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Jesus, my God, thy blood alone
Hath power sufficient to atone,
Thy blood can make me white as snow;
No Jewish types can cleanse me so.

ON ENVY.

"WHO can go with me to the village this morning," said Mr. Fairchild one winter's day, "to carry this basket of little books to the school?"

Lucy cannot go," said Mrs. Fairchild, "because her feet are very sore with chilblains, and Henry has a bad cold; but Emily can go."

"Make haste, Emily," said Mr. Fairchild, "and put on your thick shoes and warm cloak; for it is very cold."

As soon as Emily was ready, she set off with her papa. It was a very cold day, and the ground was quite hard with the frost. Mr. Fairchild walked first, and Emily came after him with the little basket. They gave the basket to the schoolmaster and returned. As they were coming back, Emily saw something bright upon the ground; and when she stooped to pick it up, she saw that it was a ring set round with little white shining stones.

"Oh! papa! papa!" she said, "see what I have found! What a beautiful ring!"

When Mr. Fairchild looked at it he was quite surprised. "Why, my dear," said he, "I think that this is Lady Noble's diamond ring: how came it to be lying in this place!" While they were looking at the ring, they heard the sound of a carriage:-It was Sir Charles Noble's, and Lady Noble was in it. "Oh! Mr. Fairchild," she called out of the window of the carriage, "I am in great trouble; I have lost my diamond ring; it is of very great value. I went to the village this morning in the carriage: and as I came back, I pulled off my glove, to get sixpence out of my purse to give to a poor man, somewhere in this lane, and I suppose that my ring dropped off at the time. I don't know what I shall do; Sir Charles will be sadly vexed."

"Make yourself quite happy, madam," said Mr. Fairchild; "here is your ring: Emily has just this moment picked it up."

Lady Noble was exceedingly glad when she received

back her ring; she thanked Emily twenty times, and said, "I think I have something in the carriage which you would like very much, Miss Emily: it is just come from London, and was intended for my daughter Augusta; but I will send for another for her.” So say ing, she presented Emily with a new doll packed up in paper, and with it a little trunk, with a lock and key, full of clothes for the doll. Emily was so delighted that she almost forgot to thank Lady Noble; but Mr. Fairchild, who was not quite so much overjoyed as his daughter, remembered to return thanks for this pretty present.

So Lady Noble put the ring on her finger, and ordered the coachman to drive home.

"Oh! papa! papa!" said Emily, "how beautiful this doll is! I have just torn the paper a bit, and I can see its face it has blue eyes, and red lips, and hair like Henry's. O how beautiful! Please, papa, to carry the box for me: I cannot carry both the box and the doll." So she went on talking till they had reached home; then she ran before her papa to her mamma and sister and brother, and, taking the paper off the doll, cried out, "How beautiful! O what pretty hands! what nice feet! what blue eyes' How lovely! how beautiful!" Her manima asked her several times where she had got this pretty doll, but Emily was too busy to answer her. When Mr. Fairchild came in with the trunk of clothes, he told all the story, how that Lady Noble had given Emily the doll for finding her diamond ring.

When Emily had unpacked the doll, she opened the box, which was full of as pretty doll's things as ever you saw.

While Emily was examining all these things, Henry stood by, admiring them and turning them about; but Lucy, after having once looked at the doll without touching it, went to a corner of the room, and sat down in her little chair without speaking a word.

"Come, Lucy," said Emily, "help me to dress my doll."

"Can't you dress it yourself?" answered Lucy, taking up a little book and pretending to read.

"Come, Lucy," said Henry, "you never saw so beautiful a doll before."

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"Don't tease me, Henry," said Lucy: "don't you see I am reading?"

VOL. II.-C

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"Put up your book now, Lucy," said Emily, “and come and help me to dress this sweet doll: I will be its mamma, and you shall be its nurse, and it shall sleep between us in our bed."

"I don't want dolls in my bed," said Lucy: "don't tease me, Emily."

"Then Henry shall be its nurse," said Emily. "Come, Henry; we will go into our play-room, and put this pretty doll to sleep. Will not you come, Lucy} Pray do come; we want you very much."

"Do let me alone," answered Lucy; "I want to read."

So Henry and Emily went to play, and Lucy sat still in the corner of the parlour. After a few minutes, her mamma, who was at work by the fire, looked at her, and saw that she was crying; the tears ran down her cheeks and fell upon her book. Then Mrs. Fairchild called Lucy to her, and said, "My dear child, you are crying; can you tell me what makes you unhappy ?" "Nothing, mamma," answered Lucy; "I am not unhappy."

