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petals, bending backwards, change its character; and when I contrast the splendid magnificence of the expanded cluster with its embryo appearance, I am lost in admiration.

This beautiful Lily had long been a favorite, but for years past I had not possessed one. A dear friend in the Lord, though personally a stranger, inhabiting one of the lovely isles where the flower is indigenous, was tempted, by the tale of my lost verbena, to send me one of her own rearing, across the sea; while another sister, both loved and known, added half a dozen roots of the Lily, just on the point of throwing out their flower-stalks. I potted the little treasures in a mass, and, soon after, left home for a few days. Returning, I was delighted to find my Lilies in full expansion; and as I gazed upon the clusters glowing in beauty and grace, I could not but exclaim, "No; Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

The transition is so easy and natural, as to be in my mind almost inevitable, from the contemplation of a folded and dusky blossom thus suddenly assuming its station among other plants, a bright and perfect flower, to that of a spirit, bursting its mortal enclosure, and standing, arrayed in celestial glory, among the redeemed ones who encircle the throne of the Most High. Proportioned to the sharpness of their trials, and the gloom of their earthly lot, is the delight that accompanies this consideration ; and if the flower be like my Guernsey Lily, of a very uninviting aspect until it becomes exquisitely beautiful, the mind will revert to some of the abject poor of this world, rich in faith, who were heirs, and are now occupants of the kingdom of heaven. Such a

case is forcibly brought to my recollection at this moment; and I will not withhold it.

About four years and a half ago, I was invited by a young friend of noble family to accompany him into his favorite haunt--St. Giles's. The transition was certainly calculated to strike any mind with double effect; for we left a splendid mansion, in one of the great squares of the extreme west, where all was princely within, and a bright sunshine flashing as we passed into the street from the gay equipages that rolled along, and walked towards Bloomsbury beneath gathering clouds, which, just as we approached the confines of the Irish district, descended on us in a drizzling rain, more uncomfortable than a smart shower would have been. Those, and those alone, who have trod the mazes of St. Giles's, can conceive the effect produced on my feelings, when I found myself within its narrow streets, bordered with their dreary-looking tenements; every fourth or fifth step bringing me on the verge of an abrupt flight of almost perpendicular stairs, terminating in a low-roofed cellar, the abode of as many squalid outcasts as could congregate within its walls; while above, wretchedness, vice, and desperation looked out, in all their forms, from windows, or rather window-frames, where the little glass that remained seemed but a receptacle for all the filth that could accumulate upon it. There is at this day, in some of those streets, what may be called an improvement, compared with their aspect four years ago: but strong must be the nerves, or most obdurate the feelings of him who, even now, could pace those dreadful haunts of misery and crime without a shuddering wish to be again beyond their boundary. To me, the

scene was not new; but I had rarely ventured far into it; and it was with a heavy depression of spirits that I followed closely the steps of my conductor, where two could not find space to walk abreast. The state of the pavement, even in fine weather, defies the most circumspect to escape defilement from the mixture of every thing that can render it unclean; and the effect of a shower is any thing but purifying in those regions. St. Giles's enveloped in a drizzling mist, immediately after B- Square

in the sunshine! Who can describe it?

At length my friend paused, and, to my no small dismay, conducted me into what was evidently a dram-shop of the lowest character. Before the door were assembled some half-dozen of ragged wildlooking young men, engaged in a gambling speculation, at pitch-and-toss, evidently with excited passions, which found vent in imprecations, uttered in Irish, with an occasional kick or blow. The faces that laughed upon me, from within the low, wide, well-glazed windows, were yet more appalling to my sight: but I was ashamed to draw backM. had told me that we were to convey relief to a suffering child of God; and on such a mission, to a sick, persecuted convert from popery too, we might reckon on whatever discouragement the enemy was permitted to cast across our path. We walked hastily through a long passage, leaving the tap-room on our left, and mounted some wide stairs; then turned to a narrower flight, half-way up which, all being dark, M. tapped at a side-door. It was opened by a woman of no way prepossessing countenance, although her manner displayed the excess of servility and adulation. M. passed her, ad

vancing to a low bed-stead, where lay an old man, whose noble expansion of forehead, and singularly fine countenance attracted me at once; but when he put forth his hands, to clasp that of his benefactor, I drew back with horror from a spectacle such as I never before or since beheld. The old

man had suffered from rheumatism in so dreadful a degree, that the last joint of each finger was reversed, or bent backward, so as to make the ends stand out in a most frightful manner, the second or middle joint being as firmly fixed in a crooked position, as though the fingers were made of metal: the thumbs also turned back. A pair of large bony hands thus formed, or rather deformed, and stretched out to seize between them the hand of another person, was really a terrific spectacle to one who had never beheld such a thing; and I became so nervous, that M. covered them with a portion of the scanty bed-clothes, and gently requested O'Neill not to let me see them again. His feet were, I was told, in a more painful state of distortion.

The room was perfectly bare, save of an old chest, a broken chair, and a stool; an iron pot for potatoes, and a basin and a plate. It was perfectly clean, nevertheless, and recently white-washed, which gave it a more comfortable appearance than most of the abodes in that place. My attention, however, was soon so completely engrossed by O'Neill's discourse, that I had little leisure for other remarks. He was aged; but when raised in his bed, I thought I never had beheld a more imposing countenance and manner: there was much of genuine dignity, and consciousness of former respectability in station and superior mental endowment; much information ;

a flow of well-chosen language, and sometimes a touching allusion to his destitute state, as having proceeded from the death of an only and affectionate son, who had contributed largely to his support. But the one subject on which O'Neill shone out with striking lustre was the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was not the studied language of a man who can speak well on a subject where he has thought much-it was the overflow of a full heart, which had felt much. His utter abhorrence of himself, as a lost sinner, his unqualified and shuddering renunciation of all the merit-mongering work of popery; his fervent, passionate appeals, with uplifted eyes and streaming tears, for more of the Holy Spirit's teaching; and his torrents of adoring thanksgiving for the redeeming love which had paid so costly a price for the ransom of his soul, when no help was to be found save in that atonement-all spoke the humbled, convinced, seeking, rejoicing believer in Christ Jesus. He was energetic to a degree that would have been deemed too vehement in an Englishman; but O'Neill was thoroughly Irish, as I soon found, when, on my subsequent visits, I took an Irish reader to him. He was indeed quite a scholar in that tongue; and it was most affecting to behold his crippled distorted fingers contriving to retain within their grasp the blessed Book, and to turn over its pages.

I soon found that O'Neill's wife had a sad propensity for strong drink; and that the donations bestowed, in money or linen, on this interesting character, too generally found their way to the tap-room below. The noble lady, whose mansion I had just left, had placed in my hands a sum of money,

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