Very true," replied the lawyer, "if we wish to rise to eminence in our profession, we must redeem our time rather than suffer it to be wasted in mental indolence and inactivity."

"Here's old William," exclaimed the young clergyman, who was looking out of the window," standing at the gate with our ponies, and yonder is Papa coming on Smiler across the close."

Our vehicle stopped, and out stepped our interesting companions, who, after bidding us adieu, left us to pursue our journey alone. We soon lost sight of them, but, in the space of a few minutes, a turn in the road gave us another view of them, and we were delighted with the conduct of their father, who alighted from his horse to embrace his children, when they all mounted their steeds, and gallopped off towards a beautiful country-seat, of which we were able to take a hasty glance as we passed.

We had the pleasure of finding our friends at the Villa in good health, happy to see us; and Mrs. Stevens, with a smile on her countenance, which told tales, said to Mr. Llewellin, "Mr. and Miss Roscoe are engaged to spend the evening with you." This communication raised his spirits which had been gradually sinking as we approached the end of our journey.

I was no longer at a loss to account for the sighs which occasionally made their escape from his breast during the short intervals of silence that took place in the course of the night. "Then of course, Madam," I remarked, “ Mr. Llewellin will feel himself at home."

How often when treading on the verge of anticipated bliss, with the imagination delighted and transported by the gilded visions of its own creation, is the mind of man plunged into the depths of disappointment, and left a prey to its own griefs. Thus investing the lines of the poet with a power of impression too keen and too strong to be resisted.

"What is the world and all things here?

"Tis but a bitter sweet;

When we attempt a rose to pluck,

A pricking thorn we meet."

The shades of the evening fell softly around us--we were all in waiting, when the bell rang, and Mr. Roscoe

was ushered into the parlour, but he came alone. “I am sorry to inform you, Madam," said he, "that Sophia will not be able to be with you this evening, as she has taken a slight cold."

"I hope, Sir," said Mr. Llewellin, with a certain awkwardness of manner of which gentlemen are sometimes guilty when they feel too much to express, "that she is not materially affected by it."

66 Oh no, Sir; it is only a slight cold, and she is unwilling to expose herself to the night-air, lest she should be incapable of going to church in the morning."

The conversation very naturally turned upon the festivals of the Church, and the propriety of observing those days which are set apart for the celebration of the great events which stand connected with the redemption of man. "I was once," said Mr. Roscoe, "superstitiously attached to those days, and I regarded them with more reverence than I did the Sabbath; but on more mature consideration, I have been enabled to correct the error into which I had fallen, and though I still reverence them more than the common days of the year, yet less than the Sabbath.”

66

Some dissenters," said Mrs. Stevens, "who wish to get as far away from the church as they can go, reprobate this observance; do they not?" addressing herself to Mr. Llewellin.

Mr. Llewellin. "Yes; they go from one extreme to the other. Their aversion to superstition is so strong, that they cannot observe, with any corresponding feelings of reverence and delight, the commemorative days of Christianity; because they have been invested by some of the zealous patrons of the Church with more sanctity than they attribute to the Sabbath. As time is the regular and unbroken succession of minutes, hours, days, months, and years, one portion of it cannot be more sacred than another, unless it derives a sanctity from the command of God; and as he has enjoined the observance of the Sabbath only, as that portion of time which we are to hold sacred, we feel ourselves under no obligation to keep the holy-days which are set apart by mere human authority."

Mr. Roscoe. "But, Sir, though we do not raise the holy-days of our Church on a level with the sanctity of

the Sabbath, yet is there not a propriety in observing them? Does not the recurrence of some eventful period in the history of man impart to past transactions a degree of interest which is not felt at any other time? And if our minds are so constituted as to receive stronger and deeper impressions at peculiar seasons, is. it not proper that we should observe them, if we wish to derive from them all the excitement which they are empowered to produce?"

Mr. Llewellin. "Most certainly, Sir. I do not object to these commemorative days, though some of my brethren do, but gladly avail myself of them, as a natural and an innocent means of recalling to my remembrance the great and important facts which stand inseparably connected with my redemption. I can go with you to church on a Christmas morning, to celebrate the birth of my Saviour on a Good Friday, to commemorate his death-and on an Easter Sunday, to hail his resurrection. And though some may censure this as a dereliction of principle, yet it gives me greater pleasure to unite with my fellow-Christians, than to live in a state of alienation from them: and as I would condemn all superstitious attachment to these days, I would reprobate, in language equally severe, the spirit which treats threm with contempt."

