was proof against a father's sorrow, and a mother's gentle pleadings; there was a hardness of heart within me which mere human power, however severely or tenderly exercised, could not subdue. A gulf, which, as I grew older, widened and deepened, now sprung up between my parents and myself. I lived in the same house with them, I knelt in family prayer with them, and generally accompanied them to the house of God on the Sabbath; yet their thoughts were not my thoughts, nor had their pleasures any further charm for me. It was my delight, on the slightest excuse, to escape from the society of those who, I verily believe, would have given their lives to have seen me happy and religious. I had formed the acquaintance of a number of ungodly young men, and in their company was I always found when a favourable opportunity presented itself. At last I threw off the show of obedience, and determined to be my own master, and to follow the bent of my own inclinations. I soon became, as regards wickedness, a second Bunyan, and was known throughout the village as a ringleader in every kind of iniquity. I have seen my father's head bend in shame when he heard my name mentioned. I saw my mother visibly growing old with anxiety, and yet I cared not. I was foremost in every kind of mischief. If there was to be a party of pleasure on the Lord's day, it could not be complete without me; if there was to be a brawl at a fair, I must be the main mover in it. In a word, I, who had possessed such religious advantages, was so bad that even those who were thoroughly irreligious were sometimes shocked at my profanity. This is a true description, my friend, of what I was when about eighteen years old. Thus was I walking in the broad road to destruction, treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, when God, in mercy, interposed, and snatched me as a brand from the burning.

"One Sunday evening I had engaged to go to the house of one of my so-called friends, to meet several of my evil companions. It was in the month of January. The weather all day had been very stormy, and a cold sleet was falling as I prepared to set out. My parents had long ceased to remonstrate with me upon my vicious courses; but this evening my mother, with tears in her eyes, besought me to remain at home, and, standing against the door, opposed my egress. Her face was wasted with grief and care, and, as she looked up in my face with a piteous glance, she seemed more like a ghost than a mortal being. 'Don't go out to-night,' she said. God forgive me! I pushed her rudely aside. Go I would, I said. Then I will go and spend the time of your

absence in prayer to God for you,' she meekly replied. Oh! what a heart I must have possessed to spurn that picture of suffering and of anguish ! but at that time, so hardened was I, that her most affectionate entreaties produced no more effect upon my heart than snow-flakes upon a rock.

"To reach our place of meeting, it was necessary that I should wade through a shallow but very rapid river. By day it might be crossed without any danger, for, with a little management, the force of the current might be avoided; but at night there was a risk of losing one's footing, and of being carried away by the violence of the stream. When I came to the river, I found that it was very much swollen by the rains which had fallen during the last three days, and that it had even overflown its banks. The wind was very high, and roared through the leafless trees with an ominous sound; dark masses of cloud were floating through the wintry sky; not a star enlivened the darkness, and the river ran rapidly on, hoarsely murmuring down to the madman who would dare to stem its force that night. I stood for a moment on its banks irresolutely; to enter it seemed to go to certain death. For a mile or so further down, it flowed into a deep mill-pool, where a man only a few days ago had lost his life; but to go back was to be called a coward for the remainder of my days, and that I could not endure. True, by going round about five miles, I might have crossed in safety, but that would have taken too much time; so I determined to cross the stream from the point where I then was. I recollected that in a neighbouring shed there were some horses shut in for the night: thither I repaired without scruple. I took one of them out, and, without bit or bridle, mounted on his back-wishing it to be thought that the horse had got loose himself. It was not an easy matter to make the creature enter the river. The poor beast, so much wiser than his master, refused to move when he came up to it; but, goaded by my kicks and threats, he plunged in, and made for the opposite bank. I was soon up to my knees in water, and it was as much as the horse could do to keep steady on his feet; and, hardened as I was, I felt an emotion of awe thrill through me, as the possibility of both horse and rider being carried away occurred to my mind. When, however, we had passed the bed in which the current flowed most rapidly, my anxiety began to decrease, and already, in imagination, I heard myself hailed by my companions as the boldest and bravest of them all. But lo! even as I was preparing to leap from the horse to the bank, which we had now arrived at, his foot

came in contact with a smooth stone: he slipped, and I was precipated headlong into the stream.

"How it was that I was not killed on the spot has ever been a mystery to me. I did not even lose my consciousness. I remember being hurried on by the current, and vainly striving to recover my footing; and as each successive effort failed, and I was becoming weaker and weaker, the conviction forced itself upon me, that in a short time I should reach the mill-stream, and then all would be over with me.

