would be a warning to girls like herself? This I believe, that were it told her by an Angel that so it would be, she would die of grief and shame.

time ago.

Not now; but the time will come when those of you who go out to service may well be tempted to look at that you never ought to look at; may be asked to read stories, or magazines, or weekly papers, which are utterly loathsome, utterly horrible, utterly doing the work of Satan. Now, my children, as you care for your souls, listen to me. If ever you light upon, or have offered to you, a newspaper which makes light of evil even, put it from you as you would a serpent. I will tell you what happened to me when I was travelling some There were, in the same part of the carriage, a servant girl, as I took it, an old man, and one or two others. The old man was reading a newspaper with prints. When he had studied it through and through, he offered it very civilly and politely to the girl, saying that she might like to look at the pictures. She took it, looked at it for a moment; and then I saw the blood come up into her face, and she gave it back to him with such a No! and looked away from him. When we stopped at the next place, she was at home; and then I asked this man if he would be so kind at to lend me the paper. He did so, rather unwillingly and when I had cast my eyes on it,-my children, how I should have blessed GOD had you acted as that girl did!

But now see this.

There is one text of S. Paul's,

which teaches us much more than we learn from it at once. Where he is speaking of the sins which Christians ought to flee from, he ends, "Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which is not convenient." Now people generally read that, as if it meant that the jesting were not convenient. No, it takes in all all the three. Filthiness, foolish talking, and jesting, are all, not convenient. And, my children, see how well and truly that great Apostle, S. Paul, spoke of those temptations, just the same, I suppose, in his time as now. The first, filthiness: that means the allowing in any way any action which the whole world might not see. The next, foolish talking, means in the Greek much more than foolish, it means downright wrong talking. And I believe, more than that, I feel sure,that to neither of these would any of you, when you leave us, give way at once. But then comes the jesting. And I will tell you what that means. means, in the first place, the minding being laughed at because you are so very particular, so very straitlaced and about that, too, I hope, my : children, that any one girl of you who really is in earnest, would not (even suppose she could not help minding it a little) trouble herself very much about. But then, the other sense is this: for you partly know now, and the longer you live you will know better, how cunning is Satan, how you may have a thing said to you which in one sense is per

It

fectly innocent and good, but which is meant also to have another sense to you, which is just the opposite of innocent and the opposite of pure.

Now, my children,-and the older you grow you will understand this the better,-the best wish, the most earnest prayer I could make for you, would be this: that you should be as much as possible ignorant of evil. But then it was a great Saint of old who said it, and he said it speaking to girls as I now am to you: there is your great danger, how to treat a speech which may have a good sense, but which you, in your heart, believe not to be meant so. And what that Saint said to his children then, I now say to you: you remember good King Hezekiah's words when the Assyrians were blaspheming the GOD of Israel in a language which more than half the Jews could not understand, “Answer him not.”

And now, one thing more: to-day I have spoken of one watch that we have to keep; of one sentinel that we have to set. Well; if one thing, when we come to work it out, when we try to look thoroughly into it, seems so hard; what great need have we to take care of looking, as David says, to all our steps; of every hour, and every minute of our lives, trusting to God's help, and not to our own; of remembering the last commandment of our dear LORD to the multitude while He was on earth, "What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch !"

*READING XIII.1

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see GOD." S. MATT. v. 8."

SOME of you, my children, know, what I have said before, that, on this second Sunday in Lent, there is one subject on which, as long as it pleases GOD to spare us to each other, I will always speak to you. The Church teaches us about that to-day, in the Epistle; also in the afternoon Lesson. And what the Church does, her Priests ought to do. If there were not some especial day fixed, the natural temptation would be (to use the common word) to shirk it altogether. I am referring to the grace of Purity.

Now; and first I speak to you, my children; you, who in GOD's good Providence will, in due time, go out to service, will most certainly have to make up your mind that temptations will come, and that the turning point of your lives may be, how you meet each. One little, one very tiny mistake at the beginning, a mistake as to what you ought to say, or ought to do: and it may make the difference, between honour, and respect, and GOD'S dear service in this world,—or, what I cannot bear to think of as regards any of you! Look here: I

1 To the girls of S. Margaret's and S. Agnes', the Second Sunday in Lent, 1864.

have been on a mountain ridge, where the stable of the inn, in which I was putting up, had a roof, just like any roof of a house in England. If a drop of rain came down, how little matter it would seem to those who knew nothing further, whether it fell on this side of the ridge, or on that? And what was the real matter? This difference: if it fell one quarter of an inch here, it went into a little stream, which led into a little river, which led into a larger river, which led into a great river, which fell into the Mediterranean: if on the other side, by the same steps it got, or would get, into the Atlantic. That is, a quarter of an inch difference to-day; and this day week those two little drops may be thousands of miles apart. And so with regard to you. You go out to service: you have something said to you which a Christian girl ought to shrink from. Well: you either do so shrink from it; so show that you do: or you laugh, or even smile. Ah, my children! and the difference may be, from that one little this or that, which I said just now,on the one side, true, good, honest service: perhaps, in time, true, good, honest love: perhaps, in time, dear home ties and home love rising round you:

or

Or, such a life as I will not speak of: or worse, to get out of that life, that death which some-ah me! which many-have chosen in preference: a death by their own hands; caring only for this, that, as a great poet says,