To my father I naturally clung with double affection, and never was a motherless family blessed with a kinder father than ours. We hoped that he would be spared to us for many years; you may therefore conceive the blow we were called to bear when he was seized with sudden illness, which in a few days proved fatal. Soon after his death it became necessary for our family circle to be broken up. He was comparatively a poor man; and, deprived of his earnings, we had not the means of keeping up a domestic establishment. My brother obtained a good situation in a mercantile house in a neighbouring city, and my sisters received appointments as governesses in respectable and Christian families. The approaching term was to see them all dispersed, but provided with happy homes, and earning by their efforts an honest livelihood. It was otherwise with myself. Early devoted to the study of medicine, I was then prosecuting my studies at the Scotch university in the city in which we lived, with a view to graduating the following year. Where I was to find a home was a knotty point; for after paying my father's funeral expenses, clearing off a few outstanding accounts, and meeting the rent due at the approaching term, the balance of his means and substance left barely enough to pay my class fees at the university.

"On the night of my father's funeral, when we had committed his remains to the grave, a godly old woman, who had been my nurse, called on me. Tenderly sympathizing with me in my trials, she used the language about the promissory notes which I have already mentioned, the comfort and truth which I fully proved during the six months which succeeded my being left an orphan. But for the glorious consolation contained in these notes I know not how I could have weathered the blasts to which I was then exposed. What some of these were you will see as my narrative advances.

"A day or two after my father's funeral, I had a visit from a Mr. Mason, one of his old employers. He came to offer me a home in his house during the winter months, promising me all manner of temporal comfort, introduction to good society, access to an excellent library, and, in addition to all this, a liberal salary, in return for which my leisure hours were to be devoted to superintending the studies of three of his children, who were then in attendance at a grammar-school. A tempting offer this to a

homeless orphan. But I knew that Mr. Mason was a deist. In his family arrangements he ignored the Bible, and at his table were habitually entertained those who, like himself, had the presumption to denounce the religion of Jesus as a fable, and God's word as a lie. Nor did he deceive me by concealing his opinions. On the contrary, he frankly avowed them, and coupled this avowal with an expression of his assurance that after I had been under his roof for a time I should have the 'manliness' to cast aside what he sarcastically called old wives' fables, referring to the blessed Scriptures of truth.

"I felt that Mr. Mason's offer was one which I could not possibly accept, for, independently of the danger to which my own principles would be exposed, I was fettered as regarded my youthful charge, their father having intimated that he expected my abstinence from all attempts to imbue their minds with Bible truth. No doubt it would provide me with a home, but it might be bodily comfort purchased at the expense of my spiritual and eternal well-being.

"There was another trying element in my case which I must not fail to mention. The only relative of my father residing in the city where we dwelt was a wealthy cousin. He was quite a man of the world, and very intimate with Mr. Mason, for whom, though he did not openly avow the same principles, he professed great respect. Now this cousin could very easily have given me a home in his house for the winter months; but to this, when proposed by a mutual friend, he stated various objections, at the root of which lay a strong desire to compel me into an acceptance of Mr. Mason's offer. My reasons for declining that offer he could not appreciate, denouncing my reference to the moral injury I might sustain by habitual contact with those who denied God's truth as the delusion of a distempered imagination.

"The term-day was now fast approaching when our own house was to be closed. Before me lay the alternative of accepting Mr. Mason's offer, or finding myself homeless as well as penniless in a few days.

"It was a dark afternoon of a gloomy November day; I was alone in my late father's business room, cast down in spirit under the sorrows which had so quickly gathered around me, when, somewhat to my dismay, Mr. Mason was ushered in. He proceeded to draw a picture of the necessitous condition to which my father's death had reduced

me, and of the unspeakable advantages which a residence in his family would afford me. 'And now, sir,' he added, with a somewhat stern look, 'your cousin tells me that you have some scruples about coming under my roof, and I have called to say that I am much astonished at any young man in your circumstances hesitating for a moment on the subject. I wish not an immediate decision, but within forty-eight hours will expect to hear from you—yea or nay.'"

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"Oh, grandpapa!" said Eliza Hamilton, "what you

must have suffered at that time!"

"Well, my dear child, the two promissory notes often came to my relief in the windings and turnings of these memorable days.

