Richard said, "We have, I think, five pounds, and I vote when this affair is blown over, we try some other of these little back shops." When they had reached the court and got into the deep shade of the old arch, they began to see how much would fall to everybody's share. When Robert's was offered to him, he pushed it back, hardly daring to look at it, for fear the temptation should be too strong for him; then looking up at the boys, he said, "I can't take this money; I have been wicked enough already, without adding to my guilt by participating in stolen goods." As Robert uttered these words a deep crimson suffused his face, for he dreaded the scorn and derision he knew these opinions would be met with, and it was even as he expected, for all joined in calling him those very names which had been before so obnoxious to him; he summoned up all his remaining courage, and imploringly said, "I wish you would restore this money back to its rightful owner; I shall never be happy if you do not; and though we have escaped this time, depend upon it detection will come at last; I have never promised to keep this affair secret, and it may be I shall not unless you do as I wish you."

"O that is very fine," said Richard, "it was you yourself that opened the door to let us all in; so if you tell of us, you will implicate yourself."

"Well," replied Robert, "I can't help it then, and if we are all sent to prison, it will be better than that poor widow should starve ; I knew when I opened the door that it was wicked, and I know that it is very foolish of me to mind your calling me names, but I do not ever mean to mind it again; I have made up my mind to tell somebody unless you restore this money, and promise to give up this system of shop robbing.”

"O you may tell whomever you please," cried Richard; "we can manage to keep ourselves out of the way; so now you had better sneak home." Robert turned, and slowly began to walk away; as he went these reflections filled his mind. He thought, what good have I done myself in the eyes of my companions? they would have respected me really, had I made a stand from the beginning, and now John Pace must think me what these boys call me, "a coward," for I was afraid of a few names and a little laughter; and, above all, have I not left that banner under which I was enrolled at my baptism, to fight against "sin, the world, and the devil? I was then made the soldier and servant of One, Who when He was reviled reviled not again," and in Whose footsteps I ought to endeavour to tread. By this time he had reached his parents' dwelling; the door was locked, he thumped, but no answer came, again and again, till at last the casement above his head opened, and he saw his father's face; he was in a state of intoxication; words, such as I should blush to repeat, fell like a torrent from his lips, and Robert, in his fear, ran towards the

house of his friend John; the light was out, for the widow and her grandchild were asleep, watched over by the holy angels.

Robert hardly knew whether or no he should rouse up his friend; he at last decided that he would. He knocked at the door, and was soon answered by John, who opening it was not a little surprised at seeing him there. He briefly told him the circumstances, and was admitted without more ado. He shared his friend's bed, and so quietly had all been arranged, that Mrs. Pace knew nothing of it, and was not a little surprised when the following morning she encountered Robert. The first opportunity they had, Robert told his friend everything. John, as soon as he had heard all, tried to persuade Robert to go with him to Mr. Scott, "for he is the fittest and best person you can talk to about the matter, and he will advise you how to act."

But," said Robert, “after all the kind instruction he has given me, I shall be ashamed for him to know how basely I have acted; and," added John, "I hope you will not only be ashamed of his knowing, though I am glad to see you are so, but I hope you will also be ashamed of the actions themselves." Robert was

at last persuaded, and the boys set off for the clergyman's house. When they arrived there they were shown into the study, were sitting at a desk covered with loose papers and pamphlets, was Mr. Scott; he put down his pen, and, turning round, kindly asked them what they wanted. Poor Robert, it was a hard struggle for him to tell his tale. When he had finished his account, Mr. Scott told him to sit down, and then said, " you have not only shown a great want of 'moral courage,' but you have entirely forgotten whose soldier you were made at your baptism; the HOLY SPIRIT which was then given you, you felt struggle against your evil nature; it whispered to you that you were going to do wrong, but you neglected its warnings. If people thus slight the warnings of the HOLY SPIRIT, it will in time leave them. I will read you some verses on the subject, which I wish you would learn." Mr. Scott, as he spoke, took up "Hymns for little Children," and read as follows:

"There is a Holy Dove that sings
To every Christian child;

That whispers to his little heart,
A song as sweet and mild:

It is the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD

That speaks his soul within ;
That leads him on to all things good,
And holds him back from sin.

"And he must hear that still small voice,
Nor tempt it to depart;

The Spirit great and wonderful

That whispers to his heart;

He must be pure, and good, and true;
Must strive, and watch, and pray,
For unresisted sin at last,

Will drive that Dove away."

