had intrenched himself was weakened, terror gave him energy, and braced him to the purpose of holding out sternly in his opposition, while life lasted.

He was walking in his room, for the first time since his sickness, leaning upon the arm of his now more than ever precious daughter, when the strange fear that he was becoming a Christian smote his heart. He saw the New Testament of the blood of Jesus lying open before him, and it awoke no antipathy; but when Tirzah, who had hoped every thing from his passiveness, laid her hand upon its leaves, and said, with a persuasive and imploring voice, as she looked up at him

"Oh, father! will you not take this Jesus, whom our nation crucified, to be your Messiah, and your Prince?" the combined passion of fear, remorse, and habitual hatred all broke forth. Like those Jewish murderers of old who half believed the Saviour, but who detested his self-denying precepts, he joined in the cry, "Away with him, away with him!" In his rage he loosed himself from his daughter's arm, caught up the sacred volume, and tore its precious words of consolation

with the fury of a maniac.

But enfeebled nature

could not endure such powerful emotions. The book fell from his hand, and he sunk senseless on the floor-as if the vengeance of God had immediately followed the awful profanation.

What a scene for the Christian daughter! The whole fabric of her newly awakened hopes was crushed at once. She was terrified at her father's rashness; she shuddered at the sacrilegious violence; but the prevailing thought, above all others, was, that life had fled; and that, in consequence, perhaps, of her too hasty zeal.

A physician was speedily called in. He found Tirzah on the floor. She had raised the head of her father upon her lap, and her pallid face was bowed over it with an expression of despair and agony. No tear softened the wildness of her eye; no outward act gave token of the horror and dismay that had seized upon her spirit.

“ Look here !” said she with frightful calmness, pointing to the inanimate features that lay before her, "look here! I have killed him; this is my work! He was my only parent, but unnatural as

it is, I killed him! Oh Saviour! is it through trials such as these I am to take my path to Heaven ?"

Better thoughts soon came to her; thoughts of the love which had purchased her redemption-of the love which afflicts to save. She again bent her face over her father's, and the tears flowed fast and free upon his death-like visage.

The paroxysm was presently relieved; and with a deep sob, the sufferer, as if in a dream, brokenly murmured

"Oh, God of Abraham! I cannot, cannot be a Christian! too long has my voice been raised against―"

He ceased, and opened his eyes like one awaking; but the words, few, and feeble, and disordered as they were, had breathed new life into the soul of Tirzah.

"Merciful Jesus, is it so!" was her mental ejaculation: "then my prayer is heard, and the holy words which have been read to him have fallen in blessings upon his heart. Then this emotion, which I feared was rage towards my Saviour,

is nature, is prejudice struggling against the strong convictions of truth. "Blessed, blessed Lord! be thine the praise; perfect thou the work of thine own hands."

Her father was soon laid upon the bed, and Tirzah was left alone with him. His thoughts were evidently troubled. She took his hand, and laid it upon her cheek with the utmost tenderness. She felt there was a new tie between them, and longed to have it openly acknowledged. She tried to speak, but for a long time her tongue refused its office. At length she said hurriedly

"Oh! if you would believe as I do, my dear, dear father!"

The old man groaned, and shook his head. "Tirzah, it cannot be! would Jesus of Nazareth pardon one who had so long and so virulently opposed him; one who possessed the exterminating spirit of his destroyers?"

"And can you have heard me read of his unspeakable compassion, and doubt it? Did he not, even in the agonies of death, pray for forgiveness on his murderers? Did he not weep over the

Was not

rebellion and blindness of Jerusalem? Saul of Tarsus, the most bitter and violent of his persecutors, afterwards a chosen and honoured instrument to disseminate his gospel? Oh! doubt not, my father, the love and mercy of the Saviour, even to the chief of sinners!-for he himself says, 'I will forgive their iniquities, and remember their sins no more.

999

She ceased to speak, but her eloquent eyes were still imploringly fixed upon her father. He returned their gaze with a faint smile, and a brightening countenance. She now prosecuted her pious work with hope and gladness; and was daily cheered by the delightful conviction, that her efforts were not in vain.

We have all felt the force of affection in subduing prejudice. Silently, secretly, but powerfully, do the opinions of those we love, and with whom we constantly associate, operate in us, and transform our thoughts, our feelings, our tastes, and almost our very looks, into their likeness; while we may be perfectly unconscious of the principle which effects the change. It would be wrong,