ginal feeling in her own affection for her. She saw the bright colour, the beautiful signal of youth and health, fading day by day from her cheeks, till her face became almost as white as the snowy cap border that fringed it. She saw her take her accustomed place at the formal meal, but she noticed that her food was often untasted, and never relished. She observed her slow step and abstracted look, as she passed over the broad flagstones to the offices to perform her daily tasks, and that though she went through them with fidelity, her trembling hands and frequent sighs evinced that her heart and strength were gone. She uniformly appeared with the sisters that thronged to the evening worship, and went forth with them to 6 labour in the dance,' but her movements were heavy and mechanical; and it was too plain, even to the lenient judgment of Susan, that the spirit was not there.

The kind-hearted old women, who thought she was falling into a weakly way, consulted with Susan as to the nature of her complaints. Susan humoured their conjectures, and allowed them to believe they had detected some latent malady. They prepared their simples, and Susan permitted Emily to swallow them, because she knew them to be innocent, and that they possessed that best recommendation of any drug, viz. that if it does no good it can do no harm.'

Some were of opinion that she had an incipient consumption, some that it was only a drying of

the lungs,' some pronounced it an inward rheu matism,' while others sagaciously intimated that it might be a palsy of the heart.' In short, the wise sisters discovered many diseases that have not yet a place in the nomenclature of the learned faculty; and poor Emily, without a word of remonstrance or complaint, listened to their skilful suggestions and tried all their remedies till their materia medica was exhausted without effect. She took bitters fasting and feasting-she swallowed syrups nine days' and 'three days' and 'every other day'-she took conserves, and health waters,' and life waters' and every other water that ' with a blessing always cures'-but still she had the same deadly paleness—the same sunken eye-the same trembling at the heart-and all the symptoms of a mysterious disease which the most sagacious deemed nothing short of a ' healing gift' could cure.

The elder brethren, ever strict in their watch over the young converts, now became alarmed in their turn. They held frequent and long consultations, at which Reuben Harrington had a gift to preside. Whether these veterans derived their light from the experience of similar conflicts cannot be ascertained; but certain is it that they soon came to the decision that Emily's disease was a moral one; and to Reuben was assigned the task of stilling her natural yearnings after the world, and of bringing back her wandering affections to

the fold-to the wolf was committed the guardianship of the lamb.

Reuben was aware that nothing could be effected without the consent and concurrence of Susan; and to obtain that to the mode of operation which he had proposed to himself, he knew was no easy matter, now that her natural sagacity was stimulated by strong affection and deep anxiety.

After the brethren had closed their deliberations, Reuben proposed calling the elder sister to the conference, to advise with her as to the best means of pursuing their righteous end. Susan came at his bidding; but she was cautious and reserved in her communications, till one of the brethren roused her by saying, (after a long low groan,)" It is evident the girl is given over to the sifting of Satan," -Susan raised her eyes, and fixed them on the speaker" and," he continued, "according to my light, she should stand before the congregation of the people on the coming Lord's day, and, in the presence of the chosen vessels, receive an open rebuke for sin."

،، What sin, Obadiah ?" inquired Susan with a trembling voice.

"Sin of the heart-doth not all sin proceed from the heart, woman ?”

"Verily it doth, Obadiah-but who hath seen the sin proceeding from the heart of this afflicted child?-and who hath given you authority. to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart?

would you treat the young lambs like the fat calves of the stall ?”—

"Nay, sister, this is unprofitable," interposed Reuben. "It is too true that the fine gold has become dim, and we must seek for a gift to restore its brightness. Let us each labour for it in the evening worship, and he or she to whom it may be given shall forthwith undertake the cure of this precious soul."

Susan did not venture to withhold her assent to this proposition, regarded as it evidently was by the brethren as a direct inspiration, but her spirit still hovered over the child of her affection as a bird fluttereth over her nest. "My light has been,' she said, " to leave Emily to the work of time and grace-but it may be that seeking, brethren, ye may find a quicker cure-it is a duty to remember that in months past the testimony of the child's life against all sin has been very clear. The enemy has taken advantage of her late visit to her kindred, and has carried her back to the path of natural affection, out of which she had travelled far-and seeing nature reviving, and grace sleeping, he hath taken that moment to bind her again with carnal bonds."

"You have ever been gifted, sister," replied Reuben, "with that hidden wisdom that quickly discerneth. It may be you see the true evil; but even now I can comfort you with a prophecy that the young woman will awake as from sleep, and break these carnal bonds like thread-her conflict

is sore, but great will be her victory-for I predict of her as Christian Love, the holy martyr of Cromwell's time, predicted of our mother Anne, that this our young sister shall yet shine out, 'a bright star, whose light and power shall make the heavens to quake and knock under.'"

"Amen!" exclaimed Susan, devoutly clasping her hands; and" amen!" responded all the veteran counsellors in one voice, animated by that vaunted "spontaneous spirit of union which flows through the whole body”—when governed by a master spirit.

Susan, on issuing from the brethren's apartment, passed through a narrow passage to the common entry from whence all the passages diverge, and in the centre of which is placed a large clock, the work of one of the ingenious brethren. Emily stood at the foot of the staircase, her face so much averted from Susan, that she did not notice her approach,―her footsteps she could not hear, for it is the law of the society which carries its war with the flesh into the most minute particulars, that every one shall tread softly, and shall shut the doors with the least possible sound—to these laws such due observance is paid, that a stranger ignorant of their habits, would imagine their houses were untenanted. Emily had paused at the staircase from extreme weakness; the loud ticking of the clock had arrested her attention ; this sound, always the same, seems like the natural voice of this monotonous solitude. "Oh,"