"My aunts, as I thought, and as they expected, were not to come home till the Monday morning; but something happened while they were out (I forget what), which obliged them to return sooner than they had expected: and they got home just at the time when I was in the cherry orchard. They called for me: but not finding me immediately, they sent the servants different ways to look for me. The person who happened to come to look for me in the cherry orchard was Mrs. Bridget, who was the only one of the servants who would have told of me. She soon spied me with Nanny in the cherry-tree. She made us both come down, and dragged us by the arms into the presence of my aunts, who were exceedingly angry. I think I never saw them so angry. Nanny was given up to her mother to be flogged; and I was shut up in a dark room, where I was kept several days upon bread and water. At the end of three days, my aunts sent for me, and talked to me for a long time.

"Is it not very strange at your age, niece,' said Mrs. Penelope, 'that you cannot be trusted for one day, after all the pains we have taken with you, after all we have taught you? Do you not know the punishments that are threatened to those who break the commandments of God? And how many commandments,' said my aunt Grace, did you break last Sunday?'

"You broke the fourth commandment,' said my aunt Penelope, which is, Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy and you broke the fifth, which is, Honour your parents. We stand in the place of parents to you. You broke the eighth too, which is, Thou shalt not steal.'-' Besides,' said my aunt Grace, 'the shame and disgrace of climbing trees in such low company, after all the care and pains we have taken with you, and the delicate manner in which we have reared you.'

"In this way they talked to me, while I cried very much. 'Indeed, indeed, aunt Grace and aunt Penelope,' I said, 'I did mean to behave well when you went out: I made many resolutions, but I broke them all: I wished to be good, but I could not be good.’

"You perhaps think it a proper excuse,' said my aunt Grace, 'to say that you wished to be good, but could not be good; everybody can be good, if they please." "There our aunts were quite out," said Henry: "for without God's help nobody can be good."

"No, my dear," said Mrs. Fairchild: "but at that time they did not know this.

"When my aunts had talked to me a long time, they forgave me, and I was allowed to go about as usual; but I was not happy: I felt that I was wicked, and did not know how to make myself good. One afternoon, soon after all this had happened, while my aunts and I were drinking tea in the parlour, with the window open towards the garden, an old gentleman came in at the front gate whom I had never seen before: he was dressed in plain black clothes, exceedingly clean; his gray hair curled about his neck; and in his hand he had a strong walking-stick. I was the first who saw him, as I was nearest the window, and I called to my aunts to look at him.

"Why it is my cousin Thomas,' cried my auut Penelope: 'who would have expected to see him here?' With that both my aunts ran out to meet him, and bring him in.

"The old gentleman was a clergyman, and a near relation of our family, and had lived many years in his parish in the north, without seeing any of his relations.

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"I have often promised to come and see you, cousins,' he said, as soon as he was seated, 'but never have been able to bring the matter about till now.'

"My aunts told him how glad they were to see him, and presented me to him. He received me very kindly, and told me that he remembered my mother. The more I saw of this gentleman, the more pleased I was with him. He had many entertaining old stories to tell; and he spoke to everybody in the kindest way possible. He often used to take me out with him walking, and show me the flowers, and teach me their names. One day he went out into the town, and bought a beautiful little Bible for me; and when he gave it to me he said, ' Read this, dear child, and pray to God to send his Holy Spirit to help you to understand it; and it shall be a lamp unto your feet, and a light unto your path.'"

"I know that verse, mamma," said Lucy, "it is the 105th verse of Psalm cxix."

"When he had been some days with us," continued Mrs. Fairchild, "my aunts took occasion one evening when I was gone to bed to tell him the history of my

being found in the cherry-tree, and all that had passed on the occasion between us.

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"The next morning he came to me, as I was sitting in the arbour, reading my new Bible. So, my dear,' he said, you are up very early-and reading your Bible! -that is well. Your mother was a pious woman: I knew her very well: God grant you may be like her!'

"Did you know my mother, sir?' said I; ‘I wish I was more like her. I should then, perhaps, be able to please my aunts better than I now do: I make no doubt but that my aunts have long since told you what they think of me.'

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"Your aunts, last night, my dear, were telling me all about you,' he answered; and I promised to talk to you this morning. Come,' said he, 'let us take a walk in the fields while breakfast is getting ready, and I will hear what you have to say.' So the good man led the way, and I followed into the fields.

