from transgressions and injurious steps-will give you an elevation and power, which may at length bring you to the habit of virtue, and to a permanent nobleness of soul.

Then whence comes it that we can hear and read so much that is excellent-that we often, in pious moments, can make such holy resolutions, and then after some days or weeks again become as bad and feeble, as if all that is past had never happened? We say, indeed, that we are wanting in power; or, that man remains always sinful; or, that grace is not yet effectual in us:—and thus we console ourselves for our own unworthiness, which we then again repent of before God; we console ourselves for transgressions for which we have often heavily to atone ;-or we despair of the possibility of becoming as good as we could wish. No; our negligence and the unfruitfulness of our good resolutions often spring from the weakness of our memory-from this cause, that after a certain time we cannot recall a sufficiently vivid image of the good which we have read, heard, or intended. Hence the marking of especially important passages, and the frequent recollection and re-perusal of them, contribute to the continuing in laudable determinations, and to a great and holy life.

If you wish that your chamber should be converted into a temple of God, and your household into an assembly of upright worshippers; if you wish that domestic peace and domestic love should dwell within it, and that the word of Christ should be fulfilled, which He spake: "When two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them;"-then lay not aside what you have read with lifeless praise, or with the exclamation: "This was a fine reflection!"-when the power of the Divine Word

has struck your heart. No; reflect afterwards upon the feelings which it has awakened in you, and make those feelings stronger; or if your young children be with you, ask them about what they have heard read; explain to them simply, without any ornament of language, that which, perhaps, has not been comprehended by them. Let them learn by heart an occasional passage which is adapted to their minds; not for the sake of making a duty of that which through frequent repetition must at length become ordinary and indifferent; but because it is always advantageous to young people, if they imprint a good precept on their memory. Often-when their heart slumbers in the moment of approaching error-their memory is roused, and awakes their heart, and saves it!

So farewell, my readers, my dear friends! May God be with you! Perhaps it belongs to the blessedness of that future existence which the grace of God has promised us, distinctly to look upon and perceive the past-what have been the consequences and effects of the good which we delighted to do. Perhaps I shall there recognize those for whose sake I have not lived in vain. Perhaps I shall then perceive you, ye troubled and weary ones, to whom, in an hour of grief, refreshment and consolation have come from God through my words. Perhaps I shall then recognize you, ye dear ones, who when ye wavered between sin and virtue, were carried through your moments of danger, by the direction of Eternal Providence, and found in these reflections a new inducement to forget the world with its. pleasures, and to keep the holy will of God. Perhaps I shall then know those for whom I have been an instrument of the Lord, to teach them the best alternative in doubt, so

that they have returned to the right way of life, and have been carried back to the Eternal Father.

Farewell, my brethren! In God we are, and remain, united ;-in God we shall meet again.

And Thou, O my God, my Father, bless them with Thy mercy! Be with them, as long as they wander upon earth! Fill them with the power of Thy Holy Spirit! Draw them to Thyself by the Revelation of Thine Eternal Son! Be their consolation-be their Life!

Ah!

And has that which I have striven to do for the spreading of Thy holy Empire been deficient and imperfect? how willingly would I have performed it better! How ardent was my longing to express in a worthy manner what filled my whole heart with pious fervour! But Thou, before whom nothing is great,-nothing is little; who from nonentity didst call the worlds; and doest the most marvellous works with the smallest means; Thou who art mighty in weakness-Thou canst and wiltst be mighty in many a soul through that which I have done after my poor ability! Mine was the will therein-for Thou gavest me freedom of will-but the deed is Thine! I have done nothing. The most certain blessing of my endeavour was on myself, it was my own amendment, my own exercise of love towards Thee, my own strengthening in the contest against sin.

And the beloved far and near, for whom Thou hast chosen me to be an expounder of Thy holy will-oh! yet once more-bless them! Father, their and my Father, bless them! Sanctify them through Thy truth, THY WORD IS TRUTH.-Amen.