When Gehazi stood self-condemned before his master, unable to palliate his sin, he stood speechless. So may we expect to stand speechless before our heavenly Master, if self-convicted of dissimulation and falsehood. "The lip of truth shall be established for ever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment,"

APPEARANCE OF JESUS

TO

HIS DISCIPLES AFTER HIS RESURRECTION.

"And it came to pass, that while they communed together, and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them."

LUKE Xxiv. 15.

ANNE.

HARRIETTE, I don't think you have written any thing in your Sunday Album lately.

HARRIETTE.

Oh yes, indeed! The last extract I wrote in it was very long. It was Cowper's description of our Saviour joining two of his disciples on their way to Emmaus, after his resurrection. Here it is, but I do not know whether you will be able to read my writing-I have made two or three mistakes.

ANNE.

I can read it very well.

"It happened on a solemn even-tide, Soon after He that was our Surety, died,

Two bosom friends, each pensively inclined,
The scene of all those sorrows left behind,
Sought their own village, busied as they went
In musings worthy of the great event:

They spake of him they loved, of him whose life,
Tho' blameless, had incurred perpetual strife,
Whose deeds had left, in spite of hostile arts,
A deep memorial graven on their hearts.
The recollection, like a vein of ore,

The farther traced, enriched them still the more ;
They thought him, and they justly thought him, one
Sent to do more than he appeared t'have done;
To exalt a people, and to place them high
Above all else, and wondered he should die.
Ere yet they brought their journey to an end,
A stranger joined them, courteous as a friend,
And asked them, with a kind engaging air,
What their affliction was and begged a share.
Informed, he gathered up the broken thread
And, truth and wisdom gracing all he said,
Explained, illustrated, and searched so well,
The tender theme on which they chose to dwell,
That reaching home, 'the night,' they said, 'is near,
We must not now be parted-sojourn here.'
The new acquaintance soon became a guest,
And, made so welcome at their simple feast,
He blessed the bread, but vanished at the word,
And left them both exclaiming "'Twas the Lord!

Did not our hearts feel all he deigned to say?
Did they not burn within us by the way?'”

HARRIETTE.

How surprised and how glad the disciples must have been, when they found they had been talking with Jesus, whom they supposed dead! Yet how difficult it was to convince some of them he had risen...

LYDIA.

It appears somewhat extraordinary that it should have been so. The chief priests and elders seem not to have had any doubts in their minds on the subject of Christ's resurrection; for if they had, they would certainly have ordered enquiries to be made, that the imposture might be brought to light. Instead of which, they tried to bush it up, and bribed the soldiers to pretend that the disciples had stolen away the body during the night; yet when the disciples themselves heard that Jesus had appeared to some women of their acquaintance, they treated the tale as an idle report, and did not believe it.

ANNE.

His first appearance being made when they

did not expect him, they could not therefore have imposed upon themselves by their hopes; and Jesus continued, after his resurrection, to appear to his disciples at intervals, for the space of forty days, so that there was sufficient time for them to recollect themselves and to satisfy any doubts they might have with respect to the fact. The consequence was, such a firm persuasion in them all of the actual resurrection of their Master, and of the truth of his promises concerning his second coming to raise the dead and judge the world, that it carried them through difficulties and sufferings almost as great as he himself had experienced, and enabled them to give such an establishment to the Christian religion, that nothing in the power of its most violent enemies could overturn it.

LYDIA.

It is very right that we should know the arguments which prove the truth of the Christian religion, either to answer the objections of others who may converse with us on the subject, or to satisfy our own doubts, if we have any. But I do not think it can be of much use to be merely satisfied that Christ actually