the imagination of their evil heart." Though sin is still alive in their members, it “shall not have dominion over them. Through the blood of the everlasting covenant, He will make His people perfect in every good work to do His will, working in them that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ: to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen.”

"And my people shall be satisfied with my goodness." While looking for it in themselves, bitter disappointment is their portion, because they seek for what can never be found. The spirit is weighed down by reason of inbred corruption, until through grace we are brought to see that righteousness which is wrought out for all who believe. Thus the Lord satiates the weary soul, and thus he replenishes every sorrowful soul. He strengthens the faint by the knowledge of his free grace and full pardon. For thus saith the Lord, "I will forgive their

iniquity, and I will remember their sin It is said, that "the iniquity

no more."

of his people shall be sought for and shall not be found." These are the 66 very small remnant" whom Christ hath rescued from the general doom; otherwise all would have been as Sodom and Gomorrah, for all have equally merited the consuming fire of the wrath of God. But "he pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage."

CONVERSATION VIII.

"Look upon the rainbow, and praise Him that made it: very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof; and the hands of the Most High have bended it." Ecclesiasticus xliii. 11.

I FOUND some lines, papa, in one of the Annuals (I forget which), on the rainbow, with which I was so much pleased that I committed them to memory, and if you have no objection, I will repeat them.

"He hath lit up the sky with His thousand rays,
And spread forth His arch mid the sun's bright blaze.
He has spanned the waves with his glorious bow,
And dyed with its colours the ships below.

He hath looked on the clouds, and they've floated away :
He hath gilded the rocks, and gemm'd them with spray :
He hath breathed on the waters, and bid them be still :
He hath hush'd the broad waves with the word of His will.

He hath open'd the heavens, He hath sent forth His showers,
To gladden the field and the spring-starting flowers:
And now He hath gather'd the tears of the sky,
And spread them abroad, like smiles from on high."

I do not wonder that the contemplation of an object so glorious as the rainbow should inspire such lines, Georgiana. As the sign of God's covenant with sinful man, it ought always to remind him of the hand of mercy stretched forth to raise him from the abyss into which he had fallen. It is truly the most delightful object, and the most brilliant and beautiful meteor which adorns the covering of our terrestrial globe, as it splendidly irradiates the dissolving clouds, while the sun bursting through them makes the rain-drops to glisten.

"His pencil, in heavenly colours, made
Of intercepted sun-beams, mixed with shade
Of temper'd ether, and refracted light,

Paints the fair rainbow charming to the sight.”

Let me hear, Georgiana, the first account which has been given to us of the rainbow, and on what occasion it was pointed out as the sign of the covenant. My best way of doing so, papa, will be to repeat God's own words :

"And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold I, establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will