pose the newspapers have informed you that Catherine is become Mrs. Trevor. She left H

for N, last week.

"Let us hear from you soon, and say when we may expect you. Give my love to my dear father, and tell him not to delay his coming a single day beyond what is absolutely necessary.

"Believe me your very affectionate sister,

"JANE WESTBURY."

Emily shed many sad tears over this letter, and reproached herself for the hypocrisy which could suffer her fond and confiding sister to regard her as so different from her real character. " I will write to her candidly," was her first thought, "and tell her how I have deceived her!" But then she must forfeit the high opinion which she had too much penetration not to know was entertained of her at Elmwood, and she could not resolve to make such a sacrifice; therefore the first resolution was abandoned, and she determined to acquaint no one with her altered feelings, though at the same time she believed it her intention immediately to retrace the steps which she had taken from God. "Yes!" she mentally exclaimed, "I will return to my merciful and compassionate Saviour, but as my fall is unknown to others, so shall my repentance be. I will not grieve Jane's kind heart by acquainting her with my sinfulness, nor will I give Mr. Leslie cause to suspect that his excellent instructions have

"

been so soon forgotten." But this promised repentance was delayed from day to day, until she at length decided that it would be more effectual if she deferred it until she left the temptations of her present situation, and became a resident at Elmwood, where every good desire would be strengthened by her continual intercourse with those who truly loved and feared God. In reality, though she would not acknowledge it even to herself, she was unwilling to forsake the sins of heart in which she indulged; she felt reluctant to exchange the unrestrained freedom of thought for that mental discipline, which, by divine grace, is so effectual for the "casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Every day this reluctance increased, and with it increased her love of a world which she once believed herself to have renounced, while she quieted the reproaches of conscience by resolving to devote herself more than ever to religion when she arrived at Elmwood, forgetting that in the interval, she was daily becoming more attached to "things temporal” and less interested in "the things which are eternal."

Mr. Landor and Emily left London on the 15th of March, but as the former had some business to transact at Rochester, they did not arrive at Elmwood till the following day. With what feelings of self-reproach did Emily recognize objects which

her long stay with her sister had rendered familiar to her; and how different was the sorrow which she then felt from that which had occasioned her tears upon leaving Elmwood! Then she had wept, but bitter self-accusation did not mingle with her grief; now she shed no tears, but seemed gay and cheerful, while much more unhappy than she had been when her sorrow was outwardly testified. But as she passed silently along the road, every moment bringing her nearer to Elmwood, she made many, many resolutions of amendment, persuading herself that a few tears-a few prayers-a few days of watchfulness and self-denial, would restore to her the peace which she had forfeited. She had read that, not unfrequently, young people who had experienced the reality of religion, had gone aside for a short time, from the paths of holiness, but that having sincerely repented, they had again been restored through the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, and she hoped that such might be her case. But were Emily's sentiments those which distinguish the children of God alike in sorrow and in joyalike when enjoying an assurance of the love and favour of their Redeemer, and when mourning under the hidings of His face? Had she that humility which, abasing its possessor to the dust, teaches him to say, "Behold I am vile"-that conviction of utter depravity which leads him to acknowledge. "We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" that heartfelt con

trition and desire to amend which brings him to the cross with the penitent's prayer, "Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God! and renew a right spirit within me?" No; Emily had no love for God as a holy and perfect Being-no experience of her own "desperately wicked” heart, which was continually sinning against his grace; and though she grieved for her wanderings and wished to return, it was not because she felt the "exceeding sinfulness" of sin, but merely that she desired to regain the peace of mind of which it had deprived her. She would have been content to have remained in her present state of disobedience, had all fear of the consequences been removed; and, therefore, notwithstanding her liberal charities, notwithstanding her professions of christianity, notwithstanding her fulfilment of the duties of religion, Emily was "far from the kingdom of God."

THREE days passed after Emily's arrival at Elmwood without effecting any change in her thoughts and inclinations, and without her having taken one step towards her promised amendment. The fourth day was the Sabbath; and before she accompanied her friends to the house of God, she prayed that she might not attend His service in vain, but that her wavering resolutions might be confirmed, and herself, enabled to give up every idol which had estranged her heart from Him. But Emily had lost the spirit of prayer; and she uttered this petition more from a wish to satisfy her conscience by the performance of that which she well knew to be her duty, than from a sincere desire for the sanctifying grace of God; she went to church, therefore, with a heart devoted to the world, and with thoughts eager to fix upon any subject but the one which ought to have solely engaged them. That subject, alas! had now no