Christ Jesus, we will leave all else to his wise disposal. We will not think of Mr. Grenville, we will think of the Lord. If he has a right to the property, it is right he should have it; and if he obtains it by wrong actions, well, Edmund, we must pray for him and forgive him, for charity covereth a multitude of sins.

It was after these events that Mrs. Reynolds sent a request that I would go to her, and, if possible, induce our mutual friend Henry to accompany me, as she wished to consult us together on some important arrangements.

I readily obeyed her summons, and was as readily accompanied by Henry.

6

'My dear friends,' she said, as she welcomed us, now give me the aid of your discreet advice. I have no longer any hope whatever of the property; and it seems the only paper, which might have determined matters in my favour, lies, or did lie, in the hand of Mr. Grenville, who was confidentially entrusted with the knowledge of all my husband's affairs.' She paused, and then continued: 'How often have I heard him declare his sense of his obligations to that departed friend; and well I remember one answer he received,-'I look for no return, my friend, but your affection, and if ever there should be a necessity, let it be proved towards my boy!''

She sighed as she wiped away a starting tear, 'I desire not to weep, but there is a softness in a mother's heart, and a weakness too, that makes her count too much of earthly goods. I am apt to raise up before my mind so many reasons why they would be desirable; education and genteel comforts for my

"Let the

boy; but this is wrong, very wrong. morrow take care for the things of itself; sufficient to the day is the evil thereof."

'Do you then give up the hope of that paper?' Henry asked. Is not this premature, my dear friend? Surely, if you could establish any proof, you could demand its presentation.'

‘I totally give it up; the principle of a man, who has acted in such a manner, under such circumstances, cannot be mistaken. I have no proof whatever, but I believe my husband deposited it with him, and think I remember his telling me so, but not distinctly enough for me to state it in the way of evidence. It is more impression than certainty.'

Henry said with sympathy, 'What then can I do for you? Wherein can I serve you?'

'In your counsel, and helping me without delay to put my affairs in such a train, that I may anticipate the change I must make.'

'I will do what I can; meantime, I doubt not, you will learn the great gain of godliness with contentment: whilst he who has defrauded must learn the canker and thorn of an evil conscience, and the perishing nature of this world's goods,-in which he grasps a snare," for they that will be rich fall into temptation."

I desire to find a sanctifying purpose and end in this dispensation, and would request your further aid. Pray for me, dear friends, that I may be endowed with simplicity of mind, that whilst content with the Lord's appointment, I may also be content that another should possess that of which I am deprived, forgetting the instrumentality of man, and seeing only the hand of the Lord. How thoroughly

are we furnished by the Scriptures of inspiration for every work, and how appropriate is the present subject of our instructive chapter to my immediate circumstances! I have found it a ready help, and wish to attain that noble freedom of soul, as discharged from all envy, and able to bear the thought and sight of another's abundance, without a glance towards the recollection that it was once supposed my own and unless I do so, I feel that I shall be in a greater snare and bondage, than he who may be in possession.'

That is true. The proverb speaks in pointed language, -"A sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy is the rottenness of the bones." The two states, so placed in contrast, gives us an immediate view, that envy proceeds from an unsound heart, from a heart diseased, which ceases to invigorate the body to a proper tone of life; and not only so, but producing an evil that corrupts the very framework of the body, and subjects the whole man to death. The flesh without life, and the bones in rottenness, we see a corrupt walking spectacle of death, and the too probable forewarning that it shall never wake up to glory, when it shall have passed through the sentence to dust.'

With such a picture of envy before our eyes, who would not loathe it ! but it is a strange and subtle sin, and we need the counsel of the Lord to correct it. When we know the danger of the " slippery places" in which prosperous sinners are placed, it is folly and madness to envy their prosperity or their worldly advantages. More becoming the wisdom we derive from the scripture would it be, to think of them with compassion, as they who need the charity which

would pray for them, that their riches may not debar them from the kingdom of heaven, but rather that they may make to themselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, finding that grace which should convert their hearts, and lead them to the possession of the true riches.'

I saw the mind of my friend becoming confirmed in acquiescence with the divine providence; it was evidently more than submission; and that more we certainly require. Submission may go far in yielding the opposing will, but we must also learn to be of the same mind as our God, in the "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good unto thee," and this would effectually subdue the sin of envy and discontent.

'Let us discuss this subject a little,' she said, for it is a kind of mystery. I believe I have this day learnt at least, that envy is distinct from covetousness, for I confess I felt a temptation which I think arose from a different root.-I believe myself free from coveting the possessions about to be appropriated by another; and yet I felt that indescribable something, which led me to dislike it should be possessed by one who acted as an enemy.'

'O,' Henry exclaimed, how it displays the beauty, spirituality and perfection of that law of charity inculcated by our Lord,-" Love ye your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you." This belongs to the living sacrifice in which we are to be exercised as our reasonable service,'

'Dear friend,' Mrs. Reynolds quickly interrupted, stop, stop a moment. What you have set before me at this instant requires my most serious reflection.' And raising her eyes upwards, 'O blessed

Saviour!' she said, 'thou holy sacrifice for my sins! teach and enable me now to present my soul a sacrifice to thee. All my selfish feelings, all my resentful temptations, all my cold-hearted indifference to this, my supposed enemy, but thy instrument for my trial and chastenings; that I may-' (she paused, as if to be assured of the sincerity of her own feelings) that I may,' she repeated with solemn slowness, love, bless, and pray for my enemy!'

Amen, Amen!' Henry responded; ‘and the Lord accept this reasonable service, and receive it as an offering of faith and love to Him.'

'I suspect, however,' he continued, there is most generally, if not always, the root of coveteousness, from which envy springs; for though, in some cases, there are absolute impossibilities precluding our possessing that for which we envy another, yet it must be a desire that it should be ours, and not their's, or a wish that it had been ours. And that not being ours, therefore, the hateful sin of envy rises. Not being ours-this is negative coveteousness (so to speak) but of an active operation in the heart. I believe it a certain inmate of the natural heart. However it is actually unbecoming, and impossible that it should be an allowed guest in the Christian breast. It must be slain at the foot of the cross, and though it be as a many-headed monster, still death to it must be the determination of one who would present himself a living sacrifice to the Lord.'

'We need, then, the powerful instrument, the sword of the Spirit. We must detect the evil by the word, and use that counteracting principle of grace, the bond of perfectness-charity. Then we shall delight in