of men, presenting themselves on a certain occasion to

Abraham. Two of these were holy angels-created angels; the other was the Creator of angels-the Lord of Hosts himself-the second Person in Jehovah. He is styled in other parts of Scripture "the angel of Jehovah," and "the angel of the covenant." Now it appears, that this glorious Person had determined upon the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim, on account of their exceeding great iniquity. And he condescends on the present occasion, to represent himself as thus reasoning: "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" shall I not show it, or make it known to him? And then, having, as it were, made up his mind (speaking according to our feelings,) having resolved upon it, he informed Abraham that he would destroy those wicked cities. Now in one of these, dwelt Lot, Abraham's brother's son; and Abraham, moved by compassion for those cities, but especially by compassion for his near kinsman, Lot, interceded with the Lord that he would spare that wicked city. By reading the whole chapter we learn that he pleaded in a very peculiar way and manner; and he pleaded so effectually, that at last he obtained a gracious answer, so far as this, that if Lord found ten righteous persons in that whole city, he would spare it.

Now it would appear, and must appear, remarkable, if the great and wise God, the Lord of heaven and earth, should make no distinction between the righteous and the wicked; it appeared so to Abraham-strange that he should punish the one with the other, and as the other. And therefore Abraham said, "Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked ?" Now it may be observed, that in public calamities the righteous do perish frequently with the wicked: neither famine, nor pestilence, nor sword, make any distinction between the righteous and the wicked. But then here is a great distinction; they perish with the wicked frequently, but never perish as the wicked.

That sword, that cuts down the ungodly,

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