"People do not cry when they are pleased and happy. my dear," said Mrs. Fairchild.

Lucy stood silent.

"I am your mamma, my dear," said Mrs. Fairchild, "and I love you very much: if any thing vexes you, whom should you tell it to but to your own manma ?” Then Mrs. Fairchild kissed her, and put her arms round her.

Lucy began to cry more: "Oh! mamma, mamma, dear mamma!" she said, "I don't know what vexes me, or why I have been crying."

"Are you speaking the truth?" said Mrs. Fairchild; "do not hide any thing from me. I love you, my child: notwithstanding which I know that you have a wicked heart, and that your wicked heart will often make you unhappy when there is nothing else to make you so. While you are a little child, you must tell your sins to me; and I will show you the way by which only you may hope to overcome them: when you are bigger, and I and your papa are removed from you, then you must tell all your sins to God. Is there any thing in your wicked heart, my dear child, do you think, which makes you unhappy now?"

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Indeed, mamma," said Lucy, "I think there is. I

am sorry that Emily has got that pretty doll. Pray do not hate me for it, mamma: I know it is wicked in me to be sorry that Emily is happy, ut I feel that I cannot help it."

"My dear child,” said Mrs. Fairchild, "I am glad you have confessed the truth to me. Now I will tell you why you feel this wicked sorrow; and I will tell you where to seek a cure for it. You know, my dear child, that God made man's heart pure and holy; and that when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, their hearts became corrupt, and those of all their children became corrupt. The difference between a holy and a corrupt heart is this: a holy heart is full of love, joy, and peace;' but corrupt hearts are full of uncleanness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revilings, and such like.' To those who are without sin -such as the holy angels in heaven, and the spirits of just men made perfect-there is no difficulty in doing well, for they have no wicked passions driving them on to sin; but we, who are in this world, are constantly tempted to do wickedly by our own bad hearts. Even when we wish to do well, we cannot. The wicked passion you now feel, my dear, is what is called Envy. Envy makes persons unhappy when they see others happier or better than themselves. Envy is in every man's heart by nature. Some people can hide it more than others, and some have been enabled by God's grace to overcome it in a great degree; but, as I said before, it is in the natural heart of all mankind; and it is also felt by devils. Little children feel envious about dolls and playthings, and men and women feel envious about greater things."

"Do you ever feel envious, mamma ?" said Lucy. "I never saw you unhappy because other people had better things than you had."

"My heart, my dear child," answered Mrs. Fairchild, "is no better than yours. It is written in the Bible, 'As the face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.' There was a time when I was very envious. When I was first married, I had no children for seven or eight years: I wished very much to have a baby, as you wished just now for Emily's doll; and whenever I saw a woman with a pretty baby in her arms, I was ready to cry for vexation."

"That was just like me, mamma,” said Lucy; "for I was very much grieved indeed when I saw Emily's doll. But how were you cured of this wicked passion, mamma?"

Mrs. Fairchild. Why, my dear, I was led to confess my sin to my God; and that not once or twice, but again and again and again. I was made to know that the Lord Jesus Christ had died, not only to procure forgiveness for my sins, but to set me free from the power of sin, and to enable me, through the spirit of God, to overcome my wicked passions of all kinds.

"And did the Lord Jesus Christ hear your prayers, mamma!" said Lucy,

"Yes, my child, in his good time he did hear me," answered Mrs. Fairchild.

"Do you never feel any envy now, mamma ?" said Lucy.

"I cannot say that I ever felt it, my dear; but I bless God that this wicked passion has not the power over Ime which it used to have: I am delivered from the slavery and bondage of it, so that it does not overcome me, and make me miserable, as it used to do; and 1 know that, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I shall when I die be quite set free from this, as well as every other wicked passion."

"Oh! mamma, mamma!" said Lucy, "how unhappy wickedness makes us! I have been very miserable this morning; and what for? only because of the sin of my heart; for I have had nothing else to make me miserable."

"Alas! my child," said Mrs. Fairchild, "what would you have more to make you wretched! Sin itself, when it has full power over us, would make a hell without the help of fire or brimstone."

Then Mrs. Fairchild took Lucy by the hand, and went into her closet: where they prayed that the Lord the Spirit would take the wicked passion of envy out of Lucy's heart; and as they prayed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died upon the cross to deliver us from the power of sin, they did not doubt but that God would hear their prayer and indeed he did; for from that day Lucy never felt envious of Emily's doll, but helped Emily to take care of it and make its clothes and was happy to have it laid on her bed, between herself and her sister.

I shall put down the prayer which Mrs. Fairchild used,

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