"Your aunts tell me, my dear,' said he, 'that you often say you wish to be good, but cannot.'

"It is very true, sir,' answered I: 'I often determine to keep God's commandments, and think I will be so good; and perhaps at the very moment when I want to be good, I do something naughty.'

"You have your Bible in your hand, my dear,' said the old gentleman; 'turn to the seventh chapter of the Romans, and read the 15th, 18th, and 19th verses: I think you will there find something like what you say of yourself.'

"I turned to the place, and found these words: "For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate that do I... For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not; for the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.'

66 6 'St. Paul, my dear,' said my cousin,' was the writer of this-an exceedingly holy man, and one as near heaven as man could be; yet he felt, that when he wished to do well he could not! and for this reason, because there was no good in him.-If St. Paul, then, was so unable to do well, how can you expect (a little silly girl as you are) to be able to do well?

"I looked very hard at the old gentleman, and could

not think what he meant: for my aunts had always told me that I might do well, if I would.

"The old gentleman then explained to me what I never understood before-that is, the dreadful change that passed upon Adam when he ate the forbidden fruit; and how his heart became utterly and entirely evil and corrupt and how all his children, being born in his likeness, were also utterly corrupt, and unable to do well. He then explained to me the wonderful scheme of man's salvation; of which I have so often spoken to you before, my beloved children, but which I shall endeavour to state to you again, as nearly as I can, in the words of my pious old friend.

"And first he pointed out to me that doctrine of Scripture which I had never understood before-namely, that there are three equal Persons in one God. And he made me acquainted with the names of these three holy Persons; to wit, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. He also endeavoured to make me understand how each of these Persons is engaged in the great work of man's salvation: he pointed out to me the exceeding love of God the Father, who sent his Son to die for the sins of the world; and the tender mercies of God the Son, who came down from Heaven, took upon him the body of man, and in that body endured the punishment due to the sins of all mankind; and finally, he showed me that of which I had not before the most distant idea, namely, the work and offices of God the Holy Spirit, who has undertaken to convince those who are to be saved, of the unbelief and hardness of their hearts, and to bring them to a knowledge of their Saviour, and to enable them to keep God's holy will and commandments.

"These doctrines were all so new to me, that I felt quite puzzled, and knew not what to think, or what to answer; whereupon the old gentleman advised me to retire to my room, and pray for light from on high, that I might be enabled to understand these things; and he promised to have a little more talk with me the next day.

"I did as I was requested; I went to my little closet, and prayed; after which I was enabled to recollect much which he had said to me; and, the next morning, we took another walk in the fields; and he asked me several questions, to prove if I understood any thing of what he

had taught me the day before. I shall repeat to you the questions he put to me.

"The old gentleman first asked me,' By what I said to you yesterday, concerning your own heart, what did you learn?'

"I answered, 'That my heart is wicked, and that I cannot do well.'

"The old Gentleman.-How came you to have a wicked heart?

"I answered: 'When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, his heart became wicked; and his children, being born like him, have bad hearts too.'

"The old gentleman then said, 'You have heard of heaven and hell; and that one is the place where good people go when they die, and the other place is where bad people go to which of these places do mankind deserve to go?'

"I answered, "To a place of eternal punishment.' "When man had by their sins deserved eternal punishment,' said the old gentleman; 'what method did God take to save them?'

"I answered, 'He sent his Son to die for them.'

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Very true, my dear,' said he. 'If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, your sins will be forgiven you; and more than this, power will be given you, by God the Spirit, to keep his commandments. Whoever attempts to keep the commandments without the help of God the Spirit, is labouring in vain; he is striving to do what he has no power to do. And here, my dear child, is the mistake into which you have fallen: you have been trying some years past to do well without God's help, and have never been able to do it: now try another way; go again into your own room, and there kneel down, and confess to God that you are a miserable sinner, fit only to go to hell; and entreat that you may be made to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and have a heart to love him; that, through the merits of his death, your sins may be forgiven you, and you may receive the Holy Spirit of God in your heart.'

"He then explained to me, that the work of the Holy Spirit is to cleanse our vile hearts: and that he will give us power to keep the commandments of God; which, without his help, it is in vain to attempt. The old gentleman then showed me several pretty verses, in the fourteenth chapter of St. John, which he made me learn: