mitting assiduity devoted himself to the study of Scripture. This remark related to the conduct of Aaron and Miriam, when they reproved Moses on account of the Ethiopian woman, and thereby incurred the displeasure of the Almighty. Whatever might have been their motives for this sudden attack upon Moses, whose marriage had taken place so many years before, we cannot presume to say, though they were, evidently, unwarrantable, from the anger that the Almighty himself displayed on the occasion; but the punishment inflicted on Aaron and Miriam, and the consequence of this punishment, together with the remark made upon this consequence, was that which so forcibly struck me in the work to which I allude. 'Behold, the sin of these two professors delayed the progress of all the host of Israel for seven days. Armed hosts and intervening seas could not retard them; but sin, that evil and accursed thing, did what all the powers of earth and hell could not have done. O professor! think how many may be retarded in their progress towards heaven by one sin of thine, yea, perhaps may be turned out of the way and ruined for ever! Remember what our Lord has said--Wo unto the world because of offences! but wo, most of all, unto him by whom the offence cometh!'"

Edmund was still proceeding with his remarks, (for Mr. Parnel yet remained silent,) when they found that a carriage had stopped at the door; and, a moment afterwards, a Mr. Harrison, an elderly gentleman of considerable consequence in the neigbourhood, and who was supposed to be favourable to religion, was announced.

Mr. Harrison, on entering, very cordially accosted the two young ministers; and, on his being seated, the conversation took a general turn, till the old gentleman asked Mr. Parnel why he did not find him in his parsonagehouse?

This question, as Edmund feared, led to a recital of grievances; for Mr. Parnel being thereby led to speak of himself, could not stop when he had informed his visiter that his parsonage house needed some repairs, but proceeded to other matters, till, to the amazement of Edmund, he began fully to describe his situation, and the difficulties attending it, in precisely the same manner to

Mr. Harrison, as he had shortly done before to himself, expressing his apprehensions, that all the world would be upon him as soon as he should commence to deal sincerely with his people.

"You are mistaken, Sir," said Mr. Harrison; "the truth is not a new thing in this place:" adding, as he turned to Edmund, "our young friend here has not thus kept us in the dark; and I have every reason to think, that you will have more to fear from the indiscreet flatteries of your people, should you prove faithful to them, than from any other cause. But Mr. Stephens will tell you more of these matters than I can possibly do, for he has had three years' experience, during which neither doctrine nor reproof have been spared."

"Sir," returned Edmund, "I am perhaps the last man to be addressed on this subject: the days of faggots and stakes are gone by, and I hear very little of what is said of me."

"But your church, Sir," replied Mr. Harrison, "your church overflows!"

"It does, Sir," replied Edmund, seeming unable any longer to contain himself; "and since I must speak, I think it but just to my parishioners to say, that I have met with nothing but kindness and affection from them since my residence in the parish."

"And I might add," rejoined Mr. Harrison, in a low voice, addressing Mr. Parnel, "it would be strange if he had not: for never, surely, was a man more worthy of esteem."

It is not known whether Mr. Parnel heard the whole of this whisper; for before it was half finished, he turned to Edmund, and said, "Surely, Stephens, you do not mean to assert that the tongue of censure has in your Parish never been moved against you?"

"I make no such assertion," replied Edmund: "I only Know that little, either of praise or blame, has hitherto reached my ears. I know that it is not by the sentence f an earthly tribunal that I must stand or fall; and I ndeavour to perplex myself as little as possible with zhat the world may say, though I consider myself bound to receive any reproof given in an open manner ther by friend or enemy.”

e

"Certainly," returned Mr. Parnel, affecting to laugh, "you have found out a good method of preserving your self-complacency, my good fellow; a capital way this is, indeed, of retaining one's own good opinion-refusing to hear all that is said against one! Then, you do not know that you sadly lost your popularity among the clergy of the diocese on one particular occasion which I could name? Mr. Harrison knows what I mean: I heard of it when abroad; and it was almost the first thing which reached my ears when I arrived at this place."

Edmund looked at his watch. "At what hour do you dine, Parnel?" he asked. "You will excuse me: I have an engagement which will detain me about an hourI will be with you again before your dinner." So saying, he bowed to Mr. Harrison, and left the room, his fine features being all in a glow as he took his departure; though when he returned at the end of the hour, and found his friend alone, this glow had subsided, leaving only such a bloom as might be attributed to health and exercise, while the usual serene and holy dignity of his countenance was conspicuous.

