92 THE HISTORY OP

But howsoever fresh and fair
Its morning beauty shows,

’Tis all cut down, and wither'd quite,
Before the evening close,

So teach us, Lord, the uncertain sum
Of our short days to mind,

That to true wisdom all our hearts
May ever be inclin’d.”

As I listened to these words, my heart smote
me with a sense of my wickedness and ingrati-
tude, in indulging such sinful thoughts as had
been employing my mind all the morning, and
I felt tears of shame and repentance trickle
down my cheeks: and suddeniy, with a power I
could not resist, came to my remembrance, the
many, many happy hours when, in that verv
church, and in my little room at my mistress’s,
I had enjoyed solitary, sweet communion with
my God, and tasted such pleasures as those
who are altogether of this world cannot con-
ceive; also, the tender care of God over me
from my infancy, and how, until that moment,
1 had been preserved from grievous outward
sin, was brought strongly before my mind. I
felt myself drawn towards my God with such
cords of love as f could not resist; the allure-
ments of sin and the world seemed to lose their
power, and, when we knelt down, I earnestly
prayed to be forgiven for the discontented
words I had been about to utter. I solemnly
renewed my covenant with God, beseeching
him to take me wholly and entirely under his
protection for the remainder of my life.

After this prayer, the rest of the day I felt