"And now," continued the clergyman, "let me endeavour, as your spiritual pastor, who has the care of your soul, to persuade you to pray to GOD to give you more of His HOLY SPIRIT, to enable you to make a stand against anything you know to be wrong; and I do not think," he continued, "it should be only with regard to things you know to be wrong; for if you know anything to be right, I am afraid you would be ashamed before people who did not agree with you to confess it; I know it is very hard to struggle against this feeling, for when all around you think differently, and when you would be laughed at, if your idea did not exactly tally with theirs, it requires, I allow, some degree of 'moral courage' to express your judgment. But remember this, an opinion cannot be much valued by the person who holds it, if he is ashamed of it; never mind what the world says, for you promised at your baptism to renounce the world,' and this false shame, for I can call it nothing else, may, perhaps, some day lead you to deny the holy JESUS; and you know what our blessed SAVIOUR has said on that point, Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My FATHER which is in heaven."" Some months passed away, and Robert, under the guidance of Mr. Scott, became a different boy. It was a hard struggle at first, but by earnest prayer to Almighty God, and constant watchfulness over himself, he did at last get the better of his want of moral courage. Mr. Scott, after in vain trying to discover the haunts of the boys, kindly made up Mrs. Grey's loss to her; but though the boys were not at the time discovered, yet not many months after, it appeared that Richard Gould had been taken up and transported along with a regular gang of housebreakers. John Pace and his mother went quietly on their way, finding comfort and delight in attending the daily prayers in that venerable Cathedral that John loved so well, and, when at last he was made a chorister, their joy indeed knew no bounds. I cannot quite leave Robert without saying that his sin was truly repented of, and many were the prayers put up to Almighty God before he would receive any consolation or believe anything but that that sin was indelibly fixed in a dark stain on his baptismal robe. At times his weakness would come over him, and great and severe was the struggle that

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ensued between his natural evil disposition and that better_nature which was implanted in him at the font. Mr. Scott had taken him to live with him, a measure which delighted the parents, but I fear that it was not because they thought their child would be able better to learn his duty there towards GoD and his neighbour, but because they thought they should have more money to spend on that which they loved so well, but which was destroying both soul and body. When Robert got old enough to go to service, Mr. Scott procured a place for him. It was the evening before Robert departed to his new home that he went with Mr. Scott to service at the Cathedral; when the prayers were finished, Mr. Scott, instead of turning to come away, lingered till everybody else had departed. He then turned to Robert, and said, "I am now as one of God's ministers and in GOD's house, going to speak a few words to you. You are going to leave my roof, where your temptations have not been as many, or as great as they will be in your new home; where, perhaps, your fellow servants may be irreligious; they may endeavour to lead you into wrong, or they may laugh at your efforts to do right; but, as I have told you before, when a person has once made up his mind that a thing is right, when he sees his line of duty marked out before him, he should let no scorn, no allurements, threats, or promises lead him from that way. It is every baptized person's duty to do this; he is CHRIST'S soldier, when he was enrolled under His banner, the engagement was that he was to fight 'manfully.' A soldier has to bear the horrors and fatigues of war, and he does all that for mere earthly gain, how much more ought we so to do? firstly, as our duty; and secondly, to gain, (though our best actions cannot deserve it,) our Heavenly FATHER's love. Can we not overcome everything for this? Does not every earthly consideration, every earthly threat, sink and vanish before this thrilling thought, our FATHER's love? We are told by our SAVIOUR, Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My GOD.' This world will last but for a short time, and surely we ought to make every exertion to fit ourselves for that better land. Try, I beseech you, to overcome every temptation; take up your cross manfully, and remember who said, 'He that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me.' I will add yet another text or two, for where can we go for advice so fitly as to the Word of God? He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before My FATHER and before His angels; and again, 'To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My FATHER in His throne."" Many were the resolutions that Robert made, and it is but fair to say that he turned all the advice Mr. Scott had ever given him to good account. As they withdrew, the moon, the

pure, gentle, holy moon, shone through the deep stained western window, casting a “dim religious light all around." Never before had the Cathedral looked so lovely in Robert's eyes, and he now discovered beauties which he had not seen before.

"And in truth it is a solemn sight,

To see such a place in the noon of night,
With its empty pews and its closed books;
And its stonen men, with awful looks,
Carven in niches, or lying in nooks;
And its pulpit, with never a parson there;

And its clerk's desk, with no one to mutter a prayer;
And its organ hushed, no girls and boys

To lustily sing with heart and voice;
And all looking ghostly, quaint and odd,
In the hushed and desolate house of God."

E. A. B.

ANNABEL C.

"One whose life has been a light to those around her, and, we may surely hope, a blessing to herself."-Home Stories.

OUR readers may remember, in the Churchman's Companion for September and October, 1848, two papers of simple, yet true and natural beauty, intituled "Home Stories." They conveyed the observation of a singularly pure and beautiful mind, on the incidents of humble life which came before it in the quiet of village retirement. In the extract which we have taken for our motto, that mind has unconsciously, but most accurately, drawn its own portrait. For, alas! we must now say "her life has been a light to those around her." In two short years from the time when her musings charmed and elevated our readers with their solemn sweetness, they are become reverberations from a higher world.

Although the writer of "Home Stories" used no signature on that and some other occasions, she did not invariably adopt that practice; and her designation, when she employed one, was "Annabel C" her first Christian name, and the initial of her second. By this description, we doubt not, she is known to many of our subscribers. It may be here sufficient to refer to two contributions from her pen to the volume of "Original Ballads," which lately came forth from the press of our publisher," Wulfstan," and "Little Agnes," and also to "Danish Margaret," the "charming ballad," as it is termed in the Rev. W. B. Flower's preface to his "Reading Lessons," in which it appears.

Our motive, however, for this notice, is not the literary merit of