any time in the house know how bitter these ladies used to be against the party which professed particular respect for our Master. Whereas now, through my persuasions, Madame is to the full as obliging to those whom she used to call enemies as to her friends: and then what kindness does she exercise towards the sick, be they of what party they may; and how liberally does she speak of those who are against her; and truly it is pleasant to see her daughters occupying themselves about the poor, and assisting me in my schools, taking the little ones in their arms, and providing them with garments. Whilst our old fellow servant, the librarian, who as you may well know, Mr. Secretary, was one of our bitterest enemies, has been so won over by the kindness I have used towards him, that it depends only on you to make him your fellow-labourer in the important work you have in hand, viz.-the distribution of our Master's letters.'

My uncle changed his position on being thus addressed, but spoke not a word. Yet I observed that his lip trembled, as if he were inwardly agitated.

'Thus,' continued the doctor, 'we are advancing towards that state which is spoken of in our Master's letters, wherein his will shall be so fully attended to, and the minds of the people so thoroughly instructed, that we shall be in a state of happiness and prosperity, such as it would now

be difficult even to conceive, unless through the light given in the Master's letters.'

'And all this,' said my uncle, speaking at last, 'to be effected by you and your fellow servants, a great proportion of whom are decided and declared enemies of the Master.'

'Yes,' returned the other, through the instrumentality of our Lord's faithful servants will this great and blessed revolution be effected; together with, or rather in consequence of, the teaching of the interpreter whose influence will then become more decided.'

'The influence of the interpreter cannot be more decided than it now is with the faithful servants of our Master,' replied my uncle; he is present now with them in all their secret counsels; he directs them in all their public measures; he instructs them that the day of the Lord is not yet arrived;1 and that the Master has not yet

"For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth

thought fit to take upon himself the command; 1 that his rule is now a secret one; and that those who now govern openly must pass away, before that glorious state shall arrive, in which those who are now driven into a corner shall be brought into the light, and sit in the high places of this house. But I find no where in these letters a promise given of the conversion of the powers of this world to the service of the Master, nor of any authority to be given to the servants to rule in the absence of him from whom alone they can derive any right. On the contrary we are made to understand that the enemy will manage every thing relative to public affairs till the end of the present order of things; and in such wise, that when the Lord comes, he will not find faith in the household;

and moreover we are made to under

also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?"-2 Peter iii. 5-12.

"Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me."-John xiv. 30. 2 "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."Dan. vii. 26, 27.

"Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ?"-Luke xviii. 8.

stand that the enemy is permitted to manage these matters, in order that the patience and fidelity of the true servants of the best of masters may be exercised; hence we are afraid that these same faithful servants, although secretly supported and consoled by the interpreter, will never be able to make a head to fight and to conquer until the Master himself is present to avenge his own cause.'

'Beshrew your interpretations,' replied the doctor, growing very warm, from whom have you received them, and from what passages do you derive these conceits, which are to my mind calculated to unnerve every arm, and to make every man faint in the midst of his labours. If things must remain as they are,--if the enemy's agents must rule till the Master comes,—if his substance must be wasted in riot,-if his name must be held in contempt in his own halls,-if the owls and the bats and the canker and the moth, are always to occupy our towers, till our Lord appears, bearing with him the besom which is to brush them all down; what then, I say, is the need of our working? Wherefore are we to strive and to labour, and to endeavour to restore order, if our Master when he comes will count all our labours nought, and will take all into his own hands, to order and to arrange every thing anew? I say your doctrine, take it from whence you will, is discouraging in the extreme, and

would unnerve every member, and nullify every desire for exertion.'

'We work and perform the duties which our master left us to do,' replied my uncle calmly, 'not because we ever hope to be the means of setting that right, which an enemy, infinitely more powerful than ourselves, and one too who still rules, and will rule till our master in his own presence has asserted his own rights, is constantly setting wrong; but because, in the first place it behoves us to do our master's bidding, and in the second place, inasmuch as we hope and trust to be made the instruments of inspiring a spirit of fidelity and love in the hearts of many individuals, who, at his second coming, may go to meet him with joy and rejoicing. And whereas you would know of me what are the passages of my Lord's communications, whereon I build my assurance of his coming to take the rule into his own hands, I am ready to give you as many as you please; for I take it for granted that you do not doubt the authenticity of our Lord's letters.'

'Am not I a servant of the master,' replied the doctor, how then should I doubt his word?'

'I trust that you are,' returned my uncle, and therefore I take it for granted, that you believe every word of these letters, and that you will not

"And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Isaiah XXXV. 10.