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CHAPTER XIV.

LADY ELINOR IN SUNSHINE.

"The word of God is quick and powerful."-HEB. iv. 12. "He sent his word and healed them."-- Ps. cvii. 20.

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"Mais l'étranger, d'une voix plus austère,
Lui dit: Ma fille, il me reste un trésor
Plus précieux que les biens de la terre,
Plus éclatant que les perles et l'or.
On voit pâlir aux clartés dont il brille
Les diamants dont les rois sont épris.

Quels jours heureux luiraient pour vous ma fille,
Si vous aviez ma perle de grand prix !

'Montre-la-moi, vieillard, je t'en conjure;

Ne puis-je pas te l'acheter aussi?'

Et l'étranger, sous son manteau de bure

Chercha longtemps un vieux livre noirci.

-Ce bien,' dit-il, vaut mieux qu'une couronne ;
Nous l'appellons la Parole de Dieu.

Je ne vends pas ce trésor, je le donne,

Il est à vous; le ciel vous aide! adieu!'

Il s'éloigna. Bientôt la noble dame

Lut et relut le livre du Vaudois.

La vérité pénétra dans son âme,

Et du Sauveur elle comprit la voix."

Le Colporteur Vaudois.-C. DE F.

"Oh that clear honour

Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover that stand bare,
How many be commanded that command!
How much low peasantry would then be gleaned
From the true seed of honour !"-SHAKSPERE.

LADY ELINOR'S DIARY.

Jan. 20th.-I HAVE been reading my

old Diary. What a strange, double life such

pages reveal! Phases and changes of thought and feeling preserved that would else have passed away, and left no traces in the memory. It is a painful record, and yet to me full of strange and helpful interest. Now that the mehr Licht'-for which I then longed so ignorantly and presumptuously— has dawned (too faintly and glimmeringly, but still I hail its presence), it enhances the gratitude and the comprehension, to look back on the old, dark days, even as the traveller looks out from the lighted home windows, upon the thick, gloomy night he has journeyed through.

"Since I last wrote in these pages, I have gone through much real and abiding sorrow. My father, my father! Even now I can scarcely mention his name. It was so sudden, so dreadful. I miss him more than words can tell. It is such a sad, heavy, lonely thing to be an orphan. So engrossed was I by my misanthropic, discontented feelings and fancies, that I did not know till he had gone from me-and it was too late-how

much I loved him, and how little I had shown my value for his love.

Yes; I am an orphan; yet, strange to say, I feel that there is an orphan's joy, for there is an orphan's God and guard and Saviour. Once I sought great things for myself, and I found them not; but now the very seeking of things so immeasurably higher, seems to ennoble while it lays low. Yet I have not found all I need. There are times when I feel so peaceful and yet exalted, as if I had grasped it all, but then I sink down into darkness and depression, and I fear to have been presumptuous. D'Arcy says that it is because I am looking to myself and not yet entirely to the ONE other. Still, still there is a cloud between the old enemy Self-the obstacle to all that is high and exalted. Dearest D'Arcy how much he has suffered! I shall never forget those weary weeks of his illness, and now to see him so changed, so grave, maimed, and in constant pain! He has had a deep disappointment in life, yet I can see how useful it has been to him. He says so

himself, but it was only yesterday that he told me, and even then he never said her name. Oh, how he has loved her!—none ever have or ever will love me so much. He is such a comfort to me, so much more tender and yet frank with me than he used to be. We constantly read together that precious, marvellous record, the WORD OF GOD. It was in those readings that hope and light first dawned upon me, and yet I find in those wayward written words of mine that I once thought the Bible commonplace, not great enough or grand enough for me! D'Arcy has come to a much fuller peace and brighter light than I have yetbut I know, yes, I know, that they will come. One thing is very clear to me-the reality of the great change the presence of a starting-point as it were. If I had done it myself, I would not dare to say it; but it is no more presumption than when the slave in the dungeon acknowledges that there was a moment when his chains were unclasped, or when the child taken out of a dark room rejoices in the

presence of the sunshine.

Another thing

is clear to me, that all that went before of aspiration after high things, and admiration of goodness, and strivings after religion and external improvement, were no better than washing white the outside of the sepulchre, so far as the life of my soul was concerned. I was not safe till that word, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,' came to me with a power which I could not resist, and I did believe, and then I was safe. I believe, however, and I love to believe it, that that long time of seeking and striving was not lost, but was part of God's education of my soul. What a solemn thought! . . .

"Feb. 10th.-Once I expected to grasp the riches of light and joy as a right, but now I thankfully receive the Pearl of Great Price as an infinitely compassionate gift from my Father in Heaven to His sinful, povertystricken child. He has given me peace, and hope, and joy, and sunshine, in the simplest and yet sublimest way, through the Lord Jesus Christ, MY Saviour, MY Righteousness,

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