"That floating down the stream, my friend, unto certain death has ever seemed to me an apt illustration of the course I was then leading. I was, indeed, madly rushing to the gates of death and hell. Not more surely was the current carrying me away to physical death, than was my ungodliness leading me on to death eternal. You have frequently heard those who have narrowly escaped drowning, tell of the activity of their minds at the time, and of the thousand things that flit with vividness through the brain. The thought which in my mind had more distinctness than any other was connected with the promise my mother had made, that she would spend the time of my absence in prayer to God for me. And, strange as it may appear to you, as I was floating down that stream of death, without power to escape, a vision of my mother's chamber passed vividly before my view. I saw her there, kneeling down by her bedside, as plainly as I saw her on the first Sunday I had disobeyed her; tears were streaming down her cheeks, and her hands were thrown wildly up towards heaven in agony, as if she really saw the danger in which I was now placed. I saw all this, my friend, as plainly as I see you now, and from the depths of my heart there rose a cry for mercy; not for life, but for mercy. And then, above the roaring of the wind and torrent, I heard another sound, that froze up all hope within me the dull dashing of the mill-wheel, going round, and round, and round! Already I felt myself gliding over its circumference into the boiling surge beneath, or being entangled in its spokes, and torn limb from limb."

The aged minister covered his face with his hands, and shuddered at the remembrance of his awful situation.

"I was fast losing consciousness," he resumed, "when my hands came in contact with a piece of wood; with the convulsive clutch of a drowning man, I grasped hold of it, and, oh, joy! I found that it was strong enough to hold me against the force of the current. It was the branch of a large tree, which, having been broken by the wind, was now

lying bent in the water, that I had seized hold of. I was very weak and exhausted; but the love of life put an artificial strength into me for the moment, and, by means of the branch, I managed to draw myself to land. I had no sooner done so than I became insensible.

"How long I continued in a state of unconsciousness I know not; it might have been about three hours, perhaps. It was still dark when I came to myself; but the wind had lowered, and a few stars were faintly shining. The first thing I did, my friend, was to kneel down, and, in the most solemn language I could use, renounce my past life. There, under the wintry sky, I wept bitter tears, at the thought of my ingratitude and unfilial conduct. I remembered God, and was troubled. My conscience, until then seared as with a hot iron, became fearfully active against me, and pointed me to the hell which yawned to receive my guilty soul. I wandered about through the night, shivering from head to foot, with an unutterable woe oppressing and almost paralysing my heart; but again there came into my mind the thought that a mother's prayer might even then be ascending to heaven for me. Once more I knelt down, and prayed to God to melt my stubborn heart, and to create it anew; and I believe my prayer was both heard and answered.

་་

Daylight was now beginning to glimmer in the eastern sky, and my parents' cottage, with its white walls, was faintly visible in the morning twilight. It had about it now that invitingness which it had when I was a child, and, like the prodigal in the far country, I determined to arise and go to my father. Dreading the thought of trusting myself again to the river, I was preparing to set off upon the circuitous route when my attention was arrested by a most fearful shriek !— it rings in my ears even now-another, and another rent the air; and, oh, horror! as I was standing by the water's edge, carried on by the stream even as I had been, and powerless against its force even as I had been, was the body of a young man. It swept past me in an instant, but not before I had recognised, in the upturned face, the countenance of one of my gay companions.

"I ran and shouted for help, but I seemed to be in a nightmare; my legs were deprived of their power, and the cry for help died away directly it was uttered. The horror of that moment no tongue can describe; shriek after shriek of agony burst from the lips of the drowning man; but ere help could be obtained, he was swept over the mill-wheel, and hurried on to a watery grave. His body was not found until the evening, and then it could be scarcely recognised as belonging to him

who, in the convivial party to which I myself was going, had been the gayest of the gay. In a state of intoxication he had attempted to cross the stream, and his life had paid the forfeit.

It was evening when I returned home. It had soon been noised abroad in the village that a young man had been drowned, and as I had not returned home, my afflicted parents had reckoned me as lost. Noiselessly I approached the lattice, and peeped within; my father's head was bent in anguish, and my dear mother was leaning over him, attempting to comfort him. My noble father! my sainted mother! I gently entered, and ere they were aware of my presence, I was kneeling before them, and with tears beseeching their forgiveness. They would have killed the fatted calf to manifest their joy. I told them by what a miracle I had escaped, and how my night of horror had been spent. That evening family prayer was once more a dear and blessed thing to me; I had received the forgiveness of my parents, and now, with full purpose of heart, I besought the pardon of my heavenly Father, against whom I had so deeply transgressed; and it was not long before I rejoiced in the truth that to the Lord my God belonged mercies and forgiveness, though I had rebelled against him. My parents lived many years after this; in their old age they lived entirely with me, and their declining years were sweetened by the thought that they should leave behind them a son who was a minister of Christ. Their dust lie sleeping in this graveyard-yonder are their tombs !" So ended my friend's narrative.

THE CLOCK OF DESTINY.

READ ECCLES. III. 1-15.

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." As if Solomon had said, Mortality is a huge time-piece wound up by the almighty Maker; and after he has set it a-going, nothing can stop it till the angel swears that time shall be no longer. But here it ever vibrates and ever advances-ticking one child of Adam into existence, and ticking another out. Now it gives the whirr of warning, and the world may look out for some great