in them, soothingly advised with them, and relieved some of their more pressing wants.

They had completed their intended round of visits, and were just leaving the court to return homeward, when a young woman, carrying in her hand a milliner's basket, crossed before them. She was very meanly clad, and her appearance bespoke deep poverty, yet there was an air of respectability about her that could not be mistaken. She evidently shrunk from observation; but as she looked up with a surprised air at the unusual sight of two respectably-dressed persons in such a place, her sad countenance, beaming with intelligence, so forcibly impressed Mr. Mowbray, that he stopped her, and asking her where she lived, expressed a wish to pay her a visit.

The young woman curtseyed, and led the way to a house superior to most of those they had just left, but scarcely less wretched and ruinous. It was a large building, and had perhaps once been tenanted by the wealthy; but it had long since fallen into decay, and its lofty capacious rooms had been divided into a number of small ones, each of which now contained a family, large or small as the case might be. Mr. and Mrs. Mowbray followed the young woman up the wide staircase to the top of the house, and then turning into a long gallery, their guide stopped at length at a door, and, lifting the latch, with a curtsey and an apology for the untidiness of the humble room, ushered them into her apartment, and dusting the chair (there was but one), invited Mrs. Mowbray to take a seat.

The room was spacious, and appeared the larger in consequence of being so scantily furnished. Some halfdozen old books lay in the window, a few articles of crockery-ware were arranged on a box in the corner

of the room, and these, with a little table, a chair, and a box which seemed to serve occasionally as a seat, comprised nearly all the articles visible in the room. Everything, however, was clean and tidy, and there was an air of decency and respectability about the room which pleasingly contrasted with those they had just left.

'Do you live here alone, pray?' inquired Mr. Mowbray.

No, sir,' replied the young woman feebly,' my aged mother lives with me; but (pointing to a bed at the further end of the room, and which the gathering shadows of evening had prevented them from before observing) she is ill, and has been confined to her bed for the last month.'

'Have you no father?' inquired Mr. Mowbray.

The young woman was silent for a moment as her tongue struggled to articulate an answer, while a tear trickled down her cheek.

6

My father is dead, sir,' she replied: 'he died about six months ago after a short illness, and we were in consequence compelled to leave our former nice home, and take this room.'

'And pray how do you support yourself and your mother?' asked Mr. Mowbray, glancing at the table, which was strewed with pieces of lace, ribbon, &c.

'I make caps and collars, sir,' said the young female, 'when I can get work to do; but it is very precarious, and so badly paid for, that I have been obliged to pawn nearly all our furniture to keep out of debt. I am unwilling that my poor mother should be chargeable to the parish; but my hardest exertions are insufficient to supply us even with bread.'

'Pray, whom do you work for?' inquired Mrs. MowDECEMBER, 1845.

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of the earth have power;" in other words, the faculty of inflicting a sting in consciences. O, yes! they have committed such destruction upon the fruits of faith, which exclusively heals consciences, that it is inevitable for men's souls to escape the venom.

"And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree;" meaning, they must not sting and poison the elect, for they are not to affect all mortally. Even as natural locusts do not devour every particle of green growth, but where only they attack, and as it happens. So here too is the proviso-" but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads:" as they are not to be the grass that is to escape, for they have not faith, which is the seal of God, which we wear upon our pure and cleansed consciences.

"And the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle;" in allusion to their tenacious disputations and scholastic quarrels. They are ever prepared for this, ready (as they say) pro and contrà, to battle, to maintain both sides, either for or against. "And on their heads were as it were crowns like gold;" signifying high names and titles of distinction, “and their faces were as the faces of men;" because their doctrines and lives corresponded not to the spirit of faith, but savoured of mere natural science, the light of the intellect elicited by the labour of Aristotle.

"And their teeth were (not small and feeble) but as the teeth of lions;" because no race of men ever waged more deadly strife than these sects of theologians, the Scotists, the Thomists, and the Modernists, headed by that great light of nature, Aristotle, that Abaddon and destroyer of pure Christian teaching; who, under St. Thomas, introduced the doctrine of Free Will, of Merit,

and Works, like a second three-headed Cerberus, and a very Gorgon with triple body.

Look to this: see here the "first woe," and tell me, kind reader, are not these features till this day the first and last and everything in the churches among the Canonists? In all these institutes point out one good work founded on the appointment of God. Read carefully all the ecclesiastical injuctions. Where does the Romish or the other bishops labour for the evangelical office, and that of preaching?

O! woe to thee Pontiff; woe to you, cardinals; woe to you, mass-priests; woe to you, monks! How will you answer for the discharge of the ministerial word? Do you think to escape by the influence of the triple crown, the hat, the mitre, ring, gold, and scarlet, &c.? The judgment stands fast which has been already pronounced. "He regardeth not the persons of men." Let them all that can, hear the counsel of Christ in Matt. xxiv. how a man must fly out of the city and not return home again. Let him escape out of the general assembly! Let him flee who can into the wilderness, and there be free! O, dear people! retain not your bishoprics, prebends, cloisters, not omitting any clerical order. Most certainly sin and perdition belong to the same; to every ecclesiastical foundation; fly and serve thou the Gospel; raise thyself up, teach the people, as much as thou canst, and exercise the gifts of grace! Believe me, if you do not this, then shalt thou reap condemnation only from thy spiritual condition, though perhaps thou shouldest work miracles, and offer thyself to be burned. For the proper office of the clergy is to preach-and that the Gospel; and should I not then avoid the curse of suppressing it? O, that our Lord

Jesus would but exterminate all this idolatry of the world, your papistry, your cardinalate, with all your impostures to the abyss below, once and for ever. Amen! And as is their king, such is his regimen, and as is his government, such is his people; as is his people, such are their customs; and as their customs are, such are their works and practice. Hence the prophecy of Paul is verified, who says, "He exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped." Is he not said to sit in the temple of God, when he gives out of himself that he alone is Master over all churches! and what is the temple of God? Is it stone and wood? Is it not said by Paul, "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are?" Besides, in his day there was no temple such as churches now appear. But what means the term "to sit ?" Is it not tantamount to ruling, teaching, and regulating? Name from the foundation of the churches any one individual of such pretension as to vaunt himself the sole master of the Church, the Pope excepted. Did ever saint or heretic thus boast? Did Paul? Did any one ever name himself the sole ruler of the Church? Has he not been more heeded in men's hearts than their God? In other words, has not his word been more dreaded, more hearkened to, than the precepts of the Almighty? The description applies to none other.