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Then, what sending for the wise men who professed to explain the title-deed!

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And oh, what remorse that they had neglected to examine it, till their senses were too confused for so weighty a business! What reproaches, or what exhortations to others, to look better after their own affairs! Even to the wisest of the inhabitants, the falling of their tenements was a solemu thing; solemn, but not surprising; they had long been packing up and preparing; they praised their lord's goodness that they had been suffered to stay so long; many acknowledged the mercy of their frequent warnings, and confessed that those very dilapidations, which had made the

house uncomfortable had been a blessing, as it had stimulated them to diligent preparation for their future inheritance; had made them more earnest in examining their title to it, and had set them on such a frequent application to the telescope, that 'the things above' had seemed every day nearer and nearer. These desired not to be "unclothed, but to be clothed upon, for they knew that if their frail tabernacle was dissolved, they had an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

END OF THE PILGRIMS,

PARLEY

THE PORTER;

AN

Allegory.

Parley the Porter.

THERE was once a certain gentleman who had a house or castle, situated in the midst of a great wilderness, but enclosed in a garden. Now, there was a band of robbers in the wilderness, who had a great mind to plunder and destroy the castle, but they had not succeeded in their endeavours, because the master had given strict orders to watch without ceasing." To quicken their vigilance, he used to tell them, that their care would soon be at an end; that though the nights they had to watch were dark and stormy, yet they were but few; the period of resistance was short, that of rest, eternal.

The robbers, however, attacked the castle in various ways. They tried at every avenue; watched to take advantage of every careless moment; looked for an open door, or a neglected window. But though they often made the bolts shake, and the windows rattle, they could never greatly hurt the house, much less get into it. Do you know the reason? It was because the servants were never off their guard. They heard

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