"It was well for me that Mr. Mason, when he called, did not press for an immediate answer, or the difficulties with which I was then beset might have extorted my consent to his proposal. God graciously interposed for my relief. The very day after Mr. Mason's visit, when my mind was in a state of miserable uncertainty as to how I ought to treat his offer, I had a call from a Dr. Taylor, the medical attendant of our family. A Christian gentleman in the north of England had applied to him for an advanced medical student as a travelling companion to his son, who was in delicate health, and had been advised to winter in the south of France. This situation, with a good salary in addition to all travelling expenses, was now offered me.' "And I hope, grandpapa, you at once accepted,” shouted Alfred, no longer able to contain his feelings.

"No, my dear, my acceptance of it would have required my quitting the university, and thus delaying the time of my graduating; I felt constrained to decline it. But I valued this incident as a confirmation of the truth of the promissory notes, and an argument to lean on Him in whose name they were given.

"A sad evening it was at our fireside which preceded the term-day. All the other members of my family were on the morrow to proceed to their different homes; but I, whither was I to go, Mr. Mason's offer having been declined, and my cousin's door closed against me? Many a tear was shed and many a prayer offered for guidance in our season of perplexity.

"Whiles they are speaking I will hear,' says God. Of the truth of this I had often heard and read many illus

trations; that night I was to receive a proof of it in my own experience. The evening was far advanced when a stranger was ushered in on our sorrowing circle. He introduced himself, and stated that he had known my father in early days, when they sat on the same bench at college; and having heard from a mutual friend of the difficulties of my position, he now came to say that though he was by no means in the affluent circumstances of Mr. Mason, and could only offer me a home under his roof, yet he and his family would be gratified if I would on the morrow join his circle, and reside with them till I should have taken my degree, and some professional opening have presented itself."

"Ah, grandpapa!" exclaimed James, "you must have again felt that the promissory notes were true."

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Yes, my boy, that night my unbelief was rebuked, and I was indeed encouraged to cast all my care on Him who was caring for me.

"Next day was one of clear and bright sunshine, but of gloom and sadness to our spirits, though amid our sorrow we rejoiced that we had not been called on to separate till the Lord in his great goodness had made provision for us all. I had seen all the other members of the family off by coach and boat to their respective destinations. Along with an old and faithful servant I closed the windows of our now deserted home, and turned the key in the lock of the outer door-a process which seemed to have a sound it never had before. Bidding a sad farewell to the abode of my childhood, I made my way to my new home-the house of my father's friend.

"My lot was now cast in a plain but comfortable and happy abode. If to find myself in the bosom of a household ordered in the fear of God could suffice to chase away the remembrance of bygone trials, and comfort me under my painful isolation from those I loved, then might my griefs be at once forgotten, and my lonely spirit cheered and comforted. My protector, by his uniform kindness, endeared himself to me; I felt as if he were a father more than a friend. In his wife I found what I had almost never known-a mother's love and care; and with the members of the family I was soon associated in the bonds of a pleasant friendship. The first night of my stay under the roof of my new friends, as I was especially remembered in family prayer, I felt as if my heart would break

at the thought of the father I had lost, and the guardian whom God had now raised up for me. And when on the sabbaths we went together to public worship, and spent our hours at home in profitable exercises, I felt that indeed the lines had fallen unto me in pleasant places. Several persons laughed at me as a fool for preferring my present situation, where I had no pecuniary emoluments, to one where a handsome salary would have been given me; but the great day at last will declare whether their estimate of my conduct was correct. For my part, I had no cause to regret my choice; and as I thought how very different in a spiritual respect would have been my position in Mr. Mason's, I could not but thank the kind hand whose guidance of me was so marked."

"And how long did you stay with these friends?" asked Mary Hamilton, whose eyes had been riveted during the whole narrative on her grandfather.

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'Well, my dear Mary," said he, "I was in his house for several months. But I must not forget to tell you what occurred some weeks after I had joined them. One day I saw a livery-servant ride up to the door: he was the bearer of a letter to myself from a lady, who had been one of my late father's employers, in which she requested me to wait on her that day. Strange surmisings passed through my mind as to what could be the object of her sending for me. With considerable anxiety I waited on her at the time appointed. She received me with much kindness, and informed me that, having learned from my father's successor in business that his accounts against her were greatly undercharged, and having derived assistance from myself at times when he was out of town, she wished to testify her regard for one who had been a faithful steward in the management of her affairs, as well as gratitude to myself, by presenting me with a small sum which might be serviceable to me. So saying, she put into my hand a cheque for one hundred pounds.'

"How very kind of her!" shouted Eliza. you must have felt, grandpapa, on getting so into your hands."

"Oh! what large a sum

"It was not so much the money, though that was very useful, as the kind and generous way in which it was given, which made me highly prize the gift. I had often heard my father remark that there could not be a greater addition to a favour bestowed than its being conferred in a