We do not presume to say what had been passing in the mind of Francis during this interval, but his reflections were surely of a salutary nature; for his friend no sooner appeared, than he held out his hand to him, and said, with much affection, "Edmund, I have offended you. You left me in displeasure: what did I say ? what did I do ?"

"O, Francis! dear Francis!" returned Edmund, "my friend and brother! we have spent many happy days together, many precious hours, in that blessed period of early youth which passed away under the gentle influence of my much lamented aunt. There was a time when we had not a secret hidden from each other; and I looked forward to your return as a circumstance which would add many sweets to my journey through life; but unless you will here, my brother, promise never to trouble me with any of those idle rumours respecting myself, my neighbours, and my people, to which you just now alluded, I must from this moment forego all those pleasures which I promised myself in your society. I had, indeed, hoped that at the death of either of us, the

diately on his return he hastened to seek the companion of his youth, and having inquired for him at his parsonage, was informed by some workmen, who were engaged in the house, that he was to be found at a lodging-house in the neighbouring square, where he was to remain till all was ready at the parsonage for his reception.

As the parsonage had lately been occupied by a very large family, Edmund could not clearly understand how it was that Mr. Parnel was unable to find in it a corner fit to put his head in. As this, however, was no business of his, he presently lost the singular impression which this seeming nicety of his old companion had at first made upon his mind; and having found out the lodginghouse where Mr. Parnel then was, and obtained admittance, he rushed up the stairs, and a moment afterwards had seized the hand of his friend, and was shaking it with an ardour which proved that his kind feelings towards him had met with no abatement from absence.

Edmund was not one of those persons who are keenly alive to every slight, and who possess, in consequence, the quickest perception of every shade and degree of cordiality or want of cordiality in the salutation of a friend; yet he could not but perceive, on this occasion, that there was a certain something in Mr. Parnel's reception of him which threw a damp over his heart. He, however, endeavoured to recover from this sudden chill, and forced himself to suppose that it was only the effect of fancy. He accordingly took the seat that was offered him, and began to express the delight he felt in being restored to one from whose society he had formerly enjoyed so much delight. He spoke of his aunt, and of many sweet hours spent in her society; and remarked, that he had never, since her death, met with a person so entirely above the world as she was, and, in consequence, so truly charming: to all which Mr. Parnel replied, with a degree of restraint which but too strongly confirmed his friend in his first apprehension, namely, that his old companion had lost much of the strength and ardour of his early feelings.

Mr. Parnel was a man who from the inelegance of his figure, and the contour of his features, from a certain something in his mode of elocution, and a want of natu

ral grace in his movements, was never intended to shine as a public character; while Edmund Stephens was, on the contrary, one who, from the actual symmetry of his person, from the extraordinary spirituality of his mind, the sweetness of his temper, the warmth and vivacity of his feelings, and peculiar graciousness and humility of his manner, might, had he been so inclined, have easily acquired all that celebrity, as a popular speaker or preacher, to which a person less gifted as to outward advantages must have aspired in vain.

It was, however, one of the greatest misfortunes to Mr. Parnel, that he wished to be admired by the world; and it is probable that he had always been sensible of the natural advantages which Edmund had over him, and that this thorn had long rankled in his heart, though it seems he felt not the irritation of the fester, till on occasion of the meeting of which we are now speaking, when he found himself, though a traveller, and, as the world would say, a fortunate man, suddenly and entirely eclipsed by a poor curate, whose least perfections, he was well aware, were those which were most visible to the world.

It was a remark of one of the finest Christian characters which has appeared in the present age, that the minister or teacher who would be blessed in his instructions, must first labour in the right direction of his own mind; and although the Articles of our Church form this decision, that in case of ungodly characters having authority in the ministration of the world, yet, forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name, but in Christ's, and do minister by his commission and authority, it is lawful to use their ministry, (26th Article,) nevertheless, it is very certain, that, humanly speaking, there is nothing which retards the progress of the Gosple so much as the remaining eruptions of sin among the rulers of the Church, and among all such persons as are employed in the work of instruction. Hence the importance of a proper regulation of the passions among professors, and especially of those deeply destructive and even murderous feelings which consist in the desire of exalting self, and seeking the favour of man rather than that of God.