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Miss S. R- and herself, that a paper on some prescribed subject, should occasionally be exchanged. A subject had been mutually accepted. Timely information of failure on her part is sent in the accompanying note. Would not the feeling of disappointment be counterbalanced by the nobility of character exhibited? "It must come the humiliating confession that I cannot master a given mental task. I have battled with this enemy and find him too strong. I have striven to conquer, because I knew such a conquest would be the prelude to many more, but it is in vain. This once I am vanquished, and I fear weakened by the defeat.

"There is another subject however on which I have dotted down a few thoughts, but I cannot write a paper by Monday. Then what is to be done? Prove yourself the noble, generous girl I take you to be, and send me your paper at the time appointed. I will send you mine when it is done. No! I feel it is too bad of me to say that, I will put the proposal in another form. If you don't send it, I will think of you as I have ever done. If you do, I will exalt you to the very pinnacle of my standard of goodness, and from my lowliness admire you henceforth and for ever. Now I leave it with you."

No unbiassed reader will believe that Miss Hessel would divest life of enjoyment. The fact that the Creator causes the earth to produce flowers as well as fruits appeared to her full of significance. Her sprightly temperament prompted to great sympathy with the young in their quest of enjoyment. Her views on some of the sources from which it is sought may therefore justly claim consideration. friend had solicited her opinion on the propriety of attending "gay parties." "My views on this matter are very decided," she replies on July 17th. "Is it not tempting the tempter?' you ask. I think it is. And what a solemn mockery to pray, 'lead us not into temptation,' when we

A

deliberately walk into it! Do you remember Mr. Jay's startling address to his young people on the subject of balls, concerts, gay parties, &c.? 'If I saw the devil running away with some of you, I could not cry, 'Stop thief!' You trespass on his territory and thus render yourself his lawful prey!' That is a solemn fact, stated in striking, though to refined ears, perhaps inelegant terms. We walk on enchanted ground when we wander into places of worldly amusement.”Let those who have had experience ask themselves whether the moral atmosphere of such "places" or such " parties" is healthy? And let those who have not had experience profit by those who have. Gratification purchased at the cost of mental or moral dissipation is surely too dear.

After expatiating on several topics she tells Mr. F- on August 9th, that with his talents and energies, “he may rear a noble structure, a monument of usefulness which men and angels shall behold with pleasure and satisfaction. Is it not a stimulating thought that these happy intelligences are watching our struggles, perhaps often aiding us, and warding off unseen danger? Surely amid the many lofty subjects they are permitted to contemplate, that process of discipline by which man is restored to holiness has no mean place. Intimately associated as it is with the glory of God, possibly it holds the highest rank among the subjects which they delight to contemplate."

Writing of an invalid who had evinced some reluctance to forego a personal gratification for the sake of another enjoying it, she proceeds: "I tried to put the thing in a right light, and set forth the blessedness of living for others, of sometimes forgetting ourselves in our endeavours to promote another's happiness. Persons who have had much affliction are apt to get the notion that their sole enjoyment consists in being ministered to. It is a great mistake. There are few virtues the exercise of which brings with it such a rich and present reward as that of self-denial.

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VINET'S " GOSPEL STUDIES.

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"I have got Vinet's Gospel Studies,' she writes to one of her friends on the 15th. "You know what a favourite he is of mine. One of the lectures is on the believer completing the sufferings of Christ,' 1 Col. 24. He furnishes what I consider a satisfactory explanation of the passage, and gives to the sufferings of believers a higher sublimity than is derived from the notion that they are merely disciplinary. He puts it in something like this form. The church is Christ's successor and representative on earth, she continues his work, part of that work was suffering, and this is the badge of successorship-her distinctive glory. Christ is carrying on his work by the church, suffering, so to speak, in his church, not for the completion of his personal sufferings for the world's atonement-they were complete at the hour of his crucifixion-but for the completion of those which he is to endure to the end of the world in the persons of believers. I think Scripture will bear out this view of the case. The word signifies not only to finish but to correspond. Is it not an ennobling thought that by suffering we are 'filling up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ, making our life to correspond with his life, not only suffering for him, but suffering with him, sharing his humiliation as we hope to share his glory?"

The Wesleyan Conference was held in Leeds this year, and during its sittings Miss Hessel spent a few days with her friend Miss S. R, at whose home one or two Wesleyan ministers were entertained. "She enjoyed her visit most thoroughly," that lady says in the paper from which two quotations have been already given. "None were more light-hearted than she. The society she met was just to her mind, intelligent and cheerful, and she was often quite brilliant. I often wished for a Boswell to record those conversations.

"One day when the Rev. B. Gregory was here, as we were rambling in the glen, the conversation turned upon

Emma Tatham. We had just heard of her death, and Eliza was much affected by it. She remarked that we must set about working for God more zealously, since he was removing those who would have worked so well. She then determined to know more of the mind of Christ, and serve him more faithfully. How well she kept this resolve, those know best who were most intimate with her. I was a constant witness of her increasing faith and love; and was often astonished at her amount of religious enjoyment. I much regret my inability to recal those conversations, for apart from their brilliance and beauty, they revealed much of her inner self. And she was indeed, as Carlyle says of John Sterling, 'a beautiful human soul.'

1855] BIOGRAPHER'S ACQUAINTANCE COMMENCES.

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CHAPTER IX.

Thoughts on her sainted Brother-Her views of duty not coincident with those of some of her friends-Increasing love for the BibleThomas Carlyle-The duty of Christians in relation to the morally degraded-Counsels to a recent convert-A valuable sentiment from Coleridge-A soliloquy-A scrap of mental history-The Eclipse of Faith-Spiritual egotism-Happy toil--Illness of her cousin at Howden-Another scrap of mental history-Her cousin's death-Life under a new phase-Visits Congleton-Dr. Kitto"The Leper."

HAVING to spend some days in Leeds during the month of August, the biographer determined to visit Boston Spa. The promptitude and cordiality with which Miss Hessel received him into her friendship; the frankness with which, in a long walk, she made him acquainted with the more important passages in her mental and moral history; together with the interesting characteristics of that history, invested the intercourse with a peculiar charm. How little did the writer think that ere three summers had elapsed, he should be mournfully employed in embalming her memory.

In a letter received from her a few days afterwards she says, August 16th: "As I wrote the date at the top of this letter, the recollection flashed across my mind that this is the anniversary of dear John's birthday. He has been nearly seventeen years in heaven. Seventeen years of uninterrupted progression in knowledge, in holiness, in bliss, with a mind unfettered in its researches and a soul unincumbered by infirmity or sin in its aspirations! How incomparably nobler he must be now than when he first entered