intercourse I have held with the dissenters, the less I have liked them :-keep clear of them!"

"Ha!" cried the Warden, suddenly roused from a reverie," a sensible man that: who was he?"

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The same man my dear sir, who assured me, that I could never hear the true Gospel from the preachers of the High Church."

The Warden was again silent and abstracted, and Geraldine continued. "Mr. P- then inquired whose ministry I attended, when in the country? and, on my speaking of my dear uncle Edmund-of his piety, his zeal, his usefulness'Yes,' said he, Edmund Sinclair is a good man! we were friends at Cambridge-both at that time staunch Simeonites: but take care of his notions on Election,' for he has a considerable twist on that point.'

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"Positively, sir,' cried I, equally vexed and amused, as I am in such imminent danger from those of my own communion, I had better take refuge in the Catholic Church, where no difference of religious opinion is permitted.'

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"The Roman Catholic Church, you mean,' replied Mr. P. No!-you must not take so wild a step as that would be. You must not leave the pure worship of God for all those awful superstitions. The Romanists, however, have the right on their side in many things. They have indeed. But now,' added he, Farewell! for I must leave London within an hour:-Farewell! read your bible, pray fervently, and rest satisfied that the assurance of faith in the believer,' is the highest perfection in the Christian course, and a foretaste of the time when Christ will be all in all.'

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"Thus ended my conferences with Mr. P, for I have never seen him since: but truly may he console his conscience by the recollection, that, into whatever mistaken community I may hereafter enter,

or whether I remain in my own, he has given me warning against every one! Of course, however, he left me more bewildered than ever, and I was not made more tranquil by my return hither, some weeks after, where the religious dissensions to which I have alluded, continued at their full height. In some long and interesting conversations with my uncle Edmund, in our evening walks, he unfolded to me his many trials in the ministry,-the want of confidence amongst his parishioners, who were all more ready to teach than to be taught, the want of cordial support amongst his brother clergy, some suspecting him of erroneous doctrine he had never held, while others were jealous of a popularity he had never sought, and which had proved as evanescent as it had been unprofitable. I had not the cruelty to tell this dear persecuted being of the charge made against him of erroneous doctrine, by his friend Mr. P.; nor did I in the least care what his views on election might be. All the truth and warmth of my sympathy were his. I forgot to speak of myself, I thought only of the unhappy destiny of this pious and devoted child of God, as he continued to give me his confidence; a confidence, part of which I hold sacred now and for ever. After this I consulted no one, and endeavoured to persuade myself, that differences amongst Christians on doctrinal points, signified but little, provided they held that of the Redemption, when my attention and interest were awakened afresh by the establishment, in Elverton, of a branch Reformation Society, which was the first announcement to me, and to hundreds besides, that Catholics existed in the county and county town."

Mr. Everard smiled, and observed, "I asked a Catholic priest, the other day, to what he attributed the extraordinary revival of Catholicity in these

days? To which he replied,-Under the blessing of Almighty God, first to the cholera, next to the Reformation Society !'"

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But," continued Geraldine, "just let me recapitulate the various parties in the neighbourhood, who each thought themselves alone in possession of the truth, and their opponents in vital error; and then, imagine the leaders of these parties, meeting in committee, and holding forth on platforms against the common enemy,' when, had the conversion of any one Catholic been the consequence of their 'much speaking,' they would inevitably have driven their convert distracted, by the various plans offered him for his salvation. I never yet have been guilty of a caricature; but I cannot help sketching mentally the new-made Protestant, surrounded by his reformation friends, each dragging him a different way. Regeneration,' Election,' Sanctification, Perseverance,' Assurance,' had split the Elverton world into five parties; so that the hapless convert must have been more than quartered to have contented them!"

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"No such catastrophe, however, occurred," said Mr. Everard: " for, some months ago, I questioned the principal leaders respecting the effect of their two year's labour, and they replied, that they trusted that the bread thus cast upon the waters, would come up in course of time, and that, to strengthen and confirm the faith of Protestants, was, in these perilous times, worth all the labour and expense of the meeting; but they acknowledged no conversion to have taken place at Elverton."

"It was an important era in my mental history," . said Geraldine, "this first Reformation meeting; for it led to my knowledge of the hitherto unknown Mr. Bernard, the Catholic priest. But all this I must reserve for to-morrow, for I hear the servants assembling for evening prayers, and my uncle has

instinctively awoke. Katherine, the prayer-book is by you."

"Oh! that eternal Liturgy!" ejaculated Miss Graham, in a whisper, to Geraldine, as the latter placed the venerated book on a small table near the Warden, and all knelt in prayer.

CHAPTER X.

"When you are all agreed upon the time," says the curate, "I will make it rain."

ITALIAN PROVERB.

“WELL!” now for some more scenes from the ' reformed world," said Mr. Everard, as, on the following morning, he again obliged Geraldine first to sing and then to talk.

"Shall I give you," returned she, "a description of the last party I was at, termed 'serious,' and which immediately preceded my determination to become acquainted with Mr. Bernard?"

"To be sure I will have it," said the old gentleman; "and pray be graphic and methodical."

"Then I must first acquaint you, my dear sir, with the existing plan, amongst the pious families in Elverton and its neighbourhood, to meet every Wednesday at the house of each in turn, and to invite the clergymen of the place to attend alternately, in order to read and expound a chapter of the Bible, at the close of the evening, followed by an extempore prayer, and generally a hymn."

"And what preceded this?" said Mr. Everard. 'Oh, everything in proper keeping-sober conversation, and plenty of tea and tea-cakes."

"What do you mean by sober conversation? All those deep subjects which run so lightly off your tongue, and were settled in a trice by yourself and Miss Cooper, while they are approached with

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