ing to forget in the Lethe of pleasure that he was one day to give a strict account of misspent as well as neglected talents; and that while his days were past in the midst of sinful luxuries, his wife, whom he had sworn to love and cherish, his children, whom the feelings of nature as well as the commands of God required him to protect,-were pining in want and misery.

It was in this season of distress and anguish, when despair had almost "laid his iron hand upon her," that Mrs. Ellars remembered that her Maker was her husband, and gave her fatherless children to him. In training their minds upward to heaven, she learned to forget her sorrows, and sincerely to forgive and pray for their author: thus had five years gently stolen away when she heard that her husband had quitted England to seek in another land that wealth which he had unjustly gained and idly squandered in his own. She never heard of him more:-whether the vessel had gained the land was never known; it was certain it had not reached its intended port,

nor did any of the crew ever appear to inform the world of the fate of their companions.

As little reason as Mrs. Ellars had to love her husband, this was a heavy stroke to her; for she could not forget that the word of God has declared, that he who soweth to flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption," and that "the unprofitable servant shall be cast into outer darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth."

This was an affliction which admitted of no consolation but forgetfulness, and Mrs. Ellars strove to drive the recollection from her mind by redoubled attention to her children: in this employment she found content, if not happiness, and looked forward with pleasure to the time when

Their fame, their worth, their filial love, at last
Should soothe her aching heart for all the past:
With many a smile her solitude repay,

And chase the world's ungenerous scorn away.

It was a pleasure she was never to know: one by one her treasures were taken from her;

but she saw them depart in faith, and meekly blessed the rod, and him that had appointed

it.

When she was thus stripped of all her earthly comforts, did she sink into despairing inactivity or listless complaining? No: though her own lambs were separated from the fold, she remembered that there were many still straying wide from the good shepherd; and to the task of reclaiming and instructing these, she devoted her time and her talents. Nor did she spend her strength for nought she was the humble and thankful instrument in the hand of the Lord for bringing many of his children to glory. O that every son and daughter of Zion who, like her, is left as a "cottage in a vineyard,” instead of flying to the world for that consolation it cannot give, would turn unto the Lord with all their heart; call upon the ignorant in Judah to behold their God; comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, give their bread to the hungry, and cover the naked with a garment. Then would they find, that though the "waves of affliction toss

themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over them; that amidst all the sorrows and distractions of life" the work of righteousness shall" still

"be peace, and the effect of righteousness,

quietness and assurance for ever."

Time passed away, and carried down its ceaseless flood the few remaining friends who were left of her early companions. Her widowed sister, Mrs. Seyton, died, recommending her two children, a son and daughter, to Mrs. Ellars; and when her brother (disgusted with his home after the death of his wife) quitted England for the East Indies, from whence he never returned, he left his daugh ter to the maternal care of her aunt.

With humble thankfulness Mrs. Ellars received the sacred deposits; they were the last link of the chain which bound her to this world, but could not separate her heart from a better. As she watched their youthful talents, gazed on their infantine faces, looking up to her with all the simple yet animated expression of childish regard, she felt as if she was still a mother; but with that feeling

there came a strong conviction that if, as she believed, it was her duty to supply to them the place of the parents they had lost, that duty could only be fulfilled by leading them to the knowledge and love of their Heavenly Father; and she secretly vowed while life was spared to devote it to their everlasting benefit, in the assurance that the assistance of a higher Power would not be withheld from her humble endeavours; but that she should be able at the last day, with holy confidence, to exclaim, Behold me and the children whom thou hast given me."

With Ellen Seyton her task was comparatively easy to a mind gentle and retired like her aunt's, she added a taste for study, which, in her earlier years, Mrs. Ellars had not possessed. This taste was without difficulty turned into the best channel-into that channel to which, if God had not declared the contrary, one might almost have said, it was naturally inclined; but God seeth not as man seeth; and though the taste of one man may lead him into a way in which he is most likely to meet his Saviour; while that of