Then

Peter Jones used to delight in standing in the churchyard, watching the process of committing "dust to dust." Yet when his father died, it touched him as if this had been the first death in the universe of God. He looked upon the stiff and haggard features, and asked himself,-What is Death? It was an awful mystery; and as he tried to penetrate it, a great horror and darkness fell upon him. once more he turned to gaze on the worn and wasted face; and in an agony of grief exclaimed that he could not see IMMORTALITY written there. His father's Bible lay before him; he opened it and read, and as he read, the tears rushed down his cheeks:"God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more DEATH, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

The situation of the family would have been at this time most desperate, but for one of those ministers of mercy, who walk this earth, and who, like Wordsworth's "good Lord Clifford," could say

"Love had he found in huts where poor men lie."

He found out the Joneses, while visiting a dreary and repulsive district. Out of a not over-loaded purse, he aided the widow and the fatherless; and penetrating the insignificant aspect and outward appearance of Peter, he thought he saw in him something worthy of notice. He got him a situation where he could earn more money for the family; and Peter became grave and serious, and applied himself to his duties with all the thoughtfulness and anxiety of a man.

Amongst the last words which Peter heard his father utter were" Seek ye the Lord while he may

be found." A kind of literal interpretation of these words found its way into Peter's mind. He wondered where God was to be found-he could not perceive him in any object of nature. He looked upwards, and saw not God but the sky; he looked upon the earth, and saw streets, and houses, and men moving to and fro, and green fields, and the bloom and beauty of flowers but he saw not God. In the language of Job, his heart said, “Behold I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him; he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him." The more he revolved it, the more he felt himself perplexed. He thought that it was because he was such a poor, insignificant creature that God disdained to take notice of him; and under the influence of this morbid feeling, his spirits sank, and his health became affected.

His friend and patron saw that there was something wrong; and drew out from Peter the cause of his perplexity. Then, lending him a little popular treatise on Astronomy, he assisted him to comprehend it; and though the mind of Peter was, at first, staggered by the greatness of the ideas which crowded upon him, there at last "fell from his eyes as it had been scales." The world was round, and floated round the sun; the stars were suns, and worlds probably floated round them; nay, the visible universe might possibly be in motion round some primal centre! The word "mathematics" was truly Greek to Peter: yet he felt the great truths of astronomy; and their sublimity enlarged his soul. One night, while he was reading, he rose and went out; the heavens sparkled with stars. As he gazed

he seemed to himself to be looking out of the little closet of his own existence into eternity of space and eternity of time; as he mused, the fire burned; then spake he with his tongue :-" Lo, these are parts of HIS ways; but how little a portion is heard of HIM; the thunder of His power who can comprehend!"

"AND HE BEHELD THE GOD OF ISRAEL; UNDER HIS FEET WAS, AS IT WERE, THE PAVED WORK OF A SAPPHIRE STONE, AND AS THE BODY OF HEAVEN IN ITS CLEARNESS."

CHAP. II.

PARADISE BEFORE THE FALL.

"In the mathematical and physical sciences, and in the arts which are founded upon them, we may commonly trust the conclusions which we take upon AUTHORITY. For the adepts in these sciences and arts mostly agree in their results, and lie under no temptation to cheat the ignorant with error. I firmly believe (for example) that the earth moves round the sun; though I know not a tittle of the evidence from which the conclusion is inferred. And my belief is perfectly rational, though it rests upon mere authority. For there is nothing in the alleged fact contrary to my experience of nature: whilst all who have scrutinised the evidence concur in affirming the fact; and have no conceivable motive to assert and diffuse the conclusion, but the liberal and beneficent desire of maintaining and propagating the truth."-AUSTIN-" Province of Jurisprudence Determined."

PETER JONES had now arrived at the spot, where the Patriarch laid himself down and slept, and had a delicious dream of Heaven. For Jacob, when journeying from his father's house to the country where his most active years were spent, and in which his family ties were formed, felt himself a lone, solitary wanderer, but was refreshed by a vision that seemed to link the earth with the skies. He "lighted upon a certain place;" and "he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and the angels of God ascending and descending on it.”

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And Jacob awoke out of his

sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!"

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