the most rapturous feelings of joy; and to which she made the following reply.

"MY DEAR MARIA,

"It is not in my power to describe the effect which yours, of the 17th, produced on my heart. If I had been wandering in some lonely wood, solitary and alone, lost and bewildered, and you had sprung up before me, I could not have been more astonished or delighted. We have both been pursuing the same enquiry; and though the means which we have adopted are somewhat dissimilar, yet the result is precisely the same. The conver

sation of your esteemed friend, and the eloquent discourse which you heard at church, appear to have produced that moral effect on your mind, which the reading of Miss More's "Practical Piety" has produced on mine. And is it true that we, who were only a few months since the giddy votaries of fashion-devoting our time to the frivolous amusements of the world, and living without any vivid impressions of the awful realities of eternity, are now penetrated, subdued, and captivated, by the unveiled beauties of the Redeemer, who is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person? What a change! What consternation will it produce when the rumour of it is confirmed by our own testimony! What ridicule! what contempt! what pity will it excite! What gratitude ought it to awaken in our breasts to him who has made us to differ from our former selves, and from the gay throng around us! What a new scene has opened upon us! How fascinating its charms! How pure its joys!

The fair tree of life, full of verdure and bloom,
Casts over our path its far-spreading shoots;

And even the hand of a child may presume
To gather its blossoms, and take of its fruits.

'As the child of his bounty I come to be fed;
My soul has been famished and weary before;
But now to green pastures my footsteps are led,
I shall faint and be hungry, and thirsty no more.'

"But, my dear friend, the perspective of my vision is tinged with some deep hues of sorrow. I see the rising tempest. I shall have to encounter difficulties which you will not have to endure; but He, who has divided the waters for the deliverance of his people, will, I trust, give me strength equal to my day. You have a friend to whom you can tell each rising sigh, and whose experience qualifies her to act as a guide in the season of perplexity and doubt; but I am alone. I have no one in the whole circle of my acquaintance with whom I can enjoy communion of spirit; and such is the dread I feel, from the abhorrence of my parents to evangelical religion, that I already suffer a martyrdom of anguish. Shall I outride the storm, or shall I perish in its desolating waves? Shall I withstand the fascinations of the world, or shall I be overcome? Shall I press boldly on, if I cross the rubicon of a public profession, or shall I be driven back to my former course? These, these are questions that awaken an intensity of feeling, which no other questions can excite; and though futurity alone can give the decisive answer, yet my spirit would fain know what that answer will be.' To pay you a visit, my dear Maria, and to partici pate in the pleasure of an introduction to the acquaintance of your invaluable friend, would be almost the consummation of my earthly wishes; but, at present, our domestic arrangements will not permit me to leave home; yet I will endeavour to spend a few weeks with you at no very distant period of time. Yours, CHARLOTTE."

THE MODERN MARTYR.

No. 12.

"But there are those, with whom the test,
Of truth is not the gospel creed;
To whom thy life will be a jest,

Thy path-a parable indeed."-BARTON.

MR. and MRS. LESTER thought that they perceived some change in the disposition and in the habits of Miss Lester, but they were so completely absorbed in their worldly pursuits that they could not pay much attention to it; till one morning, Mrs. Lester came bustling into the shop, and said, "I have found out the cause of Charlotte's altered manners. She is touched with the spirit of Calvinism. Here is the book that has poisoned her mind, (presenting Miss More's Practical Piety,) I found it on her toilette, I shall feel myself excessively degraded, if, after all the pains we have taken with her, and the expense we have been at in giving her a first-rate education, if she turn out a follower of this sect, that is every where spoken against."

Mr. Lester." Don't put yourself in a flurry, Mrs. Lester, she has too much good sense to be taken with the flimsy reasoning of that mopish book. No, no, Mrs. Lester, her taste is too refined to relish the insipid crudities of Calvinism."

Mrs. Lester." Don't tell me about her good sense, and her fine taste; I think she is touched. Why I have seen her several times lately reading her Bible; and when I happened to go into her room this morning, rather abruptly, she was in the act of rising, and I do think she had been to prayers.

All this you know, Mr. Lester, is a new thing in our family; and I appeal to you, if it does not argue something very strange. You may pass what judgment on it you please, but I say these are the symptoms of enthusiasm. And if we suffer this fatal heresy to grow upon her, away goes our peace, and along with it all our respectability. I am sure that I shall never hold up my head again in society, if I am to be taunted with this evangelical religion as it is called. What will our worthy Doctor say, when he hears of it ?”

"Don't be so agitated, Mrs. Lester."

"Agitated! why it is enough to agitate the stones in the street. Why, you know, Mr. Lester, what pains we have taken to keep her out of the way of evil; and what expenses we have been at, to prepare her to make a figure in the world; and how delighted we have both been with the attentions which the Rev. Mr. has paid her; but if, which I hope heaven will forbid, she should become corrupted by this 'Practical Piety' book, all our prospects will vanish; for can we expect that any respectable person will ever condescend to notice her ?".

"Well, well, I will talk to her, and if I should find that she is at all entangled by the sophistry of Miss More's reasoning, I will extricate her from her entanglements, and set every thing right."

"Talk to her! yes I hope you will; and point out to her all the dreadful consequences that will result from her imbibing fanatical notions. Indeed, I hope you will persuade her to lay aside all thoughts of becoming religious at her early age, because you know, Mr. Lester, that when she takes up a subject, she can't leave it till she thoroughly understands it."

When the business of the day was closed, Mr. Lester, contrary to his usual practice, spent the evening at home; and as he was accustomed to advance directly to the point of attack, except when interest required a circuitous route, he abruptly opened the subject of discussion.

"So I understand, Miss Charlotte, you have been reading Mis More's Practical Piety!" “Yes, father.”

"You have! and what induced you to read that book ?"

"The very high eulogy which you pronounced on it to two interesting ladies, who came a few weeks since to purchase it; you said, if you remember, when asked to give your opinion, that it was a judicious and useful publication. That it teaches us what religion is, and how to become religious." "

The old gentleman felt somewhat disconcerted by this reply; but after a long pause, he said: "Yes, I believe I expressed that opinion to the ladies, because they are evangelical in their sentiments; but you know that we always held such sentiments in abhorrence.”

"Yes, my dear," said Mrs. Lester, "you know we always have, because no genteel people embrace them; they do very well, I have no doubt, for the lower orders, but they would be particularly unbecoming in us."

Miss Lester." I have read Miss More's Practical Piety,' with close attention, and I have returned to the perusal of it with a degree of interest which no other devotional book ever excited; and I must confess that I think the eulogy which you pronounced on it to be a just one. It certainly