:

that could awe the most reckless into submission to her calm and mild rebuke: and her sympathizing pastors came to her less to impart than to receive consolation, encouragement, and spiritual profit: while she, in the spirit of a little child, desired but to sit at their feet and learn. Now, I would sooner take the feelings of such a person for a rule whereby to judge, than the laboured conclusions of profound thinkers, on a point which, after all, they could but think upon and I am sure that Mrs. C. regarded pain as a positive evil, the bitter and humiliating fruit of sin, judicially inflicted, to rebuke and chasten; and by no means to be glorified in, as an especial privilege, even by God's children. I have seen the tears stand in her eyes, while her look expressed somewhat of Job's mournful reproof, to the injudicious friends, who undertook to prove that her bodily torments were so many calls for exultation and delight: but, when left to draw her own deductions from the Lord's dealings with her, as explained by his word, and applied by the Spirit, she would sweetly acknowledge, as in the instance of that sleepless night, how much of mercy her severest trials were made the means of conveying to her soul. Had recovery been possible, I make no doubt that she would gladly have used every means to throw off her dreadful malady; and most touching was the fervency of her thankfulness to the Father of mercies, when a few

hours of sleep had been permitted to refresh her wearied body. Yet she desired to depart, and to be with Christ, knowing it to be far better than a lengthened sojourn upon earth; and since the Lord had appointed that lingering and agonizing disease, as her path to the grave, she was content. To say that, if left to her own choice she would not have preferred a less torturing disease, would be more than I should feel justified in asserting: but I am sure that she believed that to be best for her which the Lord had chosen; and that she never desired it to be otherwise than as He willed it.

The Jessamine, at all times and in all places, is lovely: but that on the antique wall, breathing fragrance on my evening promenade, was certainly the richest and the sweetest that I ever met with. No flower can be more simply elegant in form, more untainted in the purity of its perfect whiteness, or more refreshingly odoriferous in its delicate scent. There is, besides, something in its utter inability to sustain itself, that farther illustrates the Christian character. The Jessamine will aspire and grow to a considerable height, butit must be upheld throughout, or it sinks downward, and defiles in the dust of the earth those beauties which were formed to expand towards heaven. Let but a single shoot break loose from its support, and you see it straggling far away, with an earthward tendency, the sport of every wind. T

not the type obvious? I once remarked a straying branch of the Jessamine, crossed in its way by the shoot of a neighbouring ivy, and firmly fixed to the wall by the steady progress of its more adhesive companion. Here, the strong bore the infirmities of the weak, by love serving another, and becoming a fellow-helper in the faith to a less stable believer. It was beautiful to see how, from this point, the Jessamine shot upwards, bearing to a great height the fragrant blossoms that would otherwise have been trampled under foot: and the inference was cheering too. I have often thought that I must write a chapter on the ivy, which is really the most patronizing of plants; though like the patrons of this world, it sometimes destroys its protege. But to return to the Jessamine. It is long since I gazed upon the old wall of dear Mrs. C.'s humble garden, and many an experimental lesson have I since been made to learn, of the necessity both for prop and pruning-knife, among the Lord's weak straggling plants. But there is something so sweet in the recollection of my lonely walks, where indeed there was scarcely room for two to pace the garden, that I rank the Jessamine, with its pointed leaves and starry flowers, among the most precious

of my store and if ever I possess a cottage of my own, it shall clothe the walls, and peep into the casements, with its well-remembered story of patience, piety, and peace:

CHAPTER XX.

THE PASSION-FLOWER.

I HAVE already mentioned that I was nearly deterred from taking up two or three subjects, by finding that Hervey had left me nothing to say respecting the particular flowers connected with them I shall, however, venture to pursue the original plan, at least with regard to one of these, especial ly as I have very little to say of the type; and a great deal of that to which I have attached it, as a

memento.

:

I never could look upon the Passion-flower so enthusiastically as some do, nor find much gratification in following up the imaginary resemblance to that whence its name is derived and, strange as it may appear, although peculiarly fond of graphic representations, I have rather an aversion, as well to those which assume to pourtray the awful scene of Calvary, as to the incongruous host of Madonnas and holy families; which, from their utter dissimilarity one to another, irresistibly impress my mind with the idea of gross fiction, and

rather cloud than assist the mental perception of what is so simply and sweetly set forth in the written word. Perhaps a consciousness of the idolatrous purpose to which such pictures have been perverted, may have contributed to produce this effect.

The Passion-flower was not placed on my list of favourites, until I met with it—can any reader guess where?-growing against the walls of a Roman Catholic chapel. It then became endeared to me indeed; and holds, to this day, a high place among the most touching of my lovely remembrancers. I was dwelling in Ireland, not far from a flourishing nunnery, which it was the fashion for. strangers to visit: but I had never felt any inclination so to do, until a friend mentioned to me that, among the children of the convent school, there was a deaf mute, whom they could by no means teach. My interest was excited: and, as I knew something of the mode of instructing such, I readily accompanied my friend to the convent, to proffer my help. As we passed along, she laughingly remarked, 'I did not think any thing would Lave tempted you to visit such a place.' I replied, Where God is pleased to point out a path of duty, ⚫ care not in what direction it may lie. As a matter of idle curiosity, you would not have prevailed on me to go there.'

It was with some trepidation that I entered, for