discuss the custom of the world, but to preach to you the law of God; I cannot compel your obedience, but I am bound to declare, that without it there is no true repentance; and consequently no promise of pardon. Peggy does not expect it, likely enough, that is because she does not believe you will obey God rather than marry beneath you. To her you are a seducer, at the church only can you show yourself a penitent, really and truly. And you are not engaged to any other woman, so no fresh assault will be made on female rights and feelings; your path is clear, I do not say it is smooth, how can you expect it to be?-Peggy Blake was the daughter of a labourer on Brown's farm, a pretty girl enough, and the story is an old one, when we record its issue, that the young farmer led her from the ways of virtue : the father patiently bore his daughter's dishonour, and Brown was never unkind to her, except in the sin he led her into; he behaved to her with some degree of tenderness, and supplied her sufficiently with money. He was not prepared for the stand the Vicar now took with him; in his illness he vowed repentance and reformation of all his vices, except this: he would have been content to forsake Peggy, but he never dreamed of marrying her. He looked at society in hope to make some good match hereafter with money and a wife, and now Mr. V. thrust the word of God and his duty clear in the face of all such expectations. The Vicar felt the necessity of pushing this point home to his hearer's heart, and so he resumed. You sent for me now Brown, to pray with you and for you, to teach you the way to peace and pardon, did you not? not? Surely I did Sir, said the sick man. And can you find fault with my counsel, as a minister of God? Brown thought a little, but the case was too clear for casuistry, and he faintly answered, it was right. Your repentance then would be rotten, and my word a lie, if I consoled you

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with the hope of mending your drunkenness, while you offer no retribution for your injury to that poor girl. There is happily no impediment, your children are at her knee, you and she are unmarried, your wishes may waver, but your conscience cannot utter an uncertain sound. (But the sound though not uncertain was unpleasant, and the farmer felt uncomfortable.) There are many religious and happy men, Sir, who were wild in their youth, and yet they did not marry the woman they kept company with. My dear friend, replied the Vicar, is not this vain talking? If such persons were turned in heart to God after their own marriage, or after the marriage (if it should so happen) of the unhappy females they had deceived, then the reparation I speak of was impossible, and they had only to sorrow after a godly sort," for the wrong they had done; but you are not so situated, and I tell you in the name of God, that your plain duty is to marry the mother of your children. If you will not, I have no power to offer any comfort as to the forgiveness of your sin; you know I dare not speak peace, where there is no peace. Brown suspected this to be sound reason, but he tried to argue a little further. In marriage Sir, (said he) there should be an inclination and affection on both sides; it should not be compulsory, which it must be in my case, if I acted even under constraint even of my conscience. The Vicar replied, "True, Mr. Brown, and if you had now to make your choice of a wife, what you say about inclination would be correct, but I say you have already done that you are not free to do as you please, you promised the girl marriage you well know, and to talk of inclination or unfitness, is almost, I fear, the same with a husband debating that question after he has lived with his wife, as long as you have known poor Peggy. The law of the land has no hold on you; but there is the real difference. Do you think a man can ruin a poor girl, and then cast her away as unworthy of his station

in life, or unfitted to share his home? And can you on your sick bed calmly imagine that God will regard you as a penitent, when you will not cancel the sin you have committed, so far as man is able do it? If you had stolen money, could you deem it true repentance, if having a part of it still by you, you refused to restore it to the owner? You can never perfectly restore Peggy to her lost position, but you may raise her in part from the degradation you have cast upon her; and believe me, whatever is to be your future lot as touching happiness and prosperity, you had better seek it in doing what is right, than in what you fancy more expedient. The girl is beneath you in station, but she has no other fault, except through you, and you have more right to expect God's pardon and blessing with her, than you can possibly have, if you marry any other. If you recover, and mean to run on in you old course, I dare say you may get a wife of your own rank, and with money, but remember my words, in the sight of God you are not free; and your repentance is a delusion, if you will not follow a plain path: I think in this case, you would be as happy very soon, as your neighbours who are wedded, because your conscience would be at ease, and your wife is of a cheerful description, and of fair reputation (saving through you,) besides, any thing of disappointment must be patiently borne as a chastisement for your past offence.

Look at many of our 'Squires and great people in the towns, (said the sick man) they sin as I have done. And if they truly and heartily repent (interrupted the Vicar) they must in your circumstances act in the same way. That such a course might introduce persons of mean birth into great families, if it were at this moment to be followed, I doubt not: but remember that mean and genteel are terms unknown before God, and there is but one law of Christ for the truly penitent, and that is to undo any wrong done to

another as far as they are able.

"If I have done

any wrong to any man I restore fourfold," said the repentant Zaccheus; this was a mark of true repentance : apply that rule to the injury you have done to poor Peggy; you cannot by such act entirely wipe out the sin you have committed; through penitence of heart and humble prayer, must you look to the Redeemer for that cleansing; all I say is, such is the conduct that must accompany your sincere repentance. Brown pondered, and said nothing, and the Vicar thought it best to leave him to his own reflections.

ON ANCIENT AND MODERN HYMNS.

In days such as ours when divinity and polemics seem almost equivalent terms, when truth lies at the bottom of a well, the angry foam, and turbulent din, on whose surface make the eyes dim, and the head giddy, ere the actual search is commenced; when the narrow path is intersected by cross-roads, and so beset by contradictory directing-posts, that it is a matter of slow and careful study to find out which is the straight gate, perhaps we are apt to look back on primitive times too exclusively, as a standard in controversy, and a rule of faith, forgetful that they are also our best model in religious feeling, a soundness of heart which was unquestionably the result, though, as we too well know, by no means the necessary result, of their soundness of head. In ages of controversy, when orthodox belief is rare, nothing is more to be guarded against than the habit which is often insensibly acquired of regarding the church, merely as our dogmatic teacher; her canons are studied to the neglect of her liturgies, or her liturgies are searched into only for the controverted doctrine implied in them; we forget that however truly it may be

her most solemn office to teach us what to believe, it is also her blessed mission to teach us how to pray.

To this end it may be refreshing to turn aside from the whirl of theological contention, and trace the channels in which from time to time the church has poured forth her prayer and praise; to close our ears to the din of polemical divinity, and listen to the solemn melodies wherewith she hymns the triumphs of her Lord.

It is clear, then, that in seeking for a standard whereby to mould the heart for heaven, we must not turn our eyes to an age of discord; for if controversy has a tendency to give undue prominence to particular articles of faith, this is still more the case with matters of feeling, so that it may be possible to adhere severally to each point of primitive doctrine, and yet distort the whole, and see it in such wrong perspective, that it is a very doubtful question whether God will recognize it for his truth; or at all events, we must not draw our pattern from an age which has, as it were taken the principle of division to its heart, and not only confesses but glories in the temper of schism. For a model of feeling we must look back to times when right faith was not merely common, but if I may use the expression, nature, when although in all ages men have erred concerning the truth, the effort was to believe wrong, and however some might stray from her fold, the idea of unity was visibly and ceaselessly brought before the minds of men in the "one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church;" when the "Communion of Saints" was a palpable fact to all, not a truth sustained in the hearts of a few to be dimly realized in life, or patiently longed after and waited for in hours of loneliness and prayer; when the praises of the church could roar with a holy boldness and exultation on high, borne on by the force of that all prevailing "We."

It may be interesting, as an illustration of the differ