And still intercedes on the sinner's behalf, Е. Совв. We think that 'tis timely to warn on each hand And Protestant truth is cast on the ground. -880 ED. GOD teaches the soul that He is bringing to Christ that whatever is necessary to be wrought in us, or done by us in order to our union with Him, is to be obtained from Him in the way of prayer (Ezek. xxxvi. 37).—Flavel. 66 "I SAW WHO DID IT." "TELL me all about it," said young Rowland to grey-headed Edmund Jenkins, who sat in his cottage, with his Bible on the round table before him, Tell me all about it," said Rowland, in a coaxing way. So grey-headed Edmund took off his spectacles, wiped them carefully and put them up in a spectacle-case that was much the worse for wear. "You want to know how it was that I lost my cottage and then once more came to live in it," said the old man. "You shall have the whole story, Master Rowland; bad as my memory is, there are some things that, through mercy, I hope never to forget. "When I first came to the cottage it looked much as it does now. The thatch was new, the floor was as red as a cherry, and the inside walls were as clean as a whitewash-brush could make them. My wife was one that never let the grass grow under her feet; and as for myself, either in ploughing or sowing, reaping or mowing, the best man in the village could not go by me. 66 are Years rolled away, and my son James grew up to be a big lad. He was our only child; had it been otherwise, I have often thought it might have been better for us, and for him too: but that no one can tell but He who knoweth all things, whose thoughts are not as our thoughts, and whose ways are not as our ways. 'As the heavens higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts!' It was a dark day for me when the young Andrews came into the village. Scapegraces as they were, they ran into every kind of wickedness; and, alas, they led my poor lad into every kind of wickedness too! Oh, it was heart-breaking work; for we loved him as we loved our lives! 'A foolish 66 son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him" (Prov. xvii. 25). 66 Hardly a day passed without our poor lad running into mischief; my father was living then, and as he had been brought up in the fear of the Lord, and had brought me up in the same way, it cut him to the heart to see a grandchild of his 'walking in the counsel of the ungodly, standing in the way of sinners, and sitting in the seat of the scornful.' My poor thoughtless lad, however, heeded not his grief, but seemed rather determined to bring down his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. 66 "I talked to my misguided son, and so did his mother, but it was of no use; we coaxed him and promised him all he wanted if he would only leave off his bad ways, but we loved him too foolishly to correct him. The wise man says, Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying' (Prov. xix. 18). But I acted weakly, nay, I ought rather to say wickedly, in not correcting him sharply. My father told me so over and over again, and yet I went on making excuse for my poor prodigal and foolishly hoping and trusting that he would see the error of his ways. 66 "You are young, Master Rowland, and are taught to remember your Creator in the days of your youth. You will never, I trust, give your father the grief that my son gave me, for he went on from bad to worse, breaking the Sabbath, idling by day, and drinking and revelling at the public house by night, till he brought us down to poverty, and mocked and jeered at me when I spoke to him. There is but little hope of a son that despises the commandment, Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee' (Exod. xx. 12). "One night when I came home, the flickering light of the fire was flashing_every now and then against the window panes. I crept up quietly to the window just as a hand was turning down a leaf of my Bible. This would have put mein arage, for I was very careful of my Bible, and at that time I had not my passions so much under control as, through God's mercy, I have now; but I saw who did it, it was my father. "You may be sure that the first opportunity I had I looked into my Bible. It was turned down at the part where God's judgments are declared against Eli for not correcting his wicked sons. The text to which the turned-down leaf pointed was this, 'I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not' (1 Sam. iii. 13); the words frightened me, they struck me to my very heart. 66 One might have thought that I should have now kept a tight rein over my son and held him in with a high hand, but he was my only child; beside him I had no other, and I foolishly contented my. self in now and then giving him a mild rebuke, when I ought rather to have ruled him with a rod. 'Jem,' said I to him one day, when he had aggravated me, you will be the ruin of us all;' but he only jeered me and went away laughing. 66 The very next day the young Andrews were taken up for a robbery and the constable came after my son, who, though not guilty, was suspected of being one of the party. In the middle of the night, I heard my poor lad come into the cottage quietly and thought he was going to bed; but, instead of that, he took the rent-money that I had laid up in the cupboard, and tying his clothes in his handkerchief, set off for the sea. We should not have known that he was gone to sea, if we had not heard it afterwards from a crony of his, the ostler at the public house. "And now trouble came thick upon me, and everybody said that my son was guilty of the robbery, and that I had sent him off out of the way. Farmer Brooks, for whom I worked, told me to get another place, for he had no notion of employing people of bad character. Soon after this we had an attack of fever at the cottage, and I was obliged to part with my goods, one thing after another; and, before we were half well, we were all turned out together, because I could not pay the rent. My father went into the workhouse, and my wife and I were glad to get a very poor lodging in the village. I saw "These were heavy troubles, Master Rowland, but I had brought them all on my own head. My father never got over the fever, for going into the workhouse preyed upon his mind till the end of his days. But give my blessing,' said he, to James if he ever returns. Sometimes trouble hardens the heart, but it did not harden mine. It pleased God that it should humble me. plainer and plainer my folly and sin in not correcting my son, and I received every trial as a chastisement from above for my good. Much was done to humble me, and to open my eyes; and blessed be God I saw who did it-it was done by the hand of my heavenly Father. When I followed my aged parent to the grave, I was enabled to say, 'It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth Him good." "Years rolled along, and though I went into the fields to work, I had little heart at my labour, for my father was dead, my wife ill, and my poor boy was being tossed about on the sea. Oh, |