from the place, that it was trusted it would not appear again.

Mr. Hill at this time proposed to his congregation, that on a certain morning, which he fixed on for the purpose, they should all assemble together in the Church, and offer up their solemn acknowledgments to Almighty God for this great deliverance. Almost every heart in the place echoed consent to the proposition, and a most interesting and solemn service we had.

Many invalids, who had not before been seen from home, now made a point of appearing át Church; and not a few there were of these invalids, for even the recovery from this frightful attack left the sufferers exceedingly feeble. I myself had had a slight touch of it; and Mr. Jervis, for one or two days, was so unwell as to excite considerable alarm; and Jabez Reynolds was, at that time, as anxious and regular in his enquiries after him as any of his older friends. There were few houses in the place in which some one had not been more or less a sufferer; hence, the large assemblage of persons with pallid cheeks, or clothed in mourning dresses, was most extraordinary. Among the foremost of these was the Widow Butler; who, tenderly nursed and watched by Clara, had, through the Divine blessing, recovered her health, and been enabled to bear the awful intelligence of the events that had taken place in her house; and had, in due time, returned to her place in that house.

The prayers were read by the curate, introducing the "Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Sickness and Plague," his own appearance giving a wonderful interest to the solemn service.

The psalms chosen for this occasion were the fifty-first and the one-hundred-and-third. The sermon was preached by our good Mr. Hill, and a more affecting one I never heard. He drew a beautiful picture of the mercies we had been so long enjoying in Queenswood, both spiritual and temporal; then he spoke of the ungrateful return of sin we had as long been making, instancing some particulars,--as drunkenness, idleness, censoriousness, uncharitableness, and especially our dulness and coldness in holy duties, and insensibility to a Saviour's love. And thence he shewed us how, in mercy and judgment, God had sent the late awful visitation; and, next, he called upon us to thank God for the personal deliverance of each of us then present from the infection which had swept away so many of our neighbours; for, in fact, our houses were almost like the houses of the Egyptians, for there were few in which there was not one dead. He then pointed out to us the ways in which we ought to shew our gratitude for such mercies; calling upon us to join with him in a solemn act of thanksgiving, and to take care that our thankfulness was shewn, not by our lips only, but in our lives. We concluded the service by singing the hymn beginning with "My helper, God, I bless his name!" and by

making a collection for such of our poorer neighbours as had suffered most by the late visitation. I can venture to say that there was not a dry eye in the Church during Mr. Hill's sermon, and I trust and hope that it will never be forgotten by those who heard it, and will long exercise its beneficial influence on the inhabitants of Queenswood.

CHAPTER XV.

UNFORESEEN ARRANGEMENTS.

THE short period of six weeks had made an extraordinary and unexpected change in the moral state of Queenswood. I remembered my unbelieving fears and heart-sinking with shame. How ready are we to judge by outward appearance! and how like are our feelings to a weather-glass, which rises and falls with every little outward change of the atmosphere! How prone are we to forget that the Lord reigneth, and that when He seeth well to arise and beat down the enemies of our domestic, our national, or our spiritual peace, none can stand against him; and that he can achieve in one instant, what would seem to us the performance of years! How wise, then, as well as how comfortable, is the command of our Saviour, to take no anxious thought for the morrow and, viewing the matter in another light, what encouragement is there to perseverance in God's work, for if we are in the way of faith and obedience, striving against the snares and devices

of the power of Satan, we are assured that though the Lord seemeth, for a while, as if he saw not the wickedness of his enemies and ours, yet, nevertheless, more are those that are for us than those that are against us. Let us not, then, be weary or faint in well doing. Though we gain no seeming success, the Lord will presently arise and come to our help.

The Red Lion, under the government of Mrs. Butler, was become a hospitable and wellregulated house of entertainment for travellers and occasional visiters, but no harbour for the drunken and licentious.

Good hours were established, and in cases of difficulty a reference always made to the proper authorities. The little rooms that had been the scene of so much guilt, so much horrorwere in part pulled down, and so much altered that they could never be converted to any mysterious purpose. Many of the hardened frequenters of Butler's house, in his day, had fallen a prey to the deadly malady which had terminated his career. Of those that remained there were few that, for a time at least, did not seem disposed to mend their ways, and listen to the exhortations of their ministers, who were instant, in season and out of season, calling upon them to repent. As for Davies, he continued to lay his son's death to heart, and was beginning to suffer a great deal from an asthmatic complaint, the effects of cold and drunkenness. It was said that

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