apprehended, as I trust, both by you and by me, through the enlightening grace of the Holy Spirit making known to us the fulness of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus; implanting faith, which worketh by love, producing the fruits of righteousness, to the glory of Him whose perfect obedience is the sole ground of our hope. But beyond this there lies many a question."

"Alas, yes!" interrupted the lady, "many a question gendering strife, and sapping in the bud those fruits of which you speak. Why stand we thus in jeopardy every hour, exposed to the violence of unchristian men; but because the church, divinely commissioned to preach the Gospel to every creature, has loitered by the way, entangling her feet in snares, laid by the rulers of the darkness of this world? Think you not the enemy of souls would prefer that you and I engaged in some discussion, profitable, it may be, to our individual growth in knowledge, rather than that we sallied forth to invade his reign in the dark places of our land, proclaiming deliverance to his captives, and the opening of the prison to those whom he hath bound? Oh, it is a question of awful import, how far we can be doing the will of God, when occupied as Satan would prefer to behold us !"

"Would you then prohibit all advance, beyond the acquisition of first principles ?"

"Not so: but I guard against the selfishness

that would, even in spiritual things, eat its morsel alone, and not invite the fatherless to partake in it. I would bear in mind, that I may understand all mysteries and all knowledge,' and yet be nothing, if lacking charity-that grace which seeks the welfare of every soul around. To grow in grace, and in knowledge too, I would evermore desire; but the tree grows by watering, and what is the promise? 'he that watereth shall himself also be watered.'

After higher attainments we should constantly aspire; but whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule,' and impart to others the gifts vouchsafed unto ourselves, so far as means will effect it."

"Were this rule followed," said Bryan, 66 every Christian would become a missionary, within his own sphere; and who shall calculate the blessedness that would result, if even in our own poor country alone, such were the general feeling among Christians? May the Lord give me grace diligently to communicate the little that I know, relying on His inexhaustible treasury for a more abundant supply!"

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"Amen!" uttered Malcolm. "I never this abode, but I find myself under an humbling dispensation, and imbibe somewhat of quickening zeal to cheer me on my way. Thus my experience certainly furnishes a powerful argument in favour of your doctrine, albeit, I sometimes doubt whether it savours not of works."

"Works!" exclaimed the lady of M'Alister, "and who, being called into the vineyard, shall dare refuse to work there? Shall the justifying righteousness of Christ, by which alone we stand, become the plea of indolence? Put forth your whole strength, bend every faculty of mind and body to the task of working while yet it is day; and fear not, but when the night cometh, you shall smite upon your breast, as an unprofitable servant, and lay hold, in utter self-despair, on the satisfying obedience of the Saviour."

The contentious spirit of the day, excited by Tyrconnel's secret emissaries, found no abode in the bosom of Malcolm. His character, formed among the covenanters of the North, exhibited indeed much of the inflexibility produced by being rooted in that region of storms; nor did he participate in the scruples which shrank from resisting an ungodly ruler. Naturally bold and enterprizing, he loved to breast the opposing wave, to encounter obstacles, and triumph over difficulties, alike in temporal and spiritual experience. This habitual bias frequently led him from the even path of Christian usefulness, into heights and depths of speculative inquiry, where few could follow him; and thus, consciously pre-eminent, he occupied a station in that little circle of theologians perilous to man, as tending to foster that carnal pride which never ceases to struggle against the humbling grace of God, in the heart even of regenerate man. lady of M'Alister perceived the snare, and Malcolm

The

had accurately expressed the constant tenor of her discourse, when he described his visits to her house as humbling dispensations. Fully aware that she was competent to engage with a high relish in those abstruse points and subtle disquisitions which he so greatly valued, he could not but marvel at her unvarying self-denial, her earnest endeavours to win him back to the simplicity of all-sufficient truth. Her counsel he had found to be salutary, her example stimulating; and often did he close a favourite volume of systematic divinity, to pocket his little Bible, and sally forth on a mission of mercy to such lowly and obscure abodes as had escaped his observation, until the lady told some tale of suffering poverty, or conscious guilt, shrouding its inmate from the public eye. The frequent accession, both of military force, and individual panic, seeking a shelter within its walls, had now supplied the city with an overflowing population; and so urgent was the call upon the few devoted ministers of Christ, that he, who most truly and eminently merited that appellation, found his hands perpetually full. Bryan, witnessing the indefatigable labours of one, who was too apt to stigmatize as legal the more practical exhortations of his brethren, used to remark, that the only charge to be brought against Malcolm was the reverse of that reproach too often deservedly incurred by his clerical brethren-he needed but to preach what he practised to render him an invaluable Divine.

The visits of this young pastor were indeed a

welcome refreshment to the afflicted family: afflicted they were, above many others: for it could not be but that the scenes surrounding them should recal to the elder branches many a heart-rending occurrence of former days. Old Shane was rendered irritable by the weakness of his frame, unable to follow the dictates of a spirit still ardent-a mind devoted to the cause for which he passively suffered, while his younger comrades toiled and triumphed in it. The unsubdued, unsanctified character of this faithful adherent, occasioned many a pang to the bosom of his mistress, who mourned over the hardness of a heart so long impenetrable to divine grace, while overflowing with reverential love towards herself. To this were added the forebodings of a mind accustomed to look deeper into passing events, and to augur more correctly of their probable consequences, than those around her. Intense anxiety for her children depressed the spirits of the younger Mrs. M'Alister, and rendered her incompetent to the task of encouraging others: while Letitia and Ellen, the latter of whom perceptibly declined, were losing all their youthful elasticity of spirit, and rendering more apparent that loss by ineffectual efforts to force a cheerful aspect, while their tender hearts were writhing under natural terror. To them the lofty tone of confident assurance, which Malcolm sometimes indulged in, came as a vivifying cordial; and in this light, their grandmother not only sanctioned, but encouraged it, regarding it as rich wine, mercifully provided to make glad the heart of man in his seasons of overwhelming oppression.