WHILE in Pebblebrook, à letter came to me from my Brother William; which, after some consideration, I have determined to place here. The beginning and end, being unessential parts, I shall omit: the main body of it ran as follows.

"My spiritual experience has, of late, been very remarkable; and will, I doubt not, be interesting to you. You know, that I have long been ill at ease, but, perhaps, you are not aware of the extent of my sufferings. The business I seemed destined to follow has long been, as you partly know, quite repugnant to my feelings, and has lately become altogether hateful to me: yet what could [ do? I had studied years to fit myself for this end, and I could look for wealth and fame in no other course with so much certainty as in this. I well remember my feelings when admitted to the Bar. The long course of law reading, so dry and barren in itself, I had endured because of its results: it was finished; and I looked forward to pleadings before judge and jury, to a crowded audience and to splendid triumphs. Beyond that, I saw halls of legislation, and the highest public offices in the

land; and dreamed of much. With these hopes of wealth and fame I commenced the practice of law. How bitter was my disappointment! You probably recollect, what I said to you some years ago, and also the counsel you gave me. This last was all in vain; it had been perhaps useful to another, but it was not so to me: I could not find heart for this law work. I slowly gave up my business; or rather it left me, and went to other hands which were ready for it. Last spring, when I took this small house in the country, and brought my family hither, I be gan to labor with my own hands on the soil around it, and found some peace of mind; for I could see that I was doing innocent work. Still, at times, longings would arise within me for a higher sphere of action: but these longings arose mostly in idle hours, and served only to disquiet After a time passed in alternations of rest and unrest, I thought I had conquered; but I was wrong; it was only the absence of temptation that gave me peace. One of my friends wrote to me, offering to form a partnership; and he invited me to visit him and arrange matters. Desires, which I had thought dead, awoke within me with renewed strength; for they had only slept. I consulted my wife: she knew my state of mind so far as one human being can know that of another; she knew, in part, of my aversion to this law business. In her nobleness of soul, she said, she would have me do only what I thought right: she would rather be poor than that I should be wretched. Her generosity moved me, for I knew that she wanted many things, which my circumstances could not afford.

me.

"I rode to the city, and entered the office of my rich friend. He made a statement of the profits of his business; said, that he wished to have more leisure time, and

should probably, in few years, give up the whole to me. I listened to all his details: there was an apparent certainty of wealth for me, but I felt my old repugnance to the means of returning. I hesitated, and told him I would decide on the morrow. That night I could not sleep : the strife in my bosom would not cease. After daylight, however, I fell into a deep slumber; and woke not till the sun was high in the heavens. I looked out into the busy streets and saw men walking to and fro, and said, why cannot I too run to and fro and get much? I stood some half hour there in a painful state of indecision, and I know not what fixed my course; but there came over my mind, as it were, a great calm. I went to my friend's office and told him that I could not accept his offer if I did so, it would result in no good to either of us. asked me what I intended to do? And I replied, that I did not know. I believe he thought me crazy, though he did not say so. I returned home with no plan for the future, but quite satisfied that I had done right for the present.

He

"I should have told you before, that sometime ago a book fell into my hands, which has had much effect on me. It is a strange book: but I can give you no idea of it within the limits of this letter, which is like to be full enough of other matters: you shall read it for yourself if you will. It led me to think much of Time and Eternity: it did not explain to me the matters it treats of, but rather opened my own soul, and thus made to me a revelation of the Infinite. I turned at last to the New Testament, which I had long neglected. I read it now in a free spirit, but with a deep desire to learn the truth. Such parts, therefore, as seemed dark to me, or even untrue, 1 did not dwell upon. I read attentively, earnestly, all that

relates to the Saviour's character, and felt the Spirit of his Life. I learned this truth: that were such a one as He, that is, one filled with the same Spirit, in the body now, he would not be recognised as the Highest. Some of the denunciations of Jesus are terrible: but what did he denounce, what did he utterly and always condemn ? Much might be said on this matter; but each one must search for himself.

"I was all this time, as you may well believe, not quite at ease in regard to other things beside these highest. I had to provide for myself and family the necessaries of life, and wished to get also something more, and must consider how it could be done: this gave me many anxious hours.

One day I was clipping grass on the embankments around my house, and thinking of this wondrous life of ours and its meaning. I determined to strive no more for any merely selfish end: in my inmost soul, in deepest silence, I said: not my Will, but Thine be done and felt an entire willingness to submit my poor self to the Eternal and Universal One. Straightway the Spirit seemed to fill me, and raise me above the Earth: I became buoyant as with Eternal Life. Words cannot describe this Presence and its blessedness. I said to myself in the language of the Methodists, "I've got Religion." Soon I asked, (clipping grass the while,) what am I? And answered, I am a barber, shaving Nature's face without lather.

"I have hesitated about telling you the whole of this singular event, for it may seem to you ridiculous, if not impious; nevertheless, it was so as I have described it; and if any part should be told, why not the whole? It is now a fortnight since that day, and I never think of it

without inward mirth. I am cheerful, joyous; and hope soon to see my way in this world made clear to me."

I read this letter to my Uncle, who listened attentively, and kept silence some minutes after I had ended till I asked what he thought of it?

"That was a strange event; " he said in reply, "that one when he was clipping grass. Such union of things serious and things humorous, is uncommon enough, but it is perhaps a happy union: it will, in William's case, I hope, prevent the growth of spiritual pride, which such an hour might otherwise engender; and spiritual pride is no good thing. Many a man promising to become a great and shining light, through spiritual pride raises the wick of his lamp too high, so that smoke, mingling with the flame, makes the light lurid, and surrounding atmosphere offensive: such light, as we all know, is not the best."

"You think, then, that William is on a good way. I am glad he is cheerful once more, for he has long been gloomy and dispirited. I shall be glad to see smiles on his face again. How can I assist him?"

"Perhaps you cannot help him so easily as you imagine. Some kind of work he must have: he cannot long have peace of mind without. Now, Frank, don't form any plan for him: don't go to him prepared to give advice, because you happen to be a few years older than he. Find out in the first place what business he wants; and then quietly help him to get it if you can. I hope he is not inclined to rely too much on what is called Providence: in regard to the affairs of this world, he must trust mainly to the providence that is in himself. This life is called a battle and very properly. William's internal strife, what may be named his civil war, has