direction in which thou hast hitherto walked, or to swerve from it even to the very extremest points of contrast, I know there is that within thee which will forbid thee to hesitate, even though thou be required to immolate the cherished hopes, the imposing habits, of a life!" "That is an immolation which will scarcely be required,” replied Lewen. "From my birth I have been devoted to the service of God! Even in my boyhood I was wont to officiate at his altars! And the hope, the occupation of my youth is, to see those altars burning with incense over the whole earth! The unction of His Spirit be on me, the inspiration of His will be breathed into my soul ! The unction is on me! The inspiration is breathed into my soul !" he continued, his countenance kindling with that celestial radiance resulting from the purity of his zeal, pure as the angelic light, even though kindled by a 66 false fire. Father, I may not doubt whither my onward path is to bend ! The sword of the seraph has traced it out for me, and its tract is rendered visible by the bright flames that sparkle on it! Can this burning of my heart within me be a self-deception, my Father? No! it is the emanation of eternal truth!" My son," returned the Confessor, in his blandest accents, "the ardour with which we enter on a service acceptable to our inclinations, is too often mistaken by us for the infusion of the Celestial Spirit. Suppose I have discovered that you can advance the interests of the church ten thousand-fold more effectually by entering on the busy scenes of the world, by claiming those honours to which you were born, than by devout meditations in a convent, aye, even if those meditations should eventually lead you to the triple crown! The influence of a powerful noble outweighs, in this Island, the most terrific denunciations that can be fulminated from the Papal chair. Terrible as it is, these heretic blasphemers-as surely lost as infidelslaugh the anathemas of our Holy Father to scorn! They serve them but for mirth ! But the power of a high and wealthy noble has substantial influence; his name is a pledge for the justice of his faith, and thousands adopt it for his sake, as they would have followed his standard to earthly warfare, and have made that name their battle-word. What if thy vocation. should seem to lie thus ?" "I would oppose to the measures dictated by worldly policy, the unerring voice of conscience, the inspiration of the spirit within me!" replied Lewen, firmly and energetically. -"Wot you not," rejoined the Confessor, "that even now the event approaches which is to give the heretic heiress of these wide domains to an heretic husband? Wot you not of the hostility to our faith which, in process of time, will emanate from these walls, with more fatal zeal even than at present it emanates ?—The Earl is quiet in his heresy. Content with his own convictions and those of his daughter, he puts not into action the almost unlimited influence his position gives! Yet see what even his name has wrought, inactive though he be! How then will the fatal delusion spread, when a young man, in the very prime of manhood, intemperate in headlong zeal, boiling with ungodly hatred against the true worshippers of Israel, shall preside here, and add the power of ready possesses ? such an union? Arding to that he al- church are already fallen, and its foundations will soon be rooted up. In that day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy, what will it avail, even though you, my son, preside on the throne of St. Peter? Your authority will be unvalued, your power contemned. You will see those altars defaced, which it is the hope of your life to rear even up to Heaven! Will you not then regret your blindness in preserving the path whither your inclination points, and in neglecting that whither duty directs you? ? What though it abounds with dangers and temptations? For the glory of God you throw yourself into the arena; you court wounds in your flesh, you triumph in the unspotted purity of your soul. You are called from the quiet seclusion of monastic |