“I am happy to find,” said Mrs. Stevens, “that you have not lost your catholic spirit by associating with your brethren in the metropolis; and I hope you have been the means of diffusing its subduing influence amongst them, softening down their prejudices, and bringing them over to a more friendly intimacy with their fellow Christians of the Establishment."

Mr. Roscoe. 66 Since your departure, Sir, I have examined some of the reasons which have induced you to dissent from our Establishment: and though they have not produced the same effect on my mind which they have on yours, I think it right to confess, that they have convinced me of the impropriety of censuring you, and of the folly, not to use a stronger term, of allowing the result of your investigations on minor questions of religion to operate as a barrier to Christian fellowship."

Mr. Llewellin. "I am happy, Sir, to hear such a concession fall from your lips; it exactly accords with

my own views:" and turning towards Mrs. Stevens, he said, "You seem to think, Aunt, that all the bigotry of religion is on our side."

Mrs. Stevens.

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Quite enough of it."

Mr. Llewellin. "Too much, I grant; but, with all due deference, I beg to say, that I think you have the greatest proportion amongst you."

Mrs. Stevens. "Bigotry amongst us! A libel!

A libel!"

Mr. Llewellin. "I suppose, Aunt, you are become a believer in the modern doctrine of libel; which teaches us, that the greater the truth, the greater the libel.”

Mrs. Stevens. "Well, well, we won't contend this point; but rather regret, that there should be still found amongst any of us a vestige of that anti-christian and unholy spirit which keeps asunder those who are united together in the bonds of the everlasting covenant, and who are pre-ordained to dwell in sweet society, in that heavenly world, where no discordant notes will ever break the harmony of bliss."

"It is," said Mr. Roscoe, "when we view religion as connected with this world—as coming in contact with our prejudices, and our passions-as trespassing upon the sanctity of our own opinions, and threatening to disturb them, that we imperceptibly imbibe an antiChristian feeling towards those who differ from us: but when we view it as connected with eternity-as involving the glory of God in the transformation of the human character, and holding up to the notice of others a splendid evidence of the unity of our essential faith, the mind becomes imbued with the lovely spirit of the Redeemer; who loves no disciple more because he is a churchman-no disciple less because he is a dissenter, having given his life a ransom for all who bear this despised, though honourable character, to be testified in due season."

On the following morning we rose at the usual hour and, after the devotions of the family were concluded we took breakfast. The weather was very fine, yet intensely cold, and just as we were preparing for church we were threatened with a heavy fall of snow; but we reached it before it began to descend. On entering this sacred building, in which I had, on past occasions,

listened with delight to the glad tidings of salvation, and where many who were then assembled had received the first impressions of truth on their hearts, my eye caught the venerable rector, who had just raised his face from its concealment under the folds of his mantle, having, as I doubt not, invoked, in silent prayer, the divine benediction on himself and his congregation. Only a few months had elapsed since I spent an evening with him at the Villa, but he bore the marks of increasing age and infirmities; and when the audience stood up, as he began the service, I thought of the venerable patriarch when addressing the tribes of Israel just before his departure,-I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out, and come in. But though his hands shook, and his general appearance indicated great bodily weakness, his voice was strong, and he read the whole service with a degree of impres sive solemnity never surpassed. Having finished it he threw off the surplice, and ascended the pulpit; and having looked around, with a most benignant smile, on his crowded auditory, he once more knelt, to pray to Him who rewardeth, with the open manifestations of his Igrace, the secret prayers of his faithful servants. He chose the following text;-For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once, in the end of the world, hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Heb. ix, 24-26. After a few introductory observations, he said, "Allow me to call your attention to,

"I. The Saviour's appearance on earth. Mark,

"1. The time of his coming. It was in the end of the world; i. e. at the conclusion of the Levitical dispensation.

“2. The design of his appearance;—to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

"3. The perfection of the sacrifice which he offered; ver. 25, 26.